San Diego 2

We went to San Diego over the weekend to visit one of Brandon's friends.  Since our camera croaked last week, I took just a few pictures on my phone - guess it's time to look for a camera!  

Hmmm....Chick-fil-a on the way to San Diego!!

Funny looking out here in Cali!

On the 5 South - SEVEN lanes wide!!!

Count them!

I think we were close enough to the curb.....

Brandon and his new buddy, Bella :)

3 month old pit-bull puppy - super cute!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Disneyland!

Last Saturday, Brandon and I went to Disneyland!  We at WDI (Walt Disney Imagineering) are opening a new attraction at Disney California's Adventure (DCA) on June 11th called:  The World of Color.  They had a preview for us - think "water show at Bellagio" in Vegas, multiply it by 100, add lasers, fire, projections, music, and you have a brand new Disney show!  Let me tell you, we were blown away!  If you are ever in Cali and go to the parks, you must wait around to see this spectacular show!  We were unable to photograph or take video because the shows doesn't open to the public until June 11th - you can see some clips on YouTube though.....

Since the event didn't start until 8:30pm, we decided to go all day and give Disney our best!  We arrived at the park at 7:30am and the park opened at 8am.  Perks of working for the company were free parking and free admission!  We hit most of the big rides before 10am then headed towards the smaller ones like Dumbo!  Yes, Brandon rode Dumbo with me :)  The lines weren't awful but there were still some long wait times, about 45min on a couple.  Instead of eating lunch inside the park, we went to Downtown Disney (a 5 min walk) and ate some pizza at an Italian restaurant; something different than park food :)

After lunch, we spent the rest of the day re-riding a couple of rides, and just walking around.  We headed over to DCA, had dinner, then entered the event area.  The park closed at 9pm to the public.  A couple of rides that were just re-done stayed open for us but we didn't ride them.  Instead, we went into the event area to have "light refreshments" which included an open bar; I know!  Gotta love the mouse sometimes, well, most of the time :)

The bad news of the day was that our camera CROAKED right after lunch - yep, not many pictures :(
Good thing I work where I work so we can go back and make more memories to capture!  Here's our day before the sad, sad croaking camera:

Disney before opening - the park is celebrating its 55th year!

Splash Mountain!

Brandon is in the back - I got covered up by a jacket :(

A nice guy offered to take our pic :)

Dumbo!

We are in the front row!  

I'm screaming my head off and Brandon's laughing at me!  

All day we were either in the front, or in the back - I even got to "drive" the Indiana Jones!!!

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Downtown Disney

Pluto

Mickey Sorcerer

Captain Jack Sparrow Bibee

Mad Hatter

LEGO Man

For Grandma Juanita and Janet!!!  

Of course there was a Braves Mickey at Disneyland!  Perfect!

Last pic before the camera croaked....

Our satellite office at the park - actually, it is back of house (or "backstage")....

I was at the park the other morning for work and took a pic :)

After The World of Color show, we went back into Disneyland since it didn't close until midnight.  We rode Star Tours and walked around then decided to head home at 11:45pm; a lloooonnnggggg but GREAT day at Disneyland!!!

1,095 Days!

That's 3 years!  Brandon and I celebrated out 3 year anniversary this past Tuesday, May 25th.  We met during the "most wonderful time of year" in NYC - FLEET WEEK!!  Well, my favorite time of year :)

This year, I gave Brandon an illustration of the weekend we met.  He proudly found wall space for it in our apartment.  Enjoy!

(you can click the image to enlarge)

We have a BED!!!

FINALLY!!!  A bed!!!  After almost two months of sleeping on the air mattress, we finally got a bed - and man, it's like sleeping on a cloud!  Ahhhh :)

But of course, a new bed purchase also means bedroom furniture.  Luckily, we like things relatively simple so a couple of nightstands did the trick!  We made a day of going to the Pasadena Farmer's Market, then to lunch at a micro-brewery in Burbank, IKEA, and last to Yummy Cupcakes who specialize in very yummy cupcakes in Burbank - and yes, they really were super yummy cupcakes!  :)

Brandon and his micro-brew; I just LOVED the brick wall behind him :)

Me and my home-made root beer!

Our Yummy Cupcakes - Fresh Coconut (top left), Peanut Butter cup with peanut butter inside the cupcake - our FAVORITE (top right), and the Elvis (bottom left)  Yummy!

The new nightstands....

The new bed!  So, so nice....

My mirrors - they make me smile :)

Pools

At work we have a GreenSpace with fabulous landscaping, picnic tables, adirondack chairs, and two outdoor conference rooms.  One of the cafeterias is off of the space so needless to say with the weather out here, people are always eating outside and enjoying this new space - it opened about a month after I got here.

There are also three fountains or pools in the space.  They were left blank for my fabulous mentor, Susan, to design and install.  Whatever Susan does, I do - and let me tell you, I don't mind.  The woman is genius!

We collaborated on the design and she taught me how to calculate all the materials, time, cost, etc. for the pools.  After an order of 2400lbs of glass, 38 gallons of two-part underwater epoxy, and two weeks worth of work in the sun, I'm proud to unveil the result!  More pictures coming when the fountains are back on!

You're looking at pools approximately 25' x 20' and an approximate total of 1300 square feet we had to work with - a LOT of work!

The concept was like if you are looking into a Koi pond with a magnifying glass....

Large fish, plants, and our favorite:  giant Koi eye!

Detail of the glass - it has been tumbled so no one can get cut!  Cool, right!  

When I was a intern a couple of years ago, Susan basically adopted me and nicknamed me "Peep."  "Peep" because she said I was like a baby bird saying, "feed me!  feed me!"  for all the information and techniques I wanted to learn.  On my last day, I bought Susan a rubber ducky because I couldn't find a baby chicken.  Turns out, she also bought me a rubber ducky because she couldn't find a baby chicken!  It has become our thing and we trade them back and forth for holidays and major events - and now, most people at work know me as "peep!"  

To celebrate the completion of the pools, we had a ceremonially "Floating of the Peeps!"

Original Peep I gave Susan and Master Peep from NYU!

All the peeps!  

And a toast to:  Finally!  Finally done with the pools and they look fantastic!

Mother's Day & Brandon's New Job!

For Mother's Day, Mom and Dad had both Grandmas at their house for lunch and we all had a Skype date together.  We all loved seeing each other even if through a computer screen :)

The previous evening, Mom had told her mom, Grandma Juanita, that Brandon had gotten a new job!  Grams was super excited and asked, "Well, what is the job??"  Deciding to mess with Grams, Mom told her that Brandon was stripping!!!  After a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-n-n-n-g-g-g-g-g silence, and I mean
l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-n-n-n-g-g-g-g-g, Grams said, "Diana's gonna kill him!"

So...back to the Mother's Day Skype date, I decided to send everyone a picture of Brandon at work - here is the result - let's just say it made everyone's day!

(insert stripper music here!)

Brandon, you're such a good sport!  xoxo!!

Pull-Up What???

Brandon had a pull-up bar at the house in GA and decided to order one for our place.  This is what he received:

The box....

The goods......

See the picture - that is what it is supposed to look like with all of the parts!

Not sure how someone is supposed to achieve a pull-up with only three parts of a bar.....

My favorite is the tiny piece of "packing" styrofoam....ha ha!

Happy to report the company sent him a brand new bar with all parts included :)