One step closer to Dr. King's dream...

What an amazing day...45 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the mall in Washington D.C. and here were are 47 years later on the verge of inaugurating our first African-American president! It gives me chills and brings me to tears.

J and I have taken tomorrow off of work to watch all of the festivities and historical moment on CNN. We're are so excited it is palpable. Akin to that feeling a kid has on Christmas Eve. We are filled with hope and pride. Tomorrow we will all witness history being made and a shift in the American political paradigm. Where will you be?

Sunny Sunday

Three days ago we had a dusting of snow on the ground, and today? It's sunny and clear and in the 50's! Isn't that fantastic? The weather here never ceases to amaze me. I wonder if, eventually, that will wear off? For now, us Cali transplants enjoy the never-ending guessing game that is OK weather.

Mom has been here a week and her belonging arrived on Thursday evening. What a sight to arrive home and find a semi-truck container in my driveway! It was so intimidating to pull up and park behind it (thank goodness Mom insisted that the driver pull up into the drive a bit before leaving it there!). The container only was half-full with her things (the other half was parceled out to other folks with shipping needs, which reduced the cost for Mom). I worked 11 hours on Friday and yesterday, so J helped Mom start with the unloading. The majority of her things will be stored in our garage, which has gone from fairly empty to pretty jam-packed in a matter of days! Some of her furniture as well as personal belongings, clothes, etc. will come in to the house today. She did ship some houseplants and we're hoping they'll perk back up in the next few days.

Other than that, we're getting excited for the historic inauguration of Obama on Tuesday. J and I will be off work and glued to CNN for all of the coverage. I felt kinda ripped-off on election day since I was working at convention and missed all of the coverage. Even though I was in Hawaii, which went nuts when the results were announced, because I was insulated in the convention center and focused on our work, I was basically in a vacuum. So I promised I would be part of the inauguration day celebration! We are so ready for a new paradigm in Washington and a new face in the presidency. Not to mention someone who is actually well spoken and articulate.

S-N-O-W!

We awoke to a very light dusting of snow this morning! My car looked like it had powdered sugar sprinkled on it. It was sort-of neat to see the snow blowing up the street on my ride into work.

It snowed throughout the morning and it was neat seeing it swirl around the windows like I was inside a snow globe! So novel for a Cali girl! There's barely enough to coat the streets and mainly it has collected in the gutters and in patches on the ground. Pretty neat! The dogs don't think so. Brr!

Mom is still awaiting the arrival of her belongings, which have been delayed due to weather. Most likely it will arrive tomorrow. Hopefully we can unload the container quickly and avoid frostbite in this weather than is in the mid-teens.

Clogged sink...yuck!

Last night J had to work but since Mom is here now, I had someone to cook for...when it's just me, home alone, I am less motivated. Anyway, J hates sweet potatoes, but I like them and so does Mom so I peeled some sweet potatoes and made them into match sticks to make oven fries. I made some skillet chicken and steamed broccoli. All was well until I tried to put the potato peels down the garbage disposal.

The sink backed up and we have a double sink, so basically one side drains and then backs-up into the other side. For hours, we plunged, it'd drain and then, eventually, come back up the other side. We finally resorted to scooping the water out into a pot and emptying it in the bathroom.

Fast forward 24 hours, a visit to Home Depot, a big bucket, new plunger, and a bottle of Draino later. Mom and J disassembled the pipes, cleaned them out, cleared the drain outside, put it all back together and now it is at least moving water through it. Nevertheless, we'll be calling the property manager to get someone to work on it. It's annoying that we cannot use the garbage disposal without causing a major back-up. That's the nice thing about being a renter, it's someone else's problem. Luckily our property managers are great and get someone out here right away to fix things for us.

Happy First Birthday Luigi!

Today our little big guy is one year old! Luigi has added so much to our lives in the 10 months he's been with us!

This was the first day he came home with us, March 11, 2008...he was 2 months old and 8 lbs.

Luigi next to Regina. Regina is 4 years old and Luigi is 2 months old in this photo.

Here's little Luigi sleeping next to Regina.

Luigi loves his toys and loved getting into Regina's "big bed" with them.


Luigi at 6 months with Regina (4 years old) at our new home in Tulsa.


Regina and Luigi (10 months) napping together

Luigi is now well over 20 lbs. and still growing. He has learned a lot, he knows several commands such as "come", "sit", "shake". He's also totally potty trained (which is more than we could say of Regina at his age!) and walks well on a leash. He's a total lover and even though he is still a floppy puppy and sometimes gets rambunctious, he's really a great little dog. We love him so much and are so happy we found him on Craigslist.

Mom's here!

Mom arrived this afternoon with her two chihuahuas, Sport and Dot, in tow. They flew from Oakland to Denver and then to Tulsa. She's settling in, the dogs are getting used to our pugs and we're awaiting the arrival of her car and belongings later this week.

Never in a million years would we had imagined that she'd move here just 6 months after we did. We're happy to have her here and thrilled that she's decided to settle here.

Happy New Year!

The first few days of 2009 have been great! J made it home in time on NYE to pop the cork and celebrate! He had to work a double on Friday and today and the morning yesterday. I have been home taking down the holiday decorations and cleaning up. Mom will be here next week and we want the house to be ready for her arrival.

Last night we were feeling too lazy to cook and decided to get out and find some Mediterranean food. I guess I had been craving it since watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" on TV on Friday night. We looked in Tulsa People magazine and found Shish-Kabobs on 31st and Garnett.

The restaurant is super cute and family run. We were waited on by the owner's 16 year old daughter who was really sweet and personable. We ordered the mixed appetizer plate that came with tabouli, hummus, and stuffed grape leaves. Pita came with it. Then for our main course we each ordered the combo plates which came with our choice of two meats, rice with saffron and a side. I had the Persian salad and J had the baba ganoush. I ordered the chicken kabob and gyros and J got the chela (ground beef) kabob and beef kabob. My favorite was the chela and the gyros. For dessert we shared vanilla-saffron-rose water-pistachio ice cream, rosewater cake (family recipe) and a baklava (we LOVE dessert). We loved the rose cake and highly recommend it! The ice cream was exotically spicy and different, akin to green tea ice cream in that it's flavorful, but not extremely sweet. We loved Shish-Kabobs and will definitely be back! The prices are so reasonable and the service felt like we were eating with family friends.

And a post would not be complete without a weather report (always fascinating!)...it was GORGEOUS yesterday! 75 degrees! I had the windows open, fans on and heater off! The house was all aired out and fresh smelling. Today? 36 was the high. And tomorrow is supposed to be in the 30's again and a slight chance for frozen rain/snow flurries. WTH? So bizarre.