Waiting game.

So we manned up and settled the realtor thing.

We're going with Jeff - he got back to us with a bunch of places that we liked, and he seemed to think that the Canoga Park house could be a good challenge.

And we emailed Jess - I didn't want to leave her hanging and I really appreciated her putting time into looking stuff up for us. DB gave some great wording advice, and based on the exchange we had, I think it was left on good terms.

So now, we're having Jeff look into the Canoga Park place, and to look for others that are kind of like it that could be other options. We had the pre-approval letter sent over to Jeff and are gathering all the other paperwork for our mortgage people.

And we're waiting.

Hopefully Jeff will get back to us about some of the other places, so we can have a look! Maybe then we'll stop daydreaming about a 1960's house with pegboards in the garage. Because I've actually been planning out in my head how to build built-in bookshelves. :-)

Real estate on my mind...

This looking for a house stuff is complicated, yo.

So far, we have:

1) Gotten pre-approved for a loan.
2) Stalked redfin.com and realtor.com for home listings.
3) Driven around every Sunday this year in search of open houses.
4) Talked to two different realtors - one that we were planning on using, and another we found and liked at an open house.

But here's where it gets all complicated. The realtor we met at the open house (Jess) was really cool. We gave her our email and what we're looking for, and she said she'd look into some listings for us. We talked to the realtor we were planning on using (Jeff), and though it was a brief conversation, he seemed into it, too. So we emailed him. And right after we emailed Jeff, we got an email from Jess with a nifty little list of places we might be into. Which is actually pretty on target for what we're looking for.

So - do we email Jess back? Do we wait to hear from Jeff to see if he comes up with a similar on-target list? Is it totally bad home-buying ju-ju to be talking to two realtors?

Jess seemed cool, but Jeff seems to really know the areas well, and he started as a contractor, which is nice, because he may be able to point out things that we overlook that might need work.

Ugh.

Also - to make matters MORE complicated, we thought we had narrowed down the area we liked to the Calabasas/Agoura area west of the Calabasas grade. We're over there EVERY. DAY. because the dog park we take Emma to (that has lights for wintertime) is on that side of the grade, and the drive over there every day has gotten a bit tedious.

But then yesterday we were driving around, and we stumbled upon an open house on this quiet little street in the Canoga Park/West Hills area. It was super cute and spacious, and had just the right combination of stuff to fix up/personalize and stuff that was fine the way it was. It had hardwood floors throughout, three bedrooms plus a den, a front yard, a nice kitchen, a back yard with a pool, and a HUGE garage plus tons of additional parking. Plus, it had character - it wasn't a cookie cutter house. Other than the fact that it was more space then we need, a short sale, and had a pool (yes, this is kind of a drawback for us), it was pretty close to perfect.

And so now I have NO idea what I want.

A house(!) with a garage and a yard and some space in an area we don't like quite as much? A condo or townhouse with an HOA in an area we really like and that's conducive to our day-to-day? What to do???

Add all that to the fact that Sean's not going to have a regular paycheck for a while, and it's nearly enough to make a person crazy! In fact, last night I had a weird ass dream about trying to "break up" with a realtor (a mysterious one, not one we're actually talking to) and finding the perfect house.

Any advice out there for us? (Kareena - I love your posts on first time home buying, thanks for those!) Any help is welcome!

30 Before 30: Griffith Park Observatory

I can't fully cross this one off yet, because we went up when the museum was closed and only explored the grounds. So, I guess this one is 1/2 of 1/5? 1/10? But - I loved the Griffith Park Observatory when I was a kid. We went up often - you could even see the house we lived in if you looked hard enough - so even though I knew the museum was closed (we went on a Monday), we went up anyway.

"26. See the LA sites/museums I've been meaning to go to for years: the Getty Villa, the LA Arboretum, the Urban Light installation at LACMA, and Griffith Park for the Griffith Park Observatory and Travel Town."

One of the coolest things about the Griffith Park Observatory is its clear view of the Hollywood sign! You can't see it too well here, but it's there on the right.

Actually, all the views are spectacular, especially at sunset!

The building is so iconic and lovely.

The downtown LA skyline from the back of the observatory.

There was this very cool biplane circling around, and you can just barely see it in this photo - look for the black speck on a cloud towards the top left of the photo. Can you imagine the amazing view they had from the plane???

I'll have to go back to the observatory to complete this one, but that's not exactly a hardship. I know they did massive renovations to it, but I hope it still reminds me of the awesome place I visited as a kid!

30 Before 30: Travel Town

Another 1/5 of #26 crossed off my list!

"26. See the LA sites/museums I've been meaning to go to for years: the Getty Villa, the LA Arboretum, the Urban Light installation at LACMA, and Griffith Park for the Griffith Park Observatory and Travel Town."

Last weekend, we went to Travel Town!

Travel Town is a fairly simple place - an outdoor, interactive museum of locomotives. It's located in Griffith Park, and the best part is that both parking and entrance are free! (Though we make a donation when we go, because it's a really cool place.) You can pay to go on the mini train ride around the park, climb on engines and passenger cars, and have a picnic amongst the tracks.

My parents took me there when I was small, and I drive past it every day on my way home from work, but I had never been as an adult. Sharing some of my dad's love of trains, I have been wanting to go back for years. And we finally did!

Looking back at the engines - I love train tracks and afternoon light.

My favorite car - I took a TON of photos in there!

Travel Town isn't the most intricate or interesting museum in the world. And I'm not enough of a train enthusiast to spend hours upon hours there. But it's very cute, kid friendly, and I have some great nostalgic memories from there! I'm glad I went - I'm sure I'll take my own kids there someday!

#SOPASTRIKE

I couldn't figure out how to black out this website (also I don't have the time to learn right now), but I felt that I needed to post something in support of the protests going on today.

PLEASE take a moment if you haven't already to educate yourself about these bills. The way they're currently written would essentially end the Internet as we know (and love) it.

Here's a video that gives a fairly clear explanation of PIPA & SOPA:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Read about why Wikipedia went black today, check out Reddit.com, go to this site to see what you can do to help, and be sure to click on the top image (or just go here) and sign the petition for our Congress members!

I try really hard to make sure to give credit when I use something on this site - I link photos to the websites I got them from, I link information, I link quotes and videos. But, see all those sites I just linked to? If SOPA were in effect, my site could be "blacklisted" from the Internet if any of the sites linked above had a link on them that infringed copyrights! Please take action if you find that as outrageous as I do!

30 Before 30: Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

"22. See the giant sequoias with Sean."

A few weekends ago, Sean and I were bumming around the house and randomly decided to scratch something else off of my 30 Before 30 list by driving up to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

I know, so spontaneous!

It was already 4:30pm on a Saturday, so we hurriedly packed overnight bags, grabbed Emma's bed, and got on the road. We were on the road by 5pm, and on the way up we found & booked a dog friendly motel by the entrance of Sequoia National Park (Buckeye Tree Lodge Trip Advisor review) - and we had such a nice stay!

The conversation with the woman on the phone was rather hilarious, though.

Woman: So when will you be arriving?
Me: We're driving up from Los Angeles now, so it'll probably be between 9pm and 10pm.
Woman: Ok, well reception closes at 9pm, so I'll go ahead and leave your key on the cork board. And the owners live right on the property, so if a bear gets your key or something, just ring the bell.
Me: I'm sorry, what? "If a bear gets our key?"

Anyway, we had an very chill drive, ate dinner at a truck stop right after the Grapevine, arrived at the hotel around 10pm, and retrieved the key, bear free. It took Emma a while to settle down in the room - it usually does in a new place - but we passed out right away.

The next morning, we went outside to the amazing views of the river RIGHT behind our room. I want to go back to this place and stay there again, because there was so much to discover/explore, and the area behind the hotel was so peaceful! Each room had a patio that begged to be used for a leisurely cup of tea.

The river was steps away from the hotel and had tons of rocks to climb around on.

We checked out early, eager to get into the park and see some giant trees. Entrance to the parks is $20/car, but you can get a year long pass for $30. We definitely want to come back up again in the spring, so we got the yearly pass. It's good through the end of January 2013, and I'm so excited to use it again!

Right off the bat, we saw wildlife - mule deer to be specific.


The road took us up from around 2,000 feet to about 7,000 feet! Emma enjoyed the fresh mountain air.


Our first stop was General Sherman - the world's largest tree by volume. We saw some melted snice (snow/ice), and Emma had her first encounter with the cold stuff.

She was pretty indifferent to it, actually.


The hike to General Sherman was quick on the way down - maybe 10 minutes...

Sean checking out the General Sherman tree - this tree is between 2,300-2,700 years old! SO crazy!

The hike down to the General Sherman tree.

But going back up kicked my ass - the air is thinner at 7,000 feet elevation, and I was SO out of breath! (It was kind of embarrassing, actually!)

We got back into the car and headed towards Grant Grove, where the General Grant tree - the second largest - is.

Snow (ice? snice?) on the side of the road!

Giant sequoias!

I didn't upload any photos of General Grant, because where it's located, it's tough to get a good shot of it. The "hike" up to it is only about 0.5 miles, and really easy. It's a great big tree - but you can't get close to it anymore because the ground around it is too delicate (or something). So we took a little trail off of the main trail and checked out some almost as large trees up the hill from General Grant.

For comparison - Sean is 6'3" - this tree made him look tiny!

A fallen sequoia tree - you can walk all the way through it!

Unfortunately, after Grant Grove, we had to head back home since I had to work the next day. We're eager to go back though, because while dogs aren't allowed on the trails in the national parks, they are allowed on those in the national FORESTS - and about 30 minutes north of General Grant, there's supposed to be a very cool meadow of tree stumps that were cut down for logging where dogs are allowed.

Maybe we'll go in the spring, so there will be the potential for lots of flowers!

Also - there are two entrances - one for Sequoia National Park and one for Kings Canyon National Park. If you use the Kings Canyon entrance, you're closer to the areas you can bring your dog to - otherwise, you have to drive all the way through Sequoia National Park AND Kings Canyon National Park to get to them. The drive from General Sherman (Sequoia) to General Grant (Kings Canyon) took us about an hour because the roads are windy.

We saw this brown cow on the way home and he cracked me up - he did not care that the barbed wire was in his way of the delicious grass!

Overall - Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks were very cool - I can't wait to go back! And at only about a 3.5-4 hour drive, it's really reasonable for a quick weekend getaway.

My Top 10 Romantic Movies

I was inspired by this list of 60 Most Romantic Movies from my new favorite website, All Women Stalk (thanks Pintrest!), to do my own little "Top 10" list of my favorites.

A precursor: I often love cheesy movies. I often love silly movies. I often love movies that are the exact opposite of "critically acclaimed." This list is by no means based in anything other than my personal opinion! (Also, I'm probably forgetting one or two that I love, because I'm doing this list on the fly at work instead of at my house with my beloved DVD collection.)

Here we go!

10. What's Your Number
Yes, this movie is super goofy. But I thought it was adorable, it makes me happy to watch it, and let's admit it - Chris Evans is HOT.

9. Crazy, Stupid, Love
I FINALLY got around to watching this one, and it had all the requirements for my list - it made me laugh, it made me ignore the other crap I was doing, and it left me with a happy giddy feeling. And the scene below? The one with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling? SO awesome.

8. Ever After
When this movie came out, I saw it five times. In the theater. That's practically unheard of for me! (Granted, I was 16, but still.)

7. Definitely, Maybe
How freakin' cute is Ryan Reynolds in this movie? I love how sweet, sad, and happy it is.

6. Sweet Home Alabama
This is one of those movies I will always stop on when it's on TV. It makes me all sorts of giggly. And makes me want to go to the South.

5. P.S. I Love You
When I had finally watched this movie enough to not ugly cry (which took approximately four times, by the way), I discovered it was a great romantic comedy. And Gerard Butler singing "Galway Girl?" Amazing.

4. Leap Year
I saw this one multiple times in theaters, too, but didn't quite make it to five. I love this movie, possibly because of it's locations, possibly because of Matthew Goode, and possibly because it's just so silly.

3. The Princess Bride
Duh. I mean, this one is a classic for a list like this. It's romantic. It's funny. It's ridiculous. It has Peter Falk and a happy ending. Also, Sean likes this movie too, which is a bonus for me.

2. A Lot Like Love
Super underrated, and one of my favorite movies of all time. It's just a perfect love story - and more realistic than most, as it has the main characters not get their timing right for a while. If you haven't seen this movie, go out and watch it immediately.

1. Love Actually
I could watch this movie over and over and over again. It's one of the closest things I've ever seen to the "perfect" movie. To this day I still can't decide what my favorite storyline is!

Runner(s) up:

Dirty Dancing
It's a classic, and it's great. But I've owned it for years and it's still in its plastic, because I've never had that "I need to watch that movie RIGHT NOW" feeling with it. But seriously, WHY is this final scene so awesome??? (Sorry, You Tube won't let me embed the video!)

America's Sweethearts
Because John Cusack is amazing, and I love seeing Catherine Zeta Jones play a total bitch. And it has some of the greatest one-liners ever!

Shakespeare In Love
It didn't make the list, primarily because I like my favorite movies to have happy endings. What can I say, I'm girly like that. But it's still such a great love story, and I usually will watch it if it's on TV somewhere.

Letters To Juliet
The movie isn't the best. The acting isn't the best. But I love that it takes place in Italy, and it's so cute.

10 Things I Hate About You
Oh, how I loved this movie when I was younger! I still love it. In fact, it may be time to watch it again and re-live some of that high school angst. My favorites were, obviously, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Who could resist Heath Ledger singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You???" This "paintball" scene was always my favorite, though.

Are there any movies that aren't on here that would make your list?

30 Before 30: Urban Light at LACMA

Another 1/5 of an item checked off my "30 Before 30" list!

"26. See the LA sites/museums I've been meaning to go to for years: the Getty Villa, the LA Arboretum, the Urban Light installation at LACMA, and Griffith Park for the Griffith Park Observatory and Travel Town."

This time around, the Urban Light installation at LACMA!

Slightly out of focus, but I like it anyway.

I could spend hours looking at these lights and taking photographs there!

One of my favorites from the night...

Me, Sean and Emma dog being goofy.

Dare I say I'm on a roll?

Roll with the punches.

2012 has barely begun and already the challenges are being tossed at us.

Well, I suppose this challenge is technically from 2011, enforcing how craptastic half of 2011 was. The months June - October? Fabulous. January - May and then November & December? Couldn't wait to see them over.

Anyway. Sean ripped a tendon in his finger at the dog park in late December. He was pulling an aggressive dog off of Emma, and that dog's harness caught his finger and pop. The problem? Oh yeah, he kind of needs his hands to work.

If this had happened to me, it would be a mild annoyance of having to keep my finger in a splint for a while and not typing with that finger. In fact, I wish it had happened to me. But for Sean, it means not being able to work. He'll be on short term disability for six weeks, then his finger will be at 50% and he'll have to do a bunch of physical therapy, but at least he'll be able to go back to work.

It's a huge fucking bummer.

We're trying to stay optimistic about it - it's necessary for his finger to be healed properly, as he works with his hands. And maybe it was the universe's way of giving him a break so he doesn't burn out or something. Maybe it is a good way for us to set and stick to a budget. Go to my mom's house for dinner more often. Spend some quality time together. Who knows. What I do know is that my schedule will be a bit more flexible for the next few weeks, but we'll be keeping our spending as minimal as possible at the same time!

Personally, I think he did it so he'd get out of dish duty for 6 weeks. (<-- obvious sarcasm, otherwise known as my coping mechanism.)

Please, 2012, could you give us a break?

30 Before 30: The Craft and Folk Art Museum

New year, new start, right? Time to scratch a couple more items off my "30 Before 30" list!

It's been a while since I completed something off this list... but I'm determined to get through it this year. I only have 8 and a half months left! Granted, I only scratched off 1/2 of this one, but we're planning a trip to San Diego soon to do the other half!

"4. Visit the museums where Sean's uncle's designs are featured - the Craft and Folk Art Museum in LA and the Mingei museum in San Diego."

Preface: Sean's uncle is a designer. In the 1960s and 70s, he designed architectural fiberglass furniture and beer can furniture (his designs preceded Andy Warhol’s pop-art soup cans by about two years), as well as some very cool wind surfers, boats, etc. Some of his items are now on display at two museums in Southern California as part of Pacific Standard Time.

Sean's awesome Uncle Doug (on the sailboat he built)

We recently got a chance to visit the Craft and Folk Art museum, which is showcasing one of Doug's park benches in its window. His aunt told us it was particularly awesome at night, so at night was when we went!



I can't WAIT to get down to San Diego and see the rest of his stuff! (And, of course, see Sean's aunt and uncle!)

Bring in the new...

So, we're in the process of getting pre-approved for a home loan. (Update on 1/5: We're pre-approved!)

Crazy, right???

The idea to buy a house is nothing new. But opportunity presented itself when my friend Megan mentioned that her dad did a pre-approval for her then boyfriend, just to see what he would qualify for. It got us thinking, and we finally contacted him.

And now we've been religiously checking realtor.com for potential places. We have an idea of budget, we have an idea of location, and we have a guy from the dog park who is a realtor and just got another friend from the dog park a great place. (Not to mention about three other connections in case he can't find anything for us.)

So now it feels real, and that kind of trips me out.

I'm actually excited to move, which tells me that I'm ready for this. I love our little apartment, and normally am super resistant to change. But as much as I love where we live and our first place together, we're rapidly outgrowing it.

Plus, the canyon is a tough place to live sometimes. It's far out of the way. It wears on our cars. (Just last year alone I got a flat tire, needed four new tires, and had $700 of "rodent" damage done while parked in our drive way.) We don't get the gas mileage we should be getting. There are a ton of bugs and rodents. We have to take Emma to the dog park every day (so she doesn't destroy our shit) and that's a 40 minute round trip affair. And while we love living there and aren't exactly rushing to move, it's getting to be time.

And there are a few amenities that we've been doing without that I'm looking forward to having again once we move.

On my wish list for a house? A dishwasher. A garbage disposal. A bath tub. A washer and dryer and a pluming system that can support more than two loads of laundry a day. A garage where I can store things, and where Sean can build a little "man cave." An office/guest room so that we don't have to be concerned about leaving out electronics for Emma to eat. And maybe even a fire place, and a place to put a treadmill so I can drop the gym membership I've been clinging to even though I never go.

So here's hoping that everything goes as smoothly for us as first time buyers as it can go. I know from my friends who have bought homes that the process can be super complicated, frustrating, and drawn out. We've already found a place that we really liked only to call the realtor and have our hopes dashed by a pending litigation in the complex... so I get the feeling it's going to be an interesting road!

Any advice for us?

30 Before 30: Revised

Since it's the new year, I decided to revisit my "30 before 30" list. A while back I was thinking about it, and I realized that some of my goals have changed since I started this list, so I decided that I'd revise it to make it a bit more to what my goals are currently. Many things stayed the same, but a couple things just aren't all that important to me anymore! So behold, my new 30 before 30 list!

1. Go horseback riding.
2. Lose 20 pounds.
3. Sell a photo (or something photo related) I've taken.
4. Visit the museums where Sean's uncle's designs are featured - the Craft and Folk Art Museum in LA and the Mingei museum in San Diego.
5. Take an photography or Photoshop class.
6. Organize and back up my music and photos.
7. Move to a bigger house/apartment, possibly one we own.
8. Travel to New York.
9. Do volunteer work.
10. Add $5,000 to my savings account.
11. Make pasta from scratch.
12. Make my grandmother's Christmas cookies on my own.
13. Learn how to make caplets (dad's side).
14. Learn how to make pork roast with potato dumplings (mom's side).
15. Get certified in CPR.
16. Walk a 10K.
17. Take a weekend trip to somewhere with snow.
18. Cook an entire meal (appetizer, meal, dessert) for Sean and my family or friends.
19. Buy the camera lens I've been coveting.
20. Get Emma trained in recall.
21. Take a cooking class.
22. See the giant sequoias with Sean.
23. Send holiday cake balls (and cookies?) to family and work people.
24. Treat myself to a shopping spree for new clothes.
25. Bake bread from scratch.
26. See the LA sites/museums I've been meaning to go to for years: the Getty Villa, the LA Arboretum, the Urban Light installation at LACMA, and Griffith Park for the Griffith Park Observatory and Travel Town.
27. Visit Sean's aunt & uncle in San Diego and my aunt & uncle in Laguna Beach more often.
28. Start a photography business with a kick ass website.
29. Buy myself a nice piece of jewelry.
30. Learn how to drive a stick shift.

And one I'm still considering...
- Get the tattoo I've been thinking about. (I still waver back and forth to whether I want to get a tattoo...)
- Finish writing at least 25 pages of a screenplay or book based on one of the millions of ideas in my head. (I still want to do this, but am more focused on photography this year than writing.)