Trail of Lights at Zilker Park

What gorgeous lights... unfortunately one of the colder nights here in Austin but the walk was soooooo worth it. At Zilker Park (the same park they hold the ACL concerts), various companies come down and take ownership of trees/areas and they decorate it to represent themselves. You can walk down the path of this park and see the wonderful lights and decorations that various companies/groups have put together. We decided this was the night we should make sure and take a good picture we can use for our xmas card this year. We had to stand around alot, waiting for people that we can ask to stop and take pictures of us and to wait for a second where the crowd died-down enough that we were able to even take the picture. We had a great time. It was the perfect experience to get the christmas spirit going!

Holiday Party at James & Kimiko's

James and Kimiko moved into their new house this month so they decided to have a holiday party to show it off and the friends together. It's a gorgeous house with a huge piece of land where you can easily play a regular game of football... We decided that we'll be putting together a "Jamesapalooza" with lots of vendors and live music... right in their yard. That's going to be so much fun!!! :0)

We're very happy for James and Kimiko for such a beautiful home. The garage will become a music studio where they'll hopefully work on recording some music, etc. so of-course Rob was excited about talking to them about their equipment and how they'll be setting up the studio, etc. He'll be able to help them alot. It'll also be great for Rob to have a place where he can hang out and play with music for fun and not have to work the hours like he used to.

Keep Austin Bizarre at Parmer Events Center

Keep Austin Bizarre was held at the Parmer Events Center. This is a huge event full of vendors, local as well as various locations, cities and states coming together to set up shop to sell their unique, handmade, artistic items/products. It's held for 2 weeks prior to Christmas to help the public with their christmas shopping. Rob and I went to check it out. We wanted to shop the market, see what types of items they had for sale and just to appreciate the art whether in paintings, jewelry, apparel, etc.

Jonathan & Kevin's Bday Bash

We got invited to Jonathan & Kevin's Birthday Party at Jonathan's house. It was a night of tons of food and RockBand!!! Jonathan is half Korean so his mom made some yummy Korean food for the party so you know I was excited... so was Rob! :) We had fun hanging out with Robin, Alex, Jonathan & Jessica, Kevin, amongst tons of other friends of theirs to celebrate the birthday boys! We had the most delicious carrot cake ever as their bday cake a friend of theirs make. She makes it so yummy that she gets requested to make it for all parties. I don't even like carrot cake and I scarfed it down with pleasure! Wow, yummmy! Oh and the best part... they made the boys feed each other cake, like at a wedding... haha! Jonathan's wife, Jessica, was very supportive and laughed!!!

Emily's Fall/Winter Concert

My oldest niece, Emily, had another concert with her band/orchestra from school. She played her euphonium as she did in the last concert. We wanted to make sure and go to this since we don't live at the house anymore so we don't see the girls as much as we used to. And also, Emily's proud of the concert so we wanted to be there to support her. We got a chance to run some errands in their area and also to pick up our bikes from the house. We want to ride the bikes in Townlake, Downtown area. We'll just have to pick the right day since some days get real cold nowadays. Emily's concert was great and fun seeing Marina and the girls. Justin was out of town for work so it was just us. After the concert, we decided not to go by the house since it would be past the girls' bedtime by the time they got home and we didn't want to keep them up on a school night. We stopped by Gallery Lombardi on the way home but it wasn't open. Strange, their website said they'd be open starting tonight. We wanted to check it out since they're having a special holiday event and we've heard that this Gallery has cool art. I guess another time then...

Blue Genie

One of the many holiday shopping events is Blue Genie, a collaboration of local artists whether they are paintings, purses, scarves, glassware, jewelry, etc. We went to check it out. Of-course there were some really cool jewelry, artwork, bags/purses, etc. This hat pictured is by CHIA and is soft, fuzzy and warm! So fun! And the doll... I want this doll but it's a bit expensive, being an original work of art, etc. She's sooooooooooooo cute!!!

A walk in Townlake, downtown Austin!

Rob and I went for a long-awaited walk in Townlake, Downtown Austin. We've been meaning to do this but waited until our apartment is somewhat organized and unpacked... and also waited until my cold was virtually gone so that it wouldn't get worse by the cold air in this brisk walk. It was absolutely gorgeous!!! So crazy that all this beautifulness is so close to downtown, the hub-bub city with its towers, etc. and so close to our apartment!!! :)

Happy Birthday Tina!!!

Today is my dear friend, Tina's birthday!!! She's my oldest friend as we became friends in 4th grade and have been friends ever since! What a special girl she is and a wonderful friend, actually more like a sister! Love you sis!!! Happy Birthday!!!

New Plates!!!

Yeh!!! We found some plates! We went to several different Targets with no success but we finally found a set of the correct color at a Target near by. Of-course they have had every other color than the one we needed but finally found a store that had one set of four left! We quickly grabbed it before someone else did! We now have some plates to match the rest of our set! No more paper plates! Yeh!!!

Happy Birthday Haley!!!

My sweet Haley (Justin & Marina's second child) turned 9 years old today! Such a big girl now! She's sensative, thoughtful and very sweet! Happy Birthday sweetie!!!

Travis Heights Art Trail...

We went to the Travis Heights Art Walk with our friend Karen and her friend Dan. Travis Heights is very close to our apartment and is a beautiful, woodsy, quaint, older area near downtown. It's like Silverlake, CA. Smaller streets winding in and out like a maze, older trees, cute houses that look different than the next (no cookie cutter homes here) with little parks. We saw some absolutely beautiful houses and some really cool houses where it was obvious that the owner designed the architecture themselves. Great streets to go for a walk too! And saw some interesting & awesome art! Such talent in this town!!!

Eat Local Week Kickoff...

Our friends at Zhi Tea hosted the kick-off event to the Eat Local Week at their store front on Dec. 6th. Other local tea vendors and businesses were set up with tastings on hand and even some yummy food items using various teas as ingredients. This is a picture of Jesse who has a catering business at the Zhi Tea booth. He made delicious zucchini bread with cream topping using Zhi tea's yummy Sweet Desert Delight tea. He also made some other items using Zhi tea ingredients, all for the tastings! What a great day for me to be tasting all of this wonderful teas, just getting over a cold so these teas were great for my sore throat! :)

Relaxing Night...

After a full week of sorting, unpacking, washing all of the dishes, pots, pans and kitchen utensils... adding shelf liners in the kitchen and bathroom... and just trying to move all of the remaining little things (our last trip) from Justin & Marina's house, we went over to Justin & Marina's to spend some time with the girls and with them... We watched "Hancock" with Justin & Emily while Marina and the little ones had a girlscout meeting. It was nice to relax and sit... and watch a movie! We also gave Haley part of her birthday gift early so she may use it for her slumber party tomorrow night.

Plate Dilemma...

So Rob and I've been busy sorting our boxes from storage, looking for the necessary items such as the microwave, ricecooker, pots & pans, dishes & cups, cooking utensils, winter clothes, couches, bedroom furniture, TV's, DVD players, etc. to move to the new apartment. Since it's only a two month sublet, we only wanted to take the absolute necessary items and leave the rest in storage to lessen the load to be moved. But there were those few luxury items we needed to look for as well such as the boxes of DVD's since we don't plan on paying/connecting cable at the apartment, we'll need access to DVD's to watch movies since we won't have too many channels to watch on TV. We were able to find majority of these things, thank goodness... but there are still those few items that we haven't yet located. We'll see if we find them or not. We did, however, had some unfortunate losses such as all of our large plates. These were from our 'everyday use' wedding registered plates from Target. We had gotten the set of four plates with its matching salad plates, bowls and small bowls. We loved them so much and needed the additional set of four to make it eight plates so we bought the additional set of four plates shortly before we left California. This one box had our two random plates left over from previous sets, some of my cups and our waterford type cups/glasses we received from our wedding. Of-course the two random plates survived and only lost of of the waterford type cup but every one of the eight plates broke. Every single one of the eight... I lost my favorite cup that my friend, Julie, gave me years ago and some other cups that had stories behind. We'll need to try to replace these plates since we have rest of the set of salad plates, bowls, etc. If we lost all of them, we would have started completely over but now it'll be harder since these plates are not in ALL Targets as they switch out their styles everyone couple of years and it's been a bit over 2 years since our wedding. A Challenge!!! We'll see if we meet this challenge! I think we will.

Lunch at South Congress Cafe in our new neighborhood!

We went to pick up the keys to our new apartment! How exciting! We got our own place, even just for two months! We decided we wanted to try living near downtown so we can attend events to mingle and network easier. And just to experience the life of being in this area since once we get jobs and settle down, we'll probably be in the suburb, family friend areas. So we found a sublet with two months left in the lease so we won't be tied-down for longer than that in the SoCo area. This is the Melrose of Austin. Very cute shops and restaurants, artsy and eclectic! Time Warner was coming by to set up our internet for us at the apartment so we got there early enough to meet with them, get our internet connected then went to South Congress Cafe to meet our friend, Karen for lunch. She had just gotten back from a long trip to China so we had lots to catch up on. She lives very close to our new apartment which is awesome since we try to hang out with Karen alot. The food was wonderful and we are already in love with our new area and neighborhood. We also have other friends that live near by which we'll be able to see more often as well. Very exciting! Now we'll really feel like we moved to Austin and not just on an extended vacation having our own place! We spent the rest of the day cleaning and scrubbing the new apartment from top to bottom!

Turkey Day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Marina told the girls to get dressed cute so Haley and Allie got all dolled up. Haley dressed Allie and did her hair with this cute bow! :) We spent the day getting ready, etc. and had a wonderful dinner with Lucia, Tony & Rosanna coming over to join us. Lots and lots of yummy food! We finished the night by watching a movie in the theatre room. I think I'm still full!

Twilight!!!

I finally got a chance to go watch the much anticipated "Twilight". I went with Marina, Emily and her friend, Abby. This was Marina & Emily's second showing of this movie. I usually like to read the books AFTER the movie since the books are ALWAYS better than the movie and I didn't want the movie to get ruined for me having read the book first but I read this book before I found out that they were making in into a movie... bummer... I spent the whole time watching the movie comparing to the book. It was hard to watch the movie, just for the movie. Also, I had a hard time imagining how a person who had NOT yet read the book understand the storyline by just watching the movie. Regardless, I want to watch the movie again so I can try to watch it without comparing and just watch it to enjoy it. I'm in love with the book too much to disregard the movie that quickly so I'll still watch it again and again! My niece Emily LOVED the movie even if she also was bothered by the fact that they switched the order of things as happened in the book and all of the details were skewed. Still a fan though! She'll watch it again and again as well! We are also waiting for the sequels!!!

After the movie, I helped Marina marinate the turkey and get it ready for the big "eating" day tomorrow!!!

E.A.S.T. Austin Art Studio Tour

E.A.S.T. Austin Studio Tour gives everyone the opportunity to view the works of over 200 artists at 150 studios and galleries during this one weekend. It's held once a year so we wanted to make sure and check out as many as artists as possible. We printed out the map of the studios/galleries and ran from one to another and then another. We saw some really great artists and some really cool studios and galleries. Some of the studios were these artists' homes so it was nice of them to open their homes for everyone to share their art with. We saw some really great areas and found some hidden treasures, beautiful homes and grounds that you'd never expect. What a wonderful experience!

Dinner w/Robin & Alex - Korean Style...

We told Robin and Alex about the new Korean BBQ restaurant due to open on the 15th of this month so we decided to go check it out. Unfortunately, the restaurant has not yet opened so we ended up going to Korea House which is another favorite of ours and also Robin's. Yummmmmy! We had fun eating and visiting with each other! It's so great having Robin near by... and Alex is such a sweetheart too!!!

Opal Divines

IGDA - International Gaming Developers Association was having their monthly happy hour event at Opal Divines. Rob and I were invited to this event through a guy he met recently in the gaming industry so we decided to go to meet some new people and mingle, network, etc. We met and talked to a few of the guys there who were all very nice and welcoming. After having been there for a few minutes, I realized one of the guys looked familiar. I told Rob of my suspicions of this one guy looking very familiar and figured out where we knew him from. He and his wife were selling their house and Rob and I had been to his open house a while back! He and his wife are both in the gaming industry, his wife being on the recruiting side of the business. His wife was traveling at that time so we only met Mike but had heard about his wife, Robin. Rob introduced himself and had connected with her on LinkedIn but had not yet met in person. We immediately went and talked to Mike and he remembered us as well from being at his open house! What a small world. We told Mike about how Rob and connected to Robin on LinkedIn, etc. and he told us that Robin was there at the happy hour as well. We were able to meet Robin in person. Rob also met another woman, Amy, in HR, who immediately warmed up to Rob and was willing to help him. I also met and talked to a guy who had a lot of information for me. He works for a company that I had applied to and told me about how they were moving everyone to Seattle. No wonder they never called me back about my application! What a successful outing that was! We met some wonderful people, reconnected with others we've previously met, and made some new connections and friends...

Long lost friend...

It's amazing with technology these days and on-line social networking sites such as Facebook. Thanks for Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc. I've gotten in touch with so many friends from my past... recently with the 20 year high school reunion, I've connected with so many friends from high school on facebook. I thought it was a big deal when I first connected with my friends from my Pasadena days, people I hung out with during my early 20's, now friends from high school... and now even further back, friends from Junior High School!!! My very good friend Robin from Junior High School and I recently connected on Facebook and found out that she lives in Austin, TX as well!!! What a HUGE surprise and such delightful news!!! To have a friend, a long lost friend, a friend with history... in the same city, my new city, my new home! So exciting! We set up dinner plans so she and I can see each other again after all these years... and so she can meet Rob... and I can meet her fiance, Alex... and her two boys, Austin & Jet! It was great seeing her and meeting the boys in her life, seeing her beautiful home and catching up... talking about stories from the old days...

80's Pimp-n-Ho Party!!!

Me and the birthday girl, Marina...

Me and my little bro, the Pimp Daddy J...
Just kidding... I didn't scoop out the cake! Yet!!!

Sixteen Candles Cake!!!

Me and my main squeeze, Daddy Robbie...

For Marina and her friends, Lucia & Mafel's November birthdays, they decided to have a joint birthday party! It's a 80's theme and also a Pimp-n-Ho theme! You can dress up as whichever theme you want with the mission and goal to have fun!!! Marina and I had fun getting ready at the house, helping Justin & Rob get their costumes together and went to the community center early enough to help them decorate and get ready for the party! It was a fun-filled night of yummy snacks and non-stop dancing! Rob and I got Marina a "Sixteen Candles" birthday card on Monday for her actual birthday with the characters Samantha & Jake Ryan on the cover and signed it from Jake Ryan. She loved the card so much that she decided to get a cake made with the same image. The cake turned out awesome! The three girls had a fun birthday party! Fun was had by ALL!!! Boy, my feel were so tired at the end of the night from dancing non-stop all night! We helped clean up after the party and dragged our butts home into bed! Fun, fun!!!