While I am working up in the bay area, they have me in corporate housing in San Jose. The apartment is nothing stellar, but the price is right and quite frankly, it’s really not THAT bad. The part that really sucks is the loneliness. I have been up here for about 3 weeks and I forgot how much I dislike being single. Granted I have been home to LA last week, it doesn’t feel the same. I miss going to bed and talking with her at night, walking the dogs, just being near her. It’s quite a lifestyle shock.
Katie decided to come up to San Jose to visit and cheer me up… she even brought the dogs! Brave move on her part and she paid the price as poor Rex got sick in the car while driving over the 152, throwing up in her cup holders. I had the pleasure of cleaning it up when they got into the apartment complex.
I took on a grand tour of Hayward, the town I spent most of high school in. We drove by the old houses, saw a few of my schools and even ate at the pizzeria Joel worked at, Bronco Billy’s. The town hasn’t changed much and why should it? Not much going on in the Hayward hills. We visited San Francisco on the 15th, spent most of the day there. We hung out over on Pier 39, drove down Lumbard St, had a great lunch and just walked the Embarcadero. This was Katie’s first trip to the bay area but she will be moving here once the lease on our apartment in Valencia is up, so we were in no real rush to do the entire city.
I posted about 80+ photos of the visit, check them out over on our Flickr page.
With our move quickly approaching, 
Katie and I flew out to Western NY to check the area out. First, there are no direct flights to Buffalo. I emphasis this point because layovers were designed by the devil himself to pit man against one another. Our first leg was from LAX to Dulles (5 hours) with a 2 hour layover, then to Buffalo (1 hour). Normally this wouldn’t have been so bad, but we thought we’d gain extra time in NY if we took a red eye. We quickly learned this was a mistake as you really don’t get that restful sleep while flying. Between turbulence, the what felt like foam-less seats.. just an uncomfortable time.
We made it safely in to Buffalo, and man was it snowing. Like full on blizzard snowing. As a matter of fact, we were one of the last flights allowed to land, the rest were being diverted. We rented a Suzuki Grand Vitara which turned out to be one of the nicest rental vehicles we’ve ever had. From the car rental lot, we scooted over to the hotel (Crown Plaza) in downtown Niagra Falls. While the hotel was very nice & comfortable, downtown Niagra Falls is a dump. The city has clearly fallen on hard times as several streets had nothing but boarded up shops and “For Lease” signs. We immediately discounted living in Niagra Falls and toured our first choice, Lewiston. Lewiston is a very quaint community, very ‘Norman Rockwell’. So far we are sold on Lewiston, but the lack of retail outlets and basic signs of life had us starting to rethink our decision to move.
A few days later, we met up with our friend Mike who lives in Niagra Falls for a grand tour of Western NY. Wow, what a difference. You how when you go to LA, you have certain assumptions about areas you think would be nice, but in reality are just awful. Turns out, Western NY isn’t so different. Mike’s tour helped us fall in love with the area. We now know of at least 3 areas where we want to look for houses to rent for at least 1 year before we think about buying: Lewiston, Amhurst or Tonawanda.
Overall, this trip proved invaluable for us. Seeing winter at it’s worst, getting to know the area, seeing how we could drive in snow… invaluable.
Thanksgiving has become a bitter sweet holiday in out house. The trend has become that I work and Katie cooks all day so that when I get home, the big meal is ready when I get home. This year was a little different. On Thanksgiving day I worked but took a long lunch and joined the Irons family (my mother’s side) for dinner. Each year, the Irons family comes together at a church in Sunland for a late lunch. My office is only 20 minutes down the road, so I met Katie there to rub elbows with the family. There were family portraits taken, plenty of catching up and meal to feed an army! Unfortunately by the time we got to the meal, I had to head back to work. I packed a to-go plate and split back to work. Not much of a Thanksgiving, but it was a fond one.
Katie made our Thanksgiving dinner on the following Sunday and man-o-man what a spread! I honestly believe she has found the secret to cooking a turkey. Perfectly seasoned, crispy skin and moist white & dark meat alike. We ate like kings and I have only my amazing wife to thank. She puts in the extra love & care needed to pull this gargantuan meal off just right. I have put up a few photos of the table and of the Irons family gathering over on our Flickr page.
Christmas Time @ DLR
Christmas time at Disneyland starts up in the 3rd week of November every year. Anyone who has ever been to Disneyland during the Christmas season will tell you, Disney’s decorations kick the crap out of any local light/Santa display. This year we went during the first day the decorations were up and man was it packed! I picked up Katie at school (hence the photos of Katie in her scrubs) and we shot down to the park before rush hour traffic hit.
Small World, Holiday Edition
This trip was a little different as we actually set out to ride “Small World”. Now, if you have ever been on “Small World”, riding it once per calendar year is enough but now that it’s decked out for the holidays, we broke this rule. I tried to take photos in the ride, but the darkness and blur of the photos weren’t worth posting. So, short summary, it’s amazing. They pipe in the smell of ginger bread and play holiday music. The robot children are dressed in their country’s holiday garb which is actually pretty interesting.
Parking @ DLR
To sum up the trip, we got “Rock Star” parking to boot. Let me explain… parking at DLR is a nightmare. I mean, it’s not terrible by any means, but if you get in at the wrong time or during a heavy flow, you may end up walking near a mile to get to the tram to just enter the park. DLR cast members (what they call their employees) will often tell you where to park while directing traffic. When they are directing traffic, you are at the mercy of lady luck, which as you know likes to screw us regular folks over on a regular basis. When they 
are not directing traffic, you pretty much can choose any row you want to go down and see what’s open. Our standing rule is “Don’t get greedy” which refers to passing up OK spots in hope of finding a great spot. Often if you get greedy and pass up a OK spot, the person behind you will snag it (so there is no going back) and there are no better spots available.. you will have to go back to square one! Very aggravating. SO, this trip, no one was directing traffic because we arrived later in the evening. We ended up parking ridiculously close to the escalator to the trams, one row behind the handicapped parking spots. Like I said, “Rock Star” parking. Not having to trek to your vehicle is a great way to end a day at DLR.
Photos of the day can be found over on our Flickr page.
The Wedding
We only have 6 days until the wedding, can you believe that? Katie has been hard at work finishing all the last minute details while I have been helping her out whenever I can. We’ve been folding programs, printing menu’s, cutting, gluing, tying ribbon… all to make our wonderful day that much more wonderful. To top is all off, it looks like my mom is going to be able to make it after all. Katie’s mom gave me the most incredible gift of an airline ticket for my mom to attend our wedding, which I had conceded to being impossible at this point. A very pleasant surprise. Needless to say, there is still alot to do, but at least Katie and I have 2 days of road tripage ahead of us (which we are completely excited for!) to unwind and take in the Zen of the road. Once we are in Seattle, all that will change with the last minuet preparations, but we’re going to deal with that when we get to it.
The Puppies
Have I mentioned I have the best friends on the planet? Matt, Joe and my brother Joel will be watching the dogs while we are getting married. Naturally we have 1001 instructions for them to follow… yea, we’re pet parents.
Road Trip Music
All week I have been putting together road trip playlists so we can rock out when Sirius becomes too much (which is becoming more frequent these days). Now, I have an OG generation 2, 2Gb iPod Nano while Katie has the 80GB iPod Classic… her entire library of tunes can fit onto that beasty while I have to somehow narrow down my 40GB+ of music down to 2Gb. I think I’ve done a pretty good job, but man is it a task! I’m going to have to sell some of my airsoft gear to get a new iPod, that’s all there is to it!
Easter
Oh, and today is Easter. I had to work but Katie is at home getting us packed and ready for the trip. Not the relaxing holiday we had last year, but to make up for my working, I gave Katie a little surprise this morning. It started on Friday when Katie was broken up about not being able to have any kind of family get together for Easter and how much she loved the holiday. I felt terrible. That night I went on a grocery run and got her the works; basket, grass, TONS of chocolate, 12 plastic eggs, etc. Now I suck at keeping surprises a surprise. It was a true feat of strength for me to keep my mouth shut! I assembled most of the goodies on Saturday night and hid the eggs in the apartment on Sunday. This morning she called me when she found them… almost in tears at how surprised and over joyed she was. I think I have achieved rock star status.
Photos
I know, long post, but we have uploaded a mess of photos from February to April… check ‘em out.
Did you know that it’s only 59 days until our wedding? I know, right? On December 21st, 2008, Katie and I met our photographers at Disneyland in Anaheim, California for the engagement photo shoot. Despite a few bumps caused by Disneyland security (thanks, “speedbump” Patty), the day could not have been more perfect. Jen & Jeff from F7 met us there really early, and could not have been a nicer pair to work with. I know we hired them for the shoot, but they made us feel very comfortable and at the end of the day, felt like old friends. In short, we love F7 Photography! What better location to take the engagement photos than inside the park where it all went down. You can view the entire gallery here: Link to Flickr
Adventures | Josh | 
February 20, 2010 8:46 pm | 
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