Let it Snow! Let it snow, let it snow...

Oh the weather outside is frightful... okay, not really. It is Southern California, where the weather is ALWAYS 75 and sunny!

I took Paul up to Big Bear this last weekend for a Birthday getaway, but who am I kidding- I really wanted to go too! When I suggested going someplace for his birthday, I brought up the idea of going on a scuba trip to Mexico, or a snow trip to Washington, but Paul said he would be interested in going to Big Bear... just like old times. We had not yet braved the trip to snow in SoCal, so I had never even been to Big Bear. While trying to make arrangements online with no real guidelines, I found that Big Bear is just a bunch of cabins you can rent from individuals. Some of which are tacky and expensive. I was just beginning to think Big Bear was not my kind of place (where was the Hilton?) when I found a fun Jacuzzi cabin. There are actually plenty of great places I wanted to try- a B&B (booked for the MLK weekend) other cabins (too big to rent for two people), and so on.

I ordered snow chains for my car (why I did not think to do this for Paul's car, I do not know- he is the one with the heated seats!) I made cabin arrangements, printed out directions, packed food, dug out all the winter gear (or as much as I could find) and we were off! We got up there on Thursday night, just in time to check in and grab dinner. I picked out a place called Sweet Basil, which was a great Italian restaurant. They were out of the Wild Mushroom Ratatouille, which I was excited about trying, but at least they had some Ahi tuna! Yumm-o. We picked up some wood for the fire and tried out the jacuzzi and called it a night, well, after watching some BSG of course!

We meant to wake up early on Friday, but the alarm went off and neither of us tore out of bed. So we finally got to the slopes around 9:30, but the park had been open for an hour already. Paul and I had been debating what to do- I definitely wanted lessons no matter what we did, skiing or snowboarding. Paul had tried snowboarding before but wasn't enthused about continuing that. I had only tried snowboarding and had gone a few times. It was going to be hard, according to Paul, to hang out together if we were doing different activities, so I decided to try skiing. Only, since I had never been on skis, it wasn't like we would be spending time in a Ski 101 class together. I took the morning 2 hour class, which taught me how to get into skis, out of them, how to fall, and how to move and brake. Out of five people, I had the least difficulty and didn't fall once. Paul was off warming up and taking pictures of me being goofy. We took a break for lunch and met at the Ski House. In the afternoon, Paul and I both took the advanced class, but were divided into sections according to skill level. I managed to make it to a level 2 (out of 4). The afternoon class was a little more challenging and I was the worst one in that class. We learned how to link turns and get away from snow plowing by carving and slipping on the slope. I had trouble trusting leaning on my right turn (left leg) and kept falling when I got any real speed up. All in all though, we were good enough to take the lift to the top of the mountain and run a green hill (designated as low intermediate). I only fell a total of a dozen times that day, so not bad! I think my first few days on the snowboard, I was on the snow half the day.

We retired for the evening after running the beginner slopes a few times together. Paul, despite having his first ever ski lesson that day, is really great on skis and was able to help me figure out some of the finer points of turning and shifting my weight to do so. And that was only my first day on skis!

We ate at a place I had picked out called Captain's Anchorage (steak and seafood), which I thought we would need after skiing all day. It was fun- I got two appetizers, steamed artichoke and some clams. It was all great. We finished the day off with some more BSG, hoping to catch the premier of season 4.5 (the first of the last 10 episodes), but since we were determined to hit the slopes at opening on Saturday, we were fast asleep by 10 pm.

The start of the memorial day weekend at Snow Summit:
When we rented our skis on Thursday, the check in ladies told us to be there at the crack of dawn on Saturday to fight the smallest of the day's lines. We were in the parking lot unloading at 7:30 am (did I finally find something that gets Paul outta bed at the crack of dawn?) Paul had wisely bought the lift tickets the night before, so all we had to do was walk onto the slopes and get on a lift. There were already lines out the wazoo at 7:30 and the park didn't even open until 8am.

I suggested we head straight up to the Summit Run, which starts at the top of Chair 1. We did the Summit Run, a green slope that is a mile long and ends at the base of the mountain at Chair 2. We took that chair up tot he top and headed to the right to get to the fun family zone. This is an area meant for beginners and families that includes flat areas on one side and small moguls on the other side. There are even a few runs that are just green runs. We spent most of our day on that part of the mountain and mainly avoided crowds and lines. There were even less crowded areas, but we tried them and I got scared because the hill looked too steep. (I made Paul walk uphill in skis to get to a green area.)

We ate lunch at the top of the summit. They had two different eateries up there and a great view out back!

Paul spent the day following me and helping me out, and by the end of the day, I think I was doing fairly well. I wasn't falling as much, and I was doing better on carving my turns instead of snowplowing them. I even got up some good speed. Look ma, I am even wearing my helmet!

A Paul Roast

As many of you know, today is the anniversary of Paul’s 39th Birthday. But as you may have noticed, Paul pays close attention to details and likes to make sure what I say is correct (along with others, as Chris noticed, Oregon does not go mispronounced around Paul). So in the interest of not upsetting Paul’s order in the universe… we will call it what it is- a very happy 40th birthday to Paul!

Paul has accomplished many things in these few short years. He managed to obtain a lifetime interest in space from the young age of only 7 months after his mom parked him in front of a huge console TV, which is maybe where he gets his fascination for everything cinema too! After spending a few years at home eating cat food (do you see a pattern here?), he spent 15 years trying to make sure school did not interfere with his education. He left the backwoods of Eureka and turned in his gun for pen and paper for college.

Thankfully, he smartly moved to Austin to work on his PhD, where he met me. (One of the smartest things he’s done!) Daniel says that being your roommate while you were working on your PhD were the best 10 years of his life, or at least it seemed that long. It was cool for him to have a rocket scientist of a roommate, but felt gypped when it turned out you didn’t build or explode rockets! Not everyone feels gypped though; Celia’s favorite thing to day is… “I have a friend who is a rocket scientist (pause), no really.” Dan considers himself an intelligent person, but he is no rocket scientist. Paul’s career is like having a fused rock, paper, scissors; his career trumps all. And of course, “There's no one in this family that I am more proud of and impressed with his accomplishments other then Paul” Paulie-poo-poo!

Being the rocket scientist in the family is not always to cool position- when Paul cannot figure out how to work something it is inevitable always brought up that he is… A ROCKET SCIENTIST! And of course if he locks the keys in the house… someone will whisper, you know, he has a PhD!

People know us as the nerds. My aunt Marie even calls us the flock of nerds! We all “swoop in (like a flock of birds), open up the laptop computers and begin communicating through the Internet. Want to see family pictures? Here you are, plenty of files of jpegs. Want to check on the Launch, we'll just check with NASA. Need plane tickets, just log on....When it is time to leave, the same in reverse, make the plans online, pack up the computer and off you go, some people forgetting the obligatory hugs.”

Outside of being a rocket scientist, he also has an amazing array of interests. Rob doesn’t even know anyone else who is fascinated with heavy metal, ultra gory horror movies, and violent video games. Daniel thinks Paul’s saving grace was his interest in SCUBA (and his new roommate- me.)

As it is, he has aged like fine wine.

Despite his need to come into a room and shut the windows and blinds, to leave the toilet seat up, to drop his shoes in the middle of a walkway, ignore the 3 feet of garbage instead of taking it out, Paul has been a rock in my life that I can't imagine being without- he is my Paul-quest, my inspiration and encouragement, my animal-lover conscience, and un-equivocally, my best friend- the one I want to tell about my day, text with funny things I hear or see, wait in line at Disneyland with, try new foods and travels with, and the person I could just sit around the house and hang out with.

A toast, roast, and prost to Paul- may you have many more fantastic birthdays.

As if one Birthday isn't enough!

Well, the Moroccan place was neat. The earthquake was perfect! But Paul ordered up one more surprise... a night in Disneyland at the California Hotel. SWEET!

We left after work on January 9th (why? Because the parks are only open to about 6 PM on the weekdays, yea... no thanks!). We got down and checked into the hotel, and since I was hungry, Paul scouted out some restaurants and half mentioned the steak house because it is after all, my birthday surprise, not his. But it sounded like a great idea. So we changed into nice clothes, then bundled up to walk through Downtown Disney to the Disneyland Hotel and the Steakhouse 55. It was blowing wind like crazy! And it wasn't the warmest feeling wind either.

The Disneyland Hotel is this funny 70's style hotel that looks dated from the outside, but has fun, fantastic decorations and style on the inside. We got seated right away with our call ahead seating (go Paul!) and we ordered family style food and some steak. Wow, I was so full! Here is a picture of our expensive bread (LOL):



We hurried back to the room to change, and dashed off to Disneyland. Now it was my birthday and everything so I HAD to decide what we were going to ride (but I got vetoed on Its a Small World). We went by Space Mountain but it had a 60 minute wait; it turned out to be good that we skipped that because when we passed by later, it was broken. We beelined for Finding Nemo, stood in line for a while, and then got smooshed onto a submarine with a bunch of wiggly kids. But the ride was worth it (mental note- next time the parents come, they have to see that ride too). Since SM was down, we ran all the way across the park to Indiana Jones and stood in the LONG line. It was an hour before close and I wasn't sure we would make it on, but we made it and were the last CAR! Funny though, the Harrison Ford at the end was broken, so he was talking, but not moving. It was better than the time that I went on it after work and got stuck in the dark tunnel.

So that was some good birthday luck!

The next morning we got up and went to California adventure. We didn't have quite as much luck there... we got in line for Toy Story Mania (all the rides my folks missed on their trip! Obviously 8 hours is NOT enough time to see two parks). But while we were in line, the ride broke. We had even gotten our glasses! So we walked over to Screaming, but our fast passes weren't good for another 10 minutes, so we got in line. We waited through the line once and then went back and rode it again with our fast passes!

We also stopped by Monsters Inc (mainly because Paul had gotten me some scrap booking stickers with those characters on it, so I needed to ride the ride so I could use them, duh!) It was a really well done little ride.

For a grand finale, we rode Tower of Terror. I might have left hand prints on Paul's leg. That ride scares the BUGGERS out of me!

We called it a day after picking up some carrots and ranch dressing in a Mickey ear shape.

Thanks a million Paul!

Have an Earth-shakin' Birthday!

Yep, you better believe it... the Earth shook on my birthday!

Paul took me out to a Moroccan restaurant we had been wanting to try near Studio City, called Marekesh. We decided to dress in pants because Paul read some reviews that said it was difficult to navigate on the poofs with a short skirt. It turned out to be manageable; the tables were low along with the seats, but they were booth like seats, so it wasn't a problem.

We had just ordered drinks when Paul grabbed me and said, hang on... then I knew what was coming... an earthquake! We rocked back and forth like a lifeboat adrift in a sea. It was over in a few swells, and I peered around the restaurant to see that NO ONE had noticed! I obviously needed to be drinking what they were!

I am actually amazed we felt the quake since it was out in San Bernadino:
see the USGS site for more info. It was a 4.5 magnitude and 9 miles deep.

Paul and I ("the flock of nerds") were immediately on our iPhones looking up the USGS site to see what happened.

My birthday was a lot of fun, earthquake and all. Too bad my parents missed being in an Earthquake by a mere few days!