More to do and see!!

On Friday morning, Heather and I got up pretty early, picked up some coffee, picked up Elaine (my Irvine carpool friend), and headed back down to Long Beach. The morning workshop was only 3 hours but felt like an eternity. I was just itching to go back to the expo. They were giving away lots of cool stuff including tools and gadgets that I can actually use at work with my kids. After lunch at Islands, we had one more course to attend and a little more shopping to do. Whew! By the end of the day, we were all pooped out and ready to go home. It’s too bad that we were too tired to go to Zoe’s annual tequila party that night. I’m sure it would have been fun, as usual. Once we got home, Jes was pretty hungry and grumpy from being at home all day without a car. We walked to the sushi restaurant across the street for some sushi and beer. The weather was warm and pleasant and it was so much fun catching up with Heather. Tomorrow, we’re ditching the conference and driving down to San Diego to visit Dahlia. Can’t wait!

So much to do and see!

On Thursday, I met up with old friends (former co-workers and classmates) and attended some interesting workshops. It was so nice to see Brooke, who moved to Boston in September. I also saw Kristin, who I hadn’t seen since we graduated from OT school, along with her 6-month-old baby boy. The workshops were educational but long. The expo was HUGE and I didn’t get to see much since I was too busy chatting with old friends the whole time. After the conference, Brooke and I met up with the new camp crew at PTN for an overdue Camp meeting. Tonight at 10:45, I have to pick up Heather at the airport. I can’t wait to see her!! She’ll be staying with us until Sunday morning.

Back to School

Today was the first day of the AOTA Conference and it’s in Long Beach this year. It’s an annual gathering of OTs around the country for some classes, shopping, and networking. For me, it’s a time to catch up with old friends and colleagues and just happens to be in my neck of the woods this year. I sat through 6 hours of lecture today and it was kinda painful. I didn’t have any of my buddies with me so I had to actually sit there and pay attention…go figure. Whenever I attend these things, I get all inspired to be a better therapist…then it fades by the time I get home. Tomorrow is when the real fun begins. Friends are flying in from Boston, Virginia, and Oregon tonight and tomorrow. Yippee! The best part of all this is that I don’t have to go to work for the rest of the week…sweeeet.
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By the way, tonight’s dinner at The Hat was great. They have yummy pastrami sandwiches and a mountain of chili cheese fries that could be shared by a family of 6. Jes and I had it for the first time in Monterey Park but we recently discovered that there was one just around the corner from us! Haha. It’s a good thing we made that beef resolution.

No gas station, please.

We have a shopping center in our neighborhood that opened just last year. It started out with the standard grocery store, pharmacy, and dry cleaners. They later added little restaurants, the Starbuck on the corner, of course, and even a boutique pet store. Now they are proposing to build an ARCO/AM PM gas station/convenience store/car wash. Well, there are several neighbors who have roped us (mostly Jes) into joining their opposition to the project. They are worried about the light/air pollution, transients in the neighborhood, unnecessary traffic, and declining home values. Since he’s had a lot of time on his hands, Jes has been writing letters to the City Council, he’s been attending the informational meetings, and now we have a Yahoo Groups site. To kick it up a notch, this afternoon we walked around the neighborhood stuffing flyers into people’s doors! I’m curious to see the turnout at next week’s City Planning Commission Meeting. Click here to check out the group site.

How sad! Heh…kinda funny too.

With Spring in full force, we have bunnies all over the place! Everytime we take Koa for a walk, there’s a bunny hanging out on the sidewalk or sunning on the lawn. Koa has a great time chasing them but luckily for them we have him on a leash. Unfortunately, they’ve activated their special bunny multiplying power in some other neighborhoods where residents are threatening to shoot them with BB guns.
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Yesterday, Jes sent me the link to this set of cartoons. They’re really sad but made me laugh anyways. All I could say to myself was, “why does Mr. Bunny want to die so bad?!” Check it out here.

Happy Mother’s Day!

We had a family-filled day to celebrate Mother’s Day. First was lunch at The Arches Restaurant in Newport Beach with my mom and the rest of the family. We had some yummy, yet pricey, stone crab and Jes finally found his tableside Caesar Salad.
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After an afternoon nap, Jes and I took his mom to dinner at Arte Cafe in Cerritos. They had a decent lobster bisque and his mom enjoyed the catfish. The nicest thing about today was just being with family. We hadn’t seen either set of parents for a few weeks and they were all happy to see us.