A new look

We decided it was time to update the look of our apartment since we'll be staying here for at least a few more years. Little did we know that painting takes forever...especially when you've never done it before and don't have a clue what you're doing. We thought we were embarking on a 1 day project, but it quickly turned into 4 days of work, 3 trips to Home Depot, 1 trip to a paint store, and 1 trip to a hardware store. We are definitely pleased with how it turned out and everyone who's seen it says that it looks so "homey". Check it out!

Our accent wall in the dining room is an eggplant color. We love it! The far wall is kind of a khaki color.


The wall on the left and the far wall are the same khaki color. The wall on the right is a pale yellow (a little lighter than I would've liked). It's hard to see the difference with our very poor lighting. Better lighting is next on our home improvement list!

We painted 2 walls in the bedroom the same khaki from the main room. Then we decided to be really bold and paint a red stripe at the top of one wall. We really like how it turned out! We also love the new curtain scarf we found for REALLY cheap at Target. It makes the big ugly window a little less ugly.

Again, it's difficult to see the difference in color, but the living room wall on the left is yellow, then the eggplant wall, then the khaki wall with brown curtains.

We're so glad it's all done!

Los Cabos Vacation II

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Hey all! We're back from a beautiful week in Los Cabos, Mexico. When we arrived, there were hardly even any signs that a tropical storm had been there the day before. The weather was sunshine (very hot sunshine) and blue skies the whole week. Highlights from the trip include: eating lots of seafood (salmon, mahi mahi, tuna, shrimp, scallops, eel, octopus, squid...), sitting by the pool with our drinks and our novels, sitting on our balcony with our robes and our coffee in the morning, karaoke night, and taking a glass-bottom boat trip out to the "arch" (the Cabo landmark at the division between the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean). To cap it all off, we got up to watch a beautiful sunrise on our last morning there. Below is a little slideshow chronicle of all of that! Enjoy!

Los Cabos Vacation

We made it!

We realize it's kind of silly to do a blog post when we're on vacation, but we bought a block of time on the internet to make sure our return transportation was in place, so we thought we would update the blog after the previous suspense. So, we made it! We're here and we're loving it and we're staying an extra day to make up for the lost day. See you all later!

We're still here

Tropical Storm Julio is messing everything up for us. We were supposed to leave for Los Cabos, Mexico today. We stood in line for 2 hours at the airport only to be told our flight was canceled and we could not fly out until tomorrow afternoon! The storm landed in Cabo at about the same time we were supposed to! We are so sad. We'll try again tomorrow.

Sushi in Old Town

Before last Friday, I (Noel) was not a big fan of sushi. That changed when we walked to a new restaurant in Old Town Pasadena called East. Quality. Not only did it make for a great send-off dinner with our friends Dani and Michelle, who are moving back to Hawaii this week, but it also makes Heidi very happy that I will no longer scrunch up my nose every time she mentions going out for sushi in the future. We'll definitely be back.

On the left is the Vegas roll and on the right is the spicy yellow-fin tuna roll. Both excellent. But my favorite was the spicy scallop roll. Do you like sushi? Vote in the poll on the right!

Niagara Falls

I had the opportunity to attend a conference for work this past week in Niagara Falls, NY. The conference was well worth it and the location was beautiful! I had been to the falls as a kid, but think I have a much bigger appreciation for them now. I arrived a day early and had lots of time to see the falls before the conference started.

This picture is taken on the bridge that crosses from NY to Canada. I didn't cross all the way into Canada the first day, but did a few days later. The falls on the left are the American Falls and the falls straight ahead are the Horseshoe Falls. You can also see the "Maid of the Mist" boats in the water below.

I went on "Maid of the Mist" on Sunday afternoon. I managed to stay mostly dry, but when the wind blew up my poncho, the bottom half of my pants got soaked. It was a great time!

This is a picture of the American Falls taken from Canada. Check out the rainbow! The Canadian side definitely has a better view and I'm so glad I walked over to get some pictures. The weirdest thing about going back to the US is that you have to pay 50 cents. I'm not exactly sure what the point of that is.

All in all, it was a great trip, but I'm definitely glad to be home. The only bad thing is that I missed the LA earthquake!