Happenings

Things have been busy over in the Hall household. Spring is almost over and summer is fast approaching! Here’s what we've been up to over the last several weeks:

-St Paddy's Day: we celebrated in style, as usual. Our annual tradition of taking the entire day off to really "celebrate" was slightly different this year. We finally got smarter and decided to only take 1/2 of St. P's day off, and then the whole day after. We made our way to the bar just after noon. There was quite a group of us this year (our wise idea of taking the day off has started to spread). Even my FIL joined the fun, and later, my dad made an appearance. It was definitely a fun day! Now the countdown to next year's festivities begins again…





-Mountain Bike Riding: you may remember my last attempt at mountain bike riding. Well, once I was all healed up, we decided to try it again, this time sans clip in shoes. We met some friends at the Fullerton Loop and set off on our 12 mile bike ride. It was soo much fun, and we all escaped without major injury. I can't wait to go back.

-Weddings, Weddings, Weddings: although this year can't possibly compete with last year in terms of how many weddings and wedding related events we went to, wedding season 2011 has definitely begun. My dear friend Ashlee is getting hitched in July, so we have been showering and in two weeks, I will be laying on a lounge chair in Palm Springs for her bachelorette weekend. It can't get here soon enough. While on the subject of weddings, how can I not mention the Royal Wedding Party that we hosted in honor off the new Mr and Mrs?! My mom did a fab job of preparing all sorts of traditional British goodies. We munched on scones, empire biscuits (thank you grandma!), tea sandwiches, sausage rolls, and much more. Oh, and we enjoyed a cocktail or two as well. Loved everything about the royal wedding-especially the hats. And thanks to Miss Ashlee, we sported our own lovely hats.

-Pet News: it's always something with our pets. Over the last few weeks, one of our cats managed to tear all of the paw pads on his rear legs, catch his tail on fire, and eat copious amounts of Easter grass…clearly we aren't ready to be parents just yet! Our other cat managed to gain the attention of the neighborhood ally cat, who likes to scale our balcony and taunt our cat in the middle of the night. The latest trend is that this ally cat, who I've named Thomas, now comes and marks his territory on our balcony by spraying piss everywhere. I love animals, but I can only take so much!
This pic really has nothing to do with anything I mentioned, but in addition to all of our other pet expenses, I think we are going to have a diabetic cat on our hands...Ringo now tips the scale at 21 lbs. He is on diet food, but I think he secretly breaks into our pantry and binge eats at night. It's really the only explanation I can come up with...

-Coming Up: we have a quieter summer than years past. No big trips planned, but we are both looking forward to the upcoming bachelor/bachelorette weekends for Ash and Joe. John and his lil brother David will be skipping out to Boston for a boys weekend. I find that I am simultaneously bitter that I won't be going, and relieved that I won't have to deal with the antics that are sure to transpire when those two are set loose in beantown for the weekend. We are also planning a friend-cation with our awesome pals. We will be going to Cabo for a few days in Sep and I can.not.wait! It's been 3 years since our last real vacation with friends, and that is too long! We also have our big 1 year anniversary in July. I can't believe how fast it's gone. It really feels like we were just bbq'ing and celebrating with all my Scottish family, counting down to the big day. We haven't decided how we are going to spend our anniversary weekend yet, but whatever we come up with will be something worth looking forward to. Also, John will finally get to dig into the cake top that has been in our freezer since last July. There have been many nights where he's come home after a "long" night, and wanted to devour it, so in just a few short months he can finally enjoy it.

Well, that about does it for now. I'll try to update more regularly from here on out ; )