Snow!

We had our first real snow today. The view outside our window is beautiful, but you can be sure these Californians aren't leaving our warm house today!

Setting down roots

We're officially home owners! We got our keys today. After a total scramble to get the closing costs and the rest of the down payment together (they were about 2x what we thought), we made it. The real estate attorney neglected to tell us we needed a cashiers check, so even though we had most of the money in our account, we couldn't actually get the money together. Since you can't write a personal check to get a cashiers check, and I'm pretty sure we couldn't just go and withdraw tens of thousands of dollars with our ATM cards, we were stuck. We ended up having to wire the money to the attorney, it cleared this morning and she wrote all the checks we needed.

When we arrived at the office of the sellers attorney, we basically signed papers for two ours, our attorney haggled over $26 (which we got back!) and were handed keys to a house we couldn't move into because they still had to build the closets.

Visiting the motherland

Coming soon...

The termintes have won

It's the end of an era. The house on 38th Ave is down. Let the termites and slugs run free!

The Newest New Yorkers

Two days after our honeymoon we left for New York. Sadie and Zak were nice enough to store a bunch of stuff while we were in Thailand, much of my family came up to see us off and bring more stuff. We headed to the airport and filled Sadie's Prius to the brim. We had 5 large suitcases, two full carry-ons a rabbit and two "personal items." I think this must be what it's like to travel with children. Just stuff, more stuff and more stuff. Fancy D stayed in the cabin under Eric's seat. Delta is the only airline that allows rabbits in the cabin, although most will allow cats and small dogs. If you're curious, no airlines allow snakes on the plane.
After we landed, collected all the bags and tried to calm the rabbit down with an excessive amount of treats, we hopped in a cab and headed to our sublet that we were renting from a co-worker who was traveling for 3 months. Now I checked out the neighborhood online before we moved, but when we arrived, I almost told the cab driver that this couldn't be right. It was just a bit blech. Kind of dingy shops, a bunch of vacant storefronts, just generally not much. The apartment is on the first floor and we need to leave the windows open since it's so hot. This means we hear everyone's conversations on the stoop, get all their cigarette smoke and hear a lot of car radios. Everyone is really nice, though, and there always seems to be people out, which means the neighborhood probably safe, but I'm glad we're moving. Work starts next week and we're going to try to explore until then and figure out the subway.

Phuket

Finally at the beach. We stayed at an ecoresort that was kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Accommodations weren't that bad, but everything else was US prices. We were trapped. It's a good thing this resort had their own island, or we would have been bummed. On our first full day we booked a snorkeling/SCUBA trip so I could wait the required 24 hours between diving and flying. The night before, however, we got a call that the boat was broken, so we decided to spend the day on the island instead. We took a longtail boat out to the island in the morning, and there were free snorkel rentals and kayaks. The water was wonderful the day was relaxing, and we proceeded to get our first sunburns of the trip. So what do we do? We follow up with a fancy spa package with a massage and a salt scrub. Let me strongly not recommend a salt scrub when sunburned. Baaad idea.

Since we had already spent one day at the beach and it was now too late to go diving, we went on the kayaking trip (thanks Rebecca and Phillip!) we had on our honeymoon registry. We checked out of our room, stored our luggage and drove to the other side of Phuket to start our trip. At the boat dock, there were a bunch of little net-pen aquaculture operations, so I nerded out again and started asking questions about what they were growing and stuff. It's really interesting how much less squeamish people in Asia tend to be about their food. In the middle of this kind of gross harbor, there were a bunch of fish being grown that would be consumed locally and it just wasn't a big deal. Now I'm not a fan of net-pens in general, but I thought this was an interesting little operation.

So, on to the trip. After a long boat ride, we took a break at a little beach with about 7 other tour boats. Our trip was a fully guided trip, and I assumed that meant we would have a leader and Eric and I would paddle. Oh no, we didn't even get paddles. A guy sat in the back of our boat and did all the paddling and steering. Our driver in particular did all the talking too! The hongs are a series of caves and lagoons in the limestone island on the Eastern side of Phuket. When the tide is low you can paddle into a cave and come out the other end in lagoon. Unfortunately it was high tide when we were there (none of the guidebooks tell you to look at the tides when booking your trip), and we couldn't paddle into many of the caves. So what do the ocean folks do in this case? Jump in and swim. There was about 2 inches clearance between the surface of the water and the ceiling of the cave, so if we really go stuck, we could get some stale, damp air, but we didn't get stuck. Getting into the lagoon was easy. Duck under water and swim towards the light. It was clear when you had cleared the cave. The other side was beautiful. We were the only ones there the center was filled with mangroves and birds, and supposedly monkeys too, but our chatty guide started "calling" the monkeys for us, which was unsuccessful. Getting back into the cave was the tough part since we were going into dark and couldn't tell where the low tunnel ended and the more open cave began, but we made it (obviously).

We repeated this in a much longer, darker cave where we actually walked through the tunnel. Yep, this video is 2 minutes of pitch black.



Even worse, though, were the people who paddled into the cave. They had to lie on their back and cross their arms on their chests like they were in a coffin, and were pushed through the cave with the cave ceiling inches from their face. Freaky.

After the boat ride back, we drove back to the resort (right past the airport), showered up and headed to the airport to return to Bangkok and head back to SF the next morning.

Chiang Mai

Finally out of the crazy city! Chiang Mai has this kind of back packer, Santa Cruz-y vibe. There are a bunch of winding streets with little hostels and cafes. We, of course, are staying at the D2. No hostels for the honeymoon. This place is pretty plush and somehow we ended up as part of the D2 club which means we've got free internet access and a pretty nice happy hour every day. Even better, they bring us presents. We get a little treat on our bed(s) every night. So, it's beds. Plural. Apparently a double room in Asia is two queen beds, and a single room is one king. I think we can go all Rob and Laura Petri here.

Anyway, our days in Chiang Mai were action packed. After arriving with a nice case of Bangkok belly, we downed some Imodium and I had plain white rice for dinner. No more ice in drinks, even if the place looks clean. The next morning we got up and went rafting and elephant trekking. The elephant ride was kind of bizarre. We were the only ones in the group doing this excursion so the driver taking us rafting dropped us off at this elephant camp and the rest of the group headed up to the river. I was feeling pretty guilty at first about this because the elephants are chained during the day, and I had heard some bad stories about how these camps treated the elephants. This place turned out to be okay, though. The elephants lived with their mahouts at night and weren't confined (or so they say). There was a mom with a baby at the camp, and when the mom was being ridden, the baby followed behind with its trunk wrapped around her tail. Pretty cute.

So we hopped on our elephant and headed out into the jungle on a well worn path. First stop was to this guy's hut in the trees where he sold little bananas for 3 bhat a bunch to the tourists on the elephant rides. We, of course, bought a bunch and proceeded to feed our elephant way to fast and were out of bananas in about 5 minutes. Every time we pet the elephant on the head, it would reach its trunk back looking for the banana. Needless to say, I think it was kind of upset with us for running out of treats. Riding an elephant is not comfortable, at least in a palanquin on top of the animal. Maybe the mahout's seat directly on the elephant's neck would be better. They rock back and forth and when going down hill it feels like you're going to fall forward. Despite all the lumbering, they're pretty agile. These guys navigated down a narrow rocky path and I never felt like I might fall off the path, just the elephant.

So we said good bye to the elephants and headed further into the jungle to raft. The base camp for the rafting operation was amazing. A series of huts right on the river and we had an amazing Thai lunch cooked for us. With the exception of the people who were staying at the camp, Eric and I were the only ones who had rafted before. This river wasn't too difficult, mostly 3's and 4's, and seemed like the toughest river in Thailand. Only a few companies had white water rafting operations. Most of the rafting involved standing on a rickety bamboo raft while some guy older than dirt used a pole to move you down the calm parts of the river. This seemed far more dangerous than actual rafting, despite some of the questionable safety gear in Thailand.

Made it down the river unscathed, although I think we got one of the most inexperienced guides since we were the "experienced" rafters. We went down one big rapid backwards, which I don't think was part of the plan.

Day 2 in Chiang Mai was our cooking class. It was basically a half day class where we cooked about 7 courses and stuffed ourselves. We made a trip to the market and I nerded out on the live fish selection and did my best to identify species. Tilapia and some sort of catfish, probably tra, was the best I could do. We had our guide identify some pretty weird looking fruits and veggies, but a lot of them were actually pretty familiar since I've spent some time in Asian markets. Anyway, it was hot, we cooked, ate, took a nap and cooked some more. The school rotates its classes by day of the week. We made:

• Spring Roll (Pho-Pea-Thord)


• Fried Rice (Kao-Phat)


• Papaya Salad (Som-Tam)


• Yellow Curry Paste (Nam-Phrik-Kaeng-Kao-Soy)


• Chiangmai Noodle With Chicken (Kao-Soy)


• Deep-fried Banana (Kluay-Thord)

On our last full day in Chiang Mai we headed to Doi Sutep, an ancient temple up on the hill. Chiang Mai is full of temples, and has some of the oldest temples in Thailand. We went in a scary truck with benches in the back up this huge mountain in the rain. This was really the only rain we got the entire trip, and it was really nice. The mountains are substantially cooler and the drive was beautiful. We got to the top and took the elevator to the top of the peak the temple was on. We didn’t see the stairs until we headed down. It was pretty packed up there and the temple was beautiful, but it was all about the view. Chiang Mai is huge! It sprawled out for miles. On the way back down, Eric bought what he thought was a sausage on a stick, but it turned out to be even better. A whole meal on a stick! It was a sausage casing stuffed with meat, vegetables, rice and noodles. On a stick. Scary.

Oh! I almost forgot the best thing massages. I think we got three of them in Chiang Mai. An hour massage was 6 bhat, or 2 dollars. We didn't even get the cheapest ones. I made friends with one of the massage therapists, Tra (I'm sure I'm missing some subtle tones here because I don't think her name is pronounced like the catfish). She was fantastic, and did a great job, especially for someone who was about 4'10". Come to think of it, though, I don't think I'd want anyone much bigger than 4'10" standing on me. I think there's a reason Thai massage originated in Thailand. It would be waaaay less enjoyable if it were, say, large Eastern European massage or fat American massage.

On our way

We're headed to Thailand for our honeymoon. Of course, we have no intention of sitting on the beach. We've got an exciting 10 days ahead with rafting, cooking classes, kayaking and a lot more! Thank you so much to everyone who gave us these great activities for wedding gifts. We're going to have such a great time!

We tried hard to weasel our way into business class, but United Airlines would have none of it. Fortunately, Eric bought access to economy plus, so we had quite a bit more leg room than usual. Good thing since we had about 16 hours of flying time. On the flight from Tokyo to Bangkok, however, a flight attendant took pity on us and gave us a little champagne and some fancy, first class desserts, but unfortunately, not bigger seats.

We arrived in Bangkok at their beautiful new airport and were whisked to our hotel.

The main event

Luckily we've had a lot of great brides and grooms to consult with before our wedding, and we took their advice to heart.  

• Have fun
• be sure to eat
• remember, everything you can do is already done, so you might as well enjoy the day
  

We did all of these things, and the day went off without a hitch (well, except for me and Eric getting hitched).  The day was beautiful, we got reports of hawks flying over the ceremony, the food was better than we expect and we actually had to ask people to leave when our time was up because we were all dancing so much.

It was so great to see friends and family that we don't often see.  Eric had family out from Pennsylvania, I had family in from Nebraska, and we had friends fly in from Connecticut, Washington and Oregon.  We made sure to say hi to everyone after the ceremony, which was good considering we only got to about 3 tables before the food came.  

More wedding photos available here and here (there are a lot of them!)

The big day is finally here-AM

Wedding Day surf

What a better way to start a wedding day than a big group surf. Eric and I rarely surf together, and Eric NEVER longboards, so this was really a treat. Jennie (the flowergirl) had never surfed before, and we had a successful morning and Jennie stood up! Claudia, Rich and Stephanie, my usual Santa Cruz surf crowd joined us, and my East Bay surf crowd, Liz, her girlfriend, Erin (who's not part of the usual surf crowd, but gave it a go anyway) and Tracy got up really early to drive down from the East Bay to join us for some really small, classic summer Cowell's surf. What a great way to get my head in the right place for the wedding. I grabbed a quick bite to eat with Sadie and Zak after the surf and headed downtown to get my hair done.
Torture! Two hours of someone yanking at my hair and blasting me with hairspray. Good thing it looked good, or I would have been one unhappy gal. I loved my hair. It was very old Hollywood. From there it was back to the hotel to have my aunt, Lillian, do my makeup, and then up to campus at 3 for the 4 o'clock wedding start time. All this time, I've got some fantastic elves running around to set up, pick up the cake, deal with the flower deliver, getting snacks. There were some minor mishaps, like the bakery forgot to give us all the cakes we ordered and they eventually had to drop them off, and the fact that Eric, Zak and my dad were still setting up the silver cloud room at 3, but I didn't find out about this until the next day, so I wasn't worried at all!

T -1 and counting

Rehearsal day arrives. Today my worker bees and I put together all the flowers for the wedding and got our pedicures to get us ready for the big day.







Everyone was a great sport, and we got a lot done. Tomorrow will be beautiful! After rushing to finish the flowers and get our pedicures. Eric and I were off to the rehearsal. Since we both know how to walk, and we didn't have a huge bridal party, it was all about figuring out the music, and hanging out in the beautiful sunshine. Next we rushed off to the rehearsal dinner at Bocce's Cellar for a little bocce ball. After dinner when the toasts were made, Eric proceeded to spill wine all over me. What a great start!

After dinner I went back to the hotel with the girls and Eric went to his friend, Scott's house. The final countdown begins!!

The wedding craftravaganza begins!

Now that we're out of our house in Emeryville, it's all wedding, all the time. We rushed to get our marriage license, did a walk-through of the venue and got ready for the rehearsal dinner. In the mean time, Eric took charge for the craft iron and got going on the silver clouds. For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to check out the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh, the silver cloud room is an installation piece that's basically, well, a room of silver clouds.

Just in case you want to make your own silver clouds, here's how:
-buy some rolls of mylar and a craft iron
-fold a large section, we used about a 3'x5' section in half and iron all the way around, leaving a hole so you can pump them up
-rent a helium tank and fill the balloons with a mixture of air and helium until they're neutrally buoyant
-seal up the opening and turn on the fans!

Nothing much is new except...

Okay, so a lot has happened. We had our wedding, we went on our honeymoon, moved to New York and moved into our first apartment. I was inspired to catch up on the blog (is anyone even reading it anymore?) when I read the Griffith Family blog. Until I catch with with current events, I'll just pretend like I've been posting all along and catch everyone up on all that we've been up to.

It feels real!

Eric and I just got back from our good friends' wedding. Sadie and Zak have been dating as long as we have, got engaged two weeks before us and planned a wedding every step of the way with us. Sadie and I even had our dresses made by the same person. We glued each other's invitations, helped each other pick songs and to see it all come together for them so beautifully makes me realize how close we are to the wedding!
Actually, writing this is making me tear up a little bit. Moving far away from so many really good friends is going to be really hard. I'm so glad that the wedding is going to give us a chance to see so many of you before we go. 8 days and counting!

coolest.thing.ever

A friend at work just turned me onto google maps street view. Go to google maps, enter the address 388 23rd st, Brooklyn, NY (it's not our real address, but it's the one google registers for our apartment) and click street view. You can now walk along the street we will live on! The brown brick building under construction is our building, and the apartment on the 2nd floor on the right is ours! Welcome to our neighborhood!


As an aside, it doesn't look like we'll be able to move in when we arrive. Fortunately, a coworker in New York is taking a leave of absence to travel, and she's subletting her one bedroom apartment to us for a few months. It's quite a relief knowing we have a place to go!

Last Big Event before the wedding

I had my "Fresno" bridal shower last weekend with all my friends from high school, family and friends from a long time ago. The great lucky 7's theme made for some good times, including a bottle of Segram's 7 as a prize. I know it's strange, but I really loved the old lady cart. It really makes me feel like a New Yorker, thinking of hauling that thing full of groceries around town. I'm ready to load up the other stuff I got and push it around town. On an unrelated note, Katie and Alden welcomed their new family member, Violet, into the world. Check out their blog over in our links!

Our new neighborhood is getting some props

Despite the numerous debates about the name of our new neighborhood, the growth in the area continues. Read a recent article about its growth here. And then come visit (assuming we ever close and get to move in).

Condo purgatory...or is it limbo?

After some serious lawyering by our attorney (as required by the state of New York), we are on track to becoming homeowners. After some somewhat questionable requests in our contract, we finally got most of what we wanted, and were offered a fair deal. Then, I asked about closing dates. It looks like someone forgot to tell us that it was unlikely that we'll close by the time we move. There's still a chance, but I guess we never really know until the 30 day notice to close is issued. That means that we'll need month to month furnished housing for an indefinite period of time that's reasonably affordable. No problem! It's not like it's hard to find housing in New York. Ummm, yeah. The developer estimates a 5/31 closing date, so our hope is that they'll only be 2 months behind, and we'll be in at the beginning of july. We can do one week of temp housing somewhere, although we'd rather be in our new house prepping it for all of you who will be coming to visit! Keep your fingers crossed for us.

We're almost home owners!

After a rainy weekend in New York, and the disappointment of having bids rejected for two different apartments, we've finally found a place. We've chosen a new condo in Green-Wood Heights/South Park Slope/Sunset Park, people have problems defining neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It's a lot bigger than the others we looked at, has a fantastic view, and has a den/guest room for when all of you come out to visit. We hope you will, too.

Our loss

I'm sad to say, little Frenchy bunny passed away this weekend. She became very sick on Friday, and when we took her to the vet she was rushed into surgery. She made it through the surgery, but didn't make it out of the anesthesia. We'll miss her, and Fancy Dancer will miss her. RIP Frenchy.

The New Job Begins!

Two weeks at the new job. It's great being in an office with people. It's even better working right above Market Hall, and the cheese/pasta shop in particular! This could get dangerous...

Moving to New York

We're finally starting to figure out our lives, and for the next few years, those lives will be happening in New York. Eric and I both have jobs and now the house hunt begins. I'm starting to get a good feel of what 400 square feet looks like. Small.

Where we'll end up, nobody knows

Welcome to my first post, everyone! I thought with the moving, wedding, and all the other stuff, we could keep you all posted, even when we move far away (although we still don't know where that will be, yet). Eric has just returned from a set of interviews in Philly and NYU in Manhattan. Personally, I'm pulling for Manhattan, but Eric says it's a 75% chance. Whatever, I'm the statistician in the relationship. I'm totally obsessed with living in Brooklyn right now. There's a place called the Brooklyn Artists Gym where a woman named Keiko offers shoe making classes. I'm so there!