Yesterday evening I finally met Dave’s dad. He currently lives in Georgia, which is the reason I had not seen him before. However, he was in LA for a trade show, so he called Dave up unexpectedly yesterday morning to tell him he’d be “nearby” and that we should meet him for dinner.

While 90 miles is a long way to go just for dinner, considering his normal location, it’s much closer and cheaper to make the journey. Unfortunately, yesterday was quite rainy, and what should have been an hour and a half journey turned in to a 2 1/2 hour one. The rain seemed to follow us the whole way, letting up for a tiny bit here and there, but for the most part coming down quite heavy. Traffic was slowed due to the poor visibility and wet conditions, but it’s amazing we didn’t see any horrible accidents.

We ate at a Mexican restaurant that wasn’t too far from where Dave’s dad was staying, and it was a good choice because there were several Jen-friendly menu selections. From the moment Dave’s dad got in the car, to the moment we dropped him off, it was pretty much non-stop talking, which was pretty amusing. Apparently he’s not always QUITE like that, but I imagine it was probably a combination of seeing both his sons (Dave’s brother came up from Orange County as well) for the first time in awhile along with meeting me for the first time.

At any rate, it was a nice evening, and the dad seemed quite nice. The only downside was that we were basically in LA for about an hour and a half, and then we dropped the brother and dad off and headed back to SB, getting home a little after midnight. On the good side, it didn’t take nearly as long to get back home, but it was still a lot of driving for such a short time in one place. Still, it’s nice to have finally met all the main family members now.

Posted at 1:23 PM | (0)

Last night we celebrated a friend’s birthday by attending a game night. For awhile everyone arrived and had some drinks and snacks, and then the Pictionary was brought out.

This may not have been the best game given the number of people. When it was an “All Play”, there were just too many people shouting at once, making it very loud and almost impossible to hear when someone gave the correct answer. After that game was done, we switched to Taboo, which was not nearly as bad, since only half the people in attendance are playing at any given time.

Regardless, it was a fun, low-key sort of birthday celebration, and probably less stressful than those that involve having to meet up with a group as they hit up various locations downtown.

Posted at 1:19 PM | (0)

Yesterday was my cousin’s bridal shower, which was the main reason I was visiting the family this weekend. There wound up being a pretty decent number of people, and quite a few of her coworkers even came out.

We played a few games, and I didn’t win any of them—although I did get the next best in them (which alas did not lead to receiving a prize). I did, however, win the live floral centerpiece (calla lilies) so that was cool.

My cousin got some good gifts, and it seemed as though most people stuck to purchasing items from the registry, so she’ll get a good amount of things that she wanted. About this time next month I’ll be home again for the actual wedding.

Posted at 1:16 PM | (0)

This weekend Dave and I are down in Whittier. We are here because my cousin is having a bridal shower (she is getting married next month). Because my mom gets cheap tickets to Universal Studios through her work, we decided to go yesterday because we haven’t been in ages (and Dave has never been at all).

We knew the day was supposed to have some rain, so we made sure to do the tram tour first thing, so we wouldn’t get wet. We then saw a few other things before Dave and my parents decided to do the Jurassic Park ride. I skipped it, because it’s like Splash Mountain and I don’t like large drops. It’s a good thing too, because while they were on the ride, it started POURING! When they came down the drop at the end, they were all soaking wet! Even worse, it had started to HAIL. The hail was quite large, and when they emerged from the ride, they were totally covered in bits of ice. I haven’t seen it rain like that in a LONG time!

After that, we went to the indoor location where they were serving complimentary coffee and hot chocolate to warm up a bit. We then hit up a few final attractions (including the House of Horrors where people in costume jump out at you to scare you. They totally zeroed in on my mom and this lady ahead of us—scaring them the most! I was glad to be in the middle of them, which meant less chance of being completely startled!)

After our day at the park, we showered and changed and went to visit my sister at work. After dinner, we went to go see Shutter Island, which thankfully was indeed more psychological and not really as scary as the trailers made it look.

All in all, a pretty full day! As for today…in a little bit, my mom, sister, and I are heading to the bridal shower.

Posted at 12:40 PM | (0)

It’s been awhile, but we finally hosted another small movie night at our place. Kristen brought over Whip It, which she had rented, and we all ate snacks and watched the movie. It was cute, and we had all been wanting to see it.

Another bonus of the gathering was that it allowed the remainder of my chocolate bars to be consumed, since the note on the recipe made it sound like they didn’t stay good for more than a day or two. They still tasted fine, but maybe the consistency turns weird after a few days or something. At any rate, that just means it was good that people were able to enjoy them and that none of it went to waste!

Posted at 1:37 PM | (0)