Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams....

Malibu makes me think of none other than Robin Leach and his Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It is just that gorgeous. We headed down south in early April for Vanessa's graduation from Pepperdine Business School. Although Pepperdine is smack dab in the middle of Malibu, we slummed it Friday night in West Hollywood. Celebrating Vanessa's new Brazilian heritage, we had dinner at this incredible place I will never remember the name of. It was as traditional as you can get in LA, with waiters walking around non-stop trying to get you to eat their delicious cuts of meat. It was a vegetarian's worst nightmare and I can't wait until we get to go again.

Here is Vanessa with her 'rents:


And a terrible picture of what was the glory that was that meat!

Saturday was the actual graduation, and although very warm, it was a fun family event and a great way to recognize Vanessa's 2 long years of very hard work.




She was hard to spot in the crowd, but I found her name in the program!

After the ceremony we got a tour of the Pepperdine campus. Seriously, who could study in a place this beautiful? I couldn't get over all of the gorgeous views.



We headed to the beach in Malibu for lunch--a place where the calamari is served in giant martini glasses has to be good....

And then we got to walk on the beach....


The next morning, BVZ and I went to the famous Canter's deli for breakfast. I had the pancakes, and BVZ had a pastrami sandwich. At 8:00 am. I also ordered a 'side' of watermelon, and this is what was served....

Awesomeness. All in all it was a fabulous weekend. I wish someone we knew graduated from paradise every week!

Making Room for Baby (and Loretta)

We love our house, but it is tiny. Our objective in the next 3 months (yikes!) is to organize and maximize our space as much as possible. The spare bedroom has now become the nursery, the office has now become the spare bedroom, and the sun room has now become the pseudo office.... You get the picture. It has been a ton of work, luckily my role has been pretty much limited to supervising while BVZ does all the heavy lifting. Baby's furniture arrived a week or so ago and even though we didn't have to put the dresser together (thank god), it did require BVZ to screw in the wooden feet on the bottom. We discovered this, of course, after it was upright and ready to go. Here you can see BVZ and his helper trying to make it right.

Speaking of his helper, I am beginning to think we are going to need the services of a pet psychiatrist (or at least the kitty whisperer), once Loretta figures out just exactly what is happening to her world very soon. She is so not going to be happy about it. Here's a recent picture of her for those who haven't seen her since she was a baby. She is scowling because I roused her from her nap to take the picture, but you can clearly see what a fatty she has become.

The rumors are true!

Baby GVZ is on the way, with an estimated arrival date of July 10, 2008! We have recently discovered baby will be made of sugar and spice and everything nice, so thought it was only appropriate we celebrate the news with some ice cream cake (that whole champagne thing being off-limits and everything....) Woohoo!

Mendocino, CA

For as long as I have lived in California, I have been dying to go to Mendocino, a coastal town about 3 hours north of San Francisco. The most universally reviled Hitchcock film (and one of my favorites), 'The Birds' takes place not too far from Mendocino and I knew it would make the perfect weekend getaway. We drove up on a Friday afternoon in November (yes, I realize it is now February and I am just now posting this) and stayed at the lovely Joshua Grindle Inn. The Inn has 9 or 10 rooms all with a different theme (no, not like 'Jungle Fantasy Room,' more like 'Harbor View').



We stayed in the Water Tower.


The room was warm and cozy and equipped with local wine, fresh baked cookies, and a wood burning stove.


Mendocino looks more like an east coast fishing village than a California coastal town, and is full of art galleries and specialty stores.

We spent the better part of Saturday morning hiking along the coast in the freezing cold and sporadic rain. We made friends with a few abalone fishermen along the way.






After lunch at a local brewery, we stopped by another state park that was totally deserted because of the rain (I left the camera in the car). It was quite beautiful, but very creepy in a we were just waiting for the horror movie villain to jump out from behind the tree kind of way. I convinced BVZ that what the rest of the rainy day really called for was a fancy dinner and playing scrabble in front of the fire, and he happily obliged.

Before heading home the next day we stopped at the botanical gardens . The gardens themselves were very interesting and quite beautiful, but it was the view from the top that was really quite spectacular. If you stay on the garden path long enough, you'll find yourself at the edge of the ocean.





It was a quick trip, but well worth the drive and a place I am sure we will frequent for years to come.

Happy Halloween!

Man, our neighborhood goes off on Halloween! We thought we were doing good by carving some pumpkins, but most houses had full on graveyards set up in the front yard and tons of awesome decorations. We will do better next year. The trick or treaters were in full force and we probably handed out over 400 pieces of candy. We did have some popular pumpkins and got lots of compliments on the kitty one from 3 year olds.
This is my creation, 'Pumpkin Loretta':

And this is BVZ's creation, "Pumpkin Avon Barksdale' (he wanted a scary pumpkin so he named it after his favorite drug dealer on his favorite show, The Wire).

A Mouse Near the House!

Loretta is an inside only cat. This really pisses her off because the next door neighbor cat, Chase, is an outdoor cat and he routinely taunts her from the other side of the sun room. We think he might be sweet on her because last week outside the sun room door we found a dead mouse. Well, parts of a dead mouse. To be exact, a mouse head and a mouse tail. But no mouse middle. We suspect that Chase brought it as a gift for Loretta. Or a mouse butchering serial killer is stalking the neighborhood. It is hard to see from here, but this is Loretta checking out her present:


and BVZ disposing of the carnage:

Bridge School Benefit 2007

We attended the annual Bridge School Benefit concert the last weekend in October. It was a great show and headlined Tom Waits, BVZ's long time favorite song writer. My boyfriend Eddie Vedder had to cancel at the last minute, but I consoled myself with the fact that neither Dave Matthews nor his band were anywhere in sight. BVZ insisted upon wearing a totally offensive t-shirt (which I believe read 'Hey Virgins, Thanks for Nothing' over my stern objections). He got the serious stink eye from the beer lady. Serves him right.

Introducing.... 'Lil Blue!

And the transformation from normal people to smug Northern Californians is now officially complete. Check out our 2008 Toyota Prius, supplying us with over 50 miles to the gallon, the lowest emissions possible, and more self-righteousness than we know what to do with.

Oktoberfest and the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

Oktoberfest is my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving is too fattening, Christmas has too much family drama, and Easter is too religious. Even Halloween requires too much advance planning (that whole costume thing), and ends up with me eating 753 miniature candy bars. But, Oktoberfest is perfect. It happens right when the seasons change and the weather is crisp, cool, and cozy. We have known about the legendary Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay for years now, but have never taken the plunge. The coastline town is a mere 15 miles from our house but it took 2 and a half (oh, yes) hours to get there. I am not sure anything is worth driving two and a half hours for 15 miles, but it was pretty spectacular. Yards of food, festivities, and giant pumpkins. We missed the pie eating contest (I so would have killed that), but ate plenty of sausage, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin soup to make up for it. All washed down with some pumpkin beer. Good times people. Good times.

Go Niners!

BVZ could possibly be considered the biggest spoiled brat ever because thanks to his mama (and her connected friend), he got hooked up with season tickets to the San Francisco 49'ers for his 33rd birthday. He was at trial in Delaware for the first game of the season, so OUR first game was Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

San Franciscans take their tailgating very seriously. We thought we were doing good with some sausages, chips and guacamole, and beers. Little did we know we were missing a generator, tent, and full roasted pig. We'll do better next week.



BVZ was most excited to get into the stadium!


The incredible view from our seats right on the 50 yard line:




The half-time show:



The game may not have been the most exciting (and the offense couldn't make a play to save their lives), but it was an excellent beginning to what promises to be a fantastic season.

The Joys of Home Ownership

The shower has been clogged up for several days now, and instead of hiring a plumber we invested in a hand-held electric snake. This is what we pulled out of the drain (the shower works great now!):