DIY Gift Bags

I had a little time on my hands on Saturday night at work, so I wrote up a little tutorial on my other, other blog on how to make them. Check it out here!

Friday

Yesterday I had the day off and while I was sitting home wondering where Scoop and I should go for our walk, Chris called and asked me to bring him something to the softball field at UNR. So, Scoop and I headed into town and as I was trying to decide to take her downtown to the river or on trails behind Patagonia where we'd been before, I looked up and saw the "N," where I've never hiked before and decided that was the place.

It's a pretty nice walk until you get close to the end and then it's pretty steep. There was a gaggle of high school students on the trail and one girl told me as we passed her that it was too steep and she only made it halfway and then turned around. I'm not gonna lie, as out of shape as I am, it felt good to know I fared better than a 16-year-old.

It was pretty cool to look down over Reno once we reached the N.
Later in the afternoon, I met Na downtown. It was her birthday, so before we met everyone for dinner we decided to check out an art installation called Duel Nature. It was pretty cool, and one of my co-workers even convinced us to hoop while we were there.
Finally, we met up at Ichiban's for Na's birthday dinner with Erin, Julie, Ray and Chun.
It was a pretty enjoyable Friday, and I will be making up for it by working tonight. Hope you all have a great weekend!

School's out for summer

My last day of school for the semester was on Wednesday, and it's been pretty busy around here since then. After Chris took me out for a celebratory meal Wednesday night, I went with him to watch his basketball game for the first time in forever. He was teasing me for playing with my phone during the game, but he doesn't know I was taking his picture - he made this three-point shot, and his team won.

Friday I made a stop at a party for my school boss, who earned her Ph.D. this semester (Congrats Dr. D!) and then continued to a party for a co-worker who is moving to Las Vegas for school. On Saturday, while Chris was at work, I met his cousin Brad and girlfriend Linda who just moved to downtown Reno and the three of us went on the Wine Walk, where we were joined by some of their friends.
After the walk, we went back to their apartment, where Chris joined us after he finished working, and then we walked down to the Aces game for a while. We haven't had much time to hang out with Brad and Linda since they moved to Reno, and we had a great time with them on Saturday.
On Sunday, when Chris went to work, Scoop and I went for a little hike. She has lots of fun being off the leash, and we saw a quail, a lizard and lots of pretty flowers while we were out.
Later, we went to a barbecue at our friend Chris' house, and Chris joined us when he got off work.
It was nice to have an eventful weekend that I didn't have to feel guilty about because I wasn't doing homework! Now that school is out I'll be spending more time on my internship (about three days a week), continue working my 12 hours a week at the paper, and preparing for a busy summer (showers, weddings, visitors) and training for climbing Mt. Fuji with Michelle and Andrea in July (more on that later). I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Mother's Day

This weekend, we were lucky to have my Mom come and spend Mother's Day with us. She came on Saturday afternoon, and the three of us went out for a delicious Mexican dinner.

On Sunday, Mom helped me plant a little garden - tomatoes, peppers, and rosemary. Next year we'll hopefully have a more permanent garden spot picked out in the yard!
Mom also brought us books, yummy rocky road brownies from the candy store in Quincy and treats for Scoop. You would have thought it was daughter's day instead of Mother's Day! We're so glad she came to visit!

Scoop loves company, especially Grandma!

We wish we could have spent Sunday with all of our Moms, but we are looking forward to visits from my Dad and Deb and Chris' parents real soon. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Cinco de Baseball

On Wednesday night, I probably should have stayed home to work on my geography paper due on Monday. But who could pass up a promotion that involves baseball, Corona and a Sombrero giveaway? Not me. Chris was working at the game, so I went to the game with Tyler, who scored some free tickets from work. It was a fun time, up until about the 8th inning when the Aces, who had just gained the lead in the bottom of the 7th, totally blew it and it got really cold and so we decided that was a good time to leave.

Pretty stoked about my sombrero

Even wearing a sombrero, Tyler won't take off his flatbill

During the game, I penned what might be my favorite tweet ever. (I was glad that Chris didn't mind - he came home and told me I was funny. Also, one of the Aces media guys responded that the next time I mentioned the beat writer's eyebrows it would cost him a dollar in kangaroo court. Maybe Chris will write a blog one day about the silly games they play in the press box.)

Of course, when I got home I tried to get Scoop to pose with the hat. The picture on the left is as close as she would sit next to it. She refused to let me try to set it on her head. But when left to her own devices, she wanted to chew on it.

Hope you all enjoyed your Cinco de Mayo!

Party People

Since my "cohort" and I were all done with classes for the semester (not counting finals, of course) we decided to have a little end-of-semester get together on Sunday evening at the new casa. It was nice to hang out with (almost) everyone and relax outside of school, and Chris and I were excited to be able to host a party and use some stuff we received for our wedding that has barely seen the light of day in almost two years. I hope we'll all be able to hang out more outside of school over the summer and during our last semester.

Megan, Me, Whitney and Carlie

(Carlie and her boyfriend Chris live just down the street from us!)

Six of eight in our cohort - Megan, Me, Will, Ana, Whitney and Carlie

Since Whitney lives in Tahoe, she stayed the night and brought Snickers, too. Him and Scoop had lots of fun playing together!

Maybe next year

I tried to sign Scoop up for the Chihuahua races over the weekend. At first Auntie Mena told me it was wrong, but I convinced her that since it was for a good cause (funds raised went to SPCA) and since Scoop would dominate that it was a good idea. Once she was on board, I went online to sign Scoop up, but it was too late - sign-ups were closed. So I decided to go anyway and shoot some video. Next year, Scoop will rule the races (unless, of course, the qualifying interferes with the Derby party I also plan to throw next year!)

Here is the video:

My First Project

When I saw these "scrapboxes" in the February issue of Martha Stewart Living, I knew I wanted to make some, and I didn't want to wait until we have kids to make them. (I have an issue with patience.) Then I realized we had no pictures of Scoop printed and hanging anywhere. So after she removed all the filling from her Valentine toy, and started ingesting bits of plastic from her little newspaper, I hid them from her until we moved and I was able to make my first project in the craft room. They were super easy to make. I got shadowboxes (which came with pins) and foam board from Michael's. I already had double-sided tape. I didn't need anything else, except one piece of scrapbook paper. The plastic newspaper was just the right size that it stays in place just by closing the shadowbox.
We hung them on the wall in between the craft room and the man cave. It's nice to have some pictures up on the wall. (Although Scoop would have preferred to have her toys back, she whined as soon as she saw them.)
You can see the projects from the magazine and more here. Fun stuff.