...and sometimes kitty loves me, too.

Welcome to our future home... we hope!

We have been shopping for a home in San Diego for the past 2 years, but more seriously, during this year....

We think we may have found our perfect house! And here is a drawing of it:
And here is Dave standing in the doorframe, inviting you to our *hopefully* future humble abode:
Our home is part of a neighborhood, Garden Walk, which is part of a new community 4S Ranch out in Rancho Bernardo (northeast of San Diego). Here is a map of the Garden Walk area:


Our favorite lot is #10. I think the address is ---------------. Aw, how pretty, eh? The location is perfect--at the end of a dead end, flanked by only 1 house, and facing a park. Also, the house faces NE (i think?) and we figured out the house and yard would get plenty of sunshine (especially since there is no other house to block the sun on one side). Unfortunately, the exterior is not my favorite (you'll see below), but besides all the other pros listed earlier, it is also my most favorite floorplan, called Zinnia, as shown below:

We plan on having a bedroom on the first floor and a loft on the second.

Our house will look a little like this one, a Zinnia with a different exterior, but located in the same spot on a parallel street (probably White or Yellow Rose Lane):

Our exterior will look more like this (house with the balcony. Yeah, I know, it looks like a farmhouse. I actually HATED it the first time I saw it, but it's starting to grow on me. Besides, how cool will it be to have the second floor balcony?! I also think it looks a lot better when there are lots of plants on the front lawn.):

But with this color scheme:

Here are pictures of the house taken over this past weekend:

From back to front--

The teeny tiny backyard (which Dave dreams to put a Swim Spa in someday, which will probably take up the entire yard):

The kitchen/dining room area:

The living room:

The front door with future stairway:

Front bedroom:

Views from the front door:

To explain the process of buying a home in the neigborhood, I need to let you know that this house isn't ours...yet. The houses in this neighborhood get released in phases, usually around 6-10 per month. People gather, their names get called, and they say which house they want to buy. There is a waitlist and the longer you've been on the list, the higher priority you get. Also, if you show up to other releases (even if you're not buying), it will boost you up on the priority list. Hopefully, Dave and I are pretty high up, so keep your fingers crossed! We will get the chance to purchase our dream house in 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS!! Ah, so scary!!

IF we do buy the house, we will get the chance to choose floorings, countertops, cabinetry, and all sorts of stuff. Scary to think of how many decisions we'll be making...

All we know so far is that we would like the cabinets and countertops in the kitchen to look like this:



The builders are shooting for a November/December move-in date, so once I get out there, Friends, come visit! Just warning you, the house will be very sparse with furniture for a long long time, so sleeping bags may be a necessity...

Doors of New York, Part II

Dave in New York!

As you well know, Dave came back to the East Coast for a week to go to Irene's wedding and spend some quality time with me. It unintentionally coincided with my boss's (boss' ?? What's the right spelling??) vacation which meant half days for me! Whoo-hoo!

(Notice the extra large smile on my face)
Besides that, the timing wasn't the greatest. Dave had spent a week of 90+ weather in California before coming and bringing that weather with him. His vacation was a week of unbearable heat and constant sweat... but we managed to have a wonderful time spending time together and going to some of our favorite spots in New York...

Okay, to be honest, that meant watching a lot of movies. But who can beat spending $6 to watch the IMAX 3D version of Superman in a nice air-conditioned building?!

One of our all time favorite spots is TRU! Yeah, we're both old, but still kids at heart. AND I noticed that I never took all the touristy shots of the Times Square Toys R Us, so here we go:



But we really spend most of our time strolling/running/rollerblading in Central Park. That's just what we do, walking to and fro through the Park.... Over to the West Side... Down to Columbus Circle... Back to the UES through the Park...Through Sheeps Meadow... Through the Great Lawn... It's what we do... Too bad we didn't have enough time to go to the Zoo, to walk past the sail boats and the hawk-watching site, and past the row boat area... In all honestly, it was just toooooo HOT! (In the future, we're going to plan all our New York trips in the Spring or Fall. Summer is too sweltering uncomfortable, and I can gladly say good-bye to Northeast winters.)


But Dave still managed to go for a run on a 90 degree day at 3 in the afternoon. Crazy man.


Some pictures while roaming one night in Midtown:
A view of Times Square from a distance and an almost full moon!


Some cool shots near the new Apple Store (near FAO Schwartz) that I didn't know existed:



And Dave got a chance to finally meet some of my work friends (Heather, Andy and wifey Patti)!
An evening at Cafe con Leche, one of our favorite eats...
Squinting and enjoying good drinks (mmmmm....mojito.....)


Uh, Dave trying to suck my brains out with his superpowers?


How come every time I go to this place with a big group, it's Mexican Night???
(this also happened with my birthday dinner last year)
Free tequila shots!!! Sweet!


The Duke alums + people that say "you guyses"


Dave's ex-coworker from Scripps, Christian and his sister-in-law. Poor guy. He was originally from Westchester, but found his niche in Southern California. I mean, check out that tan. He's totally the surfer/rock-climbing/outdoorsy type. But now, he had to leave San Diego for New York for 3 years. Man, I feel for him. Note to all friends: Once you move to the West Coast, DON'T come back!!!!


Heather being Heather... One of my favorite moments of the evening was Dave getting a Heather "Shut up!". He's truly an honorary member of the Diaz Lab.


And I probably should have taken pictures of all the FOOD we consumed during that time. For the sake of memories, I'm going to list all the places and some of the food we covered in 5 days:
Sammy's Pastrami Sandwich (not as good as it used to be)
Cubana Torta from El Paso
My favorite Chicken Salad Sandwich from the local Deli
Flushing! Taiwanese place (bamboo and pork, beef and jalapenos, fish, spinach and liver soup) and mung bean slushy (or watermelon slushy for Dave) from the Flushing mall. Yum!
Spaghetti and meatballs (so easy to find and so good in NYC)
Cafe con Leche
Dakshin lunch buffet
Whole Foods for lunch
Veniero's for pastries
Pio Pio matador combo! (peruvian chicken, maduros, avocado salad, rice and beans, and salchipaps (sausages and fries - most yummy-licious))

and that's not including the 9 course banquet we had at Irene's rehearsal dinner, her wedding lunch, my mom's surf and turf (lobster and steak), and Sorrento's pizza in CT.

oh, my stomach is so spoiled....

although i'm looking forward to some fried oysters in San Diego!!!

Braving the rapids...

On July 30, 2006, Eva Heintzelman (my college roommate), Dave, and I drove to Cornwall, CT, to kayak the Housatonic River. We drove through sections of Connecticut that I didn't realize existed... through old historic-looking colonial towns and a Fair in Goshen, CT. Yeah, one of those small hick town fairs where you git a blue ribbon fer havin' the purtiest cow at the fair... It was an interesting drive.

We ended up kayaking through 10 miles of the river (oh, my aching shoulders!) with some rapids making life interesting (Dave totally flipped over after trying something fairly technical in the first few hundred yards)...

It was beautiful, HOT, and dang, we were lucky we didn't get caught in any lightning-filled thunderstorms!

Some pictures to follow once I scan them in (sorry, i'm getting lazy with that these days)...

We ended the day going back to West Hartford and hitching a ride with Eva to New Haven. Ate at Sorrento's in Hamden, home of my most favorite thin-crust Spinach, Sausage, and Anchovy pizza. Oh, it was like heaven.... And we discovered that Eva's new apartment in NH gets a free gospel concert every Sunday for about 5 hours. Hee...

And then back to New York where Dave will get imprisoned in my 100 square foot room...

Best buds and hubs...

Oy, I forgot to post this picture!!!!
Best friends with our spouses....



Note to readers: We have been friends for ~17 years!!! We met in 7th grade... Dang, that's a loooong time....

Getting ready for the wedding....

The previous post ran out of space for pictures. So here's the prequel to it...

Dave came over from San Diego on 7.28.06 in order to go to the wedding of my best friend from high school. Poor guy. He took a red-eye flight, got stuck in the middle seat of a FULL flight, and didn't get a wink of sleep. He came into NYC at 5:30am, and arrived in my teeny tiny dorm room at 7am. Slept a couple hours before getting whisked off by me to head over to CT. We got to West Hartford about an hour before we had to leave for rehearsal. Hurried up and got dressed and check this out, he still looks good:



So, Irene Oi-ling Wong is finally getting hitched! Here's one of the last pictures of me and my best buds from high school: Sureka Malempati (nee Bollepalli), Irene when she was still the Wonger, and me. This was taken during rehearsal at Wickham Park the night before the wedding and it was POURING outside!!!!


Pictures from the following morning (7.29.06 Wedding Day!!!) as we get ready in Irene's hotel room:


I take back my previous comment. THIS is the last picture of us with Irene Oi-ling Wong...


and then off we go to Wickham Park! (South Windsor, CT)