Party Light

I finally put up a new light in the dining area today! As some of you may recall, the original fixture was a hideous wooden ceiling fan with brass accents that was not very easy on the eyes (see below). The monstrosity was not easy to take down - I had to have my friend Sara help hold it up while I dismantled it. I think the thing weighed over 50 pounds. You can imagine how happy I was to toss it in the dumpster! Finding the perfect replacement was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I found a modern looking light at IKEA but unfortunately after a lot of fiddling around, it turned out to be defective. I looked around Home Depot and Expo and still didn't find anything that I liked. Finally, I resorted to overstock.com (go figure!) and ended up purchasing a very cool looking brushed nickel chandelier with red blown glass shades. I'm proud to say that I put it up all by myself! My arms are a little sore from holding it up, but I think I did a pretty good job...it hasn't come crashing down yet! The new light adds to the ambiance - it's brings a little more of a party/romantic mood to the place. Yep, just what I needed.










Party mode:

Fun in Phoenix

Jennifer, Sharmin and I partied it up this weekend! Jennifer and I decided to run the PF Chang's Rock-n-Roll half marathon in Phoenix on Sunday, 1/15 (thanks Sharm for letting us stay with you!). It was a blast! I flew in on Thursday, picked up Jennifer on Friday and chilled with Sharm. We went to a spa, did some shopping, and had some drinks at Bar Smith-Welch. :) Sharmin wasn't really drinking in the picture above, she was just mixing drinks for us!
This morning, we woke up at 6am to get ready to leave for the run. We got to the finish area at the ASU stadium where we were supposed to catch a shuttle to the start area which was 30 minutes away. The half marathon started at 8:30 and the last shuttle was scheduled to leave at 7:30. We arrived before 7am. Plenty of time right? Wrong! The line for the shuttle was wrapped around the parking lot, there must have been at least 1000 people waiting. The line was not moving at all. Everyone was wondering what the heck was going on. Finally, one of the volunteers came by and said they were doing the best they could and that traffic was causing the buses to be late. Wonderful. We finally made it to the front of the line and got on the shuttle at 8:45. We got to the start at 9:15. It was hilarious, they had started dismantling the start line. We missed out on all the elbow to elbow action which was nice, but it just wasn't the same without the crowds. It was so weird to just start running right at the start. We had to do a lot of weaving in and out of people since we didn't start with our corrale.
The run was great! It was the first time Jennifer and I ran together and we had a blast! We took a lot of pictures along the way and even got on stage with one of the bands. Even with all our goofing off we managed to finish in 2 hours and 16 minutes! I was very happy since I hardly trained and did a lot of drinking prior to the run. :) Gotta carbo-load right? Jennifer is getting married in August. I'm planning her bachelorette party - we are going to run the Rock-n-Roll San Diego (full 26.2)! I can't wait!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve was a blast! A small group of us went over to John and Carolyn's where I made some delicious Pomegranate Martinis (recipe below, courtesy of Oprah and Rachael Ray). Then we walked to downtown Mountain View to see what kind of celebrations were going on. We ended up at St. Stephen's Green where the bouncer was nice enough to let me in without an ID (I was dumb and accidentally left it at home). We drank and danced the night away - yes, even Jeff and John were out on the dance floor busting a move. :) Happy 2006 everyone!










Pomegranate Martinis
2 shots Absolute Citron
1 shot Cointreau
1.5 cups Pomegranate Juice
1 cup ice
squeeze of lemon
splash of sparkling water (optional)
serves 2

Kid (&) Rock

I had a chance to see my good friends Sharmin and Jennifer from college when I was up in Oregon for Christmas. Sharmy lives in Phoenix with her husband Chad..they're expecting their first baby (a little girl) in May! Jennifer had a nice surprise for us upon our arrival at the airport...a big, beautiful, fat rock on her left ring finger! She and Wayne (the luckiest guy ever) had just gotten engaged! I am so happy for the both of them! I can't wait to become Auntie Karen and party it up at the wedding celebration!

Holiday Housewarming Party

We put a little housewarming twist on our annual Holiday Party this year! The housewarming part was quite belated since we moved in over six months ago. I was happy to finally invite people over to check out the new place. We celebrated with lots of wine and holiday goodies. It was great seeing everyone!