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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Domestic Day Off

Ugh, it's going to be tough to wake up and go to the office tomorrow (I haven't been at my desk since Tuesday last week...).

This morning was spent in the kitchen.  I made a batch of spinach lasagna roll-ups and heated up some dumplings.  Earlier tonight, I did 2 Fitness Blender workouts to balance it all out: "Tank Top Arms Workout - Best Upper Body Workout for Toned Arms, Shoulders & Upper Back" and "Abs, Butt and Thigh HIIT Cardio Workout - Bodyweight Cardio Interval Workout."  My abs are definitely feeling it now, so much so that when I sneezed, ouch.

These are the two embossing folder sets that I bought at Michaels yesterday.  I hope to get some card making done this upcoming weekend. :)

Monday, March 30, 2015

New Piercings on a Day Off

Ding-dong. 

o_0 What? It's 9 AM on my day off. Who the heck is ringing my doorbell at 9 AM on a Monday morning? Maybe if I ignore it, they'll go away.

Ding-dong. 

Ok, maybe it's a neighbor alerting me to something important outside.

I mustered the energy to get out of bed and look out the peephole. ARGH, it's MOM! WTH?!

"Hi! I was in the neighborhood for my doctor's appointment and I saw your car in the lot. I wanted to come say hi to RJ. Wait, why aren't you at work? Aren't you going to work today? Isn't your boss going to wonder where you are? Hm, your entryway is a little dusty. Hi RJ! How are you???"

-_- Gee, I'm doing great, thanks for asking...

The rest of my day looked up after that.  I went to Michaels and got 2 embossing folder sets on clearance using a gift card, got a workout top from Kohl's using a $10 coupon (it came out to $2.11.  It was too good a coupon to waste), mailed off another Etsy order, bought a 4 lb container of strawberries from Costco with a minimal line, and got my ears pierced again on a whim (fourth one on my left ear and third one on my right).  I've been thinking about getting my cartilage pierced again since my original piercing developed a bump and I had to get it removed.  My lesson learned in that experience is to not get that piercing done with a gun and to leave it alone.

Googlemaps told me that the traffic to the gym was terrible, so I did 2 Fitness Blender workouts instead: "Wake Up and GO HIIT Workout - At Home HIIT Cardio Routine" and "Bodyweight Only Fat Burning HIIT Cardio Workout + Total Body Toning: Fitness Blender Blend."  I tried doing that second one back in early February, but could only get through half of it.  Even though I had to press pause a few times to catch my breath, I got through both of them. :D

Sunday, March 29, 2015

New Craft Purchases

I made it to both spin classes this morning, YAY!  This was to make up for all the dumplings that I ate last night.  After class, I went next door to Giant to pick up a bottle of sesame oil and some ginger so that I could make some dumplings to freeze.  There were some people outside the grocery store collecting food donations.  I bought a few cans of chickpeas to donate.

Exercise (check).  Good deed (check).

I sold 4 cards today in my Etsy shop (it's been kinda quiet there lately).  Interestingly enough, 3 of them were Valentine's Day cards on clearance.  This repeat buyer will have to wait quite a while to use them though.

I bought 2 embossing folders at Joann's yesterday.  They were already on clearance and I was able to use a 55% off one regular priced item competitor's coupon.  I think the one on the left is especially feminine and pretty.  I can't wait to use these in future cards! :)

Saturday, March 28, 2015

New Makeup Purchases

As a fun reward to myself after the student event this past Wednesday, I went to CVS on the way home, armed with about $8 in coupons.  I needed to get new black eyeliner for tightlining and I saw that NYX was having a buy 1, get the second one 50% off.  The red color, Amsterdam, is totally like BAM in your face.  It'll be great for spring.  Stockholm, a nude, is great for every day, all year round.  This is my first makeup purchase since...late December?  ::pats self on the back::

I did some grocery shopping this morning in preparation for making dumplings with Julie tonight.  I also went to ACMoore (came out with nothing) and walked around the mall (I got 2 things at Joann's which I'll share tomorrow).  Julie and I probably cranked out 60-70 dumplings and I still have another package of ground beef for a second round of dumplings for the freezer that I'll make tomorrow. I sent her home with leftovers to share with Mom and Dad.

I'm not much of a sports fan, but wow, that Notre Dame and University of Kentucky basketball game tonight was pretty awesome.  Nail biter until the last second!

Friday, March 27, 2015

Julie's Office Party

First up this morning, dental check-up.  All good news here.  Afterwards I went across the street and came out with some Listerine on clearance (gotta keep up with the dental hygiene), peanut butter M&Ms (to reward myself for good dental hygiene?) and some Starbucks cafe mocha mix (because I had a coupon and it tastes delicious).

The only things on my work calendar were 2 back-to-back conference calls.  Easy peasy.  TGIF!  One thing that I'm not so sure about is a PowerPoint slide deck that I got to review.  I'm not the subject matter expert on the project so the feedback I can give is minimal: typos, graphics, etc.  I wished that my boss and the SMEs on the project were not on vacation or on travel so they could give the feedback that would be most helpful to the consultants by next Tuesday.

Tonight was Julie's work's 15th year anniversary party at the Newseum.  I came as her +1.  It was quite fancy.  There was an open bar and tons of food. My favorites were the spring rolls and the key lime pie tarts.  They also set up a photobooth where you could superimpose yourself into projects that the company had worked on. It was nice to get dressed up since it doesn't really happen much outside of work.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Good News, Semi-Bad News

Good news: I took the day off today just because and it felt nice to be lazy.  I finished watching G.I. Joe: Retaliation on Netflix and caught up on some NCIS and NCIS:LA.  I made up for my laziness by going to a 45-minute spin class and then coming home to do a Fitness Blender arm workout (I did this earlier this week) and try their  "Belly Fat Burner HIIT - High Intensity Interval Training Workout with No Equipment."

Wheeze...

Semi-bad news: My credit card number got stolen for the second time in about 2 months!  Grrr.  Fortunately, the credit card company sent me an email alert and I was able to take care of it quickly.  That's both nice, but kinda creepy at the same time.  How do they know these things??

Currently on repeat: Jason Derulo- Want To Want Me.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Public Speaking

Public Speaking Event: My friend from graduate school Jessie invited me back to be a speaker for her middle school program for girls.  I've done this event several times in the past (March 2014, March 2012), and each time I think it's kinda funny that I'm at the age that people ask me for advice, when I'm still figuring stuff out just like everyone else.

The girls were divided into 4 different groups and every 10 minutes they rotated to another speaker to ask questions. Most of the questions were focused on the high school and college experience.  When there was a lull in the conversation, I welcomed them to ask other questions to make things a little interesting.

"Are you married?"

Ok, maybe opening myself up to other questions was not a good idea.

"When do you think you'll get married?"

o_0  Ummm...when I meet the right person?  Right now, I'm happy on my own with my cat.

They giggled at my answer. -_-

Maybe it wasn't the cool answer, but when I reflected on the experience on my drive home, I think it was important for them to see that the speakers are in different places in their lives, and we are all successful.  My friend Jessie is married with kids.  My friend Jenny (another graduate school friend that came to the event) is married without kids.  And I'm not married and I don't have any kids.

Jenny, who works at the University of Maryland, laughed and said that one of the girls wanted to know if the college boys hit on her. "No, I'm too old for them." "How old are you?" "31." "DANGGGG!"  Bah ha ha.
The name tent the girls made for me.  I'll have to add it to the one that I got from the UMD event last fall.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My cousin sent me a $10 egift card to the Cheesecake Factory that she got as a result of doing a customer satisfaction survey.  Why she wouldn't want to keep that for herself, I have no idea, but I didn't want to turn her down.  It didn't even sit in my inbox for 24 hours before I turned around and used it to buy birthday cake for Dad.  I got a slice of the white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake and a slice of the banana cheesecake.  I like them both and they seemed to be some of the healthier (if there's such a thing at The Cheesecake Factory) options.  YUM!

Monday, March 23, 2015

Surprise Snail Mail

After a 45 minute spin class today, I did 2 (2!!) Fitness Blender workouts at home: At Home Cardio Workout with No Equipment - Fat Burning Cardio Intervals and Upper Body Strength Training - At Home Upper Body Workout with Dumbbells.  Fun stuff!  No, really.

On another note, I got some surprise snail mail from a former classmate, Diana (went to middle and high school with her).  I thought the note written on the back of the envelope was funny.  Yay, snail mail.  :)
I know it's going to be a great summer movie season. I saw some promos for Furious 7 and I can't wait to see how they pay tribute to Paul Walker. Then I saw a trailer for Mission Impossible 5. And I know that Avengers: Age of Ultron and Magic Mike XXL are on my to-watch list.

Meh, this list will kinda make up for last summer's bland movie season.  Actually, come to think of it, I didn't see any movies at the theater last summer!  And the two movies that I did see (American Hustle and the Lego Movie) were in January and February. 

Sunday, March 22, 2015

AMOK and Netflix

45 minute spin class this morning (check!). 

Commence lazy day!

I helped Julie with her Annual Melee of Kindness gesture.  She wanted to make some friendship bracelet kits to donate to the Children's Inn in Bethesda. She put together 50 envelopes, and each envelope included a card that said "You're Some Kind of Wonderful" and 4 skeins of friendship bracelet thread.  I helped with making the notecards and she pretty much did the rest.  I "supervised" from the couch.  RJ circled around, curious as to what was going on.  I was afraid that he was going to take a flying leap onto the table and totally ruin all the sorting work that Julie and Mom did prior to Julie coming over.
Today, I ventured into the world of Netflix and that was a dangerous thing because most of my day was spent binge watching Season 2 of Arrow by streaming it through my Chromecast, even though I had seen it on TV last year.  Julie and I also watched Lilo and Stitch on Netflix during our crafty afternoon.  We'll see how this free month trial goes, but I have a feeling that $8 a month will be totally worth it.  With quite a selection and no commercials, I can see why people would use this as a substitute to cable or their DVDs. 

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Happy Birthday, Mom!

When I woke up this morning, all the snow had melted!  YAY!

Today's Mom's birthday, so I picked up some food from Pacci's and brought it over to my parents' house to celebrate. 
Good thing I did a Fitness Blender workout before I left for dinner! Today's workout was "At Home Cardio Workout with No Equipment - Fat Burning Cardio Intervals" and it was a good thigh/butt workout.  I'll probably feel it tomorrow morning.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Snowy First Day of Spring

The calendar said that today was the first day of spring, but Mother Nature was holding onto winter for dear life.  Fortunately, tomorrow will be in the 60s and should melt some of this dreaded snow.  So over it!
I saw a note on Facebook that Kristina Werner (a card maker that I've followed for a few years now) had to put her cat down this morning.  My heart went out to her because Mannie had been sick for a few days. That must have been a very difficult decision to make.

I made a batch of butter chicken and left it out to cool off while I worked on my computer upstairs.  I come down 15 minutes later to find RJ licking his chops. Uh oh.  You'd think I would know better by now!  I didn't think he'd be interested because it's a little spicy.  Jerk.

Whatever. I'm still going to eat it. 

Thursday, March 19, 2015

2 Full Days of Meetings

My goal last week was to make it through today.  Full day meeting on Wednesday that I was expected to take notes at and then a longer day today because of a workshop I had to staff.

The Employee Appreciation Week activity today was called "The Starving Artists" gallery.  I don't know why they call it that every year since we pretty much eat all the time at the office, especially today and yesterday with leftover meeting breakfast and lunch and on Monday with the potluck.  Who the heck is starving around here?  They must be new or they simply need to get with the program.  Anyway, I brought several cards and my display.  My boss, who happened to be in town, brought a counted cross-stitch of a bear ("No one at home noticed that I took it off the wall.").  There was also pottery, photography and paintings.  Again there was food from Jimmy John's and Sweetgreen to lure the staff to come look at the artwork.  I received several compliments on my cards, which felt really nice. 

One person asked if they were for sale. o_0 Um, no, I hadn't thought of selling these. Truth be told, these are the cards I like so much that I haven't given them away.  "I have a birthday dinner to go to tonight."  What?  What an awkward question to ask with people around. I just felt weird about it.

One of the workshop participants complimented me on my nails, tee hee. 

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I've never been one to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but I kinda did this year.  First off, one of the hotels that we give a lot of business to gave the office a bunch of cupcakes for the staff.  How nice of them!  Today is Day 2 of Employee Appreciation Week and the activity was bowling.  I originally had a conference call scheduled for that time and when that didn't happen, I didn't feel like going bowling so I stayed behind (and so did a bunch of other people too).  I went to Safeway instead and got some snacks for Wednesday and Thursday's meetings.
For dinner, I headed over to Sirin's place where she was made a corned beef brisket, some red cabbage and a kale salad.  I brought over some Halos and my nail art kit because she was interested in how it's done.  It was nice to catch up with her since the last time I saw her was almost a year ago
Me on the left, Sirin on the right.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Potluck Success

Today is Day 1 of Employee Appreciation Week (cue "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year").  The best part is the chair massages that we can sign up for.  They needed to fill spots so we had the opportunity to sign up for a second spot and I totally took advantage of that.  The lady kept commenting that my shoulders and back were very tight.  "Oh my.  Do you have a headache?  You either have one or one's coming."  So then I spent the rest of the day feeling paranoid.  I felt like jello afterwards and it was tough to feel motivated to do any work between the massage and lunch and then it was tough to not sink into a food coma after lunch.  Blahhh.

The potluck sign-up sheet didn't have many names on it on Friday, but miraculously we had tons of food at lunch today.  I ate so much that I left the lunch thinking I'd never have to eat again.  Some of my homemade favorites were:
  • Hayley's kuegel
  • Jacob's enchiladas
  • Jennifer's pound cake (I took a slice after lunch and then took the last piece when I was cleaning up the breakout room at the end of the day, heh).
  • Caprice's carrot cake cupcakes
The dumplings were a big hit, and I came home with an empty container.  I do have to say that I was a little horrified that when it was my turn in line, the first dumpling that I saw had a strand of RJ's hair on it.  I snatched that dumpling up real quick to spare everyone.  Julie joked that it was garnish. Right. The sauce got compliments too.  It was a last minute decision to bring it.  I was going to bring my bottle of soy sauce and both Mom and Julie wailed "That's not the sameeeeee."  Ok ok.  Fine.  I mixed up some soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil right before bed last night.

I had to laugh when someone asked me how I made the wrappers.  Um, I didn't.  Who has that kind of time and patience?!  

I made sure that I didn't take a nap on the couch after getting home from work because then it'd be game over.  Nope, I was good and went to spin class.

And then was bad when I got home and used up the rest of the dumpling meat to make 20 dumplings for myself.  I didn't quite get my fill at lunch today because the ones I brought to the office were for my coworkers and I was too busy eating everyone else's food. 

Day 2 of Employee Appreciation Week is a trip to a bowling alley.  At the time that we had to sign up, I had a conference call during the time that we'd be bowling so I had to skip out.  Meh, that's okay.  Maybe I can go home early.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Dumpling Making Day

I'm so proud of myself for making it to a 1-hour spin class this morning.  I got out of bed at the last possible moment, but still managed to get there on time.  Go me, since I ate a lot last night with I hung out with Meg and Robyn and I was planning to eat quite a few dumplings today.  Heh.

I cranked out about 50 dumplings yesterday, so today was to tackle another 50.  I saved some for my family and ate some for quality assurance purposes and then the rest is going to the office tomorrow.  The only thing I ever make for the office is sweets (cookies, cheesecake, banana pudding...), so I'm excited to see how people respond to the dumplings.  I portioned out some for my uncle and aunt, some for my cousin and some for my parents and sister.  My first delivery was to my uncle and aunt's house.  It felt good to share with them since they are always sharing food that they make.  It's good to reciprocate!  Then I texted my cousin to let him know that I was going to be at my parents' house.  He showed up with his girlfriend Michelle and instead of taking the dumplings with them, they stood at the kitchen counter and ate their share of the dumplings.  I guess they were hungry!  :)

On the way home, I stopped by CVS because I saw in the insert that they had a coupon for NYX lip products.  $3.88 regular price, and $3.00 coupon would make it $0.88.  But then when I was looking at the selection, there wasn't anything that I liked.  I'm still going strong with not buying any new makeup products this year.  (pats self on the back...)

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Meg's Birthday Dinner

Today's grocery trip was very random.  Flour (because I finally used up my 5 lb. bag...yikes, that's a lot of desserts!), a pooper scooper (because somehow I broke RJ's existing one this morning, sigh), and some ground beef to make some dumplings for my work's international potluck on Monday.
 
Earlier tonight, Robyn and I met up at Meg's place for her birthday dinner.  We went to Piola and got some Italian food and more importantly, some red sangria.  Most of the dinner conversation was about Robyn's Disneyland trip and my trip with Meg to San Diego that happened around the same time.  We went back to Meg's place to continue our conversation, see her open gifts (Robyn got her some new dangley earrings, and I got her a latchhook kit with a golden retriever puppy on it and some pretzel M&Ms) and eat some cookies.  I brought some oatmeal chocolate chip ones to share. 
Meg was a fan of the flamingo card that I made for her.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Not From Scratch Butter Chicken

Julie let me try some of the butter chicken that she made when I went over to my parents' house on Wednesday and I wanted to make some for myself.  I went to Safeway after going to spin class (the first class in about 2 weeks, ugh) and picked up this packet that she used.  I've tried a butter chicken recipe that I found on the internet, but this version tastes more like the restaurant version than that other recipe does.  So much less work!  Yum yum yum!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Squirrel Problem in the Attic

Animal control came over today to see what animal problem was going on in my attic area.  I saw the guy surveying things as he approached the house, and it was a quick diagnosis.

Squirrels. (Well, with all the noise, I thought it was raccoon!)

There was a small hole in the roof, small enough for a squirrel to squeeze themselves through.  He set up some traps and caps so they wouldn't come back.  He said that he had two different traps: "Well, we can set up the ones that will kill them."  o_0 Um, no, there will be no killing.  I want to go with the other ones that will just catch them and you'll release them elsewhere. The guy was saying that I was lucky that I caught the problem when I did.  Good thing I didn't have any squirrel baby problems.

I'm going to be looking forward to some restful sleep!

Monday, March 9, 2015

Unwanted Visitors and Meg's Birthday Card

This morning started off on the wrong note.  I woke up around 2 AM to some scratching noises in the ceiling.  RJ was pacing around to get a sense of what was going on.  Oh, great.  I have some unwanted guests living in the roof.  I pulled up the animal control website on my phone and tried to tune it out as much as possible.  As soon as I relaxed enough to fall asleep, the creature picked that time to be active again.  When I got out of bed for good, I called the animal control people and the lady on the phone was not surprised that I was having issues.  "Oh, this is the time that animals are having their babies.  It could be three things: squirrels, flying squirrels and raccoons.  Would you like us to come for an inspection?"  I wish they had an available appointment today, but apparently they were booked and tomorrow was not a good time for me because I have to be at the office.  Wednesday it is.  If anything, I hope they can at least identify where the animals are coming in and patch it up so there are no more unwanted tenants.

When I IMed Julie when I got to work, she was like "At least it wasn't spiders."

On a brighter note, I got my car serviced this morning and the maintenance guy gave me a 15% discount because I bought it at a partner Honda dealership.

Meg's birthday is coming up soon, so in preparation, I made her birthday card last night.  I was inspired by our recent trip to the San Diego Zoo and her love of flamingos.  I used this origami site as a reference for the origami model.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Sour Apple, Warm Green, Yellow Citrus
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), K.I. Memories- Garden (grass), TPC Studio- Cupcakes (balloon)
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Other: Black Ultra Fine Point Sharpie 

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Target Clearance Luck

I had good intentions of going to spin class this morning, but that just didn't work out.  I vowed to do a Fitness Blender workout later on in the day to make it up.

I saw that Target was having a sale on workout clothes, so I went to the one that wasn't my regular one just to see what they were offering.  On the way out the door, I slipped on the walkway today. You couldn't see the ice because it was hidden under a layer of water. I went down slowly, thankfully (unlike my boss who broke her wrist last February when she slipped on the ice).  The winter has done a lot of damage to the walkway with the water freezing and refreezing.  The roads have so many potholes!

Anyway, I didn't find any workout clothes that worked for me, but I did come away with some tights on clearance.  I totally love the leopard print ones that I got months ago.
After taking a nice afternoon nap, I went to the mall closer to me to get some Fitbit steps in.  I saw that JCPenney was having a sale on workout clothes and I was hoping to have better luck than Old Navy and Target.  I found a few workout capris that I liked, but instead of buying them there, I came home to buy them online.  They were offering free to-store shipping, an additional 25% off and Ebates was doing 15% cash back on them tonight too.  Mwah ha ha.

I held myself to the promise I made this morning about doing a Fitness Blender workout.  The one that I did tonight was the one called "Fun Fat Burning Cardio Workout At Home to Boost Endurance and Get Fit Fast."  Fun?  Mmm, I wouldn't say that it was fun because now my thighs and shoulder muscles will be feeling it tomorrow.  But I did it! :)

Saturday, March 7, 2015

New Card and Samples from CVS

My goal today was to get a new pair of jeans, so Julie and I went to the mall today and made a beeline for Old Navy since I had a coupon from my email.  I tried 3 pairs and none of them fit right.  Blah.  Oh well.  I didn't walk away empty handed from the mall though because I took care of my Chik-fil-a craving.

After dropping Julie at home, I went to CVS to get some rubbing alcohol and the cashier gave me this bag of beauty samples.  Hooray!
I went to another mall afterwards to get some steps in as well as go to Costco.  Mom got me this really yummy spinach salad from them and I already finished it so I needed to get a refill.  Plus, I needed to get some strawberries and blackberries.  A 2 lb. container of strawberries was $2.99.  I might have to go back to get some more tomorrow.

I went to Joann's because Safeway spit out a 50% off coupon.  I came away with a new Spellbinders die.  For some reason, the coupon didn't work so the cashier had to override it and gave me the coupon back to use for another day.  :)  I figured the decorative vase could be use for a variety of cards: sympathy, birthday, every day, etc.  I, of course, had to use it for a card tonight.

Card Specs:
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Brads: American Crafts- Mini Jewel Brads in White
Die: Spellbinders- Filigree Vase
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Fitbit Goal Met and Snow Day

I met my Fitbit goal of doing 10,000 steps per day for the month of February.  I was actually able to continue to the streak through Monday, but then because of traveling and being lazy on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, I didn't hit 10,000 steps on those days.  But I'm back on track today!

OPM closed the federal government today so I didn't have to work. However, because there was so much snow today, about probably 6 inches, I still worked to keep me occupied. It felt really nice to sleep in though.  No matter what OPM says tomorrow, I'll have to work because I'm scheduled to telework on Fridays. 

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Spring MPH Event

I stayed at my parents' house last night since it was icy outside. I had 1 conference call this morning and for the rest of the day, I was catching up on email while I was out and then it was time to head to the UMD campus. My friend Jenny (far right) invited me back to the UMD campus for an MPH alumni event.  Not as many undergrads came to this event compared to last fall, but it was nice to talk to the students that did show up.  She strategically placed me and Jessie at the same table so we could catch up, which was nice. 
After I left campus, I went to Safeway to get some groceries since I pretty much emptied my fridge before I went to San Diego. And snow is supposed to be coming tomorrow, so I need food! I dropped by my parents' house to get RJ and hang out for a bit since I was in a rush to leave this morning so I could telework at my own place.  I also bought Julie a mini pie and wrote an apology note from RJ since he was waking her up at 5:30 AM for breakfast while I was out of town.  Eeek, sorry.
Mom's non-helpful helper.

Monday, March 2, 2015

San Diego, Day 3: SeaWorld and Little Italy

Today's goal was to get Meg's rental car and the go to Sea World.  It was cool to see the marine animals swimming around.  We made sure to see all the animal shows: killer whale, dolphin and sea lion.  They were entertaining, but I wish there was more of an educational piece rather than the pomp and circumstance. I guess that's more of an aquarium thing?  I dunno.  A part of me also felt guilty about being there and supporting an organization that puts these large animals in tanks when they really should be out in the open ocean.  I didn't have that sense of guilt when I went to the zoo the day before. They did, however, mention something about rescuing many sea lion pups the past few months, so I'm hoping our admission ticket helps pay for those rescues. 
 
After a long day of walking, we definitely earned our dinner tonight.  We went to Filippi's for some Italian food in Little Italy.  I got the chicken parmigiana and Meg got the eggplant parmigiana.  OMG, the portion of food was huge.  In addition to the food seen in the picture below, we also got soup and salad.  Whew, but it was amazingly delicious!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

San Diego, Day 2: San Diego Zoo

Meg tried to get her rental car today, but that was a bust because no one at the government travel agency was picking up.  I don't know if it was because it was Sunday, but I would imagine that travel issues can come up on Sundays and would need to be addressed.  Good thing it wasn't like she was traveling internationally and got stuck.

Anyway, we had breakfast and took a taxi to the San Diego Zoo.  Because it was raining, we decided to hope on the guided tour bus.  Afterwards, we walked to the animal exhibits that we wanted to see.  My favorites were the koalas, giraffes, elephants, lions, jaguar, and the tiger. 

Seeing the tiger was the best part of the zoo trip.  He wasn't in his normal enclosure because it was currently being renovated.  We went to his temporary home and didn't see anyone home.  A woman in zoo gear and galoshes came up to the fence.  "Conner!  Conner, I'm going home.  I wanted to let you know!  Conner!  Bye!"  All of a sudden, a tiger emerged from the back of the enclosure, his cave, and came as close to the fence as he could.  Ah, this was his keeper.  "Go get your toy!  Why are you rubbing against the wall, you silly boy!"  She was talking to him like I would talk to RJ.  The tiger even looked like he knew what she was saying.  Once she was out of sight, he climbed back up the hill back to his cave and away from public view.  It was pretty cool to see this interaction.
 
 
 
After our trip to the zoo, we went back to the hotel and hung out to rest our feet after walking around (with hills!) for 4 hours.  For dinner, we went to Pappalecco where I got a caprese sandwich and a slice of apple crumb pie (the sandwich was better.  I thought I'd like the pie like regular apple pie, but it was meh).  Meg had the same sandwich and some chocolate gelato.