Travel size

In addition to all of the frequent flyer miles and hotel points Andrew is accumulating, there is one more benefit of all his travel. Every week he brings me home this:

And this is what I like to do with them:
We are just trying to save up enough to open our own little hotel. So if any of you want to come and stay with us, you won't need to bring your own shampoo, conditioner, soap, face wash, shaving cream, lotion, or mouthwash.

A "Super" hairdo

Funny story: I was talking on the phone today and I decided to try and multitask. I had some scissors that I wanted to try and fix with superglue. I was looking through our "junk drawer" trying to find an open bottle of superglue, when suddenly my eyes began to burn and there was this really strong smell of glue. Not being able to see or breathe I quickly ran outside to get some fresh air. I couldn't figure out what had happened. Then I realized that I had superglue on my fingers. One of the bottles had opened up and spilled onto my fingers and before I had realized this I had run my fingers through my hair. There was a pretty good size chunk of hair in the front that was just a mass of glue, along with a few other random spots throughout my hair. I panicked! I decided to try and comb through one of the pieces in the back, knowing that if it didn't work then it wouldn't be too noticeable. That is when this happened.

The glue was so incredibly hard that it just broke off the entire piece of my hair. I didn't know what to do. I hurried and called my friend Jocelyn who is a hair stylist. She had never dealt with superglue in hair before. We decided that I would google it and see what I came up with and then I would go over to her house after work and figure something out. So I googled it and found some things that said to try acetone (nail polish remover) and other things that said acetone would ruin hair, it wouldn't work, and the only thing to do is to cut it out. Luckily there wasn't a huge chunk of hair that had glue in it. It was in my bangs, but it was towards the back and not right next to the scalp. So I pinned back my bangs to try and hide it and went to work. Here is the best picture I could take of it. You can see the piece of hair sticking out to the side with the glue in it.
After work I went over to Jocelyn's and we tried the acetone. It wasn't working. The glue was in there to stay. So we decided to just go ahead and cut it out. Luckily Jocelyn is extremely talented and she was able to just blend the cut hair into my bangs so you really can't even notice (unless you are looking for it). Thank goodness!

So the moral of the story? Don't play with super glue while talking on the phone.

A quick update

I have a lot of things that I need to post about, but I can't find the little cord that connects my camera to the computer, so I have to wait until I can get some pictures uploaded. But I thought I would give you a quick update anyway.

Things are going really well. I am enjoying the "fall weather" that we have here in L.A. It actually did cool down a little bit last week, and I would actually put a sweatshirt on by the end of practice, but now it is up to 90 again this week. I am excited for it to continue to cool down, even just a little bit.

Last weekend Andrew and I helped out with a swim team beach party at Manhattan Beach. The waves were really high, but the kids had a lot of fun.

I had a pretty busy week this past week. My friend Laney had a guest pass to the gym that I have been using. It has been fun to go to a few different classes. I thought that with working out on my elliptical machine every day that I would be in pretty good shape. But about 10 minutes into this boot camp class I realized I was completely wrong! The yoga class was also really good and something I think I could definitely benefit from. I am thinking about joining the gym so I can continue going, I just don't like paying to exercise!

Andrew came to visit again this weekend. He gets mad when I say that he is just visiting, but sometimes that is what it feels like. It's great to have him home again though.

Today we had an event at the Rose Bowl for Jason Lezak. It was great to listen to him speak about his experiences in Beijing. I'll post pictures later.

Hot Dogs and Doughnuts!

Hot Dogs and Doughnuts ... they usually don't go together, but for one day ... they did for me. My friend Laney is moving to Utah in a month and so she has decided that she needs to finish up her list of "must see" places in L.A. Because I really don't have anything else to do during the day and I have also wanted to get out and see what there is in this great place that we live, I told her that I would be happy to join her in all of her adventures.

First stop: Pink's Hot Dogs. I had heard a little bit about Pink's before, but not much. Apparently it is a Hollywood hot spot. It has been around for 70 years and is now considered the "Hot Dog to the Stars." With such a big reputation, I had pretty high expectations for this hot dog. When we got there I found out that it's not necessarily in what we call the nice part of town, so that was the first surprise to me. The next was that there was absolutely no line when we got there. Laney and I had both heard how there is always a line at least an hour long. We must have come at the perfect time. Here I am standing just outside Pink's.

Once we got there, we stared at the menu for awhile, trying to decide if we could get away with ordering a hamburger, but decided while we were there we better just get what they are famous for: the chili dog. We were rushed through the line by people who were clearly annoyed that we had never been there before and that we were taking our time trying to decide what we wanted. I ordered my chili dog with no onions and no mustard and then waited and watched as she pulled a hot dog out of a big pot of boiling water, stuck it in a bun and then smothered it with a big spoonful of chili. There it was, my first pink's hot dog, just waiting to be devoured. We quickly found a place to sit so we could eat. Laney took a picture of the first bite (and I can't believe I am actually posting this picture!). I took the first bite and began chewing ... and chewing ... and chewing. Hmmmm... not quite the Hollywood hot dog that I was expecting. The chili wasn't bad, the bun wasn't horrible, but the hot dog was like rubber. So I decided that just like most things in Hollywood, Pink's is famous simply because somebody once said it was good, not because it actually is.

Our next stop: Fritelli's Doughnuts. I had never heard of this place before, but when Laney mentioned doughnuts, I came running! I have now learned that it is Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite place for doughnuts. It is a cute little shop in Beverly Hills. When we walked, in there was a lady there taking some pictures for a story she was doing for the Beverly Hills Courier. She must have thought we looked famous because she asked if we would pose for some pictures for her. We were happy to help out. She took a few pictures of us looking at the doughnuts and ordering them. We then had to pose for pictures as we sat at the tables pretending to eat our doughnuts. It was pretty funny and I hope that we can somehow find the story so we can see how they turned out. But the doughnuts were amazing. I ordered a couple for myself and then took some home for Andrew, but then realized that he was out of town so I had to eat them all myself that night for dinner. The one that I am holding in the picture was the red velvet. It was delicious!

So my suggestion if you are travelling to L.A.: skip the hot dogs and go straight for the doughnuts!

Ants!

I know I haven't posted in a very long time, and I actually do have a lot of things to post about, the problem is just finding the time to do it. But right now I need help! We have an ant problem in our apartment right now. They have been coming and going for the past week and I am getting a little tired of it. I thought someone might know a good, safe, non-toxic way of getting rid of them. Any suggestions?

Tulsa, Vegas and Swimming Stars!

This past week has been crazy and I haven't had any time to post, so I thought I would just write a quick update on what we have been doing this week.

Monday (Labor Day) we decided to take advantage of our passes and we spent the day at Disneyland. We had a lot of fun and it was surprisingly not crowded. We actually spent most of the day at California Adventure. It was a nice last day of freedom for the both of us.

Tuesday was Andrew's first day at his new job. Unfortunately, he is beginning his new job with a lot of travel. He spent the entire week in Tulsa working on a project. He will probably be spending his Monday-Fridays there for a month or so. While I am going to miss having him around I am trying not to complain as we are so grateful that he was able to find a job rather quickly after he was laid off. It will definitely be nice for him to be working again. I just wish that it was a little closer to home.

Wednesday I headed to Las Vegas with all of the Rose Bowl swim coaches to the ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) convention. I spent the next three days learning from the best of the best. It was a great experience to be there, especially following the incredible Olympics that we just had in swimming. I was able to hear from the coaches of Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Natalie Coughlin and much more. It was very inspiring and it motivated me to work even harder at being a great swim coach.

The highlight of my weekend was when I met Michael Phelps and Matt Grevers. (Matt Grevers won the silver medal in the 100 backstroke and two golds in the relays -- and if you don't know who Phelps is you clearly shouldn't be reading this). It was total coincidence that we ran into them because they actually were not there for the coaches convention. We ran into them while we were at the Palms hotel after attending a Nike event. It was incredibly exciting. Matt was very nice and I was able to get my picture taken with him. Phelps was a little more difficult to get to as he was surrounded by friends and trying to duck away from the paparazzi that had showed up. He quickly left to go back to his suite, but I was able to shake his hand and tell him congratulations before he left. It was awesome! Phelps is not as tall as I thought he was and Grevers is taller than I thought! Here I am with Matt Grevers and my friend Amber:

It was fun to see them in a non-swimming setting. I really was impressed with Matt and how kind he was to us "little people." I felt bad for Phelps because he was just trying to have a good time with friends but the paparazzi drove him away. I am sure that he is just trying to adjust to what I am sure will be a completely different life for him. I still get a little giddy inside when I think about meeting them!

I drove home from Vegas late on Saturday night. I had a great time but I am definitely ready to be home again. It was nice to have a relaxing Sunday today with Andrew. So it was definitely a long crazy week for us, but it turned out pretty well.

Our Cruise

The last stop on our whirlwind vacation this summer was a cruise! I have always wanted to go on a cruise but have never been. It took some convincing because Andrew's last cruise that he went on ended with them in the lifeboats as their cruise ship was on fire. (that's another story though) But he was sweet enough to take me anyway. We decided that a short cruise down to Ensenada Mexico would be perfect. We had a lot of fun that weekend and we took a lot of pictures, so I tried to pick just a few to share the fun things we did, but I think I chose too many! Sorry!

Here is a picture of our cruise ship "Monarch of the Seas."

We played a game of bingo!
This was my sad face when we didn't win.
Andrew was sweet enough to take a couple different dancing classes with me. We took a beginners salsa, swing and country line dancing class. They were a lot of fun. I think swing was my favorite.
Here is a picture of our "formal night" on the cruise. Nobody else sat at our table the whole cruise, so it was nice to have dinner to ourselves.
I had heard so much about how great the food is on cruise ships, and it is true! Jessica gave me the best adv ice about how you can order as much food as you want at dinner, and we definitely put that to good use. I tried not to embarrass Andrew too much by taking pictures of all our food, but these were too pretty to pass up.
All of the desserts were amazing!
I loved being outside and watching the water. It did get a little windy sometimes though.
I really enjoyed all of the fun shows and entertainment they had each night.

They had a pool party one night and they had these really cool watermelon carvings.

We went rock climbing.
I had never been before and I was so scared! But I made it to the top.

They had a belly flop contest. I think this guy might have won.
We ate a lot of food! Especially late night pizza and cookies.

Hanging out at the pool ...
Each night our "state room attendant" would fold our towels into animal shapes. This one is a swan:
And here is a monkey:
I love this picture because it is one that I took while holding the camera myself and I could see Andrew making a face out of the corner of my eye and so I did the same thing and he was so surprised when he saw it. He thought he was being funny ... but I beat him at his own game! :) We had a great time. I have a lot of pictures from Mexico so I am going to save those for a separate post! The cruise was great. We would love to go again, but next time with more friends and family. Anyone interested?