Summer Is Over :(

Ok, so not really. Summer really isn't over in LA until Novemberish (or at least that will be the case if this terrible drought keeps up). But the traditional summer months are over. And I hate it. Immensely. Summer is by far one of my favorite seasons (which is a good thing if you live here and don't like the cold. Sorry, Cam.) However, traditional summer activities are coming to an end--baseball, lazy beach days (not that we've done any. I know, we have literally no excuse for not going to the beach when it's 45 minutes away), outdoor movies/concerts, ice cream! So, here's a summer wrap up for our summer (ok, so technically the first day of fall was Sept. 23, but I'm gonna ride on the last waves of summer for as long as I can, especially when it's going to be 90 degrees at the end of this week).

The Highlights:

1. I graduated in June! Le Familia came to visit.
2. We moved to a better/more wonderful place in June a week after graduation.
3. I started working at full-time status through September while I job searched.
4. We caught a comedy show at the Ice House in Pasadena and had gourmet hot dogs at the Dog Haus (Delicious!) 
5. Spent the 4th of July with friends in Santa Ana. Gambit does not like fireworks. At all. 
6. We caught a few Dodgers' games, including the Hello Kitty game and the Star Wars game. 
7. Gambit got a fashionable harness that doubles as a seat belt and hiking harness.
8. We've discovered how difficult it can be getting packages delivered to our apartment...
9. We made a spontaneous trip to the LA Tall Ships Festival to see a GIANT INFLATABLE RUBBER DUCK after our lunch at the Long Beach BBQ Fest. 
10. In August, we went to the Orange International Street Festival with some friends from Santa Ana. So many people. 
11. I GOT A JOB. 
12. We celebrate said hiring down at Redondo Beach at The Shrimp Lover (we both agreed that The Boiling Crab is way better and didn't have so much garlic in it that we kept smelling it for the next couple of days after.) 
13. Our friend, Jenna, came to visit the week before Emily's wedding in Oregon.
14. Emily got married!
15. I started working at my new job.

He looks so thrilled to be wearing my LA Dodgers Hello Kitty ball cap. Yes, it has ears and a bow :]

THE GIANT INFLATABLE RUBBER DUCK. Not gonna lie, a little anti-climatic, but still fun.

Gambit's new harness. Cam and I have both managed to put it on backwards... Poor dog.

We found a taste of home! And yes, we got a dozen original glazed since the Hot N Ready sign was on.

When we were in Portland, Cameron wanted to get a haircut and beard trim from this barber shop. They serve beer while you're getting trimmed. He was happy, needless to say. 

In Portlamd. we stopped at Rogue Brewery's Pub House and Cameron got to drink all the Rogue beer he could possible dream of. Now he's super happy. 

The Brewhouse does a "Hoppy Meal" during lunch hours, where you can get an entree and a pint for $2-3 (the beer, not the whole meal). But, as part of the "Hoppy Meal" you get a free toy. These were ours. 

The only photo of us at my friend's wedding. My dress, unfortunately, got damaged on the way back to LA. Cameron bought two bottles of whiskey and one broke in my checked bag and the dress now has red/pink stains down one side... It will probably be dyed black over Christmas so I can still use it! 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

In my last post I mentioned that Cameron and I were going to a Dodger's game with a few of my friends from my program. The big draw of the game was the Hello Kitty thermos give-away! I was pretty stoked, Cameron could have cared less. Welp, the only one of us to get a Hello Kitty thermos was my friend's fiance, and that was because he got there super early. Apparently due to "unforeseen circumstances," they had a limited supply of thermoses (they were supposed to have 40k to give you an idea). So, we'll need to get back to claim our thermoses. Just gives me an excuse to see another Dodger's game.

I actually didn't take this photo- my friend did, but here's what we got instead of the Hello Kitty thermos :[

For those actually interested in the game and not the Hello Kitty giveaway :D we played the San Diego Padres and won the game 2:1. We had nosebleed seats, and let me tell you, I've never really had a big fear of heights, but sitting where we were made me a little nervous (ok, a lot) and I had a few moments of vertigo from being that high. The game was a lot of fun, and come to find out, the Dodgers have a lot of themed games. The one I'm SUPER excited about (even still, this is an understatement) is the Star Wars game in August, where, I believe, there is a fireworks show set to the soundtrack of the movies. All my nerdiness is so pumped for this. Again, I think Cam is just coming along for the ride.

So high up!

I wasn't planning on getting anything at the game except the giveaway since it was included in the price of our ticket, but my friend who is also a Hello Kitty fan mentioned that there was a Dodger's ball cap that also had Hello Kitty ears and bow. SOLD. There were some other regular Dodger's gear that we both were eyeing: this jersey for me and this baseball tee for him, but everything there was outrageously overpriced in my opinion so maybe later.

My souvenir for the game :D

Summer just isn't summer without a few ball games every now and then! Til next time! 

So....news?

Howdy, everyone.

So, the point of this post is really to reassure you all that I haven't forgotten about this blog and I definitely want to share some photos once we're all unpacked... we're going on 3 weeks now. Moving is the worst!

Unfortunately, I don't really have any exciting news to share, other than a few weeks ago before we moved from Hollywood, we saw two movies at the TCL Chinese Theater and Disney's El Capitan theater. We did take some photos, but they all came out blurry... It was pretty neat to sit in an old school theater, especially the Chinese Theater where a TON of premieres have been held. Not gonna lie, not going to miss that premiere traffic at all.

Our 4th of July was relatively low-key. We spent the evening with some friends down in Santa Ana and watched fireworks. Fireworks are illegal in Los Angeles County, but not in other counties (Santa Ana is in Orange County). Man, do they take it a bit far. You, like anywhere else, can purchase illegal fireworks, and here they go all the way. Many houses in my friend's neighborhood were shooting off the type you see at ball games or Disneyland. So, cool for us not having to go anywhere and the drive back was neat seeing all the different shows across the city. Gambit, however, is NOT a fan of fireworks. He did ok, but he was definitely startled most of the night.

We are going to a Dodger's game tonight- it's a Hello Kitty giveaway game, so a few of my friends from my program and their significant others are coming along. Cameron is thrilled about the Hello Kitty giveaway- not. Haha, but he's a good sport and is willing to come along :] Hopefully, this won't be our last MLB game of the summer- though ticket prices are wayyyyyyy more than the Greensboro Grasshoppers. $10 for premium seats are so not an option here.

Gambit has acclimated well to the new place- it's so much bigger than our last and he has plenty of places to sleep. In fact, often when we come home we have to call him rather than him immediately greeting us at the door. We're also pretty sure he spends most of our time in our bedroom (more specifically sleeping on the bed) since it's the only room that has AC and the sheets are usually balled up in one corner by the time I come home.

We also need to find a new groomer in town that won't cost us an arm and a leg. We had been going to Petsmart, but we've had some not-so-great experiences the last few times and their prices have become comparable to other pet groomers. Also, I'm fairly certain he got his ear infection from his last grooming session so there's really no incentive to keep going back. Now, the trials of finding a new place to get our dog washed when he gets a little stinky. It's a good thing we only do this every 2-3 months! It's expensive when you have the dog the size of a pony.

Hopefully, we'll be doing something newsworthy in the next little bit, like finally unpacking, haha.

UCLA Day with the Dodgers!

The Sunday after classes started, there was UCLA Day with the Dodgers, which meant UCLA students, faculty and staff got discounted tickets to the All You Can Eat Pavilion at Dodgers Stadium. In the past two years, baseball has been a sport that has grown on me- partially due to the incredibly cheap minor league seats I could get with the Greensboro Hoppers. So, the opportunity to see a MLB game was not one I was going to pass by. A girl in my cohort is a huge Dodgers fan, so she organized getting the tickets and who was going; it ended up being three of us from the cohort and friends/significant others (Cameron unfortunately couldn't make it as he had to work)

The game was against the Colorado Rockies and, unfortunately, the Dodgers weren't fairing too well. It was cool experience, but it was super hot that day (90 some odd degrees) and we were sitting in full sun. I got a great farmer's tan within an hour of being there. I'd like to go to another game and see if cooler weather makes it more fun, but it's nice to have a MLB team right in our backyard! 

My embarrassing story of the game is I forgot to print out the ticket, so the people I was carpooling with were gracious enough to help find a Kinkos. I knew I was forgetting someting when I walked out the door! I felt terrible making us late to the game, but they assured me it was no problem. We did drive through Little Tokyo in downtown LA, which was a fun detour. I was told, "Arrive late and leave early, that's the LA way." I suppose that's true when trying to avoid traffic. 

A not so clear photo of the Welcome to Dodger Stadium sign

That's a full stadium!