day 144: When you get married you get literally showered with gifts (that is why they call them showers isn’t it?) It’s your one chance to get all sorts of outrageous kitchen gadgets that you would never buy yourself. Ok… bowls aren’t outrageous, and they’re not really gadgets either, but these nesting bowls were one of my favorite wedding gifts. Cutting everything up and putting it into it’s own little cooking show bowl while making dinner is surprisingly fun.

day 143: So with all of this Harry Potter fanaticism going around I got curious and decided that I should find out what all the hype was about. Unfortunately Allison recommended that I not start at the last book (which probably makes sense) so here I am… the last person on earth reading the FIRST Harry Potter book. At least it’s nice and short… but I have a lot of them to go through before I finally find out what happens in the new book.

day 142: Being down in Encinitas for the weekend means lots of stops for tasty food. Yesterday was burritos at Ricos and today was dinner at Ki’s. A fabulous beach view location + tasty tofu and tempeh = one of my favorite restaurants!

day 141: Today I got the chance to hang out with some of my absolute favorite people. Valena is one of my best friends from way back and her husband and son are some of the sweetest people that I know. We ran out to the park today to take some quick family portraits for them. This is one of my favorites from the day.

day 140: This afternoon we went with the office to the prefab factory to see one of the houses under construction. It was very cool to see but the traffic on the way there (and on the way back) was completely out of control!

day 139: So I’m really not up on current trends or pop culture…. I was vaguely aware that there was a Simpsons movie coming out, but I didn’t know that it was coming out tonight… and I definitely didn’t know that as a promotion they had turned a local 7-11 into a kwik e mart. When I found out Ben and I decided to drive over to check it out. Apparently the rest of LA also heard about it…. because there was a crazy huge line around the block to get in. Sorry but I’m not that big of a Simpsons fan. We didn’t go in.

day 138: After being trapped inside all day working I felt like getting out for a little bit. We drove to Manhattan Beach and found a crowded outdoor bar to sit at for a little late night snack and beer. It was quite nice to go out for a change!

Day 137: Ben and I went to the movies tonight. Every time I go to a movie theater I think of one of my favorite movies, Amelie and the scene where she talks about going to a theater and turning around to watch the other people in the theater so I had to try it out in photo form. I couldn’t find the clip but here’s the trailer. It’s a fabulous movie if you haven’t seen it.

day 136: Today after work Ben and I made dinner and then went to go get coffee. We’ve developed a habit of going for long walks to a couple of our favorite spots so we decided to go on foot. The moon was out and the sky was beautiful as we were walking so I had to stop for a photo.

day 135: Today we took John to the Getty Center for a visit. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with blue skies and puffy white clouds, perfect for enjoying the gardens and outdoor terraces at the museum. The grounds were nice but the most interesting thing we saw was the uberorgan by Tim Hawkinson. We made sure to stop by while it was playing, since it only runs for 5 minutes every hour. Definitely worth a visit.