Swimming with ducks!

The funniest thing happened tonight. I was deep in my own thoughts while swimming and next thing I know in the corner of my eye I see two ducks on the edge of the pool about 4 yards or so away from me. At first I thought I was losing my mind…have he comps driven me so crazy that now I see things??? So I stop and sure enough there is a pair of ducks, one female and one male. So never mind the set that I was in the middle of doing, I swam over to check them out. How cute!

My coach told me that the two have been hanging out at the pool for the past couple of weeks. Now how random is having a pair of ducks hanging at a university pool in the middle of the city????? too funny!

So after a while the two jump in the pool, my coach had mentioned observing the way they paddle in the water. So there I was cleverly getting close under water and next thing I see is the ducks swimming away while the drake pooped IN THE WATER. I so did not need to see that since I swim in THAT water. Anyway, I decided to get over it and continue swimming. They provided much entertainment to my otherwise uneventful swimming session!!!

The two ducks in the picture above are not the same ones as tonight’s. I took the picture above while we were in Black Canyon about three weeks ago. I will post more about that later, but we canoed down the Colorado River for about 11 miles and this pair of ducks come along with us the whole two days. It was the coolest thing! I love ducks, not only are they cute, but they are so yummy too! 🙂

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Words of wisdom

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain

It is ironic that I am posting a Mark Twain quote. It is not that I don’t like him, I do–kinda. A good few years ago, when I officially became an English Literature major, in the first literature class that I took we read “The Innocents Abroad.” I liked the book a lot as I found it entertaining and fascinating. I do remember reading another book of his, but I was not as into it. So anyway, the point of the matter is, somehow this quote got to me when I saw it tonight.

I have been grumpy lately…according to someone, very grumpy; my official nickname has become “grumpy buckets.” I have a few reasons for being grumpy…I have got this parental issue that I need to deal with and I am dreading having to open certain lines of communication that are currently closed –very happily closed. The issue has been going on for years and said parent has made my life miserable in the past and currently his careless actions have caused some damage in my life. I have actually been having dreams, or more like nightmares, of the time when communication does take place and it is never pretty because there is always some serious yelling and screaming. I always wake up all out of sorts and freaked out.

The second issue is this F@#$ing exam for my program known as the comprehensive exam. Said exam will take place on Friday May 2nd from 9am to 1pm. The exam covers four courses that we have taken and we are going to be given one question for each course. So I have been driving myself crazy because I have been reviewing for the past month. I have gone back and re-read every textbook and made summaries for myself and now I am just reading my summaries. It is driving me nuts because I can see myself hyperventilating the day of the exam and forgetting everything that I know OR the question will ask something that I neglected to review. So I have been feeling a little neurotic. In the skim of things, I am not the only one…others in my program are feeling a little neurotic too.

The third issue…well it kinda has an impact on everything. I have been having some serious issues with motivation. I am not really sure what is going on with me. I just want to stick my head in the sand. There are a million things that I have going on and need to do, yet I am always behind and don’t seem to get my sh*t together. This certainly doesn’t help matters and makes studying even more difficult. I keep on reminding myself that I am almost done. In about four weeks I am going be done done done with my MA. It has been great but I need to get back to having a life because really, I don’t have one right now. What am I doing on a fine Saturday night? Reviewing and blogging. Can you say LOSER?

So back to the damn quote. It is a reminder of the freak that I was until a little while ago, much to J’s chagrin. He has called me “over achiever” (yeah right, had I been one, I would have been in a different place in life right now), a type A (oh how I resented him for saying that, I am so not type A, I even took an internet test to prove him wrong), and well good old “crazy.” I am fully aware that I have this tendency of multi-tasking and being always busy. I get bored easily, so I need to be always active and do things, otherwise I feel like life is going by and I am just standing still being lazy or missing out.

The thing is, that’s what happened in my 20s, I was busy trying to stay afloat and survive, and I feel that I wasted a lot of my youth and I have a few regrets. So when a new decade came along I decided that it was time to live, explore, grow, achieve, and most importantly be happy. So basically, now I need to get back into the groove of things and sail away, so to speak.

With this said, now I need to go and kick myself in the ass and sail away. And I have big plans for myself because I am going to sail away metaphorically, and well in real life. Our “adventure” group has weekend sailing trips and J and I have been talking about going to one since we came back from our Black Canyon canoe trip. So off I am to sign up for that because twenty years from now I don’t want to look back and regret!

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Indi Friday

Sometime we get too much pleasure of out teasing Indi! Last night we were putting some camping stuff away and I just had to mess with Indi and put my head lamp around her neck while in blinking mode. She went all kookoo trying to get it off. And the whole thing was particularly funny as it was in the dark. All you could see was blinking on a white chest and white paws.

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Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. Be kind and respectful to our planet!

On Saturday we did a beach clean-up at a local beach. J and I brought back about 120 lb of trash. YAP! We actually found a couple of lobster traps and other types of trash on the beach.

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Indi Friday

Every so often we walk to Averill Park from our house. The ever so courageous Indi had a little moment when the ducks got a little too close…she took refuge behind her daddy. Yap, this is the type of dog that, presumably, is dangerous and bites!!!! OH YEAH!

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Indi Friday

I took the picture above when we came home from the vet last Friday while she still had her identification collar on. So the update is that Indi has some swelling in one of her knees and she also has the very beginnings stages of hip dysplasia. We are hoping and praying that she will not get worst as time goes by. But for now she doesn’t need surgery which we are very thankful for.

Bonus picture: oh how comfy it is to rest my head on mama’s arm and fall asleep!

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My Bestest Most Bestest Friend!

Oh the silliness. About a year ago I was invited by my wonderful friend BPM to join her birthday dinner. I didn’t know anyone else that came besides her and her husband DM. I sat next to her and we were all making small conversation when the last person in our party showed up. There was only one open seat and it happened to be right next to where I was sitting. So throughout the night we all had a great time chatting and I soon came to find out that “Mr. late arriver” is actually an engineer….you can’t seem to escape them in South Bay…and not only that, he had a serious title that followed his name: PhD. Let me begin by saying that I do have a few engineer friends and they all are wonderful and live happily in their “rational” world and God forbid if you disagree with them…so can you imagine my initial judgment of Mr. MH? What could I possibly have in common with him? Man he must be even more stubborn than the rest!!! Little did I know that he is actually different than the rest, VERY different.

We actually became friends! Last summer we went to see a French movie together called “My Best Friend” (Mon Meilleur Ami) and he started the whole “my bestest friend” silliness that still continues to this day. So according to Mr. MH he is my “BESTEST MOST BESTEST friend” and I am “his plus que parfait bestest friend!” Oh how I love the silliness of our friendship!

So Indi and I woke up at crack of down last Saturday as we had a date with Mr. HM at precisely 8:33am. We met up in South Redondo Beach and had a wonderful breakfast at Crème de la Crêpe. I had le japonnaise crêpe which was delicious. Since miss Indi was with us and it was a beautiful day, we sat outside.

Our waiter was super duper nice and attentive to both us humans and miss Indi making sure that her bowl of water was not empty. And best of all, he was not afraid of her. So if you are ever in the South Redondo Beach area you should check this awesome place out.

1708-1/2 S Catalina Ave
Redondo Beach, CA 90277

(310) 540-8811

I hope you all have silly fun friends like mine! Je t’adore mon chéri meilleur ami! 🙂

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It’s my Birthday!!!

Yes, indeed, I graced the world on this fine day! My family, as they do every year, had a wonderful party for me this past weekend. We all had a great time and ate lost of yummy food! I am told I am going out to breakfast and I am told there is something going on that involves dinner…. Woohooo!!

End of day epilogue

Today was a wonderful day! J, Indi, and I went out to breakfast to my favorite breakfast place: the Nosh Cafe which was wonderful as usual. I had a bagel with lox and J had the Spanish omlette/quiche:

Then off I went to school for work and class. I bought these fabulously colorful and cheerful cupcakes to share with my classmates:

My wonderful professor Dr. P seemed to enjoy the cupcakes and I could not resist taking a picture of his Dracula looking smile after he ate his first cupcake with the hot pink frosting!!!! Watch out for the crazy colored frosting!!!

My bday gift of choice from J was a homemade dinner. So I skipped my last two classes and came home to find him hard at work making a fantastic Persian meal. How impressive is that??? He said: “A Persian meal for a Persian.” haha!!! 🙂 🙂 Anyway, he made a rice dish from my Persian cookbook New Food of Life. I had actually never had this type of rice before, and to be honest it sounded a little odd to me when I first saw the recipe in the book. I am so glad that J made it because it was delicious. Anyway, it was like a Persian Paella and in the cookbook is it is called “Rice with Shrimp and Herbs.” He also made an herb kookoo, Persian chicken kabab, and two different types of dips, one with yogurt and shallots (mast-o-musir) and the other was a blend of herbs, walnuts, and white cheese. EVERYTHING was so amazing and delicious!

While we had dinner we listened to a CD which I received today as a gift. My wonderful friend Little Red Reading Hood surprised with me with a precious gift: a CD which is compiled with songs that he has written and sings himself in his native language which is Polish. And once the CD came to an end, we listened to it again because it was THAT GOOD! Anyway, more about the CD and Little Red Reading Hood will be shared in a later post as it deserves some attention!

And for dessert J bought some amazing tasting pastries from one of our favorite bakeries. I can’t remember the name of it but it is located on Crenshaw and Sepulveda in the same shopping center as Starbucks.

And last but not least, a picture of Indi. She is not allowed to beg for food while we eat, she can either hang out under the table or take a hike. Since she is such a good girl I shared some of the apples from the sweets with her after we were done eating. She actually loves apples and she is good at balancing a slice on her nose!!! AWWWW!!!

Well another Bday has come and gone and it was a wonderful day.

Thanks J for all the wonderful and loving things that you did today. You are the best prince charming ever and so lovable!!! 🙂

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Soccer rocks!

One of my students my favorite student, the wonderful-awesome-funny-nutty-kind CS, gave me a wonderful gift for Xmas: tickets to see the LA Galaxy on their season opener game against the San Jose Earthquakes. When DB was brought to play with the Galaxy there was, and there still is, such a huge hype about it. I was rather annoyed about all the attention that was given to only one player and left the others, who by the way are wonderful players, in his shadow. To add insult to injury, every time they had their games last fall the area around the stadium, the Home Depot, became so congested and for students who were attending classes during the times that the games were on, it was a nuisance –to put it mildly. How do I know this? Well that’s where I go to school…can you imagine sitting in class listening to a lecture and then all of sudden there is this uproar coming from the west side of the campus? It was beyond annoying.

So anyway, my wonderful student gave me tickets because she and her husband have been going to the Galaxy games for years and she told me that I HAD to see the man in action. So I was excited about going to see a soccer game live because I do love soccer. What made the whole experience even more exciting was the fact that I found out one of my favorite players from back in the days is currently the head coach of the Galaxy. YES!! Rudd Gullit, the man the legend, he who played with my second favorite Italian team AC Milan and was in the same team as my FAVORITE player in the whole wild world Paolo Maldini was here in LA in my school’s stadium. Oh the excitement that I felt about being there, sitting a few rows behind the Galaxy bench and breathing the same air as Gullit.

So the long dreadlocks are gone, the mustache is gone and he totally looks different nowadays. But man was I jolly to be there! The picture is not the greatest, but it makes me giggle every time I look at it. I really hope that he will help make the Galaxy into a kick ass team and take their game to a higher level! I think Landon Donovan is also a very good player and man was it exciting to see him in action! And kudos to the rest of the team as well for winning the game and making the whole experience so exciting. For the record, I lost my voice…it was hard to stay quiet and sit in my seat like the rest around me….hehe 🙂

There is an awesome YouTube video of him which shows what an amazing player he is. It is totally worth watching. Anyway, I can’t finish this post without out sending a shout out to my my favorite boys: Forza Roma my favorite Italian soccer league team and Forza Azzurri world cop champions baby!!!!

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Indi Friday

Today is Indi Friday, and ironically, poor little Indi was dropped off this morning at her vet’s office and she will be there for the majority of the day. I am bummed, very bummed right now. About a month ago she started limping and we noticed that she was having trouble with her back legs. We took her to her regular vet and she was not exactly of much help, she just gave her some anti-inflammatory pills. Sounds just like going to a regular human doctor, they just send you off with some pills and don’t really take the time to diagnose you properly. Anyway, a couple of days ago we took her to a new vet. He spent a good amount of time explaining to us what might be going on with her, and that she may have a doggy version of torn ACL or it could be a hip issue. In order to better diagnose her, he suggested sedating her and performing a thorough bone and muscle exam and also take x-rays.

Poor little thing she had to go in with an empty stomach and the last meal that she had was at 6pm last night. Once she comes off the anesthesia we can go pick her up. Poor thing is probably hungry and caged up right now and God knows when she can actually eat because if we feed her too soon she might throw up.

We are both very bummed right now. Of course the first thought that went through my mind was “oh God, we broke the dog.” We have no idea how this could have happened since she is just a puppy and usually these type of injuries occur to older dogs. Could it have been the run along bike rides? I was the one that fell off my bike, so really I should have been the one hurt in this case! Could it have been the uneven lawn where she plays fetch and goes after the ball as fast as a bullet? Could it be from when she freaks out about the skaters and she stands on her back legs over the wall intensely watching them and running back and forth as they skate in front of the house?

So here I am having a hard time concentrating on anything and impatiently waiting for a phone call so I can go pick her up. Please keep her in your prayers and send some good karma her way.

Anyway, here are some pictures taken during one of our fun training sessions. Indi has now moved on to balancing 4 treats! 🙂

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