Our Secret Language

Baby Marv sharing a secret with Baby Harry -- oh, how I love them!

Matthew and I were hanging out in our room, rehashing the day's events, when I imagined what it would be like if some random stranger listened in on our conversation, and couldn't help but chuckle to myself.  About 1/3 of the words we use in our daily conversations with each other are slang words that either we made up, or a close family/friend made up and somehow got mixed into our lingo.

Who knows, maybe one day, we'll both grow up and start using only normal Webster dictionary vocabulary.  For now, here's a little taste of the terms we use when we're with each other:


Awkbod:  adjective. Another word for "awkward". Derived from a friendly joke about someone's pants not fitting correctly due to someone's "awkward body" (I did not come up with this -- blame Mathew and his friends). Commonly used to describe an awkward appearance or situation.  "Those jeans are awkbod" or "Today I cursed in front of a kid and his parents.  Awkbod." 

Hack: adjective. The quality of being huge in amount or size.  Basically another word for the Norcal slang, "hella".  "I'm am hack tired from blogging all day" or "That 4x4 burger from In & Out is hack."

Shmeagle: nick name. A term of endearment that is generally used when no one else is around.  Derived from Smeagol from Lord of the Rings and Captain Hook's boatswain, Smee.

SBIB [prounounced "es-bib"]:  expression. SBIB stands for "Sorry 'bout it, bud" and is used as a sarcastic jab towards someone who complains about or encounters a situation that totally sucks for them.

Friend 1:   You drank the last beer!
Friend 2: SBIB! You should've been here first.

Yagga: interjection. Used the same way as "whoa".  "That car almost hit us.  Yagga."

Bug: adjective.  Originally "bugalug" but was eventually shortened to just "bug". Another word for fat or overweight.    "We've gotten so bug over the last year, but we still love each other!"

L.I.G.: expression. L.I.G. stands for "Let it Go". 

Me: I'm so full but there's one more bite of this delicious burger left.
Matthew: L.I.G, shmeagle.  L.I.G.

24: verb.  Code word for the act of eavesdropping.  Derived from Christmas EVE, which falls on the 24th of December. 

Me:  Matt, I've asked you this question 5 times already? You're obviously not listening to me. Are you 24-ing on the couple sitting at the table next to us?
Matthew:  Yes.

General shortening of words: I have no idea how it started, but we tend to shorten many commonly used words.  Sometimes I forget that other people may not understand what I'm trying to say and have been the recipient to many confused stares by my friends, coworkers and family members.

Irra: Short for either "irritating" or "irresponsible".  "You're being so irra today!"
Ridic: ridiculous
Conch: contribution
Croosh: crucial
Stoop: stupid
... and the list goes on and on and on...

Abbreviating all food joints: SB (Starbucks), C (Chevys), MD (McDonalds), OG (Olive Garden), BR (Baskin Robbins),  etc. It can get a little tricky when abbreviating food places because some have the same abbreviation.  However, it's a lot easier when used in context - i.e. "I'm feeling so tired, I need an SB fix."

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One day I'll record one of our conversations just so you can get an idea of how crazy we can sometimes sounds to the untrained ear.

Do you and your SO have a secret language?

Life is Good: Weekend Recap

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To celebrate our first year of marriage, Matthew and I spent the weekend in Half Moon Bay, which is only about an hour from home.  I have no idea why we never thought of going there before.  The city is right on the coast of California and has some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. 

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton and from the moment we pulled up to the gates, it felt like a fairy tale.  The property is so beautiful!!  I guess I don't stay at fancy hotels enough or something, but I was totally floored by their customer service.  Everyone was so pleasant and took great care of us... I don't think we opened any door or lifted a thing on our own during our entire stay! 

Confession:  Before Matthew even proposed, I secretly wanted to get married at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay.  I even made an appointment to view the premises by myself and told all my close girlfriends that I found the perfect place to get married but wouldn't divulge any details lest they "steal" my spot (yeah, I'm crazy)...  Obviously we didn't marry there, but I am more than happy with how our wedding turned out.  Maybe we'll have our wedding renewals there one day....

Our room had a fire pit which was perfect for the cold summer weather on the coast. I think the warmest it was all weekend was 55 degrees!!!

Vino definitely helped in keeping me warm!

We had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Navio, and it was by far the best dinner I've had since our honeymoon! 

Pan-seared scallops over some sort of delicious bread pudding thing... Sorry, I'm not a foodie so I don't really know all the cool foodie terms :)  So sad we only had one each... I probably could eat 20 of them!

I ordered the Crispy Skin Loch Duart Salmon and everything just seemed to melt in my mouth with goodness.  Matthew ordered the New York steak, which I took a picture of... but he was being silly and flipped-off the camera (sometimes he acts like he's 12), so I didn't think I should post the picture here.  He seemed to enjoy his meal, but I was too busy nom-noming away and having taste bud explosions in my mouth to notice what he was doing on the other side of the table.

The best profiteroles ever for dessert with complimentary chocolates.

We had a late dinner and I was pretty tired from the long week, so I took a nice relaxing bubble bath in our room.  I stupidly didn't bring any books, so I was reading off of my iPhone while in the tub... I was SO scared I was going to drop that thing that I gripped my phone with both hands the whole time.  Yeah, not so relaxing...

Matthew surprised me with by booking a segway tour along the coast.  I rode a segway around San Francisco once for a work event and didn't crash, so I was feeling pretty confident about my skills. 

The views were stunning:

(We couldn't get a good shoot, but if you look closely someone had written "Life is Good" in the sand)

Who knew standing on a machine making oh-so-slight shifts with your body weight would make you so tired!?!  We were pooped after riding on the segways, so we spent the rest of the day hanging out at the hotel... but not before munching on the most delectable Crispy Fritto Misto:

The next day, on our actual anniversary, we decided to have lunch at our Rehearsal Dinner location:

They seated us at the exact same table we sat at a year and a day before.  When we first discovered the restaurant in Feb '09, we sat at that same table, too.  Coincidence?  I say it's kismet.

Rehearsal Dinner 8/7/09 - photo by 5footperspective

Sooo... we didn't save the top of our wedding cake because we left for our honeymoon the next day and I didn't really have time to wrap it up so that it was freezer-ready.   However, I love the idea of it, so on the way home we made a pit stop at our wedding cake vendor and bought a cake in one of our wedding cake flavors, Almond Pound Cake with Raspberry something filling:

Mmmm.. still just as good.  A heavenly way to end an equally heavenly weekend.

Cute Dogs, Bad Wife.

Matthew bought me a new toy!!! 

Marv

Harry

Marv, Matthew, & Harry

No... we've had the puppies for a while now.  He got me a new camera for our anniversary (since I stupidly lost our point and shoot camera last month):

What did I get him? A very long hug and a kiss on the cheek.  Yeah... I thought we discussed not giving presents to each other this year, but that cute guy you see up there getting licked by two even cuter bulldogs didn't seem to be paying attention during our conversation and went out and got me something anyway.  I feel like a crappy wife who never cooks or cleans and apparently never buys presents for special occasions either... did I mention he had roses delivered to me at work last Friday, too?!  See.  Bad wife.  I guess I just need to make up for it on Christmas this year since his birthday already passed and I didn't get him a present for that either!

Anyway, I still pretty much have no idea what I'm doing with the camera, but I'm having a lot of fun learning.  I'm thinking about taking a class... but I don't want to embarrass myself in front of other people with my weak shots and will probably do better searching for YouTube video tutorials and watching them in my pajamas at home.  Be prepared to see lots more gratuitous pictures of H&M along with zoomed-in photos of random objects around the house while I learn how to use this thing. 

Does anyone know of any good online resources for photography n00bs? If so, I'd love to hear them!

525,600 Minutes Ago

525,600 minutes ago, I was making my way down the aisle to marry this fantastic man...

The day could not have been more beautiful (or hot!).   All the tears and sweat in the 17 months I spent planning our wedding was well worth it. I got to marry the love of my life in front of all of our dearest friends and family....

And we partied like rock stars until our feet went numb...

It's been an amazing 12 months, Matthew. I think we make a pretty darn good team.  Here's to many more years of growing old together.

*photos by juliet nicole unless otherwise noted

Golfing in our Backyard

I went for a quick walk around our neighborhood last night to meet the hubs, his brother and cousin at the 18th hole, which was just a few blocks from home.

This is only the second time the hubs has played golf here since we moved to the community almost 3 years ago, even though he played golf all throughout high school.  I don't play, as I have abysmal hand-eye coordination, and would probably hurt myself before I ever hit that tiny white ball into the air.

I don't really get the fascination with golf... It's so hard to see that darn ball in the air, and even with my new 20/15 vision, I couldn't tell whether the hubs made a good hit until 30 seconds later when someone would point out where the ball landed.

A few things I learned about the sport last night:

- No talking allowed.  WTH?! I learned that the hard way when the hubs gave me the evil eye while I was talking to his cousin at the same time the group before them was teeing off.  Oops.  I forgot how serious some people take this sport. 

- There's a lot of waiting.  As a courtesy, you have to wait for the group in front of you to finish hitting so your ball doesn't knock them in the head while they're playing.  That would suck.

- That's probably why they drink beer... to keep themselves busy while the slow pokes finish their turn.

- Driving the golf cart through the fairway is waaaaaay fun! It felt like I was on a roller coaster ride with all the hills and turns on the course.  I think this is probably the REAL reason men like to play golf.

Before last night, I thought maybe I would try to learn how to play (even though I know I would suck at it)... but after watching the guys play, I realized that I should leave golf as his own thing with his friends. 

Darn - I was ready to buy some cute golfing outfits, too... I wonder in what other context I can pull off patterns like this?

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All We Need is Laughter

The other night, the hubs made a mean spirited joke at the worst moment, which resulted in a very upset me giving him the silent treatment. He apologized for said joke, but sometimes I can be a stubborn B-word and that night I was not going to let it go that easily (please tell me I'm not the only one who does this). I'm really good at holding my ground, too. I can stare him down and not even flinch. You do not want me to get upset. It's not cute.

Then, he went and did something like this (Note: This story will only make sense if you've seen Avatar. Otherwise, the story will sound a little stupid and you'll be left thinking "WTHeck?"):

[We were in bed and I had my back turned to him since I was trying to show how upset I was] Hubs: "Are you still mad? I said I was sorry." Me: [silent] [Hubs twisted my hair into a ponytail and touched the ends of my hair to the top of his buzzed head, simulating the Na'vi hair connection. I couldn't see him doing this because my back was turned, but I could feel the top of his head nuzzled against the back of my neck]

And I laughed. Hard. I laughed hard because I thought of how ridiculous I was for trying to be mad at someone who was just so darn cute. Why fight over something as stupid as a joke about my hair (or whatever it is I overreact about on a given day)?

Laughter resolves a lot of our stupid tiffs -- we rarely have arguments that last longer than 5 minutes anymore. Because, in the end, is it really worth it to fight for hours about nothing? From time to time, we still do get mad at each other and that's completely normal, but we try our hardest not to sweat the small stuff. After all, we are spending the rest of our lives together, I think it would be best if we got along :)

Our Avatars were created here

The Biggest Little City in the World

my only iPhone picture from the weekend

This past Sunday, for America's birthday, the hubs and I travelled three hours North to visit the "biggest little city in the world".  Why?  Who knows.  I needed to get away for the weekend and with the limited vacation I have left for the year, we needed to go somewhere not too far.  Plus, we planned it pretty much at the last minute, so the only city with hotel vacancy during the holiday weekend was Reno.  At first I wish we had gone somewhere nicer... maybe someplace that didn't leave my clothes and hair smelling like a box of Marlboro (gross... I hate the smell of smoke), but we surprisingly had an AMAZING time and I wouldn't change anything if given the chance to do it over again.

The Great International Chicken Wing Society Cookoff was right outside our hotel that weekend so of course that was the first thing we hit up!  Yum yum yum! I heart chicken wings!  The streets were lined with dozens of booths selling samples of their delicious wings along with lots of other goodies.  Here is the photographic evidence of the fun:

[Crap! I lost our camera!!!! I'm so bummed... I think we might have left it on our hotel room. So sad.  We bought that camera on our honeymoon because our "waterproof camera" didn't like the water.  So, there are no pictures to show.  I suck, sorry.]

[imagine a picture of me sipping a HUGE cup of OLL (orange-ade, lemonade, and lime-ade concoction) with buffalo sauce all over my face]

[imagine a picture of matthew holding up a delicious buttery corn on the cob]

[imagine a picture of a huge line of booths with lots of people milling around]

There was also a super great live band that played my favorite mix of country and pop - I'm talking songs by Lady Antebellum, Alan Jackson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and even Katy Perry.  We stopped to check them out and encountered some fascinating people in the crowd:

[imagine a picture of women scantily dressed dancing very wildly on the sidelines]

[imagine a picture of sweaty, funny looking guys mouthing words to the song being played by the band in the background and dancing in front of the stage]

Later that night, we went to a nearby hotel for dinner and walked passed a seemingly inebriated man yelling at me... or so I thought he was.  I looked over and it turned out he was screaming at someone on the other end of his cell.   I don't think he was having a very good gambling day.  Did you know that Reno was ranked as the #2 Drunkest City in America?  Gambling will do that to ya.

The rest of the night was spent low stakes gambling, carnival game winning, and late night eating.  What's more patriotic than that?

Hope your 4th of July went well (and you didn't lose your camera like my dumbass did)!

Genentech Gives Back

The hubs works at a great company - actually, a FANTASTIC company.

They've been on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work list for 12 consecutive years and even made the #1 spot in 2006. Most importantly though, Genentech makes breakthrough medicines that has helped millions of patients worldwide. They truly care about helping people and appreciating the people and employees who have helped make Genentech the company they are today.

Hubs has been working at Genentech since he graduated college 5 years ago, so I have been very priviledged to reap the benefits of being his +1 at every event. They throw these awesome holiday parties every year complete with casinos, ice skating rink, ferris wheel, unlimited food and drinks, multiple live bands, and fantabulous themed decor... every year they seem to find ways to outdo themselves. If that isn't enough, from time to time, they throw concerts for employees and guests, to show their appreciation for the hard work they put in. Previous performers include: Sir Elton John, The Eagles, Mary J Blige, Matchbox 20, and Black Eyed Peas.

So, it was no surprise when Matthew told me about an upcoming concert Genentech was putting together, that we were in for another amazing time.

The concert was held at the home of the San Francisco Giants, AT&T Ballpark. The entire ballpark was shut down just for their company. When they have their holiday parties there, it's so awesome. Some people only dream about getting to walk on the field and hang out in the bullpen -- I've had the privilege of doing that 3 times!

This concert was no exception. There were free concessions everywhere!! Matthew and I felt like little kids in a candy store:

Yes, that's me with beer in my right hand, wine hanging from my mouth, cotton candy, licorice rope and a hot dog in my left hand! What can I say - I'm a lady. Hey, if they say something is FREE I am going to take advantage.

Unlimited alcohol, chicken fingers, garlic fries, pizza, hot dogs, ice cream sandwiches, and anything else you can think of. I was too busy chowing down, I almost forgot there were actual performances scheduled...

First up: Natasha Beddingfield:


She was great and super beautiful in person.

It got way too crowded standing in the front. People kept pusing and shoving to get closer to the stage, so we moved to a more spacious location for The Fray and The Counting Crows:

We had a fab time that day... Thanks, Genentech!