It may be Fall

As quickly as the summer heat and humidity came...it seems as though they may have to bid farewell in a hasty manner as well. It seems as though overnight the summer has turned to fall and I couldn't be happier! I really love the Fall weather. Sunny, blue skies, sometimes a small breeze---oooh it makes me giddy.

With the birth of Fall it means that I don't have to sweat for no reason! That is good news since I started using natural deodorant (I know earth mother here I come). Jeremy always gives me crap about using antiperspirant and how the chemicals are horrible for you, it may lead to Alzheimer's, blah, blah, blah. Well, this summer I decided I would try out being a true hippie and just use all natural deodorant. We were at Whole (Paycheck) Foods and we went by the natural cosmetics isle. I decided to stop and peruse the deodorant section. Sure enough, some smelled pretty granola--I'm talking patchouli oil scents here people! I couldn't hang with that and went for some kind of lavender smell. Of course, two days after I purchased my way to hippiedom, the humidity spiked up and I was really rethinking my choices.

I do not like to sweat unless I am running/spinning/hiking/shopping. I'm talking real sweat starting activities. Seriously though, if I'm a sweaty mess and haven't just come back from a 4mile run, I am not a happy camper. Just ask Jeremy. I proceed to have serious are-you-kidding-me meltdowns. You really don't want to get to know that side of me. It's not pretty.

I have to say this summer only produced about 2 weeks of unbearable sweating as far as I'm concerned. I cursed Jeremy's name more than once since he is against us getting a air conditioning unit. His motto is basically no air in the summer, no heat in the winter. Last winter I wasn't allowed to put the heater on until my mom came for Christmas. He would just tell me to put another sweater and a beanie on. Hello--pipes can freeze out here Scrooge! Don't get me started on the no cable rule. Anyhoo, the compromise to the no air conditioner fight was getting an input/output fan that you put in your window. I swear it made our room at least 10 degrees cooler.

It was a good summer. I will miss laying out on the beach and listening to the high schoolers talk about boys and the college kids talk about being a drunken mess the night before and who's sleeping with who. I will miss the long hours in the day and riding our bikes in the evening. We also saw a few good shows this summer in New York--Pete Seger's outdoor festival & Old Crow Medicine Show. I saw Britney (for free), but that doesn't really count as a "good show".

I will miss summer, but I am more excited for Fall. I love sweaters and boots. Yes, pretty much everything that is important to me is wrapped in my love for commercialism. I love being able to run outside and not have the humidity stifle my breathing. I'm looking forward to our 2 night trip to Lenox, Mass to be "leaf peepers". I also see some apple picking in the future and pumpkin muffins!

I really hope that the weather gods are not tricking me. They better not be luring me into Fall and then plan on bitch-slapping me with an Indian Summer. Not cool weather gods, not cool. I guess time will tell.

S.O.S (Summer of Schacalieu)

Chapter 3: Are you ready for some compost?

One of the things Jeremy misses most about Morro Bay would have to be his compost pile. Yes, if you didn’t know it already Jeremy is a hippie disguised as a distinguished Yale student. Well, a couple weekends ago Jeremy put his brain power and old man strength together to build The Schacalieu’s a compost bin. Yes, Jeremy has the strength of an old man, which means you don’t expect him to be that strong (by the looks of his lanky body) and are surprised at the jar caps he can twist open or the fact that he can pick you up.

Old Man Jeremy borrowed a table saw from a Yalie friend. He was going totally ‘green’ in his building plans (code for he is cheap and didn’t want to buy wood at Home Depot) and found an old wood palate down in our basement. The palate had some holes in it from where spiders used it as a home to birth their babies, so it was definitely perfect for our compost bin. Actually, it did turn out to be perfect and Jeremy was able to use all of the wood from it, transform the palate into a compost bin, and only throw away two wood scraps.

Jeremy was not injured in the building of the compost bin, no animals were harmed either. My finger got jabbed with a screwdriver, but that was the only casualty. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. Jeremy was so proud of himself he kept checking on the bin and asking me if it looked good. We commented on the rustic look of the bin and he said that ‘rustic’ was the exact look he was going for.

The following day we drove all the way to New Haven to go to Ikea for a glass container. I assured Jeremy that this type of container could be bought somewhere else, but his Yalie friend said they got their’s from Ikea…so we were off. Jeremy had ants in his pants and we arrived to Ikea before it was officially open. Have you ever been to Ikea before it is open? It’s hilarious. I would say about 75 people were there eating breakfast and then lining up. It was like the start of a 5K race. They have all the entrances roped off. To be funny, Jeremy started stretching. If I wrote for a sit-com I would do an Ikea episode where they get to Ikea early and the people just start charging the entrance.

We got two containers, one for us and one for our neighbor. We plan on hippie-fying Connecticut one neighbor at a time! 

The compost bin in all of it's glory, complete with hinging door

S.O.S (Summer of Schacalieu

Chapter 2: Cruisin' on a Sunday Afternoon

As many of you know from previous posts, Jeremy and I got ourselves some pretty sweet cruisers. The weather has finally warmed up (now too much) and we’ve been crusin’ all over the fine town of Fairfield.

It took a while for summer to actually warm up, but once it did we had a few weekends of pure beauty. Sunshine, no humidity-- it was loveliness! Those days are now gone and we are forced to endure sticky, warm, disgusting days. UGH, I’d rather it be snowing!! Seriously, I would rather be wrapped up in a sleeping bag jacket in our house because Jeremy won’t let us turn the heat on instead of sweating my ass off when trying to sleep, waking up because I’m so thirsty, oh and did I mention sweating my ass off because the love of my life won’t let us put a window air-conditioning unit in our room. I did force him to let me by another fan, so at least I got that!

Back to the few lovely weekends we had before they were interrupted by agony in the form of humidity. Yes, we have been cruising all over Fairfield and Jeremy has finally admitted to loving where we live. We’ve been going on bike rides every weekend and during the week after dinner on nights that it is nice out. Fairfield has free concerts on the green on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s so we’ve been checking those out as well. The last one we went to was an Irish band…it was hilarious…they were straight out of the movie, ‘A Mighty Wind.’ Needless to say we ate our dinner and then made a run (or should I say ride) for it.

We started a garden on the side of our apartment building with our neighbor, her veggies are soaring while ours are looking a little sad. We started from seeds and she started with starters…next year we’ll have a better plan. We planted lettuce, tomatoes, beans, basil, so far we’ve only been able to use the basil.

We’ve also been hanging out on the beach on the weekends. I say beach, but it is still like a really big lake to me. We ventured down there with some friends to play bocce ball and there were all kinds of horseshoe crabs. They are crazy looking and I think they were mating. Fun times!

In other summery news, we bought a little mini bbq at Target for $14 (hey big spenders!) and that thing is getting more action than Tom Cruise when he was in ‘Top Gun’. Jeremy is becoming a grilling pro and it’s nice to be eating outside on our little deck. Jeremy gets excited when he gets to marinade and then everytime tells me the secret is to keep brushing it on. Thanks for the news flash Jer, yeah…I know this trick already. Since I decided to stop being vegan, it’s more fun for Jeremy since he gets to cook chicken instead of tofu…he feels more manly and isn’t hungry all the time. We are now only buying organic meats that have no chemicals pumped into them. I may be crazy, but I think you can really see and taste a difference.

Ian, Alisha and the kids made an east-coast trip and stayed with us for a few days. It was great having them around. Bella and Peyton are growing up so fast. The really are good kids and fun to be around. We hung out in Fairfield with them, took them to the beach to hunt for sea shells and see some sand sculptures that were being built. Jeremy took them out for pizza multiple times and also to the Yale Museum. The only “bad” event was seeing Transformers 2. The kids were so excited to see the movie and it had just come out, so we all went. Let me just say, from the first 5 minutes, I knew it was going to be the longest 2.5 hours of my life. I will never get that time back. Yeah, it was horrible. Other than that, we had a great time and it was awesome to catch up with Ian and Alisha. We were suppose to meet them in NYC for 4th of July for fun and fireworks, but I had to ruin that weekend and get sick. It was a big bummer! What are you going to do? It was better I get sick then since I had a huge program coming up for work. Jeremy did force me to ride bikes down to the beach for fireworks and I’m glad he did. I love fireworks!!

S.O.S (Summer of Schacalieu)

So, July is almost over and I really haven’t posted much about our summer. So here’s the update…in Chapter's (beacuse our life is like a storybook story).

Chapter 1: Vegas
Summer started off in celebration. We went to Vegas to celebrate my dad’s 60th birthday. We weren’t sure what to expect (you know how family trips can be), but it turned out to be a really awesome and fun trip! My Aunt Shonda and Uncle Phil made the trip out, as did my brother and his girl friend (just a girl that is a friend, not a girlfriend?) Caroline, and so did our friend’s Myles and Laurie. It was great to see everyone and hanging out with Myles and Laurie was like old times. Laurie actually almost killed herself at a lunch outing. Now, there was some drinking involved, but not enough for what happened.

We had been lounging by the pool, enjoying a few light adult beverages..when we discovered that it was 2pm and none of us had eaten lunch yet. We went in to The Luxor and ate at whatever Mexican restaurant was there…I forget the name. So we order margaritas and food, while we’re waiting Laurie scooches up in her chair (we were sitting on high barstools) and the chair shoots back like a rocket. Somehow Laurie manages to claw into Myles’ arm and escape splitting her head open on the table (Seriously-we had not drank enough for this to occur…well maybe Laurie did…I don’t know). The flying barstool almost hit the lady at the next table behind us. It was crazy and loud! The whole restaurant just stopped. It was hilarious!

Before the fall?

Jeremy and I aren’t big gamblers, so I was hoping for some warm weather so I could try and jumpstart my tan. This didn’t really pan out, although I tried my hardest, so we did what anyone does in Vegas…drink and gamble. The good news is that I won $200 on a Wheel of Fortune game! I was stoked, but this only fueled my gambling fire. I was having so much fun, I believe I gambled away almost all the money. Seriously, I sat down to play Monopoly and it was making all these noises, and the colored lights, and I kept winning more pennies…until…I stopped winning and kept losing and the damn Monopoly machine ate my $50. Ah, the allure of Vegas!
On Sunday, Jeremy, my dad, and I started gambling together. We would take turns pressing the button and we would give ourselves a limit…if we won so much we would stop and move to the next machine, if we lost so much we would stop and move to the next machine. We did this for most of Sunday until it was time to see Love. I also got my first “free” drink in all my Vegas visits. Whoo hoo! Now we were talking!

Winners!

If you haven’t seen Love, the Beatles show in Vegas, I highly recommend it. It was one of the most amazing shows I had ever seen. I had never seen any kind of Cirque show before and this one just blew my socks off.

Being silly walking to Love

Waiting in line for Love

Posing at Revolution Bar

We also went to dinner at The Palazzo to celebrate my dad’s bday on Saturday. The food in Vegas is wicked expensive and this was one place that looked nice and the prices weren’t astronomical. It was really hard to pick a place from online menu’s and pictures that would be good for a larger group. The food was good and I think my dad enjoyed himself. We got a good picture outside the restaurant of my dad on the silver bull that was outside the restaurant doors. After dinner we headed to New York, New York (the casino, not the state) for some piano bar action. This was definitely one of the most memorable times ever! Joseph and Caroline gave the piano guys some money to sing Happy Birthday to my dad and it worked (after a couple tries). They started playing Happy Birthday and called my dad up. Once my dad was up there they started playing, “Right Said Fred- I’m Too Sexy”. This was hilarious!! My dad was dancing around and they had him take off his jacket and then ladies started putting money down his shirt. Joseph captured all of this on video, but he hasn’t sent it yet. Once he does, I will post it.

Bday Cake

Bull Riders

All in all, this was a great time and an awesome way to kick off the summer. Since it still wasn’t sunny or warm in CT, it was nice to see the sun when we emerged from the dark, air conditioned casino’s. It was in the high 70s when we were there…actually kinda cold for Vegas in June, but oh well…begger’s can’t be chooser’s right?

More of S.O.S to come in later posts!

If only Cheney knew how to deal with terrorists this way...

                                                  

If you've ever wondered what the Schacalieu's are up to on a Friday night...well guess no more! Enjoy the video! (make sure you have the sound turned up on your computer)

This video was made in response to Mr. Potato Head being kidnapped from our house during Pie Palooza. Check out our post from November titled "Pie Palooza" for more background info.

Make new friends? Definitely keep the old!

This past weekend our friends Mark & Dina were in NYC for one day only. Jer and I drove up to JFK to pick them up and then we went over to Phin & Carla's for a day of jam-packed fun. They had a one day layover (more like 18 hours) from coming home from a trip to Italy.

When we picked them up, they had 4 HUGE suitcases. We were a bit worried about getting them into the car, but were able to wedge two in the trunk, two in the back, and our queen size blow-up mattress was on my lap. We had to bungee the trunk closed and hoped that no big potholes would send their luggage flying. The luggage also weighed quite a bit due to the huge wheels of asiago and other Italian cheeses they were bringing back. Mmmm, that cheese was yummy!

We haven't seen Mark & Dina in almost a year. The last time was at our wedding, so it was great to see them. Phin had a great day planned of showing them some of the bigger NYC sites, so we went to Grand Central, Central Park, and (our all-time fav) the beer garden. 

The beer garden is this amazing bar that actually has a huge beer garden outside with picnic benches and a stage where bands play. All you can get to eat there is sausages and kraut. Luckily they also have veggie burgers there, so I was able to eat!

It's so great with friends that you don't see or talk to for a while and the minute you see each other again, it's like a day never passed. Those are the real deal! Those are the kind of friends we are really missing out here in CT. You don't really know what you have until it's gone.

Jeremy and I were talking on the way home and realized that we laughed more and harder then we have in a long time. Dina and I almost peed our pants when Jeremy screamed like a girl as a subway train passed loudly.

I just think of my college Broad Street house days when most of these friendships were made and really realize how great we had it. One...it's hard to make friends, two it's really hard to make good friends. I'm not trying to get all depressing...we've made friends, people we go out with and can have a good time with but only one or two may be around in the long run. It's kind of sad. We think we've made a friend and then something happens and true colors are shown. 

It was hard to make friends in SD at first, but eventually it all started fitting together. Although, this was just about the time I had to move to CT. In the end...I would rather have 5-8 amazing friends then people who make me feel awkward or bad about myself. 

This atmosphere is tough for both Jeremy and I because Yale is just a different place. We really feel like fish out of water with most of the people here. Boo hoo, we are such sad sacks. 

Our next awesome friend reunion will be with Laurie and Myles in Vegas. We are going there for my dad's 60th and I'm sure it will be a good time. Viva las Vegas!!

The thing is...you never know who you will meet in your life...sometimes your life will be filled with great people, other times may be a bit lonelier. All Jeremy & I know is that we are glad to have each other right now and can't wait to get back to all of our family and friends on the West Coast. 

Here are some pics from the weekend...

The Beer Garden

Strawberry Fields

Mark & Dina

The twins have arrived!

Here are pictures of Rene's beautiful babies!!!

Say hello to Jackson

and Corinne!

Congratulations to Rene & Doug!! There hand are going to be quite full for quite a while!

Here are their stats from their birday, May 7th:

Jackson- 4lbs, 11oz & 18" long

Corinne- 5lbs, 0.5oz & 18.5" long