And A Quick Catch-Up!

Hello, all of our friends!

Wow, it feels as though it's been forever! I wish we could say it's because so many great things have been happening, so many trips taken, and just living it up has gotten in the way of the blog. Sadly, it's a lot of the mundane that have kept us busy. Not that we didn't have a few surprises...

In the beginning of February, Jen came home from her externship in order to eat and check on the dogs before heading up to Stanford, but she was delayed. As she was leaving the house, she saw that there were a TON of police officers pointing guns at our neighbor's house. The short story is that these neighbors were involved in a carjacking (which later was based on a false charge, but they're still not nice people) and the police suspected something was going on and raided the house. While the neighborhood was able to evacuate, because we had the dogs, they had Jen stay in our bedroom with the dogs in the house. Originally we thought it would just be for a little bit, but she was in there for about six hours, holed up with the three dogs! It was pretty scary, considering what was going on, but all ended well. There were a few arrests, and aside from being shell-shocked, Jen and the dogs were okay.

We also just got done repairing our car. The Civic was acting up, and something went wrong with the transmission. When we took it to one of Jeff's regulars at Starbucks, and to the dealership to get an estimate, it turned out there were a LOT of things wrong with the car, including a crack in the manifold and the engine mounts were about to go out. All in all, we spent a lot of cash fixing up the car. It doesn't deter us from ever buying a Civic again; Jen got this car and was the original owner when it only had 3 miles on it. Now at around 130,000, except for this latest round of repairs, we have had to put in minimal repairs, considering we've driven it across the Continental Divide numerous times.

Not everything was such crazy news. We got tickets to go see The Hunger Games in an advanced screening in San Francisco. There was a lot of driving from Newark to Fremont to get our youngest niece, Amy, then to Sonoma to get our oldest niece, Sarah, who's in college there, then to get to the theatre. We thought we were super late, since we didn't get there until almost 7 and the film started at 8, but because we got our tickets through Barnes and Noble, not only did we get to go in first, but our section was perfect; the back third of the theatre! We sat in a row with no one behind us, and got to stretch out a little in the nice seats. The four of us loved the movie. Jen had just finished the book a day or so before, and now Jeff is working on it.

Otherwise, everything is same old, same old. We are still working hard, going to school, and trying to stay out of trouble. Easter in a week will likely be low-key, and in May Jen signed us up to go to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium for us to see the Cooking for Solutions weekend, where we will sit in on a cooking session with Alton Brown as well as see exhibitions on sustainable foods, followed by a summer of school and working to pay bills. Oh, and planning a trip. Jeff is going to Houston for a Starbucks trip, and since everything will be covered, Jen's going for the ride too! Even if it isn't until October, it's something to look forward to, right?

Until next time!!