yet some more birth control courtesy of my sister

i was super busy yesterday.. because of this i didn't get a chance to answer my phone..
when i finally checked my messages this is what i got:
(from my sister) "hey chara.. just wanted to ask you a question.. isaiah swallowed a magnetic marble today.. actually it's a little bigger than a marble.. but either way he swallowed it.. he walked up to me, pointed to his mouth and said 'mommy swallow'.. i already called a nurse and she said he'd be fine.. but i wanted to know if you knew anything about this kind of thing.. anyways... call me and wake me up tonight if there is something i should know.. otherwise.. just keep laughing.. "

isaiah is fine.. actually went to the doctor.. who x-rayed his abdomen.. which was much more traumatic than actually swallowing the marble..

I think I'll stay

I'm back home in San Diego

and there is something very nice about walking around outside in a teeshirt in January.

the puppies are happy to see me, and I think i'll probably stay here for a while

Ben...

Finally, a good movie!

my movie going experience has been redeemed. I have finally seen a good movie.

It was Thank You for Smoking, and it was great. Super funny, very cute, great cast, great script. Not the best movie ever, but by far the best I've seen here, and I really enjoyed it.

Ben...

Oh and the performance of the Brazilian Girls at the outdoor Music on Main concert tonight was amazing as well (being on stage with them also helped) I've seen more good music performances here than movies.

Music On Main Street Concert


And there was free cotton candy



And hot cocoa from this guys with a hot cocoa dispensing backapck. I need one of those.

chopsticks

inspired by his auntie loan, isaiah tries to embrace his vietnamese culture..
 
 

 
 

I was this close to getting onto the North Face helicopter

But alas... it was not to be.

We were trying our darndest to get onto the North Face helicopter that was taking celibrities, and the North Face Athletes out skiing while we were out here at Sundance. But the helicopter was booked, and we were not famous enough. So instead we just got to hang out at the North Face house, but that alone was still a great experience.

check out the views from the house in this video. They are spectacular.

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Two more things checked off my list

see a movie
go skiing

So I finally got to go see a movie today, and finally went skiing yesterday...

So I've been at Sundance 11 days now and I've finally gotten around to seeing a movie. So I head down to the Yarrow Theater to catch the press screening of the premiere of Alpha Dog.

Wow.

What a crappy crappy movie that was.

Justin Timberlake needs to stick with the singing and dancing thing

Well at least I finally got to see a movie. Hopefully I'll get to see at least one more to try to redeem the movie going experience thus far.

and yes I did get to go skiing finally as well. We went out yesterday and it was awesome. And let me tell you about awesome

Awesome = free lift ticket ($78)
Awesome = free lunch by a private chef at a ski in ski out house right on the mountain (priceless)
Awesome = free stuff they give you at the house while you are just sitting there eating lunch (mostly crap, but its free crap)

I have some video I will try to edit and put up here later.

And its snowing like crazy now and I may get to go again tomorrow. I hope so...

Ben...

crazy on you..

i have this instructor who is a little bit crazy...
there are only 90 students in the nursing program at my school.. because of this, most of our lecture classes happen in big halls with all 90 of us sitting together like one big happy family..not so this semester.. this time.. we have one class where we are split up.. half of us meet at 8am, the rest of us meet at 12pm.. this made 45 nursing students very unhappy.. you see we nursing students like to get up at 5am.. and get our day over with.. so every one of the 90 students wanted the 8am class.. of course that didn't work.. so.. every one in the 12pm class is trying to crash the 8am class...
here's where the 'crazy' professor steps in..
crazy professor states that, due to group projects, she'd like an even amount of students in both classes... she then, without having anyone drop the 8am class, added 7 people from the 12pm class... now she has too many people in the 8am course.. and she is unhappy with that.. and she is unhappy with those of us from the 8am course who refuse to move to the 12pm course.. she tried offering 4% extra credit for anyone willing to move, or for anyone who could come up with a solution to this problem..
the 4% extra credit didn't impress us..we didn't know what 4% extra credit even meant.. 4% of what? we weren't sure.. so we stayed put..
now she is super mad.. and informed us by email that she will hold a lottery system pulling 7 people out of the 8am class...
this is where i'm pretty sure our professor has lost it.. you can't pull students out of classes they have registered for just because you messed up and added people you shouldn't have..
this will not work for me.. i have a class directly after the 8am class that would conflict with the 12pm class..
if she tries this, and it works, and i get pulled out of class thanks to her genius lottery idea i'll be pretty upset, and i'll have to drop a couple other classes..
if this happens.. i just might drop nursing all together and go to work with ben's company.. he seems to be having a good time right now..
oh yeah.. this is the teacher who is giving us a not so secret pop quiz on the syllabus tomorrow.. has anyone ever been tested on a syllabus? i don't even know how to study a syllabus..

I found the place I want to live

So today i viisted the North Face house. They have taken over a house atop Deer Valley ski resort and it was absolutly amazing.



First the house is an 11 million dollar house with a huge panormaic view of the most gorgeous mountains and valley below.



This house alone was amazing. Now stuff this house full of North Face gear, Lee jeans, some guys custom making some sweet belts, some energy drink, and some Keds shoes and not to mention a private chef.

The private chef Joe was amazing


















and he made us this amazing halibut



The house was amazing, the people were very nice. I also ran into Chrispen Glover, Peter Sarsguard, and Michael Rappaport while there.

The only bad thing about the day was that we were this close to getting on the North Face helicopter for some awesome heli-skiing. But alas, the helicopter was full, and we were not able to get on it.

But they did give me this sweet North Face Jacket, so i forgive them.



All in all, not a bad day. And I'm hoping to go back tomorrow to do some skiing from the house with the North Face skiers.

Ben...

Sorry Chara, we are moving to Utah.

there's no place like home..

it's over 70 degrees in lovely southern california..now that's more like it..

Vote for Pedro

 
 

you say it's your birthday...

yesterday was ben's 30th bday.. and it was a very long.. but very good day.. we will blog about it more when we have time.. let me just say that it did involve a party with paris hilton..
but for now i just wanted to say.. 'happy birthday my love..'

Ben and Chara at Sundance

Welcome to the snowy town of Park City Utah.

A normally quiet town for 50 weeks a year, the Sundance film festival brings in thousands of visitors from out of town to watch some movies, take in some parties, and wear thier fuzzy boots.

Chara and I are in Park City Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. Chara is only in town for a few days then she has to return for school. I am here for 10 days for work.(see video below) But its nice having Chara in town for the weekend. Today in fact is my birthday. And not just any birthday, but the big 30. But I'm in Park City, its snowing out, and we are going on a nice sleigh ride dinner up to this mountain lodge tonight. Not bad... Not bad at all.

Ben...

stay tuned, more video blog covereage to come

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chillin' out...

ben and i made it to utah.. we're at sundance.. we're having a great time.. but i'm freezing cold... gotta go put on more socks..
 
 

Made it to Utah safely but...

Its darn cold here...

 


Park City is abuzz with thousands of L.A. transplats shuffling around with thier fuzzy boots and big sunglasses. I'll be here for the next 10 days doing a video blog of the event. I'll post some of the videos here if you want to see them.

you will need to install the DivX Browswer plug-in to view the videos.

Ben... 

update

backyard: dry
shop vac: broken
puppies: so sad that their wading pool is gone..

a great invention to solve one of the worlds greatest problems

you know when you have a song stuck in your head, but you don't know who sang it, what its called, what the words are, but you have it repeating incessantly in your head as you tap the rhythm out on your steering wheel.

Well now there is a solution

The Song Tapper was invented for this very purpose. Simply load the web page, and tap the song out on your keyboard and it will tell you what song you are trying to find.

and the more amazing thing... it works... It quickly found "I wanna rock and roll all night" by Kiss the very first time.

check it out

Ben...

water water everywhere...

so... awhile ago ben decides that he was sick of refilling the dogs water bowl.. because some times he would forget.. and i would call him a bad dad.. and he didn't want to be a bad dad.. so he bought this wonderful self refilling water bowl.. all we had to do was hook this water bowl up to our hose.. and it will keep refilling the bowl forever and ever.. good idea.. right..
so this morning.. sadie comes in the house.. soaking wet.. all her paws are dripping with water.. ben thought this was a bit weird.. he didn't think it rained last night.. but whatever.. no big deal.. he then leaves for work.. going out into the front yard, he noticed that it did not, in fact, rain last night.. still he thought it was a little weird.. but whatever.. he went on to work..
so i get up.. and i'm in the computer room.. and keaton comes in soaking wet, and shaking water off her body.. well that's weird i thought.. it didn't rain last night. so unlike my perceptive husband who ignored those thoughts.. i went to investigate..
and i looked outside.. and i saw that the whole entire back yard was flooded with water.. it turns out.. that wonderful bowl that ben bought had broke some time last night.. and the hose had been separated from the bowl, and just keep filling our back yard with water all night long.. so... that's where all the water came from..
so i have spent the morning with a shop vac trying to unflood our backyard 16 gallons at a time.. and all the while i am doing this the dogs think it is a great time with the wet wonderland that is our back yard... keaton likes to take quick nips at the water hoping that she'll catch a fish.. and she likes to run and attack sadie while splashing water everywhere..
i have now moved gallons and gallons of water.. and i have managed to break the 'industrial strength' shop vac.. i don't know how.. it could be that keaton likes to attack it while it is vacuuming.. i don't know.. it could be that the poor shop vac is tired after all that work.. so for now i'm going to have to leave the back yard partially flooded..
so now i'm all wet and muddy.. and i would just like to say thanks to ben.. who saw the soaking wet dog and did nothing about it..

Deborah making a wish

We took the kids to the swapmeet on Sunday. There were way too many people there.

but we stopped and played on the grass and it was fun

 
 

Cowboy Isaiah

Cowboy Isaiah getting ready to go to the swapmeet

 
 

back to the real world...

ben and i were in vegas this weekend.. and even though it was mostly work for ben we had a good time..
my favorite thing about vegas is the TI buffett.. it's not that the food is so good.. it's the dessert bar that's awesome.. they had so many desserts.. it was great.. and they even had cotton candy.. yumm.. i was a very happy camper..
but we're home now.. and it's back to work tomorrow..

ben and super mario

 
 

chara's favorite thing about vegas

 
 

seven years ago today...

ben and i said both said i do.. congradulations to us.. we made it seven wonderful years..

-Chara

Seven years ago today, i married the most beatiful and wonderful girl in the world. Seven years later, she is more beautiful and an order of magnatude more wonderful. I am truly blessed by having her.

-Ben...

frites

i went back to work this week.. and it was wonderful..
i had a lady ask me an interesting question about the menu.. she wanted to know if the reason we called our french fries 'chips' was because we hated the french and refused to call them 'french fries'.. i had to explain to her that.. no, in fact we have always called them chips.. like 'fish and chips'... and that we did not change our entire menu because bill o'reilly hates the french.. and that i myself have no problem with the french people.. but that was until three french guys came in last night.. sat in my section.. and camped out for a hour and a half after their meal was over.. then i wasn't the biggest fan.. they did tip well though.. partially redeeming themselves..

A Beatiful Sunrise

A beatiful sunrise over Las Vegas. We got up early to head out to Red Rock to go climbing

Red Rock kicked my butt

So Bill (a guy i work with) and I came out to Vegas a day early to get in some climbing out at Red Rocks before we start the chaos that is the Consumer Electornic Show. so we get up the crack of dawn and head out to Red Rock, which is only like 20 minutes off the strip. So we get there and hike in, about an hour or so, with a ton of rock climbing gear on my back. We got lost and missed the trial so we made our own through the bushes and cactuses and big rocks and up big hills etc. I was dead tired and sweating like a pig when we got to the rock. Now the rock is in the shade which translates to colder than the coldest thing ever. Long story short, we get to climbing this 8 pitched climb, i forget the name of it. First pitch, my feed cramp up due to the extreme cold and i can't feel my hands... at all. second pitch, my legs give out, cramping up consistantly due to stress and cold. pitch 3-4, my arms give out, my hands are useless and my brain is mush at this point. it was then, that i decided i was done. and i a great decision it was too. my body barely functioned enough to rapell down. but all and all it was a beatiful day, and some good climbs, and a great excuse to get off the Las Vegas strip.


all that to say, Bill was a great climber, and we did have a fun day.

The Route. 8 pitches to the top of this mother. we did 4 and i was dead. but it was beatiful and a fun day.

Red Rock, Las Vegas

Red Rock, Las Vegas NV


this place was gorgeous. Cold, but very pretty.

safe and sound

we had 10 days of christmas fun in washington.. but it's nice to be home.. in our absence keaton has been depressed and gained 10 lbs.. poor puppy.. she can hardly fit through the doggie door.. sadie actually lost weight.. but i don't know if it was because she was depressed.. or because keaton ate all her food..
we're going to be busy busy for the month of january.. ben leaves for vegas today.. and i go back to work tonight.. so i've gotta go find my apron.. and all the other stuff that goes with working..
hope you all had a great christmas.. and a happy new years..