Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Landscaping: Gravel Patio, check!

After much hard work on the part of Mr. Spina (and very little, but still hard, work from Ms. Lau), we are ready to unveil our almost completed new gravel patio! (nice.)


Remember how the back yard used to look? Well, here's a photo to remind you. It is from before we even bought the house. Check out dad checking out the surroundings. It stayed this way, pretty much the entire time we've lived here. We've just been busy with the inside. But with Spring in full swing and Summer following quickly, we thought it was about time that back yard saw some action!


Progress pics from prior posts.




Pics from just yesterday:




Today! (ta-da!)


Please ignore the waiting for mulch cover far back planter area. And we haven't touched the entire rest of the yard, in front of the new patio. There's big plans for a pathway, lots of plantings, a deck, a vegetable garden....

Our focus has been this gravel patio. We had been rushing to get it in shape in time for Sergio's parents, arriving tomorrow from Sutri!

So, posts will be rare in the next week and a half as we'll be chillaxin with Nora and Bebi in our new fabulous patio. Can't wait to have you all over soon.

Ciao for now!

The Landscaping: The Back Yard - still progressing...

We're actually almost complete. Will have pics tomorrow. The gravel is in but the pavers...let's just say we're going to leave that battle for another day. Like, waaaay another day. Sergio just told me that it's time for me to go to bed. Ok caro.

night, night.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Happy 1st Birthday Miles Jackson!

Well, well. Look who turned one!

Jennie told us that a baby's first birthday is a big deal in Korean culture. Well yes ma'am it sure is. The event was pretty amazing. There was such incredible attention to detail, from decorations to party favors to the food! Liz said there were 10 courses and I know I ate way too much of every single one of them. I only had room for one of the two cakes!

Then, there was the laughing. Towards the end of the evening, after the 10 courses...Omar somehow, surreptitiously attached a balloon to what I think was Nelson's pant belt loop, behind his back, literally. When Nelson got up and began walking through the party with the balloon following, it was kind of chuckly funny. But then, Nelson started hamming it up for us, posing with rubber duckies he found, clearly not aware of the yellow orb bobbing just above his head. That was when it became painfully funny. I was crying. The more he posed, the more we laughed, which egged him on some more. Dear god it hurt. There's a swirly picture I got of Nelson and his balloon buddy that got that way because I couldn't hold the camera still due to said laughing. I'm sure guests at other tables thought we were insane.

Anyway, please enjoy a few snapshots below. Others with way more serious equipment will clearly have way better photos than I. So I won't be posting too many here. And I KNOW there's a video to be released of the balloon silliness and ensuing hilarity, so I won't post pics/vid of that either...but I did post a video of the warm-up to the balloon incident.

Thank you Jennie and Page for the wonderful party! Give the little man a big hug from me.



The Paparazzi:






Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Landscaping: The Back Yard - progress!



It stopped raining. I finally have my Mark Twain Gray Brick wall. We're in the final stretch for the gravel patio. Tomorrow's going to be a big day.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Geriatric Vampires

That is what Sergio is talking about here with Betsy, who found it quite amusing.



These photos are from the first of the month when she and I got out of work early the day before Good Friday. We decided to hit up Mixville, a casual bar located in an old firehouse. For a moment, it was our own private party as we were the first ones there. Light from the setting sun still filtered through the giant skylights above the bar. We marveled at how lovely it was to be sipping cocktails at 5pm on a Thursday, when we would usually still be at work.

Sergio joined us later when the bar had filled up nicely. Too bad for him, we had already scarfed down nearly every morsel of the de-li-cious Blue Cheese Tarragon French Fries. yum. yum. (yum).

We ended up back at her house where we joined Justin to watch Flight of the Conchords. It was our first time with this show. It is pure genius.

P.S. Springs showers bring May flowers! And a full stop on landscaping work. So, nothing new to report on that front.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Ching Ming 2010

Fifth Uncle flew in from China for about two weeks. He came in time for Ching Ming.






After the dead have their meal, the living get to enjoy theirs.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Searcing for Dinosaurs

Our backyard has become an archaeological dig site. Sergio has unearthed a smattering of interesting objects, including shards of vintage Corona bottles, massive chunks of cement, giant old tree roots, what looks like an old structural foundation and bones! Not human, we don't think.

We keep finding things that need to be excavated before we can continue leveling the area. The process is taking a lot longer than we expected. We keep finding concrete and cinder blocks buried a few feet in the dirt that need to be sledgehammered and removed. It's really slowing us down. If only we were unearthing big bags of money instead of this stuff:





Sergio is pretty tired right now. He was supposed to work tonight but ended up falling asleep on the couch. And it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Dang it.