Great Ballet

Yogurl and I went to a ballet! Can you believe it? She has been wanting to go to the nutcracker for a long time, but I kept saying, "Next year, dear." Well, she finally got me. A family that I home teach that is super cool (I actually assigned myself to be their home teacher when I was still in the Elder's Quorum Presidency) was big part of a Nutcracker production at Cal State Fullerton. The one in the pink dress had one of the lead roles as the Dew Drop Fairy. They all did really great. Their ballet group is really good--they won a big international championship in New York earlier this year. I have to admit, I really enjoyed the show. I was thinking that all the ballerinas were so graceful and talented and fun to watch. I began to wonder why guys are supposed to hate ballet. Then a ballerino appeared. I was tempted to cover Yogurl's eyes and lead her away from the theater, but she insisted we stay. Maybe insisted a little too much...

Another Sword

I just finished Sergeants Course today. It was a great 7 weeks, if you ask me. I got to do all sorts of fun stuff- drill, run around pretending to be an insurgent, go on patrols looking for pretend insurgents, eat MREs, learn about medevacs and calling for artillery support, etc. It was great. I'm actually a little disappointed that I have to go back to my normal job next week. At least my Lt. said I can have Monday and Tuesday off since I was the honor grad. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. They give me a nice new shiny sword to add to my collection and a 4 day weekend! In the pictures, you see SgtMaj Vines giving me my sword. He is one hardcore Marine. In one of the other pictures I am with Yogurl, who you all hopefully recognize. The last one I am with Sgt Cochran, who was the #2 graduate. I beat him by .03%. He had a big advantage over me on a lot of the infantry-type classes seeing as how he is a scout sniper. I felt kinda bad beating a real deal warrior, but oh well. He shoulda learned how to march better. Seriously, though, he was a super cool guy and nothing like what you would expect a sniper to be.
Anyway, that's it for now.

Holiday Season

We went up to visit the Manburger family for Thanksgiving, but we forgot our camera, so we have no pictures to prove that we were there. Hopefully my family will send me some soon so we can share. Yesterday we set up our Christmas tree for FHE. We had Soy Nog which isn't nearly as good as the real thing, but still very tasty.

Trip to the Lighthouse

This last Tuesday was Veteran's Day and Manburger and I both got the day off. Oh, the joys of working for the government! We decided to take a little trip to the Cabrillo Lighthouse. I love national parks, so I was excited to check it out. Half the fun was the drive through Point Loma to get there. I really enjoyed reading the street names as we drove along, b/c all the cross streets had names from literature...Poe, Shelley, Hugo, Dickens, Zola, Keats, Emerson, etc. Maybe we are just nerds, but I thought it was fun to try and see if I knew all the names and their respective eras or genres in literature. Also along the way was Fort Rosencrans National Cemetary. We saw a lot of families there visiting the graves of loved ones. That seemed like a very fitting Veteran's Day activity. Once we got to the Cabrillo National Monument, I didn't even feel like we were in So Cal anymore. Along oneside of the park, all you can see is the ocean and cliffs, no cities in sight. It was gorgeous. I loved the sedimentary layers in the cliffs; I think part of me still wants to be a geologist. I mean, rocks are so cool! I took this great picture of Manburger as he contemplated the mysteries of the universe.
After checking out the coast, we drove up to the visitors' center and actually saw the lighthouse. What a crazy life it must have been as a lighthouse keeper. In some of the displays, they mentioned that the family in the lighthouse rarely had visitors and there were no stores nearby. I don't think I could handle the isolation.
After our fun day at the national monument and going to watch Highschool Musical 3 (I have the greatest husband, I know!) we drove home just in time to see this amazing sunset. The colors were phenomenal. I love living right on the ocean.
The last photo is of Manburger and I getting ready to head off to the local pub to watch the UFC fight. Don't we look tough? It was quite the experience watching the fight with a bunch of drunk folks. Not too bad of a time, b/c I did get to watch the fight, but it sure made me even more glad that we don't drink. People sure do act like idiots after a few beers (or maybe they are like that sober too, couldn't tell). Unfortunately, Brock Lesnar beat Randy Couture, but payback should be coming soon, either Frank Mir, Big Nog, or Fedor will put his WWE butt in its place. Sorry to all those Lesnar fans out there, but I just don't like the guy.

Happy 233rd Birthday, Marine Corps!

We got to go to another Marine Corps Birthday Ball this year. It wasn't in as nice of a spot as previous years, but it was still nice. Two years ago, we were at the Marriott, last year we were at the Sheraton, and this year we were at the Holiday Inn. We were all joking that next year's ball will probably be in a Motel 6. As long as it isn't at a chowhall, I'll be okay. Anyway, we really enjoyed ourselves.
We actually got to eat birthday cake this year, which made Yogurl very happy. For some reason we haven't gotten to eat any in the previous years. There was also a super cool ice sculpture of an Eagle, Globe and Anchor. By time we got a picture, the melting had caused some blurring, but it still is really cool.

Fighting the good fight!

This Saturday Manburger and I did another round of sign holding in favor of Proposition 8. A bunch of other church folks met and for two hours we held Prop 8 signs on corners of a busy intersection. Mostly we got positive reactions, but of course there are always the angry people who flipped us off or mouthed "Nooooo" as they drove by or shot vitriolic comments at us. I think Manburger found humor in seeing how the against Prop 8 people reacted when they saw our signs. It's been really fun being involved in the fight to gain more support for Prop 8 here in California. I am eager for election day to be behind us so I can stop worrying about what the outcome will be and move on to other things.

Halloween on the cheap!

We had a fun Halloween this year. After we made the mistake of waiting until the week before Halloween to seriously think about our costumes, I made do with what we had in the house. I'd have to say I did a pretty good job making cool costumes out of a couple of sheets, some safety pins, and curtain ropes.
Manburger and I went to visit our friends (Brad and Lisa) in on-base family housing for trick-or-treating. After having two kids come to our house last year, we figured it was time for a change. Four of the ladies on Lisa's street set up chairs in one driveway and then Brad and Patrick took all the little girls trick-or-treating. It was so much fun seeing all the adorable costumes. I also enjoyed seeing whole families dressed up together. We definitely did not have leftover candy at the end of the night. Here's a picture of Brad and Lisa's super cute family. I love the little skunk costume Kayli is wearing.

New couch

We finally bought furniture! I know it's crazy! All our previous stuff has either been given to us or salvaged from the dumpster's doorstep (except for two or three Target shelving units, but those don't really count as furniture.) They were having a great sale at the base furniture store, so we just couldn't say no. They don't deliver, but it isn't hard to find a fellow Marine with a big truck, so we got it home just fine. Thank goodness for coworkers who don't care about high gas prices. The first picture is our old couch, which served us well for nearly two and a half years. The other picture is our new sectional. The picture at the bottom is a drawing I made of all the measurements of our main room, so that we could see how potential furniture would fit. It worked out great.

My best friend's wedding, really!

Hi everyone,
Two weeks ago we flew to Cincinnati to attend the wedding of my beautiful best friend. And let me tell you, it was a fabulous wedding! The bride was particularly gorgeous in her "cafe au lait" dress with ivory lace detail. On Sunday, the wedding day, Manburger came along to the conference center to make sure I could do my job as matron-of-honor and to be sure we got some great photos. The ceremony was so touching. I started getting teary-eyed when my Jenn was escorted by her parents down the aisle. One thing I found very cool was that the rabbi has known the groom since his bris and he also married Jenn's mom and stepdad. How cool! After the lovely ceremony, we had a delicious dinner. Jenn and Aaron picked excellent items for the menu. And then the dancing started. You know the chair dance from Fiddler on the Roof? Well, they did that at reception and I know that Jenn was very relieved when it was over. I made sure Manburger went up to hold one side of Jenn's chair b/c I figured he would make sure Jenn didn't fall out of the chair. Then followed more music and dancing and fun... Manburger and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We're so happy for the beautiful new couple and excited for their adventures in DC together. Hooray for happy married life!

Pants-Splitting Service

This week we got to go to an awesome service project. It is called the SUN Project. They do it every year in Oceanside. Basically, there were like 300 volunteers all in one neighborhood doing whatever we could to improve the area. The house Yogurl and I were assigned to was a mess when we got there. Our group painted the house and their fence, threw out a bunch of junk from the yard, and did general yard work. It looked way better when we were done than when we started. It was just so awesome seeing whole blocks filled with volunteers helping to beautify the area. I'm sure it really made a difference for the people who lived there. Yogurl managed to get lots of paint on herself, as you can see. The most exciting part of the day for me was after lunch. A local steakhouse provided a delicious meal for all the volunteers when we had finished working, which was a little before noon. We had just finished eating and were on our way out when I stooped down under some yellow tape so I could throw a bottle in a recycling bin. As I bent under it I heard and felt a significant ripping from behind me. I mean immediately behind me. I shot bolt upright and said to Yogurl, "I just ripped my pants." I then had a flashback of when I was young and my dad ripped his pants at a Home Depot. I decided to use his technique of embarrassment prevention. "Walk behind me." I told Yogurl. As soon as she started walking behind me, however, she saw the size of the hole and began to laugh hysterically. This served to bring more attention to me than I'm sure simply walking away quickly would have. Oh well, I guess I won't trust Yogurl to cover my behind again.

New Crib

Yogurl and I have been busy packing up this week to move to our new apartment. It is a long trip. Probably thirty yards away and a total of seven steps between here and there. Yogurl packed up several boxes of things over a week in advance. This has been frustrating since I never know where anything is to begin with. Anyway, we finally got the key today, so we can start moving in early. Isn't that nice of our Landlady? Of course, our apartment has flooded four times, so I think it's the least they can do for us.
The kitchen is about like our old apartment, but with newer appliances, which is nice. Plus it has two windows over the sink, so you aren't just staring at a wall. It will also help to cool the kitchen off after cooking, which will be swell.
Here's Yogurl standing on our little balcony. The view isn't that great, but it's still nice. We are excited to get moving tomorrow.

Random Photos of Yogurl doing stuff

Here's a fancy pizza Yogurl baked for dinner.

And here's Yogurl holding our new stainless steel, aluminum core cookware. Pretty high-speed, low-drag stuff!















This is one of Yogurl's latest bargain find. She found this quilt set at less than half price at Target.

These last three photos are of the local Artsplash event, which included lots of chalk art and other artist booths. Here's Yogurl in front of an amazing sand sculpture.

La Jolla Kayaking

Hey everybody, we just picked up the pictures of our kayaking trip to La Jolla Cove. It was super fun. We showed up at 9 to go out kayaking. It was still cloudy when we were out kayaking, which was fine by me. The other people who were supposed to be in the tour group didn't show up, so we got to go with a guide all to ourselves. The only hard part of the day was getting out past where the waves break. We got pushed back by the first couple waves and then when the third or fourth wave came we had gotten turned sideways a little, and we got dumped out of the kayak. Then the next wave almost slammed the kayak into us. At that point, Yogurl was just about ready to call it quits, but we got back on the kayak and got out just fine. Once we were out a little way, it was smooth sailing. We saw all sorts of fun stuff. We saw a leopard shark swimming around underneath us, a bunch of sea lions, pelicans, cormorants, and even dolphins. We saw the dolphins swimming a ways ahead of us, so we paddled over to try to get in their path, and they swam right by us. One of them surfaced maybe 10 feet from us. I stuck our waterproof camera underwater and took some pictures, hoping to get something good, but they turned out all blue. Oh well.
The area we were in is super nice. There are a whole bunch of little sea caves there that Yogurl got nervous being around, but they were pretty cool. After we were done, we ate yummy sandwiches on the beach.

Yogurl's Birthday!

Yes, it's true, I'm one year older and wiser too! Well atleast I hope I am. My thanks to everyone who left messages on our answering machine and sent fun gifts. Maybe I'm a bit of a nerd, but I always get super excited for my birthday. Manburger doesn't totally understand this, b/c whenever it comes to his birthday, he's always so disinterested. Maybe it's a guy thing?
Anyway, I had a great birthday. Early in the morning Manburger and I went down to La Jolla and went sea kayaking. Once we get the pictures from our waterproof camera developed, I'll tell you more about it.
My birthday cake was super wonderful! Manburger ordered a tres leches cake from my favorite Mexican bakery, it was perfect! As you can see from the pictures, it's iced in cream and filled with a strawberry filling. Yum-o!
In the evening, Manburger and I headed off to a restaurant called the Beach Grass Cafe for some California eats. I had a yummy stack of grilled veggies and some cheddar mashed potatoes (normally I wouldn't go for the mashed potatoes, but it was my birthday) and Manburger ordered Fettucini with scallops and a fresh tomato sauce. In the end, I think I ate as much of Manburger's as I did of mine. His pasta was amazing; it brought back memories of Boston's Northend. Needless to say, the restaurant was totally worth it, and I would love to go back.
Overall it was a great birthday, and I can hardly wait for the next one :) Just kidding, I'm in no rush for the next year to fly by.