Beaches and Science, Frittatas and Sofas

There's a random list for ya! I am enjoying the beginning of what will be a late night, complete with my sweet nerdtastic Star Wars pajamas. The past few days I've really enjoyed the new Matt Nathanson album (guilty, guilty pleasure). For example...

I spent the weekend in the bay area with Sean and his siblings. It was a much needed vacation (moving is much more time consuming and stressful than I remembered!) and was SO much fun. I don't have many photos at present, but I will share the best of the handful I took! I have a couple of fun instant photographs that will get scanned some time soon. Regardless...

On Friday, we drove down to his sister's place in Sunnyvale, had dinner and I got my photo at 1 Infinite Loop!!! Knocking items off the 24 before 24 list!

On Saturday, Sean and I went to Santa Cruz for lunch, shopping, and sight-seeing. We ended up at the Seymour Discovery Center at UC Santa Cruz, where I got friendly with some sharks and various sea creatures, and explored Sean's birthday party/sister's wedding spot. It is beautiful. I don't think I could ever tire of seeing the ocean. And some choice photographs!

At the Discovery Center.
That's right, fools. Science is important AND exciting!

Simply breathtaking.

Sean is the next scientist!

We spent the evening with his family, enjoying veggies and meats via grill and a hilarious game of Scattergories. On Sunday, we all went to the Pride Parade in SF. I had a very good time and picked myself up a little sunburn! Then we went to dinner and... well, [laughter].

And voila! back in Davis. Today I got a number of ducks in order. Including meeting and acquainting my sublessee with #3. She said a wonderful thing as we walked inside. "Oh, it's not as cute as it was in the pictures! I loved all of the color." I also picked out a sofa, courtesy of my sweet mom! Yes, that's right... I'm not getting a LoveSac which disappoints the adolescent Natalie very much but the adult Natalie will admit that it's probably a more appropriate piece of furniture for my living room. Plus... it's pretty darn spiff:

I also did a little bit of cooking for dinner -- christening my fantastic oven. I made my first frittata tonight! It was delicious. I had several different recipes but in the end got creative. First...

In very faint letters above the three holes, is the instruction guide to operating my oven. "Light Here." Yep. You actually light the oven. Fortunately, nothing blew up. Eyebrows are safe. And the frittata?

Goat Cheese Frittata

Not bad for my first one! Delicious goat cheese, red bell peppers, sweet onions, and broccoli! Why I have never done this before, I do not know. It's brilliant! It's like a puffy omelet sent straight from heaven. I will be making more of these soon.

And... back to work. *Sigh*

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Snooze Quarters

AND finally, the last room in my apartment: the bedroom. I have a bedroom! That's pretty exciting. Eventually, it will have a queen bed but for now it's just me and my twin bed being very close to the floor!

Oodles of storage!

My lovely wonderful walk-in closet!

Photos with my bed and lovesac will be posted ASAP.

Happy weekend, y'all!

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Sayonara, Number Three, etc.

A little break from working to show you my lovely living room! First...

Au revoir, #3!

I cleaned my old apartment yesterday and said goodbye. As I walked to my new place, dragging luggage behind me, I thought about how much had happened while I lived there. A few of my favorite memories!

• Driving from Anaheim on I-5 with my younger sister and mom in July 2009. We stayed the night. My mom filled the refrigerator with Diet Coke. My younger sister and I walked around the UCD campus. We got a little lost but found our way back.
• Moving into the apartment officially in September 2009. My mom and I did it in about two days. My favorite was building the IKEA furniture when we were completely exhausted... I believe we put the desk together slightly backwards and we totally failed at making some boxes. It was a sad, sad moment when she left.
• Watching the Jersey Shore, Community, and 30 Rock with Stephanie while we were slightly... quite drunk. We had a lot of intellectual discussions before class too... haha.
• Sharing the 390 sq ft with visitors including my Ali last April and Emily and Taylor last June! And, of course, Ali and my mum just two weeks ago!
• Christening my green shag carpet with Caitlin, blue bombsicles, and Paul Simon on the record player.
• And, finally, a little less than two months ago when I shared my love of Pushing Daisies with a gentleman caller and became rather smitten. Just a bit. 

And now for my living room!

The front window with my snazzy butterfly chair! 

Home office.
A giant gap where seating will go!

My fancy home theater system with TV + DVD combo circa 1999.
As well as my wall heater, coat closet and door to my bedroom...
Which is emitting green light due to some beautiful trees outside my windows!

I've picked out a seating arrangement that is affordable and makes me super happy. I wanted one real bad in high school and now the adolescent Natalie's dreams are coming true!

"It is $600, brown, suede, seats 3 people, is 3 feet tall and 6 feet in... diameter."
"It's a circle?!"
"Well, sort of... it's a LoveSac!"
"Oh my god, that's so cool...
...in the 90s."
"Hey! Mean!"

It's going to look hella cool with my butterfly chair. And it's going to be hella sweet for studying for prelims.

And just a few more things worth blogging about...

See the hot air balloons?! Lovely things to be seen at my train station...

Quite possibly one of my favorite outings yet with Sean.

This may be the last blog post for a while! I am going to Pride in San Francisco this weekend with Sean and some of his family! Which is sure to be all sorts of awesome. I'm very excited. So expect a post all about this weekend!

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#16

Hello from #16! I am all moved in to my new apartment -- my happy, spacious apartment! Two rooms are ready for blogging... behold!

My bathroom with Emily's graduation gifts installed!
It has fabulous pink and blue tile --
which goes swimmingly with flamingoes and lime green!

Half of my kitchen!

The other half! I know what you want...

Close up of my Wedgewood stove!

It's been almost three days of packing, hauling, lifting, tossing, unpacking, repeat! For the most part, I've been moving by myself. I did get help on Sunday from my friends Rashelle and Andrew with the big/heavy stuff (bookcases, desk, mattress). Then last night, Sean and I went to Ikea and bought almost an apartment's worth of furniture and assembled my $80 dining table + chairs...

Cheap coffee table!

The table!

The bed I picked out is...

Which we'll assemble once my mattress and boxsprings arrive! Besides the $7 end tables and $20 coffee table (what did we do before the Swedes invaded the furniture business?!), I'll be making these this afternoon:

And... my break is over! Keep cool... it's only going to be 99* today!

-Nat

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God Loves Mormons and He Wants Some More

I've been a tiny bit blue today, largely due, I think, to the chaos in my tiny apartment and lack of anything Natalie-esque on the walls (and the big ugly spider I encountered in my bathroom). Fortunately tonight I am the lucky recipient of text messages from my dear Caitlin. For example: "I'm going to write a resume with my realistic accomplishments in life, like knowledge of every Ludacris guess verse ever and proficiency in awesomeness." Mine include: memorization of all Billy Joel songs, producing great work under pressure, enthusiasm, seriously fantastic procrastination skills, and ability to pick up on other peoples' funks.

Regardless, I want to share the opening to the 2011 Tony Awards with you... in case I already haven't made you watch it in person:

It's been fascinating to watch the disagreements about the intentions of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the evilness/goodness of the musical, etc, unfold on my friends' Facebook walls. I've largely kept out of them, except to mention how fantastic this song is:

Anyway, back to packing. I'll leave you with this gem of a song written at BYU:

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Graduation+

Hello my long lost blog! Feels like it's been forever. I'm sorry for all you readers that depend upon me for your entertainment! ;-) Last week was finals week AND graduation. On Thursday, my mom and younger sister came to Davis to celebrate with me the challenges and feats of the past two years. I almost can't believe it's been two years... but then, again, I can. It's nice to think back and realize how much I've changed and grown. Anyway, Thursday was commencement. I got to sit next to my favorites Caitlin, Cheryl, and my advisor. Afterwards, my mom, sister, and I met up with Sean for sushi. Twas delicious and, of course, oodles of fun.

Celebration! 

Booking it to the ARC.

The Masters of Science.

Check our sweet sleeves out!

With my mum!

With my little Ali!

Check out my nifty hood!

With Rashelle, Doctor of Philosophy!

On Friday, we had a graduate group celebration. My advisor said very sweet things about me, I received an engraved cowbell, and we enjoyed lunch and photographing with faculty, grad students, and family.

Love my Aggies!

My mom and I!

Caitlin and me. She's the reason I've survived thus far!

Teri and me -- one of my most favorite people ever. Another person who is responsible for my grad school survival.

My advisor, Adrienne, and me!!

My favorite cow school!

On Saturday, my mom, sister, Sean, and I went to San Francisco. The Stein's collection was on display at the SFMOMA, which was fantastic!, and we also went up to Twin Peaks and to the Walt Disney Family Museum. Check out the fab photos:

Giant, modern spiders don't freak us out at all.

Ali and me at SFMOMA.

The views from Twin Peaks!

Walt, Mickey, and me!

On Sunday, we went to Old Sacramento -- checked out a few of the museums and statues, shops, and restaurants. 

Ali and me stage coaching it up!

Watching the Tower Bridge lift!

Pony Express Pride!

Ali and me getting our Rosie on.

Randomly running into my cousin's kids (who reside in Utah)!

My family left on Monday, and I spent the afternoon with Caitlin, running errands and cleaning out closets (we're moving soon!), and spent the evening with Sean watching TV. I ran around campus all day on Tuesday and we had our last lab meeting at a bar in Sacramento. I might be developing a taste of whiskey... good whiskey. Then I spent today in Sacramento. I also went out to the Folsom outlets and got myself a little graduation present. So, the graduation loot:

A few months ago, my mom got me an early graduation present! My sweet iPad. I love it! Thanks, mom!

My Ali and mom gave me Nichola the Narcoleptic puppet!
She's got quite the attitude and finesse. Thanks, Ali and Mom! She's my PhD pal!

Emily and Taylor (and Daphne) gave me some great pink and green towels and the above shower curtain for my ultra retro bathroom in my new apartment! I can't wait to hang it up! Thanks, Em and Taylor!

I got myself this comforter (Marimekko Samovaari!) for a steal for my new, fancy, grown-up queen bed that'll be in my new apartment! :-D

And, finally, a new purse to match my wallet! The lining matches my iPad cover!

And you've reached the end of a possibly record long blog post. All is well in California! Now... it's time to start packing up!

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