It's fall!

Or rather - It's Fall? Hmmmm. Somehow, fall or our version of it here in Southern California is here. Since we don't have the weather to cue us in, we rely on indicators such as Halloween candy appearing in the grocery store, a gentle breeze that upgrades itself into the Santa Ana's and then there is the sun disappearing quicker than I would like, in the evening.

Last week, I noticed a chill in the air as I left for work at 7:00 AM and knew that Fall was eminent but this evening it hit me smack in the face. We returned home from San Diego, after taking a quick nap on the couch I ran to the market and I didn't give the setting sun much thought until I came out of the store to find it completely dark - like middle of the night dark, What the hell? I guess we fall back on November 4th and while I love an extra hour in my day (Ok - really, I'll take two) having less sunlight makes me a little sad.

I think I have a wee bit of the Sunday night blues.

So, we had a really nice weekend. I would love to show you all beautiful pictures, however, I left my camera charger (instead of my heart) in San Francisco and will be waiting for a fed-ex to appear - ANY.DAY.NOW with my charger in it. Yes, I discovered the missing charger on Friday morning as we were unpacking the remaining items from our luggage we took to SF and packing in items we would need for SD.

We left the house last Friday -sometime around noon-ish and headed to Carlsbad where we ate at The Coyote Grill where we had Rattlesnake eggs - Jalapenos stuffed with cheese and shrimp then wrapped in bacon - YUM. I am pretty sure dirt would taste half way decent if it was wrapped in bacon. How I love the pig..... mmmmm bacon (using Homer Simpson's voice). D and I also shared an order of steak nachos and though I totally wanted a margarita I knew I wanted to run even more so I opted for a mineral water. I know - so exciting, the life I lead. At some point in our conversation, we started talking about blogging and D had me convinced that I give way too much of our personal info over the Internets and that we should expect to arrive home on Sunday to find all of our personal belongings stolen due to my blogging about every detail of our life. Fortunately, his fatalistic - doomsday-ness had left once we pulled up to Paradise Point. Can I get a shout out for those who want to bop their DH's on the head when they start ragging on the whole blogging thing. Hello - Ever heard of Dooce? She is my hero, btw.

We ran into family 5 minutes after our arrival and D was happy to chill with them while I went for a run. Mission Bay is a very sports and family friendly area of SD - it is also where Sea world is located and where the Thunder boat racing - the water equivalent to Nascar - took place this weekend in the raw sewage filled bay. I know, I know you are all jealous. The highlight and focus on this weekend though was Grandma's 80th and yes, we partied like it was 1999. It was a blast - alot of fun, great food and yummy wine. So, back to my run. I found this little park situated right next to the resort property and thought it would be safe - in my peripheral vision I could see what looked like a group of AT& T wireless people - highly swagged out, I mean the tent, the polo shirts, the volleyball - they were probably spelling out AT&T with hot dogs - who knows. Anyway, I felt safe - until on the third loop and approximately 12 minutes into running ( this is my current record, BTW) I noticed a man exiting the public restroom. OK, not a big deal but each time after I looped around ( I was walking at this point) I noticed another man would appear - from the restroom I would presume. So, I decided after the third walking loop and 6th total loop I would switch to an area where I could see other people in the distance, I believed to be overflow from the Thunder boat racing. Not so much and here in lies my problem with running or really just doing any kind of exercising in public. People and dogs both - scare the living shit out of me and I just can't figure out if the young kid walking toward me is going to try to mug me or say hi to me. AAAACK - it's really too much for my brain sometimes. I am such a worry wart.

Ok - back to the great weekend. Friday night, D and I went to Little Italy and picked up super yummy pizza's from Fillipi's. If you love pizza as much as I do and will be in San Diego in the near future - this place is a must.

The other highlights of the weekend were playing tennis the following morning with my cousin Cassidy and her friend Rachel wherein she attempted to catch the very first tennis ball I hit, with her eye socket. This was after a 10 minute warm up that included running around the court, jumping jacks and a lecture on communicating between team members because "TRIPS TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM WERE SIMPLY NOT ON THE AGENDA". Yeah, so they weren't really listening, well Cassidy was - Rachel, not so much. She is doing well, no medical attention required, I even offered ice immediately and then asked her to sit down for a few minutes. Five minutes later, she was ready jump back into the game.

Grandma did great, she was happy to see us pick her up at noon on Saturday and then we got the party started with lots of food and fun where 8 of her 10 kids were able to make it. Very cool. Nothing out of the ordinary to report, constant movement and I am quite tired of wearing my flip flops. I bought her a little tiara that she seemed happily annoyed with and we decorated our little area with Sponge bob party accessories and Happy Birthday signs.

Today, we woke up and celebrated my newphew's 5th birthday. Last night, before he went to bed we had a cute moment where I told him a the story of the night he was born and where his Auntie Kara and Uncle Duane were at a concert and we got a call on our cell phone that there was a little boy who wanted to meet us and his name was Cole! So, we jumped in our cars and we ran into the hospital and we got to kiss this sweet little baby. Oh - you know, I think he kinda got what we were saying and he wanted to know who we were watching in concert. My brother was quick to chime in (very sarcastically, I might add), it was Duran Duran - Ryan got a little over-exposed throughout his youth. My Uncle Joe spoke up and said - and I remember the night Auntie Kara was born. Ok, Seriously - it took everything in me to not tear up. It was really sweet how he and my Aunt remember details of that night. It was really, really cool and comforting. My Dad, Mom, Aunt Paula and Uncle Joe were a pretty tight group so hearing him reminisce about my mom was really comforting. She was such a huge part of this family for so long so when people ask me how she is doing or what she is up to, it really makes me happy. Though my parents have been divorced for over 7 years and we love my Dad's fiancee, this was one of the few get-togethers that we had where my mom's presence was severely missed. Divorce's suck.

We took Grandma home around noon today, then ran back to Little Italy where we did a little wine tasting at a cute store and then had lunch at Zia's. Half way through lunch we heard someone praying the rosary over a microphone and then noticed a procession of people following the priest saying the Hail Mary. If I was a good Catholic, I would be able to tell you what the significance of today is but I am not - so I can't and won't even begin to guess. It was cool though and totally made me think of my Grandma along with my friend Regina's Mom who is in failing health. It was one of those things you would expect to see in a little Italian village, a very European experience - very cool.

Ok, that is my weekend in a nutshell. Here is wishing everyone a kick-ass week and let's hope it fly's right by so we can get to next weekend.