Goodbye, 2010.

I've noticed a lot of people really seemed to hate this year. My facebook stream was filled with, "2010 was the worst, can't wait for a new year!" or "Good riddance, 2010!" or other not so nice things.

I had a great year. Don't know what was going on with all those other people, but seriously, 2010 is going to be pretty tough to beat for me, what with the whole getting engaged, getting married, going to Hawaii, and getting my very own house. And a whole slew of other things that aren't as huge as all of that, but still matter quite a bit. Friendships, becoming a math teacher, beginning to delve into the business side of photography... 2010 has been a huge jumping board for even more things in the future.

Can't wait to see what 2011 has to offer.

Packing is so overrated.

True that.

But packing means moving, and moving means living in our own little condo, and living in our own little condo means all by ourselves. As husbands and wives should.

We (and by we, I mainly mean Chris) have been lugging boxes down two flights of stairs to the garage all day. Chris also took apart his amazing desk, the one that made me fall in love with him in the first place (petty, yes, but this desk is ginormous). I collected the screws for him, which I hoped might be the extent of my work, but then I had to help lug the big pieces down those two flights of stairs.

Now I'm taking a much-deserved TPA break.

TPA! Blech! What a Christmas vacation downer. I've been working on it in any spare moment I have, including late at night/into the morning, when we're not packing. I am almost done. Just two sections to go. And then I'll have the freedom to start really getting into this moving deal.

We went to the condo today to get the official keys from the seller. We discovered mold while we were there. Yes, mold! In our brand new house! And this is just two weeks after the HOA sent people over to fix the leaky roof, which was causing the ceiling in the entryway to become water damaged. It's pretty obvious it's an exterior problem since that part of the ceiling is directly under an outdoor patio that collects water when it rains, so (fingers crossed) the HOA should be taking the lead on getting it all fixed up. Thank goodness. It'll just be a bummer when they come in and have to re-do the whole entryway- the water is on the ceiling and in the walls.

Not to worry, of course, because I'll spend most of January holed up in our new office working feverishly on my double load of classwork for National. I've got two classes and only one month left before student teaching starts. I seriously did not think this through when I took four months off for the wedding. It's always in retrospect, isn't it?

Anyhows, I've got to get back to that delightful TPA while it's break time. Hopefully I'll be able to post some Christmas-ish goodness. (I say hopefully because clearly I haven't even gotten around to posting about our wedding yet. And that was three months ago.) I will leave you with this Christmas video that Chris took of our present opening extravaganza. He set up his camera on a shelf and clicked pictures with his remote all day to make this awesome stop-motion video.

Enjoy!

Trementozzi 2010 Christmas from Christopher Trementozzi on Vimeo.

How to make chocolate covered pretzels:

Step one: Develop a craving for chocolate covered pretzels from a co-workers' amazing baking contribution to the staff Christmas party. 

Step two: Decide you cannot live without more chocolate covered pretzels.

Step three: Gather the following: chocolate chips, shortening, and a bowl.

Step four: Mix 1 cup of chips to 2 tablespoons of shortening in bowl.

 Step five: Microwave for one minute and thirty seconds.

Step six: Put away your roommate's dishes (and your own red Mickey Mouse bowl) since you've got the time.

Step six: Mash the remaining chocolate chip lumps to create a nice, soupy texture.

Step seven: Sneak a picture of your hot husband wrapping the last of your Christmas presents.

Step eight: Toss in some pretzels.

Step nine: Drown pretzels.

Step ten: Lay drowned pretzels on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper.

 Step eleven: Fill cookie sheet with deliciousness.

Step twelve: Put cookie sheet(s) in fridge to set for about an hour.

Step thirteen: Think you could do the same with the butterscotch chips in your pantry.

Step fourteen: Discover that butterscotch chips do not melt well in the microwave. (In fact, they cause said microwave to smoke, and your condo to smell like burnt toast all night.)

 This is not what deliciousness looks like.

Step fifteen: Go down to the garage and find the cute Christmas tins your sister-in-law left when she moved out last November.

Step sixteen: Still waiting for the deliciousness to set in the fridge? Eat leftover sushi. (Don't worry, it was leftover from like three hours ago.)

 Step seventeen: Try the butterscotch again, just for kicks. This time, use the stovetop and watch to make sure bubbling blackness doesn't happen again.

Step eighteen: Learn butterscotch chips just suck, despite what your husband says, but still make him his own batch of butterscotch pretzels. He's hot, after all, and what can you do?

Step nineteen: (Not pictured.) Fill Christmas tins with deliciousness. Store in fridge until the 25th.

Woot!

We got the official word that the bank has given the clear to close. Woo-hoo! Now we just have to wait for them to draw up the loan documents... surely that can't take too long... right?

Right?

Anyway, we got the call while we were at Fashion Valley mall (which is pretty much completely flooded-- there's only one entrance that's not under water). To celebrate, we went to Home Depot to get paint and liners for the kitchen cabinets. My husband rocks. :)

Best case scenario: The people at Wells Fargo actually do their jobs the next two days. (This depends on if they don't have Friday off.) We sign the paper work on Friday. We get keys on Tuesday.

Most likely scenario: The people at Wells Fargo are already checked out for Christmas. We'll be lucky to get in before New Year's.

Seriously, I think I'm a pretty calm person most of the time, but it irks me to no end when someone doesn't do their job (or does it incorrectly) and it directly affects other people. Come on, people. Do your jobs.

Week before Christmas update

Things that are happening:

- We're on Christmas break. Chris' last day until after New Year's was today. Mine was Friday.
- We were hoping to move into our new condo this past weekend.
- That did not happen.
- We are learning that banks just suck. And the people signing your loan documents won't give you their names and locations, because people like me will use their vacation time to sit at said loan officer's desk and stare at them until they sign the paperwork.
- My goal for the first half of break is to finish the first two TPA's for my credential. They're due January 3, but I'd like to enjoy some of my vacation.
- We're going shopping for a bed frame and bedroom furniture tomorrow. We bought a real mattress last weekend- the first real mattress for both of us.
- It's raining like crazy here in San Diego.
- Braved the rain to go to the post office and DMV. One thing rain is good for: it keeps people away from the post office and DMV.
- One point for rain.
- I'm trying to convince Chris to sneak over to the new condo and start painting the inside of the cabinets. I really want to be able to put the kitchen stuff away as soon as we move in. And I can't do this without freshly painted and lined cabinets.
- We wrapped most of our presents on Saturday. Took lots of pictures. Made tags with the Slice.
- Got Chris some awesome Christmas presents.
- I'm writing this blog in bed. Chris is annoying me while I'm writing this blog in bed. He wants to know what I got him for Christmas.
- He's so cute.

To Faithful Readers:

If you're seeing wacky things happening on my blog, maybe posts that seem to be not quite up to date or topical... I'm in the middle of transferring my other two blogs in so I have everything in one place. It's supposed to seamlessly fit in all posts in date order, but something went terribly wrong with a few. They're fixed (for now), but if you're viewing in Google Reader who knows what crazy things are happening?  So, just an FYI.

Good grief. Eleventh graders are ridiculous.

We've begun packing.

While packing, I pulled out a stack of papers. Black papers. With ping gel ink writing. 

I am giving this stack of untitled papers the following name:

Letters to My Future Husband: An Eleventh Grader's Really Pathetic Life of Longing for a Boyfriend (Right Now). 

Yes, I did write letters to my future husband when I was sixteen. And yes, I saved them. And yes, I found them just before the wedding and stuck them in a schoolbook to give to Chris later so we could both have a laugh. 


He's already laughing. I'm glad he's amused. (No, really, I am.)

But seriously? Eleventh graders are soooooo ridiculous.


UPDATE:
So we read a few of them together, and I will say this: my inner sixteen-year-old found it extremely satisfying to read those letters with my wonderful, long waited for, real-life husband. Very satisfying indeed. So keep writing your ridiculous letters, eleventh grade girls. It'll be worth it in ten years when you read them while cuddled in bed with the one you've been waiting for. 


(Just know that neither of you will take the contents of those letters at all seriously. Because, let's face it: they're pretty ridiculous.)