West Sacramento Neighbors Fair, Hilary's Visit, and Afternoon at Stacey and Jeff's

We've been busy over the last few weeks, and here are some pix of what's been going on. My sister Hilary took the train up to hang out with us and we had a great and relaxing time going to sushi at our favorite sushi place, attending the West Sacramento Neighbors fair which featured food booths, information booths, and vintage cars (the best part).


Last weekend we went to Dina's High School friend Stacey and her husband Jeff's house in Folsom, and got to hang out with the HS friends and kids there- lots of fun!



People keep asking us how we are settling in to Sacramento, and frankly, it's been very easy. We miss our Tucson friends a lot, but are feeling right at home with our surroundings.

We'll keep you posted on any developments in the house search. We aren't needing to be too serious about it yet, as we have four more months on our lease, and could stay longer if we want.

Hope you are all well!

Here is our living room and Tasia and Jen on Boatie in the Sacramento River. It is beautiful here and we love being close to our family and friends. We'll post more later, we promise, but for now, here are some images. We love living here and we love our home. Yes the train is awfully close by, but we're getting used to it!

I'm sure you all know this by now, but our adventures in Tucson have changed a bit...this is a photo of where we now are, behind the Tower Bridge in West Sacramento. That building that looks like a weird pyramid is literally on the same street as we are, one block down. We are renting for 6 months, we'll update as that changes, and send some pix of our cute little house when we take them.

Lots to tell, we'll post more as soon as we get the chance- for now, we're back in Nor Cal, and loving it, and hopefully we'll see all of YOU soon, whether you be friends from Tucson (we promise, we'll visit often!) or Cali friends, we will see you soon if we haven't already, and in the meantime this is just a placeholder in the life of DD and JJ- we, as well as our three furry friends, made the journey just fine, and DD is working from the home office while JJ scoots around in the same places, mostly Phoenix and Las Vegas.

JJ's Bisbee Birthday Weekend:

Bisbee is beautiful! We love it! We traveled down to the historic mining town of Bisbee to celebrate JJ's birthday weekend, caravaning with new friends Kit and Will, and meeting up with Patrick, Hugh, Megan, and later Keree and Greg. It was lovely, relaxing, and Dina made the most amazing pizza ever at our new favorite place, the Oliver House Bed and Breakfast. Host Patty, owner of the Oliver House, told us to make ourselves at home in the kitchen, and several delicious pizzas for dinner and breakfast the next morning were prepared by Dina and sous chefs Hugh and Patrick.






Here are some shots of Bisbee- including our friend Will's photo of the frog in the pub. JJ picked it up and deposited it safely outside. Will claims she could have died had it excreted poison or bitten her. The frog stayed calm throughout both rescue and photo shoot, so we don't think we were in any real danger. Bisbee stays cooler than Tucson all summer long, and has amazing art and architecture everywhere. Anyone making it down to southern AZ, this should definitely be on your list of places to check out.

Maria! Matthea! Antuzzis!

We had a special treat, and got to see our dear friend Maria, who now lives in Dublin Ireland, when we flew out to meet her in Los Angeles a few weekends ago. It was gorgeous weather, and we got to go to the beach, eat delicious Japanese food, sample tapas and go the Abbey in West Hollywood, a fun gay club. It was super fun, and we miss her a lot, so it was great to have a chance to hang out Antuzzi style! Next we'll have to go see her in Dublin...

Hawaii!!!!

June 14th-22nd we went to Hawaii with Kimi, PNut, Steph, Lisa, and Karen and we had a really amazing trip with spectacular adventures, including kayaking in Kealakekua Bay, and wiling away the hours in Waimea, and finding Akaka falls hidden in the jungle. Amazing, beautiful, we will be back!

Our Shining Star, Brazzie Lee, is gone...






We will miss her terribly. We haven't posted for a while, and will post more about our summer activities later. This blog is to let you all know that on June 11th, 2006, Brazzie Lee passed on, peacefully. We had no idea she was so close to the end, as she was always, always brave, and didn't let on for a moment that she was feeling as badly as she must have been. Here are two pix of her with her sisters, who miss her as well, and one of her in her prime, swimming in the river, as she must be doing now, out on the rainbow bridge.
Keep on swimming and chasing ball til we meet you on the other side Brazzie!

Megan Rides A Wave! (so do Scotty, Chris, and both of us)

We spent another glorious weekend up at Apache Lake and were joined by Scott, Chris, Megan, Shelly, Misty, Patrick, and Hugh. The Arizona crowd does not mess around on Memorial Day weekend so Dina and I experienced a moment of panic when we drove in at 2:30 on Friday and found that all of the campsites in our usual area were taken, and the large beach area that we usually camp next to was completely full of RVs and tents. Luckily we drove back up the road and found a spot at one of the more remote campsites that was right on the beach, and a perfect spot for our big group. The weekend was spent floating around on the lake in various inflatables, playing with the dogs on the beach, having fun with our friends, and of course wakeboarding! Here's our friend Megan who had just tried boarding for the first time, and Megs, Chris and Scotty by the campfire.



Pix of Scotty, who popped right out of the water and rode all over the lake after just learning how to stand up last summer at Patagonia will be posted later, as we have to get them from Hugh and Patrick. Oh, and here's Bella, who decided to take a trip by herself, and Bella and Rizzo's favorite resting spot at the end of the day

The Saga of Boatie, AKA We Love Apache Lake!

Well, since we have been here, boatie has been on land far too often for Dina's taste. We did have our marvelous trips down to Lake Patagonia last year, but it's a small lake, with not a lot of opportunity for boatie to show off her abilities. About a month ago our friend Mia introduced us to Lake Apache, a link on a string of lakes up above Globe, AZ, and it is truly the most beautiful lake we have ever been on! We've now been to Apache twice, this past weekend with Patrick, Hugh, and Ananda (in fact check their blog for some other great lake photos, and here are ours...

An A Letter Day

aka Artichoke and Anniversary.

One year ago today 4-22-06 we got hitched at the Z Mansion in historic downtown Tucson. It's hard to believe it's been a year in some ways, in other ways it seems longer because of everything we've done over the past 12 months! In honor of our anniversary (or so we'd like to think) our artichoke plant which has been growing for two years put out it's first little artichoke this week! Here is a photo, and here is a photo of our wedding day so you can remember it.

Rebecca Chihuaha, Bikers and Brazzie Lee

I believe I mentioned Rebecca's visit in our last blog entry, but here's proof she was here sitting on our orange couch with many chihuahas strewn about her. We had a big ol yard sale though didn't sell as much as we had wanted to, and also went to a biker party/crawdad boil. No pictures of that event unfortunately, but believe us, it was fun. JJ was home all week working and so got to take some time to hang out with Rebecca and dogs at the wash and other fun places.

What else? We are having beautiful weather, the back yard is lovely, and we have two new links added- check out P Squared, the new blog created by Karen (Peter) and PNut, and Andanda's Perseverent Tactics, Hugh and Patrick's chronicle of their new home and Ananda's (their weimeraner) reaction to it. And finally, here's another adorable pic of Brazzie, who turned 13 this weekend! Happy BDay Brazzie Lee!

Family Cuddle

Hi everyone- here's JJ with Bella and Rizzo and Brazzie, our new old dog! Since Auntie Karen moved out she went through a moping period, and we were pretty worried about her for about a week. For those of you who don't know, Brazzie and Karen had a special bond, and Brazzie was pretty much attached to Karen's hip.
As of now though, she's doing great again, and actually seems to have a new spring to her step (we figure this is only because she used to wear herself out following Karen everywhere!) and is joining in for Family Cuddle on the bed, and going to the park for short walks!
In other news, JJ had a pretty crazy March, with travel every week, though April promises to be a bit more mellow, with a possible training in Ciudad Juarez Mexico! Dina is meeting cool people at the Scientific Learning Tucson office, and is settling in after the initial training period.
The desert is incredibly beautiful at this time of year, our back yard is in full bloom, including cat claw and carolina jessamine vines, snapdragons, aloe, sage, and even our pyracantha bush! We are still having a chance to enjoy our hot tub, the nights cool way down in the spring, and for this summer we have plans to ice it and use it as a cold plunge.
Also, our guest house is a guest house again, and Rebecca wins the prize for first guest since Karen moved. She came over to hang out as she is visiting her mom this week, and after JJ and she went to a hip hop class at our friend Megan's dance studio, we hot tubbed and she (accompanied by Brazzie of course-always the dog with a job) stayed over.

WE'VE GONE ELECTRIC!



Well, at least partially electric- Here is our new (to us) 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid, we've named her Electra. We are in love...
And the other big news is...Karen (you know, one of our best friends in Tucson, met her on Craigslist, lived in our guest house) just moved away yesterday! She and PNut met each other a while ago, one thing led to another, and she's moving in to Pnut's Pecan St Home in bee-yoo-tiful West Sacramento. We will miss her a lot, but we are so happy for her and PNut, and know we'll get to see her often. That's all the news that's fit to print! Things are warming up in Tucson, we're hoping for a good monsoon so we don't get too dry, we're both busy with work, things are good, there you go.

IT SNOWED AND STUFF...
So it snowed in tucson. Yes, that was a while ago. So sue us. We also we went to Lacey and Christina's house for Christina's birthday and we had an Oscar's viewing at our home. Yeah it was a small viewing, but Justine got fancy for it. Erica, notice the dress, please.
Also, Justine went to Erica Milsom and Ben Choi's wedding karaoke celebration, which was one of the best times she has ever had, and there are no photos yet. There will be so do not despair. Lots of people took pics, including some of Rebecca and JJ singing 'love will keep us together'. Also, jenessa visited us. We went hiking in snow and ate sushi and had the best time with her. That's what's been going on. Oh yeah.

THE BAR OF AMERICA

and other delights. This is our homage to Stephen Colbert, a picture that we took during our recent trip to Tahoe. So much has happened, Nation, that it would be impossible to list it all. Let's just say that we went to a lot of places, including Rochester, NY, and Mesquite NV, and you can see some great pix of Rochester if you check out Jennie and Zahra's blog right over there --->
We love you all, and we love Stephen Colbert.

Thanksgiving Oysters Mom and Mt Lemmon!

Over the last few weeks we have had a variety of adventures, including Thanksgiving which was a delicious and fun filled day, replete with food, fun, and friends (hey- we have to live up to our reputation as hedonists!) and Thanksgiving weekend, which was filled with bicycle rides and oysters on the half shell. Here are some pics of our gorgeous Thanksgiving sunset, our Thanksgiving table, some freshly shucked oysters, thanks PNut! as well as a couple from Mt Lemmon.
On Thanksgiving day, Pnut, Karen, Scott, Chris, their dad Tom, our new friend Karina, and Dina and I all ate together and watched football. Tom carved the turkey, and Karina made a special German dessert, called something upronounceable, or you could call it Cinnamon Parfait. Whatever- it was tasty!
Then the weekend after Thanksgiving my mom came to town, and we had a fun and also relaxing time with her, spending time watching movies, walking around on Mt Lemmon, going to the Desert Museum, and shopping on 4th Ave. I think Mt Lemmon, our local mountain getaway, only 30 miles from Tucson city limits, was her favorite. It was chilly, with even some snow on the ground and gorgeous crystalline formations in the creeks. This weekend is the 4th Ave fair, so we may go down and get a little shopping, and sight seeing in.

Halloween, PNut's visit, and Bella's Purple Heart

We've been a bit lax in our posting habits, so here is a quick synopsis of what we've been up to since we got back from Europe. Our friends all met up with us or stopped by at various stages after we returned home, and by Halloween weekend we were over our jet lag and ready to go out and have fun. We had a few friends over on the Saturday of Halloween weekend, and barbecued in the back yard. The weather has been delightfully warm during the days, and chilly at nights, but we all ate outside that evening, as it was comfortable, and the mosquitoes that plagued us during the monsoon season have died down.
We went out later that evening to a party at Lindy's house, of Lindy's on Fourth, our favorite burger and sandwich place. Karen dressed as Stephen Colbert, from the The Colbert Report, Dina was dressed as Dykewood (a play on Deadwood) and I was a forties glamor girl, and wore my great Aunt Ruth's vintage dress.
Last weekend we were surprised by a visit from our friend PNut, who decided the week before to come, and we had a fantastic time, mostly relaxing, pogo-ing, and hanging out. She was here from Thursday through Monday, and we celebrated her final night here by going to see Tucson's All Souls Procession, Tucson's Day of the Dead celebration. We had a great time excepting one incident. On her first day here we decided to go on a hike, and ended up in the veterinarian's office after Bella got a jumping cholla stuck on her hind leg and tried to take it out with her mouth. About forty extremely long, sharp cactus spines got lodged in the roof of her mouth and all over her tongue. We took her to the closest vet where they had to put her under anesthesia to pull them out. Because of her extreme bravery, she didn't even cry once, the veterinarian gave her the purple heart for bravery, and is pictured here the day AFTER the tragedy, wearing it. Pictures of the spines in her mouth are too disturbing to post, plus we haven't gotten them from PNut yet!
This weekend we went down to the 4th Ave Bike Swap and I bought Dina a mountain bike for her birthday. She works tonight, and I am going to do some computer stuff, so i thought it would be a good time to catch up! We hope everyone is well, and hope you enjoy reading a little about our adventures.