Bits and Pieces

So, it's been nearly 2 months since my last post. A flurry of activity has kept me pretty busy lately, so I thought I'd jot down a bit of a summary of each here.

The House
As you know from my previous post, we bought a house! Escrow closed at the end of April, and we've been busy getting it the way we like. We pulled out all the carpets, put in new carpet in the bedrooms, and laid down laminate flooring in the living and dining rooms. That was an arduous task, as our house is full of odd angles and corners-- so there was a lot of precise measurement and careful cutting.

We got a new big-screen LED TV and that is internet capable, so we're enjoying watching Hulu and Netflix shows on it, in its full HD glory!

I've taken plenty of "before" pictures of the house the day we got the keys from our agent, but I'm waiting for Allan to finish spackling the baseboards before I take the "after" pictures. Plus, I still have to organize my bookshelves and unpack one last box :-)

Nightlife
April was a busy month, karaoke-wise! My friends and I explored all sorts of venues around town, and went at practically the rate of once a week. You know you're going very often when the DJs start recognizing you and even remember your name! I've got another post coming on karaoke DJs, but I'll save that for later. Suffice it to say that we've been having a great time, and that I've decided that (for me, anyway), drinking and karaoke do not go together! I look forward to more frequent trips this summer :-)

Now that summer vacation has begun (i.e. Todd is in LA with my parents), Allan and I have started exploring some of the places around SB to eat and hang out. We've found the Bak Dor, which is a nice little dive bar with an awesome jukebox selection and friendly regulars. We've also tried out the Alcazar Tapas Bar, which is expensive-- but all the tapas places in SB are.

My goals for the summer are two-fold: hit every venue that offers karaoke (every single night of the week, 7 days, there are at least 2 venues doing karaoke) and explore some of the lesser-known bars around town. Looking at my list, we've actually hit about half of the available karaoke venues, and already favorites are forming ;-)

Drive-In
We got to take Todd to the drive-in theater for the very first time! Rio was playing one week, and we decided to catch it one Saturday. We packed snacks and blankets and headed down to the drive-in. What a blast! I really enjoyed being able to put up my feet on the dashboard and relax, and it was great to allow Todd to bounce around and laugh and make noise in the back seat without fear of bothering other patrons. Little kids have to let loose all that energy, right?

My only gripe was with the inconsiderate SUV drivers in the row in front of us-- almost all of them left their back doors open so they could sit outside behind their vehicles and watch the movie. This, of course, meant that the bottom part of the screen was blocked from view. Now that we're familiar with the layout, we know to park in the front row this time.

School
Todd's school let out for the summer early. It wound up closing, which is a bummer, but I guess we'd been expecting it. The economy has hit many people hard, and private schools (especially smaller ones like Todd's) are no exception. We're hopeful that they succeed in opening a preschool, which should provide some good revenue for re-opening the school in a year or two. In the meantime, we're on the hunt for another school for Todd to begin in the fall.

That about sums up the past couple of months. Busy with the house, busy with family, busy with friends. Aside from the house-- it's business as usual, basically :-) And what have you been up to, dear readers?