CRAZY

So no new posts for a while because we haven't had internet at either the old place (where it was canceled) or the new place (where it will get set up this Saturday...yeah!). The only exciting thing that has happened since the last action packed post, other than the still ongoing process of moving, was the annual firm event in Newport Beach, which is where the other Irell and Manella office is. I went down to the Newport office last Thursday to participate in a Mock Trial with most of the summer associates where I helped defend poor old Wyatt Earp who was accused of wrongfully murdering Ike Clanton. The coolest part of the trial was the live video feed of the jury deliberating over the case. It has confirmed my suspicions from my glorious high school debate years that what you may think is important is usually not what the listener focuses on. They put me us up in a nice hotel and then Erica drove down the next day for the festivities, a wild west themed event complete with a bucking bronco...yes that's me trying to ride one. It was a crazy 4.7 seconds.
Anyway, thanks to all those who helped us move! Pictures of our amazingly furnished (by IKEA) apartment and maybe a few interesting photos from the Newport party are on their way. So stay tuned!

the big move has begun

Well, we at least made one trip today. Tom is going to be in Newport Beach for mock trial tomorrow and then I am going to join him on Friday, so we aren't going to make any substantial process until at least Saturday, but at least we have seen the apartment and we were able to make one trip. We are really happy with the apartment, but we aren't very happy about our garage. After we parked (and squeezed ourselves out of the car) we walked around and noticed that we have the smallest model. Our car BARELY fits. I called and tried to negotiate a new garage, but they wouldn't even listen to me, they just said no. We will have to make it work. The apartment is more the twice as big as our current place (we can actually have visitors now . . .), I don't think these pictures do it justice. In addition to the living room and dining room/kitchen, there are two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
It has been a little while since I updated the blog so I'll fill in what we have been doing.

Last Wednesday we went and saw Harry Potter on the Imax theater with the firm. I wouldn't call myself a Harry Potter fanatic, but I definitely enjoy the books and the movies and this movie was no different. The theater had assigned seats so it was nice to just arrive at the theater a few minutes before the film and not have to worry about getting good seats. We really enjoyed the movie and having the last 15 or so minutes in 3D was fun. I have been listening to the previous books on tape (while I'm at work) to prepare for the new book, I am very excited.

Thursday we went and saw Wicked with Tom's mentor and his wife. I have heard so many people say that they really enjoyed the show that Tom convinced his mentor to take us. We had a lot of fun, even though we were sitting about four rows from the back and there were these two old men in front of us who kept asking each other, "What did they just say?" Before we went to Wicked, we went to this cheap little Thai place down the street that had this HILARIOUS Thai Elvis impersonator who (according to the sign) was not lip syncing.

After our late movie Wednesday and seeing Wicked on Thursday, we were both completely exhausted but we managed to do a little couch shopping on Saturday. Our current couch is a hand-me-down from my sister and while it is ok and it was free, it does not work well for long-term sitting. The cushions are pretty uncomfortable and the couch sits pretty low to the ground so we are in the market for something new. I think we found one we like, we'll see . . . Later Saturday night we met up with Tom's sister Denise and her husband John for a lovely dinner at Natalee Thai. Yum.

Then last night I convinced Tom to set up a dinner for us to go to Spago with some people from the firm. I have been wanting to eat dinner there all summer and I wasn't disappointed (I particularly enjoyed the chocolate torte that I had for dessert). I, of course, managed to get dinner all over myself, but it was worth it.

Anyway, we are going to have a very busy week. We have our Westwood apartment for the rest of the month, but after that we will have a new address so if you want the new address send me an email :)

p.s. My mom's dog just had puppies, aren't they cute?

family reunion

Tom and I spent the last few days at a family reunion with his side of the family. We are now totally exhausted from hikes, children, and heat, but we really had a great time. This is the first time that Tom and I have been around his entire family since our wedding and I enjoyed interacting with them and feeling as if I am a part of their family. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family-in-law and so many cute nieces and nephews. Since Tom is the youngest and I am the oldest, our families have very different dynamics. I am really looking forward to my siblings growing up and getting married, but since I still have a 12-year old sister that will probably be a few years.

Tom's parents rented a cabin in Crestline (near San Bernadino) where Tom's sister lives and we all met up on Wednesday. We chatted, went to the beach, went hiking, and played many hours of Wii games. Here are a few pictures from the weekend. We didn't take very many because Tom gave up and started taking pictures with his mom's (much more portable) camera. We might add more photos when we get those from her. The rest of the photos we took can be seen here.

I Love LA

This evening Tom and I were driving back from Best Buy in Culver City and we spotted a Kwik-E-Mart. We had both read this article on MSNBC earlier today that talked about 7-11 promoting the Simpson's movie by temporarily converting a dozen of its locations into Kwik-E-Marts (this is the name of the convenience store on the Simpson's that makes fun of 7-11) and coincidentally, we ran into one. That is one great thing about living in LA: the things that you read about happen here. We probably would have never noticed but the store was at capacity and there was a huge line of people waiting to get in.

Anyway, we went to Best Buy because Tom's beloved computer chair (which was damaged in our move out from Utah) finally died. He now has a new and improved chair which he is referring to as his throne (which was on sale).
Last week we had a couple of very interesting food experiences. On Thursday we went to Matsuhisa, which is this great sushi place in Beverly Hills and it is definitely my favorite place that we've eaten so far. We had some delicious albacore sashimi, some wonderful pumpkin tempura, and some (surprisingly) little 10 oz, nonrefillable glass bottles of sodas that cost $4 each.

Then on Friday we went to the weirdest place we've eaten so far: Sona. We decided to get the 6 course tasting menu (we've never had a tasting menu before) because we were with this really nice associate who encouraged us to not pay attention to our normal dinner $ limit. The tasting menu just means that we get six courses of whatever the chef thinks is best the day. We had all kinds of things like kimchi, wantons, raw fish, duck, black (not blackened) chicken, steak, and some delicious chocolate desserts. We also had a dessert that looked like a little tiny hamburger, but it tasted like rosemary. It was very bizarre. The food was. . . interesting, but the really interesting thing was the service. It seemed like there were about 50 waiters and I don't think we saw the same one twice. Seriously, it was like we were in the Matrix. They didn't really say anything and it seemed like it took five or six people to bring out every course. Luckily we really enjoyed the company of everyone else at the table and this was probably my most enjoyable dinner experience so far.

Well, starting on Wednesday we will be in Crestline with Tom's family. We are really excited because we haven't seen some of Tom's family in a long time. I will update when we get back, until then have a happy 4th of July :)