Showered with Love

Yesterday Roy and I attended our personal baby shower at Melinda's house. Melinda, Angelina, and Kim were awesome hosts, and I had a really great time. Kim was the photographer for the day, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

I loved the blue and brown theme!





Of course, the heart on tummy pose was a must do.





We got lots of gifts. People were very generous. We are extremely thankful.



Games included Baby Bingo...



...some unnamed game where whoever drank water from a bottle the fastest won (and of course, I was not the winner, but don't I look awesome drinking from a bottle?)...









...and another game that used candy bars to describe certain baby-related things, like "when Leslie's milk comes in." Whoever guessed the candy bar correctly (in this case, "Mounds") won the candy bar.

Then it was cake time!





And present time!



A few words about the gifts we received: Wow. Our little Charlie is already well loved and well provided for. I was so happy that we received pretty much all of our big ticket items that we really needed. Additionally, we got a ton of cute clothes and a bunch of other stuff that will definitely come in handy.

This experience has really solidified for me that most people (or our people, at least) don't seem to like ordering things online. Our Amazon registry was left largely untouched in favor of our registry at Babies R Us. Me, I absolutely love shopping online, so it's always interesting to find out what other people's shopping habits are like.

And Babies R Us really sucks at updating registry information. We got several repeats because of a glitch in their system or something. It's not that big of a deal, but it was a little annoying to come home from the shower and see that our registry was showing that only four things had been purchased from it.

Here are two pictures I really like, even though the first one showcases my five chins:



And this one, of the fam:



Me and my homies:



Thanks so much to Melinda, Kim, and Angelina for throwing us an awesome shower. We so appreciate it. You guys are awesome.

A Beautiful Bridal Shower for a Beautiful Bride

I attended my friend Jessica's bridal shower today and had a really great time. Jessica asked me beforehand to take pictures, so I brought all my gear and spent most of the time snapping away. (I did stop to eat and to hold an adorable baby boy, though.)

You may recall Jessica from her engagement pictures. Her wedding is in April, and while she hired an awesome photographer, I'm going to be taking her getting ready pictures. I'll be at her wedding as a guest, but I'll still be taking lots of pictures. I'm very excited - I love weddings!

At any rate, here are some of my favorite pictures from Jessica's bridal shower today. Note: I didn't really include guest photos on here just because I always feel a little weird about sharing pictures of people without their knowing it.

The color scheme was green, white, and black (just like the upcoming wedding):



Loved Jessica's shoes:



Loved that people got their gifts wrapped in the wedding colors:



Jessica and her grandmother (who is so cute):



Stretching (or something):



Opening gifts:



This might be my favorite photo so far. It's very imperfect but it's still a lovely moment:







Jessica and Josh, the bride and groom. Stunning, aren't they?



Thanks for inviting me to your shower, Jessica! Can't wait for the wedding!

things that make me happy

I'm in real need of counting my blessings. Without going into a ton of detail, things have been quite hard for quite awhile now. I had a really nice weekend, though, and here are the things that are making me happy right now.

1) a baby shower for a very special Spaniard - My friend and co-worker is pregnant with her first child (due in September). We had a shower for her on Friday during lunch, and it was a really good time for all of us. My favorite part was when she teared up when she saw that we had all pitched in and gotten her the stroller she wanted.



















2) my hot pink toenails



3) revisiting the coffee shop where Roy and I used to meet when we first began dating



4) finding new places to eat that are pretty





4) visiting a new, unexplored museum









5) noticing things that normally go unnoticed





6) cookies



7) a new pretty thing to hang on our wall



8) seeing The Pierces live at Hotel Cafe - This video is not from the performance we saw, but they did open with this song. They are really wonderful performers with a strong stage presence and extremely powerful voices.



9) taking engagement pictures for Jenn and Dave - Watch for the "official" teaser coming tomorrow!

Beans, Beans, the magical fruit

Today was my friend and co-worker Beans' last day of work. He got a job up in San Jose making a ton more money. I know that this is a wonderful opportunity for him, especially because he loves Northern California. Many, many people will miss him, because he is a wonderful guy to work with. He is also the coolest attorney I've ever met. Naturally, we couldn't let him leave without saying good-bye.

Last night we all went out to a local martini bar and had a few drinks. I ordered some nasty nachos. Beans got a horse figurine as a gift from our friend Kathleen (my Southern soul sister). (The third picture is of me, Jessica, and Beans. It looks like I just jumped in the picture to screw it up, which may or may not have happened.)



Today Beans, Kathleen, and I went out to this cool BBQ place for lunch and had some of the best BBQ I've ever had. There was some pretty cool artwork on the walls.



Then we had a pie party, complete with six kinds of pie, back at work. We took many photos. Beans and I enjoyed acting like we were pregnant.



Beans left some of his cool stuff for me: his stuffed squirrel, a Van Gogh print, and his "complete and utter bullshit" stamp.



I went to Bean' house after work to take a few things off his hands. Roy and Jake came along to exercise their manliness. Beans' manliness is the only one that got documented, though.



Seeing Beans leave is very similar to the feelings I had when Myra left. Myra's departure hit me on a more personal level, and while I consider Beans my friend, his leaving will really affect my professional life. From the day I started at my job, Beans took me under his wing. He has always taken care to explain legal things to me, while offering me the gift of his friendship. The best thing about my professional relationship with Beans is that he has always backed me up and been on my side. I have learned so much from him, and I am really grateful to have met him.

The thing I will probably miss most is the fact that Beans lets me talk crap to him and will give it back occasionally. I love it when someone engages in banter with me, and I am really going to miss that, dammit.

I am going to miss Beans' gigantic hair too.



All my work people are dropping like flies, man. It's a definite sign that I need to move on.