The End.

I still have some pictures to post from before Christmas and during our holiday, but I wanted to get a post out before we left. Yep. Today is our last full day in San Diego. ::tears::

On Monday we checked out of our condo in Downtown and moved into a hotel suite on Coronado. I don't think I ever posted pictures of our wonderful condo, so I thought I would share them here! These were taken on Monday as I was getting ready to take the last load down to our car and turn in the keys.

The view of our Front Door and the long, narrow hallway. 

The laundry closet is on the left and there's a full bathroom on the right. 

The main living area.

Our dining room and kitchen.

 The master bedroom. (It was a $#%&@ to put up blackout curtains in those windows!)

 The master bathroom. The walk-in closet is to the left of this photo. 

We also put up a curtain in the doorway, so Tim or I could get ready without disturbing the other person. 

Looking out from the master bedroom/hallway. I had a love/hate relationship with those windows! 

It was great to feel like the condo was open to the world, but they faced SW, so it got HOT when the sun was out...which is like 90% of the time. Plus, we were so close to street level that everyone could see everything that we did when they were open...there were no naked laundry runs to the living room!

 This was our building. Our condo was directly above the bagel shop. 

I develop strong attachments to the places I live, so it was difficult for me to leave on Monday. I've been on the verge of tears about leaving San Diego, but I knew that the end of our time here would come eventually...I just wish it didn't come so quickly! I feel so blessed to have been able to spend so much time here and to have made so many wonderful memories along the way.

To celebrate their last 'real' day of work, Tim's boss took everyone to lunch at Searsucker...it just so happens that his wife and I had a lunch date there too!

We let them crash it. All 20 of them!

Read More

Snow and Show.

I've been told I need to blog more...

In case you're not aware, it snowed this week. And for our area, it was quite a lot! 

Instead of being productive and actually getting anything done...we watched movies and played in the snow. I refused to do anything right outside our condo (dog poop bombs everywhere!), so we trekked down to the tennis court. 

Our snowman has a top hat! 

 Things have been busy around here. Tim is working most weekends and I have been at rehearsals almost every evening. Tim got his first taste of acting a few weeks ago when we filmed a commercial for my next show, Black Comedy.

I can't figure out how to insert the video, because it's only uploaded on to Facebook, so I'm going to give you the link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2811728186775

Can you spot us?

Read More

Ode to a Couch

The perfect place to watch TV on a Sunday morning...

 and comfy enough for a mid-afternoon nap.

We've had a lot of good memories. Enjoy your new home.

In case you can't tell, we've sold our couch and the new owner is coming tomorrow morning to haul it away. Our new one is going to be a BIG change, but we're excited! Of course there's also a lot of trepidation...we ordered it back in SEPTEMBER. (I think the last time I waited this long for something was with my wedding dress!)

Read More

Bad Habits. (And The Perfect Chair)

A long time ago I had a piano teacher that told me it took 21 days to break a bad habit. At the time, it was not practicing the piano. I think my almost complete lack of skills in playing piano is a testament to how much that conversation impacted the 12-year old me...

Now we're talking about a bad blogging habits.

Tim and I spending the holidays with family overseas and it is my goal to break this bad habit before then. That means that I ::crossyourfingers:: should have a post up everyday until our trip. WISH ME LUCK!

Day 1: The Perfect Chair

For a while now we've been talking about converting a little nook in our living room into a desk area. I set Tim with the task of making the desk happen and while he did that, I scoured the internet for a chair. I was aiming for something like this...

That wasn't, you know, almost $700. 

So, we began searching our local thrift stores and craigslist.  (Oh, Dear Lord. There are some oo-gly pieces of furniture out there!)

Then one day, Tim dragged me to the local Goodwill to search for a random computer cable (side note: Goodwill is the best place to find inexpensive and random computer cords). I was very casually looking through the doors to the collection area when...there it was. The chair.

I grabbed the first person to come out and practically hounded him with information about when it would be put on the floor. At first he looked at me with an "are you kidding?" face (you'll see why in a minute) and then turned around and went to ask about it. When he came back out, he informed me that the chair would not be sold. Here's the gist of the conversation that followed:

Me: Why?

Clerk: Sorry, the chair is broken. We don't sell broken furniture.

Me: What will happen to it?

Clerk: We usually throw them out.

Me: WHAT!? Can you please check? What's wrong with it? Maybe I can fix it!

Clerk: Fine, let me go ask.

Me: Wait impatiently while clerk talks to collection area manager.

Clerk: (Comes out with chair in hand) It looks like the legs are loose.

Me: TIMMY! COME HERE! Can you fix this?!?!?

Timmy: (Rambles over and looks at it) Um, yeah?

Me: (To clerk) Can we buy it? Please? (Smile real cute.)

Clerk: Sure, you can have it for $2.50.

$2.50

Shoppers were literally staring at us as Tim carried it over to pay. I think it was because they were jealous of our sweet chair! Or blinded...either one.

Yes. It is orange. And velvet.

The sad part...it actually didn't look too bad in our room. AND it's not too far off from what I was originally looking for in a chair. 

After finding our little gem, it was time to de-velvetize. Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures of this infuriating process. But I can't promise any of them would have been appropriate either. Those little bast...I mean...staples are a pain to get out.

After stripping it down, Tim was able to fix the legs without too much trouble. We sanded it down, painted it a pearlescent white, and add a new seat cushion.

Of course, now we had to find fabric. The chair probably sat like this for a few weeks while we debated fabric swatches and contemplated special ordering something. Our biggest challenge was bringing in some color to match the slate tiles surrounding our fireplace. Things were either too blue or too red or too gray or on and on and on...

I was browsing our local Joann's one day when I decided to check out the upholstery clearance section. (I have had some excellent luck searching clearance before.) And there it was. A brand new bolt of fabric, just waiting for me.

I brought a sample home to Tim and he agreed, we had found it! And it was on CLEARANCE! Hallelujah!

Too bad that's when we entered, what I dubbed, Upholstery Hell. Really, it was only hell for me. I think Tim actually enjoyed it, once we agreed that I would never try to help him again. I do not have the patience to do upholstery. Give me a screwdriver and some pliers and I'll rip the stuff off like a pro, but as soon as you ask me to start making patterns or checking for symmetry, I'm outta there!

At the end of the day (or months), Tim did a fantastic job putting it all together, but you'll have to stay tuned for our finished product...

Read More

Baking FAIL (and a win!)

Every once in a while, all of the stars align and we have the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. And when that happens, we like to take advantage of it! This makes it twice as disappointing when it turns into a giant FAIL.

Why so smirky?

Yep, that would be the ENTIRE egg in the mixing bowl. I even dropped it in WHILE the mixer was running, to make sure it really ::got:: in there. 

Now you may be thinking, "But Arianna, it doesn't look like you were that far along in the process. Why not start over?" And I would say "We totally started over. Absolutely nothing was going to stop us from enjoying delicious, chewy chocolate chip cookies." HA! Except that we, as evidenced below, can ruin any recipe. 

Want a crispy-flying-cookie-saucer of doom?

On a happier note, I did get a big WIN later in week. In trying to be more self-sustaining (and all-around awesome), I made my very own biscuits! From scratch!

And, yes, you do need a butcher's knife to make rolls. I'm almost certain I read that somewhere...

 These suckers turned out delicious!

Read More

Luscious Locks of Love Lopped

12" down!

P.S. I have a lot of pictures from our last two weekend adventures (Disneyland and a photography class), but my picasa account is currently full, so I can't add any pictures until I clean it out.  I'll try to do that soon!  Sorry!

Read More

Healthy Learning

Tim and I have been very bad at eating well in the past. I will admit to more than a few "frozen food buffets." (But I won't apologize for them, because...well, they're delicious. Even if it means an upset stomach the next day.)

Slowly, but surely, we've been changing our habits. Japan was a blessing and a curse. What's familiar in such a foreign place? Fruits and veggies...and American junk food.

To get to the point of this entry, I signed us up for a produce box! So far, we've gotten three boxes. They're delivered every other week, and it's been a huge learning experience.

They come looking like this...

And then you start to peel away the greenery and you get to more of the goodies...

I'm a big fan of the kiwis, tangelos, fresh garlic, and red potatoes.  Tim loves the pears, celery, carrots (straight from the ground) and the greens. Of course, there's different produce in each box, but we do have veto power.  We realized we weren't really using the cremini mushrooms, so I switched them out for celery in our latest box.

In our first box, we got this red chard.

 But this time we were able to order a salad mix. It saves space in the fridge!

To be perfectly honest, there were some things that we had no idea how to store, so I whipped out our big Good Housekeeping cook book and found an entire section devoted to the identification, storage and preparation of produce.

It has been a life-saver!

Tim is already being adventurous. He managed to cook a spinach quiche for the first time and he said that it turned out really well. (And before you jump to any conclusions, it wasn't the spinach that kept me away, it was the eggs. I'm just not a fan of eggs.)

I've also rejoined the Y and I have tried to make it a point to go regularly. It helps that I have overcome my fear of classes and now I'm going to kickboxing class 1-2x a week.  Even though I really want to sit down 90% of the time I'm in the class, I feel a lot better at the end. I guess the phrase "no pain, no gain" really is true.  :-)
 

Read More

Yeah...

So it's been about 3 weeks of radio silence on this blog. Sorry 'bout that! The Wandering Wells went into hibernation mode.

What's been going on in the last few weeks?

Tim continues to play basketball with a new team in the City League.  It has been an uphill battle for the guys, but they've gotten exponentially better! Tim is almost never allowed to sit out, so he's been getting some really good cardio exercise! They're currently 1-3, but I think they're going to get much better before the season is over.

I have been working like crazy getting things together at work. This has been a welcome challenge and I am enjoying this working life very much. I was having a hard time concentrating with a "living room office" and so Tim and I did the one thing we've been avoiding and dreading for the last 2 years.

We cleaned the office.

It literally took 3 full days to complete. We ended up recycling more than 6 boxes of papers (thanks Mom for saving EVERY SINGLE assignment I EVER did from kindergarten through college) and gave away a variety of knick-knacks, bookshelves, and plastic bins.  We were exhausted by the end of the third day, but it was SO worth it.  Now I can work from home, in an actual office!

Tim built this storage system for the closet. 

We removed the closet doors and it has opened up the room a ton!

At the end of the last day of cleaning!  We moved the piano to the other side of the room and put the desk on the opposite wall.  This also made a huge difference in terms of space. Who knew?!

There's still some things we need to put away in front of the closet, but this is the new system in action.  It's so much more organized and I love how accessible our things are now.  Since this photo was taken, it looks even better! 

Our next goal is to actually decorate the office.  It's amazing how bare the walls look when the floor isn't covered in boxes and other junk. The first thing we're going to get: new lamps! The ones in the office now are so ugly, but when you don't actually use a room, the source of light doesn't matter so much. This room may actually turn into our never-ending project, but Tim is just so thrilled that my work stuff isn't taking up any more space in the living room, that I don't think he minds how much time and energy it has taken.  

Read More

365.13

We're making changes!

Read More

365.6

This one is for my parents.  It's titled: Portrait of a Home Office

All work and no play makes for lame pictures. :-)

Read More

365.4

We lost.  :-(

Read More

Halloweekend 2010

We have an annual tradition here in the Wells household for Halloween and it involves haunted houses and cupcakes.  Sounds like a great combo, right?!  Thankfully, we were also able to spend the holiday weekend with Tim's sister, also an annual tradition.

Laurie and I started the day off right with a lunch of mexican food, while we waited for Tim to get off work.  Once we were all home, Tim had gotten a nap, and we made sure the cupcakes were all ready for decorating, we headed out to dinner and the Haunted Fairgrounds.

Evidently, I have attained VIP status at the fairgrounds, thanks to some sweet theater connections.  We managed to bypass the entire general admission line and we got to go through by ourselves.  Umm...it is way scarier going through a haunted house in a group of 3 (4, if you include our "host," who also managed to scare us several times)! It was an awesome experience and probably my favorite haunted experience ever.

Then it was time for CUPCAKES!

Preparing to decorate...

We had to put in a Halloween movie to set the mood...

Our decorating supplies...

My sweet vampire cupcake...

Tim and my completed cupcakes...

Laurie putting the finishing touches on her cupcakes...

This is what happens when I go to set up the tripod...

 And after several attempts...

 We got a group picture!

The next night, on Halloween, Tim and I had to get the Jack 'o Lantern pizza!

And, for the first time ever, we got trick-or-treaters!  4 kids came to our door for candy!  It may not seem like a lot, but it was sure exciting for us.  I think the kids liked that we gave them handfuls of candy out of pure joy and surprise!

Read More