A Long Hiatus

After a long hiatus, I think we’re ready to get back on the radar. We’ve spent the last year raising little Tule, working on the backyard, and staying very busy! Stay tuned for a new post tonight with backyard progress photos!

Company In-Town: Teruko’s Visit to SoCal

Teruko has been visiting the Fitzgeralds in Denver for many years from her home in Japan. She’s travelled all around the U.S., but had not been to Southern California yet, so on her spring break this March (from school in Washington) she came down to visit us and see the sights.

We had fun showing her around! We took her around our little beach town and showed her the San Clemente pier and the beach trail. We also went up the road to one of the prettiest beaches around, the beach at the Montage in Laguna.  They have really neat tide pools where you can touch sea anemones.  Of course we also took her to our favorite italian restaurant, Ciao Pasta in San Juan Capistrano. If you’ve ever come to visit us, you know that we always seem to end up there with our guests. But it really is the best italian food around. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.  

Teruko also wanted to see Los Angeles while she was here, so we took her up to partake in some sightseeing at places like Pink’s hot dog stand, shopping on rodeo, chinese theater, and of course she got to experience the traffic. Let’s see, we had one celebrity sighting, Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl while shopping on Rodeo. 

Of course Tule came with us on our outdoor LA adventure, he was quite the star himself.  He wooed the saleswomen at Domenico Vacca on Rodeo, who gave him a treat and lots of love.  He saw his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and waited in line for hotdogs at Pink’s like all of the other celebrities do.

After a day in LA, we headed to Santa Monica for dinner, and decided to have sushi.  Sean and I had the best sushi ever in Santa Monica a few years ago, but we have been unable to find that restaurant again because it wasn’t in the main part of town.  So, we tried Sushi Roku, and it was good.  We had fun asking Teruko a million questions about sushi etiquette and other Japanese traditions, and picked up a few new tips.  I was even complemented on my correct usage of the chopsticks, unlike Sean who wasn’t on his “A” game that night.  It was also Teruko’s birthday eve, so we had the waiter bring out a desert and we sang happy birthday.  The candle on that cake was the size of a small firecracker.

We had fun entertaining Teruko for the weekend and hope to see her again soon, maybe in Washington or one day Japan!

Half Marathon Success

Yes, on superbowl sunday 2010, I ran 13.1 miles in the Surf City Half Marathon! Yay. It was fun challenging myself to run further than I ever thought I really wanted to run. I want to get a little faster before i do any more long distance races. For now I’m back to doing triathlons, with no other long runs in my short term plans.

The photo below shows me in all my glory crossing the finish line. I think this was right before I started smiling about my new accomplishment! (It’s like where’s waldo, try to find me).

Paso Robles Weekender

So it was in celebration of Sean’s birthday that we planned a little trip to Paso Robles for wine tasting with a few of our friends.  It was also Tule’s first road trip.  He did well.  We rented a house in Templeton, right along the winery route, so it was a great starting and ending point for our tasting tours!

All of the wineries were wonderful.  The scenery up there is beautiful, a little different from Santa Ynez Valley, where we usually go (around Los Olivos and Solvang).  The two favorite stops on our tasting rampage were Whalebone and Halter Ranch.  So good.  It was the perfect weekend, all of the wineries had extra festivities going on as a result of the Zin Festival taking place.   Whalebone was grilling and serving mini-tri tip open top sandwiches with a balsamic sauce and Halter Ranch had a guy with a pizza oven making fresh authentic italian pizzas topped with arugula and other yummy ingredients.

The wineries are very laid back, and everyone is incredibly friendly.  Well with the exception of the lady at Turley I think.  Lots of the winery owners had their dogs running around on the property, and they have no problem with us bringing Tule on the tours next time.  But, this time he was at the rental house in his crate anxiously awaiting our return. 

After we finished our tours, we went back to the house for a little bit and enjoyed some wine and played with Tule.  he loves in up in Paso.  There was so much room to run off-leash, which doesn’t happen alot in our area of So Cal.  The house we rented was on an acre lot.  And there were big fields just down the street perfect for him to unleash his dog-ness on, as Sean calls it, and just let loose and run through the tall grass.

After some playtime, we were lucky enough to get a reservation at McPhee’s Grill, recommended by one of the wineries we visited.  Very unassuming from the outside of the building, in what looked like a dead little downtown area of Templeton.  Dead it was not, everyone was just hiding inside this restaurant.  It was such a pleasant suprise.  The food was amazingly delicious.  Steaks and all sides were cooked to perfection.  The wine selection, as expected, was great.   I highly recommend finding your way to McPhee’s if you’re visiting Paso.

It was a short trip, but a fun trip, and we look forward to going back for more. 

The Most “Fitzgerald-like” Holiday of the Year

Happy’s St. Paddys!  For St. Paddy’s Day we headed down to our local pub, aka beachfront bar.  We enjoyed Guiness, and then after i glass i switched to what I thought was the $1 glasses of champagne Wednesday night special.  Well, the special doesn’t run on holidays, so the $1 glasses I thought I was consuming were really $7.  Oops.  At that price I would have selected another beverage of choice.  Regardless, it was a nice laid back, opposite of college-life, St.Paddy’s Day. 

Sean’s Birthday Gift, Hello Counter Clutter

Sean has been jonesn’ for a coffee maker for the last six months.  If you know me, you know i don’t like to have stuff sitting out on the kitchen counters, so I’ve been delaying the purchase.  Then my parents come into town, and of course, they want coffee in the morning.  And of course they were suprised that we didn’t have a coffee maker, which gave Sean a chance to talk about his desire for a coffee maker even more.  Eventually, a few days before his birthday, I caved and thought it would be nice to suprise him with one… So I got him the “extreme brew” cuisinart coffee maker.  I thought if there was any coffee maker that was very Sean-like, it was definitly the EXTREME BREW (check it out here if you want your very own!) !

Company In-Town: Mom & Dad Coskey

Ah, at last, my parents finally got to come see our house.  They’ve been out before but not since we bought the house in November.  We had fun showing them the SC beach trail and having some wine at the Ritz and watching the sunset.    We love visitors!  Love you guys!

Valentine’s Day (Even Though it was Months Ago)

We had a wonderfully delicious Valentine’s day.  Although it was forever ago, I just loved how it turned out.  I got out our china and set a nice table, complete with my home-made chocolate dipped strawberries.  We grilled these 2″ thick steaks and had a wonderful time!

Our Puppy, Tule Collins Fitzgerald

We started the backyard project mainly because we were getting a puppy on January 15. Needless to say, the puppy arrived and still we have no grass. But, he gets good walks and has lots of good park options around here, so, he’s getting by just fine. His name is Tule, like tool-ie, or for you Californians, he’s named after the Tule river.

When he arrived at 8 weeks, he weighed 18 pounds, and quickly doubled in size, and as of today weighs about 55-60lbs. Below are photos from the first day he arrived through this last week. He has tons more on his picasa page (www.picasaweb.com/tulecollins). But this should bring you all up to speed.

He is the sweetest dog you will ever meet. So cute, so fun, and just loves everyone… even the dogs that aren’t so sure about him. His markings are spectacular, and he has cute little freckles on his nose. His first claim to fame was probably bringing the newspaper inside all on his own at 9 weeks. Since then, he’s acquired other talents, for instance over the weekend he gave a little teacup dog a panic attack at fashion island just by casually walking by. Now that’s a real dog! He didn’t pay any attention to that dog as it barked, yelped, cried and screamed.  He now understands, “sit”, “down”, “stay” (w/some distraction), and “shake”.  We’ll see if we can get rollover, or play dead.

If you’re in the market for a berner, you have to call Sharon & Paul Morris who own Whipperwill Ridge (http://www.whipperwillridge.com). Tule, and his half-brother Bentley are the best looking Berners that we have seen yet. One of Tule’s sisters now lives in Laguna, so we look forward to meeting her also!  Sharon has been amazing in answering all of our on-going puppy questions.  We’ve had fun keeping up with her as Tule grows.

If you’re in the Dana Point area and need a dog trainer, Steve Estrada (http://www.gonetothedogs.com/about.asp) has helped us tame our beast.  Okay not really tame the beast, but get him on the right foot early on as a puppy and fix any behavior issues that our sweet little guy has come up with.  His personal training and group classes have been really good for little Tule.  Tule really loves the group classes.

8 Weeks / 2 Months

9 Weeks

10 Weeks

Meeting His Half Brother Bentley

11 Weeks

12 Weeks / 3 Months

Shopping at Fashion Island

13 Weeks

14 Weeks

15 Weeks

At his favorite coffee shop JC Beans

16 Weeks / 4 Months

First time in his puppy harness, he's a pro

17 Weeks

One is smiling.

18 Weeks

19 Weeks

Post-brushing, a light shed day

With his stingray tail

20 Weeks / 5 Months

Tule and his friend Ginger

Backyard Before Photos

It’s a nice enough backyard for someone who wants to have no yardwork.  But for those of us who, despite the california water shortage, would still like a little grass between our toes, it wasn’t quite the right solution for us.  Some of you may cringe because you know how much it cost to install all of that brick, especially the herringbone pattern, but hopefully the final result will be a pleasant suprise!

THE BEFORE:

Side Yard Patio (Will continue to be a patio, with different surface material. Restructuring BBQ area as well.

Yard From Patio (Everything Goes replaced with grass and small patio)

Yard From Back Fence (Everything Goes replaced with grass and small patio)

Yard Far Side of House (Everything Goes replaced with grass and small patio)