Life in the Emerald City

So, I needed a 2 month break to get all my thoughts together!  I guess.

Actually I have been very, very busy, but that’s really not an excuse!

Since September,

1. We bought a boat, the one mentioned a couple of posts ago.
2. We moved onto the boat…got rid of the apartment.
3. We moved the boat to a new marina…meaning we MOVED!
4. My old restaurant closed its doors…so sad, goodbye Chez Allez.
5. I got a new job…SOUS CHEF at Catalina Restaurant!
6. We got married back in Florida…best day ever!
7. We went on our honeymoon cruise in Mexico…a week of bliss!
8. We came home and got back to work, spending Thanksgiving on the boat and making another huge decision!  I will share this later this week once I catch up on all the photos and posts!

Check back, I will be getting photos up of these events and catching up on my life!  Then I’ll let you in on our next BIG adventure!

Ciao!

On Thursday of last week, we realized were informed that we’d need a slip to move the boat to after the sale was finalized. Duh…why didn’t we think of that??  Well, it is very difficult to get a live aboard slip here in SoCal, so by Friday (when we’d set the appointment to make the offer on the boat) I’m thinking our dreams will just have to be suspended for now.    I just knew we wouldn’t be able to get a slip in time, someone else would fall in love with the boat and we’d have to start all over.  I rationalized that this was probably for the best…we should be saving our monies for property taxes and wedding expenses in November.  But deep down…I really wanted to make an offer!

After work on Friday, I drove down to Wilmington Harbor and checked out some of the marinas..in hopes one would have live aboard slips available.  I met this darling lady at Lighthouse Yacht Landing named Barbara.  She and her husband have owned the marina for over 35 years and have put their lives into it!  They hand select their tenants and keep their grounds super clean!  The bathrooms and laundry were simply adorable…I just fell in love!  Luckily, so did she!  She really liked me and felt like maybe we could work something out!  She had a small issue with the pups, but she seemed flexible enough!

Friday night I told Sean all about my findings and he and I agreed we’d go back with the dogs to try and win her over for sure!!  Saturday morning was sailing lesson #2.  It was just Sean and I with the instructor, so the class was much more intimate and fun!  We went over all the parts of the boat and got underway!  Both of us got to practice the helm position, hoisting the sails, trimming the sails, switching sides, and putting the boat all back together!  We had a great time…we are really loving our new hobby!

After sailing, we had a quick lunch at Tequila Jacks while watching the first quarter of the UF vs. UT football game.  We scurried home after lunch in time to catch the end of the 2nd quarter…we were slaughtering them!  With full bellies, Sean and I both dozed off, waking up halfway into the 4th quarter…just in time to see UT LOSE to UF.  GO GATORS!!!  After the game, we hurried the girls into the car and headed for Wilmington Harbor.  We did get to chat with some of the other marinas only to find out they didn’t have any slips either.  We finally made it back to Lighthouse Marina…Sean liked it right off the bat!  It has a great little garden area with a BBQ and fountains…so nice!  Barbara just loved the pups and walked us all over the marina talking about which slips she could put us in!  Score!!!  With that taken care of, we could now put in our offer!

And that’s just what we did on Sunday!  We met our boat broker on Sunday afternoon to sign the papers and put in an offer.  Today the owner of the Pearson 36 countered, then we countered back, then he countered, and we countered…you get the picture!  Eventually we agreed on a price and the process is in motion!  If all goes well with sea trial and survey this week, we could be boat owners by next week!  How exciting is that?!?!  Whooo…I am excited and nervous!  We probably should be saving those monies for the wedding, but hey, that’s why we go to work everyday, right???

So, I’ll keep you posted…keep your fingers crossed for us, please!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  ~Mark Twain

Sean and I have decided to take on a new adventure and learn to sail!  Not promising a trip around the world just yet, but there should be some future vacations worth blogging about!  Anyway, we took our first sailing lesson this past Saturday at Marina Sailing.  We had a blast!  Got to go out on the water and everything.  Way too many lines, sheets, and wind directions to remember in one lesson…good thing they give us ten!

On Sunday, we went to look at a boat we are seriously considering.  Check out our photos of a Pearson 36′.

Roller Furling Jib

Cockpit…nice and clean!

Looking Aft: Dinette on left, settee on right, nav table on right, galley on left, head (bathroom) on right, stairs to cockpit, aft cabin (guest bedroom) on left.

Looking forward: Settee (couch) on left, dinette on right, beautiful teak floors, shelving on left and the v-berth all the way forward.

It’s a really beautiful boat with a nice price tag.  As for now it is our biggest contender.  We’re still doing our research before making the HUGE decision to move onto a boat for the next year.  Let me know if you have any opinions!   Our next lesson is this Saturday…I can’t wait!

Ciao!

The wedding website is finally complete!  Whew!  We’ve spent so much time reworking it and not liking it, then reworking it and not getting it finished before the save-the-dates went out, then reworking it again…geez this has been a LONG process.

Nevertheless, it’s finally done! So, GO CHECK IT OUT!!!  http://wedding.ensbell.net I know you’ll love the title!!

Yesterday Sean and I spent the whole day working on getting all the material up there and then sorting out in a manner we both liked.  We think it looks really great and hopefully it will be useful to our friends and family members!  Let me know what you think and please join the mailing list so we can keep you up to date as the wedding gets closer!!

Back to work today and tomorrow, then the gym, grocery shopping and laundry…my life is so full!  We are doing well though, very happy in California, dreaming about our next adventure!  Speaking of…

We are considering slimming down our posessions, purchasing a sailboat, and living while cruising on the seas for a while.  We will be taking some sailing lessons and looking for suitable sailboats over the next few months.  We hope to be on our new boat by the end of the year!  More to come on that later!

In the mean time, we will be working on starting a new business together and getting my dog business off the ground.  Things are definitely NOT boring in our lives.  Wish us luck and we’ll keep you posted on how things progress!

Ciao!

It’s been an uneventful couple of days around here, so why don’t I send you over to my food blog for a yummy recipe for Squash Soup!  Check it out at my  La Cucina della Vaniglia!

Ciao!

Yesterday Sean and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary as a couple.  We chose to sleep in on a lazy Sunday morning as we don’t get many opportunities to sleep in.  After noon, we got up, showered and dressed for a fun day of good food, drink and friends!

We started the day at the Ambrosia Cafe for their Champagne Brunch. 

All in all, I’d say the food was about average and the outside patio had little air circulation, so it was very HOT!  However, it wasn’t overly expensive and Sean and I left with satisfied tummies.  From there we headed to Ed Cox’s house for an afternoon Bar-B-Que.  A very charming little beach cottage make-over in beautiful Santa Monica.  Ed Cox is a former roommate and now very good friend of Sean (and me).

We started with the Fantasy football draft, which turned out to be a lot more exciting than I had expected.  Basically there are ten people in our league (most of them former Gators) who’ve formed teams (i.e. chosen names) and we each get to choose a player one at a time for 14 rounds.  Then every week we choose 9 of our players to play against one of the nine other ‘fantasy’ teams.  Based on how the players do in real life (which means we of course have to watch all of our ‘fantasy’ players’ performances) determines how well our fantasy team does.  It is all very confusing to me, but it gives me a reason to watch more than just Gator games and root for other players than just Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin (a.k.a. The Greatest Players of ALL Time!).

So, after the draft is finished, Sean and I take a think break.  We headed over to West Marine for some window shopping and Ralph’s for some much needed chocolate bites!  Then, on to the party…

Sean and I pose for a close-up.  The flower in my hair is from the BEAUTIFUL bouquet of roses Sean bought me this week!

Our party hosts, Ed Cox and his girlfriend, Jessica.  I caught them in an awkward hugging motion, but you can see we were all having fun!

Party guests…sorry, there were too many great conversations and laughs going on for me to remember everyone’s names, but they were all very nice and it was very nive to meet all of them!

The Bar-B-Que was very laid back with great food and awesome wine!  Thank you Ed and Jessica for helping us have a wonderful celebration and for the great atmopshere and conversations.  As for me, I’m off to bed to get a new week started of right!