Work Work Work..

I started my full-time job on August 29th. The first two weeks have just been orientation and training, which I've seen already because it's very similar to my training for internships. So aside from a few boring days, it's been fun to get to know more people who I might end up working with. I now have an idea what my client assignments are going to look like for the next few months but they could still change a bit.

I do know that my "busy season" (next winter) will be for the private client I worked on for a week last summer, when I went to Arizona. No, I know what you're thinking (mom), I won't be spending the winter like a retiree in Arizona. I think that's just a once-a-year trip during August. But the client often has opportunities for travel so that's definitely something I could be doing if I stay on it. And as for the next few weeks, suprise!, I'll also be working a busy season (year-end audit) for a smaller organization that is located in Oakland, very close to where I lived last year. So for the most part it looks like I'll have short commutes outside the city or down to the financial district. My neighborhood actually has an express bus that runs to the financial district during peak commuting hours. If I time it right I can make to work in about 25 minutes in the morning. Sometimes it's crowded, but I can handle that!

That's about it for how work is going..maybe I'll have more to report on once I actually start working! I honestly can't wait - after two internships and now these two weeks of training I just want to get started. But between work and studying.

I know my posts have been kind of boring and picture-less lately..I'll try to take pictures this weekend during our game day party. Go Blue!

A Visit From Chuck & Judy

The 'rents arrived last Wednesday. It was their anniversary so after work I ran to the store to get ingredients to make them a carrot cake, from scratch, with my new KitchenAid Stand Mixer!! It was my birthday gift from Jordan and it was a wonderful surprise :) I must say, the cake was delicious and supposedly was more healthy than normal carrot cake, since the recipe came from Cooking Light. We picked them up from the airport pretty late and then just came home and went to bed. On Thursday they did an all-day tour to get all the touristy stuff out of the way and then Jordan met up with them for dinner in the neighborhood. I wasn't able to join because we had a social event for the new start class at work.

On Friday I was able to meet my parents for a quick lunch near the Ferry Building. That night was also a little thrown together because Jordan ended up being busy at work so he wasn't able to make it home for our reservation at the Cliff House, a nice restaurant right on the Pacific Ocean. We drove out there through some intense fog and since the sun had set by the time we got there, didn't have much to see anyways. But we still had a good night and the food was delicious!

We celebrated the holiday on Saturday (the start of college football season, of course) by cooking up a nice lunch and settling in to watch the boys in blue. It was somewhat of an anti-climactic start with all the weather delays and the game ending early, but we won and showed some signs of definite improvement over last year. We're both really excited about the season and finding places to watch games! Although this Saturday, we're hosting an all-day open house since ESPN Gameday is reporting from Ann Arbor. We have our first night game ever against Notre Dame so we'll have friends over all day to get ready and watch! I'll have to try out some game day snack recipes :)

On Sunday, we got started early with a quick drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, the town just north of us across the bay. We walked around, browsed some shops, and then took a shuttle up to the Sausalito Art Fair which was going on all weekend. It turned out that tickets to get into the fair were expensive (they had some entertainers there too) so we just visited a building that housed studios of local artists until heading back home.

Once back home we did a little shopping on Chestnut and Union Streets in our neighborhood. Jordan and I bought a console table for the dining room to serve as a wine/bar table. We might also look for something more suited as a wine cart and use the console table in the entryway, but we'll figure that out later. The table was the floor model at Pottery Barn so it was 50% off and we even snagged the display tray they had on it for $14! I love a good deal! After shopping we went out for a nice dinner on Union Street and then capped off the night by watching Gran Torino.

My parents took off this morning. I might not see them again until Christmas but it was really nice to have them here for a few days! Now I have to get back to the books because I take my next CPA exam in a month. Goodbye freedom!

Catching Up: A Taste of Freedom

Let's see, it's been a few weeks since I've blogged and a lot has been going on actually. I took my CPA exam two weeks ago. It did not go well but oh well, it's over. I won't know how I did until the end of September and by then I'll be about to take the next one anyways. Once my test was over, I had about 6 days of freedom before starting my job. It was so nice to have time to check things off the to-do list! I got my haircut, did a little home decorating, went grocery shopping for the first time in weeks, and finally started writing wedding thank yous. I even had a California first - my first earthquake! It was extremely mild, to the point where I wasn't even sure that's what I felt, but I did! So I can check that off the list too...

We also celebrated my birthday last weekend. On Saturday we went out to Walnut Creek for a BBQ in the sun with Kimberly and Jason and Lauren and Lance. Jordan's cousin Melissa and his aunt and uncle also stopped by after their day in Napa. We had a ton of fun - we hadn't seen everyone together since the day we moved to SF, way back in July. Toooo long! We also enjoyed some birthday cupcakes that Kimberly surprised me with. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures :(

Sunday (my actual birthday) was pretty relaxing. We went out to breakfast, went for a nice run, watched some TV and then celebrated with margaritas and tacos at a restaurant in our neighborhood that we've wanted to go to for awhile! Not anything overly exciting, but just what I needed :)

I'll recap on my first week of work later along with my parents visit for the weekend. Just wanted to get a quick update out there so people knew we were still around! Happy long weekend!