Waitangi Day

On Sunday we hosted the Super Bowl. We thought it would be a good time for people to come see our new space. We're not fully moved in, but we're closer than we've ever been and pretty much no one had been over to see it yet. It was fun, but man did that game suck and man do I not like Tom Brady and man do I hate the Patriots! (RIP Rams!)

I was blowing up our little mini-football field
snack ice chest thing. If you've watched Black
Mirror's Bandersnatch episode, this might mean
something to you...

Nanners going for the Rams! Debbie and AJ
went in on season tickets as an investment
this year and got a lot of swag from that. They
were insanely sad the Rams didn't win

My favorite commercial was the Stella Artois one with SJP and The Dude. I had actually JUST watched The Big Lebowski for the first time on my flight to Europe last month, so perfect timing to get the reference! Zoe Kravitz's commercial for Michelob Pure Gold was also pretty mesmerizing. And that's about all I remember from Snoozer Bowl Sunday 2019.

Yesterday I had to drive up to Los Angeles to go to the Myanmar consulate for a visa for my next trip. Sad fact: it's in the same building as the Philippines consulate general, and that one had signage all over and people visiting it. The Myanmar consulate... not so much. I walked up to a completely empty room, with the one guy at the window just on his phone. Haha. But hey, I got help quick, got in and out of there in 20 minutes (even accounting having to leave for a money order!) and he was soooo nice and friendly.

The ride to LA, while it took way longer than it should have, was actually beautifully breathtaking. After all the rainy storms, it was sunny out. Not clear skies though; around the bright blue there were animated clouds framing the sky, and the mountains were crisp and more snowy than I had seen in years; as a matter of fact, I was seeing different mountains and dimensions all around than I had ever noticed before because the sky was clear and they had had the heavy dusting of snow even down pretty low. And, out my windshield in the middle of it all was the downtown Los Angeles skyline and the Hollywood sign, clearer and closer than I had ever seen it! I have a love/hate relationship with LA, and even though it's far from my favorite city, I like the buzz of energy from metropolises.

Not Los Angeles, but Riverside
on this same morning

And, I learned on Tuesday that yesterday, February 6, is Waitangi Day, New Zealand's national day. So that was fun and I felt like I got a good proper celebration in!