With the economy in the toilet these days, we got a great deal on a tan micro-fiber recliner for Jonathan with the appropriate "sink factor". It arrived this week and we realized real quick that we would need to make some changes.

While Jonathan was in Colorado for work Friday night, I tried every possible furniture configuration (the dog looked at me like I was crazy) and came to the conclusion that our coffee table had to go. The dining table almost got kicked out too, but we took out the leaf and it is not too bad now. All of our furniture is hand-me-down and our one-bedroom apartment just can't hold it all. We always said we would keep our furniture until we moved back to Oregon and at that point just leave it here and buy everything new up there, but it looks like we will be getting a new, more reasonable-sized, coffee table in the near future. The new arrangement has a lot more open space on the floor for visitors to sleep on the air mattress :).

We hung out with Nick and Stacey, Pete and Charissa, and Nate and Amy on Saturday night. There are some really great people here that build eachother up and love to laugh. We are also really enjoying hanging out with our Sunday lunch crew every week. Through my gratitude glasses, our tiny little love nest is cozy, not cramped, and we know great people near and far.

Chelsey came to visit us a couple weekends ago. We took her to San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, and San Jose for shopping, eating, and sightseeing. It was great to have her here with us.

A couple days ago we went to the SAP Open tennis tournament at the hp Pavilion. We got to see Juan Martin Del Potro who is #6 in the world and only 20 years old, James Blake who is #11, Vince Spadea, and Andrea Stoppini. It was really fun to watch.

We have both been really busy at work lately. It feels good to work hard all day and have more responsibility. On top of his church internship program, Jonathan started an advertising class through Academy of Art University of SF and he is really enjoying it. I am opting to study Japanese in my spare time and taking a yoga class instead, and have recently picked up the guitar again for the first time in far too long. Shinobi has graduated from catching only squishy toys in his mouth to catching a full size tennis ball in his mouth pretty consistently. We miss you all! Come visit soon!

We went for a hike at Big Basin Redwoods State Park (sans doggie) on MLK Jr. holiday. That park is the oldest California state park, founded in 1902. It was a perfect, beautiful day. We couldn't believe how old all of the trees must be, they are huge. We also saw a coyote, he was really cute. He looked a lot like Shinobi.

It was too beautiful of a day not to take some photos. The sky was a gorgeous blue and the citrus trees in our neighborhood are starting to bear fruit. I have been at my new job for a week now and am enjoying it so far. Jonathan is in SF today taking a voice acting class that I got him for Christmas. Shinobi is curled up on our new (used) couch. And we are going to hang out with the Jonathan and Lindsey tonight. Sigh... we are quite blessed.

Shinobi made friends with two Havanese dogs. The black one is named Scout and the white and gray one is Lincoln. Their owners, Jane and Karl, go to our church. Shinobi and Scout are about the same age and they were playing like crazy. Jane and Karl's son got a camera for Christmas and was practicing his skills on Shinobi.