Saturday, March 29, 2008

One Year | Month Two: Preparations for a BIG trip


Tim and I are planning a big trip. We have been thinking about this trip since before we got married actually.

It is a trip to Japan. Why Japan? Why not, Japan? Tim and I both think it seems interesting and culturally, it seems far more different from the U.S. than places in Europe. So we have been researching when the best time to go would be and what we should see.

Currently, we are shooting to go for a week in October 2008. And as summer approaches we are swinging into full planning mode.

Today however a very important step had to be taken care of...I had to apply for a new passport. I had one once upon a time, when I was an exchange student in France, when I was about 12. So obviously, my passport has expired. And also, I haven't a clue where it is now. So I had to say it was "lost." Which is pretty much the truth. I went to the Tarzana post office, as it was one of the few you could do passport stuff on a Saturday. And after some flubs (you cannot have an application in which you have scratched something out and put something else in apparently)I was done with the application and in the near future I should be getting my new passport.

Next step is to decide what week in October will be best for the trip, start looking for flights.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

One Year| Month Two: A new couch

Though in the movies life in Los Angeles is constantly exciting, Tim and I do not live the movie star life (thank goodness). Our excitment this weekend...looking for a new couch.

As of late we have been looking at our well worn futon, which serves as our couch and thinking it was time for a change.

The futon mattress was part of the futon I bought after I had been in LA for six months. For those of you not keeping track, I have lived in LA almost 7 years. When I bought it the store told me it would last about a year with everyday use (it was the cheapest one they had). So I have gotten my money's worth on the mattress. The original frame, ceased to function about three years ago and we have since been limping along with a metal frame from IKEA which cost almost nothing...and it shows.

The metal frame has gotten bent due to poor engineering. And calling the mattress lumpy is probably being charitable. So now that Tim and I no longer live in a single room and have big kid jobs, it seemed like it might be time to buy an actual couch.

But we'd kind of been lazy about actually going to look at couches because, furniture shopping is not the most exciting and thrilling thing to do. And though nice furniture is great, spending your money on a couch...is so grown up.

Today, the weather was nice and Tim was in the mood for some good Middle Eastern food. So we headed to The Farmer's Market where we knew he could get a nice shawarma. It also happens to be in close proximity to a Crate & Barrel, so we decided to at least look at couches.

And we found a great one. The things we were looking for in a couch were:

1. Has style - check
2. Won't look dated in only a year - check
3. Comfortable for sitting - check
4. Seems like a good place to take a nap - check

So once all of those were checked off we walked around a bit and discussed and decided it was time to pull the trigger. Dan, our helpful C&B employee helped us and even aided us in picking out the color for the legs (we got to choose everything - special!)
He even told us that the name of the sofa, Rochelle was after New Rochelle where the Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore show took place because it is kind of retro like that.



We selected the color aubergine because it is both dark therefore being a little more forgiving in the stain department but also not a bland color like brown. We have a bad tendency to gravitate toward browns and tans because "oh hey, it will match anything." And we thought breaking out of that would be a good idea.

Since it is not one of the two stock colors (which were light blue and dark blue) it will be an impossibly long 9 to 11 weeks before our new couch arrives. But we have lived with the old futon for this long another few weeks won't kill us.

Now I need to start looking for some fun throw pillows....