LA Trip: Day 1

We arrived yesterday in Southern California after a short, five hour drive. (How did that happen?) Last night we ate dinner at home with Jason’s parents, catching up on life and ardently discussing this year’s American Idol (which is especially interesting when your in-laws are in the music and television biz).

Today Jason and his dad and brother are out bicycling around the Rose Bowl and vicinity, and I think my mother-in-law and I might go for a walk later on. Ah vacation!

This video accurately depicts my feelings of having 5 days off in a row.

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The Story of the $10 Dresser

I’ve been keeping an eye out on Craigslist for an old (preferably mid-century) dresser with character that I could clean up and paint a fun color. Well, I found one that I liked so on Saturday morning, Jason and I hopped in the car and headed to Oakland to check it out. It was pretty beat up and one of the legs had fallen off, so we were able to get it for $10. Getting it in our little Civic was quite a feat (we ended up having to put the front seats down and sit upright with no seat backs for the drive home).

Here it is. Cute, right? I love the angled drawers and the simple lines.  

This afternoon, we brought the dresser over to my parents’ house so we could strip the paint, sand, and paint it at their house (as we haven’t the space). Mom and Jason were wonderful to help me on my first furniture refurbish project. After a couple trips to the hardware store and several hours later, it looked like we were getting somewhere.

Once we’d gotten more than halfway through the sanding process, we noticed that the side on one of the drawers was completely split. We decided to stop at that point and reassess the situation, to see if this project was worth spending all our free evenings or if the dresser is in too bad a shape after all.

We cleaned up and set everything aside until we figure out what to do. Here’s the dresser on time-out.

And that was our weekend adventure.

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Bikes!

photo by Ben Ingham 

 

I’ve recently been bitten by the bicycling bug.

Again.

When I was a teenager, my dad would take the whole family out for semi-regular mountain bike rides. I remember it being hard, but getting a kick out of it. Bicycling used to be my main mode of transportation when I was in junior high. I have fond memories of biking to South Pasadena for errands and to get away for a bit.

Since living up in Northern California, I’ve tried to take up various sporting hobbies, and so far none of them have stuck (for various reasons). That is, until I decided to start biking again. First, I got a flat bar road bike (which, incidentally, isn’t really a flat bar road bike. It’s more of a mountain bike with some fat city tires on them. I will be turning this into a real mountain bike soon). After I road around for a bit, I remembered I really really like this bike riding business.

Second, I purchased a really great road bike (which I’m attempting to train for my first charity ride coming up in July. For some, 50 miles is not a lot, but for me it’s quite daunting.). And now, my (former) next door neighbor “gifted” me his fixie bike. Now, there’s no way I’m riding a fixie (fixed gear) on the streets; it’s kind of a death wish, really. So I’ve taken it to the local bike shop, and hopefully I’ll have a functioning non death trap, around town, bike very soon.

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He Can Walk

One of our goals is to become expert home movie makers by the time we have kids. Here is our first shot (filmed and edited by Jason, starring The Nephew™).


Lincoln WALKS! from Jason Dukes on Vimeo.

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Random Roadtrip Mondays™

Nick's Pier

When I lived in LA, I tried to make a (intermittent) habit of doing short little day trips around Southern California. Because I was initially alone in Northern California, when I moved up here, I tried to make day trips even more of a habit. Since Casey and I have been married, the day trips have sorta tapered off for a variety of reasons, but today that changed.

Today, I dropped Casey off at work, hopped in the car around 11 AM and attempted to get myself pretty lost. I did a pretty good job actually. I did such a good job, that within the first hour, I managed to hit two dead ends while trying to get over some hills. However, after a few wrong turns, I managed to get myself over the hill, and through a few cities I had no idea existed. I’d love to tell you what cities they were, but I have no freaking clue.

I can tell you that I ended up in Marshall, CA at a great restuarant/inn called Nick’s Cove. It’s a fun, quaint restaurant, and from what I can tell, some kick butt food. I’ll spare you the minute details, but basically everyone I encountered was extremely friendly. The Petrole Sole, fried in Lagunitas IPA batter, with fresh french fries, was easily the best fish and chips I’ve ever had.

fried food heaven.

fried food heaven.

Two nice little touches were: the waitress brought me a kayaking tour guide and let me know what else was out in Marshall. I had informed her that I was completely lost and was wondering what else there was to do. The other was when I stopped by the inn’s office and they offered to give me a tour of the (awesome) property.

Overall, the day was pretty great. I traveled about 160 miles in about 5 hours, saw some amazing scenery that only Northern California has to offer, and had some great fish and chips. Can’t beat that.

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Less = More


Putting Away, originally uploaded by Casey Dukes.

One of the things I love about living in a small place is that it entices you to simplify everything. For example, it seriously took me 5 minutes to put away my Christmas decorations.

This year, I did several tiny vignettes around our apartment. I also put together a makeshift garland for above our bed. Because we have pretty much nowhere to put a tree, we sprung for a teeny white one that was so darling on its own that I didn’t even want to put ornaments on it.

Ahh, simplicity. I think reading those Swedish design blogs has totally been rubbing off on me.

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Dancin’ Fools


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My Christmas Eve Project

Dear Jason,

Merry Christmas! Over the past several months, you’ve been saying how you’d really like to have a blog just you and me. Since we’re being frugal this year, I thought that this would be a nice Christmas present for you. I hope you like it!

XOXO,
Casey

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