Memorial Day Dinner

Justin and I had a picnic in Ocean Beach for Memorial Day (Justin's idea). We just dropped our blanket right on the edge of the cliff and watched the sunset surfers. With May gray, it's a bit harder to see the sun these days, but it was still a great way to spend the evening. Our friends Nissa and Jason got married here last July. What a great view!

Top Ten

Top Ten Things I've Been Doing Lately:
1. Reading design magazines for house ideas (my favs are Coastal Living and Elle Decor); can I get a shout out to two magazines that haven't folded yet?
2. Reading Perezhilton.com...guilty pleasure!
3. Building up my base for running and biking (swimming to come shortly) for the sprint triathlon.
4. Learning about copy editing because apparently although I'm an editor I do not know how to spell (so rediculous).
5. Ignoring the desire to learn how to Twitter.
6. Learning how to budget my money; this has been going on now for a few years and will continue to for a few more I suspect.
7. Gearing up for my summer vacations--Lake Tahoe, Maryland, and Delaware, here I come!
8. Eating Thai food and introducing it to virgins. Chan rok Thai.
9. Playing cornhole aka bags and getting better every day if I do say so myself (and I do).
10. Listening to country music to Justin's chagrin.

And there you have it. Care to share what you've been up to?

In Over My Head?

Justin had the idea, and he asked Sean to join, who then showed Hilary the site where we would all eventually join to participate in a triathlon! Hilary and I have decided to do the sprint triathlon. I'm choosing to ignore the "sprint" part and instead and thinking of it as a mini triathlon in my mind. We have to swim .25 miles, bike 12 miles, and then run 3 miles. It should be interesting. At least it's given me a fire under my butt to get said butt in gear! Justin's mom has loaned me this amazing bike that weighs about as much as a ream of papers, along with the accoutrement--helmet, sweatband, spandex with butt pad, shoes, and top. Justin, Sean, and I went on a 6 mile bike around Lake Murray this past Saturday. What a great way to get around! Hopefully my shoulders will stop yelling at me every time I try to do my hair or put on a shirt :) Apparently there's more to biking than just legs, people! Hopefully I'll have more updates on my progress. I've been working on getting my running base above 9 minutes, and I also bought a Speedo and goggles. We'll see about that! Swimming is NOT my forte. Pictures to come soon of the butt pad...you have to see it to believe it.

Dental Awareness Dayie on Transplants!

OK, so those of you who did not grow up with me don't know the extent to which I have had instruments in my mouth...dental that is, you cheeky monkey :) Over the years I have encountered: over four years of braces, rubber bands that popped my jaw out of the socket, a retainer with attached fake tooth (called a flipper), an implant (hence the title of this blog) that required bone grafting, and four wisdom teeth that turned into two infected sockets. Finally, when I reached grad school, for the first time since childhood, I had no more dentist, oral surgeon, or orthodontist appointments. I didn't even have bi-yearly cleanings at that point since I couldn't afford dental insurance.

Now, at the youthful age of 26, I have returned to health and dental insurance (hooray!) and have begun the process of finding a dentist who I like. This is something that is very important to me. I went through two dentists out here in San Diego already. One was sufficient. A little bit too suave for my toofer needs, but successful in reattaching my fake tooth, nonetheless. (Yes this bugger does in fact fall off every few years; ask Kyle Lennon who accidentally punched me in college during a wrestle match and sent my tooth flying!)

The second lady was no good. I'm not sure if it was her Eastern European bedside manner (think Zoolander daiye spa without the feather duster) or her old yellow couch, but things just didn't jive. And after she diagnosed me with two cavities (my first EVER), it was downhill from there. Unfortunately, one of said cavities shoots pain up my face every time I eat on the right side of my face, but my new dentist assures me that we will slowly work on that.

So, that brings us to Dr. Gray. I only give this whole back story to emphasis how truly meaningful it has been to me to find such a glorious dentist. He's kind, thorough, talks like the father in "Bye Bye Birdie." He's quite amazing. And he has the same name as my childhood doctor who I loved! (Dr. Bonnie Gray, you were my hero.)

I thought I'd just take the time here to mention a few new things going on in the dentist world that I was completely unaware of until this Monday when I saw Dr. Gray for my first cleaning with his staff. First of all, apparently they have soothing fillings that you can get if you first get one that hurts your nerve endings (like mine). Second, they started doing this thing to measure the gingivitis in your gums where they measure the thickness of your gums at each tooth with a rubber-like tool. Third, plaque can start to deteriorate your gums/teeth/bones within 24 hours! So, floss like you've never flossed before :) My dad used to say that was the one lesson he wanted to make sure we got, but did I get that? No! It was quite a wake up call for me.

So, the moral of the story is: if you haven't been to the dentist in a while, they have some really cool things going on there now! It's like a carnival! OK, maybe not, but still.

This photo's reasons for being here are twofold: 1. You can see the hard work that went into getting teeth like those! haha 2. That's my work photo. Gotta love it! Safety first!

SD vs. B'More

Interesting. VERY interesting.