Busy, busy, busy

That's been us the past couple months. 

September 29 
Our neighbor was murdered. Laura is still suffering from some PTSD like symptoms (not really) but she was definitely home to hear all 6 or 7 gun shots. If you're interested in reading the news story: http://www.lbreport.com/news/sep12/187lime.htm

We started looking for places to live in better neighborhoods.

October
We visited Troy's family in Utah. For some reason, we decided to drive. Brutal. Especially since we drove up Saturday night, and then back to Long Beach on Monday night. But it was good to see Troy's dad and his wife, as well as Troy's sister Brittni, and her cute little family. Her son is so cute, he's gonna be 4 years old this March. The whole time we were in Utah, though, the only pictures we took were: 

We are so lame.


Also, Laura accepted a full time position with the hospital where she was working as a per diem employee. ("Per diem" just means that I came in only when they needed me - to cover someone's sick day, or if someone took a vacation day, etc.) She didn't officially become full time (according to the paperwork) till mid November, but was still working full time hours once she accepted the position.

November 
1. We went to Phoenix to see the Davis family. Harold got a fancy promotion, and has to work in D.C. now. (He's able to go home once a month, though.) We dropped him off at the airport with Erika and the kids the morning after we drove in.

Bye, Harold! It was nice to see you...

Troy teaching Brooke the finer points of Mario.

The Red Ranger keeps the Davis family protected while Harold's gone.

What a good looking bunch.

2. Laura became an official full time employee, and now has benefits. Which means Troy now has benefits for the first time in years. To Troy, that means, "I can go snowboarding again!" (He didn't think it would be a good idea to go snowboarding without having benefits.)

3. Nov 18 - Troy got a WiiU!!

4. We found an apt! Our friend had a neighbor downstairs from her apt building move out, and was able to hook us up with the apt manager so that we were able to start moving in Nov 20. Laura had been packing since October, so it was good to get the boxes cleared out of the old apt.

5. Laura's parents and younger brother, Hunter, came down for Thanksgiving. They stayed in our 1 bedroom apt with us, and were gracious enough to help us move some boxes and cook Thanksgiving dinner while Laura was at work.

December
1. We finished moving.

Goodbye, Mario!

Goodbye, Link! So long, ghetto apartment!

2. We got a cat! Her name is Chloe and she is the sweetest thing once she warms up to you. It took her a week and a half to feel comfortable enough to let us pet her. It was the best Christmas present ever.

She still feels safest under or behind the couch, though.

But will also let you rub her belly. She's so soft!

She is a cat, so she is intrigued with the drawstrings on hoodies.

3. Laura's parents and Hunter came down again for Christmas, and this time Jason and Liz joined us as well. Since Jason and Liz live in South Pasadena, they didn't feel the need to stay with us in our (slightly smaller) one bedroom apt with 5 other people, but still joined us for Christmas weekend/day.

4. We went Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve, to uphold the Pruett family tradition.

Liz and Dad were hiding somewhere.

One of the families we went caroling to lives in an apt complex that was c o v e r e d with Christmas decorations. Including this Christmas raptor, which we naturally got a picture with. Team Raptor, high five!

4. Laura dyed her hair! As planned, 2013 will be black hair for Laura. Our upstairs neighbor (that got us the apt) dyed it, and did a fantastic job with it. Thanks again, Yesenia!

Before

During

After

Merry (late) Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! Or, as Spock would say...

Euro Trip Part Last of Many

Food, Glorious Food 
You thought we were done, didn't you? Nope! We still gotta talk about our food. We documented just about everything we ate, except for the few cases where the restaurant felt too nice to take pictures in, or when the food was so awful we didn't think to capture it. We're gonna go through the good, the bad and the ugly here.

The Excellent
An example of Europe's finest (at least out of the foods we ate on our trip):

A breakfast buffet from one of our hotels in Germany (in Munich). This was Laura's breakfast.

Best buffet ever - it had a tray full of bacon. (Berlin)

Troy's dinner in Berlin, on our last full day before flying back.

Laura's dinner in Berlin.

Ribs!! (Stuttgart)

Awesome. (Amsterdam)

Laura's dinner in London before we went to see "The Taming of the Shrew", in a Persian restaurant.

Troy's dinner in the same Persian restaurant.

The only still lemonade in London, maybe Europe. Oh, so good, compared to that nasty crap carbonated lemonade.

There was even pink still lemonade!

Handmade Belgian chocolate made in front of us at the chocolate museum in Brugge.

Troy enjoying the chocolate, after Laura took a taste and confirmed that she still doesn't like chocolate.

A traditional English breakfast, minus the mushrooms, for Troy. Apparently English bacon is just fried ham. This was at a restaurant near our hotel in London.

A traditional English breakfast for Laura, minus the meat.

Heaven on Earth, in Brugge, in the form of Belgian waffles. This had strawberries and whipped cream on top.

More waffle goodness, this one with cherries and whipped cream on top. The cherries were hot, and melted the whipped cream.

We had to go back one last time before catching our train. We also got a nutella waffle, with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Very tasty sandwiches in Brugge. Troy got ham.

And Laura got a brie sandwich. These sandwiches were the only things we ate in Brugge that weren't waffles.

At the pancake bakery in Amsterdam. Laura's had a variety of vegetables and some cheese in it. And it was so good!

Troy had bacon and apple slices in his pancake.

Laura enjoying her vegetarian pizza thing at the bier garten the Bowerbanks took us to. (In Stuttgart, Germany.)

The Good
Food that was enjoyable, but not great.

Turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce: Thanksgiving dinner in a baguette! (Wales)

Fish and chips. And peas (we had to specify NOT mushy peas). (Wales)

Omelette con bacon. (Amsterdam)

Both of our meals in a pan Asian restaurant in Amsterdam.

Laura: What would possess anyone to eat food that looks like that? Troy: Tasted better than it looks. (By the Neuschwannstein Castle)

We were in Amsterdam, missing Belgian waffles. This place also had gelato, which we enjoyed (cinnamon flavor).

Yes we had Burger King in Germany (Troy had it 3 times). We were driving across the country and had a time schedule to meet, and the only other place at the rest stop was a sit down restaurant.

For airplane food, it was pretty good. (On the way back from Europe)

Meh. But good for airplane food.

More airplane food. Troy's chicken nuggets on the way to London.

The Ugly

It looked really good on the menu, but the sausage was nasty, the bacon wasn't bacon, and Troy forgot to order scrambled eggs.

Turns out, tomatoes, beans, mushrooms and sunny side up eggs are not good together. Laura, like Troy, also forgot to specify "scrambled" eggs, and was disappointed (and grossed out) to discover that the English default to "sunny side up" when it comes to eggs.

Belgian frites. They weren't bad on their own, but I feel like In-N-Out has perfected the art.

Convention food. (GamesCom)

Deluxe convention food.

Carbonated lemonade. Troy disapproves. (London)

There's a reason we don't have "piccalilli". (London)

Germans have achieved greatness in a great many things - pizza is not among them.

No caption needed.

In London. Felt like we were back home... with nasty fast food options. (This statement does not necessarily represent Troy's opinion.)

This may have been one of Troy's biggest disappointments of the trip. For those who can't tell what you're looking at, it's because the window had a lot of glare, sorry. Troy wanted to eat at the Texas Embassy restaurant in London. But they closed, and looked like they had been closed for a little while.

Troy's rant after a particularly nasty corner shop sandwich. (It was really windy at night in London, fyi.)

Ok. We're done with all our Europe posts now. Sorry this one took so long to put up, we've been super busy the past 1.5 months. Till next time, internet!