Our house is all moved into now, and decorated for Christmas. We couldn’t have done it without Ash’s parents and our friend Ryan. They helped so much, our house turned out amazing!

We’re so fed up with waiting for them to install FiOS in our apartment, we decided to buy a townhouse in Orange because they have Time Warner Cable instead. Okay, so maybe that’s not really the impetus for the move, but it’s certainly a plus.

We’re in escrow now, and if all goes well, we should be moving into our new home in late November or early December. Wish us luck!

I finally got a Sonicare toothbrush. The hygienist recommended getting one when I was at my new dentist’s office last month. My previous dentists just recommended any electric toothbrush, but apparently my new dentist’s staff are believers in the Sonicare hype.

Anyway, in my research of the different models, I found out that Wal-Mart had a model called the Sonicare Xtreme–which uses AA batteries instead of a charging base–and it was only $28 (instead of the typical $99 or more)!

Some reviews online say it dies a quick death if the battery compartment gets wet, so I’ll have to be careful. But it comes with a 2-year warranty, so I should be covered even if it does. I was replacing my Crest SpinBrush ($10) every six months anyway, so if this one lasts just a year and a half, it’ll be worth it. And supposedly it works much better than other toothbrushes, thanks to its “sonic cleaning action,” which I still think is hogwash but my new dentist thinks is science.

Today I picked up my new Jhane Barnes glasses at the optometrist, and I received my new phone in the mail. It’s an enV2 from LG, which is similar to the enV but smaller. I like it so far. My big complaints about the enV (which I had for a hot second) were the small keys on the front of the phone and the big overall size. This phone’s smaller, but with larger keys, so I’m pleased now.

Ilse’s fur had a bunch of mats in it (particularly under her collar, because it rubs against her fur all day), so we had to get her groomed with a really close haircut. Now she looks like a poodle, much like she did the first time I took her to get groomed. (I underestimated how long her hair needed to be.) She looks better when her fur is longer, but I guess sometimes it’s good to start with a new coat.

My mother found a bouquet that looked like Ilse, so she gave it to my grandfather while he was in the hospital last month:

Ilse’s first birthday was January 20. We had a party for her, and her friends Penelope and Toby came over to play. Lindsay took pictures:

We’re renting a beautiful condo near Recreation Park in Long Beach, and my mother insists that I post some pictures of it. Visit my flickr page for more.

It’s amazing what you can put together using items in your mother’s storage closet.

I got a new car! It’s small, round, and blue, so I named it Stitch. Note the antenna ball.