We bought a couch!

Aside from our futon (which we left in Washington) we've never had a legitimate couch. And it was college craigslist furniture at that.

When we moved, the futon was deemed too large and too heavy to haul across the country - we would have had to buy an extra storage container on the moving truck to fit it in. So it stayed and I'm assuming will be re-gifted to fulfill it's never ending life as college furniture. I had been living without a couch-like implement for about seven months before I couldn't do it anymore. The papasan chair was not a viable substitute. It's comfortable for about...30 minutes.

Don't know what a papasan chair is?

I was using our giant stuffed dolphin (Dolph Lundgren) as a pillow in an attempt to extend the sitting time. Both of my parents fell out of the chair on separate occasions since they've visited. It was time for a real couch!

Terry and I snooped around at all of the "normal" furniture stores (so huge) and I resisted the temptation of free cookies at Mor. The cookie guy was a bit creepy.

Our last stop was Living Spaces on a recommendation from a coworker of mine. If you're in an area where Living Spaces exists, go ahead and skip all of the other stores. You will find it here. 

The couch we picked out is massive. I call it a "tall person" couch.

Two people can lay on it side by side.

I'm 5'8" and my ankles are all that hang over the end.

Seriously, it's big.

Balboa Park in the Spring

My parents stopped through San Diego for a few days on their way to New Orleans last week and we decided to visit Balboa Park! None of us had been before (except for the zoo) and the weather was going to be great.

I remembered that the Natural History Museum had the King Tut exhibit going on and signed us all up for the 10 am entrance (the tickets have to be timed because so many people go through the exhibit each day). We left my place an hour and a half early to get a chance to walk around some of the gardens in the park. It was awesome. We were there when the iced coffee stands opened and had free reign over the whole place.

One of my favorite gardens happened to be the first one we stumbled across in the morning. The San Diego Botanical Garden has two ponds stocked with koi fish, lily pads, and guppies, with the botanical building sitting behind everything. We had to save the botanical building for later because we were there too early.

On to the museum!

The entire exhibit was put together in a really interesting way that kept the displays free from crowds. We entered the basement level with our 10 am group of people and were given ear pieces. The exhibit was sectioned off into lots of different areas and we moved from one to the next while listening to how King Tut's tomb was found (with cool videos showing the actual discovery), what was in the tomb, and a history of many of the artifacts. Then, the exhibit opened up into larger rooms full of the actual items found in the tomb.

The biggest surprise however, was rounding a corner and actually seeing King Tut. I guess none of us really expected the actual mummy to be there.

Elsewhere in the museum there was an entire floor dedicated to skulls. This was way cooler than I thought it was going to be - some animals have the weirdest heads.

Obviously, the ones in the center are toucans. All beak!

As an aside, lizard skulls are super interesting and intricate while owl skulls are creepy.

Our last stop was the photography floor where we saw birds of the world.

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After the museum, it was back to the San Diego Botanical Garden! I've never seen so many orchids in my life.

A crane catching the guppies in the afternoon.