matt's architecture blog...and our deadline

Matt has a new home...well online anyway. check out his new blog featuring his architecture work, called a little dose of evy. he worked hard on it all night to get it going and i'm really proud of him (his blogging and his work). don't worry he'll still be part of this blog. it wouldn't be matt and margaret if it was just me. we'll probably post less of his architecture on here, but if it's really spectacular, we'll definitely showcase it, or at least i'll link it.

More important news, i know we passed our deadline. i have officially started school and we didn't finish our list. i think we're gonna try and finish what we can, just for our own benefits, and maybe even start a fall list, but with school, our jobs, and everything else going on in life....it'll probably be a shorter list. but keep your faith in us and we'll try not to let you down :)

sunday funday

Today was sunday funday...filled with football, shopping, and eating. We got up and the football game's on. Matt and I went grocery shopping at a local market called Scholari's and picked up almost 12 pounds of ribs for dinner. We came back and watched the Giants play against the Dodgers, since Lincecum was pitching today. We got schlacked....which is a crushing blow for the Evans family, because of their passion for the orange and black. Brandie and I got pretty bored of watching sports all day, so we stopped by Borders and I picked up the first Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood book, "Dead until Dark." I'm really excited to start reading it because I want to start watching True Blood. Anyways, the boys finally got over the baseball game and we went shopping at Legends...sooooooooooo cool. They have this huge sporting store called Scheels and it is home to the biggest indoor ferris wheel. No one would go on with me, so I missed my chance to ride on it....bummer. Anyways, they also have statues of a couple of the presidents and they give speeches, which actually kind of creeped me out. But it was a good shopping trip overall, Matt and Brian got matching shoes...and shorts. Cute, right?

When we got back from Legends, we started prepping the ribs, which took over two hours (an hour in the oven and an hour on the grill). While the ribs were in the oven, Matt and I made apple pie. His mom has this super cool looking apple peeler/de-core-er machine...I need one of those in my life. Our secret ingredient in the pie...pumpkin spice. While the ribs were grilling up, groups of us played Bongo...and it's kind of hard to explain the game, I guess the closest thing would be like throwing horseshoes. Matt and I kicked some major butt in that game (and he actually ended up bringing it to San Diego with us). Well, our ribs were finally done and they were DELICIOUS. For first timers, I think we did a pretty swell job :) His family was pretty impressed, and I think it was nice for his mom to get some relief from cooking all the time. So anyways, it was a good day in Reno for Matt and me.

P.S. Remember how I started this post talking about the Sookie Stackhouse novels...I finished book number 2 yesterday, and I'm gonna go grab book 3 tomorrow. It's official, I'm hooked. All this vampire madness is getting to my head.

scheel's

...and now we're cooking

sushi eat-a-thon

On Saturday, we went to all-you-can-eat sushi at Rickshaw's in Reno, NV. I've never done all-you-can-eat sushi before, but it's all the rave up here. Matt and his friends used to go every week in high school. We had an endless sushi buffet for 13.95/person.....SWEET. I'm pretty sure we got around 25 rolls (plus appetizers) between the 7 of us (Matt, me, Basim, Cara, Pat, Brandon, and Levi) and we ate for almost 2 hours. I didn't eat myself into a food coma, but I was definitely full. We were planning on doing an eating contest, to cross something off our list, but instead it just became an eat-a-thon. Sorry for the lack of pictures...we were too busy eating while watching the Dodgers stomp on the Giants :(

Afterwards, we hung around the house and later, Brandie, Abby, and I went to David's Bridal to get Brandie's wedding dress altered and try on my bridesmaid dress. I'm so excited for wedding!! Then we got pedicures :)

road trip

On Thursday, we roadtripped from Sunnyvale, CA to Reno, NV...it's only a 4 hour trip, but it counts as a road trip to us. We left around 11:30 and got to Reno around 4 cus there was a little bit of traffic due to construction. Anyways, on our drive, we accidentally passed the state capital, Sacramento, and we found the Secret Road. We drove by Donner Lake, where the infamous Donner family devoured themselves. Personally, we prefer McDonalds...chicken nuggets are God's gift to the world :)

When we got to Reno, we hung out with Matt's parents and feasted on Qdoba burritos and later, we got some chicken wings at Flowing Tide Pub and Grill with Matt's brother, Brian, and his fiance Brandie.

we love the g-babies!

We finally went to a baseball game this summer....at at&t park! last night, we saw the giants smash the rockies 10-2 (though tulowitzki did get a homer....did you know he's from sunnyvale!!). barry zito had quite the night! we actually missed the first inning because we took the caltrain (which i don't recommend on game day unless you can get there early), but the other 8 innings were awesome! i swear i've never eaten that much food in my life, we got a hot dog, nachos, kettle corn, garlic fries, and a huge diet coke (in a lincecum collector's cup). AND i got to go down the slide in the kiddie area. we had so much fun and we can't wait to go again. matt personally thinks at&t park is the greatest place on earth!! i would say it's at least top 5, plus it's in san francisco, and who doesn't love sf?

anyways, the giants are only 2 and a half games back, so if they win tonight, it'll be HUGE. good luck matt cain :)

we're also tagging this one as the best date ever :) that way we can cross off two things on our list. and get ready for reno, nv, because we have big plans to get a lot of things crossed off!!

few more checks off the list

hello everyone, this is the other half of the M & M project. margaret is away on a sorority retreat so i thought i would do the writing this time. our last adventure ended with her and i surfing and since then we have crossed off quite a few more things on our list. margaret was just recently employed at Geppetto's Toy Store and starts on the 23rd of this month. how exciting is it to know that youre girlfriend can now get you discounts on all the coolest and latest toys (not like i still play with toys anymore *cough legos *cough) anyway she will now be a working citizen!

i on the other hand am spending money rather than saving it. i just recently bought myself a surfboard from craigslist and not day has gone by where i haven't wanted to go. my job seems to be getting in the way of me successfully going each day so maybe ill ponder a career change, hmmmm. the same day i got my surfboard margaret and i went for a hike in torrey pines. we took a road that lead us to the top of one of the cliffs overlooking the pacific ocean and man let me tell you, she was beautiful....and the ocean looked good too :)

so thats our update for now and many more items will be crossed off our list in the near future. im already planning a road trip up to see margaret in the bay area and were going to hit up a Giants game baby! playoff runs can be pretty stressful. now i must get back to my drawings as i have a couple portfolios due next week along with a final exam. as soon as marg returns ill have her post all the pictures.

p.s. i will also be posting some more of my most recent studio work where i was assigned to design a student housing apartment complex. full model and final drawings will be posted and any feedback on what you think would be awesome!

everybody loves surfing...surfin' usa.

I didn't even realize it's been a week since our last post...so much for trying to do something on the list everyday. anyways, not much has been happening with us, mainly cus it's been about a steady 90 degrees every day. however, we did take advantage of the heat by going surfing yesterday. this was technically our second time (the first time, jer, pat, and josh were here from reno), but yesterday was the first time i really tried it. The weather was perfect and the beach was crowded, and the ocean was glorious. But it really was hot. Anyways, we rent surfboards for $8/hr and found an awesome parking spot (which i must say took us at least 15 minutes). It was so hot the sand burned my feet.

But anyways, onto surfing. I think I swallowed so much salt water that I probably shouldn't eat anything with sodium in it anytime soon. However, those gallons of water finally paid off because... i stood up ON THE SURF BOARD!!! Granted, it did take me about an hour to finally do it. Matt is pretty much an avid surfer by now, he's even thinking about looking around on craigslist to find a decently cheap board. He loves it. And I do too, even though I had a pretty nasty accident. Let's just say there's a fat and colorful bruise on my left ankle. I think I must have gotten hit by my own board, how embarassing. But hopefully it'll heal soon. We can't wait to go again!! Learning to surf really just makes San Diego that much better :)

Anyways, the pictures are still on matt's camera, but when i get a chance, we'll update some pictures. There aren't many, but we'll put them up. Anyways, I have finals this week and Matt has final projects due, so I don't know how much we'll get done off the list, but keep checking back with us :)

Update: pictures!! Matt made me put a picture of my shiner up.

ouch.

the del mar farmer's market

Today we went to the farmer's market! we also went to lunch at a restaurant called double happiness. how could you not like a restaurant with that name? anyways, we ventured down to the farmer's market and absolutely loved it. there were so many different stands, filled with fruits, vegetables, hummus (we love the hummus man), nuts, flowers, and KETTLE CORN! We spent exactly $9.50 and bought a tomato, two peaches, a grapefruit, avocado & cilantro hummus, and basil. And matt even bought me a pretty sunflower, which we named Sunny. So as part of our list, we planned an entire meal around what we bought (with some stuff we have in the pantry/bought at ralphs on our way home). We love the farmer's market!!!

Farmer's Market Dinner:
Bruschetta with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella
Salad with grilled chicken & dried cranberries
Peaches & Grapefruit
Chocolate covered frozen bananas

matt w/ sunny

After lunch and the farmer's market, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, because they transformed the museum into an architectural showcase for the summer. So we wandered through the work of 9 popular San Diego architects and saw some really cool models. If you're a student, it's completely free to go, so we definitely recommend it :) especially if you love architecture!!

the 1000-puzzle

so number 19 on our list is finish a 1000-piece puzzle. we didn't want to pay a lot for the puzzle, so we scavenger hunted on craigslist for a cheap one. after getting lost for about an hour, i finally found the house where the puzzle was and bought one for five bucks. what a steal! anyways, i'm not guaranteeing that we'll finish this anytime soon, just that we have it on hand now! so get excited...because we are!!!

wish us luck!

books, books, books!

so i'm trying to update this blog at least once a day (usually during class haha), but to update it everyday, i feel like we should accomplish one thing on our list every day. so far we haven't really done anything beyond making the blog and the playlists. but we did already go to a concert. and i have already read some pretty sweet books! so i think that's what i'm gonna write about...my nerdy and semi-hermit-like devotion to books. since the summer started, i think i've already finished a good handful....

here's margaret's list of books:
the time traveler's wife by audrey niffenegger
sail by james patterson
the pact by jodi picoult
the shack by william p. young
sunday at tiffany's by james patterson
harry potter and the deathly hallows by jk rowling


i think the list says i have to pass on the book, and i feel like i've done a decent job of that. i have passed the time traveler's wife onto to ranjeeta, danielle, and hopefully sharon and jessica soon. the sail was actually passed on to me by meghan and the shack was actually one of matt's books. i stole sunday at tiffany's from danielle. and i'm actually about to start another jodi picoult book (of which i can't remember the name). it was kindly lent to me by matt's mom....and it's jodi picoult so i'm pretty stoked for it. like i said, it's kind of embarassing how much of a bookworm i am.

speaking of being a bookworm, i'm really really excited because i just found out that there is a public library near matt's apartment complex! i love libraries!!!!!! i've been looking for a public library for a while (i think the one in la jolla charges an annual fee and the ucsd library never has any good novels to read). i think today i'm gonna drag matt to the library with me so we can get library cards. if i find anymore good books, i'll definitely post them on here. i really can't get over how excited i am to go to the library today :)

here's matt's list of books:
the shack by william p. young
towards a new architecture by le corbusier
the appeal by john grisham


UPDATE: this branch of the san diego public library is quite possibly the smallest library ever. i didn't check out ANY books, but i did put some on hold, so eventually, maybe i'll get some good books to read. but for now, come on giants.

the jack's mannequinn + the fray concert

So instead of paying attention in class, I'm gonna write about another check on our list. Matt's friends + brother came down to visit us in july. we had all these amazing things planned out, like riding bikes in coronado, getting pizza at Sammy's (since Jeremy is obsessed), learning to surf at the beach, etc. etc. We also bought tickets to a sweet concert headlining the fray and featuring jack's mannequinn. Six of us went to the concert (me + matt, jeremy, pat, josh, and sharon) and it was one of the best nights of summer so far! We started off with a stop at the local AM/PM, where we picked up some grub and some road sodas. of course, the concert had to be super far away at the crickett ampitheater, which is like 5 minutes from the US/mexico border, but it was worth the drive. we've been there before for the rascal flatts concert. this time, we got actual seats in the 300 section right in the middle, so we definitely had a great view.

so anyways...onto the music. some other band opened for jm & the fray, but i can't really remember who it was. jack's mannequinn was awesome. Of course, matt's favorite song, dark blue, played when he decided he needed a bathroom break, so he didn't even get to see them play. actually sharon was laughing when the guys left to grab drinks, cus she was like "omg i bet they'll play matt's favorite song right now" and five seconds later...there it was. jack's also did a sweet cover of tom petty's 'American Girl.' It practically sounded like the real version. The fray was also phenomenal. They really put on a show...for at least an hour and a half. They played all their hits, like You Found Me, Syndicate, Happiness, Where the Story Ends, etc. etc. They even played their Heartless cover of Kanye West's song. Honestly, best 20 bucks I've spent all summer (granted my roommates and i did just buy a couch for $20). If you guys can catch these dudes in concert somewhere, I definitely recommend them. So here's another check on our list of 40...go to a sweet concert :)

enjoy the pictures.

PS the giants are playing the dodgers this week. come on g-babies!