Iron Chef

Last weekend Keith had a fantastic idea to do our own Iron Chef challenge where we would choose a few recipes we've never tried before and invite a few friends over for dinner. We chose some tempting recipes from my Nigella Express cookbook. Nigella Lawson is probably my favorite chef. It might be her lovely British accent, or the poetic way in which she talks, but I have a feeling that it's really her undying, unapologetic love for comfort food that I find so endearing.

Unfortunately we organized this dinner a bit last minute so no one was able to come over and eat with us. Honestly I didn't really mind that. More for me! Check out our beautiful, delicious creations. I even got us each chef's whites from the chefs at work for us to wear. It was really, really fun!

Jelly Belly Fun!

I loved our visit to the Jelly Belly factory when Mom, Dad and Mickayla visited for Brooklynn's baptism. I only took 2 photos since my camera battery was dying but I thought I'd post them anyway. What a fun day that was!

I think we look like happy sailors on the good ship Jelly Belly in this photo. haha!

We're very happy customers! By the way I have that *gigantic* bag of Belly Flops in my top drawer and work and haven't yet shared a single bean with anyone. I'm hogging them all for myself. If I ever actually finish the bag I'll be concerned. :) Mom - I think I owe you $$ for the Belly Flops, right?

Moving!

What the heck is this???

 

Seriously, please tell me. This creature was just crawling across my livingroom floor. And since my house is pretty much just one large room now *everything* I own is now contaminated as far as I'm concerned. Keith was on the phone in the other room when I started screaming. All I could really get out was that there was a buggy-hopping-spider thing hiding in the corner. Almost as freaky as the thing's appearance was the fact that it seemed to react to my scream. Honestly! It stopped in it's tracks, looked at me, and then ran to hide. I'm not sure how Keith could be calm enough to take a picture of it before killing it but I'm glad he did because my description couldn't have done it justice. And besides, you wouldn't have believed me anyway. I mean seriously. Look at that thing!!

How long has this thing been in my house? Where was it hiding? Did it bring friends? Does it bite, sting and or attack people as they innocently try and watch late night TV? I am sweating and have goosebumps all over. Not joking.

I can't live here anymore. I have to move. I'm going to go hire some day laborers outside of Home Depot and have them pack up my stuff because I'm too scared to move. On second thought - I'll have them burn it all and I'll just start over.

Blake's Farewell

I loved seeing all of you for Blake's farewell. Here are some great photos from our weekend together. There are also some great shots from dropping Blake off at the MTC. I miss him but and really proud of him! I'm so glad I get to see you all again this weekend for Brooklynn's baptism!

4th of July

Okay, so I'm a terrible blogger. We know this. I figured I better update my blog with 4th of July photos so that I can finally change my holiday blog background to something more current. :) Keith and I spent the morning in San Francisco. We took the ferry out to Angel Island and enjoyed the view of the sailboats, the city and the Bay. What a beautiful day. I loved being out in the sunshine. Next time any of you visit us we'll have to add a stop at Angel Island to our plans! Here are a few favorite shots from the day:

Me at the top of the hike on Angel Island with a view of Sausalito in the background.

Keith and I hiking up Angel Island with a view of the Bay behind us.
Keith with the Golden Gate bridge behind him.
Mighty hiker!
We took this photo from the ferry of sailboats on the Bay with the Bay Bridge in the background. There were hundreds of boats out that day!
Me on the ferry. I took a lot of attempts to get a shot of my with my eyes open. It was so sunny!

After our day on Angel Island we met up with LaDawn, Brent and Brooklynn in the city and then watched fireworks from our apartment that night. Standing at the top of our parking garage watching the fireworks wasn't very glamorous but it avoided the crowds! :) I think we all had a fun day!

Random snapshots of my life

Yesterday I found these photos on my blackberry and they made me laugh. They are just random snapshots of my life over the past year.

This is a shot took during our drive from Milan to Mantova with his friends. There were 6 of us in the tiny car and I spent most of the 6 hours in the car like this with Daniele leaning over me fighting to control the radio. He likes American 50s music. :)

Keith and I in front of the Duomo in Milan our first night in town. It was the first time I've seen the Duomo without scaffolding!

Keith's friend, Kiril, introduced us to this fantastic sandwich shop in SF. They put the slaw and french fries ON the sandwich. It's delicious!! They will not put the fries on the side even if you beg.

King Keith! We rarely go out to movies but we found this great old theater in Oakland called Grand Lake Theater (which opened in 1926). I talked Keith into going to a movie with me (no small miracle!) and he insisted we go over an hour early because he was afraid it would be too crowded to get a good seat. We had a lot of time to kill in the lobby which is when this pic was taken. We then settled into the 1000 person theater with our fellow 6 movie goers and enjoyed Casino Royale on the giant screen. It was so fun. AND they have free popcorn!

On our first night in Milan Keith and I walked around the city with Federica and Nadia. This is a picture of Federica and I at Castello Sforzesco. It was a beautiful - but freezing night.

Nice pic, right!? We took this at the pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay. I'm not sure if Keith and I both have our eyes closed because of the sun - or out of embarrasment. :)

Carlos Santana performed at work a few weeks ago. His music is wonderful - but he is a bit nutty. It was quite an afternoon!

This is my in my new office. My deskmate bought us all sparkly glasses for St Patrick's Day. I think I look more nerdy than leprecon.

Keith and I bought tickets to a Warriors basketball game in a charity auction at church. We had a fun night in the luxury box. Lebron James hit an *incredible* at-the-buzzer shot to end the game to make the Warriors lose. He was amazing to watch.

Second place?!

Keith and I are close. Wouldn't you agree? We're still best friends and talk on the phone and text multiple times a day while we're apart. I assumed that this meant that I am numero uno in his life AND on his phone bill. The other day I was sorting through the old mail on the counter and noticed something disturbing on Keith's T-Mobile statement. See exhibit A (if you can read this...)












I was all happy to see my name listed as #1 on Keith's myFavs (is that seriously what T-Mobile calls it?). And then I noticed that despite my number placement, I was *not* the person that Keith talked to the most. That title goes to his friend Kevin. And I wasn't even close. Keith talked to me 170 minutes and to Kevin 229 minutes! Ugh! I then checked his other phone statements to see if this had been a single fluke month. NOPE! Kevin is the all time winner. I could understand this if the statements had been during football season since Kevin is the Grand Poobah of Keith's fantasy football league and they talk constantly during the season. But this statement was from early December (aka "finals time"). Keith, Keith, Keith... I'm not going to accept the old "my phone was on silent" or "I was in the library" excuses for why you didn't answer my calls anymore. Kevin obviously gets through and so should I!!

I guess I can't feel too bad since Keith only talked to his brother, Joseph, 9 total minutes on that statement. Family first Keith!! ;)

Project Runway 101

This weekend creative inspiration (or insanity) struck me and I've decided to take sewing classes. This all happened after our dry cleaner majorly screwed up a very simple alteration a few months ago (I just wanted a skirt hem let down an inch) and I've been boycotting her ever since. In the meantime I've bought a few things that just need to be hemmed (the continuing curse of being short!) and my lovely purchases have been just sitting here going to waste until I find a new place to get alterations. I made it my mission for this weekend to solve this problem. I finally found a great place in Berkeley and I'm very hopeful that she'll do a great job with the alterations. I'll find out on Thursday when I get my pants and dress back.

This whole maddening process made me start thinking about how it's nuts for me to pay for such simple alterations when I have a sewing machine in the closet. To be honest I'm just intimidated to pull it out and try to use it without someone here (MOM!) to help me when I get stuck. So I looked online and found a great fabric store nearby that offers lessons and after reading the glowing reviews on yelp I decided to check it out. I was really happy to see that it was a cool store that felt more fashion-forward than "crafty". There were several hip guys working there along with a girl with a nose ring and a few normal looking mom-types. Nothing looked crafty. There were no patchwork sweatshirts with ABC lettering or puppies - or anything of the kind. All of the displays were of things I might actually wear and the fabrics were all really cool too.

The 5-class series called "Beginning and Beyond" starts in 2 weeks on Saturdays. I really wish I had a friend to go with me. I feel weird going alone. Maybe it's best that I don't know anyone there so that I can make a total fool of myself and not have that spill over into the rest of my life. :) I'll report back soon with my creations. I have big dreams of being able to sew beautiful things and then have Heidi Klum crown me the winner of Project Runway. We'll see.

Blake, you can wake up now.

Sushi Night!

Many of you have told me how surprised you were that I didn't take more pictures of the food we ate in Italy. I'm a bit surprised myself. I guess I was just to busy slurping my noodles and didn't think to take a picture until all of my delicious food was gone. Such a shame - it was amazing food.

Since I know you were all disappointed I've decided to share with you some pictures of the beautiful sushi Keith and I had last night at Kirala in Berkeley. We sat at the bar with a perfect view of the sushi chef's. It was really fun to watch them work their magic while we ate!

I didn't take photos of all of our food - but here is my main course. I have no idea what kind of fish all of these are, but my favorite was the tuna (no surprise there). Erin, I thought of you while we were eating there and decided we *have* to eat there while you're visiting for the 4th of July. What's more patriotic than 4th of July sushi? :)

Last day in Milan

On our last day in Milan Keith and I went downtown with Federica and her roommate, Marco, to explore the Duomo and do a little shopping. Afterwards we visited a former investigator that Keith taught on his mission (Marco Passerini) and then a family he baptized (the di Libertos). We slept at the di Liberto's house and then went to the airport at 6am the next morning. Unfortunately our plane was delayed for 6 hours so we got to know Malpensa airport really well before flying home. Luckily we had planned for a long layover at JFK so we were able to make our connecting flight back to San Francisco.
I'm so sad that our vacation is over. We had an amazing time with friends and I'm am completely in love with Rome. We'll have to go back soon and I hope that you can join us next time!
I do have to say that it was wonderful to sleep in my own bed and take a good long hot shower. I'll just put off thinking about work for a little bit longer...

Rome, Day 4 and Milan Days 1 and 2

We loved touring St Peter's Basilica in Rome before we headed to Milan on the train. Once in Milan we went out to dinner with Nadia and Federica and had some of the best pizza I've ever had in my life (with parmigiana, prosciutto di parma, arugala, and tomatoes). The next day we took a day trip to Mantova (about 2 hours outside of Milan) with Guisi, her son Gabriele, Nadia and Federica. The following day we went to Lake Como and Lugano Switzerland with Federica. Everything was so beautiful!!

Rome - Day 3

On our third day in Rome we visited the Colosseum, the Vatican Museum and Keith was on an Italian Radio show. You'll have to ask Keith for the full story of how he ended up on the radio. :) The Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel were amazing. What a great day!

Rome - Day 2

On our second day in Rome we went to Trevi Fountain, Palantino and saw the Colosseum. It was a great day!

Rome - Day 1

I intended to post photos along the way, but the internet connection was always painfully slow. Here is the album from our first day in Rome. This is unedited so there are lots of duplicates and things. I LOVED Rome!! Our friends Federico (who Keith met at a concert in NYC last month) and his wife Carla made our visit so easy and fun. What great friends! They took us on a whirlwind tour of Rome our first night. It was a cold 5 or 6 hours walking around Rome but we saw almost ALL of the spectacular sights of Rome that night. Click on the album below to see larger pictures and read the descriptions.

Magic-al Day!

My most recent Facebook update has got WAY more attention than any other things I've ever posted.  The second most popular status update I've posted was me declaring myself to be a great "cook" after eating my first attempt at homemade ice cream.  A lot of people had opinions on that.  Anyway, since it was so popular, I thought I'd blog my photos of my day with Magic Johnson.  

Magic Johnson is 6'9".  I am not.  I've never felt smaller.  Look at how big his hand is on my shoulder!!  :)  Magic was at my work to give a talk about his new book and his work building up innercity communities and neighborhoods.  I helped host him (introduced him to all the executives, walked him around, etc) and got to listen to all his cool stories.  He's a seriously funny and nice guy.    

He was so sweet and took a million photos with people.  I think it's so funny that I could stand right in front of Magic is this group photo and you can still see the top third of him.  I'm barely up to his chest.  That's why everyone in the photo is laughing. 

All in a day's work...  :)

Old married couple?

I think the universe is trying to tell me something - and I don't want to hear it.  It's telling me I'm old.  Well, maybe not old... but it definitely wants me to know I'm not getting any younger.  First we got moved over to the University Ward where (almost) everyone is younger than us AND they look at me with big eyes when they learn that we've been married for 8 YEARS.  When even my church friends think that's a long time, I know I'm into the big numbers.   My next clue was when I went to a dance class at the gym at work and enjoyed every minute of making a fool of myself - until the next day when I literally limped trying to walk or go down stairs.  I limped for days!!  Also, somehow along the way Keith has become more flexible than I am - which I cannot explain.  

Then the final straw came yesterday when our new toaster arrived in the mail in a smiling Amazon box.  Our old toaster has started sparking and threatening to burn down our house each time we use it (and toast is NOT worth the drama!).  As I was unpacking our shiny new toaster I suddenly realized that the toaster I was throwing away had been a wedding present!  A wedding present!?!?!   I am old enough to be replacing wedding presents?  Oh wow.  It felt kind of sad to get rid of it, even though I can't remember who was cliche enough to give me a toaster for my wedding.  But then I had a proud realization.  My marriage to Keith has outlasted a toaster.  Then I felt happy.  That is no small feat!  

So I'd like to offer a toast (pun intended!) and a big thank you to Keith for staying with me longer than the toaster.  I love you Keith! Goodbye old toaster.  

By the way - we literally took 21 photos of us with our old toaster trying to get a usable picture.  I guess this is as good as we get.  ;)

Ski Trip!

I know I've been a bad blogger lately.  I thought I'd show you a bit of what has kept me so busy.  Last week I planned a huge ski trip for 350 of my coworkers (thanks to the help of LaDawn and many of my fellow assistants who made such a huge task possible).  I'm happy to say that everyone had a great time and no one got seriously injured - which unfortunately is a huge improvement over our last team offsite (a whole other story).  I wanted to post this picture as proof that I had all 350 of them smiling at once at our party, but I can't figure out how to make this bigger, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  

I coordinated everything from the shuttles, hotels, food, party, entertainment, skiing, rental equipment and lessons.  It was an enormous job.  The worst part was that I got really sick right before the trip - and I never get sick!  I got this cold/flu thing that's been going around.  I was really congested, had serious body/headaches and a very soar throat and cough.  It made it hard to have the strength to get my work done AND hard to get any sleep.  By the end of the trip I was beat!  I worked from home on Friday and slept almost the entire weekend.  I would sleep about 9 hours at night and then be up for a few hours before I would have to take a nap and sleep for another 5 hours!  Thankfully I feel much better now.   Here's a picture of LaDawn and I at the ski trip party.  We had a great time.  :)

Happy Anniversary!

Keith and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary over the long holiday weekend.  We enjoyed the fantastic weather and spent a lot of time outside.  We went to Point Reyes and saw the lighthouse and then drove over to Napa Valley.  In Napa we ate lunch at an outdoor cafe and it was so sunny and warm I was worried I might get a sunburn.  After lunch we got 2 bags full of treats from our favorite bakery (Bouchon) and then went on a hike.  I thought the hike would take about 45 minutes and would be more like a romantic walk ... but it really took about 2 hours and left Keith and I dripping with non-romantic sweat.  We still had fun and cooled off during the second half of the hike through the redwoods.  On our actual anniversary (Tuesday) I worked from home and watched the Inauguration on TV for most of the morning (since my boss was in DC attending in person).  That night Keith and I went to dinner at Gary Danko and ate ourselves happy with our 5 course dinner of delicious food.  At the end of our meal our waiter brought out a special anniversary dessert for us (even though we had just devoured a chocolate souffle and a chocolate caramel mousse). 

Happy Anniversary, Keith!  I love you!  

Happy Birthday Sam and Keith!

So this birthday wish is clearly a bit late but I want to tell Sam and Keith how much I love them. We had a great double birthday dinner at Bix in San Francisco. It was super fun and delicious!  We had tuna tartare and steak (!) tartare as an appetizer.  I also had the lobster spaghetti and it was incredible.  

Happy Birthday boys!  :)

Christmas 2008

I'm a little slow in blogging this, I know. Before too many holidays pass me by I wanted to show you some highlights from our holiday in NC. You can double click on the album below to see larger pictures and read the captions. We miss you all!