What a good weekend.

Preface:

I started this post a few weeks ago and never finished it. So now I'm posting for dates Nov. 6-25. To indicate period breaks, I have added some dashes so you know when I'm jumping from one week to the next. Also note that each section is relatively done in present tense because when I was writing, it was in the "now", though it is currently pretty old news. I know! I've been so lazy! But I'm sure that you all know that I get lazy with blogging anyway.

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The weekend before last was a blast. It started on Friday night when I went to the City to have dinner with Jen Jen, Kimi, and Patti. I got the scoop on how Rob proposed to Patti and found out the Jen Jen is expecting! How exciting! On top of that, Uncle Victor kept bringing out yummy food and wine. It was awesome. I took BART out to Daly City where Jen Jen was acting as taxi driver in Auntie May's 4Runner. After I got in, we went to go pick up Kimi and Patti. I had forgotten how steep the street they live on is. It feels like a roller coaster when you go up and down it. I don't think I'd fancy driving up and down on that everyday and I definitely wouldn't like to park on it. It's a good thing they live on the bottom of the hill so that they don't have to worry about the hill parking. Their neighbors, however, aren't so fortunate. After practically closing the restaurant out, I headed back home where I met up with Nick before heading to Shanna's to play some Rock Band, which was great fun.
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Get ready for the longest list sentence, which I'm not even sure is grammatically correct because I don't know how/never use semicolons, I have ever written. After going to an engagement party for a couple of Nick's friends, a going away party for Shanna, spending as much time with Shanna as possible before she left last Tuesday, coning my mother into buying us a whole Rock Band set and five different games (on her birthday, mind you), making a card and taking my mom out to dinner for her birthday, my weekly dinners with Melanie, Kevin, and Talan, wine night with some new girlfriends, Nick's car getting hit across from our driveway, Christopher's Napa band review, going to a Bouchon Bistro in Napa with Nick, trying raw oysters for the first time and enjoying them, buying a new Kitchenaid Professional 600, baking scones and messing them up, joining a gym so that I can continue baking, attending a gem show where I got some awesome necklaces, and hanging out with Nick I am POOPED! That pretty much sums up the last two weeks. Below are a few pictures of a couple of the events that took place.

At Sunflower

Star Sapphire

Clear Topaz, which my mom's friend, Mrs. Minnich, says that shady vendors try to pass off as diamonds.

In front of the bakery where Nick got his Macaron. (Not to be mistaken with a macaroon. I had no idea macarons existed.) I need to try to make these things with my new mixer!

Filet mignon with super cheesy macaroni. Sooooo delicious.

Who would have thought that raw oysters were good? I was afraid that I wouldn't like the texture. I love shellfish, but the texture of sushi weirds me out so I was expecting this to be the same.


I totally botched these up. For some reason I was reading two different lines at once. I saw that I needed salt, but then I guess my eyes skipped up a line to see that I need two tablespoons. The horrible part is that I checked twice because I was thinking that it was way too much salt. And I read it incorrectly the second time too! So instead of adding two teaspoons of salt, I added two tablespoons. The scones didn't turn our horribly. They were still edible with frosting on them. Nick said that they were like biscuits with cranberries in them.

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This past weekend (Nov. 21-23) was another full of fun and packed with events. Friday, was quite busy for me even though I really wasn't doing that much. I just seemed like a lot. On Thursday I got maintenance done on my car, which ended up messing things up with my radio. Basically, since I got the battery replaced the anti-theft radio mechanism kicked in and now I have no radio. I was supposed to get it fixed on Friday, but it was a little too busy around the house for me to do that. I had plans to go out dancing with Nick and a couple of our friends, but had also promised to make some pumpkin pies for Christopher to take to his girlfriend's Thanksgiving party. Since the Big Game was the day after and I was planning on having friends to come and hang out to watch the game I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes. I got the recipe from Allrecipes and just altered it by adding the chocolate chips.

On the day of the Big Game, Nick and I went down to Palo Alto to tailgate with my parents and family friends. On the way down he gave me a rundown of how a vehicle engine works. Oh the things one can learn. After a certain point though, I kind of started to zone out. There is only so much that I can handle. The tailgate was awesome as usual, but the actual game was even better. No one thought that they would win, but they did! Go Bears! I was so happy that I was jumping around everywhere. The plan was to originally congregate at my house so that we could watch the game on TV after the tailgate since we didn't have tickets. By the time we got back to Nick's place to get my car and then head over to my house it was already 4pm (which is when I thought the game started when it actually started at 4:30). I was not happy that I was going to miss kick off. Then we found out that Astound doesn't have the channel Versus, where the game was airing. Oh man, I was so mad that I was shaking and didn't want to listen to anything Nick was saying. He was trying to console me, but I was so angry that I was having none of it. Thankfully, he kept his cool and said that we could go back to his house to watch the game because he had the channel. It's a good thing he can handle my mood swings...especially because I have a lot of them. So we packed up all of the food that we had at my house and headed to his. I'm just so glad that we won.

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...I've been working on this post for almost three weeks now on and off. I'm over it. Today I got my radio fixed and the recall on my windshield wipers finally taken care of. For the last week or so I've been conversing with Julie on and off about doing a "joint custody" thing with Emmy since she is back in CA. Edward had really long hours at school so he sent her home where she would be happier. After getting Edward's consent, I will be sharing Emmy with Julie and Mrs. Levie until Edward moves back home. It may be just a short time, but it's better than no time. My mom and I went to get her a new crate and bed today, among other things. I just hope she remembers me! It's been quite some time.


P.S. She definitely remembers me and she took up all the space on my tiny little bed last night even though she has a brand new doggy bed not two feet below mine.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween, Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

This Halloween was relatively old-fartish, but very fun. Christopher and I carved our pumpkins a little early this year so by the time Halloween actually rolled around they were slightly shriveled and not looking up to form. We should have sprayed them with some bleach and water, but by the time my mom mentioned it they were already turning into pumpkin-sized grapes. It was fun carving them anyway. The pumpkins had been sitting in our garage for some time. I think that my mom had bought them as soon as pumpkins were out for the picking. So much for going to a pumpkin patch. Safeway it is! I have noticed in the past years that pumpkins have become more oblong. I remember when they used to be very near to perfect globes. I find it difficult to carve a pumpkin that is so tall. I think I prefer mine to be a little more squat and rounded...but that's just me. This year we picked a Cal theme. I'm pretty sure that our parents have us brainwashed. If we were better carvers we would have taken the time to carve "Beat Oregon", but we're not. So the bear and the cursive "Cal" will suffice.




The actual day of Halloween was enjoyable. It was nothing too out of hand nor was it boring. Originally we were going to go the City, but Nick wasn't feeling so well and I didn't really want to be out there with all of the crazies so we stayed local and ended up at the same restaurant with my parents. We had a great time with some of his friends listening to the house band and drinking beers. Nick was a ninja and I was a Harry Potter student again. Nothing too exciting for me. I didn't really want to put the effort into finding another costume when I had a perfectly good robe sitting in my closet. Anyway, we went to this restaurant called Dallimoti's in Pleasant Hill. Nick said that we dropped the age ratio in the establishment by half, which I thought was amusing but then realized that he was right. There were quite a few patrons who were well past their prime and should not have been dressing in skimpy little cheerleader and sexy cat outfits. Is this what I have to look forward to? At least my parents were sufficiently covered up. My mom dressed up as a hippie and my dad as a nerd. The saddest part is that all of the stuff that my dad was wearing was straight from his closet. When I acquire a picture, I will post it. Apparently, my parents were the first couple to arrive at the restaurant and were sitting on a bench by the front door. From what I was told, they were not moving much so when the hosting couple walked in my parents scared the living daylights out of them. The hostess said that she thought my parents were stuffed! I got a kick out of that one.

You now what time it is now? It's officially November. You got it! Christmas music time!