Life in Lake County

The Coast

2011-10-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Jake and I headed to the coast for our "weekend." We were only there for one night, but we had a wonderful time visiting with his dad and step mom who were also there for vacation.

We visited a winery while we were there. It was right on the coast and very beautiful. They also had the cutest puppy wandering around.

I love the ocean. It just boggles my mind to be standing on the edge of the continent and know that there's nothing but water for thousands of miles.

Healdsburg Sip N Cycle

2011-10-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I received an email from Groupon for half off a Sip N Cycle tour. Jake and I had been wanting to do one for a while, but we never seriously looked into it. The Groupon was for HALF off the tour though and I could not pass it up. I was one of the first few to purchase the deal and anxiously waited for the remaining coupons to be sold so that the deal would go into effect. Luckily, the minimum number of tours were purchased. We happened to purchase the deal in the middle of summer when it was hot and biking and wine tasting didn't seem so appealing in 100 degree heat. Well the temps finally cooled and we went on our tour yesterday!

The tour was put on by Adventure Getaways and although I was pleased with the experience, I would never pay full price for this tour or any of the other ones that they offer. We had the option to do the Sip N Cycle in Napa, Calistoga, or Healdsburg. We chose Healdsburg because we like to pretend we live there.

The tour began at around 10 am (with 2 other couples) and was supposed to go until 3:30, but ours ended up going until 5:30! We went to 4 different wineries and they served us a really nice lunch outside at one of the tasting rooms.

The weather was gorgeous, the tour guide was fun, and the wine was obviously a plus. I was a little disappointed though because I felt like we did much more cycling than sipping. Next time we might just take our own bikes and do a self guided winery tour ;)

Are you Megan's husband? AKA my moment of fame

2011-10-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

FYI: Lake County is small. Really small. And most people I meet in the community know of Jake, or at least someone in his family. This has both positive and negative aspects. The positive is that Jake has a pretty good reputation. He didn't break the hearts of too many girls in high school and he's never been one to have any enemies. So when people learn that I'm his wife, I always feel so proud to be associated with someone that is loved by so many people.

And now for the negative....(okay it's not so much a negative as it is a funny story). The other day someone came into work and when they learned my last name they said "So Celia is your sister in law?" Ummm...no. Celia is Jake's step mom and my mother in law. NOT sister in law. I mean, she looks great for her age and all, but I still thought it was a bit odd. And apparently it's time to buy some wrinkle cream.

So back to the real story I meant to tell....

I was at work the day before the big cycling event and there were several people that came to do some wine tasting that had travelled from out of town for the race. One couple was really excited to talk about the race. We chatted for a while about how I was doing the short course and Jake was doing the long one. They ended up signing up for the wine club and in return, got a copy of our quarterly newsletter. This particular newsletter contained my intro to the winery. It explained where I'm from and how I got here (Jake). It also mentioned where I went to school. I might have even discussed these details with the couple in person, but I can't really remember because I basically tell the same story each time when someone asks if I'm originally from Lake County.

So fast forward to the next day. Jake was wearing his OSU cycling jersey and at one of the rest stops, someone said "Are you Megan's husband?" It was the newest wine club member!

I'm pretty sure that this is the first time ever that he's been asked if he's related to me as opposed to the many many times that people have asked if I'm related to him or one of his family members. I felt famous.

Two Days In Tahoe

2011-10-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

We headed out to Tahoe a couple of weeks ago to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We went in the middle of the week since I work weekends and I've decided that we should do all of our trips during the middle of the week. It was so quiet and not crowded. Also, rooms are really cheap during the middle of the week.

We arrived late on Tuesday night and went straight to bed. We slept in the next day, went to breakfast, and then drove to Tahoe City to go on a bike ride. This actually turned out to be a not so great experience. I recently got new bike pedals and shoes for my bike and I'd only used them a few times before. I hadn't had too many problems, but on this particular day I wore a new pair of socks that were much thinner than the ones I typically wear. This caused me to have a lot of extra room in my shoes. And this caused a lot of problems when I would try to unclip from the pedals. I fell twice. And after the second fall I was just done for the day. I think we only biked about 14 miles, but it took us around an hour and a half due to all the problems. I was ready to swear off cycling for good. We vowed to rent bikes the next time we go to Tahoe. We saw so many people on fun, recreational type bikes that they were just cruising around on. I was jealous that they all looked like they were having so much fun and I was definitely not.

We took a leisurely drive back to the hotel from Tahoe City and stopped along the way to get a few more pictures of the beautiful scenery.

We left the next day, but were able to squeeze in a good hike the morning before we headed out.

This is the state line for California and Nevada.

This picture was taken because my sister recently found this picture of my dad:

This was my first time to visit Tahoe and I can't wait to go back. Maybe I'll even give some winter activities a try.

Zulu Update

2011-10-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

First off, I can't believe she's going to have her first b-day so soon! Maybe her TX grandma will send her some birthday cookies ;) We'll probably take her to her CA grandma's house for a party with her two puppy friends so they'll need some cookies too.

She's been going to CA grandma's house a lot lately. We love it. She comes home at the end of the day and she's exhausted from running and playing. Unfortunately, the rainy season is starting up and she won't be able to play outside very much. She has soooo much energy and even one day of being at home causes her to be super annoying. This is mostly our own fault though because we definitely haven't given her proper training yet. We should probably work on that....

We took Zu to be groomed a month or so ago and I can't say I was pleased with the results. She came home pretty much completely bald with the exception of her tail being left super furry. I understood that they had to shave her because her fur had a bunch of knots and stickers stuck in it. I'm a little confused about why her tail was left so furry though.

I pretty much had a heart attack when she walked through the door though. She looked so "poodle" and it freaked me out.

It really came at a perfect time though. It was the middle of the summer and her coat was just too much for her in the summer heat. It's starting to grow back now and she's getting cuter and cuter every day.

She loves her baby hippo so much! When I wake her up in the morning to go potty she always takes her hippo with her. It's so adorable. I often find her asleep with her arms wrapped around her baby too. I have to wash it often. Her light pink fur gets pretty dirty.

We're currently contemplating halloween costumes for Zu. I doubt that whatever we choose will last very long, but we've never dressed her up before and I'm dying to see her wear something cute.

Sonoma County Fair

2011-10-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

The fair was actually a couple of months ago. Please excuse the much delayed recap.

This was my first time to attend the Sonoma County Fair. I was pretty impressed. First off, they have horse races! So classy! Neither of us had ever attended a horse race before and we totally lucked out on free tickets. As we were walking up to the ticket booth to purchase general admission, a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted her extra tickets. Her tickets included the fair AND the races! We used our savings to purchase extra food.

So here are the pictures. Not much to commentate on seeing as how it's pretty much just a typical fair...

End of Summer Recap

2011-10-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy few months....

We went to the Sonoma county fair (some time in August). Full post coming soon.

Zulu will turn one in a few weeks (October 26). Detailed Zulu update and pictures coming soon.

We went to Tahoe for two days (Sept. 21-22). Beautiful pictures and a humorous story coming soon.

I survived the Pear Festival weekend (Sept. 23-25) at work. This included a kick off country concert and bbq on a Friday night (I actually was able to attend for fun and not have to work the event, but it was still somewhat work related), the actual day of the Pear Festival (one of our busiest days of the year) and our annual Harvest Party the next night. It was a fabulous cajun themed event. I don't have any of my own pictures, but there are some on the Wildhurst Facebook page. The event was a huge success and I was so excited to be a part of it.

We attended the wedding of two wonderful people last weekend. I didn't take a single picture, but it was so beautiful and probably one of the most personal and entertaining ceremonies I've ever witnessed.

We also did the Konocti Challenge last Saturday. I did the 40 mile bike ride and Jake did the 100 mile course!!!

I know it doesn't look like I did a bike ride at all, but I did. I just happened to have time to go home and shower before Jake completed the race. I'm so proud of Jake for accomplishing this huge goal. He worked so hard and I think he had a pretty good time doing it too.

For our next athletic challenge, we're considering the Orange County full marathon in May. I've been having some foot problems though so we'll see how I feel after the end of my half marathon on October 29th. We were considering the New Orleans marathon in March, but I might need to take a considerable amount of time off after the race this month and I want to have plenty of time to recover and then train again.

I think that pretty much sums up the past couple of months. I'm sure I've forgotten some important details, but you get the gist of it, right?

An Afternoon in Healdsburg

2011-08-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

It's funny how this blogging thing works....when I had a job that I was unhappy with, and thus not really loving life so much, I somehow found a lot to blog about. I think that I was trying to make my life appear better than it really was. Ironically, I'm still doing a lot of fun things (though not always on the weekends) but I feel less motivation to blog about them. This is partially because my new job really wears me out. I'm tired in a good way, but I barely have enough energy to make dinner at night, so blogging hasn't been a big priority.

On the other hand though, one of my biggest reasons for blogging is to keep my family up to date on our lives so I will try to make more of an effort to blog about the fun times I'm having (even if it's mostly work related these days).

Today we had a wonderful afternoon in Healdsburg and I took a lot of pictures. We went to a couple different wineries that a friend recommended and they were wonderful.

Our first stop was Quivira:

They had some wonderful wines, but our favorite was the Grenache. We purchased a bottle and got 30% off with an inter winery discount!

Quivira is organic and biodynamic. I don't know much about the biodynamic thing, but I think it has something to do with the stars and moon and other things of that nature. Google it if you're interested.
Along with their great wine, they also had an amazing garden and farm area.

(bees)

Our next stop was the Dry Creek General Store. I've read about this place numerous times and have been wanting to try it for a while. It's basically a deli that makes really good, albeit expensive, sandwiches.

We enjoyed our lunch on a picnic table outside.

Our final stop for the day was Ferrari Carano. This place was so fancy! The grounds were amazing and wine was pretty good too. They offered an inter winery discount too, but only on certain wines. Our favorite one, the Home Ranch Cab, was not discountable, but we purchased it anyway.

We had a wonderful time and plan on taking advantage of the inter winery discount again in the near future.

Cutest Pillows Ever

2011-08-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

When we went to Napa several weeks ago we found a store that had a bunch of cute items. Some of the cutest were dish towels and pillows from catstudio. I ended up purchasing a dish towel for my mom's birthday, but I recently checked out their website and really fell in love. If these weren't so pricey I would purchase the following pillows:

They have a Nevada pillow, but I don't feel any sort of connection to the entire state of Nevada so I'd definitely choose this one.

These are all hand stitched, thus explaining the hefty price tag. I don't think I'll ever be able to justify $149 for a pillow, but I'll continue to check the website in case they ever have a 75% off sale.

Where oh where have I been?

2011-08-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since my last post! Well it's been a busy month to say the least.

First, I got a new job. It's a fabulous new job and I love it more than any job I've ever had. I'm working at a tasting room for a local winery. I'm managing the wine club, pouring wine for people, and learning as much as I can about the wine industry.

Soon after my new job started, we had another incident with Zulu (see here for first major incident). Jake decided to take Zu for a ride in his jeep one afternoon. He strapped her in with her harness and took off down Main St. Not too long after their ride began, Zulu decided to work her way out of the harness and tried to crawl out of the jeep, Marley and Me style. Jake reached down to grab her and ended up hitting a parked car. Luckily nobody was injured, but the car was totaled, Jake's jeep was damaged, and Zulu sat in a puddle of motor oil, thus staining her entire back end. One month and several baths later and she still looks ridiculous.

I also went on a trip to Texas this past month. I was there for 8 days and it was fabulous. I did normal things like shopping, eating, movies and just plain hanging out, but it was the most fun I've had in a long time. I miss my friends and family so much. I've tried to convince all of them to just move to California, but nobody took me up on the offer. I didn't really have much to offer them besides cooler temperatures and the ability to see me on a regular basis, but I would have thought that would be more than enough incentive ;)

The only downfall of my new job is that it requires me to work on the weekends. This means I'll probably have fewer fun adventures to post about on the blog, but I'll try to make my weekdays off a little more exciting.

Oh one thing before I start my chores for the day....

This is the trailer for the movie that was partially filmed in Kelseyville. The street that's shown at :13 in the trailer is Main Street. Sadly, most of the store fronts are deserted in real life and I think even more have closed since they filmed last year. Also, the Sheriff's Office is actually an abandoned building next to the tasting room. I'm curious to see if it will be shown at all in the movie.

A Day in Napa

2011-07-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made an impromptu trip to Napa. Napa is about an hour and a half away, but the drive seems to go quickly because of the beautiful scenery.

Our first stop was the Napa Riverwalk. This was actually really disappointing though. There were several nice looking restaurants, but very few stores. The whole area was actually really deserted for a Sunday afternoon. I suppose most people go to Napa to wine taste, but I expected there to more going on near the river on a holiday weekend.

After walking around the riverwalk and nearby downtown area, we drove a short distance to the Oxbow Market. This place was pretty cool. We purchased some AMAZING lemon pita chips and fresh blackberries. We also tasted some olive oils, browsed a spice shop and ate a couple of cupcakes.

We then drove around trying to find some more things to do. We felt like maybe were just missing the "happening" Napa area, but it turned out to just not exist. I did find a World Market to shop at and there was a pet store nearby so Jake spent his time there. He purchased a new bed for Zulu, but she's already ruined it!

Our next mission was to find a place to eat, but we couldn't find anything that seemed appealing. Now before you go crazy on me for not being able to find a place to eat in Napa, just hear me out...I'm well aware that Napa is home to several famous and probably delicious restaurants, but we wanted something low key and we were definitely not dressed in proper attire for a nice restaurant. So we headed for St. Helena to go to a place we've been before. We ended up at what used to be Taylor's Automatic Refresher, a Triple D place. It's now called Gott's Roadside, but they have the exact same menu. Ironically there's a Gott's right next to the Oxbow Market, but we didn't realize it was the former Taylor's and we passed it up because we weren't very hungry after going to the market.

The next time we go to Napa it will definitely be for wine tasting and not shopping/walking around. It's a beautiful place, but we should have put a little more research and planning into our spontaneous trip :)

Favorite Magazines

2011-06-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

It seems like just yesterday that I was eagerly checking the mail for the latest copy of Seventeen or Teen Vogue. For some reason, even admitting that I love the following two magazines makes me feel like an old woman. Not that "old women" are their target audience, but I still feel like I should be reading Seventeen and not magazines for the Martha Stewart crowd. Apparently I'm a grown up now and would rather read about food and cleaning than boys and clothes.

Real Simple

Whole Living

Honestly though, I'm pretty sure I've always been a Real Simple/Whole Living girl at heart. I was never really into hair or makeup and although I wanted to dress and look like the girls in Seventeen, I never came close. In fact, my favorite part of the teen magazines were the "most embarrassing moments" sections that readers contributed to each month. I never contributed a story, but I'm sure I could have made it into an issue or two. To add to my teenage coolness factor, I'm pretty sure I also had a subscription to Architectural Digest. Maybe it's not such a surprise that I didn't date much (or at all) during high school.

Luckily, I've snagged a cute boy and can can enjoy cooking, cleaning, and living my old lady lifestyle without shame. My mom purchased a Real Simple subscription for me a while ago and I love all the recipes, cleaning tips, craft ideas and other fun articles. She also introduced me to Whole Living. She gave me a copy to read on a plane ride last month and I read the copy at the airport and picked up another issue before I got on the plane. I just signed up for for a subscription today for only $10 for 10 issues. I just checked the going rate for Real Simple and it's only $24 for 12 issues. Both are such a bargain!

P.S. Seventeen is currently going for $15 for 30 issues! So feel free to indulge in that if you'd like ;)

Sonoma County Balloon Classic

2011-06-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Jake and I woke up ridiculously early on Saturday morning to attend the Sonoma County Balloon Classic. We left at 4:45 so that we wouldn't miss the 6:30 launch.

This was actually my second time to attend the festival. I went several years ago when I was staying with Jake's grandma in Santa Rosa while doing an internship. She met us at the festival this year.

There was heavy fog in Windsor where the festival was taking place so the launch time was delayed. Fortunately, the fog had cleared enough by around 7:00 so a couple of balloons took off.

Unfortunately, the wind started to pick up and the rest of the balloons were unable to launch.

We had a fun time walking around and looking at all the grounded balloons though!

This fish balloon was my favorite. It was called 'Sushi'.
It was pretty chilly out so we warmed up by staying near the balloons that had to fire up every few minutes in order to stay inflated.

I'm already excited for next year's event. I'd love to attend the big balloon festival in Albuquerque, NM one day.

Cobbstock 2011

2011-06-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we attended an all day concert event up on the mountain. It was held at Jellystone Park and I must say, I'm not really a "camper", but this place is so cute and so much fun that I would actually consider staying a night. Outside. In a tent. Maybe 2 nights since they have showers.

Jake's dad and step mom are in the band that headlined the event. It was so much fun watching them perform.

Jake's step mom is the one singing and his dad is the one to her right, playing bass.

We had a great time and are already excited for Cobbstock 2012!

Green Cleaning

2011-06-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

I made my own cleaning supplies! I've been meaning to do this for a while, but just got around to it yesterday. I'm so glad I finally did. So easy to do, super cheap, and your house doesn't smell like harmful chemicals!

Here are some recipes in case you want to make your own:

Furniture polish:

1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice

Glass cleaner:

1 1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water

All purpose cleaner:

1 tsp Borax
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup hot water

Toilet cleaner (not pictured)

1 cup of vinegar in the toilet with a sprinkle of baking soda. Let it soak while you clean the rest of the bathroom and then scrub.

I'm really pleased with the results. FYI about the glass cleaner though...it looks really streaky when first applied and then wiped off, but once it dries it looks great!

I also hung my clothes outside for the first time! This was much more time consuming than I had expected, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

In other green news, we picked up our latest CSA box the other day:

This week's bounty included green beans, lettuce, broccoli, chard, carrots, raspberries and onions.

Cat Claw Meets Dog Eye

2011-06-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough week. A really rough week. On Tuesday morning I was taking a shower and Jake came in and asked if I'd noticed anything weird about Zulu's eye. I had just seen her a few minutes earlier and all was fine. I got out of the shower and took one look at her and told Jake to take her to the vet. He took her, but the local vet was unable to really assess the situation so the referred us to an animal eye specialist in Santa Rosa. We took her that afternoon, but the vet wasn't able to see too well into the eye either. She gave us 3 different eye drops and 3 oral medications to give Zulu and told us to return on Thursday. She suspected she would need to do surgery at this time, but told us there was a chance the eye would heal itself and not need an operation.

On the way home I realized how Zu's injury happened. Right before I got in the shower that morning I noticed that Zu had the cat in a corner. I tried to pick up the cat to move her, but she was already on the run. She slipped out of my hands and her back paws went into the air. Zulu's face was in the wrong place at the wrong time and one of the claws caught her eye :(

We took extra good care of Zu over the next day and a half and then returned to the eye specialist on Thursday. Luckily the vet thought she'd improved a lot and did not think surgery was necessary at that time! However, she told us that after 3 weeks, she'd be able to see all the way to the eye lens. If the lens is scratched, then it will have to be removed and she'll be unable to see out of that eye. She has another appointment on Monday and we hope to get another positive report.

The poor thing just looks so pitiful and our hearts break for her. She is making me a nervous wreck too. Any time she walks around I'm so paranoid that she's going to run into something. I semi baby proofed the living room so that I had a little less to worry about, but there are plenty of things she could still run into. I'm also super paranoid that the cat is going to swat at her face if she gets too close. She doesn't have front claws, but even just a swat to the face could permanently injure her eye.

I'll be so glad when she is healed completely and we can breathe for a second. She's been such a trooper and I wish I could take her pain and discomfort away. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I really wish I could trade places with her.

My Very Own Clothesline

2011-06-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not designing clothes now, I'm hanging them out to dry!! Well, to be honest, I have not actually used the clothesline yet. It's been raining for several days now and hanging your clothes outside in the rain kinda defeats the purpose.

Jake built this for me while I was in Texas and I was so excited to find my surprise. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm crazy for being so excited about this, especially since I hate doing laundry and all, but I think it's going to turn my laundry frown upside down.

Yes, it will require additional work, but just think of the energy I'll save! PG&E keeps threatening to come install a smart meter at our house so I'm going to do everything I can to reduce the amount of money they take from us each month. Smart meter or not, I'm pretty sure they're robbing us. How else do you explain energy bills for the same amount or more during months when neither the air conditioner or heater have been turned on? I'm also convinced that smart meters cause cancer. I'm not sure if this has definitely been proven, but I'm scared to have one on our house. I've also heard that they typically result in higher energy bills. And can someone please explain why they intend to charge HIGHER rates to people that use LESS energy? I guess it makes sense from a business standpoint, but I find it highly unethical.

Ugh, enough about PG&E...I have a new clothesline!

Zulu's Hippo

2011-06-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

My mom purchased this toy for Zulu when I was in Texas.

It's her new favorite thing.

I'm not sure why it never occurred to me that she'd love a soft toy like this. She's always running off with dish towels and socks to chew on so this is a perfect compromise! Not to mention, she looks absolutely adorable toting this little guy around.

Brassfield Winery

2011-06-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last week I was able to tag along with Jake when he went to do some finishing touches on one of his jobs. I walked around the winery and snapped a few pictures while he worked.

This place is so hidden, but it's so beautiful and definitely worth a visit. I'm sure they have great wine, but I was more interested in the landscape.

CSA Week 3

2011-06-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

I realize it's a bit odd that I show off a picture of vegetables each week. It would be even more odd if I took a picture of everything I purchase at the grocery store each week (though you would probably be amazed at how much food only 2 people can consume). But the CSA is so much cooler than the grocery store! Everything is always so beautiful and I get so excited each week when I go to pick up my box (from a bookstore of all places). Besides, I know my mom appreciates pictures of beautiful fruit and veggies and this blog mostly caters to her anyway, so here you go, mom...enjoy!

This week's box included peaches, beets, melon, asparagus, kale and radishes.

Speaking of beautiful food, doesn't this blackened tuna steak on mango salsa/relish look awesome?

Well it was AWFUL! I severely undercooked the fish and we ended up throwing it in the microwave. Big mistake. Do NOT ever microwave fish. This is what I get for straying from vegan cooking.

This is what my mom looks like...

2011-06-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

when I travel half way across the country for an unannounced visit!

I totally surprised my parents last week when I arrived in Texas. I had the trip planned for 2 months and it was so hard to not tell them, especially on my b-day and Mother's Day.

I arrived on Thursday and left on Monday, but I was originally scheduled to arrive on Wednesday. Due to bad weather at DFW in the days prior to my arrival, my flight was canceled so I arrived a day late :(

Everything else went just as planned though. My sister pick me up from the airport and drove us home. She went inside and I had Jake call my mom to ask her if the package he'd sent had arrived. She told him she'd just been outside and hadn't seen anything, but he convinced her to go outside and check anyway. As soon as she walked outside I jumped out of the car. It was a priceless moment that I'm sure neither of us will ever forget.

My time in Texas was filled with fun events, but I didn't take any pictures at all. I'll be returning in July though so I'll try to take some then.

Garden: Year 2

2011-05-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

We planted our garden this past weekend! And when I say "we" I actually mean it! I helped... unlike last year when Jake not only planted everything, but also built the planter boxes.

We planted about half of what we did last year because we had way too many vegetables to handle last summer.

We left a large empty space in the planter on the left because we have some peppers started in a small shed, but they aren't ready to transplant yet.

And I'm not sure why THREE of these plants were purchased, but I planted them anyway. I can assure you that I will not be eating any this year. Perhaps I'll use them in some salsa though.

I'll be sure to post updates once things start to grow!

Menu Monday

2011-05-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Monday:
Stir fry-it was beautiful, but I don't have a picture :(

Tuesday:
Taco Salad

Wednesday:
Veggie burger and salad with homemade sun dried tomato dressing
Thursday:
Pizza

Friday:

"Chicken" nuggets (yeah, we eat these way too often) with garlic carrots and beet greens

Saturday:
Frozen burritos (organic and vegan!) and guacamole

Apple sweet potato cobbler and strawberry rhubarb cobbler

Sunday:
Pesto pasta with sun dried tomatoes and olives

The following were from last week. They're the only two pictures I have and I can't even remember what else we ate.

Spicy hummus pizzas with cous cous and lemon roasted asparagus

Enchiladas with black bean and spinach filling

Temporary Tattoo Fun

2011-05-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

We've had these fake tattoos for months, but never got around to using them. Yesterday we put our procrastination techniques to good use and applied them before we began cleaning the house. Unfortunately, Jake's mermaid has completely rubbed off, and even more unfortunately, my Poo Bear has not come off at all.

150 years of Lake County

2011-05-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

This year marks the 150th year of Lake County. There will be celebratory events going on throughout the summer, but yesterday was the start of the festivities. There were musical performances, a reenactment of the ceremony that took place 150 years ago, and other various speakers, including Jake's uncle.

There were also people dressed in elaborate costumes that were walking around and giving historic tours.

This is a lion, not a bear.

Uncle Rob!

The governor of CA in 1861

CSA Week 2

2011-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

I finally got my rhubarb and strawberries!! I also received corn, english peas, garlic, beet leaves (seriously, where are the beets?) and a head of iceberg lettuce that I threw away because I'm not really a fan. I don't have anything against iceberg, but I'd prefer to just use of the rest of the spinach and romaine that I already have in the fridge. More nutrients.

But let's talk about the beet leaves....I'm so confused. I was at the store when Jake was picking up the box. I asked him if there were beets because they was listed on the website and I'd already planned a recipe around them. He said there were no beets so I picked some up. I got home and compared them. They are EXACTLY the same, but one is missing the actual beets. Where did they go? And what am I supposed to do with the leaves? I guess I'll google it later. I'm sure there's something that can be made from them.

Everything looks beautiful. Especially the strawberries. FYI, if you only buy one type of organic produce, it should be strawberries. Apparently they retain more pesticides than any other fruit or vegetable.

Confession: I still buy non organic on occasion if they're on sale.

Before and After

2011-05-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

Zulu had her first haircut today. I'm not exactly thrilled with the results. She looks like a an entirely different dog. I'm glad that she can see now (her fur was impeding her eye site), but I wish she didn't look so much like a poodle! I miss her shaggy little face. I think I'll warm up to it a little more once she de-poofs. She's EXTRA poofy from the hair dryer. She's still adorable and she smells very pretty, but next time I think we're going to specify that they just clip the fur around her eyes and maybe let her air dry a little bit. Time for the reveal....

Before:

Mom, where did you throw my stick? I can't find it!

After:

Mom! I found it!!

Nom, nom, nom...yummy!

I'm still cute! You know you love me!

Okay, so she really does look adorable in this picture, but I think she looks much different in real life. Come back shaggy face, come back!

Bay to Breakers 2011

2011-05-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

Bay...

To Breakers

Before the race

Costumes...

And Crowds...

This race was INSANE! I have never witnessed, much less participated, in an event like this one. Wild and crazy does not even begin to explain this legendary foot race. The costumes were amazing, the nakedness was plentiful, and the energy was immeasurable. We were definitely in the thick of the race and were surrounded by people for the entire 7.46 miles. It was a slow race because of all the people, but like the trail run I did a few months ago, time is NOT an issue during this race. It's alllll about the experience.

There were live bands, spectators in costumes, and stereo systems blaring from homes along the course. There was not a single second that I thought "I wish this was almost over." Okay, well maybe during an uphill climb in an early part of the race, but after that it was smooth sailing.

We ended in Golden Gate Park and picked up our awesome medals.

(Jake did not want to pose with his medal)

I'm so glad we did this race. It was something I wanted to experience just one time, but after doing it, I'm hooked. We're already trying to think of costumes to wear next year. Suggestions are welcome. We will most likely be running with some friends. I'm going to encourage everyone I know to do this at least once in their lifetime.

P.S. Some non-pictured craziness:

A huge "school of fish" swimming upstream (against the crowd)
A runner in metal armor with a spear and shield
Old, naked men
A group of spectators that were painted blue and dressed like smurfs. I thought it was extra impressive that non runners went to so much trouble with their costumes.

Bay To Breakers Weekend

2011-05-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

We're headed to San Fran today to participate in the 100th Bay to Breakers on Sunday. Today is the expo so we must go early to ensure we get our t-shirt and other free stuff.

The race is a 12k (about 7.5 miles) but I don't intend to take the running part very seriously. I intend to take pictures while running and to just enjoy all the craziness of 55,000 people in costumes (or no clothes at all). In addition to the 55,000 runners, they're estimating around 100,000 spectators. This thing is huge!

Unfortunately, this is the first year where alcohol and floats are banned. I'm a little disappointed, not because I wanted to drink or ride on a float, but I totally want to see other people doing these things. I'm sure it will still be exciting, and probably a little safer than years past.

I'll be back soon with lots of pictures!

CSA

2011-05-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

On Monday I signed up for my first CSA box and I picked it up yesterday. I paid $24 for an annual membership and $16 for the box of fruit and veggies. 80% of the CSA items are organic so I think $16 is quite a bargain for everything I received.

My box for this week included a head of romaine lettuce, a head of cauliflower, 3 oranges, a bunch of asparagus, several sweet potatoes, 4 apples and 4 carrots. All of it was so fresh and beautiful. I've already eaten the asparagus and one of the oranges. Both were excellent!

After placing my order I realized you can also purchase items a la carte style. They have beans, flowers, baked good, olive oil, and several other awesome things. Needless to say, I'm super excited about placing my order for next week!

Here's the link for the Lake County co-op if you're interested.

The CSA website indicates what will be in the box each week, but also adds a disclaimer that contents may vary. Well, I should have taken the disclaimer a little more seriously because this week's box was supposed to include strawberries and rhubarb. I actually planned this week's blazingburner meal around those two ingredients, but was severely disappointed to find that I'd unexpectedly received apples and oranges in place of strawberries and rhubarb. So sad, but luckily the recipe can easily substitute the apples in place of the berries and rhubarb!

I hope that we can get our garden planted within the next week or two so that we'll have even more organic veggies on hand. We're definitely going to cut back on the number of hot pepper plants this year because we had way too many last season. Jake was excited to find a new pepper to plant this year. Apparently it's hotter than a ghost chili. I WILL NOT be eating one. Not after the Habanero Incident of 2010.

In addition to planting our garden, I'm also going to see if Jake will build a clothes line for me so I can dry the laundry outside. I'll be out of work all summer so I feel like I'll have plenty of time to devote to hanging clothes outside. And we might as well save money on the electric bill since I won't be working!

CSA member, gardener, and clothes line dryer...just look at how country I've become!

Menu Monday

2011-05-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

I totally skipped last week's Menu Monday because it was even more pathetic than the week before. In my defense though, I was out of town the first couple of days and then the weekend was spent eating out a lot to celebrate my b-day. This week wasn't a vast improvement, but I did actually make it into the kitchen a couple of times so I thought I would share....

Monday:
Jole in Calistoga

Tuesday:
Pizza at Grandma and Papa's

Wednesday:
Salad-this week's Blazing Burner meal

Thursday:
Pasta and zucchini

Friday:
Taco Bell

Saturday:
"Chicken" on spinach (and other veggies) with homemade honey mustard dressing

Sunday:
TBD-I'm typing this on Saturday night

This next one was from last week. It might have been the only meal I actually cooked...
And it consisted of a lot of vegetables that were about to go bad + vegan Parmesan cheese

Man make fire. Eat s'mores.

2011-05-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Snoopy's Home Ice

2011-05-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

Oh how I wish I'd taken my fancy camera on our outing today. It was a momentous occasion: Jake's first time to go ice skating!!! He did a fabulous job, but I have little photographic evidence of the actual skating because my unfancy camera doesn't like dim lighting and quick moving objects :( However, I hope you enjoy the few pictures we did get to document the event.

Snoopy's Home Ice is in Santa Rosa and it is awesome. This was my first clue of its awesomeness:

Charlie Brown + the jersey number of my all time favorite hockey player= best thing ever!

AND Snoopy fed me cookies! I didn't even need to go inside. I was already having the best time. They had a web came set up outside so we called my parents so they could see me and Snoopy hanging out. They also had them inside so they were able to watch us skate around!

Oh wait, this day is about Jake. Almost forgot! Here he is putting on his first pair of ice skates!

And here is an awkward picture of us with half smiles.

It should also be noted that we were the only adults there without kids. Well, except this one creepy guy that was hugging himself while he skated. We were also the only adults hanging onto the side of the rink for the first few times around the ice. No shame.

Jake can skate! So proud!

Quote of the day: "If I were a better skater, I would totally be ice dancing to this song!" -Jake

We had so much fun and will definitely make a return trip.

The Royal Birthday #27

2011-05-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Monday marked my 27 years of life. So old. Jake worked hard to make me feel like Cinderella/Princess Kate. I woke up the morning of May 2nd to find this:

What more could a girl ask for? He definitely spoils me. For dinner we went to Jole, a farm to table restaurant in Calistoga. It was SO delicious, but they definitely focus on quality over quantity so if you go there then plan on having a snack before or after.

On the Saturday before my b-day my in-laws took us to the Blue Wing Saloon at the Tallman Hotel. We were able to take a tour of the hotel after dinner and it was beautiful! It's only about 2o minutes from our house, but I want to go stay there for the weekend. After dinner and the tour we went to play Bingo. No winners, but it was fun.

I received many wonderful gifts from friends and family, but I only took pictures of the items found in a flat rate box from my mom. She spoiled me too.

The Dexter book and t-shirt were from my sister. She'll definitely want credit for these awesome gifts ;)

It was a wonderful b-day thanks so all of my friends and family. They're pretty much the best ever.

Zulu, Jake, & Bubbles

2011-04-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sacramento flowers & an orange tree

2011-04-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Most Pathetic Menu Monday

2011-04-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

We hardly ate any meals at home this weekend. It was a lot of fun to socialize and eat out with friends and family, but the bank account is none to pleased with our restaurant adventures!

Monday:
stuffed bell peppers and mashed potatoes

Tuesday:
fish tacos

Wednesday:
sushi in Ukiah with our friend Jill and her co-worker

Thursday:
mexican place in Vacaville with Jake's employee. I had Thursday off so I drove down with Jake and his worker bee. They worked and I shopped at the outlet mall.

Friday:
dinner in Lakeport for Jake's cousin's b-day

Saturday:
Easter potluck at Jake's uncle's house. I took tabouli inspired quinoa

Sunday:
Brunch in Cobb with Jake's dad and step family

Dinner in Sacramento! I'm willing to bet that Jake had chips and salsa for dinner. We made some AMAZING salsa today, but I didn't take pictures. We'll make it again soon though and I'll be sure to document.

P.S. my stomach is definitely feeling the effects of my tremendously non vegan eating habits this week!

Sacramento

2011-04-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

I'm in Sacramento for a few days this week for work!

I'm staying in the Capitol Park/Midtown area and I LOVE it! It's so pretty and there are so many quirky little shops and eateries.

I went to a Triple D restaurant, The Golden Bear, for dinner tonight. I got a sandwich to go and it was delicious. It's really more of a bar than a restaurant. They have a very tiny menu, but everything on it sounded delicious.

It's also right across the street from a vegan place that I want to try, but it's not open on Sundays or Mondays and I'm leaving Tuesday. I'll try to squeeze it in, but if not then I'll save it for another trip.

Menu Monday

2011-04-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Monday:
white bean and avocado wasabi salad

Tuesday:
ordered pizza

Wednesday:
pineapple and cashew quinoa

Thursday:
split pea soup and lemon and dill roasted potatoes

Friday:
2 seven layer burritos from Taco Bell (minus the sour cream and cheese...still vegan!)

Saturday:
leftover soup

Sunday:
Lunch: leftover potatoes with peppers and "cheese"

Dinner: spinach and pea baked risotto with olive asparagus

Sunday blog meal: pickled mangoes

I was also extra productive on Sunday and made a big pot of beans and a large batch of rice to use in recipes throughout the week!

Spring Time Splurges

2011-04-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

I ran a bunch of errands yesterday and decided to treat myself to a few spring time things.

The flowers were on sale for $5 at the grocery store and the dish towels were only $1.99 a piece at K-mart!

I picked up two of these rugs at K-mart. They were on sale for only $5.49 a piece! It's a good thing they were so cheap because Zulu has decided to chew them up. Yeah, it's been a rough day in Zulu land. Not only did she decide to ruin the rug, but she also knocked over a table by the front door, thus breaking a hurricane vase filled with potpourri and the cake topper from our wedding. The bride's arm broke off, as well as the grooms head. I can't find the head though so I guess I won't be gluing it back together. She spent a while in time out after that little incident.

I also did a 5k run yesterday. I don't normally like 5k's because they're such a short distance and when you're a slow runner like myself, they just seem kinda silly to run. This one served donuts though and started just down the street from our house so I really couldn't pass it up.

It was totally worth the donut and the shirt with donuts on it though. I think all races should serve donuts. Or tacos. I would totally be up for a taco 10k.

Menu Monday

2011-04-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start a weekly "Menu Monday" post. I realize I already have a food blog, but since so much of my time is spent cooking, I think I this blog deserves some food time as well. I'll be recapping the previous weeks menu and I will gladly share any recipe upon request.

Monday:
Stuffed zucchini, white bean and sun dried tomato dip, and pita chips

Tuesday:
Italian white bean dish, asparagus with vegan alfredo sauce, and fruit salad
Wednesday:
Dan Dan noodles and salad with homemade miso dressing

Thursday: (aka: I don't want to cook day)
Buffalo "chicken" wings, mashed potatoes and salad with homemade honey mustard dressing

Friday:
Dinner out

Saturday:
chips and Whole Foods guacamole for dinner. No picture ;)

Sunday:
Picnic sandwiches and green bean salad (featured on the other blog)

Salvation Army (again)

2011-04-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

It seems like I was just at the Salvation Army, but it was actually over a month ago. And we had other things to do in the area so I didn't travel over an hour just to go to the Salvation Army again. This experience at the SA was a bit different than most. We (I) usually find a ton of items that are super awesome and super cheap. Well this time we just got the "super awesome" part down.

Jake is actually the one to be credited with finding this item though, so let's blame him. He showed me this poster and I fell in love with it (he was already head over heals). Then I saw the price tag and it was one of those moments when you think "This has got to be a misprint. We're at the Salvation Army and this is a 3o year old poster. Why on earth is it that expensive?!" Well Jake pulled out his handy dandy smart phone and looked up comparable items on the internet. He said the few he found were about $40 more than the one we had in our hands. Still, unable to bite the bullet, we held onto this thing for about an hour while walking around and looking at other things. Finally, it was time to go and a decision needed to be made. We weighed the pros and cons. Pro: It's awesome. Con: It's expensive. But then I rationalized that this could be my birthday present (about a month early). And it was settled. Poster purchased.

It fits perfectly in our living room. I think our dreams of living is Sonoma County one day fueled our love of this poster. We actually found 1979 and 1980's posters later in the day at an antique store, but they were damaged and not framed so we kept our wallets in our pockets and continued walking.

I did find one cheap item at the SA though, this little painting that I put in the bathroom.

And a bit closer....

This is actually just a print, not a real painting, but I am so in love with it. I don't like the frame one bit, but it's one of those pictures with a paper backing so it would be a pain to change. I might try to paint over it though at some point.

I really want to design a wedding around this painting and my blue mason jars. Anyone want a free wedding designer?

Too Cute for Words

2011-04-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

Triple D, Half Moon Bay & San Fran

2011-04-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Before we left for San Jose I looked up all of the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives in the area and found 3. We only managed to go to one, but it was really good. I don't think I've seen the episode with this restaurant, but Jake thinks he's seen it. We both had falafels and shared a hummus plate. The hummus some of the best I've ever had. After lunch we headed to Half Moon Bay. We didn't stay long, but we did get out of the car to stretch our legs and enjoy the ocean views. We then continued our journey to San Francisco. We met up with our friend Tim and went to his brother's rooftop to enjoy some drinks. His brother wasn't home, but his fiance (who also lives there) joined us when she got off of work so we weren't really trespassing ;) They have the most amazing view of the city. I'm so jealous. We headed home after hanging out for a bit and concluded our 2 day, middle of the work week, adventure.

Winchester Mystery House

2011-04-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you've seen this on television. Or maybe you've seen a brochure in the lobby of any hotel in the Bay area (the house is in San Jose). Or maybe you have no idea what the Winchester Mystery House is all about. Well allow me to explain....

Sarah Winchester was the wife of the heir to the Winchester Rifles fortune. Apparently these guns were a big deal during the Civil War. I really don't know anything about guns so I'm not going to elaborate. Sarah and her husband had a baby. It only lived 6 weeks though and she was obviously devastated by the loss of her child. A few years later her husband died of tuberculosis so then she was really, really devastated. She went to a psychic that told her all of these bad things were happening because the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles were angry and trying to get back at her. The only way to get the spirits to chill out was to move out west and build a house. But she couldn't just build a house, she had to always be building a house, as in adding on, not just building a bunch of different homes.

So that's what she did. She built and built and built. She also made the house really odd with stairs that lead to nowhere, doors that open to walls, and such a confusing layout that she had to give maps to all of her new servants so that they wouldn't get lost.

I could go on and on, but I don't want to ruin the tour for those of you that might go one day.

Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the house so you'll have to enjoy a lot of exterior photos.

Waiting for the tour to start

One of the most amazing things about the house is all the stained glass. It was all over the place and it was all made by Tiffany Co. and shipped from New York. I told Jake that he never needs to buy me any Tiffany jewelry if he can promise to build me a home one day filled with Tiffany stained glass.

Here are my two tips for the tour:

1. If Wayne is your tour guide, then ask to go on a different tour. This guy was crazy! He had a psychotic laugh and he laughed a lot at his jokes that didn't make sense. I wish that I could put into words how weird this guy was, but I just can't. On second thought, maybe you should go and request that he be your guide so that you can understand what I'm talking about.

2. For an extra 5 dollars you can take an additional "Behind the Scenes" tour. It's definitely worth the 5 dollars. They take you all over the grounds and into the basement.

I thought the $35 price tag was a bit much for a tour, but we were there for over 2 hours. We learned so much and had a lot of fun so it was definitely worth the price.

A Little Piece of Home

2011-04-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

When I was in 9th grade the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup. The playoffs were a huge deal and everyone got really into the sport, including myself. My best friend pointed out a Stars player that she thought was really cute. His name was Mike Modano. And the obsession began. My friend and I watched pretty much every game and drooled over Mike's face. We were fortunate enough to go to a few games during our high school years and we often wore specially made shirts or took big signs with the hope that we'd end up on the Jumbo Tron. The sign that made us famous? "Melanie and Megan love Modano and Morrow (Morrow was our second favorite player)"

Hockey was a big part of our lives. Some of my most memorable life experiences include Dallas Stars hockey. One of them was when we stood in line for hours at a sporting good store to meet Mike and have him sign pictures. We were so in love. I'm pretty sure we said less than 5 words to him, but we did get a picture taken. It was awesome. The second big event occurred after a Stars practice. They occasionally had practices that were open to the public so we went and watched one. After the practice some of the players hung around to autograph things. I happened to have a shirt that said "I heart Morrow" and held it out for him to sign. The adorable smile on his face when he saw it was priceless. He signed the heart ;)

During some point when I was in college, the NHL players went on strike and we went a whole year without hockey. However, some of the NHL players went to play for minor league teams so they could stay in shape and continue playing. Being the lucky girl that I am, Brenden Morrow played for the minor league team in Oklahoma City, about an hour from where I went to school. My roommate (a fellow Stars fan) and I went to see him play. To prove our obsession even more, my roommate and I decorated an entire hallway in our apt when Stars memorabilia.

After college Jake and I moved to Las Vegas and I was no longer able to watch my beloved team until the post season rolled around and the games became nationally televised. They haven't been doing so well the past few years though and weren't exactly big players in the post season. I really haven't kept up with them and I honestly know of two players on the team that were around when I originally became obsessed. One of them is Brenden Morrow.

And a couple of weeks ago when Jake announced that he'd scored free tickets to the San Jose Sharks game, I flipped out. Why would I want to see the Sharks play? Because they were playing the Dallas Stars!

We made plans to go see the game, stay the night in San Jose and then do some more fun things the next day before heading home. I made a sign the day before and hoped that it would bring my team some good luck.

It did NOT bring good luck. In fact, it was probably the worst game I've ever seen the Stars play. The score was 6-0. I was sooooo disappointed that I was never able to jump up and down, wave my sign around and scream in excitement after scoring a goal. I'd waited so long for this, and they let me down. Don't worry though, I'm not about to switch my loyalty to the Sharks. They will always be one of my most hated teams.

However, I do have to give the fans some major credit. I'd heard some horror stories in the days leading up to the game that Sharks fans were crazy and they were sure to heckle the lone Stars fan in the crowd. As it turns out, I had nothing to be scared of. They were so incredibly nice. Several people smiled when they saw my sign and some even commented that the liked the sign.

Alright, enough chatting, here are the rest of the pictures.....P.S. Brenden Morrow is number 10. I went a little paparazzi on him.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. We had AMAZING seats. Center ice, row 6.

Stay tuned for more of our fun adventures in the bay area...

Syd's New Habit & Zu's Seat Belt

2011-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Unattended drinking glasses are not safe in this house. Sydney has taken to drinking out of any that are left behind. If it weren't so cute, then I would be highly irritated that I have to use several new glasses a day now.

mmm...I'm so thirsty. That silly puppy drinks all of my water so I must do whatever it takes to survive.

What? I shouldn't be drinking out of your glass?

We recently invested in a puppy seat belt for Zulu. She can now cruise around safely and in style.

Yippee! Dad is taking me for a drive!

Little does he know...I'm going to pee in the seat before we make it back home! Hehehe

Pear Festival Poster Entry

2011-03-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Remember when I talked about taking pictures for a painting I was going to do? Well, I finally finished it! Just in time too...the deadline to enter the poster contest is April 1st.

I'm excited to drop this off and be done with it. As much as I enjoy painting, I really haven't had the energy to work on this very much. Somebody (some puppy) has been keeping me up all night and working on this has been kind of low on my list of priorities. But now I can veg out in front of the television every night and not feel guilty. Actually, I have a couple other craft projects to work on so I'm sure I'll stay busy. Cross your fingers for me!

Napa Valley Trail Run

2011-03-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

This was my first trail run, well unless you count the old high school cross country days, but I can tell you with confidence: cross country was NOT the same. I had visions of running down dirt paths in a state park, but this was no "dirt path" running. This was hiking up a mountain and occasionally jogging on parts of the path that were safe enough to do so. It was awesome.

I ran the 10k, but they also had a marathon and a half marathon going on. I have NO idea how anyone could complete this half marathon, much less the full marathon, but they did and I was impressed.

It has been raining cats and dogs the past few weeks and most of the course involved running through several inches of mud. I cannot believe that I didn't fall down, though I came close more than once. There were also fallen trees to climb over and raging streams and rivers to cross. One was so extreme that people partnered up and held hands while crossing. I've definitely never needed to hold hands with someone during a race before. But the thing is, this wasn't really a "race". It was pretty impossible to pass people during most of it because the path was so narrow. But even if you could pass people, you probably wouldn't need or want to. It was nice to have people in front to guide the way. Also, nobody worries about how long it takes to finish because it's impossible to compare to any other race. While some road races are more challenging than others, it's completely different than hiking up a mountain and dealing with so many obstacles.

I loved running this thing and I can't wait to do another. Unfortunately, most of these races only allow for a couple hundred people and the ones within a two hour radius of where I live have already filled up so I might have to wait until next year to do another one. I'll definitely be on the lookout though.

Don't let this paved path fool you. This was the end of the race and only a small portion was paved.

I bought these shoes specifically for this race because they are made for trail running. I might need to clean them off a bit before the next race.

My Baby is 5!

2011-03-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we don't actually know when her birthday is, but we got her about 4 years ago and the adoption company told us she was about a year old. My mom and I just recently decided that her birthday should be 3-21. I can't believe we've had her 4 years! She is such a wonderful little baby and my heart aches for her as she learns to adjust to the crazy puppy that's running around her domain. Although I selfishly want the puppy to calm down for my own sake, I desperately want her to calm down for Sydney's too. I miss the days when it was just the three of us. She would excitedly greet us at the door all the time and constantly climb up to the couch so we could love on her. Now she has to retreat to puppy free areas and cautiously moves around when she goes from one place to the next.

I know it will get better and I truly believe that one day they will be good friends, but until that day comes, I will continue to give her special attention and extra cat treats for putting up with crazy Zulu.Her grandma sent her special treats for her b-day: wet cat food and a pretty collar!

Sorry it's blurry. She was inhaling her food and wouldn't stay still, but it's the same collar that my mom's puppy has!

2nd Annual Olive Festival

2011-03-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

You might remember when we went to the Olive Festival last year. We had a great time and found some yummy treats so we were really excited to go this year. Again, they didn't have many olives, but they had several types of olive oil. We had fun testing all the varieties. However, we made the mistake of purchasing one of the first ones we tried and then later found one we REALLY wanted, but we were all out of cash. We'll know better next time.

Here is our loot: We purchased two types of bread, spicy garlic, and garlic infused olive oil.

The red peppers in there were quite hot. Not habanero hot, but still quite spicy. They gave me hiccups.

Puppy Pictures

2011-03-13T15:06:00.001-07:00

I'm sure you all (mom) have been missing pictures of Zulu the past couple of weeks. I finally got around to snapping a few of her yesterday. She's growing more and more every day. We had her spade almost 2 weeks ago and she will be going to the vet on Wednesday to have her stitches removed.

She's been quite the rascal lately. She's improving in some aspects and getting worse in others. She's more calm around the house and while we are constantly telling her "no" and shaking a can of change (the loud noise gets her to stop), she is getting much better at being out of her cubby and just hanging out around the house. She's asleep on the floor as I type this.

One thing that is actually getting worse is her sleeping habits. A few weeks ago she was only getting up once during the night and occasionally sleeping all the way through. Not so much anymore. She now wakes up at 3:00 or 4:00 and goes out to potty. Then she'll sleep for about an hour or so before deciding that it's time to get up. She barks off an on until we finally wake up and let her out. Actually getting up is tricky though. We don't want her to think we're getting up because she's barking so we have to wait for a lull in between the barks before we can get up and start our day at around 5:00 am. I usually get up between 5:30 and 6:00 anyway, but the barking is really taking a toll. We've been super exhausted lately due to our lack of sleep. I think we're going to start keeping ear plugs next to the bed.

She is still so cute though and very sweet so I guess we'll keep her around. Just look at that face!

My Current Favorite Anthro Items

2011-03-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of my favorite things from my favorite store. I'll definitely be checking the clearance section for these items in the future. It's a really good think that I live two hours from the nearest Anthropologie.

Winking Wisecracker Jar

Spiral Vine Curtain

If...Then Pillow

Dream Menagerie Rug

Flamenco Shower Curtain

Weekend Review

2011-03-06T14:58:00.000-08:00

We had really exciting plans this weekend to go to Alameda. We were going to go to a huge flea market that they have the first Sunday of each month, the pinball museum, and a Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives location, but then we saw that rain was in the forecast for today. I'm assuming that rainy flea markets are not super fun so we changed our plans and decided our day of fun would be moved to Saturday and instead of Alameda we went to Santa Rosa.

I had to get some new running shoes and I needed some more vegan margarine from Whole Foods. My vegan margarine shopping turned into my weekly shopping trip though. I just couldn't resist all of the pretty organic vegetables!

On our way down to SR we stopped at the Salvation Army and I found a lot of goodies.

From left to right: Adidas running pants, American Eagle sweater, skirt from Talbots, Banana Republic tank top, khaki pants from Express, and a sweater from St. Johns.

I also found this cute bird picture. I have a huge thing for birds in terms of home decor, but I really really don't like birds in real life. They scare me. They just seem so unpredictable and could attack at any time.

Guess how much all of this cost? $30.75!!! Yep, awesome. This made me feel less guilty about all the money I spent on running shoes and Whole Foods groceries ;) Speaking of food, go to http://blazingburners.wordpress.com/ later today (mom still has to post her results) to see our latest dish: Three Spiced Potatoes

Saturday Night Crafting

2011-02-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

Last night I spent a couple (okay, almost 4) hours making this fun wreath. I was inspired by something I saw on a blog a while back. I wish I could remember which one, but I read too many of them. I purchased a plain foam wreath and wrapped it in knitting yarn. Then I cut out felt pieces and made some paper flowers to glue onto the wreath. I did not make the solid color flowers. Those were purchased separately.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would and it didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned it, but I'm still pleased with the results. I think it would be cute to make holiday themed ones to hang throughout the year.

Happy Saturday

2011-02-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

From my kitty that has taken to hiding on top of the cabinets. She really doesn't like the puppy!

She retreats from her hiding place by sliding down the front of the cabinets. It's really cute, but I feel so sorry for her :(

Serious Snow

2011-02-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

Last week was exciting because we had a dusting of snow that was unexpected. Well today the snow was a tad more extreme.

Last week:

This week:

Most of it has already melted, but it was so pretty this morning. I stood outside when it was early and still pretty dark and just watched the snow fall. It was so peaceful. I'm done with it now though. Spring needs to arrive asap.

Weird Weather Week

2011-02-20T19:32:00.001-08:00

So Monday through Wednesday it rained. A lot. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, at about 4:45, it started snowing! Now snow in Lake County isn't unheard of. We're surrounded by mountains and those can get quite snowy in the winter, but I think it's fairly unusual for us to get snow in this part of town. The snow only lasted about 20 minutes or so, but it was an unexpected and delightful surprise. Some areas of Lake County got several inches and many of the schools were closed on Thursday and Friday.

The same thing happened on Friday night, but it was later in the night and we got a little more than the first time. It was pretty much all gone by Saturday morning though. I had hopes of waking up and building a snowman, but it just didn't happen. More rain is in the forecast though so perhaps it will turn to snow again and my snowman dreams will come true.

And since I can't go an entire week without a Zulu picture, here's one of her resting in her cubby the other day.

It's Sunday so don't forget to check the other blog for our latest cooking endeavor. It's a yummy one!

I married the perfect man

2011-02-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

During a discussion about when we should give Zulu her new dog treats (aka when we want to keep her quiet for a few minutes).

Me: Definitely during dinner.

Jake: Yeah, for sure.

Me: And during The Bachelor!

Jake: YES!!! There's what, like 8 weeks left?

Me: No, only like 2 :(

Jake: PLUS THE REUNION SPECIAL!

Yes, Jake watches The Bachelor with me. And no, I don't tie him to the sofa or threaten him with any weapons. He enjoys it. You should have seen us the other night. We were watching our recorded episode from Monday and waiting for the elimination. It was down to 2 girls. One we like and one we HATE. When it was announced that the one we hate was being eliminated we both let out the loudest screams of excitement. It scared the pets (and probably the neighbors).

I still can't get him to watch any of The Real Houswives though. He gets too stressed out by those shows.

Puppy's First Hike

2011-02-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took Zulu on her first hike! It was also our first hike in a very long time. The weather was wonderful and we had a great time. We hiked for almost two hours (that included frequent stops though because Zulu has an extremely short attention span). She was exhausted by the end of it though and her daddy had to carry her. It was ridiculously cute.

I didn't take my fancy camera with me because I was unsure of what the terrain would be like and I tend to trip a lot. It actually wasn't bad at all though and I was a little disappointed that I'd left it at home. I had my little camera with me though so we could document our outing.

Awwwww. True love. Oh yeah, speaking of love, happy Valentine's Day and 7th anniversary of our first date!

Not JUST a craft room anymore...

2011-02-13T14:28:00.001-08:00

Remember when this was MY craft room??

Well, it's evolved into a craft/exercise/music room.

Jake's aunt and uncle gave us their old elliptical machine a few months ago. It's been a lifesaver during these winter months when the mornings have been too dark, cold, foggy, or rainy. Oh yeah, and see that thing right behind the elliptical? That's my beloved rug that belongs in the living room. I have hope that it will return to its original spot in a few more weeks once the puppy is potty trained.

And this is the music side. Too many guitar cases!!! Actually, only two of them are Jake's. The other two belong to Jake's step dad and we're trying to sell them on ebay.

This room is way too small to have 3 different functions, but we're making it work. If you want to come visit us and stay in this room then we're going to need some advance notice so we can clear out enough space for an air mattress.

This is how I spent my afternoon yesterday. Most of these are really old pictures and mementos because newer ones are in scrapbooks or other frames hanging in the house. It makes me smile whenever I walk into the room.

Our Poor Baby...

2011-02-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

So I've been complaining to everyone I know that Zulu has been having a ridiculous number of accidents inside the house and that she's been keeping us up all night since Wed or Thurs of last week. Well apparently she has a bladder infection (we think).

And now I feel like a bad mom...

Last night we were in the living room discussing her numerous accidents and Jake said "maybe she has a bladder infection." He looked up the symptoms online and she seemed to have most of them.

He took her to the vet today and they had to sedate her in order to get a urine sample. I'm a little unsure as to why this was necessary because she typically goes potty after just a few minutes of playing, but they did what they needed to do I guess. They said that in order to be 100% sure of what she has, they'd need to send a culture to be tested. That was going to be a lot of extra $$ so Jake opted to just go ahead and get the antibiotic the vet prescribed.

She didn't have a fever or any other severe symptoms so hopefully it's just a bladder infection and will clear up in a few days.

I think I might look into finding a new vet after this though. The simple procedure of sedating her and then giving her an IV was quite pricey. I really have no experience in this sort of thing so I'm not sure how much it should cost, but I feel like it was a bit extreme. Also, the office we go to has 2 or 3 different vets and I'd prefer for her to only have one. AND when Jake went to take her for her booster shots a few weeks ago he said the nurse that administered them was rude.

As I'm typing these things, it's making me realize even more that we need to find someone else! She's getting fixed and micro chipped next week. Perhaps we should do some research before that.

And here's a picture of my sedated little pup. Jake brought her to my office on their way home.

Chirp, Chirp, Chirp

2011-02-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

As you might know, I'm pretty obsessed with our Chirp China by Lenox, even though I just pulled it out of the boxes a couple of weeks ago.

So imagine my excitement when we went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday in search of a new comforter and we stumbled upon this:

"Chirp" bedding from BBB

Now, I'm not usually one for having everything be matchy-matchy, but I couldn't resist this purchase. Besides, it's not like we eat dinner in bed, so I don't think there will be too much "Chirp" in the house. Also, the blues in the bedding are actually quite a bit different than the blue from our china so if you're not me, and I wasn't broadcasting it on this blog, then you might never connect the dots that they are all from the same line.

We already owned these 3 throw pillows. They fit perfectly with the new bedspread!

And since I thought I should tie in some more blue into the room, I changed out some of my wall hangings from this:

to this:

They are from the 2011 OSU program calendar that my mom gave to Jake. My grandparents gave me the 2010 one last year. He hadn't hung it up yet, so I got permission to tear out the pages for the greater good of our bedroom. One day I'd like to do an entire wall of these things. They're so fun and colorful.

Pink Phone, Favorite Toy, and Pet Pics For My Mom

2011-02-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

Jake's phone cover broke the other day. He went to the Verizon store to get a new one, but the only color they had was pink. Most guys would try another store or wait until a new shipment came in, but not Jake. He needed a phone cover and was totally fine with a pink one. I love him for this.

This is Zulu's favorite toy. Her grandma and grandpa sent it to her a couple weeks ago. She wants to play for OSU when she grows up.

And here are your weekly Zulu pics. She's growing like a weed! She has her good days and she has her tremendously awful days, but I can never stay mad at her too long because of her adorable face. I just take my anger out on the person who purchased her without my permission ;)

We can't leave out Meow Meow (aka Sydney). She's still very upset with the puppy and with us for bringing the puppy into her world. She no longer greets us at the door when we come in and her "meows" have lessened, but she still snuggles up next to me at night so I know she still loves me.

Perfect Pesto

2011-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, I swear that I'll try to keep the food posts for this blog, but I had brag about my first ever attempt at pesto making.

I've been so scared to try it, but it's just about the easiest thing in the world to make! Who knew?

Here's what I did:

1. Threw 3 cloves of garlic (only use this much if you love garlic as much as I do) and pulsed away in the food processor.
2. Threw a dash of salt in too
3. Tossed in 1 1/2 cups of basil, 3 tablespoons of pine nuts and turned on the processor until it was thick and paste like
4. Poured 1/3 cup of olive oil in as I continued to process
5. The end

It was so much better than the store brand! And basil isn't the cheapest herb on the block, but it's definitely cheaper to make this pesto than to buy it.

Kale Chips

2011-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

Nothing like regular chips, but I didn't really expect them to be so I still liked them. I've been meaning to try these for a long time, but my Safeway never has regular kale so you can imagine my excitement when I spotted it the other day. I made them as soon as I returned home from the store.

Here's how you can make your own:

1. Heat oven to 350
2. Get a bunch of kale
3. Wash it
4. Trim leafy parts off the vein it's attached to
5. Pull out your salad spinner that you received as a wedding present because your husband, who thought it was a necessity, put it on your Bed Bath and Beyond registry
6. Dust off the salad spinner (because it has NEVER been used)
7. Have your eager husband assist in the spinning process

8. Remove from spinner and pat dry with a towel (it has to be super, super dry)
9. Toss with olive oil and seasoning of your choice

10. Place on parchment paper lined baking tray
11. Bake for 10-15 minutes (don't let them brown, they'll taste bitter)

12. Enjoy!

Day at the Coast

2011-01-30T16:34:00.000-08:00

Jake needed to look at a job he's doing in Fort Bragg so we loaded up the car and took Zulu on her first trip to the ocean! It was quite the adventure trying to get there because she got sick twice during the two hour car ride. She had a wonderful time upon her arrival to the beach though. She loved running in the sand! The water was pretty cold though so she wasn't too fond of that.

San Diego

2011-01-29T06:21:00.000-08:00

I had such a wonderful time in San Diego! I went for a work conference, but had plenty of time for other fun activities.

I woke up early on Wednesday morning to go running. It was during my run that I decided I needed to move to San Diego. I was going to call Jake to tell him about my plans, but instead, I just texted him this picture I snapped while running.

After the conference on Wednesday I met up with Jake's cousin. We had dinner downtown and then went to her house to meet her HUGE (but very sweet) dog. We had a lot of fun.

The conference was only half the day on Thursday so I had one of my friends pick me up as soon as it was over. He was my tour guide for the afternoon. I'd actually been to most of the places on previous trips to San Diego, but it's been a few years and everything was worth seeing again. We started with lunch at Tender Greens, an organic restaurant. We then went to Coronado and walked around. We went to the ferry landing, the Del Mar Hotel, and walked on the beach. It wasn't until Thursday afternoon that I regretted not taking my nice camera. Luckily I had my little one though so I was still able to get some pictures.

Next we headed to Balboa Park and walked around. We went into a couple museums and just enjoyed being outside in the beautiful weather.

We then headed to Old Town to walk around and then stopped for a couple drinks.

My eyes are closed in this picture, but it's the only one I have from Old Town, so pretend I look awesome.

Our last stop was El Indio for dinner. This was pretty much the reason I came to San Diego, well besides the conference I guess. I've written about it before. I picked up a bag of chips and wrapped up my San Diego trip. We left on Friday morning.

I want to go back right now.

Gifts Galore

2011-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

I'm headed for San Diego today to attend a conference for work, but I wanted to show off some items I purchased that will go in a gift basket. Each office was asked to bring items from their area and they will be put into baskets and then auctioned off.

Bottom row from left to right: Dish towel, book that Jake's grandma wrote, outdoor thermometer, pear cookbook, bottle of wine inside a wine bag, top row: word game in a little pear bag, Lake County walnuts, Lake County honey, and a magnet.

I had a lot of fun finding things around town. I mean, who wouldn't want to shop with someone else's money during their work day?!

Speaking of gifts, I received a package from my mom yesterday. You know how she loves those flat rate boxes! Here's what was inside:

Cooking ingredients that I couldn't find at my local grocery store, cat treats and a toy mouse for Sydney, Girl Scout cookies, two of the best Rice Krispy treats known to man, and a bag of homemade heart cookies. Not pictured: An OSU collar for Zulu and a little OSU football for her to play with. I'll get pictures of those later. She was already wearing the collar and playing with the football when I took this picture. Both of the pets love their treats and want to thank their grandma. We're also thankful for our treats!

Email Conversation

2011-01-24T18:12:00.000-08:00

Jake: Pat just brought in his new baby and it is so cute! It has the bluest eyes.

Me: Awww, I want to see the baby!

Jake: You can’t look at any babies for a couple of years.

Me: well you can't look at any more puppies

Jake: NO PROBLEM!!!

Weekly Puppy Pictures

2011-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

I can't get over how much she's grown since she came to live with us. She's getting huge! I'm a little sad she's growing so quickly, but I'm looking forward to the days of freedom when she's potty trained, doesn't bite and will sit quietly while we love on her. Oh, and it would be great if we could make it through a night without getting up 3 times to take her outside...

Busy Weekend

2011-01-23T16:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of everything we've accomplished this weekend:

Saturday-

Gave Zulu a bath

Went to Ukiah (to Michael's to pick up some craft supplies and then to Quizno's for lunch)

Stopped by Safeway on the way home to pick up a bunch of pears

Went to take pictures in a pear orchard. Maybe I should explain all this "pear" talk. I'm going to enter a painting in the poster contest for the Pear Festival, but I needed some inspiration.

Went home because I got a brilliant idea of what I wanted to do for my painting, but it required a wardrobe change.

Took Zulu on another walk

(more Zulu pics will be up tomorrow)

Went to the in-law's house to pick up some memorabilia from my father in law. He's hired me to sell some items on Ebay.

Went back to the grocery store to do the regular grocery shopping. I didn't have my list with me when we went for the pears and it was ridiculously busy at that time so I'm glad I didn't attempt to get everything we needed.

Came home, made dinner, and then I think I just watched television the rest of the night while messing with itunes/ipod

Sunday-

Went for a run and then walked Zulu

Jake hung some pictures

Cleaned the house. We also went through cabinets and got rid of a bunch of stuff. This was a major undertaking and Jake is still putting stuff away in the garage.

I made my meal for the other blog

And now I need to take the puppy for another walk, finish the laundry, then figure out how to post items on Ebay

I would be sad that Monday is almost here, but I'm leaving on Tuesday for San Diego (work conference) so I'm kind of excited for the week to begin.

Park Photos

2011-01-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

I managed to snap a few non puppy photos when we took Zulu to the park the other day. It's rare to have a sunny day during the winter so I thought it was necessary to document the sunshine and other fine scenery. I don't really have anything against summer, fall or winter, but I absolutely love spring time and I'm anxiously awaiting the return of all the foliage.

Puppy in the Park

2011-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

* Disclaimer: Yes, I realize this blog is ALLLL about our new puppy, but she completely dominates our life right now so I have very little to write about. Once she is more trained and we can leave her on her own for longer periods of time, then I might have more to write about. But until then, just enjoy her adorable little face!

We took Zulu on her first trip to the state park on Sunday. We've had unseasonably warm temps the past few days and we took full advantage. Zulu had a wonderful time and I'm excited for our next trips (which won't be too often because it's $8 each time you enter the park).

Blog #2

2011-01-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

Hi readers! Please check out the new blog that my mom and I have started.

http://blazingburners.wordpress.com/

It's a food blog that will focus on vegan cooking. I'm no chef, but my mom is a wonderful cook so I'm sure you'll see some pretty amazing things.

The goal is for my mom and I to choose a new recipe each week to make (hopefully on the same day). We'll then post our results on the blog. Hers will likely turn out better than mine, but I'm sure I'll be able to provide readers with some humor from my failed attempts.

I'm sure we'll convince my sister to join in on occasion, but she's off at school having fun, I mean working hard, so she probably won't have as much time to devote to the task.

P.S. Don't be scared of the vegan thing, I swear some of the food is really good!

Random Tidbits of Information

2011-01-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

* I got bored yesterday and signed Jake and I up for 2 races (with his approval and promise to actually train for them...we'll see)

Bay to Breakers 12k (about 7.5 miles) in San Fran. This race is a HUGE deal and it's the centennial race so it's bound to be extra cool. People dress up and go crazy. Alcohol used to be a big part of the race, but I think they're starting to crack down on that so it might not be too wild this year. I personally don't know how people can drink and run 7.5 miles, but to each their own I suppose.

Napa Valley Trail 10k This race has a marathon, half marathon and a 10k. It's my first trail run since my high school cross country days so I thought I'd take it easy with the shortest distance offered.

* I'm probably going to sign up for the Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon when registration opens. This is the one I wanted to do last year, but was full by the time I went to register so I ended up doing another one in Healdsburg.

Each time I'm running a half marathon I swear to myself that it's my last one. I don't know why I keep doing them! Still haven't gotten the urge to run another full marathon though.

* I'm going to San Diego later this month for a work conference and I'm so excited!

* I received a box of Christmas decorations from my mom yesterday. I got a few of them as gifts for Christmas and others were purchased at after Christmas sales when we were in TX. I guess all of them were gifts because my mom spoiled me and bought everything for me. See the item on the far left? That's the table runner from World Market that I wanted earlier in December. I found it for 50% off AND it was the last one in the store! And some of the ornaments are the ones from Anthropologie that I almost bought online before Christmas.

1st Anniversary Gifts

2011-01-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Jacob gave me my anniversary gift on Christmas (just a few months past Sept. 19th) but the wait was worth it!

He made me a drawing of things that we've done/things that remind him of me. He put so many hours into this thing and it's one of the best gifts I've ever received.

I gave him a photo album filled of pictures from our first year of marriage. Had I known that his gift was going to be so spectacular then I might have tried to make it fancier ;)

We're going to try to follow the traditional anniversary gifts just for fun. This year was paper and next year is cotton. I should probably start thinking of ideas now...

More Pet Photos

2011-01-09T16:26:00.000-08:00

Nobody is going to get tired of seeing these, right? Okay great. I'll continue to post then....

Zulu has been with us for a little over a week now and I feel like I have a newborn and a toddler all in one. Not that I know what that actually feels like, but she's definitely a handful! She's so cute though so it's hard to get too upset over the loss of sleep and energy. But honestly, if children are MORE work than this, then I'm not sure I'll ever give birth.

Well, unless I can be guaranteed that the baby will turn out as cute as this:

She has something in her mouth at ALL times. And today she discovered the litter box...Oh, AND she doesn't mind the taste of bitter apple spray so that's been useless to us. Today I accidentally got some of it in my mouth and wow, it is GROSS. I don't know how she can stand it. But I guess if the litter box contents don't phase her, then why should this?

Poor Sydney, she still doesn't know what to think. I feel so bad for her. Zulu has gotten brave enough to chase Sydney around. And sometimes she'll do this thing where she gets right in front of her and basically jumps up and down. It's like she's taunting her with an "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you" act. They are definitely siblings.

Mom, I'm tiiiiired of that dog and all her antics!

Family Pics

2011-01-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

Remember when I said that my sister hired her bff, Sara Gillespie, to take pictures of us for my mom? Well, we have the pictures back and they are really cute. You should hire her to take pictures of you too. Here are my favorites:

Next time we take pictures I'm going to require my sister to do my hair and makeup because she's obviously the prettiest one in these pictures and that's just not fair ;)

Also, this is my 300th blog post! That's something to celebrate, right? Let's have a party.

Speaking of random parties... I once had a b-day party for one of my dolls, Molly. The neighborhood kids came. We had snacks and some people even brought gifts. It was awesome.

Texas Pets

2011-01-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show off all of our pets in Texas. They are a big reason I miss being there. They're pretty much the best pets in the world (tied with ours of course).

The newest addition: Gilbert Grape. He's pretty wild and has to go to time out a lot, but I think my parents will keep him around.

Bridget: We think one of our neighbors moved away and left her behind. She started visiting our backyard a lot and we started leaving food and water out for her. My parents eventually caved and invited her inside. She's super sweet.

Hannah: Jake and I rescued her in Oklahoma from a sketchy guy that lived across the street from Jake. Don't worry, he gave her to us, we didn't steal her! I think we got her in March and then my mom agreed to watch her for the summer while I did an internship in CA and Jake stayed at a friend's house in OK to do summer school. Various circumstances prevented us from taking her back after the summer was over, but her and my mom were too attached to each other anyway ;)

This is the unnamed lizard that invaded our house one day while we were visiting. I was the only one freaked out by him. I begged everyone to dispose of him, but nobody would do it. So he stayed and I lost sleep over it because I was pretty sure he was going to crawl on me during the night. He didn't.

Christmas in Texas

2011-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time in the Lone Star State. I feel like it went by much too quickly. We landed around 9:00 pm on Christmas day. And since my sister and I are like 5 year olds, we opened our presents right away. The original plan was to wait until the next morning and pretend the 26th was Christmas day, but that just didn't happen. It was a wonderful night, but we were exhausted by the end of it. We didn't have to leave for the airport until about 9:30 am, but we woke up super early to go have Christmas with Jake's family. It was a day full of excitement.

I gave this plate to my sister. It was a huge hit. One year for her b-day we went to Rainforest Cafe. They gave her a special plate to eat on since it was her special day. This plate turned out to be a big joke because whenever we would set the table for dinner, we would always put this at her spot (even after she was waaaay to old to enjoy it). Since we don't have a Rainforest Cafe in Lake County (and for some reason their merchandise isn't available online) I had one of my bffs go to the one in Grapevine and pick it up for me. My sister was thrilled.

A pilot hat (with gloves to match)!

This is my mom opening a painting that I gave her. I will have to see if she can send me a picture of it. I forgot to take one :(

P.S. My dad was there too, but I didn't take any pictures of him. Didn't want to break the fancy camera :)

The next day we went to my Grandparent's house and had Christmas there. We usually go there on Christmas Eve, but everyone made an exception this year so we wouldn't miss out on the fun.

I think my sister won the "greatest gift giver award" for the year. A couple days after Christmas she had one of her bffs, Sara, aka our awesome wedding photographer, take pictures of her, me, and Jake to surprise our mom with. I'll post them once we get them all back.

We spent the rest of our time in Texas shopping and eating. It was awesome. We were beyond spoiled. I want to go back right now.

So much to say, so little time....

2011-01-02T14:51:00.001-08:00

We got back from Texas a few days ago and I have to much to report, but the absolute most exciting thing in our life right now is this little girl...

Her name is Zulu (as in Alpha, Charlie, Bravo....Zulu-from the pilot alphabet). She's a goldendoodle. Her mom was a golden retriever and her dad was a black poodle. They were both around 60 lbs. so she should grow to be that size as well.

Here's how it all happened....

A few days before we left for Texas, Jake got on this kick about getting a dog. I played along while he researched endlessly on the computer to find the right dog for us. He settled on the goldendoodle for several reasons.

1. They grow the be a pretty big size.
2. They're really smart.
3. They don't have many of the ailments that a full bread dog has.
4. They're very sociable.
5. They don't shed (oddly enough, this was one of his biggest concerns. I guess he's tired of hearing me complain about the cat fur all the time)

Jake tends to get excited about things for a while and then the excitement will fade away so I really didn't think too much about his sudden fascination with dogs.

Little did I know...

We were on our way back to California and I reached into one of our carry on bags to get Jake's sweatshirt out. As I was pulling it out he said "there's something in there." It was a dog collar with the name Zulu on it. I thought "oh that's cute, he's really trying to butter me up about this dog thing." I put it back in the bag and then decided I wanted to see it again. I asked him to hand it to me and he said "do you want to see our new dog instead?" I was confused, and honestly, a bit upset that he'd just gone and purchased a dog without my consent. But then I saw her pictures and I fell in love. Head over heals in love.

He then told me that we had to drive back to the Sacramento airport the next day to pick her up. He'd purchased her from a farm in Oklahoma. We actually have a lot of guilt about purchasing a dog like this instead of rescuing one, but this kind of dog fits so many of the criteria that we were looking for and we're going to give her a wonderful home so I know it's for the best.

We picked her up on New Years Eve and we already adore her. She's definitely very "puppy" right now with all the biting and bladder issues, but she's only 10 weeks old so she's forgiven (for now). We have one 5x7 rug in our house full of wood floors and she decided the rug is her favorite place to potty. After accident number 2 I rolled up the rug. I will report back when the rug reappears. It will be a momentous day.

Well that's all for now, but I'll be back soon (probably with more pictures).

5 things: Part 7

2010-12-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

Today I am grateful for:

1. My hair is cut! No more split ends!

2. Yesterday someone gave Jake a Hickory Farms box. We ate half of it for dinner. Definitely not vegan, but it was delicious.

3. I have about 90% of my Christmas wrapping complete.

4. I almost purchased Christmas ornaments on anthropologie.com. All sale items were 25% off today! I'm grateful for my restraint and strong desire to save some money (to be spent while shopping in Texas).

5. Tomorrow is Friday. I thought Tuesday felt like Friday, but now I can't believe that we're almost to the end of the week.

5 things: Part 6

2010-12-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

5 things I'm grateful for today:

1. The sun came out today! I can't remember the last sunny day we had. Unfortunately the 10 day forecast shows nothing but rain in the foreseeable future.

2. Hair cut day is finally here!

3. I had enough time this morning to go running, sweep the floors, take out the trash and clean out all of the old leftovers in the fridge. I also went grocery shopping during my lunch break and finished making more Christmas presents. I feel like I've accomplished a lot today.

4. My sister sent me a text saying that our mom bought us some salsa that contains ghost chilies! I'm so excited and nervous.

5. I had a $10 off coupon for Safeway that expires on Friday. I'm grateful for the coupon and the fact that I remembered to pull it out of my wallet before I paid.

5 things: Part 5

2010-12-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a rough day. I tried to think of 5 things, but just couldn't do it...

But, today I'm grateful for:

1. I finished making my mom's Christmas present! And she's going to LOVE it! She would love it if I drew stick people on a used napkin, but this is way better than that :)

2. 2 White Elephant parties down, 1 to go.

3. My heavily discounted hair straightener finally shipped today. It looks like it's going to take a while to get here, but at least I know it's coming ( I was beginning to think it really was a scam).

4. Hair appointment is tomorrow.

5. It's almost time to leave work!

The County Park

2010-12-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

In addition to shooting pumpkins on Saturday, we also went to the county park. I took pictures of the lake and Jake played on the playground equipment. He's such a cute kid.

(just a little older than 12...at least I was there to supervise)

5 things: Part 4

2010-12-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry I missed a day of 5 things :( Here are the 5 things I'm grateful for today:

1. Dexter is on tonight!

2. The most adorable cat in the world.

3. My mom has been texting me pictures of the family pets and today she sent some of the newest addition in his timeout spot. He's been climbing up the Christmas tree and removing the limbs!

4. We're having dinner with Jake's dad and step mom tonight.

5. Last night we had chips and guacamole for dinner. Today I had leftover chips and guacamole for lunch. I'm grateful that guacamole was invented.

Shooting Pumpkins

2010-12-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

Our pumpkins have been sitting on our porch since Halloween. We never carved them so they weren't rotting or anything, but seeing as how Christmas is only 2 weeks away, we thought it was time to dispose of them. Jake came up with the brilliant idea to take them to his grandparent's house and shoot them. I reluctantly agreed. Guns scare me, but Jake was excited so off we went...

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was only my 2nd time to shoot a gun. My first time was at the same place, but with a LOUD gun that resulted in a temporary loss of hearing. This gun was much more tame and I now feel prepared to defend myself against a home invasion. Burglars beware!

The Finished Product!

2010-12-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

Not the best looking bow in the world, but it took me many, many tries to get it to this point:

Best Ornament on the Tree

And now it's time for 5 things I'm grateful for today:

1. Papa Charlie brought us some avocados last night. It was the most wonderful and thoughtful surprise.

2. Jake was nice enough to download the pictures of the tree and email them to me at work. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have posted these until Sunday and you didn't want to wait that long, right?

3. I found out that a book I'm reading, The Help, is being made into a movie and will be out next summer!

4. It's Friday.

5. I cleaned the bathroom this morning so it's one less thing to clean this weekend!

5 things: Part 2

2010-12-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

Time for the second installment of 5 things I'm grateful for today:

1. I finally have a hair appt. scheduled for next week. I haven't had my hair cut since June! This is nothing new though. I typically only get my hair cut 2 or 3 times a year. I should be better about it though because my hair always looks awful after a couple of months. Maybe my new years resolution will be to get it cut more frequently! Seems easy enough...

2. Jake is such a hard worker and recently received some huge compliments from a project manager of a job that he did a few months ago. I'm extremely proud of him and grateful that he works so hard to provide for us.

3. Wasabi covered sunflower kernels and a mom that mails them to me.

4. 90210 reruns. I was too young to watch this show when it first started and by the time I was old enough to watch it I didn't have any interest in it. Now I'm in love with it, but a little sad that the WE network went from the first season to (what I believe) is the last season. I have no idea what has happened in between! Where did Brandon and Brenda go??

5. Dexter. I swear my life doesn't revolve around television. Okay, it kind of does, but this season of Dexter is AMAZING. Sunday is the season finale and I just can't wait. Probably the first time I've ever been excited for a Sunday night to roll around. I've been searching all over the internet for spoilers (shame, shame) but I can't find anything!

5 things

2010-12-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

Today my mom sent me a link about surviving the holidays. I've noticed that as a "grown up" the holidays really aren't what they used to be. The article outlines it all really well and provides reassurance to those that don't absolutely love the holiday season. I'm not saying I hate the holidays, but they are stressful and after a few years of not spending them at home, I'm starting to like them less and less. Sorry to be all Scrooge like, but I'm just being honest. The last part of the article was dedicated to putting time aside each day during the holiday season to write 5 things you are grateful for. It's a simple exercise to shed some light on all the good things during this stressful season. They can repeat themselves and don't have to be anything major.

So I've decided to do this and I'm sure you all want to read about it, right? I doubt I'll make it every day, but I'll try my best.

Things I'm grateful for today:

1. My Christmas tree is complete (with a homemade, decent looking bow on top! Pictures to be posted soon).

2. Going HOME for Christmas this year! Only a couple more weeks!

3. We've been having trouble with the plumbing in our house and the lock on the front door. Both were fixed yesterday and life is just a little bit easier.

4. Jake brought me lunch today. It was yummy.

5. My hair straightener died on Thanksgiving and today I found one online for HALF the price of what you would pay at a store. Let's just hope it's a legit operation and I actually receive the straightener :)

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

2010-12-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Last week Jake and I were on a Monopoly kick. We played 4 games in the span of a couple days. I dominated the first two, but didn't have such great luck the last two tries. I was doing so well that I was pretty sure I was a real estate genius, but after losing two games, I've concluded that the game is based primarily on luck ;)

This was the board at the end of the second game. All of the hotels were MINE! I didn't bother to take a picture after the next couple of games when the board was in Jake's favor.

We're pretty much sick of the game now. We might play again in another year or so.

Christmas Tree 2010

2010-12-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to a tree farm in Upper Lake and purchased a Christmas tree! It's a bit too big for out house, but it's a pretty nice looking tree. I'm sure it's going to dry out before Christmas though because Sydney keeps drinking all of the water. I'll post pictures of it in it's decorated state once we get some hooks for the remainder of the ornaments and I construct a big bow to go on the top. I found the cutest ribbon, but really have no clue how to make a big bow. We'll see if it turns out...

Upon My Sister's Request

2010-12-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

I'm finally updating the blog! I don't have anything interesting to report. I've been under the weather the past week so life has been pretty uneventful.

So what to write about? How about my sister, since she requested the post and all....

My sister's name is Mallory. My parents were fans of Family Ties.

I don't remember the last time I called her Mallory.

I refer to her as Miltay, but it hasn't always been Miltay. It started with other names.

I can't recall exactly what it started with, or when it started, but the first one I remember is Samsonite. There were variations of that name and then it somehow changed to Milton, which evolved to Miltay.

When I talk to her on the phone I always greet her with an overly excited MiltAy (like PartAy). Sometimes I just call her Milt, Miltose, or Miltose Intollerant. My mom calls her Mips or Mipsey.

Miltay isn't the only one in the family with a silly name. We call my dad Tobey. His name is actually Cliff. Miltay and I were watching a tv show one day with a character named Tobey and we just thought it would be fun to call him that. So we do. Jake does too. At our wedding he invited "Tobey" to give a speech and I had to quickly explain to a bunch of people that I didn't know very well that his real name is Cliff. I'm sure everyone was confused.

My sister calls me Rosstopher, Toph for short. This came from an episode of Friends.

We don't have a ridiculous name for my mom. I'm not sure why a silly name never developed, but maybe it's just out of respect. I think she likes to be called mom. I'm sure my dad would like to be called dad, but we don't respect him that much :)

And then there's Jake. I've mentioned before that we call each other Man. It doesn't feel weird for me to refer to him as Jake when talking to other people about him, but it feels weird when I say his name to get his attention. Man seems so much more natural.

So basically this went from a post explaining my sister's name to a post that makes me sound super weird because I don't have the ability to call people by their actual names.

Don't judge.

The Jelly Belly Factory

2010-11-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

We woke up on Monday morning in San Francisco and didn't really have any plans, but then Jake suggested we go to the Jelly Belly factory and I screamed...and jumped up and down. I've been wanting to go here for over a year and it isn't too far away, but I decided that I needed to go on a weekday to get the full experience. They give free tours all week long, but the factory is only in operation Mon.-Fri. Seeing as how we both work Mon.-Fri. I thought that we'd either have to take a vacation day or wait until next summer when I work part time. Luckily we didn't have to do either!!

It was definitely everything I'd dreamed of and more. Unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures inside of the actual factory, but I definitely snapped away inside the store.

They have a new flavor that you have to try immediately. It's mango chili and it's amazing. It definitely has a kick to it!

Alcatraz at Night

2010-11-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

All I can really say is: if you ever want to tour Alcatraz, GO ON THE NIGHT TOUR. It was amazing. Our ship set sail at 4:30 (not actually a sail boat, but you get the picture) and it wasn't dark yet so we had some wonderful views and arrived at the island with plenty of time to see the outside of the prison. I'm sure you get to see some additional outdoor sections of the island if you tour during the day, but the awesomeness of the night tour makes up for anything you might miss. The pictures are pretty self explanatory, but as far as the tour goes, they provide info during the boat ride over and then give you a short tour leading up to the main building with a couple of stops along the way to tell stories. Once you make your way inside you're given a headset for an audio tour. After that you have your choice of a few additional guided tours. We chose one that focused on attempted escapes. The entire thing was so amazing. I want to go back now and actually listen to more of the audio tour. I was a little preoccupied with taking pictures and might not have paid really close attention to everything that was said. Shame on me. But look at the awesome pictures!

Potty break

The following 2 pictures were not converted to black and white. It was just that creepy...

I had to go too

Come back tomorrow for a tour of the Jelly Belly Factory!!