January 31, 2010

ONE MONTH!  Alright! 

Today was great but also incredibly frustrating.  After being told at work on Friday night that I was going to need to work this weekend, I was all prepared to not have free time.  But I was also told that I should be able to work around other plans I might have.  Which is why it was no big deal to go to the farmers market yesterday.  Or to church this morning.  In fact, I finished most of the work for this project Saturday night around 7:30 p.m.  So this afternoon Paul and I went for a drive to Henry Coe State Park, which was beautiful and made me feel very connected to the Land. This 86,000 acrea area all used to be ranchland, and there are tons of trails we want to go hike.

This was my favorite shot of the day. Paul took it but I am titling it "Lightning" because that's what it looks like to me:

We had dinner plans with Paige and Mike (friends from our new ward), so we got home and started putting together shish-kabobs.  And then, just twenty minutes before Paige and Mike were coming over I get six emails from work with projects that needed to be done, ASAP.  It wasn't so bad in the end - Paige and Mike are super cool and really didn't seem to mind that I kept walking in and out on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", and at least I was able to sit down for dinner (which Paul pretty much prepared on his own - he is my hero) but still.  I win the award for worst hostess in the world. 

C'est la vie.

January 30, 2010

Today we went to the Saratoga Farmers Market. It was super fun to see all the different fruits, vegetables, breads, desserts, meats, seafood, and flowers being sold. We ended up getting some fresh strawberries and some flowers.

January 29, 2010

My office.

January 28, 2010

On my mission people always said that they were going food shopping.  It always bothered me.  I say grocery shopping.

January 27, 2010

I snapped this photo of Amy while she was watching the State of the Union address by Obama. She was taking a short break from work.

January 26, 2010

So, no picture of the completed project yet.  Instead Paul and I walked over to the Campbell library which is right downtown.  Since my eyes are burning my brains out every day by the time I am done with work I haven't really felt like reading.  So I wanted to check out books on CD to listen to while I am driving to and from work.  I've only tried this once before and wasn't super happy with the experience so I'm going out on a limb here and giving books on CD another try.  Nathaniel and Dorothy say it's awesome, so here's hoping.  I checked out The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Monster of Templeton, Water for Elephants, and The Scarlet Letter.  I haven't decided yet which I am going to listen to first but I am leaning toward Pimpernel which I have always wanted to read but never have surprisingly enough.

On our way to the library we walk past the Calvary Temple of Campbell.  I'm thinking this sermon is one that we may just have to attend.  Somebody look up Jeremiah 13 and tell me what its about. 

Oh, and at the library Paul picked up a guide to local food and we are getting really excited about going to some of the local farmer's markets (the one in Campbell is on Sunday so we haven't been, but Saratoga's farmer's market is on Saturdays apparently so we're going to go to that one) and trying out some of the produce grown nearby.

January 25, 2010

I'm working on this project.  I started it yesterday and got most of the work done.  So tonight even though I didn't have a lot of time after work, I was able to get it almost completed.  Maybe tomorrow I will have a photo of the finished product.

And I just realized that I am wearing the same color scheme as yesterday's photo and this was taken in the same spot.  That was not intended.

January 24, 2010

On sundays we like to have a nice sunday dinner. Tonight we fixed barbeque pork chops, parmesan dill mashed potatoes, crunchy bok choy, and red jello with bananas and chantilly cream.

January 23, 2010

So, today we finally went and saw Avatar in 3D. Although it was interesting to see a movie in 3D for the first time since the 80's, I thought the movie was only "Ok". Paul pointed out that the movie plot was esentially a hybrid of Dances With Wolves, Fern Gully, and Matrix. I felt like the 3D effects didn't really add a whole heck of a lot to it, and a lot of the time it didn't even really feel like 3D. But, it was still worth seeing. If you haven't seen it, go check it out while it is still in theatres.

January 22, 2010

I love Borders.  Books make me feel safe and excited and hopeful.  And the smell of paper and binding is almost as intoxicating as any other scent.  One of my favorite date night activities is to go to a book store and hang out in the travel section looking at pictures.

January 21, 2010

Commuting.  I don't mind it so much.  It's actually kind of enjoyable in my nice little Civic.

January 20, 2010

My Bluetooth.  On the drive home from work I like to call Paul or my mom and make the most of my driving time by chatting.

This is our new ice cream attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer.  We decided to try it out tonight with plain old vanilla ice cream.  It was delicious.  I can tell we're going to have fun with this little contraption. 

Classic Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup heavy cream
2 cups half-and-half
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sugar
1 dash salt

Combine ingredients in a blender or food processor until sugar dissolves (maybe 5-10 seconds).  Refrigerate until needed for ice cream maker.  Pour into the ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's freezing instructions.  We'll try this again but add Oreo cookies during the last five minutes or strawberries after about 15 minutes.  Also, next time I think I would replace at least 1 cup of half-and-half with regular milk, but that's because I don't love super creamy ice cream.

January 19, 2010

Ewww.  I look so gross here.  Sometimes I look that way.  It was a long, long day at work.  But I am committed to blog365, so this is my Blackberry.  I just got it today. 

Now its time for bed.  G'night.

January 18, 2010

These photos are deceiving.  It rained almost the entire day.  Poured even.  Except for a brief respite while we were walking around in Santa Cruz.  This is the lighthouse in Santa Cruz near a point where there are almost always surfers.  Not today though because the winter sea was treacherous.

 

January 17, 2010

Today we went to church at 9:00 am and Amy and I gave talks about the subject "Coming Unto Christ By Understanding the House of Israel". Although it was a little difficult to make that subject interesting and exciting, I think we did a pretty good job. After church, Russ, Cheryl, Jessica, Amy and I all went on a drive through Saratoga and up Highway 9 into the Santa Cruz mountains to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Although it was raining some while we were driving, by the time we got there it had stopped raining and what water was still falling was coming from the trees. Amy's family was all really wanting to see a banana slug, so I kept my eyes peeled (pun intended) but never found one. They are pretty tough to spot. Here's some photos of the huge redwoods we saw as we walked around.

January 16, 2010

Do you ever have days that have been one of your best days of all time?  I hope that you do.  Because today was on of the best days of all time for me.  Last night the weatherperson on the news said that we were going to have rain for the next eight days.  But this morning dawned bright and clear, so when my dad suggested we drive down to Big Sur and Carmel-by-the-Sea today instead of waiting until Monday, we got ready fast, had cereal for breakfast, and headed out. 

Everything was amazing.  The drive through the Santa Cruz mountains was gorgeous.  The fields and fields of strawberries, artichokes, and coffee-colored plots of unplanted dirt were fascinating.  We stopped along the way and made a U-turn when we drove past a marina with an unused dock covered with hundreds of sea lions sunning themselves and listened to them bark to each other.

And we took lots and lots of photos.  But these are some of our favorites for purposes of blog 365. 

Me making naughty faces at the camera like I'm seriously all hugged up on Paul.  He likes this photo a lot because he says he looks like a pimp.  I love him.

See all the sea lions out on the rocks in this photo?  There were great swells coming in off the ocean because a storm-front is pushing its way in right now and it was fun climbing out on rocks and watching the sea lions and seals play in the surf as it sprayed up against the rocks.

Um, if you have never seen this coastline, I am tempted to say that you have not lived.  It's not true, of course, but seriously, come visit us and we will do this drive.  It was awesome.  I can't say enough about it.  So really, just keep scrolling through the photos and look at the amazingness that is the Northern California coastline.

Oh, and my parents LOVED stopping at Pebble Beach.  My dad bought a tam.  This is me and him on the 18th hole.

If you do go without us down to Carmel-by-the-Sea, make sure to pay the $9.25 entrance fee and spend the extra time doing the 17-mile drive.  I had never done it before and it had some of the most interesting and stunning spots to spot and get out to walk around.  Not to mention the incredible homes.  I want to retire there.

Oh my heart is so full to bursting just looking at this beautiful rugged and rocky coast.  It was the best day.

January 15, 2010

Today we went to San Francisco. It was a lot of fun.

January 14, 2010

My family is here!!!!!  My parents and Jessica flew in to Oakland airport tonight at 8:00 p.m.  I had work all day today and spent all my extra time reading motions so that I don't have to spend my weekend doing work.  Paul stayed home and worked on his talk for Sunday and cleaned the apartment.  This is the only photo we took tonight and it is of me showing my mom our new dresser from Ikea - I know I look weird here, but that's reality for ya'.  It is really fun showing off our apartment that we have worked really hard putting together.  I'm excited for all the fun stuff we are going to do this weekend.

January 13, 2010

* Disclaimer - Paul set up this post for me, but these initial sentences are my thoughts, not his even though his name is on the bottom of the post:  I know that it seems like a lot of these posts are probably about food in some way or another, but really I'm okay with that.  Because it is the one thing that changes a lot from day to day.  Or at least, I have been working on changing it up.  But I'm feeling slightly concerned because working for a law firm is getting progressively more intense.  And I have been staffed on a really cool case that everyone is saying will require me to work really long hours.  As if lawyer's hours aren't long enough already, right?  Not that I'm super concerned - I knew going into law that it wasn't an easy 9-5 job.  But still, it might make Blog365 more difficult and these posts may become increasingly more mundane.  Particularly when I get home at 9:00 pm and feel like ding-twaddy and just want to let my hair down and take out my contact lenses. 

But for tonight, since training was over at 4:00 pm, I was able to come home and make a pizza which I really wanted to do before the Job takes over my life.  Granted, I have been reading background material for a case I am staffed on all night long except for maybe 40 minutes of cooking, eating, and break time, but still.

Anyway, vegetarian whole wheat pizza is one of my favorite dinners.  Its super easy to make, I can use up a ton of random vegetables sitting in the fridge, and it tastes light and healthy and delicious.  I always, always, always have zucchini on it though because that has been my favorite pizza topping ever since I had zucchini pizza in Florence, Italy a couple years ago. 

That's one big pizza-pie.  Not really though - just visual tricks of photography.  If you go back to the first photo, you can tell that this is about the size of a medium pizza. 

Amy's Half Whole Wheat Vegetarian Pizza

1 cup warm water
1-2 Tbsp honey
2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups flour (I use half whole wheat and half white - the original recipe called for all whole wheat)

1/2 jar pesto sauce
Mozzerella cheese

Stir honey into warm water, then stir in yeast and allow to proof.  Add oil, salt, and flour and stir to combine, then knead until smooth - about five minutes.  Shape dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled boil to rise for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Wash and slice vegetables - I like zucchini, mushrooms, green onions, peppers (red or yellow preferably, but green are good too), tomatoes, etc. 

Roll out dough to fit a pizza pan or whatever shape you want.  Spread 1/2 a jar of pesto sauce onto the dough, then top with vegetables and sprinkle with mozzerella cheese.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until crust has browned and cheese is melted.

January 12, 2010

Today was another day of training for Amy at her firm. After getting in her daily Wii Fit workout this morning, she drove up to Palo Alto in some heavier-than-usual traffic but still arrived in time. She's making some really good friends at work, which she likes. Right now, Amy is reading materials for her first case that begins in a couple weeks.

I resolved to get some stuff done today, so I made a list this morning and then set out to get it done. I accomplished most of what I wanted to do, which included getting a haircut, taking out the trash, and taking my truck in to get a smog test and inspection for it to be registered. I know. Really super fun stuff. I'm trying to make the most of being SAHD (stay-at-home-dad, minus the children). In reality, its pretty dang boring. It would be better if I had a kid or two. But, tomorrow I'm going to a networking breakfast at 7:30 am, so maybe that will help me get my butt in gear in finding a job.

January 11, 2010

It has been a long while since Paul and I took a nightly constitutional.  But tonight when I got home from work at around 8:30 it was the only thing I wanted to do.  So we grabbed the camera and headed out the door to walk around downtown Campbell.  Most of the stores were closed, but these photos should give a little taste of what Campbell Avenue is like.

There are art galleries,

used bookstores,

a fancy car showroom,

shi-shi home decor stores,

and a number of vintage clothing stores that had all of their lights turned off so we couldn't get photos of them.  There are also a bunch of sophisticated kinds of restaurants and gelato shops.  It was such a beautiful night and such a great way to unwind at the end of a really long day at work.

January 10, 2010

Today we had dinner with another couple from our ward who live in our same apartment complex.  Since we were bringing dessert, I had grand aspirations to tackle something I have never made before - a white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake.  So I found a recipe online that had a lot of reviews as being easy to make and unbelievably delicious, and yada-yada-yada.  I mean, the recipe called for an Oreo crust - how could I go wrong?

But ultimately it was a colossal failure.  See, the recipe called for a water bath where you preheat the oven with a pan filled with water while you make the cheesecake filling.  Only I guess I took longer than the recipe expected me to in putting the filling together and by the time I went to place the cheesecake in the water bath all of the water had evaporated.  So I, being the genius that I am, decided to pour more water into the smoking hot glass pan.  Sure enough, the thing shattered with a bang, spraying glass all over the kitchen. 

Undeterred, I waited for the oven to cool down, cleaned the entire mess up, and tried again.  Only this time I used a metal pan.  There weren't any more explosions accompanied by showers of glass, but apparently the water bath idea is not such a good one because the water seeped through my springform pan into the cheesecake which ended up as a soggy disgusting mess even though I had wrapped the bottom of it in tinfoil for the very purpose of preventing seepage. 

I ended up making rice krispie treats to take for dessert.  Impressive, I know.