April 30, 2010

At least I'm updating this thing again.

April 29, 2010

I've got nothing for you.

April 28, 2010

Why am I even keeping this blog?

April 27, 2010

Outside the Campbell library.  I love being able to walk to a library.

April 26, 2010

Gosh, I've been bad about taking these photos lately.

April 25, 2010

I don't even remember why I took such a dorky pic.  I had to look up the date of this photo on the camera so that I could remember when I took this.

April 24, 2010

April temple trip.  Here's one New Year's Resolution we are still on top of.

April 23, 2010

Goose-egg.

April 22, 2010

I celebrated Earth Day by going to yoga for the first time in months.  It was wonderful.  Then I almost killed my friends in the parking lot when I unintentionally raced them to the last open stall since some joker had taken my space.  Then I gave my road rage free reign in composing a hate note which I put on the vehicle of the offending car. 

April 21, 2010

I forgot to take a photo again tonight.  An emergency research project came up at work and I stayed later than normal.  Then when I got home all I wanted to do was watch Glee and go to sleep.

April 20, 2010

Blue Rock BBQ is kind of like the Cafe Rio of bbq.  Their ribs aren't so great, but their pulled pork sandwich is delicious.

April 19, 2010

April 18, 2010

How did I take such an awful photo of myself?  I think I was on the phone talking with my mom and I didn't realize that Paul was sneaking up behind me making crazy eyes.  This photo scares me for so many reasons.

April 17, 2010

Indian food - my favorite.  This was at Tandoori Oven at the Pruneyard.  It's not the greatest, but their naan is decent and its convenient.

Yum.

April 16, 2010

Driving up to Dublin for Cookie and Movie Night with Paul's cousins.  We were listening to hip-hop music and having a dance party/sing-along in the car.

April 15, 2010

Paul sold the shell to his truck.  Now it looks so much cooler.

April 14, 2010

 I've taken photos inside my office before, but never outside.  So here you go.

April 13, 2010

I'm not very good at taking weird pictures or making funny faces.  Its kind of a weakness - seriously.  Like when people take a photo and say "okay now act crazy!" I usually just smile uncomfortably.  I actually always feel kind of jealous when I see people who take really cool photos that are not exactly normal looking.  Maybe I should periodically practice perfecting my more insane expressions. 

Here is "I smell something stinky."

Here is "She did what?!"

Here is "I'm only pretending like your story is shocking/surprising/scary but really I haven't been paying much attention."

I know, I'm a total dork.

April 12, 2010

Tonight we went for a walk along the trail after work.  It was such a beautiful afternoon, which made us frustrated that we had such lousy weather the weekend my mom and sister were in town. 

April 11, 2010

My mom took this photo.  Its pretty terrible of me, but cute of Emma. 

April 10, 2010

We were hoping for a nice sunny day to drive down to Carmel-by-the-sea, but it was cold and blustery all day.  So we tried to go see Santa Cruz instead.  Emma was not happy.  I offered to hold her in the car where it was warm while they ducked into shops on the pier to look for t-shirts as souvenirs for my dad, brother-in-law, brother, and sister.  Emma wasn't happy in the car, so I tried bundling her up and showing her the roller coasters at the boardwalk: she wasn't impressed.

April 9, 2010

Cooing at Emma in the backseat of the car on the way to dinner at Straits at Santana Row.  We tried the Garlic Noodles this time and decided they are delicious.

After dinner we went over to Valley Fair Mall and wandered through Pottery Barn Kids.  Emma tried out their kid-size Adirondacks.

April 8, 2010

My mom and sister Jennie flew in tonight with my niece Emma who is four months old today. 

April 7, 2010

I actually got a Yahtzee on sixes tonight.  It was awesome.

April 6, 2010

It finally happened - I missed a day.  I worked until 12:30 in the morning on an emergency doc review project and just completely forgot.  Dang it.  Paul's response: "Well, it was fun while it lasted."  I think I am not going to give up so easily.

April 5, 2010

I eat these panini for lunch almost every day at the office.  We have an excellent cafeteria on-site that changes the panini each day - I have a hard time resisting.

April 4, 2010

Easter Sunday.  I enjoyed putting together an easter basket for Paul.  I'm not sure what was so satisfying about it, but it was just fun. 

Paul went to Japantown in San Jose and got me one of my favorite treats - strawberry pocky sticks.

Also, I made cupcakes - Fresh Strawberry and Chocolate Fudge with Sweet Tooth Fairy Frosting - then we took them around to neighbors and to easter dinner. 

Here are the recipes.  Try the strawberry - they never fail to impress.  Only be careful not to add too many strawberries to your frosting or it will be really runny.  If I am taking the time to make homemade frosting, I usually like to put it in a plastic bag, snip off the end, and pipe it onto the cupcakes.  The chocolate cupcakes were just a Duncan Hines mix.

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups cake flour* (I never have cake flour on hand, but you can make your own by mixing 1/4 cup cornstarch with 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour to get the 2 1/2 cups flour you need for this recipe)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar (or a little less)
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cup chopped strawberries

Fresh Strawberry Frosting

1/4 cup strawberries
1/2 tsp lemon juice
4 oz. cream cheese, room temp
1/2 stick butter, room temp
3 cups powdered sugar (or more - I haven't perfected the measurements on this frosting yet)
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp coconut extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 2 cupcake pans. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl. In bowl of mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until combined. Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla until combined. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in berries.

Fill cupcake pans 3/4 way. Bake for 20 minutes.

For frosting, mix cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add sugar, then vanilla. Add berries until smooth. Frost cupcakes when they are completely cooled.

Sweet Tooth Fairy Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 oz. cream cheese
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp coconut extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp milk

Cream butter and cream cheese. Add flavorings, milk and powdered sugar and whip. This is my go-to frosting that I pair with chocolate cupcakes or vanilla or coconut cupcakes. I will sometimes toast coconut and roll the frosted cupcake in the coconut right after frosting it.
 
After spending the day listening to General Conference and spending time with Paul's aunt, uncle and cousins in Dublin, we came home and packed up the easter eggs. 

April 3, 2010

BAKESHOW!  You rock my socks!  My MTC companion/best amiga totally surprised me with a carrot themed package with carrot suckers, carrot bubbles, carrot jellybean containers, etc.  The card is addressed to "Casebolty", which was what she called me.  I called her Bakeshow.  This awesome easter surprise absolutely made my weekend and it is only Saturday morning.  I love you Bakeshow!

April 2, 2010

This doesn't happen often, so we had to capture it on camera.  I actually cleaned the tub.  There is something about cleaning the bathtub/shower that exasperates me - how does it get so dirty?  I feel like somebody is playing a trick on me whenever I finally realize that this chore really needs to be done.  This is just maybe one of my least favorite chores.

Oh, and this is my running hairdo - I always pin back the hairs that want to come loose.

April 1, 2010

April Fool's Day - I tried and tried to come up with something funny to do - to anybody - but with no success.  So I just went for a run - first one in over a week.  Sometimes the hardest thing about working out is getting committed to a schedule.  Tonight's run was hard just because for three days I had been saying that I was going, but this was the first night that I actually did it.