see.hungry. guests

Meet our weekend guests.
This is Gilbert.

Gilbert likes: food, wrestling with Miles, crying for attention, getting in front of the camera at all costs, food, rolling in the snow, barking, food, doing the exact opposite of what you want him to do, food, and attention.
Miles teaching Gilbert how to provide security for the backyard.

This is Rajah.
That isn't snow on his beard. It's old age and wisdom. He generally keeps all wisdom to himself and doesn't share with Gilbert.

Rajah just likes food. 90% of the time he is searching, sniffing, wandering around in search of ANYTHING edible.
I told Mike that we are going to have dreams of circling hungry sharks after Rajah leaves!
Oh, and he is camera shy.
Can you guess how I got him to sit still for a few seconds?

We are doggie sitting for the weekend. I should say, Miles is doing most of the doggie sitting. He is showing them around, keeping them in line, telling on them (by running straight to me when they get into the trash- searching for food), and keeping them entertained.
Good boy Miles.

see.turkey.day

Hungry for some turkey?
Yea, we aren't either. And probably won't be for an entire year.
This was our first official Thanksgiving at our house hosting friends (the friends who did not travel to see family this year). Therefore our official Thanksgiving name this year was:
"Orphan Thanksgiving"
And what we lacked in family we made up in food, drinking, and dogs.
Our party included 6 people, 3 dogs and lots of merry cheer.
For the food here is what finally landed on the table:
appetizer
Amish Turkey (17.5 lbs) (post brine)
Mashed potatoes, southern cornbread casserole, skillet green bean casserole, carrot souffle, cranberry sauce, hand made dinner rolls, gravy, sweet potato casserole (Sarah), broccoli casserole (Sarah), macaroni and cheese (Kelly via Doug).
Dessert: pumpkin pie, apple pie, and pecan pie
Whew! Here are a few food pics from the day:

Dinner rolls

Carrot Souffle (to be)

Cranberry sauce with port wine, citrus, and vanilla beans

apple pie (pre-pie)

Vegetarian fiance, wrist deep in turkey.
I asked Mike to carve the turkey. He looked a little nervous, watched a you-tube video on turkey carving, and came back confident and quite skilled!

This was taken with my the last bit of energy.
What a great feast!
Until next year!!

see.she.loves

Breakfast.

OK, I'm a morning person. I may have said this before.
I may not get up super early on the weekends... my usual is 8:15 but I'm wide awake and ready for the day. Usually making coffee, breakfast, doing laundry and washing dishes, checking email, calling and annoying family, opening blinds and curtains letting the sweet morning sunshine in!!
This type of behavior tends to make non-morning people (Michael) extra cranky. The opposite is true at night, he being a night person... I might add.
But some weekend mornings, I know that if I'm patient enough and hold tight the reigns on my ecstatic morning feelings (this is not easy) and just wait... my non-morning partner will come out of his fog and make my favorite meal of the day...
Breakfast!
or in this case it was brunch but I withheld that comment!He totally came through...
Fried fish, hash browns, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, sliced avocado, sliced tomatoes, and toast.
I can't wait till next year when I have the strength to keep my morning person at bay again!!

see.October-fest

The end of October is always fun for me because there is so much going on... College football more specifically the Florida v. Georgia game, Halloween, and my birthday.

I have always enjoyed having my birthday sit on Halloween Eve. There is always something to do and I can't help but feel like everyone is dressing up in funny/scary/silly costumes just for me!
We had a busy weekend and it started with a costume party Friday night.
Mike picked the theme this year for our costumes and I personally felt they turned out pretty great considering I spent a total of $12 and 1 hour on them. Not bad!
We were Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg.
From the California Girlz music video.
I didn't have a cup cake suit but I made do with what I had to be the best Snoop I could.
Mike was a pretty convincing Katy Perry... especially considereing he didn't shave his beard or put any effort into being a glossy California girl. He was definitely more San Francisco, California girl then L.A. California girl.

If you watch the Katy Perry video all the way to the end (sorry to make you do that), she actually has whip cream shooters on her ta-tas. So Mike, too, had working whip cream ta-ta shooters. Which came in handy at the party where they had un-whipped jello shots.

Happy Halloween!

Moving on,
Besides the best concert ever, birthday dinner, and a trip to a very scary haunted house, Mike also made a sweet Sunday picnic for me for my birthday.
Just some sandwiches, snacks, soda and my 2 favorite guys. Nothing fancy... just how I like it.

Our favorite soda. Ginger Ale. Yum.

Picnic and then play time with Miles dog.

Another great b-day!

see.band.of.horses

Happy Birthday to she!
OK, it is not my birthday yet... but I am getting one birthday present early!
Tonight we are going to see these guys:

Band of Horses in concert! Woot!
Thanks Michael!
You are the best :0)

see.brave.geezer

My father loves to claim he has reached 'geezer' status. I usually disagree and patiently explain that people with children still in their 20's and who are consistently going on semi-risky hiking expeditions can not possible be considered geezers! So when he sent me this picture (titled) "Geezer on the Edge"
I was thankful for 2 things:

1. very little wind
2. his joints are still in adequate working order
whew! close one.

see.sleep

We found an apartment!
We signed the lease.
(pics of new place to come)
oh... and it has our own yard with space for a new garden!
And we move in Oct. 1st!!
He is working odd jobs all day long.
She is working and going to school.
Long LONG days for us both.
Early AM wake up calls + late nights studying= she's 'first official library nap' of the semester.
Yep.
Taken like a true champ.
I mean... who puts cozy leather chairs in the library anyway??

see.who?

We are so busy lately....

a potential move that fell through and now we are living out of boxes that we packed for the move

looking for a new place to live

she starting school

he starting side jobs with networking potential

she starting new job

he trying to keep up with everything she plans

and Miles Dog... always keeping it simple.

see.sugar

Hello sweet readers!
I wanted to share this sweet sugar idea with you!
We sweeten our delicious hot coffee with sugar on the raw and a sweet little bird told me about this sugar flavoring tip...

Take a whole vanilla bean and cut about 1 to 2 inches off the end

Fill your sugar cup, bowl or in our case vanilla tea box 1/3 of the way with sugar.

Drop the bean into the sugar and fill the rest of the sugar box.

Within a short time your sweet sugar will have a warm delicious hint of vanilla!
Yum!

see.sunny.sf

I am fortunate that most of my friends are extremely hard working talented women. Art, graphics, education, design... it is astounding and exciting!

Michelle Steen is just one of those ladies.
Please, PLEASE check out her work at the link above!
This painting was by far my favorite, but it wasn't easy picking just one!
I made a short visit to San Francisco in July to see Michelle's art work on display in a downtown San Francisco Art Gallery. It was breathtaking. The trip and her artwork.

After a few days in which I am happy to say the camera was not present... we brought it along on a typical San Francisco outing. Filled with frozen yogurt, rice pudding, basking in the sun at Dolores Park, eating far too much delicious Mission Mexican food and just laughing until we peed our pants... I mean, till we ache.

Rice pudding and frozen yogurt came first. I won't name names but someone I know just happens to stop by this little 'Lovin Cup' Shop quite often. In fact they had her dessert half prepared before she even ordered...

Pre-frozen yogurt faces... "don't worry, its coming!"

First bite face... or little shop of yogurt horrors! you pick.

Post frozen yogurt faces... yes, it is that delicious!

Dolores Park

Dinner with Melanie and Melanie.
Whew! It is amazing what a short weekend with AMAZING friends right after an exciting week with family does for ya! I am still grinning from ear to ear!

see.family.friends.florida

More pics of our recent trip to Florida. The trip was full of exciting events. My pal Kristen married her beau Will. They met at the University of Florida and now live in Oakland, California while Will is finishing school at Berkeley. Will and Kristen were the first familiar California faces I saw when I arrived in the Bay area 2+ years ago. They also gave me a place to crash before I found a place of my own!

Groom's cake = Florida gator!
Congratulations to Kristen and Will Beeson!!

And no trip home would be complete without 1,000 pics of my amazing little group of nieces and nephews! Although... this trip I actually didn't take many pics. I kept my eyes out of the camera to actually be a part of what was going on!
Here are a few that I did manage to take...

Boundin'

Pre-movie make-up session!

Sisters playing pretend!
(I think something "scary" was lurking near-by)

Owen.
Last time I saw him, was the first time he saw any of us!
Can't wait to see him again!

Jeremy, this was his defense against very little "booger picking self control"
!genius!

You are NEVER too old to play dress up!

see.date.night

Date Night.

I think it is necessary to have Date Night. Mike on the other hand... well the concept confuses him because we are already together but he goes along with the idea because I like it!
Last night was date night and we went here and it was 5 starts delicious!

Getting ready for date night usually goes something like this:
I'm ready 30 mins before we have to leave and Mike starts getting ready when we have to leave!
Grrr!! So I find things to do like take pictures of me waiting... patiently... :)

All the food was so good and went down great with the pineapple + fresh ginger sake cocktail! YUM!!!

So can you tell who enjoyed Date Night the most here?

see.top.5

Before we left for Florida, I put together a craft for a special trip I made while down home.

Mike is such a sweet fiance to put up with my endless desire to craft... he is extra sweet because he ALWAYS helps, cut, paste, glue and so on. AND he doesn't mind when I insist that it HAS to be perfect and I create a huge mess in the process!!!
While in Florida, I (along with my mom, sister, Mike's mom, Mike's Grammi, my sister-in-law and her mom + 4 nieces and nephews) went wedding dress shopping... yes for our wedding.
I wanted the day to be memorable, informative, and special so by inviting my entourage of ladies it was both memorable and special... as for the informative, well that is where the craft comes in...

I started with fun printed craft paper + really bright coordinating card stock paper, white card stock, glue, olfa knife, straight edge and my printer.I printed out 6 copies of large black numbers 1 to 5
Cut out (6) sets of five- 4x6 inch white + bright card stock paper and glued them together.

Cut out (6) sets of five- 2 inch wide strips of fun printed craft paper for the edges of the cards.

I coordinated the fun printed paper, colorful card stock, and number for each set of cards and glued everything together.

Front and back view of each card. So number 1 in each set was pink with a swirly purple and pink paper edge. The back is a blank white sheet of card stock for notes.

Inexpensive key chain hoops to link numbers 1 to 5 together!

Once I was complete I had visual voting cards numbered 1 to 5 so the ladies could vote on which wedding dress they like the best (no. 5) to the least (no. 1).
With each dress, I could walk out and instantly see what each person felt about the dress.
The blank paper on the back was used for notes about each dress so later I could remember which dress style looked the best, fabric choices and so on.

A big thank you to everyone who came along!!
Let the planning begin!