Merry Christmas!

for Van Gogh fans

An early Van Gogh painting has been rediscovered- The Ox-Cart. A family in Oregon just donated it to the Portland Art Musuem. You can read/hear more about it here, from NPR.

Happy Thanksgiving

the view from my kitchen window

Bamboo Forest

For part of John's birthday present, I brought him to the Bamboo Giant Nursery in Aptos. It's hidden away off a windy road just south of Santa Cruz. They have a large bamboo grove you can wander around, with many of the bamboo plants reaching somewhere around 50 feet. I've never seen anything like it- it was amazing to see all the different types of bamboo.

Happy Birthday John!!!

I was trying to find a picture of a cake I liked...but then I couldn't pass up the birthday cake hat.

goings on

The last week or so the princess trumpet tree (or so we're told it's called) in our front yard has gone crazy with blooms. They're huge, kind of like giant honeysuckles, and in the evening they open up and fill the street with a wonderfully sweet scent. We've also been visited by a large number of bees ;-) John's been doing a great job with the front yard. The roses he's been pruning have a bunch of new growth too, including a couple plants that were dormant when we moved in.

In the backyard, John has been deconstructing, and I've begun to clear out the tomato vines from the vegetable garden to make way for some cool season plants. I'm hanging on to mine though, since they're in containers and are still producing fruit. In fact, yesterday I picked my first ripe tomatoes! A little late in the season, but very exciting for me, as they're the first edible thing I've grown.

I found a picture I had taken when I got them as seedlings. This little pot if full of seedlings- I ended up being able to plant only two of the them.

Things you might see at Campbell's Oktoberfest

South Dakota

I got back yesterday from my trip to the Midwest...

Me and my coworker Sarah, in the "Old Market" area downtown. I really liked Omaha- I didn't go there often when I was at Dordt, but this time around I got to spend a little more time there.

After the conference, I went up to South Dakota to visit my parents and Bridget...

Bridget, in honor of my love of all things tater tot, made a delicious tater tot casserole (one of my favorite comfort foods). It was great to catch up and play a round of Trivial Pursuit!

At Nick's house, I got to see some of the work my parents have been doing. The place is looking really great- here's a pic of the shower in the upstairs bedroom that they built. They designed the tile work- my Dad cut the tiles, and my mom installed them. It was really impressive!

On Saturday, my parents took me and Bridget to an auction just across the border in Iowa. Three generations of a family had lived in a huge house in the country, and were moving out. It was amazing to see all the stuff they had collected over the years. There were several beautiful quilts that went for quite a bit of money. We didn't get to stay for the whole thing, and when we had to leave 3 hours into it, they weren't even half way done. It was a lot of fun. I made a few bids on a couple of things, with the help of my mom as translator of the auctioneer lingo. I'm excited to take John to one the next time we visit.

There were tons of Asian beetles (which were brought to the US by the USDA) around my parents' house. They look basically like yellow or orange lady bugs. Farmers have started harvesting corn, and as the fields are cut down, the beetles have come around the house. I took this picture from the upstairs window of my parent's house:

Omaha

This week I'm going to Omaha for a couple days for a conference for work... and then I get to go to South Dakota to visit my parents and Bridget! Yay!

This year I've become interested in gardening. Now that we have an outside space that actually gets sun, I think there's a chance that I can have a few plants without killing them.

A co-worker of mine gave me some tomato seedlings a few months ago, which I put in containers, because at the time we didn't have any ground to plant them in. I've really enjoyed watching them grow, and it's amazing to me how new it all seems. It's incredible to watch the flowers turn into fruit...I hadn't even really realized that that's how it happened.

I still need to figure out how I'm going to organize my kitchen garden, but I've collected a few seeds here and there that I hope to plant some soon! For now, the tomato plants are my inspiration...

Filoli

This August we went to Filoli for our 5 year anniversary. It's a huge estate with formal gardens near Woodside. We spent a very relaxing afternoon there...I highly recommend it!

Backgammon is all the rage at our house.

some pictures!

The living room, in progress
The backyard

John's workshop

The vegetable garden. (Also in progress ; )

moved in

I'm happy to say we're all moved in! We were once again astonished by the generosity of our friends- thanks again everyone for your help!

We're still unpacking, but the end is in site. Pictures to come after I locate the camera cord.

John's been doing a lot of work in the yard. He's been cutting the front lawn with a push mower and trimming the roses and other plant life. He has also realized a life long dream to own an edger. After 20 bucks and a trip to Home Depot, we now have a lovely, edged front lawn.

I've been falling in love with our new kitchen. Although it's not huge, it does have a 5 burner gas stove! I haven't yet cooked anything really, but after finding broccoli rabe at Zanotto's last night (we're so close!), I think I might have to locate a pot or two. Speaking of broccoli rabe- I had never actually seen it in person before...only in a Giada show or two. I wonder why more places don't carry it?

Next up- time to explore our new library (the Rose Garden Branch, although technically we're in the Burbank neighborhood of San Jose). We'll be thinking of you Bridget! :-)

hurray!

After scouring craigslist and any rental agency websites we could get our hands on, we've found a new place! It's a small house in San Jose- near the Rose Garden. It's super cute, has a garage/workshop for John and a backyard with a vegetable garden for me (did I mention I've become interested in gardening?). We're really excited about the move, and if all goes well we'll move in on the week of the 3rd! I'll be sure to post some pictures then.

biting the bullet

We've given our 30 day notice to move out. To make a long story short, our land lady is too nosy, paranoid, senile, and generaly unstable for us to live here any longer. It's somewhat of a relief to have it settled- and since we had been planning on painting, we're not fully unpacked. So the next move should be tons easier. I'm just glad she showed us her craziness before we got too settled in, so we can make a cleaner break.

Dahlias

I might have found a new favorite flower...

Our landlady grows a few different types, and she gave us some flowers the other day.

For Mom

I got a picture of the 5 of us....except I accidentally had my camera set on video...

My brothers, Steven, Nick, and Lew came up from southern California to visit this weekend. It was a lot of fun- we went to see the Simpsons movie, went to the Mountain View Kwik-E-Mart , and up to Fort Point. We were lucky enough to see two big tankers!

Muir Woods

My parents drove out from South Dakota to visit us this past weekend. The first visitors in our guest room! It was really great to see them, and we're really glad they made the long drive out here :-)

On Sunday we drove up to Muir Woods- a place John and I hadn't been yet since living here. It's a little ways north of San Francisco. Along the way we stopped at Fort Point, to show my parents one of our favorite places. We didn't get to see any big tankers come into the bay, but we did get there right in time to hear the big fog horn going off.

The redwoods at Muir Woods are really amazing. Of course pictures don't do it justice, but I'll post a couple anyway.




We also stopped at Muir Beach, which was super windy but beautiful. I think I still have some sand in my shoes from that trek.

restoration

The Chow table.... all done! There's a glass insert that will go on top. The "chow" style refers to the shape of the legs. John tells me that he didn't refinish it in the traditional chow style (which would have been a stain of walnut or rosewood), but did a custom mixed stain of red mahogany and red chestnut, with gold accents.

On the horizon- two traditional American oval mirrors that will go with our dining room table (pictures taken in our new- not quite finished dining room).

Plum Tree

We have a lovely plum tree in our backyard. We thought they weren't quite ripe yet, but today I picked the first one, and it was deep red, sweet, and absolutely delicious. Earlier I happened upon a recipe for Rosewater Plum compote on one of my favorite food blogs. I might give it a try. Perhaps once our kitchen is put back together... we're going tonight to find shelf liner...

We moved into our new place this past weekend, thanks to the help of my Mom and several very generous friends (thanks again everybody!). I'm so excited. My commute has gone from 15 miles of congested freeway driving to 2 miles of back roads. I can even come home for lunch! Today John made me a sandwich and we ate out in the sun on our new patio. I'm feeling very spoiled.

new project

John's been working on our new dining room table and chairs. We finally broke down and bought a random orbit sander, which cut down on the sanding time drastically. The table is solid walnut with an inlay of burled walnut.



Since we're moving in two weeks, the staining and varnishing have been postponed so it won't get damaged in the move. For now, it's resting in our dining room. I'm excited to see how it transforms when John starts staining it.

Turning the pages

This is really amazing- earlier this year the British Library released a new application where you can look at a few of the more notable books in their collection in 3D. You can actually turn the pages, rotate the books, and move a magnifying glass around the pages. It takes a little while to load, but it's well worth it.

Turning the Pages

For more details, you can check out this guy's blog post

a new place

It appears our long, long apartment search is over. We looked at a 2 bedroom duplex today in Mountain View that we both really liked. It's really close to where I work, so my commute should be cut down to 5-10 minutes from 30-50 minutes. I can't wait. We'll have more space too, and John will have more room to work. If all goes well, we'll be moving in the first week of July. Woo hoo!

Dillon Beach

This weekend we rented a beach house up in Dillon Beach (about an hour north of SF) with some friends. It was great to relax after a busy week...

my first cheesecake

In honor of our dear friend Mike's 29th birthday, I made my very first cheesecake. It was a New York style cheesecake with a shortbread crust. This type of cheesecake doesn't call for a water bath- which I was expecting to have to attempt. In fact, they're actually cooked at a 500 degree temperature for the first 15 minutes. This was a little unnerving, as I was sure the unseen crust was getting burnt to a crisp. It turned out fine though, with the promised golden brown top from the extreme heat.

I've decided to declare cheesecakes as my new favorite dessert to make, not only because of the seemingly endless variations of fillings and toppings (I made a raspberry coulis for this one), but also because they seem to force one to not procrastinate, since they need to be chilled at least over night. I think next will come a graham cracker crust and some sort of lemon topping....mmmm....

bay to breakers

I recovered from horrendous food poisoning last week just in time to make it to Bay to Breakers this morning- a 12k race done in San Francisco every year. Well, it's actually less like a race and more like a parade for those that walk. We went up and stayed with Mike on Saturday, and I met Karen and a few of her friends at the start on the east side of the city.

Karen and I walked the whole thing, which was pretty entertaining. It started with the confusing tradition of people in the packed crowd near the starting line tossing tortillas up in the air. It was amazing how creative people got with costumes, many of which included some sort of cart carrying beer. Did I mention this was at 8 in the morning? The race went through a lot of residential areas, where people were gathered on their front porches and balconies, playing loud music and having fun people watching. We didn't dress up this year...maybe next time...

You can check out some extra shots from The Chronicle that are pretty amusing.

After the race I met up with John and Mike to eat at North Beach Pizza (one of our staples when we're up in the city). There's nothing like some delicious pizza after a couple of days of having nothing but water and crackers!

long weekend

oops....I guess it's been a while since I've posted....but my mom came for a visit this past weekend and now I have some fun pictures to post! We went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose one day. Sarah Winchester designed the house (160 rooms), and its construction continued on for 38 years! Apparently a psychic told her that the only way she could appease the spirits of those killed by winchester rifles would be to build a house that would never be finished. The house is well known for several peculiarities, including a dead-end staircase that leads to the ceiling and the door to nowhere:



We also stayed a night up in San Francisco. We did a lot of walking and shopping, went to Fort Point, Grace Cathedral, and drove down Lombard Street (San Francisco's crookedest street).



We were fortunate to see a huge tanker come into the bay right when we got to Fort Point...if you look in the foreground you can see a group of surfers.

Driving down Lombard Street.