teresa

We celebrated our one year anniversary last weekend in Mendocino.  We are slowly ticking through the Bay Area Backroads deck of cards with things to do that we bought nearly 2 years ago when we moved here.  Mendocino is the New England of the West Coast, or that’s what they say at least.  The weather was perfect, overcast mostly, although not hot or not cold, just nice.  We had some beach time although not much, mostly we ate, took pictures, had massages, and ate more.

We found a really cool chapel (non denominational) in Sea Ranch on our drive up.  It was one of our best random finds yet.  These are my favorite parts of a trip particularly a road trip, spotting something from the road and checking it out rather than seeking out something you read about in a magazine or something, random finds are just almost always more rewarding.





Mendocino has lots of artists and art so we went to a gallery actually originally in search of a restroom although it turned out to be fun and they had lots of these tall back chairs.  We were going to take a picture of everyone we found although then our battery died and that idea lost steam.

I don’t know what got into us although on the trip we also took more pictures using the macro function than I think we realized.  We went to a botanical garden which is where most of that happened, if anyone ever wants a picture of a flower we have you covered.

Other than that we went to a lighthouse, had a great dinner, and we took the long way home – we love road trips.

On a side note, this weekend I am still recovering from our Monica Margarita evening Friday night.  Monica shared a margarita recipe with me forever ago that I had always wanted to try and we did Friday night.  Its equal parts limeade, corona and tequila or at least that’s how we made it.  I think there’s a chance its supposed to be one limeade, one limeade tin worth of tequila and then an entire corona, oh and ice.  Although we had to have half it for our little party so we did just one half tin of each, pretty yummy.

Oh and I got a new bathing suit this weekend which always inspires a diet, good thing we have 9 miles to log today!  Our last run was not very successful although I expect we will get all the way through nicely today.

Elliott ablidged and rather than going home after a great dinner last night, Friday night, we went to the new Buffalo Wild Wings in Dublin.  Let me say again though how great dinner was.  Elliott picked the place and he did a fab job finding just the perfect spot, over looking the bay on the Oakland side, and fit my craving for a burger and a beer.  It was a tad chilly although we had a nice dinner.  We siliently saluted the crewers if thats what you call them rowing in the bay as we relaxed our week away.

Then on the way home we decided why not extend the fun.  We went to Buffalo Wild Wings which was busier than an atm on pay day.  We were lucky to find a seat at the bar.  We ordered two cold ones and eventually I asked the guys next to us what the blue Electric Bingo Dauber type machines were that they had.  They said it was a trivia game and that we should play.  I quickly explained that I was terrible at trivia, I actually fundamentally hate Trivial Pursuit and would chose only to play the kiddie version if forced.  Eventually though we decided to play, I was inspired by Dave and Tank who continually placed in the top 5 on the reader board displayed above the bar.

I was unaware of this new bar trend, the company which provided the one we played was buzztime.  I sucked as expected and Elliott kicked butt, which figures.  Although it was fun.  We will difinetely go back and I think it would be fun to go with a group, so we will see if we can rally a few people to go with us, otherwise we will just make new friends if only temporarily like Dave, Tank, and King who sat on the other side of Elliott and killed it, she was the winner the game before we left.

Elliott and I went to dinner tonight.  Although rather than a $40 minimum ticket we picked up <$10 sandwiches from Safeway (which turned out to be pretty good) and drove out to Livermore to Del Valle Lake.  We hiked the less than 1 mile to the top with a great view of the lake and Livermore Valley and we ate dinner on the bench.  Its a little funny to think of it as a money saving idea, although that was partly it, we are certainly working to cut our expenses although it turned out to be much more enjoyable than any dinner we have had a restaurant in a long time.  The views, the quiet, the lone mountain biker, all added to the ambiance far surpassing any east bay hot spot.  So I am thinking that is my new request for a date night.  Didn’t hurt that it was 80 degrees today either so the weather was beautiful as well.

Other random thoughts, kids on bikes scare me.  Elliott and I are training for a marathon so we have been running rather regularly.  Often we will pass by other runners and walkers, and many times families.  The kids we pass on bikes look like at any moment they might lose control and barrel into you.  You can tell their blood pressure rises as you approach and they move over toward the edge of the walkway to avoid you nearly wrecking in the process.  These newly found bike riders scare me and after I safely pass certainly make me laugh.

Over the weekend we helped out both Friday and Saturday nights at the Rotary conference.  Elliott’s club helped wtih their Area’s hospitality suite and they needed help serving the food.  So both nights we assisted with preparing little pieces of baguette with a squirt of horseradish, skirt of mustard, and a slice of corned beef.  We made hundreds if not almost one thousand between both nights!  It was fun.  It was very interesting to see the handful of people that wanted something special.  There were times when we felt like we couldn’t cut and squirt fast enough and someone would come up and ask for one without the mustard, or no carbs…  oh man when food is free I think you got to take it as it comes.  Obviously I would have been less annoyed if I had spent more time in the other room serving (and drinking) Irish libations, atlhough instead of a hangover I got heartburn from eating too much corned beef.  Bob, the president of Elliott’s club, the chef, is also hilarious.  He reminds me a bit of my father although with more spunk.  At one point when one woman who wanted extra corned beef was trying to scoop it up to eat it with a chip and she couldn’t quite get it, Bob reached over and pushed it onto her chip for her with his finger.  He is the type of guy who does stuff that makes you laugh although you know you really shouldn’t laugh because most of it is borderline inappropriate.  Fortunately I found most of his stuff funny the two nights so that at least added to the experience.

This week we are going to Reno for the shareholders meeting Thursday and the BOD meeting Friday.  Should be fun, although we have no time to see friends so I am a little bummed.  Then its back to the Bay area Friday night, I volunteered to help with a construction project for Rebuilding Together Saturday.  Elliott I think may be staying in Reno for WordCamp!  That’s right a Word Press conference, the software he programs our blogs and now our new BJG website in.  I think it is really funny he is going to go to WordCamp. And then I believe he is taking the train home… oh wait update, Elliott has decided not to go to WordCamp… bummer I know he was excited about it.  Good for me though, that means I have my driving partner to come back with me.  Which ultimately means I will fall asleep and Elliott will get me home safe, just the way its supposed to happen.

For those who don’t watch our flickr page to stay up on our wear abouts which I am guessing is probably about everyone except for maybe Deb, here’s a photo update of our recent outings.

Our first and definitely not our last trip to Yosemite.

Christmas in Reno, kids make it all so much fun.

First hike at Mt Diablo, amazing views.

A New Year with new friends!

A tour of the California Academy of Sciences – dorky fun goodness.

I have had a day within a day and I would like to share it with you.

After leaving work, a little later than I should have I came home for a first.  Our first herb garden!  Elliott had to go out of town for an off site meeting so that left me to complete our seed planting.  Many of the seeds required soaking which was reminiscent of the wedding flowers, every cup out of the cupboards, filled with water and spread out on kitchen counters.  We didn’t get organized early enough in the weekend because of our special date to see the nerdcore movie so we didn’t start our soak until Sunday.

Tonight I had to prepare the pellets of soil by soaking them in water and then plant the seeds as instructed from 1/16″ to 1/4″ to 1/2″ deep.  I certainly hope that this measurement is not critical because I found this placement of the tiny seeds to be sketchy at best.  I started out spreading out the 3 seeds throughout the 2″ diameter pellet until after 2 or 3 I decided they could all go in the same hole in the middle.  I felt like a sushi chef, hunched over, with a spoon corralling the seeds from the glass and pouring them into the hole in the dirt, completing each implantation slowly and deliberately.  I kept a chart to know which herb was planted in which pellet, we have 2 of each including herbs like sage, basil, chives, mustard, and many more totaling 12.  We purchased the kit from www.herbkits.com.

After the herbs where planted and the lid installed  I walked to the grocery store in my “flip flops, flip flops” to purchase the remaining items I would need to make a broccoli salad.  Now all of this may sound normal to some of you but for those of you who really know me lets take a second to appreciate that I am starting a garden and cooking!  These are truly phenomenal steps for me.  I have had few hobbies at best the last few years and none of them have included cooking or gardening.

The cooking has been inspired by our recent efforts to go to the farmers market each week.  We started this as a step towards increasing our sustainability – buy local food.  It turned out it has also inspired us to eat more fruits and vegetables and to try new things.  So each Saturday we go to the farmers market, select our inspiration for the week (which has included a variety of mushrooms, eggplant, purple potatoes, green beans…) as well as our staples dates nan or focaccia for our weekly pizza dinner and so on and we are off.

So this week we bought broccoli which inspired us to make a knock off of the Costco broccoli salad.  The recipe I used is a blend between 2 I found on the internet:

• http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001949broccoli_salad.php
• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/broccoli-salad-recipe/index.html

The second one suggested blanching the broccoli which before today I would have thought had something to do with this Golden Girl . But now I know that it means to drop food in boiling water for a short amount of time which I decided was a good suggestion.  I also followed the instructions to cool the broccoli in a bowl of ice water, the crackling of the ice made this step fun.  I modified the recipe slightly, this is a confident cooking move that Elliott taught me.  In lieu of red or purple unions I used the white onion I already had in the fridge and caramelized it using brown sugar (another trick Elliott taught me).  This is partly because Elliott doesn’t like red onions and partly because I already had white onion and didn’t want to waste it, besides it allowed for creativity.  Also I decided to exclude the bacon so the caramelized onion would add some extra flavor.  I liked the dressing of the second recipe better using honey instead of sugar.  I did use white instead of apple cider vinegar because we currently have an overstock of 2 bottles of white vinegar, a good reason why to check your cabinet while making your grocery list.  I included peas and will use raisins, although those are at the office so I will have to add them to my lunch tomorrow before enjoying.  The end product looks like: 

All of this was completed with the sound of the waterfall from our courtyard for better or worse and the slight breeze through the apartment that every once in a while catches the vertical blinds and sends them dancing into each other for a few moments, “click clack, click clack”.

Tonight I will turn in by myself and will look at the soft glow of our sun in a jar.  A pretty cool gift that my Vistage group gave us as a wedding present along with some other goodies.  The sun jar is a solar panel with rechargeable batteries and a little light.  It charges during the day and lights up at night, pretty cool.

To more nights full of planting and cooking, who knew how fun it could be!  Of course the only thing that would have made it better besides raisins and a green thumb is Elliott.