Vacuum

We need a vacuum. Any suggestions?

My Muse

I am my own muse. Actually, I was just bored and I don't have anyone else to photograph. Bille is usually not willing so I have a lot of pictures of myself. I used two flashes off camera for these pictures. One through an umbrella camera left and another behind me camera right.

My gift to you, me. Merry Christmas.

Christmas Came Early...

for me. Bille let me buy a new camera (not that I actually needed her permission, I mean, I'm the man of the house, right?). Finally took it for a spin today around S.F.

Day in San Francisco

Today Bille and I went for a walk in the city. We didn't really have any plans on where we were going except that we would walk to North Beach. We went up the Embarcadero and then climbed the stairs to Coit Tower(which was not easy). On the way up we saw the famous "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" squaking it up and flying around. Kind of cool to see wild parrots flying around SF. We walked around North Beach and I blew a great photo opportunity of a woman scrubbing a red floor in a laundromat. The lighting and colors were perfect but I chickened out. I came back 15 minutes later and it was too late. We just walked around and stopped in a few stores and came back home through the financial district. We should have made plans so we could have done more, but it was nice to get outside on a really nice day.

Who Knew...

Food fights could be so political.




Explanation here.

Snow in San Francisco?

Well sort of.  I snapped these pictures with my camera phone on the way home from a meeting last night.  On further inspection, i.e. handling the stuff, it seemed to be lots of hail stones that never melted from earlier in the day.  Needless to say it was cold yesterday, and Winter is here.  

If You Need a Dentist

My brother in-law Wade is the bomb dot com as far as dentists go.  He did this gal's teeth on the cover of this here magazine.  So if you live in the greater Boise are you should check out his offices.

 
 He also did my mom and dad's grillz, and mine too.  If you want to see some before and after pictures of my mom and dad's mouths click here.   

Macarons

I made these cookies on Thanksgiving and I was so pleased, they turned out perfect!  I've been wanting to make them for a while now but I was looking for the perfect recipe, a tried and true recipe that had very specific instructions.  So thanks to Emily Martin from Inside A Black Apple for doing all the hard work!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

We bellied up and got our own connection to the internet.  Yes I know we should have had our own connection all along, but seriously when you live in an apartment and you don't lock your wireless signal it is an open invitation to piggybacking.  Anyhow, we are now enjoying using Skype.  Elizabeth and I were on it for almost two hours yesterday.  Well I haven't seen the girl since August.

On another note, we will get around to putting pictures from our trip up here, it was fabu.  The trip home was not, or I should say flying first class from Hawaii to Lax was, but flying standby was a beast. 

We're Back (with no internet)

We just got back from Hawaii yesterday. What a blast! Thanks to Sheila and Keoni and Anna and Zane for letting us stay with you. It was really good seeing all of you. Pictures will be up eventually. We just need to catch up on some sleep(staying up 36 hours to catch all the flights).

In other news, it looks like the people, who's internet connection we've been using, have moved out. So no internet for at least a few days at home. I'm typing this at work, which I should probably get back to.

Mike

Still Here

Just a quick post, we are still in Hawaii and loving it. We will be flying home a day later than we thought, oh the joys of standby.

Tippi and Rod Do Halloween

This year our theme was from The Birds. I bought the perfect dress from eBay, but after waiting 2 weeks for it to arrive, it never came. So after work on Friday I frantically searched through numerous thrift stores for a new costume. Running out of time, I settled for this yellow suit dress thing straight out of the 80's. We were an hour late to a party we were invited to by some people from our ward. Despite the late start I think the costumes turned out well. After the party Mike put together a little photo shoot for us.

Aloha, Hawaii!!!

We finally got tickets to go to Hawaii (thanks very much Emily).  We will be there November 9th to the 16th.  We can't wait to see everyone!

Dress, Dress, Shirt

I tried the top dress on today.  I loved it.  I love it so much that if this gown had been around when I got married I am pretty sure I would have wanted to wear it.  

I liked this shirt too.  Looks like I am feeling beige these days.

Old News

I was looking at some old pictures.  I like these.

Yo, Ho, Ho

I went to Jess and Cat's today to help out while they are packing up to move.  Today was Jacob's birthday.  We had a little singing and some cupcakes.  And then Jacob turned into a pirate.

Something Unexpected

I was looking at the new wedding dresses at J.crew and watched this little video of their favorite first dance. Made me laugh.

O Pioneers!

Last night I finished Willa Cather's, O Pioneers!  I loved it.  Cather's writing style resonates so deeply.  I wish I could adequately describe the swell of emotions I experienced while reading this book.  Her writing is beautiful, and it made me want to be in the middle of nowhere working the land.

Just so you know

J.crew is having  a massive sale right now.  This is THE best time to get a bathing suit there.  This little number is only 20 bucks.

Max

So here is a little bragging.  This is my nephew Max, he is seven.  He learned how to wakeboard this summer.  I think the motivation to do it was something like this, "We will take you to... or, we will get you a... if you can get upon the wakeboard by yourself".  Pretty good for a little guy huh?

For Ashley

Here you go Ashley.  I am not sure if I like the yellow wrap or the grey one better.

Outrageous

Made Ina's outrageous brownies on Monday.  We finally polished them off late Saturday morning (great breakfast option).  Usually with brownies I can take em or leave em, not these though.  This recipe makes lots and lots of brownies, and people in your house might be tempted to sing that Britney Spears song while eating them.  Just a warning.

Ingredients

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
• 2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (1 cup for batter and 1/4 cup in the chips and nuts)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 cups diced walnut pieces

• Directions

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 18 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.

  Melt together the butter, 1 pound chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

  Stir together 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup flour to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not over-bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares

For Sharon

Here is validation that your transitional furniture, and my transitional furniture is okay.  Elle Decor March 2008

Update

Mike fixed the car, I knew he could do it!  But get this, we don't have any tools per se, so we went down to the garage with a butter knife and a candle.  We looked pretty silly.  Mike found a knife in the glove box and used that to unscrew the few screws, and used the candle for a little light.  I think I have said it before, but Mike really is like MacGyver.

All Hail Long Live King Mike!!

Mike and I have a thing with buying cars with little problems.  The first car we bought together  in Hawaii did not reverse, and the driver side door did not open.  If we parked on a slope we had to push the car out.  After the Suzuki died we got a car that had a leaky roof that would shower bits of rusted metal whenever we closed the door.  We had to bang on the starter  with a hammer every time we wanted to start the car.  The doors did not open all the way, and after a kid hit us in the library parking lot, we had a winking head light.  But that car served us well and when we finally donated it for scrap metal I was kinda sad to see it go.  

When we got to California we wanted a car that was a step above our Hawaii cars (not hard to do).  We ended up buying a WV golf from craigslist and got a really good deal for it.  There are some cosmetic problems, the trim is ripped off on the outside, the car is missing a hubcap, the previous owner let his dog ride in the back seat.  But hey we have seat heaters and the windows don't leak.  

We have had our share of problems with this car, but with the right tools Mike has been able to fix all the problems.  And these have been major, potentially very costly problems.  I Have to say Mike is kind of the master of car fixing.  When something has gone wrong with our cars, and he is not sure he can fix it, I have pretty much absolute faith in him.  And the mad does not disappoint.  Therefore, I am sure he can fix our current problem.

For some reason  you have to unlock our car from the passenger side, or else the alarm will go off.  No big problem really, it took a few times stetting the alarm off for me to remember but now I remember to open the car from the passenger side.  Anyhow, last week I went to unlock the car and nothing happened.  Nothing.  The door just did not unlock.  Fortunately we had not set the alarm and I was able to go to the driver side and open the car. However, we have had to be really careful not to lock the car from the door, or turn the key the wrong way when we are opening the door, or it will turn the alarm on, and the only way to turn it off is by opening the car from the passenger side, which is impossible because I broke it.  

To prevent me from accidently setting the alarm when I am trying to open the door I put a hot pink arrow on the side of the dash reminding me when I look in the window, turn the key to the FRONT of the car, not the BACK.  Well, I forgot to look and I turned the key to the back.  Alarm set, no way to turn it off without going through the passenger door, which as you know by now is broken.  I called Mike to see what I should do.  Mike emailed me instructions on dismantling the alarm.  Dismantling the alarm, crossing some wires and resetting the whole thing....  I am not so good with stuff like this.  And so Mike is on his way home to bail me out.  Thanks Mike, I know you will fix everything.

A few things

I was off work today (yes I got a job, about time too huh?) and decided to go to the Mission and explore a bit.  A girl I work with told me about this great store Paxton Gate that has such a strange mix of oddities and treasures.  The strangest thing I saw?  Individually wrapped owl droppings with a note saying, "Each dropping contains actual mouse bones".   There were really strange things like owl droppings wrapped up like baked potatoes along side mouse-a-dermy.  That is, mice stuffed and made up like Hamlet, a bride and groom and the pope.

There was also some really beautiful jewelry, which is why my co-worker told me about this shop in the first place.  I was admiring her necklace, a rose thorn cast in 14k gold by Laurie Brown, that was so lustrous and delicate I had to see if there was anything else there there that was as lovely.  I did not end up buying any thing to wear but got something to put up on the wall (all of our walls are SO bare right now) and we happened to have a frame just the right size at home.

I went into a few furniture stores, got molested (in this case I mean verbally bothered) by a really large Hispanic guy.  Thanks again dude for making me feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. Boo.  Walked, walked, walked.  Bothered by another Hispanic guy (give it a rest already crazy people, will you?).  Mike met me after work and we ate at Frjtz.  I had the Goya crepes, Mike had the Velasquez sandwich.  Pretty good.  And it was nice because we were there before the evening rush.  That's all.

Bobble Dress

I just saw this at the purl bee.  If I had a little girl I would make this for her. If you do have a little girl, and the time to make it, here is the pattern.

Twitter

I don't really get Twitter.  Why would you want to know what I am doing every second of the day?  Am I missing something?  If I am please explain it to me, then maybe I will start using it too.  But most likely not.

Opera in The Park

Sunday was a good day. Sacrament meeting was good, Sunday school was good, and Relief Society was very good. After church we drove over to Golden Gate Park to sit on the grass and listen to the SF opera sing and play some beautiful arias. It was kind of a perfect Sunday afternoon thing to do. We relaxed in the sun listening to beautiful music.  After the free concert we walked in the park enjoying nature

I put this last one here because I look like I have ape arms.  Don't you think so?

Oregon

We are in Oregon for the holiday weekend. Shakespeare festival, Crater Lake, green, green goodness.

Hello Friend

Dear friend,

I have been thinking about how bad I've been about keeping in touch with you. I don't know why. I am just bad at picking up the phone or writing a letter. I have decided to reform, because I like you. Expect to hear from me soon. You know who you are. Hugs and kisses,

Bille

Power Out

Yippee!  The power is out at Mike's office and he is coming home for the day.  I love unreliable power and telephone lines.

Fishy

Our neighbors are cooking fish again.  Stinky. 

Simply the Best

If Tina Turner and Rod Stewart had a love child one could be fairly certain about three things.  

1.  Said love child would have a great voice

2. Said love child would have great legs

3. Said love child would have crazy hair

In respect to the crazy hair I am feeling kinda like Tina and Rod's imaginary love child today.

Saturday

Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market at the Ferry building.  We walked around sampling delicious fruits, crackers, jams, and cheeses.  Mike ended up carrying around the basil plant we got, I tried a raw oyster for the first time.  We just had a nice time walking around in the sun looking at the fresh produce, flowers and all glorious colors.