Laguna Seca

This is where we went on Satrday. I don't know why I even thought I might not like it. When Mike realized the race was down in Monterey and not up in Napa, and that it would not interfere with the Saturday session of Stake conference, he made such pathetic appeals to me that I could not refuse him. You should have see how happy he was, how antsy to get out of the house and on the road. I was not convinced that this day at the tracks was going to be $90 worth of fun, $45 a pop! But I held my tongue and waited to see what the day would be like. When we were almost to the entrance a passing car flagged us down and gave us their tickets, so we got in for free! That made the whole experience a million times better.

The race was on TV the next day so we DVR-ed it and watched the highlights: we figured out how one car lost a tire, saw a car catch on fire, confirmed my suspicion that the Ruby Tuesday car did lose it's hood, and saw cars battle for their positions.

for the sea food lover in you




we saw this car smoke off the track



this was my favorite car. it came in second place


battle

Frizz Be Gone!

I got this from a stash that a roommate in Hawaii left when she moved out, but I never used it because trying to fight the humidity in Hawaii was a losing battle. After using this on my hair yesterday I wonder if it might have worked in Hawaii after all. On a normal day if I had not used this stuff it would have looked like a I had a greasy, rat-nest, pile-o-trash on my head, but not so. Let me tell you what my hair had to go up against Saturday, and then you dear reader can judged for yourself whether or not you think this product passed mustard.

We drove from Morgan Hill to the Laguna Seca race track ( about 90 minutes) in crazy hot heat without AC. The windows were down all the way, all the time. That alone would have done it for my mop, especially going through the different climate change from sweaty heat to sticky coastal humidity. By the time we got to the track (I was all sweaty) my hair still looked fairly unmangled. We spent the next several hours walking around the dusty track, while the hot wind whipped dust and grime all over the place, while I was constantly pulling my hair out of my face. We then drove back with the windows down, I took a nap on the way (another hair grease-ifyer), changed clothes in a parking lot, went to a church meeting and came home. All this was done without the aid of a brush or touch-up, though I will admit I badly wanted one. And Sunday morning when I woke up Mike said my hair still looked pretty good (minus the flat, bald looking spot in the back) and I would have skipped a shower, except I was pretty grimy from the other day.

So what do you think? Not the best picture, but by this time (we were about to leave the track) my hair would have succumbed to my greasy sweaty face and just been gross and looked like day old spaghetti. I used this stuff one other time when we went to San Fransisco, and it worked like a charm there too. Only, I did not think it was that monumental because I was not in a wind tunnel the entire day.

Orange Blossom Special

It has been so hot this past week that it seems crazy to post about a candle or anything dealing with fire, flames or heat, oh well. Shelia gave me a little travel size ergo candle in L'Orange. I wish I could somehow let everyone smell this candle, it is the most wonderful thing you have ever smelled! And I don't say that lightly. The candle smells exactly like orange blossoms, not sweet or cloying, just lovely and pitch perfect. It is the kind of smell you would like to eat, or drink, take a bath in, or wear around your neck. So, so wonderful. Get one for yourself here.

An End to Consternation

Consternation : A state of paralyzing dismay.

Well it is over, over and done with. What? Remember how I posted about that Spanish class I had to take to graduate? That class, the class. The class from Hades has been the bane of my existence for the past month and a half! So tortuous, so horrible, so incomprehensible.

Not speaking Spanish was my largest problem. But oh the glorious light at the end of the verb conjugated tunnel is that I don't have to take the darn class! I no longer have to do a million other things every day {or not do a million other things} to avoid doing the one thing that was so difficult to do every day. I tried, I really did try very hard. I have to take one class. Not three classes I thought I had to take. Three classes I GLADLY would have taken to bypass this one Spanish class. No, I only have to take one class, one English class. ENGLISH! I am overjoyed!

And really, the class I am taking {I already transferred classes, paying a $25 transfer fee, that's right I didn't even have to waste all that money} fits in much better with what I studied. I am happy, thankful, relived, and within as little as 5 weeks DONE!

For Elizabeth

Here is the elephant you requested. Now you just have to come get it.




This little guy is from the last minute patch work gifts book.

I Love You

Hello my darling. It seems so long since I last tasted your sweet nectar, and smelled your intoxicating perfume. I am overjoyed we are again in the same time zone. I will never leave you again. Never.

Where Are You?

Why is it that whenever I really, really, really want to talk to someone in any sort of administration positions {in this case at BYUH} they don't answer their phone? Is it just my lousy timing? It is the end of the semester. Or perhaps they are off island {my favorite}. Would it be SO hard to update the answering machine to say at the end something like, "due to no one being at school right now I have decide to go away on a fabulous vacation. I will however be back on {insert date here}. So sit tight." No one does and I just keep calling and wondering, is she late getting into the office? Is she still working there? Is she really going to be gone for the next 3 weeks?

Oh Yes

I thought I smelled something yummy. This picture is sort of fuzzy. I would have taken another but I ate it.

No Need For the Car

I wish Anna and I had known about this site when we ran together. It would have saved our poor husbands a lot of time and saved us from doing a lot of math when we were trying to figure out mileage and routes. So keep the cars in the driveway and map out your running route here.

Annie and Cake

We are going up to the city this weekend. Poor Mike, he has such a long commute everyday, he really does not want to drive up there again. But I am going to be firm this time. We are going to the Legion of Honor to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibition, and then hopefully we will have time to go to Citizen Cake and sample some award winning pastries. Yum.

Bloomfield Underground

We went to see our friend Joe's band play over the weekend. We have been to a few of their shows, pretty fun. The band that played after was a bit strange. I think Mike stated it best when he said, "It looks like their dot com business didn't work out".

Here is my best groupie sassy face.

Jekyll

I finished this BBC series Jekyll the other night. I have to say this is one time when the British smile really puts the character over the top {this picture really does not do him justice}. SCARY! When James Nesbitt morphs into Mr. Hyde and flashes those dagger like teeth, well it just fits the bill, and gives me the willies.



BTW I am going through a British TV thing right now.

Road Warriors

This is from last weekend, but some of the pictures were pretty funny. We went for a bike ride in the morning but my tire got a flat so we ended up getting a new tube and finishing the bike ride that evening. We rode down to the mushroom factory, what a smell! When it got dark we had a fire in the fire pit outside {one of my favorite parts of the house} and made s'mores. And yes, we take helmet safety very seriously.

Buy My Glasses

So the other week Mike bought a pair of flashes for our camera so he could do some off camera lighting with them. He built a light box out of cardboard and tracing paper to diffuse the harshness of the light. Here are my new glasses. The pictures look sort of like an advertisement. Mike wanted to know which one people liked better, the black or the white. Here they are, discuss amongst yourselves.

Blanket

This is my first finished project from the book, Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. It was really easy, except for the part when I sewed everything up and started to turn the blanket out only to realize I had sewn the top piece on the wrong way because of a typo in the book. But even with that setback it was really fast and easy. I just hope there are no more typos in the book.

Dinner with Reed and Bille

No one wanted to cook dinner tonight so my mom suggested we go out to eat. We went to Ragoots in Morgan Hill. It was pretty good. I got the savory chicken risotto, Mike had the charbroiled chicken sandwich, etc., etc.. But the best part was dessert. Banana coconut cake with ice cream, molten chocolate cake with ice cream, and bitter sweet hot chocolate. Yum.

Eye Can See!

Today was a special day, the day I brought my new glasses home! I've needed new glasses for over a year; what with the cloudy mess of scratches and scuffs I have been looking through. I have been looking and looking for new glasses for a really long time. As far back as last August I was looking for new frames {Ashley, do you remember that night we ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory?}. Anyhow, I can see SO much better. I can see individual leaves on the trees down the block people! Other than the slightly tired feeling of my peepers, the prescription is a little stronger, I love em. Thank you Paul Smith, for ending my search.

Weekend

We had a really fun weekend. Friday night we went to a shooting range in Santa Clara. We rented a gun, bought ammo, and purchased 4 targets. Mike was pretty impressed with my skills. When I was at Ricks I dated a guy who had a bunch of guns, and we would go out to the dump and shoot cans and bottles. Oh boring afternoons in Idaho.





Saturday morning we watched General Conference. Mike and the bird were sporting matching hairdos. I was really happy to be able to sustain President Monson as the new President and Prophet of the church, what a special occasion.



We decided Friday night that we would go up to Henry Coe Park and hike around for a bit. I have only been to the park a handful of times, and I have lived here my whole life {except when I was away at school or on a mission}. I think when you live close by something sometimes you take it for granted and forget it exists. Driving up to the park the gas light went on and I mentioned it to Mike and asked if he was planning on getting gas. Oh no, we have at least 30 miles left. Well, on the curvy road up to the park the car started to shudder and stutter. But we made it into the parking lot and decided that since we were there we might as well hike around and worry about getting home when we were done.






We took the trail to Frog Lake, which was more of a pond. On the way there Mike nearly stepped on a snake because he was not watching where he was going. We saw lots of wild flowers and a few more snakes. When we got back to the car we were pretty sure there was no way we would make it down to a gas station. So, after glaring at Mike and reminding him that I thought we should have bought some gas we set off. We coasted in neutral almost the whole way back, thanks to those steep winding hills. The stop light at the end of the hill almost killed us, but we managed to squeak into the closest gas station and fill up.








By the time we got down from the park we were starving. We went to the Trail Dust to have some really good BBQ. I had pulled pork {my favorite} and Mike had the 3/4 pound tri-tip. Man! That was some good food. We finished up with berry cobbler accompanied by two scoops of ice cream. So good! Finally to make the night truly memorable we got dressed up and went to Prom. No, not really but we saw these kids outside and had a good laugh at the horrific dresses and suits they were wearing. We did not even get pictures of the really bad dresses. It looked like dancing with the stars, or Miss universe. Oh man, kids these days. On the way home we took some pictures of the mustard green fields by the mushroom farm. Morgan Hill is so pretty in the spring time!

FlipClips

I just saw this in the April Martha Stewart magazine. What a great idea, turn your video clips into a flip book. Now I just have to find of the perfect video clip. Here is the web site.

Mexican Chicken Soup

I made this last night for dinner via the Barefoot Contessa. As far as tortilla soups go I think this is the best I have ever made. The clincher was adding the 6 corn tortillas, that gave it that elusive authentic tortilla soup taste. I used 3 boneless chicken breasts and five 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth. Enjoy.

4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
Good olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped onions (2 onions)
1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
2 cups chopped carrots (4 carrots)
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 1/2 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in puree, crushed
2 to 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, optional
6 (6-inch) fresh white corn tortillas
For serving: sliced avocado, sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the chicken breasts skin side up on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until done. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions start to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tablespoon salt (depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock), 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cilantro, if using.

Cut the tortillas in 1/2, then cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch strips and add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and season to taste. Serve the soup hot topped with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla chips.