Browse Month: November 2008

Holiday Eats

To officially kick off the holiday season, I decided to bake instead of shop.  So, on Black Friday, I made coffee cake and banana nut muffins. Tasty.

This was also the perfect way to show off one of the new monkey plates that I got for my birthday from Michelle.  Aren’t the monkeys cute?!

In the afteroon, I went to the bakery and bought a huge loaf of crusty French bread.  They sliced it for me and it was perfect for turkey berry sammiches!  One of the best things about Thanksgiving is all the leftovers.  I added sliced turkey breast, stuffing, and my homemade cranberry relish.

Project 5: Super Duper Stripey Scarf

About a month ago I started knitting again.  Since I needed to practice the basics, I decided to make my first scarf.

Koa was the recipient of this super-duper stripey scarf and it makes him look so handsome.  Yes, I know he has fur and doesn’t actually need one but he’s the only model I have a the moment.

Turkey and Pepsi

Thanksgiving was spent in SF this year, which initially bummed me out but ended up being almost as satisfying.  Jes made his annual feast and I always find it endearing when I see Jes sitting in front of the oven spying on his precious turkey.

We had the Masayas over this year and they came with Smush and Diesel.  Koa had a good time having company around and being able to enjoy the bounty of treats that were handed out that evening.  One thing that I couldn’t get over was how Diesel looked so much like Pepsi.  The most familiar to me was his black head and little splotch of white on top.  He was just as cuddly but since he’s an indoor dog, he didn’t have that distinct stinkiness that Pepsi had.  I guess that’s a good thing.  Rob and Kelly take very good care of him.  It just made me miss all my doggies who have now passed.

Chefstruck

Some people get giddy around movie stars but I get all distracted when I see a famous chef wandering around his restaurant.  We had dinner with Yoon (in town for the weekend) at Incanto, which is where Chef Cosentino cooks.  He’s the dude who competed on Iron Chef and known for his ability to turn tuna hearts and calf kidneys into a 5-star dish.  Well, we weren’t very adventurous last night but the food was still very tasty.  Midway through the dinner I noticed the chef wandering around the dining room and hanging out at the bar and couldn’t help staring.

That same evening as I was waiting for my Muni train, I could have sworn that Jamie, of this season’s Top Chef NY, was standing right next to me waiting for her train too.  Just a few months ago I was having drinks at Orson and saw Chef Faulkner (another Iron Chef competitor) wandering around her restaurant. Living in SF is so much fun for a little foodie like me!

007 and Martinis

On Saturday night, we went out for our first movie in a theater since Superbad.  The Bangs got us tickets at Kabuki theatre, which serves booze in the balcony section – score!

There was a bar at the entrance and we were allowed to take our drinks into the theater with us.  The seats were extra comfy with consoles and cupholders between each of the seats.

So while the boys enjoyed their martinis, I had a tasty cosmo during my movie.  Overall, the movie was entertaining.  I like this new Bond.

Certified

This afternoon, we had our make-up session to complete Basic Keelboat Sailing II.  There was more wind today that made it much easier to understand the maneuvers.  We also got a much nicer 27-foot boat with a genoa, which was pretty neato.

The focus of today’s lesson was going through the Man Overboard Drill that involved throwing over a life jacket (our man overboard), making a figure-8 and sailing past the “man” with just the right speed and angle to pick it up out of the water.  In addition to today, we had to demonstrate a bunch of maneuvers to get checked off by our instructor and then we went back to the office and took the certification test.  Jes and I both passed the written test so we are officially certified in Basic Keelboat Sailing and can take out 20-foot sail boats on our own.

The next step is Basic Coastal Cruising, which is another weekend of lessons and another test.  Jes is going to take this one without me (to save money) and we should soon be able to take a larger boat out on the water on our own.  Yay!

Here are the photos from all three days.