Biscuits and Jam

364 entries tagged with bay area.

Christmas and the New Year (January 17, 2013)

A somewhat belated Happy New Year! My wish for us in 2013: More sleep! Otherwise, things are pretty great already. When we last talked, Felix was 31 weeks old. A day after my last post, his first t...

Road Trip, Beef Share (July 2, 2012)

Hmm, time seems to be going by awfully quickly. I have three more weeks' worth of orange chair pictures to post--here is Felix at 5, 6, and 7 weeks: Poor little brother! In the past few ...

California Visit and Meg's Graduation (June 18, 2011)

We started our California trip with a visit to Atascadero, to my mom and Alan's house. It was a lovely visit as always. Many of Alan's family members live nearby, and some of them stopped by fo...

Thirty-Nine Weeks Old (March 5, 2011)

Here's our mischievous baby at 39 weeks old. And here he is all bundled up for a walk with Patrick during some recent cold weather. We used one of my rainbow over-the-knee socks as a scarf for ...

Spring, Chicken Coops, This Week's Agenda (March 31, 2009)

I had a nice week in California and got to enjoy some beautiful sunny weather. Spring is a little farther along in the Bay Area, and the petals were falling from the trees. It was nice sitting on the ...

Holiday Cooking (December 31, 2008)

We're back in Portland! The snow was pretty much melted by the time we got home, which was kind of a relief (no need to run out and buy a snow shovel and salt). Patches was happy to see us and didn't ...

Snow in Portland, Christmas in California (December 25, 2008)

I haven't written in a while! When I last wrote, Tree and Andrew had just arrived in Portland for a visit. Soon after, the snow started. It kind of put a damper on our fun Portland activities, but it ...

Pudding, Socks, Jacob and Amanda's Wedding (September 25, 2008)

We just found out that you can buy pudding at the farmers' market! Jacob's Creamery sells containers of homemade vanilla and chocolate pudding, alongside a nice assortment of cheeses. Totally awesome!...

Plenty of Room at the Hotel California (September 16, 2008)

This week, Patrick and I are living it up at the Hotel California in Palo Alto. It has kind of a budget feel to it, but it's in a good location (right next to the train station, two grocery stores, Su...

Temporary Shambles (August 8, 2008)

About a month ago, a girl on our softball team, upon hearing that we were moving, asked if our lives were in shambles yet. I told her to check back with me in a few weeks. And indeed, now that we are ...

Colorado Recap and Moving Update (August 3, 2008)

I keep meaning to write about our visit to Colorado last weekend, but there hasn't been time to do a full write-up. In short, we spent a couple days last week visiting my dad, stepmom, and sister in F...

We Now Own Five Bikes (August 2, 2008)

I bought a folding bike today! It's a Dahon Boardwalk S1, and I bought it for cheap (well, cheaper than new) from a cool tattooed guy in a Burger King parking lot in South San Jose, through the magic ...

Garage: Mysterious No More! (July 23, 2008)

Well, Robbie finally gained admission to the mysterious detached garage at our new house, and it turned out that it was just a normal garage--no pot plants, no freezers full of dead bodies, nothing at...

Cute Oven and Peanut Butter (July 20, 2008)

We went to a party at my coworker's house in San Jose yesterday, and he had the cutest little 1950's oven (and a matching gas range, not pictured) by O'Keefe and Merritt, installed by the original own...

House Papers Signed (July 19, 2008)

I do believe we bought a house today! We worked from home this morning (well, Patrick did; I couldn't get my VPN working), then went to the bank to get a cashier's check of staggering proportions. The...

Closing on Friday! (July 17, 2008)

House buying is back on track and moving along quickly. The second appraisal came back fine, and it appears that our loan has been approved. We're scheduled to sign our closing papers on Friday! We re...

Closing Date Extended (July 12, 2008)

Things are going smoothly with our second lender so far; hopefully we'll get a good appraisal this time. I suppose the first appraisal wasn't necessarily bad, but we're hoping this one will allow us t...

House Appraisal Issues + Biscuits and Apricots (July 10, 2008)

Home-buying update: We made it out of the inspection period and came to a good compromise on the two things that we want fixed right away (properly supporting the basement door and fixing the retainin...

House Blogs and Food Update (No Pictures) (July 3, 2008)

We're about halfway through the home-buying process at the moment. We're getting to the end of the inspection period, though we're still going through some negotiations on the retaining wall repair. N...

Miscellany (June 22, 2008)

We're still buying the Portland house, as far as we know. For the past few days, we've been working on gathering the financial documents required by our lender, and Patrick is going to fly back out to...

Ginger Ale, Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, Unwelcome Auto Tenants (June 1, 2008)

So much to write about (we went to Oregon last weekend to see a concert!), but first a few tidbits from before our Oregon trip. A couple weeks ago, we had a farmers' market dinner of grilled halibu...

Early Summer Abundance (May 18, 2008)

I like that artichokes can serve as food in one stage of development, and decoration later. I got this excellent specimen at our farmers' market this morning. I remember the first time I saw flowering...

Day in SF (May 18, 2008)

We had a fun day in the city today. Our main reason for going was to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibition at the Legion of Honor (running through next Sunday), but I threw in a few other activities whil...

Feels Like Summer (May 16, 2008)

Man, it has been hot this week! That means the mornings are great for biking to work, but the afternoons aren't so pleasant. On Tuesday, I biked in, and then after work I biked down (streamers flying)...

Dinner at Greens, Spring Cleaning, First Cherries (May 11, 2008)

Life is good. Yesterday, after spending a week eating pulled pork leftovers, we had a nice, healthy salad for lunch (romaine, balsamic vinaigrette, yummy roasted beets in three different colors, sprou...

Biking the Golden Gate Bridge (May 6, 2008)

We had a fun day out and about yesterday. After much urging from my boss (who likes to live vicariously through Patrick and me, since we don't have kids and she does), Patrick and I finally got around...

All Food, All the Time (May 3, 2008)

I was thinking--it's a little odd that when I look back on this time, I'll just have a record of what we ate. But there's just not much else to tell right now--life is good. We have a routine for the ...

Just in Time for Bike to Work Month (April 30, 2008)

I rode my bike to work in Mountain View for the first time today. It was a beautiful morning, and I enjoyed myself for the most part. I followed the same route that I used to get to my old building in...

Weekend in the Garden (April 13, 2008)

This has been an enjoyable weekend with awesome weather! On Friday, it was supposed to get up to 85F, so Patrick and I both took half days off of work and met up after lunch to enjoy the sun together....

To Move or Not to Move? (April 6, 2008)

Speaking of our life, we've once again started discussing whether to move to Portland when our apartment lease is up in September. We entertained the idea last year as well, but we decided to wait ano...

Last Berkeley Rep Play, Dutch Goose, Sunny Outing in Palo Alto (April 6, 2008)

A few weekends ago, we headed over the East Bay for our third and final performance of the season at Berkeley Rep. We stopped at Poulet for lunch. It reminded me of how JZ Cool used to be before it tu...

Happy Pi Day! (March 15, 2008)

Happy Pi Day! (Strawberry rhubarb and apple streusel pie in front of the fountain at Cafe Borrone, picture taken and pie consumed less than an hour ago. Taken with Patrick's new iPhone!) I h...

Food Post, Including Ham, Coffee Cake, and Malted Waffles (March 6, 2008)

I appear to be almost a month behind in writing about our meals! I doubt these posts are of interest to anybody other than me, but I have a dream of someday writing a recipe database that summarizes a...

New Purchases and a Healthier Morning Routine (March 4, 2008)

Although it has been rainy, I've enjoyed myself. Sunday before last, I walked to the farmers' market in the drizzly gray, and on my way there, I spotted a rainbow! There weren't many farmers there bec...

Winter Meals and Produce Delivery (January 30, 2008)

Yay, winter food! 1. Curried lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach, roasted brown rice pilaf scented with leeks (from Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way). I changed up the lentil recipe a little b...

Weekends, Rock Band, and Winter Meals (January 18, 2008)

We've been trying to take things easy this month and have been enjoying some nice quiet weekends sitting around the apartment. Patrick got an Xbox a few weeks ago, but it hasn't prevented him from hel...

New Year's Eve (January 1, 2008)

We had a nice, relaxed New Year's Eve at Tree and Andrew's place. We decided that it would be fun to try fondue, so we bought a Swissmar fondue set and some swiss fire gel (exciting!) and took everyth...

Savory Food Roundup (December 27, 2007)

Hmm, it appears I haven't written anything in almost a month. My bad! Now that I have a couple days off, let's see if I can catch up. First the savory stuff... 1. Flank steak with shiitake mushroom...

Mariquita Challenge #2 (December 1, 2007)

We got a second Mariquita mystery box a couple of Thursdays ago (the same night we went to Piccino). This time, we got the last tomatoes of the season (with pretty gold and pink stripes), green and ye...

Argonautika, Sens, Piccino (November 22, 2007)

Argonautika Two weekends ago, we attended our second Berkeley Rep show of the season, Mary Zimmerman's Argonautika. There was a Cal game that day, and we ended up arriving at the theatre a few minu...

Mariquita Mystery Box (November 10, 2007)

So, as I mentioned in my last entry, we picked up a Mariquita Mystery Box a few Thursdays ago. Traffic was bad that night, and we only barely made it to Zuppa in time to collect our box, but everythin...

Saturday Relaxing and Recent Restaurant Visits (November 4, 2007)

We have enjoyed a string of nice, relaxed weekends recently. I love it! Last Saturday was especially nice. I made us a breakfast of Blueberry-Yogurt Waffles (from Dorie Greenspan's Waffles from Mornin...

Cute Beer (November 1, 2007)

Also, I did not win the Cutest Costume contest at work this year. That honor went to my former supervisor, who was dressed as a bottle of beer. That was a surprise! I think Ms. Pac-man should have won...

Lazy Weekend, Lots of Fresh Produce (September 23, 2007)

This has been a pretty relaxing weekend. Patrick went down to San Luis Obispo to attend Eric's housewarming party, but I stayed behind because I was desperately in need of a lazy weekend. And that's...

End-of-Summer Barbeque (September 15, 2007)

Last weekend, we hosted a barbecue because two of our college friends, Chrissy and Gunny (those are their college nicknames; if you ask them, my husband's name is Patty), were visiting from Southern C...

Musicals, Food, New Domain Name (September 9, 2007)

Catching up, in list form: We have harvested two Crane melons from our garden so far. They're small, but they taste like melons all right! The flavor is similar to a cantaloupe, but with a hi...

Weekend at Treebones, Big Sur (September 8, 2007)

We recently enjoyed a weekend getaway in Big Sur. We spent a lot of time on the Central Coast when we were planning our wedding, but we haven't been back much since. I'd read about Treebones, a yurt...

Recent Meals, Flat Tires, and Durian (August 22, 2007)

Recent meals: These past few weeks my main goal when planning dinner has been to clean out our cupboards and freezer. It's satisfying to use things that have been sitting around for a long time! ...

East Bay Excursion: Dopo and Kona Club (August 21, 2007)

A week ago, we headed over to Oakland to attend Tree and Andrew's house-cooling party (they're moving to a new place closer to us; yay!). We started with dinner at Dopo, which I'd been wanting to vis...

Summer Bits and Pieces (August 15, 2007)

Some bits and pieces: We went to the Menlo Park Connoisseur's Marketplace a few weekends ago. My coworkers said it was one of the best art and wine festivals in the Bay Area (I didn't realize ...

Delfina, JZ Cool Eatery and Wine Bar (August 8, 2007)

Next up, accounts of two recent restaurant visits--one good, one not so good. Delfina I've tried a few times in the past to get reservations at Delfina but never far enough in advance. I had he...

Bourne Ultimatum and Uncle Frank's BBQ (August 4, 2007)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--women in Jason Bourne's life have incredible luck when it comes to dyeing and hacking off their hair in crappy, poorly lit motels. Maybe I should start cut...

5-day Weekend, Including a Day in SF (July 10, 2007)

Since the 4th of July fell mid-week, I took Thursday and Friday off and enjoyed a nice long 5-day weekend. I did a little relaxing, got some stuff done, and even made it up to the city for a day. It...

Yummy Summer Meals (including some famous pork chops!) (July 2, 2007)

We started the week with two simple meals. First up was Gingery Shrimp and Couscous with leftover grilled vegetables and strawberries for dessert. It was easy enough, but nothing special. Nex...

Pride and Prejudice Tea Party, Healthy Summer Grilling (June 25, 2007)

Yesterday, we drove over to the East Bay and had brunch at Citron. We were seated by the window with a good view of Rockridge residents walking their mid-sized dogs and chatting on the sidewalk. Roc...

Recent Food Exploits + New Mandoline (June 24, 2007)

Last weekend, I got it in my head that I wanted to make something involving homemade tortillas. I decided to make Chicken Fajitas (from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook), topped with avocad...

Company Picnic, Paly Graduation, Hippie Food (June 14, 2007)

On Saturday, we biked over to Menlo College, to attend my company's annual family picnic. It was a beautiful day. We ate some barbecue and bounced in a bouncy house for a little bit (I think this wa...

Gianduja Gelato! (and some other stuff) (June 9, 2007)

Earlier this week, I made Skillet Chicken and Rice with Peas and Scallions (from Cook's Illustrated) using fresh peas and torpedo onions from the farmers' market. It ended up being a frustrating expe...

Meal Round-up, Fruit Crumbles with Real Ice Cream!, Yogurt Optimization (June 5, 2007)

Recent Meals 1. We needed a quick egg-centric dinner (they were about to expire!) prior to our Colorado trip, so Patrick made a Crispy Prosciutto and Scallion Frittata with arugula and goat cheese ...

Two Meals Out, Two Meals In, and an Eggbeater Ice Cream Class (May 23, 2007)

Two Meals Out 1. Last Friday, we biked to Palo Alto and had dinner for the first time at St. Michael's Alley. It's on a side street that I don't go down very often, so I kept forgetting it existed...

Hippie Practice (Yogurt and Granola), Halibut on Tabbouleh, Bike Socks (May 18, 2007)

I have been working on being a better hippie by trying to find the perfect granola and yogurt recipes. I still have some work ahead of me. Yogurt I made my first batch of homemade yogurt in our...

Weekend High Jinks: Shiok, Kitchen Tidying, The Counter (May 17, 2007)

I took last Friday off to get some errands done, and I had lunch at Shiok in Menlo Park. I'd known about it for a while, but we'd never gotten around to going there. I sat down by the window, read m...

Birthday Adventures (Mostly Culinary) (May 11, 2007)

I had a good birthday weekend. We headed to the East Bay on Saturday, stopping by Romolo's Spumoni and Cannoli Factory to pick up some cannoli for our picnic with Tree and Andrew. I read about Romol...

Life Update (May 4, 2007)

We've been busy recently! Last Wednesday, we went to see the Decemberists at the Warfield with My Brightest Diamond. We only recently started listening to the Decemberists, and we like them a lot. ...

Three Dinners, Savory Snacks, Pavlovas, and Mitchell's Ice Cream (April 19, 2007)

First, a few recent meals: 1. Buttermilk-Brined Pork Chops, Millet with Buttermilk and Chives from Lorna Sass's Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, and steamed peas. The pork chops were good, as us...

A Night on Angel Island (April 9, 2007)

After reading this article and this one in Sunset about Angel Island, I decided that we should go camping there this April. I reserved campsite #5 (supposedly one of the best on the island) for Easte...

Second Annual Pie Bake-Off (April 7, 2007)

Yesterday was the second annual pie bake-off at my place of employment. I organized it this year, and I chose to hold it on the same date as last year's. This was a poor choice, as it turns out, sin...

Catch-up: Recent Dinners, English Muffins, Oliveto (April 7, 2007)

Oh man, I've let things pile up, and now I have a bunch of stuff to write about. Let's see... Recent meals: I made a batch of Smoky Beef and Bacon Chili from Sunset a week or two ago. It was g...

Yum, Yum, Fruit Cake! (March 25, 2007)

Patrick's off in Tahoe again this weekend (this time with his coworkers instead of mine), so I took this chance to sample the fruit cake that I won at my company's white elephant party in December. Y...

Weekend in Tahoe (March 20, 2007)

We went on our first ski trip this past weekend. I am bruised and sore, but I enjoyed myself overall. We left work early on Thursday and drove up to Tahoe. We ran into some nasty traffic in the E...

Waffles, Round 3 (March 14, 2007)

Okay, this is the last round of waffles for awhile, I swear! Patrick thinks I've gone a little crazy, making so many waffles. But I had buttermilk and sour cream to use up before the weekend, an...

Buttermilk and Yeasted Waffles, Shrimp Fra Diavolo (March 5, 2007)

We've been preparing for a ski trip we'll be going on in a few weeks with some coworkers of mine. Neither of us has ever been skiing or snowboarding, so this will be interesting. Patrick's in charge...

The Good Life (March 3, 2007)

A good movie at our local independent theater (with frozen Junior Mints!) followed by a nutmeggy cup of custard and a tall glass of steamed milk at Cafe Borrone. It was a good Friday night....

Dinner at Manresa (February 28, 2007)

We celebrated Valentine's Day a few weeks ago with an evening out in the South Bay. We got some free tickets to Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night at the SJ Rep, which turned out to be on...

Superbowl Snacks, Monochromatic Dinner (February 6, 2007)

We had a tie in our first Dutch baby face-off. I made a batter using 1/2 c milk, 1/2 c flour, 1 T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 t vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon. I split this in half. To one half I adde...

I did not choose wisely... (February 3, 2007)

This may come as no surprise--Because I Said So is not a good movie, even by my standards. It's inane and unoriginal and kind of appalling in parts. The rest of the women in the theater seemed to fi...

Pork Tenderloin and Apple Couscous, Sesame Milk Tea (February 2, 2007)

Tonight's dinner was utterly forgettable (except now that I've written an entry about it, it will never be forgotten). I'm mostly writing this entry so that I remember not to try these recipes again ...

Dutch Babies (Round 5), Kingfish Dinner, Three Recent Meals (January 30, 2007)

First, it appears I forgot to mention that I planted some succulents (from Wegmans) in a large bowl a while back (idea and bowl from Anthropologie). I know nothing about growing succulents, and I was...

Food Roundup: June Taylor Marmalade Class, Fourth Street, Redwood City (January 23, 2007)

First, a picture of the granola I made a while ago with some dried blueberries (yum!) and milk. Not bad, but not amazing. Much healthier than commercial granola though. Our garden seems to ha...

AMITA Discussion: Taking a Hiatus from Work to Raise Kids (January 18, 2007)

Tonight, I attended a discussion hosted by AMITA NorCal about how to return to the workplace after taking time off (the primary focus was on women who have taken time off to have a baby, which is what...

Garden Stuff + Brisket + Granola (January 16, 2007)

I put up a few pictures of our latest garden setup. Click the daisies! As anticipated, the temperature has fallen below freezing at night for the past few days. The first night it happened, I...

Chez TJ, Portland Trip Planning, Lemon Tree Cozy (January 13, 2007)

We had dinner tonight at the very fancy Chez TJ in Mountain View, to celebrate the fact that we both recently got promoted and to take advantage of the discount program Patrick has at work (the offer ...

Pan-Seared Salmon, Buttermilk-Dill Rolls, Gingered Fennel + NPR (January 11, 2007)

I very much enjoyed our dinner tonight. We had Pan-Seared Wild Coho Salmon (recipe from The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, which I'm liking so far), Buttermilk-Dill Rolls, and Gingered Fennel with Garli...

Good Lentil Soup, Dutch Baby Attempt #2 (January 7, 2007)

Patrick made some good soup for dinner last week--Lentil Soup with Balsamic-Roasted Winter Vegetables from Cooking Light. I made a salad of Belgian endive and radicchio with an orange vinaigrette to ...

New Year's Day thoughts + food traditions (January 1, 2007)

Happy New Year! We were champs and stayed awake past midnight last night, but we ended up skipping the champagne, as neither of us felt like drinking it (we were too full from dinner!). As I said ...

Cooking Classes, Another SF Visit, East Bay Adventures (December 20, 2006)

Last Thursday was a busy day. In the evening, I took a Oaxacan cooking class at the new Whole Foods, taught by the husband and wife who own Oaxacan Foods (they also sell food at local farmers' market...

Holiday Dress + SF Meals (December 12, 2006)

The Quattro has been serving me well lately. I bought a lot of cute clothes there near the end of my diet, and just last week I bought a dress to wear to my company's holiday party. It's kimono-styl...

Crabby Letdown (December 9, 2006)

Since Dungeness crab is in season, I thought we should have dinner at a seafood restaurant so we could partake in the crabby bounty. We went to The Cantankerous Fish in Mountain View. The food sound...

Good Times in SF (December 5, 2006)

We've done all sorts of good stuff lately! On Friday, we met up with Tree and Andrew and went to Zibibbo for dinner. Last time we both ordered from the prix fixe menu, so we were surprised to find ...

Lots of Pie + No-Knead Bread (November 26, 2006)

This tree near our apartment is turning all sorts of pretty colors and is laden with little berries. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but I like seeing it every morning. So autumnal! Las...

Pretty New Pie Plate (November 21, 2006)

I realized last night that we have only one pie plate, and I'm going to be making two pies for Thanksgiving. I got around that problem last year by using disposable foil pie plates for the pumpkin pi...

Shuna's Famous Gingerbread (November 19, 2006)

While Patrick was celebrating Wii Day today in Oakland, I spent a good amount of time in our kitchen. I made a batch of split pea soup with our hambone, and it turned out well. And then I made a Bun...

Too Many Calendars? (November 19, 2006)

I am now the proud owner of two 2007 calendars--the blissen 2007 farmlife calendar (for work) and the Ditty Bops Vegetable-Bikini Calendar (for home, most definitely). Of course, we've only had their...

Autumnal Meals, Shorter Hair, Whole Foods Finds (November 19, 2006)

I've enjoyed the autumnal dinners we've had recently. Maybe I have a beta-carotene deficiency, because I can't get enough winter squash and sweet potatoes lately. At the beginning of the week, we ...

East Bay Lunch: Garibaldi's and Ici (November 12, 2006)

We had a good impromptu lunch outing in the East Bay today with Tree and Andrew. After reading about Ici here via Eggbeater, I decided that we needed to go visit, and who better to bring along than T...

Parcel 104 (November 12, 2006)

Today was enjoyable. It was overcast this morning, so we had some hot cereal for breakfast (Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain--mmm, triticale). For lunch, we had leftover Golden Split Pea Soup (it freezes wel...

Char Siu Pork and Fall Harvest (November 9, 2006)

We had a good crock pot meal these past few nights--Slow Cooker Char Siu Pork Roast from Cooking Light. It was easy to make and pretty tasty. The first two nights we ate it with brown rice and baby ...

Halloween Costume and Cupcakes, Latest Food Adventures (November 5, 2006)

I dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween (the original; not the new one--capri pants and flip flops, pshaw!). Since they only sell slutty Strawberry Shortcake costumes online, I ended up ma...

Meal in the Field (November 2, 2006)

On Sunday, we drove up to Santa Rosa to attend Tierra Vegetables' Meal in the Field dinner. It was mentioned in the Millennium newsletter (their chef was one of the two participating in the event), a...

Anniversary Pictures, Petaluma, Arroz con Pollo (October 28, 2006)

Our lemon tree has its first blossom! It seems like an odd time to start making fruit, but what do I know? It smells gooood! Last weekend, we dusted off our tripod and took a bunch of picture...

The Diet Entry (October 24, 2006)

Finally, here's the diet entry I've been talking about for months. I still have 0.8 lb to lose before officially meeting my weight loss goal, but the target weight was an arbitrarily chosen number an...

Tidbits! (October 22, 2006)

I have a bunch of tidbits I've been meaning to mention for the past week... Appearance I haven't gotten my hair highlighted since right before our wedding, and last time I got it cut, the la...

Anniversary Weekend, Part 3: Everything Else (October 14, 2006)

Anniversary Weekend, Part 3: Everything Else After checking out of Olema Druids Hall last Friday morning, we spent a long time looking around their affiliated store, Vita Collage. We ended up buyi...

Anniversary Weekend, Part 2: Olema Druids Hall (October 14, 2006)

Anniversary Weekend, Part 2: Olema Druids Hall After leaving Manka's full and sleepy, we headed down the road to Olema. We had a room reserved for the night at Olema Druids Hall (there are no long...

Anniversary Weekend, Part 1: Dinner at Manka's (October 12, 2006)

I failed to mention it on Sunday, but we just had our one year wedding anniversary! We both agree that being married is awesome. I'm glad :) I have a bunch of pictures from this weekend, so I'll sp...

Delicious Food Adventures in Berkeley (October 1, 2006)

Fall is definitely here, and I'm enjoying it. For dinner this past week, we had chili and very hearty seed-encrusted Steinerbrot from Esther's German Bakery. I had been craving seeds (flax and sesam...

Good meals in good company: Millennium and Fresca (September 17, 2006)

For dinner on Thursday, I made a very vegetable-heavy meal of Tamale Pie and Southwestern Corn and Potato Soup, both from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites, as well as some steamed green beans. The s...

Meal Roundup, Taxidermy Potential Squelched (September 14, 2006)

We went to Straits (in Palo Alto) for the first time last weekend. It's Singaporean food heavily influenced by other Asian cuisines. Everything on the menu looked really good! We started by shari...

Honeymoon Posts are Finally Finished (September 4, 2006)

I've finally finished writing about our honeymoon, which was almost a year ago. How'd that happen? If you're still interested, you can read about it from the beginning, starting here. However, ther...

Cookies, Social Outings, Shopping (September 2, 2006)

Nat and Sara left for Chicago on Thursday. Patrick took the morning off work to help them load up their moving truck. I did not accompany him, but I did make cookies for them to take on their trip! ...

Exciting Trip Plans + Yummy Autumnal Dinner (August 28, 2006)

Last night, my need to use vacation time on a fun trip got the best of me, and we bought plane tickets to go visit Fort Collins in late September. It's going to be a great (though short) visit! In a...

Greens (August 27, 2006)

We went up to San Francisco last night to hang out with Nat and Sara and some other Stanford people. We decided that since we'd be up there, we might as well have dinner there, so I made reservations...

Garden + Thoughts About the Future (August 26, 2006)

I haven't mentioned our garden much this summer, but it's doing well. I've taken pictures of its progress every so often. If you like that kind of thing, click the flowering Thai basil. I've given ...

Indulgent Dinners: Tamarine and Zibibbo (August 22, 2006)

We went out for dinner the past two nights and ate very well. Last night, we went to Tamarine to celebrate Patrick's brother's and dad's birthdays. Before dinner, Patrick got to golf at the Stanford...

Pancakes, Letterpress, Tomatoes, and Biscuits (August 19, 2006)

A few nights ago, Patrick made us breakfast for dinner: Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes, grapefruit, and Tomato and Chard Frittata (from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites). I thought the frittata was ki...

Weekend Domesticity/Chicken Chili and Barley Casserole (August 15, 2006)

I was happily domestic this weekend. Patrick spent a good chunk of the weekend in San Francisco with Nat, Sara and Andrew, drinking beer and eating meat at all their favorite places (Suppenkuche, Tor...

Little Miss Sunshine (August 8, 2006)

We just went to see Little Miss Sunshine with some coworkers. It is a beautiful, poignant, hilarious movie. You should totally go see it if it's playing nearby. I haven't laughed that hard in a lon...

Food, Food, and Food! (August 7, 2006)

On Wednesday, I donated blood again. They were in desperate need of types O and A last week, and they were giving away free movie tickets (and free ice cream coupons). It went really well. I told t...

Slanted Door, Kayaking (July 31, 2006)

We had yet another good weekend in a long line of good weekends this summer (how'd I get so lucky?). Patrick and I received a gift card to the Slanted Door for our birthdays, so we took the train u...

Chorus Line + Gumbo! (July 29, 2006)

Two things, neither of which is very exciting, but I wanted to document them before I forget: We went to see A Chorus Line at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on Wednesday night. There wasn't...

Chef Adam, why have you forsaken us? (July 26, 2006)

This evening my work softball team (of which I have become the manager, somehow) played a pivotal game, which determined if we would get into the playoffs. We lost, which means our season is over. T...

Yesterday wasn't so great, but today will be better (July 23, 2006)

Yesterday failed to live up to my expectations. I was hoping to have a relaxed, laid-back kind of Saturday. I walked over to Menlo Medical Clinic first thing in the morning to get a little blood dra...

Sweet and Sour Lentils, Olallieberry Cobbler! (July 9, 2006)

Courtesy of Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites, we had a tasty but unusual dinner tonight. We had Five-Spice Brown Rice topped with Sweet and Sour Lentils, with Japanese Sesame Spinach on the side. Inciden...

Beans, Pudding, Gooseberries and Bundt Cake (July 4, 2006)

I did lots of cooking (for fun) yesterday while Patrick was at work. For dinner we had Christmas lima beans with leeks and andouille sausage, Creamy Macaroni Salad, and Cabbage Salad (the latter two ...

Marin County Fair (July 2, 2006)

I'm very much enjoying my four-day weekend (poor Patrick has to go to work tomorrow, but at least he gets Tuesday off). Here's some stuff we've done so far: On Friday night, we had dinner at King ...

Jump on it! (June 25, 2006)

Also, when we got to AT&T park before the baseball game yesterday, there were some drummers and dancers gathered around the Willie Mays statue (perhaps from a local high school?). The drummers were p...

Dinner at Millennium (June 25, 2006)

We spent most of the day yesterday in San Francisco. We took Caltrain up and went to a Giants game (versus the A's) in the afternoon. The baseball game itself was okay (I'm helping manage our compan...

Beans and Lasagna (June 12, 2006)

We haven't been doing much of note recently, other than enjoying life. I got a haircut; nothing unusual. My new hairstylist always styles my hair curly without asking me, and I'm always too cowed to...

Memorial Day Barbecue (June 3, 2006)

First, a picture of some Sweet Williams we got at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. I'd never known what they were before. They're cute, and they lasted for almost 2 weeks! Last Monday, we...

Dinner and Bike to Work Day (May 18, 2006)

We had a very colorful dinner a few nights ago: Fish with Pineapple Chutney, Cauliflower with Curry Sauce and Golden Basmati Rice. All recipes from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites (for once, I can't find...

Beautiful Day in Marin (May 13, 2006)

We took yesterday off from work and spent the day enjoying nature up in Marin County. It was a great way to spend a Friday :) We started out our morning at McEvoy Ranch (they make olive oil), atte...

Birthday BBQ, Teriyaki Salmon, Mystery Bugs (May 13, 2006)

Things I meant to post about sooner: Last Sunday, we had some friends over for a birthday barbecue. It was a good time! We had farmer's market strawberries and pita and hummus to start. Then our...

Dinner at Village Pub + Life Update (May 7, 2006)

Tonight we went out for dinner in celebration of my birthday. We went to the Village Pub for the second year in a row (Tamarine was my second choice; we'll have to find an excuse to go there again). ...

Chili Burgers on Whole Wheat Buns (April 30, 2006)

Good weather is here! We went out to Woodside and rode our bikes today during Bicycle Sunday. We stopped at the Water Temple during our ride and had a picnic, which was a nice break. Filoli is appa...

Summer Garden (April 23, 2006)

We planted our summer garden today. It was kind of sad because our winter garden was still doing pretty well, but I'm looking forward to watching this new garden grow. And I salvaged a few poppy pla...

Easter Round-up (April 16, 2006)

Yesterday, I got my hair cut at Juut. Nothing remarkable. I've found a length I like, and I'm sticking with it for now. None of the hair pictures we took turned out great, but here are two if you'd...

Fish Tagine with Chermoulla (April 11, 2006)

Tonight we had Fish Tagine with Chermoulla (from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites) and Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley (on my mom's recommendation). Not very attractively plated; my apologies! I rea...

First Annual Pie Bake-Off (April 6, 2006)

My company had its first annual pie bake-off today. I made Banana Cream Pie with Chocolate Lining as my entry (I've made it before with good results). The layers are (from the bottom): graham cracke...

Weekend Mini-Vacation (April 3, 2006)

We had a good mini-vacation this weekend in Big Sur. We drove down on Friday evening in the rain and darkness and had a late dinner at the Big Sur Lodge (where we were staying). The restaurant was ...

Down a Pint (March 18, 2006)

Success! I donated a whole pint of blood this morning, no problem. Patrick was kind enough to put off his bike ride for a few hours to chauffeur me there and back so I wouldn't have to go alone. Th...

Bran and Lentils - Delicious! (March 5, 2006)

I made Apple Walnut Bran Muffins today, to bring to work when I get all hungry at 3:00. We sampled one right out of the oven, along with some tea. They're pretty tasty, though they definitely taste ...

No Good Veinage (March 4, 2006)

Patrick and I went over to the Stanford Medical Center this morning to join the marrow donor registry (we'd discussed it beforehand; it wasn't a spur of the moment decision). Sometimes you have to pa...

Saturday in San Francisco (February 19, 2006)

We did all sorts of fun stuff today. I got my hair cut at Juut while Patrick rode his bike in the cold. Then we caught the train to San Francisco and walked around the Ferry Building. I love it the...

Poppies! (February 17, 2006)

We had our first poppies bloom yesterday. It was such a nice surprise to come outside this morning and find a shock of pink in our garden. Patrick took a few pictures. Work has been busy. My...

Valentine's Cupcakes (February 12, 2006)

Fun with my Valentine's day sprinkle assortment (these cupcakes are the same recipe mentioned here). Life is good! Summer (or spring, at least) is coming. I love that the days are getting l...

Mannekin Pis (February 6, 2006)

We had a few friends over for the Superbowl yesterday. It was fun, and we ate good chili and Top Dog. We watched parts of the Puppy Bowl and Kitty Halftime show on Animal Planet as well, but the Pup...

Uncle Frank's BBQ (February 4, 2006)

We just had lunch at Uncle Frank's Barbecue. It's located in the back of a bar and has a very casual atmosphere. Our waitress was nice, but very busy, so service was slow. But we had no place to be...

Rockstars! (January 29, 2006)

We bought a guitar yesterday after much hemming and hawing. Both of us are interested in learning to play guitar (you know, for taking on camping trips and playing songs for our hypothetical babies-t...

BBQ Letdown (January 28, 2006)

We tried to go to Austin's in Mountain View for some delicious ribs tonight, but when we got there the whole place was dark and it was locked up tight. There weren't any signs up indicating why they ...

Weekend Update (January 22, 2006)

I'm too busy enjoying life to write about it! Not much new to tell; like most weekends, this one was spent eating sushi at Akasaka, staring at our garden (only I do that), eating pastrami sandwiches ...

Go-Kart Racer (January 13, 2006)

Today I went go-karting for the first time ever, as part of a company outing. I don't think I'm cut out for the go-kart lifestyle. I did enjoy wearing a jumpsuit, but I found the rest of it to be st...

Winter Garden (January 7, 2006)

I finally cleaned up our garden. When we left for our honeymoon in October, I cut our tomato plants and collard greens down to nubs, figuring they'd die while we were gone, and that would be that. B...

Unintentional Tradition (January 2, 2006)

I was looking back through my old entries today, and I noticed that in both 2003 and 2004, Patrick played the latest Prince of Persia video game post-Christmas. He kept up the trend this year. I gav...

New Year's Feasting (January 2, 2006)

We've eaten well the past few days. We decided to stay in for New Year's Eve, since most of our friends were out of town, and it was rainy, so going up to San Francisco didn't seem too appealing. I ...

Hat and Mittens, Children's Opera, and Christmas Stuff (December 13, 2005)

Last week, I finished a little knitting project I'd been working on. My company participates in a giving tree program every year, and one of the cards I picked was for a 1-year-old girl who wanted a ...

Into the Woods and Tamarine (December 1, 2005)

We just got back from an awesome opening night performance of Into the Woods in Palo Alto (by Theatre Works). It was really well done, and the tickets were super cheap because we're young (I guess th...

West Side Story (November 3, 2005)

We went to see West Side Story in San Jose last night. It was enjoyable; even Patrick didn't mind it (he's not so big on musicals). The costumer did a good job using color to distinguish between the...

Iberia Restaurant and Flea Street Cafe (October 30, 2005)

A brief return to the present so that I can make a few notes about two restaurants we ate at recently (we've been working on cooking for ourselves again, but it's so much easier to be lazy and go out ...

Tons of Information About Our Wedding (October 24, 2005)

� Our professional wedding pictures � A few other wedding pictures This is a list of information about our wedding (vendors, etc). Hopefully it'll come in handy for future brides- and grooms-to...

Sunset's Idea House (October 24, 2005)

Wedding stuff soon, I swear! I'm working on a page with information about the wedding before I write about the day itself. I found it helpful to read about other peoples' weddings while planning our...

Cake meetings are the best meetings (October 6, 2005)

Both of us had surprise cake meetings today at work (you know, where you think you're going to a meeting but it turns out to be a party with cake and all your coworkers telling you congratulations). ...

Bachelorette Party (October 2, 2005)

I had a wonderful (and small) bachelorette party today--just me, Tree, and Erin. I don't have as much fun around big groups of people, so this was great. First, we had lunch at Legendary Palace in O...

Two Weeks to Go!? (September 24, 2005)

I can't believe we're getting married in two weeks! How did that happen? I think we'll have a wonderful wedding and honeymoon, but I'm eager to be done planning and worrying and just get to the good...

Good Weekend (September 11, 2005)

We had a great weekend! We drove down to Pacific Grove on Friday afternoon, and after a little trouble with a closed freeway exit, Patrick registered for the triathlon, and we checked into The Martin...

Miscellany (September 9, 2005)

I love lists! I've been reading overly much about New Orleans these past few weeks and haven't been sleeping well because of it. I wish I could make it all better. If you haven't seen it, int...

Sesame-Encrusted Roughy with Bok Choy and Mashed Potatoes (September 3, 2005)

We made a good dinner tonight. It was based on an article I read in Natural Health while getting my hair highlighted at Juut this morning (originally I was going to get it all done last week, but the...

Not big on rallies, but I'm going anyway (September 2, 2005)

Patrick stopped by Kepler's this afternoon, and apparently there's a rally planned for Tuesday at 5pm to show community support, and then everybody will go to the City Council meeting at 7pm to try an...

Sad News for Menlo Park (September 1, 2005)

We heard some sad Menlo Park news today (on top of the horrible news about what's going on in the Southeast; we've both donated money to Red Cross, but it doesn't make me feel much better. It's just ...

Fancy Pants (August 27, 2005)

I feel like we're living a little bit outside our means at the moment because of all the wedding spending that's going on, but I think we're fine. Spending will be curbed drastically once the wedding...

No Kitties Allowed (August 23, 2005)

We will have lived in this apartment for a year come September. It's a wonderful place, and I love almost everything about it, including the seafoam green bathroom. We renewed our lease today, and...

Wedding Dreams and Beet Greens (August 14, 2005)

After saying that I hadn't had any wedding dreams yet, I started having them nightly. The first was that Patrick and I were working on wedding invitations, and we got into a fight about how to cut th...

Garden, Wedding, and Everything Else (July 30, 2005)

First of all, there are a few new garden pictures up. Click on the first peas of the summer to see the rest. A lot has happened in the past three weeks, garden-wise. Our tomato plants have gr...

Dinkey Creek, Garden, and Wedding Stuff (July 23, 2005)

As I said earlier, camping last weekend was fun. Every year, my stepdad's family goes camping for a week in Shaver Lake, CA, at Dinkey Creek campground. Patrick and I joined them (and my mom) for th...

End of an Era (July 21, 2005)

Last game of the softball season was tonight. Our team ended up last out of all 7 teams. But we were the nicest and had the best sportsmanship, so there! It was a fun season; I'm sad it had to end....

Wedding Hair Trial and More! (July 12, 2005)

So, this weekend. On Saturday, I drove down to Carmel for my trial wedding hair and makeup appointment with Rebecca, who was recommended by her sister-in-law, Freya, Ventana's recommended hair and ma...

Weekend Update + Pegboard! (June 20, 2005)

I kept meaning to write something this weekend, but it was just too nice lounging around instead. Here goes with the update... This past week, Patrick took a big step forward in organizing our tri...

Garden 2005! (June 12, 2005)

We have a garden! We went to Wegman's yesterday and bought tomato and strawberry plants, plus seeds for snap peas and collard greens, and I planted everything while Patrick lounged around in the shad...

Awesome Box! (June 9, 2005)

Patrick is so awesome! He built us a big planter box of his own design for our patio, since there isn't any garden space at our apartment (well, there are nice flowers and plants, but we don't get to...

New England Clam Chowder (June 3, 2005)

We got our second box today, and with a little online tweaking of the contents beforehand, we had all the produce we needed for the New Best Recipe clam chowder recipe (conveniently online as well). ...

Wedding stuff (florist and rings), gardening, and Bay Area love! (May 29, 2005)

Great weekend so far! On Friday, we drove down to Monterey and stayed at the Travelodge for the night. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. I mean, it was still a motel, but a nice one. ...

Wedding Stuff: Hair and Makeup (May 26, 2005)

I've run into a bit of a snag with the wedding planning in terms of finding a place to do hair and makeup for me and my cohorts (that would be Tree and Erin) the day of the wedding. I had a trial app...

Fresh Produce! (May 20, 2005)

We had a big box of organic produce waiting for us after work today, courtesy of Organic Express. There was so much good stuff in there! We need a bigger fruit bowl... I used the chard and th...

Organic produce, a picture of us, and Aveda hair products (May 17, 2005)

I'm so excited! We signed up for Organic Express tonight. I've wanted to sign up for something similar for awhile, and we got a flyer in the mail from them today, and we agreed that it's worth tryin...

Salon, Barbecue, Le Pot Au Feu (May 15, 2005)

I had a good day today. This morning, I got up relatively early and drove to downtown Palo Alto to have my once in awhile Juut visit. The sun was shining, I had the new Nine Inch Nails CD playing, a...

Woo! (May 12, 2005)

My company's softball team won their first game tonight! It was exciting :) I still haven't had to play, which is a relief. But I'm ready to go if they need me! I wore my new workout top to the ...

Dinner at the Village Pub (May 7, 2005)

We went to The Village Pub in Woodside for my birthday dinner, on Nat and Sara's recommendation. It was fancy (but also kind of loud...maybe that's specific to Friday nights). They had a fireplace...

Good Day (May 6, 2005)

I had a good birthday today. I'm lucky :) This year's birthday was much better than last year's. I've got a job I enjoy, and I'm living with Patrick! As is tradition at work, our friendly HR peopl...

Ka-bam! (May 1, 2005)

We went to the batting cages tonight to practice for softball. Last week, I almost had to play, because my company's team was short one woman, but my boss' wife showed up just before the game started...

Good Life (April 26, 2005)

Patrick is making us lasagna for dinner while I do laundry. I'm so happy with this life :) I'm glad it lived up to my expectations from those 2 years of living alone in Boston. Also, I love my job!...

Curtains, Phase 1 (April 23, 2005)

Curtain Hanging Phase 1 is complete, thanks in large part to Patrick. Our kitchen window now has roman blinds that filter the light nicely (from Ikea, of course). I like them! There are so ma...

Sea Otter Classic (April 20, 2005)

We went camping last weekend in Laguna Seca, as part of the Sea Otter Classic. Patrick had a cold last week, and I came down with it right before we got to the campsite on Friday evening. So we were...

Softball and Soup (April 8, 2005)

My company's team played its first softball game last night (we're a part of the Palo Alto recreational softball league). I'm not on the team because I can't catch or hit, and I know I'd get frustrat...

Is summer here yet? (March 29, 2005)

Hey, did I tell you we bought a grill last weekend? We totally did! We've been thinking about it for awhile. It was on our wedding registry on Amazon, but then we realized that we wanted one now, s...

Weekend Stuff (March 26, 2005)

Today was a good day, and I'm not sure why. I was just in a happy mood all day, even after my experiment went all awry at work. I'm glad it's the weekend! We're going to have a nice and mundane wee...

Car 2 of 2 (March 19, 2005)

And so ends our week of car-buying. We won't be buying any more cars for a long, long time! Our new Matrix is so great! Patrick got us a good deal on it, and the salesman (Jason at Piercey Toyo...

Barbecue City! (March 19, 2005)

I'm loving our new (used) car so far. It's so much bigger inside than the Mazda MX-6 that we've been borrowing (I'm afraid ours is not as sweet as the one pictured). It's palatial! It was nice driv...

Sweet Used Car (March 17, 2005)

Car #1 is acquired! After much research on Patrick's part (he's on car duty, I'm on wedding duty), we went down to San Jose after work and bought a 2000 Mazda Protege (mostly for me to use). It's a ...

Wedding Stuff: Cake! (March 13, 2005)

We just got back from spending the day in Santa Cruz. The day started out a little shakily. We went to Gayle's Bakery in Capitola to sample their cake (this is for our wedding cake, but we just went...

Test-Driving Cars (March 6, 2005)

We spent the day test-driving cars. It was a beautiful day, so I'm glad we didn't sit inside all day, although I'm sure we could've found a better way to enjoy it than sitting in cars all day (I foun...

Union Street, SF (March 6, 2005)

I had a fun day in the city today. I met up with Tree, and we tried on dresses at Bella Bridesmaid. I was afraid that they'd be snooty, but they weren't at all! Our saleslady was really friendly an...

Good Eats (February 26, 2005)

Life is good. A few nights ago, Patrick made the Alton Brown ribs again, but he used ancho chile powder instead of chipotle chile powder, and they were much more my speed. Still a little spicy, but ...

Good Day (February 20, 2005)

I had a wonderful day today! First I went to Juut and had my hair colored and cut. A pricey proposition, but I enjoy it, and I'm only planning on doing it a few times a year (once more in May, then ...

Wedding Stuff, Photographer (February 18, 2005)

We've got ourselves a wedding photographer! We ended up going with Moonfish Photography in Pacific Grove, because we liked her style and she gave us a good deal because of our small wedding size. As...

Cinnamon Buns for Breakfast (February 13, 2005)

It's been a good weekend. Yesterday, we went out for breakfast to Ann's Coffee Shop, an old restaurant in downtown Menlo Park. We'd always just walked by it, but the only other breakfast place withi...

I'm Sore Already! (February 9, 2005)

Today I lifted weights at the gym for the first time. In the past, I was intimidated by all the weight-lifty guys who always hang around that part of the gym and act all macho and grunt loudly. But ...

Wedding Stuff: Photography, Dress, and Officiant (yay!) (February 7, 2005)

I did all sorts of little productive things this weekend while Patrick was in Palm Springs riding his bike really far along with Erin, Tree, and Andrew. I wish I could've joined them (not in the bike...

Big Day in Big Sur (January 30, 2005)

We just spent an exhausting but great day in Big Sur. We drove down to Monterey last night after work. We were thinking about going to the Aquarium's member's-only night (since we are members and ne...

Basic Cookbook (January 22, 2005)

Last night, we went out for sushi (we've decided to try and make Friday night our date night). The sushi boat place we'd intended to go to in Palo Alto had been replaced by another restaurant, much t...

First Day at the Gym (January 18, 2005)

Today we joined the YMCA and I worked out on the elliptical machine for 25 minutes! It was kind of overwhelming there; it was crowded, and I had to write my name on a white board in order to get to u...

Happiness, vanity, productivity (January 16, 2005)

Nothing of much importance to say, but I'll say it anyway. Life is good right now. I was thinking the other day that it finally feels like my life is back on track, and that this is where I'm suppos...

Fun Sunday and Wedding Thoughts (January 9, 2005)

We had a fun Sunday morning. First we walked to the farmers market, intending to finally buy something there (we always just look around and leave without buying anything), but there were hardly any ...

Haircut! (January 9, 2005)

I enjoyed today greatly; it was my first real weekend day in a while (now that I'm done with my retail job, I get my weekends back!). We were good little spenders. We used various giftcards to get...

Rib Outcome (December 18, 2004)

It'll probably be quiet around here for awhile, until I have more time to bake and be crafty. Here's a picture of the ribs and potato salad from the other night though (picture here). The ribs were ...

Where's the frilly apron? (December 14, 2004)

Patrick is awesome! Right now, he's putting the finishing touches on No Backyard Baby Back Ribs (from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food) AND doing the laundry! I'm getting spoiled, having din...

Restaurant: Szechuan Cafe (December 13, 2004)

Restaurant thoughts for my own records: Today I had a work lunch at Szechuan Cafe (on California Ave. in Palo Alto), and it was good! I'd never been there before, and I probably wouldn't have gone...

Knitty! (December 8, 2004)

The winter Knitty is up, and I want to make a bunch of the stuff in it. Maybe once I've wrapped up my two part time jobs, I'll have some time to knit in the evenings. I'd like that. P.S. I'm lov...

Happy first day + snooty restaurants (December 7, 2004)

I had a very good first day of work today. I like my new job :) And I have my own business cards and cubicle! It's exciting having my first grown-up job. We went to Carpaccio in Menlo Park for d...

New Shoes (December 5, 2004)

I had given up on finding a pair of work shoes prior to starting my new job (first day is tomorrow!). But on our way to dinner at Siam Royal in Palo Alto, we passed a Clarks shoe store, and I found t...

O Christmas Tree (December 4, 2004)

This year, our lamp is our Christmas tree. I don't think we're going to buy a real one, since we don't have any of the paraphernalia that goes with Christmas trees yet (although Patrick does have...

White Christmas, perhaps (December 3, 2004)

Patrick and I are going to spend Christmas with my family in Colorado! It'll only be for a few days, but I'm still very excited about it. I've been wanting to visit home ever since I moved here this...

Driving and Dinner (November 30, 2004)

Today I drove a car for the first time since I graduated from Mudd, and it went just fine. I was a little nervous, and I'd been putting it off, but I need a way to get to my new job! So now I know I...

Family Time (November 28, 2004)

Today Patrick and I went to my grandma's house for lunch. My mom is still there (she's returning to Colorado tomorrow, probably), and various members of our extended family showed up. I hadn't seen ...

Yay! (November 23, 2004)

I got a job! Yeah, I already have 2 jobs right now, but I'm dealing with that. The new job is at a biotech startup nearby (no specifics--I'm going to try and keep my personal and professional lives ...

Nigella (November 20, 2004)

I went to see Nigella Lawson at Kepler's tonight. There were way more people than at McGee's talk, and they were more annoying, unfortunately. But Nigella herself was great. She just seemed really ...

Gingerbread Caramels, Attempt 1 (November 17, 2004)

Last week at my retail job, we got a shipment of candies from Sweden (sold by Kalastyle). They're in triangular paper packages, and they're meant to be put in Christmas stockings. There were a few f...

Food Celebrity (November 17, 2004)

Patrick and I just went to see Harold McGee talk at Kepler's (we apparently missed talks by Thomas Keller and Anthony Bourdain earlier this season, which is too bad). He was way younger than I expect...

Ennui (November 13, 2004)

The teenage boy who lives above us is apparently playing his guitar and chatting up some girls tonight. Normally he just stomps around upstairs and fights with his mother, but I'm not used to this ki...

Day of Food (November 11, 2004)

I forgot to mention that when my mom was here on Sunday, we went out to eat at The Fish Market (which it turns out she had been to when we lived in Mountain View in the early 80's). I had linguine wi...

Family Visit (November 10, 2004)

My mom is on the next leg of her adventure now (the deal is that my Auntie Nance bought some land in Corvallis, Oregon, so she's flying out to take a look at it, and my mom and grandma are driving up ...

Appletastic Pork (November 7, 2004)

Okay, here's the picture of our dinner from a few nights ago. We made Pork with Apples, Calvados, and Apple Cider (but we used Applejack instead of Calvados) and Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage. We used ...

Voting and lunch yesterday (November 2, 2004)

We voted! The polling place was in the park behind our apartment complex, so it was really convenient getting there. And the crazy old guy in the pickup truck didn't come out and yell at us. Phew! ...

Guest Room Quilt (October 31, 2004)

I started working on a quilt for our guest room today. I majorly underestimated how long it'll take me to finish it. I figured I might be able to get the entire top pieced today, but I only got 8 bl...

Monterey/Big Sur Vacation (October 28, 2004)

Woo, Red Sox! I bet Boston is pretty crazy tonight. Patrick wore his Sox baseball cap during much of our vacation, and we got some comments on it. We missed Tuesday's game, but we saw tonight's gam...

Being an apprentice is cool! (October 23, 2004)

Awesome--M & H Foundry in San Francisco is taking apprentices. I might just have to keep that in mind as something to do once my retail job ends. I'm not really sure how many job opportunities would...

Umbrella Envy (October 23, 2004)

A customer at work today had the best umbrella. It had ruffles all around the edges! And the top had a really pretty and unusual curve to it when it was opened (she opened it inside the store to sho...

Beachtastic (October 19, 2004)

Oh boy, oh boy! Patrick and I are being all spontaneous and taking a small vacation to celebrate our 6-year anniversary. I was lucky enough to get next Tuesday off from my retail job (I normally wor...

New Art (October 18, 2004)

Today we bought art. Menlo Park was having an arts and crafts sidewalk fair all weekend, and after much hemming and hawing, we decided it was worth the expense to have nice things on our walls. We g...

Wants (October 16, 2004)

Last night, while looking for cute striped fabric, I ran across Amy Butler's Ginger Bliss line of fabrics. I want so many of them! I think I'd like to make a purse out of one of the striped ones (or...

Monkey Neck! (October 14, 2004)

I had my second day of work today; my feet are all torn up from my pretty new shoes, even though I put bandaids on my ankles as a preventive measure. It was inevitable, I think. I've realized now th...

First Day (October 13, 2004)

I had my first day of work at the stationery store today. It was only for 4 hours, but I'm tired! There was a lot of information to put into my brain. The store is full of cute stuff, including a b...

Napa Camping and See Jane Tri (October 12, 2004)

We had a great weekend! There are pictures here. If you want the whole long-winded recap, keep reading... Friday: Patrick and I drove up to Oakland around 2:30 to meet up with Tree, Andrew, an...

Quality Camping Food (October 8, 2004)

We're getting ready for our weekend camping trip in Napa (the main reason we're there is for Tree and Erin's triathlon, but we don't have to prepare for that at all). I think it'll be fun, and it'll ...

Good News (October 6, 2004)

Huh, well I just got a part time job unexpectedly. Add that to my part time job doing web programming, and I'll have a monthly income comparable to what I had as a grad student, which is much better ...

Latest Purchases (October 5, 2004)

We just bought a printer/scanner/copier from Fry's. Fry's creeps me out (this particular Fry's is cowboy-themed, and there are cowboy and Indian mannequins all over the store--I'd hate to close the s...

Chili and Wedding Locations (October 3, 2004)

Tonight, I made chili in bread bowls (using a slightly-modified version of Stef's Holmes and Watson Chili recipe and the bread bowl recipe here). We topped it with sharp cheddar cheese, green onions,...

Failed Okra Masala (October 2, 2004)

Last night, I made Okra Masala for dinner. I was hoping it would be similar to the Okra Masala at Darbar, since the recipe involved yogurt, tomatoes, and okra, but the two were nothing alike. The re...

Fusion Sushi Boat (October 1, 2004)

We didn't feel like cooking tonight, so we went out for sushi instead. We're still inexperienced at the whole thing, but we liked the place we went to pretty well--Fusion Sushi Boat in downtown Palo...

Curry and a driver's license (September 28, 2004)

Tonight, we had Halibut with Coconut-Curry Sauce for dinner (it was supposed to be sea bass, but Safeway didn't have any). It turned out well. The fish was unremarkable and kind of pricey, but the s...

Paintings and Bikes (September 26, 2004)

Yesterday, I made some paintings to hang in our bedroom, since we can't afford to buy art that other people have made. I think they turned out pretty well. Today, Andrew and Tree visited, and ...

Bikes and Decorating (September 26, 2004)

I got my new bike yesterday. It's so pretty! Tomorrow I'm going to ride it for the first time. Every Sunday, part of Canada Road is closed to cars, and only pedestrians and cyclists are allowed on ...

Baby Kiwi (September 23, 2004)

We bought baby kiwis at Draeger's just now (we rarely go there since it's so expensive, but we only needed a few things for dinner tomorrow). I couldn't resist--would they taste like kiwi? Well, tur...

Bakery Adventures (September 23, 2004)

We did a little bakery scouting this afternoon (Patrick got to go to Home Depot and Good Guys, so the outing wasn't totally boring for him). First, we went to Sugar Plum Bakery in Redwood City. Turn...

Appliances! (September 21, 2004)

Today, we bought a vacuum and toaster oven! We found what we wanted online, but both were Walmart exclusives (I don't know why GE will only sell their toaster ovens there), so we had to go to Walmart...

Zucchini, Tomato, and Cheese Tart + Plants (September 20, 2004)

We had a good dinner last night: Easy Zucchini, Tomato, and Cheese Tart. It's kind of like a quiche, but not quite. It was really good, and the phyllo dough makes it easier (although it still took a...

Sibby's Cupcakes (September 19, 2004)

Look at this: Sibby's Cupcakery (via Not Martha). Those cupcakes look delicious, and it turns out to be in Palo Alto! However, it looks like it's just a home business, not a store, so I probably cou...

Pie and Cost Plus (September 19, 2004)

Last night, we had a hankering for ribs, so we went to Austin's for dinner. It's not awesome food, but I liked it better this time around than last time. I had a combo plate of St. Louis ribs and br...

New Clothes, Etc. (September 17, 2004)

Yesterday, after we'd finished our daily walk to the post office to mail off more of Patrick's old books (we've already made over $100 on them!), we happened upon a cute women's clothing store (also i...

Dinner, errands, and grueling 7-day bike rides (September 15, 2004)

Last night, we made a "real" dinner. It's been a while. It turned out pretty well, but it wasn't worth the hot kitchen and piles of dirty dishes. But I'm not giving up on these recipes entirely... ...

Pictures: Beach and Apartment (September 9, 2004)

We went to the beach today, as planned. It was wonderful. We took the scenic route there, taking the 84 and then Highway 1. It looks like the farmers around Half Moon Bay are already gearing up for...

A few pictures (September 8, 2004)

I just haven't had it in me to walk around and take pictures of our apartment (the heat just sucks all the energy out of us!). But here are a few I took the other day. Better than nothing! Here's...

Weekend plans and more furniture (September 8, 2004)

Patrick and I have resolved to work hard all day tomorrow, then go to the beach on Thursday, to make the most of being partially unemployed (we're not fully unemployed, since I have my part time progr...

A real couch! (September 6, 2004)

Our apartment is almost ready to have pictures taken of it. There are still a bunch of things we want to do to improve it, but it has all the essentials now. Our couch arrived today from IKEA. We e...

Summertime (September 5, 2004)

In an attempt to get rid of all the nasty stranger hair matted into our carpet, we bought a One Sweep broom at Walgreens today (apparently buying it online is a gyp). It works pretty well. It seem...

New Digs (September 4, 2004)

Ah, we finally have Internet access in our apartment! The cable guy was six hours late, but it was worth it. It was so weird not being able to check online to see where the nearest Target is or see ...

Our first real apartment! (August 31, 2004)

The apartment is ours! We signed the lease and got the keys today, and tomorrow we'll pick up a big truck and move everything over there! I also lucked out and found out that my CyberSense boss has ...

Mudd's (August 31, 2004)

No time to write a long entry, but I wanted to say that I had dinner at Mudd's Restaurant in San Ramon today, with my CyberSense coworkers, and I was very impressed. They have these gardens behind th...

Furniture (August 30, 2004)

After finding out that we'll most likely be getting the apartment we want (I can't wait for Tuesday!), we realized that we have very little furniture, and soon we'll need more. Right now, we have a f...

Yay! (August 27, 2004)

Yesterday, we gave our applications and credit reports to the cool landlady, and she called us this morning, saying that everything looks good! We have an appointment to do another walk through and s...

Potential (August 26, 2004)

We only looked at 7 apartments today, but it felt like way more than that! Lots of driving around and talking to building managers. By the end, we couldn't remember which apartment had which feature...

Maps! (August 24, 2004)

Tomorrow will be devoted to apartment-hunting. We have a list of places we're interested in, and we've drawn maps with all of them marked so we can visit them in the most efficient manner possible (o...

Let down (August 23, 2004)

Well, this morning we looked at the Barron Park cottage I was all excited about (info here, though I'm not sure if the link will work for long). It turned out to be not as great as I'd hoped. Just g...

Apartment Hunting, round 1 (August 22, 2004)

We did some apartment-hunting this afternoon; it's tiring! We found three cottages that were in the backyards of larger houses (in-law units, I think they're called), but we had no success looking at...

Status Update (August 21, 2004)

Well, yesterday we moved out of the cottage and in with Patrick's dad and two sisters (who also live in Palo Alto, conveniently enough). We don't know how long we'll be staying with them; hopefully n...

Cute Skirt (August 19, 2004)

Note to self: remember to make something similar to this skirt. As I just commented over at JenB's, I can never bring myself to buy cute crafty stuff because I always say "I could make that myself an...

Addendum (August 17, 2004)

Yeah, those are totally termites. This page suggests that we've got some horny alates coming out of the nest to mate. Too bad they're flying into the house instead of out of it. That picture of the...

Attack of the Termites! (August 17, 2004)

We've had good meals the past few nights. On Sunday, we went out for sushi at Fuki Sushi with Patrick's friends Sergei and Kristen (I guess they can be my friends too now). I'd never been to a real ...

Dinner and a Movie (August 14, 2004)

We had a nice night out yesterday. First, we went to see Garden State (it's playing in Mountain View now, so we didn't have to go to San Francisco). I liked it. It made me cry, but that's not a big...

Garage Picnic (August 13, 2004)

This morning, we spent some time making lists of places we'd like to work at (I know that's grammatically incorrect, but it just sounded wrong the other way!). Patrick's still waiting to hear about a...

Commute (August 12, 2004)

I know I'm not allowed to whine, since I get to spend almost every day at home, going on walks and taking naps, so just ignore the rest of this post. Today, I had to go in to work at CyberSense in ...

Google's Fried Chicken (August 11, 2004)

Tonight's dinner: fried chicken with gravy, buttermilk biscuits, collard greens. I need to find a better picture-taking spot; pictures either turn out too bright or too dark. But anyway... ...

Three Seasons (August 9, 2004)

Phew, I'm full! We just had dinner at Three Seasons, which is one of the restaurants participating in Dine Downtown Palo Alto. Three Seasons is a Vietnamese restaurant, very attractively decorated. ...

Miscellany (August 8, 2004)

I forgot to mention in my last entry that we went running on Thursday. Well, I would run for about a minute, then stop and walk and complain about running and bees and stuff. I'm not a good running ...

Frass (August 6, 2004)

At the beginning of the summer, before I moved in, Patrick noticed a pile of termite frass on the side table in the living room (the termites appear to be in the cottage's cute gable roof). Frass (wh...

Lazy Days (August 5, 2004)

These flowers are everywhere around Palo Alto right now. I think they're Guernsey Lilies. I was confused, because they're bulbs, but it looks like they're growing like weeds, just all over the p...

Aquatic Park (August 3, 2004)

So I can't really remember what we did yesterday. I know I cleaned the cottage some in the morning, and then I guess we just sat around in the afternoon and felt guilty for not doing work. Oh, we to...

Pictures and Food (August 1, 2004)

I've got a few pictures (it's so nice being able to use Patrick's fancy little camera all the time). First, we have what is ostensibly a picture of me, but it was really a picture of the Fat Tire Ale...

Rockridge (July 31, 2004)

Yesterday, we explored Rockridge, a nice neighborhood in Oakland/Berkeley, scoping out bakeries for me to work at in case we end up living nearby. We walked around College Ave., which is a cute downt...

Wants (July 30, 2004)

Nat and Sara have lots of cool pictures on their walls, and this is one of our favorites: Suzanne Caporael's Stars of Spring. It looks way nicer in person. It's on high-quality art paper and framed ...

Food, Food, Food (July 29, 2004)

This morning, we made French Toast with Bananas for breakfast. Here's a picture (picture of french toast); it didn't turn out very prettily, so I relegated it to a pop up window. Maybe a sprinkling ...

Picture time (July 28, 2004)

I've finally posted the pictures from our trip to LA and Noah and Jenny's wedding. There's nothing too exciting, but click the picture below for more (I'm smiling like a fool, but Patrick sure looks ...

Sexy Cookware (July 27, 2004)

Patrick got me a great "welcome to California and congratulations on finishing your degree" present--an All-Clad saute pan! I've been wanting one of those forever. Now I just have to make sure I act...

Yay! (July 27, 2004)

I'm home safely! And by "home" I mean California :) The day went pretty smoothly, and now it's time for bed! In California!...

Dog tired (July 13, 2004)

I'm back in Boston, and I'm sleepy! I tried to sleep during my red-eye flight last night, but that didn't work too well. I'm going to sleep well tonight though! Yesterday, I finished my journal a...

Bedtime (July 12, 2004)

We're back in Palo Alto after our whirlwind visit to Southern California. I have to go to bed soon, but here's an overview of what happened, since I'm not sure when I'll have time to write in detail:...

All thesis, all the time (July 9, 2004)

My thesis revisions are finally done after three days of work (although I assume I'll have more to do once Anne takes another look at it). Tomorrow, we'll be driving down to Southern California for t...

Recap (July 7, 2004)

I should write an entry before I forget what we did today and yesterday! I should also work on my thesis, but I spent most of today doing that, so it can wait a little longer. Let's see...yesterda...

Barbecue (July 5, 2004)

Picture time! Here are a few pictures from around the cottage: � Light coming in through the bedroom curtains in the morning � Mama laptop and baby laptop, with the Tour de France in the backgro...

This is what summer should be like (July 3, 2004)

I'm safe and happy in California! My flight was delayed last night, so I got in pretty late. Patrick's living in Nat and Sara's cottage now, which I kept forgetting. I expected us to go to his old ...

Oh give me a home... (June 18, 2004)

It makes me sad that houses in Palo Alto are so expensive. Like $800,000 for this not very attractive 3-bedroom house. Meanwhile, you can get a very nice, new 3+ bedroom house in Colorado for around...

Oh, the Torture! (June 11, 2004)

Patrick moved into our cottage last night (well, it'll only be our cottage for the summer--we're subletting it from Nat and Sara). He also made a trip to Crate and Barrel, where he bought us some gre...

Good Pants (May 21, 2004)

I wore my happy striped capri pants today (that picture is from almost a year ago, when I bought them). They remind me of the beach and California because that's where I normally wear them. It's...

Weekend Recap (longwinded as usual) (May 18, 2004)

Vacation recap: Saturday: We started out our Saturday by going to Filoli, which I'd been wanting to visit for a long time. I think I was expecting it to be more like the Arnold Arboretum, all s...

SF Bakeries (May 8, 2004)

Yay! Joanne Chang (owner of Flour) replied to my query about good bakeries in San Francisco. Her favorites are (with the caveat that she hasn't been to SF in awhile): Citizen Cake Bay Breads ...

Big News! (April 10, 2004)

I left out one important detail from my post about our visit to Monterey. Can you guess what it is from this picture? Okay, I won't keep you in suspense. Patrick proposed to me! And I accept...

Picture Time - Monterey Vacation (April 8, 2004)

Here are a few pictures from our wonderful vacation in Pacific Grove/Monterey (here's the recap, if you missed it). Here's me and Patrick at Lovers Point Beach after our picnic (we rolled up our pa...

Is it over already? (April 7, 2004)

I'm going to head back to the airport in a few hours, saying goodbye to Patrick and California yet again. I hate this part, but at least I have the prospect of not having to say goodbye in a few mont...

Our epic weekend trip to Monterey (April 5, 2004)

Patrick and I just got back from a wonderful weekend trip to Monterey (we're in Palo Alto now). I think it was the best yet (previous trips were to Carmel; not Monterey, but I think they're comparabl...

California! (April 2, 2004)

I'm heading off to California in a few hours! I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we'll be in Pacific Grove (right next to Monterey) tomorrow and Sunday, then it's back to Palo Alto through Wednes...

Love and Chocolate (February 18, 2004)

It's past my bedtime, but don't these chocolates sound good? Well, I guess they could be really awful, but for $2.50 apiece, I bet they're tasty. The flavor combinations are so intriguing... Ooh,...

Life Is Good (February 15, 2004)

I've been having a good day today. It was beautiful this morning, so we ate part of our breakfast outside. And then we drove to the movie theater, and there were so many trees in bloom. And the sun...

Food, Food, and Food (February 14, 2004)

Well, our dinner last night at Austin's was good, but the ribs weren't the kind I was craving. These ribs were very meaty, with the meat falling off the bone, and they were dry, with sauce on the sid...

Horchata! (February 13, 2004)

Oh, and we found horchata at the store. Apparently, Kern's is now selling it. It tastes like it's supposed to--delicious! We first encountered horchata at Platt, our dining hall. When it was fir...

Good Stuff (February 13, 2004)

I bought ramekins! See, for Valentine's Day, Patrick's making me dinner, and I'm making a dessert that requires ramekins (I'll tell you more once it's been made). So while we were at the Stanford Sh...

Park Chow (January 19, 2004)

I'm back home. I miss Patrick. Nothing new to say on that subject...Isn't it time for us to live together yet? Last night, we drove to San Francisco and met up with Tree and Andrew at Park Chow. ...

Weekend Update (January 18, 2004)

I forgot to mention yesterday that Patrick took me to Draeger's (a local gourmet supermarket) for the first time. It was nice, but not as amazing as I was expecting it to be (I was hoping it would be...

Ah, California (January 17, 2004)

We've had a good day so far. We slept in, then went to Joanie's for brunch. Very tasty, but it made us both sluggish the rest of the day. Then we did some errands, and then I had a craving for home...

Pants within Pants! (January 16, 2004)

I'm in California visiting Patrick! Walking to the T stop this morning was crappy because it was really cold. But I wore two pairs of pants (on Patrick's sage recommendation), and it worked out real...

Comfort (January 2, 2004)

Yesterday, I wore my pajamas all day. Patrick almost did too, but then he got a craving for pearl milk tea around 10 pm, so he put on real clothes to go out and get us some. Life with Patrick is goo...

New Year's Eve in SF (January 1, 2004)

Hello, 2004! This morning, Patrick made me banana waffles, and he even washed all the dishes afterwards! What a good boyfriend :) So last night had its low points, but overall, it was great. Fir...

Rainy Day (December 29, 2003)

Today's a rainy day. We went out this morning to LensCrafters so Patrick could get a new contact lens prescription (I'm a good nagger), but we've stayed in other than that. I just made hard-boiled e...

Ew, Chicken Bouillon! (December 28, 2003)

I'm safely at Patrick's place, trying to help him with the Sunday crossword puzzle. My trip from Colorado to California was decent. The door on the Fort Collins airporter shuttle kept blowing open o...

Thanksgiving Recap (November 29, 2003)

Well, I'm back in stupid, cold Boston (tickets for a Sunday return were way too expensive, what with it being Thanksgiving weekend). Here's what happened after I wrote last: Thursday: We headed o...

Dinner and a Movie on American Airlines (November 27, 2003)

I'm in California! My flight last night went pretty well, despite being over 6 hours long. The in-flight movie was Legally Blonde II, which I was secretly hoping for (everybody around me groaned whe...

Miette (November 5, 2003)

Aww, dude--Patrick and I *must* visit Miette sometime soon! Tree mentioned it awhile back, and I was super-excited about it. Then I forgot about it, and now Not Martha has mentioned it. Miette now ...

California Prep (November 4, 2003)

I spent a little time today taking practice tests for the California written driver's test. I think I'll do well on it, especially after I've looked over the handbook. Of course, there are like 8 mo...

Future Thoughts (October 28, 2003)

Man, Paul (from high school) has it good! He recently found a job in Palo Alto at a company that feeds him snacks every day (even though he'd rather not be in the Bay Area at all). And now he's prob...

Bay Area Bakeries (October 23, 2003)

I've finally found a list of bakeries in Palo Alto (guess I wasn't looking hard enough before). It is now my goal to visit all of the bakeries on this list before next summer, to see if any of them l...

Pumpkin Patches (October 21, 2003)

I just realized that when I was writing about our visit to Half Moon Bay earlier this month, I forgot to mention that while driving there and back, we saw a lot of pumpkin patches! And they weren't ...

End of California Visit (October 13, 2003)

I'm back home and in a bad mood, as usual (compared to relaxing with Patrick in California, being back at MIT sucks every time). I didn't do much today, other than being sad that I had to leave Patri...

Bay Area Adventures (October 12, 2003)

We had a nice, relaxed day yesterday. First, we went out to breakfast at Joanie's (someday we'll try going somewhere else, but Joanie's is only a few blocks from Patrick's apartment, and it's really ...

End of California Visit (September 22, 2003)

Home again, home again...I've decided to save the laptop-buying until tomorrow, and I'm just going to take it easy and catch up on things tonight. So I think last I wrote, we were about to go out t...

Laptop Excitement (September 20, 2003)

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy--I'm going to get a laptop next week! Patrick has thrown a (nice) wrench in my plans though, by offering to pay the difference between a 12" iBook and 12" G4 Powerbook. So I g...

Mitchell's Ice Cream (September 9, 2003)

Note to self: go to Mitchell's Ice Cream in San Francisco. Avocado ice cream sounds good!...

Tree and Andrew's Wedding, Part 1 (August 19, 2003)

Okay, here we go (and might I just add, I had a wonderful time on this trip, despite how busy we were): Tuesday: My flight got into San Francisco around 8pm. Patrick picked me up, and then we wen...

Tree and Andrew's Wedding, Part 2 (August 19, 2003)

(this is Part 2 of my story; read Part 1 first) Friday: So Friday was when the wedding stuff started in earnest, and since Patrick was the best man, he was involved in most of it (and I was lucky ...

Tree and Andrew Wedding Pictures (August 18, 2003)

Pictures from Tree and Andrew's wedding are here! Click the one below for the whole album. Some were taken by me, and some by Patrick. A long account of our vacation will be posted soon. ...

California Pictures (June 11, 2003)

I'm back in Boston, yet again. I miss Patrick! I get to visit him in Pittsburgh in a little over a week though, so that's good. We're lucky to be able to see each other so often, but I'm still gree...

Rodin Picnic (June 11, 2003)

We had a good, busy day today. First, I went to work with Patrick because he had to meet with another grad student about this paper they're working on. That didn't take too long, and after that, we ...

Bay Area Adventures (June 10, 2003)

Hoo boy, it's late! But I'm not that tired (last night, I could hardly keep my eyes open after 9 or so). Let's see, this morning, we went and had bagels for breakfast at Noah's Bagels in downtown Pa...

Arrived in California (June 9, 2003)

Well, I got to Palo Alto safe and sound yesterday night. I had to wait around the airport for a while because Patrick was driving back up from Southern California (he was helping his sister move). T...

California Pictures (February 19, 2003)

Okay, here are some pictures. First we have two pictures proving that California is enjoying spring (or a reasonable imitation of spring) despite the weather on the East Coast: trees with big flowers...

Delayed (February 17, 2003)

Well, because of the weather on the East Coast, I'll be staying here in CA a little longer than I'd thought. My flight tonight has been cancelled, but after much fruitless calling and staying on hold...

Bella Luna (February 17, 2003)

So Bella Luna was pretty good. I had this crazy salmon-zucchini ravioli with cream sauce, even though I don't like salmon or zucchini very much (I couldn't pass up such a creative dish). It was actu...

Missing the Blizzard (February 16, 2003)

So apparently, the East Coast is getting hit with some nasty blizzard-type weather right now. I'd actually enjoy being in the middle of that if I could stay inside in my pajamas, but I like being wit...

Bay Area Adventures (February 16, 2003)

Yesterday was fun! We went to Target, and then we saw The Recruit at AMC Mercado 20 (the theater next to the Virgin Mary statue--pictures coming soon). It was good, but not spectacular. And then, w...

Brunch with Tree and Andrew (January 25, 2003)

We just got back from lunch with Erin (Tree) and Andrew, two friends from college. It was lots of fun! We went to Joanie's Cafe, which has great omelets and sandwiches (but slow service). Afterward...

Real Chinese Food (January 25, 2003)

We just got back from a late showing of Catch Me if you Can. It's a fun movie. Before that we had real, homemade Chinese food with a friend of Patrick's dad. I could say more, but it's past my bedt...

Pink Eye (January 23, 2003)

I watched Riding in Cars with Boys while Patrick was doing work. It was a good movie. I don't think it's good enough to buy forever, but definitely good enough to rent. And it had Maggie Gyllenhaal...

S Bakery (January 23, 2003)

This morning, after renting DVDs (Monsters, Inc and Riding in Cars with Boys), we stopped by S Bakery Tea House in downtown Palo Alto. Since I've become interested in baking, I've wanted to stop at a...

Online Presence (January 22, 2003)

We just finished making and eating pork chops, cornbread, and sweet potatoes. It tired us out because there was a lot of clean-up involved after the fact. The meal didn't turn out perfect either, bu...

Dutch Crunch! (January 21, 2003)

Patrick and I went all over San Mateo today because he doesn't have class until tomorrow (but he does have an IM basketball game tonight). We went to Barnes and Noble, where he bought the super-duper...

Miss Muffett (January 21, 2003)

Today I finished reading I'm Just Here for the Food while Patrick did some work (school has already started for him). Alton Brown should've named the book All About Meat or something, because that's ...

Mmm, Zachary's (January 20, 2003)

Last night, we went to Zachary's in Berkeley with Noah and Jenny (Noah is a friend from college, and Jenny is his girlfriend). We had stuffed pizza, and it was way good. And the Raiders won the pre-...

Arrived in California (January 19, 2003)

I'm safe and sound in California. When I left Boston, it was really freaking cold and windy, so it sure is nice to have warmer weather here in CA. I normally take the T to get to the airport in Bost...

Lord of the Rings (December 23, 2002)

Today was great. We went to an early showing of Lord of the Rings in Santa Clara, which is like 20 minutes away from Stanford. There's a huge statue of the Virgin Mary across the street from the the...

Rear-Ended (December 20, 2002)

Today was eventful. We went to the mall to buy presents for Patrick's family (well, he bought presents; I just came along for moral support). On the way home, we got rear-ended by a very apologetic ...

Mutant Healing Factor (December 19, 2002)

I'm still having a good time with Patrick, mostly watching TV. We agree that he must have mutant healing powers, since he recovered really quickly from his wisdom teeth surgery. I mean, he's still o...

Back from California (December 1, 2002)

I'm back in Boston. It's cold, and I miss Patrick. But my visit was great, as usual. Thanksgiving dinner was very good (his dad ordered most of it from Draegers, and it was really good, especially ...

Sunny Visit (October 15, 2002)

What a great visit to see my Patrick! Here are some pictures (mouse over for captions). As you can see, we lay on the grass (twice!) and went miniature golfing. I miss him already...

Rain Boots (October 14, 2002)

Remember when I was looking for pretty rain boots? Well, here are some likely candidates. Too bad they cost $90 and are hard to find online. But I thought I should make a note of them anyway, just ...

Stanford Perks (October 13, 2002)

I'm writing this entry from Patrick's laptop via WIRELESS INTERNET! Wow! We're at a student-run review for the Artificial Intelligence comp (first-year CS people at Stanford take a bunch of differen...

Nola (October 13, 2002)

Last night I had dinner with Patrick's family (they live in Palo Alto) at a place called Nola, which serves Cajun food. I don't think I've ever had Cajun food before--it was good! I had a carmelized...

Stanford Visit (September 23, 2002)

Here are two pictures from this weekend. It was sunny, just likes it's supposed to be. Patrick's dorm/apartment complex is really pretty. ...

Thanksgiving Plans (September 22, 2002)

I'm having a good time with Patrick :) Right now, he's at a CS department reception, and I chose not to go, since he'd meet more people without me hanging around. He'll be back soon though. And the...