Update on the goals

Just a quick update on the goals. I'm finding that they are not really mutually exclusive, and so far, they have all been running into each other. For instance, I've been faithfully running - Mon., Tues., yesterday, tonight - but I've been so pooped out afterwards that I haven't been able to work on artwork, or anything for that matter. I've barely been able to drag myself into the kitchen to make dinner. I know, it's so pathetic, I'm only running 30 minutes a day - but I am not built as a distance runner, for goodness sakes - I am a jumper. Jumper. So get off my back. :)

Also, I purchased the make-your-own-lamp kits off the internet the other day, to get started on the lamp-making, which violated my goal of be wiser with money. I am out of disposable income for this pay period, but purchased the lamps anyway, because I wanted to get started on the artwork.

So, it's a slow start - but atleast it's a start.

In other news, I may be running in a relay with Charlotte - from Napa to Santa Cruz in May. She does this every year, and just emailed me that they need another female runner, and it's right here in my area, so why not? It's 199 miles, with 36 legs of differing lengths and difficulties. You have 12 members on your team, and each member runs 3 legs. I think it will be a good warm-up for the half marathon in July. Some of the legs look really difficult! So, we'll see, but it sounds like fun!

With all the news about water and flooding up the PacNW, I'm actually feeling pretty happy to be down here in sunny California. It's supposed to be 70 degrees this weekend. Cool.

Yes, I have adjusted to the sunshine.

All that and the kitchen table

My home in San Francisco is finally complete. On Sunday, I happened to notice that Cost Plus was having a year-end sale on all of their furniture - including the tiny little kitchen table that I have had my eye on for, oh, the entire 4.5 months we have been here. So Neil and I took a little bus ride down to check it out, found that it was $20 off, and rented a zipcar to haul it home. I now have a kitchen table. It's so exciting. Another place to put things in my tiny kitchen and to possibly start up my metal work again. A perfect start to 2009.

And speaking of 2009, I have big plans for this year. Although I have never made "resolutions" per-say, this year I do have some goals. I like the idea of goals rather than resolutions, because resolutions come with the connotation of being broken - no one actual keeps a New Year's resolution, do they? Goals, on the other hand, are not just some vague, flippant idea that you throw out there on a whim because of a certain date. They are something tangible to work towards throughout the whole year. This year I will have goals. And what better way to achieve goals than to tell others, so that they can give you a guilt trip when you start failing to achieve your goals? So, without further ado, here are a few of my 2009 goals:

1. Run the Avenue of the Giants half marathon in July.
Yes, folks, that is 13 miles. I am really going to need guilt-trip help on this one. I started running again yesterday and boy, was it painful. I think I actually stopped making forward progress at one point, even though my legs were still moving. There may, or may not, have been a hill involved. Actually, I think not. But I have a plan, and I have a goal that I have shared with the world and I am counting on you all to shame me into running this race. Next step - actually sign up for said race. I'll keep you updated.

2. Manage my money more wisely.
I know, I know... you are all thinking - you're an accountant, you should be very skilled at managing your money. No, no - actually I am very good at managing other people's money. So you should all give me all your money. :) I have grand plans for our life that include owning a house at some point before I am 60, returning to Europe before I am 60, and many other things to do before I am 60 that require savings. So, my goal this year is to stop wasting money on frivolous things.

3. Start working on artwork again.
This one was facilitated by the purchase of the kitchen table. It's much easier to work on artwork when you have a flat surface. Prior to the kitchen table, we really didn't have a flat surface in our house that I could work on. End tables are not so conducive to drawing, metal-work, etc. So "start on artwork" again is a pretty general goal, but I have two specific things in mind. First, I brought some of my metal-working tools back to S.F. from Thanksgiving and want to start doing what I can to work with that again. I don't have my torch, so it will all have to be cold-connected (aka no soldering), but that just makes it an interesting challenge. Secondly, I used to make lamps in my earlier days out of bamboo cane and paper that I really enjoyed making. Unfortunately, I would build them with hot glue and not a lot of forethought, so most of the time, they would disintegrate before too long. So my goal here is to find a way to construct the lamps in a way that will make them more durable and useful for more than a month. I already have some plans... and a kitchen table. :)

Three goals seems good for now, right? Nice, round number. I have so many other things that I would like to do/accomplish in 2009, but I think focusing on these three and actually accomplishing them is important, rather than just dreaming about doing many, many things.

Things have been pretty quiet since we made it out of the blizzard of 08' in Portland. It almost feels colder here in S.F. than it did in Portland, even though it's appx. 15 degrees warmer. I don't know if it's the wind coming straight off of the bay, or what, but it feels colder. Our apartment has been freezing lately, and we have been huddling around the heat dish. I got the day after New Year's off as a holiday, and so we had a four day weekend together. We went to a brunch in Berkeley on Friday - banana pancakes and homefries are delicious! - and then visited the U.C. Berkeley art museum, which was nice. It was the first time we'd been to Berkeley since we moved here, and it looks very cute. Saturday, I cleaned the house, which felt SO good. Took down the christmas tree and started the year off on a clean foot. And Sunday, we bought the table, and explored Polk Street, which is very close to our house, but we didn't know it existed until Sun. Very cool little shops and restaurants.

I meant to start on the artwork goal last night, but after my excruciatingly slow, painful run, I was down for the count for the rest of the night. I read about planting vegetables and amending my soil, instead.

One goal at a time might be enough.

An 18th Century Christmas

Christmas was interesting this year, to say the least. I was worried that Neil and I would get home for Christmas at all, with all the airport issues. But on Tuesday, I watched all the SFO/PDX departures and everything was departing on time, so I thought we'd be fine. When we got to the airport, everything was really quiet, and our flight was still scheduled to depart on time. Then, around 6:00, when we went to get dinner, I happened to glance at the departures screen and noticed a change in our flight - delayed. Now scheduled to depart at 11:50pm!! NO!! They changed our gate three times, and eventually we departed at 11:00pm, which was better, and atleast our flight departed. So, in the grand scheme of things, a few hours later was not too bad. We arrived in Portland at 12:30pm and flying in and seeing all the white on the ground was really strange - and beautiful. It was so quiet and peaceful and white. Mom and dad picked us up and we went to Chelsea's to collapse into bed. It was kind of a long travel day, and I finished a whole book while we were at the airport. 

The next morning we awoke to snowflakes gently falling down, with an accumulation of a couple of inches already by 8:00. Chelsea already had about 6-8 inches on the ground when we got there, which is pretty strange for Vancouver. With the snow already falling, we had to depart for mom and dad's house early, to make sure we got up there. In hindsight, we probably should have skipped this part and just stayed at Chelsea's - with electricity and heat and all those modern conveniences. :) A little foreshadowing there, perhaps? :)

We met Barb at Grandma's house and loaded up the van and Chelsea's car for the trek. It was really slow going - took about an hour to get up the road, and it usually takes half that. When we pulled into mom and dad's, Neil shoveled out a parking spot for Chelsea (he's used to shoveling snow, having grown up on the East side) at the bottom of the hill. Because there was so much snow, driving the cars up the hill was out of the question, so the only way to get up to the house was on our own two feet. Mom and dad gave each other snowshoes for Christmas last year, and I don't think they knew how much those would come in handy this year. They had already been using them to make a path up the hill, and Neil led the way with the snowshoes to break a trail through the new snow. We loaded up the two toboggans with all of our Christmas presents and trudged up the hill, the snow still coming down. I don't have any pictures of this part of the trip - the camera was still packed. 

We finally got everything up to the house, after two trips, and there was still power at this point, so we were nice and cozy in the warm house, while the snow piled up outside. Neil and I laid down for a long nap, and when we woke up, things were no longer so cozy - the power had gone out... So, we lit the fire, and the candles and the lanterns. It was cozy in a different way. Mom and dad have a gas stove, so we could still cook - which was nice - but not a turkey or a ham, so mom put some chili in to warm up and dad cooked hot dogs and we sat down to a lovely Christmas Eve dinner of Chili dogs. Fancy. Actually, it was very nice. Devin said a really wonderful prayer, and he prayed for the power to come back on. 

I know this is a dark picture, but I wanted to really show what it was like! :) After dinner, Devin finally got to open one present - he had been waiting for this all day. Earlier in the day, he told me, "Auntie, I sure am anxious to open my presents". Heehee

It was a book about the Christmas story, so he and Poppa read it together. Right about then, the power came back on. Hmm... It was strange to have so much light after the darkness, and so we actually turned most of them back off - the only lights we had on were the Christmas lights. It was really pretty. I tried to take some pics of the snow outside.


Then, it was time for a squirmy little Devin to go to bed, and Neil and I headed up to the "wrapping room", aka mom's bedroom, to wrap all the presents we brought. We were talking about how nice it had been with the power off - nothing to distract us from being together and enjoying each other and a few seconds after Neil mentioned it, the lights went out again. So, I guess we negated Devin's prayer somehow. Mom started playing Christmas carols on the piano, and it was a really lovely evening. Very quiet and calm and warm, with the leftover heat from the power, and the woodstove cranking out the warmth. We all finally straggled off to bed with flashlights. 

I didn't have visions of sugarplums dancing in my head that night, I had visions of electricity. But when we awoke, it was not to be. Still no power Christmas morning, and the snow had REALLY started coming down. We pulled out the cheese ball (christmas morning tradition) and got to the presents, without Christmas tree lights or Christmas morning traditional music. But I'm slowly learning that it's less about the traditions, and more about being together. Great-grandma and Lila were not able to be with us, because of the hill and the snow, and they were greatly missed - it was just not the same Christmas without them. Art, Linda, Crystal and Nic were also not able to join us in the afternoon, and that was different as well. 

But Devin loved opening his presents from Santa. He got a big semi-truck, filled with little cars. It's a little boy's dream and when he opened it, he said, "it's just what I wished for." So cute:

Devin helped us all open our presents, and every time he helped he would say, "I sure hope this one is for me". Oh, kids. :) It just kept snowing harder and harder the whole time we were opening presents and by noon, when we finished, there was atleast 6 inches of new snow. Neil and I strapped on the snowshoes and went for a walk down the hill. It was a winter wonderland - beautiful, peaceful white wonderland. It was a wonderful walk. 

After the walk, it was lunch and another nap. This one I could not wake up from. Everyone else headed up on the roof to shovel the snow off - 4 feet of snow on a roof is not usually good thing and so we needed to try to get some of it off. I could hear them on the roof above me, but could still not manage to wake up. It was a really strange feeling. When I finally woke up completely, the roof was shoveled off, everyone had gone off sledding and it was almost dark. I headed outside to try and snap a few pictures before it got too dark:

Then I found everyone sledding on the hill on the toboggans - the snowshoes path made a perfect chute for the sled:

Christmas dinner was Costco pasta from a bag which ended up being delicious and got us all powered up for - singing Christmas carols around the piano. Like I said, it was a different Christmas. :) It was actually really fun, though. My mom played all the traditional carols - the first Noel, Silent Night, etc. and we sounded terrible, I'm sure - but it was great fun once you got over the initial embarrassment of hearing your own voice. Then we sang all of the songs from the Yale School Christmas play and that brought back tons of memories. I still have all the lyrics to most of those songs memorized. Whenever I hear Silver Bells, all I can think of is that this song signals the beginning of the Christmas play. I love it. We sang "will you come", "little gray donkey" and "up on the housetop". We finally got Chelsea to join us on the last few tunes, after Poppa took over reading Devin a story. Neil refused to join in - I guess he just wasn't ready for that kind of humiliation. :) We'll get him someday, though - I have a feeling this will become a new Christmas tradition - off-key singing around the piano - even when we have power. 

We laid Devin down for bed and then gathered around the coffee table for a game of hearts. Dad promptly shot the moon on the first hand and then Chelsea managed to get the Queen every round after that. But I ended up losing anyway, somehow. It was fun. 

The next morning we packed up and got the heck out of Yale. No power is fun for awhile, but then you get cold, and run out of water, and haven't flushed the toilets in a few days. So, you see, the shine starts to wear off. The roads were finally plowed and clear and we headed down to GG's house in Woodland for a gathering with the rest of the family - Grandma, Art, Linda, Crystal and Nic. 

When the family started to get a little bit older, and bigger, we decided not to exchange gifts with everyone, we started doing a gift exchange. It's always fun. Neil didn't participate this year, because he is low on $$, so I didn't have an "ally" in the exchange. See, in a gift exchange like this, it's always good to have someone to be in "cahoots" with, so that you can get the best chance of getting something you like. You have to form alliances, and make deals. Nic happened to be sitting next to me on the couch, so I wheeled and dealed with him, and we joined forces to get just the gifts that we wanted. Neil and I ended up with two $15 itunes gift cards, and Nic ended up with a $30 amazon gift card. Perfect. Overall it was very fun, and there was some good gifts this year. 

Then, Neil and I headed off to visit Lila in Aberdeen. The doggies greeted us at the door in full Christmas regalia:



We had a really nice time visiting with Lila and the doggies. All the doggies are such good friends - in order from largest to smallest: Buddy, Smoky, Homer, Lola and Swarley. Buddy keeps his eye out for the little guys. And Lola had decided that Homer is her new boyfriend - she flirts with him shamelessly. Poor Homer doesn't really know what to do with all the attention. On Saturday, Steph, Lee and Sydney joined us for some spirited present unwrapping. Good presents were had by all. Grandma Lila got Sydney decorating some Christmas ornaments for next year. They were masterpieces. Then Steph and I settled in for some episodes of What not to Wear and the rest of the household took naps. It was very relaxing. After naps was a delicious turkey dinner (our first one of the holiday) with mashed potaotes, stuffing, corn, rolls and finished with chocolate pie from Costco. Delicious. My stomach is growling just thinking about it now. Steph and Lee headed home after the dinner and Lila and Neil went to hit the stores for some after-Christmas browsing. I stayed home and snuggled with my little doggies. It was nice. We watched the Dark Night and called it a night. It was a really nice visit and nice to spend time with Lila.

We headed back to Portland the next day for lunch at our favorite neighborhood pub, the Lucky Lab. It was really nice to have a laid-back lunch there, catching up on Portland news through the Mercury and the Willamette Weekly. San Francisco's weekly newspaper is not nearly as good. After a good lunch and a good beer, we headed back to mom and dad's. The power was back on, finally! 

The flight left to head back to S.F. at 7:00 on Monday and mom, dad and devin dropped us off at the airport. Devin liked the escalators and the baggage check. We said our goodbyes :( and settled into the Laurelwood pub for once last local beer. I miss Portland beer so much. For those of you in the Portland area, I highly recommend the Laurelwood Winter Warmer - Nut ale. It was delicious - such a nice beer. Our flight went off without any hitches, and we found ourselves back at home in S.F. in our apartment by 10:30. And it was straight to bed for me, as Tuesday it was back to work and some good news was waiting for me! (see previous blog). 

Overall, it was a great Christmas in a lot of ways, even if it was sort of strange and different. I don't think I would want that much snow every year, but it was pretty for awhile, and I think the power being off really made us slow down and enjoy each other a little bit more. Merry Christmas to all! Hope it was magical for everyone!

Oh my god - they're giving me a garden!!!!!!!

Okay - I know I have yet to post the big Christmas blog - but this bit of news takes precedent. I checked my email today and found a gem! The guy at the White Crane Springs Community Garden (doesn't that sound beautiful) was letting me know that they had a garden plot open up and do I still want it? DO I????!!! With all of my heart and soul, do I want that plot. And dad just bought me herb seeds for christmas. Oh my god, I am SO excited. I'm already planning ways to get the most out of a tiny, 6x8 foot plot.

Here is a picture of the gardens:



This is honestly one of the best Christmas gifts I could have asked for - what a treat! And even better news is that it will only take me one bus to get there. It is located in the Inner Sunset District, which is a little ways away from us, but, as luck would have it, there just happens to be a bus that goes directly there. Oh, I'm going to pee my pants, I'm so excited...

So, I just wanted to send this little bit of excitement out into the universe - I will post the Christmas blog shortly, with pictures. Oh, and I noticed that Charlotte left a comment that she might be making her own cheese at home, so I thought I would post instructions for anyone else who might be interested:

Homemade ricotta:

What you need: 1 gallon of milk (or double recipe), 1/4 cup white vinegar, a large colander lined with cheesecloth (I got mine at New Seasons and Williams Sonoma)

1. Heat the milk in a large saucepan to 185 degrees, stirring to prevent scorching. Don't let it boil.

2. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar and stir the milk a few times. You should start to see the cheese and whey start to separate a little bit, and become thicker. Let the pot sit for a couple of hours, for more cheese curds to form.

3. Drain the cheese through the cheesecloth and colander. Let the cheese sit for awhile in the colander to get firmer cheese. Pull up the corners of the cheesecloth around the cheese and squeeze the liquid out. Again, squeeze less liquid for softer cheese, more for firmer cheese. Salt the cheese to your taste, or leave plain.

The ricotta will keep in the fridge for about a week, so I read. Also, the whey (liquid left over) can be used to make other cheese, or I've also heard that it is an excellent liquid to use to make bread. Oh - and you can't use super-pasteurized milk - pasteurized or raw milk only. Super-pasteurized will not form curds.

I usually only use a half-gallon of milk, but if you want a lot of cheese.

Okay - happy cheese-making all! It's good stuff....

Hiatus

The blog is officially on hiatus until January - there is just too much going on, and not enough time to write at the moment. See you after the New Year! And Merry Christmas to all! :)

60 degrees is warm, people!

DAYS TIL WE COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS: 12

Thing that I like about San Francisco:

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE FOGHORN

It has a lovely musicality to it - slightly haunting - and is the sound of cozy, warm fuzzy fog. I haven't heard it in awhile, and we have been pretty fog-free around here lately, and I have found myself missing it...

I don't have too much to say - after the high of my chicken cutting, cheese, butter and granola making weekend, I've settled back into the gentle rhythm of life. :) We did have a delicious spinach canelloni dish for dinner last night which I can take no credit for. I have discovered the world's best cookbook. Nothing wrong can come from this cookbook, it seems. Every recipe that i have tried (5-6) has been not just good, but fantastically good. It's called "Food to Live By" and it's by the woman who runs Earthbound Farms, which is a huge organic farming conglomerate here in California. I'm sure you've seen their bagged salads in the grocery store. But the cookbook is really great - it uses really normal ingredients, no fancy-schmancy ingredients you've never heard of - and the flavors in the foods are usually amazing. So I used my homemade ricotta cheese in the cannelloni and combined with garlic, onions, basil, thyme and parmesan cheese, topped with some organic tomato sauce from Bi-Rite(new favorite grocery store, remember) - they came out just absolutely fabulous. Neil doesn't really care that much for pasta and he even commented on how yummy it was. He actually took the leftovers for lunch, which he doesn't do unless he really likes something.

Tonight I have to buckle down to the christmas cookie making, because we may (or may not) be having a small get-together with neil's school friends tomorrow night, for cookies, hot cocoa and wassail. So I have to get prepared, just in case. And I'm sure there will be no trouble getting the cookies eaten, even if the event doesn't happen.

On a final note, Californians are big, fat babies. We have had highs in the low 50's and lows in the low 40's this week, and you should hear the people complain about how "cold" it has been! Wow! I'm basking in the warmth, enjoying being able to go out in December without hat and gloves, and people down here are looking for their below-zero size parkas. I saw a guy get on the bus this morning with his scarf up covering his mouth and nose and gloved hands tucked under his armpits like he was just barely holding onto life in these sub-50 degree temps. Are you kidding me? The last time I had a scarf up to keep my chin and nose warm was when we were cross-country skiing in Leavenworth two years ago - AND IT WAS 18 DEGREES OUT. Hmph... Like I said - big babies.

Hope everyone's having fun with their Christmas preparations.

WARNING: Raw chicken parts may appear in this blog

Days until we come home for Christmas: 15!!

Well, I officially did it! I conquered the whole chicken. Saturday night, the chicken was finally defrosted - for some reason it took three days in the fridge to de-frost. I thought that's how long a really large turkey took - not a three pound chicken. On Friday night, I had gone down to Williams Sonoma and purchased a trusty pair of poultry scissors - "the better to cut you up with, my pretty! whoo-ha-ha-ha" (Said in voice of wicked witch of the west). I took these out and watched my online tutorial one more time (thanks you-tube) and faced the chicken head on. And it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I tackled the legs first, and they practically popped off on their own. 

then the wings were a little bit harder i couldn't get them to pop out of their joints but I finally managed to snip them off. Ten I split the back from the breasts and set it aside to make stock with. Getting the breast bone out was actually the hardest part. I ended up splitting it in half and basically having to tear it out, but the breasts didn't look any worse for the wear. Then I took the ribs and skin off and voila! Boneless, skinless chicken breasts:

Then I split the thighs from the drumsticks and removed as much skin as possible and TA-DA!! Take that whole chicken:

So, there you have it. I did it. And the whole chicken only cost $12 and it only took about 15-20 minutes to cut it all up. It was an organic, free-range chicken and Neil actually commented on how much better it seemed to taste than regular chicken. I don't think I'll go back to the old way. We'll see how long that lasts. :) 

So, in the spirit of doing things myself, I embarked on a whole day of making things from scratch. First up: Ricotta cheese for cannelloni later in the week:

Then, since I was really feeling in the swing of things, I decided to conquer something new: butter! It's so simple to make, you just whip heavy cream in your stand mixer until it goes past whip cream and the butter and buttermilk separate, and voila again! Butter!

Then, you "wash" the butter with ice water - meaning just process it some more - until all the buttermilk is removed, and then salt it and put it in the fridge. It was a lot of fun!

Then, to finish off the day, I made some homemade granola - with slivered almonds and coconut flakes and maple syrup, brown sugar and cranberries. I had some in my homemade yogurt today and it was delicious. I'll post it soon, if anyone is interested. Yummy!

I felt like it was a very successful weekend in the kitchen. Oh, and we finally got the lights up on our tree. Maybe soon we will actually get the ornaments on. But it looks very beautiful, and I am finally starting to get in the Christmas spirit. It's been a little colder here this week, and it was overcast on Sunday, so that helps! Neil has his last few classes this week and then, after Friday, he is all done until Jan. 20th. I think it will be a nice break for him, he's been working pretty hard and I think he's a little bit tired out.

Ok - I'm off to make some Christmas cookies and Wassail!