December...Getting Ready for Christmas!

My friends, Diane & David, throw a great holiday party every year!

Jennifer, Diane's daughter, was there with her family. This is a photo of Jennifer & her son, Jacob.

Dom, Bob, Kathy (Bob's other half) and Cathy (Dom's other half. They will be celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary in 2010!).
Wayne & Diana. Wayne has been friends with Diane's family since high school...so at least 20 years.

David...in checking his wine cellar list. I love drooling over their wine cellar list.

This is David's daughter, Theresa, with her daugther, Cali, Uncle Fred and Cousin Derek.

Diane & I before the party started and things got crazy!

Three best friends....

I already have Diane & David's party on my calendar for next year.

November....

I have not updated in awhile. It has been busy! Hannah performed in her first band concert.
Getting ready to play her flute.

The pumpkin chiffon pie I made for Thanksgiving.

I attended the wedding of my old neighbor's in Chandler.

Definitely a good November.

San Francisco

I was lucky enough to take a recent business trip to San Francisco. What is a trip to SF without a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge?? Here are a bunch of photos in no apparent order from the trip!
I flew into San Jose, where my sister Leigh lives, and we drove into SF together to play tourist. Here she is riding the running board on the cable car.

Us together....nice of the conductor to take a photo of us together!

The two of us at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Some of the electric transit down by the wharf.

The morning after I got into SF, I took a walk down by the wharf and followed the scent of sourdough for my breakfast. I visited the Boudin Bakery.

I wanted to bring a bunch of sourdough home but.......the kids wouldn't eat it and it would have been challenging on the plane. I guess I will need to get a starter going at home again like I did a few years ago so I can bake my own sourdough bread. Yum!

Along the wharf I saw this sign for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. of Forest Gump fame.

I visited Ghiradelli Square during my walk.

And the gorgeous fountain in the square. It is truly a piece of art.

I had to laugh when I saw the Zoltar machine. It made me think of the movie, Big.

Leigh and I visited Plouf resturant near Chinatown.

We had an amazing dinner of salad, steamed mussels in a coconut broth that was AMAZING as seen below, and creme brulee.

The picture below is the Fine Arts Museum. I had wished I'd brought my tripod so the photo would not have been blurry but you can get the idea of how beautiful it was in the evening.

Back on my morning walk, I saw the sea lions at Pier 39.

It was amazing to see them just hanging out in such a huge group doing nothing but making noise. They are protected so they did not worry about getting harrassed by tourists.

A pretty view of the San Francisco bay. I was singing Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding in my head while I watched the tide water lap up on the shore. That is one thing I miss living in the desert is large expanses of open water so I love it when I can visit an ocean!

Shortly after this photo was taken...the read reason for the trip took over and all I saw was the inside of hotels and restaurants. I am hoping to go back to San Francisco and visit Alcatraz and play tourist in the not so distant future.

Saturday

I had a Saturday project.....take the carpeting off my stairs and landing. I am having laminate installed soon, and since I have a lovely cat (aka landing peeing machine) I needed to see how bad it was and what wood needs to be replaced before I get the laminate installed.

I am dressed and ready for action......crowbar, gloves and a mask.
The carpet on the stairs........
The finished product.....

After the project I atttending the wedding of my former neighbor's daughter. Here are Russell & Joanne (Mother of the Bride).

And me....I would have had a photo of the bride but.......my camera battery died.

Interesting contrast between morning and evening.

First Friday Book Club

I made Caribbean Chocolate Cake Ring with a chocolate glaze.
I also made some pumpkin cream cheese cup cakes.

The spread before everyone arrived. What isn't on the table is some yummy almond prosecco. Very good with desserts for those of you think about entertaining for the holidays. It would also be good with brunch too. Go to Trader Joe's and ask for the almond prosecco.

Gladiola's are in season or at least at the grocery store again. I love them!

We did actually discuss the book, The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter & Sweet. A fun evening.

Popover's

We started Halloween with some popover's. You have to first melt butter and preheat the popover pans.
Since I only have 1 popover pan, I also use muffin pans.

When you do it right, they pop up and are SO good!!

Happy Halloween!!

We started the day by carving pumpkins.
The kids always hate cleaning the guts out of the pumpkins

Hannah was able to carve some of her pumpkin.

Simon did a good job of supervising.

We had a Halloween carnival in the neighborhood yesterday. I decided to dress up this year because it turns out I had everything I am wearing already on hand in my house.

Here is Hannah with one of the neighbor girl, Tatum.

Some of the neighborhood ladies and Shelby as a mime.

My little witch!

Simon taking a ride.....

He enjoyed the little kid area!

Mike & Jason enjoying beverages.

Sally & Tatum

A great day had by all!