Daily Gratitude

Every other November or so, I've attempted to blog each day of the month about something I'm grateful for, or at least blog a photo of the day, which...in a round about way, would be something I'm grateful for in one way or another otherwise I wouldn't have photographed it. Since I didn't blog much in October, I'll start this month off with a compilation of things that happened in October that I'm happy that they happened. hehe!
A quick stop in Solvang with my cousin after our trip to the desert.

Mission Santa Ines is in Solvang so we had to stop and check it out while we were there.

My next "Farm Fresh to You" box contained:
1 sugar pumpkin, 1 red pomegranate, 4 fuji apples, 1 eureka lemon, 4 d'anjou pears, 5 kiwi, 1 bunch carrots, 3 bunches of kale (yikes!), 1 bunch butter lettuce.
Ok...so...I've never made kale before and now I have 3 bunches of them! I was suppose to get beets, but they're on my exclusion list so they substituted kale for it. Previously I'd had a few bites of kale salad and one of my closest friends love it, so I was up for the challenge. I found 2 recipes online and they were..."okay". They weren't great but they weren't bad either. I was pretty indifferent to them. Kale is pretty bitter, so it's not a simple flavor. The 1st recipe was an Orzo with kale and feta. The 2nd was aRoasted Yam and Kale Salad. Anyhoo...after making these 2 recipes, I decided to put kale on my exclusion list. I'd eat it and even enjoy it if someone else served it, but it's not something I chose to prepare myself.

Before going to the World Series, the Giants had to beat the Cardinals for the National League Championship. We didn't have tickets, but we live close to the ballpark. When when knew (or at least had a good idea) that they'd win the game, we went to the stadium to celebrate with all the other fans. But during the 8th inning, it started raining cats and dogs. That didn't stop the celebrations! We were headed to the World Series and everyone was on a baseball high.

Learned how to make artisan caramels from a cute DIY workshop here in the city.

Even though Halloween was upstaged by the parade, there were still a lot of people dressed in costume, wandering the streets during the parade.I'm not sure if my favorite is the girl with fantastic Dia de los Muertos makeup, or the smoking Jesus. Probably the smoking Jesus because he posed for me.

Prepare yourself...this is pretty scary...
but I'm grateful that Ginnie helped me discover PicMonkey.com...they had special halloween photo editing effects that turned any image into vampires, witches, zombies or Day of the Dead. So much fun the play with!

And for today...
Woke up to this view this morning. Obviously I wasn't in The City. :P

Flying Flags High

Happy Birthday America!

photo of Sax Fifth Avenue in NYC.
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Happy Mother's Day

Celebrating the women who have touched the hearts of children.
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Liberty

“Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority--literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political.” - Ignazio Silone
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Here's something fun to try: In iTunes (or wherever) create a playlist search of "America". These are the first few songs that came up on my search:

"Voice of America" by Asia
"Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America
"American Idiot" by Green Day
"Give Me Novocaine" by Green Day from their American Idiot album
"Feelings" by Offspring from their Americana album
"She's Got Issues" by Offspring from their Americana album
"Kids in America" by Kim Wilde
"America" by Yes
"Young Americans" by David Bowie
"America" by Simon and Garfunkel
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Happy New Year

Wishing you and yours a wonderful and peaceful 2008!

Photo of SF fireworks taken a few years ago on New Years Eve.
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Flowers for the Fourth

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Memorial Day

I hope everyone has been enjoying the long holiday weekend, the unofficial start of SUMMER! Hurray for summer! Our summer promises to be a busy one. Plans already include a graduation in San Diego, a wedding in Alaska, a week with nieces and nephews at the hideaway, a possible trip to Banff National Park in Canada, which would include a side trip to Calgary for some hockey equipment for the husband. It's in Calgary where we first discovered Boston Pizza, one of our favorite pizza joints in North America. I'll definitely splurge on Boston Pizza if we happen to go to Alberta this summer. Oh, and Tim Hortons, too. hmmm...this post has taken a turn towards food...I'm obviously hungry. Ok, moving on.

I know for most of us, the long weekend is a celebration with family and friends including BBQ's, beer and lots of outdoor activities. And it should be! But I'd also like to take a moment and give a little nod to our family and friends who have served in the military. My dad served for just a few months during WWII. But he was a proud Filipino American and enlisted when our country needed him. Peace out.

Happy Mother's Day

Presidents Day

Happy Thanksgiving

We're off to Southern California in the morning for our Thanksgiving festivities with family.

Wishing you all a wonderful turkey day.

Candle surrounded by empty plates from last year's turkey fest in Laguna Beach.

Labor Day Weekend

I love it when holiday weekends are busy but not exhausting.

We started the weekend with a birthday party.
ABowen blew out all 5 candles on her scrumptious ice cream cake. We were happy to note that the temperatures were a lot milder than her 3rd birthday. It seemed to be the topic of converstation. "Remember how HOT it was a couple of years ago?" It was great catching up with A&W Bowen's grandparents and aunt. We see them about once a year, almost always at one of the kids parties. Since Jimmy went to college with EBowen and was in our wedding, we've known the family for quite a few years and it's always a pleasure to see them again and catch up and chat.
WBowen's party wasn't actually till Sunday, but we couldn't go so in effect, we celebrated his birthday on Saturday, too.

After leaving the Bowens, we went to meet the newest little person in our circle of friends. Dad is also another one of Jimmy's friends from college.

Much later that night, around 9:15pm, Jimmy asked if I wanted to go to the Headlands. Of course, I'm not gonna turn down a spur of the moment trip into the city! We took a bunch of photos and froze our butts off (I wish!). However, James, not feeling cold enough, suggested we go to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream at 11:46pm! I will never turn down ice cream...it's my biggest weakness so if someone suggests it, I have no willpower to say no, despite the butt that didn't freeze off moments before. Surprisingly, there were at least 50 other people there squeezing in a late snack before the shoppe closed at midnight. After our snack, we tried to go to the Palace of Fine Arts for more nightime photography, but there's construction going on all around and everything was blocked off. So we headed home Saturday night/Sunday morning after a fun and busy day.

Sunday we headed to the parentals for a relaxing afternoon and dinner with them and today, Monday, we stayed close to home. I went to Michaels to spend my 50% off coupon, but that was it. The weekend also included watching "Monster" and "The Godfather II", watching over a kitty who isn't feeling well, several Su Doku puzzles and a WOG (walk/jog, about 3 miles).

Happy Valentines Day

Reminiscing Turkey Day

I'm a little late posting these pics, but here's a little peek at our feast.

The beautiful table on the deck with a view of the ocean.

Frying the turkey. Nope, didn't burn the house down!

Skillful hands - like surgeon!

Homemade apple pie. There was also pumpkin and pecan!