20 on the 20th

Stole this idea from my friend Moriah :)
Here are 20 things that are on my mind this 20th day of November:

1) Evan is getting another black strip on his black-brown belt from Kuk Sool Won. One year from now he will test for his Black Belt. I'm very proud of him for choosing such a great form of martial arts.

2) Ian and I joined Snap fitness this week. They ( Snap Fitness) asked Ian to work for them already! That kid is so likable.

3) I'm sore from working out. I hope Wayne will want to join Snap too.

4) Spent last Sunday at the Harvest Festival with my mom and sister and Evan. I loved it.

5) Really happy our new tenants are working out. The husband can't say enough nice things about the house. Make me feel good especially after the last people.

6) Think about my friend Moriah all the time and wonder when were going to have a fun day?

7) I spent some time looking into a mini vacation to San Antonio TX. The River Walk and the Alamo look amazing and I'm ready to get away.

8) I'm actually looking forward to Thanksgiving this year.

9) Coming up with 20 things may be harder than I though. I knew I should have done this last Sunday!

10) I'm taking Evan and his friend Kevin to see 2012 tomorrow after Evan's testing. I have absolutely no interest in see it.

11) Tried a new barbecued chicken recipe today, it was yummy. The kids really liked it.

12) I think my niece Hannah is adorable, she went to see the "New Moon" movie! She's beautiful and funny and smart.

13) Got a raise at work and more responsibility. I wanted to tell him to keep his money but thought I could use the challenge. I'm now in charge of ordering all the inventory for our office. Oh Joy!

14) We're not going to KFOG'S concert for kids this year, we didn't love the artists that are playing and they moved it to a Saturday night.

15) We decided to get a "family" gift this year for Christmas. A new flat screen TV. Evan's not very happy about it. Of course we will still have a visit from Santa and stockings too.

16) Ian's football finally ended. He was really ready to start riding is dirt bike again, they told him he couldn't ride during the football season. He wants to play again next year.

17) Speaking of Ian riding. He entered his first race of the season last weekend. He placed 21st and was happy with that. It was his first time back on his bike since August. He also said he felt really strong from the football conditioning.

18) Wayne's job is winding down, but it's actually more hectic. Trying to finish up and fix things that the other carpenters messed up. Maybe a couple of more weeks that's it.

19) I want to clean out Evan's room and make it more age appropriate for him. He still has a lot of kid junk in there even though I clean it out regularly.

20) Wow , I'm feeling such pressure to make #20 good. But honestly, I think the fact that I was able to come up with 19 things is good enough. Well it was actually only 18 because of #9. Thanks for reading hope it wasn't too painful :)

Oink-Oink

Here is Ian getting his H1N1 flu shot. Hopefully Evan will be getting his on Friday.

Another Outing

My title sounds a bit like I outed someone doesn't it! But no, just another outing with my sister a couple of weeks ago. The plan, you've gotta love that we actually had a plan, was to take a drive to the Walgreen's store that my sister manages in San Francisco and for me to get one of their last remaining flu shots and for her to pick up her hot water kettle. One of out two isn't bad for us. I got my "preservative free" flu shot for an "extra fee" because that was all they had left and she forgot to pick up her kettle. We left the store and headed for the mall because when I was there the day before specifically to get more of my foundation makeup I, of course, walked out of the make up store w/ $80.00 worth of new eye color but no foundation! So lickity split the foundation was in the bag and strait ahead of us was Godiva. A brief pit stop there and we were off to nowhere. This is the place where everyone gets into trouble right?. Nowhere. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking..........

When we saw there beauties we reminisced about going to Macy's in San Francisco's union Square and trying on all the fancy gowns just for fun..........we would laugh so hard.

Pumpkin festival

Well, If your from Half Moon Bay or have ever been to the Pumpkin Festival you know it is all about the Orange Gourd, the big pumpkin itself. This past weekend was the 39th annual in all it's glory. 300k people over the course of two days cram our little town to enjoy shopping, eating, music and my personal favorite.........people watching. For many of us it's a time to raise much needed funds for our schools and misc other non-profits and also to catch up with old and new friends. Here are some photo highlights from my day at the Pumpkin festival.
PS: I have no idea who these people are, just thought they had alot of pumpkin spirit!

Calm before the storm?

Wayne, Evan and I walked down to see the ocean last night before the rain started. I love the smell and the power of the ocean on days like this. This is what it looked.

Sunday Project

A friend of ours had a baby sometime in the last two weeks, a boy. I can't remember the date exact, Wayne has been working with the guy off and on so when his wife had the baby the guys all took up a collection and had flowers sent. OK, first of all you have to imagine a bunch of carpenters on a job site with no women around somehow figuring this out. What the thought process must have been on this, well it's just funny! So I don't know what possesses me sometimes but I said "Oh, I should make a pumpkin hat" Figuring if I do great, if not, well she got flowers right? So the other day Wayne says to me, "I told John you were making a pumpkin hat for the baby, where is it"? OMG! I guess I really did say that out loud. I don't knit much anymore, but I found my orange and green "Lambs pride cotton" and went to work. I had forgotten how quickly a little baby had knits up and how much I miss knitting. I worked on thought out the day Sunday and finished before Wayne and the boys returned home from Fleet Week celebration in SF.

Cooking Inspiration

Yesterday while I was surfing new food blogs, a current obsession of mine, I ran across this blog http://food-forthought.blogspot.com/. Scrolling down the site I discovered he/she had posted a recipe for Cannellini beans and kale. Seeing that I had all the ingredients on hand and It sounded wonderful, I went to work.
I used:
1 can of Cannellini beans (Trader Joe's brand)
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
Red Pepper flakes to taste
Diced pancetta
One whole bunch of purple kale, washed and roughly chopped
Sm lemon wedge maybe a teaspoon
Extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Saute the onion, garlic, pancetta and red pepper flakes in a pan w/ olive oil. Add kale and a little water. Cover and cook until leaves are tender at this point I also added a little squirt of fresh lemon.
After the kale is cooked , add the cannellini beans and salt and pepper. Cook until heated through then mash the beans. Plate the dish and drizzle with more olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Serve with sourdough bread. This is how it looked.




The beauty of this recipe is that you can alter it in so many ways. I thought about adding some chopped tomatoes or even a small diced potato. Jazz it up how ever you like!