Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Eileen's 50th Birthday Party

Eileen's 50th birthday party was held at the W Hotel in San Diego and after arriving early with the flowers and making sure they were placed on the tables and valet parking the car, Grace and I headed up to her room.
After getting ready we headed down to the party.  Eileen was smashing in her dress.
And the food and friends were great.
Had a great time and got a performance of Eileen playing the drum to Moves Like Jaeger.
I finally met Amy who proclaimed me to be the long lost youngest Han sister.
Party favor included a special bottle of wine.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Yaling's Fingerless Mitts

After I finished spinning up the yarn as discussed here, I started working on the mitts using the Jelly Beans Mitts pattern.

Finished them for her birthday.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Flower Awesomeness by Karen

Eileen birthday party entailed buying flowers at Costco and stopping by her house for vases.  After getting everything home and in some water, I sent out a distress signal to Karen who came over to help (I mean do) the arranging into 6 centerpieces for the table tops.

We started with this.
And this.
After the magic happened, this is the result.
We had to remove all the mums from the arrangement because they are funeral flowers.  So we ended up with a small arrangement now compatible for a birthday party.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Dinner at Urban Bar & Grill

After pilates, Grace and I used our Groupon to have dinner at Urban Bar & Grill. We made reservations on the fly and parked at Horton Plaza for free.  There was a game so traffic was tough.

We walked to the restaurant and were seated inside out of the humidity.  Our waiter was super nice and after telling us about the specials left us to mull over our choices.  There were 3 items on the menu that sounded great, but the specials sounded even better.

We decided to order two specials, the cowboy steak and the sea bass but alas, the chef changed the sea bass to halibut so we substituted for the ahi tuna.  We also shared a salad of pear and gorgonzola.
The were nice enough to split our salad order into two dishes.
And they brought us extra plates for the entrees.

Great meal overall and we have to come back to try some of the other menu items.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Snowflake Scarf Finished

I saw this American Snowflake pattern which I talked about here and then I finally got the loom out and started weaving it here.

I finished the scarf with more repeats than the pattern called for and got the fringe all worked out.
The fabric has a beautiful hand.  Since it has alpaca, it will become a gift.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Spinning Progress

After being on a few trips and having small amounts of idle time, I finally finished spinning the second turtle on the Jenkins turkish spindle.
The fiber was the prize to the Jenkins challenge I talked about here.
The plied yarn will be paired with this black BFL I got at Black Sheep to make this chevron scarf.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Rainy Day Adventures

I woke up with a shaking Bailey nestled up next to me in bed as lightning and thunder started up.  I fell back asleep and next thing I know I'm alone in bed again.

It is unusually humid and warm with sky theatrics and next came the rain.  We definitely need it here due to the extreme drought.

Grace and I headed out for pilates class which I had not taken in over 2 years.  It was a lot harder than I remembered.  After class, we headed to the nail salon and the rain was coming down pretty hard.  Walking around in the rain with flip flops and huge puddles was challenging.

I felt bad for leaving Bailey alone in the house with the weather, but we then hit the French Gourmet for lunch.  
Lunch was great.  Since it was a bit cooler, we started with soup.  I had the ginger carrot and Grace had the french onion.
Our entrees included an ahi tuna wrap and a steak.
Delicious lunch but we were too full for dessert which also looked fabulous.  The breakfast menu looked great as well.  We will definitely have to come back again.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Pineapple Life

A while back, I posted a you tube video of ripening a pineapple for consumption.  There were a ton of comments that my terminology was incorrect and that pineapples cannot ripen after picking.  All I know is that this method results in sweet pineapples every time.

When I made the video, I kept the pineapple top and I planted it in the ground and waited and waited.  It has been 3 years and now I see a hint of a pineapple.
It probably won't taste very good, but I'm crossing my fingers to see what happens.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Last Blue Apron Dinner

For our last Blue Apron dinner, we cooked Seared Pork Chops with Roasted Sweet Potato Salad.  Grace cooked the pork perfectly according to the instruction card and it was juicy and tender.

The fond could have been a little thicker but it had a very nice flavor.  We were instructed to use half of the red onion but I only ended up using less than a quarter.  I roasted the sweet potatoes in the toaster oven using the supplied pan, but the potatoes were a bit too crispy due to the dark baking pan.  Lesson learned to use a lighter pan to prevent burning.

I believe this was the best of the three dinners we had.  Grace agreed and we look forward to our next delivery.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Second Blue Apron Dinner

For the second Blue Apron dinner, Grace and I prepared the Ras El Hanout Chicken Pitas with cherry tomato and cucumber tabbouleh.

The meal was pretty easy to put together and the instructions were easy to follow.
We added blood orange olive oil to the tabbouleh which added a nice flavor.
The yogurt sauce was a bit runny.  We should have squeezed out the shredded cucumbers before putting it in with the yogurt.  It was tasty but watery.
The ras el hanout seasoning drew to mind every mid eastern eatery and added a nice flavor to the chicken breasts.

The final pita was pretty good.
Left over chicken and tabbouleh with a bit of yogurt sauce for lunch tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Andrea's Quick Visit

Andrea came for a quick visit and after picking her up at the airport, we went to lunch at Ototo Sushi up the street.
I had the Monday lunch special and Andrea had sushi and we shared the garlic edamame.
I went back to work and she took Bailey out for a walk.  He has now associated "Andrea" with "walk."  He was pooped when he came home.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

First Blue Apron Dinner

Grace and I decided to try out Blue Apron since it seems like a really cool idea.  A bit more costly than regular shopping and cooking, but overall $10/dish is pretty reasonable considering dining out and the added convenience of not having to shop.

The first meal we had was cornmeal-crusted catfish with tomato-cucumber salad and creamy potatoes.

We gathered the ingredients provided.
Following the step by step instructions, it was pretty fast and easy to put together and even with cooking time, we had dinner on the table within 30 minutes.
The final plate was pretty tasty.
We were able to finish the potatoes and the fish but had a ton of leftover cucumber salad.  It needed something more and I think there were too many onions.  I definitely will make the fish and the potatoes again.  Not so sure about the salad.  The remoulade sauce was very tasty.

Monday, July 13, 2015

July Spin Group

I hosted spin group this month and we had another small group as everyone else had vacation plans.  Jeri was spinning up her BSG bounty and Suzanne love it so much she bought some fiber off of Jeri.
Suzanne brought her new sweater knit with some mohair yarn.  The cables popped and she matched the buttons.
I started back on my planned woven shawl project and spun up almost a bobbin of my polworth silk.
Long lost Jan came to fill us in on the happenings since we last saw her and showed a weed box she found while having her landscaping revamped.
We had snack food using farm fresh ingredients.
Great weather for a spin day and a fun time with good friends.