Weekend in Pictures

On Friday night, I headed down to Seattle to celebrate M.C.'s birthday.  We had dinner at Tilth and sprung for the five course tasting menu.

Pumpkin Panna Cotta with Candied Pumpkin Seeds

Then we met up with another friend at Shelter Lounge in Ballard and stopped by King's and The Noble Fir.  Shelter Lounge was my favorite ... they had the best cocktails!  But King's is a lot of fun as well.  They have skee ball, a heated patio and yummy burgers. 

The next morning, R. and I went to Eastlake Bar & Grill for breakfast sandwiches and a morning cocktail :)  We got there before the crowd, so we were able to sit by the windows and enjoy the view of Lake Union and Gas Works Park.

And then we headed over to UVillage for some Starbucks and shopping.

Pretty fall colors.

And then we stopped by the library to pick up a documentary on Tokyo that R. had requested.

I LOVE this library ... what a beautiful building! 

And we ended our day with the documentary, Crazy, Stupid, Love and some chinese food!

Happy Veteran's Day!

I am a day late, but I couldn't let Veteran's Day pass without a post.  I've really enjoyed reading all of the blog posts, Facebook statuses and Twitter updates, but my favorite quote was this one by Maya Angelou: 

"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!"

I don't think it could be said better.  Thank you to everyone who has served or is currently serving and thank you to the family members that put up with the lifestyle and make it possible for heroes and she-roes to serve ... I know it can be hard.

J. getting his wings 

April 2010

J. with the Growler

September 2010

J. with the Growler on his first deployment

September 2011

Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy November!

Hello Friends!  

Happy November ... or should I say Movember?!  I cannot tell you how happy I am to get this month started.  Miss Lucy is finally starting her obedience training class, we are one month closer to J. coming home and one month closer to Christmas!  And for the first time in YEARS, I will be going to Texas for Thanksgiving!  I am looking forward to spending some quality time with my family (the big move will be here before we know it) and getting some sun and warm weather! 

November started off on the right foot out here in farm country.  I spent all day yesterday cleaning the house, cleaning out both of our cars, washing sheets and towels and the yard people came so the yard is in shape as well.  I think this may be the first time ever, that the house, both cars and the yard were all clean/mowed in the same day.  Yay November!

Today Miss Lucy finally started her obedience classes (we signed up back in September and have been patiently waiting ever since!).  The first class is people only, but Miss Lucy was asked to come and be the demonstration dog (clearly the trainer could tell that Miss Lucy is a star just from her application).  Lucy was the literally the picture of perfection ... several people asked why I was even bringing her to the class.  Well, let me tell you ... we stopped by Petco on our way home from class to stock up on the treats the trainer uses and a clicker.  We get home.  I open up the sausage to cut it up into little pieces.  I work with Lucy for 5 minutes and then go check on Addy.  What does Miss Lucy do while I am gone?  She gets up on the counter and proceeds to eat half of the sausage and then turns around and throws up on my new black and white rug.  That, my friends, is why Miss Lucy is signed up for obedience classes.  Let's hope she learns something.  

Miss Lucy at the park ... she is in her element!

A close-up of my sweet baby girl

We still have some time left in this deployment, but we are inching closer to homecoming.  And, let me tell you, I. CANNOT. WAIT.  I know I said the deployment wasn't that bad and it's been good for me, blah, blah, blah.  And it's not that bad and it has been good for me, but I. AM. OVER. IT.  I've done my time, I've conquered my fears and I'm tired.  Bring my boyfriend home!

And last, but not least, we are inching closer to Christmas as well!  Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year.  I love, love, love spending hours thinking of the perfect gifts for people and then going out and doing my shopping.  I think it's because I love to shop and I don't feel guilty when I am buying for other people :) 

I hope November treats you as well as it's going to treat me :)

Friday Things

Hello Friends!  

Let's talk about my week.

1.  My hard drive crashed on Monday.  So I've been computer-less since then.  That is a long time my friends.  I was so bored that I finished painting my office and started painting my downstairs half-bath.  Two projects I've been putting off for over 10 weeks now.  The good news is that I have a brand new hard drive and ALL of my data was recovered and transferred.  And I purchased an external hard drive so I will never have to worry about losing all my data again!  I also managed to get a new battery out of the deal, so basically I have a brand new MacBook Pro.  And I got it all for free ... I NEVER buy extended warranty's, but apparently, for some unknown reason, when I bought this laptop 2.5 years ago, I sprung for the extended warranty.  2011 Sarah would like to send a big THANK YOU to 2009 Sarah.  Now let's just hope this hard drive decides to last longer than the first one. 

2.  I found some super cute Missoni for Target manilla folders on clearance at Target this week.  I tried to talk myself out of the purchase because really, who needs fun manilla folders?  But luckily I went ahead and purchased them and I am so glad I did!  They make my desk look so much prettier.  Poor J. ... this desk no longer looks like a shared space.  It looks like Sarah's space :) 

3.  Luckily we are moving soon so he will get over it. 

4.  While we still have quite a few more weeks of this deployment left, tomorrow is the last day that we can send mail to the ship.  So, being the nice GF that I am, I asked J. if he had any specific requests for his last box.  He wrote back and said "if you can make little bags for A., D. and W. that would be very nice of you.  I know they would appreciate it."  Well, that is not exactly what I was expecting to hear and, I have to admit, I was a little peeved.  I mean, who is he, asking me to spend my day going out and making "little bags" for his friends?!  Doesn't he know how busy I am cleaning his house, taking care of his dogs, paying his bills?!  But then I got this brilliant idea to make them "Happy Movember" bags and send them stick on mustaches.  All the guys in J.'s squadron are growing mustaches from now until they get home so it goes along perfectly with that.  So I literally spent my entire afternoon yesterday, driving around the MV/Burlington area looking for mustache stickers and stick-on mustaches, along with snacks and candy to put in the bags.  It was exhausting.  Do you know how hard it is to find stick-on mustaches or mustache stickers?!  Apparently scrapbookers are not into the mustache trend.  I finally found some cheap stick-on mustaches at Michael's and this is how the bags turned out:

I was very pleased with them!  I made the bags from Addy and Lucy so I made them pose with them.  It was next to impossible to get a picture with both of them and the bags so here is Miss Lucy.

5.  My kitchen is a complete disaster at the moment and instead of cleaning it, I'm telling you all about my week :)  And breaking in my new TOM's.  I started with black sparkly ones, which I loved, but decided they just weren't for me.  Then I traded those in for navy to go with my navy puffy vest (winter uniform = puffy vest).  But the navy's just didn't match very well so I traded them in again for gray.  And I think I'm going to stick with them.  But I really hate how they are tight when you first buy them. No, I don't want a pair of shoes that are tight and eventually loosen up.  I want a pair of shoes that fit when I buy them!  

6.  Have you seen this electronics trade-in program on Amazon?  If you have, have you traded anything in yet?  I was super excited to learn about this program - I have a bunch of old cell phones and iPods that I didn't know what to do with!  I am totally going to trade them in and buy myself something nice from Amazon :)  

7.  Whew.  That was a lot.  This week has officially made me feel like a desperate housewife.  Luckily, next week is a court week so I will hopefully feel more like a lawyer :)

I hope you all had a wonderful week!

  

Deployment Photos

J. has sent a few photos our way since he left for deployment:

J. and his jet

Practicing mid-air refueling

Close-up

Flying at sunset

Take two

On the flight deck, getting ready for take-off 

Ready to go!

If I get any more pictures, I will be sure to share!

September in San Francisco - Part 3

Hello Friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I meant to wrap-up my September in San Francisco series last week, but got caught up with work and travel.  Let's finish posting about September so we can move on to October :)

On our last full day in San Francisco, we packed a lot in and rode the public transportation all around the city like locals!  It was awesome.  R. and I met S.B. and her boyfriend in Chinatown for dim sum.  It was intense (and good practice for the next 2 years :)) We had to squeeze our way into the little dim sum shop, interpret the menu and jostle with the locals to get our orders in.  And I got an entire meal for less than $3.00.  I love Chinatown :)  After dim sum, we walked around and saw the sights:

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Co.

Map of Chinatown

Chinatown

Chalk Street Art

The entrance to Chinatown

After Chinatown, we rode the bus over to Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies.  Also known as the Full House house!

Painted Ladies

The girls :)

And then we took the bus over to the Mission ... we did some walking around, had some Mexican and saw the Mission Dolores.  It is the oldest intact building in the city of San Francisco and the Mission Cemetery is the only cemetery that remains in the city limits!

It was a gorgeous old building!

After our stop at the Mission, we said good-bye to S.B.'s boyfriend and headed back to the hotel to rest up before dinner.  We met L.Rae in her neighborhood for some Vietnamese at Aux Delices.  

We ended the night with L.Rae over a bottle of rose at Amelie Wine Bar.  We said our good-byes and then headed across the street to a very fun gay bar :)  We were the only females in the place and we made lots of new friends.  It was the perfect ending to our weekend!

Foodie Friday

I interrupt the September in San Francisco series to bring you Foodie Friday.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my obsession with Pinterest before ... you can find me here.  At first, I was just pinning things to my boards and enjoying browsing the site.  But over the past few weeks, I've actually started using recipes off my Eat Drink and Be Merry board!  So, of course, I had to share the recipes with you.  I don't take pictures while I cook ... I'm not good at it, I make a huge mess in my small kitchen when I cook and I do most of my cooking at night when the lighting is bad.  So all pictures below are compliments of Pinterest!

Homemade Pumpkin Dog Biscuits from Simmer Til Done: 

Sadly mine do not look this perfect.  My dog bone shaped cookie cutter is a little big and when I was rolling the dough out, I had cookies in mind not dog biscuits.  Next time, I will remember to leave the dough a little bit thicker!  However, Addy and Lucy don't care what they look like ...they love these biscuits!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars from Bake at 350:

O.M.G.  These are delicious.  And the batter is delicious.  I may eat the entire 13 x 9 pan myself.  My mom makes tasty pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, so this recipe reminded me of her and since I love the muffins, I figured the bars couldn't be bad :) 

No Bake Cookies from Lick the Bowl Good:

I only made a half recipe because I was afraid I would devour all of the cookies immediately.  And I was right.  I had to hide some put some aside and take them to L.Rae in San Francisco so I would stop eating them.  Amazing.

Thin Crust White Pizza from Pink Parsley:

YUM.  The Pioneer Woman inspired me to start making my own pizza crust last year.  I've made hers a couple of times, but was looking for a new recipe.  This was just what I was looking for.  I like that the recipes give you enough dough for two pizzas, so you can make one and freeze dough for the future :)  What I don't like about homemade pizza crust, is that it's best to let the dough sit overnight.  So if I get a pizza craving, I can't just whip up a pizza (unless of course, I've thought ahead and have dough in the freezer).  Overall, I liked the dough better than the pizza, but the white pizza was pretty good.  And, of course, you can always put whatever toppings you want on your dough.  You don't have to follow the recipe!

Balsamic-Garlic Crusted Pork Tenderloin from Kitchen Confidante:

Two things ... I overcooked mine (whoops) and also cooked it in our cast iron skillet, so it wasn't as pretty as this picture.  With that being said, it was very tasty and I would make it again.  The original recipe calls for grilling the pork tenderloin which I wasn't going to do, so I loved how the recipe also gave instructions for how to make it in the oven!  I love it when people are thoughtful like that!  So, next time ... going to not overcook the meat and also maybe J. will be home and he can grill it for me! 

Giada's Lasagna Rolls from Pennies on a Platter:

YUM.  I liked these better than regular lasagna!  They are like a big pan of lasagna, but pre-cut and easy to take for lunch the next day!  I made mine with italian sausage instead of pancetta or prosciutto and next time, I'm going to saute fresh spinach instead of using frozen.  There's something about frozen spinach that grosses me out.  And really, you could put anything in them that you want too ... more vegetables, meat or cheese!  I would also use more red sauce next time.  I used vodka sauce for mine (yum), but the rolls were a little dry, especially after being re-heated the next day.  I think more sauce would solve this problem!

Whew, I love Pinterest!  Just look at all these fun recipes I tried that I never would have known about without it!  Plus, now I have new food bloggers to follow.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!