San Jose Weekend

Much of our Labor Day weekend was spent in San Jose. On Friday night, we went out to Santana Row where we went to dinner at Straits- a Singapore restaurant. We encountered it through the "sniff test" where walking by, it smelled really good. And it was a winner- we started out with the Garlic Noodles which were HEA-VEN. We also had chicken and beef satay with this amazing peanut sauce- it was a red based sauce which I've never had before but was good and then they had this really unique lemon grass sauce for the steak. It was slightly sweet, but unlike anything we had ever had before. And they had these AMAZING garlic french fries- just the right amount of garlic. Some of the other garlic fries we have had here are just way too much with huge clumps of garlic- but these were just perfect and even served in a chinese takeout box for unique presentation. All in all, we will definitely be back :-)

Then, on Saturday we went back to Santana Row again to meet up with several of my old friends- the Maughan Family. I've know Jeremiah for 10 years now and am also good friends with his parents as well. His parents, Jeremiah, and his wife Janai met us for lunch at Pluto's. Up until this meal, I hadn't been overly impressed with Pluto's, this custom made salad restaurant. But, I just hadn't had the right dressing- this time, I got the gorgonzola dressing and it was AMAZING and really made it a super good salad, instead of just ok. It was fun to catch up with everyone and we were sad that his parents couldn't spend more time with us because they had to get the bubble in their tires taken care of. Jeremiah, Janai, William and I then spent some time walking around the shops at Santana Row. And we needed a little chocolate dessert (imagine that) and so we stopped at a chocolatier we hadn't tried before called Joseph Schmidt. William is here demonstrating that we bought their signature black and white truffle that is currently on display in their sign.

Mmmm- look at that chocolatey goodness. The center was too rich for me to enjoy too much of it. We also tried their chocolate caramel bar which had a unique taste since the caramel was seasoned with fleur de sal.

Jeremiah and William were fascinated by the luxury cars on display- William mainly was checking out that they had horrible MPG and that even though they were super expensive, they also had huge additional gas tax fees. And then we saw some cars actually being used to chauffer a wedding couple and the rest of the party around- you can even barely see the bride in the back seat.

On Sunday, we went and attended the baby blessing of Elle, daugher of Ben (Jeremiah's brother) and his wife Deb, who are now living in San Jose while Ben works for Cisco. And look at just how precious she is
It was so fun to be able to catch up with so many old friends for this special event and we are thrilled that we will be able to spend some more time with Ben, Deb, and this adorable little one.

Santa Cruz Beach

On Friday, the mother's group and me went to Twin Lakes State Beach in Santa Cruz. 

The beach was beautiful and not very crowded- I loved the little lighthouse. 

The waves were fun- and not too cold. 
My buddy Tyler's mom had his new little brother so I got to take him around the beach. He was excited to go into the water- up until a big wave hit him in the face. Then, he was scared of the water. But absolutely LOVED the beach. He walked up and down nearly every inch of the beach. Here he is enjoying a little yogurt that he was able to feed himself- and most of it made it into his mouth :-) 
Here's a picture of all of the beach babies 

It was little Noah's 1st year birthday and Dyan was kind enough to bring some yummy treats- what a great way to spend the day!

Festival Saturday

Last year, William and I went for the first time to the Ghiradelli Chocolate Festival and so we definitely needed to go there again this year. We learned several lessons from last year- the first is that 30 tastes (2 full cards) is way too much for both of us and secondly, its better to go earlier in the day. So we only bought one 15 taste card and came at around 1 pm and it was a smart choice. 

Well, somehow we finally made it there with these traffic signs. 
Pretty amazing that we were able to figure this out and made it there. 

One of the weakest aspects of the festival was that there was way too much toffee- for a place that had about 30 different chocolate vendors, about 6 of them were offering toffee. So we decided not to "waste" our tastes on small pieces of toffee, but go for the good stuff- the ice cream. 

We shared 3 chocolate milkshakes- they had these cute little straws

I had 3 little Ghiradelli Chocolate mini sundaes and William had 2 which is still one of our all-time favorites. But, our personal favorite was the White Chocolate Gelatto- it was so good. William and I shared 3 of them and I wanted another one and even waited in the line, but when I got to the front, they had run out :-( So at least I enjoyed several- and we were super glad that we came early. And the lines were much shorter than last year coming earlier. Our other tastes involved a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie, a caramel, a peanut butter chocolate pizza (which was so rich- we can't even imagine eating an 8 in. one). The upstairs booths were definitely better than the ones on the floor. And they had this jammin electic violin player- he was really getting into it. 
After all that chocolate deliciousness, we definitely needed some salt. So we both had the idea of going to Rainforest Cafe to get our favorite Crab Dip. However, after we had been seated, we found out that they have REMOVED the crab dip from the menu :-( We were so devastastated and the spinach and article dip was ok- but not nearly as stellar. So sad that we have lost yet another one of our most favorite dishes. We might return again for the Volcano dessert but won't make it too much of a habit. We think it is so sad that as soon as we find something truly delicious, they always take it off the menu (the steak and cheese pizza is still the ultimate tragedy). 

We then headed back to Mountain View where we caught some of the last hour of the Art and Wine Festival. I have never been to such a large art festival- it completely filled up Castro Street for about 7 blocks, with 2 sides of booths. We didn't manage to make it through all the booths before they closed- but it was probably better since we really do not have any more room in our new apartment. All in all, it was full day of festivals :-) 

Tagged by Brekke

Better late than never! So, my darling friend Brekke tagged me on her blog to take photos of your house "at the moment." It has taken me about a month to do this (sorry) and I do have to say that I did "doctor" one photo of our main living area showing it being clean, as we are going to be moving soon I wanted to have something to remember it for posterity.

Our bathroom

The closet and my shoes neatly organized- as you can see, we don't have much storage room so it is full to the brim
Kitchen sink- really clean since we don't cook much (thanks Google!) and have an automatic dishwasher- my one request to William that we have in our place.
Fridge- outside (not too much) and inside (not too much- primarily just our different beverages- soda for me and milk/water for William
We do not have our own laundry room- its down the hall- nor kids so no photos of them.

This is my "favorite" room- the one where I spend the majority of the time. Obviously, we live in a studio so my couch office with our laptops is the main focus of this photo.
We have a huge studio (600 sq ft) and it will be shrinking down to 500 sq feet in a week because they raised our rent here by $200 plus utilities and renters insurance for $50,000. Even if everything in our apartment burned up, we have no where near $50,000 worth of stuff. Thus, we are moving on to a different place, but a few positives are that it is even closer to Google (only 3 minute commute instead of 7 minute), right across the street from the grocery store so that we can get DVD play rentals (the RedBox knock off), it has a workout room so that I can use the elliptical, and a pool. Plus, it is still on the 1st floor so that we don't have to lug all of our stuff up and down stairs. However, we do have to move which is a pain but at least we don't have to drive a huge beast truck from UT to CA . . . just about 5 miles round trip. Much much less stress.

Great minds think alike

So, I mentioned several months ago that I had entered the Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. I didn't reveal my flavor choice but you will be sad to know that it wasn't selected as one of the 5 finalists. BUT, it was actual a more permanent flavor! I suggested cake batter to be the new bean months ago and it turns out that they have actually produced one in their Cold Stone series. So in a way, my idea was good, but they had already capitalized upon it. That being said, I don't think that the beans that are being voted upon now are actually any that I would want to eat. But to each their own and I am happy that my bean is actually in production . . . though not to my credit. At least I was on the right track!

Another Year

Its crazy to think that I have aged yet another year and to put it into even crazier perspective, I am going to my 10 year high school reunion this weekend. The official day was yesterday and I just felt so overwhelmed with LOVE from so many dear friends. I received an amazing number of phone calls, cards, emails, and facebook messages from so many that I admire- thank-you not just for the birthday wishes, but for your continuing love, support, and friendship throughout the years. That means more to me than you will ever know. That being said, I always have to express gratitude to the woman who brought me into the world and with whom I share the celebration with. I am truly honored to have the same birthday as this incredible woman. That and it ensures that I never miss her birthday :-) This year, William took me out this past weekend up to SF to see "The Drowsy Chaperone," a broadway musical that is on tour in our area. It wasn't playing on Monday night so we went on Thursday- it was HILARIOUS. My family are HUGE musical fans and so I had a great appreciation for their parody and ability to poke fun at the genre, yet put on a professional show. William thought it was funny as well- we actually want to go again to catch/remember all of the items that are going on. Afterwards, we went to In and Out burger to get something to eat since it was fairly late and to our surprise EVERYONE was there. We had a 15 minute wait for our food since there were so many people, even at 11 pm. I guess it is like the Dee's/Denny's of California. On Saturday, we went to the Oakland temple and then, being such creatures of habit, went to our favorite Texas Roadhouse. We LOVE this restaurant and order the same thing every time- we share a full rack of ribs, have 4 rolls each, William eats a caesar salad, and I the loaded sweet potatoe. This Saturday, the food was spot on and everything was just super tasty. I highly recommend it and so its probably a good thing that it is about 40 minutes away so that we don't head there too often. Then, on Monday my actual birthday, I went to our nearby Cold Stone for my FREE birthday ice cream! I recommend that everyone sign up for this program because who can deny FREE ice cream! Of course, I got my all time favorite cake batter and cookie dough and look at what a generous amount I got. Then, William came home at 6:30 (which is quite early for him) so that we could celebrate together. He took me to Maggiano's Italian restaurant down at Santana Row, this gorgeous high end outdoor shopping area that it so charming. I am also part of their birthday club so I got a FREE dessert of CREME BRULEE. It was the largest creme brulee I've seen filling a little skillet with a lot of carmelized goodness going on. I usually like a deeper amount of creme but it was super delicious and the perfect light way to end the meal. We split their yummy Maggiano's salad that I love with proscuttio, red onion, blue cheese and their house dressing. But, this put us so full that we weren't able to finish our entrees. I ADORE their gnocci and William got a chicken rigatoni, carmelized onion, mushroom, and marsala sauce. I warned him that their portions are HUGE but he wanted to get the large for his dish and it was definitely more than he was expecting. I think there is enough left for 2 more meals, which is good since I am leaving. All in all, it was a fabulous birthday but mainly due to all of the wonderful thoughts and well-wishes I received from so many. THANK-YOU!!!!

Bawhston

Oh Boston- this place will forever have a special place in my heart. It is a big city with a small town feel and it is so quirky that I absolutely love it. It was hard for me to leave after 5 years as there are still so many things I wasn't able to do- such as John Adams House, The Mount of Edith Wharton, and Newport mansions. I was hoping to at least visit the Adams House and try one of the famous sticky buns from Flour bakery that I saw on the Food Network; however, there was just way too much sociology for that to happen. I arrived in Boston on Tuesday morning and spent the day reading articles to prepare for the US/UK Med Soc conference. I went to the welcome reception and dinner that night and was so happy that I have my colleague Miranda to come with me to meet the big whigs. On Wednesday, the conference went from 9 to 6 pm and so I spent the day talking about gender and health, having shop talk, and listening to great plenary speakers. Thursday morning I presented about quality of life and HRT at 8:30 am and so I missed some of the 1st conference. But, I was happy that there were several in the audience besides just the presenters for being the 1st session of the 1st day. Then, it was back to the US/UK conference to finish up and then I headed back to SSSP to attend the business meeting. Friday morning I didn't have anything but I had sessions in the afternoon and the Brandeis sociology reception that evening. Saturday I had several sessions I attended, the medical sociology council, and a med soc graduate student get-together that I organized. We had about 12 people there (5 were Brandeis affiliated- thanks to my peeps for supporting me!) which was a little smaller than I had anticipated but meant that everyone had a chance to talk. Sunday was literally conference stuff all day with sessions, my roundtable presentation about risk scares and antidepressant suicidality in youth which I was shocked had about 6 additional people attending who were not presenters (usually there are just the presenters for roundtables since they are so informal), the medical sociology section, and awardee dinner. Monday morning I had a session about how to publish a book in sociology as that is a future dream of mine (a fascinating talk and I am so happy that attended because there are things that are SO DIFFERENT from just submitting journal articles). Finally, I was the book raffle helper for the med soc business meeting. There is such an interesting experience because it is a fundraiser for the section so you buy a raffle ticket for $5 to have a chance to choose from 3 med soc books. However, most of the senior faculty buy multiple tickets (since they are more established) but then they do not want the books and give the opportunity to choose to graduate students. Well, there were not very many graduate students at the meeting since it was on the very last day at such a late hour and so they couldn't get anyone to take some (I took my 3) that they just left them out there for anyone to take. It was definitely one of the most unexciting raffles that I've seen- at least I got a few good ones.

Anyways, my point in explaining all of this was this was primarily my only time to sightsee around Boston was Monday later afternoon/evening. My dad and sister Sarah arrived that morning and we ended up doing my dad's favortie activity- walking around the city. We walked from Back Bay down to the North End and then back along the Esplanade to our hotel. And the weather was perfect for it- not too hot, slight breeze. And I was COMPLETELY SHOCKED to see just how much they had progressed with the Emerald Necklace in just one year. When I lived in Boston, the Big Dig had torn up the area between Fanuiel Hall and the North End. But now, it is SO BEAUTIFUL with fountains, seating areas, and much needed green space.

Some kids enjoying being pushed up by the fountains
The fountains and the city at night
And in those green spaces, they pay equal attention to both owners and pets
Check out these cool lounge chairs by the aquarium wharf- the shape is just really interesting
We LOVED walking along the Esplanade and actually sat for awhile to rest our tired feet and we we throughly entertained. We saw a sailboat completely tip over while still at the dock when 1 man got on. It was hilarious- and part of the boat broke. Fortunately, after some finagiling they were finally able to get out onto the Charles. There were also a few windsurfers who were also having "issues" including falling in several times. Aren't we so mean to just sit and watch them and laugh.
All in all, this was the perfect way to see all of the highlights of this great city. As much as I love Boston, I definitely LOVE William more and was so happy to return home to him. I am very lucky that I was at a point in my grad school that I could leave and be with him in Cali.