Let's go Giants!

I'm not a Bay Area native, but it sure has been exciting following and rooting for the Giants in the NLCS. Being married to a baseball fanatic sometimes leaves me no other choice either. In honor of the many hours of baseball to watch during the series (usually falls during dinnertime), I've been on a streak to try a new recipe everyday.

Thanks to the awesome blog, Week of Menus, I've been able to make some dishes that I can finally be proud of. Above is my first time cooking fish. Salmon is kind of fail proof, but it was still great trying something new.

What made this meal even better was being able to drink my new favorite beer, Hitachino, introduced to me by my friend Tina. I'm not a fan of the red ale because it smells and tastes like a jar of olives. The white ale tastes like Chilsung Cider and Calpis mixed with beer to make it even better. Leave it to the Japanese to also have the cutest packaging ever. Hoot, hoot!

Gosh, her stuff is so cute.

Kate Spade's Short Stories Collection with Strand Bookstore

Also, I'm totally judging these books by their covers.

Fall is Here

Here is a hilarious piece about Autumn that my friend Yeon shared with me. It's written by Colin Nissan and published on McSweeneys Internet Tendencies. (Warning: laced with F-bombs).

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Speaking of, I absolutely love the fall season. I love that all things pumpkin-flavored make its appearance and the leaves turn lovely shades of red, orange, and yellow. I also love how the air starts to get crisp, with subtle hints that winter and the holidays are on their way.

In honor of that sentiment, I dragged Matt to the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival this past weekend. I expected more, and we unfortunately were stuck in traffic for 2 hours getting there, and it was raining which means soggy shoes and cold feet. But the experience of huddling under a tiny umbrella while gorging on corn dogs, chowder in a bowl, and fried festival foods is priceless. We also had to endure a 2 hour drive back home thanks to my insistence on taking the "scenic-Hwy 1-but-makes-me-want-to-puke-from-the-windy-road" route. It's actually so scenic that I passed out as soon as we got on the road and left Matt to do all the driving. Oops.

Overall it was worth the other 4 hours we spent walking around admiring all things pumpkin. I highly doubt that we'll be going back again, unless we have a mini-Janet or mini-Matt to bring along.

Here's some pictures from our trip:

Also in honor of the glorious fall season, I picked up a quart of Trader Joe's (aka Pilgrim Joe's) Pumpkin flavored ice cream. Verdict: super delicious! Almost makes me want to mash in some pie crust and bake a turkey. Almost.

To snooze or not to snooze ...

"Everyday we have a great new opportunity for success and a great opportunity for failure. What happens is entirely up to us."

Short Rain Boots

I can't decide which one I want more:


Too bad it hasn't been raining at all. Otherwise, I'd want to sport these!

A heated exchange

"M: Hey, I think it's getting a little cooler in here after I turned on the A/C."
J: ...
M: Well, it definitely is with that icy death stare you just gave me."

Our morning exchange

M: "Hey miss Martha Stewart, when are you going to clean up this mess in here?"
J: ...
M: "It's like Michael's and JoAnn's exploded in our bedroom."

Documentary dvds

I've recently been on a documentary streak. 2 thumbs up for the following:

1. Planet B-Boy: Enjoyed the poignant story between the South Korean single father and his bboy dancer son.
2. Frontrunners: Gosh, not sure if I could have handled going to Stuyvesant High School, let alone run for the student council there. These kids are intense.
3. Beautiful Losers: Made me want to paint something.

Making an apartment 'homier'

Thanks to my awesome girlfriends/former roommates, I am now the proud owner of a sewing machine!!! The weeklong celebration of my birthday was nothing short of memorable fun, and to top it off, now I can have sew much fun with my new crafting toy. They also thoughtfully paired the gift with a Sewing techniques 101 course, which I am very much looking forward to.

On my list of projects:
1. Some more plush robots (only this time, with straighter stitches)
2. Curtains for the bathroom
3. Curtains for the living room
4. Sewn stationery experiments
5. Bunting experiments

I'll post pictures as I make progress. Right now I'm trying to figure out where to set up the sewing machine ...

As I get older, birthdays are sometimes met with a bit of sadness as I realize time seems to magically pass by faster and faster. Thanks to the company of good friends and family, I am reminded of how fortunate I am with the anticipation of a new year. My brother and I are 3 days (and 2 years) apart, so we had some fun joint festivities this year, reminiscent of our shared childhood birthdays.

Arts + Crafts: Plush robots

I was inspired by the Renegade Craft Fair this past weekend to create these little guys.

Respectively named Ralph the Robot (or Ralphie), and the second one is to be named - but is a 1st birthday gift for my husband's cousin's son. Can you guess what the baby's name is?

Sweet summer love

A sunny summer afternoon calls for some watermelon.

2010 reading list

My ratings, out of ***** stars.

1. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, By Donald Miller ***
2. Having a Mary heart in a Martha World, By Joanna Weaver ***
3. Have a Little Faith, By Mitch Albom ****
4. The Good News about Injustice, By Gary A. Haugen ***
5. Three Cups of Tea, By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin ****
6. Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions, By John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber ***
7. Adverbs, By Daniel Handler
8. Thinking with Type, By Ellen Lupton
9. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite, By June Casagrande
10. The Me I Want to Be, By John Ortberg ***
11. What Should I do with my Life? By Po Bronson ***
12. The Shack, By William P. Young **

13. Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College, By Jacques Steinberg

I recently was made aware of an area at my local library called "honor backs." The policy for checking out books from that area is exactly as the name: " Return when finished, no fine on book." Imagine how happy I was to find out about that! I went crazy pulling out books from there, left and right, but then I controlled myself. I'm thinking not having a due date may actually make me read slower. Ah, the love of a deadline ...

Anyway, here's what I brought home:

13. The Time Traveler's Wife, By Audrey Niffenegger
14. When We Were Orphans, By Kazuo Ishiguro
15. The Life of Pi, By Yann Martel

Belatedly one month later ...

Happy 30th Birthday to my sweet and wonderful husband. Cheers to many celebrations ahead.

Spots of Sunshine set on Polyvore

Spots of sunshine by jantastic featuring Melissa shoes

Cupcake roadtrip pitstop

I'd love to take a roadtrip to SoCal just to indulge in these cupcakes along the way.

http://enjoycupcakes.com/

Simply inspirational.

Rethink Scholarship at Langara 2010 Call for Entries from Rory O'Sullivan and Simon Bruyn on Vimeo.