The days have been busy with Robin & Taska here. Monday night we got them at the airport, then hung out at the house gabbing until sleepytime. Tuesday was Pub night at Danfuzz's house. It was well attended, and I got to see some people that I hadn't seen in awhile. Wednesday was Lunch with Gabby, which was almost a fiasco. It turns out that Tu Lan, the place we were meeting for lunch, is closed for a month. We ended up having sushi in the Metreon instead. Wednesday night we went to Moki's, because you can never really have too much sushi! After we had ice cream at Maggie Mudd, and I was pleasantly suprised when I got a thing that was almond soy ice cream covered with vegan chocolate ganache with almonds sprinkled ontop. I generally hate soy ice cream, but this dessert was really yummy.

This morning I had to wake up at the crack, or actually, way before the crack of dawn, so that I could be in Cupertino for a seminar at 8:30. I am not a morning person. Now I'm all sleepy and the day's only half over!

Friday was up and down. Something happened at work that really bummed me out at the end of the day. Fortunately, Bernard was in town, and we had plans to have dinner at Ti Couz with him, and Nick & Eureka. It was a nice dinner, and it was so good to see Bernard. I really wish he'd move back here so we could hang out at bars and tea houses again.

Saturday we made some cookies from a new cookbook that didn't turn out very well at all. Mike saved them by making a chocolate ganache (substituting almond milk for cream) for the middle. The recipe called for raspberry jam in the middle, which didn't go over so well. With the chocolate they were passable, but I think that that recipe will not be repeated, and we are leary of the entire cookbook.

Later that night, Mike made venison for dinner. I'd never had it before. I'm having issues with red meat, so I didn't eat much of it. However, I don't dislike the taste at all. Once I get over my issues, I'm sure I'll be much more excited about it. After dinner we went out to see Along Came Polly with Jeni. It's one of those movies like Miss Congeniality that you think is going to be really dumb, but ends up being funny. It was good to finally meet Jeni, after hearing about her for months.

I'm excited about tonight because Toby and Mr. Mann are taking me out to eat at Chenery Park, and afterward I get to fetch Taska & Robin from the airport.

This morning was super productive. I got up early and ran a bunch of errands. I stopped at the vet for cat food, then headed downtown. I did some Advanced Banking at the bank that I never go to, and was out in time for my chiropractic appointment. After that I stopped by Peets for coffee, then went to a stamp store to get holders for my state quarter collection (yes, I'm that dorky), and I also got to get yummy lunch from Ali Baba. All of this was accomplished before 11:00 am. It was very exciting.

I also ran into Chris Cain when I was downtown. It was kind of funny because I used to run into him when we worked in the same building. I'd be coming in to work for the day, and he'd be going out to lunch. It's so random that I'd run into him going to work when I was going to a chiropractic appointment. How many people live here? It was good to see him.

On a sad note, the girl who used to live here has a cat that was hit by a car or some such, and the cat now has a broken pelvis. I don't have all the details yet, since we've been playing phone tag, but I hope to get the skinny tonight.

Not much excitment here. There is a new cookie recipe that I want to try soon. It's an almond flavored sugar cookie which has a top and a bottom and raspberry jam in the middle. It's the closest recipe to the linzer cookies that Liberty makes that I could find. I think I'm off pies for a little while, though I did buy a pastry cutter so I can start making my own crusts. There are also a few cake recipes that I want to try, however the frosting recipes include milk or cheese, and I'll need to find others or modify them.

I've been cleaning out some stuff in my house over the past week. I did the drawers in the buffet that's in my bedroom, and last night I cleaned out our main food cabinet. Kathy and I still need to redo our pots & pans in the kitchen. Our problem is finding time when we're both home and motivated. I guess if we don't do it soon, I may just do it myself, and Kathy can change stuff if she wants to.

The lull in social activity post holidays is going to pick up shortly. My calender is full of stuff to do. Unlike last summer and fall, however, I think I'm only going to go to some stuff, not all of it. I just remember being so *tired* of people after awhile!

The chocolate chip pecan pie was not the success I'd hoped it would be. It's too chocolatey, and not pecany enough. If I ever do it again, I'll use 1/2 cup chocolate chips, and 1 1/2 cups pecans, instead of half and half. I should start making crusts and see if that's any fun at all.

Tonight is game night, and Kyra's going to be there for the first time in ages. I can't wait to see her. Unfortunately the house is a wreck and I have to fix it up before everyone comes over.

Gar's been on antibiotics for a little over a week now. I've never seriously had to pill a cat before. I think that the last time he had to take big pills Esther was around to do it or something. Anyway, I've found out that the only way to pill the little guy is to do it when he's pretty much sacked out on a chair. If I catch him when he's sleepy and out of it, the pill goes right down. If I try to do it any other time, I get scratched and angry and frustrated, and Gar ends up very unhappy too.

Last night I ate at an Outback Steak House for dinner (for the first time), and I ordered a chicken sandwich, thinking that it would be a difficult thing to screw up. I was wrong. With a chicken sandwich you have a challenge: making the piece of chicken roughly the same size as the bun. Some places are great at this, and some don't even try. Outback sucks at it. They don't pound out their chicken breast at all, so you end up with this fat, small piece of chicken that's about half the size of the bun. The result is that every bite is either all chicken or all bun, instead of a yummy mix of chicken, lettuce, tomato, condiment, and bun. Also, the chicken should be seasoned. Put some salt, pepper, maybe some other spices on it. Relying on a thin little honey mustard sauce doesn't cut it. After getting my sandwich, I began to understand why almost every non-steak dish at Outback comes smothered in cheese: without cheese, they have no taste at all.

Mike and I had a mini mini vaca last weekend; just a night at an Inn down in Moss Beach. It was nice and unexpected. I really love having coffee left outside my door in the morning.

In other news, I made a pecan pie for the first time. It turned out decent, but not spectacular. The next pie looks like it might be pecan chocolate chip. I also want to make a poppy seed cake soon. We also made a yummy corn chowder with garlic herb butter (for which I substituted margarine.) I was suprised by how much I enjoyed the soup despite the fact that it was full of bell peppers which I generally do not like.

Nutella is going to be in town next week, and I'm hoping to get Nick and Eureka together for a dinner. Taska and Robin are coming to the city later in the month, which I'm looking forward to. After that Mike and I are going to go up to Seattle for a long weekend to hang out with Amy and meet her new baby. This is all very exciting!

It's January. My new years eve was mellow. Mike and I stayed in. We made a very yummy dinner, a chocolate cake with orange frosting, and then watched a few movies. Since it was all cold and rainy out, I'm glad we didn't try to go out and do anything more exciting.

I just got some cookbooks from the bookstore across the street. One is all cookies, one is all corn recipes, and one is this great calendar cookbook from 1962. It's got a section for each month, a little space for each day to note anniversaries and birthdays, or special events, and it has seasonal recipes. I'm amazed at how much information about the past is no longer passed down from generation to generation. I learned nothing about older traditions from my familiy. Perhaps other families are different. Anyway, I find the little notes and household recipes in this cookbook to be very interesting.

Tonight we go out to see Medium Gray, the movie that Brian made about 5 years ago. It should be interesting to see all these people I know and places I've lived on the big screen.