I found something I thought was extinct

Today I was freelancing at San Francisco Magazine, and I was planning on going to lunch with Anne. But poor Anne was unable to make it, and somewhere around 2pm I found myself starving. So I walked around the block and went into a place called YoYo's and found...lunch for a total of $2.25. I walked out with a bowl of Japanese Udon noodles with everything and a huge smile. I also saved $3.50 from getting picked up at the bus station and riding with a perfect stranger to San Fran, also known as "Casual Carpooling". Both concepts cheap lunch and a free ride made my Friday!

I heart NY

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

I love this video because all the people seem to have been going through the day not thinking, and then a stranger asks them a question and they continue on now smiling. Me gusta.

Christmas Vacation Cont..

So here's the rest of our Christmas vacation....which was amazing. Molly and I flew in to Seattle on Saturday the 20th in the morning just in time to miss the next storm coming in later that afternoon. Earlier that week they had a storm come in and it left a few inches pretty much everywhere and it wasn't going to melt off like it usually does because it was pretty cold the whole time we were there. As soon as we got to my parents place it started to snow and really didn't stop until we left on the 28th. One of the nights we were there we managed to get over to the Richard Dance home for some family fun. Molly was a big fan of the hand bell/audience participation part of the family concert. I think we'll be getting a set of our own for next Christmas.This was during a break in the storm when we were able to get out to build ourselves a friend. You can't really tell because of the extra snow that fell on top, which set him at about 5'11", but our snowguy is wearing a crown, his eyes and mouth are made out of almonds, his nose is a carrott, his pipe was made out of a pine cone stuck on the end of a pencil, sticks for arms, and licorice for buttons (which ended up bleeding a little bit). Since most of what we used to build his features was food the animals got to it eventually....and so did we with an angry shovel right before we left.

Molly wasn't done building snow people and this was her snowbear waving his little arm. The storm that moved in that night completely buried this little guy.

Then she felt the need to jump on top of my mom's car.

When we weren't playing outside in the snow we were spending time with the family. This is pretty much how my vacation was when I was indoors with the kids. Don't get me wrong, I love it otherwise I wouldn't be on the ground laughing as hard as I was. In this picture Tyler, MacKenzie, Spencer, and Carson were keeping me down. Maybe next time I can fit everybody else.

This last pic was from Friday night...Rock Band night. After all the little munchkins got tired of playing the adults got on and we were pretty good. This was the all brother band. Nick on the guitar, Mark on the bass, I was rockin the vocals, and Tim was on the drums. 98%!!...almost a flawless track. I think we were doing "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins and I tried my best to sound just like Billy.

Rewind to December 19th

This was our second annual ice skating trip to the Embarcadero skating rink in San Francisco but this time we had more company. Thanks to Mike, Melissa, Katie, and Anne we were able to play a rousing game of tag until our ankles were too sore to skate anymore. Right as we were leaving some guy proposed to his girlfriend and she said NO!!....just kidding. Last year we went because Mike was having his Christmas work party there but this year we had some tickets courtesy of San Fransisco Magazine where Molly has been doing some freelance work. They were one of the sponsors of the rink so here is Molly giving thanks by their sign.

What can I say? We were having fun!

Christmas festivities

Christmas has come and gone, and of course I didn't remember to keep up to date on the blog. The week before we left to go to Seattle I was lucky enough to go down to visit my family and work for a week. My parents were nice enough to let me come work at Zerorez, their carpet cleaning company. It was a family affair, My mom, dad, sister Josie and I were working together all week. While I was down in Corona del Mar we went to the famous Roger's Garden Center and the Laguna Beach Sawdust festival. Both put you in a very Chrstmasy mood. I also hungout as a third wheel with Martha and her boyfriend Jeff. We went to a family home evening night in Huntington and Martha likes to try and trick her friends into thinking I was her.

After returning to Alameda I started making a chocolate snowman cake for our seminary students Christmas Breakfast. Our student like sweets and random dinner food for breakfast. Last Christmas I got a cake mold from Kc's Grandma Oliver so I tried it out and lets just say it wasn't a home run. The kids still ate it though.


Propping up my special needs cake wearing my new Christmas apron from Josie

My first attempt at the snowman standing cake. It toppled over due to excessive frosting and moist cake. I think it would look better with no frosting just powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Roger's Garden Christmas decorations- amazing nutcrackers.

Seashell tree my mom purchased to decorate the doghouse

My hot date with Bret

The political part of the show was by far the funniest!!

Good old John McCain next to the one who can see Russia from her back yard!

So on Saturday Molly was unfortunately out of town so I got to go hang out with Bret and the rest of West Coast Novelty at their Christmas party. We got to go eat some good Italian food in the city and then walked a couple blocks to go see Beach Blanket Babylon. It's a play write written by Steve Silver who does a brilliant job at portraying the current events in a very funny way. I guess it's one of the hot spots in San Francisco when people come in town to visit. I've never heard of it but I'm glad I did because it was a great show. If you come to San Fran...I would recommend seeing Beach Blanket Babylon.

Since we don't have a real tree...

I decided to make a table top forest of eco-friendly Christmas trees. The trees on the right were made at my family's Thanksgiving reunion out of lots of felt circles. And since I am not currently working at the magazine companies I used to be employed at I decided to shred a few magazines and make a tree. Merry Christmas!! You got to celebrate for at least half the month or more.