Haiti

Visit the American Red Cross website to see how you can help.

Mobile Fundraising: I think it's impressive and convenient that you can text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Effort. This is so simple. If everyone did this, we'd all be giving a little, but Haiti would get a lot. (That's profound)

I spent .20 cents on texting to support the mobile fundraising, because I think it's a great concept. It's a simple message easily spread via social networking media (facebook, twitter, etc.) Brilliant!

01.13.10

On a day that work began for me at 5:30 am (in the dark), this scrumptious rainbow appeared outside my window and brightened my morning. Priceless.

Sedona

2009 closed out with a bang! We spent Christmas week in Sedona, Arizona. Luckily enough, we were there for a very rare occasion of SNOW! It was my sister's first official White Christmas (despite her attempts to have a white christmas in Boston).

We enjoyed the change of scenery, visited Meteor Crater (experience the impact!), the Petrified Forest (really old wood turned to beautiful rock via mineral replacement), forged trails in Red Rock Country (Bell Rock loop?), and traveled the wilderness by train watching for bald eagles and their nests. The most fun activity, however, was participating in Red Rock Fantasy. It was a contest of christmas light displays. They were themed and absolutely scrumptious. We got to vote for our top 5 out of 20-ish and it was tough to choose! It turns out I voted for all three of the winners.

Fun Geology Fact: Sedona is at the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is rather large encompassing parts of the four corner states and is a plateau (go figure) which was uplifted as a result of various plate tectonics. The Grand Canyon is cut through the Colorado Plateau. In Sedona, we were looking at the side edge of the Colorado Plateau and seeing many of the same geologic layers visible inside the Grand Canyon. Fun!

Mirror Day

Happy Mirror Day! Also known as palindrome day. Today's date is 0102 2010.

Welcome to 2010. Happy New Year!

'Tis the Season

The month of December is jam packed with excitement. Well, every year it starts off with a glorious day. A day in which I inherit another year's worth of wisdom and maturity. This year, my sis (the one from the previous post who absolutely rocks) made me a gorgeous cake. It was poppyseed cake with two filling layers of freshly sliced strawberries. YUM.

The first weekend after my birthday, we celebrated Festivus with some of my best college pals. It was a great reunion and welcoming back to the west coast. We thoroughly enjoyed the tradition we started in college of a potluck thanksgiving dinner with friends. Mikey has perfected the turkey roasting and was a gracious host to us all. Happy Festivus!!

Sis hosted a holiday party the following weekend. I have mentioned the profiteroles. YUM.

Dad took us to a local holiday play in San Jose to help enjoy the spirit of Christmas. I greatly enjoyed the production and the experience of the very small playhouse. The entire play was acted with two actors. I laughed. I cried. It was a good show.

At home, in Jack London Square, we are relishing in the California style holiday decorations. The palm tree grove is covered in christmas lights. They flash in all different patterns and colors. You can even text your color/pattern requests. First requested, first played. Holidy Buy Night in the Jack London Square Farmer's Market Building was the perfect opportunity for me to get all my christmas shopping done. And I did. It was wonderful to meet the local vendors and buy locally made products for my loved ones.

Merry Christmas!

Pumpkin Profiteroles

You may know that my sis is professionally trained in baking goodness. She hosted a holiday party this past weekend and served many scrumptious treats. The most scrumptious of all were the pumpkin profiteroles. YUMM!

Imagine a poppable (bit-size) profiterole (usually served with ice cream in the middle) with pumpkin cream inside topped with a maple caramel sauce and sprinkled with toasted walnuts. You're imagining goodness, right? The pumpkin cream she made from scratch by whipping up whipped cream and adding her own spices to mimic the pumpkin pie flavor, then she folded in real pumpkin. It was delightful. She also made the maple caramel sauce from scratch, on the stove, right in front of me. I was happy to be the taste tester for all components and proud to say that I toasted and chopped the nuts. What else are sisters for?

I apologize for not having a picture to share. I was too busy popping the profiteroles in my mouth. Did I mention YUMM?

Is it eavesdropping when you can't help it?

"I thought I was going to have to beat you over the thumb."

This is what I thought I heard the sweet girl with a southern accent say over her cell phone just a few seats down from me on Amtrak. She's talking to a loved one and thought they were crying about how they missed each other. In retrospect, she probably said "phone" not thumb.