Well, I’m in a bit of a freaked mood because I had a scary and violent run in with a crazy homeless guy in the Tenderloin this afternoon (and had to call SFPD), but am going to try and let that go and instead focus on appreciating all that is good in my life.

A smattering of stuff that I’m thankful for this year:

• My new EMT job!  I’ve worked two shifts so far and really love my new company.  Think I’ve been doing well, gotten a few “good job, Rook” from my FTOs on my assessments these past few days.  Oh and the cookies went over well, too!  New company just seems like a friendly, supportive, and CARING place to work… it’s got a very “family” vibe and a refreshing lack of attitude in the employees.  We even are having a Christmas party on December 13th!
• My career change.  Occasionally I’ll still get my mind boggled when I’m in the back of an ambulance, doing a patient work up and it strikes me that I now make my living helping people.  I’m so happy and proud that I had the guts to go through with the career change from finance, and really thrilled to be now working in the EMS industry.  It’s so nice to feel that after a long time of being professionally lost that I have found what I was looking for.
• That I learned how to cook.  We miss NYC food scene something fierce, however living in SF has its advantages: namely- the lack of cheap, quick and good delivery which forced my hand into learning how to cook.  And cook I’ve done.  I’m not intimidated by anything anymore!  Did I tell you that Earl and I even roasted our own turkey a few weeks back?  I’ve been cooking up a storm- we eat homemade dinners almost 4x a week now.   A Jim Beam, maple hazelnut pie is currently in the works for Turkey Day tomorrow.
• Family- long distance ones and the close ones.  I’m so grateful that even though my parents and sisters are all the way on the other side of the country that we still keep in close contact and update each other on our lives.  As for my family out here, man they have just been incredible, welcoming us with open arms.
• Friends- seeing my friend Amy tomorrow, as she’s meeting me out at my Aunt’s in Pleasanton and we’re doing that awesome 30 mile bike loop together through Palomares Canyon pre-big family dinner.  Sort of a bike-version of a Turkey Trot… so we won’t feel guilty chowing down later.  I’m lobbying Earl to join us on the ride, but he is more leaning towards “sleep in” than get up at 8am and ride 30 miles… we will see how that goes.  Also, my friend Nick is flying in next weekend and we are going up to Sacramento for the California Marathon.  I also feel like I am *juuuuust starting* to develop some close friends out here in SF proper.  It hasn’t been easy.  I have to remember when I moved to NYC it took about 4 years before I had a really close circle of friends…  have to try and relax, let that happen naturally and stop stressing over it.
• Getting back in shape.  Have I told you that I’m currently at my lowest weight in well… almost a year and a half?! !!   Yep!  Very exciting… and even more exciting is the fact that I’ll soon be able to fit into old clothes.  It’s like getting a whole new wardrobe for free   HURRAH to that.
• Speaking of getting back into shape, I’m thankful to have found a great yoga studio!  I joined a Bikram in the Castro last week and so far have really been loving it.  The studio is so clean and warm (in both temperature and mood) and the fellow yogis are down to earth and welcoming to a newbie.  Trying to go 4x a week.  I feel so great after.  I think with my new schedule of working four 12-hour shifts it’s going to be all the more important to decompress and relax when I can, so should be a pretty healthy routine to get into.  Going to try and keep a primary focus on running and have yoga be secondary to that.  The yoga studio is just about 1 mile from our apartment, so I’ve been walking over for classes.  It’s a beautiful walk through the city to get there, too!
• Volunteering in the Emergency Department at San Francisco General Hospital.  After 8 months of trying, I finally got in there (they had a huge waiting list and backlog of wannabe med students and others hoping to become volunteers).  Their Trauma Center is truly state of the art- I watched a UCSF presentation on their trauma stats breakdown a few weeks ago and was blown away with the not only the volume of patients and diversity of injuries, but the level of care the facility is able to provide while dealing with so many varieties of patients from all walks of life.  I’m extremely proud to be a small part of such a top notch facility and to be giving my time there.
• I negotiated $300 a month off our rent.  We won’t be as strapped any more!  Plus with my new raise (and lots of overtime ), it looks like the edge has been taken off the lean times.  Even though we aren’t rolling in cash there is no shortage of love in this house.
• Of course my two four legged lovies.  No matter how much of a funk I’m in, when Lucy kneads her paws against me while sitting in the small of my back (which she is doing right now as I type this!) or Linus waggles his butt in excitement and grins his corgirific “smile,” I will with happiness.
• Finally, my beloved Midwestern hunk o’ nerd, the love of my life.  For once, I’ll be succinct about how crazy I am about this guy Speaking of, here is an adorable photo of Lucy sitting on his chest while he’s trying to work.  How is he supposed to get any work done with a fatty purring fur “wall” between him and the computer screen?!?  Silly kitten.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Love and Turkey to you,
Ceej

Friday night we had our lovely friend Kathleen over for mini dinner party and to carve up some pumpkins.
Now- let me tell you about this recipe I cooked- Woah doggy! It was CRAY-ZAY. Insane. Tedious. Expensive to make. Gourmet. Challenging. ¡Muy difícil! Laborious.  Should I go on…?

Friday and Sundays are my two days off this fall. In that respect, I was lucky to have ALL DAY on Friday to devote to slaving in the kitchen, because that is what this recipe required. Here it is, in all its arduous glory.  Seems so simple, right?  It’s macaroni and freaking cheese, for Pete’s sake!!  Did the recipe’s creator not get the memo??  Mac and cheese is a COMFORT FOOD!  It’s supposed to be easy, cheesy, simple, yummy goodness.  Stuff yer face, feelin full, no worries, down home chow.  But- no, no- Unassuming Beginner Chef… this is Food Network CHALLENGE mac & cheese.  That means complex.  And challenging.  WINNING effort required!  No room for amateurs here!  Let’s take a look, shall we:

The Recipe that Will Break Your Soul… aka: Goat Cheese Mac & Cheese, stuffed in Artichokes

Step 1: prep, cut and clean 9 artichokes

Having never cleaned artichokes before, I was unaware of what a pain in the butt this would be.

Ta-da!  Several artichoke-leave pricks later (egads, those things are spiky!), these suckers are ready for the pot

Step 2: Simmer artichokes in a mixture of white wine, water, garlic, lemon juice, coriander (yum!- one of my favorite spices, needs to be used more often), bay leaves, peppercorns, and AN ENTIRE FREAKING CUP OF OLIVE OIL.  Really?!  A whole cup of olive oil???  Do you people not realize how pricey olive oil is these days…. also… by this point it is striking me that this is probably not the healthiest recipe in the world.

Step 3:  Realize that, as the recipe called for two and a half cups of wine, you still have a goodly amount of white wine leftover in the bottle.  Rejoice!  Contemplating the daunting afternoon ahead, go ahead and pour yourself a glass.     Note: as you see here, I am *not* a wine snob and in fact have an ice cube in my glass (*sheepish*)… enough to get one automatically evicted from the state of CA?

Step 4: cook artichokes in mixture for about an hour or until soft.  since they keep floating to the top of the solution, use baster to continually soak their insides and smoosh them down to the bottom of the pot

Step 5: while artichokes are cooking, prepare bread crumbs.  this is a major pain in and of itself, involving blending up a loaf of bread, then toasting breadcrumbs in a pan of olive oil.  once these are done being toasted, let them cool and then add zest of three lemons, blended up fresh parsley, ground pink peppercorns, salt and parm cheese

Step 6: meanwhile, you gotta make some mac and cheese to stuff in the artichokes.  get out your goat cheese!  (btw- the midnight moon goat cheese was AWESOME, would totally recommend that for just plain noshing)

Step 7: Also in the meantime, start your dessert.  I was making miniature individual strawberry pies.   Started out by making this all-butter pie crust.  Cool thing about this recipe is that it made enough for two pie crusts, which means I have one left over in the freezer now for Thanksgiving.

Step 8: A-ha!  An hour later your artichokes are done cooking.  Take them out, let them cool, put em in a pan.  Then you have to remove the hearts and saute them SEPARATELY in another pan for another 5-10 minutes while doctoring them up with all kind of spices.  Meanwhile, you’re supposed to take three of the other cooked artichokes and blend them up in a blender and add some different spices.  I didn’t (and still don’t) really get this part, because the recipe at this point stops differentiating between the sauteed hearts and blended ‘chokes and never specifies what you’re supposed to do with each.  I wing’ed it and just sort of stuffed the bottoms of the ‘chokes with both mixtures.  Consult recipe if you seek more specific clarification.

Step 9:  How’s that mac and cheese coming?  I used regular milk instead of three cups of heavy cream as called for in hopes of making this a smidge healthier.  Btw: mac and cheese on its own was CRAZY good.  Might make this again just doing the goat cheese mac & cheese part, completely skipping the ‘chokes.

Step 10: Stuff those artichokes!  You can see next to it, I had enough mac & cheese left over to make a separate dish of plain baked mac and cheese which was AWESOME.

Mac & Cheese filled artichokes

Pie filling, bread crumb topping, mini-pie filling and ‘chokes

Step 11: Line pie crusts in buttered muffin pan and fill with pie filling.  I didn’t use anything special for the pie filling than just a simple strawberry pie filling I made and marinated while artichokes were cooking.  It was sliced strawberries, marinated for about an hour in sugar with their juices, a bit of corn starch, some lavender and a tad of lemon zest.  At this point I left the pie crust TOPS off the mini pies so that we could each carve out our own individual designs for our separate pies.  What did I tell ya, it was a crafty night! 

Step 12: prepare appetizer of Persimmon chips.  These are sliced up persimmons, with a dash of cinnamon, baked per recipe taken from Andrea’s blog.  these were SO SIMPLE and amazingly good- would totally recommend them if you’re looking for an easy, quick and scrumptious appetizer, snack, or dessert.

Step 13: Take artichokes out of oven and plate on simple arugula salad.  Ta-da!!

A few more photos of final result:

Step 14: Most essential step: CHEERS!   We toasted to: Earl’s new job, my passing my midterms, and Kathleen surviving a rough week at work

The persimmon flowers hardly lasted long enough for me to snap a photo

Before dessert we decided to have at our pumpkins and carve away

I set up a bunch of newspapers on the floor.  Kathleen gets first choice of pumpkin seeing as she is the honored guest!

I face down my foe

Lucy came over to be part of the action

She even batted at some pumpkin gunk

One of our pumkins ended up being ROTTED and Earl volunteered to take the rotted one.  So he got to relax while Kathleen and I carved.  Linus came and helped too.

Not only carving pumpkins, we all also carved our own pie-tops.  Not sure how well you can see these, but I carved a C and a heart, Earl carved… a triangle and a blob?  I dunno… he wasn’t feeling all that crafty i guess…  And Kathleen carved a K and a pi symbol.

WHOOO DONE!!! Pumpkin-y goodness!  Mine was the goblin and Kathleen’s was the Trick or Treat.

This was Earls… the big rotted out circle

hurrah!

meanwhile, pies were done!

oh- you know what i forgot to mention before- remember to brush with egg whites before you put the tops on, so the tops don’t pop off after baking.

mini pies are AWESOME, would totally recommend this recipe again.  we ate them a la mode

look at my decorative gourds!!

we went outside to check out our pumpkins “in action” on our windowsill 

ps- I am still over the moon about my new hair color and cut!

All in all, a super fun night. Heck of a lot of work, but worth it for some good times with a great friend. ¡Fin!

Today is my day off, and Linus and I are heading out to suburbia to play a little social call on my Aunt Mimi and Uncle Terry. I’m excited because it has been far too long since I’ve seen them, and Linus is excited because they have a penchant for giving him all kinds of snacks, particularly his beloved CHEESE (ohboyohboyohboy).

One of my favorite recent memories of my aunt is her munching on some cheez-its as Linus sat afoot. She asked me, “can I give him a chip?” “Sure,” I told her. She tossed Linus a chip and as he inhaled it, she was delighted. “Oh boy, look! He liked it!” ….. as if there was ever any doubt??! Lady, ye know not my dog. To this day, she always gets a thrill when she’s eating something, gives some to Linus, and he “likes it.”

ha ha. You could give Linus a rock, and if you pretended it was edible, and he would eat it.

Another funny thing Linus does at their house (now that we are wise to this, we don’t let him do it anymore) is wait until we are all distracted, then wander into her flower garden outside near the driveway AND EAT HER STRAWBERRIES OFF THE VINE. I find this hilarious. I’ve never seen a dog eat strawberries directly off a plant before. Guess he learned how to forage well during his time in the wild!

Additionally, while out in Pleasanton I have to run the thrilling errand of arguing at the Verizon store to get a new phone for free because the one I have now is a total dud which has been shutting off randomly and giving me a very static-y connection.

Finally, I’m hoping to sneak in a little hike/run up Pleasanton Ridge, time permitting.

I did it!

No time for more photos because I am running out the door for lunch with my long-lost, NYC-based friend (and former coworker when I was on the trading floor at JP Morgan) VJ. He’s in town to look at Stanford’s MBA program. Psyched to see him!

too funny not to share this txt convo w/ my friend who just moved to Stanford today- she is starting their physician assistant program (woot, girl!):

CJ: how did the big move in day go? all settled in? welcome to my part of the state
[redacted]: I live in the ghetto there is an adult superstore and this other joint called hanky panky across the street from me
CJ: ha! i can’t help but laugh. cant beat em, join em….??
CJ: ps- it’s palo alto… i am sure they are very upscale stores, for only the most discriminating pervs
[redacted]: Hello my name is candy and I work nights!!!

hee, hee, hee. just lurve my friends.

hopefully i can convince “candy” to embark on a couple long rides and trail runs with me in the upcoming months. i am simply beyond stoked to have her living in my neighboring ‘hood.

My adorable niece Kameryn (pictured here), just turned 4!

And she loOOves PIGS!

Soo… I just sent her this little guy from ALittleCharacter on Etsy.  You like?

Just look at his adorable expression and cute little hoofs! I think she’ll love him.

If you’re interested in Tracey’s work (her figurines make great gifts), you can find her etsy shop here .
ps- I am out of my funk from yesterday. Sorry so grumpy… but man, was I steamed!

In honor of my nerdlove’s 30th birthday today, here are
30 Things I Love about Earl!

1. If I was going to sum up Earl’s personality in four adjectives, they would “integrity, kindness, intelligence and quiet strength.” What’s amazing is that so many people who meet him always mention the “integrity” and “quiet strength” descriptors as well. They truly do shine through.
2. He reads advanced calculus on the beach, for fun.
3. Occasionally, he sings, and when he does it always surprises and delights me.
4. Devout loyalty to his friends and loved ones.
5. Extremely disciplined about working out.
6. That slightly crazy, oh so frumply hair.
7. Lover of animals
8. He’s great with my family- everyone from my nieces to aunts and uncles adores him.
9. Intelligence, intelligence, intelligence.  Did you know Earl has a patent?  It’s for something he developed at his company last year called “The Algorithm.”
10. He tries all the wacky food when I drag him on culinary adventures, although his absolute favorite foods remain apples and vanilla ice cream!
11. Loves sitting in coffeeshops reading- this is one our of favorite ways to spend a lazy afternoon.
12. He’s the biggest supporter of all my dreams.  He comes and reads and snoozes in the car while I trail run, came out to visit me twice when I was at EMT school, and encouraged me to pursue my  career change.
13. He believes in me. For example, it was his idea that I pursue med school.
14. Extremely hardworking- he works 13 hour days without complaint and also lately has been working weekends.
15. I don’t know what the trait would be called, but he’s very persistent and always stands up for things that are wrong. Earl is one of the only people I know who will take time out of his day to actually write his senators and congresspeople.  He also is that person who fights for the $2.48 rebate.
16. He always volunteers to brush Linus’ teeth and cut Linus’ nails!
17. That scent on the back of his neck.  I love to stick my nose in there, give him kisses and take a big inhale.
18. The size of his hands. Earl has enormous hands and they are great to hold.
19. His embrace.  He’s so tall that he completely envelopes me.
20. Little things he does to surprise me.  For example, when I was away at EMT school and my phone charger died, he ordered and sent me a new one without ever telling me.
21. The way he gets roped into helping EVERYONE move.  It’s SO funny.  I think it’s because he’s so big and tall, and also nice.  He says yes to everyone who asks!  Normally I then get roped into helping, too.
22. His best friends.   They say if you can tell a man by the company he keeps; Earl’s friends are smart, interesting, loyal and fun.
23. Nerd hot.  He’s got it.
24. How when i first met him, I took my laptop (with his pictures on it) into my neighbor’s apartment and showed them the photos “Check out this guy! Look how hot he is.   He’s 6’3 and gorgeous.   Do you really think a MATHEMATICIAN could really be this good looking?  I can’t believe it!”  My former neighbors tease me about this to this day.
25. The sheer quantity of food he eats never ceases to amaze me.   I’ve never seen a human being consume that much food.
26. He makes my body sing, and I still feel my heart race when we kiss.
27. Earl supported me through an enormous change in my life and unfailingly stayed at my side during many dark hours of self doubt.
28. No matter how pointless and mundane, he always manages to feign interest every morning (or sometimes halfway through the night) when I ramble on filling him in on the senseless dreams I’m having.
29. He’s fun to cook with, and he makes the perfect taste tester.
30. I love taking Linus for walks together- the crook of his arm is perfect to hold as we amble along arm in arm.

Just wanted to put up a happy post of warm-wishes to my industrious parents, who finally had their “barn” (aka- barn-style garage) finished on their lovely winter home in Bartlet, NH.

Look how fantastic it turned out!  Can you picture a more “New England” style home than this?! Just looking at it makes me want to bust out my maroon woolen moose sweater and some fuzzy socks and sit with my mother by the fire while chatting over a steaming cup of cinnamon-spiked apple cider.   I love how the barn came out and am so thrilled for them.  Plus this means even more space for us when we come visit (there is an inlaw apartment over the garage).

and a closeup of the barn:

A few notable things from these photos:

• in the first pic, if you squint VERY HARD you can see the very ex$pen$ive lilac tree which Earl and I purchased from a garden store in NJ and planted in a whiskey barrel our NYC patio garden (you can see it here in the very back corner).  It was $150 and it never bloomed where we had it- probably because we had it less than six months before we had to move!  When we drove up to visit my parents before we drove cross country we brought the lilac tree with us (as well as a bunch of other plants!) so that it would live on and stay in the family.  I hope hope hope it flourishes up there despite the frigid Mount Washington Valley climate!!!!
• Also in the first pic is my old Taco Supreme aka my beloved Tacoma Truck, living out her golden years as a worker-bee truck for my parents.  So many memories were made in that baby, from off roading with high school friends to hauling around bunches of sorority girls at UNH to helping move to NYC… according to my father she still runs great.
• In the second photo you can see the weathervane my sisters and I pooled together and purchased for their Christmas present a few years ago.  It has been waiting for proper placement for SO LONG!
• Another notable fact:  the barn raising was delayed many days because the builders had a clause in their contract that they would not work when it was under 10 degrees.  Heehee (seeing that it is 75* here and I went surfing at Linda Mar beach yesterday and layed out afterwards in a bikini I find this somewhat amusing).

This morning I dragged Earl out of bed to come “explore the neighborhood” and also lend me moral support while I ran hill repeats on the Vulcan Staircase. He brought a book, and Linus, and they cheered me on while I huffed my way up and down the stairs five times.

Now that I’m back here at the comfort of my desk, five times doesn’t sound like all that much, but by the time I had ascended my fifth trip, man those quads were burning!

The Vulcan Stairs are one of those unique-to-San-Francisco types of neighborhood gems.  There are lots of little hidden streets and alleys in the city, and the ones on Vulcan Stairway have no street access.   This means the people who live there must trudge all of their stuff up and down the stairs every day. Now, I’m not sure why this amazes me so much, particularly because I’ve lived on the top of a fifth floor walkup in Manhattan for three years, but still. Shesh.

After I finished my running we spent the afternoon- as my parents would say- “bopping around the neighborhood” which consisted of exploring, taking photos, holding hands, and of course letting Linus make friends with every single dog we passed.

Some photos from today:

This photo does NOT give the Vulcan Stairs justice. They are quite a bit longer than this and actually turn, split, and have many other landings proceeding out of the bottom of this photo.

Who can resist a cheesy celebratory “Vulcan” pose on top of the Vulcan Staircase after running repeats? Not me!

Please pardon the sweat and fatigue shown here.

Eagle-eyed Earl spotted this striking blue bird hiding in one of the gardens off the stairs. I wonder what kind it is? We were amazed that Linus didn’t scare it away.

Whereas the Vulcan stairs are surrounded by private gardens and have a bit of a secretive, enclosed feeling, the nearby Saturn Stairs afford expansive views. I guess you could say I really ran 5.5 lengths of the stairs, because when we finished the Vulcan stairs, we walked around the corner and spotted the Saturn Stairs down the street, and I decided to run up them just for fun and to check out what was at the top. The Saturn Stairs aren’t as long as Vulcan- only 1 block compared to 2, but they did boast this lovely view of the Castro and out to the bay:

Done with stair-mania, we refueled with some scrumptious fresh-squeezed juices from here. Earl had mango/apple and I had watermelon. As the moniker justly implies, they were stupendous

Earl loves the look and styling of this yellow home on Lower Terrace. And check out their view!

We came across this monument in the middle of the turn-around on Upper Terrace.  The monument wasn’t labled as to what it represents, however when we got home I googled and learned it represents the exact geographic midpoint of San Francisco. This conflicts what I had previously been told- that Buena Vista Park was the exact center of the city. However, venture that fancy official-looking monument trumps zen-like park when it comes to official midpoints.

Here’s a cool plant from the corner of Ord Court. What kind is it? Some sort of aloe vera?

Speaking of cool plants, how neat is this lemon tree? Must be because I am from New England, but I am just flabbergasted that it’s warm enough to grow a LEMON TREE on the sidewalk out front of your house here. By the way, it was 67* out today and gorgeous.

Take down your Christmas decorations, people! Here were some crazy ones in the Castro district:

We made a stop at the Seward Street Slides. How fun! There were little kids playing, so we grabbed some cardboard and just did ONE quick slide, as not to interrupt them. It was super fast and we even saw some of the kids getting air off the dips. Amazing how these slides still exist in today’s litigious world.

We grabbed lunch at Ike’s Place. It was disgustingly crowded, even at 3:30 in the afternoon. The place was packed to the gill with people pouring out onto the sidewalk and even eating sitting on the ground outside because there were no tables. Fortunately we snagged two seats and Earl enjoyed a #5 while I feasted on a #25. Yu-hum. We will be back!

Finally, we let Linus run around and play in Duboce Park. He held his own with the big dogs.

But he was pretty tuckered (so was I at this point) when it came to that last final climb back over Buena Vista Hill to our apartment.

leaving the windows open on cool San Francisco nights.  Reading together in bed for hours, engrossed in our respective books*, while snuggled under a blanket, with our feet touching under the sheets.

Just a quick hello and an update. I got my laptop back from HP! And it is refurbished, (for free!), with a new motherboard (WHY did it need a new motherboard when it was only a month old?).  I also got a new phone from Verizon, also covered, that needed new “software.”  The verizon store was PACKED with people all crazed to buy the new Storm.

We put up our Christmas tree and it looks wonderful in the big window, I will put up some photos tomorrow.  I have some many pics on my camera which aren’t uploaded that the memory card is completely full.  Ack!  Very behind on blogging.

In the meantime, I have been learning the city in the style of a tentative housecat… slowly exploring, venturing out into our neighborhood further and further each day.

*me- Elizabeth, a bio of Elizabeth Taylor, E- Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces…heh, my reading seems quite the fluff piece held up to linear algebra.