Wedding Festivities

Jim and I are heading out to North Carolina tomorrow for the wedding of his oldest brother's youngest daughter.  Did I mention a hurricane is headed that way?  It is my understanding we won't be hit with the brunt of the hurricane but again this is named Irene after a woman and you know we are unpredictable. Did I also mention our flight leaves at 6:15 in the morning?  I am not a morning person!!!!  Can I just say I might be a little grumpy.  My knitting is ready to go, coffee is a flick of a button away, just need to make sure I have all my clothes ready for the festivites.

Murphy

Murphy came to live with us seven years ago.  He is Rachel's baby.   I was not working at the time but he would spend the day in his crate until Rachel came home so he would bond with her and bond with her he did.  I was chopped liver the minute she was home from school.  When she started college at UNT, the moment he heard her car on the weekends he was waiting at the door for her so it was very hard when Jim and I moved to California. Rachel was living in the dorm and Murphy couldn't live with her so Dru Ann and I drove him, Mei Ling and THE WINE to California.  He adjusted to California life and loved hanging outside in the backyard and not having to worry about leashes - in Arlington we would have to take him out front to do his business.

Kelsey left Saturday after spending a week with us and  flew back to Texas with Murphy to reunite him with Rachel.  We're going to miss him around here.  At six o'clock each morning I will miss having him climb into bed with us, getting under the covers, and I will miss not having him dance when he is ready to eat but I am so glad he is able to live with Rachel.  Mia, Hagen's cat, is also a resident of Rachel's apartment as we were worried Murphy would be lonely and he and Mia used to enjoy hanging out.

He looks happy to me.



Champagne Thursday

Enough said. 

The Yarn Stealer

 This is Millie's new favorite thing - stealing yarn.  She found this skein in the guest bedroom and took off running for the outdoors.

She finds a skein and runs as fast as she can.

This is her favorite place to run.

It would be humorous if it weren't for the fact she likes the good stuff.  This is a skein of Rowan Wool Cotton.

San Francisco with Hagen

Today Hagen and I headed southwest (Jim made me say this-I wanted to just say south) to San Francisco to meet up with some good family friends who had come to the city for the weekend from Texas..  Hagen and I started our day early this morning to visit Japantown.  I wanted to show Hagen the area plus I wanted to stop in at Kinokuniya Bookstore.  I love checking out their knitting and crochet books.  I was torn between two crochet books but finally settled for just one.  Now I just need an interpreter to figure out the patterns.

Peace Plaza, Japantown

We wandered around awhile then headed to Pier 39 at Fishermans Wharf to meet up with the Chan's.





Hagen and Alex

After lunch at the Boudin Bakery Cafe of clam chowder served in a bread bowl we headed down the wharf to see the sites.

Sea Lions

Apparently this one is a loner.

Along the way we stopped by to look in at the window of the demonstration bakery for Boudin Bakery.

Bread bears ready to rise and be baked

Bread turtles ready to be eaten.

Fortunately we had just eaten otherwise the wonderful smell of baking bread would have caused us to stop for food.

Our final destination was Ghiradelli Square where we stopped for some ice cream.

I had a wonderful time catching up with Grace and Joe along with Alex. 

Corn, Buttermilk and Chive Popovers

I follow several cooking blogs.  One that I enjoy is Smitten Kitchen.  Her most recent post is about corn, buttermilk and chive popovers.  Yes, I own a popover pan and I have chives growing in the herb patch so I just couldn't resist.  I did use frozen corn that I  defrosted because I wanted to save my corn on the cob for the grill.  Maybe next time I will grill an extra cob to add to the popovers. 

 The popovers went great with our barbecued ribs, grilled corn on the cob and Caesar salad.

And here is a little video of the attack dog taking care of a weed.