December 06 to April 07: Catch Up

Since we were off-line for a few months, I thought I would quickly catch you all up on what we've done in the last few months.

April

About a year ago, our friends Tim and Ginger packed up and moved to Chicago. It was sad to have them leave but it also gave us an opportunity to have a fun place to visit. We paid them a visit for a quick weekend get-a-way. It had been a few years since either Andrea or I visited Chicago. So Tim and Ginger showed us around the windy city. A trip to Chicago really isn't complete unless you've gone to 1. Wrigley Field and 2. had a deep dish pizza. Check and check. We caught the Cubs vs. Cardinals daygame, sitting in the infamous bleacher section at Wrigley. After the game, we strolled around Chicago and ate a deep dish pizza at My Pi. Folks, it doesn't get much better than that.

The next day, we explored some of the finer and more sophisticated spots of Chicago. We had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern and ate their famous Cheezborgers. We also immersed ourselves in art and culture at the Art Institute.

We really enjoyed our time in this beautiful city. We'll be back.

March

In March, we added a new member into the Circle of Trust. Andrea and I enjoy playing video games but frankly we really suck at most of the games. The more complex and button there are, the more we suck. So we finally got rid of the Xbox (sold everything on Craigslist) and got ourselves a Nintendo Wii! Since the Wii was released, it has been a smash hit and stores have been hardly able to keep them on the shelves. After a few days of searching, we finally scored one! Happy-Happy, Joy-Joy!

We've had a few Wii parties in March. Its really funny to see how people react to this video game. Our friends Patty and Walter, who claimed not to be into video games, really seemed to hate bowling on the Wii :)

That night, I was "in the Zone". I bowled a 246! I'm thinking about quitting my day job and going pro.

Most of you know that I am a huge baseball fan, especially when it comes to the San Francisco Giants. In the years B.A. (before Andrea), I used to go to Spring Training in Scottsdale, AZ, every year to catch the first glimpse of the new baseball season. When I first met Andrea, her love for baseball wasn't as pure and beautiful as mine. But much like turning her from a vegetarian into a meat lover (she wants to get this t-shirt), I was able to get her to climb on board the American Pastime. Our first real date was at a Giants game. Our engagement pictures were taken mostly at the Phone Booth (aka AT&T Park, formerly Pac Bell Park). Our wedding weekend group event was a Sunday daygame. So we were both thrilled this year, that we were able to re-institute the yearly Spring Training trip to Scottsdale.

Our friends Stef and Eric live in Scottsdale. I've known Eric since the early days of college. I was actually there at the Summer of Stef in Seattle, when Eric finally made his move on her. I like to think that I (and Ken Maranta) actually brought them together :) They were happy to host us for the weekend. We went to see the Giants vs. Cubs game where Barry Bond looked real good striking out.

Before going to the game, we stopped over for a cold one at the Rusty Spur Saloon, which claims to be the oldest bar in Scottsdale. The Rusty Spur sold beer koozies that was in the shape of a cowboy boot... how fantastic is that? Of course, I proudly drank all my beers at the game with my new koozie. I've gotten countless number of envious compliments so far.

February

We held our first Annual Decathlon (of games). 4 couples (Ed & Laura, Leslie & Todd, Brandon & Shannon, Andrea & I) played 10 games for medals and bragging rights. The first game we played was called Mr. Mouth. Leslie and Todd took gold, Andrea & I took silver and Ed & Laura took bronze.

The rest of the 10 games we played included Sorry, Pass the Pigs, Cranium, Puppy Racers, Hungry Hippo, Apples to Apples, Candy Land, Connect Four, and Operation.

As the night wore on, the Decathlon got a little more serious as no one wanted to come in last place.

10 games and 7 hours of adult beverages later, we finally had the winner. Todd and Leslie won the gold medal, Andrea and I took silver and Ed and Laura finished with the bronze. Sorry Brandon and Shannon. Better luck next year... LOSERS!

January 2007

We went to Poipu, Kauai, for a family vacation. This was our niece Kaia's first trip to the Hawaiian islands. January in Hawaii is slightly warmer than Minnesota! As you can see from the picture on the right, Andrea and I caught our fish (Andrea caught an Ahi Tuna and I, an Amber Jack), while the "fishermen" of the Minnesota lakes were clearly left empty handed.

We had a nice dinner at the Beach House Restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious fancy meal with the best sunset on the island.

What's a Hawaiian vacation without a few Lava Flows and hula dancers?

We took a day to drive around Kauai to check out all the sights. We stopped over at the Wailua Falls as well as the Kilauea Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located at the northern most point of Kauai. We were fortunate to have been there during the whale migration period. Even Kaia got to see a few whales breaching in and out of the ocean.

December 2006

Andrea broke her ring finger at our first dodgeball charity league game. She had 2 pins "wedging" her chipped bone into place. So nasty!!!

The holidays were pretty low key... just spent time with the family and friends. This year, Kodi's girlfriend, Stella, spent time with us as Peter and Chantel were traveling.

BACK IN BUSINESS!

After months of technical difficulties with Blogger.com, we finally managed to resolve the problem and will start posting our blog updates soon. It appears that when blogs get certain number of hits, Blogger .com will lock it out and make you go through hoops to prove to them that the blog is not a spam site. Unfortunately, when they unlock your site after the non-spam verification, sometimes, things do not go smooth. Anyway, we'll resume the blogs very soon.

Week of December 3: That Was Easy!

This is what we did all week. I think Kodi gained a few pounds!!!

Week of November 26: Annual Holiday Competition

Every year during the Holiday season, our friends, the Whitemans, host a competition. It started as a gingerbread house competition but has evolved into a cooking competition over the years. As you all may recall, I was gloriously crowned as the champion last year. Last year, there was only one overall winner (me!) but this year, the competition was split into 2 categories... appetizers and desserts. I naturally decided to defend my title and entered the appetizer group while Andrea elected to enter the dessert group.

The history of the Annual Holiday Competition is riddled with scandals, conspiracy, politics and down right cheating. I think last year was the only year that I can sincerely say was truly fair and just. Unfortunately, the ghosts of the wicked past returned this year to pass unfair judgements against Andrea and I. Yes, Andrea and I, the model cooking purists, became this years innocent victims of the cut throat world of the Annual Holiday Competition. So this year, under the dark cloud of controversy, Ed's Fancy Meat Toasties was "chosen" as the best appetizer over my Hainese Chicken Balls and Sharon's Canele was "selected" over Andrea's Profiteroles as the best dessert. I could go on and on with factual evidence and analysis of the unjust rulings but Andrea and I have gone past beyond that. Some may even say that Andrea's and my maturity and sportsmanship are only exceeded by our culinary creativity and skills. Actually, we're still bitter that we lost. Congratulations to Ed and Sharon. Enjoy your victory... we will crush you both next year!!!!

Ed's Fancy Meat Toasties (left) vs. my Hainese Chicken Balls (right).

Sharon's Canele (left) vs. Andrea's Profiteroles (right).

Ed's tribute to "the man" (left). Ed and Sharon, the winners (right)!

Here "the gang" are caught conspiring.

The night really got wild after the competition. There is a reason why it is illegal for doctors to operate after drinking a few Maker's and ginger ale.

Week of November 19: Raysia de Cuba

We decided to offer our friends a break from turkey leftovers on the Saturday following Thanksgiving by inviting them over for Cuban food. (Our friend Victor is Cuban and gave us a great Cuban cookbook so we had to try it out.)

There is a small chain of restaurants called Asia de Cuba that offer Asian/Cuban fusion. We didn't really do fusion, but it was Cuban cooked by an Asian, so close enough. Because we had cooked a large meal for Thanksgiving, we made this one a potluck with everyone assigned a different dish.

Dinner Assignment List

• Appetizer: Dip de Frijoles Negros "Black Bean Hummus" (Thomas)
• Appetizer: Crab and Shrimp Ceviche (Brian)
• Side Dish: Platanos en Tentacion "Fried Sweet Plantains" (Kathi & Andy)
• Side Dish: Congri Oriental "Red Beans and Rice" (Ed & Laura)
• Salad: Ensalada de Aguacate "Avacado Salad" (Brandon & Shannon)
• Main Dish: Tamal en Cazuela "Cornmeal Pork Stew" (Ray & Andrea)
• Dessert: Fat Apple Pies (Rob)
• Drinks: Mojito (Leslie)

People came over a little early and we took the kids and dogs over to the school yard nearby so we could burn off a few calories before the feast.

After a few hours of playing, we headed back to the house for Mojitos and appetizers while the finishing touches were put on the entrees and side dishes. We then sat down at our table (we had to install both table extension leaves which made the table about a mile long) for the main course.

After eating ourselves silly, we moved to the living room to watch a movie. The other requirement for coming to dinner was to bring your favorite 80s movie. From the collection of high quality 80s movies, we would pick one out of the hat... awesome (as Spicoli would say). We ended up watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High which was the launching pad for a lot of very talented actors such as Sean Penn and Forest Whitaker. If you're really on the ball, you can even notice Nicholas Cage in it for about 3 seconds.

Since we had a number of great movies in the house for this event, Sunday was also filled with great 80s movies for Andrea and I. I got to see Valley Girl for the first time ever (great movie starring once again Nicholas Cage - although back then he was Nicholas Coppola) and Can't Buy Me Love which we now own in case you ever want to borrow it.

Week of November 12: ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?!?!?

It's been a while since we've had a post about our favorite couple - Todd and Leslie! This time it's all about Todd.

Todd celebrated his 33rd birthday a while back and in order to celebrate, we had a party in his honor at our friend Rodd's house. Todd thought he was just going for a night of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and pizza until more and more of his friends showed up. (Todd is so well liked that his party was attended even by a number of people who don't appreciate the very highbrow event of Ultimate Fighting). Enough about Todd. Let's shift gear to something more interesting... UFC! This was the first time that Andrea and I ever sat down to watch a UFC event. Before this night, I had always thought of UFC as a legalized form (also minus the fighting till death part) of "kumite". Some of you movie connoisseurs may recognize the term "kumite" from the movie featuring the Muscles from Brussles in the blockbuster hit Bloodsport. After withnessing a night of UFC Pay-Per-View, I can honestly admit that I was so right. Basically, a UFC match was a 1-on-1 fight between 2 men utilizing their martial art and wrestling skills. Think of it as a halfChuck Norris half Macho Man Randy Savage dude fighting against a half Bruce Lee half Yokozuna dude. The two dudes fight/wrestle/karate chop until one of them gets knocked out or submits (usually under a submission hold).

Don't get me wrong, these dudes were all bad asses and very atheletic but after the first couple of matches, I must admit, I lost interest and started wondering about catching the SportsCenter highlights of the Michigan vs. Ohio State game. But the night was all about Todd and he enjoyed every minute of UFC. Happy Birthday Champ!

Week of November 5: Molly and Josh's Wedding

Another weekend, another wedding!

This time we headed back to Grand Forks, ND for my cousin Molly's wedding. A lot of you have met Molly over the years and know that she is a pretty special girl and has grown into a wonderful young woman. I'm going to get a little sappy here because she is the youngest of the Schultz girls and I remember her from when she was born. She's also the one who loves the lake and swimming in it as much as I do. She is now working on her masters and teaching in Grand Forks. There will be a lot of lucky kids going through her class.

Speaking of lucky kids, Josh is probably the luckiest of all of them since he now gets to spend his life with her. Josh and Molly have been together for several years and he asked her to marry him about a year ago. So in addition to all of their schoolwork (Josh is in med school) they spent the last year planning the wedding.



The wedding was held at Calvary Lutheran Church in Grand Forks with the reception at the Masonic Hall downtown. We went over on Friday to help set it up and I thought we had it looking pretty good when we left but when we showed up for the actual reception, they decorator had turned it into an absolute paradise. I have to say that I love fall colors for a wedding.





Sara and Carrie (Molly's sisters) and Noel (her best friend) all looked stunning as the bridesmaids. Molly looked amazing in her wedding dress and Josh very handsome in his tuxedo as they said their vows. Rick and Scott played "The Lovers Waltz" which they had played at our wedding and it was as moving this time as it was a year and a half ago.






The reception was a blast with a little bit of polka and a whole lot of dancing. (There were a few reports of stiff legs the following day...) They had wedding cake in more flavors than I could count and our aunt Audrey had made some delicious candies just to make sure we had enough sugar in our systems to keep lively on the dance floor.

It was wonderful to see Molly and Josh start their new life together and even more wonderful to catch up with all of the family that made it out for the wedding. We're lucky to be blessed with such a loving, not to mention fun, family.

Week of October 29: Seattle for Michelle's Wedding

As you know, Ray and I never turn down a chance to attend a wedding even if it means travel - or maybe especially if there is travel! We headed up to Seattle for the weekend to celebrate my friend Michelle's wedding. (See previous post for the trip where we got to meet Kris.)

The festivities started off on Friday night before the wedding with drinks and appetizers at Kris and Michelle's house. We got to meet a lot of their friends and family in addition to enjoying the good food and drink.

While in Seattle, we stayed at the Hyatt in Bellevue which was a beautiful hotel that has just been renovated recently. On Saturday morning we wandered around the neighborhood in spite of the rain, had a lovely breakfast, and hit the local shops (Nordstrom's of course is the most well known of the local shops!) I fell in love with a pair of boots but managed to talk myself out of buying them since they were more than I was ready to spend...

For lunch we met up with a couple of my Larson cousins Kevin and Mike (and Mike's family.) We had a wonderful lunch and spent a few hours catching up with each other.

That afternoon we headed out to the wedding with our friends, Brock and Sally, in the middle of a lovely Seattle rain storm. Michelle looked radiant, Seattle definitely suits her. The ceremony was lovely and then followed by a nice dinner and dancing to a live band. We did discover how small a world it was when at the reception Ray ran into someone that he used to work with who was married to someone that I now work with. I guess that is what happens in the small world of Oracle...



The following day, Ray and I allowed ourselves a big indulgence by staying in bed late, ordering room service and watching football from our comfy bed. (Fantasy football changes your view of a romantic Sunday.)

Week of October 22: Soup is Good Food

Since Ray has been a little delinquent in the blogging, I'm going to spend a little time updating the blog. One of the joys of being married has been working on home projects such as the shed that everyone is tired of hearing about. In order to get away from the shed project, I undertook a project of my own. Soup making.

I abandoned Ray out in the yard and decided to make a few batches of soup for us with enough to share with Ray's parents. One of the soups that we made was a Portuguese Kale Soup (Caldo Verde) - we were trying to recreate a soup that we had tried at a little restaurant in SF called Grubstake(Grubstake is a little diner in our old neighborhood. It serves traditional diner food but it also has a little section of Portuguese food that I highly recommend. And as an added bonus, it is open until 4am - so if you ever need a late night bite to eat in SF - this is the place to go.)


The recipe we made was out of one of my favorite cookbooks - The Gourmet Cookbook

(I've had a lot of good luck with the recipes from this cookbook!)

The other soup we made was a Lentil/Chickpea Soup
also found in the Gourmet cookbook - which was very nice and hearty!

The nice thing about making soups on the weekend was that we had several meals both for ourselves and for Ray's parents!

Week of October 15: The Greatest Invention Ever

After months of impatiently waiting and counting down the days, Monday finally arrived... my annual deep dental cleaning appointment with my periodontist, Dr. Wiesen. Happy-happy, joy-joy! So while my dental hygienist scaled, scrapped and buffed my teeth and gum, I decided to enjoy this nirvana experience by humming to the song of Amboy Dukes and taking a Journey to the Center of the Mind. Shutting out the world of pain that I was in, I began to ponder about a question that I have often posed to my friends (usually during a long car ride to or from backpacking). What is THE greatest invention ever? I believe I have the definitive answer.

The usual responses I get are generally good ones.

• The steam engine: a little toy, known as aeolipile, invented by the Greeks in the 1st century AD. A good invention. But is it the greatest ever? Isn't the steam engine responsible for the industrial revolution and all of the death and destruction associated with it (although we can also argue that it has created a better society by replacing manual labor with industrial machines)?


• Electricity: from Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Edison to Nikola Tesla to Enron, the ability to produce and deliver electricity is at best, a great example of technological advancement/evolution and ingenuity. It's not really an "invention".


• The printing press? Television? Computers?

I sincerely respect all these responses and the people who believe them to be the greatest. I really do. But they are wrong. Anyone with half a brain will agree with me that the greatest invention ever is SOAP! That's right, CH3(CH2)16COONa! Did I just blow your mind? I did, didn't I? There is no denying it. If you have any doubts to the credibility of my definitive analysis, here is a simple test you can perform. Step 1: Go out and get your hands dirty... real dirty. Mud, grease, buffalo wing sauce, etc. Step 2: simply wash your hands with cold water. Wash them good. Pat dry. Still a little dirty? Step 3: wash hands again. This time in warm water. More dirt will come off. Pat dry. Pretty clean by now, right? But would you operate on a sick person or deliver a baby with those hands? That's what people who didn't believe in the wondrous magical power of soap used to do. Step 4: wash your hands again (warm water for best result). This time with soap, rubbing your hands into a lather for at least 20 seconds. Rinse. See all that gunk? Pat dry with a clean towel. Now you're ready for more buffalo wings!

Flu season is approaching. Washing your hands frequently with soap is one of the best ways to prevent yourself from catching a cold/flu and to avoid spreading it to others. This is my absurd way of telling you that Andrea and I had an uneventful week (for once) and to do my part in public service. And by the way, I actually do believe that soap is the greatest invention ever! No one has been able to make a convincing case for other inventions to bump soap off as #1 in my book. Please feel free to add your 2 cents with your comments. I'd be very interested to see what people think as the greatest invention ever.

Side Note

I'm also a big fan of Windex (and I consider it to be a subspecies of soap). Much like Gus Portokalos in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I have found Windex to be very useful for other remedies besides cleaning dirty windows. Recently, I have discovered that Windex is awesome for killing bugs, especially mosquitoes (spiders and moths too). As many of you may already know, I hate mosquitoes and mosquitoes hate me... actually mosquitoes love me. I could be in the center of a circle of 50 naked people at the south pole and a mosquito would seek and bite me. We have bug screens on all our windows and the front door and somehow, mosquitoes would sneak-in to attack me at 2 AM in the morning, taunting me by buzzing my ear and leaving a trail of itchy swollen welts, while my wife sleeps sound asleep untouched right next to me. It was on one of these nights when I got even and took it to the mosquitoes. One spray of Windex (as we don't really believe in toxic pesticides... more harm than good) was all it took to immobilize a mosquito in mid air and send it into a free fall right onto the floor. The mosquito was still alive. It was just unable to fly as the magical Windex had rendered its wings useless for flight. At that point, I took huge pride and satisfaction in crushing the vile pest into a pulp. And yes, we do have the Costco 5 pack strategically placed individually throughout the house.

If you have other creative uses for Windex (who doesn't?), please share them with me by way of comments.

Week of October 8: Shed Update

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

We are almost done with the shed! The ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for the weekend of October 28th. I'm sure you'll see it on CNN or even SportsCenter. It will be good to have our weekends back and to get back in the loop.

Week of October 1: Uncle Dave and Aunt Marilyn

Uncle Dave and aunt Marilyn are semi retired and have a beautiful house (more like a castle) in Boqueron, Puerto Rico. They also have a farm in Omaha, Nebraska, that they visit once or twice a year. This year, Dave and Marilyn decided to start a road trip west from Omaha to San Diego. Along the way, they stopped over at the Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Jackson Hole, Banff, Vancouver, San Juan Islands and of course Oakland, CA. Andrea and I were delighted to have Dave and Marilyn stay with us for a few days.

On Saturday, drove up to Healdsburg to rendez-vous with Dave and Marilyn as they made their way down from Oregon. We finally met up with them around lunch at Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar. After warm heartfelt hello's, we got down to business and ordered lots of food and drinks. Willi's Warm Maine Lobster Roll was amazing! Andrea also tried her first oysters ever! She actually ate and enjoyed a couple of Kumamoto Oysters. This is not good news for me. Over the years, Andrea and I have reached a certain level of understanding and expectations. She eats her tomatoes with sugar and I eat mine with salt and pepper. She picks and orders the wines at restaurants and I finish them. She shucks the oysters and I devour them. Now I will have to share MY oysters! Great Zeus... why??!!

"Down the hatch!"

After lunch, we headed south to Sonoma for wine tasting. We first stopped at one of our favorite wineries, Matanzas Creek. As always, we really enjoyed all of Matanzas' wines. Our favorite was the 2005 Sauvignon Blanc. We then visited Wellington Vineyards where we tasted their many wines as well as their signature Ports. Very delicious. Finally, we stopped over at Loxton Cellars, which is a relatively new winery making some great Syrahs and Zinfandels.



Andrea and I also introduced Dave and Marilyn to Dim Sum. Andrea and I usually go to Yank Sing (we once set across from Nicholas Cage and his then newly wed wife Alice Kim there) in San Francisco for our Dim Sum fix. However, we decided to stay local and checked out the Hong Kong East Ocean Restaurant ("HKEOR"). To our surprise, the HKEOR was not only delicious but had a great view of the San Francisco Bay.

After spending a couple of days with us, Dave and Marilyn were off to San Diego. Andrea, Kodi and I were sad to say good-bye. But since we have an open invitation to visit Dave and Marilyn in Boqueron, Dave and Marilyn can expect to see us knocking at their gate real soon.

Week of September 17 and 24: Ford Truck Man

Move over Toby Keith, there is a new Ford Truck Man in town! You can eat the exhaust from my big block 390 engine as I roll my rig into the gas station for my $100 fill up. That's right... I ain't got no boundaries, I don't compromise... I rather walk ten miles, then be down on my luck, then ride around the block in any other pick up truck.

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

For over 2 years now, Andrea and I have been getting by with just one car, the Audi A4 Avant. For the most part, it has worked out great. We both work down in Redwood City (about 10 minutes apart), so it has been very easy and enjoyable to commute together to work everyday. I call this our "HPH"... Hour of Pure Heaven (each way). But there has been times when we could have really used another car. And lately, with doing a lot of home improvement projects ourselves, we have been borrowing our friend's pickup truck for many Home Depot runs. We looked into buying a new car but it didn't seem quite cost effective to shell out a lot of dough for a car that will be driven about 3,000 miles a year. So we started looking around for a used pickup truck. After making our mind up to search solely for an older "classic", we found several pickups on Craigslist that peaked our interest. I was actually surprised to find so may trucks from the late 60s and early 70s still running around. After test driving a couple of junkers, we found the F-250 in Roseville and decided to make the hour-and-a-half drive up north to check it out (this was on Saturday, 9/23). I liked the fact that the truck was kept in original "stock" condition. I think the radio and the steering wheel are the only noticeablele aftermarket parts on the truck. Andrea on the other hand, loved the "Tiffany" blue color. After the test drive, we both agreed that this beauty was it. Steven was the owner of the truck. He's a really nice retired guy who fixed up cars for a hobby. He had over 20 cars that he was working on including a beautiful Ford Ranchero (early 60 model) and a 67 Ford F100 pickup.

We signed all the paper work and purchased the truck from Steven. However, since the truck was registered as non-operative, we were not able to "legally" drive it home. Steven offered go into the DMV during the week and have it re-registered and we could pick it up after it was street legal. We agreed to this plan and returned the following week (9/30) and drove it home. It drove very nicely and had lots of power. There are a few things I'm planning to work on during the winter to make the truck nicer... after all, I AM a Ford Truck Man!