Domesticated

Yesterday we did more yard work to trim back the jasmine bushes for "winter" so we will have nice blooms in the spring and Bryan rebuilt the shed on a new foundation so that the doors close more snugly. Then today, I made curtains for the storage area under our kitchen sink and stove.
Check out more pictures of our home here!

Delicious Food in Carmel

We had a ton of fun up at Monterey's Jazz Festival. Maceo Parker was his usual funky self and of course all the other musicians were excellent too. Maceo played a couple different stages at the festival, but the first one he played with the Next Generation Orchestra, which is a group of 15, 16 and 17 year old musicians. A couple of the saxophone players even got to jam with Maceo one on one and I couldn't believe how awesome they were. It was very cool to see such young musicians playing with a legend like Maceo Parker in front of thousands of people.

After the festival we hung out in Carmel and ate some sushi for dinner and learned valuable sushi etiquette, of which I will only apply some rules. For example:

1. When you offer sushi to someone else, extend your plate. Don't pick off a piece with your own chopsticks.
2. If you take some sushi off of someone else's plate (after being offered of course) use the opposite ends of your chopsticks.
3. When you set your chopsticks down, place them at the top of your plate and parallel to yourself. Don't set them directly on the table.
4. If you use soy sauce, always dip fish side down. Soy sauce is intended to flavor the fish, not the rice.
5. Don't make Wasabi soup with your soy sauce. Supposedly this takes away from the flavor of the roll which is rude to the chef. This is one that I am not going to follow. I love wasabi soup!
6. Once you pick something up with your chopsticks, don't set it back down on your plate. Take a bite and keep it on your chopsticks. I don't think I can do this either as my chopstick skills are not that good, but I can cram the whole piece in my mouth and therefore follow this rule.

After sushi we ate a giant sizzling cookie and then took a round about way back to Marissa's apartment so we could walk off a few calories. I'm not a big fan of warm cookie and ice cream, but I ate it anyway. It's hard to resist even if it's not my favorite dessert.

In the morning we went to breakfast at this Mediterranean cafe and I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich which wasn't actually a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich because it was either made with your choice of tri-tip or chicken and came on a cibatta roll. I ordered tri-tip and it was very tasty anyway...it just wasn't Philly, but then again, you can really only have a Philly Cheesesteak in Philly.

All of this good eating inspired me to plan a US tour eating at various states. I really want go to Philadelphia so I can order a cheesesteak and say, "Provolone with," like I'm a local. We could go to Maine or Boston for lobster, New York for whatever, and the south for BBQ. Yum!

You know you're California when...

...you go to a barbeque and someone asks if you eat meat. That and it's 75 in December.

This weekend Bryan and I are going up to the 51st Anniversary Jazz Festival in Monterey, California with our friend Marissa. This is the longest running Jazz festival in the world. I'm really looking forward to it, especially Maceo Parker-- Pass the peas! Pass the peas!

If you're really into it, you can even get copy of "The Art of Jazz: Monterey Jazz Festival" autographed by MJF board member and mayor of Carmel, Clint Eastwood.

That's another way you know you're in California...when mayors are major celebrities and you have a "governator" instead of a governor.

Of course we're not the only ones. Minnesota had Jesse "The Body" Ventura and another one is currently running for President of the United States, but that's another topic.

Tomorrow we're driving up North to Monterey-- the first weekend since getting married that we're not at home raking, unpacking, cleaning, organizing...

"Woo"-hoo!

Professional Wedding Pictures Are Up!

Not that we don't love all our candids from friends and family, but the professional photos are now up on BellaPictures.com.

http://bellapictures.com/weddinglookup/search.php

Type in our last names and choose August 2008 to view our pics!

More About our House

We really haven't been doing too much since moving in except unpacking, cleaning, organizing, spending money and of course doing endless dumpster runs. For those of you who don't know, a dumpster run is where you wait until nightfall and then sneak over the the nearest apartment complex to get rid of large boxes or other trash that doesn't fit in your city issued garbage cans. We thought we were done with dumpster runs after this weekend, but after missing the recycling collection we had to make another dumpster run at 9 PM last night to throw our recycling in the large bin across the street at the apartment complex. Hopefully that is the last run for a while.

Our yard is coming along nicely. We raked 9 bags plus 1 green recycling bin full of leaves this weekend. Actually I raked and Bryan put together a shed and I have a blister to prove it. For me yard work is fun because I never did it before. I always lived someplace where there were gardeners to take care of it all. We'll see how long my yard work high lasts. The next step is to trim the jasmine bushes and fix the lawn. Hopefully by spring, we'll be able to enjoy a nice green lawn to set our hammock and play some bocce ball on.