beaulac ferris

So yesterday we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the first time.  I had decided not to venture to San Jose this holiday season, to save on stress (awkward political convos. with the step-father, the long drive, etc).  We were originally going to have a quiet holiday with Wess and Emily at their place, then discovered that a bunch of friends were going to be in town after all for the holidays, including parents-of-friends, and a friend-of-a-friend.  So we ended up having 12 adults, a 3-year old, and 3 babies over to our place for the event since we have the most space.

It was really nice, and we made a veggie potpie, roasted garlic rosemary mashed potatoes, and cornmeal crunch.  There were 2 turkeys (one made by Wess, and one made by Jen and Jeremy’s friend Alex); Audrey’s mom made a pumpkin dump-cake; Allen made a fruit crisp; Audrey made a mushroom ravioli and butternut squash salad; Emily made a wilted green and beet salad; and Jen brought some nice cheese and some wine.  It was delicious.  We left out some traditional classics like the infamous green-bean cassarole, cranberry sauce, and hot rolls, and were all the better for it.

Things have just been generally weird this season.  There was the good outcome of the election (minus the bad news that Prop 8 passed), and then that was about it…

-We were needlessly hopeful and excited and stressed about Portland, after N**e basically guaranteed Seth a job, then come to find out that they actually can’t even hire anyone because of their company-wide hiring freeze.  They had basically asked us to make the stressful decision to move up there within a month, only to find out that it was all for naught.

-I had to make a tough decision not to go home for Thanksgiving…  a really stressful decision that I hope will have been for the best.  Though now we’re hosting it at our house with friends, which sounds a little stressful, but I think will somehow be more fun and less of a pain than San Jose.

Well the good news is that it’s raining today… the bad news is that it’s still nearly 80 degrees.  So it really is like Southern California autumn today.  When we were in Portland last weekend, I was loving the weather.  It was about 60 degrees and breezy during the day, and about 40 degrees at night.  Like autumn should be!  We drove around a lot, and much of the time there were yellow and red leaves blowing down all around us, or gathered into big banks on the side of the roads.  It was lovely.  I loved being able to actually wear a sweater and/or jacket.

Last night for Halloween, Seth and I stayed at home.  Nothing seemed to be going on, and we are both recovering from colds we aquired in Portland.  I made a vegetarian pot pie (delish), and we watched “Dial M For Murder” and “Robocop”.  The first one Seth had never seen, and the second one I had never seen.  Dial M is such a classic, but Robocop was amazing…

My birthday was on Tuesday and Xie got me some neat stuff and took me out for a nice Mexican dinner in true dewd fewd fashion, the restaurant Alegria, we both has the Budin de Monteczuma. Cheesy torillia-y and genuinely really satisfying. Later we went out for drinks at the Edendale Grille and I had some really well prepared gin gimlets on the rocks, that place has really nice interior by the way.

One of several cool presents I got was this beautiful knife made by Opinel. Opinel is one of the oldest pocket knife companies in the world and is still family owned and operated in France, I became intrigued with their business and old pocket knives in general about 3 months ago when I began researching the origins of lock blade knives and their relationship to penmanship in the 1600s. I am planning on doing a small research (and perhaps low budget publication) about knives and so this gift was just perfect.

xie and i have back pain, and especially right now. xie and i decided to ride our bikes to the lovely home of rupenconk last night for an office premier party, we have been enjoying riding our bikes in the evening while the air is cool and the streets a bit more empty. however, last nights trip ended in calamity. a rogue feline decided to dart out in front of xie as she rode down one of the minor hills near our home. being the animal loving person she is, xie SLAMMED on the the brakes with all her might and promptly flew to the ground hitting her head, shoulder, hip, ankle and thumb on her right side. thank god she wasn’t badly hurt… small amounts of road rash, some big bruises and a little case of the shakes.

drinking Arnold Palmers (something so delicious, and surprisingly hard to say), reading comics on my computer. this is what i’ve been doing a lot of since school let out. that and contemplating my next hairdo (thinking of growing it out because i’m obsessed with the idea of braids, topknots, and side-ponytails). i’ve been making jewelry for Etsy, for myself, and for my friend alana. we don’t have a lot of money right now, so i’ve avoided shopping at thrift stores, in favour of selling off stuff that i already have cluttering the house. made a whopping $26 at Squaresville today selling a couple of things.. although it’s disheartening to think i could have had $42 in trade. cold hard cash seemed like the more sensible option. bought us lunch! i also finally finished this project last weekend…

why am i even writing right now?