Browse Month: August 2011

I still rule.

On July 26th, I plucked all the basil leaves off this stem when I made some pesto.  The next day, I put the stem into a bottle of water and a week later it grew roots.

Today, i checked it again and it had a ton of roots and some bigger leaves in addition to some new ones budding.  So, I gave it a new home in a self-watering pot that I bought yesterday at Home Depot.  Let’s see how long it lasts.

Sunday Supper

Last night, we had a long-overdue Sunday Supper at Little J’s house and it was like a baby explosion.  We used to have just Jack sitting at the table but now we have Jack in a big chair, Reese in Jack’s old highchair, Rowan in a portable seat, and Alexander in Tracy’s lap.  The table has really grown.  Ryan whipped up a tasty meal consisting of prosciutto-wrapped figs, caprese salad, roasted chicken, lasagna, roasted corn, and Tang!  Haha.

It was fun playing with all the kids and I’m amazed at how Jack has become the big kid among all the babies. 

Here’s Alexander, the newest member of the gang.

Rowan is a little shy but started babbling once he warmed up.

And of course, there’s Miss Reese who’s happy entertaining herself for hours.

Here are the rest of the photos from the dinner.

Peach Dessert

Today we had dinner at Ryan and Michelle’s and they asked for one of us to make a peach dessert.  I stepped up to the plate and gave it a try with a Fresh Peach Cobbler recipe that I found online.  It was pretty easy and it sounded like it was pretty good for my first attempt.

Here’s what I did:

I bought fresh peaches (about 4) and sliced them.  I left the skin on.

Then I melted butter in a dutch oven while measuring out flour, sugar, baking powder, and milk.  Once that batter was mixed, it went right over the butter without any stirring.

In the meantime, I had the peaches, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest, and lemon juice in another pot for everything to melt and carmelize.

Once that was ready, the entire peach mixture got poured right over the butter+flour mixture – again, without stirring.

Then it went straight into a 375-degree oven for 45 minutes and DING!  It was done!  The batter rose and covered up the peaches all by itself!

I served it with vanilla bean ice cream and we had a tasty dessert!  This was the end of the pot so my crust looked a little messed up here.  It actually turned out crispy, chewy, and soft all at once.  I’d make this again.

Race #2!

Back in March, we ran our first 5K and started a weekly running group.  This morning, we got up early to the run The Giants Race 10K.  It was Patty, Nicole, and Stephanie’s first 10K and they did great!  It started behind the stadium, went along Embarcadero, turned around at Fisherman’s Wharf, and ended inside Giants Stadium.  We started out slow but then I helped Stephanie turn on the turbo during the last half to finish under her goal of 1:15.

We actually finished in 1:08, which is a record finish for her.  She calls me her carrot and I think I did my job today.  All our training on our weekly Wednesday runs really paid off too since all four of us comfortably ran 6.2 miles today and had a great time.   We got a medal and lots of swag including a Tim Lincecum bobblehead.  I wonder how much I can get for it on eBay.

After the race, we gathered at my house and Jes whipped up some breakfast for us.  Afterward, we went down to the pool to soak our feet and lay out in the warm sun.

Here are the rest of the photos from today.

Awkwardly Awesome

On Saturday night, Brother and Joy offered to take me along for a foot massage in San Gabriel.  For a 25-minute drive and $15 plus tip, I got a full-body, fully-clothed massage and it was awesome.

At first, when I walked in I said to Joy, “this is kinda weird”.  She chuckled and said, “don’t worry”.  They have an open room filled with over-sized barca loungers that are super squishy and flatten out all the way.  There were probably 15 of them all next to each other and it was packed!  AND it was 9 pm!  Surprisingly, it was really quiet inside too!

When it was my turn, I sat down and got to dunk my feet in a hot bucket of water.  The lady flattened out my chair and I got a face and scalp massage first and then she stretched out my arms.  My feet and legs were next and she used some crazy accupressure on the bottom of my feet and my legs got moisterized and massaged at the same time.  This would have been great after a run!  Then I had to flip over onto my stomach and I got a comfy blanket.  She massaged my neck and back and found some crazy knots in my shoulders.

It’s amazing how strong she was since I was fully dressed AND had a blanket over me and I was still wincing at certain moments.  They also do the whacking type of massage on your back all the way down to the top of your butt.  At the end, I got a “Whap Whap!” on my butt and she said, “All done!” At first, I was confused and told my brother.  He had just finished too and said, “Yeah, I got that too.”  Haha.

I’d go back again.  And no, they don’t give “Happy Endings”.

Family Fun

This past weekend, we drove down to Cerritos for the weekend.  We arrived around 12:30 am on Saturday and went straight to Dayantha’s house to wish him a “Happy Birthday”.  Krissy and his mom threw him a surprise party and I guess we were part of the surprise. 🙂

The next morning, I woke up relatively early and Brother took us all to Downtown Disney for beignets.  It was a fun way to start the birthday celebration for Daddy.

After our tasty breakfast, we did some window shopping.

This is the family photo we took at the Sanuk store.

We also walked around and went to check out the area between Disneyland and California Adventure.  They changed the front of CA and boy are ticket prices STEEP.

For lunch, Jes and I met up with his parents.  I had a yummy Greek salad and we got do some catching up.  After lunch, I took a good nap until it was time for dinner.  This was becoming a very glutinous and lazy day.  Aaaah…

We went to Newport Seafood for a delicious lobster dinner.  It was like a competition to see who could make the biggest mess on the table.

When you have all the Chimmys together for a hands-on meal, that’s what always happens.

Koa came along for a weekend in the sun.  He got to enjoy lots of time in the backyard and the front yard.  Also, because it was so warm, he got a deadly bath out on the driveway.  Heh heh.  Here’s a video of him playing with a leaf:

Here are the rest of the photos from the weekend.

  • 1
  • 2