Clara is officially eating solid foods. It has been fun introducing her to new things! She has done well… not overly excited about it but seems to be enjoying it more and more. We started with oatmeal and now she is eating sweet potato, avocado, and banana. I am attempting to make all of her food. Thanks to friends for the inspiration!
Jeff and I have been talking about having a wine and cheese party for a while. The plan was to buy one expensive bottle of wine and have everyone bring an under $20 bottle. We hoped to see if anyone could pick out the expensive wine. We decided that Jeff’s graduation and our farewell to Tucson was a perfect time to have our party. So, we finally made it happen in November just a few weeks before we left for Mississippi. I have to say, we have some wonderful friends!
Jeff covered the 8 bottles we used for the tasting with aluminum foil and then I numbered them so no one had any knowledge of which one was the expensive bottle. We also enjoyed our favorite, El Guero Canelo, for dinner. We started this tradition of catering Guero for Jeff’s 25th birthday party, and you can now find Guero at many Rincon Mountain functions. So good!
Thank you to Matt and Dana for helping us pull off the party! Dana is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to wine and even picked out the expensive wine for us. Love you guys!
We were so glad to have Ryan and Yunuen at the party! These guys have been busy with new ventures in Mexico so it was a real treat to see them.
And the results– we failed miserably! The majority of the group chose the cheapest wine (under $5) as their favorite. Only 4 of 19 correctly picked out the expensive wine. This only furthers my thoughts that wine from Trader Joe’s for under $15 is the way to go. Neither Jeff nor I can tell the difference!
Before leaving town, the Holleys graciously invited us to be a part of their family’s Thanksgiving. Clara was even able to wear her amazing outfit that Karissa made for her. It has not been easy to be so far away from family these last several years, particularly on holidays, but we truly have found family in Tucson! Thank you Holleys!
Here are a few pictures from our last few days in Tucson. Thank you to our friends for your help packing. It was definitely a crazy exit! We packed things in long term storage in the POD, things for short term storage that we might need once we arrived in Phoenix, and things that we could fit into our car for the month we spent in Mississippi. I am not sure we factored in how much extra time these things take when you have an almost 4 month old. Although exhausting, we finally made it out of town and arrived in Mississippi a few days later.
We have such mixed emotions leaving Tucson. Although starting a new job and moving to a new place is exciting, Tucson definitely feels like home to us. We have grown so much during our time in Tucson after arriving only a few weeks after we were married. I start to tear up just thinking about all of the wonderful memories we have made during the last 5 years. Tucson was not a place we had always envisioned we would live but God blessed us richly with our church family at Rincon. Love you guys!!
While Beth and I eagerly await our daughter’s arrival, Beth made us a delicious taco salad to enjoy tonight. Can’t wait to dig in!
We finally got invited by the Jankowskis to see their new house (that I had a hand in designing). It looks awesome! We also got to try out a new game called Probe. I suck at word games, but this one was fun. Kind of like hangman on steroids.
Today was another traveling day with the morning starting with a trip over to Muir Woods after watching an exciting finish to the US women’s Wold Cup game against Brazil (one of the best soccer games I’ve ever watched). After Muir Woods we made a quick stop by Sonoma for a short wine tasting before heading over to Napa.
Strangely enough, Liam and Natalie, two of our great friends from Tucson, happened to be coming through San Francisco from Lake Tahoe so they met us in Napa. We ate a quick lunch at a barbeque place. I’m always a little wary of barbeque outside of the south, but this place was impressive.
We started out wine tastings at a vineyard called Frog’s Leap, a suggestion from Ben Hoffman. It was exactly what we were expecting in a beautiful Napa Valley Winery. An amazing house with a wrap-around back porch where we sat and enjoyed some wine. It was a perfect temperature, mid-70s with a slight breeze.
We then headed to another winery, not nearly as grand as Frog’s Leap, but it had a lighter, little more commercial feel. Most of the wine I wasn’t that impressed with, except for the 12-year Port that we finished with. It was exquisite: a much smoother feel than the aroma suggested, with a sweet and crisp finish. The lady helping us suggested that it would only get better with age and that the biggest change would happen between 10 and 20 years. Liam and Natalie got a bottle and hopefully we can get back together in 2020 and crack it open. Imagine how different our lives will be by then.
We finished with a trip to a small, up-and-coming winery called Tember Bey. We had a complementary tasting which was nice, but the owner was pouring and we were the only one’s in there so we just hung out and discussed how he got into the business. He then broke out the 2009 lines which they haven’t released yet (he had opened them to test how the wine was developing) and gave us a taste of the newest vintage of the wines we had already tasted. We ended up buying a bottle of his Cabernet Sauvignon and can’t wait to have a good occasion to break it open. It was the perfect end to a fun and relaxing day in Napa. We drove back to San Francisco and had a great (again, late) Thai dinner near AT&T Park.
Beth and I decided to take it easy and just take a long drive around the bay area. We headed down to Palo Alto and toured around the Stanford campus. The campus is gorgeous with some amazing architecture, definitely a cool place to hang out.
We then headed over to Hwy 1 to slowly make our way back to San Francisco. We stopped by a cool little produce stand and got some really juicy and sweet strawberries. We then got to stop at Half Moon Bay to get some beautiful pictures and get to watch some surfers and enjoy the ocean.
We took the meandering drive back into San Francisco and headed back to Berkeley to meet up with Steven for a late dinner around 8:45, which has by this point become the norm. We went to a place called Summer Kitchen which provides dishes made with ingredients from local farms. Beth got a lasagna with various vegetables like squash, zuchhini, eggplant, grape tomatoes. And since we were the last people of the night, they gave us a free sampler platter of their desserts. What a way to end the day!
Beth and I arrived last night in San Francisco to visit Steven and tour around a bit before Beth’s job starts, etc… We did mostly “touristy” things today: walking around downtown, a visit to Lombard Street, some great food and a visit to the Golden Gate bridge.
We ate lunch at Calzone’s in North Beach and then made our way to AT&T park to try to catch a Giants game, but it was sold out and the scalpers were way to expensive.
Now to get some rest before heading out again tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Beth and I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Erie, PA this past weekend to celebrate Liam and Natalie’s wedding. It was a lot of fun to get to meet some of Natalie and Liam’s good friends as well as their families.
It was a beautiful wedding at an old theater in downtown Erie (Natalie’s hometown). It was definitely a unique setting, but it came together amazingly and it turned out to be a great setting that really added to the ambiance of the night.
After the wedding, Beth and I decided to make a trip to nearby Niagara Falls. The falls were crazy. I have seen a lot of pictures over my life but they just don’t do it justice. We tried to take some pictures but due to the cold and mist (which was messing with the autofocus on our camera) we didn’t hang around long.
We then continued on to Toronto for the evening. We got there fairly quickly and had most of the afternoon to look around Toronto a bit. We were able to see the CN Tower, which at one point was the largest tower in the world, and Steamwhistle Brewery, where we tasted their famous pilsner.
We then traveled over to what was called the Distillery District which is a quaint area with brick streets and brick buildings and a few little shops and restaurants. We went in order to find a place called Soma. It is a chocolate maker which is one of the only places in North America where they import raw cacao beans and make their own chocolate from scratch. Beth and I got two little truffles (mine was filled with caramel and topped with sea salt, all from Madagascar and Beth’s was dark chocolate with Venezuelan oranges) and a cup of their famous hot chocolate. It was just amazing. I don’t even know how to begin to describe it.
We later went over to Greek town for a gyro dinner before heading back all the way to Pittsburgh the next morning for our flight out. Overall it was a fun trip and a really nice vacation for Beth and me. We got back just in time to finish compiling donations for the upcoming rummage sale for our Honduras trip (with the piles of stuff in our house to prove it).
Beth and I have decided to get back on track in 2011 by following a diet I read about called “The Clean Diet.” It is called a “detox” diet in that it is designed to remove various toxins from our body. These include many pesticides, heavy metals, and chemical preservatives found in many processed food. Also, many people have allergies to wheat, soy, or dairy that they do not really know about. This diet aims to give you a clean slate and then allow you to reintroduce these items to see how your body reacts. The diet looks to be fairly strenuous, but I think it will be just the kick-start Beth and I need to get going. The diet consists of 4 weeks: one “elimination” week in which you remove certain foods from your diet but maintain 3 normal meals per day, and 3 weeks of the official diet in which you have a liquid breakfast and dinner and the only solid meal at lunch, you also take various supplements to aid in the cleansing. To give you an idea of what is restricted, I’ll list some of the items that you cannot have: any dairy, any wheat, any soy product, alcohol, coffee, any sugar or sugar substitute, oranges, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, and the list goes on. You can substitute other fruits and vegetables as well as have chicken and fresh fish for protein. I decided that rather than post each week I will keep a journal throughout, below are my comments.
Elimination Diet: This week has taken a little getting used to. It requires a lot more planning to make sure you’re not eating items from the “no-list”. It has been nice though that since I hurt my ankle and can’t exercise much that at least I’m eating better.
Week 1: The cravings for more/different food are still there. Beth and I have been doing good at planning our meals and being prepared for the week. This has definitely helped us not to stray from the diet. A few points of advice for people wanting to do this diet: (1) go for garlic pills instead of eating the clove a-day (that was close to the worst experience ever) (2) prepare yourself for the olive oil each night, it takes some getting used to (3) so far the soups from the book have been pretty bad, we’ve just improvised with veggie smoothies. At least we have been seeing some results. We have been monitoring our weight, body fat percentage and muscle mass weight using a new scale Beth got me for Christmas. So far (10 days after starting the Elimination Diet) I’m down 10 pounds with no loss in muscle mass. We’ll see if this pace continues. By now we’ve gotten pretty used to the portions and the food, the only complaints have been that we’re a little more tired than usual and I’ve actually been cold (which is really strange for me if you know me). Supposedly our energy should be going up during week 2.
Week 2: This week was a bit better. There were a few days when the cravings returned, normally when I had a stressful day. During this, Beth and I have been talking a lot about how we interact with food. In response to the feelings of wanting “comfort” food when having a stressful day brought up an interesting conversation about how turning to food when stressed or a little down is actually a sinful practice that is easy for us to fall into. We have been told that God is the “Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2Co 1:3), thus we should be turning to him alone. This has been a helpful focus of meditation during this week and has allowed for the control of many cravings. Our energy is going up a bit. Not the extraordinary increase that some claim to realize, but nice none the less.
Week 3: Coming to the end of the diet has been nice. It has been a little exhausting at times to stick to the rigors of this diet, however the way I feel is well worth it. The final stats are —
Jeff: -14.8lbs, -4.1% body fat, even in muscle mass
Beth: -3.6lbs, -3.3% body fat, +1lb muscle mass
I am looking forward to eating normal food again, however many of the practices of this diet I would like to continue. The smaller meal portions and restrictions on snacking, I think, are just good principle. It is definitely a diet I would like to do again in the future. Also, they suggest as methods of upkeep a quick 3-day diet, among others, where you follow the elimination diet for 3 days. Beth and I plan on doing this once a month.
Evaluation: Overall, while the diet was strenuous, I do believe that the health benefits are worth the effort. I would suggest the diet to anyone who is looking to renew their body, as well as regain that “healthy” feeling. If anyone is interested, we have the book and you are more than welcome to borrow it. I plan on posting more as Beth and I reintroduce items into our diet, we’ll let you know how that goes.
With Beth’s 25th birthday coming up soon I was reminded that I still had yet to post about my 25th birthday blowout. Beth decided that she wanted to throw a pretty big party for my 25th so we decided to get the party catered by El Guero Canelo (one of our favorite Mexican restaurants here in Tucson). They provided carne asada, diced cabbage, tortillas, limes, cucumbers, sauteed onions, roasted peppers and onions and a few types of salsa. Just writing about it makes my mouth water. If we haven’t taken any of you that have come to visit then we will definitely go next time you are out here.
Beth invited a bunch of people and about 20 were able to make it. I think we found out how many people our small house is able to hold. We weren’t quite at capacity but it was pretty close. The food was great and it was fun to have a bunch of people over at the house (it was the first big group we’ve had over to the new house).
We ended the evening by playing a couple rounds of Mafia. This game is always a classic (unless you get killed first); too bad you need a decent number of people to play. If you’re not familiar there are some rules here.
The night was awesome. It was probably one of the best birthday parties I’ve ever had. Oh, and did I mention that Beth made my favorite Funfetti cupcakes?
