blending of water and sky

One of the things I love most about the ocean is that it changes everyday, every hour actually. Living near the ocean has given me the opportunity to see the changes whenever I walk out to my car. Although I am usually tired and sad to be leaving the comfort of my apartment each morning on my way to work, I do love getting to see the ocean. It's like I have my very own museum exhibit awaiting outside my front door and each morning there is a different painting to marvel at.


Yesterday when Joe and I got home from running some errands I couldn't tell where the water ended and the sky began. The ocean was a steely gray color that usually is the color of the sky on a foggy day in Pacifica. The sky was a bit overcast where we were standing, but out on the horizon there was a section just beyond the cloud cover where I am sure the sun was shining and the sky was blue. It created this awesome blending of the water and sky.

more pics of meals with my love

Joe and I love to cook together as I am sure you know from my previous posts about our meal time experimentations. We sit down on weekends and plan out our meals for the week as a way of time and stress saving during the busy week and also as a guide for our weekend grocery shopping. It's been a great way to plan ahead so that we get to make fun meals during the week.
Small side note--I've just recently begun DVRing the Barefoot Contessa...I don't know why it took me so long to discover her...she is wonderful and the Chicken Pot Pies we made were inspired by her. We're not quite the gourmet chef that she is,YET, but we sure do have fun! Here are a few of our recent creations.
Bon Apetit!

The mixings for our chicken pot pies.

Italian meatballs.

Homemade Tomato Sauce.

Homemade Pesto Ingredients.

Our yummy pesto sauce with Spinach Chive and Lemon Pepper Pasta.

Humpback Whales in Pacifica!

A wonderful thing happened to me yesterday. I was walking home from the gym along a path that hugs the coast and was admiring the beautiful ocean when I saw a spray of water off in the distance and then something rise and sink back into the water slowly. I instantly thought, hey, was that a whale? or am I nuts? I called my boyfriend and made him rush down to see and sure enough it was a whale. A neighbor lady walking by told us that a pod has been hanging out for the past few days!!! I was ecstatic, I love seeing wildlife in nature! I couldn't get any pictures, because they weren't coming out of the water long enough, but apparently people have seen them breach!! I'm heading out to the beach tonight with binoculars and a camera!!

Once a logger, always a logger...

Once a lute's enough!

haha, sorry for the cheezy old bball saying from my college days at the wonderful University of Puget Sound but I got to meet up with a big group of former loggers and logger family members today and so this stuff is just fresh in my mind.

Dale Chihuly, a well known glass blowing artist currently has an exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, so Aaron (a fellow '04 UPS alum) and I planned to have private docent tour of the exhibit for about 40 of us.

We planned a happy hour in the city a few months back, but this was our first attempt at a bit of a larger event and all in all, despite a few financial bumps along the way, I'd have to say the event was a big success.

We met at the museum at 8 am and provided bagels and coffee and orange juice for everyone and then at 9 had a docent tour of the exhibit. People came from all over they bay area; mountain view, fremont, manteca, antioch...pretty impressive for such an early morning event, especially on a Saturday.

It made me so happy this morning to see how excited the attendees were. We have been trying to grow our logger community in the bay area and I feel like this event really sparked some interest.

Here are some pics of our morning.

The whole crew in front of the DeYoung with our bagel and coffee buffet.

My bravest friends :)

Melissa and I at the Caribbean Sea

I'm reveling in the comfort of my lovely little apartment this morning, complete with running water and electricity that I can count on to allow me to finish this blog without any interruptions--a bit of a stone's throw from where I was last week at this time.

I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to visit Melissa and to get to experience a part of what she has been living for the last year and a half in a town called Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic. And I really hand it to her and all the other brave souls in the world who dedicate two years of their lives, leaving the comforts, luxuries and familiarity of home to go live with and work with developing communities in different developing nations all over the world.

I always knew it took a special type of person to serve in the Peace corps, but it wasn't until my visit that I really understood what that meant. Visiting Melissa was a bit of a reality check. It's so easy to romanticize the idea of serving in the Peace Corps and to push out of your mind the difficult day to day realities that the volunteers face; scarcity of running water, unstable electricity, loneliness, working with a group of people with a different set of business values, just to name a few.

I cannot tell you how many moments I was inspired on this trip by Melissa and Iosefa's mental strength, bravery, optimism, flexibility and resourcefulness. They have both taken less than ideal living and working situations and truly made the most of them. I can't imagine that much will phase them in life from here on out. Melissa and Iosefa are both definitely the special type of people that it takes to serve in the Peace Corps.

As I was leaving I told Melissa that she was one of those people who I feel makes me a better person, or at least makes me want to work to be a better person. And that's the truth- she is someone who makes me want to be less fearful, more forgiving and more appreciative and I feel very lucky to have someone like her in my life.