Happy Halloween!

Our friends Sean and Michelle invited us over to their house for their annual Pumpkin Fest. Everyone got a pumpkin and we feasted on pizza and beer while we carved away. I forgot how hard it is to carve a pumpkin!

Double credit to Sean and Michelle for hosting this party while they are getting ready to have a baby in two weeks. You two rock!

What a fun group of family and friends, we were so happy to be invited and are looking forward to to next year.

Home Additions

For people who like to cook and entertain we have a really ugly kitchen. It's pretty embarrassing sometimes. It's that typical apartment kitchen with layers of paint so thick the cupboards no longer close all the way. The countertops are a beautiful faux wood grain from the 1960s and the porcelain has long ago worn off the sink. The last tenant got creative with a torchiere floor lamp by turning it upside down to create a ceiling lamp. All the charm of an interrogation room.

And while we've painted and prettified the rest of our place over the years, we've neglected the kitchen. I think we had just become used to it's homeliness, the way you don't realize how worn and scuffed your old shoes are until you get sparkly new ones. So, after having our kitchen wall fixed recently we took the opportunity to make the kitchen reflect our personalities a little more. We took inspiration from one of Anson's old OP shirts and came up with a fun color combination. We also replaced the lamp with an Ikea find. Ahhh...what a difference a little paint makes!

It looks very Ocean Pacific, doesn't it?

While we scurried to finish up the painting for my birthday party last weekend I told Anson that all I wanted for my birthday was to have my knives sharpened. He gathered them all up, even the cheap kitchen scissors, and brought back knives that are like new. Ahhh...what a difference a sharp knife makes!

He also picked up this little beauty. It's one of those crazy ceramic knives that Ming Tsai cooks with on his show. We immediately gave it the best test we could think of--a tomato.

Like butta'.

While the house was still all disorderly from the painting I drove by a garage sale and spotted this couch at 50mph. I almost kept going, then thought, "Well, it's worth at least asking how much they want." One u-turn and $20 later the couch was ours. (Sorry to those of you who were planning on sleeping on our old sofa bed. We still have the air mattress though!)

The downside is that a demon cat came with the couch.

Beer, Gargoyles and Gratitude

Some weekends just pass by. You do your weekend stuff and then go back to work on Monday. Others are ethereal experiences that you look back on and wonder if it really was you that it happened to. You see the pictures, "Yep, there I am." But was that really me?

Here I am again with the reality-perception problem, trying to remember every detail of last Sunday before my brain files it away into the big black whole of experiences, leaving only the abstract feeling and larger impressions.

We started out by driving down to Escondido to visit Stone Brewing Company. We have a special affection for Stone as it's the distributor for and sister-in-law company to Oskar Blues which makes one of our favorite brews, Dale's Pale Ale. (We visited the brewery last Thanksgiving for Anson's birthday. We drove straight from the airport and met the family there.).

But it wasn't Dale's that we drank there, we had to try something we couldn't get anywhere else--Stone Collaboration (on the right).

Stone has a great beer garden where we photographed the Most Interesting Man and Woman in the World.

The gargoyle mascot appears all over the property.

Beer is good and all, but the reason we went to San Diego was for the last stop on Jason Mraz's Gratitude Cafe tour. If you happened to read my blog from last May you know about my devotion to Jason Mraz. He added this concert just a couple weeks ago and all the proceeds went to charity--Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Youth Services and VH1 Save the Music.

I waited in front of the computer a couple Saturdays ago and at 10am logged in and actually got tickets in the center orchestra, 12 rows back. Nice!

"Dynamo of Volition"--one of my favorites!

"Good job, get 'em up way high

Gimme gimme that high five!"

And, of course, there was "I'm Yours" by gubernatorial decree.

Jason finished the concert by singing a solo version of The Beatles' "In My Life."

"There are places I remember

All my life though some have changed.."

That October night in San Diego (and the renewed motivation I came back with) will stay with me for a long time.

Dutch Treat

Saturday morning Alex landed on our doorstep from the faraway land of Holland. We knew right away that Elisabeth was right, he was a great guy and we would enjoy him. He produced a large round of cheese from a backpack and thanked us for having him over for the day.

Anson instructed him in surfing and he came back with two purple toes.

We toured the town on bikes, stopping for refreshment and later for California-style sushi.

We enjoyed seeing our town from a stranger's eye. We laughed a lot and talked about our respective homes. We affirmed that we really are all the same the world over.

Sometimes the best friends are the ones you didn't know you had.