What is a food quest?

While I'm sure there is some official term called a food quest, in the lives of Kevin and I it is an adventure that Kevin gets to go on.

Throughout our relationship Kevin has had an amazing to power to make me try and eventually like new foods. Just a few of the new foods in my repertoire are sushi, avocados, gourmet pizza, Indian food, Thai food, Hawaiian food....and I'm sure that list could go on forever.

While we have made good progress expanding my food horizons there is still a long way to go. So a few months back in a spur of the moment decision Kevin and I invented what we know as a "food quest." Simply put it is when Kevin goes out without me to find a place to get takeout but the catch is that the place must be a restaurant that we have never eaten at and the more unique the place the better. I'm not sure what the first food quest was but on the many food quests that have occurred I have been able to try kabobs, a variety of Mexican restaurants, new Indian restaurants, and Yiassoo (Greek food) that is now one of Kevin's favorite restaurants.

I'm sure some of you are asking why must Kevin go out without me and it is because I am too judgmental of restaurants. If Kevin and I went out to eat I would simply keep saying no to restaurants without even knowing what kind of food they have....my decision is based simply on the neighborhood and the building, because I get nervous that I won't like it. If Kevin goes out and gets the food without me, I will not be able to say no. The food he gets is the food we will eat which is a good way to get me to try new food.

Food quests are yet another method to increase my food repertoire and it is also fun for Kevin because he gets to go through yelp reviews and/or drive around aimlessly to find our next food adventure.

May we continue to quest for new and fun food :-)

Saturday Adventures

Starting a few weeks ago Kevin and I decided to start Saturday adventures. The first adventure was going to the Star Trek exhibit at the Tech Museum. Along with visiting the tech museum we always get Pita Pit which is wonderful since it was one of staple food throughout college. We had lunch and got to the museum quite early and made it through the whole exhibit in a reasonable amount of time. After leaving the tech museum we were not sure what to do, so Kevin decided we should go on a driving adventure. We drove up Stevens Creek Blvd into the hills which was fun, we stopped by the Stevens Creek Dam and Reservoir which was quite pretty and then continued through the windy roads. The roads became more narrow and the cliff height increased making me ever more nervous so I had to constantly remind Kevin to slow down. We finally made it out of the hills into Saratoga and we drove around a little bit considering I have never been around downtown Saratoga. After all of this fun driving we finally returned home. It was a completely fun but rather exhausting day....but it was the start of our Saturday adventure tradition :-)

Last Saturday I got to decide what we would do and I decided that we would go to the Harvest Festival in San Mateo. Poor Kevin was woken up early so that we could drive the 45 minutes or so up to the San Mateo fair grounds. We got there early so that hopefully there would not be too many people. Once in we got to see all of the different booths. Most were clothing and jewelry things, and not to mention the excessive amount of Christmas merchandise. We were able to find the food booths which were our focus for the rest of the festival. Kevin ended up tasting a ton of different food, and in the end we ended up purchasing beef jerky, olive oil and vinegar and a few kinds of delicious fudge (very berry raspberry white chocolate fudge is AMAZING!!!). After looking at all of the booths we sat down and got some food. We were able to listen to the musical acts performing while relaxing and eating lunch. After all of these fun times it was only noon....so Kevin decided where we would have a driving adventure too. We got back in the car and headed to the freeway towards Half Moon Bay. Neither Kevin nor myself had ever been there so it was quite fun to drive around, we made it there and then decided to drive down Highway 1. While on the highway Lionel texted Kevin asking if we wanted to go mini golfing....so our adventure continued. We continued down highway 1 to San Gregorio and took a windy road back to the freeway.....the road was relatively empty but quite beautiful. We made it back to freeway after me freaking out that we would run out of gas and we then headed down to Sunnyvale. We met Lionel and Jillian at mini golf and had a rousing game where Kevin showed off his crazy golf skills and Lionel showed off his excessive putting strength. After the round of mini golf Kevin and I played in the arcade and then headed home. We were both exhausted by the time we got home but what a wonderful Saturday it had been.

Today is the third Saturday adventure for us and we are going to walk to downtown Campbell to the Holiday Craft Faire. I'm sure it will be overflowing with Christmas stuff but it should be fun for Kevin and myself.

After weeks of doing nothing on Saturdays I think we have finally figured out how to make the most of our one day a week together. Hopefully this tradition works out and we have tons of fun...and hopefully I panic less in large groups of people. May the new traditions of our relationship continue bringing us years of excitement :-)

Quilt of Memories

Last weekend Kevin and I went down to Los Angeles for our engagement party and to spend the weekend with family. It was all quite nice and we got to show my parents the Unitarian Universalist church where the wedding will be in 2 years.

Anyways, while there I went through more of my stuff in my old room. I didn't get rid of much stuff....i'm too attached to all of my toys and books that I can one day give to my own children. So the toys and books remain on shelves and in boxes waiting to be used again one day. I did bring back a few odds and ends but the most important thing or should I say things is a huge box of old tee shirts and sweatshirts. Each shirt has a personal meaning to me and I have held on to them for nearly 20 years.

Box full of shirts to make a quilt

I decided that instead of leaving them in a drawer or in a box in a closet I would make a quilt out of them. I thought this would be an easy task. A few snip snips, arrange them in a quilt shape and sew together. Needless to say I was wrong.

Once I started sorting through the pile today I found it difficult to even fathom cutting them up, which is odd considering some of them I have never even worn, I have just kept them because I liked the design on the front. Regardless of that, I looked online for how to make a quilt out of tee shirts and everyone makes it sound as easy as I had first thought....but I have way too many shirts to make just one quilt.

As I sorted through the pile figuring out how big the quilt tiles should be I realized that some of the designs are only about 2 inches in size while some are almost 2 feet. So now I am trying to figure out the best way to proceed since I will obviously need more than one quilt. So to get some inspiration I looked online at many t-shirt quilts that people have done and I found one that I especially like. I found it through google images and it is on keywestquilts.com. You can see it below:

Quilt I found online that I really like

It is a classic style and oddly girlish but I love the simplicity of it. Of course I would never use pink as it would clash with everything I own but I think I am going to make my quilts similar to this one.

After more than an hour of obsessing over this t-shirt quilt I was feeling a little overwhelmed, so I piled everything back in the box and put it in the other room. I guess I'll work on it another time, but at least I have narrowed down how I want the quilt to look.....now to just get up the guts to cut my precious t-shirts. Hopefully with time I will realize that the memories in the t-shirts will be transformed into a quilt of memories.

Fall has arrived

Finally, the weather has changed for good and it actually feels like fall. After weeks of cold weather and then days in the high 80's the weather has seemed to finally stabilize at the fabulous temperature of 65-70 degrees....otherwise known as my ideal weather.

In addition to the cold, a massive storm is scheduled to hit the south bay starting tonight. According to accuweather.com the rain will continue for 24 hours straight. I am not sure how much I believe the non-stop rain, but I am certainly looking forward to the wet weather. It is just another excuse for me to continue wearing capris....since the bottom of your pants don't get wet, which is oh so convenient.

So welcome to fall and the rainy weather. I could not be any happier :-)

Hobby #gzillion

As if I did not have enough hobbies, I have decided to endeavor onto another. Although my new hobby is quite useful and is will utilize my million stained glass scrap pieces. My new hobby is mosaic...well I guess it would be better to say that my new hobby is attempting to make mosaic stuff.

We ventured out to Home Depot to purchase some terra cotta pots to use for my first project and then set out on the search for glue....this is where the trouble started. It is outrageous the amount of different glues available at the hardware store, let alone the fact that each adhere only certain surfaces to other surfaces. Needless to say I was a little overwhelmed and decided that a trip to the craft store would be a better place to find the right glue. After a trip to Michaels, instead of leaving with a bottle of glue, I left with a mosaic coaster kit. It came with glass tiles, coaster bases, a pattern and all necessary tools including glue (thank goodness). I figured it might be better to learn to do mosaic with a kit rather than just winging it. So on this glorious labor day holiday I set out to make a mosaic coaster.

I have yet to grout the project or put on edge pieces, but after gluing down the pattern pieces, I am quite proud of my project.

mosaic coaster before grouting

I have yet to actually complete a mosaic project but I foresee this as a fun hobby that I will hopefully be able to do with friends.

Can't wait to see all of the fun projects I will create with my new hobby. :-)

Expanding Horizons

The first week of my new food adventure has come to an end.

I have been collecting cooking magazines for quite a few years and I used to simply flip through them and then put them in a pile to collect dust. In an attempt to expand my food horizons I sat down and actually wrote out the recipes that seemed interesting onto index cards. Now on Saturday Kevin will randomly select three of the recipes for us to cook the coming week. Sunday after work we go grocery shop with recipe cards in hand so we are assured to have all of the necessary ingredients.

I would upload pics but the server is down right now, so pics will come next time.

Until then, I hope this new adventure expands my food horizons while also allowing me to enjoy valuable time in the kitchen....oh yeah I also get to spend time with Kevin. Good times all around.

Stained Glass....Long Delay

Well, what an adventure the past few months have been. The Mondays in June were dedicated to teaching stained glass to some of my work friends. I have such a large glass selection and complete set of stained glass tools so I decided it would be fun to teach stained glass to others.

Although I thought the projects would be completed in one day, I quickly learned that it would take longer. No problem with that, each Monday just became a fun get together with home cooked food, fun movies....oh and of course working on stained glass. After about 3 or 4 weeks my "students" had completed their first projects and I could not have been more proud.

Kerri's Project: Gorgeous Poppy



Rachel's Project: Abstract and Amazing

So overall my first stained glass "class" was successful. Hopefully I can continue teaching stained glass to others, and possibly start making stained glass projects to sell. With time my ability to teach stained glass as well as make projects will continue to improve and it is exciting to see where it leads to.

Big Screen TV

What a day today has been. Work was less than wonderful but thanks to my wonderful counter staff we made it through the day. The day was stressful but manageable. Kevin picked me up from work and we went to Beverly's to get velcro to actually finish the entertainment center. (It will be nice to no longer hold up the curtains with duct tape.

On the way up to the apartment Kevin and I decided that today would be a good day to get a new TV. Kevin had already done some "research" at fry's and best buy while we were at work. Given my clumsy nature we knew that I would not be a reliable method to carry the TV up to the apartment. Kevin called his work buddies to find out if any were available to assist and John was more than willing to help. A little after 4pm Kevin left to go to fry's to purchase the TV. A little over one hour later he returned, TV waiting in the car, all waiting for John to arrive.

John finally arrived. He and Kevin then carried the ginormous box into the apartment, proceeded to set it up, turn it on and marvel in the glory that is a 46" Samsung LCD 1080p 120Hz HDTV. John being the gracious friend he is took pictures for us to document the momentous occasion.

Kevin and I in front of our brand new TV :-)

Kevin proceeded to ask "Will you marry me?" I graciously replied "yes" and suddenly we went from boyfriend/girlfriend to engaged.

Oh the joy of a new TV....but perhaps I should explain why a big screen TV means engagement. If Kevin and I purchased a big screen TV and the broke up....either I would end up with a TV and always think of him when I looked at it, or I would not have a big screen TV and be upset. So obviously once a big screen TV entered the picture, we must be bonded forever.

Here's to the new adventure....although not much will change from before. Life will be nearly identical to as it was except that now we have a gorgeous TV sitting in our living room.

P.S. No we have not picked a date yet, but I promise to update with all vital information.

hello new blog

It seems that every few years I decide to start a new blog so let it be. This blog will represent this part of my life.

It will include Love, Crafts, Baking and the Joys of Life.