December Stuff

I wanted to recap some random stuff we have been up to this month before we head to Kansas in a few days and I likely wont be blogging anytime soon.

The Christmas decorations went up and Lupin found his favorite spot underneath the Christmas tree.
We attended our 5th annual Chemwipes. This event is put on each year by the first year Chemistry Graduate Students. It is a series of live and taped skits where professors, graduate students, and pretty much anything else is made fun of. They advertised it as a 3D event in the beginning but it wasn't really in 3D. We aren't really sure why they bothered.

It wasn't the best Chemwipes ever but there were a few funny parts. Kevin's first year was amazing. I got to be in several of the skits and there were many more live skits than we've seen in the last couple of years. It was still fun hanging out and reminiscing about how awesome our year was.
We went out with a few friends still in town last weekend and had a good time at the 'Dutch Goose'.
We had to take our car into the shop on Saturday for an oil change and a minor repair. After dropping the car off we went walking around downtown Mountain View to do some shopping. On the way back to our apartment we found a little of the fall we've been missing out here and Kevin decided to play in the leaves.

I think this is hilarious.
A little later we found a little more fall and this time Kevin went for the Senior picture pose.
Brian and Moria had an early flight on Sunday morning so they came over for dinner and stayed the night so we could take them to the airport. We bought Hailie and Seth a video game "Just Dance for Kids" for the Wii they are getting for Christmas. The four of us thought we would try it out and it was a blast. It is pretty hilarious watching people play and it is really fun to play too.
I think both Hailie and Seth will like it and I can't wait to play it with them.

This week we have been finishing up our Christmas shopping and have been trying to get everything ready for our trip. Our friend Minsub agreed to watch Lupin for us while we are gone so we don't have to board him at the vet. Therefore we've been stocking up on his dental treats (which he goes crazy for) so that Minsub can bribe him if he runs outside or acts up in any way.

We are taking a red eye on Christmas Eve so we will be home on Christmas Day. Both of us are looking forward to being home this Holiday season with our families and we are so grateful it worked out for me to get the next week off of work. We plan on surprising Hailie and Seth when we head over to my parents house on Christmas evening so don't spill the beans if you see the chicklets before we do!

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Ice Skating in S.F.

Kevin and I headed up to San Francisco last week to check out the ice rink at Embarcadero Center. Getting up there was somewhat of a nightmare with all of the traffic, but once we managed to get there and get parked we were able to relax and have a wonderful evening. We grabbed some Mexican food before heading over to the ice rink. There was a great view of the Market Street Ferry Building and the weather was just about perfect. We managed to avoid the heavy rains that the weekend brought and it only sprinkled on us a little bit.


All of the buildings in the center were lit up giving the whole area a festive feel.

Another view of the Ferry Building.The ice rink was playing Holiday music most of the time and with the colder weather it actually felt more like winter. We had such a blast and it was a wonderful date night.

Neither of us are amazing skaters, but we seemed to being doing alright (especially compared to some people). Kevin only fell down when he attempted circle turns. That may have been a little advanced for him. We took a couple of videos that looked great on my camera but not so great once I loaded them onto the computer. I've decided to try and load them anyway and see how it works out. If they are super choppy I apologize.

Run Wild For a Child

Last Sunday we headed up to San Francisco with Brian and Moria so we could all participate in the 26th annual Run For a Child road race supporting the S.F. Firefighters Toy Program. It was a much colder morning than our previous run and it made waking up to head up to the city a little difficult.

Thanks Brian and Moria for finding this race! (Notice Kevin in the background of this picture. This is one of his favorite things to do....especially to strangers).

We talked our friend Jason into running with us in the race too. The race was held in Golden Gate Park and he is currently in the process of moving about 4 blocks from there so he was able to bring a car load of stuff up with him. Jason does a lot of running, hiking, and rock climbing and I'd assumed he had run in lots of road races (especially because a close friend of his runs in them a lot), but this was his first 5k. Jason ended up finishing 16th overall and and 4th in his age group!

Since I ran the previous two runs in 24:44 I was really hoping to get closer to 24:00. Even though I didn't feel that great, especially the third mile, I figured I hadn't improved. I forgot my watch so I really had no idea how I was doing. My chip time for the run though ended up being 24:08 and I finished 7th in my age group so I was pretty pleased with the improvement. I guess if I want to improve much more I'm going to have be more diligent about training.

Kevin shaved another 10 seconds off of his time and finished 13th in his age group.
Not the best group shot with the shadows but a group shot still.

It was a blast doing the run together, but by the time we finally got home I was exhausted. Between working, getting ready for Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, getting ready for a tailgate, the tailgate, and football I was just spent. It seemed appropriate to take a 3 hour nap and it was incredible. I rarely take naps and I almost forgot how amazing they can be when you really need one. After waking up I even managed to get the Christmas tree and most of the decorations up.

Last Game: Stanford vs Oregon State

This past weekend we hosted our final tailgate of the season. It was fairly low key since many people were out of town for the holiday weekend but enjoyable nonetheless. It was raining as we were setting up, but luckily it stopped for the remainder of the day. It was still plenty cold though.

It has been a blast this year organizing these events and while I'm sad football season has come to an end Kevin and I are both a little relieved to be done with tailgates. Our trunk has been filled with tailgate stuff all season and I am ready to clean out the car.

Some of the guys before heading into the game.


Kevin was able to make it down on the field one last time for the year.
Since Miguel only started watching football this year he is still working on learning what is going on. I did my best to try and explain stuff so hopefully I was an okay teacher.

Stanford shut out Oregon State 38-0 in an amazing finish to an awesome season. With Boise State's upset lost to Nevada last weekend, Stanford was able to move up in the BCS polls to #4. Hopefully they stay there after Auburn and Oregon play this weekend and that way they aren't denied a BCS bowl game. I can't wait to find out where they are headed!

Thanksgiving

This year Kevin and I decided to host a Thanksgiving at our apartment again. Since it wasn't 20+ people like last year when Kevin's lab came over we were able to actually set a table. Luckily we had two tables from tailgating still in our possession so it made having that much table space a possibility. We did have to rearrange the couches in order to fit both of them but we made it work.

Here is our setup before everyone came over. Notice the napkins folded into 'birds of paradise'....that was all Kevin. He spent what seemed like forever working them just before people started coming over. (In case you hadn't guessed I was mildly irritated by this but they turned out really nice.)





We ended up putting the tables end to end when a couple people showed up right before we ate (we thought they were stopping by later on), but amazingly enough we still had enough room.

Kevin used the same brine recipe from last year and the turkey tasted fabulous. It is possibly the best turkey I have ever eaten.

Jason, Dennis, Kevin, Jean, Megan.
Miguel, KB, Minsub's wife (I forgot her name), Minsub, Moria, Brian, and half of Colin
After dinner Moria and I went for a walk to make ourselves feel better about all the food we ate. I was actually pretty good this year about not overeating but it still felt good to get outside instead of just sitting down.
Later on we played several games and were able to really just enjoy each other's company. We played Cranium, Taboo, Taboo Charades, and Singstar. I think that Miguel enjoyed his first ever Thanksgiving.

For some reason I was inspired to make party favors for everyone who came to our place for the holiday. The boxes themselves were bought....all I had to do was fold and tape them into place, but the stamping and handles were all me. I filled them with Lindor Balls and I was proud of how they turned out.Luckily I didn't have to work until 2pm the next day because we stayed up way too late playing our karaoke game. It was a wonderful evening and I was so happy that so many of our friends were able to come over.

Big Game

This last weekend a group of us headed up to Berkeley for 113th Big Game. After watching Stanford lose to Cal last year at home (Luck threw an interception at Cal's 3 yard line with only 1:36 left in the game...final score was 34-28 Cal), we were hungry for a win. We drove across the bay to get on the BART to head up to Berkeley early in the morning.
Heavy rain was predicted along with chilly weather so we packed our jackets, gloves, ponchos, etc and had mentally prepared ourselves for a miserable day outside. We got there late morning and we happy that the sun was still shining.

Kevin, James, and Dennis couldn't resist looking at the 'C' on the lawn and not stomping on it.

We met up with Sarah and Jonathan a little before heading into the game. They had driven up since they were headed up to Napa to visit family right after the game.

It only began sprinkling twice throughout the entire game but then stopped which we were very grateful for. At least we were ready for the rain though.

For those of you who don't keep up with football or just not Stanford football the game was everything we wanted to be and more. One blog I read described it as such.... 'epic Stanford supremacy from start to finish'. Stanford set the tone early when Luck (Stanford Quarterback and Heisman hopeful) ran for 58 yards at the end of the 1st quarter (knocking down a Cal defender in the process....watch it here). Cal was demoralized and never really recovered after that. At halftime Stanford was leading 31-0.
Cal fans were pretty quiet (not surprising considering how overly confident they were about their teams abilities going into the game). While Cal did manage to get in a couple of touchdowns late in the 4th quarter against some of Cardinals 2nd string it was clear who played the better game. Here is the beefed up security at the Stanford student section towards the end of the game. This didn't stop many people from rushing the field though. Kevin and Dennis ended up making it down on there and were right by Luck and Taylor for a bit.

While I wished I was down there I resisted and just took photos from way up in the stands. Final score 48-14.
Stanford beat Cal three years ago at home, but Kevin and I missed that game because we were in Utah watching Thomas play football in a bowl game with Butler Community College. Since we missed that game, last weekend was the first Big Game victory we'd seen from Stanford since our time out here. Hopefully there will be many more wins over the next few years.

After the game we grabbed some pizza while making our walk back to the BART station. It was only on our way back there that the rain finally arrived. It would have been an even longer trip back home if we'd been soaking wet so we were very grateful the rain held off until after the game. We were exhausted by the time we finally made it back home (we left home that day at 7:45am and didn't get back home until almost 6pm) but definitely worth it.

Only one more game left of the season against Oregon State (who beat us last year) and then we can find out which Bowl Game Stanford will be headed to.

A 5K and Flag Football

In addition to watching Stanford's narrow defeat over the Arizona State Sun Devils (which was a little nerve racking) and finally purchasing a new camera, Kevin and I also ran in a 5k this weekend. The race was for Habitat for Humanity and took place on Stanford campus. Brian recently started running and is getting ready for a 5k after Thanksgiving in San Francisco, but he decided to go ahead and do this race to help him get ready.

A little pre-race snack.
We were experimenting with the macro mode on the camera. It did quite well I think.
Brian and Kevin getting warmed up for the race. This weekend we hit record highs in the Bay with temps in the mid 70's. It made for gorgeous race weather in the morning but it is a little strange knowing that it is mid November.
I ended up running the exact same time as my last 5k which is a little weird. I didn't feel as good this race since I haven't been running much lately so I was a little surprised my time wasn't slower. Kevin knocked off over a minute and felt much better about his run.
I was so proud of Brian for finishing his first 5k!

Kevin made me pose for the camera while he played with some of the settings.
I heard about this event through a lady at my work. Melanie and her husband had done the walk the last couple of years and was able to recruit me and another co-worker, Chris to join in. After the event Kevin and I headed over to Chris' house (she lives right next to campus) for a little brunch. It was lovely being able to spend some time together outside of work. I enjoyed getting to know them both a little better.

Chris, Melanie, and me.
After yummy keish, scones, fruit and coffee we headed out for Kevin's first flag football play off game. I had fun sitting out in the beautiful weather and playing with my new camera.

Jeff's interception.
Daryl's successful pass to Kevin which he carried for a few yards.

They ended up winning their game by quite a bit and look forward to their next playoff game in a couple of weeks.

James and Joe

While both James and Joe were here for the football game, Joe only flew in on the Friday night and had to leave Sunday evening. James arrived earlier in the week and was able to stay until the following Tuesday. I had to work both Wednesday and Thursday, but Kevin was able to take a little time off of work for some quality time with James. They pretty much played video games for those entire two days. They did go suit shopping for Kevin and managed to tear themselves away from Mario Kart to pick me up from work.
James loves cereal so I made sure to have a few different kinds during his stay. The first morning he was here I walked into the kitchen to see him eating his cheerios out of the smallest bowl that we have. For some reason I found this hilarious because he kept having to refill the bowl. I'm laughing now even as I look at this picture. The guys weren't quite as tickled as I was, but I took a picture anyway.
I was off that Friday and James, Kevin, and I ran all of our errands to get ready for the tailgate. We did a Costco, Bevmo, and Walmart run and had to drop stuff off at campus so we could fit all of us in our car the next day. Then it was time to pick up Joe from the airport. He was flying in from Austin, TX where he recently moved for a new job.

We pretty much headed straight to campus and met up with a bunch of friends at the Treehouse to hang out for the evening.

Joe and Kevin.
James and Brian
Later in the evening a guy from a nearby table challenged James to a little arm wrestling match. We all thought James would beat the snot out of this guy, but he was apparently freakishly strong and he lost :(
On Sunday there were more video games to be played. Joe hadn't had a chance and Kevin kept getting mad at him for wanting to be first person on the controller. We all accused Kevin of just wanting to be in control of everything. Kevin claims that he is the only person that knows how to play and manage the main controller. You decide....
After getting everyone showered and cleaned up we finally stopped playing video games and went out for some sushi. It was the middle of the afternoon so we were literally the only people in the restaurant besides the staff.

We ordered a variety of stuff and everything was really really good. Then we decided to order something super hot. The reason for this goes back to a previous visit from James.

A few years ago when James came out we went out to dinner at a really nice sushi place. We decided to order the hottest item on the menu (we think it was called the dragon roll). The waiter looked at us and said "are you sure you want to order that?" "Of course" we foolishly replied. He shook his head and placed our order. As he brought out our roll a little later, all the staff gathered in the corner and began staring at us. The three of us then dug into the dragon roll. Immediately upon taking a bite, our faces turned red, we began sweating profusely, and our water glasses were suddenly empty. Our waiter then asked us in a patronizing tone if the dragon roll was too hot. "Of course not" we replied as we downed our freshly poured glass of water. We drained our new glass of water and left as quickly as possible before we began crying.

I included this picture of James finishing off the spicy sushi mostly because of Joe laughing and the awesome Japanese music playing in the background.




We had a little bit of time left before having to take Joe back to the airport so we thought we would go and play a little laser tag. The wait was a little too long so we stuck with arcade games. I stomped Kevin in air hockey 7-0.
I took several pictures of the boys playing various games. They all pretty much look the same and none of them are smiling since they were so focused on the game.


I had to work again on Monday so James and Kevin headed up to the city for the day. I sent the camera with Kevin, but unsurprisingly not a single picture was taken. They ended up going to a couple of art galleries and had a nice Italian lunch. After picking me up from work we enjoyed James' final evening eating more Italian food and watching a movie.

It was a fantastic week and weekend and I know that Kevin really enjoyed having his brothers in town. It is always a little bit of a bummer when our guests leave, but having them here was wonderful and we can't wait to see them again at the end of the year!