Thanksgiving

The last two Thanksgivings, Kevin and I have spent the Holiday cooking a big feast and just spending time with one another. While we had an amazing time we decided that this year we would have friends over that were not going home for the Holiday either.

Here are a few pictures from our day.

Our appetizers included turkey meatballs, pumpkin cookies, and turkey sushi (made with stuffing, cranberry, sliced turkey, carrots, and mashed potatoes) courtesy of Scott. We were excited to finally get to use the 3 tier buffet server we got as a wedding present that has never been opened.We decided to brine the turkey this year and I think it turned out great. We will probably let it brine a little longer next time, but we were happy with the results.

This is our friend Jean (from Indiana) who took a lot of the pictures. She had a brand new fancy camera and was excited to use it.

There were eight of us in total. Going around the table starting on the left with the people you can see is Guiseppe (our Italian who has been here almost a year. He leaves in 2 weeks and this was his first Thanksgiving), Jason (St. Louis), Scott (New York), Jonathan (Indiana), Sarah (Vermont).

We had so many deserts that we were all stuffed by the end of the night. Sarah brought Pecan pie, we made Cherry pie, Scott made Rum cake, Jean made a Pumpkin Cake Roll, and Scott made Sweet Potato pie. We are still working on the leftovers.


Jean took this picture and I absolutely loved it. I couldn't believe we were all looking at the camera and the same time and that Kevin wasn't making a stupid face.
Later in the evening a couple more people came over including Dave (New York) on the couch, and Colin (Canada) in the round chair. We ate more desert and enjoyed some California wine. Besides the fact that we weren't with family, I could not have asked for a better day. Spending the day with friends was wonderful!

We hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!!!

Choir Concert and Big Game

My friend Moria has been in a choir at Stanford the last year or so and this fall they were short an alto so she invited me to join. Our Holiday concert was last week at Stanford Memorial Church. We sang songs from Benjamin Brittan's Ceremony of Carols as well as songs from a Festival of Carols by Frank Ferko. Frank Ferko was actually at our concert so we felt a little extra pressure to do a fantastic job.

Here is Memorial Church the night of the concert.



There was no flash photography allowed so this is the best picture Kevin could get of us during the concert. Moria is just to the right of the harp and I'm right next to her.
Us after the concert.

Last Saturday was the Big Game against Cal Berkeley. Kevin and I drove our car to Castro Valley and then took the Bart up to Berkeley. There is absolutely no parking so it was just easier this way.


Stanford didn't play too badly during the first half, but the second half was a disaster. Nevertheless, going to a Big Game is still an experience and we had a blast.

We would have liked to have been the ones rushing the field after the game, but instead Cal fans got that privilege. Maybe next year....
After the game we explored Downtown Berkeley for awhile, grabbed some dinner and some gelato before catching the Bart back. I had a blast!!!

Stanford vs USC

None of us wanted to miss this game after the big upset last year when Stanford beat USC by 1 point. We were hoping for a repeat, but unfortunately Stanford just couldn't hold them off in the 2nd half. Oh, well....we still have the BIG GAME next week against Cal which we are all going up to Berkeley for! Here are some pictures from our usual pre-game tailgate.

Jonathan is our grillmaster this year and I must say he does a great job. The Chemistry Dept. sponsored this tailgate so we had a lot more meat options than usual and it was awesome!!!



I have to take a minute to rub in the fact that it was 75 degrees last weekend. We all were looking for shade which is a bit different than what K-Staters went threw last Saturday. I talked to my friend Heather who commented on how FREEZING it was! It has cooled down a bit since then, but it is still suppossed to be pretty nice this weekend! (It gets cold at night...but not as cold as it is during the day in Kansas...sorry :) )This is Haley and David. They are expecting their first baby in April and then David is graduating and they are moving back to Washington to be closer to family!! They will be missed, but we are SOOOOO happy for them!!

Flash Back Friday

A couple of weekends ago we all headed up to San Fran to check out a club called The Cellar. They were having Flash Back Friday where they were playing almost all 80's music so we thought it would be a blast.

At first we weren't sure about the club, but a little later into the evening things picked up and me danced like crazy!! I had such a great time. We were all sweating...but it was worth it. Gotta love those 80's tunes!!!


This is our friend Bettina who is in Kevin's lab group.





Once the club closed we headed to a Chinese restaurant that is open late. The food was delicious and we all had an awesome time. We will definitely be heading back again!

Election Party

This year Brian and Moria hosted an Election Party. We started around 4pm when the results from the East Coast started to come in. We made a giant wall map and colored in the states as they were reported. It got crowded when more than 3 states were announced at the same time as all of us were trying to color simultaneously.


I stayed up late the night before making American flag and star cookies but they were received very well by the crowd. Brian and Moria made up some bbq beef in the crockpot and we enjoyed some home brew.

Here is our running total of the electoral votes alongside the candidate paper dolls! We thought they were funny so we stuck them on the board as well. Moria, Imran, and I all missed the official announcement that Obama had won because we had to go to choir practice. We did make it back in time to see the acceptance speech though.


Here is our map when we all left that night. A few states hadn't officially reported yet, but it still looked pretty cool and we had a great time doing it.

Halloween

Last year we carved pumpkins with Brian and Moria and we had such a great time that we decided to do it again this year. After perfecting our pumpkins we ate delicious homemade nachos and finally got Brian and Moria started on season 1 of Dexter. Perfect to get ready for Halloween the next weekend.

Unfortunately with the high amount of mold in the area our pumpkins didn't make it to Halloween. We didn't put them outside soon enough so they were mushy and leaky just a couple days later. Moria had put hers in the fridge wrapped up so next year we will all have to do that.

Per tradition we got ready over at Brian's apartment and awaited trick or treaters. He lives in a family housing complex so there are always lots of kids. I always love seeing their costumes and handing out candy. Here is us after we finished getting ready.

I'm a cop while Kevin is obviously a stop sign. Moria is playing a character from the t.v. show "Arrested Development" and is not actually a slut. (She covered up her shirt while the kids came around so don't be concerned). Brian is also playing a character from the same t.v. show in case you are wondering why he is covered in blue.



After giving candy to the kids we headed over to a dessert party that Moria's roommate was throwing. Like we needed to eat any more sweets. Here is our friend Dan playing Dr. House from the show House M.D. for those not familiar. He really had the limp down and it was great.




After the dessert fest we headed over the the Rain's Graduate Student Housing. There was dancing and a costume contest. We had Kevin enter in the category for the best overall costume and he won! Gift card to Godiva chocolates!!! There were amazing costumes that night, but Kevin was really social throughout the entire night. He kept going up to people dancing and telling them to STOP!! People kept coming up to him to take pictures with him. If I was close by I was writing out tickets for people who failed to stop. It was a blast!

Our final party of the night was at another graduate students apartment. Once again...amazing costumes. I am always amazed at people and their creativity! We were supposed to go out to another party on Saturday night, but we were pretty "Halloweened out" so we stayed in and watched more Dexter with Brian and Moria. It was also raining and I don't think Kevin wanted to paint his face red again and I'm pretty sure that Brian was not into going all blue a second time.

A bad blogger

I've sort of been a bad blogger after I caught up on our Kansas trip. Thought I would take a little time today to catch up on what we've been up to.

Since coming back from Kansas we've managed to keep pretty busy. Here are a few pictures from a few events the last few weeks.

Wine tasting with friends on campus on one of the last gorgeous weekends before rainy season.


A few in the group are something of wine connoisseurs and were able to teach us quite a bit about the different kinds that we tried.


Kevin's good friend Eddie made a trip out to the west coast to visit. We took a couple trips up to San Francisco to do a little sightseeing. This is Grace Cathedral. It was amazing inside and out. My camera didn't do so well on the inside, but believe me it was incredible.


Here is one of the fountains outside of the church.
Eddie and I talked Kevin into going to the Aquarium which was pretty amazing considering he hates aquariums. I thought it was pretty cool...and I think maybe Kevin didn't think it was too bad either.

Kevin had to work, but Ed and I headed back up to the city to check out Alcatraz. I'd been there once before, but it had been 2 years so it was cool to go back.
It wasn't as windy as the first time which made it a little easier to check out the outside. I still can't get over the view!
Our friend Jason had a birthday so his friend Blase threw him a surprise party. He really had no idea and it was great!!
We broke out the crazy hats and everything.


I'm still in the process of waiting for my California license and working on finding a job. I had an interview at Stanford and it went really really well, but the hospital is dealing with their own set of financial drama so it seems to be taking longer than I would like for a job offer. In the mean time I have my resume out at a few other places so hopefully I will be gainfully employed soon.

Kevin has just received an award for the most progress for earlier graduate work! He was nominated by his adviser/boss and won! I'm so proud of him. The official ceremony is in a couple of weeks when the department will give out several other awards as well. Part of the award was $500 so we weren't complaining too much there either!!