Irony

I had to giggle a little today as I was on the elliptical at the gym reading a new book I got at the library called The Too-Busy Book. The chapter was talking about how women are busy all the time and don't take time to relax. I thought it was an interested chapter to read since I was trying to work out and read the book about having a too-busy life at the same time (I did burn 400 calories and read 36 pages while there though.)

Green Tomatoes

Yesterday I harvested a bunch of green tomatoes. I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do with them, but I knew I didn't want them to rot on the ground outside. I talked with my mom who mentioned Green Tomato Cake. So, this afternoon I made a Green Tomato Cake. I was a little skeptical and didn't want Terry to know the secret ingredient as we tried my new creation and it turned out AMAZING! I am going to make more (and maybe some Fried Green Tomatoes) to bring to our Halloween party tomorrow night!

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

I decided to do something fun with the pumpkin seeds from my Barack'O'Lantern. I found a recipe that I decided to try from Martha Stewart. They are so delicious, I keep having to remind myself to save some for Terry. I thought I would share the recipe with you all.

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients
1 medium pumpkin
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of cayenne pepper, to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut pumpkin open from the bottom, removing seeds with a long-handled spoon. Separate flesh from seeds, and reserve the flesh for another use. Pumpkin should yield 1 cup seeds. Spread seeds on parchment in an even layer. Bake until dry, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Let cool.
In a medium bowl combine 3 tablespoons sugar, salt, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne. Heat peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add pumpkin seeds and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Cook until sugar melts and pumpkin seeds begin to caramelize, about 45 to 60 seconds. Transfer to bowl with spices, and stir well to coat. Let cool. These may be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

www.yeswecarve.com

Growing up, my mom always taught me to never discuss religion or politics in a crowd. It seems people are very passionate on these two aspects of life and a difference of opinion with them could affect a relationship. For the most part, I use this advice.

However, with the upcoming election, I am going to show my support for Obama. Don't complain about how he is horrible, it won't change my mind. If you don't agree with him, then don't vote for him. My friend Bethany and her husband came up with a website http://www.yeswecarve.com/. So, in their honor, I carved this pumpkin last night:

Today, I am going to find a yummy recipe and roast the pumpkin seeds for Terry and I to snack on.

Don't forget to vote on Nov 4!

Locks of Love

So, I finally did it today. I chopped off my hair. I was going to wait until after the first of the year to do it, but I was really needing a change. Here is a before and a couple after pictures.

Tomorrow, I will send it off to Locks of Love and hopefully someone who needs it will be able to enjoy it.

At least Terry did say it wasn't as bad as he was expecting. It will be interesting to see how it looks after I have to style it since I am not big on using a blow dryer.

Birthday Surprise

So, after months of planning, Terry and I were able to fly down to CA and surprise his mom for her 69th birthday. I believe her exact words when we came walking threw the door were, "Holy Shit". I was glad that no one spoiled the surprise for her!

We had a nice trip overall. We flew down on Thursday. My sinuses were horrible on the flight; it felt like someone was stabbing my ears with ice picks. We visited Paul's new shop in San Jose and had lunch at Phil's in Moss Landing before surprising his mom. We spent Thursday and Friday with Terry's family in Hollister. The highlights were a family dinner, lunch at Chef Lee's (it has the best Chinese food) and a trip to DeBrito's Chocolate Factory (where I spent WAY too much).

On Saturday, we packed up and headed into Santa Cruz. We spent the afternoon walking around downtown with Brittany and Jake. I think we spent the whole time eating. We had lunch at Pizza my Heart (who can beat a slice of pizza and shirt for $5), some taffy at Marini's and then had dinner at 99 Bottles of Beer. It was cool at dinner as some of our old friends came out to spend time with us. We were there for hours and feel like we really got some quality time with people. At the end of the night, Emilee gave us a ride home in her pristine '61 Impala.

On Sunday, we woke up and took a quick drive along West Cliff Drive and out on the Wharf before heading to church at Christian Life Center. It was nice, Brittany and Jake came up from Salinas to join us at church. We had to leave right after service for our flight back to Seattle. It was a quick trip, but it was nice coming home.

Ouch (x 3)

First, on Friday night, we had our first frost. It was pretty out but then I realized all my tomatoes, tomatillos and a bunch of my annuals are now green mush in my garden. I was smart enough to cover some of my tomatoes in my veggie garden, but my plants in my main flower bed are now gone. I was able to salvage some green tomatoes and have them in the house to ripen up. I am very bummed about my tomatillos dying since they aren't quite big enough to have ripen on their own.



On Monday, as I sat in my office working, I heard a loud pop noise. It sounded like a balloon being popped, but louder. It turns out, the mower mowing the golf course flung a golf ball that hit our house. Luckily, the golf course owner said they would send someone out to take care of the repairs.



Then, I found out yesterday afternoon that I have a sinus infection. It totally sucks. I took today off of work officially since it hurts to talk. Luckily, I can still send some emails and I am so drugged up, I just feel numb. But, here is the sucky part. Tomorrow morning, Terry and I have plans to fly to CA to surprise his mom for her birthday. Flying with sinus pressure sucks, but I really want to go. I just don't know what I should do...

Team Trophy Challenge, WA 2008

Our 4-wheel drive club, the Timber Tamers, puts on an annual event where participants come to test their skill, knowledge and endurance in a 24-hour off-road based challenge called TTCW. This year, it was near the town of Liberty in eastern Washington. Terry and I had the courtesy task this year. Our job was to sit on one of the fire roads in our little Kia with our mountain bikes on the roof rake with the hood up waiting for the contestants to stop and offer help.

We had most of our gear loaded up on Wednesday night. Terry came home from work early on Thursday and loaded the car on the trailer. We ended up leaving our house around 2:45 and headed east. Our drive was very uneventful. We arrived at camp a little after 5:00. As soon as we arrived, we hid the car behind Gary and Lori’s motor home and covered it with a tarp. We had to hide the car and ourselves to keep the contestants from seeing us since if they recognized us it would ruin our task.

We got the camper leveled and unpacked some gear after we first arrived. The weather wasn’t bad yet, but we set up the canopy preparing for the rain that was predicted for the weekend. We weren’t too hungry, so for dinner just barbequed some hot dogs. After eating, we took our chairs to enjoy the fire with the rest of the Tamers that arrived. It was fun relaxing and talking with the group. Terry went to bed first but I stayed up a little later. It was cool since after most of the people went to bed, you could hear elk bugling in the distance.

On Friday, we slept in until about 7:30. Terry took off with Russ to find out where we were suppose to park our car on Saturday since we hadn’t been in the area before. I chatted with people around the camp while he was gone and enjoyed a non-fat, sugar-free, cinnamon dolce latte that Gary made me. When Terry got back, I had breakfast ready for us. I made sausage and egg sandwiches on English muffins. I got the idea from my mom at OSP and they turned out really good.

Most of Friday was spent hanging out at camp. It drizzled most of the day and the rain picked up as the day progressed. The club had put up several canopies and tied tarps around them so when the competitors came to check in and do tech Terry, Zeus and I had a place to hide.

For dinner, the club had extra tri-tips from OSP that we barbequed. Terry helped with the cooking. They also served potato salad and corn. It was fun getting to eat as a club and bonding a little more with the various members. After dinner we relaxed around the fire for a little bit before Mark made us go to bed. We wanted to make sure everyone was up bright and early and ready for their task on Saturday.

Luckily, Terry and I didn’t have to be up too early on Saturday morning. He still wasn’t feeling well, so getting the extra hours of sleep was nice for both of us. We got up after everyone else left and loaded up the car. I took a quick shower in the morning before we left. We ended up leaving camp around 9:00 and drove a few minutes up the main road, took a left on a forest road and then parked about a mile up the gravel road on the shoulder. Terry lifted to hood and we were there for the day.

Overall, it was fairly boring day. I got a lot of reading in and Zeus spent most of the time napping. We were parked for 12 hours and had 8 teams cross our path. Two blew right past us (one told the girls at the next check point they would never stop for mountain bikers before they were told that we were wheelers and they failed that task), one group said they would send help (but forgot to tell the girls at the check point), and 5 of the teams offered gas without any, or much, hesitation. All the people Terry talked to seem to be enjoying their time and were thankful that we were there to put on the event.

Our task ended at 9:00 at night. We turned the car around and headed back to camp. We stopped at the communications tent and talked with some of the other Tamers to see how their days went. From what we could hear, we had it pretty easy. About the time we were there, we heard on the radio that someone in the competition had rolled and needed some help. With all that rain, the trails got a little hairy during the day and even worse once it got dark.

We drove back to the camper around 10:30 and I got changed and headed for bed. Terry decided to stay up a little later to talk with the other members and hear more about what went on during the day. I finally heard him come in at 12:30ish, which is incredibly late for him. I woke up, so he chatted excitedly to me quickly before crawling into bed.

It was cold and wet thru the night. When we awoke on Sunday morning, Terry turned on the heater in the camper. It was the first time we had ever used the heat and it was sure nice to have, as it was only 40 degrees outside. I took a quick shower in the morning, and then went outside to see the others. As part of the competition, the Tamers supply breakfast for the competitors. They made biscuits and gravy and had muffins.

After people were done eating breakfast, the awards where given out. The first award to be given out was the Hard Luck award. It was given to Kyle, who rolled his truck on Saturday night. Then the first, second and third place team trophies were handed out. Everyone who was there seemed to enjoy the day. After the awards, we started to pack up our gear. Terry offered to tow the kid who rolled over the pass since I could drive the car and he wasn’t able to drive his truck.

We left camp around 12:30. The drive home was windy, but not bad. Terry said the truck and trailer handled well with the Toyota on the back. We unloaded the car, and had dinner while we waited for Kyle’s dad to show up from Oregon and tow him back to Beaverton. It was a fun weekend and we can’t wait to do it again next year. At least, next year we won’t be the newbies, so will hopefully have a more eventful task.

Click here to see the rest of my TTCW pictures!