Wii 2011

On Dec. 3rd we hosted the annual Wii Tournament with the Prices and Agadonis. 

Chips, salsa, tacos with all the trimmings and mint cookies were enjoyed. 

Good stories, jokes and laughs. 

Then came game time 

-- it was a fierce battle this year ending in a tie -- 

but after a tie-breaker the Prices were victorious. 

We will need to practice our rootbeerbarsliding skills for next year. 

Regismas

Friday was our Christmas lunch for the office. 

We enjoyed some good Italian food.

Rocked a gift card exchange. 

(where you can 'steal' a card twice and then it can't exchange hands again)

There is always time for a quick group photo.

The Pits

Also in August: an opportunity arose for us to go to the tar pits with Paul's parents church. We had a good time walking around, hanging out with friends, and grabbing a delicious burger for lunch.

O'Baby!

My dear friend KJ is about to give birth to a little boy.... but back in August we had a baby shower for her. It was a wonderful time of prayer for this soon to be family of 3, fellowship, food, presents and cake. 

Fancy

While up in SB for APs graduation we happened across a cupcake store and decided to give some of their creations a try.

They were all cut in 3rds and shared. All of them were quite delicious.

Balboa Beach

On day 2 of Askew everyone headed to the beach for some swimming, kite flying, footballing, soccer kicking wave riding fun! After conquering the beach we all piled into the vans/cars and picked up MORE people and headed to dinner at Chick-Fil-A. It was great to see almost all of the Sousa's and share a meal with them!

E turns Three

Earlier this month I headed over to the Henning house to celebrate

E's birthday!

 A delightful kick back event with food, friends and of course... cake.

Happy Birthday E!

Wine & Cupcakes

Back in February we went to a wine bar in celebration of Ruel's birthday.

It was a fun location with drinks, food, a band and great desserts!

Yum-o

The Hutchins Siblings having some drinks and conversating

Happy Birthday Ruel



Cookies-a-plenty

For the 2nd year in a row - Gingerbread men, missing an arm or leg, some even lost their head.

 New this year - Peppermint candy canes

 Sugar balls - basically a sugar cookie with a powdered sugar glaze and "sprinkles"

 Also new - Rum Balls, but with imitation Rum instead of the real stuff.

 Oldie but a goodie - Sinckerdoodles

 Traditional cookies added to the mix - Peanut butter, Choc. Chip and Funfetti with green food coloring



2nd Annual Wii Tournament

Tournament of the Wii 

(hopefully becoming bi- or tri-annual)

It is always fun to have people over to our place. Saturday evening the Price's and Agadoni's came over to enjoy some awesome tacos/burritos along with chips and salsa for dinner.

Allowing time for digestion (didn't want anyone to get a cramp) we sat and swapped stories for awhile. Finally it was time. The Price's had to relinquish the trophy that they had been hiding away for a year and it was finally up for grabs again.

The tournament was some fierce competition this year. But The Hutchins were victorious! The trophy is displayed proudly atop their entertainment center.

 While there was not time to play with fondant this year we merely made a 12 story high Christmas Tree out of cookies. Desert was enjoyed by all.

July the 4th

The Collins fam was so kind to invite everyone over to hang and eat BBQ.

Take 952

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Thanks friends for the terrific evening!

Man V. Food

I have never eaten at White Castle before and so when we happened upon one by chance I knew we just had to make a quick stop to give it a try.

I also took my mom to a couple of the places as seen on the show Man V. Food. The 5-8 club was a speakeasy back in the day. A burger called the Juicy Lucy is apparently what everyone flocks there to have. The cheese was inside the burger patty. So melty and delicious. Mom and I split the burger and fries.

I totally forgot to get a photo of the food here. It was quite a different taste. We had the pulled chicken and beef with sides of black eyed peas with cornbread and sweet potatoes with spicy sausage on top. It was quite enjoyable, if you are ever in the neighborhood I would suggest you stop by.

Baketastic

I love to bake! I wish I did it more often, but I don't want to bake and then have dozens of treats sitting around the apartment. If I am going to bake I want to be able to take it somewhere else and have others enjoy a tasty treat.

Homemade pizza! I bought whole wheat flour and made the crust myself. It was delicious and I really didn't taste a big difference between the whole wheat and regular flour.Okay so this isn't really baked but I love to make this yummy treat every year for Christmas.

You may be thinking boring... Those are just some lemon poppy seed muffins, however this is the maiden usage of my M&M reusable baking cups!
I believe these were made for Groundhogs Day when I was teaching 3rd grade.
Its the beach, on a cupcake.

Apparently those are the only photos of my creations. I will have to find some excuses to start baking.

Friendly Affairs

I have some very wonderful friends that I do not get to see very often. I would just like to tell them what a pleasure it is when I get to see them and how much I think of them while we are not together. You all rock! Here are just a couple that I recently saw for some hang out time.


IHOP- Kelly and I met up for breakfast while I was in Vegas the week before school started. We didnt have long to chat as she had to get the kiddos to basketball games. I am glad she was able to drive over and meet me. Hopefully I will be able to see her next week as well

Labor Day- I was invited over to Marc & Tiff's new place for some BBQ, conversation, and games. The girls broke out the cards and a couple board games while the mens BBQ'ed and hung out. It was a great time to relax before the beginning of the school year.

Afternoon before 1st day of school- Kathleen (who used to work at the MS with me moved on to greener pastures down in the OC) and I have been trying to get together for much of the summer but due to travels and family goings on we never got our stuff together. Finally on the 3rd we made a lunch date to catch up. We met up over at Pat & Oscars had some good food and sat and talked for about 2 hours. We decided we should do this at least once a month. She is someone who I just sort of clicked with at work (I think it was our being Boston fans that first got us talking) she became my BTSA provider and we really enjoyed the time we got to spend together.

I have been vindicated!

Ever since I can remember, family and friends have mocked me for my germ paranoia. I refuse to share drinks or food with anyone if their lips have touched it. Looks like I'm not the crazy one after all!

“Did You Just Double Dip That Chip?”
January 30th, 2008 · www.sogoodblog.com

Any Seinfeld fan probably remembers that line, when “Timmy” accused George Costanza of double dipping. “Timmy” complained, “that’s like putting your whole mouth right in the dip.” Now a new study conducted by Clemson University has measured just how much bacteria double dipping can actually transfer into the dip bowl. The answer - a lot.

According to the NY Times:

“A team of nine students instructed volunteers to take a bite of a wheat cracker and dip the cracker for three seconds into about a tablespoon of a test dip. They then repeated the process with new crackers, for a total of either three or six double dips per dip sample. The team then analyzed the remaining dip and counted the number of aerobic bacteria in it.”

Despite George’s dismissal of the idea that double dipping could transfer bacteria, the results of the study show otherwise:

“On average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip. Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.”

Something to consider before you double dip that chip at this weekend’s Super Bowl party.

End of year dinner...

Last Wednesday night my department went out for our Christmas dinner. We went to a place in Pasadena called Villa Sorriso. It was more expensive than I'm used to, so it's a good thing I was on the clock while I was there. Everyone at work wanted to be internet stars so here goes.

Sunisa, Robert, and Stephen

Don, Tennille, and Mesha

Sindye and Sylvia

In a tribute to Bradley's friend Jim, I present my Penne alla Vodka with chicken.

We did a gift exchange (I got a shirt) and a white elephant exchange where I traded 8 boxes of colored chalk for 2 Bruce Lee DVDs. Sunisa also gave everyone Target giftcards.

Pushy Pushy

My fortune cookie said "Read a novel- and learn more about life"

That sounds more like a demand than a here's whats going to happen in your future.

The three F's: Fresh & Easy, Food, & Fooseball

Today I took a trip over to our new market across the street Fresh and Easy. I strolled through the aisles to see what we possibly needed at home. They have people handing out samples of pumpkin pie, chocolate cake, and other bakery goodies. There's lots of good produce, and items which aren't at regular grocery stores. They have all self-checkout counters with many smiling faces to help out if you need it.

On my way out of the store I was thanked by a woman for shopping at Fresh and Easy and handed a coupon for the next time I shop for $6 off, a reusable grocery bag and a lovely bunch of roses, which cost $7 for the bouquet. Fresh and Easy won't be my main source of food buying but I will frequent the store every once in a while. Tonight I decided to make home made pizza once again. With a wheat crust, and pepperoni with some pineapple on my side. My favorite is throwing the dough around to create the crust. I think it turned out quite well. I was even able to create a crust with which to hold the slice while eating it this time. Once it was complete we sat down to enjoy our pizza dinner and watch some record breaking fooseball (Patriots/Bills).

Biola's Dodger Day

On Sunday the 16th Paul and I headed out to the Dodger game with Jeric. It was so HOT! (I am still peeling from the sunburn) We sat in the all you can eat section with hundreds of other Biola students, staff, and alumni. Highlights: the new president threw out the first pitch to his son, there was a crazy man who jumped onto the field in a straight jacket and got pretty far around the field before being tackled to the ground(the thirdbasemen thought it was pretty funny), and hanging out with Jeric is always a good time.