Our First Anniversary

It's our one year anniversary! Neither one of us can believe that it's already been a year. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were busy planning the wedding and our New Zealand honeymoon.

So, what did we do to celebrate this milestone? We played volleyball! =) The league we play in together had playoffs tonight. And since I'm the captain of the team, we couldn't really skip out of playoffs. But we did celebrate on Saturday by going to dinner at Manresa. That was definitely a dining experience. Unless you're filthy rich, I'd say Manresa is a special occasion place.

We ordered the 8 course tasting menu with wine pairings. The food was excellent, unlike anything either of us has tasted. My co-worker, Sid, asked me what type of food they served. And I really couldn't describe it. The chef creates dishes with unique flavors, combining things I would never have thought to put together. The food really can't be categorized into one type of cuisine like Italian, Greek or French. The service was also excellent and completely met our expectations for a restaurant of Manresa's caliber.

Mocktails/Cocktails and Appetizers

Every few months or so, a group of our foodie friends get together for a meal. It used to be dinner, but 2 of them had kids, so they've become lunches. These meals usually have a theme and everyone makes something to bring. When we first started doing these events, my cooking skills were pretty basic. Boil water? Check. Operate microwave? Check. Use an oven? Check. Despite my novice cooking skills, my foodie friends were very welcoming and usually let me bring simple things like wine, beer, soda and dessert (that I'd usually buy from a bakery...heehee).

Our most recent gathering was at Rob and Linda's place in San Francisco, and the theme: Mocktails/Cocktails and Appetizers. Rob and Linda made homemade salsa and guacamole plus a summer salad from The French Laundry. Rob also made greyhounds and a special peach/mint cocktail. Sylvia and Ken made seared ahi tuna and guacamole ahi poke salad. Ken gets special props for beautifully plating the seared ahi tuna. Viv and Eric made skirt steak sandwiches with a chimichurri sauce and two flavors of homemade sorbet, grapefruit and apricot/muscat. And we brought...(drum roll)....pigs in a blanket with mustard. Yeah, our contribution wasn't quite on the same level as everyone elses. That's why we're hosting the next gathering. The theme is Trailer Trash, but after my marketing spin it's now Comfort Food.

If you want to see more photos click here.

Greg's Fourth Annual Tahoe Camping Trip

This past weekend, we went camping at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe. Greg planned the first camping trip when we first started dating. It's become an annual event that we hope will continue for a long time...even when all of us have kids.

We arrived at our campsite on Friday afternoon and promptly set up our tent, Tachi's tent, camping chairs and coolers of food/drinks. Once the campsite was set up, we enjoyed the beautiful afternoon by hangin' out with Char, Ed and Tachi. We even took a short hike to a nearby vista point before getting dinner ready. Dinner on Friday: chicken and beef fajitas. Yummy! The rest of our friends started arriving just in time to chow down. Of course, no camping trip would be complete without a camp fire and s'mores!

On Saturday, Nelson took a group of folks and doggies on a hike. We had 6 dogs at our campsite: Tachi, Buddy, Buttercup, Muffin, Spike and Maddy. Tachi went hiking with Nelson. We heard that Tachi found all the shady spots on the hike and stopped to rest at each one.

Another group went fishing. We gave them instructions to bring what they catch back to camp so we could make it for dinner. Between the three of them, the caught one fish and decided to let it go. What's up with that?! Good thing we weren't counting on them to catch dinner for us. We'd have starved to death. =P

Greg and I went mountain biking with Ed and Christi. Ed planned the mountain biking trip, and I don't think we should allow him to plan any more mountain biking trips! It was advertised as an easy to moderate trail, but that is totally false advertising. It was all single track and VERY technical. I had to get off my bike every 20 ft because I don't know how to ride my bike UP a 2 ft rock. It felt like I was hiking with my bike and not really riding. Christi and I sent the boys ahead and said we'd catch up with them when they turned around. =) We eventually met up with the boys and headed back to the car. This whole experience was a nice reminder of why I mountain biking is not fun and gives me anxiety because it brings back memories of that time I fell and had to get 14 stitches in my knee.

When we got back to camp, a bunch of us took the dogs down to the beach for a swim. I dragged Tachi into the water. He didn't like it very much, especially when the water got above mid-leg on him. But that didn't stop me. I took him out a little deeper and encouraged him by pointing out that Buddy, who hates water, was out further than he was. Tachi wasn't buying it. He tried to climb up onto a large rock to escape the water, but wasn't successful. Any chance he could, he'd desperately try to swim back to shore. We eventually swam back to shore and dried off in the sun.

For dinner, Greg prepared salmon with fresh dill, tri-tip and steamed veggie packets. Ed started the campfire and made baked potatoes in the fire. Everything was really tasty. I was stuffed. After dinner, we all sat around the campfire, drinking beer, making s'mores and chit-chatting. It was the perfect way to end the day!

Volleyball, volleyball, and more volleyball

The other day I was talking to a friend and realized that we play 5 nights of volleyball. I play on Sunday and Thursday evenings. Greg plays on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. And we play together on Monday nights. If you count playing outdoors on Saturdays with friends, that makes 6 days out of 7 days that we play. That's a lot of volleyball.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing volleyball. But maybe 5 nights is too much? It prevents us from doing anything else. When I shared my thoughts with Greg, he replied, "There's no such thing as too much volleyball. What's wrong with playing 5 nights a week?" I guess he doesn't think we play too much volleyball. =P

This past weekend, we played in Christi's annual Queen's Volleyball Tourney. It's a fun, very social volleyball tournament where guys can play as girls *if* they wear a bikini top. The first year Greg played in the tourney, he played as a girl and wore my bikini top. He even got a tan line because he didn't wear a T-shirt underneath the bikini! He hasn't been a girl ever since then. But I wonder if he missed playing as girl this year because he put a bikini top on, supposedly to show Eddie the proper way to wear one. See, here he is modeling in a bikini top:


















Sexy, huh? And here is his playing in the finals:

Unfortunately, he and his partner didn't win. But we both had a lot of fun hanging out in the park, eating, socializing and playing volleyball.

Liberty

For the past week, we've been doggie-sitting Liberty while Jeff and Jeanette were vacationing in Maui. It's been fun having another dog in the house. I'm not sure Tachi would agree with us, as he's gotten quite used to being the king of our little castle. But it's good for him to learn to share his toys, water bowl and our attention. Having Liberty live with us for a week has given us a chance to get to know her better. Some observations (in no particular order):

• She doesn't simply walk; she sashays. Liberty shakes her boo-tay when she walks.
• She has no concept of personal space and likes to climb up on your legs when you're sitting on the couch. She'll walk right up to you and start panting in your face.
  
• She's an attention whore. Whenever we play with or pet Tachi, she'll come over and push Tachi out of the way or climb on top of him to try to get to you. When you push her off, she just tries again. She probably thinks it's a game. She'll also climb up on the bed in the morning to see if you're awake. If you try to push off the bed, she'll just climb back up. But if you roll over and ignore her, she'll go away...eventually
• She leaves pools of water on the floor when she drinks from the water bowl. I'm not talking about dribbling water here and there. I'm talking about leaving a trail of puddles around the water bowl, down the hallway and finally dripping some onto your foot in the living room.
• She got used to being crated when we weren't home. I'm sure it helped that we threw her favorite treats into the back of the crate to lure her in and that we'd feed her in her crate too. She barked and whined a few times as we'd leave the house, but by the time we got home it was quiet...no barking or whining.

Having Liberty for a week has also helped me appreciate how well trained Tachi is. It's so much easier when your dog actually responds to you say, "Sit." "Off." "Down." or "Drop." We've enjoyed having her with us. She's back home now with Jeff and Jeanette, but I have a feeling Liberty might be staying with us again sometime in the future.

Doggie Update

Just a quick update on momma dog, Mikasa and her pup, Molten. Molten was adopted to a family in Alameda who had an 80 lb black lab. He has been renamed Quincy. Our friends at Pound Puppy Rescue, think he might be a Lab and Newfoundland mix. Good think his adopted family has experience with big, energetic dogs!

Mikasa has been adopted by Greg's brother and sister-in-law. I guess they didn't realize how much they wanted her until she was gone! =) They've renamed her Liberty. Jeff and Jeanette came down last week to pick her up. She met Tachi, her doggie cousin, and they got along fine. Well, if you consider Tachi ignoring her every time she tried to get him to play with her getting along, then it was fine. Liberty's going to be staying with us next week, so they'll have plenty of time to get to know each other.

Thanks to Grace for helping find homes for both Quincy and Liberty!

A Very Active Weekend

We had a really active weekend. It's been a long time since we've been this active. And boy, could I tell. My butt still hurts from this weekend!

On Saturday, we paddled in Paddle for Life, a charity dragon boat race at Jack London Square. Most of the teams seemed to be corporate sponsored teams. Our team, Doggie Paddlers, was a rag-tag team of friends and friends of friends. We had a few folks who had paddled before, but most were newbies. As part of the race, the organizers arrange three practices so people can learn proper form, timing, race starts and commands. While our team did get three practices, I don't think our entire team was at a single practice. You can blame it on volleyball. =P

We won our first race (the American Bridal Community Cup), came in dead last in our second race and took second in our last race (we missed first place by half a second!). But we got lots of compliments on our team t-shirt, which Edric designed. It was a good fun for a good cause. Thanks for organizing the team, Judy! Can't wait to do it again next year. Woof! Woof!

BTW, Greg and I met at a dragon boat race. It wasn't this exact race, but a different race that's held in the early fall/late summer at Lake Merced in San Francisco. Greg was paddling on Christi's corporate team, and I was paddling on my friend Doug's team, Dragon Warriors. Christi needed some extra people for their championship race because a lot of people on her team had to leave early. So, I volunteered to paddle in their boat. I must've wooed Greg with my impressive paddling abilities! =)

On Sunday, we woke up early again to ride in the Tour de Cure, a charity bike ride benefiting the American Diabetes Association. I rode with Team Cisco/WebEx. Greg just rode along with me (e.g. he didn't register for the race). Why didn't he want to ride with Team Cisco? He "couldn't justify paying money to ride a route that he's ridden for free many times." But it's for a good cause? Blink...blink.

Anyhoo, we rode 75K or ~45miles. The ride started at the HP campus in Palo Alto, around Woodside and Portola Valley, out to Canada Road and back to the HP campus. Now, even though we've ridden this route several times before, I haven't been on my bike in about 4-5 months. So, my butt, legs and lungs were not ready for this ride. It didn't help that my left leg and butt cheek were sore from paddling the day before. Greg, on the other hand, was fine. Sigh...it's just not fair.

It's definitely been one of the more active weekends we've had in quite a while. We'd both like to have more weekends like this...without the getting up early part. =)