Gobble Gobble

Well, Jerry and I hosted Thanksgiving this year. Jerry's parents were out from Texas. Jerry had a full schedule between dinners, meet and greets, sightseeing and Thanksgiving all within 4 days it was nut's. I on the other hand didn't have it so bad. I was very very organized having meals made and frozen before hand so all I had to do was worry about prepping for the big day, T-day! Gotta hand it to those working folks who have to have T-day it's a pain, but I love it! I was lucky enough to take Wednesday off from work. I'm definitely not trying to give myself a pat on the back, because I enjoy cooking. Anybody that's been over to the house on Sunday Football can attest to that! We had my Mom, Dad, Jerry's Mom, Dad, My Uncle Denny, good friends Lyndalee, Tony and Jay. Anyway we had: A Deep Fried Turkey, A Old Fashioned Roast Turkey,Spicy Creamed Corn with Bacon and Scallions, Easy Crescent Rolls, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Spicy Cornbread Stuffing with Red Peppers, Chipotle Chiles, and Andouille Sausage, Mom's Spinach Casserole, Mom's Gravy, Petey's Italian Sausage Stuffing, Mom's Cranberry Cream Cheese Disks, Make-Ahead Green Bean Casserole Cranberry Apple Crisp, Easy Crescent Rolls, Blueberry Muffins and the surprise hit of the night Pumpkin-Bourbon Cheesecake with Graham-Pecan Crust Oh by the way we also deep fried a Turkey Breast, and another whole Turkey for some friends of ours and out of 3 Turkeys only 1 crashed and burned. Lucky for Jerry it fell right into the pan beside the fryer. Thank goodness T-day only comes around once a year! Gobble Gobble

Miyagi's or Bust!

Finally, we're taking a road trip to Miyagi Bar & Sushi in Sac! After a couple of years of Tony inviting us to his restaurant we went we saw and we conquered. The sushi was awesome, and Tony is also the sushi chef and made sure he took care of me (the sushi virgin). Sure I've had some spider rolls, California rolls, and veggie rolls, but never any sashimi. OMG! I don't know exactly how to explain it, but some of the sashimi was marinated in different flavors it was delicious. I was eating RAW FISH and I LOVED IT! I don't know how brave I would have been if Tony wasn't such a great friend of our family for so long. Tony and my Uncle went back to Japan this spring to visit his family during the annual cherry blossoms, and the pictues were beautiful. I hope our cherries will look that pretty. Anyway a few Saki's and a Saki bomb or 2 later I looked up and noticed my little friend Puffy. He was the cutest little blow fish. Him and I became life long friends. What can I say, but SAKI! Oh, and for those who don't like sushi Tony made a cowboy roll and it was really good, Travie!

Our 2000 babies

Here are some pictures of our babies. There are 2000 cherry trees. The majority of the trees are Rainer's. The others are the pollinators; Bings and Brooks. This year we should actually have a few cherries. Jamie and I will be out on Hwy 120 selling "Jerry's Cherries" in our bikini's. JUST KIDDING!

Bitter Sweet Ending

It couldn't have been any better. The water was awesome, weather was perfect, tunes were blasting, and there were beverages for everybody. We had great company, the usual suspects Jerry, Grant, Jami, and I. Tony and Tara were finally able to join us for the last run after harassing them for weeks. We boarded until we were exhausted. I've been saying all summer that I was due for a nasty wipe out, and then it came. Just like Moses parted the water, the water turned into concrete and the back of my head hit, and then it was ring a ding ding. Ugh! Then I drop the board on my toe. It didn't matter I wasn't going to let anything ruin our last time out with ole Maralee (the boat). Before we knew it the sun was beginning to set, and summer was over. It only seemed fitting that we end the night by going to the 50's Diner for dinner. We ran into Janell, Adam, and Samantha. Then it was back to the ranch. It was bitter sweet, but we all knew it had to end :(

What do George Jefferson, Crawfish, and NFL have in common?

It's September 14 the day after the lake. It's NFL all day and all night. It was going to be a quite NFL day. Then the phone starting ringing at 8:00 a.m. Rick and Clarence we're coming over later to watch football, cool! Then Rob calls he's going to bring crawfish's over later, cool! Then Jamie and Grant are going to come over, cool! As usual I forgot to open the gate. So I open the gate for Rick, and the phone rings (off the hook on NFL Sundays) As I'm running to the phone I see this huge trailer with something white on it. I answer the phone, and tell Travie to hang on when all of sudden I yelled at him "Travie, Jerry got a Sanford" Rick had surprised Jerry by giving him Jefferson for helping him. Now Travie is coming over with Sanford (It's a Daihatsu). Travie named his Sanford as in Sanford & Son's. You'll see what I mean when you see Jefferson (Jerry's Daihatsu) as in George Jefferson. They actually use these as transportation in Italy, but there a little bit nicer. We'll they carefully unload Jefferson, watch a little NFL, and then the crawfish arrive. I actually ate a couple tails, but noooooo heads. Yuk! I even talked Kelsey in to trying some tail, and she liked it too! Rob seasoned them really well, good job Rob. So with the gang that we had over I became offically beer wench. I didn't want anybody touching anything with there grubby crawfish fingers. It was messy, but yummy.

The Last Hoooraah? Not!

Well it was a cold, and breezy September morning, and this is going to be our last Hooorah for the year. Our regular com padres Jamie, Grant, Katie, and Travie were not able to come, so I begged my other kids (mom & dad) to come. As we make our rounds around town gas - a 30 min ordeal (gas station computers crashed), and Raley's for the good stuff (cocktails, ice, and of course food too!) We head out. Now I'm thinking I'm going to freeze to death wake-boarding, but not to worry I brought John Elway, and my shorty wetsuit. I may look like a nerd, but I will not let this cold weather ruin my last trip. On the way up dad is talking about all the dreams he had the night before and one of them was that I dragged them all the way up there and I didn't want to get in the water because it was cold. Like it or not I was getting in the water even if it started snowing! Well we finally arrive, get in the boat and we are literally sweating. It's hot! Fabulous! No John Elway for me! We launch and I look down at the fuel gauge, and OMG,it's completely full! The last thing I heard Jerry tell my dad was just put in a half tank so we won't have any sit in the boat all year. My dad was my hero! We will have to go again. We take off and the water is awful. We get beat up a little then off to the houseboats. We visit with the gang Happy Ours, Fairplay, and Dave & Naomi's . We have some good laughs. It's late afternoon and the water is placid so off we go. Jerry wipes out harder than I've seen him in a long time, and knocks a little air out of him, dad can't even get up on the board, and poor Jay's wipe out was the worst. I actually fared well, no problems. So back to the houseboat for more eats, and drinks. Eventually we decide it's time to go. The water is still awesome so I'm going to board till I can't take it no more. Then out of the blue, mom wants to try and board, awesome! I think it took about 4 times and she did it, and I think she crashed out of pure excitement.



So as we drove out of sight we'll see you again Don Pedro we still have 3/4 of a tank. Hee Hee :)

The Lake!

August 23, 2008

We'll we decided to load up and go to the lake. We'll all I can say is what happens at the lake stays at the lake!

Just another day at the lake

Off to the lake we went. Good friends, and good tunes. This weekend mom & dad decided to make the trek with us to the lake. We had a great time. We succeeded in getting Grant up on the wake-board for the first time. Dad also got up and tried to do some tricks, but didn't quite get it done. He did make up for it going to the slide like a wild man. Jamie, and Jerry also went down the slide. Then there was Tracy. Who in the past few years due to a couple pregnancies has never been down the slide, and finally got to go. Yeah! We had some good water and Jerry and I got our wake-board legs back and were jumping the wake. Mom always brings some yummy snacks, this time it was jalapenos stuffed with chorizo and cheese wrapped in bacon and Jay made the best Bacardi drinks. We visited with Ron & Carolyn (Tracy's mom & dad) on their houseboat "Fairplay". We were buzzed by a stunt plane and also watched Tracy's cousin Dave and her dad Ron race their remote control speed boats. Dave and Naomi also have a houseboat, this is their first year. Maybe we'll get to go to the lake next weekend. It is Jay's birthday, and we weren't invited WINK WINK! HA HA!

We made it!

Not only did we make it back up to the lake, but we actually wake-boarded and tubed! Jerry, Jami, Grant, and I headed up to the lake Saturday morning after Jerry got his Sushi for breakfast. Then Katie, Travie, and T.C. met up with us in the afternoon. After we hooked up we went to visit Tracy, Jay, and the kiddos. Then off to tube, and wake-board, and like last weekend T.C. didn't want to go in the water. That lasted about 2 seconds. We showed T.C. that we wouldn't kill him in the Jet Pilot and off
he went. As you can see in the pictures he loved it!
See slide show courtesy of Katie:

1st Maiden Voyage in 2 years, Not!

Well we decided to take the boat out for the first time since our wedding, 2 years ago! So Jamie, Grant, Travie, T.C., Jerry, and I loaded up. Instead of going to our reservoir 5 miles away we decided to go to Don Pedro about 1 hour away. The lake was so low, and next week they will let out 50 more feet of water. We get down and launch the boat and I can't get it to start. I finally get it to start after it fired up the first time at home, go figure. We're headin out. We see that our friends Jay, and Tracy are on their houseboat so we will cruise by and say "Hi" go for a spin and come back and have a beer. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well not so much, we don't even get out of the 5 mile hour zone, and thank god Jerry notices the boat is over heating. That only means 1 thing, the impeller. I can't believe that little part can blow up the engine. So off we go to Jay & Tracy's houseboat and have a beer or 2 or 3 ... and here are the results of our day at the lake, thanks to Jay and Tracy we had a great time! See for yourself:

Fathers Day in July

Took my dad to NHRA drags in Sonoma for a belated Fathers Day. It was a wild day. I get to their house to pick him up when I notice he's outside flaying his arms and he's fuming. The mosquito guy ran over his steal rock and drug it all the way down their driveway, making some really nasty marks. Then with marsh land on one side and a concrete median on the other we get trapped on Hwy 37 for over 30 min, due to a stalled vehicle. We get there about 11ish. We have a mission, we need autographs from John Force, Anton Brown, Ron Capps, and the Bernstein's. So we split up (not my idea). I wait for Force, 30 min later I get his autograph. So I go back to find Dad. He's still at Bernstein's. It's 12:30! Fast forward 3:30, I can't take it anymore I'm thirsty. I get another Margarita, and what do I find he's leaving his post. Three hours later I'm starving and thirsty, and I need a pottie break, and I miss the big moment! Ugh! He got his autograph from Brandon, and he signed his Budweiser Clydesdale memento. Now we can get rid of the Clydesdale's we been packing around for 4 hours. So off to the car to eat. Well my car won't open and I just changed the battery in the remote that's weird. Oh no, I left my lights on! Battery dead! So we get someone to jump us and go back down to watch the funny cars. We watch 2 heats, then some guy blows his engine, and 45 min later we're outta there. Fathers day was declared over! We had enough sun for 1 day.

My 1st Post

Well, my 1st blog post. Yeah! I thought it might be fun to have a blog that everyone near and far can see, What's up at the ranch! I'm not really good about email, I don't ever look at my space, but I'm going to try really hard to keep this up, but no Guarantee's. It's like an email that keeps on going, and going... I think you can post comments so let me know what you think.

Instead of cooking dinner I decided to go out to my garden, OMG this was today's bounty. It smells so good. There are Pear tomatoes, Big Boy tomatoes, Zucchini, Green Zebra tomatoes, Mint, Basil, and peppers. Bring on the canker sores. Luckily for the Internet just type in the word, bingo a zillion recipes come up. One of my favorites is americastestkitchen.com I know my inner nerd comes out and I actually Tivo a PBS cooking show. Well if we want to eat tonight I'd better get going and figure something out. Oh, a shout out to Mom & Dad "Hi" and yes I do have better things to do :)