trabin.ca

So the material came out today…

Saturday, February 6th, 2010 | Cath's Quilting, Uncategorized | No Comments

We will have progress reports for you all shortly.

Cath

Ok so Mike beat me to posting post CA…

Saturday, February 6th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Well not really, but he posted which is a nice change none the less.

Zeta is sick right now, which sucks as I get NO SLEEP, I spent more than 1/2 of the night outside in my robe last night.

I have been working solid since I got back on Sunday.

Mike and I are having a great video date tonight. We had Beef tenderloin, sauteed mushrooms, fries and veggies for dinner.

We are both having a great bottle of wine, albeit different wine.

Mike is having Seven deadly Zins wine, and I am having moobuzz pinot noir.

The day before I left CA, Mike and I went to a great Flea Market in San Jose. They had all sorts of things. It took us hours to go through it all. Mike really wished that he had a way to get tools back. I bought some mexican pottery to cook in. The produce section was absolutely amazing.

BRB…. Mike just added some new things to the blog… so I want to check them out, post pictures in a few.

Cath and Z

I have now exceeded 1 year in captivity

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I am beginning to believe that stockholm syndrome is a very real thing as I am beginning to sympathize with my captors. They insist on inhumane torture as I am now on my 5th 18 hour a day. Even the mexican guy that works insane hours cleaning our office commented “that I must never go home” because he sees me when he leaves and when he comes back. I just hit the wall though. had to put work away and try to do something personal so I thought I would blog. Looking forward to the weekend so I can make sweet love to my bed…it is the only thing in California that understands me… “yours in slavery -MK”

OK and so carrying on from my abrupt lunch meeting the other day…

Thursday, January 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

These were pineapple tuna rolls...

From our great sushi experience. We also had potsticker rolls, which is literally a cooked potsticker wrapped in nice and nori. We also had Kurame which is a walnut roll. They were like freaking dessert sushi.

All in all it was a great meal, great experience. Maybe not the best “sushi” in the world since a lot of it did not contain raw fish, but it was oh so yummy.

So on to the work week. Monday Mikey went to work and he came back – yes he walked both ways.

Then we went and worked out and swam in the new facilities.

I made spaghetti that night as this way the boy can have pre packaged sauce for when I am not here.

It was really yummy. We are watching a new series, well new to us called Weeds. It is a HBO series and it is quite good.

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment, OH JOY!

I went, they cleaned my teeth, which do feel great by the way, but I am going back today for a filling YUCK. Oh yah and I have managed to get a sinus cold which has also sucked.

On Wednesday I headed out to Pacifica which is on the coastal highway just past Half Moon Bay. I was in search of Duarte’s Tavern – one of Guy’s drive in’s diners and dives. Much to my dismay, it is not in PACIFICA!!!

I did run into a fabulous little coffee shop though.

This was the coffee shop with the dark chocolate mocha! Just what I needed with my stuffy nose.

Which happened to be next to a different Drive in, diner and dive. The Gorilla BBQ. I went and checked it out, but CLEARLY it is a place I must eat at with Mike.

TEEHEE

When I drove by it was closed, when I walked back, it was open with a lineup...

http://www.gorillabbq.com/Gorilla_Barbeque.html

This fantastic lady at the coffee shop filled me in on the Gorilla BBQ, she said it was great, but she also let me know that Duarte’s was fantastic too. However it was 1/2 hour in the opposite direction. So off in the car I went.

I drove all the way to Santa Cruz, stopping at various beaches before realizing that I had obviously went wrong somewhere. I decided to turn around.

Here are some pics from the beach

surfers everywhere

total entertainment

some of the waves were pretty big

oh yah and you can't trust that Flat Andrew kid anywhere, playing in the sand

sand pipers

cool tree

more surfers

pigeon point lighthouse, close to Santa Cruz

billions and billions of birds

just a cool view

Ok so once I had decided I clearly had went to far, although the view was amazing, I turned back to find a sign that does indeed say Pescadero, but it does not have a town, now does it tell you to turn or any such helpful hints. SO I decided to turn anyways to see if I could indeed eat at Duarte’s since that was the day’s mission.

Low and behold if you turn and drive about 3 miles, there is the little tiny town of Pescadero.

I went to Duarte’s and it was fabulous. I had Crem of Green chili soup layered with Cream of Artichoke soup and a house salad with Olallieberry dressing. Artichokes are grown in the area and so are Olallieberries apparently.

The lady at the coffee shop had suggested that if I was going to Pescadero, which thinking about it now, may have been a sick joke – since who could ever find the place, buy Artichoke bread from the general store.

So I did. We had it last night with Chili and gaucamole. It was very very yummy.

YUM

The menu

So that was the end of the days events, thank goodness. My cold wanted to come back and cuddle in.

So that is what we did.

Today I am off to San Mateo and the dentist, I will report back soon.

HUGS to all – we miss you Z

Catherine and Mike

Wow I had no idea it was cold and dreary in California…

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

However the weather doesn’t really matter as long as I get to be in it with Michael. The only thing that would make dreary California better would be Michael AND Zeta together….

Ok so, a few of the readers have brought it to my attention that my blogging is BORING. If you can imagine. So I have done what I can in the post to kick it up a notch. Really there is not much to blog and take pictures of in Creston by myself in the winter with the dog. Things were very busy at home before I left for CA. Betty, Paul and Clare were in Creston the weekend before I left. It was really nice to have some company. Betty and Paul have their Granite mostly installed. Here are a few pictures of it.

Yes Betty polish it right off the bat!

Here is a different view.

It is very beautiful

I have been working on a Project for my cousin Andrew. His class is doing a project along the lines of a book called Flat Stanley. He mailed me his Flat Andrew, with a worksheet for me to fill out. So needless to say Flat Andrew has been hanging out and travelling alot. I hear that he was captured by a sasquatch, been enrolled in university, visited some museums and who knows what else he will be up to.

Here is Flat Andrew kidnapped by the sasquatch.

Mike and I have had a great time since I got here. My plane was very delayed. Here is how bored I was waiting for the plane.

Spokane airport

As most of you have heard, California has been getting a ridiculous amount of rain. This was the reason of THIS trips airline delays.

I did get here though, albeit late. On Friday we moved Mike from one apartment to another. He had done most of the work. We just had to move the big things. So off we went to get the truck, it was pouring rain, so we got an enclosed one. We moved the world’s heaviest bed – Temperpedic. It was crazy. I was so grateful that Mike called Sunil to get it INTO the second floor apartment. THe only thing we decided not to move was the overly uncomfortable sofa bed. Instead we decided to go out, have a fabulous dinner, fabulous wine and then move the couch out of the apartment to a different complex through the bushes. I am sure if anyone was watching us they were laughing their asses off as we tromped through the bushes with a couch.

Here is a picture from our great appies and dinner.

This was a cheese trio at the Cask Wine bar

We then headed off to have a Steak – Yes Catherine (AKA me) was in the mood for steak, which is just weird to start with. SO we headed off to Town, a funky upscale busy restaurant not far from here.

This was our appies there and the world’s smallest cup of mushroom bisque.

We had Tuna Tatake and a one shot espresso cup of bisque

We also went to this fancy grocery store before dinner to grab some things to have the next night and we bought some fantastic cheeses and sausage. We also bought these oranges because I couldn’t resist.

They were just so perfect

On Saturday we had a lazy morning. Then we got up with intention to go out for lunch and see a movie. We had planned to go and see Extraordinary Measures, but when we saw that Avatar was playing in 3D we could not resist. It was absolutely amazing. If anyone gets a chance GO AND SEE IT IN 3D !!!!

On Sunday we again had a lazy morning, a great breakfast, mimosas. We went out in the afternoon to play with Flat Andrew again. We went to the Cantor visual museum and then we went off to the Palo Alto Mall. We found some great deals. We then went to Miyake for dinner. It is a sushi place in Palo Alto that has very weird yet cool sushi.

Mmmmm beer

The menu

Cowboy Poki rolls - yes sliced beef instead of fish...

HP Roll (Left) Spicy Tuna salad Roll (Middle) and Cat's Roll (Right)

Ok I have to run for lunch with Mike, post more when I am back.

HUGS to all

Catherine

The new year is in full effect.

Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

It is the 15th and all is well. Michael is in Las Vegas for a conference this week. I head down to San Francisco a week today. I am headed down there to help Mike move to his new apartment. He is virtually moving into the parking lot of his work.

No he does not like the company THAT much!!! But this way he can just walk to work and home for lunch. Ok so that likely won’t happen. However it is really close.

Zeta and I have been busy. We almost have out storage unit cleaned out. One more load this weekend and we will be all done with it. Everything we own is officially in our house as of next Wednesday.

I have been curling in an all ladies curling league. It is really fun. So I am off to curling tonight.

The weather in Creston has been overly rainy and warm. Now warm is fantastic, yet it is January, I could use to have a bit of winter. So could the Olympics.

And on the Olympic note, the Olympic torch is going through Creston on the 23rd. If I was here I would go and see it.

Ok well I need to eat something and get to curling.

HUGS to all.

Catherine and Zeta (Mike from abitabroad)

Happy 2010 Everyone… We can not believe another year is past…

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

The last week has been very very busy. Mikey had to work right up until the last minute on New Year’s Eve. So there was no Calgary trip for us. Which was disappointing, but ended up being ok too. We of course wanted to see everyone, but it would have been stressful trying to get there before midnight. Soooo, we chose to just stay and have a couple of extra relaxing days in the house together.

Since we decided we were going to stay home, Betty and Paul decided to come over for the night. Our friends Crystal and Amanda and the girls also were not up to much so they came over too.

We had a fondue, which I had been wanting for a while, we watched Canada kick butt in World Jr. Hockey and the Flames kick the oils ass, we played Rock Band and we went tobogganing at close to midnight. All in all it was a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures from it.

beautiful flowers

Go Canada GO

My Canadian Olympic gear, which worked well for the Canadian Jr team!

yum pizza fondue

Is that Betty playing Rock Band???

No Chocolate fondue fighting!!!

Catherine and Zeta Sledding

Mike and Savanna hiking the advanced run

Here they are on the way down

I am GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!

The whole crew

We were amazed Zeta loves sledding, or was it that she LOVES chasing sleds with people on them.

Ok well that is enough for today other than my first time nail art job of today.

they are pretty cute...

Ok so here is a toast to all to have a great 2010, we hope it brings much happiness to all our friends and family. We hope that it allows Mike and I to spend a little more time together so that we can include all of our friends and family in our time together as well.

Hugs to all.

Catherine, Mike and Zeta signing out for the first time in 2010.

PS Mike goes back on Tuesday, so we will likely not post until after that.

lalalala – seeing if Mozilla works better than Chrome for posting

Monday, December 28th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

The Christmas tree Mike found and we took to Betty and Paul's

And Voila IT IS  – yippee back flip back flip !!!! Let the posting begin.

Mike and I had a fabulous Christmas at home together with little Z. We hung out Christmas eve together and ate great food and watched the movie The Hangover. It was very funny. Christmas day we slept in had coffee in bed. Made all the phone calls for the day.

In the afternoon we headed to Betty and Paul’s to eat dinner and play some games.

Mike and Z

Paul giggling away while carving a turkey - very dangerous - teehee

Here is my latest Kitchen gadget - A Tagine

A Tagine is used for North African and Moroccan cooking. Here is what I cooked in it last night.

This is Lemon Chicken Tagine - before stewing

Michael and I had a very quiet boxing day. Zeta was not feeling well for two days, so we had very little sleep running her out non stop, so we slept most of the day.

Yesterday we went to storage to assess if we still need a storage unit. We are so close to NOT needed a storage unit. It is very exciting.

It is snowing here right now, but just barely.

We are watching the Flames Kick the Oilers ASS right now. It is fantastic. World Junior Team Canada also won today – YIPPEE.

I love this time of year, there is just so much hockey!

Mike Zeta and I hope you are all very well and were able to spend some of your holiday season with your families.

Hugs to all.

M,C and Z

Busy Busy busy.. But we hope all had a great holiday…

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

It is the lull between storms here. We had a fabulous visit with Jim and Marnie. The kids were fantastic. Drew had a few muscle problems as he decided to take on his first big work out before coming out here.

There visit was short, but we had some great food and some fun laughs, playing various games, including little big planet and guesstures.

Here are some pictures from their visit. While they were here, we went and looked at some land too – for them of course – there was this amazing tree – you will see some pics of it too.

playing with z

Sledding Michael

goofing off

this is the cutest sock monkey hat ever

Bear marks on the amazing tree!!!

This tree is huge...

Christmas was good, but since I am still having technical difficulty, I would like to try something new. So I am going to post in a new thread.

HUGS to all

Mike and Catherine

Oh the weather outside is frightful!!!!

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Or at least it is in some parts of the world. Edmonton was officially the coldest place on earth the other night. YIKES. All we have to say is NOT IN CRESTON!!!

Sorry it has been so long since we have posted. I have been having some technical difficulties. We will have to see if I can add pictures to the blog yet, but either way I am posting this time.

Zeta and I have the Mike home now. He has been here for just over a week. It is fabulous to have him home. Zeta has been loving it.

We have done quite a few projects so far. We put up shelving in the garage. Here is a picture of it.

We are really happy with the shelving, it gives us way more room in the garage.

Almost done with the staircase which is great. We just need a railing.

Joel and Heidi came on Friday and as always it was a blast.

Here was a picture of Zeta waiting for them.

she is sooo cute

Well as of yesterday there was no snow, but we heard the snow plow go by first thing this morning. We had about 4 inches. Then nothing all day today. However it is snowing again now.

Jim and Marnie and the teens are all heading this way on Friday night. It will be very fun.

They are with us until Sunday when they head off on their ski vacation.

Well I just wanted to ensure I posted soon as I figured you guys thought I was forgetting you.

Catherine, Mike and Zeta