Another Dinner With Friends

Ryan's birthday is early in May so we decided to have a dinner party to celebrate. The theme this month was Italian food. Yum! I made this antipasto platter inspired by my Aunt Jo who makes amazing antipasto platters. I'm so glad that Harmon's carries most of the ingredients necessary to assemble one of these for a get together.

Whitney and Ryan are making fresh pasta to go with the red pepper sauce that I made. The task was a bit arduous but I have a different style pasta maker that I think might be a little more user friendly.

Liz's pups hoping someone would drop some antipasto.

Here's the finished main course. Delish!

Finally, the two goof balls getting ready to devour the coconut cupcakes that Liz made which were amazing!

Whit made Ryan a mix tape for his birthday which may the most adorable thing that I've ever heard. Rumor has it that he may have made one for her too.

Happy Thanksgiving

I adore watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Perhaps it is a way to feel connected to my family in New York while living out west (let me clarify, they watch the parade on TV too). Maybe I just like parades (I do). Anyhow, seeing the parade in person is on my bucket list. Yesterday, I found an article that listed hotels that are on the parade route and as I bookmarked it dreamily thinking about how fun it would be to order room service and watch the parade. Then, last night, my daughter who is going to school in New York starts sending me text messages while she and some friends were wandering around the upper west side looking for the parade balloons. Next thing I know, she is sending me photos! Sigh, maybe next Thanksgiving I'll be able to cross this off my list...

Random iPhone Photo Fun

I've been having fun with some iPhone camera apps lately. My friend Jodi introduced me to Hipstamatic which makes your photos look totally groovy. You can choose your lens and film type to produce different effects. Hipstamatic costs $1.99 from the iTumes store and you can also purchase additional lenses and film types for $0.99. Here are few that I took over the weekend.





Next up is Instagram (a free app) which allows you to view and save photos taken with your iPhone camera using different filters for various effects.



Finally, I couldn't resist spending the buck or two on IncrediBooth which simulates photo booth fun without the worry of who was going to sit on who's lap. You can choose between three different finishes including black and white. Super fun! The first strip is England's Glory, Mannaramma, and I hamming it up at Gallery Stroll and the other is Ryan and I goofing off before we tried to conquer level 20 of Angry Birds. Still no dice on that.

Travels

I've been to three cities in the last three weeks. All trips were work-related but held in fabulous locales. My previous post describes my trip to Tampa. The following week I went to Lake Tahoe which despite the cold, rainy weather is still a beautiful place to visit. Finally, last week I was at Duke University in Raleigh, North Carolina for the third and final Geographic Information Systems (GIS) training. I can make maps!

In the two days I was home last week between trips, Ryan and I rode up the canyon to walk around Silver Lake. Here are a few photos from our outing.

Father's Day Weekend

I traveled to Florida to spend Father's Day with my Dad. After all the turmoil with his health and impending divorce we decided that we needed a few days of fun. We spent five days at a resort listening to live music, golfing, swimming, and eating. I'm ready to relocate to Florida, it's like living in paradise!

Posing along the boardwalk heading over to the square to listen to live music.

Lunch at the country club before a round of golf. I didn't play I just drove the cart but this trip has me thinking that I ought to take up the sport. Have you seen the cute clothes? Plus, we hit some balls at the driving range and I didn't do half bad. If I start playing now I'll probably kick ass at golf by the time I retire. :)

My Dad with his sweet new ride. She's a sporty, two door Honda Accord.

The Crazy Month of May

My life has been spinning crazy out of control lately. I've been traveling a lot for work, in fact, tomorrow will be my first day in the office since May 13! I've been to Raleigh, North Carolina for a GIS (Geographic Information System) training and then spent the following week at the Daniels Summit Lodge located 16 miles outside of Heber, Utah. Both trainings were fantastic and I plan to write about them in more detail very soon. But, in the meantime, I just needed to get back into the practice of writing.

As some of you know, my father was in town visiting from Florida. He is going through a tough life transition right now and my sister and I thought that it would be good for him to come to Salt Lake to spend some time with us. While he was in town he developed a serious medical issue and spent six days in the hospital. His original two week stay ended up being over five weeks long. He flew home yesterday morning.

While it was a horrible ordeal for him (and my sister and I) I also think it was a great opportunity. My parents divorced when I was 16 and he moved away from Salt Lake shortly thereafter. I've never spent more than a week with him since that time. His prolonged visit enabled us to have some long overdue conversations and gain insight into each other's psyches which would not have happened had he not had this terrible thing happen to him.

I'm happy to report that physically is doing great. I think the whole experience was a big wake up call to him. He's become very committed to exercising regularly and eating healthy foods. The healthy foods part may be a bit of trick since he doesn't possess much in the way of cooking skills. But, he called me tonight to ask advice on how to cook tilapia. Apparently, he'd stopped at the store to purchase fish and a salad for dinner. I am so impressed!

Anyway, it's good to be back! I'm looking forward to getting back on a roll and writing regularly.

Communicating with a Parent

My Dad has been in town this week and talking with him about television shows and movies totally reminded me of the Saturday Night Live skit.

Don't Freak Out, I'm OK But...

A 7:00am phone call is never a good way to start the day. Hardly anything good ever comes from one.

Lauren: "Hi Mom, don't freak, I'm okay but..."

Me: "but what?"

Lauren: "I got hit by a cab last night."

Me: "Oh my God, are you okay, did you get hurt, holy crap" (my voice is rising and respiration increasing by the nanosecond)

Lauren: "Mom! Mom! Mom! I told you not to freak out. I'm okay. I just needed a few stitches on my face."

Seriously, parenthood is not for the faint of heart. Sounds like she'll now have a scar near her eyebrow just like I do. She's got some road rash on her leg and is bit sore from hitting the ground and tired from being in the ER half the night. I know it could have been much worse.

The ironic part is that Lauren has a seriously bad reputation for jay-walking (I do too so I can't say anything). In fact, her old boyfriend used to call her Tenacious J! But last night she was in a crosswalk crossing with the light. She didn't even see it coming.

I guess the upside of being hit by a cab is a free ride to and from the hospital. I'm thinking she should get free cab rides for life! With that rite of passage behind her I think she can officially call herself a New Yorker now.

Sunrise, Sunset

Dang, Ban's nieces are looking more and more like young women and less like little girls! We celebrated their birthdays yesterday by making pizzas at Gloria's house. Ban and I picked up a couple of derby t-shirts from my friend Veronica who has her own derby-related clothing line Scarred Derby Designs. You can check out her website here. I also picked up a few pairs of knee socks from Target which went the shirts. The girls decided to wear mismatched knee socks. I think they look adorable! Plus, the girls were looking great on their skates. Future derby girls?

I ♥ NY

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

As many of you know, a giant piece of my heart currently resides in my birth place, New York City. One of my favorite cousins sent me the link to the amazing video of the sights of daily life in New York over the course of the day. Be sure to let it fully load and view it on full screen if possible. Watching it made me start checking air fares. I need to go back to see my girl and my city.

Happy Friday!

Best of 2009 Challenge - Trip

Blogger and social media guru extraordinaire, Gwen Bell posed a challenge to bloggers yesterday on twitter. She outlined 31 days of blog topics which all involve some reflection upon the past year. I loved the idea and today is the first day of the challenge. So, here is a post about my best trip in 2009. This was tough because I took a few really fun trips but one stands out as a milestone in a year full of ups and downs.

The best trip of 2009 was my summer trip to Island Park with my son. One of my dearest friends owns a cabin up there and she and her daughter were planning to spend the week there at the end of July. We pretty much crashed their week by inviting ourselves up there on a whim. You can read about the trip here. However, there was more to the story that I wasn't able to write about at the time.

Earlier this year, Ryan experienced some serious health problems. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. I've never felt more helpless. We are very lucky that we have good health insurance and were able to get Ryan excellent medical care when he needed it. His path to recovery was steady but slow.

What made the trip to Island Park remarkable was how happy and healthy my son appeared that week. He seemed like his old self for the first time in over six months. I kept watching him and found myself moved to tears on several occasions. I've always believed that this cabin is a magical place but this trip made my heart believe that everything was going to be alright after all.

Quinoa, Leek, & Cherry Stuffed Turkey Breast

Ban made a sensational stuffed turkey breast for dinner yesterday. There were only going to be five of us for Thanksgiving dinner this year so we didn't want to cook an entire turkey. He found the recipe on Dani Spies website. Here is a link to the quinoa, leek, and cherry stuffing.

We bought a turkey breast and for some reason, we were surprised when we got it home and found that it was basically a turkey with no legs or wings. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but nonetheless, we had to figure out how to debone the damn thing. Thank God, Ban is fearless and you can find instructional videos on how to do pretty much anything on youtube. I've included a link to the youtube video that we used if you are interested.

The process of deboning is a little gruesome if you are a meat-a-phobe like me, but as usual, Ban did an amazing job. After he skinned and deboned the turkey breast, he pounded it out flat. Then, he spread a layer of thinly sliced black forest ham over the breast. Next, he placed the quinoa, leek, and cherry stuffing over the ham.


Then, he rolled and trussed the bird. The deboned turkey breast cooks much more quickly than a whole bird so we were ready to roll after an hour and half in the oven.


The end product looked gorgeous and tasted delicious. The turkey was tender and juicy and the stuffing was light and flavorful. We'll definitely add this recipe into the holiday meal rotation.

Hell Yah!

How cool is my kid? Check this out!

Sunday Dinner with the New York Fam

I spent the weekend with my New York family. I went to the city, visited the Tenement Museum, and ate at some charming (read small) cafes. I spent a few nights with cousin on Long Island and had a great time with her ridiculously adorable daughter.

But one of the highlights was having Sunday dinner with my Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, cousins, and the cousin's babies. We so rarely have the opportunity to share a meal together which is a shame because my Aunt Jo is an excellent cook.

Tonight, we started the meal with antipasto. Besides being visually stunning it tasted like salty, creamy deliciousness. Next up was my spaghetti with my Aunt's famous meatballs and tomato sauce. Heaven!

For dessert, we had the choice of chocolate cheesecake, crumb cake (my fave!), or chocolate covered pretzels and mugs of steaming coffee.

After dinner I headed back into the city to meet up with the girl child. We're having a sleep over at her place tonight which thus far has consisted of us camped out on her bed each with a laptop on our lap. It's been way too long since we've had a girls night like this.

Halloween 2009 - Yip Yip

Another year of incredibly creative Halloween costumes this year. Ryan's was especially spectacular. He was a Yip Yip. Do you remember the Yip Yips from Sesame Street? Here's a little video clip in case you don't. Ryan's Dad made the costume and it turned out amazing, right?

So Proud!

Look at the big brain on Lauren! Her diploma arrived this week and although we did not know it during the commencement ceremony in June, she was graduated Cum Laude! (see arrow above)

Lauren in Queens

I went to see Lauren's new apartment in Queens on Sunday. I was so nervous about it beforehand. What if it was roach-infested rat's nest? What if the neighborhood seemed filled with shady characters? How could I be expected to leave my baby girl in New York under these conditions?

Happily, the place she found is newly remodeled. She shares the place with two roommates and her room is quite spacious (so rare in NYC!) But my favorite thing about her place is the street that she lives on. It is a dead end street so there is very little traffic. While we were there on Sunday several kids were riding their bikes and scooters on the block and many neighbors sitting outside on their stoop enjoying the gorgeous weather.

I was so relieved and am now really able to be excited for her! Good job, Lauren!

And She's Off....

Well, it looks like the spawn has found domicile in Queens, NY. She'll be in Ridgewood to be precise. Ridgewood is near where my Grandmother used to live and where my Mom and Aunt lived when they were teenagers. Here's a map which shows her proximity to Manhattan where some of her classes will be held and to Brooklyn where she'll have classes at the Brooklyn Public Library.


View Larger Map

I'm still struggling with her being so far away and worry about her safety. Especially when I think about her traveling around town on public transit at night after classes. But these are my problems, not hers, and I'll figure out a way to cope with my anxiety.

She has orientation on Wednesday and starts classes on Monday. I'll be heading her direction on Wednesday and I'll let you know about the safety of the neighborhood. the condition of her apartment, and first impressions of the eastern European room mates....

Island Park, Idaho - July 2009

Last week, my son Ryan and I spent a few wonderful days at our friend's cabin in Island Park, Idaho. The cabin is absolutely the most relaxing place on earth for me. Ryan and I left right after work and made it to the cabin by sunset which we enjoyed from the dock. Ryan also discovered that he too loves This American Life and we blew through all the podcasts that I downloaded to my iPod on the way up there.

Another great thing about visiting the cabin while my girlfriend Liz is up there is the amazing food that she and her daughter Whitney always make. This trip was no exception. We dined on grilled pork tenderloin with blackberry sage sauce accompanied by grilled veggies one night followed by a rustic apple tart. The next night we had elk burgers stuffed with cheese, mushrooms and onions and homemade french fries (both regular and sweet potatoes). But the highlight of that meal had to be the fresh baked brownies and freshly made espresso ice cream. Yum! Don't worry, I will be procuring the recipes for my collection.

While we were at the cabin we also did a little of this.

Some of this.


and this:
And no trip to the cabin would be complete without some scratch off lottery tickets. I think we won $38 in total!
But the best part was getting to spend some time with great friends, enjoying good food, and having lots of laughs.

Lauren's Big Day

Well, it's official. Lauren is a college graduate! Sunday morning at the Key Arena in Seattle, Lauren and about 1,000 other students received their degrees. I can't believe how fast these four years have passed.

She's had such terrific experiences at Seattle University. She met wonderful friends, took challenging courses, hosted a rockabilly radio show on the college radio station and eventually became the music director, and of course, spent her last semester abroad in Grenoble, France. She traveled to Germany, Ireland, and Spain while in Europe. This kid has done stuff that I've only dreamed of.

I can't wait to see what she's going to do next! Well, besides starting graduate school in the fall at Pratt in Manhattan. :)