playing catch up

yikes. Where did the time go. We're rounding the bend, nearing the end of a jam-packed year and frankly, I've lost steam. I keeping doing a little different, but finding it hard to keep up. The night after I had dinner Texas, Sarah and I got together for dinner at the Melting Pot in Larkspur. I was thwarted on my way over by some horrific traffic. I landed, at the landing, about 15 minutes late. I was certain that I would arrive on time, getting out of work a few minutes early. Sarah and I had salads and then shared an anemic artichoke and cheese fondu. Anemic as there was hardly a ramekin of artichoke hearts stirred in. That's not to say that it wasn't cheesy-good, but it wasn't exactly an artichoke fondu.

On Thursday, Veteran's Day, I raced home from work to make two-dozen cupcakes for a work pot-luck. I was under tremendous pressure to produce. One of my colleagues had become known for her baked good after having finished baking school at Tante Marie's. Charlotte's pasteries are world-class, delicious and gorgeous. Her standards were high and I had to be creative. I decided to use the persimmons from our tree. Remembering the creativity of the cooks on Cupcake Wars, I started scouring the cupboards for interesting ingredients. I used ground clove, ground anise, ground in a little orange tea, plus the usual "pumpkin-pie" spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. I made a caramel and worked that into a butter cream frosting to put on top.

During the pot luck, Charlotte came over to me and raved about the cupcake telling me I should be very proud of myself. She LOVED the frosting, thought it was fantastic and thought the flavor was really good - interesting flavors. I love the creativity. I was inspired.

On Saturday, I hooked up in Marin with my junior high school best friend Joanna. We met for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Corte Madera. There was something about getting together with my friend in Marin, where I just felt I needed a glass of wine. I was surrounded by kids and dogs, and Juicy Couture. Marin is just not the place it was when I grew up. Money, money money - everyone had money, but today people show it. My dad started the trend. Jo and I had a great time. We've surpassed the "getting back in touch" stage and moved into a new, natural stage of our friendship, where we're not just catching up on the last decade, but where we're catching up on just the last month or so. After lunch we wandered around the mall. Dogs and babies surrounded us. Before I knew it it was 4 p.m. and I was late to get home. I told John I'd be home in time to go out with him that night. My friend Shannon was coming into town from the tri-cities area of Washington state, Kennewick.

Upon her arrival and after a few minutes of hugging and ooing and awing over our newly renovated yard, we walked down to Sidebar restaurant. Shannon was just happy to be eating at some place other than a chain like, say, Cheesecake Factory or Red Robbin.

I was telling Shannon the story of how I was outed as a liberal when I was in Birmingham and our bartender came over and was fascinated by the story. "I love this!" He wanted to hear more. When, but in CA, can you tell the story of being outed as a liberal and a waiter has to hover like he's in your dinner party? It was entertaining. Our waiter was originally from the mid-west and found it oppressive and too conservative (no surprise) and ended up on this end of the world. For the rest of the evening, he was our new friend.

Sunday was a beautiful day. The sky was bright blue and the temperature was going to be in the 80s. I don't care if it's global warming, global weirding, or just California sunshine - the weather was fabulous. We rode our bikes down to Beer Revolution. I love the owner, Rebecca. She's super cool - tatted up, dark hair, super friendly: I know you! I've seen you here before, she hollered at me as I stood in line. John and I decided on a flight of 6 different beers for $15 bucks. We sat out on the deck and sipped at our offerings. I fell in love, and I mean love with the Chocolate Pilsner - I had to let everyone at our table try it (nope - didn't know them) and they all loved it too - not bitter, not sweet, just delicious. For some reason I seemed to have a magnet on for funny people (not ha ha) and this guy sort of glommed onto us. He was okay, except he kept drinking and kept talking and finally, I hit my yakker max and let John know it was time for us to hit the road. But that was not before John had run around the corner to get a fried oyster po-boy with some sweet potato fries. Yum!

After lunch we hopped on our bikes and made our way home. I was H-O-T and we were now late for dinner at Kirsten and John's house. We had to quickly shower, shave and shine and hit the road for another social event (Damn - we were busy!).