Court's 23rd Birthday

Courtnay turned 23 on Friday, so I made sure to pamper her as much as possible. For breakfast, I cooked pancakes for the both of us, even though it ended up taking a full hour with cleanup because I forgot an ingredient in the first batch :-). I stayed and worked from home for the day, while she started working on the 1000-piece puzzle that her parents gave her, among other things, for her birthday. For dinner, I cooked her one of two dishes that I actually know how to cook: a shrimp alfredo pasta dish. After that, we went out with Kevin and Joel for drinks and dessert in downtown Palo Alto. Courtnay got to wear the dress her parents gave her for her birthday and the rest of us guys went business casual:


The bar that we were thinking of going to turned out to be a really busy restaurant, so we headed to the second place on our list, which was also in downtown Palo Alto. When we got there it wasn't very busy so we ended up staying there for the night. It was a really cool Indian-Californian fusion named Mantra that had a great atmosphere. Yeah I don't really know what it means either, but it had some cool Indian food in really small portions that was really expensive. Courtnay and I stuck with the drinks and dessert though and Joel bought a round of Washington Apples for everyone.

Promontory

One of the greatest things about working in Silicon Valley is being completely spoiled by the company you work for. VMware opened a new campus this past summer with what will eventually be 5 buildings. My department moved into the campus very early on and it is a work in progress, but it is turning out very well. Here are some pictures:

This is the outside of our cafeteria:

The building on the left is the one I work in:

This is a cool waterfall that is behind where the receptionists sit during the daytime:

Having some sort of pond at a VMware building is a company tradition, because we throw soon-to-be-weds in the pond. I got thrown in last summer and got even by throwing Chouhan in when the water was freezing cold a few months ago:



Court and Mom sitting in the chairs. They look really hard and uncomfortable, but they were surprisingly soft:


Here's an action shot of work. I like to teach my pet dog how to program the computer. He is getting really good and sometimes takes over when I go play ping pong. On the left is a fancy picture that Kevin Tudball drew (More illustrations from Kevin). Courtnay printed it and had it framed by her Dad as a Christmas gift for me!

I'm Hooked!

I (Courtnay) am totally hooked! I am hooked to this awesome website called www.etsy.com. I was checking out some of my favorite websites (listed to the right) and kept seeing this other website (etsy) being mentioned. So I thought I would check it out and now I can't stop browsing! You can get anything on there and it is all so cool!
I am also hooked to the soundtrack to Once. Adam and I watched it with some friends a couple weeks ago and loved it. So he bought the soundtrack and now it is always playing or in my head. Especially track 2. Love it!

Trip to Michigan

Adam and I went back to Michigan this past Wednesday through Sunday. It was a great time. Adam was recruiting at the internship fair at the School of Engineering. It was a free trip for him and I just tagged along. We arrived late Wednesday night at went out to eat at the only place open for dinner at 10pm, Pizza House. Thursday, Adam was at the fair till 3pm and I hung out on campus and caught up with Gaia. Then Adam and I met my parents for dinner at Cottage Inn and went to the basketball game. I went home with my parents for the Thursday and Friday nights. I wanted to see Reese (who is getting big!)

and go though some of my mom’s vintage table cloths and drapes. It was very relaxing in Cass City. On Saturday, we met Adam at Birch Run. Adam and I drove back to Ann Arbor and met my friends Jessica, Carissa, and Allison at our fav sushi place, Sadako.

After, we went to the Heidelberg for happy hour. It was really great to see then and catch up on liFe. They left at about 7:30 and Adam and I decided that we were not ready to call it a night so we walked around town. We then went to Ashley’s for pizza and beer and rounded out the night with some Stucchi’s ice cream. Sunday we got up and went to church were we saw a bunch of old friends. After, we went out to lunch with Adam’s brother Dave, Gaia, and my sis-in-law Sarah at BW3’s. It was a jam packed trip but was so much fun. We truly enjoyed it and greatly miss Ann Arbor!

New Pictures

The silver leafed table I did yesterday. I am very happy with how it looks and so is Adam. Yea! It's like having a new table.I was feeling a bit crafty one day and made a pillow. It was somewhat of a pain considering I don't have a sewing machine. Maybe I will get one someday. I like how it looks but I am afraid that it will come apart at the seams someday soon.

The view from our balcony on Monday the 28th, in between the rain.

I made some amazing blueberry muffins a couple weeks ago. They looked so good I had to take a picture.

Here is the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/To-Die-For-Blueberry-Muffins/Detail.aspx

I did follow some of the suggestions in the reviews.

Rain, rain, go away!

Well life in Cali has been very wet lately. It has been raining and raining for the past 3-4 days. It stopped a little bit yesterday and Adam and I ventured out. We went to the local farmers market and got some good vegs and fruit. I really enjoy going to the farmers market on Saturdays. There is always something new, good, and cheap. Later that night we went out to dinner with another couple that we knew from Michigan that also live in the area. We went to an amazing Indian restaurant in Santana Row called Amber. After dinner, we decided that we were so stuffed from all the butter chicken that we would skip the bar and go home and watch Planet Earth. It was a nice and relaxing evening.

I hope it isn't raining tomorrow. I have a project I want to do but need to do it outside. I bought a really cheap side table a few weeks ago at Ikea and I want to silver leaf it. It is a cream color and just looks very boring. There was a mirrored table at Target that I have had my eye on for months now waiting for it to go on sale but it never does. So I have decided to make my $9.99 table go the distance and make it shine! But for this to happen, it needs to stop raining!! I have to sand the table and then spray the adhesive on it out on the balcony. If this happens and it looks good, I will try and put a picture up.

We will be leaving the rain behind this week! Adam and I are flying to Michigan on Wednesday! We are very excited to see everyone. I am also excited to be back in the snow for a bit.

New Friends

This last week, we have had the pleasure of hanging out with some new friends for the first time in a long while. It has been pretty rough meeting new people around here, so it was really refreshing finally being able expand our circle of friends.

I (Adam) had hit it off with a guy named Nathan at a Saturday men's conference and we had kept in touch a bit over the last couple months. Then a couple of weeks ago, Nathan invited us to a bi-weekly couple's bible study at their house with his wife and another couple. Then today, Joel, Court, and I visited the church they go to and then went to lunch with them and a different couple. It was a great day full of good conversation, good company, and good Red Robin burgers! We will probably visit again next month but in the mean time, we are looking forward to some Tuesday bible studies.