just another day

Books were due at the library, so we headed to the OC. Luckily we were against the traffic, but I still jumped into the carpool lane. It is actually cool to take the carpool lane when you can exit to another freeway without leaving the carpool lane. I took the 57 to the 5 to the 55 to the 405, all without leaving the carpool lane. Saved us a good 15 minutes.

Once the books were dropped off, we stopped in at Sprinkles. There wasn't a line, and the women working were not as snotty as usual. They have Thanksgiving flavors coming out for the holiday, but I think pie is more a Thanksgiving dessert.

From there we headed to Fashion Island. I bought a shower curtain. Why are they so expensive? Even with a 20% discount, it was still pricey. Restoration Hardware is having their big Friends & Family sale. They have coupons at the check out lane, although we printed one out. Sale is also good on line (coupon code there too), and ends the 16th of November.

We had dinner at Cafe R&D. They are part of a group that owns Bandera, where we had dinner last week. They had the veggie burger. I had the Newport Chicken Salad, which is served deconstructed. Even though the waitress warned me, I almost thought the wrong order had arrived at our table.

Last stop was Whole Foods. B found this recipe for Butternut Onion Galette. I will make it this weekend. I also got another pumpkin, so I can make pie for Thanksgiving. We actually checked out around quarter to ten. It was surprisingly busy.

Driving home the winds were pretty gusty. The civic got blown around a bit. We are not under one hundred miles from the 200,000 mark.

Arrived back at the house to turn on the news and see that Slymar is on fire. Pretty scary. We can smell the smoke from the other side of the San Gabriel Valley.

on the night stand :: A Penguin Story

some randomness

Tonight I am baking a pumpkin pie completely from scratch. I roasted the pumpkin and pureed it. I also make the crust.

Today we went to Claremont so B could got his shaggy hair cut. He told the woman who cut his hair that he was going on a job interview. Apparently he always says this to a new hairdresser (or one he hasn't seen in a while). I was a bit surprised when she said, "Good luck - hope you get the job!"

When we walked outside, I asked B if he had something to tell me. Had he been pretending to the office in the morning, but instead going to his coworker's house to play Guitar Hero? He explained his little trick to get a better hair cut.

On the way back we stopped at Fresh & Easy. One of the things I love is that if you spend $20, you can get a coupon for $5 off your purchase. They also will let you try any product in the store.

B found frozen shu mei. He wasn't sure about them, since they didn't have pork, then remembered what he had heard. So he walked over to the samples area, and asked if he could try them. With a smile, the woman said sure. He just needed to stick around for a bit while she heated them in the microwave.

They weren't bad, but not what he was expecting. We ended up not getting them. To be fair, we had just have what had have been called the best dumplings in the San Gabriel Valley last night, so I am not sure what would have lived up to that.

We had been back at the house for a bit when we had two different people come to the door almost back to back. It was like one was waiting in the bushes until the left. The first wanted to clean the carpets at no charge. I sent him away. The second was collecting for this charity that feeds the hungry by painting house numbers on curbs. B gave her a check for the average donation - $13.

Okay pie is ready.

on the night stand :: This I Believe IIou