Bentornato!

My mom is back from Italy, which of course meant a big dinner at the parents' house last night and lots of treats from her trip! Here's a photo of her in Venice at a lovely store called Nardi. Excellent.

We watched the Giants smash the Rangers in the first game of the World Series, had a delish dinner of rack of lamb, twice baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, salad and a pumpkin gingerbread trifle for dessert - yum yum.

What kind of loot did we get from Italy, you ask? Good stuff.....a really cool bracelet, a pretty necklace, a beautiful crucifix and chain (from the Ponte Vecchio, too!), a Christmas ornament with a scene in Tuscany painted on it, a t-shirt, some hazlenut chocolate candies, some lavender soap and a pasta spoon (that doubles as a Riley back scratcher). We are spoiled!

Fish Tacos & Football

It's been a whirlwind of family time in the last week or so, which is rare for us. On Monday night, for the Cowboys vs. Giants game, Tim and Brennan came over for fish tacos and football. The Rogers men live for the Cowboys (such a shame) so I thought it would be fun for them to watch the game together and get treated to dinner, too.

I found this recipe online, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/fish-tacos-recipe/index.html, and I thought it turned out pretty good. I had to use fresh Pacific Cod instead of Mahi Mahi because Whole Paycheck, I mean Whole Foods, didn't have any. I thought about using Tilapia, too, but it was farmed. Thumbs down to farmed fish (if you ask me). I also made some Spanish rice and black beans, yum yum.

Apparently, my fish tacos are bad luck because Tony Romo broke his clavicle and is out for 6-8 weeks and the Cowboys lost. Oops. Brian claims we're now Raiders fans, but let me tell you, that will NEVER happen. I hate the Raiders.

Rain, Rain and a Concert

We had a busy, busy, but rainy, weekend. I had Friday off and I took care of lots of small stuff - trip to the vet for Riley's vaccines, a trip to Target for all sorts of goodies, spin class at the gym, cleaned the house, did some laundry - very productive.

Then, we set off in the midst of rush hour traffic for a night at Debbie & Mitch's in Vacaville - had some delish cheese steak sandwiches for dinner, played dominoes, watched the dogs play, chatted - all the good stuff.

Saturday morning, after a yummy breakfast, we headed further east to drop my ring off for inspection/cleaning, hit up REI - new snowboard bindings for Brian (a very delayed birthday present from me) and a Christmas present for Riley, hit up the Halloween store for glow sticks for my cousins....then made our way to Loomis for a visit and dinner with the aunt, uncle and little cousins. Here, we played some Barbies, wrestled (more like Brian wrestled), played with the dogs and Amy made a scrumptious tortilla soup for dinner.

We ended the night by dropping Brian off for a bar night with the dudes and Riley and I headed home to watch Glee in bed.

Sunday morning was a glorious, lazy morning - slept in, did laundry, baked some pumpkin bread....then Stefania picked me up for the Bridge School Benefit concert. We were back and forth on heading to the outdoor concert venue in the pouring rain, but ELTON JOHN was going to be there, after all. So we layered on the gortex and waterproof shoes and headed south. Grizzly Bear (who?) kicked off the concert, followed by Modest Mouse, Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, Elvis Costello, Leon Russell and finally Elton John. Although I had a great time (the company was awesome) and the music was good, we were devastated that Elton John didn't play ANY classics - only new stuff. Boo to that. We left before Pearl Jam and Buffalo Springfield as we were soaking wet, head to toes. Proof of the fun and the rain:

Thanks again to Stef and her mom, Toni for the great day!

Sweet Baby Reese

On October 5, the world welcomed little baby Reese Jennings Davis into it. I have been very fortunate and was able to visit baby Reese in Nashville at 1 day old on October 6 and again just this past Wednesday at a wee 2 weeks old. Let me tell you, that baby is pre-cious! Such perfect, clear skin, all wide curious eyes and so content. Congrats to Reese and Alli!

Holiday Fun

This starts next month less than a mile from our house.....can't wait. This might be a LITTLE weird, but I think it will also be really cool. Christmas is so close - just a little over two months! Check it out: www.dickensfair.com

Pumpkins Cont'd

Today, we made our way to Half Moon Bay for the Art & Pumpkin Festival with Stefania and Raja. We left early to beat the traffic and arrived just in time for the rain. We didn't get any photos because of the awful weather, but we did sample a slide of a pumpkin roll, pumpkin bread, pork tamale, and the boys had some pumpkin beer. Shortly after we arrived, we left to get out of the rain and stopped for lunch at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co - the boys shared nachos and Stef and I shared a crab and prawn steamer....yum, yum!

We were home by 1 and the weather was perfect for curling up on the couch to watch football. Riley took the lead:

We had a fantastic weekend and I'm certainly sad it's over. At least Brian and I both won our fantasy football games...too bad Dallas lost. Now, it's back to the grind...kicking off tomorrow with a work trip to Nashville until Thursday.

Corn Mazed

Imagine 45 acres of 8 foot tall corn plants....bigger than the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records corn maze. That's what we did on Saturday. We headed up to Dixon to Cool Patch Pumpkins patch with some old friends to challenge ourselves to the world's largest corn maze.

Here's a photo of Riley posing in the pumpkin patch. So exhausted from the 2+ hours in the corn maze, ready to pick out some pumpkins.

Here's the family photo in the patch - had to get this snapshot!
Acres and acres of corn...

Here's what the maze looked like from a tower....

And here it is from within...

Would we do the maze again? Probably not, but it was a fun day and a good experience. We enjoyed watching all the fighting couples and frustrated families trying to navigate the maze (p.s. they handed out maps)...hello, people....it's a maze, it's supposed to be difficult.

We bought two perfect pumpkins - one is fat and round like a cartoon pumpkin. Looking forward to our carving creations this year in a couple weeks. More blogging to come on that!

Whoa, Dogs

Today, I had the opportunity to take Riley to Fort Funston for a jog along the beach, hike along the dunes and a swim in the cold ocean. While we ran around and played fetch and get nice and sandy, we ran into a Dog Walker. A Dog Walker with NINE dogs. That's right....NINE....9. It was unreal. Imagine the hair! Imagine the poop!

Fleet Week

We haven't been around for Fleet Week and the Blue Angels for four years so it was a real treat to get to watch them this year - and a double treat since we went to Angel Island to watch the show. I have never been before and it's such a fabulous way to take a look at the city on a clear day.

We started the day out by hauling a very hung over Brian off the couch, throwing him in the shower, and jumping into the car to drive to Tiburon to take the ferry. We wanted to avoid parking down near the piers in SF and also didn't want to take the bus so we bit the bullet and drove across the Golden Gate to the other side of the bridge.

The ferry ride was gorgeous. Tiburon and Belvedere are SUCH pretty little bay towns. Take a look at this view!

And here come the Blue Angels! They sored over our heads and we could see the vibrant blue and yellow US Navy paint.
There they are in a straight line flying in line with the Bay Bridge. Those suckers are loud! Check out all the boats in the bay, too.

Here they are again, perfectly arranged flying high above the city, all the sail boats and Alcatraz, too.

Had to take advantage of the perfect photo opp, too. We sat way up high on Angel Island with a beautiful view of the Golden Gate.

Nashvegas

I've spent two work trips in Nashville now....and heading back next week for a third. What do I think? LOVE IT. Such a cool city! Looking forward to going back - might even have to bring the hubster out for a visit, too.

Why do I like Nashville so much?

1) Great country music all day and night long coming from the restaurants and bars - I actually KNOW the words!

2) Delicious BBQ...anyone who knows me, knows I love pulled pork sandwiches!

3) Southern manners - men opening doors, pleases and thank yous, ma'ams, and all the pet names, too!

Sniff, Sniff...

Dear Hobby Lobby,

I miss you. No craft / home decor store could ever replace you. Kicking off the holiday decorating season is very sad without you.

Love,

Gina