It's Been A While

It's almost been a whole year since I posted on this blog but it's time to jump back into a routine. 

2014 was a great year!  I went to culinary school, visited Berlin, started my very own small business, and am getting ready to spend New Years in Sydney, Australia. 

Get ready to see more posts about what I'm up to, and not just food! (Come on, I know you really love the food posts.)

:)M

HighLights of 2013

This past year was pretty great.  So great that my blog posts went seriously downhill - as you can tell as the last post was in May.  

So let's do a highlights, shall we?

I turned 30! We had a "Rock Star" themed party at the DNA Lounge, and I insisted everyone dress up - obviously.  I went as Jem, which is why 9 months later my hair is still pink, craziness.  Bob went as Sid Vicious, he looked pretty great.

We went Hang Gliding a couple of times and loved it.

I visited Seattle for the first time.  Of course we went to the Space Needle.  

Bob and I got to tour NASA JPL down in Pasadena with Dan Goods.  It was amazing, we even got to see the Mars Rovers double!

I visited Portland for the first time!  

I went camping and didn't hate it!

We went to Las Vegas with Bob's parents and Aunt and Uncle.  AND we saw Meat Loaf! 

We went to Budapest and Krakow!

We went to NYC, and saw "Kinky Boots!"

We dressed up as Fiona and Finn from "Adventure Time" for Halloween.

We went to New Orleans!

 

I took about 10 really awesome and fun cooking classes with San Francisco Cooking School which leads me to...

I was accepted for the San Francisco Cooking School's Spring Semester Full-Time Culinary Program!!!!  I'm going to cooking school!

In less than a week I begin culinary school! I'm going to be mostly updating the BiCoastalBites blog because my life will be more food-centric, so if you wanna know what's going on check out BCB.

Happy New Year 2014!  Let's all have a blast!

Hang Gliding

Bob and I were invited by our friends Fred and Jo to go hang-gliding down in Hollister, CA.  We of course said yes, and we had so much fun that we immediately purchased five more flights each so we could continue to fly.  I'd been para-gliding before but hang-gliding is much more comfortable and enjoyable for a beginner.  (At least in my opinion.)  That's not to say that I didn't enjoy my para-gliding experience because I did.  But hang-gliding is definitely the better choice for me.

 

 

 

 

 

We've used the company Mission Soaring for our lessons, and we've had Mike as our instructor both times. Mike is awesome, I cannot say enough amazing things about him. He's a great teacher, and great at helping you understand the movements of the glider and super encouraging and friendly. In other words, I heart Mike.

We took a bunch of videos of us flying on our first lesson. Not so many this second lesson because, while we were better there wasn't enough of a difference to really show off.

Here is my last flight of the day.

 

 

And Bob's last flight of the day.

 

 

Me at the end of the day after my pink hair had run all over me.

Each lesson is 4 hours long, and there's a lot of moving around. You run down the hill to fly, and then you push the glider back up the hill to fly again. It's a great work out. If you're thinking about going make sure to slather on the sun screen and take lots of water with you. And then just have good time.

I'll leave you with my wipe out video. I didn't get hurt, and I'm happy that it happened earlier on in taking lessons rather than later. I feel like it's a pretty graceful wipe out.

 

What Have I Been Up To

So, my New Year's resolution to keep up on my blog has only partially been realized, and obviously not on this blog.  I've been pretty good about updating BiCoastalBites, so there's that.

Anyway, let's get down to it, what have I been up to?  Lots of things!

Online Computer Classes - Thanks to my friend Amanda I discovered I could take a ton of different classes about computer programming online via Skillshare.  I took the HTML/CSS course and am now in the middle of a Javascript course.  I'm going to be a freakin' computer genius.  Really I signed up for these classes so that I can have more control over my blogs, and things I post online.  It's nice to kind of have a base for what's going on.  I'm working on a website to help market myself as a contractor for office work in the Bay Area.  Once my site is done I'll definitely let everyone know.

Cooking Classes - I discovered an awesome new cooking school in San Francisco that offers fun beginner courses, SF Cooking School.  I'm loving it so far and anticipate signing up for more classes in the future.  You can read more about my experience at the cooking classes here.

Blorpy: My friend Emad started a fun site that shares real life stories, and he asked me to help find and post them.  So every day I look around online, reading people's comments and shared stories and then help filter them on Blorpy. 

Visitors - My sister, Melinda, and her friend, Joel, just came to visit for Melinda's 23rd birthday.  We made sure to drink too much, eat too much, and get lots of sleep.  In other words, we had a good time.  Bob and I took them up to Napa for wine tastings at Cuvaison and Domaine Carneros.  It was a gorgeous day for drinking wine and relaxing.

We also went to an Electric Six concert at The Independent.  This was my first concert at this venue, and I'm glad I saved myself for this concert in particular.  I had an absolutely fantastic time!  If you ever have the chance to see Electric Six in concert, do it!  

And on a sad note, my grandfather, Milton E. Wadsworth passed away on January 31st.  Everyone in the family knew it was coming but you can never prepare for the death of someone you love.  I was able to make it home for the funeral and it was really great to be surrounded by the family and share our stories about Grandpa, and what an awesome and influential guy he was to all of us.  It also gave me a chance to really see all my cousins in a different light.  I'm related to so many talented and wonderful people and it's nice that we all have each other.

I'll try to keep up on this blog more often, especially because I have a big event coming up.  March 23rd marks my 30th birthday, and we're doing it up right with a big party!

Loves and kisses,

:)M

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - The End of 2012

We stayed home for both Christmas and New Years this year and it was really quite pleasant.  We missed our families, but we didn't miss crazy travelers and trying to figure out what to do with the dogs.

For Christmas Eve we joined Jay and Staci, and Jay's sisters family for a delicious dinner at Benihana.  That's right, we had teppenyaki for Christmas Eve and it was great.  Also, I had a very interesting but awesome experience whilst there.  Be warned that this story involves nudity, not my nudity, but some nudity.  THE STORY: As our table was being seated I excused myself to visit the ladies' room so I could spit out my gum.  I walked in and was greeted by two gals, one facing the mirror with her shirt up over her chest, no bra, boobs out to the world.  The friend of the half naked girl looked horrified and tried to cover up everything.  The girl baring it all to the world, turned to look at me (boobs still out) and said, "Aren't they great? I just had them done 3 months ago!"  I enthusiastically told her they looked great.  She then said, "Do you want to touch them?"  And you know what, I did, and they were fantastic!  END STORY.  Needless to say, it was a great Christmas Eve.

After dinner, playing games!

 For Christmas we invited over Jay and Staci, and Jay's sister's family, as well as a couple of new arrivals to SF who were Christmas orphans.  It was a nice turn out and a fun evening.  I cooked a bacon wrapped pot roast and it came out awesome.  We played games and drank way into the night.  I loved having Christmas at my house!  I apparently had such a good Christmas that the only pictures I took that day were of my bacon wrapped port roast.

Bacon wrapped pork loin!!!!

For New Years our friends Maggie and Shad came up from Santa Barbara.  They stayed with us for the weekend before the new year and we stuffed our faces, drank too much and gossiped like old women.  In other words, it was a great time.

Downtown with Maggie and Shad at Union Square.

On actual New Years Bob and I decided we wanted to stay away from all the crazy people, so we got all dolled up and went to dinner at 5:30pm and were home by 7pm.  We barely made it to midnight but it was one of the most relaxing New Years I've ever had.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love and kisses,

M

 

Visiting the Families before Christmas 2012

After we visited NYC at the beginning of December, Bob and I took the train to Maryland to hang out with the Ippolito side of the family.  I love a good get together and had a wonderful time.  We hung out with both his Dad's side of the family and his Mom's side of the family.  There was of course lots of eating at both gatherings.  It was really nice to be able to visit during the holiday season but not have to deal with crazy travel.  Also, taking the train is always a good time.

After we got back from the East coast I was able to make a quick trip back to SLC to visit my family.  Lucky for me they were a little late with the decorating so I got to help set up the Christmas tree.

I pursposely set up my little tree before our NYC trip so that everything would be nice and Christmasy when we got home.

We all had a very Merry Christmas.  It was a great start to the Christmas and Holiday season.

Love and kisses,

M

 

 

The December 2012 NYC Trip

Right after Thanksgiving, and the crazy wine trip in November, Bob and I headed out to NYC for two whole weeks!  We ate our faces off, wandered about like tourists, saw a Broadway show and participated in abstract theater.  Here's our NYC trip, in pictures:

We stayed in Brooklyn the first week and walked to DUMBO to see the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.

We bought matching furry hats at Brooklyn Industries because it was soooo cold!

We discovered that Downtown Brooklyn is deserted after about 8pm.

We played "tourist" in Times Square.

I made friends with a giant nutcracker.

We bought an awesome Margaret Morrison painting, called "Encounter."

We went to the Brooklyn Flea Market.

We visited the Wired store in SoHo.

We attended a special fundraiser reading of the musical "Assassins." (w/ NPH)

We visited the 911 Memorial, and it was beautiful.

We rode the subway all over the place!

We saw the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas Tree.

We participated in the interactive theater show "Sleep No More." (Super awesome!)

We walked from Tribeca to the Theater District and saw the Empire State Building fogged in!

We had an absolutely wonderful time, despite it being super duper cold.  I'll have to put together a collection of the restaurants we visited and post them on BiCoastalBites.

Love and kisses,

M