happy birthday dexter

i can't believe it's been a year since we rescued dexter.  seems like he's been with us forever.  he turned 10 and we celebrated by me baking him his own cake.  i was going to go buy a doggie cupcake, but the place was closed.  and then i was going to put some candles on the cake, but couldn't find any, so i improvised and wrote "10" with cream cheese.

ingredients: peanut butter, shredded carrots, honey, vegetable oil, vanilla, flour, baking soda

dexter just sniffed the cake when i put him on the chair - didn't even try eating it.  such a good boy!

emma on the other hand, was whining when i told her to "leave it" and had to really really really refrain from gulping down the piece of cake 

golden gate park cross-country

aaron and i had our first cross-country meet in 2011 this morning at golden gate park.  the women ran first at 9:00 and i finished the tough 4-mile course in 33:47.  the open men's race started at 10:30 and aaron finished in 28:42.  i wish i could run at that pace!  both of us were hoping that we would not be last and we were not.  :) 

aaron posing with emma and dexter before his race

on your mark, get set go!!!

there is aaron - back of the pack :)

racing to the finish line - after the finish, aaron first words were "i'm not last" hehe



while aaron was doing his cool down run, i walked emma and dexter around the lake



palo alto moonlight run

talk about a most memorable run ever!  between mile 2 and 5, there was lightning, thunder, and rain. at first i thought aimee accidentally spit on me, but it was the rain.  hehe.  good thing no one got struck by lightning as we were in the middle of the baylands.  overall, we had a great time and would do it again next year, minus the lightning and thunder.

i liked that the full moon was in the picture too

lifetime warranty

good thing our couch came with lifetime warranty.  dexter is squirrel-bird-cat watching.

staycation

we didn't want to travel anywhere far for vacation, so we decided to head to santa cruz, about a 40-minute drive from our place and take our furry babies.  we read, relaxed, and just hung out.  the best part was having the beach right outside our place and dog/people watching from the living room.   

view from our living room

having fun at the beach

emma looking for whales and dolphins

seabright beach

my favorite picture of emma and dexter

we love whatever mommy bakes for us

of course i had to bake emma and dexter some muffins too!  i over baked the first batch, but the great thing about baking for dogs is that they love to eat it no matter what :)

yes, i know, there are a lot more dark ones than light ones :)

chewy blueberry-oatmeal cookies

i found a blueberry-oatmeal cookie recipe on a blog called hostess with the mostess and thought i give it a try.  not to pat myself on the back or anything, but it is yummie!  the cookies are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside - D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.  aaron is usually the baker and he said it was good, so i will take his word for it. 

recipe included flour, brown sugar, canola oil, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and blueberries

i wanted to see how the cookies would bake on a regular cookie sheet vs. the stoneware - stoneware needed about 30 seconds longer, other than that, it turned out fine

Y.U.M.M.I.E. - i need to share because i will gain 20 lbs - no joke

97th caller

i was the 97th caller into a radio station and here was my prize. 

an ipad!!!  no, not ipad 2, but i'll take it :)

happy birthdays!!!

last weekend we celebrated mom, tuan, and tin's birthdays.  tin always wanted to hit a pinata, so we got a cupcake one :)  lianne and pierce had fun hitting it and everyone else took a turn too. 

had yummie bbq ribs, salmon, roasted broccoli, corn on the cob, and this delicious mozzarella salad that steph made

aaron preparing the pinata

too cute to hit!

lianne loved it

we made sure no one was close to pierce

couldn't find a bandana so we improvised with lianne's tights :)

tin closed his eyes instead of putting the tights on - good idea

look at all those candies!

tuan - are you saying i need to work out???

tin loves superheroes, so tuan got him a bunch of superheroes t-shirts

look at all those sweet smiles :)

update on aunt lil's house

aunt lil's house is all cleared of stuff now and the house looks so much smaller than when it was filled with things.  the house should be appraised soon and the person that's been renting the second lot(second lot is also part of the property) is thinking of buying the whole property.  he got a real estate lawyer because there is some kind of law in sf that says that you cannot evict a renter that's been renting for more than 10 years.  not sure how all that works, but it sounds like it's not as easy as just putting up the house for sale.

patio area - used to be filled with glass bottles

you can actually see the floor now! 

didn't even realize there were windows in the living room

view from outside the living room window

another view - can you see the transamerica building?