They say it's your birthday..

Dique and I are big fans of the forever inappropriate comedian, Patton Oswalt.

In one of Patton's more mild monologues he discusses the Birthday Rule. You can listen to the whole (explicit) thing here, but this is a quick recap.

Birthdays you can and cannot celebrate.

1 thru 9 — YES. You’re a little kid, and kids should get to celebrate birthdays.

10 — YES. You’ve entered the double digits. Something different has happened, you get a birthday.

11-12 — NO. Nothing special about those years.

13 — YES. Now you’re a teenager, and that’s worth celebrating.

14-15 — NO. Again, nothing special here. I can make a learner's permit. Big deal.

16 — YES. The laws have changed. Now you can drive, that’s worth celebrating.

17 — NO. What’s special about being 17? Exactly.

18 — YES. Awesome birthday. You can vote and own a gun. You can shoot a bullet through your ballot sheet. Now that is worth a party.

19 — YES. It’s your last year as a teenager. A little whistful, but true.

20 — YES. You’ve entered your twenties. Congratulations.

21 — YES. Awesome birthday, you’re as adult as you can get. Hit the bars, hard.

And then…only one birthday every 10 years (30, 40, 50, 60 and so on) until you hit 90. All those years in-between? Who cares. Big deal, 47. However, after 90, the rules change again and you can start to party more frequently - mostly because you could drop dead at any given time.

I am a believer of celebrating EVERY birthday, but do feel the decades should get special treatment. Dique and I struggled to think of what to do for my thirtieth coming up in May. I'm too much of a Charlotte to have a Dirty Thirty. Not enough of a Samantha to have a Flirty Thirty. And too much of a spelling snob to have a Purdy Thirty.

I was inspired when I recently saw this blog post about a Beatles-themed party for one-year-old babies. I know, I know - it's amazing! And so adorable!It looks like a LOT of fun and something that would be easy to put together. I instantly thought we could "grow it up" a bit and put an adult twist on it.

So, today I'm sending out these Save The Dates, which I slapped together last night.



Next week I'll send out the hard (Day's Night) invites.

I love it when a party Come(s) Together!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, we're back. Again.

This time with the promise of more posts!

2010 was a bumpy year for us - my work was in flux, we made big changes around our house and decided, for once and for all (of the next 5 years, at least) to stay put.

2010 was a great year for many reasons - we spent a lot of time with our family and made some wonderful memories with our friends. A night with a fun group at the Pelican Inn in February, Dique's 35th birthday at Tommy's Joynt, my birthday bbq, Outside Lands, our friends from Nebraska coming and sparking a spontaneous dinner party at our home. What fun! The happiest part was an expanding family. We didn't help any, though, the new additions who joined the fold are our biological and honorary nieces and nephews. It's made us (fine, me) even more baby crazy than I previously was. As long as I get to hold other people's babies, though, I can simmer down.

The job thing was tough for me, and for us both. I wasn't very happy at McCann in early 2010 - working at a much smaller company within a huge company without a path for advancement wasn't satisfying. I pressed on and used the downtime to work on our home. We recovered the kitchen and bathroom floors, repainted/redecorated the guestroom and our bedroom, Dique built us a bed with storage. Yes, he built it. From scratch! I painted the fence out back and pulled up a strip of lawn to plant a veggie garden. The work yeilded a successful bounty of green beans, zuchini, tomatoes, rhubarb and lots of herbs. Seriously, we have so much mint. Still. would you like to come over for a mojito? Please do. Today. And then take home some more mint.

In June I learned my job was dissolving and by August had moved back into the advertising side of McCann, supporting two new execs. This wasn't the perfect fit either so when a girlfriend mentioned a role at AOL I took an interview. The pros? Instantly connecting with the people, the goals and vision of the company and the path they saw themselves on. And I'd be a liar if I said salary wasn't an plus. Not having a raise or bonus in three years had been tough, so the idea of an increase was very exciting. The cons? The office is in Palo Alto, a 45-60 minute drive from our home. And we didn't own a car.

After much deliberation, I accepted the job and Dique and I headed to Honda to lease a Fit Sport. I started work on October 18th, waking up before 6am to cruise 280 before traffic hit. I support three execs in the Applications and Commerce Group - which means I support three execs who actually are making cool stuff. My main boss is the head of Marketing for our division; we hit it off instantly. I've told him before that I feel like we're siblings. We have a great time, but can be totally honest with each other when things go wrong. He's been a big supporter of mine - giving me more to do than just book meetings and schedule conference calls. I get to write copy and plan events - two of my favorite things! My other two guys are the heads of Mobile and Messaging, which means if you have an AOL ap on your cell phone, my boss' team created that. And if you use AIM for computer chat/messaging, my other boss is making that a better product for you. I've never worked at a company that actually *builds* things, and creates products. I love it here. I hate that the office is in Palo Alto, but I love this company.

Dique's job survived the market crash - thank goodness. We definitely worried about the real estate market in San Francisco. It all turned out for the better, however, as he even managed to close a sale in January 2011. It was his first sale in San Francisco to close, he was thrilled and I was so proud of him. We experienced our own troubles with our property at the end of 2010 - needing to refinance our mortgage from an interest-only loan to a 30-year ammortized. Our building has lost value (like every other place out there) since the bubble burst, and we were faced with some tough decision in December. Do we sell and walk away, at a loss? Do we keep renting the top unit even though we don't want to? Supportive families, an excellent mortage broker and prayers to everything high and holy made it all come together just before Christmas. We could stay, we could take over the whole building later in 2011 and stop renting out the top. We could continue on as planned. Whew.

Now that it's actually April, we're on the cusp of having more house news - but I can't count any chickens before they hatch! Rest assured it won't be another year before I let the cat out of the bag.

Hope the last 12 months have been good to you and yours. :-)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

We're back!

That was quite a hiatus there, wasn't it? Six months and counting! A lot has happened since we left off...
- we have a new nephew!
- we met Tom Jones!
- we installed new kitchen floors!
- Tuni perfected a cioppino recipe and started making her own granola!
- Dique tore down walls in our home, then put them back up AND started building A NEW BED. FROM SCRATCH.

Yes. It's been a bit busy at the Hey Judah House. We're working on the cheapest yet most impacting home renovation for our little space. Painting the hallway (twice!), re-painting all the crown moldings and base boards and doors and cupboards and ceilings and chairs and tables and OH MY HOLY HELL. I think I can *almost* smell again. Though I definitely lost some brain cells along the way, all the home improvement projects were well worth it. Updates over at HJH.

As for The Goings On Of Us, I've vowed to take the next couple of weeks to write about what the hell happened over the last 8ish months. It was fun, if not crazy, to live it - so it should be fun, if not crazier, to relive it in writing.

Stay tuned - or should I say, "tuni'd"???

You know I can't let a little piece of cheese get away from me.

xx
T

Meat Muffins: An Introduction

There are fewer meals in the US that feel as simultaneously comforting and retro as meatloaf. Everyone I know has a go-to recipe, adapted from a grandmother, mother or mother-of-all-crafters, Martha Stewart. My great-grandmother was famous for covering her meatloaf with strips of bacon, something my mother luckily picked up and implemented in the meatloaves of my childhood. It was a standard meal in my family's household and I've come to realize that most people share my nostalgic feelings for the food.

These days, however, the sustainably-minded and fusion-preaching hostess wouldn't dream of serving meatloaf and mash potatoes at a dinner party - it's too informal, too normal and nowhere near exciting enough for our foodie friends and neighbors. Which is why I've taken to creating 'meatmuffins' - still the same great idea of mixing meat with breadcrumbs, herbs and other flavors, then popping them into a muffin tin and serving up in cute little cups. Who knew meat could be adorable? And that's not all, making these mini-meatloaves is still a super quick endeavor as they take less time in the oven than a traditional loaf: 20-30 minutes @ 350, max! Plus, since they are pre-portioned, those of us who have zero self-control and will keep cutting slivers off the loaf every time we pass it until we realize there are no leftovers for a sandwich tomorrow can take two muffins and stop there.

The creative options are endless with these, too, which make them fun. So far, always using ground turkey, we've made a traditional basil/garlic pesto meatmuffin, spinach/lemon pesto muffin, bacon-mushroom meatmuffins (picture above) and a cheddar-pepper-taco meatmuffin. Delicious, easy to freeze or pack for a picnic (along with a baguette and some mustard, yum!), and fun to serve your friends. Meatloaf Meatmuffins, shall we say, are back on the table.

Here are some pictures from our recent Bacon-Mushroom Meat-Muffin extravaganza.


To one package of Jennie-O lean ground turkey we added: sauteed mushrooms (cooked and cooled), chopped raw red onion, chopped crispy bacon (cooked and drained on paper towels).

Then we added breadcrumbs (about a quarter cup), a hefty tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and some powdered garlic because we were being too lazy to grate in a few fresh cloves.

We sprayed a muffin tin with PAM, and dropped a quarter cup of (for lack of a better term) meat batter into each cup. Twenty minutes in our oven, seat at 350F did the trick. These were moist, savory, had a little bit of crunch thanks to the bacon and onion. And man did they taste great in a sandwich the next day! We know it sounds weird, but try it - it's a weird thing worth eating!

Huey Lewis and the Booze

Dique and I joined friends TA and J9 for a fabulous concert at the Mountain View Winery on August 15th. San Francisco golden boy, Huey Lewis, was on the stage singing all the hits we grew up with. It was especially fun because both Dique and TA had been to a Huey show for their very first concert. Even after all that time, the heart of rock and roll is still beating.The night was fantastic. J9 and I boogied the night away, she even gathered quite a following! What do you do when you aren't a super fan like your husband and you can't sing along? You dance!

Also, an awesome summer show is even better when the venue is terrific. Mountain View Winery and Amphitheater is located in the hills above Silicon Valley. In the summer the weather gets very warm, and as the sun sets over the hills the air is still pleasant and the lights below twinkle. It's an out-door arena and it's a good size - there are no "good" or "bad" seats! We had seats in the bleachers, which is even more open, so we bought a couple bottles of the winery's best and took our seats. We drank, we sang along, we were hip to be square. It was a blast.

Huey is 58 and can still rock and roll with the best of them. He might have sung a little softer, scooted across the stage a little slow, but hey. He had Heart and Soul. Okay. I'll stop with the song quoting now. I will send you to this article, which is funny though I disagree with parts of it.

The band is known for being friends with the Joe Montana-era SF 49ers, so the guys were thrilled when Dwight Clark joined Huey on stage for Hip To Be Square. J9 and I looked at each other wondering who that person was and what all the fuss was about, but the gents in the crowd loved it. Afterwards, we four went back to our lovely hotel in Saratoga, enjoyed more wine and a lovely summer evening.

The Niece, She Likes To Accessorize (aka) A Birthday Shout-Out To LKG!

The Grierson contingent celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday this weekend. We had a grand time of yummy Mexican food, fun family times and as per usual: more cake and ice cream than anyone should have eaten. It was a great day. The most fun, however, was when our niece, Miss AKG played dress up with the leis my mom had brought. Miss AKG is really into accessories. She enjoys "helping me" take my bracelets off, and putting them on herself. She's happy to hold my necklace for me. She likes purses, hats - anything, really, that she can wear is good in her book! I had to post a couple pictures from the day - Lei Baby aka Miss AKG in her Sunday Best.

And a very Happy Birthday to LKG! May this year bring you many more fun days of dress up with your darling girl (and fun days in general with your soon to be son)!

Tuni Has a Medal

I can't remember the last time I got an award for doing something athletic. Really. But on Sunday morning, July 26th Dique and I got up early and I headed to Justin Herman Plaza in the heart of San Francisco. He wished me luck and I said I'd see him at the finish line - though he met me in the park for some photo ops:





It was hard, I took longer than I wanted to, and I really had trouble due to some muscle pulls, blisters on the soles of my feet and really unattractive chafing on my arms. But. I finished. A hot sweaty, exhausted mess crossed that finish line and got a medal. It was amazing. I bonded with another runner around mile 9 and we got it done together. I struggled between miles 16-19, and she struggled between 21-24. But we did it - we crossed the finish line jogging, together, laughing because we had been singing at the top of our lungs at mile 25 to stay motivated.

When Dique met me I tried not to cry - it was an emotion I hadn't anticipated, that of relief. Part of me couldn't believe I made it! The other part just hurt. I hobbled for the rest of the day, to his parents' house where I navigated the stairs very gingerly and took the best shower of my life. We went to an open home because? I'm stubborn. And then we went home. And I took another shower. And then I got on the couch and didn't get off. I won't lie, it was a huge challenge, and I'm disappointed with myself about my time. But I did it. In a mere four months of training I was able to start and finish a marathon and much to my surprise I was not the last one across that finish line. To me, that's a success.

Sure I couldn't really walk on Sunday, had restless legs on Sunday which impacted my sleep, and on Monday I could barely move. But by Tuesday I was back in action and feeling good. Proud of myself, and ready to sign up for the next race. The next race, however, will be a half marathon - I think that's where it is at for me. So I've signed up for the US Half in San Francisco on November 1st. We'll see how I do.