January 2010 – The Beehive

January 18, 2010

The Perfect Proposal

I’m ashamed to admit, I no longer remember how the whole ring shopping thing came up, but some how, in about November 2007, we ended up at Shane Co.looking at rings. Digression: although we have received no compensation from Shane Co., I have to say we had a pretty great experience buying from them. Larry from Manila worked with us and we had a fun time. At least I did. I’m pretty sure Steve did too; he seemed to like examining the stones with a loupe.

Back to the point, we had purchased a setting and a diamond, and I knew that Steve had picked up the ring when it was finished and had it in his possession. But he wouldn’t let me look at it! It drove me crazy knowing that it was somewhere in his apartment. I think because we had gone ring shopping together and I knew it was coming he wanted to keep as much of the proposal a surprise as he could. And I did end up being surprised.

Fast forward to December 19, 2007. Steve had a gift certificate to a restaurant in SF, Town Hall, and he decided we needed to use it. I was certain he was going to propose over dinner. Of course, he didn’t. I was pretty disappointed. What could he possibly be waiting for?

Image courtesy of ovahere.com.

We drove back to Steve’s apartment. When he opened the door, there were candles flickering on the coffee table. They turned out to be real wax faux candles. He had worked hard to find something realistic looking that he could turn on before leaving for work that would be safe all day until I opened the door that evening. We still use the faux candles regularly; they sit atop our fireplace mantle.

When I turned on the lights, I saw a trail of pink rose petals leading into the kitchen and right up to the refrigerator, which had a single, pink long-stemmed rose slipped through the handle. When I opened the door, I saw that pretty much all the food had been cleared out and the center shelf had been removed. Instead, there was a silver tray trimmed with green Christmas garland and dusted with snow. On the tray sat a bottle of Dom Perignon, flanked by two crystal champagne flutes and two more pink roses. In the center was a box holding the sparkling engagement ring that we had picked out together. The next thing I knew, Steve was down on one knee, and I guess the rest is history.

The (empty) bottle of Dom is still around, sitting on our kitchen counter right next to our wine rack.

We used the champagne flutes from the proposal as the toasting flutes at the wedding.

January 17, 2010June 15, 2010

Newlyweds No More

It’s official: as of today, Steve and I have been married a whole year. And to celebrate the fact that we’ve survived relatively unscathed, we’ll be spending the next few days looking back on the big day and beyond.

It makes sense to start with the story of how we met. It was nearly 8:00 on a Thursday night in March 2005. I was flushed and sweating from my after-work spinning class, and I was rushing down to the Embarcadero muni station, hoping to catch the N-Judah to the Caltrain depot in time for the 8:07 train. But there was no muni in sight. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Typical. I looked around and saw a number of others waiting impatiently. Including that cute guy I saw on the train all the time, and me all yucky and sweaty from working out. How awful.

Of course, it was Steve, and I didn’t know it at the time, but he was working late because it was the middle of tax season and, being an accountant, that’s his busy time. He was also hoping to get the 8:07 train.

After some waiting, the muni came. I got on, relieved that I would likely make my train and not have to wait an hour for the next one. Steve got on too. My relief was short-lived, though, because the muni driver announced that it was going out of service at the next stop and we would have to wait for the next one.

I was frantic. If I missed the train it was an hour until the next one and I’d be getting home past my bedtime. So I disregarding my disheveled appearance and approached Steve. I asked if he was trying to catch the 8:07 train — which I was sure he was since I saw him on the train regularly — and asked if he wanted to share a cab to the station. No sooner had he said yes than the next muni came, so there was no shared cab ride. But, we did make the 8:07 train (barely), and sat next to each other on the train pretty much every day after that. And that’s about all there is to it.

January 15, 2010January 15, 2010

Mexican Night at Casa Boultbee

My latest attempt at dinner was a little Mexican rice casserole. The great thing about this recipe is that much of it can be made from non-perishable pantry staples, with the addition of just a few fresh items.

I started with a chopped onion and a pile of minced garlic. Saute the veggies in a big pan with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. It looks like not a lot of stuff for the pan, but trust me, you want to go big because you will be adding to it.

Next, add a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and a small can of diced jalapeño peppers. Let that simmer together for a few minutes until it thickens up a bit and the flavors have had a chance to marry a little bit.

Now, for the stuff that requires more space in the pan. Add about two cups of cooked rice, a can of drained and rinsed black beans, and a can of drained corn. Stir well to combine.

Finally, remove the pan from the heat. It’s time for the most important ingredient: cheese. 12 ounces of cubed Monterey Jack, to be exact. Once you’ve stirred the cheese in, put the mixture in a casserole dish and pop it in the oven. I think I used 375 or 400 degrees. When the cheese is all melty and bubbly, it’s done. You might want to reserve a little extra grated cheese to sprinkle over the top of few minutes before the casserole is done, so you get a little extra browned cheesy goodness on the top.

Steve and I both enjoyed this recipe, so I think it’s a keeper. I’d like to add something to it to make it a little bit creamier, though. Perhaps stir in some sour cream with the cheese, right before it goes in the oven?

Stay tuned for my first crack at some soup from a recipe book I got for Christmas.

January 14, 2010January 15, 2010

Home for the Holidays

I’ve been delinquent with respect to the blog lately. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about it; I’ve been taking pictures with the intention of posting them on the blog, but when it comes to uploading and sizing, I’m not too motivated.

Today, I finally got around to taking down our last piece of Christmas decor: our front door wreath. Most of it has been down for a while now, but I guess since we tend to go in and out via the garage, there wasn’t a visible reminder that we needed to do something about it.

To console myself over the fact that we won’t be enjoying Christmas lights for a while now, I’m going to recap how we made our house a little festive last year.

First, the dining room. We spread a silver and gold accented table cloth on the table, with some burgundy and gold napkins in the center. On top of that we filled a decorative glass bowl with cinnamon-scented pine cones and some metallic ornaments. We finished off the table with a grouping of candles on either side of the center piece.

On the buffet, we displayed a nativity set given to us by Steve’s parents.

I used an inverted stemmed hurricane to elevate the heavenly host up above the holy family and its visitors.

Also, you’ll notice a couple of copies of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” next to the visiting wise men.

I was given a copy by a friend when I was in college. I actually hadn’t heard the story before, but I had listened to a record of “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” over and over and over again when I was a kid. Bert and Ernie’s gift situation was suspiciously like the one in the O. Henry story. Every Christmas since then I’ve searched for copies, since I thought it was a great gift. I was never able to find it, though. Until 2008. A bookstore near my work was closing up shop at the end of the year, and would you know it, they had several different versions on super duper clearance! I snatched one up and gave it to Steve that year. In hindsight, I should have purchase several more copies.

We also scattered some metallic Christmas trees, some of which I had collected and some of which I borrowed from my mother, around the manger scene, with more groupings of candles, of course.

Things were a little bit more casual and bright in our family room. We decked out the fireplace mantle with Christmas stuff.

The stockings were inexpensive, plain felt stockings which I dressed up just a bit with an iron-on initial for each of us.

I also swagged a piece of festive ribbon between the two stocking holders to add a few glass ornaments to the display. We scattered some Christmas items we’d collected over the years in with our usual mantle decor. My favorite is the pair of kissing dogs, which was a gift we received when we got engaged, just before the previous Christmas.

In case you were looking for pictures of our Christmas tree, you can stop. We didn’t have one. We found an artificial tree at Costco that we liked, but waited to long to buy it and they ran out. We then decided we could do without for this year and wait for after-Christmas sales to purchase a tree. That idea was a bust because as far as I could tell, most retailers were clearing out their Christmas stuff about 2 weeks before Christmas to make way for Valentine’s Day merchandise. So next year we will be looking for a tree early.

Now that I think about it, this post is probably a lot more timely than I thought at first, since it’s probably about time for retailers to start putting out Christmas stuff for next year. I mean, it’s almost February, so they better get on it or Christmas will pass them right by.