So I missed a photo from the last time. Shortly after my trip to NYC (and well before my trip home to Hawaii) Phil came out to Nor Cal for a visit and had dinner with us. Here we are just after grabbing dessert at Fraiche in Palo Alto. Elise, Phil, Nick, Nyssa and I.
At the end of October, Grant came to town for a visit which coincided with his birthday. We took advantage of an unusually awesome day to hike Mt Tam. That's him posing atop one of the lookouts near the summit.
The view from (near) the top, looking out towards the San Francisco Bay.
On one of those random days, we thought it'd be a great idea to make Portuguese Bean Soup. Verdict: a delicious taste of home!
Someone (hint: not me) came up with the brilliant idea to run the 10K Silicon Valley Turkey Trot bright and early on Thanksgiving morning. If you can't tell, it's pretty cold.
I briefly saw Daniel, but Jen, me & Mari lined up towards the back since we would be going at a much slower pace. Here we are just before the start.
Nothing like a post-race, jumping Snuggy picture. I think I look like a pink crab. Anyways, the whole exercise turned out to be a lot of fun. Anyone want to join us next year?
Speaking of Thanksgiving, Abbott this year cut costs and didn't give us employees our expected annual free turkey. Instead I had to buy one from the store and prep it for our Friendsgiving event, which again would be hosted at Chez Adrian.
The finished product! Again, a job well done. It turned out even better this year because the turkey actually came out nice and evenly cooked!
Again, I had the wonderful services of Sous chef Nick.
We put together a ridiculously impressive spread that, per usual, resulted in lots of leftovers. To name some of the highlights: Turkey, mashed cauliflower, mac nut stuffing (including one gluten-free variety), salad, sausage & wild rice casserole and spinach-artichoke dip. We also had pies and ice cream for dessert. All of this just for Mari, Elise, Evelyn, Jessie, Nick and I!
A close up of my first plate. Another successful Friendsgiving!!!
Over the course of the following week and a half, Gigi and Darren (separately) stopped through the Bay Area to hang out too. I'm a little surprised I don't have any pics with them, but this pic of the Christmas Tree at Union Square came when we took Darren up to spend the day in SF.
Then, one random day, Daniel called me up and told me that he finally figured out how he would propose to Karen. He had a plan and he needed my help. I asked him when and where. Here's a brief retelling (using pics I stole from Daniel) of The Proposal. We begin at Sunol Regional Park ready to start our hike.
While Karen and her family would take the longer, casual Indian Joe Trail, Daniel and I would lug a bunch of supplies up the steeper, shorter Flag Hill Trail. In a funny bit of fate, we hiked passed a group of Boy Scouts on the trail too.
Both groups were heading towards this special bench at the top of the hill which stands in memory of Karen's dad who passed away. Daniel and I were able to get there first so that we could clean the bench, place a picture book of Daniel & Karen's relationship, change into more formal attire, hide a GoPro to film everything (see if you can spot it) and then sneak off to the side to wait for the family to arrive.
When the family finally arrived (and they, being privy to the plans, were able to direct Karen to continue alone), Karen saw the bench and the book (which Daniel and I didn't know had blown onto the ground).
Daniel came out of hiding and sat down with Karen to read through the book that told their story as a couple.
At the end of the book, Daniel got down on one knee and asked Karen to marry him (p.s. she said yes). We then popped some sparkling wine (which Daniel and I carried up in a mini cooler) to celebrate!
Then we took a picture with Daniel, Karen, Karen's brothers and their significant others, Karen's mom and I at her dad's bench. Congratulations Daniel and Karen!
So there we go folks! A bunch more pics and a few more stories! At this rate, I just might get through the 2012 Xmas holiday season before the end of March 2013. Woo hoo! Stay tuned loyal readers!
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