Pre-Thanksgiving

Now that we are back in the States, we decided to revive the old tradition of Pre-Thanksgiving! It started while we were at Dartmouth--the cross country team would have a full turkey dinner a week before everyone went off for the actual holiday. Once we moved to California, we continued the tradition!


This year, we invited our friends down to San Diego for the weekend! Dan, Phil and Telisa flew down from the Bay Area and Andrew and Peggy drove down from LA. Unfortunately, Jason (JT) got really sick so he couldn't make it, but at least we will see him over real Thanksgiving when we are in LA! We also met Telisa's friends, Jessica and Reese, who drove down from northern san diego to hang out on Friday night and Sunday.


It was a perfect weekend! The weather was fabulous, and we spent the days playing beach volleyball right in front of our apartment. Except for Peggy, who is close to becoming a professional, I think we all need to practice a bit!

Kersti headed a wonderful meal as always. She and Peggy (with Dan's emotional support) prepared a perfect (well, slightly undercooked!) Turkey, with a tasty cranberry infused stuffing. Dagny's Yams, mashed potatoes ala Peggy Johnson, green beans with leeks, a second stuffing, corncake, pumpkin pie, apple pie with Apples-by-Telisa, and pumpkin cheesecake made for quite the feast!





The whole gang ready for Pre-Thanksgiving dinner!



The design on the back of our T-Shirts! Poultry in Paradise! Thanks to Amy for the great slogan. This picture was actually taken from our patio, turkeys and all!

The front of our T-shirts, designed by Kersti!

Prepping the turkey... this was the first time for both me and Peggy, so we learned a lot! Thank goodness we had each other -- it's a 2 person job!

Peggy and Kersti in front of their masterpiece turkey. Ummm... lesson learned about the location of the thermometer ;)

Dan is ready to eat already!

Our ever-entertaining friend, Andrew, drove down from LA for the weekend. We hope to be able to see him more often now that we are only a few hours away! That's the closest he and Billy have been since 1997.

The girls modeling their t-shirts

Peggy and Kersti out on the town after dinner!

The butheads out on the town, look out!

The gang out and about causing mischief.

Andrew demonstrating the art of sleeping bag stuffing the next morning after a long and fun night!

San Diego

Kersti and I moved to San Diego last week! We hope to find more permanent jobs while we rent a place for the short term. It gives us an opportunity to see what it's like to live in So Cal! We're staying on Sail Bay, in the Pacific Beach neighborhood. The apartment has fantastic views of the bay, and a nice beach and walking path is right out front. Not much privacy as there's a lot of foot traffic on the beach, but a fun spot. As we are both working from home, we figured we might as well stay somewhere nice! We will be here through the holidays, and then hopefully find a longer term place at the start of the next year, depending on our job situations.

The beautiful view of Sail Bay from our living room! There are sailboats, water skiers, and rowboats zooming around outside our window everyday!

Kersti hard at work in her makeshift office

The view from our bedroom

Not a bad office view!

The view from our small balcony, with the rowers heading back in

Our living room

Halloween in San Francisco

Kersti and I went out in San Francisco for Halloween to the Nightmare on Van Ness party. Our friends Phil and Telisa hosted us in the city prior to heading out to the club, in their fabulous apartment with a beautiful view of the eerily silent Bay Bridge (it was closed due to part of it falling down and crushing a few cars and a truck--no injuries, though!).

We dressed up as Dwight Schrute and Angela Martin from The Office. It was really a blast and I loved my costume. Kersti found this ridiculously perfect trenchcoat for me in the garage, as well as a stylish light green short sleeve dress shirt that worked perfectly with a green tie I have. We picked up some cheap glasses and did a little hair styling, coupled with printing out some business cards and name tags, and we had some pretty sweet costumes. Plus, we got to act like Dwight and Angela all night! Kersti had no problem... of course, no one knew she was dressed up as anything ;)

The costumes were a huge hit at the party. People were literally yelling "DWIGHT!!" from across the room, and asking me to take pictures with them. I was surprised how easily everyone recognized the costume. Angela wasn't as easily recognized, but Kersti had a fun night as well. Phil and Telisa were really generous to host us, and Phil organized a limo to the club which made a lot of sense given our numbers and the difficulty in getting cabs. Plus, we were able to arrive in the style to which we are accustomed. (that's a joke)

It was a great night, and Dwight and Angela really lived it up! Now, if we had just had Michael Scott there!

Dwight and Angela partying it up

Dwight's Business Card, I printed out a bunch to hand out, but they didn't last long!

Dwight and the gorilla having a stare down

Dwight and Angela getting ready to go out on the town.

Phil and I playing some DJ Hero at his place

Kersti, Dan, Telisa, and Phil

The full group before going out (minus Alex who is blocked by Telisa's hat!)

Mr. T hanging out with Dwight Schrute, who would've thought?