Gilroy Garlic Festival

i volunteered for the first time at the Gilroy Garlic Festival today. my volunteer name tag said i was a garlic bread chef. i was actually assigned as a "runner" between the grilling ovens, where the french bread was toasted, and the "garlic butter smearing" station (not sure what to call it), where the toasted bread was smeared with that tasty garlic butter and cut up before serving. i'm not sure how many runs i made between the two stations, the distance between them being about 50 meters, the length of an olympic size swimming pool. all i know is that my feet are sore from standing and walking since 1:45pm till we were done at about 7pm. i got to take a few potty breaks and refreshment breaks. there was a "rain room" set up where misters sprayed cool mists of water under a canopy and cooled us down. i had a fun time chatting with fellow volunteers while working.

wish i had pictures of my own to post, but my hands were occupied delivering bread to the buttering station. you can check out KSBW's news coverage of the event at:
http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/9591261/detail.html
you'll see the garlic bread buttering station in the video, and also the Pyro Chefs stirring up flames at the garlic scampi station.

snow...

yesterday and this morning, too, we had snow on the east hills. such a beautiful sight to behold as i was driving to church in the morning. snow just makes me go into a state of awe and wonder... maybe i wouldn't feel that way about it if i had to scrape it off my windshield in the morning, or shovel it off my driveway!!!

happy new year!

happy new year, blogspot!

today, i raked the pine needles and other muck off our sloping driveway. came home from class, stopped at the bottom of the driveway to pick up the mail, and spun some wheelies trying to start up the hill. so i decided it was a good idea to get the rake out. i was out there at about 4:30pm and it was a little nippy...but it felt good to be outdoors, exercising, breathing in the fresh, crisp, rainwashed air...inhaling the fresh scent of pine needles. i actually filled up the sticks and twigs bin!

tsunami & thanks

at our new year's eve communion, i thanked God that my family in Singapore have not suffered from the devastation of the recent tsunami.