Oh yeah! That is right! Those are needles in my hand. And it was neat-o!

On Sunday I got to meet some of Winemonkey’s extended family, which included his mother’s sister, his cousin (his aunt’s daughter) and his cousin’s daughter (who will be referred to as the coolest 10 year old EVAH! from here on out. She is the type of child that can revive a feeling of motherhood in me. Most of the time, when I see kids, particularly her age, I generally want to lock them in a closet, but not her. Oh no! I want to send her CDs and listen to her band and just get to know her and her parents better because they obviously know what they are doing… but I digress).

We met the group at Pannikin’s for breakfast on Sunday morning. I had heard so much about his aunt and I was so excited to meet her. She is just like I imagined her to be, with a slight resemblence to Winemonkey’s mother and warm and generous. And his cousin? She was awesome. We ate, watched the coolest ten year old EVAH! get comfortable to us, and then decided to head to the La Jolla coves. And when we got out to the cars, the coolest ten year old EVAH! chose to ride with Winemonkey and I. And we listened to the White Stripes and she kept saying, “I like this, but it is really weird.”

At the tide pools I let Winemonkey spend some QT with his cousin and the coolest ten year old EVAH! and I stuck together. There weren’t as many cool things in the tide pools as there are in the tide pools of Salt Point, but we saw a couple of snails, the biggest silverfish ever, mussels, and a little fish. Then we went back to his aunt’s house and his cousin broke out her acupuncture needles.

The acupuncture treatment was interesting. His cousin is still going to school for it, so I wouldn’t categorize her as a “professional” just yet. She was really good though and asked a lot of questions and wanted to know what you were feeling. She had 19 needles in Winemonkey to help his already diminishing carpal tunnel, one needle in her mother to help her shoulder, and 6 needles in me, just for good measure, mostly to help relieve tension in my neck and shoulders (or just to stick me… I don’t know!).

I think that Winemonkey had the most intense sensation out of all of us and he described it as an internal pressure. I had a needle stuck in between my thumb and my pointer finger and that was sensitive for a little while after the treatment. I mean, it was kind of strange. Like a warm tingling around the needle sites. I can’t say whether it worked or not because neck/shoulder stress is a way of life for me. And she said that one treatment usually doesn’t do that trick and that it would take at least two or three from a professional in order for it to be highly effective.

After a semi-quick sticking, we went to his other cousin’s house over in Del Mar Heights. We met a thousand more kids and the coolest ten year old EVAH! was consumed with playing with her cousins. We only got to spend about an hour there before we had to leave for our flight. It was too short of a visit, much like our Saturday. But his cousin and the coolest ten year old EVAH! live in Brooklyn, so hopefully we can get to NY to see them over Christmas.

I would love to tell you about our Sunday with Winemonkey’s family which included the coolest 10-year old evAH! and acupuncture, but right now I am knee deep in data and I can’t believe that I have gotten this much done so I just don’t want to stop.

So with that, know that I have made CDs today while processing data - yeah multitasking! And that when I have time to stop at the post office, some of you will be getting a nifty little package…

Peace out homegirls and boys.

homemade pasta with pesto. And I am in heaven.

Well kids, we’re back. We slipped down to San Diego under the cover of night on Friday and returned late last night. Winemonkey says that the weekend airplane jaunts suit him, but the more I fly, the less I like it.

We arrived at our friends’ house around 11 pm on Friday night. We did a little catching up, but everyone was pretty beat, so we all cozied up to four sleeping pads spread out on the living room floor and passed out.

On Saturday morning, we cooked french toast and sausage and made some superfly thick fruit smoothies. Then we walked over to the beach. Yes, you read that correctly. We walked. For about 5-10 minutes. From their HOUSE. The water is San Diego is much warmer than the water up here in the northern part of CA. A couple of people body surfed. Winemonkey didn’t pack his swimming trunks and I didn’t change into my bathing suit so we were restricted to the edge of the surf. It was still fun, but swimming in the ocean looked so refreshing and fun. We also played some Frisbee and I took a nap on the beach. I must have been really tired because the only time I woke up was when my skin was sizzling hot and I had to turn over. Needless to say, I have a mildly painful sunburn on my legs.

We went to lunch at this place called Juanita’s and then headed for the grocery store. When we got back, all six of us piled up on the couch and beds to watch “A Very Long Engagement”, which was an excellent movie, though hard to follow. I think even the native french speaker in our group had a hard time keeping track of the characters….

Saturday night we opted to stay in and make homemade pasta for dinner. There is nothing more fun than having six people cooking in a small 6×8 kitchen! We made ricotta - spinach ravioli and some super long angel-hair pasta. It is amazing how awesome the kitchen-aid mixer is at both making the dough and rolling out the pasta. It even made the ravioli pockets! (See the pictures from San Diego Saturday to see some of the process.) We also made some pesto for the pasta and a modified ensalada caprese, which consisted of homegrown cucumbers, tomatoes and basil with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.

After dinner, we settled in for a little Scrabble, listened to some music, ate some birthday cake, then went to bed. It was an awesome visit with our friends and I can’t wait to go back down to see them. I forget how much I love spending time with them and one day just wasn’t enough for me!