Inge

My dear friend Inge celebrated her birthday this week on the 11th. I just love her. Inge and I met in High School and have been pretty much inseparable since then. Well, except for the fact that the entire atlantic ocean and north american continent came between us. But other than that, inseparable I tell you!

Inge is a woman of grace and beauty. She lights up a room when she enters it and has the most wonderful gentleness about her. Whenever we talk it's like we're sitting on my mom's couch drinking tea - we always pick up where we left off. I am so blessed to have such a dear friend like her.

Happy Birthday Inge!

Invictus

We went to see Invictus last night. I loved it. Was it a little on the cheesy side? Most definitely. However, it was absolutely incredible to see images of Newlands Stadium, Table Mountain, Robben Island and the N2 on the bigscreen in our little Aliso Viejo California theatre. Matt Damon did a great job with the accent. Morgan Freeman struggled a bit, but still pulled it off. The score was painful: I think they used local artists. What do you do?

It was good for me to be reminded of that sweet day when we won the world cup, and I certainly was proud to be a South African as the credits rolled.

ps. I had the great honour of interviewing Francois Pienaar in 2005. Just thought you should know :)

Trip to Tahoe

This past November Jono and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. A few months ago I was looking for good deals for flights to Hawaii and I stumbled upon a good deal to stay at the Hyatt Regency in North Shore Lake Tahoe. Seeing as flight prices to Hawaii were not co-operating with our budget we decided to go for the Tahoe option.

Usually when we go on road trips we leave right after church on Sunday, but this time we decided to get up EARLY on Monday morning and leave then instead of Sunday. It was so much fun getting up at 4.30am and hitting the road whilst everyone else was still asleep (well, except for the crazy OC-LA commuters - I mean , really? 4.30am?). We took a route that we have never taken before: the 395 highway. Best Decision Ever. Before this trip I've been as far as Ridgecrest on the 395 and the scenery on that stretch is, well... not the most scenic in the world, let's just leave it at that. BUT not even 5 minutes past Ridgecrest you hit the Sierra Nevada's on your left side and MAN is it beautiful! I loved taking this route, and would definitely consider going north some time soon just to go on the 395 again. yes, it was .that.cool.

Since our traveling schedule was slightly more flexible than road trips we've done in the past, we decided to stop wherever it pleased us, one of these stops being Bodie: deserted town of the old west. Now let me just say this: If you EVER find yourself in the Mid-eastern part of California: GO TO BODIE! This was such an awesome experience. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Great caravan we found on the road to Bodie

From Bodie we were back on the road again, this time heading straight for Lake Tahoe. We arrived right at sunset, and so the sight of the lake glimpsing through the trees as we drove down the 50 was magnificent. Our hotel was SO NICE. They gave us an upgrade and a pass to the "Hyatt Mile High Club" or something like that. Basically we had free breakfast and or'd'oeuvres everyday on the 11th floor overlooking the mountains AND lake. awesomeness.

The first two days we just spent chilling and reading and watching movies in our room. even more awesomeness. On the third day it was time for us to move on to our next location: the Worldmark Resort on the South Shore. This place was so cozy. We tried our hand at gambling at one of the local casinos; this did not go very well, and within 5 minutes we were walking out the shiny casino lobby, $20 poorer. SUCKS.

The next day magic happened: It snowed! The weather reporters had been threatening all week with snow, and so I decided to set my alarm nice and early to see if they were correct in saying it would start snowing at 6am. Sure enough, it did! After some very child-like frolicking in the snow (including a hot tub dip at 7am) we settled down to a day indoors: I had a lot of homework for my online history class, and Jono just reveled in the coziness of it all and watched movies & read.

The next day was our last in Tahoe, so we decided to do the standard thing we always do on vacation: a horseback ride. This ride was magnificent with patches of freshly fallen snow here and there. The guide lead us on a great trail up the mountain, bringing us to this view:

We even spotted some fresh bear tracks, but never spotted the bear.

Truly inspired after our ride, we hit the road again, this time headed to see Reinhardt in Berekeley, California. We only spent one night in Berkeley and the following day, Saturday. Friday night we took the train into the city and had yummy indian food and gelato (nothing like that fabulous combination!).

Leaving Lake Tahoe

Entering The Bay area

 After that we went back to Berkeley to visit the Albatross: a great little pub that is all about GAMES. Everyone plays GAMES. We had a grand time playing card GAMES and Jono entertaining us with mildly impressive card tricks. This was a fun time indeed. On Saturday Reinhardt took us on a meander through Rockridge and took us to a super local pizza place: Zachary's. I never thought I would say this about deep dish pizza, but I loved it! With our tummies stuffed we hung out a little longer and then got back on the road again: homeward bound.

Oh what a great trip this was! One of my favorites.

Cookies and Christ

I am so excited by this! A few of the students in our church have started a christian club on their high school campus called "Cookies & Christ". Their motto is: loving people with cookies as Christ would. So awesome. 3 students have gotten saved through this outreach already. They filmed this video, and I think it gives one a really good idea of what cookies & Christ is all about.

High School Girls'/Guys' Night

Every few months we do a youth event entitled "Girls/Guys Night". We've done so many fun things for this occasion from dressing up 50's style and going to Ruby's diner, to putting money together and buying outfits for a fashion show, to camping at O' Neill park:just the girls! The guys do super cool things too, like Airsoft nights at 45 Tesla or cellophane wrapping Laela's car (remember that night anyone? :). Last saturday we had another one of these: The girls had a cooking class and the guys... well, I'm not sure exactly what the guys did. All I know is that a really wacky video was produced after their time together. Here are the videos from the night for your viewing pleasure:

Natalie and Noodle

Yesterday was my sister, Natalie's, baby shower. This was my first experience of an American baby shower. The afternoon was very entertaining indeed, with delightful games like: "smell the poopy diaper" and "my water broke!". Here are some pictures documenting the day:

Poopy diaper

The "my water broke" game.

Just a little bit creepy

I am so excited for the coming of this little noodle!

Website Launched

It is with great enthusiasm and excitement that I type this news: The Two Spoons Productions website has been launched! You can visit it at:

www.twospoonsproductions.com

And... if you refer a friend to Two Spoons, and they book with us, you will receive a referral reward of 10% of whichever package they choose: so get on your iphone or email or something and start referring!

Pumpkin Carving

This weekend, I got to experience an American tradition that I have not tried before: Pumpkin Carving. My friend Ibeth, who I met in my Deutsche class, invited Jono, myself, Melissa, Natalie and Victor over to her pumpkin carving party. We had such a fun time! Who knew carving pumpkins could be so much fun? My pumpkin did not turn out so great (I'm a little creatively-challenged when it comes to this sort of thing), but everyone else's came out incredibly creative. I was especially impressed with Natalie and Victor's products since neither of them have ever done this before.

Melissa imitating Natalie's baby bump

Getting gooey

Ibeth and her ghoulish design

Natalie hard at work

The end result (Natalie's pumpkin)

Victor's masterpiece

Mine's the haggard looking one on the end

Jono's work of art

Ibeth's husband, James, admiring his handy work

The end result

All our pumpkins on display