The weekend started out pretty damn sucky!! (but actually ended up quite nice)

On Saturday, Mom, Lizette, and Andy were scheduled to arrive later in the afternoon (for Mark's Sunday graduation) so I decided to get a ride in on Isabella before the 3 day Wild West Ride this weekend (35 miles, 30 miles, 25 miles on Friday/Saturday/Sunday). We had a great ride and afterwards I gave her loves and turned her out, but it took me about 3 HOURS to drive home. Major suckage. Highway 92 was completely closed down so traffic was diverted down to 84 out of Woodside which was HORRENDOUS. I was pretty damned stressed after all that.

Thankfully I have the best boyfriend in the world and he had my place almost cleaned in time for our guests' arrivals. All I had to do was straighten out the kitchen, bathroom, and bed and I had enough time for a power nap before everyone arrived. It was Lizette and Andy's first visit to Pacifica and we had a good time catching up. Mark came over in the evening and they played a rambunctious game of 'Settler's of Cataan' where total noobie Lizette kicked everyone's asses and led Matt to drinking. :) I was busy preparing a ham and cheese breakfast casserole for the next morning out of uber-fresh eggs I had picked up from the barn that day. Growing up in the suburbs we've always had grocery bought eggs so I wanted them to see and taste the difference.. the casserole in the morning was recieved very well, although I made a big boo-boo and put in cinnamon instead of paprika by mistake. Oopsy.

In case anyone's interested, the recipe for the casserole is as follows
6 eggs
3 cups milk
1/2 pound cheddar cheese
1/2 pound baked ham
3 stalks green onion
8 pieces white bread
butter

Cut off the edges of the bread and butter one side. Line a big baking dish butter side down with the bread. Sprinkle layers of ham, cheese, and green onion. Beat eggs and milk together and add salt, pepper and paprika (optional) to taste (although not too salty - the ham and cheese are pretty salty in itself). Cinnamon is optional also (doh). Let sit overnight. In the morning, let come to room temperature then bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until firm.

Congratulations to Mark on graduating from Berkeley with a Genomics and Plant Biology major! It's a huge accomplishment.

Life around casa de Julienne will definitely be changing in the next few months.. details to come..