EARTHQUAKE!!!!!

We can finally leave California! We felt our very first earthquake. Honestly it felt like when the garbage men throw the cans against the house after emptying them. Kind of pathetic, but I don't think I want anything bigger.

Apparently it was a 5.6 on the richter scale, just north of San Jose.

From the USGS site:

"A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:04:54 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007.
The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 8 km (5 miles) NNE of Alum Rock, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles)."

you're looking to waste some time?

Why not finely grate one pound of baby carrots? That's what I did.

the rabbit's got one boot

As we speak George is (hopefully) an hour or so away from having the Rabbit complete and running for real. Now it's got new axles/CV joints, one new boot, new tie rods, new oversize battery, and a new lease on life. If all goes well and according to plan we're hoping to celebrate by going to one of our new favorite restaurants, Sorella Cafe.

One of the projects George is working on is kind of the prime example of the ridiculous ways people spend money when they have too much of it: a mobile name tag holder for a church which George's vague estimate prices out to be $10,000 in the end. I haven't seen the design, so I can't say whether or not it's going to be really cool. It's just so silly that someone would hire a designer to solve their pesky name-tag-jumble problem. Peg board? Everyone responsible for their own tag? Card catalog style?

After my boss came back, my co-worker and her husband went to Japan for two weeks and upon coming home she promptly came down with walking pneumonia. Which means George and I haven't been having any grand adventures aside from the usual go-to-work-come-home-sit-around. With Liz back in town we've been trying to at least get over to Berkeley. Luckily we've got her hooked on watching the show Alias with us so we can lure her over at least once a week. For Liz's birthday/Halloween we're going to Chez Panisse with her, her dad and step mom. We're hoping after dinner we'll still have time to get out and do something for Halloween; Liz is going to be Rainbow Brite, I'm planning on being the Morton Salt girl, and George is wavering between Speed Racer, Wolverine, or a number 2 pencil.

Last night for dinner we had Chickpea Broccoli Casserole from the cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance. Neither of us is vegan but it's nice to have a a group of recipes that rely more on vegetables than meat and butter, like this one for example. If you're going to make it you'll need...

3 16-oz. cand chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
3 large carrots, grated (2 cups)
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets (4 cups)
2 Tbsp. thinly sliced chives
1/2 C. bread crumbs
3 T. olive oil
1 C. vegetable broth
1 tsp. salt

Then you'll want to...

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl mash the chickpeas well, it takes about two minutes with a potato masher (or pastry blender in my case) and they're good and mashed when they're done. Add the vegetables and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and mix. Then the oil and mix. Add the broth and salt, then mix. Dump it all into a glass or ceramic 9"x13" pan pressing the mixture in firmly. Cover with aluminum foil, bake 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more. Ta da!