My name is Anders Martinson. My wife Juneko and I live in Hayward with our children Daniel, 11, and Irene, 7. Juneko has introduced me to many new Japanese foods like daikon, mochi, and soba noodles. I have always enjoyed sushi, but I never had it homemade until I met Juneko.

Daniel recently began to take kendo lessons, and last week I visited the class for the first time. The class is exciting to watch, and all of the students are very enthusiastic. The class meets at the Union City Buddhist Church. Juneko and I had been hoping to find a place for Danny to take kendo, and we were very glad to find one so close to our home. I may even start taking lessons myself. I haven*t been to Japan yet, but with Juneko*s help and a computer program, I am learning to speak Japanese. I hope to travel to Japan so that I can practice what I've learned. Juneko knew I was making progress when I started to talk to myself in Japanese.

I work in Mountain View for a software company called Intuit. We make the personal finance program Quicken. My job is to test the Macintosh version of Quicken. I've worked at the company since 1990, and I've seen the company grow from 150 employees to about 3000 employees. It*s been very exciting to work there, and because so many people have enjoyed using Quicken, it*s been rewarding too.

Once I get away from my computer, two things I like to do are ride my bicycle and cook. Last week I took part in a fund raising bicycle ride. I rode 100 miles and raised $800 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. I started off in Santa Rosa and rode through the wine country of Sonoma County.

It*s harvest time in the wine country right now, and many of the vines are full of beautiful grapes. Sonoma County has a much gentler beauty to it than the grand scale of the Napa County vineyards, and I always look forward to my visits there.

Normally late September is after the hot weather, but this year it turned out to be before the hot weather. The weather was just right, a cool morning and a pleasant afternoon. No one knew that in just a week it would be as hot as it ever got in summer. The timing was just right. One of the best parts of the ride was that they gave us plenty of food so we wouldn't get too tired. They even had Advil at the rest stops.

Riding around Hayward makes me hungry too, so it*s probably a good thing that I like to cook. I like making waffles for breakfast, bread for lunch time sandwiches, and all kinds of things for dinner. Most of all I like dessert. I like making dessert and eating dessert. I also like to share my favorite recipes. Here*s one I hope you'll like.

Beat in a mixer until fluffy:

3/4 cup of shortening

3/4 cup of peanut butter

1/2 cup of firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

Add one at a time to the sugar mixture

4 eggs Beat in to the eggs and sugar:

1 tablespoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon of lemon juice Sift together in a clean bowl

3 cups of all-purpose (white) flour

2 teaspoons of baking soda

1-1/2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon After sifting stir in

1/2 cup of regular rolled oats

Now mix the dry ingredients in to the wet ingredients and add 1 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips 1 cup of chopped walnuts Drop by spoonfuls on to a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 325กF oven. Bake for about 9 minutes until the cookies are golden brown. This recipe makes about 100 cookies. This is also a good recipe for people who like to make bigger cookies. If you like, you can make the cookies as big as the ones you buy at the mall. Just leave them in the oven a little longer. ENJOY!

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