This weekend in S.F...

We had a nice weekend. Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day - in fact, we've been so lucky to have nearly perfect weather since we have arrived. I guess San Francisco is welcoming us. Everyone and their mother was outside on Saturday. Neil had to spend the day in his studio, so I took off on my own for the day.

I am always on the lookout for free activities and although there was a Blues Festival going on at Fort Mason, which is a block from our house, it cost $40. So I instead decided to ride my bike halfway across the city to Golden Gate Park, where the California Academy of Sciences was re-opening after finishing the construction on their new building. It was supposed to be free admission to the museum, plus some festivities going on in celebration of the re-opening. The new building is SO cool - it's like the largest "green" project in the country now. The roof is covered in native plants and looks very cool. That "hill" in the distance in the picture is actually the roof. And the inside looks like it is going to be super-cool as well. Great exhibits. So it seemed worth a trip over to check it out for free, eh?

The bike ride over was uneventful - I'm happy to report that I stayed on my bike - but there was a beautiful view of the GG bridge with the fog sort of "draped" over it.

Golden Gate park was packed to the gills - everyone had noticed that there was free admission to the museum and everyone was trying to make their way there. So it was prime opportunity for a bike wreck of some kind and I'm proud to say that I made it through with no incidents. So the SF bike coalition provides ---

Oops - we now interrupt for this terribly exciting announcement - I am at work right now and just got my first delivery from spud.com!! YAY! You might be wondering what in the heck that is? Well, I will tell you. Patience, grasshopper. Spud.com is an online organic produce delivery system. You sign up for a "fresh harvest" box, decide how often you want it delivered (I picked every two weeks for now), how much you want to spend (I picked $30) and then you set preferences for which fruits and vegetables you like and which ones you don't. Then, every two weeks, spud.com "creates" your fresh harvest box for you, based on these preferences.

You can review it and if you don't like something that they have picked for you, you can change the order however you want. Or if you need extra veggies that week, you can add to the box. Once you are set, then they deliver the box to your door - or in this case to my office, because my apartment is secure and they can't get to my door. So, I just got my first box and the stuff looks awesome!! I'm so excited. If you read my last post, you noticed that there was a separate grocery stop for fresh produce. THIS ELIMINATES THAT STOP!!! And the stuff looks really great - the organization tries to buy locally and organically when possible and so I feel like I'm doing good for the earth and the local farmer as well! I'll have to take a picture when I get home and post it. It's like having the farmer's market delivered to my door. AND - if you are a first time customer, you get a $25 discount spread over you first four deliveries. This service is available in Portland if anyone is interested... www.spud.com. I think it is awesome!

Okay - back to our originally scheduled programming - where was I? Oh yeah, the SF bike coalition provides valet bike parking at a lot of the events in town, so I just handed my bike over to them and didn't have to worry about carrying around my bike lock or anything. So when I got to the front of the museum, I heard a guy say that they had handed out 20,000 tickets earlier in the day and all tickets were now gone. I obviously did not have a ticket, so was SOL for entry into the museum. Bummer... But then I noticed that the lines were MILES long to get in. So even if I had a ticket, I would have been standing in line for the remainder of the day.

Not fun. So I kind of wandered around and looked at the booths, and then decided to head off and just enjoy golden gate park. On the way back to my bike, I took a little side path that was really gorgeous. And there was a little pond covered in green algae and the ducks were eating the algae.

It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. So - here's a treat for your eyes and ears - my first video posting to the blog.





I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Stow Lake in GG park, which is a really pretty little lake with an island in the middle called Strawberry Hill. You can rent paddleboats and go out on the lake. And I checked out the Japanese Tea Garden and the Conservatory of Flowers. JFK drive is the main thoroughfare through the park and they had it all closed off to traffic, so I got to just cruise down the middle of the street without worrying about cars and pedestrians. It was really nice.

When I got home, I took my blanket across the street to Fort Mason and sat outside the Blues Festival and listened for awhile. It's not quite the same as being inside and watching the concert, but I could hear just fine. Then Neil came home and we walked down to North Beach to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was a nice day...

Sunday, we attended the Fort Mason big book sale - which is a HUGE warehouse filled to the brim with old library books and Sunday was $1 day, so we spent a lot of time combing through the stacks and found some good stuff. I found an awesome cookbook and Neil found the whole collection of James Herriot books. If you don't know James Herriot, you should check his stuff out. The books are older, but just really wonderful, heartwarming stories. He was a veterinarian in Yorkshire and his books are all about his adventures in being a country vet. They are just great. Highly, Highly recommended. So I ended up spending $14 - you do the math to see how many books that is! :)

Then we headed to Kara's Cupcakes and had a little treat. Unfortunately they don't take debit cards if you have an order under $10, so our $5 cupcakes became $10 cupcakes and coffee. Oh well - you've just got to splurge every once and awhile. Then we went for a long walk along Crissy Field. Unfortunately, it was longer than we intended. We didn't realize how far from the apartment we had walked. And the beautiful sunny weather had disappeared. Oh well.

All in all, it was a really nice weekend and I got a chance to relax a little bit and see some of the city. Next weekend, I am going to take a walking tour of a neighborhood, and then I will have really interesting stuff to post!

TraNewMeyFood and "What do you mean that doesn't come with FRIES!!"

What is TraNewMeyFood, you ask? It COULD be the world's most perfect grocery store. Seriously - give me the prices of Trader Joe's, the produce of New Seasons, the selection of Fred Meyer and the ambiance of Whole Foods and you have my absolute, ideal grocery store!! Why has no one thought of this before!! Grocery shopping has become an absolute ordeal for me at this point. It goes like this: I buy as much as I can at Trader Joes for the cheap prices and unique choices. However, Trader Joes doesn't carry all the stuff that I need or like, such as Rice a roni Mexican rice - so, I have to make a trip to Safeway for all the little left-overs. Also, Trader Joes totally overpackages their produce - must we wrap every little piece of produce in a plastic tray and saran wrap? It's ridiculous. Plus, I like to try to buy produce locally whenever possible. This leaves out Safeway, requiring a trip to my local Marina market, where they serve up locally grown produce from Cali. So three stores for one grocery list!! And, may I remind you, all of these stores are in completely different directions and not really close to our apartment. So a simple shopping trip takes me at least 3 hours. BAH!! With TraNewMeyFood, I could pick up all of the items on my list, at nice, low prices, and a wonderful shopping environment! Who's with me? Let's get this new venture off the ground ASAP! I'm about one grocery trip from losing my mind!

And while I am ranting, let me add this to the list: It is amazing how they manage to make EVERYTHING in San Francisco more expensive. In this case, I am referring specifically to restaurants. Case in point - We have a little hamburger joint down the street from us that serves a huge selection of delicious hamburgers. HOWEVER! Before you get excited, here is the catch, and it's a big one in my opinion. These hamburgers...wait for it...DO NOT COME WITH FRIES!! Can you believe it? You have the option of purchasing a side of fries for $4.50!! If I could have written that in caps, I would have. FOUR FIFTY!!!! There we go... What...The...HECK!! When you serve a hamburger, you always offer a side of some kind, right? Even at Widmer in Portland, where the hamburgers are fairly expensive, they at least give you a salad on the side. I am horrified. (Yes, we still eat the hamburgers. They're delicious.)


AND it happened again tonight. I ordered some Thai food tonight - green curry because I love green curry with all my heart. On a side note, this is not something that I get to do often because Neil hates Thai food. So how did I get away with it tonight, you ask? Neil is currently at a Giants game. Alone. Well, he did try to get me a ticket as well, but it was a special offer through his school and they did not have enough tickets for spouses to attend. So, to come around full circle, I am alone tonight, and I ordered Thai. So, on the phone, the lady asked if I would like rice. ??? Of course - how do you eat curry without rice? Well, I'm sure it can be done, but not by this girl. I meandered down to the restaurant to pick up the food and when I arrived, I noticed that there was a separate charge for the rice. What...The....Heck. I have not eaten at a Thai restaurant that doesn't include rice with the curries. See - it's a conspiracy here in SF. BEWARE THE SIDES - THEY WILL BREAK THE BANK. You think you're getting a good deal - JUST KIDDING - you forgot the side...

Anyways, I am very happily enjoying my delicious green curry and should probably stop this ranting now. People might think that I'm a crazy lady that has nothing better to do than eat Thai food and send rants out into the blogosphere. It's not true...

I'm officially a bike-commuter

I rode my bike to work for the first time today. I didn't ride last week because I thought I would just ease into the whole work-routine thing before throwing another log on the fire. Also, I wanted to wait atleast a week before my co-workers saw me walk in with bike shorts on. I want them to like me...

But, it went great - I managed to stay on the bike, not get hit by any cars, and I made it up the ginormous hill in Fort Mason without walking. YAY! Simple victories... I'll have to post a picture of the hill sometime, it's really quite impressive. Just when you think you are at the top, the road turns a corner and, alas, the hill keeps on going.

The real victory of the bike-commute, though, is that I left work at 5:10 (still working the bike-timing out) and got home at 5:23!! YAY! Let's see, with the bus, I left work at 5:00, waited for the bus until 5:07 (or whenever the bus decided to show up), got off that bus around 5:15, waited for another bus until 5:20 (or whenever the bus decided to show up), and got home around 5:30 - 5:40, depending on when the buses decided to show up. So I have a net time savings of about 17 minutes. Cool.
So now I'm sitting in my reading nook, with G&T in hand, all the windows opened so that it feels like I'm sitting on my "deck" (the library also doubles as deck in this house) and writing a leisurely blog. And I would have been arriving home from the bus ride right about......now! Ahhhh.....

Perhaps you can tell by my flowery prose, but this has been a really good week so far. But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I should talk about the WEEKEND first. Because...wait for it....I GOT TO GO HOME!!!! It was FANTASTIC! I left on Friday at 8:20 and arrived in Portland at 10:05, got my rental car by 10:20 and hit mom and dad's house at 11:15 - I think that's a record or something. Everything went off without a hitch. Even in the dark, it felt so great to be back in familiar territory - with roads and lights that I recognized.

Then on Saturday, as I mentioned previously, it my sister and her boyfriend's birthdays, so all family arrived for the celebration. Unfortunately, it was raining, so not the best weather to enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the Northwest, but still nice to see the trees and grass of the country. You get tired of concrete jungle after awhile, you know? Does anyone know if trees change color and lose their leaves in San Francisco, or do they just always think it is summer? Lila also arrived after a little bit of car trouble with my BABIES!! They are so so precious and I missed them so much - it almost hurt to see them just to know I was going to have to leave them behind again.


But Lila is taking great care of them and has actually taught them a basic "come" command. If anyone knows my dogs, they only come if the food is rattling in their dish and the word "dinner" or "breakfast" has been uttered. Amazing. So I got some great big kisses from Swarley and little dainty kisses from Lola. I had to take tons of pictures and videos of them for Neil, since he couldn't come. In fact, when I looked back over the pictures, I neglected to take hardly any family pictures. I don't have one single picture of mom or dad. Hmm... I'll have to fix that next visit.



Isn't my little girl precious? :)

I also got kisses from my favorite Nephew, who informed me at one point, while we were decorating the cake, that I was "his best friend in the whole wide world". I think he was trying to get me to let him eat the frosting. It worked. :) It was so fantastic to see him again and listen to him - he is hilarious. Here is playing with his favorite GG (great-grandma), who is was also wonderful to see!


So we had presents and dinner and cake and a lot of time just to talk. It was just what my soul needed. It's amazing how much relationships matter in life. It's those personal connections that make life worth living every day, and I think that God has blessed me with some wonderful family and friends! Although I am fantastic company for myself while Neil is at school here in S.F., it is nice to have someone to talk to besides me, myself and my blog. :)

Finally, we all got to spend some more time with my sister's boyfriend, Sean. We all just think he is great and are so glad that Chelsea and he found each other. He's a lot of fun and fits into the family perfectly. You always worry that your siblings will pick a dud that is no fun to be around and it disrupts the whole family. Sean is not a dud. YAY! Isn't my sister beautiful?!


Everyone had to leave, but Lila stayed the night so i could spend more time with the doggies and she, mom, dad and I had a really nice talk Sat. night. I feel like I really got to spend time connecting with the family and with the move to San Fran, it's been awhile since that has happened.

The alarm went off at 5:00am (ungodly hour) on Sunday and I headed to the airport. It was kind of a melancholy ride. I had such a good time, but it was over so fast, and I missed Neil a lot and I was just glad to get on the airplane and fall asleep. Neil picked me up in a Zipcar (he realized he doesn't like Toyota Matrix's at all) and I took a four-hour nap when we got home. I guess family tires me out. So, to sum up, best trip ever....For now...

Mom, Dad and Lila have plans to visit us with the doggies in October and we made all the hotel reservations and got everything planned during the visit, so now I have that to look forward to.. Chelsea, Sean and Devin are planning a trip down sometime this fall. There is Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December, so we will have plenty of visits to keep the homesickness at bay. However, after the new year we have NO VISITS PLANNED! Any takers? As you can see, our time fills up fast, so get your reservations in early! :)

So, now for this week's news. I think I need to start posting more often - these are getting ridiculously long. Work today and yesterday was really good. I really feel like I'm starting to settle in and understand stuff. With the accountant out, it is a perfect opportunity for me to really get my finger on the pulse of the organization. Things are really in a flurry right now, too, because their big annual fundraiser is happening this weekend, so there are plenty of last minute glitches that need taking care of. So that feels great.

Also, in other news, I started running again yesterday, and maybe this is why I'm feeling so giddy - runner's high? Not possible when I'm running at 15min/mile pace, right? I'm back on the triathlon training wagon, although barely! :) I'm trying to ease into it. I ran yesterday, biked to work today and tomorrow I will bike, then run. I'll try to add in an actual bike workout next week and swimming probably the week after that. But it feels great to be starting a routine again. I think I really thrive on routine - because then I can make plans, and I love to plan more than anything else in the world, I have learned. In fact, I think the thing that bothered me the most about not having an income was that I couldn't plan! I couldn't budget, couldn't forecast my savings and credit card payments, etc. It drove me CRAZY! So now I can plan away to my heart's content. If anyone needs help planning for anything, I am ready and waiting -bring it on! I love it!

Well, I think that's all for now. If anyone reading this is wondering if Neil still exists, because of the lack of the mention of his name in most of these posts, the answer is yes. The reason he has been so absent is that he has basically been totally consumed by school. And now that he has a studio outside of the house, I really hardly see him any more, it seems like. When he was painting in the house, he used to pop into the living room or kitchen all the time and we could talk, but now he doesn't come home until 7:00 or 8:00 at night, and he's usually exhausted. All that knowledge, you know... But I really think he's going to get great things out of this program - I already can see him questioning and challenging his painting and his thought process. It's a very exciting time for him, and I'm so glad that we had this opportunity.

I'm off to Trader Joe's for groceries - the excitement continues!!!!

Yes, this is a picture of my laundry

Yes, this is a picture of my laundry, but I was so impressed with how pretty and well-packaged it was, that I felt the need to share it with everyone. Isn't it beautiful? I'm very pleased... (For those of you confused by why I posted a picture of my laundry, please see previous post where I discuss the reasons...)

I also thought I would post a picture of our brand-new reading nook in the library. It's very comfy. Please note stack of books and comfortable blanky...In fact, I think I will head off to enjoy it right now. Just picked up some new books from the library...

SF Impressions

I haven't posted anything recently because with the new job beginning and all, I didn't really think I had anything interesting or worthwhile to talk about. I've really just fallen into the old pattern - work, eat, sleep, repeat. But riding the ridiculously crowded bus home this evening, I realized that I have adoring fans out there waiting with bated breath for my next post. :) I'm not one to disppoint so here goes:

New job is fine so far - I don't think they really completely know what to do with me yet. It's a new position and I don't get the feeling that they did a lot of planning before I showed up. So I've just been shadowing the accountant, Jennifer, and learning her job for now. She's leaving for vacation tomorrow, so I will be performing her job while she's gone next week. I think it's actually a really good thing, because it will force me to learn how the organization's cycles work - FAST! Jennifer has a serious hearing problem (literally, she told me so the first time I met her) which makes it very challenging to communicate with her. I repeated myself 5 times earlier today. You don't really want to shout in the nice peaceful office environment, especially confidential information. That should make life interesting.

Everyone is very nice, but it is no Gary McGee & Co., I will tell you that. I had a crisis on Tuesday when I first realized that this was the case - we were waiting in an all-staff meeting for the LA office to conference call in, and there was dead, you could hear a pin-drop, silence! I thought longingly back to our staff meetings at GM&Co. where there was always witty banter and hearty laughs! :) I panicked for a second and thought what have I gotten myself into and then remembered - oh yeah - I have never had a job where I worked with friends and not just co-workers before GM&Co. It's really not that common. It just reminded me what a special office that turned out to be. So, I merely adjusted my expectations about this job, and got on with life. Just a slight hiccup in the road.

So, now that the job post is out of the way, for your reading pleasure, here are a few things that I have noticed/learned since we moved to San Franisco:

1. 65 degrees in San Francisco is HOT! Like put on a tanktop and lie in the sun in the park hot. I swear, if it was 65 degrees in Portland, I would be in three layers and huddled in a blanket. But there is something about context down here. When it has been 58 and cloudy for a week, 65 feels like a ridiculous heat wave. I remember a couple of weeks ago it was in the low 80's and I seriously felt like I was going to die. Weird.

2. H&M is the best department store in the entire world. Why the HECK don't they have one in Portland yet? There is nothing in that store priced above $25 and it is actually CUTE! And a gigantic selection of stuff to choose from. Yes, we have only been here for three weeks, and I admit that I have already managed to spend more money there than I am proud of. But it's CHEAP and CUTE!!

3. It is WONDERFUL when someone else does your laundry for you. Okay, okay - I do pay these "people" a fee, but STILL! There is this service in the city called Laundry Locker and all you do is go put your dirty clothes/sheets/towels/etc. in one of the open lockers. The company picks up the clothes, washes them all to your specifications (hot water/cold water/fabric softener/your choice of detergent), and then returns the washed and FOLDED laundry to the locker where you originally left it. BRILLIANT! Well, I never, ever thought I would pay this much money for laundry, but after two and a half hours and $15 in quarters at the laundrymat last weekend, I decided that it was well worth the price for my personal sanity. Plus, remember I mentioned that we signed up for Zipcar - well because of that, we now get a discount on the Laundry Locker - the circle of life? Spend a little money which will lead you to spend more money :)

4. Taxi drivers do not observe crosswalks -EVER. Yes, I did get nearly run over by one this evening and yes, this is why I chose to mention this fact. However, a couple of days after we got here, I did see a woman with a tiny baby strapped to her chest almost get taken out, child and all. I don't really get why they're in such a hurry, either. Wouldn't it be more beneficial, monetarily, for the taxi driver to wait for us to shuffle slowly through the crosswalk, all the while his little money-meter ticking away at $3.00/second or whatever that ridiculous rate they charge is. Hmm...

Okay, I guess that's enough of the observating - in this post, at least. Please stay tuned for further random observations...

In other news, I am not the only one to have fallen off my bike now! Although still the only one to have done it twice in one week and while at a complete stop... :( Neil has joined the club! He got his back tire stuck while trying to cross a train-track yesterday and fell and slid pretty far. He's got a raspberry on his shoulder and his hip is pretty tender. But for all the falling and sliding, he's really pretty unharmed. Nothing like my beautiful knee. Probably because he was riding with more clothing on than me. Oh yeah - and he also scraped up his leg on his pedal the other day, too. This one was really nasty looking - long, jagged scrape all the was up his shin, oozing with dried blood. I really wish I had a photo to post to share the loveliness with you all, but too bad.

Finally - I GET TO COME HOME THIS WEEKEND!!! YAY!!! I found an awesome last-minute fare plus rental car! The only bad news is that my flight comes in on Fri. at 10:00pm and leaves Sunday morning at 7:00am. Hmm, maybe not such a great deal after all? No, but it's perfect timing, because it's my sister and her boyfriend's birthday on the 22nd - yes, they have exactly the same birthday and are exactly the same age. I know - a little bit twilight zone... Anyways, so the whole family is getting together for the celebration on Saturday, including Lila and the DOGGIES! So I get to see my family, my babies - the whole lot of them. I am so excited I can hardly see straight. I can't believe how much I miss home and Portland and family. Neil isn't going to come on this trip because he thought I needed it more than he did and he has to stay and get some painting and reading done, now that he is a serious student again. At least that's the plan - we'll see if he changes his mind at the last second and comes as well. Then we'll have two rental cars...

See! I had plenty of REALLY interesting things to write about! I'm off now to pick up the laundry that someone else did and FOLDED for me! (Yes, I know I am paying for it - that is beside the point) Family, I will see you SOON! Friends, I miss you guys tons!

It's nice to have friends...

Saturday was a very full day for us! We got to meet up with friends, buy new furniture, drive a car and watch a bike race - all in one day!

We joined Zipcar, which for those of you not in the know is a car-share service. You pay an annual fee and then they let you drive all sorts of cars for an hourly fee. You can rent anything from a Nissan Versa to a BMW. It should be perfect for running errands, picking visitors, I repeat, visitors (ahem) up from the airport, etc. So, you reserve your time-slot and then they tell you what cars are available and where they are located, you pick a car and drive it away! Very cool. So when Neil saw the list of cars, and noticed that there was a Mini Cooper on the list, it was over. He had to have that car. Neil has been lusting after Mini Coopers for atleast 6 years now and he finally had the chance to drive one. See pictures of him looking very proud.

The morning started off a little rough, as I, being so very smart and saavy, decided to wear my brand new, stiff, high heel shoes to WALK to pick up our car. By the time we had walked at least 15 blocks to get to the car, I had more blisters on my feet than I have ever had. And one EXTREMELY painful one right underneath by big toe. Yikes. So, with my feet throbbing and shoes off, we headed north in the Mini to meet our friends Jason and Tracy and their daughter, Isabella.

We met in Fairfield, CA which, who knew, has quite a few things to see and do, including touring the Jelly Belly factory, the Budweiser factory, wine tastings, olive oil tastings, and farm to visit. The first stop after we had lunch, however, was at Macy's where I bought a new pair of shoes to save my feet. I made a beeline for a pair of flat shoes that looked like regular shoes on the outside, but had a soft, fuzzy inside that felt just like a slipper. PERFECT! I didn't even blink, I just put those shoes on as fast as I could and handed over the credit card. My feet were in shoe heaven. I don't think I could have made it through the day without that purchase. Whoever designed these shoes is a genius...

So, after the shoe nightmare was resolved, we all went wine tasting at a vineyard and bought some yummy wine. Then we did the olive oil tasting and bought some yummy olive oil. Then we ran out of time and didn't have a chance to do the beer and jelly bean tours, but you've got to leave something for next time, right?

Jason and Tracy had to head back to Sacramento for a wedding, but we had a great day getting to spend some time with them and catch up on stuff. They live in Spokane, so we don't really get to see them very much. Their daughter is ridiculously adorable!

We then headed to Oakland and the IKEA, to use our day rental of the car to the fullest, and picked up some new furniture to make the studio more comfortable. We are adding a reading nook to the library, and needed a comfy chair... And I needed somewhere to put the bread-maker in the kitchen, counter-space being pretty scarce, so we got a little kitchen stand. And of course, when you visit IKEA, you end up buying all the other fun stuff that catches your eye as well... So we filled the MINI to the brim, literally. Of course Neil's favorite car also happens to be the smallest. :) Actually, we were pretty surprised by the amount of space that was in there once we folded the back seats down.

By this time, our car reservation was close to ending and it had already been a pretty full day with all the driving and visiting, so we headed for home. We dropped the car off and managed to just miss our bus - it was pulling away as we showed up at the stop. Unfortunately, after 6:00, they only come every fifteen minutes, so we decided to walk. Over the hill... with blisters... Actually, in the new shoes, it felt okay - and when we got to the top of the hill, there was a beautiful view of the bay and the fog moving in -

As we headed down the hill we heard the haunting sound of... cowbells? And loud music and cheering. Was there a concert going on? With cowbells? As we got closer, we saw that it was not concert, but bike race! It was a criterion race, which is a closed-loop city-street race, where the bikers ride around and around the loop. The loop is usually under a mile long and there are lots of corners, which makes it more difficult. And to make it more fun, it was being raced at nighttime, under lights. There's actually a whole professional series of these races all over the country and results are tracked through all of them and the rider who has done the best overall at the end of the season is the overall winner. If you are interested in more info, here is a link to a good page with easy-to-understand info: http://www.usacrits.com/fans.html.

We got to see the very end of the women's race and then most of the men's race as well. It was really fun to watch really talented riders close-up! These guys were amazing! It was a really nice, impromptu end to the day - a real treat to have that going on in our neighborhood and just stumble across it...

What a great day! So full and fun... Today is now a day of recovery from all the fun. Neil is in the studio and I am just being lazy. So I guess I better get to work and get the reading nook all set up with the new chair! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Tomorrow it's back to work for me - YAY!

employment is a good thing...

So the big news first for those of you who haven't heard - I got the job! YAY! I start on Monday and now I'm just nervous about starting a new job. It's always something. But the news came along just in time - I was starting to get very down in the dumps about the whole situation. The waiting was starting to wear a little bit. I spent a couple of long days in the apartment with a book. On the upside, I discovered an author that I like and have been raiding the library for all of her books. It's nice to have time just to sit and read.

Let's see - what else have we been up to? I haven't been posting much, because things have been pretty slow. We had a really low-key weekend, Neil went to his studio and I, as mentioned before, holed up with a book on Saturday. On Sunday, we tried a Presbyterian church which was a little strange for us, but will work out if we can't find anything else. Then we had another really restful afternoon and ran some errands. No fun outings on the bikes with pictures, or anything, though. I haven't been sleeping well for the last week or so, so I've been taking naps during the day, which I'm sure is contributing to the restless nights. It's a vicious cycle. I feel like I'm converting to my college sleep schedule - stay up til midnight, sleep in until 10:00 and then have a nap in mid-day. Yep, that sounds just like college. :)

I went back to the nursery and volunteered again today and again, it was just lovely. For my first activity, we collected the seeds of an endangered member of the aster family that grows only in San Francisco. It's this tiny little yellow flower and when the flower dry out, the seeds fluff out like dandelions. We picked off the little fluffs. It was also very interesting, because the area of the Presidio where these flowers chose to grow actually used to be a cemetary a long time ago, and then a landfill more recently. So they have to try and clean up the landfill, but they can't disturb the cemetary or these federally protected flowers. The flowers are called "Lessingia". Here is a picture of this flower:

It's pretty insubstantial, actually. Here is a link to an article about the flower, if you are interested. I thought it was fascinating. http://www.ggnrabigyear.org/sanfranciscolessingia.html

The only two places that this flower is located in the world is in San Francisco and Daly City, CA. See, you can learn something when you read this blog! :)
My second activity wasn't quite as exciting - we took the berries from a dogwood tree and smooshed them to get to the seeds. There was a bunch of white, sticky stuff surrounding the seeds, so we had to wipe that all off. Then we planted them in individual pots. Still fun, just not as much useful information to give you. There is tons of different kinds of dogwoods, so I can't even give you much general information about them... Sorry! :(

Well, if life gets more exciting, I'll be sure to let you know. We will have visitors this weekend! YAY! Neil's friend Jason and his wife Tracy will be visiting with their two-year old. We're going to take a tour of either a winery, or the Budweiser plant in Fairfield, CA. Sounds like an appropriate activity for four adults and a two-year old, eh? But it will be GREAT to see friendly faces. More people need to visit! :) Just kidding, I realize that we've only been here three weeks. I may be jumping the gun just a tad...

Well, I'll get to the other half of the picture tour of the neighborhood later...Right now I have a date with my blanket and book.

Tour of the neighborhood

Update on the job: They will be in contact early next week. The audit is interfering in the CFO having time to call references, so it's taking longer than he thought. Now I'm just concerned that if I get the job, the audit will interfere with me starting the job!

On Thursday night, I met up with Neil and some of his classmates to go see first Thursday in downtown San Francisco. It's very different than Portland's first Thursday. All the galleries are in one building, so there is not really any walking around the neighborhood. I guess that could be either good or bad, depending on how you look at it. I always like exploring the Pearl as well as looking at the galleries. Not to mention there was a million people in the building. I felt like we were a huge herd of cattle being pushed along from one gallery to the next. If you stood too long in front of a painting, I was sure they were going to pull out the cattle prods and get you moving again! We all went out for drinks at a nearby pub afterwards and that was very nice, although I was the only non-painting graduate student there. In another development, the people that Neil has become closest to so far are all girls - hmmm...?

Yesterday I tried to ride my bike to the local YMCA in the Presidio to go swimming, got a little bit lost, ended up riding my bike for a lot longer than I thought I would, and then when I got there, the pool was closed for cleaning... Not a great way to start off the day.

In other news, we had a little rumble down here last night (and by that I mean an earthquake). We were sitting in the "living room", watching the Godfather and all of a sudden it felt like a truck ran into the building, or something. The bikes kind of rattled on the wall. Then it just shook a little bit for a few seconds. We immediately got on the internet to research what to do in an earthquake, having completely forgotten that, yes, those do occur down here. The one good thing that we remembered is that our building was built in, like, 1915 or something, so it didn't collapse in the 1989 earthquake, so we figure we have a fighting chance, at least, that our building won't go down. Great.

Here is the clip from the Associated Press:

"SAN FRANCISCO — A minor earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay area Friday night.
The U.S. Geological Survey's preliminary report put the quake at a 4.0-magnitude. The temblor's epicenter was near Alamo, Calif., about 28 miles east of San Francisco.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in Alamo or surrounding communities, said Contra Costa County Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee.
The quake hit just after 9 p.m. and could be felt throughout the region.
Fans at the San Francisco Giants' waterfront ballpark felt a jolt during the game with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but there was no interruption of play."

So, I mentioned a tour of the neighborhood, and Neil and I took a good walk last night and took some pictures so here we go. First a map of San Francisco, with our area circled:

Then a map of route our little tour will take. Letters indicate stops with pictures!

View down the street from in front of our apartment, looking at the Moscone recreation center and fields at the end of our block. Softball leagues play there every night under lights.

Stop #A on the map, if you can read it - I realize it's a little blurrier than I intended it to be. :( This is part of the field and the tennis courts at the end of our block. It's nice to have a big grassy field so close to our home. We'll do a tour of Fort Mason another day, and that is a huge park a block away in the other direction. We have nice placement!

We take a right onto Chestnut St., stop #B, which is the main street in the neighborhood, filled with cafes, shops and restaurants. There are some of the big stores, like GAP and Williams-Sonoma, and then there are lots of little unique shops as well.

Neil and I can't actually afford to spend any time on this street yet - stuff is pretty pricey. Soon...soon.

At the end of Chestnut, we take a right onto Baker Street, and in the middle of Baker is the Palace of Fine Arts, (stop #C) the only remaining structure from the 1915 Panama-Pacfic Exposition. Not sure what that is, exactly, but it is a really pretty set of buildings, and there are beautiful grounds around it.

Some of the houses are pretty amazing as well!

Finally, we take a right on Marina Ave., (stop #D) and head towards home. This is a main thoroughfare for tourists heading to the Golden Gate bridge, residents of the Marina running and biking and people just out enjoying the sun. When we ride our bikes into the Presidio, this is the beginning of the route.

A shot of Alcatraz from the Marina Ave.:

A look back at Golden Gate bridge from Marina Ave.:

So, that's the tour for now. Let me know if it was too ridiculously long! I plan on doing another one in the other direction, through Fort Mason to Fisherman's Wharf, and if I should shorten it a a little, just leave a comment.

Oh yeah, Katie - if you're reading this, we noticed this name painted on a shop window on Chestnut Street:

We weren't aware that Charlie had opened a shop down here! We're not sure what he was selling though?! :)

We miss you all! Have a great weekend...