We've Landed

Here we are...home sweet home.  It felt oh so good to be back in our own beds Monday night / Tuesday morning.  Yes, our flight arrived at 1:20 am Tuesday morning, our bags were right there on the carousel, and we were cabbing it home.  Give us a few minutes to hunt down our house keys after they've been shuffled around, and we were snug in our own bed.  We both put in a pretty full day at work yesterday, and this chilly morning, I find myself sipping coffee and having a leisurely morning--things are so slow work wise, I'll be working from home the rest of the week!

Our trip home was great--luck seemed to be on our side, starting with even making it home (with all the crazy weather).  Weather overall for us was good, especially on traveling days.  We spent 4-5 days with Ian's family, which was really fantastic.  Just had a really good, relaxing time and a very nice Christmas--meals were good, games were fun, and playing with the puppies was...well...fun.  I also was able to get in a decadent family-style meal at Maggiano's with most of the Hippos (minus Ashley).

We spent the next 4-5 days in Virginia with my Deedahn and Jeff, seeing Mom, Gran, Gran'ma, Chip, and new baby Parker (hope you're feeling better, trace!  We missed you....).  New baby is a doll--he has the squishiest cheeks, which is a recipe for a cute baby.  Also had a night with my girls, Kris and Steph--and Kris brought her little man, Everett.

And lastly, we drove back to Raleigh, spent the night with Steph, Mark, and Riley, which was also just so comfortable and like home to me.  Monday was brunch with Carmen, we played a game, I got a massage, and we met Ian's parents for dinner before flying the friendly skies.

Yowsers.  It was packed.  And Ian and I felt pretty bad when we got home.  Just so much junk food.  We've decided a few things that we've taken for granted since being out here, and then returning back east for awhile.  Here goes:

1.  It's illegal in California to drive while talking, texting, looking at your phone, etc.  So everytime the phone rang when we were driving (or if we needed to text), we made the passenger take care of business.  It's become ingrained that it's "bad" to do all these things while driving.

2.  We become completely wasteful consumers when we go home, because North Carolina and Virginia make is SO hard to recycle.  Sheesh!  Really surprising the difference it makes when things are made easy for you--it hurt to throw things away (like wrapping paper!!!?!?!), but what else are you going to do with it?  Drive it however many miles to a recycling bin?  It's really disconcerting, and it makes me feel bad everytime we go home.  Especially when you see how much "stuff" is gone through over Christmas when family is all around.

3.  Food.  In general.  Not to say there isn't delicious food back home, but man oh man!  Maybe it was just Christmas, or that we were on the road?  We ate more crap than I care to think about.  It was drive-throughs, and Gran's house for dinner (which was a treat, albeit laced with about a pound of Crisco, butter, and sugar), doughnuts, cakes, cookies--all sorts of things that aren't a part of our normal diet.  Maybe that's why I got grossly sick on the last day (and am still trying to push it all out of my system?).  Ian made dinner last night, and we had a grilled pork chop, brown rice, broccoli, and cauliflower, and my body sighed in relief.

4.  Exercise--you have to seek it out there.  I am thankful, thankful for having to walk everywhere here.  Exercising is ingrained in daily living.  There it was moving from couch to couch, from table to table, driving, sitting, laying down.  We went out to play tennis once.  It's not that I couldn't exercise--it's just that here you have to.  There isn't a choice.  And I really missed moving around.  I actually think that if the weather holds out (rainy season is upcoming), I will walk to work in the mornings just to feel a bit better.  Because sitting around and stuffing yourself for 10 days straight=poopiness.  I think if Ian and I move somewhere, we will go on evening walks together.  Because it's a nice pasttime, and a good way to be together.

Last super fun news is that Ian went out yesterday and bought me an electric full-sized piano!  He said he enjoyed watching me play at Deedahn's house, and that I looked really happy doing it.  How exciting.  The great thing about it is that it is electric, so I can plug in headphones and not subject anyone to my crazy banging.  So, it's a fun new toy....and Ian is incredibly thoughtful.  

And so, it's New Year's Eve--not a favorite holiday of mine.  Kind of anti-climactic.  Our good friend Carrie and her new man-friend are coming over.  I think we're going to have Little Star Pizza and possibly play some board games to ring in the new year, which seems just my speed.

Have a safe and happy new year.  We miss our friends and family already, and thank you all so much for your hospitality and great company.

Pictures to follow, once we can upload them.  :)

Merry Christmas

We're out!  Leaving in about 15 minutes to fly back east.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Ah, continue the holiday spirit!

We haven't updated the blog too much in the past week or so.  Not because we're lazy, but we just don't have a lot to say.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty normal (with Christmas cheer thrown in here and there...the shopping, preparing, etc).  A shout out now to my Deedahn for ordering a large shipment from Omaha Steaks that arrived before Thanksgiving.  Ian and I have been cooking a delicious treat every night (pork chops, burgers, franks, steaks, lasagna, sole fillets....the list goes on).  So we've had some good eats at home.

Last night was my company holiday party, and a party it was.  It was our first official Microsoft holiday party, and quite the soiree.  A whole block of a building, with different rooms set to project different parts of the world by way of culinary style and music theme.

  Ian and I got all decked out, got our pictures taken prom-style, drank some top-shelf liquor, wine, and beer (you go, Microsoft!), and mingled a la corporate goodness. 

 It was interesting to be part of such a huuuuge party--I'm never good at predicting how many people attend an event, but I'd say in the low thousands for this one.  Deck the halls!

The rest of this rainy weekend (besides getting stuffed with brunch), the unprecedented happened.  Ian helped me with the Christmas cards!  I even have photos to prove it.  

And he did such a brilliant job, making cute little sketches and saying funny things.  

Much better than I could have done it, and it's so refreshing not to have to decorate (yes, it was do-it-yourself card year), write, and address all 60 Christmas cards.  Because I also have to send all my clients Christmas cards, and man is it a lot!  Anyway, thanks to Ian for being so sweet about it.  Very helpful, thank you.

And now, we have 3 busy days ahead of us (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), before flying back to the East Coast for the holidays.  Yeehaw!

In the Christmas Spirit

It's been a strange holiday season.  I'm going back and forth between feeling the Christmas spirit, and feeling like it shouldn't be Christmas yet.  Or like it's actually June and I'm pretending it's Christmas (in San Francisco, anyway, the weather is the same in December for the most part as it is in June).

I'm blaming it on the late Thanksgiving.  The fact that we had Thanksgiving, and within a matter of days (not even a week!) we were into December.  Fast forward simply a week in December, and Ian and I are flying home for Christmas in 2 weeks!  How time flies!  I still have Christmas shopping to do!  And we hadn't even decorated....

Until this weekend.

On Wednesday, we walked up to Delancey Street Christmas trees just a few blocks from our house, and picked out this awesome 3-footer.  Our trick is to pick a smaller tree then place it in our front windows on a storage container (the one we actually use to keep our holiday gear).  From the outside, it looks pretty big, but in our living room, he's a little guy.

Here's an observation about buying Christmas trees in a lot.  When I was growing up, I can't really remember a time where we had a real Christmas tree.  For as long as I can remember, we have had the same fake tree (that my Dad still uses, and I "borrowed" for a time when living in Kentucky).  So, I never realized that going to get a live tree would be such an experience.

What happens is straight out of my 2nd grade play, which was called The Littlest Christmas Tree.  Or perhaps thinking about poor Charlie Brown's tree.  Or the fact that my family consistently gives personalities to inanimate objects.  Still.  What happens is that I tend to think like my inner 8-year old self and wonder if the tree's feelings would be hurt if I don't choose it.  Or wonder if they're sad they're not big and fluffy, but kind of scrawny.  If their boughs droop when person after person pass them by, without so much as a glance.

So I find myself whispering my likes to Ian, so the trees can't hear.  How psychotic is that!  Or I'm tempted to find the most "full bough" challenged, the smallest, the crookedest tree and select that one to go home with me.

But I don't.  Within, oh--about 10 seconds, I found our little man.

  

We tagged him, grabbed some mistletoe, and were walking home with him.  Our 2nd annual tradition.

Fast forward until this weekend, and Saturday was the day!  I wrapped presents to help get me in the mood in the afternoon, drinking some wine and keeping some cheesy holiday movies on in the background.  Ian worked on a project and then played xbox live with his friend Cliff, and drank some holiday Maker's Mark.  It wasn't really holiday, but I'm sure it helped him feel the spirit.  Then we made (ok, Ian made) a wonderful dinner of filets, potato croquettes, carrots, and broccoli. We finished off by baking sugar cookies.

The fire was lit, Christmas music was on, eggnog filled my glass.  And so we decorated our little tree, who I will now name Martin.  It feels really nice to see these old ornaments that now tell the story of Ian and I as a family.  

We bring them out, talk about where they came from, how long we've had them...good times.

Oh, it's getting so close to Christmas!  We leave for NC and VA in about a week and a half.  Can't wait!  Time to watch some Christmas favorites....

fruit. round one

I really enjoy apples. I've always eaten apples, but I feel like recently, I've really been connecting with those guys. Maybe it's because I've given other varieties a try. I'm finding there are good ones out there besides the ______ delicious breed.

Honey Crisp for insistence. WOW! they have my favorite apple trait: A good pop when you bite into them. I don't know if they have these everywhere, but MAN are they good.


How have I gotten involved with the apple you ask? well, Whole foods is the reason. For lunch, if I can't decide what to eat, I walk over Whole Foods and get a "golden gate" sandwich (toasted) or a soup. Then I walk over to the apples and pick one up for my mid afternoon snack. Since they have what amounts to an apple buffet, I started branching out. I thought that for 85 cents, I can afford to make a mistake if I don't enjoy the taste.

I still don't dig baked fruit as much as raw. I don't know what it is, but still, when I see apple pie, I don't think yum. (I do think "It might be okay with ice cream" but that's a different story)

Okay, why does it smell like Indian food in here? It's 4:30. Who is eating Indian food this late in the afternoon. It'll spoil their dinner. From what I can tell, It's not going to be very good. I usually like the smell of Indian food, but whatever that is, it smells terrible. I'm going to investigate the odor.

not what I expected.

Oh, look at the time, I want to get out of here soon. I'm meeting Lori downtown. That means I have to go home first, get some things, and then jump on the train. I hope it's not too busy down there with people doing their holiday shopping.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

How Much is that Doggie in the Window? [arf, arf]

Oh, Christmastime.  I read an article in Advertising Age today praising Macy's New York for making good on their multi-decade streak of beautifully decorated shop windows for the holidays.  And I thought, yes, it's magical.

But can it compare to the shop windows of the San Francisco Macy's at Christmas?

I doubt it.

Not only do they deck the halls with style and flair (also piping holiday songs onto the street), but they do so in the name of charity.  Here's where I get in trouble (and make a lot of detours by the Macy's windows for a couple of months).

It's the SPCA annual drive.  The windows are meant to look like picturesque SF home fronts (plus the added fake snow...SF won't likely see any of the white stuff)...but, add to that scene irresistible puppies and kittens up for adoption?

  

Oh no...let the crowds draw close.  And enter me, wiggling my way to catch a glimpse of the puppies.  Oh, the puppies!

Hooray for Tiny Turkeys!

Ian and I have had off work since about 6 pm last Tuesday.  Yep, it's Sunday night.  It felt like a lifetime off.

We had about 30 minutes to hang out at home (read: run around the house straightening) before driving to the airport to pick up my Deedahn and Jeff. I had spent some time Saturday creating them a sign, and we came equipped. I guess you could say they were a bit embarrassed.

Not to go into all the detail of our time together, but it was nice piddling, relaxing, running around the city, eating. Wednesday was super crummy weather-wise, which also happened to be the day we chose to go to Alcatraz. 

Alcatraz is still cool--I'm not one for audio tours, or any tours for that matter. But the tour is very interesting, and well-worth the time.

Other highlights have to include that we stumbled upon an ice skating rink in Union Square on Thanksgiving Day and gave it a go. Ian and I always tried to go last year. We even went to the ice skating rink at the Embarcadero Center last year, only to discover it was the day sponsored by Starbucks--aka, free hot chocolate, coffee, and skating. Needless to say it was too packed and we never made it on the ice.

But this year, although warm outside, Jeff, Ian, and I donned our rented ice skates and took to the ice. Deedahn, holding numerous coats, sweaters, and 1 purse, waved to us from the sidelines. A picture of him so familiar to me through all these years.

What can I say? We're suckers for some holiday fun. I am pretty nervous in my old age, so I was a bit slow and wobbly. But at least my butt never hit the ground. And winging around to see the huge tree in Union Square (it was lit on Friday night) was not so bad, either. It was essentially a whole hour of a grin plastered to my face.

We got a late start with making dinner as a result, but Ian put out some tasty Mt Tam cheese (a delicious local favorite), and Deedahn opened the bottle of Kir Royal he brought back from Paris. Lovely. We had all the traditionals--turkey (our 2-year streak of tiny turkey breast--all 3 pounds!), stuffing, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, sweet potato biscuits, and pumpkin cheesecake. Not a bad endeavor.

The other notable favorite outtings (because why would I blog about the awesomeness of going to bed at 10pm most nights, or enjoying cups of coffee in the morning with my dad?): Golden Gate Park, our dinner at Magnolia, and brunch at Foreign Cinema.

Well, maybe also my walk with Deedahn in the morning after their arrival. It was fun taking him around the neighborhood--seeing Mission Dolores church, Dolores Park--then walking down 18th to Market and back home.

I may also want to mention our "brunch" Friday morning (post-Thanksgiving). It started with Deedahn waking up and having some cheesecake with his coffee. Then Jeff microwaving some mac and cheese for breakfast. Putting Tootsie on the TV. After I made some blueberry muffins, we all filtered in to watch Tootsie and munched on them. I also decided mac and cheese sounded good, so I made myself some. To which Ian returned that call, came back from the kitchen with his own mac and cheese AND pumpkin cheesecake. Which Jeff met, by getting his own cheesecake and heap of whipped cream. Which spawned Deedahn into asking for some mac and cheese. So we made him some, but not before he also asked for turkey. I finished us off by eating a piece of pumpkin cheesecake. It was a lovely disaster chain reaction of a morning, that found us coming out of our food / Tootsie coma at about 1 in the afternoon (still all sporting our pj's. my idea of perfection).

OK--back to other stuff. Golden Gate Park is incredible. Why don't I ever come here? I will start. We took the N pretty much to the ocean, which is also just incredible. 

Then we walked to the edge of Golden Gate by the Dutch Windmill. 

On through trails of fragrant trees, bushes, and flowers. All the way over to the Bison Paddock.

 

Yes, bison. Then further along past lakes and waterfalls, doggies, runners, walkers, bikers, lovers, kids, ducks. Onto the Japanese Tea Garden, which alas, was closed for the day.

On then to Haight Street. To Magnolia, which happens to be a place Jeff loves to eat, but Ian and I have never been there. It was perfect. We were chilled a bit, tired of walking so much. Sat in a booth, ordered our brews, and a delicious gastropub feast ensued. Stuffed, we walked down Haight, and back home.

So Foreign Cinema for brunch Saturday before they left--it's been over a year since I've been there for brunch, but man is it delicious. So glad we made that decision. We made the trek on a gorgeous Saturday morning. Sat outside, and feasted on the homemade pear and raspberry poptarts, a croque monsieur--and then we all had our separate dishes. It was delightful. Headed to the airport, and the only thing happy about the separation is the fact that we'll see them in a few weeks.

It's setting in a bit about how precious the time is...Deedahn is moving to Paris everyone (for those that didn't know). And it's so much harder to get there now that we're living on the west coast. It's like every minute counts. A rare thing that we can all be together at once. Even rarer come January, but we'll do our best.

In the meantime, Ian and I have been preparing for Christmas. The Christmas tree lot has moved a couple of blocks closer to our house, and we're readying ourselves this week to get one. It's good to see a few windows on the street donning lovely, bright lit trees. It's starting to appear everywhere--lit snowflakes line Market Street, wreaths and bows don the streetcars.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, and I can't wait!

Hello again!

I've been thinking a lot about this blog.  For starters, I missed you guys.  What I actually do is walk around the streets of San Francisco writing the blog in my head.  So that by the time I actually might make time to update it, those words have long since disappeared to the non-existent audience in my head.  Alas.  

What I think is that I will stop apologizing for being remiss in writing.  I even had conjured up in my head (oh, about a month ago) something clever about how this blog was Ian's puppy.  How he made it, promised he would feed it and take it out, but when he finally got the puppy, his parents actually had to nurture it.

I digress.  Back to my original reason for posting.  I've been thinking about why Ian created this blog to begin with.  While it's since turned into a narrative of "we did this, we did that:" essentially a good way to stay connected with our loved ones, it ends up getting away from its original design, which is actually selfish by nature.  It was originally set up to document our life in San Francisco.  The title, "Making it our Mission," while sounding completely dedicated or almost religious, is actually a pun on our neighborhood, the Mission.  It's supposed to be all about our discovery of the city, or settling into new life.  Selfishly, it would be great to look back on this and remember when.

We've passed a pretty big milestone in our absence from writing.  Our 1-year anniversary since moving here.  Unfortunately, we did start the blog much later.  But if I were to comment on our 1-year, I'd say something about how different it all is now.  How when we first moved here, we felt like glorified tourists for a long time.  Or, how we made such a big deal about how we needed to explore, how we needed to take advantage of living in such a great city.

All of those things have evolved.  It's not that we don't try to take advantage now.  In fact, in the past few months we've really been enjoying the city.  But I will say that what's changed is the constant desire to feel obligated to explore and discover.  What I've learned about San Francisco is that it has a pulse of its own.  There's a distinct vibration, and maybe once you stop trying to find every nook and cranny of each neighborhood, you'll notice it.  Because it's always there.

When we moved here over a year ago, we stayed in temporary housing in Nob Hill, right on the Cable Car line.  If you've ever been near a cable car line, you'll know that there is this constant humming.  Of electricity in the tracks.  That's what this city has all the time--a life, a vibration.  It's constant and everyone and everything is a part of it.  It seems like it's living to me.

If I wanted to run down the list of things that we've done since we last wrote: Yosemite Park for a weekend and our 2-year wedding anniversary.  Yes, two years!  Seems so long ago, and it's truly odd how I love being married more each day.  I should qualify that.  I love being married to Ian each more every single day.  It's an amazing feeling.

Yosemite was incredible.  We stayed at a bed and breakfast, the weather was lovely.  I have to say that every scene looks like a fake backdrop.  It was majestic, and it's incredible that we're so close to such magnificence.

I've been to Toronto for work (my first time there as an adult)--it was good.  Ian came with me up to Seattle, and we had a great time exploring around.  I actually was just back there last week.  What else?  Our brother-in-law (Hilliary's hubby) came during a business trip and we had a nice dinner together.  The following weekend, Ian's parents came to visit, and Hilliary surprised him by also coming for his birthday.  The weekend after that, our good friend Carmen came to visit.  I've been to Napa (twice)--ridiculous that it's only an hour away...my heros live there (at least the ones I like to drink).  It was like going on a Beverly Hills star home tour if I were into celebrities.  I mean, imagine rows and rows of your favorite wineries!  I was star-struck.

Alas, here we are and it's Thanksgiving.  My bro and Dad are flying here tomorrow, and I can't wait!  

Other item of note is that my office moved...I now work "at the mall."  At least our offices are right above the main enormous mall in SF, and so my life has taken a turn as a result.  I can go into more detail later.

I guess this is just more introductory to say we've been really busy and enjoying life.  But I do want to get this blog back to where it started and to focus on San Francisco and our life here, how we've adjusted and found balance.  It's been such an interesting city to get to know intimately.  Sometimes I feel like I know it so well and nothing surprises me.  Other times, I look around at all the familiar places and everything seems new all over again.

We both joined yelp.com and review restaurants and places that way.  You can look us up and our reviews.  So, we may not review so much here.  Just know we're brunching it every weekend like normal, but we do try to cook more at home.  :)

Enough for now.  Just know that I know this blog is in serious need of attention, which it will get.  Just maybe in a different way.

Strange Things Afoot in San Francisco

Ah, the strangeness that is San Francisco the past couple of weeks!  Here's the rundown:

1.  Sitting on the couch, watching TV, one o'clock in the morning.  Sirens going by, then stopping.  I look out the window, and am met with 6-7 police cars parked in front of the house and down the street.  Long story short, we catch from a cop telling a bystander (taking multiple pictures) that it was car theft.  I saw initially the police running, shouting.  Then later, the caught men sitting on sidewalks, handcuffed.  Policemen retrieving their dropped billy clubs from the street.  All my neighbors doing the same thing: looking out their windows, or standing on the sidewalk.  What a spectacle!

2.  Next night, drifting off to sleep in bed.  Hear a noise, Ian gets up.  He says it's actually about the 3rd noise in a row, all seconds apart.  He goes to look out the very windows we were glued to the night before, and I join him.  On the other side of the street, also in front of our house, are 5-6 police cars, one girl crying on the sidewalk, her red BMW crashed into a parked car.  Then we look up the street and see the havoc she's wreaked.  Multiple hit cars, shoved on the sidewalk or under each other, all bashed in the side.  What did this girl do?!?  Even more neighbors in on watching these goings-on.

3.  Walking to work the next morning, a van pulled over with their blinkers on.  Only to realize it's because she's in some sort of slapping fight with another woman against a restaurant front.  I hate fighting, but I couldn't even stop to call 911 because the slapping and kicking was such a farce.  I had to shake my head and block out the screaming, crowd gathering mess.  And this, only 8:30 in the morning.

4.  Ian and I are on the couch this weekend, watching TV and an enormous truck drives by, rattling everything.  But then the rattling doesn't really stop.  And Ian and I look at each other, and the rattling is still rattling, and we realize it for what it is: an earthquake.  It stops.  Later, we look online and confirm it indeed was an earthquake, our first.  A 4 on the richter scale.  So small that my Mom doesn't even call me immediately to ask if I'm alright (which is what she did the last time there was an earthquake, the one Ian and I were oblivious to).

5.  Ah, the weather!  Another oddity.  Past 2 weeks, like 80 degrees.  Really unheard of.  Which wouldn't be bad at all if San Francisco or the Bay Area ever heard of a little something called air conditioning.  Sometimes, open windows don't cut it and all you can do is take a cold shower.  Ironic that the day after Labor Day was like the first day of summer here, and I donned a white dress.  Then last night, Ian and I watched...literally tracked the fog rolling in.  We were greeted with a chilly grayness today that seemed entirely disparate from the sunshine of this weekend.

If I were an umbrella, my name would be Stan.

Labor Day Weekend and Beyond!

Labor Day weekend was good.  It snuck up on us, which was better...we saw Hamlet 2.  Anyone else see it?  It's pretty funny.

And because it was such a gorgeous weekend, we did our first bike around the city together.  We went down by the water, past AT&T Park, flew by the Ferry Building, Embarcadero, the Fisherman's Wharf, and finally landed in Ghirardelli Square for a cupcake.  It was a fantastic way to see the city.  

Monday, we went back to Muir Woods, but more to hike it (and less to stand and stare up at Redwoods).  

We were out and about the woods for about 3 hours or so.  It was nice to get away from the touristy crowds, and explore the trails in peace.

Alas, that's about all we've been up to, other than the incessant brunches.  We did try a new notable place this weekend, Universal Cafe.  Also tried Stacks, but it wasn't as notable.  If nothing else, we sure do eat out a lot (especially for brunch on the weekends).

Saturday night was also self-proclaimed German night--we ate lots of schnitzel, spaetzle, and had large delicious German beers.  Wunderbar!  And Ian has been working hard (nightly) to perfect his s'mores made right in the kitchen technique.

We have a lot coming up: our 2nd anniversary is Wednesday, and this weekend we're celebrating by taking a trip to Yosemite.  Then, we're both going to Seattle next week--me, for work.  Ian, piggybacking off my trip and checking out the city.  The following week I'm off to Toronto for work. 

Exciting times ahead!

If I were a camera, my name would be Percival.

My awesome husband....have I mentioned I'm the luckiest?

He makes me breakfast in bed on work days. 'Nuff said.

The stuff in between....

Forgot to include random tidbits from the week before we left for NC, so here they are...

My Moroccan dinner with the sales team for work,

 

followed by the Chinatown Bender with my clients...

and our Saturday night in Dolores Park watching The Breakfast Club with friends and a couple of bottles of wine.

If I were a belly dancer, my name would be Sheena.

Weekend--yes, I think we're caught up!

Being back in SF this past week has been good. It was good going back to NC, but good to be home, too.

Wednesday night, my friend Cyndi was in town, and Ian and I had dinner with her at the delicious Belden Taverna.

Thursday night, Ian's soccer game was cancelled and we ended up with a date night. It was my turn to plan, so impromptu I picked an Italian place over in Union Square--it was good. I actually don't totally remember the name, and am just lazy enough not to bother looking for it.

Then we headed over to Moma and to the Frida Kahlo exhibit. Would you believe my behavior? That I love art museums, and still had never been to Moma? Shame on me.

Thursdays is half-price night, and they stay open until 9:45. We had a good date night, if I do say so myself. Highly recommended.

Friday night we were super excited to go to Outside Lands Festival to see none other than headliner Radiohead.

Don't want to spend too much time on it. You can read about it here. Want to maybe point out that I think the reason it got so many stars was the line-up. Otherwise, transportation was screwed (Ian and I walked miles to get there), lines were unbelievable, you couldn't see a thing, the crowds were insane. Ian and I actually left the concert way early, and are happy we did. Although we got on a very crowded train, we heard that after the concert ended, people were jumping fences to get out, fights were breaking out, and lines for the trains were 2+ hours. We were just happy to get home.

Saturday...brunch at J's Pot of Soul in Hayes Valley. It was a new one for us. I read about it on Yelp, and the pumpkin pancakes were indeed delicious. A new good one, close to our house.

I think we might have fairly lazed about the rest of the day, and went to Little Star Pizza for dinner (so darn good). Then our buds Katie and Liz came over for famous Mitchell's ice cream and some Pop5.

Sunday...well, all I can say is we had the brunch of perfection at 2223.

Then it was down Market to the event I've been waiting for: The Little Mermaid sing-a-long at the Castro theatre! OWIE YOWIE YOWSERS! It was the stuff dreams are made of.

I loved it. Just loved it.

Now I'm blogging (have been for seemingly hours...that's what we get for being slackers)...drinking a refreshing kir. Listening to some great music (didn't mention this before, but Ian's managed to wire speakers in just about every room of the house, linking back to itunes...). Ian is playing Call of Duty 4 with Paul on Xbox Live. We're debating Indian or Thai for dinner. We have more Mitchell's ice cream in the freezer, and life is good.

If I were an aloe plant, my name would be Portia.

News: Part 2 (the bad news)

Ok, friends, here's the bad news. My childhood home burned to the ground.

I think my Gran read it in the newspaper. Then my Mom drove by the house (or what was left of it. The pictures are incredibly sad.

The interesting part is that Jeff went by there, as well, on his trip home to meet Parker. The house had been sold, and the new owners had moved a few things in and were beginning renovations.

This takes me back to last year, when Ian, Jeff, and I went to the house and decided to knock on the door and ask to come in to check things out. That's when we realized how poorly the owners took care of the house, and how they had changed nothing.

We walked away that day with my 5th grade project of Stonehenge, a drawing on notebook paper my brother Brian did and was still hanging up (?), the Pizza Hut magnet, an old Garfield poster (yes, also still hanging up)...what we left behind were all the random things the people who lived there decided to keep--our welcome mats, my mom's old, useless Christmas decorations...why they lived in a mess, I don't know. Mind you, it had been 11 years since we lived there. And almost NOTHING CHANGED. Yowsers.

So, the new owners bought the house, and somehow it burned pretty much to the ground. When Jeff stopped by, the adults were there cleaning things up, and Jeff spoke with them. They had 3 kids. The best part of this whole story was that Jeff shared a lot of our childhood memories with them, told them about how the house had been in good condition and the wonderful times we had there. It opened their eyes to the possibilities, which the latest owners had deteriorated from view.

OK, the second best part of the story was this. The woman began speaking of how their oldest daughter (maybe she was 15 or 16) did NOT want to move, was really upset about it, angry, etc. Well, she was ripping out the carpet in my old bedroom, and her attitude shifted.

For some crazy reason, I had no carpet in my bedroom for a matter of years....we ripped it up, were going to replace it...and...got lazy? I don't know. But, concealed under an area rug, I began writing on the floor. With the dates (it was the 80's)....about life, how things were going. I intially intended for someone to find it years and years later...like a memorial, and like a message to a future owner.

Better than I ever expected, this girl found the writing and her attitude lifted. She told her mom she realized whoever had that room had been happy and had good memories there. It meant something to her, changed her perception, and she felt a connection with the younger me.

All I have to say is Hooray for that!! I am so excited to have heard that story, and it means the world to me.

Jeff says they plan on rebuilding the house almost exactly as it was. Of course, it won't be the same. But I do hope to go back someday and meet the new family and see what they've done. They did indeed buy a very happy, blessed home.

If I were a treehouse, my name would be Samuel.

News: Part 1 (the good news)

If I said I had good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first? What would you say? Here, right now, I can't hear you. So, I'm picking for you. It's good news.

I'm an aunt! Or a cousin! Or whatever! You know, families are unique. So I have a half-aunt Traci who is only 4 years older than me. So she feels more like a cousin or another sibling.

Regardless, Traci just had a wonderful baby boy, Parker (named after my maternal grandmother's maiden name).

This is not only great news because Traci and Parker are healthy and happy, but also because it is the first child introduced to our family! Thanksgivings and Christmases have been plagued with a bunch of 30-year olds at the proverbial "kid's table," and now I think we've graduated with Parker's entrance to the family. Hooray for that!!!

I have been the youngest, at a chipper 31--well, I guess Ian is technically the youngest, but it's about time someone has introduced something small and wiggly and new into our tribe. Can't wait for the first big holiday event with a little one present.

Here are some pics with my dear Mom, Gran'ma, Gran, and Jeff.

Can't wait to meet him!!!

If I were a baby, I'm afraid my name would continue to be Lori.

NC--Rehearsal and wedding (and mush in between)

Aha, our story is creeping slowly toward the purpose of our trip! After our dinners with our individual friends (thanks for the company girls, and for the wonderful dinner and coffee, Carmie!), Ian and I drove back to Tarboro (about an hour and a half) in some pretty heavy fog.

Sadly, we decided on that trip back to change our plans the next night and stay in Chapel Hill to avoid another late-night drive.

Thursday evening, we drove to Durham--I dropped Ian off with the guys for pre-wedding drinks (I think in some cultures it's called a bachelor party, but I think they just hit up the QShack and James Joyce), and I picked up Quinney (you may remember Quinney from her visit to SF) and we drove to Raleigh for Marianna's bridal shower.

The weather is something that I just can't get over (mainly the weather difference). I felt naked leaving the house with sleeveless shirts and sandals, and not bringing along some heavy back-up. I mean, we've been back in SF for a week now, and Friday night--heck if I wasn't wearing boots, jeans, a scarf and jacket, and STILL was cold.

Anyway, we go to Marianna's mom's house and there are more friends to see--mainly from McKinney (and of COURSE the glowing bride-to-be), but also the wonderful Rebecca Sketch who I was so excited to see is expecting. And met a new friend, Kelly, who work(ed/s) with the M's at Arnold.

After the shower, I drove Quinney home and picked up Ian from the James Joyce where we headed to our hotel to check in. The lovely Holiday Inn Express. Alas.

Next morning, Ian and I headed to Southpoint mall---I just had to visit the old girls at Avalon for all things "cure" (mani and pedi) pre-wedding. We soon found ourselves getting ready for our respective activities--can't speak for Ian (again, I encourage him to speak for himself in this blog...Ian? Ian? Are you there?)....but, I was off to a bridal luncheon at the Old Granary at Fearrington Village.

In fact, that's where the wedding and reception were. I'm just going to go ahead and put a fatty link here to the Fearrington Village. It is a wonderful, charming place and you should just explore that site and drool a little.

So, the luncheon was great. Got to know the bridesmaids a bit better, and Kelly from Arnold was also there....just love her.

Immediately following was the rehearsal. Can I now just prompt you to again visit the website? Gorgeous! Kind of ridiculous. It was raining a bit, so we rehearsed under a roof, but I just love the space, and I was so happy to see some old friends of the M's that had been to our house way back when, Hal and Jenn.

Can I just stop and say how much we really love Micah and Marianna (who we affectionately dubbed m&m, or the M's back in the day)? If you don't believe us, find them here and you'll have to agree.

OK, then we had a break where we all went back to our hotels and rested, got dressed again and headed to the Weathervane for the rehearsal dinner.

Delicious bbq buffet with the most amazing sweet potato mash on the side--which reminds me--I emailed them for the recipe and they haven't responded.

The bestworse part of the dinner was the procession of toasts to the bride and groom---man, I tried so hard to contain the waterworks, but was a bit hard to control with all the crazy love and support flowing around that room. Just insane.

Afterwards, we all headed to the West End Wine Bar (the Cellar, to be exact), where we met with tons of friends from McKinney.


AND my Hippos were all in town and also came to the bar.

It was a good: friend / happy to see everyone / I just love you all overdose. In a really lovely way.

I had a hard time saying no to hopping across the street to The Lantern bar with my Hippos, but alas I knew that I had a long day Saturday, and being hung over and tired was not the right answer.

Saturday morning, Ian went to meet the boys at McKinney bright and early for a little traditional golf--OK, not traditional golf, but they Tiger Woods it on the Wii.

I myself met the Hippos again at Weathervane (hey, the food's good and Hippo Kirsten had to meet her mom there at 11 anyway) for brunch.

Super fun. Miss those girls. Delicious. We laughed so hard at the silliest things and dished about the latest. We all live in different cities, in 3 different states. Ah, such luck they were all there.

Ian and I transferred stuff from Holiday Inn Express to stay at the Fearrington Saturday night. Can i just say shucks? I really wish we'd stayed there all along. It's gorgeous. I said that before. But the stay was so lovely, and the included breakfast Sunday was also lovely. I jump ahead...

Got my hair done at the Fearrington. I'm not sure how "just something kind of low...like a low knot at the nape of my neck....something loose"....translated to the bouffant I received. I knew I was in trouble when before they asked what I wanted, they yelled out--"She's got straight hair! I'll go ahead and get'er in curlers!" Or maybe a warning sign could have been: "Our usual clientele is the elderly, so it's so much fun when a young person comes in!" Plus they were running late. In fact, I had less than 15 minutes to make it back to my hotel room, put on makeup, and get dressed for the wedding before I had to meet everyone for pictures.

Marianna was beautiful. The flowers were beautiful.
Micah and the groomsmen were beautiful. I just realized that I've neglected to say both Ian and I had the honor of being in the wedding. Hope you guessed by now.

We took a few pictures, and soon it was ceremony time. Although rain had been a semi-permanent part of the landscape up until that day, the day turned out to be lovely. The ceremony was just lovely. Everything about it. Just such an honor to participate, and so happy to witness something so wonderful, and something I have such strong belief in. An added bonus is that I get to look across everyone at Ian and feel all of the love between us and know how happy I am that we decided on the very same thing a couple of years before.

Immediately following the wedding, and we had champagne and hors d'oeurves waiting for us. What a well-planned, well-executed event. Start to finish.

The reception was in the barn.

Us bridesmaids changed into the flip flops M got us for our bmaids gifts, and we headed that way. The food was outstanding.

Our biggest regret (and Ian is actually angry about this) is that we didn't eat enough.

But again, it was friends and more friends and more reunions. Here I want to interject that our experience at McKinney was priceless, and I have wonderful feelings and appreciation for our time there and the friends we made. In some ways, it made things harder to come back to knowing that elsewhere in the world were groups of people we loved and trusted and felt totally ourselves with. It's more rare than we care to admit, and I'm a little sad we've never found that here in SF.

By trust, maybe I mean that we proceeded to bust a move the rest of the night. Hadn't been dancing in forever, and we all went nuts. Haven't mentioned her yet, but I love Micah's younger sister Labryth, who is fun, smart, and lovely. We had a blast. It was such a fun, fun wedding.









After all was said and done, I escorted the extremely.....tipsy(?) Ian back to our hotel room, where I proceeded to take out about 100 bobby pins from my southern hairstyle, and we crashed in bed (not getting to enjoy fully the turn-down service that happened in our absence).

The next morning we had breakfast, then went back to our hotel for an additional nap in the bed. Ian's parents met us there, and we wandered around the village waiting on my bff Steph and her daughter Riley (almost 5, and completely precious). We all had lunch at the Old Granary, visited the famous belties (goats and cows), then shortly thereafter headed to the airport.

Lucky enough to run into Dave and Sara (from the wedding), and my Hippo Kirsten. Had a delay...basically, we were home in SF about 1 am (that would make it 4 am EST).

Back to work and the cold Monday. Had a great time. That's maybe why this post was so long, and I didn't even get in all I wanted to say about how much we lovelovelove Ian's family, the dogs (ah, Howard...you love your new home), our dear, dear friends from all walks of life.

Can you guys just come back with us?

If I were a wildflower, my name would be Gerald.