Our Month in Chapters

Oh, it’s been so long (don’t I always say that starting out? And for those of you that are my pen pals, don’t my letters always start that way?) Alas, at least I’m consistently inconsistent.

I think the tricky thing about blogging is that not the fact that you write. It’s uploading pictures to make things interesting. And because Ian takes so many pictures (and yes, I like to, as well), there are always way too many to choose from.

In chapters, I will review the past month or so since we last updated. I’ll try to keep them concise (I will! I promise!). A main cause for our negligence is simply that we’ve been awfully busy.

Chapter 1 might include my trip “home” to Virginia for my Mom’s wedding.

Chapter 2 will likely be my brother Jeff’s visit—all 3 + weeks of it—we went to Monterery / Carmel, I flew up to Seattle for business, and we hung out that week, our touristy SF bits, the multiple baseball games (Mariners game at Safeco field AND Giants game at AT&T Park in 4 days? Excellent!), bocce ball on the beach.

Chapter 3 could be the week Jeff was traveling in Canada, and found Ian and I back in our “normal” life—attending friends’ wedding reception at Crissy Field (gay marriage was just legalized here, and we couldn’t be happier for Daniel and Ole), seeing David Sedaris and exploring the charming Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, attending our first SF Pride Parade.

Chapter 4 might be what we’re up to now (we played house this weekend), exploring a new neighborhood for us—Bernal Heights—and attending 4-5 open houses.

Chapter 5 might mention our upcoming travels and plans, which include the fantastic nuptials of our good friends Micah and Marianna in just one month (and one day), and our return to NC for a whole week (including the beach—ah, the beach. I can’t wait!!).

So, be on the lookout for the installments!

If I were a procrastinator, my name would be Lori.

I'm a terrible poster

So, as the title says, I'm a TERRIBLE poster. What's funny, is I have time to post, I just don't for some reason. I have no Idea why that is.

Well, to make up for it, and because I'm lazy, I'm going to post, but it's actually a post of an email I sent yesterday to Lori's boss, Carrie.

So, Carrie and Lori are BFFs and she sent Lori this gift a few days ago. It's this little giraffe thing that has a smelly, warm pack thing in it's belly. When you heat up the removable pack in the microwave for a bit, then put it in this little tummy pocket, he gets warm to the touch. That would be why they are called Hot Hugs. Well, Lori LOVES this thing and so I felt compelled to send Carrie and her husband Paul an email about how perfect this this is for her.

Okay, so here's the email and the picture I sent them. It pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Lori.




Hey Carrie (and Paul),

Alrighty, so I just HAD to write you about this. It's not often you get to
see how a gift you gave fits into someone's life. I thought this would be
a good one to shed light on.

I ned to start from the top. I'm not sure if you knew some certain things
a bout Lori prior to sending your gift, but just in case you didn't, I
wanted to let you in on a few tiny details.

Number 1:
Lori love LOVES anything filled with stuffing or fluff. (yes that sounds
winnie the poohish)

I mean she goes absolutely bananas when she sees a furry, fluffy thing.
Also, side note, it should be said that this is a category where "the
bigger the better" takes hold. If anything is over her size. Holy crap.
It's like a 5 year old seeing Santa at the mall. She wants to go touch it
and hug it. Sit in it's lap. Whatever she can do to be close and feel it's
fluffiness.

Number 2:
Lori can't get enough of animals.

Animals in general. Dogs of course. Too easy. Anything at the zoo. WOW.
Elephants. Giraffes. Monkeys. Anything. It doesn't even have to be cute.
As long as it's never achieved speech, she goes bonkers. Example: She
spent a lot of time watching the warthogs at the SF zoo when we went.
There were only two of them and all they did was lie there in a dirty pen.
I might send you pictures to prove this.

Number 3:
If it's slightly cold, and she finds something warm, or a warm way to sit,
she'll do whatever she can to absorb that warmth.

I am always hot and it takes a lot to make me cold so, to be honest, I
feel like this is 63% of the reason she married me. The other 47% is all
right time right place. She's an "I want warm" sponge.

Number 4:
Flowers and the smell of anything flowering is a must in her life.

Whenever we walk downtown, and past all those street flower vendors, it's
like she has tourettes or a nice case of attention deficient. We're
walking along, having a chat, and... well it goes like this.

What should we do for dinner tonight? Would you FLOWERS!

It's nuts. also, she has one of those mom noses that can tell you've eaten
onions in the past 3 days. She can pick out a honey suckle from 4 blocks.

Why am I telling you this you ask? Well, you hit all 4 of those with your
hot hug giraffe gift. Literally a grand slam. (being that you scored 4
points)

I can't get the thing away from her. She doesn't stop smelling it and
keeping it close. Also, when she puts the pack in the microwave... I hate
it. Not that I don't like her holding a luke warm stuffed animal. I just
hate that the smiling guy now smells like burnt lavender. It is terrible.
Since she knows this, she will not stop moving him closer to my nose after
she's nuked him.

"Doesn't he smell great?"
"NO!"

attached you'll find evidence of all this. This is not a staged picture at
all. It is from last night. We spent the evening catching up on all the
shows we haven't watched. I got up to make some tea during a break, and
snapped the picture from the other room. You'll notice the little guy's
proximity to her nose. I don't believe she's smiling this huge from the
giraffe. I think it has more to do with her watching The Prince and Me.
(yeah)

Anyway, I thought I would make you hip to how he's fitting into our life.
Good job. I wish I would have known about this thing during birthday time.
I wouldn't have bought her a bag. Just a cotton filled animal with a bag
of burnt flowers in it's belly. :)

Paul,not sure how entertaining you found this email, but get ready for one
from me sometime today. You get to hear about how amazing I am at soccer
now, some of my take on how the Euro cup is going this year and how I
started playing guitar again.

I hope you two are having a wonderful day and seriously, when are we going
to throw heavy ball around a grassy area and drink booze?

Ian

This Week

This week has been all about Clive Sweeney. Our good friend, our former co-worker, a truly good person in all sense of the definition.

It's been a very tough week. Strange to be out here, so far away from what's happening.

If you're the praying type, maybe you'll say one. If not, maybe you'll just lend some thought to Clive's family.

http://www.clivesweeney.com/blog/

Mid May...Almost June!

Oh, weeks have passed. I'll try to recap what we've been up to in a brief sort of way (yes, I know--you're unsure if I'm capable of brief).

Things have been busy. In a good way. Big news is that Ian and I both broke down and now have California driver's licenses (and a license plate to go with them). It's a good step, I think, especially because Ian's gung-ho attitude to get switched over was on the heels of all our recent conversations about being happy about where we are. His change of heart to truly invest in our move and decision (truly, truly invest) has been growing for quite some time, and one day he sort of woke up and decided to make our new home a permanent thing in switching insurance, plates, and licenses.

He had always had in the back of his mind that we would be here temporarily, and then we would move back to North Carolina (where it's comfortable). But more and more he's saying that he doesn't really see that happening--it's almost like he's recognized this world and our life is where we want to make it, and it's our decision. And I think he's loving the idea of it. As for me, well--it's kind of something I always knew anyway. We just needed a push.

These trees are bloominig everywhere in SF, and are just plain fun and furry. Speaking of blooms, I spent hours clearing out our back courtyard, and planted new flowers (a lavender busy, cosmos, snapdragons, petunias, etc). It's very rewarding. Our flower boxes are also full of color.




My good friend Jenn (my sister, really) stopped in to see us for a few days last week. She's bravely leaving Anchorage, Alaska, and has been traveling for about a month to get here--her destination is Kentucky, where we met--I'm hoping she's there by now. It was a good week of having dinners with her, brunch, drinks. Just catching up after the many years apart. We had one really amazing dinner at Fleur de Lys, and found a new delicious brunch place, Absinthe in Hayes Valley.


The other thing we've been keeping ourselves busy with is couple dating. I have no other term for it. Basically, we've been really pushing our boundaries lately and going out with couples we don't know well. Someone we knew at McKinney moved back here, so we had dinner with her and her husband (who we hadn't met before). We had brunch with friends of friends, which was also fun. Last week, we had dinner at our landlord's place, and they invited the couple next door to us. It's more about us meeting new people and trying to make good, happy connections. We've even invited a couple I know for dinner next week.

And so here we are ending another week. If I were a pig, my name would be Perry.

I Don't Totally Hate Cats

See?

Ian and I came across this furry little beggar on the sidewalk in Union Square. I'm a sucker. For the first time since we've been here, Ian and I donated a dollar to this little guy's dish, as his owner peeked around the corner to thank us. How he got that cat to sit there for hours, I'll never know.

If I were to name this particular cat, his name would be Humphrey.

Exploring Northern California (+ another year)

Last week was one of those busy weeks. I had early calls every morning, trying to accommodate crazy time zones. Tuesday morning was our 1st Microsoft Employee Acquisition meeting, and we met at the new offices. It’s just down the street from our current office, but is basically in the mall. OK, there is a separate entrance, but one of the views overlooks the mall’s rotunda, and neatly sits on top of Bloomingdale’s. The office is no McKinney, but it’s getting there. At least it feels like a real office with a real receptionist and real meeting areas. At least there is a little character / color / decor.

Tuesday morning, I had one of those, “I’m really happy I’m where I am” moments. It was walking down the street, a sunny day, amidst the hustle and bustle of people going to work, getting coffee. The hotel doormen in their uniforms and hats, waiting and smiling and nodding. And I was just part of it. I typically don’t feel this on a day-to-day basis because I have such a simple commute—once I’m downtown, I don’t even step above ground).

The week continued on, full of those little moments of realizing what it means to be where I am, how I got here, what’s next. It’s all still a bit of a surprise, really, and this was one of those weeks where I felt amazed by my life and situation.

This weekend marked another year in my life (argh! Yes! Now I’m in my 30’s, whereas earlier in the week, I was just 30). And what a weekend it was. Friday night, Ian’s cousin James and his new beau, Jason, flew into town. We picked them up at the airport (how adorable is James—he had packed and hand carried homemade muffins in a linen-lined basket for us), and then walked across the street to our Mission Beach Café.

This night, there was a large party, but our friends there squeezed us in. Dinner was fantastic as usual, and James and Jason really loved the food. What’s even better is that we supped just a few mere feet away from a film legend, Mr. John Waters. We headed home, drank wine, lit a fire, and played Catch Phrase until we were overcome by sleep.

Saturday morning Ian and I woke up bright and early (OK, Ian’s wake up time was a little bit brighter than mine). He had run across the street to pick me up a muffin (ok, he also had to buy some cream off them), and for the first time in a very long time, we enjoyed some delicious coffee out of our pot.

It was such a gorgeous morning. The weather was clear, sunny, warm—just lovely. We sat outside on our little deck, enjoyed our coffee, woke up slowly. Ian then made eggs and we had fresh fruit and another cup. James and Jason woke up after a bit, and we all chatted outside. Ian and I got packed for a mystery overnight trip, and we headed out around 11 a.m. A drive across the Golden Gate (packed because of the nice weather with throngs of Girl Scouts and bikers). We continued upwards towards the famous Highway 1.

Famous for a reason! The views are reminiscent of the cliffs in Ireland.Really gorgeous (sometimes scary rounding those curves)—breathtaking views of the ocean, wildflowers I’ve never seen before, and loads of rocks against lush green hills. The drive in itself was fantastic enough.

We drove through the small seaside town of Stinson Beach, and on through flatter land and redwood-lined roadway. We stopped in Point Reyes station, a cute one-road town, where we popped in and out of shops. We ended up at Cowgirl Creamery, and bought a picnic lunch—gourmet pork sandwiches, crackers, fresh cheese, and continued on without agenda.

Our first stop (again, through unparalleled countryside) was the lighthouse. We had driven through a different climate, and it became misty and terribly windy. The lighthouse turned out to be crowded, so we ended up walking up a trail, and standing at the look-out over the ocean for a bit before hiking it back to the car. We proceeded then to South Beach, just off the road, and ended up at a relatively empty beach with roaring waves. Ian had been thoughtful enough to have packed some wine from home we’d gotten in Sonoma County, and our wine / picnic kit made its inaugural debut (it was originally a gift Ian bought for someone, and never ended up giving it to them—lucky for us, the thing is awesome!). We sat on a large log / piece of driftwood, and broke into the wine, sandwiches, and cheese. It was still a bit windy. Our next stop was to check into the B&B we were staying in, the Olema Inn. The Olema Inn was really pretty on the outside—a huge front porch, wisteria covering the sign and roof. The restaurant is apparently Zagat and Michelin-rated. We were actually staying in a new Olema property just up the road, so we drove up there to check out our room, The Snapdragon. Set back from the road was a yellow house, surrounded in flowering plants, bushes, and trees. Little trails headed off into the woods, and the view of the mountains was fantastic. We settled in, Ian gave me my birthday presents (so much fun), and we decided to go explore. We found ourselves back in Point Reyes Station walking around a bit, and then again ended up at Cowgirl Creamery. We got coffees and split a homemade cookie and enjoyed them in the backyard area of the creamery. We walked around just a bit more, and then headed back to the Inn. We had about an hour before dinner, so we found Scrabble on the shelves and had a game, while enjoying the rest of our wine outside. The day was just too lovely—when the breeze picked up, it got a bit chilly, but the effect of the wine counterbalanced it a bit. Ian beat me in Scrabble for the very first time, but I must say we weren’t actually keeping track of points. Poor guy. We changed for dinner, and headed down to the main house of the Inn.Dinner was really special—we started out with fresh raw oysters, and then Ian ordered the largest Porterhouse known to mankind, and I had a delicious duck. We had a very tasty Pinot Noir, and finished off with strawberry soup and vanilla bread pudding. It was back to the room, and right to bed for us. The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast again at the main house, and then headed back to SF via Highway 1. It was another beautiful day. We stopped at the Muir Overlook, and were so happy we did! There were some amazing views of the cliffs and ocean.In the pic below, Ian is a tiny spec on the peak of that rock!We stopped at Fillmore street to shop around a bit, and as it turned out, James and Jason were brunching there. We met up with them, then took them to the airport. To avoid traffic on the way home, Ian and I stopped at the mall in San Bruno and ended up seeing Baby Momma. It was entertaining. So, a really great weekend overall. I loved my surprise, and it was a wonderful way to begin exploring more of California. It’s hard to believe that just 45 miles away (and less!) is land so rugged, beautiful, and virtually untouched as what we experienced.

If I were a rock, my name would be Derrick.

Back In SF *sigh*

Getting home last Sunday from my travels, I had the whole day ahead of me. It was a gorgeous, warm and sunny day in SF. I waited for Ian to get home from his visit with cousin James in LA (unpacking, starting laundry, checking email, etc)...bringing my suitcase down to the storage room in the basement, I was greeted by new, sublime blooms in the courtyard. Love it...

When Ian walked through the door, it was a great reunion! It was fun giving him his presents. Maybe he'll talk about it on this post, but likely not as he might come across too nerdy. I went to some lengths to find him a pair of authentic Japanese selvedge denim, so I started the gifts with the Yokohama Baystar's baseball t-shirt, and the panda cookies from the zoo. The grand finale was the jeans. He has since turned into a man determined to shrink them properly (as I type, the jeans are soaking in a hot tub--now, there's the life--with perfectly cut wood boards nestled in the waist band to achieve the perfect shrinkage).

We headed down to Tartine for some sandwiches, and took them with us to Dolores Park. It was a busy, busy day at the park. Tons of hula hoopers everywhere--I have no idea if this is a normal weekend thing, a monthly get together, or what, but they're pretty talented. We sat for a bit, then finally tried the much talked about Bi-Rite Creamery, just across from the park. They are makers of artisanal ice cream, and I had to try 2 scoops--one of the salted caramel, the other of honey lavendar. For me, the honey lavendar won. Ian, of course, settled into an ice cream sundae.

Returning to work Monday was strange--I hadn't been around for 2 weeks. Tuesday, again, I was off to Seattle for a big meeting and happy hour. Wednesday, up before dawn and back on a plane to SF. Sheesh. By Wednesday night, I was exhausted. Jet lag from Tokyo or not, I was just plain sleepy.

Hooray for amazing husbands who make a run to Whole Foods after work and have dinner on the table for me when I get home. And not just any dinner but rice with delicious sauteed veggies, steamed asparagus, NY Strips, and a bottle of red. A perfect end to an already long beginning of week.

Now it's Saturday night--I slept in this morning, and we had a lovely brunch at Mission Beach (some things are always comforting)--we attended a Kentucky Derby party this afternoon at a nearby friends' house. It was super fun, and brought me back to the ol' Kentucky ways. Memories of Keeneland, Maker's Mark Mint Juleps, and that certain Southern accent...

If I were an octopus, my name would be Eunice.