Spring Is In The Air

We have had the most amazing spring in SF. I have never seen so many consecutive beautiful days since we've lived here! Luckily the fog has not shown its sorry face around here much. This weather is particularly helpful since I bike to work everyday and lost one of my gloves a few months ago. I'm not beating myself up about that though because I am actually impressed that I kept both gloves as long as I did.

Back to spring....we got our bikes at a perfect time. There are days I'm not ready to end my ride. Maybe I'm so impressed with beautiful weather because it is practically non-existent in my hometown of Houston, Tx. I actually bought shorts the other day because it reached the mid 80's. That is about as warm as it gets around here which is just crazy compared to Texas.

So here's my spring cleaning in pictures. My preferred way to clean.

We discovered this ice cream truck which consumes much
more of my thoughts than it should. 

Their dark chocolate dipped ice cream cone sprinkled with sea
salt is to die for. 

Our friend Sanjay had his art featured in an exhibit at the Asian Art Museum. He has mad skills. You can read more about his exhibit here http://www.asianart.org/maharaja/sanjay.htm

Bryan & Jill's wedding

Mom and I at Bryan & Jill's wedding.

My first time to kiss Henry. (Brent says this is
weird. I can't help it though) 

My first time to hug Henry.

I love you Hickory Street Cafe.

Mom's Sf Trip & Itinerary

Mom visited this past week and she was a trooper! Mom was brave enough to rent a bike and experience a little of how we commute. We biked to Alamo Square (the full house park) and soaked in the views.

A few days later at the California Academy of Science Museum I came across this pic at their new earthquake exhibit (which is awesome by the way). Alamo Square after the 1906 earthquake. Fires in the background and the fashion...crazy!

Speaking of the California Academy of Science Museum. We've had a few chances to go recently and even though I'm not a museum person, I must say they have some beautiful exhibits. 

This kinda makes me wish I was a fish:)

Mom petting a starfish

Our friends did the artwork for this exhibit. So good!

In honor of our upcoming 6th anniversary (more on this to come), we went to The Spinnaker in Sausalito. A restaurant my parents ate at on their 15th anniversary.  

So glad the weather was on it's best behavior for mom and what a fun and eventful week! Thanks Mom! And, if you're planning a trip to SF and want to know the play by play, here was our schedule. 

Day 1 

Parked in a lot around Broadway & Kearny and left the car all day $12/day

Breakfast at Mama's on Washington Square

Shopping in Union Square

Ferry Building for Blue Bottle Coffee and ice cream sandwiches at Miette

Sat outside behind the ferry building and enjoyed coffee and ice cream and the view

More Shopping

Day 2 

Japanese Tea Garden (free mon, wed, fri 9-10)

Walk around Stow Lake

Coffee in Golden Gate Park

Rent bikes

Sandwiches at Yellow Submarine

Chocolate dipped ice cream cone with sea salt at Swirl and Twirl ice cream truck in gg park

Safeway for some groceries

Bike ride to Alamo Square with a pit stop at Super 7 on Haight Street

Returned bike

Day 3 

Stopped by a few shops in the Mission on Valencia 

Rhea's Deli sandwiches to go

Delores Park to enjoy the sandwiches

Ice cream at the Bi-Rite

More Valencia Shops 

Drive through the Marin Headlands/Lighthouse

Day 4 

Walk in the GG Park to the beach and back

Dinner at The Spinakker in Sausalito 

Lots of Chilaxing

Day 5

Coffee in the gg park

California Academy of Science Museum

Pie shake at Chile Pies

Day 6

Walk in GG Park to the beach and back

Sushi at Ebisu

Pie at Mission Pie

Bike to Work Day

We missed the business class bus this morning and to avoid riding the regular bus we rode our bikes to work. It was cold but fun! 

dututututoootu:)

Chili Pies + Bike Love

We tried a new place this weekend, Chili Pies. We're not great at branching out and trying new places BUT this wasn't really going out on a limb BECAUSE we were told to try their pie shake. Anyone in their right mind knows that will be good. And it WAS good!


The pie shake is super simple. Choose your pie, choose your ice cream, blend together, Enjoy!...then go on a diet!

I made the mistake of finding out that 4-5 scoops of ice cream go into this shake, plus the pie, that's basically a few days worth of calories I'm sure, but if you go buy a bike and ride it off it's no biggie. So, that's what we did.....

 I got a bike ya'll. We got some great road bikes for cruising around sf. There is something about bikes with baskets on them that makes me sing the "dututututoooootu"from The Wizard of Oz, in my head (anyone?).

The weather has been amazing lately. We had just enough time Sunday afternoon to cruise down to the beach before dark. The 45 min walk to the beach was an easy 7 min bike ride. That is a game-changer, I will be at the beach more often I think.

And believe it or not, there is a bike route called the wiggle that can get you around sf without really going up or down hill. Can't wait to try it out!

Ok, I finally did it...

...I tried sushi, and I liked it.

It's definitely not my top choice of foods to eat, but it was pretty good. It was one of Brent's co-workers birthday, which is about the only way to get Brent into a Japanese restaurant. We went to Hotei, which conveniently was in our neighborhood and within walking distance from our apartment. I tried SO hard to get Brent to try it but no luck. I haven't given up though and like any good wife, I will gradually wear him down until he tries it.

In other news, our one year SF anniversary was last month (October 26 to be exact). I can't believe we've lived here for a year! It's probably been one of the hardest things I've ever done AND one of the best things I've done. And I have faced fears (like earthquakes), developed more of a tolerance (for weirdo's, public nudity, and average mexican food for ex), and tried some new things (sushi, public transportation...even though a crack head fell on me once, chicken heart eew!)

I'm so glad we made the move, but will always be a Texan at heart:)

Bryan, Amy, and a Wedding

This is WAY overdue....

It was so fun to have Amy and Bryan visit us this summer. Among the many reasons I enjoyed having them, one is that it allowed me to put off finding a job! But if only I made money when people visited us. I've been thinking about how that could work but I've got nothing.

We ate lots of good food, saw some cool sites, and had lots of tickle fights (jk).

We went to visit Grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Turlock. A few weeks after their trip, Bryan got engaged to Jill.

We're so excited for them to get married on March 24th in Waxahachie. If you live in the DFW area and want to hangout you can find me at Urban Taco, Mi Cocina, Babes, or Chuy's.

Beach Fun

The weather was PERFECT last weekend! So, we headed down to Pacifica to try out a new beach.

It was amazing and I wish I was sitting on that beach right now...with maybe one minor change. We hiked down to the beach, found this great cove that looked nice and less populated, sat down to relax, looked around, then realized we were sitting on the nude side of the beach. The nudes particularly enjoyed strutting their stuff in front of others. They played frisbee and football, sunbathed, played in the water, and congregated in the nude. It actually seems more painful than freeing. 

Pixar Tour

So...my dream came true and we got a tour of Pixar!

Our sweet friend Sanjay was kind enough to give up his Sunday afternoon to show us around the office. Sanjay has been at Pixar for 15 years and has lots of great stories to share. He is a senior animator and has worked on Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and more. The dude has talent to say the least.

The Boys (Brent, Sanjay, and our houseguest Ty)

Me making a scary face. What on Earth?!...I've got to work on my facial expressions!

Brent using his nerd skills to make fun of my scary facial expression.

I LOVE this Tokyo poster. If I could reach it I might try to take it home with me.

A few of our favorite characters...

We got to check out the Love Lounge. A secret space an employee found and created this...

Chillaxing inside the LL. This tiny crawl space is completely pimped out with leopard print walls and pillows, drinks and shot glasses...

...and video surveillance of the office.

You can sign the wall...Brent's signing next to the tush.

And, when I thought my day couldn't get any better, Sanjay & Emily invited us over for dinner at their awesome apartment. This is the apartment we ALMOST moved into but we didn't.

Love Sanjay, Love Pixar, wish I had mad drawing skills!

Facebook Tour

We had the opportunity to get an after hours tour of Facebook from Ben, a graphic designer at Facebook. And, I have to say, after checking out the place, I want to work at Facebook and more importantly I have to re-watch The Social Network.

I appreciated the openness of the company and the fact that Zuck's desk is out with the rest of the peeps.

Me at Zuck's desk.

Ben created a physical Facebook Wall. So, we got to write on it. Ty, our houseguest for the week (also a graphic designer), signing The Facebook Wall.

Brent signing the wall....

It was great to see the Facebook campus and learn a little about the company and how they do things. They are a very forward thinking company that values their employees and empowers all employees to have a voice. Which I personally think is something that employers need to do more often (and I could go on and on about employers shortcomings but I won't).

We LIKE Facebook!