Thanksgiving Break

In case I haven't said this enough...the hardest thing about living in sf is being so far away from friends and family. I am especially reminded of that around Thanksgiving. It's just too expensive and short of a holiday to fly home, but luckily Brent has extended family nearby and luckily they live close to Yosemite.

I was convinced I would see a bear on this trip and surprisingly that thought didn't scare me. Unfortunately, I never saw a bear. We did see a raccoon in our lodge's parking lot which is nowhere near as cool as a bear.

We got a great Living Social deal for a lodge right on the river. It was nice to get away from the busy city but we did start to miss phone service and wifi. Me looking for a bear...

I love huge trees, they always remind me of the forest in Princess Bride. Maybe a couple times I wondered what would happen if there was a big earthquake around all the huge trees.

We had a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving break but look forward to our 10 day trip to Texas in 2 weeks and 2 days from today! I have to stop thinking about it or I won't be able to sleep tonight!

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.

A Poster Party For Bike People

Brent participated in Artcrank this year. I think bike merchandise is a little overdone, but Artcrank drew a huge crowd and it was a fun party.

Brent's print.

Brent's co-worker did this one. It's very cleaver. You can hang it so that the guy is going uphill or the girl is going downhill. The paper's actually white but there were colored lights shining right on it at the gallery.

Artcrank is once a year in various cities (including Austin) if you're a bike person looking for a poster party.

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. 

New York City

New York City was a success! It was an exhausting trip but worth it.

The basic gist of the trip went like this: Wake up too early, meet someone for breakfast or lunch, talk for hours, see a few sights, meet someone for dinner, talk for hours, get drinks, stay out way too late, repeat. The people there don't sleep!

Day 1

In between breakfast and lunch was the perfect time to stop by the 4th hour of the Today Show and check in on my girls Kathy Lee and Hoda woman. It was weird being so close to them. I think Kathy Lee smiled at me once.

We also checked our Rockefeller Center, NBC Studio store, and Time Square. After lunch we got ready for the Young Guns event then headed over to the gallery.

Brent's display was awesome! Too bad the picture isn't.

Brent's aunts were in town and came to the show!

Our friend Grace, who was kind enough to let us stay at her place in Brooklyn, also came to the show!

Blurry Brent receiving his award!

Day 2

I don't have any pictures from Friday because it rained all day. We went to the MOMA and I was reminded that I don't like museums. Brent's not a big museum person either so we didn't stay long. We walked to Central Park and it started pouring down rain on us. We huddled close and stood under a tree until it passed.

We got to see Brent's Seegram's Ginger Ale can at all the street vendors carts.

Day 3

We saw Wicked! I didn't think I would like it but I did. So glad we decided to see it!

Day 4

Sunday was our last day in NYC and the only day that we had all to ourselves.

We walked through Grand Central Terminal and talked about all the movie scenes it's been in. We headed over to Brooklyn to eat at Grimaldi's. It was good but Home Slice is better although we had no problem finishing our pizza.

View of Manhattan from Brooklyn.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan and soaked in the views.

My feet hurt so bad so we stopped to rest and take pictures of ourselves.

We were close to the site of the Twin Towers so we checked it out. We bumped into the Occupy Wall Street camp site and took a look.

We rode the subway all day everyday and loved it. I wish San Francisco had a better subway!

Our last activity of the trip was a carriage ride through Central Park. It was a great way to see the whole park without walking on tired feet.

We are definitely going back to visit (or live...Brent's ready to move there)! And, now Brent can finally stop talking trash about NYC!

ibaby

The new iphone 4S looks pretty awesome, with lots more features than people seem to be giving it credit for. If you disagree, watch the iphone 4s video (the bottom, middle one). One of the new features is Siri, "the intelligent assistant that helps you get things done".

Brent loves his iphone. When he got his first one I called it his ibaby...because he was glued to it.

And, believe it or not, Siri is already in our lives. Last night Brent was talking softly when he got in bed. I thought he was talking to me so I said "What?" Apparently he was telling Siri to wake him up for work in the morning. Same thing this morning. He told Siri to remind him to do something.

Brent isn't eligible for an upgrade for awhile and I'm eligible in December. I'm concerned that by December Brent and Siri (the idea of Siri) will have bonded so much that it will be hard for ME to get the upgrade instead of him....sigh. The noble thing to do would be to give Brent the new one because I'm not the iphone junkie that he is. He said he's happy for me that I will get it. Isn't that sweet!

I can see how AI is slowly creeping into our lives. Ironically, the movie I, Robot was on yesterday. First Siri, then I, Robot...too much! We watched the Singularity documentary and I didn't want to believe it...but I'm in California now so I have to open my mind. I recommend you to watch it if you haven't. You can read up about the general idea here.