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!

Christmas in Texas

 It was so good to be in Texas for 10 days. It wasn't until I started crying on the airplane to San Antonio (out of excitement...and maybe I was a little tired) that I realized we need to go home more often. We hadn't been to Brent's home since last Christmas and I hadn't been to Houston since we moved to SF. My New Years resolution is to go home more often. 

Our first stop was San Antonio, and the Couchman house is a magical place around Christmas. Tanja does a great job of decorating for the holidays.

We got to spend time with Brent's grandmother, JoJo. It had been such a long time since we'd seen her!

Family pics

 The Couchman's and the King's met up to drop off/pick up us. And we headed off to Waco with my parents to spend time with Chris and Samantha for a day, then headed to Houston. 

The King/Hibb/Couchman clan in Waco.

I was NOT ready to head back to SF, but I did. I was able to delay leaving Texas by an hour. We took a later flight in exchange for $400 in travel vouchers. Which will help me with my New Years resolution of going to Texas more this year. 

We got back to SF just in time for New Years Eve. We had a great time with friends and ended the night walking up a ridiculously steep hill to see some impressive fire works and a crazy old lady beat a car with her cane. Being away for two weeks has reminded me that this town is crawling with weirdos.

Brent and I have had a great two weeks off of work.  We had dinner tonight with some friends and walked by this fountain. Someone put detergent in the fountain. It reminded me of my college days when someone would do that to the Gata Fountain.  

I will be starting my first day at a new job. I'm the new office manager at a graphic design studio two blocks from Brent's office. We get to ride the bus together, which I am super excited about because I am still traumatized by the crackhead who fell on me the first time I rode the bus. Due to this tragedy, I have only ridden the bus one other time.

2011 was a good year but am I so excited for 2012. We have one wedding and a new baby in the family to look forward to. Bryan and Jill are getting married in March and my sister is due July 4th and I am beyond excited! I'm not sure if I will be able to get on that plane from Texas back to SF after next Christmas:)

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.