East-TO-West

MLK DAY, yaay!

2010-01-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

California Academy of Science

2010-01-19T21:43:00.001-08:00

Motorcycle day trip :D

2010-01-19T21:38:00.000-08:00

Fun with Snow, Ice, and Sleet back in Chicago

2010-01-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

First xmas work party in SF!!

2010-01-19T21:27:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving 09

2009-11-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

I made my way down to Mountain View on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with a few friends. But, before I left the city I made special stop to pick up this awesome sweet that's only sold at two shops in SF. The name of the sweet is Hooker's Sweet Treats, and they're some amazing ho's.(picked up at sightglass coffee shop in soma) It's a square of caramel, smothered in dark chocolate, and then topped with some sea salt.. sooooooo good!! http://www.hookerssweettreats.com/
Its buddies tested and buddies approved.

Thanksgiving day was filled with cooking, cooking, and more cooking. In the morning we woke up and Cr started making a list of how long everything needed to cook, and all the sudden a moment of panic came across her face.. but all was well after a little planning and an emergency butter run. We made Turkey, fresh cranberry sauce, fresh mash potatoes, roasted green beens, home made apple pie, pumpkin pie, and of course some "fight you for the last bite" stuffing. Yummmmmy. We finished the night with a long overdue viewing of Disney's Aladdin, I'd forgotten how much I love that movie.

My new NEW place

2009-11-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

Halloween 09

2009-11-22T17:48:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun photos from Halloween, just in time for Thanksgiving! Friday night I went out to a bar with my new roommates and some of their friends. At the bar you had many dance options.. Plain old dance floor, pole dancing on the bar, OR dance with some black ropes hanging from the ceiling... Lots of fun was had by all. On actually Halloween I went to a party with the Buddies for some more goulish good times. The best costume at the party had to be the zombie cat lady. Her inspiration came from the tacky cat lady shirt she found at a thrift store. She picked up a few stuffed kitties, turned them into to zombie cats, and made her own brain-eating-cat head piece. Work of Art!

Matt and Kim, Daylight

2009-10-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

My roommate played this video for me yesterday, officially obsessed with the song! And the video is badass too!!

Sutro Baths/ hike

2009-10-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Friday I met up with Bill, Christina, and Bill's folks for a little tourism activity. We went to the coast to check out the Sutro Baths and go for a little hike along the rocky coast. We got to see some amazing views of the golden gate bridge, someone camping at the rocky shore, and explore the Sutro Baths a bit. Just before we decided to head back to the car Bill decided to do a little off the path hiking..... and ended up stepping in a muddy bog grass pile, poor guy. :(

On March 14, 1896 the Sutro Baths were opened to the public as the world's largest indoor swimming pool establishment. The Baths were built on the sleepy western side of San Francisco by wealthy entrepreneur and former mayor of San Francisco (1894-1896), Adolph Sutro.
A visitor to the Baths not only had a choice of 7 different swimming pools—one fresh water and six salt water baths ranging in temperatures—but could visit a museum displaying Sutro's large and varied personal collection of artifacts from his travels, a concert hall, seating for 8,000, and, at one time, an ice skating rink. During high tides, water would flow directly into the pools from the nearby ocean, recycling the 2 million US gallons (7,600 m³) of water in about an hour.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 09

2009-10-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

The other weekend was the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. I decided to check it out on Saturday to see Steve Martin in his banjo band. He's amazing!! super impressed with his banjo skillz and he even sang a little. First half of the show I spent hanging out on the side, you can see a pic below of the side stage. I got sick of battling the incoming and outgoing people so I made my way onto the other side and camped out in the woods for the rest of the show. He's touring a bit around so if you have the chance I highly recommend seeing him. On the last day of the festival the buddies came up from the south bay to hang out and see Neko Case. And a friend from NYC was randomly in town so he came along too! We got there a bit early and decided to try to find a beer/ something to eat... well, no one told us that there's no alcohol for sale at the fest. I guess since its a totally free festival no one wanted to pay for a liquor license. Us alcohol loving people couldn't be denied, so we hiked up to a local corner store that we learned of from a poster just outside the event. Neko Case was amazing too! Another thing that was mind blowing were all the bikes people used to get to the festival. There were actual parking lots for the bikes and some non-conventional parking spots.

Crissy Field+Fog Monster

2009-09-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

Went for a foggy walk on the beach at Crissy Field one Sunday. Its so strange cause if it wasn't extremely foggy you could see amazing view of the golden gate bridge. You can see the bottom of it peek out of the lower fog. Also ran across a little dog that thought he ruled the beach :)

Beach BBQ

2009-09-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Buddies invited me along to a beach bbq! It was a birthday party for a friend of a friend and there were lots of beach games played before we got there. Egg relay race, potato sack race, and i think a few rounds of wiffle ball. Had such a fun time, who knew beach and fire could be so much fun. The party planners planned ahead and made some premixed "adult" gatorade and some vodka and pomegranate juicy juice. However, by the end of the night the cops drove by wanting to tell us not to put the fire out with sand and also to make sure we were drinking alcohol. "no officer no alcohol here" (as we're all sipping on our juicy vodka drinks) He's just about to leave when he sees a bottle of wine. Starts to tell us that there's NO alcohol allowed. We tell him its not opened, and that the bottle is a gift for the birthday girl.. we promise not to open it. Officer says 'okay, make sure it stays sealed.." Whole time he's giving his little speech, he's like 5 ft from the actual alcoholic drinks.

Baaaaaaaaack

2009-09-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

So Its been a while.. i know! Had some issues with my computer dieing on me and loosing what felt like half my life. Some tears were shed at the apple store and some major bumming out happened for a long period of time. Im BACK now and have some new things to post. Here we go!

Biddies doing her best Pterodactyl

2009-09-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

even Hittler is upset by the Avatar trailer

2009-08-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Piccino/ Madrone Art Bar

2009-07-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Last Friday evening I met up with Bill+Christina for a little dinner in Potrero Hill/ Dogpatch area. We ate at this great pizza place called Piccino. Then after dinner we headed over to my place so they could check out the apartment, have another drink, and meet the roommates. After we had a drink they decided to make it an early night, since they had a bit of a drive home. Meanwhile I got talked into going out with my roommates for a little Quality Time :). They took me to this bar called Madrone Art Bar, where they said there'd be a dj spinning and dancing. I was kinda hesitant, as this isn't really my scene.. but after two drinks it didn't matter and I was dancing with the crowd. At one point in the night my roommate dared another dancer to dance really low. I didn't realize someone could dance so low. So of course then she took her turn and danced just as low. Then all the sudden it was her boyfriend's turn to dance low... I started to see a pattern and was getting scared, since I was a tourist just having fun dancing. I can't do tricks! Then the first guy who danced low starts pointing at me.. "your turn, your turn" I tried to get out of it saying " Im new to this, I can't I can't" he keeps saying " I believe in you, I believe in you!" and my roommates join in the peer pressure. So down I danced and pulled off some kind of low dancing, who knew! :) Next day, I was completely sore and stiff all over. I think we danced for 3 hours straight. good times!

CHEZ PAPA

2009-07-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

This is an awesome place in Portrero Hill! Its a french bistro vibe and was my welcome to Thayer Allyson Gowdy Studio lunch. I started with a salad which consisted of a ball of goat cheese that is surrounded by tiny fried something delicious, makes it look like a little nest, and had an awesome lemon thyme dressing. Then I had an amazing sandwich that had: Coppa and salami with mustard, aioli, cambozola, tomato and chicories! YUMMMMMMMMM

My new place of work!

2009-07-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd show a few pics of work and the neighborhood coffee shop I frequent. Name of the coffee shop is Farley's and they have very tasty coffee!!

Rest of the place!!

2009-07-12T14:13:00.001-07:00

My Apartment!

2009-07-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

NYC

2009-07-11T23:52:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood Photos

2009-07-11T23:38:00.001-07:00

De Young Museum

2009-07-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to make the best of not starting work till Wednesday of this week, and took a walk to the De Young Museum to see the King Tut Exhibit. I was super impressed with the exhibit. I've always found Egyptian history so interesting, and to be able to see these treasures in person was amazing. Unfortunately there was no photography allowed in the whole exhibit, so I just have a snap of my ticket... The most interesting thing I found was how much detail went into the objects that the king wanted for his afterlife. How the sculptures made these sort of miniature versions of things he wanted, and in the afterlife they would magically become normal size and usable. The other most intreging thing is that they still don't know how/ why he died. The only thing the scientist have to go on is that there was a fracture in his leg, so he may have died from an infection.. but his death still remains a mystery.
The De Young is located in Golden Gate park, about a 25 min walk from my apt. On my way back I took my time and checked some of the amazing gardens in golden gate, and strolled by the Botanical Garden. It blows my mind that these things are so close to my apt.

Taking a walk in the new hood

2009-07-07T09:53:00.001-07:00

4th of July Continued

2009-07-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

4th of July

2009-07-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

I got to spend the 4th with Bill and Christina, which was a lot of fun! I met up with them at Bill's boss's place. Everyone was really really nice and there was soo much food to eat. Burgers, sausages, potato salad, guacamole, chips, grilled vegetables, oatmeal cookies, cheesecake brownie cup cakes, beer.. well I guess beer isn't really a food, but you get the idea. The bbq was in a town right outside SF called San Bruno. As soon as we got to the party we were informed that fireworks were legal and that there was a stand a few blocks away. So we made the short trip over to the stand where the supplies were listed like icecream on a mr. frosty truck. Had a really great time seeing my friends and meeting some new people, oh and getting an up close fireworks show. Another small funny note, which Bill might kill me for. But, after he finished his first sparkler he put the stick in the bag with live fireworks.. he realized what he had done with in a second and grabbed the somewhat hot stick from the bag, crisis averted.

Biddies Interlude

2009-07-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

There can never be enough pictures of biddies, aka: Miu Miu, Littles, Boo.. Im sure im forgetting her other known aliases. The first two pictures are from years past, but the last two were taken today. Her asleep on my new bed spread, which I got for $18. (I heart Home Goods) And the other is of her enjoying the cardboard bed/scratch thingy. I'd thought for sure it was going to be a waste of money, but she really seems to love it. She can scratch it, lay on it, or just huff a bit of the embedded cat nip.

Arrived in San Francisco

2009-07-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

After a few quick days at home in Chicago, my mom and I flew to SF on June 30th. The only major hycup here was that when we approached the check point where you're supposed to show id, my mom realizes she didn't have her's!! Some jerk-face cop had given her a ticket a few days ago and had confiscated her id for no good reason. We walk up to the security person and start to say why she doesn't have her id, meanwhile my mind is racing about how this is or isn't going to work out. After some fast talking and a costco id, that had her picture/address on it, we made it through the checkpoint. Never thought costco id could work as a regular id, but good to know.
We got into the city pretty late at night, I'd say around 11:30pm. Since it we were getting in so late we'd planned on staying at a hotel, which turned out to be pretty swanky.(Hotel Monaco) The only weird thing was driving around in that neighborhood late at night was a trip and-a-half. There were soo many homeless people wandering around.. not just your average run of the mill homeless, more like the walking dead. I saw people walking down the street flaling their arms and could of sworn I was experiencing a real live Resident Evil moment. It really kinda freaked me out and I was thinking "what did I just sign up for.." The next morning we packed up and walked out to the car.. it was like the area had transformed. Tourists replaced the walking dead and it seemed completely normal. Off we went to check out the new digs and new roommates.

Day Two Driving

2009-07-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

All three of us took our time waking up. We were all quite stiff and sore from the previous day's events. We drove in shifts of about two hours a piece and took regular stops so the drive would be a bit easier to tackle. The first rest stop we took a break at I decided to test out biddies outdoor legs. I'd gotten her a harness and a leash before we left, so I could be that crazy lady walking her cat. I grab her up and drop her in the grass and after about two strange waddles she starts to fight the harness. And just as she was about to break free and run to the woods! I got a tight grip on her and jammed her back in the car. BAD BIDDIES. I almost lost her for good, and have two deep claw marks on my arm as a reminder of her near escape. While on our trip we learned of Michael Jackson's death at a truck stop in Ohio or Indiana.. I thought at first they were joking, then I saw it on the news at the convenience store. For the rest of the trip all we heard on the radio was MJ songs, which was neat for the 1st hour.. We drove all day/night and made it to Chicago about 11pm. The whole trip Biddies didn't eat/drink or use the litter box. She just slept next to whoever was sitting in the rocking chair. Poor Biddies.

Moving Day

2009-07-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Was a rough full day.. as many of the beginning days have been. My lovely amazing mother and her high school friend, Nancy, drove from Chicago to New York to pick me and all my stuff up. I had been packing a bit each night for the past week in preparation, which made everything go much smoother. We packed and packed till the church van (15 passenger van) could take no more. By this time we were all really tired and decided to hang out a bit before hitting the road. Brooke was able to get out of work early, and we all had some deliciouso nyc pizza before we hit the road.
When we were getting into the van it was a bit cramped as there were only 2 seats but three people +biddies needed to travel to Chicago. How did the third person make it back you ask? Well, we took a tip from the Beverly Hill Billies book-on-life.. and the platform rocking chair became the third seat!
For this first stint of driving we had decided to just get outside the city then crash at a hotel for the night. Since I had be living in NYC for the past 5 1/2 years I was elected the person to drive us out of town. About an hour 1/2 later we had made it from Brooklyn across the Manhattan bridge through China Town/Lower Manhattan and at the beginning of the Holland Tunnel. This is where our trip almost came to an abrupt end...
I'm pulling up to the entrance of the tunnel and my mom's friend is in the the passenger seat, while my mom is sitting in the rocking chair just behind her. We started to fall in line with traffic when all the sudden the cops at the check point, just before the tunnel, point at me and motion to pull over for inspection. While I'm quietly freaking out I say to my mom " Start packing yourself in!!" I thought for sure if they noticed a woman sitting in a rocking chair we weren't gonna make it out of NYC. I pull over and hear my mom shuffling stuff over her and I stop next to the cop. He makes the universal "roll down your window" signal, which I then do. Then he says " license please". I give him my license and talk to him about that I'm moving etc.. and the whole time I'm talking to him there were two other cops walking around the front and looking in the van as best they could.. Also, While I'm talking to him I hear some snickering coming from my mom and Nancy.. After a minute I'm free to go and start heading for the tunnel. As soon as I pulled away BURSTS of laughter come from my Mom and Nancy. Apparently my mom's idea of camouflage was a black and white striped bag, that she was moving back an forth in front of her as the cops were walking back and forth looking in. After the laughter had died down I said to my mom "First, I think its best to stay stationary when trying to hide. Second, I don't think Navy Seals will be calling you anytime soon" We drove for another hour our so and then crashed somewhere in New Jersey.