The cure for a bad case of the Mondays? SF!

Mondays are never fun and this one was no exception. Driving home I couldn't wait to get to my city ... home.



As soon as I walked in the door, Linz called and told me she saw "my man." Now that made my Monday. "My man" is an older man who stole my wallet a few years back out of Linzy's apartment while we were in the back of her home. A week later we ran into "my man" and I promptly walked up and asked where my wallet was. He apparently thought I was speaking alien and he started smacking his lips and hopping up the hill.

Too many options!

Today dad and I were supposed to meet at "the" museum for brunch and culture. At 11 I made my way to the De Young. There I sat for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes - 1hour! After taking advantage of modern technology (aka, my blackberry) I realized I was at the WRONG museum! Dad had emailed to confirm the Palace of Fine Arts ... oofa. So, an hour and fifteen minutes later I called my mom frantically trying to figure out where the P of FA was. She mapquested me to the Legion of Honor where I not only learned my dad had ridden off on his bike, but there was yet another museum in the city called Palace of Fine Arts.

I think we should just change the naming convention to "Museum 1," "Museum 2," and so on.

What a doofous day.

The good news is it's Union Sidewalk Sale weekend so I was able to recover from the trauma of passing paths with a sale.

Go Green or Go Away!

Molly is spearheading a green movement at work which is making me a lot more conscious of the wasteruls in the world. Although in San Francisco we tend to lean to the left and preach world saving practices, I'm not sure we practice what we preach. I've now been called out numerous times for showing up to work with my paper Starbucks (fondly known of as All My Bucks) cup. Negative 2 green points for me.

Sunday I was at Whole Foods (another wallet sinker we like to call Whole Paycheck) with green on the mind. After being pushed around the aisles for a too packed store with the cities poshest vying for the healthiest snacks, I made it to checkout. In the line next to me was a woman buying 10 Smart Water bottles - the Jennifer Aniston line must be paying off. As the checker was swiping all the bottles through, the woman said "Oh, I brought bags to help save paper ... but I left them in the car. Oh well, I'll just take plastic please."

Here's what I think ... if you're going to green-it, mean-it!

Hawaii in the city?

Last night we enjoyed a true city gem - the Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. After work Matt and I met up with Scott and Jody for a true adventure. The Tonga Room is like a Hawaiian hideaway on top of Nob Hill. To get to the Tonga Matt and I got lost weaving through the Fairmont (one of the poshest). When we saw the tikki bar setup, boat, palm trees, and dance-floor we knew we had arrived.

The bar/restaurant has a pool in the middle of the floor. Every 30-minutes sprinklers go off and it rains inside the bar. Just after we arrived a lounge boat pulled into the middle of the pool and a band serenaded us with show tunes.

After tiki drinks and too much food, we made our way to the dance floor tearing it up to Abba.

What a night!

It's raining it's pouring

The rain is raining all around ...

Wait a minute - I posted that blog in Winter ... what's the dilly-yo?! Oh yeah, it's San Francisco summer and it rained today. Hmph - so much for all the weight lifting and squats trying to get "summer ready."

The worst part is, it's not even fun rain - it's more like a heavy sky-spit.

"Dream home" take 11

Matt and I are still on our idealistic house hunt hoping to find a gem in San Francisco for well under market value. We're shooting for either a home in a great location in need of massive work, or waiting until the next big earthquake.

Just up the hill from us is a new "dream" - 2 units, 2 bedrooms, falling down...perfect! The funny thing is I've been driving by this place for two years wondering when it would hit the market. The time has come.

The sad part, if we were looking in almost any other city in any other state we'd be looking at 5-bedroom multi-acre homes. Fortunately and unfortunately, we love this crazy city of ours to go anywhere else ... yet.

Race made easy

For the past two years Linzy and I have pretended to be "real runners" and gasped our way through the Napa to Sonoma half marathon. This year Linzy is off to Columbia (hard life) for a wedding so I was preparing to run alone. The requisite 2-months before the race I logged on to Active.com to pay too much just to feel pain. It was sold out!

After stalking news about the race online I discovered my favorite sporting good store (Sports Basement) would be selling 75 more spots on Friday afternoon. I took the day off work and waited until 11:15 to make my way to Sports Basement only to find the numbers opened up at 11 and were sold out in 10 minutes. Where are all these runners coming from?! So not fair. Now I'll just have to suck it up and enjoy the sales in the city.

A ride to remember

Sunday Rob and Emily introduced us to the other 90% of San Francisco - they led us on a bike ride around the city. Our guides took the lead, sometimes the side, and on hills the way back, as we wound our way around this beautiful city.

First Stop, Duboce to start the ride. Through the park we went, out to the breakers, up past the suture baths, across the city to Presidio, overlooking the bridge, back towards the park, ending at a great French restaurant (whose site I ripped the map from). After the ride we enjoyed tour de france and a nice french snack feeling so European.

Where has all the sunshine gone?

It's been sunny all week and now that it's finally the weekend there's only one word to sum up the great out doors - blechy! After going to a nice sushi dinner with Emily and Rob last night, Matt and I had a lazy morning and went to Le Bou for coffee and breakfast. Then, I was off to yoga and am soon on my way to spa - the best way to capitalize on cloudy day.

4th Francisco style

After running errands for much too long yesterday, we made it home to prepare for the 4th festivities. Tri-tip in the oven, coleslaw in the works, bowls of candy and crackers, and wine in the cooler we were set(ish). Rob and Emily were the first to arrive baring gifts - awesome home-made pickles and pickled carrots. Rob got to work fixing my bike and Emily came to help out in the kitchen (and we needed it). Despite feeling quite prepared we realized we had a huge pot of water for the corn but had neglected to turn it on. Emily also helped turn my plan of microwaving tortilla shells (for tacos) into a more authentic preparation as she warmed them on the burner.

Two games of dominoes later, the rest of the guests started trickling in.

The dinner:
Steak and shrimp tacos
Corn
Coleslaw
Chips and home-made guac
Heaps of snacks on the side

The setting:
Our roof. We all gathered upstairs enjoy the sunset accompanied by the music of honking irate drivers on Lombard.

The party:
As the night wore on, the heat from the sun wore out, so we cloaked ourselves in layers of sweaters and sweatshirts. Fully hobo style. At around 8pm Lombard street was closed off so the entertainment factor kicked up a notch. Looking at the street below the sidewalks filled with people making their way down to Aquatic park - lucky us had the best seat in the house. Finally, at 9:30 the show began - first the Marin fireworks, then a tandem show in the city accompanied by decent attempts by Marina folk.

Dancing Polk St. style

As part of our party prep I made my way to the gym to "veg" on the elliptical trainer and enjoy a movie (Crunch fitness on Polk is in an old movie theater that still takes advantage of the huge movie screen). Walking home from the gym I dodged mini-yipping dogs, strollers, street restaurant dwellers, and a dancer. The dancer in question? A man wearing short running shorts, a tank top, a sweat band, dark shades, no walkman, and keeping beat (to something - maybe the songs in his head) with a yard stick ruler that he paddles against his thigh. Odd.

4th of July Mistakes

It's the 4th of July and in the city that means more than just celebrating our independence. It means BBQs, sidewalk wine and cheese parties, and relaxing on the roof. Matt and I are having a party tonight so, to prep for having people over, we woke up early to make our way to Safeway for snacks. We woke up early because our Safeway is always packed and it being a holiday we knew it would be more so than normal.

Mistake 1 ... not venturing to the market for goodies, but how I ventured. The Marina Safeway is known for being a singles pick up joint. Girls seem to always be perfectly made up with their "casual" designer duds, and boys for some reason seem to walk the aisles with muscles flexed. I, on the other hand, donned my "day off" outfit - Lululemon sweats, a t-shirt, no makeup, and a ponytail. What a misfit.

Mistake 2 ... driving, not walking. Upon returning from running errands we found lines of cars leading to all four corners trying to make it over Lombard and no parking. Oofa!