Monthly Archives: May 2010

Lola learns how to "roll over"

Thought I’d try a video blog post this time!

Don’t mind the big dork in the film, yeah the one in the pink sweater. Kevin says it sounds like I have a lisp…I swear I don’t! Maybe this will end up being my only video blog post, hmmm…

Jessie’s graduation from SF State University!

The moment had finally come for Jessie’s graduation from SF State! She graduated with a BA in Political Science and my mom & her boyfriend Steve, her roommate Jessie and her boss Deanna were all there to show our support and cheer her on (as she went on stage three times!) The ceremony was specific for the PS Department, so lucky for us we didn’t have to sit through 7,000 names being called. 😉

I know it hasn’t been easy for Jess to get to this moment but I know that she worked her rear off to make it a reality and I honestly could not be more proud of her. Tears were shed and her name was hollered as loud as I could and it was not only a big moment in Jessie’s life, it was a big moment in mine too. I love you Jess and am so so so so very proud of you! YOU DID IT!!!!!

A short video of Jessie going up on stage to receive her “Student Leader of the Year” award…well-deserved!!!

Anxious to finally get her degree!

She did it!!

College graduate sisters!

(Part of) her cheering squad!

After her graduation we all went out to dinner at You See Sushi (one of Jessie’s favorite sushi restaurants) and on the walk there we spotted a cute Vespa that we encouraged Jess to jump on for an impromptu photo shoot (with that cute outfit she was wearing we couldn’t resist!)

I Photo Shop’d that! 😉

At the restaurant we presented Jessie with some cards, one being from me and my mom. It was a card that you could record a message in so we recorded a really goofy message and I had to videotape Jessie’s reaction while she opened it…enjoy!

Girl Scout weekend

The time had finally come for my niece’s 5th grade Girl Scout Junior troop to come up and visit San Francisco! We have been looking forward to this trip for over a year when I was still their troop leader and we all had a fantastic time together!

Judith (my sis-in-law), Dorothy (my mama-in-law), Katelyn (my niece) and 8 other Girl Scouts and their moms arrived to San Francisco Airport on the morning of Friday 5/7. I met them at the airport and we then BARTed our way to their hostel (a super cute place if anyone’s interested in staying in a hostel in the city) to drop off luggage.

The girls in front of their hostel

We then rushed off to eat some lunch at Mel’s Diner (a well-known diner in SF that had so-so food) and then made our way to Golden Gate Park

Milkshakes at 10am? Sure!

The group really wanted to go to the California Academy of Sciences so that’s where we spent the afternoon.

Golden Gate Park
K. and the frog having a face-off
My favorite part of the CAS: the 4-story rain forest


These frogs cracked me up! They seemed to be such characters, kind of reminded me of little Buddhas 😉

V. and the beautiful jellyfish
This sea star seemed to be laying out on a beach sunbathing
The awesome albino alligator!
V., K. and Katelyn messing around (it’s what they do best!) This beast of a display was for their “Extreme Mammals” exhibit

I have to admit, I was a little worried about being their tour guide since Kevin’s usually the tour guide when visitors come out and we generally don’t take public transportation with visitors–so though I’m super confident when it comes to the route I take everyday for work (2 buses + BART) it was a little worrisome to make sure we got on the right bus (and made sure all 18 of us got on/off at the same time!) But the first day went super smoooooth and I was pretty proud of myself. 🙂 Some funny moments riding the bus with the group–the girls absolutely LOVED riding the bus and were sad when we told them to sit down because the bus was getting full (they loved hanging onto the poles and swinging around); some young guys decided to sit down amongst the 9 girls and after they figured out who they were sitting next to (a bunch of giggling girls) it was funny to watch their facial expressions change.

They even enjoyed waiting for the buses at the bus stops…



A bunch of little monkeys!
Good friends V. and A.
This photo shows their level of excitement really well…bunch of nerds! 😉

For dinner we went to a real local treat…Chevy’s Mexican restaurant (can you hear the sarcasm in my typing voice? 😉 ) We called it an early night because we had a loooong day ahead of us!

On Saturday morning I made my way to the hostel to meet the group so we could make our way to the Golden Gate Bridge for the Girl Scouts’ annual Bridging event! When girls in GS graduate from one level to the next they call it “bridging” so the Northern California GS organize a huge event so that girls from all over can “bridge” across the Golden Gate Bridge. Our girls graduated from GS Juniors to GS Cadettes (6th-8th grade). This event attracts over 4,000 girl members (that’s just girls we’re talking about!) and is put together really well. The GS hired shuttle buses to take troops across the bridge into Marin County and then we all hiked our way back across the bridge back into SF.

Excited for yet another bus ride (driving across the Golden Gate Bridge)
The gorgeous ladies of Troop 3933!
It sure makes you think when you’re crossing that bridge and only have the water below and the huge metal structures surrounding you and the wind is blowing like crazy!
It sure doesn’t look like 4,000 Girl Scouts were crossing the bridge but believe me they were!
My beautiful niece, happy to be bridging to Cadettes!

I made an announcement as we approached the end of the bridge, that once they crossed the line they would no longer be Girl Scout Juniors but instead become Girl Scout Cadettes, so I took a few photos of them as they crossed:

B., Katelyn and K. running across the “finish line”!
V. & A. crossing in style
J., S. and M. crossing as a unit
Say hello to the newest Girl Scout Cadette troop in Long Beach!

After our trek across the bridge we were greeted with a festival for the girls–tons of booths with activities for the girls to participate in.

B. & K. with a vintage GS uniform

Katelyn & Judith taking a break
A GS tradition is making “swaps” that represent your troop and “swapping” them with other troop’s to create a collection. This is Katelyn’s hat decorated with her swaps (that was probably on 1/3 of them!)

After the event it seemed my luck with being the tour guide started to run down–I didn’t know how the heck to get us back to the hostel! Our misadventure included–walking up a huge staircase and then finding out that we had to go back down the stairs (oops!), stalking a park ranger and waiting for him outside the restroom so that we could ask for directions (awkward!), then walking a mile and a half to get to the darn bus. My excuse was that I never come to this part of town! Oh well, at least we eventually made it back safe and sound.

That night we met up with Kevin and ate at the Cheesecake Factory on top of the Macy’s building in Union Square. The group was so huge we had to get split up but it ended up being really nice spending time with Kevin and his mom Dorothy for an evening.

Overlooking Union Square: Judith, J., M., S. and B.

Sunday morning Dorothy and I made our way to the hostel to meet up with the group for their last day in the city. We went downtown to wait in a 20 minute line to take the famous trolley (I hadn’t done that since living here so it was nice to do).

The girls and the trolley
The blue skies in downtown
A group of men from Dockers pants were walking through the area with roses for all the moms out there in celebration of Mother’s Day (how cute!) So here’s a photo of all the moms with their roses.
Dorothy and me on the trolley (proof that I was there that weekend! 😉 )
Some of the girls got to ride on the outside, this is M. en route to Ghirardelli Square

The trolley took us right to Ghirardelli Square where the group split up for a bit and our little group enjoyed some delicious Ghirardelli ice cream treats (yes even at 10 in the morning!)

Katelyn getting ready to enjoy their sundae
Dorothy and my sundae (amazing!!)
The happy tourists 😉

We then walked to Fisherman’s Wharf (have I told you how much I love that place? 😉 ) and I am happy to announce that I finally saw the bushman!

The troop spent their last afternoon on a bay cruise and since I didn’t see the point in forking over $25 for me to do something I could day any ol’ time, I said my goodbyes at Fisherman’s Wharf.

It was so so so so nice spending a weekend with my family and with those crazy 5th grade Girl Scouts…I really miss spending time with them every other week at our troop meetings. Those girls mean a lot to me after being their troop leader for two years and it was so great to feel connected to them with this trip.

Dog beach and Indian pizza=The best Saturday!

This weekend was Kevin’s first weekend working (which is going to be a very regular thing from now on!) so Lola and I were on our own for the first part of Saturday. What better way to spend a warm, sunny Saturday than a day at the dog beach! We visited Crissy Fields a time or two before and I knew that this was the best place to wear Lola out. 🙂

On our way to Crissy Fields

Lola and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

She isn’t much of a fan of the waves but she sure loves water so was happy when we found this shallow, calm spot.

Wet dog!

Happy dog!

An exhausted pup

After Kevin’s long day at work we decided to try out a new place to eat: Zante’s Pizza! I had tried their Indian Special Pizza a few months ago at a get-together and have been raving about it ever since to Kevin, so we thought it was a great night to check it out.

Hands-down the BEST pizza ever!

Kevin’s fancy coke

The best pizza EVER! Indian special pizza included: spinach, cauliflower, eggplant, green onions, curry, tandoori chicken, lamb and prawns. Amazing!

Whoever the next lucky visitor to SF is can request to come here and we will GLADLY take you! 🙂

Lola’s best friend

Our friend Carleigh came over on Friday night for some carne asada, wine and doggie play time! The three of us went to Millikan HS together and we’ve reconnected in the past few months since we moved up to SF where Carleigh has been for a few years. Her boyfriend Scott had to work late so couldn’t join us for dinner 🙁 but Carleigh and their adorable dog Bailey joined us for a fun night!

Our appetizer: chips and salsa!

The veggie fajitas cookin’ away!

Carleigh provided dessert: cranberry tart and peanut butter delicacies!

Lola and Bailey had met a few times before at St. Mary’s dog park. But this was the first time that Lola ever had a doggie visitor to her home and she was the perfect hostess!

Gettin’ acquainted

These two played NON-STOP for at least 3 hours straight. They were such good friends! Did you notice the two glasses of wine (me and Carleigh) and the jug of milk on the counter (Kevin)? haha

Here’s a video of them in action:


The two of them would lay down for a few minutes and take a quick nap (but they had to be laying straight across from each other to make sure the other wasn’t up to no good!) and then one of them would get up and encourage the other to start playing again, so funny!

We absolutely loved having Carleigh and Bailey over to our place and we’re so happy that Bailey and Lola became such good friends!

Time travel on the cheap!

A friend of ours sent us this video and I thought it’d be great to post it on our blog! It’s a video taken from a streetcar just days before the big earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. I travel these same tracks everyday for work and I pass by the Ferry Building clock tower (where the streetcar in the video is headed) each day, so it’s amazing to see what it all looked like over 100 years ago (especially knowing that this was taken only 4 days before the big earthquake).

And you’d think that the streets of SF were pretty dangerous for pedestrians, cars and buses today…but just imagine living back then! All I gotta say is that the guy at 2:36 had a death wish, haha.

Enjoy!

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