Monthly Archives: November 2010

TDay 2010

This year Kevin had to work the days before and after Thanksgiving so we couldn’t make a trip down south–Jessie had to work the day of so we decided to host a small Thanksgiving dinner at her place in San Jose!

In the afternoon we were busy cooking and Skyping with Kevin’s family who were gathered at his parent’s house for the feast.

Dorothy and George
Kevin chatting away
Our beautiful nieces Katelyn and Sophie!
Thomas, Katelyn and Sophie posing for a photo

Even though it was only me, Kev and Jessie for the meal itself we ended up having one of the most delicious and entertaining Thanksgivings in recent memory!

The mansion Jessie lives in (literally! Check out the post I wrote about her building on move-in day here)

Started out with some Skyping with my family–this photo is of my mom and my Auntie Tina, but there also was my brother Derek, my Uncle Joey and my mom’s boyfriend Steve.

Jess got a free cooked crab from her boss so she proceeded to pound away at it.

Hahaha, that girl cracks me up!


So…dinner was amazing. Started out with some spanakopita, fried cheese balls, and dates stuffed with dark chocolate and walnuts.

And the main event! Mushroom stuffing, apple cranberry quinoa, collard greens, roasted cauliflower (and some tri-tip [not pictured] for the meat-eatin’ Kevin).

And three bottles of wine later…we started getting a little goofy.

The lipstick went on.
The feathers were donned.

So how do I look with bangs?? (No really, I want to know…I’m gonna get a haircut soon and want to know what you think! haha)
Socks were mismatched.
Kitties were cuddled.

And then the Delmar girls got into typical Delmar fashion and started posing for random photos…







But the highlight of the evening was by far this Christmas video. ENJOY and HAPPY HOLIDAYS from the Delmar sisters! 🙂

One of the last sunny days

On Saturday 11/20 we woke up early and went on a family run! We had only run together one other time while living here and I was SO happy when Kevin agreed to go out running with me and Lola. We did the 3 mile loop in our neighborhood (which includes some killer hills and 6 flights of stairs) and it was so nice for me and Lola to show Kevin how it’s done. 😉

We then met up with our favorite friends Carleigh and Scott at Stacks’ restaurant in Hayes Valley. This is such a fantastic breakfast joint! Carleigh and I shared two plates–one of which was a plate of HUGE coconut, macadamia nut and banana pancakes. They were AMAZING!! Three thumbs up.

Super cute decor
Our massive pancakes
Kevin’s omelette and taters
Scott’s omelette and taters
The very cute (and very full) couple

We parted ways and Kevin and I walked around the neighborhood a bit. There was a really cool art installation called Ecstasy which we enjoyed quite a bit.







Then we made our way out to the Richmond District to Sutro Heights Park to do some exploring.

Can you tell it gets windy out this way?




The view of Ocean Beach, the Richmond District and Golden Gate Park off in the distance.
Stairs leading up to one of Mr. Sutro’s little hideouts
Love this photo
Enjoying one of the last sunny days in SF with my favorite person, Kevin!

Pre-Thanksgiving feast

Jessie joined me and Kevin on Sunday 11/14 for a little pre-Thanksgiving feast!

On the menu:

  • Fancy red wine (courtesy of Jess’ wine bar…we’re getting spoiled with all the amazing wine she’s treating us with)
  • Salad with roasted red pepper vinaigrette
  • Roasted brussel sprouts smothered in gruyere cheese
  • Vegan sausage hoagies
  • Pumpkin pie (from scratch!)
Happy chefs!
Lola hoping and praying for some treats to fall
YUM!!
The beginning of our pumpkin pie
The final product–delicious!

Alison’s visit & Alemany Farmer’s Market

On Saturday 11/13 we woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and decided to visit the Alemany Farmer’s Market in our neighborhood. It’s one of the best in the city and we had only gone together once before. Now that Kevin has Saturdays off we’ll definitely be visiting more often!




Probably my most favorite part of this farmer’s market are the amazing murals in each stall. They are gorgeous and I can’t get enough of them!



Yummy green beans
A really funny sign in one of the stalls
Kevin picking out some yummy mandarin oranges
And what’s a farmer’s market without fresh-cut flowers?
Our yummy loot! Apples, arugula, almonds, mandarin oranges, garlic, kabocha squash, green beans, heirloom tomatoes, bok choy and bell peppers.

After taking Lola to the park we made our way out to Walnut Creek to visit our good friend Alison who was in town! Last time she visited (check out blog post here from February) we had a grand ol’ time so we were expecting nothing less. 🙂

We met Alison and her friend Laura at Alison’s favorite Indian restaurant Sargam and enjoyed an amazing buffet lunch! Then we spent a few hours exploring Walnut Creek’s downtown area, walking and window shopping and, of course, getting pedicures! It was Kevin’s first time and I’m happy to report he’s a fan. 🙂

Oh-so-relaxing foot soak
The only photographic proof that Kevin got a pedicure!
So I love a good chair massage but the ones at this place were a little weird (check out where the pressure was at this particular moment–weird!)
The happy customers!
Showing off my orange nail color
Alison didn’t have any sandals so wore Kevin’s, haha.

We then went to her family’s home and spent a couple of hours hanging out (and eating Halloween chocolate) with her mom Laurel and her new kitties.


We then spent the evening with Laura and Daniel at Pyramid Brewery for some yummy nachos and beer and Club 1220, the only gay club in Walnut Creek.

We had a great time checking out Alison’s old stomping grounds and can’t wait to see her again!

A night out at the Ferry Building

On Friday 11/12 I was running late to work so I decided to drive to work instead of take public transit so I’d get there in time. As you can imagine, parking at work is exorbitantly priced because I work just across the street from Fisherman’s Wharf, so I decided to take public transit home so that Kevin and I could make our way back out there to enjoy an evening along the Bay and drive home (it made the $10 parking fee worth it a bit more!)

We took the BART to Embarcadero Station and took a stroll through the Ferry Building. We were getting really hungry and couldn’t decide on a place so ended up at Gott’s Roadside Diner.

The city looks so so beautiful at night, dontcha think?

I was messing around with my camera’s functions and came out with this photo.

Kevin enjoying his bacon burger and garlic fries

Sinking my teeth into my avocado and somethin’ somethin’ burger

We then decided to walk along Embarcadero down to Pier 39 and enjoyed a photo opp or two.

Can you see me?

That’s the F train somewhere in there

Kevin not just doing what I say (like he normally does so well!)–I was trying to get him to pose in front of this Teatro Zinzanni sign and pretend that it was “Starring Kevin” but he wasn’t cooperating. 😉

We treated ourselves at home to some homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. We know how to live! 😉


Crepes and gardening

These two items can only mean one thing…


CREPES!

Kevin treated me to a delectable breakfast of homemade crepes a few weeks ago. What a great way to kick off a weekend!



We decided to tackle a project we both really wanted to take care of but didn’t really want to do the grunt work…the garden.

It was looking a little run-down so we bought a few more plants and a whole lotta bags of wood chips to freshen up the place.

Beautiful, clear day

Lola, the headless doggie, out monitoring our progress

Spreading out the wood chips

One of our pretty new plants

Lola looking all majestic over the lavender

Giving kisses to the gardener 🙂

Beautiful SF skies

On my walk home I’m occasionally astounded by the sky. From our street we can see directly across to Bernal Heights hill and there are times that the sky just blows me away. Here are some recent shots that I wanted to share!

Reminded me of a safari


For some reason I notice the sky a lot more living up here–it’s like the clouds have more character up here! 😉 Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Heather’s bachelorette party

My lovely friend Heather who was in a sistahood with me at Redlands and who also went abroad to Nicaragua a few years after me decided to celebrate her upcoming wedding with a weekend in San Francisco! I was so happy to hear she’d be venturing out this way to celebrate so that I could definitely participate in the festivities. 🙂 They spent the whole weekend up here and I joined them on Saturday evening for some exciting bachelorette fun at AsiaSF.

AsiaSF is a superb venue for dinner and a show. The show was actually transgendered women who would dance on the bar every hour! The food was fantastic (duck quesadillas anyone?) and the ladies performances were extremely entertaining as well!

A very masculine doorman in his blue cowboy boots

The happy bachelorette (and Willy)

The group

And now, for your viewing pleasure, the ladies of AsiaSF…

Selena!!


I would love to come back sometime–just gotta save some dough for that night since it’s a wee bit pricey.

Afterwards we went to their hotel (which just so happened to be the same hotel my friend Maya stayed in that I visited) for some fun bachelorette themed games.

Heather in the middle with all of the Redlands girls

North Beach, Coit Tower & Levi’s Plaza

Now that work isn’t crazy busy anymore I’ve made a goal to get out of the office once a day and go for at least a 30-40 minute walk. Generally I just walk down Embarcadero but that started to get boring so I looked up how close Coit Tower was and it turns out it’s only a 15 minute walk to the base of the staircase. Twice last week I walked up to Coit Tower and was amazed by how beautiful (and strenuous!) the walk was.

A random, funny mural at the base of the staircase: “No Dogs. Toy Poodles Okay.

Middle of the staircase (total number of stairs going up? 358. And yes, I counted them.

Gorgeous flowers in someone’s front yard–anyone know the name of them??

Filbert Steps

I would LOVE to live here, what a cute little “street”!

Someone’s adorable front yard

Almost there!

Thar she blows!

After raving about my lunch-time adventures, on Kevin’s day off on Saturday we decided to take advantage of one of the city’s last sunny days and go explore North Beach for brunch and then hike up to Coit Tower.

We really wanted to go to Mama’s Cafe for brunch but the line was ridiculous and we were starving so we Yelp app’d across Curly’s Coffee Shop. It didn’t look like too much on the outside…

But it ended up being a yummy breakfast spot! And turn’s out it’s a Japanese diner as well–interesting mix dontcha think?

Walking through North Beach we saw them painting over my favorite mural (see photo in old blog post here) to celebrate the SF Giants’ recent World Series win. I guess I’m okay with them painting over my favorite mural…


With bellies full and Lola in tow, we started off on the Barbary Coast Trail (aka Stockton Street) to the base of the tower (never really knew what those street markers were for all this time, but looked it up and you can see the info. at this link if you feel so inclined).

We took a slightly different path down the hill and saw some more really neat homes and yards.



Kinda funny, kinda creepy at the same time.

We ended up at Levi’s Plaza which I pass by everyday on the way to and from work and hadn’t spent much time there before. Lola was in HEAVEN with the grassy hills and the shallow river and since there weren’t many people around we let her off leash to explore.




I actually got a close-up of this fly! Not the prettiest insect, I’ll admit, but I thought it was cool that I got this shot before it buzzed off.

Video of Kevin and Lola playing around

Night out on the town

Friday night was not like a typical Friday night for us. The reason? Kevin didn’t have to work the next day!! He finally has Saturdays off from now on (we’re keeping our fingers crossed that that continues through the holidays) and it was sooo great to be able to go out and not worry about staying out too late (since he usually has to work at 6am, yuck!)

We had a delicious date night at Goat Hill Pizza in Potrero Hill. Some of the best pizza ever!

Where the magic happens.
Patiently awaiting our feast…


Cute goat-and-pizza-themed artwork. Check out the top left one where the girl is looking at the goat and in her thought bubble it says: “That got shur luks gud.” HA!

Heaven!

Then we rushed over to visit with our favorite friends Carleigh and Scott.

My delicious duo
Me and Bailey! He was super lovable that night, I think because he didn’t have Lola to distract him.
Homemade Long Island Iced Teas for Carleigh and Kevin
Mountain Goat Bailey

We spent many hours (okay, maybe 30 minutes) playing a new game we created called “guess the celebrity’s age”. Scott and I are PROS at the game–the first time we played, the two of us obliterated the competition. The second time we played we let Carleigh and Kevin win a couple so they wouldn’t be upset. 😉 Some of the celebrities we guessed: Martin Short, Bette Midler, Eddie Murphy, William Shatner, Joan Rivers, etc. etc. Never a dull moment when the four of us get together! 😉

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