Gardening with Lola
Posted by Lisa On September 20th, 2009
Yesterday Kevin and I went to Flowercraft Garden Store near our apartment to pick up some more plants and luckily they were having a 75% off sale on a ton of plants, so we got six plants for $7! Sure can’t beat that. So this morning Kevin and I planted them and our garden is finally starting to look full!
I love snapdragons so we’ve got a couple of those in our garden along with a lavender plant (another one of my favorites) and some grasses.
We lined the bed with hanging rosemary plants that we hope will add a nice fragrant touch to the garden and will hang over the side of the wall one day. In the background of this picture is our vegetable garden (behind the chicken wire/wood stakes). It just looks like a patch of dirt now so I didn’t add a picture here. But we’ve got a tomato plant, jalepeno peppers, basil, zucchini, carrots, romaine lettuce and spinach…yum!
New life in SF
Posted by Lisa On September 14th, 2009
Saying that our life in SF is different than our life in Long Beach is an understatement. When we were living in LB, with my job, going to school, and being a co-leader for my niece’s Girl Scout troop my life was crazy. I knew that moving up here would be a great change for me, even just for a new level of sanity, and I’m happy to say that it’s true.
I can’t say that my first two months of work have been easy and stress-free. I was thrown into the thick of things and it hadn’t slowed down until just this week. I’m both the Admissions Counselor and the Registrar for the teacher education program for 300 students on three campuses. So end of summer is crazy time for Admissions and then right when all Admissions offices can begin breathing, it’s the beginning of the school year which means crazy time for Registrar’s offices. Luckily, tomorrow is the Add/Drop deadline for the university so that means that my inbox isn’t full of 100+ e-mails a day anymore, woo hoo!!! 🙂 I can say, though, that the past two months the latest I’ve ever stayed at the office was 5:45pm…no more Girl Scout parent information meetings until 9/10pm anymore!
Okay, so work is good and I finally have free time. Awesome. So as most of you know, Kevin decided to go back to school for aviation mechanics at City College of Alameda. His classes are Monday-Friday, 4:30pm-10:30pm (though on Fridays he gets out at 7:30pm). I have to admit, the first 2-3 weeks of this schedule were extremely rough on me. I’d wake up and leave home by 7:15am while Kevin slept in, then at night I’d go to bed around 10 and Kevin doesn’t get home until 11pm at the earliest. So for four days of the week when we interact, one of us is always half asleep. But just knowing how much Kevin LOVES the program and is learning so much and has finally found his niche in the world, it definitely has helped me in not feeling sad at nights when he’s not around.
I know that having Lola around has helped immensely. Each night after work we take a walk to the dog park and spend 45 mins. to an hour there, running around with the other dogs and playing fetch. The past four weeks on Tuesdays we’ve gone to dog training classes too and we’ve been learning a lot. Tomorrow’s our last class so hopefully Lola will shine amongst the other students! 🙂 I’ve also been involving myself in a few different groups that have kept me busy. I’ve been a part of meetup.com for a while now but when in LB I never had any time to attend meetings (or if I did, I just wanted to be at home!) So I’ve joined a few different meetups and have really enjoyed myself and have met some new friends. I’m in a Spanish-language meetup (where people of all levels get together to speak Spanish…I’ve been to two so far and it’s all come back to me so easily!). I’m also in a bookclub called “Booze ‘n Books” where people get together to discuss books over cocktails…what a fantastic idea, don’t you think? I’m currently reading “Shadows of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for my first meeting next week. And lastly, I’ve joined the “Latin Potluck Party” meetup and have actually volunteered to be an Assistant Organizer and have planned our October meetup, so we’ll see how it goes! Once a week I also get together with my sister Jessie and some other friends for a LOST tv show fan group that Jessie created. We’re watching the shows each week starting from season one to get caught up before the last season premiere in December (If you’ve never seen the show, you’ve still got time to Netflix ’em all and get caught up too! Can you tell we’re huge fans?!) Lastly, I’ve been practicing the piano pretty often and can now play “Jingle Bells” and “Oh When the Saints go Marching in” (don’t be jealous!)
So though my nights are a little more lonely without Kevin around, life is still good and it just makes time with him over the weekend so much more special. 🙂
A true SF Foodie
Posted by Lisa On September 4th, 2009
So I think most people who know me know that I love food. One of the most exciting things for me when we were talking about moving up here was all of the great opportunities I’d have to enjoy some of the amazing eateries in the city. I wanted to have some blog posts about some of the great places that we’ve dined at so that we could share what great places to eat there are here for any visitors who are interested in trying out something other than a chain restaurant. If you click on the Label toward the bottom of this post that says “foodie”, it will display all of the posts that have that label. Bon appetit!
Balompie #3
In Bernal Heights
Some of the best pupusas (an El Salvadorian delicacy!) we have EVER had! They’re about $2-3 each and are flat masa filled with cheese, meat, veggies, etc. Right off the grill with their salsa and cabbage…mmmm!! We found out that it’s only 1 1/2 miles from our apartment, so a walk there is definitely in store in the near future!
Goat Hill Pizza
In Portrero Hill
This is one of Jessie’s favorite pizza places and we were not disappointed! The three of us shared a large Mediterranean pizza and it was perfect. On Monday nights they have all-you-can-eat pizza and salad so guess where we’re going next Monday?? 🙂
San Francisco Meats & Delicatessen
In Ingleside
We happened upon this cute little sandwich shop this afternoon and are so happy we did! Kevin had a roast beef sandwich (he’s pretty predictable when we go get a sandwich) and I got a chicken salad sandwich. We loved them so much we got a frequent buyer card and can’t wait for our free 13th sandwich! 🙂 Next time we’re going to go for one of their daily specials: Spicy Maui chicken, Murph’s meatballs, Beef Brisket…how could you resist??
Gardening
Posted by Lisa On September 4th, 2009
We love our apartment for many reasons, but having a backyard almost completely to ourselves is definitely one of the biggest pluses, hands-down. A few weeks ago I spent an afternoon weeding the overgrown area. Today we went to Home Depot and bought some plants and veggies and got started on our garden! Kevin spent the whole time digging up a huge root and I spent the whole time turning the soil to get ready for us to plant our plants. The dirt is really hard, so it definitely wasn’t an easy task! I only got through half of the area, but hopefully we’ll finish the rest this weekend. While digging, I came across a neat little treasure. I found an old comic book that had been buried underground for who knows how long. We kind of felt like archaeologists sifting through the old torn pieces and trying to figure out what comic it was and from what time. Just makes you wonder whose comic book it used to be!
Kevin getting to work!
Showing off the work I did…it doesn’t look like much but I swear it was!
So after working hard all afternoon and being exhausted, I tried to sit down next to Lola and ended up falling on my butt! So Lola took advantage of the opportunity to lick my face and I’m laughing as a result.
Part of the comic book we discovered, kind of looks like an Archie comic! Click on the photos for better detail, it’s pretty cool to look at up closeA visit with the Susuico family’s newest addition
Posted by Lisa On September 4th, 2009
Aug. 29th
One of our longtime family friends Stacey Mitchell Susuico had a beautiful baby boy, Tasi (“Toss-ee”), on Aug. 19th. Since they live only a short drive away across the Golden Gate Bridge, Jessie, Kevin and I decided to make a visit to the growing family.
Tasi is a sweet little bundle of joy who slept most of the time we were there but is beautiful little guy who we couldn’t take our eyes off of. And it was so great to see Stacey & Jay’s first child, Isabella, who is a gorgeous little girl and such a crack up!
Here are some photos…the first two were taken at the hospital and weren’t taken by us and the last three are from our visit to their home. Warning: Extreme cuteness ahead!
Visit from Aunt Kathy
Posted by Lisa On September 4th, 2009
August 23rd
I was so happy to hear that my Aunt Kathy (my dad’s sister) had planned a trip to SF and wanted to spend some time with us! We went to our new favorite brunch place Zazie(yes, the same place we went with Kevin’s parents!) and had a delicious breakfast. Then we went back to our apartment so that she could meet Lola and of course Lola immediately sensed that she was a doggy person. 🙂 Though the visit was only for half a day, it was so great spending some time with Aunt Kathy and having her see our new life up in SF!
Derek visits SF
Posted by Lisa On August 22nd, 2009
My brother Derek made a trip up to SF last week and it was so great showing him our new city because he had never been here before! On Fri. 8/14 he and I did some exploring in North Beach, Chinatown and Ghirardelli Square. It was his last day in the city and we didn’t have time to take him back to my apartment before he left so he had to take his stuff with him. So he had this grand idea of taking photos throughout the city standing with his pillow. So that’s why he’s holding his pillow in every photo! We had a good time coming up with ideas of where to take photos. It was so nice having him up to visit and I can’t wait for him to come back soon!
Derek & Pillow in Chinatown
Derek & Pillow looking at the funky styrofoam bird display
Derek & Pillow in red light district
Derek & Pillow in North Beach
Derek & Pillow with cool gypsy wall art
Derek & Pillow in North Beach
Derek & Pillow in Ghirardelli Square
Derek & Pillow on bus
Derek & Pillow and sisters
Can you believe it, a serious photo with the Delmar kids! (If anyone knows Derek and has seen family photos of us, he’s always making a funny face! 😉 )
Granite Creek camping trip
Posted by Lisa On August 22nd, 2009
The Edmonds family camping trip was a blast. The weather could have been just a wee-bit hotter (the first two days we wore jackets and had a fire going all day!) but the last few days it started to warm up and we spent most of the day hanging out in the middle of the creek on some rocks, building dams and, for the brave few of us, swimming in the cold, cold creek. Lola was just WONDERFUL on the trip. She absolutely loved being off leash for most of the day, running through the forest, jumping on rocks and crossing the creek. She’s a true camping dog!
Going for a hike
Lola playing with her cousin Katelyn (they sure became close friends!)
Katelyn skipping rocks and Thomas hanging out
Nap time with dad
Lola LOVED hanging out on the rocks, she reminded me of a billy goat climbing them the way she did
Katelyn, the brave one who dared to go in the water
It didn’t take long for her to get in all the way! And she kept telling me “Come in, Lisa, it’s perfect!” Yeah, I doubt that Katelyn! 😉
It wasn’t long after that Uncle Kevin joined her
I love this picture, Lola looking on as Katelyn and Kevin go for a dip (you can click on the photo to get a closer look)
Katelyn and Judith hanging out
Time for another nap!
Katelyn enjoying lunch and Joshua enjoying the sunshine
Judith, me, Joshua, Luke and Thomas hanging out around the campfire
Josh was very proud of his find, and it kept us warm all weekend!
Turn’s out Lola’s a pyro just like the rest of the family! haha
Remember how I said Katelyn and Lola became good friends? Well Katelyn loved to play dress up with Lola
Me and Kev making barbecue chicken, corn on the cob and baked beans for dinner, yum!
Can you tell this girl likes to sleep? And she just loved snuggling with us in the tent among all the blankets. So cute!
Edmonds family camping trip 2009
Posted by Lisa On August 4th, 2009
It’s finally that time of year again…camping trip with the Edmonds gang! We’ll be heading out tomorrow afternoon to Granite Creek outside of North Fork in Central California and we can not WAIT! Not only are we going to see the family after not seeing them in a month, but they get to meet Lola and we get to take her on the trip with us!
Plus, we got her a doggy backpack so that she can carry her things on hikes with us (a recommendation by Cesar Milan, star of the show The Dog Whisperer, who feels that all dogs need a purpose, so having them carry their own things on walks will help in that regard!) As you can tell, she is just as excited about going as we are!
Sorry for the bad quality, it was taken from my cell phone…there’ll be plenty more pictures of her with her backpack from our trip this weekend, don’t you fret! 🙂
So we’ll be gone through Sunday 8/9 and I’ll be sure to update the blog early next week. Take care and we’ll see you soon!
Finally, pictures of our home!
Posted by Lisa On August 4th, 2009
Finally, all of the picture frames have been put up and the boxes have all been unpacked (phew!) so I finally felt like our apartment looked semi-good enough to take pictures of and post online. Enjoy!
Yes, that is a keyboard…I’ll start playing more this fall when Kevin’s away at night school and me and Lola are left alone to hang out! It’s been a dream of mine for a long time and I can’t wait to get started. 🙂
The second most important room (and our only other room in the apartment to mention!)…the living room
Close-up of our frame display…more to come in the near future!
Lola’s favorite room…the kitchen!
Lola checking in on mom and wondering what the heck she was doing
