Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is the Birthday of one of my favorite people...my Dad.
An amazing man with courage and spirit that most of us can only dream of possessing.

He is one of my best friends, my role model and my own personal superman.

Oh, plus he is really funny and smart and he can draw and has great penmanship and given the right tools, he can fix almost anything.

Happy Birthday Dad, hope you have a great day down in SoCal, playing golf and relaxing with Mom, Aunt Linda and George.

A Bed of Books

I know I mentioned in this post last fall that I have some quirks, this is one of them:

"If I really like a book and don't want it to end, I will slip it under the mattress until I am ready to finish it."

I found the following last night between the box spring and the mattress - deep in there too as not to be discovered while changing the sheets (click the title to read more about the book):

1. Mrs. Mike

2. The Zookeepers Wife

3. The Caliph's House (a recent addition to the mattress library, I still forgot it was under there even though it went in there a couple weeks ago)

All of them have a mere 20-50 unread pages at the end of the book. I don't really understand why I do this. I have a pile of books next to my bed that I want to read and here I am storing these others away because I don't want them to end? I should be excited for them to end and for me to get ready for a new literary adventure.

Manic Monday

If I had the closet of my dreams, this is what I would be wearing today...

*{Fabulous Find}*

Look!

It's a cake....

It's a doughnut....

It's a GIANT doughnut that is baked like a cake!

Ech, why didn't I think of that?

Get yours by clicking here at Williams-Sonoma.

{photos by Williams-Sonoma}

Sweet Pea (Peanut)

My parents dog Peanut passed away Friday evening. Well, she was my sister's dog who adopted my parents when my sister went to college, but was really the family dog as we all loved her very much.

It was a very sad weekend. Even here in San Francisco my heart was aching for my parents and for our Sweet Pea. She wasn't sick and went very fast like my Marley did a few years back. So the memories of her are those of good times and not of a sick doggy.

Peanut had a happy life and everyone who met her loved her. Her last hoorah was our road trip across the US moving my parents to AZ. We had a lot of fun with her. I will never forget my Mom walking her on Navajo Nation after dark and seeing a coyote come up out of the bushes, my Mom looked over and saw it and made a quick "about face" and walked right back in the direction of the hotel. It was hilarious because as soon as I saw the coyote approach it was too late to make a noise to try and scare it off. I was watching the entire thing go down and from afar, it was very funny. I took a video of Peanut at my parents new home playing like a puppy with her teddy bear. I am glad she made it to Arizona and got to live in her new house for a while.

She was the best dog ever, hands down.

Sadness all around, first the family home is gone, now the family dog. Ugh.

I feel better today, but am still worried about my parents. I know they are fine, but an animal is such a huge spirit in the house and with her gone, it will be awful quiet and they will be lacking a security guard. My crying too much headache has lifted and today has been very good and I know Peanut is in heaven watching over all of us with that grin on her face that we all loved so much (not like in this photo, this was a more serious side of Peanut).

Balloons!

I decorated our office manager's cube before she came in this morning and this is what she walked in to.

Manic Monday

If I had the closet of my dreams, this is what I would be wearing today...

Sunday Downtown

Yeah, still playing a little catch up...

Sunday Tim and I went downtown to spend the day. I was itching to see the Maira Kalman exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and was going to check it out alone on Saturday while Tim worked, but decided that Sunday with him may be better. We started at Tropisueno for lunch, which was delicious. I am not one to turn down Mexican Food. With our bellies full we walked over to the museum. We slowly walked through the other exhibits saving the Kalman exhibit for last; sort of the dessert to the feast our eyes had taken in. I walked in and gasped and then giggled because the things that Maira (I wish we were on a first name basis, but are not) writes are so funny! I love her collections of random things, onion rings, boxes, suitcases....Her work is amazing, colorful and whimsy. I wonder what surrounds some of the paintings, how they came about, what was going on in her head at the time, etc. I took every piece in and digested it and licked the plate clean when I was done. I want to go back and spend more time as just being around her work is creatively inspiring to me.

Here are some of my favorites, I loved seeing them in person - I have a lot of fav's but these two stick out to me more than the others...

Lady Birley, 1995 - Maira Kalman

Self-portrait (with Pete) - Maira Kalman

I urge everyone to go and check this exhibit out, I super loved it and hope you will too! After leaving the museum we heard some crazy Klezmer music coming from a stage on the lawn at Yerba Beuna so we went to check it out. It was celebration of some sort, people dancing in circles, smiling and laughing it was awesome. I needed a boost at this point so we got coffee and I spotted a photo booth where I conducted my own photo shoot. Afterwards we went home and had a nice restful afternoon.

Waaaaaay Behind Part 3 (final)

Last Friday (July 9) I took a personal day and went up to visit my dear friend Angela and hang out in her neck of the woods for the day. Of course, I took my laundry with me. Most of my friends know I don't have laundry at my house so I usually come to their house with it - ha ha!

I headed up to Sacramento and got there around 10:20 AM. Frankie was the first one to greet me, I had not seen him since Thanksgiving so it was really nice to see him - kids change so much in small amounts of time. We sat and had coffee and Frankie gave me a tour of their house where he told me after I mentioned I had a pink bathtub in my bathroom that "that's ridiculous". He is hilarious! I love the things kids say!

I did my wash and hung it out on the line outside to dry and Angela and I went to the Antique Mall by her house that I super love! We took our time and walked around while Frankie took his nap at home with Brian. Antiquing built up a pretty hardy appetite so we decided to go and get a "snack" and ended up with this Greek Appetizer Platter and Feta Fries!

After our little "snack" we went back to the house (gave Brian the meat part of the meal and the leftover fries) and hung out until Frankie woke up. We decided we would walk over to the park with Shelby (the dog) and Frankie. Frankie was so funny, didn't want to play on the playground, just wanted to race his bike around the footpath around it. He must have gone around 8 times, and we cheered each time he came around by us. Then he moved on and played on the play scape for a while. He is super creative, Angela bumped her head and he was pretending he was a Dr. and was going to fix her head. Cracked me right up! You should have seen the things he was doing to fix her head, hilarious!After our time at the park we walked back to the house, drank a ton of water, ate a popsicle and then I drove back to the Bay Area. It was a great Friday off! I love Sacramento, lots of well established big old trees, plenty of parking and reminds me of where I grew up a bit. I love that my friends are back in California, it wasn't the same without them!

Waaaaaay Behind Part 2

Honestly, not sure why I don't feel like blogging as of late. Maybe a face lift to my blog is needed. Not sure.

Anyway, last Wednesday evening was a fun night out with friends! My friend Angela is back in CA and I got to see her for the first time on Wednesday evening. Our original plans were to spend the 4th of July weekend together as her sister was in town and I wanted to spend time with both of them, but due to circumstances beyond my control things changed. So, we decided to see each other on Wednesday while Angela passed through the city on her way back to Sacramento from San Jose. Our friend Jaime was to meet us by my house for a drink and then out to dinner. We all met at Wild Side West for a cocktail and Tim met up with us there after he got off of work. We then made our way to Moki's Pacific Grill and simply gorged ourselves with sushi and sake! We ended the evening at my house and did a little photo shoot resulting in my new profile pic (thanks Ang!). It was super fun! We have to do this more often, it was like old times!

A little back story...Tim used to work with Angela and Jaime. Angela and Jaime became room mates and Tim switched jobs and sort of lost touch with them. When Tim and I were dating Angela came running across Fillmore Street towards us yelling "TIM!!!". They had not seen each other in a while and we started having dinner at Angela and Jaime's apartment on Thursday nights. We became fast friends and have been ever since. Angela introduced me to my close friend Robin, who she went to High School with. That was over 12 years ago and a lot has changed but our friendships only got stronger. I am blessed to have such amazing friends.

*{Fabulous Find}*

I recently got a 49 sq. mi. bag and absolutely LOVE IT.

I can carry my camera, my notebook, pencil case, wallet and other personal items and it STILL has room in it for more!

I super love this bag and it is from a local company - what is not to love about that?

Check them out HERE.

Manic Monday

If I had the closet of my dreams, this is what I would be wearing today...

Waaaaaay Behind - Part 1

I am so behind. I have good reason though, I have been having a good time hanging out with friends.
I will go back one week....
Last Saturday (July 3) Tim and I took BART down to the Ferry Building and met up with our friends, Robin, Kenny, Kim and Gary (they all drove up from San Jose). We walked around the farmers market for a little while, it was super crowded though so we decided to start walking towards Fisherman's Wharf. It was a beautiful day to be out and about. It is fun to be a tourist in your own city too! We went to Scoma's for lunch, which was delicious (they have incredible Bloody Marys).

After lunch, we walked around a little more in the Wharf area and decided to go to the Fillmore Jazz Festival. The only problem was...there were 6 of us! We would either have to take two cabs, take a bus or try to find a mini van cab. We hailed a mini van cab, Kenny got in the front, Gary had Kim on his lap on the back bench seat, I got in the middle and Robin was next to me - we were squished in there like sardines in a can but where was Tim going to go? Then Tim jumped in and was sort of perched over me and Robin, but mostly on Robin's lap and at a stop light the cab driver jumped out and opened the back up and Tim jumped in the back. It was hilarious! I have never in my life been in a cab with 6 of my friends with a crazy driver from Africa who told us this was normal in Africa just to jam as many people as you can into the cab. We got to the Jazz Festival and all of the bands were on a break at the same time (there were 4 stages within a 5-6 block span of Fillmore Street). The boys got some beer and we walked around checking everything out and people watched a bit. After a while we got a little hungry again so we went to a pizza joint, ordered a pitcher of beer and some little pizzas and sat around a talked a bit. Tim and I took the bus back home at the end of the day. It was a great day out in the city. We laughed a lot, walked a lot and ate some great food!

What I Saw Today...

:: July 8, 2010::

Saw a gal wearing a pair of Ben Franklin's shoes and pink tights.

Maira Kalman (again)

Remember this post about Maira Kalman?

Well, I was out and about in the city this weekend and kept seeing her work on those vertical flag like advertisements you see on lamp posts all over the city for the zoo, museums, botanical gardens, etc.

Turns out there is an exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum!

More info here.

I wish she was doing a talk or something so I could meet her...
I wish I could tell her how she has inspired me to draw no matter what others may think...

I wish I could tell her how funny I think she is, I too make note of things like she does...

I wish I could show her my "Never Trust a Man..." series in my journal.

Here is a sneak peak...(there are many more, but I have not scanned them yet).

I wish I could show her my "Only in San Francisco" section...

I can't wait to see the exhibit. The museum is pretty small, so I hope she gets a TON of space!

The top photo is the cover of her latest book that came out in April, ohhh, how I would like to look at that book. I saw it around town this weekend, but I didn't open it and take a peak, if I open it up, I will want to drool on the pages and for that, I will need my own copy! Wouldn't it be funny if I just went around the city drooling on all of the books until I got my salivation under control and THEN went and got my own copy? I know...gross and how rude!

Manic Monday

If I had the closet of my dreams, this is what I would be wearing today...

Catchin' Up

Seems like I have been chasing my tail for a couple days now. I was gone just a week, but I think my mind was in Michigan for most of June - thinking about my parents move, the long drive, etc.

We had a fine time driving across the states, we were very blessed not to have any trouble at all with any of the trucks or the car.
Here are some highlights from the trip:
This is the dream team, my brother Andy, my Dad's friend Al (who lives in AZ) and my Dad. They packed the trucks all day Thursday.

Friday morning we said good bye to the house we all grew up in and hit the road!

My Dad was driving a large pick up truck with a trailer, Al drove the big moving truck with a trailer and my Mom and I drove the car with Peanut (our canine copilot in the backseat).
We headed out of Michigan and into Indiana and then into Illinois where we stayed for the night (right near the MO boarder). Saturday we drove through Missouri, Oklahoma and into Texas and stayed overnight in Amarillo. Sunday morning my Dad and Al left early to push on through all the way to El Mirage, AZ. My Mom and I were going to Clovis, NM to visit my Grandma's last remaining sister and meet family I had not met before.

Below is what the drive looked like and is also the area where my Grandmother grew up in Eastern New Mexico.We got to my Great Aunt Lynn's house at about 11:45 AM and stayed until about 3:15 PM and hit the road to cross New Mexico and get into Arizona. On our way across New Mexico we came found this abandoned Church that I fell in love with.

When we got to about the middle of the state, we saw some mean looking clouds to the North and thought we may just be a spectator to a lightening show or something, WRONG. The next thing we knew it was raining really hard and then hailing. I couldn't see the road and there was no shoulder to pull over on. Thank God, we came up on a picnic area and pulled over there and waited a few minutes before hitting the road again. I ended up driving out of the storm, but it was a little hairy there for a while. We got to our hotel on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation late and it was as dark as dark can be. You know, the last time I experienced dark like that was when I was on the Pineridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota with Tim in 2002. We checked in and went to bed shortly there after.

Monday morning we woke up and I was excited to get to Window Rock (a place I have always wanted to see). We ate breakfast at the hotel and then departed to see what we could see on the reservation. Window Rock was super cool and a sacred place for the Navajo people. It lies at the capitol of the Navajo Nation. When we pulled in to the area, there were 5 horses just walking down the street, I jumped out of the car to check them out, they kept walking.

Window Rock is pretty cool , there is not much else around there however, there is a massive code talker statue (see below) which was pretty cool. For more on the Navajo Code Talkers click here. After Window Rock, we kept driving through the Navajo Nation and stopped at the J.L. Hubbell Trading Post. The structure was super cool, the floor boards were creaky as all get out and the things they sold....amazing to say the least.
We didn't stay at the trading post for too long, it was hot and Peanut was in the car (in the shade, but still). So we hit the road again and powered through to Flagstaff, stopped for gas and lunch and then drove to El Mirage, AZ where my parents new home is.

When we got to the new house, Dad and Al were working on unpacking the truck so we pitched in and got a lot done. We ended up going to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant that was soo yummy. We all slept really good that night.

Tuesday - slept in a little, not too much, I knew we had a lot to do. Mom and Dad went to the grocery store to get breakfast and lunch stuff. I stayed home with Peanut and started to unpack the kitchen boxes and made a list of things we needed from Bed Bath and Beyond. Mom and I worked all day in the kitchen until we were cross eyed. Then went to Bed Bath and Beyond and Target. It is amazing, it is so hot there and there is no one out during the day. It was weird for me coming from a big city to be able to pull right into a parking lot, close to the store and not have to wait in line to pay for things. We went home and worked on the kitchen a little more and then went to dinner. After dinner I set up my parents computer and did some laundry and went to sleep.

Wednesday - flew back to the Bay Area, went home and slept.

Phew! It was a whirlwind trip, I have been procrastinating updating my blog for some reason too - not sure why.

Anyway, I will get caught up now - tomorrow (or even later today) I will post about my weekend.