partaay!

my dad and sister were able to visit us a couple of weekends ago and we had the best time exploring the city and spending time together. it was great to see them and have them be with us as a married couple. 

we ate a delicious meal at stellinas

we walked to point reyes

we spent saturday morning at the farmer's market

my good friend stephanie threw us a little church wedding shower which was so sweet

there were many photo shoots, {note that this is the one picture of my dad, see the shadow? this will not be the case next time, oh the curse of being the photographer} 

we walked to the meat market to pick up sunday night dinner, we grilled out and carissa sauteed some incredible carrots in butter. wow.

they came and saw me at work

we ate breakfast at boogaloos, in the mission. it was amazing

it was unusual, they had some vegan options, and this is their plaintain cake. it was so good. i love sweet and savory so the banana with the beans was superb. i also had lemon cornmeal pancakes. yum

we tried mr. and mrs. miscellaneous

my sister and i were silly as usual

and my dad organized my cabinets. thank you!

growing up

its weird and hard and i still feel like a kid most of the time. but i really like this article by don miller, who i've wrote on before. his list seems a bit simplistic maybe, the different stages a bit too concrete, but i like the thought and it spurred my own. 

photos

this is an intentional guilt post. my camera is broken and my dad took lovely pictures of our long weekend together. has he posted them so i can tell you all about it? no.

my sister, with her cute turquoise camera, took wonderful pictures of us and jacob. have they been emailed or posted as requested? no.

so despite my best intentions there is nothing new to post.

except that i miss my family and apparently do very little worth recounting without them. ;)

and would love, love, love it if i could have the pictures.


this post is pictureless intentionally and now we'll see if they actually read my blog like they say they do.....

burgeoning

i feel i'm on the edge of something. everything's new but so much is the same. i'm not a student or a 9-5er. i love the flexibility and choices of my life but i know there's still much to do so i'm writing to do lists and researching next steps.
its hard for me to enjoy what i have without fearing becoming stagnant. that's what this year is about i think, treasuring what i have while knowing that its fleeting and that i'm preparing for something different. last year at this time jacob had just visited with his sister and i knew he was something special but i could not have predicted what this year held. i'm excited to make this year just as awesome!

mr. and mrs. miscellaneous

via cooking with the single guy
things are slowing down a bit now and as i contemplate the last two weeks i have a lot to share. but at the top of the list is mr. and mrs. miscellaneous. i love ice cream. bi-rite has always been my fave in San Francisco but i'm always looking for new options. we found this new delicious dessert thanks to my sister who found it in a magazine. its in the dogpatch neighborhood first of all, which is quickly becoming my new favorite. its a wonderfully designed location with long communal tables and huge windows. now onto the ice cream. its made with strauss milk of course, and the flavors are unusual but not overwhelming. jacob and i tried the chicory coffee and the bannanas foster. we have to go back when they have the ballpark though which contains anchor beer flavor, and pretzels. my sister tried some fruiter flavors which were also sweet but not syrupy. to top it off they make their own cones. they were the best. light and crunchy. there's no website yet but they have a facebook page where you can check the flavors of the day.

KASA

while these past two weeks have blurred by this restaurant has stuck out in my mind and i had to share it. e and i ate there last week and it was delicious. its indian but the real deal, not merely naan and curry style. they wrap their plates in hand made roti and call it a indian "burrito". try it with the onion and a little egg and its a perfect meal. they have one on fillmore and in the castro as well as delivery. i believe its going to become habitual around here.

another lost story

so on monday e and i went shopping and rode the muni home. it was crowded and hard to find a seat and on the last bus i remembered holding my wallet. we got off, i ran to work and then we went to get dinner. i reached for my wallet and it wasn't there. this never happens to me. its always there in another section of the purse or randomly in my pocket. its not there. i figure it must be at home. so we eat and have fun, come home, its not there. i look again the next morning, getting desperate now. nothing. so i call muni hopelessly and report a missing wallet. i can kind of hear them giggle, a lost wallet, on muni, seriously.....but i figured what the heck. then i called the bank and cancelled all my cards. jacob's dad is a fraud detective and so i heard all the stories of stolen identities....i waited till thursday to check on replacing my driver's license and discovered that yes i would have to return to the dmv. i was low. then i got a call. an unknown call. the voice was high pitched, smooth and sketchy. i knew it was the creditors calling, my identity was lost. but then she said, i think we have something of yours. its true, my wallet was recovered by muni. we went and picked it up immediately. i was estatic. everything was there and we were near rainbow cooperative grocery, which i've written about before but never went too. it was amazing, tons of bulk items and delicious produce. we even made wheat bread with our purchases. i love it when days are better than expected.

elissa love

i can't express how glad i am that elissa made it out to see us. she's been in japan far too long and it was about time i gave her a hug. we went all over the city and napa but her favorite was of course japan town where we enjoyed getting to see her speak japanese and she introduced us to umeshu and many other japanese delicacies.

she was very kind to ride around in volksy with us.

sterling winery

dolores park

since our days in the Samford library we have been kindred spirits and it was so good to share the city and the man i love with her. thanks for coming e!

wedding wrap up

snippet and ink were kind enough to feature our wedding on their blog today. it was wonderful to relive that time, enjoy!

barista

so in my quest for jobs, i now have two cafes of employment. both sell blue bottle coffee and have great potential. the readers cafe opened today and all the proceeds go to the non profit, friends of the san francisco public library. you should come check it out this week at the fort mason center, bldg c. i can't wait to get started!

new song

jacob has a new song, go check it out under b-sides.

heat

i know i'm from texas and that i should love the cold weather in the summer and be happy to evade the heat, and i was until approximately 2 weeks ago. first it was the rain for way more months on end than usual, and then it went straight to unseasonable coldness which was already unseasonably cold and then i got a cold and can't stop coughing. enough is enough. but one of my best friends is visiting this week , and i've warned her about the cold, i learned my lesson the hard way, most people don't seem to expect this weather in the summer, and we're headed to napa which i just checked and is in the upper 70s possible 80s. i can't wait. we are going to have a blast and i might just wear a t-shirt and shorts, the treat! i've got to find a place with normal seasons that last 3 months. c'mon it has to exist somewhere right? any suggestions.....

zen

i've been working on this book for quite some time. months actually. its an intriguing concept, a travel diary, philosophy text and memoir all in one. i can't get the ideas out of my head. his description of quality and search for the roots of our beliefs about our world is life changing. i liked that though its lofty it pertains to how we live our lives everyday. its made me appreciate the details. thanks marshall and jacob for making me press on, it was worth it.

a little bit of everything

its been a lovely weekend so far, i've been slowed down a bit with a cold, but we've enjoyed the return of friends and some new adventures. yesterday i baked a delicious peach buckle which is just a fruity cake but i used browned butter which is my new favorite ingredient, it made the dish delectable.



we made it to the ranger's game at the a's stadium and enjoyed the win immensely. while i normally roam the stadium during baseball it was entertaining and good company makes a difference. i will say it was the coldest ranger's game, make that baseball game i've ever been to. they did put on a great fireworks show.




the farmer's market was on the list for this morning and we were joined by the harpers who were brave enough to ride bikes down there with us. it was wonderful. we bought some tomatoes and goat cheese and tried pounds of peaches and nectarines and pluots. Followed by lunch at java red's under the bay bridge.


what a way to enjoy the city.

dust city diner

when walking the dogs yesterday through the park i saw strings of lights and food carts set up. i was intrigued and found out that that they would be there till 10pm that night.so when jacob got off work we headed over for a bite to eat. dust city diner was there to meet our need. they made grilled cheese and coffee and were hilarious to boot. they gave away the food and were accepting donations so that they could take their diner on the road, it was all on a large truck complete with extra long stools, to burning man and feed people there. it was a delicious evening.

eating

last night I made a delicious thai red curry. it was from Nigella Express and lived up to her delicious description. its layers of flavors with coconut milk and the thai red curry paste made for a spicy yet smooth treat that i was very proud of. and besides going to get the ingredients, made easier by the closeness of asian markets on clement st, it was very simple. mainly just stirring. i love the feeling of filling my home with delicious smells as well as my stomach. while i needed the recipe in this case i'm learning to trust myself a bit more when it comes to cooking. at my current job i've learned the art of adding a bit of this or a bit of that once you are familiar with a dish. in many instances there's not really a wrong that can't be adjusted. and i'm learning that many items from a jar or a box can be modified to taste like homemade and if it means you'll actually eat the item instead of just dreaming about the day you have hours to roll out pasta or let sauce simmer indefinitely its well worth letting go of the guilt.

blue bottle

so i've entered the sacred place that is blue bottle's headquarters and returned to tell about it. i've imagined what it would be like many times and it lived up. i got a little lost on the way there but i successfully maneuvered the bart and oakland to find them. it was beautiful and smelled even better. we learned about the intricacies and sensitivity of espresso. by the end mine were decent but i've got a long way to go. which is nice, i need a challenge and we have five more days of training left!