beautiful weekend

i have forgotten (well, not really, i think i just choose to avoid thinking about) how much i love and am rejuvenated by the sun. this weekend was uncharacteristically hot for san francisco (don't worry, the fog has rolled in and the wind has picked up) and i loved every minute of it. saturday was spent walking around outside, running errands and such. today we took a jaunt over to the beanery and met up with sara, then brought our coffee into the botanical gardens at golden gate park to enjoy the continued sunshine.

afterward, we ran more errands and decided to prepare for some makeshift "home improvements." our cats like to find the highest part of the apartment that they can get to (as in the top of the fridge, on top of the window sash in our single-hung windows, the backs of chairs, on top of tables/counters, you get the picture...). typically there isn't cat furniture that isn't hideous (and ridiculously expensive), so i've been keeping my eye out. thanks to modern cat, i found this kitty condo that i really liked, but it was way over-priced at the store (when i looked up the price online when i got home it was about $160 less on amazon than it was at the store...glad i didn't break down and buy it there!). instead, brandon and i decided to make our own solution for now that will suffice. we just used typical shelf brackets and some laminate shelves and made a "ladder" on the wall. it allows the cats to sit up high and oversee the goings-on of the apartment from a perch. they may not be as pretty as the kitty condo, but it's something. we're hoping to add carpet tiles to the tops of the shelves to give them some grip and allow the cats to scratch at them.