oh saturday

hooray for saturday!

today began with sleeping in and then cleaning out my desk at my old office (since i've been setting up for slow food, i haven't been in the office for 3 days, so i wasn't able to do it before now). after that i walked downtown to meet up with brandon, and then we caught bart to pleasant hill, where we met up with my sister and brother-in-law. they then carted us out to my parents, where we all ate dinner, and then heard stories/saw pictures of my parents' trip to france. it was a fantastic day, but definitely made me want to go back to france in a major way. some day soon i hope...

a walk in the city


somewhere in san francisco


dinner kebabs


dinner setup at my parents' house


patootie's baby book gift from morgan


more patootie gifts...barbapapas!


miss kitty's mohawk...even at 18ish, she likes to be stylish


the cable car ride home

slow food day 3 [finished]

well, today was the final day of setup for slow food nation. i won't post pictures of the finished pavilions because i don't want to spoil the final designs (until after the event), but things look great! after a day of putting net/string on and hanging salami (which actually turned out to be pretty revolting, mainly due to the smell of 100 salumi at once), making chalk hoofprints on the floor, and doing general touch-up/cleaning things, we are finally done and our booth is together.

i will also take this moment to let everyone know that today was my last day on my current job. after 3 years at the same firm--and my first job out of college, i decided to make a change. i start my new job on tuesday and am really excited about it. it happened very quickly, and i didn't want to say it until i was finished at the current place. i'm really looking forward to this new chapter here in san francisco. it will be another small firm, mainly residential, so that part will be similar, but the environment will be very different. it's a brand new firm (about 3-4 months old) so there will be a lot of growth with the firm as it establishes itself.

anyway, back to slow food day 3...just a few pictures...

slow food setup day 2 [beautiful day]

day 2 in pictures...i'll actually write more of an update later, but for now, just the pictures...it's been a really long (fun) day...

slow food setup day 1_laurie's bday

well, today was the first official day of slow food setup, as well as laurie (and natalie's) bday. it was a lot of work but a lot of fun. it reminded me of being in 5th year of school, setting up for my thesis show over memorial day weekend in san luis obispo.

here is a small preview of slow food nation, as well as a few pictures from laurie's bday dinner...

invitation bonanza

this weekend was dedicated to my sister's baby shower invites. it was actually really nice to have nothing else going on--finally a relaxing weekend at home. i love weekend trips, but i also love having down time around san francisco. while brandon got to take a photo excursion, i took a trip to paper source to get my supplies and begin the fun. i already had the design pretty much finished--it just took some tweaking before i could start printing. this morning we took a quick jaunt to union square to return some things and enjoy the beautiful day, and then i went back to working on the invitations. hopefully they'll be done tomorrow, and then off in the mail they'll go! here's a little preview:

dining table [finally]

we have pretty much been looking for a dining room table since we got married. we went back and forth and looked at tons and tons and tons of tables and just couldn't decide on one. i at last fell in love with this table (or the modern table on his website) but came to decide that, if i got that table now, the size would be dictated by our small space, so we might as well get a smaller breakfast nook type table now, and then we can get my dream table later. with that mindset, brandon found a table and showed it to me. we decided to go for it...it is simple, neutral, and functional. after a mix-up with the table top color, we now have the correct table and therefore our dining room is at last coming together. we also decided that, as long as chris was generously giving us a ride, we might as well get the desk i have been eying while we're there. i just wanted something simple so our dining room could be transformed from hallway to office/dining. it of course needs tweaking, but we're much closer than we were earlier. THANK YOU CHRIS! we owe you big time for the schlepping.

my helpers

clowning around...how can anyone take them seriously?

the result-in-progress

pdx

well, i'm back from portland and uploaded the photos! it was a pretty uneventful/relaxing weekend overall. we did a lot of sleeping, olympics watching, painting, and relaxing. i really enjoyed my time up there and hope i can spend more time there in the future. anyway, the weekend in photos....

waiting for our plane at sfo

brandon, day 1 of painting, starting with the high stuff

my painting project, primer coat (unfortunately i do not have the final result to show)

brandon's fake disdain at me playing with our new toy

my genuine excitement over our new toy

self portrait, lunch with jenn

at pdx a little early, waiting for my flight

still waiting...

and waiting...

on the way to the airport i noticed a little lightening and some rain drops. i got dropped off, went inside, found a spot to sit with a nice view of outdoors and then...more lightening. and thunder. and BIG raindrops. and planes still taking off. it made me a little nervous, but hey, if the pilot is willing to fly...then the power goes out. it only half came back on and then they started making announcements about delays which, oddly enough, had nothing to do with the weather in portland but instead was due to a problem with air traffic control in san francisco. my flight was supposed to leave at 9:25am, but they made an announcement that we'd know something at 9:30. then it was 10:00. then we were going to leave at 10:59. then it was pushed back to 10:40 so we rapidly boarded. we got all settled, everyone strapped in, seats and tray tables in the upright position, and "hello passengers, this is your captain speaking." apparently sfo was not ready for us and therefore pushed back our take-off another 50 minutes. we ended up leaving around 11:50 for a 1:15pm arrival. needless to say i was a little later for work than i had originally intended. oops.

anyway, i'm back home safe and sound. this evening i decided to play a little more with the camera and (surprise surprise) i used the cats as my subject. well, only stu because ben wasn't cooperating.

and stu, yes, i notice you sitting there behind my wine with your paw casually on it...