birthday pub crawl

thursday was chris' birthday, and so he planned a pub crawl for saturday to celebrate. the weather was foggy and overcast, but that didn't stop us! first stop was alembic, on haight street. i had heard of this bar about a year or so ago, but i hadn't made it there. saturday was the day, and alembic did not disappoint. great atmosphere, cool interior, and delicious drinks made for a great first stop!

this is not it (that was chris' drink), but i got a drink called bees knees--gin, lavender honey, and lemon juice. so delicious!
next stop was magnolia pub & brewery, where we enjoyed beer and some french fries. sara and i discussed sewing machines and affective filters, while everyone chatted most likely about more normal things.


next stop, toronado, a bar in san francisco known for it's bajillion beers on tap. okay, so maybe bajillion is over-exaggerating, but there's still of draft beers. after toronado we had drinks at elbo room, famous to us for their photobooth. more chit-chatting, more people, more fun. after elbo room it was definitely time for dinner, so we went and grabbed some tacos at a nearby taqueria, where chris got to enjoy a birthday cupcake, courtesy of annie.


after dinner, before parting ways we decided that ice cream sounded delicious, so off to bi-rite we went!

a tasty way to end our pub crawl adventure. it was a fantastic day of drinks, friends and fun. thanks, chris, for organizing the outing!

cat saga

so. on friday, the bed we had ordered arrived, and friday night i decided to assemble it. alone. brandon was in iowa for his brother's graduation, so i decided to tackle the assembly--i am known to decide to take on feats like this, which usually end in tears and frustration.

first off, i come home to find a champagne glass shattered in the kitchen, and a vase knocked off the counter, prevented from plunging to it's demise only by the corner of a stool which was holding it up. great. first task upon arrival from work--clean up the glass that is all over the kitchen. literally ALL over the place.

so clearly the cats were already going bonkers, confused because brandon wasn't home. on top of that, these big boxes and packaging set them into a flurry of activity. i would have taken photos had i not been so focused on finishing the bed. imagine stuart chewing on cardboard, ben chasing his tail in a pile of bubble wrap, the cats running up and down the mattress which is leaning vertically against the wall. at one point stuart decided he was king of the castle--he was lounging on top of the mattress, laying on his back, lolling about. ben would run up, stuart would bat him in the face, and then ben would run back down. repeat 4 or 5 times. more tail chasing. then stuart would try and run off with the allen wrench. you get the picture.

two hours, some sweat and a little blood later, i was done with the bed and it was time to put on the mattress and box spring. the latter was down the hall in the bathroom, to help prevent the cats from climbing up and down it. i tried to slide it out of the bathroom vertically, which it turns out is a bad idea, because it didn't fit all the way through. the box spring is vertically half way through the door, stuck, and ben decides to climb up the box spring on the inside of the bathroom. while i'm trying to get him down so i can slide the box spring back into the bathroom and flip it, stuart climbs up on the outside of the bathroom. i now have a cat on either side of the box spring, neither really knowing how to get down, both pacing and meowing. because the thing is in the doorway, i cannot get a stool into the bathroom to help ben down. i try a number of tactics but none work. i then work on stuart, who just clings on for dear life when i try and pull him down. total failure. fast-forward 15 minutes, both cats are still there, i'm begging them to get down, it's midnight, i'm exhausted and on the verge of tears. i even try beckoning with treats and that doesn't work. ben FINALLY got down (dug his claws in, threw his back legs around and shimmied down), and about 10 minutes after that stuart got down the same way. hilarious now, infuriating at the time. i swear--do i have cats or toddlers?

good morning!

happy monday morning from ben and stuart!

the weekend (so far)

so far, this has been quite a lovely weekend. it started out with a baseball game on friday night in amazing seats (they were given to me), and then followed up with a drink with kelly and shane, who are in town for the weekend. it was great to catch up with old, dear friends!

today was the great urban race, that josh and brandon participated in.

it's basically a scavenger hunt/race throughout the city--like the amazing race, but only in one city, not all over the world. brandon and josh had a great time, but are now absolutely exhausted. while the boys were racing, my sister and i were on internet duty to help the boys decipher some clues. we also had entertainment in the form of claire while we waited...today she ate some carrots for us, and we giggled at the faces she made



after the time with claire and jen, i headed up to the orbit room for birthday mojitos for sara's birthday. YUM!

no, not marathon

i wanted to start this by saying no, i'm not running a marathon, just for clarity. however, in a moment of clouded judgement or insanity or something, i decided to sign up for the san francisco half marathon this summer.

this means yet again training begins. i've taken the few weeks sort of off, although recently i have become addicted to spinning. next week, however, "vacation" is over, and i'm back on the training schedule. i go back and forth between excitement and "oh my gosh what am i doing" as the pain of the last half creeps into my mind. my comforting thought? the fact that, seeing as it starts around 6am in san francisco, the chance of me having to deal with 85 degree heat is slim to none. i'm half sort of in shock and nervous that i signed up, but excited at the same time. july 26, here i come! luckily i have my training buddy again...thanks brandon!

it's that time again!

for some of you it's probably been too long, for others maybe not long enough, but i decided it was time for some more ben and stu. i feel these lil guys have been neglected on here, though just from a lack of me taking time to photograph them--not for a lack of them being naughty and cute. anyway, today started out with me babysitting my boss' daughter so he could take his wife out to a nice mother's day brunch (i was at work on saturday, he had mentioned they hadn't found a babysitter and i volunteered since i did my mother's day thing yesterday). after that i went to work for a few hours, then headed home. i stopped at the pet store and picked up a new toy for the boys, and then photographed them as they played with it. ooooh silly ben and stuart.

first, i'll start with what brandon and i have dubbed stuart's "senior portrait"

happy mother's day!

happy mother's day to all those wonderful mothers out there! i celebrated mother's day early, spending saturday morning with my parents, grandmother's, and brandon (jen, josh and claire were at a wedding in vegas this weekend). we went to the cliff house, where we had fantastic views of the ocean along with amazing company and delicious food.

thanks to all the moms in my life! what an amazing bunch you are.

best album cover EVER

check out this pitchfork article about wilco's new album, entitled wilco (the album) coming out in june. seriously this might be the best album cover i've ever seen in my life. no joke.

cover can bee seen here: wilco (the album) cover

meltdown and muffin!

this weekend was thankfully filled with not much. i had this big idea that i was going to totally clean the apartment from top to bottom, but per usual, i started and quickly felt defeated. how am i supposed to reorganize when we aren't increasing our space? i mean, i know it's possible, but on going through our stuff i realized we don't have THAT much to get rid of, and while it may not be the most efficient organization, we aren't THAT inefficient. then i had a downward spiral, deciding we need a bed frame finally and that i hate our bedroom, and that it isn't soothing or relaxing in there, and it drives me nuts in there. i talked with my mom, who sort of talked me off the ledge, listening, knowing exactly how i feel. we also sort of have this thing when we've been in a space for a certain amount of time we need to revamp. i also went off about how i wanted new living room furniture and to swap our living room and dining room, etc. but i have decided 1. one step at a time and 2. a bunch of new furniture is neither needed nor practical right now. this spiral ended with a couple decisions--we're getting a bed frame, and we're getting some more storage furniture for the bedroom to give ourselves the tools to make better use of our space. YAY.

so, that was pretty much my saturday (cleaning, breakdown, recovery, then planning), but my sunday was filled with resting and hanging out with jen, josh, and claire. here are some pictures from the afternoon.