hooray! we had a fun weekend!
steve and i went up to yosemite this past weekend, and had a great time. we loved the place we stayed at, evergreen lodge, which had nice cabins (ours had a faux woodburning stove), a pretty darn good restaurant, and a bar where they had a live band playing on saturday night.
the weather even cooperated -- which was a bit of a surprise after 2 months of straight rain here in n. cal. saturday the sun came out a bit and we hiked around stanislaus national forest and saw the major touristy things in yosemite valley, and then on sunday we got up early and snowshoed around some giant sequoias. it was so peaceful and lovely! we were the only ones on the tour with our guide, eric, and didn't even see other snowshoers until we were almost back at our car at the end of the trip. snow was falling most of the time (it was actually sort of "wintry mix"-y) and yet we didn't even mind. i had my hat off after a while because it was the sort of lovely precipitation that you don't really mind.
it was a nice bonus that i'm apparently pretty good at snowshoeing. the guide kept making cracks at how i was going to break the course record (steve and eric let me go first) and i kept running ahead of the boys. i guess i was just excited!
we didn't take many photos, but the few that we took that are okay are posted on my flickr site, here.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
it has been soooooo rainy here since we moved. it's been a big bummer for me, since i like walking to work, and i don't think i've worn a skirt more than once and my white pants *at all*.
i finally started leaving my favorite shoes at the office so that i don't have to lug them back and forth every day. i'm especially loving my funky new black pair. i wear black pants never every day, so these are going to get lots and lots of use...
on a very different note, steve agreed to take a mini vacation this weekend. i have tomorrow off and we're going up to yosemite national park. i'm sooooooo excited! it's beautiful up there! i've only been in the summer, and it's still snowy there due to all of the rain we've had lately, so it should be really different. we've rented a cabin here and are planning to go on a tour, as well as do a little bit of hiking, biking and snowshoeing. our cabin has a fireplace and the lodge on the property (which reminds me a bit of a summer camp) supposedly has a bunch of activities this weekend, including a billiards tournament and easter brunch. woohoo!
happy easter, everyone!
i finally started leaving my favorite shoes at the office so that i don't have to lug them back and forth every day. i'm especially loving my funky new black pair. i wear black pants never every day, so these are going to get lots and lots of use...
on a very different note, steve agreed to take a mini vacation this weekend. i have tomorrow off and we're going up to yosemite national park. i'm sooooooo excited! it's beautiful up there! i've only been in the summer, and it's still snowy there due to all of the rain we've had lately, so it should be really different. we've rented a cabin here and are planning to go on a tour, as well as do a little bit of hiking, biking and snowshoeing. our cabin has a fireplace and the lodge on the property (which reminds me a bit of a summer camp) supposedly has a bunch of activities this weekend, including a billiards tournament and easter brunch. woohoo!
happy easter, everyone!
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
life is good.
tonight i went to my first meeting of a local bookclub group. we ate sushi, drank good red wine, and had really good discussions about a book i thoroughly enjoyed: the undertaking: life studies from the dismal trade.
i suppose it's cheating just a little bit to have a book (and a topic!) that's so ripe for conversation and count the bookclub as something to be excited about, but i really do feel the group could be a good fit for me. it's an especially nice surprise to have enjoyed it so much, since it was a random bunch of women brought together by craigslist (which, hey!, worked for me in chicago!).
i still desperately miss my group back in ann arbor, but i'm optimistic. the women tonight were a good mix, ethnically (black, white, asian), professionally (banker, boutique owner, teacher, artist, chef, non-profit manager, and me) and personally (married, dating, swinging single, mom). i just hope that i like the next book that we read as well. we've picked two and the folks that couldn't make it will help us narrow it down.
in the meantime, i'm going to attend another meeting of a bookclub that friends-of-friends invited me to. we're reading assassination vacation, which i'm also excited about. the meeting is during passover, and we're having a kosher potluck.
in other news, i am pining for a new handbag. well, that's not really news. still, i am really sick and tired of everything that i own, and i'm finding that my clothes here don't seem to fit in as well as they did in chicago. and (despite the fact that i'm female) i dread shopping, and so i'm craving a new bag. i particularly like this one, although i'm not sure if i like it better in brown or white. i would like to think that if only i bought it i wouldn't lug my computer home every night and would just carry around one fashionable bag instead of a big fat bag of work and an overloaded purse.
last item of the night (and then i'd better go read for a bit): check out sonya kitchell. she's a niece of a woman that i work with, and i got her CD back in january. she's been picked by starbucks as an artist that they're going to help break, and the CD just got released today in all starbucks locations, as well as traditional outlets. she hit SXSW, and now she's going on tour. i'm excited to go and see her at the swedish american hall here in town (and yes, the venue has something to do with my excitement -- maybe steve and i will whip up some of the meatballs that we bought frozen at ikea beforehand for a thematically appropriate supper). let me know what you think...
tonight i went to my first meeting of a local bookclub group. we ate sushi, drank good red wine, and had really good discussions about a book i thoroughly enjoyed: the undertaking: life studies from the dismal trade.
i suppose it's cheating just a little bit to have a book (and a topic!) that's so ripe for conversation and count the bookclub as something to be excited about, but i really do feel the group could be a good fit for me. it's an especially nice surprise to have enjoyed it so much, since it was a random bunch of women brought together by craigslist (which, hey!, worked for me in chicago!).
i still desperately miss my group back in ann arbor, but i'm optimistic. the women tonight were a good mix, ethnically (black, white, asian), professionally (banker, boutique owner, teacher, artist, chef, non-profit manager, and me) and personally (married, dating, swinging single, mom). i just hope that i like the next book that we read as well. we've picked two and the folks that couldn't make it will help us narrow it down.
in the meantime, i'm going to attend another meeting of a bookclub that friends-of-friends invited me to. we're reading assassination vacation, which i'm also excited about. the meeting is during passover, and we're having a kosher potluck.
in other news, i am pining for a new handbag. well, that's not really news. still, i am really sick and tired of everything that i own, and i'm finding that my clothes here don't seem to fit in as well as they did in chicago. and (despite the fact that i'm female) i dread shopping, and so i'm craving a new bag. i particularly like this one, although i'm not sure if i like it better in brown or white. i would like to think that if only i bought it i wouldn't lug my computer home every night and would just carry around one fashionable bag instead of a big fat bag of work and an overloaded purse.
last item of the night (and then i'd better go read for a bit): check out sonya kitchell. she's a niece of a woman that i work with, and i got her CD back in january. she's been picked by starbucks as an artist that they're going to help break, and the CD just got released today in all starbucks locations, as well as traditional outlets. she hit SXSW, and now she's going on tour. i'm excited to go and see her at the swedish american hall here in town (and yes, the venue has something to do with my excitement -- maybe steve and i will whip up some of the meatballs that we bought frozen at ikea beforehand for a thematically appropriate supper). let me know what you think...
Monday, April 03, 2006
sorry that i haven't written in awhile, amigos.
life is good.
it's rained ever since we got here, and i've been insanely busy with work, but i'm still so happyhappyhappy.
somehow we're happy as larks with each other. steve's been sososo good, making me dinners, doing laundry, and being my personal trainer at the gym (even when i was nearly in tears on saturday because i was in so much pain, he praised me for being "tough"!).
i'd say i was blessed, but i think that has connotations beyond what i'm trying to convey.
i am feeling very nostalgic lately, though. i think i may have already blogged how i had a dream about walking through fort awesome, and very clearly remembered the view from the bathroom window at night (i guess i dreamed about the bathroom because that's where i was most likely to be in the middle of the night). i had a similar wave of nostalgia when going food shopping here, missing my dear coleman's in ann arbor, and fox & obel in chicago's streeterville. i miss walking through the old west side to see what everyone has planted in their spring yards, and to admire the jack o'lanterns in the fall. and i miss walking along the chicago waterfront, whether at the marina in grant park or over the bridges that cross the river.
i am sure i'll feel nostalgic someday about it here too. i guess it only takes a couple of years. for several years i was nostalgic about my singleton days during the wild 90s internet boom in new york. i don't really pine for that anymore. i love the city, but that lifestyle is apparently too far away for me to viscerally miss it.
san francisco is a beautiful city geographically. the hills are completely transfixing to a midwesterner like myself. whenever we cross the bay bridge (either way) i am grateful for steve driving so that i can look at the houses all precariously perched on the hills over oakland, or the curvy roads lined with apartment buildings and victorians here in the city.
i will admit that we have failed a bit in the same way that we did in chicago: we picked a non-neighborhoody neighborhood to live in. there are a few little shops and some cute restaurants here, so it's a bit better than chicago, but i do miss seeing the flower-filled yards, the neighborhood parks with kids playing baseball, and the the sense of community those sorts of thing seem to create. it's going to be baseball season here in my neighborhood (two blocks from Pac-T&T-SBC-Park) very, very soon. i suppose that may conspire to make me feel a part of the city -- and therefore *love* the city -- in a way that i don't quite yet.
life is good.
it's rained ever since we got here, and i've been insanely busy with work, but i'm still so happyhappyhappy.
somehow we're happy as larks with each other. steve's been sososo good, making me dinners, doing laundry, and being my personal trainer at the gym (even when i was nearly in tears on saturday because i was in so much pain, he praised me for being "tough"!).
i'd say i was blessed, but i think that has connotations beyond what i'm trying to convey.
i am feeling very nostalgic lately, though. i think i may have already blogged how i had a dream about walking through fort awesome, and very clearly remembered the view from the bathroom window at night (i guess i dreamed about the bathroom because that's where i was most likely to be in the middle of the night). i had a similar wave of nostalgia when going food shopping here, missing my dear coleman's in ann arbor, and fox & obel in chicago's streeterville. i miss walking through the old west side to see what everyone has planted in their spring yards, and to admire the jack o'lanterns in the fall. and i miss walking along the chicago waterfront, whether at the marina in grant park or over the bridges that cross the river.
i am sure i'll feel nostalgic someday about it here too. i guess it only takes a couple of years. for several years i was nostalgic about my singleton days during the wild 90s internet boom in new york. i don't really pine for that anymore. i love the city, but that lifestyle is apparently too far away for me to viscerally miss it.
san francisco is a beautiful city geographically. the hills are completely transfixing to a midwesterner like myself. whenever we cross the bay bridge (either way) i am grateful for steve driving so that i can look at the houses all precariously perched on the hills over oakland, or the curvy roads lined with apartment buildings and victorians here in the city.
i will admit that we have failed a bit in the same way that we did in chicago: we picked a non-neighborhoody neighborhood to live in. there are a few little shops and some cute restaurants here, so it's a bit better than chicago, but i do miss seeing the flower-filled yards, the neighborhood parks with kids playing baseball, and the the sense of community those sorts of thing seem to create. it's going to be baseball season here in my neighborhood (two blocks from Pac-T&T-SBC-Park) very, very soon. i suppose that may conspire to make me feel a part of the city -- and therefore *love* the city -- in a way that i don't quite yet.
i so totally want these stamps. i mean, i know that i can't really pay for postage in yen in the US, but they still rock.
also, i can't get enough of google romance. sure, i'm already taken, but the fact that it's "a free date plus the added accrued value of the past decade’s worth of post-Industrial Age online marketing genius, all tied into a real-time, video-based, GPS-tracked, psychographically astute and environmentally pervasive promotional system" has really made me think twice about the good and bad qualities in my long-term relationship. i think steve and i need more buzzwords.
also, i can't get enough of google romance. sure, i'm already taken, but the fact that it's "a free date plus the added accrued value of the past decade’s worth of post-Industrial Age online marketing genius, all tied into a real-time, video-based, GPS-tracked, psychographically astute and environmentally pervasive promotional system" has really made me think twice about the good and bad qualities in my long-term relationship. i think steve and i need more buzzwords.
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