Full House Day

Yesterday Eric and I went to Pat's Cafe for breakfast. Then we spent the afternoon with Hannah and Paz, her dog.

Yeah, we defnitely spent the day in seach of all things Full House. It wasn't quite a religious mecca, but almost.

Our first stop was Alamo Square Park. This is where the Tanners are picnicking during the opening credits.

Then we went to Broderick Street to see the real house. After that we grabbed burritos at El Burrito Express. We ate them in some park, which wouldn't have been weird except two bums decided to plant themselves right next to us. At one point the woman said (loudly) "we should move because they're trying to eat." They proceeded to stay in the exact same place. That's the trouble with the word "should," I guess.

Hannah had a loner truck, but we still drove down Lombard Street (aka the "crookedest street"). This hills this town are nuts. Seriously, they're a little scary. Driving up to the top of this hill was intense. First of all, we had to wait in a line so we had to keep stopping and the hill is at like a 50° angle. Crazy. But then we went down the crooked part and it was pretty fun. The gardening on the hill is really beautiful.

We had a lot of fun with Hannah, because she's hilarious and she told some wonderful stories. I'm so glad we got to spend time with her! The dog was pretty funny too.

After that, Eric and I were on our own. We walked over to Pier 39 (which is pretty close to Drew's apartment) . Don't worry, there's totally an episode of Full House where Wake Up San Francisco is shooting live from the Pier. It's the episode where Comet gets away (Michelle loses him at the corner of Alamo Square Park, I believe, because she can't cross the road) and finds a girlfriend.

The two dogs visit Coit Tower, and the Tanners make a plea to the city (live on the show at the Pier) to look for the dog. Sooooo, it totally makes sense that we also visited Coit Tower after Pier 39.

Arriving In San Francisco

It's late (2:09 AM at home; 11:09 AM in San Francisco), so I'll make this short.

Yesterday (July 16) we flew across the country. The flight was long (6+ hours) and uncomfortable, but it was worth it.

We went straight to Drew's office to have lunch with him, and Bill and Judy met us there.

Drew worked in the afternoon, and Bill & Judy drove us around. The highlights of our adventures were ice cream at Bi-Rite and the view from Twin Peaks.

I was still figuring out the settings on the new camera, and I'm not thrilled with the pictures I took with it yesterday. Eric got a few nice shots with the Canon, including this one of Bill and Judy at the top of Twin Peaks, which has a stunning view of San Francisco.

Today was busy, and I'm much too tired to write about it now! More pictures and stories soon.

New Camera

We finally gave in and bought a new point-and-shoot. It's a tad bittersweet, because I really love the old Minolta. Eric got it about 6 years ago (but I bet I've used it more than he has)! It's a great camera, but we never use it anymore because the pictures aren't as sharp as they used to be and the battery doesn't last very long. I'll miss it. We're not throwing it away (yet).

The new Nikon is just about the same width and depth as the Minolta, and that was one of the selling points for me. It's shorter than the old camera, too - perfect for stealth pictures. They didn't have the black one in stock, so we got purple. It's not too flashy, so I like it. We'll see how it goes!

(I used our Canon Digital Rebel to take the pictures.)

Reading By The Pool

I took these pictures yesterday afternoon. Don't you just want to dive right in? I did! The water was nice, too. Very refreshing.


I mentioned yesterday that I finished my book, but luckily I brought a library book with me. I started it yesterday and I'm already about halfway through. It's the 5th book in Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series. He's the author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, as well.

I truly enjoy reading. Novels are probably my favorites things to read. I like getting lost in another world. I also like a good memoir. Again, they can sweep you away and draw you. Good books are so hard to put down. I've often stayed through the night just to read a little more, because the thought of closing the pages on the characters is too sad to bear. Sometimes I race through a book just to find that I wish I'd read a little more slowly, because my time with the protagonist has come to an end. Perhaps that's why I'm fond of series.

What books have you been reading? Are you infatuated with the characters? Do you ever fall in love with an author and read all of their books (I'm all about Neil Gaiman right now)?

*Today on Everything Little Miss: custom thank you notes.

Weekend In The Sun

The past few days have been absolutely beautiful. Thank you, Mother Nature! Friday evening we went for a walk and brought the camera.

Maybe you'll think we're boring, but after our walk we just hung out in our apartment. Eric was working on some stuff for HBS (the students all have to take 3 on-line tutorials and pass some tests before they can officially start school) and I made those baskets for my mom.

Yesterday we headed out to Harvard to spend some time by the pool. Eric's parents were on The Vineyard, so we had the place to ourselves. We picked up some sandwhich fixin's on the way and made ourselves pitas with turkey, cheese, cucumbers, and tomatoes for lunch. Plus a giant deli pickle on the side. We had plums for dessert (and some ice cream, I'll be honest). We swam a bit and enjoyed the sunshine. I finished my book (American Gods - sooooo good) and Eric had his laptop on the deck and continued his tutorial work (he passed the first test with flying colors, aren't you proud?!).

We ended up staying the night because our friend was also in town dog-sitting for his parents. We hung out with him last night and watched The Wrestler. I had to cover my eyes a few times, because some scenes were just too disturbing, but I thought it was a good movie. I don't know who the heck Micky Rourke is, but he was very believable.

Today we spent more time in the sun and in the pool (woo hoo!) before coming back to Boston.

I have to get a ton of work done in the first half of this week, because we're headed to San Francisco on Thursday! We're visiting Eric's brother, Drew, and Kristen's parents. I'm really looking forward to our time on the West Coast. Don't worry, we'll be bringing the camera.

Were you all able to get out and enjoy the weather? I hope it was nice wherever you were!

Newspaper Baskets

A few weeks ago I was inspired to make a basket out of old newspapers. I got a little carried away, and decided to try to make nesting baskets. It was successful, and I gave the first set to my sister as a birthday gift.

My mom liked them too, so yesterday I made these for her. I worked much faster this time around, because I had a good system. I used some glue to hold the first four strips of paper together. I also glued a strip around the top of each to finish them off nicely. Binder clips are my friends. The Wall Street Journal was my newspaper of choice, but I think any would work. These baskets are surprisingly sturdy, too. There's a tutorial here, if you're interested.

Happy weaving and happy weekend. Enjoy the sun!

Daisies

Yes, more flowers. I love them, so I take pictures when I have my camera. I took these on Monday, on the Vineyard.

Daisies make me think of innocence. I can just picture a daisy chain crown sitting atop a little girl's head. In my imagination the girl is having a tea party under a tree or she and her friends are all dressed up and putting on a small parade for their parents. It doesn't matter what she's doing, it just matters that it's summer and she's having fun. Maybe I'm the girl?

Do you like daisies too?

*It's Thursday, so there's a brand new Lost In Thoughts up at Everything Little Miss.

Lilies

I think you've probably figured out that I'm rather fond of flowers. It won't surprise you that I took a few photos of lilies while we were in Vineyard Haven for our little vacation.

The day lilies were in full bloom, and so orange.

I don't know what variety this is, but the color was calling my name.

And this one was even irresistible to this fuzzy little bumble bee. Pretty, right?

Looooong Weekend

I was detatched from technology for a few days, and it felt good. Remember the soggy month of June? I have no idea what it was like in Boston or the rest of the world for the past 5 days, but we saw nothing but absolutely and unbelievably perfect weather for five days. Five days! In a row! It was paradise. Seriously.

We spent our vacation in Martha's Vineyard, with Eric's family. We arrived Thursday afternoon, just missing a crazy hail storm. The fog was lifting as we pulled into the driveway, and it was cool, but bright.

That evening, I met Eric's cousins for the very first time, because they were also on island (they live in Florida). Seems silly that I hadn't met them yet, but Eric still hasn't met all of my family either. We spent the night with the extended family celebrating a birthday, and it gave me the opportunity to get to know everybody. I ate too many cupcakes (I felt fine, but 3 is just too many).

Each morning we woke up and went out for a little exercise; we'd go past the west chop lighthouse and do a little loop-de-loop back to the house. I think it's about 3 miles, total. What a beautiful way to start the day, don't you think?

Friday, Eric and I went to a lagoon in the motor boat with his brother, Will. That night the three of us went to town and picked up supplies for root beer floats (we had them with my family last weekend, and I can't stop thinking about them!). Yum, yum, yum.

On the 4th Eric took me sailing on the sunfish and we spent the afternoon on the beach. When it got dark we went back down to the beach to watch the fireworks. We looked over the water to the coast of Cape Cod, and had a panoramic show. It was very clear out, and we could see at least a dozen displays of fireworks. The big ones seemed to be coming from Falmouth, and we could actually hear them (with a bit of a delay). The neighbors even shot off a few fireworks, so we had some close ones too! If we turned around, we could see the tops of the firworks in Edgartown, on the other side of the island.

Sunday afternoon we went sailing with Eric's parents in a bigger boat, borrowed from the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club, named Fair Dinkum (funny name). It was really windy, so we went fast. Eric's dad always encourages me to help out on the boat, and tells me which ropes to pull. One time I pulled a rope, and it didn't move at all! I looked back at him, feeling like a total idiot, but he's got a good sense of humor and he knows what he's doing, so it wasn't a big deal and he gave me different directions.

We originally planned to leave Sunday night, with Eric's dad, but ended up staying an extra day. I'm so glad we did. In the morning we went into town and scouted out stores. I'm going to contact a few of them about possibly carrying my cards. We headed back to the house for lunch, which we ate on the beach, and we went swimming. The water was chilly, but warmer than you'd think given the past month of grey, rainy days.

We caught the 5 o'clock ferry back to Woods Hole, and pulled up to our apartment at 8:04 PM.

It was a perfect vacation. I can't think of a single bad moment. *Sigh*

Tootsie Pop

This morning I had an orange Tootsie Pop for breakfast.

Normally I eat breakfast around 8:30 or 9:00, but today I was out of the house at 7:15. I can't eat that early, so I ended up very hungry when 9:00 rolled around and grabbed the lolly pop. Not really the healthiest choice, but it was the only food within reach, and my stomach was growling at me.

Posting will be light (and by light I mean it won't be happening) for the next few days becuse I'll be enjoying a very relaxing 4-day holiday weekend. I hope you all have a delightful 4th!