Farmer's Market Fresh

Yesterday my grandmother and I checked out the farmer's market at the Ferry Building in SF. M and I usually stop in at the start of our runs to use the baño so we don't often just browse; it was quite nice to meander and sample goodies and buy some lovely fresh produce. I ended up walking away with a delectable little hunk of Gruyére, $10 worth of organic white peaches, nectarines and plums, some beautiful chard, a baby head of butter lettuce, several pounds of yellow and green squash and a carton of "real" strawberries (as opposed to fake ones). I think that they're real because they leave on the stem but whatever they're called, they were delicious and we polished off one whole carton on the way home (and then it turns out that in all of their cute-ness I didn't even take any pictures but just devoured them =( ).

From the Port of SF building next to the Ferry, neat SF pier and shipping history. 

People getting their lunch on. 

Pastries and 'kraut = all a girl needs in this world. 

All sorts of crazy and beautiful onions and the most ENORMOUS garlic bulbs I had every seen! No vampires around there, that's for sure.

Pretty colors!

'taters. 

Cruciferous-ness, beauties. 

I really liked their sign. 

Organic donuts! Organic = healthy...healthy donuts! 

For dinner we had some fish that I baked with the squash and that Greek seasoning, I wilted down and crisped the chard with S&P and some nutmeg, and then mac & cheese (the very latter being specifically for my oh-so-sophisticated palate). All in all it was fun and the big city weather was just beautiful, not always an attainable feat on summer days.

I stayed up late writing those postcards and watching Bethenny and we're going to head over to a WG estate sale for kicks. Hopefully I'll get some laundry/cleaning done today (do I ever quit referencing that?) since we're doing our long run tonight in the city and then staying at a hotel as a reward. This is all because I'm leaving for Tahoe mañana and it's so much easier to do long runs together than solo. I actually took yesterday off so tomorrow I'll do like five miles then eight or so in Tahoe on Sunday...hopefully.

Also, here are a couple of things that I want to write about, so this reference is mostly (entirely) a reminder for myself: Fish Head, Tahoe-traveling-food, and Easter in July; more to come!

Happy Friday!

Petroglyph

The scene: my aunt and uncle's house.
The time: late afternoon.
The season: middle of winter.
The reason: Superbowl Sunday, 2010.
The crime: I was eating wings, or a burger, or something of that nature. I had taken a plate from the cabinet, because we're casual like that. I had finished eating, presumably, or could have been going up for seconds, who knows. I was definitely, however, scraping stuff from my plate into the garbage. My hands slipped- the plate fell. Tears ensued. It just so happens that my grandmother had taken my at the time 5th grade cousin G to Petroglyph and my cousin had made this plate, which I broke, which couldn't be replaced. I had actually thrown out the plate, because that's what you do with broken glass/pottery and I was trying to console my despondent cousin and saying all sorts of things and this is what I got myself into to get her to stop crying: I had to fish out all pieces of the broken plate from the garbage and then take her to Petroglyph so that she can make something else as a replacement.

Time moved on and this cousin celebrated her birthday in May. Being in the throes of end of the year panic, I arrived sans gift to her fete and told her that her gift was that she could bring a friend along to Petroglyph. So, this was all cashed in last week. The event turned into my grandmother treating my aunt along with G, her three brothers, her friend and myself to lunch. Then everyone except the memawster crossed the street to paint their hearts out.

I took a few shots of everyone painting and then on Monday we collected our finished goods =)

My fleur-de-lis mug without a handle!

Last week I also had the pleasure of hanging out with Audrey and another good friend from high school who now lives on the east coast. We went to Trials one night and had a good ole time.

The east coast friend was supposed to meet me and M at the beach on Saturday but when we all got on Highway 17 it was PACKED, worse that I'd ever seen it. We stayed on for about half an hour, which took us about 1.5 miles away from home, and then made the decision to forget the beach. It would've taken us about two hours to get there and then we would get the same traffic on the way home, so we're saving that trip for another time. Anyway, we wound up at the YMCA because we already had our suits on and, as my friend said, we needed a body of water to sit by and splash in (no bother if it's filled with mostly people 10 or under). We did exactly that, played some Boggle, chatted and had a lovely time =)

We did our long run in the city again, I can't remember if I mentioned that already, and we met friend Z at the same taco place as last week. He lives in the LA area but was visiting up here. We also had some Indian food with him and his lovely and cute Chilean friend last night. It was a great night and especially good to use Spanish in a non-teaching context with people my age (the Chilean friend doesn't speak English). We took them to get some coffee after dinner since they were gearing up to make the trek back down to la-la-land last night. I had an awesome time and hope that they made it back awake and safely!

I can't remember the name of this appetizer bread thing, but it was SOOO GOOD! Our mango lassis =) 

Pals. 

I'm lounging around and need to run four at some point today. I also need to write some postcards to my new homeroom. I got some pretty pens and stickers to spice up the cards a bit, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

And then there was the Wal-Mart. I'm aware that there are more responsible shopping choices available to me but I had never been and wanted to check it out. It was an entirely overwhelming experience exacerbated, perhaps, by all of the remodeling, etc., they're going through currently. I was able to pick up a good load of back to school stuff. I'm picky about the markers my kids use. As older students it's not like they're coloring everyday or anything like that but they definitely make posters or brochures at least once a week, and being controlling like I am, I like the marker baskets I give them to be just-so. The school actually gives us supplies but they were so cheap and this way I just feel on-top-of-it. The funny thing is, it's all usually messy/sloppy within a few weeks, but starting out organized helps me out!

I captured some of my favorite images of the day, most having to do with animals, however, so feel free to skip on over them.

This was on a sleeping bag container and begs a few questions...why is he fully dressed? What is he drinking? Does he sleep under the stars? Why is it light out still but he's in "bed"?Who gets to sleep in the tent that's in the background?

Special!

Ferrets and a rhyme for your ears.

Bilingual marketing.

I'm still cleaning/organizing and need to run today and hopefully can get a head start on those postcards. We're going to Tahoe (woo hoo!) for our two weeks starting on Saturday and I'd like to get them sent out before that.

Happy hump-day all!