Changes and two dinners.

Today wasn't super productive, at least wedding-wise. It was a boilermaker, weather wise, so I tried and was actually successful in getting my run in before it was too hot (yes!). Mike was at work and my grandmother was at an appointment when I realized my car keys were locked in my car (don't ask why) and I needed wanted to go buy a quick lunch and then meet her at my aunt's house. The reasoning behind this intricate schedule today is that my grandmother is having the tile in her kitchen re-done (hence the "changes").  

Demolition derby...in our kitchen.

With the noise of sledge-hammering the old counters (shed a tear, they're all I've ever known here) and the heat, we decided to go to my aunt's quiet house with a pool to let the dogs relax a bit (the tile guys really stressed them out!) and me splash around a bit. 

So, despite getting in my run before the heat, I had to ride my bike under the hot sun to go to Mike's work to pick up the spare key. A run and bike ride before noon.

The 1970s were hiding behind the old tiles.

We relaxed all afternoon and I swam and it was great. Mike and I did yoga later in the evening and it was also great.

I kind of love how bright and cheery 30 years ago was.

Since the kitchen is out all week we decided to try to eat healthy since we're eating out (hence needing the store-bought lunch earlier today!) we had planned to go to this "lighter-fare" restaurant which I'm so-so on for dinner tonight. I realized tonight that I'd NEVER be able to go on a diet. I may be able to eat diety-light-salady stuff for lunch just fine, but I guess I'm just one of those people who must have something delicious, cheesy, possibly meaty, and warm for dinner. Mike is not like this at all and can have salad or something equally boring for for any meal of the day. Maybe I just need the warm carress of comfort food at the end of the day? So, after a disappointing dinner #1, Mike took me to In 'n Out and waited with me and then watched me eat my almost 800 extra calories worth of dinner #2; I'm not a counter, but in California now the restaurants have to post them and I sometimes can't help but notice, not that it ever stops me! That was my last official day of Spring. Tomorrow on the agenda: welcome Summer!

xoxo, natty ♥
PS how cute is google's manga-styled (??) theme today? 

The answer is: super cute!

(I know what you did) Last weekend...Part II

First off...Happy Mothers Day to the lovely and loved mothers in  my life ♥♥♥. Mike's parents are visiting this weekend and I've been such a naughty blogger, having taken zero pictures of the fun things that we did...and that stuff will have to wait anyway since I need to finish last weekend...

On Saturday afternoon I cajoled Mikey to go to the Eureka Woman's Group's craft fair which made my day. Hand made stuff causes my heart to sing especially if it's knit or sewn. This fair even included some man made carvings and these glorious "dining room centerpieces".  I love how it's labeled (though I failed to get the whole label in my picture) and that it's a VULTURE (this one's for you, Dad)...who wants a vulture with a beak made out of a crab claw for their dining room table? I admit, I just might because a) it's obviously made with love b) it uses found materials (sea detritus) and c) it's so unique.

Regrets that I didn't buy this...

That night we drove across a bridge into the town of Samoa to eat at the Samoa Cookhouse, the last running logger/cookhouse of it's kind in North America (I think that's correct, forgive me if it's not, it's just beyond me to do the correct research right now {I'm tired}). 

I didn't know that it's "ok" to name your chainsaw...I'll have to think of one for ours now.

Old logging tools...

I LOVE this sort of Americana especially if it's California related and includes cooking.I also love how in the pictures Mike and I took of each other in front of the sign, we are technically both in the shot since you can see the other's shadow (did even that make sense?).

We woke early to drive to the race the next morning. It was beautiful running weather, mid 50s and sunny and FULL of ancient, looming, beautiful and strong redwood trees. Not to sound too tree-huggy, but it was pretty inspiring to be running under them. So much so that I kicked out a pretty good time for me. If only I could maintain that for a full marathon and qualify for Boston ;). Mike ran a good race too, though his legs were bugging him a bit. We were ready to hit the road soon after finishing, picking up lunch on the way out, stopping a few times for breaks and buying early-season cherries on the side of the road, and we made it home before dinner.

I was stoked to see these; I love cherries and they mean summer!

We also had fun making Guinness make these sounds on the way home. He's recently been obsessed with invisible things on the ceiling and walls. We do nothing to help this early onset dog-insanity by encouraging and recording said behavior. Oh well, it's kind of...unique.

The week flew by and our weekend with M's parents and my family flew by even quicker. I still need to post about Easter and now about what we did this weekend, which happened to involve a lot of eating, but it's time for sleep and to begin counting down the three weeks left of school and until I can really focus on wedding planning (YAY!)!
Good night y'all and here's to a good week!
xoxo, natty ♥

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!