beautiful weekend

in which I/we--

missed my marm
ate hot dogs, then marched across the street for thin-crust pizza
played congratulatory phone tag with my dear friend Laura, who on Friday gave birth to a baby girl
briefly entertained a name change for b. Hoodes
made fun of The Most Annoying Dining Patron Ever
was gifted a beautiful cluster of blushing peonies, my favorite flower, from my boys
took lots and lots of pictures of feet
together made a spring-y Sunday supper of strawberry, almond & spinach salad with strawberry-rhubarb sorbet (I just wrote the letter s 8 times...)
watched huge, shaggy San Francisco dog residents playing on Marina Green
finally discovered a sauvignon blanc that we like at a Merry Edwards tasting
started a new knitting project
drank a tad too much with old and new friends
watched northern California's biggest fireworks show...from a kayak
got reprimanded by the Coast Guard
shared a rhubarb napoleon at the Farmhouse Inn and we both simultaneously swooned
belly laughed at SNL (motherlover!)
took in the view from the Marin Headlands for at least the 15th time since living here
floated in McCovey Cove, just like boaters who try to catch homerun balls do
ate ham & swiss cheese bagel sandwiches for brekkie
ate bacon & egg english muffin sandwiches for a late dinner
attempted getting a pedicure but grew impatient at the long line, then left
took a wonderful spinning class outside, and one of the songs was Billy Jean which rocks my world
completed a wonderful writing exercise that ended up being very meaningful
stalked the flickr pool
drank a dessert wine that we had been holding onto since Christmas, worth the wait
watched the season finale of The Amazing Race--I sobbed at the end

Happy Mother's Day Marmousch

I can't believe I'm one of the lucky ones who gets to be your daughter and friend.

Four seasons of a vineyard

We are so lucky to have been able to witness all of this in the past year. My favorite was fall and Steve's was early spring, when the mustard was blooming (as in the 2nd shot), but really--they're all beautiful in their way.

My new favorite phrase: Huzzah!

So tweed ride was pretty much brilliant as far as left-of-center SF events go.

The route: Union Square to Market Street to the Embarcadero to an Aquatic Park pier to a bar in North Beach, then through Chinatown on our own to get back to Union Square.

I will let a few pictures do most of the talking and hand out a few superlatives.

Scariest moment: the first 30 seconds of the ride when we turned onto Powell Street and I nearly ate concrete as my front tire got stuck on the cable car track. Incidentally, this was exactly 30 seconds after the tweed leader announced on his megaphone to steer clear of the cable car tracks.

Most magical moment: As day turned into night, ending up on a pier sandwiched between Aquatic Park and Alcatraz, listening (with a singalong) to the band Corpus Callosum play their tambourines, drums, xylophone, and ukulele.

Worst drink of the night: A little hot chocolate with a lot of brandy is gross, y'all.

What I was most grateful for (or, Why my husband is smarter than me): 1) Steve talked me out of wearing my cute open-toed wedges and into wearing my much warmer ankle boots with tights. Because San Francisco is perpetually cold, 'specially if you're on a bike. and 2) Steve would not let me raise my hand to volunteer us in holding up signs at the intersection as our tweed mob crossed during a red light. Because, as he said, "We don't know what we're doing." Turns out he was right--see "scariest moment" up above.

Sexiest in tweed: as if that was ever in question. Husband made that beret look good.






The girl in the picture above made her own outfit--is that not incredible? I mean, get thyself all over a Project Runway application as soon as possible, woman.

I even got my .25 seconds of fame over at The Snitch. Oh, and here too (little bike sunshine!) Cools. Love this city.

Unravelling

I am going out on a limb and taking an e-course. It looks lovely and I'm excited. A little nervous, too. But I feel strongly about getting out of my comfort zone more and more.

p.s. fun tweed ride pictures are a-coming.

our weekend

went like this, but not in this order:
san francisco
husband
deep-dish pizza
teardrop bud vases
baby clothes
yucky stomach bug
made-to-order cotton candy
makeshift high school reunion in our living room, UK style
ogling & criticizing homes on nytimes.com
dancing in our living room
oeufs (eggs) at 10 pm
new ipod playlists
watching it rain
knitting
cooking together
vacation planning
tormenting Brunie
cheerios with juicy strawberries
fort mason modern economy sample sale
wine
huddling at the laptop watching The Office
making lemongrass ginger granita
drinking my favorite tea two days in a row
laughing harder than I have all week talking on the phone with my sister lamb

May day birthday

May day, May day! Happy birthday to the one & only Mr. B. Hoodes. He is paving the way for me to turn 30 in style.

Wonder of wonders, Bag la Hoodle is thirty.

I still can't believe this is the little bug with huge ears whom we had to barricade in the kitchen with mattresses less than a week after we found him, for fear he would destroy the apartment while we were away. (Coincidentally, it was the same weekend Steve asked me to marry him.)


Oh Googlie. A middle child in every sense of the word.

He is the glue.

The second picture is our screensaver right now and one night we caught B. on the desk chair, absolutely mesmerized by it. It was pretty much one of the sweetest things I've ever seen.