happy Tuesday + another one

this one was taken in Phoenix, on top of South Mountain (Dobbin's Lookout). Magical spot for a Phoenician sunset.

I sort of like the idea of having a little wall gallery of sunset photographs hung up in our new nest.

happy Monday

this is the most enchanting sunset I've ever captured with our camera. It was in Italy--beautiful things tend to happen there.

six years ago today

a handsome man dragged an all-too-willing me to the southernmost point of the continental United States and asked me to marry him. I said yes and then we walked headfirst into something so great I still can't come up with a name for it.

best decision I made, ever.
Us in Italy (Cinque Terre, October 2006)

it's all going to be a whirlwind.

So in a recent turn of events and a few things looking like they're going our way, we're moving back home earlier than expected. yay! It thrills me but at the same time is saddening--we sorta have gotten to really know this place.

Take yesterday, for instance, and the day before. for the last two days we've been heading over to the Mission for a wacky breakfast (SF 2 days in a row ='s we are lucky birds): it's an attempt to finally try the maple bacon latte at Pirate Radio Cafe on 21st & Florida. (today we lucked out and it was indeed smoky deliciousness. i would happily settle for their cayenne mocha though.) Then we walk a few blocks over to Dynamo Donuts in the vain hope to find their bacon donut available...it never is so
we turn the corner for the walk back to our car somewheres. we say hi to Lulu, the beagle mascot of the house painters up on the ladder, we admire the 'blue' mural, Steve inevitably says "I smell culture" at the urine stench on certain dark corners of the sidewalk, and I mockingly roll my eyes right back at him.

That was random.

I guess what I'm trying to say is there's so many things I still want to do here, and it feels like we're just getting started. The Friday Night Skate in the city. Go to Lassen Volcanic NP and hike the Bumpass Hell trail (by far the coolest sounding trail I've ever heard). Eat at Cyrus. Wine tasting at Quintessa. Camping at Armstrong Grove. Sandboarding on Pismo Beach. Finally get to Tartine in time to have one of their freshly-baked loaves. Take artsy photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. Shoot, take some decent pictures of the cable cars, preferably with my new camera that intimidates the living daylights out of me. We won't get to see the ice caves at Lava Beds National Monument since they're only open in winter and we never did make it off their wait list. Anyhow. Bring on summer.

okay. NOW it's summer.

Summer solstice 2009. It started off as a thank-God-husband-has-his-best-friend-here-to-go-to-the-Nascar-race-'cause-I-desperately-don't-want-to-go and ended with an evening picnic--not on our balcony, no. This time we were no more than four feet from our front door. Letting it all out there for the neighbors to see and hear. Good, good times.

our friends rock.

Mark came to visit us these last few days and we all had a ball. I love people who are warm and enthusiastic about things--it's inevitably contagious. Mark kept telling everyone from the coffeeshop guy to the dad walking on the beach that it was his first time out to California and how much he loved it here.

Plus we all bonded over a little guy named Bastian. What more can you ask for than friends that really really get you?

still playing hooky.

We're spending today in that fantastic city by the bay, showing a dear friend all our favorite sights. It's been a wonderful last few days, having him here.















-not us in this picture-- i've named these two strangers molly & hunter.