friday. friday.

Happy Friday! What is everyone doing this weekend? Last weekend, we hung out with Sarah and Dave who were in town for a visit and they brought us these awesome flowers...aren't they cool? Hope you have a great weekend and including some links below in case they are of interest....

• We are excited about this cool new cocktail bar that is going to open soon right by our apartment!

• We had a couple minutes to kill before the HRW event on Wednesday and we walked through the West Elm in Palo Alto. I was to report back that their outdoor pillow collection is killing it. I basically stood there and hugged the pillows for a couple minutes.  Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3. 

• When we have kids, I was to raise good people like this. 

• How gorgeous are these photos from down by LA and the super flower bloom that is on in CA? 

• Ben and I watched Dave Chappelle's new stand-up on Netflix a couple weeks ago and who knew Chappelle is so funny? Apparently, everyone. And turns out on top of being funny - he is smart AF and interesting. Ben sent me this NYTimes piece from yesterday, great read!

patio update.

Remember back in December when I mentioned that we were going to put some effort into our patio area? Here was the picture of our patio in December...

Yikes! Since then, we have made some inroads. While we haven't had time (and budget) to do as much as I would have liked, it is coming along and more to come. We added some succulents (all about that on this post) and they are coming along beautifully - we are going to add some more soon.

And we bought some lounge furniture for one corner of the patio. We did a good amount of searching and looking. I stalked Craigslist for a while (because god knows I love a good Craigslist find!) but finally settled on going over to Ikea one weekend to pick up a set of furniture I had bookmarked. When we got there, we swung by the super discount corner and there it was in all its glory. One whole set of patio furniture just sitting there - total stroke of luck. It was in perfect condition (missing a couple of pillows) - we promptly claimed, somehow fit it all in the car and brought her home! I threw some outdoor pillows on there (here, here and here), combined it with Ben's fire pit that he got in December and a rug from Home Depot that I threw in our cart randomly months ago when we were there picking up screws. It is slowly coming along. Here is what we are looking at as of today...

 

And here is the view from inside...on the weekends and in the early evening, it is lovely with the lights on and sky fading.

Next up is the dining area. You can see a sneak peak of chairs that we picked up a couple months ago, so hopefully another update coming soon, stay tuned...

week's end.

Oh man, I am really ready for the weekend. What are your plans? We don't have all that much scheduled. We are, of course, going to MK's spinning class tomorrow and a long training run on Sunday morning. And we'll be watching the Final Four games tomorrow night and going to dinner up at my brother's in-law's house in Orinda on Sunday night. A nice and casual spring weekend...hope that you have something good planned!

And, for your weekend reading, here are some links of interest...

• Loving this throw - especially the price point on it. 

• Hannah - my sister-in-law - started a new blog all about her reads and you'll love it!

• This NYTimes Magazine piece from a couple weeks ago about public schools. 

• San Francisco Date Spots according to Eater.

• I really want to buy this side table for our patio. Thoughts?!

• We are a strong PB&J house - this is a great NPR spot. 

• Bay Area real-estate is nuts. Nuts!

• Mike sent me this song this week - happy listening!

hamilton.

For Christmas, I got Ben tickets to Hamilton through a special Facebook offer and we went this past week! Full disclosure, I figured it would be entertaining enough, but was skeptical it would live up to all the hype. But wow. I was wrong. So very wrong.

Hamilton was brilliant. It lived up to and exceeded everything I had heard. Lin-Manuel Miranda is our modern Shakespeare, not to mention the choreography and set were both shows in and of themselves. The morning after I bought the full album and have been listening to it on repeat since. If I could go back for another round tomorrow, I would be there in a heartbeat. A couple months ago, I listened to this Fresh Air interview with Lin Manuel Miranda, and now I am finally reading and watching everything on the musical I can get my hands on...here are a couple good ones in case you are interested...

• Back in 2009 when Miranda visited the White House (I should have appreciated this more at the time!)
• CBS Sunday Morning
• When they went back to the White House in 2016
• The Atlantic - How Lin-Manuel Miranda Shapes History
• SFist Review of Hamilton
• Carpool Karaoke 
• Tony Awards Performance

succulence.

One of these days soon, I am going to post an update about our outdoor patio. We moved in to our apartment over a year ago, and we have only just gotten around to doing something with the patio in the last couple of months. Ben finally bought himself a firepit which he has been talking about for years and we are slowly making it comfortable enough to enjoy once the rain finally stops.

We took one small step this afternoon and that involved succulents for the patio! I bought two planters a couple months ago from CB2- this one and this one - and they have been sitting empty just waiting for some action. So, today we went over to Bernal to the Succulence Life and Garden store - a fantastic little shop that we would highly recommend. The staff baby-stepped us through all things succulents and then helped us plant the planters with drainage, soil, succulents we picked out and some pebbles/rocks on the top. Here are some photos and we can't wait for it to stop raining so we can put these two gorgeous lookers out on the patio. More to come soon....

another thursday.

Yikes! Sorry to keep you all hanging - busy couple weeks! Ben and I took a quick trip up to Tahoe last weekend to get some QT with Emmy and Raffi while they were there and to get a day of skiing in. It was just the fill of fresh air we both needed!

• This made me laugh - Gwyneth Paltrow is absurd.

• Here are this year's James Beard winners and La Taqueria won a James Beard!

• Just love these onesies - if you're in my life and having a baby - you're likely getting one!

• My birthday is on Sunday and all we have planned is a big Indian dinner so I can feast on butter chicken and naan - for those in SF - here is a map of indian food in the city!

• Sarah Hurwitz is the epitome of classy and awesome and this piece is a great read. 

• Sigh. Sheryl Sandberg. 

• Hitting far too close to home - read of the week. 

• Loving this dress - is it summer yet?!

heath.

We love Heath! Hannah and Jordan gave us a bowl from Heath years ago and we have loved it so much and over the last couple of years we have collected a couple different serving dishes and pieces. They make simply beautiful pottery. It is heavy and thick and the style is perfectly San Franciscan. And now that we are in SF, we live just a couple blocks away from their store and factory in San Francisco.

Ben's Mom was in town last week and stayed the weekend, and on Saturday we drove over to Sausalito to the Heath Factory and Showroom. We took a tour that turned out to exceed all our expectations and we learned so much about the company that made us love it all the more if you can believe it! It was founded in 1948 by Edith and Brian Heath and Edith was the trailblazer, feminist, environmentalist and artist behind the pottery and design. She sounded like quite the eccentric and brilliant artist. It was such a cool behind the scenes look at how they make their pieces.

If you're looking for a great wedding gift - this is one of our favorite things to give and we would definitely recommend it!

project patio.

Hope the holidays have been wonderful! Ben and I just got back to SF last night after a fantastic couple of days in Palm Springs and Christmas celebration with my family in Denver. And now that we are back, I am ready to get started on 2017 and that includes doing something with our patio that we have severely underused for the past year. Updates to come, but to give an idea, here is what we are starting with....

changing landscape.

Oh 2016. In the aftermath of the election, on a personal level for me and Ben, an underlying question and anxiety has been how this changes our long-term plans and goals, and very specifically, when will we move back to DC? Will we ever move back to DC? To be clear, we had no set time-line and this was not going to be an imminent return. We just got out to California and we are happy. But we also miss the east coast, and we have both felt we would head back east eventually - we just assumed it would be DC. That is no longer a foregone conclusion. When we were in NY, we debated whether a river town might be a new reality for us. So, who knows....

With all this said, we do really miss DC the city, so we were psyched to see the announcement that a new indian place, August 1 Five, is opening in SF and the chef was previously at Rasika! Can you say Palak Chaat? For anyone who knows DC and Rasika - this is huge news and this little piece of DC coming our way warms our hearts. DC we love you and miss you dearly - hang in there!

running it out.

This weekend can't come soon enough! We are headed to NYC tomorrow to celebrate my father-in-law's 70th birthday. He is running the marathon on Sunday. Amazing, right?

We can't wait to be back east for crisp fall weather and to be surrounded by sarcastic, no bullshit new yorkers...hope you have an equally awesome weekend - and here a quick links in case you are interested....

• Tartine Manufactory is now open for ice cream - we can't wait to go taste it out!

• Audrey Gelman is at it again and I can't decide what I think of her latest foray -- want to grab coffee and talk it out with me?!

• I am loving all over this JCrew coat - pretty much anything tweed gets me every time. 

• Water Wars in Central Asia.... this is a fascinating quick read (Hat tip to Ben)

• We are a couple weeks out from that last debate and hopefully we are all recovered and ready to dominate this coming Tuesday - but this NYTimes Late Term Abortion piece is worth your read. 

• Hillary's website error page is phenomenal. 

sweet sweet green.

This is huge! A Sweet Green (the DC started and based salad restaurant) opened in SoMa this week. SF doesn't have a lot of low-dollar, good food options and I also regularly crave the Harvest bowl, so I could not be more excited about this announcement. A little piece of east coast DC has just landed down the road from us!

friday roundup.

It's finally Friday! My Mom is in town visiting and Ben and I are taking her away for the weekend for a getaway to Paso Robles. She loves car time and getting quality time with her kids individually and we figured this was the perfect birthday present for her this year. We are planning on cooking her a belated birthday meal and just enjoying her company with beautiful views and a new place for all of us.

And I thought I would also share a round-up of some interesting bits of late....hope you have a great weekend.

• This beautiful and tear-inducing piece in the NYTimes - A Letter to the Doctors and Nurses Who Cared for my Wife.

• Samantha Bee is the funniest person on tv right now and this segment - Maine's Personal Trump - hits a little too close to home!

• Loving this JCrew Toggle Cape and just waiting for it to go on big sale. 

• We can't wait to check out this new restaurant, The Morris, soon. And we are super excited about this indian place coming to the Mission soon!

• I am a sucker for old people and this just warms my heart - I hope it does for you too (hat tip to Ben!). 

SF: the inner mission.

Ben just passed his year mark here in SF and I am just over six months in. It has been a hectic, crazy, non-stop past year and a lot of that has been exploring and trying out as much as we can in the Bay area to get our bearings and take advantage of all the good food, activities and year-round weather!

Illustration by Gabriel Leonoudakis

Like any city, SF is cut up into neighborhoods and mini-cultures. Sussing out the personality of each neighborhood is interesting and challenging - not to mention the micro-climates we have to contend with. l figured I would start a series exploring different areas and neighborhoods and it only makes sense to start with our home base - the Inner Mission. So, get ready, here we go...

I'll start with the fact that in a city of hills, the Mission is flat. Thank the lord. It also is one of the warmest and sunniest parts of the city. Inside "The Mission" - you will here people refer to the Inner Mission, the Outer Mission, and Mission Dolores. The Mission has been a heavily Chicano/Latino area and the immigrant influence from Central and South America is still going strong. Having said that, more recently gentrification is steadily moving through the Mission and pushing the long-time residents out of the neighborhood because of skyrocketing prices.

Ben and I absolutely love the neighborhood. We love the location - so close to Dolores, Potrero, SoMa, Bernal Hill, downtown and in the other direction for our commutes, to Silicon Valley. We love the restaurants and variety, the fact that the neighborhood is holding onto some of its grit and history. We love the mix of people and languages on the street. We also love the food....

The Mission is packed with good food, here are some of our favorites for visitors and locals alike...

• Tartine Manufactory - it just opened last month and we could not be more thrilled. It has a beautiful and casual layout and to die for pastries. Expect a long (long!) line but tables turn fast. (Local Tip: You can also bypass the line and go straight in for a cup of coffee or grabbing a loaf of bread.)

• Farmhouse Kitchen - two words for you - Fried Chicken. This is not hyperbole when I say their fried chicken dish is one of the best thai dishes I have had. We love this place. It is casual, easy and putting out great food. 

• Flour + Water - we would tell you to go on a week night and sit at the bar. Not sure it deserves all the hype - but the pizzas are great, service is solid and they are certainly a staple in the city. 

• Stable Cafe - I love this place, it is charming and has a relaxed outdoor, garden area and who doesn't love a bright yellow door? For lunch, a pitstop or a quick snack - it is lovely and worth consideration. 

• DUM Indian Soul Food - this place is even newer than we are, and a welcomed addition to 24th street. I could eat indian all day, any day and this place hit the spot when we stopped in to try it out a couple weeks ago. 

• Jelly Donut - holy shit. If there is one thing you can count on me for, it is judging a good donut. This hole in the wall corner store on 24th has donuts that I dream about. I call them church donuts because they remind me of the ones we had growing up on sundays at church - perfectly cakey + hard frosting. You won't regret it. 

**Because you should know the good and the...less recommended, we would tell you to take a pass on Salumeria - overpriced and not as good as they say. 

• Sight Glass - this might be one of the best styled, curated coffee shops I know of. And if you are looking for a yuppie hook-up - this place is a gold mine. I recommend the Vanilla Cold Brew - you can't really go wrong. 

• The Coffee Bar - I have a soft spot for this place. I like their coffee, I appreciate their wifi, the crowd is varied and laid back, and the food isn't bad. It is a great little spot and I whiled away a good deal of time here when I was looking for a job. 

There are too many cool bars to list, here are a couple of our current favorites....

• Wildhawk - might just be our new favorite bar. The inside of it was designed by friends of ours and this is a classy, small, neighborhoody, upscale go to for a date night and a solid cocktail. We are big fans. 

• Evil Eye - this bar flies under the radar on Mission street and I'm not sure why. (Local Tip: Put your name in for dinner at Al's Place and then head over here for a cool spot to hang out with a great cocktail while you wait.)

• Trick Dog - almost too cool for school. It is loud in here and you probably will have to wait for a seat at the bar, but the menus and themes that they change on the regular are reason alone to check it out and the selection is great, bartenders know what they are doing and the drinks are on point. 

• Asiento - your perfect dive bar with trivia night on Mondays. If you close your eyes, squint hard and block out the mustaches and converses, you could be at a bar in NYC but the one with no pretense, great pint glasses and good beer. 

labor day getaway.

Ben and I went away for the long Labor Day weekend. This was actually our first California getaway since we moved out here. We looked into a whole range of weekend trips - from Joshua Tree, Idaho, Death Valley, San Diego, to Portland and more. In the end, we settled on a place just north of Bodega Bay (about 2 hours drive from SF) because we didn't want to have to fly, we didn't want to spend a lot and ultimately we just wanted to sit someplace with a view for the three days. We rented this VRBO and it was perfect.

We packed enough food so that we could cook every meal at the house. We watched our fill of college football including, of course, the Michigan game on Saturday and we sat on the porch throughout the day and for every sunset. And we went for a couple of absolutely breathtakingly beautiful runs along the coast at different parts of the Kortum Trail.

We didn't venture out to see or do much in the area, but we did swing by the Wild Flour Bakery on the way back to SF and it was a great little spot putting out really good bread.

long time, no see.

So much has happened in the last year since this last post. Ben and I moved to California. We also got married! And there have been so many small happenings as well - new jobs, travel, and even changes in our goals, mindset and relationships. Maybe it is living in a new place and the unplanned (but much needed) adventure or maybe it is just age but finally, in the last six months, for the first time in a long time, I have started to feel more settled, complete, happy and fulfilled.

Don't get me wrong, we miss DC. We'll move back at some point, but for the time being San Francisco is our new normal and I can't wait to get back to posting and sharing.....