VISITORS!

This past weekend was a lot of fun in San Francisco! It started with Scott getting back from his work trip to Chicago. While he was only gone two nights I still missed him tons and found myself speeding home to see him Friday afternoon. After a little rest we headed out to Foreign Cinema to have dinner with Tia and Tom. It was great to catch up and enjoy some great food and champagne (thanks Mattsons!). It is always fun to see them and I hope they come back ASAP (or maybe I need to plan a trip to Boulder to see them all)!!

Me and Tia after dinner

Me and Scott enjoying the night out.

Saturday we picked up another visitor downtown and headed to Napa. Katie was in town for work and extended her trip to take in the sites. What a great reason to go wine tasting!

Kate and me at Gloria Ferrer.

I wonder how many of these pictures we have?!

Katie and I have been friends since kindergarten and had LOTS to catch up on. Luckily we had two full days to chat! It was so much fun to reminisce and show her all the great sites in SF. I am a pretty great tour guide if I do say so myself. We managed, in one day:

-Twin Peaks

-Golden Gate Park

-Haight Ashbury

-Painted Ladies

-Golden Gate Bridge

-Crissy Field

-Presidio

-Chestnut St. (just a drive)

-Union St. shopping

-Lombard (crooked street)

-Fisherman's Wharf

-Ghirardelli Square

-Ferry Building

Did I mention that we had PERFECT weather in the city?!

A view of Crissy Field from the bridge.

The church in the upper middle of this picture is where we are getting married. I like to try and spot it from many spots around town!

Some of the equipment used to make chocolate at Ghirardelli. It was a pretty neat stop!

Wine tasting at the Ferry Building

After lots of wine, food, and fun (notice a theme in my life?) all the guests headed home. Luckily, the excitement never ends around here because...MY RING IS BACK!!! One month later it is finally back in it's happy little home on my left ring finger. Oh, how I missed it :-)!

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start.

mmmmm...pasta

Ok, ok, ok...

I mentioned after the Bridge to Bridge run that Scott and I clearly need to run a little more. Well, after a little more procrastinating we are finally back on track. Of course, we had to send our love affair with day after day of carbs and laziness off in style so we made some Fettucini Alfredo. Ok, it WAS a Cooking Light recipe, but still! Just in case anyone is interested the recipe is below. It is definitely a healthy take on an old goody but probably not going in our weekly rotation.

Not really sure what the point of this post is but to keep me honest. I need to stay on track with my runs and try to make healthy meals for us. We aren't training for anything right now, just general fitness. Hopefully that is enough motivation to get out the door and run! Always great to have a partner in pain! I'll keep you all posted on the progress...wish us luck.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups 1% low-fat milk
• 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
• 2 tablespoons 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups hot cooked fettuccine (8 ounces uncooked pasta)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• Cracked black pepper

Preparation

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in flour. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk. Cook 6 minutes or until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Add 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, cream cheese, and salt, stirring with a whisk until cheeses melt. Toss sauce with hot pasta. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and chopped parsley. Garnish with black pepper, if desired. Serve immediately.

Another week, another update

Another week has come and gone and another weekend of fun was had.

Our weekend started off a bit early with a houseguest. Gypsy Rose Lee.

How can you not love this little face?! She is 12 weeks old and a fire ball! She definitely kept us on our toes but also made both of us fall in love with her and want a puppy (no, we are absolutely not getting one). Lola had different feelings about the little one and pretty much found refuge on whatever couch Gypsy wasn't on all weekend. Cranky pomeranian...

All that licking, biting and general puppyness wore her out!

Friday night we were off to dinner at Cav Wine Bar and Kitchen. NO BUENO! Luckily we had wonderful company because the rest of the night was kind of a bust. Actually, the food was quite good but the wait staff and customer service was appalling. I will save you my rant but I can assure you the food was not good enough to warrant a return visit.

Todd, Chrissie, Jeanne and Scott (Kyle was there but he had to go home before the food came out, that's how long it took, so the babysitter could leave)

Scott and the ladies.

This was a picture from the cab ride home. Our driver decided to make us our own personal nightclub complete with techno music, flashing lights, and even some bumping courtesy of pumping his breaks at every red light. Oh, city life.

Saturday we lazed around with Miss Gypsy and did a little baking.

Our masterpieces!

The baking was not for us...Saturday night we headed over to the romper room aka Chrissie and Kyle's house for an evening with the families. Total tally-8 adults, 6 kids, and one pomeranian.

Charlie, Henry, Chrissie, Paisley, and Hanna practicing their music.

Kayla (aka Cheesburger!), Hanna, and Paisley coloring.

I preferred to be behind the camera, not the subject!

Jeanne and Cortney

Kayla enjoying Ba and Mine's baking!

Cat's Out of the Bag

I have confirmation that four out of the five bridesmaids officially received these so I thought I would go ahead and share the news with the world (or at least the five people that read this). Marleen, if you are reading this, STOP, and go back to studying (oh, and check the mail and give Chicken a kiss for me)!!!

What does a person call a person that they went to high school with, spent countless hours of cheerleading practice, games, and competition with, throw in a few sleep overs and camps here and there but then went off to college, went our separate ways, but now I read her blog and feel like I know her again?!  Well, this is Lauren.  I love her blog (and her husband is super talented...check out all their blogs!) and found this fun little craft on their calligraphy blog (it originally came from Once Wed) and I fell in love with it immediately!  

So I embarked on the clever little way to ask my bridesmaids to be in the wedding.  While the person who originally made these is clearly MUCH more talented (and patient) than me I tried my best and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  

Ok, my calligraphy needs help (could have called in Mike for this!), but I don't claim to be an expert (plus, I can't write in cursive-sorry Mrs. O'Keefe!)

You are supposed to make a chain for each person of all the bridesmaids that are in the wedding but I took a shortcut (that is a lot of people, dresses and hair to create!).  

So each person just got their own little person (when making these I thought I was going with orangeish/coralish dresses...since then I have changed my mind and they will be in brown)

A close up of my people.  And yes, they all look like they have gigantic/puffy hair!

So, thank you to Lauren for this great idea and all of my wonderful friends that have agreed to stand by me on my special day (Marleen, I promoted you so you better give me a 5 sec. call in the near future or it can be reversed!!  :-)!). 

New Camera

Scott came home last week and surprised me with a new camera!!  We are back in business. Come to find out the camera was purchased with the President's Cup in mind but I am still very happy to be back in the digital photography age again.

We made sure not to lay low for long and packed our weekend with fun once again.  This weekend was Fleet Week in San Francisco.  Saturday morning we packed up and headed down to the marina to take in all the festivities.  

The girls found some sailors to take pictures with!

Ah, relaxing while waiting for the Parade of Ships.

Probably the most impressive ship that came through.  Unfortunately, no air craft carriers this year.

Miss Kayla peeking out from her bounce around the jumpy castle.

One of many high flying entertainment acts.

Tanner making sure to stay hydrated!

After the Strand fam headed home for nap time the Koonless family hunkered down, had a picnic, and waited for the Blue Angels to arrive.

The girls soaking up the last of the sun...

As 3 o'clock rolled around so did the fog and wind.  Unfortunately this does not create ideal circumstances for flying six jets frighteningly close to each other and after one pass the Blue Angels had to land.  

Scott's face after hearing the news...WHAT?!  They have never been cancelled!!  Apparently every year the weather is perfect during Fleet Week(end) except this one.  On that note, we are apparently in the best season the city has to offer yet as I sit here it is pouring outside with winds gusting up to 50 mph. Very curious...

As I mentioned the camera was purchased for the President's Cup.  Unfortunately all electronics are prohibited during the tournament so we left the house empty handed.  Kind of a strange feeling in this era of constant connection to leave behind the cell phone!

So while I don't have any photos to provide I will leave you with a few bullets from the day:

• We watched every golfer tee off from number three...they are all so lean!  It is true the camera adds 10 lbs.  These guys are rails!  
• One exception to that...Tiger.  He is actually quite tall and solid!  Wouldn't have guessed.
• It was COLD!  Of course, being prepared, I brought along some mittens.  We grabbed a couple of beers and Scott quickly realized that this was not helping his cold hands get warm!  So, what else would I do...give him a mitten.  People found this very funny and we got a ton of comments, "is that a pair of mittens?", "how funny...beer mittens!", to Scott "is that a ladies mitten?".  
• We watched Tiger put on his wind pants and guess what? He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us!
• We saw Michael Jordan driving around the course in his golf cart.
• Scott shook Condoleezza Rice's hand. 
• Todd White.  NBC superstar volunteer.  We got to do a little yelling from the stands for our own celebrity on the course!
• When the tournament ended we began looking for a cab to get home.  Well, that didn't go so well and we ended up walking around two miles before finally walking into a bar and asking them to call one.  

The main thing I took away was how much fun we had!  We laughed and strolled and just enjoyed the day being all bundled up wandering from hole to hole.  Maybe some things are ok just remembering in your mind instead of in pictures.  My recommendation: take a day, leave the phones at home and just enjoy the one(s) you love.

A Broken Camera...

...clearly leads to bad blogging (lucky for you, I have uploaded some poor quality iPhone pictures to share).  That, and life has slowed down considerably over the past few weeks. 

Of course, life never actually throws us a day with NOTHING to do, so here are a few recaps:

• We babysat Kayla and Tanner from 2-midnight last weekend.  It really was pretty painless, however, 2 under 2 is not in the cards for this couple (or their dog).  

• I actually have a real.live.job possibility.  Not sharing details just yet.  While getting back into the workforce would be nice (and of course the accompanying salary), it will be pretty devastating for awhile not walking into work to giggles and, "hi...mine" (not to mention their adorable faces). 
• In addition to missing the kids and Chrissie, I won't get to take little field trips around the city on a regular basis.  Last week we visited the seals at Pier 39, Hard Rock Cafe (bad food), and the Aquarium.

• We tried to see Lyle Lovett in Golden Gate Park but parking was a nightmare so we gave up and listened to him on the iPod over dinner instead (bet you can't guess who we dined with?!)
• Scott surprised me with a YUMMY dinner at Terzo.
• My ring had to go get resized.  I still panic at least once a day that I lost it.
• And, finally, we did the Bridge to Bridge run.  Note for next year...taking a month off running and then jumping into a race might not be the grandest of all plans.

Start: Bay Bridge in the distance

Scott ready to race (little did he know this was going to turn into a "tourist" run)

Ready?

This was actually the second stop during the run to capture a picture of Alcatraz.  I mean, we don't get to see it everyday, probably important to capture a poor photo!

Still "racing".  Taking a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge (end) in the distance.  Those two beams sticking up are the bridge.

FINISHED!

Bono!  Ok, not really, but it was a great U2 cover band.

Scott enjoying the music.

Post race beer.  Need those carbs! right?

Hope to be back in action with a new camera soon.  Until then, Happy Sunday!