Toothpaste?

A random post for you because I am on a business trip and it is 12:35am and I just realized I forgot toothpaste.

Hotels provide shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, sewing kits, shower caps, and often more. However, NO toothpaste. It seems like a bit of a no brainer. Everyone needs toothpaste nightly and with the 3oz. rule you have to have small tubes so you can't just throw a normal tube in your luggage.

Just my two cents on a possible change all hotels need to make!

Good night!

A day in my life

Or rather a small glimpse.

I work at a wonderful place where Lola is allowed to come along! Today I brought Lola to keep me from exercising without dr permission! Fingers crossed Thursday I will get the go ahead...

Lola spends most of her day on my lap (on her pillow of course). It only becomes a challenge when she decides to lay on one of my arms!

Sometimes the lap gets a little too hot so she makes her way to the nice cool floor. Apparently here she was just too tired to make it on or off the pillow at this point!

My cute little snuggler!

A lovely day for both me and Miss Lola.

Until we arrived home. Living in the city, parking can be a bit of a challenge. Luckily, we have a garage and driveway space so it is rarely an issue for us. Until someone decides to park in front of your driveway.

Awesome.

With a coffee shop across the street mornings always bring this sort of thing (as a matter of fact as I was pulling out of the garage this morning a woman parked and got out of her car blocking the driveway...I might have been a bit sassy to her-oops!). I can handle the "sorry, just ran to get a coffee" bad park job. But this person has been there for 2+ hours now.

Luckily, I am not the towing or ticketing type. Well, not yet anyway. Today I have decided to take some kind of action.

I feel like this is a perfectly nice note. No threats of "next time we will...", etc... That said, I did make a note of the date, car make, model, and license plate. Next time maybe a ticket is in order?

I know, I live in the city, deal with it. But parking is a commodity here and I value being able to come home and zip into my garage!

Tonight...organizing the wedding binder, TV, and some couch time!

SFCEE

And since there are probably 2 people that read my blog who know what that is it is, "San Francisco Catholic Engaged Encounter". Scott and I left work on Friday, packed our bags and checked in for our weekend retreat. This is a requirement for us to get married in the Catholic church so off we went. I will admit, I was less than enthused about this little getaway. I went in kicking and screaming and whining about it to anyone that would listen.

I am now going to have to admit that I was wrong about this weekend. It turned out to be about a million times better than expected. Honestly, I think something like this should be required by law to get married! haha! I thought it would going to be extremely rooted in religion and as it turns out, it was really less about that than anything else. We covered it all...kids, fighting, forgiving, sex, communication, finances, values, etc... The format was mainly: Presentation by leaders (two couples), separate and write on the topic, and then get together with your fiance and trade books, read and discuss. There is no group sharing or anyone telling you what is right and wrong. It really is just about you and your future spouse. Ok, there is the good. I can't leave out a few items that were less than appealing:

• The rooming situation. We checked in and got our roommates. Yes, roommates. A complete stranger that we were placed in a room the size of a shoe box with.
  

The doors in the distance are all the rooms lined up. It was a little like the Dharma Initiative.

• The beds. Our linens were laid out on our beds for us to make. It was a little like the military or maybe even prison. The name of the retreat facility was stamped on our sheets and towels (which I am not even sure count as a towel-more like a very thin washcloth).

• The hours. We checked in at 7:30 on Friday night and this deal was supposed to go on until 4pm on Sunday. Luckily Scott had a flight out on Sunday morning so we got excused at 10:15pm on Saturday (note we started at 8am that morning).
• We had to miss ALL of the Cardinals/Giants series to be there.
  

Some funny things that happened:

• I smuggled a bottle of wine in in my luggage. We had quite the covert operation of drinking our red wine out of coffee cups going on Friday night.
• I have a bit of a syndrome. Awkward silence and I don't get along. From the moment we arrived at our first presentation Scott took to calling me Monica (from Friends in the episode where they go to cooking school and she knows all of the answers and is eager to answer). This habit continued throughout the weekend. There was one group activity where people put questions in a box to be discussed amongst the group. I decided to participate in each and every one. Scott took to making fun of me and made the entire group laugh on more than one occasion at my expense (see how much we learned)!
• Saturday we had an hour and half break...so while others strolled the grounds, we strolled to the bar. Let me just say that no, we are not alcoholics, by this point we had been communicating for 8 hours with 4+ more to go. Plus, it was gorgeous outside so we just had one beer at a local bar.
• After all of this sneaking around, turns out they had wine at dinner on Saturday night. You have never seen 18 couples so excited! I am pretty sure the priest was a little tipsy for our next activity.
• I met a fellow St.Louisan. Of course, I found out where he went to high school-SLUH. Small world!

All in all I have no real complaints about the weekend. I am very glad that we participated and took it seriously. We plan to keep our books and revisit some of the sections on a yearly basis to make sure we are continuing to work towards the same things in our marriage. One interesting topic (I swear, I am almost finished) was the 5 love languages. It was interesting to see what Scott and I each picked (you pick 2 each) and to be conscious of trying to incorporate these things into our daily lives. Try it out! By the way, it was the most beautiful weekend and we got to spend a lot of time soaking up the sunshine on the gorgeous grounds.

I leave you with the slogan of the SFCEE: A wedding is a day, a marriage is a lifetime. (No, this was not news to me...just a nice little line to pass along)

Just for fun

Happy Sunday Funday!

**Cort passed these out at Tommy's birthday-such a fun idea!

It's about time...

...to share some more wedding details (don't worry, a very exciting recap will also be in this post).

On Sunday we journeyed down to Union Square to run a variety of errands but also solidify our rehearsal dinner plans. It's official, we will be holding it at the Burger Bar in the Macy's building. We are really excited because it is just a few short blocks from the host hotel, the food is delicious, it has a terrific view of Union Square and it is in the budget.

Scott perusing the menu

The food selection. We are going to be serving sliders, fries, sweet potato fries, beer and wine. Those three little burgers might look small but they are incredibly filling! Scott wasn't even hungry for dinner.

I mentioned the budget above. This is an interesting link for your reading pleasure...http://sfappeal.com/culture/2010/01/weddings.php But, I wouldn't trade the wedding we are planning in this wonderful city!

Scott also made the short stroll over to the hotel.

He said it looks wonderful and is very happy with our choice. Why didn't I make the journey? Well, this silly foot is STILL healing. I am SO ready to get back to running and starting my Bar Method classes. My first dress fitting is May 4th and this bod is in no condition for a wedding.

Ok, on to the much anticipated (I'm sure) recap.

Friday night we went over to Cortney and Tommy's for a dessert and champagne birthday celebration for Tommy. Cort put on a beautiful party with SO much delicious food. I was definitely in a sugar coma for at least 12 hours.

Saturday we journeyed south to get sized for our wedding rings. YAY! Turns out my engagement ring is a half size too big, but I would love for someone to try and get this puppy off my finger to be resized! Not going to happen!

Saturday night Tommy's birthday celebration continued in the city. We began the night at Smuggler's Cove. It is a traditional Tiki Bar and we had some delicious drinks!
It also happened to be Crick and Kyle's anniversary so they stopped by for a quick drink. Interestingly, 6 years ago Scott and I were in the same place (their wedding) and didn't even know it! Fun to look at where we are now!

From there we visited a new restaurant on Pier 5, Lafitte. The concept is really neat, the chef buys what he can find fresh daily at the farmer's market and the menu changes accordingly. Unfortunately this left them out of steak and frites and with some calf liver among the remaining choices. It was their opening week so I give them a few pity points, but all in all I don't see a return visit in our future.

I already updated you on Sunday...

Monday we got to go to the Goldman Environmental Prize awards ceremony. This is a client that I work on at the agency and definitely a rewarding experience. You should absolutely visit their website and read about what these individuals are doing with very little resources. After the ceremony we were all gussied up (it was held at the Opera House which was PACKED, Gavin Newsom was there, and Peter Coyote was the master of ceremonies-not a shabby event) so we decided to go out to dinner at one of our favorites, Terzo.

So far, a great start to the week. Busy weeks ahead...stay tuned!

More catching up

Ok, we have to go back a bit to catch up. The week following my shower was Kristina's birthday and what better way to celebrate than a trip to A16. One note about A16...I just found out that this is named for a highway that runs through Naples, Italy. Their food and wine list are inspired by this region that we just so happen to be visiting! Very exciting and a very good excuse to make more frequent visits to one of our favorites!

The following weekend we made a successful journey to Twain Harte to celebrate Easter. The weather wasn't great so we spent our time snuggled up in the house. I took the opportunity to do something I haven't done in ages...a puzzle! I think puzzles are fabulous and it was fun to try and complete a 750 piecer in one night.

Success!

This past week we joined the Strand fam for dinner and fun. Kayla wanted to start a baseball team but I am not sure any of us were interested in the uniform requirements.

She might be turning into a bit of a ham! She put on her glasses so she could "see better", packed up her back pack, dog, and puffs and was off (around the house anyway)!

Friday we took the day off for Giants Opening Day! My new mission is to try and bring a little Cardinal enthusiasm to the Giants ballpark!! Just need a bit more pep SF fans! We lucked out with a GORGEOUS day. Sunburns might have even been had :).

Tommy, Scott, Aaron, and Cru

Me, Scott and Kristina

Saturday we got a call from the Strand Fam wondering if we would like to go for a train ride. Of course we do! We all hopped on the choo choo for a ride down to the Ferry Building.

Kayla and her train whistle

"Please, no pictures"

I can honestly say I didn't know riding a train could be so much fun. Watching two little ones take in the new experience makes it a very different ride.

After some lunch at the Ferry Building and a train ride home we bid the Strand Fam adieu and settled in for a quiet night together complete with lasagna and Mad Men. A perfect night with my little family!

Sorry for the warp speed catch up...I will try and stay on top of my posts moving forward so they are a bit more detailed!

Shower Time

In more ways than one. I took my first shower in weeks on Friday! No more swimming in the bathtub for me!

In other shower news...the weekend before last I packed up all my left shoes and headed back to St. Louis for my bridal shower!

As if the shower wasn't enough, Marleen made the trip in from Champaign, IL. for the big day. We stayed up far too late on Friday night catching up and drinking far too much wine. Reminds me of many fun nights we had in Colorado!

We also had a little wedding fun on Friday night. My mom got out her wedding dress and we had quite the fun time trying it on! Needless to say, my dress will look a smidge different but I do have plans for this dress...stay tuned...

Helene and Toni threw me a gorgeous shower and so many people came out to celebrate. What a day to be thankful for...

Allie (my Matron of Honor) and Toni

The mimosa fountain! These people know me too well!

This picture is purely to show off my fashion...one cute boot and one therapeutic mess!

My Grandmas-Mom's mom on the left, Dad's on the right.

Me and Helene (Helene is Allison's mom)

Food to soak up all my mimosas!

One table (email me if you want names for all of these faces-haha)

Next table

Final table

Game time!

Toni, me and the cake (thanks, Allie!)

Mamma Llama, me and the cake!

After my shower, we turned the mimosas fountain into a margarita fountain and the party began for my Grandma's 85th birthday! It was great to see so many friends and family in one day!

Grandma and her sister Tiny...definitely still young at heart!

It was a wonderful whirlwind of a weekend. If only the plane ride was a little shorter!