Voyage Part 1: San Francisco, volume 2

Ok, back to our travels. And I promise we'll get back to craftiness soon, too, but I know there are a few of you who are currently more interested in this trip we took than things I might or might not be making, so bear with me. :)

So after the mountain wedding, we spent another half-day sunning by the pool and napping in the hotel before heading back to San Francisco via the really cheap CalTrain which happened to run right from San Mateo, little did we know! It was hot, the pool was very cold. fun was had. Then we headed into the city and spent a few days exploring this city we both love so much, and visiting some of our old favorite places, such as Burma Superstar (Burmese food, YUM), the Bitter End (Irish Pub in the old neighborhood), Boogaloos (best brunch in SF, possibly the world), Dog Eared Books (best used bookstore on the planet, I hardly got away without spending all the money I don't have. I have a great husband!), and more I can barely think of now.

Then we got on the BART and made our way thru the east bay over to Richmond to Joey and Ariel's CUTE house in a wonderful neighborhood in an otherwise sketchy city. Their realtor was right! :) We got to meet their brood of doggies, including Snowy, the one-eyed boxer, Gypsy, cutest chihaua mix ever, and Jax, the Chinese Crested crazy dog. They were all super sweet once they got to know us, and we even made friends. lovely!

Joey and Jax (with awesome Crispina wedding present blanket!)

Snowy

Gypsy

Jax

Jax singing us a song

Baby Jax with Ariel

Then we got back to the city a little late after eating tasty Japanese food with Joey, Ariel and some of Joey's friends from Utah, Natalie and Ben. We decided to spend a little bit of our last night in town enjoying Chinatown and North Beach just a little bit, so we took a walk from Market Street on up the hills, and bought some cheap t-shirts and soup spoons, and enjoyed the bustle of downtown, even at 10pm on a Tuesday. (in contrast, it happens to be 10PM here today on a Monday, and it is very quite here, except the buzz of Junebugs and the chirps of the 'peeper' frogs in the swamp nearby. hah!)

The Coppola Building, North Beach, SF.

Goaty McGoaterson!

It's true, we are becoming homesteaders. Seems silly to me because I wasn't so much into the farming side of things growing up on a small farm, myself. But darling Johnnie is totally into it, as he grew up in the 'big city' of Great Barrington (pop. approx. 8,000), with only a cat after he turned 14 or so. So Goats it is, and two old Nannies at that (I swear that's what they call them!). They are now named Pepper and Lulu Bell, though as of yesterday they were owned by a semi-redneck family out in upstate new york and named Chaucer and Mist. hmm... so, we think it's an improvement. They are both female, sisters, about 6 years old. The capturing of the goats was quite traumatic, and as they are Pygmy (though large for Pygmys) they fit into dog crates in the back of John's truck!

Goat butt, from the cab of the truck.

John, admiring these beauties.

Pepper

Lulu Bell

I wasn't really able to get any good shots of them after they came out of the crates, because it was a crazy debaucle and then they went and hid in the corner of the barn. But they have been venturing out all morning and I caught this shot below as Lulu Bell was retreating back into safety.
We had a very sad and scary moment when one of Pepper's horns came right off in John's hand. The previous owner was using their horns to get ahold of them and drag them to the truck, and she only had one long horn anyway since the other had fallen off previously. YIKES! After much calling of vets and my farm-savvy parents, and a little internet research, we found out that this is not super uncommon, and with a little TLC it will basically heal and grow back on its own. This is part of the reason many people "debud" their goats as babies (i.e. stop the horns from growing).

I have learned more about goats in the past 24 hours than I ever thought I would know in my life. And I'm sure I will continue to learn more as these ladies grow old under our care. I should also point out that this was a rescue effort, and the previous owner was about to, ahem, harvest these darlings. So sad. But not uncommon, either. They aren't milkers, and are basically usually raised as pets. These two aren't the most affectionate, and therefore weren't such great pets. But we think we can turn them around with a lot of patience and kindness. It seemed to work for our dog, who is the best and was certifiably nutso when we got her. We'll see. I'll keep you posted!

more travels...

I will continue the posts about our trip in the next few days. I have to stop now because we are off to pick up two old Pygmy goats that are coming home with us.

crazy.

Voyage Part 1: San Francisco

Ok, so first we went to San Francisco. It was wonderful to be back, and I instantly felt at home. We went to the beach on our first full day there, after eating crepes at the Crepevine and strolling around the Inner Sunset. We took the N-Judah down to ocean beach and it was sunny and lovely and like old times. Although I didn't know the beach off the Sunset was more dune-y than from the Richmond district, where I used to live with Davey and Joey. It was super beautiful!



Sam and Jeremy were wonderful, gracious and generous hosts, and they even took us to a Memorial Day BBQ back out by the beach, where we got to play with dogs and miss our dog, who stayed home with my mom and her buddy Mickey.

It got a little chilly when the fog rolled in (ok, it was cold, I was wearing a jacket!), but down south of the city where Joey and Ariel's wedding hotel was (in San Mateo) was sunny and warm. The Wedding location on the top of a mountain in Woodside, CA, was not so much warm as really really cold. But we dealt just fine in our groomsmaids' dresses, thankyouverymuch. It was fun to see some old friends from The College Years (yes, I was on that Saved By the Bell season. it rocked). I didn't get a chance to take any pics of the wedding, so you'll have to make due with these professional shots... And normally I wouldn't post so many pics of myself, but I had some requests. So, here's a little photo-essay of the wonderful-est wedding ever (ok, 'cept ours of course!). Aren't they the cutest (handsomest!) couple?



yay! Thanks Joey and Ariel, for a wonderful weekend!!

and We're Back

from the land of sun and fun...

(more pics soon, promise!)

One more thing...

My darling hubby and I will be off to some far-off locations in the coming two weeks. We fly out on Thursday and will spend tomorrow night in Boston. I have the summer off from work (as the store is closing... sadness.) and will only be taking one class, so I plan to have many crafty exploits to discuss in the next few months, so stay tuned! Come fall I will be back in school full-time, but until then, can you guess the two places we're going based on these two photos?
yup, you guessed it. Back to my homes-away-from-home, San Francisco and Seattle (ok that second one isn't Seattle, exactly, but it is nearby). We will be celebrating the weddings of some very dear friends, and enjoying some west-coast goodness along the way. We will also be visiting my very talented little brother Tomm in Portland, OR. We'll be back in early June, and like I said, I should have some more projects to talk about here. I'm hoping this trip will allow me to absorb quite a bit of inspiration for those upcoming projects!

Below is a silly shot of me from the first week I lived in San Francisco back in 2004. Everyone has to have this picture, right? It's taken from the little park below the Golden Gate Bridge in the Presidio.


I'm so excited!

finally, some crafting

There's nothing like a deadline to get me to work on into the night! And a newly (almost) organized studio doesn't hurt, either. I don't want to show the design just yet, because it's a gift for a friend, but will soon. It was a fun one to come up with, though. Cuteness abounds!

I will show off the backs of the cards drying atop my new library table/desk, though. Note the swanky new ikea bookcases and paper chandelier. love!

Spring has sprung...

...or some other equally cliched phrase?

:)

so it is officially spring and it's awesome. Ok, it was really cold and windy today, but we DID have a great BBQ/potluck this weekend and it was lovely (pics on my flickr if you're interested). We were able to sit on the deck and have a fire in the 'pit and it was an all-around good time. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, I know I did!

Jane enjoying the view from the deck

some pretties from the nursery (or maybe the grocery store?)

this is my garden at the beginning of spring

and the same plants a few weeks ago, below. My camera battery is dead, but these are Allium and they have gotten even bigger by now -- they will be huge!