Celebrating Robert's B-day - and Papu is in town!

What a jam-packed weekend! First, it was the weekend before Robert's birthday (the last weekend in May) and second, our good friend Papu was in town for work. Papu is one of Scott's closest friends from Helena. He used to run a board shop in Helena and has recently been doing some freelance work for another Helena friend, Dave, who lives in San Fran. The company that Dave works for, Facebook, was going through a big market launch and Papu was in town helping out. We were so excited to have him here as we haven't seen him since Xmas and he's always so fun to hang out with. It was great to see him!

The other great part of the weekend was that Robert and Liza were able to come to town, see Papu, and we celebrated Robert's birthday early.

Thursday night was the annual Spring Show for the Academy of Art...this is the night that undergrads show off select pieces of work they've worked on all year long and grad students get to show off their portfolios in hopes of being hired for a job. The Spring Show is always so fun and it's great to see all the different styles of art come together, from fashion to graphic design to illustration to sculpture.

Friday night we met Papu, Dave, Dave's girlfriend and friend/co-worker Nate out at a club. It was fun, but a little too crowded for our taste. The dance floor needed to be bigger, but it would have been nice as a VIP if we would have gotten to sit on the nice cooshy couches.












Saturday night was when Robert and Liza came into town and we took them to eat at a cluster of restaurants that is located down a cute alleyway in SF...one of our favorite eating spots. It's very European and there are 6 restaurants of different styles all located down one block with lights strung between the buildings and plenty of outside tables for a romantic feel. After dinner we headed to a house party at our friend Stefan's. He has monthly themed house parties and they are always a blast. The theme of the night was color by numbers...wear your favorite color and/or number. His roommate is in a band and they even set up in the dining room area and played some music for us. Poor neighbors! :)

Here are some pics of the weekend events - the four boys: Papu, Nate, Dave and Scott
















At dinner on Saturday night -















Scott and the boys playing around on Friday while poor me was at work all day! Nice glasses Bono! Nice Hooters Papu

















Some pics from the party at Stefan's - gotta love the Homer/Married with Children look that Papu and Robert pulled off on the couch. It was Scott's brilliant idea to get a mini-keg for the party, cuz it was cooler than carrying a bottle of wine I guess.

More hiking in Folsom

Another great weekend with Robert and Liza! A weekend in mid-May...one that Robert wasn't in Minneapolis for work (which happens often with projects for his job at the California ISO)...we went to visit the happy couple. They recently got a Nintendo Wii and since we've never been gaming nerds, Scott and I were thrilled to give it a try. It was actually really fun, and addicting of course, and we played into the wee hours of Saturday morning.

After getting some sleep, we woke up and went on an awesome hike to a place called Clementine Dam...one of the many hikes in their hiking trail book. Between the four of us and our 3 hiking books, we hope to cross off all the hikes in the next few of years. Maybe minus the really hard expert ones, unless of course I get in better shape. :) But we always manage to find cool new places to go and Scott and Robert had fun playing with Scott's new slingshot. It's as if we're babysitting sometimes, but it's still a blast!

After our hike, we got rested and cleaned up and headed to a yummy local sushi restaurant. Then it was off for some bowling and pool at a local bar. We haven't been bowling in so long so it was fun...but so embarrassing for me cuz I'm sooo bad! I think I barely bowled a 50 the second game. I definitely don't take after my grama, who used to be a bowling champ.

Hike in Half Moon Bay

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written anything! My last post was in April....I guess we've been so busy since then that I haven't gotten around to actually posting anything. Back in May during a nice weekend, Scott and I pulled out our "100 Hikes in the Bay Area" book and flipped open to a few hikes that are close by. We went over to Half Moon Bay which is across the penninsula from San Mateo. It was a really nice weekend, although during the hike it was a bit breezy as are most coastal spots. There were also lots of sea lions just hanging out enjoying the sun! They were so cute and the California wildlife rescue was actually at one of the beaches releasing a baby back into the wild. It had gotten lost and it's mama had died so they nursed it back to health and were releasing it close to its friends and other family.

It was our first official hike of the season and as work has been slowing down for me (and is usually pretty mellow during the summer months), we will hopefully be doing a lot more of the hikes in our book - crossing them off one by one.

The way all weekends should be...

Happy Easter everyone! Last weekend was a great weekend to get out of the house. It's been off and on rainy, but in between it's really sunny and nice. One of the best reasons for living here is the weather for sure! It was about 75 with just a little breeze. Scott and I took the bikes out for a spin on Sunday. We wanted to explore the riding trail by our house and actually found out that it's part of a huge network of trails in the Bay Area that were built a long time ago. The trail by our house goes right by the lake that comes off of the bay on the East side of our complex. We took a ride along part of the trail, stopped to get a Jamba Juice (which is my biggest addiction since moving here - it's all about smoothies and juices in any flavor you could possible want), and rode on to a park that we discovered not too long ago. The park has tennis and basketball courts, softball fields and a jungle gym for kids. We attempted to play some tennis for awhile, which was a good workout, but I definitely need more practice. Then we threw around a softball for awhile so that I could break in my new mitt. I seem to have lost my old one in the move from SJ. I swore as soon as I bought a new one I'd find the old one. Still no luck yet, but my new one works just fine. I still play volleyball every week (my team plays all year round) but softball just recently started and I have to practice. Extending daylight savings time and making summer seem longer was the best idea the government has ever had. :)

Hope your Easter weekend was relaxing, fun and spent with loved ones. The end. For now.

Out and about in SF

I really should have posted this awhilw ago, as we went out with our friends Sara and Dave a few weeks ago, but here goes anyway. It was a nice weekend...a little rainy but still nice. We started out the Saturday by going to a Wedding Expo and learning that if you want to get entered into the good drawings for free stuff, you gotta go early! We missed out on all the free giveaways...they were having tons of drawings on stuff like free tux rentals, free wedding gowns, free honeymoon vacays and free tanning. Well, we know for next time and we still have a lot of time to sign up for free stuff! Anyway, we also did some shopping for cameras. Scott got a killer deal on a nice camera which he has needed for some time and will use a ton for completing his thesis and probably much more after graduation with his artwork. I wasn't shopping for anything but couldn't pass up a good deal on a small digital camera for my purse. My last one that I got from Scott as a present 3 years ago finally gave up on me....well it probably would have helped if I hadn't dropped it one too many times. But I finally have a replacement that is small enough to take anywhere.

After these adventures, we met up with Sara and her boyfriend Dave for a nice dinner and movie date in the city. It was really nice to see them as we haven't hung out as much since Scott moved away from the city. Sara went to school with Scott in Helena and moved to SF to get her Master's in Visual Effects at the Academy of Art. She graduated last year and helped Scott find a place to live when he first moved here. They lived 2 blocks from each other in the city. So, it was nice to hang out again and dinner was awesome...at one of our favorite places called the Bell Tower. My dad would love the steak with blue-cheese butter and horseradish scalloped potatoes. :) Mmmmmm. That's one thing I really love about living here is that there are just soooo many great places to eat. If it was up to me and I had an unlimited budget and a metabolism like I did in high school, I would eat out every day! Me love food.

Anyway, here are some pics of us at a local bar, getting a cocktail before the movie. We were testing out my new camera. It has this spiffy feature called vibration reduction that allows you to take a picture with no flash and it turns out pretty good. All these pictures were taken without a flash in a very dark environment, a little blury but they still turned out. Not bad little camera.

Clubbing in SF

Well, I'd been itching to get out to a club and go dancing in the city for quite some time. We hardly ever go to the techno clubs in SF because it just costs too much moolah. Most of the good ones are about $20 cover charge and $8-$12 drinks once you get in the door. But, I was just too excited to go and really needed to get out dancing! So we invited Robert and Liza down for the weekend to take them to my favorite club...Ruby Skye. It has 2 levels and a separate lounge area with pool tables and lots of seating. They also have a huge screen for light shows, go-go dancers on boxes and behind cages, and the coolest architecture inside on the ceilings and walls. It is also the place where the biggest DJs in the world come to play. Liza had never been to a techno club before, but like me, she loves to dance. We had dinner at one of our favorite sushi restaurants and then walked the few blocks to the club. We all had a great time and danced some pounds away...even the boys. One thing about clubs like that, though, is that no matter what type of music you're into, you just can't help but get on the dance floor with everyone else and dance it up. It's so addicting, not to mention a great workout. Too bad bottles of water cost $6!

Anyway, we also had a fun time (during daylight hours) golfing at a par 3 course near our house. It's a fun and cheap way to spend a nice sunny day. Robert always kicks butt at golf, so he won of course. Scott should really quit betting him things when we play against him. :)