You are my sunshine

How cute are these?!

image: Etsy

Words to start the week with

I feel like everyone in the whole world is stressed right now, so let's all just remember this:

Let the commute begin

Nick is going to start working in another state! He will be an engineering lead on a project down in Portland, Ore. so he'll be flying out Monday morning and then back Thursday evening. Even though I'll only see him on weekends until July, it's really great for his career so I'm proud of him.

I'll just have to cook extra tasty meals on the weekends for him!


image: Flickr

Busy week...

time to relax.

image: She Hit Pause

Spain...on the road again

I finally caught an episode of "Spain...on the road again" with Mario Batali and Gwenyth Paltrow last night. I saw them on Oprah a few months ago and on their show they drive around Spain and eat!

Their website also has a lot of fun video clips, pictures and recipes if you've missed the show. They seem like a fun pair and I would have loved to have been in the backseat of their car.

It's a tough job, but someones got to do it - sign me up! I'll take Italy!!

image: Spain...on the road again

Go Meghan and Brynn - team in training!

A huge shout out goes to my friends Meghan and Brynn who are training for their first half marathon and raising money for a great cause while they do it!

They will be running the Seattle Rock N' Roll Half Marathon on June 27 and are training for it through an organization called Team In Training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a wonderful organization.

Leukemia is a malignancy of the blood-forming tissues – bone marrow, lymph nodes and spleen. It appears as uncontrolled multiplication of abnormal blood cells. It is estimated that leukemia and its related cancers will strike over 100,000 Americans this year alone.

Check out both of their websites and good luck to the both of them!

Meghan's site

Brynn's site

A new take on coffee

Just in time for the summer - new ice cream flavors from Starbucks based on our favorite drinks! Now we just need a little more sunshine here.

image: Vogue

Week/Weekend recap

Busy, busy!!

I've finally got a chance to recap on what's been going on lately. Last Thursday Katy and I hosted Bunco at my place. I love our Bunco group so much, but I have yet to win any prizes!

On Friday a group of us went out to celebrate Brynn's 25th birthday! We went to dinner at the Matador in Ballard and then out to Del Mar and Kings. Here's to another wonderful year, Brynn!

On Saturday, we watched the Huskies get kicked out of the NCAA basketball tournament, by two points!!! Aside from losing, watching the game was fun because of group of friends went to the Duchess, which is a popular UW alumni spot so we saw a lot of people we knew, which was fun. The rest of the weekend I celebrated my mom's birthday and watched movies.

The sad news is that last Monday we had to put our 11 year old family cat, Slick, to sleep. He was just the sweetest thing ever, had a love for tomatoes, his catnip mouse and Whole Foods Organic Cat Grass. Needless to say last week was really sad and I know that Missy (our other cat) misses her brother.

San Francisco day 4

For our last day, we did a ton more walking, all through the Embarcadero and then went over to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch at Scoma's. I had a cup of lobster bisque soup, crab salad and chocolate cake - really good!

We then went over to the Palace of the Fine Arts and walked around Marina District, Pacific Heights and Fillmore Street area. Such cute houses and little shops, I loved that area!

Such a wonderful city and I am ready to go back! Next time: bike across the Golden Gate bridge!

San Francisco day 3

On Sunday, we did a tour through Napa and Sonoma. It was a really good tour, and obviously it was nice to have someone drive so we could enjoy the sites and wine!

Our first stop was the Madonna Estate/Mont St. John in Napa which was an all organic winery.

After that, we went into downtown Sonoma square for lunch, such a cute little town! We also did cheese tasting at a cheese shop. Two of my favorite things, cheese and wine!

The next winery was Viansa Winery & Marketplace and it was so pretty! In fact, an NFL player was getting married there that day and the wait for a June wedding was three years! Our last stop was Cline Cellars and then across the Golden Gate bridge back into SF.

For dinner, we went to an excellent restaurant called Osha Thai that was recommended by my friend Katie. The since it was our last night in the city, we took a night walk down Market Street over to the Ferry building.

San Francisco day 2

On Saturday morning we took the cable car from our hotel to the Fisherman's Wharf and walked through there and got some breakfast and then took a 9:00 a.m. ferry over to Alcatraz. Seeing the island was really cool and I learned a lot. I am glad we did the earliest tour because by the time we left, it was packed!

After the boat brought us back, we walk around the Wharf area and then went over to Pier 33 and had a sourdough bread bowl and clam chowder at Boudin's, yum! Of course, we also had to have a chocolate sundae at Ghirardelli's! After we walk around, we took the cable car up to Lombard Street and then walked down.

When we got down to Union Square, there were all these men and women dressed up as brides and we found out it was a large pub crawl called the Brides of March. After that, we walked all around Union Square and went into the stores.

For dinner, we heard of a restaurant in North Beach called Tomasso's. It was a 45 minute wait, but it was well worth it, really great pizza!!

San Francisco day 1

Our plane got into San Francisco at about 9:00 a.m. on a Friday and even though it was an early morning, it was nice to have the full day there.

Our hotel was called Parc 55 and it was a great location, right by the Powell Street cable car turn around. We went to a dim sum restaurant called Yank Sing that was highly recommended by my parents and travel books. It was in the financial district so after were were done with our great meal, we walked over to the Ferry building and then wondered around the Embarcadero, Chinatown, Little Italy, Grace Cathedral and the cable car museum and did tons of walking just seeing the city.

For dinner we went to a nice Italian restaurant called Kuleto's which was close to the hotel.