Dogfest!

On Saturday, the weather was beautiful, the first real pretty weekend day since I've been here, so Paul and I took advantage of it my going to the Duboce Park DogFest, a fundraiser for a local elementary school, and a friend's BBQ in the Mission District. I've posted a few pics: 1) Paul and I with Biker Babe (name was on her shirt), who was worn out after a long day at the park, 2) a self portrait where Paul was too busy looking at a passing bus (transit geek), 3) a dog up for adoption who could perform the best tricks, 4) and all of the bikes lined up at the BBQ house, such a different lifestyle here (picking up my bike from the store on May 8th!), and 5) me walking up one of the many hills here :)

Two quick things- I have not worn heels in 4 weeks, nor have I carried a regular purse. Flats and over-the-shoulder satchels are the way to go here, so when we get back from our honeymoon (yay!!), I plan to do a bit of shopping :)

Smart Car!

So, we have all laughed at the little Smart Cars on the road, the little "toy cars". Well, I decided to rent on on Thursday to see what driving one was like. Diana, a friend of ours from France that went to Berkeley with Paul and is in town visiting and to come to our wedding, came with me on my adventure. We had the best time, and you know what, when you are behind the wheel and on the interstate, you don't really realize you are in such a small car relative to your peers on the road. We drove north of the Bay up to Point Reyes National Seashore, and the weather was amazing! On the way back, we drove up Divisadero Street from the Marina, and the Smart Car was put to the test. This section of street is some of the steepest in San Francisco, so that combined with how the car shifts gears made for quite a jerky experience, particularly since there was a stop sign at each crest and cross street. I wanted so much to share the experience with someone but Diana was asleep! She acted like she took a flight across the Atlantic the day before or something :)

My Go Car Adventure!

Last week, I saw these cute little go-cart like cars going down Market Street and knew that is something I wanted to do. So yesterday I rented one! The company is called Go Car and has locations in San Diego, Miami, Barcelona, and Lisbon. I had a fantastic time and the weather was beautiful! When I first got to the rental place near Union Square, I got really nervous. The guy placed me in front of a safety video and then disappeared for a while. I was so worried I was going to forget something since I was going by myself. Before I knew it, I had a helmet on, he tested my car for me, and I was on my way! I really wanted to avoid Market Street altogether, but in order for the GPS-guided tour to work, I had to go on Market Street a short stretch to get to Embarcadero. Imagine this- me in this little car surrounded by taxis and big buses! I was super careful and cautious, and it was a huge relief to get to the Embarcadero. I ended up driving all the way up Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf, to Fort Mason, Ocean Beach, Fort Point and Golden Gate Bridge, the expensive and beautiful Sea Cliff's neighborhood, and along Golden Gate Park. Along the way, I had several people point and smile at me and others offer to take pictures for me. It was so much fun! I was supposed to be gone only two hours, but I somehow managed to miss my turn and continued along the tour for awhile before I realized it. Luckily, I was in somewhat familiar territory and knew how to cut back to downtown in time to return my car. I would highly recommend this adventure for any tourist and plan on doing it with my parents when they visit in September. The only other problem I had with the car, besides the fact that it didn't go faster than 30 mph (had to let people pass a few times) was that it wasn't made to reverse. I forgot about this at one stop and had to get out and push it backwards several feet. The instructions also warn that on some hills, if you go off the route, you may have to push the car if you have two people in the car :)

Paul and his projects

When Paul isn't working on wedding stuff for me, he is constantly searching for projects to do around the apartment, and I literally mean he walks around the apartment scheming his next move and hardware store purchase. This past weekend he weather stripped the windows and put up shelves to the left of the heater among other things. We also recently hung a curtain in the turret to keep out the cold air (the rafters are exposed, causing a vacuum effect), so the turret is officially Paul's "man's room" and I have no authority there :) This picture is of Paul sipping his favorite beverage while admiring his work. Glad he likes to do projects around the house, everything except laundry and organizing his papers, which I don't mind doing most of the time, so it evens out :)

Weekend Happenings

Well, the weather wasn't the best this past weekend, so we got a lot of errand running done and things around the apartment, including an evening of wedding work (Paul was rewarded by an hour-long run/walk to Golden Gate Park, which was a bit tough for me but thrilling for him :). On Saturday night, we went to this hole-in-the-wall place just south of Market Street to hear one of his old co-workers sing with her band. We had the best time! The drinks were pretty cheap and the atmosphere was very casual, so it made for a great night. Rain was determined to fall all day on Sunday, but we still got up and went to volunteer at Sunday Streets, a program that shuts down different streets each time for pedestrians, cyclists, etc. This time the beachfront road and others near Golden Gate Park were shut down, and Paul and I helped with setup, which meant we walked a couple of miles in the rain placing police barricades and signs. Our reward was lunch coupons for a taco truck near the ocean :) The picture above is me with two jackets on underneath my orange Sunday Streets shirt, and the lump that makes my rear end look huge is my GT bookbag, so definitely not my best look :) The event is a great idea, one we will have to try again when the weather is better!!

Scavengers!

People are scavengers here, who knew?? It is amazing. For example, I posted 8 of my moving boxes on Craigslist on a weekday during the middle of the day, and in a matter of 15 minutes, I had two requests to pick them up. Another example is that I put an old duffel bag with a broken handle and Paul's old twin comforter just outside our place by the trash bin, gone in 30 minutes! Perhaps it's because people move around a lot out here? Who knows. Paul has scavenged too, pretty sure his dresser and the Schweppes shelves (which are going to be out on the curb this week!) were free and found on the street, and the 2 bookshelves in our dining room space were only $20 :)

Public Parks in Private Spaces

By some law or ordinance (Paul knows all the details), there is a requirement for certain buildings to provide public space, so I set out on a tour of some of the more popular sites, including a 15th floor terrace on Sansome Street and a beautiful park with redwood trees right beside the Transamerica Pyramid. I spent over an hour on the terrace, reading and drinking a coffee treat in the sun and then about half an hour in the park by the Pyramid. What a great requirement!

More walking, SF Architecture

So, I did a lot more walking this week, over 13 miles total! After my downtown walk, I decided to walk from our place through the Castro neighborhood through to Noe Valley, which is a super cute neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants, kind of like the Highlands. One incredibly steep hill on that walk and then I encountered another one on my walk on California Street to downtown, on which I saw a huge church (thought the mega churches in Atlanta were big!). Along the way, I took pictures of some the houses around town. Such a different style out here!

Such great natural light in our place!

Since I've had the chance to be home during the day a bit, I've gotten to witness the great natural light our place receives, particularly through our big main window in the living room. You can tell I was home during the 4 o'clock hour because of who is on the TV screen :)

Downtown Walking Adventure

So, in the mornings the last several weekdays, I have been coming to a coffee shop right down the hill from our place to work on final wedding planning, job searching, etc. With the weather being so nice yesterday, I decided to devote my afternoon to exploring in downtown San Francisco. I took the bus to Paul's office and set out on foot through Chinatown, to Coit Tower, down to Pier 39 to say hello to the sea lions, all the way down the Embarcadero to the Ferry Terminal and all the way up Market Street to Paul's office, a 3-hour endeavor with a few short breaks. Along the way I took a few pictures, including one above which looks like a group of flying to-go boxes (upon a closer look, actually books). I treated myself to a Starbucks treat on my way back up Market Street and was looking forward to stopping back by Paul's office to grab the coffee maker we recently received from our registry and head home on the bus. Well, that wasn't exactly what was in store for me. There was a big accident on Market Street involving a bus (don't think anyone was hurt) that kept the buses backed up for over an hour. I had already picked up the coffee maker when I realized the bus was not coming, and, since I really wanted to get home, I tried looking at my transit map to find an alternate way home and ended up walking through kind of a rough neighborhood. It's ok during the day, so I was fine, but I know never to go there at night!! To avoid looking like a tourist in that rough area, I didn't pull my map out again for quite some time, so my coffee maker and I ended up way north of my intended destination and had to cut several blocks south once I figured out where I was. I to tried and catch the bus again near city hall, but still no bus scheduled for a long time, so back several blocks north and homeward before a bus finally came, whew!! Made it home in time to give away my backing boxes to a girl who is moving to our neighborhood and then cleaned up for dinner in Noe Valley with my friend Suz. Definitely earned that big guacamole burger after walking for 4 hours!! At least it was nice weather :)

Dinner at author Michael Pollan's House!

The one thing we did do over the weekend besides unpack boxes was go to a dinner with a group of Paul's grad school friends. His friends Megan and Andy occasionally house sit for their neighbor in Berkeley, who happens to be author Michael Pollan. He wrote Omnivore's Dilemma, Food 101, etc., and has an awesome house with incredible views!! See Paul above in Michael's office by his fancy Mac. It was great to catch up with some of Paul's friends I had met before and to meet some new people. We also got to play with the new Apple iPad. I had to wipe the drool off Paul's face!! :)

My stuff has arrived!!

This past week was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we retrieved all of my belongings from an ABF shipping facility in Oakland. Paul arranged for several of his friends to help us out, which was great!! His friend Michael went with us to Oakland in a U-Haul truck and we unloaded everything assembly-line style from the shipping container into the truck, dropped Michael off at his house in Oakland, then fought a bit of traffic to get back to our apartment in time to meet 3 other guys. One guy was like 6'4" and named Magnus, what an appropriate name! When he was behind me on the stairs, I felt obligated to take the steps two at a time. Big mistake, was super sore on Saturday. Anyway, it only took about 45 minutes for us to unload everything out of the truck and up 40+ stairs, not bad! 10 of those minutes were spent trying to get my box spring up to our place. Near our apartment, the ceiling drops and the stairs are real narrow, which created a bit of a problem. The guys were ready to give up, but Paul wasn't. After about 4 different angles, multiple shoves and a bit of paint off the wall, we finally managed to get it up the stairs, whew!!

Well, you saw the before picture, and above is the after picture!! Lots of boxes. Also a picture of Paul playing with (trying to consolidate) my packing paper. We actually managed to unpack almost everything over the weekend due to the fact that it rained a lot and neither Paul or I are good at sitting still. Such a relief and accomplishment!

Ultimate, not Frisbee

I was a bit hesitant about trying it at first since I have never played in an organized game before, but decided to go for it. I played in my first ultimate game last night and had a really good time other than the fact that it was freezing outside and I was ill prepared (need to get some more athletic pants). Paul plays on another c0-ed team, but you know what, the league is supposed to be for beginners and I think I should report him :) He was playing on another field, so it was me and my new friends on Field 2 last night at Golden Gate Park. We had about 4 girls and 5 guys, which was good because you need 7 to play and that allowed me to sit out at first so I could learn some of the lingo from one of my teammates. He was very quick to correct me about calling the game Frisbee. Evidently, like Kleenex, Frisbee is a brand name for the disc and is often incorrectly used to refer to the game of Ultimate. I am to call the game Ultimate from now on, not Frisbee or Ultimate Frisbee, if I want to be respected. Another take away from the evening was that I need to sprint more to build up my cardio (elliptical machine is just not going to cut it anymore). My team lauded me for doing well in my first game (really just ran around, not a lot of disc action) and for being a relatively fast runner, but man, was I hurting on the inside! My teammates are super nice and welcoming, so I look forward to playing more and getting better! Paul said he would help me, pray for his patience as I try to learn to throw different ways. . .

The apartment, before Catherine's stuff arrives. . .

Paul did a really good job cleaning up our place and preparing it for my arrival, but we definitely have more bikes and plants than we have furniture (Paul loves, I mean loves plants, there is even one in the bathroom already!), and when we watch TV, one of us is in a lawn chair and the other in a stadium chair :) Paul also loves hooks, which is great when it comes to maximizing space in our small kitchen. Our mattress is on the floor currently, and one real mark of Paul's bachelorhood is the Schweppes shelves he is currently using in our bedroom to store some of his clothes (those shelves will mysteriously disappear very soon). I have posted a few pictures above, including one of the now blank wall that will soon have all of my boxes lined up on it!

Presidio and Nicest Starbucks Ever!

I went to the Presidio today for a job interview and wow, what a piece of Paradise here in the city!! A brief bit of history from the Presidio website: "The Presidio of San Francisco is a 1,491-acre national park site and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Presidio was in continuous use as a military post from 1776 to 1994, spanning the Spanish, Mexican, and United States periods."

So, I had a bit of time to kill before my interview, and lucky for me, I saw a sign that said a Starbucks was close by, so of course I had to check it out (love coffee). Well, it wasn't just any Starbucks, it was the nicest one I had ever been in!! It has superior furniture, including a chaise lounge chair, and floor to ceiling windows with an incredible view of part of the Presidio leading down to the water. I was in heaven!!