all done!

the night steve and i got back from utah we got together w/our puzzle crew and finished the hippie puzzle!!!

Happy pioneer day!

Betsy and I are in the great state of Utah to celebrate her mom's birthday. It also happens to be pioneer day which apparently is a big deal. We went to a parade and saw tons of horses and people dressed as pioneers. I didn't take any photos but you get the idea. Way to remember your ancestors Allie!

The Grand Parade of Sail

At lunch today I walked over to the Ferry Building to check the tall ships out.



All 32 tall ships will be docked in SF all weekend and you can go aboard and check them out. I felt like I was in the movie Goonies watching them all go by...except I was with our VP of Finance, not Sloth or Chunk.

Klean Kanteen

So this guy at work has been telling me that if I keep drinking out of my Nalgene bottle, I'm going to die from the plastic that is constantly leaching into the water. True or not I decided to pick up a Klean Kanteen because:

1) Cute
2) No plastic death chemicals
3) Makes me feel like I'm camping in my office
4) Easy to clean
5) Fits ice cubes
6) Cute

Puzzling

We've been totally addicted to jigsaw puzzling lately. I know...maybe you think it's a pastime more fitting of an 80 year old couple but we love it. The McMillan's love it too which makes us feel a little less silly about our new passion. You know who hates puzzling? Shawn & Robyn (I think the pressure gets to them). Here's our latest endeavour. Steve has deemed it the "Hippie Puzzle" because the design is a little bit free-lovin, americana on acid. Turns out it's SUPER challenging.

I'd love to join an online social networking nerd site for people who love puzzles. Our last puzzle we posted about was 550 pieces and this one is 1000! Does anyone know the best place to buy puzzles?

Alemany Farmer's Market

Normally Steve and I hit up the Ferry Building Farmer's Market every Saturday morning. We love the atmosphere at the Ferry Building...we love the specialty foods...the breakfast sandwiches...it's in our neighborhood after all...but we never leave with much produce. It's super expensive and while I agree that it's good to support local farmers, I can't help but think that cutting out the middleman should lower the prices a tiny bit. The other weekend Nate & Courtney were talking about the Alemany Farmer's Market that they like to frequent. Saturday morning we met them there bright and early and had a great time! It's not as snobberific as the Ferry Building (I can say that b/c I love the Ferry Building Farmer's Market with all my heart), but it was fantastic! Everything a farmer's market should be!

Here's Courtney and me about to embark on our journey into the market.

Courtney was a total pro...not intimidated at all by all the crazy produce.
Steve and Nate however were totally intimidated and confused about this item. Turns out it's called a bitter melon. Seriously it is...the lady in the teddy bear jacket told us so. When we asked the vendors what certain things were and how you'd cook them the generic answer we kept getting was "chop it up!!! stir fry!!! stir fry!!!"
Steve wouldn't let me buy beets. I love beets.
We didn't buy any flowers but we should have.
Steve and I ended up focusing on homemade salsa ingredients.
Nate and Courtney bought lots of produce and went crazy and bought some fish.
We didn't even miss our standard Saturday morning breakfast sandwich because there was a vendor cooking up freshly made pupusas to order. The best I've ever tasted. Like wow delicious (Jeremy, you'll flip your lid when you try them).
The best part about going to the Alemany Farmer's Market is that you can play the game called "See how much you can get for $10." This was our haul from Saturday. Can you believe it!? We even gave 1/2 the bunch of lemongrass we bought to the Grover's. Does anyone know how to use lemongrass?

musical theater

Last night we had the pleasure of seeing A Chorus Line here in San Francisco. What a great show. The first 20 minutes of dancing and the last 10 minutes of dancing are probably my most favorite moments in musical theater ever. So great.



Dancer bodies are the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I seriously couldn't stop staring. Not in a "hubba-hubba" kinda way, just in a "I'm in awe" kinda way.

Cilantro Lime Yumminess

This is my favorite marinade right now for chicken. Be sure to make extra for dipping!


Cilantro Lime Marinade/Dressing
In your Cuisinart blend blend blend...
1/2 C Olive Oil
1/4 C Lime Juice
1/4 C Orange Juice
2 cloves garlic
1 T honey
1 C packed cilantro
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 T crushed red pepper flakes (optional, but we love it)

We cut chicken breasts into chunks and marinade it for a couple of hours in a large ziplock then skewer up the chicken and grill on our outdoor BBQ. Served with a variety of veggie kabobs and a crusty loaf of french bread, it makes the perfect summertime dinner.

not the best idea

So it's not the best idea to finish off a weekend that you spent being sick most of the time, holed up in your apartment, missing fun activities with all your friends by watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Oh my gosh. I think I cried 8x during last night's two hour episode. The best part was Steve sitting next to me on the couch working on his thesis laughing at my uncontrollable water works. I can't help it if I'm tender-hearted and his heart is made of ice.

score

Steve and I appreciate a good Hostess 100 calorie snack pack every now and then. I grabbed one out of our cabinet as I was rushing to work yesterday morning and when my stomach started grumbling at 10am I reached into my purse and pulled this out. What's the big deal you ask? Normally these only have 3 little baby sized cakes in them. I scored 4 this time around. I do believe this would count as false advertising.

4th of July

We celebrated this 4th of July with our good friends Liz & Jeremy.
Did we go watch a parade? Nope. Did we BBQ? Nope. Did we watch fireworks? Nope. We decided to go a little less traditional and see a movie instead of a parade! Liz & Jer took us to see Get Smart (I benefited from Steve's birthday present too, thanks guys!) and we all loved it. To top it all off, Liz & Jer brought a bag full of Japanese candy they had brought home from Japan that morning!

After the movie we made our next less traditional decision to order pizza for dinner instead of BBQing (totally delicious choice). Our last less traditional decision was to work on the hard sky part of the Fenway Park puzzle we borrowed from our neighbors Andy and Emily instead of braving the fog and cold to find fireworks. The mood was light at first...
Then the pressure started to take it's toll on Jeremy...
Here Steve is trying to rally Jeremy back into action.
In the end we finished the puzzle and had a great time with our friends!

favorite flower today

Dahlia's are my favorite flower today. Especially this variety I picked up at Whole Foods last week.