Birthday Celebration

So, we have been trying some great restaruarnts

For my birthday I got extremely spoiled. First up was dinner the weekend before my birthday at Alice Water's Chez Panisse Cafe restaurant. We were up at the University of California, Davis while my boy took a brewing class. On the way home on Saturday we stopped in Berkley to pick up a Spanish clay cooking pot (ours broke) and ended up trying to see if we could get into Chez Panisse. Well, after a 20minute wait we were in. The food while simple and made of local ingridents was just fabulous. So much flavor in a simple dish. I could taste almost all of the ingredients. We book had a nice night out.

Next, on my birthday (Wednesday) we headed to Absinthe. The Chef, Jamie, was on next top chef a season or two ago and for the last 5 years here in SF I have wanted to stop in. I made reservations, we pre-partied at our house and then headed down to this neighborhood restaruant. Again our meal was fabulous. Even my picky boy was happy!

recipes

My mom came into town this weekend. We celebrated her birthday with a trip to Boulevard! It is a restaurant here in San Francisco I have been wanting to try since we moved to the city 5 years ago. I have to say ... I was not so impressed. I still really enjoyed Aqua (5 years ago) and Absinthe!

Anyhow, I especially am excited to record some of the recipes my mom made for us!

First off:
Asparagus Salad

Dressing over shaved asparagus and salad.
grated cheese + 1 lemon + warm water + olive oil and S&P

Back at Blogging

I have been so un-inspired lately... geeze what is the deal? But today I ran across a favorite blog that came back to the blogging world!! Feather! Who has just launch a iphone app! How fabulous is that!! Check it out here:

Haven't you ever thought to you self.... (Feather's moto):
If you’ve ever checked the forecast and wished the weatherman would just tell you what to wear, Feather Report is your place. Each day, to prepare you for the work week, Feather Report breaks down the forecast into style inspiration that actually makes sense.

Sleep

I had to dedicate a post to my man's sleeping habits... they are quite unique...

Check out some of the images I have been capturing.... He falls asleep everywhere ...

(out to dinner with friends)

(on a very bumpy bus ride in the south of Italy)

You can see why I drive... he falls asleep on the way to and home from work... even when driving...

(coming home from work)

Hilarious ... Right?.....

Car Problems...

Oh boy... was I tested... Yesterday afternoon I dropped my man off at the airport (he has some business in Europe this week)... on the way home a werid light come on in our car... I first thought no way... can it wait for hubby to get home??? I stopped and check our book (car manual) and found out one of our tires had low tire pressure....

I stopped at a gas station filled the tire with air and checked the air pressure with the attached Gauge! Yeah!!.... All with just the help from my mom via the east coast!

Anyhow, in complete denial that anything was really wrong with the tire, i drove home and expected to fill the tire with air all week until hubby got home ! (big Grin)!

Well, to my surprise (not really)... the tire was completely flat this morning. I found out our Ford Roadside Assistance was no more... called the insurance company... had someone come out and put the spare tire on the car.... (oh believe me I tried to change it myself... but the new cars and an SUV has some specialties that my old sedan did not have... i.e I could not just pull out the spare tire from the trunk and attached it to the car... plus, the car is sooo big now! crazy!

(flat tire getting a donut)

Anyhow, I drove it to the dealer and they fix me all up! Accomplishment! CHEER!!!

back to home decorating

Okay, so I really need to finish what I set out to do this year on our house.

Here are a few things I am thinking about:
1. Kitchen (paint cabinets)?
2. Hall Closets (redesign or paint)?
3. Guest Bathroom (paint vanity)?
4. Hardwood the rest of our living/dining space
5. Buy some 'key pieces' of furniture for the living / dining space
6. hmmmm... I am sure there are more

So, why these things... I have to say I HATE our cabinets (wood work) + Black granite counters in the kitchen and bathrooms... We live in a condo in the city and they basically bought a whole lotta cabinetery and just plopped it everywhere. I personally do not like the honey color and I especially do not like the honey color with the black granite.

I love this color for the vanity in our Guest Bathroom:

I have see a few great ideas on Urban Grace Interiors and I love this Kitchen it is such a great makeover. I already have the black granite countertops and the overall color skeem goes with the rest of our place!

Recap ... Mt. Shasta

Okay so we did it! It was crazy tough but so rewarding....

(the crew at the summit)

It was a lot of fun (now that we are down, breathing regularly, rested and fed)! We really thought this was a great climbing group.

(11:30pm Saturday wake up: went to bed at 7:30pm Saturday)

Route Details:
Bunny Flats trail head (6,950') to Horse Camp (7,800') to Hidden Valley overnight camp spot (9,200') up West Face Gully (portions were up to 40o slope) across top portion of the Whitney Glacier to Misery Hill to Summit Platue (snow field) to the summit (14,162)
The saw a Lake at about 13,000 ft called Sisson Lake, just beautiful.

(Shadow of the mountain over the landscape as the sun rose)

We were so tired on the way down everyone had stated they were giving up climbing and camping for awhile. We ate dinner, crashed for the night and by the time morning and our final drive home came around everyone had a new mountain to add to the 'what mountain should we do next' list! Funny!