rainy-day food

The rain. It's been pouring here on and off for the past couple of days. I don't mind the rain, especially when I have access to good rainy-day food. On this particularly soggy Saturday afternoon, I pulled on my rubber boots and raincoat and made the short journey over to Ramen Izakaya Goku for lunch with my parents. We shared spicy chicken wings and then I basically dove face-first into a bowl of clam garlic ramen. Terrific. Just the thing to stave off the chill. Now off to curl up on the couch with a book. Happy Saturday!

spring break

Spring break. No travel this year because I was moving out of my apartment, going to a wedding in the Salinas Valley, and then moving into another apartment but I did have a nice vacation staying with my parents in San Francisco. I cooked, did a bit of shopping, visited a museum, got a pedicure, went for runs through Noe Valley, chopped my hair off, saw a movie, and went to a couple of restaurants I'd never visited before. Pretty good stuff.

We do the walk-through of our new apartment on Sunday. It's been pouring rain here, so I'm crossing my fingers that we get a break in the weather when we're trying to move our mattress in. It's going to be a busy week.

savor the calm

It was Daniel's birthday this past Wednesday. Things have been busy so we didn't do anything elaborate; but on Saturday we drove up to Napa and had a proper birthday dinner with Daniel's parents. When we woke up Sunday morning, we were treated to the view of brilliantly colored hot air balloons rising up over the hills. Lovely and relaxing. I feel like we must be in the eye of the storm right now - we have our apartment situation settled but we haven't yet moved - so I'm doing my best to savor the calm when and where I can get it.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and enjoyed some sunshine. 

a place that felt right

I was going through old photos on my computer the other day, trying to delete some to clear up space on my hard drive. When I came across this one, I had no memory whatsoever of taking it and it didn't really seem to fit in with the photos around it, which were of pumpkin waffles. It clearly was taken at our old apartment in San Francisco, but that's where my knowledge ends. So I can't remember the context or why I decided to snap the photo, but here it is. This sort of thing has been happening to me not irregularly since I'm moving and therefore going through lots of drawers, unearthing things.

Moving is always hard and this has been no exception. Everywhere you go you hear stories about how atrocious the San Francisco rental market is, so I was really dreading the process. We had a lot of things we needed in an apartment (place to park two cars, lots of storage, central enough for both Daniel to get to work in Marin and me to get to school in Palo Alto, large enough for two people to live in without murdering each other) and then several things we wanted (hardwood floors, good light, nice kitchen, pet friendly) and, of course, limits on how much we could spend. I spent the past few weeks combing Craigslist, driving up to see places that were, for the most part, wholly unsuitable, and then crying on the phone to my mother.

But.

Last weekend, I finally found a place that felt right and after several days of scrambling, we signed the lease and put down a deposit. We're moving April first, and I can't wait.

In the meanwhile, have a gap in between where my lease ends at my current place and where the lease starts on our new place. So I'm busily packing and doing things like cleaning my refrigerator and scrubbing my bathtub. I'll be squatting with my parents for a while, filling their pristine new apartment with boxes. But I couldn't be more excited.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone. 

crossing my fingers

As I write this, I'm sitting at my desk in my enormous white bathrobe drinking a cup of coffee. It's still dark out and I'm waiting for it to get light before I go out for my morning run. 

This weekend was a doozy - I overcommitted myself and spent most of Saturday and Sunday juggling apartment hunting, a few social obligations, and work. I'm so busy and important. Really it's the apartment hunting that's the big challenge. I didn't see a ton of places over the weekend but enough to leave me feeling thoroughly exhausted. Thank god my mother was able to come with me to lend moral support because otherwise I probably would have lost it. 

So that's about the size of it- things are hectic but I'm crossing my fingers that everything will get wrapped up sooner rather than later so I can come back with some good news. In the meanwhile, have a good week and wish me luck!