Turkey leftovers and Christmas Decorations

 Saturday started out with workouts, breakfast, and then....the storage unit. We drove over to storage and saw all of the Black Friday traffic. The parking garages near the mall were full before noon. So glad we were not a part of that yesterday!

We got into the storage unit and got our tree!

We also found other fun things like a guitar which was promptly played with in the storage hallway. haha!

 We got all of the decorations and got home in time for a turkey leftover lunch!!

 I made sandwiches for us that were basically thanksgiving dinner on toast and they were SO GOOD!! They had lettuce, mayo, mashed sweet potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and gravy. Sooooo good.

We still have leftover turkey so I'm thinking of making a turkey, cheesy, veggie, pasta bake or a turkey soup. 

After lunch, we put the tree up and then Erik hit the beach. I put some of the other decorations up and also watched a Hallmark movie, Merry Daughter of the Bride. Love that one!

We went to the movies last night to see ARGO. We've been wanting to see this one for awhile. We tried to see it a few weeks ago and it was sold out. Even last night it was packed! 

WOW! What a good movie. We both thought it was awesome. What a nailbiter. I don't think I breathed during certain scenes of the movie!! Also, John Goodman and Alan Arkin were hilarious. Definitely think we will see this film up for multiple Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actors. 

Thanksgiving 2012

Our Thanksgiving started with a fun walk at Ocean Beach with Evie. It was SO nice out - 70 and sunny! She was running around in the water and had a great time. We recognized when her leg was tired and brought her home. 

We stopped to pick up our turkey at Andronico's on our way home. Already cooked & we just had to heat it up when we got home. That market was quite the zoo, of course. Yesterday we were thankful that those employees were working so we could get our turkey!

We broke out the wine and cheese when we got home, too. 

 Our reheating instructions for the turkey

 My kitchen helper

 I made an apple pie which was delish!

Wow we worked hard over this turkey. haha

 Carving the turkey....

 We had turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, and garlic cauliflower.

We had a bottle of Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay. Sooooo good!!

Cool sunset from our window!

After dinner, we started playing around with Spotify, each choosing a song one after another. This turned into a two person dance party which was of course, very fun. haha 

Asleep on the couch at 9:30

We tried to stay up to watch that Spike Lee Michael Jackson documentary on TV but that didn't happen!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

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Pre Thanksgiving Week

This has been a short and busy week! I completely broke the holiday rule of not watching any Christmas movies before Thanksgiving on Sunday. Hallmark has the Christmas movies on non-stop so how could I resist!?















On Monday, Amy and I went to dinner at A16 and had a HORRIBLE meal.


At least the company was good! We had horrendous service. Our server took a long time to come see us, didn't come back after we received our appetizer, and we only saw him again for the check. We had to wave the Manager over to order dinner and neither of us enjoyed our meals. They were very bland. Thankfully, they took one of them off the check and we also had a 30% off coupon so our meal was pretty cheap for the experience. I am NEVER going back to this place!

On Tuesday, I made the trek to the grocery store for Thanksgiving and some regular groceries. The store was busy & the store was out of a lot of things such as pie crust! Oh well, got in and out relatively unscathed.

Tonight, I got to see my friend Sarah who I haven't seen since her wedding a few weeks ago. We went to Bin 38 for wine and cheese.


Then, I stopped into a different Safeway for those pie crusts. Success! Found a full shelf.

We are having dinner at home in SF this year. We ordered a turkey from Andronico's and are making some sides. Might see some friends later in the day. Should be a chill day!

Happy Early Thanksgiving!!

Happy Birthday Kelsey!

 Last night, we celebrated our friend Kelsey for her birthday! We started the night off at OSHA Thai in the Mission- love that place & their food! Erik had the Volcano Beef, which is this fun dish and I had the usual Pad Thai. We also brought a bottle of sparkling wine to kick off the night!

 Somehow this mustache is making a come back and I don't understand whyyyyyyy haha

 We moved onto a bar that is normally  not our scene because we thought it would be a fun party bar for the birthday girl. We went to Butter which had quite the mix of music and people including a woman walking around with Jello shots. Haven't been in a bar like that in a few years. haha

 SHOTS?!

 After Butter, we went to Holy Cow "Night Club" that had a DJ and some tables so we made our own little dance party. There were a lot of people here and we realized, that this is where the people who live outside the city come to party. You will see tons of traffic coming into SF on Fri and Sat night, and this is where they are all going! Another side to SF that we uncovered.

As we all know, we were home at 10pm last Saturday night so this was quite a departure from our usual nights out but we are happy to go out late night and parrrty. I have to say, I think as you get older you party wiser. A few drinks, some water, and go home to bed = not feeling like crap that night or the next day.

We heart Kelsey and hope she had a great birthday!!!

Welcome, Rain!

The rain has started. It's officially the rainy season and we are getting quite the dose this weekend. It started raining on Friday and it is still raining. We did not end up going to that Barbie show and stayed home. We made homemade pizza and had a delicious bottle of Zinfandel. You too can enjoy this wine for a whopping $8.99 at your local Trader Joe's!


We also watched some of Arrested Development, which I haven't fallen in love with yet. Although Jason Bateman makes the show! (Wink*)



I also noticed that there are Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel already. I love this channel & their cheesy movies. I used to be very hard core about no Christmas until Thanksgiving but I can't help taping (aka DVR'ing) these and sneaking a peek.

We are going to get the Christmas decorations from storage next weekend, which will be an adventure in itself since that unit is busting at the seams. haha. Some people go cut down a tree and curse as they try to tie it to the roof, we do the same pulling the tree out of storage. haha

There are two things I realllly want  to do this weekend or next. One is get a holiday wine glass at Pier 1


Two is make this wreath! It's at Pier 1 for $65 but I'm pretty sure I can make it for maybe $20.


Since we didn't get the October decorations up, we have to make a serious effort for Christmas. I think I might make a run to Target today, just to beat the crowds and get my Toys for Tots toy before the big rush next weekend.

Have a nice weekend!

90%

Today, Evie and I headed back up to Mill Valley for more follow-up X-rays. She was panting and running around, like usual. Check her out while we were waiting...

She is now 90% healed. The Vet Tech said that "at her age, it takes a little longer to heal." It made me sad to hear "at her age". Can you believe she is going to be 7 next year?! People still ask me if she puppy sometimes!



We got home and she laid on the couch because she had worn herself out!

We made a quick stop at Trader Joe's on the way home and got pizza crusts (great to freeze & use) and a brussel sprout tree. I was able to work from home today due to our appointment and also got ALL of the laundry done. For a family of TWO, we have wayyyyy too much laundry. It makes me think that families of six either have one of the parents in the laundry room every hour of the day or send it out to be done!

TGI(early)F. I think we are going to THIS tomorrow which I really want to go to! I'm sure it will be hilarious.

Tres Amigas Dinner: Wood Tavern

Tonight, we had our Tres Amigas dinner at Wood Tavern in Oakland. This place was great!! Great location on College Ave in Rockridge, great food, and only $15 corkage!



We shared two items for appetizers and brought our own Zinfandel to share. We shared the:


Sautéed Local Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan Cheese, Pancetta Vinaigrette


Russet Potato Gnocchi         
Crimini & Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, Arugula, Parmesan Cheese, Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce, Truffle Oil

Oh my God - that Gnocchi was out of this world. I might go back and just choose that for dinner. That brown butter sauce was sooooo delish!

For dinner, I had the Sautéed Alaskan Halibut        
Yukon Gold-Sweet Potato Purée, Roasted Wild Mushrooms, Kale, Porcini Mushroom Sauce  

Dinner was so delicious. As always, good restaurant and good company!

Would definitely go back!

Girls on the Run!

Yesterday, I did something reallllly fun. I joined a group of 5th grade girls for a practice run with Girls on the Run! This year for their bi-annual Lollipop Run, I am going to be a running buddy for one of the girls. I am so excited! I have wanted to do this for awhile now and this is the first year I am able to join in.


We went down to Duboce Park and were paired up with our girls. We had to run around the park six times for a total of three miles. The girls were super cute and it was a combo of running and walking. I learned that my buddy doesn't have a TV, loves to read, was Peter Pan for halloween, and likes home made pasta.

Can't wait for the Lollipop Run on December 1st to complete the race!

Cleaning out & Noodle Time

On Saturday morning, I got the urge to clean out the closets. I reorganized my closet, chose clothes to give away, and made room for Erik's stuff. We made his small closet be the dresses/coats/bags/beer stuff closet and mine will hold the clothes for both of us. It worked out really well and we ended up with FOUR bags of clothes to give away and a bunch of stuff to put in storage.

After cleaning the closets and the apartment, I drove out to Oakland to have lunch with my friend TIffany. We met up at Burma Superstar for delicious Fiery Chicken & Tofu and Superstar Noodles.
 

After coming back to SF, I dropped those bags off at Goodwill so they didn't sit in the car for weeks. Felt good to clean out & donate!

For dinner, we  picked up our friends Betsy & Greg and headed to a new restaurant in the Mission - Mau. It is a Vietnamese restaurant and it was really good. It's a great spot to stop in for some Pho or noodles.



Erik had the Pho Ga (poached chicken with rice noodles in ginger-chicken broth) and I had the BUN GA NUONG (lemongrass chili chicken, vermicelli noodles). Both were very good & we would totally go back to this place!

After dinner, we went to this divey bar The Lone Palm for some beers.


We went out at 6pm and were home by 10pm. We were joking how times have definitely changed from being younger and staying out late. My favorite line of the night was when we were leaving, Greg said, "Well the bar is crowded now so that's our cue to leave!" haha

Old Friday, Old Evie

Today started bright and early for me by leaving the house around 6:45 AM while Erik had the day off and got to sleeeeep in!

I headed out to Danville (East Bay) for a conference for the Network of Executive Women. My company is a sponsor of this organization and today was the fall networking event. It started at 8am and ran until 3pm.


We were seated randomly and were able to meet a lot of different people from different companies. There was also an amazing speaker, Eileen McDargh, who led the morning and afternoon session. The morning session was all about making your career fit your authentic self - what do you love to do in your life and how do you incorporate that into your job?



















My coworkers and I went to lunch at Blackhawk Grille and then returned for the afternoon session. The afternoon was all about leadership qualities to employ both in your life and at work. This one was also really great. I think we all left so inspired with some new contacts! One thing I love about my company is that they really value training and educating their employees to grow & challenge them. The other great thing about this conference? These awesome goody bags we got!


I got home around 4:30 and took Evie out and up to Buena Vista Park. This is one of her favorite parks but we haven't been able to go into it lately because it is dark at 5pm!! Today, we walked around the park and went into the sand pit area where she typically runs around. She hasn't been running really since her surgery but today, I got a glimpse of "Old Evie", running around in the dirt and digging like a madman!

Here's hoping that when we go for X-rays next week, we are a little closer to the 100% better mark!!

We soaked up the sunshine today & just sat in the park for a little while. She is perfectly content to sit & watch people walk by...

After we got home, Erik decided to go out with the Surfing Crew for dinner and drinks. I think they were also meeting up with a famous surfer(?) but I will have to report back on that. Evie and I had one of our "old Friday nights" aka just the two of us. Erik and I LOVE each other but it's also fun to chill separately!

Is this not the perfect Friday night dinner PLUS a Kardashian special, Long Island Medium, and Glee on the DVR? After a long day & week, it suuuuuure was!!