Almost Friday

This week has been so busy, once again, but I can see the smooth sky in the distance. Right now, it feels like we are in the middle of turbulence!

We BOTH have tomorrow off for Good Friday and then I am sooooo excited because I am off next Mon and Tues. Tuesday is my BIRTHDAY!!!

I *Think* Erik has Tuesday off too so we can do something fun! Yippeeeeeeeeeeee.

By Thursday, Evie is at her wits end of staying home alone so I hope to get out a little early today to get her to one of her new parks to run around. I'm already looking forward to making a dinner from my new cookbook....



Here's to making it through Thursday!!!

Patrick Piglet

Today after work, Evie and I went for our walk and just walked until we found something cool. I absolutely love just walking out of the house and saying, "Let's see what we see!" We walked down Allston Way and found a cool park complete with tennis, basketball courts, and a playground. The coolest thing we found was this stream that Evie could run in and it had a bridge over it. We came home and looked it up and it is called Strawberry Creek Park. Here's a photo from Yelp - 

When we crossed over the bridge, we met a woman who was out with her four dogs. Three were pretty old and just chillin but this white Boxer came right up to Evie. She LOVED him. He was only 1 1/2 years old and so cute. He was white and deaf! They ran and ran and played. The best part was the owner told me his name....Patrick Piglet. Her rationale? "When I adopted him, his name was Piglet and I added the Patrick to make him sound more dignified." hahaha. So funny. 

Hopefully we'll see them again because Evie had a blast!

Another thing we did when we got home was help Erik put up his surf rack. We nailed it to the wall and placed the boards in the rack. 

Looks great & his room is more organized now!!

Well my Tuesday will start early by being IN the car at 7am to get to an 8am meeting. I will feel like this tomorrow morning, for sure!

Sunny Sunday

On Sunday, we started our day by going back to Sunnyside Cafe for breakfast. It was just as good as the first time we went there a few weeks ago. We have officially been in our place for a month, which is awesome!

Evie did not want to get up this AM. Right before we get up, I let her up to lay with us in the bed and she loooooves it. She is just so happy. When I got up, she did NOT want to get up. Such a baby. 

We were so busy all day. I went to Home Depot (again, I know) and Costco. Costco on a Sunday is officially the tenth circle of hell. I knew it would be cray there but I endured people practically hitting others with their carts, walking on the wrong side of the aisles, crowding around the free samples & not allowing people in/out of aisles, slow walkers, stoppers in the middle of the aisle...you name it. Forget the produce area. It was a mess of carts every which way. Thankfully, I didn't need anything in that area! I left Costco unscathed to come home to find Erik working on his surf rack that he is making.

We reorganized his closet and tried to get his room situated. It looks great now and much more organized. While we worked, we left the door open and Evie actually went out on the deck to chill, alone! This was a first. She just laid on the mat in the sun. 

 I went back out to the Emeryville Shops and then Safeway for groceries. Emeryville shops is a huge outdoor mall with so many stores. I went specifically for something for work and scored an outfit from Banana Republic 40% off! 

 Another awesome weather day here - 70's and sunny. I had on a sleeveless shirt AND flip flops. Love it!!

We actually used our charcoal grill tonight for dinner and realized one thing....we need a gas grill. haha. We both don't care for that "charcoal" taste and it is SUCH a pain to work the charcoal grill! Home Depot has some good, small, cheap grills that we might look into.

And with that, our weekend is over. It was a great one with good weather, time together, errands done, organizing, and having fun.

Have A Good Week!

Zuni Cafe

After Point Isabel, I drove to SF to meet Betsy for dinner. We went to Zuni Cafe on Market St. It worked out well because the boys were golfing in SF so I headed to dinner to then be able to pick up Erik after golf.

We tried to make a reservation but one wasn't available until 9:45 so we chanced it by just showing up around 6:30 to see if we could get in. We got in right away! It was awesome. We had a great dinner where we shared a chicory salad with mustard croutons, a fettucini with snap peas and a lemony sauce, and then THE famous Zuni chicken:

Chicken for two roasted in the brick oven; warm bread salad with scallions, garlic, dandelion greens, 

 dried currants, and pine nuts

We skipped dessert because we were full but we both really liked our meal! We saw someone semi-famous on our way out too....



Greggy Bennett from the Real Houswives of New Jersey!

Turns out he moved to San Fran...and I only know that because I looked him up on Twitter, tweeted him that we saw him, AND he tweeted me back. haha.

Soooo turns out Erik was so tired after golfing & a few beers that he ended up taking BART home negating my plan of driving him home. BUT, I was able to see a good friend and have an awesome meal which was great so it all worked out well.

I got home on Saturday night to Erik and Evie asleep on the couch so I think everyone had a great day! :-)

Point Isabel

Last week was so busy so we happily welcomed Friday!

I worked from home for part of the day on Friday and saw Evie actually use her "little bed". We only use this when she goes to overnight camp but I think she may lay in it periodically at home. I think she likes it because it's in the sun. 

I tried to make this perch for her but she wasn't that into it. 

On Friday night, we stayed home, made pizza, had some red wine and fell asleep. 

On Saturday, Erik had a golf outing with his hockey team so it was just Evie and I together on Saturday. Erik and I love spending time together but we also loving doing things on our own. Saturday started with Evie and I lounging on the couch. Then, I put together the bookcase for "my"room.

After that, Evie and I went to Point Isabel. Point Isabel is in the town of Richmond, just 10 minutes away. It is a huge dog/people park on the water. Apparently there are over 20 acres of land there!

 Once again, not that easy to get into the water but we did it. She couldn't go that far since it wasn't a sandy beach & she is afraid of not touching the bottom!

After the water, we ran around in the grass and then Evie saw....the mud. 

There was this big ravine type thing running through the park but it was filled with more mud than water. Dogs were running down there but since Evie is never off leash so if we went in the mud, that meant we both went. I figured, why not. Let her get rip roaring muddy. 

She ran and ran, got deep in the mud, had to suuuuuck her legs out of the mud. I got her running around and oh, almost fell myself. bhahahaha. 

Just to show you the mud, here's her dirty buns. haha

Even though she doesn't look it, she is happy! Let's also discuss that it was so warm and sunny that I had SHORTS on. Yeah - 70's and sunny in March, I'll take it. 

Another gorgeous park with great views. 

We went home after rolling around in more grass to get some mud off. 

Just chillin in the front seat....

Here she is after her bath. Pure exhaustion. Tired/Happy Dog = Happy Life. 

Sunset at Cesar Chavez Park

After our great find of Cesar Chavez Park, we decided to go back there later in the week. We were there for sunset which was so nice! This park is so awesome - so much room so nobody & no dogs are in each others way, beautiful scenery, and lots of land. 

 Rolly Pig in the grass

 Just lounging. Evie dive bombs the grass and then rolls around in it. It's so funny. She kind of hangs her head low, opens her mouth where she is seemingly taking in all the smells of the grass and dirt, then hits the ground with her head and rolls onto her shoulder. Too funny!

Evie really wanted to go in the water but it's not possible. There are huge rocks lining the side of the park and you cannot get into the water. I don't know if they are there to protect the shoreline or what, but you can't get into the water. Evie is dying to get in there though. Doesn't it look like she is gazing at the sunset here?

You can see BOTH bridges from this park - Here's the Golden Gate crossing over SF to Marin. 

Here's San Francisco from Berkeley. That defining triangular building is the Transamerica Building. I used to walk past that every day at my last job. 

Found a Hobbit Hole....

 Until next time CC Park!

Cesar Chavez Park

Today, Evie and I drove over to the Berkeley Marina to this AWESOME park - Cesar Chavez Park.

 It is a gorgeous park surrounded by water on three sides and it's amazzzzzing! We basically had the park to ourselves at 6pm! We were out until almost 7:30!!

 Evie was frolicking with a capital F. There was so much grass to sniff, run through, and eat!

 So pretty out. The sky had different layers of clouds and it was cool and breezy out. 

 Guess we have these cute little owls in Berkeley. 

We had so much fun - can't wait to go back here. Evie loved it!! I love being able to take her to new places to run after being home all day with without us. She was so happy!