Fireworks at AT&T Park

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Double

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11.2 Singing in the Rain

This year has been the least that I've written on my blog since I started blogging in 2005. 1st off, I can't believe that I've been blogging 10 years! Just writing that down kinda surprises me. But I've been relatively consistent most Novembers to post an almost daily snippet of something that I'm happy is part of my life. So here I go again, in an attempt to pay attention to those little things and to get back into blogging...

We got a little bit of rain last night. It was so nice waking up to the pitter patter sounds of rain. I'm curious to see what winter will look like out our windows this year. I'm still in awe over how much happens in our skies.

Back from Sabbatical

Wow, 5 months!! I never expected that I'd go 5 whole months without blogging. But I'm hopeful that life will settle down since...we've moved to our new apartment.
Well, that's not all that we've been up to for the past 5 months, but it definitely felt all-consuming.

At first, I really hated leaving our old place. When we moved in 5 years ago, I knew then that it was probably the nicest place we'll ever live.
But this new place is turning out to be pretty damn nice now that we're settling in.

We moved 2 1/2 weeks ago, and all of the boxes are unpacked, but we still have quite a bit of things to put away.

It's not a fancy, modern high rise in downtown like our old place. We're only 3-4 blocks away but the neighborhood feels totally different. And we have an incredible view.
There's so much going on outside our windows.

We watch cargo and oil tanker ships come and go continuously.

We found a cool website that shows the location of any large ships and all kinds of information on each of them.

Our skies are constantly busy with helicopters, sea planes, seagulls, pigeons, crows and even...
Hawks!!!
There's at least 2 of them out there, and both of them have landed on our patio, welcoming us to the neighborhood.
Or wondering if we have any tasty small pets as an offering for them.

12.22 Three More Sleeps

Today is the 1st day in over a week that I've felt well enough to venture out for a walk, searching for my daily Christmas tree.

I've been keeping mental a list of trees I wanted to see, but since I missed that whole week, I won't get to all of the spots I had hoped to.

But I did make it to the 50+ foot tree in Neiman Marcus at Union Square.
It's so tall, I couldn't fit it all in a single snapshot. We've lived here for 4 1/2 years and this was the 1st time I've been in this department store. I've walked by it a hundred times, but just never had the need to step inside till today.

I think today was the 1st time in over a week that I saw sunshine. It was a beautiful day!

So beautiful, I couldn't help but admire the blue skies behind the scary crane.

I wrapped the last of my Christmas presents tonight. Check!

And I'll end with a little silly camera fun...
Jimmy got this hockey nutcracker a few years ago from his sister.

And I couldn't resist making these heart bokeh lights around my guitar. Still obsessed with learning how to play. Honestly, I don't have the talent for this. It's still a huge struggle, but I'm super focused and have a lot of determination.

I stumbled on these quotes somewhere and they are the epitome of how I've been feeling about my guitar playing:

Day 2 Gratitude

-More than ever, I'm grateful for the power of music. It has surprised me how much learning an instrument seriously broadens your music awareness. I never listened to blues or jazz before, but it's become a part of my training and I love it. I listen to all different kinds of music all day. And I cannot have silence while I'm at my desk, I must have some kind of tune playing in the background.

A soundtrack can make or break a movie or tv show. Jimmy and I are watching the HBO show Treme and it might be the best show I've watched all year. It's about New Orleans right after Katrina hit. And music is a huge part of it. Just thinking about one of the songs nearly brings me to tears. But most of it has both of us tapping our toes...you can't keep still while watching it. Music is a powerful thing.

-Like all of us, I love water. I'm glad that we have clean drinking water, water to take a refreshing shower, water to wash our clothes and dishes. I love the Pacific Ocean, feeling the cool water beneath my feet and waves hitting my knees. I love being a the lake in the summer, swimming, boating, laughing, being with friends and family. I love the rain. The sound of it, the smell of it. Hopefully this fall and winter will bring a lot more of it.

-Fresh linens. Another favorite for everyone - a fresh fluffy (but not tooo fluffy) towel...and in the wintertime, if you happen to get one right out of the dryer as you're getting out of the shower...heaven! And slipping into clean sheets at bedtime when you're tired and ready for dreamland...sigh!

11.2 Saturdays

I love Saturdays.

Waking up whenever you want to, not when the alarm makes you.
Lounging around.
Crafting.
Mid-afternoon naps and snuggles.
Catching up on TV.
Ordering out (tonight=Indian).
Going to see a movie (tonight=Gravity).

What's not to love.

views from my front window

Window washing season...OOPS! He caught me stealing a snapshot through a crack in the blinds.

The building across the street seems to be a little drunk.This is actually a silly technique I learned from Photojojo using the panorama function on your camera phone. I'll have to try it again, fun and silly. I like it!

11.10 - Let the Sun Shine In

Grateful that our windows are south facing. In the fall and winter, even if it's cold outside, as long as it's sunny, our home stays pretty warm and cozy because the sun shines right in.

Spring Cleaning

Progress?

The building across the street.

January Challenge

January is always a slow blogging month for me because I've pretty much used all my blogging energy for my Daily December challenge. So I gave myself a whole week off, and I'm gonna try to do a M-F photo of the day challenge. No pressure to blog on the weekends. Probably lots of photo blogging from my phone.

So here's my photo for today with a little background...

I've mentioned before about my unexplainable phobia of cranes. Not entirely sure why I literally go into a panic attack whenever I see one, but I like to blame it on a past life accident, LOL. I'm not afraid of heights. I love architecture, tall buildings, walking on glass floors 40+ stories high - like at the CN Tower in Toronto or at the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago and flying up high in the sky and looking down at the vast landscape below, so really...not sure why I hate them so much. I have a fear that whatever the crane is carrying will fall on someone and smash 'em like a bug. Or that the crane itself, which looks so very unstable to me, will tip over and fall on someone and smash 'em like a bug. It's happened before so those events justify my irrational behavior.

Anyhoo...there are a lot of cranes in this city. Lots of building happening. I just walk by them, usually on the other side of street, and pretend they're not there, keeping my eyes on the sidewalk.

Well, when we moved here a year and a half ago, we noticed that the 20ish story building across the street was vacant and appeared to be abandoned. The 1st thing I thought of when I saw it was...they're gonna tear that building down while we're living across the street and I'm gonna have to face my fears up close and personal.

Well, that day has come...
This is my view when I immediately walk out the front doors.

Taking deep breaths.

All Play and No Sleep {December Daily 19}

I have a few sleep issues, which on a positive note, allows me a lot more time to do stuff I can't do when I'm sleeping.

Like play with my camera and a technique I learned a few years ago but my attempt wasn't quite as successful. I've since learned that it's all about the lens.

On another note, spent a few hours tonight writing out my cards... Christmas is 5 days away and these need to get to the post office asap.
It's nearly 3am...I suppose it's time to try to get some sleep.

Oh Christmas Tree {December Daily 18}

Spent a few hours in Union Square today.

The Bowens were in the City to see A Christmas Carol so we met up with them for a late lunch and a little bit of window shopping before their play.


Tomorrow I have packages to mail and deliver so our spare bedroom looks like a tornado hit it. Still lots more to wrap, but very happy for free 2 day shipping for the other family members who we won't be seeing this year and who live far, far away.

On the Table October

I haven't posted anything on the table since June so I thought I'd do 3 photos in one post...

On the coffee table. A new acquisition that I got at the Harvest Festival, handmade from an artist in Oakland. His inspiration was Van Gogh's Starry Night.

On the table at the chocolate shop. This amazing chocolate shop has a menu item of 2 pieces (or 4 or 6) and coffee of your choice. I was tempted to never go to starbucks in the city ever again. Their chocolate is the just about best i've ever had, but their coffee isn't up to par.

On the hideway dining table. Addressing my halloween cards.

Shadow

The shadow of my building.
Not sure if this cell phone photo will turn out as cool as it looks in person...

My Pet Robot

Aweeee...look who was waiting for me at the door when I got home?

The scary thing is that when I saw him there, I greeted him with a cheery "Hi Roomba!"

Now That's What I'm Talkin' About

I know last week I said it was a perfect saturday, but today topped it because the weather couldn't have been more picture perfect.

Just before we were about to leave the condo, we heard the roar of 2 fighter jets doing a fly-by at the ballpark. I just happened to be at the window and saw them wiz by at lightning speed. Despite popular belief, I don't have my camera attached to my right hand, so I didn't get a photo of them, but it sure was cool 1st to hear them then see they right out our living room window.

First on today's agenda was the 5th Annual San Francisco Firefighter's Chili Cookoff. It was just a few blocks away and we like chili and we like our brave firefighters.
There were about 15 different fire stations represented from the Bay Area.
$10 got you a sample from any or all of the booths and you were welcome to go back for more. We tried about 5-6 different chili's, some better than others. Jimmy and I had different opinions on which ones we liked best.
For once we were smart and stopped before we got too full or got indigestion.

Since we were just a few blocks from the ballpark, we enjoyed the bright warm sunny day and went to check out Cal's 1st football game at their temporary home for the season. Their football stadium is being rebuilt, so the Giants AT&T Park will be their home turf for the 2011 football season. We've lived near Stanford the whole time we've lived in the Bay Area so I've always been partial to them, but now that Cal Berkeley is highly represented in this fine city, I just might have to jump on the Berkeley Bandwagon and start wearing blue and gold. At least for the time being. I admit that Stanford might win me over if push came to shove. BTW, Cal won 63-12.

Then we were off to the Marina Green for Family Kite Day. As I said, it was a perfect sunny day, but it's almost always breezy in the city, so it was perfect conditions to go fly a kite. Even though it was already late in the afternoon, there were still about 20-30 kites in the air when we got there.
I've never flown a kite. I so very much wanted to fly a kite. There was even a booth where you could make your own kite, but they were out of supplies, boo. But I saw how easy it was to make one, so I hope I'll be able to make one soon and finally get to experience the joy of kite flying.

The sun was just about to set and we were in a hurry to drive over to Treasure Island to watch the sun set past the Golden Gate Bridge. Just as we got off the offramp, we caught sight of big ball of fire plunging into the pacific ocean behind the bridge. It was one of the best sunset's we've seen, even though we could only experience it for about 4.5 seconds. Since we were in the car, I couldn't capture a photo of it, I'll just have to remember how magical it was in my head.



But we spent another hour or two exploring Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, enjoying the amazing views of the city and the Bay Bridge.

We saw this amazing 40 foot tall "Bliss Dance" sculpture first at the Maker Faire. It made it's original debut at Burning Man and is now prominently on display on Treasure Island with city views in the background.

We were home only about 30 minutes when we were startled by a series of loud booms. The sky lit up and when we looked out the window, we saw fireworks! How cool is that? Looking out your living room window and seeing fireworks? The view was mostly obstructed by the building next door, but we were still super excited to see what we could.

A perfect ending to another perfect day in San Francisco.