Game of Thrones Party

I'm so glad I was actually in town to participate in the weekly Game of Thrones Party at David & Miguel's.

Great food, great fun, and most important: great friends!

It was a particularly great episode, too! One of the best of the entire series, I think!

Thank you for hosting, David & Miguel!! xo

Brunch with High School Friends

I received a text message only last Thursday that one of our dear high school friends, David, was going to be in SF this weekend. (Actually, David And I have known each other since 6th grade, which we figured is about 35 years or so.) David and Mike live in Minnesota now, and we haven't seen him in over five years. Miraculously, his visit corresponded with the only afternoon that I had available on this trip! We met for brunch in the Castro, and had a really great time catching up. So happy we were able to get this many friends in our group together on short notice.

Sunday Morning's Nine Mile Walk

I met a group of friends for a 9-mile preseason training walk this morning. It was so great to see everyone, and there's nothing like a long walk around San Francisco to reconnect with the City.

We met at 8:30, finished around 11:30, then enjoyed the food and drink at Off the Grid. Bonus surprise guest: Lizelle met us at Off the Grid!!

The Hills of San Francisco

One of the differences between living in San Francisco and living in Bellevue: On any given day of walking around San Francisco and inside my house, I get in a LOT more stairs/hills compared to a day in Bellevue. The first photo shows how many flights of stairs I climbed up/down today in SF. The second photo shows a number of stairs climbed I got in Bellevue last week when I intentionally sought them out.

Evelyn's Graduation Picnic

Congratulations to our niece, Evelyn, who graduated from high school earlier this week!! We celebrated with her at a picnic with the family today in San Francisco.

Progress on my CalTrain/Girl with the Pink Umbrella Painting

At last, I had a painting session with Dean today and painted for the first time in over three months. It was long over-due, and felt so great to be painting again.

This was my second session on the CalTrain/Girl with the Pink Umbrella painting. I haven't decided on the name of it yet. We'll see how I feel as it progresses.

Here's the original photo and what it looked like after my first session in February.

Today, I worked on the sky, the train, the area to the right of the train, the yellow stripes, and finally the people. It was a good session of just adding paint and contrast to the canvas.

I'm super happy with how it's coming along. I really like the composition of this piece so far. It'll be a while until I'm able to work on this piece again, so I'm planning on starting another painting back in Bellevue soon.




session 2

Breakfast with Vicky!!!

A wonderful way to start the day! Thank you for joining me for breakfast this morning, Vicky!! It was wonderful to see you, and I had a great time. It was even worth the parking tickets (street cleaning) that we each got! (I blame it on lack of sleep, and me being out of practice!) :)

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga in Concert

Such an amazing performance by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga at the Concord Pavilion tonight. Thanks to David for scoring our amazing third row seats!!

My favorite part of the evening? When Tony Bennett sang "I left my heart in San Francisco". I didn't know that hearing him sing that live was on my bucket list, but apparently, it was! :)

A San Francisco Welcome from Karl the Fog

Hello, Karl! I haven't seen you in a while.

You delayed my flight by an hour, but I'm happy to see you anyway. Considering how often I fly this leg, I hadn't had a delay in a long while. Guess I was due. :)

Reeves's first Costco Hot Dog!!

Somehow, Reeves has gone his entire life without trying a Costco hot dog. Gina and I put an end to that today when we brought him to Costco for lunch.

Still just $150 for a hot dog and soda. They haven't raised their price since my family started getting these on the 80s.

The verdict? He likes it! Hey, Reeves!

Dramatic sunset

Such a dramatic Seattle Sunset at 9:30pm!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

Happy 84th Birthday, Grandma, and Happy 60th to my Uncle Wes!!

Evelyn

I'm so happy to be spending the day with my beautiful niece, Evelyn, before she graduates from high school and leaves for college in the late summer.

A Rose

When Dick and I come home to San Francisco, we almost always try to go to La Taqueria on Mission Street for the best burritos in town. We've been going here for well over 15 years together.

The place is always crazy busy. If I'm really lucky, we'll see the owner working at the register. Whenever I do see him, which hadn't been in a long time, he gives me a huge smile. He calls me Beautiful, asks how we are, we catch up quickly (because there's always a long line) and he pulls a rose out of the case that he keeps by the register. He trims off the stem, and thorns, and gives me the rose as I leave.

I don't see him very often, but when I do, his sweet gesture has always been so appreciated, and makes me so happy. :)

So yes, we had burritos for lunch, and I was the lucky girl who came home with a rose.

Back in the Castro with the Boys!!

Dick and I are back in SF for a quick weekend visit. We had a great dinner with David, Miguel and Spencer, then ended the evening with drinks at Twin Peaks.

My visit with Gina's baby chicks!!

Gina got some baby chicks this weekend, and I went over for a visit. The chicks are one to two weeks old.

Gina's dogs, Terminator and Patton are very curious about them, but still gentle. Cuteness overload!!

Mother Goose and her Goslings

Gina and I went to Home Depot this afternoon. As we were leaving, we noticed the cars ahead if us were slowing down. When we reached the front, here's what we saw.

So cute!!