Weekend Recap

Oh weekend. You were so lovely and yet you went so fast. I again kept pretty busy this weekend, with running, sewing, working on the book and drinking coffee.

Pieces from my current quilt in progress! 

My favorite adventure of the weekend (which is also a continued part of operation "leave the house each day" was exploring Clement Street. Referred to on Yelp as the "new Chinatown," Clement Street in Inner Richmond and is full of shops, restaurants, cafes and bakeries. There is a decidedly Asian feeling to the street in terms many of the restaurants, cafes and produce shops. It was a warm afternoon when I wandered through, and as Yelp predicted there was the occasional strong whiff of fish, too.

My most exciting find was definitely Green Apple Books! This store came recommended to me as a must-see by a colleague at work and I was NOT disappointed. They have both used and new books, as well as music and DVDs. And let's not even talk about their collection my greatest weakness: notecards, memo pads and blank journals.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for my wallet?) I stopped by when I was heading back from a run so I only had the emergency cash that I keep stashed in my phone with me. So I clearly will need to go back with a large bag and my credit card, starting with these two gems...

When I got home from my adventure I was super pumped to see that this had arrived in the mail!

My Zip Car Card! I have a friend coming to visit in November and we'll need a car to get down to a hockey game in San Jose, and since Fluffy is still back in Indiana this was definitely the way to go. Now to just get over my fear of parallel parking...

How was your weekend? Any adventures? 

Labor Day Weekend.

Let's just take a moment to reflect on the awesomeness that three day weekends are. I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. The weather in San Francisco has finally turned into days of gorgeous sunshine and perfect temperatures. If this weekend, the traditional first weekend the start of the fall season, is anything to go off of, I am going to be very happy here come, oh mid February. 

This weekend I...

Consumed a LOT of coffee. 

Worked on sewing at home with this guy watching over. A friend sent him to me as a surprise last week and he's so cute and sparkly. Now he just needs a name...

Went a little bit crazy at Papyrus buying notecards. I HAD to. All of mine are back in storage in Indiana and I need cards for #goalsatchoice. Ad they were on sale!

Drooled over this catalog that randomly appeared in my mail slot. I tend to get a lot of random catalogs from previous tenants. Even though I do everything on my phone and ipad i still love looking at paper planner.

Worked on testing the directions for projects in our book!

How was your long weekend?

Weekend Recap.

Craft show, with the N-boy in tow. He's such a good sport. 

I finished the test of a revised pattern for a heart shaped bowl (I really want to call this pattern "Heart Shaped Box" but i'm also pretty sure that the Momcat wouldn't get the reference. Daddo would, however, so maybe it's worth a shot?) Let's just say that this pattern is without a doubt my arch nemesis. This is my THIRD attempt at making this blankity blank heart bowl and I finally got it to work. The pattern is significantly more complicated than the other shapes I've worked on, and the pattern needed some serious tweaking for us more novice crafters. At last, however, victory is mine! 

The N-boy purchased Russian food from a somewhat questionable van in a definitely questionable car repair shop. However, the then turned said purchase into these Сырники (sirniki). Basically pan fried farmer's cheese with jelly on top. Yum. Sketchy groceries for the win. 

We decorated for Christmas. More on that later-Christmas decorations definitely deserve a post unto themselves in my book. Let's just say that one of my new goals in life is to have an ENTIRE tree decorated only with flamingo ornaments. Yes, I'm serious. I do have flamingo Christmas lights already in my office, so I'm well on my way. The N-boy was less than impressed by this life goal.  

We escaped the football games on TV and went to a coffee shop to work for a while. The N-boy worked on his dissertation (ok well I assume he was working on his dissertation. Sometimes I don't ask too many questions because then he wafts poetic about cholera in provincial Russia while I'm trying to consume a tasty beverage). Is it weird that I think the foam on cappuccinos taste like the crispy part on a perfectly toasted marshmallow?  Pretty sure that must be a weird thing. 

 And that was our weekend!

Weekend fun and games.

The N-boy and I had a pretty quiet weekend, following a rather stressful end to the work week.  I love working with students, but sometimes it can be hard. 

Saturday we saw Skyfall, drank a lot of coffee, and watched college football. Let's just throw in a Go Irish! for good luck here. I cannot believe that they're undefeated and ranked number 1. It's absolute craziness.

On Sunday we took pictures of the N-boy with the awesome steel frame bike he received from Grandpa for his birthday. This bike had been hanging in Grandpa's garage for years. He moved into an independent living facility this summer, and the Momcat found the bike when she was helping to clean out the house. N-boy loves his newest bike (this would be bike number four for those keeping count at home), and we wanted to let Grandpa know that.

I also worked on some English paper piecing for a project (more on that project coming Wednesday!)

And we baked sourdough rolls to take to Thanksgiving. Don't worry; we checked and made sure they weren't poisonous before we packed them up. ;)

Our biggest adventure of the weekend was the eviction of an opossum who had taken up residence in the garage. I'd heard something rustling around in the garage earlier this week and had actually called the N-boy on my phone from the garage to come take a look. We couldn't find anything then, but the next day something had gotten into the birdseed and made a mess. The N-boy thought it was just a squirrel or a chipmunk so he blocked the crack under the side door and cleaned up the bird seed. Then today he went out to rake leaves and when he grabbed the big canvas leaf bag found Mr. Possum inside hissing irritably at having been disturbed from his slumber. 

Animal removal is definitely not thing we learned in grad school. We called my parents to see if they had any suggestions (their ideas were leaving the door open so he'd come out, calling animal patrol and something involving dry ice-I didn't ask for details on this last one). Finally we just used a long pole to loop through the bag handles and pull the whole thing outside, shutting the garage door behind it. We went inside to give the poor little guy some space to get out, but a couple of hours later it was obvious that he had no intent of leaving his comfy nest. The N-boy (carefully) used the pole to move the bag into the backyard and gently pushed the bag over until the opossum crawled out. Hopefully this is the last animal adventure we'll have for a while. 

Have you ever had to conduct any animal evictions? 

(long) Weekend Recap.

Wow. What a crazy-busy-festive long weekend we had. I kept forgetting that today was a holiday, and kept being pleasantly surprised when I remembered that I didn't have to get up and go to work this morning! Here are a few of the adventures the N-boy and I got up to this weekend! 

Saturday.

The N-boy decided that carrying a 22 pound watermelon home from the Farmer's Market was a good idea. 

A very hot and humid run outside. 

Bike ride to the library.

Brother in law, Sister in law in law and cutest baby on the planet arrive. 

Baby demands FroYo.

We break open the Maker's Mark that I hand dipped in Kentucky last fall. 

Sunday.

Marshall County Blueberry Festival. 

Lemon Shake Up.

Happy baby.

Balloon glow.

Monday.

Morning baby time before they headed home.

Unpictured from today: buying cat litter, doing laundry and collapsing on the couch to catch up on the interwebs.

Hope everyone is having a festive labor day! 

Weekend Recap.

The N-boy and I had a pretty busy, although low key, weekend. We spent some time with friends, some out and about, and some at home.

Saturday.

Art Beat 2012.

Trip to Sonic.

 Prototyping a new crafting idea.

Going to see Magic Mike. Again. 

Sunday.

Processing eggplants from the garden into Eggplant Parmesan. 

Basting hexagons. 

Working on more prototypes. 

Unpictured: a very sweaty six mile walk with the N-boy on Sunday morning, and all the time he logged playing Minecraft with his brothers on his new XBOX 360 that was a birthday and Christmas present from the boys. 

How was your weekend?

Weekend Recap-Things we didn't buy.

The N-boy and I had a pretty good weekend, with some business but also some time to hang out and get things done around the house.

We started the weekend with date night on Friday, going to see Brave at the theater.

Saturday we did a lot of running around doing errands and on the hunt for some DIY project idea items. We're working on going through some of the cluttered areas of our house and finding better ways to store things. One of the areas we wanted to work on is the front coat closet, where we also store shoes, hats, scarves, and bags. Unfortunately we didn't find anything to help with that project, but we did find quite a few things we didn't buy even though they would have been highly festive.

Our best didn't buy finds were at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. 

What I wanted: a thread and zipper rack from Walmart. 

This definitely got me the eye roll from the N-boy. 

What the N-boy wanted: an old school sign about carpal tunnel. 

Admittedly, he did want to make it say something else, but still. 

Sunday we spent a relaxing day at home sorting through various areas in the house. We worked in the front closet, the N-boy's office and my office. We also decided to do a major purge of our paper files (which were in great disarray) and shredded a ton of paper. We also decided to start scanning and then shredding the bills that come in after they're paid to avoid getting into this situation about. This whole purge and shred adventure was actually quite calming once we got into it, although a little stressful and emotional at times. 

What was the best part of your weekend?

Weekend Recap: Air Zoo.

The N-boy and I had a festive and busy weekend. We started off by each doing our own thing with colleagues and friends. Saturday brought a morning of babysitting adorable children followed by a little DIY adventure.

Sunday, however, I planned a secret day of adventure for us. I didn't tell the N-boy where we were going at all, but just gave him directions step by step in the car. We headed north into Michigan where our first stop was a vegetarian/vegan restaurant called fuel for lunch. More on this tasty adventure tomorrow.

Our next stop was the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. I wasn't really sure what to expect going into the zoo, but since I knew the N-boy (and his brothers for that matter) are interested in planes I hoped it would be fun.

There were three levels of tickets: $8, $12, and $15. We decided to go with the $15 tickets as that would grant us unlimited access to the entire museum, including the various movies, rides and flight simulators. 

This ticket package was definitely a good decision. The planes were very nifty, although I was definitely a bit disappointed in the space section-it didn't seem to be organized well and there was no natural flow. But the various rides and simulators were definitely the highlight for me. Especially the flight simulator where we made the plane go upside down! 

A very small man in front of a very large world. 

Гагарин.

Hot air balloon ride! 

Very large sneaky plane. Don't ask me what its real name is. 

We ended the adventure with a stop at the Root Beer Stand. 

All root beer should be served on a tray that attaches to my car. 

It was a super fun day, and a great end to a busy weekend.

Did you do anything particularly festive this weekend?