last day

This sunny beautiful day is my last day working for the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project. EPGP is led by the smartest, most caring neurologists who truly want to impact their patients' lives through research.  I can't wait to see what exciting discoveries are made in the coming years.  

I hope you're all enjoying your work, and if not, I wish you the courage and plain old good luck to find a job that is meaningful to you. xoxo

photo by my funny eye

sidewalk sale

On sunday, mimoun and I had a sidewalk sale along 19th street next to dolores park. Some friends stopped by to enjoy the sunny weather and keep us company while we haggled and pressed our items on passersby (don't worry, we weren't that intense). The afternoon made me miss hanging out outside in the hot weather. Rooftop barbeques are ubiquitous in DC and at night, people sit on their stoop together and swat away mosquitos. Ah.. the east coast.

friends for now

as mimoun put it, tonight is a celebration! Our good friends have been waiting for months for their album to be officially released and it is finally out in the world! mimsy and I are celebrating our amazing year in SF and the wonderful people we've gotten to know. come join in the festivities tonight at bottom of the hill :)

SF weekend

I hope all you san franciscans enjoyed the beautiful long weekend we had. Mine was full of delightful bay area adventures...

On thursday, I finally went to "Nightlife" the uber hip (and overrated?) late night event at the Academy of Sciences.  It was tres cool to see the glowing algae, touch things in the tidepool, and watch Dominant Legs play against a background of laser constellations.  However, drinks were so expensive that all this had to happen in the spirit of good clean fun. Which is okay.....I guess. Here is a picture of my new best friend, kicking his feet up.

what a chiller.

Friday night, Mike S. let me in on the secret that you can park for free in the BART parking lot if you arrive early enough to a warriors game.  I brought spicy burritos from cancun and mike and billy showed up with an ambitious amount of 22 oz Tams. We tailgated (which I'm not sure I've ever really done before) out the back of his super fly station wagon.  As for the game.... the warriors actually won!

On Saturday, Mimoun and I biked through the park to the outer richmond to pay homage to the Shanghai Dumpling King.  We humbly feasted on the most delicious soup dumplings and fat shanghai style noodles. they tasted exactly like the ones we had in Shanghai.

Jiaozi perfection

there is soup INSIDE the dumpling!

demolished

We're leaving san francisco two weeks from today! I can't believe how quickly the year flew by.

holiday party

This Friday I am overly excited for my first ever holiday party exclusively with work people.  In movies there are always wild things happening at holiday parties, but I think this will be a little mellower.

The EPGP team is going to a new wine bar in the inner sunset after work on Friday called, cleverly, InnerFog.  And, because it's UCSF and San Francisco, we're calling it a "winter time gathering to celebrate the end of the year" party.  Anway, here are two of my favorite fog pictures I've taken while living here.

sitting on the bay

spilling into the mission

addiction

The odds seem pretty good that after a bomb burrito or torta session someone always walks away doubled over with mysterious stomach cramps.  And yet, we go back for more again and again, to El Farolito (for the very brave) or Cancun (my fav) or El Metate or La Taqueria etc. etc. etc.  the list goes on!  Despite the obvious adverse effects of my burrito addiction (calories? gastrointestinal repercussions, fullness lasting 6 to 8 hours, etc)  I am getting anxious thinking about what my taqueria options will be when mimoun and I move to NY in February.


I love that so many people on my google image search for "mission taqueria" took similar pictures to this one, ie. check out this wonderful experience awaiting my tastebuds

sushi party

Last week mimoun and I went to a delicious sushi dinner at our friend's house in the castro, up up up by portola. We all reminisced about the giants winning season and feasted on homemade tempura and roll after roll of caleb's amazing (of yourstruly) creations.  Thanks for the invite dudes!

mimoun and nate's roll - amateur, but delicious :)

house dog marley was reaallly into the food

beautiful san francisco

emy in the park. isn't san francisco beautiful?

how adorable are emy's pets? tucker and commie, snuggling on the couch

nick and nora

I simply love all things Nick and Nora.  I love the escape to a marvelous world of living out of hotels, drinking martinis all day, and solving mysteries before the end of a dinner party, in an evening gown no less.  Read the book first if you'd like, The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, and of course read The Maltese Falcon (also by Hammett) if you're in the mood for a delicious and suspenseful san francisco mystery.

My friend Laura and I both agree we could look at Porter Hovey's love blog all day. 

Thanks for finding this picture! 

visitors!

Isn't it the best when friends you love come to visit?  Can't wait to see my emy lou this weekend xoxo

long overdue park day

the living roof

Mimoun and I used the veterans day holiday to visit the new academy of sciences.  well, I suppose it's not new anymore, but it's so different from the dark, looming halls I remember my cousins and I running around in as kids.  I loved being surrounded by giant chloroplasts in the planetarium movie - Life: a Cosmic Story.  We wrapped up the lovely afternoon feasting on sushi and tempura at Ebisu before biking home.   Next stops for non-native mimoun include the Legion of Honor, the MOMA, and the de Young.  Are we missing anything?

oh happy day!

Last night the Giants won the World Series for the first time since 1954.  Walking down the streets, high-fiving everyone, it reminded me of being in DC when Obama won the presidency in 2008.  Oh, the collective joy! The exhuberance soon got out of hand however, ie. "SF Giants win World Series after 56 years, riots follow" Mimoun saw some delirious fans, or regular hooligans, light a matress on fire at the corner of 22nd and Mission. We ended the night eating left over halloween chocolates and watching Edgar Renteria's game winning home run over and over and over and over...



photo graciously provided by this random website



yet another latte

Yet another reason why people in CA are usually in a good mood.

go treat yourself here

baseball

Mimoun and I rode over to Rosamunde on mission last night to watch the Giants game and eat dinner... at the same time! what fun.  While oggling Brian Wilson's absurd beard, we enjoyed scintillating conversation about the differences between regular season and post season games - characters' mental state, pitching rotation, batting order, etc.  One thing I love about baseball is watching a player's performance actually increase under pressure, like a closing pitcher's last strike outs. Anywaaaay... here's what we ate. It looks good in the pictures, but its a so-so restaurant, heads up.  




Rumor has it he put rogaine on his face...ha! what a nut. photo from here



grandma's boyfriend cozy house show

Saturday night was a small house show in the Sunset. My brother and I made the journey out there to see our friend from grammar school, George, play bass in Grandma's Boyfriend, who recently returned from touring in Japan. They played with Howlin' Cheetah, not a hardcore girl band, but actually a delightful blues funk rock suprise, à la Captain Beefheart. I like the weird building block poster.

Bioluminescence

There's nothing I love more than pleasant suprises! Thinking we were simply on an ill-fated adventure on a freezing cold night last Sunday, Mimoun and our friends and I hopped around the coast trying to find a beach were we could build a bon fire for their band's music video. In Pacifica, the sand sparkled with thousands of bioluminscent microorganisms everywhere we stepped. In Half Moon Bay, we found a beautiful nook carved out from the cliffs to huddle around our little fire and pose self consciously for pictures. And on Ocean Beach where we started our journey around midnight... well nothing much. It was closed, with cop cars everywhere. There were rap battles going on in the parking lot though.

Make your own bioluminescence

If I had stepped into those rap battles, probs would have looked like this.

SF. we make it look so easy

Riding up a hill on a single speed. Taking on a burrito the size of a football. Saying things like, "the weather's really not that bad." Exuding effortless style... Just saw this awesome slide show by NY Times. Thank you very much, I too, own polka dot tights.

me and mimsy in the Haight. haaaa just kidding.