Paul Is Not the Only One Who Gets To Do The Surprising

Since all this house business happened so fast (about 4 weeks from start to finish), some of my dearest friends, who I do not get to talk to every day, had no idea. As the closing was getting closer and closer, I thought it would be fun to surprise Kelly and She She. Vickie had this great idea (gotta give credit where credit is due!) to invite them to lunch at the new house but under the guise of the house of "someone I knew". She She admitted to having suspicions, but Kelly was completely surprised. It was priceless to see her ask "is this your house?" first to Susan, then Vickie and lastly me. Once she got a "yes", it was squeals all around. Since we had only closed 2 days before and there wasn't any furniture in the house, we entertained our first guests with a folding table and camp chairs in the hearth room. Oh, the memories we are making!

Vickie, Belle, She She, Susan, me and Kelly

It Has Been Almost 12 Years...

since we moved into our house. And soon we will be moving out. We bought another house and will be moving soon. We had been keeping our eye on the market for a couple of months and found something that fits our needs. It has been very hard for me since we have such great neighbors, some we consider family. Needless to say, I cried at each neighbor’s house as we made the rounds to tell them personally. As an Army brat you would think I would be used to this, but I guess I am a little out of practice. I just wanted to share some of the great memories we have made at Erie Cove:

A marriage proposal, arrival of 2 children, countless gatherings of friends and family, numerous birthday parties, planting and training a tree for kids to climb (which they do), watching neighbors help build a pier and seawall (complete w/kids handprints in the cement), an outdoor violin recital, catching turtles, loosing balls that roll into the lake, experiencing for the first time a true sadness for the loss of a tree, watching the new ducklings every spring, canoeing on the lake and many others.

No Flowers In Our Hair

Ashley and I had a fantabulous time in San Fran. Here are some highlights:

-thought I lost my ID in Salt Lake (“lost” meaning dropped in the toilet)
-got lost as soon as we got there, but not the bad kind of lost
-stayed in the nicest hotel Ashley has ever stayed in
-saw some wicked steep hills
-saw Wicked
-rode a cable car and visited the Cable Car Museum
-toured Alcatraz and saw a beautiful sunset
-had some sort of camera glitch and lost a lot of pictures
-saw an awesome view of SF from Coit Tower
-ate sushi and other delish food
-walked the Golden Gate Bridge, and paid $5 so we wouldn’t have to walk back
-was in awe at a JapanTown dollar store
-made a deal in ChinaTown
-visited SFMOMA
-learned a lot about mass transit
-saw a beautiful Japanese garden, hopefully to duplicate in my new backyard
-perused an antique paper show for the first time (a what?—like old letters, photos, stuff like that. It was tres interesting!)
-learned why it is called the Tenderloin District
-really did not see as many typical San Fran’s (if you know what I mean) as I thought
-walked the Wharf and watched a sidewalk performer
-ate at In and Out Burger
-salivated in a paper store in JapanTown (yes, paper—it’s an art thing)
-learned that personal space is completely relative and people in SF are very nice to tourist
-understands why my single brother lives there. The weather is great and it is easy to get around.
–realized you can pretty much eat whatever you want because of the amount of walking that is done

Now for the pictures:

A view of Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz at sunset

On one of the piers at Fisherman's Wharf

Riding a SF landmark

Jaan and I in the Haight

Our hotel room (just kidding--it is one of the cells in Alcatraz)

JapanTown with Hello Kitty

How clever is this picture? Great idea Ash!