iSee iPhone

I've been so busy lately with my new job (loving it so much!) that I've forgotten how nice it is to update this blog with what I've been doing lately. I wish that I was as diligent in blogging as I was in the past. I was recently going through old Livejournal entries and laughing/crying at how young, angsty, and naive I was, but at least I still have them to look back on and remember things I might have otherwise forgotten. I still curse the day that I deleted my first blogger account because I had some great posts written up there that I spent more time on than I did actually studying back in college, but oh well! This is probably good for me since most of those posts are probably too incriminating for myself and others. I hope to post more about the art and music that has been inspiring me lately, as well as my style that has totally changed from vintage babydoll twee chick to French/Japanese minimalist grandma--the best description I can think of at the moment, which probably makes zero sense to others. 

At the moment, I am excited to be visiting Las Vegas next weekend to attend my godson Austin's baptism. My cousins will all be there and I am sure that we will have a great time "discovering" what the city in the desert has to offer. The following weekend, Z and I head to Ithaca, NY for his youngest sister's graduation. (I'm so old! I remember first meeting her when she was in high school!) I'm excited to see Cornell, which from her instagram posts proves to be such a beautiful campus. After the graduation, Z and I will be taking a train up to Montreal. I hope to document these trips and post them here! Until then, here are some iphone photos via my instagram from the past couple of weeks taken around San Francisco. Enjoy!

The Great Chili Cook-off!

Last month, Z's mom helped organize a little event for their neighborhood with beer tasting and a chili cook-off competition for Oktoberfest.  Even though I am not sure how chili fits in with Oktoberfest, Z decided to enter the competition competing against some of his family's friends and even against Z's own father. Z basically threw everything but the kitchen sink into his chili and then fretted about it being too spicy for his audience, whose idea of a good bowl of chili comes from a can prepared via the microwave. (Just kidding, but sadly this might be the American standard) Tasters were able to vote for their favorite chili, but halfway through the competition Z ran out of food. Rookie status! Z received a couple of votes though during his short time serving, so all was not lost. While Z was busy serving chili, I was busy drinking free beer from Das Brew (a local microbrewery from the area) and making Finnegan take ridiculous photos with all the hay bales and scarecrows in the vicinity. This probably was not a good idea considering how I talked about giving my liver a vacation in my last post, but apparently I forgot about this. After Oktoberfest beer, Z and I later joined some friends in Oakland at our favorite Tiki Bar for more drinks. It was a great weekend overall! Below are photos of an apathetic pig dog and a day-drunk Z. Cheers!

Wave Runner

I remember the first time we took Finnegan to the beach. He didn't understand that you couldn't and shouldn't eat the sand, but that it is also okay to get your paws wet. Finnegan has some OCD tendencies in that he hates having dirty paws and will go out of his way to avoid stepping in puddles, on rain drains/grates on sidewalks, and other things that we may encounter on our walks through-out the city. This is great for me since a clean dog makes me a happy pug mom. Flash forward to today and Finnegan has finally embraced running head on into the crashing waves at a beach and was totally bro-ing out. He went for the waves, immersing himself, when usually he would not dare come near them. After romping around Fort Funston, our usual go-to spot for Finnegan, we stopped by Unleashed by Petco in Daly City to self-serve bath him. I love taking him there because I don't have to worry about cleaning up tons of little black furs in my tub and the selection of shampoos are pretty swell as well. Hope you all have a lovely week! Cheers!