Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Green Thumb?

Memorial Day Weekend was great.  I did some inside cleaning Saturday and Sunday due to the down pour of rain, but Monday we were out and about in the yard!  Here are all my little wonders. GROW plants GROW!  I decided not to invest in bushes along the side of our house.  I bought the 3 that were in  previous post and just planted those, I want to see how they do this summer, and then hopefully we can plant a few more in Fall.  I am hoping for a drop in price at that time. Landscaping is an expense, and one that is risky, when well, let's face it, you don't know what you are doing.  But boy, adding a bush there and some flowers here, makes it look so good.  You don't even realize what a splash of color will do.  Adam agrees with all of the above, and just let me go with all of this! : )
Creation #1
Asiatic Lily w/ Golden Japanese Forest Grass

Creation #2
Celosia and Verbena
With a fun green bush in the middle.  I forget the name.

My Winter Creeper
Self portrait of the Gardener
My brand new Dahlia, from Dr. Sales... I named him  Runt!!!  I hope he grows to be just as big as last years Dahlia!
I also have another Dahlia, that I am trying to keep alive.  My friend Bea gave it to me because she knew she would kill it.  So I named it Bea, of course though I left it outside when it got really cold last week, and it shriveled right up.  Runt is much stronger!  : )  We will see Bea may come around!
My Box Wood

My Plant that will grow pink flowers... fingers crossed!!!

So after all the digging, bending, lifting, hauling, driving back and forth for mulch, 30 bags!!, I am finally satisfied and will do my best to water and mother my little wonders!!!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Ula's Last Day

Susie, Erica, Ula
Ula is moving to New York!
I worked with her at the cardiology office years back and have remained in touch.
I am so happy for her.  She very recently got married, gained step-children, and is finally with the one she should be with!  Tuesday was her last day at the office, so I joined in her going away celebration at Rookies.  
It was fun to see others that I worked with including both Dr. Burks and Dr. Bromet.  Catching up with them was so fun.  They have proclaimed that I turned away from my cardiology "roots," and  to the dark side of butts and guts!  Hey, what can I say... 
My first love is the love of the human heart though.  I must say.

Susie was also at the party, and I am always super excited to see her.  She is the funniest person I know, tells it like it is, and is just a great person.  
Needless to say, Ula will be missed.  
Good Luck on the East Coast OOO-LA LA!!

Baby Mara

 Meredith gave birth just a couple weeks ago and I had to stop by to oogle over baby Mara.  
She is so small and so pretty and I held her for an entire hour without a single peep out of her!!!
 Shawn is Meredith's son whom I also held with out a peep out of him when he was a baby.
Clearly... Meredith's children love me, I have no idea what's wrong with all the others.

Greenery

I am choosing between these 3 bushes for the sides of the house!
The one on the left is a WinterCreeper... and the one on the right is a BoxWood!
I forget the middle one.
My friend Sarah works in gardening at Home Depot and suggested these.  I love them cause they are all wild and unruly and do well in sun or shade, I think!  
And did you know that if you save the receipt and it doesn't grow back the following year, you can un-dig it and return it to get your money back!??
Gotta love that!

3rd week of May

Last weekend started off Friday night with an Improv Comedy Show for Alisa's post birthday!  About 2 minutes after I took this picture, an announcement was made for no flash photography!  Alas, no other pictures!  Overall, the show was great.  As I sat there and laughed, I thought about how hard it has to be to do what they do.  How to tell what would be funny or not, the transition into their next thought, how to get the audience involved, it's a hard job!  
 Saturday we were at the Joliet Raceway for Adam's ride a long with a pro driver.  Adam's mom and sister gave him the ride along as a Christmas gift.  After many rain delays, he finally got into the car, and it was over before he knew it.  He loved it and now would like to actually be behind the wheel of one!

This is the car he got to drive in!
Sunday we spent the entire day outside doing yard work.  Adam cut the grass, hedged, and attempted to stain our fence with out much success.  It was a bit too windy, so this project will be put off until the weather is better.  I pulled weeds, and planted flowers.  At Home Depot I was able to fit 15 bags of mulch in my car, which turned out to be 1/2 of what we need, so there are many undone things we had to save for this weekend!
 Adam found THIS in our yard, followed by finding ANOTHER about 5 minutes after THIS was taken care of.  Gotta love your back yard backing up into a cornfield.
 Here's our front landscaping awaiting the other 1/2 of the mulch!
 I re-did our front porch flower pot!!!  What a difference!!!
There is only one eyesore in this picture!!!

Thursday, May 05, 2011

San Francisco 2011


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"If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."
-Scott McKenzie

It all started when Adam was 84% sure he would be going to San Francisco on a business trip April 20-21.  I quickly did some magic, okay, I begged and pleaded for anyone to work for me, so that we can turn a 2 day business trip into a fun filled long weekend.  I got the days off and Adam was still only 84% sure he got the trip.  So then Adam begged and pleaded to be the one to do this business trip.  And then all of a sudden abracadabra we were in the most beautiful, fun filled city.

I flew in Wednesday morning and my trip started out in normal Erica fashion.  Adam had warned me that my cab ride to the hotel would be about 45 dollars.  I looked into other options as I rather spend my 45 dollars in Napa sipping on some Merlot.  And so I found a shuttle service that would take me and a couple other passengers to our hotels.  17 dollars.  Score 1 point for Erica.
We were staying at the Hilton in the Financial District and I was the first stop.  The man stopped the van, dropped my luggage and I off, and in I went to the Hilton.  I go to the front desk, ask for the key that my husband left for me, and smile politely.  The man at the front desk proceeded to tell me that there is no such husband staying at this hotel.  I told him he must be wrong, and that we are staying in room 607.  He then tells me there is no room 607!  Ummm... ok.  I walk away embarrassed.  I am at the wrong hotel AND not by my doing.  WONDERFUL.  Deduct 1 point from Erica, THANK YOU airport shuttle driver.  I hail a cab and luckily it was only a 6 dollar ride.  I still made it to the hotel for less than 45 dollars. 
I'll take that point back!

Jennah arrived shortly after my arrival to Hilton #2.  Jennah is my roommate from Disney.  She is originally from Oregon, born a small town girl, now loving life in the city.  She lives in SF with her husband Gabe.  And the 2 of them together are basically the best tour guides EVER!

So Jennah takes me to her apartment and nearly kills me.   I just had my first taste of "the hills!"
I survived.
I saw her tiny, little, super cute apartment, and her 2 kittens, then off we went...
we walked to Union Square, and then to the Wharf, Pier 39, and the Ferry Building.  We had clam chowder in the famous sour dough bread bowels at Boudin, we walked in some old ships and saw this cute little group of kids on one ship who kept saying "aye ye sir!"  and we also went to Ghirardelli Square where we had hot fudge sundaes.  We then rode the trolley which was A MUST on my to-do list.   I made sure to hang off of it like a typical tourist.  After that, we went back to the hotel.   Adam was off of work by this time eager to see SF and there we waited for Gabe to be off of work too!  Once everyone was ready we all headed to Sotto Mare, where we had bibs placed and we dined on cioppino.  This dish was really pushing the limits of my pickiness in food.  But alas it was absolutely fabulous.
"I can eat here every day!" -Adam
Let me let Wikipedia describe this dish to you:

Cioppino is a fish stew originating in San Francisco. Despite being considered an Italian dish, it is unknown in Italy, and it is only slightly comparable with various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine. Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in the dish's place of origin is typically a combination of dungeness crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish. The seafood is then combined with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce, and served with toasted bread, either sourdough or baguette.

We then went to a cutesy little bar down the block a bit for another drink (or 2) before calling it a night!!!  

.Day 2.
Jennah walked to the hotel and off we went walking through Chinatown.  We went into a restaurant where the entire menu is in Cantonese.  Jennah pointed to the dim sum and said she wanted two.  Basically, it is a small roll with meat inside.  We had it with BBQ pork.  The best part, it was 90 cents.  You can not get a lot of things these days for 90 cents!!!  And it filled me up till lunch.
We continued on our way through Chinatown, complete with watching this guy dump live fish into a garbage can and then another guy pushing the garbage can down the street, with fish flipping out of it.  Eww.
On our way out of Chinatown, we stopped at Starbucks.  Nothing like dim sum and Starbucks.  We then walked thru the Financial District, I saw where Jennah worked.  We waved to the the suckers inside and then took a cab to the city side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We then proceeded to walk across on the most beautiful day.  After a rest, we walked all the way back, and kept on walking, and walking, and walking some more, around the bay and back into town.  We were tired, but it was such a great time.  Our reward, In N' Out Burger!!  So good!  
We walked a little more, and then ended up taking the cable car to the restaurant Palio, where Adam was entertaining his clients.  It was happy hour and we deserved some drinks, "to lubricate the joints!"  Quotation from J.  Gabe met us there and we continued on with happy hour, before this Gabe was at his own companies Happy Hour, which is why I like Gabe so much!  After Palio we then went to a wine bar called... The Wine Bar (go figure!) in which you drink wine straight out of the barrel.  It was a great place to go too at the end of a long, eventful, and fun day!!!  I would go back there in a heart beat!  But as you have been reading, I was drinking adult beverages, and with that and the sunburn I got from walking on such a beautiful day, I was just done.  It was a good "done" though, I couldn't stop laughing!


.Day 3.
This was the day Adam and I were to share.  Now, that Jennah, was able to show me around, I was able to show Adam a lot of the same things.  We had tickets to Alcatraz for 1100, so that was the only thing we needed to be on time for.   The tour was amazing and I thought they did an exceptional job with the audio part of the tour.  They really put things in a prisoners perspective and I felt like I took a step back in time. 
"Break the rules, and you go to prison, break the prison rules, and you go to Alcatraz."
After showing Adam some of the stops I had already made, we made our way to North Beach, and explored some local parks.  We found Golden Boy Pizza which was a recommendation from Andrea and Dave.  However, we were stuffed from lunch, so I mosyed over a few doors down to a tattoo parlor.  I had been wanting to get my cartilage pierced.  I do not know why?  But I had been, so Adam gave me a quick dare, and I walked in and a nice lady with tattoos took a needle to my ear.  Just a small stud, hurt for a minute.  Or 2 or 8.  
"Am I supposed to tip her?" -I say with a whisper...
"I dunno, let me google it!" -Adam with a whisper back
So that was my "on a whim" moment, and now I have a fabulous souvenir.
For dinner we met with Gabe and Jennah and they took us to Off the Grid at Fort Mason.  It's a place where all the food trucks from the city congregate in one place for a big feast.  It was packed with people, and they had a live band which made it so much more fun.  This was one of our favorite things that we did.  There was just something about it that was so fun and carefree.
After this we had crepes.
Delicious.


.Day 4.  
Gabe and Adam went golfing first thing in the morning and then we all met up for breakfast.
Then we were on our way to Napa Valley.  Talk about a scenic drive.  So incredibly beautiful.
  We ended up visiting 3 wineries that day.
#1.  Frank Family Vineyards- eh... 
#2. Sterling- You ride this cool gondola up to the top of the hill where the wine tasting rooms are located.
#3. Castello di Amoroa "The Castle of Love," -our favorite
After we had enough of drinking wine, we headed to Muir Woods.  We made it there with only 1/2 hour before park close, and I have to say, the sight and the smell was breathtaking.  It seriously made me sick getting there, up and down, and round and round, and up and down driving.  By the time we got there Jennah said...
"Ok, get out of the car and look at some trees!"
We definitely need to go back next time.  We had no time to walk the trail and we couldn't see a whole lot as the fog rolled in and it was next to dark.  So next time it is!!!
For dinner we went to J and G's old neighborhood to a restaurant they like a lot.  We were all so hungry after our alcohol intake that day.  Our day ended with a trip past the Full House "houses."  They didn't look anything like they do on TV, but still worth the drive to say I had been there.   We also took a drive down Lombard Street!  The twistiest, turviest street ever!  Since it was dark I didn't get great pictures of these things, but alas, next time it is!
  
.Day 5.
Happy Easter!!!  We went to a jazz bar type of restaurant, called OZ, for breakfast.  It was a nice place and J and G joined us for one last meal!  The main feature of this restaurant.  BOTTOMLESS MIMOSAS.  The boys took advantage.
After breakfast, we said good-bye and headed to the airport. 
So sad. 


It was an amazing trip.  Both of us can not wait to return one day!  It was fun to hang out with Jennah, and get to know Gabe better.  They are a fun couple, and they went totally out of their way to show us around.  We would not have had as much fun with out them, and are totally grateful to have such great friends!


Miles walked... 28.13
Pictures taken.... 301
Trip to San Francisco....PRICELESS

Sunday, May 01, 2011

1950's!!!

 
Saturday night, Adam and I were transported to the 1950's back to an era of rock and roll, wearing your "steadys" high school ring, rolled up jeans, smokes in your sleeve, hair slicked back, poodle skirts, and burgers, dogs, and milkshakes.
Why?
Because we were celebrating Alisa's Dad's birthday.
Mr. M.  turned 60 and his party was a huge success.
This guy even wore his ORIGINAL letterman jacket from his high school years!!!
 Everyone at the party got a ride in the car!
 Dessert bar!
Alisa and I attempting to make milkshakes for everyone.  
Sadly, I didn't play the part!  I wore my new sweater bought on clearance at Ann Taylor Loft.
Happy 60th Birthday Mr. M!!!  Hope you had fun!

Bark For Life

  Canines can fight cancer too, ya know??  August 6th, 2011 Lucas and Charlie will be walking in the American Cancer Society's  BARK FOR LIFE!!!!  They can not  wait to be apart of this LIFE SAVING fundraiser.
  Yesterday, Adam and I drove around posting flyers in local pet shops, vets, and groomers.  (And there was some definite cuddling with all the little pups we met along the way!!!)  This was one of my tasks in volunteering for the American Cancer Society.  I will also be involved with the day's activities.  
  I thought this was a nice spin on the human walking in a marathon.  Dogs want to take a bite out of cancer too!!!  And with the help of their humans they finally can!  A great cause so that more people can celebrate more BIRTHDAYS!!!!

Keegan's Birth Story

So 2 years ago, I was preaching to the choir.... "I am never going to do this again."  "One kid is it for me."  "T...