The past week in review... well, to be honest, technically the past 9 days in review.

I can't stress enough how happy we are to have stuff again. It's made my life so much better being able to get out of BED (yay!) and stumble out to the COUCH (yay!) and watch TV (yay!) In addition to having stuff, we also have our own internet connection again (my upstairs neighbors, or whoever's internet I was 'borrowing', thank Comcast) and cable! Hooray for cable!

What has happened... Well, a whole of drinking and eating and partying, followed by periods of doing absolutely nothing.

Last Friday, me and S met my sweetie friend J out at the bar. We got our drink on and then proceeded to dinner where we ate honestly the best crab I've ever eaten along with the best soup I've ever eaten. oh god. I'm drooling thinking about it. From there, we went out dancing. Do you know how long it's been since I've been dancing? Yes, it's been a long long time. Long time. And it showed. Give it up for a white girl dancing - that sounds bad and believe me I dance worse than that sounds. HOWEVER, I've never seen anyone move like J does. I might have to alter my opinion that she's innocent, because she sure doesn't look like that on the dance floor.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday saw me and S holed up in our apartment in front of our TV. Here is a step by step guide to recreating our last weekend (for those who want to give it a try):
1) Put movie in DVD player and press start.
2) Pause movie about 20 minutes in to refresh alcoholic beverage.
3) Repeat step 2 for remainder of movie (sometimes including snacks).
4) Repeat steps 1-3 for 3 days.

We did take a break to open Xmas gifts from the KY-side of the family on Xmas eve. Thanks mom! We LOVED our gifts! I now have a fluffy new bathrobe so that I don't flash my neighbors anymore. And we took a break on Xmas day to do a web conf with WI-side of the family. Hi guys! It was good seeing you over the computer!

We finally got out of the house on Tues. We took the train to Union Square to look at the giant Xmas tree and the giant menorah. Then it was a trip down to Embarcadero to check out the ferry building (opening scene of So I Married an Axe Murderer - "Port of San Francisco"), with a BART ride back to Mission for much-needed mexican food fix. J called on Tues - she had too much family time over the weekend and needed booze and cigs.

Which leads us into Wed. After viewing an extremely boring movie with J, we started drinking - martinis at Metreon lead to the Sutter Gutter where we met Suz and her sis (the random girl I met with my partner in crime - see posting from about a month back) which led to a random Chinatown restaurant where J ordered in Mandarin (I sure as heck couldn't read the menu) and I ended up eating a chicken heart (TASTY!)

Plans for the rest of the week:
1) Hog Island tonight for beer and oysters (honestly, is anyone shocked that all my plans involve booze and food?)
2) Gnarls and The Flaming Lips on 12/30
3) Boozing in North Beach tomorrow night (if I get the energy)
4) Wisconsin bowl game and GB Packer game on 12/31.
5) Drinking non-stop on 12/31.
6) Puking non-stop on 1/1.
7) Back on my diet to lose all my weight again on 1/2. Boo.

Hope everyone had a very good Xmas and are going to have a very booze NYE!
--K

And in 2 hours...

The truck will be in our possession again. Ah, wheels. I've missed you too.

We got stuff...

WE GOT STUFF. We GOT stuff! We got STUFF!

Bed, I missed you. TV, I missed you. Couch, I missed you. Clothes, I missed you. Bar, I missed you. Books, I missed you.

You get the picture.

A weekend to remember...

Friday night - a nice lame night at my party friend C's house. After our "date" with tequila the night before, we decided pizza and a chick flick were in order. My liver thanked me for only putting 2 beers in it. My body thanked me for going to bed sober and early.

Saturday - Met up with my party friend C early and we headed downtown to meet our sweetie friend J for another chick flick. "The Holiday" was a great movie, made even better by the fact that C and J both gasp at the same time during movies. I was rolling, in tears laughing. I discovered that both C and I call J "honey" all the time - I think it's b/c she's just so darn sweet, she's my innocent friend. It's been a long time since I've bonded with someone I think is innocent. Then C and J and I headed back to North Beach for some seafood dinner at J's house. J's friend CaryElwes (not really but I nicknamed him) whom I met the VERY FIRST TIME I met J came out - it was good seeing him again.

Saturday night - C and J: "When does S get in tonight?"
K: "He's leaving Phoenix at 8:26, so like 10 pm?"
C and J: "8:26 Phoenix time, or 8:26 our time?"
K: "Doesn't matter, they are the same time zones"
C and J: "No girl, Phoenix is an hour behind" (thanks for answering your phone to verify this fact Slick - much appreciated ;)
K: "Uh. Shit."

I was late getting S at the airport. I'm a rock star wife to say the least.

Saturday night continued - A certain airline lost all of S's luggage.

Sunday - a call from my party friend C. She had helped a friend out big time on Saturday night after I left and it backfired in her face (and on her mattress). I'm still laughing about it. Anyway, we went and picked up tics to hear a jam band in Feb, and then I went to her apt to help "fix" her mattress. Then it was a lovely day spent waiting on luggage to get to our apt! Thanks to A&B for keeping us company for many hours in our still-bare living space!!!!

Today - it's as clear as can be. I'm taking breaks from working at home to stare at the Pacific Ocean. Ah. Life is good right now.

--K

A bit of a sad day...

We no longer own a house. My part of the closing happened yesterday, and as of about an hour ago, S's closing was over. It's a little sad. I love my new life in SF, but I did have a great run in DFW.

A bit of a happy day...

S gets here tomorrow! Yay! See you soon baby!

A bit of a hurting day...

Thanks to my party friend C, I rocked it out with my other good friend "Tequila" last night. Even my hair hurts today.

The Night Before Closing...

It's the night before closing
in this big barren house,
all by myself
I'm missing my spouse.
The house is so empty
it's almost time to go.
The movers took our stuff,
the truck is in tow.
Ten years spent in Texas
the time flew by so fast.
It's hard to think it's over,
this chapter closed and passed.
The path that I have taken
and have been on through the years
has brought me very good friends
with whom shared many beers!
The good friends I made
and meeting my beautiful wife
were all done right here
enriching my life.
Off to California
that's the place where I will go
to start a new chapter
starting in San Francisco.
New friends will be made
and new memories found,
but I'll never forget the good times
spent on this ground.
Goodbye y'all in Texas,
you'll surely be missed.
It's time for a change
so we're heading out West.

--S

Missing my blondie...

Counting minutes until you are here. So are your cats. Well, 1 of your cats. CHOMP!

--K

Vegas baby... Vegas... Again...

With much reluctance (it was pouring down rain, I hadn't had a shower, my dress clothes are all in Dallas), I agreed to go to the SF office party last Friday night. This was only after my buddy Maoser needled me for 5 hours at work on Friday, calling me every name in the book b/c I wasn't going to go. I bailed out of work early, had to go buy a new pair of dress pants, had to run home, get a shower, blow dry my hair, put on makeup, go back out in the rain, catch the train, walk 3 blocks in the rain from the train station, etc. Ugh. However, for some reason, I got into the party mode and had a great time. Alcohol was free, food was free, got to see an old friend I haven't seen in a long time (he quit but is married to someone who still works there). Then came the door prizes. Here is the thing about working in an office of 60 people - it's much easier to win door prizes than say when you work in an office with 500 people (SF vs DFW). And yes, yes I did win. 3 night stay in Vegas, airfare and hotel on the strip included plus 2 show tickets. NICE!

but the best part of the night had to be the fried egg sandwich after the party ended- chow, i heart you. you make a killer egg sandwich.

Suffering a horrible hangover on a Saturday morning is something I'm used to. But what I'm not used to anymore is not being able to hop in my car and grab McDonald's to cure the hangover. I have no car. And there is no McDonald's. So while Friday night rocked, Saturday morning sucked.

I decided to just take it easy on Saturday and then my sweetie friend J and my party friend C called - they wanted an easy night also so they stopped by with wine. 5 hours later... 3 bottles of wine later... a bottle of champagne later... 2 bottles of Bud later...

And Sunday morning sucked too.

THINGS I LEARNED THIS PAST WEEKEND:
1) It's possible to party yourself out (I'm totally shocked too)
2) I will NEVER be one of those people who don't have a TV and are happy with it. I MISS MY TV.
3) Stove top and Diet pepsi work almost as well as Egg McMuffin and real coke from McDonald's in curing my hangovers.

Cheers from the west coast...
--K

My love affair with MUNI has ended...

For those of you who don't take public transportation, just so you are aware, during rush hour times, the trains can get insanely packed. You look like sardines crammed into a metal tube. And people still manage to keep forcing their way on. I don't like to ride the trains when they are like that. And will wait until after evening rush hour ends to go home for the day, or will wait for multiple trains to go by before hopping one in the morning. Obviously I don't care about when I actually arrive at the office - I'm here until 6:15 pm every night anyway.

So yesterday, I was coming down the hill from our apartment to Cole Valley. I could see a train at my stop and about 3 billion people cramming onto it. I could also see over the hill behind the train stop (b/c of my position) and could see another train waiting. SCORE! That means that everyone will get on the train currently at the stop, and I'll have a nice free train to ride to work. So I'm all giddy, go skipping down the street, thinking "Yay! What a great way to start the week!".

I hop on the 'empty' train and pay my fare, take my transfer. The entire time I'm doing this I'm aware that the train is WAYYYYY noisier than normal, but it doesn't really register. I turn around, transfer in 1 hand, purse in the other, and am confronted by, no joke, about 35-40 screaming 1st graders and their teachers on a field trip. I kept thinking surely they were getting off the train soon, but nope, I rode with them all the way to my work stop (about 4 miles, 7 stops). And they screamed the entire time.

I was hating life yesterday b/c of this until yesterday evening. For those of you who don't regularly follow the news, a San Francisco family had gone missing somewhere in Oregon on their way back from Thanksgiving. They found the mom and her 2 kids at their car last night (stranded 9 days) - the dad had gone off looking for help 3 days ago and is still missing. Their dad literally works about 1/2 block from where I do on 2nd St. It hit home last night when I was walking back to my MUNI stop (silently cursing screaming 1st graders and hoping hoping hoping I had an empty train home), and I passed the office where he works and it was surrounded by news vans and reporters who were attending a news conference regarding the situation. It made me glad I'm in San Francisco to ride a train (even with kids) and here's wishing and hoping they find the dad soon.

In happier news, S lands for good in a little less than 2 weeks! This is good as Tigga is going nuts without a male presence in the house (and no Max doesn't count - he's too scared).

--K

Well, K has done a great job keeping everybody up-to-date on the San Francisco happenings. Here in Texas I'm just finishing up the packing/address change/misc stuff that all needs to get done before closing on the 15th and heading out there on the 16h. Thanksgiving week was a blast for me! It was great spending some time out there with K. The Thanksgiving meal was fantasticly done by A&B! Thanks again for all the help during the past turbulent 2 months! Of course it was great meeting all of K's new friends that she has gathered over the past month-and-a-half that she's been there. It makes the new city feel more like home when you have some friends to hang out and drink beer with :-)

I finally got some much promised pics of the views from our windows. This will be my new office ;-) The 3rd pic is a close up of the Golden Gate bridge.


And on Thanksgiving Day here is our hostess with the mostest! And of course what would Thanksgiving be without Boggle and Taboo!


--S

And hold your horses everyone...

My partner-in-crime lands tomorrow night for 5 days of drinking in his old city. Many stories will follow this weekend. Many friends will be made. Many a liver will be further ruined. Ahhh, partner-in-crime, only 27.5 hours to go!

--K

Cuteness personified...

My niece is the most ADORABLE baby/toddler I've ever seen. How soon before she can come visit her crazy Aunt?

--K

Officially needing another vacation day (and a new liver).

Me and S rang in Thanksgiving with some FABULOUS food at A&B's house. Yours truly was drunk when we got to their house, and didn't let up all afternoon. Yours truly also ate her weight (it's hard to do) in food, and didn't stop until the button on my jeans about blew off. After a truly great tday, S and I trucked back up the 17th street hill (seriously, I should've lost all the weight I gained after that hike) to our apartment building, where we raced each other up the steps to our apartment. I won. Even after tripping between 1st and 2nd floors and going face down on the steps. Man, S is sure slow.

Friday saw me and S all over the city - we first braved the mall *gasp* to get S a new cell phone and then we went and saw Borat. Truly hysterical and truly cringe-worthy. I might have a crush on Sasha Baron Cohen. But a crush like the silly guy in class who always made you laugh but that was about it. Then it was back to Cole Valley to drop off said cell phone and then over into Sunset for pizza and beer. Yum. Pizza. Yum. Beer. After truly stuffing ourselves, we cut through GG Park to Richmond to catsit for a friend S2. And then it was a truck back to Cole Valley for boozing into the night.

Saturday saw S hop his flight back to DFW. I then made it a goal to move out of bed only to pee and eat. I not only met my goal, but blew right past it. Seriously, I don't think I moved but 5 times on Saturday. Glorious.

And yesterday my dear sweet friend J and I went out. It was intended to be a low-key day, but ended up being a day that started with martinis and ended up with burgers and PBR in a can. The movie, which J slept through, rocked. The martinis rocked. The beer rocked. And the burgers ROCKED. The only thing that would've made it more fabulous is if Berkeley realized that school SHOULD end the week of Thanksgiving so that Ms A could've joined us on our little trip through alcohol-land.

Ouch.

--K

HAPPY TURKEY DAY (a day early)

Me and S are off to A&B's home for Thanksgiving dinner this year. We had talked of running a 3 mile race prior to eating, but I think the lazy gene in my body is the dominant gene this year, soooo.... we're just going to eat.

Wishing my family in KY and my family-in-law in WI a great holidy (we miss you guys!!!) . Give my niece a big giant smacker on the cheeks for me!

And to our friends scattered all over the place, we miss you all too (have a great day and drink a beer for your friend in SF).

News, separated into sections, b/c that's how I like to think. In sections.

1) Vegas baby, Vegas!
We hit the city of sin on 11/10 EARLY. As in, I had to get up at 4:00 am early to get to the airport on time. And S, who had a 3.5 hour flight to get there (vs my 1 hour flight), still made it in before me - so everyone knows how early he got up. Vegas was a BLAST. Everyone started arriving around 4 pm and the boozing started. Slick's flight got delayed out of Chicago and he didn't get in until 3 am on Sat morning - he did lay down a challenge when he called to tell me about the delay.
Slick: Nobody will still be up when I get there.
K: I'll be up.
Slick: boo hoo. Nobody loves Slick.
(For the record, I still love Slick).
Not only did we stay up until he got in, several of us went to bed when the sun was already fully up for the day (me included).

After sleeping until 3 pm, with short breaks to, ahem, relieve myself of excess alcohol (i.e. puke), I hit it hard again. Me and S, A&B, Paulie and Angie, and Matt (dirty sanchez) and Natalie hit downtown. We decided Barbary Coast needed our money more than we did, so we gave it to them in the form of BlackJack. Then we decided our stomachs needed margaritas - so it was a very very boozy ride back to the strip. Where we stayed up until 4 am. With a 3:30 am Wendy's run. Ugh. I gained 50 lbs on that trip.

2) The pressure is off
THE HOUSE SOLD. We found out on Thurs.

3) I'm no longer homeless.
I picked up my apartment keys on Friday.

4) I'm no longer catless
My buddies (hi Max and Tigga!) flew on their first plane ride Saturday night with their dad to join me in SF. They were a bit tense (to say the least) and have spent the last few days craning their necks to check their new home out. Max has also (appropriately) slept in the closet the last few nights. But they are here, and they are safe.

5) Random coincidences from this past weekend.
a) My partner-in-crime and I met a a girl (S1) and her friend about 2 weeks after I got into town. She's introduced me to several of her friends, and we've hung out many times. One of those friends called on Fri night and I went and met her and her friend (H) for drinks. H called this girl she used to work with (M) and M brought her b/f D. After about 20 mins of chatting, we figured out that D used to work at the NYC branch of my company! As soon as he asked where I worked and I told him, and then he said I used to work there, it hit me that I knew who he was and used to hang out with him when he would go to the DFW office. We (all of us) had a BLAST that night.
b) I met another of S1's friends on Thurs night - we'll call her S2. S2 has cats and I'm going to catsit for her over Thanksgiving. S2 called last night to tell me that she told her sister about me (just moved from DFW, works at company blah), completely randomly, my partner-in-crime and I (on yet another drinking trip) had met her sister about 3 weeks ago at a bar downtown.

HOW RANDOM CAN IT GET???

Now that we have an apartment - come visit people!!!

---K

Go Cowboys! What a spectacularly hysterical loss yesterday to Washington! It MADE MY WEEKEND.

Hi everyone. I'm still in DFW. I'm like a virus - I can't quite be shaken. Ha ha. No, I decided to stay through Thurs - I have my release going out this week and thought I'd give the fabulous A&B some time off from yours truly and the early morning/all night phone calls that will be happening this week for my release.

The weekend was drunken fun. I made up for my lame drinking skills on my birthday night and celebrated the 32nd in style all weekend long. My partner-in-crime and a few of us went out all day on Sunday, and it truly became a great day after the Cowboys screwed up so royally.

This is a lame post today b/c just not much has been happening. I'll have some great stories after this coming weekend (Vegas baby, Vegas), but until then, you are stuck reading my boring stories.

--K

Agh. What a week! I'm blogging today from DFW. I came back on Wed night to visit the hubby and kitties, and celebrate my birthday. Yours truly is now officially mid-30's. I had some Hooter's and beer to ring in the new year, but had to play low-key since I had an early early early early morning today for work. Tonight, there will be raging.

Since I last caught up with you all - a lot has happened.

My partner-in-crime officially left SF. It was a sad day when that happened. Ironically, he is living in DFW for a few months. I now have to find a new person that can keep up with me when I get on a roll (that's not easy to do, but those of you who can, I HEART YOU; WC, Slick - I'm talking about you).

I celebrated my first official Halloween in SF. It was a great and fabulous (and boozy) night but ended with 10 people being shot about a block from where we were. We didn't see or hear anything, but it was a damper on an otherwise spectacular evening.

Arrrrr matey - is that a pirate monkey chomping on Montag's head? Why yes, yes it is. And oh my, I think I spotted a Jackson Ho'. And there is me, being a fairy godmother on acid coming to grant your every wish - or at least the wishes I thought were worthy.

Hope everyone is having a good day. Not much is going on here - I'm on a plan to do as little work as humanly possible today, and it's working out quite nicely.

We are coming up on Halloween/Halloween weekend. I'm not sure what I'm going to dress up as, but I guarantee you it will involve A's bright green wig. I'll be 70's fabulous. I'm looking forward to things I've heard I will definitely see (anatomical "bits" I've been told will be highly on display). I don't think I'll take any pics of that (phew!) but will try to get some good ones of me and A&B.

I'm off to TX in 1 week. I'm excited. I love me some SF, but I am missing my husband and my buddies (Max and Tigga - smooches!). And I'm missing some Mexican and some chicken-fried-steak and my Nip/Tuck. I plan to spend my birthday drinking margs, chowing down on food that is wayyyyy bad for me, and watching all my TV shows.

I just ate a salad, but could sure use a burger.

--K

What a weekend.

It started out again in North Beach with my partner-in-crime. It started out early. By 6:30 pm we had hired this guy to serenade us with a plethora of songs:

By 7 pm, we were kicked out of the bar we were in. Fabulous.

Saturday involved reading in the park with all sorts of men in various states of undress (all sorts of men who should NOT have been in various states of undress). Then it was a trip to Zietgeist (yay!) for frosty beverages, followed by a trek over the hill and into Haight for, well, more frosty beverages. Those of you who know me know that I heart all beer equally - it takes a lot for a beer to get on my bad side. I found a beer that not only got on my bad side, it made me want to beat the crap out of it. Readers of my blog, meet FUNKIEST BEER EVER INVENTED (or "the best sour beer in America" according to the questionable taste of the bartender at Toronado):


A almost lost her lunch after drinking it:


We managed to suffer through the funk that was passed off as beer and decided to take photographic evidence to prove we did indeed drink it:

Ugh. Yuck. Disgusting.

Miss you guys! Hope Texas and Wisconsin and Kentucky and Illinois and Mississippi and wherever else you all may be are treating you well!

PICTURES! Finally.

Our view (you can see GG Bridge much better in person than in photos)... This was taken standing in front of the building.



Our new living room b/c I know everyone was TOTALLY dying to know what the living room in particular looks like:



The Fabulous A being, well, fabulous:

In apartment news...

Good news: We have a fantastic view of Golden Gate bridge!
Bad news: The apartment isn't going to be ours until early Nov. Well, it's going to be ours on Nov1st, but we won't be able to move in until after they redo the hardwoods, paint, and clean that sucker. It still is a gorgeous apartment.

In neighborhood news...

Danny Glover is my new neighbor! His house is about 4 down from our apartment building. I tried to stalk him yesterday by standing on the street corner and staring into his windows for 20 minutes. But he didn't take the hint and poke his head out. However, I do intend to meet him and get a picture taken with him, so until then... Danny, don't walk naked in front of the windows.

In work news...

The office is still boring but has gotten much better since my partner-in-crime returned from a stay at the DFW office. And it's some kind of baking contest today so the break room is loaded up with chocolate. Now if only there was some kind of beer brewing contest going on today too.

In picture news...

I have plenty of pics of our new apartment but lazy me has yet to download them off the camera. I will be sure and try to get done before this weekend so you can start putting pictures with my blabbering.

--K

Well, as you might have guessed from Kerri's posts, I'm back in Texas for a few weeks taking care of the cats and getting things in order before the movers come. Of course being in Texas means dealing with traffic that goes the speed of molassis from the 820/183 interchange to Beach street. I miss San Fran's public transportation system already! I've also felt the pain of not doing abs for a month. Namely, getting out of bed now involves rolling to the side and plopping out sideways so I don't have to sit up. Oooowwww! I did manage to get in a very slow 5k yesterday. I'm sure that contributed to the abs not cooperating this morning. A couple guys from our offices in AZ/IL are in town this week so we've been hitting all their favorite spots for lunch which are cooincidentally some of my favorite spots too. ;-) Monday was an excellent Tex-mex place, Posados, which has excellent sopapias and huge tamalies. Of course it's not as good as Mamasitias which will always have a place in my heart since it's actually a place that we could walk to from home and has amazing food. Tuesday was some fantastic seafood, Pappadeaux. Today I missed the treck to get barbeque at Angelos since I was in a meeting, but tomorrow is lunch at Babe's, which has the best chicken-fried steak ever! Mmmmmm... chicken-fried steak... At least I haven't had to eat supper yet this week since I've had big lunches :-)

--S

Note to self: a month off from doing situps leads to extreme muscle pain when you start up again. OUCH. It hurts.

Not much is happening right now. I've settled nicely into my new work/commute routine. I've found that Muni (my train) and me are in love and nothing will ever separate us. Seriously you guys - public transportation is my new best friend. Nothing beats leaving the house, walking a block, catching a train, and being at my work 15 minutes later without having to deal with any kind of traffic/cars/etc. Be prepared - whoever comes to visit, you will be subjected to rides on the train.

Also, I have found that I love walking everywhere. I had some errands to run last night, and it was like a 3 block walk to Walgreens, followed by a block walk to The Body Shop (I completely forgot why I was headed there so I kept going - only to remember this morning that I need a loofah), and then a 2 block walk to dinner. No cars needed. No gas wasted. Beautimous.

I'm going tomorrow afternoon to check out the apartment again - I will be taking many photos so tomorrow night or Thurs morning, I will post some up so everyone can see what our new place looks like.

Okay - might as well do some work. Although I'd rather be eating lunch.

--K

Hellooooo all. Hope everyone is doing well today. I made it to the gym this morning (gasp!) and actually did a 4-mile run (walk/run to be honest) yesterday, so yours truly, is feeling a bit better today - feel like I got some of the cobwebs out of the old brain. It doesn't mean the brain is working any better though, just less dusty.

Our weekend started with a bang - pretty feet and new shoes. On Friday, I got a MUCH needed pedicure and some big girl shoes since I left all my heels in Texas. Then the 4 of us met up with another set of A&B's friends for sushi and sake (and sake bombs - those made a mess but were a blast to drink). Saturday found me and Shaun hungover and eating a huge greasy breakfast. I then drug him up and over the hill to Noe Valley to look in the shops there. It was a highly unproductive shopping experience (but my wallet was thrilled to be left alone for a day). Shaun left Saturday to go back to TX (HI BABE!), which left me tagging along with A&B for another friend's birthday party on Saturday night. I got a much-needed mexican fix, and a much-not-needed beer fix. And yesterday was a lazy lazy day (other than the run). It involved copious amounts of tv, beer, and sleeping.

The funniest part of my weekend though had to be Friday night when I was chowing down on pizza in the Castro district and got tsk-tsk'ed by 2 men for being such a pig. If you want more details, let me know - but trust me, the rate at which I was eating, I needed to be tsk-tsked.

--K

Yay! Picture time! It's picture time, it's picture time, so come on and get your crayons and your pencils... Actually, I think it was picture page, not picture time. But you get my drift...

This was taken at a restaurant in Chinatown on 10/8/06. I call it "Fun with Chopsticks". Ed and Lynn - we miss you guys!




This is the view of the Pyramid Building from Fisherman's Wharf (where we spent all day Sunday watching the Blue Angels and imbibing). Here are the sea lions also. I call these "Kerri attempts to take pictures of something other than someone drinking a beer".



I call this one "Grateful Dead House", b/c, well, it's the Grateful Dead House. YAY! My New Neighborhood!


And finally, I call these two "you can take the girl out of texas, but you can't take texas out of the girl" and "what exactly was shaun on?" respectively. Taken at bars (in the Castro - where April and Brad live; and in Cole Valley - our new neighborhood).


Now that I found a download cable -you'll be subjected more and more to these kinds of posts. Aren't you all THRILLED?

Happy Friday the 13th!!!!

Greetings to all from San Fran (still). In happy happy, joy joy news, we got our apartment!!! It's a beaut. It should be for the $$$ we are paying for it. Walk-in closets, dining room, living room, HUGE bedroom, bathroom with separate shower/bathtub. We are just now in the waiting phase to see if we got the one with views of Golden Gate (available mid Nov) or the one without views of Golden Gate (available next week).

Last night was yet another productive night of drinking. I think I can feel my liver trying to burrow it's way out of my body. Tiny little liver fingers scratching away at my insides. I tell you what... I LOVE this city. Shaun and I can walk anywhere for beers, and not worry at all about how we are going to get back home.

I don't really have anything to say, but it is amazing how bagels always make you feel better after a night of drinking.

Bottoms up!
--K

Randy - just in case I have to spell it out, the "someone should come visit" right now means you. Of course, EVERYONE SHOULD COME VISIT. But, I know I can get Randy to come visit v. v. soon. So I'll work on him at the moment.

Oh, and someone should really come visit.

Things I've learned this week...

1a) That I never want to hear about a Dustin Diamond sex tape again.
1b) That I never really wanted to know what a dirty Sanchez is (www.wikipedia.org - type in dirty sanchez - you'll be sorry).
2) YouTube rocks
2a) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm_n76Dsl0c Maybe I DO want to be a french fry
2b) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsgXjzafeHw I'm always that kind of drunk
2c) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgEMudhcckI Just freaking funny
3) I would've made a good hippie judging by where I want to live in San Fran.
4) As much as I heart the Muni train, it won't take me everywhere I want to go.
4a) It really IS too far to walk from my office to In-and-Out.

I would like to give a big cheer to Shelbs and Brad. They are super rock stars for tolerating me and Shaun this week. I'd have kicked us out on Monday (and changed the locks after), but for some reason, they keep letting us back into the apartment at night. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

5k and hills, lots and lots of hills...

I finally got a full 5k in today. I swear there's more uphill then downhill. I don't know how they do it, but I think it's a conspiracy that somehow I'm running twice as much uphill than downhill. The views are spectacular when you get to the top of them though. The trick is to find a street that has few trees on the side that you're running down the hill so you can take in the view longer. Well, my 5k was a very long 33 minute tour, so I was pretty happy about keeping it under an 11 minute pace. It should get better as I figure out which hills are in on the conspiracy.

--SRG

Grateful Dead and the new bestest bestest bar....

You are reading this correctly - yesterday, Shaun and I checked out the Grateful Dead house. It's a landmark here in San Fran. Uh, not much to say, except it was purple. Not sure if it was purple when the Dead lived there (probably), but it was definitely purple now. We weren't exactly sure where the house was located on Ashbury, but we followed the crowd of people in Pink Floyd t-shirts, and eventually found it. Terri, don't be jealous.

After checking out the Dead house, we continued to explore the Haight-Ashbury area. This is the area we want to live in - so we did what we always do when getting ready to move someplace - we checked out the bars. And we found the new bestest bestest bar. The bartender rocked - she knew where to get a tattoo, where the best Indian food in Haight was (Randy, don't be jealous), and where to see the best drag show in town (I'll have to do this after Shaun leaves). She also bought us a round (which made us instantaneous friends) and poured the fabulous Brad-the-man a shot that was like 3 shots in 1 glass. What can I say? I think I love her.

And in case you didn't read my blog yesterday - somebody really should come visit us.

--K

Gin and velvet paintings and the longest run in the world...

Last night, after too many beers, accompanied by 2 G&T's, I managed to turn a painting (a VELVET painting - honestly, are those even MADE anymore???) in a bar of a Jersey girl looking at a porn mag, into a painting of a naked Drew Barrymore cuddling a statue of the Virgin Mary. Nobody else saw it, but I did. I think I'm going to steal that painting and post it on EBay and make like 10 million dollars. Cause there is always someone who sees the religious in everything. Apparently, last night, that someone was me.

Then today, in an effort to sweat out all the gin from last night, I went on a 50-mile run. But the strangest thing - when I actually figured out the distance, it was only 2.33 miles. So my sense of distance was a bit off. It *felt* like 50 miles and I think that's what should count. I just want to know where the downhill part of San Fran is b/c apparently I've only managed to find the uphill parts.

And by the way, someone should come visit us soon.

--K

Thoughts on the new office and my diet...

It's too quiet here. I work better in and with noise. But there is free fruit on Monday and free bagels/pastries on Friday. Something the old office definitely did not have. But the old office had noise. How does this relate to my diet? Here goes - is not having noise worth the free food? Stay tuned this week as I strive to answer this question.

--K

Blue Angels, beer and Uncle Ed....

In honor of Shaun and I moving to SFO, the Blue Angels decided to fly formations over the city all weekend for us. It was a really sweet gesture on their part. I think the mayor of San Fran put them up to it.

In all seriousness, it was Fleet Week. Which means that huge destroyers dock in the ports, and the streets are full of seamen (hey, it's San Fran - it's nothing new), and the Blue Angels fly over the bay doing incredibly complicated maneuvers. And it happened first weekend we were in town.

In addition, Ed and Lynn became our first official visitors!!!! We had many a beer with them and their friends, and tried out the funkiest "Red Light" bar we could find in Chinatown (pics to come). What a fabulous weekend.

We forgot the cable to download pics off of our digital cam so you guys are going to be stuck wondering what we've been doing - but trust me, it will be worth the wait.

Missing Texas, but still ECSTATIC we're here.

--K

My feet hurt. But I ate the best sloppy bagel sandwich in the world today. So it made my feet hurt not as much.
--K

23 hours, 14 minutes...

In the spirt of my short time left in Texas, I decided to make a list of things I'm going to miss and things I'm really not going to miss. Here it goes:
Things I will MISS:
1) downtown FtW - you are a beautiful, beautiful thing and more cities should be just like you.
2) my treadmill - you weren't so beautiful but you made it hard to offer an excuse to be lazy.
3) Bellbottoms/Le Freak - the funkiest 70's cover band in the weirdest bar around - all 1 mile from my house. I should've visited you more often.
4) MILWAUKEE JOE'S - oh HOW I will miss you and your luscious 'Vanilla with Reeses and Fudge'!!!!
5) Most importantly - my friends - Ray, Heidy, Paul, Angela, Danielle (even though you left), Amy, Vanessa, Jason... I'm tired so I'm 100% sure I've left people off.

Things I will NOT MISS:
1) Obscenely large trucks trying to parallel park in spaces meant for Mini's (although it was freaking funny).
2) Mowing the lawn in 108 degree heat. Lawn - how I will NOT miss you!
3) My office building. oh lord, how I will DEFINITELY NOT miss you either.
4) The Mickey Mouse room - go in that room when you are drunk and you'll see that Mickey's eyes follow you. Shame Mickey. Some of just want some privacy.

California. It's time. I'll see you tomorrow.

--K

Ugh. Texas + tequila = bad news.

Stroke of genius.

My going away party is tonight. In a move that borders on brilliance, I planned it the same day as the all-hands meeting that was already scheduled for all of my company. THEN, my company came back, and made the all-hands meeting an offsite with a free happy hour after. The free happy hour will end just as my going away party starts.

It scares me sometimes how smart I am.

-K

I TOTALLY jinxed the Packers.

House of Snakes. Or maybe I was just really drunk.

So, last Friday night, after a boozy evening at DP's (really and truly the best HH around north Dallas), I came home to find a snake (we'll call him Bob from now on) lying up against the front door. That also would be up against the front door INSIDE the house. I think he was looking for his girlfriend - but unbeknowst to Bob, my husband killed the snake girlfriend about 3 years ago over Thanksgiving. That's right - this was snake #2. In addition, my husband was sleeping with Captain Morpheus on Friday night - lasix surgery warranted a couple of sleeping pills - so that left a drunk yours truly to get a rake and get Bob out of the house. I'll give it up for Amy though - she came into the house and I pointed out Bob and her reaction - "Huh. Oh well".

Also, GOOOOO Pack GO. It's about half-time of their game against the Eagles and they are actually up by 2. I'm sure I just jinxed them though. Yep. I just jinxed them. Well, at 1:22 left in the first half, they were up by 2. I think the Eagles are about to score now. Eagles - just make sure you win next week when you play the Cowboys. That's way more important.

--K

My car is sold. The Eclipse now belongs to someone else. And I miss it. Even though I thought I wouldn't. Ahhh, the good memories are flooding back - the time I rammed it into our gate, the time(s) I rammed it into the roof over our parking spot at Firestone, the time that lady rammed me, the time(sssss) I rammed it into concrete bumpers in parking lots.

Eclipse - you were a good car. You were my first new car. And even though you couldn't wait 3 more months to blow your clutch, I still love you. Take care of the new guy. He'll be nicer to you than I ever was!

Our 3 year anniversary is today (for those who weren't aware). Actually, it's our 3 year 'non-legal' anniversary (the official one is 10/10 - yay, 2 times to celebrate!) Here's to my blondie - he's my chompers all the way! CHOMP!

Babe - can you get me a dougnut with sprinkles? Babe, doughnut with sprinkles?

and I *suppose* I'll get some pizza with you tonight ;)

Words

The words of a couple have a mysterious way
of replacing those that should be used every day.
Words and phrases which are common to some
are replaced with those that are known just by one.
Hot-buns, Sweet Girl, and of course Skinny-butt,
all are the names for my favorite
girl who is beautiful, sexy, and bright,
gorgeous, caring, and my shining light.
All to often I limit the words that I say
to the same old clichés that I use every day.
The lack of assortment in my daily speech
by no way diminishes the love felt in each
day that I'm with her, right by her side,
as of 3 years, my beautiful bride.
It's been a whirlwind, this time that we spent
filled with lots of memories that all will cement
this marriage together that will last through the years,
we'll grow old together and drink lots of beers!
So "Good night my sweet girl", and "I CHOMP you too!"
and all of the words, that mean "I love you".

Happy Anniversary!
Love,
Shaun

I'd like to acknowledge the coolest people I've met in a long time - Tony, Crystal, Joe(y), and Colin - whoa.
And I'd like to acknowledge the best idea I've heard in a long time - Tony with the Taco Bell run.

In other news, the house is now on the market: http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1068592967
It's pretty when it's clean. Kind of like my car. I might have to try that in my apartment in San Fran. Keeping it clean and stuff. It's a new idea, but it might suit me.

Wisconsin + beer = bad news.

Random thoughts b/c I'm at work and I'm bored. As usual.

1) A trained monkey really and truly could do my basic job. It's a fact and it's sad.
2) If I wash my car or sign up for a race, it will rain. It's a fact. It's also sad.
3) My brother and his wife produced the most adorable kid ever. It's a fact, and it's not sad.
4) Hawaii kicks all other states butts. It's an opinion, and the only thing sad about it is that I'm not in Hawaii.
5) I wish I was in Hawaii. It's a fact.

Is this really happening?

I'm having a bit of a panic attack at the moment. While we've *known* we were going to San Francisco since June, it hasn't felt real. To be honest, it still doesn't feel real, yet for some reason we are now in possession of 2 plane tickets which will take me to my new home. Shaun will be coming out to help find an apartment, and then heading back to DFW to enjoy a few weeks on his own in the house with the cats (ha ha - sucker). He'll be getting things in order for the movers, and then joining me in our new home.

Logistics: new doctors, new vets, new office building (which will steal my soul I'm told), new commute entirely (is working from home full-time an option???), new airport, new groceries, listening to Max howl until he gets used to the apartment, new apartment, new you name it. How did I ever do this before?

On the plus side - WINE COUNTRY. OCEAN. Running outside year-round. Killer seafood. Killer beer. Stumbling distance back from bar(s). No more getting in my car to drive 3 blocks, b/c they actually believe in sidewalks in San Fran (get a clue Dallas).

Anybody want a car? www.eclipseforsale.blogspot.com - it's pretty when it's not green (aka dirty)

See you all on the west coast.