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