I need more time and more money.

Here are a couple things on the apartment to-do list:

• grow an herb garden on that front “patio” space with a lemon tree and a lime tree (it’s bigger than it looks in the photo, must be the streetview angle)
• get Earl a Norfolk Island Pine, which he has been dreaming about (he looooves those).  Would go inside
• curtains for the front windows!
• a couch
• a bed (we are actually picking this one up tomorrow- hurrah!  FINALLY!! No more mattress on the floor!)  cat and dog will be bummed about this new development.
• hang up our bikes, either in the storage space in our garage or in the apartment (we can’t decide if they’ll get stolen from the garage or not… so we’ve just been leaving them standing in the living room for a while.  not that it matters now, since we have no couch!)
• set up our “home gym” downstairs in the storage space.  I refuse to pay for a gym membership for myself, particularly if I am spending $$ on circus school or capoeira classes and or swim club.  So we picked up a used weight bench and freeweights off of CL and are going to set them up downstairs
• is it even worth it to try and fix crappy cabinets when you rent and don’t own?  probably not.  Make this item “complain to landlord about cabinets” heh.
• similar to above- would love to do it but doubt it’s worth it if we aren’t going to stay in this specific place forever and ever, but i would love to do wall to wall bookshelves on one of our walls.  right now we just have the ikea ones which came with our NYC apartment- hand me downs from our friends.  and let me just tell you- Ikea bookshelves do NOT survive cross country shipping very well- they are leaning over ever so wonkily right now.  on the verge of collapse!
• I need some kitchen stuff.  When you go from NEVER cooking to cooking 80% of the time, you realize how much kitchen junk you really lack.  Top of my list?  A mixer.  Then there’s random stuff that would never cross your mind to buy until you really need it, like a juice squeezer thing for lemons, oranges, grapefruit, and a butter serving tray.  Same goes for a napkin holder.
• Dust
• Vacuum
• Clean bathroom
• Clean Kitchen (all of these four are on my Sunday hit-list)
• Just a funny note:  Earl just walked in from work, and I asked him “hey, can you think of anything on our apartment to-do list that I should add?” and his reply was “No!  Not at all, there is NOTHING on that list!” haha… just cuz he wants to get out of doing all this stuff

San Francisco is know for its hills and stairs.

And, as a wannabe ultrarunner, lo and behold, I need to run lots of both.  Plus, I am anxious to learn this city as well as I knew NYC (it’s developing into a bit of a complex, we have only been here 3 months, and I find myself getting annoyed at myself when I don’t know my way around!).  It frustrates me that I still feel like such a newbie.  And, one of the quickest ways to get a feel for a new city is to run around it.  These hills and stairs are everywhere, and lots of them are in sections I wouldn’t normally check out, unless I had an excuse to go run over there in the morning!

Ergo I am toying with the idea to attempt to run EVERY SINGLE HILL and EVERY SINGLE STAIRCASE in San Francisco.  I’m not sure how big of a project I want to make this.  I’ve done some research, and I think I’ve found them all.  My records have 88 hills (highest: Mt. Davidson @ 925 ft, lowest: Alice Griffen/Double Rock Housing Hill @ 75 ft) and 98 staircases (longest: Vulcan @ two blocks, shortest: Duboce Ave steps).

During this same burst of research I also found 68 parks, which I could also run to and explore.  So that would be 88 hills, 98 stairs and 68 parks.

Sooo….. while I’m fleshing it out, here are some things to think about:

• Scope: how big of a project do I want to make this?  Start going down the list and religiously check them all off?  Or, just try and hit a new one every so often, but not be obsessive about it?  Do I need to go in an order (highest to lowest? longest to shortest?) or just do them as they fit into my daily milage?  Can I do more than one per run- say, hit off a few staircases AND a hill all in the same run?  Or 1 hill, 1 park and 1 stairway per run?  Each have it’s own individual run?  Hmm….
• Documentation: Just make a note of it in my journal, or write about it here when I check off a new one, or make up some crazy chart to check them all off in, take photos of the whole ordeal as I go, or what.  Also, I’ve already done a bunch of these (Buena Vista Hill I do every day with the dog, and Vulcan and Saturn staircases I’ve already run), so do those count?

• Safety: couple concerns here.  I could get lost (probably- not a big deal) and also end up in an undesirable location or even unsafe place (unlikely- is anywhere in SF actually unsafe around, say 7:00am when I would normally be running?)  Would make a point not to be doing this at 2 in the morning, here
• Parks: should I include the parks?  Or not include the parks.  Really, I just need to be running hills and stairs for my workout specs, but if I was going near a park anyways, it might be neat to check them out.
• Something else Random: Hey, why not.  While I’m even considering this I might as well add in the two steepest streets to my running agenda.  That would be 22nd between Church and Vicksburg and Filbert between Hyde and Leavenworth (both tied at a 31.5% grade).

Okay, well… after a bit of contemplation, I think I am going to go for it.  But, in a… semi-casual manner.  So try and restrain full-blown psychoticness of this endeavor and just try and get them done when I can, but not go crazy about it.  I’ll post here as I check them off and also check them down in my master list in my journal.  I don’t think I’ll be documenting with photos because these are generally faster weekday morning runs (on the long weekend trail runs is when I have time and the slower pace to really dink around with my camera), and don’t really want the distraction.

Then it’s official.  I will be running 88 hills, 68 parks and 98 stairs (give or take, particularly if I discover any new ones)!  I’ll give myself… hmm… a year and re-evaluate?  Should be able to get them all done in a year, but I don’t want to be crazy rushed about this, either.  Let’s put a two year deadline on it.  That takes some time out for weekends and also gives a little wiggle room for travel, etc.  So within two years, I should know the freaking city pretty darn well- at least on foot!

What a wonderful way to start the day!  Oh, and throw in some boyfriend schmooches beforehand, too.

What a fun weekend! Earl and I were lucky because we drove ourselves (and dog) and did not have to cram ourselves in with the rest of the group.  Because of this, we pulled into the house in Carnelian Bay about two hours before his co-workers arrived, and had our pick of bedrooms.

The house we stayed in was GORGEOUS and HUGE.  8 bedrooms, sleeps 24, and currently on the market for 5.5 million.  Oof.  We decided it would be jerky of us to take the master bedroom just because we were the first people to arrive, so we settled in to a cozy loft-style bedroom, back in its very own section of the house.

Earl reporting in that we’ve arrived in the game room.

Check out that corgi grin- someone is happy to be out of the car!

Can you spot the corgi?  Fireplace in our “wing”

We did a teeth-brushing so Linus had fresh breath for co-workers.  Our bedroom was very cozy and this bed was SUPER comfy.

Our heart-shaped jacuzzi.  How silly

Relaxing waiting for everyone else to show

Skiing!  Thought this shot came out very cute.  In the reflection next to me to my right is Earl’s boss, who I spent most of Saturday morning skiing with.

The first day at the mountain was a little tough because there were so many skiers of different levels.  We had absolute beginners on their first day ever taking lessons, people needing to rent gear, etc.  We also didn’t really specify where to meet for lunch until the last minute and a few people weren’t able to find it.  It was a gorgeous blue-sky day with warmish temps.  The mountain was beautiful.

Snow corgi

Apres-ski, they were serving grilled buttered corn on the cob.  We let Linus have a bite (JUST a bite):

Even though we weren’t all able to figure out where to meet for lunch on the mountain, we did manage to regroup fireside back at the home.

Saturday evening dinner- we feasted on three types of pasta, eggplant parm, and salad.  E and I are in the back right corner.

Sunday it was raining at the base and snowing at the top.  Once we took the gondola up, we just stayed on top of the mountain and skied the lifts that stayed above 7000 ft, where it was snowing. Didn’t even keep my camera on me because I was worried it would get soaked!

The good thing about the rain at the base was it kept the crowds away.  We didn’t wait in a lift line all day, and also got lots of fresh tracks skiing off the back of the mountain.

Sunday evening we met up with my friend Dom, who was at Straightline Camp a few weeks ago, and is an attorney in Truckee.  He took us to Bar of America, in downtown Truckee for a fantastic meal.  I didn’t take any photos of dinner because I had left my camera in the center console of the Jeep from when it was raining before.

It snowed and rained the ENTIRE way home (and traffic was killer on I-80, we were lucky Dom knew some backroads to avoid a few pile-ups coming over the pass).  The Jeep was filthy when we got back!  Took her in for a wash this afternoon.  We need to get an oil change soon, and I always am bit paranoid of bringing in a dirty car to be serviced.  Hence the wash.

To help chase away colds procured from a weekend of skiing in the rain (at the base) and snow (midmountain to the top).

In this soup: grilled chicken, dinosaur kale, onions, garlic, celery, carrots, french lentils, a few potatoes, radicchio, pea shoots, cilantro, red pepper flakes, ginger and some lemon juice.  Came out with a bit of a kick and quite good.  Happy we have leftovers, too!

Jason McElwain, a Rochester NY basketball hero who has autism:

40 years later, woman reunited with the firefighter who saved her life

Thought these would send everyone off for the weekend on a warm note. We’re heading up at Tahoe at 3:00 today for Earl’s company ski trip at Squaw.

Today I was up in Santa Clara, CA, and when I was done with my meeting I decided to check out some trailrunning up that way.  I ended up at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, which had high recommendations, and did a run up to the top of Bald Mountain (2,730 ft).

It was a gorgeous run!  I brought Linus (of course) for company.  And, you know, to fight off mountain lions.  I was actually wondering today when we were running (it was so desolate there- I only saw ONE other person on my way up!)… do you think he is more lion mountain BAIT than lion mountain deterrent?  Gotta wonder…

Photos…

The drive towards Sugarloaf Ridge was through Sonoma county- wine country.  I passed a bunch of wineries that looked interesting to come back and check out.  Maybe do a hike and then wine tasting afterwards.  Those are some grapes on the right, farms on the left, and the mountain dead ahead.

It was a beautiful day for a run

Linus finds some interesting mud.  He got SUPER dirty on this hike- enough that I actually put down a blanket for him on the car ride home, which I rarely do.

About 10 minutes running off the trail I spot off the path a bit to the right this tree with a bunch of shiny objects dangling.  I high-step through the brush and go investigate

someone’s hung a bunch of things junk ornaments wiccan charms objects from the tree

spot the glasses? cute

spot the dragon? he was my favorite.

while taking these photos I got the sense I was kind of in someone’s secret spot.  Like, someone’s secret worship spot.  I noticed some stones set up under the tree in shapes and patterns, and sticks out of the ground .  The hair kind of raised on my neck.   So I didn’t stick around long and we high-tailed it back to the trail

what are you licking? NONO EATING RANDOM THINGS, BAD DOG

the one person we saw on the way up

there were a lot of these trees. they had some funky red bark- almost looked wax-like. like the trees were covered in a wax?

close up of “wax” tree

and another view of the strange red bark. i wonder what this is? i entertained a crackpot theory for about 3 seconds that it was something the CDFFP put on the trees to prevent wildfires. But realized that was probably not likely.

passed this radiotower, which is on top of Red Mountain. Wiki-ing when I got home, I learned this tower has government communication devices on it and is a frequent sighting of secret black helicopters… whooo, creepy. from wiki:

The East peak contains an extensive microwave antenna array which is rumored to be under the command and control of the United States Government and utilized in a Continuity of Government communications system.[citation needed] Several of the dishes point directly at Santa Rosa, CA where AT&T is said to provide secure communications links for government use. This site was featured in several articles of the Napa Valley Sentinel. It has also been connected with the increasing sightings of many unmarked black helicopters flying in the Napa area.

Made it to the top!  The view was incredible- there were so many summits you could see from the top, including Mt. Tam, Mt. Diablo, Napa Valley, Sonomo Valley, Mount St. Helena and although it was not clear enough this day, apparently sometimes you can see San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Jack London quotation sets the mood.  Appropriate as Jack London Park is also visable from the summit (note- go for a run there to check it out!)

Happy Dog on the summit

You can juuuust about see the Bay off in the distance, but no GG Bridge

self portrait with Mt Saint Helena in the background- the peak immediately left of my cap brim has snow on it!
got a little tan/flushed on the run up

Let’s run down

I ran lost my footing on the gravel-y descent and fell.  I TUMBLED.  big time- hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, tumbled over myself and came to a stop.  Leg and palms took the brunt of it.

Lassie- go for help!  No, stop licking me, that’s not helping.  Go find a park ranger or something! All kidding aside, I did have my cell phone on me (and, amazingly service!), so if something worse had happened at least I would have been able to call for help.

Thought this was a pretty shot of the trail

We found some GIANT pine cones

as we get lower, the trail gets into the oak forests and becomes more green

we had to fjord a few crossings of Sonoma Creek tributaries.  because i’m doing trail races this season, i just splashed right through these, wet socks be damned.  I figured I’ll have to deal with a lot worse soon.  didn’t have any blister issues, thus far, despite wet sneaks.

as we got lower… what the heck?  apparently there is a “planet walk” around these parts

saw these three guys- they didn’t seem all that spooked by Linus and held their ground

Now about a mile later I was almost home and came across this intersection where I bore left on the way to the peak.  And here, something strange happened and… I’m not even sure I can trust myself that I saw it, because it was getting dark and they could have been deer.  But as I was coming home on this trail to the right, I SWEAR I saw four black figures going across the ridgeline above me heading to that tree, and there were other figures already standing near the tree.   They looked like they were talking to each other walking along and… I couldn’t really make them out but they were dressed in completely black.  So of course I instantly think these are some crazy worshipper people going to have a seance or something… which who knows, but… I certainly did get that creepy vibe and the hair raised on the back of my neck, which counts for something.  I tend to trust those instincts, and I didn’t have a good feeling about whatever it was that I saw.  This also corresponded with the feeling I had when I was over there checking out that tree with the stuff hanging off it on my way up.  Just… I don’t know- I felt strange and like I didn’t want them to see me.  I contemplated taking their photo for a second and realized that if they were wierdo witch worshipper people, that would be amazingly stupid… and I’m sure my flash would have gone off and pissed them off!  I don’t think they saw us, because we were coming from the side and below them, but who knows.   I’m certainly loud running and Linus was trotting along, dog tags jangling at my heels.

Anyways, I breathed a sigh of relief when we were back at the car.  There were two other cars in the parking lot next to mine, so it might have been from those “people” I saw going towards that funky tree.  Or, maybe they were campers and I imagined those shapes.   It did put an eerie cap on the end of my day, and I was happy to crank the heat, some music, and high tail it home!

We had friends over for dinner last night, and I got a bit ambitious with a recipe off my former tri-club cohort Andrea’s blog that sounded scrumptious.  Pomegranate-glazed rolled chicken, a salad of roasted red peppers, golden raisins, fennel seed and baby spinach from my Blue Eggs and Yellow Peppers cookbook, and finally dimply peach cakes for dessert.  Also, my friend Rune was bringing his two children, so I made my fantastical Annies Mac and Cheese for them!  (Full disclosure: Earl & I would have been just as happy eating that, too… we looove Annies!)

The reason we went with Pomegranate-rolled chicken is because I have been CRAVING pomegranate seeds… like crazy.  It’s so funny, I’d never even had a pomegranate until a month ago when Earl grabbed one when were grocery shopping and threw it into the basket.  “What’s that?” I didn’t even know what it was!  LOL, I had written off pomegranates as a “fad” fruit and sort of lumped them into a trendy/health craze thing that I couldn’t be bothered with.  One of my personality flaws traits is that I will write things off when they gain sudden steam as a fad and never make the effort to check them out for myself because I will assume they are all hype.  But to my surprise and delight, we were reading in bed one night and Earl comes over with a bowl full of pomegranate seeds and … DAMN they were so good!  I have been obsessed ever since.  Unfortunately, we’re just on the END of pomegranate season here in CA, so they’re becoming hard to find.  Hard enough to find that last week I accidentally ordered some pomegranate seeds online that are only for hermit crabs (Earl caught this and we cancelled it).  I was happy to find some fresh seeds at Trader Joes on Tuesday.

So dinner turned out… “okay.”  There were no complaints, but I wouldn’t say it was a knock-out-of-the-park like when I made the prosciutto-wrapped, sage-stuffed pork tenderloin, either.   My biggest problem?  Not giving myself enough time!  I was in the shower frantically scrubbing down 15 minutes before everyone was showing up, while the peach cakes were burning and the rolled chicken still needed to be put in the oven.  Aggh.  The hardest thing I have to master when it comes to cooking is figuring out the timing of everything- when to start all the different things, how to time it for when people show up, and when to actually start all the prep work.  And the chicken was pretty labor-intensive, so I was behind, behind, behind and it slowed down everything.

Anyways, we had fun catching up, the kids were adorable, and there was plenty of wine, so of course it was a great evening regardless of any wondrous culinary accomplishments on my end.

Here are the photos:

About to start the peach cakes, buttering the ramekins

Peachcake ingredients, dry and wet.  In the background is recipe for the fennel, roasted red pepper and baby spinach salad in the background.  I need a cookbook holder.  This actually crashed over at one point and spilled the bottle of wine all over the floor.  Freaking cookbook weighs like 10 lbs, too!

Adding zest of lemon and orange to the peach cake batter

slice some peaches for the top and ready to bake

red peppers being cut for the salad

oh, here we go.  chicken of doom.  man, this was a pain.  so the chicken here is seasoned and about to be filled with mozzarella cheese and spicy Hungarian paprika.

but, here was the hard part- you have to tie it all up with string!  tying little string bows around wet, slimy raw chicken while trying not to let the filling fall out is majorly hard.  it took me about 3 tries per string, which is 6 attempts per chicken.  plus, i was paranoid about touching anything and spreading chicken guts disease, and had spicy paprika all over my hands too.  add in the fact that i’m not all that great when it comes to handling raw meat (getting over it, but… this whole ordeal brought back some of that queasiness), and man.  so yeah, this part was a shitshow.

ah-ha! the chicken is wrapped and onto simpler endeavors!  brush with pomegranate paste.  this i can do

table is set, time to hop in the shower

fucking hell.  I burned the freaking peach cakes.  (actually, they weren’t really burned, just… crispy on the top, but i would say a few more minutes and they would have been goners.  once we got through the top crust they were actually very good! note to self: cakes RISE do not fill up to almost top of ramekins)

roasting red peppers, fennel and golden raisins for salad

ze final product!

crowd approves (note two munchkins in background who are noshing their Annies)!

and dessert.  i gave everyone a dollop of vanilla ice cream (and the kids had ice cream sundaes) which i think made up for the crispy top.  melty-ice-cream makes EVERYTHING better

Young Luke was very silly- he wanted to go in Linus’ kennel and wasn’t happy until we LOCKED THE DOOR.

E and Rune catching up (the last time we saw Rune was when he flew to NYC for our housewarming party at our UES apartment)

It was really fun having them over.  One thing I think I want to do is get some “kid friendly” activities and have them on hand for when guests come with kids.  Now that we’re getting to be “a certain age” a lot of our friends are with child- in fact, my friend Johannes and his wife are coming over next week and they have two kids as well!  Since E and I don’t have a TV, it’s hard to entertain the kids when they’re here… not like you can just pop in a video for them.  And we do not plan on shutting them ALL in the dog crate.    Maybe I should get some coloring books?  Hmm, hmm.

I’ve got a bunch of pretty random photos from the past few days that aren’t very cohesive, but I’d like to share.  None of them feel important enough to warrant their own post, so I am going to throw them together in a big ole mish mash for your random scrolling pleasure!

Lucy Valentine’s Package Montage
Kitteh loves “crinkle-y.”  Ergo, after Earl unwrapped his Valentine’s Day Present, she was gifted the tissue paper and also played with the ribbon (and for our amusement, wore the bow):

Action shot!

A handsome man bestowed upon me some simply scrumptious Teuscher Truffles

and a dozens of far more delectable smooches

Valentine’s Eve: I made some apricot & honey-glazed porkchops, rosemary olive oil fingerling potatoes and a walnut apple arugula salad.  The porkchop to potato ratio here, as you can tell, was way, way off (too many taters, not enough chops!!).  As a fledgling cook I am kind of still learning about portion sizes and how much of what two people really eat.  It’s a learning curve I hope to progress beyond soon.

on VALENTINES DAY: THE ESSENTIAL BEER AND WINGS!!!

note: these were darn-good but not GREAT and wtf is with the carrots?  Carrots?  Feh.  wings should come with celery, blue-cheese and that’s it.  Maybe wet-naps.  But carrots???  Freaking Californians.

Rainy Sunday Project: Ceej VS. Hall Closet

We were having company stay over tonight, so I knew I had to find the air mattress, which was somewhere- SOMEWHERE- in the back of this thing.  Unfortunately, when we moved into the SF apartment, we were just so sick of moving and packing and unpacking that by the time it came to putting things in the hall closet we just sort of shoved it all in there, as you can see below.  It was a mess, and sometimes when you were looking for something in the back everything would avalanche out on top of you.

So, on Sunday I attacked!! Pulled EVERYTHING out, organized it all on the floor, and put it all back in.  Doesn’t look that much different, huh   But, at least things are in like categories now, and at least I know where everything is now!

The Tamale Lady
Today I was at Trader Joes to get some pomegranates for our dinner party tomorrow (yes that’s two dinner parties in two days!), and I saw the Tamale Lady hawking her wares out of a cooler in the parking lot.  I grabbed a bunch of Tamales, brought four to Earl at his office to treat him for lunch, and noshed on two when I got home from class.  Yu-hum.  Maybe not as good as the Tamales we had at Abes in Clarkesdale, Mississippi, but still pretty freaking good!  I’ve heard the Tamale Lady is pretty elusive, so was happy I jumped on the chance to nosh

Dinner Party: Good Luck Send off for Amy
“I miss Amy,” I had lamented to Earl this weekend when we were hanging around.  “You just saw her at ski camp last week,” came his reply with mock exasperation.  Well, what a stroke of luck, because later that very day we found out Amy was accepted to interview at Stanford’s PA Program, and guess where she asked to spend the night beforehand!  We don’t have a couch just yet, but we do have an air mattress, and also in her honor I prepared a very healthy, high-protein, high-veggie meal!   Hopefully we are sending her off tomorrow in style and with lots of luck!!

I cooked Roasted Olive Oil & Marjoram Chicken, served on a bed of steamed bok-choy and topped with a caramelized tomato/lemon vinaigrette and a side of sweet and sour brussel sprouts. Everything came out yummy.  Would TOTALLY cook the chicken dish again, but I think I just like plain old brussel sprouts- they’re good enough on their own, maybe roasted with some salt and olive oil, no need to schmance them up like this.  Not worth the effort, and I feel like maybe all the extra “pizzazz” sort of took away from the yummy, brussel-sprout-y taste they naturally have.  Maybe “sweet and sour brussel sprouts” should be reserved for people who don’t really like brussel sprouts to begin with.

Prepping cherry tomatoes for the vinaigrette

steaming bok choy (we always get lots of bok choy in our FFTY box, and it the #1 veggie we are likely to let go bad in our fridge… so I am making a concerted effort to actually use it all now)

tomatoes + olive oil + salt and pepper + zest of lemon + fresh lemon juice ===> saute for 10 minutes

hey, check out my neat-o new vacuum cleaner!

it’s great, it’s self-operated, self-powered with it’s in-system spill location device and patented licking food removal technology

only drawback to the new vacuum cleaner is that the new vacuum cleaner likes to park itself smack dab in the middle of my tiny kitchen, hoping for more opportunities to vacuum.  the new vacuum cleaner is reluctant to be moved away from potential spill zones and thus, despite its astonishing lack of a cord, still can result in tripping.

sweet and sour brussel sprouts = 1 red onion + olive oil + honey + tarragon + 1 red pepper + bay leaf + mustard seed + veggie broth, bring to boil

add brussel sprouts (also from the FFTY box, and suuuper fresh)

plate chicken on bok choy, top with tomato vinaigrette

Guest of Honor looks happy

the un-noteable brussel spouts.  I don’t know.  Everyone ate them.  But… meh.  For all the work, I wouldn’t say these were all that great.

After dinner Amy and I caught up and actually went through a bunch of college photos, laughing at how silly we used to be.  There were a few of us all decked out ready to go out dancing at Mohegan Sun.  Heh.  I gave a few to scan so they may just be making an appearance on Facebook sooner or later, embarrassingly enough!

Hope she does well tomorrow- she already kicked ass at the UC-Davis PA Program interview, so I bet she will do just as well at Stanford tomorrow.  GOOD LUCK AMY!!

I left the bed unmade because I was taking the sheets off to wash them later.

Look who SNUCK UP THERE and cuddled up.

We don’t normally allow him on the bed (invitation only!), but as we have yet to get a bedframe for our new place, sometimes he hops up when we’re not looking.  And as you can see below, it’s almost too cute to make him get down