Holidays are here, yippee

The yippee should be interpreted as this:

Jill: YIPPEE!! Can't wait for Charlie Brown Christmas, stockings, shopping, knitting, egg nog...
Keith: Yippee. Great. 'nuf said.

We spent Thanksgiving with our good friends Armel, Paul & Charlie – and Armel’s family visiting from LA. All we brought was a pie, and they provided a complete feast. We were almost too tired to drive home. Armel brined the turkey for 24 hours and wow, it was likely the best turkey I’ve had in forever. And the table was just beautiful.


Our tree went up on Friday night, which was almost too long for me to wait. I love trimming the tree, and Target really came through for me this year with some cool feather “puff” ornament things. We’ve had our aluminum tree for a few years, and I wish we had gotten a few more (doubt Keith agrees, it’s a pain to put together – you have to wear gloves so you don’t get stabbed!). His birthday is next week, and we’re going to a concert to celebrate on Sunday night – Imogen Heap, one of his new faves. Should be fun.

Party season hits in full force next week, I have evening functions Tue-Fri night and the week after next is my company’s holiday party as well as Keith’s. We’re trying to decide if we’re going to host a party this year, and I think we might go the route of an evening open house. I'll say it one more time, yippee!

Bottle Service

Keith’s buddies Jim and Kirk were in town this weekend, and we had such a great time with them. They had a meeting on Thursday and Friday, which I hear went well. I didn’t learn too much about what went on behind those closed doors, likely because they don’t want to have to kill me. We had a leisurely Saturday strolling around North Beach, and lunch at House of Nanking. It’s one of those places we never go, but Jim loves it and has made us believers again. Delish Chinese food, and they basically serve you what they want to bring you – and it’s always the best of the house. Here we are in front of one of Keith’s favorite hang-outs in North Beach. Can you tell why he loves it?


Saturday night we hit Levende Lounge, another perennial fave. Unfortunately, this cool restaurant/lounge has become “too cool for us normal folk” overnight. They were trying to hit us with bottle service at 11PM, after Kirk had surely just dropped a wad of cash on dinner (thanks again!). Just plain rude and ridiculous, and we can only hope it doesn’t stick. Seriously, I nabbed the bottle service menu and have to ask: would you pay $245 for a liter of Absolut just to enjoy the table you were basically sitting at all night? Ugh, if SF is getting all Vegas/New York on us, we might have to seriously consider a move. Yeah, I’m getting all wrapped around the axle about this…

I hope everyone has a terrific Thanksgiving with all the comforts tryptophan provides.

Mom comes to SF!

Mom’s visit was awesome. We did so much in just a few days. Some of the highlights: visit to the de Young Museum (in Golden Gate Park) to see the Quilt’s of Gee’s Bend exhibition; saw the play Doubt (which I didn’t love); had a few great dinners; attended Glide; and the very, very best "thing" we did was meet Cathy Waterman! She is the designer of my engagement ring – it was such a highlight. She is an incredibly nice person, she even helped with a few suggestions about the wedding band. Thank goodness Mom had her camera on her, and it was so cool she got to meet her too!

This picture that one of us took of the de Young Museum is really great. The tower has this wrap-around viewing deck that affords amazing views of all angles of the City, downtown, ocean and just a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. Really cool space.

I’m headed to New York for work right now (this will obviously be posted later!). Staying at the Hotel QT and have sales calls on Wed, Thu, Fri. Should be a jam-packed and very quick trip. Somehow, I do believe I’ll manage to squeeze in some shopping! Keith’s friends Jim and Kirk are visiting this week / weekend, so I’ll be home just in time on Friday just to meet them out for a drink on Friday (a late drink, I get in around 10:30). I am venturing a guess that they’ll still be out. Update - have had a great time in NY so far, crashed a hotel opening party last night, The London. Very cool place, rates starting in the low $800's. Yep, not a typo!! Definitely won't be staying there any time soon!