Many exciting things have happened while I've been on my blogging hiatus. Here are some highlights:
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| Tak and I went on a nature walk in Tilden. |
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| Pretty pond trail. |
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| Mac D came to visit for bachelorette par-tay festivities. Robyn hooked us up with this sweet deck hot tub (with GGB views!). Plus champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. |
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| And Alena took us out for a fancy dinner! |
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| We stayed in this cute hotel in SF. We knew it was meant to be when we discovered these four chairs in the lobby. |
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| Pre-dancing cocktails. |
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| We also rode the F train, Alena's favorite. |
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| We rounded out the weekend with dinner on the deck. |
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| Amelia took us for a ladies day in Napa! |
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| Cheers! |
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| Jeremy came to visit and Tak proposed ... just kidding! |
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| The building Tak designed in San Jose won TWO awards! Now he's an award-winning architect! He got to go to a fancy awards ceremony, but unfortunately didn't get to keep the trophy. |
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| We went to see the new Cal stadium. |
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| Go Bears! (Unfortunately, they lost. Boo.) |
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| I went to N'awlins for work. |
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| Spooky deco. I imagine Halloween is especially awesome here. |
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| Beignets in the big easy at Cafe du Monde. |
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| I took a morning stroll through Louis Armstrong Park (but that was about it for sightseeing). |
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| It had a pretty neat sculpture garden. |
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| I got back to the bay just in time for my birthday! |
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| And Tak took me to Chez Panisse. It was fantastic. |
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| And all of our friends were waiting to surprise me when we got home! They really got me! |
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| I also did the birthday Guinness challenge at Jupiter and I WON! Amazing! |
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| Tak and I had delicious homemade ice cream (thanks Brother & Katie!). |
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| And we had a spooky Halloween party. The deco was excellent this year, if I do say so myself. |
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| Pre-party Giants game with mood lighting. |
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| Brain cupcakes and other delicious treats. |
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| Where is Waldo? Where in the world is Carme Sandiego? At our party, duh! |
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| Wolverine and a bee! |
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| The next day, Tak and I sported our new Giants gear to cheer them onto victory. And it worked!! |
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| My colleagues have a lot of Giants/Halloween pride. It is awesome. |
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| The Giants victory parade (on Halloween!) was just a block from our office. So we all got to go! |
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| Chinese dragon |
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| Look, it's Barry Zito! (I can now not only name several Giants players, I can even recognize them in public! I love sports!) |
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| Buster Posey! (See, I did it again!) |
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| Trophy truck |
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| There were about a bazillion people in the city for the parade. It was crazy, but fun. |
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| Then, Betsy came over to make Halloween dinner with us! Apparently if you put a spoon in your mouth while chopping onions it keeps out the fumes and keeps your eyes from watering. I will try that next time. |
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| We had spooky black pasta and it was delicious. It's dyed with squid ink! |
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| And I made mochi & Pocky spiders for dessert. |
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| Helen and Kalimah joined us for dinner and a post-dining Tetris challenge. |
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| And Betsy made this cute jack-o-lantern. |
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| Back to Napa this weekend, with a stop at the Bouchon Bakery along the way. Soooooo goooood. |
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| Matt, Amelia, Tak and I enjoyed the fine flavors at Ballentine. |
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| And we sported some fedoras at Charles Krug. |
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| Artesa was our last stop. |
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| Lots of pretty fall foliage. |
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| Panorama |
And that's about it!
