my love for all things SF...including danny tanner.

Well, what would a weekend mini-break to San Francisco be without driving by the Full House house?! Don't front, you know you wish you got to see where Uncle Joey lived.

Last Friday Ben and I, along with our friends Mike & Melinda, flew off to SF to be with our other friend Len for the weekend. It was a weekend trip discussed before Len was even seconded to SF for 6 months and eventually, planned and booked.

our view of SFMOMA from our weekend apartment

Our much owed and overdue family portrait for Len's picture frame (that we got him for his birthday...last year. :|)

Even though this wasn't my first time in SF, since the other 3 have never been before, I got to fall in love with SF all over again through their eyes. Plus! The great thing about having your own local tour guide is you get to visit those pocket neighbourhoods you wouldn't have found otherwise and eat a lot of yummy SF food (ahem...like In & Out burger that I requested in homage to Si and Almonds! YUM!).

View from the top of Lombard Street, with the whole top half of my body hanging outside the window ...ALL the way down.

Had to include this one little shout out to our TT awe!

By Brina & Rod's recommendation from their visit last year, we went into Golden Gate Park and walked around the beautiful Japanese Tea Gardens. We also checked out the Asian Art Museum and in hindsight, wished we did more than take pictures of the M.H. de Young Memorial Building.

Len, Tiffany (another expat living in SF) & me enjoying the Tea Gardens.

Asian Art Museum

M.H. de Young Memorial Building

Sunday we drove out to Sausalito for a gorgeous brunch on one of their many patios over looking the city, as well Len took us up this crazy mountainside that gave us some pretty awesome golden gate bridge photos.

A view of the bridge heading back to the city.

The classic SF postcard shot. Jealous much?

Of course we all wished we had an extra day (or five) in the city to check out the tons of other things we wanted to do on our list but, for the short amount of time we had in the city, it was planned oh-so-perfectly.

Until next time, San Francisco...

best photo of the week

Teenie here again! I know, 3 for 3 this week...I think I'm breaking records!

If you don't already know, I moonlight at the Justice Institute of BC (these days more than I am at home) and this week, my director sent us the coolest picture ever.

For those (MY BEANS!) that don't live in metro Vancouver, the past couple of weeks we've been promised sun but everyday see a whole lotta fog instead.

Anyway, the meterologists weren't lying...there is sun above us, you just need to know where to be to see it.

The view of the city, atop Cypress Mountain at 6am.

a little high-flying act to round out the weekend...

Because it wasn't an exciting weekend enough, today, (after I blogged about the show yesterday) I met up with my girlfriend, Nancy, for an afternoon of something different, fun and totally entertaining (for everyone around me).

Ha!

Long story short, Nancy double booked herself today for two separate and totally different events, and since she couldn't cancel out of both, she asked me to sub in on one of the activities today. Her and Laurie, her girlfriend, signed themselves up for an afternoon of CIRCUS! I don't know how to explain it more than that.

on your right: circus professionals, on your left: newbies

Laurie posing for pictures instead of listening to the circus team.

I basically got to go out to this circus gym in North Vancouver and, for two hours, do some really (un)graceful circus activity with a bunch of strangers.

Suffice to say, it was a rip-roaring (more like rip-snorting) good time! Even though Laurie and I didn't even end up being in the same group (they split us up), we still equally had very much lots of fun this afternoon.

streeeetches!

activity #1: hanging on the silk ribbons. check!

activity #2: learn how to juggle.

activity #3: harness yourself in and swing from a really high swing...oh! and do flips :|


activity #4: lay around and chat with your new friends..errr, I mean, trampoline!

Thanks to Nancy for thinking of me and letting me sub in for you!! I did good, right?!

indie we did!

Yesterday was a huge success for everyone participating in the inaugural Indie I Do wedding show! Congratulations to all who came out yesterday, and the biggest congratulations must go out to Lotus Events and Blue Olive Photography for all their hard work and dedication to make this show happen. We's so proud of you!

Although Brina couldn't make it to be with me for yesterday's show, she was definitely spoken of (and praised!) all day for her beautiful work. Erin, of Fuego Events, was nice enough to be my partner in crime for the day, and was even gracious enough to lend her wicked decor skills to our table. Thank you so much Erin for making the day beautiful and fun!

Erin watching over our table, trying to ignore the camera.

The whole day went pretty darn smooth, with just one major coniption fit that I went through about 10 minutes before the doors opened. We set up our table and it looked AMAZING, and when I went to use our new camera to take pictures of the whole table...it totally DID NOT WORK! :(

Thank goodness for friends! The wonderful duo that is Marliss Productions came to my aid to try some quick troubleshooting...with no success. Reilly (one half of the Olives) also came to my aid to do a quick look, but because we only had minutes before the door opened, did some quick thinking and handed over his camera so I could snap off a few shots of our booth before the crowds came through. A heartfelt thanks to everyone who didn't look at me like a weirdo when I was running around (arms flailing) those few minutes before the show started!!

All's well that ends well. Studio Jeanie came to my rescue with her "magic hands" and some how got my camera going so I was able to snap a few shots off in the middle of the show. Schaweeeet! I'll be posting the shots from Reilly's camera as soon as I get them...that's a promise :)

Teenie capturing Jeanie, capturing a moment.

As far as the show goes, it was amazing! The venue was perfect, the booths and tables, beautiful...the burlesque show (from what I heard from behind my table) wicked fun and the people coming through all day (and I'm talking ALL DAY) were so great! Thanks to Racquel (and family), Melissa (and her girlfriend), Trish (and her also-getting-married-girlfriend), Jinesa, and the random friends (that happened to be coming to the show) for coming out! It was great to see you all there and I hope you had a great time!

random friend: Verena!

sassy burlesque cutie

Unfortunately the shots I got were mostly of our table, our neighbours and anything that I could snap from behind our area. It was really hard to get out and walk around, as we were all pretty busy for the full day.

Our neighbour's table of amazing goods: A Farmer's Daughter

I don't know if these pictures do any justice to how awesome the whole place looked but I'm sooo sure that there will be more then enough pictures floating around the information superhighway that'll definitely show Indie I Do exactly how it was meant to be seen.







A hip hip horray to Indie I Do's success!!! Thanks for coming out!

no...I DIDN'T forget about you yesterday...

Don't be mad at me, I'm new at this. I know I'm supposed to blog everyday to say hello and tell you something fun and exciting, but yesterday was a crazy day that got me home just in time to see BARACK OBAMA'S SPEECH!

Eeeeeeeeeeek!!!!

Not wanting to go into any political discussions, I just want to congratulate all of the American people for coming out and representing last night. Your voices were heard and you want change. Good change! Last night, watching what was happening in Chicago with all the people gathered together watching intently as America's 44th president spoke, I felt like I was part of such a historic moment in time. Suffice to say, I had goosebumps.



It was almost as exciting as watching Madonna last Thursday in Vancouver.

Okay, a little better. :)

Not to be outdone...last night also was the finals night of my first indoor volleyball league. We seeded 4th, we played hard, and we finished 4th. Not as good as a t-shirt but we'll get there!

Hope y'all had an awe-inspiring Tuesday and a fantastic Wednesday...

Till we meet again,
teen

ha! you're stuck with me! (insert evil laugh)

Hello friends,

Albertine here, beginning day one of my new found responsibility...keeping y'all entertained while Brina's away in Mexico for two weeks! Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!

So, it's been a while since I've blogged and I know, for a lot of you I'm sure, you don't really mind. Beans has done such an amazing job with our blog that I really feel like it's unnecessary for me to even participate. Frankly, there's not too much going on in my life that's deserving of public broadcast.

EITHER WAY...here we are, thrust into the spotlight with nothing on but our underpants, and can I just say, thank you to everyone for coming out to read our blog everyday (even WHILE it's ME blogging).

Tonight I wanted to share with you something I read from one of my favourite bloggers out there, only because he is one of my all time favourite authors and I'm consistently excited and happy when I hear anything David Sedaris.

The original post about David was actually about his recent piece in the New Yorker (he writes all the time for the New Yorker but also has a lot of his memoirs published in many books, all of which are lining my bookshelf) reflecting on the current US election (holy crap, one day left!) and the group of people known as "undecideds". Reading his piece reminded me of how much I love him and his writing, and made me want to share it with you, my peoples.

For those of you who are getting your first introduction to Mr. Sedaris, here's a clip from his recent visit to David Letterman's studio (another David I must say I do enjoy). If he's not your cup of tea, I totally can understand and appreciate, but for those of you who laugh outloud watching and want to read more of his work, let me know and I can recommend you all of my all time favourite books of his.

Enjoy!

Can you end a season any better?

Last night marked the finals and the official end of the volleyball season for my team, the Wildcats. Bittersweet, we arrived early with three of our players not able to make it, we stood around warming up, waiting for our beer to arrive (care of the Coghills) feeling a little tired and maybe not totally ready for the competition that lay ahead.

We were happy to see that Mike called in reinforcements and brought in our ringer, Kurtis, who not only played awesome but gave the boys a sub so that they could continue drinking their beer...in true Wildcats style. Unfortunately for Melinda and I, since we were the only two girls on the team that night, we were only able to pound our beers in between matches.

The night started off mellow, with our first team accidentally playing on the wrong court, we warmed up playing against each other (read: we chatted and drank beer).

Then came the official first match of the night.

I don't really know where it came from but our team became this weird force of competitors, where we played like we knew what we were doing and we played like we were a team that wasn't coming out to drink but actually coming out to play.

In three words: we killed it.

We won our first match. We WON our first match and moved onto the next match with ease. And then we won our second match. Not only did we win our first two matches but we won and realized, holy crap, this is the last game...the last game that will win TEENIE A T-SHIRT!

All three seasons of volleyball this year, I've been saying at each finals that I want to win a t-shirt. I want to win a t-shirt and I put pressure on my team to win and every finals we fell short. This was the first time that the t-shirt was soooooooo close and I could taste it. I could TASTE the T-SHIRT.

We stood by, drank beer and watched the semi-final match, knowing that the winner of this match was who we had to fight for the elusive t shirt. With the bell ringing to mark the end of the match, we were ready to play. We came to play.

And oh boy, play did we do. With the sun already setting behind the city limits, we played blindly and with gusto and with a vengeance. We played...dare I say, like we were in the C pool! In a clean sweep, we beat our final team 2-0, not even having to try and play a third game. All I can remember is watching that last play and when fully realizing we won, I was screaming and jumping at the top of my lungs (and the rest of my team was too) yelling "WE WON A T-SHIRT! WE WON A T-SHIRT! WE WON A T-SHIRT!"

Not ONLY did the Wildcats represent last night but when we left to collect our t-shirts and have our celebratory end of season dinner, we were informed that we won the Fun Points Prize as well! WHAT?! We won the fun points?! You guys like us? You really like us?!

I think the only thing that could've made the night even more perfect was if Queen's We Are the Champions started playing on the loud speakers. Seriously. We were THAT awesome.

(sorry for the crap picture...all we had were phone cameras to document the night)

The night ended in true Wildcats fashion. We headed (with our winning t shirts on) to Memphis to eat our weight in meat. The only thing that put a damper on the evening was Mike losing his wallet (after losing his phone a week earlier)...it took the Coghills awhile to come and join us but they eventually did and even though Mike was upset about his wallet, he still gave it his all and ate a meat plate to prove it.

(um...kids look away)

Congratulations to my Wildcats!!! We RULE the D pool, babies!!!

****

A surprising update...

This morning my phone beeped letting me know that I had a message on my blackberry messenger. It was Mike. The conversation went a little something like this:

Mike: Found my wallet
alberteenie: YOU DID?!?!?
alberteenie: YA!!!
alberteenie: Where was it?!
Mike: On the roof of the car
alberteenie: You're fucking kidding me. :|
alberteenie: It stayed on the roof the whole time you drove around the city?
Mike: Yup it was stuck under the roof rack.
alberteenie: That. Is. Hilarious.
alberteenie: AND
alberteenie: This conversation is so going in my blog.
alberteenie: :D
Mike: Shitty

CRISIS AVERTED!!

Teen's back: Did you miss me?

Blog Buddies!! It's Teenie here and as much as Beans been doing an awesome job maintaining our blog (sorry for the lack of participation, buddy), I think it's time to write my essay on "What I did during my summer break".

And BOY was it ever the best summer ever!

I don't really know how these past months transpired, but with the perfect timing of friends and family visits, mini-excursions and a long overdue trip back home, somehow I was able to relive those summers past. When life during the summer months meant my only responsibility was to keep myself busy and spend my disposable income until school started again. Man, those were the days.

So! Without further ado...

What I Did During My Summer Break (by teenie)

1. Luigi, Julie and little Adrienne visit!
Life was ho-humming a long just nicely, working away in our new (old) office digs, since we just moved back to our respective homes. Beans and I met up a few days in each week to talk about things (in person) and eat a meal...all good things. And then BOOM! My brother, his partner and their baby girl arrive to Vancouver for their annual trip out west. This is their 3rd annual trip in the last 4 years (they missed last year) and having them around was both fun and exhausting but more than anything, it felt really wonderful to have family close by.


The best part of their vacation was that I was the special person who was invited to take the place of a set of friends from NYC who didn't end up making the trip out West. What does this mean? WELL...Benny and I were invited to use the extra two tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil with the whole family (AWESOME!) and I got to join their trip to the Okanagan for five days, to taste wine, eat yummy food and pretty much live a life of leisure that I don't think I would ever be able to experience otherwise. Thank you to my family from Toronto, the family in Hong Kong & Shanghai and the family in Vancouver for allowing me to have the best start to the summer ever!



2. FERNIE, BC
I'll keep this part short and sweet because Beans did an awesome post already about how fantastic, fun and fancy free our trip was to Fernie, BC. Let me just note to all those out there who haven't explored our BC: DO IT. Not only was it so very beautiful driving through and across our province, but this little sleepy (and not so sleepy) valley town, nestled in the middle of the Rocky Mountain Trench is so beautiful and quaint and precious and fun! Brina and Rod were the perfect hosts, keeping us more than busy showing us around the town, planning summer activities and introducing us to some very fantastic people.

Next up: Winter in Fernie!!


3. A New Nephew, Parents Visit, Goodbye to Papa
As our funny universe is, with all good things in life we are balanced with the opposite. My brother (who is my remaining family left in the city) and his partner, Karen, welcomed a brand new edition to their family on July27th (see entry below). Braxton is beautiful and huge and has a full head of hair and a scowl just like his Dad. He's amazing and I feel so blessed to have my neice (his older sister) and nephew close by to share and participate in their life.


But like I said, the universe loves to balance and teach us things, doesn't it? As it was such a happy time for our family, we also had mixed feelings of sadness and anxiousness, as our Papa, my stepfather's dad, was sick in the hospital. We all thought that he was going to get better I mean, he was always a little spitfire of a man, strong and robust, he lived life with gusto from the time I met him. Sadly, on August 17th, Papa said his goodbyes and left this world for something better.

4. Toronto, ON
In between all this family happenings, I was able to finally make a trip back home to see the other half of my family who I haven't seen in over two years. Two years! There's a nephew I had yet to meet and win over for the first time ever! The trip was perfect and exactly the kind of family love injection I needed. I met up with my old buddies who I haven't seen in a while, spent a lot of quality time with my two nephews and nieces (sidebar: Lucas, my nephew in Toronto, started his first day of school ever the same day Brody did! BFFS!) and of course, made sure that I got lots of time in with my parents. I was even able to convince (twisting her rubber arm) my sister to fly up from New York for a weekend so that we can all go to the African Lion Safari. One word: FUUUUUUUUN!!!

Sigh. Family rules.

5. One more visit to round out the summer nicely
I've been back for a few weeks now, same as Beans, and it's definitely been challenging to get back to normal pre-summer life. Making things harder is our last out of town visitors hailing from London, UK.

Two very fantastic and close friends of mine are back in the city to spend their quality time with family and catch up with us friends. They've been busy and exhausted from travelling back and forth from the burbs, making it tricky for all of us to meet up, but we were able to squeeze a few visits in, including a full day out in False Creek for a kayaking excursion. This was my first time on a kayak and even though my arms a still a little sore from the memory of paddling against the current and wind, I had the best time out there! If I had more space in my apartment, I'd buy my own kayak and go out and do it every weekend. Fun! Fun! Fun!

(this is actually a photo from the vaults because we haven't really taken any photos this trip!)

They're leaving tomorrow for Seattle, which is where they're going to fly back home from. I'm hoping to get one more visit in with them before they leave, since their visit really marks the end of summer.

You know, if they just STAYED then summer would technically never end....

:)

So...what did YOU do for your summer?

canada day, birthdays and family!

There's probably nothing I love more than Canada Day, Birthdays and Family. It's TRUE! Summer's here and it's glorious out and last Saturday kicked off the Summer of Teen with the arrival of my brother and his family. I haven't seen my Toronto family for over two years and I realized when I spotted them at the airport how much I missed them. I missed them lots and I missed them hard.

They're here for two weeks and that means that I get to do all the fun summer activities that I normally gaze out my window wishing I was doing. Plus I get to spend loads of quality playing time with my beautiful niece, Adrienne. I love her!




On another fantastic note: it's Canada Day which means it's two of our really great friends' birthdays!!! Happy Birthday Tanya B and Happy Birthday Natey!! Here's to the both of you!!!

a beer league doesn't actually mean get completely wasted...

Since the beginning of spring, Benny and I have been playing volleyball as part of the Urban Rec beach(sand) volleyball league that happens every year in Vancouver. You'd be surprised how easy it is to be part of something fun, active and outdoors here on the West Coast. Or maybe not. I can't read your mind, you know.

Anyways, we've finished our spring league with our spring league team and have started the summer league with a new team (GOOOOOOOOOOO WILDCATS!) since a few of our pals were interested in playing as well. We desperately wanted to place in the same pool as our old team (GOOOOOOOOO CHEVRONS!) but I think that maybe we didn't drink enough beer or we were so gung ho or something happened, that we shockingly placed in the second to last pool (and not the last-last pool that I originally estimated).

wildcats in full form

bump, sets! (formally known as the chevrons)

Sigh.

I'm KIDDING! Our new team is great and our new friends and old friends are great and the continuous flow of WildCats(beer) make for a knee-slapping good time. We definitely miss our old team (Gooo Chevrons! ...although the "TRAITOR!" calls are getting a little tired) but we love our new team and couldn't have picked a better way to enjoy our summer at home.

wildcats class photo with special guest star: keri heese

Honourable mention goes to Beans for coming out again and again to sub in for the WildCats! Maybe next summer you can be an official team mate?! HIP-HIP! HOORAY! HIP-HIP! HOORAY! HIP-HIP! HOORRRRAY!!!!!!!!