Sunflower Inspiration

To add to the list of things I love about my husband: he stopped to take a photo of a sunflower field on his way to work the other day. I hope he doesn't kill me for sharing that with the thousands of people who follow my blog. I think what I like most about this is that he really savored the moment. I can't count all the times I've driven past something thinking I should stop and take a picture of it. Nick actually had the balls to do it, and that inspires me.    

Giants' Opening Night 2011

If my quote of the week didn't tip you off (and I'm not sure it did), then I'll just come out and say it. We went to the Giants' opening night at AT & T Park. And boy was it fun. The Giants won in the bottom of the 9th, so it was a cliffhanger of a game. They were down by one run when Miguel Tejada went up to bat. With two runners on base, two outs, and a full count, Miguel Tejada hit the ball into the gap in left center field. It was floating in the air forever when the Cardinals' center fielder miraculously caught the ball... and then dropped it! Sweet victory!

But enough with the baseball talk.  The games are really about food. This is AT & T Park, after all.  We're talking crab sandwiches, crab sandwiches, and more crab sandwiches. So what did I have? A Cha-Cha Bowl.    

I decided to try something new, and we've been hearing about the Cha-Cha Bowls. When in Rome, right? A Cha-Cha Bowl is a bowl with white rice, black beans, chicken, some veggie stuff, and Caribbean salsa.  It was good, but it was no crab sandwich.  That's okay, though. Next time, I'm gonna try some Cha-Cha nachos or something in the nacho family. There are so many choices, you really can't go wrong.   

After we ate, we headed to our seats. If anyone wants to know how many rows make up the top level, there are 18. 

We were in row 18. On the windiest, coldest day in the history of San Francisco, we were sitting in the very last row in AT & T Park. We can't complain though because we were at opening night. And we know how cold it gets in San Francisco. Even on the nicest, warmest day in San Francisco, the night can be down right chilly. Like Arctic breeze chilly. I'm talking cold. Like, cold cold.  

Photos can be deceptive too. See in this picture here? Cold. You'd never know it, though, with the clear blue sky and endless beauty.  

Opening night was the world series ring ceremony. The Giants organization pulled out all the stops including laying out the orange carpet. As each member of the 2010 team was announced (including managers, coaches, trainers... everyone), they walked the carpet and received their ring. 

I swore when I took each picture I would remember who was on the orange carpet, but I seriously have no clue. I was like, "I'll remember this is Tim Lincecum, because he waved his hat in the air." But most of them did, so your guess is as good as mine. 

I do remember who was in this next photo, though. Recognize this hand? No? Why, it's Pat Burrell. Pat the Bat. Seriously, that's his nickname. I didn't just make it up. And that's a world series championship ring right there.     

After the ring ceremony, or I guess as part of it, Sammy Hagar sang the national anthem while Joe Satriani accompanied him on guitar. I think Sammy started too soon, or perhaps skipped over a few too many lyrics, because he was nearly finished with the song by the time they rolled out the flag.  

Did I mention it was cold? I've been to a few too many night games to forget warm clothes, so I really came prepared this time. Underneath my SNOW JACKET I had on a t-shirt, short sleeve sweatshirt, and a long sleeve hooded sweatshirt. Oh, and, of course, my panda hat. Oh yeah, and a scarf and gloves. We also bought a blanket because even with all of that, I was still cold. Even with the blanket, I was still cold. Seriously, it was cold. When Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," he wasn't joking around. 

No game is complete without stopping at Louisiana Fried Chicken. After the game we got us from fried chicken and donuts. Actually, I had fried chicken (2 legs, if you really want to know) and a delicious cake donut with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. I am serious when I say that it was the best donut I've ever had. And I am quite the donut connoisseur. It was fresh and delicious and that is all that I have to say about that. 

PS: Nick had a cheese burger with waffles as buns. It was as good as it sounds. That is, if it sounds good to you. Because it was. Very good. Yum!

A Man Cave For My Man

While Nick was planning to go on a short camping trip over the weekend, I had plans of my my own. I wanted to update our ho-hum computer room and surprise Nick at the same time. So, I came up with a baseball themed room which was inspired by Nick's favorite team, the San Francisco Giants. Luckily, Ikea has some great orange accessories and what I couldn't find in orange became orange with the magic of spray paint.

Like the novice blogger that I am, I forgot to take before pictures. I remembered and then forgot... and then I remembered when I was painting and forgot again... and I remembered and forgot one more time. The room was a pale yellow which had a few baseball inspired items including prints and photos, signed baseballs, a bat, and a couple of accessories. The new room is much improved though with tan walls and the Giants' orange that unites the room. Also, rearranging the furniture helped to open up the room and make it look bigger (before, the computer desk was out in the middle of the room). Take a look for yourself...

Baseball photographs and prints adorn the wall. Many of the frames were spray painted black by my fabulous mom (and then hung on the wall by my fabulous dad). Some of the photographs are very special to Nick's family and some are special to mine. Also making the cut is a print of three small paintings Nick and I got from a street vendor in San Francisco. The print includes paintings of a cable car, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Lombard Street.

This dresser used to be Nick's growing up. Before we moved, we stripped the paint and refinished it. It needs new hardware on the front, but a good lesson was learned from this project. Make sure you can find hardware to fit the already drilled holes first!

I wanted to give Nick a nice bar area. I added three floating shelves to house all of the empty liquor bottles we have been saving for the past couple of years. The full bottles are now easily accessible. Instead of trying to climb on top of the fridge to get them, they are right at our finger tips (by ours I mean Nick's and his friends).

I purchased a white tray from Target and my mom spray painted it orange to bring some color to the bar area. In addition to the bottles, I added a glass pedestal vase full of matchbooks.

Perhaps one of my favorite pieces in the room is the vase full of matchbooks. My mom bought a humongous bag of matchbooks from an estate sale. The woman had been collecting matchbooks for many years and the wide variety really illustrates the efforts that she made. There are so many unique matchbooks ranging from ones that were given as wedding favors to hotel and restaurant matchbooks and random ones like the bail bonds one shown here. My mom displayed some in a large wine glass at her house and I knew I had to recreate the look at ours. Although we don't regularly use matches, they really add to the bar feel.



These three little, inexpensive circle rugs from Ikea add a lot to the room.




Thanks to my wonderful, hard-working parents, this beauty of a room came together minutes before Nick got home. I love the room, but more importantly, Nick does too!

Why Do I Love Thee?

For those of you who don't know, my husband is one of the most wonderful people on the face of the earth. Not a day goes by that I do not think about what a sincerely good person he is. In honor of his 29th birthday, here are 29 reasons why...

Let me count the ways...

1. He is genuine. Nick is himself no matter where he is or who he is with.
2. He doesn't get mad at me when I forget that the cap is loose on the Gatorade bottle and shake it spewing red liquid all over our living room.
3. He loves, loves, loves his family.
4. When we ride bikes he feels the need to act like a boy and pretend he is going to crash into me (or wipe out).
5. He is even more liberal than I am.
6. He is a great cook and a mighty fine BBQ-er.
7. He never stresses or sweats the small stuff.
8. He always gets carded. I know a day will come when people think that I am his mom instead of his wife...
9. He has a great group of friends. (This was initially attractive because I wasn't really looking to meet anyone and I knew someone with friends would not smother me. That only lasted a couple of weeks when I realized I wanted to spend every second of every day with him. His friends are a great bonus because I can sincerely say that I like them all).
10. He likes to pretend he doesn't like watching The Hills, but he really does.
11. He tells his brother that he loves him.
12. He likes to stare at construction sites whenever we drive by them (often times doing double and triple takes). Sometimes, this can be really scary... well, most of the time, especially when everyone is breaking in front of us.
13. He has the most awesome laugh.
14. He gets upset when the Giants lose.
15. He gets really cranky when he wakes up from a nap too soon.
16. He is fun to take road trips with.
17. He cried when his dog died (the only thing guys are allowed to cry about, right?)
18. He reads in the bathroom.
19. He did not get sloppy drunk the night before our wedding.
20. My parents love, love, love Nick.
21. He is willing to try new things.
22. He is open-minded and respects other people's rights. (He doesn't think that just because he lives a certain way that his way is the right way and all people must live as he does).
23. He MUST open new things right away. It doesn't matter if it is a PlayStation or a pack of post-it notes. When we get it home, he has to break it in.
24. He asks me how my day went.
25. He is good at making conversation.
26. He is happy for people when good things happen to them... not jealous.
27. He likes to fish and do boy things.
28. He holds my hand on the airplane and lets me burrow my head in his lap when I think the plane is about to plummet to the ground.
29. I KNOW that someday he is going to make a GREAT dad.