Natalia!

Look who we got to hang out with! Last night we met Natalia Deligne down in San Francisco for dinner! (She flew up from Pasadena for a geology conference.) We walked around the streets of San Francisco, ate delicious Italian food, and had such a blast catching up. It was as if no time had passed (Natalia and I grew up together, but it’s been 6 or so years since we’ve seen each other.) and David finally got to meet her. We had a great night.

I love that there are so many academic conferences in San Francisco! What a great excuse to see friends! (This month we’ve seen three friends for this reason!) Everyone, come visit!

p.s. What you can’t see in this picture is that I am wearing flip flops. Yes, it’s still warm enough for bare feet! I love it!

Living the good life

Lately we’ve been savoring awesome every day things.

We’ve increased our intake of raw foods/vegetables and are still working out every day. We are feeling great!

We’ve also started collecting wine. Anytime we taste a wine that we like, we buy a bottle. Our collection is growing! The labels are just lovely too, don’t you think?

The rains have held off here in northern California and we’ve had a number of sunny, warm days. I’ve been running in shorts and tees. Love it!

I’ve finally given notice at my job in Colorado and am excited about increased free time to focus on other projects. (On a related note, I am looking for more website design projects — if you know of anyone who needs help, please send them my way! Never mind about the design projects! We’ve decided I already have too much on my plate.)

I’m knitting up a storm trying to finish Leyba holiday presents. At the yarn store I treated myself to the most beautiful chunky white mohair yarn that I am going to knit with a thin blue yarn into a thick, warm scarf (for when the rains finally get here!).

There are so many fantastic world music CDs at our library. I’ve been listening my way through some awesome compilations including Nuevo Latino, Congo to Cuba, Women of Latin America, North African Groove, and Music from the Coffee Lands…

We are in the midst of Dungeness crab season and are taking frequent trips to the farmers market for just-off-the-boat crab! I do believe we’ll be having more crab-stuffed salmon this weekend.

Yes, I lead a charmed life.

The German Connection


Our dear friends from Germany (who we met in Boulder) Thorsten and Stefan visited us this past week! We had a blast hitting Chinatown (near the hotel they were staying at in San Francisco for a conference–the “real” reason they were here!), touring and tasting at wineries in Sonoma, watching movies, and hiking around some giant redwoods near our house. We had a whirlwind trip and great time together. Come visit us again soon, guys! And, yes, we will make it to your neck of the woods and visit you in Germany one of these days!

Relaxing Thanksgiving


We had a wonderfully relaxing and fun long weekend! Once again, we hosted Thanksgiving this year. Christana and Richard came over to celebrate with us on Thursday. The menu included: salmon stuffed with crab, garlic mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, salad, and cornbread stuffing with pecans and wild mushrooms. The meal was phenomenal. We even served a local wine from Chateau St Jean and David cooked up Bananas Foster for dessert. It was a great day.

On Friday, we celebrated the anniversary of the day we met with an incredibly tasty and extravagant meal at Mustard’s Grill in the nearby Napa Valley. Other weekend activities included lots of holiday gift making, runs in the park, swims in our pool, jewelry making and website design at the Woodward-Browns, wine tasting at Grgich Hills, movie watching, tasty Thai food, and lots of great down time together. David and I had a blast. (We are so easy to please: just give us time together!)