A Very Ziggy Christmas

I am not sure if this will be a continuing trend, but I seem to be the unofficial hav-wartz holiday correspondent. Maybe Chris will write the New Years post and document all our wild and crazy times.

On Dec 23rd we were still missing a Christmas tree. We both planned on surprising each other on the same day by purchasing a tree while the other one was sleeping. Chris was planning on picking up a tree on his way home from work in the morning, and I wanted to go get one after he arrived home to go to bed. Neither of us could execute these goals because the car battery died the night before. While Chris was out purchasing jumper cables for the car, the apt buzzer rang and I opened the door to find a delivery man with a Christmas tree in his arms. Chris' parents had ordered us a tree from a local florist, and the timing was great because while Chris was gone I had time to set it up in the living room. Instead of "running errands" like he said, he was out at a tree farm trying to pick out a tree to carry home as a surprise. Unfortunately they didn't have any in the size he wanted, so when he returned empty handed, he was happy/relieved to find his parent's gift. It was the perfect size for the living room and came decorated with pine cones and berries. We added lights and it made our little hearts fill with Christmas cheer.


On Christmas Eve we were starving so we decided against going to the grocery store and taking the time to make dinner. Instead we went on a walk through the city to see what restaurants were open. We ended up at Bill's Place, a family owned diner specializing in burgers. They cut and grind their own beef daily and some of their burgers were created by and named after celebrities; the The "Carol Doda" burger pays tribute to the legendary North Beach stripper with two matching patties sitting side by side, topped with olives. Get it...the burger is supposed to look like boobs :) I ordered a banana shake that was fantastic, and it was more than enough for both of us to share. After eating we had the joy of walking uphill 10 blocks back to the apt, but the food made it all worth it.

My parents sent me a San Francisco 49ers sweatshirt for Christmas. This is funny because they are the football team I became attached to in 4th grade because everyone else liked the Cowboys. I followed them throughout the years, eventhough I never lived in California or planned on living here. My dad would always get me San Francisco 49ers calendars and other memorabilia each year, and so this year the gift was especially fitting. I hope to attend a game at their stadium and wear the new sweatshirt sometime next year:)

On Christmas day, we drove to Kat and Ray's house in San Mateo...about 35 minutes from our apt. Chris worked with both of them while he was going to UCF but I had only met them once at their going away party, before they moved here two years ago. It was so thoughtful of them to invite us to be part of their holiday celebration, and it was nice to spend time with familiar faces when we were so far away from everyone this year. We met their adorable (almost 2 yr old) daughter Aria, Kat's father and sister, and we all ate dinner together, played video games and watched Christmas movies. It was a lot of fun and we hope to have them over for dinner at our apartment sometime soon.

Christmas magically extended to today, when Chris was able to find a nice tv for a great price on craigslist. He also surprised me with a gift he had been hiding under the table for two days:) We are hoping to get some more furniture this week while Chris has off work. Hopefully this translates into Kitzzy and Jason having something other than camping chairs to sit on when they are visiting San Francisco next week. Also with that new tv, we were able to watch one of Chris' favorite holiday past times...an old network televised Christmas special called "Ziggy's Gift". . . which as of last year we own on dvd. It teaches of Joy, Love, and more Love and Joy.

It was hard being away from family this time of year, but next year we know to purchase plane tickets well in advance :) We hope everyone is having an awesome holiday/winter break and that we talk to you all soon.

Afternoon Conundrum

No real news today, I just felt like writing something so I could rub it in Kacey's face that she hasn't written a post in a while. She is currently sleeping. I normally would be too, but a colleague pointed out that today is supposed to be the only sunshine we'll have for a week, and I didn't want to waste it. Unfortunately I made this decision only after Kacey stayed up most of the night, so she's missing out. I suppose I'm kind of missing out as well, sitting here at the computer instead of going to the park or walking along the coast. But there's something about not having a tiny weird human next to me during such activities that just makes them slightly less worth doing. Maybe I'll go bang some pots and pans together. But then she'll think I'm cooking her breakfast. Hmm...

A quick review

We've been in San Francisco for something like six weeks now. It has flown by in some ways, and dragged on slowly in others. During the road trip out and the first two weeks or so here, we were keeping a list of the (debatably) interesting things that we did or encountered, and planned to write about them for all the world to scrutinize/ignore on this fine blog you're reading. But as it turned out, after we finished the posts about the trip, we sort of lost our steam and didn't really write much about our "new life in the city." Instead of continuing to entertain the notion that I will some day share whimsical musings about the things on that list, I thought I'd take a moment now to expunge them from my brain. With new perspective, most of them seem incredibly inane, and I see little point in bantering on at length about them. But part of me is wondering whether sharing this in an abbreviated list form actually makes it even more useless than going on in detail about any of these items, because any significance they may have is only accessible through elaboration. Ironic.

We have acquired a bed, bookshelf, dining table/chairs, and a desk. We are still lacking a couch. And a chimney through which Santa could deliver it, so we're kind of in a bind.


We have explored the surroundings somewhat, and we found a puddle and some weird green stuff that we didn't expect to be in a city.


Random stuff:

• This is the fourth place I've lived in a row where the closest business is a Walgreen's. I think this is a conspiracy to keep me eating their Mediterranean fruit & nut mix.
  
• Kacey seems to have discovered a taste for Indian food. Mild Indian food, anyway.
• There are other people in this city. We have even hung out with some of them.
  
• We are finding life without a microwave to be considerably more agreeable than we would have thought.
  
• We have now attended two ILM parties. Kacey won a puppy at one of them.
• I am growing increasingly accustomed to the night shift. My only remaining hurdle is sleeping while hanging upside down from the ceiling, and I've got a guy coming in tomorrow to install some support scaffolding, so I'm counting that box as half checked already.
• We've been going to Golden Gate Park once or twice a week to do a fitness course there. But the weather's been getting colder and the days shorter, so I think we're going to switch to open water night swimming pretty soon.
  

There are more moving in pictures to behold if you so desire.

That wasn't even a very good list. Man.

Mmmm gibblets . . .

From the outset this Thanksgiving seemed slightly doomed. We hadn't even purchased a dining table until a couple days before the big feast (thank you Aaron from Craigslist, we wish you the best of luck in France!)

We were expecting to include these items on our Thanksgiving menu:

1. hilarity
2. turkey
3. mashpots
4. yambos
5. green beans
6. cranbizzle
7. corn
8. those rolls (you know, the kind made out of bread)

Following the construction of this list, Chris asks, "If we have a turkey that will feed 12-16 people, should we cook enough of each of the other items to feed the same number of humans?" Decidedly so.

On the big day, in addition to waking up late, the pan I bought for the turkey was about a quarter inch too big to fit in the oven, the bird was still frozen when we took it out of the fridge, and in the end, we cooked it about an hour more than it required. But when we finally sat down to eat, our focus shifted from being tired and stressed to being thankful for all the food in front of us, and the opportunity to eat it in an exciting new place together.

During this holiday weekend last year we were attending my grandpa's funeral in Maryland. In retrospect, this Thanksgiving's culinary short-comings were quite trivial in comparison, and although the dinner may have taken place a little late, I am very grateful that my family is doing better and that they could spend this time together.

We re-lived this meal in its entirety for five more dinner cycles and for brunch on occasion as well. Starting today we will be exploring new turkey options such as sandwiches, quesadillas, soups, and more. We hope everyone had a great thanksgiving holiday, and in case you were too busy eating turkey to catch it, here is a link to the best part of thanksgiving 2008 (in my opinion)

oh yeah, and pictures.