just so you know...

If you click on any of the pictures it will take you to my flickr page, which is where I store all the photos I've taken on this trip. Say you're interested in what I've been eating. There is a lovely set of photos on the flickr page of many of my dinners out, and in. Perhaps you'd like to see all the pictures from The Gates in Central Park. They are on there too. Check it out. As usual, comments are welcome.

feb 28th morning walk

feb 28th morning walk #2
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

Kate needed pastry and cereal. I could just tell. I saddled up the dog and out we went, in search. Sunshine, not in accordance with weather forcaster's prominent prediction, we jumped for joy and let ourselves become enveloped in springtime smells: jasmine and honeysuckle everywhere! Our parkside promenade led to sweetrolls and cornflakes, then hiking home. "Uphill both ways" it seems true here, but who cares when you can have this kind of sunshine in February! Calloo! Callay! I sound my triumphant yawp... you get the picture.

Nunu by the purple steps

Nunu by the purple steps
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

Chris and Kate are both working today. Chris is pulling some strange 2pm to 2am shift covering for his buddy Spencer who has a broken thumb. Kate is working for Laurie, and I don't even know what that entails. I'm chillin at the homestead, trying to decide what to make for dinner, reading comics and listening to the ipod.
I took Nunu for a super long walk this morning. and she is still exhausted. We walked for about an hour and a half, all thru the city, without stopping except to take care of doggy business. That was unnecessary, huh?
Anyway, she looks beautiful in front of these purple steps.
My quest for the murals still continues. I got some good ones this morning. See the flickr page for details.

Skate has ice cream

Skate has ice cream
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

I had Mexican chocolate in a sugar cone. A little spicy, cinnamon and chile undertone, mmmm baby.

Kate has ice cream

Kate has ice cream
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

After Thai food we needed something sweet. Kate had Toasted Almond in a cake cone, dipped.

Another mellow day.

pacific ocean!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

We all slept in this morning. Kate and Chris have to go to work again starting tomorrow, so we wanted to relax today. It was gloomy all afternoon, but we got antsy so we decided to go to the beach.
I'd never seen the Pacific before. My overall impression is that it's much faster than the Atlantic. One minute you're standing there, about fifteen feet from the water, you bend down to pick up a sandollar and the next thing you know, WOOSH! your shoes and socks are totally soaked, your homegirl is laughing at you and the water has receded back another fifteen feet to mock you from a safe distance. It was great. We are going to go back on the next sunny day, because apparently it's best to be at the beach when the sun is out. Novel idea, that.
After the beach we went to Isotope, a comic book store that my trusty pal April of Star Clipper fame recomended. It was awesome. Many cool mini-comics were purchased. All was well.
We came back to the house and decided to go out for dinner to Dusit Thai.

sick day

I'm not feeling so hot today. I mostly laid around and read books, comics and got caught up on megatokyo, the webcomic I follow. We made taco salad for dinner, and then for some reason we watched the 1986 superbowl on a videotape chris's mom sent him in the mail. California is surreal and I am fated to never see Alcatraz. I miss Matt quite a bit today, but I think it might be just for selfish reasons. He is really good at taking care of me when I'm sick and I wish he was here to make me feel better. Must sleep now.

Wandering around San Francisco

The women's building #1
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

We walked all over The Mission today. We were supposed to go out for crepes this morning, but the crepe place was closed. Kate was very confused, because she called last night to make sure we could go. The guy on the phone said, "Yes. We will be open at 11am." Alas, he lied. No crepes for us. So we ate indian food. We then proceded to pass six, yes SIX bookstores, none of which I entered. It was the most amazing display of will-power I have ever shown. I was so proud of myself that I was strutting around like a peacock when we came across a yarn store and all my reserve went out the window. At "Imagiknit" I found some of the evasive and expensive beautiful recycled sari silk yarn at half the price it sells for on the internet. I also bought this amazing magical blue and green Italian wool and acrylic blend that looks like the sky in a Van Gogh painting.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around looking at buildings and the murals painted on them. The picture here is of the Women's Building, which is one of Kate's favorites. I saw so many beautiful murals today, I just want to go home and make everyone in St. Louis put huge colorful paintings all over the city. Today was a little bit gray, but I didn't even notice because of all the color on the buildings. This would solve the problem of lack-of-sunlight-depression I suffer from in winter time in the lou.
Needless to say, we didn't get to Alcatraz today. We might go tomorrrow.
Today's shoutout goes to Karen. I'm so glad you took the time to look! You were right, I love San Francisco.
More after dinner folks, and check out the flickr page for more photos.

just one more thing...

today's shoutouts:
Mark: I'll see what I can do about the shot glass, and keep an eye out on my flickr page for your scavenger hunt list!
Annie and Amanda: I know you two are looking, why don't you say something? You usually never shut up.
Mattie T.: I miss you. Wish you were here. Really.
Aaron Maye: You are a trendsetter, dahling. Always have been, always will be.

What really happened today.

It's kind of stupid to publish my plans in the morning. I'm sorry, I've learned my lesson.
Here's what we really did: I got up and took Nunu for a walk, came back to the house and made peach mango cream cheese stuffed french toast for breakfast. (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it.) Then Nunu gave me a 45 minute tour of the neighborhood. It's really hilly here, and everything is in bloom. It's February, for crying out loud! I am totally bowled over by San Francisco. It's seriously nothing like what I expected. I promise to take and post some pictures tomorrow.
Speaking of pictures, I finally got all the photos from the digital onto flickr, so if anybody wants to check them out the address is
( www.flickr.com/photos/sarahk8queen )
and I have tons on there now and they're mostly organized.
This afternoon we went grocery shopping, which is one of my favorite passtimes, and stocked up on all kindsa goodies. I spent the rest of my evening uploading pictures and knitting. I finished the hat I started in New York and made a little scarf to match it. I knit the scarf while the pictures were loading. It's early here, but I'm pooped. The hike with Nunu was long and exhausting. I'm gonna crash soon. We are really going to Alcatraz tomorrow.

photo problems

Well, I'm having a hard time getting the photos from the digital camera to load onto flickr. All you kiddies out there in blogland are just gonna have to be satisfied with the pics from the camera phone. Sorry. Kate and Chris and I had breakfast and then scheduled our next two weeks. Let me tell you folks, fun is in my future. Tomorrow we're going to Alcatraz. We are going to stroll around the mission later today, and I'm going to ship some stuff home. Nice, relaxing afternoon activities. Maybe I'll get drunk tonight. Maybe I'll go to the Anchor Brewery, just to make Matt jealous. I'll keep y'all updated. Shoutout to Diana: I miss you too, chicken. More food pictures soon!

Travel Day, hooray hooray!

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

After a hellish flight to L.A. and a three minute (litterally) layover, I'm now in San Francisco. Chris met me @ the BART station and we walked thru The Mission up to the house. This is the view from the front porch. I'm gonna go eat an enormous burrito and drink some beers now.

Pee Wee in the Roses

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

This is Nina's cat. He's usually not this mellow

DISCLAIMER: I'm drunk

today was full. I spent several hours and a large portion of my dinero in the strand bookstore this morning. I could have stayed there all day. Kate called me at one point from uptown to see what I was doing and our conversation went like this:
Kate: Hey skate. It's me.
Moi: Mmmm.
Kate: So I finished my meeting. Where are you?
Me: Heaven.
Kate: Still at The Strand, huh?
Io: Mmmm.
Kate: I'll just meet you there, okay?
Mio: Mmmm.
Kate came and got me, but not before I'd dropped a ridiculous amount of cashola. After a quick detour to Forbidden Planet (too many figurines, not enuff manga), we went to central park to walk around looking at the much anticipated installation. Seeing The Gates in the snow changed the whole experience for me. I think it gave me more of an idea of what the artists intended it to be. Blah de blah, I'm so deep and full of shit. Almost all the pictures I took were with the new camera, so you all will have to wait a couple days before I post them. Once I get to San Francisco there will be a whole new barrage of pictures. Oi. We met up with jeremy parker as he was getting off work and then promptly went to brooklyn for drinks. Then we went to this amazing little pizzaria called The Brick Oven which is owned by this guy named Kenny who knows Nikki and Charles from when they first moved to Williamsburg and we had awesome food. I had the pizza tartuffo bianco. Yeah baby. Then we went to see Charles' friend Mike Waxler or Wexler play. He does this sort of folk-rock thing, but with the sweetest soulful vocals. And I drank tons of red wine. My plane leaves at 9am so I need to sleep. Look for more tomorrow.

just one more thing

So I want to give a shoutout to Aaron Maye who actually took the time to read this thing. I miss you girl, and I hope your first few weeks of married life are blissful.

the gates at sunrise

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

Yes people, I actually got up at 6:00 this morning to go to central park and get a couple shots of the installation before the park was packed with people. I really have a new appreciation for the crack of dawn now having seen the sun come up in Manhattan. It was unbelievable how few people were up and about at 6am on a Sunday in the middle of New York City.
For a city that never sleeps, it seemed like everyone was having a bit of a lie-in this morning. All the better for me! I walked like, ninety blocks today. Seriously. I went from W 72nd st. on the Upper West Side all the way to Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, and The East Village, all before noon.
I even saw Times Square, which was full of families with video cameras and loud dads yelling and pointing at the lights all "Look Ethan! Dylan! Morgan! Madison! Look at the giant flashy things!" scary.
It was about 8:30 am and I felt so sorry for the kids.
But I had a great day anyway, mostly because I know my Daddy would never drag me through Times Square at the crack of dawn. We'd go to the New York Public Library instead.

Ruby and Sal

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

these are two of the three charming dogs Monica has been babysitting for. Ruby and I hit it off very quickly, for two reasons: 1. She looks a lot like my Hazelnut, only curlier. 2. I like dogs named Ruby (My homegirl Nikki has a dog named Ruby too.) These little snarffers took me to central park last night for my first view of the gates. It was really eerie at night. the wind was blowing and the fabric was barely moving, but in a spooky ghostie way.

Monica in her work smock

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

Here is our darling Monica, modeling for you this evening the hottest ticket off the New York Runways this February. It's "The Gates in Central Park Official Staff Smock." Isn't she lovely folks? This smock comes in an exclusive reflective gray fabric, is complete with two pockets and signatures of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude on the back. Accessorize with an extension pole with a tennis ball on top and you too can be t he height of New York Fashion this month.

dinner at M

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

I was so hungry last night after spending all day in airports and eating nothing but a luna bar and some pocky that when I got to M (the chinese bistro where Nikki works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn) that I snarffed my food before I could take a picture of it. I had vegetable dumplings and tofu with sweet peppers and black bean sauce. When kate showed up later and had soup I snapped her.
Most of my trip was uneventful. I had a two hour layover in DC and spent most of it talking to Jill on the phone. I saw two girls, very american and very tall, wearing loose socks in the DC airport. The train ride from JFK to Nikki + Nina's house took longer than the flight from DC to NYC. I was too tired and Kate was too sick so we party pooped Nikki until tonight.

tuesday night. mood: a little piratey.

Today was my first day off work in about a week and a half. I got a ton of stuff done in preparation for the trip, but I'm still not packed. I'm a little frustrated with the prospect of traveling to a cold place, then a hot place and then back to another cold place. I mean, if I was just going to New York and then to California, I could just send my coat and longjohns home so I would have more room in my luggage for all the loot I'm gonna buy, but I will need said coat when I get to Chicago, because if I remember correctly, it's still hell of cold there in March. I guess I should stop whining. I am going on a fabulous vacation, to four great cities, I can haul around a coat and an extra pait of jeans. It won't kill me, but I just keep thinking of all the booty I could fit into that stupid suitcase instead. aarg.

many bridesmaids

many bridesmaids
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

Here I am just before the ceremony, with assorted other bridesmaids.

the ceremony

the ceremony
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

here is a photo of laura and fred's wedding ceremony. please notice the sea of bridesmaids.

wedding success!!!

so laura and fred got married at the city museum at 9am today. the final bridesmaid count was 90 bridesmaids and 13 bridesmen. hopefully guinness will count the guys too so her record will be 103. toni took pictures and channel 2 news was there. i'll put the pictures on as soon as i can, and a link to the website asap. it was totally worth getting up at the crack of dawn. there was even free coffee and donuts. hooray!

why am I up this early?

Toni and I are going to the City Museum this morning at 8am to help Laura Tolley, whom we've never met, try to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the most bridesmaids. She's getting married today and posted an open call on the web site (citymuseum.org), so of course we're going. I have to work at 11am and the wedding starts at 9am. I hope we break the record, because it would really suck if I got out of bed this early for nothing. Toni promised me coffee from the Bread Co. and I'm going to negotiate a pastry too, I think. I'll put up a photo if we pull this thing off. (of the wedding, not the pastry.)

friday

I slept in this morning, went to lunch with mom and did the dishes. i worked this evening. If my life seems kinda mundane right now, I promise the vacation will liven everything right up. I plan to have many adventures.
I didn't get any knitting done at all today, but I did go to Uncle Bill's Pancake Emporium with Jessica and Diana after work. I ate oatmeal there, I just had to have it because last time I went to Uncle Bill's it was New Years, and April had oatmeaal and I've been thinking about oatmeal at Uncle Bill's ever since. It just seems to be a strange sort of thing to order at a restaurant, and therefore, good.
The hat and glasses photo-thingy is running strong in the second day. I am very proud of that stupid-ass muppet lookin' hat. It looks great on everyone. I have to get better at taking pictures with the phone though. I always forget it doesn't flash, and then things get all dark and wiggly.
Hmm... double shift tomorrow, I'll post the photos, then I'm goin to bed.

hat and glasses: day two

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

here is diana. i think she looks smashing.

jessica, same situation

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

after we'd all had a few, and given up on karaoke, we returned upstairs and jessica did her own version of "hat and glasses." so this would be jessica, posing as gary, impersonating me. i love my co-workers.

gary in my hat

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

so i took the new hat to work tonight. at the end of the shift, i asked gary to wear it. he agreed, but only when i consented to let him wear my glasses as well. the maniacal grin was my idea.

Hard working dog

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

this is hazel. she's ready to go to work on the house painting. unfortunatly it is too cold out today, so she's not gonna get to do any painting. but she's cute.

my new hat

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by sarahkate.

i made this hat yesterday. the yellow part is lion brand chenille, the rest is scraps of eyelash and pompom yarns i got at an estate sale. they weren't enough for a whole anything so i've been using them for garnishes. I am very proud of this hat. I look rather silly with it on, in a muppet/dr. seuss sout of way. which is of coures totally what i was going for.

up and running, er... dragging my ass

finally I have a day off. i've been working double shifts a bbh to rack up and rake in the cash for the whirlwind tour that i've barely had time to breathe. today I will post the pictures of all the knotting works in progress, and possibly the gallery of pets. I haven't had a full night's sleep in so long I'm almost dizzy. my house is a disaster area. i think the husband-friend is going to sleep thru my entire vacation.

see if this works

okay so i got kinda screwed up trying to set this up, my browser got shut down for a second and i'm not sure if i got all the info i needed into this thing. i couldn't get back into the tutorial, god i can be such a spaz when it comes to the computer. i wish i knew, a forget it, blah blah blah. see if this works

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.