breakfast

My usual breakfast: instant coffee, ham on wheat toast and my blackberry.

farmer's market @ the ferry building

my favorite broccoli! yummers!


look at the size of these 'september snow white peaches'!

...every tuesday, heather and i try to go to the farmer's market at the ferry building during our lunch hour. there we'll find a large variety of delicious fruits, fresh flowers, tasty veggies. while i like the pluots and artic snow white nectarines and peaches, i go there for the fresh broccoli [LOVE], padrones peppers (dark green spanish peppers - great sauteed with just salt and oil), and brussel sprouts. i never plan to buy much but always come back to the office with bags full of stuff.

morphosis: federal building

We went to check out the relatively new Federal Building by morphosis in Soma. We also drive by this building all the time. In fact, on the way to and from work every week day but we've never gotten got of the car for a closer look. It was so windy in the late afternoon. It's a shame how much debris was flying around and had collected on the ground in front of the entrance area. It seems to us that they certainly spent a lot of money on the structure but nothing is being spent on maintenance. Already someone had broken the glass doors to the annex on the south side.

Hak's pix from our visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hakeechang/sets/72157601406512867/

flora grubb gardens

We love Flora Grubb Gardens! It's fantastic! Used to drive by the old location on Guerrero in Noe all the time and stopped by once. The new digs is AMAZING and so much bigger + better. Not only will you find interesting and unique plants but the normal usual greeneries are a cut above the rest. And they should be because this place is not cheap. I'm betting that it's worth the $$$ for the hard to find stuff, the top quality, the extensive expertise and excellent service found here. Also found here are books on landscape architecture among other related topics and cool accessories/home furnishings such as vases, bowls, hats, outdoor chairs and stools.

And we discovered another hidden treasure within the nursery - an awesome cafe call Ritual with a master barista who made me the best cup of latte I have ever had. Yeah, I said it - the BEST...even better than my starbucks. Now that's an endorsement.

ritual coffee

best latte in sf

curbside cafe

After the birthday bash we were super hungry and grabbed brunch at this cute chow place right outside of the Presidio gates. Damn good steak and eggs! Hak had the tasty crab benedict - YUM! We sat outside on one of the red wire benches.

2769 lombard street

www.sfcurbside.com

Thacher Summer Birthday Bash!

We went to the Julius Kahn Playground in the Presidio this weekend for the Thacher's annual birthday bash to celebrate Cal's 5th, Gavin's 3rd & Audrey's 2nd birthdays. What a nice park and such a hidden treasure! Who knew it existed? It was the perfect place for an outdoor children's party. A grassy lawn, picnic tables, play area, tennis courts, basketball court, softball field - what more can you ask for really? Cass and Sam hired an awesome 17 year old who made amazing ballons (in the shapes of monkeys, spongebob, turtles...) for the children. We adults who wanted one lost out because time ran out. The party ended and the talented kid who earns more than Tony(!) an hour had to go! He's saving all his $earnings$ for his college fund. I know I've seen this guy before and realized it was at the Ferry Building where Sam found him. What talent!

toneriffic siting

11 august 2007 approximately 2:30pm pst

tgis

this is what i'll look like tomorrow morning until he kisses my toe gently to try and get me up. love the weekends!

where can i find a good nail spa in sf?

Is it too much to ask for? one of the things i miss about nyc is having a plethora of nail salons to choose from. just like my favorite coffee spot, starbucks, there is a salon on every other block in nyc.

So I went to Blush Nail Spa on Guerrero this week with high hopes of finally finding a place where i can get regular mani's and pedi's but was disappointed again. i got a much needed lower leg wax in a room that seemed a bit old even though it was relatively clean and no nonsense. it was way cheaper than Bella Pelle and now i know why. after i got home and i noticed upon closer examination that there were still a couple of short hairs on my legs. at Bella Pelle's the technician would have totally tweezed them out, such as professionals should and would.

i also got an okay 'citrus pedi'. it certainly wasn't worth $43 bucks and the girl could have done a better job at exfoliating my severely cracked dry heels! when i left, i still had a lot of flaky/flaking dry but soft, (from the soaking) clean skin waiting to be scraped off my feet. i also realized that she hardly massaged my legs and feet like other salons would during a pedicure. she was the type of girl who compliments everyone on everything. "oh, i love the color of your skin. your tan is so nice!" "your rings are so beautiful!" and here is the funniest but oh so sf comment of all:

"Are you married? is your husband white? oh, he's not? really? what is he? chinese? really?...really?"

Someone else once said that to me. nadja. she said she was surprised to learn that i was dating an asian guy (this is before i was with hak). she said she thought i would be the type to date white guys. and what type is that? can you just tell by looking at a person which race, if there is a specific one, s/he prefers? what and why does it matter? of course people make assumptions about other people! we are being judged all the time.

While searching for a new place to try out, i always look for the massage chair, which is hard to find in sf for some reason. people tend to love the bowl of water with flower pedals floating around - and they tend to think it's more sanitary and clean. the 4 massage chairs Blush had were old. the arms on the one i was sitting on had clear packing type over it to protect all the rips.

Overall, Blush was relatively clean and the tools are individually sterilized like i like it but the service was lacking even though they were all very nice. bottom line is i won't be going regularly and i even wonder if i will be back.

http://blushnailspa.com

757

Barry Bonds couldn't wait one more night to hit the record breaker? I was only taking the video because I liked the way all the flashes from the cameras in the stands that lit up the stadium and thought a photo wouldn't capture the true effect. Then all of a sudden Barry hits 757 and I tried to follow the ball from the camera lens, lost it, and scrambled to my feet.

Seb had given us the tickets in early july for an august 8 game against the Nationals. Who knew we would be in proximity of Barry making history? And who knew Barry would hit 757 tonight and so ealry in the game. We didn't have the fireworks or the speech or excitement from the night before when hi hit 756 but it was still good to be in the stadium. I thought of Heather straight away after the hit and had to call her. Told her she could have one of our 'i was there' barry bonds 757 home run button from the giants dugout store. She was happy. I hope Barry hits another one for her this friday!

transbay competition. which do you like?

See below for all three design proposals by architects: SOM, Pelli and Richard Rogers.

How to comment:
Comments may be submitted by emailing D&DComment@transbaycenter.org,
or by submitting a comment card to:
Transbay Joint Powers Authority
Attn: D&D Public Comment201 Mission Street, Suite 1960
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 597-4615 fax

The public will be able to comment until September 17, 2007.

SOM - transbay

http://www.transbaycenter.org/TransBay/content.aspx?id=323

pelli - transbay

http://www.transbaycenter.org/TransBay/content.aspx?id=323

richard rogers - transbay

http://www.transbaycenter.org/TransBay/content.aspx?id=323

transbay competition on display

http://www.transbaycenter.org/TransBay/content.aspx?id=323

It was the first time i had ever been inside city hall. impressive as any city halls should be. the grand stairs reminded me of the opera house in paris.

Being that the transbay competition design proposals and models from Richard Rogers, SOM and Pelli are being displayed for ONE DAY ONLY at city hall today, hak, aim + i went leave work early to check it out while we had the chance. we ran into klye glenn and david choo who were also at city hall.

It will be a tough decision for the committee to choose the winner and no doubt there will be an onslaught of controversy. if the san franciscans thought the First & Mission project towers by Renzo are too tall, what will they say about these transbay towers, all monstrously shooting towards the sky way above Renzo's building.

Such a shame that Calatrava dropped out primarily because of the inability for agreements regarding, not surprising: $ issues with Boston Properties. i know that most of the people i spoke with was betting on Calatrava to win the competition even before the designs were released yesterday.