On Wednesday, after much anticipation, my G1 finally arrived. Holy shit, I can’t believe what this thing can do! It’s everything I imagined it to be , and more. Although it’s technically a phone, there’s so much more to it: GPS, email, camera/video, games, YouTube, music, etc. Love the touch screen and the slide-out keyboard! I spent the majority of the evening playing with it, discovering all the different functions, and took a break only to eat dinner and take Ireland out for her evening walk. Brad seemed to be equally satisfied with his Blackberry Curve, which is as light as a feather.

The weather has been gorgeous lately. Last weekend, we drove down to Julia Pfeiffer Beach, a 3 hour drive from Alameda. The beach is particularly hard to find. The exit is not marked and you have to drive down a narrow, 2-mile long road before even reaching the parking lot. We actually drove past it and had to stop at a local B&B to ask for directions. A GPS would have helped! Once we finally got to the beach, I could totally understand why they would make it difficult to find and want to keep the crowds away. It’s definitely the most gorgeous beach I’ve ever been to, with its dramatic stone arches and purple sand it felt like paradise! Of course, when we got home and discovered we were sunburned, after spending all afternoon in the full sun, it felt more like hell.

Since it was a grey and rainy weekend, we decided to stay home and finish some projects in an around the house. First thing on the list was purchasing and installing a mailbox. We have one of those mail slots in our front door but the excitement of having mail dropped right in her lap has been too much for Ireland to handle. After she left teeth marks on 3 Netflix DVD’s and nibbled on a check, we decided enough is enough. Another trip to the home depot, one of many the past couple of weeks, and problem solved.

Second thing on the list was getting some tomato seedlings. Another trip to the Home Depot, this time the Garden Center. Since I’ve never actually grown tomatoes in a pot, I decided to start out with just two seedlings. Following instructions, I planted them in two big pots and put them in a sunny corner, right of the patio. Now I’ll just have to provide them with some daily water and love and, if all goes well, we should have our own tomatoes by July. I’m thinking about adding some strawberries and cucumbers as well. I grew up eating fresh vegetables and fruits from our own home garden and we even had our own cherries, apples and walnuts! With all the moving around the past couple of years, as well as the lack of outdoor space, I never thought about starting a little garden. Now that we actually have a backyard and patio, things are much easier.

The third thing on my list, I didn’t even get to. We have a backdoor with a glass window and I’ve been wanting to put up a window shade, or little curtain, to provide for some privacy in the kitchen. Maybe I’ll get to that this weekend.

Aside from these little projects, I’ve been occupying myself with working out at the gym and reading. On my nightstand right now are " Century of November", a novel about a Canadian who travels to Belgium to search for the spot where his son died , during WW I, and the SAS: Survival Handbook.

Lately, I feel like I must have accidentally hit life’s fast forward button. So many things have been happening all at once and I haven’t had time to sit down and blog about it. Here are some highlights:

• Friday, March 21^st: We packed our stuff, and dog, and moved from Oakland to the Island of Alameda.

• Saturday, March 28^th: Brad raised $120 and participated in the Stairclimb event, organized by the American Lung Association. He made it to the top of 555 California and climbed 1,197 stairs! In the evening, we had a wonderful dinner at Ruth and Jerry’s home in San Ramon.

• Friday, April 3^rd: Dinner at Frjtz in The Mission and drinks at the Irish Bank in SF, to say goodbye to one of my co-workers who was moving back to Texas.

• Tuesday, April 7^th: Purchased a membership to the local 24 Hour Fitness and committed to a 3 times a week, one hour, workout-schedule. It's almost a month later now, we've adjusted to our evening workout routine and have each lost a couple of pounds already. We typically start with 30 minutes on the bike, followed by 30 minutes of resistance training, using weights.
  
• Friday, April 10^th: Brad surprised me with a fancy dinner at Asena, a Mediterranean restaurant in Alameda. Afterward, we strolled to the local movie theater and watched "I love you, man".
  

• Sunday, April 19^th: For Brad’s birthday we went to AT&T park, to watch the Giants beat the Diamondbacks. It was such a hot day that one hour in the sun left us with burned arms and legs.
  Saturday, April 25^thand Sunday, April 26^th: We spent the weekend in Santa Cruz. Saturday afternoon we went shopping on Pacific Avenue and Sunday we attended the Logjam 2009, Classic Longboard Competition.

This weekend has flown by. On Saturday, I had to go in to work for a couple of hours. Later that afternoon we grabbed some lunch in the city, at Tommy's Joint. I had been wanting to check out this place out as it was featured on " Diners, drive-ins and dives".


Tommy's Joint is one of San Francisco's oldest restaurants, established in 1947. The place is huge, with loads of seating, and the interior reminded me of an Irish bar decorated with kitchy trinkets. The food is good, the portions are generous and the pricing is affordable. I ordered the BBQ brisket with mashed potatoes and beans and was not disappointed. It's definitely a one-of-a-kind restaurant I would take friends or family to, something typical San Francisco.

After a late lunch, we made our way to Twin Peaks. From here, you have the best view of the city. On a clear day you can even see the North Bay and East Bay! I can't believe it took us almost 2 years to discover this spot. I definitely want to go back at night sometime to admire the skyline.


The rest of the weekend was filled with packing and preparing for our move to Alameda. We'll get the key to our new place on Wednesday and the movers will come over on Friday. The move itself shouldn't take more than a few hours since everything is packed and we don't have loads of furniture. However, we do have some very heavy furniture, such as our two couches and a huge desk. It's not worth breaking your back over so we figured we'd leave the heavy lifting to professionals! The day after the move, Saturday, is reserved for cleaning our old apartment. Fortunately, I will have the day off on Friday, which should make things a lot easier.