summertime hello.

A few fun things from around the web!

1. What it costs to eat at every 3-star Michelin restaurant in the world.

2. Genius Picnic Bag on my wish list. 

3. Consider this yet another reason I dream of being gal pals with Kristen Wiig. 

4. Can't wait to visit the giants in Mariposa Grove with my parents this weekend!

5. Grown men reenact conversations with a toddler. 

6. Rent in SF is actually the worst. 

7. Lowland Hum plays at the Garage. Their album Native Air will be available two weeks from today. I already have it and man is it good.

8. I will be playing on this beach in Costa Rica with my handsome husband love in just 2 weeks! 

Hope everyone is having a full and happy summer : )

. . .

this thanksgiving.

I loved Thanksgiving this year. We fit 10 people in our little apartment and had quite the feast together. No one at our gathering was from San Francisco, so we were all away from our families and normal traditions. Spending the day in each other's company was wonderful and fun, plus I thoroughly enjoy throwing a little party. Everyone pitched in and brought awesome food. During dinner, people were spread about our apartment - some at the table, some on the sofa, and a few troopers even ate in camping chairs. The meal was superb and after we ate, everyone sat around the living room and talked for hours. Thankfully, the wonderful Carly Mask took some beautiful photos of the evening. Have a look if you'd like!

Cool Things About Our Thanksgiving:

1. My cousin Nick, who I've spent pretty much every Thanksgiving with for my whole life, actually moved to SF this year too. He joined our festivities and while our families ate together back in NC, we spent the day together 3,000 miles away. Life is funny.
2. These friends can cook. Oh my goodness the food was insanely good.
3. A few of our guests were Belgian and this marked their first Thanksgiving ever! Describing the historical conception of Thanksgiving and how it relates to our modern traditions is kind of hard. They had a good time nonetheless. Of all the new foods, they liked the green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole best. 

4. I am so thankful that we have friends to spend a Thanksgiving with. Hallelujah.

. . .

farewell movember!

Today is the last day of Movember. Finn has been growing out a scraggly moustache all month so I feel that today calls for some celebration, at least for my sake. The whole affair would be less repugnant if the moustache could be joined by a beard but the rules don't allow that. Just a lone, squalid moustache. And tomorrow it all comes off. Away with you unsightly (though comedic) facial hair! See you next year!

The moustached members of the SF TwitSpark office. 

The cartoony one is Tandy, who is female.

. . .

a sword & some bear spray: how to catch a thief.

San Francisco resident Sonya Yoo took matters into her own hands earlier this week after several packages were stolen from her front porch in Noe Valley. Setting a "bait" package this past Thursday, she waited for the perpetrator to show. When he did just 30 minutes later, Yoo doused him with bear spray, then chased him down with a bokken (Japanese wooden sword). Although the package thief got away, police easily identified him shortly thereafter, as bear spray leaves a bright orange residue on its victim. 

Best of all, Yoo live tweeted the entire fiasco:

Read more tweets and the full article here. 

. . .

to outgrow an office.

We spent last weekend running errands and building tons of furniture for TwitSpark's new office in the Financial District. They've outgrown their current one, which makes me feel slightly like a proud parent. On Saturday night, we were at their new space with Davy, Fe, and Sam assembling shelves and chairs until 1 am, getting everything ready for the team to move in (it was actually really fun, we ordered in Chinese and listened to music while everyone worked). 

There were so many boxes!

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Last night, the team came to see the space for the first time. We had beer & snacks and played with the nerf guns & Sega Genesis (!!!) that Davy & Finn got for the office. They were intentional in making it a fun and comfortable place for everyone to work and hang out. They even have a stocked fridge and mini cereal bar. 

The view from Finn's window.

Laughing at his own expense.

That's Katie Tandy, the genius writer for TwitSpark. She could be a stand-up comedian. I love her.

Office essentials.

This is from the Jambulance in Allen Mask's music video Right Now!. I'm gonna sell it for $20k one day.

The TwitShark. 

Afterwards, I got dinner with these 5 fine people at House of Nanking, which is dangerously close to the office.

I am so proud of this team. They are a bunch of intelligent and good-natured individuals and all get along really well. And they work very hard. When Finn and I moved to SF 7 months ago, TwitSpark was just him and Davy in a single office. This move makes me realize just how much they've grown since then.

. . .

halloween threads.

Happy Halloween!

This is us today:

Just so we're clear, I really like Halloween.

Dressing up in costumes is something I've loved since I was a little kid and Halloween was a time when everyone else wanted to dress up too. I love how it brings out creativity and playfulness in people plus there's tons of candy involved. It's a win all around. I hope everyone has a little fun today! 

. . .

P.S. Finn's pants are my favorite. They, along with those skeleton socks, glow in the dark. He won lots of credit to this awesome pants store last year and chose the "Boo!-Yas"  to surprise to me. I love them.

when the giants won.

Last night the SF Giants won the World Series! They managed to totally sweep the Detroit Tigers, winning 4 games in a row. Go Giants! Finn and I were sitting on the steps of a cathedral at the top of Nob Hill when the game ended and could hear the whole city celebrating. Cabbies honking their horns, people fist pumping and cheering on the street, and within a few minutes fireworks were going off.

This is where we were sitting:

And this was our view:

As you can tell, the fog was super dense so we couldn't actually see any fireworks. We still had fun listening to all the ruckus. Even when we went to bed a few hours later, people were still celebrating outside. One of my favorite parts of this whole Giants craze is that the entire city is decked out in black and orange. I am just pretending everyone is super excited for Halloween.

. . .

this week.

( A little mix of photos from my week )

1. Found this little elephant finger puppet mixed in with my craft stuff. What a cutie!
2. I really want to buy these handsome man boots for Finn.

3. Twinkle lights are up.
4. And pumpkins are out. Everything feels cozy.
5. This pretty jar was a gift from Nicole. Finn & I began using it to collect small and funny memories we might otherwise forget. For example "today our drunken neighbor was stuck in the elevator and was yelling "let me out, let me out". And when his wife let him out, he told her she had a big mouth". Some are funny, some are nice, and we'll read them at New Years. I like to watch it fill up.
6. Anniversary sweetness from our friend Fe. There were two cupcakes but, well, you know.
7. We are a mirror writing family.
8. Best of all, my husband is home.

Have a great weekend everybody! 

. . .

6 months.

We've been here for 6 months (and 4 days, to be exact) and I must say, I like living here. We miss our home state often, especially this time of year when North Carolina is at its most gorgeous and the state fair is happening, but I'm thankful to say we're feeling way more settled here than we were 3 months ago. 

We have great friends like Davy and Fe & Al and Carly who we hang out with almost every week. I'm working often, feeling busy, and enjoying the awesome benefits of Lululemon, which have allowed me to try lots of new studios and classes all over town and feel more plugged into the city. This really is a great city. 

In my 3 month post, I listed a few goals we hoped to accomplish. Here's how everything sized up:

     Find a chaise lounge  Haven't yet found "the one". Craigslist buying requires patience.
     Hang up artwork  Turns out, our walls are plaster which complicates things...efforts to be continued.
✓ Not kill our basil  Our basil plant is now huge! Success! We cook with it often.
     Camp in Yosemite  A weird virus broke out in Yosemite so this trip is on hold until spring.
✓ Go sailing  It was a blast...see here & here!
✓ Visit home  Enjoyed my time so much. 
     Convince landlord to allow pygmy goats in the building He doesn't think this is funny.

Goals for the next 3 months: Get away for our anniversary, ride bikes in Tiburon, make friends at our church, have a happy Thanksgiving with our SF family, redesign finnfolk, celebrate our nephew's 1 year birthday, and I am publicly stating that I will be able to do a split in 3 months. No turning back now...

. . .

race weekend.

The Nike Women's Marathon is happening in San Francisco this weekend. Out-of-towners have been arriving all week and Union Square is decked out for the race - it feels exciting! It's lululemon's busiest weekend of the year and we have several events lined up to celebrate the event. I've been working every day and will be working all weekend too, so things here on finnfolk will pick back up next week. See you then.

If you live in San Francisco, come visit us at Grant Avenue tonight for a Night in Neon. Even if you're not participating in the race, come out. There will be glowsticks, a DJ, wine, food, and a flipbook maker!

. . .

sailing date / a video.

Last weekend we went on a date that was really great. It included arcade games at Musée Mécanique, donuts, visiting the sea lions, and sailing on the bay. I'm excited to share this little movie of our evening...

             Filmed using the 8mm app for the iPhone, edited on Final Cut Pro X

             Music: Instrumental rendition of Dangling Conversation by Paul Simon

. . .

super duper burgers.

  Super Duper Burger is a San Francisco burger place that we've come to love in the past few months.  

                                                             Why Super Duper is Great:

                                     - Natural beef from Niman Ranch        - Fresh & local ingredients

                                     - A long list of topping choices              - Classic and superb fries

                                     - Homemade pickles                                 - Totally compostable packaging

                                     - Great burger alternatives for the non-beef-loving population

                                     - Organic ice cream, milkshakes, or dip cones (my favorite) for dessert

One of their 5 locations is just a few blocks from Finn's office so we get to stop by pretty often. It's one place I like to take visitors because it's a restaurant that is only located in SF and it's just so delicious, especially after a few hours of walking around. If you love a good burger and get to visit SF anytime, go here!

. . .

a sailing date.

We went sailing on the bay over the weekend and had a wonderful time. The excursion was a genius birthday gift from Caroline back in April and we've been saving it all these months. The next few weeks will be busy ones, so we decided to finally pull the trigger and schedule the sail, which was great fun! Our vessel was a 41 foot mono-hull sailboat (according to Finn) and we sailed around the bay for an hour and a half while the sun went down. The boat was small enough that a strong gust of wind would really lean us to the side, which made us slide around and laugh. My favorite detail was the experience of seeing the colors progress in the sky and how they changed the look of the water little by little. The whole evening was a treat.

It was a truly great date. One of our best, I'd say. Once we scheduled our sail, we decided to make a whole night of it and tacked on several other fun activities to the already awesome sailing. We played arcade games at Musée Mécanique beforehand, ate donuts from Trish's, watched the sea lions, stopped for sushi on the walk back, and watched a movie at home. If there were a competition for good dates, this one would certainly medal. Thank you Caroline for knowing me well and giving a great gift. We loved it.

Better documentation to come in the next week...

(Our excursion was with San Francisco Sailing Company. If you go, take gloves!) 

. . .

lands end.

This past weekend marked our first visit to Lands End, a national park site that's located in the northwestern corner of San Francisco. It's this huge conservancy area with miles of hiking trails, many of which lie right at the continent's edge. It was cold and beautiful. The views were the kind that actually make your mouth drop. This area of California has such gorgeous and diverse nature lands, I am loving it. 

(other posts about beautiful nature lands near us)

Marin Headlands & Muir Woods, Napa / Wine Country, Highway 1, Golden Gate Park

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