San Francisco: the Sights

The Bridge from a lookout in Presidio National Park

It turns out that to see the Golden Gate Bridge the best place actually isn't Golden Gate Park (which would have been my guess). The better view (besides physically crossing the Bridge) is in the Presidio. FYI. Because who knew?

The Presidio is home to several small museums, including a Walt Disney museum, and a fort. When we went there seemed to be some construction going on, and I had not worn the right shoes for a hike, so we didn't get to see as much as I would have liked.

In Golden Gate Park there is a museum called the California Academy of Sciences. It was so cool! My husband and I spent most of an afternoon there and we didn't regret it. It has an awesome aquarium, an earthquake simulator, a three story rainforest exhibit, an African wing, and more. I'd never seen an albino alligator before, but they had one of those too.

At the Pier, we got the full tourist blast. It wasn't really our thing, especially since we live in Orlando and we can go to CityWalk or Downtown Disney anytime and get the same over-commercialization and crowds.

That's Alcatraz. Waaaaaay over there.

However, it was neat to see Alcatraz from the Pier. Ticket were sold out three weeks ahead of time. Yikes! So we didn't get the tour, just a distant pic.

Can you see those seals? There were tons hanging out on the Pier.

The Aquarium at the Pier was neat, but not as neat as the one at the Academy of Sciences. It has more sharks, and some otters, but otherwise it offers less variety, space, maintenance and cleanliness. Go if you won't get to Golden Gate Park, but if it's a choice between the two I'd suggest the Academy of Sciences.

I did get some awesome pics of jellyfish...

...and starfish.

Chinatown was neat to walk through. If you're interested in Chinese-American culture or food it's worth the visit. I mostly wanted to see the gate and window shop.

There's the gate to Chinatown.

For a quieter moment, Yerba Buena was a nice park to hang out in. There's plenty to do in a short walk of the park, including a contemporary Jewish museum, but the park itself is a pretty place to relax.

A neat visual juxtaposition near Yerba Buena

Visiting San Francisco

Guess where we went

This past week we got to visit the City by the Bay, San Francisco. We went mostly to visit my brother-in-law and his wife (and their two kittens), but we also needed a vacation. My husband has one last very busy semester of grad school and we wanted to have a little break before he jumped in.

My loving husband with "nephews" Oliver and Argo.

I'd never been to California before, and it was quite an adventure.

For one thing, there is a lot of walking. I made sure I brought comfortable shoes, but it turns out boots are not comfortable enough! Sneakers are the way to go.

The weather is something else, too. It's pretty much 60 degrees all the time. Foggy every day until about 1 pm, then it's perfect walking weather, with a jacket. I got to wear some of my scarves that have been in the bottom of a drawer since March. Nice!

The Golden Gate Bridge, seen from Presidio National Park.

We got to do so much while we were there, that I'm going to split this into several parts. If you're planning a visit, maybe you'll get some ideas of things to do. If you've been, can you think of anything we missed that we should get around to if we go again?

Teething Pains

Teething must be the worst natural pain that a person can go through, after labor.

The baby I nanny for has been growing his little chompers, and from the way he howls, I know it must hurt. He's not an overly fussy baby, but when he hurts man he can scream. Broke my heart that there wasn't much I could do besides rub his gums and try to help him sleep.

Seriously, imagine you're going along just fine, learning how to eat, sleep, and poop. You've just figured out how to get mom and dad to do what you want and things are going great. Then all of a sudden BAM your gums ache like nobody's business. You don't have any framework for this. I mean, what if it lasts forever? You don't know. You're not even four months old yet!!

At least he's cute like the Gerber baby.

I Just Read: MWF Seeking BFF

Married White Female Seeking Best Friend Forever.

Wow. Is that relatable, or what?

When a friend of mine shared this book on Facebook, I knew she didn't have me in mind. She had simply enjoyed it and wanted to recommend it. I saw that title and realized that this book might meet me where I am.

I'm twenty-five, employed, and have no kids at home. Most of my friends my age have moved away. That's fine, I know my age bracket (twenties, graduated, childless, seeking employment) is transient. The girls a little younger than me are still in college, and not in the same stage of life as me. That's fine, I don't hold it against them, it's just harder to discuss life with someone still sheltered by academia. The women a little older than me have kids and some are full time employed as well. That's fine too, I expect to be there soon, although I'm not there yet. It's all fine. But I can't make friends at playgroups, I can't make friends at college parties, and I can't make friends with people who are leaving to make a life out-of-state. So what do I do?

This writer gets it. She moved from New York to Chicago to make a life with her husband-to-be, finding herself in a situation much like mine. She has her lifelong friends, living out-of-state. She has her work and yoga acquaintances who are good for a chat or an outing here and there. But what about in the middle? Where are our girlfriends to call up last minute to go out, or have a standing lunch date with, or just call to talk to and they get you?

Getting connected is the hard part. MWF Seeking BFF is about author Rachel Bertsche's yearlong quest to find those friends. Each week she goes on a friend-date with a new girl. Worst case scenario, she'll have met fifty-two new acquaintances and discover she doesn't have time to invest in a new BFF. Best case scenario, she'll find a few ladies she can really connect with and become close with.

In the end, this book is about people meeting people, the circles we run in, and how to bridge the gaps. It is surprisingly well-researched, which I appreciate. Bertsche grows over the course of her year-long journey and through writing this book she shares her gathered knowledge with us.  Bertsche writes as if she's writing to a girlfriend, and by the time you finish reading you might feel like one of her fifty-two girl dates.

I would recommend this book to any woman who finds themselves feeling friendless, finds themselves in a new town, or just someone who wants some insight in how to be more outgoing.

Dresser Re-done

Earlier this year my mom passed down an old dresser to us. We needed one for the spare bedroom, and she needed the extra space. However, I hated how it looked. I hated how it functioned. So I decided to do something about it to make me love it.

The starting point

First I had to strip off the paint. My mom had coated it in a high-gloss interior paint which, if you know anything about paint, is sticky when dry. I couldn't open the drawers without some wrestling. So that had to go.

I covered the piece of furniture in this...

Let it sit...

And scraped it down.

Then I had to scrub it with mineral spirits and steel wool, and later sand it down. A tip I learned: get extra gloves and ratty shoes for this job. The chemicals will eat right through the plastic.

That done, I repainted each surface. I got the sample paints from Home Depot, a set of colors from one card that coordinated. No gloss this time, so no sticky drawers.

I liked the piecework combination of colors. They're bright and fun, and go with the brightness of the room.

But wait, you say, green and blue and yellow? Isn't that too much? Not if you coordinate it with this fabric lining the drawers!

So after I had coated the paint with Annie Sloan's clear wax seal I got out more brushes and some Modge Podge glue. I coated both the drawer under the fabric and over the fabric itself to form a tight seal and get out all the air pockets. This was a longer process than I thought, to cut the fabric, place it, let it dry, then coat it again and wait for it to dry again.

Three full bottles of Modge Podge later, I still didn't like the finish of the drawers. Also, I felt like the fabric wasn't protected enough against wear and tear. So on to option B. I got some clear furniture sealer and covered the fabric with it. Finally I felt like I could use the drawers without worrying about tears and wear.

Several of the drawers' runners still needed replacing, but all the drawers are workable.

It took a lot of work, but I do love this piece of furniture now. I feel like I turned a blah thing into an accent piece.

Slight Setback

Well, I was planning to have a newly painted bathroom by now, but our AC had other plans. We were without air conditioner for a week in a half (in Florida, in the middle of summer) until we could replace the unit. Trust me, the last thing a person wants to do in no air conditioning (or ventilation for that matter!) is prime a small bathroom. So that project will happen next weekend.

In other news, I've been back to nannying full-time with three great little boys. The oldest is four, and he's a smartie. He hasn't started preschool yet and is doing a Kindergarten workbook. He's learning long and short vowels. At four!

The artist and his creation.

The middle brother is three now, and he's finally making headway with his potty-training. When the baby was born he decided to quit using the toilet. Normal acting out, but annoying. And messy. And stinky. Anyway, he's back to it now, thanks to his parents' encouragement and his reward of a hero costume if he could go at least a week without messes.

The astronaut and his DIY rocket pack.

The baby is a sweetie, and he loves his mama. We're getting pretty used to each other. He knows what it means when I'm there, and I know what he needs (ususally) when he cries. Our only issue is bottle feeding. He's used to breast feeding, which is great, except when his mom is working. She can't exactly take a break every two hours. Although we do go visit every day during her lunch break (which all three boys love) he still has to go four or five hours between feedings during the work days. This makes him cranky, and whenever I offer a bottle he either cries or uses it as a pacifier to fall asleep. On a good day I've gotten him to drink an ounce and a half. The average is less than half an ounce.

The sweet sleeper and his paci.

So here's the question: Do you have any suggestions for getting a breastfed baby to take a bottle? His mom and I have tried about everything we can think of so far. I'd love to hear some success stories.

Paint Sampling

July should be a busy fun month. I'll be working full time again with three wonderful little boys when their mommy goes back to work from maternity leave. And I've finally decided to paint the guest bathroom.

Ever since we first previewed this house before we bought it I've hated the paint job in the guest bathroom. It's gold and shiny and mottled and just ugly. I've said before that it looked like they took the extra paint from other rooms of the house and threw them all together in there as an afterthought. Not pretty. Not inviting.

Over the last few weeks I've been gathering paint samples to test in there.

Look at that wall color. Blegh.

This is actually my favorite part of the painting process. I absolutely love collecting those little cards and analyzing the nuances of daylight vs. fluorescent, getting ten different shades of light blue-green and deciding which one I want to live with. It's great!

Besides just picking one I like and will coordinate with the rest of the house, I have two other things to match.

This mirror.

These paintings.

The mirror came with the house and coordinated with the ugly gold paint, but I don't want to replace it. The painting were a garage sale find I came across in high school that I'm pretty sure are originals by someone in my hometown church.

I just need to find the balance of coordination without matchy-matchy-ness. Hmm...choices.

As a result of my love affair with paint samples, I have quite a collection of leftover cards. Also a crafter's heart. I have some ideas of things to make out of them, but what would you do? Ideas?