The most wonderful time of the year

For the past 6 years or so, I have made a birthday CD for the sister just younger than me. There are no rules--I include whatever I like or think she'll like, and the music can come from any time and be any type. I get all psyched up each January to put this together and keep a Word document listing tracks that might make the cut for the upcoming year (nerd!). She's also made several birthday CDs for me, and it's great to share songs with someone with such similar tastes who I also share a lot of history with. Here are the 2009 tracks:

1) You Can Call Me Al: Paul Simon
2) Sister Golden Hair: America - probably my sister's favorite on this year's disc
3) Womanizer: Britney Spears
4) Green-Eyed Lady: Sugarloaf
5) Reelin' in the Years: Steely Dan
6) American Boy: Estelle feat. Kanye West
7) Sour Times: Portishead
8) Wild Wild Life: Talking Heads
9) Summer Breeze: Seals & Crofts
10) What Goes Around: Justin Timberlake - probably my favorite on this year's disc; I can't seem to listen to it enough
11) Young Folks: Peter Bjorn and John
12) How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?: Michael Bolton - I kind of put this one on as a joke, but you know what? It's a really fantastic sappy love song, and I will no longer feel ashamed of it.
13) Praise You: Fatboy Slim
14) These Dreams: Heart
15) Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now): C+C Music Factory - I knew my sister would be totally embarrassed by this one, and she was, but I left it on anyway.
16) Heartlight: Neil Diamond - Did you know this one was inspired by the movie E.T.? That makes the song seem pretty silly, but there's some nostalgia attached to the sound of chorus for me having grown up in the 80s.
17) Popcorn: Popcorn - this song played as the lead-in to a video broadcast of school news in elementary school. It featured a stuffed animal bear sitting on a stool, who was supposedly reading the news. Our school custodian Lloyd did the voice, and even as a 9-year-old I remember thinking what a painfully awkward choice that was because he didn't read well. At all.

Girls Weekend

My two friends were able to make a trip to San Francisco last weekend! Here they are:



I've been friends with Purple Cardigan Girl since we were about 3, and her husband very awesomely flew her out as a birthday surprise. Blue Shirt and I hung out in high school along with Purple at times, and Blue was also able to fly out and stay for 3 days on a king-sized air mattress in a paint fume-filled apartment downstairs. True to form, I didn't take enough pictures, but here's what I have. I think the girl's itinerary for the 3 days makes for a pretty good City tour, especially if the weather is amazing (high 60s every day with lots of sun--it's typically raining this time of year). Here's what they/we did:

Day 1:

-Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park in the morning (it's free MWF if you get there between 9-10am):





Conservatory of Flowers, also in Golden Gate Park. It costs $5 and has a cool special exhibit right now with model trains running around SF landmarks made from recycled materials. The beautiful grounds outside and the warm, humid, greenhouse feel inside make it one of my favorite places:



-Baker Beach: beautiful views of Golden Gate Bridge and yes, it was warm enough to spot some of the nude old dudes near the north end



Japantown: probably not a top attraction for most tourists, but I love the shops here. My favorites are Ichiban Kan (kind of a Japanese dollar store), Kinokuniya Stationary and Gift and Soko Hardware. Kinokuniya Bookstore, which I hadn't sauntered through before this trip, was pretty great too. Here's Purple and My Boy with a stuffed cartoon character at a video store:



After this action-packed morning, we went to Mama's for Monte Cristos. Getting there at 2:45 (15 min. before closing) on a Friday was deluxe--we walked right in and the restaurant was mostly empty. Beats the 1+hour wait I've done in the past.

Evening activities after a rest: wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. Ate and bought bread at Boudin and got sundaes at the Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop.

Day 2

Slept in then took the bus over to the Fillmore shopping area, where I had some errands to run for a baby shower I was helping with. Fillmore Hardware Company near Pine was a good time--they have lots of handy items and gifts, including a great selection of those irreverent Ann Taintor products I love so much. We got Nick's Crispy Tacos on the way back (on Polk near Broadway-yum yum!).

While I was at the shower, the girls shopped Chinatown on Grant Ave. It's crowded and a bit crazy but very unique. I also advised they stop at the Cable Car Museum near Washington and Powell on the way back. It's free, has some interesting info, and has a pretty great gift shop. We went out for Indian food at Naan and Curry that night (the one on Van Ness near O'Farrell). I like the Chicken Tikki Masala and Garlic Naan myself.

Day 3

The girls went to Alcatraz while we were at church and stocked up on some Trader Joe's treats before leaving. Thanks for the good times, girls!

Ikea Trip

Here's what My Boy did to get through our lengthy Ikea trip last week after a fun-filled morning at a birthday party. We were quite the spectacle:

Christmas '08

Ahhhh, Christmas '08. Our two weeks in Utah with family were very relaxing. I didn't get to hang with my sisters as much this year--3 of the 4 were working a lot at a seasonal coat store, and 2 had in-town boyfriends (one who turned into a fiance Christmas Day)--but good times were had. I slept and ate a lot, played some games, and saw four movies, all of which I'd recommend:

-Ghost Town (with Ricky Gervais from the British Office--funny and also touching)
-Young at Heart (documentary about a group of old people who sing modern songs)
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Wall-E (I wasn't sure I liked this one at first, but it grew on me. I think we'll end up owning it as My Boy watched it about 4 times in 2 days--Happy Valentine's!)

Favorite gifts

My new ipod Touch is really awesome. And My Husband found a small, $17 speaker system at Marshall's that meets my requirement for having something very portable so I can listen to my music and Armstrong and Getty podcasts anywhere in the apartment. The Touch also holds several movies, which I wanted for backup when My Boy is driving me nuts somewhere (restaurants especially. How I miss the days when he would be entertained sitting in one place and chewing on a straw for 30 minutes!) It's already come in handy, and he's shockingly good at navigating it. The Internet access and cool applications are great too.



It may not be his very favorite gift this year, but I was excited to find the shirt below for My Husband from Mama Robot on http://www.etsy.com/ (an overwhelming but great website where people sell handmade goods). I have a tradition of giving him a funny/quirky t-shirt each Christmas, and I knew he'd like this cartoony robot dad giving a shoulder ride to his robot kid.



I also spent some time at Macy's one day sniffing about every men's cologne they had, then went home and found a new bottle of Versace Man for $20 less on Ebay. Me likey--hubba hubba!

My Boy got lots of great stuff--too much (I keep telling my mom she'd better tone it down because she can't possibly keep this up when she has more than one grand child). But I think the winner was the Buzz Lightyear gun from two of the aunties:



I debated on approving this purchase beforehand--it's hard to know if/when to encourage your gun-crazed little boy these days--but I caved because I knew he'd love it. He definitely did and almost wouldn't open anything else. It makes different space age-type laser sounds and doesn't seem as threatning as some guns. Perhaps there's still a chance he won't end up a juvenille delinquent.

Of course the snow was a highlight of the vacation too:



Trying to play on the playground despite the snow and bulky outfit:



With his one and only cousin being pulled by Grandpa (My Husband's dad):