Bill's Trip to San Francisco

I realize its been about forever and a year since I posted. Since Bill came back from his San Francisco conference I've been working on the City Paper Home and Garden Gift Guide which has forced me into driving all over greater Philadelphia for gift picks. Its been draining.

But I'm finally back to report on Bill's trip. (He wouldn't write it himself so this story is secondhand).

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I drove him to the airport early Sunday morning when he got a call. It was an automated voice message that simply told him his flight was cancelled and... good luck. Off to a good start.

He was able to catch another flight only an hour later but it routed him through Phoenix with a three-hour layover, making him miss his only workshop during the conference.

When he got to Phoenix International this is what he found...

(That's a flat tire on an abandoned cart in the middle of the aisle, for those of you who are as unobservant as I was) 

That pretty much summed up his first day. A mess. 

Luckily, they had put him up in a pretty swank hotel. 

(View of lobby from upper floor) 

He made it just in time for social hour- a wine and tapas meet-and-greet. Sadly, this is what the tapas looked like.... 

Poop on a stick! 

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Before signing off for the night I received these...

 His enchanting view from the hotel. 

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While the majority of his time was spent doing this.... 

He was able to find time to rent a bicycle for $30. On two wheels, he decided to tour the waterfront and cross the Golden Gate a night. On the way, he found some interesting things... 

...and old time arcade with antique games...

...like this one that Bill actually went up against. (The warning says this thing means business so start at fly weight, tough guy) 

And then he found this... 

A trampoline gym!!!! How fun is that!? I think I'm going to open one.

Of course, Bill went in and played for a while. 

Moving on, he came across the beautiful architecture of the Palace of Fine Arts located in the park on the San Fran side of the bridge. 

Finally, came the long trip over the bridge and back again. 

About twelve hours later, he was home safe! This was Bill's second trip to San Fran this year and our trip in  June will be number three! He should be able to recommend the best airport restaurants and know where all the terminal outlets are. :-) 

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I swear the next post won't be a week from now. Bill and I are working on a fun project we'll show off a little later but I'm done with all of my faux-buyer adventures, leaving plenty of time for blogging for my beloved family and friends!

A few of my favorite things...

For the last few days Bill has been away in San Francisco for a tech conference. Its been a little boring here without him but the good news is he's been sending me lots of fun pictures for a fun Bill post when he gets back.

In the mean time, here's a few of my latest obsessions...

1. Mango.com 

Somehow I missed this awesome international clothing store. I saw an ad for it with Kate Moss on YouTube and figured the clothes cost thousands of dollars.

Nope! That dress at the end, which I am drooling over, is like $60!!!!
Their stuff falls between H&M and J.Crew in style and pricing which is like they made a store just for me.


2. Pokey LaFarge

He's got a ridiculous stage name but I love his style, his sound, and his location- he's a Saint Louis boy!! In fact, I've noticed he's been kind of putting STL on the map with style and young tourism. Go Pokey and the South City Three!


3. Our tandem bike! 


Photo courtesy of Johnathon Ivy Photography 

I've been dreaming about our June vacation a lot lately. But mostly, I'm crazy excited about our first day there in Napa. Namely, I'm excited about the tandem bike we rented! How perfect does that sounds? Tandem bike in the summer driving through the vineyards of Napa?! Pinch me!


4. Mac & Cheese 


Photo courtesy of Evil Shenanigans 

I've been craving good old, creamy mac n' cheese lately. Of course, it brings together the two things I can't eat so its been a no-go since I changed my diet. However, I've recently been having a lot of success with gluten-free pasta and fake cheese so I think I might try my hand at combining the two this week. Maybe I'll even add a little gluten-free bread crumbs to the top and bake it! Mmmmmm.....

Growing Up...

... is hard to do. But for our generation, it was even harder to document. Nowadays, there are blogs, digital images and YouTube videos to keep up with kids. Bill and I, however, only have Kodak film images of our childhood and teenage years. While I didn't have much of Bill pre-adolescence, here's a compilation of photos from our younger years... 

And here we are, all grown up... 

Leap Day Celebration???

Yeah, that's right, the lady who likes to throw a party for everything threw a little one for 2012's extra day. It was just Bill and I and we didn't really do anything too out of the ordinary, but calling it a "celebration" sure does amp up the excitement factor.

So what did we do exactly to give thanks for 24 extra hours of weekday, winter bliss? Well, for starters, we pretended it wasn't a weekday or winter and went Mexican-summer style. Every summer I want to throw a tacos and margarita get-together and it just never happens. So, while it was just Bill and I getting together, we did just that. I also always forget to celebrate Frida Kahlo's birthday each year so we attempted that as well on this special, extra day by watching Salma Hayek play her in Frida.

Tacos were topped with an avocado, tomato, cilantro, lime and pineapple mixture (Ok, that's pretty much just pineapple guac). 

Cooking up the cod with cilantro and lime juice

The finished product: fish tacos on corn tortillas with pineapple guac, fake cheese and pickled-pink onions. It was totally gluten and dairy free! 

Less healthy were the margaritas - which will always and forever remind me of this, and my mother of course,  who is in love with margaritas. 

Making them just like my mother taught me - a lot of lime juice and even more salt. 

They weren't amazing, but they were pretty tasty. Tasty enough for me to down about six of them while watching the movie. Luckily, there wasn't too much alcohol in them. I wasn't "celebrating" that hard. 

Did anyone else do something special for their extra day? Or was I the only crazy one?