Nautical Sunday Brunch

It's too easy sometimes to forget where we live, so every now and then we need to remind ourselves of how beautiful it is around here. A couple of Sundays ago, we took the morning ferry from Alameda to San Francisco, walked along the Embarcadero to Pier 23 Café, and had a lovely brunch by the water.

See, if you are taking pictures while being on public transit that look like the ones above, or if a casual shot of you having breakfast shows a landmark like Coit Tower right behind you (below), you know you live in a cool place. And if you have neato friends to share such a lovely morning with, you are really darn lucky.

We bought ice cream at the Ferry Building on the way back, and spent the rest of the day sitting around a kiddie pool, sticking our feet in the water. The day couldn't possibly have been any better.

More pictures here.

Lake Chabot, Friday morning, 7:30am

We didn't catch anything this time around, but it was still lovely.

First BBQ of the year

With the arrival of springtime weather in the Bay Area, everybody was itching to get together and heat up the grill, so this weekend we turned our semi-regular Sunday Potluck into the first BBQ of the year. Sunday ended up being cloudy and a bit too chilly to enjoy the outdoors over at our friends Kerry and Isaac's house, but nobody really cared.

It was great catching up with everybody, and as always, the food was plenty and outstanding. I made a strawberry cake and Ed and I brought the trout we had caught on Friday morning. A bit of scaling, stuffing with herbs, rubbing with oil, and a few minutes on each side on the grill — it turned out perfectly.

Ed's coworker Geegin from his team in Bangalore was in town, and we dragged him along to what inevitably turned out to be your Not-So-Typical American BBQ. Everybody stuffed themselves silly and we had the best time. Potluck parties are the best, especially when you have friends like these!

Fish on Friday

The Mister and I went fishing on Friday morning. Beautiful Lake Chabot is only about 20 mins from our house, and while Ed has gone fishing every now and then in the last couple of years, I would normally just watch from the sidelines, or stay at home. But not anymore! I bought a fishing pole (it is pink! it has disco lights!) and got myself a fishing license last week, so now I can be the cutest angler on the shore.

We got there around 5:30am and had a lovely morning amidst trees, birds, and all sorts of wildlife. The sun coming up over the lake was beautiful, and by 8am we had caught our first fish: a generously sized rainbow trout! A second one followed a while later, and we did our best to rebalance the circle of life by rescuing a dragonfly from drowning. I let it dry its wings in the sun, and it eventually took off and flew away.

More pictures here.

Girls Night Out

Marg, Kat and I had a lovely evening at Revival Bar and Kitchen a week ago Saturday, while Mosse was out on a babysitting assignment (good man!). The nicest thing about going out with the girls? Food preference alignment. There aren't too many people I know who will get as excited as I do about ordering squid flatbread and a kale salad with kumquats to share.

From Goa to Tahoe

We packed our bags last Thursday for a short trip to Tahoe. The Mister had just returned from India the day before, so it was a bit of a whirlwind, swapping flip-flops for snow boots and changing scenes from Goa's beaches to Sierra Nevada snow. We had rented a nice cabin right at Serene Lakes in Soda Springs, and had a lovely time wandering through the snow, sharing meals with friends, and just relaxing by the fireplace. We even got a bit of cross-country skiing in! More pictures here.

Sunday morning, Jack London Square

A few Sundays ago, we got up on the early side and headed over to Oakland's Jack London Square for a morning walk. It was a gorgeous morning amidst the pretty boats, and we ended up buying some bread, cheese and honey at the Farmers Market that was setting up along the water, and had a picnic breakfast on a bench. It was perfect.

Merry Christmas from the Mosses!

Something else for a change

We actually do other things in addition to eating, as surprising as that may sound when looking at this blog. When Ed isn't trying to save the internet or repairing our doorbell, he actually makes for a great conversational partner. And when I'm not juggling deadlines or cleaning the cat's litter box, I play with letters and call it schoolwork.



Over the last few weeks, this schoolwork required me to have a romantic affair with Mrs Eaves, a typeface that I needed to portray for my typographic design class. We're a great couple, Mrs Eaves and I. Aren't her curves just delightful?

Love your neighbor

Just hours after I had published this photo yesterday — a dream of a sandwich, made with some French bread that our neighbor Amy, an aspiring baking school student, gave us — someone knocked at our window (our doorbell isn't working at the moment, and its repair is quickly turning into an epic battle between man and machine, but more on that later...). Outside stood Amy and loaded four lovely loaves onto my arms, assuring me that she really couldn't eat all this bread by herself and that she had already given some to the lady at the burrito place up the street.



I'm not ever going to say no to good bread, especially out here where it can be hard to find (yes, I'm a bread snob, blame my German upbringing!). Funny enough, I had also just been thinking about what I should make for dinner. That question elegantly solved itself: 4 kinds of fresh bread, butter, cheese, hardboiled egg, tomatoes. Done.

Amy is hoping to find a job at a bakery once her school is over in August. Shouldn't be too hard for her, and until then Ed and I will enjoy the fruits of her education. She mentioned that they'll start on pastries in a few weeks. You won't hear us complain!

Just another nice weekend

We went down to Palo Alto this Saturday for some spring clothes shopping. Ed made me try on every single colorful print at Macy's, since I've grown a little tired lately of wearing my usual black/grey/blue/white, but I'm somehow incapable of picking out anything else myself. (What is it with all the clothes talk here lately??)

We had lunch outside at the Stanford mall—nothing beats a great salad and a glass of white wine on a beautiful, warm, early Saturday afternoon!

The rest of the weekend was spent playing pool, running errands, cooking good things, and chatting with friends. And oh, Ed learned a few new things. Like, that our clothes drying rack and the step stool live in a little tiny room called "The Closet", alongside the vacuum cleaner, extra folding chairs, and our camping gear. Baby steps...

I lied

But I swear I didn't mean to.

Minutes after publishing the post about Saint Patrick's Day, saying that I don't own anything green, I realized that I actually bought a fancy green top a couple of months ago. It's not quite Irish green, but I wasn't picky and wore it out that night.

Public admission of guilt made.

Spring is here!

I left the house without a jacket two days in a row this week: spring is finally here! We noticed trees being in bloom for a few weeks now (their delicious smell at night is such a wonderful treat to me, every year again), but the weather has been cold and unpredictable still. This past week it finally changed, with temperatures up to 70 degrees.

Ed and I took advantage of this much longed for sunshine and warmth, and had breakfast outside on Saturday morning, at a streetside cafe in Rockridge. It was snowing petals and the croissants were perfect.

We weren't the only ones in the mood to celebrate the beginning of spring. Kerry and Isaac had invited everyone over for the year's first BBQ in their backyard. Food, drink, and company were splendid and we sat outside way past 8pm. Lovely, just lovely...

Kiss me, I'm German

When I first came to the United States, I was confused to see with how much devotion we celebrate "foreign" holidays like Saint Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo. Fast forward a few years, and I have learned that you don't need to be Irish or Catholic to enjoy a reason for having some beer after work. What I haven't fully memorized yet is the tradition to wear something green on Saint Patrick's Day. Once a year, every year, I realize that I do not own a single piece of green clothing. Which will then promptly escape my mind again, until next year...

Waiting for Bart

It's extremely convenient to live across the street from a Bart station. It takes us about 2 minutes from our front door to the platform. Plus about a minute or two to finish a smoke (= Ed), another minute to buy a ticket (if necessary), and sometimes a few extra seconds to catch my stride after tripping in the turnstile (in an attempt to beat Ed to making it through the gate first — a little competition never hurt a marriage). And then we wait. For 17 minutes or so. Because we are unable to remember to look up the arrival time of the next train before leaving the house. So we're standing on the platform, watching pigeons and tiny mice gnawing on bones, when we could have sat on the couch or finished a glass of wine. But we don't mind. It's still very convenient, and we chat about how our day was.

Still crazy...

Today marks the 9-year anniversary of the day Ed and I first met. I had no idea back then that that dreary Hamburg afternoon would forever change my life, and be remembered for years to come...

(This photo is from a friend's birthday party at the rollerskating rink a few weeks ago. Which I'm only pointing out to explain those outfits.)

Looks like the cat survived.

Cause and Effect?

Discovered during a walk through our neighborhood.

Lo and behold!

Ed caught a fish.

A real fish.

It's bigger than our dinner plates. Which clearly makes it large enough to eat.

Now please excuse me while I figure out what to do with the store-bought perch fillet I took out of the freezer this morning in anticipation of the usual yield of Ed going fishing...

12.75 lbs

Popstickle at the vet.

He's entirely healthy. He apparently thinks that throwing up at 4 A.M. every morning is an entertaining way for us to wake up.