Plaid Envy

So I know you all wept your way through your weekend terribly depressed by my lack of post Friday.  I am sorry.  I know I let you down.  I WILL make it up to you my loyal readers (aka. Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, and Godmother)!

Why was I MIA on October 28th you ask?  Well, for an extra important reason!  My boyfriend and I had been invited to a PLAID party by our fabulous friends: newlyweds Sarah and Jonathan.  Sarah is a gorgeous non-traditional nutritionist / life coach who completely changes people's lives (a whittling waistline happens to be one of the by-products) as well as a brilliant blogger (check out her inspiring words here).  She's actually the reason I decided to start this blog in the first place (thank you Sarah!).  And Jonathan's a doctor in residency training to save people's lives.  Actually he saves people's lives already.  Like every day.  I think that makes Stefan and I as Wall Street Wallies pretty unworthy as their friends, but somehow they put up with us anyway.

Some shots from their GORGEOUS engagement shoot - check out more at Style Me Pretty

Anyway, for their PLAID party we needed a pumpkin, a six pack of our favorite seasonal brew (thankfully we live a block away from Ales Unlimited - home to an army of mouthwatering malts you've never heard of), and - you guessed it - plaid.  Unfortunately, Stefan - being European - and I - swearing off the stuff since being wed to it as a middle schooler in uniform - didn't own any of this tessellation tartan.  Instead of coming here to blog heaven to write to you all, I snuck out of the office to try and find some of the patterned print. 

First stop: the Gap.  While they had a decent stock of men's plaid shirts, I wasn't totally enamored.  They looked cheap, but weren't.

  

Plus, they were TOTALLY lacking in the women's department.  I debated about buying myself a baby Gap extra, extra large, but somehow it didn't fit right.

Then I tried to hit up the city's line-up of thrift shops but I had completely forgotten that it was Halloween weekend and San Franciscans go mad about getting a totally outlandish costume - the best of which can be crafted at the local Goodwill.  Lines were out the door.  Think Apple store the morning of the first iPad release.

Eventually, I gave up hope and decided it wouldn't be too bad if we showed up in stripes.  I was sure we wouldn't be the only ones without.

But we were.  Every single guest was decked out in the magic montage whilst hostess extraordinare Sarah donned a quirky yet elegant plaid-printed dress.  Thankfully, the plaid-clad pair had a full back stock of the stuff, so Sarah did me up in one of Jonathan's old flannels.  Stefan, however, was forced to fend for himself, naked in a sea of tartan. 

The party was top notch.  They had an excellent spread of delicious treats, a divine plethora of cocktails including a hot pot of freshly spiced (and spiked!) apple cider, and a superb assortment of San Franciscans - all of whom were fresh faces to me.  Now I love a good party, but I adore a good party with activities.  When I saw the medley of carving instruments available to us guests, I wasted no time getting to work chiseling away at my pumpkin.

Given that I was on my third glass of cider, I was a bit nervous with the freshly sharpened knives.  Jonathan assured me, however, that in the event of dismemberment, the swarm of surgeons present could sew me back together in no time. 

With those words of encouragement, I went to work finishing this guy in 14 and a half minutes flat:

The J is for Jonathan - who not only lent me his plaid and promised to keep my fingers intact, but was also celebrating his birthday!

After carving was complete, I was exhausted so we headed home, but not before I snapped a shot of their gorgeous neighborhood in the moonlight:

The rest of the weekend was filled to the brim with fabulousness - sleeping in, runs at Baker's Beach, reading on the roof, an unreal dinner at Bar Agricole, errands with the top down - all in 85 degree weather.  Sorry East Coasters, you could trade snow for sun if you just joined us out here. :)

I think all that plaid made someone a bit jealous.  On Sunday, we found ourselves at my mother ship, J. Crew, for a little browsing.  We came home with this adorable number:



I must say, I think I've prepified this little European quite well.  All we need is a beer in that hand and a football game in the background - all of which will be possible in t-minus 11 days!  Williams College homecoming here we come!

xoxo

KK

The Birth of Burch

Christmas, 2006:
My mom - per usual - outdid herself with presents for us kids.  Gretters and I got all sorts of good stuff (Kate Spade messenger bags, Marc Jacobs sunglasses, Trish McEvoy Beauty Booster Face Cream) - oh the joys of having a trendy mother! 

       

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Now while my mom has some serious self-produced style, occasionally she gets a tad bit of fashion help from the shopping gals at the fabulous Faye's boutique in our hometown of Milwaukee.  Ninety percent of Faye's selections are top notch, but there's about 10% that are just a little too out there for the Krieg family ladies.  Usually my mom is an ace at sticking to the best of the best, but sometimes those trusty shopping gals talk her into something outrageous.

This Christmas those giggling gals had done their fair share of talking and my mom ended up walking out from her shopping spree with a new pair of shoes for both Gretchen and I. 

They're the IT new thing! 

Everyone will be wearing these babies by March!

KK is spending the spring in New York?  Then she absolutely MUST have a pair of these!

It would be a crime to say no!

On Christmas morning, my mom saved these precious fashion-forward flats for last.  Gretch and I tore through the paper to reveal what I thought were the ugliest shoes I had ever laid eyes on.  Who is their right mind would wear these gaudy things?  And what was that god awful metal thing stuck in their center?  Hideous, hideous I tell you!

They looked something like this:

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I politely told my mom that I thought they were a little too much for me, but that I was very appreciative for the thought.  She tried to convince me of Faye's wise words but I would have none of it.  "Thanks, but no thanks.  I'll take some Jcrew ones instead." 

She returned them, a month went by and then I was in New York for my "semester abroad".  (Come on now, remember I grew up a Midwestern farm gal - NYC is just about as foreign as it comes!)  My first day there I decided to stroll up Fifth Avenue to take it all in.  As I gazed longingly at the windows filled with fashion's finest, a shining shimmer from the sidewalk caught my eye. 

It was an awfully familiar metal logo adhered to the front of a passerby's shoe.  I then saw another glint of gold.  I quickly scanned the rest of the sidewalk.  It looked something like this:

(Only with feet)

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Within 23 seconds I had my mom on the phone:  "You know those shoes you got me for Christmas that I wasn't like totally obsessed with but that I thought were pretty good?  I've just been thinking - they'd actually be really great for walking in this gargantuan city.  And I just realized I am going to be doing a LOT of walking.  Maybe two pairs would be good?  Just to be safe?"

Almost five years later my shoe rack looks something like this:

  

 

And then guess what arrived from mom not too long ago:

Thanks Mom for not holding my initial (but fleeting I promise you!) thoughts on these fabulous gems of a pair against me.

Moral of the story: mom is always right!

xoxo

KK

Boulange Blues

So as you may have noticed from some of my previous posts, I have a serious obsession with La Boulange Bakery here in San Francisco.  Unfortunately, I can't visit them on a daily basis since their doors open at 7am and I need coffee in advance of my 6:30am run (there's nothing like watching the fog fade as the sun peaks up behind the city). 

Some days, however, my run waits to say farewell to the sun instead in which case I spoil myself with a sunrise trip to my favorite pâtisserie.  This morning happened to be one of those extra special mornings.  Upon walking in, I stumbled across an old postcard advertising a unique Boulange event:

In the spirit of the true French bakery, where friends and neighbors go to connect and mingle, La Boulange is proud to announce La Boulange Fridays. Each Friday we will cook to benefit one charity.

Enjoy an evening with hosts Pascal Rigo, Owner and Baker, and Alain Bourgade, Chef de Cuisine, with a welcoming aperitif and three course family style meal prepared from our ovens.

At the end of each evening we ask guest to donate what they wish. La Boulange will match the night's donations up to $5,000. 

I had seen this postcard for the first time months before - 7:03am, Friday, May 27, 2011 to be exact.  Upon eyeing the card on that sunny May morning, I was euphoric, snatching it up, stuffing it in my purse, and sprinting into the office almost forgetting to pick up my freshly brewed americano which was waiting for me at the end of the coffee bar.

Within 30 minutes of arriving at the office, I hit send on the following:

From: Katherine Krieg [mailto:Katherine.Krieg@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 8:05 AM
To: leah@laboulangebakery.com
Subject: Boulange Friday non-profit recommendation - Reclaim Childhood Inc.

Dear Boulange,

I have two great (non-human) loves in life: Boulange and Reclaim Childhood, a non-profit I co-founded and now help run that is dedicated to bringing the benefits of sport and play to Iraqi refugee girls (see www.reclaimchildhood.com).  When I strolled into Boulange this morning for my daily Americano + fruit, granola, and yogurt, I could not have been more excited about your postcard announcing the new Boulange Fridays.

I am a Boulange obsessionado.  In the year and a half I’ve been living in San Francisco, I have enjoyed countless delightfully delicious Boulange macaroons (seriously the best in the city and I’ve done my rounds), sipped no less than 300 Americanos (there’s no espresso like yours), found myself going well out of my way for your egg scrambles, and have brought your madelines, financiers, and mini cookies into my office on countless special occasions.  (As an aside, I once had a Swiss friend – now my boyfriend – claim that the US could not make any decent croissants.  I promptly brought him a Boulange almond croissant and he now insists we visit you for breakfast whenever possible so he can enjoy his favorite treat.) 

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Having Boulange host a Boulange Friday in honor of Reclaim Childhood would be more than a special treat for me, it would be an exceptional opportunity for Reclaim Childhood.  In only its third year of operation, the organization is small and growing..  Five thousand plus dollars would have an incredible impact on the organization – the amount is enough to:

-fund an entire week of summer sports camps for 75+ Iraqi refugee girls, or

-pay the salary for an Iraqi refugee woman to coach a soccer team in RC’s fall league, or

-run 1 full year of Saturday sports clinics.

As us sporty San Franciscans know, sport has the power to instill confidence, hope and ambition in its participants. Team oriented games at all levels provide the psychosocial support necessary to improve self-esteem, strengthen peer relationships and foster leadership. Recent studies show that girls who participate in sports are more likely to participate in society and achieve success off the playing field.  Today, girls living in the Middle East have few opportunities to play sports.  Due to limited resources, refugee families tend to favor sons over daughters, creating a situation in which fun and education are too seldom reliable outlets for Iraqi refugee girls. Reclaim Childhood seeks to change this, giving girls the opportunity to see themselves as real competitors - on and off the field. 

Reclaim Childhood provides sports leagues, clinics and summer camps to Iraqi girls ages 8 – 18, and coaching clinics to adult women. The organization is run by young women for young women.  None of the organization’s Directors, myself included, receive any consumption for their work – we all work other jobs and savor the free time we have to dedicate to this incredibly important cause.  

If you were to select RC as a charity for a Boulange Friday, I promise an ample turnout as well as a plethora of beautiful photos of our young athletes to decorate the bakery that evening – see attached photos for some examples.  Again, we would be beyond thrilled at the opportunity.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide any additional information at this point.

Thanks!

KK

     

I KNEW I had it in the bag.  How could they say no to those adorable little Iraqi faces?  I promptly emailed the RC team to tell them the fabulous news about our fantastic new fundraiser. 

A few days went by and I hadn't heard from Leah.  But I wasn't nervous.  Not one little bit.  Quite to the contrary: I went and bought myself a pretty box of a macaroons to celebrate my impending philanthropic pastry picnic victory.

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A few days turned into a week and then two.  FINALLY, on the 14th of June, I got a little note from my friends at Boulange:

We’ve selected organizations through August, so our next review will be for the September La Boulange Friday.  I’ll let you know if Reclaim Childhood is selected to be the beneficiary.

September?  That seemed like AGES away.  Oh well, I thought, I guess I'll just have to distract myself while on their premises with a little bit of this:

 

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Fortunately for me, my method of distraction worked quite well.  (Oh, the power of carbs!)  I had completely forgotten about my long-lost submission until my spotting of the Boulange Fridays ad this very morning. 

Seeing that little card, and discovering that (given it was now October) I was likely NOT on their list of selected beneficiaries for September, immediately drop-kicked my mood.  As the cheery, charming barista brewed my favorite beverage, I couldn't help but scowl at her.  She's going so slow, she's making it all wrong, she's wearing too nice a dress, my thoughts sneered.  As my boyfriend strolled in to collect me (the line had been long), he saw my dirty face and immediately attempted to calm me down talking rationally about how whatever was ailing me was likely not the fault of this poor, young maiden. 

Eventually, I came to my senses and was able to get out of there without making too much of a scene.  By the time I got to the office, my mood was back to moderate, so I manned up and crafted a check-in with Leah:

From: Katherine Krieg
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 10:11 AM
To: 'leah@laboulangebakery.com'
Subject: RE: Boulange Friday non-profit recommendation - Reclaim Childhood Inc.

Hi Leah,

I hope this email finds you well.  I just wanted to touch base and see if you might consider Reclaim Childhood for an upcoming Boulange Friday.  As I mentioned in my previous email, the organization would be absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to showcase our great work in one of our favorite San Francisco whereabouts.

I look forward to hearing from you.  Thanks very much for your time and consideration.

All the best,

Katherine

 

So while I might not have earned that victory box of macaroons quite yet (too bad it's already been eaten), I - in true KRIEG family style (yes, my last name means war in German, more on that soon) have not given up. 

Boulange - I love you unconditionally, even if you do not feel the same.

xoxo

KK 

Fan mail

I can't help it - I just LOVE getting fan mail. 


Since today's a bit busy at the office getting caught back up after traveling last week, I thought I'd entertain you with some of the email adoration I've received over the past week.  I've spiced these notes up with a picture here and a tid-bit there, but the rest is the sole work of my incredibly immense - and might I add darn witty - fan base.  

(Never mind that the bulk of that fan base is composed of my grandparents.)


FIRST UP:
October 20th, 2011
From: Nana
To: Me (duh!)
Subject: bl og fun og

dear katherine,     


we received your lovely letter this morning. thank u 4 being so thoughtful to take the time to write on paper, stamp it and post. no one does it with all of the texting etc. and u know we r not techies so u write the old fashioned way 2 us.

The two of them (my Nana and Pops) on a family cruise in the Baltic Sea

your latest story is right on the $ with todd and liz and spending habits.

Liz and Todd, aka. Mom and Dad, the fashionista and the country bumpkin NASCAR racer

i wish i could b more like your mom but lifestyles and habits don't change much from early imprinting. stay in the middle of this economic dilemma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great writing katherine. 

Really - your lifestyle hasn't EVER changed, Nan?

If not, would love to see you break out that headband at Christmas.

(Julia and Julia)

(Nana and my aunt / godmother Julia)

p.s. i did return that pie pan (As referenced in this post) and drove off without sam, thinking he was in the car hiding.

My brother Sam in Zermatt this past spring - always the dare devil and prankster.  He loves to play a good trick.

when he called from the store for a pickup i still thought it was a joke and he was in the car calling. i then proceeded to drive around your neighborhood talking in the vehicle to sam whom i thought was in the back of the car hiding when in fact he was in the parking lot of a grocery store in a very bad part of town: Festival Food Market.

To Nana's credit, Sam, Gretters, and I had a history of playing this trick - we'd hide in the trunk and pretend like we weren't there.  Our parents and grandparents would play along chiming out a variety of playful questions: "Where could KK be?  Did we leave Sam back at the house?  Oh no, we must have forgotten the children."  We, meanwhile, would be giggling our booties off in the way back.

Never mind that the last time we had played this game was 5 years prior.

eventually he called your mother and she said please pick up sam at the store where u returned the 39 cent pie pan. alls well that ends well!


love and hugs 2 u my dear.
nan & pops

Despite the unfortunate incident at the Festival Foods, Sam and Nana remain best of buds bonding over their duel hatred for Vietnamese fish served whole.

NEXT UP:
October 22nd, 2011
From: Dickie Boy (as referenced in here)
To: Me (duh!)
Subject: your blog

KK
October the  22nd

        I am very impressed with your blog and am sorry to have passed over
it so quickly without interacting with you. Now there are so many
things about which I need to comment, that I hardly know where to
begin.

It's okay you didn't get to it until now Dickie Boy - I know you've got a lot more important things going on in your life right now: the Dogs. :)

Some weeks ago I did write an essay on my experience with that
wonderful Chevy SUV of your dad’s and tried to attach it as a comment
to your piece on your car; but given my competence with things
electronic, my thoroughly amusing essay vanished forthwith into the
ethernet, gone from my brain as well as from my hard drive. But I do
remember Todd asking me to help him drive that van home from Boca
Grande to Milwaukee without sharing with me the facts that he would be
doing all the driving, that there was no air conditioner and that the
temperature would not get below 90 degrees until we hit Indianapolis.
It was a long trip and a bad time but it did make a good story. Too
bad about my ineptitude with the computer.

 

 I would say the burb - despite its age - might have a leg up on some of your rides DB.

        While we’re on your dad  I enjoyed your description of him as a
spendthrift. I, like you, have long thought of  of him as a “thrifty
spender”, in fact there was a time when I would have considered him a
tightwad, but no more. In any case you will be interested in the Funk
and Wagnall take on spendthrift:

                        spendthrift |ˈspen(d)ˌθrift|
noun
a person who spends money in an extravagant, irresponsible way. 

      We both know that that is not Todd. Nonetheless, your reference to
his shopping technique of checking the price per unit coincided
exactly with my own experience of yesterday.  Judy sent me to the
store to buy toilet paper and I, thoroughly confused by the abundance
of package sizes and prices, finally reverted to the unit pricing
cards under each packaging family and found an unbelievable range of
prices. Having picked up, by reverse genetics, some sense of thrift, I
was able to bring home a great bargain at .0015 cents per sheet.Actually, like Todd I find myself checking those pricing cards often.
As you know, Todd has had a great influence on his family in all
directions.

 I think you have potential to become a thrify spender too DB! 

        But let me get back to your Blog. I like your writing a lot and am
amazed by your literary fecundity as well as your latter day Larry
David skills. Never have so few (you and Larry) made so much of so
little. Addressing the fecundity issue first I am amazed that you can
so quickly turn out such nicely finished material, replete with
beautiful photographs as well as fresh and interesting ideas. It is
hard for me to read as fast as you write. I would expect that you
would soon fall into the stifling embrace of writer’s block.

        Then we get to the Larry David thing. I can’t avoid the feeling that
Seinfeld had a big influence on your thinking process. You do such an
amazing job of making a small thing into a captivating read.

=         

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I do think we do an amazingly similar thing with our lips whilst smiling - auspicious?  I think so.  Watch out HBO.  I'll be coming for you just as soon as I start going bald.

Recognizing that you are a teensie weenie bit brilliant in your

writing, I just can’t leave alone  the path by which you attained
these skills. The genetics are obvious, they didn’t come from your
father, who got a 250 on his English SATs. Thank the Lord that he
played football, without that skill of his  you would never have been
born. Anyway the literary gene came via your mother and back to me;
and it was’t just genetics, I had to intervene forcefully in her
learning process.
        When Liz was at USM and struggling with English, she came to me for
guidance on a book report with which she was struggling. I put her on
to one of my favorite books, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s  “The Sirens of
Titan”, which incorporated epic imagination and a host of literary
techniques, lending itself perfectly to a book report. Perhaps
Vonnegut was  still a little advanced for Liz; anyway she just could’t
get her arms around the essence of this novel so it fell to me to help
her write her paper, which I did,  almost to the exclusion of Liz from
the effort. Now I recognize that doing your child’s paper is not
necessarily good parenting but from that experience Liz learned a
lifelong lesson of self reliance, a quality that she has passed along
to you. She got a C on the paper. What was that teacher thinking?
        Well, thats about it for now. Keep up the good work and I will be an
assiduous reader and, as always, your fan.

Love     db

(Me, Sammers, DB, Gretters)

Well I hope that this post has made you chuckle and perhaps want to send your own bit of loving words my way.  :)

xoxo

KK

A wholesome weekend

So I got back to the good old US of A from London late Friday evening.  Unfortunately, I came back feeling a little bit like this:

(Not the little ones.  The BIG one.)

Whoever said British food was bad is completely and utterly mistaken.  Not only was the spread of snacks at my meetings absolutely sinful (think crunchy berry macaroons, warm brown sugar donuts, bacon and fresh cream butter sandwiches, banana cream eclairs, slow poached egg salad on black pepper buns), I had quite a few little sustenance spots to check off my list Thursday evening before I headed home bright and early Friday morning.

First stop: a MUST-TRY recommendation from one of my fellow meeting mates - The Mount Street Deli for a smoked salmon with avocado and watercress sandwich.

 

Then: a long stroll across town to Ottolenghi, a last-minute endorsement from one of my most knowledgeable foodie friends whom you'll hear about in a future post not to be missed.   I sampled their wild mushroom and aged Pecorino quiche as well as a little coconut, macadamia nut caramel for dessert.

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There was a lot more than this (oh how I love London!), but I'll spare you and stop there.  This is just the beginning of this story and I've been told by some readers that my posts can get a little too long for you busy bees.  (Hang in there!  I promise this one is worth it!)

So as you might understand, when I got back on Friday evening, I was ready to kick my butt into shape with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as some extra-hard runs along Chrissy Field.  Despite my will, however, the stars were not in my favor. 

Friday night my boyfriend greeted me with this delicious spread:

And then he took me on a trip to one of our fav Italian little spots - Jackson Fillmore - for fresh bruschetta and their godly Pesce Fra Diavolo.

Saturday morning I decided to try again and the two of us went for a long run along my favorite Baker's Beach route.  Unfortunately, it ended something like this:

Elbow                                         Knee

(Pictures taken post clean-up.  Pre clean-up pictures highly censored.)

While I'd like to tell you this was a one-off event, it's not all that uncommon for me.  After peeling myself off the concrete, I was relieved to find this fall had left my face (almost) completely unscathed.  I have not always been so lucky.

Then my boyfriend and I hit the farmer's market (per usual) and really went hog wild at the fish stand:

 

So by the time I got to Sunday morning, I was really desperate for some healthy vibes to flow my way.  My boyfriend and I had brunch plans with my fabulous, favorite ex-neighbors: Ward and Dan.  Ward's one of the best darn cooks I've ever met (he makes vegan cupcakes that taste better than any of those bits of sweet, fine decadence you can get at Kara's) and Dan's an unreal amazing artist.  I am really hoping he might offer to paint something for my new apartment.  Perhaps one of those darling Toulouse-Lautrec-like numbers he's a master at? :)

As a pair, they also happen to be a real live Zagat guide - they know almost every restaurant in the city and can tell you exactly what to eat and drink while dining there regardless of whether you're carnivore, vegetarian, omnivore, vegan, or fungivore.

Ward emailed with a plethora of San Francisco's finest early meal whereabouts as options for our date.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of these did not take reservations (what are they thinking? get with the 21st century Mama's!) and require you to wait for HOURS outside their door to be given the honor of tasting their grub.  Overwhelmed by choice, I responded with the following:

Game for anything healthy-ish and without a wait.

(I should note that I am a bit anal and a tad anxious when not being uber-productive and therefore waiting in lines is my nemesis.  Dear Disney World - while we had nice times together during my youth, our days together are FOREVER over.  My future husband will be the one to schlep our kids to wait in your lines.  I will be able to be reached at the spa.)

Ward was quick to respond to my request: Brenda's at 11am.  Excited, my boyfriend and I arrived to find a wait of no less than one and a half hours.  Despite all of our best attempts to wiggle our way out, Ward and Dan tempted us to stay with the promise of a walk to Peet's to kill hour number one and then Brenda's unreal Chicory coffee on the sidewalk outside to kill the final 30 minutes.

Since Ward and Dan had completely disregarded my second request, I was positive they hadn't let me down on my first request.  As I sipped my mug and Ward and Dan poured out magnums of wine knowledge (did I mention they also happen to know everything you could possibly imagine about the fine beverage?), I was secretly dreaming about a big bowl of fruit salad.

The meal, however, went something like this:

The Beignet Flight (Plain, Chocolate filled with a molten version of the Ghiradelli gold, Granny Smith Apple with cinnamon honey butter, and Paprika-spiced Crawfish)

And then the Beignet of the Day (something banana-y whose name I can't remember because I was already in a complete food comma)

The Savory Crawfish Beignet with cayenne, scallions and cheddar

Dan excited to divvy up the goods

Our actual breakfasts (clockwise from upper left): Florentine eggs Benedict on cream biscuits with creole hollandaise and grits, Gruyere and vegetable 3 egg omelette with biscuit and grits, Mushroom and spinach 3 egg white omelette with biscuit and grits, Fluffy pumpkin pancakes with freshly whipped cream and pure maple syrup for my child-at-heart and by-stomach boyfriend

Needless to say, the run we were planning to take later that afternoon did not end up happening.  Instead, we bid the weekend adieu with a little bit of this:

Cushy new chairs from Target, Homestyle popcorn, and a San Francisco sunset on the roof (shhh, don't tell the landlord)

Although the weekend wasn't quite what I had planned for, I loved every second.  And I can tell you definitively that Brenda's was WELL worth both the time and calories - both of which are extra precious in my book.

xoxox,

KK