If there's one thing Akhil and I know how to do it's get out of town, and so we did, this past weekend, to San Francisco. We needed it more than ever, and made it through 3 days with just a couple of arguments, after a long month of life decisions (more like, indecisions?) made by a pair of very different types of thinkers.

So we hopped in the Civic and headed up early Saturday on the 5 with all the traffic, straight to the Cliff House for lunch at the bar -- a spectacular sea view. The place reopened in September, and the food and the beach were perfect; the crystal clear, sunny skies stayed with us all weekend long. From there it was strolling in Cow Hollow, then to Hotel Rex at Sutter and Powell, which is by far the best place we've ever stayed up there (oh, okay, besides the Mark Hopkins in '98)... highly recommended! Dinner was a trek around town to find long lost Little Joe's, an old Akhil haunt, which is now in the bottom of a dingy hotel on Van Ness but the food's still great.

Sunday was hiking up to the east peak of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin, which was gorgeous, with killer views of the world's best city (except maybe for Sydney -- but it's close). There's a lodge mid-way called the West Point Inn along the railroad grade from the tracks that used to go up until the early 1930s. They tore up the tracks when people started getting their own family cars.

Here we are en route, over the Golden Gate and up on the trail...



We drove all the way out to Stinson Beach so I could see it afterwards, and then we went down to Sausalito for food, followed by dessert in the city with Hiten and Suzanne, and managed a Union Square stroll and Coit Tower ascent on Monday before heading over to Berkeley -- where Akhil spent his formative years -- briefly on the way home, where we treated ourselves to dinner at Saladang in Pasadena. Splurge! Meanwhile, I neglected to publicly wish Akhil a happy birthday earlier this month, so here is a bonus pic of the birthday boy from May 18 (we celebrated a day late, on the 19th, for various reasons, ahem). Happy Birthday my love!

Been a while since I've been in a state of mind that allowed for a visit to the old blogging interface, but here we are. The stay-or-go, stay-or-go, stay-or-go debate will not cease, and it's been among the most exhausting couple of weeks of our entire lives. We did manage a momentous achievement amidst all this, however: Plush has gone off to a new home in Granada Hills, sold for a mere two grand. Oh how sad! Our 1987 Wagoneer with the wood paneling and 130,000 memorable miles is gone, gone, gone! In "her" place is a shiny new pewter pearl Honda CRV SE, with leather interior, oh yes, but no more power seats. Sigh. A bittersweet transition.

Farewell, Plush!


Akhil turned 37 this week and we were too stressed out to celebrate but one of these days we'll make up for it with more than just cake and roses. Anyhoo, enough of the whining, the real point of this whole post is to welcome, finally, the beautiful Dylan Tomeki Tanouye, born May 12 to Kendra and John, a whole week late! Congratulations! And Regina and Bill have officially left New Jersey for a new life in Cary, N.C. Things are rolling along.

We managed to make a brand new experience out of L.A. yet again this past weekend. That's among the most outstanding of the many beauties of the place -- you can do that, every weekend, for like, a decade (well, six years anyway, and counting)... god I love this town!

All we did was see 'Fever Pitch' (don't hate us) in La Canada (first time to movies there), then on Saturday headed to the Alcove on Hillhurst, which I can't believe we've never been to before (just chocolate-dipped macaroons and coffee but they've got a TON of stuff including my favorite: big, bad, sugary baked goods), and then on Sunday, after Fatty's pecan-coated french toast, it was off to Monrovia to look at cars. We're in the market -- I mean it this time. Monrovia is a step back in time, to, like, maybe 1973. Quaint and small-towny, but still western, like Greely, or the old Scottsdale, and a little surreal. Never been there before. Weird. It almost (not quite) felt like a (very) mini vacation.

The real reason for all this was to get a little QT in before Akhil was off, yet again, to Florida for another week. And this time, it's the "big show": Disney's 50th Anniversary Celebration kickoff. He's doing some press (!) for R&D, specifically Lucky the Dino. And never one to disappoint, he had a stellar star-sighting on the flight to Orlando this morning. That's right, folks: Carrot Top. Contain yourselves. Meanwhile, I, left alone yet again to my 7-4 daily grind, feel like the proverbial boiling frog.