attack of the carnivorous plants

the conservatory of flowers is having an exhibit on carnivorous plants, so i obviously had to attend. when i told sam about it, i was pleasantly surprised at how excited he was to go and look at all the crazy shit. it let me tell you, it did not disappoint with crazy shit:

i have to interrupt for a moment, these were about where we walked in, it was so hot in there that my camera lens fogged up and i had to wait to take pictures, well at least until my camera warmed up and didnt create foggyness, so ya, it was a bit hot in there. now without further ado:

these guys are carnivorous fo sho... how amazing that plants are capable of something like that... crazy shiz man!

karma

on monday i went over to chandras house, played a bit of tennis, had some lunch at a new sando shop and hit up threes bee's nursery. i love this place. ok, i think i just love nurseries, i think i could wander for hours. and we actually might have if chan didn't move things along. hahaha. chandra was in search of a lavender plant. and i just ended up getting two little succulents.

we brought everything back to chandra's, which is only across the street (ha), and she started planting. i have to say, i poured myself a glass of wine and sat in the sun and watched. it was the end to a great weekend...

below, are flowers to one of her tomato plants, i think the roma plant. she has three different tomatoes going, roma, early girl and cherry's. cant wait to get in on a few of those!!!

when she first put out her tomato plants, chan was worried that someone would take her babies. so she thought a little karma note would work. it has so far:

so below is the finished product from the day's replanting. we ended up stopping at Ross and getting a HUGE new clay pot for the roma's. 

she also has rosemary, basil and parsley in there, such a lovely home garden in the city!

recap

so as previously stated we have a annual pilgrimage to yosemite, this year, as every year we had amazing food and a lot of laughs and good times. i should start with the prep: i made a new take on the lemon bars. i made individual custards. they turned out so good! a few modifications on the cooking time and a bit more dough and i was so money i didn't even know it.

 

a few beautiful randoms of yosemite....

above is a secret recipe of mikeys for buffalo wings. they were so freaking good! perfectly spicy, although i most likey could have had a notch hotter, but i just like spicy food... man, camping food is the bestest of the bestest.

wings with the classic celery and blue cheese sides, and just to make yourself feel better for consuming copous amounts of buffalo wings, a green salad. haha ohhh my twisted logic.... hah!

once again i made them sit still while i set up a group shot. i wont lie, they were lucky i didn't do a million test shots or different angles. i need some type of camera group shot holder upper thing so i don't have to balance the camera, that would speed up my process fo sho, but still had fun doing it! 

 night two was classic camp food night. hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, fruit... they dont call them camp classics for nothing right, delish! above is ma's hotdog, she manages to get every single ingredient into this bun. quite impressive.

thats sam following pops and mikey to a lookout point. we were above the treeline... amazing stuff, i love how this place always puts things into perspective, i could never get sick of it....

recycle

finally a solution to the age old question: what to do with your beloved boots, after they, must so dutifully retire??

recycle them into a planter for your favorite plant. hey i figure its worth it, they worked hard for you and came through in clutch situations. you should treat them respectfully in the afterlife, right? i found these puppies while at alamo square during b2b. awesome right?

Yosemite Pilgrimage

Every year my parents set up a Yosemite trip. We have done this for about 3 or 4 years running... my dad and his partner in crime, mikey, have to log onto the booking site at 8am and register for a camp spot. its so competitive that all the sites within Yosemite Valley get booked up within the first 5-10 minutes. I dont even see how this is possible, but then i remember how amazing it is there. It could easily be my favorite camp spot, as i have been coming here with my family since i was a kid.

the above photo was taken from last May's trip. we were riding our bikes around the valley and stumbled upon a group of old guys taking photos with these cameras that are from the early 1900's it was so cool to watch the process... and made me think that sometimes technology is over rated.... the photos looked so full of character and life...

 Mikey, myself and Sam, up at the perfect picture spot. Sam is super cool in this shot. hahah!

and last year for my birthday i planned a trip with a few peeps. awesomeness ensued. Our pilgramage is starting a little later this year, we normally go the first weekend in May, but I cant wait to get up there on Thursday and see the beauty that is Yosemite!!!

Light of the Silvery Moon

 This was on our camp locker... not a 100% sure what its all about, but its pretty cool. and also not sure what this really means, is the world the eyeball?

Had an amazing weekend up at Bodega Bay with Chandra, Hillary and Ashley. Saturday was a bit windy to say the least, but I think we made the best of it. We polished off some vino... spent lots of time soaking up the sun, relaxing and watching Hillary's new puppy- Carter. I mean look at that face, how could you not love watching his curiosity and cuteness! 

 So we did some wandering while watching the sunset and because the view was so awesome and we hadnt gotten a pic all together, I made the girls all line up for a group shot. it took me some time to get the right focus, picture composition and set up. Since this is all freestyle and i dont have a sweet tripod or anything, it can be a bit time consuming. shots turned out pretty cool though. 

there were a lot of smaller flowers around, but this one was by far the coolest and most unique.

beer beeer beeeeerrr

Went to the Anchor steam brewry a few weeks ago with the office. it was awesome!!

 you end up trying about 5 or 6 different brews they have. i really like the summer ale. YUM! I had a lot of fun at the brewery.

above is the hops room. it smelt so weird in there. this combo of alfalfa and barley.

were the sweet babies get bottled and labeled. I would totally go back and see the whole place again. it was pretty rad. its a really small operation by brewing standards... but pretty sure thats why its so delish!

amazing days

last sunday was sam's last rugby game of the season and I got Karrie to come out with me and hang we started again at danny coyles, had a few brews there and some snacks.

Snacks as in tacos with spanish rice. so i suppose more as like a whole meal of food.

 On sunday Karrie, Sam and I headed out to Mt. Tam to do some hiking. I think we went about 7 miles roundtrip. I was bbbbeeeaat when we got back to the car... 

the fields were covered with poppies and pretty purple flowers. it was such an amazing day!

how cool is this?! found this fellow chilin in a group of little blue flowers.