New TV Addiction

A little behind the times and as late adopter groupies, Nate and I have officially become addicted to the TV series Lost. We were given Season 1 for our wedding and it took us a few months to start watching but once we did we couldn't stop.

And now, after losing a few bids on eBay for Lost Season 2, we finally were victorious and should have the next season on its way in the mail. We can't wait to get it. Although, we'll have to keep our watching to a weekly minimum since Nate should be studying for the CPA exam he is signed up to take in January and well...I should probably do more productive things with my time.

Singing Beauty

Another fun thing Nate and I were able to do on our short trip to Boise for Thanksgiving was attend one of my little sister's performances. She is part of a singing and dancing group called, "Showtime Company." When my parents first signed her up, she acted as if she wasn't excited to be in it but we all new with her love to perform in front of people and her natural ability to ham it up on stage, she would end up enjoying it. You can tell by the smile on her face that she loves performing and the group.


Her group performed at Boise's Festival of Trees on Saturday. Growing up, I always thought festival of trees was unique to Boise and it was a play off of Boise's tag name "City of Trees" Nate kindly informed me my long time notion was false and other cities do the same thing. I guess I didn't get out much. After browsing through all the trees, I decided the rubber duckey one was probably my favorite. People are so creative!

Thanksgiving

This year our Thanksgiving holiday started at 6:00 am on Wednesday morning. We flew from Oakland to Boise and we wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible given that we were taking public transportation to the airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year. It turns out that our worrying was for nothing. BART was on time and we made it to the airport and through security almost two hours before our flight left. Better early than late, that's what I always say.

Thanksgiving was great. We made the drive with Jaime's family from Boise to Rexburg Wednesday afternoon, then finished the last hour and a half to the West Piney Girl's Camp Lodge in Swan Valley, ID Thursday morning. The drive was a good lesson in Idaho history because we were sure to stop at as many historical markers as possible.

At the site of the Teton Dam which failed in 1976. Just one stop on the Idaho history tour

We spent Thanksgiving with the extended Jacobson family. It was a good experience for me to finally meet the aunts and uncles, even if it was a bit overwhelming trying to remember Blaine's 10 siblings and their spouses. It is especially intimidating when you meet a new uncle over an intense game of Rook. The Jacobsons take their Rook very serious and you feel like your worth as a person hinges on your strategy in the game.

Warming up for a Rook game by playing a little speed. You can tell by Jaime's face that she just wiped the floor with me. (Sorry no pictures of an actual Rook game, everyone is too intense to remember to snap a photo.)

Thanksgiving was a great holiday for us to escape from our daily grind in California and reconnect (or connect for the first time) with our loved ones. We are grateful for our family and all the support they give us.

Two Nephew Birthdays

My brother's two little boys celebrated their birthday's this past week. Ryder turned one on November 12th and Tyson turned four on November 13th. They are the cutest boys so I thought I would post some pictures of them.

Happy Birthday!!!!

G-OLD-en Curry

Last night Nate and I tried our hand at making curry. It was a first for both of us made easier by a box of curry paste I bought awhile ago and carted with me here to San Francisco-one of the few items in my cupboard to make the journey.

Part way through the dinner, I started thinking back to how long ago I purchased the box. It really didn't seem to long ago until I started putting together a bit of a timeline. Running to the trash I pulled out the box and looked at the "Best Before Date." When I saw it, I was almost too embarrassed to show Nate. June 13, 2004. Yikes! Hopefully I didn't poison him. We figure I bought the box the summer of 2003 and have carried it around with me since. I always knew I wanted to make curry sometime and just couldn't part with it. It tasted good. I wonder if it would have tasted that much better 4 years ago?

Golden Gate

We were a little bummed that we didn't have time to share a proper San Francisco experience with my parents before they left, so we had one without them.

We woke up to a beautiful, clear Sunday morning and we decided to make the most of it. After church and a quick lunch we took the scenic route from Millbrae, along the coast, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.


The viewpoints were especially crowded with people both enjoying the perfect weather and trying to catch a glimpse of the oil spill in the Bay. Neither Jaime nor I could see anything, but when Jaime was at the pier on Friday she could smell oil.

I "Wood"n't Say It Was A Bad Weekend

Last weekend my folks (Doug and Annette) came to visit us. Actually, the official purpose of the visit was for my dad to attend a banking conference in the city. We tried to show them a good time, but unfortunately I was scheduled to perform an inventory count iat a lumber yard in Modesto, CA. The count took longer than anticipated and I ended up spending 4 hours on Friday night, then leaving at 6:30 am to continue the job on Saturday. I never thought my accounting degree would land me in Modesto, sweating like crazy, and armed with nothing but a pen and tape measure. Stay in school, kids.

So all I had time for with my parents was a nice dinner on Thursday night, and a quick dinner Friday. Jaime, on the other hand, spent the entire afternoon shopping with her mother-in-law. Just what every newlywed dreams of. (Just kidding mom, she had a good time)

Sorry no pics of the visit or the lumber yard. We're still new at blogging and don't have our cameras at the ready 24/7.

A "Spook-tacular" Time

The Saturday before Halloween, we were in charge of helping out at the ward Halloween Party and Chili Cook Off! Nate and I pulled out the beautiful kimonos my uncle Dallin and his fiancee, Ai, had sent to us for our wedding. Though our Chili didn't win a prize, we should have won one for our costumes. :) We were a hit with all the Japanese members of our ward. We had several people come up and take pictures of us to send back to their friends and family in Japan. All commented on how beautiful the kimonos were. Thanks Dallin and Ai!

1/4 Century

Last week Jaime turned the big two-five. We decided to make her feel better by celebrating with a group of kids half her age at High School Musical: The Ice Tour. It was "Fabulous" as we "Bopped to the Top" to discover the 'Music in Me".

HSM was actually the Saturday after her birthday. To celebrate her actual birthday, I hurried home from work and frosted the cake Jaime had made for herself. I'm no professional cake decorator, but I think I did a pretty good frosting job, despite the claim from Jaime that I stacked the cakes wrong. You can judge for yourself.

Exploring the City

One day, while waiting for a prescription to be filled at Costco I came across a small box titled, "City Walks: San Francisco." Intrigued I grabbed it and read, "Skip the dull tour guides, ditch those unruly maps, and experience San Francisco like a native - on foot!...each card in this deck outlines a self-guided walking adventure, with a detailed map on one side and insider information on the other...you'll discover the locals' favorite places to eat, drink, stop, shop, rest, walk, and play." So, I bought it. I figured it was a great and inexpensive way to get to know the city-not to mention healthy with all the walking.

So, a few weeks ago Nate and I grabbed one of the cards as we had a free afternoon and started to explore. The card we grabbed was Chinatown I (Grant Avenue). We took BART into the city, which was only my second time ever to use BART. I love public transportation. It adds to the whole big city feel. Our BART station is actually pretty nice. It's the last stop south on the peninsula so doesn't get as much traffic as the others. I was intrigued by the bronze statues they have displayed on the platform area. I wasn't quite sure why they are located where they are but we took pictures next to them anyways.

Once we got to Chinatown we started at the dragon gates, the entrance to the infamous Chinatown, and walked up Grant Avenue, which happens to be one of San Francisco's oldest streets. From the card we learned that San Francisco has the world's largest Asian population outside of China and makes up close to 1/3 of the cities' population. (I believe it!)

The whole street is filled with Chinese paper lanterns, store windows are packed full of ornate ceramic bowls and jade carvings-plus it wouldn't be complete without all the cheap tourist items. Some buildings on the street have their own oriental flare with the upraised roofs. Even one of the playgrounds contained Asian looking jungle gym sets. The playground we saw, which is one of the only open spaces in Chinatown was one of the city's first civic centers during the Gold Rush.

Overall, the evening was great and we learned a lot! Hopefully we have as good of a time on the next 49 cards. Stay tuned for more San Francisco "insider information".

Dragon Gate entrance to Chinatown

The two of us about to start our walk up Grant Avenue-passing the dragon sentinals

One of the many ornate carvings in the store windows

Just having fun with the tourist merchandise

The lanterns that were strung across the streets plus the ornate architecture

The Chinese playground

Settling In

We have been in California for just under two months now, and there have been a lot of things we have had to do to make it feel like home. The first task was relatively obvious...we needed furniture. It's tough to call an apartment home when all you have is boxes to sit on and a donated end table. So we went to Ikea. The nice thing about Ikea is that the fun doesn't end when you leave the store. For every piece of furniture you buy, you need to plan on at least an hour of assembly. After about the fifth piece of furniture, we had it down to a science. We even considered starting our own business of standing outside Ikea and offering to assist others with their new purchases

Furniture helped, but we still needed to make our space a little more homey by hanging a few pictures. We both have hung pictures before so we got some small nails, a hammer, and set to it. We quickly learned, however, that our apartment was fitted with plaster walls, not the sheet rock we were used to. The instructions for hanging pictures in plaster vary slightly from hanging pictures in sheet rock. We ended up with three holes the size of my thumb, a few cracks running up the wall, and a frustrated Jaime before we figured it out.

Hanging a picture in sheet rock:
1. Hammer small nail into wall
2. Hang picture on nail

Hanging a picture in plaster:
1. Drill a small starter hole through the plaster back to where the wood begins
2. Drive a small screw into the starter hole and anchor into the wood
3. Hang picture on screw

A Diamond in the Rough

After the honeymoon, we finally had to face reality. The next step was a move to San Francisco. (We're actually not quite sure if it was a step or a huge tumble.) More than a year before we were married, Nate had been offered a position with KPMG in the Bay Area after he had completed a summer internship with them. He accepted, not knowing how his life would change or that he would be taking his new bride with him.

Hoping to ease me into the "big city life," Nate asked me to accompany him to San Francisco before we were married to find an apartment that I would be okay living in. We only had three days to scour the whole bay area. In an effort to maximize time and minimize expenses, Nate picked the cheapest hotel he could find next to the airport. That decision landed us in the Budget Hotel, which was the icing on the cake of a long weekend.

Before we explain further, check out the images below. Although, I have to say the pictures don't do it justice nor do they capture the stale cigarette smell in the rooms.

Budget Highlights:

1. Turning down the bed to discover a dead spider in the sheets
2. Never walking anywhere without shoes on - not even into the shower where there was a mysterious brown ring around the bottom of the tub
3. Dark scary hallway to get to the doors littered with cigarettes and a maxi pad
4. Room littered with beer bottle tops (Do the maids ever come?)
5. Old plastic keys as shown in Nate's hand above
6. Stale smoke smell that made my eyes water and made me gag
7. Replacing a lost key by just simply asking for it. All we did was tell her the room number. She wasn't the one to check us in, didn't ask to verify ID, and simply said, "This is our last one." (I don't think I slept well that night knowing anyone could get a key.)
8. Being told that to check out we simply had to drop our key in the mail box. When we looked in there were a number of other keys, all with the room number prominently written on the plastic

Needless to say, we spent as little time as we could in the hotel and were relieved to check out. I might add, Nate and I had separate rooms and although he was right next door, I was sure the cinder block walls would keep him from hearing me if anything was to happen.

Searching for an apartment was one of the most frustrating things Nate and I did. San Francisco has its charms but that weekend did not lend itself to them. I think the weekend we came was one of the foggiest the city has experienced (at least since I have been here). Fourteen hours a day of looking at countless apartments that were all dirty, small and over priced will suck the charm out of any city. After awhile, Nate and I felt frustrated and like we would never find a place within our price range that was decent. Most apartments were rented within hours of being posted, so we made frequent stops at the local libraries to take advantage of the free WiFi.

Finally, we walked into a small but quaint, safe-feeling, bright and clean apartment. After hours of searching, we knew this was an apartment that couldn't be passed up so we put a deposit down on the spot and prayed that our application would be accepted. It was and now we are living in that apartment that truly was a diamond in the rough. It's conveniently located to all the necessities: bank, BART station, freeway entrance, grocery stores, laundromat, and the airport! Hint! Hint! The SFO airport is less than a mile away so everyone should come visit.