burnin' up

I think Nolan was absolutely right the other day when he said, "we've had a whole year of seasons in the last month". Truly. A month ago it was still freezing cold (still ice on my car!), then it was rainy but not super cold, then it got temperate and the sun was peeking out, and last week it crescendoed into a giant heatwave. 90 degrees on Saturday and I have the burn to prove it:

For the record (Mom), I was totally wearing sunscreen like I do every day. I just forgot to reapply after being outside for awhile. And I was totally unprepared.

However, I took advantage of the heat in other ways:
1. Dug out cute summer clothes
2. Wore my big floppy hat (squee!!!)
3. Biked to froyo with Nolan
4. BBQed ribs for friends on Sunday
5. Learned that my hair-washing routine may not work as well during the hot, sweaty months.
In case you're wondering about the last one...Nate finally pushed me over the edge with some article he posted awhile ago on FB. It was about how you should wash your hair only twice a week. Before you think I'm disgusting, LET ME TELL YOU: the last several salons I've been to, my hairstylist has told me she only washes her hair twice a week. After hearing this from a few different hair professionals, I knew it wasn't just a weird thing. Turns out, even washing every other day isn't as great for your hair as less frequently. Every time you wash, the shampoo strips the hair of its natural oils (sebum), and then you slather it back on artificially with conditioner. This dries out and breaks down the follicle, causing frizz and unhealthy, dry hair. If you can wean down to just twice a week, your hair will stop producing as much sebum naturally, so your hair won't be as oily between washes, but will stay moisturized naturally. Still sound gross? If it makes you feel better, I rinse my hair with just water after workouts, and in the mornings I use dry shampoo (basically just a safe powder for your roots that makes the oils less apparent, but doesn't strip the hair of them). Still weirded out? Yeah, me too.

Nolan's a little weirded out that one of my lines now is "Guess what today was? A hair-washing day!"

I can feel some derogatory comments about my hygiene coming my way after this post.

Won't you be my neighbour?

When it's hot in the city, all hell breaks loose. And by that I mean every other person on the street is sipping a jamba juice, men are walking around naked in the Castro (even they cover up when it's cold), and people in business attire are sprawled on the grass in Yerba Buena gardens, sleeping. You can barely even get to the Embarcadero because of the crowds of people who are probably wearing their sunglasses and skirts in the city for the first and last time this year. I know it's been warm at our place, because it's been 73 degrees indoors at night, and I've been back to sleeping in skivvies while Nolan sweats and Milo sprawls on the floor. Have I mentioned that I love this time of year? I feel a celebratory BBQ in my future, to welcome back the warmth.

New addiction: a kale and quinoa salad, with blueberries, carrots, almonds, tomatoes, and seaweed, with a light sesame dressing. So delicious! Behold:


Our neighbour recently bought a new elliptical machine, and put it in the garage for us to share. I got a free demo yesterday, and plan to make use of it for my workout tonight! She was asking if I wanted her to mount her extra flat-screen on the garage wall to watch while working out and my eyes almost melted. Too.much.awesomeness. If you live in the Bay Area and aren't rich, chances are that your home is nowhere near large enough to house workout machines. But! When you share a big garage with your duplex neighbour who markets exercise machines, good things can happen. She's also had the gardener give us a nice new lawn in our front yard, and leaves mandarins from her tree on the steps up to our house. I like this woman.

Thankful Thursday

Once again, it's Thursday and the weekend is almost here (hooray!). After a week of Nolan being sick, I was sure that by today I would be totally out of commission, yet here I sit, feeling good. I have grand plans to do almost nothing this weekend, since it's been busy lately. Something's been going on almost every night of the week, and it'll be nice to have just a couple days of downtime before another packed week.

But while I'm on the subject of today: Happy Birthday, John! Today's my favourite father-in-law's birthday. Exciting! Also:

1. I'm thankful for perspective. Recently I've felt very confined and restless in many areas of my life, and it's good for me to slow down, look at what I have, and not take it for granted. If I stop daydreaming about what things COULD be like, I can take time to enjoy what things ARE like, and how good they are.
2. I'm thankful for our home. Even though we're considering moving soon, all this hunting for new places to live is showing me what a great place we're already in.
3. I'm thankful for good friends. They really keep my chin up when I'm starting to pout!
4. I'm so thankful for Nolan. I know, you're so sick of me always including this one. But seriously. He's incredible. Knows how to correct me, love me, and make me laugh in the same breath.
5. I'm thankful for my poor, crippled Mom :) Nothing makes a week like a nice chat with your mother! Still drawing on that advice and encouragement.

Thankful Thursday

The week has flown by (except the daytime part, which has dragged along), and I'm ready to start fresh next week with lots of sleep, and my routine back in place. As much as I love vacation, it can be exhausting. With that:

1. I'm thankful for lots of sleep this week. I needed it, bad. I have no idea how Nolan is coping with his ridiculous sleep schedule.
2. I'm thankful Nolan is back to working days at least for a brief time, so I can actually see him. I know I was with him 24/7 the last 2 weeks but I can't get enough of him!
3. I'm thankful for a bit of a light load this workweek. I needed to do some catching up and dealing with little things before stuff gets nutty again.
4. I'm thankful small group has started up again! I missed seeing my group of girls every Tuesday, and I am so looking forward to some serious growth in the next several weeks.
5. I'm thankful for my families. Easter was so great, just to see everyone and catch up...and I'm so thankful we all love each other. And my family just keeps growing - in 4 weeks I gain a sister-in-law, and in July I gain a nephew (from my other sister-in-law). Hooray!

What are you thankful for?

Recap or catching up

Ahh, Scotland. How should I recap? Probably best to check out my facebook album I posted of our trip, but in the meantime I'll post the random couple of pictures I took with my phone that didn't make it into the album. Like this one of us looking EXTREMELY tired on our first morning in the country. We were on a train to Stirling and St. Andrews around 7:30am, and desperately needed coffee and breakfast. So we were super excited to see Caffe Nero, which was one of our favourite spots in London, near the train station in Glasgow! Apparently it's like the Peet's of the UK. Please ignore the bags under our eyes:


Or this one of me sipping on a pint of cider at some random place we found called Home. Some of the best tikka masala we had all trip was at that place, and it was just pub food at that!


In short, our trip was wonderful. We did a lot of eating, drinking coffee and tea and chocolate galore, and sitting around reading after a day of exploring. I even got to drive on the wrong side of the road for 3 days, woo! But for more of that, check out my album so I don't have to post 200 pictures in here too :)

We got home around 11:30pm on Tuesday night after 25 hours of travelling (blah!), and I was at work the next morning by 7:30am. Worst idea ever. After work I was up until midnight packing (seriously!), and then after falling into bed so late, was woken up at 5:23am by Nolan calling to say he was done with work and ready to go (he had to work that night). So I threw my stuff in the car, and we drove up to Placerville for an Easter weekend with our families. I had to work Thursday and Friday, but was lucky enough to get to do it from home so I could at least be present for meals, etc. with everyone.

Wed did manage to take my mom to the store, since she never gets to get out and about with her broken foot. This is how she rolls now:


The store's stash of those things was just too tempting for Nolan to pass up:


And I think Nolan took this picture of me when he was irritated that I had to work while he was free. Such is life!


Yesterday, while taking the train back from our Easter weekend extravaganza, I got a sweet text from Harley's owner, Susan, with this photo of him lovingly bathing Harley:

You can imagine how furious he was with me when I picked up he and FDR (have I ever mentioned in here that we have a fish named FDR?) yesterday to bring them home.

I feel almost recovered, but definitely need another good night's sleep tonight to cement it. Wish me luck!