Christmas in January

Today the fellas came and dug out our new foundation for our garage/shop. This is the second time we have turned over a task to professionals and it was great. A team of four arrived at 7:45am on Saturday morning and had the hole dug within three hours. T and I peeked out occasionally and were like school children with our excitement. I know T has been waiting for this day for a long time since he had to hand over the keys to his beloved shop on Alameda. The great thing about the new space is that we get to design it from the ground up and are looking forward to working on something new rather than changing an existing building. Next week concrete!

We celebrated with friends that evening with grilled prosciutto and cheese sandwiches and several happy hours.

Happy Birthday to Judy today.

Have a great week!

Abracadabra!

From the photos you can see we are up to our old shenanigans... We had a pesky wall that separated the kitchen/dining from the living space. The effect was a little cave like area that didn't really promote any use. A mere four hours later a bright and sunny open floor plan greeted us!

Austin's weather has been fluctuating pretty drastically and this week we had highs in the low eighties and today it is 46. That means yard work one day and movies on the couch the next - I guess that is win win.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year!

December went out with a bang as we headed to San Francisco for Christmas. We were able to see some great friends and check out our old haunts...sad to say our favorite Thai Noodle didn't live up to the memories, but our curry house was better than ever remembered!

We began the trip with a visit to City Hall and an amazing dinner at Spruce! Thanks to Tony and Beth and Shon and Alissa for making it a memorable day.

We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel and had glorious views of the bay due to a secret Santa upgrade (thanks you two!) It was hard to leave the amazing accommodations, but we were off to wine country!

A winding trip up Highway 1 gave us some spectacular views of the coast and fill our landlocked brains with fond memories of the ocean. We spent a quaint night in Calistoga and took our time driving through St. Helena and Napa.

We ended the trip with a stop in Berkeley and Oakland to see some pals and see what had changed since we had last passed through, lots! If you get a chance stop by the Cathedral of Light - amazing! Go Oakland!

Wishing you a very happy 2009!