August was a fun month! Although I always felt that September was just around the corner, we did a lot this month that made it fun, not just a placeholder while waiting for Fall.
SMS and I celebrated his birthday. I had intended to take the day off, but instead I went into work to do a case. I didn’t end up doing the case b/c it went really late. Another faculty member and I had agreed that he would do the case if it went in the late afternoon since I did not want to miss SMS’ birthday dinner.
We went to Flea Street restaurant, which was really delicious. Although this sounds really basic, one of the best things was that all the food arrived hot. I’m a big fan of hot food and so often in restaurants, things arrive warm. So, good job on nailing the basics, Flea Street! I got the risotto and SMS got the short ribs. Although the desserts were very tempting, we were too stuffed. So, we have plans to go to the bar one night for drinks and dessert.
That weekend, we went to San Diego for a few different reasons. One, I had Navy Reserves drill which ended up going really well because it was check-in weekend to the command. As long as we got things done, we could leave when complete. So, the day was a little shorter which was great since my sister and her family were in town! Hooray!
On Saturday, we met up at Ballast Point in Little Italy for lunch. I had major 1980s vibes when I walked in because my nephew was sitting by himself at the table. I dig the benign neglect! JK, my brother-in-law was nearby getting waters and keeping an eye on the kid but still, it looked pretty funny.
After lunch, we parted ways from my sister’s family and went to Wolfie’s carousel bar. We were with SMS’ friend John, who had been wanting to try it for awhile. Apparently, it’s really crowded at night. We didn’t sit at the rotating bar, but we did sit in a booth cage with a carousel horse moving above us. It was pretty cool. We had the beignets, which were amazing. Not that we needed more to eat but when should that stop us?
We spent the weekend at SMS’ parents house, which is always a delightful oasis. The next day, SMS and I pulled major babysitting duty while my sister and her husband went to a wedding. We had so much fun. We went to the beach, where the kids learned about the joys of being buried in the sand. They thought it was awesome and it had the side benefit of making baby-sitting really, really easy. Child-watching theme: imprisonment.
Then, we had a snack and went to the pool. The pool was great and we had so much fun swimming. We stayed about 5 minutes too long since the little one went from fine to freezing in about three seconds. But, towels materialized and warming up occurred so it wasn’t a total crisis. Near miss!
Then, we dropped SMS off at the airport since he was working the next day. The kids crashed in the car, which made it a bit of a challenge to get back into the hotel room. I had to have the older one walk a little bit and even though he was basically sleep-walking, he was such a champ! He didn’t cry and whine, he just put one little foot in front of the other.
After Brady and Ricardo came back, I left. We met up for a pool day lunch at Linda and Rip’s house. The kids had another great day of swimming. Then, we all went to La Jolla to look at the seals and to go the the Taco Stand, which was delicious as always.
The next weekend, Rip and Linda came to Menlo Park after spending some time in Davis where their grandson had his white coat ceremony as he enters Veterinary School. We had a pretty mellow visit. We went to an ice cream social hosted by our potential mortage lender (not anytime soon!), followed by brunch at Cafe Wisteria in the Menlo Park Guild. Cafe Wisteria was really nice with delicious salads and really tempting eggs benedict.
We went to the Cantor Art Center to look at the Golden Spike, since we had talked about the Transcontinental Railroad over lunch.
For dinner, we went to State of Mind, which is a real favorite of mine. SMS doesn’t like it quite as much, but he goes there for me. And it’s still good, even if not a favorite for him!
The next day, we had a picnic lunch at Picchetti winery in the Santa Cruz mountains. It’s really nice because there are a lot of picnic tables and outside food is allowed. It’s a popular spot for parties and larger gatherings, but we were lucky to find one open picnic table.
This weekend, we’ve been pretty mellow since we’re leaving for our big vacation next weekend. We had a really nice sushi dinner with our friend Beth on Friday night. Sushi Tomi in Mountain View is delicious. We ran into someone who worked at our apartment complex, who was with some friends. They were going to start on a Central Coast roadtrip and after we mentioned Hearst Castle, they added it to their trip to-do list! I’m an influencer!
Work-wise, things have been going well. 1 Aug marked one year on the job. Exciting! Things have been going really well. I simultaneously feel like I’ve found a place within the department while still feeling like there is so much more to do.