Friday, September 28, 2012

early september

I was getting so close to catching up with these blog posts, and then I got distracted... That seems to be a trend lately: I've been a little scattered and ADD. I have trouble getting myself to focus on photo editing and blog writing, because I keep thinking of other things to add to my to-do list or to check online. Pregnancy brain, probably. In any case, it's time to get this posted.

Early September is about the time the weather starts to feel more like summer around here, which is pretty much what happened this year too. Good thing, because I still have to go out for 30-minute walks every day, and that's much more enjoyable when it's not too chilly. Steve and I got our walking in right after lunch on the Sunday that began week 36. We went to the butcher shop to get some meat for the rest of the weekend's meals: a chicken and a big pork chop. As usual, we passed Noe Valley Pet Co. on the way, and this time I took a picture of the vintage dog statue in the window.

After that excitement, came even more excitement. I drove us downtown to the financial district (eek) and circled the block a few times while Steve retrieved our crib mattress and a couple other baby gifts from his office building. We loaded it all in the car and got it back to the house without too much stress. I wasn't looking forward to making that trip, since we usually avoid driving downtown at all costs, but it was really nice to be able to put a mattress and mattress pad in the crib after over a week of seeing just the bare wood bottom of the crib. (Thanks, Bruce and Bonnie!)

246/366 vintage french bulldog


Monday was Labor Day, and for once, we didn't have any plans. We had had so many baby classes, appointments, and nursery-related errands/tasks to attend to the previous weekends that it was strange not to have anything we needed to accomplish that day. Nothing except the daily walk, that is. Steve and I decided to go for a stroll down Valencia Street in the afternoon, which would also provide an opportunity for a picture. I found my photo op in the window of Aldea Home, where there were some interesting puppets peeking out of a desk drawer.

247/366 sock puppets


Also on Monday, Steve made some gazpacho. For a long time, we had been meaning to try making it again, and there were finally good tomatoes available. We chose the recipe from Orangette, which seemed to be pretty similar to the Jose Andres recipe that I had also bookmarked, minus the sherry. It came out really well—very refreshing—but I waited until Tuesday to photograph it. I had taken pictures of our previous gazpacho attempt using our tall shot glasses, and Steve suggested that we put this gazpacho in something different. We found some old-fashioned glasses that we liked on the CB2 website, but the store didn't have them in stock when Steve went to get them after work on Tuesday. Instead, he got a couple cheaper glasses, which I used for the picture. They're a little votive-like, but they're still a nice size for little desserts or soups like this. 

248/366 gazpacho


Our glider for the nursery was delivered by Room & Board on Wednesday morning. It was very exciting; we finally had a seat in the baby's room! That called for another nursery picture, featuring the chair and the cubby shelves again. You can also see a bit of the new curtains, which we hung on Saturday. They're still a little wrinkly, but I figured that gravity would slowly work that out.

249/366 a new chair


Our decal for the wall also arrived on Wednesday, so I busied myself with sticking it on the wall above the crib on Thursday. I had planned to get out the level and use it to make the decal straight, but then I realized that it wouldn't matter that much, as long as it looked somewhat organic. So I just used the string that I had hung as a substitute for the bunting, and I made sure that the ends of the two branches on the decals hit the ends of the strings in the right spots. The great thing about these wall stickers is that they can be stuck and re-stuck multiple times, because I definitely did a lot of re-sticking before I was satisfied. 

250/366 decal preview


On Friday, I somewhat reluctantly made a trip to my local post office. This is not one of the more pleasant post offices where I would go to buy stamps or send packages, this would be the ghetto post office where they hold my packages hostage after leaving notices. (I suspect they don't even bother knocking half the time...) I was going to make Steve come with me on Saturday, since that post office isn't within walking distance, but I was bored enough that I ended up going on Friday. Besides, I was curious to see what my friend Kim had sent. The actual driving there and finding parking wasn't too bad, but it really took longer than it should have to get my package. There was a long line of people waiting with slips like mine, and the 1-2 people working the counter seemed... less than stellar. It was, as Chrissy would say, a "circus show."

But I got my box eventually and brought it home. Inside was a woodland print bin, a set of three board books, a baby blanket, and a onesie. After opening it all, I loaded it back into the bin, put the whole thing in the crib, and took a picture to use for the day's shot. The funny thing about the woodland print is that the animals on it are the very same ones I chose for the four baby animal prints above the cubby shelves: deer, raccoon, squirrel, and fox. It should be great for holding toys.

251/366 from kim


And... Saturday. Steve and I went to Noe Valley for a sushi lunch at Hamano, and I took pictures in the window of one of the antique stores on the way back. We also made a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond that day, which involved circling the upper level of the parking lot several times to find a spot. (It shares a parking structure with Trader Joe's, which is probably just asking for trouble...) We eventually found a place to stow the car and got what we needed from the store, but it wasn't a very photogenic trip. I was glad to have the Noe Valley pictures already "in the can."

252/366 time!

2 comments:

  1. another fine week at the Dunhams! BSD

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  2. I love, love, love... reading your blog!! The pictures make everything so vivid too. Your nursery is so nice and airy too. Nice work on choosing everything! --CAA

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