Memorable Memorial Day weekends are the new awesome

Since moving to San Francisco, we've had a lot of houseguests. And if it's a three day weekend, forget about it, you can just call us Hotel San Francisco. Memorial Day weekend was no exception. We had 8 people sleeping in our living room at one point and if you've been to our apartment before, you know that's serious business.

Friday morning our phone rang and it was Rob, Nathaniel and Cassian. Rebecca and I were on our way out the door so they came inside and did who knows what while we were gone all day at work. That night we all met up for dinner at our favorite restaurant in our neighborhood called Chow.

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of our delicious food.


Nathaniel is dreaming about how delicious his food will be. Rebecca is so t-o'd.


When we got home we decided to start playing MarioKart on my N64 (this will become a theme of the weekend).
Remember how Rebecca and I like to hi-five in your face and make you feel bad? Turns out Cassian also thinks it's fun!


Holga's are no longer the new awesome. Polaroids are. Just ask Nathaniel.



Cassian and I were so tired from all the winning we'd been doing. Rebecca was jumping all over us and Nathaniel was not stopping her.


Saturday afternoon (while Cassian was touristing with four other Provo visitors that aren't even going to be featured on our blog, but yes, that makes 12 visitors in total from utah) Rebecca, Cameron, Nathaniel and I took the train to El Farolito for lunch.

Sometimes pictures from the train are blurry.



Everyone must eat burritos at El Faralito. Brigham knows this. Di and Karisa know this. And now Nathaniel knows it too. It's no secret.


Also not a secret, the meat painting.


If you're an avid reader of the new awesome then you already know we went to Mitchell's. But did you know that Cameron was also pointing and making fun of everyone who doesn't get to go to Mitchell's? Because he was. Also, when did Rebecca become so hardcore?


Drink the milkshake Cameron. Drink it hard.


On Sunday morning our house full of guests decided it was time for a community meal. So we all went to Squat & Gobble for brunch.

Suzanne, Marsha & Rebecca.


Kristen and Cassian. Ehem.


Left to right we have Suzanne, Rebecca, Emily, Marsha, Kristen and Betsy. jk, jk.
Left to right we have Marsha, Betsy, Rebecca, Emily, Suzanne and Kristen.


Art.


After brunch Rebecca, Cassian and I decided to go to church while the others decided to do some San Franciscoing. Cassian didn't have any socks left so he had to borrow some girl socks from me.


Also, Cassian didn't have any shades so he had to borrow some boy shades from Brigham.


We had such a great speaker at church named Matt Damon. (Sometimes it's so scary to take a picture during sacrament meeting but Cassian wasn't even afraid.)


After church Rebecca, Cassian and I snuck up on our roof for a photo session.



Cassian was so nervous to get near the edge.


We spent the rest of the afternoon competing in a Dr. Mario tourney (not bragging but I WIN!!!).


And napping (our white couch is so good for napping. also, cassian is so good at napping and snoring on it for 4 hours in the middle of the day with lots of noisy things happening around him).


The girls left on Sunday evening which left Rebecca and I one more night to entertain a house full of boys. And what better to do with boys than eat? Notice how Rebecca and I are getting so tired from all the Memorial Day fun.



If you'd like to see more crazy fun from this weekend, check it out here.

And thus concludes the longest post in the history of mankind.

New Summer Music is the new awesome

Between all the new music available on myspace and mp3 blogs these days (and the lists of music that cameron sends me because that is all he does at work), I have gotten shamelessly addicted to hitting the 'download' button and getting all sorts of free new music. The internet has been turned into this lovely musical buffet, where you get to sample a little bit of lots of different things and figure out which bands you really like and want more of.

so. i have compiled some of my favorites - freebie music from the past few months that i think make a lovely summer mix. I have done the hunting and gathering so that you don't have to. download. listen. enjoy.

(with bonus preview sufjan stevens track on there, from his soon-to-be-released album Avalanche, outtakes and extras from the illinois album)

[y]our summer flings
the deadly snakes ** gore veil
sound team ** your eyes are liars
figurine ** IMpossible
tapes n' tapes ** 50's parking
spinto band ** brown boxes
kite flying society ** if i could split
guggenheim grotto ** one for sorrow
sukpatch ** bottom of the well
beirut ** postcards from italy
irving ** turn of the century
half-handed cloud ** we're very greatly loved
data panik ** rulers and the states
envelopes ** sister in love
dúné ** last jump
the amazing pilots ** the price of winter
chris koza ** midnight rose
sufjan stevens ** henney buggy band
the lucksmiths ** from macaulay station
13ghosts ** robert j
asleep in the sea ** dance on
bedroom walls ** do the buildings and cops make you smile?
vells ** blue blue bones
sunset rubdown ** stadiums and shrines II
the pipettes ** pull shapes
oh no! oh my! ** walk in the park
norfolk & western ** gilded age
the wombats ** moving to new york

this will be a limited download, so get it while its hot. please note that i am not technologically advanced enough to know how to do a fancy zipped file on the site, so i have to use this filesharing program that makes you wait 45 seconds before you can download the file. i am sure it is so that you can stare at the advertising on their site. sorry. after the 45 seconds go by, you can download the cd in the top right-hand side of the page.

Our version is the new awesome

So you may have noticed that we had a very famous blogger visiting us last weekend. His name is Brigham. Maybe you've heard of him. He came to San Francisco for some well-deserved R&R after finishing law school and before starting bar study classes. While we are certainly happy with his coverage thus far on his blog, we thought it would be fun to post some of our favorite pictures from the weekend. Our version if you will.

Remember the Mitchell's ice cream outing? Remember how Brigham isn't very good at ice cream cones? This picture was taken right before he remembered he's not very good at ice cream cones. Look how happy we all were before Brigham started getting so messy and drippy.


Did we go to a rock show? Yes. But Brigham forgot to show you that we totally got to hang out with some of the band!


This is my favorite twinner jacket picture of the series. Look how Jeffery's head is about to explode!


Brigham got to sleep on Rebecca's giant double decker, blow up bed but aparently the bed wasn't giant enough because sometimes he would fall off and we would find him sleeping on the hard wood floor between the bed and the peach couch.


Also interesting, Brigham's affinity for striped neckware.



There may be more. But there might not be. Mostly, we really like it when Brigham comes to town.

Island Themed Season Finale Parties are the new awesome

Last Wed all of America essentially held their breath with anticipation as the final episode of LOST: season 2 unfolded. And we were there, holding our breath along with the best of them. Since we are big fans (the nerdy kind that read about the show on the internet in our spare time), of course we threw a finale party. We hung some big leaves on our door (because, you know - LOST!) and invited everyone over for dinner.

We decided to eat burritos, since I imagine that is probably what people stuck on a tropical island typically eat.

Our chip and salsa appetizers were really almost too cute for consumption.


True LOST fans are (obviously) very enthusiastic about fruit skewers.


Jordan brought these fantastic tropical island smoothies, complete with little paper umbrellas.


You may think that they are too cute to drink, but the fact that i think i had 4 of them over the course of one very intense evening would mean that you are WRONG. very wrong.


Betsy was having a tough time deciding which yummy burrito meat to use. so she went with a duo burrito: half chicken, half beef! very creative, roommate. i think hurley would have been quite proud of your culinery ingeniuity.


For dessert, we made banana boats, which involves stuffing a banana (skin on) full of peanut butter, chocolate, marshmellows and coconut, wrapping it it foil and sticking it in the oven.


Then you get your own little foil wrapped treat to eat warm, right out of the peel. Just like we all would if we were stuck on an island.


I know it looks like we spent the whole evening eating, and not watching the show, but trust me. We watched it. All 2 hours. And gave Michael and Charlie dirty looks the whole time.

I think it is obvious that we are going to have a hard time knowing what to do with our Wednesdays until Season 3 starts up in the Fall.

Cassian is the new awesome

We love him and he is our boyfriend. xoxo

Gloating is the new awesome

Dear NYC (AKA Brigham, Di & Karisa),

Guess who went to Mitchell's today. Us. Ha!



I had banana nut on a plain cone dipped in chocolate. Rebecca had a small spoon sample of new york cherry and a full size milkshake made with grasshopper pie.

Love is Chemicals is the new awesome

This past Sunday night one of our favorite bands that is full of some of our best friends was featured on Live 105's Soundcheck.

Claw Your Sweater (From Live 105's "Soundcheck In Studio")

You can stalk Nate, Courtney, Nick and Steve here.




Enjoy.

Mail is the new awesome

Most days this is what our mail haul looks like here at our apartment. Junk, bills, magazines, and whatever internet shopping parcels bex has coming her way (bex is so good at internet shopping).


Sometimes it's fun to get a surprise in the mail from an actual friend! But that doesn't happen as often as the junk deliveries. Saturday I got a card in the mail and I was so excited because it was from my friend Kelly Olsen in Palo Alto! I thought about it for a second and realized I didn't remember who Kelly Olsen was. Could it be? I'm so popular and have so many friends I completely lose track of them? So I opened the card and it was so cute and hip! I love Kelly! We must be such good friends!


Then I looked a little closer. And then I opened the card and read it.


Roast. On me.

Bay to Breakers is the new awesome

San Francisco throws a lot of signature events, and Bay to Breakers is one of them.

I am sure it started out all innocent - just your standard fun-run that began at the Bay and traversed the 7 or so miles across San Francisco to the ocean. But there was no way that San Francisco would just host a boring old run across the city. There is not enough nudity involved in that. So now you still have to run across the city, but you can just wear silly costumes while you do it.

Even though the official Bay to Breakers website rules say: "For everyone's safety and enjoyment NO ALCOHOL or NUDITY is allowed and there will be ALCOHOL CHECKPOINTS along the course" there was not one sober person there. This is the one day every year that apparently it is socially acceptable to get drunk before noon, and wear little to no clothing. Most groups come dressed in a theme of some sort, and many of them push "floats" that go along with their costumes, but are really just creative ways to bring a keg along.

favorite group costume ideas?

well. since it was Sunday, it seemed appropriate that Noah's Ark showed up.


And the Jesus Loves You man left his normal post at Union Square and came to march as well.


Team Zissou and their little submarine is always a winner


Wheres Waldo is a given


Some people came wearing only paint:


and some people came wearing less than that:


one of the more impressive floats was this huge trojan horse with some guys in feathered hats sitting on top


and the smurf village was pretty impressive as well


gargamel was sitting in the mushroom, spinning some tunes. You might not be able to tell, but the mushroom has little spigots built into the side that beer came out of.


my personal favorite was the Bill and Ted's excellent adventure phone booth on wheels. brilliant.


and if i had gotten a photo of the Elvis walking around in JUST his black wig and blue suede shoes, you would really know how great this was. I am going to get a group together next year, so please start brainstorming some group costumes.