Dykes on Bikes, Herb Garden and 4th July Celebration

We've had another busy couple of weeks here in sunny California with lots of outings and celebrations.

4th July Celebrations

We had been told that the best place to see the 4th July fireworks would be from Fisherman's Wharf so we headed out that way in the evening. Jelte was obviously convinced that the city put up the show to celebrate his birthday, but I'm not sure the thousands of people who had turned up would necessarily agree. The fog was there too, making it a little difficult to see the fireworks but that didn't stop people oooh'n and aaaaah'ing. Most memorable firework was the one shaped like smiley face - never seen that before!

fireworks as seen through the famous fog

Obligatory selfie

Alfie opening Jelte's presents

After Dark at the Exploratorium

We went to the Exploratorium at their monthly 'after dark' event and learned everything there is to know about sound, light, other physics and weird stuff. Oh and I also kissed a gigantic dachshund.

slinky treadmill

weird optical illusion

Herb Garden

My herb garden is starting to take shape - although most of the plants still only resemble little weeds.

Dykes on Bikes

The day before the big pride march here in San Francisco, we were invited to see the Dykes on Bikes march from a friend's place. His house was right where the march starts and we had the best view possible of all the cool bikes, and their riders. The day also included sunburn, and lots of beers (hidden in plastic cups - you're not allowed to drink alcohol in bottles in public here in the US).

Rudder Tail and Long Bearded Sailors - last two weeks in pictures

Jelte came home from six weeks of sailing and looked like this

Found these in the supermarket - how could I resist?

Alfie over exerted his tail and got limber tail syndome (aka rudder tail) - all back to normal now.

When in Rome - made a batch of beef jerky in our new dehydrator, tasted surprisingly nice!

Found funny looking red-barked trees

More rainbow flags than usual started appearing all over town and a quick google search told us June has been declared lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month.

I'm continuing my Paleo diet and made some awesome grain free pancakes - main ingredients include eggs and Plantains

Meanwhile At Home

With all the blog updates about Jelte's sailing adventure, you might be tempted to believe its all about sailing at the moment in our family. Not entirely true - although, admittedly I check Jamaica's position first thing in the morning and last thing at night!

New Healthy Diet

With Jelte out of the house for six weeks I saw a golden opportunity to start a new healthy diet - while there is no one to tempt me back to the evil ways of pizza night! A couple of weeks before he took off sailing, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online, and lost a pound or two before realising I hated all the low calorie foods and points counting. 

I started researching for a a diet more in line with my beliefs about what food should really be like, you know - real ingredients, no funky additives or pesticides, and ideally organic. I found the Paleo diet which is based around the use of whole foods, cooking everything from scratch and cutting out gluten and grains such as wheat. That means no bread, rice or pasta and more tasty veggies instead for good carbs. 

The diet is often called the cave man diet as it only allows foods that were available to our Paleolithic ancestors and cuts out lab-concocted Frankenfoods and ready made meals.

So far so good - I thought I would really miss bread, but I haven't. I don't think I've ever spent so much time in the kitchen though but I'm secretly enjoying making my own spice blends, herbal salts, and home made stock! And yes I'm loosing a bit of weight too which is great.

Here's a super easy paleo recipe for making your own herb salts - the Rosemary salt is amazing for roast chicken.

Home Made Herb Salts

• Dry some fresh herbs in the oven - for example rosemary, sage or lemon peel. Use the lowest oven setting and dry the herbs for up to 4 hours, they are ready when they are dry and break when you touch them.
• Mix the herbs with some good quality sea salt. You need twice as much herbs as salt
• Put your new salt in a cute jar - and its done!

Las Vegas 

As you might have heard, Alfie's Blog has been nominated for a Blog Design Award and so we're off to Vegas for the awards ceremony next week! Our friend Sarah is coming to stay for a couple of weeks, and we're planning a road trip to Vegas with Alfie.

We've also signed up for a new training course called K9 Nose Work which I'm sure Alfie will tell you all about on his blog.

View from yesterday's race in the bay

More Sailing

I thought it would be fun to learn some more about sailing so I've joined Jelte's local sailing group here in San Francisco. I haven't really done any sailing since my time in sailing school when I was a kid, and a competent crew course in Thailand ten years ago - but I'm slowly picking up some skills and I almost know which ropes to pull when now. But oh my gosh I had forgotten how many bruises you get from moving around in a boat, my legs are black and blue now! :-)

Elvis Sandwiches and Christmas Decorations

Say hello to our new car - a gas guzzling, roaring SUV monster that matches Alfie's tan colour perfectly.

Important message noted on garage wall

Christmas decorations in Hayes Valley near our street

Peanut butter jam sandwich - did I make it an Elvis with bananas and bacon? Hell yeah!

Our neighbourhood cafe

Apartments, Breakfast Buns and Karl the Fog

Famous Breakfast Bun

Before we moved to San Francisco we were warned that it would be really difficult to find an apartment. Firstly because its not that many apartments available in the areas we like, secondly because we have a dog, and thirdly because landlords like to see tenants' credit score (something that takes longer than one month to build up!).

So we did some research and found out that it would be a good idea to prepare an info 'pack', with all our financial info and a cover letter introducing ourselves. In the letter we wrote about our recent move, included a paragraph about the dog explaining what a top specimen of a pooch he is, and we even put a little family photograph in there with the three of us. 

Open House Viewings and Interviews

Chased by the famous fog

Then we went to a couple of viewings, some of which were what's called an 'open house'. Open house is usually an hour in the weekend when all prospective tenants can come and see the flat, ask any questions they might have and get interviewed by the landlord in front of everyone else. 

We went to one viewing where there must have been twenty other people standing around as we discussed our income and why we haven't had time to build a credit score yet with the landlord - awkward to say the least!

Turns out we must be irresistible tenants because out of the two apartments we liked and applied for - we ended up getting approved for both!

Our New Flat

The flat we picked is a modern apartment in Hayes Valley. We'll have two bedrooms and bathrooms, a small patio outdoors and a gym in the building. We're aiming to move sometime in the last week of November.

Skype?

In other news - If you haven't already got our Skype details then get in touch and we'll send them over so we can chat. Alfie talked to his younger sister Bella earlier today - although we have no idea what they were barking about they seemed to enjoy it!