Up the coast on toast

This weekend, a trip up north. We had an incredible view and a fabulous time. Married life is wonderful.

Love Day Twenty-ought-six

Valentine's Day was romantic and sweet. A martini and dinner at LJ's, followed by the Curious George movie at the Metreon, and amazing flowers in my most favorite colors. A perfect silly Love Day.

Around the House

Newish year, newish house pictures!

Jeff and Lori Beth's Pinkish Goat


The kitchen paint job with our bright orange living room(with art by Mark Brown and Garret Gaston) in the background


The green hall and some robot art bought from Pete Doolittle on the street outside Toronado.

Archive: A nice one of some guys we know

Originally posted 3 August 05




A lovely picture of the Best Dj, Best Bride's Dad and Best Best Man anyone ever had, ever.

Archive: Island Radio

Originally published 2 August 05: Island Radio






When it is good, it is very-very good, and when it is bad... Anyway, we listened to this a lot while we were away, before Drew's fabulous Honeymoon Funk CDs arrived. Click and see if you like it:

http://www.kkcr.org/index.html

Archive: The week before the wedding

Originally posted 3 August 05: The week before the wedding

The week before the wedding was busy. We had house guests (Hooray, Josef!), udon, beauty appointments and lambic. All was good in the world.

Jeff went from shaggy...


to snazzy:



Kirsten and Josef went to Japan Center and saw the wishing trees. Some highlights:




Next, Josef auditioned for a part in Beach Blanket Babylon:



We went to a Belgian beer-tasting party at Martin & Rebecca's Novato Grotto:


And we came in First Place on our very first night of Pub Quiz at the Bitter End ever:

Archive: Done For

Originally published 29 July 2005: Done For.

Archive: 7 July, 2001. . .

Originally posted 8 July 05: 7 July, 2001. . .

. . .was when Jeff and I met. Last night, we
celebrated our 4-year anniversary at the
appropriately-named Cafe Gratitude.
We just happened to walk in on
"Russian Name Night" and all the
servers had Russian pseudonyms on their
nym tags. Pretty cool, considering Jeff's interest
and study. Thanks to Mark and Athena for the
beautiful gift of dinner there:

thanks to the Dessert Gods for the wonderful raw food tiramisu
















and hooray for the good parts of 2001
and the Paradise Lounge and serendipity
Four More Years! Four More Years!

Archive: Visiting friends and a trial 'do.

Originally posted 7 July 05

Josef is in town from Baltimore. It's been six months and it feels like he never left our apartment that morning before the long trip across country. We're so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family to share this time with us!

He brought us some beautiful treats from the Amish farmer's market near his house with Aubrey. Now our house smells like Maryland Melon (Marilyn Manson's nicer cousin?)




We went to the pagoda on Hayes Green and had some coffee. It was a lovely sunny day.



Next, Kirsten headed up to the WAK SHACK for a trial hair appointment.



The WAK Shack specializes in retro hair styling and foxy up-do's. The salon is a dream come true, with tiki-kitschy-vintage stuff everywhere. Stylist Erin rolled and sprayed and worked her thing, and Kirsten got to sit (for the very first time) under one of those big space-dome hair dryers you always see in old movies. What a treat! Here's a peek at the test-style:



All in all, a lovely day. More lovely days to come. Wa-hoo!!

Archive: Ring-A-Ding-Ding and Bachelor/ette Fun

Ring objective: Complete.




And posted on 5 July 05:

Bachelor/ette Fun

We had our respective bachelor/ette shindigs this weekend. The day started at 9am. Athena picked Kirsten up and gave her and amazing, luxurious facial. Kim took her for tanning, a mani-pedi, lunch at Baghdad Cafe and a makeover at the Benefit counter. Thank you to Athena and Kim and Buz for the swell afternoon of fabulizing. Back at the Lily Pad, Kirsten threw a quiet cocktail party for her girlfriends at home. Sleepy from chat and Cape Codders, the girl time ended early. A few popped in for a quick round at Lucky 13, and Kirsten and Athena ended the evening themselves by stepping into a local karaoke hotspot to watch people sing their dorky little hearts out before heading to bed to rest up for the 4th of July.

Meanwhile, across town, the boys were out for a full-scale blow-out. Andrew planned a day-into-nighttime fiesta of baseball, barbeque and bars. 15 fellas descended on the Oakland A's stadium with matching cowboy hats and noisemakers. Jeff got a flashy red fedora that he's considering wearing for the ceremony. Drew planned a tailgate party, a sunny Potrero barbeque and a sleepover bar crawl that Jeff and his mates will either always remember or have already forgotten in the haze.






For more bachelor party photos, go here: http://photobucket.com/albums/v168/jeffandkirsten/bachelorparty

Archive: Rings & Ceremony, Vows & Hushpuppies

Originally posted 23 June 05:

Rings:

Check.

Originally posted 25 June 05:

Ceremony, Vows & Hushpuppies

We met with the Right Reverend Dick McKee this morning to drink coffee, eat breakfast, and go over the beautiful ceremony he wrote for us. We're so lucky to have an excellent writer and speaker performing this wedding for us. He also brought us the most beautiful, heartfelt wedding present, from the lovely Linda and him.

We are grateful and honored.

Archive: Bond...Marriage Bond

Originally posted 20 June 05

Today we went to City Hall and got our marriage license. Is it getting official in here?

Anyhoo... pictures!

Archive: Mystery Shoes are In the Bag/We Need a Bath After All this Showering

Originally posted 20 June 05



and 20 June 05

My gosh, all this showering has been overpowering. (We're poets and we don't even realize it.) Our people are so generous, it's unbelievable. We are standing at the foot of Thank-You Note Mountain. Special grazie to Kim and Gretchen and Richard for hosting; to Carol-Celeste and Angela for beautiful decorations and cakes; to Patty and Neil and Merrilee and Shirley, who travelled so far to join us; to Buz for finally presenting Jeff with a dowry; and to every single one of you for being so the best tribe a boy and girl could hope for.







It's all a blur... A mishmash of random pictures is available at http://www.photobucket.com

Archive: Tuxedo Mission is Underway

Originally posted 20 June 05

Three of the fellas went to get their tuxes. Two of the fellas will be getting fitted this week.

Archive: Decor Mission (Almost) Accomplished

originally posted 20 June 05

We are happy and grateful that Leita and Donna want to spearhead the centerpiece effort. Here's a picture of them outside the reception spot:



And one of Angela, who helped Kirsten shop-for and haul home a godzillion centerpiece-pieces from Ikea:

Archive: Engagement Photos and Honeymoon Location

Originally posted 1 June 05

We got our engagement pictures back and they are surprisingly great. Octavia, our photographer, is a photo genius. You can see her work (but not our photos, which are not digital) here. If you want to see our old-fashioned paper photos, just ask and we'll show them to you when we see you.

And originally posted 5 June 05

We booked our honeymoon!

Castle Kiahuna Plantation

Archive: Weather, Lodging & Entertainment

Originally posted 31 May 05

To learn more about San Francisco weather and what to expect, go to weather.com and, if it doesn't come up automatically, punch in zip code 94122.

LODGING:

If you want to stay across the street from us, book yourself a room at the adorable Albion House Inn. This place is known for its delicious breakfasts and boasts a central location on the best little alley in the City-- ours.

Albion House Inn
135 Gough St San Francisco, CA
(415) 621-0896
http://www.albionhouseinn.com

Or, try the historic York Hotel on Nob Hill, just blocks from Union Square, the Theatre District, Cable Car lines, Fine Dining and many other beautiful San Francisco attractions.

York Hotel Reservations
415-885-6800 Press 2 or
1-800-808-YORK (9675)
http://yorkhotel.com/

And for your entertainment pleasure: If you come to town early or plan to stay late, we strongly recommend that you check out the Empire Plush Room-- a former 1920's speakeasy in the York Hotel. This swank and cozy caberet is truly a part of San Francisco history. Shows nightly. Info here:

TICKETS
415.885.2800
http://yorkhotel.com/plushroom.htm

Driving Directions and Registry

Originally posted 31 May 05

DRIVING:

From SFO to Sigmund Stern Grove. . .
1. Start going toward the AIRPORT EXIT - go 0.1 mi
2. Take ramp onto US-101 NORTH toward SAN FRANCISCO - go 1.1 mi
3. Take the I-380 WEST exit toward SAN BRUNO - go 1.9 mi
4. Take the I-280 NORTH exit toward SAN FRANCISCO - go 5.9 mi
5. Take Left fork onto CA-1 NORTH toward 19TH AVENUE/GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE - go 0.5 mi
6. CA-1 NORTH becomes JUNIPERO SERRA BLVD - go 0.5 mi
7. Bear Left on 19TH AVE - go 1.3 mi
8. Arrive at 19TH AVE AT SLOAT BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO

Since people asked us, we have registered for some stuff at Macy's and Target and Home Despot. If you're so inclined, you can either walk in, or go online through a neat charitable organization called I Do Foundation.

About the online option: We wanted to register through the I Do Foundation because all gift and wedding-related purchases through their web site automatically generate donations in support of the Asian Tsunami Relief Fund. If you're inclined to learn more about the foundation and to see our I Do web page, click here and search for the page by entering either of our names in the right-hand column. Thank you!!

Invitations and Vacation Updates

Originally posted 31 May 05.

We sent out our invitations and chances are you've received yours already. They took a long while to make, and at the end of it we were getting a bit loopy. Here's a silly shot of Jeff putting them together.



In other news, we recently went on a fabulous vacation in the sun. We started in New York, where we had the pleasure of spending a few hours with the very charming Robert Smith. Here's a photo of Jeff and Bob outside a delicious BBQ place near Times Square:


Next, we were off to Anguilla, a tiny little island in the British West Indies. It smelled like sea and tropical flowers, and it looked like this as far as the eye could see:


We took a ferry to St Maarten and raced the America's Cup yacht, the Stars and Stripes:

. . .and our team won!


We came home and got cooking on the wedding plans, and now we're updating this page for you.