J'Adore Paris!

That's right folks, that's me, in the shadow of one of the most famous buildings in the world, shivering, with frozen toes and a steely reserve not to wait in line to ascend to the top of the tower to gaze upon the snow covered city below.

My week-long trip to Paris to visit Michelle and Joseph, students of the French language and tour guides extraordinaries, was too short to say the least. Despite Michelle's ability to keep me awake for longer than I had ever thought possible, I still feel as though I barely scratched the surface of the culture-packed French capital.  Visits to major museums, shows, excellent restaurants, cathedrals, monuments, and innumerable wine bars only left me with the feeling that I must come back.  And that I must learn a bit more French before doing so. 

Here are a few photo highlights from the trip:

Les amoureux at the Arc de Triomphe

The IM Pei pyramid at the Louvre

Checking in with some of the 6 million residents in the Paris catacombs

Running on pure adrenaline (and a bit of champagne) after lots of traveling and little sleeping

Too hungover for more champagne the next morning at Moet & Chandon?

Never!

Le Moulin Rouge

Feeling the love in the City of Lights

Happy New Year!

Not to worry, faithful readers- we will have holiday and travel updates posted soon! Hope everyone had a great holiday season and is geared up for the most cuddly of all Chinese zodiac years- year of the Rabbit.

Holiday Spirit

Nothing says Christmastime more than your favorite holiday movie and in Jared's case, that means watching Home Alone.  Lucky for me, Home Alone ranks second in favorite Christmas movies after Gremlins, so I am happy to indulge as well.  Last year, we celebrated with cheese pizza and Pepsi (and no one wet the bed afterward).  This year, I discovered that the Roxie theater had a special Sunday afternoon matinee of Home Alone, "Drunk + Alone," featuring Prohibition beer and Humphrey Slocombe ice cream floats, a drunk Santa, and a rowdy 20-something crowd (the one kid in attendance looked a bit bored).  The combination led to most people being drunk, but no one was alone.

Holiday Gift Guide: the Jared & Lindsay edition

Although the internet is currently flooded with holiday gift guides, we thought this would be the perfect opportuity to provide ideas for the recently married, often migrant, young Bay Area-dwelling couple on your list. Although few would say no to an iPAD and its corresponding designer case,we have created a list that is far more suited to the needs of a young San Franciscan who might just happen to be named Lindsay or Jared:

1. Parking Space- $250/month- the ultimate luxury.

2. Spacious Closet- $3000 for complete redesign- would free up a lot of kitchen cabinet space

3. Teleporter- $ unknown- would considerably reduce Jared's daily commute time

4. Friends- $150 (a few rounds of drinks)- superfluous? possibly, but usually leads to a good time.

5. Dog- $75 (adoption costs)- strictly outlawed by the evil Bernstein property management group

6. House- $MP- probably more out of our reach than the teleporter

So if a certain item tickles your fancy, feel free to package up and send to your favorite Texpatriates this holiday season!

Bon Voyage to Me!

Oui, that is correct j'irai a Paris on December 15th!  I have decided that there is really no reason to sit around and hope a job is going to simply appear- especially during the holiday season- and the prudent thing for someone in my situation to do is to go on an extravagant trip. Although I am pretty sure this is going to have  negative effects on the "money" category in my performance metrics, my   incredibly generous and persuasive cousin convinced me there was really no other option.

Upon booking my trip, I immediately focused on the bare essentials: how to order a bottle of wine (didn't think ordering just a glass would come up that often), how to say: "I am a typical American. I do not speak French," and what to wear on my voyage francais.

Initial reports from the Parisienne front show that it is FREEZING and sometimes even snowing.  This definitely will affect my packing so I decided to do a bit of research to figure out what a Parisienne might wear in such weather.  After perusing Paris street fashion blogs for the winter season, I present some initial results:

A severe but weather appropriate option as it calls to mind a bed quilt. Might need to start scheduling hair appointments to get this look in time...

Whimsical, yes, but could lead to difficulties in tight spaces

 

Sort of a futuristic Russian look, which is never really out of fashion

Fewer than 300 baby foxes were harmed in the making of this coat, making it a surprisingly eco-friendly option.



Although each of these options present a strong case, I feel that it is likely that my search will continue for the perfect Parisienne winter get up. Feel free to help me out by sending links to any additional outfit options that you feel would really help me blend in while ordering wine only by the bottle and reinforcing stereotypes of Americans' lack of linguistic abilities in the land of the bidet.

Jimmy Cup 4: Retribution

Retribution has been acheived. No longer is a Galvin ceremoniously drinking out of the 3 foot chalice of ancient lore. After two long years, a Drakeley again owns the Cup and there are no plans to relinquish the crown for years to come.

Here are some images of how it all went down:

The former champ enjoying one last drink out of the Cup.



 Yep, we get celebrities. Bobby Carpenter was in full effect at Jimmy Cup 4.

Mack made his presence felt by taking home the Chutch in his first appearance while Marie added some tough East Coast flavor to the event in her debut.

All smiles from a former champ and her competition.  Glad they had a good time, but they should consider adopting Mike's more focused intensity if they want to regain the title next year.

 The face of a bald eagle fueled champion triumphing over Mom Galvin.

Jimmy Cup 5 should be interesting...



9th Annual DAT

Once again, competitors arrived from near and far to compete in the annual Day-After-Thanksgiving foosball and ping-pong tournaments. Representatives from Korea, California, New York, Italy, and Texas battled it out in an epic struggle for greatness.  Only those with the greatest table-sport abilities and resistance to the often crippling effects of spending too much time around the keg emerged victorious.

Despite the heckling of onlookers from the "walnut gallery," a previously unknown 16 yr-old ringer won the ping-pong tournament in a last round defeat of the perpetually-confident Michael Galvin.  Discouraged by the pattern of globally ranked  underage tennis players taking the title, minimum drinking requirements might be instated in years to come to ensure a level playing field for all competitors.

 

Inside, an unsurprising series of events took place as the "randomly" selected team of Tara & Dad Galvin worked their way to the top of the ranks and to eventual victory.  Neither Jared nor my team made it into the final rounds, but we definitely made a respectable showing and transferred our efforts to socializing and tending to the needs of the keg.

All in all, the 9th Annual DAT party was an unquestioned success!

Victory Lap

Before heading back to Texas for the Thanksgiving holidays, we celebrated Jared's 29th birthday with a collection of friends we have made since moving to San Francisco. 

We kicked off the rainy evening at Tony's Pizza, universally recognized as the best example of Neapolitan pizza in the Bay Area and according to our Northeastern friends in attendance that evening "not as horrible as most pizzas on the West coast".  Several delicious pies and more than a few bottles of Italian red later, we dashed through the rain to nearby Mojito, to check out a local funk band, the Grease Traps. 

Although the music didn't exactly blow any one's mind, it was the perfect backdrop to a rowdy evening with friends and a great way to ring in Jared's victory lap through his twenties....

Greatness Falls

This week, the unthinkable happened- Ming Tsai was eliminated from the Next Iron Chef.  For those of you that have had the opportunity to visit us here in SF, you might have met our new favorite quirky television chef (RIP Floyd- we love you, brother!) and star of Simply Ming- Ming Tsai.   Dubbed by Kelly as the Chinese Sly Stallone, Ming has kept us couch-bound many a Sunday morning in awe of his East-meets-West combinations.  

When Jared discovered that Ming would be a contender to serve as the next Iron Chef, we had no doubt that he would blow the other no-name chefs out of the water.  Unfortunately, Ming got a bit overzealous and often tried to incorporate the entire pantry into one dish.  He was also criticized for his "dated" plating tactics (apparently frosted glass plates are sooo 90's). Only one challenge away from his place as the next Iron Chef, Ming was eliminated.

We have had a few days to recover from this trauma and our anger at super-lame monkey boy host Alton Brown has subsided a bit, but we still feel confident that Ming would have been the best Iron Chef of the bunch.  At least we will still be seeing Ming, merging Yuzu and Ranch Dressing without missing a beat, every Sunday on PBS from the comfort of our mini-couch....

Baby Power

This has nothing to do with anything happening out here, but not everything has to be relevant to us. As an avid photoshopper, this is just an art form that I find to be outrageously hilarious.  Let me know if you agree...

Runway Ready

Walking down Mission street, I usually expect to see everything from pickled pigs ears to chargers for first-edition cell phones, but I was stopped in my tracks when I saw this lovely pair of Cinderella slippers in the window of a Payless shoe store:

In case you can’t read the label, they are designed by no other than Project Runway’s very own Christian Siriano, one of my all-time favorite designers from the show and winner of PR Season 4.  Apparently in  collaboration with Payless, (most likely modeling after Target's many successful top designer partnerships) Christian Siriano has an reasonbly priced but still quite "fierce"collection.

Since I live in a city that has a high level of appreciation for patterned socks with open toe Birkenstocks and hipsters in mom jeans with Amish-inspired print blouses (see the NYT's recent analysis of SF fashion), these beauts have yet to make it out of the house. Luckily, I have a few trips to Texas in my future and I know that their shininess and impracticality will certainly be appreciated there....

A Giant Celebration

Not surprisingly, we seem to be some of the only people in town feeling the sting of the Rangers' loss.  Its almost like people don't even care about Texas sports around here...

Foreseeing the possible madness on Monday night, Jared convinced me of the merits of watching the game at our favorite neighborhood gourmet ham and oyster bar Hog & Rocks, a surprisingly good place to watch sports.  Packed to the brim with Giants fans, even our lone Ranger fan (pun intended) from game 4 was nowhere to be seen.   After the post-win madness of Journey songs, tequila shots, and high fives all around, we headed to the streets to see how the everyday fan was taking the news.  This video pretty much sums up the feeling of things on the streets: http://missionlocal.org/2010/11/revelry-at-16th-and-valencia/. Luckily, we missed the later incidents of mattress burning and winner-induced looting.

But the fun didn't stop there.  Today, a victory parade with over 100,000 people in attendance was held in downtown San Francisco. 

Everyone in the city seems to be wearing orange and there is a marked increase in the number of games of catch going on in the park. It is pretty hard to not be impressed with the level of excitement, but given the amazing amount of heartbreak these fans have endured over the years and the fact that they won with a panda, a fearful beard, and the kid from Dazed and Confused at the helm, it is not very surprising.  So, the bottom line is that if the Rangers had to get beaten, at least it was by a team that truly savoured the victory with a full-fledged citywide throwdown.