Free time, Friends from afar, and Flu shots

This weekend was the first weekend I've had off in 4 weeks.  Also, our friend from back East, Lauren Vasta, was coming in to town for a visit.  Needless to say, I was excited.  Unfortunately, my immune system was not.  It finally gave up the ghost just coinciding with Lauren's arrival last Wednesday.  We went out to dinner at La Puerta in Gas Lamp (excellent Mexican food) that night and I wasn't doing too poorly, but the next morning I woke up feeling like someone had taken sandpaper to my throat.  To be fair, I was already starting to get sick earlier in the week, but seemed to be fighting it off, or at least holding it at bay.  Then I had the bright idea of getting the flu mist, and I think my immune system decided if I wasn't going to be nice to it, it wasn't going to be nice to me. 
Thursday was rough at work but I soldiered on (sailored on?), and that night we went to a Padre's game.  One of my fellow residents has season tickets and he'd worked a deal with his ticket seller to be in the "steal a base" competition.  Between the innings two people run from opposite outfields to second base, grab one of 2 bases set out, and run back.  He'd been training for a week, doing deep lunges and such.  However, they announced the race and our friend was still sitting amongst us.  Someone had screwed up and he didn't get his chance to compete (my theory is they felt he'd dominate and make all future events look pathetic and weak in comparison).  On Friday I was sent home from work and slept for numerous hours trying to recover from the most epic sickness that anyone has ever had, and Maureen and Lauren went to the beach.  That night I awoke from my Odinsleep and we went to Cafe 21 and sampled many fine sangrias (...sangriai?).  We met up with some friends out in town and then came home and watched The Avengers.  This paved the way for an epic Saturday of epicness.
I was somewhat recovered from my illness so we went to Little Italy for their farmers market.  We got to show Lauren the goat cheese seller who looks like a goat, we got some new delicious avocado cilantro hummus, and some sweet strawberry rhubarb jelly.  Then we returned to the apartment and watched some college football.  We then went out to Pacific Beach Shore Club to enjoy the view and also see the beach.  By "the view" I of course mean the people watching.  I described Pacific Beach to Lauren as San Diego's version of the Jersey Shore.  It did not disappoint.  There were the Red Bull-Vodka slushies in chalices which I had promised.  There was also a white trash costume party.  It took us about an hour and a half to realize that this is what was happening because most of the outfits weren't that different from what you usually see in PB.  It was awesome.  The beach was also beautiful.  We then came back and went out to Neighborhood in East Village.  We immediately went back to the wall of kegs and went into the speakeasy, Noble Experiment.  Lauren got a big kick out of it and it was a blast.  We then wandered around downtown San Diego hitting up Zanzibar for dinner, Henry's for dancing, and Salt Box for a night cap before heading home.  It was a great weekend and I'm mostly recovered from my cold.  It was great to see Lauren Vasta and we can't wait to have her out again.  Anyone else interested in coming out and visiting.  This is a taste of what you have in store.  Come on out.

 Padre's game vs. LA

The bustling Little Italy farmer's market

Enjoying Noble Experiment

The wall of skulls at Noble Experiment

Dinner and Beverages at Zanzibar

Clean!!

Our apartment is clean & almost completely put together as of today! Whoo hoo! (Only took us 3 months....geez). The only thing left is to hang the rest of our pictures on the wall and our "home" will be complete :) It may seem like a simple thing but it makes such a huge difference and is one step closer to making San Diego our home--for however long that may be. The cats are not happy though :( Any time we run the vacuum or the house smells weird (read: clean) they freak out. They'll get over it though, the big babies. I'll have to post pictures soon for those that we haven't given the "skype tour" of the apartment.

And the wonderful thing that spurred this recent bit of organization? Our friend Lauren is coming to visit this weekend! It will be so good to see her & I'm looking forward to a bunch of fun adventures to be able to tell you about via blog :)

San Diego Restaurant Week 2012

Restaurant Week--two words that make me drool with anticipation no matter what city we are in. 

This year we went with a group of friends to Acqua al 2 Ristorante to take advantage of the prix fixe menu. 

Oh. My. Goodness. So delicious!

Apparently on Thursday nights they do a Happy Hour at the bar with complimentary hors d'oeuvres--lucky for us yesterday was a Thursday :) After sampling some of the goodness to come we were shown to our table for the feast to begin. 

We all started out with the Assaggio di Primi, which is a Chef's choice tasting of 5 of the first course options. Five delicious plates of pasta later my mouth was sighing with content--and we still had the main course & dessert to go! A balsamic filet mignon and a creamy tiramisu later I can safely say that I'd like to go back again sometime (soon). 

Good times, great food & wonderful friends. Life is good. 

Welcome!

As much as Brian we love telling the same stories to new audiences, we thought it might finally be time for a blog :) We're excited about the opportunity to share our adventures with you in a new way and to give our family & friends another way to touch base (even if it is just electronically). So please enjoy our ramblings and we look forward to Taylor-izing a few stories for you!