The Heusens

A few weeks ago, my brain-twin Daphna defended her dissertation. Yes, my peeps. Daphna is now DR. Daphna. Despite her horrific procrastination (I say this because I suffer from the same malady), she exited from the defense gracefully...and with zero revisions. Jealous? You should be.

A celebration was in order. Daphna, Marsha and I headed up to San Francisco on BART.


Where we sat next to this guy:


Check out his outfit. I mean, homeboy was accessorizing with VIALS OF GREEN COLORED LIQUID in his ears (click to enlarge). I really felt sad when I saw this guy because I realized I probably wouldn't see anyone of his ilk in Indiana. Oh, the nostalgia. What's a girl to do in a town where people don't wear green vials of liquid in their ears? Die?

We made a quick stop at my happy place, the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market.


One of the many reasons why the Ferry Plaza is awesome is because it has a store with the tagline "Tasty Salted Pig Parts." My kind of store.


We stopped by Miette and bought some macarons with a lovely gift card from Anita.


Then, it was off to dinner at Delfina. The only other time I've ever been to Delfina was with Gayle and Erin, after Erin's successful dissertation defense. It's a great restaurant with awesome service...and AWESOME bread!

We had prosecco to celebrate, and started with the Crostini Misti: Chicken liver rustico, white bean-bottarga and fava bean-pecorino, which we all agreed was like heaven:


Then, we shared the Insalata di Campo, with bitter greens, pancetta, walnuts, Parmigiano and balsamic vinaigrette:


We then ate a trio of goodness: a lamb dish with peas (my least favorite dish of the three), the Strawberry Mountain Ranch hanger steak with fries (which were perfect, and what makes me happier than perfect fries?!), and a wonderful ravioli with pancetta, mint, and peas:


We ended with a chocolate souffle...and then decided a second dessert was in order at Bi-Rite Creamery, AKA the best ice cream in the world. All in all, a perfect night.

The next night, we celebrated some more with Daphna and Tara, who defended earlier that day. I'm still waiting to receive the pictures Daphna didn't post on Facebook (ahem), which may have been "questionable", "belligerent", and like maybe someone was trying to molest someone else. And like maybe that someone was Daphna, and that someone else was yours truly. Awesome.

Posted by Ashlyn at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

Today, our movers arrived from California with all our stuff. Everything made it, although a few pieces of furniture were scratched. It's unlikely that we'll get any money back for it, though, even though IU paid for full-replacement insurance. Grrr. It made me really mad when we discovered that the packers basically marked all of our furniture (and all sides of it) as having scratches and damage--which it clearly did not--that way, they can always say the damage was pre-existing if anyone tries to make a claim. Grr.

So, a word to the wise: take a lesson from me and review all the little side notes about your furniture (and the movers' bizarre coding structure) when you move! For example, how was I supposed to know that a note reading "L1R2RU3" actually means something like "your entire piece of furniture is covered in scratches"?

All the furniture fit into the garage/storage area of our sublet (which my colleague Nicole was sweet enough to clear out), and there was a second successful drop-off at my office, where we unloaded all my IKEA furniture and infinite file folders.

Here are three signs we're enjoying our new home:

1. Walk-in shower! Holla!


2. We seem to be very comfortable doing things like opening dresser drawers (not ours) and picking out (throwing out) pajamas:


3. Espresso machine. We're in business baby.

Posted by Ashlyn at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments

I have a huge backlog of posts to do. Let's pretend we're still in California, shall we?

So...last month, we finally made it to the California Academy of Sciences. Our friends all gave rave reviews of the place, and our experience was no different! How can you go wrong with a museum that's smack-dab in the middle of Golden Gate Park?

First off: The Museum Cafe is the best museum cafe I have ever been to, hands down. I mean, seriously! Check out their menu! Charles Pham of Slanted Door fame consulted on the menu. It's all about local, sustainable foods...and everything we ate there was excellent. I had amazing slow-cooked pork tacos with homemade salsa verde. To die for.

The cafe was super chic, also! I loved the metal-topped tables. And the colorful orange Eames molded plastic side chairs. (By the way, if you want to buy some of these chairs, Design Within Reach is having a sale on them right now). So fun, whimsical, and functional!

For dessert, we had some amazing, huge, uber-rich ice cream sandwiches:


We took a tour of their several story-high, climate-controlled rainforest, which is filled with native fish and butterflies. To get in, you have to go through two air-lock doors to make sure the climate isn't affected...and that no butterflies escape. Neat!


We also enjoyed their aquarium, especially the aquarium tunnel! The diver was super nice, risking life and limb to pull out his air mask to smile at Saya through the glass.


We enjoyed a 3-D movie on the lives of bugs, complete with awesome 3-D glasses:


Now take a look at this photo:


The garden in the back is actually on the roof of the museum. It's a sustainable garden filled with native plants. They even grow some of the food items used in the Cafe right here on the roof!

The museum is right across from the DeYoung (seen here in the background), where King Tut will be visiting soon!


It's also very close to the Japanese Tea Garden, where we said our goodbyes to Golden Gate park over some jasmine tea and arare.


P.S. Every Thursday night, the museum transforms into a cocktail venue for adults ages 21 and over. Mingle while browsing exhibits, listening to live music, and enjoying a drinky drink (or two). Details are here!

Posted by Ashlyn at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments