October and November travels and whereabouts

October was a particularly busy month because within a matter of weeks I started looking for a new apartment, found one, and moved! This was also interspersed with a few weeks of travel for work and for fun.

On one of my few weekends in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of hosting Kylie and Glen, friends from Melbourne. They were only in town for a quick weekend trip, but it was so nice to visit with them.

Kylie and I at Ottomista wine bar in the Marina

The second week of October, I spent a week in Washington, D.C. visiting with high school friends Rachel, Eleeza and Katie. I stayed with Rachel, and because she also works from home we had a lovely pattern of mid-morning walks, home-cooked lunches, evening dinners and yoga classes with full days equivalent of work interspersed amongst the activities. We also spent a very autumnal weekend with Katie, Eleeza and some of Rachel's university friends having brunches, visiting a pumpkin patch at a farm in Virginia, having a game night, and hosting a dinner party.

Fall centerpiece, pork roast dinner, and pinot noir at Rachel's house 

 Me and Katie, 8.5 months pregnant!

Me in a corn maze

On my return to San Francisco, I celebrated Ben's birthday with him by taking him to dinner at Espetus, a Brazilian steakhouse in SF and giving him tickets for him (and I) to see comedian Russell Peters later in November.

Then, it was a few busy days of packing before moving from Russian hill to Nob Hill (only 5 blocks). I have a much newer and more spacious place, and I only share it with one other person. Bernard and Ben were kind enough to help me move, particularly considering it was a very wet day.

The next day, I was off to Phoenix for a week of work, then back for Halloween weekend before off to a client in the Atlanta, GA region for another week.

It wasn't until the second week of November that I spent more than a night or two in my new place, and I took the opportunity of a week at home to host a dinner party and do a lot of cooking. Here is the evidence of all my vegetable and chicken stock, a side project

My final weekend in San Francisco before vacation, I hosted Dylan visiting from London. Ben and I took the opportunity to further expose him to American culture by a night out at the Final Final bar watching the Nebraska football game. For a bit of balance, we went on to A16 for dinner afterwards.

That Sunday night, Ben and I went to see the Rusell Peters comedy show in San Jose, which was incredibly funny and well worth the effort to see him in person. Then I was off back to Atlanta for 36 hours before arriving back in SF midday on Wednesday. I only had the afternoon to take a few conference calls and finish packing before my vacation began and I was headed back to SFO...