oh yeah…..and Football too, of course!

Scenes from the weekend:

Charlie and I went to the beach on Saturday morning.  He is sooo in love with the beach.  Doesn’t he look so happy and content in this pic?

His normal beach behavior is:  First, he jumps in the water and swims for a minute.  Then, he spends about 10 minutes rolling in the sand, covering every bit of his body.

I’ve seem other dogs roll in the sand of course, but not for 10 minutes straight.  Other dog owners always look at me with sympathy and say something like, “Gonna be fun to give him a bath later….ha”

Truth is, most of it shakes off when he dries, so it’s not so bad.  And he just seems so happy doing it, I can live with the sand.  Yes, I spoil him.

He's a nut.

Saturday afternoon:  Baking time.  Cupcakes.    I’m a chocolate girl all the way, but I just love these.  Funfetti makes me want to smile…..and then take a big bite.

Sprinkles=Smiles

Saturday night, we hosted Game Night.  Clue, Pictionary,  Uno, and many games of (somewhat competitive) ping pong.   My horrible drawing talents weren’t so bad and our team did really well at pictionary– totally fun group game.  Highly recommend hosting a game night!

Pictionary skills are much better with italian cookies

Sunday morning- Tree planting at the Free Farm.  SF is covered in community gardens.  They are all volunteer-run and the food grown (kale, lettuce, strawberries, etc) is given out free in a low-income area.  pretty neat.  We planted plum, peach, and pluot trees.  I’ll have to go back in a couple months and check on them

See our pretty tree?

And Sunday afternoon was football, of course!  We’re on west coast time, so the Superbowl is an afternoon event (not an evening).

Go Giants!

Watching football at a bar means way more TVs, but way less superbowl snacks.

Ahhhh, good weekend with plenty of outdoors time and relaxing time.  Weekend done, workweek ahead……off to tackle Monday.

Hope you had a good weekend!

Happy New Year and welcome to my healthy living blog!   We’ll see how the blog evolves, but I’m planning to post 5 days/week and share food, nutrition facts, exercise, and just general fun life adventures.  Thanks for reading (and please comment, that’s my favorite part of blogging!)

2012 has started off pretty darn well.  Love having New Years Eve and Day on the weekend, makes it into a really fun, long holiday.

2012 starts with a bang! Midnight fireworks from a roofdeck

Jan 1 started with brunch outside while trying to watch football.  It was sunny and warm in SF all day, which almost NEVER happens!

First things, first.  Coffee.  Need Coffee NOW.

My first blog photo of myself, hungover, tired, and needing a hair cut, so please don’t judge

Plus food, greasy please.  Here was brunch.  Eggs, potatoes and other stuff. Semi-tasty, nothing special.

Then we pretended to be tourists and walked around Pier 39.  There are usually hundreds of sea lions over here but they have weirdly disappeared.

Luckily, the ice cream shop hasn’t disappeared.  Can’t start the year without a giant scoop of Espresso Chip ice cream.  Oh, YUM.

 Not so giant as J’s though.  That guy knows how to pick flavors- these two flavors were def a winner.

Back to watch another football game.  1/3 of a beer.

And then dinner at home.  Tried to balance my holiday-eating with some greens.  Salad with tofu and nutritional yeast (have you tried it? I was so weary before and now it’s my newest obsession) and an apple.

And then sadly, the sun set and “vacation” was over.  Back to work tomorrow!

SO- Did you read the CNN article about New Years traditions in other countries?  In South America, everyone chooses their underwear color based on their hopes for the new year (aka, red for passion, blue for health, green for money, etc), in Denmark people throw old dishes at their friends’ houses (I feel like that might get you arrested in the US?) and in the former Soviet Union, everyone eats a ton of candy to ensure a sweet year (Ummm, I am adopting this tradition).  Yesterday, instead of running down the street throwing dishes on a sugar high wearing red, green, and blue underwear, I just ate, drank and watched football. Shoot.

Have you ever spent NYE in another country?  Do you have any unique New Years traditions?