I haven’t even finished this book yet,  but it’s so well-written that I just had to post a quick note to suggest it to you!

I’m also reading John Lennon: The Life by Phillip Norman (800 pages!), so it’s taking me longer than usual to finish. Anyway, Rushdie has a seriously lovely and poetic way with words, and the story is interesting. Check it out of your local library!!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Valentine/President’s holiday! Now for the recap of my weekend.

On Friday night we drove into San Francisco and checked into the hotel. We stayed at the Inn at the Opera, which is literally steps to the Opera house. Tim and I were both very hungry, so we walked to The Crepe House on Gough Street. Mmmm! I had a Greek salad, and Tim ordered a chorizo scramble. For dessert, I had a crepe with strawberries, brown sugar, and whipped cream. Tim decided on a crepe with bananas, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla ice cream. It was so delicious, and cheap! On the way back to the hotel, we ended up stopping at Citizen Cake and grabbing a few AWESOME treats: a ginger-molasses cookie and a lemon sandwich cookie.

Saturday morning we woke up early and had a quick (free) breakfast in the hotel. The Cal Academy of Sciences opened at 9:30am, and we got there a few minutes before opening, so we could avoid some huge crowds. Tim and I have been looking forward to visiting for a long time! My favorite part of the visit was the Planetarium show, but the rainforest exhibit was pretty neat too.

We had a delicious lunch in the museum cafeteria (no lie!) of cheese quesadillas, salad and pork tacos (Tim’s choice). Afterwards, we finished up the visit and headed out into Golden Gate Park.  Tim and I both love the Japanese Tea Gardens, but we’d never visited together. It was such a beautiful day (no fog!), and perfect weather for walking around.

After a lovely cup of Jasmine tea and some fortune cookies at the tea house, Tim wanted to walk around the Botanical Garden.  We’re starting to figure out a plan for our backyard, and it gave us a few good ideas. Tim is especially keen on the idea of bamboo all around the fenceline; easier than building a taller fence, prettier than plain bushes, and it grows fairly quickly.

After 5 hours of walking around, I was feeling tired so we went back to the hotel for a nap before dinner. I’d made reservations at Cafe Altano; it was within walking distance, had good reviews on Yelp and the menu looked tasty. The pricing is very reasonable; after wine (one glass for me, two for Tim), salads, entrees, dessert AND tip, we only spent $80. I would definitely recommend it!  We stopped in again at Citizen Cake (the cookies were just too good!) and this time we got a ginger sandwich cookie, a vanilla cupcake and their version of a Payday, which is Tim’s favorite candy bar. Once again, everything was delicious!

I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep, because my darn belly refused to sit comfortably (even with pillows) so the next morning we stayed in bed until 9.  We had brunch reservations at Absinthe Brasserie at 1:30pm, so I just had some fruit and an english muffin for breakfast. We checked out at noon, and walked towards Hayes Street. With time to kill, Tim thought we should stop and grab some coffee at Arlequin. They had a lovely garden to sit in and relax, so we took advantage of the sunshine. 

Absinthe was PACKED! I was so glad that we made reservations. Since we were at a place called Absinthe, Tim decided to try the actual liquor. It smelled like crap liquorice. He seemed to like it! I ordered a yummy lemonade made with lemon juice, ginger, cranberry juice and sparkling water. For my meal, I had a fantastic grilled vegetable sandwich with tons of cheese, and Tim had biscuits, gravy and grits (such a guy platter!). Of course, we had to order the french fries too.

Dessert was an oddity: Kabosu Lime mousse. The mousse was rolled in an elderflower gelee and seated on a green tea cake. It was unlike anything I’ve had before, but it tasted good.  I would love to go back to Absinthe the next time we’re in the city.

It was such an amazing weekend with Tim, and a wonderful Valentine’s Day. I was happy to get home though, and sleep in my own comfy bed. And, of course, I missed my babies!

Here’s a gallery of pictures from our adventures:

Click on the image to see the full size.

xoxoxoxoxo

Earlier today a friend mentioned her desire for Valentine’s Day cupcakes from her husband, in lieu of flowers. As I am pregnant AND an avid cupcake fan, it gave me not only a strong craving for buttercream, but the idea to post my thoughts on some cupcake bakeries I’ve visited.

Icing on the Cake: Located in Los Gatos, CA. BEST cupcakes I’ve ever had! Cakes are always moist, fresh and delicious, and the frostings are inventive and tasty. Strongly recommend: Salty Dog (chocolate, caramel and sea salt flavors!)’, Luscious Lemon, Berry Berry (it always tastes like fresh strawberries), Mint Chip and the Swirly Cakes (one of the ONLY chocolate cakes I’ll eat, though one is good for 2 or 3 people, in my opinion).

Image from Icing on the Cake’s website

Kara’s Cupcakes: Located at Santana Row in San Jose and Oxbow Market in Napa, CA. The cakes themselves have good flavors, but are usually very dry (like they’ve been sitting out for 3 or 4 days). The pastry chefs have NO feeling for buttercream; it tasted like a single block of butter. Buttercream is truly an art. Note: definitely not the work of one shop.  I’ve been to two different locations and tried three different flavors; same results, I’m sorry to say.

Teacake: Located in Emeryville, CA. Not great; they have interesting flavor combinations but they always sound better than they taste.  They do, however, make a few tasty cookies; but since I’m reviewing their main money-maker, kind of moot at this point. I’ve only been to the Emeryville location, but have visited on several occasions without a change in the cupcakes.

Sift: A Cupcakery: Located in Downtown Napa, CA. I love the cupcakes at Sift. Everything tastes fresh, and they do a lovely job of decorating their cupcakes (fun designs and glitter!). The buttercream is delicious (always a little extra for those frosting lovers) and the cakes are moist. Notable flavors: Pink Champagne (raspberry cake with champagne buttercream), Limonata (Meyer Lemon cake, lemon curd and lemon buttercream) and Snickerdoodle (vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and tons of cinnamon!!). There’s also a location in Santa Rosa, but I’ve never been.

Anyone have any recommendations of other shops to try?  I’ve heard great things about Sprinkles, but have yet to try one of their creations.

How far along? 24 weeks, 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: +7 (seems to be pretty steady, about 1 lb per week now)

Matrnity clothes? Wore maternity pants twice this week, but wearing regular shirts in size Medium, instead of Small or Extra-Small. I miss my old sizes.  

Stretch marks? no. I’ve been using the Palmer’s everyday, hope it helps!

Sleep: MUCH better. Quality isn’t great, but I’m getting more of it

Best moment this week: Nothing exciting this week, looking forward to the weekend

Movement: all the time, all over the place

Food cravings: CAKE. I haven’t had any all week, but everyday we’ve watched episodes of Cake Boss and it is torture! I want buttercream, white cake and rice krispy treats covered in more buttercream and strawberries. MMMM.

Gender: boy

Labor Signs: n/a

Belly Button in or out? in; my belly button was pretty far in to begin with. Now it is more visibly out, but probably looks like a normal ‘innie’ for anyone else.

What I miss: I miss getting out of bed in the morning without all the work it takes to hoist myself up!

What I am looking forward to: a fun weekend in San Francisco! Cal Academy of Science!!

Weekly Wisdom: I don’t have any interesting tidbits to offer, sorry folks!

Milestones:  Marco weighs over 1 lb and is about the length of a large ear of corn!

I follow many cool people on Twitter.  A good percentage are people I actually know, but there are some interesting celebrities that made the cut;  one of them being R.L. Stine. I KNOW you read the Fear Street books, and probably the Goosebumps series as well. Everyone did. The Goosebumps books were always slightly goofy, which I always thought was cool. Then, when I started middle school, there were few things scarier than the latest Fear Street.

Anyway, yesterday he posted some tweets about the late, great Agatha Christie (a personal favorite).

I usually don’t bother to reply to famous people, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

Then, lo and behold, I find this in my tweet feed:

He used MY REAL NAME. OMG. I feel so awesome right now.   Definitely will be checking out the Raichev, I love mysteries.

Thanks to Google’s decision to cut off FTP access to Blogger next month, Tim and I have had to relocate to our new ‘home’, WordPress.

Blog and Good Reads section are completed, but we’re still working on Aperture and About Me. Bear with us while we work out the bugs from the migration process.

Thanks! <3

Friendly webmaster here again….
All is completed but the about section – so the site is now live and all old links will be redirected to this page.
Enjoy! Much love to my wife!
-Tim

Hello All!!! This is Michelle’s Webmaster (Hubby)
We are currently making changes again and are migrating to a new code base. As these changes are being made – the website may act crazy. It’s ok! Things will return to normal in a few days.

You can reach the old (still live version) of the blog at http://booksnshoes.blogspot.com

Once migration is complete you can continue viewing the blog at booksnshoes.com.

Thanks for your patience!

 This ad for Google made me tear up a little.