Fun With Me Frynde

Adrienne visited this weekend - yippee! We had such a fun time, as always. Patrick was in town for work so the four of us met Friday for lunch, then the boys split (Brian to work, Patrick to Vegas) and we were on our own!

On Friday afternoon, we walked along and window shopped a lot. I bought the cutest framed print of what I would have looked like in the 1940's if I had two adorable buff cocker spaniels. I couldn't give the dogs a home, but I did give the print a home in my kitchen.



We had sushi and saw The Secret Life of Bees (I highly recommend it) that evening.

On Saturday, she conducted her Tri Delta training (the reason she got a free ticket out here) while I walked in an American Cancer Society walk to fight breast cancer with my colleagues. That night we ate at Shanghai 1930, a great Chinese restaurant Brian recommended in the Embarcadero area, and had after dinner drinks at Americano.

Perhaps most fun was our trip to Napa yesterday - her first ever! I was sad to see her go but have wonderful memories from her trip. Can't wait to meet up with her and Patrick during the NJ leg of our Christmas vacation.

My own personal scene from There's Something About Mary - Napa Style.

We emailed this photo to Emily from Trefethen. Wish she could have joined us, too!

Angel Island on Fire!

Angel Island, the largest Island in the San Francisco Bay (and fortunately for safety's sake, one that's almost entirely a State Park), went up in flames last night. If you've ever been on our balcony, it's the one that's straight ahead, where there's usually a Christmas tree during the month of December. As soon as we were tipped off by a competitive news station, we ran out to the balcony, where we had a great - yet terrible - view.

Almost immediately Brian Back Seat Producer Neal and his cohort Wilson went into action. Brian called the station (yes, Brian, we know about the massive fire everyone is talking about), while Wilson shot amateur video. Since they hadn't yet seen the chopper up and running, they decided we needed to take photos and email them into the station. Brian was surprised (?!) when our 5MB, 4-year old digital camera couldn't take a better photo of flames at night that are 2-3 miles away. In all reality, I think this photo looks like sparklers on the 4th of July at best. Real photos are available at http://cbs5.com/slideshows/wildfire.angel.island.20.839199.html

Luckily no one was injured and they think even most of the wildlife will be ok, even though about hundreds of acres (about half the island) were scorched. Though tragic, I have to say, the fire was much more entertaining than the Blue Angels.

How many of you?

Jen sent me a link to this website that supposedly knows how many of you (or me) there are in the United States. In other words, how many people share the same first and last name?

According to http://www.howmanyofme.com/...

• There are 305,352,385 people in the United States
• 477,876 people in the U.S. have the first name Katherine
• 172,524 people in the U.S. have the first name Katie
• 119,087 people in the U.S. have the last name Neal
• 186 people in the U.S. are named Katherine Neal
• 67 people in the U.S. are named Katie Neal

Now, this narcissistic exercise had me asking myself "who am I": Katie or Katherine? Chances are likely that I'm Katherine as that's my legal name, but I wonder if somehow people like me are counted twice.

As Jen pointed out (probably in an attempt to make me feel special), I'm probably the only Katie Collins Neal. Too bad they don't let you check middle names! I'm sure "RW Collins" would be really popular. ;)

How many have your name?

Back from Sac

Ok, no...that's not where we've been during the entire month plus of blog abstinence. But it is where we were this weekend. And what better reason to blog than to post photos from our friends' wedding.


What have we been doing in the last month? We've been staying pretty busy.
Here are 10 things we've done since last writing (in no particular order).


1. Went back to Sacramento over Labor Day weekend to hang out with the girls while Brian made is final, final pilgrimage to Yankee's Stadium.



2. Got an iPhone. I seriously love that thing.


3. Lisa Marie and Greg came to stay at Hotel Neal. We had a great time with them, hanging out in Pac Heights and North Beach, and of course, playing Skip Bo!


4. Watched a lot of baseball, including the last home game at Yankee's Stadium. I thought it was pretty cheesy to bring out actors to commemorate the ghosts of Yankee's Stadium. Brian was clearly moved.

5. Went to my first NFL game, the 49ers season opener against the Arizona Cardinals.

6. Started a book club with a few friends out here. First book = The Secret Life of Bees. The cast was on Oprah last week, and I can't wait to see the movie later this month, the book was so good!

7. Said goodbye to summer clothes. Even though it is Indian Summer in San Francisco, it's no longer acceptable to wear summery white pants (winter white is a different story, but it's probably too warm for that).

8. Went to Carolyn & Ryan's wedding at a beautiful vineyard in Sacramento. The first rain of the season didn't get anyone down, as you can tell.

9. On Saturday, we went to Apple Hill - a great place to go to feel like fall is here. The leaves actually change there, and you can't beat the apple butter. I do wish they still had the fat free salad dressings at Boa Vista, though.

10. On our trip to Apple Hill we stopped by a place in Placerville called Z-pie, where their specialty is pot pies (clearly it's not customer service). Here's Jen with her pie.

Hopefully now I'm back on the bandwagon. Sorry to keep you waiting. Comments welcome!