La La How The Life Goes On: Outside Lands (with a toddler!)

tony, van and I went to the outside lands music festival in SF a couple weekends ago. tony and I had been twice before, but this was our first major festival style outing since having van and we knew it was going to be kind nuts of us. but we did it anyways. all three days!

I thought to myself as I bought the tickets that while I didn't remember seeing many (if any) kids during previous years that there must have been a bunch there. what do music loving people do when they have kids? they bring them, right? well, I guess not because van was one of about six littles I saw all weekend long.

we had such a good time, our little family of three. van was a really, really good boy. he ate his snacks and listened to the tunes. he let us hold him through all the sets, and we took him to run around in between bands. he made tons of friends. TONS. people thought it was awesome that there was a baby at a music festival. he high-fived and low-fived people all over the place. festival goers asked if they could take pictures of him. vendors have him little treats and buttons and stickers every time he passed a booth (see his anchor tattoo in the watermelon pic below). we heard "oh my god, look at that baby!" about 500 times over the three days that we were there.

the first day we saw band of horses, the national (with bob weir!) and paul mccartney! this was my third time seeing paul, tony's second and vanny's first. he was badass as ever. the three hour set just flew by. we made friends with this really funny, older gay couple and danced and sang all night. van took a little snooze toward the end, but woke back up in time to see the fireworks go off during live and let die. while I will go to any paul show within a 500 mile radius and love every second of it, I must say that I was pretty annoyed with his commentary. his stories and banter in between songs have literally been word for word the same since 2003. I think that's pretty absurd. tells us some new stuff, man! he's gotta have some other stories!

van and paul!

the second day was mostly spent meandering around and checking out the vendors and art and food. there weren't a ton of bands we absolutely needed to see that day, which was nice because we weren't rushing to walk miles from stage to stage all day long. we ended up checking out the mother hips (we are such hips loyalists!) and grizzly bear. I would have loved to also see the yeah yeah yeahs, but they played at the same time as grizzly bear and I didn't want to pull myself away from their set. they are incredible.
                      

          

we arrived early on day three - right after a sweet breakfast at a little café in Berkeley where we were staying. ( we stayed in the cutest little one bedroom apartment we found on air bnb, by the way. it was adorable and I would stay there again in a second.) we ate some eggrolls and got our last lemonade of the weekend. this one tent sold the most delicious lemonade I've ever had in my life. word. they made it right in front of you with these big lemons that they squeeze right into your cup. you can taste the little sugar granules when you drink it. or maybe the little crystals are really meth, because it was THAT good.  we drank a cup every day we were there, which means we spent about $20 on lemonade over the three days. whatever. it was vacation.

         

van loved fishbone! while he really took in all the bands we saw, i'd say fishbone was the only one that really moved him to his feet and got him super excited. it was pretty funny. we also checked out trombone shorty, hall and oates, vampire weekend and the red hot chili peppers on our last day.

               

hall and oates were so much fun. I didn't ever expect that they'd be a band i'd ever see live, so it was so cool getting to sing along to all their songs. there is so much greatness behind their stuff - so on point and soulful and melodic, but there is something else so cheesy and kinda funny about them too. I freaking love them. we'd seen vampire weekend before and wanted to check out willie nelson instead (he played at the same time) but van fell asleep during hall and oates so we were stuck at the main stage for the vampire weekend set, which wasn't bad at all. they sounded better than I remember them. the chili peppers were pretty magical for me - and probably most people my age who probably remember them as one of their first favorite bands. they kick so much ass and have so much energy. the only point during the weekend where I almost wished I didn't have a toddler to look after was when their set started. the tween inside me wanted very badly to just run up to the stage and whoop and dance through the encore!

           

 

all in all it was a surprisingly successful and memorable weekend. i'm glad we were able to enjoy it together. honestly, it's not my natural instinct to say, "hey! let's take our year and a half old to a huge and crazy music festival for three days." really, it isn't. i knew it would be logistically difficult and we'd be experiencing the festival differently than we'd had in past years. we had to find quieter areas to sit, further away from the stage. we had to pack healthy snacks. we didn't drink beer after beer all day or get to enjoy the huge Wine Lands area they have. there wasn't a ton of lounging on our part since we had a crazy on the move toddler we had to chase around. our MO has been modified, and we have a new kind of fun now. ob la di, ob la da.

These Two...

i don't know what just compelled me to search for this video, but i'm so glad i did. i hadn't seen it in years.

that hair! those sideburns! those lashes! their clothes!

these two kill me.

Dinner Dinner, Baby Dinner: Zucchini Pancakes

my van is a little grubber. as a wee thing, he was sucking down 4 ounces of formula in the time it takes most babies to finish an ounce in a half. he eats and sleeps like a frat boy; always has. lately, however,  he has been a bit more challenging at mealtimes because he wants to feed himself.

i consulted a couple different veggie pancake/fritter type recipes and came up with these zucchini pancakes. "came up with" is kinda silly. i'm not the first person in the word to think of this or anything. it's quite easy, really. nonetheless, it's one of van's favorites and i make a variation of it about once a week. it's quick, dirties few dishes (my favorite), always gets eaten and allows the little punk to feed himself. winner winner, vanny dinner.

Zucchini Pancakes:

2 zucchini, grated
1 shallot, grated (about a tablespoon or so)
2 eggs (i get big, cage free brown eggs. if you don't, you might need 3)
6 tablespoons of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
a few dashes of salt and pepper

grate zucchini and shallot over a mixing bowl. add eggs, flour, baking powder, s/p and mix. don't expect batter - it's more like a bunch of goopy grated zucchini. if you end up with a big runny mess, try adding another tablespoon or two of flour. 

heat a pat of butter and a little, tiny bit of of oil in a skillet. once your butter is melted, reduce your heat a couple notches. drop a heaping tablespoon of the "batter" into the skillet. flip with a spatula after 2 minutes or so and cook the other side through.the measurements above should get you 8 - 10 little palm sized pancakes.

variations: i've made zucchini carrot pancakes and zucchini corn - both turned out great. i've also used onion when i didn't have any shallots. you could probably sub leeks too, if that's what you have on hand. adding herbs might be fun too. i bet zucchini cilantro would be good. or chives! yum.

Van Francisco

this last weekend we drove to sf to check out the red ball, eat delicious food and shop. we parked near the piers and went to check out the ball, which was right across the street from the ferry building where we were going to have lunch.

when we got there a few guys were filming this chick doing fancy twirls on front of the red ball. i didn't want to crash their session, but let van do his thing anyways. the next day i came across this on the red ball project facebook page. it's vanny! in slow motion!

we basically spent the rest of the afternoon snacking, drinking, walking around, snacking, looking at boats, snacking, watching van squeal at birds, walking and snacking. here are some photos from our day...

here are some funny van faces from our second lunch/early dinner at some touristy seafood restaurant. we always have to hit up the tourist spot for tony who can't be in any kind of close proximity to the ocean and not have crab cocktail. van went back and forth in between cracking himself up by holding his sippy cup with his teeth and no hands and being disappointed and ashamed of us for not letting him eat crab chowder with his hands. these photos capture his joy/disgust.

              

Red Ball!

have you heard of the red ball project? it's a pubic, participatory art project that travels all around the world. it's a huge red ball inflated in odd public spaces.

i heard it was going to make it's way to california this spring. i figured it would probably only visit los angeles, so i was stoked to see it would be making it's way to sf this weekend. and even more stoked when i saw that it's coming to sacramento on april 10th!

so cool.

15 Months!

my little baby is 15 months old today. he is getting so big and so so smart. he'll be smarter than me by the time he is 2 if he keeps learning at this crazy rate.

last year at this time he was just barely learning to grab his toys and roll over. now he can do all sorts of cool big boy stuff!

he can hum his ABC's, which he does ALL DAY LONG. he can count to four. he's learning to eat easily stab- able things with a fork. if you ask him what he wants at any time of day in any context, he replies with "cookie!", which kinda sounds like "gookie." he asks for "tunes!" first thing in the morning and points at his iPod. he still freaks out at the sound of the andy griffith theme song (he yells "THROWWW!" when opie throws the rock in the pond). oh, and he falls on his little face when trying to climb the stairs to the porch. :(

sometimes i get bummed because he's growing too fast, but he really just gets cooler and cooler with age.

happy 15 months, vanny manny.

                


                 

The Biggest Pain in the Ass of my Life

buying our house was the biggest pain in the ass of my life. i've decided to make a little timeline of all the nonsense that was involved because it was so lame and cumbersome and illogical that i know i'll soon forget the details. my mind has already blocked out a number of them.

March 2012
i got pre-approved for a home loan. this was the easy part. i answered some questions and filled out some paperwork and boom. pre-approval done.

April 2012
we looked at a few houses but weren't blown away by anything. this was all fine because we knew that we were picky and loved our rental. we'd happily stay put until we found something that would rock our world.

May 2012
our dearest family friends, a divorced couple, were going to have to sell their home. they approached me to see if i would be interested in buying it. my eyeballs turned into hearts and popped out of my face on metal springs. i called the realtor and we put in an offer. our offer was accepted.

i signed a bunch of papers. the deal was set to close by the end of may. yay!

we ordered an appraisal. the property appraised at our offer price. yay!

we got a home inspection. the home had dry rot and termites and needs a new roof. these problems would cost 15k to fix. oh no!

June 2012
we ask the owners if they could drop the price by 15k. they say no. we redact our offer and are sad. we look at another couple houses but they are lame.

July 2012
our realtor and mortgage guy suggest a 203k streamline loan. this loan enables the buyer to receive a loan for the house and also allots some money for repairs on the home. we thought this was a great option since it would allow us to get the home and deal with the termites and roof. looks like we are perfect candidates for this loan. yesssss.

i fill out all new paperwork. i'm told to contact some contractors to get estimates of what it would cost to repair the roof, dry rot and to treat the termites. i'd also have to repaint, since dry rot repair requires cutting out of wood siding and lots of wood replacement.

August 2012
i finally acquire all the appropriate estimates and paperwork from all the contractors (insurance, licenses, etc.) this took so so long. i submit it all to our loan officer.

weeks pass, and then we get a notice that ALL that paperwork that took me months to get is totally void. i'm told that i needed to hire a general contractor that works specifically with 203k streamlined loans. awesome. back to the drawing board.

meanwhile, seller(s) are getting antsy. the deal was supposed to be done in freaking may. good god. the bullshit process and set backs and misinformation i was given doesn't really resonate with them. it's really confusing and i hardly understand what is going on myself, so explaining this to the sellers is even more nonsensical.

September 2012
new special 203k general contractor comes and looks at the house. we tell him everything that needs fixing. he gets us a bunch of estimates, which we approve. he also tells us that we are required by the 203k FHA streamline folks to get a new appraisal. yeah, a new one even though we got one early on in the process. we needed a special 203k streamline appraisal guy to come. he needs to tell the FHA people that once all the repairs are made, the house is worth the asking price. we were purchasing the house for 185k. we needed the bank to give us an additional 15k to make the repairs. the appraiser needed to okay that the house was worth 185k as is, and once the repairs were made would appraise for 200k.

appraiser visits the house. our realtor is there and pissed, because appraiser is from galt, california. our house is in historic roseville, california,  a place very much unlike galt. we ask him if he's familiar with roseville's unique vintage home real estate market, to which he replies he is not familiar.

after appraiser is done walking around the house and property, our trusty realtor provides him with print outs of recently sold homes in our area. these illustrate that these older roseville homes are legit and in high demand. many fixer uppers in our surrounding neighborhoods that are in FAR worse shape than ours are going for around the same price as ours. we are making out like bandits with a 185k purchase price.

October 2012
i get a call from my loan officer informing me that our sloppy bumpkin of an appraiser appraised the home too low for the 203k streamline loan. the FHA folks say the most we can get is 185k.

oh no! this means we can't make the repairs. eff it, we say. we've been set on this house for months at this point. we'll take it for 185k and make the repairs out of our pocket within the next few years. it's not like the house is falling down or anything...

i then fill out ALL NEW PAPERWORK, and resubmit to just get a regular old FHA loan. again. just like i did months ago, way back at the beginning.

sellers are SUPER antsy at this point. loan officer assures me that this shit will be done in a jiffy. he puts as big a rush on it as he is capable of putting. this will be all done and over with, with keys in my hand by halloween. for sure. at the latest. the absolute latest.

November 2012
FHA tells loan officer that we need a new appraisal. the one we had done originally (185k) has expired since this process was taking so damn long. we call our original appraiser who makes a quick visit and signs off on the 185k price. we are good to go! any day now, the paperwork will all be pushed through the appropriate channels and get the right signatures and we will get the keys. any day now, the assure us over and over.

meanwhile, sellers are INSANELY and rightfully antsy. they say if it's not done within a week, they will put the house on the market. oh nooooo! some other people could end up in MY house!

a couple days go by and my loan officer informs me that there is a conflict with the appraisal. that's because, floating somewhere in the FHA universe, is that fucking low appraisal from the sloppy bumpkin that has yet to be cancelled. a request was put in to cancel it, but things like that take for-ev-er since FHA is a bloated, enormous and inefficient government agency. things like appraisal cancellation, according to their web site, should take like, 10 days. we are on day 30 and it's still hanging out somewhere, waiting to be officially cancelled.

a week goes by. i check my phone and email incessantly. like, i spend hours per day looking down at my phone and logging into my email.  it's the longest week ever. ever!

FINALLY! the appraisal gets cancelled within HOURS of the sellers' realtor getting ready to put a for sale sign in the front yard of my new house.

 i got the keys the day before thanksgiving.

and we moved in just in time to spend christmas in our new house.