Summer in the City

About a month or so after Jeff and I became engaged, we bought our house in South City. We searched everywhere - Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Soulard. Everything was either way out of our price range or on the verge of being condemned. We were starting to give up hope when our realtor suggested we look at a house that wasn't on the market yet. The family had 2 small boys and mom didn't like the thought of having to keep the house clean for last minute showings. We reluctantly went, dragging along Mike and Beth for second opinions, and fully expected to leave disappointed. It was kind of a strange showing since the current owners were there while we peeked in their closets and wandered through their bedrooms. It was certainly the first and most likely the last time we will receive a house showing from two toddler boys. Jonah and Jakey were so excited to show off their house and were very curious why the 4 strangers were coming to live with them. Their mom seemed like kind of a germaphobe and (as I found out later from the neighbors) rarely let the kids leave the house. No wonder they were so happy to see us. They probably thought we were there to set them free. Despite the weirdness, their amateur realtor skills paid off and we put in an offer the next day.

Its not just the house we love though. The neighborhood has all of the quaint personality that I have always imagined with living in the city. We decided we didn't want to cook one night last week, so we walked a few blocks down to Onesto, a fabulous new Italian place with awesome homemade tiramisu and arancini. A couple of nights later we walked down to Lily's Mexican (not a whole lot of cooking going on in our house). We've got a great coffee shop, running store, and local deli within steps. My newest discovery is a yoga studio, Southtown Yoga, that's right around the corner. I may sound a little new-agey, but this place gave me a great vibe the first time I practiced there. In my 10 or so years practicing yoga, I've tried several studios and I always know within the first few minutes if I will enjoy my experience. STY was warm, calm, and unpretentious. My kind of place.

Of course the area isn't without faults. I've had a few traffic tickets since moving up here (didn't move for the street cleaners, parked too close to the fire hydrant), we park on the street instead of a garage, and I can't run 2 blocks east of our house for fear that some drugged up sketchball off of KingsHighway will drag me into an alley and have his way with me. Nonetheless, we are happy living our urban lives right now and both know that this is exactly where we need to be in this relatively carefree, childless time in our lives.

Squirrel thieves

I had the luxury of growing up with fresh vegetables every summer since my parents have always had a garden. My Grandma and Grandpa Jernigan had a garden on their farm bigger than most backyards. Now that I'm a city girl, I decided to try my hand in a little "city gardening". I started small, just 2 porch tomato plants on our back deck. With all of the rain that we've had, the plants had grown so large that I considered transplanting them into the ground. At last count, I had EIGHT lovely tomatoes that were getting ready to turn red. That was until yesterday. Jeff called me at work and told me that while he was home yesterday for a bit, he let Annie out and decided to check on my beloved plants. Apparently squirrels like unrippened tomatoes and the little bandits made off with 6 of them. While I am irritated, I kind of have to laugh at the thought of a tiny squirrel hopping on our deck, plucking the tomatoes from the vines and dashing off through the yard with a tomato half their size in their itsy bitsy mouth. I hope that my rodent neighbors will be merciful and spare me the last 2. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

Cali pictures

Northern Cali vacation

We had a fantastic time in Napa and San Francisco June 25 - 30. Five couples went and we shared a beautiful house located on its own vineyard. We hit several wineries each day, ate amazing food, and completely blew our budget. We ended up the trip with one night in San Fran. Somebody should have warned me how different the San Fran summers are from the sticky midwest! Apparently Mark Twain was right when he said "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco."

For some odd reason, I can't get the slideshow of pictures to play without creating its own post (I'm still a blogging novice) so you can see the pictures above.