Molly and Tim's Blog

Tons of new photos!

2008-11-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

Long time since a blog post... we've done a lot since Japan. Certainly been busy... the short version...

1. We went to Mexico for Cole and Liz's Wedding, such a blast to see everyone from College.

2. We bought a house! Yay! We are so excited and have been slowly getting everything furnished and looking good... hopefully be ready for some BBQ parties soon

3. I finished my fellowship and stayed on as faculty at UCSD. I absolutely love the job.

4. Molly turned 30... threw her a fun fun birthday.... check out the photos in the gallery

5. Otherwise we've been just having fun, lots of surfing, lots of beach time with Oliver. Took him hiking up by Julian last weekend, so beautiful.

Hope all is well... can you believe its November already?

Domains

2008-05-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Sorry for those of you who tried to visit Mollyandtim.com today or attempted to email Molly or I. Chances are you were denied. Apparently someone forgot to pay the domain name registration.... ummm yeah that would be me. Ha! So for a period of 12 hours mollyandtim.com no longer existed... oh the sadness. But thanks to the wonderful people at www.powweb.com (my webhost), they were able to get us back online quickly! Yay! God forbid not being able to look at pictures of Oliver, tokyo or something else! hehehe

Anyways, enough banter. We are off to Mexico in the morning for Cole and Liz's wedding! We are so excited. Seeing tons of friends from back in the days of Westminster! So fun. Surfline.com shows overhead to double overhead surf rolling into Mexico on Sunday.... wonder what it will take to talk Molly into letting me skip away for a few waves? hehehehe

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend... careful of the heat.... supposed to be around a 100 degrees here this weekend...

Some pictures to entertain all of you... This was from the day we landed in Tokyo... I don't know how excited Oliver was to get his own japanese yukata! I think he is meditating in the last one!

-Tim

Last Japan Blog Post

2008-04-27T14:48:00.001-07:00

So today we are just packing up and heading to the airport. We had an absolute blast here in Tokyo. We ran around to so many places, usually about 3 districts a day. That adds up to a lot of walking and very little sleep.... I imagine we will both just sleep the entire way on the plane... It was all worth it though.. So fun to see where little Molly-chan grew up, to see her local eateries, her middle and high schools, meet old neighbors, hang out with old friends and meet many new friends. I appreciate Molly being my personal tour guide.... her japanese got us through many situations...(someday I'll tell the store of getting stuck in Shimokitazawa with no money and only japanese ATMs that wouldn't take our card... ha!)

Anyways I started this trip with a picture of Shibuya Crossing (easily my favorite spot!). I thought I would finish with a photo I took last night during one of the busiest times for the crossing....

Japan Observation number 5:

2008-04-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that with over 12 million people crowded into an amazing city, it remains super clean. And I think I know why.... there is almost a sense of duty or responsibility upon each person living here. For example... I noticed people use these when smoking....

It's cultural to not eat and drink while walking. Starbucks have large areas to sit down as nearly no one picks up a giant venti to-go! People take the responsibility to throw things away, as opposed to throwing it on the ground in the subway. Just a cool observation.

Anyways, we are on to our last full day of Japan. We head back to the airport tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure we'll have a few more pictures before we go. Hope you've enjoyed them! I know we sure have.

Average Subway Station

2008-04-25T02:49:00.000-07:00

We stopped a minute to take a glimpse of the Shinjuku Station. This is about 10 in the morning, so not necessarily rush hour. For rush hour, multiply by at least 5 times. Pretty cool because no one gets upset, everyone stays in order, no one pushes. It's a fantastically organized system. Enjoy!

Cool Photo from yesterday

2008-04-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

So yesterday it rained a little bit. Not a huge downpour but just some drizzle throughout the afternoon. Anyways, we snapped another shot of Shibuya Crossing at night from our hotel. Only this time everyone has umbrellas in hand.... ended up being a cool contrast to the shot we took the first night....Enjoy!

Japan Observation number 4:

2008-04-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is a short one as we are headed out the door. So in the US, Franzia Wine is clearly a cheap wine... you know this because it is packaged as 4 bottles in a plastic bag with a spout that is conveniently supported by a cardboard box.

Now in Japan, the grocery stores stock Franzia in classy normal glass bottles. So funny to me. I'm sure it's still the same cheap wine. Ha!

Japan Observation number 3:

2008-04-22T19:11:00.001-07:00

So, the japanese make some interesting changes to otherwise normal american food. Interesting pizza toppings, seasonings on fries, etc. But the one I have a hard time accepting is the fried/scrambled egg on random things, most notably the hamburger....

Thank goodness their yakitori/curry/sushi is to die for!

Japanese Blast!

2008-04-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

So we are two full days in and absolutely stoked. There is significantly more walking than you would ever do in San Diego. Sheesh. And amazingly most people are wearing dress shoes.... not sure how all the girls (business type and young alike) do it in their glitzy high heels. Speaking of dress, it's cool to see totally different fashions. There are different types of dress. Everything from the older business men in their regular suits to younger men in their pimp straight legged suits and hair like crazy rock stars. There are the punk rock Japanese teenagers who have the teased out punk hair often crazy fun colors, tight ripped jeans with glamorous sun glasses. The girls are everything from business suit types to the younger girls who wear fancy shoes, knee high tights and short skirts or interesting bloomy shorts. Totally different fashion.... things that just wouldn't fly in the US but work great here in Tokyo. Here's an example of a Japanese teenager in the fashion oriented Shibuya:

The quick rundown of what we've done. Monday we had a fun day heading to Molly's hometown which is a few stations on the subway from here, Yoyogi-uehara. She had a blast showing me her house (even met up with her sweet neighbors from 15 years ago!), her bus stop, friends house, her playground, where she used to hang out, etc. So fun! We then took a short subway ride to Harajuku. For those of you who listen to Gwen Stefani, this is the place where the Harajuku Girls that she tours with are from. It is simply a crazy fashion scene. Tons of super cool shops, great clothing, etc. We hit up Mol's favorite toy store from childhood and had a blast playing with the toys.

Tuesday we took the bullet train to Kyoto, which is an older styled Japanese city. It had a much slower paced vibe than that of tokyo. It was great to take the bullet train. It's so so fast! Was great to see the countryside of Japan on our way to Kyoto. We saw a shrine there, had some fantastic lunch and were back in Tokyo for night time. Later that evening we had a beautiful date night in Shinjuku at the Park Hyatt hotel. This hotel sits on the top of the Shinjuku Park Tower. We first had wine and cheese at the New York Bar (the Jazz Bar where Lost in Translation was filmed), which had killer views of Tokyo from the 52nd floor. We then had a second glass of wine at the Peak Lounge which is a more Japanese flavored bar/lounge. It had bamboo, japanese lanterns, and low seated chairs all on the 41st floor with beautiful views of Tokyo.

It has been a fantastic trip so far! It is great to see Molly truly in her element. Her Japanese has saved us many times! So lucky to have a personal tour guide!

Japan Observation number 2:

2008-04-22T03:53:00.000-07:00

Just because an escalator is not moving, does not mean it is not working. It took us a few times of walking the stairs instead to figure out that the escalators turn off when not in use and start up automatically when you approach. Ha!

Plenty more pics coming up, too busy to upload/blog now. Spent the day in Kyoto (rode the bullet train), and now off to the top of the Hyatt (remember Lost in Translation?) to have drinks.

Japan Observation number 1:

2008-04-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

They have beer in most vending machines on nearly every street corner! So cool!

We made it!

2008-04-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

So a 45 min flight to LA, 2 hour layover, 12 hours flight, 2 hour bus ride to Shibuya and ..... we're here!

Shibuya is simply the coolest. It is basically the hip young place to be with tons of bars, clubs, restaurants, shopping, etc. After we settled in our room, we couldn't wait to get out there.... So we headed for Shibuya crossings...

After walking around, all the while Molly reminsicing over places she had been as a teenager, we finally settled on a restaurant Kyomaru for some drinks and yakitori. So tasty! The shitake mushrooms were fantastic.

At that point we simply collasped from exhaustion. :) On to another fun adventurous day. We likely will be hitting up Yoyogi-uehara, to see Mol's old neighborhood, house, etc. Should be a fantastic day!

10 days of photos!

2008-04-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

The time has come.... We are leaving for Japan!!!!! YAY!!!! Stay tuned for daily blogs and photos! I would post more... but I have to pack!

Have a great weekend!

TOKYO!!!!

2008-02-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

Been awhile .since I've posted. I actually have a bunch of pics to upload too. I'll definitely get to them soon. I just fixed the Gallery Remote software.... Powweb our webhost decided to change some settings which screwed up the gallery.... I feel like I am always fixing this software.... Oh well. It's up and running now...

Anyways things have been good lately. Most recently Mol and I purchased tickets to go to Tokyo!!! We are so excited. Our 5th year anniversary is coming up, and I thought what a perfect time to go on a vacation. Molly has not been back to Tokyo since she left in High School. So it will be so fun to visit all the places that she group up with. We'll definitely post more details as it gets closer!

Otherwise we have just been enjoying the good weather lately. I finally convinced Molly that Surfing is the greatest thing ever and that she should give it a try. So a few weeks back we purchased a wetsuit and booties (she clearly doesn't want to step on anything! ehehhehe actually I don't blame her). Since she purchased a fun little 6'2" retro fish for me for Xmas, we have two boards. She went right out on my 7'6" Swegg and is a paddling natural. It will be no time before she's cruising down the shore. So much fun! I'll definitely have to get some pics up!

Hope all is well and hope everyone had a great 3 day weekend. We certainly did!

Big Surf Coming

2007-12-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Hope everyone has been doing well. I have a few more pics to upload. Namely from Thanksgiving day with some friends and then a day that Molly and I spent in La Jolla. We haven't done too much since our vacation, other than getting back into the swing of things with work etc.

I had full intentions of making it to the beach a bit this weekend. However some showers decided to come around on Friday and prevented much water activity for the weekend. Instead Mol and I decided to get started on the Xmas shopping. We had a great night on Friday having some dinner, wine and fun shopping at Fashion Valley. The beginning of Xmas shopping is always so much fun because you get out to the mall with the focus on buying presents for everyone. There's not much stress yet because it's still early.... plenty of time to find that "perfect present". We sure had fun with it.

The rest of the weekend was chill. Nice to have a relaxing weekend after a week full of activities last week. However according to Surfline, there are some big waves on order for the week. I'll go take a look, but just not sure I have the guts to get out there if it truly is going to be 10 foot with occasional 15s. Yikes!

Hope everyone else had a good weekend...

Great Week

2007-11-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

Molly and I had a little time off together this week, so we celebrated! We started off on Sunday with an absolute delicious dinner. Thanks to Margee, we went to Addison's at the Grand in Del Mar. It's described as Contemporary French, I describe it as delicious! Molly had the chef's tasting menu with Crab, Salmon, Soup, Salad and Dessert. I had an Artichoke appetizer and a tasty Burgandy filet! So yummy. However the food was just the half of it. The experience and service was impeccable. An absolute blast of a time!

Monday we spent the morning at the dog park with little Oliver. He hadn't been to the dog park in awhile. He gets a little domineering at times... however very quickly upon arrival at the small dog park another dog promptly put him in his place. hehehe He played nicely after that. For the afternoon we drove to Escondido for a tour of the Stone Brewery. It's a relatively small brewery but larger than most "micro-breweries". They recently did a large renovation of their bistro with a beautiful garden that is nicely landscaped with a Japanese-esque feel. Lots of bambo trees, etc. The tour was fun... followed by a tasting of their four main beers... I personally found the IPA tasty as well as their Arrogant Bastard Ale. We then had lunch in their bistro before heading back home. Beware of the Arrogant and Double Arrogant.... both very bitter and yummy tasting but they pack a punch!

Tuesday was a perfectly relaxing a day... massages and spa day at La Costa Resort... what more can you ask for. Massages, jacuzzi, spa lunch, steam rooms, sauna, dips in the pool. Too fun! Followed that up the next day with a chill day in Coronado. We hit up the dog beach early, a nice little lunch at a bistro followed by some harbor side photos with the skyline in the background. Such a beautiful day.

We hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We certainly did. Oliver, Mol and I headed to the beach for a little surf, a little beach walk and some fun. Afterwards we headed to have a nice T-day dinner with friends. Such a blast!

We bought a new camera and have been having fun... check out all the pics online!

The Linkery

2007-11-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

Time to get the new blog going! Now that the website is finally up and moving!

Yesterday was a good day, great start for a weekend. I had the day off, so I started with a little coffee with Oliver and Molly. Then I headed to Tourmaline for a morning surf. The waves were smallish but clean and fun. Had a really good time. Spent the rest of the day washing Mol's car and relaxing with Oliver. We spent a little time at Balboa park near the dog park with Oliver after Mol got off work. With the help of Lunaphoto we took some photos of all of us. I can't wait to see the way they turned out. We'll be sure to share!

Afterwards we went out for a kickin dinner! We have always heard good things about the Linkery in North Park, but were always leary due to the name. It's a place that specializes in sausage... and that alone can be intimidating.... heheheh However the place is fantastic. When you walk in, it has this quaint but swank atmosphere. The staff is outstanding and pleasant from start to finish. They support lots of local farmers, everything is hand made including some of their fantastic sausages. We were sat at one of the tall tables by the window and started off with glasses of wine. Such a cool ambience really made for a nice start. We had a tasty Pomegranate-Basil salad to start. The perfect mix of herb and sweet. So yummy. Molly went with a fantastic vegetarian burger while I just had to try some of the sausage. A yummy chicken-apple and a pork sausage made with cinnamon, garlic and clove. All quite tasty. However dessert was the highlight. House made Oaxacan chocolate ice cream Mayordomo chocolate, pure cacao nibs, and unrefined sugar cane (piloncillo). Perfectly matched with a delicious caramel and chocolate hinted French Pressed coffee. So delicious.

Like I said, perfect start to a good weekend. Today Mol has to work, so I figured I would catch up on some errands and maybe catch a quick surf. Hope everyone has a great T-day this week!

Welcome to the new M&T Blog!

2007-10-26T10:39:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the new and improved blog. I'm continuing to use the Blogger software. So a quick run of the features. One blog at a time will show on the screen, use the Previous Posts and Archives on the right side bar to review old blogs. Or more conveniently you can use the RSS feed in the bottom right hand corner in an RSS reader such as Thunderbird or online with Google Reader.

Lastly, feel free to pipe in some comments. You simply have to have a Google Accounts login to post comments to any blog posts.

Enjoy
-Tim