The First Fine Tree

There are many firsts in life - first love, first car, first kiss, first move, but nothing as cool and exciting as a first Christmas Tree! Okay, maybe that statement isn't true, but I'm saying it. We never were compelled to own a tree back in Los Angeles since it was usually 70 degrees and it just wasn't the same as going home to Georgia or Missouri. Now that we live in SF we actually have seasons here and not only that, we are 'officially' a Fine family, so a Fine tree was needed. I found the perfect tree at Target for our Noe home: prelit, pine cones incorporated, 7' 1/2" tall, cashmere pine. I spent at least 2 hours trying to decide on what exactly my "tree theme" was going to be, because I needed one? I settled on earth tone colors (gold, chocolate, pearl/beige) with splashes of red. So very unique, I know. Oh and no angel, sorry mom :( I decided on a chocolate ribbon. Actually decorating the tree was the fun part. We enjoyed a glass of wine, listened to Christmas music (with of course football in the background) and laughed our butts off when I shattered not one, but five ornaments. Slippery little things! Good thing I bought 70 of them. After all said and done, it was a "first" that will be remembered and will carry us through many great memories.

Give me some Kale, yes I said Kale

I have just recently become completely obsessed with Kale, that curly green leafy vegetable that looks very boring. I used to be a frequent shopper at the Whole Foods in El Segundo and they made this amazing Kale salad at the fresh bar, but not here in Noe so I decided just to make it myself. It's much cheaper and it's actually better :) I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy for liking Kale as it's bitter, a super green food and not so pretty. I'm telling you, if paired with the right ingredients it can be so yummy and the health benefits are out of this world! Here are a few reasons why Kale should be part of your daily food intake.

excellent source of...

• Manganese
• Iron
• Copper
• Calcium
• Dietary Fiber
  
• Vitamin C
  
• Vitamin B1, B2, B6
• Vitamin E

...as well as a host of other phytonutrients.

But where Kale gets an A+ is it's vitamin A content. It is a great source of beta carotene. Just one portion of Kale is only 36 calories but it provides a massive 192% of your daily vitamin A needs. Australian research has found that people who eat beta-carotene rich foods are less likely to develop skin cancer.

Kale is an excellent source of Vitamin C too. A daily portion of the green stuff provides a whopping 89% of your daily vitamin C requirement. One portion of Kale will cater for 10.5% of your daily fiber requirements.

It helps to reduce cholesterol and stop arteries from becoming clogged up. It helps to keep blood sugar under control...great for diabetics.

It is good for people with irritable bowel syndrome as it aids constipation and diarrhea. Also fiber helps provide protection against colon cancer.

Must I say more? It's one of health's superstars!

Raw Kale Salad Recipe

1 bunch Kale chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup roasted pine nuts
1/2 diced tomatoes (optional)
Sea salt to taste
Toss and serve



Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

October Over Rover

I can't believe October is already over! Dang where has the year gone! October was such a fun month of pumpkin' pies, pumpkin' carving, pumpkin' farm, $26 pumpkin's (way too much mula), harvest festivals and of course one of my favorite holidays, Halloween!

I love it how everyone in this city gets into hween. Every shop, restaurant, salon has their place decked out with spooky attire and all the homes have at least one carved pumpkin out on their front door step.

This year was pretty special since this was our first Halloween as residence of San Fran. We spent our evening celebrating with friends from Orange County/San Diego at the Regency Center with one of our favorite DJs, Miguel Migs.

Until next year!

This was a kids paradise. Pumpkins galore, roosters, rabbits and a play pin.



Carving away...thank goodness Mr. Krug brought the carving tools and design book :) Not sure what we have done without them!



These pumpkins finally got faces, the day before Halloween!




Paula Deen Pumpkin Pies

Who wants H1N1????

Visit back south

So 2 weeks ago I decided it was time to head back south, south west that is, to pay a little visit to my west side friends that I miss so very much. It worked out perfect as Brad was heading to Vegas for some boy toy time and to win us some mula! Vegas didn't get the best of him this time...he ended up paying for his entire trip. woohoo! We had an eventful weekend planned with a hike in PV, El Cholo dinner & James Beach drinks in my old neighborhood of Venice, Pinkberry/Penguins/Menchie's (we hit all three), Temecula Wine Tasting on a party bus and a trip to beautiful Dana Point to hang with the Longs. We didn't miss a beat. I am so blessed to have such amazing friends in my life. Huge thanks to Sara and Erin for letting me invand their home and being a permanent fixture on their sofa ALL day Sunday.

Beautiful PV






There were crabs everywhere underneath the rocks. Seems as though they were accustomed to having visitors.



and the rocks that we maneuvered around.



Tracey, Kristin and I at El Cholo. The best Mexican restaurant EVER and they have very yummy pomegranate margaritas :)



The entire wine tasting crew. We were a hit at every winery! How could you not be when you roll with 20+ awesome people.



Here is the fabulous party bus we took to Temecula!

What have we been up to for a year?

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in over a year so here is my attempt to get you caught up on what we've been up to...I'll just give you the highlights.

Hotel, Motel HOLIDAY Inn
We had a wonderful holiday. The parents of the Fines and Chaos finally met. Yes I know. You would think after 6 years of dating that that would have happened already. My parents came out to the "show me state" and we made the rounds to visit all the family...some in Fort Smith, some in Springfield.

We did a lot of eating, played catch phrase and had a few snowball fights, friendly snowball fights. Everyone seemed to get along very well. I guess they really didn't have a choice since we were getting married in 5 months :)


Not yet 30: 2/9


Mr. Bradley arranged a night out on the town with some of my bestest friends for my 29th birthday even my girl from NYC came. We had dinner at Katsuya, a sushi restaurant in Brentwood, then went to a club which was suppose to be having a DJ spinning, but the DJ didn't show so we celebrated with the African tribe that was playing earlier that night. They were great! We stomped the night away to the bongos and didgeridoo. My good friend, Todd Rone Parker, captured some great moments. My last birthday in L.A. was amazing. Can't wait to see what B has planned for the big 3-0 ;)




Cocolicious

My brother (Rus) and his wife (Kelsey) had their first child, Lucca Elizabeth Chao, on March 15. We call her coco because of her large, balled noggin'! She is as cute as can be with her beautiful blue eyes and fat little cheeks. She gives the Gerber baby a run for her money. She has an adorable little smile that makes your heart melt. Love me some Luccalayla!


She's smiling at her crazy aunt.



She finally went to sleep!



That coco is such a thug with her pink hat to the side!




A Fine Wedding

May 23. This day was a celebration of life and love with my closest friends/family.


I married my bestest friend. The one who inspires me. The one who pushes me. The one who just GETS me.

http://samuellippke.com/studio/Ashley-Brad.html

And here are some photos and a video clip from our Bora Bora honeymoon!







Venice to SF

After 6 amazing years in Venice Beach, we made the move to SF in June. Brad was presented with a wonderful job opportunity working for Stryker Medical in the bay area. After 3 months of interviews and a lot of praying, we decided it was the right move for us. We had a lot to deal with during the month of May...wedding, honeymoon, moving, starting a new life and new career. We told ourselves if we could make it through this, we could make it through anything. We did! SF is very different, but we are enjoying exploring the new city. And love having my bro, Kels and coco so close!

From Venice Beach



To San Fran




6 man Waterbugs (August)

This was our third year playing in the 6 man volleyball tournament in Manhattan Beach. This tournament is basically an athletes Halloween with half the clothing. This year we were sponsored by the Waterbugs, hence the name. We had some awesome athletes on our team, but we also have some heavy drinkers which usually results in some sloppy play. Let's just say we couldn't remember if we won a game or not :) Can't wait for next year!






...and here we are now! There will be many more adventures to come so stay tuned!

The Big Sur

For those of you who have never driven The Big Sur to San Fran before, I highly recommend doing so before your time on this earth is up. It's something that Brad and I have wanted to do for a long time and we finally made it happen. Now we can cross that off the Bucket List.

The journey began Friday morning with Regester picking us up and taking us to Denny's for a Breakfast of Champions. Then we were off to rent our convertible Pontiac G6 from Enterprise. Thanks Dax!
We decided to take the 101N to San Luis Obispo and then jump on the 1N the rest of the way up.

Our first stop was at a 76 station for some Monster energy drinks, which were much needed before the long drive.

Some of the gorgeous scenery on our way to Obispo.

Brad's an amazing photographer. He actually stood up on the seat to get a few of these beautiful photos. He quickly realized that I was going much faster than he thought!

We made it to the Village of Arroyo just outside of Obispo where we stopped to get gas and use the restroom. It was a very cool town with little country shops everywhere.

We hurried through Obispo pretty quickly on our quest to visit the Hearst Castle. If we would have known the tours stop at 3:30pm I think we would have taken our time. We ended up just looking at photos of the Hearst and walking around the shops looking for a some sort of memorabilia, but ended up getting some pizza that had been sitting out all day causing some excruciating stomach pain.

After the Hearst Castle, we continued on our journey to SF. We came across one of the many site pit stops, but for some reason this one looked really interesting and there were more cars than usual. Without any warning, I quickly pulled over and stopped before Brad could say anything :) This stop ended up being one of the best sites on the trip. We were greeted by hundreds of Elephant Seals and a dozen of these little squirrel looking animals. They would just dig in the sand. I'm not really sure what they were looking for...don't know if they did either. The smell was pretty atrocious, but God's creatures are certainly amazing.

The seals just laid there while their stubby arms attempted to scoop up as much sand as possible to throw on their back. The cold sand served as a cooling method to keep their body temperatures low. It was actually very relaxing to watch.

By the time we left there it was about 5pm and we had planned to be at this restaurant, Nepenthe, by sunset for dinner. We had to hurry our butts up, but we managed to catch some beautiful sites.

About half way through the trip we discovered we had XM radio so we were stoked. We listened to 80s and 90s all the way to Big Sur singing our hearts out. We finally reached Nepenthe, which was a restaurant that was built for Rita Hayworth by her second husband Orson Welles. It certainly lived up to its hype. We walked up several levels of stairs and finally reached the top where to the right side we could see about 150 miles of coast line and to the left was the endless pacific ocean where the sun was just about to set.

There was a large fire pit out side which made an extremely cozy atmosphere. We lucked out and got a great table outside looking over the cliff to watch the sunset. It was very romantic.

We enjoyed the wine far too much.

After the wonderful dinner (I recommend the burger) we headed north for another 3 hours to finally reach San Francisco. It was about 11: 15pm by the time we got into the city and found my brothers place. We were very tired, annoyed and wind blown. Rus and Kelsey (my brother and sister-in-law) were driving back from a wedding in Sacramento so they didn't get to the apartment until a little after midnight.

We were all tired but little miss Lucca was out and about. They are pregnant with a 5 month baby girl. I haven't seen Kelsey since August and I can't believe how much she had grown. Check out my niece. Too cute!















After catching up and watching some TV, we crashed at around 2am. Brad, Rus and I wanted to go for a run before our activities on Saturday so we needed to get to bed. The aero bed was perfect for a good 6 hours ;)

Rus woke us up around 8pm ready to go!!! I could have slept for at least one more hour, but we all got up and enjoyed a beautiful run down by the stadium, under the bay bridge, through the farmers market and down to the Pier. We stopped and had some of the most amazing peanut brittle at the market, which later gave me a little cramp, but I ran through it. We ended up running about 3 miles.



















Rus and Brad before our run. Yes, Rus has a barrette in his hair.

After the run, we all showered up and headed to one of Kelsey and Rus's favorite breakfast places, Balboa Cafe. It was just what we all needed and they made a really good Bloody Mary!

After Balboa, we headed north to Sonoma to meet up with Rus's work partner, Kevin, for his 30th birthday. His wife rented out a house (AKA Shack O' Lack :) for the weekend so we made an appearance to wish him a happy 30th. The house actually wasn't that bad. It was on a beautiful piece of property with a grape farm. We took it upon ourselves to try a few grapes. No one keeled over and died so we were happy about that. They were actually very sweet & tasty, but had 4 seeds in the middle of them so you barely got any juice.

After visiting for a few hours, we made our way to Chateau St. Jean. It was the only winery still open. We lost track of time. Sweet Ole Bob was our wine specialist and in 15 minutes we ended up purchasing 6 bottles of wine. It was tasty.



















Lucca started to get hungry so we stopped by this little pizza joint to grab a bite to eat before we headed home. It was a long day, but a great one.

After getting back to the apartment we all crashed out on the couch. About 10pm Brad and I decided we were hungry again so we went to this really great Mexican place just across the street from Rus's called Tres Agaves. After that, we checked out a local bar down the street, John Collins in SOMA, where we listened to a pretty good DJ and just people watched. Francisonites are quit interesting.

We slept in the next morning until about 9:30am. Rus took us to this great coffee shop down the street, Philz Coffee, where they brew each individual coffee cup to order and use brown sugar to sweeten it. It was really good. Wish they had something like that in Venice.

After coffee, we were off to the Raiders/Jets game. Kels works for EA Sports so she got us club seats. For those of you who don't know, Brad's man crush is Darren McFadden who played for the Arkansas Razorbacks, he now plays for the Raiders so he was a pseudo Raiders fan on Sunday. Even spray painted his hair black. Anything for McFadden!






































This man in the Razorback sweatshirt and Brad became instant best friends. We were actually surprised how many people were wearing McFadden jersey's considering he's a rookie. He's a ripper (as Brad would say).



There were some very interesting people at the game. Only a few brave souls wore Jets jersey's and they ended up eventually getting thrown out some way or another.

We actually sat next to this guy from Bermuda who has season tickets and flies to Oakland for every Raiders home game. The local station was doing a special on him so we might have gotten some air time. I screamed "Go McFadden!" Kelsey screamed "Go Favre!" ha!



Their fans are insane. No matter how bad they suck or what Al Davis has done to their program, their fans are dedicated and love their Raiders. The Raiders ended up winning by three points in over time with the longest field goal in NFL overtime. It was the most exciting game on Sunday and WE WERE THERE!!!!












After the game, we went straight to the Oakland airport. It's always sad to say goodbye to family, but it had to be done. The fun was over. Time to get back to reality. We grabbed a bite to eat and waited for our flight back to LA. We were beat, but we had a wonderful time and would do it all over again.



Special Thanks to:

Rus and Kels for an amazing trip. Thanks for opening up your home to us. We love you!

Bradley for his photographic ability. He has such an amazing eye for beauty and really knows how to capture those special moments.