May 2017

Moving In

We never do anything the easy way, so of course, we went camping with family the weekend of the first official move. Our move-in date was a Sunday, so the Thursday before the move, we loaded our cars with everything we wanted to have for the month and drove it to Sean's office to be stored while we were camping. On Friday morning we loaded the cars with everything to be added to the storage unit and also took that to Sean's office for storage over the weekend. Remember all that extra stuff we brought with us last month? Well, we still have it... Dividing the car loads was our way of 'measuring' to see if we could fit everything into our goal of fitting all of our stuff into two carloads (we weren't even close...).

After two trips to Sean's office and a regular work day schedule, we left to go camping through Sunday. It was a great trip celebrating Sean's mom's birthday with the family. The weather was perfect for camping, and we lucked out with a spot very close to the beach, just south of Santa Cruz (about 45 minutes from our next Airbnb).

That Sunday afternoon, with what little energy we had left, we drove back to Sean's office, re-loaded our cars and drove to our next home. The cars were VERY full (too bad there's no photo). When we arrived at the house, around 2 p.m., it was nearly 90 degrees outside, which made for a very hot and tiring unloading process.

The Place

SURPRISE, IT'S A STUDIO! Neither of us have lived in a studio apartment before. It's small (maybe 600 sq. feet?), but a good size for just the two of us. There's a bedroom with a small closet and a small storage room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two staircases. This place has a few less amenities that we are accustom to- there is no garage, laundry, or dishwasher. The question is now, can we go a month without doing laundry? I guess we will find out the exact number of underwear we own this month! (Update: Not enough!)

The studio is an old triplex with some historic touches (such as built-in shelves and arched ceilings) located in a quieter neighborhood close to downtown San Jose, off of The Alameda. It was very clean, with some modern touches - which we appreciated. However, when we first arrived and were unloading, it didn't take long to realize that we had too much stuff for the tiny home. But it was the perfect time to start thinking about reducing our belongings, once again. In the first week we brought all our winter jackets to Sean's parents' house.

The kitchen was very well stocked. The host provided breakfast (oatmeal), plenty of table settings, nice knives, Tupperware, ziplock bags, and spices for us to use. Everything provided came in handy throughout the month. The only concern was that there's an oven, but no baking dishes to put into the oven. More than once, we put together two pieces of aluminum foil to create a makeshift baking sheet to roast Brussels sprouts and French fries. And since most of our baking stuff is sandwiched in the storage unit, we couldn't get one of ours, and since we are trying to minimize the amount of stuff we own, we didn't want to buy a new one. It has definitely been interesting to see what comes stocked in kitchens at different Airbnbs so far!

Living in a studio provided some organization challenges. We hid stuff everywhere. Where's the cooler you ask? Oh that's in the bathroom cubby storage area. Sean's jackets? Those are hanging in the back of the storage closet. Tote bags? Under the desk. And all the other little things that we couldn't find a spot for? Yep, those are still hanging out in our cars. But, we (the magical and collective we) must give Katelyn some major credit, she has been "letting go" and leaving the studio a little messy at times. [Sean's update: And by a little messy, Katelyn let me leave a dirty shirt on the ground for a whole day! (: ]



The first week that we were living in the studio was really hot in San Jose- the first major heatwave of the year. The Airbnb listing and the instruction paper in the studio said there IS air conditioning. We searched everywhere for it those first few days. Where could it be? This place is tiny, how could we miss it? For a few nights we were running the fan and opening the windows but HOT DAMN it was HOT. Long story short, there was no AC. But thankfully, the host was very accommodating and installed it that next weekend (hooray, we can sleep again)!

Speaking of sleep, this bed is AMAZING! It's a full again, but we are now used to being only inches away. Whatever witchcraft they put into making this bed, it worked. We had ZERO complaints.

Restaurants

We love this place because there's so much to do within walking distance. Our last two apartments were in the boonies compared to this one. (Except, it was allergy season, so every time we walked somewhere Katelyn had her allergy attacks.) We went to so many new places this month, our goal was to go to as many new spots as possible.

Wine Affairs - Our new favorite wine/beer bar is right on The Alameda, about a quarter mile from our place. It's not overly fancy, but has an old rustic charm, and on our first visit they were serving Pliny the Elder - so naturally, Sean was sold. The first time that we there, we sat next to a regular, who turned out to be a local author who recently released a book of poems titled Nature Speaks. She won an award for it that day and was pretty excited to share the news with our server and us. She also told us a little about the history of the neighborhood and how it used to flood quite often, and she talked about the local gentrification (from drugs to hipsters). It was fascinating. It is definitely a friendly group a people that frequent this place.

Wine Affairs also has great food. We had their buffalo mozzarella stack, rosemary and prosciutto flatbread, and their mission fig crostini. All were delicious. We tried to return for the chocolate fondu dessert, but unfortunately, never made it back for that.

Tee Nee Thai - Leave it to us to always try to closest Thai food restaurant. Even better, this one was two doors down from Wine Affairs! We don't remember too much about our trip here, but everything tasted as expected. We went with our friends and split the Thai Sampler Appetizer, Red Curry, Pad See Ewe, and Chicken Cashew. It was a great spot to walk to and we had excellent service and good Thai food. We would definitely return.

Zona Rosa - This is a very small Mexican/Spanish restaurant, also located on The Alameda (close to Tee Nee Thai and Wine Affairs). They can seat about 10 people inside and about 10 people outside on their patio. We drove by it often and it seems 8/10 times there were people sitting and waiting to eat outside, so we figured it must be good. We played it safe and made a reservation for four the day before. There was great service, they were very attentive and the food was delicious! We all enjoyed our meals consisting of margaritas, chips and guac (with bacon and pistacios), tacos, and enchiladas. We all agreed that we must return!

Bluefin - We went here for a Friday night sushi date night - turned out to be a little fancier than we were expecting, but we ...rolled... with it. This was the night Katelyn decided we should do sake bombs, which may or may not have been the best idea - but we did it anyway, see proof below. We ordered jalapeño edamame and a few sushi rolls. We would recommend the Roll Alameda. It was good, but we have other local sushi restaurants that we enjoy more (and are less expensive).



Paesano's Little Italy - WHAT, SAN JOSE HAS A LITTLE ITALY? There's a huge sign, and turns out, it includes one restaurant and one coffee shop. The sign was intriguing so we thought we'd give it a try. Paesano's is the restaurant, a little hidden gem if you ask us. We went with friends and enjoyed wine, bread, calamari, and pasta. Katelyn had the Farfalle Vulcano and we don't remember what pasta dish Sean ordered, but everything was gone with no room left for dessert. On our way home we were already brainstorming who we can take back to that restaurant.



Henry's Hi-Life BBQ - Saved the best for last, at least in our opinion! We actually found this place thanks to our friends Megan and Zack (as shown above and below) who stopped here for drinks before meeting us at Paesano's Little Italy for dinner. This restaurant/bar is located in a very ...interesting... location, behind SAP Center and right along the freeway. It looks a little run down on the outside, so we all expected it to be a dive bar, at best. Turns out, it's a fantastic BBQ restaurant that has been featured on the Food Network show Man vs. Food. The interior is dark and full of string lights. The decor is best described as if a rustic cowboy who loves sports, BBQ, and lots of wood decided to open a bar in the Silicon Valley. Upon arrival, guests take a number and when the number is called, you place your order and give your name. When your name is called, your party is seated at a table in the dining room and the food arrives in less than 5 minutes. Rumor has it, they are best known for the ribs and prime rib - the prime rib is only available on the weekends, so that wasn't an option for us, but the ribs were delicious! Every dish is served with a side salad, baked potato, and garlic bread. We waited about 30 minutes for a table on a Wednesday night, it's small and there's not a ton of seating. Definetly worth the wait! We had a blast!

Crema Coffee - Although this was right at the end of our street, it took us the whole month to actually try it out. We went for breakfast on our last weekend at the Airbnb. It was very cute and quaint. The decor was homey and they were selling teas and cute merchandise along with a variety of breakfast pastries and GELATO. How did we not know there was a gelato place walking distance from our house?! We each got a coffee - Mocha for the Mocha King, and Latte for the Latte Queen, and a couple quiches (veggie and ham/cheese). We wish we discovered this place sooner - they have a beautiful deck with outdoor seating and string lights. It would have been a great place for a weeknight ice cream date.

Activities

The beginning of this month we celebrated Katelyn's Grandma's 80th birthday with a party in Las Vegas - yes, you read that right. It was the weekend of the Kentucky Derby and we all celebrated in style. We flew out early on Friday morning and enjoyed the day drinking margaritas by the pool (coincidently, it was Cinco de Mayo, so it was a requirement to drink margaritas, right?).

Saturday was the race and the party. The entire family placed their bets and gathered at the restaurant to watch the race and celebrate Grandma at her Kentucky Derby themed party. Everyone was dressed to the 9's in their best 'Churchill Downs' attire. Katelyn's family may be the only family that we know who prints out the lyrics to songs so everyone can sing along with the Derby songs being televised, but thats why we love them. ALSO! We placed money on the winning horse! These were our bets:

- Always Dreaming to win (WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER)
- Irish War Cry to place
- Classic Empire to place
- Patch to show (have to bet on the underdog)
- Untrapped to win (Billy, this is your horse)

It was a blast betting and watching the race with Katelyn's family. We were all super into it and Grandma had a ball at her birthday party. :)



The rest of the month was a little less eventful. We walked to the SAP Center with our friend Batu to cheer on the San Jose Barracuda (the Shark's minor-league team) in their quest for the Calder Cup. It was pretty fun to experience the Barracuda scoring a game-winning short-handed golden-goal to advance to the next round of playoffs. And then it was only a 15-minute walk from our seats to our front door.

Sean traveled to San Diego for a week to participate in the SMST conference - an international technical conference that his dad helped found in the '90s! During the week when Sean was gone, Katelyn spent a few days visiting her parents and best friend - to avoid being alone for a week. Meanwhile, Sean sat in on technical talks during the day, and ate and drank with colleagues by night.

That was one of the last weekends that our friend (and Sean's coworker) Hannah was living in California, so they stayed for the weekend after the conference to hangout in San Diego. Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out a good way to get Katelyn down to visit, but Hannah and Sean were able to hangout with some other friends Elizabeth, Adam, and Claire. The weekend consisted of a lot of beer, some amazing Mexican food, watching a boring Padres game (good thing there were good friends and beer there to make up for watching them loose 218-0), and obviously a sailboat.

Memorial Day weekend was spent with Hannah and Elizabeth in Half Moon Bay at a beach house. We lucked out with perfect beach weather on Saturday, but the weather did not cooperatre the rest of the weekend. On Sunday we visited Hop Dogma Brewing Company in Half Moon Bay and Half Moon Bay Brewing Company for drinks and snacks before our pizza dinner. But the gloomy weather made it easier to relax and watch movies inside and FINALLY play our new game "What Do You Meme?" #whatdoyoumeme.

Also during this month, Sean got a haircut.

Moving Out

We took a carload to the storage unit the day before moving day, including:
- Katelyn's work stuff that she to take home due to construction
- Cleaning materials (Katelyn shockingly parted with half of the cleaning supplies)
- Some wrapping paper, and other things that were just laying around

Throughout the month we did our best to start thinking about what can go to storage and what can be switched for smaller substitutes. Katelyn went through all her jewelry and took half of it, and swapped out the huge Pottery Barn Teen jewelry box for a much smaller one for the remainder of the year.

We also ended up keeping the dirty clothes hamper. Since this place didn't have a laundry machine, the hamper became rather full. We needed to move all the dirty clothes from the studio to the next home to be washed.

Move out this time happened primarily the morning of, before we left for work, and it was much more efficient. Sean took a couple things to his office a few days before, just in case it wouldn't all fit in our two cars on moving day. In the morning, we took load after load to our cars - quickly and efficiently (until Sean started talking with the chatty landlord, who decided to be very friendly that morning). Surprisingly, after doing a few small loads earlier in the week, everything left in the studio fit in our two cars- and with some room to spare. We moved out with a good amount of food, hopefully next month there will be less. (Apparently when you go out to dinner a lot, you don't eat the food that is in your fridge!)

Overall, move out went swiftly and was much closer to what we are expecting our moves to be. Hopefully, next month will be just as easy!

Would we move here? Absolutely. We loved the options of places to go, people to see, food to eat, and drinks to ...drink. Every day was something new and every day brought a new surprise. And for being so close to so much going on, it was actually pretty quiet. The only real downsides were that the Airbnb was pretty small so we coulnd't host people at our home, let alone have enough personal space, and it wasn't a real escape from our already busy lives.