Showing posts with label adventures of a mobile notary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventures of a mobile notary. Show all posts

Thursday, July 9, 2009

fate

It was totally fate that I ended up here after a signing yesterday. Here's why:

1. These two places are in Emeryville. I was in San Rafael (15 freeway miles away). I got off the exit looking for something else and saw Pizza My Heart out of the corner of my eye. I knew it was the place for me.

2. I found street parking in an impossible place to find parking. Plus, I didn't have to parallel park - I pulled right in.

3. I found $5 in my notary bag. I don't even know where that $5 came from! It normally JUST holds my notary stuff.

4. They sell pizza by the slice. I had a slice of pesto chicken - yum! It had tomato sauce w/ chunks of pesto sauce and tomatoes and chicken.

Best.

Crust.

EVER. Really.

5. Pizza shop next door to a bakery. Hello! This looks like a place Tracy and I could spend a lot of time at on her next visit. And it's in a huge shopping complex.

See. Fate.

And what about that name. Pizza my Heart. *sigh*

Saturday, June 27, 2009

trailer park donuts

Wow! Has it really been since June 8th that we last posted?? Sheesh!

Well, I've been at the beach all week long and before that have been doing lots of loan signings. Every where I go there is a bakery. Tracy wants to open a bakery one of these days so I tend to notice them more. I thought this cupcake shop in Mill Valley was really cute. I love the way she displayed her cupcakes.
I did not try one though. I'm more of a pizza gal. If I could buy pizza every where I went I would. That should be my mission - to find the best pizza place in the Bay Area.

Anyway... my husband made these donuts the other day. I've named them "Trailer Park" donuts - not to say that if YOU live in a trailer you couldn't make the fancy kind of donuts. They are fast, easy, and cheap. And surprisingly delish!

Ingredients:

*Those biscuits that you buy in a tube

*Vegetable Oil

*toppings:
cinnamon/sugar mixture
powdered sugar
glaze or chocolate frosting



Smoosh the individual biscuit a little and tear a little hole in the center. This is usually my 5 year old's job.
Then fry in oil until golden brown on each side. Transfer to a plate. If you use the cinnamon/sugar or the powdered sugar just put it in a gallon zip lock bag then it's easy to put one doughnut in and shake it up. The glaze is really yummy too. I must admit... we've had these more often than we probably should, but really - the biscuits are only $.59 a tube - maybe I should call them Recession Doughnuts. (that might be more P.C.)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

we suck

My iPhoto isn't uploading pics from my camera. Tracy's iPhoto has a billion pictures in it and she doesn't have any room for any more pictures. (She thinks she needs a new computer. I think she needs an external hardrive. What do you think?)

I have been going on a lot of adventures lately doing the notary thing -Point Richmond (beautiful! and the house I went to was built on stilts out over the ocean. Their backyard was their deck and a boat. (The one pic I took from my iPhone got deleted.), Emeryville, which isn't too exciting other than it's only 2 miles away from the Crate and Barrel Outlet, which has some amazing deals.
I got a few yards of this Marimekko home dec weight fabric for only $4.95/yd (normall $80/yd I was told).

Other than that, I can't make my mind up for what to do. Fabric covered button magnets for teachers gifts. A new dress with a Kimono style sash. I started pillows from the cover of the latest issue Stitch Magazine. Should I cut into the above fabric for the dress? Just go swimming instead. Hmmm...

Friday, May 15, 2009

not at all crafty

90% of the time I stay at home with my kidlets, but the other 10% of the time I am a mobile Notary. I travel to people's homes and am the notary while they sign their loan documents (typically home loans).

I must say that it's a pretty cool job. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and have gotten to meet a lot of nice people and see some really cool parts of the area that I would never otherwise go to - neighborhoods, not tourist destinations. Places you'd never go unless invited to a dinner party or something.

As a mom, the days can get mundane. It's just part of the job description.

Taxi driver.

Emptier of dish washers.

Laundry!!

You get the idea.

I am grateful for these mini adventures that I get to experience and for the little break (that earns pretty good money). Sometimes I just go to regular neighborhoods, but enjoy the hour or so of quiet driving. Other times are just really fun. One night I went into Oakland and met a woman at a restaurant. She was there with her 5 sisters so I sat and ate dinner with them before she signed her docs. I get to meet all different kinds of people, but generally all very nice. There's only been one time that I had to go up deep into the hills of Palo Alto to a guys house (that was super cool and modern), where I was a little nervous. The guy was sort of a weirdo, but luckily my husband happened to be with me. That's only been one of hundreds though.

The other night I had a 6:00 appointment in San Francisco. I met up with my husband on his way home, he took the kids, and off I went. I went to the neatest neighborhood. I apologize for the crummy pics. I just took them with my iPhone.


This neighborhood is full of houses from the 1920's. It's interesting how city planning has changed since then. All of these houses are built on a hill that looks as if a vat of cement was just dumped over the top of the hill and then they put houses there (many of them just inches apart). Most of the time you are sort of driving a little tilted and the roads are so narrow! Which doesn't help. Most, if not all, of the houses only have 1 car garages and driveways. After all, when they were built most people only had one car, if a car at all. For this reason the cars are parked bumper to bumper along the curb. Two cars can't drive down the street at the same time. One has to pull over to the side so the other can pass.

Most of the houses were a version of this one.

I was done by 6:30 and had to go to Alameda at 8:00 for another one. Luckily Alameda is just on the way home. I had a lot of time though, so I walked around a bit. And read. And went and visited my cousin who lives there.
This house was amazing. It looked like it came straight out of a Stephen King movie. In person it's really ornately painted. It must be haunted! I felt sort of silly taking pictures of people's houses. After I took this one and was walking away the window at the very top of the house opened and a guy stuck his head out and asked if I got him in my picture. I'm glad he said something (he is in the picture), otherwise I would've been freaked out by the image of a person in that top window!! Scary!

I'll take this one.

This one's in the remodeling stages.


This is a "twin home" that was ginormous. There was no way I was getting it all in my shot. I'll take that twin home though!

So - that was my adventure! Maybe I'll post other ones if I come across something else fun. Today I'm going to San Rafael. We'll see...