Vegan, Camping, Comedy Shows & a Walk...

As a number of you have noted, we’ve been less diligent about updating our blog this year. You see, we’ve been busy trying to cram in as many “blogworthy” activities as possible before Pearl returns to school this fall! Anyway, this is a what we’ve been up to this last month:

Vegan – As many of you know, we successfully completed our four-month vegan experiment at the end of April. Never before had we felt as fit and healthy as we did then. So what did we do to honor our very healthy bodies? Treated them poorly with fried foods for a month, of course! Yes, a horrible idea, and believe us, our bodies punished us relentlessly for every non-vegan bite we took. However, we’ve learned our lesson and have returned to a vegan diet indefinitely.

Camping – Number of times Chris and/or Pearl had been camping prior to April 27 2008: 0. Number of times Chris and Pearl have been camping since April 27 2008: 4. We had so much fun sleeping outdoors in Arizona (first in Havasupai and the again in Sedona) that we’ve gone twice more since our return. Lily has joined us for both of our California trips (just outside Sacramento) where we camped in the middle of a lake on our very own island! The lake was warm and we spent our days jumping in using the rope swing, paddle boating, and practicing diving for the two days we were there. We had so much fun that the three of us decided to return the following week for more rope swinging, canoeing, and BBQing. Who knew that camping would be so much fun?

Comedy Shows – Like camping, watching live comedy was a new experience for the both of us, but we’ve seen two performances in the last month that are definitely worth blogging about.

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS. Some of you might be fans of the HBO sitcom about the experiences of two naïve New Zealanders living in New York City. Well, Brett & Jemaine took their act to San Francisco with the songs they wrote for the show. Most of them are silly, ridiculous songs about their awkward experiences in the big city. While the songs are hilarious on their own, what we enjoyed best was watching Brett & Jemaine interact with the audience and with each other; the chemistry between them is just fabulous.

DAVE CHAPPELLE. We’ve wanted to see Dave Chappelle on stage for years. Lately, Chappelle has been popping up in different comedy clubs around the nation, returning to his favorite medium – stand-up comedy. So, we’ve been keeping an eye out for him in the hopes that he return to San Francisco. Last Sunday night, we discovered that he’d be performing later that night at the Punchline Ha Ha Comedy Club. We tried to get tickets through the club but it was sold out. Always up for an adventure, we decided to head down to the club to try our luck. There was a “stand by” line so we decided to wait in the hopes of being let in. We waited for 2 hours, from 10pm to midnight in the freezing cold, and watched as the never-ending line of ticket holders got smaller and smaller. There were about 13 people ahead of us on the stand-by line, and 6 others behind us. After all the ticket holders were let in, the doorman started letting in the stand-bys in groups of 2 and 3…finally, when we were at the front of the line, the doorman said “I’ve got room for two more and then that’s it.” We were the LAST people to get into the show that night! Amazing luck! Chappelle hit the stage just after midnight and didn’t say goodnight until past 4:40am! It was the most ridiculous 4.5 hours of our lives. Unfortunately, we can’t repeat any of his jokes here as he makes Carlin’s “Seven Words” routine look puritanical by comparison, but believe us when we tell you that Chappelle is at his best.

We are hoping that RUSSELL BRAND will also make a stop in the Bay Area this year. He’s been performing recently in Los Angeles and has a scheduled date in New York on July 20.

SF AIDS Walk – We just signed up to walk in support of The SF AIDS Walk 2008 on July 20 at Golden Gate Park. We joined the Quan Yin Healing Arts Center which provides free services of Chinese medical treatments (including acupuncture, herbs, massage & exercise) to patients with HIV/AIDS. The proceeds that we raise will help not only SF AIDS but also QYHAC’s own HIV/AIDS program. We’re really excited to help bring awareness to the cause.

If you would like to donate, please follow this link: http://aidswalksanfrancisco2008.kintera.org/cbauer4

White Water Rafting – For the weekend of July 4th, our friend Stephen is coming back to town and we’ve signed up to go rafting down the American Fork River. It’ll be our first time, and we signed up for a Class 4 ride, which is for the “adventurous beginner” and intermediates. Let’s hope we don’t fall off the raft too many times! We'll be sure to post photos post-ride.