my first census!

Last night I did my civic duty and completed my first census!  As someone who likes to fill out forms from time to time (I did my aunt's taxes as a kid), it was cool.  We will be counted!

happy blog birthday

Today marks 1 year since I started this blog.  When I started, I really didn't know what to expect - what I would write about and whether I wanted people to read it or not.  In the end, I realize that it is mostly something that I enjoy doing for myself.  In ways it is like a journal and like the seasons - something that captures the moments of my life and marks the passing of time.   It allows my friends and family to see what I am up to, but also allows me to share the things that I discover with people in the world that I will never meet.

Some statistics:

• 365 days
• 281 posts
• 5,494 visits
• 1,451 unique visitors
• 51 countries
• Most popular post: Anthropologie Windows (random right?)
• Second most popular post: Thomas Keller Chicken

Thanks to everyone for reading.  Cheers to year 2!

The Nutcracker

Happy December! It is the month of sweet treats - from those little advent calendars with chocolates to (of course) the Nutcracker ballet. I love the Nutcracker - it always makes it feel like Christmas to go and watch a performance. Even though I have seen the Nutcracker more times than I can count, I am still enchanted by the music, the costumes, and the story. I also participated for a few years as a dancer - as a mouse and as one of the turbaned young dancers under the giant skirt.

There is a great deal going for the SF Ballet - the Nutcracker Date Night performances where you can get cheap tickets, two for one champagne, and early admittance! If you have never seen it, you should definitely go - the War Memorial Opera House is a beautiful place.

photo from the SF Ballet's Nutcracker

For those of you that have seen the ballet too many times, I think that The Hard Nut ballet would be a lot of fun to watch. It is coming to Berkeley in December. It is a chance to laugh and see a classic ballet in a fresh way.

terp time!

Routing for my terps with my terps today!

p.s. Hoping for some favorable in-terp-ceptions ;)

inspired

This afternoon I went up to the city for a cultured afternoon with two friends Niki and Audrey. First we hit the Victorian Home Alliance of SF Tour of Victorian homes in Eureka Valley (neighborhood in the Castro area of San Francisco). All in all we took in 7 homes that ranged from homes that took Victorian decor very seriously (period wallpaper, fabrics, and furniture) to those that used it as a "fantastical" inspiration (dragons, fairies, masks from Vienna, etc.). We saw homes with a ton of personality oozing from all corner (mirrored chandeliers and interesting art) to those that almost looked staged for a real estate showing ("where is all their stuff?").

Upon leaving we headed to the Presidio theater to check out "The September Issue" - a documentary made about the making of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (image below). It was awesome, but I left the movie particularly smitten with Grace Coddington, Vogue's creative director. “Always keep your eyes open because you never know what might inspire you” she reminds us in the final minutes of the movie. Coddington (who is 68) really stole the show with her charm, wimsy, and utterly romantic sensibility.
Basically I drove back down the peninsula inspired both to have more interesting home decor and clothing! I couldn't wait to get home and get on ebay to start looking for interesting examples of both.

Thanks for a great day ladies!

pumpkin patch

Next weekend (17th, 18th) is the annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. Although I have never been, it was always a popular event when I used to help organize social events for grad students. It seems like the perfect event to bring little kids to - a view probably influenced by Erik who took the most adorable pictures of his son at the pumpkin patch last year (see below).

Erik takes great pictures of his son Ronan and posts them to his blog - The Bleary-Eyed Father. As Erik has been blogging, his photos have shown me of the power of a nice camera and a really nice lens. It doesn't hurt that baby Ronan is completely adorable and photogenic (check out his superman pose).

habitat

I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity in Redwood City with engineering alumni over a year ago and it is fun to see that they are still using the photos (so far they have appeared in a newsletter and on the website). They told us to wear cardinal shirts, although I remember that not very many people did (thus the photos of us in red appearing everywhere). It was a great day!

Academic Earth

Some of the top universities in the country have gotten together to post videos of their classes online - making their content available to the entire world. I don't know where I will find the time, but I want to watch some of the Stanford Design School videos. Thought it was site worth sharing.

http://www.academicearth.org/

words of wisdom...

Today's the day - my fiance is losing his wisdom teeth. We are prepared with lots of pudding, yogurt, milk, jello, fruit (for smoothies), ice cream, sorbet, and hummus (a suggestion from an online source for people tired of eating sweet things). We also have ice packs and frozen veggies to strap to his face. I am sure that he will be sleeping for most of the day. Wish him luck!

ebay is amazing

Just sold two pairs of shoes from college on ebay! Selling old shoes makes room for new ones. :)

noah + mave

Noah and Mave's wedding weekend summary:

• 30: hours in NYC
• 15: hours of travel to get to NYC (there and back)
• Noah and Mave's wedding celebration at the restaurant Nam
• Lots of time with old friends (for Dave) and new friends (for me)
• Brunch with Rachel and Tim
• Tons of exploring, not much sleep

New York was awesome - and now we know it is possible to do without taking a day off from work. Last time we were in NYC it looked like this (see below). I love a city with four seasons.

SF family vacation

My parents came in town last Wednesday and left this morning. We had them over for dinner on Thursday night - guacamole and chips, turkey burgers, and corn with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert. My brother Patrick and his friend Aidan spent the night with us.

On Saturday, my mom and I had a girls day. We went to three wedding dress shops, a stationary store, and the Ferry building farmer's market in San Francisco. For lunch we looked out over the bay and ate maple, chicken, turkey, sweet potato, and bacon sausage sandwiches from the farmer's market. So good!


The best part? I found my wedding dress and bought it with my mom!! It was a dress I tried on with my sister a few months ago, and bought with my mom yesterday - I was so happy that they could both be involved!

swim + bike + run

Today my fiance is doing a triathlon this weekend. Wish him luck!

the spoils!

On Saturday Niki and I went to the Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival and it was awesome. She got a cute vase in grandpa green and fell in love with a few other pieces to be custom made for her later (a sweet little sugar/creamer set). I came away with three new pieces of pottery myself. I got this cool praying mantis bowl from Catherine Reece of Village Clayworks. I think that guacamole will look really good in it (we already have used it for chips and for strawberries)!

I also got this little bird bud vase from Joanna Mendicino. She had so much cute stuff! I could really imagine getting a cute baby shower gift for someone there. She had little birds, bunnies, and other whimsical animals and shapes.

I also got this soap dish from Rae Dunn. I really like her stuff and there were lots of interesting things to choose from (Niki loved this cake plate). I have seen her stuff used creatively in weddings before, like this wedding that used her little love rocks in the place setting.

All in all it was an awesome day. I was so tempted by Whitney Smith, but I kept trying to remember that I am planning to register with her for the wedding.

like a fish

Yesterday I went swimming at a community pool in Menlo Park. It was my first swim of summer, and just what I needed on a hot day.

p.s. this was just one of their two pools - one for family swim, one for lane swimming

service

This week at work everyone was encouraged to take some time and volunteer in the bay area. Along with most of my team, we decided to volunteer on Tuesday at the Youth Science Institute at Sanborn Skyline County Park in Saratoga. There were about 30 or so volunteers in total and together we worked on repairing an Ohlone hut, repairing a fence, and sanding and staining 13 picnic tables. It was really nice to spend time outside doing a little manual labor.

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Here is a close up of the woven reeds that make up the Ohlone hut.

The non-weathered wood in this photo is what we replaced over the course of the afternoon.

The Youth Science Institute (YSI) has a number of insects, and the volunteer guide showed us one of their biggest residents - the tarantula spider. While they are poisonous, this spider is used to people handling it and usually won't bite unless very aggitated. The YSI would be a great place to bring kids - and the park surrounding is beautiful.

*All photos from Jun Gong

Bee My Valentine!

What better way to spend Valentine's day then tasting honey?  I headed up to Napa Valley this weekend with my honey and his family to participate in a honey themed cooking class.  We used honey from Marshall"s Farm which is collected from bees all over the San Francisco Bay Area.   Check out the photo above to see how many types we tasted!  My favorite was the Napa Valley Wildflower.  Mrs. Helene Marshall was on hand to explain how honey is made and mentioned that local honey can help fight local allergies.  

After our honey tutorial, we got to the business of cooking.  Eighteen people cooked 8 dishes which featured seasonal ingredients and honey.  However, a suprise came in the form of a cheese plate that was served with a bit of honeycomb.  It was fantastic.  Who knew that the entire honeycomb was edible?  We bought some to serve next time we have friends over.  Check it out below.