don't forget to vote in the best bracket game of march.

i love stephen colbert, and i love space exploration. and so therefore i am really pleased by this story. i just hope nasa doesn't change their mind...

thank you, zac, for sending this:

wow -- check this gorgeous page for the okinawa aquarium out! very cool use of youtube videos!

three things i love today (which cheered me up after a bit of a bad start):

the eric carle 'doodle' on the google homepage

this article about a mathematician that has developed a sudoku-solving method. i'm definitely going to have to check back on monday when the paper is posted...

and then there's this...

happy st. patrick's day!



i wish they died the bay green out here. chicago really knows how to celebrate st. patrick's day!

oooh, funky! bacon infused vodka!

looking at the photos in the "12 nurseries you'll love" story on HGTV.com, i started to feel a bit intimidated. sheesh! i have to keep in mind that we're renting...
i did really like the curtain rod painting in this one, and the overall bright, fun look of this one, though.

just in case you'd forgotten, gorillas are awesome.

i got a huge kick out of this clip of sergey brin on "to tell the truth". it aired in february, 2001.

oooooh! hockey at the big house! that's damn exciting!

isn't this the coolest chandelier?



even if you don't agree, apparently lots of other people think so too, since it's sold out online.

thank you, vdot, for this video of bridge demolition set to opera music. thank you also to david, for pointing it out!

omg, you have to check out these photos of the sf zoo's baby gorilla, which was abandoned at birth by his mother, and is being cared for by zoo staff. such a cute gorilla, but that doesn't mean i'd want to have to cuddle it at night...

yesterday my friends courtney and melissa threw me a really lovely baby shower. :)
melissa, who has known me 12 years (!) put together a fun little trivia game about me & steve. it was fun to see who knew what about us. (if anyone is interested in getting a copy of the quiz, let me know!)
one of the questions was about the name of the first home we bought, in michigan. most of the people out here had no idea that we'd owned a home and christened it with a name. whether you already know the name, or didn't know about this, here's the article that gave us the idea for our home's name, even though our house didn't have a rooftop trampoline.

another fun thing that happened yesterday: we finally had the opportunity to test out the carseat that we're getting in our convertible. we were very pleased to find out that it was easy enough to get it into the car and it fits just fine! we had been worried that we'd need to get rid of the convertible and buy a new car. i'm so relieved we don't have to add that to our "to do before the baby arrives" list!

we went to childbirth prep class today. it was helpful, but i don't think it particularly relaxed us about the labor & birth process as we were hoping it would. i knew most of the material already, but seeing the videos and being at the class itself really made it all much more "holy shit" real for me, and has me a little spooked. it's good that i have a few weeks to digest it, think about it, and become mentally ready.
steve, on the other hand, didn't know most of the details, and he says it made it a little harder for him since now he knows more of what i'll be going through. i'm sure he'll be a very capable labor assistant, but he'll also need some time to process today's class -- and to see me processing it and mentally steeling myself!
quick poll for those of you reading this: did you use medication for pain relief during labor? i'd be curious to know what % of people i know that have been through labor in recent years opted for epidurals or narcotic pain relief.

how sad! apparently, due to new immigration processes, they're having a a clown shortage in the UK.

a writer for PC World says "YouTube is a Thousand Times More Interesting than Television". i couldn't agree more (and it's not just because of what i do for a living).

seriously -- what is wrong with people?!?

i really love sunset magazine. the reason? articles like this and, even more so, this. there's even an article about our little town, pacifica. (nona's kitchen is at the bottom of the hill we live on, and it is pretty good. barolo, also just at the bottom of our hill, is even better.

Getting ready

Well, there are somewhere between 5-9 weeks before we become parents (9 weeks until my due date). We're still a bit freaked out and overwhelmed, but now that we're done with our babymoon and I can't travel anymore, we can tackle the rest of our "to do" list.

We made good progress on the nursery yesterday. We decided on a very loose theme for the decor, hanging a bunch of vintage Hawaii travel posters in white frames (to match the white furniture). The crib bedding and curtains are very neutral, and I bought a cheap khaki throw to cover the futon. It looks pretty good so far. I just need to clean and put away the random stuff that's strewn around the room (feeding stuff that'll go in the kitchen, nursing pillows, baby clothes, etc).

Luckily all of the new parents we've spoken to assure us that it's all worth it, even if the baby seems to have no idea how much work was done ahead of time to prepare for his arrival. :)

We haven't made much progress on a name in the past few weeks. Do any of you dear readers have suggestions? Our ideal parameters are:
1. Nothing that can be misspelled or mispronounced too easily
2. Nothing that's a nickname (e.g. Jack) or can easily be shortened to a nickname (e.g. Michael)
3. Nothing too trendy or popular
Perhaps we should offer a prize to whoever comes up with a winning name...

We're off to an Oscar potluck this afternoon. It's super-duper rainy here, so this will hopefully lift our spirits a bit.

apparently we're not the only ones that are having trouble deciding on baby names. our mayor and his wife are expecting, and they're soliciting ideas too.

it's been awhile since i've actually *written* anything. sorry, amigos!
we're in maui now, on our "babymoon", which is fantastic. apparently it was rainy before we got here, but it's been lovely since we arrived. so far i'm not as much of a fan of maui as i am of kauai. it seems like the tourist areas are much more developed and separate from nature-y areas. however, the beach here at ka'anapali is lovely, and the resort (we're at the westin) is nice: great service (they brought us about a half-dozen extra pillows and some extra towels in about 5 minutes), half a dozen pools (we've been camped out at the adults-only pool most of the time) and decent restaurants.
today we definitely had our highlight of the trip so far: a whale-watching cruise with the pacific whale foundation. we saw lots and lots of hot whale action, including a full breach (spectacular) and quite a number of little baby calves (it's calving season). we also ran into a huge group of spinner dolphins, which had a ton of fun playing around our boat and showing off. soooooo cool!
last night we had an amazing meal at sansei sushi, which a couple of the locals and a few of our friends had all turned us onto. it was completely hoppin', and totally worth seeking out. we're glad we made a reservation. steve can't stop talking about how great it was (and our friends chris & courtney, who had listed it on their recommendations, told us it was one of the best sushi restaurants they've been to, and we agree!). i *almost* didn't mind being restricted about what to order!
speaking of our little dude, i'm about 28 weeks along, and his movements are definitely feeling like kicks now. the past couple of weeks have been an amazing transformation from flutters to little jabs, and the other day i was able to time it right for steve to feel a couple of kicks for the first time. :) amazing!
i think we're going to get cleaned up now and watch a movie. the past few nights we've had dinner around now and then passed out after that (we tend to get up early and go to bed early when in hawaii) but we were starving after the whale watching trip and already ate, so we can indulge in some pay-per-view (it doesn't sound exotic, i know, but since we *never* see movies, i'm super excited to cuddle and catch up on hollywood's finest).
aloha!

check out this funky video of giraffes fighting. thanks, alex!

i don't know why i love the etrade baby so much, but i do. check out this reel of outtakes:

i had work to do tonight, but got distracted looking at these awesome photos of celeb outfits in 2008 from msn's 'undressed' column. wow, there are some real winners in there!

if i had tons of money, i would throw an inauguration party, and would serve Zingerman's Barack-y Road Gelato. yum!
instead, i'll be in NYC for work next week. it's supposed to be about 50 degrees colder there than it is here. ick!

i love this photo.

in honor of the end of 2008, i thought you might want to check out this great slideshow on flickr of end title cards.

happy new year, everyone!

fave things of 2008:


restaurants and foodstuffs:
- Spicy Thai chips from Kettle chips
- Barolo Restaurant, at the bottom of our hill here in Pacifica
- Hint Water (even though i know bottled water is evil, sometimes i need something with some flavor in it but don't want sugary soda, so this is the best)

memories:
- starting off the year with a little trip to Kauai, one of the highlights of which was the drive to (and time spent on) Polihale beach
- attending Ann & Andy's wedding in NYC in May
- taking my mom on vacation to Saugatuck
- finding out we're expecting a baby boy next April!!!
- big, huge dinner out at Zingerman's Roadhouse for Steve's birthday in October
- traveling to Europe in Nov/Dec
- baby showers thrown by my friends (Erin & Carrie) and family (mom & mother-in-law) in Michigan in December

we were joined by some fabulous new additions:
- Naomi Wolosin
- Calder Law
- Claudia Ryder
- Mercer Bora
- Maxine Rosaen
- Tyler Rogers
- Gretchen & Rhys Ransford (who came in just under the gun on New Year's Eve)

music i dug:
- Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
- Attack and Release by Black Keys
- Accelerate by REM (especially Supernatural Superserious)
- the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz (yes, I'm cheesy)
- the song "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson (yes, I'm really cheesy)
- A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector (i had been wanting a copy of this for a few years, but it wasn't readily available on amazon.com, and then when we were walking through Heathrow at 7 am this december i saw it for sale and finally got it!)


fave books i read this year:
- Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
- Who Moved My Blackberry? by Martin Lukes
- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
- Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (favorite book this year)

-----------------------

i'm sure 2009 will be full of lots of great things and big changes for us -- and i'm excited about it. bring it on!

in honor of the holiday season, i wanted to share a couple of holiday videos to help get you in a festive mood:




and, although it's less of a holiday tune, there is the classic "o-mazing grace". don't stop before 2:12 -- it gets better.

omg, what a cute baby!. how in the world can it's mother not be in love?

i know these don't really go together at all, but i really dig these shoes from chanel:


and eskimo sweater from autumn cashmere:



...which just goes to show you that i'm waaaaaaaaaay too susceptible to things that i think are funny vs just stylish. if i could afford to have chanel shoes, i would have to get some sort of stylist so that i don't wear things like these together, since i'm sure it would look awful.

hooray for sharon! she was featured on TV for her business, the betty brigade. hopefully that will bring in even more business!

apparently, a man in florida assaulted his girlfriend with a sandwich. it doesn't say in the article what type of sandwich, but steve pointed out that it was most likely a club sandwich (ba-dum-pum)

if only this were real...

what a great campaign from the outdoor advertising association of america this is:



i just hope somehow that this works, and that our country becomes more unified than it's been in recent years. wishful thinking???

i have such amazing friends!
a couple of my long-time friends in michigan have offered to throw me a baby shower over the holidays, and a number of other friends have weighed in with suggestions and advice on what baby products to register for (seriously, unless you go and look, you'll have a hard time imagining how many types of strollers there are!)
tonight my friend courtney went with me to a local baby gear store (and she brought along her adorable and sweet-tempered three month old, calder). she walked me through every section of the store, giving me lots of great advice. hooray for friends!!!

my friend zal pointed out this video to me. it kinda creeps me out, but i got a real kick out of it nonetheless.
then zal said "that guy reminds me of my dad"...
it *definitely* creeps me out to think that the next time i'm up in the middle of the night with some weird pregnancy feeling (craving fried chicken, for example), i'll think of zal's dad.



also, if you want to see the most ridiculous banner ad ever, click here.

i was laughing out loud...


YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video

i had a kinda crappy evening. this cheered me up:

steve just let me know about this breaking news: a stick has been inducted into the toy hall of fame. i've always known that kids love non-toys as much as toys, and it's true that sticks are generally pretty awesome toys, but the display they built to show a stick in the museum is a little bit silly.

check it out! my NYC roommate, tiffany, is in the NYTimes for her awesome recycling projects!
go, tiff, go!

well, thank goodness obama won. nice that it was a real mandate, too! i wish i'd been in grant park last night. my brother and his wife were there, and i'm anxious to see their photos. what an amazing night! soooooo many amazing images, but i like this one from tribune a lot:



i'm more than a little bummed about the results of california's proposition 8. i feel a bit guilty that i didn't help with it in any way (joan and kevin, who did a bunch of volunteer work on it, are totally my heroes).


on the plus side, keenan pointed out that bacon beat fries, which should have been a 'given', in my opinion.

welsh is a funny language. and this article about a mis-translation to welsh is funny too.

Dear Red States:
If you manage to steal this election too we've
decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own
country, and we're taking the other Blue States
with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes
California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and all
the Northeast. We believe this split will be
beneficial to the nation, and especially to the
people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and
all the slave states. We get stem cell research
and the best beaches. We get the Statue of
Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85% of America's venture capital and
entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to
make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower
than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of
happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be
pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want
all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you
need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They
have kids they're apparently willing to send to
their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care
if you don't show pictures of their children's
caskets coming home. We do wish you success in
Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're
not willing to spend our resources in Bush's
Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, w e will have firm
control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more
than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the
nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality
wines, 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech
industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks
Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all
living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the
Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal
Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will
have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans (and
their projected health care costs), 92% of all
U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes,
90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists,
Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and
the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additional ly, 38 % of those in the Red states
believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale,
62% believe life is sacred unless we're
discussing the war, the death penalty or gun
laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory,
53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of
you crazy bastards believe you are people with
higher morals then we lefties.
Peace out,

--Blue States

unfortunately we don't live in the city of san francisco, so we can't vote on proposition R. i'd be all for naming a sewage plant after george w. bush, but steve thinks they should have picked something that makes stuff dirty, not something that cleans waste. good point. it would have been much more accurate to pick something that leaves a situation worse than they found it.

i had to spend some time today sorting through some videos on youtube (i know, i have a weird job). here's a fun one that i found:

i love this!

this is an excerpt from an op-ed piece by aaron sorkin, imagining a conversation between obama and president jed bartlet (from the TV show 'the west wing'). bartlet tells obama:

GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

whoa, now you can get zeppelin rides in the bay area!. pricing is a bit steep, but maybe eventually they'll come down a bit.

i'm so glad that i don't have to date. i am intrigued by this dating site, though. i mean, i knew there were hyper-specific dating sites, but i had no idea there was one so perfect for me!

whoa, now this is funky news: apparently female sharks can reproduce without mating!
that is nuts!

if there's one thing that makes me grumpy, it's airport security. and i've heard plenty of times that it's not making us a damn bit safer. this article, from the atlantic, is yet further proof that i have every reason to be annoyed by the whole charade. hmpf.

...

in other news, it looks like even pizza hut has moved ahead of domino's in the new technology space: pizza hut now has an online ordering application on facebook! (let me remind you all that the CEO at domino's at the time i was there said that online ordering "didn't make sense" for them at that point. loser!!!)

i'm fascinated by this eyeball test. how good are you?

life is good here, other than that i'm fighting off a cold. it's rare that i get a cold, and even rare-er that i admit it. however, i keep sneezing and sniffling, so it's hard to hide it. it's been so gorgeous the past few days that i've had to get outside even though i felt crappy.

speaking of gorgeous and outside, we went to a bit wedding on saturday (which was outside), in the gorgeous stern grove. steve did a reading (a rather unconventional reading!) and then we boogied till they kicked us out.

steve is traveling this week, so i'm holding down the fort. it's lonely here without him. thank goodness for the weather. somehow it seems kinda pathetic to be all alone in a fog-shrouded house, but it's not so bad to be home alone in a house with a gorgeous view when it's over 70 degrees and sunny.

very cool! now you can watch full-length episodes of fun things like MacGyver on youtube!

i get a kick out of this thing that the economist is doing: they've created a "global electoral college" to see how the election would turn out if the entire world was able to vote. you can see the current results here.

check this out! youtube is now in HD!

omg, i love this chart from dailykos.com:

one more thought on zingerman's: i figured out that they give you twice the food you need for three times the price. does anyone else feel like that ratio is pretty dead-on, or is it just me?

i had a great weekend this past weekend in michigan, seeing friends, spending a day with my mom, celebrating steve's birthday, and helping host a bridal shower for my friend sharon. everything went amazingly well except that there's never enough time to see everyone as much as i'd like. (sigh).

while i was there, i was able to pick up a loaf (actually, two loaves) of my favorite bread at zingerman's, their parmesan pepper bread. mmmmmm... i felt silly carrying it onto the plane on the way home (although i did have a random stranger tell me she was jealous of whatever was in my zingerman's bag), but i'll be glad to have it. yum!
i was looking through their gift catalog tonight (soooo many yummy things) and just noticed an extremely funky new bread that they're making (and which i didn't see when i was there): peppered bacon farm bread, with nueske's bacon (best bacon i've ever had). wow. i may have to order a few loaves of bread at some point. mmmm....

i love this mash-up map thingee that shows you where you can register to vote.

and then there's this video, in case you need a little push:

i don't know if you saw any of the coverage from the anti- sarah palin rally that happened in anchorage last week, but the photos are great. a good number of them have been posted here. i think this one is my favorite:

hello from chicagoland!
i've been traveling for the past week. i was in NYC first, and then made my way to the windy city. it's been a pretty darn good trip. i didn't get to see everyone that i wanted to see, but then again i'd probably need to be gone twice as long for that.
i've been traveling because i was helping teach a class for work, and so far my class has received the highest scores of the classes taught, both when i taught it in the bay area and when i taught it in NYC. cross your fingers for me that i'll also "win" in chicago. it's perfect timing too: performance reviews are going on right now.
i love chicago. i miss chicago, and i think it's an amazingamazing city. it's been a darn lucky trip, weather-wise, with it in the 70s and 80s the entire time i've been gone -- and that's much warmer than it has been back at home in pacifica!
of course, warm weather or not, i'm missing steve...

on a very different note, be sure to go here and watch the whole video. i'm a huge fan!

oooooh, these are hott:

i really enjoyed this, and thought you might too:



but if you're not familiar with that, ahem, trend, here's a more classic piece for you:




.................

on a separate note, i *really* hope u of m can pull it off today. they look like crapola this year.

ashton kutcher is pretty dang awesome. he's just launched a new web venture called blah girls, which i think is kinda fun so far (you can check it out here, and he's apparently just started assistant coaching a high school football team. gotta love a guy with lots of diverse interests!

i've always liked the writer sark, despite the cheesiness of her work sometimes. i thought this little interview with her was pretty good. i like that she thinks the whole suggestion of 'setting aside 10 minutes of time each day to write' is ridiculous. it's much more important to live life so you're inspired to write, than to force yourself into a particular amount of time to scrawl it down!

i wish i worked for google in europe. well, at least i wish that this week, since they're in rhodes, greece, celebrating the 10th anniversary and dancing the zorba.

i thought i was having a bad day, but apparently rose zory from carat is having a much worse day. this is by far the worst HR blunder i've heard of. has anyone else heard of a blunder like this before?

..........................

on a much better note, we're finally getting summertime weather here in NoCal. it was sunny and near 80 all weekend, which was amazing. we walked all of the way to vallemar station, about 2 1/2 miles away, twice over the extended weekend. not the best food i've ever tasted, but the walk there is really nice (along the shoreline and through mori point, home of the sf garter snake).
we also drove down to santa cruz on monday. we wanted to go to the boardwalk to ride the roller coaster, but it was crazy nuts busy.
what did you all do for the holiday?

here's my choice for the "what was she thinking?" award: apparently sarah larson cheated on george clooney. what a dumbo.

ooooh, i love it when i heard about improvements happening in my hometown! apparently a sketchy furniture rental store will move out and a festive belgian brew pub will move in on liberty street in a2.

okay, so this ad is dorky, but i do love ll cool j!

and in the last random thought for this post, i have been really enjoying my convertible lately, since it's finally summer-y-ish here in the bay area. nobody in the rest of the country seems to believe me until they see it, but it's ridiculously cold during the summer months (june until mid-august) here, with fog causing the high temperatures to only be in the low 60s sometimes. we're lucky it's been in the low 70s this week, and so the top on the convertible has been down...

now all i need is a super-fancy headscarf, like this:

i haven't seen 'the dark knight' yet (i am holding out until i'm the last one in the US). however, i heartily enjoyed this version:

my mother-in-law sent me this blog post about going back to school. i had never looked at it this way, but the writer has a point!
i am extremely spoiled: i work at a company with great perks, sit in a nice office in a gorgeous building, love my coworkers and am constantly challenged with new and exciting projects. this week i took advantage of one of our corporate perks and had a subsidized full-body massage for the first time at work. it was a little weird disrobing in the office (even though it was, obviously, in a very private room), but boy oh boy is that a great perk! i have to remember to take advantage of it all -- you only live once, right?

for those of you who believe youtube is the home of sketchy stuff on the web, and hulu seems more premium, well, i do have to hand it to them: they somehow get away with a squeaky clean reputation, yet they seem to be becoming a home for soft porn on the web.

i know you're all dying to see what life is like on the "inside" at youtube, so here's a fancyschmancy video. i have a superbrief cameo, and will be thoroughly impressed if any of you can find it!

...and this article is a great example of why i love nigella lawson.

it would be really neat to be able to buy this mackinac island property at a steal. i love the murals shown in the photos.
of course, i have no idea how and why and when i'd ever get there, but i've always had a soft spot for the island, and it's my mom's absolute favorite place. my family used to go there nearly ever summer and we'd spend the night on the island, which is somewhat rare. most "fudgies" (nickname for island tourists) don't spend the night, and while the island can be a bit hectic during a busy summer day, it's lovely at night. there are a couple of bars on the island that pretty much constitute island nightlife, and the pace of the island slows down a lot.
one summer near the end of college, i went up to mackinac with a friend of mine that had worked up there for a summer. she had a lot of friends that were still working summers there, so we stayed in employee housing (kinda a cross between barracks and dorm rooms) and did some partying with them.
i honestly don't remember much about that weekend other than the strange juxtaposition of being with friends at a place that i firmly associated with family vacations. i realize that's probably a pretty standard coming-of-age scenario, yet i was so aware of it at the time: "this is a coming-of-age moment: this place will always make me think of family vacations, and yet now i'm an adult, coming here on my own."
does anyone else here remember a moment like that, when the sense of a place changed for you?

as the kiddies would say, i LOLed:


Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat

there was a great article today in the san francisco chronicle about pacifica, where we're living currently. they quote a number of people from our little corner of town, pedro point. in case you're curious, you can check it out here.

i'd be remiss if i didn't point out this article about greenland, with some pretty awesome photography. hooray for greenland!

having a bad hair or complexion day? maybe then you need one of these:

speaking of ugly, when i was in ann arbor briefly a couple of weeks ago (i took my mom on a vacation to saugatuck, and passed through on our way back toward metro airport), i noticed the nasty new addition to michigan stadium. i know it's no news to those of you in A2, but boy is that damn thing tall! it towers over main street! don't get me wrong: i know football has to be profitable to help pay for other athletic programs at U of M, but i'm still sad that they felt as though this was the best way to ensure that, since i've always loved the awe-inspiring entrance into the stadium from the street, when you realize how much of the seating is below the entrance level. the addition isn't going to be done untli 2010, but i'm already nostalgic.

speaking of ann arbor, i found this fun little article about all of the lists ann arbor has been on. man, i love lists!

i've spent most of today online trying to get caught up and move meetings so that i could attend an offsite on the other side of the country over the course of the next couple of days. and then my flight (leaving early tomorrow am) was canceled and now i can't get there in time without taking a 6 am non-direct flight. argh. i decided not to go (i was flattered to be asked, but not excited about the travel), and now i'm much more relaxed now than i was the rest of the day. i've been traveling too much anyhow, lately. perhaps this evening i'll have a chance to check out the new aerosmith version of guitar hero we just picked up!

i love this!

i've been on a bit of a whirlwind tour this past week.
i left the bay area last monday for NY, where i had a couple of days of meetings and was able to see ann for dinner (twice!) and andy for really fun cocktails at a place called elettaria (check out the cocktail menu here, and see if you can guess what i ordered).

i wasn't able to do much else before heading to chicago for more meetingsmeetingsmeetings. however, in chicago i got to have work-related fun, as a group of us went to a cubs game on wednesday night (cubs win!). it's so amazing to sit out in warm evening weather and watch the scene: crazypacked wrigley, rooftop parties adjacent to the park, and the green leafty neighborhoods all around the north side: heaven on a summer night!

thursday night i was lucky enough to see both some former co-workers and my brother-in-law kevin and his wife, whitney. we also hung out with them a bit on friday. i didn't realize that kevin & whitney hadn't been here together to visit us when we lived here. it was nice to just walk around with them: the city is so full of energy in the summer!

friday (as you know, if you read my last post), we drove up with kevin & whitney to madison. we went to celebrate silva & felipe's wedding (silva is kevin & steve's cousin) at the fabulous orpheum theatre, which is right downtown by the capitol. the event was pretty neat since the old theatre is full of ambiance, and silva & felipe had some really fun party ideas. they gave us all 3D glasses to wear and took group photos of us sporting them. they also staged a huge popcorn fight between their guests as another photo op (steve got me pretty good!). while i don't have those group photos (i'll try to remember to post a link when they are online), i did take quite a number of decent shots, which you can see on my flickr site, here.

on saturday we drove down to see my brother and his wife, who bought a house this spring in warrenville. their house is really nice and i can't believe how much decorating they've done. boy, steve and i are lazy! we hung out with them at an outdoor bar in naperville on saturday and then played wii (mario kart RULES!) and watched random things (mostly youtube!) on their mega-awesome media setup. sunday the four of us went to watch the horse races at arlington park. i am much better at picking winners than any of them, but i think everyone still had a pretty good time. it was gorgeous out, and we kept hearing people around us say "what a gorgeous day to be at the track" -- and we couldn't have agreed more.

sunday evening we stopped at hopleaf for beer and some snacks (yummy mussels and frites!) before parting ways with the newest mr. and mrs. pasky. the halls weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we took a nice long walk around downtown. we walked along the river, where they've put in a few more restaurants and bars, and then we walked down to millennium park, where we got a huge kick (as we always do) of watching kids play in the crown fountain. i'll admit that before it was finished, i thought the fountain was going to completely suck, but it's ridiculously awesome. there are always kids playing in it, going completely crazy when the fountain "spits". :)

today was workworkwork, but i had a nice dinner at an old favorite restaurant with a friend, while steve headed to las vegas. it sounds like he's partying up a storm tonight, going to see the musical love, and staying in a crazy-nice suite at the planet hollywood (cheesy, yes, but i guess the suite is awesome). i miss him, and i'm jealous of how fun that sounds, but i can't complain: i get another day in chicago tomorrow. hooray!

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on a completely different note, check this out: radiohead released a new video, made without cameras or lights. they used geometric informatics (which i *know* you're a huge fan of) and something called velodyne LIDAR. to quote from the site, "Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes." lasers! sweet!

lots of restaurants close for some time period during the summer. i especially like hot doug's reason for taking a couple of days off.

i'm in chicago, which is pretty exciting since i haven't been here since starting at my new job (i was here last november for a re-org offsite at my previous company). the summer is amazing in chicago. there are immaculately maintained flowerbeds, tons of people walking around, boats on the water, and festivals all of the time. if i could live anywhere in the world, i'd rotate around:

april-may in new york
june-july in chicago
august-october in san francisco
november-march on kauai

anyone have other suggestions?

................................

right now i'm in the car en route to madison, wisconsin for a family wedding. steve and i are with his brother kevin, and his wife, whitney. kevin is pretty much one of the worst drivers i've been with. he's not used to city driving and tends to stop and let everyone in, or to hesitate just enough to freak out other drivers near him. this is completely frustrating steve and whitney, and so i'm trying to just keep quiet and get a bit of work done. however, it's a bit funny to listen to them going back and forth, since we don't get to see them often enough and have these sort of "family" moments.

this article about what a local gas station is doing to ease customers' frustrations about high gas prices made me laugh out loud. it also kinda makes me wonder if this was what it was like during the 70s when there were gas shortages. is there anyone reading this that remembers that era who would like to weigh in?

it's a day late, but hey, you can be patriotic anytime.
thanks, keenan, for bringing this one to my attention!

wow, it must have been a slow news day! the latimes wrote an entire article about how the printers at the youtube offices are named after wu-tang clan. (in case you're wondering, i print to methodman, and for color printing it's rza). very, very exciting!

omg, i love this!

big announcement from google last night, which could really impact people who plan and buy media (my old job).
it should be interesting to see how the media community responds and reacts to this.

according to this article in the wsj (which you may need to log in to read), there is a bit of a modern renaissance of the sport of jousting going on. weird! i kinda want to go and see a tournament, but it appears that the governing league is in need of a website overhaul, and they only have one tournament in the US planned, which is sometime in september in new hampshire. i hope i remember to check back and see when they set the date!

youtube recently launched a really neat new feature where they'll highlight short films from film festivals around the globe, with new films every few weeks. you can check out the program, titled 'the screening room' here. my favorite of the first four films is "the danish poet", which is supercute.

sorry i haven't written more! i have had about 10 things in draft format, so let me see if i can get them edited and up today. enjoy!

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we just got a roomba, which is really fun. we have only used it twice so far, but the first time i couldn't stop watching it (which kind-of defeats the purpose of saving time) as it whirred across the floor. it seems to do so in a pretty random pattern, but then again, it's a ROBOT, so i'm sure it's just smarter than me and there's a sense to it.
the second time we used it, we programmed it to work while we were gone for the evening (for an amazing indian food dinner party at my friend derek's) and when we came back the roomba hadn't made it back to its charging station. we found it forlornly out of power in a corner, where it had tangled up in a cord. poor roomba! it's supposed to be able to avoid cords, but apparently it doesn't work 100% of the time.

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this guy is obsessed with packing light. since it looks like i may be taking a four city 12 day trip next month, i should read his whole site for tips!

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i think you have to log in to see it, but this little humorous piece in the WSJ about yahoo spurning microsoft for google is pretty awesome. i think i like the afterschool special version the best.

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FINALLY! someone (actually, nerve.com) has put together a list of the best fake commercials of all time. now you can watch both recent classics like the "mom jeans" ad and the awesome "hey, you (the perfume of one-night stands"
i don't usually watch as much online video as you might expect, but this will be a great time-waster over the next few days.

as you know, we're big into safety here at the hall household. that's why we were relieved to hear that a flaming hackysack toy was banned by the good folks of south australia. which then made me wonder: can you get this in other parts of australia?

this totally freaked me out:

i don't remember how i found this artist's videos, but i am completely and utterly fascinated, and thought you might be too.

wow! these photos of a chilean volcano eruption aren't brand new, but they're still the coolest photos i've seen in awhile.

i just received this email from a local restaurant that i have been wanting to check out. i really like their other spots, so it made me happy that they can also send a witty email:


Anchor & Hope - the new fish house from the jackasses that brought you Town Hall & Salt House - is open. Maine lobsters, Dungeness crabs, steamed mussels, oysters & fish and much more. Print this and bring it with you and we'll treat you to one oyster. No, wait, that's too much. No complimentary oysters. A renovated 100 year old warehouse at 83 Minna Street between Mission and Howard & First and Second Streets.

Norm Smittka of the Seaside Gazette in Maine writes - "I've never been there but I give Anchor & Hype, sorry, Anchor & Hope - or whatever you call it - 8 stars because they were just really nice people on the phone."

Call 415.501.9100 or go online at www.opentable.com

Town Hall is located at:
342 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: 415.908.3900
Fax: 415.908.3700

For more information (dress code, parking, map, etc.) or to make reservations at
Town Hall:
http://www.opentable.com/restaurant_profile.asp?ID=2777&restref=2777

i just received this email from a local restaurant that i have been wanting to check out. i really like their other spots, so it made me happy that they can also send a witty email:


Anchor & Hope - the new fish house from the jackasses that brought you Town Hall & Salt House - is open. Maine lobsters, Dungeness crabs, steamed mussels, oysters & fish and much more. Print this and bring it with you and we'll treat you to one oyster. No, wait, that's too much. No complimentary oysters. A renovated 100 year old warehouse at 83 Minna Street between Mission and Howard & First and Second Streets.

Norm Smittka of the Seaside Gazette in Maine writes - "I've never been there but I give Anchor & Hype, sorry, Anchor & Hope - or whatever you call it - 8 stars because they were just really nice people on the phone."

Call 415.501.9100 or go online at www.opentable.com

Town Hall is located at:

342 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: 415.908.3900
Fax: 415.908.3700



For more information (dress code, parking, map, etc.) or to make reservations at
Town Hall:
http://www.opentable.com/restaurant_profile.asp?ID=2777&restref=2777

last week on our trip, ann and i were talking about our life goals, and the topic came up again today with another friend. i've had variations of my list for a long time, and these conversations have been the catalyst for me to see what versions of the list i can dig up, and try to write up a current version. do any of you, dear readers, have a "bucket list"? and what's on it?

separately, a (guy) friend told me today that he made a mix CD for a gal that he digs. i still have a box of mix tapes from good friends. megan stielstra made me a mix tape that introduced me to "wonderful tonight" by clapton, fred rice sang me songs he wrote himself, fred thomas had the best names for his mix tapes, aaron put on more than one song by genesis (even though he knew i didn't understand his love for them), and then steve made me a mix with "ain't that a kick in the head" on it, which still makes me think of the beginning of our relationship whenever i hear that song. i should dig out that box and find a way to enjoy some of those... and i wonder what i would put on a mix CD if i were making one today. i guess i'd have to assume if i'm making one today, it would be different for steve than it would for anyone else in the world. and it would be damn difficult to make him one, since we listen to mostly the same stuff anyhow! still, i did make him a mix CD once -- and it was all about how much i lovelovelove him, yet i tried to make it un-cheesy. i remember that i included "stickshifts and safety belts" by cake on it. and i know that the liner notes i made are still in one of our CD books, but the CD is long gone. i guess i could always re-release that as a playlist. however, call me old-fashioned, but somehow that seems a lot less romantic.

I'm so glad I'm home!
The flights were (thankfully) uneventful. There were no crying babies, there was minimal turbulence, and the most annoying thing was a guy in the row behind me that kept shuffling and reshuffling a pack of cards while I tried to sleep (seriously, who does that for over an hour?!?)
It was great to see Steve (of course!) and we were able to see a lot of other friends too, at Courtney & Chris's baby shower yesterday.
The only negative thing to report is that I think I caught a cold on my way home. I keep sneezing... I am fighting it valiantly, though. Hopefully Zicam will kill it before it gets worse. I am afraid that we'll have a repeat of my last cold, though: I was minimally affected for about 2 days, and then Steve caught it from me and was out of commission for 5 weeks. Ick!

I hope the Red Wings can pull it off tonight... I hope I don't jinx it by saying that!

I am going to my first personal training session tonight. I hope my trainer is hot.

Last random thought for this post: I love these shoes! I am in no way hinting that I am going to buy them (since they're way too expensive), but I so totally dig them!