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: