nails

It has literally been an ice age since I had painted finger nails (in stark contrast to my toes that have been painted for 20 years straight). 

nice clean nails!

This past weekend we went to New Jersey for a wedding of my dear friend from college.  I would say her name, but she is now a federal law enforcement officer and I feel like she would disapprove of me blowing her cover!  Not only is she a federal law enforcement officer, but she married one too!  I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid and as part of the deal we got our nails painted on Friday.  Check it out!  Blood red! I love it!  I used to work in a lab where we cleaned everything with Acetone (aka nail polish remover) so I got used to never wearing nail polish. Now that I have my nails painted, I have really enjoyed pointing at things.  For example, today my boss needed help figuring out how to eject a cd from his computer (he just got a mac).  I was very happy to point to the cd icon and tell him to right click and select eject.  Look how pretty my finger looks with a painted nail, I pointed out.  He didn't really respond. It's the small things!

I'm also excited that it's the last full week before the Christmas Holidays (aka - it will be three weeks before I have another 5 day work week)!!!

covering new ground

My husband loves to play the game The Settlers of Catan.  I used to make fun of tease him for it until I played it about two weeks ago with two other couples.  I have to say that now I am addicted.  It is simple to play, but complex enough to get under your skin.  I felt the same way when I played bananagrams and sodoku for the first time.  I'm slowly getting better at Catan (I force my hubby to play with me), but I have yet to win a game (of the 5 or so times I've played).   Baby steps... 

A losing game board for me (in red)... 

An interesting side note, I was reading the wikipedia page for The Settlers of Catan and smiled at this part: "The game is very popular among the technology crowd in Silicon Valley.^[8]" Who knew I was so trendy!

Sunday fun

Some cool music videos for a lazy Sunday...

The coolest one - The Wilderness Downtown by Arcade Fire - "A Chrome Experiment" and VERY cool.

These two videos by OK GO were shot in once continuous shot.  Pretty insane and very cool to watch.

full of hot air

This labor day weekend was pretty unforgettable!  We had a very relaxing weekend filled with friends, good food, good wine - and a hot air balloon!  For our wedding, Alison and Eli gave us a ride on a hot air balloon in Sonoma County, CA. 

I should start by saying that when I think hot air balloon - for some reason I think of the end of the movie The Wizard of Oz... a movie that I love and have probably seen about 100 times.  Interesting to note that hot air balloon technology is pretty much the same in 1939 as it is today (wicker basket, big cloth balloon, hot air from a burner).

Image credit

Anyway, we left the bay area Sunday afternoon and picked up Alison in the city.  Alison was fresh from 4 days at Burning Man, so she was channeling her inner-hobo when we picked her up - tanned, in sweats with desert dust on her shoes - a plastic bag with the essentials (People magazine). 

We stayed at the Doubletree hotel in Rohnert Park and had a relaxing evening drinking wine and eating Japanese food.  However, 5:30 am Monday morning came too soon and by 6:45 am we were standing in the middle of a small airport unpacking the hot air balloon.  We went with a company called Up and Away Ballooning.

The colors in the morning light were beautiful

First the balloon was spread out on a tarp and then a giant fan was used to fill it up.  After the balloon was somewhat inflated, the propane burners roared to life and the hot air started to lift the balloon.  There were three balloons going up yesterday - two that held 7, and one that held 12. We were in one of the smaller ones.

Fire and fabric usually don't mix...

The hot air lifts the balloon (and eventually the basket with passengers on board).  This was one of the other balloons going up with us.

Almost there

So I asked - what does one of these balloon/basket combos set you back.  I guessed $10,000 and the captain couldn't believe I could think that.  Turns out - it is $70,000!  Insanity!  Apparently they are completely handmade in the US using very traditional techniques - the wicker basket technology is pretty tried and true it seems.  Aside from modern fabrics - you could have seen this balloon in the Wizard of Oz.

There are a lot of guide wires inside the balloon

And we have liftoff

We enjoyed an hour long float over the Sonoma County countryside.  It was pretty quiet except for dogs barking and the occasional blast on the propane burners that kept the balloon in the air.

The other balloon in our group

We caught up to the balloon in the above photo and I took this photo of them photographing us.  Our balloons actually touched at this point.  I thought it would be kind of scary - but it was just air and fabric - so it wasn't noticeable when they touched.

these baskets are packed pretty tight

 Our balloons bumping mid-flight!

the bump

double date on a balloon!

I couldn't get a picture of what we looked like in the balloon from a distance (of course), but I could photograph this other balloon and pretend we were on that one. 

We passed countless fields of grapes and this one had the workers just starting their day.  We could hear the clang of their tools and cars as the field rumbled to life.  It is about time to harvest the grapes, so they may have been getting an early start.

Harvest in progress?

So how to you land a balloon you can't steer?  In a random field with sheep.  Yes - those sheep were our welcome committee.  The farmer was thanked for his hospitality with a bottle of wine by the balloon company.

Some big horns

The farmer also had a HUGE dog.  While the balloon staff wrapped up the balloon and basket and loaded the truck - we hung out with the farmer and asked lots of questions.  He grew grapes and produced wine under the Prophet label.  He also had a HUGE Irish wolfhound the size of a small horse (the tallest dog breed according to wikipedia).  What was so funny is this dog was scared of us, when it really should have been the other way around!  It was fun to meet him - even though he looked so scary with his orange eyes.

Cormack the wolf dog

My hubby helped pack up the balloon while I stood and watched the sheep and giant wolfhound.

They call this milking...

After the ride they fed us a delicious brunch with champagne and coffee.  I ate so fast I almost forgot to document it!

quiche - yum

After our brunch we went wine tasting - but I'll save those details for another post.

Thanks again to Alison and Eli for the amazing wedding gift!  We had so much fun with the two of you this weekend.  Our next adventure?  We hope to see the Grand Canyon sometime in the next year or so - my husband and Alison have never been!  That is something everyone should see.

Hope you had a great labor day weekend - enjoy the short workweek!

Labor Day

A little hint as to how we spent our Labor Day!  I can't wait to share the 300 other photos that I took... 

Off to enjoy the last of the three day weekend!  If only every weekend was three days...

dog days of summer

It was hot today, so hot that it felt like summer for the first time all summer.  Maybe it is the inner school kid in me (the Palo Alto schools start tomorrow), but I find myself wanting to make some mischief in the final moments of summer.  Play hooky from work and lie in the sun all day eating figs and reading romantic novels like Pride and Prejudice (which I just finished).  I want to laugh with friends and eat ice cream in the sun after running through a neighbor's sprinkler.  All the best things about summer...

Cecilia living it up (two years ago)

Ice cream from Bi-Rite in SF

Phil's boat on Lake Almanor

Ovo!

Last Sunday we saw Ovo from Cirque Du Soleil and I highly recommend it. So much fun! 

Have a great weekend!

Computer Scientist Barbie

Look's like Barbie has a new career - as a computer scientist!  Although it is still a little bit much (binary on her t-shirt and pink geek chic glasses?), it still seems pretty cool.  I must say that I LOVED Barbie when I was little - my favorite being Garden Party Barbie circa 1987 (check her out below). I thought that she had the most beautiful outfit.  My second favorite Barbie was career Barbie's day to night reversible suit circa 1984 (also below).  I loved the night skirt and the little briefcase full of plastic pencils and paper.  Don't worry, I still have both.  My nieces will thank me someday.

{image from Toys I Have Loved}

{Image from Amazon}

p.s. I might have to buy computer scientist Barbie for Daniela and Cecilia... just because it would be fun to let engineer Barbie play with my old school Barbies.  Too bad I don't have astronaut Barbie to round out the group. :)

Happy Mardi Gras!

Throw me something (in California) mister!

Wish I could be there - a Super Bowl win on top of normal Mardi Gras craziness is something I want to see!

A cute shot of Patrick and Memaw at Mardi Gras in 1993  :)

update:  a little Drew Dat!
King of Baccus Drew Brees on Sunday sent by my mom's friend...

geaux penguins...

Before Oklahoma and before China, we celebrated my fiance's birthday observed (since I would be out of town on the actual day). Here is his pile of presents. 

So what did he get?  Among other things, a penguin cocktail shaker from my mom (soo cute).  He is keeping our champagne company. Note the champagne is in a champagne flute in our crystal pattern (a lovely Christmas gift from his parents).  :)

A Geaux Tigers shirt from me (matches our snuggie).  Dave has wanted one of these shirts for so long (I think he thinks Geaux is funny) - so now he can finally run with Tiger pride.

Happy Birthday!!

cool NYT maps

Kevin always seems to find the coolest NYT graphics. Sharing a few here. Love the distribution of Thanksgiving dishes in the southeast! Also, my fiance and I have seen most of the top 10 movies in the Bay Area... which is funny considering we don't watch that many movies.

Thanksgiving good search terms

Netflix rental patterns by geography

all maps from nytimes.com

01.11.10

01.11.10 - the palindrome day I have been waiting for! It made me think about what I did this time last year...

Alice + Alice in New York City

A surprise dinner at Mas (Farmhouse) - still one of the best meals I have ever had in my life! It was 10 courses with wine pairings!

Google Chrome

Very cool videos featuring the advantages of using Google Chrome (again mom and dad looking at you).

p.s. refresher on the differences between a browser and an operating system

Old Year's Night!

Happy New Year!!!

let it snow!

A friend of a friend made flakemaker.com - virtual craftiness! It was surprisingly fun - although if you look at the gallery, my flake doesn't stand a chance!

Big Game 09

Today Stanford played Cal in the Big Game - and lost. I realized that this was the 6th Big Game I've watched since moving to California! Wow time has flown by...


I took the above pictures at the Big Game in 2006 - which I attended with Benji at Cal. I like these photos because the Cal students spelled out "kiss our axe" with cards at halftime. I actually have photos of the entire ~20 card sequence which is really cool, but I just posted these two. The Axe is awarded annually to the winner of the big game (since 1933). Unfortunately we didn't get it back this year... ah next year!

sweet treats

This past weekend we hosted a Halloween party, that also sort of doubled as a housewarming since we had never really hosted a party in our house. All day Saturday, Audrey, Kelley, Suchi, and I cooked sweet treats to serve (thanks so much to them for coming over to cook)!

We had funfetti ghosts (my favorite cupcakes from a box)

Spooky ladies' fingers (thanks to Martha Stewart for the idea)

Chocolate bark with apricots, pistachios, and ginger

And last but not least - lots of sugar cookies in fun shapes! I used my mom's recipe. Tasted delicious!

It was a great party - thanks to all that came over. I will say that 100% of our guests were in costume... pretty awesome!

play ball

This week we had a team offsite at Campo di Bocce in Los Gatos. Our entire extended team at work was invited to spend part of Tuesday afternoon eating, drinking, and playing bocce.

It was really nice (really what fun activity in the middle of the paid workday isn't) and we had great sunny, warm weather for our outdoor courts. Why I never thought to organize a trip here in my 2 years of organizing events for graduate students, I don't know...

I have my own set of antique bocce balls, which I have never played with. Looking at the clay ones we used, I don't think my mahogany ones would last very long out there.

Thanks to Brandi for organizing and taking these great photos!

friends on friday

I have a new reason to love Thursday nights - mystery flight night at Vino Locale. It is like I am back in college again. Although in college, dollar bud night was Tuesdays at the Santa Fe. This week I went with Niki and Maureen and we had a great time.

Wine + friends + California weather... what's not to love?