good fun thing(s) days 3 and 4

driving down 280 is a good thing. there's never too much traffic and the scenery is pretty. yesterday i went down to palo alto with leonard cohen cranked up high. sometimes i really love driving. the clouds were so amazingly beautiful, i pulled over to photograph them.

maybe i went to too many dead shows as a teenager. i love fluffy, marshmallowy clouds and the way the light plays off of them.

i love the still quiet of libraries. and the way books smell. today i explored the uc berkeley campus with my cousins and aunt. one of my cousins is considering ucb for college next year. (she was born when i was a freshman in college. really, i don't think anything has ever made me feel so OLD.)


cousins and aunts (as mentioned above) came to visit. they spent the night and today i took the day off to hang out. ollie tried to boss the cousins around (he called them his friends.) we ate and talked and laughed. my aunt is amazing and the cousins, aged 12, 14 and 16 are the cutest. last night, before bedtime, gabe put on an ella fitzgerald album and we sat around and listened to music and talked. i made the girls licorice tea. my 12-year old cousin updated her facebook status: "sitting around, listening to ella fitzgerald, drinking licorice tea and looking at the sf bay. it's delovely." cute.

weekend highlights

seeing two really good people get married in the middle of redwood trees on a beautiful fall day.

red tights with turquoise shoes. (not mine, i can only dream of having such style).

a night out with g, while the little man was home with grammy.

painted nails.


a picnic at the botanical gardens.

the library at the botanical gardens


sleeping in. if you consider 7:00 sleeping in. i do.


the face, the belly, the smile.


a sunday morning walk with my guys.

tired. lazy.

wtf target: frugalistas? not a fan of the new campaign.

on facebook, more of my contacts commented on patrick swayze's death

than michael jackson's death. lots of baby in the corner comments.

we're going to a wedding in november. the ceremony is outside and there will be walking to the ceremony site. what to wear?

ollie turns one in 4 weeks. omg. the first year flew. and he's so not a baby anymore.

i can't figure out how to remove the flickr application from my facebook page, which makes me feel bad posting to flickr because my contacts probably don't want to see another picture of oliver.

i want to cut my hair off.

i want to grow my hair out.

i have my period. why do people say they're on their period? you are not on your period. your period might get on you. or your pants. but you do not get on it. (clearly it's time for me to go to bed. ollie's 4:30 AM wake ups are taking their toll.)

i've been walking everyday after work from 5-6 with ollie and it's really nice.

when i was young

when i was little my aunt sandi had a drawing on her wall, which was a figure study of a nude woman in three different positions. she told me the woman in the drawing was her and for years i really believed the woman in the picture was my aunt. and i thought she was a little weird for having naked drawings of herself hanging on her living room wall.

another time, when i was little, i was at a cousin's birthday party. there was some sort of game and i lost. another aunt, my mom's sister kathy, told me i would get a booby price. i thought i was going to get a prize that had something to do with a boob.

as a kid, when i was at a stoplight with my dad, he would count until the light changed. he always said "change light," right when it changed. i thought he was magical. (yellow lights!)

my mom never spanked/hit us. one time though she was taking me to school. i was sitting in the back seat of our silver buick being a little shit. she yelled, "if you do whatever you're doing again, i'll spank you harder than you've ever been spanked." so i did whatever it was i'd been doing. and she reached around from the front seat and slapped my bare leg. it was hard, because it left a handprint. and - i'm cringing as i write this - i laughed and said, "that's your hardest?" she drove me to school in silence.

anthony, my brother is 2.5 years younger than me. we were home alone one day combing through the pantry looking for something sweet when we noticed some unsweetened hershey's chocolate. we decided to "make" chocolate. we pulled out a pan, put it on the stove and then proceeded to add the chocolate, a couple of eggs and sugar. we scrambled the chocolate up and served ourselves each a plate. then we sat down at the kitchen table and both choked a few bites down.

another time we were home alone, again going through the pantry and we decided to make clove cigarettes. we took a piece of binder paper, sprinkled (whole) cloves in it, rolled it up and scotch taped it closed. then we lit it on fire. it burned quick and was near impossible to smoke so we ran it under the kitchen faucet and scratched that idea. my mom got home soon after and asked us why the house smelled like something had burned. we explained that we'd made clove cigarettes. she told us not to that again. she also said be sure you do not tell your friends about this.

what we did in austin

all week g, o and i have been in austin, texas for the american cheese society conference.

we came early so we could see some of austin and hang with some special peeps.

four of those peeps included g's uncle and aunt, who reside in houston but were in austin for the first three days of our stay. they're super cool people, and their two beautiful kids are smart, funny and all around good kids. i wish we got to see them more.

we also got to see our old friend christina, who used to live in sf. she moved here a little over 3 years ago. since then, she's married a really sweet guy and had a gorgeous little son, who we got to meet. oh boy is he sweet and cute. seriously, i don't know how christina says no to her little guy. he's got big brown eyes, gorgeous sun-streaked hair and a smile that melts your heart.

we got to see some of austin, though after looking at the list below we mostly ate our way through austin. and shopped...

barton springs? there's nothing like it in san francisco. it's plain cool.

going on christina's recommendation we checked out uncommon objects on south congress. such a cool store. there are little (for lack of a better word) "stalls" that have little vignettes of rooms created. furniture, letters, glassware, pictures, shirts, jewelry...they have it all. i could've spent hours in here.

queso? i know so! i mean yes, please. if it weren't so hot here i would've bathed in the stuff. it's magic.

shandies by the pool at the hotel san jose?
hello, relaxing! and tasty, too.

i mentioned the torchy's in a previous post, but i'll say it again: fried avocado tacos. hells yeah.

jo's coffee, located in the parking lot of our hotel. i think we ate here almost every morning. their espresso is just right and their breakfast burritos hit the spot.