years ago, way before ollie, way before marriage, we went to target and stocked up on emergency kits. we put them in jumbo suitcases in our garage. they moved with us from one house in the city to another. when we moved to our current house, last october, g picked through them and put all of the stuff that was salvagable into paper bags and shoved them into a closet downstairs. we have nothing set aside for ollie. we have no water, no food, no matches...no wine.

in the past week there've been three earthquakes, all between 3.6 and 4.0, and within miles of our house. earthquakes never used to scare me and now they terrify me. mostly because i worry about ollie. yesterday's earthquake at 5:30 AM jolted the three of us awake. ollie cried and we told him not to worry. my heart though, was pounding. he had to have noticed.

this weekend, in between dinner with friends and halloween parties, i plan on getting those emergency kits in place.

more on the quakes here.
happy weekend.

ollie lately

i was chasing him around the car, trying to keep him from climbing in. anytime we're near a car he tries to open the door and climb in.

anytime anyone comes to the house he asks to see their car. he'll walk around and around the car, as if he works for a rental car agency and the car is being inspected upon return.

we lock our car doors in front of our house because of him.


making himself comfortable at my aunt's house.


riding the carousel at vasona. still a bit unsure.


popsicles with nono.


train with mom at vasona.


playing drums on the back deck.


walking at garber park with dad, looking for "leafwiches."


swimming with uncle a.


playing in his pool on the back deck.

good stuff

+ 9 months after a coworker recommended it, i finally had roli roti's porchetta sandwich on saturday. pork loin, crispy pork belly, greens, and onion marmalade on an acme roll. i was so thirsty afterwards. and tired. i took a nap and basked in the afterglow.

+ daylight savings time. i've been looking forward to daylight savings time in our new house. so excited to be able to take walks with ollie after work and sit outside after ollie goes to bed.

++ bonus: interesting read about daylight savings time here.

+ i tried the easiest chocolate chip cookie recipe this weekend. i'll post it later.

+ today i came home to find a box on my front porch. it contained a bunch of sweet gifts and a thoughtful note from a dear friend. so sweet. made me smile.

+ ollie seems to have adjusted to his new room at school and he's back to his usual, happy self.

eyelashes

this is kind of a gross story so i apologize in advance.

i went to a summer camp in boulder creek one year. it was fanastic. i loved it. one thing i remember, is one of the counselors, named janet. i remember janet becuase she wore a tiny, itsy bitsy string bikini. and she snuck off to meet a boy one night, and came back and told us about it. and because she wore false eyelashes because apparently she liked to remove her eyelashes. with her fingers. she also wore incredibly long fake nails.


yesterday i was getting dressed and putting on my face. (i'm not really sure why i bother w/ things like blush--it lasts for about 2 hours and then it's gone and i never reapply. but everyday i do pretty much the same thing to my face.)

i stood in the bathroom mirror and curled my eyelashes. my left eye was done and i was working on my right eye. i have a new curler. it's not very cooperative and i've been struggling with it.

anyway, i was standing there, curling my lashes when i sort of tripped. my elbow slipped. my feet wavered. i'm not sure which happend first, the feet wavering or the elbow slipping, however, i YANKED out about 1/3 of my eyelashes on the top of of my right eye. it made the most awful sound. i was shocked. it hurt like hell for one, it sounded terrible and my eyelid now has a bald spot. once i got over the pain, i stared at the cluster of eyelashes stuck to my curler. i was inclined to start to try to pull them off the curler to show gabe (weird, yes?), so he could see the volume that was ripped out of my eye, but they slipped into the sink so i ran the water and watched them go down the drain. i was stunned.

almost immediately after this happened i got something in my eye.

i've been putting a tiny bit of dark eyeliner along my eye in the baldspot. i think it's helping hid the missing lashes. or i look like what's her name from grey gardens.

according to wikipedia, eyelashes grow back in 7-8 weeks. i'm waiting.

and for the record, i didn't curl my remaining eyelashes this morning.

food and drink

today i had a fried avocado taco (okay, TWO fried avocado tacos) from torchy's tacos that were so yummy.

can i just say it again? fried avocado.

it's been 7 hours and i'm still basking in the afterglow.

after eating the tacos i sat in on mexican artisan cheese tasting seminar. imagine how full i was after.

also, gabe bought shiner bock smokehaus beer at whole foods tonight.



we each had a sip and then poured our beer out. oh well.

here's the description from the shiner bock site:

Enjoy Shiner's Smokin' Sommer Bier!
Brewed with pale malt that's been smoked with native mesquite in the backyard of our little brewery in Shiner, Texas (pop. 2,070), this refreshing Helles-style beer has a smoky flavor that goes great with all the flavors of summer.

i personally wouldn't have picked up mesquite flavored beer, but gabe is a sucker for this kind of thing. usually his curiosity is limited to the potato chip and chewing gum arenas but not today. the beer got him.

it's not pretty

something happened yesterday that made me think of this bukowski poem. i looked it up last night and thought i'd share it here, too:

i met a genius
by charles bukowski

i met a genius on the train
today
about 6 years old,
he sat beside me
and as the train
ran down along the coast
we came to the ocean
and then he looked at me
and said,
it's not pretty.

it was the first time i'd
realized
that.

(if i could recall just exactly what it was that happened yesterday, i'd totally share that, however, i can't.)

ollie must read my blog. he got me one of these for my birthday:


(obs his dad helped him out. sweet husband!)

last friday and this monday i had cookies for lunch. cookies dammit! and they weren't even particularly good cookies. i need to start bringing a lunch. i'm joining the gym again.

i need black flats. cute, simple black flats. i bought a pair sunday actually. super cute, just what i wanted. i wore them to work yesterday and was waddling around like a duck. they fit me sunday. on monday they were a size too small. no shit.

i'm going to a conference about cheese in austin, texas, and i'm excited. (equally. about texas and cheese.)

this flickr group makes me smile big. watch some of them and you will smile big, too.
If it's friday & you're home from work then DANCE DANCE DANCE!

away we go

i want to see  away we go.

i read about it yesterday, in vogue, and then saw a commercial for it last night.  

vogue described it as a "juno" for adults.  after watching the trailer, i totally see what they're talking about.  (allison janey is in it, too, just like in "juno.")

it's written by dave eggers and his wife, vendela vida.  i love maya rudolph so much and she stars in it with john krasinski, from "the office."

 

mornings

most mornings ollie starts chatting around 5:45 or 6.  he's always pretty hyper in the morning and he has a lot to say.  he's such a morning person.  he's so happy.  

on weekends we'll all hang out in our bed and then gabe will get up and make breakfast.  by the time we're done with breakfast, ollie's ready for his morning nap.  i'll usually put him down in our bed and i'll draw or catch up on blogs while he sleeps. if i'm tired, i'll nap with him.  i love mornings like this so much.

before

after

j. crew window

j. crew emails me a lot.  they somehow have my personal email and they like to stay in touch with me, sometimes multiple times a week.  

last night i passed a j. crew store and i must say, i like the ice cream cone windows.

(crappy camera phone pics)

and hello

it's been so long since i last posted, i don't even know where to begin.

things have been busy. 

and our household has been sick.  i had it first, for over a week and even lost my voice for a day or so. (probably a nice reprieve for gabe and ollie!)  then ollie got it, over a week ago.  and he still has it. g came down with it today. and the best part is, i have a sore throat and swollen glands so it looks like it's coming back to haunt me. 

also lately:

ollie is almost crawling. he scoots backwards. we try to put things in front of him that he really wants. like scooter's tail. 

this past week ollie also decided he no longer likes solids. there was a lot of turning his head and avoiding eye contact with me while in his high chair. and this face:

i'm happy to report that tonight, he ate everything i put in front of him. it seems like he's back on solids. (phew!)

for my first mother's day (ahhhhhh!), gabe gave me this photo cube for my desk. i love it.


he also cooked a lovely breakfast:

(he does this just about every weekend day.  and he does the dishes.)

to relax at night i've been messing around and doodling:

lately

1.  last night i had the pleasure of hanging out with a great group of women.   we drank a little wine, snacked on some good food and talked about kids.  one of the  mom's young daughter was watching a friend's little boy get a diaper change.  she told his mom that, "he has a very long vagina."  every time i think about this i giggle.  

2.  i've become complacent about having loads upon loads of laundry that need to be done (desperately), not going grocery shopping on a regular basis lately and the dust bunnies floating around our house.  i'll notice something that needs to be done, feel stressed about it for a good second and then tell myself to hell with it.

3.  the step-cat is sick.  like, really sick.  while the step-cat and i have never been best friends, it's sad to see him wobble around.  and i'm sad for his dad.  

it's time to sleep.  good night.

speaking of vases, here are some i like


from heath ceramics



pomegranate vases from urban mercantile


from sf moma store


this is from target

margin detail

i follow this guy, chris piascik's flickr page.  he does daily drawings with tons of hand-drawn lettering.

he's part of a group, called margin detail, that's totally devoted to doodles.

Margin Detail is a collection of unrefined doodles by working illustrators and designers including Eric Ellis, Chad Kouri, Jesse Hora, Chris Piascik and Kate Bingaman-Burt as well as other guest contributors. The only problem is… we can’t come to a decision on what defines a doodle! Does it have to be done quickly? Only use one drawing utensil? small? crappy?! All of the above? We just don’t know. So, help us out! What do you think a doodle is? Leave your definition below while we fumble our way through finishing the rest of the site for our launch on MARCH 28th. Enjoy!

you can leave them a note describing what you think defines a doodle.

Cheap

1. I took the 25 things about me meme from Facebook and pasted it into my blog yesterday. All because I mentioned Keifer Sutherland's name, I've received more hits on this blog than I have for the entire time I've been keeping it. Who knew!?

2. Experiment: Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie,  Barack Obama, Tom Dashle,  Miley Cyrus 

3. My dad calls Facebook, spacebooks. Gabe knows someone who calls it myface.

4.  There's local blog that I read, that I won't name, because I don't want to be an asshole. I can't stop reading it.  And it drives me crazy because the kid who writes it was born and raised in San Jose. AND HE SPELLS EVERYTHING THE BRITISH WAY. For example: Favourite. Colour. Sodomising.

That's all I have tonight.  A bunch of nonsense.

Night!

Polaroid Saved

This news is at least a week old, however, maybe the two people who read this don't know yet. (Hi Mom and Dad!)

Smile! Polaroid is saved, via Swiss Miss.