Here, There, Everywhere

And then, it was January

2012-01-25T02:05:00.000-08:00

The leaves lasted many months this year, from October through January, four full months of autumn.

Asheville and other North Carolinas

2011-11-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

Asheville park fountains

Downtown Asheville triangle

Path off Blue Ridge Parkway

Downtown Asheville

After painting by the park

Autumn Boston Trip

2011-11-05T23:53:00.000-07:00

Cambridge

Break from a walk along the Charles

Smashing Pumpkins concert @ Wilbur Hall

Glass-blowing offsite finished pieces

2011-11-04T23:51:00.000-07:00

Glass coasters and blue-spectrum flower

Glass-Blowing Team Offsite

2011-09-27T12:27:00.001-07:00

My team went on a glass-blowing offsite last week, one afternoon as temperatures sweltered in the mid-90s F. We took a 4-hour class at the Bay Area Glass Institute in downtown San Jose, where we:

Made flat glass collages (plates, or coasters)
Sculpted hot glass (into paperweights, or flowers)
Watched a glass-blowing demonstration of a bowl

Demo of how we sculpted flowers:

Demo of adding the swirls around the blown glass:

The Verdict

2011-08-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

Zachary's Pizza Art Contest Sistine Chapel Project

2011-07-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

Today I finished my 3'x4' poster in oil pastels for Zachary's Pizza of Berkeley's annual art contest. Michal's concept, my execution.

A random act? Or prophecy through absurdity? This is how it happened:

About two weeks ago on Saturday morning our doorbell rang, and I ignored it since we weren't expecting anyone. Meow opened the door to find a tall, rolled-up piece of paper with a note that read:

To: E
From: John
Due 7/31

Who drops off a homework assignment on your front porch on Saturday morning?

I quickly called the only John I knew and confirmed the purpose of the mysterious parcel. At first, I thought about doing pizza spirals, or a pizza statistical graph, but no idea seemed great enough. I urged Meow to brainstorm, and his third concept was the Adam/God scene from the Sistine Chapel. Later, he added that Adam should be the one handing God a slice of pizza.

It was so brilliant, I had no choice not to do the poster, and thus began a series of many weeknight evenings slumped over our kitchen table until 2 in the morning, and a full day of immobilizing my shoulder in an ice pack.

And voila!

This is how Mr. Wilbur gets you to do his bidding. Watch out: random assignments may show up at your door at any time. But they're probably for your own good. Or at least Mr. Wilbur's amusement.

The Vegas Madonna

2011-07-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

A Sunday evening quickie painting of Jill.

2-Hour Flowers

2011-07-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

There's a new Saturday oil painting class in town. Last weekend, we had about two hours to paint a still life subject -- a vase of flowers.

It's a little one-note in terms of value, the colors being all about the same middle value and not particularly dark or light -- but I like the accidental delight of yellow water.

There's an art store two blocks away for last-minute supply emergencies, and a grocery store, all the things!

Miracle Kitty and the Case of the Foundling Bicycle

2011-06-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

On Friday, whilst my team walked to the company's end-of-week TGIF meeting/hangout, I decided to bike back to my desk using one of the campus bicycles to retrieve my bag of Polish tea, herbata sliwkowa, or plum-flavored black tea. They usually serve some kind of cake at TGIF, you see, and it doesn't get any better than Tea and Cakes. So I grabbed the tea from my desk, threw it in the bicycle basket, and biked quickly so as to catch up with the group before they arrived.

And I did just catch them. So impeccable was my timing that I ditched my bike one building down from where I saw the group walking. Only 100 meters ahead of me, I ran to meet them, and I had just caught up to them as they opened the door. Then I remembered that I had left my tea in the basket of the bicycle. Skidding around, I flew back to the previous building, to the side doorway by which I had left the bicycle. Only it was now gone.

Panic does not accurately depict the state having lost my from-deep-within-a-Polish-village tea. It had only been 30-60 seconds since I left the bicycle, so I reasoned it still had to be within the vicinity. People on bikes whisked by on their way to TGIF, and I scanned their baskets for evidence of the shiny blue tea bag.

But it was not to be. Many people were on their way to TGIF, so bicycles and feet kept pouring in, and I hopped on another bicycle to circle among the three parking-lot areas where people drop them off on their way to the buildings. Over the course of nearly an hour, I made the rounds, occasionally whisking off to a nearby other building to see if the bike had made it's way there. I checked with lost and found to see if someone had turned it in. Nothing upon nothing. I learned from a security guard that there were something on the order of a thousand bikes in circulation. TGIF now over, without tea and without cake (having missed the food part of the event as well), I trudged back to meet Meow who was now exiting the event. In his hand he held a cupcake for me.

I had elaborate plans to drive around in cars, looking for the lost bike, but Meow was having none of it. It was 5:30 on Friday; and he wanted rest. However, he did insist on walking by the building hub where people catch shuttles home to the city. He jogged ahead of me, and as I caught up I saw the collection of ditched bicycles being lined up by a security guard. And to one of them Meow was pointing, "Hey, is that it?" and trying to steer the bike away from the guard who was trying to line the bicycles up.

Shiny blue bag! Herbata sliwkowa! "You found it!" I nearly screamed. Meow revealed his reasoning on the walk back to our building: at a time of day when nearly everyone would be headed to TGIF, who would be heading away from it? People trying to catch the shuttle home.

Mr. Kitty has proven once again that he does, in fact, solve all problems. Even problems where the odds are 1,000 bicycles to one.

Pinkberry Friday

2011-06-17T16:30:00.001-07:00

It's Pinkberry Friday at work. This means as I walked by our manager Todd's office today, he called out to me, "Hey, Emily, how'd you like to order Pinkberry for everyone today? On me."

This did not emerge from nothing. A month or two ago, when I placed a group order for Pinkberry frozen yogurt at the office, each person chipping in about $5, I mentioned to Todd that it would be a really good idea for him to treat the team to it some Friday.

So when he did, I made the announcement, and built a Google Spreadsheets form to collect orders (flavors and topping choices). 98% of the office signed up. When the Pinkberry arrived, the office turned into social hour.

I got mango frozen yogurt, and Todd became a hero. The moral of this story is that inception works: so you should remind people that it would be a good idea to give you pie/frozen yogurt/french fries/a pony whenever possible. In light of the wild popularity of the event, I suggested that he consider doing this once a month. I shall report back as to the success of this future mind control.

Scenes from Annecy

2011-06-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

How to choose what to do in Annecy? Your options are only limited by your amount of time. On this trip, intermittent rain and cool weather dissuaded us from paragliding and hiking, so we did other things around town. Here are some snapshots of what we found.

Walk through old town Annecy
The southerly part of old town loops narrow streets over canals with the clearest canal water I've ever seen (qualification: canal that wasn't chlorinated, like the Venetian in Las Vegas).

Walk around the lake
Much of the lake perimeter is laced with pedestrian paths.

Aromatic specialty stores
Scented soaps on sticks. Down the street, dried fruit and spices, cheese shops, bakeries...

Feeding swans
And ducks, and their families.

Creperies and restaurants
Most places close for lunch at 2:30pm and only reopen for dinner at 5:30. Except this rogue fondue joint that breaks the lunch curfew.

Lounging by the lake
As illustrated here.

On your next visit to Poland, remember...

2011-06-14T09:34:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of shoeboxblog.com

The Painting we Bought in Poland

2011-06-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

Meow and I tend to visit art galleries while travelling, as we did during our interlude in Kazimierz Dolny a couple of weeks ago. There we spied a painting that we were both independently drawn to...

Me: "I like the houses."
Meow: "Me too."
Me: "Do you want it?"
Meow: "I want it."

Never has a decision been made so quickly.

Why does nobody ever tell you that Annecy is the perfect place to take a vacation?

2011-06-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

That's what I want to know. Because I scoured the internet for places to visit in France, and only saw Annecy mentioned rarely, in an offhand way, as a city near some other small towns that would make "much better vacation places." What. The. Hell. Annecy is the Zakopane of France. If you haven't been to Zakopane, then it's the adult Disneyland of your dreams.

Annecy has something for everyone:

Super Tourist: Tons of shopping, picturesque photo ops, large downtown restaurant/bakery/gelateria district, fountains
Outdoors enthusiast: Lake surrounded by cliffs and mountains, paragliding, long promenade along the lake with bike and rollerblade paths, boats/paddleboats
Lazy bum: Beach, park to lounge in, cafes to lollygag in

There are venice-like canals and bridges. Tree-covered parks. Walking back to the hotel along the lake we saw white swans. Meow sat on the quay and fed them pieces of my brioche from his hand. My head is going to explode.

I'm not sure the list does this place justice. They've managed to condense many wonderful things into one place.

It's the place you want to be that nobody's talking about. Until now.

Thunderstorms Descend on Paris

2011-06-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Over crepes in a cafe Meow and I spotted large and distant flashes in the sky, consistently every 1-3 seconds. But with the lightening came no thunder, so we assumed the storm to be large and far away. Within 30 minutes the lightning covered the entire sky, and the wind kicked up, and the dark clouds descended. We ran back to the hotel just as the downpour began.

What We Saw in Warsaw, Part II

2011-06-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

We took Miss Doolittle and Banker Cat to see Wazienki Park on their last day in Warsaw, with promises of peacocks that roam the grass. They were not disappointed. In the park center, in a small ampitheatre populated by a dozen peacocks, mild mayhem broke out.

Near sunset, two of the male peacocks started a duel for territory of a high statue. While I did not get video footage of the epic peacock duel, here is a video of one peacock in flight.

More Warsaw Socializing

Everyone in Poland wants to see Meow when he visits. So his social calendar bursts at the seams in a neverending battle between family and friends, people with Scheduled Events (like christenings) and impromptu invitations to dinner. These people will not be denied. If you can fit every invitation in, you will have succeeded.

Kasia and Konrad and took the baby Claudia for a walk in the park

Visit to my cousin Vikram's for zamazing Indian cuisine

Kazimierz Dolny Interlude

2011-06-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

In in town with an inn on a hill lives a cat,
a furry Himalayan mountain of a cat,
that lounges on chaises and begs food from guests.
Short dogs trot through town with a sense of urgence.
There's a shop with hot chocolate,
and another with tea --
all this merely understates the bugs that you'll see
and the thunder that rolls through the hillsides so small.

Uwaga! Beware, reads the signs on the walls;
for the big church in town is under tents and shammy walls.
But there's lots to eat and lots to tea,
the inn's all done up in the style of French country.
It's kind of a crazy place to be.
Until you see 200 school children roaming the quad
the streets the river walk and then,
man, I think it's time we ought to be going.

What We Saw in Warsaw, Part I

2011-05-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

These days, Banker Cat just buries his tears in his suitcase, as it is so often closed, then open, then closed again. Leaving the magical hamlet of Zakopane in a heavy and thunderous rainstorm, we rode the six-hour train to Warsaw. Here our tale takes a turn for the ridiculous. We met up with Miss Doolittle, Banker Cat's friend from LA, attended a christening for Meow's friend Kasia's new baby, and embarked on a series of adventures that in some cases, still have yet to unfold.

Part 1A: The Christening

Kasia had a baby in December and we joined her and her family and friends for the christening and mass in downtown Warsaw's church in Plac Zbawiciela.

Part 1B: The Post-Christening Party

Beware Grzegorz and his bottle of Zubrokwa. He will find you, no matter where you move to or how unwilling you are to do another shot. He may be lurking behind the next bush, or get a child to come up to you and beg you sweetly to drink with him. Just one more drink.

How can you refuse? You can run. Or...

Part 1C: The Post-Christening Party Dinner with my Family

Some of us made it to dinner, some of us did not.

Poor Miss Doolittle was fresh from her flight, fighting jetlag, and then fighting for sobriety. She never stood a chance.

Gregorz takes no prisoners.

Part 1D: Even More Vodka

Banker Cat is a terrible chaperone. He claims he is a great chaperone, because he is a great liar. On Meow's night out bonding with friends, Bank and I went to a nearby restaurant for dinner and sat outside in chairs lit by lanterns. Well into dinner some friendly neighborhood bums visited and asked us for food, and I gave them a salad. This seemed well for all at first, until some time later when there were shouts from above in unrecognizable Polish, and then, with shock and horror a crash of something upon our heads. It was wet, we stood up, backed away from the table, paid the bill, and established with some relief it had only been a pot of plain water that had been tossed from an apartment window above in order to shoo away the bums that we had unwittingly attracted.

The horror of the episode was intense. We needed a drink. So we crossed the street to the Amber Cafe (the window neon sign had "Night Bar" lit -- the "Day Cafe" neon was turned off), loud with music videos, for some szarloktas (in drink form, this is Zubrowka vodka and apple juice). They seemed weak, so we ordered straight vodka. Banker Cat is bigger than me and has more alcohol tolerance.

The night wore on and we returned to the hotel bar. More szarlotka. At some point Meow wandered in drunk, and joined us. He had been drinking beer and jumping over fences to get to colored fountains.

All in all, that evening I got water dumped on my head and completely trashed on vodka. Banker Cat is fired as a chaperone.

Zakopane's Many High Points

2011-05-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Enough about the bobsleds, you say. You're tired of hearing about the mountainside bobsleds with the view of Zakopane below. Though I'm queasy about heights, I joined the group on the 15-minute double gondola ride (you transfer to a new gondola halfway up) to Kasprowy Wierch, which has a view of the highest mountain peak in Poland.

At the top of the gondola was a popcorn stand. This is important.

Later, down below, lively musicians and dinner.

The Unbelievable Amber Supply of Krakow

2011-05-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

By the time we landed in Krakow nobody knew what had hit. We had packed and unpacked our suitcases so many times that it seemed silly to think they would be propped open on the same spot of floor for more than 24 hours. And indeed, they were not.

There we met my parents who were at the end of their Hitler tour in Germany, for some shopping in downtown Krakow. The center of the market had loads of amber jewelry, with over 60 vendors in that central bazaar alone.

Paris, more than Just a Pastry

2011-05-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

London was so yesterday. Due to Banker Cat's sleep deprivation he ceased writing new memories for 48 hours, and by then we were chilling by the Seine in cafe waiting for icecream. He now denies the existence of our visit to London entirely.

This is London, 2011

2011-05-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Two days per country. That's how we started our trip with Banker Cat in tow, dragging him from restaurant to pub to museum until he begged us to cut off his feet.

My Sadistic Easter Hunt

2011-05-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

This year, for a change, I hid dyed hard-boiled eggs for the parents to find. And while it took them a while, because the eggs were hidden very trickily, they had a gleeful time looking under furniture and opening up board game boxes to find the elusive eggs.

We also went rock climbing.

Intermediate Painting

2011-04-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

This spring I'm taking Intermediate Painting, featuring my teacher from Drawing Fundamentals of last spring. I've produced mixed results so far. Because I haven't used oil paints in a long time, the results are evidently clumsy.

Class assignments:
1. Paint a baked good (I swear I am not making this up)
2. Paint a full portrait of a classmate in one hour (we did 3)
3. Paint a composed scene from the back of the classroom (hate)
4. Paint something abstract based on a semi-random collage

Intermediate Painting - Spring 2011

In the end, I prefer oil pastels because they are more precise while still creating that painterly effect.

For Sport

2011-02-23T00:51:00.000-08:00

Fitness classes are now free at work, so instead of running/walking/weight training I'm sampling them every day. The winners are:

Kickboxing
Power yoga (because regular yoga bores)
Zumba (Latin-dance inspired aerobics)
Bollywood cardio dance

Benefit #1: Repetitive motion
One of the movements that causes knee injury is repetitive motion. Treadmills, elliptical machines, even running. When you perform the same motion, you exercise the same muscle over and over again. Often the muscle being over-exercised is your IT-band. Classes like these include a wide variety of movements, which means different muscles are trained at different times, and impact is spread across a wider variety of muscles.

Benefit #2: Muscle confusion
Changing sports also keeps your muscle from becoming too efficient. When you become too efficient at the same motion, you plateau, and the effect is reduced. This is why sport rotation, the introduction of a randomizing activity to kick you off balance is so important.

Happy Holidays

2011-01-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

December Lunar Eclipse

2010-12-21T00:40:00.001-08:00

Autumn 2010

2010-11-26T01:25:00.000-08:00

Leaves and studying
The theatre near and far
I stay up too late.

Happy Birthday, Pamalamadingdong!

2010-08-08T22:20:00.001-07:00

Crowned and Crumpeted

Pam's birthday gave us an excellent reason to try out the SF tea place I've heard so much about over the past year: Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco. The decor is more modern and funky than your traditional tea room; the venue more popular being located in Ghiradelli Square. But the food. The scones, the crumpets, the BUTTER is the reason this place is so amazing. After all the team rooms I've been through, the cuisine at this place might just be tops.

Happy Birthday Pamarama!

Farewell, London!

2010-07-20T22:15:00.001-07:00

Kitty waves from the lovely flat

The amazing Rob

And the Grandeur that was Rome...

2010-07-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Fontana di Trevi

Roman Forum

Coliseum

Stresa & Lake Maggiore, Italy

2010-07-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

Downtown Stresa

I first saw Lake Maggiore while riding on a train 3 years ago on the way to Venice with Arun for a weekend trip. The train stop said "Verbania," and I knew I had to find out what this glorious hidden lake on the other side of the Swiss mountains was about. Verbania, Stresa, and other local cities turned out to be a series of towns around Lake Maggiore, a lesser known lake in an area that is more know for Lake Como, which is close by.

On the ferry to Isola Bella

Stresa is a small, luxurious little town with small, almost tiny, islands, floating in the lake, supporting small populations and historical monuments. The ferry is really quick; less than 10 minutes from the mainland to the prettiest of the small islands, Isola Bella. The island immediately next door, Isola Pescatorre, is so small that while walking up a hill that was about two blocks wide; at the peak of the hill we could see the other side of the lake, another two blocks down.

Cats roam on every island and taunt you with their superior access to all lake facilities.

Isola Bella

Gardens on Isola Bella

White Peacock of Isola Bella

Dances with pizza by moonlight

Chef Kitty

2010-07-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Our resident chef-in-training has found himself a unique opportunity to help out weekday mornings with a certain 3-Michelin-star restaurant that we happen to live above. A legal waiver prohibits him from discussing the experience formally, but suffice it to say, he is one happy cat.

Drawing Fundamentals: Final Assignment

2010-07-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

My drawing fundamentals class ended in May, but I've finally got an image of the final assignment to post. The assignment entailed drawing a room lit by a single source of light. The lamp in this drawing cast varying gradients of light and shadow as it hit objects at different distances.

Though it's been almost 2 months since the class ended, my fingers have not yet recovered. The skin on my fingers is, well, strangely a little Parmesan.

Paris weekend

2010-07-06T05:14:00.000-07:00

Au cafe Deux Magots

Meow discovers happiness at Berthillon

Photo hijacked by a Frenchman!

In a nearby creperie

Oxford

2010-07-02T03:23:00.000-07:00

Divinity School attached to the Bodleian Library

Christ Church

Radcliffe Camera

Park looking over Oxford

Polish Invasion

2010-06-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

In Picadilly Circus

The Midnight Ride
Kasia and Konrad drove from Warsaw to London over 36 hours, 1,000+ miles, and one ferry ride across the channel. I can't begin to properly comment on this feat, so suffice it to say: Kids, don't try this at home.

Saturday night we met up late with them and Kasia's friend Asia (pronounced "ah sha"), who lives in London, and searched Soho for food and pubs.

On a boat!

On the Thames
Sunday the four of us took a ferry ride on the Thames as the sun had come out and the wind died down. Riding a ferry is a delightfully lazy way to take in major monuments, which were conveniently sprinkled on either side of the river. We rode under the newer, uglier version of the London Bridge, as the original now rests in Lake Havasu.

St. James Park

At the end of the ferry ride, our wittily sarcastic British tour guide asked his audience to guess which European location was the most visited place in Europe, ahead of the London Eye which is the second-most visited.

I wearily said Eurodisney under my breath, at which point he turned and asked who said that, and awarded me the quite awesome picture magnet of himself on a boat tour.

Who wants Disney to win a popularity contest like that? But am very pleased with my refrigerator magnet.

High Tea at the Rose Lounge

High Tea at The Rose Lounge
Of course, like all guests, I required Kasia and Konrad to join us for high tea, tea sandwiches, scones, and cakes. This time we hit the lovely Rose Lounge, where tea is served to live harp music.

Potential guests, be warned: This will happen to you too if you visit us in London.

The Shakespeare

Pub Hunt
Finally, it was harder to find a pub in London late at night than you'd imagine. Why? Because they all close at midnight. Some at 11:00pm.

So after several failed pub attempts, we caught The Shakespeare pub before closing. If California bars can stay open until 2:00am, surely this country so famous for beer can attempt to stay awake a little longer too.

Gordon Ramsey cooking class

2010-06-17T03:57:00.000-07:00

Meow in the kitchen

With great anticipation, Meow took Gordon Ramsey's master cooking class last Saturday at the restauranteur's self-named three-Michelin-star restaurant. There Meow learned to prepare, cook, and plate three courses from the restaurant's menu. Then we were treated to dine on the fruits of the class's work, paired with appropriate wines.

Below, in choice excerpts, Meow comments on the experience...

Lobster tortellini

"Making the tortellini looked simple enough: brush a bit of egg, put a spoonful of stuffing in the middle of a flat circle of dough, fold in half, connect the corners of the newly formed half-moon, and trim excess dough to create a perfect tortellini. In practice, a couple more variables turned out to be important:

make sure the dough is pressed hard enough to seal the tortellini
no air bubbles are trapped in any of the tortellinis.

Several minutes of mild struggle resulted in a set of beautiful appetizers. Thirty-seconds of blanching ensured the pasta wouldn't get soggy from stuffing."

Chicken and gnocchi

"The roasting of a poisson, appeared to be the easiest assignment. How hard can it be to roast chicken on a frying pan? In any other environment this wouldn't be a challenge, however, the hellish heat of Gordon's stoves and the fact we were given regular soup spoons to do it turned this mundane task into a true fight."

"One must understand the heat of the place to accurately picture what happened. Standing three feet away from the stove was uncomfortable; standing next to the stove was barely tolerable; bending over the stove, holding your hand directly above the stove and trying to turn the chicken with a spoon--unbearable. Each one of us had to step back to a safety zone every 5 seconds to avoid the discomfort. Several minutes and a couple oil burns later, the bird was ready for the oven."

Carmelized banana tart

We learned that Gordon Ramsey's staff work 18 hours a day, 5 days a week, to ensure 3-star Michelin quality that is randomly tested by Michelin reviewers ~6 times per year. Chefs spend about 6 months focusing on an area, say desserts, or sauces, and then rotate until they can perfectly create every kind of course.

Arun visits London

2010-06-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Arun visitied from Geneva this past long weekend, so we embarked on an intensive tour of London. On the docket were parks, museums, a musical, a pub, and of course, a proper High Tea. Below is a photo montage overview of the weekend.

At the corporate office "beach"

At the Tower of London

Arun photographing in the wild

In front of the British Museum

High Tea at Palm Court

Morskie Oko Lake

2010-06-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

Thursday we hiked to Morskie Oko lake, about 25 km from Zakopane, under swelling skies. The hike is paved, at a constant uphill incline over 9.5 kilometers, winding through the mountains. As we walked overcast turned to drizzle, then drizzle to rain.

There are three stops along the way, including a visitors center, a cafe, and then another cafe and gift shop at the top. I am thrilled with this fantastic concept of mid-hike cafes! And we're not talking your standard packed snack shop...

We're talking fried chicken, fries, apple pie, and hot tea with lemon. With lemon. Because no matter how remote, the Polish would never be so uncivilized as to serve hot tea sans lemon. Hiking genius!

Konrad, in reflection

From Morskie Oko lake you can hike halfway around the lake on a stone path, then up a steep slope, in order to get to a second lake just above it. Had we started earlier in the day, we would have attempted this. Meow says the cool thing about hiking that far is you are able to see both lakes at once from one vantage point. Two lakes for the hike of one!

We recovered at the lake lodge with more hot tea + lemon, in preparation for the 9.5-km journey back.

The rain continued off and on the rest of the day, until just after dinner, when thunderstorms shook Zakopane... and apparently flooded in other parts of Poland.

Meow illustrates how to capture a wild berry

Zakopane!

2010-06-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

Rustic zakopane

Zakopane is a small mountain town, the name literally means "buried", near the southern border of Poland (right next to the Czech Republic). It lies in a valley surrounded by rolling mountains, most notably the Tatry mountains on the south side.

Zakopane is a magical place, a touristy village with lots of traditional Polish foods, ice cream and waffles and a river running through it.

Atrium hotel room window

It was a long drive to get here, stopping in Krakow for dinner, but Kasia and her boyfriend Konrad drive fast.

I quickly discovered the atrium window in my room looking over trees, and a view of the snow-capped Tatry mountains on the right.

Our hotel was situated in the middle of downtown, so one minute out the door and we were in Zakopane main street proper.

From the top of the tram

On our first full day, we took the tram up to the top of a nearby "hill", to see the views of the village from on high, walk around, and drink hot tea at the top.

It was then Meow pointed out to me the bobsleds.

Bobsleds!

Bobsleds! The bobsleds are amazing. They run on a long track that curves down the side of the mountain overlooking the Tatry mountains and Zakopane below.

When you finally get to the bottom of the track, a conveyor-belt type pulley brings you back up to the top. I expected forest and other such pretties, but rides too with amazing views?

Pictured to the right, you can see I'm tailing Meow closely. Which he only allowed for the purposes of this picture; most of the time he rode down without ever touching the brakes.

We rode three times, and oh, it was not enough.

Poland is Real

2010-06-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

Lunch with cousin Vikram and family

Despite much skepticism that Meow might be making this entire Poland thing up, I am here to testify, with photographic evidence, that the mythical land does in fact exist. Conveniently, my cousin from India also happens to be based in Warsaw at the moment, so we stopped by for lunch, and he made some of the best Indian food I've had in a while.

I should note that he hadn't ever tried to make chicken tikka masala before that day, but whipped up a batch when I mentioned I'd like to have some, and ... wow. Most people cannot cook that dish that well on their first try. Better than most of the stuff I've had in restaurants.

Meow's family at home

Thus began the whirlwind tour of Warsaw. Meow took me all over the leafy parks, the downtown malls, the historic downtown, the building where he grew up, laced together with long family dinners and pierogis (Polish dumplings with potato, onion, cheese). I have eaten pirogis at every meal, and apple pie, and well you wouldn't think I could out-eat these people to look at me, but it's true.

2 families, lots of beer

We finished off the long weekend with dinner at Piwna Kompania with both my cousin's family and Meow's family and friends.

Old town Warszawa

Next... onto the mountains of Zakopane!

Hello London

2010-05-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

How very nice to see you again

It must be time for tea

Snow and Tea

2010-05-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

The Wet Road

This weekend we hiked underwater. That is to say, the Myst trail was extra misty. Climbing up over a hundred stone stairs, the air was bathed in a fine-grain rain that hit us from all sides. Slowly we dried off. Then a mile from the top of Nevada Falls, melted glacier water poured over the ridge above the trail. Again we were doused in buckets.

The only alternative to getting soaked was to walk the ridge directly above a sheer granite drop-off, which apparently Mr. Wilbur must do while whistling.

And finally, there was snow. Welcome to the Nevada Falls hike in mid-May.

The Hot Tea

There is a cozy little tea cottage in Groveland on the main street that is either closed (after 4:00pm) when we drive by, or we are on our way somewhere else without time to stop. This little tea cottage has taunted me for months in this fashion. On Sunday I was finally victorious.

Oh the wonders that lay inside! It was delightfully more elaborate that I would have guessed from the humble exterior. We tried many teas, including:

Paris - Fruity black tea + lemony bergamot + vanilla (their most popular)
Wedding Tea - White tea + lemon-vanilla + rosebuds
Decaf tropics - Orange tea + mango + pineapple

And now that I've found a way to combine tea and Yosemite into one weekend, I really don't know what to do with myself.

Scene from a Farewell Soirée

2010-05-11T20:58:00.001-07:00

Me, Bridget -- Agnes, Pam

Usually on Tuesdays, four of us assemble at Red Rock cafe for our weekly writing session, where we work on sometimes big, sometimes small, often ambitious, usually experimental writing projects.

This week, writing was withheld as our writer's group held a farewell cocktail party for Bridget at Xahn, to send off our fashion guru, our literary inspiration, our Provocatrice to her next adventure in NYC! Bridget will continue to join us for writing sessions remotely whenever possible.

A deck of... chocolate?

Phrases of the evening...

"I only drink tea and Tanqueray."
-E, as delightfully misheard by Bridget.

"I need to shake up my snow globe."
-Pam
Behold, the tale of La Provocatrice... what does her future hold in store?

LA SOIREE
SCENE
A modern bar on a small downtown street.
Four women lounge on a sofa in the center of the room holding cocktails.

CHARACTERS

PAM
Oh darling, what will you do and what will happen to you, a dashing girl like you in a big, cold city like New York? (She shivers.)

BRIDGET
Naturally, when in doubt (she swirls the olive in her martini), I'll manage.

AGNES
Coquine!

E
I'll say, this one's got more than half a plan in her head.

(Bridget laughs heartily with a toss of her head.)

PAM
I see... how the wheels do turn! I've half a mind to--

(Bridget then finishes her drink in a flourish.)

AGNES
Un bon vin n'a jamais fait de mal a la créativité!

BRIDGET
Ladies, I've come a long way from the Catholic nunnery to my little cottage in the country. It's time to head back to the city. (She rises.)

END SCENE
La provocatrice sort la chambre. Démonstrative, intrépide, élégante.

FIN

Happy Mother's Day : Double Mummies Style

2010-05-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

Because Barb was out of town for the Official Mummy's Day, we had a Pre-Mummy's Day Celebration the weekend before. We started with brunch at The Village Pub, followed by a walk through the Filoli Gardens, finishing with a relaxing manicure at InSpa.

And no, we didn't all plan to wear purple, but apparently that was the color of the moment.

Enter the official Mummy's Day. We did it all over again, compliments of the Two for One Mummy's Day Madness Special. Void where prohibited. Supplies limited. Limit one Whack per offer.

Still Life

2010-05-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

Last week we chose our own composition and materials to organize a drawing focused on:

the drama in "negative space" (or the space in between objects), and
a specific theme.

I wracked my brain for a non-generic theme idea (vampire-fighting accoutrements, kitchen accidents, etc), then ran short on time and when for an old standby: tea and cozy library motif.

Drawing Fundamentals

2010-04-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

The Drawing Fundamentals class started with blind contour drawing, which means drawing an object while not looking at the paper you're drawing it on. The instructor told us to move our eyes along the object at the same rate as we move our hand drawing it. So as my eyes trace the curve of an artichoke leaf, my hand tries to follow that same line/curve on the paper (eyes move up, hand moves up). It's an eye-training exercise so, naturally, the resulting drawings look messy.

Blind Contour Drawings

Can you identify the objects?

Most of the classwork involved line drawings and shading, with the instructor demanding an almost unsustainable level of accuracy. We're talking attention to detail to the 10th power. Last week we had to draw a metal spoon resting in a glass half-filled with water. One of the students asked, "So a glass of water has a lot of miniscule reflections in it, what parts is it okay if we skip?"

The instructor replied, "Well, you should draw all of them, of course."

Two can play at this game. I see your miniscule glass light reflections and raise you an upside-down mirror-image reflection of the object as projected from the underwater spoon!

I can barely look at a glass of water anymore without counting out the number light changes in it. Why yes, that is also me measuring the contour of your nose in relation to your eyeball as we have this conversation...

Line Drawings

Draped scarf

Profile of a Polish man

3/4 profile of a French lady

Corner in room

Shading

Paper bag

Water glass. Egg. Victory.

Q1 2010

2010-04-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

This quarter got away from me, just like last year. Thus, another summary is in order characterizing the quarter's chief elements.

Drawing Fundamentals
I enrolled in UC Berkeley's Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts program and started the Drawing Fundamentals class in February. All of our work is in vine and compressed charcoal and we work on newsprint and charcoal paper. The requirements are intense. It takes me 6-12 hours a week to complete each homework assignment. My hand and arm go numb. It is the most rigorous drawing class I have ever taken. (Pictures in next post.)

Skiing
Meow discovered his passion for skiing over New Year's, so we've gone to Dodge Ridge (and once to Badger Pass) every few weeks. After 15 years of skiing in long (170s), straight skis, I demoed and then bought parabolics (154). This season we skied on powder, on ice, in slush, and in mountainous thick knee-high packed powder. The new skis frighten me a bit. Easy to turn, but they are very fast, too fast... and want to eat up the terrain like a rabid bulldog.

Sunny day @ Dodge

Mummies and Kitties

Meow in blizzard

Blizzard sweeps in

Badger Pass Beauty

OMD
My writing group and I started a "group" project in February, because as you can tell, I don't have enough projects going on. The deadline for the project is mid-May. It has rigorous daily milestones, to meet the the requisite total word count. Our writing group is about two years old, started by Pam and me, and now includes Agnes and Bridget. Usually we write; sometimes we just drink sangria.

Chef Kitty
Meow took cooking classes, bought a lot of new pans, and has expanded his culinary palette. Thus far he has created signature versions of many dishes, including:

Crab bisque

Crab bisque
Potatoes gratin, with crisp bacon and dill
Chicken tikka masala

New Year's Eve at Lake Tahoe

2010-01-03T17:14:00.000-08:00

Champagne in the jacuzzi on the deck

My Precious!

Winter ice skating

Lounging fireside

Happy New Year!

Snowman with kitty head!

On the slopes at Northstar

Lake Tahoe (itself)

Holiday Party Style

2009-12-17T13:06:00.001-08:00

Oh hai, Cutie

Delight by the tree

The Gun-Katta

Tearing up the dance floor

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

The gathering

Quartet

High Tea at Brown's

2009-11-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

High tea at Brown's for my birthday, in cozy chairs, in front of the fireplace, with champagne! Thanks Mr. Kitty!

London Theatre

2009-11-18T06:12:00.000-08:00

Pink Martini @ London's Hammersmith Apollo Theatre
Monday

We caught Pink Martini's concert in London this past Monday. They played a lot of pieces from their upcoming album Splendor in the Grass and some sneak peaks from their album due out in 2010, including a delightful Turkish piece.

Of course, I'm dancing in my seat half the time they were playing. Bounce bounce bounce!

Wicked!
Tuesday

Having heard of the premise of the show Wicked, the untold story of the witches from the Wizard of Oz, but little else, I had few expectations for the show.

Then Monday while walking to the Victoria line tube entrance, I saw a poster plastered on the side of the Victoria Apollo theatre where it is showing, only two blocks from our office in London. I remembered Ashley said it was good, and Meow and I got curious, so we bought tickets and saw the show last night. The cast was thrilling, the stage and costumes so very decadent, and the story was fantastic and surprising. London theatre never disappoints, but this is one of those shows that makes you jump up and wow.

Avenue Q
Wednesday

Another unplanned venture, and mostly Meow's idea, but certainly entertaining. Sure, four solid days of theatre may seem like a lot, but when you're in the city where theatre doesn't get any better, it's really hard not to take full advantage of it.

The Priory
Thursday

This showing at the Royal Court Theatre was the only theatre ticket I bought in advance, having scoured London's TimeOut magazine for show leads of interest. And man, it did not disappoint. The actors carried off the show with such ease, the tale of a New Year's Eve group of 30-something friends having a whirlygig of a party, examining their lives, amid intriguing mini-dramas and compelling conversations... a perfect play for a birthday.

Honeymoon : Athens

2009-11-17T08:45:00.001-08:00

On the rocks viewing the Acropolis at night

View of Athens from the Acropolis

On our way to Spondi for dinner

On the island of Aegina

Sunset over Grecian islands

Brief Visit to Arun in Geneva

2009-11-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

Mr. Kitty and Arun observe the watches

Hi Mum, look, I found Arun.

Old town speckled with glowing tiles.

Each tile features a common phrase written in one of a a number of different languages.

Close-up of a french-speaking tile

Cozy Swiss dinner

Honeymoon : Provence

2009-11-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

Honeymoon strawberries and champagne!

On vacation from our vacation

The overlook from our cottage

Crisp air, rolling hills, mountain villages

Under the olive tree, overlooking Tourrettes

Honeymoon : Paris

2009-11-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

In awe at the collection in the Shakespearean bookstore

Sur la Seine

Au cafe somewhere in St. Germain

Mr. Kitty invites you
to enjoy his cognac

Hyperberry in the Latin Quarter

Ambushed by our friendly and jubilant server at the L'Ecritoire

The Seine at night

London Interlude

2009-11-05T02:28:00.000-08:00

Over the Thames River

Zen in the hotel lobby

Park entering rain

Regent's Park at sunset

Christmas comes early to Oxford Street

More merriment in the air

Honeymoon : Boston

2009-11-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Caught in a leaf explosion along the Charles River

Walking and finding geese

Newbury at Night

I'm on a boat!

Outside the Museum of Fine Art

Honeymoon : Part I : Maui

2009-10-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

Outside the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a restaurant

Boogie boarding at Wailea Beach

Snorkeling at Ahihi-Kina'u

Just Married

2009-10-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Dr. D

Green Day's American Idiot Rock Opera

2009-10-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last week we saw Green Day's rock opera American Idiot at the Berkeley Rep. For the second time. Because it was that good. While it loosely chronicles the lives of a few post-high school friends, the show really showcases Green Day's music, both from the named album and new stuff I hadn't heard before, in a montage of scenes that mix passion with patriotism and stunning visuals. Here we are with St. Jimmy, one of the stars of the show.

We dragged Michal's friend Kasia along, who is visiting from Poland this month. In addition to the show, we took her to bookstores and Jupiter's for pizza and wine. Since then all she talks about is going back to Berkeley and seeing the show again... so, sigh, I guess we'll just have to go back.

BNL Concert in Fresno

2009-10-08T14:53:00.001-07:00

Given that I will do almost anything to attend a BNL concert, it is not surprising that yesterday afternoon Meow and I drove 3 hours to Fresno to catch them in concert mid-week at the Big Fresno Fair. This is the first time I've seen them perform without one of their frontmen, Steven Page, who left the band earlier this year to pursue a solo career.

During last night's spectacular performance, during which the band previewed two new songs in their upcoming album (due out in March), they rotated instruments, sung and danced with their characteristic charm.

Then, at one point during a particularly poignant song, someone boarded the bungee jumping ride positioned directly to the right of the stage, and proceeded to bounce up and down in the air, lit by a spotlight, for about half the song. You can see them in the small white blip above the tree in the picture to the right.

After at least an hour of singing and screaming last night, I'm surprised I still have my voice.

Follow the arrows

2009-10-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

Meow built several simple wedding signs based on my design, which I've adorned with paper lanterns.

He cut each plank into an arrow using a skill saw, sanded the faces, and stained them a medium brown. By attaching a couple of hook-ended screws on the bottom of the sign, you can easily hang battery-powered lanterns. Voila.

Bienvenue Agnes!

2009-09-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today Agnès moved here from Paris! Mr. Kitty and I had just hosted a kitty-gourmet dinner for the parents and Wilburs, with seared sole in browned butter with leeks, haricots, and miniature stacked potato bricks – hoping that the two lovebirds would visit en route from the airport and share some of Mum's key lime pie for dessert!

We were not disappointed. They stopped by on their way home and we accosted Agnès at the door with hugs and cheers. Popping open a bottle of champagne, we toasted to Agnès and Dan. Bienvenue et laissez l'aventure commence!

Pie Stands

2009-09-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Meow's uncle, Dr. Deyrup, built us these gorgeous pie stands for the wedding. His primary hobby is woodturning, but he does the occasional carpentry on the side.

To build the stands, Dr. Deyrup bought cypress tree stumps and slices from a local lumberyard, polished the slices, and cut the stumps at three different heights to create the stand bases. After attaching the cypress slices to the bases, he applied a clear varnish on top to create a polished effect.

Pies on tree tiers! What could be more festive?

Yosemite fires and other mild mayhem

2009-08-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

When we drive through downtown Livermore on the way to Pine Mountain Lake, we always stop by a fantastic coffee shop called Panama Red. While I can't say much for the cocoa, they make great iced teas, in a long and loungy cafe full of comfy chairs and books and magazines.
This past Friday on our way up to the mountains I knew one iced tea one wouldn't be enough, so I ordered three, one Cranberry Breeze for the shop and two Ginger Peaches for the road.

Ah Livermore, who knew you possessed such a gem?
The weekend plan was to hike the Four Mile Trail (9 miles round-trip) in Yosemite. Unfortunately, there was a raging fire in the Foresta region of Yosemite, so Highway 120 was closed. Determined to do at least part of the 4 Mile Hike, Meow and I drove to Mariposa and took Highway 140 into the valley. Highway 140 is a beautiful and gentle drive along the Merced River into the valley.

It wasn't until we reached the park entrance that the smoke filled the sky. We soon spotted a large orange helicopter hovering above the Merced River on our right. It hung mid-air with a large pump hose extended into the water, crowds looking on as it refilled with water for dousing the fires. We didn't get out the camera fast enough to show it with the pump in the river, but Meow got a shot during its ascent.

Because we had lost an extra hour driving into the valley via 140, we hit the Four Mile Hike immediately, and made it about halfway up. The steep and narrow trail scales the mountain edge, spanning 4.5 miles to the peak called Glacier Point. See the smoke wafting into the valley.

The trail is not quite as steep as Fremont Peak, but it's still an arduous climb with spectacular views. I kept running ahead to scout distances to the next landmark, but eventually Meow made us turn around.

Ponderosa Punch

Post-hike I indulged in a Ponderosa Punch, my signature post-hike drink, on the outdoor deck of the Ahwahnee Hotel. It's made of orange juice, pineapple juice, coconut cream, and sprite. Meow had a strawberry thingie called Ahwahnee Dream.

Outside the Ahwahnee Hotel

On the way back to Pine Mountain, we hit a snag trying to retrace John's directions. Confused by which turn to take at fork in the road, on an almost-empty tank of gas, with no service stations in sight, we backtracked to Coulterville. There we hit up a friendly bartender for directions. Apparently either route at the fork in the road would take us back to Pine Mountain, but the one we hadn't traveled before towards Greeley Hill had a gas station. Back in the the car, the gauge said we had 20 miles of gas left. This left no room for error. So we took the Greeley Hill route, which had the gas station, and arrived 40 minutes late at the pizza parlor where the Wilburs waited with a lukewarm pizza. If we had headed the other direction, we would have definitely run out of gas, in the dark, miles from street lights or a pay phone (no cell reception in this area). Thank you for saving us, Mr. Bartender!

Yosemite Creek Trail

Sunday we ventured into the north side of the park as far as Highway 120 remained open, and sampled three hikes along Tioga Pass.

Tuolomne Grove

White Wolf hike towards Lukens Lake

As soon as Highway 120 opens and the fires are put out... can I please go back?

Bachelorette Bash

2009-08-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

A sea of pretty pink ladies

The bachelorette tea party was a smashing success! All assembled at the Ritz in San Francisco for tea, mimosas, delicate sandwiches and divine desserts this past Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by elegant harp music wafting through the halls and our attentive server Oscar seated us right next to a window overlooking a garden and the city. Here we are seated in a sea of pink!

What I had anticipated to be an hour or two of tea and cakes turned into four languorous and delectable hours of dining, conversation, and lounging around. Oscar made sure we never ran out of sandwiches, and however tiny those tea cakes looked, they packed a punch. Once we finally extracted ourselves from our comfy seats, the remainder of the group trotted down to Union Square for some light shopping and browsing.

Some tea treats.

We hit a couple department stores and a chocolaterie. Before leaving the last store, we posed on a pile of cushions in true cat walk form.

All in all, it was the Best Bachelorette Bash ever!

Beginnings of a Flower Box

2009-08-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Flower Box: Phase 1

For our escort cards, or place cards as some call them, I'm making paper flowers for the guests with each person's name and table printed on the leaf. All of the flowers will be displayed in alphabetical order in the wooden garden box shown here.

I started making the flowers a few months ago, and continue making them intermittently, out of six different flower designs. Meow's dad made the garden box during his last visit, and I've filled it with blocks of floral foam to hold the flowers in place. When finished, I'll cover the foam in synthetic grassy moss to complete the effect.

On the day of, the flower box will make a pretty display that slowly dissembles as people carry or wear their flowers over the grounds, like a work of art that moves about, as though alive.

Les Invitations

2009-08-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Leafy SuiteAs a design enthusiast, from graphics to printing to crafting, I love working with paper. Then this year I discovered digital die cutters and innovations made to the letterpress printing process. Invitation design mayhem and glee quickly ensued.

Invitation components:

Invitation & reply card
Envelope & reply envelope
Map
Polished hemp cord
Wax seal

Invitation & reply card
Letterpress invitations via Parklife Press. Forest and apple green printed on soft white 300 gram Somerset paper from England's St. Cuthbert Mill. 100% cotton.
Swoon.

Envelopes
Leaf green from Paper Source, lined with Lokta papers. Printed address and return address via laserjet.

Map
Green cardstock A2 cards from Paper Source, designed in Illustrator and printed via laserjet.

Wax seals
Standard wax seals produce a rigid stamp that makes a nice crackle when broken open, but tend to get torn off by handling and automatic postal sorting machines. For the invitations, I tried glue gun sealing wax for the first time. It produced a flexible seal that adheres a little better than standard wax, and miraculously made it through even the postal machinable mail route.

Polished hemp cord
Hemp cord can be very coarse, but the polished stuff almost feels like suede.

Feeping Creatures Monster Art shadow box Edwardian Room

2009-08-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

It's feeping amazing! Meow surprised me today with a gift of the feeping monster art Edwardian shadow box display.

Of all the feeps, this box represents the perfect blend of feepy undulation and elegant Edwardian refinement – the perfect artistic statement for my boudoir.

Wedding Pie Preview

2009-07-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

As you can probably tell, these pies are fierce and merciless creatures. You try to get away with one slice but then the taste consumes your soul and within two days you've eaten an entire pie by yourself, and find yourself stalking the sordid midnight streets for more...

Knowing the danger involved, we still ordered three amazing pies from Esa's Butter Love Bakeshop to taste test flavors for the wedding: apple, apple-berry, and triple-berry. The undulating fluted edges and buttery-flaky crust remind me of something a hobbit might bake in a small wood-fired oven.

Feeping Cake Toppers

2009-07-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

The tradition of placing figurines atop a wedding cake is one I fail to appreciate, and thus had planned to forgo. Also, as we are serving pie instead of cake, the sense of tradition will at best be eclectic.

Then today I remembered a gift Andrea gave me years ago from feeping creatures – a polymer clay Christmas ornament in the shape of a Carnivorous Santa Hat. Just look at its cheerful face gleaming from the Christmas tree.

Now, a feep is a cake topper I could get on board with. I can better relate to an octopus with fangs and three eyes than a stuffed human doll any day.

Look how they sit there so... curiously. Seemingly sentient.

Fun with Tags

2009-07-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

As a huge fan, and discerning critic, of hot chocolate, we'll be serving hot chocolate at the wedding (but labeled "cocoa") with pie. I'm making little cocoa packets complete with a spoon, dark chocolate cocoa, and mini marshmallows so that guests can prepare themselves single-serving cups. The whole package will be tied together with a little ribbon and a cocoa tag.

The tag has been a source of design curiosity for me over the past month, and there has been a series of iterations, resulting in one design with varying color schemes:

Let there be color-coordinated cocoa.

Envelope Liners

2009-07-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

Envelopes just became magical. With an exacto knife and a gluestick, you can line any envelope with fancy paper. Here I used handmade leaf paper against green envelopes.

Warning: The glue sticks to everything and can get all over the place.

There are many templates online, here's a simple one. The easiest way is to outline the inner part of an envelope, like you see here, and cut that out. This is your template. Use the template to cut out pieces of fancy paper in the same shape, then gluestick fancy cutout into the envelope, top to bottom.

Now in four styles:

Lokta White Creeper
Primavera Light Blue Fine Paper
Raintree Leaves, Thai Garden Series Paper
Subtraction wrapping paper

Yosemite in July

2009-07-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

I can't get enough of Yosemite.

For me, a perfect day of hiking involves lugging lots of water and fruit up long stretches of massive, lush terrain until I can barely walk anymore. Followed by pizza.

So this past weekend, we hiked a mix of the old and new, for a perfect sampler platter of hiking.

Saturday we walked to Bridal Veil Falls, then hiked beyond Vernal Falls to Clark Point. We were just one more mile from the peak of Nevada Falls when we turned back. Alas, we didn't want to miss joining Barbara for cool drinks and mountain views at the Ahwahnee Hotel on the valley floor.

Mist Trail to Clark Point

Distance: 4.6 miles
Grade: Very strenuous

John took a lounge break in his hammock at the top of Vernal Falls.

Sunday we hiked a new location for me, around the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to Wapama Falls. The trail itself weaves around the reservoir, through purple flowers and trees, and over rock beds. Mild hills. Great views of the reservoir "valley" all along the way, and spectacularly uncrowded.

Hike to Wapama Falls
Distance: 5.5 miles
Grade: Mild to moderate

4th of July

2009-07-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

4th of July 2009

We joined the family for the Montevideo 4th of July parade today, complete with block floats and the post-parade BBQ. The parade theme this year was "Disneyland"--which makes no sense to me as far as a patriotic theme is concerned--but whatever, Go Die-Hard Capitalist Society!

This year Dad joined the parade committee for their street's block float. Each block does it's own take on the parade-at-large theme, a sub-theme theme if you will, and their block chose Peter Pan. Dad helped build the float and dressed up as an elderly Pocahontas, walking alongside the younger version, complete with hefty cleavage and all. What could be more patriotic than cross-dressing in Native American attire?

Then, finally, after the parade ended, the pièce de résistance--the annual swim team bake sale! Oh cupcakes, oh brownies--come to me in all your glory!

At the end of the day, fireworks were not on the agenda this year. But around 9:30pm I heard the booming from Shoreline out my window, and realized I could partially see some of the fireworks bursting to the east! Behold, the best kind of fireworks show: free, and you don't even need to leave home.

The Carrot Box

2009-07-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

Early this spring I started growing a small box of carrots in the backyard. Spring was cold and damp, so growth was slow. Then one night, a month after planting, their sprouts were decimated by a band of slugs. Few survived. Thus, I started a second carrot box in May, hoping warmer weather would yield faster carrot growth.

It did. Carrot batch #2 is growing at twice the rate of the first batch. And they are safe, because we drowned the slugs in beer, and moved the box away from the Slug Zone.

This morning I plucked one of the survivors from the first batch. It was a double-twined carrot that Meow and I split, like a wishbone.

खुश पिता के दिन (Happy Father's Day)

2009-06-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

Father's Day 2009

The Two-Hour Mural

2009-06-11T17:57:00.001-07:00

GoogleServe, the annual global community service initiative, came to campus this week, whereby volunteers from the company participate in service projects. Always looking for the art angle, I joined the mural painting group. We painted individual murals based on "historic" scenes from the community, to be collaged on a wall at an SF Mission District high school.

With four hours allotted for the entire project, I netted about two hours to throw together this painting, based on a photograph from a Mission-area market. What happened to the other two hours, you ask? It got eaten by a combination of prolonged setup by disorganized organizers, work emergencies at my desk downstairs, and trying to find a camera phone with crappy resolution to take this picture.

Obsession of the week: Digital die cutters

2009-05-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Meow surprised me with a Quickutz Silhouette Digital Die Cutter a few weeks ago, theoretically to alleviate the wedding crap-making mayhem, although at first I was dismayed at having to deal with the software. The die cutter cuts out any shape that you create digitally, and directly prints true type fonts. While it's not as easy to use as handheld paper punches, its shape range is nearly unlimited. Last week I finally started playing with it to make menu mockups, cut out leaves, and design pocket folds (fortunately it's compatible with Illustrator), which led to many nights up until 2:00am playing with the die cutter.

Here are some signs I made to hang on the backs of our chairs during the reception... because I've been reading too many wedding blogs filling my head with all sorts of time-consuming ideas. I blame Franklin entirely.

In any case, the die cutter has taken over so much that Meow has threatened to return it. Ha, like that's going to happen.

Stylist Trial

2009-05-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

Friday morning I had my stylist trial in SF, during which the stylist did my hair/makeup "trial run" in preparation for the wedding. I attribute the extra glam to the three individual eyelash strands she added to the ends of my lids for extra cattiness.

Here I am all fluffed out.

Jill Visits, Boy's Night In, & The Ostrich Egg

2009-05-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

Jill Deluxe came to town around Memorial Day weekend. Thus we wined, dined, and danced over several evenings. Her visit overlapped with a friend's celebration of Girls Day/Night Out, which we meant to attend, until Saturday got derailed. I was on my way home from lunch in SF with Miss Doolittle when I saw Banker Cat biking down my street in the opposite direction.

Driving by, I lowered my window and yelled out, "Banker Cat!".

He turned around and followed me home, where Mr. Kitty and I hosted tea around the kitchen table and carried on lengthy discussions ranging from grammar, road trips, work issues, and related meta-topics. Over time we finished a bottle of wine when Jill, her BF Steve, and then Dan showed up. Everyone to help us finish off two more bottles and ... The Ostrich Egg.

Meow purchased the ostrich egg two weeks ago at Whole Foods. It was about one third of the size of a bowling ball with a shell as hard as marble. Since one ostrich egg contains about 2000 calories, or roughly the amount of two dozen chicken eggs, he was glad to scramble it up so everyone could help eat it. Group consensus rated the taste okay, but Meow preferred the duck and goose eggs in comparison.

Thus it was, through sheer accident, that I stumbled into Boys' Night In. Around 11:00pm, however, I made it out to the club for an hour and a half of dancing and drinking with the girls. The best part of which was seeing Eunice nearly break into a fight with some girls on the dance floor, which threatened to spread into a Molly's-wide epidemic of mayhem.

Ah, but I love my boys.

Happy Mummy's Day

2009-05-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

My Favorite Goos

2009-05-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

At the risk of inadvertently providing product endorsements, I will share with you my favorite goo products. I sample lots of goos, because I'm an addict, and my filtering process includes comparing all new goos I try against the goos I consistently use: my fundamental collection. This collection is selected for:

ingredients - more natural than toxic
endurance - benefits span across years of usage, not just a week or two
effectiveness - they work.

For moisture
Ole Henriksen Vitamin Plus

For sun protection
Olay Complete Defense SPF 30

For brightening
Clarins Bright Plus Brightening Serum

For eyes
Eminence Herbal Eye Contour Cream

Mini flowers

2009-04-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

Last week I made mini flowers using a version of the flower template scaled down to 35% of original size. In the coming months I hope to make a garden box filled with a variety of kinds of paper flowers.

Easter Eggs

2009-04-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Meow made fancy eggs for the Easter potluck today.

Spring Fling

2009-04-09T17:12:00.001-07:00

Franklin hosted her Spring Fling flower-making fête today for our team at work. Since Mummy and I had dentist appointments at the same time beforehand, I hijacked her and brought her to work to join us.

The instructions and template are available online via Martha Stewart. First-time assembly takes about an hour, and the second flower only took me about 45 minutes. Materials for the stem can be found at most craft stores (like Michaels), but the double-sided crepe paper is tricky even to find online. Fortunately, there's a store in Berkeley that carries lots of it.

Here is a bouquet of all the completed flowers, arranged on one of the hallway plants.

More awesome paper flower templates:

My parents & the stray parrot

2009-04-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

So I was in staff meeting on Tuesday and IMing my mother to pass the time, when she mentions that a parrot just flew into the house.

Condensed chat log:

Joan: a parrot came in the house today
me: what parrot?
Joan: there has been a parrot around the backyard for about four days now but we've been feeding it and today when the rain started, he jumped on Pal's shoulder and Pal walked in the house
me: whoa, a stray parrot?
Joan: well it has a band on it's leg so we think someone owns it but it has been loose for about a couple of months now since i first saw it in front of our neighbor's house
me: will you adopt it? they can be noisy
although, maybe the cats will try to eat it...
Joan: i won't have a parrot flying loose in my house to defecate wherever.
we may find a cage for the backyard and keep it open for him for safety but would need to cover it to protect from the rain
me: what do parrots eat?
Joan: carrots, apples, walnuts, and he even drinks water from a cup
me: impressive
Joan: you have to see this parrot. i'll send you a picture

.
This suspiciously reminds me of how we ended up adopting the stray cat that later lived with for 18 years.

Crepe-Paper Roses

2009-04-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

This coming Thursday afternoon, Franklin organized a Spring Fling Flower Making social on-site for our team at work. We'll be making Crepe-Paper Roses as done by Martha Stewart. For treats, Franklin's making a pine-nut tart and I'm bringing a yellow-cake-and-fudge cupcake tower and hot tea. The deal is if you come and make a flower you get to eat the treats too!

Today we did a trial run making paper flowers, to better guide everyone else on Thursday. Here are our creations. Mine is the purple one.

Schematic of a Chandelier

2009-03-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

I've been toying with the idea of hanging a chandelier-type structure made of paper lanterns from the tall barn ceiling for the reception. There are lighting companies that do stuff like this, but they're pricey, and not quite as imaginative with design.

Though it may look complicated at first glance, drawing up the diagram shows that the individual pieces are quite manageable:

2 black nylon cords
10 paper lanterns of varying size
10 strands of battery-operated LEDs
10 connector strings
2 string fasteners (to keep the lanterns from sliding down the cord)

With optional translucent ribbon swathed around the lanterns for effect. Yes, I'm probably influenced by Anthropologie and it's intricate store displays.

Since there won't be an easily accessible electrical source for the chandelier, I won't be plugging anything into the wall. A theatre friend of mine advised using bundles of battery-operated LED string lights inside each lantern, so I can better control the brightness.

It almost looks too easy. Mockups may prove me wrong.

Easel Formation

2009-03-24T21:18:00.001-07:00

Meow's dad does carpentry, and has been building us a variety of containers and structures during his stay. A few weeks ago he made these 1-foot-tall adjustable art easels to hold the names for each table at the wedding reception. Here they stand in regal Easel Formation.

Rather than identify tables by number, I'm going to frame prints of my drawings and paintings to display on tables. Who needs "Table 4", when you have "Untitled"?

Another cone evolution

2009-03-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've fallen off the paper cone deep end.

Paper Cones with a Twist

2009-03-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

The first set of paper cones was a little too plain, so for the next round of mockups, I changed the design three ways:

swirled crushed tissue paper within the cone
tied ribbons at the sides, rather than the back
filled with flowers

Jazzing up the cones reminds me of advice one of my writing professors named Victor LaValle gave during a fiction class at Mills. He said that if you're bored by what you're writing, your readers are bored too. I find this observation to be universally applicable to work, paper cones, and beyond.

The twisted cones bore me less, so I know I'm on the right track.

It's a small thing, observed and used for less than twenty minutes. But weddings make you crazy. Today at work Franklin and I were discussing how she was going to fill glassine with rosemary and seal them with a pretty label and explanation of the meaning of rosemary in her life, and wondering how she'd have time to make the ceremony programs cut in the shape of paper fans.

The intern stood by in awe. Then she said, "Wait a minute. You just made a program into this really complicated thing."

Franklin and I looked at each other then Franklin cackled, "It's fun! Just you wait and see! It will get you too!"

"You think a program is just a program until you see all the options out there, and then you're doing mockups, trying to find materials..." I went on.

By the time we got back on the topic of how to solve Franklin's paper fan program dilemma, the intern had run off.

Meanwhile, being fresh out of lavender tissue paper at home, I threw some fuschia into another cone for fun.

Favor Boxes and Paper Cones

2009-03-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

Despite a lot of late work nights and Polish houseguests, I've thrown together some mockups of favor boxes and paper cones. Oh, I do love being prepared, way in advance, and with plenty of time to fret over design. The fretting was somewhat alleviated when I found these multi-sized leaf paper punches -- that I am now totally obsessed with (almost as much as pomander balls).

So, the paper cones concept: you fill handmade paper cones with rose petals, or other natural confetti, and string them with ribbon so that they hang from the backs of chairs. At the conclusion of the ceremony, guests fling the confetti at the newly married couple as they walk down the aisle. I knew about the rose petals, but paper cones? I seriously wouldn't know about half this stuff if I didn't receive such great advice from my co-worker from the South. She reads Martha Stewart online, Southern Weddings magazine, and designed her own invitations. She knows things.

The favors boxes are self-explanatory. The mockup uses kraft-like paper tied with a raffia ribbon, and two different shades of green leaves peek out of the tie. The box is literally blooming!

These small handmade pieces – cones, favors, s'mores kits, menus – are a double-edged sword. It's thrilling to design and concoct them, but it takes a long time. Then multiply everything by seventy-five, because that's the size of your audience.

Bachelorette Bash

2009-03-06T17:55:00.001-08:00

At the encouragement of some of my coworkers, I've decided to throw a totally girly, opposite-my-personality, bachelorette bash! We'll head to the SF Ritz for tea and cocktails sometime this summer, then hit Union Square for shopping, ending the day with soothing pedicures at a nearby spa.

Plan to match your drink
And wear something pink!

Imagine 15 or so girls in tow, stopping traffic on the square, tipsy from fruity drinks and giggling...

Oh, I do like to stir up the mayhem sometimes!

Progress and Pomander Balls

2009-03-03T22:34:00.000-08:00

I'm obsessed with pomander balls [reference photo to the left]. Something about the round plumpness of a pile of flowers hanging from the end of a ribbon has the fluffiness of a cute and rotund cat. A cat on a string! A puffball of flowers! In all of my research for this wedding, pomander balls are one thing that I am unanimous about.

Keenly aware of my enthusiasm, Jill made some pomander ball mockups at home from silk flowers. They are amazing. Pomander balls everyday! She's sending me this 10" diameter one, on the right, in the mail.

Otherwise, organizing this thing has been like being backstage design crew for a theatrical production. Research, design and coordination every single day. The location, coordinator, photographer, DJ, caterer, dress, and florist are all figured out, and all the paper products are the next task.

It's been more stressful than when I did the musical two years ago while working full-time and finishing my graduate thesis. Perhaps I am more suited to pursuing degrees than planning social events.

Now, a marriage degree might make more sense than a wedding ceremony and reception. Imagine spending 1-2 years studying relationships, communication skills, and conflict resolution instead of planning invitations, favors, and dinner. Wouldn't people be much more qualified to run a sustainable marriage if they were educated in skills they can use, rather than their ability to throw a party?

Engineering Leadership "Seminar"

2009-02-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

Last week I attended EDGE, an engineering leadership seminar, offered via work. This "seminar" was mostly team problem-solving, a ropes course in the redwoods, and an awesome s'mores retreat on the beach. That is, s'mores on the beach complete with a full tea and wine bar brought out to us on the sand by the hotel.

Yowza.