more blast from the past: cowboy sushi hoe-down

Junior year:

Boys rollin' sushi.


Girls rolling sushi.

more blast from the past: our favorite teo photo?

Junior year at Santa Cruz. Although I believe this took place in the city at... Golden Gate park? Stern Grove maybe?

more blast from the past: the other brother

Mr. Knightly and I cleaned up a lot over the weekend. I dug up some old photos and scanned them before I packed them away (better organized this time).

He may look tough here, but he's really ticklish. Whoops. I don't think I was supposed to say that. Oh well.

simple suppers

We had company over for dinner yesterday. I say this with a laugh because it was Janet and she's hardly "company" anymore. She was with me at the market when I was picking up dinner fixin's and when I asked her if she would stay for dinner she said no. But then she ended up changing her mind and joining us after all. It was just supposed to be a simple meal of salmon with some green beans (they looked good and the store carried the organic version) and potatoes. Somehow it ended up looking tasty and tasting far more elegant than I'd planned. A fabulous meal worthy of special company, or good friends who are no less special. I take no credit for this amazing meal, it was all to do with the fabulous ingredients I got to work with.

Our meal consisted of:
Baked wild salmon over lemons and fresh dill (with a splash of dry white wine).
A simple tomato salad that I added chick peas and lettuce to. Also half a cubed avocado which made the dressing go a little creamier. Mmmm....
Basic russet potatoes boiled till done and dressed with a pat of butter, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of fresh chopped up dill.
Organic green beans that I meant to make up per my usual recipe of beans+sauteed tomatoes+onions+chicken stock until I realized that I used up the only tomato in the house for the salad.

While I was trying to figure out how to doctor the beans, they cooked up perfectly as the onions carmelized. I didn't even have to reach for the salt and pepper. They were that good just dressed in a little olive oil and carmelized-onion-love. I did add some toasted slivered almonds for a little crunch.

I must have used up all my cooking mojo on last night's supper because tonight, the best we could manage was to order in a pizza.

Rockn'Rolla

Click image to redirect to video.

Another cool 2.5D animation. Nice use of limited palette. Recalls a bit of Sin City style illustrations too.

blast from the past

I'm so going to get busted if the DH ever checks my blog, but look what I found over the weekend!

Kiddling photos of the DH! This one is about the age of when he could fit in a 5 gallon paint bucket. Whoops. I wasn't supposed to mention that again.


Check out the form of this deadly ninja. I always felt safe knowing I had him and the other two black belts to project me.


I always knew he was a good kid. Here he wears the uniform of the good guys in case there was any doubt.

geeking out on graphic design

We just bought belated wedding gifts (we have till a year from the date of the wedding, right??) for recently married couple Dan and Amy. Dan's an elementary school teacher, but he used to be a rockin' musician (still is actually, just plays to younger crowds during the daylight hours these days). I wish I had seen the ads for these posters before we'd hit "purchase" on the wedding registry. I would have loved to get him these posters. The Keep Calm and Rock On is a play on that posterchild for the designer's poster. And I get a chuckle out of the Verse Verse Chorus... poster alongside it.

The rest of the posters on their site aren't bad. But I think Aesthetic Apparatus and The Small Stakes generally do a better job of this style.

I saw Harrison Ford!

It was on Sunday. Mr. Knightly and I went to Culver City to have lunch at Tender Greens (I love that place) and just next door at his son's restaurant there he was, Indiana Jones himself, sitting outside with who I believe was his daughter-in-law and grandson. Holy cow! I think I get why the celebrity-obsessed get so freaked out. I've seen my share of celebrities living in L.A., but they're never ones that I'm fans of (Paulie Shore? Usher? Sarah Gilbert? Billy Connelly? David Spade? Dylan McDermott? Adam Carolla? John Cusack (post-Say Anything), Aaron Eckhart (pre-Thank You for Smoking). It's not like I got to see holy-freaking-mother-of-all-celebs-Harrison Ford! Until Sunday! Shazam!

I have to admit that I stared. And sort of grinned a goofy grin. And if he could have seen me, I would have waved and maybe smiled at him. Not that it would have been of any consequence to him. And I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but man, that made my day!

for the typography geeks

From James

Click the above image to be redirected to the video.

Whoo-Ha! NERDFIGHTERS!

PS. Although, I do take offense to the idea that Comic Sans "saves the day," as it were... or Courier Old for that matter.

more from small magazine

They featured a photographer Catherine Ledner who's completed a series of photographs of animals. The photos feature animals with names that range the whole gamut of the alphabet (sans the letter X). I know I've seen these somewhere before probably on another blog and they are quite stunning. They sort of remind me of the photos from Colors Magazine. So cool, I want them all. But alas, they are a bit out of my price range. So I'll just have to enjoy them from my computer.

Some of my favorites:

2.5D (stills)

Just got wind of a children's magazine. Hm... well, it's not a magazine for children. But I wouldn't call it a parenting magazine either because it's not like they give advice on parenting. But they feature fashion and products for kids as well as some crafts and activities that parents can do with their kids. What genre would you call that?

ANYWAYS.

They featured an illustrator named Jayme McGowan who did a layout with what I can only describe as 2.5D stills. Like 2.5D animation there's a mix of flat+depth. It's just cool. See?

I love that this is their spread for their clothes. All the images have captions with designer's info on the articles of clothing. What a creative idea for a spread!

The rest of the magazine is pretty awesome too. I find myself drawn to children fashions. Particularly the mod kids fashions. I think I like the simplicity of their clothing. Most of the time I save images thinking to myself: I could totally make this... for me! Check out the rest of the magazine for a visual treat.

Small Magazine

I'm all over the place, bear with me

DH
I don't think I mentioned that the daehee was planning on a trip to Vegas with his friends the weekend after his 21st birthday. I'd heard from James something about it and of course my curiosity was piqued. I couldn't imagine why he'd want to go to Vegas or that he'd get much out of it. He doesn't drink or smoke, he's frugal with his money so he doesn't gamble and wouldn't be inclined to spend hundreds of dollars on shows. So what would draw him and his buddies to Vegas? I went to the daehee directly who explained it all in one word. Gaming Convention (okay, two words). He intended to go to the video game convention. He planned to play a particular game (I forget which) and hopefully not embarass himself was his modest claim. I had lunch with James today and got the update. Turns out that the daehee won THIRD PLACE! That he threw the game intentionally because he felt like the third place prize was better than first place (two nights stay at some fancy hotel) or second place (tickets to a Las Vegas show) but he totally could have swept if he'd felt like it. Whoo-hah! Nerdfighters!

I forgot to mention that the third place prize was a game console. PS3 I think.

Speaking of Nerdfighers
I'm so sad that I watched the last daily video over the weekend. My weekend was totally unhealthy sitting around moping, eating bad food and spending way too much time on the computer. So it didn't help any to be done with the brotherhood 2.0 videos. I"m still feeling a little lost, like after you're done with a really good book. It's those Green brothers. They're so funny and charming. What nice boys. If you have a few free days, I recommend you check out their site. They decided to give up textual communication for all of 2007 and communicate with each other through daily videos (they took turns Monday through Friday) and occasional phone calls. What started out as a personal project between two brothers turned into a community of fans and supporters who unite under the name Nerdfighters. Like freedom fighters, except nerdfighters fight suck. The videos are highly entertaining. Even M got into them (we usually don't have the same internet tastes). They got so much attention on YouTube and eventually were also mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, the BBC I think and also npr's All Things Considered. I thought what John said was so interesting about sibling relationships and how after you leave the nest, most people don't get a chance get to know their siblings as adults. Most of the time if you talk to your siblings as adults it's to discuss family matters and there just aren't as many opportunities to share in a mutual interest or project to draw you together. So true, so true.

Mr. Darcy vs. Mr. Knightly
I finished Emma. Somewhere around the middle of the book I fell in love with it. I think it's when I first started to suspect that Mr. Knightly might have a crush on Emma. M asked me what the book was about and observed from my summary of it that it reads a lot like a high school soap opera. Which I would agree that it sort of does. But isn't that Mr. Knightly dreamy? I love that he wants Emma to be the best person that she can be. And that he challenges her to do so and gently chides her when she falls short. It sort of reminds me of my husband. He's my Mr. Knightly. So I have to ask, what's the deal with Mr. Darcy? Jane Austen fans, what's the deal? Why is Mr. Darcy so famous? Why does everyone talk about him? Swoon over him? He seems to be the more famous of Jane Austen's male characters. Why? He just lurks at all the social gatherings brooding and judging. Even at the end when he's decided to give Jane Bennet another chance for his friends sake ~ and that totally bugs, by the way. Who the hell is he to decide whether or not someone is good enough for his friend? It's not like he's Mr. Personality. He condemns everyone around him, is sort of an ass at the parties, says insulting things to people below him (hardly a sign of nobility if you ask me), breaks up the blush of a romance, holes himself up in his mansion and then at the very end shows up with his pal to hang out make the Bennet girls all nervous and pass judgement on the sisters, et cetera, et cetera. Puh-lease. I'll take Mr. Knightly over Mr. Darcy any day. Granted, Mr. Knightly has his goods and bads (goods: strong moral character, loyal friend, all around gentlemanly behavior, Red Sox fan. Bads: Sometimes leaves his dirty socks around) but overall I think Mr. Knightly should be the one with the fanclub, not Mr. Darcy.

Books
I'm in a little over my head with my reading list. My book clubs meet monthly and I'm usually done with them in the first week or so. So I usually pick up another book to tide me over in between the assignments. I have to pick up Jim Shepard's Like you'd understand, anyway for my internet book club. And my classic lit book club has assigned Nabokov's Lolita both for the first of next month. And the tide-me-over-book that I got for this month is Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma mentioned my many and recommended to me by my buddy Nathan. I'm just in the beginning and it is Very Interesting. I read the first bits to Mr. Knightly as we drove down to San Diego last weekend and now he's freaked out by corn. He scoured the market the other day trying to find lunch meats that weren't from corn-fed livestock. Well, this is probably a good thing.

And speaking of cute things that kids say
My awesome mother-in-law Marcia and sister-in-law Kay are coming to visit over Labor Day weekend! They are bringing with them my two nieces little A (age 8) and little M (age 6). Little A was a little uncertain about this cross-country trip without her parents. Little M was totally jazzed. She has plans, you see. She put in requests that we go to Hollywood and watch (god help us) a taping of the Hannah Montana show, drive by Miley Cyrus's house (because everyone knows where she lives and she must live in Hollywood, right?) and also ride in a limo. I wonder where she gets this information from. Mom-in-law Marcia assured us that we could just drive past any big house somewhere and tell little M that it was Miley Cyrus's house and she wouldn't be the wiser. Meanwhile I must redecorate my home between now and the 28th. And clean up a storm. And Mr. Knightly will just have to use the bathroom at the gym because once I scrub that room, no one will be allowed to use it until the guests arrive.

And really quick because Mr. Knightly is yelling at me to come to bed and I haven't even showered yet from the gym:

I'm taking a cabinet and furniture making class!
I'm so freaking stoked I can't even tell you!! It starts this weekend. It's every Saturday morning for a few hours until the first week of December. An hour of lecture and then a few hours of "lab" where we get to play with lumber and power tools. I have my list of stuff that I want to make all ready. I can't wait!

The Great Gatsby. To Mrs. Ulrich

I joined another book club. This one is an in-person kind. My first meeting is on Tuesday and it's a classic literature book club so the first book I read with these guys is The Great Gatsby. I'm sure many of you read this in high school as did I. But I know that I missed a lot so I was happy to read it again.

Funny thing, I tried to find it at my local public library and had a really hard time tracking it down. It wasn't in the fiction section which I browsed by last name. I couldn't imagine a public library of this size not having at least one copy so I looked it up on their online database from home. But when I got to the library again, I found that the search results led me to the nonfiction section and there were just analysis and academic material on F. Scott Fitzgerald and his writings, instead of the writings themselves. Two reference librarians later I was directed to the young adults paperback section where I found three copies sitting on the shelves. Young adults, eh? Who knew?? Well, actually, I bet some of my readers knew.

But back to Gatsby. It was good. Really good. And a quick read too coming in at 180 pages. I found it interesting all the stuff I was confused about from my first read back in high school all coming back to me. And I wonder at my ignorance. Part of it wasn't my fault. I think I grew up in a fairly sheltered environment with my isolated immigrant family. How was I supposed to understand a sentence like:

"You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy," I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret.

Talk about feeling uncivilized. I think I asked my English teacher Mrs. Ulrich about what that meant and I vaguely remember her saying something about it doing with wine, but I still didn't get it. Corky? Claret? What was so impressive about it? And how come none of the dialogue made any sense?

As I read it this weekend I remembered more parts that I puzzled over back in high school lit class. I can't imagine that I understood any of the book to be able to write intelligent papers on it for my class. And I also recollect the exasperation Mrs. Ulrich expressed during discussions in class. The brilliance of this literature must have been lost on all of us. What a shame. I'd love to go back and have a discussion with her about this book now.

I guess something that wouldn't have occurred to me was how subtle the writing could be. A lot of stuff is nuanced, and I'm thinking that you wouldn't be able to "get it" unless you've lived a little and gotten around a bit. To an able reader of literature, the nuanced and subtle bits seem pretty obvious and the book is rich with layers and layers of symbolism for lit lovers to glorify in. But back in high school English class I wasn't equipped to fully appreciate this as I am now.

I enjoyed the writing which I thought was very smart without being excessively clever. I thought his use of themes was masterful. And I finished the story a bit caught up in the tragedy of the failed characters, but still feeling like they all sort of got what they deserved (right or wrong). I'm looking forward to Tuesday's meeting to hear what the other classic lit lovers have to say about this and silently dedicating my participation in the discussion to Mrs. Ulrich.

Say hey!

Here's a great song to kick off the weekend. It's called Say Hey by Michael Franti and Spearhead. Go to his myspage page to hear it.

I dare you to try and not to dance or at the least do a little chair boogie when you hear it. It's a happy kind of song. And I just can't resist a song that sings "I love you, I love you, I love you!" over and over again. That's a good song.

muffin man animation

I love the simplicity of this clay(?)mation movie. It's an ad for a Canadian bank's investment services and as much as I am wary of the idea of local shops headed towards large scale growth and mega branding, this is a fine example to illustrate this kind of growth if you are into that stuff. Also, I like the way the animators tell the story by zooming out. Click on the image to go to the quicktime movie. It's just a few seconds long and doesn't take too much time to load.

headers from the past

photography love

My favorite photo of the day.

I can't remember how I stumbled upon this photography blog, but I sure am glad that I did. I believe the photographer started it to practice and improve her photography skills. I can't imagine what she considers to be non-practice shots. Please be sure to click on these photos to see the larger versions, or check out her website for more visual majesty.

I thought this was a painting or a photograph of taxidermy. Nope, she snapped this of an egret in mid-flight.

Shazam

then up to Doylestown, PA

THE WEDDING LEG OF THE EAST COAST TRIP

We left Carlisle on Friday. Amy's parents are collectors and after I oohed and ahhed over their vintage pharmaceuticals collection in the bathrooms (really), Amy's dad pointed us towards an impressive antiques market in downtown Carlisle. The boys kindly let me browse for a few minutes before we headed out of town.

Wow. That place was pretty freaking amazing. Like the Valhalla of thrift stores. I didn't want to drive M and Ian crazy so I kept my browsings short and didn't buy anything. But I could have spent a month there. Something to remember for future visits to the area.

When we got to our destination we met up with the rest of the guys at a Mexican restaurant which we sort of got kicked out from after a few hours of beers and loud obnoxious talk. It's really not surprising if you've ever spent a few minutes with these guys. And I got to meet Jeff's main squeeze Suzanne and of course Dan's fiance (also another), Amy.

It was a good time. Just tiring from meeting so many people and having lots of small talk. I'm sort of a shut-in these days with working from home so I'm not used to being around so many people in one place and I'm not used to talking to people. But it was a good time. It was fun to hang out with M's friends. They are funny dudes. And I guess they're getting older because they didn't drink as much as they used to or cut up as much as they used to. And it was nice to have some girls to talk to with the Amys and Suzanne around.

The wedding was beautiful. These two got slated as the "face of the wedding" as they were the first to greet guests and direct everyone to the ceremony location.


The ceremony was outside on the lovely grounds of Aldie Mansion. Here's Ian's wife Amy and Jeff's girlfriend Suzanne.


Dan, the groom, looked handsome watching his bride walk down the aisle.


Amy and her dad.


It was a lovely ceremony.


The reception was also at Aldie Mansion.


I dropped my camera on the brick sidewalk (!) just before the wedding and miracle of all miracles it seems to be still working. But some of the shots for the rest of the day have a weird fuzzy blurred bit of light in the center so my photos are a little wonky.

But don't Amy and Ian look nice?


And Jeff and Suzanne too? They just took the BAR exam a few days before the wedding. Suzanne's a self-described goody-two shoes and interested in practicing environmental law. I told her we need more people like her getting into law school.


Hey, that dress looks familiar.


These fellas clean up good.


Random Fact: Chad and Dan were roommates for a few years in undergrad.


They love candid photos.


They really do.


Afterwards we settled in at a bar in downtown Doylestown for some disgusting bar food (and believe it or not at a restaurant chain called Friendly's after that for some disgusting dessert). Disgusting in that really good but bad for you way. It felt a little bit like after prom. And we were really tired.

in which we ate a lot of food

THE PHILADELPHIA LEG OF THE EAST COAST TRIP

We left H early Wednesday morning and headed to the train station. We took a train to Philadelphia from D.C.'s Union Station. I felt so European! Metros! Beautiful old buildings all around! Traveling by train around the country! It was awesome! (NB: Another pro was added to the list of desirable features of living in D.C.)


At the train station we picked up a rental car to use for the rest of the week. This gal looked lovely sitting on the benches waiting for her friend. So I had to snap a shot of her.


M and I had a few hours before we were expected anywhere so we headed over to South Street where we were told by Dan our Philly local (and groom for the wedding we'd be attending) that it would be a good place to kill a few hours. Of course I had to have a cheesesteak.

I wanted to go for the authentic experience and so I asked the waiter which cheese he would recommend that I try. I think he was a little disappointed in me when I bypassed the Cheese Wiz and American combo and opted for provolone.

You know you are on vacation when you can say things like: these are better than yesterday's fries.

Then we headed over to the Reading Terminal Market cause M had read that there was a section where Amish merchants sold their goods. Probably my favorite part of Philadelphia that we got to see. The Amish merchants sold mostly food. This row of apple cobblers looked awesome.


There was food from other cultures as well.


I thought this sign in the ladies room was kinda funny.


This Amish booth sold a variety of custard type puddings.

M and I wondered about the legitimacy of these Amish merchants when we saw crumbled Reese's peanut butter cups in one of the puddings. Also, I think one of the girls was wearing makeup. Then again, we will be the first to admit that we don't know the details of Amish beliefs and restrictions.

Even though I was really full from my cheesesteak lunch, I couldn't resist buying a slice of Shoo-fly pie from one of the Amish bakers. He smiled a little knowingly at M when he handed the pie over. I forgot to photograph the pie, but it was dee-lish! It's basically just maple syrup, sugar, eggs and pie crust. The filling is a little smoother and lighter colored than the caramelish part of a pecan pie. This one also had a crumbly top which is made of more butter and sugar. I haven't researched why it's called a Shoo-fly pie yet but if you ever get a chance to taste some, I highly recommend it. I think it would have been great with some hot coffee and maybe heated up with a little vanilla ice cream on the side.

We wandered around the market for only a few more minutes because we needed to meet friends Ian and Amy. I got a kick out of all these sacks of flour next to one of the bakery booths.


Then we headed down to Carlisle, PA to meet up with Ian, Amy and their little girl Anna. Amy's dad and step mom had graciously invited us to stay the night so we could get a chance to meet Anna. The wedding we attended was for adults only so Anna had to stay behind with her grandparents.

I'm not sure how Ian and Amy feel about me posting photos of their kid on the internet, so I'll just leave those out. But I will say this: oh my god, she is beautiful! And goodness is she smart! There was one moment after breakfast when she pulled out some of her toys to play with daddy. One of them looked like a bunch of scrabble tiles minus the numbering. Ian flipped all the tiles over so that the lettered sides were face up and Anna proceded to separate the letters and spell out her name. Yep. She's not even two years old yet. Then they played an identification game where Ian would ask her to find the tile with the letter "Q" and so on and she'd pick them out correctly one by one. I asked Ian and Amy if they were planning to submit her application for Harvard's early acceptance deadline this fall or for next fall. M asked Anna what here thoughts were on the middle east situation. I'm sure if she had the vocabulary for it, she would have given him a response.