Earthquakes are for real

When was the last time you did an earthquake drill?

 

Is there room for you to drop, cover, and hold on under your desk?

 

Encourage your employer and family to particpate in California's annual earthquake drill!

 

www.shakeout.org

Summer is over? I disagree!

Some are saying that summer has ended. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was welcoming summer adventures? I don't believe summer can end until the baseball season ends. That makes sense right?

We've had some great adventures:
*A and I got out our backpacking gear, and spent a blissful two nights in the wilderness. It was just us, some roaming cows with cow bells, a very bright moon, a lot of dust, and the fresh dry air of the high sierras.

*We've made many trips to museums this summer:

• California Academy of Sciences (you can watch the pengquins online!) The re-model is quite impressive and they do have an amazing living roof.
• De Young, Legion of Honor Both of these museums are hosting exhibits focusing on Paris and the impressionist era.
• Oakland Museum of California There is an incredibly fun exhibit about Pixar, an amazing History of CA exhibit which focuses only on our beautiful state, how it came to be, and the memories of the more recent decades such as the 60s.

*We have enjoyed getting together with our friends and their little ones. People grow so fast!

*I recently had a great time with the ladies in Ashland, Oregon at the Shakespeare Festival. Note: We didn't actually see any Shakespeare Productions. We saw a speed version (2 hrs 45 min) play of "Pride and Prejudice" and an absolutely phenomenal musical called "She Loves Me". (She Loves Me is one of the stories which inspired "You've Got Mail".)

*Of course, we've been to more baseball games. Just yesterday, we saw the Red Sox play the A's. I love that the restaurant behind home plate is open to everyone, and we're allowed to sit at a table for the entire game. What a great view! The Red Sox squeaked out a win to stop the A's from sweeping them despite Beckett's not-so-good day of pitching. He walked the bases loaded and then walked Coco Crisp home! I would've been happy if the A's swept the Red Sox even though I was sporting a Youkilis shirt.

I'm sure I've missed recounting some of our adventures. Feel free to post anything you have to add or some of your own favorite summer adventures!

Crunching and Reading

This afternoon, during document review, I grabbed a bowl of pita chips, hummus, and guacamole. It seemed like a perfect afternoon snack. EXCEPT the crunching was too loud for me to concentrate on what I was reading. I'm looking for quieter snack alternatives.

A's fortune cookie reads "If you are still hungry, have another fortune cookie."

 

Novel idea, right?

What happens when the bag of delivery is empty and there are no more fortune cookies?

Summer Fun

Dear July 2010,
How did you arrive so quickly? I am enjoying the adventures you bring and hope that you never end.

July 3 - Beach Day in Point Reyes National Seashore
The stairs down to the light house were a bit tedious, but worth the walk. Did you know the light house was first lit on my birthday 107 year before I was born? It's such an amazing and dynamic coast to explore. After wandering the windy light house point, we spent the afternoon on Drake's Beach. We found a spot a bit sheltered from the wind, ate our delicious picnic, took a nap, and then dove into the sand. A dug a hole almost to China, but ran into some water. He built a sand wall, I built sand turtles. I named them Tommy and Teddy Turtle. When we left, we encouraged some kids to use our hole play with the turtles.

July 4 - Mom and the USA's Birthday
A great family day of lunch, birthday cake, monopoly, and fire works. The birthday cake (made by my Sis) was super creative. It had cupcakes on top of the cake! The garden themed cake was decorated with vegetables and flowers. It was almost too pretty to eat. Almost. Of course, we all ate and enjoyed it.

July 7 - Yankees vs Oakland A's
I have become quite a baseball fan this season. I will always love the Red Sox, although they are harder to follow from the west coast. Thus, I've been attending Giants and A's games this season. The Giants have been of great interest to me this summer but you can't go wrong with $2 Wednesday's at the Oakland A's stadium. My sister and I cheered for opposing teams during this Yankees vs A's game. She has a thing for the Yankees...and they are quite good. Coco Crisp and Ryan Sweeney (my favorite A's players) just weren't having the best luck that night. I just love being at a ball park and watching the kettle corn guy dance.

July 9 - Tuolomne Meadows Lodge
We arrived at the tent cabins in Tuolomne Meadows, Yosemite, reconnected with some of A's high school pals and made some new friends with happy hour (snacks!) in the high sierras.

July 10 - Hike to Clouds Rest
Fueled with oatmeal and bananas, A and I hiked 7 miles from Tenaya Lake to Clouds Rest.

Starting elevation: 8,000 feet.
Elevation of Clouds Rest: 9,600 feet.
Number of mosquitos: relentless

Yosemite is hands down, my favorite place in the world. To experience this hike, and the view from Clouds Rest for the first time was incredible. I have hiked to the top of Half Dome four times and thought that was a treat. The view from Clouds Rest looks down on Half Dome and provides a 360 degree view of the Sierras including Yosemite Valley. It showed me there is soooo much more to the Sierras than my beloved Yosemite Valley. I'm eager to explore it all.

July 11 - Introduction to Rock Climbing
Our Yosemite pals, have recently picked up the hobby of rock climbing. We went to the base of Daft Dome (in Tuolomne Meadows) and watched as they morphed into spider people scrambling up the face of the rock. It was a great introduction to the basics of rock climbing (what gear you need, how to move on a rock, how tiny a "juicy" grab really is, etc). Our wobbly legs were not up for an attempt that day, but appreciate knowing a little more about it.

Thanks again, July, for all of the fun. I look forward to the adventures yet to come.

Sincerely,
C-Bart

Food is Ready

This is what the microwave tells me after it has waved it's micro magic for the amount of time I specified. "FOOD IS READY".  What if it's not ready? What if the needs some more wave action to be warm enough for my liking? What if I burned it? How can the microwave make such a proclamation?

Conflicting Fortunes?

Snacktime today included two fortune cookies.

 

The first fortune reads "If you want it...take it"  (with the chinese translation for "eye" and lucky numbers 2,5,8,11,15,and 50 on the back side)

 

The second fortune reads "Do not desire what you do not need" (with the chinese translation for "lettuce" and lucky numbers 20, 23, 37, 41, 45, and 48 on the back side)

Questions

Why are people named June and August but not July? Isn't July an equally fun summer month? Have you ever met anyone named July?

Hmmm...

I order a "small", they give me a "tall". Where am I?

All four food groups in one pot.

When left to my own devices, my favorite way to cook is to make one dish meals. This one is cheese tortellini, rotisserie chicken, asparagus, mushrooms, a few olives and tomato sauce. Yum!

Happy February!

Where does the time go? We are 1/12th finished with 2010. The Olympics are just around the corner. Before we know it Leno will be back at his 11:35pm slot and the Heroes season will be over.

This year is a fast and fun year! Yee Haw!

Movie Reviews

My Sister's Keeper: Read the book. Skip the movie. The endings are different!

Avatar: Pandora is a great place! Watching this movie made me very angry at our white man society.

Feeling Good

Dim Sum to go: $7.49
Waking up for yoga on a Saturday morning: priceless

Virtually Scrumptious!

Here is a new blog where you can be honest about what makes you drool and weigh in on your scrumptious opinions. Kristen, of the Kristen Chronicles, and her husband Dane are documenting their culinary adventures. They pose a lot of "food for thought" which is actually food related. It's quite fun!

Treat your tastebuds at There is No Sincerer Love Than the Love of Food.

Welcome to the Club, Sis!

Let me tell you about a scrumptious weekend of celebrating Sis's milestone birthday.

Saturday evening we dined with her pals at Le Colonial. Their signature drink was popular at our table, but I preferred The Grand Greyhound which featured fresh basil. The family style appetizer platter is a must. After dinner, we attempted to go for cocktails at Swig, but due to the private party, they sent us to Bourbon and Branch (down a block and over a block, no windows). I'm a bit surprised to find they have a website. We were spinning around on the corner looking for a place with no windows, when a man with a black jacket and "Security" cap crosses the street hollering at us.

"Are you looking for Bourbon and Branch? Well, what are you doing over here? Come this way!" He points us to a line outside an unmarked door. Though the sign for the building says "American Anti-Saloon Legion" or something. When we got to the front of the line we were told to wait and the door shut again. Five minutes later, the lady opened the door and said "Password?"

We all looked at each other. The "Security" man hadn't given us a password... Somehow we were let in. We were ushered into a room through a hidden door (camoflauged as a bookcase). This room was packed with people blocking access to the door. We felt like hide-aways. I have no idea what a password would've gotten us. Into a different room? It was a great adventure, and actually looked like a very fun place. Now we know we need the password next time. Better yet, reservations!

We walked back up to SugarCafe. Their gimmick is that they are a coffee shop by day offering desserts and cocktails by night. The service was uber slow and they were down to two dessert items available by 9pm. Great concept for a late night hang out without the "club" atmosphere but very poor execution. Of course, we laughed it off and enjoyed our round of cocktails.

We finished the evening back at Le Colonial in their very hip lounge which had transformed to a dance floor with a DJ. Sis got her groove on celebrating her entry into a new decade. (and I, always love a dance floor!)

On Sunday... Sis and I enjoyed afternoon tea at Neiman Marcus' Rotunda restaurant. It is always a delightful mix of little sandwiches and desserts. The Eros tea is fantastic.

Following tea, we walked to AT&T Park (aka Telephone Company Park) for the final San Francisco performance of OVO by Cirque du Soleil. It was absolutely amazing!! The actors came into the audience a few times. The theme of OVO is bugs. Cute, acrobatic, ones. At one point, the circus leader bug came out in the audience bzzzz-ing and indicated that an imaginary fly landed on Sis's head. He was about to whap her with a giant fly swatter, but the fly flew away. Phew!

It was a scrumptiously wonderful celebration weekend. Welcome to the club, Sis!

Health Tip

Take your weight in pounds. Divide that by 2. That is the number of ounces of water you should drink in a day to stay hydrated.

Simple!

Give a Day, Get a Day and Yosemite News

Disney's inspiring 1 million people to volunteer this year by offering a free ticket to Disney in exchange for one day of volunteering for a participating organization. There are opportunities galore. Check them out here. If Miss Piggy can do it, we can too!

If only, a day of volunteering in Yosemite National Park got me a ticket to Disney. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?

Speaking of Yosemite, I just learned that the Yosemite Fund and the Yosemite Association are merging into one organization. I think this is great! They both raise funds and offer wonderful things to the park. I'm glad to see they are pooling their resources and look forward to the enhanced services they will be able to provide.

Cartier in America

Last weekend was a well rounded culture weekend for A and I. We loved the SF Symphony on friday night date night. It was amazing how quiet the audience gets so the music can explode in the room. (We also laughed that when the music stops everyone takes that opportunity to cough, fidget, sneeze, whatever they need to do. It's like we are all holding our breath to hear every single note). I felt completely immersed in a different world. It's not often that one gets a chance to relish this kind of experience. We loved it.

On Saturday we enjoyed the Cartier in America exhibit at the Legion of Honor museum in SF. This, too, was a fabulous experience. Any girl who dreams about wearing tiara's and elaborate sparkley jewels will love this exhibit. I hear SF is the only place it will be in the U.S. so come on out to SF and be dazzled!

Two Thumbs Up!

That Takes the Cake gets two thumbs up from A and I. We stumbled across this little cupcake shop on Union Street in SF last weekend and just had to try it. D E L I C I O U S!

Go to the website...They have cocktail cupcakes on Saturday nights. What a fantabulous idea!

Date Night

Tonight is Date Night!

Two half price tix to the San Francisco Symphony thanks to Groupon and a free dinner at Hahn's Hibachi won on the Jack London Square Facebook page.

Haiti

Visit the American Red Cross website to see how you can help.

Mobile Fundraising: I think it's impressive and convenient that you can text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Effort. This is so simple. If everyone did this, we'd all be giving a little, but Haiti would get a lot. (That's profound)

I spent .20 cents on texting to support the mobile fundraising, because I think it's a great concept. It's a simple message easily spread via social networking media (facebook, twitter, etc.) Brilliant!

01.13.10

On a day that work began for me at 5:30 am (in the dark), this scrumptious rainbow appeared outside my window and brightened my morning. Priceless.

Sedona

2009 closed out with a bang! We spent Christmas week in Sedona, Arizona. Luckily enough, we were there for a very rare occasion of SNOW! It was my sister's first official White Christmas (despite her attempts to have a white christmas in Boston).

We enjoyed the change of scenery, visited Meteor Crater (experience the impact!), the Petrified Forest (really old wood turned to beautiful rock via mineral replacement), forged trails in Red Rock Country (Bell Rock loop?), and traveled the wilderness by train watching for bald eagles and their nests. The most fun activity, however, was participating in Red Rock Fantasy. It was a contest of christmas light displays. They were themed and absolutely scrumptious. We got to vote for our top 5 out of 20-ish and it was tough to choose! It turns out I voted for all three of the winners.

Fun Geology Fact: Sedona is at the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is rather large encompassing parts of the four corner states and is a plateau (go figure) which was uplifted as a result of various plate tectonics. The Grand Canyon is cut through the Colorado Plateau. In Sedona, we were looking at the side edge of the Colorado Plateau and seeing many of the same geologic layers visible inside the Grand Canyon. Fun!

Mirror Day

Happy Mirror Day! Also known as palindrome day. Today's date is 0102 2010.

Welcome to 2010. Happy New Year!