Because We're Interesting, Dammit! (No really, we are!)

At Sunset Beach for the Oneill World Cup of Surfing!

2009-11-27T12:31:00.000-08:00

Sunset Beach - North Shore: 20+ foot waves!

2009-11-25T12:50:00.001-08:00

Me Want Sushi!

2009-11-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

Sarah asked, "What do you want to do for your 40th birthday?"

Jason replied, "Why, go to Tokyo for some good sushi, of course!"

And so it began: the planning, the guide book purchasing, the sleeping pill prescriptions, the "konichiwa" practicing...

Tokyo it was. The plan called for a 6:00 AM Thursday departure that got us into Tokyo at 5:00 PM Friday. Sounds painful, but that International Date Line kinda messes with you. Basically, it's about a nine hour flight each way. And, although we pretty much lost a Friday, we had two Sundays!

The plan was to hit Kyubei for dinner the first night. Of course, we say that like it's old hat, but we had no idea where to go or what to do. Based on extensive emails from Joe Cupani, solid Beaver County boy and Carnegie Mellon grad, and a few guide books, we decided to hit the best available sushi restaurant as our first Tokyo food experience. When we arrived at our hotel, Jason asked the front desk person for help finding Kyubei and his response told us that we were on the right track: "Ooohh, Kyubei! Wow!"

That's our sushi chef below, and let us tell you that it was - BY FAR - the most amazing sushi experience of our lives. Spiritual. Ephemeral. Ethereal. Frackin' killer sushi!

From the bowl of baby sardines to the still-twitching shrimp, it has devalued every other sushi meal for all eternity. It was that good! And the toro or otoro or whatever they call the fatty tuna belly, mmmmmm! Words cannot describe how good, how amazingly good, the fish tasted.

Jason is still not sure whether it ruined sushi in America, or gave him a new appreciation for all raw fish from here on out. And since he's now over 40, the "here on out" is starting to seem mighty short!

But there was a lot more to Tokyo that just eating fish. We hit the Tsukiji fish market (to look at fish) the next morning at about 7:00 AM, which was like 3:00 PM Tuesday our time, or something like that. Tsukiji (pronounced Ski-Gee. or so Cupani said) is a huge marketplace where fresh fish is auctioned each morning, and where fishmongers sell the freshest, most beautiful available bounty of the sea. The guidebooks said to be there early, and even though we were there at the crack of early, we missed the big auction. But, there was still plenty of action to be had.

No single photo captures the scene, but just imagine the most enormous tuna that you've ever seen - hundreds of them - plus tons of random fishes of all sorts, octopus, squid, clams, scallops, and on and on and on! Plus, hundreds of people jamming the tiny aisles, hand carts, powered buggies, and random tourists like us trying to both take pictures and not get killed. Good times!

More photos are below, but it was an amazing experience. And, it was like going directly to the source. The red Ahi tuna, which is kind of a pinkish translucent red in San Francisco, was the deepest blood red we've ever seen! And the toro, which is $6 or $8 PER SLICE in San Fran was $12 or $13 for TWENTY fresh pieces at the market! Heaven! And the REAL wasabi! Oh my God!

We did some non-fish activities as well, like the Meiji Shrine and shopping in Harajuku and Shibuya. Sarah found some great earrings, Jason found some more sushi, and we both found a new favorite city! It's amazing how many people were on the sidewalks, yet it was quiet, clean, and no one was bumping into you.

Speaking of the people over there: AMAZING! So darn nice! We'd open a map, and someone would ask us if we needed help finding something. We'd talk in English, they would smile and do their best to help us understand what they meant. No rude looks, just smiles from nice, genuine, helpful people.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. We had a solid 48 hours on the ground. Jason had his best-ever sushi. Sarah had sore feet. And we both had a new appreciation for Japanese culture and people.

Domo arigato, Japan, for the best possible 40th birthday anyone could ever ask for!

See all of the photos in the slideshow below, or click here for the full screen version.

OFS c/o '90... We've Got Spirit!

2009-10-19T00:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to share the slideshow from my recent 20 year high school reunion. What an amazing group of people I went to school with. Happy to re-connect with so many people from my youth. Speaking of which, our class ages very well - everyone looked pretty much the same! Yay! :-)

Woo hoo!

2009-07-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Relaxing Hawai'i Videos

2009-07-08T08:57:00.001-07:00

Hawai'i is hella relaxing! Seriously, if relaxing were a sport, Hawai'i would always win the championship. Need proof? Here are two great videos from our recent trip to Oahu...

Here's Sarah during a hard-core relaxing practice session...

You can even relax under the water, as we did while watching this turtle dude swim around...

See - wasn't that relaxing?

Biking HMB

2009-06-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

Dinner at table 52.jpg

2009-06-12T20:37:00.001-07:00

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Mod.jpg

2009-06-12T05:19:00.001-07:00

Excellent mid century modern design exhibit at SFO! #awesometown
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Hard Work, Big Results ... KaBOOM! Build and a lil' R&R on Oahu's North Shore

2009-06-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

HNL is groovy.jpg

2009-06-08T23:26:00.001-07:00

Awesome wood carved walls at the Honolulu airport.... Always makes me hum the Hawaii 5-0 theme song. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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For my friends from home.jpg

2009-06-07T12:57:00.001-07:00

WRV north shore, Oahu!
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LOST fans might recognize this.jpg

2009-06-06T12:30:00.001-07:00

YMCA camp Erdman, aka the others camp on Lost!
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Manly man drink.jpg

2009-06-05T21:51:00.001-07:00

Jason always gets the girly drinks!
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Hawaiian paintings.jpg

2009-06-05T17:27:00.001-07:00

A local artist painting mangrove poles. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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Whistle while u work!

2009-06-05T14:04:00.001-07:00

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IMG00278.jpg

2009-06-03T15:38:00.001-07:00

Nice to have a navy seal helping us today! Go Chris!
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Making progress.jpg

2009-06-03T14:40:00.001-07:00

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Build.jpg

2009-06-03T14:19:00.001-07:00

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Build_day.jpg

2009-06-03T14:09:00.001-07:00

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North shore.jpg

2009-06-02T18:25:00.001-07:00

The view on way to KaBOOM build.... Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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Go USA.jpg

2009-05-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

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Dessert, better than goobers...

2009-05-09T23:05:00.001-07:00

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A Visit from Flat Stanley!

2009-04-09T08:46:00.001-07:00

Isabel Calaba, George's first-grade daughter, has a friend who recently had a freak accident. Stanley Lambchop had a heavy bulletin board fall on him and flatten him! It was a scary event, but Stanley - now known as "Flat" Stanley - is taking full advantage of his new, um, measurements. He's been rolled up, used as a kite, and even mailed around the country.

Well, Isabel sent him out to us in San Francisco, and we took him around for a quick tour with his new buddy from out here, Flat Freddie. Here are some of the snapshots:

Surf's up at Linda Mar!

2009-04-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Why women drown...

2009-03-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of random photos scrolling on my desk's digital photo frame, and one that keeps popping up is below and it always makes me laugh. It's from a white water rafting trip from a few years back, and it was taken at the "tunnel chute rapid" where there was the chute and then the tunnel (hence the name...). I wonder if Sarah and Marissa and Meighan and Joanna remember?

I wonder if they remember how technical it was and how scary the guides made it seem and how they gave us detailed instructions and how it was so important to do this and so critical not to do that? I wonder if they were paying attention...

Well check out the photo below! The poor guide is pointing to the spot of multiple deaths and you four girls heard nothing but the word "camera" and then became oblivious to the life-saving instructions and started posing like Paris Hilton outside the Bellagio.

Yeesh. This is why women drown!

Here's the sat map of the rapid, in case you need your memory jogged:

View Larger Map

Oh, by the way, who wants to go rafting again this summer?

Monitor over banana

2009-03-12T14:19:00.001-07:00

I've grown tired of the DW's photo updates from her "work" trip to Hawaii, so decided to let her (and all of you) get a glimpse of my view during breakfast and lunch today. While there isn't a wave or a beach or a palm tree in sight, I think that you'll agree that it's just as good as being in Hawaii...

In this lovely shot, taken from my desk in San Mateo, CA, you'll see my expertly-created caramel latte (nice froth, if I do say so myself), along with my banana and my Nectar bar. Ahh, breakfast is so much better over a keyboard.

And this beautiful lunchtime shot, again capturing my stunning workday view, shows my lack of daytime culinary adventure, since I had another banana for lunch (the same as if I were marooned on a deserted South Pacific island!).

Moon over Waikiki

2009-03-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

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Adorable by Pierce!

2009-03-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

Listen to this message from my nephew... and then imagine the big grin on my face as I played it over and over again on my drive home today! (just click "download" and it should open and play in iTunes or another media player).

New level of adorable....

2009-03-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of my nephew Pierce!

Adorable by Pierce!

2009-03-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

------ MMS ------
From: +17572413109/TYPE=PLMN
Sent: Mar 4, 2009 5:26 PM
Subject: VN 00003.amr

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Random pictures from my morning run in Waikiki

2009-02-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

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Saturday Skiing in Tahoe

2009-02-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

Well, not much skiing. We did as many runs as beers we drank.

On hope...

2009-01-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

As the presidential inauguration approached, I thought a lot about what I might post to our blog. The problem for me has been that I have so many strong emotions all at the same time, I feel like I need to come up for air. I thought I'd share just a few of my thoughts and observations ... if no one reads this that's actually OK with me. I think simply documenting some of these emotions is gratifying enough.

I am from southern Virginia. Although the area has lots of wonderful qualities, it's a pretty racist part of the country. Jason also comes from a similar area outside of Pittsburgh. What I'll never understand is that my hometown, much like Jason's, is also extremely religious. How can these two things coexist the way that they do? It's always baffled and frustrated me.

Watching President Obama be sworn in today touched my heart in so many ways:

* I am encouraged that maybe one day, racism in this country will no longer exist.

* I admire the emphasis that Obama (and Biden) put on family - they both clearly adore their wives and children.

* I love that Obama is open to new ways of doing things - and that he asked Biden to be his running mate because he didn't want a VP who would be a "yes man."

* I appreciate the realistic way in which Obama characterizes the hard work in front of this country - and the notion that we are all accountable for our future.

* I see Obama's spirtual side at work when he speaks of what our future can hold if we work together to get there, and remain faithful.

* I recognize the stillness of someone who is so passionate about his beliefs that he's willing to do whatever it takes to achieve greatness for our country.

* I see a man who worked very hard to get to where he is today - and I want to be of service, to do what I can to help make this country even better.

Most of all, I see hope. I am hopeful that one day more people in this country will see that by including others, we are a better and stronger nation.

What an exciting time. I wouldn't trade being a part of this movement for anything. In honor of this time of change, I need to figure out what my service project will be. I have a few ideas in mind, but more on that once I make up my mind.

All this, and the Steelers are going to the SuperBowl, too!

Celebrating Hope!

2009-01-20T19:48:00.000-08:00

Sarah and I cracked some "Obama Presidential Ale" to celebrate this new, happy, hopeful chapter in American history!

Yes We Can!

Spectacular Sunday

2009-01-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

Jason and I are sitting at Sam's having lunch....reggae music playing and very light breeze. Should have brought sunscreen. It is seriously hot out here!
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FW:Winter Hike

2009-01-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

sitting on top of san bruno mountain on a lovely winter day.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T20:38:00.000-08:00

One last stop - for shave ice - before we head to the airport. Hopefully we'll be back soon!

On the boardwalk...

2008-12-30T17:37:00.000-08:00

At Maui's Kealia wildlife preserve today. Waited all morning at the beach for the sun to come out, but finally gave up.

Sarah's Birthday on Lanai

2008-12-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

For Sarah's birthday, we ferried over to Lanai and hung at the beach. See how the tropical air makes her look not a day over 36?

Here whale, whale, whale....

2008-12-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

Looking for and finding lots of humpback whales!

The End of the Rainbow

2008-12-27T19:19:00.001-08:00

On our way to Honolua Bay, we spotted this rainbow (the fourth one today!).

Time for a relaxer...

2008-12-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Post-Christmas, post-spa Kona Ale.

Translation

2008-12-26T16:28:00.000-08:00

A cloudy day on Maui actually means "spa day" in Rushin!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-25T13:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays from 20.74456 N, 156.45767 W. (plug that into google to see us on the map.)

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas day!

Peace & Love,
Sarah & Jason

Christmas Eve Dinner

2008-12-24T16:04:00.001-08:00

Our organic Mexican fiesta before we head out to the airport...on our way to Maui!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Takin' a break from Christmas shopping

2008-12-13T14:14:00.001-08:00

Sarah and I needed a beer, um, I mean energy to continue our power shopping.

More Fun Food Experiments!

2008-11-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

Is it wrong of me to ask Sarah last night, "Honey, do you mind if I get another jar of some fermenting fruit or vegetable going in the fridge?"

Well, I figured that I needed to ask her because the bottom shelf of the fridge - normally reserved for a wide selection of beer bottles - is slowly turning into my own little Science Channel. First it was the preserved lemons, which were killer, if I do say so myself. Then it was the pickled eggs and beets. Then, it was the lard (see below). And there's the occasional fermenting dough. Now, I'm on to olives.

I've wanted to try my hand at curing olives for quite some time now, and about a year or so ago I looked into it and discovered that it either required lye and a long time, or just a long time. I don't think I have a long time for anything, since my attention span is relatively short. Olives, so the recipes say, require months. I ain't got months, especially when the olive bar at Mollie Stones is only $5.99/lb.

Anyway, I saw some fresh olives at the farmer's market a few months ago and decided to give it a try. As you can see in the photo (taken one week into the experiment), I decided to try two different methods: the brine method and the water method. Both methods require you to individually "crack" each olive as the first step. Sarah laughed a lot while I was doing that...

I started these bottles on October 18, 2008. Remember that date...

For the brine method (Jar A, on the left), you soak the raw olives in a salt water mixture that has to be changed every week for two weeks, and then every month for "two or more months" (more on that last bit later...). You can see that the olives are very bright and green.

For the water method (Jar B, on the right), you soak the olives in plain tap water (maybe I should have used filtered, non-chlorinated, non-fluoride water?). The kicker here is that the water must be changed EVERY DAY for a month or more, "or bacteria may build up!" That's nice. I'm sure that just guaranteed that Sarah will be eating none of the B olives. And, of course, I've forgotten several days already so if they suck, that (and the fluoride thing) is my excuse.

Jar B olives quickly turned a splotchy brown, and now a few weeks after the photo above they are all solidly brownish while Jar A olives are still a vibrant green. I'm thinking of brining myself to see if I stay vibrant as well.

I've read/heard that raw olives are extremely bitter. I should have tried one to taste for myself, but I forgot. However, I'm now thinking that that may have been a critical error because now I won't be able to determine how much "better" they get over time. Ahhh, time. I remember some good quotes about time: "Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day," from Pink Floyd. "That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. Like I said, in prison a man will do anything to keep his mind occupied," from Shawshank Redemption. I guess those two sum up my food experiments - most food is dull and I'm in a metaphorical prison of blandness.

Anyway, I was talking about time. It takes about 13 minutes - round trip - to go to the grocery store, load up on really good olives, and get back home. Maybe 18 minutes if there is traffic. And what does that cost? Maybe $6 for the olives and a buck for gas. But let's not focus on the cost, because anything worth tasting is worth paying for, or something like that. Let's focus on time.

As I mentioned, this all began on October 18, 2008. Jar A requires 2-1/2 to 3 months, minimum. Jar B requires at least one month plus...who knows how long because the recipe is open ended, and not in a good way. As I mentioned my lack of tasting the raw olives as a critical error, that comes into play here. Why? Because here is how you know when the olives are "done:"

Jar A: "You can now eat these olives if you like fairly-bitter olives."
Jar B: "Just keep waiting until the olives don't taste bitter any longer."

Sometimes, even I laugh at my misguided attempts to mimic some food item that is so readily available, so inexpensive, and already so good as-is. However, I guess I do get a little satisfaction out of saying, "I made this." Or, "I made this...and it sucks and I wasted hours and hours and burned my hand and cut my finger and am now so disappointed that my whole dinner/evening is ruined." Yeah, I'm a pleasure to be around.

Anyway, as you have probably already done the math in your head, October 18 + 2-1/2 months is roughly New Year's Day...2009. Add on a few more weeks for bitterness abatement, and we're getting mighty close to not having any snacks at the Super Bowl Party!

Stay tuned...I'll keep you posted.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: the lard. Lard is good food. I recently read an article on lard and how it's not really that bad for you and how it gets a bad rap, so I decided to give it a go. Plus, when Sarah treated me to a pie and tart baking class a few years ago, everyone said how lard makes such a better pie crust.

So, since it was pumpkin season, I decided to make a pumpkin pie with real pumpkin and a lard-filled crust. Doesn't it look yummy?

If I do say so myself, the crust ROCKED! It had a flavor that held it's own and was extremely flaky - as a good pie crust should be.

As for the pie, well, let's just say that the pumpkin sat in our kitchen for about three weeks before the pie was made, and that I forgot to put sugar into the pie, so it was a bit "rustic," or "savory" as Sarah put it. I guess that's why I ate one piece, the pie eventually got moldy, and I threw the whole thing away.

And as I was throwing the moldy, stinky, four-hours-to-prepare pie in the garbage can, all I muttered was, "I made this...and it sucks and I wasted hours and hours and burned my hand and cut my finger and am now so disappointed that my whole dinner/evening is ruined."

I love to cook!

While Sarah was having mimosas with the girls...

2008-10-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

I had to make myself scarce the other weekend while Sarah did something as if her and her friend's names were Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda. So, I grabbed my kayak, my fly rod, and my manly 4x4 and headed into the Sierras to camp, fish, and see if I could find a situation where I was actually forced by loss-of-traction to put our Pathfinder into 4x4 mode (as opposed to "just locking it in because we paid for it and I know that this dirt patch on the side of the road doesn't really require four-wheel drive, but I want to try it out so bad that I need any excuse to crank that knob and feel like a man").

I wound my way up to Lindsey Lake (see map below), found a nice camping spot right on the shoreline, and whipped out the fly rod. Two native trout later, and I hit the sack for a restful night of peace and quiet.

View Larger Map

The next morning, I was out on the lake for a crack-of-dawn kayak, and another fish or two on the fly rod. Then, off to check out the back roads and forest trails of Tahoe National Forest. And that's where the beautiful day turned a bit dreary...

As I drove along the dirt roads, I heard a hiss and lo and behold, got a flat tire.

Bummer.

Oh well, what's a better way to feel manly? That's right: working on the ol' automobile! Getting some grease under my fingernails!

Or, in this case, getting dust and dirt under my fingernails, because there hadn't been any rain in something like 200 days.

Anyway, I dropped the spare, jacked the truck, and in less than 45 minutes, I was back on the road with only a mismatched rim to show for it.

Here are a few more photos, including some of Malakoff Diggins State Park, where the gold rush dudes used huge water hoses to blast away the mountains looking for gold. I don't think the EPA would approve of that these days.

Finally - a weekend away from metrosexual SF and up into the mountains to reclaim some of my Western PA man cred.

Mission accomplished!

Whales in Pacifica!

2008-08-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Very rarely have I found exercise as rewarding as I did tonight. No, I haven't lost inches or pounds. Instead, I was completely entertained and distracted during my workout (yippeee!). As I was stretching at the foot of the Pacifica pier, I was staring out at the ocean noticing the volume of water at high tide, the choppy waves and the seemingly-oversized sun. Then, I saw a large puff of water really close to shore. I thought I was seeing things and just chalked it up to seaspray and my poor vision. But then it happened again and suddenly I got a peek of the back of a whale.

I ended up running along the beach and climbing up Mori Point for a better view as the whales traveled south. As I walked back North to the pier, the whales must've made a U-turn because all of a sudden there they were again, this time treating their audience to fins raised up in the air, breaches, and tail slaps. My 30 minute run turned into a 1.5 hour whale-watching excursion. The entire time I kept thinking to myself (and even said to several people I ended up talking to along the pier): Jason is NEVER going to believe me. In three years living in Pacifica we've seen dolphin once or twice and that's about it. We have the worst luck! And the one night I go running without him, this happens. His reaction to my story? "I don't believe you! You are totally making this up!"

Amidst all my excitement I couldn't help but think about the stories I've been reading lately about all the plastic floating around in our Oceans and how it ends up in the stomachs of sea life (and eventually back into our food supply). I found reading this paper very helpful in understanding what is going on and why it's such an issue. Hope you find it interesting, too.

Now, back to my Flickr search for whales at the Pacifica pier since of course I didn't have a camera with me for my Monday night run!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2008-08-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

When people talk about new things happening in their life, lots of familiar sayings tend to pop into your head (i.e., "change is good," "maybe a change of scenery will do the trick," "people are afraid of change," etc.) In my world, change is a pretty common thing - in fact, anything routine is more of an oddity. My world is in constant motion. It's just the way I live - I've become accustomed to it, and I kind of like it that way!

So over the last eight years while I was working with/for HP, I had so many jobs within that company that I can barely remember them all. It's a big place filled with really fantastic people and between the constant opportunities to change my "beat" and the relationships I had built with so many of my co-workers, there was no real reason to leave. Until about a month ago. It's like a lot of stories you hear ... "I wasn't looking, they found me!" ... and long story short, I accepted a position on the communications team at Omidyar Network. You can read all about the organization on the web, but the short story is that this place is doing some really good things in the world, and I get to be a part of it. It was an opportunity that just felt so right I couldn't ignore it. So there you go - a big change for me personally and professionally and so far, so good.

Part of the benefit of getting this new job is that our guest room no longer has to serve as my office! Instead of working in my PJ's all day, I'm now commuting down to Redwood City (a big shock to the budget given the state of gas prices these days!). So while Jason will tell you that he's sick of me "re-doing" everything in that room, the truth is that it was never "done" in the first place. It was the leftover room - all the boxes from our last move that we didn't know what to do with (or ever bothered to unpack after three years) had been shoved in the closet and the place had just become a dumping ground.

So with a little paint, Jason's handy electrical skills, a lot of late-night online shopping, and a talented seamtress that I found on craigslist, we now have a new and improved guest room. My inspiration started with a black and white Ansel Adams print of a New Mexico graveyard at night (the first gift Jason ever gave me) ... and extended all the way through some art deco influences and finally ended with the shell prints that I made using oyster shells from Bora Bora.

I'm now starting to "re-do" the master bedroom but here again... it was never really done in the first place. More on that in a few months when we get all of that figured out. Part of our problem is that we're both incredibly picky (stop laughing Mom, I can hear you despite the 3,000 miles between us). More often than I'd like (and in order to get what we really, very specifically want) I usually just end up figuring it out on my own. Anyone ever made their own headboard? If so, drop me a line!

The other big improvement in our house is our new fireplace... through my near-obsession with Domino magazine, I found a great place in Sausalito that makes their own incredibly gorgeous tile. Luckily, they have a "secret backroom" where this (did I mention completely out of our price range) same tile sells at a huge discount. After two visits and sifting through more dirty boxes than a person with allergies should be legally allowed to handle, we emerged victorious. We put together a pattern and Jason tiled the whole thing by himself. Now, I know it sounds like "voila! we have a new fireplace" but trust me it didn't go that quickly! It did turn out really, really well and considering Jason's never done any tiling before, I'm pretty amazed with the results.

Other than that, we're waiting on some wall art from Blik for our downstairs bathroom, which has experienced a few small changes too. Honestly, no room is safe in this house! After three years, you just need to shake things up a bit... which Jason just calls "changing her mind a lot."

Anyway, I hope that next time you visit our house you agree that change is good! :-)

Kewl tech, or just a highlight of my poor stock picking?

2008-07-31T12:36:00.000-07:00

I'm always on the lookout for some cool new technology, usefulness be damned! So, when I read about wikinvest, I just had to try it out. Wikinvest is a wiki for investing (clever name...), and they also offer embeddable, interactive stock charts. But, which stock should I choose?

Well, I could choose something interesting and topical, like Starbucks or Google or Apple, or I could choose one of my recent stock picks. Well, given my stock-picking prowess these past few months, this isn't a shining example of my intelligence. But, remember, this is for testing the wikinvest chart! This is not to spark commentary from anyone, especially Sarah, on my investment choices.

Every stock has a bad day or two...or three...or 207....

Go ahead and play around with the chart. Oh, and do you see that little spike around the beginning of June? Yeah, of course that's when I bought in...at $54...

Move your mouse along the line and see the daily prices. Change the time scale. Or, click on the little letters, which correspond to news. And, since it's a cool wiki, you can even add your own news. Click on the "B" at the beginning of June and see what it says!

Please, keep your comments to yourself! ;-)

Art?

2008-07-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

Sarah and I were in New York City in June for our First Anniversary trip. (I'm calling it our "First Anniversary trip" because we hope to take a trip every anniversary! I tried to tie it to the accepted anniversary year gift, with first being paper and us taking a trip to a local paper mill, but that received a less-than-enthusiastic response from the trip committee...)

Anyway, it was like a million degrees outside that weekend, so we decided to seek out some air conditioning. We headed to The Met so that we could check out the new exhibit on superheroes, but then also took a lap around the rest of the joint. (Oh, and by "lap," I really mean that we trudged around in confusing circles, map in hand, with absolutely no idea of how the sucky map correlated to the actual building in which we were walking. If we would have been told afterward that the map we were given was actually a map for the corn maze at Half Moon Bay, I would have believed it!)

While in one of many confusing corridors, we stumbled upon one of the best examples of post-modern art that we've seen in quite a while. Or, post-modern lunch, I should say. This guy, Jasper Johns, obviously had nothing better to do in the year of my birth than create a realistic rendering of a slice of white bread from sheet-lead relief and embossed rag paper (whatever that is). Now, I'm sure that this piece voices some commentary on the artist's upbringing during the depression, when food was scarce, juxtaposed against the late-sixties modernization of the nuclear family's standardized diet, mixed in with a statement on the homogenization of American culture and the blandness of simple white bread.

But I digress. What I see is a perfectly rendered slice of white bread. If only the exhibit next to it was focused on peanut butter and jelly... Now there's art!

Oh, and just as a disclaimer, I "purchased" these photos from the gift shop. I did not ignore the constant "no pictures please" chants from the security guards and sneak this photo on my phone while pretending to be making a call. No I did not.

Blogging for blogging's sake...

2008-07-02T12:22:00.001-07:00

Yeesh, we haven't had a blog posting in quite a while. That's so lame.

Maybe I should write something.

Something

Maybe I should post a new photo?

How about integrate the latest YouTube video that I like?

Stay thirsty my friends!

A short trip to... Belize!

2008-05-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

Sarah's friends Amy and Alan, who are now my friends, since CA law states that 50% of everything Sarah has is mine, or does that mean just one of them is my friend...? Which one would I choose? Wait a minute... What was I talking about? Oh yeah, BELIZE!

Amy and Alan own a beach bungalow in Belize, which is called the Barefoot Beach Bungalow. So, it's the Belizian Barefoot Beach Bungalow, on the beach, in Belize, below the trees, in the breeze... Ugh. Too many b's. Yeesh, I've had too much diet Sunkist today.

Sarah thinks that I have ADHD. What do you think? Should I wear black socks today or gray? I wonder how many nails are in that fence out there.

OK - what was I talking about? Oh yeah, BELIZE!

A few weeks ago, when we hung with Amy and Alan in Paso Robles, Alan mentioned that he was heading to Belize to do some maintenance on their beach house. Sarah's been there once, and she always talks about how nice it is. Amy and Alan talk about it a lot, too. But, poor little old me ain't never been there. Nope. Never an invitation. Never even a postcard. Hmph! So, what did I do? I invited myself along with Alan!

Oh what fun! Two manly-men tearing termite-infested wood off of his bungalow in 100-degree heat and the accompanying tropical humidity, dodging tarantulas and herds of iguanas, and hauling in barracuda for lunch! Nothing like an adventure vacation!

Alan tells me that the food there is fantastic. And, on our first night, I have to admit that the dinner of conch, lobster, snapper and stew was absolutely fantastic! But, on day two, I came down with the flu and had barely more than one fig newton over the remaining 3+ days of the trip. It's like the time we went to Mexico and I got sick. Or the time we went to Paris and I got sick. Or the time... I get sick a lot.

In any case, I didn't let it ruin my trip. I just sat in the chair, stared out at the Caribbean Sea, and couldn't imagine being in a more beautiful place while having stomach cramps.

Check out the slideshow below, or see the photos here.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Hanging Out

2008-05-12T23:34:00.001-07:00

OPEN!
Originally uploaded by Sarah&Jason

It's been a while since we posted anything so just a word to anyone who might check our blog once in a while - we're still here! It's just been a crazy and hectic couple of months for us .... work, travel, play - you name it, we've been doing it.

Oh, and now that the writers are all back at their desks (thank you!), of course we've been catching up on all of our shows in our spare time, too. Lost, Battlestar, The Office, etc. So much good TV and so little time to watch it!

I'll post some pictures soon - we have a lot to report from a variety of trips so I promise to get some photos up soon! The picture in this post is of course A&A's little wild child... determined to get back into the car on a recent trip to Morro Bay.

I Love La La Land

2008-04-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

In the old days, like two years ago, I wasn't a big fan of Los Angeles. To me, it was all sprawl, fake, and smoggy. The times I spent there on business reinforced that view.

But then, Sarah and I spent the first night of our honeymoon last June in West Hollywood, and my opinion changed. It wasn't that bad, I thought. In fact, I kind of liked it! (Maybe staying at the swank Sunset Marquis had something to do with that...)

Ever since then, we've talked about going back, but it wasn't really a top priority. Then, a few months ago, Sarah added the first few seasons of Entourage to our Netflix queue - and now I'm hooked on Los Angeles! If you've never watched Entourage, it's an HBO series about a young movie star who lives with his three sidekicks/freeloaders. It's way funny (although the first season starts off a bit slow).

Anyway, I'm off track here...

Watching Entourage, I've been like a six-year-old girl watching Hannah Montana, wondering what Vince and the guys are wearing, where they're eating (check out the "location credits" to see where we had breakfast one morning), where they're walking, where they're shopping... NO, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT EITHER! I even just bought a belt because it was like the one that one of the dudes wore on the show! It's starting to get disturbing. (I need to get back to Pennsylvania for a personality reset.)

Yeesh. Where was I? Oh yeah, Los Angeles...

So, with all of the LA hype going on in our house the past few months, Sarah had the wonderful idea of setting up a surprise long-weekend trip to stay at a nice hotel, eat killer food, do some celebrity-hunting, and see the FOO FIGHTERS in concert! Wow, I love her! I've been wanting to see the Foos since way, way back. I was giddy like, um, well, like a six-year-old girl getting tickets to a Hannah Montana concert. And, to make me love her even more, Sarah booked our flights on Virgin America for something like $40 each way! And, she even told me how she booked the earlier flight home just to save like $12! If that's not something to love, then I don't know what love is!

Our trip started Thursday morning, with the concert being later that night. We hit the hotel, changed into our LA Clubbing/Concert attire, and hit the town. First stop - Citrus at Social for some awesome cocktails (and Sarah's pic of their bathroom). Second stop - FOO FIGHTERS! Check out our photos here, or a Foo video to get some sense of their energy:

Surprises Don’t Have to Be Bad

2008-01-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ask most people and I think they would tell you that I have a mostly-positive outlook on life. Despite that sense of optimism, I’m beginning to realize that my work life has trained me to have a really negative view of surprises – whether at work or at home. I’m sure my need to plan, organize and control most things in my life also has a hand in this as well, but that’s definitely another post!

Over the years, when I have been handed a “surprise” it typically means I drop everything else I’m doing in my life and focus on a really nasty issue at work for several days and nights until the storm has ended. These things of course happen at really bad times – over a major holiday, immediately prior to leaving for a friend’s wedding or family vacation, etc.

In the “home” category, here’s a recent example of a little surprise. Jason and I went snorkeling in Hawaii and saw 5-6 sea turtles in a small bay on the Big Island. It was sea turtle nirvana for me. What I was quite surprised to learn the next morning was the very same little bay was closed right after we left because a 10-foot tiger shark had been spotted prowling around. I think that definitely would have been classified as a (bad) surprise had we met face:face with that shark!

So this past weekend, imagine my shock when I walked into a room of people who all yelled “Sur-prise!” at me around 9pm on a random Saturday night in SF. I have to say it took me several moments to figure out what the heck was going on: Jason had organized a belated birthday party for me. Two days later I’m still a little bit in shock at the whole thing but now I’m trying to figure out what surprised me more – the party itself or the fact that I enjoyed the element of surprise so much!

I guess this experience is changing my view of the world of surprises because now I’m thinking of all of the other unexpected things that have happened recently that are really great. Like the fact that my friend Amy flew up for 24 hours just to make the party. Or that I learned my friend Joanna’s S.O. use to be a DJ and loves to go dancing (who would have ever guessed that James was such a dancing queen?!). Or that my Dad is becoming a spontaneous traveler (much to the delight of my mother).

So I guess surprises can be a really good thing – it’s all in how you look at it. I hope I have many more in 2008. Happy New Year!

El Camino Sushi

2007-12-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

I love sushi, but I don't eat it all that often for two reasons: the first is that the sushi joints I like are either too far away or too expensive for daily use, and the second is... well, if I put the second reason in print, I'll get smacked when I get home.

Since we moved to Pacifica, we've been on a quest to find local places to dine. Nona's, at Lindamar Beach, is a favorite, as is Toto's Pizza. And we've started to find some others in the Sunset District, like The Pizza Place on Noriega (no really, that's the name). After two-plus years, we're only now finding a good selection of places that we'd try for a second time. Lately, we've been heading to West Portal, but that's a subject for another post... On to sushi!

When we look for places to eat, we usually drive up and down El Camino Real, and usually between Westborough Blvd. (the main feeder to our house) and Millbrae Ave. (near Yumy Yogurt...). That stretch of El Camino is littered with taquerias and Chinese restaurants, and surprisingly, sushi joints. I always laugh to myself, or make a comment to Sarah, that it's so funny to see sushi joints - where one likes to see operating-room cleanliness - sandwiched between so many random, not-so-clean strip malls, vacuum repair shops, and wig stores. And on a street named "El Camino Real." (Just FYI, that's Spanish for "The Royal Road" or "The King's Highway.")

So, I finally decided to give them all their fair shake! You know - don't judge a book by it's cover and all that crap. I need sushi. I crave sushi. And some of the greatest sushi joints that I've tried in the past haven't looked all that special from the outside. Maybe I'll find a diamond in the rough? Maybe I'll find that little place that no one knows about, that's run by some 90-year-old master sushi chef who gets line-caught fish right off of the boat every morning at 4 AM! Or maybe I'll just get a bacterial infection that cleans me out like an industrial bottle of Draino.

First thing's first - map out the plan. On the map below, you'll see nine push pins within the sushi corridor, as we're going to refer to the shaded area. The seven pins in green are the legitimate joints with El Camino addresses, while the two outliers in blue are close to the route, so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Click Here to View Larger Map

Here's the list, from north to south:

Mijouri Sushi Bune Restaurant
Sunny Sushi
Sushi House
Ichiban Sushi
Kobe Sake Japanese Sushi Restaurant
Okane Sushi
Wast Wast Sushi House
Sushi Kei
Osho Japanese Cuisine

Being someone who thinks in Excel, this has to be a quantitative exercise. I mean, I just can't eat at each of these and then expect to remember if it was good or not. I need a score, a measurement. So, here's the plan:

Each joint will be sampled for dinner, not lunch. I want to be able to relax over the fish, not just scarf it down.
For the most part, I'll get the orders "to go." But, I will order them in the place and wait for my order while I absorb the scene.
I'll order a selection of "standard" items at each place, and then add on an additional roll and a few additional nigiri items that are specialties, either listed on their daily board, by menu highlights, or by asking the server for "what's good today."
The standard items will be (pretty normal stuff, but I'm sure some places will be out of a few, which is why I list so many):

Hamachi (Yellowtail)
Hirame (Flounder)
Maguro (Tuna)
Saba (Mackerel)
Sake (Salmon)
Uni (Sea Urchin)
California roll
Spicy tuna hand roll

For the "special" items, I'll go for one of their signature rolls, and one or two selections of Nigiri that they recommend. I'll try to stay away from Toro, since I'd like to stay on a budget, and from any shellfish, veggie rolls, crazy-ass $20 rolls, or salads. This is pure sushi!
For the full taste of the establishment, I'll use their included chopsticks and soy sauce. Plus, that'll save me like 18 cents per joint from not using my own soy or imparting wear and tear on my personal chopsticks.

Judging the food will be equally rigid:

30 points - Fish Freshness, Texture, and Taste - It better be fresh, firm, and tasty.
30 points - Rice Texture, Stickiness, and Taste - I have to admit that I like my rice sticky, but I also like it to have some flavor, and I like it to be a bit warm.
10 points - Nori Taste and Texture - Since rolls are in the mix, they'd better be good.
10 points - Creativity - Their specialties better be special.
20 points - Vibe - This covers cleanliness (the Sarah test), crowds (are other people eating there), waitstaff (were they nice), etc. Basically, would I go back with someone else.
I'll also post the total price, and the price for the standard items (if I remember to write them down... I should buy an iPhone for this project!)

Hopefully, I can get started this week. But, with nine joints and the pace at which I eat sushi, this may take a while. Stay tuned...

Let the soy sauce flow!

Multimedia message

2007-11-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

Today's view from my home office! I love California!

Birthdays are great – especially mine!

2007-11-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

Ah… Another year wiser, another year closer to death. Well, at least now my golden years will be in FULL HD! But let’s start at the beginning…

Birthdays are always great, and when Sarah is involved, they tend to be even greater. While it would be hard for her to top last year’s present to me of a surprise trip to NYC for great food, drinks, shopping, and shows, she really outdid herself this year!

It all began on Sunday, when I proved that I’m not so old by running the San Fran US Half Marathon! That’s 13.1 miles of beautiful scenery from Fishermans Wharf, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and back. Our buddy Ted (of “Jen and Ted” fame) and I share the same birthday, and the duo were coincidently in Frisco for the marathon/birthday weekend. I’d like to say that I ran the marathon “with” Ted, but since he finished about 50 minutes ahead of me, that would be a lie.

After burning about 2,500 calories, and having two birthdays to celebrate, Jen, Ted, Sarah, and I all headed to a phenomenal dinner at Restaurant Gary Danko! Five of the best Michelin-star-awarded courses that you will ever consume! I started with the foie gras and it got better with every course and every bite! The scallops with butternut squash puree were amazing, the beef tenderloin was perfect, the cheese course was over the top, and the passion fruit panna cotta was sublime! And that was just my dinner!

But let’s get back to the gifts…

It all started last Spring, when the real Steve Jobs announced the iPhone. Being a gadget geek, I haven’t been able to get enough info on the device over the past eight or nine months. But, the key item that kept me from actually purchasing one on my own was the inbred frugality coded into the DNA of all Western Pennsylvanians. It wasn’t so much the $599 original price (softened to $399, but still steep) as it was the “first year” cost. After AT&T released their iPhone rate plans, some other geeks did the math and found that the cost of the iPhone plus the required plan was over $1,900 in the first year! And, you were locked into a TWO year contract! As my grandmother would have said, “That’s dear!”

Even with the cost, I talked about the iPhone a lot, and Sarah correctly identified that as a great birthday present for me. But, as is usually my ADHD case, about a month before my birthday, I went on an exhaustive search for a cheaper alternative, narrowing my choices down to several phones and screwing up Sarah’s plans in the process.

So, what’s a resourceful, thoughtful, generous gift-giver like Sarah to do? Go for my #2 obsession these days - HDTV! That’s right, high definition television. FULL high definition television! 1080p baby! The holy grail of all things entertainment, or so I’ve been told by every guy I know.

I’ve struggled this season to watch yet another round of Steelers football on standard television, and I have to tell you that I die a little more each week. Not seeing the individual blades of grass or the beads of sweat really diminishes the entire sport. How have we survived as a species on such a low technology form of entertainment delivery? Even Darwin would be perplexed.

But, as is usually the case with Sarah, she does everything better than expected! I’ve had my eyes set on a 46” LCD, and Sarah did me one (inch) better and surprised me with a 47” LCD! If Sarah’s thoughtfulness could be measured in distance, it would be defined by that extra inch! That’s an extra 4.4% of viewable area, and an extra 4.4% that I love Sarah today!

But that’s not all! Sarah upped the birthday ante by including a spanking new PS3 with Blu-Ray DVD plus Spiderman 3 on Blu-Ray, and a few other movies! Wow!

And, to top it off, Sarah made my favorite meal – homemade pizza! One with REAL pepperoni (as I was beginning to think that turkey pepperoni was the only thing available in these parts), and one with thinly sliced potatoes, rosemary, and lemon puree (Try it! It’s fantastic!).
For the finish, Sarah made a very cool, and very beautiful, giant cupcake cake (since cupcakes are another one of our recent obsessions)!

All in all, it was another fantastic birthday, but only because Sarah made it so! It wouldn’t have been so perfect without Sarah planning and stressing the entire day, and I loved every minute of it! And I love my new HDTV as much as I love Sarah. In fact, it’ll probably being a tear to my eye now every time I “shhhh!” her when I’m watching television!

Aww, that makes my heart hurt…

Rubies Don't Seem Quite Right

2007-09-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today my parents are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. It's really quite an accomplishment given all the divorce you read and hear about. I'm not sure exactly what's gotten them through all those years together, but generally speaking my Mom talks a lot and my Dad pretends to listen a lot! Whatever it is, kudos to them for being a great example to my sister, brother and I, of what it really means to be together "for better or for worse."

Their anniversary reminded me of a project that Jason and I started on our honeymoon. Since Jason was bored by Day Two of our trip, he got us brainstorming on how we'd like to celebrate our future anniversaries... which got us laughing about the traditional lists of what gifts go with what anniversaries (ie, first year anniversary = paper.... puh-lease!). We decided those lists need some serious updating in order to fit how people really live (and celebrate) today. For example, my parents 40th would traditionally call for rubies, but I'm quite sure my Mom is more eager for that trip to Greece she's currently planning. We never finished our "welcome to the real, modern world" list (I think the 11 am happy hours were to blame), but had we made it to 40 year anniversary I imagine it would have been something like: Full week at couples health/fitness spa.

Just for kicks, here are the others we came up with... what would be on your list?

1st year=dinner out to five star restaurant in city of your choice

2nd year=pricey tech item for home/home theatre

3rd year=sports/outdoors/hobby equipment

4th year=learn something new together (i.e., cooking classes or dancing lessons)

subsequent years=long weekend trips; every 5 years=major trip (ie, Galapagos); and so on... yes, we have lofty goals but hey, my philosophy is that these things are often like self-fulfilling prophecies so why not shoot big?

Calm Waters

2007-09-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

This might seem like an odd title for a posting about a whitewater rafting trip, but I have to tell you that after two days on the water, I feel so much more serene than I did before we left! In a last-minute attempt to take advantage of the long weekend, Jason pulled together a trip to the American River - and like so many things we do, this unexpected adventure turned out to be one of the best.

Jason & I picked up Marissa at the extremely unnatural hour of 6am on Sunday morning - despite her love of the snooze button, Marissa was ready to go and even stayed awake in the car the entire trip. For those of you who know Marissa well, feel free to congratulate her on this accomplishment the next time you see her. Meighan & Hobbs and Joanna & James met us at the outfitter's very toasty parking lot where we quickly assessed our combined inventory of sunscreen, alcohol, and baby wipes (Meighan can provide details on this upon request!). As we made our way down to the river on a rickety old bus on a bumpy and twisty road, James & I had to fight to keep our respective breakfasts from finding its way back up...

The girls decided to take a boat for ourselves, leaving the guys on their own to be manly or whatever it is they do when girls aren't around. After successfully getting through the tunnel chute rapid (the rapid with the biggest "consequence") we joined the other boats to find that Jason was significantly more soggy than his friends. He calmly let us know that he had "fallen out of the boat." What we later learned via James - an exciting and dramatic storyteller - was that Jason was pitched from the boat about halfway down the tunnel chute (around the exact point where the guides had said "whatever you do, don't fall out there!"). After getting tossed around in the rapid and spending a little too much time to be comfortable underwater, Jason eventually popped up downriver where Hobbs hauled him back into the boy boat. The rest of the day was filled with jumping off rocks, hiking to waterfalls and hidden caves, and of course more rafting. That evening we hung out along the shoreline skipping rocks, talking about Owen Wilson (what, you wanted us to discuss something deep and meaningful?), and the magical power of a cold beer after a long day on the water.

Day two was as much fun as day one (minus a near-death experience) and gave us all a chance to really admire the beautiful scenery... somewhere along the way one of the boys said something to the effect of "wouldn't it be great if you could get just five minutes of this every morning" and I couldn't agree more. It's all about perspective and spending a weekend rafting and camping with my friends was just what I needed to get back on track.

Mmmm - Grilled Salmon with Pineapple-Citrus Salsa

2007-08-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

As we promised, we're going to write a bit more about food. (We figured that if we wrote more about alcohol, cocktails, and wine, someone would have an intervention...)

Oh, by the way, today was bottling day for our CrushPad pinot - Three Graces! If you recall, it's a Russian River Valley pinot noir from the Amber Ridge vineyard, the same source of grapes for such notable wines as Kosta Browne and Siduri, and is immediately adjacent to the famed Gary Farrell Starr Ridge vineyard. Amber Ridge vineyard was also recently sold to Nickel & Nickel winery for $130,000 per acre! So, apparently it's pretty good stuff. Here's a pic of bottle #1 coming off of the bottling line. Yeah, it's a terrible photo from my Razr, so send your complaints to Motorola, not us.

We have 4.75 cases, plus two magnums. That's equivalent to 59 bottles, so if you invite us over for dinner in the next 18 months, you know what we're bringing!

OK back to food, because we're not obsessed with wine, we're obsessed with food...

A week or so ago, we had a hunkerin' for some salmon. So, we scoured the 'fridge, pulled out some ingredients, and came up with our newly-famous Grilled Salmon with Pineapple-Citrus Salsa! Mmmm, it was yummy! For the accompaniment, we also scoured the 'fridge and came up with something different. Both recipes are below. Next time, we'll take fancy pictures and liven this blog up a bit!

Grilled Salmon with Pineapple-Citrus Salsa

Ingredients (or, "what we found in our 'fridge that wasn't rotten")

1 cup diced pineapple - Sarah had purchased some pineapple for a previous "grilled veggie extravaganza," and these were the leftovers. We're estimating one cup, but it would be more accurately described as "whatever was left in the container."
1 orange, diced - Jason found an orange, about three weeks old, that was previously leveraged for an orange twist for his old-school Manhattan (therefore, about three turns of rind were absent).
Juice of 2/3rds of a lime - Sarah was having a gin-n-tonic to soothe away the turmoil of another day schlepping ink, so we used whatever hadn't been cut into cocktail garnish.
3 tbsp fresh mint - As if. Mint would have been perfect in the salsa, but none was to be found in the crisper drawer. But we did find cilantro. So, feel free to substitute cilantro for mint in this recipe.
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger - Ha. Again, we looked and looked, but 'twas not to be. So, as we did, feel free to substitute powdered ginger. But don't be happy about it!
2 tbsp olive oil - Yum-o! In our kitchen, olive oil is a requirement in almost everything.
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar - Just because.
Salt & Pepper
2 servings of salmon - Obviously. And obviously splashed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Preparation

Mix everything together (other than the salmon...) and let fester (or, "let the flavors meld at room temperature for an hour or so").
Grill salmon. If you need more direction than that, you'd be better off going to Applebees...
Put half of the salsa on each plate, top with the grilled salmon, add the side dish.
Consume!

For the side dish, we've been big on roasted veggies of late. What we found in our 'fridge (maybe that should be a theme?) was one yellow zucchini, 1/2 head of cauliflower, and 1/2 of an onion. We sliced it all up, mixed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted it at 425F for about 20 minutes. It's amazing what a little roasting will do to three white (i.e. "devoid of flavor") veggies!

Well, there you go. Easy to follow?

Let us know how your version turns out!

Next in Line...

2007-08-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks after Jason and I returned from our honeymoon, we were off to Bend, Oregon for my friend Annika's wedding. Bend is an adorable town about 3 hours from Portland. We even picked up real estate flyers while we were there - it was quaint but not too small and had a very independent vibe; and, there's rafting and fly fishing in the summer and skiing in the winter.

Annika and I have spent a lot of time being single in SF so it's kind of cool that we ended up getting married within a month of each other. It also meant we had someone to compare notes with along the wedding-planning journey so that others didn't have to listen to our "woes."

Annika & Brian's wedding was amazingly beautiful with the mountain backdrop -the reception was held in a canyon with Smith Rock as the focal point. Everyone's gaze shifted however, as the sun went down - leaving clear dark blue skies for the full moon to make its entrance - it was a scene out of a Hollywood movie and all over the grounds you could see people stopping and just staring as the moon rose over the rocks.

One of the things I liked most about Annika's wedding was that it was very engaging... in the sense that there were lots of things to do that got people moving around and interacting with each other. There were activities for the kids, horses in an old-fashioned corrall needing to be fed apple slices, etc. The most fun was the self-portrait area - everyone, from young to old to shy to outgoing - participated in this activity. Annika had a photographer build a self-portrait station, and then people used the pics to add to their guest book message. People got really creative and as the night wore on, the photos got funnier and funnier (imagine sevral tipsy girls in fancy dresses trying to spell out "Gonzaga" to honor Annika's alma mater!). Here's a set of shots that we did with Julie and Rob (Annika's sis and bro-in-law). We saved this one for ourselves b/c it's a great memory of a fantastic weekend - the photographer running the station printed copies for everyone as they exited. It was like being at really-well-run, high-class theme park!

FOOD (and drink)!

2007-08-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

We LOVE food!

Not in a creepy way, but in a foodie, San Francisco, obsessive, epicurian kind of way. And, it's gotten stronger in the past few months. Yeah, the caterer tastings and the cake tastings leading up to our wedding definitely kicked us up a few notches. And, the His & Her cocktail trials definitely got us going on the cocktail front. But, this isn't a new thing.

Sarah has been on a gin-tasting quest since... well, pretty much since she graduated from wine coolers and into gin at age 16. (OK, age 21. But it was funnier with "16.") In fact, at a recent wedding in Bend, OR, Sarah tried Cascade Mountain gin and Desert Juniper - both distilled in Oregon! (But her fav is still Bardenay, from Boise, ID.)

And Jay, well, among other things, he's on a quest to make a good pugliese loaf (still going...), and make a good pizza dough (like A16!), and a killer cupcake (like Sprinkles!), and the ultimate steak (he thinks he found it in last month's Saveur, but his brother disagrees).

Anyway, we've been reading a lot of food blogs lately to help stoke our gourmet fire, including Coconut & Lime (which has what looks like a fantastic recent lamb recipe), and Vanilla Garlic (which has a semi-focus on original - and we mean original - cupcakes, like maple bacon and rosemary lemon). In addition, our friend Frank, who's an amazing cook, continues to pass along recipies and tips to keep us going, including his recent pizza dough recipe, which he referred to as "the BOMB!"

With all that reading, and with all of our experimentation, we were thinking, "Hey, why don't we start blogging on our food exploits?" It's not like we're not trained in the kitchen arts...Jason took a four-hour pie and tart baking class, for goodness sake! So, we've got kitchen cred!

So, stay tuned for some food-centric blogs to supplement our usual drivel (or, maybe a second, food-specific blog?). We're making roasted salmon with carmelized onions and figs right now, Jay is drinking a cucumber gimlet (you see who wears the apron in this family!), and Sarah just came home with "artisan chocolate cake" from Safeway for $2.99 (although, she get's HP props for working until 1 AM last night and prepping for a 10 PM conference call tonight (damn those Austrailian scientists!))!

Shades of Blue

2007-07-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the color blue. I like it in all shades (just take a look at the walls in our house) - I don't discriminate. In fact, my wedding dress was even blue. What really blew (no pun intended, honestly!) me away though, was the variety of "blues" found in the waters around Bora Bora. I never knew blue came in so many lovely options - I may have to repaint the walls, yet again!

During the honeymoon, Jason and I took some time to REALLY relax... not your garden-variety lounging, we did some serious my-butt-is-sore-from-not-moving-in-six-hours resting. And when not reading a book or examining the insides of my eyelids, I stared at the water and constantly wondered how it got so blue (deep thoughts by Sarah). When I (rarely) chose to come back to reality, it was usually due to some enormous fish (in shades of blue, purple and green) that caught my eye, or even an octopus or sting ray, depending on the day!

If anyone reading this thinks they need a vacation, I'm here to back you up... go make your reservations and find your own shades of blue! There's nothing like time away from your normal routine to make you realize what's important in life... mostly, living it.

Here are my favorite "blue" pictures from the wedding and honeymoon...

See more pics from Bora Bora on our Flickr account HERE.

What do a baby, a Slinky, and a typewriter have in common?

2007-06-08T23:27:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, these are all things that captured the interest and attention of my sister's three kids for almost an entire week. Now, that's not to say that they didn't get bored from time-to-time while visiting my parents - but the truth is that they really were fascinated by all three... but mostly their new cousin! I have to say that it was so refreshing - I mean, honestly, that a Slinky can still entertain kids with all of the other things out there for them to play with, that's pretty cool. It was so sweet to see them do all kinds of wacky things to try and make their new cousin Pierce smile and laugh. And it wasn't just a passing thing... they kept at it for hours, trying to get a reaction out of that baby. Luckily Pierce delivered in adorable baby fashion and encouraged Ty, Jake and Alli to keep going night after night! And the typewriter? My nephew Ty discovered that over Christmas... and searched it out again this trip so that they could write stories and just play with the keys. It's amazing how entertaining my Mother's typewriter from college can be - who knew?!

The kids happily watch the Slinky make its way down the stairs...

Logging time on the East Coast

2007-06-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever blogged about work stuff (typically it's even more boring than my personal life, if you can even imagine) but today I'm finishing up a week in NYC and somehow just couldn't resist. A lot of people have no idea what I actually do for a living so I thought I'd give just a tiny peek into that world.

First, I thought I'd share the coolest part of my trip - arriving a few days early and getting to meet my new cousin Alex. She's the cutest little thing - with long and thin fingers and toes (she definitely has big feet which apparently run on all sides of the family tree!). And her parents seem so normal about the whole thing, it was almost encouraging (oh, except for the dreadful and incredibly painful sounding details about the pre-birth, birth, post-birth, and breastfeeding). For all the gory - I mean beautiful - details of the birth checkout my cousin Michael's blog. Here are a few pictures of my own...

So why am I writing about work... well, I'm still not entirely sure but I do know that I work with some pretty amazing people and that we just finished up a really exciting week. We took over the Ritz-Carlton in Battery Park and hosted a bunch of press and analysts for the week sharing news and information about the company. The team I work on did lots of amazing things from developing "the story" we shared at the show to logistically pulling off what is an incredibly intense week of keynotes, breakout sessions, 1:1 meetings, and evening activities (which somehow always migrated up to the 14th floor bar, where you could overhear on a regular basis... "(insert favorite curse word) - wait, it's 1 a.m.? I have to be downstairs at 7 a.m.!"). During one of the offsite events, I even learned how to cook some yummy Italian food (well, I may have possibly done more wine-tasting than cooking, but I did pick up a knife a few times - a dangerous combination now that I think about it!). I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures, but here are a few that turned out good enough to post (still figuring out that new lens that Holly gave me for xmas!). These are from the "war room" which sadly no longer resembled anything that might have been a plush Ritz Carlton anything by the time we left it today! And yes, since that room is gone, I am in my very comfy Ritz bed right now making this post. Yay for wireless!

This is my friend Sherri (aka Bossy) telling Jennifer what to do while Leah talks on the phone managing crisis number 1,112 of the day.

This is my friend Jennifer telling Sherri that in fact, no, she doesn't agree with her assesment of the situation. Just kidding girls, you know I love you! (Jennifer - stop rolling your eyes at me - and wait, was that a sigh i just heard all the way from West Chester?!)

This is a cute but almost scary pic of Katie (with Rob keeping his distance, smart guy)... I think she's up to no good but who knows. She's probably just bitter she had to work 20 hour days, slacker ;-)

The best wedding task ever!

2007-05-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

One of the many chores of planning our wedding is selecting the appropriate "signature" his & hers cocktails. It ranks somewhere between stuffing boxes with fake grass and, um, well, it was a lot more fun than most of the wedding chores. And it continues to be...!

The process began a few months ago when Sarah exclaimed, "My drink is going to be a Watermelon Mojito! What's yours going to be?" Um, ah, hmmm, um...

Jason started his quest by picking up the January issue of San Francisco magazine, which was titled "Cocktail Heaven." (Ahh, if only...) Anyway, they reviewed a bunch of cocktails from local bars and restaurants, and he honed in on the cocktail featured on the cover, the Añejo daiquiri from Coco500 (yes, it's very manly with that little ~ above the "n," isn't it?). Although his brother balked at a "his" cocktail with the word "daiquiri" in it, he persevered.

But let's start at the beginning.

Jason is a Manhattan man. No, not the island. The drink. He likes bourbon. He once coordinated a guys weekend in Kentucky just so the boys could travel the bourbon trail - Kentucky's answer to Silverado Trail. But, would a Manhattan - all bourbon with a splash of sweet vermouth - be appropriate for an afternoon, outdoor wedding? Probably not, unless we wanted everyone sleeping by 6 PM. So he persevered.

How about a gimlet? That refreshing (nutritional?) combination of gin and lime juice. That's a good drink, but it has to be different. A plain gimlet as a "signature" cocktail isn't a signature at all. It's an "X" written in crayon. Pedantic. Pedestrian. What adds that "refreshing" quality to a drink? How about cucumber?

Jason started a science project in the kitchen to develop the best cucumber gimlet known to Pacifica, CA (OK, probably the only cucumber-based cocktail in Pacifica!).

There were three variations:

gin, lime, sugar, and muddled cucumber
gin, lime, sugar, and cucumber juice (puree cuke then strain)
gin, lime, and cucumber-infused simple syrup

As you can imagine, the differences were massive. #1 was fine, but with little cucumber flavor transfer. #3 took way too long to make, and the cucumber simple syrup had a fuzzy crust of mold on top by day two, and although some of our friends could probably use the extra penicillin, we had second thoughts. #2, however (after four or five glasses) is now firmly planted in Jason's drink repertoire for all of eternity! It was fantastic! But, was it good enough for the big day? Unsure, Jason persevered.

When it comes to cocktails, Jason is also a martini man. (Well, a vodka martini man, which, in some circles, is better know as a martini woman.) There's nothing like a crisp, clean, cold shaken (shuck?) vodka martini on a warm summer's eve. But, a suitable wedding cocktail can't just be a plain old martini, especially when paired against a watermelon mojito. It needs some punch, some pizazz. So Jason persevered.

Currently festering on our kitchen counter is both lemongrass vodka and cucumber vodka. One recipe called for 48 hours of steeping, another called for three weeks! So, after about two weeks of steeping, you'll have to check back later to see the results of that experiment.

But let's get back to the daiquiri.

At first glance, Jason was smitten. (Kind of like he was with Sarah, only more so! How fitting for our wedding cocktail!) The aged rum is reminiscent of bourbon, but lighter and less alcohol-ish. The lime juice adds that summery tang, and the sugar sweetens it all up.

Now, we should let the record show that we didn't have ground evaporated cane sugar and had to substitute powdered sugar. But we did have freshly squeezed lime juice and 12-year-old rum!

Mmmmmmmm! Fantastic! But could it be better? Well, we just had to go to Coco500 and try the real thing. Yeah, we had to sit through asparagus salad, duck liver terrine, spice-rubbed pork tenderloin, and braised beef cheeks, but we persevered.

You know, it was disappointing, - like seeing the wizard behind the curtain. Coco500's version of their own drink wasn't as good as our homemade version. Hmmm. What kind of screwed-up Pittsburgh math is that? We're not sure, but maybe it's the rum, or maybe it's the Safeway powdered sugar vs. the ground evaporated cane sugar. Jason thinks that we need to test out another rum-bottle's worth at home, just to perfect it...

See the recipe below, straight from San Francisco mag. Click here for the full article, and 11 other Frisco cocktails (all worthy of experimentation, we're sure).

And we continue to persevere! Don't forget that we have some vodka infusions going strong. And, we had one basil gimlet that we felt was too close to a mojito, but which our buddy, Frank, highly recommended that we revisit. And there's always IC Light!

Ah, the lengths to which we go to make sure our wedding guest are happy... ;-)

Añejo daiquiri at Coco500

Bartender: Scott Baird

Inventor: Jennings Cox, Daiquiri, Cuba, 1896. Cox ran out of gin while hosting a group of prominent Americans, so he mixed rum with lime juice and sugar, creating the first daiquiri. Over the years, lighter rums have unquestionably been the rums of choice for the drink. Baird, in a smart leap of faith, altered over a century of tradition when he made his with aged rum.

1¾ ounces Pampero Aniversario rum
¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
4½ teaspoons ground organic evaporated cane sugar

To make ground sugar:grind organic raw sugar (avoid turbinado and other dark varieties) in a standard coffee grinder until it turns into a fine, soft powder.

Add sugar and lime to a mixing glass and stir with a bar spoon for approximately 20 revolutions. Add ice and rum and shake hard for 10 full seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wheel.

Tip: “When I say shake hard, I mean it,” says Baird. “Don’t throw your back out, but use two hands and give the cocktail a healthy mix.”

Who Needs Whales? I've got Sea Otter!

2007-03-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

After waaaay too many weekends filled with wedding planning, Jason and I skipped town for a quick overnight trip to Morro Bay. But before we got on the road, Jason had to hit the dirt first... don't we all like to start our Saturday mornings by getting up at the crack of dawn, driving 20 miles to Marin, and racing hundreds of other people on a 6-mile, narrow, hilly dirt trail? No? Well, your name must not be Jason!

Actually, despite my sarcasm (I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not a morning person, so I won't belabor that, really...) - I'm quite proud of my man. For someone who for the most part, despises running, he really pushes himself and keeps entering these races. Being a good (but did I mention groggy?) girlfriend, I trodded along ahead of him and had my camera to capture all of the special moments... like all the people who missed the turnaround point and I had to yell after them "hey, comeback, you missed the halfway mark!" That part was actually kinda fun, heh.

So, after Jay was done replenishing his electrolites, we loaded up the car for the drive South. The sun was shining and Jason didn't even complain about my driving - a perfect day! We camped for the night under incredibly clear skies - the kind where you can see all the stars AND the satellites (Jason loves that part). The day was complete with a campfire, S'mores and some wine (hey, this is California afterall).

On Sunday morning - man, were the winds blowing - we were a little worried about our paddling power but decided to give it a go anyway. We launched our boats and had a spectacular day on the water - in Jason's words "it's like a zoo at the beach." We saw a little bit of everything (except for whales and condors of course, which continue to elude us) - white pelican, sandpipers, white and blue heron, seals, deer (totally serious) and several sea otter! On the way home we found some great tide pools along a deserted stretch of beach - and we had three or four seals following us as we traveled the beach, here's one checking us out!

Whale Watching? Um, no, just looking...

2007-02-06T22:56:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday, we embarked, with Mike and Christina, on a whale watching trip. We climbed aboard the Salty Lady {that's what I said when I climbed on your mom last night! (sorry Christina)}...um, anyway... We climbed aboard the Salty Lady and headed out on an

unseasonably warm and clear Half Moon Bay February morning. (It was 8F in Pittsburgh, making the 60+ weather that much more enjoyable! Hee hee!)

The sea was angry that day, my friends, as we headed out over the crashing waves. Like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli. (OK, "gently rolling swell" may be a better description.)

Anyway, we headed out on our whale watching trip, excited to catch a glimpse of the humpback and gray whales that were spotted the weekend prior. Luckily, Jay brought along his GPS to chronicle the longitude and latitude of each and every sighting.

As you can see on the map, we took a heading of SSW at about 12 mph (or about 10.4 knots, for the sailors out there) and basically never touched the wheel. We went straight and never made even a slight bank left or right. As the passengers searched for life, we finally (after and hour and a half of our three hour trip) slowed to check out the seagulls, murres, and comorants.) Gee, that's fantastic. Weren't those the same birds we saw at the dock?

Anyway, the "guide" mentioned something about "abundant sea life" and "schools of sardines below us," but because those sardines weren't Wonder Twins and didn't form "the shape of a breaching whale," we didn't see nothing.

So, the Salty Lady turned around, and full-steamed it back to the dock. Yeah, we made a nice figure-eight on the way back. But, basically, it was 90 minutes straight out at SSW, and 90 minutes straight back at NNE.

What did we see? A few birds. A few chunks of seaweed. A lot of water.

Our whale watching trip was not to be. Our whale looking-for trip was, unfortunately.

Check out the photos, below, but please don't look for whales. They must have been off that day. :-(

Alas, there were no whales to be watched...

Super Bowl or Super BOAT?

2007-02-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Two events happened today: one big, one HUGE.

Obviously, today was the Super Bowl, and, although the Steelers weren't involved, apparently it was a big deal. We're not sure why, but we don't question tradition.

The other event was the arrival of the Queen Mary 2 in San Francisco - a "maritime marvel!". This may sound ho-hum to most of you, but listen to this: The Queen Mary 2 is the largest ship to EVER pass through the Golden Gate! Now that's worthy of missing a few quarters of football, don't you think?

Well, we did. So, with an expected "under the bridge" time of 3:00 PM Pacific Time (27 minutes before kickoff), we figured that we'd hurry down to Crissy Field and snap a few pictures. But, we were totally unprepared for the thousands - yes, thousands - of spectators waiting around the bay.

Here in Frisco, "Fleet Week" is usually the biggest spectator event, followed by the Independence Day fireworks. But, this rivaled both of those, for sure. We were in traffic from 2:30 through 3:00 (and we started 2 miles from Crissy Field!), but luckily the QM2 was about one hour late (um, 33 minutes after kickoff). So, we were well-positioned to watch as it sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge with only 30 feet to spare! That's amazing! These photos don't do it justice, however. Although it looked big as it went under the bridge, our vantage point was a bit askew. As it passed us, however, its ominous size was apparent. It dwarfed the sailboats, fire boats, and Coast Guard ships that escorted it into the bay. It was a sight to behold, for sure.

For more details, and to read about it's 'round-the-globe trip (last stop was Alcapulco, next stop is Honolulu), check out this story and this story and accompanying photos at The Chronicle.

(Kinda makes our kayaks seem itty bitty...)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2006-12-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's been quite a while since we've updated this blog! And, a lot has happened since Pierce entered the world. Let's review...

In early November, Sarah treated Jason to a delightful four-day weekend in NYC to celebrate Jason's birthday! We ate at some fantastic restaurants (including Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, at which Jason exclaimed, "Goddamn, this is good food!), had a cupcake expedition, shopped like movie stars, and caught the Broadway version of "Wicked!" We also caught up with Sutt, who took us to the finer speakeasys and "underground" bars of the Greenwich/SoHo area, where drinking vodka out of tea cups is the latest craze. Sutt said that it has something to do with Prohibition, but we're not sure if we're buying that.

Next on our list was Thanksgiving in Southern California. Well, actually the days following Thanksgiving were in Southern CA. Thanksgiving day was spent in a hotel in Oxnard, eating microwave mac-n-cheese and chips and salsa from the 7-11, but that's another story...

The weekend was spent with Amy, Alan, Kaia, and Caleb at their soon-to-be house in Dana Point. We watched the sunsets...

Built a fire at the beach...

And even built a fire at Amy and Alan's future house (although, that just consisted of turning the gas "on" and throwing in a match).

Finally, we spent our first Christmas in our house in Pacifica. We've actually lived here for about 18 months, but this is the first time we actually spent Christmas Day in the Bay Area. Although we missed the cold (rain) snow that we grew up with on the East Coast, it was nice to have a warm Christmas!

After opening gifts, we took a stroll on the beach and watched the surfers! It's quite a change from a Chesapeake/Johnstown Christmas, but we think that we're going to stick it out here for at least a while longer! ;-)

We hope that everyone had a great holiday, and that all of your New Year wishes come true!

XOXO

Boy Power!

2006-10-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that Jason and I are the proud Aunt and Uncle of Pierce Schiflet, born Oct. 16 to my ecstatic brother Craig and his wife Lorye. Our family is officially trending "boy" with Pierce being the third, and incredibly adorable, grandson!

Lorye spent a full day in the hospital before Pierce was ready to meet the world... and apparently even then he wasn't ready to announce his arrival as Craig had to poke him a bunch to even get him to make any noise! In true-boy fashion, Pierce is proving to be laid-back and easy-going... much like his Dad.

Lorye & Craig are adjusting nicely, and benefitting from doting grandparents and family in these first weeks as new parents. Jason & I will meet Pierce in person this Christmas, while my sister and Alli will see him in November. Ty and Jake will meet their new cousin this winter, and I can only wonder about all the things they'll tell him about being member of this family! Enjoy the pics, more to come (as soon as Craig has time!).

By Land, Sea AND Air!

2006-10-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

What a busy weekend! I don't want to mis-lead you, we didn't actually fly anywhere, but we did watch the Blue Angels and to me, that counts (and it also made for a catchy title!).

On Saturday, Jason and I took our kayaks out on the Bay and paddled around in the rip currents by the North side of the GG Bridge. OK, I'm being a little dramatic, but by the time we got out of the water the waves were huge and the current was super-strong! We had to do a lot of back-paddling to stay in one place, but we managed to hang out for an hour or so, catching the airshow in town for San Francisco's Fleet Week. We took these pics from our boats, but if you're really interested in this stuff, check out the SF Chronicle's photos - they are very cool - http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2006/10/08/FLEETWEEK.TMP&o=0

We had a really good time just hanging out on the water and dodging a few hundred boats (all bigger than us, of course!) but we also had a great view! Mind you, the Blue Angels kept flying overhead and around in circles, making me sea-sick after a while b/c I was following their movements while bouncing up and down in my boat!

Today, Jason completed his first-ever organized sporting event - I mean, unless you consider bowling a sport?! Jason ran in the San Jose Rock and Roll half marathon and crossed the finish line right on target, and still smiling too.

Despite sore shins, Jason persevered through 13 miles of pavement - all before 11 in the morning! Why wasn't I running, you ask? Well, someone had to document the event with pictures so I stayed behind, very selfless of me, I know - ha ha!

Luckily Jason had a few friends from work that also ran, and he and Tiffany ran the entire race together, crossing the finish line like pros!

Congratulations Jason, I am so proud of you!

Engaged!

2006-10-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

Mark and Michelle (and Maggie & Sarah) hosted a fabulous engagement party for us a few weeks ago... we got really lucky with "summer-like" weather and thanks to Jason's early-morning scouting, we ended up with a primo picnic spot!

Except for a few hiccups before the party started (how's the bumper, Mark?), I think everyone had a great time enjoying the sun and scenery, while eating homemade cioppino (with clams, mussells, fish, shrimp - the works!), scallops wrapped in prosciutto, fresh sourdough bread and salads, and last - but absolutely not least - a scrumptious carrot cake to top it all off.

This was really the first chance we've had to hang out with all our friends since we got engaged, and it was really so much fun to just relax with everyone and catch up. As Jason usually does when a party is over, he asked as the sun finished setting: "where'd everyone go?"... as if seven hours for a picnic or a party is not nearly long enough! But I think it is just a testament to the fact that we have such great friends - we hate it when they do actually have to be on their way. Everyone is so busy these days (including us), and it seems like a really special event when we can all take an afternoon and just hang out for a few hours. Oh, and did I mention the multiple cases of wine and beer? That really helps with the "relax" part!! :-)

Career #24: Winemaker

2006-09-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have heard me talk about CrushPad, the San Fran outfit that helps you make your own wine. You choose the grapes, you pick the wood for the barrel - basically, you work with their winemaker to determine everything throughout the whole process. Check them out at www.crushpadwine.com.

Well, I just signed up to make a barrel (25 cases!) of pinot noir with some guys from work. The plan (i.e. the only way to get Sarah to support this expense) was that this was going to be the wine for our wedding. Ahhh - how romantic!

Well, our first meeting with the winemaker was this past Saturday. We sat with him for a few hours to discuss things like brix, acidity, crush level, saignee, and cap management. All things that, previously, the people at winery tasting rooms said as I guzzled their latest bottling, not paying attention.

We chose our aging vessel (a 50% new French oak zebra), our target alcohol (14.4 - for a good buzz), our target free SO2 (25-30 ppm, give or take a few ppm), and our aging (9-11 months), and about 50 other things. At that point, something clicked. I'm no math major (in Engineering school, we quickly lost numbers and went to all letters, derivatives, functions, and LaGrangians...), but I was able to use my fingers to see that from September 9th to June 23rd was a bit less than required by the winemaking process. And, the grapes have yet to be harvested!

Uh oh.

I guess we won't be having my handmade pinot at our wedding... :-(

My proposal - and give me your feedback on this - is to instead roll some of this experience into our wedding day in other ways. What about vows that say, "Sarah, I promise to love you in sickness and in heath, in low pH and in high, through malolactic fermentation and extended maceration..." (I have yet to pass that by Sarah.)

Anyway, these are pictures of our grapes - pinot noir from the Amber Ridge vineyard in Sonoma - still hanging on the vine, taunting me and saying, "I got you in trouble!"

Just think, only 9-11 months + harvesting time + fermentation time + bottling time + whatever else time until we can drink it! Happy New Year 2008!

Kayaking the City (i.e. Geek meets Outdoors meets City)

2006-07-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

Since Sarah jetted out of town to London for the week, I figured that it would be a perfect opportunity to take on a manly kayak trip. Not a 20 minute "let's just get out on the water" trip that we normally take, but a real, long kayak paddle.

OK, that's not the real story. The real story is that Sarah makes fun of me every time I pull out my GPS. So, with her safely 6,000 miles away, I was able to GPS to my heart's content.

So, I set out from AT&T Park (PacBell, SBC, whatever), and headed towards Ferry Plaza.

Here's a nice picture of me off the coast of The Gap headquarters. Now there's a site you don't normally see when kayaking! (I apologize for the poor photo quality, but my Razr phone only does so well...)

After about an hour of paddling into some stiff headwinds, I finally made it up to Ghiradelli Square. Here's another nice picture of me (OK, the tip of my kayak) looking at Ghiradelli Square from the water.

Finally, the best part of the trip happened long after I was off of the water: downloading my waypoints from the GPS into the mapping software! Sweet, eh? The yellow line with the black dots is my route, in case you were wondering.

In case you need some stats, check out the table to the left. Oh yeah, that was well over 9 miles. 9.07, to be exact!

Max speed? Yeah, that was 5.6 mph.

GPS? Worth every penny!

Of course, I do miss Sarah. Well, maybe...

;-)

Ferrari Central

2006-06-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

For Men Only!

A few weeks ago, I dragged Sarah to Infineon Raceway up in Napa to check out the Ferrari Challenge. Basically, it was rich dudes who raced their own Ferraris, and car geeks like myself drooling in the stands. Below are some highlights.

Smurf-to-Breakers!

2006-05-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

San Fransicso is a strange place. Where else can you see several Elvis (Elvi?), the US Jump Roping Team, a pink elephant, way too many hairy naked old guys, and 62,000 other people drinking their way along a 12K (7.46 mile) race?

Bay to Breakers is an annual race in San Francisco that began in 1912 as a way to get the city back on it's feet (literally) after the 1906 earthquake. That race has transformed over the years into "a testament to San Francisco’s uniqueness and audacity," as you will see.

This year, we just couldn't stop our inner Smurfs. We had to race! A friend of Sarah's put together a bid for the Guinness Book of World Records that was something to the theme of "the most people dressed up as Smurfs." Since there was not a previous record in this category, I think that we may have it locked up (we'll keep you posted).

In this year's race, Gilbert Okari, 27, of Kenya (shocking!), was the first man to finish. He did so in 34 minutes, 20 seconds. For comparison, it took our group 53 minutes and 35 seconds just to get to mile 2.

Anyway, here are some of the highlights:

Sarah, getting all smurfed up prior to the race.

The smurfs gather...

The giant mushroom (housing DJ Gargamel and 6 taps of smurf-tastic brew)!

Brainy Smurf (Calvin from Canada) and Sassette Smurf finally make it to Mile 2! Whew! Only 5.46 more miles to go!

That damn mushroom only ran on smurf-power!

And smurfs weren't the only celebrities there!

Happy New Year!

2006-01-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, and a few days off from work to get some R&R. Jay and I took the non-traditional approach to the holidays this year and traveled to Europe to celebrate Christmas, New Year’s and my birthday (yes, it’s an official holiday now!). After a grueling 12 hour flight, we landed in London on Christmas Eve morning. We explored the city and had afternoon tea at a swank hotel by Hyde Park … later that night we attended the midnight service at Westminster Abbey, complete with carols from the choir! On Christmas we exchanged the gifts we brought with us and called our families to say hello... here I am getting ready to call the kids!

The next two days we saw the sights and walked almost the entire city on foot, popping into pubs whenever we got cold, or in Jay’s case, thirsty for a Guinness.

Next we traveled by train to Paris and on to Nice… the train was fun, Jay had his face stuck to the window for most of the trip. I used the time to relax and read a great book (thanks Sherri!), which felt luxurious - no email, no phone, no IM = heaven! Nice was fantastic, the wine and open air markets were really amazing and we only wish we had more time to shop and eat there! The architecture was just what you would expect and was most impressive around sunset when the colors were magnified by the pinkish hues of the sky. Luckily the Matisse museum was open and we walked through town and up into the hills to check it out - very impressive, I think we actually learned something on this trip!
The water and beaches were beautiful (although rocky) and the sun was out every day (a nice change from London!). We also visited Cannes and Monaco, doing lots of window shopping at the high-end stores! The only place we really bought anything was at Lenotre, a chocolate shop that we couldn’t resist. Jay claims the éclair he had was the best “confection” of his life. And yes, real men do eat éclairs!! I was happy to find birthday cotton candy in Monaco, my favorite dessert!

Back in Paris for the last leg of our trip, we set out for more chocolate and were not disappointed… we’re still savoring the last few pieces of our loot. I also had the best cocktail of my life at the Four Seasons hotel (naturally). It was also by far the most expensive cocktail of my life. But since it was my birthday, I went ahead and had two! At this point in the trip, Jay was drinking soda so I rationalized a second pricey drink on my part was completely justifiable. So, you’re probably asking yourself “why was Jay drinking soda?” Well, let’s just say the foie gras from the night before didn’t agree with him and as of today, it’s been about six or seven days since Jay’s really eaten. We even took a field trip to the ER near our hotel to have him checked out… my French was a bit flimsy as I couldn’t recall learning any medical terms in school!!

So I guess if you boil it all down, the trip was really all about searching out great food and drinks, which probably isn’t too surprising to anyone out there… best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2006!

A Jaunt to Joshua Tree

2005-11-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago (actually, the end of October, so several weeks ago), we spent a long weekend in the Palm Springs/Joshua Tree area of Southern California. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but it was a very intersting trip!

First of all, before we got to Joshua Tree, we spend the day in Palm Springs - better known as "God's Waiting Room" due to the overwhelming number of old people. The place is a desert oasis, if you're definition of refuge consists of golf courses and "homes for active seniors." I was expecting something like Rodeo Drive in the desert, but it was more like Del Boca Vista. The only thing that wasn't unexpected was the heat - which I'll quantify as "pretty damn hot." But hey, it's a dry heat.

Joshua Tree Nat'l Park is about an hour's drive from Palm Springs (which is about 2 hours from LA) through the southern part of the vast and inhospitible Mojave Desert. Well, it's vast, but there are about 4 small towns along the way, including Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms.

Joshua Tree NP consists of several different ecosystems, and has elevations ranging from 500 to 5,000 feet. The northern desert is characterized by stands of spike-like ocotillo plants and “jumping” cholla cactus. The northern part of the park contains the habitat of the Joshua tree. And, the western most part of the park, above 4,000 feet, provides habitat for juniper and pinyon pine.

The trip was fairly uneventful, but it was interesting to see that the desert is nothing like the stretches of sand dunes that us East Coasters are led to believe. There are tons of plants and animals, and suprisingly, lots of water. Browse through the pictures below and see the diversity for yourself.

A teddy bear cactus and a yucca plant. The yucca is related to the Joshua tree, as you'll see in the pictures, but the name difference between "tree" and "plant" is apparent.

Sarah getting a closer look at some of the desert vegitation in this seasonal stream. Bird life was very plentiful in the park, and this area was also full of bugs, lizards and other creatures.

Some of the rocky outcroppings that make Joshua Tree such a destination for rock climbers.

The Joshua tree "forests" looked like orchards. The trees were almost perfectly spaced, and appeared to be in rows that were planned and designed.

Sarah, piloting our intrepid Sebring convertible through the desert.

Probably the most disturbing image of the trip was the smog cutting through the Palm Springs valley. According to the guide, there is one pass through the mountains east of Los Angeles that acts like a funnel and sucks the LA fog into Palm Springs and Joshua Tree NP.

In the middle of the park, there is a man-made lake, created by ranchers back in the good old days to water their grazing cattle. There is much more water in the desert that we ever imagined - you just need to know where to look.

Does Sarah ever follow directions?

Under the stars and the Joshua trees at our luxury campground accomodations.

Smarter, Funnier, and so grown up!

2005-08-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I've just returned from Florida, where I had a blast hanging out with Ty, Jake and Alli for a few days. My visit was free but hanging with the kids always makes me feel like a million bucks.

Ty is starting the 2nd grade this year and he is really looking forward to starting school (and seeing his favorite gal pal, Victoria!). Ty is reading a lot and is always intensely-focused on whatever he is doing. During my visit, Ty asked me to play video games with him and Jake ... I obliged and they were very disappointed when I beat them... twice! I have to say I was pretty happy with my performance at NBA All Star Hoops given I had a) never played the game before, b) really dislike video games, and c) showed them aunt sarah isn't as old as they might think!

Jake is starting the 1st grade this year, and quite frankly, dreading the entire back to school thing. At the school orientation, I asked Jake if he liked where his desk was, and he answered "No, I just want to sit somewhere else all by myself." OK.... good luck with getting his homework done every night, Holly! Speaking of which, Jake and I worked on his summer project together and had a lot of fun - he even decided to do extra decorating after we had done all of the required elements. We made a mobile featuring scenes from an Arthur book, including a lobster with googly eyes, holding a feather. Sometimes Jake seems lost in his own little world, but every 30 minutes or so he will say something that makes you realize he's been listening all along. He's a smart - and very clever - little boy and loves to make faces at the camera and make everyone around him laugh (hello, middle child!!).

Alli.... well, where do I start? She is raring to go... to school, to dance class, to shop at the mall, you name it! Alli is SO excited to start school this year. She'll go three days a week and will have the same teacher Ty and Jake had. She is also signed up for dance lessons and has already started practicing with her Bella Ballerina video tape. She's probably also the most articulate of the three... actually, on any given day i think she could out-talk anyone in the family (even Mom!), Ha!

All in all, a very fun trip! We managed to see March of the Penguins, go to Busch Gardens, go to Channelside for bowling and the Aquarium, and spend plenty of time in the pool! A very busy five days!

Home Sweet (new!) Home

2005-07-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hello! Thanks so much to everyone who's called and sent well-wishes on the closing and the move! And for those we haven't gotten to yet.... Jason and I just bought a house! The new place is in Pacifica, at the top of a hill on the Ocean side, just south of SF. After closing on July 6, we began prepping the house for our arrival.... which basically meant painting the white walls something more appealing, a lot of indecision around where things would go, and much anxiety over whether the homeowners association would allow us to have a satellite dish (... Jason living without the Steelers games!? the horror!). We are now officially moved in but only slightly settled! It was a looong moving day.... We finished painting the downstairs rooms, and are now faced with painting the bedrooms whilst surrounded by boxes and furniture (and lots of Jason's engineering books which he claims he still needs b/c he uses them "all the time"). We have two master bedrooms & full baths upstairs (luckily ours has an ocean view!) plus a laundry room - which oddly also has an ocean view (consolation prize for doing laundry I suppose!). Downstairs is a half bath, kitchen, living room, dining room and patio. We also have two garages now which means that if we ever get ahead of that mortgage payment, we can buy (and have a place to store!) kayaks.

One other quick note on our move - for our friends in the Bay Area - next time you have to move, make sure you check out the Delancey Street Foundation moving company. They are incredible! Between the two of us, Jason and I have used them five times. They really do an amazing job (have you ever seen a mover RUN back and forth from the truck to finish your job as quickly as possible?!) and the rates are the most reasonable in town, AND they are a non-profit so it's tax deductible. Check them out, highly recommended!

OK, so on to the pictures.... we're still working on a lot of things (the brass lighting fixtures MUST be eliminated!!) but we figured some pictures were better than no pictures. You can kind of see the "before" and "after" effects of the downstairs rooms in the pics below, but we still have a long ways to go on the upstairs so those "after" shots will come (much) later!

We hope that we will have more visitors now that we have an official guest room... and, we live really, really close to the ocean and a great surfing beach. You may want to come for FogFest!! It's Pacifica's annual city-wide festival.... Pacifica is known for heavy fog during July-August but the rest of the year is pretty darn nice and we're looking forward to some sunny days on our patio! www.pacificcoastfogfest.com/

We hope everyone is doing well and we welcome any advice on merging two distinctly different "styles" into one house... otherwise, we might just be pitching a few things and starting from scratch, in order to keep the peace around here :-)

Dining Room before:

Dining Room in progress:

Dining Room after!

Kitchen Before & After

Front entrance, looking toward back door:

More pictures to come soon!

Pinnacles National Monument

2005-06-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

In our never-ending quest to spot the elusive California Condor (population: 156 captive, 118 wild), we took a trip to Pinnacles National Monument this past weekend (June 10-12).

But, before we get to the story, we bet that you're wondering about the differences between a National Monument and a National Park. Basically, a Nat'l Park must be approved by Congress, while a Nat'l Monument can be declared solely by the President. Here is a good explanation, if you're interested.

Sarah was in lovely Houston for work, so Jay picked her up at the airport around 8:30 PM on Friday, and we continued south on the 140-ish mile drive. We were quite tired, but managed to get the tent up and get to sleep by 11 PM or so. (We'll skip the story about the campground gate being locked at 9 PM, and us having to lay down a piece of wood and drive over the "severe tire damage" spikes in the exit lane.)

During the night, there was quite a bit of wildlife out and about. It was just like being in San Fran, except the fire engines and the police sirens were replaced with strange squeals and various rodent-types rooting around our tent. Sarah commented that, "those things sound like pigs!?!?" To which Jay replied, "Whatever. It's probably just a big 'possum."

The next morning, as we went to the bathroom, we were both confronted with signs on the doors that read: "Please pack all food in your car. Wild pigs are in the area." Well, not only was Jay disgusted at the fact that Sarah was right about the animals outside and he was wrong, he was equally disgusted at the fact that these signs weren't placed at the entrance to the campground! That would have been a good fact to know before morning...

Anyway, we headed to the park in hopes of seeing the elusive California Condor. The weather was beautiful, with the temp around 85 and one tiny, lonely cloud off in the distance, but otherwise "Enchanting Crystal Blue" skies. (Sarah brought paint chips along, so the normal Roy G. Biv colors no longer have meaning in our world!) While paying our fee, we asked the ranger where to go to see the elusive California Condor. She gave us a look and replied something like, "Oh, you never know where you can see them. They like to ride the thermals." Gee, thanks for the detailed info.

At the tiny visitor's center, we asked the other ranger where we might have the best chance to see the elusive California Condor. (Mind you, the combined age of these two ranger chicks was about 35.) Her reply was something like, "Oh, they're around. They like it high up." Two rangers and a visitor's center and we're no closer to seeing the elusive California Condor than we were in San Fran.

So, we headed off on the High Peaks trail - a ~5-mile loop through the volcanic pinnacles and spires, hoping to get at least a glimpse of the elusive California Condor. The rangers did point out one tidbit about identifying the birds, which was very evident in the photos in the visitor's center: look for the giant red number tags on each wing!

As you can see from the pictures below, Pinnacles is quite a sight. It looks like a rock climber's dream, and even though there were a few trails marked with a carabiner logo (evidently a sign of good climbing), we only spotted one small group of climbers, and they were about 30 feet from the parking lot. We did see tons of birds, including a group of Violet-Green Swallows that gave us quite the entertainment during our lunch break, and a bunch of Turkey Vultures (for which Jay had to point and yell "Condor!" every time one flew over).

Probably the highlight of the trip - other than the stop at the Gilroy Factory Outlets - was the close encounter with a bobcat back at the campground. As we sat reviewing paint chips and debating our preferences between Rosemary Seafoam Mist and Garden Glow, watching a squirrel cavort about and a rabbit hopping 10 feet away (not to mention the woodpeckers pecking, the other birds chirping, and some other bird building a nest in a tree hole), Sarah jumped and screamed "MOUNTAIN LION!!!" as this bobcat came running between us and the tent, honed in on the unsuspecting rabbit.

As Sarah sprinted to the car and Jay jumped up on the picnic table, the rabbit ran away, the squirrel dove into his hole, and the bobcat never even noticed our presence. It just walked over to a tree about 30 feet from our picnic table, hopped up into a "V" in the split trunk, and proceeded to nap, yawn, clean it's paws, and pay absolutely no attention to us. You can see some good pictures below, but it was quite a scene for about an hour or so.

This marks our second venture in tracking the elusive California Condor, with the first being Big Sur back in February, '03. We'd like to get back to Big Sur, and maybe take a hike up into Ventana Wilderness in our continuing search for the elusive California Condor. But, maybe we'll head to the LA Zoo instead. They have 30 elusive California Condors, including 7 chicks! We're sure they'll be easier to spot there!

So, the bobcat and the wild pigs made for quite an interesting trip, not to mention the fabulous time reviewing paint chips. We're still sad that we didn't get to see the elusive California Condor, but the trip was pretty fun anyway.

Let us know how you like the pictures!!!

2005-06-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thistle

2005-06-15T12:45:00.003-07:00

and more views

2005-06-15T12:45:00.002-07:00

and even more views - there is a lake at the valley in the center of this view

2005-06-15T12:45:00.001-07:00

Another old man

2005-06-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

Jay, reaching the summit of a rock

2005-06-15T12:44:00.003-07:00

Pinnacles rock formations

2005-06-15T12:44:00.002-07:00

Sarah taking a break in the shade

2005-06-15T12:44:00.001-07:00

and more

2005-06-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

more views

2005-06-15T12:43:00.005-07:00

and East

2005-06-15T12:43:00.004-07:00

The view south

2005-06-15T12:43:00.003-07:00

The old man at Pinnacles

2005-06-15T12:43:00.002-07:00

Sarah, trudging up the trail

2005-06-15T12:43:00.001-07:00

Pinnacles National Monument - Looks like a big hand at the top of the rocks