Your Mileage May Vary

Honest to Blog?

Background Noise: red socks v. yankees
Last Visited: Windy Hill Open Space Preserve
Random Thought: note to self: wear higher socks when hiking
Mood: resting between outings

There's an odd sense of foreboding when at the head of a hiking trail there are clear, detailed instructions about what you do if attacked by a mountain lion.

Now, on the one hand, i'm grateful for the step by step procedures because really the only thing that comes to mind about scaring off mountain lions comes from the first The Parent Trap movie, i have that a feeling that particular advice wouldn't really cut it.

... On the other hand, i have to admit i thought twice before stepping out alone onto that trail knowing that if I really did come across one of those majestic (and probably hungry) creatures, I'd be pretty screwed. And here i thought i liked hiking / taking pictures by myself. Oh well, while my heart might have skipped a few beats more than once at some odd sounds I still went and Im pretty happy with the pictures that came out of the hike, so yeay.

In other news, I'm thrilled to say that Christian has weighed in on this pseudo-debate going around about how best to improve my running speed / distance; so that makes 3.5 former / current runners giving me completely conflicting advice. Excellent. I suppose i'll just have to continue to follow what i hear, fail miserably, laugh it off, and keep working... which is pretty much my current plan.

Christian's best advice was to remind me that at the end of the day, regardless of the training program i'm on, the point of my running is me; not John, or Nic, or Christian, or Will or any of those boys who can run faster / longer than i can; the point is how much i've improved, where i'm headed, and not killing myself in the process; nothing more, nothing less.

Obviously I need to hang out with Christian more; good thing he's discovered the train.

And now, my Sunday continues. Later.

(Good thing I'm a screamer - step 2b in How to Protect Yourself From A Mountain Lion is "Be Loud.")

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Some Enchanted Evening

Background Noise: restarting imacs, iphones; waiting for the icalbridge to sync for the first time
Last Visited: Dave & Liz's Engagement Pictures + Party Gallery
Random Thought: hello South Pacific - um, Emile is... unreal - gorgeous, with a voice to bring women to their knees... is it warm in here or is that just me?
Mood: happy half birthday to me...

So saturday was the big Dave and Liz's Engagement extravaganza - a photo shoot in the morning, and the party in the evening. I think everything turned out well; the party was fun, everyone got along, and i think we ended up with some nice pictures:

with one or two pictures from the party:

from left to right, this is Helena, JR, Me, Debbi, Louis, and Steve C. Just in case. (Don't Debbi and I look related in this picture?).

In other news, largely due to a piece on npr this weekend about Herbert von Karajan, I'm now the pleased owner of the complete Beethoven Symphonies and selections of Turandot by the Berlin Philharmonic. Excellent.

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Apparently i (still) have a super-sonic sneeze

Background Noise: Waltz for Debby, Bill Evans
Last Visited: Speak like a Michigander
Random Thought: so, um, if you link to your myspace page from your facebook page, i'm going to see it. just for the record.
Mood: procrastinating.

Have i mentioned Behr.com lately? Great place to play with paint colors. And we all know how much i love painting (apartments).

In other news... there's no poker tonight. Again. Which is totally lame because i can't go next week. Which will mean nearly a month with no poker. Now, the thing is, while i love playing poker, the poker isn't what i miss: it's the guys i get to hang out with. So if everyone is bored with poker, might i suggest sushi night? Or movie night? Or heaven forbid, (yet another) video games night? Whatever you prefer, i'm there. Even if i (gulp) have to organize it myself. And here i thought i had gotten out of being the cruise director. Guess not.

Speaking of directing, apparently i have a photoshoot to direct saturday morning; my first. Heaven help me, this might be a bumpy ride. I'll have pictures on the flip side though - stay tuned.

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Thou art to me a delicious torment

Background Noise: Sneaky Red
Last Visited: comfy; miss comfy.
Random Thought: “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” -Emerson.
Mood: consult your gut and decide

Names have been changed to protect the theoretically innocent.

Micha: I'm not in the mood to watch Brazil anymore.
Grace: Good, me neither.
Micha: This is what i have...

{They scan the never ending list of movie files available on Micha's computer}

Grace: i should make you watch a chick flick
Micha: i could be down with a chick flick
Grace: you're kidding; god, i should punish you with Coyote Ugly for saying that
Micha: no, no, what's that one with Marilyn Monroe?
Grace: Some Like it Hot?
Micha: yeah, or, hmm...
Grace: well, you have An Affair to Remember - but that's so long
Micha: Oh! I've got it!
Grace: what?

Micha: Fight Club!

I heart my friends.

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I'm sorry, have we met?

Background Noise: La Traviata - scratch that, traviata is depressing and i don't need help in that department - let's go with New Found Glory; so much livelier
Last Visited: baker beach, berkeley, skyline, moss beach
Random Thought: wherefore art thou, jabber?
Mood: thursday can't come fast enough

Last week was quite odd and highly random, and honestly, coming out of it, my head is still spinning. But! I do have pictures of a fair chunk of it; in time order, may i present Wednesday afternoon, Saturday morning, and Sunday evening:

	A Random Afternoon in Berkeley Cole Coffee, Meadows Flower shop, Wood Tavern, and a random stop at a warehouse in San Francisco.
	A Saturday Adventure Baker Beach, San Francisco; Barney's in Berkeley; Ray and May's in the Berkeley Hills - the monsters belong to them, and are quite adorable. Also my first real attempt at a still life study - the light was just right and the flowers were amazing - it's good thing Ray and May's neighbor left them!
	Sunset at Moss Beach A place much more beautiful than my pictures indicate; the adorable little girls reminded me of Ellen and I when we were little - we had the same haircuts and i swear the same purple outfits.

What do these pictures miss? A lot: the office went to see Kooza thursday afternoon (my first Cirque show, and i was completely and utterly enchanted), soft serve on friday, hanging with Mike and Nic saturday night, and, well, there's more, but i don't really feel like going into it.

I adore my camera. I'm so very very glad Dave twisted my arm to get it; i find myself longing to have it with me at all times, and i get quite annoyed when the picture i thought i took did not turn out as planned. I have a lot to learn - well, maybe Heather can give me a few tips thursday afternoon at lunch :)

In other news, i need to get a new badge picture. Really.

It was cute and funny when i was an intern, but seriously? a) I don't look like that anymore and you'd be hard pressed to recognize me from it and b) it's hard to get someone to take your emails seriously when that picture is attached to them - no amount of tone can really fix that particular problem.

Besides, apparently i'm unrecognizable as it is: at the very least 4 people i have met before on multiple occasions reintroduced themselves to me this week. Then after i had assured them we had in fact met before they didn't believe me, then proceeded to say how they would never had recognized me on the street (obviously, since they just didn't, but whatever). It's... and odd thing, really, not being recognized; not quite a compliment, yet not quite an insult. They didn't really know how to react, and i have to admit, I still don't.

Anyways, hopefully step one will be a new badge picture. I'll keep you updated.

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Falling Slowly

Background Noise: lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off
Last Visited: Kayak.com
Random Thought: i could go home for $311 round trip, right? that's not a crazy use of money, is it?
Mood: very weak

"Falling Slowly" from Once won the Oscar for Best Song last night; couldn't be happier.

Oh, i've also been putting a ton of pictures (still love my camera!!) up on my .mac gallery because, well, apparently i don't have enough pictures scattered around enough sites. Or something. Anyways, it's a fairly complete set - enjoy!

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Walk 'till we crawl

Background Noise: I-94, Control
Last Visited: Frames, Again
Random Thought: thinking about escaping to Treebones produces a NSFW response
Mood: exhausted

So, ProApps took a little breather to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday, and Dave, JR and I decided to extend the breather a bit by driving early, staying late, and adding a detour to Carmel, 17-Mile Drive, The Inn at Spanish Bay, and Pacific Grove.

It was, in a word, awesome.

I have a ton of pictures, but i'm tired and wanting to leave work, and as i added a few to my Frames book before i ordered it(!!) this morning, i'm just going to leave you with that as a teaser for now. I'm sure i'll torture you with more stories soon, especially the one about David Geffen's car.

But one day i will stay at the Inn at Spanish Bay. Perhaps Treebones first, though; it's more in my budget zone.

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The Deal

Background Noise: Back to Black
Last Visited: many many pages
Random Thought: i need to remember to always have a water bottle in my office; no exceptions. except... right now. and for the next 5 minutes.
Mood: cute sweater + cute denim pencil skirt + cute sassy boots; god i love fall.

Last night when i was home lounging in bed and generally being exhausted The Deal showed up on HBO. I watched it twice. I wish i could actually find the words to describe how simply fascinating the backstory of how Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came to power is; sadly, this morning, i'm finding that i don't quite have the way with words that i'd like. The only thing i can offer is, if you have any interest in politics and have access to HBO, track down the next showing and spend an hour immersed in the british political scene from the 80s through the 90s.

The Deal was produced by the team behind The Queen, and interestingly enough, while here in the US The Queen debuted first with The Deal appearing to be an afterthought, in actuality The Deal was filmed first - and hence Michael Sheen's performance as Tony Blair from piece to piece was a proper progression in both age and depth instead of an exercise in how to make an actor appear younger. What i find to be even more fascinating, is that The Deal was filmed before Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister for Tony Blair - thus the film first only hinted at the potential future instead of explaining how we arrived here after the fact.

Also, Tom Stoppard has a new play: Rock 'n Roll.

... which we should all attempt to see. Seriously.

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27

Background Noise: Green Bay vs. Da Bears
Last Visited: Flickr!
Random Thought: good cameras are fun
Mood: relaxing, and it's fabulous

Happy Birthday to Me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to me.

So, the breakdown: slept in, donuts and cider from the cider mill, pictures at the farm, fishing on the boat, cottage inn extended family dinner (with pie!), laundry!, and rest. I'm adoring the rest. I need more rest. My goodness i'm tired. But, reality will be returning tomorrow morning, and after a brief stop at Zingerman's for coffee, bribes, and an intersting looking pb/honey&bananna sandwhich for the plane, i'll be heading back to the Gold Coast. Hopefully my ride will remember i'm flying into SFO and not SJC.

But you really want to know what my day looked like? Here you go:

Ok, so, i was mentioning rest, right? Well, typing on Jack doesn't exactly feel like resting, so, i'm going to grab a drink and watch the rest of the game (peaking in on the Indians / Yankees game, of course).

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Go Fighting Trees!!

Background Noise:Ohio State v. Purdue, 3:58 in the 3rd
Last Visited: espn?!?!
Random Thought: OMG, Batman, GO STANFORD!!! 24-23 over USC!!!
Mood: ecstatic!!

So, i took like 150 pictures of this tree this evening, so i figured i should put up a couple:

Also: the best place on earth to watch college football? The student section of the Big House. Thanks, Dave!

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