the coast

a couple weekends ago we spent a whirlwind 36 hours on the olympic peninsula. the weather was spectacular! we decided to take the scenic drive up the coast instead of taking the ferry across. it was a long drive and even though the weather was great i can't say that it as all that scenic.

we stopped at the beach and had a picnic lunch. the beach was spectacular with the most awesome rocks! there is a lodge at the beach where we stopped that rents cabins. the cabins all sit at the top of a bluff & there is path down to the beach. we munched our lunch in the sun and did a little stroll on the beach, stuffing our pockets full of rocks and then we hit the road.

we drove to the hoh rain forest (this part of the drive was pretty scenic) & did a quick hike. the rain forest was pretty cool, but on one of the hottest days of the year it wasn't really what i had imagined, i think that it might make more of an impact in the fall or the spring. there are 2 loop trials & a 28 mile hike to blue glacier. we set a timer for 30 minutes & hiked the blue glacier trail. we made it all the way to a fork in the trail and were about to turn around and head back, but we could hear the river, so we decided to go a little further. we were rewarded with a rocky beach and the rushing icy blue colored hoh river. we dipped our feet in. it was COLD. i wanted to jump in, but the current was pretty strong & it was cold. we lingered a bit and then hiked back down to the car.


we drove the final leg of our trip to lake crescent lodge. when we arrived it was about 6:30 or so and the sun was starting to set. it was the most perfect idyllic setting and time of day. the lodge is right on the lake and the view is spectacular! the sun was dipping right into the valley between 2 mountains. amazing. the water in lake crescent is crystal clear & a breathtaking aqua color! we took a quick dip in the icy cold water and then had burgers and gin & tonics in the bar.


in the morning we had breakfast at the lodge and then we went for a quick hike up to the waterfall. after that we hiked around to the north side of the lake where we had a picnic and found a nice little swimming hole to while away the rest of the afternoon.

on the way to catch the ferry home we made a quick stop at dungeness spit.


on the way home we ended up stuck on the wrong side of the bridge when it was up and then there was a 2 hour delay for the ferry line, so we had to drive all the way around. this part of the drive was actually the most scenic! to bad we were too tired & cranky to really enjoy it.

so all in all it was a great weekend. too short, but really fun! we definitely want to go back again and again. our original plan was to go and do the shi shi beach hike, but it was too long of a drive and we would have been rushed, so we will save that for another time.

itinerary v.2

i think we want to drive through the badlands so we might go like this:

youngstown, ohio
st. joseph, michigan
dakota, minnesota
mitchell, south dakota
rapid city, south dakota
billings, montana
missoula, montana
spokane, washington

leaving some wiggle room in the badlands to stop and have a look see.

onward toward the future

so, big things are brewing for 2008. it's public knowledge now that we are in fact moving to seattle. it ain't no secret anymore.

we are hoping to out our house up for sale by the end of march & be in seattle by april/may. there are about 300 thousand things we need to do to make this all happen, and i feel like i am buried underneath a mountain with no idea where to start.

it's exciting & terrifying all at the same time. it is going to be a big change for us, but a big step toward our larger goal(s). a new movable type blog for me, has been put on hold. there are too many other things that are higher up on the priority list. so i will be posting here when i feel the call of the blog

here a picture from my birthday (#36, woot!) weekend in nyc/brklyn:

can you see my grey hairs? i has them! we did a little shopping at pearl river & muji, after we enjoyed the martin puryear exhibit at the moma. debbie & olivier cooked us a yummy dinner one night and the next night we ate at sea. it was a hop skip & a jump to get to brooklyn from philly, much faster then getting into manhattan. it was a really nice weekend.

now i need to get my head together and organize this mountain into nice neat manageable piles.

italia part 2

cinque terre/manarola

giorno cinque
all 4 of us were up at the crack of dawn to go to the train station and make our way to our next destination. we were all on the same train to florence and from florence p&l were renting a car and driving to todi, josh and i were catching another train to la spezia. we took the vaparetto to the train station and then a 2 hour train ride to florence. we said ciao ciao and got on our next train. it was a pretty long train ride, the part that ran along the coastline was pretty, we rode through carrera and saw piles upon piles of marble. upon arriving in la spezia we had to catch the local train to manarola where we were staying.

cinque terre is 5 little towns built into the cliffs that are a few minutes away from one another by train and have hiking trails that go in between all of the towns. it is a national park and you can buy a day pass that lets you take all the trains & hike all the trails. we did that and hopped on the train. manarola was the 2nd stop. when we got off the train i realized that i did not have an address for our apartment. we tried to call the landlady, no answer. i asked for directions to the hotel that they also own and we headed in that direction. we were met by one of the owners who spoke no english, she let us in and showed us around & we tried as best we could to follow her italian.

the apartment is amazing, small cute, clean. the bathroom is all tiled in red and has one of those big shower heads (the shower in venice was not so much a shower as it was kind of like being spit upon with luke warm water). the view was incredible. the ligurian sea is an amazing green blue color. the sky was blue, it was sunny and warm...idyllic. we dumped our stuff and scurried back into town to buy some supplies from the co-op grocery. they were closed & didn't open for a half hour, so we went down to the bar and had some beers and watched people. when the grocery store opened we bought some wine and snacks and headed back to the apartment. we both had long hot showers and cracked open a bottle of wine.

it was late afternoon at that point, the sun was just staring to set. it was so beautiful. we decided to go have dinner in the next town over (riomaggiore). the hiking trail in between manarola and riomaggiore in called via dell'amore and it is the local lover's lane. parts of the trail has walls that are covered with lover's graffiti & there is a spot where lovers attach locks and throw the key over the cliffs into the water as a symbol of their love (cheesy, no?). so we walked the trail and watched the sun set and found a little restaurant near the harbor for dinner. i had some very unsatisfying gnocchi and josh had some yummy pesto lasagne. on the walk back to manarola we discovered that they do not light the via dell'amore after the sun goes down (so that lovers can smooch and such in the dark) it was really dark.

giorno sei
in the morning we went into town and found a cafe for macchiato's and pastries, and made a plan for the day. after breakfast we took the train back to riomaggiore and explored the town, had some foccacia for lunch, and then stopped at a cliff side bar for a glass of wine, a caprese salad and a game of dominoes. we walked the via dell'amore back to manarola and changed into clothes for swimming. we walked down to the water where there were big rock where people sunned them selves and there was a swimming hole. the water was cold at first, but delicious once you got all in. we splashed around for awhile and the we went back to the apartment and showered up and went for another walk, this time we did the scenic walk in our town which included a path through the terraced hills planted with grapes and orange trees. very pretty. the sun was setting again and the hills looked all glowy and warm in the light, postcard perfect.

after our walk we took the train to vernazza for what was supposed to be a really good meal at a restaurant built on the cliff side with a "commanding view". unfortunately it was a cold night so the "commanding view" was covered up by plastic sheets, and the food was just so-so. we took the train home and to bed.

giorno sette
macciato and pastries at our morning place. and then we took the ferry all the way to the "end" at monterosso, we walked around town and then stopped at a waterside joint for one of the best meals yet, which was just a simple grilled panini with mozzarella and tomato, it was perfecto and a piccolo beer, then were were ready for our big hike to vernazza. the hike took about and hour and a half, it was really sunny and warm and the views were amazing we were climbing all along the edges of these cliffs and it was the perfect way to spend the day, we were seriously rubberlegged by the end though, so we stopped in vernazza for a gelato (pistachio & coffee) and then we stopped into a cute litttle pizza counter for a slice and we sat by the water to eat, enjoy the view, and make up back stories fr the people we were watching.

we took the train home from vernazza and went down to the water for another swim. home to clean up and then we went shopping for a picnic dinner. we walked the terraced cliff walk agoin to a scenic viewpoint to watch the sunset and ate our salami, cheese, olives, foccacia and a jar of pesto for dinner and lavender cookies for dessert, all washed down with some vino rosso. one of the best dinners we had.

giorno otto
we really didn't want to leave the cinque terre, it was so beautiful and relaxing we could have easily spent another day or 2 here, but we had reservations in florence, it was time to go. our favorite morning spot was closed on tuesdays so we had to have our morning jolt at a new place.

i was obsessed about getting some foccacia at this little counter place we had walked by earlier, it had been closed on monday and it didn't open until 9:30. we wanted to grab something to eat on the train so we were waiting for them to open up before we left. when it came down to deciding which flavors to get it was really hard, they all looked amazing. we bought a piece of some thin farina pizza thing laden with pesto to eat right then and then bought 3 pieces to take for later. the foccacia i really wanted was smothered with a pool of pesto with a big puddle of soft cheese on it, but we decided it would be too messy to travel with so we got a potato, an olive, and a meaty one. and then took one last walk around town before we had to go catch the train.

we arrived in florence around 2:30 and got lost looking for marcella's house. we got checked in and settled, freshened up and then went for a walk, we walked down to the duomo and visited the duomo museum and then climbed the 463 steps to the top of the duomo and watched the sun set, and enjoyed the view from above. we went and had a glass of wine and a snack at an adorable wine bar and then went to dinner at a so-so restaurant. home and bed.

italia part 1

for your reading pleasure:
i offer you more details than you probably want about our trip to italy:

venezia

giorno uno
we arrived in venice, and were met by paul and laura at the airport. this was especially nice because neither of us had gotten any sleep on the plane and neither of us had practiced any italian, so it was nice to just stumble off the plane & onto a bus with them and not have to think about it.

it did not however help at all on feeling like we were somewhere else, being with paul and laura made it fell like we could still be in philly it was a funny feeling. we took the bus to the vaporetto stop and caught a vaporetto (water taxi) to the stop closest to the apartment (just past the rialto bridge). we dragged our bags through the narrow twisty maze of streets and to the apartment which was very comfortable and big and right across the piazza from palazzo contarini del bovolo. the palazzo was unfortunately being restored so while the spiral staircase was still viewable the rest of the building was completely covered up. the restoration also meant that there was noisy construction going on from about 7-4, it wasn't that disruptive, but the noise was occasionally unnerving.

josh and i crashed for a mini nap and the ventured out with laura for a walk (paul was still recovering from a cold) we walked over to piazza san marco to see the duomo and people watch for awhile, we strolled around and headed back to the apartment, where we had a yummy dinner of prosciutto, parma ham, cheese, bread, salad, and such. and then to bed where i slept like the dead.

venice is beautiful. there are no cars, the city is made up of canals and bridges, the venetian lagoon is saltwater and a beautiful green color, but the place is filthy with tourists and it feels like you are on a movie set, or at a theme park maybe, it does not feel like a real place at all. the fact that we were jet lagged and delirious may have added to this perception of the the place, but i did not fall in love with venice, and i can't think of any reason why i would want to go back...other than the fact that it's just pretty. it is pretty. if you can tune out the hordes it is a beautiful thing to look at.

giorno due
josh and i got up and made a moka pot of coffee and walked over to the piazza san marco so we could go to the top of san marco's campanile and get an overview. we thought we would have to climb it, but there was an elevator. so we went up and had a look and snapped some pix and went back down. we found a cafe and stopped for a pastry and walked around for awhile. we headed back to the apartment to meet laura and paul and go across the grand canal to look at la escuela de san rocco which was all frescoed by tintoretto. after that we found a little place for lunch and had some mighty fine pizza. after the pizza we slipped into a cute little cafe/bakery and had our first (and is it turned out, the best) macchiato and some pastries. then we went back to the apartment and had a nap.

post nap josh and i went for a long walk. we wanted to go to the guggenheim, but it was getting a little late, so we walked over in that neighborhood and took pictures and looked and walked. after our walk we met up with paul and laura to go out for our first italian dinner, they had made reservations at a place they had read about and wanted to try, the sun was setting and we took a long scenic vaporetto ride up the grand canal and around to the southern "coast". we we the first customers of the evening, and i can't remember for the life of me what we ate, but it was seafoody and it was yummy. we walked home from there and went to bed.

giorno tre
up. moka pot. off the the mercado with l&p for looking and buying food stuffs.

fruit and veggie stalls and a fish market and lots of deli shops with all manner of meats and cheeses and other deliciousness.

we looked and shopped and stopped for a macchiato and a snack. we walked back to the apartment where we lunched on salami and cheese. josh and i weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves, we decided to go check out the biennale.

it is located in a part of venice we hadn't seen yet (the very SE tip), so we walked over there and spnet to much time in the main building, when what was really interesting was all the individual buildings that each represented an individual country, we only made it through a hanfull of them before they were closing and we had to leave.

we met p&l and headed out for dinner. we walked to a place that was described as having good cicchetti (italian tapas) but when we got there all they had was cold stuff.

we ended up at a very cute place alongside a little canal next to a bridge.

we had some vino rosso and some pasta and some amazing pizza.
walk home. bed.

giorno quattro
our last day in venice. we went back to the market to buy lunch stuff for our long train trip the next day (salami, cheese, bread, etc.). after that we went for a walk in the cannaregio area before meeting p&l for lunch at osteria la zucca where we all stuffed ourselves. it is a very cute place and the food is amazing. highly recommended. after zucca even though we were stuffed we stopped for a gelato and then walked, we stumbled upon the bakery cafe that had the amazing macchiato's and stopped in for more and bought some éclairs to bring back to the apartment for later.

that evening after we got all of our bags packed for the morning, we tried to go out for cicchetti again. we had walked by an interesting looking place earlier in the day that looked like they had a nice selection & so we went there. the bartender was unbelievably rude to us, initially she just ignored us and wouldn't even make eye contact, when she finally decide to wait on us, she got our wine order, but refused to even try communicate with us about ordering food, even though we were trying to speak italian, she was being a total bitch. so we drank our glass of wine and left, frustrated and discouraged. we tried one more place that was near the apartment & they were nice and friendly but didn't have much in the way of cicchetti left to offer. we had one polenta and pancetta thing and another glass of wine and then went home. bed.

ITALIA

since i have a little extra time on my hands, i am knee deep in making arrangements and nailing down our itinerary for our upcoming trip to italy in october.

venice (4 nights)
manarola (3 nights)
florence (2 nights)
siena (2 nights)
rome (3 nights)

in that order.

it was actually tricky finding a room in manarola, even though it's 3 months from now...most things were already booked. we ended up making a reservation to stay in an apartment, which looks quite lovely.

we made reservations at a b&b in florence.

the next big decision will be: "where do we want to stay in siena?" we have the option of staying in a convent, which sounds intriguing.

i just finished reading eat, pray, love (which i LOVED) and i am currently in the middle of reading city of falling angels (which if i weren't going to venice i think i would find rather boring)...and now i am on the prowl for other books and movies that can get my juices flowing for our italian adventure.

i just added a bunch of movies to my netflix queue:

featuring the legendary marcello mastroianni:
divorce italian style
la dolce vita (i can't remember if i have actually seen this or not)

featuring the italian bombshell sophia loren:
two women

death in venice
the comfort of strangers ( i think i might have seen this one?)
the wings of the dove
swept away (i saw the trailer for this one so many times i feel like i have seen the movie)
ciao, proffesore!
a room with a view ( i saw this one...but it was over 20 years ago)

for books i'm not sure how to search out what is good. i think that i would like to read some books about the history, art and architecture. this is the kind of thing that i like to know, but hate to read about when i am actually in the place. when i am there i just want to look and experience. but it's always nice to have background and context, so it would be fun to do some reading before we go.there's certainly plenty of time.

i am trying to decide:

the stones of florence
brunelleschi's dome
a thousand days in venice
italian education
extra virgin
the house of medici
a concise history of italy
the italians

a walk in the sand (with wild ponies)

the 3rd of july was our anniversary (#2) and we have started a tradition of going camping on our anniversary (last year we went to worlds end ) this year we decided to go see the wild ponies!

we had been talking about the wild ponies for YEARS...at least 4 (jak read a book as a kid about the wild ponies of assateague which is how we knew that there were wild ponies to be seen). there are national, state, and private campgrounds in assateague (maryland) and chincoteague (virginia), i did my best to sort through all the info and determine what would be the best option for us. i settled on the camp site at the assateague national seashore and we chose a site on the oceanside that looked like it would be nice.

on monday we packed up all our gear and headed out. it was supposed to be a 3-4 hour drive, but we decided to stop for lunch along the way at a great looking seafood counter/restaurant in delaware where i had an amazing fried oysters sandwich (jak had a less than amazing crab melt) at a place we can't remember the name of. we hit a few pockets of traffic and got a little turned around here and there but we made it there finally in the late afternoon.

we have decided to be car campers. it's just plain easier. so we have a fair amount of crap that we bring with us, and this year we added a 10 x 10 screen room because of the repeated bug warnings (many many 'squitoes & bitey flies). our site was a walk in site, and we didn't have to walk all that far, but it was mostly sand which made it a little slower. 5-6 trips back and forth to the car and we were ready to get set up.

OH, the ponies!! yes they are everywhere! it's pretty great...we saw several driving in, and as the sun started to go down they came into our camp ground and even into our site to chow down on grass (and anything else they could find ) they are VERY pretty, but you are not allowed to touch or feed them, and they aren't much interested in humans anyway (except maybe our food stuffs). they are known to kick and bite, so it is best to just admire them and leave them alone.

we were one big dune away from the ocean. it's a perfect site, the sunset was beautiful, with glowy pink light reflecting off the patterns in the sand. we went for a walk on the beach, cooked up our pork chop, potato, roasted corn dinner, went for another walk on the beach, and called it a night. unfortunately there are no open fires, so there was no campfire sittin' into the night, which is one of our most favorite part of camping...that's was a little disappointing.

in the morning we discover (horror of horrors) that we forgot to pack our stove top espresso pot!! this is a disaster! but jak comes to the rescue and rigs something up from twigs/wire/aluminum foil/paper towels. it works! the coffee is perfectly tasty.

breakfast was scrambled eggs with sweet corn left over from dinner and toast. yumm. after breakfast we loaded up our bikes and drove down to chincoteague. we rode our bikes all around and (i will edit out the details about reading the map wrong and ensuing miscommunication) we ended up on the beach where we ate our picnic lunch and searched for shells. a little too much sun, there is no shade anywheres (we need to add an umbrella to our gear for our next beach trip) so we biked back to our car and drove into chicoteague where we got some ice cream and then wandered around the town until we were hungry for dinner.

we polled a few of the locals for restaurant recommendations and ended up at bill's. the food was just ok. we ordered steamed clams and half a dozen chincoteague salt oysters on the half shell for appetizers and they were quite good. for dinner jak got crab cakes and i orfered fried oysters, which were not as good as the ones i had in delaware, (but the company was excellent, so that made up for the mediocre food)

we might have been better off eating at PT pelicans intercoastal deck bar at the chincoteague inn which was more along the lines of the delaware joint, we stopped there for a gin and tonic before dinner and it was full of locals and open to the water, mostly fried seafood and chips, but i'll take that over fake fancy any day.

after dinner we headed back to camp. upon our return we noticed that the wind had really whipped up and our tent and screen room were rocking and flappin' in the wind. jak re-secured all of our various shelters and we tucked in for bed, and then the whipping wind turned into wind and rain. it rained all night. it was still raining when we got up in the morning & the sky was dark and gloomy with no signs of clearing up. jak secured a tarp over our (not really a rain shelter) screen room and i drove up to the ranger station to see what the weather report was for the day. they said it should clear up by late morning and be in the 80's, and then more wind and possible rain that night.

we made our macgyver coffee and scrambled some eggs and decided to stay. we went for a long walk in the wind along the beach. i left my flip flops at the bottom of the dune where we started our walk, and when we came back they were gone (someone stole my freaking shoes!). we searched and searched and did not find my shoes (bugger). the weather did start to clear up and we rode our bikes along all the different trails in the park (the dunes, the marshes, and the life of the forest) it was still really windy all day, which was nice because it stayed pretty cool and kept the bugs away (mostly).

after our bike rides we went back to camp and made some lunch and then went down to the beach to sit and read our books. the wind was still blowing like crazy, and it was much like being in a sandblaster. along the surface of the sand you could see a cloud of sand grains blowing along... i wrapped myself in scarves and tried to ignore the 35 mph wind gently constantly pushing and enjoy my book. that lasted only so long before we retreated back to our camp site, where it was only slightly less windy. did i mention that it was windy? and that the sand was going everywhere. everywhere, including a mini dune that was forming in our tent.

we decided that maybe it might be best to pack up and head home. we had to be out by 11am the next morning anyway. so why spend another windy rainy night sleeping in a sandy tent? we lounged a little longer reading our books and then started to pack up. we made some sandy soup for dinner and packed up the rest and left.

we stopped for ice cream along the way so that i would feel less sad about missing (because now they were closed) all of the farm stands that i wanted to stop at on the way home to buy sweet corn and tomatoes. we made it home in a record 2.5 hours (the last hour in the pouring rain). we both took desperately needed showers and passed out. happy anniversary.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ONE

my new love

i made the leap. i bought me an adorable little 13" white macbook. i bought it from the refurbished apple site, and i think it will prove to be a worthwhile purchase.

ain't she CUTE?

i even bought her a little cozy, so i can just slip her into my regular bag:

my new little friend was the perfect travel companion when i took her for a spin on my trip to the NW, and i am hoping that there will be more opportunities to make it worth every penny.

getting lost

when i returned home from my trip to boston last month i was surprised by a gift from jak. wrapped up and sitting on my desk with a very sweet card was a: GPS. this gift was in response not only to this incident, but many others that have occurred just like it over the past few years. my philosophy when driving while lost is this: if i just keep driving, i'll get there eventually. i don't have a problem with stopping and asking for directions, but if i am driving to the movie theater, and i know pretty much where it is, and i have been there before, i really don't see the point in stopping....it's gotta be here somewhere....

for the first few weeks i didn't need to drive anywhere that i didn't know how to get to. i kept thinking that i would bring it with me when i needed it. the fatal flaw in that plan is: "how do you know when you are going to get lost?" i think i have proven on more than one occasion that i am capable of getting lost under almost any circumstance.

this past weekend i realized that the car installation kit is not a sticker that permanently attaches to some part of your car, but is a suction cup for the inside of the windshield. so i installed the parts that hold the GPS in the car and now i can take the GPS in and out with me as needed, (i just need to remember to bring it when i plan on getting lost).

we used it to navigate our way west orange, new jersey a couple weeks ago and i used it to try out a new route to king of prussia a few days ago. and my overall review is mixed. it works well on the broad strokes, but often gets confused on the details (recalculating....) and sometimes it gives you instructions, not quite soon enough for you to actually make the turn/merge/on ramp/exit that you need to make (recalculating...). however that being said, it is a great toy, and i think that it will prove quite useful. we are considering buying the digital maps for italy, and taking it with us on our trip in october.

one of the mind blowing feature that it has: it "reads" your location and you can ask it to look for restaurants & it will give you a list of nearby restaurants. it will also show you shopping, lodging, gas stations, etc. how crazy is that?

long sorta weekend

i had a great time in boston, it was quite the event filled long weekend actually, between flying up to connecticut for 2 days and then bussing it over to boston for AEA. the 5 day "weekend" left me completely wrung out and a little bit dazed.

it is taking me a little bit of time to absorb...

i find that when i am without my computer, it is sometimes difficult to think. there is also some kind of phantom pain, or feeling, or longing, when i am without it, like i am missing an appendage. this feeling is especially strong when i am at an event that has so much to do with my virtual digital geeky designer life. i mean, sure i can exist without it, but do i have to? i see the purchase of a laptop in my not so distant future.

for instance, when dan cederholm was talking about favicons, and microformats i wanted to be able to look it up right then (or soon after) when it was fresh on my mind, it sucks to have to wait 24-48 hours until i get home & have 30 thousand other things that i have to think about, and i wanted to get busy designing my own favicons, instead of watching crap tv in my hotel room when i couldn't fall asleep.

cameron moll gave a great presentation too. he had some interesting insights about inspiration vs. influence, and some thought provoking examples of good and not so good design from everyday experiences, it's interesting how certain rules apply across the board. oh great..... i just clicked over to cameron's web site so that i could link over to him, only to find an ever so charming flap and snap of myself and rob and greg.

yeesh....rob forgot to take off his glasses and when he started flappin' they flew off his face and whacked me in the head, you can see another view of that here, as if one view weren't more than enough. why flap and snap? well maybe that doesn't explain why, but it does explain what.

anyway ALL the speakers were great, and i had a lovely time, but i am also very happy to be home sweet home with my beloved G5, and my own cozy bed.

critique

in my very jaded, not easily impressed, overly analytical opinion, sxswi is trying to be too many things for too many people. instead of focusing on 1 or two areas and doing them well they are doing a little bit of everything, not so well. i realize that the interactive portion is the red headed step child of the sxsw triad, but there is lot's of potential there.

it seems to me that they are spreading themselves too thin, they are trying to appeal to bloggers, vloggers, designers, programmers, gamers, business people, information architects, user experience professionals, the technorati, and all manner of geeks, and as a result, it is a one size fits all kind of conference.

in the end i found myself more disappointed than inspired. perhaps all the shortcomings could be chalked up to growing pains. the conference IS growing and trying to keep up with the ever changing interactive scene is no small feat.

perhaps it really is meant to be more of a social event and not so much an educational experience, i would most definitely give it another chance if the stars were to align again. i would just need to recalibrate my expectations next time.

sxswi recap

i was a terrible photo journalist on this trip. i hardly took any pictures at all, and the ones i did take don't really have any people in them, and aren't necessarily conference related at all...and i have most definitely taken better austin pics in general, i guess i just wasn't in the shutterbug mood. here are a few of the better ones. you can see the set over at flickr.

i think it might take me a few days to recover form our little tejas adventure. all in all i would call it a success, i will attempt to elaborate more once i have detoxed and can think again...

GONE FISHING

been sick
been busy
going out of town

i'll catch up with y'all later

italia

venezia in october. hee hee hee, it makes me want to giggle. we are planning a 2 week trip to italy in october. flying into venice and out of rome, definitely stopping in florence. anyone out there have any recommendations?

i love adventures. i am very much looking forward to our upcoming sxsw adventure, which is quickly sneaking up on us. i think i might need to start mentally packing (if not actually packing) this weekend. especially since we are traveling to another climate (highs in the low 70's, lows in the high 50's) for which i will be grateful, i am really getting sick of my winter clothes. i didn't want to get dressed today.

a perfect day to chase tornados

i never really gave two hoots and a holler, about sxsw when i lived in austin. it was just an extra busy week when we slung allota sausage and made allota propane scented dinero. i attended sxsw once as a tourista from the NW, but not really as a conference goer, just as a music lover.

we will be attending sxswi this year, which i am VERY excited about. i am VERY excited to go and be in austin (which i often find myself missing), and eat my favorite tacos (which i often find myself trying to replicate) and see my friends (which i often find myself missing), and be inspired, and be geeky (which i am), and have fun (who doesn't want to have fun?).

cement castle

jak and i had a fun filled weekend with our visiting dignitary from the borough of brooklyn. we met up friday night and had a lovely bowling adventure at north bowl, which left us all with various aching body parts the next day.

on saturday we had a hearty breakfast of steel cut oats and made a plan to go and tour fonthill in doylestown pa. fonthill was quite the spectacular hunk of architecture, i say hunk, because the whole damn thing is made of concrete and amply decorated with handcrafted tiles, unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the affiliated mercer museum (all the more reason to make a return visit).

we had to get home because the short ribs that jak was going to braise in beer for dinner needed to cook for 3 hours. dinner turned out amazing & we washed it down with a bottle of wine and most of a bottle of dessert wine while having a passionate discussion about Art, talent and skill. post meal we snuggled up on the couch to watch the noodle western tampopo, which was ridiculous, and excellent, and so very 1985, and left us all desperately craving noodles, even with our full bellies.

happy new year

i really had a lovely holiday. it was a non stop go go go, eat eat eat kind of thing, and i polished it all off by getting head cold. but all in all it was a very nice time.

more link-o-rific details than you probably care to know (for posterity & my own reference):

incoming
3 hour delayed flight (which meant 5 hours of wandering the airport)
by the time we arrived & were between the sheets it was 5 am to our body clocks. what a way to start a family marathon. over to my mom's house in the morning where we started hooking up her new computer. my favorite coffee joint for mandatory caffeinated beverages and croissants. that afternoon we ran some errands on the ave: mj feet (where i bought some fabulous cozy tights), the u bookstore, and tru value. then we met all our aunts, uncles and cousins for a big chinese food feast. then we went shopping at whole foods for sunday/monday dinners & had a lovely dinner out with p and a at volterra.

xmas eve

more food shopping in the morning. drop josh of for computering. ferry kids and groceries home. back to mom's and then all of us over to the house to help prep for dinner. e,s,m,l & h join us for a delicious dinner of (tuna, cheese, and pate appetizer) salmon with creme fraiche & caviar yumminess, fingerling potatoes, salad, and chilly lime pie for dessert.


xmas day
presents in a big blur & then an eggy breakfast. charlotte's web with the young'uns. we were all of the same opinion (booooooo-ring). dinner of (appetizers: more cheese & pate with cornichons, and assorted olives) prime rib, braised fingerlings, brussel sprouts braised in heavy cream, and salad, with an apple pear crisp for dessert.

the day after
hung out with the kid's until they left for the cabin. thai food for lunch. went thrift store shopping (goodwill, value village & thriftco). i am so glad we went to the thriftco, because that is where i found a hardly used complete GOCCO set for $5.99!! if you don't know how amazing this is wander over to ebay and see how much these things are going for these days. i am always looking at them, but i can never justify the expense. after all that excitement we went over to lora's to visit and ordered some pagliacci's for dinner.

off to portland


packed up our goodies and picked up my mom for breakfast. after driving by several places that were closed we ended here. then on our way to the freeway we decided to hit the greenwood space travel supply co. where we bought a few items for the good cause and resumed our journey south. we arrived in PDX around 3 in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and went directly to powells where we bought a decent map and a guidebook. we had some deep fried fishy snacks and microbrews at jake's & poked around the pearl before heading back to the hotel where i started surfing for interesting real estate, restaurants, and other assorted information. we ended our day with a cocktail & a late night snack at the hotel bar: doug fir

1st day


we discovered stumptown and caffinated ourselves & then we wandered a bit in the hawthorne/belmont area. we drove around to look at some real estate in the sw, checked out the new seasons market (VERY nice grocery store, why don't we have anything like that here?) and from there we wound our way to the NE in search of autentica


which was closed for lunch. we ended up around the corner at la bonita, which was plenty yummy. we were now in the alberta/killingsworth neighborhood and did some shopping:


office - a GREAT little shop with lots of fun paper products. bolt - a beautiful little fabric shop, where jak bought me a yard of deep red wool felt out of the remnants basket. after that we headed back to out hotel 'hood & looked in at hippo hardware. for dinner we went to lovely hula hands & then went back to hawthorne for dessert at pix, back at the hotel we stayed up way too late watching "one hit wonders" on VH1

2nd day
stumptown again. more shopping around the pearl. obilation paper and press is heaven. cacao has an amazing selection of chocolates, we sampled some fluer de sel caramels and 2 different blends of drinking chocolate (which spoiled our appetites for lunch entirely).


canoe has a great selection of beautiful designer-ly things and lots of neat stuff for under $10. we had sushi for lunch (because we were all hopped up on coffee and too much chocolate, which rendered us unable to make any decisions or think straight, we ended up at a run of the mill unremarkable sushi place) after lunch we went to the japanese garden


by that time it was very grey and starting to drizzle...and it was cold. i have been to the garden in the early summer when it is SPECTACULAR, i have to say that in the winter there's just not much to see. that evening we drove to salem to meet lindsey & harley for burgers and beers at boon's treasury. back at the hotel and snug in bed my throat started feeling scratchy & my nose was feeling stuffy. this was a bad, bad, no good sign

last day
i woke up sick and feeling like crap. packed up and ate a nice big breakfast at doug fir.

checked out of the hotel. enjoyed one last latte @ stumptown. back to powell's for some airport reading. drove over to council crest for the view, we had wanted to make it over there for sunset, but it just didn't work out weather & timingwise. slurped big steamy bowls of thai soup for lunch. poked around a great little zine-centric bookstore called reading frenzy. not knowing quite what to do with ourselves for the remainder of the day we decided to go see a movie at the very cute cinema 21. i highly recommend anything and everything pedro almodovar does. we grabbed some burritos on our way to the airport and thus our northwest adventure was concluded

outgoing
we were on a red eye home (departing at 10:45pm). a red eye flight is usually pretty miserable under the best of circumstances, but being sick made it extra miserable. we didn't sleep at all & felt utterly zombified by the time we got home.

a complete set of pics over on flickr on my fancy new pro account (that i finally succumed to paying for)

day trip

off to nyc
for brunch
artsy fartsy
and dinner with jane

i'm baaaaaaaaaack PT.2

we rose up before it got hot
and accumulated at the brown recluse for coffee and breakfast
after that we went to the marfa book co. for a look around
and then we wandered around town a little
and walked back to our little tent city
we found out the times of the chinati tours
and then went over to liz's place for a nice cool dip in her stock tank
after that we headed back to el cosmico
and decided to brave the showers
which was just a shower head attached to a big water tank
surrounded by some matchstick fence
it was actually very pleasant
the sun was starting to go down and was shining warmth on us
and the water wasn't too cold
it was perfectly refreshing

after showers we grabbed some cold beers and lounged until dinner
food and music started about the same time
dinner was prepared by lou and crew and it was a full scale bbq spread
slaw, potato salad, green salad, brisket, sausage, ribs, & chicken
and i totally missed the beans and grits
because once the meat was on my plate i was singularly focused
i grabbed a couple mexican cokes from the food shark
and we chowed down
after that it was beers and music and visiting
peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert
lil cap'n travis closed the show
but the music went a little too long
and they had to end their set with quiet songs
(we were supposed to not be loud after midnight)
so the end of the evening was a little anti-climatic
we sat by the fire and had one last glass of wine
and turned in for the night
we were definitely one of the firsts to go to bed (old fogeys that we are)
josh was up early helping the cleaning crew pick up the grounds
i got up and started snapping pictures in the pretty dawn light
we scooted over to the brown recluse for a coffee fix
since it didn't seem like anyone was rising up out of their tents
anytime soon
(i also had a still warm pumpkin empanada, yummmm)
upon our return everyone was indeed up and gathered around
munching peanut butter and other breakfast edibles
we lounged and chatted
until we couldn't put off breaking down camp any longer
break down/load up

we went to lunch with j & c at the austin street cafe, and said adios
went on our chinati tour
i loved the dan flavin piece and judd's aluminum boxes are beautiful
i could have skipped most of the rest
after our tour we were off to alpine & the maverick inn
we showered and freshened up
and went to dinner in marathon @ the gage
i had elk, and j had buffalo, it was delicious and perfect

the next day we had brakfast burritos
and drove the scenic loop around the davis mountains
stopping briefly at the macdonald observatory
lunch (taco's) in fort davis
and continued on up to i-10, back to el paso
it was a really beautiful drive

checked into the la quinta and called T to meet up for dinner
one last taco-fest before returning to the NE
in the morning we went over to t's restaurant
we enjoyed delicious granola, fruit, and yogurt
and she sent us off with turkey sandwiches
(with homemade chips & pickles) for the plane ride
and that concludes my west texas/el cosmico report

i'm baaaaaaaaaack PT.1

did you miss me?

another whirlwind mini vacation
el cosmico was COSMIC DUDE
it was fun, many familiar faces and lots of laughs

many, many beatiful images captured digitally
many taco, and taco-like items consumed
(not to mention a few mexican beers, and some tequila)

i had one day to recover from my seawa trip
and then we flew off to tejas

we went to bed around 1am
and we had to get up at 5am to catch our 8am flight to el paso
so we start off our journey wacko from no sleep
arrived in el paso at 2:30 (4:40pm to our bodies)
rent car and begin our 3 hour drive to marfa
we made it to van horn & decided we needed to stop for a taco break
drove the rest of the way
stopping only for beer, tortilla chips, and water
passed this along highway 90

the drive into marfa was spectacular
the sky is HUGE and blue with wispy clouds
the sun was starting to go down and the light was dusky and pink
there is nothing (or very little) out there, it's all landscape and train tracks
we were really sad that we forgot to bring some music with us
some dave alvin (or some west texas country) would have perfected the ambiance

upon arrival everyone was heavily involved in "happy hour"
we had a shot of tequila and set up our tent
once we we are all set up we settled in for some beers and visiting
the music started up and we wandered over to listen
jak and i were exhausted
we lasted for as long as we could (12:30ish) and then we crashed

stay tuned for part 2
you can look at pretty pictures here