Tired of seeing pictures of me and Isaac? I didn't think so! I know you bitches love to look at us- that's why you read our blog! Well, I have a special treat for everyone. We went home for Thanksgiving so here are lots of pictures of us, and our families. You're welcome.
"Red stickers mean "I Voted!"
This was by far the most amazing election ever. Isaac and I always vote, but this time it really felt like it mattered. Seeing the lines at my work (we are a polling place) was incredible, and my coworkers and I kept running down to peek all day. It really felt like everyone cared this year. After work our neighbors Layla, Merritt, Pierre and their twin babies came over for homemade pizza, big salad and champagne. I like to pronounce it Cham-pag-ney to Pierre, because he's French. He doesn't mind. Being French I mean. I think he might mind my pronunciation. Anyways, we watched the news and tracked the results on the web (see the picture with the guys looking at the results- even the baby is happy!)and when it was announced that Obama was the winner, we all ran outside shouting and laughing. Every car on Valencia street was honking it's horn and everyone on the street was yelling, singing, and high fiving complete strangers. It was magic. Then we went back inside and watched Indiana go blue, for the first time that I can remember. Merritt is from Indiana too so it was special for all three of us to see that. Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We FINALLY rented a Karaoke room with 8 of our closest friends on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and everyone sang as loud and as drunkenly as they could. I think we all agreed Ed and Isaac's duet of "Dick in a box" was the evening's highlight. And we all got a kick out of sneaking flasks of alcohol in, since everyone in the room was well over 21. ahhhhh... high school memories. The first picture is Jess before and immediately after knocking a light off the wall. Fortunately the guys were able to reattach it and no one was the wiser. After karaoke we went to Kat's house and almost set her house on fire because we started a fire in the fireplace with the flu (sp?) closed. we had to use a fire extinguisher to put it out. Oh yeah, and before that we almost got kicked out of BAR, BAR for god's sake, because people were getting a little bit naked. Just a little so they ended up not kicking us out. Crazy kids!
Isaac's Birthday! Woo-hoo! We went bowling with Jen and Garland. Lunar bowling. Being the birthday boy, Isaac pooled all his birthday super powers and easily won every game. we were all suitably impressed. And even though I was a bad girlfriend and didn't get even one birthday-themed balloon or hat, the group in the lane next to us was coincidentally having a 30th birthday party for one of the bowlers. So there were "dirty thirty" signs and balloons everywhere. See? No need to decorate! The universe takes care of these things. Unfortunately, Isaac's birthday luck had run off by the time I bought him a bowling-alley lotto scratcher. Oh well.
So as I sit here writing this in... ummm... August or late June or something... we just went to Muir woods with dad! yeah! It was a lot of fun. Dad had never been so it was a nice drive up to Marin over the bridge. Parking at Muir was terrible but once we got parked we were able to wander around for several hours. After we ate some delicious Pho and garlic noodles at Sunflower (Turtle Tower is not open at night). Dad tried to get the waiter to tell us what the "secret ingredient" in the garlic noodles was. Silly dad! they won't tell! Not ever. Isaac says fish sauce. I say crack. I think I'm right.
sooooooo.... Isaac and I have been really busy and haven't blogged in awhile. time to play catch up! that means you need to ignore the dates of the next few posts and pretend they are from a few months ago. So sit back,crack a cold one, and pretend that you are scared to death that Palin will be president in a few years.
Last weekend we had an extremely busy but fun weekend. we were all ramped up to go to the opening of the new Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park, but when we got there it was sold out. bummer. We decided to stroll around nearby Hayes Valley and as soon as we parked the car, we saw our friend Bryant walking up to us. Bryant moved to Philly about a year ago, and was in town for a few hours during a long layover from Vancouver! None of us could believe our luck that we would run into each other. It was so nice to have a drink with him before he left for the airport. That's him in the picture above, drinking a comically huge latte.
Later on Saturday we celebrated our friend Ed's birthday at a BBQ at his apartment. Ed and Ineka have a video game called Rock Band, which I know will need no introduction for about half of our 6 readers. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it's like karaoke but with instruments that you get to play too. The photo above is Isaac rocking out until late into the night. :)
On Sunday everyone at the previous night's party decided to meet up at Folsom Street fair, a yearly San Francisco institution where S&M meets street fair. There were naked people who probably shouldn't have been naked. It was not sexy. But it was interesting, and Ed and Ineka had German friends in town who had fun taking lots of pictures that they won't be able to show their family back home. Sunday night we had dinner with our Indiana friend Rachel whose folks were in town (her dad fixed my car brakes in college, shout out Steve and Cathy!). overall an exhausting but fun and event packed weekend! I'm off to take a nap......
After a long period of not seeing Lisa and Marc it was like a much needed drug fix for a junkie complete with the aftermath of withdrawal. We, as always, had an amazing time. On June 21st we took a nice long drive down to Big Sur stopping whenever any of us felt like stopping to soak it in and take some pictures. The shot above is at one point were we could see a huge thunderstorm heading to the coast from out to sea. That storm that you see Lisa pointing at is the one that started this gigantic fire on one of the hill tops. Once we were down in Big Sur, we actually almost didn't get to drive back through on Highway 1 due to all of the fire crews and helicopters trying to start their attack on the blaze. 
On that following Tuesday, we decided to test a theme park here in California to see how it measured up to the epic coaster-filled mega-parks of the Midwest. Of course, the park turned out to be much smaller in almost every measurable scale, but since it was a really slow Tuesday with little to waiting for every ride and Perfect weather, it made for a really superb day! In the day we also discovered that we are all losers in comparison to Lisa. At times when the rest of us would need to stop and let the dizziness wear off so we wouldn't yak all over the place, Lisa was calmly sitting back with a Buddha smile, soaking in the gentile sun and breeze, wondrously curious as to why we were having such a hard time. The image below pretty much sums up the day.
We can't wait to see them again...
On June's Friday the 13th, Kerry and I headed out into the heart of California's old mining country to attend the wedding of our good friends Mike Plocek and Margarethe Olsen. The event took place in the beautifully authentic Volcano, California. I say authentic because it still has the feel of a small old mining town even though any real mining efforts have long since died out. We stayed in a really charming original hotel and saloon called the St. George where all of the festivities took place. Due to the glut of wildfires that have struck Northern California this year, there was no power in the whole town most of our stay, but to be honest, it was really more of a treat than a burden. It just made the whole thing feel, well, more authentic. In Volcano, there is a rather large cave called Black Chasm where due to the lack of power, we took a tour using only flashlights! Though thankfully, just before the ceremony began, all power was restored.
The non-religious ceremony was expertly presided over by our good friend Ed Moss and was enhanced by original stories and poems written for the occasion and read by their respective authors. If I can get links to the writings, I'll link them here as they were really quite fantastic! It was a superb getaway for everyone and there were some good times catching up and meeting new friends over drinks and grilled deliciousness. 
The drive there and back was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Driving along the old gold rush highways with the top down, embracing the intense heat is almost therapeutic. We stopped whenever the impulse to just take in the view or take some pictures struck, and the luscious green that dotted the drive gave ample opportunity to give us more practice with our IR filter.
There was some talk from some of the other wedding attendees of having their wedding at the same location in Volcano, and I hope they follow through with it, it would be great to have an excuse to go back to this magical little spot.
After a great deal of planning, research, and discussion with Kerry and fellow artists, I finally moved forward to get a tattoo. Most of you know, I've had a strong drive to get a tattoo for many many years but never pulled the trigger for various reasons; wrong design idea, nervous, some amount of fear and regret about old ideas from my youth.
This time however, I really did know what I was looking for, but finding an artist turned out to be a great deal harder than I had anticipated. I spoke to a whole slew of tattoo artists around the bay area before finally finding the one I was looking for in Philip Milic. The rub then was in getting on the schedule. After about 6 months of waiting for my appointment, I was finally in!
The first shots here are of the process in the first session one week ago. I arrived for the first session at about 2pm, and didn't leave until maybe 7-7:30, so it was a really long day, but having Kerry to hang out with and having Jen and Garland come by with some good wishes and awesome caramels (THANKS!), it was a fun and fulfilling day. Here is a shot Kerry took inside the studio of Philip mid-session.
Here is another shot of the process, this time with a close-up. Pushing the needle in, again and again.
The piece, as you can see in the first image, is of a cherry blossom branch (sakura), with a pair of cicadas on a trailing, weighted limb. There are many layers to the meaning for me, but here is one. I have very fond memories of cicadas from my childhood in Indiana. It was magical to play with them both alive and in picking their shed exoskeletons from the trunks of trees. They represent my roots. The blossoming branch is a reference to many things, but one is that in the traveling that Kerry and I have done, bar-none our favorite place has been Japan. In was an inspiring, beautiful, cultured place, and in that way the branch represents looking forward, full of appreciation, Spring-like optimism, and life. Kerry and I are extremely happy with the final result, I hope you all will be too. Because the final session was only yesterday, the colors are deeper and brighter than they will be after they have settled in a few months. I can't wait to share it with you!
It is our last full day here in Rome and today we made it out to the Vatican Museum. Our super helpful B&B helped us book a reservation which allowed us to have a super fast que compared to the "regular" line which stretched about 5 people wide for nearly a kilometer! (Look at me, we've been in Europe so long I'm counting things in metric without even thinking about it). Once we got inside we began our exploration carefully because we had read all sorts of warnings that if you got off track and missed a section they won't let you go back to a previous gallery, (what a stupid rule for a museum!). Much of the ancient art was not groundbreaking in comparison with what you tend to see in every nook and cranny in the churches and museums throughout the city, but they were inspiring none-the-less.
The most amazing thing for me about the whole museum was that every single surface was covered in some sort of art. In the image below, it is a snapshot of a hall that was roped off just to show the level of detail you see throughout the museum.
Once we made it into the "apartments" of some of the former popes, we began to see a great deal fantastic renaissance work including one suite that was frescoed entirely by Raffael! Most people can afford a house painter, and maybe even a small mural... the popes, they get Raffael. Money and power can do amazing things. This is a detail from one of the every-surface-frescoed rooms in the suite from Rafael.
Towards the end of the overwhelming onslaught of art you are led into the coupe de gras of the museum, the Sistine Chapel. You are not allowed to use cameras of any kind in the room, so I will have to just describe some things. The room was much smaller than either Kerry or I had anticipated, (especially after the grand scale that was St. Peter's Basilica yesterday), but that was a really good thing as it allowed us to really examine the details of the ceiling and wall frescoes. We rented an electronic audio guide from the museum and were lucky enough to find a seat along the periphery of the room which allowed us to sit and really spend time examining the details of the truly awe inspiring work with great commentary on the subtleties we may have missed. The nearly Technicolor saturation and scope of the work was truly a site to behold. It was one of those times where you really began to understand what all the fuss was about.
After we spent some more time digesting further galleries from the museum, we headed out for a late lunch back at La Griglietta again, this time with our sites squarely aimed at getting a chance to experience the famous Roman fried artichokes (one of their specialty foods here in Rome), and WOW were we in for a treat. Our pasta dishes (Penne a la vodka white sauce, and matriciano) were fantastic, but it was really the artichokes, which had been prepared in such a way that the rough leaves were cut away, deep fried (not oily), and lightly salted and peppered to absolute perfection. It was the single best artichoke I've ever had, and I've had my fair share of amazing artichokes. Thinking about it has me salivating all over again. Good times!
Now it is back to the room for a final post from Roma, to pack our bags, have another dinner at Dino and Tony's and go to bed early for our early morning departure. It has been an amazing trip. One that, as always, will take some time to fully digest. We'll be able to share more memories and thoughts as time goes on. Once we are settled back in the states we'll get right on processing all of the images from the trip so keep an eye on our Flickr and DeviantArt accounts!
