Living the dream is the new awesome

I don't know if you guys have noticed the internet explosion that can only come about when hardcore bloggers are hanging out, but I am in New York with Cindy and Brigham, and we have been doing awesome things like going to see Pirates of the Carribean 3 (since we all saw Pirates 1 together back when we all lived in Provo).

One of the things that I have been happiest about was getting to slum around the Fashion District and go to Mood, where all the contestants of my favorite show Project Runway go to get the fabric to make their masterpieces.

Just think - all my Project Runway heroes have been here in these isles, touching these fabrics! (Ew Jaron - don't touch that bolt. I think Angela used it)

This is Cindy modeling some potential fabric, and Jaron telling her anything she wants to hear so that she will just buy some stupid fabric and get us all out of the store.

We were in there awhile, and spent a lot of time just gawking. so. many.beautiful. fabrics.
I bought some lovely fabric to send to Nicole so that she can make me my own my own awesome Elsa Bag, and got some other fabrics for myself since I have so many vintage patterns to turn into dresses.

I don't even care what we do the rest of the trip out here in NY. My Project Runway dreams have now come true.

Memorial Day NOT in my neighborhood is the new awesome

I spent this Memorial Day in North Carolina's outer banks, in an infamous spot called Duck Beach, where every year hundreds of us descend upon the beach to rent these enormous million bedroom monster houses for a weekend of fun. This was the house I stayed in:

Like all of the homes out here it came with its own cheesy name - "Angels Allure" - (best said aloud in a whisper while your hands slowly move over your face) and was aptly named as it was filled with cheesy angel statues.

One of these isn't an angel statue. One of them is Mike. It is hard to tell which one is which, but Mike is the one on the bottom.

I stayed with two of my lovely college roommates that I haven't seen in forever, Jocelyn and Hollie

I spent time reading Harry Potter

Playing (and winning) my share of foosball games...

And going crab hunting in the middle of the night! The crabs come out and run around the beach, and if you are quick and not afraid of being pinched, you can pick them up and make girls scream.




Once you have an entire cooler full of angry crabs ...


you make everyone go stand toe to toe in a circle ...


and dump the crabs out in the middle of the circle so that they are forced to run over your feet to get to the ocean. If you jump out of the circle you lose, and everyone can make fun of you for the rest of the weekend.

I am hoping we can come up with a version of this game to play in san francisco, though I am not sure what we would be able to collect other than stray dogs or hippies, and those just wouldn't be quite the same.

Seek and ye shall find is the new awesome

Memorial Day in my neighborhood is the new awesome

I think I've mentioned before that holiday weekends here in my San Francisco neighborhood are the best. Everyone leaves town, the streets are quiet(ish), there is ample parking. It's pretty much the greatest thing ever. It's like my dream neighborhood...all the cool with less of the crazy. Yesterday was particularly perfect. Heather picked me up at 9:30am sharp and took me with her to Rainbow Grocery for a tutorial in how to shop at a cool kids co-op. This was only my second time at Rainbow. The first time didn't work out so well. I think on my first trip I just got overwhelmed by all the bulk bins but Heather patiently walked me through the whole store until I felt a little more comfortable.

Rainbow is a vegetarian market. That's why they stock so many types of lettuce.


They have a lovely Rainbow mural so you always remember where you are.


Heather prefers to shop for food items that match her hair color whenever possible.


I should note, animals get to eat meat at Rainbow. They sell jerky treats for dogs and cats but no such treats for humans. All in all trip #2 to Rainbow turned out very well. I was even able to fill up a jar of tahini from the bulk bin like a pro. No big deal.

Later that afternoon Steve and I met Heather, Alex, Nate and Courtney at Golden Gate Park for a little BBQ. After a very cold start to the long weekend...yesterday it finally turned so sunny.


Here's a small sampling of our delicious cuisine.


For the record, Nate and Courtney are total lookers. I mean super hot. But for whatever reason, yesterday they wouldn't let me take any pictures of them where they didn't look like this.


Turns out I didn't get the memo that BBQ in GG Park was also an official gathering of Death Scab for Scootie members.


Later that night Steve and I grabbed a pizza from Pizzeria Delfina and I made us an arugula salad to go with it. Turns out arugula is my new favorite salad green.

I feel like this is where I should have some kind of culminating commentary about my long holiday weekend but there's really no place to go after I talk about arugula.

Conservative dogs are the new awesome

So the other day I was reading Tatanka's blog and found he had referenced a picture of my cat Lucy that I posted from my last trip to Utah. It made me laugh really hard. Here's that link:

#1

Then a day or so later I checked it again and laughed even more. Here's that link:

#2

I know I've mentioned it before but Tatanka's blog is fun. And maybe you think you're not into the adventures of a little conservative dog living with liberal humans and and a big fluffy dumb dog sister who will never win a spelling bee but you'd be wrong.

LOST themed treats are the new awesome

Wednesday night we did what all upstanding citizens did and watched the season finale of LOST. So great. Even more impressive than the actual show were the snacks we all brought. This is not the first time we've done it up big for a LOST party.

Brigham brought Dharma Beer.


Allie brought LOST themed cookies complete with polar bears.


I provided a delicious bowl of fish biscuits.


Lindsay brought tropical fruit skewers with lemon sauce.


Marshall brought chocolate and powdered sugar life preservers.


I really wish everyone could see how huge the projection screen at Steve and Marshall's apartment is. Rebecca's boyfriend Sawyer was larger than life. Seriously. Imagine this sweet face 6' tall.


What on earth are we all going to do now that our shows are over for the summer? And not just for the summer...these days it's all about waiting until after new years and then airing the season with no breaks. No LOST until February 2008? And then only 16 episodes? I'm still trying to come to terms with this.

Does anyone have any favorite TV shows I should download and watch all summer (I know what Katie is going to say...Friday Night Lights...okay already...I'll watch it).

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

the Maker Faire is the new awesome

Last weekend I died and went to DIY heaven: the Maker Faire. The Maker Faire is a yearly event put on by Make Magazine, and is basically what you get when you invite all the crazy creative, geeky genius, resourceful DIY types to get together and talk about and show off the things that they love most. These are my people.

Everything is hands on. You had to get a liability wristband at the door to be able to go on all the rides and things - (they thought Grace looked under 18 so they gave her the kid bracelet, when she is just as old as I am)


Okay, so the people that put this Faire on might be a little geeky . . .

And there was alot of this kind of humor:


But look what these geeks can do:

Guitar Hero for nerds! (these guitars play music using "a sonar sensor and a microcontroller to allow the user to play interesting melodies without requiring any musical skills," which made this great techno music just by waving your hand over it.


A lifesize version of
Mousetrap the board game:



The "Disgusting Spectacle" that picks its nose when some child laborer is running next to it in the hamster wheel.


Disgusting!


Moving robots made out of legos! (Complete with freakishly genius children there to tell you exactly how you are building your lego robot incorrectly)



An entire carnival powered solely by “pedal power” (i.e. – people on bikes).





I swear it was more fun than these two make it look:



Diet coke and mentos explosions set to music. (Bets - you should bring some music the next time you get the urge to do this on the roof)


Poems


Quite the odd assortment of bikes – there were people that had made bikes out of wooden pallets, “Franken-trikes” with all sorts of bike parts re-welded into functional (but strange) looking contraptions to ride, and the “social tandem” bike that was basically two beach cruisers welded together side by side so that you can ride right next to your tandem bike rider and take up the entire sidewalk while you do so:












One of the funniest exhibits was a stationary bike that someone had attached a little piece of bike tube to, so that when you sat and pedaled, the rubber bike tube would spin around and smack you right in the behind. A full-fledged spanking machine! The best part was the line of kids waiting to give it a try, even as they were watching their friends pedal (ouch), pedal (ouch), pedal (ouch!).



I am tempted to post even more photos, because this only scratches the surface, but I will stop because I recognize this as an unhealthy obsession and don't want to embarrass myself any more than I perhaps already have.