sense and sensibility

Mika Brzezinski. She gets it.

fresh

There is a man walking down the street, playing banjo, and singing.

The holy grail of iCeBloCkInG

To learn more about potential iceblocking finesse, go here. The move pictured below is the illusive Frosty McDanger Slide. This is an advanced move and should only be attempted with custom designed ice blocks and capes.

three broken spatulas and one bruised jaw

we heart adam. Saturday night was his going away party.

more pics by adam and lori. I came in a wee bit late due to wedding activites. Wrestling greeted me at the door. Moments later, Lori with a goblet of wine.Engaged love.I am missing pictures from the middle of the night. I think I stole lori's awesome camera with it's awesome flash for a bit. Or I was hoola hooping. Either, really.morning after.mr. adam. poor camera.

we heart you.

surrounded with glee

What with all the chiming on crystal, I'm surprised the bride and groom ate anything between all the kisses. A good time, with good people, good wine, and good mashed potatoes. My mom and I tore up the dance floor to Queen and "Sweet Child of Mine" a la Guns n' Roses. It doesn't really get better than that. Arms in the air, laughing, yes. Congrats to Nikki and Joel; happy happy ness ness to you.

biologists gone wild II

Stacie and I headed out to the east bay again. Those dirt movers are ginormous; I felt like y'all needed a size comparison. See below for footage of us crossing the site and (safely) dodging these gargantuan machines.

Ptown WOOT.

Apparently, Craig Ferguson covered our quirky town on his latelateshow. KeithK was quick to point out...Ferguson freakin gives a shout out to DEAN'S! hello quirky, crazy Pleasanton. love.

biologists gone wild

Stacie and I headed out to the east bay hills today with the big ol' company truck. We off-roaded. We fishtailed. We rocked out. We were stoked to be (O-U-T) out of the office. fog. and sun.

stacie driving backward really fast. facing forward.

I was ornery gate opener extraordinaire. The gates were ornery. I was not.

I was coy.

Oh Industry.

We follow thee.

The sun before the fog

Today was beautiful. Sun-filled. As San Franciscans, we all know to seize on the sunny day, especially this close to fog-bound summer. All I did was lounge, and eat, and enjoy myself. Hung out for a late lunch in Noe Valley, and then hightailed it with Bill to Dolores Park to lounge in the bright sun. There, we ran into lovely Josh and his blanket of friends. For you ptown folk, the park today totally reminded me of the Aquatic Center, old school style; lots of pasty whiteness, maybe more speedos, but blankets on grass and food and drink. Made me want to go find some Fun Dip.Some crazy lily-type plant outside Bill's apartment. No idea.

Josh and his crew, blanket-margarita style.

Cool octopus tattoo guy. His friend with a wee jack-o-lantern on his shoulder? Not so much.

No Flash

I'm not sure why it is, but my family loves to get their bang for their buck when we all get together. Yesterday, we all went to see Miss Brinly in her first dance recital, and celebrated both my sister's birthday and father's day. The morning dance recital took place in a cool old style theatre in downtown Antioch, near the water. who knew? Miss Brinly did FANTASTIC. My sister had to tell my mom, dad, and I to behave ourselves and not yell too loudly. That's our girl!!! (the cute one)

Shaely Rose rockin the headband. I mean, really.

Dad doing his Pa duty.

Happy Birthday mi hermana!Introducing: my mother, the unknown photographer. Check that composition. Go Mary.

Showing Brin the ropes. I can hoola hoop for hours. Seriously. Challenge?

Divisadero

Joyce snuck me into a small soirée thrown by the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. Michael Ondaatje signed copies of his new book, Divisadero, and hobnobbed with local booksellers...and one covertly hid botanist. Reading The English Patient at sixteen made me realize there was a world of literature outside the classics, Piers Anthony, and those young romance novels with girl's names as titles. My favorite was Joanna. She rode horses, was fiesty, and I'm pretty sure she smooched the stablehand.

flutterby

Barigona flashback

Boony Doon

Saturday, I spent the day with my grandmother in Santa Cruz. After lunch, we went for a drive to Bonny Doon, where she was born and grew up. We stopped at the Bonny Doon Winery tasting room, which used to be a biker bar, but, more importantly, was once the Bonny Doon general store. In 1928, at the age of 16, it was here that my grandmother met my grandfather. A good day, then and now.

'Tis the season

not a furry little friend. photo by Geoff Smick, brave man that he is.

"I thought my knives were dominoes....."

Mish just sent me pictures from her birthday party last Friday. So funny. Lose your hat, take a shot, woot! I love that I've known her since kindergarten.

tetanus me

Got a shot today. occurred to me that I had not updated my tetanus since 1998. Sure, the shots are good for ten years, but the doctor told me to come every five if I intend to continue impaling myself. I'd like to avoid lockjaw; it seems rather unpleasant.

My arm hurts. I think I shall go buy a leslie-friendly cookie.

barbed me

Last night, I had a strange dream that left me with fuzzy eyes for hours after I woke. I was at my parents' house, they were going out to dinner, and I was staying home alone, sick. But once they left, as I made my way into the kitchen, I opened a door into the UC Davis botany lab where I worked YEARS ago, and realized that I hadn't finished my masters degree at all and still had integral algae experiments running in the lab....where oddly everyone gathered on Friday nights to indulge in science geekdom and beer and I was overwhelmed by their expertise. And I could see my parents' front yard out the window.....And I was trying to decipher algal species amongst mold from specimens left too long ago.....

My brain is full of Latin. My legs and hips are full of climbing steep hills and navigating inclines. The last three days were divided between looking for rare plants on the coast, identifying grasses, monitoring vegetation in wetlands, and trips to IKEA. Je suis fatigue.

We are fence hopper extraordinaires. Stacy and I contemplated a fence surrounding a wetland at Callippe Golf Course in Pleasanton. There were no good footholds. Barbed wire in pre-conceived locations would catch a boot trying to jump o'er the top and stop the hand from gripping the bar. Stacy lifted my foot, I almost made it, and we had to backtrack, muscles shaking in mid-lift stance. And I stood there. And she looked at me. Resigned, I looked at my hand, where it was impaled, stuck to the top of the fence, a barb to the hilt in the fleshy part of my palm. I pulled up.