Trying out Intense Debate

Trying out a new commenting system... let's see how it goes

"The Wire" Actors on "Life On Mars" Tonight

So - I never watch the show Life on Mars. But as a finish up work tonight I put it on in the background and am so glad I did!

In the last several minutes I've seen 3 actors from HBO's The Wire (aka The Best Show Ever Produced For Television).

So far it's Lester, Cutty, and Sobatka! Now I can't stop watching - I hope Bubbles or Dukie are on!!!!

Update: OK wait - now Whoopi Goldberg is on this show too....

GOBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So so so so happy. Also check out http://change.gov

Jenny Lewis sings "Love Hurts"

Last night Jenny Lewis (lead singer of Rilo Kiley) had a solo show at the Herbst Theater. The biggest surprise of the night was when she sang "Love Hurts" with Jonathan Rice. So awesome. And I was in the 5th row - woohoo!

Turkey Trail Trot

I just signed up for the Turkey Trail Trot Thanksgiving morning. If you want to burn some calories before gorging yourself on Thanksgiving - sounds like a fun way to do it. Now for the costume... 

Why we can never win an election

I just called SF Campaign headquarters to ask how I could donate money I raised via a fundraiser and not have that get confused with my $2,300 campaign donation limit. They couldn't answer me.

They gave me some guys cell phone that didn't answer.

Sending an email contact@obamasf.org fails.

You know this didn't happen in Karl Rove's org.

Me, Seamus, and This Guy

Just another walk in the park. (Muni Park, Cole Valley San Francisco)

My Bank of America "Financial Specialist"

I just had my a woman call me from Bank of America. She introduced herself as my "Financial Specialist" and told me about a few savings plans. She also gave me her phone number and email address.

I know everything she said was probably canned and banks are trying to retain their good customers, but I am still kind of impressed. I at least like the new focus on savings instead of spending. Interesting how far getting a real person's phone number and email will go to make you respect a company.

Just bought tickets to Jenny Lewis in SF!

My favorite artist - Jenny Lewis - is coming to San Francisco and I just got tickets! Tickets went on sale this morning so good ones are still left. I managed to snag 6th row at the Herbst Theater. I love small venues.

You may know Jenny Lewis as the lead singer of Rilo Kiley. But she's been venturing out on her own with her last highly acclaimed album Rabbit Fur Coat.

Just discovered: Alabaster Cleaners

I'd been putting off laundry for weeks. I don't have a washer / dryer in my apartment so have to lug the heavy load to the laundry mat (though it is only across the street).

Feeling particularly lazy today, I discovered Alabaster Cleaners. (http://www.alabastercleaners.com/index.html) I gave them a call and 5 minutes later they picked up my load promising to have it back by 6pm!

Amazing. A little afraid what the final bill will be but once in a while this stuff is so worth it :)

Back from my trip around the world!

Haven't posted in a while, partly because I've been on Google's APM Trip for the past two weeks. We went around the world, from Tokyo to Beijing to St. Petersburg to Norway and I am still exhausted! Here's a picture of us in St. Petersburg - my favorite of all the cities. I am on the right wearing my new Russian fur hat.

Daft Punk

Not only did she call our Daft Punk float the "best float" of Bay to Breakers, but I am the silver lady with the computer keyboard mentioned in this article.

Looks like someone filmed it a bit too:

Ready for Bay to Breakers

Here's me trying out my just completed helmet for Bay to Breakers. My
friends and I are going as Daft Punk, see you there!

Day off for the dog

Couldn't resist taking the day off in this great weather. Seamus is
having a blast at chrissy field.

Belden Place

Belden Place is the best place to eat dinner on a warm San Francisco night. We ate at B44 - a Spanish restaurant with great food and sangria.

Eating gelato in Cinque Terra :)

Eating gelato in Cinque Terra :)

Left Florence Behind for the Tuscan Hills

I just got done with 8 days in Florence where I went for CHI this year. It was amazing and I had a great time finding new cute restaurants in all the nooks of the old city.

Yesterday I finished the week with a whirlwind tour of the big sites. The Bargello, Uffizi, Michaelangelo's David, and The Science Museum. It was pretty cool to see art from my highschool textbooks live and in person, especially David and the Birth of Venus.

After the long stay in Florence I am very happy to be in the Tuscan countryside right now, and officially on "vacation". We rented a little Fiat for the trip, and it took us about an hour to get of the city of Florence. And we HAD GPS. At first I couldn't even figure out how to put the car in reverse. It's a stick shift and to get into reverse you had to press a button, how was I supposed to know? So after going down a few one way streets in the wrong direction I finally pulled up to a hotel to ask them if they knew how to put the car into reverse :) Luckily the woman at the hotel desk was much smarter than me. But we made it. Finally.

Volterra is amazing. We are staying in a huge room with our own kitchen, dining room, and terrace. The view is beautiful and it's very quaint. Can't wait to eat a huge Italian meal tonight. And there are two - yes two - wine bars with wifi right nearby. Technology. Cuts into vacations to make you feel like home. On that note - I'll end this blog post. Ciao!

Favorite Saturday Morning Activity

Nothing beats listening to Click and Clack on Car Talk Saturday mornings. Makes catching up on life much more enjoyable.

My Favorite Oscar Moment

I love the movie "Once" and the acceptance speeches by its two stars (Glen Hansard Marketa Irglova) were the best of the Oscars!

Google at Disneyland!

This year our company trip was at the happiest place on earth: Disneyland! We had the park to ourselves from 7pm to 1am. Though there was a party with drinks and a band, it was much more fun to see how many rides I could get on before the park closed.

Here is how I did:

Space Mountain: 3 times
Matterhorn: 2
Indiana Jones: 2
Hollywood Tower of Terror: 2
Soarin': 2
Pirates of the Caribbean: 2
Haunted Mansion: 2
Splash Mountain: 1
Thunder Mountain: 1
Star Tours: 1
Teacups: 1
Submarine: 1
Auto something: 1
SnowWhites Scary Something: 1

Total: 22 rides!

Facebook Photo Album Privacy Bug?

So I noticed an acquaintance of mine added some pictures to her Facebook profile. I could see the images in the new feed and could click on them and see the larger version. I could even scroll through the entire album!

However when I clicked "View Photos of [my friend]" from her profile page, I see that she has restricted the album and I am not able to see any of the photos.

How am I allowed to see the entire album via the newsfeed? What kind of privacy is this?

San Francisco Chefs on Top Chef

There are 4 San Francisco chefs in the next season of Top Chef!

· Erik Hopfinger, 38, Executive Chef at Circa
· Jennifer Biesty, 35, Executive Chef at Coco500
· Ryan Scott, 28, Chef at Myth Cafe
· Zoi Antonitsas, 30, Chef/Restaurant Consultant

This is SO depressing

I can't believe I am semi-excited that this show (Real Housewives of NYC) is on tonight. Please end the writers strike! I am actually watching it right now as I do my email.... it's pretty bad.

Update: Hold up. Wasn't that dark haired chick - the self proclaimed Martha Stewart - ON the Martha Stewart version of Apprentice!? (I watch WAY too much reality TV)

Update 2: I am SO correct. Check it!

Bear Republic Brewery

This weekend we headed to the Russian River Valley for the annual Winter Wineland. Also in the Russian River Valley - however - is Big Bear Brewery, the brewery that makes Racer 5.

Friday night we decided to stop in and sample their beers. There were many to taste and we had a good time finding our favorites. Mine is Winter Spice - it was delicious!

Blogger Launches BiDi languages

Thanks to Tyrone (and many others) Blogger.com is now live in Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian! The Blogger interface and templates are completely rearranged to read from Right to Left for these languages. It was a big effort, but we are happy to bring Blogger to millions of Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi speakers.

My Macworld Experience and The CoolAid has Worn Off

Monday night we all waiting in line for the MacWorld keynote. Actually that's not completely true... we kind of cheated and I do feel bad about it. We waited in shifts. We got there at 7:00pm and 20 people waited at a time in 3 hour shifts to hold the spot of 60 people at the front of the line.

At least some of the die hards got in front of us in line ... good for them.

Here are some pics of the spectacle.


I walked out of the keynote being SO pumped to get an AppleTv, Air, the new installs of iTunes and the new iPhone software. Steve Jobs IS king.

But then....today I decided to install the new iPhone software and iTunes detected that my iPhone was not "right". So it "restored" it. Once the iPhone was supposedly restored, iTunes again said it needed to be restored, over and over. My iPhone is totally broken and I have no idea why!

Back to the genius bar. This will be my 3rd iPhone in 6th months. I am definitely getting the pro care plan this time :\

Picture Perfect

Yesterday I decided to finally put some pictures up on my wall. I started redecorating my room months ago and I still have a bit more to do. I followed directions found in Apartment Therapy.

A picture (or the center of a group of pictures) should be centered at 57" from the floor, since 57" is the average human eye height. The tendency is to place pictures much higher.

To arrange my frames, I traced each onto butcher paper and cut out their shapes. Then marked the location of the hook on the back of each frame. I taped the butcher to the wall to arrange them. This way - you know exactly where you need to nail the hole and won't end up with a swiss cheese wall!

Screen Cleaning

Click on the picture for the best screen saver ever!

"Winter Wineland" in Sonoma!

Next weekend (Jan 19 & 20th) is the 16th annual Winter Wineland in northern Sonoma. $40 for access to 109 wineries all serving food and providing entertainment - what could be more fun!? More info about the event is here.

Ice Skating!

Yesterday I was feeling pretty horrible. I hadn't sleep well in two nights and all I wanted to do after my carsick ride home from work was go to bed. It was Misha's birthday however, and nothing can keep me down for that :) After unsuccessfully trying to nap, I got up the energy to head down to Yerba Bueana Ice Skating Center.

Something about ice skating just cheers you up. I don't think I've skated since I was 7, but it seemed pretty similar to skiing when you're trying to move up a slight incline. After completely mastering the skill in about 20 minutes, I wanted to learn how to do the sweet "side ways stop". You know - when skaters are going fast and then turn their body to quickly skid to a halt. I made some progress. Next up, spinning and then the double axle.

Here's Misha the birthday boy - an excellent skater - on the ice!

Stormy in San Francisco!

There is a storm today and my power is out and my window is leaking! The nearby hardware store had a window blown out as well. Crazy! Seamus is not very happy wet in his raincoat.