The Senakams | Corgi + 3

OMG! Santa WAS here!

Ho ho ho! Hope you all had a wonderful X'mas with your friends/ families. Today, at our household, we've witnessed a significant milestone- Eva is officially converted as a santa believer.

Recall not long ago (well, exactly 2 posts ago if you care to flip back), X'mas was just a fun day to rip into gift-wrapped toys. There was no expectations whatsoever. But since we loaded up on X'mas-related books @ Borders' 50% off post-holiday sale last year (yeah, back when Borders still existed, sad...), we have been VERY prepared for this guy called Santa this year. 

To prepare for the big day, we excitedly wrote Santa a letter (she tried really hard to sign her name correctly)...

And left out cookies and milk by the fireplace (that's 3 fingers for only 3 cookies for santa, I love you but please don't eat all my cookies...)

Look at her reaction this morning when she discovered the plate of crumbs and empty cup and Santa's "response" to her letter... (everything was put behind the fireplace screen overnight, so we'll know that if the food was consumed, it's DEFINITELY Santa, and not Bryson).

(Pardon the technological glitch, I'm not sure what happened with youtube, but you'll have to enjoy a video of Bryson gnawing on his X'mas present before Eva's santa-discovery video. Yes, it's a bully stick, yuck, but he sure enjoys it)

 

OK, hope you were able to watch Eva's video. If her face wasn't precious enough, check out @1:10 again, where she said with that little voice while covering her mouth "He came." (actually she said "he comes", I guess we haven't quite mastered tense of irregular verbs yet).

And we tried to stay basic in the presents department, sticking to books and board games and wooden toys. I think she's had enough stimulation/ couch-potato time given how much high-tech media she comes across every day, and also I find myself quite nostalgic about these toys, maybe I'm just getting her what I thought I would have loved as a kid...

And she's going through a total Nutcracker phase, in fact, the one thing she asked from Santa this year is a "big nutcracker doll". I had to tell her that it's too big to fit down the chimney, and persuaded her that a nutcracker paper doll activity book is even better... (so far she's buying it, whew)

And our little ballerina finally got her first pair of ballet slippers...

Bryson helps opening gifts too! And he's getting very good at knocking down wooden marble runs that I painstakingly built... thanks, Bry...

And I hope we've hammered in Eva's head how lucky she is, and the holiday is as much about giving than it is about receiving, yada yada yada... In fact, I've sat down with her to watch a number of documentaries about kids who don't have enough to eat or a roof over their heads, as a preparation before our annual Thanksgiving holiday meal delivery. So much so that one morning, upon climbing into our bed in the morning, she stared at the ceiling and said "I'm very lucky... we have a little bit of money, so we can buy food, and hot water". Both Jacques and I rubbed our eyes and looked at her like "hmm...?" 

Since even my 3 year-old understands how lucky she is to have food and hot water, I guess I also have to take stock of how fortunate I am this holiday... it may sound corny, but what makes every holiday special is inevitably the friends (who for us really is family) who we get to spend time with...

And extra lucky for us this year, real family who came to visit (hi Uncle Allan and Auntie Sue!)

And extra-super-duper lucky for us this year, not only old neighbors whom are still near and dear to us, but new neighbors we're just getting to know, who're turning out to be some truly wonderful and special people... like our neighbor's teenage daughter below, whom Eva absolutely adores (and begs to play Princess game with every time they're together).

While I'm happy that Eva is old enough to appreciate holiday spirit and is so full of wonder and fascination about Santa, part of me also can't believe that I have spent so much energy to lead her to believe something that's fabricated, which makes her think that all the toys we've bought with our hard-earned money come from this fictional guy from the north pole whom she's never really met, and this whole lie is something that we'll have to perpetuate for years to come just so we won't break her tender little heart... 

Oh well, guess that's all too late now. You can see in her eyes that Santa is now as real as the toys he's left with her. But perhaps that will give us more ammunition for the "if you want to stay on Santa's good kid list, you gotta be good" argument. Ho ho ho!

And here are other pictures of what we've been up to this holiday season, coz god knows when I'll have time to update the blog again (hopefully not another year...):

Yummm, holiday cookies baking! Especially "useful" when it's a rainy day and you need some activities to keep your 3 year-old occupied. They're quite good at sprinkling at this age ("some for cookies, some for me...").

My latest fad is planting succulents. Aren't they so cute? Hope to grow a green thumb now that we live in a space surrounded by greens. Planted these little ones in pots that Eva helped decorate for her teachers at school.

Another one of the 2- and 4-legged kids. Just coz they're adorable!

Ooh... a real fireplace! First time in my life, stuff of my dreams... and apparently Eva's now too, since Santa finally has a way to get into our place.


Hope everyone's enjoying their holiday, and wish you all a very happy new year too!

 

A Very Belated Letter to Eva: One Year Later...

Dear Eva,

Mommy has to confess. I've broken a very important promise to you. It was with fanfare that I declared your birthday as the "Annual Write my Daughter a Letter Day" just a little over a year ago, and as you can see, this blog has seen nothing but cricket chirps since, and I have written you jack, zip, nada... this whole, entire year.

So where have I been? By the time you can read this, you probably won't recall any bit of this whirlwind of a year we've had. 2011 was the year we took on an adventure around the world, and in 2012, we took on a different adventure, the kind of journey that took our lives to a different place in an unexpected way...

Let's see if we can sum it up in pictures (and videos)... be ready, it'll be a looong one, here we go...

After having spent 2 and a half precious years with you at home, your Super Dad decided it's time for him to go back to work. It was bittersweet, there were tearful goodbyes and exciting late night excursions to the hotel to pick daddy up. With some difficulty, mommy has to quickly grow up and learn how to be mommy again, but it was evident that you were ready to let go and grow up yourself. And grew up you did...

You were 2 going on 15...

OK, calm down, we didn't actually let you drink that delicious glass of chardonnay, well, at least not that time...

You've also grown a lot more physical this past year. It looks like when daddy let go of his white-knuckled grip nurturing hand, your inner dare devil was unleashed.

And now, you like to tear up the asphalt on your balance bike...

And enjoy exhilarating sleigh ride courtesy of Bryson (at almost 9 Bry Bry is still going strong!):

 

But it doesn't matter how many blue and green outfits I put you in (which seems to be a lot), there is a girly side of you that is dying to burst out and show the world your pinkest, fluffiest, twirliest ballet moves (and check out those expressive hands)...

 

Well, it'll be a few more years before you go to Julliard, so in the mean time, let's remember you actually turned 3, and with that comes the momentous passage from toddlerhood to the next phase...

First day of preschool.

Even though you looked a little unsure here, we were pleasantly surprised how quickly you warmed up to school. In mere minutes after this photo was taken, you were off in their playground, climbing, swinging, digging in the sand, and never look back (all the tears belonged to your daddy and I on this first day). Your teachers at school says you're one of the most joyous, exuberant (I think they mean "loud" in a nice way) and kinesthetic (physical?) kids there. And we're just amazed how you learned all the kids (and their parents) names in the first weeks of school. You've even made some "best friends", Miles, Camilla... Words just can't describe how proud we are of you.

And to make up for the lack of a real birthday party last year when we were in China, we celebrated your 3rd one BIG this year, and yes, with a REAL fairy... Ooooh... you're still talking about "Daisy Fairy", and other moms are still cursing reminding me of it, LOL...

And you're always the good sister to Bryson, making sure he's well groomed and photo ready on your birthday.

And mommy is glad to have the excuse to break out my new laser cutting machine to craft your party invite. It took some trial and error and many trips to various paper stores, but I absolutely adore the final product, and the creative process is so therapeutic...

And creative therapy is something I unexpectedly had a lot of time for this year. Your daddy and I took a 180, as he re-embraced his work life and I left mine behind this summer...

Yay for my right brain! The luxury of being able to learn something new (laser paper cutting), catalog my archives of paper and fabric (whew!), whip up projects whenever I want (well, when I don't have my hands full taking care of you)...

Allow me to indulge myself in a not-so-brief recap of my creative endeavors...

Every fairy needs a hand made fairy wand, this one made from a huge mass of gingko tree clippings mommy diverted from a dump truck outside Emeryville city hall...

This is how much tulle goes into one little girl's tutu... absolutely nuts. And all of us exuded glitters from every orifice (uh hmm) for the next few months...

Crayon roll, just coz I feel like using some pretty fabric. Of course the crayons still prefer to roll around under the couch, behind bookcases and other general nook and crannies visiting dust bunnies.


Another project I get to use my laser cutting machine, Auntie Van's baby shower invite with a tea party theme. As you already know, you and Baby Austin are forever tied together by fate, when he decided to meet the world early so he can have the exact same birthday as you.

And let's not forget the 20 party favor bags the Senakam sweat shop mommy lovingly hand sewed in 3 days, while whipping you through potty boot camp (you were a total champ, no accidents after 2 days, woo hoo!)

And no, I didn't part time at a tattoo parlor, but did pick up face painting for fun, since you love getting your face painted at fairs, and mommy is, well, frugal, why pay someone to do it when you can do it by yourself, right? Don't ever forget you're half Chinese, frugality is in your blood. 



And last but not least, the matching outfits for Halloween for you and Bryson! Now this is really becoming a yearly tradition, starting from Pharoah and sphinx, to vet and patient, red riding hood and big bad wolf, and now...

Fairy Princess and her Magical Steed... hee hee!



Wow, that was a lot of fun stuff we created together this year. And if you still wonder why mommy didn't have time to write you, well, remember when we dug up every single little thing in our loft, shoved them in boxes piled all the way to the ceiling, and one day hauled everything to this strange little house in the woods?

Yeah, we moved.

I won't miss the crazy, endless days and nights of purging and packing (that's your daddy reminescing in the old US Marine hat he dug up from the Crypt, you'll have to ask him about it)

But I'll miss sunsets like this from our windows...

The quiet little moments we shared in our home...


And the neighbors who have filled in as families since you were born...

And now, as we're just beginning to settle in our new abode in the woods, with Thanksgiving coming up in less than a day, I can tell you how truly thankful I am of having you in our lives.

Even though you're little and have to hold my hand when we cross the street, in so many ways you're the one guiding us through life in chaotic, turbulent times...

You remind me where my priorities should be when I'm confused and overwhelmed, you show me the beauty of a quiet moment between just you and me, you teach me that I still have lots to learn in the departments of patience, generosity and letting go, you remind me to own up to my emotions, and remember when to say "please", "thank you" and "I'm sorry"...

This post is going dangerously long already as it is, so I'm just going to conclude with some photos of our adventures this year. Love you, baby, looking forward to many, many more years of adventure with you, your daddy and Bryson.

Thank you, Whoever is Watching over the ICU

It's always shocking when you learn that someone you're close to is dying. Now imagine one minute being someone's "just in case" contact for a routine surgery, and the next standing alone in the Intensive Care Unit, shaken to your core while trying to make life and death decisions, praying to whoever will listen that you are doing the right thing, and the stars will somehow align and yank this soul back from the cliff...

And listened did he, she, it or they. It almost seems trite to say thank you, but there, it's Thanksgiving, and that's what I'm thankful for (plus everyone around me who's helping take care of me so I can take care of her).

All those days and nights hovering by the beeping machines and getting entangled in endless tubes and cords, trying to eavesdrop on conversations among the hoards of faceless doctors filing in and out when I'm not stalking them, watching the EKG and mean arterial pressure (above 65, please, just 65... you can do it)... and the rollercoaster ride of emotions, highs when the first word is uttered after extubation, lows when the fog of ICU delirium roll over and I became a menacing stranger... 

All these are worth it when what I hear these days are "thanks, and did you find my nail file?" and "wow, this 7-up tastes so good". You know life is back when you can once again appreciate the simple joys of living.

I'm not a superstitious person, but I do believe that good karma has a way of perpetuating itself in this universe. 

And on a lighter note, we're so psyched that we're able to resume our tradition of volunteering to deliver Thanksgiving meals for the Salvation Army this year (we stopped since Eva was born, it's just hard imagine schlepping an infant in and out of the car through the city). 

Since both Hubby and I didn't grow up here, "traditional" Thanksgiving traditions are kinda lost on us. What I really hope to impart on Eva on this hoilday is the importance to be thankful for what we have. I guess she's a little too young to appreciate it, but I hope that by seeing how little some others have, that she'll know how lucky we are.

Oh and to deliver meals in style, I made her a little turkey handpuppet (I saw the tutorial online a while back and can't find it now...).

I traced her hand on felt, cut out two pieces and glue-gunned them together, then fashioned some feathers with different color felt, a beak and a waddle. Glue those on, and voila! Gobble gobble!

Hi! I'm Eva Senakarn, reporting to meal delivery duties (notice Gobble Gobble on her hand).







And yeah, it was raining, but even better as she loves wearing the strawberries rainboots PoPo got for her in Hong Kong... It was pretty funny that the seniors are so delighted to see Eva, they often came after us and stuffed our hands with all kinds of sweets (Russian ladies gave us chocolate, Chinese ladies gave us oranges...)

An evening with friends celebrating with a semi-traditional dinner (ham, yam, lettuce wrap, seafood stew, pumpkin pie and cupcakes, yummm...) with screaming kids running around, banging their heads on things and each others, and Thanksgiving is complete. 

Sewing Red Riding Hood and "Grandma"

To be completely honest, I've been dreading Halloween all summer... how could I ever top the Pharoah and the Sphinx? *sigh*

I almost made them hippies (inspired by some of our neighbors, which would have been a bit unfortunate...), when I came across this super adorable fabric at Stonemountain one day and thought, hey, that kinda look like Bryson...

And a couple of yards of flannel and lace, a pair of thrift-store reading glasses, and a few hours of quality time with my sewing machine later...

Voila! Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf aka Grandma materialized:

Nothing will ever top the pharaoh and the sphinx, but I have to say I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. 

Bryson's "outfit" is basically a lacy-shower-cap-type-thing, plus a coat with more lace (he has to channel "grandma"). I used the same flannel as the inside of Eva's cape, and based it loosely on a few shower cap tutes I found online.

For the best Big Bad Wolf Posing as Grandma look, you want the ears to show. I contemplated making a bigger cap and cut holes for the years, but I wasn't sure if I had enough lace, so I made a smaller one that sit between the ears.

For this effect, you wanna eyeball the amount of real estate between your doggy's ears, and cut out a piece of round fabric a few inches bigger (for the rim and puff-factor). Then cut out a piece of lace (the more grandma-sy the better) and pin it all around the flannel:

Sew the lace on near the inside edge, then another line about 1/2" on the outside. Then, I was supposed to have 2 pieces of elastic, one threaded through the 2 lines of stitches to cinch it, and another that'll go around his chin to secure it. I was lazy and just used one continuous piece, and I didn't even bother sewing them in place... they were all safety-pinned (shh...). Oh well, it's a pile of lace on top of a dog head. It's good enough.

Oh, and for optimal puffiness, stuff it with tissue:

And for Eva's cape, I looked and looked and found mentions of a couple of patterns in a 2 sewing books. I looked through the reviews, I compared the projects, I debated which one's better...

I broke down and bought both.

I can't help it, look how adorable they both are!

First is the Oliver + s book by Liesl Gibson. You may be familiar with their super adorable kid's clothing pattern. I love the retro twist. Sooo cute...

Then I got the Growing Up Sew Liberated book by Meg McElwee. So many beautiful and practical projects for babies and kids. 

See, both capes are on the covers! I browsed through both, and based on the time I have (not much) and how much the cape I think will be used (not much), I opted for the easier one from the sew liberated book. 

As you can see, it's basically a semi-circular piece (or 2 if you want it lined) of fabric with a hood attached to it. This is my first time making anything with a hood. One trick I found out is that if you use thicker fabrics (like I did, I used 2 layers of flannel, I imagine fleece or velvet would be the same), see how thick the seams get? Make sure you clip the curves really well, and I clipped the seams a little too to make it less bulky.  

Another trick to up the cute-factor? Find a really gorgeous button! It's really front and center in this outfit, so make sure you choose well. For the sweet fairy-tale look, I chose a really big and woodsy button. 

Oh, and one more thing I've observed from this pattern. The hood is really pointy. I've rounded it off just a litte, but it's still gnome-ish. If that's what you want, that's great. I'll probably use a round plate to round it off some more next time (if there's one).

So there. Another Halloween! Now that my sewing brain is tickled, I'm really looking for more time to whip up a few more things this holiday... We shall see.

Can I be Amish?

I think our experience living in sensory-overload China has driven me over the edge for a moment.

When I visited my uncle and aunt in Pennsylvania last month and saw how the good Amish folks lived, a part of me think maybe I should try out the Amish lifestyle as a form of spiritual detox. 

And why not? They grow and make their own delicious, organic food. Here I'm getting my full-fat, homemade vanilla milkshake made with milk that probably came from the same cows we were smelling in the air, though foul, strangely enriches the experience:

And if you're a sew-ist and have seen the racks and racks of absolutely stunning hand-sewn quilts I did, I think you might be tempted to "convert" too... 

This is my aunt, not Amish (duh), but sews beautiful quilts nonetheless. I'm amazed and inspired by all the hand-quilting she does, and even she said she's in awe with the Amish quilts...

But I snapped myself out of it as quickly as I downed that yummy milkshake, after seeing how they get around (or not) with their one-horse-power ride (aka horse & buggies) and their hardworking way of life (you should see the calluses on these women's hands). 

Oh well, there goes my Amish dream. But I tell myself I will try to do my best to enjoy the simple things that happen around here. For one, I've taken my sewing machine back out from storage, dusted it off and have started sewing again :)

Here's a little preview of the Halloween costume I'm making for the duo, can you guess what Bryson is? (Hint: Eva's character wears a red cape and has an elderly relative who got eaten by a predator)

Ha ha, isn't he such a good poser! Good Big Bad Wolf Bryson...

And we took full advantage of the nice fall weather around here, and took a couple of short weekend trips for some simple R&R: 2 hrs north to Pointe Reyes/ Nicasio for a romp in the pumpkin patch, and 2 hrs south to Monterey/ Carmel for the beaches and a trip down memory lane (we were married in Carmel 7 years ago...). 

Here are some highlights of the trips, and for the full albums, see here for Pointe Reyes/ Nicasio, and here for Monterey/ Carmel. Enjoy!

See the beautiful waterfall tumbling into the beach? It's the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, about 45 min. south of Carmel. Totally worth a visit. 

This is Mission Ranch, Carmel, the meadow behind Eva is where we got married, and the honeymoon cottage below is where we stayed our first night as newly-weds (little did we know... 7 years later, one little monkey...)

The end.

Day -10: between freaking out and missing the Bry...

Yes, we're in the final countdown: 10 days to go before we jump on the plane and embark on our journey to Middle Kingdom! 

As you can imagine, these days I switch rapidly from frantically-trying-to-check-things-off-the-to-do-list mode, to complete-freak-out mode, to missing-the-Bry mode...

Oh, Bry Bry... it's been a week now since you've driven off with your daddy and uncle to Texas, and I can't tell you how much tears I've shed in those first few days when you and daddy were gone... I look at your empty bowl, I cry. I pick at all those hair you've shed on my black dress pants, I cry. I found that random (rotten) piece of carrot under the couch, I cry.

But seeing your happy face and reminescing our good ol' days together will always cheer me up :)

Actually, seeing you happy butts makes me smile even more (Eva: don't worry, Bryson, I won't tell people about that plumber thing going on...)

I'm so relieved when I heard you're doing quite well with your extended family in Austin. In fact, sounds like you're being spoiled rotten from having full couch privilege, to being fed carrots and apples by your grandparents around the clock, to enjoying long walks with your fur-cousins in the balmy Texan evenings. 

For more photos of our precious family time with the Bry, visit our album here.

Having gotten this intense Bry-Bry missing sentiment out, I can go back to freaking out now. Oh, and you know what else is so fun when you have 10 days to go before moving out of the country?

Getting laryngitis and losing your voice... CHECK! 

Finding out we don't have a place to stay on the day we arrive in China... CHECK!

Standing in pharmacy line for an hour and couldn't get our refills... CHECK!

And here's the best one...

Locking your child in the car at Target's parking lot when your husband's out of town... CHECK!

*Hyperventilate*

*Breathe in from brown bag, breathe out to brown bag*

*Ohm....*

Pass out.

Sheriff Bryson Goes Back to Texas

It’s totally surreal. To think that in 24 days, we’ll be living in a different continent. Leaving behind the familiar dinner table we gather around every evening, the comfortable corner on the couch, and oh, almost forgot, that certain canine companion who often occupies half of said couch which forces us into said corner...

While still distraught over the prospect of not hearing that collar jingle for almost 4 months while we’re in China, I’m happy to report that we have found Bryson a more-than-satisfactory solution- he’ll be living with hubby’s family in Austin, TX.

Remember our road trip there with Sheriff Bryson years ago? 

Yep, that’s where he’ll be showered with attention and kisses from his grandparents, Uncle Jack, Auntie Jessie, Cousins Sara and Tyler, canine-cousins Toby, Nitro and Coco, and feline cousins Mama and Tuptim. Did I mention they’re animal lovers? :) I’m just so grateful that his extended family is willing to take in our high-maintenance boy, where we know he’s getting the best care possible.

The only caveat is that hubby has to drive him there from home (we don’t want to subject him to the stress of flying in cargo), which, depending on how fast you drive, take 2+ days. Yikes. But to know that he’ll be well taken care of, it’s all worth it.

So now that our home’s going to be vacant, we’re looking for potential tenants while we’re gone. Here are some pictures, and I’m embarrassed to admit that we “cheated”... 

Well, assuming that prospective tenants probably aren’t too thrilled to see a houseful of children’s toys and general household clutter, we sweep our crap from one room to another, so we have pictures of each corner of our home in a relatively pristine state. Just imagine right behind my camera stuff overflows like debris after a hurricane. But of course that’s our little secret, right?

On a separate note, we are exploring different modes of “transportation” for Eva. At home, we have 2 strollers – a equivalent of an SUV for off-road hiking, and a compact one for everyday use. In China, our SUV will be like a tank on the busy streets, holy impracticality.

Even the compact stroller will likely be a bit cumbersome given that we'll be riding lots of public transportation, so we are exploring options such as backpack carriers like this one we borrowed from a friend: 

She looks so pleased to be as tall as daddy :) While more “portable” than a stroller, this may only be suitable for visiting parks and hiking. In the city it could probably double as a weapon, taking out people in your way.

Hmm, maybe I'll saddle up Bryson and use him as my ride...

I know lots of you have travel experience with kids on super crowded streets in Asia or other cities, any other tips on navigating around with your kiddos?

P.S. We gave in and bought her one of those backpacks... uh, she loves the monkey, that makes it OK, right? Please don't call Child Protective Services on us...

Oh, by the way, like our new profile picture? I'll never get tired of looking at these two :)

 

Corgi + 3 (and quilt)'s road trip to Yosemite

One of the reasons we're willing to pay through the nose to live in California: old-school-pack-the-kid-and-the-dog-in-the-van-(or-SUV)-and-hit-the-road trips, baby!

With winter coming to a close (I know it doesn't feel that way for some of you folks, my condolences), we decided to hit Yosemite so we can soak in mother nature's wintry goodness and our 2-/4-legged kids can have a romp in the snow. Well, as the best-laid plans go, of course someone got sick, and it snowed gloriously as we started our drive home, and all we had was pretty much black ice and slush. 

Oh well. But we did hit jackpot with this hidden gem of a vacation rental we found on vrbo. Shhhhhh... just between friends, you know?

This rustic-modern cabin sits on its own 17 serene acres, complete with a little red barn, a personal observatory, and moo-ing cows on rolling meadows just across the road. 

It's totally chilaxing cow-gazing on the porch. This is the view from the porch (Eva says "mooooo" every time she looks at this photo still):

Not easy to get the "kids" to cooperate for a group photo...

Gotta sneak up on them when they're not suspecting- one napping and one watching Curious George while sipping Pedialyte...

 Bryson much happier when we get to stroll around the grounds... 

And yes, this is the personal observatory on property. How cool is that?? The owner apparently is a huge astronomy buff, there are also multiple telescopes around the house, complete with detailed instructions. But by the time it got dark and we had time to put Eva down and read the instructions, the clouds rolled by and the stars said goodnight. Boo...

Yes! It's my first finished quilt! Ta-da! It's made a few cameos in previous posts, but I never got around to write about it. I was hoping to take the quilt to some exotic location for its own photo shoot, and what's more perfect than a rustic little barn? Stay tuned, I've decided it deserves its own post, so more on that later.

Nothing more relaxing than a nap by the fire after a looooong day...

And here, our snow-bound adventure in Yosemite:

The famous half dome above, topped with a thin layer of snow. And Yosemite Falls below, this is probably the most water I've ever seen, since we've always visited during summer, when it's invariably dry and disappointing. Not this time!

Michelin girl :) It actually wasn't that cold, it was around the high 30's inside the park during the day, but when the wind kicks up it's still pretty chilly.

And despite of National Parks' reputation of not being dog-friendly, Yosemite is actually surprisingly hikable for doggies. They're allowed on all paved trails as long as they're on-leash, and for better or worse, there are actually quite a few of that in the park where you can take in the major views.

This is our hike to Mirror Lake, which would only have taken about an hour during summer time, but took us almost two between pushing the stroller on ice and trying not to fall. I ended up pushing the stroller the whole time, not only do I need some upper body exercise, but as it turns out, a loaded stroller makes an excellent walker in the snow :)

It's incredibly tiring being pushed in a stroller, apparently...

An "illegal" off-road excursion... shhhh... we were just 10 feet away and he was only there for a split second, I swear!

Are we there yet....

Mirror Lake!

 

Backside of the quilt... The bottom fabric is actually more of a gray than purple. So happy my quilt get to see the light of day, hee hee!

Oh deer! There's this herd that hangs out in the meadow below where a lot of traffic goes through. They're incredibly adorable, but at the same time, it's a little heart-breaking as we can smell the fume in the air, and they're not the least bit afraid of humans. Note to self: if we ever go back without Bryson, we'll have to try out the shuttle system.

I HAD TONS OF FUN!! BYE-BYE YOSEMITE!!

 
For more pix of our trip, check out our Flickr album here. Enjoy!

 

Farewell, 2010!

I think I probably say this every year, but I'm gonna say it again. What? It's another year already? Where did the time go?

So much to reflect on, but alas, between a toddler and 2 dogs- we're hosting Tube Dog for the holiday- reflection time seems hard to come by.

If I were to sum it up, I'll have to say that 2010 honestly hasn't been the greatest year. Don't get me wrong, we're beyond blessed to have our little family safe and happy for the most part. It just hasn't been easy constantly worried about Bryson's health, adjusting to life as a working mom for me and a stay-at-home-dad for hubby, dealing with all the changes with work (I went through 4 managers in 2010, yes, four), losing a friend earlier in the year...

On the other hand, there are always these little everyday, ordinary things to celebrate, to look forward to. Finishing a new sewing project (more on that later), finding that must-have pair of boots on sale (don't you love that when it happens?), watching Eva's amusing toddler antics (today's is holding up a strip of toast, jam-side up, to her ears saying "hello, hello?").

These small triumphs are too numerous to list, here are a couple to wrap up the year...

I mentioned this briefly on the last post, that we participated in Kelly and Gibson's Corgibutts secret santa gift exchange. Thanks to our secret santa, Jenna and Sully at corgipants, Bryson's now the proud owner of one awesome "singing" Christmas tie. I was really hoping to get a video of Bryson wearing it, singing and all, but it didn't quite work as planned. I'm gonna say that it's because of his Addison's... he scared of that tie. Everytime we put it on and press the "press me" spot, he'd jump and look for some place to hide. Subsequently, he looks quite grumpy as we try to put it on him:

 
Am I a mere source of entertainment to you? (Poor Bry...)

I'm also extremely grateful to have received this Dr. Pitcairn book (thanks, Sully!). If you're a pet owner and want to seriously understand your dog or cat's health from a more holistic perspective, this is a must-read. But yours won't come with a key fob with your initials, hee!

 

A side note to kindle users: I originally bought this book on my beloved kindle, but found the formatting to be less than ideal. If you have a kindle, you'll know that the page numbers shown does not correspond to paper versions at all, so when this book refers you to "page 72" for a recipe, you'd have no idea where to find it. Wondering if you have the same experience with reference books in general with the kindle?

Today, we had a brief break in the weather, so even though it's in the 40's out (cold for SF Bay Area standard), we decided to go all out and celebrate New Year's Eve in Napa Valley in style (that is, toddler- and doggie-style).

We started off at the burger joint Taylor's Automatic Refresher (which is now called "Gott's Roadside" because of some weird name dispute). It even has a big, heated tent for outdoor seating that's dog-friendly. Sweet...

 

This dulce de leche shake is soooo thick...

And ohhhhh so delicious...
 

After lunch, we came across this empty vineyard that's marked "8 acres- for sale". Guess it's never too early to start thinking about a career in horticulture...
 
 

 
And what's new year without a glass of bubbly? When we heard that Mumm is dog-friendly (even inside the sit-down tasting room), we had to drag the gang there for a visit.


Eva eyeing her potential first glass of champagne (or brut, to be accurate), while the boys under the table look longingly at the piece of treat the server's bringing to them (yes, they give all their doggie guests biscuits, too)
 
 
Yet another unsuccessful attempt at a mother-daughter picture...

 
We didn't realize it at first, but this winery also boasts a photo gallery featuring original work by Ansel Adams. I'll borrow Eva's favorite word these days: Wow.

 Seriously, a winery that's toddler- and dog-friendly that let you stroll amongst masterpieces with a glass of brut in hand (provided you don't have to juggle a toddler and 2 dogs)? We're a family of happy campers (the bubbly helps too)! 

 

 

Wish you all a very bubblicious happy new year! And hope 2011 will be a healthier, smoother-sailing year for all of us.

 

Mayhem at the Giants Parade!

Go ahead, call us crazy, reckless parents. Yes, we lugged our 15-month old toddler downtown to party with 1.5 MILLION of our good friends at the Giants' victory parade yesterday.

I know, that defies all common sense of being a responsible parent. Loud scary crowds? The danger of being trampled? The risk of losing your child? Yes, we've considered them all, in fact, I did get separated from hubby and Eva for almost an hour, it was kinda scary and unnerving at the time (and how we got separated is another whole blog post- perhaps one entry from each parent). But how can you resist?

The Giants winning it all is truly a historic moment. It was over 50 years ago that we won the last World Series, and if history predicts the future, I may not see another one in my life time (especially if I keep polishing off those leftover Halloween candies...)

 
Plus, it was hubby's birthday (happy 21st, hon!), and coming from the man who's a lifelong, die-hard Giants fan, who schlepped a 9-month-old by himself to a spring training game in Scottsdale back in April (I was in a meeting in Phoenix), this is the holy grail of holy grail, the day he'd kiss the ground any Giant walked on (I don' doubt that).

And I guess I've always wondered what it really looks like being rained on by confetti (it was beautiful, by the way, and of course I took home a few pieces for keepsake).

Eva, on the other hand, had no comprehension of why we were there. I just hope that some day she'll find these pictures meaningful/ amusing in some way.

 
Just look at this crowd- this was taken at Montgomery and Market, where the crowds completely jam up every inch of asphalt, spilling into stores, onto scaffolding and even traffic lights. And where this was taken was considered a "front-row" seat; for every person you see here in front of us there are probably another 10 behind us.

 
In the end, it was a blur of sights of the back of people's heads, random folks waving from floats, deafening cheers and chants, smells of Prop 19, excitement mixed with panic (while looking for husband and child) all rolled into one... but the electrical energy, the pride and the sense of the entire city as one, it was one heck of an experience I'll never forget.

And while we're on baseball theme, I have to post these pictures from Eva and Bryson's first baseball game together this past August at the Giants' Dogs Day of Summer. This is the one day you can bring your dog to parade on the field and watch the game with you. We did it a few years ago with just Bryson, remember?

This year things were a bit more "interesting" with an Addison dog and a restless baby (we triple-dosed Bryson's steroid)...

 

Yes, that's a real cable car parked at the ball park you can climb on for photos. You can also watch the game from there. How cool is that? 

I can't believe it took me 2+ months to post these pix (which actually has been on my flickr album for a while now).

And you know what else was unbelievable? Right after this game, the then 13-month old Eva shocked us by finally achieving independent bipedal locomotion that same afternoon. I tell you, there is magic in the air with these Giants.

Happy Halloween!- from Baby Vet and her Patient

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Especially if you're a Giants fan, I'm sure the sight of orange and black is making you feel extra festive (World Series... I can smell it, but don't wanna jinx it!).

Anyhoo... it's extra difficult this year deciding what to dress the duo up as, as they had this super smash hit last year as pharaoh and the spinx that you may remember.

I was completely out of inspiration when it occured to me that our life has been dramatic enough as is- what with Bryson's recent hospitalization and frequent visits to the vet- that we really don't need too much dramatization for our inspiration for this Halloween:

Bryson will play "himself", aka one sick puppy, and Eva, inspired by our excellent new vet, Dr. Jenny, will play... a vet. 

Admittedly it's much less exotic or creative compared to last year's outfits. I bought this $15 vet outfit on amazon (that feels like it's worth 50 cents), spruced it up with some fancy pocket for her stethoscope and a new name badge that says "Dr. E, DVM" (yes, I stole that animal cross clipart that still has some copyright watermark on it. What can I say, a mom needs to be resourceful) 

 
For Bryson, I wrapped him up with some gauze (hubby says it looks more like a white headband, sorry, Bry...), tied his paw up with some more gauze and a pink elastic, and "attached" him to an IV bag, and voila! We have a semi-realistic re-enactment of Bryson-the-patient (I think the grumpy expression helps too).

 
 We attended a friend's block party, and here are some more pix of the rest of our day:

  

  Dr. E is very diligent, making sure her patient's med is always titrated to the right dose.

 

  
Dr. E: Excuse me, you'll need my permission before petting my brother my patient

 
Check out our flickr album if you wanna see more actions from today.

On a completely separate note, in my oodles of spare time this past couple of weeks, I sewed Eva a couple of headbands. My hands were just itching to sew something (haven't done anything creative for ages), and I needed some project that can be completed in a couple of hours (or they'll just fall into the unfinished project pile that's dominating my work area). 

Here's the first one, made by wrapping a 3/4"-elastic with fabric, with a couple of fabric flowers and burgundy felt leaves sewn on. I don't want it to be super girly, but I'm really sick of people asking if she's a boy even when she's Pepto-Bismol pink from head to toe. I think this combo looks cute but not too frou-frou.

  

I'll post about the other headband (hopefully) soon when I get some decent pictures of it.

By the way, did you notice that Eva looks more like a little girl than a baby almost all of a sudden? I think since she started walking (the day we took her and Bryson to the SF Giants Dog Day game back in September, which I have yet to blog about *sigh*), she seems to have grown overnight as a little person. As we fiddled with her outfit today and trying to get her to sit still many times in vain for pictures, I realize she really isn't a baby anymore. Feeling a bit nostalgic...

 

Bryson Gets Doggy Acupuncture

Can't say thank you again enough for all of your support through our ordeal with Bryson's health crisis!

It's been a couple of weeks since Bryson came home, in fact, tomorrow will mark his 2-week follow-up date with the hospital, where he'll have a repeat chest x-ray to see if the pneumonia has cleared. Judging by the way he looks (his eyes seem to look so much "brighter", kinda hard to explain...) and the way he's attacking his food, I'm hopeful that tomorrow he'll be declared officially over the hump. This is a picture of him and Eva bumming around a pumpkin patch this past weekend, doesn't he look great?

 

But there's still the underlying Addison's Disease that's causing all the mayhem that lurks in the back of our minds... And thus, this past week, we eagerly brought him in to the long-awaited appointment with the highly-recommended naturpathic vet. And boy, even though it was only one visit, I already love this vet!

Before I go further, I have to say again that I have the utmost respect for his regular vets- they diagnosed him with Addison's promptly and probably saved his life. But this new naturpathic vet is just so.... different. First of all, she easily spent over an hour and a half with us, going through his entire history, asking us everything about his health- from his recent illness, to his Addison's, his diet, his history before us... seriously, like everything. I don't think I've spent that much time with his regular vet cumulatively since we had Bryson (and probably not to their fault, it's just the way vet practices, not unlike human medical practices, are run these days).

And not only was she attentive, warm, she was so good about explaining everything (again, reason why we were there for an hour and a half). She also gave me tons of reading- including her practice's rating of different dog food products and diets (raw vs high quality kibble), the whole vaccine debacle (do you know that yearly vaccine schedules for doggies are completely unsupported by scientific evidence?), the basis of acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine in doggies, supplements for Addison's disease, etc etc. I really feel like I'm back in school again (but in a good way, of course!)

Another thing I like about her is that she listens to me, and truly takes my preference and concerns into account when deciding on a course for Bryson: I'm a pharmacist- I like drugs, or at least I've learned to trust them. I've also taken courses in Chinese Medicine and have dabbled a little in naturpathic medicine myself. I want to explore an integrated approach for Bryson, so while we're maximizing his health through optimal nutrition support and natural healing methods, I don't want to throw his life-saving pills away blindly in the name of going "natural". Honestly before I went in I was a little concerned that she would ask me to do just that, but turns out she completely understands where I come from- she's a "regular" licensed DVM, so she can (and does) prescribe all the medicines needed for her patients, while incorporating other naturopathic methods to help encourage the body to heal. To me, that's just good, sensible medicine.

And on paper, she has the best "pedigree", having trained under the famous "father of holistic vet medicine", Dr. Pitcairn (and don't worry if you haven't heard of him before, I've only heard of him since Bryson got sick. He's BIG, trust me).

So, when she offered to do acupuncture on Bryson right then and there, I barely even flinched. Yes, you heard it right, acupuncture, as in little needles stuck all over his body to encourage his doggy "qi" to flow nicely through his meridian, as such:

 
Crazy, eh? And you know what's crazier? She's so gentle and casual about it that he didn't even realize the needles went in! (He only jumped a little with this one near his butt- his "gall bladder" point, she said). Imagine Bryson just walking around like nothing happened with these needles sticking out of him everywhere (yeah, kinda like a doggy-hellraiser). He was so relaxed he even laid down to take a nap. It's pretty weird and hard to suppress that giggle initially, I have to say.

Nothing too dramatic has happened with his health since (and not hat I'm expecting any). He just looked a little better every day, probably from the combination of his "regular" and "naturpathic" treatments. We're going back in a couple of weeks for follow up, where we'll start to discuss more about his chronic maintenance (this last time it's more about helping him get over his current episode). I'm cautiously optimistic that she can help us navigate through this maze of medical problems for our boy. Will keep you all posted (and if you have any experience to share about taking your pet to a naturpathic vet- do share!).

P.S. Bonus! More pix of our weekend at Half Moon Bay :)

 

 

 

 

 

Lost and Found!

TGIF!! I'm completely exhausted, but this is too funny I had to share.

So, you know we live in a converted steam engine factory building, where we have this huge freight elevator, right? Yeah, this one:

And yes! A crime has been committed against Bryson right at that spot marked "crime scene". You see those miscellaneous junk and variety of shopping carts in there? Well, our elevator has sort of evolved into a communal space for our building over the years, where people leave useful stuff (i.e. stolen shopping carts from Home Depot across the street) and useless junk (i.e. your old cat litter box) for neighbors to use/take. It's generally understood through unspoken rules though that unless something is marked "free!", that when you're done, you bring it back to the elevator so others can enjoy them.

Well, last weekend, we were moving 2 big rubbermaid boxes full of Bryson's clothes, costumes (including his 2 amigos outfit and the Harry Potter costumes), medicines, toys.. basically all his belongings using the elevator. Hubby came back to our place to pick up Eva as she woke up from her nap, went right back to the elevator, and the boxes are gone.

WTF?! These boxes look brand spankin' new, full of midget dog clothing some with "BRYSON" embroidered on the back. Who would have taken those? 

We waited a whole day thinking someone just mistakenly took them, but they never reappeared. Desperate, I put up this sign below in the elevator and on our building's notice board. No one can resist Bryson's pleading face, right?

Well, the very same evening, we found this at our door:

Yay! Everything's still in there, and I love the personal note to Bryson :) There is faith in humanity after all. I mean I don't really care about the other stuff, but I'll be really upset if we lost his hand-made costumes, there are a lot of sentimental value in those...

On a separate note, little Miss Eva turned 10 months a couple weeks ago, and she's picking things up so fast at times it's a little scary... 

For example, she's learning to "feed herself" (and Bryson):

I still have to help her scoop the food into her spoon, but she can generally guide it to her mouth area, stick it straight in like a toothbrush, and suck up some of the food on the spoon while splashing the rest around all over herself, me and the floor. Good thing is Bryson's the best clean-up crew ever. He's learned to station himself right by her high chair whenever she's eating, and I have not ONCE had to clean the floor when she's done eating. He's that good.

And see those little kibble of fruits and crackers on her high chair tray? She loves picking those up and feeding herself. Except when she's kinda full, she'll start giving those to Bryson, an activity they both enjoy immensely. She'll pick up a piece, look at Bryson, look at the piece, then reach waaaay down since Bryson's so short, and Bryson makes up by stretching his neck (I won't let him climb on her high chair) and taking it gently from her little fist. But sometimes she'll change her mind half way, after Bryson thoroughly slobber over her hand and the tiny morsel of food, she'll decide for some reason that she wants to eat it... she'll then take it away from a very disappointed Bryson, and jab the dog-slobber covered piece of food in her mouth. Ewwwww!! Good for her immune... good for her immune.... is all I gotta say.
   

 

 

Eva has a new cousin!

Yes, this is the same little sister who overtook me and had her first baby, Chloe, a whole 2 years before Eva was even thought of.

And she did it again! Giving birth to their second child, Cyrus, a healthy 6 lb 7 oz baby boy last night in the Seattle area:

Awwww! But don't you think all newborns got that Benjamin Button thing going? They're practically born looking like grumpy little old men, and somehow over the next few months, they gradually fill out and look more like those cherub-y angelic babies you see on TV commercials.

We're gonna go visit them later this month, giving them some time to settle in first. Can't wait for Eva to meet her new cousin though!

I've been sewing a couple of blankets for Cyrus, here's the working progress:

Don't you love these "Wheels" fabrics by Riley Blake? I love that not everything's blue but it still screams boy. And yes, that's the super lazy person's way of doing the binding, I was thinking about a proper mitered corner but decided a newborn infant probably isn't that discerning (don't tell him, shhh....)

And before Eva gets to get some buddy shots with her new cousin, here are some super adorable recent pix with her brother (these two are really becoming buddies):

 

 

Well, now I got started posting pictures, here are a few more from a trip to Carmel/ Monterey a few weeks ago. While Bryson enjoyed the offleash Carmel City State Beach as usual, Eva also got to play on a beach for the first time and discover she can rake wet sand and pile them into her pants, oh fun...

 

Bryson makes a very good watch dog for your stuff on the beach too, by the way.

Eva also had her first visit to the super cool Monterey Bay Aquarium (rocks!):

 

 

  
 

Playdate @ Sadie Dey

I've had a pretty tough couple of weeks at work. Since attending my coworker's funeral, it's been nonstop traveling and work meetings, and honestly, it's been kinda hard to focus.

So when we get a chance to throw the babies together for a play date, where things are simple and present, life is pretty sweet. Remember how they were all like these limp little worms in these pictures not that long ago:

 

And look at them now:

 
And now, for some extra credits (seriously, who doesn't love extra credits?), can you match up the now-and-then versions of the babies between these 2 photos? I'm not tricking you, obviously 5 of the babies couldn't make it this time, but the 5 below are definitely represented in the one above. You get 4 points max, since Eva doesn't count, and if you don't get her, you get a minus score :P

 
It's fun to watch them learn to share...

 
Or not... 

 
and trying to pretend to be civilized at the table.

And all these happened at this really nice kid-centric cafe 5 min from home called Sadie Dey's. One side is a play area that kids (and babies) can burn off some energy with some nice quality toys, the other side is a cafe where they serve fairly decent food (for mama and babies, since you can't bring in your own baby food, unfortunately). In our pre-Eva days these are the places we'd avoid like a pest, and now, we can't imagine living without them.

Check out our Flickr page for more pix of this uber fun day :)

Look! The Biggest Bubble in the World!

As we had a break in the rain and suspiciously spring-ish weather (humidity, woo...), we took the little fam to Point Isabel this morning to stretch our legs.

As soon as we got there, we were immediately taken by this unusual sight- a gynormous (seriously, look at the photo below!) soap bubble floating lazily across the street over our heads!

I felt giddy like a little kid as I watch this guy carefully dip this loop into a bucket of soapy water, skillfully raise and open it to the wind, and out spit this rainbow-hued giant bubble that morphs its shape constantly to the oncoming breeze.

To Bryson's dismay, we stood there quite a while to ooh (when a bubble successfully form) and aah (when a bubble pops) and snapped like a thousand photos on my iPhone before we could begin our walk.

I giggled so much I felt 10 lbs lighter as we walked away. Who knew watching someone blow soap bubble could be so therapeutic?

(Some photos are obviously not from the walk, consider them your bonus material :D):

1. Giant bubble... woo hoo!, 2. Muddy day @ Point Isabel, 3. Can we stop taking pictures and start walking?, 4. Cozy ride :), 5. Whoa!, 6. Circus people, 7. The destroyer of toys (and the spectator), 8. My turn to pinch your cheeks!, 9. Look, Eva! Giant bubble!

Even though Eva couldn't really appreciate it yet and Bryson was a muddy mess when we were done, it was a great day all around. :)

Breastfeed or perish!

Thank you everyone again for coming to this neurotic new mom's rescue!

All you comments and e-mails channeling positive energy and sharing your personal experience really helped get me through this past week, as I learned how some of you have gone through the exact same struggle with breastfeeding and the dilemma with formula.

I've since ditched the whole "breastfeed or perish" mantra (where did that come from? More later in this post), and accepted that whatever works for us will have to do.

But here's the ironic thing... no sooner than I semi-gave-up on this whole breastfeeding deal, that things started turning the corner for us. Maybe it's the more relaxed attitude, or the help (i.e. the super potent steroid/antimicrobial cocktail unguent) we got from the lactation consultant, or just sheer luck (or stubborness), breastfeeding has gradually become less like a contact sport (involving lots of sweat and tears), the pain more manageable (I no longer compare that to childbirth itself), and has gone from "there's no way I can do this" to "this is hard but it could be manageable".

We're still supplementing, and I still don't know what the future holds for us in this department, I'm just glad that feeding time no longer resemble interrogation at Guantanamo Bay.

At this eerily calm feeding session at 4 a.m. this morning, staring down at Eva contently attached to my breast, I suddenly realized why new moms (or at least I) am so emotionally charged when it comes to breastfeeding...

For nine long months, you're physically connected to this being in every way. You grow and nurture her without ever having to think about it. It just happens. But when she's born, all of a sudden she's no longer physically attached to and dependent on you. Everything that she needs- diaper change, burping, holding and loving, even feeding if formula is used, can be provided by someone else. It feels as if breastfeeding her is the last visceral connection you can still have with your baby. Being able to breastfeed provides the validation that emotionally vulnerable new moms (i.e. I) need in order to feel "needed" by their babies. In other words, I'm selfishly breastfeeding her more for myself than for her.

Well, at least that's my theory.

By the way, today's my birthday, which I almost forgot if hubby didn't remind me yesterday. It means so much more now that I've given birth to Eva to know what happened today 30 some years ago when my mom pushed me out to this world (and without an epidural too, thanks, mom!) Apparently my parents will be looking after Eva while hubby takes me out to dinner tonight. I've heard of new moms breaking down in tears at their first outings without their babies. I'll let you know how ours go!

Here are some random pictures from this past week (sorry for the poor quality as they're from hubby's phone, don't have time to whip out the "real" camera...) Enjoy!

 
Buckteeth! Naw, just a sucking blister that's coming off :D LOL!

 
Wide awake- with her eyes open, she's starting to look more like her daddy...

 
Fresh air and adult company- all I need to feel like myself again (thanks, Auntie Aimee!)

 
Bryson enjoying the fresh air too!

 
Out at a cafe- she loves being in a crowd. We should live out on the street.

Our Babymoon!

We're back from our babymoon and 3 busy, busy days of last-minute baby prep!

But before we go into that, I'm sure you want to know how Bryson's doing with his Addison's. Remember last week he had a small set back, throwing up and having diarrhea with severe drippage for 2 straight days (sorry, tmi but you get the picture).

We were worried sick that it was his Addison's acting up, turns out it was just some icky stuff (probably other dog's poop and other miscellaneous crap) he feasted on. Whew! It ran its course and now he's once again his perky usual self :) We're going back to the vet next week for more testing, will keep you all posted on how he does then.

So, back to the babymoon... This is the first week of my maternity leave (just 4 more weeks to D-day, can you believe it?!), and I literally worked till the minute before hubby finally peeled me off my computer and packed me into the car so we can take the hour-long drive to escape reality for a few days.

Our destination is the rustic yet luxurious Carneros Inn, somewhere halfway between Napa and Sonoma. Think sprawling vineyards on rolling hills, dotted with clusters of cottages, cozy restaurants, a world class spa, all interconnected with pretty orchards and gardens and outdoor gathering places. (Sorry you probably couldn't tell that from our sub-par photos, it's hard to shoot when you're carrying around a watermelon. But you can see them here on Flickr if you'd like)

It could easily have been the most relaxing trip I've ever been on, except... well, I'll just say this- ladies who are or ever contemplate to be pregnant- do NOT plan your babymoon in the last month of your pregnancy.

Just imagine this- whenever you're upright, you feel like your bladder's about to explode; you lie down for some relief, and now you feel like you're suffocating with the baby up in your lungs; and when you finally have no choice but to haul yourself up to go pee for the 10,000th time that hour, you flounder around like a beached whale, and you can only hope that your spouse on receiving your distress call would go fetch that small crane and come hoist you up. And these are just the atrocities fun stuff I could mention here on this G-rated blog.

With that and a couple of freaky moments thinking I'm going into labor (I lost this while in Napa, oops), our trip consists of mostly laying low at the resort...

Reading my new Kindle (my wedding anniversary gift from hubby :>), having alfresco breakfasts in our bathrobes on our tiny little private patio...

    

... getting pampered at the spa, then tanning back in our patio au naturale so baby can get some vitamin D too (sorry, no pictures of that, you wouldn't want to see it anyway)...  

... eating stuff I'm not supposed to at the Oxbow market (oysters with sips of chilled, white wine, shhhh...), and taking long, cool naps under a fully-blasting A/C (except for this one unfortunate incident where hubby got himself into the dog house messing with my temp control and the blatant cover-up attempts that ensues... but we won't go into that now).

 

Above unfortunate incident notwithstanding, we're a couple of happy campers at the end.

 

And now we can go back to freaking out about getting ready for a potentially early arrival *shudder*. Stay tuned!

Dear Pixar...

Our family loves your cute animated movies, and has generally tolerated you as a neighbor, even though you don't care to share any part of your beautiful campus with us.

But this... this horrible (HARRRIBLE!!!!) construction noise is just about to push me over the edge:

Well, that was 47 seconds of it, multiple that duration by about 500 times (i.e. 8 hours a day) and you know what we've been living with for these past few weeks on a daily basis.

Seriously, Pixar, can you hurry the &*%# up and be done with it soon? What?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!

And then imagine being almost 8-months prengnant, sleep-deprived, and dealing with a sick puppy (as diagrammed below) on top of all of these: 

This is our dog, poor Bryson, who has a "hot spot" in his groin area that makes him super irritated, thus the neck guard to prevent him from reaching and licking it. Vet says it could be stress-related. Pixar, hear it? You're even STRESSING OUT OUR DOG. Not to mention the damage you've probably already done to our unborn child.

Mr. Pixar, this is our desperate cry for help. JUST MAKE IT STOP!!!

Sincerely,

Your disgruntled neighbor

P.S. We were really looking forward to see your movie "Up", but now we only wish that our home will fly away to a quieter place as in your movie... Care to provide us with some balloons?

An (Almost) Spring Day at Carmel

First of all, thanks everyone for your advice on my sewing questions! I know you guys will be my Obi Wan Kenobi :) With all your suggestions, I've signed up for a 5-week "Sewing 101" class at a local fabric store, and bought this Sooooo-cute-I-can-die baby sewing book by Amy Butler *adore!*. Now I just need to learn how to sew :)

And on a completely different subject, this past weekend we made a short trip down to the Carmel/ Monterey area so Bryson can stretch his little legs on the many dog-friendly beaches there to celebrate the beginning of spring.

While the weather was not exactly springy (what was I thinking, it's Monterey...), Bryson thoroughly enjoyed being out and about, exploring the many tide pools (checking them for little mollusks he can suck up for a snack), and not to mention the gourmet quarter-pounder he enjoyed at the uber-dog-friendly Forge in the Forest:

 
Whoa, that's a LOT of meat. I can't believe we ordered that for him, but he inhaled it before I had a chance to question it... And check out that nose.

 
"Now I have the energy to ROAR!!!"

Can't wait till the weather gets warmer so we (including us humans) can actually enjoy being out in the sun :)

More photos of our day on Flickr here, and some belated photos of our earlier Nude Beach visit here.

(Nude) Beach Bumming

I was reading through some of our recent posts here, and noticed that Bryson has been horribly neglected in this space lately.

Part of it is probably due to the obsession we have towards this new creature brewing in my belly (don't tell Bryson...), and part of it is probably related to the lack of motivation to do anything due to this foul weather. This is what he ends up doing most days, which seems hardly worth reporting...

 
Are we ever going out again? *sigh*

So, when there was a break in the rain this past Saturday, we took the opportunity to dust off our walking shoes, brave the gray skies, and headed to explore the old batteries and one of the most "scenic" beaches around San Francisco...

 

 
It was fun in a slightly eerie way weaving through the many levels of the an abandoned battery that guarded our coast at the turn of the 19th century. There are plenty of dark and hidden nooks and crannies to explore (and if it starts raining there're plenty of good places to hide). Pretty fascinating stuff.

    
"Look, Bryson! There's the famous Golden Gate Bridge!"
"Golden what? Who cares... ooh, look, there's something dead and stinky to roll on right over there. I'll be irresistable."
"Say cheese, Bryson! Whoa, wait... what's that smell?!"

 
Just look into my eyes... You can't possibly be mad at me... *twinkle twinkle*

   
Nothing beats a good romp on the beach to round out the day. And not just any beach, but the (in)famous Baker Beach, San Francicso's premiere nudist beach. As if the GG bridge isn't enough of a jaw-dropping backdrop, if you're "lucky", you'll also have a few of these au naturale folks in your frame. Fortunately for us, it was a very breezy day.

(Disclaimer: even though you can't see us in these photos, rest assured that Bryson was the only one dressing to the beach's protocol here. Trust us.)

"Contemplate the Beginning and End of Each and Every Day..."

First of all, thanks everyone for your suggestions on our babymoon! There are definitely some great suggestions there that we would consider (and many that are already high on our list... great minds think alike, ha ha!).

I'm in Miami this whole week for a meeting, but I had this incredible conversation the other day that I have to share with you before I forget (my mind is like a very shallow bowl these days).

OK, a little bit of background. If you live near us around the Berkeley area, you'd know that Elephant Pharmacy is not your regular mom-and-pop drug store. Elephant Pharm (as they'd kitschy-ly like to be called) has in addition to its "normal pharmacy" this huge alternative/ complimentary medicine department completed with its own library of resources. In other words, totally hemp-wearing Prius-driving tree-sitting Berkeley.

So, when I needed something other than my trusty Ambien- drug of choice for my horrible jet lag that I can't use anymore due to my current condition- I went to Elephant Pharm hoping for some guidance on alternative therapies.

Knowing where I'm going, I really should have been prepared for this conversation below, but somehow I was still struck speechless with the brilliantly simple advice I got.

(Hubby and I approaching alternative therapy section tentatively, grundgy yet helpful looking man came up to greet us)

Grundgy storeperson (GS for short): Helloooo ma'am! How can I help you?

Me: Eh, hi. Can you recommend something for jet lag? I'm pregnant and can't take my usual prescription medicine.

GS: Hmm, first of all, if you're pregnant, I'd probably recommend that you stay away from any oral therapy.

Me: Ehhh.... OK. But I need something. Last time I travelled for work without my Ambien I ended up in the emergency room with an irregular heart rhythm caused by exhaustion.

GS: Oh, hmm... (looking thoughtful) In that case, I'd recommend that you rise with the sun and go to sleep with sunset.

Me: (What are you smoking?!) Hmm, that sounds nice but the sun sets at like 5 p.m. when normal people I would still be working.

GS: Oh (looks surprised), then at least spend a few minutes watching the sunrise and sunset, then contemplate the beginning and end of each and every day... (looking irritatingly serene)

Me: (Speechless, and kinda waiting for him to say "I'm just kidding!" which he never did). OK, forget that scenario where I'm pregnant. Can you just show me the aisle where the homeopathic sleep aid is?

GS: Sure! Right this way.

Yep. That's why we love where we live.

Day 28: Black Friday Shopping

We live close to a mall/IKEA complex, and I was already planning an alternate route last night so we can get around today without getting stuck in Black Friday traffic.

Lo and behold, after walking Bryson this morning at Point Isabel, I completely forgot about it and took the exit I should have avoided like a pest. There was almost bloodshed in a fit of Black Friday road rage. *sigh* Patience's just not my thing.

There actually is a piece of furniture we're looking for- a decent sleeper sofa. And there appears to be some deals to be had, but picturing the crowds made me feel lightheaded already (not to mention crazy incidents like this fatal stampede at a Walmart this morning). Scary, eh?

So I've been doing my sleeper sofa shopping online in the safety of our home today. I'm a bit conflicted- it would really work for our space, but I've had nothing but horrible experiences with cheap versions of these modern conveniences. The mattress usually sags, and as you shift to find a comfortable position the metal frame creaks like it's about to fall apart. You wake up more exhausted than before you tried to sleep.

But my research today turned up some reviews of decent sleeper sofas, boasting new features such as a built in standard mattress (no more sagging), solid wood frames (instead of creaky metal ones), and much improved designs so they don't look like they belong to your grandparents' basement.

The good quality ones seem expensive (although furniture seems to be the last department we've graduated from their college versions- so "expensive" here is relative). But I'm willing to invest in one if it means saving anyone even one night of sleep.

Any suggestions on where to get a good one that won't break the bank?

Day 26: Vote for Hope Dogs!

**Due to some technological difficulties, this post which was posted yesterday never showed up. I swear I didn't cheat! But here it is, a little out of order. Oops.**

OK, people, I know Nov 4 has come and gone, but it's time to vote again!

This time it's for Bryson and Picasso as Calendar Boys on the 2009 mycorgi.com calendar!

   

You can cast your vote here.

Oh, and while you're at it, don't forget to vote for Bryson's buddies Theo and Gibson as well :)

The selfish part of me hope the boys will make it this year, but since Bryson was both Mr. Feb and Mr. August on this calendar last year, the "Good-person voice" inside me says that maybe we should let other corgis (especially new pups who weren't around last year) take the spotlight this time around.

Argh, conflicted! Just vote for the ones that make you smile. Can't go wrong with that, right? :)

Day 27: Happy Thanksgiving!

Growing up in Hong Kong, I've never celebrated a Thanksgiving with my family. I didn't even know what it is till I moved to the States when I was 18. And my mom will tell you that turkey is "rubbery and tasteless", so carving a big fat turkey and having huge family dinners has never been a tradition for us on Thanksgiving.

So hubby and I kinda created a different tradition for ourselves.

We started volunteering for the Salvation Army, delivery meals to homebound seniors about 4 years ago, and have done it almost every year since. This year hubby has to work, so I persuaded some friends to do the deed with me. 

Having to get up at 6 a.m. on a holiday made me almost murderous, but as I tell my friends, not only do you feel all warm and fuzzy when you receive all those heart felt thank you's, you also gain some valuable karma points to make up for the time you "neglected" to give up seat for the old lady on the bus or pick up that last piece of dog poop coz you ran out of bags...

Hubby and I are probably just going to spend a quiet evening home by ourselves. For those of you celebrating today with your family and chowing down on big, fat, juicy turkeys, have an extra piece for us :)

Day 25: Holiday Open House and BIG Giveaway!

OK, back onto the subject that I was going to write about yesterday- the Holiday Open House I'm going to be selling at *super-psyched*!

And, there'll be another FREE Giveaway! (Keep reading...)

A few of my letterpress classmates and my letterpress teacher will be selling there as well, I've seen some of the calendars, cards and hand-bound books they created/ letterpressed, they're SOOOO unique and gorgeous I think I almost drooled on myself...

And here are a few things I'm thinking of selling there (plus a few more "new" holiday items little procrastinator me's still scrambling to put together):

Here's a bit more info for the Open House:

I realize that this sale is on the same day as the Dixon Corgi Fair! Arrgghhhh... it couldn't be a worse conflict!! I know a lot of you local corgi people are going to Dixon, if you happen to drive by Berkeley maybe you can stop by our little Open House and say hi!

In fact, come to think of it, to thank you for driving all the way to Berkeley, I'm gonna do a Free Giveaway to the first 10 folks who stops by to say hi to me at this Open House!

Yep, you heard me right, another { Paper Elixir } Giveaway!! Remember how fun the last one was? ;)

And I'll make it oh-so-easy for you to win free stuff:

• Just be one of the first 10 people on Dec 7 to come to the Open House between 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. (location on invite above)
• Find me :)
• Say an enthusiastic "Hello!", and tell me this blog sent you there
• Voila! Free gift from { Paper Elixir } is yours

And no, there's no fine print, you don't have to buy anything (but of course it'd be nice if you do find a few suitable holiday gifts there) :)

I know quite a few of you "virtually", but it'll be so nice to finally meet some of you in person! So bring your friends and family and come see me hawk my goods in Berkeley on Dec 7!

P.S. For those of you who don't live in the SF Bay Area or can't make it to Berkeley that day, you can play too! Just purchase one thing from my etsy store that day, and you can get a free gift too! See, I'm totally fair-minded! :D

Day 23: Bazaar Bizarre is almost here :)

I'm so psyched, one week from today it's Bazaar Bizarre time again!

What's Bazaar Bizzare? Well, I really can't say it better than what's on their banner- it's "not your granny's craft fair".

Think of it as sort of like a real-life etsy. It's chock full of talented local artists/ craftspeople , selling their handmade and very hip and chic holiday gifts, jewelry, houseware, clothing, stationery, etc, etc. In other words, a very dangeous place for your wallet.

They're in SF next Sunday, and as you can see, you may have one coming up in your home town as well :) Consider yourself very lucky if you live in/near one of these very cultured cities, ha ha!

But you know what's more exciting than BazBiz? There's another craft fair in the SF Bay Area on Dec 7 (the following Sunday) that I'm even more psyched about!

Why, you ask? Coz I'm gonna be selling at that fair!

Where is it, you ask (because you so desperately want to patronize me)? Well, that you'll have to wait. More on that tomorrow! (Don't booo me, please...)

Day 18: Absinthe

I just came back from Absinthe, one of San Francisco's more popular restaurants, and I feel I have to set a couple things straight about this legendary liquor that's purportedly caused Vincent van Gogh to cut off his ear in a fit of delusion.

I've always been curious about this banned liquor that's been portrayed as one of history's most villainous psychogenic beverage. Could it really have inspired the work of all those brilliant French impressionists? Or is it really the evil substance that's caused legions of men and women to waste away and look like zombies?

Apparently, the latter view was never substantiated, and thus after a ban that spanned almost a whole century, absinthe is legalized in the U.S. again last year.

Driven by curiosity, including this whole "ritual" of how it has to be prepared under a cold water fountain with paraphernalia that looks like you're about to perform lobotomy on someone, I had my first absinthe earlier this year, and just to make sure my experience is duplicable, again a small sip this evening.

All I have to say is:

(1) I did not feel like cutting off my ear after drinking it, more like my entire HEAD coz it gave me a huge headache

(2) I did not feel especially inspired, artistically or otherwise (too busy looking for the Exedrin bottle)

(3) It tastes like drinking liquid licorice with alcohol in it, in other words, ACKKK!!! Unless, of course, if you like licorice (ugh).

So, even though this legendary and once-clandestine liquor can now be purchased at your neighborhood BevMo, I don't think I'm running there anytime soon to get my own bottle. But if you think otherwise of absinthe (especially if you have good hallucinogenic experience with it), do share!

P.S. At the end of dinner, I found out that Absinthe (the restaurant)'s Executive Chef, Jamie Lauren, is on this season's Top Chef! That might just be another show I've gotta set on my Tivo now...

Day 17: Fort FUNston

Thanks everyone, I think I'm feeling better today. I just wish I can get part of my weekend back :P

But I guess I really can't complain, coz on Saturday we had a mega fun day at the beach at the appropriately named Fort FUNston with Bryson!

Fort Funston is probably one of the most popular dog parks in San Francisco. With all the trails in the sand dunes, old battery remains and a long sandy beach, it really has something for every dog.

And with the freakishly warm weather (in the 80's, thanks to global warming), it really felt like summer all over again. Which stood in sharp contrast to our winter trip just 2 weeks ago...

   
Snowy Paws (2 wks ago, 19F)       Sandy Paws (this weekend, 83F)

Here are some more photos of the day:

 
Hopping down a sand dune on the way to the beach

 
Let's see if there's any edible sea junk over there...

 
Oooh, is that fresh sashimi?

 
Oh wait, these don't smell like seafood... Er, are these horses?

 
Look, mommy! I'm wearing a new cologne, Horsie Poopie, like it?

 
What? You don't like it? OK, I changed the scent to Salty Seawater

 
Daddy I'm such a good boy I deserve a treat

 
OK, my stomach is full and I've had enough fun with horse poop. Let's go home.

Day 2: Winter Road Trip!

A mere 12 hours after the last blog post, here I am again (I really hope I won't be boring you to tears with this daily blogging thing...)

But today, I have a reason to blog early, coz we'll be leaving for a road trip (yup, another one) in a couple of hours! It wouldn't be as epic as this last one, but it'll mark another first for us- taking Bryson to snow country!

We actually don't know if he's seen snow before (remember we got him as a show dog retiree), so we'll try out best to keep him warm and safe, e.g. bringing his coat and doggles, feeding him plenty and often (which in itself should keep him happy), trimming his feet fur so snow wouldn't get stuck, and keep our fingers crossed that he'll have a good time :)

So where are we going? This will give you an idea:

We're staying in this mountain lodge in June Lake, CA, which is just east of Yosemite, close to the Mammoth Lakes ski area. We've been to Yosemite a few times, but never with Bryson and never after it started snowing.

I've marked San Francisco and LA with pink arrows so you have a rough reference of the distance we have to travel. The red route is the more direct route that we would have taken if it's not snowing, but due to winter road closures, we're now taking the blue route, which according to google map will take us around 6 hours.

I'm giddy with a mix of excitement and anxiety (the venti coffee this morning probably didn't help with this weird feeling in my stomach either). I know we'll have fun hiking and exploring, but after a flip-over accident in the snow with my family a few years ago (where miraculously none of us was hurt seriously), I've been apprehensive about driving in snow.

Plus last I checked it's snowing up there, with a forecast of a high of 31 and low of 14 tomorrow. Brrrrrrr!!

It really seemed like a good idea when we planned this a few weeks back when it was nice and sunny... now it can turn out to be either a blast or a complete disaster. Wish us luck!

(P.S. I'm bringing my laptop as there should be internet access at the lodge. If you don't hear from us tomorrow, either internet doesn't work there, or we've perished in the snow...)

Day 1: { Paper Elixir } @ Relish at Home

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first day of my month-long participation in NaBloPoMo!

Yep, that's that crazy blogging-every-day-deal for the whole month of November. But I'm real glad I have blog friends like JuLo and Lynn and flanthrower doing this with me! It's kinda like having friends to join the gym together, so we can give each others a virtual kick in the behind when we slack off (but hopefully I won't need one).

So, remember I told you earlier this week that another store in the area started carrying my goodies? Wanna know who it is? Well, wait no more! I'm excited to announce that my gocco/letterpress cards are now sitting on the pretty, pretty shelves in the store...

Relish at Home!
An uber chic boutique in Berkeley, CA (7th St and Pardee)
(Check out all their rave reviews on Yelp!)

I was so psyched when I discovered this little gem that carries the most unique handmade items when I first moved to neighboring Emeryville a couple years ago. Since then, many a friends (including myself) have received their birthday/ X'mas/ house-warming gifts from here ("one for you, two one for me...")

And ever since I started making greeting cards, I've squandered away many hours, standing in front of the beautiful card display, and entertained myself with daydreams (with harps and everything) about seeing my creations there along with all these other gorgeous handmade cards that I drool for... (and if I actually drool I plan to frame Bryson). 

So, many moons later, when I felt that my creations have progressed to a semi-decent level, I gathered my courage and chatted with the owner, Kelly. And after talking to her for just 5 minutes, I wondered why on earth did it take me so long to approach her?

It turns out that apart from being uber talented and tasteful, Kelly is also super-duper nice, and totally supportive of local artists and craftspeople, and embraced the idea of carrying my cards pretty much right away! I was psyched beyond words :)

And here's the result:

    

Notice the very cute card display on the left (don't you love the colors?). And there, squint a little harder, do you recognize something familiar in the photo on the right? (hee hee!) 
There they are, 5 of my babies greeting cards among the sea of fabulousness! (The Simple Baby card is not pictured). If you're due for an eye exam, you can test yourself to see if you can pick them out :)

 

And while taking these photos in the store and the card display (which Kelly was totally cool about, even though it's slightly dweeby and a tiny bit annoying, I'm sure), I caught this photo above with her in a brief cameo (yup, that's her in the cute red headband reflected in the mirror, and the weirdly amputated arms belong to me).

I don't know what it is, there's something about her warmth and presence, not to mention the cute stuff that overflows the store, that makes this place really special. And I'm so honored that my little creations are part of this wonderfulness now :)

Dogzilla!!!

It's been such a dreary day. It's cold (by San Francisco standards), it's wet, and it's dark by 6. I can feel my old friend SAD knocking on the door. I just feel drained and unable to operate normally. It's annoying but I really am that sensitive, you'd think I have a solar panel on my back. 

And these are the times I'm extra grateful of having a dog. I mean, short of advocating for Prozac in the city's water supply, I can't imagine anything else that can save me from a whole winter of depression.

Just look at these photos from last week. We were by the water front in the city, getting Bryson to do his usual pose-y thing, when we noticed he was up to something devious...

Was he really trying to eat a BEE mid-flight?!

   

 

 

I swear the way he was smacking his lips had us thinking he'd actually ATE that poor bee. But upon closer examination of the above freeze-frame slo-mo sequence, we're glad to see that the bee had deftly escaped the maw. Whew!

And this is probably what it looks like from the bee's perspective:

 

Whaaaa!!!

Seriously, you'd think we never feed him.

And here are a few more doses of anti-depressants from the day:

  
  

 

 

Think I feel better now :)

By the way, I've finally taken the plunge and joined NaBloPoMo at JuLo's urging! Nablow-what?! Well, it's basically a group of bloggers who'll dedicate a month of their time to daily blogging. Yup, that's one blog post EVERY DAY for a MONTH!

Lynn at Craftstew is also in this crazy deal. Well, it's not unlike having friends to go to the gym together- you know it's good for you but sometimes you're just too lazy for it, so it helps to have a friend motivate you kick your butt when you're being a slacker! We're gonna start on Nov 1, anyone else wanna join in the fun? ;)

Corporate Re-org (Again)

Thanks to all of you who've shared your Myers Briggs type here! And what's all this ISTJ/ISFJ business?? All you accountants and lawyers and engineers and rational folks out there... makes me feel like an airhead! Or maybe opposite attracts? :)

(BTW, hubby is an ISFP. So I guess my "opposite attracts" theory partially holds true).

To some degree of irony, as soon as we came back from our training meeting in Phoenix, we found ourselves subjects of another round of "re-organization" in our company (that's corporate code word for restructuring with possibilities of lay-off's).

Yup, I said the "L" word. And that's the second round in the past 10 months.

Well, with a palpable air of anxiety, we were relieved to learn on a Monday morning conference call with that the axe fell somewhere else in the company this time.

We're safe, whew! For now.

It almost make me feel a bit guilty to think that, realizing hundreds of hard-working people elsewhere in our company are being handed their pink slip. And I'm sitting here complaining about not having enough time to do more gocco'ing and worrying about stupid stuff like Cosmo-bots hijacking my blog...

Isn't that totally selfish and self-indulgent in these hard economic times? Do I need to give myself a big, fat slap?? (OK, I'm not really sure I'm ready for your answer...)

Hmm, things seems to be getting a bit heavy here. To lighten things up, here're some photos of Bryson and friends having a fun outing at nearby Redwood Regional Park (Bryson saves the day again, yay!)

Bryson, Picasso and Chorizo burning some rubber on this lovely redwood trail.

 
Face off! (with Chorizo as referee)

 
:: ¡Chorizo for President! ::

 
Low dogs celebrating a successful walk (despite of a hairy situation involving one of them sliding off a 2-storey-"cliff"... No one got hurt, and said-canine pulled an amazing recovery climbing all the way back up by himself with cheers from his buddies. Disaster averted!)

Go to our Flickr album for more pix of the day!

Night at the Museum

Remember, that Ben Stiller movie about things coming alive at a Natural Science Museum? I know, it's silly and adolescent, but I can't resist any Ben Stiller flicks (could you?).

Anyway, our night at the museum, or rather the much-anticipated Pre-Opening Event at the California Academy of Science, did not involve mammoths running lose or Teddy-Roosevelt-played-by-Robin-Williams, but it was almost just as colorful.

You see, most of our fellow visitors are hubby's colleagues in the Hotel Concierge business. Yep, these are the highly-cultured/ fashioned/ polished men and women who sit behind shiny mahogany desks at classy hotel lobbies, hook you up with sold-out Miley Cyrus tickets, and are oh-so-full of "personalities" (hubby is the minority in his business as a rare heterosexual man). As we were mingling, chatting about the finer things in life on the "living roof" of the Academy, I was acutely aware of the green gocco ink I had under my nails ("Oops, those North Sea green caviar sure stains... ha ha")

Speaking of green, I actually fit in quite well with the green theme of the Academy. Just look at the photos (other than the ones I photoshopped to b&w for a bit of drama). Click on the caption if you wanna know what you're looking at. You can see I'm getting quite fond of this mosaic thing (you like? too busy?)

1. Is that a Cockroach?!, 2. Toast to T Rex!, 3. The End, 4. Sphere from 3rd level, 5. Algae display?, 6. Rainforest entrance, 7. Charles Phan- Slanted Door, 8. Is that a real aligator?!, 9. Indoor shore life, 10. Glow, 11. Finding Light, 12. Free-falling ants (?)

Not all the exhibits are opened yet, we're disappointed that we couldn't get into the Planetarium nor the huge glass dome that's housing a miniature man-made rainforest. And I'm shocked (no pun intended) that one of my favorite exhibits- the earthquake simulator- has been scrapped (we totally need to feel more earthquakes here in California).

But between the interactive Madagascar Hissing Cockcroach display (these cyber cockroaches crawl out from under your feet as you step onto them), watching the poor albino aligator scared stiff by his supposed "mate", and the free-flowing pinots and famous meat balls (which by the way go perfectly well with conversations about green caviar), we were thoroughly entertained for a couple of hours.

Love to hear what you miss about the old Academy!

Where Did the Weekend Go?!

Can't believe it's Sunday evening already. I'm exhausted and Monday morning is just around the corner... Where did my weekend go?!

Hmm, let's retrace our footsteps...

(1) On the creative front- perfect example of "when it rains it pours"- printed a bunch more gocco and letterpress cards (some exciting stuff, photos to come); put up a few in my etsy shop; finished a special order of collage cards; sent samples to Pegasus Bookstore; took up another custom order (interesting request I got through etsy, again, more to come); signed up for another gocco swap (yep, can't help it). 

OK, I guess I knew where my time went. It's hard to notice though when you're running on caffeine and adrenaline.

Shout out to those who've ordered from my shop this past week! Thanks!!

(2) After almost 9 years of closure and remodeling,the California Academy of Science in the Golden Gate Park will finally celebrate its much-anticipated reopening as the country's "greenest" museums in 2 weeks- and hubby and I got a sneak peek today at a special pre-opening event :) More to follow.

 
Nothing better than mingling with T. Rex with a glass of pinot in hand.

(3) After months of various conflicts, finally made it to this month's SF Corgi Meet up! It started out foggy and overcast (surprise, surprise), but ended up nice and warm as the afternoon rolled by. I hate to say this but I think fall has arrived.

This time I had both Picasso and Bryson with me, thought that would help Bryson be less anti-social- but no. He's worse than ever. Tried to escape when no one's looking so many times I finally had to leash him to the picnic table :( But hey, that's prime treating/petting spot + it's Lleulu's birthday party so there's plenty of yummies there, so I guess he doesn't mind that much after all. (Happy birthday, Lleulu!)

The puppies (and some puppies-at-heart) played up a storm (and dug a few big holes). It was quite cute. And Toast's baby sister just let everyone hold her and took it all in. What a great baby :)

1. Wendy, 2. Treeeat..., 3. Starbuck, 4. Scratch it good, 5. Runaway Bryson, 6. Rolls, 7. Pet me, 8. Ooh, stick..., 9. Nub wag, 10. No, it's MINE!, 11. Love you too, 12. Love from Barclay, 13. Itchy, 14. It's nice to be taller, 15. It's MY hole!, 16. I'm tall, 17. I'm cute, 18. I die, 19. Hi Baby!, 20. Hey, watch it, 21. Hey, 22. Happy 9th Birthday, Lleulu!, 23. Group feeding, 24. Group, 25. Feed me

If that's not enough corgis for you, go to our Flickr album, there's more!

The Buddies

After all the actions of these past few weeks, I'm having an unusually quiet Labor Day weekend here- Jacques' working all weekend, all my friends have taken refuge in Southern CA, even Picasso, who's been staying with us since we came home from Kauai, has bid his farewell and gone home with his parents.

Just me and good ol' Bryson staring at each others at home. I think I'm going through withdrawal...

Here's a pick-me-up for myself, some of Bryson and his BFF Picasso's photos from these past couple of weeks:

 

Jacques was getting them to "line up" for a photo with a treat (I'm sure you can tell by that crazed look in their eyes). As you can see, Picasso is a natural when it comes to using your "assets" to edge out your competition.

We took the boys to Point Isabel- our fav (and purportedly the country's largest) offleash dog park for a evening walk one day, and ran into these 2 other shorties! It's usually a rare treat to run into another corgi, let alone 2 (while we have both of them too!) I just can't resist the temptation of lining them up for a group shot. I call them the "Fantastic Four" :D

But see how anti-social Bryson's totally uncomfortable with the proximity to other dogs (that ears-back-nervous-smile look)? He wouldn't have sat there if he didn't have Picasso as a "buffer". I just wish he could relax with other dogs!

This was taken another day when we took them to the Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina, another wonderful offleash park in our area. You may recognize this location, yep, it's one of our favorite spot to take photos. The light is usually just right over this "Hope" rock around sunset.  And as far as they're concerned, for a treat, they'll pose on it even if it says "Corgis are tasty".

  
"Hello, ma'am! You wouldn't happen to have a spare treat in your hands, would you? I wouldn't mind offloading that horrible burden from you. Really, I'm that nice a doggie."

Lick Observatory

You know I've got a new camera lens recently, and have been dying to try it on a subject other than Bryson (no offense, Bryson, you can still give me a Blue Steel any day).

So, when fellow photography/corgi enthusiast mrjoro invited us to the open house at the University of Califiornia Lick Observatory with promises with photo ops like this one, we showed up with all my camera gear (which isn't much) two hours before the event, totally psyched!

But as with all my best laid plans, there's always a fatal flaw.

I forgot to charge my camera's battery.

Yep, last time we went out I forgot my memory card. This time I double-checked on the card, but then sadly, neglected the juice factor. I didn't even get to use the tripod I just bought that day and lugged around with us the whole entire evening. *Kick self repeatedly*

Given my lack of preparation, I have precious few photos to show for it, below are a few of my fav's, and you can check out the rest here. For better coverage of the day, you can check out mrjoro's album here.

This is the main entrance at dusk. It's only about 20 miles from metropolitan San Jose, but it's situated way above the city in a totally remote part of Mt Hamilton, so it can get away from all the light pollution from civilization. The dome to the left is where one of the observatory's century-old telescope is housed, which is mostly kept for its historical significance and not used for research any more. 

 
We got a chance to get in to the larger dome for a public lecture about its history (above). And when the lecture was over, this wooden "floor" was raised about 20 feet by a century-old hydraulic lift, so we can step up to and look through the ginormous 57-feet telescope (below) that purportedly was used in the discovery of Jupiter's "5th moon" over a hundred years ago. (See the sliver of light? That's where the dome opens. It was quite a site to see it in action)

I'm no astronomy buff, but this place's colorful history and beautiful setting can totally sweep you off your feet.

 
Left: Me taking a photo of mrjoro snapping a pic :D
Right: Mrjoro taking a photo of me snapping a pic :D

Brunch with Bryson and Gang

It's been such a hectic week, I can't believe it's only Wednesday! Let's see what's going on...

I'm getting ready for a work trip to Chicago next week; trying to communicate (emphasis on the "trying" part) with my family which is scattered around the world in Seattle/ Hong Kong/ Boston about a family trip to Maine in October; and re-embracing my creative life, by signing up (finally!) for the Gocco swap among other projects that seem to have sprung up all at once at the same time from out of nowhere. Whew! I feel tired just typing it all out.

So, looking back at these photos from last weekend when things were all fun and relaxed, it somehow feels like centuries ago.

This past Saturday there was a fund-raiser for an animal adoption agency, so my friends and I thought it'd be great to take our pooches (plus Picasso, who was staying with us) to grab some brunch and go do some good deed for the less fortunate pooches. Yes, that's 3 chicks + 4 dogs that want to go in 4 different directions simutaneously.

In the end, we were able to get them under control, and actually ended up enjoying a great day out, doing lots of eating and shopping (and a little bit of fund-raising- oops, got a little carried away). I'm already in need of the next weekend :)

Sit for your treat (and no stealing, Xena)! 

I may seem like a psycho sometimes (especially when the car stops moving), but I do have a tender, loving, adorable side :D

We're starving! Where's our eggs benedict and mimosas?!

I miss my friends...

Check out our Flickr album for more photos of the day.

New Lens! Test Photos

I finally plunked down the cold hard cash (uh hmm) and got myself the 50mm f1.8 portrait lens!

Backtracking a bit (rewind, rewind...). Ever since I got my first SLR last year, I've been contemplating "upgrading" to a more specialized lens. But then I was shocked to find that there are as many choices on the market as there are riders on a Japanese rush-hour bullet train. And they're advertised with all different kinds of bells and whistles with big price tags to match. I've since gone into a analysis-to-paralysis state.

But recently talking to someone in the know, who has also kindly let me play with his 50mm lens (a f1.4 one) which yielded photos like this one, I'm instantly sold! (The $85 price tag of the one I got didn't hurt either)

And now I got this hot little piece of lens in my hands, we got to try it out today! I obviously still have a lot of learnings to do and adjustments to make (e.g. realizing that you have to constantly move back and forth with a lens that doesn't zoom, which I have conveniently forgotten about).

And even though photography has gotten a bit more aerobic for me, judging from these preliminary results, I'm ecstatic :D

 

Check out our Flickr album for more test photos!

Field Trip: a Berkeley Print Shop

You probably know that I'm still taking my weekly letterpress class, even though I'm not horribly productive lately due to my grim prognosis from Blackberry-itis.

So, I was relieved that for last weekend's class, instead of having to call in sick again since I can barely hold a pen, that we're going on a "field trip" to one of our teacher's fellow printers in Berkeley.

But since I've missed so many classes, I have no idea where we're going, except that this is also where our film (for our photopolymer plates) come from.

And there I thought, Great, we're going to watch someone make film in a dark room for 3 hours... whoopie doo...

So, imagine what a pleasant surprise it was when I realized our destination is this lively printing studio with 30+ years of colorful Berkeley-an history; and right at the door greeting us were owners and printing world celebrities, David Goines (of Saint Hieronymus Press) and Richard Seibert (of Letterpress)!

Geez, do I feel stupid now thinking we're going to watch film dry...

And as soon as we stepped in, our excitement continued to bubble as we laid eyes on the studio lined with all sorts of working presses and printing paraphernalia, smelling fondly of paper and ink and grease, and packed to the gills with the most fantastic lithographs and printed work as far as the eye can see. 

 

David and Richard are the most gracious hosts, taking us gaggle of students all around the studio, explaining their artistic approach and their preferred printing process (David does mostly lithograph, whereas Richard does mainly letterpress), and answering our endless questions patiently. They've only resorted to an ever slightly menacing tone when asked how their apprentice program works (well, suffice to say I'll never be accepted here, ever).

 

We were fasincated by the work produced through the years here, many of which are immediately recognizable, including posters/art work for the internationally acclaimed "Mother of Californian Cuisine", Chez Panisse, the logotype of Acme Bread, Ravenswood Winery, and business cards and logos for countless businesses big and small that share the common theme of having their roots here in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

We had such a wonderful time that we didn't even realize we're at the end of our visit till we had our hands shaken and were kindly shown the way out. But not before we were each handed our own goodie bag, packed with parting gifts and wisdom from Richard and David!

What? You got a goodie bag?! You lucky bastard!! What's in it? Uh hmm. Can't tell you, or you'll die with jealousy! *evil chuckle*

I'll just say that what we've received today will enrich and inspire our printing endeavors for many years to come.

P.S. Oh, and yes, we did get to watch film being processed. And yes, it would have been painful if we had to watch that for 3 hours.

For more photos of this fantastic field trip, visit my Flickr album.

Lazy 4th Weekend

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend! We had all kinds of big plans, but with the crazy work schedule last week, we ended up abadoning all ambitions and just had a lazy (but even better) one.

For Friday and Saturday, me and my girlfriends were supposed to have a movie/spa/slumber party. But by Thursday, we realized we were kidding ourserlves to think that we'd have the energy to plan for anything (other than the slumber part, perhaps). So what did we do?

We shopped till we dropped (look at these shoes!), ate spicy Korean Tofu soup (yummm), drank a few bottles of good wine, chatted till we were incoherent, and fell into a deep slumber. Woke up the next morning still buzzed, nursed that with some strong coffee and greasy breakfast, and shopped some more. In other words, we had a perfect 2-day girlfriend get-together.

So glad I found these this weekend at Jeremy's! Aren't these the cutest and funkiest shoes ever? Reminds me of an old bathroom mat we used to have when I was a kid.

Then, on Sunday, Hubby and I got an invitation to take the 45-min drive out to Half Moon Bay to hang out with Brian, Rita and Picasso, who're spending some R&R time at this picturesque coastal town (which you may be familiar with if (a) you've seen American Pie 3, that's where Jimbo and Michelle got married at, or (b) you're a surfer and know what the Mavericks is).

We had a grand ole time at the Miramar Beach (near Half Moon Bay), where the dogs could run around the beach and play in the surf. I don't think this beach is officially an off-leash beach, but seeing that most every dog is sans leash, we figured we have safety in numbers (or we can run away really fast).

 

Crazy cross-eyed Bryson- life is tough when your mommy's luring you to pose for treats while the surf is looming dangerously close!

 
Bryson and Picasso in a mid-surf hug, just in case the other got swept away. "Duuuude, I'll miss you..."

(For more photos of the beach boys, check out our Flickr album)

After frolicking at the beach, we headed over to the famous Half Moon Bay Brewery for a microbrew and beach food. By this time the fog finally burnt off, so we could hang out on the sunny patio and not freeze our tushies off. This place is super laid-back and dog-friendly (think surfer-chic), there're probably at least two or more dogs under each and every table. We stuffed our face with ceviche and fish stew, and washed it down with pints of the most delicious amber ale. *BURRRP* 

Abadoning earler plans to continue down the coast to Santa Cruz after lunch, we made a sharp U-turn, drove our lazy asses home, and took a looong nap. Life is good.

Wine Tasting with the Boys!

As promised in the last post, here's a recap of the fantastic wine tasting trip we went on with Brian, Rita, and the boys last weekend where we all had such a blast (and buzz).

Before making the 40-minute drive to the Livermore Valley wine country, the smaller and lesser-known little cousin to the famous Napa Valley 1.5 hr to the north, Rita hands out treats to Bryson and Picasso in exchange for good behavior when we get to the wineries (don't wanna ruin it for all the future canine visitors!). We're not huge wine snobs, just psyched that we can take these guys along to these dog-friendly wineries so close to home!

Livermore Valley Cellar was the first winery we hit. They're in a tiny little shack in the middle of a housing development, kinda a strange place for a winery. But they more than make up for it by making some damn good big-ass zin's. Check out their appropriately-named "Derriere Series" with names like "caboose" and "weigh behind". Cute. We also got their arcanum (a cab/merlot/syrah blend) and syrah, both are super yummy. Just thinking about them now make me crave a filet mignon or lamb chop, hmm... (*salivating*).

**At last check, LVC's website is loaded with viruses! Visitors beware**

Anyway, back to our wine-tasting day last weekend. It was a super hot day and LVC just wasn't big enough to accomodate all of us + Bryson and Picasso (all squeezed inside for the free A/C, of course), so we headed over to Tenuta Winery a few minutes away.

Brian and Rita told us the best thing about this winery (apart from being dog-friendly, as is LVC) is that they do barrel tasting. We've never done it before, and we're very happy to learn that this is how you get "first dips" at a good deal. Basically, you taste the wine when it's still in the barrels, then buy them as "futures" if you like them (i.e. paying a discounted price now and pick up when they're commercially released, usually a few months later).

And that's just what we did when we got there. We got to taste a really awesome primativo (essentially same thing as a zin, as I understand it), which we got for 30% (+ another 20% off since we got a case) off the final retail price. The down side of course is that we'll be thinking about it every day till we can actually get our hands on it when it's released this fall. *sigh*

 

The picture above on the left is the public tasting room, and the one to the right is our "private tour" to the barrel room in the back, which the boys enjoyed very much, being able to sniff out all the weird smells of fermenting grapes and wet oak barrels (they probably wonder why we like such foul-smelling stuff, just like we wonder why they like to roll in poop, ha ha).

And I have to say being taken "back stage" to the barrel room by the very patient and friendly Rich, seeing the inner workings of a small family-owned winery, tasting wines straight out of the barrel, and doing all that with our dogs by our side was a pretty unique experience. 

They've also invited us back during harvest season to process grapes with them- no stomping grapes I-Love-Lucy-style though (how disappointing!), but we'll be working the machines that pick grapes, and learn how they're pressed and processed. In turn we'll get a couple bottle of wines as our "wages" for the day. How fun is that?! (Fellow Bay Area residents- wanna bring your pooches and come join us? :>)

And below is Bryson before and after a nice glass of primativo. ("Nice buzz...")

Check out our Flickr album for more photos from this fantastic day!

Memorial Day Extravaganza!

For some reason, 3-day weekends always feel shorter than a normal one.

I think it's because we always start out being overly ambitious, planning to do too much that at the end, we completely exhaust ourselves and feel like we didn't even have any time off.

Such is the case this Memorial Day weekend (some people just never learn). To recount events, we'll have to start from that gloomy Saturday morning...

It had rained all night and the morning was still sprinkly. We were disappointed coz we thought we might have to cancel plans to meet up at Point Isabel with Bryson's corgi half-brother, Wally.

Oh no, you forgot? It's Wally! Recall that we met this handsome boy at the SF corgi meet up last year, and one look told us him and Bryson are related- and upon chatting with his people, we realized they are indeed half-brothers, sharing the same mommy and probably just one litter apart! Remember this?

Anyway, the day eventually cleared up, and we were able to hang out and let the brothers reunite. You can tell from the photos (all taken by the very talented mrjoro) that they had a fantastic time!

It's pretty funny that even though Wally is younger and smaller, he's the more outgoing one that often end up "protecting" Bryson when doggie brawls break out around them. What a great brother!

And you won't believe who we ran into halfway into the walk... Picasso! The day just keeps getting better :)

We ended our day with a yummy brunch at Sunnyside Cafe on Solano in Albany. Their breakfast sampler menu changes every week, and they give you 1/2-orders of 4 of their specials + 2 mimosas + fruit cup for 2 to share, AND they're uber dog-friendly. You don't get a breakfast place better than this :)

 
Left: Peanut butter caramelized banana french toast, yummmmm!!
Right: Wally or Bryson waiting for scraps? (Try to resist clicking on it and cheat...)

And after laboring for 5 hours at the letterpress studio on Sunday, we headed out for another short day trip to old town Benicia on Monday. 

Benicia is small town fairly close to us (30 min. to the northeast), but for some reason, we never head that way and thus have never been there. But after reading a few articles about this charming little town, we decided it's time to hop into the car with Bryson and go check it out.

And Benicia is just as advertised- quaint, historic, and smells like the ocean.

We greatly enjoy a stroll on the main drag- First Street, having lunch at a streetside cafe, browsing the ubiquitous antique shop (some closed due to the holiday though), and snapping some pix of our boy (these Benicia photos are taken by moi).

And that's what we love about where we live, it doesn't matter how long we've lived here, there always seems to be an unlimited supply of little coastal towns waiting for us to discover- and plenty of unspoiled hydrants for Bryson to lift his leg at.

  

See our Flickr album for more pictures from our Benicia day.

Springtime Activity: Antique Hunting

As March arrived, so did warm, almost spring-like weather here in the Bay Area. Yes, spring-like. I don't want to jinx it.

We've been stuck indoor with this wet winter for so long we've started growing mold. So as soon as the farenheit hit the 60's, we declare hibernation's over, and time to dust off the winter blues and embrace the warm and longer days.

Bryson started celebrating spring by devouring tufts of fresh, green grass by the mouthful at all the nearby parks ("the world is my salad bar"), which is quite hilarious.

We celebrated by admiring the first cherry blossoms in our neighborhood, going al fresco dining with Bryson again sans worries about frostbites, and hitting the Alameda antique fair which I've been dying for ages to visit.

This sprawling monthly antique fair really has something for everyone. Not only did I score a big stack of vintage (1920's) music sheets with fantastic accompanying graphics for $5 (haggled down from $6, a whopping 17% off, woo-hoo), we also ran into Design Star winner and super hottie, David Bromstad!

I've watched a few episodes of his current show, Color Splash, which is apparently shot here in the Bay Area, and I've always wondered when I'll finally run into him in my neighborhood Home Depot or West Elm (they seem to go there a lot). And there he is! Right next to us! OK, actually, Jacques saw him first, but by the time he said "hey, isn't that the guy on TV...", I looked over and he already turned around. He has a cute back. *sigh*

Oh, and that's me below burying my nose in truckfuls of vintage books and various knick-knacks. While it can be lots of fun, the old book smell, dizzying layout, and throngs of treasure hunters can get pretty overwhelming after a couple of hours.

But who can complain, spending a few quality hours outdoors browsing useless junks accompanied by surprise celebrity sighting- it's really a successful day all around.

How come you get to go to the fair while I get stuck here eating grass? Life is so unfair.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

3 days into this short work week and I'm already feeling exhausted... Why?

I blame it all on this foul weather! Not only has it been raining non-stop for the past 24 hours stranding us at home, the winds are also howling non-stop like a hyena and keeping everybody up at night and sleep-deprived (just ask Bryson and Picasso who probably didn't get a stitch of sleep...)

And look at this satellite map- seems like the entire country's moisture is falling upon us in the west coast. There's power outage and mud slides going on left and right, and our windows are still leaking (our HOA is supposed to have negotiated a deal to fix them the day we bought our loft almost 2 years ago... I guess one could get used to living in a swamp.)

Now just imagine dragging 2 grumpy, sleep-deprived dogs who do not like water out on walks in this crazy storm...

Don't they look thrilled?

Remember that yellow raincoat that Bryson rejected? Since it was too big, I thought it would fit PIcasso just fine. And it kinda did, I thought he looked pretty spiffy, but I forgot the fact that just like Bryson, he's also vertically challenged... Well, the novelty of the raincoat lasted till we hit the stairs. He tried going down a few steps but I could already visualize him tripping and tumbling all the way down to the first floor like a yellow twinkie. We promptly removed this hazard.

I don't know if it's the pouring rain and howling wind, or the fact that Hailey (Bryson's nemesis- the neighbor pit-bull mix) greeted us right when we walked out of the building (whom they promptly greeted back with incessant pulling and barking- well, fake barking for Bryson), both of them refused to pee and poop for the longest time while we all got drenched.

We all had a thorougly wet and miserable day (and constipated as well for the boys, I can imagine). This rain had better stop soon.

Twelve Days of X'mas

OK, this is probably one of the funniest X'mas videos I've ever seen!!!

We feel compelled to share this most original rendition of the Twelve Day of X'mas by the Indian Boy Band sensation, Boymongoose, with you. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: if you're easily offended, watch this video instead)

You can download the whole album on Napster as well. We did and we've been listening to it every day, never been in a more cheerful holiday mood! Worth every penny!

Other than listening to Boymongoose, we're also engaging in more traditional holiday activities, such as decorating our X'mas tree.

This year we got a "smaller" tree- a noble fir standing at merely 6 feet, which would've been dwarfed by the ginormous 9-footer we got last year. Yeah, we went a little crazy last year coz it was the first year we lived in a loft with a 14-foot ceiling. It was like living in a forest.

And as we were decorating the tree, I thought it was so cute when Bryson busied around us sniffing out the ornaments. But of course by the time I take out the camera, he lost his interest. So, in order to re-create the moment, I cheated... I stuck a treat in the tree at his nose level and led him to the tree, and this is the result (he looked so strained and glassy-eyed it was actually a bit scary):

Happy Holidays!

World of Good

It's that crazy time of the year again to brave the crowd and venture into the inevitable holiday shopping season.

Even I as an avid shopper am fazed by the holiday mob scene in San Francisco- the mix of gung-ho local bargain-hunters and tourists who think there's still gold here turn downtown into a positively chaotic mosh pit.

So I'm delighted when I found out there'll be a warehouse sale close to my house, hosted by a company called World of Good that promotes fair trade with artisans in developing countries.

Now, I don't know if every cent we spent there is really used effectively to help these artisans, nor do I believe I can't get the same thing cheaper at Walmart or some backstreet shop in Chinatown (which I probably could, but that's why we need fair trade), we were still happy to have got quite a bit of our holiday shopping done there.

Coz for one, there's no mob, and secondly, the stuff is actually pretty nice, and lastly, even the idea that we're doing something positive for humanity during this holiday that has evolved into this huge consumerism party is consoling.

So boys and girls, I'm sorry that if you're on our gift list this year, the surprise is somewhat spoiled. But do visit their website which has an online store, and feel free to pass on a good word.

Newspaper shopping bag- get shopping done and get the latest news from India

Fall Day

Fall is not my favorite season.

Even though I enjoy the way everything looks golden under the low-slung sun, and making crunchy noises when you walk on piles of fallen leaves, and slurping down piping hot butternut squash soup, fall is inevitably tinged with a bit of sadness...

...Coz fall means winter is right around the corner, which of course means you'll be shrouded under a bleak, gray sky for months. Yuck.

With the only thing to look forward to during winter being X'mas, I secretly wish that right after I open all my X'mas presents, I'll wake up and find myself on a beautiful spring day in April. I should have been a polar bear.

Thanks goodness this winter we've got Bryson, who gives us a reason to wake up every morning- especially since he learned barking incessantly (and hoarsely) will get us out of bed and feed him his breakfast at his will. Although, I'm fairly sure he wouldn't mind gorging himself on a feast then going into hibernation with us for a few months.

Big Bryson Smile- better than Prozac for those icky winter blues

Check out Bryson's Fall Day album any time for a dose of anti-depressant.

Paper Elixir

Ah, Paper Elixir.

No idea what it is? I don't blame you. It's a company I started a few years ago when I started selling my hand made greeting cards at art fairs (like this one, the Millbrae Art and Wine Festival in 2002).

It was a huge deal for me. Ever since I was a kid, I've always thought that I'm all left brain and have no artistic talents whatsoever. The last art class I took was probably when I was in 6th grade, where I had to beg my mom to make me something so I wouldn't fail.

So when I discovered by chance a few years ago that the creative part of my brain was alive and well, and I've got this inexplicable affinity (addiction) to paper, which inspires me to create beautiful things that people would actually pay money to buy (what a novel concept), it was like a long-dormant light bulb suddenly went on inside me. I was full of passion and dreams to pursue a life in the arts. I thought I was done being a ho-hum pharmacist.

Let's just say that I'm glad I didn't quit my day job. Reality was I had no idea how to run a business, I didn't know where to go from there, and most of all, I didn't realize it would be so hard to take criticism for my work that I thought represented who I was.

In time, difficulties accumulated, my "real life" took over, and Paper Elixir sadly devolved in neglect. I still remember the day I had to turn in my resale license since I wasn't doing business anymore, I was in tears.

But as Forrest Gump would say, life is like a box of chocolate- you never know what you're gonna get...

Just as Paper Elixir is fading away as a long-forgotten dream, my friend Rita (Picasso's mommy) glanced over at my craft table one day and said, "Wow, you made all these cards? I'd be interested to see what you can make for my store."

What?! Selling Paper Elixir cards in a real store? (Rita owns a beautiful boutique home store in Oakland called Make My Day) It would be beyond my wildest dream! And it couldn't have been a better match- her store exudes warmth and beauty in their choices of furnishings and accessories made out of rich woods and exotic natural elements, all with a hand made quality to them. Plus, Bryson loves hanging out there so he can play with Picasso, or mess with his toys and eat all his treats when he's not around.

And from this initial discussion and tons of support and encouragement (mucho gracias to Rita and Brian), born the first Paper Elixir Holiday Line, now commercially available exclusively at Make My Day! Yippee!

It is a very small collection, just to try out the market, plus I've been so overwhelmed with my day job I hardly had time to make these cards (and for that, I have to thank my husband for burning the midnight oil with me being my trusty paper-cutter-and-folder).

But it represents a brand new beginning that has rekindled a very small flame in a long-lost passion. I can't deny, there's still fear, and there's still uncertainty. Honestly, I still don't know where I'll take Paper Elixir yet (or rather, where it'll take me), but for now, I'm just full of excitement and anticipation as I deliver my first batch of cards to Make My Day. They'll hit shelves the day after Thanksgiving. Wish me luck.

Just Another Earthquake

I just saw on the news this morning that the 5.6 quake we had last night (briefly covered while I was in the middle of this post) is the strongest one since "The Big One", aka Loma Prieta in 1989 which took down the Bay Bridge and killed dozens of people.

With this kind of credentials, thought I should give it a bit more coverage here. But since it's relatively far from us (compared to the last one we felt), we didn't get as much action up here, even though it registered stronger on the scale.

Everyone's talking about the next "Big One" now. Hmm.....