the new awesome

RIP - the New Awesome

2008-05-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

(cue the cheesy music. the really heartbreaking kind)

Is it on? Okay. Continue reading.

The time has come, friends. We have all seen it coming. Bets has been moved out and married for a few months now, and The New Awesome has been sitting here neglected and lonely, a brave little tribute to the good times that we had. It is time to finally lay this little blog to rest, and move on.

It just didn't seem right for either one of us to take TNA on as our own project when we started it together, so we have carved out our own little corners of the internet and moved to blog there instead. Please come visit us - we miss you all.

Bex - Permanently Disco

Bets and Steve - Santos (the family)

If you need to just keep the music on and stare at the photo for awhile, I understand. I did for about 3 hours last night.

coons are the old new awesome

2008-04-16T11:42:00.000-07:00

giving birth to blogs on valentine's day is the new awesome

2008-02-14T17:09:00.000-08:00

Santos the Family.

Sundance-dance-dance is the new awesome

2008-01-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

I was out at Sundance last week for my yearly cinematic adventure. Anyone that follows the fest could probably tell you that there weren't many "wow" movies to brag about going to see this year. And it is a good thing there are so many people I like to hang out with in Utah anyway, because I'm not totally sure how glamorous the Sundance thing turns out to be in the end. Sure, when my friends invite me to go see "Choke" or "Be Kind, Rewind" in a few months, I will get to put on my snobbiest voice and tell them that I already saw the premiere, like, 6 months ago. And then joke will be on me as I sit home alone while they are all off at the movies together.

Of course, half the fun of Sundance is all the famous people milling about, and I see quite a lot of them in the theater where I work. I was tearing tickets at the door of the theater one morning when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and the tapping man said in a hushed tone, "Look, I've got (name of famous guy) here, and we really don't want a lot of picture taking or attention drawn to him. He just wants to come in and watch the movie." I looked behind me, and sure enough - I had just unwittingly torn the ticket of one mildly uncomfortable famous guy. I hadn't even noticed that it was him, and honestly, no one else seemed to be paying him much mind either - certainly not enough attention to warrant asking me to be put under some sort of special theater protection program. All the moviegoers were far too interested in getting good seats to bother standing there fawning over him. I turned back to famous guy's overly concerned handler and told him that we would do what we could if people started bothering him, but that as it stood, he could just go get a seat like everyone else. They both went in to watch the film and I didn't hear from them again. I am not sure which was more funny to me - the idea that someone that famous and recognizable would put themselves in such an obviously public arena like the Sundance Film Festival and expect that they can ask that everyone ignore them ... or to ask that people ignore them when embarrassingly, everyone already is.

Pizzeria 712 is officially the new awesome

2007-12-31T20:31:00.000-08:00

My brother-in-law Joseph and his business partner Colton have done it! They've successfully opened their restaurant in Orem called Pizzeria 712! I've mostly had to hear about all the details from family but I've been able to participate in my own special ways.

Joseph & Colton come to San Francisco in June 2006 to research and Bex and I tag along.

Steve and Betsy conduct their own independent upscale pizzeria research in San Francisco in Spring 2007.

That whole "participation by proxy" thing ended this week when Steve and I were in Utah visiting my family for Christmas. We were lucky enough to have dinner and lunch the following day at Pizzeria 712.

They pride themselves on using local sustainably farmed produce, meats and cheeses whenever possible. If you don't know who Alice Waters is, you should read about her online...this quote of hers is on a large chalkboard inside the restaurant and it sums up Pizzeria 712 very well.

Thursday night Suzy, Steve and I set out for our dinner adventure.

Since Steve and I live in San Francisco and rarely get to visit the restaurant we decided to order lots, try it all and take the leftovers home. We looked over the menu.

For starters they bring you homemade hummus with Joseph's freshly baked pita bread. So delicious. We also ordered the short rib & polenta (one of the best thing I've ever tasted in my life) and the beet salad with homemade ricotta cheese.

They were also running a mac & cheese special...our lucky night.

Speck pizza.

Tomato, mozzarella & basil pizza.

Suzy enjoying the carmelized onion, potato, rosemary and fontina pizza.

To finish our meal we shared the homemade deconstructed s'more.

Colton & Joseph were too busy to talk to us...almost. We cornered them at the counter for a minute to thank them for the fantastic meal and congratulate them on their success.

Since we were staying the night in Provo we figured we better hit up P712 for lunch the next day because the lunch menu includes items (namely panini & soup) that aren't on the dinner menu. Here are some shots of the front of the restaurant...it was WAY too cold the night before to be bothered with picture posing in the freeeezing temps.

We started our lunch with Colton's amazing brocoli soup.

Then Steve ordered the braised beef panini and I ordered the ham, white cheddar and pear mustard panini and we shared.

This is Brian. Brian is also an important part of the P712 crew. Brian keeps things going in the front of the house while Colton & Joseph see to the rest.

Where the magic happens.

We showed up for lunch right before they were closing to prep for dinner so things were slow enough that Steve and I got a lesson in wood burning ovens from the masters themselves.

Congratulations Joseph & Colton for reaching your goal!!! I'm so excited for you both! 2008 will be an amazing year I'm sure. Here is a link to the P712 blog and other interesting/useful info.

DIY Christmas is the new awesome

2007-12-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

I love the holidays because I feel like everyone gets all festive and creative. Especially this year, with so many people pledging to buy handmade gifts and with DIY being such a big thing, I just feel people are trying to keep things from just being all about the commercial aspect.

I have been seeing some great, creative holiday window displays. I LOVE this wreath out of sunglasses:

Or this festive chandelier made of stuff you can find in the hardware store!

And, all the holiday parties I am going to this year seem to be about getting together and making things too. Like the Kessler's annual cookie decorating party. (We even had those contraband cancer causing little silver edible balls to decorate with, so we got creative AND had the thrill of partaking in illegal substances)

Or Tom's birthday/ornament decorating party!

Any party with a table set up that looks like this is going to be my kind of place.

Everyone had a polaroid photo taken of them against this sparkly background when they walked in, and then had to make an ornament for the tree out of it. A fun activity AND such a pretty, personal tree.

So many great ideas!

I cut mine out so that my mouth opens and my photo can sing along convincingly to Christmas carols.

Merry Christmas, ya'll. Or whatev.

Got married is the new awesome

2007-12-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

This is totally old news now but Steve and I got married on November 2nd and we were so lucky to have our good friend Karen Rusten there (with her fabulous assistants Minna & Greg) to capture everything in beautiful photographs.

You can check out all the pictures here. There are a ton so pace yourself. You can view them page by page so it doesn't take as long. They sort of go in the following sequence:

getting ready...
bride & groom...
bride, groom & family...
photobooth...
reception...

So if you want to find pictures of yourself from the photobooth at the reception you can try and jump to them. Enjoy!!!

B.F.F is the new awesome

2007-12-05T00:48:00.000-08:00

Emily and I made a new best friend yesterday:

No big deal. Only one of the most fascinating actors ever. And look how close I am to almost pinching his butt!

We got to interview him about his new film that he will be screening next week at the Castro Theatre, preceeded by his brilliant dramatic reading/BIG SLIDE SHOW. (The interview ought to be on SFist next week). We got to sit on a couch with him and ask about hair fetishes and his unique middle name, but our interview was cut short because he had to catch a plane and I didn't get to ask him all sorts of things that I had planned to.

The thing I think is so funny about Crispie (I can call him that for short, now that we are BFF) is that unlike normal celebrities, no one has a boring old story about seeing him at the mall drinking a smoothie. Everyone always has weird urban legend-like stories that they swear are true, and that generally involve some sort of bizarre behavior or public outburst. I kept waiting for him to try to kick Emily's head off or something. He is almost disapointingly polite in his interviews.

So anyway, now that we are totally BFF and I think he is going to invite Em and I to his castle/sound stage in the Czech Republic, I think there will be plenty of time to ask him if he really DID go to Disneyland with Nicolas Cage while wearing a purple suit like my sister's friend says she saw him do. Or if he really did tell some guy in a Utah thrift store that he hates children's art, like Aaron's friend says. I'll ask him for confirmation on other stories too. Anyone else heard/have any really good urban C.G. rumors/myths?

Spiders are the new awesome

2007-12-04T18:55:00.001-08:00

Steve and I were out walking along the Embarcadero the other day (which is right by our new apartment in SOMA). And where this sculpture use to be...

...is this!!!

Here Steve is being attacked.

Lookalikes are the new awesome

2007-11-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you know real models, and sometimes you just know people that look alot like models. Has that ever happened? You see a billboard or an ad someplace that looks so much like someone you know that you wonder if they are moonlighting as a supermodel behind your back?

Like this ad for Nike?

It looks an awful lot like a certain Jared Lindsay that we know...

And this perfume ad with a boy getting his neck all kissed up?

Looks just like Blake!

(Especially when we pin him down on the sofa and make him recreate the pose in the right light)

But seriously, everyone - you should all stop calling me to ask if it was me in that one swimsuit ad you saw.

Holiday ads are the new awesome

2007-11-15T11:42:00.000-08:00

I was in downtown SF yesterday and saw this larger than life Gap billboard staring back at me and felt all warm and fuzzy inside. I love holidays in the city.

The Big Day is the new awesome

2007-11-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

I got back from Utah almost a week ago and still haven't posted anything about it. I didn't feel too much pressure, since there had already been some great documentation that took place.

Maybe Aaron and I were just too busy making sure the terrorists didn't win?

Okay. Bets probably has a whole camera full of better pictures, but this post will just have to do until she shares them all with us. This is the happy couple right after saying "I Do." Betsy sort of tricked everyone by not having a wedding dress on, so when they sent her out of the temple they didn't even send her out the special bride door. We were all there waiting outside of the door to take photos of her, and she walked up behind us instead.

Afterwords there was a dinner to celebrate, and I got to sit at the cool kids table with all the fun people that had come up from southern california. It was kind of a big deal. There was even a list.

(Which we let Erica add her name to)

There was also a special little ring ceremony.

Jen and Joe gave some marriage advice.

John did a pose that he says he learned on the new awesome.

And Emma offered everyone color coordinated handouts. And just looked pretty.

Who else came? So many friends.

All that practice paid off.

So maybe bets got a honeymoon to Hawaii, but at least I came home from Utah with a new pair of shoes, artisted by the ever-talented damian.

(these are much more stylish than a husband any day)

Congrats to bets and steve! The wedding was lovely.

Halloween is over is the new awesome

2007-11-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Okay. I know Halloween was yesterday, and we are all totally over it already, but I had to make one last post about costumes. I saw some really good ones this year, and many that made me LOL. (Tyler's LOLcat costume? Oh, brilliant.

I dressed up as Frank Chu, a local SF protester that shows up at all major SF events with his crazy signs and even has a bar named after one of his weird conspiracy theories.

(the real Frank)

But my favorite costume of the evening was Mark's. First he went around the party and secretly posted these signs everywhere on the walls:

And then spent the rest of the night just looking suspicious.
Happy Day After Halloween!

A Very Hairy Birthween is the new awesome

2007-10-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember that Betsy's birthday - or "birthween" as we like to call it - falls on Halloween and usually means that the parties we throw for her involve people dressing up weird. Since this was my last chance to help throw Bets a party before it turns into Steve's permanent responsiblity, we decided to do it right: A Very Hairy Birthday.

Everyone was instructed to get all dressed up in some hair that wasn't their own. Big wigs. Beautiful bouffants. Twirly mustaches. Hairy Chests. It didn't matter how everyone came dressed as long as they were sporting some sort of hair that Mother Nature didn't bless them with (but that you wish that she had).

We were pretty strict about the hair policy.

I came over to find Bets and Steve dressed like pizza makers in their matching Pizzaria 712 shirts and Mario mustaches.

Then bets changed into a hamster colored mustache that she felt a little more comfortable in, and matched her own coloring a little better.

(Which doubled nicely as sideburns as well).

We had a lot of good hair come through over the course of the evening:

Big hair.

Pink hair.

Perv hair.

Sharpie hair.

Eye hair.

Hot hair.

The wrong kind of mullet hair.

The other wrong kind of mullet hair.

Best from the side hair.

Lopsided hair.

Compensation hair.

Gross hair.

Fear of hair. (Robyn had a tough time at this party)

We also got bets a delish birthween cake and sang to her.

And betsy and steve practiced for next week.

Happy Birthween to all, and to all a good night.

Moving on is the new awesome

2007-10-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

So. Since it appears that bets is serious about this whole wedding thing, I decided that I had better come to terms with it and get myself a new roommate. Her name is Aubrey. She moved in last week, and she is both new and awesome, and I am almost afraid to post about her because I am pretty sure that you will all have superhuman crushes on her. Because I kind of do.

It is always sort of fun living with someone for the first time. Even if you knew them before, when you actually share living space you see sides of them that you never did before. These are a few things that I think that you should know about my new roommate:

* she is a photographer, of the extremely talented variety.

* she doesn't eat animals, but she also doesn't give me dirty looks when i eat bacon.

* she looks really good in stretch pants.

* she has promised to teach me how to drive a stick shift. maybe in the parking lot of Safeway or something.

* she has a little nose piercing, and sometimes i walk into the bathroom and find her sticking some tweezers up there. she says she is just making sure that everything is clean, but i don't know about that.

* she does not believe in social networking sites.

* she wears these pajama shorts to bed that have a big saggy butt and look a little bit like a diaper. (or a lot like a diaper)

* she takes one bite of whatever piece of fruit she is eating, and then puts it back into the fruit bowl.

* she says the word poop whenever she can

You will probably be seeing much more of her, so prepare yourselves.

To Grandmother's House We Go is the new awesome

2007-10-15T11:57:00.001-07:00

I was in Southern California last week helping to clean out my Grandmother's house - the house that she has lived in and that has remained unchanged for the past 40+ years, and that I have been visiting since I was born. It was a move to an assisted living home rather than a funeral that obliged the task, so it wasn't as somber as cleaning out a house could be, but there was certainly still a sense of mourning as I had to go through all the things that my Grammy has collected and loved and treasured for her whole life, and in the space of three days decide what got to be thrown out and what we had room to keep.

However, as you might imagine, there were all sorts of things behind cabinets and other closed doors that a Granddaughter wouldn't usually have reason to find under normal circumstances.

The obligatory handgun in the sash drawer:

The secret stash of booze in the wrapping paper closet:

And the book called Boners on the top shelf of a bunch of old books (actually printed in 1931 and illustrated by Dr.Seuss)

Best of all, though, were the personal items. The love letters that my Grandfather had written her. Old highschool yearbooks. Family portraits. Look at some of these gems:

My Grammy and my Grandpa, back when they were first married. (Check out how good my grandfather looks in a uniform!)
Zowie.
This one of my mother as a little girl making a happy face really killed me. You would be amazed at how many photos she was scowling in. Or maybe you wouldn't. My mom never has much liked getting her photo taken.

See?

My mom might kill me for putting this one up:

But I can make it up to her by putting up one of my own. Looks like nerdy glasses are hereditary.

My parent's wedding:

And of course, lots of baby photos:

I know it was hard for my Grammy to know that we were going through her possessions, and that the way that she has been accustomed to living independently for the past 96 years was changing rather dramatically. But I think it made her happy to know that we found things in her house to remind us of her, and that so many of the things that she had loved were going to stay with people that had loved her and appreciated her beautiful things.

Don't worry, Grammy. This is what I had to take my portion home in (and I could have used a bigger one to hold all the memories):

Missing you is the new awesome

2007-10-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you decide to get married and it turns your whole world upside down. Not because you're one of those bridezilla kinda brides but because the art of getting married requires lots of change. Some that's fun, some that's scary, most of it stressful and some sad too.

I feel like I've been out of the loop with most of my friends for the past month or two and the funny thing is when I see them, they all say "oh you must be so busy with the wedding!" And each time I have to say "actually no, not really." The wedding planning for me has been great. My mom and my sisters have done just about everything and I get to approve or veto things. It's been the best ever. And since I'm none too particular, it's been pretty easy. You can see pictures of my last trip to Utah including the wedding shower my family threw for me here.

The thing that took up 3 solid weeks of life was finding a new apartment in San Francisco. Steve and I weren't prepared at all for how tough it would be. We thought with our combined income and our stunning good looks we'd have our pick of places. Not so. We quickly realized we were competing with 25 other "Steve & Betsy's" for every $1900/mo. 1 tiny bedroom dump posted on craigslist. It was really discouraging. In the end, with the help of our friends Andy and Emily who were vacating their super sweet, split-level, complete with roof deck style loft in SOMA, we were able to slip right into their place. I'm so thrilled to be living where I'm living now (hello dishwasher, garbage disposal, washer/dryer, guest bathroom!) but that means I moved out of my apartment with Bex two weekends ago and that pretty much makes me want to cry. Thanks to the new awesome our escapades will go down in internet history but it's the things that didn't always make the blog that I'll miss the most...talking about boys and life and jobs and junk while eating nestle refrigerator cookie dough...Bex's incessant watching of Rachael Ray cooking shows...you know, the good times.

Well, the new awesome isn't dead yet so in true new awesome style, I present to you a bunch of pictures! Last Saturday my best girlfriends threw me an amazing shower here in SF at a restaurant called Maverick. Thanks Jules, Kat, Bex, Linds and Court for planning and thanks to everyone else that came. What a great day. I love my friends.

Before the shower Jules, Kat, Bex & Linds took me to a spa in my new neighborhood for a pedicure!

Then we met up with everyone for the most delicious brunch ever.

And a nice game of True Love Bingo!

And presents!

Vanity is the new awesome

2007-10-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I don't have too much against Dave Matthew's Band or their fans, but I saw this plate while visiting my grandma yesterday and had a good laugh. I get what the owner of the car is trying to say on their vanity plate. Rather than a 'DeadHead' they are a 'DMB Head." Just a serious DMB fan. Okay. Do you think that the owner of this car realizes that most of the people when reading their license plate without getting close enough to read the frame are just going to assume that they wanted their plate to read "dumbhead"?

I think vanity plates are a little like tattoos. You see a lot of bad ones and wonder why people paid good money to get them. Moral of the story: Think long and hard about what you are going to have yours say (tattoos or vanity plates), because you probably don't get to change it until you buy a new car or get a new body (or laser surgery).

Fessing up is the new awesome

2007-10-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

So, maybe you have been sitting there at your computer thinking to yourself "those TNA girls sure are getting lazy" or maybe you might wonder if the mob came over and broke our internet fingers or if our computers exploded because we were downloading too many mullet photos. Because, seriously, we haven't been blogging. Well, actually it is a lot less exciting. Things have been kind of going crazy lately with bets' impending wedding and, gulp, mostly with MOVING. That is right. Betsy moved out. Of our apartment. And left me all alone.

Believe me, I am still sort of in shock over it all. For a few days straight, the old lady in a straw hat and i just sat in bet's empty bedroom and stared at eachother sadly in silence.

Then I got up and decided to assess the situation in the apartment. The first thing I noticed was all of the things that I used to use all the time that apparently were not mine. Like, once Betsy took all of her food out, our fridge looked a little sad and lonely. Granted, I had been in Russia for a few weeks, so I hadn't been shopping, but my fridge hasn't been this empty since college. Now the cold empty expanse of the fridge is just a physical metaphor for the current state of my heart.
Also, she took all the spices with her, and just left a few that I had my initials on them. Does it seem strange to anyone else that the only spices that I own are Marjoram and Celery Seed?

Apparently I don't own any pots or pans, either. (Not that it matters, since apparently I don't have any food to cook in them anyway). I have plenty of plates, and silverware, and pretty bowls to display prepared food in. But no pots and pans. So I have had a good excuse to buy all sorts of pretty kitchenware.

I also had to buy a new couch, and new tv, and a new tv table, and some new shoes, and have been painting the living room to try to make my apartment look like normal again.

So, maybe all that explains why we haven't been blogging much, but now we have all these saved up photos to talk about, so I think TNA can get back on track. Maybe bets will even post her photo of October cat, since we are a little overdue there and I think Nathaniel has probably worried himself sick wondering what this month's cat looks like.

Playing catch-up is the new awesome

2007-10-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't even posted actual photos of my trip to Oregon yet, which means we are REALLY behind here at TNA.

I went to Hood River, OR with amber and kim, two of my best friends from way back to my freshman year of college. We got along pretty well all weekend, except for one slight altercation over which mac and cheese to eat - the cheesey packet Velveeta vs powder packet Kraft.

We got over that pretty quickly because we had some serious business to attend to. Pear season! Seriously. Have you guys been taking advantage of all the delicious pears out right now? They are so good right now. And in Hood River they have all these different farms that you can go visit (they call it the Fruit Loop, which is awfully clever) where you drive to all the different farms and pick your own fruit and eat jam (i bought some vanilla pear jam even though it meant i was going to have to check my bags at the airport. i hate checking bags at the airport, so you know that stuff must have been good).

I was excited at the idea of getting to pick my own fruits and things, but I sat on this tractor for, like, hours, and couldn't figure out how to farm pumpkins with it.

Pumpkin fields are better for posing in anyway. Oregon really is lovely.
This was a lavendar farm, and it smelled just as good as it looked.
The bathrooms, unfortunately, didn't smell as good as they looked.

There were also alpaca farms, with alpacas to pet (and buy). We were really excited for this!
OMG. Double excited. They let you buy little cups of food to feed the alpacas.
By this time I am almost peeing my pants with excitement, as kim gets to feed a few pellets to the super soft alpaca with the incredible Don King hair going on.
And? And? Alas. I think the excitement was built up a little too much. They just kind of slobber on you, and some of them were a little mean.
But let me tell you about one thing that DID live up to expectations. The greatest invention ever - PIE IN A CONE! What an amazing combo. An acceptable way to just shovel pie into your mouth without having to be fork and knive mannerly about it?
Let's just say that there was plenty of eating, just like amber is demonstrating. Don't tell anyone, but I secretly think about moving to Oregon some day. I really like it up there.

Just being mean is the new awesome

2007-09-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

I was in Hood River, Oregon over the weekend, and apparently the devil designs all the supermarkets out there.

From Russia, With Love is the new awesome

2007-09-20T23:22:00.001-07:00

If it wasn't obvious by my last post, I really loved Russia. Much of it was what you would imagine - like, they really do have those golden domed churches all over the place like Epcot led you to believe, and they really do sell vodka by the liter in the grocery stores!

And though all the people in massive fur hats that we saw were usually tourists, at least Russia didn't disapoint with the large imposing Soviet looking heads and statues pretty much all over the city.

So those things you sort of expected, but there are also some fun quirks that you don't always read about. For instance - most of the apartments that I saw had two front doors. First front door:

Second front door, immediately inside the first:

Also, all of the rows of porta-potties in Moscow had one that had been converted into an office, where little cute russian women sit and take your money if you want to go to the bathroom. Hey. She has a better window view than I do in my cubicle, and apparently they are okay for napping too.

And, Russian women have a physique that makes it appear that they ingest umbrellas?
Moscow and St. Petersburg had their own mix of classic old Russia, and a new cosmopolitan Russia. Like, sometimes you would find yourself in front of the towering statues at Peterhof...

...and other times you might find that you were just standing in front of a Versace store. Practically the same thing.

We also saw so much art, since the Russians have alot of it (much of it stolen). Since many of the art museums didn't have captions written in English and my Russian doesn't extend much beyond "thank you" and "I am here to pick up my mail order husband," we were forced to make up our own captions for many of the fine pieces that we saw. Like this one, that I am pretty sure is called "Mom, I thought I told you not to come in my room when I have girls over!"

The language barrier did provide a few laughs along the way. We ate at a great little street stand that they had all over, which I wanted to pronounce as "Crapdogs" every time I saw it. However, we discovered that you actually say it a little bit like "Starbuck" which is especially funny because there is one of them on every corner in Moscow, much like Starbucks in the US.

Possibly the best of all? The super hardcore anti-riot squad over there is called OMOH, and they all run around trying to look tough with that printed on their backs. Someone hand them a mirror and and we can ALL have a good laugh.

You may wonder how the pursuit of a mail order husband went? Well, Emily better luck than I did. We stopped to watch a band in the Metro one night, and Emily was trying to take a photo, but this short, drunk russian guy kept sticking his face in her viewfinder. I'm not sure exactly how it all happened, but the next thing I knew he was yelling "american girl!" in english, and they were slow dancing in the middle of the crowd. Good friend that I am, I ignored the look of pure terror on emily's face and just photographed the whole incident instead.

I didn't have as much luck with the drunk Russians. I guess I am still holding out for the Russian mullet of my dreams.

the Hipster Mullet is the new awesome

2007-09-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings, comrades. I made it back on American soil yesterday after taking care of some of that business that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I have some real photos to post, but first, I wanted to make a small tribute to my new favorite male hair accessory: the hipster mullet.

I know we have been seeing them all over the streets of Williamsburg for years, but I think I never truly had any feelings about the hipster mullet until I saw the sweet eastern-european version of it on practically everyone in Russia. Be still, my heart:

No, really. EVERYONE in Russia had a mullet - and not the full bodied w.t. american kind of mullet that you see on small town boys that ride around with the confederate flag and a gun rack in the back window of their pick-up trucks. These mullets were tailored to be just enough of a rat-tail/mullet combo that you almost couldn't tell that there was all this extra hair in the back of the head until you got a side glace. It was totally hot. I think I fell in love about 172 times a day based solely on haircut.

Behold! A stealthy collection of the hottest hair trend in Russia:

The girls have mullets. The dogs have mullets. Even the totally fash mannequins have mullets.

I know, right? You are all feeling weak in the knees right now, aren't you?

Pizzeria Seven Twelve is the new awesome

2007-09-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

I know I've mentioned it before but the opening of Pizzeria Seven Twelve is getting closer by the day. All you lucky Utah readers will be able to visit this amazing restaurant anytime you want. For the rest of us stuck here in San Francisco, we'll just have celebrate by frequenting similar establishments like A16 and Pizzeria Delfina.

You can also track the progress of the opening at the new Pizzeria 712 Blog. My brother-in-law Joseph and his business partner Colton will be updating it regularly.

So rad.

Also, I want to apologize to the readers of the new awesome for the lack of awesome content lately. It's not that nothing awesome is going on in our lives. Quite the contrary in fact. But with all the awesome comes so much busy it's not even funny. Here's hoping things slow down a bit soon so we can post like we did back when we were cool.

Cornhole-ing in Ohio is the new awesome

2007-09-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

You may remember my last trip to Ohio to visit Ben and Danielle and their new baby Abbey. Apparently they thought it had been too long since I had come to visit, so they decided to have another cute baby to lure me back out for another weekend.

Totally worth a trip to Ohio: Amelia!

Although I was excited to see Abbey again too, this time all grown up into a two year old, I fear the affection was not totally returned.

Now I feel your pain, bets.

Since you can see what I was up against, I feel no shame in admitting to having resorted to bribery in order to establish myself as Favorite Aunt. This obviously meant stocking up on some serious princess gear to make sure that Abbey didn't give me any more of that withering stink face. I thought it would be simple, but do you have any idea how many princess accessories there are out there these days? I spent a good hour in the pink section of Target analyzing different plastic tiara/earring/shoe/dress combos, and debating whether to throw in the talking magic mirror that exclaims "You're a pretty princess" or "Isn't it great to be royalty?" in a very affirming voice.

I think the tiara we came home with was a winner. Proof that even fake diamonds can totally be a girl's best friend:
The other important draw for this trip was the annual Columbus Neighborhood Cornhole Tournament. For those of you unfamiliar with Cornhole (make sure you don't get it confused with THAT kind of cornholing), it is favorite pasttime of many U.S. Americans where a group of people gets together to throw sacks of corn at a board with a hole in it. The game is apparently a pretty big deal out in Ohio and elsewhere in the Midwest.

The "Corn Master" showed us the very official looking winner's flowchart. There was $75 and a spot on the annual Cornhole winner's trophy at stake!

Mike and I warmed up by ruthlessly beating a 6 year old whose best strategy included throwing all of his corn bags at once.

Take that, you foolish 6 year old.
I think that cheap victory gave us a false sense of hope, because our real competition played dirty. Part of Ben's strategy was to have Amelia pee on the corn bags so that no one else would want to pick them up.

Even my most intimidating face didn't help the fact that I couldn't throw the corn bag in the hole to save my life. After a really long game ... we finally admitted defeat.

Mike and I didn't take losing well. I just went and buried all the corn bags out of spite, but I think Mike took it harder and denounced his long-held belief in The Secret, since the cosmos obviously didn't deliver him the victory that he had been asking for.

I am planning on practicing my cornholing over the next year, so that when I attend next year's Championship, my name will have a place in the winner's circle. Danielle and Ben, do you think you could work on having another kid for me to come visit by then?

The Russian Consulate is the new awesome

2007-08-29T00:18:00.000-07:00

So, I had to pick up my Russian Visa today because I am going to Moscow and St. Petersburg next month to attend to some business and take a lot of personal photos with Emily Cox.

As it turns out, there are a lot of things you need to do before they will even think about letting you come into the country.

First, you need to be invited. To the country. As in, someone has to send you an official form telling you that they would love to have you come visit them in Russia. (Luckily these can be obtained by just slipping someone at a Russian travel agency $20).

On my official invitation to Russia, I know I didn't want to check the "Male" box, so I checked the only other option, which I can only hope means "Female."

The application also demands pretty much your entire life history, including some probing questions about any special arms training you may ever have had. They don't give you a whole lot of room to explain yourself, though.

Of course, they want a passport sized photo attached to your application too. I decided to just take mine myself and print it out on my computer, but I managed to get the size wrong the first try. I tried to use the same paper to print out another one, but I put the paper in the wrong way the second time I ran it through and ended up printing on top of my first photo. I caught it before it got too far along, but not before I gave myself an awesome bang beard.

I didn't want to bother printing another one so I just left it, thinking maybe the Consulate guys would appreciate it. After all, this is Russia, right?

Registering is the new awesome

2007-08-28T16:06:00.001-07:00

Steve and I went to Target to register the other weekend and it was quite an adventure. It was one of those things where I thought we'd get there at 9am and be outta there by 11am. Turns out it's hard to pick things for an apartment you don't even have yet. After about three hours we had to recharge at the Target Snack Shack (do not waste your hard earned dollar on a soft pretzel).

My conclusion: Registering is one of those things you think will be really awesome. And it is. For about 30 minutes.

Scherenschnitte is the new awesome (right Cindy?)

2007-08-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

I hosted a Ladies Activity Club party this week!

Ladies Activity Club (aka LAC) was started by my friend Emily, and is a lot like Relief Society Enrichment meetings, just without anything religious involved. Basically, it is a fun way to meet other SFsters by getting together once a month to teach eachother something new and fun, and since there hasn't been toll painting as an activity even once, I keep going back.

As inspired by the lovely and talented Cindy Ferguson, I decided to host a Scherenschnitte (pronounced shair-en-shnit-teh) party and teach the Ladies of the Activity Club the fine art of papercutting. Cindy was nice enough to send me some templates, and I got some designs and inspiration off her Scherenschnitte site and around the internet. I equipped everyone with xacto knives and sharp scissors, made everyone promise that they wouldn't sue me if they cut a finger off in the process, and then we all started cutting!

For a bunch of first time cutters, the group really tackled some intricate stuff.

Jordan got a little frustrated with her super skinny birds on a wire cut, and ended up creating a cutting of her own design, right there on the spot.

The instructions that I downloaded from the internet told us to "rest your eyes frequently by looking away at the horizon," and it was probably the only thing that got us all through the tough times. Emily's photos really captured what we were all feeling after staring at these tiny cuts for several hours.

In the end, nobody ended up stabbing themselves or their neighbor, so I'd label this party a raging success.

Eyelashes are the new awesome

2007-08-23T09:10:00.001-07:00

So I went and visited my most fabulous hair stylist & friend Preston Nesbit this past Saturday and while I was waiting for my hair to process I decided to go crazy and have him dye my eyelashes. I know...insane right? But if you're a blond like me, that means you have blond/invisible eyelashes unless you're wearing mascara. Here's my eyes with my favorite mascara:

Don't get me wrong, mascara is great. I love it. It's my favorite item of make-up. But what if I want to rub my eyes because I'm tired? Or what if I want to watch Steel Magnolias and cry for two hours? Or go swimming all day long...then what?

Well, here's my solution...not as dramatic and "made up" as mascara, but still so nice to have the option to go without!

French dips on Sunday for Cindy are the new awesome

2007-08-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

So maybe you've read on Cindy's blog that once a month, on the first Tuesday, she eats a french dip sammy. Steve and I have been meaning to do this in mutual celebration with her for a few months now. Even though it wasn't a Tuesday, we decided to go for it last Sunday and make our delicious dinner.

I decided to make them the way my mom use to make them for us when I was a kid. I bought a london broil and broiled it in the oven. About 10 minutes on each side. The london broil is a fairly inexpensive cut of beef but if cooked properly, it's delicious. And it's perfect sliced thin for a french dip sandwich!

I didn't realize until I looked at these pictures that I dip my french dip the french way...with my pinky sticking up. It's very proper of me.

Steve on the other hand prefers the slightly less refined caveman method. Me dip sandwich in Au Jus!

Me take big bite of beef sandwich!

Making out with Nature is the new awesome

2007-08-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

I went to Tahoe this weekend with a bunch of outdoorsy people:

I know what you are thinking. I called that group outdoorsy and then showed a weird picture of them, exposing them as a group of people that also passes the time by trying to stack their heads on top of one another and then photograph it. Well. People often surprise you. Like this gentleman I saw at the 7-11 in Tahoe, eating a slurpee for breakfast. He probably looks all tough until he shows his tounge and it is blue.

Anyway. I went to Tahoe with a group of people that stacks their heads for fun, so imagine my surprise when they got up Saturday morning and announceed that we would be hiking. All I had on my feet were a pair of flip flops. No one told me to bring sturdy walking shoes (not that Brant's vans without socks is exactly hardcore hiking gear either) - but everyone I have ever come to Tahoe with in the past was mostly interested in sunning themselves by the lake with an occasional dip in the water, not hiking. I'm not complaining. I like hiking. I was just a little unprepared.

Is this my going to the beach outfit, or my going hiking outfit? Answer: they are the same thing.

As I prepared to flip flop my way along the trail, Brant and Matt made sure to stretch before this strenuous hike. Inadvertantly I think they did some sort of mating dance...

because after that, brant had to do most of the hike like this:

When we got to the lake part of the hike, everyone went swimming...

even though the water was just as cold as they told us it was going to be.

Since there were only signs about how cold the water was and not about feeding the wildlife, we shared our trail mix lunch with some of the natives.

Cindy. I am sorry to tell you this, but i sort of kissed your boyfriend's cousin, the chipmunk. One minute we were eating apples together, and the next minute? Well. It just sort of happened.

But seriously. When nature is this pretty, how can you not want to make out with it?

Envy is the new awesome

2007-08-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Awhile back bets blogged/bragged about her trip to the Estate at Brittan. Rich is Betsy's friend from when she worked at Genentech apx. 10 years ago. Well, the other night Doug and Rich deemed Steve and I cool enough to come see the Estate in its finished state, and made us dinner to boot!

I was nervous to meet Rich and Doug, until Betsy told me that they ALSO had matching scooters, just like she and I! The first thing Steve did when we arrived was go to the garage and pretend like Vespa's aren't as awesome as our Yamaha Vino's. I think he almost convinced himself.

However, they also have matching iMacs, which I think Betsy and I need to work on.

The part of the house that Betsy was most envious of was the secret passage, which she went and hid in, just like last time.

I was most envious of the beautiful matching washer and dryer that they had IN THE HOUSE! With no bums sitting in front of them. It made me remember that there is a way to do laundry that is not the Rising Star way of doing laundry.

You can't hate Rich & Doug for having such a great house though, because they are so awesome. Plus it is exactly the kind of place that you would expect the inventor of the frappuccino to live. Doug doesn't like to tell alot of people this about himself, but since Popular Mechanics wrote an article about it this month, I guess it isn't privledged information anymore. (Incidentally, Betsy made this same face when I broke the news to her that her favorite singer Amy Winheart had OD'd the other day on a cocktail of awesome drugs and horse tranqilizers.)

Rich is awesome too. I am pretty sure he invented this potato salad when he wasn't busy being the master of all things drug safety at his day job.

The inventor of the frappuccino also made us the most delicious hamburgers!

Basically Rich & Doug might be the best hosts ever. So much fun! Seriously.

Deep South is the new awesome

2007-08-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned, my younger sister just married a southern gentleman from Mississippi a few weeks ago, so over the weekend my California-bred family made the trek into the wild unknown of the South to become better acquainted with our new in-laws and get a taste for where the newest addition to the family had grown up. Once I got over the radical temperature changes (sweltering humid hot outdoors and frigid over-air-conditioned indoors) I was able to just get a feel for the area and enjoy the southern charms that I had heard so much about.

My dad brought a guide book so that we would have the most efficient vacation ever.

Wait a second. Why on earth are we trusting a guide book that BRAGS about it's number of National Chain Restaurant listings? I did not come all the way to Mississippi just to eat at Arby's. le barf.

I almost changed my mind when I saw that the Church's Fried Chicken chain restaurant's marquee signs tended to rival those of the Baptist church's as far as their entertainment value.

But luckily, the new inlaws are a bunch of foodies and took us to all their favorite New Orleans restaurants. I fell in love with shrimp remoulade, po-boys filled with fried eggplant and red sauce, seafood gumbo, and these tasty beignets doused with powdered sugar and chocolate milk.

Most of my vacation shots are not of the antebellum homes we visited or the wrought iron gates of New Orleans, but rather more embarrassing shots like this one of me pigging out on something:

Besides good eats, there are several other things that I noticed the South takes very seriously:

Jesus.

Cemeteries.

Bugs.
(Like this hairy visitor on the roof of the hotel, or the junebug that crawled on my neck and made me confirm that indeed, i do scream like a girl when in contact with gross crawly buggy things)

Fashion.

Floods and Hurricanes.
Not to end this post on a bad note, but it was amazing to see how much of New Orleans is still in disrepair after Katrina. So many houses are still spraypainted with the X marking how many living and dead were found in each home, and we saw acres of FEMA trailers and many still in use. Still, it was also amazing how many places had been fixed up as well, and to see people getting back on their feet and making New Orleans home again.

Summer lovin' is the new awesome

2007-08-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

Bex and I have two true loves this summer.

1) Guitar Hero

2) Harry Potter

Rebecca finished the last Harry Potter book in two days flat. I still have apx. 350 pages to go. I think I was hesitant at first to finish the book too fast because then how would I entertain myself for the rest of the summer? That's not an issue anymore thanks to Bex purchasing Guitar Hero. Now I can just be a rock star for the rest of the summer.

August cat is the new awesome

2007-08-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

My cat calendar seems to be partial to older cats (April Cat, May Cat, June Cat and July Cat).

Not this month!!!

August cat is a little baby cowboy kitten!

Appealing to your target market is the new awesome

2007-07-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

I don't totally even know what it is that they do here (and maybe i don't want to know, though it looks a lot like a normal dry cleaning place), but they must be serious about it because they made a neon sign for it.

i love living in San Francisco.

Rich AND Famous is the new awesome

2007-07-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you that know Chaz, you may remember how he and his beard won $160K on that game show 1 vs 100...

But it turns out that besides just being rich these days, he and his beard have also been exploring his acting career, and together they starred recently in this brilliant little video:

Good work, dave. This video made my Friday morning.

Making the Pioneers Proud is the new awesome

2007-07-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

As Bets made mention, yesterday was Pioneer Day, an official, celebrated holiday in no other state but Utah. Just because we live in California doesn't mean we don't want to get in on that old-fashioned pioneer fun, so Karisa and McKay hosted a Jello Party, which seemed appropriate considering Utah's infamous affinity for all things Jello.

There were Utah themed prizes for the 1: most awesome jello creation and 2: most delicious jello creation. I know better than to ever try to win a prize for most delicious anything, so I set my sights on the most awesome jello creation prize. I took my inspiration from the pioneers that crossed the plains to get to Salt Lake City...

...and attempted a wagon train. (those squishy red things are oxen, i swear)
And since any wagon team worth its salt is headed some place, the Salt Lake Temple inspired a lime green creation of its own.

Emily busted out the entire Jello cookbook, so you can probably imagine what kind of tasty treats we all enjoyed. And her deep blue jello sea full of gummy fish was pretty genius too.

I am pretty sure the pioneers would have approved.

Birthneer is the new awesome

2007-07-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

You might recall my birthday is on Halloween. So each year I celebrate Birthween. My mom was also born on a famous holiday. Pioneer Day! To celebrate Birthneer my family went out to some famous Utah BBQ joint for dinner tonight. Since Steve and I couldn't be there in person we thought we'd have our own birthneer party here in San Francisco in honor of my mom.

We got take out from our favorite BBQ joint called Roadside BBQ. I had beef brisket with a side of Mac & Cheese, corn on the cob and a cornbread muffin.

Steve had a pulled pork sammy (also w/mac&cheese).

We even sang Happy Birthneer to my mom, made wishes and ate cake.

I TOLD you that weddings and all that stuff is the new awesome

2007-07-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I headed to LA to attend my baby sister's wedding. I wanted to have one Last Night Out On The Town with her, but she had other things going on, so I enjoyed her LNOOTT without her.

Which is really a pity, since Jared even wore his robot suit to go dancing in.

To make up for it, I took Kathryn and Jake to get manicures and pedicures before the Big Day instead. This, of course, isn't the first time we have put the MAN in MANicure on the blog (right, Brigham?) but this might be the best MANicure face ever recorded while a boy gets a pedicure.

They got married Saturday morning. I am sure the the real photographer will have some better photos, but I got a few of them looking cute coming out of the temple. Ak! They are so cute. And look at her dress - peace out, billions of yards of satin. I am loving the tea length look with the cute jacket. Just sassy and kind of casual.

My beautiful baby sister, the bride.

No one ever talks about the things that go wrong at weddings. We had a few minor mishaps that might have made any ordinary bride cry, but that my sister just sort of took in stride. Like my brother's suit; he flew in a few hours before the wedding, only to find that his suit was totally sized incorrectly (as illustrated by the 2 pillows we could shove in his shirt).

Or my sister's new wedding shoes - we were all ready to have her walk out in her wedding dress for the first time, and found that one of the shoes still had the magnetic security tag stuck in the heel. Luckily we had a knife on hand, and we just cut the thing out. Kathryn just laughed about it, even as we were taking a knife to her bridal shoes. What a champ.

This is a shot of the groom and all of his good-looking groomsmen. This pic was taken right as Jake had announced that he wanted everyone to try to pose like a bunch of guys in a Boy Band.

I'd like to just feature a close-up of my brother (you know. the Navy Seal) and exactly what he did when asked to make a Boy Band pose:

How do they get the groomsmen all looking so put together? Zipper ties. They don't want anyone messing with the symmetry and tying some huge double windsor, or having some sort of tie-tying emergency at a critical moment during the wedding. High class.

We just had the reception in the backyard of the LaBass home, and took some inspiration from Jordan's blog to make it a perfect party.

The lanterns in the trees were just lovely.

The first thing I noticed when walking into the reception was these buckets. I got a little nervous, because they aren't technically hog troughs, but I was thinking that maybe my sister might have improvised in a pinch.

Luckily they were filled with Izze soda later in the evening, so they weren't used for my humiliation after all.

My parents were a little taken aback when my sister spit in the face of tradition and chose to put out trays of yummy pastries in lieu of a wedding cake, but that didn't stop them from still getting a cheesy plastic bride and groom and sticking it on the plate of goodies when she wasn't looking.

Congratulations, Jake and Kathryn Wyatt! You are beautiful.

Taking the blog back is the new awesome

2007-07-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

I know I have been a little busy too shopping for hog troughs this weekend to be posting much, but I can't believe our blog got hijacked while I wasn't looking. With all that manly testosterone that the santos just dumped on TNA, it is going to take some serious work to get it back to it's pristine, girlie state. So here goes....

I am the new awesome

2007-07-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Am I the only person who has noticed that betsy and rebecca have become slackers in their posting? Luckily betsy doesn't log out of anything on her ibook and since I'm the unofficial third roommate I take it upon myself to post.
pure testosterone baby!

-the santos

Weddings and all that stuff is the new awesome

2007-07-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

I know we keep bringing up marriage on the blog these days, but we are going to have to talk about it again because this weekend the cutest couple in the world finally tied the knot. Casey and Amanda!

Amanda had the lovliest dress. And that sassy head veil? She made it herself. I should have gotten a closer photo because it was just so pretty. And Casey? Way to sport the yellow tie - hottest color of the season.

One of my favorite things about weddings is getting to see the family members of your friends. Like the Lynch sisters that all look uncannily alike.

Another great thing about weddings is the chance to get all sorts of old friends together. Remember these guys?

Mei is probably the cutest thing I have seen in awhile, and was sporting the most brilliant baby bib ever - the Baby Bjorn! I saw it in action - not only is it rubber and easily washable, the little bucket at the bottom doubles up to catch unwanted food and acts as a food trough! If you are having a baby in the next few months and invite me to your shower, this is probably what I am going to buy you.

And with the number of people getting married these days, I have a feeling there will be many many baby showers to go to pretty soon. . .

Sweet Moves are the new awesome

2007-07-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

It is summertime, which means there will be many people out there buying new frisbees. And if they are lucky, their new frisbee will come with a handy, illustrated set of Basic Catches, like this one that we bought the other day:

Oh, sure. The catches start out simple enough. Under the leg? Everyone knows that one.

But then half way down the page, it looks like they ran out of the old standards, and started making some up. Like ... the Phlaud?

And even better - can you imagine admiring someone's Gitis from across the ultimate frisbee field?

I have a feeling I am going to start playing a lot more frisbee now.

Lake Powell is the new awesome

2007-07-08T21:10:00.001-07:00

I have been a little absent on the blog again, but it is because I was out of internet reach! Last week I headed out to Vegas and convinced a few high rollers to join my family and a few others on Lake Powell for what should offically be known as the Best Vacation Ever.

The way you really do Lake Powell is to round up about 30 of your favorite people, get a few speed boats and some inflatable things, and go sit on a houseboat in the middle of a lake on the border of Arizona and Utah during the driest and hottest time of the year. The crowded houseboat is what really makes the experience. Since these things are sort of the water equivalent of mobile homes, people try to hide their trashy potential by naming their houseboats regal and sophisticated sounding things like "Pure Enchantment" or "Emerald Sunrise."

Of course, there are some people that are not in that much denial, and name their boats something that one might expect from the aquatic version of trailer trash.

To add to the Clampett-style feel of the trip, everyone bunks down on the roof since there are not even close to enough beds for us all to sleep in.

Since there were so many of us, we all were given one plastic cup and told to write our names on them. Jared, Keith and I took creative liberties decorating our cups:

And of course, my mom opted to get really creative and write her entire name on her cup, even though there were no other Merleens to be seen on our houseboat, Lake Powell, or probably anywhere in the state of Arizona.

Jared tried a number of different floaty combinations to match the size of his shorts.

When he finally found one that fit, we let him into our new jetski gang, Jet Lag for Judie.

The great thing about Lake Powell is that you get to do all the fun water activities that you would on any lake, but you get to do them with the most amazing red canyon backdrop. All week long there was plenty of wakeboarding...

...falling off of big, inflatable bananas...

...death defying leaps off of really high places...

...some serious tubing...

There is also plenty to see at Lake Powell. This is the crew at Rainbow Bridge, one of the largest natural arches in the world that used to take days and days to hike to, but now is pretty easily accessible since they filled the canyon in with water and you can just boat to it.

There is nowhere like one of the natural wonders of the world to practice your cheerleading moves in front of.

And we hiked some narrows too.

(Though some might say that you can take out the word "hiked" and insert "swam" instead)

After a few days on the lake, when it turned out that even the 2 year olds were skiing like pros ...
(This is Asher, water skiing for the first time like he doesn't even know he is only 2 years old)

we decided that we were going to have to pull out something a little different. A surfboard.

we got pretty good at surfing behind jetskis, believe it or not.

And when that got old, we figured out how to surf on the wake behind the boat, without even needing to hold onto the rope. You have to see it to believe it - go check out a video of Graham surfing behind the boat here.

The surfing was kind of indicative of what happens when people get bored with the conventional, which I think you see a lot in the world of water sports, since there are always new crazy toys available to try getting dragged behind a boat. This year, the prize for the silliest blow-up toy ever: a Wayne Coyne-esque hamster ball to walk on water with.

At least this one hasn't killed anyone yet.

So many stairs are the new awesome

2007-07-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

The weather has been great here in SF so Steve and I decided to go hiking tonight. We started at Baker Beach in the Presidio and ended up at the Land's End trail.

We found this plant that Steve will probably identify using the Jepson Manual on his nerd blog but to me, it looks like a plant from my favorite Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a Who.

As we were walking along we noticed a sign for the Mile Rock Beach warning us there was a steep slope and steps ahead.

So we walked down millions and millions of steps to see what this hidden beach was all about. There was a beautiful view and we thought we should document the moment. Unfortunately it was really sunny and I forgot my sunglasses.

After our failed self-photography attempt we realized all those giant steps we trotted down were waiting for us.

Steve wasn't worried at all.

Neither was I.

And after hoofing it up the 229 giant steps Steve was still all smiles. Annoying.

Here's me pretending I'm not about to have a heart attack.

4th of July is the new awesome

2007-07-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an absolutely spendid 4th of July here in San Francisco. A bunch of us had a BBQ at Shawn & Robyn's house. I meant to take lots of pictures but when they surprised us all with Guitar Hero I completely forgot about documenting the day with photos. All I could think about was rocking out.

After the BBQ Bradley, Allie, Steve and I scootered down to the Marina to watch the fireworks.

God Bless America.

Park City, UT revisited is the new awesome

2007-07-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

You might remember that last summer I went to Park City, UT with my family. My parents were nice enought to re-create the trip again this year bigger and better than ever. My mom and dad are so rad. In looking through all my pictures from the trip I realized that funny faces were the all the rage. Here's a nice selction of faces of the funny variety:

I've documented my relationship with my niece Allie here and here. For whatever reason on this trip we seem to have taken a step backwards. I'm not sure what happened but Allie is sure she hates me. I'm not worried though...I'll win her over.

Like I mentioned in my last post...Steve proposed to me on the Park City chairlift overlooking the valley...it was beautiful...I said yes...and then we walked to get Slurpee's before walking back to tell my family. It was pretty much perfect.

And in case you're not tired of looking at pictures just yet...here's more pics of my great family.

Big announcements are the new awesome

2007-07-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight Steve and I ate dinner at our favorite sushi place in San Francisco! Blue Fin Sushi!

Blue Fin Sushi is so pretty.

Sometimes opposites attract.

The best sushi roll in all the land! The 49er roll (salmon, avocado, cucumber, thinly sliced lemon).

After dinner we hopped on our scooters and scooted over to Baker Beach to catch the sunset. It's going go be in the mid 80's in SF the next few days. Perfect for 4th of July festivites.

One final announcement...last week while on vacation in Park City, UT with my family, Steve asked me to marry him and I said yes!

July Cat is the new awesome

2007-07-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

Just in case you've missed the series of posts I've been doing about my rad cat calendar here's a little recap:

April Cat
May Cat
June Cat

After a slight letdown in June, my cat calendar returned better than ever for July. I present to you July Cat!

And while we're on the subject of cats, I thought I'd update you on how Lucy, the Death Scab for Scootie mascot is doing. I was in Utah last week on vacation with my family and it was the first time I'd seen Lucy since we did this to her last time I was in town.

Her hair is growing back beautifully but since the weather is so hot in Utah right now, Lucy may have another shave in store very soon.

Dirty Secrets are the new awesome

2007-06-28T00:08:00.000-07:00

In honor of bets coming home from her extended vacation today, I present my own PostSecret for her return.

Nuclear hair products are the new awesome

2007-06-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up with awesome hair, and one piece in the front that just wouldn't lie flat, no matter what i did.

I did a little investigating, and I suspect it is because my high-tech shampoo boasts that it is made with ROCKET EXTRACT. Pow!

No wonder.

Apparently leaving town just as things are getting good is the new awesome

2007-06-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

My roommate went to Utah this weekend, and things kind of got strange as soon as she left. All of a sudden there were alot more of these rainbow flags flying everywhere:

And a lot of guys like this walking around:

I sort of started wondering if San Francisco was going crazy without Bets around. And then it dawned on me - my roommate foolishly left for vacation on the one weekend in San Francisco that everyone tans and works out in preparation for all year long - PRIDE!!

You think I am lying about the tanning?

To celebrate, I got some colored hair and lots of fun people and we made an appearance in the Pride Parade!

I was going to let Xavier drive until he killed Brant.

Probably because they put this guy in charge of parade safety:

The Winkles were looking pretty good in shades of blue and purple. If Mckay looks like he is hiding a secret in this photo, it is for good reason. He is wearing a speedo under his clothes.
Wayne and Courney were pretty festive themselves. (Do you notice the heavy eye glitter on Court?)

But Wayne couldn't quite decide where his hair looked best.

The boys were trying to look all tough, even in their wigs.

But little did everyone know that right before this tough photo was taken, Xavier had actually been fixing his hair in the window reflection for like, an hour. Real manly, Xavier.

Maybe you can't tell, but in addition to having yellow hair, Brant also sported a glittery heart on his cheek. Which, I hate to say, isn't all that tough either.

I wasn't trying to be manly. I was trying to channel Scarlett Johansson.

Despite my best efforts, I was by no means the girliest person at the parade. Can you believe how many people march all the way down Market Street in heels?

Our sweet tunes and luscious locks made a lot of people cheer, but we were up against a lot of curiously strong competition...

Not surprisingly, Pride is really big on the sexual innuendo. Even the most conservative places make scandalous tee-shirts. Like this one from a local Public Defender:
Even the local paper was out and about in shirts that said "We come out daily."

I think BART should come up with their own shirts for next year, mostly so that I can start up a mildly indecent conversation in the next staff meeting. This will be me - standing at the white board all innocent-faced, saying "That's good. 'BART: Giving people the ride of their lives since 1972.' Any other suggestions?"

Dancing drama is the new awesome

2007-06-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

OK, tonight was the second round on So You Think You Can Dance. Here are some of my thoughts after watching tonight's episode:

1) I still love Hok.

2) I don't love Lacey anymore. Sometimes I think she might be making babies backstage with her partner Kameron. This kind of behavior might start catching up with them eventually. I think she is an amazing dancer but when she's telling us to vote for her I forget how great a dancer she is and it leaves me concentrating on how annoying she is. Also, I think she is Lisa Marie Presley.

3) I thought Lauren was going to be my favorite girl forever but after tonight I thought she was a little bit snoozeville. Her partner Neil however was SO great in that hip hop routine.

4) I think Jaimie has breast implants.

5) I didn't like Jessi and Pasha initially because I thought they were both too good looking. But after tonight's super rad bird jazz number, I've changed my mind. I love them. And I'm not even jealous of their good looks anymore.

6) The only thing I remember about Danny and Anya is the super plunging V-neck sweater with no t-shirt underneath Danny was wearing when they drew what dance they were going to be dancing out of the hat. It's nice that Danny has a freshly waxed chest but the man cleavage was almost more than I could handle. It made me feel awkward.

7) Speaking of awkward, remember how Faina hates her partner Cedric?

8) Sara is my absolute favorite girl ever! In my dream ending, Hok and Sara win.

9) Sabra and Dominic were really good tonight. And I loved how Dominic strategically cried when they were critiquing him for dramatic effect.

10) Shauna and Jimmy's routine was great. Although the actual stomping part was kind of dumb. There should have been more hand claps than feet stomps.

Any predictions for who leaves tomorrow night?

Also, better late than never Nathaniel...
June Cat!

Importing New Friends is the new awesome

2007-06-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

You'll never guess who moved to San Francisco for the summer? karisa! she came to our house this weekend to let us meet her new cutie husband mckay and to eat some yummy food. Also, the three of us felt it important to make a statement about how primary colors are totally in this summer.

mckay just wanted us to stop telling eachother how cute we all were so that he could talk more about the republican he gets to work for all summer.

Take that, Utah. We finally got two of yours, now! At least for a few months.

(The funniest part of the evening was when bets saw the photos that we all took together, and she shook her head and said "we can't post these. i look as wide as a bus."

I was totally grossed out, because what I heard was "we can't post these. i look as white as pus.")

Keeping it straight is the new awesome

2007-06-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay - you know if bets is having to write entire posts dedicated to making me get back into the internet, things must be crazy busy around here. The thing is, sometimes I wonder if anyone but her notices that I haven't been posting for a week? Sometimes, in fact, I suspect that when it comes to TNA, people sort of think that bets and i are actually the same person. Even though it says at the bottom of each post who the author was, sometimes people still tell us "i think i am finally getting to the point that i can tell which one of you is writing each post" as if we have tried purposefully to confuse everyone.

For instance, recently my friend wrote a book:

And she interviewed me to be in it! She profiled me in the journaling/blogging section, and I made sure to tell her that I wrote a blog with my roommate so that she wouldn't think I wanted to take all the new and awesome credit. However (don't tell her) but when I got my copy of the book, i was mortified to find that the profile read "she and her roommate (who also happens to be named rebecca) keep a joint blog ..."

I obviously had never called my roommate by my own name, so I can only assume that my friend came to the blog and got "bex" and "bets" confused, thinking that they were short for the same name. How many people have been making this same mistake (and printing it in books)?!?

So. In order to prevent incorrect assumptions such as this to be made in the future, here are some things that you should know about bets and I to keep us both straight:

Bets - short for betsy - throws away money that she thinks is dirty. The other day she gave me this dollar because it looked like it had some funny brown unidentified stains on it. (I wish her $20 was the diritier bill).

Whereas Bex (that's me. currently talking in 3rd person) - short for rebecca - actually LIKES to pick up ugly, dirty stuff (such as paintings of old women in straw hats) off the side of the road and put them in her room.

Bets is the one who watches cooking shows, makes everything from scratch, and insists on scooping her chocolate chip cookie dough with a mellon baller to achive perfect OCD rounded cookies.

Bex is the one that only eats cookies that come from tubes of dough pre-packaged at the supermarket and has a diet consisting of mostly spaghettios and other canned goods.

Bets is the one with incredibly stubby legs . ..

And Bex is the one with an anorexic bicep, the freakishly short forearm and one enormous hand.

If that doesn't help everyone to keep the two of us straight, I don't know what will.

All mine is the new awesome

2007-06-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

Remember how bex never has time to post on our blog anymore? Well, due to this current posting drought from bex, I thought I'd take this opportunity to move the new awesome in a direction I've wanted to for quite some time now but wasn't sure how bex would take it. But since I'm in control, I'd like to bring up something very important. So You Think You Can Dance.

Last summer this show saved me from summer re-run hell. I know you're probably rolling your eyes right now but seriously. This show is good. It makes me feel like I'm 15 again watching my favorite dancing part of Star Search every week. I reminds me of when my sisters and I made a dance to that Erasure song called "Stop!" (I can show you this dance anytime...also, bex actually knows a good part of it now too)

Right now my favorite girls are Lacey...

and Lauren.

And my favorite boy is Hok.

(If this post doesn't inspire bex to come back to us, I don't know what else I can do.)

Twins are the new awesome

2007-06-13T21:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight I realized that my niece Sophie...

...looks exactly like my friend Liz.

Many celebrations are the new awesome

2007-06-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

It was Steve's birthday last Friday and the best part about it was having a reason to get together with all our best friends to celebrate.

Thursday night a bunch of us met up at our new favorite restaurant called Roadside BBQ and ate lots of meat in honor of the birthday boy.

After dinner we went back to 38 special and had a cake. Allie was out of town for her birthday so we surprised her with a birthday cake for both her and Steve Santos!

Then Saturday night we had a great little birthday party over at the Beckstead residence. I made a delicious carrot cake with real cream cheese frosting. This was a serious cake.

Nate, Jeremy and Alex waiting patiently for the cake.

Me finally serving the cake (notice the ghetto birthday tea light candle in my hand...I knew I forgot something at the store).

After dinner and cake we played "The Plate Game." The Plate Game requires designating everyone a color. And you need some papers of everyone's color. By the end of the game it became clear that some people are not very neat and tidy.

And some people are.

Out of all the birthday pictures taken this past weekend this one might be my favorite. Steve and Bex just need a roaring fireplace and a cocker spaniel sitting next to them.

Plant nerds are the new awesome

2007-06-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday (AKA burfday, birtday) Steve Santos.

You are the newest awesome ever.

Talented friends are the new awesome

2007-06-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, Steve and I went to an artist's reception at the Swarm Gallery in Oakland.

The best part about this artist's reception was that it was for my good friend and x-San Francisco neighbor Casey!

You can check out Casey's art here. It's absolutely amazing.

The other best part was Half-Handed Cloud played! I'm a lucky girl to have such talented friends.

sk*rt is the new awesome

2007-06-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

I know I have talked about sk*rt to some of you, but the thing has gone live and I am so excited about it!!

Introducing sk*rt - (the concept is like digg, just girlier) - a fantastic site that gathers, lists, and ranks items and ideas on a range of topics of interest to women. Go check it out - you can read (or submit) the newest in everything from entertainment to home décor to politics to fashion to what color nail polish everyone is wearing this summer. All content is submitted by people just like you, so it is a lot like hearing the good gossip that gets passed around in the girl's bathroom, but it is coming from women from all over.

This is a project that I've been working with a few other lovely and talented blogging ladies - Gabby, Laura, and Laurie - and I'm proud to be part of creating something that women will actually find useful. Finally an easy spot that you can stop in to see what excellent things others have found, or share some of your own!

Better yet, to kick everything off there will be all sorts of fun giveaways for those that start voting or help spread the word. Check for details here at the sk*rt blog. The prizes are pretty sweet (tuesday's prize comes from annabella stationery) and there will be all sorts of giveaways over the next few weeks.

Go check it out, sign up, and start sharing your own sk*rt tips!

Adopting a baby is the new awesome

2007-06-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

No, not me. My friends Alex & Heather have decided to adopt a baby! This was maybe the best news I've heard all year. You can check out their story on their website. They are going to be updating it regularly so you can follow their story along with me. Except I get to follow their story in person too which is rad.

When this happens for Alex & Heather it might just be the newest awesomest thing this blog has ever posted about.

Living the dream is the new awesome

2007-05-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Memorial Day NOT in my neighborhood is the new awesome

2007-05-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

I spent time reading Harry Potter

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seek and ye shall find is the new awesome

2007-05-29T22:01:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day in my neighborhood is the new awesome

2007-05-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's a small sampling of our delicious cuisine.

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

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

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

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

Conservative dogs are the new awesome

2007-05-27T09:45:00.001-07:00

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

#1

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

#2

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

LOST themed treats are the new awesome

2007-05-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

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

Brigham brought Dharma Beer.

Allie brought LOST themed cookies complete with polar bears.

I provided a delicious bowl of fish biscuits.

Lindsay brought tropical fruit skewers with lemon sauce.

Marshall brought chocolate and powdered sugar life preservers.

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

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

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

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

the Maker Faire is the new awesome

2007-05-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

And there was alot of this kind of humor:

But look what these geeks can do:

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

A lifesize version of
Mousetrap the board game:

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

Disgusting!

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

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

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

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

Poems

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

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

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

Roughing it is the new awesome

2007-05-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Maybe you remember that I totally love the earth lately. To continue down the path of becoming a full fledged hippie I agreed to go camping with Steve this past weekend. Steve told me I needed to secure myself a sleeping bag (some twenty degree something or other) and an LED headlamp. Here is the sleeping bag I bought that met all the specifications that I was instructed to meet.

And here is my LED headlamp that met all the specifications that I was instructed to meet.

It wasn't until I proudly displayed my new camping gear for Steve that I realized there were other, unspoken rules about purchasing camping gear.
One: Apparently my Coleman sleeping bag was the ProWings of sleeping bags and instead, I should have asked the bum that lives across the street from my apartment if I could borrow his for the weekend.
Two: Apparently I should have known the headlamp I purchased was giant.
Whatever, how is a non-camper suppose to know that? So after much heckling and embarrassment I returned said gear to Target and hit up Brigham to borrow his sweet sleeping bag and head lamp.

We set off on a beautiful Friday afternoon...

We had a bit of a rough start only because everyone else in America was driving north on 101 as well but about three hours later we ended up in Hendy Woods State Park.

Steve was in charge of all the gear and I was in charge of our camping cuisine. See how organized (OCD) I can be when I really set my mind to it?

The highlight of our camping cuisine were these foil dinners we made. Potatoes, carrots, onions, chicken and cream of mushroom soup...

...cooked over an open fire turned out to be one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.

We spent Saturday hiking.

And looking at giant redwood trees.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, this is the type of headlamp that is acceptable to camping snobs all across the land.

Other highlights of our weekend were s'mores, that my borrowed North Face sleeping bag was called "The Goliath," and the fact that we didn't get attacked by any coastal bears.

After two days of roughing it I felt a little bit like this...

Now that I'm an expert in all things outdoors, I may just try and rally the SF troops for a huge camping expedition sometime this summer. The next thing I plan on becoming an expert in: Dutch oven cooking.

New chapters and new recruits are the new awesome

2007-05-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

So we've officially started two new chapters of DSFS in Chico, CA and Provo, UT respectively.

Jarod and Kevin are holding down the fort in Chico...

And Jake, Emma, Sophie and Allie are getting the party started in Provo. During this particular photo shoot I was trying to get them to look hardcore like their cousins Jarod and Kevin which turned out to be a little challenging.

Due to an overwhelming amount of praise and begging, we may do another print of shirts if enough people want them. Let us know and maybe we can work something out.

Diorama-rama is the new awesome

2007-05-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my friend Grace had us all over for a diorama party. Best idea ever!

I don't think just anyone would be able to throw such a successful diorama party. You have to have a lot of stuff to make it happen. But Grace has the most amazing collection of tiny, strange toys that she keeps in a big suitcase, sitting there just begging to be arranged and displayed in creative ways inside shoeboxes.

And she shared them with us!

These are all people that like tiny creepy things.

No one knows, but while we were sitting there making cute small dioramas, I was making up diorama poems in my head. Like:

if you have a bunch of rocks
and display them in a box -
diorama.
diorama.

if your idea of pretty
is an ittty bitty city -
diorama.
diorama.

when you buy some brand new shoes, and
its the box that makes you choose em' -
diorama.
diorama.

You get the idea.

Casey and Amanda's diorama was awesome because it might not have looked like much from the top...

...but they made a peep-hole on the side for you to look in and see the creepy red cave men looking guys shooting stuff. Brilliant!

Grace can't help but make cute things. Weird/kind of creepy but still mostly cute, tiny things.

Andy's was like egypt with a dj ... but creepier. And mine: the arm farm. Cree-py.

Working in The Office is the new awesome

2007-05-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

Last week NBC's The Office had a segment where all the boys go hang out in the girls bathroom. I was immediately jealous, because the women's bathroom at Dunder Mifflin had a couch! I decided it was time to do a little exposé on what office bathrooms REALLY look like (unless it turns out that I work in the only office with a non-furnished women's bathroom in america, in which case: roast on me!)

I snuck my camera into the bathroom this morning to see what REALLY happens in there:

First, I have this handy sign that someone has taken the liberty to post on the inside of every stall door, with helpful subcategories such as "When should you wash your hands?" and "How to wash your hands properly." Maybe someone noticed that we have a handwashing problem in the office, and thought this the most inoffensive way to make things take a turn for the better?

The best part is that someone just printed this little guide out on their own accord - it isn't an offical sign - it has obviously been printed off someone's inkjet computer and clandestinely placed on the stall doors of the women's bathroom.

Secondly, and somewhat more annoying, is that the paper towels have been sticking inside the dispenser this week, so all these women with wet hands try to get a paper towel out and end up ripping whatever little piece they can get their hands on to shreds ... and then they leave the pieces of ripped paper towel on the floor as if no one ever taught them to clean up for themselves.

Sometimes I think that we have to call what we do "going to work" because we couldn't keep calling it "going to kindergarten" every year as we got older, no matter how applicable. Don't even get me started on our shared kitchen space (it smells like someone is cooking hobo socks in the microwave again as we speak)

A new mascot is the new awesome

2007-05-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

Since I'm now a member of Death Scab for Scootie, we needed a mascot to replace me. We're still in search of our human mascot that can make treats and wash the scooters etc. But when I was visiting my family in Utah this weekend I realized my cat Lucy would be the perfect animal mascot for our gang. I bought Lucy when I was a Junior at UC Davis from the pound for 5 bucks. She's pretty hardcore. However her style left a little something to be desired.

Enter the new sleek Lucy.

The Lucy who wears navy blue cable knit turtle neck sweaters.
The fierce new animal mascot of our gang.

Misunderstandings are the new awesome

2007-05-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

The other night, Bets told me that we were going to get to babysit Milo over the weekend.

This is Milo. He is the Beckstead's dog.

The thing is, when she told me this, instead of saying Milo she accidentally said Oslo.

This is Oslo. The cutest ever baby of some friends of ours.

We had a really long conversation about it, which was a little confusing, since I was talking about Oslo the baby and she was talking about Milo the dog but we both thought we were talking about the same thing. It is actually kind of funny how long it took us to figure out the mistake.

Graduating from mascot to scootie is the new awesome

2007-05-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

Dear applicant [betsy heywood],

Death Scab for Scootie would like to thank you for your recent application, requesting to be promoted from the rank of gang mascot to official DSFS contributing member. Especially convincing was the set of photos that you enclosed, showing you hard at work as Gang mascot. It appears from the picture that you might even have a little bird terd on your hand. Such sacrifice! Believe us, your efforts to support the Gang have not gone unnoticed.

Equally convincing was your shot of your current Gang scooter situation - you make a valid point, that two scooters hardly makes you a Gang. At least not a very menacing (read: popular) one.

Therefore, after careful review of your case, we are happy to tell you that your promotion is finalized and you can now officially call yourself a full-fledged member of the Death Scab for Scootie gang. You will be entrusted with a scooter or your very own immediately! We made sure that it was identical in every way to the scooters of your comrades so as to not provoke any petty rivalries, and to make you pay close attention to where you parked your scoot. And so that you can appear especially gang-like and menacing (read: nerdy) when driving down the streets of San Francisco together.

Another perk you may appreciate is that you are also now authorized to incorporate the official Death Scab logos on any article of clothing that you desire. Current options include:

or

Wearing some sort of Death Scab paraphernalia at all times is, of course, encouraged.

Though as the newest member of the Gang you may still be called upon to provide snacks for the rest of the Scooties, from here on out, at least you are only required to carry your own helmet. We welcome you with open (but still tough-looking) arms.

Yours in the pursuit of good mileage and plentiful parking,
The Scabby Powers That Be

May cat is the new awesome

2007-05-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Remember April cat?
Well for the three of you out there that have been on the edge of your seats waiting to see what May cat looks like, here you go!

Prrrrrrrrrrr.....

Conan is the new awesome

2007-05-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Roommate,

I have noticed that you keep bragging about how Conan is your best friend ever since he has been in SF taping his shows this week and you guys ate pizza in the same restaurant. Well, it was weird, because when I went to see his first show yesterday, I kept expecting to see you, since you guys are so tight now.

You weren't mentioned any place on the billboard, but that didn't surprise me because there seemed to pretty much only be room for Conan and the GG bridge.

Then when Conan walked out onto the stage on the big fake GG Bridge that they had built, I was kind of hoping that you would be sitting on the top of one of the big red towers, but I guess that would have taken away from his dramatic entrance.

And in his intro, he pointed to someone on the side of the stage. Maybe that was you?

Anyway, it doesn't really matter, because just like you said, Conan is really funny in real life, and makes a lot of good videos and jokes about San Francisco - like the fact that our mayor is good looking and likes to have affairs with his friend's wives and that Bob Sagat never moved out of the Full House house.

Remember how you said that in real life you were amazed that his skin was so baby porcelain white? That is how I know that you guys are really friends. His skin really is that luminescent. All the photos I took of him were mostly his large, blurry glowing face.

Can you get me in good with Dana Carvey too?

love, Roommate

First houseguests of the summer are the new awesome

2007-04-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

Looks like summer is here because the first fun house guests have arrived!

You should know that we have already gone in the sea.
(the psych up)

(the swimming)

(the triumphant afterglow)

and flown kites that look like birds.

and sat back to back in the sand.

All I know is that someone had better come up with a name for this summer quick, because it is totally here.

Pizza adventures are the new awesome

2007-04-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

My brother in law Joseph McRae and his business partner Colton Soelberg are in the final stages of preparation before opening their very own upscale pizzeria in Provo, UT (I'll post more about this in the near future). When I say pizzeria I'm sure the images that come to mind are beer mugs and glass shakers full of Parmesan cheese and crushed red peppers but that's not what you're going to get at Joseph & Colton's place.

They have been inspired by a few places here in SF so Steve and I thought it would be a good idea to check them out. The first place we tried and our absolute most favorite is called A16.

Their menu is amazing...we shared their steak carpaccio & arugula salad and also their white bean puree for starters. Then we ordered the margherita pizza with prosciutto de parma added. AMAZING.

I loved that I was drinking a "Diet Coke Lite" from a cute bottle.

Another place we tried was Pizzeria Delfina on 18th. Also amazing (and conveniently located ten feet away from arguably the best bakery in San Francisco, Tartine). We didn't love the pizza quite as much here but their fresh-stretched mozzarella appetizer was maybe the best thing I've ever eaten.

And just in case you think we've only been trying out fancy-shmancy pizzerias, let me tell you that we also had a fantastic, less-fancy, super celebrity experience at Pizza Orgasmica on Clement St. Not only did we share a great salad and pizza here, we also ate at the table next to our new best friend Conan O'Brien.

Earth is the new awesome

2007-04-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I've tried to pay more attention to the environment. In my own small ways I've made positive changes. I'm recycling my Diet Dr. Pepper cans, I don't spit my gum out the car window anymore and sometimes I even reuse zip-loc bags. If I'm not careful people might start calling me a hippie.

Some other hippie/tree hugger/granola/liberal tendencies I've developed recently are:

1) I have a new favorite TV show called Planet Earth.

(*SPOILER ALERT* The seal dies when the great white snatches it up in it's scary jaws and launches itself out of the ocean)

Also turns out I love gazelles and other wild animals that run really fast including wild hunting dogs and snow leopards.

2) I decided to try and be cooler and start listening to NPR. Any respectable hippie/tree hugger/granola/liberal listens to NPR right?

(*SPOiLER ALERT* NPR is just a regular news station except on NPR everyone has to speak in a really soothing monotone voice and never ever laugh)

The one good thing about listening to NPR is being able to have conversations with people that begin with "Today when I was listening to NPR..."

3) Tonight I went to Rainbow Grocery for the first time. Rainbow is like Whole Foods for hippies. There were so many bulk bins my head almost exploded but still, I think I'll head back again when I have a few hours to kill and tons of $$ to spend on high priced organic produce.

Camping (like a pansy) is the new awesome

2007-04-23T00:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went camping in the Redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Some things of note about this camping trip:

1) I ate better food than I would have if I had stayed home

2) Because we drove our car right up to the campsite and there was no having to hike into any place with all of my provisions tied to my back, I got to bring a large squishy mat to sleep on that made for a very comfortable night's sleep

3) I showered right before I left, and then showered again right when I got home, effectively minimizing my dirty time to a little over 24 hours

4) I never took off those clothes that I am wearing in that photo. I put them on right before I left my apt, arrived in them, campfired in them, slept in them, hiked 11 miles in them, and then drove home in them. (Because changing your clothes when you are camping is too much of a pain, duh.)

5) Though I have nothing against multiple-day hardcore hiking trips, I think this is my favorite way to camp

The Shins are the new awesome

2007-04-19T00:36:00.000-07:00

Last night, we decided to go see a show, so we hopped on the N-Judah and went down to Market Street. We almost settled for a show at the Market Street Cinema, where you can "see the beauty" and "touch the magic" ...

But then we saw this sign across the street at the Warfield and decided to go there insted.

The last time I saw the Shins, it was several years ago at Kilby Court, a venue approximately the size of my current apartment. (That means it is small.) So it was funny to see them in a venue with chandeliers and one million people this time around.

As if a $40 ticket price wasn't enough, if you look closely below you will notice that several of their "organic" shirts were selling for $50. $50? $50! Shins. Who do you think you are? That is the kind of stunt that some big band like the Rolling Stones would pull. Unless the shirt was previously sweat upon by one of the Shins. In which case, I could understand needing to charge a little more.

I really liked seeing these guys live again. It isn't even that they do anything all that special in their shows. There isn't that much rocktalk. They don't play obscure B-sides that you feel lucky to have ever heard live. The beauty of the Shins show is that everytime they start to play another song, your heart skips a beat and you get all excited and say "ohmygosh-i forgot that this was my favorite song!" Every time.
Grace, Me, Betsy and half of Steve's head all really, really enjoyed the show. I think in our own way we still got to see the beauty and touch the magic.