I've been on a cooking kick lately--with my love for the Food Network (esp Ina Garten..how adorable is her husband Jeffrey!) and some recent cooking classes I've been taking in Emeryville with my lovely cooking teacher, Rosetta , I find myself spending nice sunny afternoons tied to my dinky, less than ideal kitchen with crappy stove/oven making things I didn't even think were possible to make. My first attempt at jam, was of the green tomato variety. I picked tomatoes in a tomato field in Fairfield and found my green tomatoes not-so-green (the yellow insides were a giveaway), the jam turned out pretty well. Had some on toast this morning.

Happy Labor Day everyone. I'm off in a few minutes for a day trip to Point Reyes for a nice, leisurely hike (so I'm told). Packed a Jamie Oliver pasta salad for lunch (is that too high maintenance?) and hopefully a nice day in some sun by the ocean.

BBT Adult Division Recital

I know it's been a while...I've been busy prepping for the Berkeley Ballet Theater Adult Division spring recital that happened yesterday. Exhausted, with probably way too much practice time required for a bunch of adults (12 dancers in both pieces) who have otherwise very busy schedules outside of ballet class, but the results were surprisingly good.

Much kudos to my teacher Xiao who was under a lot of pressure who pulled together 5 beautiful pieces gracefully. I'm glad it's over, though. Back to salsa workout class tonight!

heat wave in los angeles

my dad had a busy day today....heat wave in LA + lots of tourists at Disneyland = patients with heatstrokes and a very busy ER hospital nearby.

We are also enjoying the heat in SF as well! No heatstrokes fortunately.

forbidden island: umbrella cocktail paradise in...alameda

A hidden tropical tiki bar in the middle of suburban Alameda, CA (where? exactly) makes this local find even more appealing. With unapologetic amazing blended drinks with names such as "Nui Nui", "Macademia Nut Chi-Chi" (my personal fave) and "Missionary's Downfall". And since it's winter (although it doesn't feel like it with 70 degree weather), the bar also offers some hot drinks, the Hot Tiger's Milk drink was wonderful, with its milky coconut-y/lemony goodness.

Jay loved the quaint bar and swore to find a similar one in NYC. Looks like Rusty Knot might be an option to try....

weekend in napa

Let's raise a glass of Malvasia Bianca...to wine, 70 degree weather, and Danielle Steele's new-ish house in Napa Valley (Calistoga, to be exact...no seriously, it's her house, confirmed by the winery staff)

I'm a bit late in blogging--this past weekend, Jay came to visit the bay area from NYC, and to welcome him, San Francisco burst out in a warm week with temperatures in the 70's...making it perfect to visit Napa Valley this weekend.

A sunny day with beautiful views, wineries with gondolas to get to the top of the mountain, and food and wine tastings (yumm!), it was fantastic, especially for a New Yorker used to 20 degree weather.

yoga at the pier

Nature inspires me. This weekend, I hung out by my house at the pier...here I'm doing a very precarious tree pose on the tip of a rock by the pier. I swear I do a much better tree pose but I didn't want to tip over into the water.

Check out my purse and shoe, just adds to the pose, doesn't it?

the holidays: overview

I was lucky to spend 1.5 weeks off for Christmas & New Year's... it was great, taking a way from work, and spending a lot of time with family in both the bay area and Orange County. The beloved twin girls in our family (not us but the 3 year old cutie cousins living in London) also crossed the pond to spend some time with us this holiday season.

Devi and I riding the carousel at the Newport beach mall in Orange County.

It's official. If you're in our family, it's in our genetics to love the Nutcracker ballet. Lela and Devi went to their first Nutcracker ballet this holiday season and loved it--at the Berkeley local production. They promptly went home and watched the SF Ballet production on PBS & the NYCB DVD starring Macaulay Culkin.

Opening presents on Christmas day with their mom beside them. And yes, they do wear princess costumes all the time. They did get tutus this year to add to their wardrobe.

My mom becomes popular when she's cutting fruit. The twin girls love fruit & veggies--rare for such young ones, it's great to see kids eat healthy foods and love it.

This holiday season and new years seemed so understated--but I definitely did a lot this break. I went to Las Vegas to visit my grandmother, but didn't do much partying this year. The economy has really put a damper on things, I feel like--two people left our company this morning (one mysteriously, another extended her maternity leave indefinitely). On a Tuesday. Odd, isn't it?

I didn't even want to make New Year's resolutions this year--and wishing for external things--a boyfriend or travelling or finding the perfect lipstick--they seem so superficial somehow. I want to seek ways to maximize internal peace and happiness in 2009, and focus on me for once. Here's to health and fulfillment!

dame edna: belated blog post

How fitting (and funny) it is to run into a Prop 8 protest march in downtown SF on my way to see Dame Edna's show. I especially loved that sign--"I'm too old..." I had to grab a quick photo.

Dame Edna, performed by the brilliant Barry Humphries, was great to see again in SF since I saw on Broadway. Dame Edna to be performing her last tour, with a substantial run in SF. With her unique mix of comedy of insult, improv and cheeriness (when you're sad, wave that glad...) with song and a bit of dance, it's always entertaining. Sad to think it'll be difficult to see her on stage after this, but grab a ticket when you can...and thank goodness for youtube!

the sf memorial opera house is all dressed up for the holidays!

Happy Holiday Season everyone! Apologies for the lack of updates on my blog...lots going on...still have my job (thank goodness), it's very stressful lately as all these reporters all of a sudden want interviews before their deadlines on Christmas eve. (Lucky me, I have a 7:30AM phone call scheduled on Christmas eve. Siiigh). Fun announcements like this one also make our colleagues stressful (not me, thankfully), but it's all part of our job description, definitely. It's also neat to receive incoming calls from NY Times, WSJ, etc...it's like "Hey! You never pick up the phone or respond to my email, it's great to know you actually do read your emails".

Off work, I've been watching lots of theater, hanging out with friends with great food and cocktails, of course. I went to see the delightful SF Ballet Nutcracker last weekend, with a fantastic cast (even better, imho, than the PBS broadcast of the production).

For a fantastic Bloomberg article about Davit, the Nutcracker prince in the PBS Broadcast, read it here.

Further proof Melvil Poupaud is God's French gift to women...





I saw "Broken English" this weekend--amazing film. Parker Posey's character Nora is reminiscent of single women everywhere--who keeps on finding Mr. Wrong. And then when Nora finally finds Mr. Sorta-right, he goes back to Paris and she loses his number which he wrote on a piece of paper. Especially horrifying since the guy she went to Paris for is charming Melvil Poupaud...

The dialogue was so funny and witty...and really touching without being overly saccharine and banal, making this movie not a typical Hollywood romance movie. Parker Posey had the best dialogue of course:

"Are all French guys like this? Passionate, interested and kind of like dogs?"

"I sound so desperate. Even I can't stand the sight of my own desperation..."

martin puryear: sf moma

I went to see the Martin Puryear exhibition at the SF MOMA on Tuesday (free admission! yeah!) and with all the hype surrounding it, I expected to see something fun, whimsical and thought provoking.

Instead, my thoughts were...this isn't my cup of tea.

Then it got me thinking...how do you get an art piece into a museum of this caliber? For example, I really liked the piece below called "Brunhilde", simply because it was huge, airy and made me want to climb into it. Large, substantial...but of course, no entrance. It immediately made me lose interest.


If Brunhilde was actually useful in some way (shelter, jungle gym for kids), it wouldn't be in a museum, I suppose. It was as if the artist was thinking, "Let's make something impossible to be practical in real life and call it art! And for the fun of it, let's make everything big and clunky."

Well, Mr. Puryear, you have succeeded.

If you don't believe me, check out the ladder in the lobby...that leads to...you guessed it, nowhere.

are you a saint or a sinner?

"Are you a saint or a sinner?"--as asked by the makeup artist while introducting me to the Lipstick Queen makeup line. I didn't know how to respond.

Jolene and I discovered the most wonderful lipstick brand today, called Lipstick Queen...first hearing from it from Blogdorf Goodman, I was eager to check out a brand that focused just on lipstick, like a cosmetics specialist. To my delight, there was a small boutique makeup store in Berkeley that carried the line. We traipsed out there to check it out.

The lipsticks are inspired by medieval, romantic art with colors based in Old Hollywood with a European chic-ness. And to my surprise, even though I do like muted makeup colors for easy wearing...I found myself drawn to the Wine sinner color, a striking plummy matte lipstick that was surprisingly wearable. I also grabbed Medieval, the color inspired by the medieval times when women used to put lemon on their lips to make their lips sting and look flushed.

In times of recession, sales of lipstick increase--and lipsticks like Medieval and Wine Sinner definitely make me feel decadent without having spent big $$$.

biotech awards ceremony


I got the chance to attend a fancy schmancy biotech awards ceremony in San Francisco recently, and had a some fun pretending to be a science geek once again. The most entertaining moment of the night? Dr. Kary Mullis' acceptance speech for lifetime achievement, the Nobel prize winner who developed PCR. A hilarious personality, and a very descriptive, detailed rendition of how he "thought up" PCR, it was fascinating and laugh out loud funny. Definitely made me interested to read his book.

My coworkers and I enjoyed some free wine and food as well.

how ballet prepares you for politics


At a 2005 "roast" for Rahm Emanuel, I caught this on C-span this weekend...this video is of then-Senator Obama at 6:00 in the above clip speaks about how Rahm's training in ballet prepared him for his life in politics.

The whole roast is pretty funny--you can watch it on C-SPAN here, Senator Clinton also talks about how the "Republicans may have the Hammer'', but we have the 'Nutcracker'."