Anniversary 2, books, now in LA

So, the Saturday of anniversary weekend we also ate at Bamba Bistro. Marvelous food, thoughtfully prepared - elegantly presented and the perfect portion size. Great service. My favorite part, though, were the architectural elements of the interior. You enter to a dim hallway with a grand stair in gorgeous wood that you can smell. The main dining room has lovely vaulted ceilings. Very very cool.

Finishing a bunch of books lately - here's the latest:
Book #21 - My So Called Digital Life, a project coordinated by Bob Pletka. I hope to publish a post on 1000Words with my detailed impressions.

Book #22 - Blink: The power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. I found this fascinating. The case studies are great, though the war games case made me quite angry. Although Gladwell does discount much of the traditional aspects of my job - standard survey research - I'm not upset. Because I see the issues and it strengthens my determination to discover techniques to get around these issues.

Book #23 - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Powerful. Makes me want to read Brave New World again. Scary in some of things that are very eerily spot on. Scary to someone who loves books.....

Book #24 - Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I loved the movie. I loved the book. There were elements of each I would have liked to have seen explored in the other (Captain Shakespeare's quirks, the little hairy fellow), but much of it tracked and it was very fun and refreshing to read. Love the concept of a village guarding a gap between our world and Faerie. Wouldn't mind visiting the Market myself....

Have to go finish work things and get to sleep. LA awaits!

Anniversary weekend - part 1 of 2

One year! Wow, it's gone fast. We still need to get from 53 to 20 pics for the formal album and choose what to frame and get them hung! But it's been a very good year. J had a ton of homework (he's back in school full-time) that kept us from retreating (will have to do that some other, random time) - and I had an insidious cold that kept me from being very active. We still had fun.

Saturday afternoon we stopped by Designed Elegance to pick up our anniversary topper.

They recently opened a new storefront and we were thrilled to hear that business is booming. We were easily lured in by rugelach (with really good quality cinnamon) and butter cookies with fruit topping, by tartlets and pastries. Oh, and they have cupcakes.

It was good to visit with Jon, the owner, although he was busy crafting marvelous cakes. It's worth a special visit to Spencerport - our cake top was incredible and will keep me happily sugared for a few more days!

Yesterday was National Chocolate Milkshake Day

Since I'm late telling you, I hereby declare an extension to the "holiday" and give you permission to indulge today, instead.



Knowing this yesterday, I felt like I had to stop at my favorite ice cream shop, I Scream for an awesome chocolate malted shake.

We're friends with Justin, the owner, and he knows we like to try new things. Last night, he gave me a sample that made my legs turn to jelly - carmelized sugar ice cream. Imagine - take the best part of creme brulee, make it cold, smooth, and a whole bowl full (which I had to buy after the sample)! Incredible!

Books and books

My summer reading:

Book #16 - Ghost by Piers Anthony. Another re-read from high school, another book that made me realize why I didn't remember it - there was little substance to it.

Book #17 - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. An excellent study, exceptionally well written. J loves the simplicity of the language so much that he's reread his favorite quote several times and wants to contemplate it before moving on:
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."
I loved the use of language to convey the culture in black Florida in the 20's-30's. Janie's exploration of identity, of who she really is and how that is best expressed, is very revealing, as is her realization that a lot of her life was spent living the life others wanted for themselves, but that it wasn't what she wanted. My 2 favorite quotes:
"Her voice began snagging on the prongs of her feelings." - so visual and tactile!
"Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore."

Book #18 - In the Devil's Snare: The Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton. A very interesting study that delves deeper than court transcripts and thus uncovers patterns others have overlooked - most notably the connection of many participants (accusers, confessors, accused, and judges/ jurors) to the Maine frontier and the Indian wars of the late 1600's. The conclusion is a great summary, though, and reading it covers the majority of the book if you don't need massive details on who accused who and had what spectres appear to them, etc.

Book #19 - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. The first half of this book made it very hard for me to keep reading. I really didn't see a story or a point to it and kept forgetting who people were and what was happening to them. After the halfway mark, it starts to pull together and actually becomes fairly compelling, even though not supremely deep and kind of typical.

Book #20 - Mysterious Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen, and Folk Tales along the Mississippi, by Raymond J Martinez. I thought this would be an interesting collection of folk tales from New Orleans, but it spends too much space talking about how folk tales get the facts way wrong and didn't get into nearly enough good gritty stories.

San Diego eats and then I can move on

Lots to catch up on - Sonny's visit, birthday fun, roofing, books.... but I HAVE to finish San Diego!

San Diego eats:

• In-N-Out Burger - fast food, yes, but excellent service even at the drive-through at midnight. Excellent shake.
• Victor's Greek - A little place walking distance to the office - good tasty gyros meat.
• Jake's - On Del Mar Beach, we watched beach volleyball and surfers as we ate. I could sit and watch the water for a very, very long time. Excellent HOT rolls and Mahi Mahi wit a mirin glaze, ginger buerre blanc, and sweet chili sauce - oooh, and mini-squash - so cute!
• Jamba - Couldn't pass it up! Had a Mega Mango (all fruit) with an energy boost. Great start to a busy work day.
• Spices Thai - Spicy spicy noodles, but they brought the check before I could get mango and sweet rice - my fave Thai dessert.
• Cafe Luna - Excellent small Italian joint. My waiter was from south of Syracuse, of all places, and knew the author I was reading. Chocotini made from a rice wine - very tasty. An incredible, simple mushroom soup. Manicotti with pasta made crepe style - excellent and light, but simply too much for my belly.

San Diego thoughts

From my San Diego journal:
Wondering if I'll ever spend a full day awake [ie alert], or rather how long it will take me. Not much time for sights, working in a burb-like area. Did get to Chuao Chocolates. Very friendly lady tending shop and so many yummy options. Samples of dark, spicy hot chocolate and truffles (I chose goat cheese, balsalmic vinegar)made it an extra treat and I think the local members of our team may be hooked. [The nutmeg pods are incredible!]

I love driving towards downtown San Diego on the 163 (I think), where the expressway is engulfed by trees and you drive around curves and under high, elegant arches of overpasses. I feel transported from the greater desert scrub and suburban plaza atmosphere into a forest realm.

Rounding out the SF portion of the trip

Returning to SF via the Bay Bridge from Emeryville was a traffic revelation for my East Coast, country-raised self. 16 lanes of traffic emerge from the toll booths in one direction. To narrow these to 4, there's a metering light system that lets one car through at a time for each pair of lanes. I thought this was quite brillant. I guess it's a standard type of system in CA.

Treasure Island is halfway across the bay. I need to look up how it got its name. It's very lush and looks like it could be a park area.

In SF itself, the narrow, boxy house roll over the hills in shades of white, yellow, peach, and pink.

Good SF eats this time:
- Scala's Bistro - dark & calming, though bustling, pretty good food.
- Crepe o chocolat - a small French cafe, frequented by locals for $1 coffee refills - marvellous crepe and homemade honey chai.

An evening at the movies...

So, last night I went to see Stardust. It was a blast! Such an awesome flick that garnered tons of audience response, which is tres cool. As a big Neil Gaiman fan and reader of his blog, I've been following the work on the creation of this film (though I still need to get the book and read it). Jenny was a bit disturbed by all of the rabbit people had hanging around for food, but otherwise also really enjoyed it. Stellar work. Loved the cast - Charlie Cox and Claire Danes are very cool, DeNiro is awesome, Pfeiffer is great. I highly recommend watching this many many times. Definitely appreciate that a fireplace fell on Claudia Schiffer's foot to get this to the big screen, though it would have been nice if it could have happened less painfully.

Sonny went to see "Speedy" - a silent film from the 1920's, accompanied by a live trio. Very cool.

BTW - the boys are busy, too

artscape sonny
Originally uploaded by cw_roelle


Sonny had a booth at ArtScape in Baltimore and is busy busy making cooler and cooler stuff. (He and Pam will be visiting us around my birthday - cool!)

Danny is insanely busy in, like, 10 bands or something like that. I believe he plays a private party in Cambridge today, breakfast with Sonny tomorrow am, then a gig in Herkimer, NY. In addition to all of the bands, he still has his "normal" job and he's cooking at Buffalo Bills many weekends. It tires me out just to look at his calendar!

More from San Francisco

Flying into SF, I noticed how unmarred the mountains appeared, hardly even marked by roads, at least from the perspective of the plane. Just as I was thinking this, we passed over one "hill" with a hole on the top. Rectangular, it resembled the shape of a swimming pool (though that would be quite a large pool), but was a deep, empty cavity. Wonder what's in there?

The San Francisco MOMA is very cool and the store is great. I'd spend more time there if I had it (meeting someone soon) and if there was someone with me to talk to. Walking from the MOMA to the Hotel Nikko, I passed the Museum of Craft & Folk Art - a place it seemed Jenny and Sonny would really appreciate.

Walked through IKEA in Emeryville - what a cool place! Lots of neat things and I like the "example" rooms that lay things out. Spurred lots of ideas, but I knew I had no room in my luggage (trying not to check anything) for anything. Only afterwards did people suggest I could have something shipped from the office. Darn!

On my trip, I wrote in a journal

because the time I spent online was pretty heavily dedicated to work. Heck, the time I was awake was pretty heavily dedicated to work.

Book #15: Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things by Donald A. Norman - Interesting book but not one I could plow through on a plane. Had to take breaks. A lot of it rings true and speaks to struggles I face in some issues at work. Liked this:

"For once you have learned how to look at, listen to, & analyze what is before you, you realize that the experience is every changing. The pleasure is forever."

This entire trip has been so fast, busy, and exhausting that I haven't had a chance to write anything until now, as I sit on the plane headed home. So most of this will be highlights.

San Francisco overall:
A very cool, pretty city. Condensed into a small amount of space. Old structures and character abound. Unfortunate, though, that the sanitation system is not that great. Even locals complain about the lack of trash cans on the streets, which means there's a lot of litter. In the core of downtown, it's noisy at all hours, with the cable car (you know the Rice-a-Roni kind) system clacking and humming and jackhammers buzzing at construction work late into the night.

It's the thought that counts

I had to post this piece, originally from The Consumerist, which I found on Living Light Bulbs.

I was flying from Massachusetts to New Jersey on Continental Airlines on this past week. There was terrible weather over New Jersey and while the plane took off on time, a half-hour in to the 47 minute flight we ended up circling over southern Connecticut. After a number of "we'll only be holding here for a few minutes" updates, an hour had elapsed and the pilot told us that the storm that held us up was making it impossible to get to New Jersey and that they didn't have enough fuel to get back to Massachusetts. We were diverted to a remote airstrip and were told that we'd just refuel and then get to New Jersey.

Of course, the "30 minute refuel" turned into 2 hours stuck on the tarmac at this airstrip because the storm came right through our location.

At this point we'd been on the plane for 4+ hours and despite some individual heavy sighs, most people were still pretty pleasant. We were all blown away when the flight attendant came on the PA and told all of us that they had a surprise: the crew had called in an order for pizza and had 10 pizzas delivered to the plane. They also told us not to write into Continental about this because "they'd get in trouble".

It turns out that the pilot paid for the pizza out of his/her pocket! It was a remarkable gesture, and what I found really terrible was that the crew felt that they'd get in trouble with the airline for being so thoughtful, generous, and kind to the passengers.

As I think about the experience trying to get home from San Francisco - sleeping in the airport, eating at the place closest to the gate so as not to miss anything - I wish United would take note of this story. Yes, they gave us food vouchers. But think about how we would have felt - as we stood in endless customer service lines waiting for flights to be fixed, if someone had come out with pizza, or even coffee. If just one of the people busy giving us excuses had stopped to give us a little something to show they recognized we were people and could use a break. I'd be much happier about flying with United in the future, that's for sure.

Happy Fourth

J and I were recently inspired to more actively use our sunroom. Prior to this decision, the room was closed off most of the time, to keep cats out of orchids, and it was mainly a plant growing space and housed the tree at Christmas.

Now, we've moved our small dining table in, to prepare the dining room for the one we plan to build, and we've made the sunroom into a cozy space, almost a garden annex of sorts. Great for breakfast, for the cats to watch the birds, bunnies, and squirrels, and for us to be creative together.




Book #14: Deryni Magic by Katherine Kurtz. As a kid in high school, and partly into college, I loved the Deryni novels. They were one of my favorite fantasy series. I haven't read one that I remember in quite a while, however, and it was with a somewhat different perspective that I approached this book. That said, this book does not intend to be a fantasy novel, but rather a depth analysis of the magic of the Deryni race. I'm afraid it takes itself way too seriously, approaching the subject like it's a scientific thesis. Saying things like "we do not know why" so-and-so did something or "we don't have any records of what happened in his past". Sorry, but the lady wrote the stuff and created the characters - if it's not already written - make it up! The attitude of this book actually makes me question how much I really want to keep the series in a favored spot. I think these books may head to the Camel Library soon.

Air travel in this country is seriously messed.
ape

OK, Rochester - here's 2 for you!

Danny will be playing in 2 gigs this weekend -

Friday - June 29 - Ghost Hand (check out the vid here, but warning, it's over 20 minutes long) - will be playing at Mickey Flynn's from 10-2.

Saturday - June 30 - Powhite Parkway - playing at Buffalo Bill's in Shortsville at 10.

Internet access - how nice!

No pics, sorry

I'm on a dial-up connection. No way this beast will let me upload pics tonight. Will after I get back, on Friday.

The first day in SF - wonderful meal at Scoma's on Fisherman's Wharf. Walked along the Wharf to Pier 39. Saw the Golden Gate from the distance, and Alcatraz, and some iconic SF buildings. Saw sea lions. Got very cold. Very tired now.

Perhaps more tomorrow, maybe just a quick one from my phone.

San Francisco

Hey - I'm headed to San Francisco for a day and a half (arriving 2ish tomorrow, leaving late Thursday night). Traveling with others for business, so I'm not sure what time I'll have, but any suggestions are welcome (thanks, Jenny for your list!).

I had some pics and a possible Danny music video that I'll post, along with the first stage of the trip, from the hotel tomorrow night.

Hey, Providence!

Sentimental Favorites is playing tonight at AS220 - 9pm with Corn Mo and Superchief Trio. Go - it'll be fun!

Other brother news -
- Sunday - 6/10 - Sonny will be doing a couple of songs in The Empire Revue at AS220
- July - Sonny'll be in a big Art Faire in Baltimore (dk details yet)

Dan is currently playing with:
Barnstormers - a cover band
Powhite Parkway - a blues/jazz type trio with guest singers
Nic & the Nice Guys - this is a big organization, Dan is playing various gigs with the different bands
He doesn't always tell his sister about gigs, so you'll just have to keep ears/eyes open.

Enjoy!

Catchup

Rather than keep trickling the books out, I figured I should just get caught up....

Book #10 - Nana by Emile Zola - in French. This one took a while and I may have missed some subtleties wading through Zola's French, but I think I get it. Zola really had a dislike for the "kept women" of Paris or as the US Amazon puts it "hypocrisy and fin-de-siecle moral corruption". I could tell from the footnotes that Zola was trying to denounce Nana and her set, but there are elements in the middle where I started to like her. When she first gets a country home and feels at peace playing house, before her city guests arrived. When she leaves the theatre set to "settle" with a man she believes she loves, though neither of them has much money. It seemed a bit brutal, what Zola put her through during the months she lived with this guy. At the end, there really wasn't a person left in Nana - she wanted more and more and more and hated it when she got it and crumbled into ruin. I'm still not quite sure what I think of her.

Book #11 - Flash Fiction Forward, edited by James Thomas and Robert Shapard. Very very short stories. A range. Some really compelling and moving - leaving you marveling at how they got that much into less than 3 pages. Others seemed very random and made little sense. Neat medium, though.

Book #12 - Manga Claus: The Blade of Kringle written by Nathaniel Marunas, illustrated by Erik Craddock. An amusing break/ distraction.

Book #13 - Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock. Most excellent. I think I did enjoy it more than Mythago Wood, the first in the series. Did it help that the main character was a chic? Probably. Rhyope Wood is a mystical place, larger inside than its perimeter would indicate, where time warps, and the land itself and the creatures within it emerge from myths buried in the collective unconscious of those who cross its threshold. Fascinating, and I loved Tallis' story. It got very circular at the end, though, and left me a little undecided on how I felt about its conclusion. Neater would have been easier - but would it be as likely to stick with me??

I love this time of year!

I actually love pretty much late April thru to early November - the time when things are growing and alive. Just got back from a very comprehensive search of the garden store - didn't find everything I wanted, but got some good substitutes, I think. Now, to plant it all!

Oh, and I love having some time off of work!

Book #9: The Incredible Hulk: Boiling Point by Bruce Jones. For me, who grew up with Bill Bixby and Lou Farigno, the graphic novels always take a bit of adjusting to. Why did they change Banner's name for TV?? But it's still the Hulk and he's still awesome.