a century and 2

My grandpa is 102 years old!

dose of pups

On Conan:

By the way, in past years I have watched both the Lingerie Bowl and Puppy Bowl. Always a battle between men and women as to which one of these to put on.

How these puppies are not chewing these things off each other is beyond me!

Congrats Packers and Cal grad Aaron Rodgers!!

Sundance '11

This year's experience was quite different than those of the past (like here, here, and here). We attended the second week of the film festival instead of the first just because of scheduling conflicts. I have to say that this was SO relaxing and felt like I actually got to soak in Park City!

We did put in our time though and invested it in waiting in line for the Son of No One, starring Channing Tatum, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta, and Juliet Binoche. Al and Juliet didn't attend the premiere, but everybody else did!

Channing Tatum, Katie Holmes, and Ray Liotta

Us and Channing Tatum

I daresay CHARMED Channing. I often think of witty things to say to celebs AFTER meeting them, and then curse myself for not thinking of them earlier. I've gotten calmer over the years though and have made progress in this conversation department. This time around, I got a chuckle out of him! I told him that he should come over to take a picture with us because we're really cute. :)

Movie was just okay. The premise didn't make a whole lot of sense. Acting was pretty good.

Up and running!

Thanks to P and his roommate (whom I still call roommate even though I'm the current roommate), I am back up and running with a new and improved laptop! Twice the RAM and double the size of my original hard drive. New versions of the OS and software, Woohoo!

So this is what has been stored up.

P's Bday

Ang's Bday

New Year's

Tahoe Trip #1 - uh... I think Sugar Bowl. This was during the storm, so 0 visibility but perfect snow conditions!

Tahoe Trip #2 - Heavenly

sucky new year

why no post?

In 2011:

1. My laptop's hard drive got sick and is dying. Consequently many photos that have been waiting to be posted have disappeared. SAAADDD.
2. My dentist told me that it's possible that the nerve of my front tooth is on it's way out. WAY OUT? I have great dental hygiene, floss everyday, and have only had 2 minor fillings. AND NOW ROOT CANAL?
3. Work sucks.

Therefore, no posts.

Am merely procrastinating right now because I don't want to prepare for a big presentation tomorrow for which I have leave my apartment at 6:45 am.

Houston!

Most stylish wedding ever by blog-goddess.

First crawfish (aka crayfish, crawdads) experience! Yum! And it's not even crawfish season.

Texans are proud of their kolaches. Not bad. A doughy/bready outside with breafast goodies inside. I liked the hot Texas Polish sausage kolache. Don't know what makes it "Texas." Probably bigger than the regular sized hot Polish sausage.

october-endings

Muse concert at Nassau Coliseum. This is why Manhattaners stay on Manhattan. After finding out that the Long Island RR (LIRR) was out of commission that weekend and it would take a series of subway, bus, train, and cab to get to the concert, we decided to rent a car. And then it took ~2 hours to go the 27 miles. However, we arrived right on time, just before the opening act! Fun concert and best light show ever!

Halloween. Great holiday to roam around the streets of NYC. Just about everything is amusing.

I'm Mike Tyson and P is Don King in case you couldn't tell. :)

MILTON, GA. - It's the second day of camp. A dozen dogs are lined up in cages in the Canine Assistants classroom, waiting to get matched with the children they'll go home with at the end of two weeks. If all goes well, the dogs will love and protect these children for the rest of their lives.

Ever since the dogs were 3-day-old puppies being carried around in baby slings to get exposed to new sights and sounds, these specially bred retriever mixes have been prepped and trained for service. Now, at 18 months old, they're ready for their biggest test.

After two years of waiting, Billy Ma, 11, has traveled with his family from Ohio to the service-dog headquarters north of Atlanta. Some children wait five years or longer for an assistance dog. Billy has been placed on a priority list because he suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disease that affects mostly boys.

The matching process is a little bit of science and a lot of art, trainer Chris Casatelli of Canine Assistants explains. The organization compiles personality profiles of the recipients based on information from the children, their parents and their doctors. They look for dogs with similar dispositions and see how the pairs interact.

But as the trainers tell the families, the dogs hold the cards. Ultimately they are the ones who decide on the families with which they go home.

"A lot of times you can just throw all the personality profiles out the window and a match just happens right in front of you," Casatelli says.

A Big Dog Chooses Billy
At 68 pounds, Polar, a fair-colored Lab/retriever mix, is the largest dog of the bunch. Billy is one of the smaller children, short for his age because of the steroids he takes. He walks slowly, bearing his weight on his toes, with his chest pointed out – hallmarks of his disease -- and falls down frequently.

But when they meet, none of that matters. Unlike other dogs who pace around his wheelchair or seem excited or distracted, Polar is fixed on Billy.

Plus, he's strong enough and has been trained to wear a leather harness that Billy can grab onto to steady himself. As long as Billy doesn't try to ride Polar like a horse, the dog will always be able to bear his weight.

"My first thought was, 'Wow, this is a big dog for this little boy,'" says Casatelli, Polar's trainer. "But then when you see him walking with his balance harness, and Polar's very gentle and taking his time and going slow to accommodate William's slower gait, you just know he's picking up on what he needs."

With Polar's help, Casatelli hopes that Billy will be able to continue walking on his own.

Billy's parents want the dog to go to school with their son and assist him with tasks, such as picking things up from the floor. Above all, they want the dog to be his friend and help him stay connected to the world.

"Because of his muscle weakness, he cannot do like other children are doing, like running around and playing," Billy's dad, Steve Ma, says. "Maybe with the dog, they'll want to be around him more."

Getting Comfortable With Polar
A day after the match is made, Billy and his parents start to bond with Polar. They're nervous because they've never had a dog. Back at the hotel, Polar defecates on the carpet. The second night, the dog falls out of Billy's bed.

Their comfort level rises as the days pass. Billy's mom holds open Polar's lips and Billy brushes his teeth with poultry-flavored paste. They get used to having a dog under the dinner table, and Billy knows the gentle tone to use to get Polar to go to the bathroom.

On a group trip to Target, Polar dutifully plods alongside Billy's wheelchair while the boy examines video games, Legos and more toys. Other service dogs walks by, but aside from a casual glance, Polar keeps walking.

The only time Polar reacts is when Billy and his dad come upon a display of colored bounce balls and take some out to play with. When a ball bounces near Polar, he gets scared and starts to run.

"Are you OK?" Billy asks Polar, reaching down to pet the dog's fur. "No more scary balls."

A clerk tells Billy what his family already knows: he has the prettiest dog in the store.

Billy is looking forward to training and playing with Polar back in Ohio. But they still have a lot to learn about each other.

One day, toward the end of camp, the boy is sitting in his wheelchair and Polar puts his paws on the boy's thighs.

"What does that mean?" Billy asks Casatelli.

The answer comes quickly.

"That means 'I love you.'"

www.pawnation.com

Puerto Rico

Roadside food trucks serve the best food. This is pollo asado with yuca and corn.

Some lady saw P eying her hat. So, she gave it to him. And, he wore it. Everybody was jealous.

Outside el Castillo de San Cristobal in Old San Juan. Appropriate for Columbus Day weekend!

Looking out from inside the castillo. This was used to keep an eye on any invaders.

And then there were other interesting things from trucks:

Alternative to "wholesome."

Just so weird!

The main reason I wanted to go to Puerto Rico was the bioluminescent bays. It was well worth it. While we had something like 15 kayaks with the company (ie, 30 people!), slowpoke paddling in pitch black darkness, and 1 kayak flipping over and dumping its people in the water, the experience was like none other. There were a million stars in the sky, and billions of little buggies lighting up the water! These bugs light up in response to movement -- so streaks of water would illuminate with each paddle stroke, and your hands and feet would illuminate if you wiggled them in the water. Amazing.

memory lane in AA

Newly renovated Big House with box seats.

SITTING in the alum seats has it perks. 1) You don't get so tired standing up during the whole game unlike those silly students, 2) got real close to the field!

mj in her new mini. Who are those bozos in the back?

i heart virgos

The crew gathered together again in NYC to celebrate #31!





In trying to navigate us around the city, I encountered a toothless, er... 2-toothed bus driver. He commented on the tank I was wearing, which was designed and given as a gift by W in honor of the weekend - it read "I heart virgos." He says to me, I'm a virgo, do you love me? haha ok, yes, so where does your bus go?

I was slightly amused since this was the first comment I had gotten on the tank, and returned to the group to announce that 1) the tank top got attention - the bus driver was a virgo! *exclamation!* and 2) not the right bus. At that moment, the bus driver had just stepped out of his bus and overheard the conversation, and was feeling pretty tickled with the whole situation of us being virgos and all. But then fiance P pops out, who is wearing the T-shirt version of "I heart virgos" and gives the driver a come hither look. Guy is stunned, and not only then denies that he's a virgo, but pulls out a TATTOO of the taurus sign ON HIS ARM!!!

Caught in a lie! Good thing he had proof in form of permanent ink...

surroundings

We awoke one morning to find this spectacular web complete with gigantic spider right outside the front door of our California home.

For scale.

During birthweekend (more on this later!), I spotted this on a cruise around Manhattan.

nuggets

As discussed on Sarah & Vinnie this morning:





What's funny about Joaquin Phoenix is that he's trying to reinvent himself as a hip hop artist, but while doing that, he decides to make a movie out of it. Like, to add onto his filmography. Hm.

(And yes, I still listen to the San Francisco morning talk show even though I live in NYC now. Actually perfectly timed so that I can listen to them during my sleepy morning work hours. I even tried to win an iPad this morning.)

STEP UP 3D

Yeah yeah yeah. It's a girl's guilty pleasure. So why not go with a couple of girlfriends?

It's like how Brandi Carlile put it during a concert I went to. In her case, she was referring to country music.

IT'S JUST SO BAD. AND BY BAD, I MEAN GOOOOOD.

I genuinely liked the first installment of Step Up. Sure, it had a typical storyline and was pretty predictable, but it was a believable movie and had all that delicious dancing. I know of 3 movies with the same storyline now (Step Up, Save the Last Dance, Fame), but that definitely does not mean that there aren't more.

Step Up 3D, however, tries out a slightly different storyline, but as a result, has some of the worse writing ever. We, along with others in the audience, LAUGHED wholeheartedly at some of the lines. I have to commend the actors for being able to deliver what they were dealt. And the 3D and sound effects, which were supposed to enhance the dancing, were actually injustices to the movie. It made the dancing look fake, but those dancers can darn well do those moves shown in the film.

Given all that, as long as you go in expecting a bad bad movie, as in so bad it's good, you'll have a great time. Cheese, attitude, and phenomenal dancing are ingredients to an awesomely bad and fun movie!

Nice to see some familiar faces:

Legacy and Twitch from SYTYCD

Silent guy from Glee, Harry Shum Jr.

One last observation:

Am I right?

pool play

For the past 2 years, the Sis has helped organize an Amazing Race around Palo Alto for her firm. Her AR team thinks of tasks that are creative, well-planned, and rather complicated, pretty much equaling what you see on TV. They have made it a wildly popular event.

This year, they filled a fountain full of pool toys for one of the tasks. Of course, this always takes more toys than you think it will to cover the entire surface. They ordered 100s and 100s of toys. The Sis brought all this home after the Race was over, and we decided to dump it all in our pool. Looks like so little, but there were so many!

There's nothing funnier than a pair of 30-year-olds acting like 13-year-olds. But look at the diligent gathering of balls and rubber duckies with the noodles. THAT, my friends, is the caliber of play of 30-year-olds.

blossoms

P brought back some squash blossoms from his garden so that I could recreate the pizza as seen on Saveur's front cover. I substituted the cheese with creme fraiche, as Scala's Bistro prepares it.

L+P & S+J Wed

High school gals

The WHOLE high school gang

Newport Beach, CA

July 4

Really just a picture of us at S&J's wedding. :) I think the bride and groom are in the back somewhere.

New Jersey

July 10