Enjoy the holidays!

Happy Holidays and here's to a great 2011!

Last bits of Fall

I usually get some good foliage shots, but this year fall got away from me.

Brazilian TV gets me

Check out my Brazilian TV cameo! They came by our shop to shoot some things and interviewed me but luckily they cut that part out. Apparently Brazilians never wear hats so they're fascinated by our need for them. They also call hats, chapeu like the French.

Espana, valle? no valle? valle.

When we landed in Spain, it felt so easy to get there. Why haven't we done this before? It's just a little plane ride across some ocean, was the first thought. But as the trip went on, we realized how lucky we are to have the opportunity to travel somewhere across an ocean.

We were sort of isolated initially in a resort city Malaga, a town popular for British vacationers. It was kind of interesting seeing things the quaint Spanish town thought us foreigners would enjoy. For some reason our resort had rifle shooting as an activity (which we accidentally slept through), and the last night the performer at the bar by our room was this amazing guitar nerd. He played everything from Queen to Bon Jovi.


We trekked on the Renfe train (very very reasonable prices) to Sevilla and Cordoba. Tapas, cheap beer, cafe con leche, beautiful architecture, Moorish history, friendly locals were thoroughly enjoyed.

Scott's Argentine accent was recognized much to his parents' delight! I was so thankful for Scott's ability to communicate. It made travel much easier and made for lots of odd and wonderful interactions with the locals.


As Scott said, we liked how things just kept happening around us. In Sevilla, we just happened to be going the same time U2 was in town and a lot of the hostels decided to jack up their prices (regularly 20 euros, U2 prices 300 euros a night!). We managed to find a normal priced hostel where we met a young Argentine who was traveling for 2 months across Europe. Good conversationalist but insanely stinky feet which we recognized once we bunked with him. I mean, we're not that sensitive but seriously, I've never been woken up from a scent. It was like a punch in the face! So the first night, not so rested.


The second day in Sevilla happened to be the day of this nationwide strike, Huelga General. It was more of a party in Sevilla and a march with hundreds filing down the historical streets so sadly lots of places we wanted to visit were closed. But we decided this was cooler anyway.

In Cordoba, we saw the amazing Mezquita with its mixture of Muslim and Christian architecture and art but also landed on the day they announced their candidacy for European Capital of Culture.




I also found a historical hat shop and met the owner, a 5th generation haberdasher. The shop was like a museum and he showed us a beautiful handmade, traditional flamenco hat.

Due to our NYC stubbornness, we walked A LOT and were pretty exhausted by the end of it. Ironically we did not siesta though we had to work around the siesta hours. We definitely could have used better timing, but overall our timing allowed us to be a part of some historical events.

While walking on to the plane, there was an older couple in front of us, older but fit. And I whispered to Scott, maybe the next time we'll be able to take a trip like this will be when we're their age. Hopefully we'll have more adventures in store for us yet!

Back to back medals baby!

But that's not what the Shorinji Kempo Taikai (tournament) was about of course. It's not about winning, it's about working hard to accomplish a goal, and feeling a sense of accomplishment... and winning 3 medals again! I mean, I really shouldn't brag, but it's my blog so I shall continue to say that I was very pleased and surprised to win in all 3 categories that I entered in. I also have to thank all my friends and family who came out to support me and watch and cheer. It was really great to see friendly faces in the audience.


The main difference in this year's Taikai was that my dojo, the Shorinji Kempo New York City Branch hosted the 3 day event which included a study session as well as the big event. Helping to host an event with over 100 participants from all over the U.S. and Canada and special guests from Japan was quite an experience. I don't think I've ever been so stressed and filled with anxiety and excitement in my life. Ever. Did I mention I was asked to M.C. the whole event? I have also never worked so much on so little sleep. I believe Scott can attest to a slight mental breakdown the night of the last day.


But we did it and people were happy and we learned a lot about how to organize an event and what mistakes not to make again (order more vegetarian meals, who knew they were such an angry bunch), and definitely felt a sense of accomplishment. And did I mention I won some medals?

A note: I think I changed something before on my comments preferences and I just noticed that I hadn't published a bunch of them. Apologies! And thank you for reading. I was so glad to see people are still reading! I'll try to be more consistent with the posts for your reading pleasure...

Music under the stars

Beautiful night. Free music all week at Bryant Park. Guess it's officially Fall.

Jonesin for the beach

I had been dying to go to the beach at least once this year so I finally went on one of my random days off. Fearing it to be the last hot day of the season, I hopped on the LIRR transferred to a bus and made it to the sandy shores of Jones Beach. It was a gorgeous day. There were a few obnoxious teens still on summer break, but aside from that it was quiet, sunny, and breezy. I had just gotten a Nathan's dog, laid out my blanket, put some lotion on, sat down ready to take a bite when a freaking seagull shat directly onto my crotch! But I wasn't going to let that bring me down. No sir. I figure if it happened once, at least it wouldn't happen again. And it didn't and I frolicked in the waves a bit, got a slight tan, and was on my way back to Queens, refreshed and sun-kissed from my one day at the beach.

Wedding on the farm

Two of our dear friends, Evan and Melissa had a lovely wedding party last month at the Queens County Farm Museum. Apparently Scott used to come here on school trips as a kid so it was a little nostalgic for him. They were some cool ducks and peacocks and sheep roaming around, but all was classy and lovely in the barn where the happy occasion was celebrated.

Scott was asked to make a speech and just hours before we were making the final edits to the speech. I was the "unofficial" photographer so I had my own problems! But he had to wait two painstakingly long hours before the big moment (in front of everyone, on the top of the steps!), and started to feel a little nauseous but when the time came, he knocked it out of the park. He still surprises me. His speech was really from the heart which was easy because Evan is one of his oldest, dearest friends, and he loves Melissa. Evan's parents even thanked him for his lovely words.

Next month, another of Scott's best friends is getting hitched and he has to prepare another speech. Adam made a pretty awesome speech at our wedding so it's going to be another tough one! Luckily Scott only has 2 friends really so once he gets through this next one, he should be free and clear.

Coming soon...

Sunday, Sept. 5 at 10am! More info.

Niece Natalia born today!

3:05am... and we stayed up all night waiting for her. Congrats family!!

Waiting for the Prez

Apparently President Obama was in NYC today and just happened to pass by a certain hat shop in Soho. We were hoping he'd pop in, but I heard he had a party to go to. Maybe next time. Here's what really happened... click



Most people were excited and clapping but one dude yelled out something angry about the economy. Ah, gotta love New York sometimes.

Puzzling behavior

This family was reading books on the subway. It was really sweet, they each had their own book. Then, I noticed the title of the father's book, "Understanding Your Child's Puzzling Behavior". Yikes. And just as I noticed it, the son started to get restless and
proceeded to wrestle with his dad and slapped his dad on the forehead and the dad, immediately responded with a swift slap to the face. The boy, laughing, took it all in stride. Puzzling indeed.

Lightning strikes... a lot

Wild lightning storm last night. Got a good view of it on the west side. Glad I was just getting a view of it.

Park up the stairs

Finally made it out to the High Line Park to see what it's all about. There was so much anticipation about it, I guess I was a little underwhelmed. Plus it was really hot that day and super crowded. I am pleased that the space was saved for history's sake, but I pictured it being more wild and less modern.




It seems to make people happy though and it's definitely not the typical park so it is something to talk about. And I had a great time catching up with my old buddy Mecaila! (Side note: the entrances are not at 25th St. as noted on Google Maps. Learned that the hard way on, again, a very hot day! I think we entered around 21st?)

Ping Pong unites us all

The first day of summer soon approaches and we're all ready for it.

We got Kitty!

After a few, sad visits to shelters and pounds, we found the perfect little doggie for us. We found her at the North Shore Animal League in Long Island. They had this adoption fair over the weekend (with guest speaker Cesar Milan!) and we decided to give it a go.



We can hardly believe she's ours. She's 2 1/2, and a terrier mix, though we've discovered that she jumps pretty high, likes to pounce on things, stops and puts her front paw up, and howls. So she seems to have some hound in her. She's very mellow and so far mostly sleeps, and is a little nervous and jumpy at times but we're slowly training her and she takes to things pretty well.



Hope she can meet everyone soon!

Mary J + Zep = ?

Mary J is covering Zep and she just did it live on Oprah. What the? She's pretty awesome and I was into her duet with U2 when they sang "One" together but Zep? Pretty weird. I'm not sure if I can dig it.

As I was writing this, all these people were twittering how freaked out they were about it. It's weird, right?? If you get a chance, listen to her "Stairway to Heaven" with Steve Vai and tell me it's not weird.

Teen vocals

I Believe from Who-Fu on Vimeo.

The talented duo of Masa & Maggie (aka. Whofu) have done it again. An awesome video featuring a, ahem, familiar voice for Reachout.com, a website for teens dealing with tough life issues.

It was definitely a challenge doing vocal acting and finding my inner teen again, but it made me channel those feelings of awkwardness and self confidence I still relate to.

Congrats M&M, thanks for the opportunity to help, great job!

In like a lion, out like a lamb

That's what they say about March. The weather has definitely been fickle. Two weeks ago we had a crazy rainstorm, almost typhoon like. Power lines went down in some areas and places were flooded. Then, last week it was near 70 degrees and gorgeous out. The perfect weather for a bike ride, which is what we did and discovered the aftermath of a tree destroyed from said rainstorm.







This week was pretty nice, but now it's back to cold winds and chilly weather. I keep changing coats every day! Happily, I've been seeing little buds on trees and these beautiful daffodils at Bryant Park. Can't wait to see more things coming alive. (Does caring about the weather this much officially make me old?)

Making history

Health care reform is actually happening! They just announced that the House passed the vote for the bill but that no Republicans voted in favor. Ah well, I think most of us, especially in this economy can agree that we need change in health care. It would definitely open up choices for types of jobs: freelancing, opening small businesses, multiple part-time work. At least our house is unanimously excited about it. Make it happen!

So True

My horoscope from The Onion this week...

"The human mind is a thing of startling beauty. Unfortunately yours is mostly filled with old phone numbers and minor celebrity trivia."

My very first home phone number was 213 283 3382 which was pretty easy to remember in the first place so it's all the less impressive. And I'm starting to forget the titles of all the obscure Keanu movies I obsessively watched in high school... no wait, they're still in there.

Real live 3D

We finally saw Avatar: the 3D Experience the other day. The best part was that we saw it during the day on a weekday so most of the audience was over 70. During the previews, the comments from the ladies in front of us ranged from, "that looks awful" to "that's an interesting premise".

I kind of didn't want to like Avatar because of all of the hype, but I have to say, we both fully enjoyed it. The storyline was pretty predictable, but that really wasn't the most compelling part of it. We totally got sucked into the whole, vivid world created in the film. Scott was saying he could see why there were those reports of people getting depression after watching it and feeling that real life wasn't so magical.

I don't think I've seen a movie in 3D since Captain E.O. which I guess is more of a "ride" than a movie so I can't say I understand how much awesome-er the technology has gotten. But... the "3D experience" was pretty fun and it made me "ooh" and "ahh" a lot. And check out how cool you look with the glasses on! It was pretty funny seeing the crowd walk out with them still on not realizing they were living 3D and didn't need them anymore. Whoa, life is in 3D!

Tears for Coco

Illustration by Mike Mitchell

Happy 2010 everyone! I wish I could start the year off with something more positive, but I just had to comment on how sad it is that Conan O'Brien lost The Tonight Show. Who knows what all really went down, but all I can say is that I was moved by his sentiments and by his last show that I just watched. There are few people as funny and gracious as he's been. Hope he finds a good home soon. The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, we barely knew you...