At long last, I have posted photos from:

1) Our trip to Tahoe with Heather and Eugene. They skiied, I watched DVDs and painted my nails. Everyone was happy.

2) Sue's birthday present: Disney's Princesses on Ice! At the Cow Palace! We got yelled at - twice - by cranky mothers. Not a real endorsement for the whole kid thing. But there were costumes, and music, and cotton candy. It was a cultural experience.

3) My brother's visit. In 4 days, he visited 2 museums, met our local bookstore (and cheese shop) owner, went on a date, asked Dr. Hal, experienced Kennedy's, toured Golden Gate Park, photographed Ocean Beach, saw the city from up high, and ate sushi. Pretty impressive.

Some photos I especially like:

-- Stardust Lodge
-- Heather and Big Red, in greyscale
-- In and Out, artistic-like
-- Self-portrait at Ocean Beach
-- Our city by the Bay

I'll tell you the lost purse story later.

My brother's visiting right now. It's funny how, after 28 years of sibling-dom, I never really noticed how similar we are. For instance, we both:

1. Remove the little white booger-like things before scrambling eggs. (They're like, little white boogers!)
2. Insist on watching certain TV shows while eating.
3. Talk through said TV shows.
4. Overuse and inappropriately laugh at Instant Messenger emoticons.
5. Love to sleep.
6. Think being on vacation means a glass of wine at noon.
7. Exhibit slight OCD tendencies, though I've only returned to the house twice to make sure the cats hadn't escaped. He did it four times on Wednesday.
8. Nearly vomit when others chew with their mouths open.
9. Say there's no point to buying deli turkey if it's not "thinly sliced."
10. Exhibit an excessive number of food-related quirks.

I think the Neurotic New York Jewish mothership is calling. Poor Bryan, he's been cornered all week.

I haven't laughed at a spam subject line in a long time, but I laughed at this one today:

"Mom?"

My new job is forcing me to be hyper-aware, and it's a real bummer. In light of the refusal of gay marriage, destruction of free speech, endangerment of abortion rights, and box-office success of ultraviolent religious movies -- I really much preferred my head in the ignorant sand.

Happy holidays!

-- from Nick and Jessica



and Bryan and Allyson.

The weather here has been really strange lately. On Friday night I experienced my first real usage of "the emergency broadcasting system," whereby I found out that hail "the size of dimes" was falling in the East Bay. A few days before that, Bryan saw cars floating in the streets.

The Oscars were indeed boring, save a new drinking game we devised, called, "Spot the Botox." I highly recommend it. (The game, not Botox. Though I was voted Most Likely to First Partake in Botox. A dubious distinction I must humbly accept.)

I am very upset by what is going on with Howard. If he goes off the air here, I will be forced to flee the country. If he doesn't go off the air, I think he should hire me to revamp his website. He was talking about it this morning.

I am also very upset by Mad Mel and his crazy Passion movie. Even if that makes me hypocritically and equally Mad.

"In America" made me sob like a baby.

I have great pictures from our weekend in Tahoe with Heather and Eugene. I'll put those up this Saturday.

I've discovered that women who pee on the seats (for godssakes, women!) generally pick the first stall in a public bathroom. You know who you are.

That's pretty much all that's going on.