A dear friend of mine told me that one of our former colleagues and her husband developed this lovely pitcher. When I came to her house for dinner, I instantly fell in love. It has such a pleasing sound.
Isn't it wonderful when people develop something so simple yet so clever?
Monday, December 03, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Has it really been that long?
I've been a baaaaaaad girl. It isn't enough that I've fallen out of the blogosphere, but I've had a lot more free time since Mr. Na started school in September and I'm no further along in my writing than I was...oy...I don't think I can openly admit when. Let's put it this way...Pa and Na are ribbing me much like Stewie does with Brian on Family Guy:
Needless to say, I'm enjoying my respite from full-time, hands-on, 24x7 parenting.
And yet...
We're gearing up to bring number two home from Ukraine sometime in 2008. Yup, I'm a glutton for punishment.
Life's been good, albeit Kindergarten has been an adjustment for all of us. Mr. Na has had his world turned upside down, what with sharing his attention with 27 other little five year-olds and he's coming around, albeit slowly.
A
nyway, on the "me" side, let's see...the last time I blogged, I had returned from New York, I think. And so, in June I spent some time with Pa in Helsinki, Finland (my first vacation sans child in 4 years!)
Yours truly with my new Marimekko scarf
While there, I took a day trip (I love saying that...it was just a jaunt between countries!) to Talinn, Estonia, which was just beyond awesome.
Helsinki was "nice"...but I could have totally done that city in, like, a weekend, while I could have totally spent a few more days in Estonia and would have loved to have gone down to Latvia...but hey, it was only a week!
Funny thing happened in Helsinki...so, I'll back up by saying that whenever we travel together in Europe, random people always come up to Pa and talk to him in either French, German, Russian...Polish...you name it...And if you know him, you know why...he's got very strong Eastern European features (though France, I'm not quite sure why they love him so much since he's like Gigantor over there). But ME? Ha! They take one look at me and call me "Disney". Doesn't matter what I'm wearing (and no I don't dress like a frickin' tourist, so shut the hell up), doesn't matter if I stay quiet or open my mouth...they SMELL it on me or something.
Well, I finally felt vindicated in Helsinki where EVERYONE came up to me and gave Pa dirty looks while asking me questions in Finnish or Swedish. People scowled at Pa because I think they're still a little angry with the Russians.
Another odd thing about Helsinki is that they are all about the extremes. I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's completely dark for 9 months out of the year, but I dunno...it'd be an interesting study to conduct. For example, Helsinkians love either "dream pop" (or "cuddle music" as we like to call it...but more on that later) or heavy, I mean HEAVY metal...like Black Sabbath, Motley Crue and Iron Maiden. And so going out to bars or clubs was quite the experience because we'd either come across places where people played air guitar, wore black t-shirts, and in some cases, mullets. Or we'd stumble across a place that resembled somebody's livingroom, circa 1972, complete with the white shag and the modular furniture and people would be sitting on these couches, chatting, drinking, laughing and listening to music that I sw
ear Nokia uses for its ringtones. Some examples of "cuddle music" would be Air or Zero 7, though Pa would have to disagree because his idea of "cuddle music" is that it's only instrumental. Ok, so here's a good compromise:
Air – Mike Mills
Me, in a cuddle bar. My cuddler's takin the pic.
Well, I'll plan to do my updates in a few installments, dear readers (all two of you!) That way, you'll tune in to read more about my exciting adventures (yawn!)
Until next time! Ciao!
Needless to say, I'm enjoying my respite from full-time, hands-on, 24x7 parenting.
And yet...
We're gearing up to bring number two home from Ukraine sometime in 2008. Yup, I'm a glutton for punishment.
Life's been good, albeit Kindergarten has been an adjustment for all of us. Mr. Na has had his world turned upside down, what with sharing his attention with 27 other little five year-olds and he's coming around, albeit slowly.
A
nyway, on the "me" side, let's see...the last time I blogged, I had returned from New York, I think. And so, in June I spent some time with Pa in Helsinki, Finland (my first vacation sans child in 4 years!)Yours truly with my new Marimekko scarf
While there, I took a day trip (I love saying that...it was just a jaunt between countries!) to Talinn, Estonia, which was just beyond awesome.
Talinn--->
Helsinki was "nice"...but I could have totally done that city in, like, a weekend, while I could have totally spent a few more days in Estonia and would have loved to have gone down to Latvia...but hey, it was only a week!
Funny thing happened in Helsinki...so, I'll back up by saying that whenever we travel together in Europe, random people always come up to Pa and talk to him in either French, German, Russian...Polish...you name it...And if you know him, you know why...he's got very strong Eastern European features (though France, I'm not quite sure why they love him so much since he's like Gigantor over there). But ME? Ha! They take one look at me and call me "Disney". Doesn't matter what I'm wearing (and no I don't dress like a frickin' tourist, so shut the hell up), doesn't matter if I stay quiet or open my mouth...they SMELL it on me or something.
Well, I finally felt vindicated in Helsinki where EVERYONE came up to me and gave Pa dirty looks while asking me questions in Finnish or Swedish. People scowled at Pa because I think they're still a little angry with the Russians.
Another odd thing about Helsinki is that they are all about the extremes. I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's completely dark for 9 months out of the year, but I dunno...it'd be an interesting study to conduct. For example, Helsinkians love either "dream pop" (or "cuddle music" as we like to call it...but more on that later) or heavy, I mean HEAVY metal...like Black Sabbath, Motley Crue and Iron Maiden. And so going out to bars or clubs was quite the experience because we'd either come across places where people played air guitar, wore black t-shirts, and in some cases, mullets. Or we'd stumble across a place that resembled somebody's livingroom, circa 1972, complete with the white shag and the modular furniture and people would be sitting on these couches, chatting, drinking, laughing and listening to music that I sw
ear Nokia uses for its ringtones. Some examples of "cuddle music" would be Air or Zero 7, though Pa would have to disagree because his idea of "cuddle music" is that it's only instrumental. Ok, so here's a good compromise:Air – Mike Mills
Me, in a cuddle bar. My cuddler's takin the pic.
Well, I'll plan to do my updates in a few installments, dear readers (all two of you!) That way, you'll tune in to read more about my exciting adventures (yawn!)
Until next time! Ciao!
Saturday, April 14, 2007
So, anyway...
Quintessential quote of the week:
"The ideal modern brownie is simple and unadorned, but rigorously designed (like a Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress)."
From: "Simple Pleasure, American Style" by Julia Moskin, New York Times, April 11, 2007.
I couldn't have said it better myself and as soon as the last of the Easter candy has been digested, I'm whipping up a batch, whilst wearing my Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress.
It's been quite a few...whatevers and this post won't come under the heading of apologies given that I'm not quite sure I want to continue throwing crap out into the blogosphere. But it's Saturday and it's a beautiful spring day here in Seattle and I just finished running 6 of the best miles I've run in awhile and--yeah, so...I'm here.
After PaNaMa's glorious trip to Spain, we downgraded, most abruptly, and went to Orlando for a week. Gosh, what a nasty-ass place. Nonetheless, we got some sun (a little more than anticipated, leaving Mr. Na with a bad burn and me heavily-burdened with guilt).
The following Monday, my stepmom passed away after a long illness. And while it had been anticipated for quite some time, I was pretty bummed. I'm not one for writing obits and she wasn't nearly as cool as Kurt Vonnegut, but she was a full-on mom to me for 30 years and she taught me a lot and she had the patience of a saint in all-things-my-dad, so she was cool enough for me. (I could be really trite here and write "So it goes..." but why?)
We're flying to NYC for the weekend of May 18 for her service and to give Mr. Na the opportunity of FINALLY meeting everyone in my family whom he hasn't yet had the pleasure. (<---note to self, this seems like a very bad grammar faux pas...but fuck it).
On the plus side, we're starting the home study process for adoption, number two, Ukrainian Bugaloo, and we hope to get over there sometime next winter. Mr. Na starts Kindergarten this fall (holy shit!) and you know me, I'm a glutton for punishment and I never want to finish my novel (I don't really mean that...really...) so it's the perfect time to find our "Ra" (get it? PaNaRaMa...oh, I know, we're just so witty).
And that's what's what. Next weekend, I get an extra dose of FREE TIME and I'm going down to LA all by my little self to see one of my bestest friends get married and to see my other friend who just returned from Lhasa, China and India and to visit
my other friends who just bought a bungalow in Santa Monica.
And you know...it's friends like those who help me to see the sunny side of life when shit goes down.
"The ideal modern brownie is simple and unadorned, but rigorously designed (like a Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress)."
From: "Simple Pleasure, American Style" by Julia Moskin, New York Times, April 11, 2007.
I couldn't have said it better myself and as soon as the last of the Easter candy has been digested, I'm whipping up a batch, whilst wearing my Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress.
It's been quite a few...whatevers and this post won't come under the heading of apologies given that I'm not quite sure I want to continue throwing crap out into the blogosphere. But it's Saturday and it's a beautiful spring day here in Seattle and I just finished running 6 of the best miles I've run in awhile and--yeah, so...I'm here.
After PaNaMa's glorious trip to Spain, we downgraded, most abruptly, and went to Orlando for a week. Gosh, what a nasty-ass place. Nonetheless, we got some sun (a little more than anticipated, leaving Mr. Na with a bad burn and me heavily-burdened with guilt).
The following Monday, my stepmom passed away after a long illness. And while it had been anticipated for quite some time, I was pretty bummed. I'm not one for writing obits and she wasn't nearly as cool as Kurt Vonnegut, but she was a full-on mom to me for 30 years and she taught me a lot and she had the patience of a saint in all-things-my-dad, so she was cool enough for me. (I could be really trite here and write "So it goes..." but why?)
We're flying to NYC for the weekend of May 18 for her service and to give Mr. Na the opportunity of FINALLY meeting everyone in my family whom he hasn't yet had the pleasure. (<---note to self, this seems like a very bad grammar faux pas...but fuck it).
On the plus side, we're starting the home study process for adoption, number two, Ukrainian Bugaloo, and we hope to get over there sometime next winter. Mr. Na starts Kindergarten this fall (holy shit!) and you know me, I'm a glutton for punishment and I never want to finish my novel (I don't really mean that...really...) so it's the perfect time to find our "Ra" (get it? PaNaRaMa...oh, I know, we're just so witty).
And that's what's what. Next weekend, I get an extra dose of FREE TIME and I'm going down to LA all by my little self to see one of my bestest friends get married and to see my other friend who just returned from Lhasa, China and India and to visit
my other friends who just bought a bungalow in Santa Monica.
And you know...it's friends like those who help me to see the sunny side of life when shit goes down.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Donde he estado
Hola, my friends. Long time no publish. Well, I've got a good reason actually. Team PaNaMa has once again gone abroad to the Old World and this time, we made tracks in Spain.
Na and I returned last night after a ten-day whirlwind tour of that delightful little peninsula just north of Africa, where we spent some time in Barcelona and Madrid.
Quite honestly, of the two cities, Barcelona kicks ass. Not that Madrid was terrible, mind you, but it reminded me so much of Manhattan while Barcelona was a gem, full of eye candy (and I don't mean just the guapos!) including some really great architecture and art on every block.
I promise to post pictures later, after the jet lag wears off but I'll fill you in on some of the highlights:
Barcelona is a very noisy, late-night city...and we had an apartment that was right in the Gothic Quarter part so it was pretty damn noisy. Even the garbage collectors pick up at like 3 a.m. We all wore earplugs and that helped quite a bit.
My pants are fitting a little too tight right now. Too much bread and wine, man! The food was great. We did a lot of eating-in because the apartment in Barca was way cool and had a spacious kitchen. Plus it was a lot of fun just hanging out, watching Spongebob Squarepants in German with Mr. Na. Of course, eating out was awesome, too. Who could resist tapas and paella and sangria and gelato? Not me!
We went up to Montjuic to see the old '92 Olympics site which was so cool. They also have a Joan Miro foundation set in a park which is just beautiful. We were just a few blocks away from the Mediterranean and so my running routes were pretty neat. They also have lots of cool little parks, too. So I ran twice there and not once in Madrid. In Madrid, I just didn't feel safe.
But we were only like a block away from the heart of Madrid. Our apartment was much smaller and a little icky, but it was like being a block off of Broadway in Manhattan. So--cool real estate but you get a lot smaller space and something that's a little more run-down. The parks in Madrid were beautiful too but not close enough where I could run to them and then do a few laps or whatever. But we went to Park Oeste which is like on the upper west side of Manhattan and from there took this gondola across the old royal hunting grounds to an even bigger park where they had an amusement park and lots of trails for biking and hiking. So we hiked all around. It was so beautiful. We spent one day at the Reina Sophia Art Museum where they had Picasso's "Guernica" which was awesome. We wanted to do the Prado but we were too tired! We needed more time! We also went to the Royal Palace which suspiciously looks a lot like Versailles. Makes sense since the king who commissioned to have it built was born in Versailles.
Ugh! I need to recover. Until next time, mis amigos!
Na and I returned last night after a ten-day whirlwind tour of that delightful little peninsula just north of Africa, where we spent some time in Barcelona and Madrid.
Quite honestly, of the two cities, Barcelona kicks ass. Not that Madrid was terrible, mind you, but it reminded me so much of Manhattan while Barcelona was a gem, full of eye candy (and I don't mean just the guapos!) including some really great architecture and art on every block.
I promise to post pictures later, after the jet lag wears off but I'll fill you in on some of the highlights:
Barcelona is a very noisy, late-night city...and we had an apartment that was right in the Gothic Quarter part so it was pretty damn noisy. Even the garbage collectors pick up at like 3 a.m. We all wore earplugs and that helped quite a bit.
My pants are fitting a little too tight right now. Too much bread and wine, man! The food was great. We did a lot of eating-in because the apartment in Barca was way cool and had a spacious kitchen. Plus it was a lot of fun just hanging out, watching Spongebob Squarepants in German with Mr. Na. Of course, eating out was awesome, too. Who could resist tapas and paella and sangria and gelato? Not me!
We went up to Montjuic to see the old '92 Olympics site which was so cool. They also have a Joan Miro foundation set in a park which is just beautiful. We were just a few blocks away from the Mediterranean and so my running routes were pretty neat. They also have lots of cool little parks, too. So I ran twice there and not once in Madrid. In Madrid, I just didn't feel safe.
But we were only like a block away from the heart of Madrid. Our apartment was much smaller and a little icky, but it was like being a block off of Broadway in Manhattan. So--cool real estate but you get a lot smaller space and something that's a little more run-down. The parks in Madrid were beautiful too but not close enough where I could run to them and then do a few laps or whatever. But we went to Park Oeste which is like on the upper west side of Manhattan and from there took this gondola across the old royal hunting grounds to an even bigger park where they had an amusement park and lots of trails for biking and hiking. So we hiked all around. It was so beautiful. We spent one day at the Reina Sophia Art Museum where they had Picasso's "Guernica" which was awesome. We wanted to do the Prado but we were too tired! We needed more time! We also went to the Royal Palace which suspiciously looks a lot like Versailles. Makes sense since the king who commissioned to have it built was born in Versailles.
Ugh! I need to recover. Until next time, mis amigos!
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