The Little Lion

I think my sister is keeping a little lion in her house.

Rothko-esque

I've always been a big fan of Mark Rothko, and last month viewed the small exhibit (in addition to the permanent collection) of his work at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. I took this photo on the airplane on my way to Hawaii... it just made me think of him.

My excuse for everything.

Check this out.

This explains a lot about my siblings and I.

Or, well, this, too.

Da plane! Da plane!

I landed on the island of Kauai today. It's late (I seem to adjust to time changes eastbound quite well), and the waves are loudly crashing at our back porch. Reminds me of Vietnam. Only not as cheap.
ha.

Post script: Do my references to Fantasy Island age me?

Theme Building

Cool pics of the Theme Building, where the Encounter restaurant is located. Image by Janie Fitzgerald, Axis Images.

Eat like the Jetsons

It's not quite the Jetsons, but sure looks like it. The Encounter is located in the landmark Theme Building at LAX airport and has surprisingly good grub for an airport venue... the chef is trained in France!

7000 Feet Below Zero

Well, we were at 7000 feet, and the temperatures were well below zero... wind chill surely had us in the negative teens or negative twenties as we were jumping away at Olympic Park. On Tuesday, the noon high was -4. We were forced to scrape ice off the inside of the car -- condensation from breathing. When we pulled into the garage, the fog rolled out. The sunny spots on the black asphalt steamed in the winter freeze.
Oh, I'm not complaining. Just looking forward to Friday in Hawaii.

On Air

I happen to love flying. I don't mean traveling. The actual flying part, I enjoy it.

Today we flew over the Grand Canyon. It ranks at the top of the "cool things I've seen from an airplane" list. Among others, seeing the aurora borealis (northern lights) -- I mean, swimming in the lights from our plane -- on my nighttime departure from Anchorage, Alaska; seeing the Space Shuttle in flight while I myself was in flight en route to Orlando; and seeing Niagra Falls from above on a return flight from Asia.

I also revel in the take off. Perhaps this is its own disorder? Mr. Garwood suggested I might have "restless feet syndrome."

Flight Plan.

My upcoming schedule:
Nov 24 to Nov 30: Orlando, FL
Nov 30 to Dec 1: Arlington, VA
Dec 1 to Dec 3: Santa Monica, CA
Dec 3 to Dec 8: Park City, UT
Dec 8 to Dec 16: Santa Monica, CA
Dec 16 to Jan 2: Kapaa', Kauai, HI
Jan 3 to Jan 6: Arlington, VA
Jan 6 to May-ish: Monteleone, Umbria, Italy
Post May: TBD

la dolce vita

This is where I'm moving in January. Four hundred years old, four stories, on the main piazza of a cobblestone village in Umbria. Views from the terraces and fireplace. One baker, two butchers, a grocer, two restaurants, and a pizzeria.

Nice.

People are REAL nice.

I got a free Motorola Razr phone at the T-mobile store today.

Opera on the Mall

After an interesting lunch at the American Indian Museum, Mike and Eileen and I took up on free Opera on the mall; a simulcast of Porgy & Bess on a gorgeous autumn day with the Capitol in the background. We didn't get through it all, though, since we were also off to see "I Am Cuba" -- a Soviet propaganda piece brought to the U.S. by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese in the '90s.

No Conspiracy

Lots of color printers leave behind a series of yellow dots, indicating the time, date, and serial number -- making documents traceable. Interesting.

Air Addiction

I am addicted to flight. Lucky me scored a free trip to Hawaii using frequent flyer miles to go with Mike and Lori and family. Well, you know, two weeks in Hawaii grew to two weeks in Hawaii AND two weeks in Santa Monica since frequent flyer miles let you do a free stopover. Why not add a vacation to my vacation, I thought?

After a dozen flights and 18 months of vacation, I finally got a job at the end of August. Sure, I didn't work more than ten days before I took off to New York. A week later I flew to Columbus. Just back from that, I masterminded my December plans to spend two lovely sunny winter weeks in Santa Monica before going to Hawaii for the holidays, to return January 2nd to the east coast. The idea is that I'll return to Washington, grab my things, and get up to NYC to set down my roots someplace and pick up some work.

The problem with planning a one month vacation is that I can't plan more vacations. Or so I thought. I just booked a six day trip in the middle of my vacation to go to the lovely resort town of Park City, Utah to visit old friends Lori and Ori (who refer to themselves as L'Ori). A vacation within a vacation within a vacation. Now, where to next?

You would think

...that I worked for Google.

I just love this.

Kindness.

After about ten minutes of waiting at the bus stop this morning, I thought I might like to get my SmarTrip card out to be ready for the tardy bus. Then I realized like a numbnut that I left my wallet and keys at home. The guy that waits at the stop with me most mornings handed me the buck and a quarter it costs to get on the bus. Within seconds, the bus came.

"How'll you get through the day?" he asked. "Here, take this $20."
"Oh, I'll be fine," I say.
But he shoved it my way and I accepted, offering to pay him back the next morning.
That was nice, don't you think?

Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

Well, it's not Mars, but it IS outer space.

Zoom in for close up shots of the moon's surface just as you do on Google Earth... While you might not find a nice cafe, you certainly will find plenty of cheese.

Tis the season for film

"The DC Shorts Film Festival presents our second annual showcase of short films from around the world, highlighting those from the burgeoning DC film community, followed by discussions with the filmmakers."

I'm going to see a screening at the Landmark E Street Theater where my friend Dan's short is playing during Screening 3. Check it out.

RESFEST 2005

RESFEST 2005 is on beginning Thursday in New York City.

GO if you want to see some innovative shorts, feature films, music videos, and amazing creative work.



Touring in:

NORTH AMERICA: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal

EUROPE: London,Glasgow, Dublin, Bristol, Belfast, Sheffield, Nottingham, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Turin, Rome, Zurich, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Las Palmas, Vigo, Vitoria, Valladolid, Vienna, Istanbul

SOUTH AMERICA: Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires

ASIA: Seoul, Tokyo, Kobe, Kyoto, Singapore

AUSTRALIA: Melbourne, Sydney

Craiglist will help you find your loved ones

Craigslist has set up pages for Austin, Baton Rouge, Houston, Jackson, Mobile, Montgomery, New Orleans, Pensacola, and Shreveport.

They have the following categories to help those affected by the Katrina disaster.

relief resources
missing people
temporary housing
temporary employment
missing pets
transportation/rideshare
volunteer
katrina discussion

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism

I was invited to a Noodly Appendage Party.


While I'm a faithful agnostic, I'll attend and support a few believers of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism

boating

Nothing like a day out on a boat. Even better, dinner on a boat, on the river.

of food and secret gardens

After a very bad six hour bus ride, I connected with Adam, Jon, Amanda, Jason and Neil (friends & New Orleans refugees) for a big dinner at Nha Trang on Centre Street. I was ordered to order, in the native tongue.

Saturday morning I met Kaly and David at Le Pain Quotidienne where the brioche is delish... OK, so it makes me think of those square cafeteria buns we got in our cold lunches in elementary school, but David agreed that there is something simply ephemeral about those buns. It's true.

Saturday, Nick was a great sport and wandered all over downtown Manhattan with me. Very cool walk, very good company, and very yummy snacks. Iced coffee on Houston. In search of secret gardens and park benches. Keith Haring swimming pool mural and fun rec center. New buildings. Tea and cupcakes at Podunk. Street art. Souvenir chalk (from Delavega).

After three failed restaurant choices for dinner, Peter, Kerstin, Kaly and I ended up at Blue Ribbon Bakery, one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Since people were being nice to me all weekend, Eric treated our table to dessert. And I hadn't stepped into that place since I moved 18 months ago!

The next morning, Kurt slept in. This seemingly insignificant event threw me off course for the entire day, but in a good way. After a quick good morning to Les, Kurt, Michael and David, goodbye kisses around, I popped into Fairway Cafe for a croissant and coffee. I trekked over to meet Nick in Central Park and met a string of other nice people, James, Molly, Amy, Jane, Steve, Simon, Regina, Eloise and Cary. Sitting out on the blankets in the park is such a treat, and I gave up my intentions to visit the Cooper-Hewitt.

Off running again to meet Les, Kurt, Michael and David to do some shopping for the boys in Chelsea, then off running some more to meet Oren for dinner. A block after leaving them, I ran into Bruce, a buddy from the AIDS Rides, out walking his dog Aggie. They walked me to Union Square to meet Oren who walked me to meet Adam, Amanda, Dan and Rachel in the LES at a Japanese restaurant. I know. It doesn't really make sense. Oren and I left to go to the Dumpling Man for um...dumplings, then back to the west village (where he had a pretty large ice cream cone at Mary's Dairy on 4th).

Monday, Robert conned me into going to Brooklyn Heights. I wanted coffee. He obliged. I wanted pizza. I didn't get it. The nice streak was over. I was on a bus back to D.C.

East Meets West

...at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. Woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige in a complete series of 53 prints depicting the Tokaido travelway. I went with Jim and Dave after a morning at the farmer's market. Note: a very large exhibit; not for the ADD.

PATRYK REBISZ

Cool work by Patryk Rebisz. I just watched "Between You and Me", rapid-fire shot on a Canon still camera.

Penn Platinums

Picasso by Penn.

Went to see the Irving Penn Platinum Prints today at the National Gallery of Art. I first saw Penn about... oh... 16 years ago at the NGA when I went to an exhibit for my high school photography class. These are platinum prints made in the '80s from images captured in the past, many in the '50s.

Also stopped in at the Dutch paintings, primarily to see the small exhibit of Jan de Bray, and enjoyed the Vermeers on permanent display. Mike and I browsed through the sculpture wing but I was more taken by the stunning new wood floors in the museum. They're stained white oak; I asked.

To view an interesting online album of Penn's work, go here and here.

to Cuong

The image below made me think of Cuong. My cousin died last night, of cancer. Nam mo a di da phat.

Beautiful Amalgamations

50 people see the sunset
Set by brevity.

If you don't know what flickr is, get out from under that rock! Neil Kandalgaonkar wrote a program that selects 50 arbitrarily chosen Flickr images that share the same tags and melds them together. The results are beautiful. We see the world the same, if we'd just soften our lines a bit.

The Soul of a Chef

If you've just finished the recommended Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, reach for The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I just finished it, and it makes me want to visit Per Se, Keller's new kitchen in New York City.

Hear them speak.

On August 20, James and David will be speaking at the Eva Zeisel Retrospective at the Hillwood Museum. There's a meet & greet later at 4:30 if you want to meet these talented artists.

Fresh Philanthropy

Image from FRESHFARM Markets

Mike, Eileen and I headed to the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market this morning. The market has been around since 1997 and they have a wonderful program where, at the end of the day, the farmers donate fresh food to local nonprofits and food kitchens.

Go support your local producer!

Life is unpredictable

My 93 year-old step-grandmother/great-aunt died on Thursday. She was my paternal grandmother's sister who then married my paternal grandfather after my paternal grandmother died in 1934 at the age of 26. Got it? Yes, complicated.

She was somewhere around four feet tall and I hadn't seen her since Souris and Silvio's wedding in 1998. Three weeks ago, I was compelled to travel to Santa Monica for a ten-day-visiting-family trip. Given pressure about coming out there, I disregarded it and went anyway. Souris, Silvio and I made it to Orange County to meet with an aunt from Canada whom we'd never met, and a couple of our first cousins, too (we have over sixty first cousins, we don't know how many exactly, and they range in age from five to seventy on my father's side - again, complicated). She was healthy and lucid and joked around with us. A few days later, she fell, and on Thursday she died. Just like that. I'm incredibly grateful to have been able to see her. Her son (dad's brother) was even luckier. He hadn't seen his mother in 30 years, came to America to visit her and his siblings, and after spending three weeks with her, was scheduled to leave the States three days after her death. He has been able to extend his trip now to attend her funeral. My lesson learned is, when intuition tells you to go see someone... GO.

Wishing for my own bed.

Places I've slept since April 29, 2004.
My apartment in the Village (New York)
Adam and Amanda's apartment (New York)
Kaly's apartment (New York)
Souris & Silvio's apartment (Santa Monica)
Mike & Lori's (Nigel Suite)
Edward & Sharon's (Edward's office)
Hung & Heather's house (Foster City, CA)
Nikko Hotel (San Francisco, CA)
Uncle Ho's (Boston, MA)
Mike & Eileen's (Craig's Room, Arlington, VA)
Mike & Eileen's (Nick's Room, Arlington, VA)
our old house (Arlington, VA)
Seahorse Resort (3 different rooms, Phan Thiet, VN)
Di 10's house (Saigon, District 7)
Linh's house (Saigon, District 5)
Caravelle Hotel (Saigon, District 1)
Victoria Can Tho (Can Tho/Mekong, VN)
Bassac (Mekong River, Vietnam)
International Hotel (New Orleans, LA)
Mom and dad's new house (guest room, Orlando)
Mom and dad's new house (mom's room, Orlando)
Mom and dad's new house (dad's room, Orlando)
Motel (Las Vegas, NV)
Maswick Lodge (Grand Canyon, AZ)
Kiki & Emil's House (Columbus, GA)

F.A.Q.

Where are you visiting from?
It depends on when you ask/ed me.
April 2004: New York, NY
May 2004: Arlington, VA - Santa Monica, CA
June 2004: Santa Monica, CA - Arlington, VA
July 2004: Boston, MA - New York, NY - Arlington, VA
August 2004: Arlington, VA - Santa Monica, CA
September 2004: San Francisco, CA - Santa Monica, CA - Saigon, VN
October - December 2004: Phan Thiet, Vietnam - Saigon, Vietnam
January 2005: Saigon, VN - Santa Monica, CA - New Orleans, LA
March 2005: Santa Monica, CA - Las Vegas, NV - Grand Canyon, AZ - Arlington, VA
April 2005: Arlington, VA
May 2005: Arlington, VA - Columbus, GA - Orlando, FL
June 2005: Orlando, FL
July 2005: Orlando, FL - Arlington, VA - Santa Monica, CA

Where are you?
Today, Santa Monica, California. As of July 20, 2005, I will be in Arlington, VA.

How long will you be there?
Indefinitely.

Where are you staying?
The Doheny B&B. Thanks Mike & Eileen.

What are you going to do?
Temp for about two months so I can be non-committal with a job till I figure out what next.

Then what?
Then I'll either move back to New York or head west to Santa Monica.

What are you going to do in NY or SM?
I have no idea. But something I enjoy.

What about Vietnam?
I'm in a debate about this. If I move forward with the business I'll run some tours this winter (travel season). If not, I'm going to move to NY or SM. I was in Vietnam with some clients last winter and still have an interest in continuing. Temping in Arlington allows me the flexibility to move or to head back to 'nam.

Hope this straightens it out. Sort of.

in arlington

I arrived in Arlington yesterday. I fly out to L.A. in six hours.

Going straight from the airport to a luau on the beach in Santa Monica.

Afterwards, going to Orange County to meet my dad's sister from Canada whom I've never met before.

Space Adventures

I know I've been on this Mars rant for a while, but look... for only $102,000 you can go suborbital with Space Adventures. For a week of lodging at the International Space Station and roundtrip transportation, cough up $20,000,000.

Almost 2 out of 3 ain't good enough

Our natural wonders are dying from the heat as NY Times writes about it. I wrote about the problem in the Great Barrier Reef last July. Glad I got that one checked off... snorkeled it, even. During the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride in 2000 I trekked the land but missed Glacier National Park.

The one I've gotta get to is Mt. Kilimanjaro. A friend of mine climbed it, and I'd love to, but I don't know when. Any takers?

photo from the Tanzania Tourism Website.

homestarrunner on parsnips

Even Homestarrunner has a toons episode devoted to parsnips. I still love those Strong Bad e-mails the best.

If you love food...

...read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Friends and family have been telling me for years, and I just finished it. The fun part about being a New Yorker raised in the home of a culinary artist is that you GET so much of it.

Jim, Dave, and Eva

©Photo by Matthu Placek

Two of my favorite people, James Klein and David Reid of KleinReid just might be on air with the esteemed Eva Zeisel tentatively scheduled for Sunday, June 26th, on the CBS News Sunday Morning Show Highlighting her career and her current museum retrospective in which some of Jim & Dave's collaborative works with Eva are displayed.

Now Playing

For months before I left my beloved little apartment on Cornelia Street, I watched them renovate and restore the old Waverly Theatre, now reborn as the IFC Center. It faced directly across my apartment building. At the time, I was sans camera and unfortunately only have impressed in my mind an unusal image of the entire theater gutted out. Facing the rear of the theater structure from my front stoop, I was looking straight through the building to the Sixth Avenue facade. Just totalled and empty, the innards of an old brick wall, much like the back of a dollhouse.

In Ev's Shadow

Where Ev goes, I follow... a little later (but hey, before the masses). Not in a creepy stalker way, of course. He just casts a long shadow.

In 2000 I signed up on Blogger where I eventually even paid for a pro account to help support them (and I'd do it again). It was the perfect medium for peeps at home in the U.S. to track where I was in Asia and Australia at the time without having to blast everyone with mass mails. I was grateful for the tool. Blogger hooked me up with flickr a year and a half ago and Hello and other cool stuff.

Then Blogger and Ev moved to Google. Thanks to my active blogger account, I got a coveted invite to Gmail in April 2004 and actually gave my first two invitations away to the HUSTLER OF CULTURE and Matt, who I knew would put their accounts to good use, despite the fact that the invites were selling on eBay for up to $40 at the time.

Now, Ev and Noah Glass have created and yesssss.... I got an invite! Odeo is podcasting made easy. Get in on it now. These guys know what they're doing.

Oh, and we're one degree of separation according to friendster, too.

Reunited after 30 Years

My dad just got to see his brother again, for the first time in over thirty years.

Cool stamps

For a big markup, put your face or artwork on your postage stamps! PhotoStamps offers the service. Perfect for weddings, baby announcements, just moved (picture your own house), art openings and invitations. Granted, you have to live with the ugly black bar code and worse, the grey stamps.com imprint, but it sure makes it more fun to send letters!

Can we get a photographer in the house?

I've known Mica and Ari since they were born, and I like to think I've been a big part of their lives. Yet, somehow, the only pictures that exist of me and the kids are not quite frame-able... Most of these are from this past year, and there's even one from 2002 (the only shot of me with either kid in a collection of 67 pictures).

OMG

Nightmarish.

Nine Symphonies for Download on the BBC

Download all nine of Beethoven's symphonies at the BBC website the day after they are broadcast. All the symphonies are performed by BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

My favorites, of course, are the recordings conducted by Von Karajan.

But if you had to choose just one symphony to listen to, please, choose Elgar's Symphony No. 1. Kaly made me go see it performed in New York a few years ago (she attended the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night performances) and I was stunned. It's better than an hour of TV any day.

If I had a shrink

I think he or she would tell me that I have a problem with authority. But then he or she would agree with why and whom. Because I'm an extraordinarily reasonable person.

Did you take today for Granted?

I try never to take a day for granted. It's harder than you might think. I think I've done it for about six years running. Every day is rich. I always know how the next day is going to be fulfilling. I tell the people I love that I love them. I try to learn something new every day whether it's a word, a recipe, a theory, a place, a language, a shortcut, a system, someone's opinion, whatever. I look at new art and travel to new places and eat new foods. I talk to someone who lives far away from me every single day. Sometimes to four someones. Sometimes six. Every day I write to at least half a dozen people in my life that live far away. Sometimes four hundred and fifty. Sometimes they're real letters. Maybe it's not so hard because everyone in my life lives far away.

Now I don't want to be so far away. I've boldy erased my roots. I can't find them anymore. It's just becoming a bit disconcerting. If you see the same person every day, does that give you roots? If you see 365 people once a year, does that make you rootless? It makes you virtually invisible. I think I'm becoming invisible. Well, ok, maybe just translucent.

PostSecret

We are so lucky. We had the perfect childhood. There are a lot of sad people in this world. PostSecret is insightful and moving, touching, sometimes funny, sometimes scary. And, oh my, how necessary.

Today New York, Tomorrow Santa Monica, Friday Mars.

This debate over where I will move next is keeping me up at night. I think most days, I'm dreaming of my next shoebox apartment, walking down four flights to go to my gourmet cheese shop (or perhaps lugging a load of laundry to the cleaners). Then occasionally I think about the beach, Mica and Ari, future mini HP's, having a bedroom that's not in my kitchen...

And then tonight I thought: what about Washington, D.C.? Not Arlington, where I grew up, but Washington proper. Where I could walk to the metro (and not own a car), maybe work for some agency that's aiding a good human cause. Maybe I'm just a natural born east coaster.

If we could just find a faster way to get to Mars, maybe I wouldn't be so confused. No, because then I'll be weighing Earth or Mars... Mars or Earth. Forget it. Why do I have to choose?

Albert? Is that You?

Damn, a frog just jumped on our second floor window. No, a real, real frog.

Albert's the default voice on my ibook. Apple Mac peeps will know what I'm sayin'. Maybe.

What did you say?

Applied Minds just invented Babble™ for Sonare Technologies™, a new company of Herman Miller. It makes a conversation in open space -- say, your office cubicle or in a hospital area -- virtually incomprehensible to those in hearing distance and perfectly private.

Applied Sciences even maps the chemical signature of blood proteins -- to identify candidates for certain cancer treatments -- since most treatments only work for 5% of the population -- matching candidate to treatment.

What do I want for Christmas (ok, so I'm a heathen, but still...)? Applied Minds is also behind the Touch Table, a map that uses your handsignals for movements. To zoom out, place both hands (or just two fingers) on the table and spread them apart (If I saw this demo'd, I'd've cried.). Zoom in? Yeah, push your hands together. You touch points -- grab the earth, turn it on the screen, navigate, zoom into the location you want, get a historical view of the same location... in real time. You can even take a pen and draw on the map when you're pointing out information for those around the table. You can imagine my pool of glee regarding this fascinating invention. I happen to read maps for fun and even the new Google Maps Satellite pictures have given me plenty of entertainment. If this wasn't enough, they've now built a 3D version where the screen actually deforms so you can feel the hills and valleys. Watch the video (41MB) on NorthropGrumman. Cry all you want.

[just edited the links; NG originally posted information in 2004; sometime between the original posting her and April 2009, they updated their site and moved the links. The zooming thing is now in the hands of the masses by way of the iphone...)

We interrupt your day to promote: Parsnips.

I roasted some delicious vegetables today. Parsnips ought to get more credit. They're sooo good.

Actually, what I made was a lazy version of a very complicated but super delicious squash casserole recipe I have. One of these days I'm going to post it but someone should make it for me (I just hate peeling acorn squash)... Or better yet, I'll make it and you peel the squash...

World Jump Day

World Jump Day is July 20, 2006. It really should be called World Jump Moment, as jumping will take place at 11:39:13 GMT exactly.

If 600 million peeps jump at precisely the same moment, we could drive Earth into a new orbit, thereby (in their words) "stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogenous climate." 155,094,135 people have already registered. Go and find out how.

While you're at it, take a photo for the Fakefunk Jump Project run by Souris.

To be or Not to be... productive

It's been a bit difficult trying to get my priorities straight, between caring for dad, managing the house (updating their wills today), doing work for Lannam, and doing work for AXA Realty. In between, though, I'm cooking for dad which I'm enjoying -- I haven't done it really since I lived in GV in NYC. Tonight we're having typical summer dinner with Vietnamese influence: barbeque chicken with corn-on-the-cob, tossed mango salad and some tomato-garlic rice on the side. My mom had some amazing five-minute recipes she used to just toss together for us as kids. I wish she'd get her cookbook done soon!

Otherwise, I have a handful of other things keeping my ADHD head busy. There are hilarious things to scan and send to family that have risen from the storage closets of the old house, my 2004 taxes to file, photos to print, copy to write, clothes to wash, and decisions to make.

And I want to move back to this.

I am in the midst of a right-hand-left-hand debate over whether or not I should move to Santa Monica or go back to my beloved New York.

And I discovered this week: Santa Monica is comfortable like a couch is comfortable. New York is comfortable like chicken pot pie is comfortable.

And who can't love my old 'hood, snow and all?

Personal Hell Perspective

If there is a personal hell, mine would be a place described as the ultimate suburbia in which all homes in all developments look exactly the same -- and yet, ugly-the-same -- where I must go shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond, wear clothes from Old Navy, and eat at T.G.I. Fridays, and where the temperature runs around 90F.

This is what I'm talking about.

"Some rich man came and raped the land, nobody caught 'em,
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes and, Jesus, people bought 'em.
And they called it paradise, the place to be,
they watched the hazy sun sinking in the sea."
- The Last Resort, by the EAGLES

Mars is starting to look pretty good.

I just finished reading a book. In the last two years, I've started about 17, but I shamefully admit I only finished one in Santa Monica. Yesterday, I drove my dad to Columbus, Georgia where my oldest sister lives, and where her husband, an Army Ranger, is stationed at Ft. Benning (where dad himself was trained in 1957). After the combined stress of helping my parents pack up and sell our childhood home and then take my dad through minor surgery, and then have my mom leave town and be left to care for him post-op, and then driving 13 hours to Georgia... I arrived at my sister's where I just chilled. It just so happens that this sister of mine maintains my library [it should be noted that in my former life, I did in fact complete books more often]. So I sat and read Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters. One of my favorites.

Wanted: Comfortable digs on Mars.

Craigslist, the imminently useful classifieds collective, is beaming 138,179 ads to outer space.

This is not a hoax. It is for real.

Bye House!

Mom and Dad on the last day at the house we grew up in... eating Krispy Kreme donuts!

To Do.

6:30 a.m. go to bed.
11:30 wake up.

• Call utilities to close accounts
• Take dad to Physical Therapy
• Take dad to Radiology center to pick up barium for CT Scan
• Pick up boxes for mom for moving
• Buy digital camera for aunt's chauffeur in Vietnam
• Buy phone charger for mom
• Set up Dad's pharmacy in FL
• Arrange transfer of mom and dad's health care through FELRA to FL
• Take dad to PT Wednesday 4/27
• Take dad to CT Scan 4/28
• Take dad to urologist 4/28
• Take dad to pre-op appt 4/28 (Movers come 4/28!)
• Take dad to PT Monday 5/2
• Take dad to surgery 5/3
• Take mom to airport 5/3
• Fill dad's pill box daily.
• Go to Closing for sale of house 4/29 to read documents
• Pack and move (my) boxes to Eileen & Mike's basement
• Pack and move plants
• Set up utilities in FL
• Set up DSL in FL
• Shred Kaly's files
• Ship Kaly's box to UPS
• Pack Kiki's boxes (five)
• See Eva Zeisel exhibit at Hillwood
• Go to Crew Alumni event for Tom Chisnell
• 2 Chefs with Pat and Caroline

A new era.

On April 28, 1975, my mom took the five of us -- aged 8 weeks, 18 months, 32 months, 3.5 years, and 5 years old -- onto one of these. A C130 cargo plane that took us to Guam, in hopes of one day soon reuniting with my father. They then started a new life in America.


On April 28, 2005, Town & Country movers is going to load up a truck with three decades of our American life to Florida.

I'll drive my parents down there, a journey that 30 years later, is likely to be much easier. They're starting a new life in Disney World.

Who said life isn't fair?

Traveling to Mars

As if traveling the entire earth was not enough (it's not), I've recently fallen into discussions with friends about traveling to the other planets. Most notably, we wondered about Mars, and if you check, it looks like you can make the trip in just nine months! Yeah!

Update

For anyone who's been looking, I'll try to start up again, but moving around makes blogging a bit harder. Though I'm not in 10014 any longer, I'll keep my posts in one place, since I can't seem to keep myself in one place. Less confusion all around.