Foggy...

in my mind anyways.

Need to get work done. Need to buy plane tickets. Need to write email.

Do not need to mess around in my art journal, yarn stash, and local book/record/kitchen supply shop.

Also why are all the restaurants I want to go to getting NYTimes write ups? How am I ever suppose to get in?

I covet Legos

dB informed me Lego has an architecture line. I want this.

Hooray!!

Cell phone charger got tangled in dB's work computer power cord. Went to lab and back with her!!

And I have sushi in my belly.

All is right in the world again.

The Ups and Downs of California

First the not so good:

I can't get a hold of Billy. Where are you? Out of the country fixing a satellite dish or something?

I fell asleep last night on the sofa as we were making the glowing cake (prototype #1) aforementioned by dB.

I've also seemed to have lost my cell phone charger in her 200 sq foot apartment. How does that happen? (Please email for communication purposes until otherwise notified).

They ran out of blood. Again. Only two units or around 500cc's for me. I'm still tired.

On the other hand, I've been well fed and love being here. dB and her boy (whose name is similar to my own boy--leading to much confusing conversation. Luckily our names aren't similar, except on this blog) have been entertaining and accommodating as usual.

The strangest part was the day I flew in. I started a conversation with the dude next to me from Kansas City to Oakland (he had a ride-your-bike-to-work tote filled with records dug from that godforsaken part of the American heartland.) Despite sleeping most of the flight and telling him I had a boyfriend, he asked if I wanted to get tacos in the Mission. Since I had to wait for dB to get out of lab I went. It was weird but I had nearly a perfect afternoon in the city with a complete stranger. Lugging around our duffel bags, we got burritos at Pancho Villa, ice cream at Bi-Rite (I had my stand by of salted caramel and balsamic strawberry), sat at Dolores park to watch lesbians throw around a football, looked through the stock at Aquarius records. Only an additional trip to the de Young Museum and dinner at Aziza or Nopa, perhaps starting it with a paper and brunch at Bar Tartine instead of a 5 hour flight, and doing it all with my boy rather than a random dude, would separate that from my actual ideal day in San Francisco.

(Side note: the new wing of the AI is absolutely fantastic but perhaps because it reminds me of the de Young. I wish I was feeling more up to braving the crowds when I went with the boy on Monday. They do have a fantastic collection and I've really been in the mood to see modern art recently. Maybe I'll go to the MCA or something when I get back to Chicago.)

Since I wasn't planning on going to the city at all this trip and will probably never see that dude again, thanks dude for salvaging the usually lost "travel day."

Now if I could only find my charger so I could call my boy. I miss the heck out of him. I think if it doesn't show up I might need to buy a new phone (yikes) but it'd be worth it to hear his voice.

Fiat Lux (on the cake)

What better way to celebrate Berkeley's motto Fiat Lux (Let there be light), then to make everything glow...starting with cake:

Youtube Link of Light-up Cake Prototype # 1

It's a Westernized mochi cake with three LEDs shining light through the cake.

Go Bears!

Cake! MIT Media Lab!

I'm excited that lB and my brother will be in town next week! To celebrate I will attempt making a brilliant cake - literally. It'll be unique compared to the light-up cakes found on the internet though. lB might have to endure my prototyping in the kitchen, solder in hand, as I probably won't have time to make the first couple test cakes before next week.

Here's a peek at what my cake will not look like. After all, what's the point in making an existing cake? (Click on the cakes for the original links.)


(by pastry chef Anne Heap, founder of Pink Cake Box)


(by Buckley and Binns. Buckley is an MIT alumnus and great hacker.*)

* why, oh why, did you - lB - turn down grad. school at MIT? The Media Lab just got a whole lot sexier too with Ed Boyden's group! They recently demonstrated the delivery of light inside brain structures which could control genetically modulated brain cells and consequently manipulate behavior in primates. It had not been shown in primates until now, since gene therapy in primates is complicated. It may someday replace deep brain stimulators for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and other disorders.

Okie, I managed to avoid lab work yet again. Aiya...

obsession

Life should be full of it, no?

Recently, the NYtimes did a thing on the food carts in Portland and I want to own one very badly. I could serve small picnic ready packages of fine french food--menu changing daily. Less elaborate than Gregoire's but just as comforting.

I want my seedlings for a summer garden to grow up strong. I'm very worried about their water intake at the moment.

I can't seem to stop listening to Paul Simon's Rhthym of the Saints.

I sent and received my first mail art exchange. (I made some woolly biking riding hand mitts and got a very pretty necklace. But even more exciting for me is the little cardboard paper doll the necklace came wrapped around--something is probably wrong with me--but it was adorable and cool and i'm trying to find places to put all my recently acquired cardboard-art wealth.)

And since I'm broke, I'm coveting these copper necklaces. Lastly, I'm really looking forward to another trip to the Bay. I'm both very tired and looking forward to seeing dB.