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I found these photos last night and every time I need a little pick me up I just have to look at these photos and it instantly makes me smile.  See?  It doesn’t take much to make me happy!

via virginhoney on flickr

No, this isn’t another post about the presidential election. Something totally different.

I came across the most awesome black and white baby art the other day. Why am I looking at art for babies, you ask me? Sigh… NO I’m NOT pregnant. Sorry if anyone is disappointed. HA! But I’ve been browsing some fun design blogs recently - I think my recent trip with Jill to a Lotta Jansdotter event inspired me to get more… well, inspired. And there are a LOT of interesting design blogs out there.

Anyway, the upshot of it was, I was dutifully working on my thesis (aka procrastinating on the internet) and I saw a photo of some kid’s room and it had the coolest b&w print in one of those framed photo collages - I can’t even remember which blog this was anymore, but it was great because I spotted it right away and was like - OMG that is the most adorable ________ (see I can’t even remember the exact animal, something about the shapes just caught my eye) where do I find that?!!! And this wonderful, now forgotten blogger linked to K Barteski’s site… where she has posted all of the original images for FREE!!!

FYI: For those of you w/o kids, apparently black and white images are supposed to be extra stimulating for babies… or something like that. Whatever, I’m ready to print these out for ME!!

And, in honor of my thesis writing, I post two animals that are related to my research:

SO COOL! The artist has a really young baby, and was, ah, unimpressed by the b&w stuff she was seeing, and she just whipped these babies up one morning. Just like that. Dang I wish I was talented. Sigh.

Check out her recently ‘published’ book via blurb - also looks adorable.

PS. For those of you non-crazy bioscience people out there - No, I don’t work with hedgehogs exactly, but a well known growth factor I do some work with is named sonic hedgehog homolog (SHH for short) after Sonic the hedgehog. Yes, that Sonic, from Sega video games. Remember Sega?

Soerha and I managed to meet up with the artist a few weeks ago, at the Berkeley Ironworks where his art is currently showing. (Kind of an odd place, but definitely gets a lot of foot traffic)

In any case, it was nice to meet the man in person, and to see some of the larger pieces in person too. And, of course, to get my goodies in my hot little hands!! I made a trip to Aaron Brothers and spent about an hour contemplating all the framing options. (Yes, I know, a little much but it was a difficult decision!!!)

And, without further ado… here is the final product on our bathroom wall!! Continue Reading »

I got two phone messages this last weekend, actually within an hour of each other.

One was from Daphne telling me that she found some tokidoki on sale at Leohmann’s, and did I want her to pick up anything for me?

The second was from my brother in law Nathan, telling me I needed to watch this youtube video of a hamster eating broccoli.

What can I say?  My friends and family share cuteness in the world with me…  and I LOVE IT!!!!

Sometimes, I just need to remind myself of the great things in my life, and there are quite a few things recently that have given me joy (in no particular order):

1. Adorable nephew Mattie:

2. nanoBrew (our nerdy name for our nerdy Rock Band)

3. Unexpected flowers and delicious fruits from Ryan (and homemade ice cream from Dryw):

4. The new and improved Engineering Circle. I think they tore this down my freshman year of undergrad, and now, after 9 years, a seismically retrofitted Heart Mining Building and brand new Stanley Hall… it is gorgeous.

5. Rice vermicelli with Imperial Rolls from Le Petit Cheval.

( Tamales from the Tamale Lady come in a close second. )

6. Adorable doggies: Winston, a shorkie (shih tsu and yorki mix)

7. Mission Bay Community Church (MBCC): Fun, friendly, and two blocks from home… what more could I ask?

8. Happy news from friends:
Genese and Adrian on their new house!
Lucinda and Dan expecting their first baby in April!
Michelle and Will expecting their first baby in August!
Julian and Diana expecting their first baby in August/September!
Michelle and Kreg on their upcoming wedding this October!

9. My dad is a real golfer!!

10. The expectation of trying our very own brown ale beer… in another week or so!!

or rather, it’s already been lost:

Mosquito: 9 course feast on me, 2 on Ryan (and counting)

Me: 0

I woke up a few nights ago at 4AM to intense itching on my arm… stumbled into the bathroom and saw an angry red bump glaring back at me. I returned to bed, pep talking myself into thinking that *perhaps* the offending bugger had left the bedroom… and just as I was drifting off I heard the infernal buzzing near me and knew that sleep was going to elude me. Instead I decided to curl up with a novel in the living room.

An hour later a sleepy Ryan peeks out of the bedroom, telling me to come back to bed… and we leave the light on to stalk the mosquito. After about 30 minutes there was still no sign of it and I concluded it must have passed out in food coma and wouldn’t bother me again. Oh, I was so wrong…

The next evening I started scratching my face… then my left hand… then my left arm… then my right arm… I found five red spots.

The next morning I found more…

Can I declare defeat? Surrender? Something?!!

There must be some way to barricade my entire apartment with a non-toxic form of DEET… right?!!!! Maybe I need to change my research track from stem cells to mosquitoes… bioengineer a strain of mosquitoes that don’t feed off humans… but feed off of disgusting flies…

Did I ever tell you I hate bugs? Except for the pretty, useful, or industrious ones that don’t bother me.

PS. Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!

what happened? A whole year has gone by with absolutely no posts, and suddenly (ok not suddenly, I knew it was creeping up on me) I realize that there is so much catching up to do, it’s a bit overwhelming. I’m still working on getting the archives set up, so hopefully that will appear eventually. But for now, I’m starting fresh! Although, I do have some old ‘posts’ that never actually… got posted. They’re from 2006 though… is it worth it? Perhaps not. I guess I’ll just do a distillation of it all here.

Here’s a rundown of top 25 random happenings/commentaries/rants/shoutouts of the last year (in honor of Cal rising to #10 this week in the ESPN/AP polls), in random order:

1. We live in San Francisco!! Potrero Hill is awesome. It’s sunny. And warm. But I’m gonna miss these guys:

Apparently the wild animal of choice around these parts is stray trash…

2. Cal Football is going to be GGRRRREAT this season! I know it! Plus, the student season tickets for under $100 make it even better.

3. Read this book. I have an extra copy if you don’t want to buy/borrow from elsewhere. Plus, the artist is a Cal grad. Go Bears!

4. You will get moles (and mole hills) if you overwater your lawn. Save water.

5. Do not buy vacation timeshares. Unless you have an extra $$ you want to throw away. I repeat, Do Not Buy Timeshares. There. You can’t say I didn’t tell you so.

6. Book signings are awesome. Please don’t let me get addicted to them. They are expensive addictions. I hate paying full price for books. That’s for losers, man! Except when you can get one signed. Then it’s pretty awesome.

7. Tokidoki is awesome. Too bad I’m already addicted to buying Tokidoki Lesportsac purses. Thankfully, the collaboration ends in October, so the purging of our bank account will be over. Except for the vinyl toys. And maybe the occasional t-shirt. This is me in Tokidoki Land:

8. The best part about lab moving back to campus is the food. Forget about the state of the art brand spankin’ new building we moved into. (That has wigged out security systems, broken cold rooms, freezing/burning hot rooms where you actually need to work, and not store stuff that is freezing/hot, and a host of other things) More specifically, Hummingbird Cafe and their awesome smoothies that I can get every day now… instead of once in a blue moon. Yum. That, and the korean place on northside with the beef hot soup. And Bongo Burger’s chix plate. And cheap mexican at La Burrita. And the enormous salads at Intermezzo. And… gosh I better stop now. I think I gained 5 pounds just thinking about it all… and after eating all the free pizza last week. Cheesy sticks from West Coast are still good. I mean, they’re bad heath-wise, but good taste-wise.

9. Chopping down your own Christmas tree in a non-environmentally sustainable tree farm is fun. I want to do it again. When is Christmas? Do I really have another 4 months to go?!!! *whine*

10. I am Sad that Melissa, Dino, Aiden, Arun, and Jennifer are in MA. And that Colin is in WI, that Ying is leaving for NY, and Carmel and Josh and Shelly are in/going to the UK. But I am Happy that they all have jobs that pay more than $30k a year. I think. I hope.

11. Apple picking and pumpkin patching is fun. Who wants to go again this year?!!

12. Matthew is now over 1 year old. He’s such a cutie.

It makes me want my own baby. I think. I swear my biological clock is telling me I need my own slobbery, crying baby that poops and eats all the time. I notice pregnant women now. I never used to notice them, unless they ran into me with their pregnant bellies. (ie. never) Now I think everyone/anyone (female) with a belly is pregnant. Even though I’m pretty sure most of them are just fat.

13. Ryan and I have been married for over a year. Apparently, (and this is confirmed by other married people) this means that anyone/everyone can now ask us when we are going to have children. I do want kids. Really I do. (see #12) But sometimes I just want to say “We’re practicing. All the time.” (Shyam told me this gem of a response… apparently his cousin, or someone he knows, used it on their family. I so want to use it. It’s such a great response. But I’m too chicken.)

14. In the Li Lab, it takes 3 people to change a light bulb. Or, you can ask me. I can do it alone. Without breaking anything. If you ever wonder what we do in lab when we’re bored, here’s your answer: (ie. take pictures of ourselves doing inane things like spraying our gloves with alcohol)

15. Ryan and I still have yet to order any wedding photo prints. We got our album, a year after the wedding. But no prints yet. For anyone. Not even my parents. Or Ryan’s parents. My parents printed their own after it appeared it was not going to happen on our end. Ha!

16. Speaking of weddings, weddings are awesome. (I guess I think a lot of things are awesome.) Ngan and Kan’s wedding in NYC last Labor Day was awesome. Marlena and Dan’s wedding last fall was awesome. Shyam and Jill’s wedding in Pasadena this summer was awesome. And I can’t wait until Erica and Richard start planning their wedding. I’m sure it will be awesome. Congrats everyone!!!!

17. Speaking of awesome-ness, Thane’s queso dip is pretty awesome. Let me tell you, I love cheese. All kinds of cheese. I am Wallace from Wallace and Gromit. I love expensive goat cheese, cured for 10 months in horse sh*t on a certified organic farm in Petaluma from free range goats, sold at Cheeseboard, a worker owned collective. But I am not a cheese snob. I also love fake cheese. (In fact I can’t stand nachos with real melted cheese… where’s the fake stuff??) And queso is glorified fake cheese at it’s finest… I could eat a whole crock pot full of it… if Ryan didn’t stop me. Happy birthday Thane!

18. Girls rock at poker. Esp. when the guys think you’re, well, a girl. And can’t play poker. Ha! Just because I can’t always remember if a straight is higher than a flush, doesn’t mean I can’t play poker, dammit. (is a straight higher than a flush?! shoot, I can never remember.) Oooooo… here’s a good cheat sheet.

19. Happy belated birthday Jennifer. I’m sorry I forgot to call you. I’m a bad, bad person.

20. Wii Sports is one of the best games made ever. The roundup:

Tennis: Dad:1, Mom:0.

Boxing: Dad:0, Mom:1

Mom chucking the remote and it hitting the wall above (thankfully) our TV: extra point.

Final score: Dad:1, Mom:2 Mom wins!!

21. Ever wonder what I do at work? I spend 99% of my time trying to grow these:

The other 1% of the time I am actually doing experiments with them! PS - this poster was made my 9th graders… take that!

22. Custom made AR-15 rifles are awesome.

23. Kylie sometimes looks rather menacing but she’s really just a chicken snatcher…. and bread snatcher… and any-food-that-smells-good-when-you’re-not-looking snatcher…

24. Seeing friends you haven’t seen in a long time is good. So are cupcakes. (And at $3 a pop, those cupcakes better be good!)

Seeing family is good too. Especially my cousin, who’s willing to eat a frozen strawberry filled with soy sauce for $5.

25. Koalas are cute.

So are baby seals.

Hayley in a lycra suit? Definitely not so cute. She just looks really dumb.

Whew!! Okay that’s it for now… I should be good for another year, right?