Party time in Philly

Sidewalk gambling is open for business on a bustling street in Philadelphia. This young man was a fast-talker and was taking $40 bets on which of his three bottle caps a small red berry was under.
...here he goes. On this bet he actually lost $40. I am not sure if he did it on purpose to build confidence or that he is actually not going to make much money at this endeavor.

When I get home and out of the cold, I am greeted by the two dogs curled up on the couches. This is Colie: she is a 10-month old boxer, pit-bull mix with lovely eyes.
And here is Trotter (or "Trot"). He is 5 years old and has a ton of personality.


While procrastinating on further edits my little sister's gradate school application essays, I decided to get my hair cut and straightened...I enjoy the silkyness ...
Here I am with straight hair and polka dots at the comapany holiday party...where I was not recognized by a number of people
yes..those are my co-workers on the dance floor of a venue that was too large for our group size: the former Real World House of Philadelphia.
Ice sculpture, ATTACK!
Cat, Erika and Dillan :)
...and some huge chunks of meat.

The next evening we celebrated Emma's birthday earlier in the month with a solid gold dance partyThe gold coat was also handy for Heather's yoga class I attended with Ian the next morning.

The fabulous weekend extended into Monday night with front-row end zone tickets to the Eagles game.
The Eagles won handily and friends and colleagues from coast to coast recognized me on national television despite the green and white face paint.
I'm a lucky kid, alright.

Thanksgiving with the fam

Well, here is my nuclear family...this is pretty much where all the magic begins
(L to R: dad, me, sis and mom on thanksgiving 2008)


One shock wave out on my dad's side, you get the power-team shown above. ObieWan (the dog) is adopted.The day after our thanksgiving feast, Brian, my sister's brilliant, muscled, and tatooed boyfriend (rippling arm above) insisted that we leave for SF's new indoor rock climbing gym by 7:30am ( really?)... Here I am not long after the gym opened with quickly fading forearms.
Here is my little sister....she's such a little crack addict.
And my sister belaying my mom...yeah, I'm pretty impressed.

3bdrm townhouse by a park

Well, after 10 weeks of scouring craigslist and visiting mildly insane druggies during my free time on the weekends I finally found the living situation of my Philly dreams:
* shiny hardwood floors
* big, open kitchen with deck for grilling
* 2 great roommates
* 2 ridiculously cute dogs
* right next to multiple parks, tennis courts, basketball, running by a river
* quiet, tree-lined street
* 5min walk to center city and friends

...and, as with many great transitions in my life...the move began with a very detailed list (pictured below)
The plan proceeded into the packing stage with the help of a box of black garbage bags purchased at 8am the morning I intended to move...boxes are so overrated
Cat in the early (read: less productive) stages of packing up the apartment
....and then magically...I was moved...and then I ran 13.1 miles in below freezing weather at 7am...no, really.

********
So, here we are at my house. Would you like to come in? ..Like any good house tour, I thought we would start with the bathroom on the third floor. I highlight this bathroom (making up a full one of the 2.5) because it is mine.

Here is my stunning bed in a nook in my 3rd floor bedroom
...and a view of my room and two windows from where the steeo, slippery stairs lead into my bedroom
The KITCHEN!!!! Future home of things like COOKING and HANGING OUT
and the stairs of DANGER...please don't visit me and fall down my stairs....leading down into living room on the first floor. (The boys live on the second floor and are not profiled yet)
Stay tuned for pictures of my two favorite dogs and new roommates! :) WOOO! (oh yes, and office Christmas party pictures)

Beautiful weekends

Last night I went to "mix tape club" for the first time. Mix tape club meets about once a month in an art gallery/studio in South Philly. The members of mix tape club put together a themed mix of songs on a CD and make 10 copies to share. When I arrived at 7:30pm with Emma who knows the girl who started the group, there were about 20 interesting-looking individuals scattered around the cozy studio chatting drinking beer and wine and snacking on an assortment of pot-luck style food including a big bag of muddy buddies. One of the mix CDs was playing. Most of the people there were artists with relatively boring day-jobs. I met several comedians, a stained glass artist (it was his studio), a record store owner, an aspiring singer, and a smattering of students and other visual arts people. Discussions on movies and music were way over my head but I felt warmly welcomed and had an awesome time. Later in the evening after everyone had done the brief presentations of their mixes, people migrated toward the back of the studio. I saw someone with an intricate chinese stamp and we decided to find some ink and proceeded to go around giving people acrylic-paint tatoos which were fun but didn't last very long.

I can't wait for next month.


This is part of the "secret garden" made of glass, concrete and found objects on south street.
This is me in my carrot costume at work :)

Cat and sister united

Cat drove down to Santa Barbara, where her treasured sis lives. We ate salads with lettuce we picked from the garden and then through a huge amount of gear in the SUV and headed out to Red Rocks national park.

It sure feels good to be in California...

We went hiking and camping. However, I was severely injured which trying to break off a cat-tail...
Cat posing with horned melon late at night at the campsite
Alex "slack lining"...it is about as easy as it looks

Alex and I made oatmeal with walnuts and raisins and sat on the porch overlooking their vegetable garden.

California...my spirit's home

The trip home to SF was filled with time outside with family...here is me doing a little yoga on Treasure Island after running around the perimeter with spectacular views of the city while my dad read and my mom walked.

We also went for an 7 mi roundtrip hike with a mid-point at the ocean where we played jump-rope with giant pieces of seaweed.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to pick up a 2lb dead jellyfish...I used to wonder that too...
Here is dad by the waterfall that drops onto the beach where we played seaweed jump-rope and "get the frisbee out of the ocean after Catherine makes a horrible pass"
View toward golden gate park from Ocean beach.
We visited the new Science Museum in GG park. It has a LIVING ROOF!!! (SF is so awesome)
Here is the scuba diver taking about the fish he is in a tank with in the science museum.
Catherine and grand-dad enjoying each other's company.
Cat at home
Great grandfather Revered Herbert Tweedie's grave in Oakland
Beautiful lilly-pad pond
My family like sky and rocks
and waterfalls and empty beaches
...and being generally awesome