You thought I was kidding...

...about thinking I might be destined to marry Tony Bourdain since I was fortunate enough to accidently run across him while poking around at the Ferry Building farmer's market last Saturday. However! Today's confirmacion, so to speak, was that while hunting around for gifts for our mini-hosts/hostesses in Amsterdam, I decided to go into Stacey's books while on lunchbreak to get some skater mags, and maybe some notecards, and who should be speaking starting at 12:30? (It was 12:39 when I walked by...) YES! Mon ami Tony!!! so i wandered upstairs and got to hear that accent! that voice! that laugh! while he told stories of sitting at Judges Table on Top Chef with Collechio... (sigh!)

CW + TB forever!!!

Now, I will be OK if I die...

well, not really... but. I mean I still have to see Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, sleep in an Irish castle, drive on a racetrack, but, I have seen Tony Bourdin in person, and though there was NO interaction, I got to see his signature strut as he walked into book passage in the Ferry Building on Saturday morning.

... which I owe to my own impatience for the popularity of Blue bottle Coffee... the line! could the stuff be THAT good!?, and to MB for NEEDING coffee before anything else causing us to go to Peet's and seeing the wierd crowd in front of the bookstore...

Oh Tony....


What a happy accident to find you in my corner of the world.

and this was NOT the first celebrity chef that I've gawked at through a window...
Laura could tell you a great story about calling upstairs from her cell phone on a late lunchbreak screaming something about naked chefs in the One Market Restaurant... once she calmed, I realized that she meant THE Naked Chef~!

So I booked downstairs as quick as my pumps could carry me, and we sat outside of the restaurant giggling as we imagined his accent and what he might have been saying to the crowd that had assembled around his table.

aah....celebrity.

Feed Me Seymour....

now you can grab my feed if you're not using 'point & shoot' feed readers like the very awesome bloglines.com - of which I am a HUGE fan.


if you have to manually add the RSS to your reader, click the link that says *atom* on the right sidebar above the NaBloMe- kitty and copy what's in the 'address bar' and paste it into your reader - click the 'add' button and VOILA!

enjoy!

cw

***Brought to you by MB who was curious what I have to say online... (hmmm... maybe to make sure I don't post about him? or maybe to make sure that I do!)
(....waving to theCute)

Addicted to Bliss

That sounds much more hippy-esque than it should.... but honestly - I had no idea! and I blame a Moose and a Bonfire for getting me hooked.

on Bliss

Honestly, how could you not love a company that encourages rubbing caffeine infused lotion on your waistline to tame the jiggle?! Not that *I* have that problem.... (ok - I'm lying... I'm on my second bottle of Love Handler... and giving Fat Girl Slim a go -preventative maintenance!!)

Bonus for me - in our location here in SF - I found the brow waxer of my dreams - and their wax formula, besides being a gorgeous shade of deep blue, doesn't require the grimace of pain that most of us have experienced in the past when having our brows re-arched... seriously - no pain. I have very sensitive skin, and I have known me some wax-pain.

Last night however, while in for my pre-vacation brow treatment, it seemed silly not to throw in a ManiPedi - yes, definitely a splurge in the wallet dept. but how can you not scream "What a Deal!" when you have a plate full of cheese & crackers, cucumbers, and Brownies, waiting in your manicure station? Yes brownies, in a Spa!~ this is no ordinary spa, my friends... this is a fun, funny, true pampering type of spa. Not to mention a pair of noise reducing head phones - all the better to hear Sex And The City that is playing on the personal TV screen in front of me.

I think that if I could live in a Bliss Spa I would be oh so happy! Steam Showers, endless supplies of lemony body balm, soapy sap and shampoo! With brownies on top!? Whoo... what a life it would be.

join me in the cult of bliss...

if you sign up for their emails, they lure you with all sorts of freebies with each order.

and if I weren't a little bit bugetarily challenged .. I just came across a little item on their site that is nearly unbelievable... Chocolate that makes you lose weight... and you HAVE to eat 3 pieces a day.

That doesn't suck.

cw

Oh, It's onnnnnn! (Runway Spoilers...)

Project Runway *has* beGunn!



time to find out who is in and who is out...

I'm not as good as 'some people' with recapping shows... but I'm going to try - at least some juicy opinions and silliness for the first episode... I'll be in Europe for the next two... but will hopefully pick it up when I return in December....

So - already... the african american model and the korean chick - I think they're out. (27 min. into the show...)

commercial: Santino... oh, dramatic last season kid... miss ya! so sad that that punk-rock cheat Jeffrey won..., but dear Santino.. you were the Jay of your season... not good enough to land a guest spot on Tim Gunn's new show, but no one could kiss ass like Laura....

my guess for first off this season is:

hippie chick, or *straight* dude (only because they didn't show his process at all!)
it's really anyone's guess if you just go by the producer's edit of the action...

but I cannot not comment on the 21 year old hipster with the rich parents...(only braces could make teeth look like that...) he wishes he were a street urchin, but his oddly perfect teeth betray him... he will stay.

11:01pm....

So .. my instincts were wrong, Hippie Chick got to stay, and boring girl with bad construction got kicked.

I love to see the dopplegangers from previous seasons, and since blow-by-blow isn't my style - but I did create this for long standing runway fans... separated at birth:


I don't know that the successes of the previous season will translate - but I believe the personalities are fairly spot-on or at least the 'profiles'....

ooh who is off next week?

my prediction is of the following:

hippie chick or Ricky
and that Michael Kors is just the meanest guy EVER... why does he make such GREAT pants...

cw

when fantasy has no chance of happening in reality a.k.a 'obsession of the day' or 'why oh why can't *I* have a stylist?!

I've been obsessed lately with mascara & eyeliner...
and I'm the worst candidate since i'm either constantly laughing causing the stuff to run, or rubbing at my eyes forgetting that I even have makeup on!

so today after pumping the brush of the current masacara enough to get a work out and still not be able to get a decent coat on my lashes....

I went and bought two bottles of drugstore mascara - not any drugstore mascara but the most popular mascara of all time



and though they offer great options - waterproof, straight brush, curvy brush, blackest black, very black, soft black and brownish black... didn't see brown, but sure they have it... but the natural look is not really in right now, so maybe not...

but what they didn't have was the PERFECT combo
blackest black, waterproof with the curvy brush!

so I bought blackest black with the curvy, and waterproof very black with the straight... and plan to frankenstein them together - ASAP!

hopefully yielding results something like this:



or this:



yeah, I'm laughing too....

ah well, c'est la vie

owning it is the first step....

cw

Oh My Truffled Laundry Cabinets.....

So, Saturday's Bonny Doon Vineyard winemaker dinner in Santa Cruz was unbelievable -

Apertif Wine
2005 Gonzo Pinot Gris

First Course
Kampachi Crudo
Shaved matsutake mushrooms
Seared black truffle parsnip risotto cake
Micro celery
Quince Salt

2003 DEWN Ca'del Solo Galician/Ligurian Blend

Second Course
Truffle Injected duck egg
Bellesque endive
Lamb's tongue
Pig Ear Mushroom
Himalayan Truffle Vinagrette

2006 Le Cigare Volant

Third Course
Sycamore Farms Tuscan Rose eggplant and goat shoulder ravioli
Chanterelle Mushrooms
Sunchoke Sauce
White alba truffles shaved and melted atop

2006 Ca Del Solo Dolcetto

Fourth Course
Stopman Vineyard Nebbiolo-braised short ribs
Celery root porcini truffle puree

2004 Stolpman Vineyard Nebbiolo

Dessert
Blue Ballet Squash Flan
White Truffle Gelato
Barbera burgundy black truffle sauce

2004 Ca' del Solo Recioto of Barbera

this was the first time that I experienced (a'la Iron Chef) ice cream flavored with savory truffles! As in the musky mushroom kind, not the choco kind.....

Par for the (wine) course, we quaffed some very delicious wines - including a dessert-ish wine with a main course and a thick, savory "dessert" wine - that wasn't sweet at all, with the actual dessert. All very delicious, but soooo rich that the ohsogourmand MB was a little.... um... digestively overwhelmed. The poor thing tossed and turned and had very Alice In Wonderland-esque dream-mares of being chased by bulbous angry truffles that were in turn being chased by shiny sharp truffle shavers... and big pitchers of delicious saucy reductions of burgundy threatening to drown him with their goodness!~ oh my!

After driving in torrential rainstorms and experiencing short-of-time stressfulness on our path to the Bonny Doon dinner last night, and despite repeatedly ignoring the lovely woman who lives inside the navi in the new MINI, hoping she wouldn't reach right out and slap us one for diverting from her path and ignoring her pleas that we take a "u-turn at the next road to the right".... who knew what could happen with the features this car has!!!

We made it *just* in time to check in at the Bates Motel (why oh why do no reasonable chain hotels locate themselves to Santa Cruz!!!) and we made it *just* in time for a quick sip of the aperitif wine and in due time for the first course... still 'drying' out from the crazy downpour that chased us from SF.... got back to our hotel to discover no wireless (!) and then drifted off to a somewhat tumultuous sleep...

....we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day, not a cloud in the sky!!

Our morning began wandering over to Kelly's French Bakery for some lovely coffee and pastry before rushing downtown. We had only 30 minutes to browse the AnnieGlass store before having to hit the road and rush home, all the way begging the woman in my dashboard to get us home in time - rooting for the 'time to destination' to move closer to the appointed time to meet the gang downstairs to FINALLY install the cabinets in the Laundry room that have been in various states of existence over the last few months. From flat pack to partially built to built and empty to built and propped against the wall, to stacked as if they were useful to finally mounted by 3pm today - crooked floors and wavy walls be damned~! And miraculously - not a resident/owner murdered in the process!! MB was sent upstairs because powertools and the remainder of a sleepless night due to mild indigestion do not a pleasant situation make~!!!

photos to follow!!

with a well accessorized laundry room,

cw

Altering reality...

You know how when you're on birth control, and you decide to skip the sugar pills, and it is like skipping a period. Well... thankfully blogger.com has a similar mechanism. Post Options.

So.... if the hotel in Santa Cruz had wireless (wow - so many REAL excuses for workin' the back-date....) then the actual post the part, after the intro here, saved to drafts... waiting to be finished after dinner, would have made it accurately into the NaBlo- lineup....

---------
Today I'm picking up my new car. Not that I *needed* a new car, but ... why not. And it's all Mere's fault. If she hadn't gotten me back on to the MINI site to see the car she built, I'd never have created the car that now sits in my driveway!!

Introducing Pimpy...


I'm not sure if that's going to be the car's lasting name.... I'm not sure yet if it's a girl or boy car.
She's astro-black. That means she is a preternatural glowing shade of black, and that besides being the 'little black dress' of cars, that she has a navy blue shimmer in the sunlight.
but.

the BEST possible thing... after walking into the showroom to this (sign hanging from her rear view mirror):




was that there were two features that I didn't even KNOW to look forward to and that may have eclipsed the prepaid lifetime subscription to SIRIUS Satellite radio/HD/premium sound package and the navigation system..

MOOD LIGHTING... 6 colors that bathe the cockpit in colored light at night pink, purple, turq., red, orange, and blue...

image from web (edmunds.com) - not my config.... but I tried to take pictures - they didn't come out....




woah.

and the voice activated stereo... you push a button on the steering wheel and tell it which section and track to play from the built in iPod interface....


We're off to dinner in Santa Cruz - a winemaker dinner put on by Bonny Doon, the rain is a little daunting - but my new 'baby' can handle the pressure - with all 6 speeds and much better rims than you see in the photo.... real photos to follow....


sometimes your best accessory is your car!

Twee!

I am the happiest girl! A band I never thought I'd ever get to see live is coming to SF early next year and I have tickets!!! Yes it's loooonnnng after their heyday, and yes EVERYONE knows about them, but there is still something very exciting about getting to see a 'hero' live on stage. Something even more exciting than 'knowing about them first. (Truly, Buki... I swear).

My very first knowledge of Indiepop/Twee music was shared with me by the very talented Jill Bliss. We did fashion school together in Saratoga, CA and I still remember my amazement at the beautiful sounds that poured from her cassette player while we hung out at her apartment (!) that she shared with her boyfriend (!); both things ultimately exotic to me - having never had a real boyfriend and living at home while going to college. (...Catwalker waves to the other late bloomers!!^-^) The song that dripped tingly sparly moondrops all down my spine that first time was The Magnetic Fields "100,000 Fireflies" ~ soooooo beautiful!

As I continued on through life and school - thoroughly affected by constant replay of Twee songs like that one and "C is the heavenly option" by Heavenly and "Love is the Answer" by Even as we Speak. Most of the bands as are the newer up and coming ones, very talented, but very underground grass roots type bands, and did tiny club tours if any! Most twee music at that time was available on '45 (those are the small vinyl discs with the big hole...).

anyway... tonight checking email - I saw, thanks to Sonic Living, (sign up! we'll see shows!!) that Magnetic Fields were going to be coming! Apparently they have a new album out in January. So now I'm 80 bux more in debt and happily counting down the days before the concert.

Here's a YouTube of that famous song that someone paired up with oddly enough the firefly 'rolling' level of Katamari Damacy - oddly since it's my favorite ps2 game.

just by a string...

.....am I holding it all together. I missed another post. I actually sat at my computer and tried to pick which of about 4 things I wanted to post about. And then my "ADD" kicked in and I decided to install Leopard, and then sit down and hash over all the crazy days events with MB. Events that included: Used-Car-For-Sale Stalkers, expensive museum parking, frozen cars, nearly getting my head chopped off by a fan..., walking until my feel nearly fell off, losing track of time, and making it home at that wierd hour that makes it hard to just stop and grab a book - too tired! ; or bother to fix up some dinner, do chores, or find any around-the-house-projects, - too late! So I grabbed a cozy throw, a cat and the couch, and woke up at 11:55pm... with a jammed up computer, lifeless batteries in the mouse and a horrible sense of dread - that I was going to miss another NaBloPoMo post... and I did.

My mental well being is truly at an all time low, so low that I am able to admit it - well to certain people in specific ways, other people not at all, and vaguely - to the entire universe. That is when I'm not peering out from the end of another empty wine bottle... I kid - not *technically* using alcohol to cope, but let me tell ya - it sure isn't hurting.

I've got neighbors that are impossible to deal with, work that has been kicking my ass, a major chunk of my life blasted apart and the wind carrying the fluttering pieces away from me as I scurry after each individual piece attempting to gather them and reassemble what was a pretty beautiful thing - even as much of a work of progress as it may have been...

Without belabouring that which will all come together more or less soon enough, and that which is called work for a reason, would one person tell me that the 'Twittering' I did yesterday - which shows up in my badge on my blog, count for yesterday's NaBloPoMo posting?

thanks.

randomodnar

wierd thoughts that have passed across my brain:


thank you, to the rest of the people in my range of sight, for not wearing a braided belt like THAT guy....

more coffee is always a better idea

that's why they call it work. No wait, THAT's why they call it work.

so many people don't want to buy my used car that i barely want to drive it anymore....

Fog City

it's embarrassing to live in San Francisco.

the candidates for mayor - one illustration of why this is so.

the candidates this election - by current occupation:

Publisher/SF Bulldog (wtf does that mean? Is there a sports team called the Bulldogs?)

Writer/Nudist Activists (and the public access network is crossing its fingers - for this to come through, watching the local gov. meetings broadcast on tv will be worth watching... maybe.)
Juvenile Probation Manager (well at least someone will have a sense of how to deal with the board of supes - finally!)

Florist/Coffee Farmer (these really are the tools to solve any problem... a bouquet of flowers to Fiona Ma and some coffee... as in Ed Jew - wake up and smell the coffee...!)

Vegan TaxiDriver (this is the guy whose QUALIFICATIONS for mayor inclue being residentially challenged in SF for 13 years)

Program Director (possibly the most qualified candidate)

The Mayor (he's not doing that bad of a job...in my humble opinion - keep the 'talent' in place, at least the women of this town pay attention)

College Professor (ummm City College... once a bureaucrat always a bureaucrat...)

Nightclub Owner (well really to be honest "legal sex-club owner, we really have enough naked people festivals in this town... don't we? again if elected - great public access...)

Showman (I haven't mentioned any other names here, so I'll stay consistent, but ...One of his qualifications is that he converted his truck to run on coffee grounds with zero emissions... he and the coffee farmer should get together... and might I say... too much time on your hands?!)
and then we have the 'dreamers'

Physician (and the man whose name means "no killing"

and

Journalist (he's looking to help empower communities...)
wow. in case you need visual proof! http://www.sfbg.com/elections/fall2007/

Not to mention the other offices up for grabs this time around...
District Attorney: (running against NO BODY! i'm writing in the Showman...)

Sherrif: Deputy Sherrif Running against the current Sherrif...that is a bit more office politics than needs to be happening in the sherrif's department don't you think? What happens if Deputy Dog wins? What happens if he loses....?!?!?!?

gotta love it. and wonder if it's really a big earthquake that will be the end of it. I see anarchy on the horizon!

don't let Blogger mess you up!

Scheduled outage at 11PM PST

so for you zero hour West Coast NaBloPoMo'ers... (LIKE ME!) don't fall victim!

good luck!

yes I'm planning for a real post to follow...

cw

haute cocoa...

dumb, over used pun... but hey, if the shoe fits, you're at Cacao in Portland, OR.








I didn't buy nearly enough, but the 3 pcs. I did buy were... unbelievably tasty... how can you resist the Cacaomiel which is described by the artist as "The Cacaomiel: Everything you wish a candy bar could be. Real honey nougat, blended with bittersweet chocolate, and cocoa nibs for crunch." -- local Portlander David Briggs from Park Kitchen (rumor has it he 'bacon+choco'd' LONG before Vosges!). His company name is Xocolatl De David. This honey - my weakness! - delicacy was described by one of the owners of Cacao as "a perfect honey & chocolate 'slap in the face' sweet/salty...mmmmm" I was sold. I wish I'd bought more than one... ate it so quickly - no photo!

The ones I did resist the temptation to gulp in one bite... and take time to snap photos of were from a Seattle company called Theo - oddly, MB and I grabbed a bar from a farm stand on the way to Russian River one weekend last spring, loved it immensely, but ohhh.. the fancy chocolates are TDF!

pictures/what we sampled...
PB&J (... which as you know is no stranger to me...)
Hot Ceylon Cinnamon

I walked away with a teeny - and sadly so - stash, but a great recco. on what shop to track down when I'm in Paris later this month! Friendly proprietors, lovely cozy atmosphere, Cacao is a "Chocolate Curator" of sorts, as they pull the best of the best chocolates for eating and for gifting, and have taken pleasure in creating their own signature line of drinking choco, which I swear if there hadn't been many more tax-free items to purloin, I'd have sat and sipped and sighed at my luck for happening across such a fantastic boutique!

do NOT miss it next time you're in PDX...

and say hey to Aubrey while you're there.  

cacao
503-214-0656
414 sw 13th ave
portland, or 97205
www.cacaodrinkchocolate.com

PDX (part 1)

Just got back from Portland earlier this week and what a great city!! They have great transpo., nice people, beautifully colored fall leaves - on the trees and on the ground. oh! and NO SALES TAX.... I'm sure they're all sick of Californians saying that... but really, it's a novel experience, to be sure!!

I shopped:

the only U.S. Doc Martens store - hello my beautiful 20-eyed, knee highs

LuluLemon - shopping for yoga pant's was 8.5% less torturous - esp. when you have a cute, gay, irish, personal shopper ;)

American Apparel - loving my new cozy wrap dress and bright Poppy tights!!

and discovered a cute little independent designer boutique called Seaplane - to die for one of a kinds and indie favorites

I ate:

at 10-01, a wonderful restaurant featuring local product and new american preparations, where I discovered DrySoda (www.drysoda.com) - lavender YUMMM!

and found the cutest chocolate shop Cacao - which I'll feature a full review on tomorrow ...divine!!

cw

What is Cheating, really....

So... I've been so beside myself lately with said personal crisis... that I can't even remember things I've done... like indeed signing up for NaBlowPoMo....

DUH!

But in reading the welcome page today ( http://nablopomo.ning.com/ ).... I saw this...

"The Forums tab will take you to a place where you can commiserate with other people who are loving NaBlo, hating NaBlo, tearing their hair out over NaBlo, or cheating by backdating their posts.

The Groups tab will help you find other likeminded individuals. I'm looking at you, knitting bloggers.

By the way, "every day" means Saturday and Sunday, too. Hence the above reference to "cheating." Not that you would."


eek! 2 days in and I'm eFFd.... oh well, I'm still going to do it.. for my own discipline, and distraction.

oh well - all my hopes of being a lucky prize winner - dashed. But I will pick back up and see if I can stay the course - tricky as I'm on a weekender next weekend, and on Vacation to Europe for the last two weeks of Nov! Expect many expensive camera phone posts... and Amsterdam Internet Cafe missives...

and remember, your best accessory is a smile!

Time Machine...

actual posting date: 11/3/07
way back machine date: 11/2/07


Free Happy Hour snax, Delicious Happy Hour snax - mutually exclusive propositions - discuss.

Met a friend for drinks afterwork Friday... I mean tonite!. Based on our individual budgetary sadness, the location was decided upon based on the great idea of free snax! Granted no-one should turn their nose up at free, especially when 'house made potatoe chips' are in a larger basket waiting to be grazed upon. but, the mish-mash of possible 'leftovers' from the kitchen, were not the most appetizing selection. a large bowl of green olives, some nearly limp veggie 'cruidte' and oh-so-gourmet ranch dip. So after downing a drink each, and nibbling a few chips, we moved on next door and had a delicious small plate of halibut ceviche with some chips and washed it down with Mexican beer - now that ... though double the cost was truly delicious...

but no happy hour snax at ANY cost will beat the $3 TATER TOTS!!! at the Ambassador. Nothing.

Forgive the 'backdating' I have a personal crisis going on. I'd had this post planned all night.
I didn't formally sign up for NaBloPoMo, but still.....

Rabbit Rabbit ... and......

na blo po mo





this photo is for me. Stories might follow...

thanks!

if anyone finds issue with me posting this with no source, please email and I'll remove or post the source... thanks..


yes mere... I'm really crazy now...it's 10:20pm....

cw