Images from Silicon Valley

Brownies

Condom and Carrying Case
Feet in Los Gatos

BlogHer

Today and tomorrow, I'm at a women's blogging conference in San Jose called BlogHer. It's farking awesome man! Yes, I'm actually here for work because believe it or not I'm actually a corporate blogger by day, Bladio blogger by night. There's a very friendly vibe here. We got a goodie bag with a condom and carrying case, plus a t-shirt and baby bib. Over lunch we get to test drive Saturn cars. Susie Bright is here walking around, and Arianna Huffington is speaking tomorrow.

I met a nice person from this Mom blog area so I thought I'd share with any mom bloggers who are out there.

That's it for now. Pete's out wandering the streets of San Jose, I wonder what he's up to?

LW

I agree with Dup that the new Long Winters album is really really good. You all should buy it.

Do you know how I know? Because Pete bought it yesterday and let me bring it to work today. He hasn't even listened to it yet! He's nice.

Also, our 1-year wedding anniversary is this Sunday. We're going to Big Sur, CA.

Anyway, here is a silly story that some of you (chiefly Seattle- or ex-Seattleites) have probably heard. JR of the Long Winters was playing The Old Rocker in the Gas Man one night.* It was before the show and everyone was standing around and he was sitting on this table. I decided to work on my social skills and start a conversation with someone I find somewhat intimidating. You know, to get better at that sort of thing. We had met briefly before but I wasn't sure he would remember me.

So I was like Hello and he was like Hello. And then he said, "It's good to see you." And because I am so cool I said,

"IT IS?????"

I was truly surprised but really, did I have to say it that way? I guess so, that's how it popped out. Fortunately JR either didn't notice how dorky that was, or he did and didn't show that he thought it was dorky. Then we talked about Omaha. He said, what's that salad dressing they have there. It's like French with pepper in it, and it has a special name. And I was like, that's Dorothy Lynch. And he was like, yes that's it, it's very good.

As a bonus, readers, since you can't hear how I really said it, I have created a graphic to help you understand.


* I just found out that The Old Rocker's name was Bernard. Did anyone else know this? That's what it says on Herbert's site.

Mt. Rainier

If you look closely, you can also see Mt. Adams to the left of Rainier and Mt. St. Helens to the right of it.

Food Network

I have fallen for the Food Network.

I like 30-minute Meals with Rachael Ray, and Emeril. As you know I don't like Emeril as a person, but I enjoy watching him make food. I have mixed feelings about Semi-Homemade but I feel the need to watch Sandra Lee and her tablescapes the same way I feel the need to slow down and look at car accidents to survey damage. I also have mixed feelings about Alton Brown. In theory I know he's cool, but I'm just not sure if he's my kind of dude. It freaks me out when he creates little fictional scenes. Unwrapped is cool too; they show how Cheetos are made and stuff. Paula is cool too. Sometimes she is silly.

On Saturday Rodley and I watched an exciting ice cream flavor contest. It was on for 2 hours I think.

Then at the end Rodley was like, "I don't think I can watch Food Network anymore." I can't really relate, but I was looking through cookbooks at that point, so then we watched the Princess Diaries.

Readers - do you love the Food Network? Whom do you love? Loathe?

Seafood Buffet

When we were in Florida we went to a lovely party with a huge seafood buffet. Here I am scoping it out. Pete felt weird about taking a picture of it, so I went to stand behind it so he could pretend to be taking a picture of me.

Note that the big steel vat on the left is full of MELTED BUTTER.

It was really scary when a lobster claw jumped off Pete's plate and pinced onto his nose. Here he is trying to un-pince it:

Ouch, poor Pete!

Fun Times in Fla

We were near Jacksonville, Florida, for family vacation and a wedding, and we were on the beach and saw the shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral on July 4th. What we saw was very simliar to this photo:

We could see the flames shooting out the back and everything. People were all over the beach watching it and when it disappeared from view everyone cheered. It gave me the chills. I'm not one to feel too patriotic, but I did when I saw the shuttle take off. I thought that was a much better way for our country to celebrate the 4th instead of killing people, which is what the so-called patriotic government seems to enjoy year-round in the name of the USA. My feelings were bolstered even more when Pete told me that the first Iraqi astronaut is on board.* What a nice step toward resolving the conflict between our two nations!

When I have more pics to post and more time I will tell you about our trip which was FARKIN AWESOME!

Photo Source: Philip Andrews for the New York Times

(* He was kidding.)