I’m about to head to Austin for a few weeks for SXSW.. yeehaaw!

Cuz, you know.. a picture is worth a thousand words. And an animated blingee is worth like a billion.

Build your own Blingee

I went to go visit Zuad and Mike over in Hoboken yesterday — we were supposed to have lunch last Tuesday, but apparently Baby Michael had other ideas and decided to be born that day. They look like they’re doing great. The kid is super sweet and alert — I can’t believe how tiny he is — this is the earliest that I’ve ever seen a baby, so I didn’t really get how tiny they are. So cool!!!

Babies kinda smell good. Puppies smell good too, I wonder if that’s like an evolutionary thing.

James and I dressed up as a Communist Party this year.. James was Kim Jong Il, and I was Mao-ish, and we donned party hats and passed out noisemakers.. Get it? It’s a Communist Party. (rimshot)

Meredith was a crafty genius, and made Stephanie a fantastic replica of Björk’s swan dress.. And for herself, when the jumpsuit she bought was too small, she fashioned it into a racing mini dress. Crafty, indeed. Andy wore my kart suit and some Nascar gear, and together, they were a racy couple.

Jablow and Ashley dressed up as Britney and K-Fed, respectively.. Paul refused to join the Communist Party, claiming that girls wouldn’t be attracted to a dude dressed as Stalin. So, instead, as the hunky football player, he had girls flocking to him within five minutes of us entering the bar. Well done, sir. Oh.. and as for other random costumes…

Anyway, the pics from the whole night are on flickr.. Tonight, I’m going to head down to the Castro and hopefully get some more pics of wonderful costumes… and then Thursday is Day of the Dead in the Mission, so that should afford some good photo ops as well…

Happy Halloween!

A few weeks back, the SF Opera set up a HUGE tv screen right in front of City Hall… it was pretty rad, and they simulcast the opera that was playing just a half block away on the ginormous tv screen. Opera-riffic.

My friend Vanessa had an extra ticket to see The Killers at the Warfield… so I went. James and Uyen were also there… The Killers played a pretty rad set, although honestly I now know why they’re called “The Killers” — it was soooo incredibly loud that had it not been for the earplugs that I thankfully procured, I would have been deaf for like a week. Eek. I’m complaining about how loud a show was. I MUST be getting old or something. But, actually.. I really have started to get concerned about my hearing. I do go out a lot, so I’ve started wearing ear plugs whenever I think it’s going to be ringingly loud. My friends Shooey and Erica have both actually shelled out some ducats for custom earplugs like these… Hmmm.. supposedly the hi-fi earplugs reduce volume, but they don’t muffle the music. I mean.. I like music. A lot. I suppose that losing ones hearing would really, really suck. Still feels like I’m coming to grips with my non-invincibility though — and I think that *really* means I’m getting old. Sheesh. Just sign me up for some comfy shoes and big sunglasses now.

Ok.. this third picture is from just last weekend… My friend ChrisK had an extra ticket to go see the circus at the Circus Center San Francisco and I lept at the opportunity to join him. (rimshot) ChrisK met this girl at Burningman who does trapeze, so we went to go see her perform. Turns out, it was the farewell performance of the Mystic Pixies — a kid contortionist group who are leaving San Francisco to join Cirque Du Soleil. They actually performed at the Supperclub 1 year anniversary party too… Anyway.. it was a really cool show, and I’ve been meaning to go check out the Circus Center, since I’m kind of toying with the idea of taking some circus classes myself… Looks like a lot of fun.

And finally.. tonight, Stepha and I went to the Say Hi To Your Mom show at the Bottom of the Hill.. It was a great show, but honestly, the picture isn’t that great, so I won’t post it here… SHTYM is kind of a funny “band” cuz it’s just one dude. But he’s good, and it was a fun show… His last album is about vampires, and my favorite song of his is “Blah Blah Blah” — the chorus of which goes “And I… am gonna drink your blood”.. hehe. Here’s a clip. Vampires are cool.

So yah, that’s it. The ol’ cameraphone is downloaded and happy now.

As for entertainment.. there were these awesome contortionists, the mystic pixies and one of those suspended ribbon dancer people (I’m not sure what to call it).

Andy took some nice pics of the event…

Happy anniversary supperclub!! If you haven’t been there yet, come by! Food is super good and it’s a great time..

Anyway.. Brian made a kickass timelapse video of the photobooth.

I’m in there somewhere.

Check out some of the pics that I found from this year… Oooo.

Yah.. only 362 days till the man burns…

Nancy & Mike’s wedding was at the Universal City Hilton — they served a traditional Chinese 10 course wedding meal.. so much tasty food!!! Nancy and I started at Anderson Consulting in the same start group waaaay back in 1997.. There were 20 of us in that start group, and none of us still work at AC (now Accenture). But, many of us still remain in touch, so it was great to see many of them at the wedding.. For one part of the wedding, Nancy and Mike asked their wedding party to perform skits about how Nancy & Mike were before they met, how they met, and how they are now… The wedding party worked really hard on their skits, and did a fantastic job…

Dan & Anne’s wedding was at the St. Francis winery up in Sonoma… Set at the base of a huge mountain and surrounded by a huge vineyard, it was a gorgeous setting for a wedding. Dan’s rabbi from Ohio came in for the wedding and gave a fantastic service, which was followed by a super tasty dinner and then dancing. Woo dancing! I was informed that I won the award for ‘best dancer’ despite my broken ankle. Woo! Who likes dancing? Me!

I had my new camera for both of the weddings, and had an awesome time documenting everything… So, make sure to check out the pictures here and here.

Congrats and best wishes to Nancy, Mike, Dan and Anne!

A bunch of us descended upon Philadelphia for the AJ-fest, and we went out in Philly’s old city to celebrate the 30 years of AJ that have transpired so far.. Well, we didn’t really make it that far in old city cuz we really just stayed in at AJ’s friend Dave’s house and drank there… I’ve never really been out in Philadelphia before, it’s pretty nice… kinda feels small towny hiphoppy, but the whole Old City part seems really rejuvenated… Then, Sunday AJ’s parents had a lovely BBQ at their house in New Jersey… The whole weekend was documented very, very, very, very well…

What was also exciting about this trip was that this was the first time I got to travel with the whole new broken (now mended) ankle.. I still have this huge walking boot on there, which has a ton of metal in it, so when I walk through the metal detector, the thing goes crazy. On my way out east, the SFO folks were very thorough in asking me to sit down, remove the boot (which they then sent through the x-ray machine, along with my fancy new cane)… And then they ran the metal detector wand thing over my leg, and when it got to my ankle.. yup.. BEEEP. Oh boy. Everyone always jokes about the whole screws in the ankle setting off metal detectors and all — I guess it’s true. I just wonder if I’m gonna set off the metal detector every time now (after I get the boot off)…

Now, contrast my SFO experience with the friendly folks at JFK… I walk through the metal detector, which beeps like crazy — I now know to walk over to the “wait here cuz the thing beeped” line.. I wait there patiently for a little bit, and then am motioned to sit in the “sit here cuz the thing beeped” chair. I sit patiently for about 5 minutes, and then one of the security people is like.. “What are you doing there? You can go now.” Oh. Um, I don’t argue or anything, but… yah, I suppose there’s a few holes here and there in the whole security process, which is slightly disconcerting. Yah. Hmm.

So, I’m off to the airport again tomorrow.. flying down to LA for Nancy & Mike’s wedding on Saturday.. Then, back here Sunday morning so that I can head up to Sonoma for Dan & Anne’s wedding. Yup, it’s a crazy wedding weekend… woo.