escape to CA

According to King 5, there are about 500,000 people in the puget sound area still without power. I have found the likely source of my power outage -- a set of downed trees and electrical wires on 3rd Ave. I'll flickr the picture later. It's complete madness. Apparently the east side is a complete mess. Campus may not be open on Monday. People may be without power for 3-5 days more across Putget Sound. I'm powered by Seattle City Light which has some good information on their site about the outage -- and the impact to Seattlites. Like this quote:

"Currently, City Light has approximately 57,188 customers without power, down from a high of 175,000 earlier Friday morning when approximately 50% of our customers were without service. A total of 65 feeders in our above-ground system went off line. Currently, 33 feeders have been restored, or partially restored. Feeders are the lines that bring electricity from substations to neighborhoods. Feeders can carry 2,000 to 4,000 customers each. As City Light works to restore service, be advised that some customers could be without power for as much as 48 - 72 hours.

Restoration of the main distribution lines in the northern and southern parts of our system continues, with the southern end having sustained more damage. As the backbone distribution lines are repaired the utility will shift efforts to restoration of the lateral feeds off the main distribution lines. There is significant lateral feeder work to do on both the northern and southern parts of our system, and lateral damage usually takes longer to repair.

Restoration Priorities (Order of restoring power)
1. Critical Infrastructure – Hospitals, etc.
2. Main distribution backbone (Feeders)
3. Largest Customer Count
4. Longest Duration of outage "

yeah, it's nasty stuff, so....I am escaping to CA for 22 hours on a pre-scheduled trip* to drop off Cuba for a few days and meet up with a slew of family members before we disperse for the holidays. I am sooo looking forward to a warm shower and hot curry. I can only hope that my home will have power restored by the time I return tomorrow.

* yes, this was pre-scheduled so i could get to the next status level on my mileage program.

seattle storms = wind party

so, we are in the midst of one of the most severe wind / rain storms to hit seattle ever. King 5 is all over the storm. I can't accurately describe the madness. There are trees blown over. There are loose electrical wires. There is rain. About 1 Million people don't have power. I'm one of them. It really has been madness.

It started yesterday, around 2:00 pm. I decided to avoid the traffic madness (some people were in traffic driving from redomd to seattle -- 14 miles -- for 3 hours). and go to a friend's house in redmond. While i was there the lights went out (luckily they have a generator) but then the trees started to fall down so I decided to head home before there was greater havoc and the 520 bridge closed! Yes! They closed the bridge!! Driving across it was pretty eerie. First, it was raining buckets. Second, no one was there! I guess everyone tried to avoid the traffic and went home early so for once i really benefitted from leaving work late. I picked up cuba from Sam and Steve (her god-dog parents). She loves them. Anyways, we camped out in the living room to watch the storm. At about 2 am my power went out (Cuba was pretty excited by this and barked at the lightning). It's almost noon and I'm still without power but my friend and co-worker Jenn has power so I'm over at her place. Cuba is loving it because she can play with Jenn's micro-dog tobey and their cat, Sam. They closed the microsoft campus so we are testing out the impromptu seattle office concept. My co-worker Gabe is at Tully's grabbing internet and power. Apparently they are doing brisk business while the starbucks across the street sits in darkness.

Anyways, i've got to get *some* work done. There's three of us here now - Jen, Leslee and me -- plus the menagerie. It's pretty cozy.

Here are some links to other bloggers chiming in on the seattle madness:
Impromptu Three Day Weekend - That Kid in the Corner
Windpocalypse 2006: The Aftermath - Seattle Metroblogging
The Morning after the storm - Phil Holden
Crazy Seattle Windstorm - Jasmine Park (A Clean Well-lighted space).

Update: They are now saying that it might snow.

Update2: Some pictures (via King 5):

snap!

I just added snap previews to my blog. Now when you hover over a link you'll get a preview of the web page that the link will take you to. I love these! Here are some links to enjoy!

cuteness
vitamins
snowflakes

it's december already?

how did that happen? Things have been crazy!!! Let's see:
- i got a micro-dog (look for an upcoming blog post titled the Cuba FAQ). She's awesome.
- i've been travelling like crazy: DC, NYC, CA, Vegas and more vegas...
- i hosted my entire family and then some (14 poeple and 3 dogs!) for thanksgiving. it was awesome. I learned a lot. My family is pretty cool.

I'm now sick with what seems to be my annual winter cold. I actually can't talk -- which is pretty hillarious for those who know me. My cousin is here and she finds it funny. I'm passing her notecards. yep.

Ok, we're off to brunch. I promise to blog soon!

green bellies

ok, sooooo way back in August I went to guatemala to visit JB. It was a BLAST!!! Ever since then i've been meaning (and promising) to blog about our trip...and so finally, here I am.

Highlights:
- RUINS!!! There are ruins all over antigua. It's amazing. This one church had a main section with three domes, each dome top was gone but had been covered by tarp. There was something romantic and broken about the whole scene.
- VOLCANOES!!! Antigua is surrounded by them -- which was pretty cool. But what was absolutely fantastic was Lago Atitlan - which is a wonderful lake ringed by three volcanoes. I could see them from my bedroom window. It was uber neat.
- LIGHTNING! Phenomenal. On our first night at the little resort we stayed at on Lago Atitlan we hung out on the porch talking, telling pirate jokes (yarr!) and watching the lightning. It was soo relaxing. Our second night we hung out in the outdoor hot tub (literally a pool with a heating stove in the middle). When the lightning got 10 counts away JB made us come in. Something about water + electricity = bad...
- AMEX RULE. This was key. The water in Central America just isn't that good, which typically means no fresh fruit or salads. However, JB decided that any restaurant that accepts American Express credit cards is probably going to serve water/foods that are american tummy safe. So far, it's proved to be a good rule!
- TV. Tela Novella's are a riot. Really too much fun! Camerone. Caliente. Corazon.
- JB = Jote-Be. This was probably my favorite new thing. His name in Spanish is "Jote-Be" (Hota-bay). It's hilarious to me.
- HOTELS -- ok, we stayed in two awesome hotels. In antigua, Panza Verde. This hotel was just gorgeous. The food was delicious. The atmosphere was cool. Buena Vista Social Club plays there on Thursday and Friday nights. Sweet. At the lake we stayed at La Casa Del Mundo. To get there you have to take a boat. We had grand plans of kayaking, visiting the other towns on the lake and relaxing by the water on one of the terraces. The last one was pretty much all we did. The sunrise and sunsets were just amazing.



Check out the rest of the pictures:
Antigua
Lago Atitlan

P.S. Thank you JB for kicking-off birth-month celebrations (in september!!) with the wodnerful cube-photo-gift!! and congrats on running your 1/2 marathon today. You ROCK.
P.P.S. Why green bellies?? Avocados!! Yummy. yummy. yummy. Legend says the guatemalan's have green bellies from eating so many.

vacation!

i'm going on vacation. yes! vacation. I plan to be offline at this cool little resort in central america where all we'll get to do is kayak, read, suntan, play pool and enjoy a fruity cocktail or two. i can't wait...now let's just hope airport security keeps it sane.

While i'm gone, check out these cool pics:


Click the bear to see what happen's next!

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

A while back I posted the original OK Go video...well here's their latest video -- and this time they rock it on treadmills. gotta love it! Now go watch.

iTunes - Features please!!!

SEARCH
- ability to search for a song and find it not only in my library but also in any mix i have created. Seriously the search in tunes sucks! i should be able to build a search query "artist = legend" "song=people" and it should say "are you looking for John Legend - Ordinary People?" I should be able to find songs I own by typing in a snippet of the lyrics. I should have lyric search *integrated* into my music experience.

COMMUNITY
- sometimes i find an imix by a user i really like. often i'll click and see what other imixes they have made. often i buy ALL their imixes! really! But you know what i can't do? Select a user as a favorite and then get an alert whenever that user makes a new imix. i really don't get this!! it seems like such a great feature that would totally lead to more buying from me.
I'm just asking for the ability to track users or select "influencers" and buy from them! Maybe they should get an influencer rev-share or something...
The other thing I'd love is recommendations based upon what I'm listening to or my friends are listening to. Seriously. They need Last.Fm.

PURCHASES
Give me a discount if i've already bought a song on an album from you. When you tell me that I've already purchased part of an album -- tell me what I already have!

There's more. but that's all my rant can capture *right now*

(note - original rant was on 5/9/06 ...but time stamp is from when i actually posted it to my blog)

P.S. And please don't tell me they are coming zune...

Update: DC reminded me last night of another feature request: The ability to link to songs in iTunes. I want to find a song and then put a link to that song on my blog or send it to a friend or have my away messagee in iChat or Jabber or Gtalk link to the song in iTunes. Again, this seems like a good way to drive purchases...and community referrals. There is a way to do this today, but its complex and not cut & paste. I want cut & paste links dammit.

personal responsibility

I've recently been thinking a lot about personal responsibility -- and trying to define for myself what it means to me, where I have control in my life and where i truly lack control or impact. This has been an interesting and at times intense exercise -- and the results of my analysis have shown that pretty much I'm responsible for it all. :) That's both the good news and the bad news. It's the good news because I'm pretty proud of a lot of my accomplishments to date -- I've worked for some amazing companies, done great work, built cool things. Personally, I'm extremely lucky to be so well-loved -- I have incredible friends and family and i'm surrounded by special, unique and not-so-unique people who bring joy, intellectual challenge and love into my life daily. I've also got a great home and enough material possessions to never want again. Although, shamelessly, I do.

These are the upsides. The downside is that i have to own my failures, my distractions, my bad decisions. And that's been where the thinking and analysis began. I think we all struggle with life, with achieving our goals. I'm at point lately where a lot of things that I had wanted to accomplish, I've done. Travel the world? Well, it's always going to be a work in progress (I still have to go to Africa and Antartica!!!) but i've traisped across chunks of it. Buy a home? Done that. Get my dream job? Yep. Be in love? Yes and awww. Then there all of the things I didn't plan for, that have caused me unneeded pain. Making bad choices at work or in relationships, not being focused and generally living my life on a chaotic edge of cyclical successes and failures. It's been like a roller coaster. Which has been exciting, but not always satisfying, and the down bits have caused the high's of the up-bits to feel extreme at times. These days I'm aiming for more balance, and that's brought me to thinking about personal responsibility. I think i've been scapegoating the fact that I own my destiny. That there may be no such thing as destiny --- and whether there is or isn't, doesn't matter. It's fundamentally up to me to make good choices, and correct the bad ones -- not just by taking ownership of their negativity, but by correcting them by changing course. This has been hard, because, well, a change in direction usually requires some sort of idea on where you want to go and be...

anyways, that's what's on my mind. right now. so i'm going to be responsible. That's my 2006 theme. It's a mid-year NYE resolution. I promise.

Truth or Dare - quick recap

2006-7 Board: Ruthie, Phil, Natala (Me), Steve, Sam, Jason

On Tuesday night we held our first ArtReach Seattle event with the new board. It was a total blast!!! Over 200 people came to the event and our wonderful artists sold many, many pieces. I'm really proud to be a part of such an interesting and fun organization. Pictures from the event are here.

Learn more about artreach here: http://www.artreachseattle.org

pirates of the caribbean....

Don't go!
We went to a special preview of this movie last night...i was pysched. Really. I loved the first movie, think Johnny Depp in all forms is hot and enjoy Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly as well...however this movie wasn't worth it. Seriously, it ends up being a 2+ hour *trailer* for the next movie! As a result, the story was incomplete -- no component has resolution and the ending is a cliffhanger meant to get you excited for movie #3. Blech.

Of course, I'll go see #3....but this movie you can seriously skip.

stars are blind.

ok. i'll admit. this song is catchy. even if it is by Paris Hilton of Heiress Records. Seriously, we're all going to be humming this tune at the beach. And when they remix it for the dance version, yep, we're going to shake our booty to this tune at da club. You heard it heir first.

Here's a link to the official site: "Stars are blind"

Updated with additional wittiness courtesy of Matt.

truth or dare: call for artists...

This spring I joined the board of ArtReach Seattle, a non-profit project of the Shunpike. It's a great organization and, in order to engage our primary audience of young professionals, we showcase art in a social atmosphere combined with a one-night art show. Our primary goal is to increase demand for high-quality, original art by making it more approachable (aka affordable). As a result a key tenet of our shows (outside of a fabulous party with a rockin DJ) is to have a chunk of the art available for under $200.

We are having our next show on July 22nd at the See Sound Lounge. It's going to be a blast. The theme is "truth or dare" and it promises to be a daring evening complete with signature cocktails and truth or dare challenges...If you are in Seattle on the 22nd, you have to come!

Right now we are seeking artists to participate in the show. If you are interested, check out the call for artists on our website -- or send me a note via the comments link below.

Seattle Startups...

I went to the the TechCrunch Seattle party last night. It was sooo much fun. Seattle has a great and growing startup community. Highlights below...

First, I got to chat with Michael Arrington -- and he remembered me from Mix06! That was a party highlight, now i need to follow-up with that e-mail on our demos :)

I ran into a ton of people I met at MindCamp 2.0. I'm so glad that I went to mindcamp -- even though I'm not a coder, the people I met were great and they are doing really interesting things. One of the sessions I went to (at mindcamp - back to the party in a second) was about building a startup - led by the folks from BillMonk.com...Gaurav has since become one of my favorite people. My big take away from that session was that keeping your startup concept secret isn't worth it. Their point was that if you are working on it and passionate, sharing the idea will get you feedback and ideas -- and in reality people can't just steal your idea. You're working on the execution and others typically have interest but aren't motivated enough or driven by the depths of the passion you have in your idea to drive it. Net-Net: Super secret startups should be a thing of the past. I saw that reflected last night. People were excited to talk about what they were working on, and wanted to share ideas and think about how to tackle the big problems (genetic algorithms anyone?)

Some Cool Seattle Startups:
billmonk.com - remeber to pay your friends back. They are targeting college students and have figured out that early adopter techy people aren't their target market. :) Gaurav promises that cool schwag is on its way (will they follow the trend and have their t-shirts printed on american apparel?). Perhaps it will find its way into the next valleyschwag?
farecast - they are still in private beta, but from what i can tell it looks like a neat concept - basically you put in information on a flight you'd like to purchase today and it forecasts whether the price is likely to go up or down tomorrow/next week -- so you can purchase when it is at the lowest price. I only got to play with it for a minute, but i'm hoping it has time specifity built in because the probability of a flight on Friday night from Seatac to SFO going up is likely (since they sell out), but the mid-day flights are probably likely to stay the same. So the day-time relationship is key.
wishlisting.com - wishlists that build upon individual asks and mass user data to predict gifting (i think). hmm. Sounded like wishlist.com. Personally, i still like the amazon wishlist function. Not that anyone buys from my very outdated wishlist! If they can get the predictability stuff done that would be cool -- it would be great to say "i need a gift for my best friend - she's 29, a mom and likes gadgets - what do you recommend?" And then they'd find cool stuff for me to get her given her demographic. Right now i just browse mightygoods and bookmark any possibly cool item that maggie finds.

redfin.com - they sponsored the party - thanks for the pizza and hefeweizen! Redfin is also about figuring out ways to sell your house leveraging online marketing. They charge 1% (as opposed to 3%) of the cost or a flat $2K fee depending on the services you want (i think).The idea is neat here, but i'm still not sure how the costs work out...They also just launched in the SF Bay Area housing market...so i'm gonna watch that...definitely filing them under my "this could be useful soon category"

What would a dot.com 2.0 party be without competition? Zillow.com was there in full-force. I still love how they price my house and their tools are so easy to use.

Of course there were loads of microsoft people - from vista, from live (did you know live is evil backwards? kinda funny right? i don't know how i missed that. we should so have a LIVEEVIL t-shirt.) And a smattering of Amazon peeps and I think one Google person (where are the google people? they must be coding their beta software ;-)

I also got to hang with Chris Pirillo. I love chris - he's so passionate and I think he's convinced me to go to Gnomedex. He's pretty frustrated with the lack of "fit & finish" in Vista right now... and to see him provide live feedback to the members of the vista team was great. Fit & Finish is one of the things we've really got to focus on at MS, definitely one of my frustrations. Lately I think the challenge is around converting "data and function" into "information and utility" ... more on that to come ...

The only downside to the party was the heat in the room. It was steamy hot. And not in a good way.

Flickr pics are here.

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Lustig!!

This last weekend I was home in CA for my friend Chris' wedding to the beautiful Alyse. It was AWESOME. First, chris is one of my all time favorite people - witty, charming and sarcastic as all hell. But you have to listen in order to get the jokes. He's that kind of funny. If you aren't paying attention you could miss the magic. Sad for you.

So the wedding...OMG. Such Fun. Highlights below.

Dancing:

The really good pictures are in a password protected gallery. sorry. but you can imagine the arms above the head rocking can't you?

Reconnecting with trouble-making friends:

Y&G may just live forever. Chip for Chaplain. You heard it here first. last. well a long time ago.

Seeing the boys continue to be boys:

Check out this picture of them from the 90's when they were young and pretending to be innocent: Boys @ the H20 Temple

Sean being sean:

He's so suave. He changed his tux. Yes, the jacket is velvet. A little gem he picked up in Paris. Really. You can't make this stuff up.

Check out the "public" gallery for more fun:
Chris & Alyse's Wedding

lastWEEKthisWEEK

So, big news last week was that we launched the product i've been working on since I started at Microsoft:

Microsoft adCenter - go check it out and sign up!

It's been an interesting, winding, fun, inspiring road getting this product shipped...and to hear the team that's been on the product for the entire cycle reminisce about the original scrap of paper that started this project has been pretty fun. It's an important milestone for us, and I'm really proud of the work that the teams have done to launch! Now we jump into the next phase - continuing to respond to user needs, improving the product and delivering on our promise of next generation advertising. If you've got an idea, a gripe or just something you want to share about the product -- let us know. We're listening -- user feedback is an important part of our development process. You can get the lastest news on our team blog: adCenter411

Onto other news...I'm going to be back in California this week (starting weds) for a friend's wedding. I can't wait!!! Chris is marrying his sweetheart Alyse. awwww. I remember when we met Alyse in, of all glamourous places, Bakersfield, CA for a Youth & Government conference. Sometimes my wingette skills have a lasting result!

Plans for my trip are somewhat indeterminate at this point (i know! where have my over-planning skills gone?) but it looks like i'll be going to Lunch 2.0 , stopping by the plex on weds night, a benefit on Thursday night and likely in SF on Friday night. Yes, i'll be at the spa on Friday.... Ping me if you'd like to participate in some calendar magic.

other notes & favorites:
- the weather is great lately. seattle can be so pretty. I am wearing my all time favorite outfit -- sleeves rolled up on plaid button-down shirt (blue and grey), jeans, and my reef black flip flops. hair is twisted up. comfort is key.

- i've been listening to lots of new music - some of my faves:
Wraith pinned to the mist and other games - The sunlandic twins -- this song is on repeat! "let’s pretend we’re in Antartica"
Gotta Have you - The Weepies - i love the bridge in this song "no amount of coffee, no amount of whiskey..."
Could be Anything - The Eames Era - yes, it could be anything
Je Reviens - Autour De Lucie - love me some frenchy
All of these things that I have done - the Killers -- i never, ever get sick of this song. "i've got a soul, but i'm not a solider"
sascha - jolie holland -- you have to appreciate a folk song with a waltz beat. seriously.

home for 18 days!

It is so good to be home - esp. with all this sunshine! The above picture is from one of the nights out in DC, at the beginning of the trip (ok so not the best picture of JB...). I still need to upload pics from this weekend. I'm very happy to be homeand I intend to blog about it all... dinner with old friends in DC, easter brunch at the Smith's, the WMW conference, an amazing baseball game at Fenway, catching up with friends in Boston and then the weekend in Chicago with my best friend. awww. i miss everyone already!

but for now, sleep calls.

through rain and snow...

Did you know you can have your mail held at the post office? Yep, they just stop delivering it for you for a certain period of time. Last year I created an account on USPS.com in order to buy some stamps...and lately i've been travelling a ton...and the mail just piles up. It's horrible. Well, today I finally went to check and see if I could have my mail held via an online form... And i can! And you can do it anytime online and it can start as early as tomorrow! It was sooo easy - login, select "hold mail" fill out the *start* and *end* dates and voila! your mail is held and delivered when you want. This may become my new favorite free service.

update: adding the USPS unofficial moto:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

mindcamp

well, it's official. i've decided to go to mindcamp 2.0.

What is it? I'm not quite sure, but after a couple of people suggested it, and I read this description, “It’s an overnight party-time fun-house for smarty-pants types.” How could i resist?

If you are planning to go, lmk.

dining room v3

Thanks to my mum's visit, I finally bought a dining room table. I liked the japanese style floor seating i've had for the last year...but i really just needed a table to do projects on and, well, to eat with guests ... after much seeking and long debates over the correct size (i wanted 6 feet, one long smooth topped trestle table) and shape (round or square or rectangle) we finally decided to just buy a dang table. My biggest concern was getting a table that was too big and wouldn't fit into a smaller house should I ever have to downsize (aka move back to CA). We went to the antique store (this store is amazing -- 3 floors of wonderful stuff, hundreds of chairs, tables, buffets, thing-a-ma-bobbers) and tested out 5 tables and finally settled on a classic 3 foot square table with two 1 foot leaves (so 5 x 3) oak table. It has jacobian swirly legs that match the table from JB's mom. I still feel that it is a little bit smaller then i wanted, but i am really loving the practicality of it. What I really love are the chairs that we got to go with the table. They are "coordinated" (aka not matching) chairs in an art deco-ish style. Also oak, with these little circles on the top -- i love them. Plust they are sooo comfy.

Three phases of my dining room:
Empty:


v2:


v3:

(yes, i'll update with a picture that includes the arch.)

one shining moment - 2006

Here's the link to the 2006 video on You Tube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WAtX7PuNjpg

Also - just want to give a shout out to George Mason. They were amazing during the tourney and deserve lots of props.

Photo: CBS Sportsline

numbers

I like numbers...palindromes, you name it. In the morning I typically set my alarm to 6:33 am or 7:07 AM. This wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning it will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06

how cool is that? Thanks to Feld and 2-Speed for the tip.

one shining moment

The ball is tipped
and there you are
you're running for your life
you're a shooting star ....

Tonight was the last night of the tourney (the Gators won btw)...and I just watched my favorite sporting tradition -- The One Shining Moment Video Montage at the end of the Tourney. I swear it brings tears to my eyes.

Here's a link to the 2005 Montage on You Tube -- check it out:


Lyrics can be found here.


Of some note, I started blogging just over three years ago, right after Google acquired Blogger, when I was convinced by Evan and the Jason's that blogging was where it was at...My first post was about my beloved Wildcats and the NCAA tournament: http://natala.blogspot.com/2003/03/wildcats-wildcats-wildcats.html

family wisdom

My uncle eric has been sending me little ericisms...spots of wisdom that are both slightly cheesy and super helpful. Yesterday he told me "If you aren't living on the edge, then you are taking up too much space!" and today he sent me this list from General Colin Powell:

13 Rules:

1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone
else make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

funicular

5 days in mexico can restore your soul.

How?
- good margarita's
- boca bento -- yes, that's asian-latin fusion
- sunshine sunshine sunshine
- boat rides on blue ocean water with fishies and pelicans
- great friends (thank you alexia, kathy, laurel, dulcy and gavin)
- IM's with mum and sheils and jb
- a pink & green funicular transport thing to take us to our mountain villa
- crazy taxi drivers taking us back and forth from the pool to dinner
- watching the NCAA tournament with Spanish commentary

Before I went to mexico I had been caught in a wind tunnel. I truly couldn't see top from bottom. My heart was broken from my recent breakup. I had pretty much flipped out from the pain and intensity of it all. I had lost my sense of self. In mexico, thanks to all that sunshine, I was able to get recentered and forgive myself. I figured out that it is irrelevent if you forgive the other person or if they forgive you -- if you can't honor yourself. We've all got demons to slay, and I feel like i was finally able to slay a couple of mine. Breakups are hard things, and as this was with someone I had fallen in love with, I took it hard. But I'm ok, and next time I'll be that much better...in fact next time, I'm going to immediately hop a plane to France (where I at least speak the language) for my R&R. :)

gada be

ooooh - robert scoble pointed me to this cool search tool (taggregator): Gada.be!

Check out the results for Mix06:
http://gada.be/d/mix06

britney spears + kevin federline !!!

**breaking news**

Just got back from a fabu dinner at Valentino at the Venetian. Fabu because the food was great, the wine amazing and i saw Britney Spears + Kevin Federline!! No kidding.

Here's the scoop:
- In walks this guy with a not-so-recently shaved face, loose jeans, half-smile and that direct, "yeah, I know you want me" (but you don't) swagger.
- My table mates and I are in the midst of a fascinating discussion about religion, but i'm looking at this guy going, who is it? who is it? and then it hits me!! Kevin Federline. And i start to wonder, who's he with???
- Then he passes and right behind him is BRITNEY!! She looked so cute. Her hair a mass of short golden curls, she's smiling and happy, and she's got that life is good swagger going on. She was wearing a fitted brown sweater, tight jeans, makeup and hair that had to be done by stylist.
- They were followed by a bodyguard who took them to a private dining room and then left. Awww -- looks like they were having a romantic dinner.

Net-Net: Clearly they are together, figuring it out, "staying in the room" as my sis likes to say and enjoying each other. Good deal.

And did I mention that britney looked great?? She did!!!

getting into the mix

I'm at Mix06 this week...

What is Mix06?
"a 72 hour conversation with Microsoft"....but what does that mean you ask?
- Demos like crazy
- softies around to answer your questions and listen to your ideas
- information on our product lines that impact your web experience -- Atlas, IE etc.
- developer centric, with access to tools for you to demo, test and experience
- msft's version of web 2.0
- fun, fun, fun


Check out photos from mix06 on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/mix06/

Or the latest news on Technorati:
http://technorati.com/search/mix06

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how sweet it is!

Photos: Associated Press

Bradley! Bradley! Bradley!! George Mason!

There's our cinderella story. Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.

win or lose, it's how you play the game

(Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)


So, of course i'm sad that Arizona lost. But they played well, more together then they had been all year, and it was a great game! They were super scrappy, and i love scrappy. Hassan. Mustafa. Marcus! And he's only a freshman!!

mad love to the wildcats. mad love. and I can't wait to watch them play next year. Next year, they are gonna be tough.

congratulations wade and alexia!

Two of my favorite people just got engaged -- and I can't be happier for them!! Relationships like theirs -- where there is so much fun, companionship and love -- truly make me believe in the wonder of the world. Congrats Wade & Alexia (.com ;) -- wishing you all the best!!

5-12

Photos courtesy of CBS Sportsline.


There's nothing quite like the first day of the NCAA tournament. No matter how distracted I am, no matter what else is going on, when the tournament begins...there's a smile on my face. In the past I've worked from home on the 1st Thursday & Friday of the tourney -- i mean 32 games over two days??? Pure beautiful delicious goodness. Today, I tracked the games when I could via CBS Sportline and it has been fabulous:
- Boston College winning (woohooo! JB's screaming eagles!) in double overtime? Oh my.
- The classic 5-12 matchup loss with Nevada losing to Montana. I mean really, MT over NV. uh huh. you betcha.
- and those Vols! TN came through, but it was rough...
- Zig! Zag -- comes back in the last two minutes to WIN over Xavier -- phew! I'm sure there were a lot of relieved sighs on that victory...i know my bracket needed it!
- UCLA holding up the Pac-10 pride with a crushing victory over Belmont. Yes, Belmont? Who are they? Same folks who play with Southern is my guess ;-)

It's almost 7:00...and i've got to run to dinner and then a slumber party...but there's still the Washington game to see and the Duke game...it's gonna be a good, good night...and tomorrow it starts with another 16 games including my beloved wildcats at 9:30 AM PST. BearDown Wildcats, BearDown! and of course, mad love to the Golden Bears. Grrr!

it is that time of year...

MARCH MADNESS!!!

24 hours!!

sweet.

JB is trying to convince me that JJ Redick is hot, but well, he's a duke player...and you'all know how i feel about duke...

Photo Credit: nbadraft.net profiles

mad love to lute and the wildcats of course:


Photo Credit: Arizona Wildcat Online


Courtesy: Associated Press


Courtsey ESPN

friends rock

i have come to realize that friends (and family) are the most precious asset. and that, quite frankly, my friends rock. thank you.

natala

Lent Day 2: Bacon & Snow

Bacon is soo good! I am having yogurt + berries + side of bacon for breakfast. Yumm.

Also it is SNOWING in NYC! SNOW! I'm on the 23rd floor and i woke up to snow flurries. Sooooo cool.

Lent Day 1.5: music & vino

Last night I met up with my friend Baratunde for dinner and a show -- his girlfriend Mieka Pauley was playing at Joe's Pub with Brendan James. Baratunde and I met about 8 years ago at a Philosophy Camp at Rutgers. Yes, I am that geeky. Anyways, we've kept up over the years and finally got to hang out again ** 8 years later **! It was a blast. He's such good people. He is also funny people. Seriously - i highly recommend checking him out on YouTube or his podcasts on iTunes...(find it all at baratunde.com)

The show was amazing! Mieka is awesome. Seriously everyone, Listen to her! She has a soulful voice that's both enchanting and fun. I personally thought she was better then Brendan James -- who also has this amazing voice -- but his songs were too romantic and sad for me.

Speaking of sad romance, I made an amendment to my lent committments: I'm allowed to have red wine.

Lent Day 1: are pretzels bread?

I am now fully in the swing of lent. Except that I'm at Search Conference which provides us with not-so-delicious lunches. The lunch consisted of turkey sandwiches, pretzels and a brownie. I ate the turkey and cheese not the BREAD. But i toyed with the pretzels. Are they bread? Are they on the list? Off the list? I decided to have a couple. Then i started to think -- if i were buying one of those warm pretzels -- i would totally identify them as bread! these little hard pretzels -- duh! they are just stale bread. So to clarify for myself. YES! Pretzels are bread! So they are on the "off" list.

lent

I am committed to giving up the following for Lent:

1 - no drinking: no wine. no beer. no cosmos.
2 - no desserts: no cookies, no chocolate, none of that yummy gooey sweetness.

may the lord help me!

Update 2/27/06:
Julie and I went to dinner at Five Points - and met this lovely older man who eats out in NYC every night! We asked him how he does it and he said:
- no rice
- no potato
- no bread

So, in that spirit, i'm adding these three items to my "given up for Lent" list.

happy 85th grandma!

My grandmother turned 85 today! and she's still cooking up trouble! My sister and i both sent her birthday greetings (well my sis sent her's first and reminded me to send mine!). Here's the screen captures:
#1 - Sheila (pic via isight?)


#2 - Me (sent via MSN Messenger, i went the full video interactive route -- to which my grandma said "oh but sheila sent me a picture" and i said "but i'm talking to you LIVE!")


Since my mom is the big blogger these days...you should probably check out her blog for the updates:
joychase.blogspot.com (aka moi and mine)...

note: <-- picture not taken by ichat removed 2/7/06 per comment below, and re-posted w/ permision per eml and updated as possibly from isight-->

silverscreen

so, i'm really behind on my blogging and internet going's on and my bloglines feeds because i've been on vacation (and yes i do intend to back-blog the details of my trip)...but i've just discovered Nordstrom's Silverscreen (that the rest of the blogosphere discovered about 35 days ago).

So here's the deal -- nordstrom's silverscreen is going to release a new remixed 80's video EVERY month for the next 12 months. and the video's are good!

check it out:
Culture Club - I'll tumble 4 ya
Go-Go's - Our lips are sealed

The hitch? The video's are remixed with a fashion show of clothes you can actually BUY. I'm serious, i think this is great. I mean, so many video's are a fashion show of clothes you *can't* ever dream of owning.

So, net-net...I'm totally into this.

On another random note -- isn't this the worst outfit ever?
amber tamblyn

Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com --> eonline.com Fashion Police