Monday, July 30, 2007

Baby Bella is a year old

Bella's first birthday bash was fantastic super fun times. She was smiling the whole time and only cried for a brief second when she realized the wrong Asian (read: me) was holding her. Once she got a taste of the sugary strawberry lemonade I had, you couldn't pry her away.

Becky and Ziad did a great job organizing/hosting the party/BBQ for the 30+ guests, babies, dogs, etc. It's hard to believe, but I haven't eaten that much in a while. The tofu and veggie kebabs were amazing!! The other culinary highlights included Sarah's tofu pate and Becky's chocolate chip cookies. My belly thanks you.

IMG_5058.JPG
Guests vs. Ziad and Bella.

IMG_5009.JPG
Becky takes a break from running around to pose for me.

IMG_5031.JPG
Bella with second favortie Auntie Lark.

IMG_4947.JPG
Peace.

IMG_5015.JPG
Brent and the girl that kept following him around.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

I officially love Victoria Beckham

It's not a secret that I'm a fan of reality shows; Project Runway, Top Chef, and now, the Beckhams (I don't know what it's called). Victoria Beckham is kind of sweet and charming. I love that she has to put on her "miserable face" to take the paparazzi head-on. She refuses to smile or look like she's having a good time in public. It's so absurd that it's perfect for reality TV.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Project Runway, come back...PLEASE!!!

It's been too long, old friend. I miss Heidi's funny accent, Michael Kors' bloated orange face, and Tim Gunn's carefully tailored words of advice (get it? ha!). Most of all, I miss the inspired/inspiring creativity the contestants bring to the table. It's mind-blowing how quickly each designer can come up with a concept and design then execute them, usually exceptionally well. Sometimes, though, I'd rather focus on the designers than the designs themselves. I mean, come on—it was fun to hate Jeffrey and his chinlessness. Remember when he made Angela's mom cry? That bastard.

Today Ross sent me a link to the Castro Theatre's upcoming events. If you scroll down to July 27th, you have a chance to attend a meet & greet with the "Bad Boys of Runway," aka, Santino and Jeffrey. I must admit, it does sound kind of fun. I can imagine myself asking, "Jeffster, how'd it feel to make that lady cry? You feel like a man? Huh, big guy?" I think it might be worth it.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Not so smooth move

If you ever decide to take an herbal tea laxative, make sure you drink lots of water afterwards and only drink one bag's worth of the tea at a time. It started when I was feeling a little bit blocked, if you know what I mean. After a couple days of being...um, blocked, I thought it was time to make good use of the Smooth Move laxative tea left over from my Master Cleanse days. Instead of steeping just one bag, I thought it would work twice as fast if I used two bags. There's an 8 to 12 hours wait, the box said.

Trouble started the next day when I couldn't stop visiting the throne. It's a good idea to keep your whole day free if you're going to take this tea. Nature will call often. As I sit here writing this blog (two days after the fact), Nature is still tugging at my sleeve...ever so slightly.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Cheap Polaroids, digitally

Polaroid photography is gratifying...instantly and long-term. There's a comforting quality to the vintagey color palette and the blurriness of the photo. And best of all, it's already framed. After seeing Audrey's newly posted Polaroids, I was sure that I could find a quick Photoshop filter online that would give me the results I wanted. To my surprise, there were plenty of tutorials on how to fake the white Polaroid border, but nothing that would actually change the image quality.

After a couple hours of tinkering with color balance, saturation, density, constrast, levels, etc., I came up with a decent Photoshop action that mimics a Polaroid. Here are the before and after files (special thanks to the guy I stole the original photo from on Flickr).

polaroid

Original:
unpolaroid

I'll post the Photoshop action soon for anyone who's intersted.