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room travel

"the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room" - Pascal

i'm in-between trips right now. and actually, aside from several work trips to the valley, i don't have anything huge planned for 2007... well, aside from a family thingy in alaska, a trip to san diego (conference) and a quick jaunt to lake tahoe this summer (wedding). and i'm sure i'll be back up to maine a couple times.. anyway, since i'm home for a few weeks, i got to thinking about the last chapter of 'the art of travel'... called 'on habit'.  de botton focuses on this frenchman, xavier de maistre (all of 27 yrs old) who undertook a massive journey - around his bedroom - and appropriately titled the account "journey around my bedroom".  and here's what i love even more... a few years later, he was so bold as to take another adventure, titled "nocturnal expedition around my bedroom". he pioneered room travel, which he believed might be more practical for those neither as brave nor wealthy as real world explorers - and for those afraid of storms, robbers and high cliffs.

de botton's insight: the mind-set we travel with is infinitely more important than any particular destination we might travel to - and if we could apply a traveling mind-set to our own locales, we might find our local neighborhoods just as exciting as the jungles of south america or the bright lights of tokyo. it's about taking note of the details, rediscovering the little things we take for granted and appreciating what's around us.

so i did a mini-journey around my cottage. i'm certainly not going to write a book about it, but it helped me appreciate the downtime. here are a few pics of things i took note of:

the towering trees behind the house... with the heavy snow flurries in the late afternoon it made for a dramatic scene. a bit creepy, eh?

   

the contrast of the vibrant-pink geranium in the warm kitchen against the cold, white snow flurries seen through the window.

the pretty lavender that bloomed early, against the icy, snow-covered yard.

   

the stone wall peaking out of the snowy, sloped front yard - and the relentless ivy crawling down it.

on clouds

in the early 1800's, william wordsworth was writing tributes to nature and the familiar scenes he frequented. he went for daily walks around the lake district of cockersmith, which inspired works such as 'to a butterfly', 'to the daisy', 'to the skylark' and so on.  wordsworth  proposed that  nature was an "indispensable corrective to the psychological damage inflicted by life in the city." (de botton)

let's just say that his genius wasn't immediately accepted by the literary community and parodies such as 'elegiac stanzas to a suckling-pig' ensued. i, however, actually like the simplicity of this particular parody:

when i see a cloud,
i think out loud,
how lovely it is,
to see the sky like this

here's my tribute - taken at  ~30k feet above the midwest US...

                               

Tags: clouds

adams morgan

inspired by the sunshine and balmy high temp of 33 degrees,  b and i tooled around adams morgan on my day off... it was a perfect afternoon - rockstar parking spot, lunch at the amsterdam falafelshop, coffee at tryst, window shopping and people watching.

Tags: adams morgan

a foodie adventure

i don't think i've ever had such a delicious week in my life. from cityzen in dc to michael mina in san francisco - all within 3 days.
 
cityzen
tuesday night b, m & l treated me to a night out at cityzen - we spent almost 5 hours there...everything was most excellent.
 
highlights:
    -a treat from the chef - an evoo custard w/spicy-sweet pepper dusted over top (description doesn't do it justice)
    -the creative lobster sausagy-thing that was curiously light yet extremely rich
    -we all loved my minty-sweet mango dessert
    -if we could have gotten away with it, i think the four of us would have rolled the cheese cart right out of the restaurant and into the car (although i don't think it would have fit in the mini cooper...) - and taken our sommelier with us. each and every glass was spectacular.
 


 
michael mina
on thursday night after a full day of meetings and work, frank and i found ourselves downtown san francisco for the paidcontent event - and just when we were both ready to collapse from exhaustion and hunger, our friend tony invited us to dinner at michael mina. i recognized the name from the bellagio last week and was pretty excited that this time i'd get to experience it.
 
highlights:
    -tony's lobster pot pie was one of the most beautiful presentations i've seen
    -i stuck with the trio theme: trio of greens, trio of snapper, and the financier (3 sorbets w/tarts) - loved them all, but mostly the presentations
    -the riesling tony picked out was an excellent accompaniment



i shouldn't pass over wednesday nights dinner at Quattro (4seasons restaurant). the roasted artichoke salad was exceptional - loved the generous sprinkling of pomegranite seeds. mostly i loved that afterwards i just rolled on upstairs, enjoyed a bath and slept slept slept in my pillow-top bed. hey - travel is tough.

4seasons i luv u

i really do. 2 weeks ago i was at the excalibur in vegas.
last weekend i was at a hampton inn. 
this week the four seasons in silicon valley.
oh how far i've been, and finally... i'm home.

don't worry 4S... i know it's a short trip, but i'll be back soon.
xoxo

unhappiest day of the year

it's blue monday.  and i turned 30, again... really, it's my favorite age so i think it's my prerogative if i just want to keep it around for a while.

and to remind me of maine, virginia snowed for me.

 

a few presents awaited me this morning...i opened them while b warmed up the car and scraped off the ice :D   he's also made us reservations at cityzen, eric ziebold's restaurant at the mandarin. west coasters may know him from the french laundry in napa. can't wait!! AND tonight he cooked thai (my fav) had flowers and gave me some vibes.. will get to test them out on my flight to CA this week. thank you b!! next weekend we buy me a bike..

 

love the book my sis sent me - A Photographers Life

and more goodness from the family...
    

at work there was cake.


so, no blue monday for me.  it's all good - 30 years and all.

Tags: birthday, blue monday

to PA and back

m&l had a post wedding/honeymoon dinner/drinking-thingy in PA this weekend. hey, when you're on a roll, why stop? so b and i packed up the car and drove up on saturday, back today.

- drive up to glenmoore was sunny, clear - smooth sailing.

- stayed at the hampton inn - stumbling distance from the event. all went fine.

- event at ludwigs was nice. good oysters.

- festivities at the bar down the street went late. guiness. jack & ginger - all good. 

- made it back to the hotel safely - what more could we ask for?

well... a short drive home would have been nice. but noooo..first snow of the year had to hit while we were on the road. b and i lost track of the accidents.

home now. yay. yawn. later.

Tags: roadtrip

groovy party pix

i'm having too much fun with the woohoo photo features... just one last post to showcase some of the crazy party pictures from m&l's all-night wedding reception in costa rica - using the ken burns effect.

fire dancers and hulahoop girl included, of course. 

Tags: woohoo

sfo airport

4am wake-up call friday... at the airport way early. mesmerized by this tornado simulator.

united planes arrive...

Tags: sfo airport, tornado