Tuesday, August 30, 2011

sesame street - ernie full body puppet



am currently in talks to bring this baby home to papa. i mean, who doesn't love ernie?

the cat likes to hang out with his best friend bert and play with rubber duckies in the bath.

so cute!

Monday, August 29, 2011

fantasy football 2011

got dragged into yet another year of fantasy football, as i received not one, but TWO invites last week to take part. this past weekend was the 1st draft (the 2nd is coming in a week's time) and minutes prior i learned i was picking #1.

as it's a snake draft and being that there's 10 teams, i picked #1 in the first round, then #10 in the second (or #20 overall), so a lot of times you're forced into taking players ahead of where they project, because it's a long wait (19 picks) before i choose again.

that being said, i had 3 minutes to choose my #1 overall pick, so i narrowed it down to: QB michael vick, RB arian foster or RB adrian peterson. since vick would be hard-pressed to repeat last year's performance, and seeing how the vikes still don't have a QB (the corpse otherwise known as donovan mcnabb), i went with foster. here's how my squad ended up in order of round taken:

1. RB arian foster
2. WR hakeem nicks
3. WR greg jennings
4. TE antonio gates
5. QB matt schaub
6. RB knowshon moreno
7. WR stevie johnson
8. QB matthew stafford
9. RB daniel thomas (seeing as how i'm a dolfan)
10. RB joseph addai
11. D/ST chicago
12. WR pierre garcon
13. K neil rackers
14. RB jacquizz rodgers
15. WR eric decker

wish me luck!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

SF trip


a random collection of photos while pounding the city's pavement:








Tuesday, August 16, 2011

stay - hotel des arts

this past weekend heidi sprung for a trip up to SF to surprise my parents in conjunction with my birthday. we flew up on friday night, stayed at the doubletree near the SFO airport, then barged in saturday at noon with the good news. luckily they were home; otherwise, it could have been one long afternoon...

since outside lands was going on all weekend at golden gate park, hotel rooms in the city came at a premium. fortunately, a room opened up at the hotel des arts, a boutique hotel unique in that each room is painted by a different emerging artist. i've had my eye on this place for a few years and was excited to finally check it out.


when you book a room there, one can list their top artist choices and they do their best to accommodate each request. i went with damon soule, eric orr and kate durkin in that order - the shepard fairey suite was taken - and they came thru with room 206 (damon soule). a brief look inside our room:



and a few snaps of the hotel, including the colorful courtyard directly outside our window, accessible by simply stepping out:




i loved the fact that there's art everywhere you look (lobby, staircase, hallways, etc.), and most if not all is up for sale. plus, the hotel is centrally located - mere steps away from union square, chinatown and the financial district.

hotel des arts
447 bush st.
san francisco, CA 94108
http://www.sfhoteldesarts.com/

Thursday, August 4, 2011

lykke li - greek theatre


received a nice surprise from heidi on wednesday, as she took me to the lykke li concert at the greek theatre! i had seen the sultry swede twice in concert prior to wednesday night - introduced first at the hollywood forever cemetery (thanks becky!) and the second at the wiltern - but this was her largest socal venue yet.


her set lasted about 80 minutes and li performed a handful of hits from her debut album "youth novels," along with every track from her follow-up album "wounded rhymes." some highlights included the mystical "i follow rivers," the crowd pleaser "little bit," a tender cover of burt bacharach's "please stay," and a soulful, touching rendition of "silent my song."

li commands the stage using no theatrics, elaborate dance numbers or multiple wardrobe changes - but rather with a feral, feline movement to go along with a mesmerizing grip on her audience. a two song encore consisted of "possibility" and "unrequited love."

Monday, August 1, 2011

new wheels

i've been throwin around the possibility of getting a two-wheeler these past few years, but never quite got serious enough. but with the advent of gas costing four bucks a gallon - not to mention the weather, the proximity to work and the relative flatness of socal - i finally decided to pull the trigger.

enter the globe roll 2, engineered by specialized. first spotted in a mag, the visual appeal was undeniable, but the pricetag was a bit high for my liking. plus, it's a single gear bike - with a flip flop hub to turn fixie - so i wasn't entirely sold on the concept. but after a bit of tubthumping, i came around on the refreshing simplicity of it all (who needs 27 speeds in LA?) and fell in love with its clean, classic frame.



so initially i set out to get the roll 1 - same body frame but with lesser parts (crank, rims, pedals & bearings). long story short, i found a brand new 2 for less than the sale price of a 1, so i rolled the dice - in fjord blue no less - sight unseen. i picked it up on saturday morning and it's flat out gorgeous. only problem will be keeping it clean...