Kokochi

The snow and mountains are beautiful

Once there was daylight, I was astounded at the beauty here. I am more of an ocean gal, always living somewhere close to water. Here, it's dry and high altitude with majestic mountains and bright white snow all around. It's feels festive even though it's a normal day here.

I woke to find Dav out on the balcony, all bundled up, working on his laptop! It was actually having fan trouble, so the cold was perfect. The resort is huge, and after breakfast, I walked around and found several ice sculptures. Dav took off snowboarding, but being pregnant, I hung around with DL Byron, Steve, Scoble, and his wife Maryam. We went up a gondola and were going to have lunch at the top, but the winds were too strong so we came back down. It was still worth the trip.

First time in Colorado Ski Country

Dav and I arrived late Tuesday night in Denver, CO at Keystone Lodge. Our first time in this Colorado Ski Country area and we are super eager to see the snow, but it was too dark. Instead, I thoroughly enjoyed discovering our room. Cabin-like feel, but with fresh flowers, giant bed, lots of goodies, etc. Haven't been on a winter trip in a while so this is quite nice.

Amazing Sun!!

	Click to see video.

Today was just gorgeous. Beautiful summer hot weather. What a treat in San Francisco! We lounged around on our patio, listening to podcasts, and reading. Our housemates Emerick and Sara joined for their studying (aren't they adorable?). Awesome day!

[UPDATE: Dav got out his camera and we started goofing around with pictures. First just Dav, Emerick, Sara, and me. Then Mike joined. Then Kunal. Our whole household is goofy, and I love 'em all! The sunset was fantastic, no? I'm still surprised when I see myself in pictures with others. Am I really that short??]

Katia and Pete

Pete and Katia are expecting a girl in early April, 3 months ahead of us. They are part of Campalicious, and also got married at Burning Man this past year. It's exciting that our paths are timed so similarly! I'm sure Katia and I will be sharing hints and helping each other out.

Unfortunately, with busy lives, we hadn't seen each other forever! Finally we got to have breakfast all together. Dav and I had a super lovely time catching up with them. I couldn't resist getting a belly picture.

Annie's Social Club

Dav has been at Code Con, and Saturday night, there was a party at Annie's Social Club (917 Folsom St. @ 5th). Caught up with a few friends and had a casual but fun good time. They were playing mashup music and we danced a bit. We joked how this baby-to-be has had quite the weekend, beginning with strip clubs, and now dancing to loud music. I could imagine the Boom Boom noise she was feeling.

I enjoyed the geek decorations they had up for the occasion. Quite an eclectic crowd.

Friday surprise

I found out about a woman who gives North Beach strip club tours for couples, and signed us up secretly from Dav. To spice up this surprise, even though I had no doubt Dav would love this adventure, instead of telling him about it, I created a card ostensively from "a secret-admirer" who wanted to take Dav out for a good time. In the card, it specified to meet at Cafe Prague at 5:45 sharp, and look for a woman with a bob haircut and flower in her hair. Dav would obviously know it's me, but nonetheless, I wanted to set the stage to pretend it was someone else.

But the card never arrived in the mail. So I had to pragmatically explain the gist without too many details.

Then I was late getting to Cafe Prague myself, and in my frantic change into my "secret-admirer" outfit in the car, I failed to notice my hair was sticking out of my wig. I pinned the flower on and ran to the cafe. I had time to adjust my costume once there, but I realized I'm just not a pro at such role-playing. Practice will make perfect though, right?

Anyway, about 22 of us were in the tour, and to be honest, it wasn't anything special that Dav and I couldn't do on our own. I thought we'd get more historical background (we got some) or insider information. Nevertheless, it was fun. The dancers had a great time since we, as such a large group, offered tons of tips. We went to 4 places, then a boutique where Dav bought me fabulous earrings, and finished with dinner at the House of Nanking (fitting all 22 of us together was insane!)

I felt little Gargle move!!

THE most amazing, wondrous experience...EVER.

Last night, we were watching a movie in bed. As usual, Dav had his hand on my belly.

I knew I should be feeling something soon, and every night lay quietly checking. But as I was concentrating on the movie, I suddenly realized that the gentle bubbling I was feeling - that in the back of my mind I must have absent-mindedly passed off as gas or digestion - must be Gargle. It was a split-second "OMG" dawning. I sat up, and told Dav, "this must be Gargle!!!" And when I thought about it, I was even more sure because they were irregular and definitely something I'd never felt before. I lay back down and concentrated, and sure enough a few more bubbling nudges came through.

This is a HUGE leap in further connecting with this little being...I knew this would happen and looked forward to it, taking my time to gradually relate to all this, but actually feeling a little "hi" from Gargle was just sweetly fantastic.

I've been thinking lately about how my parents went through this transition, from being single adults, then married, then parents. To me, they've always been Mom and Dad. And to Gargle (we'll think of a real name someday, I promise), Dav and I will just be parents for a long time. She won't even consider that we have this rich life as a couple entirely before her existence. Weird! We're becoming the older generation!

Just last night I was IM-ing with my dad and thanked him and mom for being such cool parents. He replied, "Thanks for being a cool kid. Lovely to have you around." I'm just beginning to imagine my parents raising my brother and me from a tiny spec of practically nothing to who we are now.

Faces from the SF Asian Museum

Went to see the "Traditions Unbound: Groundbreaking Painters of 18th-Century Kyoto" exhibit at the SF Asian Museum. I loved the variety of calligraphy painting, and it was displayed well with good explanations about what was unique in each style or how the painters broke out of certain standards. There was some really nice eye-catching pieces that I wish I could have at home.

Photos weren't allowed in the special exhibit area, but was OK for the regular area. So I picked out neat facial expressions that struck me as beautiful or cute.

Our family name is Yaginuma - 柳沼

	Click to see video.

This morning, we went down to the San Francisco court house to have a judge (or actually a commissioner) hear our case. It was pretty straight-forward, but all new to me. We had to raise our right hand and swear we were telling the truth, and answer into the microphone "yes" twice (and were told if we didn't answer "yes" there would be more questions for us). Basically, we verbally spelled out our old names, and the judge verbalized the spelling of our new names for recording purposes.

I was able to video Dav's turn, and you can hear the judge spelling Dav, Impossible, Yaginuma. She didn't bat an eye. And then it was over!

So we are now officially and legally the Yaginumas - 柳沼. This post is very much for Gargle who will grow up as a Yaginuma, and by reading this can get a sense of how Dav and I actually adopted this family name for ourselves, and how it's an exciting new chapter for us.

Dav and Waka are a pair

Following my recent post of geeky Waka, Dav made this adorable addition to one of the pictures.