Kokochi

Four Things

I usually never do these things, but this has caught my eye on various favorite sites of mine. Plus, Mena tagged me :)

Four Things

Four jobs I've had:

Waitress at Skylark, a Japanese "family restaurant"

English Instructor at various language schools in Tokyo

Teaching Assistant in History at UCSD

Program Officer at the International Monetary Fund

(I won't count my current job since I still have it)

Four movies I can watch over and over:

BladeRunner

Baraka

Miyazaki Hayao animations

Matrix (I'm over it now, but back in the day...)

Four places I've lived:

Essex, Conneticut

Tokyo, Japan

Portland, Oregon

San Diego, California

Four TV shows I love:

Frontline

Firefly (if only it continued!!)

Daily show

60 minutes

Four places I've vacationed:

Black Rock City, Nevada

Garopaba & Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Pai & Koh Samui, Thailand

Paris, France

Four of my favorite dishes:

sushi

kaiseki (if I'm lucky enough to have that pleasure)

rice with natto, raw egg and soy sauce (comfort food when I'm sick)

duck with port sauce

(I also love stinky cheese)

but my very all-time favorite has to be ujikintoki - shaved ice with macha topping, adzuki beans, and green tea ice cream if you want to indulge

Four sites I visit daily:

bloglines

gmail

craigslist (looking for a place to move now)

flickr

Four places I would rather be right now:

Ebisu, Omotesando, or Shibuya, Tokyo

streets of the 4th arrondisement, Paris (even in the cold)

on a safari in Kenya

lounging anywhere in the Maldives

Tag Four Other Bloggers:

Dav

Sean

Ele

Helen

Wakame geeks out

Too cute not to share. Little Miss Wakame looking over Dav's code, then turning towards him as if pondering a question.

Gargle is a girl!

A small but significant update to my dear readers: we got back amnio test results, and all is fine! I didn't want to share that I took the test and was actually nervous about it until now (talk about a scary test to take!). But I do want to share that Dav and I are super duper happy and relieved.

Also, we found out that our Little Bug, Gargle, is a girl. Let the name-choosing game begin!

This is one of many steps of slowly identifying and connecting with this person-to-be. She's 18 weeks now. The surreal quality of all this is gently shifting ...

Sci-Fi Party

Saturday night we went to a sci-fi themed party. As you know, we love dressing up and weren't going to let this theme go by without some checking out. Indeed, there were lots of really cool and playful outfits (one person's was developed over 4 years!!), which lent to an awesome atmosphere. Everyone had fun.

I couldn't resist taking advantage of my belly for a prop. I didn't spend much time on it, so most people didn't really get it until I explained. I used a real ultrasound picture since the frontal view of the skull outline does look alien-ish (sorry Gargle, but it's true). Some people got the alien baby concept, but didn't think I was really pregnant which made the idea silly. When I get really huge, I'm looking forward to actually painting my belly for some other theme party...

A big fashion choice

I'm so honored! Elida asked me to help her out in choosing new glasses frames. I hadn't been in a frame store for a while and didn't realize all the new varieties they have. How fun, but what a difficult decision!

When I arrived, Elida had narrowed down her choices. I pretty quickly recommended three, based on the frames being different from her current frame, matching her face, and having a usable design/color, but also having some flair. We both liked a beautiful gentle reddish frame with tiny rhinestones at the corner, which became her final decision. I think they are perfect for her.

I used to have bad eyes, and have spent many hours getting frames or contacts. Years ago, I did lasik surgery and have never looked back. Since I know the pain of dealing with contacts, I am very appreciative that my eyes are great now! Nevertheless, it was fun trying on frames, imagining reading a book and looking up at Dav with glasses on. :)

Six Aparty

Friday night was Six Apart's Winter Party. I like that it wasn't a "holiday" party since it really focused on celebrating the company, and not holiday festivities. I hope we continue this "off-season" celebration.

I can't remember, but I think I was the 7th employee or so. Now we're like 115 and growing. With spouses and guests, the party was huge. Last year we had our party in our SOMA office that was spanking new back then. This year, we rented out a restaurant.

For me, this party was a nice occasion to admire how far we've come. For those of us who have worked at Six Apart for 2 years or so, we are "old-timers." We just can't believe how we've grown. What? We're actually a company instead of a group of smart, hard-working people having fun on this blogging project? When did that happen?

It was a great fun party, but even more so, I spent a lot of time feeling proud of us. I've never felt so personally connected to a company. This is a group of people I care about and feel we share an incredible experience. I've made good friends, even meeting up with some at Burning Man. After all, we know a lot about each others' personal lives via our blogs!

I don't blog much about work, but I do want to take this moment to say I can't believe my luck to have stumbled into this situation. It's such a pleasure to love where I work and with whom I work.

giving forward

Back in October, my dear work colleague Ginevra told me her dog Stella had to have surgery. Ginevra and I have been working together for quite some time. In fact, she came aboard to help me during my busiest moment at Six Apart. Since we sat next to each other, we've shared many stories, and I've admired her strength, diligence, and cheer in quite a few bumps she's had to deal with. In fact, Stella's surgery was just one of a pile of things she was facing.

So Dav and I donated a chunk to her Stella fund.

But there is a another context: Dav and I often talk about how fortunate we are. Just knowing about global affairs and traveling internationally makes us very aware that we are extremely lucky to have our lifestyle and choices. Thus, we decided to donate money to individuals when we come across an occasion where it would make a difference in that person's life.

In many ways, Ginevra is as fortunate as us in the sense that we don't live in war, are employed, have great friends, don't worry about food, etc. And Dav and I first envisioned donating to more extreme cases such as a homeless person, or someone needing medical attention. But Dav and I had not come across anyone. We didn't want to give to some random person or organization. Rather, we wanted to come across a specific situation, and then offer help if we knew it was needed.

Even though the Stella fund was different from our vision, I felt Ginevra was a great candidate for our first donation. Without going into details, 2005 sucked for her. She had sucky thing after sucky thing try to drag her down. And I wanted to applaud her for not giving up.

And I knew I was right. Because sure Ginevra would have been fine anyway...but you what she did? Now that things are going better for her, she recently donated that chunk of cash to someone else who needed it. And that person REALLY needs it. This is exactly what we wanted. Spread the love, give forward, and let kindness inspire. :)

ps. After a long hard recovery, Stella is doing fine, sweet girl.

Cheese fresh from Paris

We're signed up with a travel network, and every once in while, welcome international travelers passing through San Francisco. They get a free bed and place to stay, and we get interesting company. When we travel, we can tap into this resource, and will hopefully have profiles as decent hosts and trustworthy people.

This week we had 2 Germans stay. One studying speech, another something more technical (I forget). They immediately won me over by presenting me with 2 beautiful hunks of fresh cheese they smuggled in from Paris. It reeked of stinkiness for Dav, but I melted in bliss upon sniffing the packages. I promptly had toast smothered in the stuff for breakfast! Too bad it's a bit much for Dav. And too bad I couldn't have it with a nice red Bourgogne...

Ely Guerra

Click to see video.	Click to see video.

Last night we went to see Ely Guerra with Elida and her friends at the Brava Theater. It was intimate and clearly full of very dedicated fans. She was introduced as a singer with a voice of an angel, and a soul of a lion, which was an apt description. She started songs as a gentle lullaby, but then would break out into a powerful, yet beautiful belt, stomping her feet and singing with her whole body.

Dav and I missed a lot since it was all in Spanish, and she frequently talked to the crowd, making them laugh or clap. But her personality and beauty certainly came across. I highly recommend.

[the video sound is awful, but you can enjoy her nonetheless just by watching]

growing belly

When Elida came over for dinner, she took this picture of the belly. Thought I'd share it for those who don't see me regularly.