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  • Build-a-Bar!

    So, Nick and I have known for some time that we were rapidly running out of space on the bookshelves in our home office that we were using to store everything from books to camera equipment to computer cables and accessories, and of course our collection of fine adult beverages. I forgot to take a “before” picture but you can kind of get an idea of how crowded the shelves were from the background of this photo: Basically the shelves were a mess and we needed to do something about it. We started looking up home bars, and were absolutely shocked to find out that not only are they pretty rare…

  • Juicin’ 3-day Liveblog

    I’ve been hearing about these juice fasts for a long time now, and kind of wanted to try one. If you’re not familiar with the concept, basically for the next three days I won’t be eating any solid food, drinking coffee, or drinking alcohol. I’ll be drinking 6 bottles of raw, organic juice per day instead. A few things finally tipped me over the edge to try this thing: My eating over the holidays, and since the holidays, was atrocious and I haven’t really felt the same since. Some coworkers were doing one shortly after the holidays, and universally reported feeling more energetic and more “well” by day 3. Nick…

  • A long post about U.S. healthcare

    **NOTE: this is a really long post. If you’d prefer to cut to the chase ($$$), scroll down to the section that starts with “THE UGLY”**. Nick and I joined a recreational volleyball league, and I was having a lot of fun until I injured my left ring finger in the second game while trying to block a ball. I knew when it happened that I had done something bad (it hurt a LOT!), but figured it was just a sprain and kept playing through all 4 matches we had that night. When I got home, I was barely able to get my wedding ring off my finger was so…

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  • I’ll Difference Your Engine

    Appropriately, the world’s largest computer history is here in Silicon Valley, in Mountain View to be exact, pretty much across the street from the Google campus. Nick and I paid it a visit and to be honest, while I was expecting to be kind of bored (I’m a geek, but I’m not THAT geeky) I very much enjoyed our visit, ESPECIALLY: The Babbage Difference Engine – Holy Cow. Let me tell you about the Babbage Difference Engine. The Babbage Difference Engine is first of all very fun to say. Second of all, it is a machine that was designed in 1822 – yes 1822 – and weighs 5 tons, and is…

  • Drought

    While everyone back home is dealing with ice and snow, we’ve been lucky to have absolutely beautiful sunny and warm weather here in California (sorry for swears). However, it’s not all fun and games, since California is having this beautiful weather as the result of a terrible drought. We haven’t had rain since July, and before that we hadn’t had any since January of last year. Even our cacti are dying (really – here’s a picture of the one beside our house): The National Weather Service put together this graph showing typical rain levels in California, which illustrates how bad it actually is: The scientific reason behind the drought is…

  • Angel Island Hike

    Angel Island is a small island in San Francisco Bay (Wikipedia article) with beautiful views and a ton of history. [googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?q=angel+island&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Angel+Island&t=m&ll=37.86076,-122.432327&spn=0.260213,0.439453&z=11&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=640&h=480] A couple of weeks ago, Nick and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we’ve been having in the Bay Area and go for a long hike on Angel Island. You can get there on a ferry from Tiburon or San Francisco for about $13 a person. We opted for Tiburon as we thought the parking would be cheaper and more plentiful. Knowing that the weather around SF can be a little unpredictable, especially on an island, we brought toques (known as “beanies” here in the…

  • FOOD TRUCKS!! :-9

    I know unique food trucks have become more common in Ottawa since we left, but in 2012 it seemed all you could find at a food truck in Ottawa was poutine, fries, hot dogs, etc – the usual fare (not that there’s anything wrong with that – I miss chip truck poutine more than I’d care to admit). So, when Nick and I discovered Moveable Feast here in San Jose we were over the moon. Moveable Feast is a gathering of local food trucks every Friday in a big parking lot about a ten minute drive away from us. There are usually at least 10-15 trucks, more in the summer,…

  • Home for the holidays

    The Wrights returned to California yesterday after ten days in Ottawa, hanging with family for Christmas. We had a wonderful time. It felt so good to spend time with our families, reconnecting since the last time we’d seen them in July, enjoying lots of yummy food and many a tasty beverage, and it was even a pleasure to see all the snow. We had a few travel adventures this year. We opted not to rent a car, since last year we rented one, it cost us $600, and it mostly sat in the garage. Instead, we took the train (and one Greyhound bus) everywhere. The train tickets cost $440, but we…

  • Whale watching in Monterey (lots of pictures!)

    A few weeks ago, I read this NY Times article on the amazing whale-watching in Monterey right now. A huge number of anchovies have been hanging around in Monterey Bay, providing a feast for all kinds of wildlife, including humpback whales. While Monterey Bay always has great whale-watching (something I didn’t know until reading the article), this year’s has been particularly spectacular, so Nick and I booked tickets to go yesterday. Monterey is only about a 75 minute drive from us so it was just a no brainer. Whales are wild animals and so of course there’s never a guarantee that you’ll see any, but we weren’t disappointed on our…

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  • Some recent hikes

    Since moving to California, Nick and I have instituted a policy of doing something active every weekend. The weather is so gorgeous and there are so many hikes and bike rides around here that there’s no reason for us to not get outside and enjoy it. I also really value the time spent with him when I am not worrying about what needs to get done around the house or what’s on my to-do list or what will be waiting for me at work on Monday. It’s just us, and nature, and usually no cell phone service, and great conversations to go along with the beautiful views. Nick also goes…