sunday august 5, 2007
While sitting here in the house missing Juan, buried in work and sick of looking outside at the endless flow of fog, I was inspired to update the blather playlist by a guy named Bill who lives in Alaska. As usual this playlist is dedicated to Ferris and Rory, this time it has an 80's glam rock theme.
Chris started with Cuban Council this past week Juan was in town for a working vacation. My weekend was spent building the new Rogue Wave website that we hope to launch later this month.
Tomorrow I am going wakesurfing with Sol.
Tuesday and Wednesday my cousin Kit is going to be visiting and I get to show her around town. I suppose it works out well that she is currently in to classic rock and we happen to live in the Haight Ashbury disctrict of SF. One easy attraction for her visit should be the Janis Joplin house right across the street. Other than that I will walk her by the Grateful Dead house and the usual Haight drifts like Amoeba and the Red Vic. If anyone has any suggestions of fun and interesting music related spots, please send an email to nonsense[at]blather.org as I would love to hear them.
On Thursday Phil and I going to see NASA at Moffett Federal Airfield for a project kick-off meeting and to get Juan his nerd shirt. Do you think he will prefer the plain NASA logo or something more exicting with rockets or a space man?
Rogue Wave Studio
sunday july 29, 2007
For the past several weeks I have either been on vacation or juggling odds and ends at work while Michael, Toke and Phil are all enjoying their own vacations. Fortunately both Toke and Phil return later this week so things can get back to normal.
Just after the 4th of July and fireworks with Mads and Katherine, we left for Kauai to celebrate Dara's 30th birthday and our 1 year anniversary.
On our first trip to Kauai we made two mistakes. #1, we only stayed for three days and #2, we stayed mid-island in Lihue so that we could easily travel both north and south to figure out which part of the island we liked best. Mistake #1 is obvious, anytime you drop in on paradise you should make an effort to stay as long as possible and 3 days is nothing more than a painful teaser. Mistake #2 was less obvious until you actually see both parts of the island, and the north shore is far more beautiful than the south shore... for our interests anyway.
Once we arrived in Lihue and got to our rental car, we headed straight for the north shore with no intention of looking back until it was time to leave the island. As a matter of fact, between all of our wanderings in Kilauea, Hanalei and Princeville, we didn't return east or south of Kilauea for the entire week.
We quickly set out on what would become our week-long mission to find the best beach based on three different criteria... #1, ease of access. #2, privacy and #3 safety for swimming (in no particular order).
After hunting, parking and hiking our way around the north shore cliffs from Queens Bath all the way to Tunnels Beach, we settled in Kilihiwai Bay, the spot that was originally recommended to us by our hosts located just minutes from the cottage. This isn't to say that there aren't gorgeous hideaways everywhere on the north shore with spots like Lumahai Beach and Secret Beach, but for us the little corner of shade with our local crab friends and the calm bay was just right for us.
The highlights of the trip include the fourth day when we celebrated Dara's birthday with an incredible Hanalei Bay sunset followed by some champagne that I toted all the way from the mainland. Another was the morning and afternoon showers that blanketed our cottage on a daily basis. Whether right before sunrise or in the evening after returning from the beach, the 15-30 minute downpours were just enough to cool things down a bit while enticing new plants and flowers to bloom right under our noses. And finally, our rainy/sunny/rainy/sunny kayak trip up the Hanalei River was the perfect mix of exercise, scenery and adventure (which scared the hell out of Dara when we saw a wild buffalo grazing on the riverbank).
All in all it was an incredible trip and we can't wait to return... this time for even longer, we hope.
P.S. My iPhone is still incredible.
Kauai Birthday/Anniversary
