Melyssa-with-a-Y

I uploaded my pictures from the Getty, USC and the Petersen Museum. Enjoy!

So, for the past five years (at least!) every time we get all the "kids" together, we take a group photo. Starting last year, we added Samantha to the mix! :) So here's this year's pic, taken on the steps at Tutu's, after we stuffed ourselves at 2nd Thanksgiving (is that like the Hobbits' second breakfast?) .

Yes, I love Southern California, it's true. But I have to say, I like being back in my own apartment. For one thing, nobody is snoring in the next bed (or next room). Plus, I missed cooking my own food (which was only possible after a quick but expensive trip to the supermarket), and I get to wear clothes that haven't been rolled up in a suitcase for two weeks! Of course, there are things that I miss about California, too, like Samantha's giggles, Marc's fresh-brewed coffee, and not having to go to my office everyday. Hmmm... what does that tell you? I did notice that my right arm hurt after work yesterday - it was the first time in two weeks I had worked with a mouse for a full day! I need to go back to the gym! I really wish I had something more exciting to talk about... but I spent the second half of my day in a neverending meeting. Mind you, the meeting was about a huge project that I am looking forward to working on, but the meeting just dragged on and on and on. A...

as a p.s. to my Saturday post... that wonderful spinach salad with walnuts and goat cheese is very bad if you are lactose intolerant, as I am. I have a very selective memory sometimes... or maybe it's wishful thinking -- "Eh, just a little bit can't hurt me." Well, I was wrong. Soooo wrong. So, apologies to my brothers who had to endure my complaining. I take full responsibility, and I will never do it again (at least, not with goat cheese!). And thanks for a great visit to sunny SoCal! See everyone soon!

Samantha (and Mama and Dada) had a tough night on Thursday, none of them got any sleep. :( So we bagged our plans to go to California Adventure and took it slow on Friday. We had breakfast at Denny's - Samantha really loves those cheesy eggs! - and then just vegged at the house. Each of us took a nap of at least a few minutes at some point during the day- it was really good for all of us. We tried to go to dinner at Shien's for sushi, but it was superduper crowded, so we ended up at Hana instead. The waitress was so nice to us, and Samantha enjoyed her miso rice (white rice soaked in miso soup). We stuffed ourselves with sushi... crunchy roll (with shrimp tempura inside) and lots of spicy tuna roll for the boys, and a sashimi roll (no rice, wrapped in cucumber slices)... Teri ordered a Philly roll (salmon and cream cheese) but, ugh. Too weird. Today we went to Teri's mom's house (we all call her "Tutu") for our second Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. We had...

Thanksgiving Thursday was spent at Jae's step-sister Dawn's house, with Judy (Jae's mom) and Geoff (her hubby, Dawn's dad) and Dawn's husband Greg and daughter Kasey (6 y.o.), and Dawn's sister Michelle and her friend Rachel. So all in all there were 10 adults and 2 little ones. Oh, and a dog and five cats and a bird. :) We had a few hours of chit-chat and movie-watching while waiting for the turkey. Bryan and I watched football. They served a ridiculous amount of food. There was turkey and honey ham and candied yams and stuffing and mashed potatoes and asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and gravy and cranberry sauce and rolls. URP! Just reading that makes me feel full. After dinner, we went for a walk... just to try to digest a little. Kasey and Sam are so cute together. They just adore each other and won't go anywhere unless the other one is there. After the walk, we had dessert... Teri's awesome pumpkin surprise - which she's making again for Satur...

Dad is apparently feeling better. He called us yesterday when we were on our way to Thanksgiving dinner, and he was in a good mood - but I think it was the drugs talking. He said they were giving him lots of good painkillers. :) Mom & Dad will be flying home on January 2, which is six weeks after the accident. In the meantime, one of their friends is going over in early December, so he can deliver stuff like medicine and other things. Mom says they found a movie theater with 2-for-1 showings on Wednesdays, so we know where they'll be every week!

The L.A. adventure continued: On Wednesday, Marc got up and made us coffee (I was awakened by the buzzing of the coffee grinder, which was so nice!) and then we went to get bagels. "It's only a few blocks further," he said. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that when he says that, it means it's more like a mile or two... and even after we parked, we ended up hiking up Ventura Blvd in Encino anyway because we had pulled into the wrong parking lot! The bagel place was in fact tasty... for future reference, it is across from the Versailles Cuban restaurant. :) Then I dropped Marc off at work (bye, Marc!) and went to the Skirball Cultural Center to look around. Aunt Martha had told me they had lovely stuff, and she was right! There was a great exhibit called "From Haven to Home," which marks the 350th Anniversary of the arrival first Jews who settled in America. They also displayed the paintings of Max Liebermann, who was a contemporary of Degas, Monet a...

So, for dinner on Monday we went to Border Grill in Santa Monica . EXCELLENT Mexican food. The restaurant is owned by the " Too Hot Tamales " who used to have a show on the Food Network. Really neat decor, too. The mango and guava flavored margaritas were both quite tasty. We were very tempted to order seconds, but we didn't. We were definitely too full to order dessert, even though it looked tasty. We walked over to the Third Street Promenade and happened upon the Starbucks Listening Station. It's very cool - you can look up any song or group of songs from a bunch of different albums (150,000?) and burn your own mix disk, for ~$10. They also sell all kinds of CDs. It was written up in the Washington Post last August. We spent way more time in there than we intended... almost an hour. By the time we left (and I bought a Nnenna Freelon CD), most of the other stores were closed. We got some gelato and went to Barnes & Noble, but we had to leave there before we spe...

Ahem. It was pointed out to me tonight that I have been doing all kinds of fun stuff in LA since Sunday, and I haven't blogged about it at all. Oops! So here goes. Sunday, I flew out of cold, foggy Seattle and into warm, sunny LA. By the time I got to Marc's, I was starving, and it was already 3:00pm! But it was a little too late for lunch, if we were going to go to Engine Company No. 28 for dinner. So we went to the USC bookstore to get some 'guano' (it's a long story, it's basically the nickname for souvenirs and other cheesy crap that you get at amusement parks and other places) and walked around the campus a bit. Here's a picture of Matt Leinart's Heisman trophy. We noticed that there is an empty cabinet in the trophy area, so there's room for either Matt's or Reggie's trophy this year! :) Dinner was soooo good. We made a reservation for 5:45, which was good because we beat out the pre-theater crowd. We had excellent steak and calamari an...

What a bit of news to wake up to -- it seems on their FIRST day in London (of a 3 week trip), my father fell in the shower and cracked two ribs and punctured a lung (It's called a pneumo-thorax ). He's in the hospital, on plenty of pain medication. He can't *fly* home, so they are looking into ways to come home by ship... but all of the nicer crossing ships like the QE2 are in the Mediterranean for the season already, and a neighbor told them that the crossing would be really rough this time of year. My mom had better pack a lot of dramamine! It's a 6-8 day trip! More news when I know more.

Here I am in the visitors' dugout at Safeco field. Linux also gave us baseballs with their logo on them. :)

Bill Gates came and addressed our meeting yesterday, announcing that Microsoft is getting into the high performance computing "space." In the hallway, my friend Jill and I were approached by a reporter from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, who asked us some questions, and tape recorded our remarks. and then I forgot all about it. Today was ridiculously busy, from a breakfast meeting at 8am to our panel session which didn't end til 7pm. On the way back to the hotel tonight (after the Cisco party at the EMP), I remembered that I should check the newspaper- and sure enough, he quoted me! http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/248491_gates16.html (read to the last three paragraphs) I've been in the paper before, for my flasher collection, but never for something work-related. This is cool! I didn't go to the Sheryl Crow party last night -- instead, Linux Networx had a party at Safeco Field (where the Mariners play). We got to go down into the visiting team's dugo...

Next week, upwards of 7,000 engineers, marketers, technology officers, and others will converge on Seattle for Supercomputing 2005 (otherwise known as SC'05). We (I think I fit in the "other" category) will spend the week looking at exhibits of the latest and greatest technologies, listening to presentations, and most importantly, going to parties! Yes, it's true, these geeks really know how to party. Intel and Cisco are throwing their parties (on successive nights) at the Experience Music Project . Intel has Sheryl Crow coming to sing! I am so excited. Ok, maybe the parties aren't the most important part... I'm probably supposed to go to some of the seminars (Bill Gates is giving a keynote after all) and try to learn something. But the other big deal is who is giving away what in the Exhibit Hall. How I'm going to get through 105,000 sq. ft., I have no idea! But I have promised to bring back t-shirts and other goodies for some folks in my office, so I...

My new favorite chef on the Food Network is Dave Lieberman ( Good Deal with Dave Lieberman , Saturdays at 1:30pm). He's cute, he's Jewish, and he cooks tasty, quick recipes with inexpensive ingredients. :) Too bad he's only 25. heh. He made nice little potstickers, which I'd love to do, but I haven't been able to find wonton wrappers in my supermarket. I must be looking in the wrong place. hmm.... Speaking of the Food Network, we are SO over Rachael Ray - she has a magazine now? and three - no, four - different shows? can you say overexposed ?! I think she thinks she's the next Emeril. Really. To be honest, DJ has been annoyed by her for a while... and I have to admit that she can be a bit annoying - she's just too cutesy sometimes. Although the " candy sushi " that she made for Halloween was very creative. (rice krispy treats and twizzlers rolled up inside fruit roll-ups and sliced across. looked just right!) :) ...and yes, I tape Dave...

Here we are in the ER in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon! You can't see the dried blood on mom's face (consider yourself lucky) or on her shirt, or her purse, or her blazer... I went and got some paper towels and wiped her off a bit after Greg took this picture. At least she was in good spirits! The stitches were removed today, and the doctor said that they did a nice job in Atlanta. phew!

The National Zoo's baby panda , Tai Shan (tie SHON) -- which means "peaceful mountain" in Chinese -- took his first steps today. He was born on August 2, weighing in at less than 2 pounds. Since then, he has grown to over 15lbs, and has more than doubled in length. The public isn't allowed to see him yet, but he's supposed to have his "debut" in December. In the meantime, some local stores are collecting "pennies for pandas" by offering special items for sale - like the chocolate-dipped macaroons (black and white, get it?) that Whole Foods will sell after Thanksgiving! yummmmm.... I can't wait to "meet" him. :)