I decided not to turn this into the tragic cancer blog but in fact, just a week after this last post in June, Akhil was diagnosed with cancer. All I can say is be grateful for your life. It's not all in our control!

So, now he's through all the treatment and they tell us prognosis is excellent. One has to roll with the punches. Can't curl up in a ball and stay in bed all day.

Just two days after the last radiation treatment it was off like troopers to Todd and Leah's wedding in Mystic, CT, complete with an authentic New England clambake rehearsal dinner. Akhil's parents graciously attended and we met all my long-lost cousins, aunts and uncles. Todd and Leah took off for Hawaii the next day, and we headed out for a blissful few days on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.

Now, it's full steam ahead with work and life. It's hard to stay positive and thankful all the time but something like this really helps in a pinch. Perspective is a gift. Thank you.

June already, in fact, June 14. Wow. It's a glorious weekend. We had rain yesterday but today it cleared up mid-afternoon while we were at the Descanso Gardens, where they were hosting a scavenger hunt/wildlife demonstration/Cobra auto show. Yeah, odd combo, but they were. They had 4 original Cobras there, as in, Cobra, the sports car; they had 10 replicas as well. And then for the kids, there were going to be real, live cobras, as in, the snakes. Well, they're doing something right because the place was packed.

I'm enjoying a view of our seriously blooming garden with the door wide open and the smell of neighbors' BBQs drifting into the house. Debating whether to try moving the mat again on this photo I'm putting into the UCLA show in a couple of weeks. Exciting! Not the Guggenheim or anything, but I was flattered. This is the pic, of Multnomah Falls in Oregon. Akhil and I were up there over a 4-day Memorial Weekend mini-cation last month. We stayed in Hood River 2 nights, hiked the Eagle Trail, drove up to the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, and then drove out to Cannon Beach to spend a night there and see Haystack Rock. We bought loads of books at Powell's in Portland, beach-walked in Ecola State Park, and made it all the way to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville to see the Spruce Goose.

Next month, Akhil's off to England. I'm headed to Chicago. And both of us will be at the Hollywood Bowl for Eric Clapton.

Two readers this week! Alright, I'm getting there... Well, we've missed four months of exciting updates here, including the fact that my brother got engaged between Christmas and New Years, and the wedding is August 15 back in the 'hood, in Mystic. Chronicling the lead-up to that happy occasion would've made for a great G-rated soap opera. Akhil and I celebrated Christmas here in Pasadena, where we made an entire 12-pound turkey just for him, me and our friend Mai, whose boyfriend couldn't make it because of the flu. I froze a bunch of leftovers. We headed to Boston for New Years weekend, and in the snow and bitter cold, we met up with Todd and his bride-to-be for dinner in the South End. She's lovely.

Between January and now we have been working like fiends, though not as bad as last year, at least for Akhil. We did spend a weekend in San Luis Obispo for my dreaded birthday, and in March, stretched a business trip for Akhil into a long weekend for both of us in La Jolla, after he spoke at a robotics conference there. I took the subway in L.A. for the first time ever, followed by the train, yes the train, also first time ever (this first-time stuff applies only to the west coast; on the east coast I didn't even own a car), to get to San Diego, which was eventful in itself. Once you're underground, you could be anywhere. It wasn't hard, or scary. Nothing compared to say, the C train in NYC. So a friend suggested a San Diego restaurant to us called Cafe Chloe and I just want to sing its praises -- excellent, up there with Sonoma in terms of quality food, wine, and service. Go! On Sunday of that weekend Akhil rode his bike up Mt. Palomar, a badge of honor for those cyclist types. Our garden is off-the-hook this year -- you should see our roses. We got a new President (thank the good lord for that), finished our taxes (not fun), and my mom is, at this moment, recovering from surgery in New Hampshire. That's mostly it for significant events of Q1 '09.

Oh yeah, and Akhil bought a wok. And made fried rice in it. Twice. That, too, is eventful.

I highly doubt anyone is reading this blog, but at an event recently hosted by my friends at FranklinAvenue.blogspot.com, amid a whole crew of L.A. bloggers and fans, someone brought it up and I thought, damn, I better update that thing, just in case. Needless to say, since that last post, we made it back home from Tokyo and have been through a lot more drama since then.

For a moment though, back to November: I raved and raved about our Japan trip for weeks until people got sick of my spiel. In a word, it was FANTASTIC. Kyoto was a friendly, approachable, somewhat mystical combination of gorgeous, ancient temples and Japanese gardens and a super-modern consumer/shopping/fast-food lifestyle. We stayed at a ryokan, traditional, Japanese style inn, called the Three Sisters Inn Annex, and walked or took the bus all over, from the bamboo forest to Golden Temple to the surreal Path of Philosophy. Kyoto is one of those cities that feels like it exists just for travelers to enjoy it, but it's actually a major center and the former capital of Japan. It was of the only cities that was spared during WWII, and consciously so, due to the efforts of a Western scholar who persuaded the Allies to leave it alone as the preservation of the cultural treasures there would be "good PR." And it was. Tokyo was also spectacular. Sure, it's a big city, but if you can handle NYC or London, Tokyo is similar, but easier in some ways, because the transportation is smooth. We spent 3 days there, 3 days in Kyoto. Can't wait to go back.

I heart Tokyo. It's 4:31 and I got up with the Wall-E crew at 4 so the driver, Leo, can take me to the Tsukiji fish market. It's gonna be a tough day! But then I wasn't sleeping so well anyway.

Yesterday was a whirlwind; a quick-e tour of what seemed like the entire city, with Leo stopping for a few minutes in every place between here and Asakusa. Traffic in L.A. is NOTHING compared to this. You sit, and you sit, but you can people-watch while waiting for the lights to turn and there's plenty to see, from the tragically hip to the tourists. We made it to the Sensoji temple, where we lit incense and pulled the smoke toward us for "good luck;" to Kiddieland en route to the the ultra-cool and youthful Harajuku 'hood, made a very quick stop at Harajuku itself, and then the Tokyo PR team took us out (graciously including me) to a shabu-shabu restaurant at Shinjuku -- the crazy neon skyscraper neighborhood, where most of "Lost in Translation" took place. I've got a few minutes before we set off again. After the work is over for Akhil and co., we'll take a train to Kyoto and stay until Saturday. Who knew there was so much to see right here in Tokyo? It's an incredible, lively, energetic and welcoming place.

19 hours door to door but I'm here, in Tokyo, where Akhil's been since Friday. We're at the Westin Hotel at the Ebisu stop in the southwestern part of the city and it's perfectly gorgeous - high 50s, clear and sunny. I can see Mt. Fuji from the room.

So far the uneventful 12-hour flight, 2-hour train odyssey and 30-minute walk to find the hotel from the subway station are about all I've had time to experience. I took an hour walk around the 'hood this morning and found it quiet and pleasant, the people who've helped me find my way around so far kind and generous. I just took out a map in the subway station and two people stopped to point me in the right direction, didn't even ask. Akhil and the Wall-E team should be back from their TV spot tours in a half hour and then we're off to sightsee. It's late fall and true to what the guidebooks promised, the fall colors are everywhere.

LIke I said, I live for vacation. The in-between periods this year have been pretty darn boring. We get up, we work, we come home at 8, we eat, we watch the tube, we sleep. That's 5 days a week, with weekends for chores. That's life! No, wait, that can't be life. Ok, I gotta change something.

Fortunately, an impromptu vacation is coming up: Japan. Akhil has one more Wall-E premiere to tend to, and it's in Tokyo -- during THANKSGIVING week. Talk about inconvenient. A perfect opportunity and excuse, I suppose, for me to tag along. He flies the week before, on Thursday, and I'll join up with him and crew on Monday. The premiere is Tuesday night. On Wednesday we'll take the train to Kyoto for 3 days. From what I've read this should be an incredible trip! Narita airport, however, is nearly two hours away from Tokyo. Can you believe that? So I need to get myself from Narita to Tokyo, on no sleep (and we all know I'm a sleep wimp), and from wherever that drops me to the Westin Hotel. From there I will relive "Lost in Translation" in its entirety.

This fall is winding down already but we finally, after 10 years here, found the one place within day-trip distance where you can actually pick apples. Yucaipa! There's foliage there. Yes, really, foliage. In L.A. Cider donuts, actual orchards, cider presses too. But they don't really do Macintoshes. That's what I think if when I think of apple-picking, New Englander that I am. We settled for Pink Ladies and WInesaps, and Akhil made an apple pie. He ate most of it. I liked his peach one better. Snowline has the cider donuts, Willowbrook had the Winesaps -- and a pot-bellied pig named Blossom.

Like the rest of time, the seasons, life, that last two months of summer started rolling on faster and faster until suddenly the whole darn thing was gone. All I did for most of it (besides work and harvest tomatoes) was anticipate our Labor Day week vacation, this time to Europe. We've been back two weeks already. It felt very spur of the moment, since we didn't really plan until July, and the experience really took me away. I felt like we'd been gone a month.

Akhil's friend Monika, who lives in Seattle now but hails from Konstanz, Germany, had invited us to her after-wedding (she was officially married in Hawaii) wedding on the island of Mainau, in the Bodensee, earlier this year and we decided we'd go and make a vacation out of it, even though we already went to Maine this summer. Two vacations - what luxury! I was good and ready -- both of us were. We started in Zurich, spent a couple of days in Lucerne and the area around the lake, and then made a break for Lake Como, Italy.

We only got a couple of hours walking around in Zurich; since it was a Sunday it was quiet. Not much open. But we managed to find the street where the Omega headquarters store was, and the Bucherer store - possibly the same one where I bought that watch I can no longer find when I was there in high school. Lucerne was somewhat quaint; I think I thought of it as a big city back in 1990, before I'd ever lived anyplace. We walked all over on Sunday afternoon and stayed in a hotel right on the river, overlooking the Chapel Bridge, which looks exactly as it did 17 years ago.

On Monday, the weather was a little bit off, so we took a drive around Lake Lucerne. At one point we stopped in a residential area and walked down a footpath along the lake, where we passed a house where we could hear someone practicing accordion. From there we drove down to Brunner, then drove back up the other side and took a detour all the way out to Interlaken, the gateway to the most dramatic mountain area in Switzerland, and where the skiing's supposed to be great.

On Tuesday, after breakfast on the terrace at our hotel, we browsed the watch shops one last time and took a look at the Lion Monument, which is a memorial to Swiss lives lost during the French Revolution. Without getting a chance to eat any Swiss food at all, not even fondue, nor buy chocolate, schnitzel, or timepieces, we took off for Italy, the highlight of the trip.

I have to say, as beautiful as the mountains and lakes in Switzerland may be, Italy is truly something else. As soon as we hit the border, it seems, the contrast was evident. The Italian cultural influence starts to appear once you come through the Alps where Locarno, on Lake Maggiore, and Lugano are located. We stopped in Locarno and got our first, foamy cappuccino and it only got better from there. At the border, the architecture and even the light seemed to change; we entered Como and within minutes began the tricky one-hour drive up some insanely narrow, winding roads, high in the hills above the lake, to Bellagio.

Both of us have been to various parts of Italy at one time or another in the past, but the Como area is a little different, with steep hills, a mountain backdrop, and relative quiet, compared to, say, Venice, Rome, or Milan. One nice thing about the roads on the east side of Lake Como is that there is no way any tour bus is gonna get itself around those bends; Bellagio seemed not to have too many buses, I'm guessing, for that reason. And good thing, because it's a tiny, lovely village, with steep cobblestone streets, gorgeous, old pastel pink, white and gold buildings, a ferry terminal, and lots of flowers. As far as the businesses go, I don't think I saw one that wasn't there to cater to the tourist population, though. Once the Vegas hotel opened, the American throngs started coming to see the real deal, our hotel host told us.

We checked in, parked our rental mini-Mercedes and didn't touch it again for 2 days. The way to get around is by ferry and they make it easy and reasonable. We had a rediculously indulgent dinner Tuesday night and turned in early; little did we know the rain was a-comin'. It started that night and continued on and off until we left on Friday. The "attractions" in the area are the centuries-old villas, especially the gardens, so we planned our two days in the area accordingly. On Wednesday we spent most of the day in Varenna, at the beautiful gardens at Villa Monastero and then lunch (pizza, of course) by the water. Back in Bellagio we headed over to Villa Melzi before dinner.

On Thursday, we took the ferry to Lenno, and hopped a taxi boat to Villa Balbianello, which is the locale used to represent the planet "Naboo" in the Star Wars, Episode II. It was stunning, mainly the gardens, but especially the view of the place from the water, high up on a small, roundish peninsula. After the villa tour we walked the Greenway footpath they just put in from Lenno to Tremezzo, where we took a gelato break, and onward to Menaggio. A few miles of exercise will do a tourist some good in Italy. Curses, tiramisu, panacotta, gelato!

Dinner that night was the amazing Italian dinner we had been hoping we'd find -- I had pappardelle with porcini mushrooms; Akhil had pasta arrabiata, and of course we had wine, and prosciutto-melone, and panacotta, and breadsticks. Good thing we were leaving the next morning otherwise we'd have need to buy an extra plane ticket. We strolled around awhile for a last, fleeting chance at spotting George Clooney (not), but by 11 a.m. we knew it was time to put the car on the ferry over to Cernobbio and get started on the journey back to the "other" side of the mountains, to Germany.

Germany's not quite Italy, but they do have decent wursts, sausages ... heavy, fatty meat products in casings. Akhil wasted no time in getting one, in a french-style bun with mustard, at the rest stop once we crossed the border back into the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The German border is actually on the Bodensee, a.k.a. Lake Konstanz, and we crossed it late, about 5 o'clock, and located our waterfront hotel.

The Bodensee is Germany's largest lake, and is bordered by Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. The area we were in was a surprisingly tranquil, agriculture-rich place; we didn't have time to take the ferry and explore but we did get to see the college town of Konstanz and the gorgeous gardens on Mainau. We ran into Monika on a walk Friday night and she invited us to her father's home on the lake for cocktails Friday evening. On Saturday we dressed up and headed over to the island.

Mainau is now open to the public but the island is still officially owned by the Swedish royal family, with a particular duchess inhabiting the castle where Monika got married. The duchess, and most of her family, was at the wedding. Through a family connection, Monika has spent a lot of time on Mainau and they've all come to know each other well. Post-wedding, we toured the gardens, along with all the regular tourists who were there; the dahlias were incredible. The daytime reception was held inside the castle, with champagne and tiny jars -- yes jars -- of food. The evening reception was a regular dinner held at the local brewery. We met some interesting people, who made it clear to us that living in Europe and visiting Europe were two very different things.

Three countries, seven days; great trip. When we got home, Akhil immediately purchased an espresso maker.

Yeah so we had an earthquake. It was really quite roly in my NoHo office. The building's on rollers. Ten seconds of mayhem, but then it stopped, and everyone went back to fighting over access to the printers at work. 5.4 on the Richter scale. That was my biggest ever! Not a picture frame askew, at home.

Saturday we spent the whole day out in Malibu. Visited the Adamson House, got some snacks at Cross Creek, at that awesome deli there, walked out to Surfrider Beach, and went to the art festival. But man, Malibu is getting crowded! We were both pretty sad. When we moved here, and even five years ago, it was still a little bit of a sleepy, groovy getaway. But now it's like an extension of Santa Monica. Where are all you people coming from?! After that we got a parking ticket while doing the ridge hike at Temescal Canyon. They mean business. Urth Cafe on Main Street in was NOT crowded, for once. Cuz' everyone was in Malibu.

It's always fun when you find a new restaurant good enough to add to your ol' standbys list and we found one just down the street from here, on Colorado Blvd. near Pasadena City College, called Daisy Mint. It's an "Oriental Cafe," officially, but mostly it's Thai food. "Uncle" Akhil (our niece, Ava, came into the world on Monday) got the pineapple curry with duck and I got the garlic string beans with chicken. Tasty! And the place is cute and cozy.

One thing I do love about SoCal living -- the Farmers Markets. We've got one just down the road from our house every Saturday. I made it over there this morning, and bought garlic, squash, almonds, a flat of strawberries, baby spinach and a substantial bouquet of flowers for less than $15. I'm bowled over by the enthusiasm that even the hippest of the hip have for such an old-fashioned, back-to-basics concept. And everybody brings their own shopping bags/baskets. Supposedly Mickey Rooney was there. I never spotted him myself but that was the buzz. If that's not a feel-good, almost star sighting I don't know what is.

Akhil got back from his Euro tour this eve at 7:30. I tried to get him to have a reunion dinner with me but he was asleep in the car within 5 mins, and already in bed. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

"The Bear" is on the run. Yeah, that's right, the Bear, as in "BJ and the Bear" as in the real-live monkey co-star, Mo the Chimp. Apparently he was misbehaving recently (at 42, he's still biting people) so he was taken away from his caretaker owners to live in a sanctuary for wild beasts. Well, Mo is no dummy, and darnit, he's a celebrity! Cage, schmage. He let himself out of his digs, and he's currently at large, somewhere in San Bernardino county. On the news during traffic this morning, the news lady said if we see Mo, we should "keep our distance," and call the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office.

Only in.... thas' right, L.A.

I had been downplaying it because it wasn't exactly an exotic plan, but our vacation in Maine was fantastic. Relaxing and beautiful, especially Bar Harbor. It's well worth the five hour drive from Boston. The first thing we ate in Maine was a lobster roll.

This trip was inspired by the occasion of Katie's -- my former Brookline roomie's -- wedding in Kennebunkport (actually Marshall Point, Cape Porpoise, where the groom, Andrew's, parents have a beautiful beachfront home). Kennebunkport is where you'll find Walker Point, the Bush family's summer compound. It's the antithesis of "Texas ranch" -- but they fly three flags - Stars & Stripes, the Maine state flag, and Texas. The wedding was on a very cold and rainy Saturday, but festive and fun nevertheless. Missing from the event were Heather and Jon -- she went into labor on the way up Friday night - just two towns away! Morrison Charles was born at 3:30 a.m. on June 28. Same birthday as my mom, and just a day before Akhil's and my fifth anniversary.

Speaking of June 28, we had planned to surprise my parents by sneakily gifting my mother a weekend at the same Kennebunkport B&B that we planned to stay at for the weekend. We surprised them Saturday afternoon and spent Sunday with them hanging around at Ogunquit Beach, then dining out at this nice restaurant in town called Bandaloop.

After we left them Monday morning we drove up to Bar Harbor, stopping in Freeport on the way so Akhil could see LL Bean and the "Big Boot" -- realizing a lifelong dream. Our B&B was located just outside of town, on a cliff, gorgeous, magnificent place. They had a standard poodle-dog named Woodstock.

After an early pub dinner in town, we skipped some stones for a while on the rocky beach down a steep set of steps from our B&B's waterfront backyard, then turned in early. The next morning was devoted to a reasonably tasking hike up a rocky path to Dorr Mtn., then on to Cadillac Mtn - the highest point in Maine (though not very high, less than 3,000 feet). The views of all of Mt. Desert Island and Frenchman Bay were beautiful. I had been once before, about 11 years ago, in Sept., but the summer experience in Acadia is something else. Just gorgeous.

We had lunch at Acadia's only restaurant, Jordan Pond House, famous for popovers. Lobster bisque, a lobster salad, and of course, popovers. Then we headed off to the very low-key town of Northeast Harbor, which has one main street, a marina, and little else. Perfect.

We had dinner in Bar Harbor, again, where I tried the bouillabaisse; the blueberry ice cream afterwards was better. On Wednesday, we got up and rented bikes, took them about 20 miles along the park's carriage roads (no cars allowed), followed by a second excursion to Jordan Pond house, and then a jaunt down to Southwest Harbor and Bass Harbor, where the famous lighthouse is.

That night, we did a hokey but really fun thing - saw a movie (Priceless, with Audrey Tatou) at Reel Pizza. This place had a bingo board in the theater. You order pizza when you get your tickets ($6!) and when your # comes up on the bingo board, your pizza's ready. And you eat it off a little counter built right into the back of the seat in front of you, while you're watching the film.

Afterwards we strolled around Bar Harbor and enjoyed the misty views, and all the French (tons of Quebecois tourists). We had a beer in town and watched the Red Sox game. Sadly we had just one more night at the B&B, then it was off to Boston.

We went through the park one more time Friday and got to look at peregrine falcons through a telescope, visit Thunder Hole and Otter Point, and see Seal Harbor -- where Martha Stewart and the other richie riches of Mt. Desert live -- before setting off. We stopped in Camden and Portland for snacks. In Boston, we picked the perfect hotel: Hotel Kendall in Cambridge, which gave us awesome access to Memorial Drive and the Fourth of July fireworks spectacular. It's a converted firehouse at the Kendall T stop -- for some reason we got the hugest room ever for just $122 a night.

We hung around Harvard Square all afternoon and then "dined" in Central Square before the fireworks began. I had grapenut ice cream at Toscanini's (Akhil had the burnt caramel) and ALL the Cambridge cops on motorcycle duty were there too, getting their own ice cream fix before patrolling the streets. Pretty funny.

On Saturday we jetted off to Wareham, Mass., for a tour of Factory Five, a maker of classic auto kits -- all Shelby Cobras. Akhil's still thinking about it; where would we fit the mess into the garage? We'll see. The owner was there and spent almost 2 hours with us. Following that we drove to Providence to meet Morrison - Heather's new little one. Just a week old. He's tiny. We had a little lunch near the Brown U. campus, then came back to Boston and had an as-usual amazing dinner in the North End, which, now that it's accessible with the completion of the Big Dig, was as crowded as Disneyland. I wonder if the invasion will compromise its authenticity? Well, the parking situation's certainly changed. No more on-street spaces: residents only. It's all $15 lots now.

Sunday we did the ENTIRE Freedom Trail. All that time in Boston and I'd never done that. All we had time for between that and our flight was a quick coffee with Laurel at the 1369 Coffee House. Then it was time to fly. And when I got home I did the laundry. All of it. Before bed. Akhil left 36 hours later -- he's in Europe until the 20th for the Wall-E premieres.

It's the morning after and Wall-E was great -- both the movie and the bot. Akhil and his team spent a long, painfully warm day prepping at the "faded red carpet." (They were going for a space-like, reddish dirt effect.) When I saw him he was crouched in a tent, on a headset, getting ready to send Wall-E back out into the open again. They'd gone through about 48 Gatorades and 3 changes of clothes by then.

I took Kendra with me and we hung around outside the theater to see who we could spot. Not too many celebs, just the cast and a ton of kiddie-show stars, like Zac and Cody and that Brenda Song girl, plus Marlee Matlin, Brad Garrett, David Archuleta (American Idol runner-up), and a lot of "So You Think You Can Dance" judges, which is weird, cuz that's on Fox.

Wall-E posed with his castmates, Sigourney Weaver, Fred Willard, Kathy Najimy, John Ratzenberger, etc..., who had fairly tiny parts since there was barely any dialog in the film. Nice gig if you can get it. We were right up against the rail for photo opps, with them and with Pixar execs John Lassiter and Andrew Stantion (director).

The movie itself was cute and clever, moved right along - reminded me somewhat of the few "silent" episodes they did with Bugs Bunny. I love the social commentary; just wish they would've put their money where their mouth is and actually made the premiere green! All those styrofoam props... There's a great Peter Gabriel song for the soundtrack. The after-party was just up the hill at the Griffith Park Observatory, which was completely open, even had a midnight Planetarium show! What a beautiful view. Fittingly, because there were hundreds of kids at this thing, they served plentiful kid-friendly desserts like bakery-made twinkies, devil dogs, and ring-dings plus bon-bons, tarts and cookie pops, and were giving away stuffed versions of Wall-E and Eva. Now life gets a little more chill for a couple of weeks. However, Akhil is off to Europe for international press right after that. He's exhausted. Much more exhausted than he deserves to be. But the robot is great -- I'm proud.

The big secret's been out for a while now, Akhil's latest robot project. But finally, yes finally, the premiere of Wall-E is nearly here, and our real life *might* get back to normal soon.

While he's been zipping around the country and the city as Wall-E's "handler" in the press, I've been learning how to live like a single gal again. Only in the last few weeks has it started to become fun, as I've found a number of other work-widows to play with at my own job, and among friends I never knew wanted to get out of the house so bad.

My big payoff for a year of patience (ok, I wasn't exactly patient about it)... is that I get to go to the Wall-E premiere too, which is this Saturday night at the Greek Theater here in L.A. The Greek is an outdoor theater, Greek style, of course, built in 1929 in Griffith Park. The after-party, which we hear is dry (odd!) is at the newly renovated Observatory up the hill. It'll be my first time getting anywhere near a red carpet and not having to work, too. In the past I was touting a laptop around in my heels or proofing last-second press releases. This time I just hang. If only my date were free as well... alas, still more Wall-E handling to do.

Amidst the chaos I did manage to throw Akhil a surprise brunch for his 40th (40th!?) birthday. 30 people gathered at Firefly in South Pasadena, including his parents, and amazingly, he was genuinely surprised! I have to recommend the place -- what impeccable service. And the cake I ordered from Whole Foods was delish. (See pics).

Spring in California is bliss!
Our garden just loves what ever it is that our gardeners did this year. Akhil and I helped, of course, especially when it comes to planting and weeding, but the regular attention which we were NOT giving it on our own made a big impact. We're amazed daily by what pops up out there. We got a few new roses this year, mostly from a couple of trips down to Roger's Gardens in Costa Mesa. If you're living out here and haven't been, you have to check it out - it's like a Disneyland of plants. I think we got some other plants and stuff there too - oh yeah, a hydrangea. California makes you feel like a real green thumb, even if you're not. I get why they call this the Rose City - you just stick 'em in the dirt -- and they grow.

We had beers and junk food for dinner tonight -- sorry, but that's what working like nutballs will do to you. I suppose work exhausts everybody this much but lately this just seems crazy. I mean, for him - 7 days a week, 14 hours a day, and for me it's just about 50 hours a week but each and every minute, second is packed with brain-busting tasks. Like playing Sudoku all day, every day. Wonder if my brains will grow...

Last post: October 31? Wow, well I really checked out there for a while and would keep that going just the way it is but I just found out a couple of friends of mine actually still check here to see if anything's new. What a disappointment - 5 months of persistence for naught.

It's not like the two of us lead such exciting lives. In fact I feel silly even having a blog these days - I mean, right now Akhil is asleep on the couch, I just made a lasagna, and earlier today we went to Sears to buy tools. We're like retired people! Seems to me that in the mid- to- late 30s era of our lives it's all about work-work-work and living for those 10 days a year of vacation.

Vacation, ah, what is that again? Last year we managed to get away for a few great weekends in the spring and early summer, mostly in Northern California, but thanks to some incredibly demanding projects at work, mostly for Akhil, we haven't had a heck of a lot of fun yet in '08. He's heavily involved, and I mean heavily, in a robot at the moment, which will take him a few more months to see through, including a bunch of travel, both in this country and elsewhere. If I could go with it would be great, but that's not how it works so instead I dread it. I've been spending a lot of time on my computer, trying to get out and walk more, and also trying to cook at least once a week (that's usually Sunday), but I'm really itching to get out of town, even just a weekend jaunt. We tried once, to Solvang, but both of us had bad allergies and ended up napping in the hotel most of the time. Our bikes never made it out of the car.

Let's see if I can dredge up a highlight per month since November. Thanksgiving in Seattle, that was fun. Akhil drove me all the way out to the Olympics, car ferry and all, which was a first.

December: We spent Christmas in Denver with Todd, at his new home just outside Washington Park. It snowed almost the entire time (good thing we gave him snowshoes for Christmas) and we had an incredibly relaxing time being snowed in for almost 2 days. We picked the best one though, just coincidentally, for a day of skiing. It gets a little harder every time we go as the gap is averaging about 2-3 years. (They have little short skis now -- when did that happen?) It was beautiful up there, though I'll gladly take the snow-free L.A. climate most of the time.

January: I became closer to 40 than 30; blegh. And we closed in on finishing up a nearly 4-month re-stucco and paint job on Tiny House. We also got a new doorbell, new mailbox, all new outdoor lights and have a new, fancy door coming later this month. What a project. It looks great.

February: Akhil actually took a break from his 80-hour work week, came home a little early, and made us Valentine's Day dinner: Steak au poivre, with fingerling potatoes and -- yes, kale!

March: I finished my 2-month Photoshop class, which took up most of my weekends for the 8 weeks but I learned a lot and got a lot of use out of my new MacBook Pro.

April: We'll see... too early to tell. Though I got promoted this past week. I guess that's a highlight. I think filing our taxes will be another one. We're insanely late this year - when it's done it'll be quite a a big load off.

The spoooooky sound of sandblasting is reverberating through my head as particles of our 82-year-old house fly off into our landscaping and I get ready to write another four-figure check. Must be Halloween! Happy Holiday!

Actually so far it doesn't seem so bad -- it's insanely ugly and sort of mustard-yellow and grey camoflauge at the moment, but in 3 weeks we'll be done, and our place will have a new surface, new paint, maybe even new lighting. We must be crazy - or maybe just overly particular. Probably both.

My parents were here in time to see the house before its makeover on the trip my brother and I went in on as a gift to mom for her 60th birthday. We all met up in San Francisco on the 13th and had a great weekend before they set out on the roadtrip down the coast that blows everybody's mind, especially the first time they do it. I took Todd to Sausalito on Saturday so he could do the big bridge drive; we all ate in North Beach afterwards once the parental units arrived, at some Italian place (of course) called the Mona Lisa. After hitting Alcatraz and having a great lunch at Fog City Diner on Sunday, I had to get back on a plane, and leave them to their own devices.

They drove that rental Prius ($35 for gas, for the WHOLE TRIP) down the PCH and made it to Pasadena by Friday evening. Of course, we took them to Disneyland on Saturday complete with dinner at the Blue Bayou, and to the Getty on Sunday. The most suprising thing, ok two most surprising things; my father actually seemed to enjoy Disneyland quite a bit, and I actually enjoyed seeing what it was like to have your parents in the same time zone for a whole week. Makes the world seem a whole lot less lonely for some reason. (Did I really say that?)

Okay, back to my weird L.A. reality, which has its awesome moments: last Friday I sat two feet away from none other than Mr. Tom Petty, that's right, the Free-Falling, Traveling Wilburys, man-of-the-(San Fernando)-valley Tom Petty at a table read for King of the Hill. He didn't acknowledge me but I'm certain that he wanted to -- too many people around. Thanks Becky and Tony -- awesome in their own right(s) -- for inviting me to the reading of your very own KOTH script. May there be many more!

I lost a week to the surreal world of jury duty. Today I'm trying to reconnect with my home, work, laundry basket. The on-call system throws you way out of synch because you really can't plan for a whole week, possibly two, if you get called in on a Thursday or Friday like I did. I do want to do my civic duty, I just wish I knew which day of the week it was going to be in advance. The free MOCA admission is a nice bonus.

My vacation memories are quickly fading but before they do let me share a few of the highlights, esp. some facts about World War II that really shook me out of my ignorance of the event and made it abundantly clear why the generation we're about to lose deserves so much attention and respect.

First, 50 million deaths were attributed to WWII - 50 million! I don't remember this fact being drilled into me in history class but that is the figure on the wall at the Musee de la Paix in Caen. Some put the figure much higher, around 70 million. 25 million were military deaths, the rest civilians, with places like Poland losing something like 18% of its total population. Staggering. And this happened within the lifetime of people who still live among us, even know well.

The U.S. lost over 400,000, most of them military, which is within about 100,000 of the number lost in France. The lead-up to the war is fascinating; a visit to the Normandy coast is haunting yet somehow makes it easier to disbelieve. All the details are organized in endless tiny museums, exhibits, memorials, maps, roadsigns and cases full of artifacts along the Normandy coast, where we visited Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Arromanches, Caen and Pointe du Hoc. We also spent some time at the American Cemetary in Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach. The entire area is surprisingly serene and appears to be exactly the same as it may have been hundreds of years ago: sparsely populated, slighly hilly, and misty green, dotted with stone farmhouses, rolls of hay, with narrow, ancient towns sprinkled here and there and more cows than people, and more American and Canadian visitors than French inhabitants. It was easy to imagine the scene. I was struck by what I now realize is a deep and complicated connection to France, and to Europe in general, and by the understanding that when the cause was clear, people banded together in incredible ways you almost hope you never see again.

We flew into Paris and took a train to Rennes, rented a car and drove to St. Malo, a beautiful, large, medieval walled city on the beach, great for families - there's an aquarium, medieval ramparts, tons of restaurants, shopping and hotels at reasonable prices. We stayed in a beach-view room at the Hotel Beaufort (fantastic), and walked along the beach into the walled city for dinner both nights. Akhil started out eating pain chocolats right there at the airport; he had a gauffre, or big, fat waffle, with Nutella, in St. Malo before dinner. That was Day 1; on Day 2 we headed straight off to Mont St. Michel along the coastal route and spent most of the morning there before lunch in nearby Pontorson. We spent the afternoon in Dinan, which is one of the few cities in northern France that was left unharmed during the war - it's a great walking town with half-timbered buildings and cobblestone streets, plus a tiny harbor where you can arrive by boat if you like from St. Malo. We took our Peugeot.

We stopped for a drink in Dinard, a posh seaside resort town across the water from St. Malo, on the way back to our hotel. I had a cider, popular in the area, which is also known for its Calvados, or apple brandy (INCREDIBLY potent -- we tried it -- that's all I can say).

Day 2's dinner was gluttonous - a three-course menu, of course, at an excellent local restaurant called Delaunay. Akhil had scallops with bacon-laden creamed potatoes and I had a fillet of tuna that had foie gras on top. I am not sure I need to be eating foie gras but I'm game. They started us off with a mussel each, served on a tiny silver spoon with a curled handle, and appetizer salads. Of course, we had wine -- and dessert. Oysters are HUGE in this area, but neither of us like them. If you do, you'll be in hog heaven.

Days 3 and 4 were reserved for war touring, from Caen to the beaches to Bayeux, where we stayed and where we also viewed the 1000-year-old Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of William the Conqueror's invasion of England and his taking the crown. He was born near Bayeux, in Falaise, in 1028. Our hotel, the Hotel Churchill, was steps away from the museum, and Bayeux, also untouched during WWII, was an excellent place to stay. It was also the first city to be liberated after the Allies' invasion.

Day 5 was a heavy driving day. We headed off to Vernon late morning and got there by late afternoon to visit Claude Monet's garden and home in Giverny. I'd been before, in 1994, but saw it anew this time since I now have a large garden of my own - Akhil was inspired too but we won't be building a pond with water lilies in it in our backyard anytime soon I hope. We did plant some sedum and yarrow though, as soon as we got home and will be giving our heliotrobe another shot. From there it was Paris, and since we had some rental car agency confusion we had to drive it ALL THE WAY in and park it someplace overnight near our hotel on the street. Like last time we stayed at Hotel Monge in the Latin Quarter and had giant beers at a bistro down the street. We spent our one, single, solitary day in Paris walking the bridges, the left bank, the Tuileries, and having one more overly indulgent dinner in the Latin Quarter area - we didn't even mean to, it just happened.

Flying home is the hard part. You've got one long flight followed by another one. But France doesn't disappoint. Next time we're thinking south - the Dordogne, Corsica, or the Pyrenees... my fantasy life!

Happy New Year! As Frosty would say... I had no idea anyone was still reading this, but a reunion of sorts at none other than Heather's wedding over Labor Day Weekend inspired me to come back and put up an 'ol post. Lots of people asking, "Wherefore are your blog updates?"

My last one was in... December? Well, lots has happened, yet nothing has happened. Akhil and I have managed to:

1. Gain some control over our haphazard garden, adding lavendar, sedum, yarrow, new David Austin roses, narcissus bulbs, and a kumquat tree to the mix
2. Get to a place where 6-7 day workweeks are the norm (for him, anyway)
3. Buy a buffet, a coffee table, a new arbor and a wheelbarrow
4. Entertain the neighbors with an authentic Indian meal prepared mostly by my gracious mother-in-law (95%); only slightly by me (5%)
5. Took a class on xhtml coding, and though I got an A realized I'd *much* rather be taking a course on photography (next)
6. Slip in at least a few good vacations, at my obsessive prodding, of course
7. Went through (Akhil) a massive, competitive bread-baking phase, and learned to make baguettes, pizza, and foccacia
8. Met Floyd Landis at a book signing in Pasadena (Akhil)
9. Rediscovered jogging, biking, and the tricep machine at the gym

Besides all this, my brother Todd has up and moved to Denver, Colorado; and the army of babies continues to grow! We've got Will, born to Regina and Bill in the spring; Ethan, born to Debbie and Justin this summer; & Isabelle, born to Carolyn and Rob on Aug. 30.

Meanwhile the blogger.com interface has changed - now it's connected to my Google account and automatically saves my drafts. Awesome. Maybe I'll try and get back here more often.

Now for the fun stuff: vacation summaries. That's what I'm here for, folks.

I celebrated, reluctantly, getting another year older in San Francisco with Akhil, who took me to the Cliff House for lunch and to the Presidio and the MOMA and all around town to help keep me distracted.

In May we spent four days in Sonoma. We hadn't been to the area since our first year of courtship, in 1999. This time we stayed at the Inn at Sonoma and it was fantastic. I tried a mud bath at Calistoga, Akhil bought tomato plants in St. Helena, which they let us fly home with in a paper bag, and we managed to get as far north as Healdsburg, the new wine snob's favorite place to taste and shop. Our tomato plant experiment was incredibly successful - each of the 3 plants is now about 5 or 6 feet tall and I think I've eaten 300 tomatoes this season.

A month later, for our fourth anniversary, we spent a long weekend in Big Sur (can you tell with like Northern CA?) which truly deserves its reputation as one of the most beautiful and other-worldly places on earth. It's almost heartbreaking. We stayed in the yurts at TreeBones, which were cozy and literally on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the water. At night it was silent save the sound of the waves and the sea lions barking. Hiking at Julia Pfeiffer and then the incredible beach of the same name were pretty much all there was to do, gloriously, besides dine, indulgently, at Nepenthe and at the Ventana Inn, where Ed Norton had the table next to us at cocktail hour on the outdoor patio.

Through the summer we both worked a ton, and were good and ready for the Labor Day weekend celebration that was Heather and Jon's wedding in Providence. Following we hopped a plane to Paris and spent 6 days in Normandy, plus a little Bretagne on the side. I'll give that trip it's own post.