snowshoeing anyoone?

cats really like to sit on anything new that happens to appear on a table or the floor. it could be a post-it note or a snowshoe, but if it newly appears in our house, the cats are going to test it out for sitting.

magic and mystery is part of our history

mail-in manhole cover

chris, one of davidandmarta.com's bay area correspondents, sent me the lovely photo of a manhole cover in palo alto, ca. it is certainly a striking cover.

please feel free to send in photos of manhole covers in your neck of the woods, and we'll be sure to post them here.

mmm, chicken

birthday party

jackie turned 30 this month. we partied in chicago to honor her birth. it was a great time.
there was cake. i love cake.

david + tiny fork + giant knife = double happiness.

an elevator dance party that quickly turns to elevator panic.



a good time was had in the windy city. happy birthday jackie!

s.f. burrito

on our trip to the bay area we ate a whole lot of mexican and cal-mexican cuisine. after our hike up to twin peaks, we stopped in for some lunch at la cumbre, a little taqueria in the mission.

la cumbre means 'the summit' en español. la cumbre also claims to be the home of the original san francisco burrito. the san francisco style burrito is the type that has been popularized nationally by large chains such as chipotle and qudoba. it can be identified by its large size, the volume of rice and style of ingredients within, and its assembly line production. it can also be identified by its deliciousness.

*file photo

an internet search reveals that there is some controversy over who invented the s.f. burrito, but la cumbre is definitely one of the spots in the running.

this painting of a busty revolutionary planting the mexican flag, presumably atop a summit, is prominently displayed within said taqueria. reproductions also appear on the tables.

i'd recommend stopping by la cumbre next time you're in the neighborhood. the grilled veggie burrito was divine, and the salsa/toppings bar is second to none.

s.f. manholes

frequent visitors to this site may remember that i have a fondness for manhole covers, and photography thereof.
these aren't technically manhole covers since they are only about 3 inches and 6 inches in diameter, but they still seemed well worth photographing.

...and we're back

we haven't been blogging because we've been out of town. we took a long mlk, jr. weekend to visit the bay area, family, friends, and our old stomping grounds.

first we headed to marin county on the marin airporter. i've always liked the stripes on these buses and was excited to ride one across the golden gate bridge to see anna and jeffery.

jeffery juices up anna's car jezebel with some homemade biodiesel

marta and anna take in rodeo beach in the headlands of golden gate national recreation area



brooklyn bridge (click to enlarge)

we toured the murals of the mission neighborhood in san francisco


chris and olivia led casey, emily, marta and i on a hike up to twin peaks above san francisco. they also threw a piñata fiesta. ¡ole!



the beaches of santa cruz county.



lounging at beth and rodrigo's in santa cruz

celebrating inauguration day with c&o at a rooftop bar in s.f. (click to enlarge)

even more pictures to come. thanks to everyone for a wonderful time!

brrrr....

it currently is 15 degrees below zero in madison, wi. the wind chill is -29, but the capital times reports that it may drop as the day progresses and the wind picks up. the high temperature today is expected to be -5 and the low tonight is supposed to break -20. to compound matters, 1.5 inches of snow yesterday brought this winter's total up to 53.7 inches, an entire foot more than this date last year (last year set the madison record for snow fall). this certainly has been some welcome back to the world of winter.

r.i.p. ricardo montalbán

november 25, 1920 – january 13, 2009

winds of change

this morning i was reading my various news sources online, and happened upon a story in the capital times reporting that the midwest was going to get hit by a series of "alberta clipper" low pressure systems over the next few days. i became rather curious about what an alberta clipper entails. wikipedia tells me that an alberta clipper is a fast moving low pressure area which generally affects the central provinces of canada and the upper midwest and great lakes regions of the united states. its trajectory looks a little something like this.

don't confuse an alberta clipper with the california zephyr, the 2,438-mile long passenger train route which runs from chicago to california.

as a youth, i took the california zephyr to colorado with my parents, sister, and some other grand rapidian families to go skiing for spring break. great times.

the story of a kiva loan

we've probably harped on this subject enough, but i thought this video was pretty cool. if you have 10 minutes, its worth a watch.


A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

car wash

we took liberace, our subaru, in for a badly needed car wash this evening.

garrison keillor

i'm a big fan of garrison keillor. so is marta.
i think people are either really fond of garrison keillor, or driven crazy by him. we listen to a prairie home companion, read his weekly column, and enjoy the writer's almanac when we catch it (we should probably get the podcast). marta and i both grew up listening to garrison keillor with our parents on npr and have wonderful memories of it. as i type, i'm listening to my favorite segment of a prarie home companion, tales from lake wobegon. he has quite a phenomenal voice. i really like the sound of him, and i like what he has to say.


marta and i also have red sneakers.

"that's the news from lake wobegon, where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average."

-garrison keillor

dexter's trivia

last night was the first night of the new season of league trivia at dexter's pub. at the halfway point we were in 7th place and pretty disappointed with our performance. morale was low.

during the second half we pulled ourselves back together, and found ourselves in 3rd place going into the final question. things were looking up.

at dexter's trivia, each team can wager up to 15 points on the final question (about 20% of the total possible up to that point). the final question was:

rank these countries in order from largest to smallest, in terms of geographical area.

• iceland
• iran
• ireland
• italy
  

we wagered the full 15 points, got it right, and surprisingly pulled into 1st place.

it was a very exciting victory, both because we came from behind and because we didn't really think we were going to make up much ground on that question.

for those of you keeping score, the answer to the final question was:

1)

2)

3)

4)

mantyhose

finally, someone has started making pantyhose specifically designed for men.

surprise, surprise. this trend started en europa.

bathroom close-ups

staple st.

a correspondent for davidandmarta.com snapped this photo recently, in the tribeca neighborhood of new york city.

there are a lot of signs in nyc that seem to be trying to send me a message.

*taken last summer while crossing broadway in nyc

unfortunately, i have no idea what that message is.

winter water wonderland

this past holiday weekend we took a trip up to michigan's scenic upper peninsula to visit friends and frolic in the ample snow. we kicked off the trip with an evening of camaraderie with steve, jamie, derrick, and sherman in pelkie.

sherman donned his best evening wear.

steve played a song on his guitar (moving derrick to check his email).

we then headed through a blizzard on the keweenaw peninsula to marquette, where we climbed sugarloaf mountain and skied presque isle. the following day we snowshoed to tahquamenon falls in paradise, mi. it was paradise, indeed. here's some footage.

2009

there are many different ways to celebrate the start of a new year. david and theran rang in 2009 with a good old fashioned dance-off. by popular demand (actually, just reed's demand), here is a video of the dance-off.

first one to fall down loses.



actually, everybody wins in a dance-off.