matt and jennifer hosted us for one night on their amazing property in applegate, oregon, near ashland. we took this picture just before heading back out on the road yesterday. we'd just received the grand tour of the gardens, orchard and various animals. seth and i fed the pygmy goats out of our hands. adorable!


from the roadtrip series:
somewhere near eugene
grants pass
just over the california border
heading toward the pass

three signs that christmas is over:

coasting

seth and i drove down to yachats to meet anjie, jessica and dennis for lunch. we are having uncharacteristic weather for december, to say the least. after lunch we drove back and camped out at the nye beach hotel cafe for a meaty game of scrabble. i won, for the second time ever against seth's pummeling technique. the word that put me in the lead for good was 'dioxins'.

merry christmas

home!

happy christmas eve!

next stop, harbin hot springs

in ten hours i will be sitting in this:

and in twelve i will be asleep in this:

technically we can't make substantial headway toward oregon tonight, but we are too anxious to wait until morning to start our vacation. tonight we'll drive the couple hours to our favorite local getaway. harbin is especially fun in the winter, because the air is extra cold. you have to bundle up to walk to the pools, and then change and get in the water as fast as you can. the warm water feels that much better when you've braved the elements to reach it.

more views

little views

lindsay in new york

waiting for the bus in sf

nate in my office

Click it

for The Michael Blog:

i spent two hours in union square today, and this is all i ended up with. mmmm... crate&barrel...

mom, here's the scarf i was telling you i was wearing when we talked...

and the pin...

PDP shows this spring:

New York - Joyce Soho - March 3-6
Marin - Showcase Theater - April 7-8
SF - Intersection for the Arts (one piece) - April 12
Monterey - SpectorDance - July 30-31

who wants to come to new york and play??

december is evil

as you've heard, the san francisco dance center is in a pretty sketchy-seeming neighborhood. we never have any incident, but it's a filthy area. for this reason, i've never made it a sight-seeing stop on family visits. thought it might be nice to post a photo of the room where i take and teach classes. i took this last friday night when the place was empty. this is studio two (of six):

the shambhala party went off without a hitch! (well, except for the ikea candles collapsing into little niagras of wax...) this is amy, reading a poem for the birthday of the leader of the international organization, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
and in case you were wondering, it IS possible to cater an entire party using only a microwave and one toaster oven.

ki ki so so!

michael!

knock knock
who's there?
"wa"
wahoo!

i have to keep this photo zoomed out so that you can see the stunning collection of salem-esque kitsch in this illinois yard, but if you could see close up you'd know that's michael. (for those who haven't met him, he's a college friend who grew roots with me in the bay area for a few years after graduation) seeing his pictures when i rarely do makes me miss him. i wanna go to the movies at the piedmont, man. come back!

Christmas Tree!

last night dudley and ken brought home a beautiful tree, and we did most of our decorating at the house. dudley wanted a "theme" this year (as opposed to the nutty montage that ken and i preferred last year), so we have the gold and silver tree. ken is working on a mini tree with all the gaudy stuff.

mom's box of greenery came just in time, and we have a beautiful wreath on our door.

and the stockings were hung by the chimney with power puff girls.

gotta love the company party! (click for larger photos)

the photos are in! for jon's day we had dinner at his house, concocted by his friend peter, and then hit the rickshaw stop, a sort of trendy bar downtown. sorry to those of you who arrived after i fell asleep in my chair and didn't make it into the photos...

xo*j.

here's julian at zack's beautiful table, where we witnessed the second coming... of thanksgiving.

dark and few photos can be found here. i wish i had more pix of new friends and the toy box and the impromptu jam session of the little drummer boy... it was a beautiful night.

Today is Jon's Day

happy bday, cutie!

The Christmas Price Index

"The lords a-leaping we priced out based on a three-hour private performance of the Philadelphia Ballet. ... The maids a-milking, that's one hour of minimum wage for eight maids. Your true love has to supply the cow," Kleintop said. ( full article )

1 Partridge $15
Pear tree $78
2 Turtle doves $40
3 French hens $45
4 Calling birds $396
5 Gold rings $255
6 Geese a-laying $210
7 Swans a-swimming $3,500
8 Maids a-milking $41.20
9 Ladies dancing $4,400
10 Lords a-leaping $4,039.08
11 Pipers piping $2,053.20
12 Drummers drumming $2,224.30

The cost of just one round of each gift mentioned comes to a more affordable $17,296.91, up 2.4 percent from last year's $16,885.28.

in other news:
these crazy great tulips are red on the outside and yellow on the inside.

Welcome Orion!

help, i'm melting. this is sally and brian's new son, orion. look what a little man he is! i'm going to turn into one of those crazy aunt people who are completely obsessed with someone else's child. (i almost just posted all five of the photos sally sent me. if you wanna see, mail me!) Welcome to the world, baby Orion Mackenzie Hess! (Sal, mac or mc?)

hot cha engagement!

sorry boys, another hot woman is off the market. congratulations janell and hans!