Weekly Weird: cake babies and balls of clay

You might say that my Weekly Weird could probably be more accurately described as monthly. No matter, I'll soldier on.

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Rob and I were in San Francisco a couple weeks ago for a way-too-short weekend. Rob's sister, Deet Dee (ejddiamond*) of I Dream of Cake fame was graduating from San Francisco Art Institute with her MFA in 'New Genres' -- a concentration that sounds very avant-garde and way over my head.

The weekend was a whirlwind with a thesis show opening at Fort Mason, graduation ceremony, party, taco stand.

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The thesis show was really fun and chock-full of weird. Jail cell constructed out of soap -- weird and impressive; Man making ball after ball of clay with staring problem -- weird and creepy; ejddiamond's baby sculptures made entirely of cake -- weird and super awesome!

In their incubator-fridge

Actually cake!

Missed opportunity: Deet Dee could have totally trumped clay ball man in the weird-creepy performance-art genre if she actually ate these.

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A couple things of note on art school graduations: it's not like a customary graduation. It becomes immediately apparent that no one is there to receive their B.S. or is German (logic: scientists and Germans need order). For starters, it took me a while to realize that the ceremony had started because people were kind of drifting in (and out) and only 10% of the graduates were in gowns. I wised up when someone started talking into the microphone and asked me for a donation.

Procession; Niemand hier spricht Deutsches

If you've never been, the SFAI is a really amazing building, full with Diego Rivera mural, pretty courtyard, and beautiful rooftop view of the city. I would normally think it was really awesome to hang out on their roof, but it happened to be 90-degrees that day and the roof happens to be made of clay. My species was not made for the sun and I think desperate thoughts when I start baking on clay tiles. I wanted to give Ed Ruscha a mouth kiss for giving only a 90-second speech to accept his honorary degree.

But the most significant note about art school graduations: you can apparently tack on a speech even if you're not in the ceremony program and it's 90-degrees outside (true story). So while the ceremony hijacker talked and talked, I thought about what I would say if I had the moxie to grab the mic away from her. I think it would begin with "I'll be your party master this afternoon. Hey-Ho! [blow horn]... A wise man once said, [insert Jesse Helms quote]" and then lead into a long retrospective of Anne Geddes.

Cool things to do on a roof overlooking San Francisco Part I

Cool things to do on a roof overlooking San Francisco Part II

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More Deet Dee cake at the after party:

even tastier than bacon

* I'm in charge of setting up Deet Dee's portfolio site in exchange for what will be a really cool wedding cake. I need to fix some image issues, but then I'll post so you can see how cool her work is.

Honeymoon, v2.0

Rob and I had settled on Port Douglas, Australia for our honeymoon a while back for some quality beachtime and wildlife adventures. Then we read that it's jellyfish season when we're going, which means the dreams I had of myself romping in the waves and having a From Here to Eternity-style make-out session came to a screeching halt.

As my dad (an avid National Geographic reader) told me, take whatever bizarro wildlife we have in the States and multiply the danger-factor by ten in Australia. I'm picturing jellyfish with the head of a bear and the tail of a scorpion thirsty for blood -- my blood.

So instead, a location that was on our initial list was resurrected: Morocco. This change turns out to be a great thing because we've been much more excited to plan honeymoon, v2.0. The thought is to spend most of the time in Marrakech where we can use Starwood points from his parents at Le Meridien (awesome). We're deciding between Essaouira or Agadir for a 3-day seaside excursion where we'll stay in a more traditional riad. As long as I have myself a camel-ride on the beach, I'm a happy bride.

Side note: did you know that camels can reach 40mph?

Shop 'til we drop in the souk

Djemaa el Fna / good eats

A black soap rub-down at Les Bains de Marrakech

Ben Youssef Mosque

Images from NYTimes.com

Good things come to those who wait (or get lucky)

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I made two big scores this week:

by Shepard Fairey

1) Inauguration tickets; Rob and I are able to attend the Inauguration, thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend. We had all but given up hope when the tickets fell into our lap this week.

We had requested tickets a while back from every source available to us, but ran into dead-end after dead-end. I was even laughed at by a staffer (I'm talking about you, Eric in Senator Kohl's office) for even asking. So I was disappointed, but not yet daunted, and decided to still head to DC to hang out with my girlfriend Kristine. The city would still be exciting and I always have a great time with her -- she's a foodie extraordinaire.

Now we find ourselves with tickets and were able to extend our stay (me) and book a flight (Rob). Plenty of pictures to come!

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And something less civic-minded:


2) This Luxe Beaded Sash Belt from JCrew; I've been eyeing this ever since it made an appearance in their catalog with this awesome dress .

Silk Taffeta Kate Gown

Shopping options were kind of limited growing up in Northern Wisconsin, so it was a red letter day when the JCrew catalog arrived. My best friend, Katie and I would pour over every page and painstakingly over-analyze every investment of our babysitting money. I really hated watching people's kids, so the stakes were high.

Katie just got married this November. And as a thank you for being an attendant, she gave me a gift card to JCrew in sweet remembrance of those days. The thought was really cute... and the gift card was really burning a hole in my pocket.

So I've been tracking this belt and have watched it go from a full-price of $175 to 'reduced price' to 'sale item.' Cha-ching! I feel like a winner when I find something I really love on sale, especially when I've exercised some self-control.

Holiday sabbatical

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I spent two wonderful weeks up in Wisconsin. With limited internet access and cell phone reception, I was cut-off from everything. Instead I had plenty of time to romp outdoors.

I love the cold and snow. And I especially love being by Lake Michigan this time of year -- it's so brutal and unforgiving -- I feel at the mercy of the elements and the mini Christopher McCandless in me digs that... But I'll be so over my romantic view of winter by March and wanting to wear springish things and go skip in a manicured park or something... but for now, these photos from my break seem very nice indeed.

Icy treetops on a grey, grey day

my snowshoes

my brother bundled up

Cana Island Lighthouse

Ditto

Grrrrrr!

Honeymoon, I think??

I think we finally made a decision on the honeymoon... Australia!

OK, that's still really, really broad. But narrowing it down to one continent/country is actually a big step for us. We've been hemming and hawing about location for a while now. Rob wants to be hand fed peeled grapes at a beach resort; I want to avoid third-degree sunburns and sugar-comas from fruity drinks and seek adventure and culture. Somehow we're managing to meet in the middle. I think this guy sold us:

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The Mike and Ikes that got away

Rob and I were in Colorado for the past few days to visit my broseph and hit the slopes. One of the days, we went to a small town called Manitou Springs. It has a motley collection of stores: antique cowboy tchotchke shops, herbal apothecaries, and emporiums full of weed-themed tshirts and those tapestries that hang in dorm rooms.

Nestled inside this cyclone of crapola was this cute little arcade with vintage games. With our combined ticket earnings, we just missed getting a box of Mike and Ikes. I blame my Dad for his poor showing on the Whack-o-Mole. Here are some pictures:

Moonlight Bay

I grew up in Wisconsin and spent a lot of time at a family friend's cabin in a small town called Baileys Harbor in Door County. This is where Robby (top image) and I will most likely get hitched.

My parents just built a cabin up there near Moonlight Bay. Here are some pictures of us snowshoeing by the bay. Just looking at these reduces my stress level.