Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
The year 2021 was not quite the dumpster fire that 2020 was. There’s a lot that I am thankful for about this year – my supportive family, good friends, my health, meaningful employment, quad skating, baked goods, and so much more! Here’s some of the best bits. Rik to Riki This year, among my friends…
So I had just come from seeing the really wonderful new Spider-man movie in downtown SF and was about to head home. But then I thought it would be a splendid end of the night to visit the massive gingerbread house at the Fairmont Hotel and enjoy a hot cocoa. I headed over to the…
I think this must be where my fascination with bakeries started. We were forced to watch this short film The Doughnuts (1963) many times in grade school. The plot is so dumb, but the shots of the machine just churning out doughnut after doughnut just fascinated me. Upon review, those doughnuts look terrible.
I had a blast skating at my first proper skating rink, the venerable Golden Skate in San Ramon, which has been open since the 1970s. Sadly, the owners announced that they will be closing it after the holidays. It’s a lovely old rink with a quaint, old-timey feel to it, from the country town motif…
I had forgotten what a joy it is to ice skate. Even better when 20 of your skate and dance buddies show up to skate with you! My heart was so full from this evening of fun at the Union Square rink. I mean look at these happy faces! Here’s a little compilation from the…
This is November in San Francisco! Such a glorious day in the park with beautiful people — including my Facebook skater friend Caroline who I actually met in person for the first time! Good times!
This year I was particularly happy with my Halloween costume. I got to be the irrepressible Ted Lasso. Or as I like to think of him, “the superhero whose superpower is kindness.” Honestly, this was one of the easiest costumes I’ve ever created. Basically just a cheap mustache, a blue trainer jacket, a whistle and…
I finished Naomi Novik’s wonderful fantasy novel A Deadly Education this week and have been thinking a lot about it. The central premise is what if there were a Hogwarts-type wizard school that had no faculty and lots more monsters roaming about? Much darker and more diverse than Harry Potter, with a mixed race central…
I just finishing Psalm for the Wild-Built. Such a beautiful, sweet, hopeful, and funny bit of sci-fi from the amazing Becky Chambers. Another one of her books where basically nothing happens. And yet I couldn’t stop reading it, except when I had to put it own to laugh or think about stuff brought up by…
This might be my new favorite carrot cake: the Smitten Kitchen Carrot Graham Layer Cake. So moist, delicious crumb, pretty simple to make. The occasion was my dad’s birthday. He requested a “not too unhealthy” cake. I’m not sure I met the brief, given all the butter and sugar involved. But I did make him…