something like this

As predicted, our friend Russell didn’t end up making an acceptance speech at the Oscars last night, but we are all still psyched for him. Our friends Susie and Finn came over with their gorgeous baby girl, winner for best performance in a leading role for her work in “Birth – The Next Generation.” Our friend Mark joined us as well – he brought a container of cookies he called “Starship Gingerprises” that were unbelievably tasty. Honey made Russell-inspired sandwiches with roasted turkey, gruyere and cranberry sauce that were fantastic, and we tried a new Cooking Light recipe for apple/raisin compote on toasts with brie. It was delicious, but we bought light brie accidentally (heavens!) and it just doesn’t melt properly. It was still tasty and easy to make, so a win in my book.

It was a great night, although we only got one quick glimpse of our friends during the broadcast. If you go to the Oscars website, you can see them at the very beginning of the Visual Effects acceptance speech clip.

The place to go, though is to the Access Hollywood site, and check out the clip of Sandra Bullock talking about how much she loves Gabourey Sidibe. Keep watching, because as the interview goes on there are some awesome moments of Courtney and Russell in the background. I’m sorry Sandra, you were gorgeous and funny too, but there’s this moment when Courtney turns around and you see the cool layered detail of her dress in the back… it’s fabulous. And what a beautiful woman!! It’s not every couple who can just step into a situation like the Oscars red carpet and look so thoroughly at home.

There’s another photo of them on the Huffington Post site, which I love because they’re smiling at each other. That prankster Sandra hopped into the photo in front of them again in this one – she’s such a card.

Well done guys!! We’re all so happy for you.

Love is

Valentines on the fridge, and talking to Nana in the driveway

Tulips from friends

Treats from neighbors

New lavendar

A sunny day bike ride to the beach with best friends.

Honey’s best friend gave her a valentine poem yesterday afternoon. The last line of the poem is:

“We have power, that power is love.”

What a score in the best friend department. We all rode together to Sausalito to the best little cafe you can imagine. We bought root beers and sat outside for a bit. As we crossed the street to the cafe, our friend Amy asked Hot Wheels if he’d be her valentine. He paused and answered, “Wellll, I’m not sure if I can live with you…” She had to explain that living together wasn’t necessarily in the valentine contract.

Then we hit this tiny scrap of beach where the kayakers go out into the bay. There was a sea lion lolling around in the shallow water checking out all the boats and even one crazy swimmer. What a day.

Did I mention that Mark is the best?

Cause he is.

Ok so I didn’t completely ditch the New Year’s resolution in the first month. We were having some technical difficulties out here, and I’m up and running thanks to the efforts of our Australian technical team and miracle Mark in our office here in the states. Thanks for your help, guys!

A lot can happen over a few weeks, but definitely the biggest news out here is that our friend Russell earned his second Academy Award nomination, for his work on Star Trek. We’re all bursting with pride, as well as curiosity as to what Courtney is going to wear to the Oscars. It’s SO EXCITING and I’ll have to get back to you on that. Can you imagine having to figure out what to wear to the Oscars? I can’t.

We do still have this lovely outfit that you’re welcome to borrow if you’d like, Courtney:

It’s a little hard to see, but it comes complete with a little white bird for your headband. Smashing.

Our Beautiful Aunt Mary and Uncle Dick gave Hot Wheels a new HESS race car for Christmas. It’s actually better than a race car, if that’s even possible. It’s a race car with a smaller race car inside it. A nested race car. He has been spending many a happy hour since, getting the race cars acquainted with the truck that he received last year. It’s going so well, they’re already on to stunts. They’ve perfected a moving transfer of the smaller race car from truck to big race car. It rocks.

Thank you, Dick and Mary!!!!

Here are three fun biking events from the past two weeks:

1. Family Ride to Tiburon

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we finally took a great ride that we’d been planning forever with our friends Rik and Sherri and their two awesome kids. We went from Mill Valley to Tiburon on a clear and windy Saturday afternoon. The ride was amazing; only one challenging hill and mostly beautiful bike path, tons of people out enjoying the day, stunning views of the bay and the city to the south. Everything went smoothly and the kids all had a fantastic time. We stopped at Waypoint pizza and got the back room all to ourselves – the food was made even more tasty by our ride beforehand. After we ate, we admired the view for a bit before heading back home.

Tom has this great app called Runkeeper on his iPhone which tracks all the stats on your adventures – distance, time, pace and even elevation – using the phone’s gps. Here’s the screen for our return ride from Tiburon:

How awesome is that?! The kids loved checking out the route and looking at the elevation chart – speed certainly is variable when your riders range from six to, well, you know, more than six. I love the information design on these screens – they’re easy to read and beautiful to look at. So satisfying. All in all, it was an incredible day.

2. Walk and Wheel Wednesdays

As I’ve mentioned here before, I put in a small amount of time for the Safe Routes to School committee at our kids’ elementary school. One of the ways we’re trying to build participation in the program is to encourage a weekly walk/wheel/carpool to school day. We try to drum up enthusiasm for the whole idea by putting up posters and a table at the school entrance on the first Wednesday of each month. Whole Foods was good enough to give us some bags of granola to hand out to the students, and we’ve been stamping hands to show they participated. However, we’ve been struggling to come up with other ways to get the message out without printing up hundreds of flyers that will just be tossed when the kids go home after school.

Last week, I started thinking about edible advertising. So I bought a couple bags of cuties and some food markers and put the message right on the clementines.

They had faces on one side, and “Walk & Wheel Wednesdays” on the other. It was fun watching the kids trying to decide which face to choose, and I think they worked pretty well. Anyone out there have other ideas? I’d love to hear them.

3. Xtra Clean

I’ve carried lots of fun things with my xtracycle.

I love having a bike that can carry my vacuum cleaner.

If you weren’t feeling so great, wouldn’t these beauties brighten your day? I think yes.

Honey had her second oral surgery of the year on Wednesday morning, and I’ll make this brief, since I’m not spending too much time away from her just yet. She’s recuperating in our art/guest room, which is actually an awesome sick room. It has a nice big bed, great light, a stack of movies, a private bathroom and plenty of coloring books. (So the next time you have a procedure scheduled, pick a Bay Area doctor and book your stay with us. You’ll be so looked after you’ll wish you were sick more often.)

The surgery went pretty well, I think, although that morning I heard some pretty classic “lines you don’t want to hear from your surgeon.” For example, when your surgeon (your ridiculously kind, hugely respected surgeon) enters the room and says quietly, “I’ve been dreaming about this one,” that’s what you call both a good and bad sign. Or when the surgery finally ends after 2 and quarter hours and the doctor says, “In all my years as a surgeon, that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” that’s a moment when you think, “darn.” Or how about when the surgeon recalls looking over the x-rays with the orthodontist and saying, “It can’t be done?” Really, not what you want to hear.

On the other hand, I heard some great lines from the surgeon and the staff that day as well. They had lovely things to say about our girl, and they couldn’t have been more caring. It was a bear of a day, and the week has been challenging. Yet again, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for all the friends and family who have called, brought flowers and even balloons (thanks, Ducky!!), sent coloring books, loaned us movies and helped with Hot Wheels. We have been showered with kindness, and are profoundly grateful. Honey even got a get-well card from the school secretary, which for an elementary school student is like receiving a get-well card from God. Thank you so much, everybody.

On Sunday, Amy and Andy had our kids over for the afternoon, and Tom and I took a hike. A spectacular hike. The day was foggy and cool, and although the parking lots on Mount Tam were all packed, the trails weren’t crowded. We had long stretches where we didn’t see anyone, and the weather made the terrain all the more lush and mysterious, like this:

And this:

It was a bit like hiking through a novel.

We started up on Mt Tam and took the Matt Davis trail down to Stinson Beach. There were trees feathered with moss and tiny ferns, tunnels of arched trunks leading to open meadows, sweet woodsy smells and the sound of running creeks and lots and lots of steps.

On a clear day there would have been breathtaking views in surprising moments. On Sunday, the fog was thick enough that there were stretches where the path would appear out of the grey just a few feet in front of us. Instead of looking out, we found ourselves focusing on the textures, patterns and intricacies close at hand.

When we made it to Stinson, just look at what was waiting for us at the Parkside!

mmmm.

After that, we headed back up the mountain, following the Dipsea and Steep Ravine trails. Remember the steps? There were more. Steps cut from stone, steps built out of old logs, and – I kid you not – there was even a ladder at one point. Granted, it was wide and well constructed, but it was a ladder nonetheless. The trip back up felt like Tolkien land.

See what I mean? At least we’d had second breakfast. And elevenses. And lunch…

Color changing Hot Wheels. They are beyond awesome.

Hope everyone here in the States had a happy 4th of July! With any luck you had your share of fireworks, fire trucks and marching bands. With drum majors. We hit the parade in Larkspur, which is one town north of ours, and it was good fun. Of course, it’s a little different out here. Our marching band was extremely well turned out, with a perfectly sharp, stern drum major and terrific sound. They had the most phenomenal baton twirler out front who was thrilling and precise; the baton flew forever and never hit the pavement. So, you say? We had that. What’s the big deal? Well I’m going to go out on a limb and venture that your baton twirler was not an effervescent man in his 50s. Just a guess.

We got to see our friends who are just home from an amazing stay in Prague – to sum up what I’ve heard, you should buy your tickets today. Their beautiful girl is walking now and such a sweetheart it was hard not to steal her away. We also saw the parade with Susie and Finn, and their little girl is due any day now – I have some serious money on their child being an angel as well. Sometimes you just know.

Yesterday we really kicked off the holiday weekend – buckle your seat belts, because we went to the county fair. I am a major county fair lover – it has everything and then some. We met up with our friends Amy and Peter and their boys and had such a great day.

This year the fair theme was “Cool Green Fun” and an amazing effort was put into keeping the fair environmentally friendly. Solar and biodiesel power for buildings and sound stages, biodegradable or compostable food containers, recycled material exhibitions, electric cars – even the award ribbons were made with environmentally sound materials. It’s great to see such an enormous venue taking big steps towards protecting the environment.

Here’s an event with something for everyone: rides, music, demonstrations, food, quilts, jam, roses, baby pigs, gigantic pigs, dancing, science, bonsai, cows, ice cream, fireworks, tupperware. Tupperware, for crying out loud. A county fair basically says, “Bring us anything – anything at all – and we will judge it for you.” It rocks. Here’s a snapshot:

So let’s see… we have a black silkie that actually belongs to some friends of ours who live just around the corner – they were showing a few of their chickens and their dog a well. Then the ferris wheel. The wall of winning cookies & cakes. Quilts. Cars. Bareback riding exhibition. Darth Vader and a storm trooper. Jam.

Woah there, you’re thinking. Back up… Darth Vader? Well it wouldn’t be Marin without him, frankly. There was a whole section of the exhibit hall dedicated to Star Wars related craft. They did it right, though, with amazing costumes and huge guys inside them – very impressive. It was cracking Amy and me up to watch Darth walk through the hall flanked by two storm troopers – she and I took one look at them and wanted to bolt. The little kids, though, were chasing him like he was a Teletubby. Kids. No sense whatsoever.

There also was an experimental science exhibit called the Wizard’s Challenge – it was fantastic. One truly diabolical item, though – a 20 foot rotating tube with a metal walkway running straight through the middle. You can see a photo of it here. Looks innocent enough, but the second you step inside, the walkway appears to slant a good 45 degrees and you find yourself gripping frantically to the railings to keep from falling. If you look at the picture, the adult looks like he’s walking pretty casually with a water bottle in his hand; that’s because he’s focusing on the walkway to combat the tilting sensation. The boy, on the other hand, is looking up, and hanging onto the railing with both hands, because once you look up your eyes tell you you’re about to fall. It was absolutely insane. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

All in all, it was a completely satisfying day.