Friday, October 17, 2008

B-Roll

A few years ago, Michelle did an interview for a Discovery Channel series called "Most Evil" where she talked about some of her research from grad school. Yesterday, I discovered that they now have a bunch of clips from the series on their website, including part of Michelle's interview. So, if you're interested, you can check it out here.

During her brush with stardom, Michelle learned about "B-roll", the extra footage they sprinkle in with the main interview. (The clips of Michelle walking down the hall, opening the door, etc. are B-roll.) We thought it was interesting that they give it a name.

Anyway, if the clip interests you, you can also read Michelle's paper on the topic here

Five but no fighting

Happy fifth Monthaversary hubs!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Weekend in San Francisco

Last week Brian had a retreat for his fellowship in Marshall, CA (yeah, I didn't know where it was either! But I did learn that there are some oyster farms are on the way...). So we went up to SF the weekend before to visit with friends and eat some yummy meals. Nathan and Angi were kind enough to put us up for the weekend (thank you to others for offering, too!) and drive us around - we really appreciated it.

We arrived Friday afternoon, and stopped in at the Lim lab to say hello. Brian had a chance to talk with Wendell, and we spent a few minutes at a poorly planned Beer Hour. From Mission Bay, we headed to San Tung for dinner. The tally of dishes for dinner was pretty impressive, we came down on 6 orders of wings and many other plates. Many napkins were sacrificed in the completion of this meal (yeah, I know, gross):

Fifteen people at a table for 10? Bring it on:


Saturday morning we slept in and headed back to the Sunset for a nice dim sum meal (we haven't even tried to have dim sum again in Chicago since our first disastrous experience). It was here that we had our first baby sighting of the weekend's baby trifecta - 2-month old Susannah, daughter of Alex and Charlotte. Adorable! Not a great picture, but she's the little bundle on Alex's chest:

After dim sum we went over to Ben and Erin's house to hang out with Baby #2, Esme. Last seen at our wedding, she is now about 14 months old and full of energy and curiosity. So incredibly sweet:

In the evening we drove out to Half Moon Bay for some really nice sushi. We haven't eaten much sushi out in Chicago aside from rolls, because we just figure we'll be disappointed (unless we're prepared to pay big $$!) It was great, though the lure of In 'N Out was *almost* strong enough to pull the boys in on the way home... but no, they resisted. You'd better believe that Brian regrets it now!

Sunday morning Brian and I BARTed over to the East Bay to round out the baby trifecta, and visit John, Erin and Natalie in Oakland. Anjuli joined us as well, and we had brunch at a cute diner. Natalie is also only about 2 months old. It was neat to see old friends as new parents, it always brings out a side of people you haven't seen before. Once again, not a great picture of the baby - when they were out of their coccoon-like carriers, I was too distracted to take photos!

After that lovely visit, we BARTed back across the bridge. Brian went off to meet his ride to the retreat and I went to Lara's cute new apartment right next to Parnassus. It was fun being back in that neighborhood, though I really do not miss having to park and find parking on those hills! We set out to meet up with Nathan, Angi and others at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park.
It was incredibly crowded (that's what beautiful sunshine and a ton of free music will do) and it took us a while to cross the park, but we finally found them, along with Ben/Erin/Esme and Alex/Charlotte/Susannah. The babies left, and we went over to watch (well, listen to) Gogol Bordello before leaving the park. As expected, the crowd was diverse and enthusiastic. Nathan and Angi went home to catch up on work for the weekend, and Lara and I had dinner at Fresca before I went to the airport. Great food and conversation - a perfect way to end a perfect weekend!

We had such a great time, it was so nice to catch up with good friends that we haven't seen since the wedding (and before!) Going back to SF was a joyful experience, reminding me of what a great city it is, how many awesome people we met there, and how lucky Brian and I were to have lived right in the fog-belt. Looking forward to the next trip already!