Rebel Prince

Catversary

2008-10-06T07:42:59Z

So it's been a year exactly since we adopted our cats, Mojo and Tiki, from the Peninsula Humane Society. They've really become part of our family. Happy anniversary, kitties!

Larger than life

2008-09-30T22:05:45Z

I couldn't let a whole month go by without blogging at least once and without at least quickly mentioning that we had a great time on our Alaska cruise. At our port excursions we did some firsts for us, like ziplining through a forest canopy and riding a floatplane over glaciers!

Trip report is forthcoming (eventually), and I've started to upload some photos. I skipped ahead chronologically and just uploaded one from the middle of our trip, at the border between British Columbia and the Yukon, which we visited on a bus/train excursion from Skagway, Alaska:

Cats at the window [Flickr]

2008-10-06T02:39:38-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

29 Jan 2008: Mojo and Tiki looking out our living room window.

Yukon: larger than life [Flickr]

2008-09-30T16:55:50-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

5 Sep 2008: Thom and me at the border from British Columbia going into the Yukon. This was on our bus/train excursion from Skagway, Alaska.

Granville Street Bridge [Flickr]

2008-09-27T23:10:09-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

31 Aug 2008: View of downtown Vancouver across False Creek from Granville Island.

Fish totem [Flickr]

2008-09-27T23:09:52-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

31 Aug 2008: Me with a fish totem at Ocean Artworks, Granville Island, Vancouver.

Granville Island (video) [Flickr]

2008-09-27T23:08:18-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a video:

31 Aug 2008: Granville Street Bridge and the view of downtown Vancouver across False Creek from Granville Island.

Aquabus (video) [Flickr]

2008-09-27T23:03:56-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a video:

31 Aug 2008: Granville Island, Vancouver.

Granville Island [Flickr]

2008-09-27T22:57:44-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

31 Aug 2008: View of downtown Vancouver across False Creek from Granville Island.

Countdown [Flickr]

2008-09-22T02:00:19-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: Countown clock to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Dessert [Flickr]

2008-09-22T02:00:09-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 August 2008: Chai spiced crème brûlée (with coconut macaroons and mango) at Aqua Riva in Vancouver.

Canadian flag [Flickr]

2008-09-22T01:41:25-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: Canada Place, Vancouver.

Sunset [Flickr]

2008-09-22T01:41:13-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: View from Canada Place, Vancouver. A new convention center, currently under construction, is to the left.

Thom at Canada Place [Flickr]

2008-09-22T01:41:03-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: Canada Place, Vancouver.

Hotel balcony (video) [Flickr]

2008-09-20T23:24:36-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a video:

30 Aug 2008: View from our balcony on the thirtieth floor at Blue Horizon Hotel in Vancouver. Thom makes a cameo at the end of the clip. Who's zoomin' who(m)?

Long way down [Flickr]

2008-09-20T23:01:43-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: Looking down onto Robson Street from our balcony on the thirtieth floor at Blue Horizon Hotel in Vancouver.

Downtown [Flickr]

2008-09-20T23:01:20-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: Some of the view from our balcony on the thirtieth floor at Blue Horizon Hotel in Vancouver.

Papers, please [Flickr]

2008-09-20T21:27:49-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: Customs processing at Vancouver airport.

Welcome to Canada [Flickr]

2008-09-20T21:27:37-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

30 Aug 2008: Filling out the customs form on the plane as we arrive at Vancouver airport.

Set a course for adventure

2008-08-30T04:31:09Z

Our Alaskan vacation, which has been months in the planning, is finally upon us! I still can't believe it's here. Tomorrow morning we fly to Vancouver, where we'll spend the weekend, and then on Monday we board the Coral Princess for a seven-day cruise to Whittier, Alaska, with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. And at the end, we'll spend a couple of days in Anchorage before flying back to San Francisco.

This will be my first cruise and my first time to Alaska. As usual we've packed at the last minute, but we're basically ready! We should have Internet access now and then during the trip, so hopefully I can write or at least update status as we go along.

Bon voyage!

Links for 2008-8-8

2008-08-08T23:19:50Z

Sorting out Coffee's Contradictions [New York Times]

"As with any product used to excess, consumers often wonder about the health consequences of caffeine."

(tags: caffeine coffee health newyorktimes)

Letters for sale [Flickr]

2008-08-03T20:52:55-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

3 Aug 2008: Browsing through the monthly flea market in Alameda.

Letters for sale [Flickr]

2008-08-03T20:52:42-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

3 Aug 2008: Browsing through the monthly flea market in Alameda.

Wood type [Flickr]

2008-08-03T20:52:24-05:00

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo:

3 Aug 2008: Browsing through the monthly flea market in Alameda.

Bernadette Peters concert

2008-07-27T17:26:25Z

On Friday night we had a great time seeing Bernadette Peters sing with the San Francisco Symphony. (If I remember correctly, the first time I saw her in person was a concert she gave, also with the SFS, back when I was in high school.) After a short opening of pieces performed by just the SFS, she appeared -- all sparkly and charming -- and entertained us with several songs (often with interesting arrangements), mostly Broadway and a lot of Sondheim of course:

Let Me Entertain You (Gypsy)
No One Is Alone (Into the Woods)
There Is Nothing Like a Dame (South Pacific)
Fever
Mister Snow (Carousel)
Some Enchanted Evening (South Pacific)
Shenandoah
When You Wish upon a Star (Disney's Pinocchio)
Johanna (Sweeney Todd)
Not a Day Goes By (Merrily We Roll Along)
You Could Drive a Person Crazy (Company)
With So Little To Be Sure Of (Anyone Can Whistle) / Children Will Listen (Into the Woods)
Being Alive (Company)
Kramer's Song (lullaby written by Peters for her book Broadway Barks)

Good times. What a classy dame she is.

By the way, if any of San Francisco's musical theater queens weren't at this concert, they might have been seeing another great dame who was in town that night: Mitzi Gaynor. With Bruce Vilanch. At the Castro Theatre.

'TV Dinner'

2008-07-21T19:40:45Z

The latest cat cartoon from Simon Tofield, "TV Dinner":

Funny, 'cause it's true. Though our cats don't know how to use the remote control ... as far as we know.

SF AIDS Walk 2008

2008-07-07T21:53:07Z

I'm walking in the San Francisco AIDS Walk on Sunday, July 20, 2008! I've done two walks so far (D.C. and San Francisco) and am excited to do it again.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation has been dedicated to providing direct services to thousands of people living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS, supplying information about HIV treatment and related issues, promoting HIV prevention and awareness in the community, and advocating for sound HIV/AIDS policies at all levels of government.

If you'd like to help support the important work of SFAF and several other local HIV/AIDS service organizations, please visit my page and sponsor me by making a donation! I'm grateful to you blog readers who have been great contributors in the past, and I hope I can count on even more of you this time around. (If you have any questions, just let me know.)

Thanks for helping out a worthy cause. Every little bit helps!

[Addendum (August 1): Thanks, everyone! It was a great event. With your help I raised $950 (definitely the most I've ever put together), and the total amount raised at this year's AIDS Walk was a near record-breaking $4.5 million!]

Another year

2008-07-07T03:20:38Z

I was uploading some recent Disneyland photos and also decided to look back through some family albums to find photos from my childhood vacations to the park. As usual I got lost in a kind of reverie looking at old photos and suddenly remembered that it's been two years exactly since my dad died. Not that I totally forgot -- the time around the Fourth of July is a bittersweet reminder -- but the actual day did sneak up on me.

I hope to scan a lot of these old photos; for now here's one I found of my dad and me (at four years old) on the Autopia ride at Disneyland, from a family trip in November 1981. Aww.

The latte boy

2008-07-03T17:02:54Z

I was trying and failing to write a concise 140-character tweet/plurk about this morning, and then realized, oh, yeah, I have this neglected Weblog, or blog, thing, huh.

So my recent attempt to steer away from Starbucks coffee and pastry and towards work-kitchenette tea and brought-from-home bagel--in a spartan attempt to promote my health and wallet--lasted all of one day before I decided to treat myself. I went with Thom to his regular morning haunt, Martha & Bros., which may become my regular haunt now as well. Not that I have anything against Starbucks per se, but it's kind of nice to support the local guys.

I'm now sipping a caramel latte and nibbling on "morning glory" cake. Yum.

The other plus is the friendly staff, one cute cashier in particular. I told Thom, "Uh huh, I see why you come here."

"I come here for the coffee." He added, "But yeah, that doesn't hurt."

(See also Kristin Chenoweth, "Taylor, the Latte Boy.")

Tikiversary

2008-06-15T20:55:03Z

June has a couple of milestones for us. It's been two years since Thom and I moved from Virginia to California (to my hometown and the very house where I grew up). In June 2006 we packed up the Prius, drove across the country, and arrived on Father's Day, June 18.

And our main June holiday is what we consider our anniversary, June 21, when we first met (in person) five years ago. What are we going to do next? We're going to Disneyland!

Truth be told, the first thing that spurred this trip is the forty-fifth anniversary of the Enchanted Tiki Room; on June 22 Disneyland is having a sale and signing of artwork and other items commissioned for the event. We both love tiki, so that was a perfect reason to go. (I haven't been to Disneyland in several years, and Thom's never been.) The fact that it's over our anniversary weekend is icing on the cake!

Marriage equality

2008-05-15T17:48:41Z

A happy day here in California: the state Supreme Court has overturned the state's ban on gay marriage and stated that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. From the opinion (PDF):

Under these circumstances, we cannot find that retention of the traditional definition of marriage constitutes a compelling state interest. Accordingly, we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are unconstitutional.

It's not over though. Gear up to battle the possible constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall. But for now, pop the champagne!

[Addendum (May 28): A new Field Poll finds that a slim majority of California voters supports same-sex marriage, the first such majority in the over thirty years that the Field Poll has been tracking this issue (report PDF).]

31

2008-05-08T20:17:23Z

It's my birthday! So I'm 31. And here I thought I could dilly-dally around 29/30 for a little longer. Thank you so much for the nice greetings--they're making being sick on my birthday (I am still not over this cold!) quite bearable. While I had hoped to go out for a fancy dinner tonight, we may scale it down to dinner at home or somewhere close by, and save the fabulous meal for when I'm feeling more fabulous.

Also celebrating a birthday today: Enrique Iglesias and Darren Hayes. Not bad.

Kevin and Scotty

2008-05-08T05:24:54Z

Have I mentioned how much I love Brothers & Sisters? When I first started watching it, I especially related to one of the central premises of the show, a family dealing with the death of their father and rallying around their mother, which hit close to home for me. The acting and writing are good, and over the two seasons thus far it's really drawn me in.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this lovely scene featuring boyfriends Kevin and Scotty from the end of this week's episode:

Can't wait till next week's season finale!

Commencement

2008-05-01T22:35:08Z

So much for being back to regular blogging, eh? Oh well. I just wanted to check in before we go out of town for a few days. One of Thom's nephews is graduating from college this weekend--ah, these young people, they grow up so fast--so tonight we're on a redeye to Virginia, on Virgin America no less (flying SFO to Dulles, then driving a rental car a few hours to meet up with Thom's family).

I can't remember the last time I've been to a graduation, other than my own. I love all the pomp and circumstance, and sometimes irreverence, in the case of my own alma mater.

By the way, it's May, and what does that mean? Yes, one week till my birthday!

Office space

2008-04-11T05:08:30Z

I'm going to be working in an office again, mostly. And this is a good thing!

Let's back up. When I moved back to California in 2006, I was fortunately able to keep my job (based in Maryland) and basically have been telecommuting from home full-time. I love the flexibility, but for me working from home is not all it's cracked up to be. Some people can make it work, but I feel like I never made the 100% effort to create a dedicated workspace (and frame of mind).

Recently my manager floated the idea of me having the option to work from the office of one of our related companies in San Francisco. While I wouldn't have any functional or reporting ties to the local staff, I would get my own workspace, office resources, and (to get all intangible) a re-connection to our larger organization.

There are three other major pluses: location, location, location! Our house is in suburbia -- not very exciting. The office is in energetic downtown San Francisco, and surrounded by lots of places to eat, which is something I missed when I stopped working in Bethesda. What's more, the office is three blocks from where Thom works. This morning he and I took BART together, and I went to go check out my new digs. After getting a tour and settling in a bit, Thom and I met for lunch at Bistro Burger, which has a location on the ground floor of my building. Ah, a gourmet burger place in my building: this could get dangerous.