Brother party time

MY BROTHER CAME TO VISIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went to La Note for breakfast. It was fancy and delicious.

We also went to Berkeley Bowl so I could impress him with the California produce. We wished Katie could have been there with us to enjoy the olive bar.

We did some Cal shopping and I almost got this awesome bear hat (with bonus gloves!). Maybe for my birthday ...

Then it was off to Ichiro Sushi (number one!) for some delectable Japanese cuisine.

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the Cal Academy with Brother's friend Yurko (whose name is also Eric).

nature shot/flower mode

blurry fish pic

funkay aquarium

We also saw this little exhibit on egg diversity.

Party time!

Brother and the big dino.

We also went on a nature hike one day, but I was too pooped for pictures (apparently). Here's the parking lot.

Tak made Sukiyaki! Another deeeelicious dinner.

We went to the Traz! It was so awesome. Brother and Tak (and I) could hardly stand the excitement as we waited in line for the boat.

Sibling party on the Traz boat/we look cool.

Alcatraz!

These birds were nesting, so we had to be very quiet.

Harmeses in the slammer

Tak freaked out in the isolation room.

the BF and the GGB

We liked the audio tour.

We almost watched The Rock, but I guess we had to save something for next time.

Brother took a nice series of GGB/nature-from-the-car pix.

This one features my sweet guitar ornament from Sam.

Muir Woods + tall boys!

Precious.

also precious

Our "in a tree" series:

spooky water

Brother loves John Muir

Our "wooden bear statues" series:

Muir Beach!

I like this one. We are cute.

Last but not least, Tak took us on a tour of the Cal campus.

ALL PARTY ALL THE TIME.
Come back soon, please.

the lasagna challenge

Tak and Anna challenged one another to a lasagna bake-off challenge. Naturally, we needed macarons to complement Tak's lasagna menu.

close-up

the chef at work

homemade sauce with heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil, plus rosemary and thyme from our little garden

taste-testing is important

the assembly

I set the table. Presh.

At the last minute we decided to print up these little menus to really knock the competition out of the water.

But it was really one of those situations where we were all winners because we got to eat two differently delicious lasagnas. Yay, Tak and Anna!

Frances and I made a bunch of these for an event at her office, and I sneaked a few for the lasagna-off dessert. They were flavored with matcha (plus green food coloring) for St. Patty's Day (which I mispunctuated on the menu, I know).

tsunami

Apparently the tsunami made its way to the bay area on Friday morning. Here's a little video of it coming in. (Tak's family members in Japan are all safe, for those of you who've been wondering.)

The Commute

Things I like about BART:

• Its map is like a rainbow.
• It is way better than driving in rush hour.
• It provides good people-watching opportunities.
• It mostly comes at its scheduled times (knock on wood).

Things I don't like about BART:

• It's pretty nast-tastic (but I still take a seat when I can get one).
• [I know you can't really have just one bullet point. And there are obviously other less-than-super-cool things about BART. But the sick-factor is pretty much number one.]