February 06, 2006
le virage
le virage
Originally uploaded by in retrospect.
i spent the weekend at home with my dad in walnut creek and managed to get a record of the fantastical le virage restaurant on north main street.
i remember when i was a tiny four-year old girl perched on the armrest in the back seat of my mother's vw hatchback staring out the window and would gaze at this restaurant painted with scenes of people clearly having such a fabulous time, i wanted nothing better than to eat a le virage.
but it was, in 1975, the fanciest restaurant in town and not suitable for a small child. apparently.
i had forgotten about the restaurant for years until one day i was taking the BART train to my father's house and remembered my long forgotten fantasy of dining there.
and it had closed just two weeks prior.
so this trip i had to at least capture the scene that captivated the culinary imagination my very early childhood.
Posted by heidijanet at 10:06 PM | Comments (1)
August 08, 2005
mercifully blindfolded, for once.
i became part of the act...blindfolded
Originally uploaded by in retrospect.
somehow, whenever there is audience participation, i get pulled on the stage. i've been pulled into bullrings in mexico, been handed tambourines for impromptu accompaniment and now... blindfolded while machetes were juggled around my head.
over all however, the do lab puts on a great show with excellent music. and cirque berserk last saturday night was no exception.
Posted by heidijanet at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
you are now entering, my BIRTHDAY
you are now entering, my BIRTHDAY
Originally uploaded by in retrospect.
it's my last day in the office before i head up to seattle for the weekend, so the first thing i see when i walk into work is this!
my team decorated my office with banners, birthday cake confetti and a little cake with "happy birthday heidi" in pink icing.
how cool is that?
this totally made my day after a real hard week and was a great start to my bday weekend.
for those that don't know me, i officially slide into my mid-thirties on saturday--and i'm feeling a little ambivalent about it.
Posted by heidijanet at 08:21 PM | Comments (2)
June 11, 2005
a body at rest...
bed
Originally uploaded by in retrospect.
i've returned from my long-awaited and much-needed vacation rested and relaxed.
after four days of isolation, walking, sunning, reading, lazing, sitting, gazing, thinking, napping and generalized hedonistic behavior i may now be fit to re-enter civilization.
i must admit that civilization is looking more and more overrated the closer i get to monday.
Posted by heidijanet at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2005
get out, dress up, get down
in blue
Originally uploaded by in retrospect.
in the past i've complained about the counterintuitive reluctance to dress up and get out on the dance floor in la. migrating to the southland from san francisco, has left yours truly frustrated with the strange lack of great dance venues in this town that don't require your name on a list, an intimate relationship with the bouncer or a $500 table with bottle service.
but i'm starting to discover very cool gatherings like this one beautifully executed by the do lab downtown.
the only dissenting opinion i've received so far following my five hour dancing excursion in a furry hat is from my poor mistreated feet. sorry guys.
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January 09, 2005
LA: light / motion / dreams
Originally uploaded by in retrospect.
made it out to the museum of natural history friday night for an evening of music and art (la remixed as it were)--and wandered through the exhibit of LA: light/motion/dreams. i'm not usually impressed with installation art, but this exhibit was exceptional.
if you are local, i highly recommend trying to catch it while it's still going on. erm, looking at the site i guess that means...today. so hurry up!
Posted by heidijanet at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 10, 2004
the economy's fine...
vice president dick is attepting to insinuate that the economy is really just fine--it's just that those damn economic indicators aren't measuring the piles of money made on ebay!?
"That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago," Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on Thursday. "Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay."
edwards' response:
"If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking," Edwards said in a statement.
Posted by heidijanet at 12:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 30, 2004
not so docile seattle-ite
ariel recently wrote about how seattle-ites are weenies, demonstrated by their excessive politeness and aversion to conflict.
and i normally appreciate civility in a person and a culture, but when a guy like tom leykis takes a kick in the head from a seattle local, i have to admit--i let out a little giggle of delight.
so, i suppose if you're anyone except tom leykis or say, the WTO...then those seattle-ites are very polite.
Posted by heidijanet at 05:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 09, 2004
ariel and andreas got married!
i've reluctantly made it back from what can only be described as the most magical wedding celebration i've ever attended, the fabled union of ariel & andreas.
i'm too tired to go into much detail, but i flew up to beautiful seattle last thursday, greeted at the airport by ariel's friend joshua, who graciously put me up for the night (and the better part of the weekend). we camped at ariel's mother's home at sacred groves, and found myself thrust into a whirlwind of wedding preparation, where my official role was to be the bridal bodyguard.
the event was filled with love, food, amazing music and dancing so enthusiastically, that i am now unable to walk without my gimpy limbs whimpering in protest.
i've posted a few photos of the celebration over here, which will hopefully hold everyone over until i find the mental clarity to describe the event in greater detail.
although i may need some help from some of the other guests to help me fill in some of the details...i was informed that the quote of the evening came when i plopped down next to the fire, exhausted around 3am, realizing that my watch was in fact, NOT broken and announced, "no wonder people keep disappearing, time is passing!"
yes my friends, it was that kind of weekend. i am very sad that it's over.
Posted by heidijanet at 09:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 07, 2004
I'm an auntie part tres!
i've officially become an aunt for the third time. my sister suzette has officially added another baby girl to the family!
at 8lbs 15oz, sophia fritinger has officially joined the family. everyone is healthy, whole and happy.
and i am, of course, thrilled. that it wasn't me. :)
Posted by heidijanet at 01:30 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 22, 2004
i'm an auntie - part deux!
after 18 hours of labor and precisely on her due date, my baby sister welcomed my new niece into the world this morning at 2:51am!
welcome wee laney!
Posted by heidijanet at 01:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 11, 2003
guilty pleasures
anyone who has visited my abode, knows i'm a reader. i love books, they are stuffed and spilling on and out of every flat surface in my house. now, i can at times be a bit of a book snob. not in the literary, esoteric sense where i disdain pulp fiction and only regard the classics as worth reading. but in the sense that i don't like crap books. no romance novels, no bad fantasy or dime store thrillers. life is too short.
but i do, however have one guilty pleasure...stephen king.
i've been reading his books since i was 10 years old and i totally dig his stories. the detail, the tone, the rock lyrics threaded throughout each chapter head. the fact that the same characters keep turning up, like the walking dude, the low men, the crimson king...and of course, castle rock. now of course i admit some of his books are crap. cujo wasn't the greatest example of his story-telling, but i was 10 when i read it and it scared the bejeezus out of me. carrie, a sufficiently creepy movie but a bit of a waste of time. and tommyknockers, well it just sucked.
but the dark tower series, is my FAVORITE! the first few came out while i was still in high school and i ate them up. then the next few were released through my early twenties and then, with no warning they inexplicably stopped.
i love that these stories germinated when stephen king was in college living in a cabin and writing on mismatched colored paper -- because he was too poor for the good stuff. but the fact that i've had to wait close to FIVE YEARS for the next book...well i was starting to get frustrated.
and hate to admit this...but when he was hit by that van a few years ago? my first thought was, "oh my god! he'll never finish the dark tower series!"
this probably makes me a bad person, but when i walked into the bookstore at lunch today and saw the 800+ page-thick wolves of the calla on the shelf? i did a little dance and knocked over three small children to get to the checkout stand.
*evil cackle*
Posted by heidijanet at 12:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 21, 2003
delight!
ok, not to bore you with how cool a place amgen is to work, but i just discovered that not only do they have a starbucks, a dry cleaner, a gym, 4 restaurants and their own MBA program...but they also have a farmer's market!
even better? it now carries supermarket staples such as bread, milk and eggs for those who don't want to cross the picket line at the supermarket! now if only i could get my chemically-enhanced, addictive but yummy french vanilla coffee-mate added to the list...
Posted by heidijanet at 04:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 10, 2003
rude awakening
ok, so last year when i read this article about Sony's multi-million dollar CD encryption software being trumped by running a black marker around the edge, i thought it was downright hilarious.
then yesterday, learning about the paper written by a princeton graduate student, explaining that if you simply hold down the SHIFT key to disable SunComm's CD encryption software used by BMG/Arista label records. i was delighted yet again.
now i'm not delighted that people steal music, because i do pay for mine. but if i purchase the CD and want to upload the files to my MP3 player, well then i have to copy the files.
really how is it so different from a dual cassette recording making a copy of the tapes? or what's to prevent someone from just recording the audio directly? now i don't condone people copying and selling the music for profit...but copying the music to listen to it during your morning run? that seems harmless, well at least as harmless and copying it to a cassette for your circa 1985 sony walkman.
and then to hear that SunComm is suing the student for publishing the paper when they knew about the flaw all along? again, just wrong.
my argument is not that the music should be free, but that the music industry figure out a better way to make money from music that may include a little copying and sharing. and hey, maybe their margins get damaged a little. big deal -- other companies have had to deal with decreased revenue and margins due to enhanced communication facilitated by new technologies.
i mean should Random House sue for people emailing each other excerpts of books? or maybe they should sue the us postal service if i should make a photocopy of a book and send it to my mother to read? or maybe they should sue Xerox for making the copier?
or maybe SunComm should sue Yahoo! and CNN for publishing the story about the student that published the paper. they have deeper pockets, and frankly i wouldn't have heard about it otherwise. or wait, are they afforded protections under the First Amendment that us ordinary citizens aren't? i think we know the answer to that.
at any rate, i don't think the suing is going to prevent copying and digital distribution of music.
i agree with Caravaggio in the English Patient, "I don't think anyone should own music."
it belongs to the musicians when they create it, and listeners when they listen to it. i say the record companies fairly compensate the musicians from the get go. and they should figure out how to make money selling that music by becoming a little more nimble by adapting their business model to the times.
or maybe they won't learn and they'll rack up millions in legal fees, putting themselves out of business and clearing the way for companies with a better idea for earning a living making and selling music.
Posted by heidijanet at 11:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 07, 2003
drizzle
i hate to keep blathering on about the affects rain has on the southland, but sometimes the result is so extreme it dominates my thoughts. it drizzled a little today and left me in a monster traffic jam that caused me to miss my acupuncture. i only have to go about 10 miles and it would have taken me an hour. AN HOUR. argh.
on a lighter note, when i got home, i padded out into my front patio in bare feet (notice i use the plural) and delighted in the fact that it was the first time in 7 months that i got *both* feet wet. i happily splat my feet in a shallow puddle for a few moments. made me feel much better about the rain.
Posted by heidijanet at 06:03 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
April 25, 2003
it's contagious!
a co-worker ran over to my desk a couple of weeks ago to share what sounded like a new drug for the taking -- friendster.
then today my friend kathryn forwarded me an invitation to partake of this strangely obsessive new thing. before i knew it, i was divulging this new pastime to my favorite people and then my friend/co-worker ariel turned in her chair, spying my indulgence on my screen exlaimed, "oooh friendster! add me!" before i knew it half the office was on friendster. by nightfall i had an invitation to a bbq down the street from someone who knew both kathryn *and* ariel --two totally unrelated acquaintences!
i didn't need a new addiction, but i am powerless against such things.
Posted by heidijanet at 07:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 17, 2003
how cool is this?
so i get in this morning and there's an email from a stranger named Greg. it was the nicest spam i've ever received:
Just thought I'd say hi, why....because the love of my life is also Heidi
Wright. Have a wonderful life!!
Greg
Posted by heidijanet at 08:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2003
drive, baby, drive
i drove my new car yesterday. i got portable hand controls and drove.
it was only 2 blocks to the store, but i was on the open road and i was free!
Posted by heidijanet at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
January 08, 2003
yes i can.
i've gotten good on one leg. i vacuum. i sweep. i cook. i can catch my cat dashing out under the bushes. i can even put on a pair of boxing gloves and spar with a punching bag.
i might just be ready enter the world's first one legged ass kicking contest -- and win.
Posted by heidijanet at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2003
small victories
i cleaned my entire house today on one leg. the best part? i vacuumed the entire house myself.
i'm so proud.
Posted by heidijanet at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)