Spinning the colorwheel

People keep asking me when I haven't blogged recently. Well, it turns out life in Cupertino is boring and does not lend itself to exciting posts.  For example, we went to a street fair in Mountain View last month. Maybe my expectations were set too high from all the festivals I'd been to in San Francisco. Of course I knew it wouldn't be like the Fillmore Jazz Festival or even the Union Street Fair, but the whole thing was pretty much summed up by the two drink minimum. Not that debauchery makes a great street fair but the rigidity of rules is pretty indicative of the spirit of the event. And so far I'm finding that's the spirit of Silicon Valley - work hard then go back to San Francisco to play.

We also ventured out to San Jose one Friday night - I know, we should have known better. We went to sake bar which had great apps and, of course, sake-tinis. But the crowd at this place was nuts. The girls running around made Marina girls look chaste. We ventured back to San Jose during the day but it turned out that Saturday happened to be FanimeCon. If you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky.

I tried to take matters into my own hands and threw a party for the Tony Awards. I had a few theatre friends come, but other than our guest list consisted of Appletinis and other Tech-ites. I know what you're thinking, techies and Tonys may not be a winning combination. But we created a Tony Bingo game to engage our guests. (And by we I mean I requested a Bingo game and my husband wrote a visual basic macro in excel to make the boards from scratch.) I was actually really impressed with his game. He had squares such as "someone makes a Spiderman joke" and "Neil Patrick Harris costume change." Our technical crew appreciated the "John Malkovich Siri commercial airs" square, but they seemed to quickly lose interest in the game. Don't get me wrong - quite a few people played the game, artsy and techie folks alike, but I quickly realized why we only throw viewing parties for sporting events. The guests are really into the game, and I'm not so I don't mind replenishing platters and mixing drinks. That is not quite the case when it comes to musicals. Back to the drawing board...

Get your Tech on

This weekend I made my first venture to the Tech Museum. I've been pestering my husband about going for awhile, but for some reason he didn't get that a tech museum in the heart of Silicon Valley would be incredibly well-funded. Well, let me tell you - it was awesome! It was like the Exploratorium but on speed and completely adult-friendly. That being said, there were a lot of kids there and we didn't have the heart to elbow them out of the way so we could play. But we did watch them and took over the exhibits whenever there was a gap in the parade of wee ones.

One of the best parts of the Museum was the Tech Tag. You can scan your ticket at a bunch of the interactive stations and take pictures of what you're doing. Then you can create your own website to show all the cool stuff you did at the Museum. My husband was a little website-ed out due to my recent abusive behavior on the CSS front, so we didn't take too much time at that station. (Someone has to make my artistic vision a reality when Wordpress falls short.)

We were there a couple hours and it was not enough time to see/play with everything. I've already marked our calendar for our next Tech-outing - we didn't even make it to IMAX!  To get your ultimate Tech-on check out the After Hours on the first Wednesday of each month. What could be better than science, games and cocktails?

Ladies who Lunch (at Apple)

I am completely spoiled in that whenever I'm sick of eating a turkey sandwich for lunch I can just pop over to Apple. I'm even more spoiled that when I have friends in time going to lunch at Apple is always on the vacation agenda.

Today was one such occasion and my friend Trey and I struck off for some Infinite Looping. It quickly turned into looping as the campus was spilling over with Appletinis today and the parking situation was worse than at Darius Rucker's appearance last Friday. It is also a very gray day down in Appleville which seemed to encroach on everyone's mood. Of course that did not slow Trey down as he experienced Apple-land for the first time. (Though, he was disappointed to learn there is no tram circling the parking lot.)

Highlights of our lunch included comments such as "Apple should start a baroque ensemble and call it Infinite Lute" and "Why are there so many apples in the cafeteria?" The conversation took a downhill plunge upon entering the Corporate Store. The tag line t-shirts now include a tribute to Siri but they are still only in men's shirts. Apparently women don't want to wear a shirt asking Siri if its warm enough to wear a t-shirt. Even toddler's are in on the fun now with shirts proclaiming their Mac compatibility. But no, not women. We brainstormed briefly on what the women's line should say and who should be pinged, but unfortunately I don't think the favorite are appropriate for general consumption. Ping me separately and I'll send them on over to you.  

In any rate, keep a lookout for Trey's iFail line coming soon to a CafePress near you.

Loving your Lemons

You know that feeling when you stumble across a website that you know you are going to have a long relationship with? You know, like when you first saw Facebook (if you can remember that far back) or more recently when first got lost in the beauty of Pinterest. It is that magical excitement of all that is to be. And when you see that the site is still in beta? Thrilling!

So I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when I first dove into LemonCrate. It is a shopper's wonderland. Literally, you can shop for hours in the comfort of your own home with your coffee and slippers, or in your office Monday morning when the week has become too real already. You can scroll forever and never run out of gorgeous shoes and sassy sunglasses to drool over. You can customize as you go and mark items as 'love this' or search for similar peep toe heels. Or you can just create your own search by color, price, brand, whatever. But unlike slogging through google shopping or Zappos it's fun! The website is sleek and stunning and incredible addictive.

As if this couldn't get any better when you do find an item you have to add to your closet you can pull up the price history. You can see all the stores carrying that perfect clutch and what they are asking for as the purchase price. Some items even give you the lowest price in recent history so you can plan out when to make your big purchase. And if you can't make up your mind you can easily send it to your girlfriend for her feedback. It's the complete shopping experience but without the lines and the hassle of a department store. It has the boutique feel we all crave, but you can compare earrings from different boutiques. Genius. 

As I said it is still in beta so not all features are on every item but its getting there. Plus, the best part of beta is giving feedback on the features you want to see. I know you're still upset about being the last person in your group to start pinning so here is your chance to get ahead of the curve. Get out there and start loving this at LemonCrate!

(If you don't know where to start check out the Kate Spade page for inspiration. Ahhh, Kate Spade...)

Groupon with some Padding

I'm sorry for my disappearance on the blog front the last few days. I am back now and ready for action.

I had hoped to post an update on the new iPad but I'm afraid its still too hot a topic. (Don't worry I won't make any 'how many new iPads does it take to bake a cookie' jokes.) Despite this, over 3 million were sold in the first four days of availability. It certainly makes you wonder how many will be sold when people figure out all the new features besides just the incredible screen. We'll have to wait for the next round of commercials since that is the only user's guide Apple provides for its incredible products. Of course this isn't too upsetting since there is a bushel of Apple Geniuses standing by to answer every question and demonstrate every feature.  Personally, I can't wait to worm through the throngs of people at the Apple Store to check out the new games on display for the iPad.


Of course one app that doesn't need a killer display is Groupon. I have received the groupon eblast for quite some time but had not ventured over to the app until recently. Why didn't anyone tell me it was so great? (I'm sure all of the daily deal apps are phenomenal but this is the first one I've tried so far. Anyone using Living Social or Bloomspot?)

I am finding a great way to explore my new hometown, and really all of Silicon Valley, is through daily deals. Its a relatively pain free and low risk way to find great places. Yesterday I found a cute little nail salon running a groupon deal for a shellac manicure. It was only $20, that's right $20! In the city you could pay $20 just to add the shellac to your regular manicure. Amazing. But the real beauty of it was I found a deal happening that day, paid for it and redeemed it all on my iPhone. It is really pretty ingenious and so much better than probing through the emails and remembering that pesky little voucher.

Well done Groupon. Well done.

Tweet Smarts

I ventured onto Twitter for the first time this week. I know, I know, I am so behind the times and totally not cool, but I never really understood the draw before. Now that I've been dangling my toes in the bird bath for a couple days I'm starting to get it. Its nice getting my daily cliff notes of everything I should have read or heard about. For example, did you hear Britney Spears joined Path? Haven't we already had a close enough look at her life?

That being said I am totally the nerd who looked at the tutorial just to make sure I got it all. (No shame here, I already admitted how completely uncool I am.) But at least I got on twitter before my husband. He is still standing strong against the tweet wave and offered me no help when setting up my profile.

So now I turn to you for help. Are any of you on twitter? Can you share secrets of the trade and the best tweeters to follow?

Pies-R-Us

In honor of Pi Day I am indulging in an ode to pies. I LOVE baking pies. Unfortunately I love eating pies as well so they don't make an appearance in my kitchen often. Many people seem to be intimidated of the pie-making process, which I attribute largely to the crust portion of the ordeal. Homemade pie crust is one of the best things in the world, so if you have the time, go for it instead of going with the store-bought crust. After all, it doesn't really matter how perfect your pie looks - it matters how it tastes! Below is my tried and true pie crust recipe. (Which by my I mean my mother's, and by mother's I mean whoever she took it from. Ah the glory of family recipes!) Baking may be difficult at time but I'm a big believer in instructions. If you follow the recipe it will turn out. If you don't it may not. And that is why my husband isn't allowed to bake. Well, the lack of instruction-following attitude and his tendency to throw in random ingredients. He once made me a dirty orange martini - don't ask.

If you want a delicious tasting pie but need to know it will actually be delicious and won't take an entire day to bake check out Real Simple. Like many women I believe Real Simple has an answer for everything. And for you more adventurous bakers look to Tasting Table for inspiration. This savory spin on an apple pie may make me lift my pie ban in our kitchen.

Or if you don't want an entire pie jump on the pie pop bandwagon. You can buy a pie pop maker or try making them by hand. Here are some great tips and and a yummy recipe courtesy of South By San Francisco.

The Apple Pi

And for those who hoped for something related to math or general geekery on this fine holiday - I'm sorry. That is just not my forte. But here is a joke courtesy of my husband:
What do you get when you cut a jack o'lantern by its diameter? A pumpkin pi!

Pie Crust:
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1/3 cup ice cold water


Combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resemble coarse crumbs. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball. Divide dough in half, and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Roll out on a floured counter and use as directed in pie recipe.