From Sasha

I am happy to report that I spent most of this past weekend at one of the loveliest places on earth, the South Fork of the Yuba River. This lil' piece of Heaven is just 20 minutes from my house, and naturally it is the first place our friends want to go to when they come up to visit. One of my dearest friends, Tomi, came up Friday evening, and we hiked in and camped out along the banks of the Yuba, eating really good food and talking nonstop between taking naps on hot rocks in the sun. Hard life, eh?

Sasha n' Tomi

Obviously the end of summer: we each brought 4 tubes of sunscreen that only had one squeeze left in them!

Tomi and Yuba

Martha Stewart is going to have a heart attack when she sees that we used a LEG to display our gourmet creation– oh well! It is too divine and was invented on the spot while we ate breakfast. Ingredients: one baguette slice, goat cheese, sliced fig, and one piece of Dagoba Xocolatl Chocolate (the one with spicy chili nibs). It tastes like a gourmet chocolate cheesecake… trust us.

From Sasha

Last Sunday I joined Chris and his dad for an adventure: we drove down to the Bay Area for the infamous Billetproof vintage car show. "Billetproof"'s name refers to billeted aluminum, the material that is often used on the super-shiny, super posh vintage cars that are maintained like untouchable museum pieces and seldom driven (or raced) in the real world. The Billetproof folks like to rebel against that monied and exclusive collector's culture with their own gathering, which features raw-looking vintage cars with artistic details and a lowbrow, fringe-of-society vibe (we even saw one that used a shotgun as the shift stick!). A lot of these cars not only look cool, but they go FAST… and, if you remember my post about how Chris and his dad are working on a racecar for the speed trials in Bonneville, you know that FAST is the new modus operendi in our household.

We started off the day with a good old fashioned Swap Meet in Auburn. A swap meet is exactly what its name implies, a place for people to swap and buy goods, mostly of the automotive variety. There were lots of random things, too, of course:

…and lots of guys standing around piles of rusted metal:

Now I'm not really being fair to call it rusted metal, am I? Those are car parts, some of them hard to find anywhere but at a swap meet. Still, the guy with the 45 records was more up my alley. Here are my scores!:

From Sasha

I am just back from the most amazing holiday weekend ever, which I spent up in Portland, Oregon. It wasn't just a regular vacation– one of my best friends in the whole wide world got married, to an actual Prince Charming. Such joy! I am still tearing up about it. I wanted to share with all of you some pictures from the fun, though I am short on proper pics from the wedding cause I was in the bridal party and didn't want to carry a camera. Still, there is something to be said for my random snapshots of Portland and the wedding prep. If you have never been to this amazing, young, vibrant city, you should get there now. And if you like vintage clothes….well, duh!…. it's a Wonderland. Officially.

We spent an entire day inside Powell's City of Books. Occupying a full city block, it is one of the biggest independent book stores in the entire world.

On this trip we discovered Voodoo Donuts, a veritable temple to Sugar and Weirdness. In the window:

And inside:

They make every kind of donut, including donuts covered in breakfast cereal, a huge variety of vegan donuts, and assorted Wacky Characters. They were blasting Bikini Kill at an ear splitting volume when we were there… my first time hearing Riot Grrrl rock in a donut store, a moment never to be forgotten. In fact, it seems like every business in Portland, even the corner store, blasts their music of choice, no matter what it is. Portlanders believe strongly in freedom of personal expression!  Continue Reading... (690 words + 28 images, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)