Jan 10, 2012  •  In Claire, Personal, Relationships

More Family Resemblances

A couple of weeks ago, J’s relatives in China found this old photograph and sent it over: Can you guess who the little girl is? It’s J’s mother when she was about 3 years old! Everyone immediately noticed how remarkably Claire resembles her grandmother in this picture. Here’s a recent picture of Claire for comparison: […]

Jan 8, 2012  •  In Blogging, Geek, Reviews, Web

Site Downtime, and a New Host

If you tried to visit this site yesterday or earlier today, you were probably met with a big fat error message. 🙁  I thought that the problem had resolved itself by Saturday evening, when the site briefly came back online after my web host reset the server, but the reprieve only lasted a couple of […]

Jan 7, 2012  •  In Art/Design, Books

Fairy Tales Get the Architect Treatment

How would fairy tales look from the lens of architecture? This is precisely what Fairy tale author and editor Kate Bernheimer and architect Andrew Bernheimer sought to find out. Rapunzel, designed by Guy Norden and Associates: As structural engineers we were instantly drawn to the “tower that stood in a forest and had neither a door nor a stairway, but […]

Jan 6, 2012  •  In Finance, Personal

More Thoughts on Money, and Small Steps Forward

As stated in an earlier post, 2011 was not the best year — financially — for my family. This does not only apply to my parents. While J and I are by no means poor, we have been on a very tight budget. Yes, we were able to hire a part-time nanny for a few […]

Jan 5, 2012  •  In Art/Design, Beauty

Les Merveilleuses De Ladurée [Swoon]

French macaron company Ladurée is delving into the world of cosmetics, and the packaging for each makeup item is just as pretty and delicate as their existing branding. The collection includes blushes, foundations, and lip colors inspired by their sweets, while the name is derived from the Merveilleuses of 18th century France, who were known for their […]

Jan 5, 2012  •  In Aerin, Baby, Personal, Pregnancy

Aerin’s Birth Story

I realized the other day that I had never posted Aerin’s birth story. There is reasoning behind the madness: it just isn’t that exciting. 🙁  And by this, I mean that while the birth of our second daughter was thrilling for us, it was short and easy and free of drama — not stuff that non-family […]

Jan 4, 2012  •  In Claire, Personal

Christmas 2011

I know I’m a bit late, but how could I not share this picture of Claire on Christmas morning? I can confidently say that this Christmas was the first where I did not care if I received anything at all — the wonderful and generous presents that Claire and Aerin received were more than worth […]

Jan 4, 2012  •  In Facebook, Funny, Web

Oh, Rodney [NSFW Language]

I often say that everyone should have a friend like Barney. Now, I’m beginning to think that everyone should have someone like Rodney as their Facebook friend too, if not just for the sheer entertainment value.     Via Reddit. You may also like: Thoroughly Depressing Comics About Our Relationship to Facebook What Social Networking […]

Jan 3, 2012  •  In Aerin, Baby, Personal

At the Risk of Jinxing Myself…

The last time I wrote about Aerin, I had talked of switching from breastmilk to formula. This is going splendidly. Aerin has not spit up even once since we made the switch. She still has a bit of cradle cap, but aside from that her skin is smooth and clear. And at the risk of jinxing […]