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by James Jarvis and Richard Kenworthy. Sponsored by Nike.

It is funny because it is true.

If you don’t already feel insignificant, you certainly will after watching this footage modeled from pictures taken by the Hubble. Will asked, “Are those planets?” “No, those are galaxies that contain billions of planets.” “Awesome.”

My family is in town watching my children during their summer vacation, so I have a bit of time to catch up on my blogging 🙂

I thought this article on MSNBC listing a few surprising factors that contribute to longer life-spans really interesting.

We’re having our first sleepover as parents. Will and Matthew, his bestie, have been planning this event since they were barely able to talk, debating why they each had to go to their own houses at night and couldn’t just spend the night together. The pressure for a sleep over climaxed around Will’s birthday. He’s been talking non-stop about it, plotting, insisting that Matthew’s mom has invited him there, confirming we have her number to call and ask permission for Matthew to sleep at our house… So, we made arrangements and the big day has arrived. We told the kids this morning. Will couldn’t contain his enthusiasm, rushing into school to blurt out the details to anyone who would listen or happened to be in the vicinity. The enthusiasm was so infectious, I’ve wanted to blurt out the details to someone who’d listen! Sylvie, is getting the short end of the stick. At the mention of the arrangements, she insisted that Toby (her boyfriend) and Jasper (Matthew and Toby’s baby) should sleep in her bed, sit beside her carseat, play with her… Somehow we were able to fetch Matthew and not the other two boys.

Will and Matthew talked all the ride home like giddy schoolgirls (Boys talk like this?), about where they’d sleep and in what (sleeping bags) and what movie they’d watch and what they wanted to eat… As soon as we walked into the house, the kids rolled out their sleeping bags and started putting on pajamas because this is a sleepover. They watched Empire Strikes Back (batman/superman are for little kids, this is high brow for kindergartners), ate popcorn and picked at pizza. We’re all now huddled around watching Scooby Doo. Now what? Are they going to stay up all night and giggle?

I mentioned that my office moved to San Francisco, recently. I’ve been enjoying the contrast of the city to the suburban areas I’ve worked before. Because of the density of people downtown, there is always someone advertising their wears, giving free samples on the street. My first week, it was Christians handing out granola bars and invitations to be saved. (I ate it. It wasn’t laced with cyanide.) In the subsequent days, I’ve scored chocolate, free coffee (ritual coffee, roasted in the Mission is incredible!), passed by dog/cat food samples, … No wonder the homeless congregate, here.

Nothing is surprising in the city. The weather shifts 20 degrees over the course of an hour turning that sunny summer day into foggy winter evening. People fall from skies.

I’m enjoying observing life on the streets, as in this density, you witness a lot that in a suburban area would be carried out in privacy. There are quite a few homeless. For the most part, they’ve set up their homes, and they are “homeless” only in permanent structure, not in permanence. A woman residing outside the bus station spends her mornings fixing her hair, tidying her structure and arranging the day old flowers she received from the flower stand the night before. When I pass by her in the afternoons, she is usually busy at work hand sewing. I pass another woman fast asleep on her pile of belongings every morning, me always tempted to capture her on my iPhone.

Now you can read about things flying towards our planet on NASA’s blog because I know you’ll want to be alerted via blog post of impending doom. Check it out.

We regularly clean out unworn clothing from our closets, and I squirrel the best away on my sewing shelf – awaiting inspiration – for moments like this morning’s. It has been a hectic few weeks for me so I’ve been day dreaming about sewing. My work just moved offices from an office in Marin to right smack dab in the middle of San Francisco, leaving me with new wardrobe challenges. It is cold in San Francisco, and it was hot in Marin. Until the move, I spent the day with people dressed in blue jeans and t-shirts – no inspiration to dress nicely. I’m now situated in the middle of the financial district, surrounded by the last stronghold of suiters (not to be confused with suitors) in California. I now take a bus – and spend ~30 minutes a day waiting outside for the bus. I used to drive from door to door, and now walk 2 miles round trip from bus to office and back. So not only is my daily routine a little off, recently, but I’ve been exercising an entirely different section of the wardrobe, lately, in an attempt to find warm and walkable clothing. All of this has had me perusing favorite shopping sites for new additions to the closet. Although I succumbed and purchased a new pair of boots in an effort to eke a little more life out of my old favorites, I was able to hold back the urge to buy an entire new wardrobe from Anthropologie by refashioning one of those old cast away men’s shirts of Doug’s. What follows is my refashion of one of Doug’s shirts:

I used a favorite dress shirt as a guide when trimming the width and arm holes, repositioned the pocket, and added ruffles fashioned from the discarded sleeve material. Doug was quite excited about the repositioning of the pocket and thought it was worth pointing out.

Frankly, I hate this picture, but I’m quite excited with the new shirt. I’m looking forward to adding a long sleeve shirt and wearing it with cropped jeans and new boots in the winter.

It has been a while since I last wrote – there were technical difficulties when I last attempted, and I’ve been busy with work and children, since – but found this too interesting to go without posting.

Here is the account from a Staten Island writing teacher about his project to harness his student’s natural ability to write excuse notes. A good read, and a class I wish I had taken in school.

It has been a long day for the kiddos. My big guy is 5. Sylvie, keeps telling us that her birthday is coming up! When we sang Happy Birthday to Will, she said, “Now sing to Sylvie!”

The day began as most of our special days do – with donuts.

Will’s school requests that the children give a book to the school on their birthday, so we brought three of my favorites – The Seven Silly Eaters, I’d really like to eat a child, and Library Lion. Will was upset that they only read two of his books at his birthday circle.

After school, we headed to the city for inexpensive sushi at Kitaro on Geary. The kids serenaded the waitress with their sushi chant. “Sushi! Sushi!” Will gulped down 18 pieces of salmon sashimi. At this rate, college is looking economical in comparison to his appetite.

To wash it all down, we took the kids for ice cream at Joes. Joes is a tiny walk up diner/ice cream joint in the outer Richmond. The ice cream is homemade and delicious. The prices and decor haven’t been updated since the place opened in 1958. Although we frequented this place for ice cream when we lived in the neighborhood, I’m a little sad we didn’t stop to eat more. It appears to be family owned, and I’d guess it is on a second generation at this point.

That’s a new t-shirt I made Will – a walrus. Note to self – take pictures of the clothes I make BEFORE they go into circulation.