Photos-o-the-day

"Thick, sinewy and ghostly white, soaring into the sky, they signal nature's dominance over man. The trees of Angkor tower over the great temples, their roots twisting and crushing them in a grip more powerful than stone.

It is a mortal embrace. Starting as seedlings dropped from the sky by birds, the roots have dug their way so deeply into the monuments that they hold them at their mercy, binding them even as they rip them apart."
-New York Times article by Seth Mydans:
Trees Bind Angkor Temples in Perilous Grip

Quote-o-the-day

"The important thing is to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."
-Charles Dubois

Food Trucks

Food trucks are all the rage in LA right now. I had been wanting to try the Grilled Cheese Truck for over a year, and was finally able to do so with some friends last week. The bread was grilled to perfection!

Then this weekend, we hunted down Coolhaus, which serves up gourmet ice cream between specialty cookies. I had the dirty mint ice cream with snickerdoodle cookies. Yum! It wasn't the mint-flavored ice cream you normally get, but ice cream with real mint in it. Unusual, but tasty.

Next truck? I really want some lobster rolls! We normally can't find that goodness out west, but thank goodness there's the Lobsta Truck.

Tsunami hits Rainbow Harbor

Nature is fierce and it is amazing. Even across an ocean and past one of the world's largest breakwalls, we were able to witness the tsunami's effects in our little nook of the harbor. There was quite a bit of commotion at work yesterday morning as we all stood around to watch. People strolling along the boardwalk were unimpressed, but being the ocean nerds that we all are, it was a very neat thing indeed. Here are five photos that I took over a span of 14 minutes, the water came in and out like this several times.

Quote-o-the-day

"...I started to think about time, and how it keeps moving and draining and flowing forever forward, seconds into minutes into days into years, all of it leading to the same place, a current running forever in one direction. And we're all going and swimming as fast as we can, helping it along. My point is: maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around in it, let it slide like coins through your fingers. So much time you can waste it. But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know."
-before i fall, lauren oliver

Photo-o-the-day

Saigon, evening rush hour.

Photo-o-the-day

Beautiful day at East Mebon. Angkor ruins, Cambodia.

I heart this song

I love this clip and wish the whole thing was in the movie. Also, Garrett Hedlund makes a hot country singer.

Photo-o-the-day

Profile of faces at Bayon. It was one of my favorite ruins at Angkor.

2010 Books

This 2010 roundup is coming a little late, since we are already partway through February, but I still wanted to post my list. I ended up reading a tad more than last year, 18 books in total for 2010. Really enjoyed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The Hunger Games was FABULOUS, and I was able to convince quite a number of friends to read it also. I don't care what anyone says, I heart young adult novels. Couch was quirky and funny. And for the record, I absolutely DID NOT LIKE The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I have no clue why there is so much buzz and hype around the book, it was awful.

A question to YOU, my readers (I'm being hopeful that I actually have readers out there): what did you read in 2010 that you loved? I'm always looking for book recommendations.

2010 books, in the order I read them...
-Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire
-Coraline, Neil Gaiman
-Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
-The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
-Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
-Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
-Couch, Benjamin Parzybok
-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larson
-The Help, Kathryn Stockett
-The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Stephenie Meyer
-Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
-The Missing: Book 1: Found, Margaret Peterson Haddix
-Touching the Void, Joe Simpson
-The Last Summer (Of You and Me), Ann Brashares
-Durable Goods, Elizabeth Berg
-Zero Regrets, Apolo Ohno
-Three Willows, Ann Brashares