En route to SFO. Why of why does the weather in SF have to be colder than in NYC? It's an awesome 78 degrees in NYC right now...be back Sunday!

Thanks to a reader Megan from Austria we now know of this new prison in Austria - what do you think?

From our visit to California in December '07:

* They've ditched us in NYC for a year while they do their sabbatical year at Stanford.

There's the little squirt:

And now here's the massive guy thanks to a tactic we've also employed in other parts of the world!

* Beautifully taken by Deni!

And apparently my body got used to it because I still feel as if I'm rocking back and forth...pretty cool sensation.

Arising before 5 am really shouldn't be undervalued. You feel one step closer to death which then makes you want to live more! I imagine the feeling is similar to that experienced while fasting. So as I head to the airport and then on to a top-secret location that's my prescription for you folks!
Xoxo,
Dr. DreHarner.com

We had a wonderful night in LA with the Sekoff family. We watched Zach perform at the Roxy as part of the original School of Rock then we were treated to some of the freshest, most delicious sushi I have ever eaten at the serenely minimal restaurant Nishimura. I highly recommend this place and hanging out with my new BFFs the Sekoffs!

Purpose of trip is to check out Scientology's Celebrity Centre. JK JK!!

We're going to Tom Cruise's.

Back to NYC on Sunday.
Toodles!

First stop Oxford, then London and finally Cambridge. Be back in a week.

Cheerio!

If it's not obvious, click play!

* Upstate NY Columbus Day '07 Weekend

Getting away from the city for a day and a night was just what the (nervous) doctor ordered! The Overlook Mountain Trail hike in the Catskills was radical. Highly recommended!

Reaching that view from the top after a 2.5 mile strictly uphill hike was sublime. Jonah was able to take cool pictures from the tower after I left him with the camera on the second flight of the tower since I was about to have a nervous breakdown (don't like shaky towers and heights). The burned down Overlook Mountain Hotel was pretty cool too. Hiking down was not as great since it was the flip side of the steep hike up but all in all the 5 mile round trip hike culminating in the breathtaking view was fantastic. Unfortunately the trail head was near a full-on hippie revival with tie-dye tapestries, a band, Investigate 911 booths and spinning hippies plus a Tibetan Monastery with white dudes in monk attire chanting like there was no tomorrow...oh well, it was the Woodstock part of the Catskills afterall!

After the hike we stopped by high school classmate and Mary's BFF Dawn Breeze's new studio opening! Then we had to call it an early night because we had to return the damn zipcar by 11:30 am required us waking up earlier than we do on weekdays! Ew. But at least we got to stay at Mary's awesome new house in Hudson!

* 15 minutes Cessna flight from Nantucket to Martha's Vineyard.

* Susan's sweet Hrairoo.

* John's parents' gorgeous garden!

Welcome to the first in the series of Remote Blogging! In this case, my parents took a trip to Xinjiang for my Mom's 60th birthday and have sent in photos and a description via email. The area looks breathtaking - hope to visit it one day!

Dear Andrea,

For your info, we stayed in Urumuchi, the capital, and made day trips to Shiheze and Turfan. The capital and Turfan were key stops along the silk road from China to the Middle East and Europe. The native population are Uighurs, Moslems since about the Yuan Dynasty, but Buddhist before that. I think I saw something to the effect that Urumuchi is the place on the planet most distant from any ocean. The city is at the northern foot of the Tianshan mountain range (in which sits the lake). There is enough rainfall on the northern side of the range to support agriculture, crops like corn, cotton, and fruit. It's very much like California's Central Valley. Turfan is known for its grapes and raisins. But the high mountain range, with the Tianshan peak towering about 3000 meters above sea level, prevents precipitation to the south. There the landscape is "gobi," the local term for rocky desert, for hundreds of miles.

Love,
Daddy

Waiting in Martha's Vineyard airport for our delayed flight to LaGuardia after taking a tiny Cessna from Nantucket - the turbulence made me cry I squeezed Jonah's hand and thigh simultaneously but that's a whole other fun story! Upon landing here I said to Jonah that the only good thing about the flight was that our pilot was a woman because I feel more comfortable with female pilots. And Jonah said, "Are you talking about a pilot or a gynecologist?"

:-)
:-)
:-)

And I responded, "Both!"

Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend and had enough travel fortune and financial means to take only nonstop flights!!

Upon further investigation the front door doorknob had a sign hanging on it - something about the house being open for the exterminators - might have been why the place was not locked! Lily and Sandy shopped for less flea-laden shoes and a shirt and we ran for the ferry. Unfortunately a mother flea made its way to the big city via Lily - we didn't have the heart to kill it so Lily's working on a flea circus.

I'll be trying out Air Canada today (I'll be sure to let you know if anything exciting happens) and stepping foot in Toronto for the first time. Oops - my mom just told me I've been to Toronto - I was four, we went to Niagara Falls, I wore a checkered dress and my brother who was one at the time wore a striped shirt.

!!!

Laterz!

It feels great to be back home in Tokyo. Woke up this morning with that deeply content and peaceful feeling to be back where you come from!

Not sure how this happened but...I am white.

My brother is brown. My mother is yellow.

If he's titillated you, you can read more about him here.