the earthquake of 2007

after two years of hanging nicely on our workroom wall, yesterday our ikea (not so) effektiv cabinets decided they weren't going to take it any more.

before, when our storage system liked us and cooperated nicely:



and then yesterday morning, after ann heard a crash! a boom! and went downstairs to discover this:



that's about two years of craft detritus spilling out from the fallen cabinet and onto our floor.

let's just see that one more time:

cancer/leo birthday karaoke bash

on saturday night, we celebrated both belated and premature birthdays. mine having passed last saturday and edwin and wilhelm's coming next saturday - we thought we'd just split the difference and ring them in all together. turns out that many folks in attendance were summer babies... happy birthday simone, scott, brian, and leigh!



having offered our place up for a the party locale, dabney and i should have known that it probably wasn't the best of ideas. every event we've ever played host to seems to be cursed by bad weather. a partial list of examples: torrential rain has obliterated not one, but two pride parties; two years ago a freak snowfall decided to disrupt our halloween party; and our wedding -- heralded by hurricane isabelle which decided to blow through new england that very weekend.

so of course, as beautiful as the weather has been the last few weeks, saturday, by our association alone, had to be cursed with showers. inevitably, those showers eventually became monsoon-like by 4 pm. the rain came down so hard at one point, our hopes of a backyard beer garden were quickly dashed when our trusty mogo tent could no longer bear the brunt of the water filling its white canopy. within minutes, we heard a loud BANG.

here are the snarled and bent remains. R.I.P. dear tent.

will and i were forced to deal with the wreckage.



luckily, while the weather literally dampened the environment, nothing could stop our revelers.

stalkers

uh-oh... someone's on to us. today's nytimes features an article on house stalking.

dabney and i - we're guilty. we've made no secret of our propensity for south end open houses - wandering around as if we're going to buy the place. heck, while just walking about the neighborhood, we'll peer into any apartments with the left lights on. (we, too, live in a street level apartment and have gotten used to its aquarium-like environment.)

the object(s) of our affection changes with the season though. once upon a time, it was the stately private homes of beacon hill with their views of the public garden that mesmerized us. for a while, it was the elegant mansions in lincoln with their grand lawns and four-car garages that tickled us with their magnificence. lately, we've been driving the streets of dorchester (not the neighborhood you think it is) and admiring its many 3500+ square feet victorians and muttering to each other, "what would we do with all that space?" hello, home studio!

i admit i just wasted the last half-hour on the real estalker looking at homes of the stars. now, i have a deep admiration for couples like courtney & david and portia & ellen who seem to have made a very nice side career of buying and flipping homes. perhaps the mere possession of these homes for a short time would be enough to satiate my obsession. oh, to have multi-millions...

art beat update... finally

to ease the pain of having to work on my birthday, mother nature shone down upon us on saturday at art beat. honestly, it was hard to believe that it was mid-july. instead, it felt like a spring day with 70 degree temperatures and no humidity. i'll ignore the fact that it was really the most perfect day for golfing.

the best thing was that the stellar weather brought out stellar crowds. not until late in the afternoon was there even a break in the constant stream of people in and out of the tent. we were incredibly impressed with the amount of somerville pride there is out there (not to mention, s'ville merchandise). the town put on a grand show with a kids parade led by a chickenwire dragon and many a colorful jester.





we'd like to thank everybody who came by and said hello.

maisy,the happy owlet


the shoppers on stilts (a mogo first)


this adorable youngster sporting her mogo big kid t-shirt


and finally, our neighbor, charlie whose constant presence and curmudgeonly expressions reminded us of you-know-who

for diane.

because you should never cross a mother of three children.

art beat this saturday

hey you, somervillagers! (perhaps that's somervillians?!) mogo hits the streets of davis square saturday for this year's art beat festival. this year, over ninety vendors will make their day-long home along holland and elm streets. come by and wish me a happy birthday. (yes, dabney is making me work on my birthday). click the image above for more details.

subhkamna!

friends brinda and jon tied the knot in cambridge over the weekend.



it was our first indian wedding, and we were very excited about the prospect. the idea of the food alone whipped us into a frenzy full weeks before the actual event.

the groom came in on a white horse, accompanied by a drummer and dancing guests. any time you have dancing BEFORE a ceremony, you know it's going to be a good time.





we got the chance to wear saris and henna our hands. we bought fabric in little india in singapore and couldn't wait to bring them out. first though, we had to find somebody to help us tie them. our own attempts left us feeling overwhelmed by fabric and rather bulbous.

enter brinda's aunt, who is a sari pleating phenom. she wrapped us into shape in about ten minutes in the bathroom of the hotel.



check out this sari-inspired dress, worn by our weekend houseguest lucy, and made by her sister sarah.



the ceremony itself was beautiful, parts of which were a total mystery to us, and thankfully explained in our programs.



ann is a big softy when it comes to weddings, so as usual, she was a teary-eyed mess by the end. she pulled it together in time for more dancing though.

who'd a thunk it?

mogo makes the pages of elle.com and finds itself beside the likes of prada, anna sui, and marc jacobs.

click the photo below and then "click to see more."

cubes for your cube

here's mogo's latest offering. we simply call them "puzzle blocks," but they are much more than that. they're a portable work of art that can be changed according to your mood - four different designs, in fact (see below). wouldn't it look superb in your cubicle, by your bed, in the bath?

get your own here.

speaking of vermont...

not only do we lovermont, readers of usatoday and simpsons fans do, too. see video below for more details.

vermont holiday

last week, we trekked north for our annual fourth of july get-together. i look forward to this weekend all year long. in fact, i have to admit - i've been packed for weeks.



it's a convening of left and right coasters from the seattle, charlotte and boston areas for five days over doing it (that is, too much food, a few too many drinks, and for some, not enough sleep).





with sporadic showers all weekend, we built campfires every time the weather would allow. remarkably, this was the first time in three years that we've had to deal with rain, so when the weather did clear up we savored the moments.





but if there is any group that can deal with rain it was ours. in fact, perhaps our love of games was the number one thing in which we all overindulged. as a result, there was a marathon battle of risk, many hands of poker, countless rounds of dominos, and plenty of euchre - sometimes simultaneously.







we did manage to squeeze in some outdoor activities in the form of golf, tennis, alpine sliding, and hiking.





see you next year, guys!

can you see me now?

recently, we've dusted off the built-in camera on our mac and discovered the joys of ichat.


chatting with our boyfriends, wilhelm and nebraska




that's my dad, who is new to the mac world. he was so enthralled by his new capability that he had to call my mom via cell phone to explain.

superette will be on hiatus until monday. ok, make that tuesday. happy fourth of july!

you can't win if you don't play

a friend of mine always says that one must look at the purchase of lottery tickets as pure entertainment; for ten minutes, you get to fantasize about what you'd do if your numbers hit.

my mom's always says "you can't win, if you don't play," which sounds much cuter and funnier in her filipino accent.

so play, we did.



after reading this article on boston.com, we couldn't stop talking about what we'd do if we: a) won the $20 million grand prize; b) won one of the ten $1 million dollar top prizes; or c) won one of the other forty $250,000 awards. our "new-found wealth" visions included parties, beach houses, vacations, cars, and oh yeah, retirement.

the drawing is on the fourth of july. so please, send out your positive vibes and cross your fingers for us.