Entries Tagged as 'Celebrity Sightings'

Arianna Huffington Event

June 20th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Arianna Huffington

The bad news today was that our 6pm flight that was scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 12:01 am is now delayed and I just got an email update that said our flight would be arriving at about 3-something am. The good news was that I was able to see Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post) speak when I would have missed it to get to the airport. The speakers here at the Mountain View office are amazing. Ben Cohen yesterday and Michael Bloomberg the day before.. but this was the first one I was able to attend. Then again, Vint Cerf was a speaker when I was in the New York office…. but he’s a Google employee now, so that may not even count.

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Dining Alfresco at La Bottega

June 10th, 2007 · 1 Comment

La Bottega
La Bottega, Chelsea, Manhattan

Ravioli @ La Bottega
Funghi Ravioli – Mushrooms, Parmesan, Truffle Oil :: La Bottega, Chelsea, Manhattan

Lychee Martini @ La Bottega
Lychee Martini :: La Bottega, Chelsea, Manhattan

Jeff @ La Bottega
Jeff Eating Pizza NY Style :: La Bottega, Chelsea, Manhattan

Joe & Arun @ La Botegga
Joe & Arun :: La Bottega, Chelsea, Manhattan

Rachelle @ La Bottega
Rachelle :: La Bottega, Chelsea, Manhattan

La Bottega
View From My Room :: La Bottega, Chelsea, Manhattan

It turns out that The Maritime Hotel‘s bar and restaurant, La Bottega, is quite a happening spot. Girls come through here dressed like they’re going clubbing and there have been some celebrity sightings too. We didn’t see any on Friday night when all of these photos were taken, but last night I met up with John and his friend Emily for a drink at the hotel bar and they bumped into Isaiah Washington, that guy who made the ruckus on Grey’s Anatomy when he made homophobic remarks to his gay co-actor. Then while we were getting drinks she spotted Josh Pais, who played “The Modelizer” on a Sex & the City episode, and Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live.

Anyway, these photos were taken on Friday night after we got back from the airport and settled into our hotel. La Bottega has a great big huge patio area with umbrella’d tables that makes it really nice to eat and drink outdoors, so that’s exactly what we did.

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Shopping on the South Shore of Kaua’i

March 18th, 2007 · No Comments

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Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Island Soap & Candle Works, Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Island Soap & Candle Works, Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Lappert’s Kaua’i Pie, Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Progressive Expressions Surf Shop, Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Allison, Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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Big Save Supermarket, Old Koloa Town, Kaua’i

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John and Dallas got up really early to pick up Dallas’ brother Jordan and his friend Koa from the Lihue airport. Jordan had flown in from Seattle the day before and stayed with Koa, who lives in Honolulu, for a night. From the airport they were going right to the Puakea Golf Course for their morning tee time. One problem. Well, actually, two. Jordan and Koa were out partying too late and 1) Jordan lost his phone and 2) they missed their flight. Whoops. John and Dallas ended up canceling their tee time and rescheduling at the Mokihana course at Kaua’i Lagoons and then getting saimin at Hamura’s Saimin Stand to kill some time. Which, is not a bad deal, since Hamura’s Saimin Stand is a Kaua’i institution and was even honored by the James Beard Foundation.

Allison, Susan and I decided to have a day of shopping in Poipu and Koloa town. The Poipu Shopping Village is where we were the night before to go to Poipu Tropical Burgers, but we didn’t shop around at all. The shopping center is a good mix of stores. From Crazy Shirts souvenir tshirts to surf shops to high-end jewelers and art dealers.

Here’s a story – So, two nights before this Caroline, Tammy and Carrie came busting into the condo after having .. er.. a few cocktails and told us that they had just been hanging out with someone who had either hung out with or met Carlos Santana and Ben Stiller together. Now, these girls were da-runk and we thought “Why would Carlos Santana and Ben Stiller every hang out together? And does Santana really hang in Kaua’i?” But at the Poipu Shopping Village we spotted Carlos Santana. And later on we learned that Ben Stiller owns a house on Kaua’i. Moral of the story: Sometimes drunk girls do know what they’re talking about.

After shopping in Poipu, we headed over to Koloa Town. The shopping here is small and quaint and really is just a small strip of stores that I have an affinity for. A candle and soap shop, a surf shop, but most important of all, Lappert’s ice cream. I love it. The Kaua’i Pie flavor is the best. A perfect mix of Kona coffee ice cream, chocolate fudge, toasted coconut, and macadamia nuts. I had it 3 times: In Koloa Town, in Princeville, and at the original store (where they make all the ice cream) in Hanapepe. Actually, I had Lappert’s 4 times, if you count the mac nut ice cream that was in the shave ice I got in Waimea. Lappert’s all over Kaua’i. That should have been my vacation motto or something.

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Franco Harris at Sunflower Market

August 29th, 2006 · 10 Comments

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James, Franco, Rachelle :: Sunflower Market, Lincoln Park, Chicago

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James, Franco :: Sunflower Market, Lincoln Park, Chicago

So, I bumped into James in the Dairy Section and he said “Hey, Franco Harris is in Supplements!” Sounds like the start of a joke or something, right? Except it’s true!

Sunflower Market is a new organic store that is opening in Chicago tomorrow. Chicagoist got to go tonight to check it out. There were lots of free food samples and wine and beer. We were browsing around everything when James said “Hey, do you like football?” I said “yeh!” I thought he was going to talk about the upcoming season, but he said “Franco Harris is here. Do you know who he is?” I definitely recognized his name so I said, ” Yeh, did he play for the Packers?” because most of the time if I know who someone is it’s because they played for Green Bay. I remember James crinkled his face like “Are you high?” So James showed me where he was – in the supplements section.

I immediately recognized him and said “Oh! that’s that guy whose famous play is always in the top 10 plays of all time!” So we made our way over and introduced ourselves. I told Franco I liked his famous play, the Immaculate Reception. James told Franco that he was born in Pittsburgh the year that Franco played for the Steelers and went to the SuperBowl. He also told him that even though his family moved around while he was growing up, that he always remained a Steelers fan. So, of course, Franco was loving that. Me, I said, “I grew up in Wisconsin, ’nuff said” and Franco made some comment about Packer Backer or Cheesehead or something. I can’t remember now.

We took the top fanboy/girl photo and then James was shaking his hand to say “Nice to meet you” and telling Franco how excited his dad will be that they met, when the nice lady who took the first photo was like “Let me take a photo of you guys shaking hands!” But then she couldn’t figure out how to turn my camera back on and everything, so James and Franco just stood there holding hands for like 2 mintues. Of course, James is never washing that hand again!

Finally, we had to find out why Franco Harris was at the opening of an organic supermarket in Chicago, right? Apparently, now he’s into organic breads and some of the breads his company, Super Bakery, makes are sold at Sunflower Market.

See also:
» Chicagoist post on Sunflower Market
» Chicagoist’s photos of Sunflower Market

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BlogHer Review

August 1st, 2006 · 3 Comments

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Rachelle Bowden, Heather Armstrong, Arieanna Foley :: BlogHer, San Jose

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Our session crowd was so big people were standing and sitting on the floor bc there weren’t enough chairs :: BlogHer, San Jose

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BlogHer, San Jose

Back from BlogHer in San Jose and just trying to wake up! My flight didn’t get in on Sunday night until about 12:30 am on Monday. I was so tired yesterday!

I think that the conference went well. I got in late on Friday night and on Saturday ran around in circles trying to figure out where to get my registration badge. Another attendee told me to go out by the pool, where almost everything was happening, then the front desk said to go back by the pavilion, then the guy in the pavilion said to go back up by the pool. Talk about frustrating. At one point I just ran into Traci, my coworker from FeedBurner, and then luckily I saw Mena, Krissy and Kimberly from Six Apart and they were in the same situation, running around trying to find their badges. Somehow Krissy got all of our badges.

rachelle_heather.jpgOk. That’s done. Next we went to a panel that had some really good discussion about identity and obligations and how much you need to represent yourself online, whether it be your race, gender, religious beliefs, sexuality, or just your personality. How much do you reveal? Then was lunch and then my panel, “From Here to Autonomy.” For all of you who have asked already, Heather Armstrong is the same in person as she is online. For some reason I thought she’d be quieter and less outspoken, but not so much. Funny, no beating around the bush and painfully honest. I wasn’t really like “starstruck” by her, but I found it odd to be sitting next to a person whose site I’d read for many years and whose photo I’d seen online for many years. And we only got to speak for a few seconds and it was in front of like 200 people. “How are we gonna do this?” “So, when’s the sunscreen endorsement coming through?” (joking!) And then we had to start the panel. I think the session went well. I intro’d Heather and Arieanna (who writes for 17 blogs including blogs on topics she hates, like Lindsay Lohan), they spoke a little about each of their situations, and then it was about an hour of Q&A. Like every panel I’ve been on, I started out nervous and talking too fast, but ended up calm and able to even answer some questions from my experiences with rachelleb.com and Chicagoist. I just need to do it more to get over that, I think.

After the panel, Heather had a huge line of people who just wanted to shake her hand or say how her writing has inspired them or how her experiences have let them know it’s ok to not be perfect. Lots of people wanted to get their photo with her. It was pretty cool. I can imagine this happens to her at every blog-related conference she attends now.

When I we all finally got out of there, I met up with Traci who was sitting out in the sun chatting it up with other attendees. We mingled for a while then caught the CalTrain to San Francisco, where we spent the rest of the weekend. More on that later!

Photos of us on the panel: 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4

Also, just noticed that BlogHer just announced that next year they’re having 2 conferences, one in Chicago and one in NYC.

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