Sierra Summit Ski Trip - New Year 2011

Getting ready for the holidays.

Thanksgiving at Tisha & Conor's house

Happy Halloween!

Buon Giorno

Xia and I are the host family of two italian students in the ECI foreign exchange group. Catherine (far left) & Tatiana (far right) love; the Beach, Shopping and Boys. In that order I think.

Dancin' fools

On top of our Summer List is "get in shape". Here is a picture of Miguelina, Liana & Xia after their dance class(es) yesterday. Below is one of their absolutely favorite teachers, Leslie. Today we're going back to the studio for more action - including Zumba for the mom's.

Video of Bryan

This is a video featuring our friend Bryan Alvarez. Although the clip is two years old it gives you a good idea about the work that Bryan is doing. He has now moved into studying plasticity of the brain as it relates to synesthesia. Xia and Bryan share many fascinating e-mail conversations - in that Xia has "full spectrum" connections that are quite vivid.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of meeting Bryan and his sweetheart Michelle - also a synesthete and budding film maker. Xia connected with the Cognitive Neuro-psychology Laboratory at U.C. Berkeley via Lynn Robertson, who I sent an inquiry to about a year ago. Really nice people.

Thanks to Bryan's insights and lively creative approach, Xia is very much enjoying the journey of research & understanding the miracle of the mind.