List 15

Love: Gattaca, my current treadmill movie. It's been years since I've watched it and I'd forgotten how great it is. I especially love the way its production and costume designs mix the future with the past, like the vintage cars that sound like landspeeders.

Like: A thrown-together pasta dinner, which is becoming Erich's Sunday specialty. This one included fresh egg noodles from The Pasta Shop, sauteed Italian sausage, peppers, arugula and parmesan.

Discovery: The weekend found us scoring new versions of old standbys. (1) Like most kids, Stella loves Crocs and wants to wear them everyday. We, on the other hand, keep pushing Cons. On Sunday we stumbled upon an alternative we all can get behind at Berkeley's Convert: Native Shoes. They're like the offspring of a one night stand between a pair of Cons and a pair of Crocs. (2) A grey knitted pouf stool/cushion thing-y from CB2, an update of the bean bag.

Obsession: TV. Good TV. Watching it, talking about it, reading about it (on sites like televisionwithoutpity.com). A while back an article in The Atlantic Monthly described today's great television dramas as "mega movies." Well filmed, well acted, and with the luxury of time to deeply develop characters and story arcs. There are many shows we love (all the usual suspects - The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Big Love, Lost, BSG, Friday Night Lights), and they disproportionately air on Sunday nights. Right now this means the weekend ends with Mad Men, True Blood and Rubicon.

Complaint: Ikea on a Saturday is a disaster. But I do like their new STUVA storage system. We got the pink (natch) armoire for Stella's closet.

List 14

Love: Joelle Jolivet's Zoology and Maira Kalman's What Pete Ate. Books for kids that even adults without kids would appreciate. (The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco has an exhibit of Kalman's work going on now too.)

Like: Ok, so it's John Derian and thus not really for kids, but these trays with children's hands making shadow puppets are pretty darn cool.

(Re)Discovery: I forgot how yummy chocolate fondue was until Stella begged us to make it one night. What's not to love about warm, melted chocolate with fruit and cake for dipping? Williams Sonoma sells a tin of fondue-ready chocolate bits to make it easy.

Obsession: Some of my favorite films of recent years - and ones that I can watch over and over again - were rated G. Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro is magical. The first 45 minutes of WALL-E are pure poetry. And I tend to agree with A.O. Scott who called Ratatouille "one of the most persuasive portraits of an artist ever committed to film."

Complaint: The Disney Princess racket.

List 13

Love: The Portland and Seattle restaurant scenes. Really good food and lots of places with the industrial-yet-warm, sophisticated-but-informal design that I always like (and that so few San Francisco places nail, in my opinion.) Worth checking out: Seattle gastropub Quinn's, and Portland's Clyde Commons, Olympic Provisions, and the modern locavore steakhouse/butcher shop Laurelhurst Market.

Like: Public places where kids (and adults) can cool off on hot summer days: the wading pools in a number of Seattle parks, and the waterfall wall at Jamison Square in Portland.

Discovery: Salmon is the Northwest's fish. And star chef Grant Achatz's recipe for perfect pan-seared salmon (from GQ, of course - see List 13) will never let you down: Heat 2 T olive oil in a saute pan over high heat. Season 2 1.5" thick skinless salmon filets liberally with kosher salt. When the oil begins to smoke, add the fish and shake gently for second so they won't stick. Cook for 6 minutes without moving the fish, turning the heat down to Medium after the first 4 minutes. Flip and cook 2 more minutes on the second side. I like to put a spoonful of pesto on top.

Obsession: With apologies to Sub Pop, Twin Peaks will always be the Pacific Northwest's greatest contribution to popular culture. Watch it again (or for the first time if you missed it) - it casts its spell within 5 minutes and completely holds up after all these years.

Complaint: Why don't we have a Powell's Books in San Francisco? It's the best bookstore ever (so big you need a map), and the Bay Area deserves one too. I always try to give Powell's my online book buying business, because if the lights were ever to go out in "The City of Books," it would be a tragedy of epic proportions.

List 12

Love: While I have a girlie side, I am often drawn to guy stuff. Like the vintage-Pendleton-blankets-and-dead-animals hunting lodge vibe of Freemans Restaurant in New York. And the great Peckinpah movie Straw Dogs (which, by the way, is currently being remade with James Marsden taking over the Dustin Hoffman role. Ugh.) And the Timex vintage field army watch from J Crew.

Like: My Uncle Chris' super simple but always good grilled tri-tip recipe. Make a rub using 1.5 T McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning and .75 T smoked paprika. (It has to be smoked - not just any paprika will do). Rub the roast with olive oil then apply the spice mixture. Let it sit in the fridge for about 6 hours. Then grill over indirect heat for 16 minutes (flipping at 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 3 minutes and 3 minutes - this is bbq science, my friends), then tent it for 10 minutes. Slice and serve. Perfect every time.

Discovery: Cask, the liquor store from the Bourbon & Branch people. It makes you want to drink brown liquor. (Or at least buy some sexy new bottles to display on your bar.)

Obsession: World War II. HBO's Band of Brothers and The Pacific and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line bring to life what the men who fought experienced. And Ken Burns' amazing documentary The War looks at it through the lens of four American towns - their boys who fought but also the home front and all that was wonderful (the way everyone sacrificed and rallied together)and shameful(the internment of Japanese Americans) about it.

Complaint: Women's magazines. I can not read them. They suck. Instead I read GQ and Esquire. They have really good articles on politics, pop culture, technology, even food and wine, and good writers like Chuck Klosterman.

List 11

Love: Futura - and how Wes Anderson uses it everywhere as a signature design element.

Like: Eric Anderson's illustrations, both the work he does inside his brother's films and the work he does for the Critereon DVD versions. Plus, who doesn't covet the luggage from Darjeeling Limited?

Discovery: Wes Anderson knows how to put together a soundtrack, but what I've loved most was the stuff I'd never heard anywhere else before - especially Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)" from Hotel Chevalier and Seu Jorge's Bowie covers in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."

Obsession: Wes Anderson's aesthetic (surprise). Particularly his intense focus on a thousand little details and his love of things vintage, analog and handmade. From the kids' rooms in "the house on Archer Avenue" to the train cars in The Darjeeling Limited to Badger's office in "Fantastic Mr. Fox," it all feels a bit like a crafted diorama writ large.

Complaint: A painting of Margot and Richie Tenenbaum that we bought off Etsy, still rolled in a cardboard tube, accidentally went out with the recycling.