Have you tried the corn?

Skittles and M&Ms

2009-12-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

Skittles and M&Ms have been my mid-morning and afternoon snacks for the past two days. And my lunch today. I actually had a pretty good lunch at first - this crab and shrimp louie salad from Trader Joe's - but my upper right molar is KILLING me - and eating the salad felt impossible. Something happened to the tooth - not sure what. I crunched pretty hard on a tortilla chip over the weekend, which resulted in a really intense pain, and now I pretty much can't have any contact of any kind with that bad tooth. It's hard even to talk - you'd be amazed at how many words force your top teeth and bottom teeth to touch. Salad is particularly difficult to eat because it's so...thin. Like when I'm chewing salad, there's very little padding between my upper teeth and bottom teeth. However, Skittles and M&Ms are much thicker and chewier, which make chewing much less painful. It's ironic, because a diet of Skittles and M&Ms probably causes more tooth pain in general than prevent.

I came home and thought Pig had blood all over her right front paw. It looked like blood - all caught between her toes and under her nails. I spent a lot of time petting and consoling and examining - I couldn't figure out where the cut was. Max came home and told me that she took a tumble during their walk today - I immediately assumed that's how she got her bloody foot. She must have cut herself! And then he said it wasn't her blood - and I immediately assumed that she stepped in a pool of someone else's blood! And then I immediately assumed we both got contaminated with the HIV! Turns out, she stepped in some rotten fruit - what kind, I don't know - maybe a pomegranate? Well I guess she was trying to eat it, and then tripped over it or something, and ended up with a stained red paw. Poor Pig. But at least she's ok.

Back to Blogging...

2009-12-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I set up a website for our wedding. It's pretty cool and has these neat tools like "Request Reception Music" where people can enter songs they want to dance to at our wedding. I kind of doubt anyone will use it but I think it's fun anyway. I also added a wedding blog. I figured it'd be nice to keep track of the wedding planning experience and the run up to The Big Day (just 278 days to go!) It was real nice to just - I don't know - write about stuff that was on my mind. Of course, I have to keep it more wedding specific, which then made me miss this particular long abandoned blog where I really was free to talk about anything. Or more like nothing. So, maybe I'll start writing here again too.

In setting up the website, I had to look for a lot of pics of Max and me. Now, the two of us have been together an almost retarded amount of time. Nine years in February. Looking over the pics, a few observations can be made:

1.) I look better with long hair.
2.) I look better when I'm about 10 lbs thinner.
3.) Neither of us look good making the stupid open-mouth "Max" face.

Unfortunately, neither #1 nor #2 can really be fixed immediately. But, #3 can. Right now, I am NOT making the stupid open-mouth "Max" face.

I Really, Really, Really Like It

2009-01-06T22:16:00.001-08:00

My mom has a pair of [ractically new, barely worn tap shoes of mine from when I "really really really wanted" to take tap dancing lessons in middle school with my friend Emily. I took a free initial class, came back and told her I "really really really liked" tap class, convinced her to pay $60 for a pair of shoes even though she pointed out the shoes and classes were expensive and was I really really sure I like the class? (oh yes, I really really really love tap class! was my reply). Two lessons later I came back and told her I "really, really, really didn't like the class" and could I please quit?

Anyway, I bring this up because I found a Cardio Tap class that I really (really, really) want to take. The classes aren't that expensive - about $70 together for 10 classes - but the hitch is that I need to buy tap shoes for the class.

I told my mom that if I ended up not like the class, I'd send her my new shoes so she can keep them along with the ones I got twenty years ago.

Normal Work Days Suck

2009-01-05T21:36:00.001-08:00

Today was my first normal full day of work in weeks. Even though I worked last week on New Year's Eve and the day after New Year's Day, we got out at 3 so I got quite accustomed to working less. Man, it draaaaaged today.

It's now officially illegal to text while driving so I was finally forced to get a blue tooth thing. It creeps me out - when I tested it out by calling Max, it sounded like he was in brain. I felt oddly violated. Wonder if that's what brain washing is like?

Went to the gym tonight to take a step class. I got there early so I ran a very slow and painful mile on the treadmill - man I'm out of shape! I have no idea how I was ever able to do a 10k...

Lisa and I are going to take a free hula hooping class on Saturday. I can't remember the last time I hula hooped, and I certainly could never hula hoop for more than a few seconds so Saturday's class should be um, interesting.

Pig is much better again today. She can get up and down the stairs with no problem. She's still a little wobbly and has a slight head tilt but I'm glad she's doing so well! Yay!

2009 Resolutions

2009-01-04T19:03:00.000-08:00

I've haven't really been thinking about my resolutions for this year since Pig's health condition has been first and foremost on my mind but now that I think she should make a full recovery, I figure I can take some time to give some thought to my resolutions for 2009.

First off because I've COMPLETELY forgotten about them I had to look up my resolutions for 2008 to see how I did last year. They were:

1) Get my wisdom teeth removed. My dentist has been bugging me about this for years and I'm finally going to take care of it this year.

2) Lose the muffin top! (don't laugh - I know I say this every year - or every week - but this is something I want to have happen)

3) Step out of my comfort zone and try new things. I am a total creature of habit and I want to challenge myself to do new things. Even little things like today - taking the bus - that's a great accomplishment for me. I know it sounds silly but I normally would never think of taking the bus. And I did it!

So. Hmm. I still have my wisdom teeth, so I didn't keep #1. Guess that goes on my list again this year.

I have a muffin top again, although I briefly lost it (or almost lost it) during early 2008 when I was working with a trainer a lot. Back on my list.

I can't say I've really stepped out of my comfort zone and tried new things...voluntarily. I mean, I've overcome a lot of different challenges and things I wasn't used to at work this year, but none of that was voluntary. I didn't try surfing, as Max did (although really, everyone who knows me advised against it and was thoroughly certain I wouldn't enjoy it). I haven't made any new friends, except ones from work, and that doesn't really count b/c we're not friends outside of the office. I haven't taken up any new hobbies or sports. I cut my hair really short, but then again, I've done that before, so that's hardly stepping out of my comfort zone. Hmph. Have been a bit of a loser in that sense this year. OH - well - I did do those 5K and 10ks! That was something different and new.

Okay, so I guess 2008 was yet another year of broken resolutions. Oh well.

So, for 2009, I resolve to:

1) Get my wisdom teeth removed. Especially now that I have a great dental plan.

2) Lose the muffin top! I just feel like this is a losing battle but if I stop the fight, I'll be 400 lbs and will wear sweats for the rest of my life. Seriously. Did I mention that over the holidays, when I couldn't decide between a coney dog and an Arby's roast beef sandwich for dinner that I just decided to have both? AND the curly fries that came with the Arby's roast beef sandwich combo, b/c a combo is such a better deal that just buying the sandwich alone? And that when I was having lunch at Olga's with Yana, who I haven't seen in ten years, I felt it necessary to order an orange creme cooler, a large UNLIMITED REFILLS olga's salad with Olga's pita snackers, AND an olga's chicken fajita???

3) Step out of my comfort zone and try new things. 2008 was a bit lonely for me with all my best gal pals leaving the state to follow their men. I like the regular guys I hang with, but I really need to make more female friends, so I think it'd be good to look into some book clubs, knitting clubs, or just generally anything where I might be able to meet some more wimmin' folk.

4.) Floss or use listerine daily. Yep, this one is back on the list. I am just soo soo bad about taking care of my teeth, and I've basically ignored my various dentists' pleas to please floss and now it's occurred to me that really - ignoring health advice for 20 years could be a bad idea.

5.) Save $$$$ - Recession = not blowing money on stupid things like that stupid Peticure thing I saw on TV that doesn't work but I've waited to long to return it so I'm out $60, excessive bar tabs, $20 lunch salads from the Whole Food Salad Bar (how on earth do I manage to make a 3 lb salad anyway?), and clothes that will fit when I lose 10 lbs and grow two inches in the chest and 3 in the ass.

5.) Be a better person aka the Miscelleneous Category. For me, and I think for everyone, you have a good sense of where you need self improvement - whether it's something as small as learning to be more patient, more on time (god I'm bad at that), and remember birthdays... there are all these little things that I just wish I were better at, so I'm just going to clump them in this Miscellaneous Category and resolve to just be more aware of things I could do better...it's sort of cheating but they're my resolutions so I can do what I want. :)

So, that's that. I think I'm going to try to post monthly on my progress so I can see whether I'm sticking to them!!

Weekend Recap

2009-01-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

First one of the year...

Pig is much better today. Her eyes have calmed down and she isn't really falling over unless she's trying to poop, which is understandable - that requires more balance! She's still not eating her regular dog food for breakfast. Maybe she is more nauseous in the morning? However, she did leap up when the automatic feeder went off for dinner, so I think she is well on her way to a full recovery. She still has a slight head tilt, which makes her look adorably quizzical. We're just so thankful it did turn out to be old dog vestibular syndrome, and not something worse.

I really didn't do much this weekend except stay home with Pig. Since I was home I decided to tidy up the apartment so I've basically reorganized every closet and drawer in the apartment. I can't believe how messy we've gotten over the years! And how much garbage we threw out! I still have one last closet to do, but I got tired of being so tidy so I figure that one can wait until next weekend. Max and I have an ongoing competition on who can lose the greatest body fat percentage each week (loser has to do all the chores - cleaning bathroom, cleaning kitchen, laundry, garbage and more). I've actually lost every single week since we started this back in December EXCEPT for this past week. We both gained weight over the holidays, but he gained more so he has to clean - whoo hoo!!!

Apart from tidying the apartment, I really haven't done much this weekend. I finished the third book in the Twilight series. I seriously am not a huge fan of the series, but somehow I feel compelled to just finish it. I totally find all the characters annoying and just so...stupid and naive. I guess there really isn't an inner 13 year old girl in me anymore. Just on the outside - for the love of god, how is it possible to get wrinkles AND zits??? I am friggin' 30 - shouldn't this acne phase have passed by now???

What else? I did do a little exercising. Our annual girls Vegas trip is only about a month away and there's no way I can cram myself into a little Forever 21 halter top at this moment so I'm going to have be very very good for the next 30 days or so. Yesterday I did a work out with these resistance bands my brother got me for Xmas. Most of it went well, except I messed up this one leg workout and ended up shooting myself in the ass with a large rubberband. Ouch. Today I went "hiking" at Runyon Canyon. I use "hiking" in quotation marks because it's not really hiking - I mean there is a hill, but it's not like you have to carry backpack and a can of beans to go. It was packed today, but no celebrities. I've seen Drew Barrymore, Jack Gyllenhaal, and Sarah Jessica Parker (or a really really skinny blond stripper) there before.

So now it's Sunday night. I'm watching the 21 Sinful Spots in Vegas on Travel Channel right now...sad to say I haven't been to any!!

Latest Pig News

2009-01-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I think Pig is definitely (hopefully) on her way to a full recovery. This morning, she was able to make it down some stairs and her head tilt seemed a little less pronounced. Her eyes were better this morning, but seem to be flickering a bit more tonight, which is consistent with what we've noticed is in the past few days - she seems to do better in the morning and during the day. At least there's been some improvement. Walking her is still a slow and cautious process for all three of us (she gets escorted by both Max and me), but she can make it up the stairs fairly well now. So, I'm hoping this all means that it was just an ear infection and not a brain tumor thus causing her disorientation and symptoms.

Thanks again for the well wishes and kind thoughts!! Hopefully this is a short episode and I can go back to blogging about her poop, my endless attempts to reduce the muffin top, and other drivel.

Pig Update

2009-01-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Pig didn't seem much better this morning and absolutely did not want to be dragged and carried out at 6 a.m. (the dirty looks she gave us!), but she did finally drink water from her water bowl, which I took to be good sign. When I got home from work, she was able to walk to me without falling over, and seemed much more energetic so I'm hoping she is on her way to recovery. Up until this evening, she's only had an appetite for cookies and people food but tonight I was able to hand feed her some regular dog food and ultimately get her to follow a little trail of dog food bits to her bowl. And then she ate all her dog food from her bowl, so I think that's really good. I guess dogs that get this old dog syndrome refuse food and water initially because they're nauseous and may not have the motor skills to be able drink/eat out of bowl. So, I'm thinking it's good that she can now. I can't tell you how strange it was to see a dog bowl full of food for over 24 hours just sitting out on the kitchen floor. And to hold up dog food to her mouth but have her turn her head away. It was so weird. Her eyes are still flickering - the vet said that usually the first signs of improvement are with the eyes, so I'm hoping those settle down soon. Hopefully I'll have even better news to report tomorrow.

2009

2009-01-01T21:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's!

Max and I celebrated New Year's Eve like old people - since we were both still sick we just stayed in. We barely made it to midnight - hopefully that's not going to set the tone for 2009!

Actually, today has not been a great day, although maybe in the long run, it is good? Woke up and went to take Pig out and as we were getting ready, she suddenly started to shake, fell over to one side, and couldn't get back up. She kept tilting her head to one side, and when I tried to give her a cookie she couldn't find it - like she kept moving her mouth around my hand but not landing on it. It was really really stressful and very scary. I was convinced she had a stroke. Max and I had to carry her down to the car and we headed immediately to the nearest pet emergency room. I didn't even want to take the extra 20 mins to go to our regular vet - I figured if it was a stroke, time was of the essence. We had the hardest time getting her in there and it took everything to not start sobbing once the receptionist asked me what was wrong with her. Luckily, the emergency room vet said that he thought she had something called old dog vestibular syndrome. They don't know what causes it, but sometimes it can be caused by some inner ear inbalance, which causes the dog to not be able to stand up straight and be disoriented. The vet said her right ear is indeed inflamed, and she has all the rest of the symptoms, including loss of balance, this rapid eye movement where eyes keep her moving up, and the head tilt. I guess it can take 3-4 days for recovery. He prescribed antibiotics for the inner ear. I was feeling fine about it until our neighbor (the woman who pet sat for us this holiday season) saw her and said that she had a client who had the exact same symptoms, with the exact same diagnosis, but then it turned out to be cancer - a brain tumor. I'm trying to be optimistic, and really, there's no reason to believe her over the vet, but it's been really hard. Pig is definitely not feeling well - she doesn't seem to want water, and she keeps staggering around like a drunk. It's almost funny, if it weren't for the fact that I'm terrified it's cancer. I seriously don't know what I'll do if that's what is is. She's also just uncomfortable - I mean, I would be if I were her. I guess all the nerves and the signals to her brain get scrambled so she's dizzy and disoriented. The doc suggested giving her Benadryl, which helps calm the brain down, so that did help, but as soon as it wore off, the crazy googly eyes and staggering started again. She can't get down the stairs herself, so Max has to carry her when she has to go out. It's just incredibly painful to see her this way.

I started this post tho saying that maybe it is a good day aftter all tho - if it turns out to be what the vet thinks it is and not stroke or cancer, old dog vestibular syndrom has a strong chance for full recovery. Some owners have reported that their dogs seem to be much older (failing eyesight, reluctance to take longer walks) after getting it, but they don't know if the episode really causes the damage or if it's just natural aging. And, recurrences are very rare, so hopefully it won't happen again.

We are just going to stay positive and trust that the vet has diagnoses her properly. If she doesn't improve by Sunday, we're going to have to send her to a neurologist for an MRI. But hopefully it won't come to that.

Recap of Trip to MI - Part Two

2009-01-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

The rest of my trip back to MI proved to be as fun as the first half. On Christmas Eve, my mom, brother and I went down to MGM Grand and Greek Town - two casinos in Detroit. The MGM Grand is really nice actually and looks quite a bit like Vegas, except for the clientele, which did not look like the standard Vegas fare - middle aged tourists and spring breakers (or in the first week of February, a bunch of 30 some year old women dressed in Forever 21 outfits - I am so excited about our annual girls Feb trip to Vegas!!) but rather some depressed locals with a gambling problem. I mean, really, who goes to a casino on Xmas eve? Besides us, that is?

At night we had a great dinner - filet mignon, scallops, potatos, green beans, and more. I made this stuffing that Rebecca has made for our Thanksgiving meals in the past. It is really good, and not like normal stuffing, which is why my family loved it. They kept calling it "bread pudding" because it's made with challah bread and dried fruit. My brother did most of the cooking - turns out, the guy can cook! Afterwards, we played Texas Hold'em, and this other card game called Big 2, thus continuing the family tradition of celebrating the birth of baby jesus by gambling and taking money from each other.

On Christmas Day, my sister made this awesome french toast breakfast - really good stuff. I think everyone in my family can cook but me!! Then we opened presents (I got some really great ones) and then headed over to Dad's for more eating and celebrating, and yes, more gambling! Dad made an excellent "seafood soup" with scallops, giant shrimp, and fish. We had some other sides as well. More presents and Big 2 afterwards - all in all a really great time.

The day after Xmas, my dad, bro, sis and I headed down to the Detroit. It's so weird - I spent more time in Detroit this trip than I have in the last 20 years. First, we grabbed a quick lunch in Greek Town (not the casino, but the actual area). We stopped in a little Rachel Ray $40-a-Day endorsed restaurant. It was pretty empty but the food was good. Next we headed to the Detroit Institute of Art to catch this new exhibit - "Monet to Dali: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art." It was a really good exhibit and had some excellent works (not that I really know much about art, but it did seem like a good collection - hell, at least I recognized the names of the artists). I hadn't been down to the DIA in forever. Seriously. I think the last time was a school trip in 5th grade. At night, I went to Thode's annual Day After Xmas Bash at her parents place. It was awesome and everyone had a great time. It's so weird out to see friends who I normally hang out with in LA in a different setting. I got to catch up with Thode and Rebecca, who I don't get to see very often anymore. We had this super yummy hot crab dip, tons of hors d'oevres, and a honey baked ham as well. When we were full of food, we headed out to Nectos, this bar in Ann Arbor that I used to go to. Again, very weird to be back there. My college friends and I had many a fun night there playing "Ring Around the Tool" (long story) while we were in school.

Saturday we went to Windsor for dim sum and - guess what - more gambling! Again, I haven't been to Windsor since probably college. The food was pretty good, and the Caesars Casino there is great! I left up about $100, which was really good b/c at one point I was down by $60. Luckily I found a hot black jack table and was able to catch back up. My brother was up by practically $300 (or even more, I can't remember...)! Since we were "winners" we picked up the dinner tab at a place called Sangria in Royal Oak. It's a Spanish restaurant with great tapas and paella and of course, sangria.

On Sunday, I met up with Dad to catch a matinee. Having had a crush on Keanu since Speed, I wanted to see The Day the Earth Stood Still, but it was sold out, so we were stuck with Bedtime Stories. Definitely a kids movie, and I'm definitely glad the tickets were only $5 each. Afterwards, Dad and I picked up some Thai food and watched the rest of the NFL games. We're both in the same pool so we had a reason to watch, but sadly neither of us won (altho he won the week before, so that's good). Turns out, Max's Grandma Jeannie won - congrats!!

Sunday night was rough - I realized I'd caught the cold that Forrest had on Friday at the party (same cold that Max is still sick with), so I had to take Monday a little easy, even tho I had some cool plans. First, I met up with an old friend from high school. I hadn't seen her in 10 years!! It was great catching up and meeting her adorable two year old. After that I met up with Mrs.Elliotpreciouspants, who also had an adorable two year old in tow. I think the amazing thing about meeting up with old friends is that it's soo easy to just catch up and fall back in place. Like I can imagine that if I lived in MI, I'd see both of them regularly.

I left MI on Tuesday, after a fantastic 12 day trip. The flight back was okay, although I think that whole charging for luggage is just criminal. When I found out my second bag would cost $25 extra (on top of the $15 for the first one), I decided to just carry it on, which was really uncomfortable but whatever. $25!! That's insane.

This trip back was my first time back for Xmas in years and it reminded me that I need to go back more often. :)

Recap of Trip to MI - Part One

2008-12-23T05:15:00.000-08:00

For the love of all things holy, why the HELL IS IT SO COLD IN MICHIGAN??? Why is there so much snow??? Why won't my nose stop running??? Why must every question end with three question marks???

Anyway, I'm back in Michigan for the holidays. Did I mention it's F$&#ING COLD HERE???

Max and I came back on Thursday. Flight was pretty uneventful - I slept most of the way and managed not to actually drool all over the guy sitting next to me...just only on my own shoulder which is really quite okay. After getting picked up from the airport, Max and I went out to dinner with mom and the fam at Hong Hua, this really nice chinese restaurant. It's one of my favorite places to eat, and last time we went, Max and I had these awesome oysters on the shell steamed with black bean sauce, which we wanted to have again. Unfortunately, they only had one oyster in the whole restaurant. I thought that was actually quite strange, and was glad that Max spared him (her?) of his solitudey-ness and ate him.

After dinner, we went over to Dad's house and drank wine and hung out. He had participated in some crazy cookie exchange at the office so he had about 8 dozen cookies. We went through and tried all of them, like crazy fat kids let loose in an all-u-can-eat bakery (omg - what a genius idea...do those exist?). Luckily, and I do mean luckily, Dad's coworkers can't bake worth shit. Man, those were some lousy cookies. I actually had to spit one out because it was so gross - all powdery and salty, and raw-doughy. I'm shuddering right now just thinking about it.

Friday we were snowed in at Dad's place until around 4 in the afternoon, when the roads were finally clear enough to venture out to go xmas shopping. I can't remember much of what we did before shopping - I think it involved eating again. Ah yes, Dutch babies (not literally little dutch children, but those lovely pancake type of concoctions) and caramelized bananas, and then omelets with sausage. Shopping was fun, altho the drive to mall was pretty intense and scary. There was quite a bit of snow, and we were constantly afraid the car would get stuck in it. We took my Dad's car, and I can't drive stick, so had we gotten stuck, I would have been the one who'd have to push the car out of the snow, while Max drove. Needless to say, we definitely needed to avoid that scenario. But we made it to the mall just fine, got some shopping done, rented Step Brothers (hilarious), and made it home with two Hungry Howie's pizzas and an order of wings. All in all, an excellent day.

Saturday morning Angie, Max's sister, came and picked up to to take us to Grayling. There were seven of us altogether - me, Max, Forrest, Angie, Marco, and their two kids. We caravaned in two mini-vans/SUVs and managed to make it there in really good time, including a stop at Applebees. We didn't do much after but lounge around and relax. At night, Max threw a party which was super fun and surprisingly not destructive. I've been to enough of these little gatherings of Max's highschool friends to know that they can indeed get kind of crazy, but this one was okay. I turned in on the early side (2:30 or so) so I did miss out on 4 a.m. nature walk and a dog food fight but all in all I think it was actually tame. The only thing that got broken was the back of a chair which Max tried to unsuccessfully fix by using Easy Cheese as glue...

Sunday afternoon we went to visit the Grandmas, which was really fun and nice. I heard from both that I should blog again, which is why I decided to sit down and recap the past few days! For dinner we had this super nice pot roast, and after dinner, Angie, Max's mom, and I went back down state. I went back to Mom's place and have been there since.

Yesterday, I woke up and had krispy kreme donuts and leftover birthday cake for breakfast. This is a very normal breakfast to have at Mom's. When I was growing up, Mom would say things like, "Don't forget, there's a chocolate birthday cake in the refrigerator for breakfast..." or "Have some of that apple pie for breakfast." It's amazing I didn't develop childhood diabetes. Anyway, we didn't do much until the afternoon (again, because of the snow - the damn snow!) when we headed out for some shopping. I picked up the last few presents I needed to get, and then we went to another Chinese restaurant for dinner. It was also quite good, not as good as Hong Hua, but I'll take it. I really miss eating Chinese food - Max and I don't eat a lot of really authentic Chinese food because we're not close to the good restaurants, and I can't cook, so when I go home, I like to load up on it.

So now it's Tuesday. We may be going to do a casino crawl through Detroit and Windsor, or we may end up just hanging out again. Not quite sure yet. Right now, I'm just wondering why my sister's Tivo keeps trying to record "Brooke Knows Best," this dreadful reality show on F-lister Brooke Hogan on Vh1. She insists that she's not trying to record the series, but it's a bit like Benjamin insisting that he hasn't read the Twilight series. I just don't believe them.

More later as it happens!

My First 10K

2008-10-04T13:38:00.001-07:00

I did it!!

This morning, I got up at 5 a.m., met up with my coworkers, and ran the Manhattan Beach 10K. It was a really great run - so much fun. I love how there are families that stand along the race and cheer everyone. I've never had so many "good jobs! keep going! you guys are doing great! you can do it!" in my life.

And, although I claimed to just hope to finish, I secretly did think there was a good chance I could do it in under 66 minutes (roughly an 11 min mile). And I did better than that - I did it 64 minutes, 10 secs. Whoo hoo!!

http://www.mb10k.com/Results/MBoverall.xls

My First 5K

2008-09-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=69782

Ran my first 5K last Sunday with Annie. I thought it would be really awful and that I'd be so so sooo slow, but I did it in under 31 minutes. Woot!!!

And I DID see Ewan McGregor! I thought it was him, but I wasn't sure. It WAS him!!

A.F. ("After Forrest")

2008-07-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

Ah, poor bloggie. I really have missed blogging and have so much inane drivel to talk about (e.g., "hmmm...would Pig like a memory foam mattress?"), yet so little time to actually post...

The latest and greatest news is that Max's little brother Forrest has moved out to LA. The floor above my office is owned by a video game company and filled with hundreds of lil unwashed 20 something boy video game testers. About six weeks ago, I overhead a few of them mention that they were on a hiring spree, ready to take in any one willing to ruin their eyesight playing video games for about 15 hours straight. And lo behold, Forrest was willing. So he packed up his bags, got on a plane, and moved onto our couch. And yeah, he got the job.

So now I have a carpooler! We drive together, since he doesn't have a car or a license (long story for another day). It's been pretty fun so far. Makes the drive go by much quicker. I think he is apprehensive of my my whole putting-on-make-up-while-driving routine but has kept mum about it. He does the dishes and walks Pig here and there. Most of them time, he just works or watches very boy-ish shows like "Attack of the Show" (some show on some video game network???).

I think he's really been enjoying himself. Here are some things he (we) have been up to.

Forrest's First Week/Weekend:

Max picked up Forrest from the airport on a Weds and went to Santa Monica for some sight seeing. They immediately picked up some jay walking tickets crossing the street at $125 a piece. Yikes. That night we went to the Rainbow Bar, which is this super 80's bar/restaurant filled with old aging rockers. I can't remember what we did Thursday - I think Forrest amused himself by going to see Hulk while Max and I were at work (he haddn't started yet) At night we walked up to Red Rock for a couple drinks. That Friday (?) I think we went over to Jason's house to hang out. It was pretty tame all and all, but nice nonetheless. On Sat, we went to see Get Smart (not so good)at the Grove, and had dinner at Marmalade Cafe (also not so good).

Forrest's Second Weekend

I think this was July 4th weekend where we went to Erin's July 4th/Birthday party. It was pretty awesome. Her friends threw the party and they had this great backyard area all lit up with tiki torches. Really fun night. I made off with a bag of Jessie's famous green beans (also another long story).

Forrest's Third Weekend

Hmm. Drawing a blank on what we did that Friday night, but I remember Sat night was Lisa's bday party at the Speakeasy. The Speakeasy is this divey karaoke bar that looks like someone's rec room with wood paneled wall and dingy booths. It was super fun - we all karaoked (some worse than others...okay, it was me) and ended up at Taco Bell at 2 a.m. Yep, we had a fourth meal.

The next day, we took Forrest to dim sum, which he really enjoyed. I wanted to order him jelly fish and all sorts of weird things, but the problem is, once you order it, the whole table is stuck a.) paying for it and b.) eating it.

That afternoon we over to Tyler's place to play a super fun game of modified poker called Pineapple Poker. Very fun and different - you start out with three hole cards and discard one after the flop. Max came in second - whoohoo!

Forrest's fourth weekend(last weekend)

Friday night, Max and I went over to Amol's new place for Black Jack night (I lost $30, Max won $34, but spotted me the $30, so basically he won $4). Forrest went out to the Key Club to check out this local band called Powder with some new friends from work. I think he had a really really good time - he proclaimed it the best show he's ever seen. Sat night we went to Rebecca's (aka Lypstyck Girl) going away party. She's moving back to MI to be with her long-distance man. Argh, all my girlfriend's are moving away...first Kate to San Francisco; then Rebecca to Michigan; and I just found out Julia is moving to Amsterdam for a few months to be with her new man. ARE THERE NO MEN IN LA???

Anyway, Project Runway is on now. More later. (hopefully)

Weekend Recap

2008-06-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Wheee!!! Fun wheeekend!!

Bestest part was Julia's bday party on Sat night, which may very well have been the best party I've been to in years. She went ALL OUT and hired an event planner. The party was at a restaurant downtown (the place was closed for dinner service, just us), had an open bar, tons of appetizers, CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN, dj, and professional photographer. Just a really fun time - I think we were there until 3 or 4 a.m. Amazing. I think everyone had a really great time. It was pretty much like a wedding where everyone is just so happy!

Ugh - I was going to load up some more pics, but blogger is super slow for some reason. Maybe some other time.

We didn't really do much else over the weekend. Nothing to blog about, but then again, that's never really stopped me. Friday night we sat around. Saturday I think I watched a lot of TV. Julia's party Sat night. Sunday - more TV.

I'm getting really excited about our 8/8/08 vegas trip. Great group of people - destined to be OUTRAGEOUS. i've started practicing online again. Gotta polish up on all my table games strategy.

Max's brother has applied for a job at a video gaming company with offices right above me. We're hoping he gets it - if he does, he'll be out here with us for the summer. I'll have someone to carpool with! I think it'd be great opportunity for him, especially since he's super awesome at video games and seems to have some interest pursuing a career in that industry. We'll see.

Okay blogger still slow, but I think this pic is worth it:

Thank God!

2008-06-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

Watched Top Chef last night - SO relieved that Lisa did not win. I thought her food looked really good, and it seemed totally possible that she could win if they were to judge JUST that meal. Poor Richard. I felt so bad for him. If I met him I'd give him a big hug. Which would probably totally creep him out. I know some people found him arrogant, but I always thought he was a pretty nice guy. Glad Stephanie won though - she seems totally cool and down to earth. And is it just me or did Dale look hot at the very end of the episode?

Have decided to work with my trainer again - but just once a week, to keep costs down. I just think I get much better results with a trainer, and in general, I just don't like doing weights by myself. I don't mind doing cardio (last night I did 20 mins on the precor and then took a step class), but I can't seem to get myself to weight training on my own.

Have woken up crying two nights this week. I keep having these nightmares that just make me sob in my sleep - i have no idea why! I don't feel stressed anymore - well, not as much as I did when I first started the job. Maybe I'm just too warm? Maybe I should work out in the morning instead of at night (happened on the two nights that I worked out this week)? Not sure, but it's really annoying.

Ok, off to work. It's Thursday! And tomorrow will be Friday! And then it'll be the weekend - wheeeee!

Reality TV Chefs

2008-06-10T12:15:00.001-07:00

So I was walking Pig last night and noticed a new bar in my neighborhood called Foxtail. It looked pretty swanky and nice - all art deco-y, so when I got home, I read up on it online. Turns out, it's a super expensive and trendy new supper club opened by the same owners as Hyde (if you read TMZ or perezhilton, you'll know that's a hot spot for young starlets) AND the chef is Antonia from Top Chef! Seems like the food has gotten mixed reviews (sounds about right, judging from the show) and the place is sort of snooty. Have to say, if it were Richard's restaurant, I'd totally fork over the $100 plus for a meal, but not so much for Antonia. Maybe for Stephanie. Maybe for Dale, but only if he promised not to grab his crotch if I didn't like his food. Definitely not Lisa. God I hate her!! Why is she still on the show????

Coincidentally, I also live very close to London, the new hotel where Gordon Ramsay has opened another restaurant, and where the winner of Hell's Kitchen will be the executive chef. And honestly - I would not pay $10 for a meal from any of those folks. I'm mean but God, those people are so awful. I don't think anyone following that show would really want to eat at London.

Oh, and unrelated, but a celebrity spotting: I saw John Stamos outside a nearby restaurant. He was wearing lightish colored blue jeans and a black leather jacket. IMO, if I didn't want to be called Uncle Jesse for the rest of my life, I think I'd stay away from quintessential Unce Jesse wear.

Weekend Recap

2008-06-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

Weekend was a recovery weekend. Thode was in town the weekend before last, and before that was Memorial Day weekend so we were due for something a bit more chill.

Friday night I got home and told Max I just wanted to veg on the couch and surf the web. Which I did, for about four straight hours. Very nice. We also started the movie 300, but I fell asleep about half way in so we watched the rest on Saturday morning. I have to say, it's a bit weird watching people get their heads chopped off while eat eggs and toast. Weird is not the word, I don't think. Gross, maybe.

Saturday I tackled the kitchen for the first time in many, many months. It's hard to keep the apartment clean and I had pretty much given up on it, but felt motivated after helping Kate clean her apartment before she moved out. Josh is taking over her apartment, so basically I helped Josh clean his apartment. Hah. Anyway, the kitchen looks much better now - it's amazing how much dirt and dust accumulates underneath a microwave. God. Yuck. I was sore by the time I was done. I figured all the scrubbing and mopping made up for not going to the gym.

We decided to get out the house Sat night after all the cleaning, so we went over to the Frat House (we have three friends who live together in this nice house which really does not deserve the name "Frat House" since that tends to bring to mind the smell of vomit and old beer, but it does have a steady stream of women coming in and out so the name is not that off). The guys seemed anxious to get out of their house so we headed to Birds, this bar in the Los Feliz area which I've driven by a million times over the years but have never been to. It's pretty fun actually. Next door was a place called La Poubelle, which was pretty dead. I vaguely think "poubelle" means garbage in French, but I'm not sure if that's true. Bit of a bad name, if you ask me. Afterwards, we had us some Taco Bell, and played a miserable game of poker at 2 a.m. Honestly, there just is no good reason to start a game that late. Especially with just five players, which does not make for a good game. I was exhausted and glad when it was finally over. Needless to say, I did not win!

I slept in a bit on Sunday and then proceeded to watch two mediocre ghost-y movies, Wind Chill and The Grudge. I'm generally not a fan of scary movies, but once in a while I just get a hankerin' fer 'em. At around 4 p.m., Lypstyck Girl, who was just down the street volunteering at the LA Pride Parade, came by and we went for a late lunch/early dinner at the Spanish Kitchen. They had great deals - $5 appetizers and $7 margaritas. Excellent. After that, I met up with Max, who was at AD's place, to watch the Lakers game. The guys had been shooting a little short video there which hopefully will turn out well. Max is starring in it - I can't wait to see it. Apparently he had to take his pants and boxers off for the shoot.

Anyway, that's about it. Despite me saying that The Grudge is not really that scary, I freaked myself out thinking, "What if that creepy little boy is sitting in the back seat of the car right now?" and then later, "What if that creepy little boy is hiding under my bed/in the closet/behind the shower curtain/under the kitchen sink??? Probably best for me to stay away from the scary movies.

Super Power

2008-06-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

So I've noticed lately that for about three days a month - those same three days when I'm ridiculously bloated, emotional, and hungry - I have a heightened sense of smell. I can smell EVERYTHING. I can smell Starbucks more than a block away. I can smell people's detergent like it's perfume. When I walk down the hall at work, I can smell different shampoos/soap as I pass each office. When cars drive by, I can actually smell the difference in exhaust fumes from one car to another.

But alas, like all super powers, it's a curse and a blessing. Blessing when someone with great perfume walks by; a curse when Pig farts. Blessing when I walk near a bakery by my house; curse when I walk into an elevator full of those guys from the floor above who are video game testers and apparently don't shower on a regular basis. Blessing when I noticed the smell of the office and it reminds me of my first day interviewing there and how excited I was; curse when I noticed a distinct, um, pungent smell, by the bushes in the alley behind Rage (and I can just say, EWWWW).

I'd like to find a way to put my super power to use for those three days a month. Like...hmm...nothing is coming to mind. It's not like I can track down a lost puppy or missing child. That would be useful. Or sniff out cancer. Basically, all I can do is point out which direction the garbage truck went (even from a good two blocks away), and tell if someone's showered.

Sigh. Stupid super power.

Summer Plans

2008-06-06T07:01:00.001-07:00

I posted a myspace bulletin yesterday, but figured I'd post it here as well:

For those of us who lead lives of quiet desperation while counting down the days until WangCon 2009, I have put together a list of a few events and actitivies to help us pass the time.

If you're interested, let me know, and I'll email you the details

Grunion Run - June 21 - 10 p.m., San Pedro. Apparently grunion are these little fish, like smelt, that come up on the beach to spawn at night in the summer months. You can only catch them with your bare hands (no nets allowed), and you can cook them in GREEN BEAN CASSEROLES. Cost: I think free, except you need a fishing license, which we can pick up at a sporting goods store. Max says they're cheap.
http://www. beachcalifornia. com/grunion-run. html

Friday Night Racing at the Hollywood Park - July 11 - $1 Beer, before 9 p.m., $1 Sodas, $1 hot dogs all night. $10 admission before the 7th race, which includes a free Berlin concert.

Berlin!!

Hollywood Bowl - "Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) with Eric Idle" - Aug 2, 8:30 p.m. Join Python superstar Eric Idle and his Spamalot Grammy and Tony award-winning co-composer John Du Prez and a cast of thousands - well, an audience of thousands plus the LA Phil, chorus, soloists, bagpipers and a sheep - as they tell the tragic-comic story of a man mistaken for the Messiah, inspired by Handel’s famous oratorio Messiah and Monty Python’s hilarious Life of Brian. Idle – singing baritone-ish – reprises some of his best-loved roles from the legendary movie that reminds you to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” I'm actually not a big Python fan, but since I don't think anyone will go with me to the Sound of Music Sing A-Long (right? right?), this is next best bet. I'm planning on getting cheapy tickets ($12) as the best part of the Hollywood Bowl is the picnicking and the drinking outdoors.

LA County Fair - Sept 5-28. I love me some fair food and was bummed that I missed this one last year, so I definitely want to go.

Nov 6 – Madonna - Dodger stadium. I want to see Madonna just once in concert before she gets old, which looks like it will never happen, but still...I'm thinking just the cheap tickets will do - around $62

I would also like to go see Body World 3 at the California Science Museum. Last day of the exhibit is Sept 7.

For Max's sake, hopefully some of you are interested in the events above.

Especially the GRUNION RUN!

Changes A'Coming

2008-06-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

How sad. Only about 20 posts for all of 2008 and it's already June 3rd! To think of all the countless poop stories that have gone unpublished...

Anyway, this year has really turned out to be a year of changes. Not so much for me directly, but more indirectly. Amol is calling it the "series finale of us." Hah. Last weekend Kate packed up a U-Haul and moved up to San Francisco. She got a job not far from where the Chinese Costanzas live. Her boyfriend lives up there so it was only a matter a time for the big move but it still sucks. I've known her since my freshman year in college, and apart from a few summer months, we've lived in the same city since. In fact, we lived together for seven years total (two years in college, and five, I think, out in LA) so it's sort of a big deal. At least I do go up there fairly often, so that's good. And we pretty much email each other every day, especially from work, so I'm hoping that won't change much. Just have to wait until she gets tired enough of being good on her new job to start emailing!

Another big change is Rebecca aka Lypstickgirl is moving as well! She is moving at the end of July to Michigan, also to be with a Man. I don't understand why these girls can't stick with someone in LA. Sheesh. Anyway, I'm pretty bummed about that. Again, since she's moving back to Michigan, I'm sure I'll see her when I visit home but still... My closest female friends are all disappearing! I'm going to have to try harder to make some new friends so it's not just me and the boys. Don't get me wrong, they're great friends but a girl likes to have some close female companionships too. I've been pressuring for them to get some girlfriends. Cool ones though. No idiots. Please. Also plan on getting to know better some of the other cool girls that I know but that I don't see on quite as regular a basis. I actually know quite a few but I just have to put forth the effort. Sigh.

Yet another change is that Amol and Paul are moving out of their apartment. I think they've lived together for about 5 years as well. I'm obviously not as sad about that but we've had many many many fun poker games, bbqs and hot tub nights at that apartment complex. No more pool parties. :( Just when I can finally fit into a swim suit again... They quit their jobs as well. And Julia quit her job earlier this year too. See what I mean - lots and lots of changes. And Jessie plans on quitting her job, and is also moving, although she is staying in LA, just switching apartment.

All these changes make me feel kind of boring. Like I need some new changes. Just not a new job. Luckily, I am FINALLY beginning to settle into my new job, thank god and I just can't go through that again. Max and I would love to move, but as long as the apartment continues to be rent-controlled, and as long as Raleigh is able to walk Pig at a very reasonable rate during the day while Max is at work (possible because she has other clients in the area), we just can't justify moving. Even though the apartment is totally old and gross and dirty and briefly rat infested (luckily not in my unit)and certainly roach infested (unfortunately in my unit) and I want new carpet and a brand new place to decorate...waaah.

Luckily, there are some exciting things lined up on the calendar for the next few months. I'm hoping this weekend will be a recovery week (last two weekends have been insane - both my waistline and wallet are suffering) and then next weekend Julia is throwing some awesome birthday party. She's invited tons of people, it's being held at a restaurant downtown, and there'll be an open bar. Awesome. After that, July 4th weekend. Sadly neither our plans for Italy or even Michigan that weekend have panned out but I'm hoping to at least do something interesting. Like maybe go up to SF or even take a few extra days off and just veg for four straight days (I have been way nostalgic for a summer break - just to sleep in, loll around in my pjs and not do anything for days on end...). Next, comes 8/8/8 - going to Vegas!!! Whoo hooo!!! Amol has been talking about this trip for at least a year. He has dutifully been trained by his chinese girlfriend annie that "8" is a lucky number in chinese so it's seems like a good weekend to go. I definitely want to go back to Michigan before the summer ends as well, so I am tentatively thinking of maybe an end of August trip? We'll see. There are also some other things that could be fun but have yet to be planned. I know the idea of a camping trip has been brought up numerous times. Max and I have talked about a weekend getaway to Santa Barbara, which would be very nice. Maybe we will do our annual (well not so annual lately) Dockweiler Bonfire on the Beach outing. Anyway, lots of little things to keep the daydreams going in my head while I walk Pig.

And finally, a Pig report. She broke a tooth, is beginning to shows signs of arthritis, and has a rather large wart/bengin tumor on her face, but otherwise she is all good. Still cracking Max and me up. Last night she was freaking otu because we were shouting and all nervous during the Wings came. She definitely picks up on nervous energy and just kept jumping on and off the couch, trying to climb into Max's lap (he was definitely more nervous...)

Anyway, hopefully i can get back into blogging. And back into exercising. And back into not eating four slices of pizza and a burger in the same day. Sigh.

The Big 3-0

2008-04-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

Today's my birthday and I've turned 30. 30! How did that happen?

Time to Move

2008-03-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

Ugh. Just got some very disturbing news from a neighbor. I was planning to go back to sleep after walking the dog, but now I'm so freaked out I can't at all. Turns out, according to my neighbor, nearly all the apartments on my side of the building have RATS or have heard them crawling in the walls. Not mice, but big gigantic rats. I'm going to cry. Or throw up. Or both at the same time.

THAT IS NOT OKAY. I so can't handle the idea of rats in the apartment. Going to see if I can sleep in a hotel for the next few weeks until the rats are gone.

I woke Max up just now to tell him we have to move. He seemed nonplussed - argh!! I did make him promise that we'll "rat proof" the apartment today. I don't know what that really entails, but we should at least look around and make sure there aren't any little cracks or openings that nasty nasty nasty things can get through. Time to give the apartment a really thorough cleaning too. We've been so busy that the apartment has gotten filthy. Maybe that's another reason to move - just start over in a nice clean apartment.

I tried to google and look up sites on how to get rid of rats or prevent them from entering your apartment, but it's been a stressful process because these sites often have pictures of rats and I totally freak out when I see the pics. I mean, under normal circumstances, I can't really even look at pictures of rats or other rodents, but under these circumstances - when they're pictures of what could actually be LIVING in my apartment - I just can't bear them at all. I have to sort of scroll slowly and peek to see if there are any rat pics. It's been a painful and frightening process - like watching a scary movie or walking through a haunted house.

Ugh. UGH!!!

The only thing I can think of to console myself is that I haven't seen them yet, and if my building is infested, you'd think I'd have seen one by now; and also that Pig is a mighty fine rat catcher and I'd know if there was something in here. I don't think I blogged about this b/c I've been too busy but about 6 weeks ago, she was acting all weird - really obsessed with the bathroom, and it turns out, accoording to my apartment manager, they poisoned and trapped "one mouse" (interesting how "one mouse" becomes a "bunch of rats") in the walls, which was why Pig kept sniffing and staring at the walls. I've given Pig strict instructions to "kill on sight." Of course, what worries me most is that nearly all the apartments that have had a problem have dogs!! And some with big ones. You'd think that would scare them away.

If I see one in here, I'm going to die. I seriously will die of heart attack. Death by Rat. Sounds like a mystery novel, except the ending is so obvious. Ugh. It will be a horrible and senseless tragedy, but I swear, a rat is not something I can tolerate at all.

Spring Forward

2008-03-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

Argh.

Arrrrrrrrgh.

So sleepy today. I don't know if it's time change or perhaps the drinking-mimosas-and -bbqing-all-day thing I did yesterday but man I'm dragging this morning.

I miss my blog. Have been so very busy, but I finally have most of the pics from our vegas adventure so I'll be posting about that soon.

Should probably get back to work. This is definitely going to be one of those nap-in-the-car-at-lunch kind of days...

Poor Poor Neglected Bloggie

2008-02-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

Ugh. Have been hopelessly busy with work lately - grrrr. Wish I could rant about the job here but that just does not seem like a good idea. When I'm not at the office, working from home, or thinking about work, I am trying to recover and destress from being at the office, working from home or thinking about work. So basically everything's gone to hell in a handbasket - the apartment is disgusting, Pig needs a bath, I haven't shaved my legs since November, and the only time this month that Max and I had a proper dinner together was on Valentine's day. Which was nice and lovely. Maybe we'll get to spend July 4th together as well.

Anyway, moving on from my whinging....I can't figure out why I had a dream I was dating Jay Leno. Jay Leno? Really? I don't think so...

Have been dutifully going to the trainer and am pleased to say I have two "baby guns." Well, they're more like tiny derringers. I like to whip them out, and demand that everyone feel them. My friends have kindly been humoring me by gently squeezing and looking dutifully impressed. They will all make wonderful parents one day - they've really perfected that "Wow, honey, you made this? Oooh it's beautiful - let's hang it up on the fridge" look.

Am getting ready for my big BIG BIG girl's VEGAS trip this weekend!! It will be so awesome!! I am so so so so so excited!! No really I AM SO EXCITED!! It will be glorious - 13 drunk girls, all in their late 20's, early 30's, desperately clinging to their youth in their Forever 21 hootchie tops. I've learned all these new casino table games I want to try out and I even finally took the time to learn the odds and payouts in craps. I'm hitting the gym extra hard this week so I can binge at the Bellagio Buffet like a man just released from prison. I've even picked out a new "buffet outfit" - a nice very loose and comfy top with a pair of sweats. Everything's all planned - we've booked a limo to pick us up at the airport, we have our hotel rooms, Rebecca's even made a logo for us and we've all ordered t-shirts and buttons and stuff with our logo - it will be like a crazy bachelorette party, strippers and all, but just without a wedding to follow.

It. will. be. GLORIOUS.

PPT Hell

2008-01-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

Have finally emerged from a week of microsoft power point hell. Who came up with that brilliant program? I have no idea why I can't get my stupid text boxes to line up. They need to rewrite that shit. This job is turning out to be far more challenging than I thought it would be. Or, I've just gotten kind of dumb over the years, which is entirely possible.

Anyway, last week went by so very quickly - a blur of hours spent cursing at my computer under my breath with breaks in between for sleeping (barely), exercising (amazingly I did still manage to make it to the gym a few times), and walking Pig (b/c why should she get punished b/c I have too much work?). Speaking of Pig, I bought her that automatic feeder thing, but she won't use it! Pig - the dog who eats EVERYTHING - just lets her food sit there and waits for me to come home, thus defeating the purpose of the automatic feeder. I figure eventually she'll get around to using it.

So mini-weekend recap: Spent Saturday sleeping on the couch, trying to recover from hellacious work week. I think I took about two three hour naps. Max and I went to Fogo de Chao, this awesome brazillian grilled meat place, to celebrate his new promotion. He's doing great at his job - his new boss loves him and thinks his writing is "sublime." Haha. After dinner we went out to a bar called Father's Office to have a drink with AD, whose birthday was last Thursday. I don't think he really wanted to go out, but Amol threated to just show up at his apartment and drag him out, so I think it was easier for him to appease Amol and let him by him a beer. Pretty laid back night all in all.

Sunday morning I went to see my trainer. I love working out with him! This whole personal training thing totally appeals to the lazy person in me. Jack hands me weights, adjusts the machines, put away weights, jots down notes - everything. All I have to do is just stand in position, do the exercise, and wait for him to do everything else. And when I really have a hard time finishing a set, he helps me finish it. It's perfect really. I am slowly beginning to fit into more pairs of pants, which is nice because I've been too busy to do laundry so my clothing options are limited. Too bad he is so damn expensive. In a weird way tho, that's been motivating. Whenever I want to order a cheeseburger, I think about how much I'm paying for PT sessions and what a waste of money it'd be for me to eat a burger and undo all the gains I've made from training and exercising. That's another thing -I've been getting up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym before work! Amazing! I actually don't mind it so much. It's nice and quiet, and since the gym is on my way to work, it cuts down on my drive time. I can't believe I am now a Super Early Morning person. It's so weird.

Sunday afternoon we had people over to watch the NFC and AFC championship games. I was routing for Brett Farvre so I'm sad he lost. Oh well. Max bought a ton of Popeye's Fried Chicken so we have lots of leftovers. Leftovers I'm trying to avoid, of course.

So. That's that. Tomorrow's hump day and then it'll be the weekend again. Please - just no more power point!

Weekend Recap

2008-01-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Another Monday. Sigh. To be fair, I don't mind Mondays nearly as much as I used to. I think I'm still in the "honeymoon" phase of a new job. Well, a KIND of "honeymoon" phase...I don't think most newlyweds spend all their time wondering if they're going to get fired.

Anyway, nice weekend. Uneventful. A couple friends came over on Friday night and we ordered chinese food and just sat around and chatted. I think that's a perfect way to spend a Friday night. I just don't have the energy to do more than that. A movie is totally out of the question - I'd inevitably fall asleep. And a bar? Forget it.

I spent Saturday doing what I normally do - napped on the couch while Max watched football, walked the dog, thought about doing the dishes, thought about buying groceries, thought about cleaning the bathroom, thought about doing laundry, and finally settled on at least making it to the gym. I've actually been pretty good about going to the gym lately. In fact, I even got up at 5:15 THIS MORNING, and went to the gym before work. Amazing! It was a bit too early for Pig though - we spent 20 mins outside, with me angrily whispering "go poop. go poop. GO POOP GODDAMMIT" while she just sort of meandered around, looking a bit confused. I have to say, it's scary that time of the morning. Very quiet, and very dark. I think I may start carrying pepper spray with me. I know I have a dog, which makes me less of a target, but let's face it, neither Pig nor I look very intimidating. Especially not me, in a teletubby purple fleece and flipflops.

Anyway, Sat night we went out to the Dresden with some peeps. Have not been there in years. It was okay. Kind of stupidly crowded. I dunno, I used to love that place, especially since it was in Swingers, but I was annoyed last night with how crowded it was. We had to wait in a line for about 15 mins! It's not exactly a happening club, so the line seemed silly. Afterwards, I ate my first 7-11 hot dog. I've never remotely wanted to eat one of those before, considering how wrinkly and gross they look in the case, but I was really hungry and succumbed after Max insisted that they were awesome. And it WAS awesome. I even liked the fake cheese and chili that CAME OUT OF A MACHINE.

So, it was a good thing that I had to meet with my trainer on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Hopefully I managed to burn off that hot dog. It was our 3rd session and I loved it!! I had such a good workout with him, and he helped me stay focused and motivated. I'm already using heavier weights than I've ever used before, so I'm hoping that all this extra work will yield quicker results. Unfortunately, his regular non-charity-donation prices are VERY STEEP (okay, maybe they're "normal" but still, $70 per hour!!????) I am trying to find ways to rationalize continuing working with him after we're through with our initial sessions. Maybe I can skip a hair appointment (between cut, color and tip - that's about 3 sessions - altho this might mean showing more gray hairs and having an overall bad hairstyle)? Maybe I will win BIG MONEY IN VEGAS???? Also, he does charge less if you sign up for more...

Anyway, that was about it for Sunday. I did manage to make it the grocery store, do the dishes and clean up, but I figured the bathroom and laundry could wait until next weekend ;)

Meeting up with Raleigh tonight for her consultation with Pig. Since she's going to be our on-call dog walker from now on, we're going to have to make sure the apt is REASONABLY tidy before we leave for work in the morning. Sigh. I don't know about you guys, but I have bad habit of leaving stuff around in the morning (underwear, pajamas, bath towels, clothes I changed out of b/c I didn't like the outfit, breakfast dishes, etc) so the apartment is usually a mess. This will take some effort!

Lastly, I'm going to give a shout-out (like this is a radio show) to my friend Jeremy, who apparently has been reading my blog. I haven't seen Jeremy in years - he moved to Florida a while back, but we used to spend a lot of time talking about ways to avoid germs. He too is a bit of a germ-freak and we had many a conversation about the least germy way to press an elevator button. Jeremy is quite a good writer so I'm amazed and flattered he's taken the time to read my shitty posts (literally, since so many of them are about Pig's poop)!

Christmas Wish List 2008

2008-01-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

one baby polar bear cub. just one. because two would be far too much to handle.

Happy Friday!!

2008-01-11T15:36:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, a google search for "bendable happy yellow man" does not actually turn up any gay asian porn. Don't ask why I spent all morning looking for this guy online. Just be happy for me that I finally found him.

Changes

2008-01-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

Thursday. Made it through another hump day. Almost to Friday...and then the weekend!!!

This week has actually gone by pretty quickly. Max got promoted (yay!!!) but that means he is now super super busy. He's been getting home so late - last night he didn't come home until after 10. Poor thing. And then he stayed up for another few hours to work some more. Unfortunately I've been going to bed at around 9:30, so I feel like I usually only see him for about 20 mins a day in the morning. I don't know how long this schedule will last, but truthfully I'm not really complaining. This new promotion is a HUGE HUGE opportunity for him, and I know it's important for him to give it his all. So, yeah, some sacrifices and changes, but in the long run, it'll all be worth it.

I'm super happy that I've found a solution to our new Pig walking problem. Originally, Max worked from home, but now with the promotion, he has to work at the office. On most days, he'll be able to come home at lunch to walk Pig, but not always. Luckily Raleigh, my professional dog walker friend, actually has a client just down the street and has agreed to be our "on-call poop escort" so we can call her if we need her to take Pig out. Such a huge relief!!! My office is just too far away for me to be able to make it back at lunch every day, altho I will have to do that this Friday (Raleigh is sick and won't be avail until next week).

In other RIVETING Pig walking news, we've bought an excellent new harness that actually keeps her from pulling!!! Amazing!!! Why didn't we buy this four years ago??? It's a "gentle leader" but not the nose version - this one goes under her armpits and really works. Last night we went for a long walk and for the first time, I actually felt like I was walking a dog, and not a wild horse. Unlike the gentle leader nose leash, which seemed to affect her breathing, this one doesn't seem to bother her. And it's very very effective. She tried to go after a pizza crust and couldn't get to it at all!

So, another adjustment we've had to make, is that I had to order an automatic pet feeder. Thode got one for Punk and I guess it worked out really well for them. These days, I just can't tell when I'll be home (am still trying to squeeze in a stop to the gym, and some days I do work late) so I don't want Pig to wait and get anxious. She's not really anxious about seeing me or Max - she's really anxious about getting fed by us when we get home. And normally, she likes to eat at 5 p.m. So now, she gets to eat at five p.m., and I have no excuse not to stop at the gym!

Corporate Sareet

2008-01-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

HA!!!!

Vegas, Baby!

2008-01-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

So I am really beginning to look forward to an upcoming Vegas trip - a whole bunch of us girls are going Feb 22nd for the weekend, so it's just a few weeks away!!! We've decided to make it an annual thing, commemorating the Prince in Vegas 2007 trip we took last year.

In preparation, I have been OBSESSIVELY studying an excellent website called www.wizardofodds.com that pretty much lists all the different casino games, the odds for them, the house edge, etc - and the best strategy for each game. I seriously spent all weekend laying on the couch, with my new fleece throw (Aunt Laura's gift) and the computer on my lap. Turns out, I've been playing blackjack wrong for years!! According to this guy (and many other sites - I did my research) basic optimal blackjack strategy tells you to hit on 12 and 13 when the dealer is showing 2 or 3. Interesting. I always figured you don't, and let the dealer bust instead. I'm sure that applying this basic optimal strategy will get me yelled at by other players, but I don't care - I'm listening to The Wizard!! Speaking of blackjack, I went over to a friend's house for Blackjack Night over the weekend and won $45!!! See - gotta listen to The Wizard!! And, be very very lucky. :)

As a result of all this Vegas anticipation, I've had TWO dreams about Vegas - one where I'm friends with Celine Dion (strange) and we're hanging out at the Imperial Palace - and another one, which I can't recall at the moment, but I know it was definitely about Vegas. I might have been in Vegas looking for an asian ice cream store. Which makes sense - it's a combination of recurring settings in my dreams. In no particular order, I often dream of casinos (Vegas), theme parks, fairs, asian ice cream stores (with flavors like green tea, lychee, and guava), and Chinatown (usually in these dreams I am lookign for either a noodle shop, boba shop, Chinese bakery, or a dim sum restaurant), and shopping malls where there are MASS discounts and sales.

Anyway, I am so excited!! I can't wait!!! We're even talking about getting a limo to pick us up from the airport!!

Wet N Wild

2008-01-04T23:08:00.000-08:00

It's raining like crazy today. Really scary drive home, where many traffic lights were out so everyone had to just sort of wing it.

Pig is so funny in the rain - she hates it so much! She does this prissy prancing thing, like she can't stand getting her feet wet. Tonight, she actually tried to pull me into a garage, presumably, to duck out of the rain.

Off to bed now. Am just praying that there won't be any thunder. Last thing I want is to wake up in the middle of the night with a wet Pig on my head.

Trick Photography

2008-01-04T22:53:00.000-08:00

So, I've pretty much hated every single pic of me from New Year's, which is no surprise. Not only did I have a runny nose and generally felt sick and tired, but those extra five pounds I packed on over the holidays looked like about 20 extra lbs on film. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself...surely it's just a camera effect...

However, there was one pic that made me look about 40 lbs thinner, much to my surprise.

Amazing!! If you haven't seen me recently, don't be alarmed. I really REALLY don't look like that at all. But I want all future pics of me to be taken from that angle and with whatever lens that was used!

Back to Work!

2008-01-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

Wow, man. Getting up was brutal this morning. I haven't exactly slept in over the holidays (I consider 7:00 a.m. pretty early, even if it's an hour and a half later than when I normally get up) but it was still a nasty jolt. I had taken Nyquil and went to be early last night, hoping that I'd wake up refreshed and healthy, but instead I woke up drowsy and congested. Not good. Somehow the ten feet between my bed and my shower felt like ten miles. I had a terrible nightmare last night where I got fired. Yup, straight up fired. Then I had a dream-within-a-dream where I "woke up" and couldn't tell if I had actually been fired or if it was all a dream. You know, it's a good thing I figured out it was just a dream this morning and actually went to work.

Max comes home tomorrow - at last! Feels like it's been forever, even tho he's only been gone since 12/19. Sometimes I look back on those months he spent in Denver and wonder how I managed not to be totally and hopelessly bored. Or maybe I was. Probably just got used to it over time.

I just finished Atonement by Ian McEwan which I highly recommend. Really great book. As much as I enjoy my murder mysteries, a proper novel from time to time really does me good. I want to see the movie, but doubt that I can persuade Max to go with me, so I will have to ask one of my girlfriends.

Grr. Argh. Why won't my nose stop running? You know, I read online that the average non-sick person produces nearly 3 quarts of mucus a day. Ew. Gross.
And a sickie produces up to 6 quarts of mucus. No wonder I feel sluggish - and fat! That's a lot of extra fluid to be carrying around!

Anyway, as the title of the post suggests - back to work!

2008!!!

2008-01-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

So I'm off to a good start. Went to my first personal training session yesterday. It was great - I really like the trainer and I'm hoping that he'll help me stick to a good exercise routine for 2008. He said that my arms are actually pretty strong, which amazed me. I mean, I have trouble opening everything from jars of spaghetti sauce to bottles of Gatorade. He did say that my weakest areas were my abs (I could have told him that!) and legs, which made sense b/c I don't really work out my legs a lot. Anyway, I told him I wanted to tone up and lose the muffin top so we'll see. We talked about how I have a tendency to work out for a few weeks and then fall off the wagon, so he said he'd try to make sure we come up with routines and workouts that will keep me interested. Not sure that's really the reason why I fall of the exercise wagon, but I was glad to hear that anyway.

I also went to the dentist yesterday and she was very pleased with me - said my teeth looked great, there wasn't much tartar, and the cleaning went really well. That's a first! Altough I didn't keep up my 2007 resolution to floss every day, I guess I did improve some and I feel inspired.

Got a ride home last night from our designated driver Amol, which meant I had to go get my car from Jason's house this morning. And, I TOOK THE BUS to get it! I'm so proud of myself. 2007 Sareet would have paid $40 for a cab ride. Or begged a friend to come pick her up and take her to her car. 2008 Sareet paid $1.25 for a bus ride. Bus was actually fine until a homeless man got on and sat next to me, but that was pretty close to my stop, so I didn't have to hold my breath for too long. My stop was about a ten minute walk to my car. I passed by a man peeing against the side of a building - he waved and said hello. Guess everyone's in a good mood on the first day of the year.

As for resolutions...I dunno. I'm really glad that I got a new job - that was a huge deal for me and now I can cross "get a new job" off the resolutions list. I've been working hard at my new job so I can cross "work harder at the office" off the resolutions list as well. With the new job, my financial situation has improved so I feel like I've got that area under control. So that leaves mainly health and emotional well being?

Okay. Here we go. So this year, I resolve to:

1) Get my wisdom teeth removed. My dentist has been bugging me about this for years and I'm finally going to take care of it this year.

2) Lose the muffin top! (don't laugh - I know I say this every year - or every week - but this is something I want to have happen)

3) Step out of my comfort zone and try new things. I am a total creature of habit and I want to challenge myself to do new things. Even little things like today - taking the bus - that's a great accomplishment for me. I know it sounds silly but I normally would never think of taking the bus. And I did it!

I Can't Believe It...

2007-12-28T15:36:00.000-08:00

but I think I'm getting sick. Again. Last Friday I totally thought I was beginning to get sick and was worried I'd be sick over the weekend in SF. But I managed to fight it off. And now I'm here again, with a sore throat and a stuffy face - feeling sick AGAIN. Grrrrr.

In other news, I've scheduled my first personal training session - 8 a.m. on Monday morning. That's right - New Year's Eve. I bid and won 5 one hour training sessions and 3 one hour pilates sessions from a trainer who is donating his time. It's all for the Bill Foundation, the rescue group where I got Pig. Anyway, I won the auction at a bid of $175 - for 8 one hour sessions! I'm so lucky - that is SUCH a deal. The gym is really close by too, which is awesome. And I'm happy the money is going to good causes - rescuing dogs and reducing my muffin top (hopefully - did I mention I've been sitting in my cubicle with my pants unbuttoned - yet ANOTHER reason I suspect I'll be fired from this job in 3 mos!)

I have also scheduled a teeth cleaning on New Year's Eve at 11 a.m. My dentist is pretty far away from my work (like nearly over 2 hrs in traffic), so I guess I'll be getting my teeth cleaned on Saturdays and holidays from now on. I don't really mind tho - I feel like I am getting a great start on 2008!!

Tolerable Rodent

2007-12-27T09:33:00.001-08:00

As much as I despise rodents, somehow I feel a kinship with this one:

Did I mention I've gained about 5 lbs in the last two weeks from the all the office holiday goodies (where do they come from???? who keeps bringing in brownies and cookies and donuts???? why must people send lovely lovely chocolatey gift baskets and other bad-for-you things over the holidays??? do they not know that i can't fit into ANY of my pants????)

Hello!

2007-12-27T08:58:00.000-08:00

Poor neglected bloggie. Not that anyone really cares, but one of my resolutions this year (yes, those infamous resolutions that I never seem to quite keep...) will be to blog EVERY DAY. Even if it's nothing of particular importance, which, of course, it never is.

Anyway, have been very busy with my new job. Don't want to talk about it much - most days I think I'm going to get fired, but I'm hoping that's just sort of standard with a new job?

Max is back in MI for the holidays, so it's been very quiet around here. With Max gone, I've totally reverted back to my old lady lazy self - eating meals that either take less than 5 minutes to heat in the microwave, or require only only one pan/bowl, watching reruns of Golden Girls and Frasier and I Love Lucy ad nauseam, turning on the heater to 78 degrees, and going to bed by 10 p.m. It's a bit lonely, but we're slowly getting used to it. Luckily Kate, my friend Jenn, and Jenn's boyfriend Bill have all been super great about coming over to walk Pig during the day when I'm at work. I have no doubt Pig prefers to stay at home, watch Lifetime, and have someone walk her midday, than being sent to doggie day care.

Went up to SF this weekend to visit the Chinese Costanzas and my aunts for Christmas. It was a nice and relaxing trip - nothing much of interest happened. I did introduce my grandparents to Jessie's Special Guacamole Mix (two avocados mixed with the greatest powdered packet ever) - they loved it. My grandpa suggested that we spread it on toast or on soda crackers. Haha.

Oh - and Pig ate a giant log of dog shit. It was sooo gross!!!! I've never seen her do it - and this thing was enormous - like the size of a bratwurst. It was horrible b/c I couldn't really stop her - I grabbed her mouth with one hand, but couldn't bring myself to pull it out with the other. Aunt Marilyn took a stick and tried to pry it out of her mouth, which only succeeded in smearing it over half of her face. We spent about five minutes gagging on the side of the road after it all happened. I did ,of course, wash Pig's face and mouth and gave her lots of water and treats, but it tooks several days before I could really get over it. Ick.

Anyway, happy holidays everyone!

You know you're stressed and flustered at your new job...

2007-12-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

...when you discover you've accidentally walked into the men's room.

Daily Thoughts from a Cubicle

2007-12-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

Major drawback discovered....cannot sit with skirt unzipped just because have eaten too big a lunch.

I Will Survive

2007-12-02T20:20:00.001-08:00

I made it through my first day (Friday) at my new job! So far, so good. I have a lovely gray cubicle - I've already started pinning things up on the wall. My favorite part so far is the nice espresso machine in the office! Whooo hoooo - lattes every morning for Sareet! (I am soo easy to please, no?)

As with all new jobs, it's a bit stressful and overwhelming. I can't wait to get to the point where I just KNOW things, and don't have to ask a bunch of questions. Since I've only worked one day so far, I think that's a ways away.

I like my coworkers so far - everyone seems so nice and helpful. Hopefully it stays that way.

I thought the drive would be really bad, but it didn't take more than 45 mins one way on a rainy Friday in LA, which is really good.

I do miss Pig tho. New office is not petfriendly, unfortunately. :( Plan on plastering cubical walls with pics of Pig, naturally.

Anyway, off to bed. Have to get up at ungodly hour from now on...that is definitely going to take some getting used to!

It Takes a Village...

2007-11-28T08:57:00.001-08:00

When I look back on how many people helped me in various ways during my job search, I've come to the conclusion it takes a village to get someone a job! I mean my friends and family have been so great - from helping me with my resume, putting me up for open positions, sending me links of ads and giving me all sorts of interview tips to providing me emotional support, cheering me on and just listening to me whine. Amazing. I am so grateful for all the help. I hope this job turns out awesome and I don't have to look for another one any time soon!

New Beginnings

2007-11-26T15:45:00.001-08:00

Wow, another long break from posting on dear bloggie. I've actually been really busy these last few weeks for good reason. After months of searching, I finally got... A NEW JOB!!! Whoohooo!!!

I really don't want to talk about it here too much, because I prefer to dedicate my blog to only Pig Poop Stories, Tales of the Fat and Unexercised, and Adventures of the Unadventurous Traveler, but it is a big change in my life and I am very very happy. New job is significantly different and more corporate and office-y. I am looking forward to having a cubicle! And having to wear proper business casual clothes, rather than fleece tops and flip flops. And I plan on waiting by the water cooler for someone to gossip with me about so and so in the finance department. Also, I am looking forward to actually leaving work early enough to be able to enjoy happy hour from 5 to 7. Although I will say the whole-getting-to-work-by-8 a.m.-thing certainly does not appeal to me. I can't believe people get up when it's still dark outside. Weird.

Anyway, all is good - very good.

Except for the muffin top. It's still there. I've actually started going to the gym, after seeing some truly horrifying pictures of me, but there is much work to be done. Oh well.

Signs

2007-10-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

You know it's been too long since you've been to the gym when....

1.) You can't open ANYTHING with a lid or a cap - pickle jars, ketchup bottles, tubes of toothpaste, etc - and you find yourself constantly accusing your boyfriend of overtightening things.

2.) Your arms get tired from SHAMPOOING YOUR OWN HAIR.

3.) Laundry is so so so HEAVY.

4.) You think to yourself while you're walking up to your second floor apartment, "%*#$! Definitely need to (huff) get an apartment (huff) on the ground floor next time..."

5.) Nothing fits you at all, except for a pair of sweatpants. Which you convince yourself are considered "business casual" since they're black.

6.) You've completely forgotten the combination of your gym lock.

7.) You know that if you were to play Connect-the-Dimples, the backs of your thighs would look like Jackson Pollock paintings. (sadly no one in my family knows what I'm talking about - apparently everyone is blissfully cellulite-free - damn where was I when they were handing out those genes?)

Oh, and for the doggie owners, you know it's time put your dog on a diet when...

she gets stuck between the two front seats while crawling from the front of the car to the back!

Man, Pig and I are a mess.

Hawaii Recap - Day 4

2007-10-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

The last day. Sigh. Our flight was at 1 p.m., so we didn't really have much time to do anything. In theory, we could have gone up Diamondhead (the big volcanic cone) or to Pearl Harbor, but we really didn't feel like doing either. Yes, we are bad Americans. Instead we contemplated ordering room service and watching the first few Sunday football games, but finally settled on going downstairs to Duke's for the breakfast buffet, which basically had the same food as the room service, but at a much better price. Afterwards, we decided just to enjoy the last few hours of true relaxation and just hung out on the balcony.

Look at these pics! Can you blame us for being bad Americans???

"Whaddya mean 'We have to leave now'????"

So that was that. Packed up, checked out, dropped off the car, and before we knew it, we were back in LA. Back to the grind of work (or finding work), traffic jams, pollution, and generally suckery. Only consolation was Pig, and my vow to go to Hawaii again soon.

Hawaii Recap - Day 3 - Part 2

2007-09-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well, unfortunately, I seem to have broken the cord that connects my laptop to the electrical outlet so I can't use it until it gets fixed. Which means, I can't post all my Hawaii pics. Luckily, I had uploaded most of them to my gmail account - I guess I'll just have to go back and edit when I finally get the cord fixed.

So after our shark adventure, Max and I headed to Kailua Bay, which is suppose to be very nice for kayaking. On our way, we stopped at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, which is hot spot for locals and tourists alike. I had read many excellent reviews about this specific shrimp truck. Although we spotted several other shrimp trucks, every review I read said Giovanni's was the best. So we had to go, of course. The truck is very old and covered with graffiti. You eat on benches under a tarp. Not very fancy, but god, the shrimp was gooooooood!!

Max ordered the super spicy shrimp, and I had the shrimp scampi. Max's shrimp was ridiculously spicy! Yikes. I was glad I stuck with the scampi. I noticed an older man sitting at the next table had ordered the spicy shrimp as well. Every time I looked at him, he was a shade pinker. I told Max it was like watching steak un-cook.

I was excited to see that they also sold fresh coconuts. At last, I got to drink out of a coconut, which was, as Melissa noted earlier, kind of overrated. Coconut juice doesn't really have much taste, and is, as I learned from "Cast Away", a laxative so we were careful not to have too much.

After lunch we continued on our way to Kailua Bay. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that it really wasn't so much a place for kayaking. Or maybe it was, but only if you had your own - they were no rental places. Oh well. Neither of us cared that much tho - we were pretty tired out from the shark adventure and being in the sun all day. So we decided to head back, relax, and get ready for dinner.

On our way back we spotted the Dole Plantation, which boasts of the world's largest maze. We stopped in for some fresh pineapple frozen yogurt and to try out the maze, which was kind of fun...but got boring after awhile. It was one of those mazes like the one in the Shining so that was cool, but the novelty wore off soon.

We had made reservations to Alan Wong's, which Gourmet Magazine rated #8 out of America's Top 50 restaurants. The place was awesome!! We had late reservations, but went there a little earlier, hoping that we might get lucky. The restaurant was hard to find, since it was located on the second floor, but it was very nice inside. Great atmosphere and ambiance. We waited for about ten minutes at the bar and then they seated us to a very nice table next to the window. It had a really pretty view of the city.

I think Max looks a bit like Ed Norton here.

Now on to the food, which was incredible!

Opihi Shooters. I was a bit nervous about these at first, since I normally don't like raw oysters, but this was so delicious. Here's the description from the menu: Local Limpet in Spicy Tomato Water, Fennel Basil Ume Shiso Essences. I think it was the ume shiso that give it this sort of plummy taste. Just really unique and tasty.

We also had "poke-pines" as an appetizer. Those were okay. It was like a tuna tartar wrapped and deep fried in a wonton crispy thing.

Max's main entree was the ahi with Thai lemongrass crust and some sort of lobster peanut sauce. Wow - really good. I've never had anything like it before.

I had the shellfish bowl - Lobster, Dungeness Crab, Scallop, Shrimp, Clams and Calamari, Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes, Bouillabaisse Style Broth,Chili Pepper Aioli. It was fantastic!

We were so full (they also served fresh bread rolls - I think I had about four!) so we skipped dessert. It's too bad because I had read that the desserts are really great there too. Oh well. More reason to go back again!

Hawaii Recap - Day 3 - Part One

2007-09-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Day 3 was a big day for us. Shark Day!

We got up, had our breakfast of coffee, bagel, leftover pumpkin & banana bread, and headed out for our 10:30 appointment to go "swimming with sharks." Well, not quite "swimming" but we had signed up for a shark adventure through Hawaii Shark Encounters. Basically, they take you out on a boat off to the shore, put you in a shark cage, and throw bait in the water to attract the sharks. I was, needless to say, pretty anxious about this adventure. I had read great reviews about it, and how it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience (yeah, I bet! Especially if you DIE from it!), and something everyone should do if they get the chance. When I told Max about it, he was really excited so I signed us up and braced myself. Unfortunately for me, after I had booked the shark adventure, I read about another company that offered "swimming with dolphins" and I thought, damn, how come I didn't see that first???!!!

I was pretty nervous that morning, especially because I knew we had to SNORKEL in the shark cage. Oh man.

So the boat took off from the North Shore area, specifically at the Haleiwa Boat Harbor. It was about a 45 minute scenic drive from Honolulu. On our way, we stopped to pick up another underwater camera, one with a flash so we could get pics of the sharks. Unfortunately, it didn't work!!! Boo.

When we finally got there, we had to fill out a 20 page waiver form, stating we wouldn't sue them if we got eaten by sharks, etc. Yikes. There were 10 other people with us on our small boat, which was manned by three employees. All really nice guys. For an extra $100, we could get a video of our adventure, but we decided to skip that. Here are a few pics of the boat and harbor area:

Our shark boat (took these pics AFTER we got back)

We were a bit confused at first, since we didn't actually see the cage attached to the boat when we first got there, but we learned that they had already taken the cage out in a previous tour and secured it somehow (anchors?) so we would be boating out to it. I think we were the last tour of the day, so the three guys towed the cage back to the harbor after we were done. You can see the cage here:

Not a very big cage, but big enough! Fits 6 people. There's plexiglass on two of the sides of the cage, but otherwise, you're just floating in there! One of the most important rules, they said, was not to stick your arms out. I had NO problems following that!

Before we got there, I had been nervous about a couple of things, which thankfully the website addressed. These were my exact questions (I've lifted it from the site)!

Can the cage sink?
No! Floats surround the cage on all sides and they keep it level in the water. The top of the cage is actually 2 feet above the surface. The cage is also tied to the boat with several lines.

Is the cage closed at the top?
There is no lid on the cage. You are not locked in and you can come up and enjoy the view from the surface and communicate with the crew at any time.

Can the sharks jump in?
No! The sides of the cage extend 2 feet above the surface of the water. The sharks would have to jump three feet clear out of the water with a forward trajectory and aim they simply don't have. They will occasionally lift their heads out of the water, but these sharks are not capable of leaving the water. Even if they wanted to. (and they really don't).

How do I get in the cage? Do I have to swim to it?
Of course not! You would have to pay us a lot extra to be allowed to swim even one moment outside the cage, with the sharks. The cage gets pulled right next to the boat and you step down a very solid ladder directly inside the cage.

How secure will I be inside the cage?
There are handrails to hold on to all around the cage. You can stabilize yourself while you float on the surface or you can pull yourself a little lower for a different view. None of your body parts will ever have to extend outside the bars.

Will the sharks attack the cage?
No! The sharks will come very close to the cage to investigate but they do not charge at the cage or try to bite the people inside. Human beings are not on the natural menu of these sharks, as is the case with most sharks.

Do I get an unobstructed view of the sharks?
Yes! There are two large (and very strong) pieces of Plexiglas installed on each short side of the cage. In the water they are almost invisible.

Now, the only thing left to worry about was my snorkeling ability.

Anyway, we got on the boat and experienced the world's most choppy 15 minute boat ride EVER. Oh god, Max and I, and pretty much everyone else except for the three employees totally suffered from motion sickness. I've never felt so awful on a boat before. But - wow - the color of the ocean out there, so far from the beach, was so gorgeous. Like a really deep blue sapphire. Just beautiful. We pulled up to the cage and the guys secured our boat next to it. Max and I were part of the first group to go in the cage. Man, I was nervous! But at this point, I have to say, I wasn't so much nervous about the sharks as I was nervous that I was going to throw up all over everyone!

They gave us snorkeling equipment (used of course - but I couldn't even be bothered to think about a new mouth piece - I just vaguely thought to myself that the anti-fog solution they were sitting in would probably disinfect all the germs - besides I was going to be eaten by sharks in a few minutes so the germs wouldn't kill me....since the sharks would) and then showed us how to get into the cage.

I am ashamed to say, although it won't be a surprise to anyone, that I kind of had a hard time getting in the cage, and had to be shown a few extra times. The problem was that it was SOOO choppy. Like these giant waves just kept crashing against the boat and the cage, and all of it would go flying upwards. And you had to step down and backwards into the cage, so it was all very difficult. For me at least. I kept thinking I'd slip and bash my head against something and my bleeding head would immediately attract the sharks and everyone would get eaten. Also, I had to deal with my mask, which was immediately fogging up so I couldn't see very well. I actually chickened out the first time I tried to get into the cage and hopped back on the boat. So embarrassing. On my third try, I made it. The captain actually had to tap the bar I was supposed to hold and said "Just follow the noise" because I was so paralyzed that I didn't know where I was supposed to grip the ladder. Plus, the foggy mask didn't help. How humiliating.

But once I got in, and was able to hold the bars, and reminded myself to breathe slowly, it was awesome! I saw lots and lots of sharks - big ones too! The average one was about 5 feet long, but there was a giant tiger shark that kept swimming around us that was at least 8 feet long. Amazing! I couldn't believe how close they were, and you really could just stick your arm out and touch them, that is, if you didn't care to have two arms.

I'm so disappointed that our camera didn't work, but if you go to this link, this was exactly what our experience was like.

We were given 30 minutes in the cage (of course I only spent 15 mins or so since I wasted all my time fiddling with my mask and TRYING to get into the cage), and then it was the other groups turn. After the high of seeing the sharks wore off, we were left to face our sea sickness again. And, I'm proud to say in this category, I did better than Max, WHO THREW UP OFF THE SIDE OF THE BOAT!! Haha. I know it's mean to laugh, but it was kind of funny. One of the boat guys was actually feeding the sharks directly off the boat, and a few would come to the surface, but neither of us could really see them because we wanted to stay far away from the fish chum bait stuff he was using, the smell of which did not help the sea sickness.

I am actually, as I'm typing and reliving the moment, feeling a bit nauseous.

Going to take a break - more later!

Hawaii Recap - Day 2

2007-09-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

I slept amazingly well that first night in Hawaii and woke up early on Friday morning to the sound of ocean waves. Sigh. Did I mention I REALLY wish I were back there???

Anyway, Max went downstairs to the coffee shop and brought back some bagels, banana bread, pumpkin bread, and coffee for breakfast. Our plan was to go to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling, and then kayaking at Kailua Beach. Since we got up so early we just took our time eating and getting ready. That was definitely the theme of the vacation - no rushing, no stressing, just taking things easy! We picked up some underwater cameras, extra sunblock, and a few souvenir beach towels and off we went.

Hanauma Bay is located south of Waikiki Beach. It took about half an hour to drive there. On our way, we stopped at Leonard's Bakery, which is famous for their "malasadas" - Hawaiian donuts. Oh god, these things were delicious!!! Fried but very light and airy, and the filling inside was so delicately sweet. The special custard filling of the month was "guava." I've never had guava custard before but it was so so yummy.

Leonard's Bakery - very small and unassuming, but wow they make a mean malasada!

Guava custard filled malasadas!

After our second breakfast of malasadas, we headed straight to Hanauma Bay.

A bit overcast on the morning we went. It actually rained a little while we were snorkeling.

There were already tons of people there. It's a great place to go snorkeling - the whole bay area is a giant reef and you can see lots of different fish and marine life. It's SUPPOSED to be very calm, but on the day that we were there, it was somewhat on the choppy side, which made my snorkeling experience less than ideal (more on that later). When we first entered the bay area, we were ushered into a theater room where we had to watch a 9 minute film on some basic rules to follow in the water. Mainly - snorkel with a buddy, don't touch the fish and turtles, don't feed them and don't stand on the reef. Well, some of those rules proved easier to follow than others.

After the film we lined up to rent our snorkeling equipment - which included mask, the breathing tube, and flippers. I was relieved that for an extra $3, I could get a new mouth piece! Nice!

Max snorkeling!

Me snorkeling!

Snorkeling was...okay. Honestly, I had a lot of trouble breathing through the tube. I just wasn't used to breathing only through my mouth. Also, I had a hard time getting my mask to fit. I actually ALWAYS have trouble getting masks and goggles to fit. Last time I had to buy swimming goggles, I tried on every single pair and found the only pair that fit were pink and for children. I don't know if it's my face, or possibly other Chinese people have problems with masks and goggles (flatter faces?), but mine just kept leaking and fogging up. So, I had to keep standing up to fix my mask. And the only thing to stand on was the reef. So yeah, I broke that rule. A lot.

While Max saw the following:

I saw the following, since I spent most of my time standing up:

Max snorkeling.

Max snorkeling.

To be fair, I did see some fish but the thing is, I got scared of them and would try to swim away, which sort of defeated the point of snorkeling. I blame it on that 9 minute film, which, in an effort to stress the importance of not touching the fish, showed some scary images of some of the more dangerous creatures living in the reef. Between having a hard time breathing (started to get a bit hyperventilating-y), and the relatively choppy waters, I ended up having to swim back to shore after a little while, a feat that was hampered by the fact that my mask and tube had become entirely tangled in my hair. When I finally got to the shore, I felt rather demoralized. I mean, snorkeling is NOT supposed to be hard. And, it was rather embarassing, standing there on the beach like some crazed Medusa, with a mask and tube stuck to my head.

But, I gave it another try after resting for a bit. My second effort was considerably shorter - turns out snorkeling really tires you out! After about two hours we decided to pack up and go to lunch. Our next stop was Kailua Beach, which is on the opposite side of the island from Waikiki Beach. On our way, we stopped for lunch at a place called Fat Boys. We had asked the Kailua tourist center to recommend a place to get a "plate lunch" which is a typical Hawaiian lunch. It always consists of two scoops of rice, one scoop of macaroni salad, and your choice of a variety of entrees - chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki, garlic shrimp, etc. Regardless of what you choose, they drown the plate with gravy. Max had roast pork and mahi-mahi, and I had roast pork and chicken teriyaki. Not bad, but nothing to write home about either (which ironically is what I'm doing at the moment.)

Our original plan was to kayak at Kailua Beach, which again was supposed to be a very calm beach, but I guess it was just going to be choppy everywhere we went that day. We were also exhausted so we just walked around and enjoyed the view. I have to say, I think it was the most beautiful beach I've ever been to. The sand was powdery white and soft, and the water was such a gorgeous color.

Max on Kailua Beach. I can't get him to stop making that damn face.

We headed back to the hotel after spending some time at Kailua. Our goal was to get back before 5:30 p.m. There was going to be a big festival in Waikiki that night, and the main street where most of the hotels are located on, including ours, would be closed off for 12 blocks. We got back in time, showered, changed and went down to the streets for dinner. There were a lot of local food vendors serving various kinds of cuisines, and numerous stages with hula dancers, Hawaiian musicians, and other performers. The atmosphere was great - tons of people roaming around. We had heard there would be around 40,000 people there that night - I believe that!

I chose a plumeria lei - it smelled so so so nice!

Performers on one of the many stages.

We settled for a Chinese "seafood plate" which while smelled good, was rather disappointing. Apart from two shrimp, where was the seafood???

Max foolishly thought he could block the camera with his chopsticks. Or maybe he was demonstrating his chopstick skills?

After dinner, we walked along the Waikiki beach for a little while. We were looking to pop in somewhere for a mai tai, but none of the beach front spots looked very good (particularly not the one where a singer was crooning Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" - talk about a party pooper). We finally decided the best place was, in fact, Duke's in our hotel so we ended the night there!

Hawaii Recap - Day One

2007-09-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Aloha!

Hawaii (Oahu) was every bit as wonderful as I thought it would be. We actually came back on Sunday, but I haven't been able to bring myself to write about the trip yet because I am, quite honestly, rather depressed to be back. Spent yesterday moping about and feeling hostile at work. I actually downloaded "ocean sounds" for my ipod last night. But, now I've gotten used to being out of "paradise" and can get on with my life. Also, I got our underwater pictures developed so I can put them up here.

So we left for Honolulu really early Thursday morning. Paid a fortune at the airport Burger King ($16 for breakfast for two!) only to learn that Hawaiian Airlines is one of the few airlines that still serves food. I can't say my pasta with sauce was very good, but the meal service helped kill some time. I slept most of the way and watched Ocean's Thirteen, which was not so great.

Anyway, we finally got to Honolulu and it was beautiful there! We hopped on a shuttle to get our rental car from Hertz. The shuttle driver was so wonderful - I think he really possessed the "aloha spirit" and was so friendly and jovial. He even pointed out his wife to us, who also drove an airport shuttle, but for a different rental car company. He joked that she liked to keep an eye on him - adorable. It took awhile for us to get our car, but eventually we did. Turned out to be a white Mustang convertible - whee!!!

I will say, while I enjoyed the convertible very much, it did wreak havoc on my hair. In fact, honestly, Hawaii made me ugly! My hair was usually a mess from the convertible, and had salt in it from the ocean so it looked like I had a bad case of dandruff. You can't very well go swimming with make-up on (well you can, it just doesn't stay on - I tried), and I just always felt kind of grimey with sunblock. But oh well.

Anyway, we headed to our beautiful hotel - the Outrigger Waikiki. It's right on the beach, and only has valet parking, so it made our life super easy. Here's a stock photo from the web.

When we first got there, our room wasn't ready yet, so we went to Duke's, which is the casual beach front restaurant at the hotel. We sat down and ordered our first fruity tropical drinks, and relaxed. It was so very beautiful and peaceful - it opens straight to the ocean.

Here I am enjoying a "tropical itch." It came with a back scratcher, which I thought Pig would like. She didn't and was rather confused by it I think.

Our room was finally ready, and when I got there I couldn't believe that Max had actually booked an ocean front room, with a balcony. The view from it was spectacular. We were on the 15th floor, which was just perfect. Here are a few pics (more to follow). We actually took these a little later that day:

After we got settled in our room, we decided to change into our suits, walk around the beach, and maybe go for a swim. The water was so warm and clear! No gross seaweed floating around, no dirty seafoam water curdling at the edges of the beach. It was gorgeous. I couldn't remember the last time I'd actually gone swimming in the ocean. After our swim, we laid out on the beach and just napped for a little while. We were actually both trying to avoid tanning, so we had sunblocked ferociously, but even with that, the sun was pretty strong. We stayed out for a bit and then headed back to the hotel room. The thing is, when you have a really nice hotel room like the one we did, it's just as nice, if not nicer, to hang out in there as it is to hang out on the beach. Max bought a bottle of champagne and we just enjoyed the breeze and the sunset from our balcony. So relaxing.

Afterwards, we showered and got ready to go to dinner. Max had booked a reservation for the Hula Grill, which is another one of the hotel's restaurants, but is nicer than Duke's. We got a great table right on the patio overlooking the beach. I remember that I realized two things 1.) the temperature was perfect. Seriously perfect - not even the slightest bit too hot or too cold. It felt like the air around me was the exact temperature of my body. 2.) I was totally and completely relaxed, stress-free, and happy. I was completely at peace, in a way that I don't think I've ever been. Or at least not recently.

I didn't really take a lot of pics of dinner that night, mainly because it just seemed too much of hassle to drag out the camera. Max had a lovely surf and turf, and I had two appetizers - a ceviche and some lobster/scallop potstickers. Here's the one pic I have - a bit blurry since the sun was setting, and the place was lit with tiki torches and candle light.

All our nights ended pretty early - Hawaii is behind us by three hours, so we got sleepy at around nine. Max and I kept the balcony doors open at night, and drew only the shear curtains together so we slept to the sounds of the ocean. It was really really wonderful.

Pre Hawaii Hump Day

2007-09-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

This time tomorrow, I will be laying on a warm beach and enjoying a drink out of a coconut! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Kate, being the ever awesome friend, is actually coming over tonight to pick up Pig. I figure Pig will be less hysterical if Kate just walks her out of the apartment, rather than us dropping her off at Kate's place and leaving her behind. Hopefully there won't be any Pig screams - and yes, she does scream. I am arming Kate with plenty of cookies in case that happens.

Speaking of Pig, Max and I noticed the other night that sometimes...just sometimes...she has SLEEP APNEA. It's hysterical. She stops breathing for about 4 seconds and then starts breathing really hard. I'm going to tape it the next time she does it. Between Max's snoring and Pig's sleep apnea, it's amazing I get any sleep at all.

Anyway, toodles for now!!

Weekend Recap

2007-09-17T12:11:00.001-07:00

Well, my weekend kind of started on Thursday, since I had that day off. Spent a nice day just lounging around, playing poker online, and hanging out with Max and Pig. Oh, and I got a crazy stalker note - I had parked on the street and when I got back there was a note tucked in my windshield. At first I thought "Oh crap, someone's hit my car or something" but it turned out to be a crazy stalker note: "Hi I saw you getting out of your car and couldn't take my eyes off of you. I waited for you to come back but you didn't. Give me a call if you'd like to go out for coffee or tea. No strings attached. Pierre." Funny. Max said I should call, arrange a meeting, and then send our friend Craig there with a black wig on. Hee.

Friday I was back in the office, but it was a relatively light day. Friday night, we watched Pan's Labyrinth which was very good but very creepy! Definitely not for kids, despite the fairy tale aspect of it. Got a call at night from Kate, who had some unfortunate news - our friend Jessie was in the hospital. Luckily she is okay (seems like she had some kind of super staph infection) but she had been in the hospital for several days. I went to visit her Saturday morning. I had to wear a gown and gloves - I guess the infection is contagious and she had to be placed in "isolation." Poor thing. Anyway luckily she is recovering and was in good spirits when I saw her.

After that, Max and I went over to Amol's to meet up with the rest of the people going to LOBSTERFEST!!! It was totally awesome, as predicted. I got two whole Maine lobsters for $31! That is such an amazing deal. I wish I had some pics, but I was far too busy eating to whip out the camera. Benjamin actually ate four and a half lobsters. Amazing. Afterwards, we roamed around for a bit and then headed home. Max's friend Aaron spent the night at our place and we just hung out and digested our lobsters.

Sunday morning I slept in and Max made us a crazy ridiculous breakfast - waffles with whipcream and strawberries, hashbrowns, toast, scrambled eggs with green peppers and cheese, and fresh sausage. Good god. I didn't think I'd need to eat again for the rest of the day. Afterwards, we headed to Boardwalk for the Sunday Lions game. I love watching the game there. Everyone cheers and high-fives and it's such a fun atmosphere. About a dozen of us meet there every week (mostly Michigan peeps who have been going there for football games for a few years now) and the bar owners and staff are so friendly. The Lions have won their first two games this season!! Whoo hooo!! Yesterday's game was awesome - a total nailbiter! And we won! As we were leaving, Aaron said "This Lion's game has made my week." :)

So now it's Monday, and I'm feeling my usual Monday morning grumps, altho what is keeping me sane is our upcoming Hawaii trip. The countdown begins!

Hump Day

2007-09-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

Well, as the saying goes, don't count your chickens before they hatch. Was told I'd probably get both Thursday and Friday off for Jewish New Year, but turns out I have to come in on Friday now. Boo. I mean, yay that I don't have to work Thursday, but a four day weekend would have been awesome. Of course, I have a four day weekend next week while I'm in Hawaii, so I should probably quit whining.

Fowl Humor

2007-09-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

On a whim (okay, because I was totally bored), I decided to look up the recipe for a "turducken," thinking that maybe Max and I could give it a try for Thanksgiving this year. A "turducken" is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, with stuffing btw each layer. It's an incredibly ambitious recipe - a friend of mine actually made one once and I recall it took her several days.

Anyway, I came across this entry in Wikipedia - which is probably my most favoritest wikipedia page ever: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken

Amazing!

I am getting SO VERY excited...

2007-09-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

...about Hawaii!! Last night Max and I finally watched these two specials on Hawaii that we had tivo'd months ago. It's so beautiful there - I can't wait to go! We also booked our rental car and decided that yes, it was worth a little bit more to get a CONVERTIBLE. Whoo hoo! Actually I think we got a pretty good price on it. I tried priceline for the first time and it was a good experience. At first I tried to underbid, but then the site suggested a couple other rates that they thought would be a bit more doable. I liked that and took their suggestion and got a decent discount. Next we started to check out some things that we could do there . There's a shark adventure tour where you get to go in a shark cage and see the sharks up front and personal. Every review I've read of that says it's really awesome. Also, I think we're going to arrange some sort of guided kayak and snorkeling tour as well. I think we're really going to hammer out our itinerary this week and do some proper planning. I am really really really excited.

I didn't blog about this earlier, but has anyone checked out Tim Gunn's Guide to Style? I loved it!! Made me a bit less angry at Bravo for all the Top Chef nonsense of late. First off, I love Tim Gunn, so he can do no wrong. Secondly, the show inspired me to clean out my closet. Okay, I haven't quite gotten around to that, but it did inspire me to THINK about cleaning about my closet. I have tons and tons of clothes that I just don't wear anymore and it's time I got rid of them. Basically, according to Tim and Veronica Webb, you should divide all your clothes into four piles: keepers, trashers, menders, and give-away-ers. After that, you have to make sure you have your "essentials list" - 10 basic items that you HAVE to have in your closet.

Here they are:

Basic black dress

Trench coat

Classic dress pants

Skirt

Blazer

Jeans

Classic white shirt

Day dress

Cashmere sweater

A comfortable alternative to a sweatsuit

Bonus: an indulgent, trendy item

Hmm...I think I have most of those, but not all. Anyway, I thought the show was great, and I'm almost more excited about it than Top Chef these days. And - it actually made me cry. For real.

Weekend Recap

2007-09-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

Feeling a bit grumpy this morning. First off, youtube seems to be down, so despite my repeated efforts, I have not been able to watch Britney's apparent horrendous appearance on the VMA show. Also, new hair cut requires much more effort than the old throw-dripping-wet-hair-into-bun style I'm used to, so it took forever to get ready this morning. And work is annoying. Really really annoying.

And...it's Monday. Monday Monday Monday. Blah. Grr. Grumpgrumpfrumpfrump.

The thing that makes Monday so horrible is that I had a pretty good weekend. Friday I went over to Amol's to play poker, and I actually broke my year long losing streak with a win!

On Saturday, Benjamin, Julia, Jason, and Jason's 5 month old baby came over to watch that miserable Michigan football game. Wow - we really suck. Honestly, I hope we don't win a single game this year. At this point, it'd be much more interesting to set the worst record possible. After the game, I got my hair cut, which is always thrilling in that will-I-love-it-or-hate-it-way. So far, I love it, except for the fact that I have to actually style it. After the football games, we went over to AD's old house for their second annual "pink" party, where everyone has to wear pink. They had something there called an "ice luge." My limited frat party experience did not prepare me for what that actually was. Turns out, it's as gross as it sounds ("luge" sounds awfully close to "loogie" in my opinion). It's an ice sculpture with these little tracks carved out and basically you put your mouth on the bottom end and someone else pours alcohol down the tracks and straight into your mouth. I guess the idea is that the alcohol gets chilled on its way down. Here are a couple images to illustrate - the pic is not from the actual party but the ice luge looked a lot like that.

As you can see - ew gross!!! Everyone puts their mouth on the same spot. YUCK!! I was horrified. (And confused, b/c at first I thought they got an ice sculpture of half a sandwich and that made no sense to me at all)

Sunday morning, we went over to Boardwalkk 11 to watch the Lions first games of the season. And they won! Whoo hoo! It was really fun - we were a loud crowd of about 15 Lions fans. Reminded me a bit like being at a craps table!

But now it's Monday. :(

At least it's time for lunch.

Top Chef - Ugh

2007-09-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

This season of Top Chef is really beginning to annoy me. First off, the show is dragging on FOREVER. They've had 3 "off" weeks where they aired repeats, and during that first episode of Restaurant Wars, they didn't get rid of anyone. Next - why are these judges so friggin' inconsistent? So Howie tried to quit and "take the hit" but Padma has the nerve to say "it's the judges decision" when last season Mia totally did that? And not to mention everything is a double edged sword - if the chefs make something they don' t like and serve it, they yelled at; if they don't serve what they don't like, they get yelled at. Not to mention, what kind of lousy Quickfire prize was that? If Brian had not appointed himself Executive Chef, he would have gotten crap for it the way CJ did for Restaurant April. But by appointing himself, he put himself on the chopping block.

ARGH. HATE TOP CHEF.

Hump Day

2007-09-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Soooo sleeeeeeeepy.

Pig heard thunderstorms/fireworks/gunshots last night so I barely got any sleep. I have no idea what she heard but I guess she heard something. She just got so scared and so inconsolable that the only thing that calmed her down was for us to sleep in the living room with all the lights on and the tv blaring. Otherwise she would have spent the whole night trying to hide under the bedside tables or in the closet. Sigh. I am exhausted. It's one thing to take a nap while the tv is on, it's another thing to try to sleep through a whole night with ESPN on in the background.

Lots of ups and downs going on in my life but rather than dwelling on the more frustrating elements here are a few ups that I've been reminding myself of:

1.) HAWAII - Max and I are going in about two weeks!!! It's going to be awesome!!! Also, Kate has agreed to watch Pig and her boyfriend will help walk her during the day while she's at work. I am so so so very relieved and grateful that it worked out!!! Making arrangements for Pig is always the most stressful part of taking a vacation.

2.) MY WORK SCHEDULE FOR THE MONTH - this week is 4 day work week, next week is a 3 day work week (I have thursday and friday off b/c of jewish holidays - one of the major bonuses to working for a jewish employer) and the following week is also a 3 day work week because of the Hawaii trip.

3.) LOBSTERFEST next Saturday. This is one of my most favorite festivals of the year. They ships tons and tons of Maine lobsters to San Pedro. I plan on eating two!

4.) WORKING OUT - Yes, I've actually been going to the gym again. Quite frequently. The muffin top seems to have shrunk a little bit and I can finally fit into something besides sweatpants. I don't think I'll be in bikini shape by the time we go to Hawaii, but hopefully I'll at least look a bit less lumpy.

5.) THIS WEEKEND - It will be an old school kind of weekend - party at AD's old house and then maybe a bbq? Labor Day Weekend was totally ruined by the heat - we couldn't really do anything at all so I'm hoping we get to bbq this weekend.

Alright, feel a bit cheered up now. How could I not? I'm going to HAWAAAAAAAIIIIII!!!!

It's Friday!! Finally!!!

2007-08-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

TGIF, right?

Nothing really new to report, although I did go to the gym last night and this morning. I figured it was about time to get back into shape, considering I spend most of the day sitting in front of the computer with my pants unbuttoned. Just realized that sounds rather dirty, but I just mean my pants are too damn tight!!! Last night's kickboxing class was good, but brutal. I really enjoyed it though and came out feeling energized and optimistic. This morning Max and I actually got up early, and I was able to take Pig for a nice walk before going to the gym. I went to a step class that was really more of sculpt and stretch class. I didn't care much for it at first, but then I realized that the slow pace of all the exercises really helped me focus on form so I think it worked out well in the end. The instructor normally teaches Pilates, so we did some of those exercises and now my back feels all straight and funny. I think I'll go back to taking pilates or yoga again - really improves my posture, which is so very poor.

More Movies

2007-08-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

Max and I watched two more movies last night. Lately it's all about movies! I can't wait for the fall tv season to begin again!

Last night we watched The Illusionist, which while good, is not as good as The Prestige. I definitely prefer The Prestige. Then we watch Zodiac, which was surprisingly not very good. I'd been pretty excited about this movie. I like the director and I love crime stories so I thought it should be good. Instead it was too long, and boring for a good 2/3rds of it. How you can make a boring movie about a real-life serial killer is beyond me, but they managed to do that. I guess it must have made some subconscious impact on Max though - he said he had nightmares all night about family members being killed. I didn't sleep well either and had vague unhappy dreams. Strange. Either the movie was really creepy and we didn't notice, or maybe we should have slept with the air conditioner on!

My Aunt Laura sent me a great clip, which totally made me cry. Check it out! http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2007/08/21/wsaz.dog.dug.out.affl

Ate way too much spicy Indian food for lunch. I GROSSLY overate - should have stopped about halfway through my chicken curry but I just plowed on ahead. Vaguely wish I could throw it up but remembered that I'm not bulimic. How inconvenient. Also, spicy chicken curry doesn't strike me as something that would be very comfortable coming up out of the stomach, considering how terrible it felt going down! And that was with four glasses of water!

Weekend Recap

2007-08-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ooh. Very nice weekend. Perfect blend of going out and vegging in front of tv.

Friday night, a few of us went to a birthday party at Eleven, a bar within walking distance from my apartment. Although it's technically not a gay bar, it's definitely in the gay bar district. It was surprisingly dead, considering how lively the other bars in the area were though. We went there for Rebecca's friend's bday party, and after we hung out a bit and all had a chance to experience using a unisex bathroom (strange) we decided to take the opportunity to check out a few other bars. First, we stopped at a club called Ultra Suede. I tried to convince the bouncer that I was a blogger who was doing reviews of clubs in the local area and to let me in to scope out the place real quick. He did let me get to the front of the club (he was guarding the stairs that lead up to the entrance), where I could peak in, but the girls manning the actual front door wouldn't let me thru for free. It looked fun though - it was Madonna night, and they were playing all Madonna songs. We didn't go in since the cover was $12 and that'd buy us only about an hour in the club, but the bouncer did give me a couple free passes for another night, so maybe we'll get a chance to check it out some other time. After that we went to the Rainbow Room, which was definitely interesting. An older crowd, predominately aging rockers and the aging women into aging rockers. I liked it quite a bit actually - it made for a good people watching. So, all in all, a very good Friday night.

Saturday we decided to stay in and watch tv and movies. Here are my weekend movie reviews:

THE PRESTIGE - so unbelievably AWESOME!!!! Definitely see this!!! Wow - I cannot say enough good things about this movie!!

THE NIGHT LISTENER - skip this one. Felt like a short story that got expanded and there's very little pay off in the end.

BOURNE IDENTITY - Obviously not a new movie, but we decided to rewatch anyway, and it's still good.

GOTHIKA - this was not so great. Not really scary, and I found a lot of it to be rather illogical.

Sunday night was best part of the weekend. Honestly. Our gay friend Tyler had his birthday party at a gay line dancing bar! It was really something to see - a bunch of gay men dancing in sync to country music. And there were so many different kinds of line dances too - so many different moves. I guess the dj announces what kind of dance before he plays the song so anyone who knows it goes out and dances all completely in sync. It's fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Everyone should go to a gay line dancing bar at one point in their lives.

Anyway, that's about it. Monday. Back to work. *sigh*

Another McDonald's Related Dream

2007-08-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

So I had a weird dream last night. I don't why, but it was set in McDonald's again, and when I reread my post for the McFuddle Dream I had last year, roughly at this time, I could see some similarities.

I wanted to buy a vanilla soft-serve ice cream cone (as you know, I've been OBSESSED with them lately) but no one could get the order right. They tried eight times - sometimes they'd give me chocolate, sometimes they forgot the cone, other times it came totally melted. I was so mad that I threatened to report the workers to the manager. I even grabbed a napkin and started to write down everyone's name with a pencil. Except part of the problem was that I couldn't tell which worker had failed, there were a whole bunch of people behind the counter and they all looked a like. It didn't really matter though, inn my heart, I knew I wouldn't actually report them, I just wanted to scare them into giving me a proper vanilla soft-serve ice cream cone. And then I woke up. Angry.

I don't know what to make of this dream. But I do know what I'm having for lunch.

Weekend Recap

2007-08-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

Wow. Max and I have become such boring people lately. We're both trying to go out less, in an attempt to slim down before our trip to Hawaii and to save up some extra cash so we can eat and drink heartily while we're there. This makes us boring boring people. Boo.

We basically spent the whole weekend watching movies, which neither added calories to our waistlines or made a dent in our wallets. Maybe just made a dent in our brains, since many of them were pretty piss poor.

Here are my very short and concise reviews:

NUMBER 23 - terrible, weird, not scary, stupid.

PREMONITION - somewhat better than NUMBER 23 but still bad, slow, too religious

SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS - had low expectations of this so was pleasantly surprised. Funny and charming.

HOSTEL - terrible, not scary, gratuitous tits, had to fastforward through most of it out of boredom

The best thing I watched all weekend? COLONIAL HOUSE. I love love love this show. I think I'm going to rent the series on DVD, rather than watching one episode a week.

So apart from watching movies, Max and I also cleaned the apartment. Woohoo!

An Anti-Stranger List

2007-08-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

Julia gets hugged by random strangers. A lot. We've talked about why this happens to her so often. I think she just comes off very outgoing, open, and approachable - that's just her personality. I explained to her that there are little signals and things to do to avoid getting hugged by the garbageman, homeless guy, strange old lady, creepy-lascivious-old-guy, etc. I came up with a list. Now for starters, I totally admit that I'm paranoid and scared of strangers. This is undoubtedly from all the horror stories that my mom told me when I was younger - stories like the ones about the "wu-joe-bock-bock" translated loosily to mean "Uncle Filthy" (not in a familial way, you just call your elders "uncle" and "aunt" to show respect), who kidnapped children off the streets of Hong Kong, made them beggar slaves, and chopped off their fingers if they didn't bring back enough money at the end of the day. She used to point out homeless men and whisper to me that if I wasn't a good girl, she'd give me away to the "wu-joe-bock-bock" down the street. Did I mention I have an irrational fear of the homeless? Also a "good girl" complex? Other children had nightmares about monsters and ghosts - I had nightmares about guys holding "will work for food" signs.

Anyway, here were a few things I came up with to avoid contact with strangers:

1.) Don't make eye contact! This is the most basic one, which in theory should ward off about 95% of strangers.

2.) If you accidentally make eye contact, look away immediately, and for the love of god, don't smile!

3.) If you feel like you have to acknowledge them, a curt nod is generally enough.

4.) If you haven't followed 1-3, and you're stuck talking to them, pretend you're very very busy and have to go somewhere. Look at your watch. Frown. Answer in one syllable words. Do an obvious fake-tight-polite smile that quickly fades away as if to say "I'm smiling only to be polite, but you're annoying me and I've got to go!"

5.) If they try to hug you, insist that you have a cold. Fake a sneeze if necessary. Say "I hab a vewwy stubby noz!"

6.) If you still haven't gotten out of hugging them, at least make the hug as terrible as possible so they won't try it again. Accidentally elbow them in the ribs, pull their hair, step on their toes, cough in their face.

Luckily, by carefully following rules 1-5, I've never had to get to six!

Ruda-what?

2007-08-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Went over to Jessie's last night to watch Top Chef with the girls. She had prepared quite a spread of snacks for us - yum! Lots of veggies, a white bean dip, grapes, strawberries, and "rugula," a cookie/pastry thing which I mistakingly called "rutabaga." Haha. I knew it started with a "ru" and ended with an "a"! Then I proceeded to confuse "rutabaga" with the word "winnebago." Very different things - one's a rooty vegetable, the other, an RV. Can't believe I got through English in school.

Top Chef was satisfying - I thought the person who had to "pack their knives" deserved to go. Oh, and will someone please give Howie a friggin' sweatband? It absolutely horrifies me how the man just drips nonstop into the food he's cooking! I don't even know why he bothers salting his food, considering the amount of sweat he pours into it. Ew. Gross.

Yet Another Recall of a Chinese Product

2007-08-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

I guess there's a recall of fresh ginger. Doesn't seem to be that serious but the suspected tainted ginger was sold in California and Michigan - I know there are a few chinese chefs who read this blog so pitch your ginger if you bought it from an Albertsons. Here's the article.

Worst Kickboxing Class Ever

2007-08-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

So last night I roped Julia into the worst kickboxing class ever. Oh my god - it was so boring! Same few kicks and punch combinations over and over and over again for an hour. Really painful in a mind-numbing way, not in a wow-I'm-getting-a-great-workout way. While it was not the most boring class I've ever taken (I've taken one before where there was even less variety in the routine) I'm labeling this as the Worst Kickboxing Class Ever because it was such a waste of awesome music! The mix was almost entirely composed of classic Prince songs!! I was so excited when it first started and thought - "This is the class for me! I'm practically obligated by my Prince love to show up here each week!" Sadly, not even the Purple One could ever inspire me to take that class. When it was finally over, Julia said to me "That. Was. Hella. Boring." Hella yeah.

Weekend Recap

2007-08-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

Very laid back weekend, which was nice since the last few have been busy.

Max and I discovered The Two Coreys on Friday night. Has anyone seen that show on A&E? It's about Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. Basically it just follows what happens when Corey Haim moves into Corey Feldman's house. Kind of like the odd couple as Corey Haim is a single, recently recovered addict loser and Corey Feldman actually has gotten his life together and is married with a kid and a nice house. It was the sort of thing where once I started to watch it, I couldn't stop. I was never even a fan of either of the Coreys! And I still haven't seen The Lost Boys! Anyway, that was Friday night. Oh and we also watched Hot Fuzz, which was so bad that I completely forgot I had watched it on Friday night until just now. I was really disappointed - Shaun of the Dead is one of my most favorite movies and I thought Hot Fuzz would be great, but sadly, it just sucked.

Saturday was my first near perfect day, according to the list. Got up and went to the gym for a BRUTAL kickboxing class. I think it would have been a hard class even if I were in shape. Since I haven't worked out in months, the class was impossible. I really liked the instructor though, and the music was great so I definitely plan on taking more of her classes. I managed to do everything on my list except for the Mind Improvement category. I'm really struggling with that category. The prob is I MUCH prefer just laying on the couch watching movies and tv. I did suggest to Max that we could play a game of chess but then I got distracted by, what else, the tv and that was the end of it. There was an awesome string of movies on TV on Saturday. First there was Bridge Jones' Diary, which is one of my favorites. Then Shanghai Noon, another one of my favorites. Followed by The Omen (the new one) - not very good. Oh well. 2 out of 3 is not bad. I also discovered Colonial House on PBS which I LOVED. That show is awesome. It's like an educational reality/documentary show where they take 17 people and make them live it's 1628 and they're building a new colony in America. They have to follow the social guidelines and hierarchy of that time, and do all their work by hand. They eat things like muskrat (ew - which tastes like catfish or fried chicken, depending on which "settler" you asked), and plow their own fields, and don't shower. I found it fascinating and definitely recommend watching it.

On Sunday we went grocery shopping, in a major way - Costco, Trader Joe's and Pavillions. Max and I spent most of last week clearing out the fridge and pantry by eating all the weird odds and ends of food we've accumulated over the past few months. It always amazes me how we collect food we don't eat - 1/2 a bag of old egg noodles, random can of baked beans, a head of cabbage left over from Josh's july 4th party at our apt - I assume someone mistook it for a head of lettuce. The plan was to clear out the fridge and pantry and restock up with ingredients for some carefully planned meals. So Max drew up a terrific master grocery list and we now have all our food planned for the next three weeks. Last night we had spaghetti. It was strange - I had this total flashback to my childhood. I was napping on the couch and I woke up with a start, a bit bleary-eye, and it actually felt and smelled like it did when I was younger. I think it was the spaghetti - we bought the same brand of sauce my mom used to use, and Max was browning meat into it the way she would and my first thought, when I woke up, was to wonder if I had finished all my homework. Hah!

Yesterday night we went to play poker at Tyler's and to watch his big game show debut on tv. I guess he was a contestant on a new show called Camouflage. He did pretty well, but didn't win anything. Neither did Max or I at poker - sadly. Oh well, it was fun.

The List

2007-08-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

I was talking to Erin about my new August resolutions and she told me that she actually keeps a gigantic check list of things she wants to accomplish every day. Hmm. Naturally, this has inspired me to make up a huge obsessive spreadsheet. I've only designed it for six weeks, until I go to Hawaii. Six weeks to a Better Sareet. A few of the things on my spreadsheet/list to do or monitor are:

Floss
Vitamins
8 glasses of water
Calories consumed
Alcholic beverages consumed
Exercised
Walked Pig (at least 30 mins)
Pig Tricks (spend some time teaching her a new trick so she'll stay mentally stimulated)
Money spent
Mind Improvement (have to do something each day that will keep me mentally stimulated - like a crossword puzzle, sudoku, or learn about something)
Work Quality - graded as follows: Owesome, Weak, Lame (suggested by Benjamin, inspired by Harry Potter naturally)

Have done rather poorly these last two days. Definite gaps in some areas and too much in others. Will have to strive to do better.

I'm not sure what this crazy obsessive spreadsheet will really accomplish and I'm not sure why I think I need one but somehow I'm convinced that my life will improve and be more meaningful. Will keep blog posted on my progress!

August First

2007-08-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it's August already? Where has the year gone? I remember that I thought briefly on July 1st that it was halfway through the year and I should examine and renew my resolutions (what were they again???) but then I proceeded to forget all about them and now IT'S AUGUST. We're in the second half of the year. It's almost Christmas. Good lord.

Max and I will be going to Hawaii in six weeks! SIX WEEKS!!! I'm fatter than I've ever been. Well, since high school at least. Honestly, I had sort of given up trying to get in shape. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that it's SO hard for me to slim down, but remarkably easy to put on weight so I just decided that I should stop fighting nature and "do what I do best!" Maybe I AM supposed to be sort of squishy in the middle. I really gave up - I even stopped setting my alarm to 6:30 a.m. under the pretense that I'd get up and go to the gym. The result has been a bit alarming - I'm practically forced to wear sweatpants to work as nothing seems to fit. So I guess that whole "do what I do best" thing might have been a bad idea. Am going to have to start working out (or at least thinking about working out) again. Luckily Max and I are also trying to save a bit of extra money for our Hawaii trip which means no more going out to eat, and definitely fewer trips to the bar for the next six weeks, so hopefully that will help reduce my steroid sized muffin top.

Feeling a bit reflective. Or is it reflexive? I have always, even when I was little, loved First of the Months and Sundays. They're an excellent time to think positively and regroup and renew your goals. Right. Like it doesn't matter that just last night I was eating Ben & Jerry's Americone Icecream by the quart and ordering expensive shit off the internet and sleeping in my make-up. Because that was yesterday. Today is today. Today is a fresh day. Today is the first day to being A Better Sareet. It's funny, on a side note, how I like to think about these things but have absolutely no interest in reading self-help or self-improvement books. Or actually truly accomplishing any of my goals. But - no - think positive! It's August First! Today is the day I am going to start being:

1.) Healthy. I will watch calories, exercise, drink lots of water, take vitamins, limit alcohol intake, floss, exfoliate, get my wisdom teeth removed, etc.

2.) Financially responsible. I will pay my overdue bills, return things I bought for camping but didn't use such as those glow-in-the-dark-bug-repellent-bracelets (oh yes I did) and learn to determine the difference between "needs" and "wants" (Prince's new CD is a "need" and his new perfume is a "want"...)

3.) A better employee. I will work harder and quit messing around on the internet and reading about Chef Gordon Ramsay on whom I've developed an unpleasant crush. (Might be a bit late for this one today seeing that it's almost 4 p.m. and I've accomplished very little - oh well there's always tomorrow)

4.) A better dog mom (teach Pig a new trick), family member (stay in touch with everyone), girlfriend (stop subjecting him to Columbo), friend (remember upcoming birthdays), citizen (no longer allow Pig to poop on the street), and neighbor (no longer hide said poop in neighbor's trash can)

Yes. I'm going to start doing all of these things.

Except that I'm going over to Erin's tonight to watch Top Chef where I will undoubtedly eat lots of junk food and drink lots of white wine and make fun of the contestants and gossip. Which will probably be followed by me picking a fight with Max when I get home, not flossing, sleeping in my make-up, waking up hung over, skipping the gym, skipping Pig's walk in the morning and dragging Max to the diner near our apt where I will proceed to order over $20 worth of breakfast foods.

Ugh. Maybe I will start being A Better Sareet on Sunday instead.

Lake Perris Weekend Recap

2007-07-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

"Dah-ling I love you but give me West Hollywood..."

Camping was so much fun. On Saturday we went to a place called Lake Perris, which is in Riverside, about 2 hours outside of LA. Pretty barren looking area - reminded me a bit of camping in Colorado, but without the mountains. I kept Pig tied to a tree most of the time - and I don't think she appreciated that at all. Especially when we stood far away from her while eating hot dogs. On Sunday I let her loose (no one else was around - the camp had cleared out) and on more than one occasion she just ran back into the tent and wouldn't come back out.

I wish I could say we did all sort of interesting things but basically we just sat around and drank and talked and hung out. A few of us went swimming (I declined naturally - I really only like swimming in heavily chlorinated pools) but we mostly just ate and drank and sat around. It was like an overnight picnic and was really fun. Here are some pics (I took some, Amol took the others):

Pig, tied to a tree next to our tent. I decided to attach two mini fans to her harness (blades were made of soft foam) to help her stay cool.

I don't think she liked being tied up. Or having two battery powered fans whirring right under her face.

Anyway, we had an awesome time!!!

Hump Day

2007-07-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sure no one will be surprised to learn that I did not end up ordering live tentacles at The Prince. I also passed on the "sauteed silkworms." Can I just say though, that place is AWESOME! It is even more old fashioned British-themed looking than I imagined. Really dark booths, oil paintings, velvety walls - I'm sure back in the day, when it was the hotel bar/restaurant for the Windsor, it would have been very elegant. Definitely Rat Pack/mobster-y. When we first sat down, Benjamin whispered, "I'm scared of this place!" altho once we got accustomed to the scene he mellowed out. I was a little disappointed that we did not get as many complimentary snacks as I thought we would. The reviews I read made it sound like you get more and more things to nibble on as the night wears on, but all we got were some chips & salsa, a kimchi pancake, and some pickled radishes. Hmm - it just occurred to me - maybe you have to finish the complimentary snacks before you get more? We all had a few radishes but I don't think we finished the whole dish. Or maybe it helps if you go with some Koreans? Benjamin had learned to say "thank you" and "I'm sorry" in Korean before he showed up but sadly I didn't hear him put those phrases to use. Anyway, we ordered two entrees - a spicy chicken which was not bad, and a kimchi fried rice which I thought was very tasty. Even tho it was a full bar, we stuck with carafes of lemon and lime soju. Soju is like a mild vodka - you can barely taste it. Lemon and lime soju taste like lemonade and limeade, respectively. Anyway, they give you little shot glasses to drink your soju so you end up having to refill your glass over and over again. I didn't leave until 12:30 - I couldn't believe we had talked predominately about Harry Potter for so long! I am exhausted. And I think I'm playing gpoker tonight - don't know how I'm going to stay awake!

The Prince

2007-07-24T16:12:00.001-07:00

So Benjamin and Rebecca and I are meeting up tonight for drinks and for shameless discussion of the new Harry Potter book. We've decided to try a place in Koreatown called The Prince, which I read about online. It's a divey bar that used to be a fancy British hotel bar/restaurant in the 1950's, but the current owners are Korean. The decor is the same (English themed), but they serve korean food and soju and oriental beers. Sounds bizarre and fabulous and seems like an appropriate place to discuss Harry Potter since it's British, and one of the books in the series is called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! I read online that there's a scene from "Chinatown" with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway that was shot there. What has fascinated me most about this place tho (apart from the free korean appetizers that come with each round of drinks) are the LIVE TENTACLES on the menu. I guess you can order live octupus tentacles are stilll MOVING on the plate. I read about it here and am trying to convince Benjamin to order them. It's a pretty long post so I'd just skim to the bottom where he finally gets around to describing his live tentacle experience. And I definitely recommend watching the video that goes with the review as well! Ewwww.....

Weekend Recap

2007-07-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter of course!

I honestly can't remember what I did Friday. I know I went to work, and I know I came back, but I can't recall at all what I did Friday evening. Probably because I was so anxious for Saturday. Oh, it's coming back now. Max made a lovely herb chicken with a mushroom cream sauce, and we just hung out and watched tv and went to bed early and I dreamt about HP all night.

Saturday - brutal. Woke up at 7 a.m., like a little kid on Christmas morning. The UPS guy didn't deliver the book until 2 p.m. so I spent the whole day waiting in pain. I tried to distract myself by watching tv, but found myself screaming into my couch pillow and rocking back and forth during the commerical breaks. I completely bit down my fingernails - a habit I thought I outgrew in high school. Now I have unattractive stubby little fingers. I was literally in physical pain - like that feeling you get when you are so fucking anxious...or like when you have heartburn. When the UPS guy finally came I was so excited I ran and threw open the door (much to Max's chagrin as he was sitting only in his boxers - he didn't even have the chance to hide in the bathroom) and screamed "IT'S HERE!! IT'S HERE!! IT'S HEEEEEEEEEEEERRRREEEE!!!!" at the top of my lungs. Proceeded on a marathon reading session and devoured the book in one sitting. I actually developed a bit of a back ache from not moving for hours at a time. Once I was done, I started re-reading it immediately. I only stopped to walk Pig, to pee and to eat. Even when I ate, I pre-cut all my food so I could just shovel it my mouth while reading.

I won't be discussing the book here but I will say I LOVED it. There. That's all I'll say. LOVED IT.

Finally decided Sunday afternoon that it was time to return to normalcy. Showered, changed, and Max and I went out to dinner. We wanted to go to Old Spaghetti Factory but when we got there we discovered it'd been closed. Sad. In our early dating years, Max and I went there quite often. Mostly b/c I loved the kitschy decor and the prices - where else can you get a plate of pasta, salad, bread, ice tea, and spumoni ice cream for less than $8 while sitting inside a bus inside a restaurant? We went instead to Pomodoro, a small Italian restaurant next to a Target. The food was quite good actually. No bus though. Afterwards, we picked up some camping equipment at Target. We got a 2-3 person tent (perfect for me, Max and Pig) and a sleeping bag all for $40. Another good deal! I couldn't find the pet lantern but I did pick up some glowsticks. Figured I'd attach one to Pig and the rest might come in handy some other way.

So. Hmm. Life feels a bit strange post HP. Will have to find something new to obsess about!

I Can't Stand It

2007-07-20T11:24:00.001-07:00

I really can't. Book 7 is almost here!!! I can't concentrate on anything. Benjamin and Rebecca are getting theirs tonight at midnight. I have to suffer and wait until UPS delivers it on Saturday. Argh.

Met up with Rebecca last night at a fun wine bar called Bottleneck. I don't know much about wine, but it was a cool place and rather crowded for a Thursday night. We opted to share a bottle and skipped out on the cheese and various tapas you could order to go with your wine. Our first bottle was a bit funky - I guess the cork had gone bad. We didn't know for sure if it was bad wine, or that we just didn't know what good wine is supposed to taste like but when we asked the waiter to check it out he said it was definitely bad. So he opened another bottle for us. Now we know what wine smells like when it's gone bad! Very musty and mildewy- like an old basement.

As a result of not exercising and eating a McDonald's vanilla ice cream cone every day for the past two weeks, I've completely outgrown my jeans. None of them fit me anymore! The other day I was so uncomfortable that I took my jeans off in the car before I started to drive home. Contemplated driving in only my underwear but I just knew in my heart that if I did, it'd be ONE TIME I'd get pulled over and have to step out of the car or something. Or I'd get in a car crash and get rushed in to the hospital with no pants on. To make things worse I was wearing a pair of novelty underwear my mom bought me and my sister. (definitely time to do laundry!) It consists of a drawing of a pig face in the front, and a drawing of a pig butt in the back, complete with an extra piece of fabric attached as a tail. Just imagine if for some reason I had to get out of the car!! Luckily, I had a pair of sweat pants in the gym bag from god only knows how long ago, so I slipped into those instead.

Glow-in-the-dark Pig

2007-07-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Am thinking I definitely need to get this for Pig:

Now you can see your pet wherever they go! Special lantern shaped pet tag lights up with every movement.
Motion activated using super-bright red LEDs. Emits 3 flashes and stays on.
Water resistant - Goes anywhere your pet does!
Write your pet's name and owner's phone number should your pet wander away.
Uses one replaceable CR2032 battery with 20 hours continuous run time.

So Close!

2007-07-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Have to be so vigilant now - poor Rebecca's already gotten accidentally spoiled - apparently some bastard posted who dies in the last book and the page numbers the deaths occur under the "comments" part of a youtube clip. So, have to stay off the internets until after I read the book.

I found someone's Wellsfargo ATM/debit card this morning on my way to work. I had stopped for coffee, and decided to get some cash from the atm machine next to the Coffeebean. The card was still in the machine. One "Jesse Glick" - cardholder since 1999. He's damn lucky I was the one who found it. Rather than withdrawing his money and going on a shopping spree (wheeeee!) I just called Wellsfargo and they cancelled the card immediately and instructed me to destroy it. It's the second or third time I've found someone's ATM card left in the machine. I think that happens a lot. I always call the bank when I find one. I can only hope someone would do the same for me. Same thing goes for lost dogs. Over the years, I've spotted many a runaway dog. Luckily they've all had tags so I usually just escort them back home or call their owners.

Been listening a lot to This American Life. It's awesome. I've been downloading the free podcasts. Highly recommend it to anyone who has a long commute to work. I can't believe how long it took for me to discover this show, which has existed for years on NPR.

Anyway, blah blah blah. Back to work.

Beware!

2007-07-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter spoilers are all over the place! What is wrong with these party-poopers???!! I'm all about theories and guessing but I HATE spoilers! Have to be super careful while surfing the internet for the next few days.

In the meantime, to take my mind off my HP obsession, I've been focusing on our upcoming camping trip. Called the park today - unfortunately all their pontoon boats are broken and unavailable for rental. That sucks - I loved hanging out on Max's pontoon boat in Grayling. They do have 14 ft fishing boats and paddle boats available on a first come first serve basis. Not sure if anyone will be interested in those however.

As for the pet rules, Pig is allowed on the boats, but not allowed in the water. "No body contact with water." Shouldn't be a problem since she hates getting wet! She's perfect for camping! She'll have to be on leash the whole time, even on our campsite, which is fine, since I was planning that anyway. I read a good tip about attaching a glowstick to a dog while camping so you can see where she/he is at all times in the night. Think I'll do that. I also checked with the park ranger about rattlesnakes, particularly in regards to dog safety (who cares about the humans, right?). She said that they shouldn't be problem on the campsites, but they do come out in the early morning and early evening on the hiking trails and that I should keep my dog close by. Guess I'll be skipping that activity! My biggest concern is heatstroke, for Pig of course. It's supposed to get pretty hot - almost 100, and that worries me a bit. I hope as long as she stays under the shade and hydrated she'll be okay. I'm thinking about picking up a couple portable fans and mini-mister things to keep her cool. I figure she should be fine - other people bring the dogs camping all the time in the summer. Worst case, I'll stick her in the car with the a/c on until dark!

Oh and I hate Michael Vick. I hope he ends up in prison.

Harry Potter Countdown

2007-07-17T12:44:00.001-07:00

Argh. It's killing me. Days are passing by so slowly. Weekdays at least. Weekends are of course a different story.

Had a craving for Indian food last night so Max and I decided to try India Sweets & Spices. We've heard a lot about this place from our friends. It's actually a grocery store with a small counter full of homemade inexpensive Indian food. Max was kind enough to go get it and bring it back for dinner. I had reminded him of the items I normally like - tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, chicken vindaloo, saag paneer, aloo gobi - but it turns out none of those were listed there. I guess they don't really have a menu - just a counter top of food with names but no descriptions. I got a hilarious call from Max on his way back where he explained he had no idea what he ordered, and that he just pointed to a bunch of different dishes and said "Give me 12 ounces of THAT." Well - he did very well! The food was great - really flavorful. We still have no idea what we ate - definitely something with cauliflower and mushrooms in one, and something with homemade cheese but that's about all we could figure out. I'm not even sure we ate anything with meat - I think we got all vegetarian items. Excellent tho.

Anyway, after dinner Max had to go help our friend Tony for about an hour to do a pick-up shot for a music video he is shooting, so I plopped down in front of the tv and watched my usual Monday line-up of Hell's Kitchen and Big Love. Anyone else following those shows?

Oh and Lisa sent pics from her bday party! Thanks Lisa - especially for the photoshopping!!

Weekend Recap

2007-07-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Cannot believe how quickly this weekend passed by.

Friday night we went to see the new Harry Potter movie at an IMAX theater. It was so AWESOME. I strongly recommend everyone to go see it in IMAX - the 20 minutes of 3D are spectacular. And the sound is soo much better than at regular theaters. I don't know if it was just a problem with Graumann's, but when I saw it on Weds night there were a few lines I couldn't understand. I figured it was due to the British accents, but I could hear them fine on Friday night - so probably the sound at an IMAX theater is just a lot better. Anyway, definitely go see it!!

The only bad thing that happened was I got pink eye! Or some sort of eye infection, presumably from the 3D glasses they passed out at the IMAX theater. I highly doubt they wash them between screenings. I did in fact try to clean my pair a bit with my shirt before I put them on - Josh says that had to be my downfall. He figures in my attempt to clean them I got pink eye germs all over my fingers and then probably touched my eye. I hate to admit it, but it does sound reasonable.

So due to the goopy itchy pink eye, I spent all of Saturday just sitting on the couch rereading a HP book again. Couldn't very well leave the apartment with my hideous eye and glasses. Max went out and bought me some eye drops that helped a lot, so by the evening, I was able to wear my contacts again. I really really hate wearing glasses! Anyway we had a big Sat night. First stop was at Lisa's birthday party at Q's. I watched Lisa do 2 Irish car bombs and 4 shots in about 25 minutes. Good lord, I was willing to be money that she'd be puking before midnight! Our next stop was at Edendale Grill for Kate's bday. Had a great time - the place is really nice and has a outdoor patio area so we just hung around and chatted with friends.

Sunday morning, we went to check out a dim sum restaurant in Alhambra. It's called Triumphal Palace - I liked it. The restaurant has a much nicer decor than most, and the food was pretty good. Only draw back was the price (a bit more expensive than most places) and the menu selection was on the small side. But I'm glad we went to try it out.

Got back home, napped and read on the couch. Before I knew it, it was dinner time. Max made up some really nice seafood kabobs and grilled veggie skewers. Yum. And that was that - the weekend, gone by in a flash!

Now I'm just counting down the days until Sat when the last HP book comes out!!!! Argh - CANNOT WAIT!!

Also, have decided to take Pig camping. A bunch of us are going camping next weekend for one night. I've been debating whether or not to take her - I'm terrified that she'll chase a squirrel and get lost, or eat poisoned berries, or worst of all - get eaten by a bear - but I've read up on some dog camping tips and I think it'll be fine. I'm just going to make sure she gets tied to a tree or, at the very least, me. I think she'll really love it! And on a practical note, I won't have to deal with finding a sitter. Also she is an excellent rodent detector so I won't have to worry about any nasty furry things crawling into the tent!

Harry Potter...AGAIN!!!

2007-07-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

Saw Order of the Phoenix at Graumann's on Weds night. It was pretty good. Frankly I'm always a little disappointed when I see the movies - what I really want is a movie that films every single scene in the book. In terms of adapting the book, I thought Goblet was better, but this is still pretty good. Solid movie. Will be seeing it again tonight at an IMAX theater - the last 20 mins are in 3D. Awesome. Love 3D movies.

Max talks in his sleep. Usually I can't understand him but the other night I actually heard what he said, which was hysterical. He said, "I've done this so many times I could do it my sleep." Haha. Ironic.

Put on a new shirt this morning. Forgot that there's a little zipper on the side. Got stuck in it in the most uncomfortable way - arms in the air, shirt around shoulders but could not pull it down or up. Ran to Max to get him to help (was really really stuck and could feel the threads beginning to tear). His response? Grabbed his cell phone and chased after me taking pics of me in my embarassing predicament. Nice guy, that Max.

Order of the Phoenix is Here!!

2007-07-11T11:04:00.001-07:00

Argh. Cannot concentrate at all. Going to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight!!! My mind is like that HP counter to the right of this post - it's going crazy!!!

Twosday

2007-07-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

2nd day of getting up and going to the gym at 6:30 a.m. Even Pig was like "What?? What is your problem?? Do you know how early it is??" This is how I interpreted the five minute GROANING MOANING WHIMPERING tirade she gave. I was pretty proud I made it to the gym even without Max going along with me. I guess he hardly slept last night and opted to sleep in instead. He had pulled a back muscle or something so he was tossing and turning all night long. He tried sleeping upright in a chair for a while, then on a couch, and then back in bed. I was COMPLETELY oblivious to all this. I actually had a great night of sleep. Not as great as that night I dreamt I met Prince after a concert and we totally hit it off and made plans to go camping (seriously awesome dream) or that night that I went on a date with Hugh Laurie who I kept calling Professor House (I think it was b/c he looks a bit like a professor I had in college - a very HOT professor who I totally had a crush on), but it was still an excellent night of sleep. Don't remember what I dreamt about but I slept really soundly and woke up all refreshed. Amazing. Exercising IS really good for you.

Went to Mishima's for dinner last night. I love that place - great udon noodles and really inexpensive bento boxes. Also, it's really close to where we live. Afterwards, we went to Trader Joe's to stock up on some healthy groceries. Not sure exactly what flax seeds are but we now have a pantry full of them. Oatmeal with Flax seeds, Cereal with Flax seeds, tortilla chips with flax seeds, etc. Sure hope that stuff really is good for you and we don't discover later that what it really does is make women grow hair all over chins and make men grow extra nipples or something.

As I was driving home from work last night with Pig, I saw the driver ahead of me turn back and look at me quizzically through his window. He looked a lot like my friend Tony - and turns out, he was! I pulled up next to him and rolled down the window to chat. He said he recognized Pig first, which is really funny because that's the second time someone has spotted me because they recognized my dog first. It is also the fourth or fifth time that I've actually spotted a friend while driving. LA is a small town after all.

Since June 26th...

2007-07-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Argh. Have been so busy and conversely so lazy that have not had time or energy to blog. Got back from Michigan last week. Had a spectacular time. We left on Tuesday the 26th on a red eye flight out of LA and got back at around midnight on July 4th. I ate, shopped, ate, went to a beautiful wedding, drank, fished, ate, pontoon boated, drank, bonfired, ate, and even snuck in some time to nap in front of the telly. As a result of all this activity, or rather, inactivity, i have put on about five pounds. Yikes. In the last two weeks I've had TWO people think that I'm PREGNANT. One, a stupid fucking waitress at a Japanese restaurant and two - my grandmother. Yep, the Chinese Costanzas, my aunts and my cousin Anders were in town over the weekend. My grandma took one look at me and said two words in Chinese that simply meant "BIGGER." Was a bit confused initially - what part of me did she mean? Boobs? That would be good. Muffin top? Bad. Ass? Good, actually - could use some junk in the trunk. Face? Bad. Also those two words could in theory mean "OLDER" - also bad. But apparently, as she clarified later, she just meant I looked bigger all over and thought I was pregnant. Was disappointed to learn I was not, and then she and my grandpa launched into a whole speech about how I really should have a baby - no need to get married - just have a baby. I thought that was really funny. M conservative old Chinese grandparents are so desperate for great-grandkids they want me to pop one out - married or not. Haha.

Anyway, hung out with the fam a bit over the weekend. I continued to eat and shop with them so am now approaching dire times. Have about ten weeks until we go to Hawaii. Aunt Marilyn and I have been discussing the possibility of training for a mini-triathlon. It's much less strenous than a full length triathlon, but you still have to run, bike and swim. At first I was pretty gung ho about it and even found a reasonable 8 week program that I cut out of my Fitness magazine. But then I thought about how I hate biking outdoors (fear of falling and moving at fast speeds), and how I hate swimming outdoors (fear of bugs, water pollution, and swimmer's itch - yuck) and how I generally dislike tanning (makes you age age AGE), so I don't think it'd work. I then considered having my own minitriathlon indoors - entirely in the gym! That would work. I'd run on the treadmill, bike on a stationary bike, and then swim in the pool. But this morning, I got on the bike and within minutes I was wondering why they don't provide padding for those damn bike seats! Argh! So uncomfortable! So, have to come up with some other kind of training program.

I am pretty proud tho that Max and I got up at 6:30 in the morning to go the gym.
Am now entirely exhausted and ready for a nap.

Weekend Recap

2007-06-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Oh lawd...where to begin?

So as it turns out, my co-worker does not have lice, but just a really bad case of dandruff. Thank god.

Spent Friday night cleaning the apartment for a couple of reasons. First off, Max was shooting his commerical parodies for his White People group and we needed to get the tub clean for the big "suicide" scene, which I will talk about in a second. The tub eventually had to be cleaned anyway since Josh will be staying at our place this week while he Pig sits and I don't want him to be grossed out if he has to use ourshower. Also, my relatives are coming in town the weekend after we return from Michigan, so I needed to start getting the place relative-ready. So, not a very fun Friday night, but it was really productive. Again I'm going to tout the best cleaning product ever - Bar Keeper's Friend. That stuff gets out everything and makes things shiny and new again!

Saturday morning a whole bunch of the gang came over to shoot the two commerical parodies Max had written for their website. I mainly just hung around and tried to keep myself and Pig out of the way. When I got bored, I either napped (hey, it's my apartment too!) or took some production stills. Here are some of my favorites from that day (actually these were taken by Amol):

In this last pic, you can see that they're prepping for Josh's big "suicide" shot. Max had rigged up a whole system of pumps and hoses to make it work. I think it turned out quite well. I took this pic, which I think is thoroughly creepy:

I really wanted to post this on myspace and and scare people, but I decided that might not be very nice to the friends who don't know Josh and don't know that these guys make little films and stuff all the time and that this undoubtedly is fake.

But in case you are creeped out, no worries! See, he's fine!!

In between takes, I amused myself by taking pics of Pig:

Max dubbed this as "Barka Pig"

After the shoot, we cleaned up and went to Jessie's birthday party. She had booked a 50 person private karaoke room. It was super fun - I did take a lot of pics, but since it was so dim in the room, they turned out pretty crappy so I'll leave them off the blog.

Since we had barely any time to rest over the weekend, Sunday was our official lounge-around-day. After getting Pig walked and fed in the morning, I actually went back to bed and didn't get up until noon. Ahhh....so nice. Finished re-reading (again) the first Harry Potter book and decided at around 7 p.m. to head to Border's to pick up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is the 2nd Harry Potter book. I used to have it, but lent it to someone and now it's the only one missing in my collection, and the one that I've read least. Definitely due for a re-read. Of course while at Border's I got sucked into a 3 for 2 deal and picked up a few other books that I'm really excited about. Since I'll be on vacation next week, I figure I'll have plenty of time to do some reading. The books I got are:

Into the Wild by John Krakauer (Non-Fiction)
After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils Thumb, a mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a symbolic act of rebellion against his autocratic father. In a moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of McCandless's death, which he attributes to logistical blunders and to accidental poisoning from eating toxic seed pods. Maps. 35,000 first printing; author tour.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (fiction)
Celebrated in pre-WWII France for her bestselling fiction, the Jewish Russian-born Némirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, months after this long-lost masterwork was composed. Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. This gripping "suite," collecting the first two unpolished but wondrously literary sections of a work cut short, have surfaced more than six decades after her death. The first, "Storm in June," chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians, among them a snobbish author, a venal banker, a noble priest shepherding churlish orphans, a foppish aesthete and a loving lower-class couple, all fleeing city comforts for the chaotic countryside, mere hours ahead of the advancing Germans. The second, "Dolce," set in 1941 in a farming village under German occupation, tells how peasant farmers, their pretty daughters and petit bourgeois collaborationists coexisted with their Nazi rulers. In a workbook entry penned just weeks before her arrest, Némirovsky noted that her goal was to describe "daily life, the emotional life and especially the comedy it provides." This heroic work does just that, by focusing—with compassion and clarity—on individual human dramas.

And this last one, which I think sounds awesome and fun-
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (fiction)
Surreal and hilariously funny, this alternate history, the debut novel of British author Fforde, will appeal to lovers of zany genre work (think Douglas Adams) and lovers of classic literature alike. The scene: Great Britain circa 1985, but a Great Britain where literature has a prominent place in everyday life. For pennies, corner Will-Speak machines will quote Shakespeare; Richard III is performed with audience participation … la Rocky Horror and children swap Henry Fielding bubble-gum cards. In this world where high lit matters, Special Operative Thursday Next (literary detective) seeks to retrieve the stolen manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. The evil Acheron Hades has plans for it: after kidnapping Next's mad-scientist uncle, Mycroft, and commandeering Mycroft's invention, the Prose Portal, which enables people to cross into a literary text, he sends a minion into Chuzzlewit to seize and kill a minor character, thus forever changing the novel. Worse is to come. When the manuscript of Jane Eyre, Next's favorite novel, disappears, and Jane herself is spirited out of the book, Next must pursue Hades inside Charlotte Bront‰'s masterpiece. The plethora of oddly named characters can be confusing, and the story's episodic nature means that the action moves forward in fits and starts. The cartoonish characters are either all good or all bad, but the villain's comeuppance is still satisfying. Witty and clever, this literate romp heralds a fun new series set in a wonderfully original world. (Jan. 28)

I can't wait!

Frontline or K-9 Advantage?

2007-06-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!

I just overheard one co-worker say to the other "I hate to tell you this, but I think you might have lice. Go look at your hair in the bathroom - my kids came home with lice once and I know what it looks like."

My head is so itchy right now.

A Worthy Post

2007-06-20T14:57:00.001-07:00

So this is my 693rd post. That's a lot of posts about nothing. But...for the first time, I actually have something purposeful to share with my dear readers - all two of you. (altho one could argue that my posts about Pig's poop do serve a purpose - what that may be remains unclear, but deep down there must be some reason why I persist, right? Right?)

So, my brother's girlfriend who I believe I named "Justine" on this blog, (on the grounds that "Theo Huxtable" had a girlfriend named "Justine" and I like to pretend I live in The Cosby Show) is doing something really admirable. She's raising $2500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in order to participate in the Nautica New York Triathlon on July 22, 2007. Yep, that's right - TRIATHLON. When I consider that sometimes I call Max on the cellphone from my bed because I am too lazy to get up and walk into the living room to talk to him, the idea of training for a TRIATHLON is just unfathomable. My brain and muffin top hurt a bit when I think about it.

Anyway, she needs help raising the money - as of this posting she's raised $1,808.00. So, please help her get to $2500!!! Preferably by July 1st, which is the intial deadline. She sent this email out, which I will cut and paste into the post, that better explains why you should contribute if you can!

From "Justine":

I am raising $2500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in order to participate in the Nautica New York Triathlon on July 22, 2007 and I need your help! The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society enables blood cancer research and improves the quality of life for cancer patients.

*Founded in 1949, the Society has invested more than $483 million for research specifically targeting blood cancers. Its mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma. Already, the relative five-year survival rate for people with leukemia has tripled in the past 40 years, and Hodgkin lymphoma is now considered one of the most curable forms of cancer, thanks to radiation, chemotherapy or a combination of the two. These advances were made possible by aid and funding from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. (www.lls.org)*

Please visit this website www.active.com/donate/tntnyc/tntnycCGroat and place a monetary donation to support this cause. Even as little as $5 would mean the world to me. $100 or more and you have a delicious homemade batch of peanut butter cookies coming to your mailbox compliments of moi (not to brag, but they're really good)...

If that's not enough, here are other compelling reasons to donate:

10. It will help you sleep better at night (here's to you, my fellow insomniacs!).
9. You have a chance at eating the best peanut butter cookies you will ever taste.
8. Your donation will be 100% deductible on your tax return.
7. It brings good karma and favorable fortune cookie readings.
6. You were one of the numerous people who gave me the crazy idea that I should do a triathlon in the first place (yes, there is a responsibility here, you know who you are).
5. You understand that raising $2,500 in donations truly is not easy.
4. a. You have money in your pocket to burn (my favorite).
-OR-
b. You foresee having money in your pocket to burn after finishing
that ______ (degree/poker tourney/loan payment) and would love to make an early feel-good investment in a great cause.
3. You support participation in triathlons, marathons, road races, aquathons, duathlons and/or generally healthy masochistic endeavors (includes eating organically!).
2. You will single-handedly (the click of a mouse!) be funding a cure for cancer.

And the number one reason you should donate....

1. You know someone who has been affected by these blood cancers, or cancer in general, and would like to honor this person by supporting research that will cure or prevent these conditions. Convinced yet? Please donate and pass this along; it really will make a difference - my life and in the lives of cancer patients everywhere. Thank you!

I actually IM'd "Theo" to see if her peanut butter cookies are any good - he says they are! Better news yet, "Justine" just sent another email saying she's lowering her close-out sale and anyone who donates $75 will get a batch of ANY kind of homemade cookies they want! Of course any size donation would help - even $5. That's just one mocha frappucino, if you think about it. Instead of consuming 450 calories, you could support someone who is actually doing the working out FOR you! Ooh, this means you can skip the gym today!

Anyway, please give my blog SOME meaning and purpose (because of course it's about me and not about the cancer patients!!) Please donate any amount you can!!

And I will add, in case you're like "oh whatever, I don' t know this 'Justine'" that she is very cool and reads my blog regularly and apparently laughed out loud at the "funnel cake" story I mentioned a few posts ago. See? Now you know her. Clearly a cool girl so please help her out!

Tuesdays are for Teeth Cleaning

2007-06-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Teeth cleaning appt this morning. Went over pretty well. I like my hygienist a lot - she's this plucky Jewish lady who always asks about my boyfriend, my career, etc. It's funny because I only see her twice a year, but she totally remembers what's going on with my life. Or maybe she's just good at faking it. Or takes notes. I used to go to an optometrist who totally took notes and pretended to be all chummy. I was disappointed to find things like "goes to University of Michigan" and "has a brother and sister" scrawled on the back of my file (I peeked when he was out of the room). Faker.

On my way out of the dental building, I stepped into the elevator and a middle aged man told me I had pretty feet. Ew. Gross. First off, I definitely don't have pretty feet - I am in desperate need of a pedicure and I'd almost take a pic and post it but that would be too gross. Second of all, how inappropriate. Thank god it was a short elevator ride. I find that people who are really into feet are much more vocal and obvious than people who are into other strange things. Once I was at the car wash and some guy came up to me to try to convince me that I should let him repaint my car and fix the dents etc. When I told him I was fine and I didn't need to do that he leaned in, gestured to my red finger nails, and whispered lasciviously "Same color on the toes???" Ew. Also, once at Red Rock, some guy tried to get Thode to take off her shoes. Or something like that.

Hm...what else do I want to blog about today? Oh, I found out what time Creature Comforts is on. It's on Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBS. I found out at around 8:27 last night so I was super bummed. Hopefully will find it on youtube.

Oh, and I am beginning to develop a love/hate relationship with Prince. Rumor has it he'll be playing at the Roosevelt the next couple weekends and will be charging $312.10 for standing room only per ticket and $3,120.00 for the VIP package which will consist of two tickets, dinner, and the aftershow. I am hoping these exorbitant prices prove only to be awful rumors. What a bitch.

That's all for now. Back to work.

Weekend Recap

2007-06-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

Wheee!! Fun weekend!!

Friday night I went over to Kate's apt for a little reunion of the Monthly Dinner of the Fearsome Foursomes - Kate, Andrea, Jessie and me. We used to always have dinner once a month, and that's really sort of gone away in the last few years. This was a nice throwback to those days. It was great to sit there, drink wine and gossip about hairspray and bikini waxes. And the meal was really fun- Kate arranged an awesome Make-Your-Own-Pizza night. She bought and prepared the dough and had TONS of toppings for us to choose from. While she did an excellent job, I have to admit that perhaps my own skills in topping selection were not so terrific. Turns out that capers DON'T go well with pesto, shrimp, corn and green peppers. Go figure. But I was so inspired that I convinced Max that we should try making our own pizzas as well, which we ended up doing on Sat night. They turned out much better - he just has a natural culinary instinct - something that I fear I sorely lack.

Anyway, where was I? Okay, Saturday morning Max made breakfast and we spent the rest of the morning watching "EXTRAS" on DVD. I love that show - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are just absolutely brilliant. After that Max and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I think it was probably the first time in months that we went out to see a movie. It's so expensive nowadays. I liked it more than the second one, but nowhere near as much as I liked the first one. And it's long - just way to ridiculously long.

Saturday night we went to a bar called The Well for Julia's bday party. Here are a few pics from the night:

Me, Birthday Girl, and LypstckGirl!

Me and Lisa ( who I am trying to rope in to a cooking class)

Josh, Benjamin and me - trying to look sexy

Ad, Megyn and Max

Josh, Benjamin and me.

Max and me!

So. Yeah. Super fun party.

Sunday, Max and I took Pig to Huntington beach, which was the perfect end to a terrific weekend. Huntington beach is one of the few beaches near Los Angeles that allows dogs. Pig had a blast! She was, as usual, the only dog trolling along looking for food to eat. What a little scavenger. I had to yell at her to spit out the seaweed that had been washed ashore. She definitely tried to avoid the water, but sometimes it was inevitable. We also saw lots of dolphins playing really close to the beach - it was such a treat.

Here's a little video of one of the few times that she got caught in the tide - you can see that she sort of freezes, unlike the other dogs who mostly ran and played in the water.

And, some of my favorite pics:

This dog "Ruby" insisted on getting into the shot!

This is my favorite I think - I just love how it captures Pig jogging happily along after Max.

Creature Comforts

2007-06-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Discovered my new most favoritest show EVAH last night. CREATURE COMFORTS! I guess it's an American version of a popular BBC series from the creators of Wallace & Grommit. Basically they take real interviews of people across the states and animate them as animals. Adorabley cute and funny - even Max liked it.

Here's a brief clip:

Took Pig to the vet this morning. Turns out her thick waist and burgeoning pot belly are in fact due to the prednisone she is taking. Made me wonder if someone is secretly slipping prednisone into MY meals... She is otherwise totally fine, which is good. Still puking up poop on a two to three month basis but the vet and I have agreed there is just very little to be done about it. She is clearly unable to digest SOMETHING (could it be the trees, leaves, bark, food wrappers, etc she eats on a daily basis????) and eventually upchucks it from, I suspect, her bowels. Sounds a bit against nature but apparently it's not unheard of. Jessie told us a rather revolting story about a young girl who ate only funnel cake for several weeks straight and experienced the same thing. Ewww.

Max is having his "white people" meeting at our place tonight. "White People" is a group consisting of Max and friends (AD, Josh, Amol, etc - the usual crew I talk about here and then some) who meet weekly and write and produce comedic short films. They are not all "white people." Personally think it's a terrible name for a group but for some reason they thought it was funny, because "white people are funny." Whatever. Anyway, the mtgs on usually at Amol's but tonight it will be at our place. I think they generally meet for awhile and discuss proper group things but then eventually just end up hanging out well into the night. I'm going to make myself go to sleep at a reasonable time tonight tho - for the last few Thursdays, I've stayed up late for various reasons (hong's bday party, thode was in town, rebecca came over to watch Harry Potter, etc) and I've really suffered the following Friday. Like practically in pain. I am an old lady - I need my nine hours of sleep!!

Anyway, here is their website. Warning: most of their material is really offensive and inappropriate!

Anyone catch Top Chef last night? My favorite part was when Padma was like "You can fry anything...you could fry my toe!" Hahahahaha. Go Padma! Go on wit yo bad self! Hahahahahha. Now I am laughing at myself. I have no idea where that bit of "urban" slang just came from.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Pig in a Tub

2007-06-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

Gave Pig a bath last night. Her first in several months - I'm such a bad dog mama. She used to hate them but now she doesn't seem to mind them so much. The trick is - what else - lots of cookies. It's funny tho, she can't seem to jump into the bathtub. I think it's some sort of depth perception thing - maybe she's afraid she'll hit the wall? She can jump OUT of the tub just fine. Weird. When she's wet, all these hidden black spots come out so she looks even spottier than normal. I'll have to take a pic of it next time, which hopefully will be some time before the winter... :)

Top Chef premieres tonight. My usual group of friends who gather to watch TC don't seem to be gathering this week. Hopefully we will in the subsequent weeks - it really is fun to get together, have a few drinks, and gossip wildly about who should be kicked off.

Hmm....am remembering why it's hard to blog every day. Mainly b/c there's so little to talk about. I'm so boring! booohooohooo!

Summer Television

2007-06-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

Woot! We discovered that the new season of Hell's Kitchen started last night. Two episodes back to back. Anyone else catch that show? There is this huge douchebag on the show named Aaron - a gigantic weeping 48 yr old Asian (Gay?) Cowboy. Really awful. I am beginning to suspect he's a plant - good lord he is ridiculous.

Reminds me that I need to look up when Top Chef is starting back on too. I find it a bit ironic that while I love watching these cooking competitions I myself am a truly horrid cook.

I can't believe it's almost the middle of June already. Truly summertime. Looking forward to some different things this summer. I'll be going back to Michigan at the end of this month for a wedding. That'll be fun, and it'll be one of the few times I'm going to Michigan when it's not actually freezing. After that my little cousin "Wrong Enders" will be in town for summer camp. What else? Oh Amol is trying to organize a camping trip which will be awesome. I'm always up for any trip where I don't have to do the planning! And then at the end of the summer - HAWAII!

Weekend Recap

2007-06-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

Why must weekends be soooo short???

Just when I had decided to stay in Friday night, Amol called and told me he finally managed to scrounge up enough people for a poker game. He'd been trying all afternoon and it didn't seem like it'd happen, but sure enough, he'd manage to find six, including me. So I peeled myself off the couch and went to play poker for the first time in months. Lisa had also called inviting us out to the Roosevelt but I couldn't bring myself to put in the energy to make myself look nice. Roosevelt's on the trendier side and considering the state I was in (Friday night, unshowered, after a long day at work) it would have taken a monumental amount of effort to clean up. Going to Amol's place however, requires no prep time, so I pretty much showed up in my pajamas. Didn't win either of the games but that was okay - it was so much fun! I forgot how much I like to play poker.

Since I was out so late Friday night (didn't get home until after 3 a.m.) I spent most of Saturday dozing in front of the tv. We watched Music & Lyrics, which is cute, but not as great as I hoped it'd be. I was supposed to meet Lypstickgirl at the gym, but I couldn't muster the energy and had errands to do so I bailed. Unfortunately, didn't manage to get my errands done either. I suck. All I managed to accomplish was walking Pig down to Petco and buying her...what else....more cookies.

At around 7 p.m. we headed over to Jessie's for an impromptu bbq. I don't really think she was officially planning to have one and hadn't really even invited anyone, leaving that responsibility to Tony. Tony was wife-free for the weekend, so he was looking to organize a fun debaucherous Sat night, starting with said bbq at Jessie's and then on to Dell's, a karaoke bar within walking distance. Very fun night. Josh and I found ourselves sitting at a table full of food at the end of the night and we decided to do a sequel to a series of pictures we had taken back in the summer of 2004. Ahh....how we've aged (only physically of course...clearly not emotionally or mentally which is quite sad!):

We are so immature.

Anyway, since we got back late Sat night, I spent much of Sunday dozing in front of the tv. I'm seeing a bad pattern here, I think. I finally got off the couch to make dinner for Max. I thought it'd be nice to cook dinner for a change and had seen what appeared to a simple Tyler Florence recipe for Herb Roasted Chicken and Wild Mushrooms. It was fairly easy although I did run into some problems. I couldn't find kitchen twine at the store so I had to use pink thread that I scraped out of a complimentary hotel sewing kit to tie the legs together. One package of mushrooms I bought was completely moldy. I actually almost used it because they were oyster mushrooms and I'd never seen oyster mushrooms before and I thought briefly that maybe they were supposed to be a little bit fuzzy. But all in all it turned out really well and I even managed not to mess up the instant bread pudding I had chosen for dessert!

Sareet Who?

2007-06-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm totally mad at myself for not posting in so long. One day I'm going to look back and wonder what fun things I did from April 24th, 2007 to June 8th 2007. I'll wonder what weird observations I made, what adventures I went on, and even, possibly, what Pig's poop looked like...

But no point on dwelling on it. It'd be impossible to recap the last 8 weeks or so, but there are certainly some notable highlights that I will mention, because the blog would woefully incomplete without them:

4/28 - My little sister's college graduation! Went back to Michigan for a very short trip to attend "Rudy's" graduation. Ate a lot, nearly missed seeing Bill Clinton speak (the car broke down again - that makes it the 9th time that something has gone wrong with the car while I'm in it - I'll post about it some time), and was jet-lagged for most of the trip. It was great though. Also turned 29, for the first time. :)

"Rudy" and my mom!

"Rudy" and my dad!

What inevitably happens when we run out of things to take pictures of...

Bill Clinton!! An awesome speaker.

Mom and "Theo" - too cute!!

Second week of May (I think) I went to Vegas. Again, I know. It was the third time I've been to Vegas this year since February. However, this time I met up with some of my family - my uncle, aunts, and my bro - for a crazy trip, VIP style. My uncle, formerly known as Uncle "Bellagio" (coined by Kate), hereinafter known as Uncle "Wynn" hooked us up with rooms at The Wynn. He even had a f#&%ing LIMO pick me up at the airport. MY OWN LIMO. That was awesome. There's quite a thrill in having a chauffeur meet you up at the baggage claim! My brother got such a kick out of it that he had some one take a picture of him with HIS limo driver. Haha. The Wynn itself is really nice and I had a terrific time. Uncle "Wynn" got us great seats to the Celine Dion concert. Now, I'm not much of fan of hers but it was a really really great show and very worth seeing. It was an awesome weekend - it pretty much spoiled Vegas for me. I don't think I can ever go back to cramming into a motel room with 8 people and slumming at Imperial Palace.

Best night of sleep I've ever had...the Wynn hotel room. Super nice feather bed, down comforter, and lots of pillows.

We "found" our way into the secret VIP all night Chinese buffet area off the Baccarat room. I think Uncle Wynn was a bit concerned when I told him that it was the best Chinese food I've had in months. I don't think he realized how often I eat at Panda Express!

Aunt Marilyn, Me, and Alvin in another limo on our way to Caesar's palace.

Aunt Laura, Aunt Jo and Uncle Wynn, sitting across from us.

Me, enjoying a mojito by the pool (charged to the room, of course)

What else? I've spent the rest of my time doing the usual - hanging out with friends over the weekend, going to work, oversleeping and skipping the gym, etc. BBQ-ed a lot over Memorial Day weekend. Thode came into town last week (yay!) and we immediately put her to work and had her make us sloppy joe's on Sloppy Joe night.

Recently I've been on a crazy Harry Potter kick and have been obsessively listening to HP podcasts and checking out fan sites. On Monday, Lypstykgirl, Benjamin and Josh (well, he was more of crasher) came over so we could watch all the HP movies from the beginning. I couldn't get through all of them since I had to work the next day so Lypstykgirl came over last night and we rewatched Goblet of Fire. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT MOVIE AND LAST BOOK COME OUT!!! Ugh. The. wait. is. just. too. long.

Am trying to get back to working out. Last month I pretty much stopped working out entirely except for going to Benjamin's "Beach Booty Workouts." He's in great shape and I've roped him into being our occasional trainer. It's much more fun working out with friends altho I am by nature a lazy bastard and will generally slack off unless he's watching me.

Anyway, am going to get back to blogging so stay tuned, if anyone is still out there reading!!!

p.s. Pig is great but appears to have developed some strange muscles around her waist. I think this might be a result of her meds, which I think are steroid based. Vet appt next week (*sigh*)

Pig, on her way to work.

Ugh...

2007-04-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

I am sick. Yuck. Sick enough to have stayed home yesterday, but not quite sick enough to stay home today. I hate that. I need to get better soon b/c I'm going to Michigan on a redeye flight on Thursday night and THAT is going to be a bitch if I'm sick. Going back for my sister's graduation - woot!! Will be back Sunday, so it's unfortunately a very very short trip.

Grr- would have been a PERFECT weekend if it weren't for the fact that I got sick. Friday night Max and I went out to eat to celebrate our respective birthdays. His was on the 15th, and mine is this Saturday. He was in Vail on his bday, and I will be in Michigan on mine, so we figured celebrating last Friday was perfect. We went to a place called Barefoot Cafe, which was pretty good. Nothing too fancy, but it was nice to go out to eat, just the two of us.

Saturday I went to the gym, and then went to the hair salon. Got a new cut - I like it so far. It's much darker, and I HAVE BANGS, which makes me look Super Asian, but I think I like it. Afterwards, we went to our April Birthday Party. A bunch of us all have birthdays in April so we decided to celebrate by doing a Korea Town Krawl. We started at the Bounty, which is this really old cool divey-ish bar. Then we went to Rosen Studios to karaoke - which was soo fun!! And then, we meant to make it to a third bar, but we karaoked too long so we ended up at a 24 hour korean restaurant, which was awesome.

Sunday - was sick. Not even hungover, just sick. Low level nausea all day long. Ugh.

Anyway, off to go buy some meds.

Nightmare!

2007-04-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

Had this awful nightmare last night - the kind where you finally wake up because you've been crying in your dream.

I dreamt I had a baby. A tiny tiny baby.

That's not the worst part.

I WAS THE WORLD'S WORST MOTHER!! I'd lose him and find him under a stack of magazines. I'd wonder if I remembered to put him chest down in the crib and walked in a room and find that I didn't even put him in a crib, I just left him on the floor. I asked someone how often I was supposed to feed him, and the guy said "Every four hours" and I said, "Oh, I've only been feeding him three times a day!" And I got distracted while changing his diaper, and I came back to find him hanging off the changing table by only his chin (dream illogic) and dying. So I went to my friend Nicole Kidman and started crying about how I was just such an awful mother. And I cried so hard I finally woke up.

Strange dream. I guess the obvious interpretation is that I must think I'd make a terrible mom. I asked Max what he thought of it and he said he thought it meant HE was pregnant. Funny.

OH LAWD!!

2007-04-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

Entertainment Tonight has just announced that Prince is moving is club 3121 from Vegas to LA.

Guess I know where I'll be spending my tax return!!!

Weekend Recap

2007-04-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, this was definitely one crazy weekend!

Friday night, Max and a bunch of people went to see Grindhouse, the Tarantino/Rodriguez double feature, at Graumann's Chinese Theater. I decided to skip since movies about women with machine guns for legs are not that interesting to me.

At about 1:45 a.m., Max called me. I was dead asleep, so much so that I couldn't even find my phone. After groping around for it in the dark for a bit, I finally found it. He had left a message. I figured he was probably calling to let me know he was staying out extra late. Or maybe he was calling from jail. What I did not expect was this: "SAREET - you won't believe this but Lisa has a friend who can get us into the after-after party for Grindhouse AT QUENTIN TARANTINO'S HOUSE so you should call back right away IF YOU WANT TO GO TO QUENTIN TARANTINO'S HOUSE!!"

Of course I called him back right away. Turns out he wasn't drunk and crazy, it was true. Lisa, who has long been renowned for being "in the know" about after parties and such (thanks again Lisa!), did indeed have a friend whose roommate is friends with Rosario Dawson, who is in Grindhouse, which was, as noted, directed by Tarantino. At that particular moment, the directions to Tarantino's house were unknown, but Lisa was on standby for them. I briefly debated whether or not this was really worth leaving bed but then decided since I sleep EVERY night, but have only ONCE had an invite to go to Quentin Tarantino's house, the decision was obvious. Even if it ended up being a wild goose chase and we didn't end up with directions or got turned away at the door, it'd still make for a good story. I jumped out of bed and slapped on make-up faster than I have ever in entire my life. Actually the only other time I had to get ready as quickly as that was just the last time I went to the Prince concert. WHY OH WHY do I never have time to pull myself together when I'm about to go to a celebrity event??? Why must I always look like - well, - like I had just rolled out of bed??? Really, I need about two hours to look remotely human - 20 mins just does not cut it.

Anyway, I ran into the car, got directions from Max and Lisa and WENT TO TARANTINO'S HOUSE, way up in the Hollywood hills. I'm not sure what I expected, but I can tell you what I DIDN'T expect was a small gathering of only 30 people or so. Apparently he'd been turning people away at the door who he didn't know, but Max and Lisa were able to get in since they "knew" someone, and I was lucky that he was tending bar when I arrived so no one was guarding the gate. Lisa's "hook-up" advised us not to get drinks while Quentin Tarantino was the bartender as he was asking everyone who the hell they were. Really, in hindsight, we could have gone to ask for drinks - worst case he'd kick us out, and getting kicked out would have made for an excellent ending to this story. However, at the same time, we really didn't want to get Lisa's friend's roommate in trouble, so basically we just hung out on the patio and stared. He seemed really nice and happy and was blending up drinks and having a good time. The bar was in a little room that had a juke box, a small tv in the corner that was playing Grindhouse, a photo booth, a small couch, an unbelievably lifelike and thus creepy mannequin of GoGo Yurabi (the japanese school girl killer from Kill Bill - which coincidentally I dressed up as for Halloween several years ago) and a ms. pacman arcade table. There was a sliding door to the patio, outside of which there were a few patio chairs, etc. And that was where we lurked for the next hour or so.

At one point I ventured a bit further into the house to use the guest bathroom, which was lovely and had a shower in it as well. I briefly considered on a scale of 1 to 10 how randomly funny it would be to actually take a shower in Quentin Tarantino's house. Then, this story would be the story of "The Time I Took a Shower at Quentin Tarantino's House" rather than "The Time I Went to a Party at Quentin Tarantino's House" but then I decided it would be the type of thing that would only be funny to me. And awfully difficult to explain to the police.

Instead, Max and I went into the photobooth. We couldn't quite figure out how it worked, since it seemed to need $3 in quarters, but it also seemed to work for free. After a bit we got it started accidentally, but we weren't really sitting down. Turns out it was low on ink anyway, so the pictures didn't really come out, but there's one that just barely did.

And here it is, our souvenir from "The Time We Went to a Party at Quentin Tarantino's House!!"

My New Toy

2007-04-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

Have finally learned how to scan pictures! Perfect timing as happened to come across some old pictures the other day. Nostaligic postings to come soon, including one about this pic:

c. 1997 shortly before a video shoot goes terribly awry. Involved a tombstone, a cute shoe, graveyard dirt and some of the best friends a girl could ever have.

Also, a guy named Phil.

I Don't Know Why I Bother

2007-04-04T16:42:00.000-07:00

Posting about American Idol. Or watching it for that matter. But yet, here I am again. Every time I find myself almost supporting Sanjaya - not in an actual way where I think he deserves to be there, but more like a "well, what the hell is he supposed to do but try?" sort of way - he acts like a total douchebag. I REALLY hate how he talks back to Simon. His face goes from cute and grinning to all bug-eyed and...douche. Ugh. I want him to go away, but not badly enough to do anything about it except complain. Waaah.

Had to get up extra early for a two hour meeting this morning. It was rough, even after three cups of coffee. At one point I wished I was back in school, where at least you can sit in the back of the auditorium, prop your head up with your left hand, pretend to take notes with your right hand and doze off without it being too obvious. Or at least that's what I'd tell myself. You could always tell which classes I fell asleep in by looking at my notebook. The big ink blotches were a dead giveaway. Anyway, like I said, totally wished I could doze off during the meeting this morning. Think it would have been super obvious though, since there were about 8 of us sitting at a table.

So very sleepy now. Hmm. Maybe will just close my eyes for just a little bit...