15% Prettier

Best Local Commercial

2009-07-07T03:40:55Z

I'm so glad this is on youtube because I doubt anybody would believe me if I told them about it without documented evidence.

It's just, you know, pretty damn awesome.

Woo!

2009-07-01T22:34:21Z

In exactly three weeks I'll be in Minnesota!

Pearl: clear your schedule for Weds (the 22nd) afternoon.

This and that

2009-06-29T19:16:03Z

IT was a good weekend over here in the bay area. It was hot by Bay Area standards, but the rest of the US looks at us and goes "Oh REALLY? you want HOT!?!?" The sun was shining and the Marin Headlands were covered in yellow smog. I've gotten pretty good at judging the air quality by how far out to the bay I can see from my house. When even Angel Island is obstructed I know it's going to be a spare the air day.

Friday night after work I headed over to meet Jonathan at Anchor and Hope. We had our usual calamari and this time tried the salmon gravlax which was divine. I love stopping by Anchor on Friday nights, I really do. As much as I love Salty, Anchor is just a wonderful place to have a drink and some grub before we head out to see a movie. It's just relaxed and fun and for all you beer drinkers out there: starting July 8th they are going to have about A BILLION beers on tap and by the bottle.

After light meal we met Ben over at the Metreon to see Transformers. It was alright - nothing spectacular but big ass robots beating each other up and a plot line that was vague BUT WOULD NOT END. The annoying robot twins were annoying but Bumblebee was the best (same with the 1st movie).

Saturday I got Jonathan and early birthday gift of a GPS unit and we went down to Campbell to see David and Diana and Ben. We had a nice BBQ, enjoyed the weather, talked with good people, and got home at 1am.

At around 7:30 sunday morning I was debating on canceling out on Pride, but I knew Kevin would kill me and then piss on my dead body if I didn't go. We went, we had a great time, did NOT get sunburned, and Jonathan and I went to see THe Hangover after the parade. THe movie was okay, it was pretty funny and the photos at the end were pretty bad. I think if I had seen it right away I might have been more impressed, but I thought it was going to be a lot worse than what it actually was. So kind of a let down, maybe? I don't think it lived up to all its hype.

This week is going to be sloooooooow here in the city. Friday night, though, we're headed up to Davis for the 4th. Bike races, ice cream cranking, bbq, fireworks, hopefully folks from back home will stop by.

PRIDE! San Francisco Style!

2009-06-29T02:00:56Z

Over Two Hundred Totally Gay Pictures!

She flies through the air with the greatest of ease....

2009-06-17T02:36:10Z

So I ended up flying over my handle bars and skidding on the asphalt today.

For the past few months I've been walking to and from Bart every day. Starting yesterday, I've been taking my bike. Even though it's the same path, when you bike it becomes different. You notice different things and what was a simple bend in the road becomes a hazard. Also - there's a very slight incline in the road. Going to Bart it's up hill, and enough to wind my poor, out of shape body. Coming home, it's down hill, and enough to turn me into a rampaging speed demon. These two things combined plus getting used to it all made for an interesting encounter today.

On my way home, not too far from the Bart station, I crossed the road going a bit too fast. There was a slight bend and the road was concealed by a bush. Behind that bush was a guy and we saw each other at the same time - too late, though, for me to slow down adequately. He jumped, I over corrected, slammed the handle bar into my right thigh, flew over the bike and skidded on the bike path. The guy was super nice and made sure I was okay and that my bike was fine, and a nice lady stopped to make sure I was okay too. I was just really apologetic because I know I was going too fast.

So I'm fine - got a bandaid on my palm and I can feel a nasty bruise growing on my thigh. I learned that I need to manage my speed better, especially when I can't see what's ahead of me. I'm VERY glad I didn't hit the pedestrian, and thankful he was so nice.

But - as my dad says - everybody falls. I'll be on the road tomorrow morning. This time, though, with my bike gloves on my hands!

An amazing day in which nothing happened

2009-06-14T17:49:19Z

Yesterday was one of those wonderful days filled with normalcy that probably would drive some of my friends absolutely nuts but made me stupidly happy. Perhaps this post is gratuitous in nature but after seeing Up last weekend and remembering what my mom told me, I'm trying to be better at writing things down. Mom told me that it's good to start now because years and years from now, Jonathan and I will be racking our brains, trying to remember when and where things happened. Even though yesterday wasn't important and nothing out of the ordinary happened, I think it's good to remember wonderful days.

We woke up late. And by late I mean 9:30. I decided to sleep in instead of going to Yoga, only because I haven't had a sleep in day for about two weeks. We took our time getting out of bed, mainly because we ended up having a huge tickle fight, complete with threats of being pushed off the bed and elbows in delicate areas (accidental! accidental!). We took our time getting dressed and checking our respective message boards and what not. By 11am we were ready to leave the house and go down to the farmers market.

If you travel north on San Pablo Ave, you excite Albany and enter El Cerrito. There's a big plaza there with a Trader Joes, PetCo, Joanne's, Lucky's, and a plethora of other shops. On Saturday they have a small but well stocked Farmers Market. Jonathan and I made our first look, then walked again. We bough beets, carrots, spinach, zucchini, plums, peaches (yellow and white), some amazing Indian food (mint salsa, okra, stuffed flat bread), a packet of fresh garlic fettucini, and a half pound of fresh prawns. We went to TJ's and picked up some flower, some cream, some eggs. I went to Luckys while Jonathan stood in line to pay and bought yeast, sugar, bread crumbs, and found a chocolate beverage we drank in Malaysia called "Milo."

Back at home with the grocs put away, Jonathan started his bread experiment. I shouted encouragements while I played Plants vs Zombies (curse you, popcap games! CUUUUUUURSE YOOOOOOU!). Jonathan created a very dense but very tasty loaf of whole wheat bread. He then started to make a kind of focaccia with herbs and cheese. While that was in the oven, I started to make our shrimp fettucini alfredo from scratch. It turned out well, but I put in too much parmesan. NExt time, next time.

Late at night we went down to the California in Berkeley - an old movie house that was once a grand vaudville theater. If I remember right, in the 20s they cut off the balcony to make two screens and in the 70s cut that into two more. We saw The Brothers Bloom and loved it all. I think it's what a Wes Anderson movie should have been but never got to be because Wes Anderson became too full of himself.

We came home, we fiddled on the internet, we went to bed. It was just a regular day but somehow, for some reason, as I walked through the farmers market, as we brainstormed what we could make from the things we found, I found myself being stupidly in love with JOnathan. It hit me like a flaming bag of bricks and made me euphoric and giddy.

So there - now I can remember yesterday, where we were, what we saw, what we did. Hopefully I'll remember how it made me feel, even though it wasn't adventerous and we didn't go far and we didn't meet anybody. It was just a beautiful summer day in the east bay and nothing happened.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-05-05T20:57:33Z

Two years ago today (My mom's birthday and cinco de mayo), Kevin and I moved into our first apartment in San Francisco. We lived in Park Merced, neighbors to SFSU, situated in one of the most boring parts of town. Erik and Sara helped drive the truck down from Davis where Cousin David and Friend David helped us lug everything through the basement and up the one working elevator to the 6th floor. Our picture window in the living room overlooked the parking garage and the intersection of 19th and Junipero Serra. We could, and did many times, watch the fog roll in through the trees and down into the meager courtyard.

Park Merced was a different place. The tower was 12 floors and a mix of families, Russian immigrants, and students. Someone on one of the floors above us would constantly through things out of their windows down to the yard below. We found eggs, melons, candles and other small ballistics scattered on the pavement. Next door to use was an amazingly convenient and horribly over priced grocery store with a deli and vegetables of iffy quality. They sold beer and wine and kinder eggs. Somewhere I think we still have our collection of toys from those damn eggs.

Down and across the street from us, somewhere on the M line, was Diala Pizza. Kevin and I basically put their kids through college. It was a rare week that passed when we didn't order pizza from them at least once. It got to the point where, when walking home one night, the pizza delivery guy was driving out of Park Merced, saw me and waved. Kevin said he's had the same experience. More than anything, I miss that pizza.

Park Merced was a pretty good place to spend our first year an a half, even though we didn't get the typical san francisco life. It was far away from everything, even with the M Line right next to us. There were ferrel kittens running over the place. The fire alarms went off all the time. Two poor girls got stuck in the elevator on our floor during a black out and we talked to them from the hallway to keep them calm until the firemen came to get them out (they never did send us the fruitbasket they said they would!). There were the pot dealers who lived next to us, the band who loved above us, and about the four other people who we always saw either going or coming.

Albany has been a good move, but there are times where I miss our kitchen, our living room with the hardwood floors that were never sealed, the laundry room with six washers and driers, of which four usually only worked.

Here's to us Kevin - two years and we haven't succeeded in killing each other!

DAAAAAAALEKS!!!

2009-05-01T02:28:20Z

My friend Carolyn (chaos_ensues) is currently spending a semester abroad in Wales. She asked me if there was anything I wanted and I asked her for Dr Who Cookie Kit that I saw online a while ago.

Sure enough, in the mail today, I GOT THEM!!!

Carolyn, you SO ROCK!!

And I totally know what I'm doing this weekend. Pictures will follow.

Pretty Good Weekend

2009-04-27T19:04:53Z

I got off work early on Friday and headed back to the east bay where Jonathan picked me up at the bart station. We went home where we proceeded to get into a tickle fight. It was as if we were ten years old - I still have rug burn on my elbow. Winded from wrestling and laughing too hard, we found movie listings and headed over to Shattuck Theaters for a 5:45 showing of Crank 2.

Shattuck Theaters has two of theaters sponsored by the lovesac. The normal seats were all replaced with giant love seat couches with beanbags up at the very front. I was able to cuddle right up to Jonathan as we watched the most ridiculous action movie ever. Neither of us had seen the first Crank, but it didn't really matter all that much. It was exactly what the trailers made it out to be, mindless action.

Afterwards we went to dinner at the thai place right behind our apartment. Food was good and spicy. We picked up a copy of the first Crank and watched it at home. I think I liked the 2nd one better, but that's just me.

On Saturday I hoofed it over to the bart station to make it to work by 10. About a month and a half ago I started walking to the Bart station instead of just taking the bus to work. It costs the same amount but I get a good 30 minute walk and I usually do it again in the evenings. Work was slow but I had my crosswords so that kept me busy. I walked home and waited with Jonathan and Kevin for people to show up for movie night. We watched Starship Troopers and The Warriors. A fantastic mix aided by the 40s that most people were drinking. Jonathan fell asleep with his shoes on and Kevin handed me a sharpie. Perhaps that wasn't the wisest thing to do but eh, Jonathan laughed the next morning.

Sunday was a lazy lazy day. Jeff spent the night on our couch so I awoke to him, Kevin, and Jonathan watching King Corn in our living room. I took my weekly pictures of our garden and you can see the full set over here.
Here's my favorite shot:

So yeah, good weekend was had. Nice date night on Friday, great time with friends on Saturday, chill day with the roommates on Sunday. Now it's back in the grind at work.

Things I did yesterday

2009-04-21T18:57:17Z

1) Enrolled in Berkeley City College
2) Bought a fan for our living room and a food processor for the kitchen
3) Sweltered
4) Made enough meals for about a week and a half, now all sitting in the fridge
5) Cleaned out my bento boxes
6) Sweltered some more
7) Laundry

For my Minnesota Peeps

2009-04-14T02:25:12Z

Two Dozen More Bodies Found in Lake Wobegon

Mmmmmmmm....frittata....

2009-04-08T17:56:01Z

There's something awesome about trying a new recipe and having it be a big success instead of a horrible flop. Last night was awesome - I made my first ever frittata and it was OMG TASTY NOMS. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1/2 Tbs smart balance spread
1 Tbs McCormick Roasted Garlic blend
1 cup chopped red/green peppers
1/2 cup diced onion
2oz diced canadian bacon
1/4 cup Kraft 2% shredded cheese, mexican blend
1 cup Egg Beaters

Set oven to 350°

In a small skillet sprayed with pam, melt the smart balance and sauté the veggies until nice and soft. Add the canadian bacon and let it just cook for a little bit. Spread them out even over the bottom of the pan.

In a bowl, mix the cheese with the egg beaters. Pour this over the veggies and put in the oven for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn on your broiler and leave for 5 more minutes or until the top is golden, crispy and fluffy. Take pan out of oven, let cool for a bit. THEN EAT THE TASTY NOMS!

I use egg beaters because it's more diet friendly (same with the 2% cheese), but real eggs and real cheese I'm sure would be just fine.

Total time: Maybe 20 minutes?

My Thumb! It's kind of green!

2009-04-07T19:42:57Z

It's been a little over two weeks AND WE HAVEN'T KILLED A PLANT!!

The Aerogarden in our kitchen is doing quiet well. Basil was the first to sprout and it's looking quite impressive. The dill, which was the last to sprout (so late that we thought it wasn't going to) is shooting up quite nicely, followed by the chives. The thyme is also doing well, and our little mint and oregano are puttering along like the cute little green troopers that they are. Hopefully in a few more weeks we'll be able to start harvesting and using the fresh herbs in our cooking. Mmmmm....fresh herbs...

Out on our 5x5 balcony, things are also pretty green! The two out of the three strawberry trios are blooming but all of them are green and healthy. The pepper plant hasn't grown too much, but it's a beautiful green and some buds are starting to form. The tomatoes have grown quite a bit, but I fear that I might not be watering them enough - few of the leaves are turning brown and curling. However, it too is showing signs of blossoms!

The most exciting, though, are the beans (yes, I'm excited about beans)! We planted a box of pole beans from seeds, not from sprouts. They started to push through late last week, quelling my fears that we had somehow screwed up and were doomed to an empty box of dirt with a lattice on the side. However, they seem to be doing really well. Of course, not all the seeds did take root, but we have about six little seedlings popping up and leafing out. It's pretty darn cool if you ask me. This whole process is pretty darn cool.

Hopefully by summer we'll have fresh tomatoes, peppers, and pole beans to make some healthy and delicious summer dishes. We probably won't get too many strawberries, but I'm sure the ones we'll have will be delicious. We're lucky that we have such a great place to grow them, but I am itching to get my hands on a real back yard. Jonathan and I have been talking about aquaponics and it would be such a fun experiment to try to run. Imagine - growing enough food for a whole household in your backyard! Ah well, in time in time...

But as for now, I'm pretty darn happy with my leafy greens coming out of the ground with little to no work. It basically took about a Sunday afternoon to buy and prep everything and now we're just in charge of watering and an occasional fertilizing.

How I know I picked the right one

2009-03-13T17:55:12Z

Last night, while cleaning the bathroom, I started singing...
"oooEEEEooo....Killer Tofu....oooEEEoooo....Killer TOFUUUUUUUUU!"

And from the bedroom I hear Jonathan call out "Why are you singing The Beets?"

Yep folks - he's a keeper.

PS - a series collection of Doug is something I would totally own on DVD

My Thoughts on Yaoi, er..I mean Watchmen (The Tale of the Giant Cerulean Dong)

2009-03-07T04:16:15Z

I almost wonder what it would have been like going into this movie without any knowledge of the source material. I am fairly sure I probably would have thought it was pretty to look at, thought it was an interesting story, but have been very lost through most of it. Seeing how I like alternative history lines, exaggerations on what could have happened, and things like that, I know I wouldn't have hated the movie. However, I can see a lot of people hating the fuck out of it.

However, if I hadn't gone in knowing what I know, it probably would be hard for me not to pass judgement on those manic fans of the graphic novel. I probably would have thought they were all a bunch of idiots who wasted their time grumbling about anarchy. An image is conjured in my mind of the Comic Book Guy. I bet this image is conjured up by many.

So here's the thing: The Watchman movie is a superficial version of The Watchman graphic novel. I'm pretty sure it was designed to have as many recreated scenes from the original graphic novel as possible, at the cost of the plot line. That's the good/bad thing about movies based on graphic novels. On one hand it's all "cool! it's just like reading the graphic novel but LIVE" and on the other hand it's "Oh....I could have just stayed home and read the graphic novel...great..." I hope you can see what I'm getting at. To satisfy the fanboys and girls, they alienate the audience who is coming in for the first time. If it's just superficial stuff then they aren't going to feel very welcomed, and that kind of blows.

Do you want to know what happens when someone who has heard their friends go on and on about how much they love the graphic novel and then go see the movie? You get the response from my sister-in-law:

"Watchmen: THIS was the shit you pol were all swoony over in high school? Was there really nothing else to balm your alienated souls? Who ARE you people? My broody, emo ex-boyfriend? Seriously. I want my last three hours back. And some mental floss."

This is kind of sad. I enjoyed the graphic novel, and I enjoyed the movie. I thought Dr. Manhattan was horrible, though, and should be renamed Dr. Emo Pants or Dr Dangly Dick (also: insert jokes about blue balls). It's sad that a movie can alienate somebody like that and drive them to judge their friends who did enjoy the graphic novel. It's not my sister-in-law's fault that she didn't enjoy the movie, it's the movie's fault for only playing for the glossy scenes and not for the actual substance of the story. The characters were pretty superficial, the plot was contrived and patchy, and you didn't really feel any sympathy for anybody at all.

What bothers me, though, is that people are going to simply think that's what the graphic novel is about. It appears that my sister-in-law already has done that. The movie was SO BAD to her that she's simply going to take it that her friends enjoy reading crap and the book they loved so much is crap and because of them she's wasted three crappy hours. She is going to judge her friends because of this movie. But who knows, maybe she has some really annoying Watchmen friends who just wouldn't SHUT THE FUCK UP about this so yeah, that anger might be justified.

Might. But not quite.

But hey, I enjoyed the movie. It's not the graphic novel, which is sad - I think they could have made a very good movie if they had focused on the story. Now, however, we'll get probably a month or more of Geeks yelling at Geeks.
"You made me go to that stupid movie!"
"It's not stupid! Read the novel!"
"I'm not going to read the novel because the movie is stupid!"
"You're stupid!"
"You're stupid for liking that crap!"
"You're stupid for judging me!"

And on, and on, and on.

Ah well. So goes the internets.

Geek Pressure

2009-03-06T23:38:00Z

My brother feels pressured to see the Watchmen movie against his will, feels his Geek Card will be removed if he doesn't go see it.

I don't really care if my brother likes Watchmen or not. It doesn't really change anything about how I think about him. I would imagine that there are a few people who are geeks and would go "Eh" at Watchmen. I mean, I'm an English Major and I go "Eh" at Catcher in the Rye. I can appreciate it for what it is but I still don't think it's awesome. I wouldn't even go see a movie of it. It doesn't pique my interest much like I'm sure Watchmen doesn't pique my brother's.

So friendly readers I ask you: What's your secret sin? What do you feel pressured to like or have been pressured to read/watch when in truth you really just didn't care?

Follow up question: Geek Cred - something serious or something not real at all and shouldn't be taken seriously. Should we care about what other Geeks think about other Geeks? I'm a geek but I'm not into Neal Stephenson, would I get demerits if I didn't see Snowcrash if it were made into a movie? If someone wasn't into Graphic Novels but into Star Trek does that make them any less of a person?

I'm just curious

"It's Beowulf with Jesus and Aliens"

2009-01-26T01:13:19Z

Go see Outlander.

Well, go see Outlander if you can find a theater that's showing it, that is.

What's Outlander? you ask me. I know how you feel - I didn't know anything about it either until my friend Jimmy told me that it was basically Beowulf if Beowulf was a spaceman who landed in a Viking village and Grendle was an alien monster.

This is what happens: A spaceman crash lands outside a viking village, but he brings with him an alien who's on a murderous rampage fueled by revenge. A nearby fishing village is destroyed and the vikings think the spaceman did it, when really it was the alien. There's a lot of fighting.

Ron Perlman as a Viking King

The spaceman is played by the guy who was Jesus in The Passion of the Christ

Arguably the best decapitation scene in a movie EVER

A female character who despite being captured and waking up on a pile of ratting corpses, DOES NOT PLAY a damsel in distress, yet also does not play a "she-woman-man-hater" either. She simply kicks ass and is a woman.

Outlander is bloody, violent, and absolutely ridiculous yet highly entertaining for because of that. It is amazingly fun in the same way that Rambo 4 was simply fantastic. It is what entertaining movies should be: fun, exciting, action, love, adventure, drama. It's not self aware, it's not trying for an award, it's not dumb and it doesn't perceive the audience as dumb either. It's just fun. Not bad, just fun.

You learn interesting things from IMDB

2009-01-16T07:14:06Z

On the plane to and from Malaysia, one of the movies we got was Eagle Eye. I never saw it in theaters so I figured a 13 hour flight was a good opportunity to watch it. But this post really isn't about Eagle Eye, well, it is. Kind of. In a way.

I'm sort of obsessed with IMDB. IT's actually my home page when I open my web browser and has been since college. Any time I watch a movie I end up going on there, just to see if there's stuff I'm missing.

In the trivia section for Eagle Eye it states that "during filming an F.B.I. Agent told him (Shia LaBeouf) and the cast that 1 in every 5 phone calls someone makes is recorded. To prove this, the agent had him (LaBeouf) listen to a phone call he made 2 years prior to filming."

If this is true (and who knows, it could be) I think every call I make on my cell phone I'm going to say sometime during it "I know you're listening and you can get the fuck off of my line" or try to make some crack about their mother or lack thereof. Nothing along the lines of terrorism or any shit (I just want to piss em off, not get arrested). But I mean, you never know. Or maybe I could pause and ask the guy how his day is going.

If you knew that your own line was basically being tapped (as apparently all cell phones are) what would you say?

Malaysia's cool and all...

2009-01-12T15:03:05Z

But I am sooooo ready to come home.

Quick update of Malaysia goodness

2009-01-06T04:02:09Z

I know, I know - I'm not updating nearly enough. On the plus side, I have set up a flickr account, and you can see all my photos here. I'm doing my best to write some descriptions of what's going on. PLEASE FORGIVE MY BAD SPELLING! THe computer I'm borrowing doesn't have automatic spell check and you all know how much I need that to survive. I PROMISE I'll fix that when I'm back home at my own computer.

The trip in short:
Hong Kong was awesome. The airport express makes BART turn over and whimper in submission. Best part of the train? It does not smell like urine. We got there very early, like 8am on Saturday, so a lot of the shops weren't open. We did fint Cat Street and there were a few antique shops of antiquity unknown open. Jonathan got a few pocket watches and I got a chairman Mao watch with the serial number of 666. BEST. PURCHASE. EVAH! Air quality in Hong Kong is horrible, but it was such a wonderful way to break up our flight. Despite the water I drank, my lower legs swelled up like massive water balloons. NOT FUN.

Malaysia itself is pretty awesome. IT's the "winter" time here so that means it's pretty "cool." And by cool I mean "think the north shore of Minnesota in the middle of July." Barb and Gary have an awesome view of the ocean, and there's only a few high rise buildings near by.

Every early evening it rains here. Big, huge, storms roll in and drench Penang. THey normally only last until sunset, which is good because that's when the city really comes alive. From about 9:30 am until Dusk, nobody does much of anything because it's so hot and muggy. At night there are many food hawker stands and out door restaurants and people walk up and down the main drag by the water front.

Driving in Penang is not for the faint of heart or timid of nature. From what I understand, rules of the road are loosely followed. THe only thing that people seem to adhear to are stop signs and stop lights. Lanes, flow of traffic, pedestrians, all of that are kind of taken at will. THere are many scooters here that zip in and around and through traffic. The locals call the scooter drivers something along the lines of "the living dead" because they are just asking to get killed.

Malaysia is a Muslim Country, and all over Penang you can hear the calls to prayer five times a day. Despite the Muslim nature of the state, Penang is a pretty good mix of Indian, Chinese, Malay, and Muslims. The chinese walk around wearing as little as possible, while the Muslim women wear the full garb. IT appears that they tolerate each others' differences fairly well. Penang is also a "resort island" so they seem to tolerate white folk pretty well (the slang for us is common in Asian culture. Something that basically translates to "white devil"). Of course, they are polite and never say that to our face. I do take forgranted English, but that's about the only thing. I don't feel very "white" but maybe this is because of the high ethnic population of the Bay Area? Who knows.

So far we've been to the local wet market, the local mall, two buddhist temples (Burmese and Thai), the botanical gardens, down town Penang (there's a China Town and India town, with a cobble road seperating the two. The "old timers" WILL NOT CROSS that road). We've been having a lot of fun here. This weekend we'll go to the east coast so I will be out of internet until we return. Should be a lot of fun.

Love to all and please enjoy the photos!

Annnnnnnnnd they're off!

2009-01-02T03:59:28Z

Dear All:

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I had a fantastic Christmas which I am kicking myself for not writing down - either here or other places. Will get around to that. In short: it was awesome socks.

To EVERYBODY who gave me travel advice: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! We would have made it with out checking luggage except JOnathan's mom wanted us to bring A LOT of stuff. Sigh. But I have packed less than what I think I'll need. I got a money belt for christmas. I am only *slightly* anxious about the whole travel thing, but will be fine when I get to Malaysia.

Please expect my next post to be: Hong Kong in Five Hours.

I Love You ALL and will post awesomness soon.

Kiss Kiss and Yay for 2009!

Back from Portland!

2008-12-09T05:17:13Z

We left Albany at 3:30 on Friday after filling the car with gas at $1.88 a gallon, grabbing some taco bell for the road, and filled the CD player with "Brave New World" as read by Michael York. Jonathan took the wheel and we headed bravely north. Well, northerly I should say. We cruised at pre-rush hour traffic on 80 headed east bound until we caught up with 505 and really started to head north. Somewhere just past Oregon we switched places and I took over, meaning I got to drive through the dark and foggy mountains at 9pm behind semis. Not only that, the CD player only held six CDs, but "Brave New World" was SEVEN CDs and Jonathan had picked that time to take a nap when my audio book shut off and I was left with the barren waste land that is the radio waves of southern Oregon which, I might add, are not pretty. So there I was, gripping the wheel as I was taking turns around and around - hoping that either the fog would end, the mountains would end or - god willing - both, and the only thing I could find was a radio station playing nonstop Christmas carols hosted by John Tesh telling any listeners how to spot a con artists who would prey on single women.

It was a very long leg of the trip.

Jonathan woke up at around midnight, soon after my boisterous rendition of "What Child is This," and agreed that I had been through enough and he would gladly drive the last hour to Portland. We found our hotel just fine and promptly fell asleep. It was AWESOME.

Saturday we woke up around 9:30 so we could check out the free breakfast offered by our hotel, only to find a few cold bagels, a few muffins and some sad looking cereal. Luckily, across the street for our hotel was Kenny & Zuke's deli. It was good, stick to the ribs food, so even though Powells was just a mere block away, we knew we had to go for a walk.

We strolled down Stark St toward the river, then northernly where we found an open market of local artists selling their wares. We were stopped by a little old lady gathering money for the holiday meal for the homeless and were mistaken for a married couple. She even ogled my hand looking for a ring, and then offered her services as a baker for our wedding cake. How sweet. After finding a hat for myself and a gift for a family member, we finally made our way back to Powells.

Oh my god Powells. Rooms upon rooms of books. Books...everywhere. Nothing but books. Every kind of book, scattered through out the place in color coordinated rooms in which you need a map to navigate through. Benches to sit on and simply take in the view of the mountainous hoard of fantastic books. We had to limit our time there becase if we spent just one more minute there, we would have no money left to enjoy the rest of the trip. So after about 2 and a half hours, we grabbed our purchases and fled the whole half a block back to the hotel. We offloaded and then tried to find out how to go to the sushi place that was recommended to us.

Okay - so when I told my friend Sarah that we were going to Portland she said that we need - nay - MUST go to Yoko's sushi. I asked her over IM if it was worth it, seeing how it was on the other side of the river from our hotel, you know - REALLY worth it. There was a pause in the IM conversation as Sarah went through minor conniptions as, I am quite sure, she tried to figure out how to explain just how awesome Yoko's Sushi is. And it did not dissapoint. Jonathan and I had a fantastic dinner and we made sure to tell them how highly their wonderful little place came recommended. I even shared with them the direct quote from Sarah "OMG the Taka's Tuna. I wish it was in my mouth right now!" They loved it.

After dinner we decided to relive our first date and take in a movie, so we went to go see Australia.

Australia deserves a post on its own. I will not recommend this movie to some people, but I will recommend it to others. You must love Baz Lurhman, that's a given. Also, loving Hugh Jackman helps. Like I said - it deserves it's own post. That will come.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend. We drove back down Sunday morning and got in at about 8:30 - tired, road weary, but very happy to have gone up to spend a weekend just with the two of us in a beautiful town on a nice sunny day. It's so much fun to be wonderfully and deliciously in love.

Damn, what's up with me and posting today?

2008-12-04T04:33:19Z

So lately I've gotten back into the crafting thing. It's been a lot of fun and been keeping my hands busy which is always good. Busy hands mean I don't snack and I feel more productive than just playing Lego Batman until my brian jellifies.

I've been crocheting again. To be specific, I've been creating amigurumi which is a little bit like a heroin addiction except cute and not as pricey or dangerous. So far I'm almost done with two crocheted cthulhus. One is for Jonathan and made out of green cotton yarn (picture visible on my facebook). The other is for my cousin Mike for his little girl Lilith, made out of pink acrylic (pictures will be posted when I'm done). Right now I'm stuck on the wings. The one for jonathan I'll use the pattern that requires pipecleaner. For Lilith, I'm just going to crochet the ribs and then use a contrasting pink material to make puffy webbing. I've got a few other projects in the works, but they're going to be christmas pressies, so I have to keep hush hush.

Right now I just made an awesome discovery while I was at Joanne's today. BAMBOO YARN. There is no way to accurately describe how mind blowingly soft this yarn is. Silky smooth, light and airy, if you have EVER slept on bamboo sheets (now available at target.com) you might have a good idea. I bought a skein of it today (at a pricey $5!) and now I need to figure out something to make.

Kaela, do you think your baby needs bamboo booties or a blankie or something? Does anybody need something made from bamboo? For you crafters - what SHOULD I make from bamboo yarn?

Year in review mem

2008-12-03T22:21:44Z

The first line from the first post of each month of 2008.

January:
I'd like to preface this whole thing by saying that I've won the boyfriend lottery.

February:
I love craigslist.

March:
You guys can totally blame Jonathan for the following....

April:
It's been a while since I've written, and even more since I've written about work over at the Salty Shack.

May:
Every relationship has its bad points.

June:
I've been horrible about writing on my livejournal.

July:
Today was a gorgous day here in the City.

August:
On Monday, June 30th I made a goal of working out on the elliptical for 30 minutes every morning monday through friday.

September:
This past weekend Jonathan and I traveled a grand total of approximately 4,000 miles round trip to attend two weddings of some fantastic people.

October:
I just found out today that a very dear friend of the family had passed away.

November:
1. This was sent to me by my mother.

December:
This weekend, Jonathan and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary.