Favorite Meals of 2009

Jumping on the bandwagon, I spent today trying to figure out my favorite meals of 2009. How do I judge? Is it solely food, or do I take into account decor, service, and the overall experience? Should it be a meal that is unforgettable because it was special for more reasons than just the food?

In the end, I decided to pick based on everything, but that the only fair thing to do would be to eliminate the restaurant where we had our wedding dinner from contention, because of course, our wedding dinner was special. The food was fantastic, and I would recommend the Pineapple Grill in Maui to anyone and everyone, but for this category, I just didn't think it would be fair. I could go on and on about the hors d'oeuvres or the delicious salad with goat cheese or our appetizer plate or the amazing dessert spread or how our relatives can't stop talking about the lamb or how the service has been phenomenal every time we've been there and they were a pleasure to work with, but again, in the end, not really a fair fight to include a meal with SUCH sentimental meaning. For the same reason, I would probably exclude where we got engaged from that year, but I wasn't doing this post that year.

So without further delay, I picked two places and one honorable mention for my favorite meals of the year. Two from Maui (both from Kapalua, actually) and one from New York, interestingly enough.

MERRIMAN'S KAPALUA

We have been to Merriman's on each of our visits to Maui this year, and I think our first visit there was one of my favorite meals of the year. It was a very "non-Hawaii" day... cloudy, cool enough that I was wearing a sweater through dinner and got cold after the sunset (when the sun finally showed up). However, the food really shone that night, our server (who we were guessing surfed during the day and was a server by night) was excellent, and we saw whales FROM OUR SEATS in the dining room. It was truly incredible.

The dishes I got were also great, and I was talking about them for days afterwards. The appetizer was a special and it was white shrimp tempura over a pohole fern salad. The shrimp were from somewhere right off Oahu, and the whole dish just worked really well.


For entree (I ended up getting the same entree both times, I liked it so much) was the Big Island butterfish misoyaki with vegetables and a side of macadamia nut brown rice. Again, the whole dish worked together so well, and I was raving about the butterfish for days. I can still remember the taste of it and that makes a meal memorable for me.


Dessert was good too, but I couldn't remember what we got without looking at the pictures, so it wasn't as memorable as those two dishes. Now that I've written this, I could go for some of that right now. Our second visit was good too, but the first was my favorite between the two.

BURMESE NEW YEAR WATER FESTIVAL

In the middle of July, A and I went on a sweltering hot day to a blacktop schoolyard on the Lower East Side for the Burmese New Year Water Festival. (We also went to the Fun Fair in Queens later in the summer.) I had Burmese food before at one of the restaurants in NYC, and later represented an asylum client from Burma (not that that had anything to do with food), so I was definitely interested in trying out more Burmese food. We arrived too late to try the special dessert (they ran out already!) but we had so much other good food that we had to push our dinner reservation back a few hours and all I wanted for days afterwards was Burmese food. I would sit at work thinking about what I wanted for lunch, and it was Burmese food. Too bad for me, because I don't know when else you can get this fish noodle soup or other Burmese food except at these two food fairs in the summer! I can't wait until next year to get my fix (unless someone has other suggestions for places to go). Two of my favorite things from the fair were the fish noodle soup and the tofu salad:



They also had this orchid juice which was so good, different and refreshing. And watching the Water Festival activities was also fun. It was just a really fun afternoon with really good food, and it got me addicted to Burmese food. Memorable.

HONORABLE MENTION: SANSEI KAPALUA

We love Sansei. It's as simple as that. But since we have been there a total of six times in the past 1.5 years (yes, more than once per trip to get to that number), it's hard to single Sansei out as one of my favorite meals of the year because they've all been good (and are kind of blurring in my head right now). But we love Sansei. And the food there is memorable, just not a specific "meal" for me. So to conclude this mouth-watering post, here's the dragonfly roll we tried on our next to last visit to Sansei instead of dessert:


Doesn't all of this look delicious? I know I'm getting hungry... but it's way past bedtime, and I need to be functional to do my other year-end posts later. Happy almost new year!

Year End

It's that time of year when people discuss their favorites of the year, and this year, the decade. I like to do year-end posts but haven't done any yet with all the thank you card writing and sheer exhaustion. But I am going to start rolling them out soon (not that there's much time left!). I promise (myself) that I will do it. I'm going to start with my favorite meals of the year in the next post. What were yours?

Reflections

I'm reading over some old blog posts to figure out what I was doing on this day in the past...

Five years ago (wow, I have had this blog for awhile)... I was talking about how great it would be to have cuisine mode on my camera. This was before I ever had an SLR (not that I know how to use it well), and I got a camera with a cuisine mode a couple of years ago. I can't believe that this was news back then. Five years ago, I was also getting ready to go out to buy Christmas underwear. Funny.

Four years ago ... I didn't post, but I think I was working.

Three years ago ... I didn't post, but I'm fairly sure I was working. December 2006 was a crazy busy month. I think that's the month in my entire working history that I billed the most hours.

Two years ago ... I didn't post (notice a pattern?), but again, I'm fairly sure I was working. December is a busy month for transactional associates. At least it was when the economy was good. Wait... was this a Saturday? Maybe I wasn't working? Or... maybe I was...

A year ago ... I didn't post (again!), but I remember last December being busy.

This was far more interesting when I started it looking through 2004 entries. My spurt-posting and lack of regular posting has made this far less interesting than it could be for some other dates. Oh well.

Ramen

Now that winter is (unfortunately) really here, we have been craving a lot of warm and comforting foods. An easy choice? Ramen.

Without planning on it, we have now had ramen twice in one week, and it could have been three if the lines at the ramen shops hadn't been so long on the snowy and windy Saturday night.

The first time was last week when we went to a Japanese restaurant in our neighborhood that we knew had a lot of ramen (larmen) choices, but we had never tried before. We kept saying that we would, but we always ended up at the sushi place down the street. With the cold weather, it was as good a time as any to try it! A got their special ramen and I got the nabeyaki udon. It was the perfect warm-up food, and by the end, I was so warm that I was sweating in my fleece sweatshirt. It was tasty and it did the job. We'll be back.

Tonight, we met some friends for ramen on another cold night. It's now officially winter (despite having the big snowstorm the previous weekend), and the shortest day of the year, so comfort food was definitely a good plan. I can't wait for the longer days and the day when it's finally still light at 5 pm.

I wonder how many more times we will get ramen before the end of the year! Probably not too many because of the Christmas holiday and the fact that it's almost the end of the year (when did that happen?!). But you never know...

Resolutions Check

I just looked at my 2009 resolutions from last new year's eve, and I have a mixed report with respect to progress.

Here's what I resolved and how I did:

1. Manage inboxes more effectively. Get work inbox under 100 and get gmail inbox under 2000 (that's a third of what it is now).

Work inbox - FAIL. Currently at 488. I don't think I went under 100 all year. Gmail inbox - FAIL but progress. If I wanted to be under 2000, and that was a third of what I had on NYE, that means I had over 6000 on NYE (which sounds right). I'm currently at 2772 messages. So, while I may not be under 2000, I'm a lot closer than I was at this time last year and that's substantial progress. And I didn't do what I tend to do when "stuff" is out of hand and move it all to a "review later" folder or box to get it to this point. I've been working hard on deleting email! It's so much work!

2. Do something active every day. Preferably the 30 day shred (when it comes), DDR (when it comes) or Wii Fit or Wii Sports. Or the gym we pay for...

Massive FAIL. In fact, in the month leading up to the wedding, I barely had any time to work out. The 30 day shred is good, but with all the boxes in our apartment, we kept running out of room, not to mention time. DDR was fun, but it's hard to set up, and takes a lot of space in our apartment that we don't currently have. Wii Fit and Wii Sports are good, but again time and space. After months of not going, we no longer pay for that gym. I need to figure out how to fix this. I really want to swim daily but we have no pool.

3. Eat healthier. Take pictures to keep to the goal. Take vitamins daily. Remember to fill prescriptions regularly.

Mixed FAIL. Eat healthier. I don't think it's all that different from before. I tried to keep count of calories to see what I was eating, but I can only do it with packaged foods (aren't those less healthy?) or at restaurants that have nutrition calculators (few). Take pictures to keep to the goal. What did I mean? Take pictures of what I eat? That I do. Take pictures of me? That I don't. Take vitamins daily. Now that we have bottles of gummy vitamins, yes, success, easy. Remember to fill prescriptions regularly. Meh.

4. Clean the apartment. Get rid of coffee table before the end of the first quarter.

Massive FAIL. Apartment not clean. Coffee table still here and covered. Bane of my existence.

5. Blog at least once a week.

Not sure... I would prefer to blog more than once a week, and actual posts of substance, but I don't think I've achieved that. I think I blog in spurts. I guess better than nothing at all, but I would like to be more consistent. Let's call this one mixed success.

So... to summarize, I made progress on deleting emails in gmail and take my vitamins. I guess that's better than nothing... sigh.

Thinking about my resolutions for 2010... let's see what I come up with by NYE!

Snow Insomnia

Last night was a perfect storm of insomnia.

I didn't get to sleep until after 5:30, and at one point, even thought, "why bother?" Ultimately, it was knowing that Sunday would completely suck if I didn't get some sleep and a sudden crash around 5:15 that sent me to bed.

Why the insomnia? For someone who can sleep almost anytime, I think there were a few contributing factors:

1. Tea - Tea never usually keeps me awake. I like to say at work that it helps me stay alert, but that I could still fall asleep if I want. This is still mostly true, I think, but it seems to be having more of an effect on me lately, especially tea from Japanese restaurants. Had all of the other factors not contributed, I probably would have slept earlier, and had I just forced myself to go to bed earlier, I probably would have slept earlier... but I didn't.

2. Sleeping in - I end up so exhausted on Fridays that I usually take advantage of Saturdays for sleeping in (and it feels so, so good). Unfortunately this Friday night I stayed up even later than usual (despite being completely exhausted) because I had to finish writing more Christmas cards so we could get them in the mail by my self-imposed deadline of Saturday. Needless to say, we woke up late, and then just relaxed for a few more hours, so by the time the day started, it was already late!

3. Late day shift - Continuing from #2, we woke up late, so we got out of the apartment late, so we ate late, so we shopped late, so we got home late, so we took showers late, so we went to sleep late. Unfortunately, it's an endless cycle, which means that last night, we went to sleep late... so we got up late... repeat.

4. TV - I was supposed to take a shower, but then the repeat of Lost that was on was "The Variable" - the Faraday episode and one of my favorites - and being part of the end of season crescendo of last season's Lost, I couldn't tear myself away until it was over. And I think it started late because of the snow reports. Oops.

5. Naps - Naps usually set me back a bit, and yesterday was no different. I fell asleep on the train ride from Queens to the East Village, and then again from the Upper East Side to home. Oops. (We were smart and didn't do any of our Christmas shopping (other than online shopping) until yesterday, the day that just happened to be the "blizzard." Shopping and trudging through the blowing snow is exhausting!)

6. Electronic clutter - My gmail inbox went back over 3000 because I have been so busy lately with work, Christmas cards and thank you cards that I haven't been taking care of it. I really wanted to get it below 2000 for the new year. So, I had to fix that. I got it under 2850, and right now, it's under 2800, so my goal for tonight is to be under 2700. I was pretty good about it for awhile, and then it got a little too busy.

7. Sick - I'm not feeling all that well today, and am wondering if the beginnings of it were last night and if that also kept me from sleeping.

8. Pictures - I had to upload my pictures of the snow that we trudged through all day and also the snow that confronted us when we got to our apartment, among others. I usually don't upload until the weekends these days and have a lot of catching up to do!

So now I'm sitting at home, not feeling so great, and it's already after 3 pm. I guess it's a good time to start working (is there ever a good time on a Sunday?). I would rather be outside since I love when blue skies and sunlight meet snow piles and think it makes for nice pictures. But since I'm not, here's a picture of our apartment hallway yesterday:

The window was open when we got home. Indoor snowstorm!

Scary II

Still a little freaked out by what happened yesterday, even though I wasn't there, after reading this: http://gothamist.com/2009/12/11/times_square_peddlers_semiautomatic.php

 

If that guy's gun hadn't jammed...  this could have been a huge nightmare.

Scary

I was all dressed and ready to go to work this morning, but still felt sick so I decided at the last minute it would be better to stay home. (I left early the day before, because I felt horrible.) I like staying home, and wish I could do it for reasons other than being sick, but so be it.

An hour later, I realized how lucky I was that I stayed home. My mom messaged me on gchat and told me there had been a shooting in Times Square by the Marriott Marquis. WHAT?!

With the way Times Square has been cleaned up and with all the security, how could there have been a shooting there? The scariest part is that, had I left when I was finally ready to go, I would have been right around that block at right around the time it happened. So I'm a little freaked out by the whole thing, but very, very glad my stomach picked the right time to feel awful. *shudder* Scary.

Macarellas

Macarellas from the Street Sweets truck.

So, so, so good.

We were heading to the Upper West Side today anyway, so we decided to stop by for some macarellas in honor of their GMA appearance. Mmmm, so good.

Special Agents

I had a really intense, complicated (and long!) dream last night. We were special agents investigating people who we thought were terrorists with some new modern technology. We were constantly following the wrong people and getting wrong leads, and being lead on a wild goose chase, in and out of buildings. (At one point, we also tried going to Burger King, which was supposed to be on one of the main corners of Times Square, and a lot of the tall buildings were just empty construction sites.) There were lots of empty plots, tips that they were hiding bombs in Christmas ornaments or large parade adornments, and other strange things. It turns out the person had some vendetta against someone, and was out for revenge not just for destruction but were willing to take everyone down with them. This dream was so bizarre because for once, it didn't jump around or replay the same scenes with different endings. Instead, it was like watching a movie for the entire time I was asleep! Crazy.

World Series

YANKEES WIN #27!

So happy!

I updated Facebook and Twitter, and forgot to update here since I've been neglecting this. Oops.

So happy!

Once Again

Our entire apartment (other than the bedroom, thank goodness) smells like stale cigarette smoke. Thank you, considerate neighbors, for polluting my lungs. I don't care what you do with yours. But leave me out of it and let me choose for myself if I want to inhale cancer sticks.

Mayor

The NYT one line article summary in my email this morning says:

 

"Michael R. Bloomberg's repeal of term limits and his campaign spending may have undermined his bid."

 

I thought it was a given that he was going to win, but I'm really surprised with how close the election turned out to be.  I didn't vote for him (or the other guy).  In fact, I didn't vote for mayor at all, because I didn't like anyone (but considered voting for the "rent is too high" party when in the voting booth, but didn't because I didn't know anything about them).

 

But I think those are the right 2 things to look at when thinking about how close this was.  The repeal of term limits says a lot about him as a person and a leader.  If things aren't how he personally wants them, he will just change them to be how he wants them.  Can't be mayor for more than 2 terms?  Change the law!  Things just seem to keep happening around the city without any of us even getting to comment.  For example, all of a sudden, the loading zone in front of our apartment building was turned into parking spaces, and now, not only is it much more difficult to drive down the street (the loading zone doubled as a left turn lane onto a busy avenue), but there's nowhere to park to unload the car (or people, in the case of taxis) so it's leading to lots of double parking.  Anyone could have told him that, and maybe it wasn't his personal decision, but as leader of the city, it's easy for me to project this on to him.  Don't get me started on the pedestrian plaza thing, which was definitely his idea.  I'm OK with it now that it's no longer an eyesore, and we're getting used to it (and I LIKE public space), but in the beginning, it was unused and looked sloppy and cheap, and I still don't buy the argument that it reduces congestion on the city streets.  Oops, I said I wasn't going to get worked up over all of this, and there I went.

 

As for the campaign spending, his spending and his constant mailings almost pushed me to vote for the other guy, even though I knew little about him and didn't particularly feel any great liking for him.  For someone who claims to care a great deal about the environment, he sure sends a lot of paper and cardstock in the mail.  Every day, we would get something from him.  Not only that, but we would get TWO sometimes.  It started months ago, and has only gotten worse as we got closer to election day.  They go straight into the recycling bin, but it's incredibly annoying.  We don't even read them, and he's just killing trees.   In addition, we have been seeing his face all over TV.  Even though I know the appearance at the marathon wasn't for campaign purposes, I had seen so much crap from him by that point that it almost felt like it was just another ad and another way to get his face in the news.

 

Am I a fan?  Clearly not.  But I also figured that he was going to win.  NY1 said this morning that with his spending it was about $200 a vote.  He outspent his opponent something like 16 to 1.  I'm glad it's his own money (at least I think it is) and not ours, but seriously?!  I guess maybe I shouldn't be surprised at how well the other guy did!  I guess other people felt the same way.

Forgotten

Thank you DVR, for not recording V (with the same stupid "set top could not record the program" message that means nothing), so now we have to wait until Saturday to see it on Hulu.

Thank you ABC, for cutting into the beginning of the forgotten to tell me that stupid Mayor Mike won again (it was a "special report" because it is oh-so-shocking that he won, seriously?!), and then in attempting to go back to the program, showing me a black screen and then re-showing the ending of Dancing With the Stars, and then finally showing the forgotten once the story has already been introduced. This is the first episode not on Hulu, so can't watch it later!

Argh.

Useless Post

How is it November?! Seriously?!

And why is it, when the clocks went backwards, I'm still awake at 3:30 which is the old 4:30? This is bad!

Catching Up

We're still trying to catch up on TV shows after being gone (and watching no prime time shows) for 2 weeks. Not everything made it on to the DVR, so thank goodness for Hulu and other online viewing. But we're so behind.

The only shows we're up to date on (well, some of them aren't shows we watch together, so those would be just me) are Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, White Collar (because it's new!), Modern Family, The Good Wife, Bones and So You Think You Can Dance. At least I think that's it. Maybe Vampire Diaries. That's not much!

We just caught up on Modern Family today. I love that show. It's one of the best shows on TV and makes me so happy. That's really what I look for in TV these days - something enjoyable. Shows that are really dark (coughCBScough) just aren't working as well for me these days.

I think I have watched White Collar 4 times now. I love USA.

And in the last bit of TV comments, I'm really sad to hear that Billy Bell is sick and had to leave SYTYCD. He was one of our favorites, and it sounds really serious if he had to leave, so we really hope he gets well soon. Sad to hear that.

I can't believe it's already 11:30. Where did today go?!

HC: Bath Products

We spent two weeks in Maui this month for the wedding, and over the course of our time there, stayed at three different hotels/resorts: the Hyatt, Sheraton and Grand Wailea.

Since we compared different items at the hotels during our stay, the "HC" ("Hotel Comparison") series will be putting our thoughts into words. (And, for the things we haven't discussed at length, my thoughts.)

For most things (other than bugs - I'll explain another time), the Grand Wailea will probably win. It's a huge sprawling resort with an amazing spa and pool, and I don't think I've ever been to a place that can compare to it (yet). I suppose we could also make it a 4-way comparison with the hotel we stayed at during our first visit, the Kaanapali Shores, but it was a condo/hotel so it was fairly different in level and style to the other places, and probably wouldn't benefit from the comparison. You probably wouldn't hit Kaanapali Shores if you were looking for a place with a big spa or pools with lava slides.

For the first comparison, I'm going to discuss bath and body products. (Speaking of bath and body, if you go to Bath & Body Works right now, they are giving out Christmas guides with coupons with purchase and also have these "winter indulgence" lotions/creams that are awesome.) It doesn't sound like the most exciting topic, but I just got out of the shower, so it's on my mind.

First up, the Hyatt. The Hyatt's bath products come in these big 2 ounce tubes (big for a hotel size). They come in coco-mango and are the same as the spa (they say). They're usually pretty good about giving you extras even if you haven't finished the old ones, which is really good. They smell good and are pretty good quality. We stayed at the Hyatt twice (thanks, Priceline!) and were really happy with the bath products there (and ended up with so many extras during the first trip that we're still using them).

Next, the Sheraton. The Sheraton's products were made by bliss, and come in mandarin & mint (that's one type, not 2). I was expecting to like these more because they were made by bliss, but of the 3, I think these are my least favorite! They're the least "luxurious" feeling of the bunch, which surprised me since bliss makes spa quality products too. I didn't mind using it when we were there, but I think Hawaii shower water is better than New York water, and I don't think I like the products as much when I use them here.

Last, the Grand Wailea. Like the Hyatt, they also give you products from their spa line, Spa Grande, and they come in honey mango. It's the same exact stuff they sell in their spa store, and they refill your room shelf twice a day (awesome). The quality of these is really good too, and I'm not sure which I like better between this one and the Hyatt.

And I feel the need to mention something about an unrelated resort at this point since I just used the Ritz Carlton shower gel while in the shower. I think Ritz Carlton bath products are my favorite ever. This is a few years old (oops) from my trip to Puerto Rico, and it's still good (and the smell just reminds me of vacations). We went to their spa in Maui once, and they use the same products in the spa showers, and I love them.

I guess if I had to pick, I would pick Grand Wailea by an inch over the Hyatt, and then the Sheraton below it. I just asked A, and he had to think about it between the Grand Wailea and the Hyatt, but came out the same way. He doesn't remember much about the Sheraton's stuff, since we were there less than the Hyatt. And, well, we had other more important things on our minds. I guess it's easier for me to compare since I used Sheraton shampoo and Hyatt conditioner in my shower tonight.

Maybe the key to good products is using mango. :)

It's almost 3:45 and we're still awake... why...

Jet Lag II

I'm going backwards in my jet lag progress!

I was going to sleep at a (more) decent hour, but tonight, here I am at 2:30 am, wide awake! This is bad! The past two days, I had gotten myself asleep by now, but tonight, it's not happening. Annoyed.

And my ears are all clogged and really need to pop. It's been like this for the past 8 hours or so. Really annoyed.

How can I get over my jet lag? Help!

Jet Lag

Remember when I said I didn't know how we were going to adjust to the time when we got back?

Well, it's almost 4 am, and here I am.

I intended to try to "right" my schedule today since I took tomorrow off to get things done and have to be back in the office bright and early on Tuesday (ugh). After spending two weeks in a time zone 6 hours behind, this is going to take some adjustment. Especially when I seamlessly adjusted to that time zone, and experienced no jet lag whatsoever going westward. Going east is so difficult.

So I'm sitting in the dark staring at the computer screen, hoping that this will make me more tired. (It seems to be working, I think.) The best way to adjust would have been to stay awake for the entire second flight from San Francisco, since that would have been from about 10:30 NYC time until 4 NYC time, but I slept through most of that flight. I tried to stay awake and failed miserably, but I guess I didn't really try that hard. Without an in-seat TV, what else is there to do but sleep?

I'm in such a relaxed state of mind that it's so difficult being back, thinking about having to run errands, clean the apartment, do post-wedding stuff and go back to work. I want to spend the day at the spa, the pool, the beach! I think I have post-vacation blues. I read some article before we left about the way most people adjust to post-vacation blues - planning another vacation. Maybe I'll try that. I have research to do. I haven't really been to Los Angeles in almost 20 years (hard to believe it's been so long).

For now, my most immediate goal - wake up at a decent hour! Sigh.

Strange

It's been SO strange watching "Wake Up With Al" on the Weather Channel when going to sleep everyday. People on the East Coast are waking up and the sun is rising and I'm going to bed. So strange.

Also strange that it's snowing at home and we spent part of the afternoon going on water slides and hanging out in the pool. I don't know how we're going to adjust to time or weather when we get home.

Almost There

I don't know if I ever mentioned on here the difficulties with booking our reception for the wedding. We had initially wanted to do it at the same place as the ceremony; it would be convenient and went along with our ideas of a "wedding." However, dealing with the people at the site was like pulling teeth (maybe worse) and their contract was one of the worst I have ever read in my entire life.

So it should be no surprise that when I'm reading the "all about the hotel" book on the coffee "table" here, and it said that their convention services and catering people "have made creativity and efficiency a habit," I burst out laughing.

Creativity? Not seeing any creativity when the answer to your wedding ceremony is "either you pick A or B or you have to go through an intermediary wedding coordinator." (And that's just awesome when A and B are each over $15,000, for the ceremony.) Efficiency? If so, I'm not sure that word means what they think it means.

Anyway, we're here at the hotel where the ceremony will be, and we just moved over today from another hotel that we absolutely love (but didn't know that until after everything was reserved, and we probably would have ditched this room block if not for the hefty deposits). Perhaps I'm a little biased because I love the other hotel, but I think it still wins. I'll do a more detailed assessment later after the wedding, when I have thought about it more, but I suppose they could be reading this right now if they really wanted to spy on people. If so, I would like to tell them to revise their book because "snorkleing" isn't a word.

Everything's really moving now. Tonight we had a "parents' dinner" and tomorrow the wedding weekend events officially start. Crazy how quickly the time has flown by.

Candy

"Can giving your kids too much candy set them up for a life of crime?"

I'm watching last night's Numb3rs and that was the teaser for the 11:00 news. Seriously?! Eating candy can make you a criminal?

Onions

We got home and our apartment smelled like garbage. Apparently the cover blew off this old plastic container of onions in the fridge, and once we opened the fridge, the whole apartment smelled like onions. The air neutralizer can't work quickly enough!

Ugh

A few more days until we leave.

As should be expected, that means we are a little crazy!

Not on the outside, though. On the outside, we seem rather calm. I think my stress is at such a buried level that it's causing me other problems though. For example, I usually sleep like a rock through the night. Lately, I can't sleep. I stay up just zoning out or thinking about nothing in particular, and then wake up multiple times during the night. Last night, I woke up so itchy over and over again and nothing I could do would relieve it. At least I had to get up a little earlier for a meeting, so I was able to get up, but still annoying. Now it's about 3:45 am, but I only finished doing work at 3:15, so it makes sense (sadly) that I'm still awake.

That's another thing about leaving soon. So much to do at work! This is the longest vacation I have ever taken (2 weeks) and there just seems to be so many things to do!

So, forget about working out.

Mostly because I want to run and it gets dark early now, and I can't get out of work early enough to go. And forget mornings, because not only can I not usually get up early, but see above.

I was supposed to be super-diligent about working out because, um, strapless dress and big audience coming up soon, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Once we're there, I want to run, swim and go to the gym every day, but I wonder if I'll be able to keep that up. If I can, I should hopefully sleep really well!

Anyway. I think I'm going to stop listening to 80s music and complaining, and will try to fall asleep watching QVC. Of course, tomorrow will be a really long day at work (since we're running out of time) and I will have gotten very little sleep. I'm thinking wedding planning + intense job = bad for your health.

I think I'll do some yoga stretching and then go to sleep. Sounds like a plan.

Countdown

The date is getting closer!

We have now shipped out 2 boxes with one more to go. The first box is almost there (it's at least in the same state now). The other is sitting at the FedEx place we brought it to, and I think I'm going to be obsessively checking its status for the next few days. It's a pretty important box, as it contains all of our wedding clothes!

Slowly, everything is getting done. Crossing things off the to-do list feels good (and at this point, is necessary). It's at that point people always talk about getting to - if it's not done by now, do we really need to do it? Some of it (like hair and makeup styles) would be yes (but we're doing that when we get there), and some of it (like the guestbook) just isn't going to happen (because we don't have enough days for them to publish it and mail it to us, even on next day shipping which itself would be like $20). Plan B, here we come!

Off to put the last box together. So much to do, so little time!

ABDC Top 3

We're finally getting around to watching the top 3 episode of ABDC. I have had a problem with ABDC this season. It seems like the teams the voters keep putting in the bottom 2 consistently have the better performances. For example, this time Afroborike was the safe team, but the other two teams both had better dances! I can't complain that much because I don't watch the show on time and don't vote, but there's something messed up if the safe teams are consistently the worst ones.

At least TPTB will finally have a girl win this show. Too bad it isn't one of the girls from Rhythm City instead.

Weekend Update

We were really productive this weekend! We had a DIY crafting weekend and can now cross a lot of things off our to-do list, which makes me really happy. We did escort cards, table signs, photo sharing cards, reserved signs for ceremony seats, and tags for our welcome bags. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it really is!

On a negative note, I have been dealing with some sort of GI issue all weekend, ever since the weekend officially started on Friday night. I am working from home sick, and it just sucks.

Stupid

To the Idiot I Met on 45th Street Today:

 

You are an inconsiderate idiot.  The sidewalk was crowded.  It was raining.  People were holding umbrellas.

 

You had room on the other side of you to walk around my umbrella.  I am sorry that I couldn't walk further out of your path, but it would have put me in the path of other people.  You, sir, had a clear path.

 

Instead of being kind and considerate and going around my umbrella, you chose to push into it hard.  This pushed the pole of my umbrella hard into my glasses and pushed my glasses into my eye.  It hurt.  A lot. 

 

You suck.  What is it about the rain that makes people act even more like jerks?

 

Love,

Crayon

Unhappy

Dear Thai Restaurant In My Neighborhood That I Actually Somewhat Like,

 

I ordered delivery tonight from your restaurant.  I have been to your restaurant and I like eating there.  But I am very unhappy right now.

 

If you are going to include broccoli in your dish, please put it in the description.  You listed the onions, the basil, the peppers, but no broccoli.  Basil, tomato, chili, egg, onion, scallions.  That's all you listed.  I just checked.  Am I supposed to assume broccoli is in it?  That would be an unreasonable assumption since you listed broccoli as an ingredient to the other dishes but not this one.  That would lead one to conclude that broccoli is not an ingredient or you would have listed it the same way as the other dishes.

 

Due to your omission, I cannot eat my dinner entree.  I am really glad that (a) I'm not personally paying for this, (b) I ordered 2 appetizers so at least now I have something to eat and (c) I have someone at home who can eat this.  If I didn't, the entire thing would have gone in the garbage, and I'd be even more pissed.  What a waste.

 

But, no, I'm not going to call you and have you send over another one because I don't want to wait around for it.  I don't want to waste my time.

 

Please fix your *%$&# menu!

 

Love,
Crayon

More on the Inbox

I realize that this is an entirely useless thing to blog about, except anyone who has followed this blog for a long time (and I would love to know who you are and how you found this and why you keep reading, out of curiosity) knows that I like to blog about things to try to keep myself accountable. I am really trying hard to get my inbox under control (all of them, but concentrating mostly on work and gmail), and I don't know how else to make myself do it! It's so time consuming, which really means I just get too many emails (which is true), but I also need to be better about taking care of it.

So I am proud to announce that after a lot of work today, I am down to 3962 messages in the gmail inbox! I would really like to keep the inbox under 4000 (and really, I have no idea how there are that many thousand messages in the inbox still - what ARE they?), so let's see if I can do it!

In fitness news, I went running 3 of the 4 days this weekend (counting Friday), and by running I mean, alternating running with walking since I am still a beginner. It's really difficult to go during the week because of work, but hopefully I'll find some alternative during this week to keep the good progress going!

Inbox Update

My gmail inbox is down to 4255. I spent a LOT of time today deleting emails. I hope I can keep it lower than this number, because it feels so cluttered and hard to manage otherwise!

Dreams Repeating

Have you ever repeatedly had a dream one night based on the same situation but ending differently each time?

That happened to me last night. I was dreaming about this little girl, about 8 years old, who wanted to get help for her little sister who was sick. She wanted to see a Chinese doctor and the address she kept showing me was in my parents' neighborhood. For some reason, it was difficult to help her and I felt terrible.

I think one time I tried to give her instructions but she couldn't find it. Another time I somehow didn't know who the person was or how to get there. Another time she confronted me with the paper with the address when I was in a store where for some reason people were giving me bridal shower gifts even though I thought they already did (plays into my real life anxiety about thank you notes going to the right people) but I tried to help. She just kept coming back. In the last segment before I woke up, we had gone to the address and she found the doctor, who was trying to help her sister and either intentionally or unintentionally created an earthquake solely in that room.

It was really bizarre. Has that ever happened to you?

Wedding Dates

Once upon a time, there was a couple planning to get married. They chose a date, they chose a location and they chose to make it a destination wedding. They told their family and friends and invited a small number of people. They told their extended family about their plans for the small wedding and a larger reception next year to which everyone would be invited. They found out about the dates other cousins in the extended family were getting married, and decided to plan around those dates for their at home reception.

The couple struggled to plan a date for their at home reception. They knew one of the cousins was planning a wedding for that month, and they didn't want to step on anyone's toes or make it difficult for the family, since two wedding receptions very close together are a bit of a strain both on time and finances. They tried to find out details about the cousin's reception - where it was, what type of reception it was, whether the whole family was invited - so they could plan accordingly and not create any family drama. The couple doesn't believe in drama if they can help it.

A little more than a month before their wedding date, the couple found out that the cousin that was to get married next year has decided to get married this year. In the same destination state. In the same month. The same weekend. And quite possibly the same date.

The couple recognizes that this isn't catastrophic because they don't really know the cousin well, and the cousin wasn't invited to the destination wedding, but the couple still feels annoyed. They had publicly discussed their plans to get married that weekend in that (small) destination state, and now another couple in the family is getting married at the same time and virtually the same place. Maybe, ten years from now, no one would even remember that this even happened, but somehow, it just felt less unique, less special, to have someone doing the exact same thing in the exact same family. No two weddings are the same, but did they really have to do this the same weekend? Maybe they have a really good reason for moving it up, but no one told the couple why they are now sharing their wedding date.

Is the couple crazy for feeling this way? Are they more annoyed by this because they went out of their way to get details about the cousin's wedding so that they wouldn't step on anyone's toes since it's not great etiquette to get married the same time as another family member? Is it crazy for them to feel like someone stole their thunder a little bit because they're doing the same thing? It's always said that everyone only gets a day, but what if, in your extended family, your day isn't even just your day anymore? The couple has read lots of posts online about people's reactions to hearing about friends or family getting married near their wedding dates, and thought about how they would feel, but never thought they would be in this situation themselves since they thought they had talked to everyone and knew everyone's wedding dates.

To add to the madness, the cousin is having her reception this year and the couple is having their at-home reception next year. So the couple with the original idea and the original plan is going second, and it's going to look like they copied the first couple's idea even though they did it first. Weddings always create so much unnecessary drama, and the couple wants to just let this go, but they feel annoyed. Many people share wedding dates, but do you really have to do that within the same family?

Dinner

Tonight, instead of coming home, forcing myself to work out and eating a small dinner at home, I wanted to go out to eat. We originally set out for Thai since it has been awhile since we have had larb together, but the place was packed (as were many others). So we decided that since we haven't had Indian in awhile, we would try the neighborhood place we liked.

It was really crowded but they had some tables. The food there is usually good, but the service can be hit or miss. I should have known, considering how crowded it was, that today was going to be one of those "miss" days.

We were at dinner for almost 2 hours. We didn't really order a lot - chat papri appetizer, and we split 2 entrees (chana masala, chicken jalfrezi and garlic naan). No special drinks to make or anything. Just very basic and straightforward, so it really shouldn't have taken 2 hours.

The kitchen seemed to be good about getting the appetizers out, but the entrees seemed to be stalling. I'm not sure what was going on but their timing seemed off. There were 3 people serving and taking care of the whole restaurant, but of the 3, 1 guy was hustling, 1 guy was working at a moderate pace and the other 1... I'm not sure what he was doing. He would mostly help set and clear tables, and then help out with the other tables if he felt like it. Needless to say, the food took awhile to come today. We didn't even get the free pappadums that usually come out when you sit down without asking for them, which has never happened before. Everything was just a little off.

But the wait for the food wasn't even the worst part of it. It was the fact that no one was ever around when they needed to be around, and this wasted so much time. It took over 10 minutes before someone even came and took our check once it was ready! But it's not like they just weren't there. They passed by at least 10 times and it was clearly ready to go, but they never took it. Other people had their checks finished during that time, so I don't think they were just ignoring checks. It felt like they were just ignoring us!

The water problem didn't help this perception. We were out of water almost the whole night. A number of times, we asked for water and they forgot. Then there were 2 times that I signaled to the third guy working, the one who helped when he felt like it. He saw me, acknowledged me, looked over, and when I asked for water, he just turned and walked away. I was really turned off by that. He had no problem getting the beers for the men at the next table. Was it a gender thing?

If that wasn't enough, we couldn't finish our food and asked for it to be wrapped up. They never wrapped up the naan, which wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have to pay for it. I'm not going to pay $5 for naan when we barely ate half of it and had requested to take the rest of it home! They apparently threw it out instead of wrapping it up, so after 15 minutes or more, they finally got us new ones. I wasn't in it for new naan; I really just wanted the rest of what we ordered because we were going to eat it and so it wouldn't go to waste!

One thing after another, and it was just a really disappointing experience. The food itself is good, and it's our favorite Indian place in the neighborhood for the food (there is one I just won't go back to because the food was just bad the last time we went), but I'm not sure I'm going back anytime soon because the service was so bad tonight. Just disappointing. Took a lot of time and was kind of aggravating. That was on top of the girls who left who decided to stand right in front of the open doors smoking, blowing the cigarette smoke into the restaurant, instead of standing about six inches or a foot over in front of the closed windows. So inconsiderate! I know that's not the restaurant's fault, but all in all, just a disappointing night.

Up Late

I have been awake for about 20.5 hours. Wheee. I don't know how I'm still so functional.

I got up at 5:30 in order to grab a 6:30 car to get to the asylum office by 7:30. I got there on time, we went for the interview and now it's 2 weeks of waiting. I got back to the office around 1 pm.

Since I was out all morning, and then needed a break so had lunch with my mom, and then needed to debrief on the interview before I forgot important details, by the time I left work, I still hadn't done most of the work I needed to do today! But I wanted to work from home since I was completely exhausted. I'm surprised I haven't passed out yet but I think it's possibly (a) because I haven't taken Nyquil for the first time in a few nights and my body isn't used to not having sleepy medicine, (b) I passed out on the chiropractor's table and was so out that I didn't even realize the electric stim was done or (c) I'm too tired to sleep and will pay for it tomorrow.

So I have one more project to finish tonight. It's only almost 2 am. Wheee. I was hoping that this absurdly early day would translate into an early bedtime and then effectively switch my schedule to a little bit earlier. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. What is my problem? Why can't I sleep early and wake up early like a normal working person?

Argh

I was aiming to sleep at 9:30. Even trying to sleep at the "normal" person time of 10:30 was hard. Argh. How am I going to get up at 5:30? Why does the asylum office have to be so far away?

Sure

I was in the kitchen putting together my panini a little while ago, and heard the most interesting thing from the TV. We were watching the Bears game and they were talking about two players and someone getting married. I heard something like "[he] got married and now they're a threesome." Excellent.

Mesquite Turkey

Dear Oscar Mayer,

Today I bought a package of your shaved turkey breast, mesquite flavor. We were out of turkey breast from Costco to make our paninis so I sucked it up and shelled out $5 for your package of turkey. (I really wish Costco were closer...)

Looking at the package, I thought that maybe it would last us a day. Then I turned it over and it said there should be about 5 servings in the package. How is that possible? Then your package said that a serving size is 6 slices.

I really don't think your package had 30 slices in it. I don't think it even had 24 slices in it. The package in the website picture looks a lot more full than the one I got, but I really don't think there were 24 slices in it. Can you show me?

Paninis are almost done, so hopefully the turkey is good and it was worth the $5!

Love,

Crayon

Towels

We tried out our second set of bath towels from the shower gifts and can now compare towel brands!

I have been gushing for the past week over the first towels we tried, the Duet towels by Royal Velvet. They were SO soft. I looked forward to taking a shower to wrap myself in the towel afterwards. It was like wrapping up in a nice fluffy blanket - very cozy, comforting and soft.

All the other towels we got were the Wamsutta hotel brand. I thought they were the same during our visit to the store, but we registered over 6 months ago so the memory of how soft the towels are isn't very fresh!

The Wamsutta ones aren't as fluffy soft as the Duet ones. They both absorb really well. I guess it is worth the extra for good towels. I used to buy the discount ones at Marshalls all the time, but I guess carefully picking towels does make a difference. The Wamsutta ones also feel a little more tightly woven. I don't know how to describe it, but maybe less "furry" than the Duet ones (not that they're actually "furry" but I don't know what other word to pick).

Either way, I'm really happy. I love towels and think you can never have too many towels. It's one of those things you will always need. I think between the two, I like the Duet a little more, but the Wamsutta ones are so much better than our existing towels and also really good. I recommend both. :)

I never thought I would write an entire post about towels, but I thought you might like to know that both the Wamsutta hotel and the Duet ones are really good! I haven't done a "things I like" post in some time, but I think I should start that again!

Sleep Mode

WTF is DVR Sleep Mode and why did my DVR just ask me if I wanted to put it in sleep mode? I didn't press any buttons and it just popped up on its own!

Shuttle launch time!

Danny

Dear Tropical Storm Danny,

Is there any chance you can do something unexpected and veer way off into the Atlantic earlier than expected?

Every weather forecast for this weekend says it's a washout. Friday: showers, Saturday: showers, you get the idea. I have outdoor plans this weekend! I really don't want it to pour! Don't you want everyone to have a nice weekend?

Please, can you go far away from the East Coast? Please?

Love,

Crayon

Storm Leverage

I find it amusing that the Atlantic storms with male names now have the names of 2 relatives. Last weekend's hurricane was my dad's name and the new tropical storm is my uncle's name. Ha.

To update on my bargaining progress, I did one day of time entries and watched Leverage. Now I'm tired, so I shut my work window. Such progress.

Leverage was awesome though. Will watch that one over and over again.

Stupid

Stupid p.o.s. DVR box!

I was going to watch Leverage while doing my time entries because I really want to see this episode! What did you decide to do when I pressed play?

If you guessed freeze, you win! (Win what, I don't know.)

Now it is rebooting. Or something. It's really just not doing anything and just showing me dashes. I have no patience so it's probably only been a minute but it feels excruciating. I have gotten more patient over the years, but not for this.

I am annoyed. However, if you are rebooting it to give us the old DVR format back, then I might forgive this interruption.

Bargaining

I can't believe I have to bargain with myself to get things done.

I was uploading pictures but really should be doing my delinquent time entries for work. But uploading pictures is more fun!

So I have made myself a deal - I can only upload the next folder of pictures if I do a day of time (and the same deal for each subsequent folder).

Blah. This deal sucks. Maybe I'll just sleep instead.

ABDC

Finally got around to watching last Sunday's ABDC. It sucks that the two best performances were in the bottom and someone had to go! I wish we could have just sent home one of the other crews (although not Vogue Evolution, please) instead.

CNN

What did CNN do to Time Warner Cable that they moved them from channel 10 to 78?

Sad News

R.I.P. Ted Kennedy.

I'm really sad. :(

Today in Food

With less than 50 days until the wedding, I'm trying my hardest to eat healthier (and hoping some of it sticks as a lifestyle change). I am banned from eating certain types of candy (and hoping this will lessen my addiction), not allowed to buy pretzels or other salty crunchy snacks (although I allowed myself a reprieve for the first time in months to get some crunchy snacks by this "natural" Alexia brand, but still no pretzels permitted), and I'm trying to make better choices. These are all self-imposed choices, because I'm really trying to live a healthier lifestyle, since I don't like how things have gone the past few years (when I sit on my butt the majority of the day because of work - sedentary lifestyle sucks!).

So, today, like most other weekdays, I forgot I was craving pizza and went to get a nice chopped salad (not from this place but from the place I'm addicted to):


I don't know what it is about the salads but they're so good. Today it seemed like the salad was a little smaller than usual (it usually hits the rim of the bowl) and I got an end piece of the bread, which I don't like as much as the middle pieces because those are softer (and I'm not a hard bread kind of person). It was still good. The combination of beets, chickpeas, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, edamame, spinach and tofu always works for me.

I was good about snacking and just had some craisins (LOVE craisins). For dinner, I got delivery from a Thai place I order from a lot. I wonder if I am on some frequent orderer list because I saw this when I first opened the bag:


Aww, they love me?

It was free edamame but they weren't very soft so rather than take up space with edamame, I went for dish #1 (I went for the small plate ordering today doing appetizers instead of an entree).


Yup, curry puffs. I was expecting 2 of them in the dish. Maybe 3 if they were on the smaller side.

There were 5.

5 large puffy curry puffs.

Which would normally be good, except I also had two other small plates. And they probably don't reheat very well. And they were the least healthy part of the dinner I ordered! I had figured that since the other two items were steamed dumplings and/or a non-carb salad, I could allow myself the splurge of curry puffs instead of a summer roll, since it really wouldn't be that much and the other items were healthy.

Of course, when I made that call, I wasn't expecting FIVE curry puffs! I mean, that's a great value, but I'm so surprised. I have ordered this before and don't think I ever got 5 before. And of course, once you eat one curry puff, you can't just leave the curry puffs... I don't know if I ever wrote about our stay in the Singapore airport (I think I did - January 2007) but we paid to stay in a lounge and they had free curry puffs included in the price. Oh, that was trouble. I love curry puffs.

Eating healthy is so hard sometimes.


The kanom jeeb was slightly healthier. Mostly chicken dumpling, with vegetables and yummy cilantro. This was the size I was expecting. Unlike the curry puffs.

Which brings me to the last part of dinner...


Larb gai. One of my favorite foods. However, either my tongue had heightened spice sensitivity today or that stuff was spicy. I ended up drinking almost 3 cups of milk and finishing off the skim carton in the office fridge. I don't think I've had 3 cups of milk all year before this. (I know that's not really something I should be proud of... but for comparison, that should say something!) I also didn't finish the larb which is shocking for me, but (a) I ran out of milk and don't like 1% or more, (b) I was full from the curry puff face stuffing and (c) it was really spicy and I had reached saturation point.

So I took it home for A to eat when he is back from his business trip to Baltimore. Of course, that means it will have soaked in spicy oil for at least another 24 hours. Oops, it may be a little bit more spicy now?

It was good, as usual. Just spicier than the last time I got it. I'm usually pretty good about tolerating spice in larb, but whoooo, spicy.

So that was today in food. I doubt anyone cares, but I have so many food pictures that I might as well use them!

HTML

I'm glad I know basic html, because the formatting when uploading pictures to Blogger from Picasa annoys me.  Why can't we keep it simple?

Sigh

The weather today is absolutely gorgeous.  Why must I be stuck inside at work?!  So annoyed.

Problem

I really need to do something about this 3 am/4 am bedtime of mine. Ideas? I need all the help I can get.

Shower

What a crazy weekend.

My mom threw a bridal shower for me on Saturday and it was a lot of fun to see all of the family together again. (It was a family and family friends shower.) My aunt and cousin came in from California, and it was really great to see them, along with all of our other relatives. I hope everyone else had a good time too. Everyone who came was so generous, and I feel so lucky. In addition to our usual stocking up of resources when we visit my parents, we now look like we just moved in to our apartment! Getting everything home was an adventure.

And now I have officially used our first shower gifts! I don't remember if the picture below technically has the first or second used gift, because I can't remember if the washcloth was used before the bath towel or after. :)



Thanks to my aunts and cousins for these towels! I love towels! They are so, so, so soft. Yay!

It's so nice to be able to open something and use it. We have been really lucky and getting wedding gifts, but since you're not supposed to use them until after the wedding, they are sitting in a nice tempting pile. But these I can use now! Yay!

After a weekend like this, it's going to be so hard to pull myself into work in the morning!

More Inbox

Inbox is under 4900 right now! Not by much, and it will probably be back up over 4900 when I get up, but this is progress. It went back over 5000 after I got up this morning, so that means I have deleted over 100 messages today (probably more like 150 or 200). Yay!

I would write more but I'm too tired. Physically and also brain tired. I didn't do the Shred for 2 days and then it kicked my @ss.

Inbox Update

It's amazing! I have finally broken the 5,000 mark in my gmail inbox! I'm at 4991 (not that it will last through tomorrow morning), but I haven't seen the number of messages start with anything other than a "5" for so long!

Song of the Day

Since Pandora is blocked at work before 7 pm (no, I don't get it either, it would increase productivity if I didn't have to reload songs every 4 minutes), I tend to find a song on youtube and play the music video repeatedly.  Partially out of laziness, partially because it would take longer to find a new song.  So I might listen to the song 15-20 times over the course of the day before I change it.

 

Today's song is Linkin Park, "New Divide."  Yes, the Transformers song.  I really like it.

 

Recent songs have been Pitbull - "Calle Ocho", Jordin Sparks - "Battlefield", and Sean Kingston - "Fire Burning."  Among others.  I still put those 3 on fairly often.

 

I just wish I could play Pandora during the day!

Late Night Notes

It's really late, but just a few notes.

1. I still don't like the new DVR functionality. I want to be able to rearrange the shows how I want them so that the bad stuff deletes first!

2. By being in the office all day (about 16 hours), I didn't experience any of the melting heat (except on my way in to work in the morning) or the crazy thunderstorms.

3. It's nights like tonight when I'm really glad that I can leave the office and hop in a cab and be home in 5 minutes.

4. I seem to be naturally on Hawaii time, and sleeping at 4 or 5 am. Correction, my bedtime appears to be on Hawaii time, but I have to try to get up for East Coast time. I need to sleep earlier and I need more sleep!

5. I'm glad I worked from home the night before tonight so that I was able to exercise. I did some pushups at work tonight (ugh) but not the same as the Shred.

6. All I keep thinking is that I need more sleep!

So on that note, since sleep has taken over my brain, I am going to try to get a couple of hours. Sigh.

Lightning

WOW.  Talk about amazing lightning.

 

http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/08/kaboom-lightning-over-clearwater-beach.html

 

Thunder here has (mostly) stopped.

Thunder Update 2

And now it's pouring.  If you care...

Thunder Update

I still have not seen any rain.  But lots of lightning flashes, and the thundering is so powerful that I can feel the vibrations.  There's also screaming people in the street (like frat boys, not like injured people).  Crazy thunder right now...

Thunder

I didn't even know it was supposed to rain today.  But I have been hearing this thundering from the office and didn't think it was trucks.  I went to the window to look and was greeted by a bright flash of bluish-white light and a loud thunderclap.  Wasn't expecting that.

Time Warner Issues

Dear Time Warner Cable,

 

I'm not sure this note will adequately express my disappointment and annoyance with you this morning, but I will try.

 

First, you made me late for work.  I was watching the Weather Channel when all of a sudden my TV went black and my cable box window had weird sequences of letters and numbers counting down to something unknown.  Then the window just showed blinking dashes and then solid dashes, but no matter what it was doing, my TV screen was black.  Finally, it was back up again after multiple cycles of that, and some "mystro" thing loading, but you wasted my time worrying about it.

 

Second, we just got a new cable box because our DVR broke.  When we got it, I was dreading looking at the DVR list, thinking you might have given us one with the same crappy, illogical setup that my parents have on theirs.  We checked, and I breathed a sigh of relief because our DVR functionality remained the same.  Simple, clean, straightforward, easy to use.  None of this pressing 4 or 5 buttons to get to the same place as I would by pressing 1 or 2.  (Seriously.)

 

Your little "change" this morning, your little "update," apparently was to put in place that crappy "improved" system.

 

There is only ONE thing that I can see that is better about the new system.  It tells me what percentage full the DVR is.  That is useful.  However, I would gladly take back my old system where I didn't know the percentage full if it meant I didn't have to deal with all the BS of your new crappy "improvement."

 

Since the screen finally came back up, I got to see all the wonderful things you did.  For example:

 

- Programs that we changed from "do not delete" to "delete when space is needed" now say "do not delete" (some of them) so now we have to go back through to figure out what we watched and what we didn't.  (I don't delete the programs when they're done and instead let them delete themselves because otherwise you could end up with a completely clean DVR on a Saturday afternoon and nothing to watch.)

 

- Programs scheduled to record appear "new" when in fact they were "new" last Sunday.  (coughABDCcough)

 

- I had rearranged the order on the DVR save list so that programs I cared less about (e.g., Hawthorne) would delete before programs that I would prefer to watch again if I had the time (e.g., Merlin).  You put Hawthorne right back up in its chronological order instead of where I left it.  Do you no longer do "keep longer"?  Do you no longer allow us to manage the DVR so we can "keep longer" the things we like and more quickly trash the things we don't?  I didn't have time to fuss with it this morning since I was already late (see above), so please tell me if this exists.

 

- Now in order to see scheduled recordings, I have to go to list, arrow right twice, then select title or date.  Before it was List, B.  Simple as that.  Why does an "improvement" mean that I have to press more buttons and decrease efficiency?

 

- Before when a program was in "danger" of deletion, it would have a little timer thing and tell me about how many days were left before it would be deleted.  It would change from a regular hourglass to a bright yellow one if it was going to be deleted that day.  You have replaced this with a red exclamation danger sign.  That's fine, except what does danger MEAN?  Today?  Tomorrow?  2 days from now?  Less useful than before.

 

These are all just examples, and I'm sure I will find more examples of the idiocy of this improvement.  Why do program designers insist on "improving" things when they just make them worse?  I see this all the time with computer programs at work, and I don't understand it.  Why change for the sake of changing when you go from something simple, pleasing and user-friendly to something more time-consuming, less efficient and less intelligent?

 

If I discover at some later time that one of these "improvements" I have cited actually works better, I will of course gladly post here and correct myself.  However, I am not optimistic of such an occurrence.

 

Please give me my old DVR list set up and functionality back.  This new one really sucks.

 

Unhappily yours,

Crayon

Math

Sometimes I can't do basic math. Stupid mistakes. Like 89 minus 64 equals 35. No, no it does not. And I knew it didn't as soon as I wrote 35, but didn't know how I got there. Sigh. Stupid.

Bangle

"They want me to bang it on the table but I think that's so schmaltzy."

Hmm. I don't get why that's schmaltzy. (And that word is starting to look odd.)

That's the QVC host about the gold bangle she's showing. It's apparently 5 times stronger than the steel your family's sedan is made of. Or so they claim.

Jackpot II

Sadly, the sign now says $170 million. I wish I could win it!

Jackpot

To the Mega Millions people:

If I win the jackpot on Tuesday, will you give me the $800 million that this sign says the jackpot is? Or "just" the $170 million official jackpot? :)

Vendys

The finalists were named for the Vendy Awards today and I have been to 4 of the 5 vendors nominated (Biryani Cart, Jamaican Dutchy, Rickshaw Dumpling and Martinez Taco Truck). How exciting! The only one I haven't tried is the falafel/shwarma cart from Astoria. Based on previous purchases from the vendors, I don't know which I would pick as my favorite because they're all so different!

I was a bit surprised not to see Kwik Meal on the list, but I guess competition has gotten pretty fierce for the carts. Can't wait to see the nominations for dessert!

Reminds me, need to go buy our tickets...

Sigh

Sometimes, I really just wish the wedding would perfectly plan itself.

Bugs

EWWWWWW.

I was watching the Weather Channel and they were showing views of New York from one of their cameras. There were so many bugs crawling back and forth across the lens. It was disgusting! I really didn't need to see that!

Update

I am a fan of Nyquil.

I woke up and my throat no longer felt like it had a metal rod through it. It didn't feel like it was on fire either. It was amazing. First time in a week that I have felt any sort of relief.

I still didn't feel 100% when I got up today, but I feel so much better than yesterday. Combination of Nyquil and sleep seems to have done the trick.

During the day, I was still feeling weak and exhausted at parts, but on the whole, it was a big improvement from yesterday. Sometimes you just need to rest, I guess. I wish I could rest more!

The sore throat, sadly, did come back. Perhaps it was my own fault since I should realize that lemons and things that were once sore are probably not a good mix. The pomegranate lemonade I got with dinner was really good, but on the first sip, I felt my throat get sore again. It's only slightly better now after Halls and another Nyquil for tonight, but let's hope my throat is doing well again when I get up in the morning!

Wedding Day

Just watched the Tyra & Rich episode of "Wedding Day" on the DVR. If you're not familiar with the show, they plan an amazing wedding for deserving people. These two, a firefighter and lifeguard, who have devoted their lives to saving others, are definitely deserving and it was great to see such a beautiful wedding.

I love watching wedding shows, but I only recorded this one because it was in Maui. It was absolutely gorgeous and of course, it made me cry. I always seem to cry watching weddings on TV. I'm sure the music helps. They're always so beautiful.

I can't wait to go to Maui! Although watching this has yet again gotten me confused about what leis to get. Hmm. Need to get this flowers thing done ASAP!

Ears

Blah, my ears hurt.

I hope the Nyquil fixes this tonight.

Sick

Ugh. I still have that sore throat, and on top of it today, I was feeling dizzy, my head was foggy and I just felt all around terrible. So I left work early. I prefer working from home, but I wish it weren't because I felt sick!

I often get sick after flying home from a trip. I don't know what it is. I think I need to start using that Airborne stuff because I don't remember getting sick with the San Diego trip a few years ago, and that's the trip that JetBlue was giving out free Airborne in the terminal. (Another reason why JetBlue is awesome.) Coincidence? Maybe. But worth another try, since I seem to have at least a cold or something every time I fly home. (This time it seemed to start when flying out instead. Either way, I'm always run down when I fly so I could use an immunity boost.)

Took a nap for about half an hour and woke up with my heart racing. Not a comfortable feeling at all. Maybe (finally) watching Psych will make me feel better.

Chips

I ate way too many chips with dinner. Bad! No self control!

Now I have to work extra, EXTRA hard at cardio once this digests. Ugh.

Body Update

Sore throat persists.

 

And, somehow, my body is so completely exhausted, every inch of it, so that everything seems to be moving in slow motion today and I almost fell asleep walking around trying to find lunch.  Can't focus or function.  How can I be this exhausted just from doing the Shred (level one!) and a half hour of yoga?  I didn't get enough sleep but I got an hour more than usual...

 

Sigh.  Maybe tea will help.

Search Results

I haven't looked at my pageload activity in some time, but I figure right now is a pretty good time. Just getting ready for bed and wondering why I have had a persistent sore throat ever since flying out to Chicago last Friday. It's almost 2 am, and if I sleep before 2:30 am, this will be the first time in, I can't remember how long that that's happened. (At least it was almost 2 am when I started this post...)

Some interesting searches have led to the blog... I haven't done a comment on searches post in awhile, but I figure right now is a pretty good time! It's also a good excuse for me to re-read my own blog. :) (No, this isn't every single search, just some of the interesting or comment-worthy ones.)

"menu boards crayon"
I hope this blog isn't high on that list. It appears to direct to a post on calorie counts and how NYC is starting to put them up. However, it only deals with crayons as far as the blog name. I know I have posted about calorie count boards before, but my dislike for them has diminished somewhat. I still think it's somewhat misleading because (a) calorie counts alone don't give the full picture of the nutritional content of a dish and (b) restaurants keep misreporting the calorie counts and giving ranges that mean nothing (e.g., ABP had one for their impulse snacks that was like 200-1000, and the range on a Chipotle bol could be over 500 calories). It's also not proven to have significant lasting impact on consumer choices (wish I could remember where I read that so I could link to it). However, trying to eat healthy and get back in shape, I do understand the value of calorie counting to some degree (if it helps people) and I definitely understand how hard it is to estimate the calorie count for a dish. So I don't hate it as much as I used to ... but I still think it's flawed.

"crayon animated signatures"
Unfortunately for this person: (1) crayon is only there for the blog name, (2) animated related to tv and (3) signatures related to a political campaign. And they weren't at any time used together in the month the person was directed to. Sorry! There were some pretty Chicago pics in that month archive though.

"NBC cancellations"
Sigh. Kings. Such a beautifully made and well done show. At least this year's bloodbath wasn't as bad as past years...

"cupcakes and beaches" (looking for website)
I was going to comment that cupcakes and beaches are two of my favorite things, and then I realized that is exactly what I wrote in that post. At least I'm consistent.

"blunday"
Is this an actual word? I used it in a post title because it rhymed with Monday... The post was really interesting though. Apparently I had dropped a class that I was all worried about - and I can't even remember now what the class was or that I had even dropped a class.

"chewing tobacco finger tort"
My first reaction was "no clue." So I followed the link to the loaded post and what do you know, I actually talked about this except I had that it was a toe and not a finger. I guess it was from a Barbri torts lecture. Fascinating.

"I keep finding dead flies on my windowsill"
That really sucks. But I know your pain, because it is still happening at work and they don't appear to be able to get rid of them. I hate those little flies. Disgusting.

"Explain the significance of the Half Blood Prince"
I don't think I mentioned this in my HBP movie critique, but another issue with the story in the movie is that the reference to the Half Blood Prince was a complete throwaway line with no significance attached to it whatsoever. So, to the person searching for this, if you haven't read the book, and are trying to figure out what all that was about - it's not you, it's not in the movie. The book has some great insight though.

"creme au placenta socca"
Can whoever searched this please explain to me what you are looking for because I don't have a clue what that would even be? I know what socca is...

"Half Blood Prince story issues for movie"
Many. See here.

"Half Blood Prince missing ending"
Agreed.

"Nougatine pink cod"
Delicious. Photo here. And Nougatine for lunch prix fixe is such a good bargain. Would love to go back again soon.

There was also some bar-related stuff but I don't want to quote those so that more people aren't led here in future years looking for those terms, since I don't even remember what they mean or why they matter.

Hopefully this sore throat will go away with some sleep. Good night!

Blah

One hour after I said I was going to exercise and I'm finally going to go. Despite running out of time, I really lack motivation. Sigh. Off to Shred.

Offended

WTF.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-08-11-change-name_N.htm

Half the respondents thought the government should mandate women to change their names when they get married?

Is this really 2009? Are you kidding me? I'm so offended by this study that I can't even begin to go into it.

Telecommuting

I wish working from home was more widely accepted at firms, and that I could do it more often. It reduces my getting ready + commute time from an hour to less than 10 minutes. And it's so much more comfortable. I can dream.

Argh

Seriously, as soon as they become "forbidden fruit," they become all I want to eat. Sigh.

Candy Limitation

We are now less than 2 months from the wedding, and I have a confession to make. (Considering I don't really talk about personal things on this blog, this is kind of big.) I hate how I look in pictures. I really do. I am not the least bit photogenic (unlike A, who I think looks great in pictures) and that must be why I'm always behind the camera instead (not that I'm good at that either).

I was thinking about that again this evening, and in an attempt to make our wedding pictures tolerable, I am going to attempt some self-discipline. Anyone who knows me will know that, since this involves candy, this is not an easy thing for me to do at all.

So here it is. If I'm going to attempt to make a significant change in less than 60 days (seriously, running out of time) while in a high-stress and busy period, I'm going to have to have some self-control.

No chewy fruit-flavored candy until after the wedding.

Sigh. That means no Skittles, no Starbursts, no Sour Patch Kids, no Haribo gummy bears, no Swedish Fish, no Jelly Belly sours... (gah, this reads like a list of "my favorite sweet foods").

Chocolate is OK, mostly because I can't eat that much at once (other than milk chocolate covered cranberries). Dried fruit is OK, and I think I'm going to need all those Costco sized boxes of Craisins that I have to get through this. Hard candy is OK, and I think that will be the other thing that gets me through this. Need to pick up some Jolly Ranchers.

If I slip once or twice, I will deal with it. There's no point in getting depressed over it; I will just have to penalize myself with an extra workout session or something. (And by extra, I guess I mean "a" workout session, considering I have a fitting tomorrow and haven't worked out in 2 weeks because I've been so busy and sleeping so little. Sleeping so little... and it's 4:30 am, so we know what I should be doing).

I had both Sour Patch Kids and Starbursts (the fave reds!) over the weekend (and when flying, I usually need it). I wish I knew at that time that I was going to impose this restriction, so I would have savored it more, instead of it just being a plane snack. But I'm not going to allow myself one more right now, just to have my "last one." I'm just going to have to deal.

I guess it's slightly easier since I eat gummy vitamins, and those are sweet and chewy like candy, but they're good for you vitamins and I can have 2 a day. So gummy vitamins + craisins + jolly ranchers and maybe this will work. After all, it's less than 60 days. (Then again, when I tried giving up Haribo gummy bears for 40 days, it was so miserable because I couldn't think of anything else...)

That's the first limitation, and probably the most important one, since it is my weakest spot. Since I have always believed in accountability through the blog (see: bar exam), I hope this will work (unlike my new years resolutions, which I continue to blog about here). Good luck to me.

Chopped Salad

Tonight, in an attempt to be healthy, I ordered a chopped salad from one of those salad chains that does a make-your-own chopped salad (a chain which is not my lunchtime staple, Just Salad, since they don't come up on my Seamless Web - their salads are addictive).  (I have not named the chain here out of my practice of not naming things I am criticizing... maybe I should... I'll think about it.  If you say the subject line, you should figure it out.)

 

The salad itself, for the most part, is fine.  However, I'm not sure I'm going to order from them again soon for a few reasons:

 

1.  My estimated delivery time was 45-60 minutes.  After 70 minutes, I called the place.  She told me the person left a few minutes ago and should be there in a couple of minutes.  It took 82 minutes total.  To make a salad, fill up a bag with said salad + a tiny brownie + a bottle of water + a bag of chips, and go 6 blocks, took 82 minutes.  There is no cooking involved!  Apparently the 6 blocks of travel time took more than 12 minutes.  I think I could walk faster than that.  Even in this heat and humidity.

 

2.  In an attempt to eat healthier and lose weight, I intentionally did not order cheese.  A few bites in, and it appears that my salad has white cheddar mixed in.  Luckily, I can eat white cheddar without a problem, but what if I didn't - or couldn't - eat dairy?

 

3.  About two-thirds of the way through, I thought I ate something with the consistency of an almond.  Luckily, I am not allergic to nuts, but what if I were?  Someone who did not order nuts would not expect to scrutinize every chopped up little piece of salad to look for nuts!  I took quick glances to look for broccoli, but should I have looked more closely at every millimeter?

 

4.  By the time I got to the bottom, I realized I had balsamic vinaigrette soup waiting for me.  Excellent.

 

I wish I were able to get a salad from Just Salad instead.  And as a bonus, they even have that pizza bianca bread instead of this cold thin wheat pita.  Oh well.  Maybe lunch later this week... I know where I'm not going for lunch...

 

 

Hmm

WTF is going on?

 

Typhoon drops 9.5 feet of rain on Taiwan and there is massive flooding.  Earthquake in the Indian Ocean and a tsunami warning in Southeast Asia.  And now, an earthquake in Tokyo and a tsunami warning?

 

What did we do to anger the earth so much??

 

And a tropical storm heading for Maui and Oahu?  This just feels so bizarre.

Late Night List

(Warning: Potential TV spoilers ahead! Although SYTYCD should be done airing everywhere - including Hawaii...)

A few random thoughts instead of sleeping:

1. I have no idea why someone would want a denial of service attack on Facebook and Twitter. I was reading an article this evening asking what the point of such attacks would be (and how that may be the point - not having one). (Sorry, I can't remember which article or I would link it.) All it meant was obsessive reloading of Twitter to try to make it work, and annoyance at feeling disconnected from the world! I finally gave in to Twitter, mostly to aggregate my web surfing, and so far, it had worked - I visit many less sites just to check their updates, because I don't need to check as often. But today, I was disconnected again! And today was the day of the Psych and Burn Notice Twitter contests...

2. On to Burn Notice... I can't wait to watch the summer finale again. That was really, really good. I was worried that with all the hype about how good it was, and all the expectations being built up, that it wouldn't live up to the higher expectations, but it did. I really love that show.

3. I've been talking about it a lot over the past couple of weeks, but I really think that USA Network just gets it right now. They are pretty good at reaching people (Twitter and Facebook contests, updates, etc. just an example), making their people accessible to fans and, perhaps most importantly, they deliver on good content. It is at the point where I will watch whatever new show they put out (can't wait for White Collar) because I have faith in their brand. (I will at least check it out. I don't stick with everything. See: Starter Wife.) They find something that works, they give it a chance to develop, and I wish more networks operated that way. Outside of SYTYCD, I think the majority of the DVR right now is USA shows. I have Psych to thank for all of this (and possibly a trip to DC which first alerted me to Psych).

4. On to SYTYCD... congrats to Jeanine! I voted a few times for Jeanine, more for Brandon, but I would be satisfied with either of them winning. I would not have been happy with a Kayla win (she's technically good but I have never felt a connection with her) and even less happy with an Evan win (he's very good at what he does, but just looked out of place when not in his element with the other dancers). I think Brandon was the best dancer this season and would have loved to see him win, but I knew they wanted a girl to win. I think next season they'll want the winner to be an "unusual" or "underrepresented" specialty, or something like that. Or maybe ballroom...

5. I really do like tacos (from the last post). I could have eaten tacos again for dinner today despite having them for lunch. Yum. I really should do one of those favorite foods posts. But it's so hard! So much good food!

6. I'm excited for the fall TV season (Glee!!!!!) and the press tours only make it more exciting. Although I had to scan quickly through anything related to Fringe today (but still managed to see some of it) since we still aren't finished with last season. Yes, I know it's been a few months. But now we have to watch it online because the DVR failed. I hope it's still on Hulu. I love Hulu.

7. We're going to a wedding in Chicago this weekend. Should be fun, even if it's 90 degrees with scattered storms. Classic Chicago summer, right? Although it feels like this trip should still be weeks from now. It hasn't hit me yet that it's August and there's only like 60 days yet to go. Wasn't I supposed to be in shape by now?

8. I haven't done EA in over a week. Part of it is work - late nights, little sleep - and also my knees and ankles were bothering me for a few days. But it's not good to stop doing it! Bad! The past few days I have been using that Slendertone/flex belt thing. I wonder if it works. I feel some tightness in my abs afterwards but does it really do anything? I guess we'll see?

9. I could go for a taco right now. Or a samosa.

10. I need to get into a better sleep routine. Every day around 3 pm, I just can't keep my eyes open no matter what I do and it's really frustrating. Nothing really works either. What foods can I eat to stay awake? I know the answer is more sleep, but I would like to preemptively combat the fatigue by eating things at lunch that don't give me food coma. Suggestions?

Off to get ready for bed and read some more Harry Potter 1 (yes, I am re-reading all the books to make myself feel better after the butchering of movie 6's story).