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).

Tacos

I have a taco addiction.

 

Seriously.

Broken Internet

It feels like the internet is broken right now...

 

Sure, my email works and I can access most sites, but it just feels broken with the number of sites not working properly.  I guess I should say that the instant communication and social media internet is broken?

 

For whatever reason, gchat doesn't work on my work computer, and through meebo, I keep getting that annoying "Could not IM buddy" after every message.  It (so far) appears to be ok through AIM, but who knows.  Facebook has errors every time you click and Twitter has been down most of the morning.  I feel so disconnected!

Dawn

Welcome, dawn of a new day.

Time for me to go to bed.

At least I liked the project I was working on...

Oops

I made a mistake on Seamless Web tonight and didn't even realize it until it was way too late. I still feel really guilty about it.

Usually, when I order from a restaurant, the tip section fills in automatically with a certain percentage of the bill amount. I don't think about it. Ever. It just has an amount, I go to the next screen to enter payment details, and it's done. I have ordered so many times at the office over the past few years that I usually just pay attention to my order and the total, and never look at the taxes, fees or tip amounts.

Today, I ordered from somewhere new. When I went to pick up my order, the guy told me there was no tip. I was confused, even when he showed me the paper, because I hadn't done anything different when I ordered. I certainly hadn't gone in to eliminate their tip because I would never do that. And since I just did the same thing I always do, why would there not be a tip amount? I was really confused and told the guy that the tip always got added through the system. I thought they might just be new...

I went back to my receipt when I got upstairs and couldn't find the tip. How could that be? There's always a tip there! So I went back into the system and tried re-running the order to see what happened, and it said the tip was $0! I felt SO guilty. But I also couldn't understand why it would say that, after the hundreds of other orders I had done where I was fairly sure there had been a tip amount...

So I experimented. I tried a different restaurant, and the tip filled in automatically there, so it wasn't a uniform change. I tried going back to this restaurant, without re-running the same order, and it said tip $0! It must be something in their settings. But I don't think I have ever come across this before. Usually it's just filled in!

I couldn't believe it when I realized that it really didn't give them anything for tip. Was that a setting that they selected to not have a default tip amount? Why would they ever do that? People order so quickly on Seamless Web (especially at work), and I'm sure a lot of people are like me and never take a second look at the tip section because they figure it's automatically done.

Anyway, there's nothing I can do now. They only reimburse us at the office up to a certain amount, and since I didn't realize tip wasn't included in the total at the time, it would be over the limit now. It's a place in our neighborhood, so I guess I can go there some other time and maybe tack a little extra on each time we go there to make up for it. I'm sure we'll go there at some point so that's not the issue. I just feel so guilty because I would never not tip the delivery person! And I really thought I had, but I didn't. I feel terrible!

But I have learned my lesson. I will check the tip section on the order form before I finalize the order next time. I have just done this so often that I don't look anymore, but I will from now on!

So... if you're a Thai restaurant in New York and this story sounds somewhat familiar... please add the tip default so that someone else like me doesn't do the same thing. And I'm really, really sorry about the mix-up and will make it up to you!

Hmm

So, the DVR seems to be working better on the new machine, but are the Music Choice channels really broken or is it just the box? That could be disastrous...

Progress

We made progress on the wedding today.

We booked our mini-moon.

I guess that's not so much "wedding" progress. On that, we've done nothing for awhile...

I can't believe it's already August... yikes.

Funny

How did I not watch this until now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4AcJ5YEKNw

Hill Country

Tonight for dinner, A was thinking BBQ so we finally made our way over to Hill Country. We had wanted to try it for awhile, and it was fairly well recommended from some of A's Texas friends, so we decided to give it a shot.

I'm glad we got there early, since we didn't know it was like cafeteria style ordering (wait on line, order, take it back to your table, pay on the way out). The lines weren't that long when we were there, but we were there before 6:30. I can only imagine how bad the lines get at peak time.

I tried the beer can game hen (which the guy recommended because he said it was all white meat, very tender and flavorful) and A got the pitmaster combo (which was beef rib, pork rib, lean brisket and 1/4 market chicken):

The meat was OK. I didn't find the chicken to be all that flavorful. It was definitely moist and tender (for the most part), but it was kind of bland. At one point, I started dunking the chicken into the baked beans sauce and that was really good, but mostly thanks to the baked beans. The verdict on A's combo was that the pork rib was the best of the lot, but he probably would not get the combo again. He thought it was ok, but nothing spectacular.

However, the sides were pretty good. We discussed how next time maybe we should just order all sides (since there were more we didn't try, like chili, that could work for a meal):

We got 5 sides total (clockwise from top left) - potato salad (summer special), campfire baked beans, longhorn cheddar mac and cheese, collard greens with bacon and white shoepeg corn pudding. It was difficult to rank which ones were the best, but they were all good, and when we tried to rank all the stuff we ate tonight in order, all the sides came out above the meat. So, maybe next time, we should stick to the sides!

We were pretty full afterwards, so we walked down to Union Square and to Trader Joe's, and then stopped to pick up some mini cupcakes from the Cupcake Stop truck. Yum. Can't wait to try the Boston cream!

DVR

5 minutes until we find out if the new DVR works...

I hope it does, because going down to the cable office and waiting there in that crowded mess is such a pain.

Lost Programs

I'm trying to figure out what we lost in the DVR crash of 2009. This list is really just because I will forget if I don't write it down... At least I think this is it...

Missing, but thank goodness for Hulu and/or cable repeats:
Fringe (many eps)
Burn Notice (1 ep)
Royal Pains (1 ep)
Top Chef Masters (1 ep)
The Philanthropist (3-4 eps)
In Plain Sight (1 ep)
Kings (2 eps)
Glee (1 ep)

Missing, but probably on DVD sometime:
Kyle XY (1 ep)
Eli Stone (3 eps)

Missing, and who knows when we can see it?:
Virtuality (the 2 hr special)
Reaper (maybe 2 eps)
The Unusuals (maybe 3 eps)

Don't know where to put the last ep of Flashpoint. Also, it's unclear to me whether Hawthorne or Leverage are online or repeated. TNT doesn't seem to repeat as much as USA. USA is awesome.

Trying to remember if there is anything else...

DVR Saga II

It happened again. Sigh.

Last night our cable and internet were down. They went down around 9 pm and never went back up before midnight, so I read some Harry Potter and called it an early Friday night (as usual, I am so fatigued by Friday night).

Originally, when cable went down, I thought that if we couldn't watch live tv, at least we could watch the DVR! And we had so much to watch, it could last us quite awhile. But then A checked the list and it said September! I was really worried that this was happening again, so we unplugged the unit so it would restart again later (although we were not that optimistic). Then we thought we could just watch a DVD, but forgot the TV was plugged into the DVR.

Sadly, the DVR has decided it is September 2008. All of those programs have since been erased. What I don't understand is why it seems to keep imprints of old lists of recorded shows, and how it can revert to those lists when those programs no longer exist. Last time, it was May 2008 and it reverted to February, so there were (sadly) still programs we had not seen. The technician who came out told me that our DVR box was dying and that I should take it in to be switched once we had watched everything. Needless to say, we have never watched everything. This time, nothing remains to be watched, so into Time Warner we shall go.

At least in the meantime, there is a Burn Notice marathon. I was really looking forward to watching the new Burn Notice episode last night, so this will have to do for now!