Going back to Cali...

I'm back...and am proud to say that I am still the champion! Having successfully stayed up for almost 24 hours with the aid of only 2 soy lattes from Starbucks...one at Logan airport roughly 5am California time and one at 5pm California time.

Forrest and I had dinner at Citizen Thai and The Monkey over in North Beach (On Grant just 1 block over from Columbus). Fun little thai place with a booze bar downstairs next to the restaurant and a noodle bar upstairs...very interesting. Must return to try the noodles. Great little spicy/sweet dipping sauces for the appetizers and dinner was green curry and lemongrass chicken...both yummy but the lemongrass chicken was uber spicy. Forrest also thought that the texture of lemongrass was like fingernails *gross*

Afterwards headed over to Sal's place for a little pre-party and met up wiht Hollis, Anders and assorted other Team in Training peeps....and rounds of Sangria (spiked with vodka) and shots of vodka followed....I am surprisingly NOT hungover today - must be the jet lag. Afterwards we caravanned cabs to the Mission for a party at Medjool, which is known for its rooftop patio...but none of us could quite figure out how to get up there.

Pre-Party at Sal's

Same pose, same girls, different outfits. Hollis and I have essentially taken the same picture for the last 8 years. We're always in some variation of a hug...usually with both arms wrapped around each other and heads turned to the side with huge smiles. The above photo is literally the only other vairation that we have. So it's funny because all of our pictures look the same, only with different outfits and hairstyles (oh, and don't even get me started on the hairstyles).

Casa de Rosas

Stayed with Caroline and Lee at their new home (duples with sister Liz) in Sommerville, MA. This is a picture of their living room from their dining room. Their home is sooo cute, soooo Caroline...you can see all the little details in decorating like the white rose drawer pulls and know that Caroline spent a lot of time considering the small touches that make a house a home.

Malibu Betty World Tour

Summer is the season of concerts, festivals and assorted other fun stuff that brings joy and drunken mayhem to cities all around the nation. I am on domestic leg of my 2005 world tour, just about to wrap up 3 straight weeks on the road.

• San Jose, CA (hometown tribute)
• Houston, TX
• New York, NY
• Boston, MA

So needless to say, I've been spending my fair share of time sleeping in very well air conditioned hotels over the past few weeks and adjusting to various time zones. This year's travel schedule has been rather light overall, save for the month of July...but all in all, much reduced from last year. Those who remember will note that you barely remember me from later year - that's because I basically wasn't around, I was probably on a plane.

It's been tougher this time, I'm more tired and I don't know why... Last year I barely slept and all I want to do this year is sleep and I don't look forward to the time exploring these cities as much as I used to. With increase responsibility apparently comes less sleep, since I've been speaking at seminars, I can no longer stay out until the wee hours hardening my liver... I have more to do in general that requires more concentration....which has me spending more time looking outside my hotel window from my laptop, instead of looking for my hotel because I've gotten lost during exploration.

I may just need a vacation (as I've been saying for years...ugh) because I'm probably just a little burnt out, just don't know where I want to go and what I want to do... I mostly would appreciate a quiet day at home alone to sleep in, lounge in my underwear all day doing nothing.... Can't wait to get out of casa de kang for that.

Greetings from the Right Coast

Been out in the northeast since Sunday. It's finally cooled off and today is a beautifully bright yet breezy summer day -- the only thing that could make it better would be if Caroline and I were sitting on the beach/pool relaxing instead of working indoors.

Anyhoo - I wanted to share some words/terms that I only get to here when out here..I've heard some of these words used in other states but never in California...

• Turnpike (the Mass turnpike - I think it's the name of a freeway, not totally sure)
• Beltway (I think this is also a freeway...but I am once again not sure)
• Feeder Road (one way roads that run parallel to the freeway that you take for awhile sometimes to either get on/off the freeway then in order to make turns...)
• Jug Handle (apparently in CA we call it a clover leaf, but I don't remember ever using that terminology...I believe I've said something like "the exit will kinda u-turn around...")
• Rotary (I actually haven't seen any of these in CA yet...but instead of a 4 way stop, you can have 6 or how ever many lanes intersecting by placing a big fucking circle in the middle...so strange)
• Wicked (an adjective, much like the use of "super" in my vocabulary - native to Mass)
• Cookout (what we call a BBQ)
• Finally they call freeways by name, where we call them by numbers. The LIE (Long Island Expressway) or Mass Turnpike instead of our 280 or 101...which actually have real names too, not just numerical values.

Basically a useless post today, but just felt the need to share.

Throne of Seafood Worship

Went to dinner at Legal SeaFoods on Tuesday night upon our collective arrival to Boston, MA. This lovely mass of crustecean is aptly called "Lobster Bake." If anyone has been to a real New England Clam Bake...this is what you get...and it's fucking great. A 1.5 pound lobster with mussels, steamer clams, corn on the cob, drawn butter and a little bowl of water to wash your clams in before you eat them. We initally started off with half dozen oysters and I had champagne...holy crap! I almost forgot...there was also a cup of clam chowda included.

I love all things midwest and have a strange affinity for things like big trucks, men of the corn fed variety and accents (southern drawls...or other states that use terms like ma'am, you'all etc.) You get the idea. However, I think New England may have been a past home of mine....it's strange....because nothing turns me on more than a polo shirt and pressed khakis..LOL. But honestly, I love the style of homes out here...not too much into the french country as much, but the cape style homes...homes made of wood and not playdoh. I am totally preppy...knakis are sexy, I don't care what you people say. I am especially overjoyed when I get a chance to come out to Mass.

Beware bivalves...i mean business and I'm hungry. That's me at Legal SeaFoods in Boston's Prudential Center...located in the Back Bay/Copley Square section of downtown. First time at Legal SeaFoods but I've been meaning to try it out for awhile...thankfully it lived up to my expectations. This company is the one that sells live lobsters on ice at Logan airport for you to carry onto your plane and take home -- yummy.

Gotham is Melting

View from my hotel room in NYC. I arrived in NYC around 9pm on Sunday then took a cab to my hotel (Holiday Inn---ugh) on 57th between 9th and 10th Ave. I'm up somewhere on the 9th floor and am getting this interesting view from my window. Don't let the nice buildings fool you, it's FUCKING HOT outside. I went for a brisk 2-3 block walk after lunch and sweat through my outfit twice!

During my stay I noticed a few things...
- New York smells funny in the middle of the summer
- A Japanese lady in full Kimono passed me on the street
- An interestingly large number of Russians working at my hotel
- A Mexican model search was being conducted at my hotel
- I am now too lazy to eat good food...I ate 3 meals at the Holiday Inn....

Fore!

Saturday, went to play golf with Forrest, his dad and Adam at Poppy Ridge in Livermore. We started out on Chardonnay and the back nine was played on Zinfandel. I friggin LOVE golf but you wouldn't know it by my lack of playing ability....I tried to maintain composure and not swear everytime I swung my club. It is a frustratingly fun sport.

Saturday was fun - albeit a bit hot...the weather forecast predicted 100 degrees in the Livermore Valley. I think we all drank at least a few gallons of assorted beverages each...and was still feelig a bit parched. There were multiple reapplications of sunscreen by all parties throughout the day, in order to avoid sunburn....because I can't even imagine the kind of sunburn we would have gotten from a day like Saturday. I think Forrest's dad was the only person who kept track of his score...the rest of us were on par on the level of sucking that keeping score would have resulted in a 18 holes of snowmen :) but I did get my first birdie - second hole on the back 9....par 3, if only all my shots were like that...

On the Road Again....NYC

Just got into Manhattan late last night. I am currently sitting in my king bed, watching TV and working on my laptop. It's always harder going east because of the time change...I hardly got any sleep last night but forced myself to get up at 6 am and made good use of the hotel gym and breakfast cafe. Sadly, I am not staying here long enough to catch up on my NYC sightseeing....I have yet to go to the Empire State Building or visit the Statue of Liberty and my list of museums to visit has not yet gotten any shorter. Business Travel has a way of keeping you focused on work and not on sightseeing. Regardless, I have seen more states and countries through business travel than I would have if I were left to my own devices....so all in all it's not all bad. Tomorrow is jam packed with an all day seminar and an early evening flight out to Boston so maybe I can get out and explore the city a bit today in between the con calls and work stuff.

I am so vain

That's my foot in an ugly-ass foam bootie thing. So super ugly. I hurt my foot last weekend at around mile 4 or 5 of my potential 7 mile run....my right foot started hurting to all hell and I had to stop and slowly limp back to the Ferry Building to catch up with Forrest and Coady who had effectively passed me by this point. So for this week I've been limping around all over town...and in airports across multiple states. Finally today I went to the doc and had X-rays. There's no stress fracture, nothing broken...just some "soft tissue" pain. I withheld an immature snicker as I heard the words "soft tissue" uttered but all in all in worked out just fine. I have to wear this stupid bootie thing, ice my foot and take NSAID (ibuprofen or naproxen).

Cool Whip Clouds

Interesting cloud cover outside my window while on my way to Houston, TX (from the week before). I don't know what it is...but Texas always has interesting cloud formations....it must the steaks...uh...yeah.

Book Review: Overdosed America

Just finished reading the book Overdosed America by Dr. John Abramson. I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble because I think it was in the "Bargain Books" section... I will often go to their bargain section and just get a million books for the price of 5. I found this book to be very interesting as it picked apart the "medical benefits" of Statins, NSAID, Hormone Replacement Therapy for women and Osteoperosis treament.... It's interesting because it talks about how Americans view and do everything is also applied to medicine and medical care is fundamentally eroding the quality of medical care and killing us quickly, not slowly. Our constant search for the newest and greatest which may not be the best...brand names are better....what's popular is better is essentially making us more sick.

So some interesting thing I found in the book:
Statins: Created to reduce cholesterol levels, it ends up reducing the levels of both good and bad cholesterol. It may not sound bad considering reducing the bad cholesterol is more important - but I learned that cholesterol is a building block for many of the body's functions....the body essential needs fat (cholesterol) for things to happen...without it - thus by the overuse of statins, we rob our bodies of the fuel needed to grow cells, etc.

NSAID: Lots of new arthritis meds have come onto the market...however they are no more effective than the older meds out there. In fact, they have tested to be only marginally better but often have more serious side effects like increased chances of heart attacks and other complications. However with "creative marketing" by the pharmaceutical companies, more and more patients are drinking the kool-aid and asking for them and overworked doctors to prescribing them. I am happy to announce that the Camino Medical Group (my med group) merely told me to use ibuprofen to ease a recent foot pain.

I am a fan of capitalism and of free enterprise, but I must say that it is a shame the affect that pharmaceutical cmpanies are having on American medicine...shamelessy promoting drugs that provide little to no greater benefit than their predecessors. Also, the negative reverse impact that HMO's are having on us as well...the formerly good idea of preventive care has turned into rising medical costs and leaving more and more people without care.

I am more than happy to report that Camino Medical Group (Part of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation) is great with primary care especially in taking the time to listen to their patients (me) and explain in detail what's going on. They also don't like to prescribe medications unless absolutely necessary...but will make every attempt with preventive and diagnostic test to rule out all possibilites. I recently went in for an x-ray for my foot pain...when the x-rays came back, instead of just looking and saying "no breaks or fractures," the doc went over the xray explaining all the bones in my foot and based on where my pain is isolated, where there should be signs of stress in my foot bones....it's nice when they take the time to explain it to you.

Fuck Baseball

So I am staying at a Radisson hotel off the Katy Freeway and Sam Houston Tollway in Houston, TX as everything in the Westchase District (close to BMC) is all sold out. The hotel isn't bad, it's not great, but it could have been worse. What I can't stand is the sound of a billion kids in the swimming pool outside my room....it's fucking 9pm Houston time, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING STILL AWAKE! Apparently there is a little league baseball group staying here and it's leading to screaming pre-teens and room hijinks. I want to stab myself in the ears in hopes of becoming deaf.

This morning, some idiot parent was knocking on my door saying "housekeeping...do you want some pancakes?" I kept saying through the door that he has the wrong room and to leave me alone but he kept persisting....I then kind of yelled leave me alone and he must have realized he had a non-baseball room and scurried off. There were a bunch of other idiot adults hanging around outside too...as I was watching through the peep-hole. WHY on earth would the fucking hotel people sandwich me in between the baseball people.

Starship Houston

Howdy You'all...
I'm hanging out in Houston right now....it's over 90 degrees and with humidity so thick that it hits you like a brick wall when leaving an air condidtioned building. I can't stand humidity and that is quite possibly the thing I hate the most about Texas and the fact that everything seems a bit TOO spread out, making drive times sometimes ridiculous.

However, there are some things that I find absolutely FABULOUS about Texas:

• Parking Spaces: They are all fucking huge! I could park my mid size rental car perpendicular within the parking space and still have plenty of room for my 3 point turn to get out. California could learn a few things from this.....with all the fucking soccer mom SUVs out there, they could stand to increase the width of parking spaces just a tad.
• Food: I went to the Ragin Cajun again...dozen oysters for $3, crawfish and other southern specialties. BBQ is also good here...kick ass smokehouse ribs - and any meat variety is GOOD.
• People: Everyone is soooo nice here and polite saying their please's, thank you's, ma'am, sir...chivalry is not dead here my friends and I don't mind.

But...there was the Fuddruckers debacle on Tuesday night.
I took the 6am flight out of SJC to Houston on Tuesday morning and didn't really get a chance to eat anything all day so when I finally checked into my hotel and had some time for food...I went searching. Nearby was a Fudruckers...and although it's one of those chain restaurants, I've always wanted to try one - having seen them all over the midwest. I went in and ordered the Original Chicken Sandwich and a Regular Soda. Imagine my surprise when I got my order.

My sandwich was fucking HUGE. The diameter of my sandwich was at the very least 9 inches across. I needed to form a bowl like structure with my hands to support the bottom half of my sandwich in order to start eating. When I went to the produce bar to lead up my sandwich...I needed something like 5-6 tomato slices to cover my sandwich. It was like a schnitzel on a bun.

My regular soda cup was presented to me. HOLY CRAP - the circumfrence of my soda cup was relatively equivalent to a 2 liter bottle if it were to be sliced in half and used as a cup. I needed to use 2 hands to hold the damned cup upright while I filled it at the soda station.

I was able to eat maybe 1/3 of my sandwich and drink 1/2 my soda. I shamefully left my sandwich behind and got a to go cup for my beverage which I still wasn't able to finish 2 days later. No wonder Texas boasts 5 out of the 10 cities on the fattest cities of America list.

Dinner at Arcadia

Peach Melba - My dessert from Arcadia. The middle item is a Bellini but instead of peach liquor it's a scoop of sherbert, super fun. Had an executive seminar/dinner there during the week of my conference. It started out with a sommelier led wine tasting, a 30 minute presentation and ended with dinner/dessert. The sommelier was from the Michael Minna restaurant and was attentive and led a fun interactive tasting but gave a limp handshake..ugh. In a service based industry with lots of customer facing opportunities, I feel the handshake needs to be firm and confident.

Banana Split - Trish's dessert from Arcadia...I tried some of the whipped cream. She said it was yummy but I think it looks a bit involved with so many different components in various dishes and pourers.

Wanna Race Cars?

SJ Grand Prixe - I know...I am such a work dork...That's my booth at the RUG conference. As you can see we decorated it in a race car theme in honor of the upcoming San Jose Grand Prixe. We had a track with cars for people to race, gave away tickets to the final day of the Grand Prixe and used other race themed decorations like the checkered flags and a blinking stop light. It was like a carnival :) I am proud of my super dork fest.

Here are some more pics of my booth...from a different angle. SJ Grand Prixe posters and everything :)

Let's go SUSI!

Susi's TNT fundraiser...a vanload of DGs in napa...super fun. I've been to many a TNT fndraisers since so many of my friends are so active with marathons and triathlons...and they ususally involve bar nights or sushi feeds. Susi decided to try something different - and I think it was an amazing idea! Sara rented her a van from Enterprise...Susi coordinated lunch, snacks and the days agenda. We each donated a minimum of $40 for a seat on the van and a day's trip to Napa. We visited 3 wineries...2 were ones that take reservations only so it was nice to spend some quality time catching up with the ladies...with some of the girls getting married, work and various other engagements - we just don't get enough time...

Wineries we visited:

• Venge: Susi's best friend from home went to UC Davis with the winemaker. He's about our age and regularly hangs out with Susi's dad. His parents purchased the winery back in 1999 and it was a winery that was closed by prohibition and was only opened when their family re-started the winery. So it's called a ghost winery - so their white wine is named "The White Ghost" and they have a great red blend that is called "Scout's Honor" after his dog. I even joined their wine club.
• Kelham Vineyards: The owner of the winery met us and led us through a tasting of their wines on their patio. The picture above is a view from the patio...they had beautiful lawns and roses....a great event site. I picked up a Savignon Blanc there and the owner was nice enough to personally sign each of our purchased bottles.
• ZD Wines: The last stop of the day...Susi had originally planned for 4 stops but we were all so tired and buzzy so this ended up as the last stop to a fabulous day. I picked up a bottle of cab to Forrest to share :)
  

Book Review: Something Blue

Just finished the book Something Blue over the weekend. This is the second book in a set of two, from the other girl's point of view. So this book is from Darcy's point of view, the girl who is super cute yet super bitchy and apparently has always gotten her way. So in the first book, Rachel (her BFF) falls in love with Darcy's fiancee...in this book, you see Darcy go completely insane then become a normal warm-blooded mammal after losing her fiancee, losing her boyfriend, then being pregnant alone. Good beach read and entertaining, but you won't be a rocket scientist or anything afterwards.

I'll take a large #4 with a side of....

So random article on MSN today is about how single women in their late 30's and 40's are choosing for articifical insemination because if they are single, they would at least still like to have children. I can totally understand one's desire for companionship and family but when does having children alone become the consolation prize because you didn't get married? When these people spent so much of their life avoiding the rituals (dating) that could potentially lead to things like marriage and family. The one lady in the article talks about how she was dating like a mofo in her late 30's trying to meet a "marryable man" but life and family are not the same as crammning for that biology final in college. Besides that point, when did just you become not good enough anymore? If what they wanted was to eventually get married and have kids, they should have made time for nurturing that ideal instead of ignoring it completely. Besides with as removed as most women are today from any sort of domestic duty, it may be best if they refrain from having children...it's bad enough there are so many women out there with kitchen appliances gained from wedding registries that they don't know how to use...there needn't be children concieved just to shop at pottery barn kids.

I am all about getting what you want, etc...but sometimes, some things just seem off.

I'm Back

In the land of the living and all things non-geek :) Haven't really slept in 4 days so needless to say I am quite the space cadet. Those of you who I may see today, it's not that I am bored, uninterested or seem depressed....I literally don't have the energy to muster up any semblance of a conversation. My tounge is swollen to the size of a watermelon...as is the case when I don't get enough sleep. Sadly, I wish I had some crazy stories of late night boozing, strip clubs and pub crawls like I had last year but unfortunately moving up in the business world apparently means that I am required to be coherent for meetings during the day. So sad...but ok I guess since my tolerance sucks balls and I am usually pretty drunk after the second glass of wine.

I will have pictures of the geekfest to share later...

I'm trying to be in relax mode right now. Got a massage and facial this morning at Watercourse Way in Palo Alto, then headed up to Nordstrom's Rack in SF where I purchased a new skirt suit in a bright melon color (I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet) and will eventually make it back outside to get a mani/pedi.

Somehow that list of stuff doesn't sound very relaxing....

OOTO - Geek Fest

So I'm outtie as of today for the rest of the week at my annual conference. This is the big daddy-o one that Remedy hosts on an annual basis. Last year it was in Washington DC which was cool to visit but miserable in the summer....I mean how can anyone enjoy that kind of intense humidity? To replicate the feeling, I could mummify myself in wet towels and run a marathon in a super hot sauna. This year the event will be in downtown San Jose. hmmm. not quite sure how I feel about that - I look forward to July because that means I get to go somewhere for a week, but not this year. There are definately some pluses to this location (in case we forget anything, we can always drive back to the office) the there are minuses like I just want to get the fuck out of here for a few days. Regardless, I'll be putzing around my old stomping grounds taking customers out to dinner and socializing with business partners. See you over the weekend while I try to rid myself of a compounded hangover :)

Associated Press?

I feel like word processor today...holy crap! All I've been doing todayis knocking out one product datasheet after another, many for applications I have never even seen before. I try to make sure these materials are relevant by putting information that is actually resourceful instead of just fluff. I HATE to be pure fluff, I mean what am I, Cotton Candy? UGH. I deserve a the techie version of a pulitzer today...holy crap. I've also added to my current state of voracious reading my reading through part of the PMI's (Project Management Institute) Guidelines for Project Management to understand what the heck our new application was designed around. My brain is almost a library now...if you look into my eyes, maybe you can see the beginnings of the Dewey Decimal system.

Super Fantastic

Went to see Fantastic Four last night. Dude, I am turning into a movie watching MACHINE! Anyhoo, this flick is definately a full price viewer* and I would even buy the DVD. I freaking love comic books and almost blew my collective geek wad at this movie (I'm saving my geek wad for X-Men 3). Full of action but not to the point of being completely ridiculous and sometimes funny/sad like they may have been attempting for that Oscar, just kidding. Acting and casting I think was pretty good too.

Key points:
For those of you who like Jessica Alba, holy crap she is smoking HOT in this movie. I always thought she was super cute, but seeing her in this movie almost made me want to be a lesbian.
The guy who plays Johnny Storm is super cute in a cocky asshole sort of way...lol

* Movie Rating System (similar to people appearance rating system)

• Full Price: So good it's worth being gouged by the big movie houses and sitting in smelly, crowded theathers where inevitably a baby will be crying through the whole movie
• Matinee: Good, but you can think of at least 2 other places to spend the $$ and time
• DVD: Somewhat entertaining but does not warrant effort in driving somewhere, waiting in line and enduring all the pains of a movie theater. Also could be good background sound for a informal get together.
• Wait for TV: The lowest of all ratings, what you watch when you're stuck at home with the flu and forced to watch daytime television and can't change the channel because you've lost the remote and the will to move and find it.

The people rating system I will divulge at a later time, but most of you have already heard snipets of...brown bags anyone?

In the name of the Grill, Charcoal and Woodchips

Eureka! I have found it...the BBQ of my dreams. Small enough to fit onto the porch or deck of my future apartment and still not invade my parent's space as it will reside for the time being at Casa de Kang. Molly/Mike - I think this size of grill is perfect for you guys too....it's at Home Depot for $139. Maybe it can be a super ealy Christmas gift :)

Gifts of Aluminum and Tin

Happy Birthday Amazon. I can't believe it's been 10 years already for this online superstore...I freaking love amazon. I used to be wary of online shopping but Amazon is the BEST! They super rock...I just click to order and things always magically appear on my desk! I have a "wish list" problem too...it's basically a running shopping list for me, I need to remember to clear that out soon, since it's roughly 5 pages long right now (nursing my book addiction - I just got 3 more). I can't wait to celebrate more years with Amazon...

I think they should have sold some commemorative items to celebrate the big 10. I looked up anniversary ettiquette online and found that the 10th anniversary is aluminum and tin. Can you imagine Amazon.com logo'ed soda cans??? I would have bought a six pack :)

10th anniversary ettiquette:

• Traditional gifts are in the theme of Aluminum and Tin
• Modern gifts are in the theme of Diamond Jewelery
• Flowers for this anniversary are Daffodils

Chocolate

The California Academy of Science is having a chocolate exhibition June 11 - Sept 5. I think this sounds really interesting because of society's fascination with this foodstuff. I swear some people are crazy addicted to it...me, I can't stand it. It always throws people off when I say "I don't like chocolate" and I mean it when I say it....it's not some self-imposed diet thing where I am trying to avoid chocolate...I really can't stand the stuff. I've never liked it much and it ususally makes me feel gross if I eat it. I alsodislike ice cream...so imagine my horror when desserts of chocolate ice cream are presented to me...LOL

Anyhoo, regardless of my preferences, this exhibition sounds exciting...a little bit of the Food Network mixed in with the Discovery Channel perhaps? Or it could even be the show Good Eats on the Food Network.

Some interesting chocofacts:

• The chocolate chip cookie was discovered by accident when Ruth Wakefield (an American) was preparing chocolate cookies. She neglected to melt the lumps of chocolate first, thinking they would melt during baking but they didn’t. No one complained about the results. (not too bad of a mistake, eh?)
  
• About 3 billion pounds of chocolate are consumed worldwide each year. (fat fuckers)
  
• The flavor of milk chocolate begins to deteriorate after about 6 months. (rancid)
  
• The flavor of dark chocolate improves with time for up to 18 to 24 months. (almost like wine, eh?)
• Nine out of ten people like chocolate. It is said that the tenth person probably lies! (full of shit, I really don't like chocolate...sometimes I eat it, but that's roughly one bite of chocolate every 3 months, after which I feel a little nauseated)

Who's interested in going?

The Aliens are Here...EEK

Another day, another movie... Went to watch War of the Worlds with my brother and his friend Chris last night. So apparently I am a movie fiend these days, replacing my former nightly wine drinking activities. It's done amazing things to my productivity, as if I couldn't possibly be more of a busy body, eh? Anyhoo, this movie kicked ASS! I was SOOOO stressed out for most of it though because it's a mass of savage humanity at some points and things where large groups of people are going out of control make me uncomfortable. And although he's being super weird lately, Tom Cruise is phenomenal in the movie...he may be a weirdo scientologist but he is a damn fine actor. And Dakota Fanning is great - it's hard to believe that she's only 11 years old and has such amazing range in fulfilling dramatic roles... Don't listen to people saying the ending sucks, it's the same as the original movie...and I think it's rather fitting.

Changing of Timepieces

That's a picture of my new Nike Triax 50LX watch that I got at sportsbasement over the weekend. This purchase was much overdue since, as you all know, I am now a running maniac and recently have had no idea how long I am running for when running outdoors (an apparent joy). I needed something digital with stopwatch capabilities, but I think my new watch may be even a little too much watch for me. YOWZA - it's got about a million different functions and components. Instead of reading the manual and figuring out how it works, I handed the watch and manual to Forrest and later he showed me how to use it. I'm shameless when it comes to asking for technical assistance.*

*For instance, when I bought my digital camera, I took it out of the box and charged the battery and attempted to play with it, essentially just turning it on and off for two weeks. I tried reading the manual but lost interest and instead waited for 2 weeks until Chester was able to come over and show me how to use it.

Let's Go Ligers Let's Go!

Picture of Hiroko, our star player at bat...from our weekly co-ed softball team at National Semiconductor. The text below is from an email sent out by our coach/manager Adam.
We are back on the road to the championship.

For those who could not make it last night, we avenged our loss from 2 weeks ago with a 9-4 defeat of bo select. although we did not play to our full potential, we played a lot better than 2 weeks ago and it showed up in the final score. we still have some work to do on our hitting, but i would say it is much improved (especially the girls) from earlier in the season. and we did it with only 9 people because we were short one girl.

Although betty did a solid job filling in at first base last night, player of the game went to......................... unnnecessary suspense considering i already announced it last night.......................more drumroll............................ HIROKO again for the death-defying acrobatics employed while sliding into 2nd and 3rd base. very impressive flexibility and agility for someone her age. she also ruined her pink pants and scraped her knee, all while angering the second baseman of bo select, who had never seen such tenacity and fearlessness on the bases. she even made the play of the game when she snagged a hard grounder while playing second base. congrats hiroko, you deserve it. for you efforts, vy has volunteered to sew up the hole in your pink pants in lieu of the customary donation to the david lee cleat fund.

Happy Fourth

I freaking LOVE the fourth of July...fireworks, red white and blue.... *sigh*

It's ok...they're eurpoean

Went to see Batman Begins with Forrest on Friday night at the Metreon. The picture above is from a scene where Bruce Wayne shows up to a hotel party/dinner thing with two ladies to show his "rich playboy" persona....his dates jump into the hotel pool which is merely a display item in the dining area. When asked that his friends do not have appropriate swimwear and that the pool is only for decoration, Bruce Wayne replies "it's ok...they're European." then writes a check to buy the hotel and to make some new "rules." Great scene and quite possibly the only 'light' scene in the movie...the rest is very dark but GOOD...very prophetic too (duh, because it's batman begins).

Thank you for flying, come again.

That's a picture of the chairs available at the Portland airport...very interesting. So in the middle areas they have magazine kiosks, sculptures and these fascinating chairs. They are made out of foam, have a rubber coating and are surprisingly comfortable. They look a lot like the foam stools I saw in a Design Within Reach Catalog. The foam stools are called "Primary Pouf" ...so I wonder what these chairs are called... So many gay pride weekend jokes apply here but I will refrain. Regardless, I would LOVE to have such pieces as patio furniture..just hose off if dirty but MUCH more comfortable than the standard plastic variety.