Sunday, March 29, 2009

Party = canceled (and other assorted end of the day ramblings)

My new job is so cool that I cannot have a Eurovision party this year. WOWOW -_-

...

Meh, it's ok. I can still watch the videos and everything will be on youtube later, anyhow.

I guess.

Booo.

In other news, I'm really tired? That isn't news these days. Spending time with the 9er (Is that nickname number three now? It won't last much longer, but it should still count. For some reason this kid is really good at sprouting spontaneous nicknames...) is reminding me how weird it is the way being a kid works. I mean, we all used to be goofy little kids. What the heck? There was a period of time in high school where I was really upset about the ways I had changed. Now I guess I'm over it. Maybe I've had a paradigm shift, or maybe I don't care, or maybe I really was a little too silly sometimes as a kid.

Who am I kidding? I'm still a little too silly sometimes.

I'm guessing I will have to go be on a jury tomorrow. That sort of throws a wrench or five in a lot of things.

I really really really need a vacation more than anything right now. Just some time for nothing. For lolling about drinking tea and reading books and playing videogames and watching cartoons and learning to ride my new bike@ around the best city in the world*.

@ Yeah, I might be getting a bike tomorrow. Then it's time to train train train until I am pro-commuter girl.

*Heartfelt hyperbole. Despite loving Paris and Tokyo and New York, though, San Francisco really does have something pretty freaking rad. Maybe it's the hills. I keep coming back to that.

007 and other such fun

I learned this game from a fourth grader yesterday. It's like janken only with deeper strategy. Or at least I feel like the strategy is deeper.

Pat your legs as you chant "double" and then "O" ending with two beats of hand gesture "se-ven" in one of three positions:

reloading your gun
arms crossed over your chest (defense)
shooting

You can only shoot if you have loaded, but if you are loading when someone is shooting, you die. So for instance let me see if I can remember what happened last night.

Double O: We both loaded.

Double O: I let him shoot and blocked, myself.

Double O: I think we both reloaded.

Double O: I let him shoot and blocked, myself.

Double O: I shot and won.

If you want to be no fun you could just block the whole time, but that would get old.

Maybe I will teach him how to play jan-ken with "atchi muite hoi," although I would have to practice myself first.

Oh that reminds me of standing in line for the Ghibli Museum last time I was in Japan. There were these kids playing and instead of saying, "Aiko desho?" the boy said, "Atchi muite hoi" and his sister started making SO MUCH fun of him, even to the point of calling her mom and dad, "Hahaha, he said atchi muite hoi instead of aiko desho!!!! XD XD XD"

There was also a really good jump rope chant (apparently he can double dutch) but I can't remember it. It's not one we used when I was a kid, but I never really know the jump rope chants. This one was something about yadda yadda "Who's your girlfriend? I forgot! Is she A? Is she B? Is she C?" etc. Something like that. Very cute.

My friend (formerly known as Nila) Reon is in Japan and her blog is fantastic

Please to read and enjoy

Friday, March 27, 2009

Eurovision TOP TEN TO WATCH Coming Soon

And yes, I will embed the freaking videos this year. Sheesh.

Can't wait to have time to peruse this stuff, man. You better all come to my party.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Oh, it's spring

How nice.

Now if only I could spend a little more time outside? Soon, soon.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Distracted by the future

I'm REALLY preoccupied, which is bad because I have so many things to do RIGHT NOW. It's another one of those hinge moments, though, where everything is going to change DRAMATICALLY so you just want to know what's going on, don't want to/can't make too many plans, need to just hold tight a little longer.

I just want to know what my life is going to be like. No matter what I have to make some changes:

On the one hand we have the super commuter girl, gradually working up to CalTraining with her bike (new hobby) and riding 24 miles a day, employed full-time at an awesome company, presumably making an actual living.

On the other we have isolationist contractor girl, holed up in her house doing work online, walking everywhere to save money on BART, ultra poor, getting creative with meal planning (new hobby).

Granted the latter is just about what I am now, except I think I would really have to take a harder look at my budget, since things aren't really working.

Can't wait until things pan out!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

What I had for lunch on Sunday

No joke:

Spicy Black Bean Soup
Antipasto Salad with Green Olive Tapenade (which I made)
Bruschetta with Broccoli Rabe Pesto and Pecorino

Crispy Chicken Parmesan with Homemade Marinara
Chiang Mai Curry Noodles
Gemelli with Peas, Lemon, and Black Pepper
Individual Meatloaves with Carmelized Onions
Spinach, Prosciutto, and Goat Cheese (switched to Gruyère) Frittata
Quick Cioppino (which I also made)
Szechuan Pork with Basmati Rice

Strawberry Cupcakes
Milk and Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème
Vanilla Scented Beignets
Tart Lime Wafers

Yeah, we were pretty full at the end. My dad got me a cooking workshop at Tante Marie's, in town, for X-mas, which I attended this past Sunday. There were 13 students, including me, so they paired us off and set us to make two recipes each. I think I was the youngest person there, but I got paired with the probably the oldest person. He was sort of a kooky guy, but very friendly. Sang a lot. He ended up cutting his fingers and bleeding all over our work space, which was a little (ok, a lot) stressful, but we got everything made and it was delicious :D

Actually it was pretty cool that we got paired together. He was in awe of my planning prowess (Basically, I just said we should make the salad while the soup simmers, lol), so he always just asked what he should do, and I was perfectly comfortable with delegating responsibilities, although I felt bad that I made him mince so much garlic, especially since the first thing he did, as I said, was chop his fingers.

Cooking is a lot better with a partner! That is for sure. I hope to replicate some of this tastiness at home, but I need a pal, for sure. OLEYA, I MISS YOU! We could've made so many tasty vegetarian variants!