Quack.

Although we're not seeing the Oregon Ducks while we're up there (wrong season!), I still somehow feel compelled to reference them in my blog somehow. The same way I feel the need to mention Dutch Brothers, blueberries, the ocean, and my in-laws' dogs. Also drippy items from Taco Bell and snow because I think every single time we've driven up there, it's involved stopping at a dirty Taco Bell in Weed, CA, ordering something disgusting and then getting back in the car just as Nolan has successfully lobbed a snowball into my shirt.

Usually with this look on his face:

And then it soaks into my pants and the rest of the ride is delightful.

#100

Nolan and I've checked off another item on our "100 Places to Eat and Drink Before You Die (in SF)" list...

#100 - Menage-A-Trois at Ike's Place

Technically, the ingredients in that bad boy are, "Halal Chicken Breast, Real Honey, Honey Mustard, BBQ, PepperJack, Swiss, Smoked Gouda"...but I know for a fact that Nolan got the works (and also "Dirty Sauce, Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onions, Pickles, Banana Peppers") on it and then shared it with me. And let me just say, even for a picky eater...that was one DELICIOUS sandwich. Maybe that's why it was lucky #100 on the list.

Tomorrow we make the drive up to beautiful Oregon (and may see the sun on Saturday!) for the weekend, and little sick Milo will be coming with us. Hopefully we won't have to deal with chunky barf on the way up as well as having a crying little child wanting to look out all the windows. Pooooooooooooooooor Milo! His redeeming quality is that he is REALLY good at taking meds. Really good.

Chick-Fil-A Cares

One of my colleagues always sends out information on generational data (since we're in HR, this stuff is interesting to us!), and different methods of getting employees engaged and motivated. This one was linked to the email today, and it really just proves that getting a little creative and going that extra mile can do wonders for your business. The video also makes a great point about stopping to think about others and how every life has a story. Makes me think that I need to be more thoughtful in my interactions with others...especially when I'm frustrated (can we say M-U-N-I). Click here to read the article/see the video. It's worth it!

Every Life Has A Story - Chick-fil-A from Dan T. Cathy on Vimeo.

Gall

Milo's been in a bad temper lately, and it only got worse when he started peeing on everything and refusing to snuggle with us at night. It only took us...a couple hours to figure out he was not feeling good. So instead of yelling at him for peeing on the pillows,we realized that he has a UTI (or something like it), and the poor little guy just can't help it and is uncomfortable. So I hid all temptation (soft piles of things to pee on), watched him closely, and worked from home yesterday so I could take him to the vet. He had to stay for awhile, and then came back with some pills and fluids - both of which we have to give him while we both hold him down on the floor. Poor Milo! This is how he looked right after we figured out what was wrong with him (he was still pissed...hah, no pun intended):


Speaking of which...my MIL sent me this picture from her classroom:

Apparently our pets are all full of character!

Other than the sick child, nothing new happening. Oh wait, I have almost beat the 2nd world of Super Mario Bros for Wii, and that is definitely big news. After hours and hours of playing and super sore thumbs (really!).

caramel.

Last night I did something bad. I thought I could colour and highlight my hair by myself. I was wrong. So after waking up this morning and Nolan going, "aww, you look cute in orange" (cue: panic), I knew I needed to do something. So I got his permission to spend what surely is an ungodly sum on my hair, and found a place via a recommendation, and got in within the hour! And now I've gone from this (this is the only pic I have so you'll just have to believe me that it was orange and streaky on top):

To this:

Which is a lovely caramel-gold colour (trust me, I know the pic is terrible). And here's a pic of me with the miracle worker who saved my poor hair:

Seriously. I'll put a good review on yelp too, but if you need hair ANYTHING and you're in SF (or not), call Jubilee! They're fantastic!

Down with the sickness!

Nolan's sickness, plus no sleep, plus being around the kids' sickness, has all snowballed into ONE GIANT VIRUS...and I've been really grossly sick for the last few days. So I've been bumming it on the couch playing Super Mario Brothers with Nolan and confining myself to my kleenex box at my desk at work. And yet I am not seeing any progress, and I'd bet you it has to do with the whole "waking up at 5am to nanny" thing.

Needless to say, we haven't gone anywhere else on our "Top 100" list yet, and probably won't until we're both feeling 100%.

The bright side to everything is that several projects are starting to finish up at work, I've been allowing myself to stop at Starbucks every morning out of self-pity, and we leave for Peru 6 weeks from Friday!

tour de force!

Today I had an adventure. I got up super early and helped out with the kids for awhile, and then stopped off at Starbucks, and hopped in the car and drove to Davis. I had a meeting with my old Spanish professor, and so I'd taken the day off as PTO. Woohoo! Other than crappy weather most of the way, it was glorious! I sipped coffee, sat on the quad, people-watched, and explored Davis in the car. So many things have changed since I was there! But some things never change:

That picture captures the beginning of so many things in my life.

I spent some time in my old foreign language alma mater hall:


And I even managed to see the Tour of California go by, although I wasn't quick enough to capture a picture. All in all, a good day!

100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die (in SF)

Since we have really no idea how long we'll be in SF, but there is a strong possibility it is now less than a year, Nolan and I have decided to take advantage of one of the most famous attributes of this place: the food and drink. Long have we known that San Francisco is famous for its unique restaurants, breweries, and delicious foods, but we just haven't really tried too hard to experience it, outside of the normal stopping to grab a bite. So here we are, with a freshly printed out version of the "7X7 2010 Top 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die", and our goal is to check them all off of the list. Click here to see the list, if you're interested in following along with us on our journey! Needless to say, this will be our date money for the next year...but well spent! Here's the list again if you don't like clicking on links:

I guess we'll start by going over the ones we've already tried, which is a pathetic number:
#35 - Salted-caramel ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery (delicious!)
#36 - Dry-fried chicken wings at San Tung (the whole reason this place is packed at every hour of the day...except Wednesdays, when they're mysteriously closed.)
#37 - Rotisserie Chicken at Limon Rotisserie (Nolan's bday dinner! This Peruvian chicken was AWESOME.)
#78 - Burrito at El Farolito (I'm not really a burrito fan, but Nolan lives and breathes for these things.)

And last night we added to the list:
#45 - Secret Breakfast at Humphry Slocombe

I forgot to take a picture while inside the place, but you'll remember that we went here for ice cream once already after Nolan's birthday party (see post here). So we took the above picture in the car on the way back. Nolan's only looking happy because he's trying the Maple-Walnut flavour. We also, of course, got the Secret Breakfast, which is actually Bourbon and Cornflakes...and although there's no actual alcohol in it, it tastes pretty strongly of whisky and cornflakes. Eghgghg. Not terrible, but not exactly what I like in an ice cream. Worse, we tried another flavour - the balsamic caramel. I thought it would be somewhat like salted caramel, but I WAS WRONG. Super vinegar-ish, and kind of sweet. It was foul, and we ended up throwing it out. Needless to say, I'll probably not be super adventurous there again.

What's yo numba?

Sometimes I look through the pictures I keep on my computer here at work for various reasons, and sometimes I find little oddities. I keep them sorted by name, and so when I flip through them, they're a mix of topics. So I guess it was pure coincidence that this picture of Rosie asleep:

Ended up right in front of this picture of a rotisserie guinea pig from Peru:

Eerily similar poses, don'tcha think?

Sometimes an email from a friend can make all the difference in a day, so I want to say thank you to all of my friends. I appreciate you in my life. And I'm sorry I'm such a loser and can't remember your birthdays without facebook. Also, if you ever send me an awkward picture of you, I WILL print it out and post it in my cubicle for all time. Thanks, SB ;)

This week has been SO tiring. Between taking care of the kids and getting no sleep, to finally succumbing to whatever Nolan has been sick with for the last 2 weeks. Blah. My throat's on fire and I just want to curl up and finally catch up on the weeks of Glee! that I've been missing. Good news? It's the weekend, and I have Monday off :)

Watered down

Sometimes, differences can be a bad thing. Like when I come home and just want a clean house and there is used kleenex flooding the countertops and dried chili on the desk and cups FULL of loogies. Yes. On the other hand, I love how Nolan and I compliment each other in so many ways, so those differences are good. And then there are just those little oddities, like how everything I eat MUST be crunchy and he likes things soft and floppy. I like Pink Lady: he likes Granny Smith. I like hardwood: he likes carpet. And where it is most apparent, is I think in what we order from Amazon:

On the bottom is my normal amazon wallet purchase. On the top is an IV start kit, a syringe, and a catheter. I don't think I need to add a picture of the speculum to prove my point here.

Naan Can Go the Distance

Yesterday for lunch, my coworker and I ate at the Indian place in the Crocker Galleria, which is conveniently right across the street from our building. When you split a meal there, it actually turns out to be a pretty great deal, so I may have to go more often! Anyway, the roof is entirely made of glass, and I sometimes wonder what would happen if someone jumped off of our building and landed on the roof of the Galleria. Apparently my coworker had thought about this too, so we tested the theory to see if one could even clear the street from that high up, and make it all the way over to the glass roof. We had to test it to-scale, of course, so we used what resources we had, which at the time, was naan:

Apparently, when a naan-man turns suicidal, he can jump quite far.

Going bananas

After day 1 of being a quasi-nanny for my friend's kids, I now know that I'm nowhere near ready to have my own. Seriously, who knew I valued sleeping until 6:30 that much. Also centering your work day around dropping off and picking up kids from school is stressful! Not that I don't enjoy doing it for these kiddos - probably the sweetest pair ever! I'll see if I can get some pics to put in here eventually. Another great part about this is that I get to use my friend's car for these 2 weeks, and he has A PARKING PERMIT for downtown. Score! Also: heated seats. Booyah.

So now I'm at home having a late dinner, making granola, and gradually moving on to folding clothes. SIGH.

But life isn't all sighs. Because I have people who send me things like THIS at work.

Also this, which totally made my day:

Digging Through Trash

The baby birds are finally here for spring up in the foothills:


To celebrate Mothers' Day, we all went out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, which is my mom's favourite, and so she tries to squeeze in as many excusable trips there as possible. And I don't blame her...spicy steamed crab and buttery sauce? Mmmm.

Everyone came out, even my brother and his girlfriend:

Both the brothers, in fact...

And my dad with the woman of the day...


Sometime last week I got a "free drink" coupon in the mail from Starbucks. Now, I'm not proud of how often I go to Starbucks, and so at that moment when I cracked open the mailbox, I felt a split-second of joy followed by a moment of shame. That shame caused me to hide that coupon, so that Nolan couldn't mock/judge my habit. Once again, like when I hid $800 (for safety) in Europe and couldn't find it because I hid it too well (that story ends happily - we discovered it in my travel pillow case on the plane ride home), I did just too sweet a job of hiding it and couldn't find it. This morning I remembered where I put it - in my bag that had my new shoes in it. EXCELLENT. Except I had taken that bag down to recycling already, and when I opened the cover, it was buried underneath gobs of our neighbours' trash. So I had to decide just how much I wanted that free Starbucks drink.
15 minutes later, my hands sticky with garbage, I have found the bag, and there is NO coupon in it. My superstar hiding skillz have struck again, and here I sit, sobbing into my cereal because I know that thing will expire and THEN I'll find it. Because fate is a cruel, cruel mistress.

I just need to emphasize again that while Nolan was at sipping coffee at Starbucks tonight, I was rummaging through someone's sticky trash and scrubbing my bathtub with a toilet brush. Classy.

Glug.

Clocks must have been invented by an evil person, because only an evil person would invent something that guarantees to slow down the workday when you look at it. SIGH.

I've heard that our sunny week is supposed to come to an end soon, and therefore I bid farewell to my fond feelings for San Francisco again. They only surface when the weather is nice, and then I remember all the negative things. Especially this time of year when it's gorgeous everywhere else. Maybe global warming wouldn't be so bad for San Francisco. It must be some kind of crime to develop chilblains so close to summer.

300!

This is officially my 300th post (in this blog...who knows how many are in the old one - see link in blogroll at right)! Woo! Now if that doesn't make me feel like I'm mumbling lamely into an empty cyberspace...

There is no question in my mind that I live in a strange place. Sometimes I'm amazed by the possessed weather systems (in a bad way), the crazy specimens of people that I get to sample on a daily basis - usually on the muni, the huge varieties of food, etc. The list goes on and on. On Saturday I was walking back from Starbucks, and there was a live jazz band on the corner...which, combined with the crowds of Asians and the smells of fried food, made me feel like I was in some twilight-zone Disneyland. This morning while I was getting my coffee (I KNOW), there was a brass quartet on the corner in the financial district, playing overtures...and at first I thought "oh yeah, it's Cinco de Mayo", and then I realized that smooth classical overtures have nothing to do with the crazy latin-ness of Cinco de Mayo, except that sometimes I also listen to classical music while eating salsa and tortilla chips. The point of all this is that on the one hand, there is classical music streaming live through the streets while classy people in suits start their day. On the other hand, I found this sprayed on a wall in my neighbourhood:

Oh, San Francisco.

Pee-lah-tays

Last night was my first time in a new class - a yoga/pilates fusion class. And let me tell you, that instructor is crazy flexible and strong. And I'm just a little sore today as a result, with my next yoga class starting in about 15 minutes! Eep! Not to mention my sore arm from playing Wii swordfighting the other day. All this stiffness, and I still lost. SIGH.

Nolan's recently developed a healthy addiction to Justin Bieber and his pervy pre-pubescent tunes. I guess that's just something I'll have to get used to hearing and not feel like a pedophile when I listen to it.

Also today I found a little tribute to college, except in a non-laughable version:

Quote of the day:
N: "I can't focus on studying!"
A: "Is it because of Bieber?"
N: "No!...It isn't Bieber."