| Rewards for an open mind |
[22 Nov 2009|08:18pm] |
You know me, I have a system for everything. I have a system for picking out recipes that forces me to broaden my horizons because every once in a while, I am pleasantly surprised by something I would expect to hate. Tonight was one of those nights.
I just received a new cookbook called The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces, recommended by Boss, an Italian who likes to cook. The first recipe I pulled out was a pasta sauce that combined garlic, anchovies, capers, and olives. Those are four powerful flavors, and normally I don't like olives, so I was fully prepared to have to order pizza, but turns out the flavors complemented each other tastefully.
Despite my low expectations, I was pretty excited to cook with anchovies because it's a new ingredient for me. I think it's an adventure when I have to ask the grocery store staff where to find something, and today I had to ask about both anchovies and capers. I'm always surprised when they have unusual (to me) ingredients in stock because sometimes they don't have the things you expect every store to have (like sugar cubes).
In other news, the Fiance was waylaid for two days by bad weather in Houston. He's scheduled to arrive home tomorrow. Can't wait to see the plane!
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| Santa Fe |
[17 Oct 2009|06:38pm] |
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Last week we found out that my favorite restaurant in town (Santa Fe) had closed (their parent company filed for bankruptcy a few months ago - bad economy and all). I looked forward to eating there on the weekends. Saturday nights are just not the same without it.
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| Good intentions thwarted by physical limits |
[06 Oct 2009|06:26pm] |
I'm currently facing two difficult decisions:
1) I'm doing well with my Java lessons. Today I could finish Chapter 5 of the text and move on to the fun stuff (creating methods), but I am once again starting to feel the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome.
2) I started the half-marathon training with a 2 mile run yesterday, and even 2 miles HURT. My inner calf muscles are sore, my knees are creaking.
Do I power through the pain or take a break and let my body try to recover? If I were hearing these words from a friend, I would tell that person to take a break, work on stretches, and see how the body feels after a few days. I don't need to go cold turkey, just take it easy, right?
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| Running and TV |
[03 Oct 2009|10:50am] |
Last night I finished my "10 weeks to a 10K" training program, running the 10K in 71:45, which is probably not a great time, but I find it pretty miraculous. The fiance's question was, "What next?" This question has been bothering me. Despite the loads of running I've been doing, my size 10 pants are starting to feel snug again. This would not surprise you if you saw what I eat. In the past week I've had cookies, half a cake, 1.5 large cheese pizzas, 2.5 mini loaves of a blueberry bread, what I'm guessing was a 2000 calorie taste-a-licious meal at Santa Fe (my favorite restaurant here), and home-baked white bread, not to mention candy pumpkins, m&m's, and my ever-present Starburst. Granted, this past week was a little unusual because it included my birthday, but I think I've already mentioned my love for junk food. And since I have plans to be in three weddings in the next 11 months, I don't really have room to put on weight.
I figure my two choices are to scale back my runs but also scale back my junk food habits OR keep up the running. It's kiinda sad to say, but I'd much rather do the latter than the former. The problem is that for me to keep up the running, I have to keep challenging myself to keep it interesting. So it is with many reservations that I plan to start my "8 weeks to a Half Marathon" this week. The two drawbacks to it are that I will have to give up one of my precious days off (oh, how I love my days off) and that I will have to move my strength training days to Tu/Th, which is an awkward uneven strength training schedule. But it's only for eight weeks.
On the plus side, I'll have more time on the treadmill, which means more time for tv since it seems like lately the only time I watch tv is when I'm running. I'm back to liking tv again, I think because I'm only watching it in small doses. I'm also trying something new this year and recording almost everything but letting Tivo erase things as necessary because it turns out that with most shows it's easy to dive back in after missing an episode or two. This means that I got to see the episode of Glee with Kristen Chenowith (yes!), but not the episodes before it.
Anyway, not sure what I'll do after the Half-Marathon training program is done. I'll put off that decision 'til I'm forced to make it.
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| Contemplating my career |
[30 Aug 2009|01:56pm] |
Super annoyed. Just spent nearly an hour writing a post about thoughts on my career, and I lost it by testing a stupid keyboard shortcut. Why would Ctrl-Left Arrow not take you to the beginning of a line when Ctrl-Right Arrow takes you to the end of a line!? Stupid Mac. I hate you. Today, anyway.
So lucky you, you get the abbreviated version of all my introspection: after years of indecision (basically avoidance), I am still torn between two possible career directions. From my current position, I can easily see myself moving into development or stepping into a role as a product manager, which requires marketing knowledge. The good news is that, working at a small company, I do feel like I have the freedom to move into either role as I wish. I just have to make it happen. Therefore, instead of letting my indecision cow me into a standstill (as usually happens), I'm following Boo's advice to "just do something."
Development appeals to me more than marketing does at this time. So I think I'm going to take a couple of computer science classes and see how I like them. If I don't like them much or maybe even if I do, I might look into an MBA in Marketing. I'm too late to register for a class this semester, thus I am going to try to find the self-discipline to teach myself Java. I know, I've been saying this for years, but I can be quite good at setting personal goals for myself and achieving them when it's a priority for me. I'm setting aside my other priorities (television, reading, etc.) to focus. Wish me luck!
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| The main person causing your problems is you |
[02 Aug 2009|12:11pm] |
I'm hosting both book clubs this month, and in both cases, I presented two books that I wanted to read and one book that I'm not too excited about. Both book clubs chose the book I'm not excited about.
The first book club I'm hosting tomorrow, and we read A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. It's about an uneducated black man in the 1940's South who is witness to the murder of a white man, and since the real murderers died and there was no one else to punish, he's the person who gets the chair. So since his own (white) defense lawyer compares him to a hog, his godmother enlists the help of the local school teacher to teach the convict how to die with dignity.
I hated it. The only reason I didn't drop the book after 50 pages was because I knew I had to lead a discussion about it. Not only was it boring, the school teacher was a whiny little brat who was as condescending as the defense lawyer, so I didn't really understand the bond that supposedly developed between him and the convict.
The second book club is reading Daphne du Maurier's masterpiece Rebecca. I acquired this book a long time ago because it's a classic, but I recently watched the 1940 movie based on the book. The movie was ok. I didn't love it. The plot was a little wacky, like the author was trying too hard to add in twists and turns. Given my lukewarm feeling about the movie, I was not eager to invest more time in the story.
This probably won't come as a surprise, but the book is better than the movie. Du Maurier has a lot more time to build up the atmosphere of the story, and she gives it a beautiful dream-like quality with her detailed descriptions of moments in time. And yet, I still don't like the main character. She's the type of person I would feel a lot of empathy for if I met her in real life, but reading about her in a novel, I have no patience.
For example, there is one scene where she's just moved in to Manderley after marrying Maxim de Winter, and she goes into the library after breakfast to kill some time. However, she finds the library is cold, so she goes to find some matches to light the fire, and the butler tells her, "Oh we don't light the fire in the library until later in the day. The late Mrs. de Winter used to spend her morning in the tea room, therefore we have the fire going in the tea room." Well, the new Mrs. de Winter is still new to Manderley and has not been shown where the tea room is, but instead of telling the butler, "Sorry, but I'm not the late Mrs. de Winter. Please light the fire in the library" or asking him to show her where the tea room is, she suffers extreme humiliation by bumbling into rooms that are not the tea room while the butler looks on. Honestly.
The new Mrs. de Winter is only 21, so one would think I would have more sympathy for her. I've been the age where I'm unsure of myself and not wanting to put people out, but I'm finding that I'm at a place in my life where I don't want to read about characters who are their own worst enemy. This was part of the problem I had with the protagonist in A Lesson Before Dying. He spent the entire book complaining about how trapped he felt, while his own girlfriend pointed out that he had family in California and could leave at any time to take advantage of that fact. So if you're really not trapped, why am I wasting my time reading 250 pages of your complaints?
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| Boo's return |
[26 Jul 2009|11:03am] |
So Boo is home now. It's wonderful having him back in hundreds of little ways that I didn't anticipate. Fufu was a bit upset at first, but he's adjusted to Boo's renewed presence (I've been making an extra effort to let Fufu know that I still love him to pieces even if he no longer has my undivided attention).
The party Friday night was a success. We had a good turnout, and everyone enjoyed the fake mustaches and the wall hangings (we had printed out several pictures of famous mustaches). At one point Boo let me shave his mustache while everyone cheered us on.
Yesterday was a reminder why I stick to the three drink rule, as Friday I had five drinks and spent yesterday with a raging hangover (the first in a year, and hopefully the last for another year or more). My big accomplishment for the day was making dinner. Boo, love of my life, did most of the clean up for his own Welcome Home party, even though he probably wasn't feeling much better than I was.
Tonight Boo's parents are coming to hang out with us for a couple days, so I'll be spending most of the day cleaning. I'm rather looking forward to their visit because I haven't had the chance to spend much time with them. We've met for the occasional meal and whatnot, but it will be nice getting to know them on a more regular basis.
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| House Bunny |
[18 Jul 2009|09:04pm] |
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Fufu is very definitely a house rabbit. The second he sees me drag out the pen, he goes into hiding. I force him outside anyway. Today was a beautiful day - a comfortable 87 degrees with no humidity and a cool breeze blowing, so I felt we should take advantage of it, and for the most part he seemed to enjoy the nice weather once we were finally outside. But I've learned that stress causes Fufu to almost shut down. Normally he's an active bunny, exploring the house and causing trouble when he can. After a trip to the vet or an hour outside, I barely see him the rest of the day. Not sure if the stress exhausts him so much that he just wants to sleep the rest of the day or what, but it's kind of a nice break.
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| More food experiments |
[12 Jul 2009|04:43pm] |
Today I tried baking blueberry muffins. They tasted like I had accidentally slipped in some dishwasher detergent or some other cleaning solution. I hope I didn't poison myself with the one and a half muffins I ate (had to eat the half muffin to be sure that they tasted as weird as I thought).
Lately I feel like I'm at a 50% success rate with my cooking. That's not true as my fridge is so stuffed, I might not get to all the perishables before they perish. Nevertheless it's disappointing when something you cook tastes so awful that you have to toss it.
On the bright side I also tried making the red potato salad again and this time managed to avoid overcooking the potatoes.
Ok, time to go relax with some tv and knitting.
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| Mostly work |
[10 Jul 2009|08:01pm] |
Would love to post about something other than work, but that seems to be the focus of my life right now. The computer-crapping-out business seems ill-timed. I have five million things on my To Do list and I feel like I'm getting more and more emails saying, "Why hasn't this been done yet?" The worst part is getting those emails from Boss since, you know, he is my boss. The problem is that most of the work that's getting assigned to me isn't assigned by Boss, and while it's all super important stuff, he just doesn't know about it. So he gets frustrated when the stuff that he wants done isn't getting done.
I've also been extremely frustrated by miscommunication within the company. This seems to happen quite a bit, actually. Someone will tell me, "You do this," or worse, send out a general announcement, and then a few days later will ask, "How is that project coming along?" I can't seem to make it clear to people that I have a lot to do, and I'm working extra hours to get it all done, so if they want something done within a specific time period, they have to tell me either A) it's urgent or B) there's a deadline. Otherwise, I just tack it right on to the bottom of my To Do list, and it will get done when it gets done. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that I can make the connection for people, and every time people give me a new project let them know exactly where it falls on my priority list. See how blogging is therapeutic?
Despite all the stress, for some reason I'm feeling a lot of love for my job right now. Maybe it's just nice feeling like I'm needed. Maybe it's that I don't feel any dread for the top items on my To Do list. Nah, scratch that. I dread testing (it gets to be very monotonous), and that will be my life for the next few weeks. Nevertheless I look forward to every day, I enjoy the moments I get to chat and commiserate with my colleagues, and there are certain customers I always like talking to.
On an unrelated topic, Boo returns in less than two weeks! I can't wait.
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| Stache Bash 2009 |
[06 Jul 2009|05:19pm] |
Boo and I are going to have a mustache-themed party when he gets home. It's going to be fun, and I'm having a blast just chatting with him about it. He went from saying we'd have it a week or two after he got home to a couple days after he returns so that he doesn't have to wear his mustache for too long, which of course makes me glad. He's got a pretty cool mustache, but I'm not sure I want hair in my kisses, you know? He's already bought the fake mustaches so that those of us less favored by the gods can sport comely facial hair, also.
I'm surprised at how many parts of the party planning go with the mustache theme. Will tell you all about it post-party.
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| My mom cracks me up |
[05 Jul 2009|09:26pm] |
Me: Why don't you subscribe to People any more?
Mom: I'm boycotting them. They always have like Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan on the cover. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE! I'll stick to my AARP magazines.
Mom [talking about getting her 26 yr old co-worker hooked on Big Love]: These young people. They don't know anything. They don't watch enough TV.
Mom is only 51, so she says this all jokingly. It's hysterical.
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| bad food experience |
[04 Jul 2009|05:15pm] |
I found a recipe for a chicken/avocado/mango salad which sounded great. I love all the ingredients individually, but clearly I need to learn how to pick produce better. The avocado and mango were both slightly overripe. I overcooked the chicken. All together it was not good. Not good at all. For once I am happy to throw food out.
Hopefully I'll have better luck with the chocolate chip cupcakes I plan to make.
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| Pictures |
[28 Jun 2009|04:51pm] |
A fuzzy picture of me in the classic "I just lost x lbs" pose:
My first felting project. It's a little pocket that hangs on the door where you can put keys or whatever else you want to grab on your way out the door. You can't really see the pocket, but you can see my blanket stitch that I was so proud of around the door knob hole:
And this last one I took to go along with a story I thought was quite funny:
This hallway is Fufu's favorite place in the whole house, and this is where he likes to pull up the carpet, in front of the bedroom doors as if he thinks he might be able to chew his way under the doors. The towel in front of the door on the right covers some large gaping holes. I've so far managed to prevent him from chewing a hole in front of the door on the left by placing a straw basket in front of the door, which he has been systematically tearing apart for months now so that now it's just a big pile of straw. Furthermore, the box in the photo has an entrance and an exit in the back. He has also been tearing up the bottom of the box, no doubt to secretly get to the carpet underneath, so you can kinda see (in the foreground on the left) a pile of cardboard bits that have come out of the box.
So the Terminix guy was at our house to spray for pests (we have an infestation of little centipede like creatures, which is not bad in and of itself, but they bring the spiders into the house), and he looked up at this hallway and said, "What have you got going on up there?" I started explaining about the rabbit, and he replied, "Oh. That's the kind of mess that rats and mice leave behind, so I thought you might have a bigger problem we needed to start worrying about."
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[27 Jun 2009|02:55pm] |
I ended up buying a fair amount at the bookstore, after all, buying presents! I also bought Stephenie Meyer's book The Host because the hardcover was nearly 50% off and a friend highly recommended it. So I now have two big Christmas presents out of the way, and that makes me happy. I feel like I took proper advantage of the sale.
Now I have to work, and I am not particularly happy about it (third weekend in a row), but I am taking heart from the fact that next weekend is a three day weekend, and I am taking the full weekend for myself.
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| Miserly ways |
[27 Jun 2009|09:17am] |
My Mom calls me a tightwad, and it's not in an affectionate way. I think I am not fun to shop with because I go and I look for a few seconds, but knowing I won't buy anything, I quickly get bored and end up waiting near the front door. Poor Mom. Has a daughter that is no fun when it comes to shopping, the one thing all women do best.
My local book store is having a big sale today. I got a postcard in the mail announcing the sale, and for the past week I've been super excited about it thinking about how I'm going to splurge and go a bit crazy buying books. But yesterday the prospect of splurging on books turned sour. The problem was that I took a good hard look at my bookcase and noticed that it is stuffed to the brim with books. Also, I've been reading so much lately that (and I know what I'm about to say is sacrilege) I'm a bit bored by books. I think it's just been so long since I've been really wowed by a book. I really liked Shogun, but I didn't love it so much that I'd want to read it again, and I can't think of the last book I read that I absolutely loved.
So I have a lot of books on my wish list, but by the time I get around to reading them (after I read all the other books that are stuffed in my bookcase), I either won't be interested in reading them (because there will be new books that have been added to the wish list) or I'll be able to find them at paperbackswap.com or at the library. Even with a sale, I can't justify spending the money. I'd rather spend the money on a good meal or on a baseball game or maybe not spend it at all.
Anyway, I'm still going to the bookstore to see if they have this month's book club book, so maybe my mind will change when I'm actually there with books in hand.
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| Airport car rentals |
[26 Jun 2009|10:17pm] |
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Today I learned that airport car rentals are a huge rip-off. To pick up a cheap-o car from a company I've never heard of from LAX and drive it around for a week is $500+, whereas shuttling to Long Beach and renting from a local brand name office for the same week is less than $200. Even when you factor in the price of the shuttle, you're looking at a savings of a couple hundred bucks. That's just crazy.
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| Sicko |
[21 Jun 2009|09:25pm] |
Just finished watching Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, which I feel was good timing since health care is once again a hot issue. I don't normally like Michael Moore's films because he's a bit too extreme for me, and he's so biased that I don't feel like he gives an accurate representation of both sides of an argument, but he does make some good points. I think this was the best of his films that I've seen because it wasn't too over-the-top and he did address certain arguments that opponents to universal health care make even if he didn't really give a subjective opinion about the drawbacks of universal health care. But he always does something that I just think is completely ridiculous (in this film it was the boat trip to Guantanamo).
I'd probably die of shock if the US ever instituted universal health care in my lifetime.
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| Exciting Times |
[20 Jun 2009|01:19pm] |
Today I got an email from my bank saying that they sent in the last of one of my recurring payments, which means that one of my school loans is paid off! I am a month away from only having my car payment and giant school loan left. It will be an amazing feeling to be able to put more money towards savings than to debt.
Money management has been a hard lesson to learn, and though I've paid dearly for my past transgressions, I can't say I really regret it. While my parents always stressed financial responsibility, my Mom would always add, "But you're only young once." In other words, I shouldn't sacrifice exploring New Zealand and other great experiences just because I didn't have the money right then. I'm so glad Mom gave me that perspective because I have lived well and loved my life.
The past few years of being a miser have not been easy (as you have all heard my lamentations), but for the most part I was ready to step into my responsibilities when I did. So basically I'm glad I let myself be young and wild. I feel like I'm ready to greet 30 and more responsible adulthood without sadness or regret.
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