Photo of the Day

Something about this photo is so tragic ...

Current Song Obsession

Happy December!

Shout Out

So I don't know this guy, but he is an awesome singer and fantastic guitar player so I felt like I had to share him with the world (credit to bozo).



Check out his other songs if you have a few :)

Cooking Adventures - Chicken & Asparagus Stir-Fry

Lately I have been inspired to try cooking new things. A few weekends ago I had to work on Saturday, got extremely bored and started looking up recipes online. I found one similar to the one below, changed it around a little, and made it my own. Using the roomie as a test dummy I cooked then wrote the recipe you see below and it turned out pretty great. Delicious, in fact. Feel free to test it out :)

Chicken & Asparagus Stir Fry

3 regular Chicken breasts
1 bunch Asparagus
2 packs Yakisoba Noodles (or 2-3 cups rice)
¾ cup Cashew nuts
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh Basil
1 Tbs chopped Chives (Green Onion)
Stir Fry Sauce (Used Kikkoman Stir Fry Sauce)
Vegetable Oil
Chili Oil (or Cayenne for a tiny bit of spice)
Salt

Directions:

1. Slice chicken into inch (ish) sized pieces and put in bowl. Coat with Stir Fry Sauce and set aside in bowl
2. Roast cashew nuts in small pot until warm. Be sure to keep them moving so they don’t burn. It takes about 5-8 minutes. Once warm set aside in bowl. Leave burner on and put water in pot on medium heat
3. Slice asparagus into approx inch long pieces and add to pot of water with some salt. Let boil/heat for about 4 minutes. Drain and run cool water over them. Set aside.
4. Put a bit of vegetable oil in pan and heat on med-high. Put chicken in until cooked.
5. Add chopped chives and basil to pan and mix in.
6. Once cooked add Yakisoba Noodles (note, you can choose to serve with rice, and use that instead). Add more Stir Fry Sauce (¼ to ½ cup) to noodles and chicken. Stir in until noodles are soft (*the noodles may have separate directions that you need to follow before they are added to the pot, mine had to be covered in warm water for a minute).
7. Add cashews and asparagus and mix in.
8. Serve hot and enjoy ☺

A new leaf

I guess week one of being 26 has been a good one for me. I've kept my space clean, I've banned paying for coffee and I'm working on saving money in other ways, I'm kind of into cooking right now and have plans to try out some tasty sounding things and .....

Yesterday, after exhausting every other option of time killers (movie watching, apartment cleaning, dishes washing, etc etc etc) I finally got dressed, got on socks and shoes and actually made it to the gym.

As expected, I am really glad I went. I didn't realize how out of shape you can get after a 6 week gym hiatus. I thought I might have an asthma attack after 2 minutes of cardio. It was kind of depressing. But, after this taste I am most definitely re-motivated to get to the gym more. I have goals and it's time to stop ignoring them because, let's face it, all I'm doing by not going is hurting myself.

Stay tuned for a report on recipie attempt #1

Go team!

no longer PAYING for coffee

I've made a little resolution. In effort to save a little cash I am no longer going to be paying for coffee. Now I think I've resovled to all together quit coffee a few times and failed miserably so I'm trying something new. I can still drink the stuff (I wake up at 5:20AM every morning...time to get realistic) but I cannot pay for it. If someone else wants to buy it for me then it's okay :)



I hope to keep it up at least until the end of October when the lure of the holiday Starbucks cups might get to me. I'll be saving myself a lot over the course of a month. It's amazing how much a $5/day Peet's habit can add up over a month!

Wish me luck!

Hawaii-Fest 2009

About two weeks ago I returned from a fabulous 10 day Hawaiian adventure visiting Jay on the island of Oahu. We did SO much stuff in 10 days it's hard to remember what I did what day.

Some of the highlights include wandering around at Hukilau Beach, ATV's at Kualoa Ranch, Snorkeling, seeing Richard from LOST at Teddy's Bigger Burgers (YUM!), Lanikai Beach, Sunset at Electric Beach, Sea Turtles, Shave Ice, Swimming at Waimea Falls... the list goes on.

Check out some photos below.

Barber's Point

Lanikai Beach

Waimea Falls

Barbers Point Beach

Sea Turtles

Hukilau Beach

Surfers

ATV Riding at Kualoa Ranch

Mai Tai

Waikiki Sunset

I have a feeling I'll be going back to Hawaii quite a bit more in the future. I guess that's the perk of having a boyfriend there. I can't wait! :)

Are You Happy?

Who thought something so complicated could be so easy?

Palm Trees & Mai Tais

Tomorrow night I will be sleeping in Hawaii. Finally. 10 days of palm trees, sandy beaches, Mai Tais, and relaxation. God I need this vacation.


Peace out Bay Area!

(ps: don't worry matt, we will have a movie/beer/dinner date when i get back. maybe we'll even bring "the wife")

Taylor Swift .... and T-Pain??

I just had to share because this is pretty hilarious. Makes me love her more ...

Empty Promises....

Updates are coming! I have so much report on. In the mean time know that I spent July 4th in MN with club 209 which was fantastic as always. We got to celebrate Jess's engagement to Brian which was great! There was a mariachi band! You can't get much better than that.

I also bought my flight for a well deserved vacation to the tropics last week. I am going to Hawaii for 10 days. A much needed vacation pre-Sephora holiday season madness. I suppose there will be other perks as well :) I can't wait!!

Pride Wknd

Happy Pride Parade Wknd

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

The King of Pop is dead. Yesterday morning Michael Jackson passed away of an apparent heart attack. I'm sure more details will be released in the next few days. So crazy ... can't believe it. I also must mention that Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's Angels) also died yesterday losing her 3 year battle with cancer.

Spotted: Dog, Cat, Rat

On Friday I was walking by Union Square when I spotted the AMAZING dog cat rat man. Check it out:


That is right folks, you're looking at a rat and a cat chilling out lying on top of a dog. He even has a website. You can check him out at www.helpdogcatrat.com


Just another reason why I love it here ... Only in San Francisco!

Holy Crap it's June!!!!

When did this happen????? How can it possibly be June?? Why is time moving soooooooo fast!? I suppose they warned me this would happen with age.

I suppose I should take it as a good sign that I've been so pre-occupied with life, and work, and other such fun things that I haven't been able to update this thing as frequently. How about some mini-updates then?

*209 Reunion in MN is in 25 days!!!

*Went to the Saddlerack about 6 wks ago. It was amazing, as always.

*Been spending all my spare time with some cool kids from Hawaii

*Threw a very sucessful follow up bash to Booze and Beef called "Whiskey & Wieners". Goooood times had by all. At least from what we remember :)

*Emmer is in town from China until the 11th

*I'm going indoor skydiving on Sunday (woot!)

*I saw Star Trek...and it was SUPER nerdy

*I went to Cal Academy for Nightlife last night and it was AWESOME. Real post on that coming up next.....

And that's all I got for now.

TGIF

Terminator

Yesterday I got to hang out with the recently graduated M (woot!). The plan was to go see Wolverine and then get a drink, however Fandango failed me ... twice ... in one month! We got to the theatre and with the early release of Terminator all the showings were changed around. Damn.

M got his way and we went to see Terminator. All 2 hours and 5 minutes of it. Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't seen the other 3 movies so I didn't really know what I was in for. M gave me a quick run down on Terminator timeline and history (time travel is so confusing!) and off we went. It was action packed and pretty amusing... but there were some parts that were just WAY too corny. There are not even words to describe. It cracked me up. My favorite part is probably when a certain Terminator of the past comes back in all his CGI glory to try to kick some John Connor (Christian Bale) ass. It was amazing!



I was just told that the director of this baby, McG, was the director of The OC and Charlie's Angels. That explains the awesome corniness.

Please note that Christian Bale (John Connor) and Sam Worthington (Marcus Wright) were pretty smokin' hot in this movie. Especially Sam, who, by the way, is Australian. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm.

Anywho, don't want to give away anything else. Go see it if you dare ... and let me know what you think.

Once again ... I'm Alive

Summer is amping up and I am getting busy ... could be the new friends I've made ... could be the sunshine. It also helps that work is busy leaving me far less time to screw around and update this sucker.

I'm pretty sure I owe some photos and good stories so stay tuned, they're coming, I swear!

For now you can revel in the awesomeness that is this upcoming 3-day Memorial Day Weekend. I never get holidays off. What a treat!

Addiction

I have a big and often somewhat expensive addiction and I'm not afraid to admit it. I am obsessed with travel and adventure ... and I'm off on another one!


New Orleans, Louisiana here I come!

Fun in the Sun

To celebrate the first amazingly beautiful sunshiny and surprisingly warm weekend of 2009 I dragged M out of his spring break cave and we wandered around the Wharf, soaked in up some rays and went to the movies.


What a fun day!

In other news, my old buddy HP finally moved to SF this weekend! Ironically she moved into the place DIRECTLY across from the apartment I lived in when we hung out a lot... and got ourselves into too much trouble. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about that in the coming months.

Also, on a sadder yet exciting note, my super awesome and super good friend LMS is hitting the road in just 3 days for the world adventure with no time limit that he has been waiting on for far too long. Hopefully this means I now have yet another excuse to go abroad to visit the guy in some randomly awesome country. He'll have a blast but will most definitely be missed A LOT!

Friday Hilarity

For those of you who appreciate both the TV show "How I Met Your Mother" and the fantastic musical Les Miserables you will enjoy this A LOT!



Have a good weekend!

Failure

A real China post is coming soon once photos are compiled, but in the meantime I have a confession to make. Due to my lack of self control and my peer pressuring mother who doesn't believe anyone should give up coffee I have completely failed my lent goal. I drank a mocha every single day I was in Asia. Bad bad bad....

The question is, now that I have failed, do I give up completely or make it a USA specific goal and tough it out for the next four weeks? Decisions, decisions.

China Bound

Tomorrow morning I will be heading off to the airport with mom and sister in tow to fly to Hong Kong then onto Shanghai mid-week to visit Emmer...woot!

Out of Towners

I love playing tourist in SF and am always glad to have visitors and show them around. Yesterday I had two! I got to head up to the Marin Headlands with Damien and show him one of my favorite places in the world (see photo) and then go out to dinner with him and Arun & Co. in Japan town.


Always fun to see people you haven't seen for 6 and 5 years!

Two weeks down....

Four weeks to go? Man, when is Easter anyways?

The first two days of coffee-less living were especially tough... I had INTENSE headaches. I had no idea that I was so addicted to the coffee in the morning. Now, you have to give me some credit because I wake up at 5:30AM five days a week for work, which is madness. And I've been doing it for almost 2.5 years!

I'm staying strong though and have not cheated at all. We'll see how long this lasts post-lent.

TA-HOE II

The ski-bus trip to Tahoe yesterday was both civilized (not driving was so nice!) and super easy. The conditions were amazing: blue skies and best of all not crowded AT ALL... making it a bit ironic that both me an the roomie were plowed into by a skiers. It couldn't have been better!


Let's hope for a late winter so I can go up again in April! :)

Lent

Not that I am religious or anything but I have decided once again to participate in Lent. Three years ago I gave up a 3 diet cokes a day habit and have hardly touched the stuff since. It was surprisingly hard but well worth it.

Here goes nothing

I vow, for 40 days and 40 nights, to give up....


Wish me luck!

Road Trip!

This post is a little bit delayed and since then I have managed to get myself into all sorts of non-sub-zero trouble but I'll save those juicy details for those near and dear to me ...

Tahoe was awesome! H was a great boarder for a newbie and the roomie has made vast improvements since the wrist damages last year. H learned fast and was pretty impressive minus the collision we had resulting in a scary and large bruise and bump on my leg that hasn't quite gone away. Adds character, right? We re-met the famous Hard Rock Bartender who, after some memory jogging, remembered us and gave us ridiculously strong (free) rum runners. We also got to hang out with B and half his family (brother and cousin) the second night which was a treat. Oh, those boys. The icing on the cake was the great deal I scored on a hotel. For the same cost as the shitty hotel we stayed in last year, I found an awesome suite at Harvey's Resort & Casino which was fabulous. We even got to go hot tubing which could be a story in itself.









I must say this trip was quite different from the last trip in many ways, but still a lot of fun! I hope to go back up there at least a few more times before the snow melts and make some more snow angels.

First weekend in March ... watch out!

thank GOD this week is over

I like this song ... happy weekend!

TA-HOE

I'm off to Tahoe tomorrow for a much needed weekend of R&R, snowboarding and probably a little debauchery. Watch out for the photos ...

This Just In: America’s Best (and Worst) Cities for Dating

Best Cities for Dating
1. Austin, TX
2. Colorado Springs, CO
3. San Diego, CA
4. Raleigh/Durham, NC
5. Seattle, WA
6. Charleston, SC
7. Norfolk, VA
8. Ann Arbor, MI
9. Springfield, MA
10. Honolulu, HI

Worst Cities for Dating
1. Kansas City, MO
2. Wichita, KS
3. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
4. Detroit, MI
5. Louisville, KY
6. Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC
7. Atlanta, GA
8. Pittsburgh, PA
9. Houston, TX
10. Charlotte, NC

Interesting Facts from the Top Ten
“Large cities that everyone associates with socializing, like Los Angeles and Miami, did not rank particularly high, scoring lower in categories like coffee shops per capita and flowers bought as gifts,” said Bert Sperling, president of Sperling’s BestPlaces.

“But cities like Austin (No. 1), Colorado Springs (No. 2) and Ann Arbor (No. 8) were not a complete surprise – they are heavy-populated college towns and it’s easy for young singles to get together.”

1. Austin, TX: Taking home the grand prize, Austin scores relatively high in everything, from frequency of dating partners to the number of establishments to meet people. Austin also has the highest percentage of 18-24-year-olds and knows how to have fun as they spent more money out socializing than any other area. Austin residents also had the highest expenditures on alcohol purchased away from home.

2. Colorado Springs, CO: Ranks in the 99th percentile for socializing at bars and also scores high in the dining out category

3. San Diego, CA: Scores high in the diversity index, which rates the likelihood of randomly meeting someone of a different race or ethnicity, and, of course, San Diego is off the charts when it comes to outdoor recreational opportunities

4. Raleigh Durham, NC: Has a large 18-24-year-old population and a high amount of online daters in the area

5. Seattle, WA: No surprise here - Seattle has the largest amount of coffee shops (great places for meeting people or gathering to rehash the previous night’s activities). It also has the highest percentage of online daters.

6. Charleston, SC: Ranks second in the amount of lingerie shops per capita (behind Columbia, SC)

7. Norfolk, VA: Came in near the top due to the exceptional amount of flowers that were brought as gifts for a special someone. Online dating was also high, in the 83rd percentile.

8. Ann Arbor, MI: Scores in the 98th percentile for percentage of singles and ranks high in the dining out category as well

9. Springfield, MA: Springfield scores high in many categories, among them are percentage of singles, health clubs per capita and bars per capita in the area

10. Honolulu, HI: Honolulu ranks first in the diversity index category, which rates the likelihood of randomly meeting someone of a different race or ethnicity, and scores the highest in the dining out category as well. Honolulu has the lowest number of lingerie shops per capita, probably because no one’s wearing much clothing to begin with.

--------------------------

A special thanks to J$ for providing me with these statistics. In case you were curious San Francisco ranked #38 and was closely followed by San Jose at #39. Surprisingly (to me at least) Oakland beat them both coming in at #19. I guess I need to cross the Bay Bridge more often ...

In other news, I'm dating again. Watch out world!

Happy Inauguration Day!

"Obama's cause is all about the future. I think that's why everyone's so excited right now," Schoen said. "It's like we can do anything. Look what we just did -- the people. The people did this. Not the politicians -- we did it."

I wish I could be there!

Choices, Choices...

In the spirit of dating, casual or otherwise, I present to you a hilarious and accurate photo that perfectly depicts one of the great mysteries of the universe:

"What goes through your mind when someone asks you to go for a drink?"


Thank god for options... Am I right ladies and gents?

TGIF

Ode to the Nice Guys

This was stolen from I forget where. I liked it so I'm sharing. Enjoy!

Ode to the Nice Guys
This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl's every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they're at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don't end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn't worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you'd ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn't have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing "serious" between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: "oh, but we're just friends!" And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you're nice like that.

The nice guys don't often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don't seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can't. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as "oh, he's too nice to date" or "he would be a good boyfriend but he's not for me" or "he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn't possibly ask him out!" or the most frustrating of all: "no, it would ruin our friendship." Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can't figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I'm going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn't last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you're sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

Baby Steps

As predicted, there have been some big changes so far in 2009. A shout out and BIG congratulations to my good friend's Jess and Tyler who both got engaged in the first two days of the new year (not to each other). Looks like I'm going to be going to a lot of weddings in the next few years!

As for me, I'm still single and so far in 2009 I have been mostly a useless waste of space. I partly blame our 12 months of free ShowTime from DirectTV and my beautiful new MacBook. But, the good news is that I've already made some progress on the resolutions

#1 Get Organized - I cleaned my room. It looks beautiful, yet still needs a lot of work. I am getting rid of lots of clothes and unloading the useless crap. Getting organized feels sooooo good.

#4 Get Healthy - last night I formulated a weekly beginner workout plan that is stick-to-able.

100 Crunches a day
120 minutes of Cardio a week (4 - 30 minute sessions)
2 personal training sessions a week

I think I can stick to that!

#3 Get Adventurous - This is the exciting one! I am going to Hong Kong and Shanghai for a week in March. I can't wait! Also, me and the roomie are starting to actually plan our big adventure trip for 2009. We're taking location advice because we can't make up our minds...anyone?

Next up is a weekend in Tahoe. Stay tuned for photos and lets pray for no broken bones!

Fresh Start!

I can't believe it's 2009. A new year means a fresh start and I'm a fan of new beginnings. In the spirit of the new year here are my resolutions so far..

Some General Resolutions:

1. Get Organized ... enough of this mess.
2. Get Promoted ... it's about damn time.
3. Get Adventurous ... I want to take more chances and try more new things, and Asia here we come!
4. Get Healthy ... I know it's cliche, but it's so important.

Some Specific Resolutions:

1. Cut WAY back on the coffee intake
2. More of #2
3. Actually make it to Vegas
4. Finish my photo collage frame

With the Second Annual Roommate South Lake Tahoe Weekend Bonanza coming up next weekend I'm sure more ideas will formulate and the year will come full circle. Let's just hope the roomie doesn't break anything but hearts this time.

Also, assuming I don't have a panic attack and wuss out in the next 5 hours, I am making a huge change to my appearance today. Wish me luck!