Hamster on a Piano...

eating popcorn.



One of these days, I'll get back to posting actual text, I promise.

Milk

Ever since they started filming in San Francisco last year, I've been looking forward to the release of this movie. AB just bought tickets for us to see it on my birthday.

Thai Cooking Night

For your enjoyment... Photos from Thai Cooking Night at our friend's house.


Making banana-leaf boats:




Delicious beef strips:




Banana-leaf boats filled with fish curry, topped with coconut milk, thai basil, and hot peppers:



Abundance:




Crispy fried rice noodles:



Tasty toppings, including fried egg, bean sprouts, green onion, pickled garlic, and tofu:

Good News/Bad News

I've been meaning to write about election night for a while now, and I know it's a little late at this point... but it's my blog so I can do whatever I want. :-)



I guess our biggest mistake was starting our evening too late. AB and I had met our friends around 7:30 at 16th & Valencia, about a mile away from a bar called El Rio where we wanted to eventually end up. After a quick pizza break, we started walking south, past all of the bars on Valencia street. Every bar was filled with people, all of them glued to the television screen. Block by block, we could feel the excitement growing, until all of a sudden people were running out onto the sidewalk, honking their car horns, calling their friends and family on their cell phones... CNN had called the election for Barack Obama, and San Franciso was celebrating like it was New Year's Eve.

For a few minutes, we didn't quite believe it had already been won -- between the time difference (this was my first Presidential election on the west coast) and the quicker-than-expected results, we were caught a little bit off guard. My first thought was to call JM back in Illinois... I knew she'd be glued to the television, so she'd be able to confirm whether it was true. For the first five minutes or so, I couldn't get through. Everyone in San Francisco was on their cell phone at the same time, and the lines were all clogged up. Finally, on my third or fourth attempt, the phone rang through, and JM was able to confirm that he had indeed won.

At this point, we knew we had to hurry if we wanted to catch the concession/acceptance speeches, so we hailed a cab to get us the rest of the way to El Rio. While we were driving, JM was narrating over the phone, and even held her microphone up to her television, so I could follow along. Once we arrived, we were disappointed to discover that El Rio was at capacity and the line was about a dozen people long. We went to Nap's next door instead, and managed to get settled in just in time to see the end of McCain's concession speech. And then, Obama accepted the presidency, and the bar was full of happy cheering (and even some joyful crying).

Once the speeches were over, most of the bar cleared out. We were able to go back to El Rio, and get a seat outside to watch the local election results roll in.

We probably should have gone home instead.

We were all feeling high from the good news about the presidential election, but that feeling disappeared as the results for Prop 8 came in. For those of you who haven't heard about it, Proposition 8 was an amendment to the California constitution that banned gay marriage. I had heard, in the weeks leading up to the election, that it was going to be a close call... but as a native Midwesterner, I was POSITIVE that Californians are generally super-liberal and would shoot this proposition down. Unfortunately, the predictions were right, and Prop 8 passed. I think the final numbers were something like 52% to 48%.

So, the night ended on a very depressing note. One step forward, two steps back. The good news is that various groups are trying to fight this in the courts now, and there's still some hope that it could be overturned.

Halloween 2008

As usual, I procrastinated about finding a Halloween costume this year. When I did finally get around to it on Wednesday night, I headed over to the Haight. Normally this wouldn't be my first choice, because most of the used clothing stores in the neighborhood are really overpriced, and I knew that all of the stores would be packed with other last-minute shoppers. But this late in the game, I didn't have much choice -- the sheer quantity of stores there meant that I could go after work and hit 7-8 stores in a couple of hours. So, I sucked it up and went.

After an hour of sifting through dozens of incredibly picked-over clothing racks, nothing was inspiring me. The few lame costume ideas that I had come up with weren't panning out with the limited selection of clothing that was left. I couldn't even find a 70's-style shirt with a butterfly collar, and I was seriously running out of time.

But then!

I was sifting through the dress racks, getting more and more depressed, when I saw it. THE PERFECT COSTUME. I walked around the store a few more times, just to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything, but I kept coming back to this fantastic, light blue, sparkly dress. It was a little bit more than I wanted to spend, but finally I had to try it on. I was afraid that it wouldn't fit (which is often my biggest hurdle when I'm Halloween shopping), and I almost didn't want to try for fear of being horribly disappointed. Tentatively, I stepped behind the dressing room curtain, pulled the dress over my head, and lo and behold... IT FIT! And it looked pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

Once the question of the outfit was resolved, it only took a half hour or so to find the accessories I needed -- a long blonde wig, a crown, and some white fabric that I could get crafty with. Here's the final result:



I also tried to fashion a wrist corsage out of some purple roses from Walgreens, a couple feet of ribbon, and safety pins, but it fell apart in about two seconds.

On Halloween night, I went out to The Mezzanine with SM and AB to see Yelle , a band I knew absolutely nothing about, but SM recommended highly. They were great to watch live -- highly energetic, fun, french electro-pop goodness. The performance totally made up for the fact that the crowd kind of sucked -- full of clubby people wearing skimpy costumes and pushing their sweaty drunk asses past me, trying to get closer to the stage and totally blocking my view in the process.

Here's a pre-show photo of SM and me -- I'm the prom queen, and she's my college boyfriend who hooked me up with the Strawberry Acai Smirnoff:

Podcasts

Now that I'm back to commuting, I've started to get back in the habit of listening to podcasts on the bus in addition to at home. Here's what I'm listening to right now:

All Songs Considered
Mediageek
RadioLab
The Weekly Scrabbler (yes, I'm a huge nerd)
This American Life
Savage Love

What do you listen to? I'm always looking for new stuff... I have 90 minutes to two hours of commute time every day, depending on how things go, so I still have a lot of time to kill!

For all the library geeks

This is just about the most wonderful room I can imagine:

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

Another foot update...

By special request, I'm posting an update on my broken foot. :-)

I've been to two physical therapy visits, and I'm making good progress. The biggest change is that I'm done with the crutches! I've downgraded to an old-lady cane, and I'm allowed to wear sneakers instead of the big black boot, which is a lovely change of pace.

The bad news is that I've really been forced to start building my muscles again, and as a result my foot, ankle, and calf are really sore right now. I'm also getting around much more slowly than I had been--I'd gotten really efficient at crutches, and I'm not so efficient at walking normally.

I'm taking the bus to work again, which is a huge relief to AB (he had been giving me rides to and from work several times a week). It also saves me about $100 a week on taxi fares.

Anyway, that's the update!

Broken Foot Update: Week 12

I had my 12-week checkup with the doctor, and although my foot is healing extremely slowly, it is in fact healing. The biggest relief is that surgery most likely isn't in my future; instead, I'm starting physical therapy next week, and I'll start putting some weight on my foot again. Hopefully the physical therapy will jump-start the healing process, and with any luck, I'll be walking again sooner rather than later.

More on Sarah Palin

This video pretty much sums up how I feel about Sarah Palin:

Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton

This was everything I was hoping it would be.

Pacific Catch

One of my favorite places to go for lunch is Pacific Catch, which also happens to be directly across the street from my office. It's entirely possible that my opinion is a little bit skewed due to the fact that I stare at the restaurant from my office window all day long, but the main reason I like this place is because of the interesting and delicious food.

The photo above is their fried oyster basket with sweet potato fries. It comes with a little bowl of cole slaw, and two tasty dipping sauces: a jalapeño tartar sauce, and a sweet & sour honey sauce. I like to dip the oysters in the tartar sauce, and save the honey for the fries! You'll notice behind the oyster basket is a little dish filled with edamame and goldfish pretzels, which is a special treat that comes free with every meal.

Another one of my favorites at Pacific Catch is what is basically a "sushi sandwich," although it has a fancier name on the menu. It's ahi tuna, seared very lightly on the outside, juicy and pink on the inside, with wasabi mayonnaise, fresh greens, and pickled ginger. It's quite possibly my favorite sandwich in San Francisco.

Playing with my new camera

So, I splurged this weekend and got the Olympus Stylus 1010. So far, I really love it. The zoom capability is good, and the battery life is great. Unfortunately, even with "image stabilizer" I can't seem to hold a camera steady enough to get a sharp photo. Oh, well.

Here are some random photos I've taken since Saturday:

ART XX

Last night, I went to a benefit show in Oakland for ART XX, my friends' really amazing new magazine (online only, for now) promoting women in the arts. They are really great people, doing very cool things, and you should check them out. :-)

Class of '99

A few days ago, I got the first news that my 10-year high school reunion is in the works. It was kind of a shock to me -- it's hard to believe it's been that long. I'm pretty sure I'm going to attend, even though high school wasn't exactly the best four years of my life. In some ways, I think it'll be good for me... I'm still a freak, and possibly still an outcast, but at least now I'm comfortable in my own skin.

Mostly, I'm going to go my reunion because I'm nosy. I'm curious to see what my classmates are like these days, now that we've grown out of our hormone-addled adolescence. Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, I have a general idea of what a lot them are up to these days, but there are definitely a handful of high school friends who haven't jumped on the social networking bandwagon. Hopefully at least a couple of those folks will show up!

Last year, I went with AB to his 10-year reunion, and I'm afraid that it's spoiled me... His whole class was really close, and AB is still good friends with quite a few of his classmates, so the experience was very different than what I'm expecting from my reunion. It turned out that I had already met a LOT of people from AB's class, so even for me it was like partying with a bunch of old friends, plus some interesting new ones! I guess I've met dozens of IMSA folks over the years, but I don't think I've introduced AB to more than three or four people who went to my high school.

Have any of you attended or skipped your 10-year reunion? If you went, what was it like? :-)

Tough questions

I know this is an old video that most people have already seen by now, but I'm posting it anyway because it never fails to break my heart when I watch it. I'd seen it on YouTube quite a while ago, and then saw it again last night when we watched a couple of Wholphin DVDs.



Are you anybody's favorite person?

Under the Sea

Tonight was exactly what I needed to cheer me up.

AC invited me to the Castro Theatre tonight for The Little Mermaid sing-along, and it was an epic experience.


The Castro Theatre is a beautiful old theater on the main drag of the Castro. It's the most gorgeous movie theater I've seen, with beautiful red curtains and ornate gold details. It's also the only theater I've ever been to that features a real, live organist before every show. Tonight, the organ rose up from below the stage as the organist played classic Disney songs. And, of course, the audience was singing along.



Being in the middle of the huge crowd was surreal. It was a packed house, full of enthusiastic Little Mermaid fans, and a few of the moviegoers came in full costume (people take their costumes very seriously in San Francisco). There were about a dozen Ariels, a handful of Ursulas, three or four Prince Erics, and two slightly more creative people who dressed as "water." We sat toward the back, and all you could see across the theater was a sea of grownups and kids wearing gold cardboard crowns, holding their fish-shaped noisemakers in the air, and blowing oceans of bubbles around the room. When the movie started, the audience cheered so loudly you could hardly hear the movie. There's something thrilling about being part of a huge crowd that's cheering, booing, and singing along together. And it's so much fun to have permission to just be ridiculously loud and silly with a bunch of other ridiculously loud and silly people.

Disappointed

So, I went to the orthopedist today for my eight-week checkup. The X-rays showed that there's still no visible callous on my broken bone. Which means there's been little to no healing.

The doctor told me to stay off of it for another four weeks, and even after that, there's only a 50% chance it'll heal. So, I may be looking at surgery at that point, and then a couple of months healing after that.

I'm trying very hard not to be depressed, but I'm really starting to get sick of this shit.

The good news is that I'm now in a giant black boot instead of a cast, so I can at least take a decent shower again.

This makes me wish I had cable.

I have a total crush on Margaret Cho.

Worst-Case Scenario

I'm a worrier.

I worry about doing a good job for my customers. I worry about saving enough money for both a house and for retirement. I worry about my cat escaping from open windows, even though she hates the outdoors. I worry about my grandparents' health. I worry about my husband dying in a freak bicycling accident on his way home from work. And I worry about my broken foot.

As it turns out, worriers should not research their medical problems on the internet.

In about 10 minutes of googling, I managed to find dozens of horror stories about broken fifth metatarsals. Either the writers' bones never healed, or the bone took 6 months to heal, or they had to have painful surgery because the bone wouldn't come back together. I read stories about people who broke their foot years ago, but still suffer from crippling foot pain.

Basically, I managed to give myself a minor freakout, even though I've also heard lots of stories about people who broke their foot and recovered quickly and completely. Funny how easy it is to ignore those stories.

So, why do I spend so much time stressing out about something that's probably going to be no big deal? Here's my theory: Being the control freak that I am, worrying is my way to control situations that I can't do anything about. If I think about every possible worst case scenario, I can't possibly be taken by surprise, no matter how horrible the news is.

Unfortunately, this strategy also causes a whole lot of unnecessary stress and sleepless nights... there are very few times I can think of where the worst-case scenario actually happened. Am I the only neurotic person who does this?

It's a good thing that I'm going to the doctor on Thursday, which will be exactly eight weeks and three days since I first broke my foot. I'll get to see a fresh x-ray, and I'll get to talk with the orthopedist about how things are going. Hopefully, there will be progress, and some solid answers, so I can take a break from worrying for a while.

In the meantime, does anyone have a good broken-bone story to share?

Getting Lei'd

Last night we met up with some friends at my favorite tiki bar ever -- the Tonga Room at the Fairmont hotel.



Just outside the door we were greeted with leis, to help us get into the island mood. As we walked in, the house band was playing on their raft, which floats in the indoor lagoon in the middle of the room. After each set, they dramatically float back to shore as the rain comes down from sprinklers in the ceiling, and a strobe light simulates lightning.

Our table was tucked away in the back corner of the pirate ship (yes, there's a pirate ship). There were portals and rope rigging on the walls behind us, and we had a great view of the dance floor which is on the main part of the deck. It always looks a little bit like someone's wedding -- a random assortment of people, mostly tourists, drunkenly dancing to classic cover songs, including Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." My friends started a conga line when "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" came on, and they had the whole dance floor involved before the song was over.

The biggest drawback to this place is that it's EXPENSIVE. The delicious and strong drinks are $10 each, plus there's a $7 cover on Saturday nights... so it's unfortunately a place we have to save for VERY special occasions.

Skateboards and broken bones

So, having a broken foot has given me a lot of free time. I've spent the majority of the last seven weeks sitting on my futon and playing around on the internet... So, yesterday I decided that if I'm going to spend all of this time doing absolutely nothing, I might as well blog about it.

As I'm writing this, I can hear kids on skateboards rolling down my sidewalk. Last month, a new skate park opened, two blocks away from my house. I still haven't seen it in person, since two blocks is much to far to walk on crutches.

I've threatened to take up skateboarding myself, as soon as my foot's healed (along with skydiving, surfing, and most of the Olympic sports), but the truth is that I don't think I'm ready to risk any more broken bones for a while. What I am going to do is go over to the skate park to watch the people who actually know what they're doing. AB got some great photos of the park right after it opened, and it looked like a lot of fun.