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.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
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:
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.
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.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
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:
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:
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