This staycation has treated me very well. Since Christmas, I have gotten about 10 hours of sleep every night, I've had time to get some form of exercise nearly every day, I've eaten a huge salad every day, I've gotten to hang out with friends a bunch, get some alone time, read a novel, watch lots of Mad Men and generally relax and let my brain heal. I'm a little scared of how things will play out when I have to go back work on Thursday. My plan is to at least look into signing up for classes at the Y or maybe get a membership at the UC gym, so I can keep up with the exercise. Also: more sleep, salads, and relaxing. That said, man, I could really get used to this life of leisure. I don't think I'd get bored at all.

So I don't look back on this time and wonder what the heck it was I did with all that time off, here's what I've been up to (keeping in mind that I got up at about noon every day, and any holes in this schedule were filled by internetting, reading magazines/books, or watching movies/TV):

• December 18-22 - In North Carolina, or traveling to/from there


• Wednesday, December 23 - Last minute Christmas shopping & wrapping


• December 24-26 - In Monterey for Christmas


• Sunday, December 27 - Serious lounging. I think the only thing we did that day was take care of friends' kitties.


• Monday, December 28 - Packed up old Cliq, walked to the UPS store to ship it, walked to Trader Joe's & did shopping, walked home, walked to UCSF Mt. Zion to get an MRI of my knee, argued with T-Mobile about my newly busted G1. (Literally, it stopped working 2 hours after I sent my Cliq back.) Walked to Brendan & Mo's to take care of their kitties, stopped by JOnathan's to take care of his kitty.


• Tuesday, December 29 - Went to yoga with Dani in the Mission. Lounged. Took care of kitties. Opened joint checking and savings accounts with Ed (!!!). Had dinner at Ti Couz with Mella, then went back to her house and looked at vacation pictures and stupid/cute/funny stuff on the internet for a couple of hours.


• Wednesday, December 30 - Packed up late Christmas presents for my aunt and cousin. Walked to the post office to mail it. Walked to Brendan & Mo's to take care of kitties. Got a bang trim. Took care of Jonathan's kitty. Re-sewed the buttons on my peacoat (they were loose); sewed up the hole in its pocket. Read Dune till 2am, finished it.


• Thursday, December 31 - Went for a run & did my at-home stretching/strengthening routine. Chatted with Andy. Made cookies. (Ed took care of Jonathan's kitty.) Went to Andy and Mella's completely unremarkable NYE party. ;) Got home at 7am.


• Friday, January 1 - Slept till 1pm. Got breakfast burritos and mimosas at Green Chile Kitchen with Brendan, Binx, and Aaron. Took care of Jonathan's kitty. Spent the rest of the day lounging in our living room, eating Chinese food, watching movies, and playing video games with Mella, Andy, Brendan, and of course Ed. Best lazy day ever.


• Saturday, January 2 - Did some low impact in-house stretching/strengthening exercises. Walked to Trader Joe's and went grocery shopping for dinner. Cooked a giant dinner for 12 people. (I made this, a vegan version of this, and a cherry coffee cake from Vegan with a Vengance that needs some tweaking before it can go on Mooflyfood. Morley made Fuck You Kale, and Mella & Andy made homemade meaty dumplings - yummmm.) (Ed took care of Jonathan's kitty.) Had people over for "Eats Fantasteek" -- a dinner party before the Beats Antique show. Went to see Beats Antique at the Independent (awesome!). Came back to our place with a few people, ate coffee cake and clementines. Bed at 3am.


• Sunday, January 3 - Pretty lazy day so far. Slept till 1. Will probably go to TJ's again to restock on clementines. Maybe go for a bike ride? It's just so nice out. Will be heading to the Post Yule Pyre this evening.

And then the only other thing I have planned for the rest of the vacation is dinner with Jordan on Monday. I go back to work on Thursday. 4 gloriously unplanned days! Yeah! So far I have no complaints about this furlough business.

A lot has been going on and I haven't said much about it. Here are the various things that I keep thinking I should mention but never get around to.

I went to Hans's funeral. It was beautiful, touching, rambunctious, everything it should have been. Pictures.

I have two and a half weeks off of work. It's awesome (even though I'm not getting paid for most of it).

I have made about 7 batches of rumballs in the past few weeks. I think I have finally gotten sick of them.

Here are some photos of Fort Point, where we will not be having our wedding.

Ed and I went to North Carolina with my parents to visit his family last weekend. It was a whirlwind four day weekend, filled with family, food, laughs, doggies, and snow. Snow! My first white Christmas. The streets weren't yet plowed when we arrived at 4am, so we had to hike through the snow from a main street to Ed's dad's house. It was beautiful. Pictures from North Carolina.

We spent Christmas #2 at my parents' house in Monterey. It was really low-key, due to much of the family not being able to be there. It was still quite nice, though. I ate more ham than any one person really should. I played increasingly drunken Citadels with the Kingsleys, which ruled. I got two new pairs of smartwool socks, for which I am eternally grateful. I gave more gifts this year than I ever have in the past, and it felt really nice.

I saw Avatar 3D on Christmas Eve for Jew Night At The Movies (an annual tradition in my family, courtesy of my Jewish cousins). Avatar was pretty incredible; James Cameron definitely succeeded in bringing people back to the theaters. I wonder if theaters will do repeat 3D showings for years to come, since we don't really have the technology to view stuff in 3D in our homes (or do we?). In any case, haters be damned, I loved the movie. It was stunningly, intensely beautiful. Of anything I've ever seen in my life, it came the closest to capturing the beauty of my dreams. It touched me on a deep level. I just wish the last third of the movie could go away; I really didn't want it to turn into a generic action movie like that.

I am getting really, really tired of talking about the wedding. No seriously.

My phone situation is driving me nuts, despite T-Mobile's best efforts to keep me happy. I started with a Cliq in mid-November. It decided to reboot constantly a couple of times--necessitating a master reset (setting it to factory defaults) each time. Its keyboard backlight also didn't work. I sent back the first one and got another. Its backlight worked but it continued to have the reboot constantly issue on about a weekly basis. T-mobile just sent me a G1 and I'll be sending Cliq #2 back tomorrow; hopefully this will solve the problems. The Cliq was so much sexier though...

I'm re-reading Dune for the first time since high school. It's good, though I'm reading it from a more detatched and analytical perspective now, thanks to the increased wisdom that a decade and a half will bring.

Ed and I are watching Mad Men. What a weird world. I keep meaning to ask my 93 year old great aunt, who was a secretary in the 60's, if it has any bearing on reality.

Speaking of my aunt Luise, she was getting rid of her her file of recipes and they ended up with me! I'm really excited to try some of them, especially the Aggression Cookies.

Ed and I are opening a joint bank account sometime in the next few days. Very, very exciting!! Thrilled to be marrying this wonderful man.

Zelda got a haircut last month and is much happier for it. She has stopped pooping on the carpet. She still picks on Bunki, though. I call her my Wooly Bully. (Her growing in fur makes her look wooly.)

Ed and I went through a frenzy of collecting old stuff a few weeks ago. We found an 8mm projector, a bunch of old home movies, an ancient Polaroid camera, and an old typewriter at an estate sale. One of the home movies turned out to be a 1960's porno flick, much to our delight. The next day we found a hand-wound (no batteries needed!) 8mm camera from the 50's. Though the amount that we will actually use these objects is close to zero, they are still intensely cool to have around. It makes me wonder what, if any, of our everyday pieces of technology will be collected by our progeny in 50 years.

There was lightning directly over our house last night. I can count the number of times that's happened to me in my entire life on one hand. It was absolutely incredible and the cats freaked out. I wish San Francisco had more lightning storms.

I need to exercise more, but can't seem to find the motivation (or the money). I can't really run because my knee is messed up. Orthopedist thinks it's a torn meniscus. I get an MRI tomorrow to see if he's right (which makes me, yet again, eternally grateful that I have good health insurance). The only fix for a torn meniscus is surgery about which, needless to say, I'm less than thrilled. I have no idea how I sustained this injury, other than the fact that I sit on my foot a lot, which tweaks my knee in a weird way. Is it possible to get a torn meniscus from a repetitive motion? I guess so.

I want to go skiing this season but don't know how we'll be able to afford it. I crave more snow and wilderness. NC only whetted my appetite.

I miss Kai and Jason fiercely. I hope to go visit them in Chicago sometime soon! Before the wedding, for sure.

I think that's about it for now.

I made three posts on Mooflyfood this week, but I totally failed to cross post them to Twitter and LJ. Here you go!



Martha's Cranberry Sauce

What do you do with leftover cranberry sauce?



Cranberry Shortbread Cookies, of course.

And finally, the infamous rumballs:



LET'S GET READY TO RUMBALLLLL!!! (credit to morleyroarly for the catchphrase.)

Hope you guys don't mind a big ol' picture of meat on your friends list. Coconut Chicken & Rice, for those freezing nights when you all you want is some hearty comfort food.

Thanksgiving weekend was very fruitful. In addition to having a wonderful time with both friends and family, I also brought home a ton of new cookware! My great aunt Luise, who is 93 (!), just moved into the cottage behind my parents' house (that I used to live in). In doing so, she got rid of a bunch of stuff she wasn't using any more -- including a ton of amazing kitchen things. Somehow, I was lucky enough to be the recipient of this incredible cookware, including a vintage Le Creuset dutch oven and frying pan. Sweet!



( more... )

I'm pretty excited about this, obviously. I've always wanted really high quality cookware that's been passed down through the generations. :)

Today Ed and I went on a nice long bike ride. We were supposed to go to a crab boil but after two Thanksgivings and one day of leftovers, we couldn't bear the thought of another day of eating. (Sorry Rick! Sorry Burstein!) We needed to get out and move our bodies lest we turn into total goo. Now we're goo, but the good sort -- nice and achey. I haven't been exercising at all lately and I've felt awful. The bike ride made me feel sooooo much better (even though I felt like I was going to die for some of it).

Here's the route we took:



It could've been better if we'd bothered to bring our bike maps; oh well. It was still pretty nice! We live in a beautiful city. In total, it was about 15.75 miles, though we walked some of it. Some because it was really steep and I felt like I was going to die; some because there were way too many tourists and no dedicated bike lanes (Fisherman's Wharf, I hate you). By the end of it, it was getting dark and I was exhausted & lacking appropriate blinky lights so we caught a bus the rest of the way home.

Here's the interactive map on google maps.



The view from the top of the hill at 45th & Geary. Yes, we went up this street. No, we didn't ride it. I'm too much of a wimp and had to walk it.

On a different note, I think I have to sell my bike. It doesn't fit me and my wrists are always killing me after an hour or so. It's pretty discouraging and is part of why I haven't ridden very much since I got this bike.

I knew I had to have a good picture of us somewhere.



<3

On Friday evening, we lost a dear friend. One stray clot from the knee surgery he had months ago and now he's no longer with us. How could it happen so suddenly, to someone so young and full of life? It is difficult to fathom that such a strong man with such a large and gentle presence is gone, forever. I don't really understand it. I don't know that I ever will.

I'm not very good with words when it comes to this sort of thing, so instead of continuing, I'd like to share a beautiful post that josh_zero wrote today:

http://josh-zero.livejournal.com/67737.html

And rxw's:

http://rxw.livejournal.com/12804.html

Here is a photo I may or may not have taken of Hans a few years ago:



Hans, I'm so glad we got to share that bottle of sake (or three) at Brian's birthday dinner last week. GOJIRA!

I miss you. We all do, and we always will. There is a big hole in this world now that you're gone.

Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookies -- now vegan! (Yes yes, I reused the photo.)

Swiss Chard with Bacon and Habanero, you know you want to.

And here we have a koala and Edward Cullen gettin' jiggy wit it in their natural San Francisco habitat.


IMG_0886
Originally uploaded by inishdave

Vegan Pumpkin Ginger Ice Cream! Yeah! :D

Malaysian Chicken Curry... sorta.

Yum yum!

I can't decide which is cuter, my fiance or my cat:

Ed and I have a very long list of potential wedding venues that we're collecting data on. Most of them are too expensive, or we're just not into them.

Right now, we're considering having our reception in a San Francisco restaurant. But it's a very specific type of restaurant we're looking at. It has to have a full bar, a large, private event space, and a private dancefloor. We want to have dinner and drinkin' and dancin'. We don't want it to just be a large dinner in a restaurant. We go out to eat all the time in SF, and we want it to be a bit more special than that.

The one venue we've come up with that fits the bill is Medjool. We're pretty excited about it! [Okay, this is right out. Their website says they have a $40/head buffet and that their dining room fits 150 seated, but their reservations guy just got back to me and said that for a private party in the dining room on a Saturday night during peak months, they require a $22k food/drink minimum! That's like $95/head! WTF.] But in case that doesn't work out since that didn't work out, we'd like to have other options. Can you think of other restaurants in SF with similar capabilities? List 'em here!

The other thing we're investigating is social halls in San Francisco. One thing we don't want is just a generic rec center type thing. It's got to have personality and architectural interest. The main place we're looking at in this category is the Verdi Club. They have a reasonably-priced in-house caterer and if you use them, they waive the venue rental fees ($3000!). So, something like that might work out too, if the price is right. Any suggestions on that front?

Thanks!

P.S. We're aiming for 120-150 people, so it has to fit that many. Also, SF only.

Broiled Grapefruit! Trust me, it's delicious.

Dear Everyone-We-Know,
So we're planning this wedding thing. First order of business is to find a venue. There are a lot of amazing spots around here, but we'd love to have the wedding in a home rather than somewhere random (and probably expensive). Do you--or someone you know--have beautiful property somewhere in or near the Bay Area that would be suitable for a 150 person wedding? Homes, vacation homes, etc. Anything with a flat area outside for the ceremony, enough room to set up a big dinner (15 10-person round tables, buffet, cake table) and a dance floor (+DJ booth), bathrooms (of course) and a couple of rooms for me & Ed to get ready in? Unfortunately all the property my family owns is not big enough. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask, just in case someone has a rich aunt with a vacation home in wine country or something like that. :)
Thanks!
~mooflybride

Wow, I am livid.

For my entire adult life, I have had a Bank of America checking and savings account. In 2002 I opened a credit card with them. Then another of my credit cards got bought by B of A. Those are the only two cards I ever used. The former had an APR of 8.9% and the latter 7.9%. I recognize these are ridiculously low APRs, but that's the ONLY reason I allowed myself to run up debt. At that rate, it was completely worth it to spend money I didn't have.

I'd never had a problem with Bank of America. Always paid my credit card bills on time. Never overdrafted and got hit with gnarly fees. If anything ever happened, I'd call them and explain the situation and they'd reverse it.

Not this time. I just discovered they increased my APRs to 14.9% and 12.9% respectively. Apparently I was given the option to "opt out" back in July -- pay off the balance at the old rate and then have all new charges be at the new rate. Wouldn't have done me much good since I didn't have the funds to pay it off at the time.

I called them up and requested that they lower the APRs to my old rates. They absolutely refused. They said it had nothing to do with my credit risk (when I cited what an exemplary customer I have been) and that it was due to increased "fund rates". Whatever. I escalated to the manager and repeated my story. I told them that I have been a loyal customer for 11 years and that I would close all three bank accounts and two credit cards if they didn't lower my APRs. They refused. Fine. I'll be doing just that. I'm sure there are plenty of banks that would love to have my money.

Fortunately, I've been paying down my credit cards lately. I just paid one of them off in full this month, and the other one I've been steadily chipping away at. If all goes as planned, it should be completely paid off in a few months. That said, I think I am going to bite the bullet and see if I can borrow from friends or family to pay it off in one lump sum. I've always resisted doing that in the past because I would much rather owe a nameless/faceless institution. But if they're going to increase my rate 150%, then fuck them, they're going to lose my business and all the good things I had to say about them.

Time to start researching other banks, credit unions, etc... Sigh. As if I have time for this.

My phone is on its last legs. I have a Sidekick 3, which I've had for two and a half years. I liked it, but I feel like I'm kinda done with it at this point. It's quite not dead yet, but it probably will be within a few months. That combined with the data outage and being out of contract means I've been thinking about getting a new phone these days.

(You've probably all heard about the Sidekick data outage, but in case you haven't: my "smart" phone has been without email since last Friday, and was without all data service for about 4 days. Not cool. They did give me a $20 credit on my account for an entire month's data service, which was nice. In all honesty I haven't been too inconvenienced by it and in fact have appreciated the days without email in my pocket. It's been an interesting process training myself to not grab my phone and check it every time I have a moment with nothing else to do.)

I've been tempted to revert to my old candybar phone, which I still have and still works perfectly. Even still has my old contacts in it! I really liked that phone. It's sturdy, small, and has an easy-to-use interface. To be quite honest my needs in a phone are very modest and in fact (as evidenced by the previous paragraph) I think it'd be healthy for me to have a less-than-smart phone. I get nostalgic about when that was my primary phone... Ahh, those were the days.

That said, it's difficult to think about not having a QWERTY keyboard after two years of having one. I've gotten excellent at thumb typing, and can input text using my Sidekick almost as fast as on a real computer! And if nothing else, getting rid of the QWERTY keyboard would mean reduced ability to communicate with mercurialcirce, which would suck.

So there's that. There's also the fact that the notepad, calendar, address book, and calculator are really useful. Old candybar phone has all these things, but typing stuff in without QWERTY sounds painful.

IM can be useful too, but I could live without it (now that Ed doesn't do much IMing on his phone). Same with web. I actually dislike how everyone having web on their phones changes the dynamics of nerdversations. (Though this photo got passed around the Thanksgiving table last year and seeing my grandparents' reactions was pretty awesome.)

Something I really hate about my SK is how big it is. I also dislike how it doesn't sync with my GCal. And its camera is shitty beyond belief. The web browser isn't great, especially not after playing with Ed's iPhone.

My ideal phone doesn't exist:
1) v. small
2) cheap
3) easy to use & reliable (I don't want a phone I have to install a bunch of shit on to get it to work the way I want)
4) QWERTY keyboard that's easy to type on (READ: NO IPHONE PLS)
5) decent notepad, calendar, address book programs. calendar syncs to gcal.

That's it. I don't really need email, IM, web, a fancy camera, etc.

Granted, I haven't done any research, but I feel like anything with (4) and (5) will also have all the fancy stuff and thus be not cheap or simple. And I guess if I want QWERTY I just have to accept that it'll be a bit bigger.

Ideas? Suggestions? Anecdotes?