Sunday, November 20, 2011

Blender Contest

Hi! So, Mark and I are planning on moving sometime soon. Therefore, we are starting to purge. Consequently, I finally completed the Great Blender Showdown.


An Osterizer that's probably at least 20 years old, and a Cuisinart SmartPower Duet Blender/Food Processor.

Cue music:


I took a picture of the ingredients but it came out too blurry to post, so I will just list them:

Vodka (it was actually my dad's idea to add rum, but we didn't have any.  it is now on the shopping list.)
Strawberries
Bananas
Blueberries
Raspberries
Apple juice
Club soda
Ice (key!  according to my dad)

So, after combining and blending...(there was not much science involved - they have different settings so I just tried to use the highest ones on each, to crush the ice)


the winner is...


The Osterizer!!!

Who'da thunk it?  The Cuisinart was fairly expensive and I was excited about buying it.  Turns out Mark's good ol' Osterizer takes care of chunks better than the Cuisinart.  I've always had problems with the Cuisinart not being that good at crushing ice and things like that.  This time it managed the ice, but missed a couple of chunks of banana. What good is that??  There were no chunks left in the Osterizer.  Plus the Cuisinart has this weird leak...yeah, it's time to go.  I'm glad I tested before assuming the newer one was the better one.

Mission accomplished!


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Update on Bowie

Hi!  So remember that dog I rescued?  Mark named her Bowie because she has one brown eye and one blue eye.  Well, I just wanted to post an update about her since she is in a wonderful place now.  Some people visited the group that's taking care of her and included her in a blog entry.  This is from back just a few days after they got her, so about a month ago, and I hear from Donna, one of the directors, that she looks much better now.  Mark and I are going to go visit her this Saturday.  I'm excited!


Here's the blog entry:
http://networkedblogs.com/q8kKU

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  :)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

To remember

So there's this great website called Fab that y'all should go to, in first place - in the second place, I'm seeing online stores on there right now that I need to save!  So this entry is going to be my list of stores and products that I want to remember for future needs.  They aren't things I need right now but they just seem wonderful, so I want to save them just in case.


First:
http://www.ecolutionhome.com/

Second:
http://www.knockknock.biz/
Crap Pad

Third:



Sunday, November 6, 2011

So cool!!!

So Mark went to DesignerCon yesterday, and he met someone who's a bit famous.  Especially in that world, but also in the wider world, lately!  He is the Sucklord, featured on the second season of Work of Art.  Look what he made for me!



I was so excited to see it!!  What a cool thing!  I love you, sugar pie!  (Mark, not the Sucklord.  Although he's cool too.)

Also, I'm watching a Foxy Brown movie right now (isn't there more than one?  if not, I'm just watching the one) on TV and it's AWESOME.  70s cheese at its finest.  She is currently driving a two-seater prop plane around a field running guys over.  Go Foxy!!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Alice

Oh my god, FINALLY Alice played a new song.  I swear, they've ruined Pink, Adele, and Foster the People for me.  Apparently the new song I just heard was "Not Over You" by Gavin DeGraw, which I enjoyed.



Why do I still listen to them if they play the same things over and over again?  (seriously, I think they have, like, a 10-song loop) Because I like their morning show.  I don't really listen to them any other time.  And they feel the need to throw some music into their morning show every so often.  And they are on the pre-sets in my car, so I flip through them sometimes, but usually end up switching because they're playing One Republic for the 253569th time.

Good job on playing a new song, Alice!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Bishop Ranch, San Ramon

Lily and I had a small adventure this evening.  We went on a hike at the Bishop Ranch Regional Open Space Preserve (why do they have to give these places such long names??).  It was pretty...and very steep.  Pictures!


Beginning of hike




Middle of hike:




And end of hike...

Cows!
So that's where all that cow poop along the path was coming from...

Lily: "omg what are these things"

"MUST BARK AT THEM"
She had a moment with this cow.

This isn't the best quality picture but I wanted to show her running to bark at the next batch of cows.

Seriously, aren't cows awesome?  They just stood there and looked at her like, "wtf?"  At one point a couple started trotting towards her and I started thinking things like, "what if she freaks them out?  what if she gets kicked?"  but it all turned out fine.  I imagine they've been barked at before, they graze on park land where people can let their dogs off-leash.

And she exhausted herself.  I swear, solid barking for probably a good five minutes.  And lots of running.


View from the top





Monday, October 17, 2011

Please help rescue this dog

I rescued a dog this morning, and I want to splash her up all over the internet as best I can to help her try to find a home. I know most of the people who read this don't live in northern California, but I figure if this gets around, maybe somebody will see her and decide to save her life.



I dropped her off at the Berkeley Animal Shelter this morning. They said on October 23rd she'll become their property and then can be put up for adoption. They're a low-kill shelter, so she'll just live in a kennel until she either goes kennel-crazy (their phrase) or gets adopted.


She was really skinny but she let me pet her and she willingly got into my car (with food as incentive). She just seemed like she'd been really neglected, but by the time we got to the shelter, she had attached enough to me that she didn't want to leave me. She got closer to me as the guy was leading her into the dog area. I gave her some pets and told her it would be okay. I hope it will be. I would've kept her myself if we didn't already have a dog and a cat.


Please pass this along to anybody and everybody you know. I really want to help find her a home. She just needed a lot of TLC and someone to love her and I bet she'd be a great dog.



I'm not sure why that second picture is sideways, but if you probably copy and paste it into something else, or just save it on your computer, you can right-side-it-up.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Moments

I've had a couple of lovely moments (and one amusing one) this weekend and I want to record them.


First, on Friday, I attempted to take a nap and ended up laying on the bed sort of half-dozing for about an hour and a half.  Animal and traffic noise kept me awake, I think.  Eventually I shut the window but by then it was too late.  When I finally ended up bringing myself out of my half-slumber and listening with more intent to the whining dog and meowing cat outside my bedroom door, I found myself thinking, "I should go out there.  They're lonely.  I should get up and do something."  But I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do than lie there and look at the sky out my window.  There was something about that sky.  The moment (which ended up lasting about 15 minutes, which was lovely) reminded me of when I used to sit in my bedroom window seat in high school and look out over my mom's garden and our neighbor's backyard.  I would sit there for half an hour or an hour at a time sometimes, just thinking.  It was so peaceful and it was a space that was all mine.  A while ago I mentioned to Mark that I'd like to turn a corner of his dresser (which sits directly underneath our bedroom window) into a space like that for me again.  I haven't actually taken myself up on that suggestion yet, though.  And on Friday our bed turned into my 15-minute window seat.  There was just something...surreal? about the sky and all I wanted to do was lie there and look at it.


view from my bed

 Then, last night, after a shopping trip to Trader Joe's where the sample of the day was creamy tomato soup, I made this for dinner:


 Mmmm, just looking at it makes me want to make it again...it was very simple yet very good.  Trader Joe's Creamy Tomato Soup with basil on top, their Three Seed Sourdough Bread with white cheddar cheese, fried in butter.  
Yum.

Then tonight I had my amusing moment.  Grad school = cooking on top of homework:


I wish you could see better all the papers that are hidden under that foil, but you get the picture.  *sigh*  :)  

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

There's something about fall

Okay, I'm going to try to write a quick but interesting entry because I should've gone to sleep about half an hour ago.  This is me deciding to go to bed earlier than the last couple nights...*sigh*
But I've been thinking about this blog and wishing I could think of something to write about and then lo and behold, yesterday morning I was attempting to get dressed (which eventually happened but took longer than usual) and I found myself in one of my usual states of wishing I had things I don't have.  In this specific instance, booties and tights.  There's something about fall that makes me want to wear layers and jewelly, (I just made that a word) earthy tones.  I suppose that's not unique at all, that's exactly what all the magazines are telling me to do, but whatever.  I also want to eat chicken pot pie, but that's a whole different subject.
So!  Since I have a bit of extra money right now due to getting paid, I've been somewhat obsessively searching my favorite shopping sites for these items.  And...



Ta daaahhh!! (image from zappos.com)

I'm less nervous about buying them because Zappos has free shipping both ways, so if I hate them I can just return them, no skin off my back.  And if I love them, they were $45, which is not that much in the grand scheme of things.  I wanted faux fur, I wanted flat, and the universe answered.  Plus I think they're stylish.  :)

I also want to share what's on my newly created wishlists on all these sites (aside from Urban Outfitters - I've had a wishlist there for like 6 years) just for the helluvit.  Maybe at some point I'll make up my mind what to actually buy.

Francesca's Collections:



Ruche:

flintshire floral print tights

Urban Outfitters:

Okay, turns out they don't actually let you copy their images (bastards) so here's a link to my wishlist in case you're that interested: 

Bed time!


Saturday, August 27, 2011

Outside Lands

August 12th-14th, Mark and I went to Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park.  I thought I'd post some pictures!  It was my first big music festival.  I went to a one-day festival in high school once with some friends, but this one was three days long and much bigger.  I feel fully versed in festival activity now.  The only thing I should've taken pictures of that I didn't was the food!  They had such good food there.  They focus on making it interesting, artistic, environmentally friendly.  I drank out of a coconut for the first time!  So here are some (maybe not altogether good) pictures of the bands we saw:


Foster the People

MGMT

The Shins

Christina Perri

The Black Keys

Muse

Julieta Venegas

Little Dragon

Beirut

DeadMau5

And, since San Francisco gatherings are the best places to see interesting clothes and I LOVE clothes, I took lots of pictures of people's outfits.

Sweater love!

I especially like the boots on the right

For some reason, I want those shoes

She's what Mark likes to call a floozy

I especially like her skirt, but the whole outfit is fun :)

Those two girls were actually already officially getting their photos taken - I assume for their outfits.  I especially like the pink tank top.

Like her green jeans

Love the tights!

All right, so I'll leave you with those.  It was a fun weekend :)  We ended up wondering if we might be a bit too old for that kind of a music festival though.  We were exhausted.  And we kept forgetting to bring the flasks :)

Friday, July 22, 2011

Creativity

Last Sunday Mark and I made some stuff.  Here's what he made:




I would show you the picture of it empty, but that picture also includes Mark mooning me, and I don't know that he'd like that on the internet.  I'll save that for when we have a big fight.


I didn't have my head completely on straight because I was working on my own project, which I'll talk about shortly, or I would have more pictures of the process of creating these bookshelves.  I just have a couple:


their humble beginnings (and Lily having a scratch)

looks like I did find a picture of them empty! (sans booty)

i decorated for a moment with my hat

close-up of them somewhat filled

I honestly thought it was a totally clever idea - Mark was just surfing around the internet and he found a guy on Craigslist who had tons of these in his garage.  $5 each.  What a steal!


So while he was doing that, I was working on this:


It actually took me like two and a half hours.  And it was actually homework.  The assignment was to illustrate the different aspects of our identity and their levels of development.  I used colors on different parts of the body.  I sculpted the boobs myself.  Can you tell?  ;)
I felt kind of bad that I couldn't help Mark, but I needed to get this done and he was determined to finish the bookshelves.  He actually seemed not to expect me to help at all.  I rearranged the boxes while he was at Home Depot to get them situated together in the most level way possible, and that was pretty much the extent of my contribution.  And telling him how I wanted it to look.  :)

Anyway, so that's my story...and I'm very excited about our bookshelves :)


Saturday, July 9, 2011

I've been waiting for inspiration to hit

Ta dah!  :)


Things I'm Grateful For

Mark
We got a flat tire on the way to Redding last fall

My animals



Our apartment


The opportunity to go to grad school


My parents


My job

from http://snipurl.com/6nw72

And Mark's job!  (because it's really his salary that helps us do most of the fun things)

from http://snipurl.com/1qk6we

Wine

what we drank tonight: http://snipurl.com/1fjugd

Real Simple magazine, because it gave me the recipes for this:

which was dinner tonight, and oh my goodness, it was fabulous.  Comment if you want the recipes.  I grilled on our new grill for the first time!  It was so exciting!

Grocery Outlet, for being cheap and fabulous:

Okay, I swear their sign looks different than that, but whatever.  from http://snipurl.com/1yb1ui

The friends I've made here so far:

We had a barbecue on the 4th of July: Rica, Craig, Barry and Laura on the roof 

Okay, time for bed now (I kind of love that I can go to bed at 10:30 on a Saturday and not feel like a loser) so I'll just add to this whenever I feel like it.  :)  According to The Secret I should think about the things I'm grateful for, so I'm trying to do that.  Every time I am feeling negative, Mark tells me I should watch The Secret, so last night we finally watched half of it, until I started falling asleep and he needed to take the dog for a walk.  :)  Someday I'll finish it!  I'm into it, though.  He's pretty into it.  It actually helped having read The Lost Symbol before watching it.  Just do it, you'll understand!  :)

Okay, it's the next day and I'm back to edit.  I wanted to add friends back in Minnesota:

Christina's wedding: Chess, Nicole, Nix, Jackie, me, Sarah, Christina (in front), Meghan (the tall one in back), Jessica Z & Jessica P

Me and Matt in Uptown

Stef, Sarah, Nix, me and Heidi at the Front

Rob and me at the Guthrie

I think that's everyone.  God help me if I forgot anyone - if you're reading this and you don't see yourself and you want to be included in my list, please tell me :)  I was largely going on pictures I have, so it might just have been that I didn't have a picture of you.