Just Another Weekend

We honestly don't even know where to begin this story. I could easily blame our recent commitment to go to more local events. I know KK will blame me for getting her out of bed at 6:30 in the morning (a brave undertaking in itself). Regardless, we entered a treasure hunt of sorts... and... well... we sorta won. (cough) We sorta won a diamond. (Double cough) We sorta won one of those diamond things placed on top of a ring in a certain way like some people are known to do with such diamond things. (Triple cough) The motivation to do this actually comes from one of the blogs we read (DC365) who introduced us to Urban Dare. It's a scavenger hunt game that tours major cities throughout the year where teams race to answer trivia clues which send you to yet more clues all across the city. Well, we were really excited to try it this year in SF and we missed it! But, as you might know, we're getting pretty good at being SF tour guides and our urban hiking has filled us with plenty of random knowledge. SO, we really wanted to test our city trivia! I repeat, we REALLY just wanted to test our knowledge of the city. Fortunately, a free scavenger hunt just happened to arise this weekend. Who cares if the prize is a diamond ring, we're never going to actually win. So, Saturday, we had to wake up so early because the starting point was way far away from where we live and you know us with the no car thing. There must have been 200 teams there, almost ALL with bikes. I swore we had stumbled on a biking club. I was wrong. We sort of missed the boat on the bike idea, so we pretty much immediately felt out of the running to win. To fill the time and make up for our inadequacy, we decided to mock people. There was plenty of material. There were people stretching and warming up, other teams are all in workout gear with camelbaks on, and one team even had professionally made team t-shirts (the front: Got Diamond? the back: Team Bling). Two of organizers of the event (from the diamond company, who I nicknamed Sleazy 1 and Sleazy 2) were the kind of guys you'd avoid at a bar. They were a little too arrogant, a little too much hair product, etc. They let us know that you can't use any public transportation. Good thing we were depending on that. Cool. (KK: I honestly was ready to go home at this point. I was pissed that we had gotten up, hauled ourselves across the city, and couldn't hop on a bus or anything, even though the website had said we could use public transport) All the clues were delivered over text message. You replied with the correct answer to get your next clue. We missed our first question. Cool. Googling answers and calling Franklin (thanks!) to look up SF photos just wasn't working out. We pretty much gave up on the game and resigned ourselves to just seeing how we would do at a slow pace. Turns out, we did pretty well. The last clue required some word jumbling and code deciphering, which we actually do for fun. Next thing I know, I'm the only one running to the final location - which happened to be the Wave Organ, which we had just visited in our city walk a couple of weeks ago. That walk actually was super helpful. I was pretty much the first one to the end and KK was perhaps the first to text in the final answer, and I was there, searching and searching as the Sleazies arrived and kept asking where KK was (I had run ahead). They started taking pictures of me, and there was a video guy and they just kept asking where KK was. I called and told her to run, especially after Sleazy 1 mentioned that "She'll probably find it when she gets here...." (KK: Dan left ALL of our stuff with me when he took off running, water, backpack, etc. It took me awhile to run bogged down with our stuff, ok?!) They waited and waited and waited until KK showed up to (1) blatantly put down the ring that was never hidden in the first place, and (2) tell me where they had just dropped it. All of this in front of another team who had shown up. Awkward. They had also already asked me "Hey, what are you going to do with that ring once you get it?" Double awkward. And then when KK got there and I "found" the ring, and Sleazy 2 actually began to whisper "Do it" under his breath. Wow. It was the ultimate moment in awkward. So in a gorgeous location, but under scrutiny of sleaziness, cameras in our face, and a circle of onlookers (tourists, other teams, etc) ... we whispered in each other's ears that we'd put on a fake show... and I got down on one knee. (KK: I said NO! jk) Afterwards, the organizers chauffeured us to the after party in the trunk of their SUV. Literally, in the trunk. It was all very romantic. Let's just be clear. We're not engaged. It'll happen one of these days, on our terms, in our way. Until then, we have a funny story to tell and you all have to settle for fake engagement photos.

Some friendly competition.

The view from the start. One of those diamond things.

Take five Wednesday.

Project go vegetarian for a week is complete. I stuck to it (although on Sunday, I got a soup with a base of chicken broth, which I felt bad about later) and had some brisket for lunch. Not really that exciting. I do think I'm going to be eating less meat for awhile. Wow, that is a completely uninteresting topic. 5 of your favorite blogs. 1. Amalah (yeah, I stalk them. she has beautiful kids.) 2. What I'm Seeing (daily photo blog in SF) 3. DC365 4. Line Cook 5. Laura Anne Benson's blog 5 things you bought recently. 1. Ski goggles. 2. McDonalds fries (this kind of grosses me out but we were in the middle of a 6 hour car trip. you do what you have to do) 3. Helium tanks (just two small ones) 4. 1000 cotton candy cones (#3 and #4 were for an event that we held in my unit this past weekend. i am now a master of making cotton candy) 5. Pita chips (so addictive!) 5 of your favorite words. 1. Waffle 2. Gymnastics (i like to write it in cursive) 3. Farfetched 4. Naptime (just becuase of what it implies) 5. Muffin (i've taken to calling my cats this) 5 of your favorite quotes (#4 and #5 are from the West Wing. I don't have 5 favorite quotes) 1. Your silence will not protect you - Audre Lorde 2. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. - Obama 3. When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly. - Patrick Overton 4. "Anyway, Helena Hodworth Hooter-Tooter of Braintree wants to organize a boycott of the reception, and... Well, there it is. Yes, Mrs. Bartlet descends from quite the murderous band of ruffians, and her membership in the DAR is suspect on those grounds, or so believes the Boston Globe." - CJ 5."A little thing called team morale, Josh, you gotta make people feel good about themselves. All right, shut the hell up, everybody, I've fired more people than you before breakfast." - Leo **You get SO MANY bonus points if you can tell me what's going on in the episodes I quoted from** 5 things you like about blogging, (or the internet in general) 1. I get to write ridiculous things like this and people actually read it 2. For curious folk like myself, endless opportunities to learn false information 3. The stay connected with other people you love piece 4. It feels SO MUCH EASIER than writing a letter for some reason 5. It has the same mind numbing effect as TV, which you need sometimes

Quick updates to the work complaints

Apparently, I like to update late at night. Something to check off the to do list before bed you know. **When I mentioned physical threats in my last post about work, I just want to clarify that I was not receiving threats, but a student in my building was and I have to mediate the situation. Lucky me. Anyway, my mom was concerned. **Yes, Laura we will be updating the food blog soon. I got a little discouraged there for awhile, but I'm starting to get reinspired. **Tonight was my last late night of work for the year! No more staff meetings, hall association meetings or classes! Woot. **Guess what? Kevin is alive and doing well. I don't know if other people have talked to him recently, but I hadn't and yeah, he's A-OK. [This bit about not hearing from him in awhile is ironic coming from me, no?] **Good news from New Jersey: A MATCH HAS BEEN FOUND IN MARLTON! In February of 2007 we [my family from New Jersey - my aunt, uncle and cousin] formed a group of family and friends that wanted to make a difference in someone's life. We called our group and our mission "MARROW for MICHAEL". The goal was to register people in the National Marrow Donor Program in the hope that we could find a donor match for Michael or for someone like him needing a marrow transplant to perhaps save their life. The odds of matching someone needing a transplant are incredibly high, but on April 19, 2007 the more than 500 people who turned out at Cherokee High School and volunteered to be tested and add their names to the registry lowered those odds to something attainable. And finally, a success story! Dan Schules, a 24 year old police officer and former classmate of Michael's, was found to be a perfect match for a 16 year old boy from New York who has been waiting for a transplant. Dan completed the final part of the donation procedure on May 5, 2008 and now a desperate 16 year old and his family have a new lease on life.

Also...

Restaurant blog = updated. If you need some mid-day reading material and/or you're completely bored.

Fellow blog inspiration

So, I've really enjoyed one of the only blogs I link to from here, DC365. I appreciate it not only because she enjoys a good restaurant, and is funny, but also because the premise of the blog is one that I can get behind - being a tourist in one's own city/area. It was always nice, when we still lived in DC, to read about things that we probably wouldn't have heard about otherwise. So, now being in the Bay Area, we've been consciously trying to get out and be tourists, as we still are kind of tourists, being new to the area and all. So, I decided to count up how many new Bay Area specific things we've done (and blogged about) since we've been here. 1: Wander the Cal campus (yeah, I work here, so what? It totally counts.) 2: Ride a cable car in San Francisco 3: Eat clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf 4: Had dinner in Chinatown 5: Taken pictures from the top of Coit Tower 6: Berkeley Kite Festival 7: Berkeley Rose Garden 8: Hot air ballooning over wine country 9: Napa (Thank you, captain obvious) 10: SF Renassiance Festival in Golden Gate Park 11: Oakland Chinatown Streetfest 12: Go to a Cal Football game 13: SF city/stairway walks 14: Visit Lombard Street! 15: See parrots of Telegraph Hill 16: Visit Transamerica Building (with Rosa no less!) 17: Stomp wine grapes in Napa 18: Taylor's Automatic Refresher (Napa, CA) 19: Visit Phyllo Farnsworth Plaque (I make glass tubes) 20: Cafe du Nord for concerts 21: Drive across the Golden Gate Bridge 22: Go to Stinson Beach for the day 23: Find Jack Early Park 24: Have Beard Papa cream puffs 25: Osha Thai, SF 26: Enjoy Gourmet East Bay Restaurant Week 27: Have dinner at the Claremont! 28: Go to a drag show on campus 29: Visit Sonoma, CA. Buy more wine. Huzzah! 30: Day trip to Santa Cruz, CA 31: Go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium 32: Visit Carmel, CA and find a $12 million house for sale 33: Enjoy Dine About Town in SF 34: Berkeley Winery Open House 35: Nopa 36: The Independent 37: Scharfenberger Factory Tour These last four things we have yet to blog about, but this list leaves me feeling pretty accomplished and excited that Dan and I have been getting out so much. Of course, there are things on my mental list that we didn't blog about, so clearly we should do better with that. However, it is worth nothing that DC365 managed to get through 100 things in a year (!!!!) and we've done 35 in about 8 months. Oy. We have our work cut out for us in the next few months! So, some late night updates are in order... **Dan is home from NY now - the kitties are glad to have him back during the day. Also, he's kind of become addicted to online poker. **I for some reason have follow through issues with my goals and have just recently started my books for the month of February. The one Meghan picked out for me was hard for me to get into, it's set in Ancient Greece and was a little hard to follow, but I'm into it now and enjoying it. Plus, it took awhile for Dan to get me motivated to get my ass to the Cal library to check out the book. BUT let me tell you that now that I've been there, I want to move in. I personally love libraries and wandering around in the stacks for long long periods of time. Anyway, I'm resolving to catch up with books for February and March by the end of March. **Our West Wing obsession has been replaced with the Planet Earth miniseries as of late, which came out awhile ago and I've been wanting to watch. It's really amazing photography and camera work, and it's pretty clear that this project was years and years in the making. We get one disc at a time from Blockbuster (there are 5) and each disc has three one-hour episodes. Please let me forewarn you that if you ever choose to watch it (and it's well worth it!) if you're a bleeding heart like myself, you will not enjoy the episode called "Ice Worlds" in which there are sad stories about animals not finding enough food and dying. YEAH. Not cheerful nightime material. It was akin to "March of the Penguins" which is one of the only movies I haven't been able to watch all the way through because it was so horrifically sad. **My cousin danced in THON this weekend at Penn State. If you've never heard of it, please visit here: http://www.thon.org/ It's the largest student-run philanthropic event in the world. It's a dance marathon that lasts for 48 (yes, you read that right) hours straight of dancing - no stopping, no sitting. It's intense. The money raised goes to help find a cure for pediatric cancer. It's such a large event in the campus community that more people want to dance than they have room for, so students compete to participate. The overall event this year raised $6,615,318.04. So, my cousin was picked and she did it! Strong. Clearly, my weekend was not nearly as inspiring. Or active. Or impressive. Or selfless. Or...yeah, you get the idea. **Did I mention on here that I joined a book club? I joined a book club with other women in the East Bay in their twenties. The first meeting is tomorrow, I'll fill you in after. Hopefully, it'll be as cool as Blue Benson's book club, which I always want to join. **Dan had his first motorcycle ride today. Yes, he still is in one piece. I'll bug him to blog about it soon :)

Late night random thoughts, volume 2

*We're working through West Wing season 7 and I honestly forget sometimes when I turn off the show that the characters aren't real candidates. When I remember and figure it out, I get sad. No seriously, I would vote for Martin Sheen every election for the rest of my life if I could. *So, we've been enjoying restaurants in San Francisco and around the rest of the Bay Area since we've been here. And, you know, some wine. Since some people (i.e. Rosa) want to here what we have to say about them, we're going to potentially start another blog linked to this one about restuarant reviews, maybe wineries we've enjoyed. However, while you are, as our friends, required to read this blog, the other blog will be optional reading, as I can't imagine WHY you would care about restaurants in San Francisco. *Dan is still kind of sort of sick. He hadn't been coughing at all today, and then we went and had frozen yogurt for dessert. Remember how when you have lots of phlegm and mucus and junk your mom told you that you shouldn't have dairy? Yeah, I forgot. *Our car gets turned in this Friday. Sad about it. Anyone have a scooter I can buy from them? *Can anyone else believe that it's already February? Also, it's a leap year. I think I should look into why leap years exist. I think I have a general idea, but yeah. Note to self. *Last weekend, we went to a Wii playing party at one of the other RD's apartment and she also has Guitar Hero. So, everyone is struggling with the game, trying over and over to get through one song. So, Dan picks it up and of course, sails through one song one the first try. Yeah, this is why we never get invited to do anything fun. I kicked serious ass in bowling though. Franklin would be proud. *I can not stop watching the West Wing. It's right at the part when Josh and Donna start getting togther and I'm completely addicted.

Bloggerific.

So, at the tail end of grad school, and then especially since moving out here, I've become one of those people who read a lot of other people's blogs. Sit back and let me tell you the tale. It all started with one blog that I stumbled upon while looking up restaurant reviews while we were still in the DC area: http://www.dcfoodies.com/ The guy who writes it (mostly) is just a regular person who loves food and has steadily gained a lot of readership and recognition in the area. He is relatively young, and writes reviews that are readable, and about the stuff that people care about (not things like "they served their fish without a starch...can you even imagine the horror!" but more like, "it's expensive and not worth it.") So one day, while reading his archives (no comments about that please) I found his links section, which is kind of what I'm creating with this entry right now. One of them was to his wife's website...and wow was it all downhill from there. Her website is http://www.amalah.com/ She is a stay at home mom with their 2 year old son. Seriously, I stalk them. I read her site every day. She is SO friggin hilarious. I mean, Brian Regen level hilarity. I have often sat in front of the computer laughing out loud while people stare at me in wonder and disbelief while I read her posts. But, while hilarious, she's a great writer. If you read her archives, she's written about their whole journey to conceive a baby, her pregnancy, their decision and transition to her being a stay at home mom, quitting her job, etc. She now actually blogs for a living (not on her personal site but on a couple of others.) Anyway, I have gotten a couple of other people addicted to her site as well **cough cough Kevin cough cough** Sometimes we talk about her latest entry. Seriously. So she writes on an additional three blogs, all of which also have links to other blogs which have links to...you see where this is going? It's quite the slippery slope. One of my favorites, though, was discovered by one Laura Anne Benson (how did you find it?): http://dc365.blogspot.com/ When we made the move out here and I wanted to find out about the area, and things to do, and yummy places to eat, I immediately just started searching for blogs. And really, all you need to do is find one or two you like, and follow their links until you find a couple more you like, etc. It's like looking at people's friends on myspace...it easily can suck you in for a couple of hours. Honestly, right this second, I can easily name off 10-12 Bay Area blogs and 5 DC blogs that I have on my favorites list that I read whenever I get a few minutes/remember to check them... Yes, I am having trouble letting got of the fact that I don't actually live in DC anymore. Get off my back...and yeah, it's pretty alarming how much information I get from random people who I'll never meet in real life. Would you like some fun blogs to read? Yeah, I thought so. http://icanhascheezburger.com/ Because I love kitties. http://www.whatimseeing.com/ A photo blog in San Francisco. They actually update every day. http://fogbay.com/ A photo/info blog in SF focusing on one item for each entry. I feel like I'm learning a new fun fact everytime it gets updated. http://linecook415.blogspot.com/ Blog from a line cook in one of the Bay Area's busiest restaurants. Yeah, and the three above. Especially those first three. Now, go forth and read blogs all day. Come back to our blog and tell me how much you heart them. Then, maybe, get back to your work.