Rediscovery of the Root Beer Float

I feel so happy. Best Weekend Evar, and not just because it was four days long! (I think I call every weekend my Best Weekend Evar. But I'll take that as a good thing.)

After picking up this book for myself when I was uh, buying Georgina a birthday present, I got all inspired to try a new fruit or vegetable every week. So I started things off this Saturday with a walk to the farmer's market. Ended up getting a pile of fava beans. (I only had a dollar, having spent $1.70 already on a Lion bar at the British foods store downtown, which was pretty good. My favorite part: the icon on the wrapper that normally shows a person throwing the wrapper into the trash had a mini lion throwing the wrapper into the trash instead. Growr! No littering!) Cooking fava beans is supar simple: throw into boiling water with some salt for 30 seconds. Remove. Peel. I made a yummy bulger, green onion, and garlic pilaf topped with fava beans. Fava beans!

Then I flew away to San Diego.

Visiting Kevin was awesome bo bawesome. I'm going to tell you about how we watched Wedding Crashers. Twice. Ate Papa John's pizza, which has crazy delicious crust. Drank three Midori Sours that were not too green and not too sweet. I'm going to tell you about how I totally beat him two and a half times at Literati. (I'm not going to tell you about how he totally beat me twice.) Kevin also found out about this blog, which brings my readership to about, um, two people.

After getting picked up from the airport, we went and had dinner at Chopstix, where I splattered noodle broth all over my jacket. Later, when I noticed the stain, Kevin was like "oh yeah, I saw that." Wutta pal. It was tasty through, so I'll take it.

On Sunday, after a solid pancake brefass, we headed to Coronado Beach. Saw license plates from New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Missouri, and more, all along one curb. We ended up having to park way out in the boonies, but it was ok. While walking back to the beach, I got to play with a cute dog through a two-inch crack of window. Until her owner walked up, and I slunk away. We also saw a bunch of people riding along in covered bike-cart type things, the kind with a steering wheel and a couple rows of seats, with maybe space for four to six people to pedal. So we get passed by a pair of couples, a family, some teens, and it's like, well that looks fun. Then this family of asians rolls by, seriously like a dozen people, all piled into this thing, looking totally stuffed and top heavy, creaking forward by the power of six uncoordinated pairs of legs pedaling. Oh mans. There go the azns, showing 'em all how it's done. Getting the most bang for the rental buck. There must have been representation from three generations, like, baby to Grandma, on that thing. You go, my people.

Once on the beach, we met up with Leven and threw around a frisbee for a while. Leven has quite the frisbee arm. He was throwing into the wind, straight no less. And Kevin's forearms totally have the welts to prove it. Once again, it is confirmed that I am the Worst Frisbee Player Evar.

Monday was work/study day. Well, I didn't really work, and I have a feeling Kevin didn't really study. We did play many a round of Literati though, and I busted out such gems as "turbit," "zek," and "ceres." Kevin busted out such gems as "spices" and "spices."

Today we went to the UCSD campus. They have wild rabbits running around! I'll post a picture later. We also tried driving by Kashi headquarters, which is allegedly in La Jolla. Google Maps let me down for the first time, and dumped us out on the side of a chi chi residential hill. Which ended up having a very nice view. Soledad Natural Park was really close, and had lovely panoramic views of the city, along with a small veterans' memorial. Using a map from Kevin's car, we found our way over to the address Google listed for "Kashi Co.," only to find a questionable business park labeled with some other company name. Honestly, I was quite let down at the double bust, but it's ok, we'll have some hot make-up searches later.

After returning to his place to quickly pack up, I tried a root beer float. Which is frickin' delicious. I don't think I've ever had one before. When I was a kid, I didn't like any dark sodas. At a birthday party, I remember a parent made a 7-Up float for me, which was so yucky. By association, I assumed a root beer float would be gross too, since I didn't like root beer. But this wasn't yucky at all. It tasted like vanilla ice cream and root beer foam and all-around deliciousness. I'm a bit chagrined, because this development kind of doesn't jive with my whole "no soda" bit. But it's too delicious. I think I'm going to go buy some vanilla ice cream and root beer tomorrow. Nnmph.

I'm back home now. And I have to work tomorrow.

My sleep schedule is totally screwed up but it is so worth it.

Birfday present for Georgina!

Had a sore throat yesterday, which has turned into something funky today. It's not even like I get to have a fun low sexy voice, it's just straight up weird sounding. It feels like it will somewhat go away tomorrow though.

After finishing a meeting early in the afternoon in San Francisco, I went to the Ferry Building to pick up a birthday present for Georgina. Eeeee! So much good stuff she would like.

Ok I'm tired and my life really isn't that interesting. Goodnight.

Bay to Breakers

Bay to Breakers was awesome. We didn't train, assumed we were going to walk most of it, and then finished with basically my best time in the event ever. The time doesn't matter though. The rain stopped right before the race, and was clear the whole time we ran. Good music and fun costumes along the way. A hundred Smurfs and way more salmon than I ever remembered in the past. I also ran into a bunch of people I knew, some whom I haven't seen in a couple years! Afterwards, we cobbled together a traveling lunch of pizza from Arizmendi Bakery, naan and curry from, um, Naan N' Curry, and some free Bliscotti from a promo person along Haight.

Next year, I need to think of a good costume. Ideas?

I thought today was going to kind of suck, because I had to go into work. Instead it was an awesome bo bawesome Saturday!

There was a comic convention going on next door to our training facility, where I was working, complete with people in full-on stormtrooper outfits. Amusing to see them pop in to Smart & Final for sodas.

I got to leave work at noon, and as I sat in my car eating lunch before ducking into the BART station at Lake Merritt, I listened to the most bittersweet, touching story on NPR. Gene Cheek was a boy, living with his single mother in North Carolina in the 1960's. His mother develops a relationship with a black man, first in secret, and eventually becomes pregnant and has Gene's younger brother. Gene's negligent, alcoholic father, as well as the rest of their family, rally and testify against his mother in a custody case, when he is 12 years old. Incredibly, they claim that his mother is "unfit" because she has this mixed-race baby, yet are quick to say that they themselves are unfit or too busy to care for Gene themselves either. Even more incredibly, the judge makes the mother choose to give up either the baby or Gene. At this point, Gene elects to leave his family and is placed in foster care. I'm sitting there, tears streaming down as I stuffed face and thought about the incredible sacrifice that this 12-year old boy made. The whole story is told in interview, between Gene himself and Ira Glass. Gene has written a book, The Color of Love : A Mother's Choice in the Jim Crow South, and you can also listen to the radio show here.

With tissues stuffed in my pockets, I headed to San Francisco to pick up my runner's bib for Bay to Breakers. At the expo, I saw Wayne Vierra, an American sumo wrestler whom I saw on a documentary on PBS last year. I remember this one scene, where he's sitting, practically doing the splits, twiddling his thumbs and speaking softly, being struck by how graceful he was. Anyway, I geeked out and got a picture with him. He'll be in Oakland next month, at the World Sumo League Tour.

On the way home, I made a pitstop at Nordstrom Rack and rounded out the suparfun day with two pairs of frickin' cute shoes. And a $4 sweater. Evar-body jealous of my shoes! (I'm not reveling in the generation of jealousy, but in the affirmation of my good taste, really.) Now I just need something to wear them to...

Restless

The whole reason I turned on my computer was so that I could write the restaurant evaluation for the place I went to tonight. So of course I'm blogging instead lalalalalala!

I feel supar busy, yet restless and unproductive.

Last weekend, I went backpacking at Henry Coe State Park. In exchange for providing approximately 25 bloodmeals to various bugs, I got to traipse along a lovely little creek. I love the length of these mini-weekend trips, and find them so relaxing, but I always wish I had one additional day to do nothing.

Monday I did all the cleanup for the trip. This is mostly a testament to the inefficient way I work, but the cleanup seriously takes me hours. I set up the tent, then I clean the inside, then I get in, then I play with the doors, then I put stuff in the pockets, then I take stuff out of the pockets, then I clean the outside, then I shut the door, then I get my sleeping bag and throw it inside the tent, for looks, then I get in the sleeping bag, because, you know, it's there, then I get out, because I'm supposed to clean, then I wipe the outside, and then, finally, I take it down and pack it up. Keep in mind that there's still a pot, stove, water bladder, backpack, shoes, etc. to go. Urg.

Tuesday I went shopping for running shoes. Failed.

Tonight I had a dinner eval at Thirsty Bear in San Francisco. Not too bad. Then I tagged along to aLAMEda. (Hee. Like what I did there? I'm so awesome.)

Tomorrow night I'm hanging out with KP at the SF MOMA "Surreal Calder" exhibit after work. It's also Bike to Work Day! What a good Thursday.

Friday I might attempt running shoes again.

Saturday is the Bay to Breakers Expo to pick up my runner's bib, and a stop by You Say Tomato to get some Walker's crisps for K-man.

Sunday is Bay to Breakers. Whoo.

No Do Nothing day again. Oh well. At least it's all fun.

Stuffed Food

There is something wonderful about knitted stuffs. Take robots. Robots made out of circuitboards, solder, and motors - meh, they're ok. Lego robots, slightly better. Knitted robots - The Best Evar.

Likewise, the toast purse, crocheted ice cream and cupcakes, and in all seriousness, Kara Janx's knit hats from the Project Runway Season 2 runway show, all make me so happy.

And then today, I found felt brown bag lunch! Suparfun! And an awesome chicken. Who looks so good under chunky baby arm. Or you know, my arm. Maybe they're both really the same thing.

Yay knit stuffs, particularly knit foodstuffs! Except for this. This one scares me.

Biking and the Naked Chef

Flipping through tv channels while riding my bike (on the trainer), I found a show on TLC about Jamie Oliver's quest to reform British school lunch programs. While I think it happened a year ago or so, it's fun to get to see some of the tape for myself. The kids are cute. Yay for a fun show on Monday nights! Better yet, it's only four episodes long, so I won't watch too much tv. And yay for fun accents.

I went through a phase in college where I totally wanted to be a chef who revamped school lunch programs. Even before Jamie Oliver. It started when I read Food Politics, then learned about the Edible Schoolyard program, Jesse Alper (son of Noah, as in the bagel), and about difficulties regarding access to fresh, quality produce in inner cities. Then, like pretty much everything else I do, I lost steam. I would still love to play with vegetables though.

Poofy Shoogar

To give you an example of how tired I am: In the afternoon, at work, it started to get a bit warm. Additionally, my Ironman watch was outside of my jacket sleeve, thus really close to the base of my wrist and getting in my way. I was all like, blrggjkl!, trying to wrestle my sleeve off, wondering why it was so tight around my wrist. Once I got the jacket off, I realized that I was wearing two watches. Apparently I put on a watch this morning, pulled on my jacket, and then put on another watch. I bet some people do it for fashion.

My work event on Monday was awesome. Attendance was a bit spotty, but it was basically my dream lineup of speakers on a topic that I'm way passionate about. The sessions were insightful and inspiring, the food was super delicious, and we got lots of positive feedback from the attendees. I got a shout-out from the moderator during the Clif Bar session even. (Unfortunately the only session I was able to actually sit in on, since I was running around for the whole day.) I have huge man-crushes on so many of the people who were there.

Georgina and I will eat some poofy shoogar this weekend. It will be gourmet and delicious.