Busy, busy

I took today off, to kick off a weekend o' raft trip fun! Last night I went down to Santa Cruz to help Mike and Georgina finish up the food shopping. As we left Costco, Georgina pushed a colorful cart of fruits and veggies, Mike pushed a cart stocked with yogurt, chicken, fish, and other lean protein, and somehow I ended up with the ginormous flatbed of processed complex carbs (eight flats of pastries, two flats of croissants, four dozen bagels, boxes of cookies, two pies, etc.) . It looked ridiculous and people kept looking down at the flatbed and then back up at me.

Today I got x-rayed (non-dental) for the first time! It was...not very exciting at all.

In other news, the pre-Tour de France doping scandal is bumming me out. There is certainly still an exciting field of riders left, including some who were yellow jersey contenders even before this all happened, but I was excited to watch Jan and Ivan :-(

Neato bjeato stuffs

I love lists. And I love knick-knackery. So stuff like this is always interesting.

(Practically) free bar tape!

While reviewing my credit card statement online today, I noticed that the bike shop in Hayward where I bought my bar tape on Monday only charged me $1.08, instead of $10.86. I called to let them know, so they could re-charge me, and what sounded like a teenage boy picked up. I explained what happened, and he was like "Ah HAH!" Followed by a pause. Followed by a "hold on a sec."

Next, a person I'm assuming to be a manager picked up, and was like, "well, we apologize for the mistake, so this one's on us. Consider it a bit of a deal."

Wow! $1.08 bar tape. I feel like it's the weekend already. Plus I found $5 yesterday. Plus I won $90 in poker last Friday. I'm feeling lucky.

Mushaboom

I am digging that song right now (Mushaboom). Mushaboom, mushaboom!

I bought some "scar serum," which is basically vitamin E, to help with some of the scarring on my elbows, knee, and rump. I feel a little bit like I've been had for $10, but there were products there that went for $30 or $40, so $10 doesn't seem so bad. And Miss "Looks Matter" assured me that surely my looks are worth $10. So I'll give it a try. It's a bit odd to be self-conscious about the way my bottom looks, when I'm really the only person who sees it, but I'm more aware of it than my elbows or knee, which are much more publicly visible. I have an ugly butt :-(

Can't wait for rafting this weekend! Mushaboom!

A teenager think I'm hip

My little sister thought I wore a bangin' outfit today. That's right, I so have the Miss "Looks matter!" stamp of approval. I rock.

Rubber ducky

With no air conditioning, our house offers little respite from the summer heat. So often we'll just hang out in the backyard, shins basking in the cool air that hovers over the lawn as the sun dips over our house and creates a pocket of shade.

Today, Ben stood in the grass, busy yanking his Chinese yoyo (dirty! jk, no really, he has a Chinese yoyo) as Amanda and I chatted through a screen - she was out in the yard and I was in the kitchen, spooning a kiwi (dirty! ok except pretty much not at all) - when we noticed two rubber duckies sitting on the sill, outside of the window. We looked at each other. Had these always been there? No. I hadn't seen my rubber ducky in years, yet there he was, stubby bill slightly parted in a smile, eyes looking upward. And with a friend, too. Hmm. Random.

After laughing about how our house is a trove of randomly appearing and disappearing crap, Amanda paused. "Oh!" she exclaimed. Every morning, around 7AM, this bird will come perch on our windowsill and peck at its reflection for an hour. It is quite the accompaniment to breakfast. My dad must have gone through his Stash of Old Crap That He Never Throws Away, Ever, and found the two duckies. Now, with no place to stand and two strange new birds staring back, The Breakfast Pecker will have to find something new to tap.

"Good idea," Amanda said, as my dad passed by. "I know," replied my dad, as he rounded the corner and continued down the hall. I'm thrilled to know where my rubber ducky is.

Ow

On Saturday, I went biking with Dan, but then I crashed and then I ran into a tree. It's not as bad as it sounds though, because my head and my hands are ok. My left wrist/hand is kind of swollen, because I think I sprained it, but I can't complain because I think it's karmic payback for when Amanda sprained her foot and it swelled up and I made fun of her like, "what? your foot's swollen? I dunno, maybe you just have fat feet." I have some lovely gravel-y road rash, and my bottom is quite unhappy, but overall, I feel lucky and pretty good.

I also think I might write Shwinn a nice little thank you letter, because their helmet sacrificed itself for me, which I appreciate. Thanks also to Dan for carrying my bike (because it wouldn't roll anymore) and letting me push his, then getting his car and picking me up. Thanks also to the people who I called and blathered to while I was waiting for Dan, in a daze. And thanks to Live 105 for playing perky music while I drove home.

I also tried Lou's Living Donut Museum donuts with Laila and Dan crazy early on Saturday morning, and they were pretty good. I would describe them as melt-in-your-mouth delicious, kind of like Krispy Kremes, except not so scary. (You know how Krispy Kremes liquefy as soon as they touch your lips, and must be made out of scary scariness.) I bought a couple extras to share with my family, but when I got home I ate them all. Because ok, I ran into a tree.

"When you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation."

"The Aristocrats" came up in conversation yesterday, which made me think of Sarah Silverman's version of the joke (which I liked), so then I imdb.com-ed her, and apparently she was in "There's Something About Mary," which I totally didn't remember, so then I got all curious and wanted to watch it once I got home to see where she comes up (is she Woogie's wife?), so then I got home, ran, had dinner, showered, and settled down to watch the movie. But I Could Not Find It. Hours of anticipation for naught. Oh frustration of all frustrations. (I don't even know what that means.) Like Whomp in Super Mario 64 would say, "UR URGH!" (I too promptly flung myself face down on my bed.)

Run on sentences aside, I tore through my desk in desperation, looking for the movie. Didn't find it, but I did find two movie gift certificates, a ruler which I thought I lost, and best of all, one of those little plastic Cal/AC Transit sleeves that they give you when you get your class pass! I love those things, and I thought I had broken all of mine.

I watched "Old School" instead, and while it wasn't what my craving was for, it was glorious nonetheless.

Fox!

As I ran through the posts at the border of the park, thus finishing my run, I noticed my mom approaching, jogging into the park. Without breaking stride, she called out.

"Stefanie, how long have you been running?"

"Two loops," I answered, in Chinese. I held up two fingers.

"Two loops?!" she exclaimed incredulously. And as we passed each other by, "Fuck!"

Oh mans, sometimes my mom makes me laugh.

Ba Ba Ba!

On Saturday, I ended up spending a couple hours just listening to music. I haven't really listened to music for so long. I forgot how relaxed and way happy it makes me.

Musical elements I love: punchy, crisp drums, a clever bassline, crunchy or bright guitars, big, big chords or a single spare melody plucked out of a piano, "whoa"s, "yeahs", "ba ba"s, and other non-word words in lyrics, hand claps, pauses, the three-beat drum bridge where a song goes from a simple arrangement to full band or simply from verse to chorus, sad songs set to happy melodies - the list goes on and on.

I wanna be in band. Currently, I can ... extract noise from the piano, guitar, and drums. Maybe a summer project will be to work on one of those. Suparfun.

The song I'm closing out the weekend with: "TV Family," The Rocket Summer.

It tickles

Ladies. Perhaps you can relate.

Today I was sitting in a meeting, ready to turn on Sharp, Insightful, and Articulate Stefanie. As people talked around me, I felt a tickle on my chest. The slightest fidget produced ticklishness, such that I slowed and steadied my breathing so as not to move at all. Once I was able to escape to the restroom, I peeked down the front of my shirt. Sure enough, as I suspected, one of my hairs was nestled cozily inside my bra cup, winking sheepishly up at me. Needless to say, I picked the bugger out and threw it away, and when I returned to my meeting, I was quite short-skirt-looooong-jacket.

I feel like this happens all the time to me. An innocuous hair will slip down and find its way into my shirt, where it lays dormant and biding. At an innoportune time, it'll suddently reach up and give the boobie a little tickle. Cheeky bastard hair.

Marine Geologists eat Spaghetti Squash

On Saturday morning, Celia, Cliff, Megan, and I volunteered at the USGS Open House. We were stationed at the "Dress Like a Marine Geologist" station, where kids (and adults) could pick a background (e.g. Antartica, the Grand Canyon, a research boat out at sea, etc.), an outfit, and then accessorize, accessorize, accessorize. It was super fun, and if I may say so, we make some pretty good looking marine geologists.

Then Celia, Megan, and I headed to SF for the Night and Day Challenge. It was a neat way to explore the city on foot, including a couple neighborhoods I've never walked through before. Random people on the street kept asking us what we were doing, since we were running around with crazy bright orange bandanas on, maps in hand, looking frantic, and there were teams of people spread out all over the city. This would be fun to do again.

In keeping with the whole new-vegetable-each-week thing, on Sunday I tried kale and spaghetti squash. I thought the kale was tasty; my brother and sister were indifferent. Everyone thought the spaghetti squash was fun. Because seriously, it's like noodles. And who doesn't like noodles.

I also learned that dandelion is so named for its jagged leaves, which look like lion's teeth. Hence the French, dents de lion, and the subsequent mashed English pronunciation, dandelion. Neato bjeato.

Word Fun

You probably know that I love random and obscure words, even though I don't have the most extensive vocabulary myself. Also, this recent spike in playing Literati (Yahoo Games' version of Scrabble) has yielded many bizarro words. So today I was looking up words online, and I found this fun NPR article about a book that I basically need to read Right Now, about words from world languages that elude simple translation. Here are three favorites:

meraki [may-rah-kee] (adjective) - Greek
This is a word that modern Greeks often use to describe doing something with soul, creativity, or love -- when you put "something of yourself" into what you're doing, whatever it may be. Meraki is often used to describe cooking or preparing a meal, but it can also mean arranging a room, choosing decorations, or setting an elegant table.

This word started off my whole search. It came up yesterday and made me curious.

korinthenkacker [core-in-ten-cuck-er] (noun) - German
A "raisin pooper" -- that is, someone so taken up with life's trivial detail that they spend all day crapping raisins. You can spot these types a mile off -- it's that irritating pen pusher or filing fanatic whose favorite job is tidying up the stationery cupboard.

Raisin pooper! That's just fun to say. Raisin pooper.

ilunga (Tshiluba) [ee-Iun-ga] (noun) - African Languages
This word from the Tshiluba language of the Republic of Congo has topped a list drawn up with the help of one thousand translators as the most untranslatable word in the world. It describes a person who is ready to forgive any transgression a first time and then to tolerate it for a second time, but never for a third time.

I love how particular this word is.

But seriously, all of the words in that article are such goodies, check it out. Eee!

Local Food

I've been slumping at work for the past month, feeling completely drained and creatively stifled after our big event. So it's good that today I attended a meeting that left me feeling pumped and curious again. Pow! BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, is a network of organizations and entrepreneurs that um, basically do what the name says, that I'm trying to get us involved in. BALLE's goal of economic localization is an intuitive match with what we do, because, well, the SBA tells us to help local businesses otherwise they take away our money, "local" and "green" are linked (which is where my interest is), and it kind of just feels good inside.

Here in the "Bay Area," the five focus industries are food, energy, manufacturing, finance, and retail. Yesterday's discussion focused on green ag, and any excuse to learn more about food, food production, food and culture, agribusiness, etc., I'll take! I don't endorse a 100% local economy, but that's kind of assuaged by the fact that it's kind of impossible. Nonetheless, the dialogue sparked by the whole issue is so interesting. The context of food is a great introduction into environmental, social justice, and economic issues, too. The marijuana of environmentalism, if you will. For example, with the whole local food movement, you start off here and you feel intrigued (and spoiled, being in California), but then you go here and you feel tempered, and then, 10,000 words later, you're here and your brain is tired and just wants to mindlessly bop along to "Oops I Did it Again." (Seriously though, an interesting, articulate discussion. Read it.)

Plus, the meeting was in San Francisco, which made me happy. The only downer was the pleonast (so can't wait to bust that one out in Literati) present, but there's always one of those in a meeting. I'll still take it!