contains soy

Delicious. Andes candy in a cup.

slow roast

Happy Thanksgiving! It's super sunny today, and my dog is happily roasting himself as I putter around the house.

mr. potatohead

I'm going to my sister's tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I only have to make one dish, mashed potatoes. I was actually a little bit worried about it, because I've been having wrist problems for about a year now, and mashing potatoes for fifteen or twenty people is not something my wrists would sneeze at (if they could sneeze).

Good thing Boyfriend is more of a housewife than I am, and has a stand mixer. He suggested that I use that to make the potatoes, and when I admitted that I didn't know how to use a stand mixer, he found YouTube videos of people making mashed potatoes with stand mixers and sent them to me. Assuming that I don't mess it up and send potatoes flying everywhere, crisis averted.

dinner for one

I had almost resigned myself to some "creative" lazy food tonight when I remembered the frozen soup dumplings and red bean buns.

foresight

Thank you, Mountain View police and Whole Foods employees for getting me in and out so quickly. Extra checkers and traffic guidance actually made the day before Thanksgiving a faster shopping experience than usual.

counting blessings

1. I discovered why my dog loves sleeping on the heating pad so much. I might have to get another one.
2. I had nori for breakfast.
3. I have a massage in 25 minutes.
4. I don't think I'll have much work over the long weekend.
5. It's almost Thanksgiving! Bonus: I don't think I really need to spend any extra time on counting my blessings this year, since that's what this blog does all year. I'm like a Thanksgiving overachiever.

phone home

Boyfriend forgot his cell phone when he left for the airport yesterday, so it's a good thing we can voice or video chat in Gmail.

wfh

I worked from home today, and my internet connection was surprisingly well behaved, considering that I used normal internet, secure VPN, wireless cell phone access, and VoIP phone the whole time without requiring a single reboot.

admission

OK, this one is a little weird, but for some reason, dogs smell a little different when they're sleeping, and I think it's kind of funny to see and hear my dog twitching and grunting in his sleep, and to smell his sleepy smell when he wakes up.

short week

I was a little bit sad that the weekend is almost over, as I've really enjoyed lounging around, but then I remembered it's a short week, and tomorrow will be more like Wednesday in a normal week.

gifted

Two of my best friends are getting married soon, and a combination of multiple dates and locations makes it trickier to decide what to give them. Large items are not suitable for international transport, expensive items are hard to fit into a travel- filled budget, and I always thought napkin rings were so impersonal. This is really a case in which it's going to have to be the thought that counts, so I've been thinking about it a lot.

With the first deadline approaching (bridal shower), I think I may have found the solution, provided that I can get my act together to actually get it done... a shower gift and a wedding gift that don't take up a lot of luggage space or break the bank, but which are more personal than napkin rings. I was starting to get worried by my lack of feasible ideas...

sunday

Seems like a perfect day to loaf around in bed, eating corn bread with honey butter and reading about food. Although I'm not sure what day wouldn't be good for that.

saturday

I slept for eleven hours last night, and then it rained all day, giving me an excuse to stay inside and watch a lot of TV.

new love

I introduced my dog to a heating pad for the first time, and I think he might be in love.

car wash

I have had my car for a little over two years now, and I've never gotten it washed. It's a source of misguided pride that it remains unwashed. I cheat a little bit, though. Tonight was the first time in months that I've had to walk to my car in the rain after work, and after I drove home, I parked outside instead of in the garage. I get a free car wash without having to break my no car wash streak.

us again

Boyfriend, who has been a big grumpalupagus all day, just sent me this picture, which is also of us. Guess which one is him and which one is me?

passing the torch

Our team at work has a new member, and I've had three meetings with her in the last week, each for me to transition a different set of deals to her. Maybe this will help me to play Whack-A-Mole (read: responding to client emails and closing deals as quickly as possible) better.

vino

We had a wine tasting in Riedel wine glasses led by Maximilian Riedel, and although I was initially skeptical, I was surprised and impressed by how much the shape of the glass affects the smell and taste of the wine. We did parallel tastings of the same wines in differently shaped glasses, and it was cool how each shape emphasizes or minimizes certain characteristics, which explains why a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir taste better in different glasses. I wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't done everything side by side.

truffle

It's truffle season! We're going to a restaurant that has a truffle-themed menu for dinner tonight.

pork

I almost decided not to get dinner at work today, but I picked some up, and the slow-roasted pork was so so so delicious. Best decision of the day.

michelin

Just saw that Alinea, the restaurant we're going to over New Year's, got three stars in the new Michelin guide for Chicago, so we're even more excited about the meal than ever. Looks like right now, it's a 21-course tasting menu. I love the descriptions, especially this one: "BLACK TRUFFLE: explosion, romaine, parmesan."

pride

I went to an awards lunch today for a friend who went to law school because he wanted to change the world and make it a better place for minorities (Asians, LGBT, anyone who doesn't have a strong voice), and it was good to see his passion rewarded.

pt

I think my physical therapy might actually be having some positive effects.

indian summer

It's November, so this stretch of five or six days of sunny days in the 70s is extra-appreciated.

bookends

Today was a sunny day full of errands: doing laundry, dropping by the library to get more books on CD, going to Target for prescriptions and night time snacks, stopping by the bank to deposit a check and some cash, heading up to Stanford mall to get watch batteries replaced and buy a pepper mill, spending some time with the dogs I'm watching, and refilling my gas. 

The day was bookended with a great morning (my boyfriend woke up early to take dog duty so that I could sleep in, I found and ate some forgotten Cheetos, and I finished a good book) and a promising evening (homemade pizza and TV).

about time

Both of my watches ran out of juice at the same time, and I had to go a week without a watch, which drove me crazy. Got the batteries replaced today, and my wrist and mind are both so much happier.

cookie

How cute is this gingerbread Android that I had at lunch?

two words

Space heater.

celery

No one gets as excited over a stick of celery as my dog.

frabjous day

Awesome day at work: had some fun news, ran a successful training session, and had lobster pizza for dinner. Also, I managed to blindside a coworker with an awkward moment (it's a bit of a running joke to try to catch him off guard with random weirdness).

bubble world

I love my company!

gotcha

I thought that there was nothing good about changing the clocks back in the fall, since it means losing an hour of daylight in the evening (and don't tell me about the extra hour of sleep, because I always just sleep as much as I want on weekends regardless of what the clock says), but I discovered one good thing: I forgot to change the clock in my car, so I thought it was an hour later than it was, but then I came inside and realized that I have an extra hour before I have to go to bed.

christmas is coming

I think I found out what one of my Christmas presents is going to be!

double header

Tonight, I watched a beautifully filmed movie (The Fall, by Tarsem Singh), and when that was over, I started reading a beautifully written book (Ransom, by David Malouf).

android

I use this guy as a couch pillow.

listen

A good book on CD makes car time much better: traffic is no longer frustrating, and I don't get bored or space out as much on long drives.

us

This is totally a picture of my boyfriend and me. I'm the hyper one on the right. He's the puzzled one on the left.

done for now

The Giants won the World Series yesterday and I voted today, so I think that means I don't have to pretend to listen to any more conversations or skip any more articles about baseball or politics for a while.

it guys

We've got lots of tech support guys at work, and they are really good. Even better, they are curious, so if you bring them a problem they haven't seen before, they attack it with the kind of relish you only see in someone who really likes what they do.

trick or treat

As a general rule, I prefer to live in a child-free bubble world, but I have to admit that on Halloween, when they come to your door in costumes and full of happy excitement, and no one is screaming or crying, and they worship you as their almighty Candy God, they can be pretty cute. Surprising but true.

recap

• We went to a fancy dinner up in the city last night to celebrate our anniversary.
• Even though Boyfriend is one of those people who likes to get up early, even on weekends, so that he can get things done, today, he caved in to my preferences and lounged around with me until noon.
• After getting up, I finally went and got a long overdue pedicure.
• I went to the gym for the first time since February. I only did 35 minutes on a bike, but that's 35 minutes more than I've done in the past eight and a half months. 

boo

It's the last work day before Halloween, which means that there are lots of people (and dogs) who are wearing costumes. So far, I've seen people dressed up as Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch (a lot of Sesame Street), Speed Racer, a double rainbow, and a pack of people dressed as our CFO.

say it with flowers

It took my boyfriend a long time to get home from work yesterday, which puzzled me until he showed up with these. He hates rush hour traffic and usually refuses to go to Whole Foods when everyone else is there, so this is more than a bunch of anniversary flowers, it's a bunch of anniversary flowers and anniversary ignoring-things-he-hates-to-buy-me-flowers.

And then we ate lobsters.

crusty consolation

One consolation for the advent of fall, with its shorter, darker days and cooler, wetter weather is that it's lobster season (and Dungeness crab season starts in a couple of weeks, as well). Dinner tonight will be steamed lobster with plenty of butter and a side of TV.

milestone

Today is the two year anniversary of when my boyfriend and I started dating, which may not sound that impressive until you consider the fact that I've only ever dated one other person for longer than two years. This is the equivalent of someone else making it to their 25th anniversary.

life-changing event

I showed my officemate a little time- and paper-saving trick yesterday, and she is still inordinately excited about it.

recent records

Found this picture of Fiver from a few years ago. He was staying with my friends, and they caught him sunbathing. It's funny to compare the older pictures when he was slim and spry, with this one, where he's... not so slim. He's back somewhere in between now, in a happy-grumpy state of senior citizenship.

share

Found out over the weekend that Amazon is going to start letting Kindle users loan books to each other. I only have a few friends who have Kindles, but I'm still glad they're adding this. 

sweet dreams

I didn't sleep very deeply last night, but I had a lot of dreams that were funny enough to wake me up several times, from laughing out loud.

bright light

The moon is bright enough tonight that it casts visible squares of light through the skylights in my house onto the floor.

hearsay

My friend passed along a complimentary comment that her friend had said about me.  So sweet of her, and the secondhand nature somehow makes it seem more sincere.

nori and aloe

They've been stocking a lot of nori (crispy seaweed) and aloe drinks in the microkitchens at work lately, which has been convenient, as I'm on one of my periodic nori and aloe addiction cycles.

payoff

I've been going to get allergy shots for the last fifteen months, initially twice a week, then once a week, and now every other week, and there have been two benefits: (1) a decrease in my allergies to cats and dust (which was expected), and (2) a new indifference to needles (which probably should have been expected, but I didn't really think about it until I noticed that I no longer cringe and whine about getting shots, like today's flu shot).

inbox schminbox

I got my personal inbox down to 40, and my work inbox down to seven (a few of which are only there as reminders, so it could be even lower, at least until I wake up tomorrow with replies to everything I sent out and a batch of brand new problems). This is a new personal best, even better than when I posted this.

life in the spaceship

I have an aunt who sends out emails with subject lines like "Life in the spaceship." The body of the email is in Chinese, which I can't read. I love the randomness.

relief

My dog always gets really hyper and excited after I give him a bath, trim his nails, brush his teeth, and clean his ears. It's pretty funny to watch. It must be partly because he knows he gets treats after suffering through such mistreatment, but I think he probably also is just giddy with relief with having gotten through it, sort of the way I feel when I finish up at the dentist.

oldie but goodie

My favorite sandwich when I was little was peanut butter and brown sugar. No one else thinks it sounds good, but it really was the best. I haven't had one in many years, but I'm having one for dinner tonight!

archives

After looking through a lot of old pre-digital pictures, I decided to scan a couple and post them on Facebook. Based on the reaction, I'm not the only one who gets a kick out of the old pictures, so I'm going to start doing a few here, a few there. So many to pick from, I don't know where to start...

efficiency

I'm going up to the city tomorrow, and I managed to schedule the visit for maximum efficiency. One trip up to the city = lunch with a long lost high school friend, drive by meetings of two new babies, and dinner with my sister and her family.

first time

I was running late for a doctor's appointment today, and the only nearby parking spot was a parallel parking spot. I never learned how to parallel park, and although people have tried to explain the concept to me, it never registered. I always just find perpendicular parking, find parking at the front or back of a row of parallel spots, or get someone else to do the parking. Today, I had no options (and the spot was a pretty big one), and somehow, I managed to get into the spot without much back and forth, and to get the car almost parallel to the curb.

This may be the only time it ever happens, because I still don't know how I got the car into the spot, but I'm surprised and pleased, anyways.

t's and i's

I've felt a little bit guilty (for no particular reason) about not tagging the posts in this blog. I've always liked for things to be categorized and labeled (which you might not suspect, since I'm not always the most organized or neat person, but categorizing and organizing are not necessarily the same thing). Today I stopped feeling guilty and started tagging (work in progress). I've even started putting together another blog that my boyfriend thought would be a good idea. And I did this on top of all of the work (and random pre-trip madness) that I'm trying to wrap up before we go for a very quick trip to upstate New York for a wedding (I doubt we'll have time or Internet there, hence the rush to get everything done before we leave). I think I deserve a pat on the head.

distraction

I like when people I know have meetings in the conference room that's right by my office, because it has glass walls, and I can dance around and make faces to try to distract them.

lol

Oh, Internet, you always give me something to laugh about. I'm loving the Hyperbole and a Half blog these days, and wondering if the writer is my long-lost Caucasian brain twin.

81

My Kindle's "birthday" is on Wednesday, and I've been busy reading short books and polishing off half-finished books in my spare time. I just finished off one more, #81 (while cuddling with my snoring, paws-twitching-in-his-sleep dog), and I think that's going to be the final tally for Year One, as the next book I want to tackle is almost 900 pages, which is not going to happen in the next day and a half. I'm very pleased with 81, especially considering that my original goal was 40 books a year, which kept getting bumped up, first to 52, then 60, then 70 or 75.

tamed

A wicked beast of a deal (with a wicked beast of a lawyer) finally closed today.

clean

My two favorite pairs of jeans were in the laundry, and now they're clean! This is a big deal, since I wear jeans to work every day, and being forced to wear less-favored jeans was seriously irritating.

weekend update

In just one weekend, I've turned two drafts for an urgent deal, taken a nap, read a book, shopped for and attended a bling-themed party up in the city, had a long conversation with my boyfriend about my strange family dynamics, gone out for brunch, done two loads of laundry and one load of dishes, gotten a facial, gone to the library, and hit the ATM. Now I'm going to polish off books 80 and perhaps even 81. I should be a professional weekender.

first

I just heard an ice cream truck in real life for the first time.

records

I was digging back through old pictures last night, and came across a lot of funny memories. I need to get a photo scanner before the pictures disintegrate or are lost. They are already completely disorganized. There are about eight years of pictures in there, in no order whatsoever.
I found these pictures of my dog from about six or seven years ago, still looking young and spry.

work perk

There was a caramel apple station at lunch today. I find caramel apples to be messy and difficult to eat, so the woman chopped up the apple and gave me a bowl of caramel sauce for dipping.

less is more

I defriended an acquaintance on Facebook today, after many months of finding all of her Facebook activity supremely irritating (spammy messages, constant updates asking people to buy her prints or "Like" her gallery, awkward semi-nude profile pictures, and weird non sequitur updates straight out of the trash bin of a failed romance writer). I don't know why I waited until now, because it was so annoying for all of that time, and so satisfying once I finally told Facebook that yes, I really wanted to remove that friend. It's like finally killing a mosquito that has been in your room for ages -- it didn't really cause you that much harm, but you're so much happier once it's gone.

free

The cafes at work were giving these away for free today! $11 seems expensive for a 140 page book, but free is a bargain :)

greater expectations

Despite the fact that I've been super-busy at work lately, and despite the return of TV, I've managed to hit 75 books, and I still have ten days to go until the end of my one-year cutoff. I'm thinking I might hit 77 or even 78. What's especially surprising is that more than half of those have been since early July. If I keep going like this, I should set my sights higher next year and go for 100 or 150 in a year.

say cheese

Mac and cheese for dinner! My sister and I used to eat it for lunch when we were home alone, my college roommate taught me to add cream cheese to make it richer, and my dearest friend in Zurich introduced me to Annie's, so it has lots of good associations. Plus it's easy.

weekend

I had a work thing last night, and the uselessly competitive side of me derived some satisfaction when my team won the trivia game. Got home, did some work, managed to fall asleep without pills (which, at least for me, is much harder than it sounds), slept harder than I've slept in months, and had hilarious dreams the whole time. I woke up convinced it was Monday, and was pleasantly surprised that it's Saturday.

prank hard or go home

This is what we did to the work station of one of my coworkers while she was on vacation. We put most of her things in there with her desk, chair, phone, and monitor, including her scissors and most of her knick knacks. It took her a while to get access...

back to back

I managed to book back-to-back chair massages at the end of a very full (but productive) day, and the double massages then went into overtime.

end of drought

And just like that, all of my shows have returned, and TiVo has lots of new shows waiting for me, as if the summer break never happened...

change

The first thing I do when I come home, no matter what time of day it is, is to change into my pajamas.

wag

There is little that is more heartening than an ecstatic dog who is happy to see you, thrilled to get a treat, vocally appreciative of your skills as a masseuse, tolerant of the indignities you visit upon him, and content to get tucked in at night in preparation for another day of the same.

more ahh

Pancakes in bed, some errands, grape soda, fresh pedicure, another book finished and five new ones to start.

ahh

This was the most frantic week I've had in a long time, probably since last November. Yesterday, after just getting a draft out under the wire, I went straight from work to a fun dinner and drinks with friends. Stayed up late talking, despite being exhausted (sustained brain work is so physically draining, which is something that never stops surprising me), then slept in. I stayed awake for almost two hours, then succumbed to an amazing, dream-filled three hour nap. Ran a quick errand, finished the tail ends of two more books, made dinner and watched TV with my boyfriend, and then he gave me a 90 minute backrub while we chatted and caught up on all of the gossip and nonsense that is usually scattered throughout the week when we're less busy.

So productive, but in all the best ways.

working for the weekend

Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same as Wednesday: Lots of frantic phone calls and meetings, lots of drafting, lots of forgotten meals -- I think I spent 24 out of 48 hours working on one document, (and a lot of other time trying to cram other work in between the Big Thing I was working on) which is kind of sad. But the important thing is that I got the most urgent thing out the door on Friday at 6:30, so I think I've bought myself a pass for the weekend :)

going to 11

I put in a really intense thirteen hour workday yesterday, got a ton done, got home, booked plane tickets for an upcoming wedding, did all of my physical therapy exercises, and still made it in by 9:30 today to do it all over again. Hoping that today will be more like a ten hour workday, but I'm pretty pleased with how much I've been getting done this week.

i like them odds

There's a good chance I'll close a dozen deals in the next week or so, which would be a huge relief.

Also, there were poached eggs with tomatoes and crispy parmesan wafers for breakfast in the cafe today!

greener

My town recently started providing compost pickup on recycling day, and stopped requiring that recycling be pre-sorted. It's getting easier and easier to be less wasteful, which appeals to both my lazy side and my environmentally guilty side.

new beginnings

Although I love summer above all other seasons, and have really been enjoying my gluttonous reading habit for the last few months, I have to admit that the appearance on my TiVo of a new episode of one of my most guilty TV pleasures gave me a real thrill, partly because I want to see the show, and partly because it is a harbinger of all of the other season premieres that are coming oh so soon.

dream world

I love when my boyfriend tells me about odd things I say when I'm asleep or falling asleep. It's always an amusing way to start the day.

Apparently, last night as I was falling asleep, we were having a conversation, but I started dreaming at the same time. He was answering some question I had asked, and I said, "You're interrupting my dream! I was dreaming about a giant ball of duct tape." I then told him to continue with his story. After he finished, I said, "What did I tell you about my dream before? [I had apparently forgotten already.] I was having such a good dream."

I'm curious what a "good dream" about a "giant ball of duct tape" would be.

aww

My toilet must have really missed me. It has reached new levels of song, sometimes whooping continuously for the full two minutes it takes for my electric toothbrush to go through a brushing cycle.

back to work

It's great to come back from vacation and have the first day back be a Friday. I don't think I've done it this way before, but it does make the transition smoother.

Also, tomorrow is my boyfriend's birthday, and while we were away, a bunch of our coworkers decorated his office for him. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but those aren't presents. They just wrapped whatever happened to be on his desk at the time in Disney Princess wrapping paper: empty cups and beer bottles, dirty plates, USB cables, mouse pad, etc. It was pretty awesome. Thus inspired, I wrapped him in streamers. Unfortunately, he only kept the streamers on for a few minutes, saying that they were interfering with his ability to work.

home sweet home

We landed early, our luggage came quickly, we immediately caught a cab and got our car, then picked up my dog. Made it home, with only one minor mishap, when I had to borrow a neighbor's phone to get my boyfriend to come back when I accidentally locked myself out when taking out the trash. Oops.

Seven and a half days, six and a half books, seven dives -- not a bad way to spend a week. The nasty cough and the work weren't ideal, but it was still great to get away from my routine for a while.

Also, nothing makes me happier that I don't have kids than sitting near shrieking children on a plane. Such a relief to retreat back to my life, where most of the noise is made by me.

meat loaf

Earlier today, my boyfriend exclaimed in a horrified tone that he smelled "like a soapy meatloaf." I tortured him (and myself) by playing three or four Meat Loaf songs (did you know that some of his songs last eight minutes???) on YouTube. The sacrifices I make in exchange for the joy of tormenting him...

i spy

The hotel has wireless, and I've been logging in all week to stay on top of work, and last night, I opened up iTunes because I wanted to play a particular song, and I realized that some people in the hotel were sharing their entire music libraries with anyone else who happened to be logged into the hotel network and using iTunes. We spent an embarrassing amount of time snooping through people's libraries and snickering at (and playing parts of) their collections of Ace of Base, Spice Girls, ZZ Top, Megadeth, and Fine Young Cannibals.

recharge

Nothing like a fantastic night dive with mantas swooping and flipping around my head for 40 minutes, then a shower to wash the ocean away, then a solid nine hours of sleep, and finally waking up to an inbox that doesn't have a single email that requires immediate reply (yet). I'm sure stuff will start coming in, but for now, my vacation continues...

charge

I charged my Kindle and loaded it up with books before coming on the trip, and decided not to bring the charger, reasoning that it would just take up more space, and that there was no way I could possibly read enough to use up the charge in one week. You can read a lot before you need to charge it.

But I've been reading a lot. I'm halfway through my fifth book, and we still have three days (including a plane ride) to go. Being the type of person who is inclined to start worrying before anything actually happens, I was fretting about the possibility that the charge wouldn't last, and that I might have to buy a paper book for the plane ride.

Today, however, I discovered that my phone charger can actually charge my Kindle, which was a happy moment. It's such a strangely shaped charger, and I only tried it on a desperate whim. I can now read as much as I want to without worrying that I'll run out of battery at the beginning of my plane ride back. And now I know for the future that I can leave the Kindle charger at home and not get worked up over imaginary loss of book access due to excessive reading.

coincidence

We're in Hawaii! Tonight, we were at dinner, and my boyfriend started telling some story about when he and his law school roommate were climbing some mountain in Colorado, and all I heard was "climb" and "mountain," so I immediately asked him if they were singing "Climb Every Mountain" while they hiked, and he looked at me in a strange way and asked why they would do that, and what was the song from, and I then had to remind myself that The Sound of Music was not quite the formative experience for everyone else as it was for me.

After dinner, we came up to our room, and he flipped on the TV, and The Sound of Music was playing. Not only was it playing, but he turned the TV on at the exact moment when Maria walks into the Reverend Mother's chamber, right before she starts singing "Climb Every Mountain"!! I wasn't sure what it meant, but whatever it was, I was right. Right? Vague vindication is such a good feeling.

On principle, I insisted that we watch the rest of it, even though I've seen it a million times before.

ready or not

My gadgets are charged, my bags are packed, my dog dropped off, my library books renewed so that they won't be overdue, my Kindle loaded with new books, and I've finished all the work that I promised to get done by today, which will hopefully buy me time until we get to the hotel and back online.

I think this means that it's official: I'm going to Hawaii tomorrow!

In twelve hours, we'll be on a plane. In 24 hours, we'll be drinking the hotel's signature ginger ale. In 45 hours, we'll be diving. Sweet.

novice

I've learned a ton in the past two years, but the depth and speed of the knowledge of some of my coworkers still blows me away. I still learn something new almost every time I ask someone for help.

i love you tomorrow

Last day in the office before going to Hawaii for a week!

sweetness follows

I had to make a dish with heirloom tomatoes for a potluck dinner tonight, and I was feeling brave, so I decided to take on dessert. I've never made pies other than pumpkin pies, but my tomato tarte tatin came out rather well, and was a surprisingly convincing dessert, drizzled with a balsamic glaze and topped with whipped cream.

Also, a whole dinner themed around heirloom tomatoes can work really well.