big day

Boyfriend's furniture finally made the journey to the house, which makes things seem a little bit stressful and real, but also kind of exciting.

spontaneous

I decided to meet up with my sister at my parents' place yesterday (which surprised my parents and scored me some of my mom's cooking), and then my sister and I decided to head back to her place. I picked up Dungeness crabs on the way there, and we spent the evening eating crabs and hanging out with the kids while my brother in law was on call at the hospital. I spent the night and hung out for a few hours this morning. It was nice to have some unplanned, low-key family time, especially with my sister. We're both so busy with work, and she has three kids, so life is usually so hectic that we only have short, planned time together.

ho ho ho

Boyfriend and I went up to my sister's place and spent Christmas afternoon and evening there with her family, my parents, one of my cousins, and a friend of my sister's. It went pretty well -- I think that both of my parents liked what I gave them (which is not always something I'm sure of), the kids were in a present-filled haze of joy, and we all just ate and hung out. Eventually, we started goofing around, and my cousin grabbed Boyfriend's butt. Boyfriend has always done pretty well with my family, but I'm kind of proud that he has been elevated to butt-squeezing status. It may sound strange, but in my family, that's kind of a mark of acceptance.

fin

I had finished all of my Christmas shopping except for Boyfriend. I finally finished one part of his present (a framed picture from our trip to Palau and Yap) and gave it to him because I couldn't wait, and ordered the rest of it (a Kindle and cover) to be delivered in a few days. It feels good to have that all taken care of.

say cheese

Truffled Brillat-Savarin.

millipede

My coworker has a deep and amusing fear of millipedes. I printed a picture of one yesterday, cut it out, and hid it in her wallet. My only regret was that I wouldn't be there to see her reaction. Today was my lucky day, because she discovered it while we were at the nail salon, so I got to witness her little yelp of surprise and disgust when she opened her wallet. Merry Christmas to me!

weekend?

Finished work for the day (and perhaps even for the weekend) earlier than expected, and then went for spur of the moment pedicures with two friends from work. Now I'm settling in for an evening of reading, as I realized that I have four books going at the same time, and need to finish all of them in the next week.

unlikely combination

The ChromeOS netbook, when brand new, smells ever so slightly and inexplicably of some combination of neoprene and other scents that I strongly associate with dive gear. So basically, it's a gadget (one of my favorite things) that reminds me of diving (another one of my favorite things).

making a list

I'm going to just list some unrelated things:

1. Every day for the next six months will be longer, and it is only a matter of time before we can start leaving work before dark again.
2. Grooveshark is a pretty awesome app. It's like Last.fm and iTunes had a child. A child that got the best genes from both sides.
3. I love when Hyperbole and a Half gets updated.
4. Dinner with a friend is great, especially when that dinner also involves all-you-can-eat meat.
5. Although it really shouldn't be that surprising, it's still fun to randomly run into people unexpectedly.

my precious

I got an email before I came into work today, letting me know that I could pick up a Cr-48. I worked a ton on the launch, and am excited to try it out, thanks to some finagling by the business guy and the product counsel to help me scoot up the list.

the good news...

The bad news is that work kind of blindsided me today. The good news is that I managed to crawl back on top of it. The bad news is that the cafes were closed before I could get dinner. The good news is that I had enough energy to make dumplings at home, instead. At least there's good news, right?

rofl

No one makes me laugh as often, or as stomachache- and hyperventilation-inducingly hard as Boyfriend makes me laugh. No one else takes pictures of me sleeping so that he can show me how my feet look like giant marshmallows in the duvet. That counts for a lot.

new phone

I love gadgets, and it's kind of perfect that I work somewhere that keeps me supplied with new gadgets from time to time.

This time, it's a new phone. It's pretty slick.

Also, gone are the days when getting a new phone meant having to enter all of your numbers in again. Everything loads up automatically. I got my first cell phone in 1998, and it's so amazing how much more they can do now.

twelve days

Twelve days left in the year, and I'm about to start book #96. It's going to be a race to the finish. 100 just might happen...

wrap it up

I can call this a productive day, because I did the dishes and wrapped all of the presents I bought. It's also a successful day, because I didn't have to change out of my pajamas or leave the house.

shopping

I finished all of my Christmas shopping (except for Boyfriend) with a week to spare, and the only time I had to set foot in a store was to pick up wrapping paper.

messiah

They say that cleanliness is next to godliness. I am not good at cleaning. This means that my cleaning lady is the closest thing to god in my life, and she went to Mexico to get married. This meant that my house was slated to go for eight weeks without a cleaning. I can make as much mess in eight weeks as a normal person can make in months.

But salvation is at hand. Her cousin is going to come tomorrow (3-1/2 weeks since the last cleaning), and maybe again in the remaining time. Hallelujah!

90

I hit 90 books consumed in 2010 today. There almost three more weeks left in this year... 100 would be awesome but perhaps unattainable.

holiday cheer

Egg nog and karaoke!

night light

Boyfriend complained often that the mud room adjacent to the garage is always poorly lit. I finally got a photo sensitive night light to put there, and there's one problem solved.

canine companion

I love that my dentist lets me hold a dog (mine or hers, whichever one is around) while I'm in the chair.

schwag

One of my products had a big launch yesterday, and my business guy picked up schwag for me from the launch event. Super nice of him.

crabby

Two whole Dungeness crabs for lunch? Don't mind if I do...

dog's life

Received an Amazon package early today, a special dog heating pad, and I couldn't wait to tuck it into his bed, so Fiver got his present early. I hope he likes it.

highlights

The latkes and gingerbread cupcakes at dinner tonight were amazing.

ready

I have no idea how this happened, but I think everything I had to get done for my next launch got done early. That never happens.

simulation

Today has been a day of simulated perfection. It's cold and dreary out there, but I've barricaded myself in the bedroom with a humidifier and a space heater, drifting in and out of sleep between phone calls, meals, and books. It's pretty perfect in here.

lotr

My coworker's boyfriend is renting out a 300 person theater and showing the first movie from the Lord of the Rings trilogy to celebrate his birthday. Instead of presents, he just wants people to bring donations for Toys for Tots. I love the combination of fun, nerdiness, and charity.

counting down

Lots of things coming up, and I'm getting stuff done for them: a big launch, Christmas shopping, and planning for a friend's wedding shower.

heat

It took three hours to heat up, but the house is now a toasty 70 degrees. Can't wait for the space heaters I ordered to get here.

Also, the heated toilets at work have been making my days just a little warmer and cozier.

Can you tell I've been cold?

toothbrush head

Out with the old, in with the new.

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.