curbside chat, zaza, grits

YUM! ... @brownsugarkitch, @eco_smiley and shirlnutkin (aka banshee) had a great sunday breakfast at oakland's brown sugar kitchen (on web, yelp, facebook, twitter, youtube). worth the wait with a curbside chat, caffeine, oatmeal currant cookie, and comfy zazas!

(i know, i know ... 

but i had to sneak in 

my fluevog mini | zaza fun!)

side bar ... of course, while waiting to hear "banshee" yelled, posting a pic or two on facebook (right?) is kind of a must. loved this comment - 

"careful someone might drop some coins in the cup
thinking you are begging to support your shoe habit!"

(BRAVO, pipes man!!!)

back to food stuff ... i likes make love covet me my grits (as shared in last year's post, for which there are other restaurants i'll need to add to the grits offering in the bay area). this morning was no different, and piragua also had her share of grits.

organic cheddar cheese grits w/poached egg,
bacon-cheddar-scallion biscuit,
veggie quiche (incl. portabello mushroom),
chicken apple sausage, more grits,

and one word: 

BUTTER

ella's for new year's brunch

chicken hash, potato scramble, crab omelette, sticky bun, coffee (runneth over), and refilled waters ... yum-yum in my tum-tum at ella's (on ella's site, on yelp, and on a table for two - its list of the best of brunch) in laurel heights (in SF), on the corner of california and presidio, diagonal from the jewish community center (jcc).

new year's brunch ... breakfast buds gadgetman, piragua, and i spent our new year's brunch at ella's counter-seating over-looking the kitchen (as we played our napkin frivolity). wonderful service, friendly people, no elbow-room-smack-downs at the counter, and no rushing. and although no grits (given my hankering for grits), there was the requisite hash for gadgetman, vegan healthy for piragua, and conversation over food for me. (i could eat peanuts dipped in those pre-packaged, non-compostable jelly containers and be happy if the chatter is afoot.) with the menu to the right - let's be clearer about our dishes ...

• chicken hash ~ served with eggs and toast + wheat bread (doesn't quite do this dish justice given the nom nom nom noises from gadgetman who sat between piragua and me)
• open faced omelette with dungeness crab, meyer lemon ricotta, grilled asparagus, toasted onion and tarragon + wheat bread
  
• potato scramble with curried cauliflower, shitakes, grilled red onion, cilantro and gouda (no photo. tear.)
• and ... fresh baked sticky bun shared between gadgetman and me because it was the size of a baby's head
  

to sticky bun or not? ... after one of the servers heard gadgetman and me debating over getting a sticky bun, he said, "... let's turn this talk into action. and new year's resolutions do not start until the business day." SOLD. actually, i'm thinking we eventually would have gotten the sticky bun because piragua might have gotten tired of hearing us debate the matter.

hash him, veggie her, sticky me ...
take us to ella's again!

breakfast buds & fmk new year's napkin frivolity

last year ... breakfast buds had our 2010 napkin frivolity as shared over here while we sipped bloody marys and/or mimosas, munched on over-priced tater tots, and brunched on tasty nova bar offerings.
(apologies, no explanation of last year's napkin frivolity will be disclosed; we have resolved to put that behind us.)

this year's napkin frivolity ... the original idea was new-words-mash-ups with the intent of adding new definitions to urbandictionary. i started us off with 3 words, HOWEVER, (warning that the rest of this read may be considered rated R for some - or mean-spirited or offensive ... although not intended to be so), the alternative frivolity won over - identifying three people for several rounds of FMK - f**k, marry, kill. the rule is that given three people, choose one to marry, one to kill, and one to ... you get the point. (you can only choose one, and you must choose.)

napkin evidence ... as we sat at the counter over at ella's, the goal was for each of us to take turns choosing three people for each other such that the decision for fmk would not be obvious. usually, the easy approach is to choose the "bookends" - three people a person really likes or three people a person could do without. two examples as follows: (1) george bush, dick cheney, karl rove. (2) angelina joli, selma hayek, jennifer aniston. in the first example, cheney is often dispensed quickly; in the second example, it is a mixed bag.

trifecta combo ... eventually, it comes down to finding that one person (or two) that ends up on the kill end. it may sound ridiculous, and perhaps it is, yet this morning, fmk brought quite a bit of laughter, especially with the right (or very wrong) combination of three people while we verbalized the decision-making process.

more than the napkin fmk ... we continued fmk after brunch - undocumented - while we drove around SF and took a little break near the legion of honor and then later decided to head to nova bar for bloody marys (as we had last year). let's just say that fmk later devolved to combinations such as strawberry shortcake, care bears, and teletubbies, as well as disney's snow white, pocahontas, cinderella.

happy new year, breakfast buds!

happy new year breakfast buds!

breakfast buds, you know who you are! and others learned about you through reverb10's day 9 party.

2010 breakfast buds was fun ... and last new year's breakfast yippity-yap was documented (so to speak), sans the tater tots. (out of context, the scribbles look kinda not cool, but we know what this all means. i know. i can't believe it, either.)

it's time for 2011 breakfast buds ... a new year of breakfast buds moments memories to make

... and a new napkin.

happy 2011 new year!

why job fairs are like match (dot) com...

... or "you must be tired 'cuz you've been running through my mind all day."

a.k.a. ode to the bass player
tales of sub-dermal gps chips, dating, and jack* (of lord of the flies infamy)

(unfortunately, this post is NOT about sub-dermal gps chips, dating, or jack ... but it is from bass player. ideally, the other three topics may unfold - or not - in another blog post.)

breakfast buds yippity-yap ... this sunday morning a few breakfast buds met up at rudy's can't fail cafe, sans one of our buds, gadgetman. (alert: girlnutkin did not have grits today.)

one of the breakfast buds is someone i met in january at a career fair at cubeopolis - he, the prospective candidate intern. me, the cubeopolis-gatekeeper to determine whether he was worthy of an interview with cubeopolis.

during the job fair, after about a 5-min chat and a resume drop-off, i looked at his resume while he spoke a little more about his interest and noticed bass player as part of his hobbies. random thought popped into my head, so i asked a question, and go figure - he knew my friend in cubeopolis (and her boyfriend, who also played bass). aside from being qualified and a potential cubeopolis match, he knew someones that i knew.

welcome in to the gates of cubeopolis for a possible interview.

shortly after the job fair, he shared a quippy email in between lab runs. below, enjoy the creative juices of someone who, although is not part of cubeopolis (and it's not a pretty story), is part of breakfast buds. lucky are we to have ... bass player in our breakfast buds entourage.

BONUS ... he shared pete, the unemployed hedgehog comics (wiht a job fair - 3 parts - comic strip) with this (LOVE IT!)

(from a jan 14, 2010 email - unedited - between girlnutkin and bass player)

why job fairs are like match.com
interviews = internet dating
job fairs = match.com

sadly, most people in this modern world have had to endure the trials of going to a job fair, and i am no exception. however, with the advent of the internet, and dating sites like match.com , i have come to see the job fair for what it truly is, or has become.

typically, the first thing that you do when you walk into a job fair is to peruse the posted signs of the company profiles available and consider which ones immediately show the most promise, whether or not you want to come back to the others, and, finally, which ones that you would like to give a chance, just because you get a feeling about them.

much is the same in match.com, the first thing you do is log in and start looking around all the personal profiles. you look for the racy ones that just jump out to you, mark the secondary ones that you would like to connect with later, and relegate the leftovers to be considered, or ignored, later.

from this point, things get even more similar.

round 1 - approach: the booth/profile looks attractive, and they have some keywords posted up that all stand out to you. some you identify with, others you know you can ascribe towards. of course, everyone is hovering around the one that is judged "the best", so you have to wait your turn, and strive to set yourself apart from the masses. the odds are not that great that you will get chosen out of the hundreds of suitors, but you have to have faith! already, to you, it seems like you would be a perfect match, now you just have to strut your stuff and convince them of the truth of this assertion.

everyone likes confidence, and you are always judged on that first impression, so the first 5 sentences uttered out of your mouth had better be golden, and not some of the same diatribe that everyone else has been spitting out. if you catch their attention, you get that warm invite and you get to move to round 2 with a bonus.

round 2 - detail
now you have fired off your first volley! granted, you might get dismissed for any dumb thing that you say, but if you didn't put your foot into your mouth, the chances are that they are going to start to look at what you can bring to the table. your resume/profile, at this point is key. as soon as their eyes latch onto the details, they are looking for something that attracts them, and make you sound like a stellar candidate. everyone is looking for the same things: education, smarts, experience, communication skills, compatibility, and passion.

this is the place where sooooo many people embellish (read: lie their pants off) in hopes that they can pass off these virtues without a hitch, and if they don't ... well, they probably wouldn't have had a chance anyway, so they might as well take the chance. from their image (looking more dependable, clean cut, and professional than even they are comfortable with), to their experience (skills they really have, languages they really speak, why they have been separated for so long, etc...).
fortunately, if you did well in "round 1 - approach", you have the optional bonus that you will be given credit simply because you were creative, confident, and charming. they may even overlook detracting factors, or consider them areas where they can help you flourish. nothing like tempting the artistic with a medium of great potential.

round 3 - conversation
so, if you haven't gotten summarily dismissed already, now is your chance to stake your claim to fame. The conversation is all about giving enough information to make sure that the interviewer knows enough about you to remember, and think of you fondly. your main objective now is to get to the next level, such that they will call you (out of all the suitors!!!) and ask for that next one-on-one session.

(from bass player closing email: ok.... I'm running out of creative juice at the moment, AND i have to take care of these samples now that i have finished their digestion. Talk to you laters!)

and there you have the beginning of a friendship with the bass player, who probably does not have a sub-dermal gps chip, is conversant about dating, and made a reference to jack this morning.

(about jack at shmoop, sparknotes, and
about lord of the flies at wikipedia).

got grits?

i'm there(!) ... and that means i will drive up to the berkeley/oakland area and meet-up with buds for breakfast for classic catch-up and laugh-uproariously memories. (and we laugh and story tell over some crazy, random, stream-of-consciousness-connect-the-dots kind of chatter like over here!) the following places are three go-to breakfast places for grits and breakfast buddy chatter. in addition to grits, all three places have tasty offerings for breakfast and brunch!

rudy's can't fail cafe ... located in emeryville on the corner of hollis and park, it serves up grits as a side order or a breakfast entree (on weekends only - hot grits, cheese, green onions, and bacon). (more about rudy's can't fail cafe, on yelp, and on urbanspoon), and it is the breakfast buds choice place for laughing uproariously.

900 grayson ... located in berkeley on the corner of 7th and grayson, it serves up carolina cheese grits as a hearty side order. (closed on sundays, more about 900 grayson and more on yelp)
today was a mild collection of chuckles with gadgetman, his chicken & waffles, my grits, and me. and breakfast food pic fun included new little toys (thanks gadgetman!) - little cell phone gummy-stick-on camera filters for the starburst and wide angle effects (from photojojo over here).

lois the pie queen ... located in oakland, it's on the corner of 60th and genoa and just kind of kitty corner to adeline street. (more about lois the pie queen on yelp). lois the pie queen serves up grits as a side and biscuits that we affectionately call "crack biscuits" - VERY tasty and addictive!

f|break: mash-up morning

a.k.a. ode to jen m

vajayjay tales of the week

breakfast buds chatted it up today at full house cafe this morn - yum! (yelp read here).

our chat? ... i'm just the messenger. here's the vajayjay mashup chat we had - touching base around dating, pop culture, comedy, grooming and ... really?!

eH ... short version - choose your profile photos wisely. yes, i'm still on eH (for which the subscription expires in late may '10). during this morning's triage of profiles, the potential press-the-button "send him a message" became a "close match" and for a reason that has not come up since the hundreds of matches that have been thrown my direction. profile description? - thumbs up. 6 of 7 pictures? - thumbs up. 1 of 7 pictures? - frown. a group picture where another person in the pic is flashing a gesture of ... uhm ... ahem ... dining at the y (urbandictionary here). close match.

project runway ... short version - why doesn't the flavor-saver match the drapes?
(repost from aug 7, 2008)
[a.k.a. answer me this: why doesn't the flavor-saver be matching the drapes?!]

yes ...
epi4's guest judge,
apolo ohno ...
cutie patootie!

photo credit: bravotv.com

i proclaimed his adorable-cuteness in a previous post. and i have, on more than one occasion, made reference to his soul patch.

but here is the deal. several months ago, during my regular blog-o-rama-catch-up-on-reading, chez's deus ex malcontent had posted this - trim shady. wanting to quickly erase any knowledge of this product (which i successfully did, shortly thereafter).

[pic from: betty]

i was reminded of the crazy (albeit a rather entrepreneurial) product yesterday while watching pr5air, and now it's all i can do from keeping on thinking about why the flavor-saver don't be matching the drapes?!

[not an endorsement. just saying. wassup apolo?]

comedy ... short version - "it's like the eyebrow ..." i enjoy watching comedy. this week's john oliver featured mary lynn rajskub. (i laughed out loud. over here at comedy central.)

Jokes.com
Mary Lynn Rajskub - Lower Region
comedians.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

grooming ... short version - alpaca.
(repost from may 17 '09)
oh the trials of talking about "heading downtown with petula*." given this is the sunday fiber break, current's sarah haskins incorporated a reference to moses (y'know, a bit of a religious reference) ... so here we go (OVER HERE ... and down "there" - in a manner of speaking)

uhm(?) and "thanks!" to dean iguana ...
... for bringing this to my attention.
(... alpaca - heehee)

*[petula-challenged?
go to urbandictionary.com for yourself]

really? REALLY?! ... short version - vagazzle. (and now i cannot unhear that word!) this was the last chat of the vajayjay tales this saturday afternoon just before breakfast buds parted. read about (and listen to) the vagazzled jennifer love hewitt - over here at the huffington post.

REALLY?!
(donate to haiti instead!)