inner artist unlocked a la SG ...

(repost from aug 17 '07)

spinning girl posed ... simply fill in the blank with a word or phrase that answers each of the following questions. you may do it here or on your own blog, in your journal, or on a maxi pad. Just as long as you do it! You have one week. I, meanwhile, will be picking sand out from the spaces between my toes, and thinking of you.

Here we go:
1. My favorite childhood toy was ... jacks.

2. My favorite childhood game was ... red rover.

3. The best movie I ever saw as a kid was ... willy wonka & the chocolate factory.

4. I don't do it much but I enjoy ... bowling (go figure).

5. If I could lighten up a little, I'd let myself ... ask my "crush" to go out on a date with me.

6. If it weren't too late I'd ... be there on time (?).

7. My favorite musical instrument is ... the piano (which i can play) and the harp (which i cannot play).

8. The amount of money I spend on treating myself to entertainment each month is ... just what it's s'pose to be when i treat myself.

9. If I could get anything for my inner artist, I'd buy him/her ... a nice little not-so-crowded home that is a stones throw away from the ocean.

10. Taking time out for myself is ... necessary and welcomed.

11. If I start dreaming ... more, i would write my dreams down more regularly.

12. I secretly enjoy reading ... gofugyourself (oops! not a secret anymore).

13. If I only could have grown up to be ... an architect.

14. I wish I could make/write/grow/ create a ... whatever i would've made - had i grown up to be an architect. (see #13)

15. My parents think that I ... am creative.

16. What makes me feel weird is ... being at family parties when they are speaking a language(s) i don't understand.

17. My most cheer-up music is ... totally dependent on whatever mood i'm in that needs cheering-up.

18. My favorite way to dress is ... jeans and t-shirt.

visit with spinning girl
(SG rocks)

dessert in the BA?

food. it's something i have quite posted about on this blog. so for the kick-start ... what was on my mind 4 years ago? (from a previous blog)

(repost from feb 7, '06 - with some teeny updates)

It's like I can't stop talking about food on this ReLo blog ... and I have come to realize - I'm not quite sure how often I actually cook a meal at home. (So maybe I don't have to worry too much about whether I have an electric or gas stove in my BA kitchen digs.)

Regardless ... DESSERT!!! SD has an absolutely fabulous and amazing place called Extraordinary Desserts. OK, so I'll miss this place, also. (If you have checked out the web site, make sure to look at the dessert page, because you'll get to see a couple different desserts.)

This is Rennie (Hi Rennie!) ... with a dessert (chocolate involved, of course!) ... that i am pretty sure he shared ... but i can't be 100% sure ... because i may have been scarfing and hogging my own dessert at the time.

So - dessert, anyone, in the BA? and what bridge(s) am I going to have to cross!?

weekend ritual ... peet's

(pic from peets.com)
my peet's trek is all about a spendy cup of coffee and some me time.

(repost from march 16, 2006, when i was still in SD)
Peet's in SD? ... simple math
i heart Peet's, and i have a calculator.

GIVEN:
A = number of Peet's coffeehouses in SD County
B = number of Peet's coffeehouses within 50 miles of future BA digs
C = 7.04E-04 Peet's per square miles of SD county

WHERE:
B = 62
C = A divided by (statistic for SD county)

SOLVE FOR: A*

*EXTRA CREDIT ESSAY QUESTION:
Why is B much greater than A?

. Correct answer for A = cup o' coffee or tea.
. Response to essay = upgrade to speciality coffee or rare tea
. Clever response to essay = pastry included

comments included ...

• pjb ... 0.0007040 * 4261 = 2.9997. Is the 3/10000 of a Peet just over the county line?
  
  
• sacto floyd ... Well, since we are talking about shirlsd, she would have assumed we'd use ASTM protocols for rounding. Thus, A would round to 3.00 (three sig figs), and Peet's would be in no danger of trespassing into the next county.
  
  As for the larger question of why there are far fewer Peets in SD than in BA, I would guess that there are at least three reasons: (1) there are many more Peetniks in the BA, (2) the BA traffic jams require more Peets stores to keep the commuters awake, and (3) most importantly, cup holders have not yet caught on as a popular accessory for surfboards in SD. But give it time.
  
  Peet's me. One just opened near me in Elk Grove. But we have traffic jams that are not as bad as in the BA, and there is no surfing to speak of in Sacto, so I would guess that we have somewhere between 3 and 62 Peets.
  
  Do I get extra-extra points for that?
  
  
• pjb ... To quote one of my favorite movies, "There is a fine line between clever and stupid." So I will try to stick with smart ass answers and avoid embarassing myself.
  
  I am not aware of any Peet's here in the DC area and have never stepped foot in one. Are they just in California? Is a "peetnik" more BA, SD or Sacramento type person? What makes Peet's Peet's? Is there a kind of tight subculture that worhsips at the house of Peet's? Is shirlsd the high priestess of Peet's?
  
  
• anon in NV ... We now have 1, yes 1 Peets in Reno - at, of all places, the airport. Of course after trying one there, before catching a 7am flight - it just didn't seem as strong as the lattes at the Peets around the corner from EPA in SF.
  
  For the DC guy, in the areas that are not steeped with the great Peet's coffee fragrance, the poor souls can find Peet's coffee and beans at the ING (BRIGHT ORANGE) centers where they are trying to get us to save our cash in a European bank which also has insurance operations. Which is good, since we, in general, don't save cash in the US; we just spend it.
  
  
• diva ... BOSTON has a Peet's! VISIT US!

i own a parka ...

... because back in the day when i first moved back to the BA (well, 2 years ago) and wasn't in cubeopolis, i was traveling to north dakota during winter.

(repost from feb 8, '07)
mmmmmmm ... warm this morn!
in my new - and very useful - down comforter jacket north face arctic parka.
with a new travel mug holding the tasty liquid o' ...
... rocky road mocha from/at boneshaker coffee company

whilst outside weather, it is approx. 4 deg F.

interesting thing (and shared with my colleague, also) ... since the past 2+ days, 5 deg F kinda is now o.k.; it's the evening minus 10 deg F that's a b****, esp. with the wind.

lunch at Windy's Pizza and Bar in Bowman.

back to BA tomorrow morn. am actually looking forward to next trip to BIS. (two more drinks, and i get a free coffee at boneshaker and get to wear my parka again.)

next week, SD.

[notes to self - no need bring parka.

be on the lookout for belt-loop-boy.

get dessert fix.]

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!)

hipmtfn: apartment therapy-ish

hipmtfn = how i pass my time for now

(repost from jan 24, 2009) ... this year i'll get past weeks 4-5.

...into my life and that is GREAT!!!

LAST YEAR ... just around this time, as evidenced by this post-gone-by, i began apartment therapy. (i don't quite live in an apartment, but that's o.k. - it's for the whole home/nesting kind of thing.) i managed to DRAG the SH** out of an eight-week effort, which i admittedly assumed 12-weeks would work for me sometime last year, into - oh ... say ... a year or otherwise known as 52 weeks.

it's the weekend ... and here i am, on a cloudy and mild northern california, bay area afternoon, inspired by a friend of mine who (as posted on her fbook wall this morning) is purging & cleaning. i talked with her also just to check-in and i'm even more excited about continuing to get the bits & pieces of my home life pulled together.

a few other motivators (and procrastinating by surfing the web) while considering my style (per this article)as a seeker, burster, and easy start of the day kind of organizer include ... posts and articles as follows:

• starting with the bedroom (and my guest room)
  
• donating/recycling home stuff
• dealing with books on shelves, floors, etc.
• retail therapy afterwards (or interim)

on the housewarming date ... will be (sometime in late april - after taxes, of course!). time to get started (again) and put this effort to rest in the coming weeks (at least the next 9-12 weeks - ha!)

christmas 2007 gift book - therapy

(repost from 01/21/2008)

how i am passing my time ... for now

therapy.

apartment therapy.
the eight-step home cure

[check web resource over here]

thanks to k for bringing this into my life. it is a welcomed addition to my bookshelf (... errr, to my nightstand book collection), and i carry it around to remind me that i am committed to this activity.

how long? ... an eight week effort. moi? i'm going for twelve weeks - gots me 3 other rooms (and a garage) and had to chose spend a week procrastinating contemplating.

where am i now in my weekly progress? ... week 3. sort of been hovering around it.

how am i doing? ... well, i'm doing o.k. enough for moving forward. there is a "feed me - outbox" thing that has underscored some of the issues i have (pack rat), and that is fine for me. there is a component of this therapy that involves cooking a meal(s) at home, which i will, as a matter of fact, be doing tonight. and there is a component of this that requires me to focus - and that's where i'm doing pretty good (surprisingly) on focusing. and finally, there is a ...

housewarming date? ... still need to pick it - and it will be sometime around the march/april timeframe.

o.k. - gotta get some stuff thinned out,
get coffee and enjoy my day off,
and buy some flowers for my home.