Where the Universe Does Not Want Me to Enjoy Christmas

Christmas is cursed for me. This will be the third time in 3 years where being a corporate peon has made me have to work through Christmas. And just when I thought I was gonna get off easy this year because of the slow economy, I got smacked down again.

Things are Scary in Corporate Peon Land

As if I thought you all didn't already know, the economy sucks. Things are slow at my corporate peon office. People are nervous and just sitting tight. It certainly puts a damper on holiday cheer.


Courtesy of icanhazcheezburger.com

But, in other news, I have finally finished my Taste the Rainbow scarf. It took FOREVER with all that 1x1 ribbing. It just needs the ends woven in and a good long soak in my wool wash. I am moving on to scarf #2, but I am not sure if that will be done in time for Christmas. Oh well, there will just be an IOU on that one.

Someone in the family has also requested a slouchy hat based on this one. I think I can do it, but would be my first time deconstructing something. I bought some really lovely Gusanito, a test yarn from Malabrigo, for this hat. The color is called Rouge, and it is a vibrant red, but has the unique kettle dye color changes that is oh-so Malabrigo. But, this will have to wait until after the holidays.

Taste the Rainbow Striped Noro Scarf

I bought 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden at my favorite LYS, Imagiknit, this weekend and have been obsessively knitting my striped Noro scarf all weekend long. I am trying to understand all the fuss about this yarn.

Personally, I find Noro color combinations too vibrant/70s for my taste, but somehow knitting two different colorways together gives really lovely results. I choose one colorway which is pretty neutral, mostly blacks, blues, grays, with a shock of neon green, and the other is very virbrant, with pinks, fuschias, reds and greens. Still, I have found A LOT of foreign objects/vegetable matter embedded in the yarn, and some of it is large and sharp! Also, there have been two knots in one ball, and one end of the knot is in no way related colorwise to the other end of the knot, so have had to do some creative cutting and splicing. However, my sister-in-law did request a colorful scarf for Christmas, and this will fit the bill, I think. I am hoping that a good soak will soften up the yarn a bit, too.

Spaghetti Cat (I Weep for You)

My childish sense of humor.

Old Shale Scarf

With the spoils of my yarn crawl, I started the Old Shale Scarf by Tiennieknits. It is a beautiful rust orange color in Koigu Premium Merino. While on vacation on the cold, cold East Coast, I modeled a lot of my knitwear out of sheer necessity. I got several requests for knitted gifts because of this. This scarf will be for my mother as consolation for not stealing my Lace Ribbon Scarf from me.

Ahhh - Vacation

Vacation, all I ever wanted, vacation, had to get away...On vacation this week on the East Coast, in New Jersey/New York to visit family during Thanksgiving week, and it is wonderful. Went on a yarn shop crawl (will post pictures, but they are not that great) in NYC: Purl SoHo, School Products, and the Yarn Company. Bought something at each store, but honestly, San Francisco is really blessed with its own wonderful yarn shops.

I am also stuffing my face with yummy food - lots and lots of Korean food, NYC pizza at a place called Pinch and Smack, and I admit it, White Castle and Dunkin Donuts (each only just once!).

Christmas Knitting?

In my mind, I have a list of potential Christmas gifts that I would like to knit up. But, I am torn because I can't figure out if the persons to whom I want to give the gifts would appreciate the time and effort, or would just think "Ooookay, you were too cheap to buy me a gift?" and not understand the thought, and even expense, (let's face it, some yarns are pretty pricey!) put into the gift.

I would love to knit the Juliet Scarf by Louisa Harding for a friend at work. Whee! Look at me, I finished one measly lace project and now feel like I am good enough to give gifts of lace - will I be sorry? I am also thinking of doing a trade with one of my other friends, who turns out to be a crafty jewelry maker in her spare time. A scarf for a necklace. I already have a mental picture of the necklace I want in my mind - it involves gemstones and briolettes... I also toyed with the idea of making a pair of socks for someone. But, all that skinny ass yarn, and TWO finished objects to make ONE gift is daunting for me.

Am I being overly ambitious? Thinking too much about it? Maybe I should just give the gifts and if the people don't like them, to hell with them! It is the thought that counts, right?

Kitty Emergency

This past Friday, we spent about 5 1/2 hours at the pet hospital waiting for chubby cat Mr. Elvis. Poor baby had some weird vomiting and stomach issues for a couple of days, and we thought it was time to take him in for a professional opinion. He had an x-ray, then an ultrasound - note his shaved belly. For about an hour and a half, we thought he would have to have surgery to remove a potential "foreign object" that might be lodged in his intestines. But, in the end, he was ok, and discharged with a prescription of kitty antibiotics and instructions to be be fed human Pepcid AC.

I nearly had a violent vomiting incident myself when I saw the final bill. We are talking serious cash. So much so that I could not justify going to a haircut appointment this weekend because of the serious cash outlay (I know, I know, I hear the the world's smallest violin playing in the background). Hey, at least we saved the $3,000 it would have cost for surgery. Yes, people, you heard me right - $3,000 for kitty foreign object surgery. But, Mr. Elvis and Ms. Monkey are members of the family, so we would have shelled this out, but it would not stop me from blogging/lamenting about it!

Happily, Elvis is doing fine. His vomiting has stopped, and he mostly looks at his shaved belly with a "WTF is this?" kind of expression on his face. He tries to hide his shaved belly - kitty modesty, maybe. And he is definitely enjoying the people food (canned salmon and tuna) that he is eating, on doctor's orders. Ms. Monkey is benefiting from this as well, since I can't look at her little face of jealousy without pangs of guilt, so I break down and feed her the people food, too.

Another Hole in the Wall

Art's Cafe - greasy spoon diner fare for very low prices, and randomly, a few Korean food choices on the back of the menu. Run by a Korean couple. We usually go for the bibimbap bowl with the barbequed beef, but their hash brown sandwich is very popular, too.

Elvis approves of the yummy lip smacking goodness!

Excitement

I really feel like Obama's win signals a new start for our country. I know he will make mistakes while in office (hey, no one is perfect), but his integrity and spirit make it seem that things will be moving forward. My excitement is only tempered by my sadness that Proposition 8 looks like it has passed. I am disappointed that California, while a leader in so many progressive ideas, has let this one pass.

Another WTH Moment

So I open my blog this morning, and I see a random ad placed on my blog from Google Adsense about voting yes for Proposition 8 to protect marriage. WTH?!? Now, I know that this is some automated thing, and it is probably no one particular person's fault that Google Adsense put this ad on my blog, but again WTH??

Just as clarification: I strongly believe that we should all vote NO on Proposition 8. It is discriminatory and wrong to amend the constitution for this issue. I am removing this blasted Google Adsense program from my blog immediately.

Behold, my first socks!

I finished my sock class, and here is the end product modeled on hubbie's feet (little Monkey's paws snuck into the picture - adds perspective). I call them the Learning Socks, and nevermind the short anklet length.

Socks

Ugh, being a corporate peon has been really rough lately. Late, late nights at work, missed meals and lack of sleep. The one bright spot for the past couple of weeks has been sneaking away for a couple of hours to join a sock class taught by my knitting guru at my favorite local yarn store, Imagiknit (then heading back in to work - sigh). I am finally learning how to knit socks...of course, this coming from the woman who hardly wears socks. Well, I figure someone I know will want some!

Here's the learning/test sock - note the anklet length. I told hubbie, the anklet may make it look girly, but he has to wear it anyway when complete. Here's to hoping that each sock I knit will eventually end up with a matching mate. I can see a knitting future filled with a slew of single socks.

Despair.com

Ok, have you seen this site? I am not trying to plug anything, but it is hilarious. I am thinking that a certain someone might get a custom calendar of demotivators. Because, let's admit it, when you walk into someone's office and he/she has one of those inspirational saying posters, you find yourself thinking, "Really, dude? For real?" and then maybe thinking about this. But, maybe I am just too cynical for my own good and meant to serve as a warning.

My Latest Project - Lace Ribbon Scarf

I love the way my Lace Ribbon Scarf turned out! It is my first lace project and first attempt at blocking anything. Blocking turned out to be not as daunting as I thought. I got lace blocking wires and used the Knitter's Block I purchased at Article Pract a couple of weeks ago.

Soundtrack to My Life - the iPod Game

Here's a game that I heard about through the internet. Try it, and don't cheat! Can't fast forward if the song you get is ridiculous - just admit that your taste in music may be...eclectic.

Cribbed from another blogger:
Imagine your life is a movie - what songs would be in it?
Here's how it works:

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Media Player, iPod, Zune (for those of use who work at Microsoft - haha), etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool... (this is actually a rule in the game, and just reiterates my thoughts above.)

Opening Credits: Alfie - Lily Allen
Waking Up: Friday Night, Saturday Morning - The Specials
The Big Move: Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
Falling in Love: Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
First Kiss: The Execution of All Things - Rilo Kiley
Fight Scene: Strawberry Swing - Coldplay
Breaking Up: Mr. Brightside - The Killers
Getting Back Together: Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne (oh,what? really, iPod?? how did this get on here? damn it.)
Secret Love: Brand New Key - Rasputina
Mental Breakdown: Bittersweet - Big Head Todd and Monsters (recall college days, anyone?)
Out Being Crazy With Friends: 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
Driving: Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus
Flashback: Why Can't I - Liz Phair
Happy Dance: A Message to You Rudy - The Specials (do I really like them or something? why are their songs on my iPod?)
Regretting: Lullaby - The Cure
Spending a Night Alone: Please Forgive Me - David Gray
Death Scene: Galileo - Indigo Girls (ok, if this doesn't recall college days, I don't know what does.)
End Credits: M+M's - Blink 182

Ok, so what have we learned? That none of those songs make sense for the chosen scenes, thus proving that my life is random and that I am still looking for a point...

Meet Devil Cat and Chubby Cat

Meet my evil black kitty. Her name is Priscilla, but we call her Monkey. She is a shelter kitty. She is half the size of our other kitty, Elvis, but she terrorizes him. She is evil around guests in our home, yowls and tries to scratch them dead, but we love her like no other. She is the most loving gentle kitty around me and hubbie. She tries to sleep between us in our bed, and spoons me at night until we kick her down to the bottom of the bed to sleep with Elvis. She loves when we cuddle with her and demands lots of attention. I can't help but love my problem kitty.

Meet my chubby tuxedo kitty. His name is Elvis. He was a feral kitty that one of my friends trapped and convinced me into adopting. He is my first cat - never thought of myself as a cat person until Elvis. He was a wild child at first, with lots of drive by scratchings of me and my friends. Now, he is happily mellow. As mentioned above, he is terrorized by Monkey. Notice his extremely short whiskers. Monkey likes to pretend to cuddle up to him and clean his face, then rip out his whiskers. Poor much enduring Elvis. He doesn't like to be held like Monkey, but likes to sit next to you and purr loudly. He sounds like a little engine.

We were at a Giants game, right?

Hmm, you wouldn't know it from the pictures taken, but we were at a Giant's home game - our last for the season. Guess which team hubbie supports. Makes us really popular at home games... This season, we treated ourselves to going in with a group of people to purchase club level seats for part of the season. I tell you, those seats were awesome. People actually come to take your food orders at your seat and deliver the food to you. We were by the third base line, so got great views.

The picture below is of Marie, the guest services usher for our section. She doesn't look she would or could do it, but she put the smack down on people who tried to sneak into the section. She was hilarious, and a huge Giants fan. Everytime there was a great Giants' play, she would dance around the section. For this picture, she snuggled right up to hubbie. She is great flirt with the guys!

San Francisco, where is the food of my peeps??

My friends, hubbie and I went to Doobu this weekend. It was one of my friend's first time going to a Korean restaurant. I think it can be overwhelming for someone who hasn't experienced it before. All these little side dishes come out - which, by the way should ALWAYS be free, and if they aren't, I say RUN out that "Korean" restaurant. Usually there are other sorts of things that come out for free, too, broth with some rice dishes, fish, noodles etc. but I noticed that SF restaurants don't always do that, which scandalized my Korean mom when she last came to visit. The flavorings in Korean food can be quite foreign, too, and spicy! But, I love it, grew up on it, and miss it terribly if I go without it for too long. I miss my mom's cooking!

I don't understand, but in a city that is famed for its gastronomical delights, it seems to me that San Francisco sadly lacks really good Korean restaurants. It makes me miss home and the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT) where you can get excellent Korean food at a cheaper price than the decent food out here for high prices. If we go out for Korean, we usually hit up these three:

My Tofu House - 4627 Geary Blvd. This place is really good and specializes in a spicy soft tofu stew, probably my favorite in SF, but long lines. Website is in Korean, but you can at least see the prices and offerings. And it's got to be authentic if the website is in Korean!

Brother's Korean BBQ - 4128 Geary Blvd I can't remember if the English writing is visible or not, but it is on Geary and 5th. Don't go to Brothers II, which doesn't let you cook at your table. I think this place is probably a little overrated, but the best in SF for Korean BBQ.
Doobu - 1723 Buchanan My backup choice when I don't want to wait in lines. Pretty good, too. Try their haemulpajun (seafood pancake) which is huge and comes out on a heated iron plate.

The Kitchen: Before and After

We recently remodeled our kitchen. We have even floors! We have cabinets! We have shelves! And most importantly, we have a dishwasher! Our contractor was a dream to work with and was in and out of there so quickly, we couldn't believe it.

BEFORE:



AFTER:

Meeting Amy Tan and the Ubiquitous Fruit Cap

This past Saturday, my in-laws (who came up from Fresno), my husband and I went
to see the opera "The Bonesetter's Daughter" at the San Francisco Opera. Amy Tan, who wrote the original novel upon which the opera is based, and the libretto to the actual opera was there, and I got a chance to meet her. Note the dorky picture. (I will also note here that the top I am wearing is from BCBG and was originally over $120, but I bought it Nordstrom's Rack a while ago for about $35. Score! ) The production was unique, but I have to say that I enjoy the classic Italian operas much more. And again, as per our usual, we did not have our camera with us, although we knew that we were going to meet Amy Tan, hence the shaky camera phone pic.

In other news, everyone I know seems to be pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or just recently gave birth. For one of these soon-to-be-born babies, I knitted the Ann Norling Fruit Cap#10 for Kids. I purchased this pattern at Article Pract in Oakland, CA. This pattern is super easy to follow and knits pretty quickly (for those who are more diligent than I). I meant to have it finished in time for the baby shower,
but it was not to be. I think it turned out very nicely - I meant it to be like a grape, but people seem to think it is an eggplant (although to me it would seem to be a very underripe eggplant). It also seems that every baby who has a family friend or family member who knits has one of these ubiquitous Fruit Caps. But, I understand, because who wouldn't love these little cute caps
on a baby! In the ultimate turn of laziness/efficiency, I interoffice'd this cap to the mom-to-be, since she and I are fellow corporate peons. Don't worry, I sent her "real" gift in the proper manner in time for the baby shower - from the baby registry and gift wrapped.

Stuff Korean Moms Like

Hilarious site, and most of it is true! My Korean mom is gangsta about paying the check and rocks the Korean mom perm.

http://stuffkoreanmomslike.blogspot.com/

The Makings of a Bad Day

See pictures. Enough said.

A Moment for Knitting Geekiness

Today, I am so excited to report that I finally purchased The Knitter's Block by cocoknits at Article Pract in Oakland. Here's a picture of it - these interlocking foam pieces come packaged in a handy and cute little tote bag, together with a cloth to help absorb water and some stainless steel T-pins. Book does not come with kit! Just something else I picked up while at Article Pract.

I have never really blocked anything before, but now that I have a couple of baby sweaters under my belt, and a sweater for myself that I hope will be finished sometime this decade, I think this will be a good investment for my knitting future. I have a couple of scarves that could stand to use some light blocking, so will embark on my first blocking adventure with those. The wonderful staff at Article Pract told me to try steam blocking first, if I am wary of complete immersion in water. They told me to use the steam setting on my iron, and when I mentioned that I actually have a garment steamer because I tend to burn things with irons, their eyes widened and they both exclaimed "Oooo, a steamer!" Haha!

Guitar Heroes?

After countless hours wasted playing Guitar Heroes on Playstation, my husband and I decided that it was time to get off our asses and learn to play the real thing. I am, however, reminded of that certain South Park episode where the kids sit around playing Guitar Heroes and when Stan's father tries to teach them real guitar, the kids say "Real guitar is for old people."

It has been about 2 1/2 months since we made that decision, and we are by no means any good (could it be that you actually have to practice to become better?), but we thoroughly enjoy our lessons and learning together. We feel like rock stars, no matter how unwarranted that feeling may be. Today, my guitar teacher exclaimed that he wanted to take a picture of my hand playing the F bar chord as evidence of my progress, since I had stated during one lesson that I would never, ever, ever get my hand to play a bar chord. Today, we also learned how to play the song Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1 by The Flaming Lips, just because I happen to love that song and there aren't too many chords involved, at least on the guitar tab that we dug up on the internet... Here's pictures of my guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, which my guitar teacher has nicknamed "The Counselor" (as if I were good enough to name my guitar, haha).

But, alas, after lessons, I sludged my way back to the office to do corporate peon work on a Saturday afternoon, wasting this pretty day indoors. Ah well, I suppose my corporate peon work will fund my rock star life once that starts going!

The Happiest Place on Earth

We are back from Anaheim, CA where we spent the weekend in order to attend a wedding. Long story short, I didn't realize that the wedding was literally down the street from Disneyland. I have never been there so it would have been nice to take an extra day to go and see it just one time.

I was, however, super excited to learn that a pinkberry was located less than 3 miles from the hotel. We went twice in three days. I lament that we don't have a pinkberry in San Francisco. The closest thing we have, I think, is Tutti Melon, which is delicious, too, but pinkberry just seems to be a touch better in terms of the quality and taste of the actual frozen yogurt. When we first visited a pinkberry in LA, the line was out the door, around the block, and there were articles in the LA Times about the parking tickets people were receiving for double parking to get some of the yummy goodness. We also happened to run into that Asian actor dude from Harold and Kumar movie fame and his entourage when we were last in a pinkberry. I don't know if it was because of the time of day or the location, but this time around, there wasn't any line. The picture is from day two - natural frozen yogurt with whole blackberries and fresh pineapple. YUM!!

The wedding was pretty nice, but on the whole, I feel wedding'ed out. This will be the third wedding we have attended in the last 5 weeks, all of which required travel (Tahoe, Hawaii, and Anaheim). Granted the locations were all pleasant (Hawaii, especially!), and the weddings were sweet, but seriously, at this point, both my husband and I feel that we won't be attending another wedding unless the it's for a blood relative or bosom buddy.

WTF

Things have been a little slow at work lately, seems like the downturn in the economy is really affecting us all. In any case, I am trying not to stress out about the lack of work, and instead enjoy the lull by leaving the office a little early, etc. etc.

Yesterday was particularly dull and I thought that I would leave around 5ish or so. Until, someone walks into my office about a project at 4PM, which really was follow up on some previous work I had done for them. Incidentally, it seems that the earlier project was sent into a black hole because I didn't hear anything about it after I turned it in. Ok, nothing unusual about getting projects towards the end of the day - that's all in the life of a corporate peon, but THEN, they state "Well, I don't have time to go into the details now, so what time were you thinking about leaving tonight?" I figure 5PM isn't a great answer around here, so I stretch and say I would stick around until at least 6PM or so. This obviously wasn't a very acceptable answer given the squinched-up facial expression I got in return. In an exasperated tone, they said "Well, I will TRY to get to you before 6PM then..."

So I sit in my office, really just doing some meaningless stuff, waiting around for this person to return. 6PM rolls around, not a peep. Then I hear this person with their loud voice on the phone talking about said project to the client. As though they had done the original work, and as though I hadn't just been waiting around for their butt to come talk to me about it. After the call ended around 6:30 or so, I figured, surely this person will now come talk to me about the project. Nope. So at 7PM, I gave up, and perhaps incorrectly (but I was angry) left without telling that person I was leaving.

As an aside, this person has done similar things to me in the past, so I don't know why I get so upset. I should just think it par for the course. My favorite was when they told me to wait around for them at the end of the day, and after waiting for literally 2 hours until about 8:30PM or so, I went to peek in their office and they had LEFT, people! As in office was dark and no one there. WTF.

Medium Fat Cheesecake

This weekend was gorgeous and relaxing. I went to Imagiknit where I purchased totally

 unnecessary, but pretty yarn (Koigu Painter's Premium Merino) to make the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/PATTlaceribbon.html I actually intended the yarn for a modular scarf pattern from Art Yarns, but as I knitted it up, the yarn just looked muddy and weird. I have tried this Art Yarns pattern with another type of yarn with the same problem (Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend). Perhaps it is a plot by Art Yarns to make sure that you can only use their yarn and nothing else! One day, one day...

We had friends over on Labor Day for a BBQ dinner. Of course, we didn't sit in the yard which is under semi-construction (a story for another day), but we did grill the chicken outside and brought it back upstairs and indoors. I still say this counts as a BBQ. I also made a "low-fat cheesecake" with lemon curd and strawberries which was de-lee-ci-ous.http://www.recipezaar.com/166151 The recipe from Paula Deen calls for sugar substitute, neufchatel cheese (instead of full fat cream cheese), butter substitute and egg substitute. What the hell? Why even bother? And this from the lady whose recipes and cooking shows on tv always call for adding a stick of butter to everything. So, I mixed it up a bit and tried to make it lower fat. My husband called it a "medium fat" cheesecake. We all agreed that the medium fat cheesecake was a success. 

Crazy Hot

Yesterday it reached 91 degrees in San Francisco. People here just don't know what to do when it gets that hot. All around the office people were talking about how they could not go outside because it was too damn hot. Today is still pretty warm for San Francisco, around 80 degrees, I think.

In any case, I left the office a little bit early yesterday (surprise!) to attend a knitting event at my local yarn store, Urban Knitting Studio http://www.urbanknitting.com/. It was called Knit and Wine. Nothing wrong with that combo! There was a fire on Treasure Island so there was horrific traffic yesterday on the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco. I have never seen it like that before, bumper to bumper with NO movement. It took me an hour to get to the event from my office. What should have been less than a $10 cab ride turned into almost $25! I was going to get out and walk, but I had a whole bunch of work crap with me and I was in a not so great neighborhood, so I ended up forking over the fare with sadness. But, at least the event was great.

Strange things I have eaten, or Spam, Spam, Spam.

So, my crazy husband was devastated to learn that we will be out of town when the 7th Annual Spam Musubi Eating Contest is occurring in San Francisco. We learned that last year's winning contestant managed to eat only 5 musubis in 5 minutes, a record at which my husband only said "Gah, ridiculous!"

For those who may not know, Spam musubis are basically a slab of grilled Spam in teriyaki sauce laid on top of a bed of rice and wrapped in seaweed - essentially, Spam sushi. Here's a link to a picture of one: http://ukumillion.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/spam-musubi-thumb.jpg
They are incredibly popular in Hawaii, which is like the Spam eating capital of the world.

I admit that I have eaten Spam in my lifetime, and even enjoyed it. It got me to thinking of some of the other strange things I have eaten. I am a big proponent of at least attempting to try something once before I shun it. Here's a small sampling of my "Strange Foods I Have Eaten" list: Monkfish liver (a Japanese delicacy), steak tartare (fancy way of saying raw beef), tongue, bone marrow, preserved duck egg (blech!), escargot, frog's legs, foie gras, jellyfish, pig's feet, tripe, and dried cuttlefish. Looking at this list, maybe this is why some people elect to become vegetarian! I do draw the line at things that are still alive when eaten. Once in Korea, I saw someone eat a live baby octopus. It was not a pretty sight. Then, on a travel show, I saw someone eat a really fat live caterpillar grub thing - not for me.

San Francisco is awesome.

Here are those pictures from our walk in Golden Gate Park. These are from the Dahlia Garden that is replanted each year and from the Conservatory which is right by the Dahlia Garden. Enjoy!

Oh My Chihuly!

Yesterday, we went to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to check out the Chihuly glass exhibit. It was amazing and beautiful. We kicked ourselves because we forgot our camera at home. I managed to take some shaky shots with my Blackberry, so am sharing what I have. I should really make it point to just carry around one of our small cameras in my bag at all times because it always seems we don't have a camera when we need one!

In the same day, I was surprised by the kindness of my fellow humans. My husband and I stopped at a small donut shop in the Inner Sunset to pick up some pastries for our friends who stayed with us this weekend. When we went in, there was an old blind man who definitely had seen better days and seemed like he wasn't quite all there. He was shouting out his orders and yelling other incomprehensible stuff. The lady behind the counter (the owner, I think) brought him his hot cocoa and donut and set the food up for him at his small table. Then, she went back, got out some money from the register and walked back to him, pressing the money into his hand. She told him to take the money back as a refund because someone had just come in and paid for his food. Of course, no one really had. It is clear from the shop that she is just barely scraping by herself, and to see this act of complete generosity made me smile. I know I am pretty cynical, but sometimes, people really do surprise me.

Today, my husband and I took another walk in Golden Gate Park because the day was gorgeous! We walked by some of our favorite places - the Dahlia Garden (which is in full bloom and really worth a look) and the Conservatory. Will post some pictures we took later (yes, this time we had the camera!).

Shoot! Sick again!

Had to stay home from work for a couple of days because of a cold. I don't know, but it seems like I am getting sick a lot these days. I went to the doctor about this phenomenon and he said it could be stress related. Big surprise.

Anyway, I just recently finished knitting a new scarf. Where I live, it is always scarf weather! We all get freaked out if the temperature hits the 80s, even in the summertime.

Uh oh

Instead of working all weekend like I should have, I did other stuff. Friends came to stay with us and we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Aperto on Saturday, breakfast in the Haight this morning and a long tour of Golden Gate Park. Makes me think that I should be changing jobs so I get to enjoy weekends without feeling guilty! Now, must get to work!

Peonage

So if you take a look at my profile, which isn't quite complete, you will see that I have listed my occupation as "Corporate Peon." Here's a definition from Wikipedia: "The words peon and peonage are derived from the Spanish peón (pe'on). It has a range of meanings but its primary usuage is to describe laborers with little control over their employment conditions."

Definition fits like a glove!

My first post

So, I am starting a blog. Never thought I would do it, and I doubt anyone will read this, but excited about it!