Picky Picky

Anyone know where the name Picky Picky is from?  If you were a reader of childhood books then it'll quickly come to mind.  :)

I was chatting with my old roomie N and we were talking about foods that we don't like.  I'm not a fan of cheese or onions and she's not a fan of stuff like squid and octopus.  Jerry could live without tomatoes (it accidentally falls off his burger), soup (he will eat all the stuff and leave the liquid behind) and Asian desserts (specifically all kinds of che).  We narrowed it down:  I don't like smelly/pungent foods, she's not a fan of chewy textures, and Jerry doesn't like slimy/soupy stuff.  Although out of all of us, I'm probably the pickiest.  I will literally gag when I'm near cheese...while Jerry doesn't like certain things, he'll still eat it- his gag reflex won't get activated or anything drastic.

What are you picky picky about?

Rough

The past week (starting from last Friday) was one of the roughest work weeks I've had in a long time.  Generally I'll have to put out fires at work every now and then but overall, I can handle any problems that come my way just fine.  Plus, I am generally prepared enough that we don't get overwhelmed too often.  But the last 5 work days were especially rough (and not to mention...I had to work both Saturday and Sunday last weekend as well!).  There was so much stress and drama and it came in waves and waves. And. Would. Not. End.  Technological snafus, late (and also lack of) document submissions, snippy correspondance that left me in a bad mood, people showing up 30 minutes late and 24 hours early for trainings...you name it, I encountered some form of it.  Oh, and I also got sick yesterday- I sneezed all day, got the sniffles, and then alternately felt hot and cold at the same time (after some Tylenol and a good night's sleep I'm better this morning).  Many of the things were out of my control, but there was an instance where I messed up in a major way and I only had myself to blame- amidst the frenzy I took a short break to scarf down my lunch, and was mid-drink of water when I decided to set down my water to do something really quick.  And in that instance, my elbow knocked my bottle and I splashed water everywhere on my desk...including my supervisor's laptop.  Yes, there's water damage.  I offered to help in anyway I can.  And finally, a week later, I've stopped feeling guilty about it.  I mean...what's done is done right?

Thankfully today seems to be a quiet and drama free day.  The only real decision I have to make is what I want for lunch.  Later this afternoon I have a 3pm off-site meeting and that's about it.  (I know...who calls a 3pm meeting on a Friday right?  But such is the nature of my job.)  I hope the rest of Sept will be more or less drama free.  It will still be crazy...I've got meetings from one corner of the County to the other (including Claremont and Palmdale...yes, PALMDALE!) and one more huge training to go.

I guess this is good preparation for when we have kids...cus we will probably encounter tons of craziness then.  :)

Every Weekend Should Be a 3 Day Weekend

I'm finally getting around to finishing this post!  Our internet was intermittent from last Thurs until Wednesday.  Totally sucked!  The worst of it was Mon and Tues.  We basically had to rely on our phones because it was that bad.

I had such a fulfilling long weekend.  It made me wish that every weekend was 3 days! One day for family/friends, another for errands/chores, and a day for leisure/rest.  Unfortunately most regular weekends consist of me trying to cram as many activities/commitments/obligations as possible into 2 days worth of time.  There just aren't enough hours in the day!  On this particular weekend we were able to sleep in (well my version of sleeping in is waking up at 8am haha) and just be lazy in the mornings.  It was fantastic.

Highlights (there are many!) of how we spent our long weekend: (note this post is all over the place)

Thanks to Amazon's promotion, we managed to watch a couple of movies!  And you know what else is awesome about Amazon?  So our internet connection was REALLY bad on Monday and our movie kept getting interrupted.  Totally not Amazon's fault.  Today I get this email:

Hello,

We noticed that you experienced poor video playback while watching the following rental(s) on Amazon Video On Demand:

 Limitless

We're sorry for the inconvenience and have issued you a refund for the following amount(s):

 $3.99

While Amazon Video On Demand transactions are typically not refundable, we are happy to make an exception in this case. This refund should be processed within the next 2 to 3 business days and will appear on your next billing statement for the same credit card used to purchase this item.

Thank you Amazon for your amazing customer service!  That's what we're such loyal customers.  :)  

We were eh about Limitless.  I like Bradley Cooper but the movie wasn't anything special.  On the other hand, we both really liked Something Borrowed.  Our tastes totally don't align with the general public, because this movie got terrible reviews.  But whatever...I loved the book and I'm a sucker for many rom coms. 

Went to a wedding of an old college buddy. She was such a beautiful bride!  I think my favorite part of any wedding is always the slideshow.  I'm a sucker for baby photos and I love seeing how both the bride and groom have grown over the years.  Another favorite of mine is dancing the night away to some great tunes, although no matter how many times I've done the Cupid Shuffle I always forget how it goes!

My old college roommate N (she is in the above pic- was a BM at the wedding) and her husband came over one night and we grabbed takeaway from this pretty neat joint called "The Standing Room."  It's inside a liquor store and you definitely wouldn't know there was delicious food in the vicinity if you happen to just be driving by.  Lucky for us, Jerry's friend clued us in, we tried it out earlier this summer, and I have been raving about it since to anyone who would listen.  Warning- if you get the Chance Burger the spiciness is going to kick your butt.  Jerry actually only ate half of his burger cus it hurt so bad.  No worries...he ate a large order of fries so that was enough to keep him full.

The 4 of us also played a couple of fun games- Loaded Questions and Gumpsch.  N and I learned Gumpsch while in Boston in 2006, and we love it!  Such hilarity.  Loaded Questions is also a fun board game, I highly recommend buying it the next time it's on sale at Target or Amazon!

On the food front pretty much all of Labor Day was spent prepping and cooking.  Jerry made ~150 wontons for freezing, and since we had left over filling I made some eggrolls, a large batch of granola (yes, I gave it another shot after throwing away batch #1), and we prepped our second 5.75 lb bag of green beans.  Yes, a second bag weighing 5.75 pounds!  Funny story about that, which starts with the first bag of green beans...

So I recently discovered this market called LAX- C.  Best way to describe it is Asian Costco run by Thai folks.  This place is huge, a mix of grimy and fresh (like many ethnic markets are), and not to mention we saw lots of restaurants do their shopping here.  I mean...who else needs that much soy sauce?

So two weekends ago, we bought this amazing case of huge mangos and a bag of green beans that was also around ~6 lbs (think Costco portions) from LAX C.  I have a propensity to immediately seize upon a good thing when I see one, so I was already plotting my next visit.  We devoured the mangos within a week, cooked half the beans for our lunches for the week, and had frozen the other half of the batch.  We returned again, only 7 days later because I wanted to stock up some more amazing produce.  So we bought 3 cases of mangoes (that's 21 of those suckers!) and another monster bag of green beans.  My plan for the mangos is to cut them up and freeze them for smoothies.  I almost wanted to grab the broccoli as well...it was so cheap...but Jerry talked me out of it.  Something about lack of room in our fridge.  :(  Seriously, I can't wait until our forever house so we can get a second fridge/freezer.  The possibilities of a second freezer are endless!  Someday I will have to write a post about the awesomeness of freezing.  In the meantime...you can read about my friend L's blog about this subject!

We also visited McCall's Meat and Fish two weekends in a row.  Yes...this place was so awesome that we were willing to drive north, north, and more north twice within a week!  We have purchased their burger meat (super juicy), kurobuta pork chops (kurobuta is basically the Kobe of pork), and a couple of house blend gourmet sausages.  Their flat iron is especially amazing.  You don't even have to season it with much except for S&P, it's that flavorful.  The perfect pairing for the last 10 weekday lunches in a row have pretty much been flat iron and wok-fried green beans.  (We make all our work lunches for the week over the wknd.)  At this point you're probably sick of me talking about green beans, but it was really that tasty.

Okay enough about green beans.  We were also able to get in a 10+ mile bike ride along the Strand and finally flew my kite!  More on that later.  :)  I really need to take more advantage of living so close to the beach.

Oops, one more thing about food.  We decided to head out to Griffith Park for a little picnic with goods curated from Ink Sack and Mozza2Go.  So we finally made it out to Ink Sack, Michael Voltaggio's "fast food" joint.  The menu is pretty limited and sort of reasonably priced.  The sandwiches start at $4, but if you're pretty hungry you gotta order at least 2.  I don't know how often the menu will rotate, if at all, but we especially liked the fried cold chicken sammie.  The Jose Andres was just okay...and we were not huge fans of the spicy tuna.  The Mexican chocolate chip cookie was yummy!

No pictures of Mozza2Go...or actually of any of the food we ate because at this point it was 2pm and I was STARVING!  You can read about the concept of Mozza2Go (Batali's place) in more detail on the internet, but basically it's a bunch of yummy Italian fare, but to-go.  We got an order of meatballs (OVERPRICED- skip!!), chicken liver pate bruschetta style (I loved it...Jerry not so much), and a butterscotch budino (a pudding dessert).  It was a nice spread and I was able to try a couple of places on my LA food list.

Ooh and before I forget...take a look at what N gifted me for my bday:

Super cute!  Can't wait to use them.  Earlier this summer I had gifted her a 3 month subscription to Birchbox for her bday.  So in addition to fun birthday surprises, we also happen to exchange "just because gifts" without knowing the other person was going to reciprocate.  At the wedding the day prior, she had overheard me say "I want a picnic basket!" because the wedding favors were chocolates in cute little baskets.  And lo and behold, the next day when we hang out, in addition to my bday present, I also got a picnic basket just because!  And my "just because" gift to her was a bunch of really cute stuff from Daiso that I had bought a while back and hadn't gotten around to giving them to her.

So that was my really awesome weekend.  I wish I could relive again!  This post felt all over the place...but that's how it was...in a great way!

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Today was just one of those really lousy days.  It basically involved:

*an alternating between dull and piercing headache on my right side that hasn't gone away
*I am rarely affected byAunt Flo but today I got so pissed off at my food processor.  It shoved all my olives to the sides and basically was "chopping" the air around it, and NOT chopping my olives.  So I scraped the olives out onto a chopping board, started furiously whacking at it with my knife, and made tapenade so fine it basically turned into a paste.  Hrmph.
*I had a nearly hour long drive to a late meeting (I hate meetings that start at 7:30, because even though they are supposed to end at 8:30, I never get out until closer to 9pm)
*Jerry got into a crash with a kid on the bike trail.  Basically the kid and his 2 friends were messing around on their bikes and wandered into Jerry's path...while Jerry was going 25 MPH.  He tried to warn the kid but it was too late.  Luckily his injuries were very minor although we're hoping that his right wrist will be okay.  I can already tell his pinky has some internal bruising.  The thing about these injuries is that even though there's not too much blood, the bruising and aches show up the next day.  I hope the kid learns his lesson.  Do not mess around on the f*cking bike trail.

Here's hoping tomorrow will be better.  I'm flying to Sacramento for the day and working there should hopefully get my mind off of the crappiness of today.

Obsessed VS Over It, Part 2

Time for another round of lists!  See here for part 1.

Obsessed:

Trader Joe's Gummy Bears.  My nearly 2 year old niece was noshing on these while we were in Lake Tahoe and Jerry and I kept walking over to her to steal more.  When we got home we went to TJs and got our own bags.  They are so tasty and have a great bite to them.  I'm no longer a fan of Haribos, TJs all the way for me when it comes to these treats!

The Rachel Zoe Project.  Yes, many awful things have been said about Rachel Zoe, but you can't deny that this woman has some great taste.  I'm a sucker for anything fashion AND reality TV related, so this show is a win for me.  I can't believe I had never seen this show before until this past Tuesday (it was on while I was at the gym) and season 4 is starting up in a couple weeks!  Since Tuesday I've seen like 8 episodes, I'm that addicted.  Go ahead.  Judge me.

Chicago.  I recently came back from Chicago and I pretty much can't shut up about it.  It was one of the best cities that we've ever visited!  Once I go through my pics I'll do some posts on this awesome city.  (The pic above was taken by my HS pal- he used his cell phone to write out "Chicago")

NASCAR WaGs.  WaGs stands for wives and girlfriends.   This is a random one but I happen to read an article in Redbook about the wives and girlfriends of Nascar drivers and it made me curious enough to google them.  We hear a lot about basketball and football wives but auto racing really isn't on my radar so I never thought to think that there'd be a bunch of hot chicks married to race car drivers.  Seems like there isn't much drama though off the race track.  Ingrid Vandebosch (married to Jeff Gordon) totally reminds me of Bridget Moynahan.  I think Nicole Lunders/Biffle is really naturally pretty while Samantha Busch looks waaaaay older than 25 in some of the pictures.  Random, I know.  So when is Bravo going to give them their own reality show??

Over it:

Bus seat hoggers.  This is super annoying.  While the majority of folks on my commuter bus are pretty professional and respect space, there are some folks who are major seat hoggers.  There's this one lady that lugs so much crap everyday, it's like...you're going to work in downtown...not taking a trip to the beach.  There's briefcase dude who reads his newspaper with wide stretched arms sits next to me and I get crammed up next to the window.   However he hasn't sat next to me in months cus one time I got so fed up that I started mega coughing, sniffling and making funky sick noises (I was actually sick) so I think he got the message, haha.  Then you've got your chub rub-bers.  Sometimes the bus is so full that I've either got to stand (which is hard to do cus I can't reach the overhead grip), or I gotta suck and it up and sit next to someone who takes up 1.5 seats.  Pretty gross.  Oh well...I guess it beats driving in LA.

Shopping bans.  The idea of this type of budgeting doesn't appeal to me anymore.  I went on two large shopping hiatuses about 5 years ago- I did a stretch of 3 summer months without buying clothes or accessories, went on a Canada/NYC/Boston trip at the end of summer with some college buddies where I spent quite a bit of money shopping (it was an epic shopping trip...we went to 8 H&Ms back when there were none in CA), and then after I came back, I did another 4 months of no shopping through the rest of that year.  From what I remember, I think it started off as just an experiment to see how far I'd be able to go, and it turned out that I managed quite well so I decided to keep it going.  I think the no shopping period worked for me at the time because I was younger, a much less high maintenance person, and I was also saving up to move out and go to grad school, so it made sense.  What I really don't understand are the fashion bloggers who go on self-imposed bans but are allowed "cheat items."  I mean...what's the point of a ban if you're gonna buy stuff during that period?  Or if their sig other buys it for them...it doesn't count b/c it doesn't break any rules of the "shopping ban."  I think everyone is entitled to spend their money any way they please, but umm, calling it a "shopping ban" and then shopping anyway isn't really a ban.  Just my two cents.

Produce snobs.  Maybe this is because I eat a lot of fruits and veggies, but I really don't understand food bloggers/yelpers who refuse to eat healthy items unless it's organic.  So the rest of the time, they eat crappy cus they weren't able to get to a farmers market.  There are some fruits and veggies that taste pretty awesome when procured at the farmers market (love Gaviota strawberries!) but for the most part...I think the nutritional value is pretty much the same!  I have no shame in shopping at Valu+ or Food 4 Less.  I really don't know why folks look down at shopping at such stores!

People who don't know my address and/or don't respond when asked to RSVP.  My personal rule of thumb is you're allowed to be forgetful here and there (I've had my share of DOH moments)...but after a while if it seems like a pattern, I won't bother anymore with those individuals.  I have friends who would repeatedly ask for not only my address, but also driving directions (sometimes in the middle of a party when I'm busy and not looking at my phone), every single time they came over, despite me emailing and texting it to them on numerous occasions.  I have other friends who rarely respond to my invites, so I've stopped inviting them to things.  I don't hold hands of adults, period.  People need to get their act together!  Life is too short to hang out with people who don't care enough to prepare in advance.  Harsh, but I'd rather have only a few great and dependable friends rather than a bunch of unreliable ones.

In reading what I just wrote...I realize that as I get older, I've become much less tolerant of BS, and apparently I am watching more reality TV than ever!  :P

Upside, Downside

DS: burned a whole batch of granola AND left a tray of fresh salmon in the backseat (we took everything from the trunk but forgot about the car!).  I hate wasting food :( 

US: almost successfully made macarons from scratch!  

DS: scraped my leg again while rolling my bike uphill.  I know right?  I wasn't even riding ON the bike!  

US: finally was able to give Jerry a tour of UCLA (~5 miles total, dorms included), and doing it via bike made it so much easier!

DS: midsection feels sore when I laugh or cough

US: I think that means that I'm working out my abs?  I have been working out pretty consistently this summer!

DS: tonight's city council meeting took 3 hours (although it only took like 3 minutes to drive home, yay.  and Manhattan Beach has expanded its smoke free outdoor areas to the Strand and the Greenbelt, woohoo!)

US: yesterday night's city council meeting (Huntington Park) was over in 10 minutes!!! 

How's your week going?  Upsides? Downsides?  Feel free to share!

Google Plus

I enjoy information and knowledge- I love reading it and then sharing it.  Which is why I've pretty much completely switched over to Google Plus and haven't posted on FB since then.  I really like this new platform!  It's basically the best parts of FB and Twitter put together!  You can find me here.  And if you click on the Buzz Tab, you'll see all the random and cool things that I've bookmarked on the internet.  I haven't decided how much of my page I will eventually privatize, but in the meantime most of the things I share (including pics) will be public for now so my non-G+ friends can view it.  Speaking of pics, I used this program to transfer all my FB pics to my picasa account.  Probably once most of my friends/family join/switch over I'll start fiddling with the settings.  I also need to figure out the picture tagging stuff as well, it doesn't feel quite as intuitive as FB yet.  But then again, FB has been around for 7 years!

Honestly, I don't know if G+ is going to be a FB killer.  I feel like G+ caters to a different group of people- those who are avid users of google products, including Gmail.  (I mean...you need a gmail address to join!)  I don't know about you, but I really cringe when I still see an aol.com, a hotmail, or even a yahoo address still in use.  Cus basically someone with an aol.com acct checks their email once a month, a hotmailer checks email once a week, and a yahoo account holder checks once a day, while a gmailer checks multiple times a day.  I actually have to alter my communication style if I see a certain email address in use.  For example, I'll pick up the phone and call rather than emailing someone at aol.com.   I know they probably won't read my email until who knows when.  If I'm emailing hotmailer I won't bother attaching anything cus their attachment quota is lousy.  You get the picture.  Call me an email snob.  I pretty much am transparent in that aspect!

I think I will continue to read and comment FB as long as folks are still active there, but personally for myself I find G+ a better place to share my thoughts, links, and pictures, and to carry dialogue.  Let's see how I feel later on!  

Christmas in July

I picked up The Family Stone from the library and watched it without knowing that it was a Christmas movie.  Even though we're smack in the middle of summer I already can't wait for Christmas!  I really enjoyed this movie, I thought it was a great ensemble cast.  Here are some of my other favorite holiday films:

This is my favorite holiday movie of all time.  In fact, I even walked down the aisle to Portuguese Love Theme.  I think I saw this movie twice in the theaters and then multiple times a year following its release. 

Say what you will about Macaulay Culkin and the sequels, but there's nothing like the original!

I like Kate Winslet in just about anything!

And last but not least, It's a Wonderful Life.  Pretty much the quintessential holiday movie. 

Other Christmas flicks that I haven't enjoyed as much: Four Christmases, Deck the Halls, and The Santa Clause.  

So definitely The Family Stone will be added to my rotation of holiday flicks!  I also want to watch Elf and While You Were Sleeping.  I like watching movies but I'm terrible at catching them in the theaters! I went to a drive in movie theater earlier this year but other than that I haven't seen a movie in the theaters in 2 years. 

Eye Candy

I picked up these sunglasses at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale recently in black.  Love, love these.  They fit me really well and is the right amount of tint for me.  Well it could be slightly darker, but I've halfheartedly been looking for sunglasses for nearly a year now so I'm happy that my search is over...that is until I capsize in a kayak and lose my sunglasses in the ocean again, haha.

I'm also in love with many of these bangles from Kate Spade as well.  I want one in every color and pattern!

My SIL and I popped into Anthro a while back and oohed and aahed over all the pretty things.  I've had my eye on this little number for a long time now.  Polka dots!!

I attempted cake pops a while ago with a gal pal...they were not easy off the bat, but not that bad when you get the hang of it.  Ours definitely didn't look like these though.

Aren't these sooo creative??

One of my favorite shows is Covert Affairs.  I watch for the plot and dialogue.  Just kidding.

Ahh Christopher Gorham aka Auggie.  LOVE his character on the show.  I didn't even recognized him on Ugly Betty!  I also really like Oded Fehr, he guest stars once in a while.  Jerry makes fun of me for liking Auggie and he doesn't get why I like Oded Fehr so much.  I haven't seen Oded in his other work where he has the icky long hair, but I adore his character on Covert Affairs. 

Picture or painting? 

It's actually a real photograph!  Amazing huh?  More details here.

Observation: Asking Strangers

Jerry and I differ when it comes to asking strangers for stuff such as information. I don't think it's necessary a male vs female thing, just the way that we were brought up.  I have no qualms tapping someone on the shoulder and asking for help, directions, or to take a picture of us.  Jerry on the other hand hesitates before he does so and often times asks me to do the asking unless I'm really not in the best of moods where I go "YOU/JUST ask."  The reason why I make him do the asking sometimes is because if the answer is really long (like a complicated direction) I'd rather not repeat it to Jerry again haha because I'll probably leave out some info by accident.  He is a much better listener than I am, my hearing really sucks!

We talked about this difference between us while cruising and figured out what it was.  When I was growing up my mom didn't know much English and therefore at a very young age I was the go-to person to approach people for directions, where so-and-so store was, which counter was the correct one, etc.  Remember this is pre-Google days so I learned how to read a Thomas Guide really well.  I even had to translate for mom at the doctors office, DMV, grocery store, etc etc.  (As a side note, being the one person in the patient room who could speak Vietnamese and therefore the only one able to give my mom her cancer diagnosis was NOT fun.)  So simply put, I just got used to asking people anything in all situations.  Jerry on the other hand- his parents speak perfect English and especially with him being the youngest, he didn't really have to be the one responsible for such things.  Of course there are many times when he does take initiative but it's more instinctual for me than it is for him.

The one thing we both still suck at is screening strangers who can take good pictures of us.  Most pics of us are crooked or we're missing a limb lol.  So instead of asking people sometimes we'll just use a timer instead.  Sometimes I feel like, what is the point of asking someone to take a pic of us if I'm just going to delete it later?

Edited to include this awesome pic of us: