Christmas comes early!

Seppo got me a sewing machine! Exactly what I wanted! :D I am learning sewing techniques. Right now, it's all about the straight sewing on little pieces of cloth. I want to be able to hem my pants, since they are always too long for me.

We are so bad about early presents. Hee.

Last night, we went to see the Count Basie Orchestra at the SF Symphony. Earlier in the day, we went over to Klay & Nana's to play a little Scattegories and try out Sushi Sam's for the first time, before rushing like crazy people because we were worried about being late. We weren't. :D

They were really great. The music was beautiful, and the people clearly loved playing with each other. Melba Joyce sang a couple of songs, one of which was "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?". It was haunting and heartbreaking the way she sang it. Just beautiful.

Oh yeah, the symphony tickets were a present from Seppo's parents! Thank you!

Speaking of Christmas coming early, I saw a commercial on TV the other day for a televised audition to cast the leads of a new production of Grease! I love Grease! I am so all over that. Tee hee.

A random smattering, like every other time

Lately, I feel like all I do are summary posts, but I'm busy as hell.

Friends.
Tonight, I went to dinner with Hoa. Which was awesome. I don't know what it is, but it's so easy to talk with her. She is defintely an active listener, which is something I really appreciate, but I also think we had some similar experiences growing up which gives us an easy rapport. Or so I think from my side of things, while she sits on her side of things wondering why she feels sorry enough for me to meet me occasionally. :D

Uyen finished her half marathon at the astounding time of 2 hrs and 3 minutes! Holy crap! They both deserve to be mucho proud of themselves. Congraulations!!

Finances.
We opened a savings account at eloan.com at 5.5% APY. I had been looking into CDs with a CD ladder scheme in mind (ask me about CD ladders because I will be glad to answer), when I found that the highest non-credit union CD rate I could find for an amount we could afford topped out at 5.65% APY anyway.

Elections.
Don't be an idiot; vote. Don't make excuses; vote. For the love of God, this is what makes a democracy. And if you see any funny business at your polling site, report it. I have no idea where. But I'm sure you'll figure something out.

Books.
Both Seppo and I are making great progress. They both seem like they are telling stories, like they are really a part of a greater narrative. It's very satisfying. This year is different because I'm not plagued with thoughts/fears of whether I can do it or not. The last two years have taught me that I can do it. So this year has been about the quality of the content. Caring about the quality has made this a much more all-consuming process. I feel so nervous when Seppo reads my words. Not that he will or won't like them, but more that they will feel meaningless or trite and leave him feeling nothing. He's my only audience so far, so all the pressure is on him. :D



On the reading front, Colin lent me The Time Traveler's Wife. I am only about a quarter way through it, and I love it already. It's clever, but not self-important, interesting, and warmly written. It's a little awkward when it's called for. I have an awful feeling about something I am guessing will happen in the story, but I hope it doesn't. But if it doesn't, I'll think the author will have wasted a really great opportunity. Oh, the conflict.

Work.
Still busy. Going pretty well.

Berkley Bowl.
Wow, I had never been to Berkley Bowl before. And we've lived in this area for more than five years. It was great! The vegetable selection was astounding. Two thumbs up.

Battlestar Galactica.
Wow. Times ten. I can't believe the stuff that's happening in the second half of the second season. Definitely give it a try, but it's really best to start at the beginning.

Catch up

On the friend front: My friend visited from out of town a couple of weeks ago. Ordinarily, when I say things like that, they are usually out here on business, or for a wedding, or for some family-related function, or even vacation.

This time, it was quite different.

Margo just finished biking across the US. HOLY MOLY! I saw her near the end of the trip and was completely floored by her amazing feat. It was so awesome to see her [link to her entry of the day we met for dinner]. I hadn't seen her in years. I met her on either the first or second day of freshmen year in college. We even roomed together for a bit in sophormore year.

Actually, this reminds me of the fact that after Rush Week, we all had to figure out who we wanted to room with, and I remember she was one of the people I wanted to room with. She listed all the music I liked too! And she was so funny in an understated way. And dressed like the indie girl I wanted to dress like. AND to top it all off, she also read Sassy! Can you believe it? But my Evil Roommate guilt-tripped me and somehow convinced me that I had promised to room with her instead even though I had done no such thing. Sigh.

Anyway.

Margo. Awesome! I am so glad we are in touch again, so glad she called me up out of the blue.

Speaking of amazing stuff friends are up to, my friends (a couple married to each other) are running a half marathon tomorrow. Can you believe it? I am so proud of them! Go U & C! They have been working hard for this for months now, and I know they will push themselves to do their best.

I swear, I am the only slug in the group. H is busy as hell but trying to earn Presidential Champions awards. I can barely walk without huffing and puffing. I hope to get better at running eventually though. It's a goalish thing. I probably haven't improved much because I haven't actually made it a goal yet. We'll see when I get to the point where I want to make it a priority.

The novel writing endeavor is going surprisingly well. I mean, I don't objectively know if it's crap or greatness, but I'm putting more honesty and emotion into making the characters in this book than I had ever before. And it's a little terrifying.

I had been working like a dog, pretty much rolling out of bed, going to work, coming home, breaking for dinner, working some more from home, going to bed, lather, rinse, and repeat, which is why I haven't been blogging regularly lately, but I made a huge breakthrough Friday night in tweaking performance and reliability levels, so I feel less frantic this weekend. I am still doing some work this weekend, but I feel finally like I'm actually caught up.

Whew.

All pistons firing!

Today, I watched the TiVoed Project Runway Season 1 marathon (just the second half), got the Roomba back in working order, did a load of laundry, unloaded & loaded the dishwasher, tidied up the kitchen counters and stove, chased my dog around the diningroom table, helped cook dinner, and wrote over 3000 words (approx. 12 8.5" x 11" pages of double-spaced in fixed-width font) for my book. I feel like I had a really full day. I'm so ready to go to sleep.

So! Important! Not.

Since the elections are coming up, Iraq is going crappily with no real end in sight, and the state of education and health care in America is still what it is, I figured I need to focus on the really important stuff.

Like Madonna's baby.

Kidding!

More like pressing questions such as the following:

• If you are a part of a couple, when you get invited to things, do you prefer that
  1. people just funnel the invitations to one person (one designated contact or whomever is the "primary" friend of the inviter); or
  2. always invite the both of you when both of you are in fact invited?
  
  Personally, I like getting individual invites (or a cc on an email or evite) because I do occasionally invite individuals (not couples) to functions and unless I make it clear that it's a couples thing, I don't wanna see your significant other. Plus, I often don't hear about the event until it's too late if you only tell Seppo. :D
  
  
• Giving versus getting presents -- which do you love more?
  
  I'd rank it as:
  1. Giving presents when I know I've gotten the person a great gift they will love.
     
     
  2. Getting a present.
     
     
  3. Giving a gift without the certainty of knowing if it's a good gift or not.
  
  
• I feel like I now watch about half as much tv as I did as a kid and about twice (or more) as much tv as I did since college. Is it me, or is it that tv shows are actually better? Is posing this question as an either-or scenario inherently asking for wrong answers? How long does it take for rhetorical questions to get annoying? Now? How about now?
  
  
• Is loving things like the following picture a sign that I'm becoming a squishy old lady?
  
  
  
  Who cares? Soooo cute.
  
  
• Do kids actually go around your neighborhood "Trick or Treat"ing? We need to get the one or two kids that come giant bars of chocolate.
  
  
• Why it is that when I'm driving, I think of a million insightful, thoughtful things to blog about, but when I have the time and opportunity, it's almost always fluff like this?
  
  

I want to get a cute costume for Mobi, but I'm sure Seppo will object. Come on, he's a dog! He has no dignity to speak of! :D

Weekended

Wow, I was so busy this past week/weekend.

Work has been really hectic, so I haven't been making any social plans, but things kept coming up so I was able to be human and actually talk to people other than the little code monkeys in my head.

Sometime during the week (I think it was Tuesday?) we had an impromptu dinner with Holly at Mekong Garden on Piedmont Ave. Everything we ate was delicious, and I especially loved the dry fried salt and pepper squid. Yum! Mc & Holly were awesome company and we had a great time.

Wednesday, I think, we had Uyen over for shabu-shabu, but her meat was not very tender, as she's been working out like crazy for her upcoming half-marathon. Ok, we didn't eat her. It was a good time. Since the weather's been getting cold, I think we'll be having soups and stews more often.

Roopa came into town on Thursday! I didn't see her until Friday because she was here for work, and I obviously also have been busy with work, otherwise I would have taken the day off while she was here. :) We went back to Pearl Oyster Bar & Restaurant on College Ave, and this time, every dish was awesome, unlike last time when we were sort of torn on the food. I'm sure we'll give it a write-up at some point in the near future.

After a most delicious dinner (thanks Roopa!), we headed over to Jaguar Karaoke (formerly known as Music Box Karaoke) and sang for 4.2 hours (or so the time sheet said when we paid up)! My throat was so raw Saturday morning. Holly, Leila, and Lindsi joined us for the ridiculous sing-a-rama, meaning Seppo was trapped in a dark room with only five ladeez for hours and hours. Dun dun dun! Lindsi makes a really great air guitar partner, I have to say. :D I think we are the only ones that knew *every part* of the Bon Jovi songs and the New Kids on the Block songs, including the random backup parts. LOL!

It was interesting to observe the varying tastes of our friends. I tried to think of how I'd order us by similar musical tastes, and the best I can do is this:

Me -> Lindsi -> Holly -> Seppo -> Leila -> Roopa -> Me

Lindsi & I overlap in everything from the Motown era to the late 80s. Lindsi & Holly overlap in the more contemporary areas, I think. Seppo & Holly also do, but in different music than Lindsi & Holly overlap. Holly is key to the group because of her very diverse musical tastes, I think. Leila & Seppo have Radiohead-like music very much in common. Leila & Roopa definitely had music in common, but I had a hard time putting my finger on the exact subgenre. Roopa & I have a varied assortment of music in common, also not easy to categorize.

It's been a while since I've sung Pearl Jam and Roxette at the top of my lungs within a 15-minute time span. :D

Saturday morning, I woke up thinking that my cough & cold had returned from the week before, but luckily, it was just that my throat was raw from all the singing. Roopa and I headed over to Piedmont Ave and had yet another delicious meal together, this time at César (this is the second location; the original is in the Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto). Man, we were on such a great food roll. It was really great to sit outside at a nice restaurant and eat great food while chatting with a dear, missed friend about life and nothing in particular.

Seppo and I got spiffed up after lunch to attend Claire & Nick's wedding. After weeks of griping that they had nothing to wear, Uyen & Becky turned up looking like hot stuff indeed, and I looked like their matronly spinster aunt who had come to chaperone them. Hahaha. Anyway, it was a really pretty wedding with some very personal moments. Joe, of course, was the life of the party and danced up a nice older lady, who I'm sure now wants to make him her boy-toy. Watch out, Joe! ;)

Sunday was thankfully empty of engagements, since I had to catch up on some work so that I could be back on target. I managed to get some work done but it took much longer than I was hoping for.

I took a break from work so that we could go grocery shopping. I think that I'll be experimenting with spicy chicken & potatoes for as the next item in my Korean recipe refining series. :D

I got a call from a college friend this morning! She is in town for a few days, so I am going to try to catch dinner with her tomorrow night. :) Yay! So busy...