Cliche Pictures Again

 But I'm okay with it. Made another trip to SF this last week and it was fantastic! Paola and I basically ate our way through the weekend, which is exactly how we roll. 

Thurs night = Fritz crepes. Biggest crepes ever. Nice!

Friday night = Thai place (P, what was the name of that place? We need to go back) within walking distance of her place

Sat morning = Zazie = YUM! I got the gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd on top and they were AWESOME.

Sat night = Taquiera Cancun. Best burrito I've ever had, even if the gang (?) that hid in the restaurant to evade the cops was a little disconcerting.

Monday = random place at the SF airport had the best quesadilla outside of La Sirena Grill that I've enjoyed. The bacon in it definitely had something to do with that.

 I've been wanting to visit this place for a while, so I was thrilled we got it on the agenda this time. Beautiful, huh? The best part was this: two gals were having (separate) quinceaneras/photo shoots there, decked out and with fancy photographers and everything. Some random tourists apparently really wanted some shots, so they got IN FRONT OF the photographers and started snapping away. Pretty classic.

It IS a real tree, and it has 20,000 lights on it. I had to take a picture of both the tree and sign since Mom is well known for her love of a tree that's pretty much on fire. She put 31 strands of lights on our cute little tree. 31! Now, it's not 20k, but c'mon! :)

Of Course!

So, we've got employees. Plural. And we've got an office. With cubicles and stuff! It's all very exciting. And do you know what this means, in part?

My days of talking with friends whenever they call, middle of the day, middle of the night, whenever, etc. might be over. It's kind of sad and I miss it.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Little Sister called this afternoon, on a non-work-day. She said, "Guess where I am?"

"California?!"

"No, but that's better than my answer."

"PF Chang's?! Tucano's?!" (our usual spots back in the day)

"No."

I gave up, so she said, "TJ Maxx!"

OF COURSE she's shopping. =) Why I didn't guess on the first try, I'll never know.

I heart Little Sister, and I miss her adorable face so stinkin' much! Come visit soon, love!

My Bishop Rocks

Any of you had a Yellow bishop before? It's pretty dang cool. If you haven't had a Yellow bishop before, I feel bad for you.

Any of you had a bishop ask you to meet with him to go over your patriarchal blessing? If you haven't, I feel bad for you.

Any of you had a bishop read over a part of your patriarchal blessing, and then say, "That is LEGIT"? If you haven't, I feel bad for you.

My bishop rocks.

San Francisco, I Love You

Cliche picture? Perhaps, but I'm okay with it. Even more okay with it since the boat tour coincided with the Blue Angels doing their fancy tricks overhead--it was awesome!

I went up to S.F. for five days to play with Paola and to try and squeeze in some work. The play and the work were all pretty much perfection (I love clients that love us), and I may or may not have fallen in love with San Francisco. Again.

You'd better believe the $90 JetBlue fare to return to S.F. next month is tempting me. Potentially more than I can handle.

Add This to the "Feel Like An Adult" List

Semi-recently I asked when you felt like an adult, and I've got another to add to the list of TiVo'ing cooking shows and asking for nice kitchen knives for Christmas: picking up my suits from the dry cleaners after a business trip. I feel like I'm totally faking this being-an-adult thing 99% of the time, until doing things like that.

Any new "Feel Like An Adult" things to add to your list?

Is This Crazy?

I am currently the owner of three printers--is this crazy?

I bought a black-and-white laser my third year up at school because paying for those stupid ink cartridges every few months seemed so stupid to me. Lasers rock and save you bundles in the long run. Then I saw a color laser on sale the next year, and I had to buy that, too.

My boss showed up tonight with one of those printer/scanner/fax things--sweet! I don't have to go up to the neighbor's house anymore to scan documents for clients--yay! Everybody wins.

No Bueno

You know how you have good hair days and bad hair days? Days where you wake up and think you're looking pretty good for the day? Other days when it's maybe not so much? I was feeling pretty good about things today having recently gotten my hair cut and colored, only to pull out my magnifying mirror to find it was broken.

Cue jokes now.

I Used to be Better at This

I used to be better at this blogging thing. Or maybe my life was more interesting and I felt I actually had something to blog about. I dunno.

But I'm heading to Santa Barbara next week for work, and then to San Francisco to visit Miss Paola and also meet with a client or two a couple weeks after that. Life's about to get more interesting.

I'm seriously looking forward to S.B. See why?

Does this ever happen to you?

This didn't happen to me, but I'm wondering if it happens to anyone other than, well, someone I know.

So work with me during this hypothetical situation, and let me know if any of these aspects of this situation ever happen to you.

Do you ever call up the customer service line of a product and, while on hold for 10 minutes or so, realize you REALLY have to go to the bathroom?

Do you decide to go, even while on hold?

Does someone take your call just as you're, you know . . .

Does a man happen to be on the other end of the line?

Do you happen to be calling the customer service line to ask a question about pantyliners?

The Things You Learn

I learned yesterday that I'm apparently very fat.

Whilst demonstrating a few arm-balance yoga poses for some extended family, I was holding myself up with my hands to which my aunt exclaimed, "Woah! That's a lot of weight to hold up!"

I love Jo for so many reasons, and that's totally one of them.

=)

Sure, Why Not?

My sister and Jack spent Tuesday up here, so we all went to our favorite Thai place, the kind of place that is owned by the NICEST Thais who speak little--and broken--English.

(I pretty much want to bathe in their green curry, it's so good) 

What does Mom say, in a way that only she can pull off?

"You gotta talk Taiwanese here . . ."

Strange Urges

I've learned some really cool poses in yoga classes lately. So cool, in fact, that I've lately been walking around with strange urges to hop into these poses at the most random of times.

Like when a guy goes on a 2-3 minute random comment in Institute, what was I thinking about? "I wonder if I could do side crow on the sidewalk outside right now."

Or when I was listening to some fantastic organ music after Institute tonight, "Is there enough room on this podium to try crow?"

Due to popular demand (read: Wendy's request), here are pictures of two of the three poses I'm obsessed with right now:

There's a third pose I'm also obsessed with, but I can't remember the name of it and I'm having trouble finding a picture of it. I'll keep looking though, because it's so cool!

No Really, This Is Ridiculous

Remember how I asked if any of you had experience with Amazon Prime recently?

I may have a bit of a problem. An addiction of sorts, if you will. 

(Cue the classic Will & Grace episode in my head: Karen: "Well, I'm no expert, but I think you have a little addiction problem. Now, listen to me. [gets out a pill] The first thing you have to do is admit that you have a problem. [swirls the pill in her martini] Because if you can't even recognize the signs . . . [drops the wet pill into her mouth] then you are really in sorry shape. [washes down the pill] Oh, mmm! [To the martini glass] Why are you so good to me?"

I am currently surrounded by these recently purchased books on my bed:

The Big Leap

Good to Great

The Highly Sensitive Person

A New Earth

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Women of the Old Testament

In Defense of Food

The Omnivore's Dilemma 

Made to Stick

Yeah, I'm a nerd. But now that I think about it, it's not really an addiction I'm worried about anytime soon. What are you reading? What should I add to my stack here?

Why, Yes It Has Been Two Months Since My Birthday

Doesn't mean I've taken down all the wonderful cards I got or that the balloon the Cardalls gave me isn't still going strong.

Because I haven't, and it is.

Hey, I'm a Blue; birthdays are what we do. :)

When Did You Realize You Were An Adult?

It hit me a couple years back when I asked for a nice set of kitchen knives for Christmas (how I love my Twin Cuisine Henckels!). Then it hit me again when I recently realized that TiVo'ing cooking shows is pretty much one of the coolest things ever. (or does that just make me a big nerd?) Yep, I'm officially an adult now.

When did it hit you?

Anybody Like Yoga?

Anybody like yoga? I've been going to some yoga classes at this studio nearby for the last couple of months and it totally kicks my trash! No, seriously--it's hard. There's not a chance I can get anywhere near doing that pose in the picture, but I think it looks super cool.

I swear, my body isn't built for yoga, but it's pretty dang awesome.  If you want to give it a whirl, CorePowerYoga in AV gives you a free week to try it out. They mostly offer heated classes, and I've become a fan.

It's Genetic

My sister and I both have this thing where we run into things. A lot. Apparently our body-eye coordination? Not so good which is weird since we're both pretty athletic. But I run into corners with my shoulders all the time (Mom says it's the broad shoulders--what?!). The other day I REALLY missed while getting into the shower and hit the sliding doors so hard that Mom figured I'd seriously hurt myself because the thud was so very loud. Nope, just didn't quite judge the right distance between my ever-so-broad shoulders (seriously?) and the sliding doors.

Which brings me to the point of the post. I've got this big bruise on my calf--maybe three inches by two inches--and I have NO idea how I got it.

Does this happen to anyone else? Random, painful bruises? Or maybe randomly running into things? You know, ALL THE TIME? Anyone? Anyone?

Human Jukebox

I'm a guitar player. A skills-are-much-regressed-in-the-last-five-years guitar player, but a guitar player nonetheless. One of the things I get a kick out of is seeing how people respond to you when you're jamming away at a bonfire with a bunch of friends. There are usually two types of folks who will engage in conversation with you: the kind who will list 20 of their favorite songs and ask you to play them all (and then ask if you have lyrics to all of them--no joke), and the kind who ask what your favorite songs are, and if you'd play them.

While I don't mind engaging in a little bit of human jukebox, it's incredibly refreshing when the 1% of folks who fall into the latter category pop up.

Perfect Thursday Night

What could be better than cooking dinner with a friend--roasted chicken chipotle tacos--and then watching the pilot of Castle, the series finale of Will & Grace, and then the season finale of Grey's with said friend?

Absolutely nothing.

Especially since that was the most intense two hours of TV I've ever seen, and I couldn't have watched it alone. SO GOOD. Thank you, m'dear!

Classic Quote of the Day

"I've literally downed two Diet Cokes in the last hour, so you know where I'm at." - Kath