Blue-green

As usual, mother nature nails it:

A blue-sky drive-by.

SATC outfit #1

Watching Sex and the City as a form of background over the years, I can't help but notice a few outfits that really leave me gawking. I WANT. GET ON ME. MY TURN. These are outfits that I appreciated outright, for some reason or another, and I hope that by collecting them and discussing them, I'll further myself on my quest to build my ultimate personal style.

I'd like to start with an outfit on Miranda which feels strange because most will be on Carrie in the future. So why Ms. Hobbes?

Miranda, you look effortlessly fantastic in this dress. I'm sorry your date died.

Because she's wearing the first outfit that struck me over the head for looking well tailored, gorgeous, and effortless to wear. Perhaps more importantly, it matches her perfectly and really sets off her beauty. GET IN MY CLOSET. It was confirmed that this was truly a stylish dress when Miranda called Carrie to say her date stood her up and the dress was new and from Barney's. See? It must be good.

Weeds of my garden

For the fourth or so year in a row I have this nice little garden plot at work. It's bigger than anything I could possibly wish for on my non-existent balcony or yard. Every summer is now a new journey with dirt and plants within an area maybe 10' x 15' or so:

As long as I work here, I'm keeping this little slice of courtyard heaven.

This year I thought I'd try starting most of the garden from seed. After a shallow tilling I got right to work planting beets and brussel sprouts while there were little weeds overall. As time went on and the unplanted areas began to grow weeds, I had to dig up and turn over the soil (overall about two thirds of the plot). This did wonders to dry up the weeds while I otherwise prepared. As of now, most of my garden has been planted and some of the seeds have actually worked! I'll report back throughout the season.

But weeds.... ahhh weeds. I love and hate the little bastards. As I wait patiently for seedlings to emerge and make themselves known, I have gotten a good lesson in the many different types of weeds in my area. This year I'm documenting all the weeds with photos... I hope to get most of the desired seedlings with the camera too. Hopefully in later years I can have more certainty in what is, and what is not, desired plant matter.

I could maybe label this aspect of my life, "nerdy constant gentle learning".

'The gauntlet' update

Well... not doing so great with my gauntlet challenge. I guess I just don't want it badly enough? I did it 3 times and then had excuses to avoid doing it since. Why am I unwilling to do this? The benefits are so obvious!

I give myself credit for being a reasonably intelligent person, but I have to admit I don't really get how to solve the seemingly irreconcilable differences between having the body and health that I know I want, and the modus operandi of my actual self... which is to do work and move around, but otherwise take it easy. Working out is boring and hard. The luckiest humans have an exercise that they love to do so much, they don't even feel like they are exercising. We create our own luck, right? So there's that.

Less than 2 weeks to go.... crap.

Simple combinations

Here are two of the best best best in the category of "Simple Food Duos" - largely due to their ridiculous simplicity and nostalgia. For me, these combos are so inextricably linked, I always taste, or long to taste, one flavor with the other.

--> Apple juice and graham crackers
--> Cola and Synder's mini pretzels (or other good thin pretzels)

Apple juice and graham crackers were parts of the patient/slash/stock food items at the hospital I volunteened at long ago in the pre-email age. Every break I'd enjoy this little plastic urine-sized cup of apple flavored sugar water, along with a packet or two of graham crackers. Yum...... I loved how the sugary liquid helps dissolve the starchy cracker as it passes over it. The same sensation goes for a nice cola and good pretzels. Yum Yumz! Oh damn that reminds me... a third -- Cola and chocolate ice cream! Can't forget that glorious duo.

What are some of other peoples' favorite food duos, I wonder. I bet there are so many I'd get a kick out of.

Just thinking

I've been taking some time to go over this little experiment (blog thing) and see what ideas can be promoted and what can be scavenged for parts. I guess I'm working on developing the themes, if you will.

Phase 1, initial pumping out of things into the web-o-sphere, is complete!

Don't you just love wrapping up part of an experiment? I love the rush of knowing that no matter what, the beginning is over. Something has been done pertaining to the overall goal, and now results will be analyzed for accurate dissemination. Then onto more experiments!!

If you have suggestions or comments, you know how to reach me.

Cuteness, defined

For those of you who know my tabby calico kitty, you know she is the cutest and sweetest cat alive. She makes my insides ache. She makes me see double rainbows. She makes me feel like Lenny from Of Mice and Men. She's the cat's meow.

Here are some pictures of this angel when she was just under a year old, and newly welcomed into my humble home. Now this, is cute overload.

Cuteness, defined

Bumper stickers

I would never put a bumper sticker on my crappy car. I like the anonymity of driving around in the most ubiquitous car on the planet. But that last post about Berkeley got me reminiscing about my old Honda Elite scooter, which got 80-100 mpg and was bedazzled with many great bumper stickers. This one was on both sides of the front panel:

 

My racing stripes

Boy did this statement get me a lot of looks! I stand by this bold statement. Those of you who handle cell phones while driving - please reconsider, or fuck the fuck off... seriously. THINK!

This sticker was made before texting exploded (preteens who created this text-nation are just finally driving), and let me tell ya, texting while driving makes my blood boil like little else.

If you are driving and texting, and you crash into me and kill me, I swear I will haunt you until you are also a ghost.

Toodle-loo!

My favorite street

My favorite street is in Berkeley, California. I haven't walked it in some time -- I think it's in the Elmwood-toward-Rockridge territory. I stumbled upon it while cat-sitting for a random couple, who must have had a nanny-cam because they only hired me once (although seriously, if opening all the drawers and doors but not touching anything is a crime, so sue me).

Here are some pictures of my favorite street, which serve to remind me of how lucky I was for over 5 years of my lucky life.

Some fortunate people actually walk down this street every day!!

What Berkeley and Oakland offer your eyeballs every single day.

Sometimes I want to go up to toddlers in the Bay Area and shake them while yelling, "You better realize how awesome it is to grow up here!!!" That's normal, right? Yes. Surely.

More Paint desktops

In case you liked my desktop style ;)  Found these on my old laptop...

A scientific objection to Sex and the City

I love me some Sex and the City (SATC). The show aired when I was in college and graduate school and I hardly watched it, because what college girl can afford HBO? But many years and unedited viewings later, I've grown to fucking love the show. Four women with vastly different opinions speaking frankly, FRANKLY, about topics that affect me. It's the frankness I love. I grew up in a frank family, and frank is how I like to be. Samantha may be my spirit animal.

But one thing about SATC really friggin bugs me on a scientific level. When Miranda gets pregnant she complains that it's the "Special Olympics of conception" because she has a lazy ovary (fine, so she ovulates every other month) and that Steve has only one testicle. SO FUCKING WHAT! Doesn't everyone know that millions of sperm come out the penis during each ejaculation? Perhaps having one testicle removed makes you ejaculate a few million less sperm, but only one little guy needs to penetrate that egg shell. The testes don't alternate, like ovaries. God damn. I hate to think that my Miranda doesn't know some basic biology.

Then again, she just found out she's pregnant. Maybe she was trying to make a joke, and knows it's not at all the Special Olympics.

And maybe I should get a life.

Bun-helper

This, my friends, is the year of the bun. Buns (and bangs) are EVERYWHERE. I sport this look all the time but I must declare that it is for purely practical purposes, not because I'm a (gasp) follower of trends. Allow me to elaborate.

I have lots of hair and it likes to grow grow grow. I also have a tendency (AKA neurotic disorder) to destroy the hair that I can see and touch -- enter BUNS. Lots of heavy hair pulled back all day ends up making you feel like your forehead is being ripped off your face by crows, which can lead to headaches -- enter BANGS! And thus my look has evolved. My bangs go from short to long to short to long and I love or hate them about 16 times each per day. My buns range from coiled snakes to ratty bird's nests and I love them endlessly. Sometime I release the beast and end up with a wild and wavy ponytail. My hair is undoubtedly one of my natural perks (not that I could ever wear it down, sleek, and pretty like TV people).

But recently I've learned that there are bun-helpers! Check out this picture of my enhanced bun. Now, being more a fan of wabi-sabi, I find this look a bit too "perfect", but it easily explains all the perfect big buns I've been seeing around town and I'm definitely shelling out 5 bucks and getting one for when more formal bun attire is desired.

Bunnin it up!

(In a matter of months I predict I'll rant about my nagging desire to chop off all my hair and have a short bob. This is the plague of long hair that grows easily - you are easily tricked into thinking you can cut it all off without regret.)

The gauntlet

I double-checked both the spelling and the meaning

In 28 days I'll be embarking on my annual family pilgrimage to the Jersey Shore (since that MTV monstrosity I should specify I'm going to a slightly different part of the "Jersey Shore"). It'll be great -- time with my niece and nephews, cold beer on hot afternoons, parlor games, baseball games, swimming in the ocean, and getting criticized for every aspect of my personal appearance. Well to be fair, any overweight/undertoned areas are somewhat considered "out of bounds", which leaves wardrobe, hair, and makeup the prime fodder.

But this year, instead of just wishing that I had a fatter family, I'm determined to silence my annoying inner judge. For every other day of the next 4 weeks I'll be doing a workout from a magazine article that I found rather effective when I did it just 5 times in a 2 weeks period a few months ago. It's called "Muscles in Slow Motion" and is from the March 2012 edition of Whole Living. I'm hoping that getting started with this one workout plan will inspire spontaneous jogs and yoga hours... all totaling a body and a mind that can actually relax, and vacate on my much-needed vacation.

Wish me luck!

If I owned a wall

If I owned a wall I would wallpaper it.

Wallpaper in my childhood meant those terrible "borders", and sometimes those extra terrible, peeling tiny flowers in neat vertical lines. Bad. But I have since learned that wallpaper (especially the expensive kind), can be b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l !! What I wouldn't give to own a little home where I could put wallpaper on accent walls.

Here are some of my favorite wallpapers for zen-style accent walls, meaning they incorporate a natural element that makes me feel calm (well, the red one doesn't evoke calm... but it'd work for an accent wall in a sun-salutation-friendly area of a master bedroom - no? I'm not sure.). Links in the caption.

Lovely Leaves, Maidenhair, Lotus, Feather, Tree Bomb