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6.28.2005

forget the finger, its all about the frog

Now that I'm a soon-to-be-ex-eBay employee, I can happily share this story with the world. This morning, the following email was sent to the eBay distribution list:

Last Wednesday, an employee found a small frog in their salad. No, this is not a joke. And since the topic has been “the talk” of the campus, I thought it would be best to let you know what happened and what we’re doing about it. After all, you trust us to provide you with healthy and safe food, and we’re not about to betray that trust.

I wish I could say “frog” was on the menu that day, but it wasn’t. The frog landed in the employee salad due to human error. Because of our strident commitment to offering organic produce, we are at risk of things like this happening. Frogs and other amphibious creatures are used in the organic process to rid the produce of pests and bugs. This keeps the produce healthy and clean, without having to resort to chemical pesticides. The produce goes through eight levels of cleaning and scrutiny before it even gets into our kitchen. Somewhere, along the line, the frog was smarter than we were.

This explains how the frog got in the salad, but it doesn’t excuse it. We take pride in serving you, our colleagues at eBay. When there are so many alternatives in the San Jose area, we know we have to maintain higher standards. Our already stringent internal inspection process will now include the following: Lettuce will be placed on a sheet pan and hand-placed by small amounts into a plastic container to be sent to the Greens stations. This should help eliminate the prospect of an incident like this happening again.

I understand that you may be concerned by this situation. But please know that we will work very hard to prevent this from happening again. And you can trust us that we will continue to prepare exceptional food that is both safe and healthy for you.

Thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.


I think the grossest thing is that the frog was still (partially) alive, or it sounded like it from the email that was floating around:

You may have already heard, but if not, you may want to think twice about eating at eBay Café (especially the salads!). Today Karen was eating a salad and found a partially alive ~ 2" frog crawling through her meal (well, not really crawling)!

And of course, there are pictures (ewwwwwwwww):



Wasn't there something in the Bible about raining frogs and the end of the world? Can I tell you again how happy I am with my new job?

6.25.2005

time to celebrate!

Ok... its official: I have a new job!! I got my offer letter from Plumtree on Friday, and gave notice that very day. Imma gonna be a Program Manager for them - a position that does NOT involve MS Project Server. In addition to working with some cool chicks around my age, a manager that a current co-worker that I trust RAVES about (they used to work together), and being in downtown San Francisco, people wear flip flops to work!! I love flip flops!!

To celebrate, I spent all day Friday shopping, bought 4 new pairs of shoes, went out drinking with Karen last night (no throwing up!), and dyed my hair magenta. I can't wait to walk into the office on Monday with my short, flourescent highlighted 'do - it'll be such a kick in their corporate asses.

I feel like I'm finally going to become a human being again. It'll be sooooo nice to take the train to work everyday, be able to meet up with my friends for lunch, go to the gym after work, even do happy hours! Whoo hoo! I've been doing a happy dance ever since!

6.23.2005

helloooooo kitty

So... I have really exciting news, but I'm going to wait until its official before posting. But suffice to say, today began my two week celebration - which I kicked off with dinner with Martha, and playing with a new friend!

Martha's been gone traveling for the last couple of months - she's preparing to move to Germany at the end of July, so she went to Munich to find an apartment with Stefan. Anyhow, she's finally back, and we caught up over dinner at A16.

We started off with a carafe of excellent Syrrah before settling in at our table. The first thing we noticed is that we didn't understand barely anything on the menu. I mean, it was mostly in English, but every other word was in Italian. "What's a burrata?" we wondered.

I settled on the Roasted Young Chicken, and Martha got the Margherita Pizza with Prosciutto. "I'm a purist when it comes to pizza," she said. We decided to share the starter special, asparagus drizzled with asiago cheese and toasted hazelnuts. It was pretty amazing, I have to say.

My chicken was very tender, and surprisingly went better with the aragula than without. Martha's pizza was good - but a little too rich - and we ended up splitting most of that. The star of the night was the dessert: An almond torte topped with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream.

I got home, ready to flop into bed with my new brainless novel, but was greeted by a furry little visitor. Megan was over, and brought her new kitty - Pebbles - with her! Pebbles is the cutest thing (next to my Bennie, of course), only 7 weeks old and very, very curious.












But despite his cuteness, I started to feel neglected after 5 minutes... I'm so used to my Bennie being super excited to see me and plopping herself in my lap for hours. I guess I'm just a dog person.

strawberry-kiwi nyc, anyone?

The news item of the week (possibly, the year):

Giant Popsicle Melts, Floods NYC Park

The best thing about this whole story is that the popsicle was made in Edison, NJ - my hometown! Whoo hoo!

6.22.2005

mmmm... cravings...

Its beautiful and warm outside, and I'm craving PollyAnn's lychee ice cream. Does anyone know if its still open? I see contradictory articles online. If not, where can I buy it?

We have coconut at home, but it just doesn't do the trick.

Surprisingly, I still lost some weight last week despite my McDonald's love fest (Irma - I blame you entirely!), but I'm sure it'll reverse itself if I don't behave! Haven't quite climbed back on the wagon yet - I'm more like hanging onto the back wheel with one hand, being dragged behind on the dirt road.

So, back to PollyAnn's... Anyone?

6.21.2005

san francisco aids walk 2005

Now that the dance show is over, its time to focus on my next big project: the AIDS Walk!

Laura, Isidro, Heather Fell and I are once again participating in the SF AIDS Walk! This year, we've formed a team - Baby Steps - with the goal of raising $4,500.

In order to meet our goal, we've organized a bunch of events - both private and public - to raise mucho money. Just a sampling of what's to come:

  • Mexican Fiesta @ Laura and Isidro's Swank Place, Sunday (6/26). We'll be having margaritas, Mexican food, and even a pinata! Donations of $15 - $25 suggested. If interested, please email me and I can invite you!

  • VERVE @ 111 Minna Gallery, Friday July 8th. Open to the public, of course. We're throwing a huge party with some of the best world music DJs in the Bay, as well as a special auction! I'll post up more details about the lineup, but I'm most excited about the auction - we've got some hot stuff going on, including a private dance lesson with Matt of SoulForce, a 60 minute massage at Embodimental, and a 3 girl dessert orgy. If you'd like to be auctioned off, or invited to the Guest List - duh, email me!

  • ... and a Bag of Chips @ Madrone Lounge, Saturday August 6th. We had so much fun at Madrone last time that we're doing it again, this time with a rawkin' 80's party!

Why are we putting so much effort into this?

Well, according to a recent study by the United Nations, more than 8,000 people die from AIDS every day. On top of which, the World Health Organization estimates that approximately 14,000 new infections occur every day. Out of those infected, 15% of those cases are in teens from ages 13 – 18. We know that in areas such as Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where virginity is prized and children are often sold into prostitution, that the rate is much, much higher.

While no dollar amount can be placed on the value of a human life, your online donation or cover charge to a fundraising event can help save a woman who has been forced into prostitution, or educate a new generations of teens into practicing safe sex.

If you'd like to help change the course of an epidemic, please consider donating. For more info about the AIDS Walk, please visit http://www.aidswalk.net/sanfran. Thank you!!

6.19.2005

mission in the mix pictures

*Sniffle* Its over, its really over. I will so miss my street party peeps, my Republican rally cohorts, the sexy good girls, and even the skanky ho's. I will not, however, miss wearing that damn costume ever again.

Lots and lots of pics - enjoy!


:: Backstage :: Pre-Show ::


Getting ready with that stupid curling iron.

I can't even count the number of times I've dropped it on myself.


Diana helps Irma "largen" her hair.


SoulForce understudies


Chuy with two of our youngest dancers - Ashley (aka "Giggles") and Jamie.


Alice and Clyde the Fairy.


Sipei, Kristina, Laura and Diana


The Street Party Peeps (and Chuy)


A better lighted Street Party group pic.


The "Twins" - Alice and Sipei


The Cool Guys - Burt and Glenn


Rosy checks the latest gossip while waiting for the show to start.


Majal and Byron practice their scandalous choreography...


... as does Sincerely and Clyde.


Marlene and Monty


Me and Sipei... both waaaay older than we look.


Jasmine and Sipei, my pink babies.


Oh mamacita! Chuy, me and Clyde. And no, I don't know where either of their hands were going.


Matt gets ready to be auctioned off...


... showing off his b-boy moves.


Cee and me. It was my job to help her look like a ho.


Posing with the star of the show, Robin.


:: Intermission ::


Clyde the Fairy comes busting out.


Chuy, Sipei and I pose with our favorite "gay bug".


The under-20 dancers


I trust you, Burt.

:: Post-Show Drinks @ The Attic ::


Biren, Kim, Tiffany, Clyde, Monty and me


Laura, Diana and Kristina


Jasmine and her boyfriend


Me and Irma, my dancing partner

The only thing I will NOT miss is easy access to both El Farolito and McDonald's on a daily basis. But I hope to see you kids soon! *Sniffle*

mission in the mix diaries

I've been at Dance Mission theatre for more than 40 hours in last two weeks. I've washed my costume at least 8 times. I've used up an entire bottle of hairspray, applied enough blue eyeshadow to make an 80s valley girl proud; I've shaken, squatted, kicked, twirled and holla'd until my throat was sore. And I've had the time of my life. Again.

Mission in the Mix has been one of the highlights of an otherwise blasé year. For the last two weekends, we've been at the theatre for 4 hours a night to perform on stage for a total of 6 minutes. And it's been amazingly fun. Besides the rush of performing in front of a (sometimes) rambunctious audience, I've also met a group of awesome awesome people that I hope to see after the show.

The highlights:
  • Opening Night (6/10). Suprisingly, I'm not nervous - mostly because there's no one in the audience for me that night. (I learned from last year to never have people on opening night!) But as soon as we get on stage for our Street Party scene, we all notice something odd... they're playing the wrong song! Oh well, the audience doesn't know any better, so we freestyle until they figure it out. During the interminal pause that they are switching tracks, we just all cheer.


  • Sat 6/11, 6pm. Sigh. You're really never going to get the good crowd during an early show. Everyone in the audience was like 6 or someone's grandfather. The looks on people's faces during the Girl Fight was priceless. Someone actually shushed Micaya when she started cheering.

    Chuy calls me a "gay bug" by accident. I think he was refering to Clyde.

  • Sat 6/11, 9pm. Mommy is in the audience, so I'm really nervous. But I shake it anyways, albeit probably less enthusiastically then I would have otherwise. The crowd? Rambunctious.

    After the show, my mother comments, "I've never seen so many people get this excited about butt shaking before."

  • Fri, 6/17. We're all kind of low energy because its been a week since we've been in the theatre, and its Friday after a long week of work. All of my friends are here, so I'm nervous again. I do decently up until the last scene, when I'm in the front row. I don't realize until I get there that all of my friends are like 10 feet away from me. I mouth "oh shit - hi" and go back to my dancing.

    Afterwards, we head to Oxygen Bar for some sake. Wow, does that place suck. $20+ for a tiny bottle of WARM sake. I've never been so sober in my life. The DJ there apparently hasn't heard of mixing, and the crowd is nothing short of ghetto. The only good thing: seeing that big black momma from Deuce Bigalow. Ok, it wasn't really him/her, but it was a close thing.

    Oh, and I got into a brawl with some coked up parent at the theatre. It was like Girl Fight in real life, only with me, her, and some 9 year old kids holding her back. How sad is that?

  • Sat, 6/18. We're all starting to get sick - something's going around, and the close proximity we have to each other is making it doubly contagious. Nonetheless, Saturday was possibly our best show ever. First of all, Fierce Dance completely rocked it in the first half, so the crowd was totally game. During intermission, Micaya gives us our pep talk. "I feel something magical tonight," she says. And she was right. We all just totally let loose, and had a blast.

    Later on, as I'm working the DVD sale booth, I recruit 3 new people to be auctioned off.

We have one more performance to go tonight, and I'm both sick of being at the theatre and totally sad that its over. I'll miss my friends, I'll miss performing, I'll miss watching the Girl Fight, and I'll miss the scent of carne asada from El Farolito wafting in through our studio. Why, oh why, is this only once a year?

6.16.2005

touch my tra-la-la

If you thought the "How to Dance Like a White Guy" video was funny, you will LOVE this one!

http://www.koreus.com/files/200405/guntherdingdongsong.html

I love the ending.

6.15.2005

i'm trying to be a turd

Michelle told me yesterday that I need to just be a turd. "You do too much," she said. "Then you get stressed out. Just sit and be a turd or something."

So last night, I sat at home and tried to be a turd. I watched 4 eps of Alias season 2, ate 1/2 of a NY strip steak from Outback (curbside service - awesome), and talked to Miriam on the phone for an hour. No studying. No 09:Babies stuff. No exercise. Nothing.

You know what? I think I like being a turd once in a while. I actually slept last night. Of course, when I calculated my points on Weight Watchers online today, I realized that I went over my weekly limit! But oh well. It was worth it.

6.13.2005

a weekend of momminess

My Mommy was here this weekend to see my dance show, and we had such an adventure. Before she came, I told all of my friends that after meeting her, they would understand exactly why I am the way I am - and she did not disappoint! :-)

Thursday, 6/9: I took the day off so that I could prep for Mommy and pick her up from the airport. She's supposed to be here from Thurs - Mon am, but she shows up with a suitcase that's not only huge, but labeled as "oversized" by the airline. Somehow, we manage to fit it into my Mini, but it wasn't easy.

  • Mommy Moment #1. After having a snack at Yum Yum Fish, Mommy wants to wander around my neighborhood and find some Chinese videos to watch while I'm at tech rehersal. Of course, since we were only supposed to be out for 10 minutes, neither of us brought a cell phone or an extra set of keys. "I don't feel comfortable with this," I say. "Do you know where I live?

  • Mommy asks me for my house number and apartment number, and wanders off before I can do anything. 30 minutes later, I get a frantic voicemail. "Serena, where are you?" she says, calling from some random stranger's house. "I've been ringing the doorbell for 10 minutes!"

    Well, the doorbell never rang. Turns out that she got the house number right, but the street number wrong. She even managed to follow someone pulling into their garage into the building. "There's no Serena that lives here," the kind woman told her. "But you're welcome to check." Luckily, I found her wandering the streets. *Sigh*

    Friday, 6/10. Its opening night of my show, but first, I'm taking Mommy to the spa! Mommy never gets to enjoy the finer things in life, so I've booked us both a Abhyanga Massage with Shirodhara Treatment at Kabuki Springs. I know she needs to relax, and I can never turn down a spa treatment.

    Ohhhhhhhhh. The massage was seriously the most relaxing thing I've ever experienced. During the Shirodhara, a "classical Ayurvedic treatment, in which warm oil is poured in a continuous stream across the forehead," I actually fell asleep! I could hear myself snoring. So embarassing.

  • Mommy Moment #2.I get home from my show, and my mom is sitting on the couch, covered in sweat. "I was very good tonight," she reports to me. "I worked out on your elliptical trainer." Work out is a relative term. She did do 20 minutes total - split into three sessions. She also can't walk down the stairs for the next 3 days.


  • Saturday, 6/11. I'm exhausted from the show, but I've promised Mommy that I would take her to dim sum. Plus, she needs to meet Miriam, who is her dinner and show escort for the night. So Miriam, Eric, Mommy and I all pack into my little car, and head to Yank Sing for a fattening - and overpriced - brunch.

  • Mommy Moment #3. While at brunch, Mom dips her sleeve into the soy sauce dish. "That is such a Serena thing to do," Miriam exclaims, laughing. "Now I know where she gets it from!"

  • I have to leave for the theatre at 3:30 today, but Miriam picks Mommy up at 4:45 and takes her to Cafe Kati. They head over to the 9:00 performance afterwards, where Mommy watches the girlfight scene with a befuddled smile. Afterwards, I ask her if she enjoyed the show. "Yes," she nods. "Its even better than your kindergarten school play!"

    Sunday, 6/12. I have a brief respite from the dance show, as we don't have another performance until next Friday, but I also didn't sleep well because of my mother's snoring. As long as I fall asleep before she does, I'm fine (I sleep like the dead). But I ended up on the couch that night.

    Sore and exhausted, we head over to the 2:00 matinee of The Mambo Kings. The dancing is absolutely amazing. If you are a fan of Latin dance, this show is definitely for you.

    After the show, I take Mommy to Straits Cafe, since she's never had Singaporean food before. There, we order a bunch of food - screw both our diets - including the roasted oysters, murtabak, and the chicken satay. For veggies, we got a helping of Lady Fingers (okra), tossed with chili sauce and dried shrimp. But the real winner of the night was the Black Pepper Lobster. Omg. The two of us were covered with black pepper sauce by the end of it, but it was so amazingly delicious. I highly recommend it.

    By the time we get home, we're both stuffed and exhausted, so we pass out into our respective naps. After all, I have to take her to the airport at 5am the next morning, might as well sleep through the night.

    I already miss her. I love my Mommy, and can't wait to go home to see her and my Bennie in September.

    6.08.2005

    mission in the mix

    I've been pretty apathetic to life in general for the last several months, and that apathy extended to my dance workshop. But now that I've seen the full piece, I'm starting to get really, really excited! I don't know if its because I'm regaining some of my interest in the living world or just because the piece is so freakin' funny, but I'm looking forward to it.



    I'd better be, since I'm going to be spending the next two weekends at the theatre, and have been at rehersal almost every waking moment this week.

    For those of you who haven't gotten tickets yet - we're already sold out! You're totally missing out... not only is the girlfight awesome, and the Republican scene completely wacked (we do the chicken dance), but there is one scene at the end which is just HILARIOUS. I'll be posting our adventures as they happen... stay tuned.

    flaming jesus!

    Every once in a while, I need to check my Junk Mail folder to see if anything accidentally gets thrown into there. My Penn Club updates always end up in there, and recently, 09:Babies related correspondence from Ashton and even myself (!!!) have been filtered out. I'm sure Freud would have a lot to say about that.

    Anyhoo, I got a true spam from the best email address in the world: jesusflaming@livingwithadd.com. I kind of want to email it and see who's on the other end.

    In other exciting news, Mommy arrives tomorrow, the dance show opens on Friday, and we've booked not one, but two parties in the upcoming months. But best of all, I just ended Week One of my diet and exercise regimen, and I've lost 2 lbs! Yay! I guess not cheating really does work...

    6.04.2005

    i should know better...

    ... than to drink a wine labeled "Red Wine" (not Merlot, Cabernet, etc.) and comes out of a jug. I spent 1/2 the night at the Sights and Sounds party last night being sick. And before you ask, I only had two glasses, so it wasn't because of excessive consumption.

    Gross.

    And with that, begins my alcohol-free month. GMATs are coming up soon - and besides, with mommy in town, the dance show, and all that fundraising we're doing for AIDS Walk, I'm not going to have time.

    BTW - The party last night? Sucked. Maybe it was because I was sick, but the Metreon is not a good place to have a party. I think our Minna party is going to be much, much better.

    6.02.2005

    "man injured in toilet blast files suit"

    Stupid people never fail to astonish me. I may be one of those stupid people, but I never fail to astonish myself.

    Case in point: the man who
    lit a cigarette in the porta-potty of a methane power plant construction site. Hint: It exploded.

    Didn't anyone watch Zoolander?

    i'm an idiot

    For days, I was wondering why my blog wasn't updating. "Help!" I wrote to Blogger. "I keep posting things and nothing shows up!"

    Then yesterday, in the midst of my word problem sets, it dawned on me - when I was playing with my template, I accidentally copied and pasted the content of the page into it. See, I was trying to expand the column size where the content is, to no avail. When I tried to go back to the original settings, they didn't work right, so I thought - hey, I'll try opening another template to get the dimensions. In doing so, I accidentally erased this template that I had customized, Hello Kitty and all.

    So of course, I view the source code on the blog page I already had open and just copied and pasted the whole thing, not thinking that instead of the code that would pull in content from posts, it would just have the actual content already there. Duh!
     

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