accessorize with a baby!

I can't stop laughing! Apparently, you can now accessorize your YahooIM avatar with a baby. I found this out when I pinged Laura, who just gave birth to sweet little Sebastian Alvarez this week.

Serena: i want a baby too
laura: well, your avatar can get one
laura: what's trippy is, it matches your skin tone
Serena: omg
Serena: lol
laura: Yahoo is racist
Serena: or pragmatic
Serena: i'm sure ppl would complain if they could only choose a white baby
Serena: ok, do we find baby under "extras"
laura: well, they could have the different skin tones as an option - you know, how sometimes a dress will come in multiple colors...
Serena: ah
laura: yeah, Family and Home or something
Serena: omg
Serena: i like how "butcher block" is also in family and home
laura: haha
Serena: so wrong
Serena: dammit, i can't choose what outfit i wear with the baby
laura: I know, pretty lame
laura: but, I guess if you want to hold the baby, it's got to be that way
Serena: i suppose i can always have a baby on the side

I especially love how the clothing for the baby-holding is pure soccer mom outfit. Hilarious.

In happier news, I am going to visit Sebastian, Mommy and Daddy Alvarez on Sunday. Can't wait!

Yup, he's definitely Isidro's son - especially with that expression!

a sad goodbye

Today was the last day of one of my absolute favorite co-workers, in this job and others. I'm heartbroken that he's leaving, since he was, without question, one of the true leaders of our division. However, he's moving on to a great opportunity as head of development at Zappos.com, so I'm happy for him.

On Monday, we took him out to dim sum at Great Eastern, which has quickly become my go-to place for Chinese food.


D + E + F = Trouble


Brent and Nazar


James and Sean, enjoying duck tongue


Carol finds her food finger-lickin' good


Too. Much. Food.

We'll miss you, Brent!

was it halloween and no one told us?

Last night, the Robusteam finally met up for a long-overdue reunion by having the most ridiculous and horrifying dinner at Lingba Lounge.

Now, let me set the record straight: The food at Lingba is terrific. We had some wonderful dishes, paired with a nice Reisling for the ladies, and Lychee Martinis for Clyde. But, we had the woeful misfortune of sitting in the lounge side of the restaurant - where a booth that seats 5 has a table that can hold 5 drinks.

And of course, the food came in huge dishes.

We ended up having to put our waters on the windowsill, the fried rice behind one end of the booth, the Kra Graw on the other end. Carolyn had a chicken dish behind her and was warned not the lean back - while eating was a constant juggling of moving plates around.

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:
Eric: I just realized that I'm the only one here that doesn't know about ball licking.
(Everyone turns around to look at him.)

Clyde:The trade secret is just to nuzzle them.
(He follows with a demo.)

Clyde demonstrating trade secrets


"AHHHHH! That fish is terrifying!"


"Uh, honey, what are you doing?" asks Anna


Just a boring ole picture of me, Caro and Clyde


I may be defeated, but I've still got teeth!


"It looks like an elephant just came on your plate." - Eric

God, I've missed you guys.

But the worst was yet to come. Eric, Anna, Clyde, Caro and I met up at 8, and was eating dinner until about 11. Well. Little did we know that Lingba Lounge is a magnet for 40+ cougars with horrific fashion sense. By the end of the night, we were starting to wonder if it was Halloween, and we were the only people who didn't know it.

Clyde: I'm scared.
Carolyn: I'm offended.
Serena: I feel violated.

Now, was it the cougar blonde with the nose job and white, hip-length sweater over white leggings that showed everything? The chick wearing a garish Mandarin dress and not 2, but SIX chopsticks in her hair? The soccer mom with a black one-piece bathing suit under a white mesh poncho, paired with the white strappy sandals? Or the guy with the lavendar shirt, collar up and unbuttoned to his chest, paired with a half-tied orange tie?

Not the greatest pic (taken on the sly), but you get the idea.

At least now we know where to send the Fashion Police.

mes amis, ma gloutonnerie

On Friday, Ingrid, Rob, John and I headed to Les Amis for a Dine About Town lunch. It was a leisurely 1.5 hour feast, that included 3 courses of food, food, food.

For appetizer, Rob and I got the White Asparagus Soup, while John and Ingrid both opted for the Butter Lettuce Salad. The soup, while good, was a tad too bland... maybe it was missing the crab that is included in the dinner version? Three of us, including me, got the Flank Steak with Fries, while John tried the Bouillabaise. But the good stuff was at the end: a choice between Profiteroles with Mocha Ice Cream or a Pineapple Tart Tartine.

Verdict? So-so. Its not something that I would have paid super-money for - nothing special in the magnificent landscape of San Francisco dining. But for $22 - and the company - it was worth the price.


Rob and John, going all Blue Steel


Me and Ingrid, looking... not here


Mes Amis


Ingrid and the profiteroles

*~*~*~*
In any case, after the week I've had, I needed it.

Its been a rough, stressful week, so it was nice to relax and have a long lunch with my friends to put a positive spin at the end. Maybe part of the reason I wasn't so thrilled with my Steak and Frites was because I'd been eating fries all week, as part of my emotional eating, which included a burger (with fries), a crepe (with fries), and a burrito (without fries but plenty of tortilla chips).

Thankfully, by Friday things seemed to be mostly resolved, if not altogether comfortable. But that didn't stop me from continuing on my path of gluttony! Friday evening, Carol and I headed over to the Marina for a glass of wine at Nectar, which turned into a small and bread-filled meal at Isa. This afternoon, I met up with Nathan for an impromptu late lunch at Chez Maman, to be followed shortly with a Robusteam Reunion at Lingba.

Needless to say, I was NOT on plan last week, not in the slightest. However, I am determined to start this week on the right foot - even if there is dim sum on Monday for Brent's going away.

the quest for the perfect cream puff

Ever since I got my new electric hand-mixer, I've been addicted to baking. Last week, I tried my hand at cream puffs for the first time - and was highly disappointed with the results. The puffs were too dense, eggy and buttery.

Last night, I modified another recipe, and the results were perfect! Each puff was light and fluffy. I'm so pleased that I'm posting the tweaked recipe below.

Cream Puffs

Puff Pastry:
1/2 cup (70 grams) self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon Splenda
3 tablespoons (57 grams) light butter w/canola oil
1/2 cup (120 ml) water
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Egg Wash Glaze:
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl sift together the flour and sugar. Set aside.
3. Place the butter and water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon or spatula, quickly add the flour mixture. Return to heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about a minute or two).
4. Transfer the dough to your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat on low speed a minute or two to release the steam from the dough.
5. Once the dough is lukewarm start adding the lightly beaten eggs and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste.
6. Spoon or pipe 12 mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, spacing them a couple of inches apart.
7. With a pastry brush, gently brush the glaze on the tops of the dough.
8. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C), switching racks if you have more than one tray halfway through cooking time.
9. Bake for a further 30 to 40 minutes or until the shells are a nice amber color (again, switching racks halfway through).
10. When baking is done, take out the puffs and poke a small hole in the bottom with a knife or toothpick, and place back in the oven upside down. Turn the oven off and, with the oven door slightly ajar, let the shells dry out for a further 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Cream Filling
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon Splenda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Mix all ingredients and place in fridge for at least one hour
2. Take the ingredients and whip them on high until the peaks are stiff
3. Cut the cooled puffs into half, and fill puffs with cream
4. Refridgerate until ready to serve

little star + karaoke

God bless digital cameras and excessive alcohol.

Last night, a crew of us headed out for our highly anticipated Little Star + Karaoke outing. Rob, Scott, Dustin, Deepali, William, Stan and I had an excessive amount of delicious deep dish pizza, we met up with Ingrid, Kevin, John and Belinda at the Fly Bar, and did our best to, er, prepare for karaoke.

The smartest decision we ever made was getting a private booth at Do Re Mi, because boy, were we terrible! Tim and wife were already there, and Andy crashed the party, inaugurating the night with a perfectly mortifying rendition of Slim Shady. And of course, we captured all the fun and love on camera...

	Andy and his Detroit white-trash alter ego, Slim Shady.
	Ingrid and Deepali break into a fabulous version of Air Supply...
	The most anticipated moment of the night: John and Rob duet with 2 Becomes 1
	I must have been really drunk to scream out Britney the way I did!
	Scott and Tim rock out with Nirvana
	Apparently once was not enough! John and Rob are back with Like a Virgin
	Ingrid and Kevin, Feeling More and playing Guitar Hero (This one was taken with Rob's cell phone)

And Belinda's reaction? Priceless.

More precious moments! For the full set of pictures, click here.

uhhh...

Sometimes I think some people have too much money.



Apparently, there is a whole line of flower-shaped urinals for sale.

Uhhh...

¿donde esta el dumbasses?

In 2003, Heather and I took a disastrous (and disastrously funny) roadtrip through the South of Spain. Along the way, we emailed our adventures to our friends. I was so sad b/c I thought that those emails were lost forever when I switched from Hotmail to Yahoo.

Then on Friday, she told me that she had copies of them. Yay! I'm so excited that I'm posting them here for posterity... and to show that I've always been a total dumbass.

>> DAY 1: (FINALLY) CONSCIOUS IN MADRID
¡Hola from Madrid, everyone!

After spending all of yesterday unconscious from jet lag, we’ve finally spent our first wandering around Madrid.

Lessons that we have learned so far:

1. "Libre" does not = book. If you ask for a libre-store, the Spanish will just look at you funny and walk away.
2. "Salida" is not a street name. This wasn’t obvious until we realized that every Metro station coincidentally had a street name called "salida"
3. Spanish food consists of salt, butter and fried anything. If we don’t find some fruits and vegetables soon, we will have an even harder time fitting into our plane seats back.
4. Do not ask directions from strange men with icicle-like boogers hanging out of their nose. Do I need to explain this one?
5. Not everyone in Spain speaks English. In fact, none of our waiters thus far seem to speak English, or notice that we don’t speak Spanish.
6. US Air SUCKS and their spanish movies are not in spanish.

Besides our lessons learned, Madrid has been wonderful. The weather has been absolutely perfect - warm, but not ungodly hot. We wandered around the Sol, Sol and also the Sol area all day, exploring the palace, some churches and the Puerta del Sol. Heather really likes the Metro, and has decided that she is going to ride it all day. She also got some ass-grabbing action going on, even though one of the guys was not actually animate.

We are taking off tomorrow morning for our scary roadtrip through Southern Spain. Rather than going to Seville, Granada and Costa del Sol as we planned, we’ve decided just to drive through off the beaten track areas. Heather is pretending to drive a stick shift car ...we’ll see if we can make it out of Madrid.

Adíos for now, we’ll email more if we make it alive :-)
Séreña y Juaníta (otherwise known as "e-atter")

>> DAY 3: MÉRIDA, SEVILLE AND GOOD VIBRATIONS
Well, the fact that we’ve managed to make it this far means that we’re not dead. But I gotta tell ya, it was really a close thing today.

We ended up spending last night in a little town called Mérida, which Heather wrote about last night. It has one of the biggest collections of Roman ruins in Spain. It also has a charming hotel with no air conditioning, and men who play "Rhythm of the Night" outside of our hotel room window at 3 am. ¿Seriously, he couldn’t pick Ricky Martin or something cultural, right? So after our entertaining and restful night, we managed to make it through the amazing ruins in Mérida. All I can say is, thank god for 256MB memory chips. ¡Postcards coming!

After spending most of the day in Merida (yeah, we were REALLY going to leave at noon), we drove through the mountainous roads to Sevilla. OK, just one thing about the car - when it gets onto a slight incline, it stalls. And when I say incline, I don’t mean like San Francisco hills. I mean less than your treadmill incline. This is especially nerve racking because everytime it stops and starts up again, it does this vibrating thingy. And I don’t mean a "hey, I’m having fun with my Good Vibrations friend" vibrating thingy, I mean a "hey, I think the engine is going to fall out and we’re going to die" vibrating thingy. At one point in time, it would only go 80 kph (roughly 55 mph), so even these big-ass trucks decided we were going too slow and would pass us.

We decided to name our car Lil P.I.M.P. - because, as Heather says, it thinks its all that, but when it has to perform, it really can’t.

The good thing is that the ruins were just astounding, Mérida is the cutest place ever, and we’re finally in Sevilla, which is absolutely gorgeous! We’ve found a nice place to sleep (we hope) and are not getting in the car for the next two days.

Lessons Learned:

1. "Yo comprar de uste" does not translate well into "I would like to buy from you..." Somehow we managed to get the poster anyway.
2. There is no equivalent of coffee-to-go in Spanish, or if there is, we definitely don’t know it. It took Heather 10 minutes of "café.. vamos! Cupo plastico!" to get a cup of coffee in a Coke cup.
3. No, Serena, the maps are NOT inverted.
4. Heather likes to grab ass. Pictures coming.

¡Adíos for now! I’m totally bring a Spanish keyboard home with me.
Love, Séreña y Juaníta

>> DAY 4: ¡NO CONDUZCA EN SEVILLA!
¿Cómo usted dice "HELP!" en español?

When we last left off, our heroines Séreña y Juaníta had successfully reached Sevilla, and were ready for a night of exotic flamenco dancing and cerveza. Oh, how things did not go right...

So last night, we found a hotel online and started to drive towards it. After going around and around and around ( they have circles instead of intersections) in the wrong part of town (there are TWO Calle Andalucías in Sevilla), we somehow turned into this random little side street/sidewalk. Kiddies, if you learn only one lesson from our little trip, it is not "learn how to speak Spanish before going to Spain, or even make sure you bring bread with you at all times because the Spanish eat at really weird hours and you may starve". It is DO NOT DRIVE IN SEVILLA. If you insist on doing so, stick to the major streets, do not turn into a street if you can’t see the other end, and never drive somewhere that your car doesn’t actually fit through.

We ended up lost... and lost... and lost... in a maze of small, narrow side streets for like FOUR HOURS. It was absolutely the most ridiculous thing ever, we felt like Alice after she fell down the rabbit hole. Every time we found a major street, we would breathe a sigh of relief, only to discover that to go back to where we needed to be, we needed to go through more side windy streets. Heather was convinced that we were going to get stuck in one of the narrow alleys, and our bumper was going to fall off. Luckily, she was too busy having her own temper tantrum to notice that I had thrown the McDonald’s bag around the car. I had to pick up the fries this morning.

Somehow we ended up out of the maze and at a cute hotel that is ONE BLOCK from where we started out! The irony. Or stupidity, however you look at it.

Luckily, today has been much, much better. We saw an amazing Cathedral in central Sevilla, and climbed up 30 stories up the Giralda for a spectacular view of the city. We also did the touristy thing and signed up for a city tour. The entire point of that was to ride a double-decker bus; we ended up on a trolley.

Tonight... flamenco finally!

Spanish Lessons:
Puerto de rivo != bridge over the river.

Example:
Serena: ¿Habla ingles?
Random Spanish Guy: Un porquito
Serena: We are perdito. ¿Donde esta aquí?
Random Spanish Guy: Where you go? Cathedral?
Serena: No, donde esta us right now? jetzt? maintenant? (Lots of gesturing to the ground)
Random Spanish Guy: Where you go? Cathedral?
Serena: Er, ok, puerto de rio.
Random Spanish Guy: Huh?

Other random thoughts:

1. Heather Quote of the Day: "I’m flashing everyone. Hello!"
2. Heather gets attacked by a tree
3. Serena making sign language to English speaking people
4. You know you’re desperate when you start wrapping up the free bread wherever you go. We have yet to figure out when people in Spain actually eat, and have been starving for the last 3 days.

Needless to say, its been an adventure. Stay tuned...
Séreña y Juaníta

>> DAY 5: THE RAIN IN SPAIN & HALFWAY DONE
Or should I say the torrential downpour in Spain?

I knew that our luck with the weather couldn’t hold, and today, its been storming like crazy. We made it to Ronda late this afternoon and have been trying to wait out the rain. It started out mostly clear, and we had all these visions of us riding down a ravine on the back of a mule, but nature just wasn’t cooperating with us :-)

Ronda, for those of you who don’t know, is an absolutely charming, adorable little town that is perched on top of a cliff. Unlike the rest of Andalucía, its very lush and green, and there are just spectacular views of the Sierras against the backdrop. We are staying close to the city center, and have a view of some amazing mountains out of our (tiny) window. We are hoping that the weather will clear up tomorrow so we can explore a bit, and maybe go crawling through some caves, otherwise, we’re going to head for Granada for the last real day of our road trip.

¿Did you know... ?

1. At the rest stop outside of Sevilla, they sell underwear (thongs!) in a vending machine for the bargain price of €2. We each got a pair, Heather’s is flourescent green. At least we’re not in Japan, so its probably not used.
2. Stores in Ronda are open from 5pm to 8:30 pm. There are only 3 Internet places here. Oxtail stew tastes like oxtail stew. Our hotel has a rotary dial phone that doesn’t work. They sell olives and pistachios in vending machines.
3. Heather attracts strange men. And talks to them. And ends up buying CDs that we haven’t heard from them because aforementioned strange men show her pictures of all the poor school children that are benefiting from the sale of this cd. Or something.
4. Andalucía has an English soft rock station. People, you have not experienced life until you’ve driven through the mountains in the South of Spain singing "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough" and miscellaneous Chicago songs.

There are no Spanish lessons in today’s edition, mostly because I think we’ve mastered the art of saying "coffee to go" and "where is the bathroom". Thanks to Antonio... ohhhh, Antonio.

I think I have scurvy. Adíos,
Séreña y Juaníta

>> DAY 6: ¡¿DONDE ESTA THE DAMN STREET SIGNS?!
Well, we are on the last full day of our road trip through Spain, and all I have to say is: Where are the damn street signs?!

We have, by this point, walked through Madrid, driven through Cáceres, Merída, Sevilla, Ronda and Granada, and the one thing that we have noticed is that there are NO ACTUAL SIGNS WITH STREET NAMES ON THEM. Are we, like, dumb or something? (Don’t answer that.) Looking for a street, an address, etc., is fairly difficult when you don’t know where you are.

At the same time, there are massive amounts of random signs pointing to tourist attractions, crappy hotels, and parking garages. Apparently, someone in Granada especially had a *great* time with that... the signs will point us first left, then right, then left again... through little tiny roads when the attraction is on a major street... take you around the entire perimeter of the city, and then drop you exactly 10 feet away from where you started out. We both experienced a horrid sense of déjà vu when we started driving into a little narrow alleyway today. Luckily, we found the first major road and took it, heedless of where it would actually take us.

And people, trust me, do not stay at a hotel you find through these street signs. I’m not sure how a hotel qualifies for street signage, but one of the criteria must be that it is a piece of crap. We are staying at the worst hotel I’ve ever been to (and that includes all the sleazy motels from... er, never mind). We have to ask them to turn on the A/C for us. The room smells like roach spray, which, in a place like that, we’re not sure if we should complain or be thankful for. And we’re absolutely convinced that the sheets haven’t been washed since never - a telling mark being someone else’s hair on the blanket.

It was only our extreme need to find a hotel, get out of the car, and pee that led us to book it without checking it out. Heather was so happy when we found it that she was actually rocking the car back and forth in anticipation. (Um, yikes?) I guess we needed one crappy hotel... we’ve been far too spoiled on this trip :-)

But we’re here, and tomorrow, we will be heading out bright and early to the Alhambra for our last major stop on this trip. Then, the morning after, a flight from Malaga back to Madrid, followed by a day of shopping, and finally, our torturous plane ride home.

We did manage to explore Ronda in the pouring rain, with ponchos and all. Of course, it totally cleared up as we were heading out of Ronda, so we spent those €2 for nothing except some funny pictures and a dog chasing after us for 10 minutes trying to bite our ponchos. We then drove to Granada, and might have made it in time before it closed, if not for the cross-city journey that we ended up taking thanks to Granada street signs and circles.

So we shall return soon, with a thousand pictures for you guys to look at - literally. (I’m stealing Heather’s witty line for the trip. She’s now calling me a f***er.) And soon you’ll stop receiving these random, ranting emails from us. Or maybe not.

Adíos for now...
Séreña y Juaníta

>> THE END: BACK HOME IN SF
After an exhausting 16 hour flight, we are finally back home. For a minute, we were really excited to be back in a place where everyone speaks English and doesn't drive like a maniac. Then we realized that we were in San Francisco.

We spent our last day back in Madrid doing what we do best - shopping! It was very exciting. Besides being back in the same hotel we started off at, riding the Metro and listening to pop-techno in the department stores, it was just like being home. Well, people are a little better at the Spanish there, but whatever.

Some Final Thoughts/Lessons Learned from our journey:

1. It costs €0.75 to send a postcard from Spain to the US, NOT €0.51. So if you ever do get your postcards, it probably won't be until next year. Sorry. Bugger. We'll send out virtual postcards from SF *smiles apologetically*
2. 60 year old men in Madrid like to hit on girls who look like they're 15 on the Metro. Wink, wink, kiss, kiss. Yuck.
3. Serena: Donde esta el Metro?
   Heather: Enrico
4. Serena: In case you didn't notice, I'm Asian.
   Heather: Really? I thought you just ran into the wall a lot.
5. We really didn't need to bring the disposable toilet seat covers
6. ... or 3 pairs of shoes (each)
7. ... or print out weather reports that were NOT ACCURATE. (Uh, hello? 90 and sunny at the beach?!)
8. Did we mention that USAir SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS?
9. Yes, Michelle - the Spanish food here is better than Spanish food in Spain. When you can find it, that is. We spent most of the trip hoarding our not free bread in fear of starvation, since we never actually figured out when it was that people in Spain eat. I think its between 1:00 - 1:30, and then 9:00 - 10:00. We also figured out that the reason the Spanish take naps is because they are so passed out from hunger by 3 that they, you know, pass out.
10. And finally... Do not roadtrip in a country where you don't speak the language. More importantly, do not roadtrip in a country that does not have street signs.

And thus concludes the adventures of Séreña y Juaníta. I'm going to try and stay on the ground for a while and recover by giving myself a colonic. Heather is going to sleep for a couple of weeks and not eat bread ever again. Pictures coming soon... don't worry, we won't send out all 1,012 of them.

Adíos and adieu for now,
Séreña y Juaníta

07 fitness diary, week 2: off to a good start...

... but didn't quite finish the race.

This week started off well. I went to the gym both Tues and Wed, and felt fabulous about it. Tracked points diligently. Went to WW meeting with C, and even used something that I learned in the meeting to help control my diet on Wed night. And then, two things happened: ToM and sickness!

So my workouts petered out after only two tries. Oh well, its two times more than I did last week!

Week 2 Stats, 1/8 - 1/14:

• Weight: 120.6 lbs
• Body Fat: 25.9%
• Total Points: -5.5 flexies

Pics:
Beware! I debated whether or not to take them since its still ToM and I have water everywhere... but I didn't want to be off track after only 2 weeks.


















Sorry about the off-kiltness of the pics... bad cropping job, too lazy to fix :-)

The Good

• Went to WW meeting with C, weighed in at 123.6 lbs (121.6 BAN) - leader said that doing WW for maintenance was the right thing to do!
• Stayed mostly to my 21 points per day
• Worked out twice this week, felt good about it!
• Contacted a personal trainer
• Tried my darned hardest to be a nice person :-)

The Bad

• Overdid it on Wed with high fat, low satisfaction foods (cheese, chocolate, foie gras), and then went out to eat afterwards even though I wasn't terribly hungry
• Had appetizers on Fri, despite, again, not being terribly hungry
• Got a little snarky later on in the week. The blissful mindstate only lasted until Wed

The Next Week

• Work out 4x - seriously!
• Stay OP, despite planned outings to dinner/drinks
• Focus on staying healthy
• Go to WW again
• Set up appt with trainer
• Go to dance on Sat
  

uh oh

I'm sick, and our heater is broken. And its still freezing in the house.

breaking out the bubbly

I've had massive senioritis this week, thanks to one very big product launch late last Friday. So my week has been filled with celebrations and drinks! Thank goodness I had a chance to play, because it seems like the bug that's been going around has finally caught up to me (and our heater seems to be broken to boot).

Team Bubbly
On Wed, we went out to celebrate the release of one of our hottest products at the Bubble Lounge. Those of you who know me know that this has been one of the most difficult releases for me, so I for one was ecstatic that we finally made it - and on time!

Champagne glasses


Brent


Lars, Andy and Andrew


Carol, Jesper and me


Sadia, Clinton and Dave


Jesper and Adrian

Swank, Steak and... the Crow Bar??
Our weekly happy hour took us to the Carnelian Room, at the top of the BofA building. The view was gorgeous, the place was swanky, and the drinks ridiculously expensive.

Afterwards, Heather, Greg, Scott and I headed to El Raigon for dinner. Considering how much I've heard about this place, I was actually mildly disappointed by the food. The steaks were flavorful, but not amazing; and both the appetizers were sort of boring. Since its always been hailed as an "inexpensive" steak house, I was also not thrilled that the tab came out to around $60 per person. Oh, Michael Bauer, my faith in you dwindles a little bit every day.

Heather and I wanted to play pool, so we said goodbye to the boys and headed to the Crow Bar. Being the super dive that it is, it didn't have any heating, so after one round in our winter coats, we were too frozen to stay.

A Casual Dinner with Friends
Tonight, despite having a migraine most of the day, I headed over to John and Belinda's for dinner. Yum! Now THAT was good food! It was a nice evening with friends over great food and wine... and some riotous stories about John and Belinda when they were dating and on their wedding day.

Overall, its been a fantastic week. Now... to just battle this sore throat!

frakkin freezing!

My God, you know its COLD when you don't want to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I just keep thinking, "I can't wear my robe when I'm on the toilet."

San Francisco experiences record cold spell

07 fitness diary, week 1: do no harm

Thanks to my week-long stomach unhappiness over break, I managed to get myself down to ~122 lbs. Very exciting, so my goal for the past week was to maintain that, and get settled back in SF and life before jump starting my fitnese resolutions.

Week 1 Stats, 1/1 - 1/7:

• Weight: 121.4 lbs
• Body Fat: 25.9%
• Workouts: None
• Total Points: Not tracked

I did do some damage on Thurs - Sat, when I first went out for Indian buffet, then drank something like 6 beers on Friday night, and hit up Fog City Diner for brunch on Sat, consuming the entire plate of smoked chicken hash! Hopefully, I'll be back in the swing of working out before the damage really starts to show up.

Since I didn't really track this week, and gave myself some time to get back into things, I'm not going to start the good-bad-futures until next week. However, I do have pics (yikes!) and fitness goals for the month:

Pics:













Humiliation (e.g., posting public pics of weekly progress) certainly helped me lose 20lbs last year, so I'm reviving the tradition as I aim to maintain the loss, lose 5% body fat, and get toned and bikini-ready.

Fitness for the Month
However, I am getting a personal trainer, and already signed up for dance at CCSF, so I'm confident that I'll be able to at least firm up, if not be supermodel material :-)

• This week (1/8): Get back to going to the gym (4x) and meet/start with trainer
• Next week (1/15): Start Beginning Jazz classes at CCSF
• Last week (1/22): Start kickboxing at Hwa Rang Kang

I'm ready to go! So glad its the new year...

ouch!

Yikes! Bunch o' work people and I went to have India food today for lunch - and it cost me 24 points. 24! That officially leaves me with 6.5 flexies for the rest of the week - and I didn't even track on Sun or Mon.

I do have to say, though, Tandoori Mahal was delicious and worth it. I was scared b/c I didn't want to go to Naan and Curry (after the tree bark incident) or Pakwan (after every post-Pakwan bathroom incident), but Gaylord, the only other Indian place we knew near work, was supposedly expensive and not very good. Thanks to Yelp, I found Tandoori Mahal, and it was delish. Its got a nice ambiance - not the hole-in-the-wall decor - and the food at the buffet was really fresh and not too greasy. Total tab was $9.50/person, including tax and tip. Not bad at all!

I am going to have to try and hit the gym tomorrow during work, since we're going out for happy hour and I desperately need some extra flexies. At least Corinne and I start WW meetings tomorrow. Dammit, my post-sickness eating isn't holding at all.

Total Points: 39 | 6.5 flexies remaining | 0 APs this week

day 2 back: zen

Today is my 2nd day back, both on WW and to work. And really, to SF, since I got back at 11pm on Monday night. Anyhoo, I have to say, its been really super good so far. I know its only been 2 days, but I don't know... something feels different. I'm just... not stressed. Despite some minor ranting about the tech-writer-from-hell, I've been pretty chill about the whole thing.

One of my co-workers even commented, "I'm surprised you're not more frustrated by the situation."

"I'm feeling very zen," I said. "What's the point of getting upset? Its not going to change anything."

*~*~*~*
From an eating perspective, my appetite hasn't been the same since I got sick. I'm just not hungry, and I actually had to make myself finish my lasagna today at 3 so that I could take my antibiotics. This is probably ok, since I usually overeat anyways, and it'll help me keep the weight off.

I did manage to go to the grocery store for the first time in ages (yay car!) and made myself a yummy dinner. Tonight, I'm going to do laundry, give myself a mani/pedi, and watch more eps of my new addiction, Brothers & Sisters.

Total Points: 28.5 | 23.5 Flexies remain | 0 APs

our own kaiser soze

I've been working with this one woman that I have to admit, I absolutely despise. She has a major attitude problem - just a generally bitter person. But considering I can be a super-bitch myself, I usually excuse attitude issues if people can deliver. Well, on top of her holier-than-thou-I'm-better-than-you bitchiness, she also actually doesn't do her work on time.

Last year, we gated a release by a day because she was writing her documentation - which was due months before - the day of GA. (She's a tech writer, clearly.) In the next release, she delivered documentation three weeks after a product was released. This year, it took me and her manager weeks to actually get a schedule out of her. And even the schedule that she gave us for her deliverables didn't actually mean sh*t - she never managed to meet a single deadline she set for herself, or even let us know about it.

Well, today we hit the last milestone before release of this huge revenue-generating product. She was supposed to originally deliver the Install Guide for this on 12/15 - but then it got pushed to 12/18... then 12/19... then 12/22... and finally 1/2. Needless to say, even though we are this close to GA, she didn't have anything for us but excuses.

But that's not what was totally unbelievable. She comes in this morning, tells us all these things she's "waiting on" before she can send the doc out for review, and then, around 11am, she just disappears. Doesn't quit. Doesn't tell anyone she's leaving. Doesn't finish anything up or let us know what's going on. Like Kaiser Soze, its POOF! and she's gone!

I've never even heard of such a thing before! Clearly she doesn't expect to have a job if she ever comes back, considering how she just left the whole team in the lurch. As one of my-coworkers said, she basically shanghai'd us into doing her work for her.

Her poor manager... dealing with this the first day back (after dealing with her ridiculous behavior all these months). I, personally, am relieved. Yes, its nerve-racking to wait to see if the new tech writer we assigned to it can get stuff done on time, but at least I don't have to deal with her pettiness, attitude and endless non-answers anymore. But still, so unprofessional.

"I wonder if she's go all post-office and come after you and [her manager] with a shotgun?" my psuedo-manager Drew perused.

Lovely.

*~*~*~*
UPDATE: Well, so she's not dead. I was actually really worried there for a while, since no one heard from her until about 1 this afternoon. Now, I'm pretty steaming pissed. What a total bitch! She got her doctor to courier a letter saying that she couldn't come in to work for the week. One could say, if they didn't know her, that maybe she had a breakdown or something.

But those of us who do see this as a totally bitchy and vindictive act. With a doctor's note, we can't fire her - well, we could, but then she would have grounds for a lawsuit. Does she honestly expect to come back after a week after pulling this stunt, leaving the rest of the team in the lurch like this??? Or even to take disability pay???

Even some of her previous supporters - or at least those that have given her the benefit of the doubt before - see that she just f*cked up and couldn't face up to it. Now those people despise her too. In the last few weeks, all of her lying and incompetence has been surfacing. The fact that we found a barely written guide on Monday afternoon says something. The fact that it took her over 4 weeks to get together what the replacement tech writer pulled together in less than 24 hours says something.

I hope that they fire her. Lawsuit threat or no, I'd say that there were plenty of grounds for dismissal even before yesterday's disappearing act.

2007 new year's resolutions

Or should I say goals?

Last year was the year of change and self-realization. This year, my themes are going to be maintenance and consistency - see if I can make those changes stick. Oh, and to HAVE FUN. I decided, I was so mired in my own self-discovery that I became serious, pensive, and, well, boring.

1. Get weight to 120 lbs and MAINTAIN with the help of my super-cool weight loss buds (Sara, are you listening?). More importantly, tone, tone, tone! That means losing 5% body fat, and be bikini-ready by spring, because....
2. I'm wanna go on vacation! Yeah, its been 2 years. Its time.
3. Dance! That'll be one easy way to burn calories, along with...
4. Kickboxing! I've been dying to master this for years
   
5. Be more positive - life's too short to pout - and accept things the way they are
   
6. Take care of my health, meaning (a) deal with the migraines, (b) get physical therapy so I can dance/kickbox again, and (c) be more consistent about therapies eg chiro, acupuncture
7. Have fun dating. Yes, I'm ready for a relationships, and the best way to get into that is to just enjoy myself meeting people. Speaking of people...
8. Be more social. That means meeting new people, strengthing new friendships, and reconnecting with ones I've ignored this last silent year.
9. Dump as much emotional baggage as possible. Yeah, cheesy, I know, but seriously. Seriously.
10. Save at least $10k. Why? Because its time to start thinking about the future and buying a house.

I'll check in mid-year to see how I'm doing. Wish me luck!