Giving Love a Bad Name

Walking through the Noe Valley Harvest Festival today, a bumblebee flew straight into my heart. Unfortunately, the bee was not as strong as my boobs, and bounced right off and onto the ground.

Trying to decide if that was nature, or fate, or whatever, trying to tell me something there. I mean, the aim was dead-on. It still kind of hurts a tiny bit when I think on it. It was like Cupid's Arrow ... except probably the exact opposite in effect. Or something.

In other news, I was digging through some old knitting projects this evening, trying to find something creative to do besides moping in front of Netflix, and stumbled on an old bucket list I made for myself back in 2007. It was inspired by that Day Zero Project that was all over LiveJournal back in ... well, 2007. It was intended to be a list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. I only came up with 57 items, and they were supposed to be completed by March 28, 2010. Some of these things seem just ridiculous now. Some are goals I still have. Only 12 actually got done at some point.

I'm sharing the list below, for your viewing pleasure and general amusement. Items in green are things I've actually accomplished by this point.

1. Visit a state I've never been to before. (Ohio.)
   
2. Go wine tasting. (Done with Dad for Father's Day 2010.)
   
3. Save one month's salary (gross, in savings) ~ $4K.
   
4. Join an interest group/club.
   
5. Knit a (wearable) sweater for myself. (Three Decades Sweater - link to Ravelry entry)
   
6. Volunteer for something regular.
   
7. Attend one Pilates class.
   
8. Work out three times a week for one month straight.
   
9. Develop photos from my big [word unreadable - maybe recent?] trips (starting 2005) and put them into albums.
   
10. See a movie by myself.
    
11. Pay off the credit card completely (This one I'm really proud of.)
    
12. Go on a six-month yarn diet.
    
13. Go on three dates with three different guys. (Sad this had to be an ambition spread out over 1,001 days.)
    
14. Write a short story I'm proud of. ("The Swap")
    
15. Write a novel (1st draft).
    
16. Eat an animal I've never tried before.
    
17. Take a photography class.
    
18. Take a language class.
    
19. Become reading-fluent in Old English.
    
20. Learn to play the guitar - beginning level.
    
21. Run Bay to Breakers. (Hahahahaha)
    
22. Learn self-defense (take a class) or a martial art. (Hello, Krav Maga.)
    
23. Learn CPR. (Which reminds me, I need to sign up for the child and infant CPR class.)
    
24. Lower weight to 136 pounds.
    
25. Play a round of golf.
    
26. Get oil change on car every six months for 1.5 years (3 times in a row). (I even put the date of the first change: 6/27, presumably 2007)
    
27. Volunteer for a community event. (AIDS LifeCycle, with my coworkers.)
    
28. Visit a country I've never been to before. (Luxembourg)
    
29. Make a Flash movie to post on YouTube. (What the heck was I thinking?)
    
30. Reinstate my radio show. (Still wish I was doing this.)
    
31. Tour the Jelly Belly Factory. (I've visited, but not done the tour. Soon. Also: added this to my Bucket List.)
    
32. Convince management to make Graveyard a six-person shift. (Got that for a whole year, though maybe it wasn't me that convinced management. And since then, I've left the shift. Wow. The way things change ...)
    
33. Run a scavenger hunt around SF.
    
34. Create a cookbook of all my favorite recipes, with pictures.
    
35. Get something published.
    
36. Design a deck of Tarot Cards.
    
37. Go camping. (Kind of did this last year at the Capay Tomato Festival, with Claire. But that doesn't really count.)
    
38. Go to Burning Man (again). (This is on my Bucket List.)
    
39. See Kent play live.
    
40. Write up a pattern for distribution (knitting).
    
41. Teach four people to knit.
    
42. Make a fountain (ceramic).
    
43. Make "Lady MacBeth's Hands" (ceramics). (Hmmm ...)
    
44. See a sports game that is not hockey.
    
45. See a Sharks game. (I've seen two, actually.)
    
46. Set up [internal coding group] BINGO/newsroom game.
    
47. Beach clean-up volunteering.
    
48. Go skydiving.
    
49. Host a knitting party.
    
50. Learn to juggle.
    
51. Take a fencing class.
    
52. Design and crochet a (Better) Booby Pillow (as seen on Etsy).
    
53. Make pasta entirely from scratch.
    
54. Watch entire Godfather trilogy. (I got through the first one ...)
    
55. Learn Korean (writing).
    
56. Relearn calculus. (WTF?)
    
57. See three plays/musicals. (I think I've seen ... one?)

Pass It On ... or Pass On It?

As seen this evening, walking home along 24th Street from the J.



I'm thinking that someone out there doesn't keep up with their Urban Dictionary ... from the 80s. Oops.

(And yeah, I know someone else must have taken a photo of this already, but I had to post it myself.)

As an aside, and totally to boast, but daymn I can cook.



Tonight's dinner was a new fishy adventure for me: rockfish. I've never cooked it, can't remember ever eating it, but picked it up on a recommendation from the guy working the fish counter at Whole Paycheck. So, first time for rockfish (which, well, rocked — it's lightly dredged in rice flour, salt and pepper, then pan fried in a combo of olive and vegetable oils; next time I'll probably up the pepper and salt, though), and also first time successfully pan frying a fish on my own. Go me.

The veggies are a basic medley of onion, zucchini and mushrooms, sauteed with a made-up red vinaigrette sauce. Really blew myself away with dinner tonight.

Kosher Ham for Hanukkah

Can it be considered a house-warming party, if it happens four years after you move in?

Probably not. But while I have had a couple of smaller evening events at my place before (last New Year's Eve, and a fondue party in 2008), this is the first time I've invited and had a large crowd of people coming in and out of my tiny studio apartment.

And from all appearances, it was successful. At least, that's how I feel — I hope my guests feel the same way, too. Because this means I'm probably going to have another one next year: be warned.

In true, typical Jewish-(grand)mother-in-training style, I had a lot of food. I mean, a lot. There were even things I didn't bring out of the fridge due to lack of space, or just plain ol' forgetfulness. Seriously. For instance, I don't know what I'm going to do with a CostCo-sized box of crackers.

Some highlights:

• Being asked a couple times where I got my ham ... and then getting to tell people I glazed it myself.
  
• Getting to see Amber, a friend from high school that I haven't seen in over a decade, again.
  
• Realizing that I had so much beer I wouldn't be able to put any new arrivals into the fridge with the rest ... resulting in my leaving six packs scattered around the apartment.
  
• Having Laura and Jeremy under my roof at the same time, which hasn't happened in almost a year. (I haven't seen either of them in almost that long, too.)
  
• Watching friends who haven't been to my place before get amused by others using the window as an entrance instead of the door.
  
• During my explanation of Hanukkah for the gentiles just before we lit the Menorah, I realized I was turning into my father with his welcoming speeches.
  
• Recognizing that I have a lot more friends than I give myself credit for.
  

Some pictures:

Trying to find room in the fridge for more beer


General action shot, early on in the party


My friends appearing to think too hard, later in the party


Magnet poetry, randomly left on the fridge

Everyone who came: thank you so much! It wouldn't have been the same without you, and I'm glad everyone seemed to enjoy mingling with each other. To those of you who couldn't make it this year: you were missed, and I hope you can make it next time.

Though, looking at how much alcohol I have leftover from this event, I might have to have another party soon just to get rid of it. Darn, how unfortunate.

Broken (Into)

Let's start with the positive: I had today off via a shift switch with another coworker, so I convinced my baby nephew to visit (along with his entourage of his mother, my mother and my other sister) for the afternoon. A picture of him sleeping on my bed — innit he cute?



Now the negative: While we were lying around waiting for the entourage to gather energy enough to drive back home, I got a knock on my apartment door — a rare occurrence in this fourplex — that turned out to be my neighbor telling me that my car had been broken into over the weekend.

How lovely.

I went downstairs with my mother to check it out. It's actually almost laughable: they smashed the back triangle (that wee one behind the rear passenger's window) and reached around to unlock the door. Which probably means they at least scraped up their hands and arms a bit to reach to the far side of the main window and get at the back door lock. On top of that, the only things that they took were my CD stereo — and the CD function was broken; my old cell phone — which was completely worthlessly dead and broken; and the small coin purse I kept my bridge toll cash in since my coin drawer had been ripped out by the last person to break into my car — and the coin purse, while not broken, was definitely broke.

So, dickhead that violated the sanctity of my vehicle: was it worth it? Because frankly, there wasn't really anything of value in the car in the first place (lesson learned from the first break-in), and it really peeves me that it'll take more cash to fix that tiny back window than the entire value of everything that you took. I hope the cuts you got end up gangrenous.

Who Loved Ya, Baby?

A little over a month ago, when I was walking down the main drag in my neighborhood (24th Street in Noe Valley, in case you were wondering), I found the parking lot of Bell Market gated off, and signs in the windows indicating that it had closed. Now, it's not like I went there often — usually when I wanted groceries, I drove up the hill to the Safeway, which was cheaper, had a better selection, and made more sense to take the car to. Still, it was a little disappointing: another example of an economy gone to complete shit, a neighborhood on the verge of decline. Plus, where was I going to go now for those quick produce pickups when I felt like getting my ass moving and taking a walk?

But then yesterday I was walking down the street again, and there were cars parked in that lot, and people standing around looking like they were Planning Something. And then I saw the signs hung up on the gate, and I realized my disappointment had come too soon.

We're getting a Whole Paycheck — sorry, Whole Foods — in my neighborhood. Like, a 10 minute walk from my house.

The place is too expensive for me, generally, but, call me bourgeois, holy fucking shit, I can buy my quinoa now and pretty produce and crappity have you seen their bulk bins?!

Once the place opens up, you just know that my grocery budget is completely blown to kingdom come. Oh, well. It was a nice idea while it lasted.

Speaking of budget-blowers, I leave for Europe on Friday. Yesterday's discovery was actually on my way downtown to buy Euros at Wells Fargo, so I can have cab fare when I land in Amsterdam, without having to pay those outrageous airport exchange fees. $300 got me €210. God dammit, I miss the exchange rates of the early 2000s.

Question for the week, unrelated the above two topics: So, now that it's now, was it all worth it?