“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
--- Douglas Adams

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

On Thanksgiving: some of us don't eat beef, some of us don't eat pork, but we all eat turkey!

Does anyone equate Thanksgiving with Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians anymore? In my opinion, not really. Sure, we all know the Thanksgiving story, but that's not really why we gather on the 3rd Thursday of every November.

Thanksgiving has evolved into something different. It's turned into a day to be thankful for what you have, spend the day with your family and watch football. We eat a lot, drink a lot and generally have a good time. Every family has their own special traditions but, everyone across the country is pretty much doing the same thing.

I like Thanksgiving because it doesn't matter your religion, class, personal beliefs, sexual orientation, your heritage or any of the many other differences we might have; as Americans we have this day in common, and the cool part is, you don't have to be American to partake in it. Everyone is invited to celebrate, you just have to show up.

I got an email today from someone. I'm sure a few of my readers got the same email. I like what he said:
"...I wish to greet you all here, and to wish you and your families and your special people the happiest of times this Thanksgiving. I, like many of our friends never grew up with the Thanksgiving spirit as it was so uniquely American. Over all these years it has become for me a very special occasion as it embodies the true goodness and generosity of the human spirit, uncomplicated by religion, politics, or the other divisive aspects of society. It is a time for the human touch, and it is a very good thing. So, with that in mind, I want to wish you all a most special and reflective Thanksgiving. It would be trite in the extreme to suggest that you look around you and appreciate what you have and revel in it. Life doesn't work like that. We all have problems and issues to deal with. Less trite, perhaps, would be to suggest that you enjoy this great holiday with your precious loved ones and look forward to the next one. That's what we are doing, and that's for sure. "

So put on your eating pants and your baggy shirt with the empire waist and grab a fork. It's turkey time.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Cross off #60 and #89

I accomplished #60 from my list yesterday and #89 today.

#89 - Go through the drafts of blog posts I've made and either post them or delete them.Go through the drafts of blog posts I've made and either post them or delete them. 
I culled a bunch of started but go-nowhere posts, and finished one that's been haunting me since September. There are no longer any unfinished posts on my blog. Yay.


#60 Get rid of yucky chipped dishes and replace
For my birthday 6 weeks ago I got a gift card from Bed Bath and Beyond. Last week one of The Girl's friends had dinner at our house. As I was setting the table I noticed we didn't have enough of the same kind of dishes for everyone to have the same kind of dish. My family's talent for not breaking dishes in our old porcelain sink is not well cultivated. The dishes I bought when we moved into our house almost 13 years ago have been broken, chipped, cracked. We needed some new everyday dishes. A friend of mine got wind of me going to BBB yesterday and said she had some coupons I could use. Boy did she. She handed me a stack of coupons that was seriously, at least 50 coupons deep. She told me that even though BBB has expiration dates on their coupons they'll still honor them and you can use as many coupons as you have items. With my gift card and the coupons,  I bought $68 dollars worth of dishes and spent only . . . . .(wait for it) . . . . .$5.41. Sweet.

Color Tiles

Quite some time ago I came across a blog called MerMag. The author posted about a project she made for one of her kids. I LOVED the idea.

I sent the post to my dad, made him read it and then instructed him to go to home depot to buy the supplies listed exactly as Ms. MerMag had described. Having the kind of dad I have (a good one), he bought the required wood and cut squares for me according to Ms. MerMag's  instructions.

For my son's birthday, my dad sent me about 100 freshly cut tiles from home depot. I bought some red, blue and yellow paint, took painters tape and made beautiful straight lines on the diagonal of the squares and got to painting.

It took me almost a year to finish (partly because life is busy and partly because I'm lazy), but I'm finished.

So here they are. Don't look too closely or compare them to Ms. MerMag's, because her squares are painted way better.



My boy isn't too into making geometric shapes but he likes when I arrange the tiles to create a road that he can drive his little toy cars down. He also likes to stack the tiles and knock them down but his favorite thing to do is throw them across the room or at the cat.


My Dad and My Son in My Sister's Garage taken July 2009.


Friday, November 19, 2010

Conversation with a Salty Bartender

This afternoon I had to go to the restaurant on the bottom floor of my building and pay for a cheese platter for some thing-thing being held at my office today.

As it's 4pm, the restaurant was not yet open for dinner. Only the bar was open.

This is the interaction I had with a salty bartender and a drunk patron.

Salty Bartender: Can I help you young lady?
Me: Hi, I need to pay for a catering order that was delivered to my office earlier today.
Salty Bartender goes to the register to look for my ticket and comes back.
Salty Bartender: That'll be $40 bananas.

picture stolen from squidoo.com/bananaphone
Me: Sorry sir, I don't have any bananas, will you take clams?
Salty Bartender chuckles, winks at me and takes my credit card.
Drunk Patron: Hey, I didn't know they sold banans here.
picture stolen from trianglembc.com

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Creepy Dream


picture stolen from everyjoe.com
 This morning I woke up with a bit of a tickle in my throat. I couldn't stop coughing.

Hubby and I set our own alarms. Mine was about to go off in a minute or so; his had yet to chime, beep or bakawk! I decided to make my way to the couch and finish my morning hitting-snooze-for-the-next-20-minutes routine.
I don't remember my dream during the last "snooze session" but as my alarm rang for the last time I woke up and said aloud "Stop being so creepy, Jim Carrey."
I wonder what that was all about.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Jelly Cobblestones

This morning Hubby and I took the Kiddies to Ocean Beach.




It was a really beautiful morning, but that was not the reason for our 9am stroll.
According to the Ocean Beach Bulletin, massive amounts of (probably) moon jellies had washed ashore. We had to see it. It was pretty cool. The largest jellies were about a foot in diameter. At some spots, the concentration was so rich the beach looked like it had been paved with jelly cobblestones.






Friday, November 12, 2010

"I'm in a hole!"

The Boy has taken a liking to crawling into my bed and then wiggling all the way down to the foot and yelling "I'm in a hole." Last week he did just that but instead of yelling his new favorite refrain he fell asleep. Hubby and The Girl spent a good 15 minutes looking for him one afternoon only to find him in his hole snoring away.
This new fascination with blankets, along with The Girl teaching him about cocoons and butterflies, has turned into a new game. He likes to be wrapped up in a burrito cocoon.  Hearing him giggle from inside is too cute.

And yes, I made this blanket. A few years ago I started to crochet a blanket using up all the yarn I had left over from other projects. Turns out I didn't have enough yarn to complete the blanket so I went out and bought some yarn to finish it. Funny part (except for Hubby who didn't think it was funny) I had as much yarn left over this project as I did to start with. Comfy blanket, though.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-happy birthday!

Picture stolen from winebuzz.hk
 Conversation this morning -
Coworker H - Andrea Andrea, it's Coworker N's birthday today. We have to do something for her.
Me - OK
Coworker H - We can go to (the restaurant in our building's complex) and get a cake and have some bubbles.
Me - OK

We feel bad that we forgot her birthday. I especially feel like a jerk-face because just over a month ago she remembered mine and took me out to lunch.

Coworker H goes to the restaurant, grabs a yummy cake, throws some bubbles in the fridge. She then sends out an email to a few people on our team and floor letting them know that we'll be having a mini celebration at 3pm.

At 3pm, Coworker K tells Coworker N to come into the bar (yes my office has a bar) because someone brought in some puppies that she just had to see. Right on cue she runs into the bar where 10 of us break into a lovely version of Happy Birthday and present her with yummy cake and sparkling wine.

While we're having cake and enjoying some bubbles, she tells us that our source for finding out when her birthday is incorrect and her birthday isn't until next week. We all felt stupid but enjoyed the cake and bubbly anyway.

Coworker N appreciated the thought, ate her cake and enjoyed her little mini party, even though we lied to her about the puppies.

Hahahahaha.

At least we got to have a nice little 1/2 hour of not working, and drinking bubbles, and maybe we'll get to do it again next week when her real birthday rolls around.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

101 Things in 1001 Days!

I've been thinking about and working on my list this past weekend. I admit, around list item number 57 I got a little stuck and turned to our friend the google search to find other people who have taken the 101 things in 1001 days challenge, and took a peek at their lists. There were a lot of similarities in everyone's list; lose weight, get in shape, save money, visit far off lands, etc. 

One common thread I found bugged me, however. Some people listed items as private.
For example:
...
7. Eat  a Moons Over My Hammy at Denny's once a week for the duration of this project
8. Ride a unicorn through a wall of fire then spend the rest of the day eating ice cream out of a Brian Wilson's orange baseball shoes.
9. (private)
10. make full sized log cabin out of spaghetti and nutella
...


(Picture stolen from website called fishstripes.com)

Why list (private) things on a public blog? I'm all for making a list of things one has to do, but why even list something that you want to keep private if you're gonna blog about it? Why not just keep a private list of 10 things to yourself and not tell anyone about it. Why say "I have a list of 101 things I'm going to do and not tell anyone about it and my blog posts will look like this:
Dear Blog - today I did Item #9. Or did I? I don't want the blog-reading world to know because it's private." If you don't want anyone to know about it, don't even mention it. Either commit to writing about worms and all, or don't even mention it.

Ok folks, here's my list. Today is Tuesday, November 2, 2010. One thousand and one days from today will be Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Let's see how many list items I can accomplish.

Listed in no particular order of importance .....
1 - Put change in someone's expired parking meter
2 - List 100 things that make me happy
3 - Leave an inspirational note in a library book for some stranger to find
4 - Learn how to shoot a gun
5 - Go to a museum I've never visited before - Week of May 13
6 - Get to my goal weight
7 - Don't watch TV for a week - OK, don't remember the date, but I did it
8 - Bring my lunch to work every day for a month - a few months ago
9 - Take one picture every day for a month
10 - Do 50 consecutive push-ups
11 - Paint my bathroom
12 - Eat at Les Halles in New York
13 - Brew beer
14 - Make a new pa'u out of some old dresses I'm never going to wear again because they're either outdated or I'll never fit into them ever again or they're just plain ugly but the fabric is kinda cool
15 - Lose at least 40 pounds before my upcoming huaka'i in May 2011 - didn't happen
16 - Have a yard sale
17 - Paint the living room
18 - Paint the kitchen
19 - Go to a fireworks show on the 4th of July
20 - Be able to do the splits
21 - Take the two hundred squats challenge (twohundredsquats.com)
22 - Give up Facebook for one week - week of May 13
23 - Take the fam to Long Beach for a few days
24 - Learn to make paper cranes
25 - Get a literary tattoo
26 - Eat 5 things I've never tried before  (#1 Parsnip cake on 12/4)
27 - Teach my son how to hela (no, that's not a typo. I didn't mean to write "teach my son to hula." hela is a movement in hula)
28 - Complete the Hawaiian CDs from Kumu Kaliko
29 - Complete the Hawaiian Language text book I bought
30 - Make 2 parsnip cakes as featured on onehungrychef.com; one for me and one for Tina. 12/5/10
31 - Do the dishes every night after dinner for a month
32 - Go to at least 3 Giants games
33 - Do at least 1 unassisted pull-up
34 - Treat The Girl on a day of totally indulgence - fancy lunch, mani/pedi, movie, etc.
35 - Do the "Couch to 5K in 9 weeks" - done in February 2011
36 - Sell the records I don't care about and find a good home to those I do
37 - Post at least once a month on my other blog for the duration of this project.
38 - Get rid of or repurpose all of the clothes I haven't worn in at least 2 years (except my wedding dress, of course)
39 - Buy a blood pressure monitor 12/4/10
40 - Keep a blood pressure diary until I make my goal weight - not gonna do this
41 - Find a new job w/in my company. It's not that I don't like the people I work for, it's just that I think it's time to do some wing spreading. - sorta did this
42 - Master Ia o e ka la, kahiko version. I missed a few classes when we were learning this one. I always cringe when we have to do this one. Of course Kumu makes us do it when I'm close to the front. OK, I don't think he does it on purpose. I think it just happens that way. Still, I don't know this hula very well and it bugs me that I can't get parts of it right. (right 'uwehe, right 'uwehe, left 'uwehe, right 'uwehe)
43 - Master that simple hula move that for some reason I can't do. There's one that totally trips me up and I don't know why because it's super easy. it's right kawelu facing left followed by left kawelu facing right. I got my kawelu down. why does this variation mess me up? We've been doing it since we learned Mamala, which was even before our first ho'ike. Sheesh. Get with the program, Andrea.
44 - Be able to recite Ke Au Hawai'i without the crutch of my fellow haumana chanting with me. I got this. Why can't I do it alone?
45 - Obtain my WSET Level 3, Advanced certificate
46 - Have a dinner party
47 - Participate in Climb California again and climb all 52 flights of stairs for the American Lung Association - did March 26, 2011
48 - Double the team size of Team Aloha for Climb California - didn't do this, membership stayed flat
49 - Beat my time from 2 years ago when I did Climb California. Last year I was recovering from pneumonia and took longer than the year before. - old record still stands
50 - Complete "The Two Hundred Situps" Challenge
51 - Make French Onion Soup from scratch
52 - Send a "just because" care package to a friend
53 - Clean out the cabinet above the kitchen sink
54 - Turn the hall closet into a linen closet.
55 - Sell unwanted CDs on ebay or get rid of in some way
56 - Complete the parent hours for The Girl's school for the 2011-12 school year before Christmas 2011
57 - Complete the parent hours for The Girl's school for the 2012-13 school year before Christmas 2012
58 - Stock and organize first aid kit in the other hall closet - 12/2010
59 - Get rid of yucky torn towels and replace
60 - Get rid of yucky chipped dishes and replace - 11/20/10
61 - Miss no more Hula classes "because I don't feel like going tonight". I have to have a real reason to miss it like my kids are sick or my legs are broken.
62 - Host Mahjong at my house - 01/09/2011
63 - Ride a mechanical bull
64 - Ride a zipline
65 - Read 50 books
66 - Go to chuch at least once a month for the duration of this project (Christmas and Easter don't count)
67 - Eat at that cash-only Chinese-Muslim restaurant around the block from me that Hubby and I always say "we should eat there, I here it's good" whenever we pass it.
68 - Learn the names of the animals I like a the zoo. (So far - the Churro Sheep is named Wakoda, he's the son of Jerome, one of the Polar Bears is Ulu, the Tapir is Goober, the baby Gorilla is Hasani)
69 - Clean out at least one plastic bin a month - there are about 10 plastic bins in our garage filled with, who knows what it's filled with; stuff to shred, stuff to recycle, stuff to throw away. If it's been in the plastic bin for this long and I don't know what it is, I doubt I need it.
70 - Plan (and do) something super fun and fantastic for my 15th anniversary with Hubby (July 17, 2012)
71 - Get my taxes done by the close of March in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It sucks always waiting until the last minute
72 - Not watch TV more than I watch TV (OK, so this one isn't really measurable but I guess a good indicator if I'm doing this one is whether or not I'm getting other stuff done that I need to do)
73 - Go to Yosemite
74 - Be able to cast doubt on a person's belief that the sasquatch isn't real through the presentation of scientific evidence
75 - Save my change in a jar for the duration of this project
76 - Get rid of 1/3 of what I own - throw it away, recycle it, repurpose it, sell it, etc. I own a lotta crap I don't need, don't know I have, don't care about.
77 - Stop calling people litter-bugs when I see them litter because one day I'm gonna call the wrong person a litter-bug and I'm gonna get my ass kicked.
78 - Participate in the St. Stupid's Day Parade at least 1 time
79 - Ride boats around stow lake - prolly not gonna happen. it's closed now, right?
80 - Go to Angel Island
81 - Make up my own hula to a whole song
82 - Go to a crab dinner at The Girl's school (choice would be Feb 2011, Feb 2012 or Feb 2013)
83 - Put $5 in my change jar once a week for the duration of this project
84 - Meet Whole_Tost of The Toasted Blog
85 - Climb the stairs by my work at least twice a week for the duration of this project (except when its raining or I'm am out of the office)
86 - Have lunch with Bonnie
87 - Approach Sister P about creating a list to the neighbors of St. G regarding parking, events and such
88 - Write a blog post about the tattoo on my arm
89 - Go through the drafts of blog posts I've made and either post them or delete them. - 11/21/10
90 - Spend a day saying hello to strangers who pass me on the street.
91 - Eat at Norton's Vault - can't do this one anymore because NV is closed.
92 - Submit an entry to all of the projects listed on AcoLab, (even the ones I missed the last few months) for the duration of this project
93 - Start playing my 'ukulele again
94 - Teach The Boy to sing 'Puamana'
95 - Make decorations for the front window with my kids for every major holiday starting with Thanksgiving 2010 - OK so I haven't been doing this but The Girl has been commemorating the holidays with sidewalk chalk. That counts.
96 - Clean out the other hall closet and make a space for my crafty stuff, including the sewing machine
97 - Participate in Bay to Breakers at least once (chances are May 2011, May 2012, May 2013)
98 - Take a picture of myself once a month for the duration of this project (similar to but different from different than #9)
99 - Take The Girl to a Waterpark and have tons and tons and tons of fun
100 - Take The Girl to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - July 3, 2011
101 - Keep my toenails painted and pretty at all times.

Now I'm off to put reminders on my phone for the things that have deadlines. Phew.

Welcome now my friends to the show that never ends

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Nice Pictures - Where'd you steal them from?

Some of the pictures in my blog were taken by a photographer called Julie Michele. Some of the pictures were either taken by me or someone I know. Some of the pictures were ripped right from the internet, mostly from google image searches from photographers to whom I may or may not give credit.

Rest assured I make no money from any of it.