30 March 2007

Last week Mike went running and said he encountered a mallard that was not scared by all the foot traffic on the trail. I wondered if he was guarding a nest. Or just scouting for a nest. I haven't seen him on my runs unfortunately. But today I did run by a little bridge where the trail crosses with another trail, and there were lots of little baby peeps coming from under the bridge. I couldn't see any little nesting birds, but they are obviously there. It's getting too warm to run in the afternoons. I have to start doing it in the morning, which I hate. I need food and water and caffeine in my system before I can go out to run successfully.

Awhile back I mentioned signing up for Adventure Boot Camp. I decided to go for the full program, 5-days-a-week for 4 weeks. I need to kick my butt into better shape. I'm obviously not doing so well on my own. I'm hoping to learn some fun new ways to workout and make some friends. I'm afraid other women will think I'm too thin already so I must be healthy and in great shape. I swear I eat junk food and I can't touch my toes or do a decent push-up. I'm a weakling. I want to be stronger. It starts in about 2 weeks. I feel like I need to get in shape for it, like cleaning the house up a bit before the cleaning lady comes.

Strength and fitness means good nutrition, too. I'm crashing. I haven't snacked since I got back from running.

It's so hard to stay on track some times.

29 March 2007

I've been watching Top Design on Bravo. I'm only mildly interested in it--it's no Project Runway--but I like reading the Project Top Design Blog.

I'm not going to spoil last night's episode by revealing the winner (but if you go to the Project Top Design Blog, they will) but I will say that it was Matt's carpenter who cut his finger. And I was disappointed. Carissa is such a bitch to her carpenter I was hoping it would be him. Nothing against him, Carl, but I really wanted Carissa to feel guilty about hounding him so much.

Man, I'm ranty this morning.

There are stems of something in my trail mix. Bleck.

28 March 2007

Movie Reviews -- The Host

The Host is the first in a series I like to call Mike's Picks. (I told him Monday night, after his most recent pick, that his welcome-home streak of movie choices is over. My turn again.) It was campy and fun. It was also too long, a little confusing, and very frustrating.

First off, this is a South Korean horror film. I think some of the subtitles were mis-translated, but it's pretty easy to follow along. Sort of, depending on how much you care about the movie. There's a slacker guy who has a little girl and they live with his father who runs a snack shop on the riverfront. A monster jumps out of the river one day, eats a bunch of people, and carries some away to snack on later, including the little girl. (Did you catch that? Snack shop owner? Snack on the snack shop owner's granddaughter?) A bunch of people who were in contact with the monster get sick. Due to the confusing subtitles, I thought the sickness was SARS and I spent most of the movie thinking the South Koreans were overreacting just a tad to a SARS outbreak. But Mike said it was "like SARS." Oh. And the river monster is The Host to the disease. SARS or not, I don't think they spent enough time worrying about how to catch the monster. It was all quarantines and no dredging of the river.

The grandfather, and the guy, and the guy's brother and sister find out the little girl is alive and have to escape the refugee hospital to go rescure her. And hilarity ensues. Not really. A severe police state interferes and makes things difficult and there's a lot that could have been cleared up with the use of some simple technology, like the call log on the cell phone that the little girl uses to call her family.

Are you confused yet? Imagine watching all this unfold for over 2 hours in Korean. It was mildly entertaining but there were a lot of annoying continuity problems, even for a campy horror flick. If you're going to see it, it's good to see on the big screen so that the monster is super large. There's definitely an audience for this movie. I just don't think I was meant to be a part of it.

19 March 2007

Movie Reviews -- Zodiac

I've been meaning to do this for a week now, and maybe do several small posts, one for each movie. But I put it off and now I have movie piling up.

Zodiac. We saw this last weekend. I really enjoyed it. Long movies generally don't hold my attention, especially ones that are all talk and no action, but I stayed rivited to the screen for all 3 hours (at least it seemed like 3 hours; definitely more than 2). This movie relies on a great director using a great cast with Law & Order style detective work, discussing all the details of the case intricately. Luckily the case was fascinating, particularly due to the locality of it happening around here in the East Bay / San Francisco area. Many people will find this movie boring. There's lots of talk and little graphic violence.

Even though the movie is based on the book by Robert Graysmith, his character in the movie, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, cannot be considered the "main" character. The cast really is a great ensemble featuring Robert Downy Jr., Anthony Edwards, Mark Ruffalo, and many others you'll recognize from movies and television shows, even if you can't remember their names.

Considering how expensive movie tickets are these days, this is a great investment in your per-minute entertainment dollars.

PS: I started this post days ago and only actually posted it on March 28. I have a few more reviews in the hopper but wanted to get this one up. Since I haven't updated in, like, a million years.

16 March 2007

it's the whipped cream!

It's warm enough to indulge in iced mochas from trendy coffee shops. Since I've swithced to soy in my lattes, I was wondering what, if any, nutritional benefit would come from switching to soy in an iced mocha, a drink so sugary and fatty that there's probably no saving it. The Starbucks website breaks down the nutritional information for all it's beverages, and it's handy in that you can compare sizes, different milks, and whipped cream or no whipped cream. I found that when it comes to mocha, nonfat milk, whole milk, and soy milk make negligible differences in the fat content. It's the whipped cream. If you think, "The mocha's already bad for me, what can a little whipped cream hurt?"--as I do--look at this:
Grande Iced Mocha
whole milk, whip: 350 calories, 20 grams of fat
whole milk, no whip: 220, 8

nonfat milk, whip: 310, 14
nonfat milk, no whip: 180, 2

soy milk, whip: 330, 17
soy milk, no whip: 200, 4.5

See for yourself: Starbucks Beverage Nutritional Info. (Mochas are under "Espresso")

I've never pretended a mocha is healthy by any means, with or without the whipped cream, with or without soy. But that whipped cream makes a bigger difference than I thought.

15 March 2007

boo technology

You would think that living in a suburb of the techno-geek centre of the universe plus paying lots of money on a monthly basis would entitle us to an internet connection that is quicker than something powered by hamsters. The internets are as slow as the molasses today. The internet is a series of tubes, so I guess it's apropo that it's a hamster habitrail. Hamsters who have their feet stuck in molasses. Seriously, it's like dial-up slow today. Not Jetson's wireless quick, like we're paying for, and should have in the 21st century. Do I feel entitled to a better internet connection? Yes. In the San Francisco area, where it's tech central, everyone should have free, super-fast wireless internet connections. There are enough waves out there in the air to make it happen.
So, Mike walks into a gun shop to buy a new handgun for work. When informed of the waiting period, he uses the Homer Simpson quote: "Waiting period? But I'm angry now!" and all the gun shop folks got a laugh out of that. The next day Mike brought in a note from his boss and the waiting period was waved.

No real point to that story, other than it being on my mind because it happened this week and I was reading about the handgun ban in D.C. this morning. why.i.hate.dc

I have conflicting views on gun control. The firearms needs of city folk and country folk are completely different. Yes, a handgun can be good for personal safety, but how do you keep one out of the hands of a so-called criminal while allowing librarians to keep them in their purses in case they're mugged? In places where crime increases while gun bans are in effect, is it because there is there is a new act that is a crime? On top of all the actual shootings, you have all the incidents of guns being carried. New law = new illegal act = more crime.

I don't like Mike's gun being loaded when I'm home alone in the house. I know that sort of defeats the purpose of having a gun for protection. But in the unlikely even that someone does break in and I have to make the choice to shoot them or not, it's likely in that situation that the gun will be wrestled away from me easily.

And I don't care what the excuses may be, if a child gets his or her hands on a gun, it's the parents' fault. End of story. If there's one reason to ban guns altogether, it's to keep kids from shooting themselves and each other.

A blanket ban is obviously not realistic.

Is the Second Amendment obsolete?

14 March 2007

Stephanie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

My laptop randomly shut itself off twice this morning, and between the two shut-downs, the power went out for no reason.

When I realized digital clocks were blinking 12:00 due to the power outage, I started resetting them and broke Mike's alarm clock.

You know how people make jokes about not being able to set their VCR clocks from blinking 12:00? It's supposed to be the standard of techno -phobes and -fogies I guess. I ask, who still uses a VCR regularly? Ours isn't even plugged in, and it doesn't have a clock anyway. Our DVD player doesn't have a clock on it. Digital cable boxes update the time automatically. I think it's time to replace the "VCR test" with something more modern.

The computer and power problems made me frustrated with work, since I kept losing emails and Word docs.

I made cranberry nut bread that tasts yucky. Yet I keep snacking on it, just to make sure.

What the hell does religion have to do with global warming? I can't wrap my head around this one. The Religious Left thinks that global warming is about to break-up the Religious Right.

13 March 2007

It's so nice to have Mike home. He's adjusting to living in a real home and getting his sleep patterns on track. He went back to work today. We've watched movies, gone shopping, just made up for lost time. It's great.

I went ahead and signed up for Adventure Boot Camp to kick-start my workout routine. It starts in about a month. We'll see what happens.

08 March 2007

And now my exciting announcement...

Mike's coming home today! He just called from the airport; he'll be home in an hour!

He's been working in Baghdad for the last 2 months.

But he's back now! I can't wait to see him!

Bunnies in my backyard

Apparently four years ago the City of Walnut Creek changed the Easter Bunny and his Easter Egg Hunt to the Spring Bunny and Spring Egg Hunt, and this year one guy got irked enough to dash off a letter to the editor of our local newspaper (which I don't read; I heard about the story on Colbert Report) and now the War on Easter is being fought right here in my own backyard. I am bugged by so many different aspects of this story. The city was too polictically correct on this one. According to CBS13.com one woman complained about the word "Easter" being used in a community newsletter, so it's out. Logically, now that one man has complained that the word "Easter" isn't being used, it should be back in, right? But why did this guy wait four years to complain? Maybe he could have opened up some legitimate debate if he got outraged four years ago. Now, though, he has FOX News to back him up. Apparently downtown dub-cee has been invaded by "Action News vans" trying to stir up a media frenzy. I haven't been down to look yet. I haven't noticed this on the local news, but I wonder now that both FOX and Colbert have picked up the story if the frenzy will get started.

C'mon. The Easter Bunny has nothing to do with religion. And if you're that concerned about community events, you should actually pay attention to them when they happen.

Easter Bunny Is out in Walnut Creek
Easter Bunny Unwelcome in Walnut Creek
No Bunnies Were Harmed...

07 March 2007

I'm sewing.

I realized I haven't updated my sewing projects in a while. The SWAP is nearly finished. I have about one afternoon's worth of work to do on one dress, and then it's done. The deadline is in a few weeks. I don't know why I'm procrastinating on this, except that I'm just kind of burnt out.

I've been doing some stash reduction sewing and trying some new patterns. I dug into my first Hot Patterns pattern, Artful Dodger Floribunda Tops. Once I got it to fit right I fell in love with it. I sewed 2 tops and have plans for a third.

I also tried the Hot Patterns Weekender Renaissance Top. I'm having trouble with the fit and I'm trying to decide if I keep going with it or use the fabric I had intended for it for a tried-and-true pattern. I think it's more important for me to have anything made in this particular fabric rather than have it sit in the stash until I get around to fitting this pattern. Other fabrics will come along. Or I'll give up on this pattern and move on.

And I made two clutch purses recently from some scraps. I also went through my knits stash and made 3 t-shirts.

I am sewing. I'm just spending more time doing it than posting about it. And once the good camera is back in my hands I'll get some good photos posted to flickr. I'm sick of my laptop cam.

05 March 2007

For Pete's sake! The ground is still moving. I felt a tiny shake this morning. Just when I started assuming it was all in my imagination, I checked USGS, and we really did have a couple micro-quakes this morning. On different faults than the one on Thursday. I feel insane.

In other news, I have a very exciting announcement, but I can't make it for a couple more days. I can say that a Ron Burgandy "Stay Classy Baghdad!" t-shirt is in my near future. Are you excited now too?

02 March 2007

We had a 4.2 earthquake a little while ago. The epicenter was just a few miles from where we live. (Check the map here. The quake is the big square under and to the left of the big C in Concord. We live just to the left of the C, at the tiny square.)

USGS says it was "light," and if that's light I want nothing to do with anything stronger. I was freaked. out. It was one of those long, rolling quakes. The whole building whooshed back and forth. And it lasted a long time (according to the news, 10-15 seconds). I was standing in the bathroom. I had enough time to grab the counter and think about how helpless I felt. Lately they've been so quick they're over before I realize it's happened. I heard all the stuff on our shelves rattling. And there have been aftershocks. I can't tell what shaking is my imagination and what's really happening.

01 March 2007

ha ha ha ha ha!

Did Boston learn nothing from the Mooninite invasion last month? Several news outlets are reporting (and by "news outlets" I mean Wonkette and other blogs):
Police Blow Up Suspicious Device In Boston
(WBZ) BOSTON There were some tense moments in Boston's financial district Wednesday morning as police were forced to blow up a suspicious device.

The bomb squad shut down busy Devonshire Street after someone spotted a green box chained to a no parking sign.

The box turned out to be some kind of traffic counting device and was completely harmless.

That little blurb is the only "real news" I could find on it, from wbztv.com

Um, and it's believed that those traffic counters were installed by the city. Not terrorists. Or stoned college kids.
"That he thinks announcing his candidacy on Letterman is edgy doesn’t even make a top-ten list of things that suck about John McCain." --Wonkette

I was thinking similarly. Not that John McCain sucks exactly, but that announcing on Letterman is lame. And not even announcing. Pre-announcing. I caught one analyst today saying that it's an attempt to capture "youth" voters. I don't know how young you have to be to qualify as part of the youth vote, but if I don't watch Letterman because I find him old and obsolete, then I don't think the majority of people younger than me watch him either. When McCain films another Secrets segment for Conan O'Brien, then I'll be entertained.

Now if you'll excuse me, Jake Gyllenhaal is coming up on The Daily Show. He could announce a presidential candidacy I'd be interested in.