I donated a higher percentage of my income to charity last year than the President of the United States.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36563288/ns/politics-white_house/
The Nobel Prize doesn't count as income, since he didn't earn it. Or, you know, deserve it.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Round Trip
Drove round trip from SoCal to home this weekend for Jason's birthday. I like road trips so I enjoyed it. This boggles the minds of most people at work. But compared to flying when I'd have to drive to the airport parking, take a shuttle to the airport, wait for a plane, fly on the plane, take a cab or public transportation home, driving only takes two more hours and three to four fewer vehicles. And when I drive I get to do things like use the bathroom whenever I want and stop at vista points, like this one on I-5:
It's nice that it's the time of year when things are still green. Though the Central Valley was very dusty in sections, with signs villifying Congress for artificially creating the second Dust Bowl and sacrificing so many people's livelihoods in order to save some piddly fish.
Jason's party was a lot of fun. Dinner was pizza and we've wisely gone the extreme non-environmentally-friendly route with plastic cups, silverware, and plates so there was minimal cleanup. The cousins got to gabbing in the back room which led my uncle Allan to tell my dad, the two of whom had been blocked into the corner unable to follow our pop-culture/technology conversation to say "Generation gap? Try generation canyon!" My mom also took the opportunity to pretend she had knocked my cousin Amanda's iPhone off the cabinet and shattered into pieces which completely freaked her out. My cousin Alex refused to let us put on 2012 to look for the parts he did the special effects for, but he did tell us about the new movie he's working on, which sounds hilariously awesome.
Now I'm back at work, and it might have calmed down. Today there was only one crisis and it was immediately resolved. Mostly what I've been doing while I'm here is taking pictures like this:
Thrilling, huh?
This morning I actually ran two miles on the treadmill, which might be the most I've ever jogged. I was distracted initially because a guy came into the workout room and talked to me. He asked me where I was from so I said "San Francisco". I mean, close enough. But he immediately asked "Are you gay?" Seriously? How in the world do you think that's clever, funny, or acceptable? Great impression.
It's nice that it's the time of year when things are still green. Though the Central Valley was very dusty in sections, with signs villifying Congress for artificially creating the second Dust Bowl and sacrificing so many people's livelihoods in order to save some piddly fish.
Jason's party was a lot of fun. Dinner was pizza and we've wisely gone the extreme non-environmentally-friendly route with plastic cups, silverware, and plates so there was minimal cleanup. The cousins got to gabbing in the back room which led my uncle Allan to tell my dad, the two of whom had been blocked into the corner unable to follow our pop-culture/technology conversation to say "Generation gap? Try generation canyon!" My mom also took the opportunity to pretend she had knocked my cousin Amanda's iPhone off the cabinet and shattered into pieces which completely freaked her out. My cousin Alex refused to let us put on 2012 to look for the parts he did the special effects for, but he did tell us about the new movie he's working on, which sounds hilariously awesome.
Now I'm back at work, and it might have calmed down. Today there was only one crisis and it was immediately resolved. Mostly what I've been doing while I'm here is taking pictures like this:
Thrilling, huh?
This morning I actually ran two miles on the treadmill, which might be the most I've ever jogged. I was distracted initially because a guy came into the workout room and talked to me. He asked me where I was from so I said "San Francisco". I mean, close enough. But he immediately asked "Are you gay?" Seriously? How in the world do you think that's clever, funny, or acceptable? Great impression.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
A Few Hours Off Work
No one can say I didn't try to go to church this Easter.
Since the thing at work I needed to be at while I'm on this business trip was supposed to start at one I looked for a church with an early morning service and chose one with a service at nine. However, when I went to silence my phone before driving there I saw that in the few minutes I'd left my phone unattended to get breakfast I'd gotten a message from the plant that they'd changed the time to nine. Drat. I shucked off my skirt and heels, threw on jeans and tennis shoes, swiped off my make-up (you can't wear make-up in the plant), and got there in fifteen minutes, only five minutes after nine. I finished all my work around one, but there went all the morning services.
So I looked up a church that had an evening service. One did, the Six Flags Over Jesus I'd seen on my trips around town whose website heavily featured their creepily mustachioed pastor. So I got dressed up again and headed out. Big church, empty parking lot. Seriously, not a single car. They had a sign near the entrance touting their Easter egg hunt, so my initial thought that they were a cult that had been bankrupted or run out of town must have been false, but it also just mentioned a 10 am service, no 6 pm. So I guess they cancelled their evening service for Easter and didn't put it on the website.
At that point I figured I had done the best I could, came back, read the Easter story in Mark, and went to work out.
Besides work, working out, and trying to go to church, my other activity today was napping. I thought I'd sleep for just a little bit during a 48 Hours Mystery about an Alaskan stripper who had three fiances, one of which was shot to death, and sure enough I woke up while it was still on. But it turned out to be later than I thought because for some reason the channel ran repeats back to back.
And how I woke up was unusual. My thought process was something like "WhatisthatisthatsomeonebouncingonthefloorabovemeoristhatanohI'mgoingunderthekitchentablejustincase", so in the span of about two seconds I dove under the kitchen table, dragging the blanket from my nap with me. I watched out the window as the palm tree across the parking lot swayed heavily back and forth. Yup, earthquake. I waited about half a minute till it stopped (it felt like it kept going and going), then emerged to grab my cell phone and computer. The computer to check if the earthquake was reported or if I was insane. Luckily USGS had it up quickly, and a high school classmate who ended up in San Diego posted on Facebook right away so it wasn't just me. Later on a guy from work texted me that the plant was fine, which I had worried about and thought maybe I should go in to check but then realized I would have no idea A. what to look for and B. how to fix anything so I didn't.
Surprisingly, yesterday I did have a few hours off of work. I worked in the morning till about 2 pm, and then decided to do something more constructive than watch TV (my first inclination), and visited La Jolla Cove, which an SSF coworked who used to live in San Diego recommended. The actual cove was smaller than I'd thought, but it was very pretty.
It made me think of the Masterharper's cove in the Pern books. I had thought because spring just started it wouldn't be too crowded but I was wrong. Despite all the people I got around pretty well and took lots of pictures. Adjacent to the cove were additional beaches, including this neat rocky one.
Afterward I went further into San Diego to eat at a Roadfood place, El Indio. It was fantastic. I got a combo with a pork tamale, beef enchilada, and a fish taco because that's what Roadfood recommends and I trust them, even though I'm severely against fish tacos. Why would you eat fish in a taco if there was any legged creature available to make into a taco? And considering that we live in America where fish is usually more expensive than legged animals, seriously why would you do it? In any case, I'm a little more adventurous with my food choices when I'm traveling for business, so I got it. Here's my plate, along with the Orange Bang drink:
Gotta say, the Orange Bang was delicious. It was a fountain drink that said it was a "whipped drink", and it tasted like melted orange sherbet. I'd get that again. The enchilada was fantastic, the shredded beef filling was spicy and tasty and the sauce was thicker and more flavorful than usual. I can actually understand why people like enchiladas now, before I just considered them Mexican restaurant menu filler. The tamale was also very good, the shredded pork filling was tasty and the masa was soft. I'm a stickler for masa. The rice and beans were typical and I love me some rice and beans so that's good. The chips, made from their homemade tortillas were too thick for my taste.
As for the fish taco - for something that had a mayonnaise-based condiment sauce on top AND was a fish taco, it was pretty dang good. I wouldn't say I liked it, and I wouldn't eat it again, but I ate most of it, and could appreciate why people would like it - which compared to the other fish tacos I've tried which have been entirely vomitastic, is high high praise. It was a big stick of fried fish inside two corn tortillas with shredded cabbage and that pink tartar sauce. And it wasn't bad. I should mention that the homemade corn tortillas were a revelation, they were amazing. I bought a package of their flour tortillas to take home to eat with my can of Dennison's chili beans, but I did that before I tried the corn tortillas, they were great.
The other meals I've tried while I was down here was chicken parmesan from an Italian place (pretty good, nothing to write home about), a Mexican place highly rated on Yelp that paled compared to El Indio, and coconut lemongrass soup, pad thai, and red curry green bean chicken from a Thai place (very good, got four meals out of one dinner order). I've also tried some freezer skillet items because out of the last week three out of five weekdays I worked 11-12 hours, and at 7 or 8 at night I somehow can't handle having to find a restaurant, put in an order, and pick it up. I'd rather stop at the grocery store and then quickly fix something here.
Next week I may branch out from the "let's try the local restaurants Yelp recommends" to "ooh, I've never tried this big box chain restaurant before" and go to places like Romano's Macaroni Grill.
Since the thing at work I needed to be at while I'm on this business trip was supposed to start at one I looked for a church with an early morning service and chose one with a service at nine. However, when I went to silence my phone before driving there I saw that in the few minutes I'd left my phone unattended to get breakfast I'd gotten a message from the plant that they'd changed the time to nine. Drat. I shucked off my skirt and heels, threw on jeans and tennis shoes, swiped off my make-up (you can't wear make-up in the plant), and got there in fifteen minutes, only five minutes after nine. I finished all my work around one, but there went all the morning services.
So I looked up a church that had an evening service. One did, the Six Flags Over Jesus I'd seen on my trips around town whose website heavily featured their creepily mustachioed pastor. So I got dressed up again and headed out. Big church, empty parking lot. Seriously, not a single car. They had a sign near the entrance touting their Easter egg hunt, so my initial thought that they were a cult that had been bankrupted or run out of town must have been false, but it also just mentioned a 10 am service, no 6 pm. So I guess they cancelled their evening service for Easter and didn't put it on the website.
At that point I figured I had done the best I could, came back, read the Easter story in Mark, and went to work out.
Besides work, working out, and trying to go to church, my other activity today was napping. I thought I'd sleep for just a little bit during a 48 Hours Mystery about an Alaskan stripper who had three fiances, one of which was shot to death, and sure enough I woke up while it was still on. But it turned out to be later than I thought because for some reason the channel ran repeats back to back.
And how I woke up was unusual. My thought process was something like "WhatisthatisthatsomeonebouncingonthefloorabovemeoristhatanohI'mgoingunderthekitchentablejustincase", so in the span of about two seconds I dove under the kitchen table, dragging the blanket from my nap with me. I watched out the window as the palm tree across the parking lot swayed heavily back and forth. Yup, earthquake. I waited about half a minute till it stopped (it felt like it kept going and going), then emerged to grab my cell phone and computer. The computer to check if the earthquake was reported or if I was insane. Luckily USGS had it up quickly, and a high school classmate who ended up in San Diego posted on Facebook right away so it wasn't just me. Later on a guy from work texted me that the plant was fine, which I had worried about and thought maybe I should go in to check but then realized I would have no idea A. what to look for and B. how to fix anything so I didn't.
Surprisingly, yesterday I did have a few hours off of work. I worked in the morning till about 2 pm, and then decided to do something more constructive than watch TV (my first inclination), and visited La Jolla Cove, which an SSF coworked who used to live in San Diego recommended. The actual cove was smaller than I'd thought, but it was very pretty.
It made me think of the Masterharper's cove in the Pern books. I had thought because spring just started it wouldn't be too crowded but I was wrong. Despite all the people I got around pretty well and took lots of pictures. Adjacent to the cove were additional beaches, including this neat rocky one.
Afterward I went further into San Diego to eat at a Roadfood place, El Indio. It was fantastic. I got a combo with a pork tamale, beef enchilada, and a fish taco because that's what Roadfood recommends and I trust them, even though I'm severely against fish tacos. Why would you eat fish in a taco if there was any legged creature available to make into a taco? And considering that we live in America where fish is usually more expensive than legged animals, seriously why would you do it? In any case, I'm a little more adventurous with my food choices when I'm traveling for business, so I got it. Here's my plate, along with the Orange Bang drink:
Gotta say, the Orange Bang was delicious. It was a fountain drink that said it was a "whipped drink", and it tasted like melted orange sherbet. I'd get that again. The enchilada was fantastic, the shredded beef filling was spicy and tasty and the sauce was thicker and more flavorful than usual. I can actually understand why people like enchiladas now, before I just considered them Mexican restaurant menu filler. The tamale was also very good, the shredded pork filling was tasty and the masa was soft. I'm a stickler for masa. The rice and beans were typical and I love me some rice and beans so that's good. The chips, made from their homemade tortillas were too thick for my taste.
As for the fish taco - for something that had a mayonnaise-based condiment sauce on top AND was a fish taco, it was pretty dang good. I wouldn't say I liked it, and I wouldn't eat it again, but I ate most of it, and could appreciate why people would like it - which compared to the other fish tacos I've tried which have been entirely vomitastic, is high high praise. It was a big stick of fried fish inside two corn tortillas with shredded cabbage and that pink tartar sauce. And it wasn't bad. I should mention that the homemade corn tortillas were a revelation, they were amazing. I bought a package of their flour tortillas to take home to eat with my can of Dennison's chili beans, but I did that before I tried the corn tortillas, they were great.
The other meals I've tried while I was down here was chicken parmesan from an Italian place (pretty good, nothing to write home about), a Mexican place highly rated on Yelp that paled compared to El Indio, and coconut lemongrass soup, pad thai, and red curry green bean chicken from a Thai place (very good, got four meals out of one dinner order). I've also tried some freezer skillet items because out of the last week three out of five weekdays I worked 11-12 hours, and at 7 or 8 at night I somehow can't handle having to find a restaurant, put in an order, and pick it up. I'd rather stop at the grocery store and then quickly fix something here.
Next week I may branch out from the "let's try the local restaurants Yelp recommends" to "ooh, I've never tried this big box chain restaurant before" and go to places like Romano's Macaroni Grill.
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