tarheel_born's Journal

11:08pm: no more Countess
I know prudies  is a fan so I just had to post this link about the Real Housewives soon to be former countess.

How could she be surprised? She was his third wife. Too bad he didn't leave her for Bethany. That would have been HI-larious.

1:55pm: Watch This!
MTV's True Life: I'm Placing My Baby For Adoption just started airing today. One of the storylines involved our friends, Kayla, Dale and Michaela and our adoption consultant, Ellen. I think MTV did a great job with this show. It's about open adoption and really real, unlike all those Lifetime movies of the week. I just finished watching it for the first time and was impressed. I'd be interested in hearing what anyone else thinks.

So watch it! You won't see me but you will see a lot about adoption.

6:21pm: what's the dealio with LJ panic?
I don't get the panic. I really don't. Did no one realize that the sale to the Russian group happened well over a year ago?  Yeah the layoffs were recent but it's not like they need many people at this point and Russian resources are much cheaper. I worked with a number of developers there on another project and they were really good (and incredibly cheap). I'm guessing there aren't going to be lots of new releases but that doesn't mean things just can't go along as  they have been.

9:12pm: Best. Survivor. Episode. Ever
I'm sure I'm one of the last folks watching but I do love me some Survivor. I have from the very beginning. I was living in Santa Barbara during the first season but had to fly up every week to spend time at Yahoo! and my friend Stephan had a party every week. I still dig it.

This season was driving me crazy. I hate it when the producers interfere too much and mixing the teams twice counts as way too much. I looooove the social game play. I hate it when undeserving people last way too long.

Last night's episode was seriously one of the (if not THE) best episodes EVER. Seriously. It totally rawked. Now I'm actually looking forward to Sunday's finale. And yes my life is so boring that this is all I've got to think about at this point.

11:39am: Finally!
Tonight is the night I've been dreaming of for weeks. I'm so stoked there are so many good summer shows. The Closer starts again soon. Psych is in my near future. I do love laughing at how Vancouver looks nothing like Santa Barbara.

But tonight is all about Micheal Weston. And his assorted friends. Oh how I adore Micheal's dry sense of humor How I love to learn about making bombs from every day materials. The lovely Fiona. The hysterically funny Sam.

If you don't watch Burn Notice, what is wrong with you? Srsly. The best summer show evah.

11:49am: monday, monday
Not much to report around here. We had a pretty kicked back weekend.

We watched Surf's Up the other night and it was very cute and funny. It's not everyday you get to watch an animated mockumentary about surfing penguins. It was nicely done.

Once again immunity is back up for grabs. I mean, once again we're rethinking our sabbatical options. Now we're leaning to 2 weeks to a month in Hawaii, a month in Mendocino, a month near Lake Tahoe (probably Tahoe City) and/or a month in Santa Fe. We only have about 3 months so we might not be able to fit all of that in but that's the current thinking.

Last night we had yummy Thai food in the city followed by Pub Trivia at our fave Sunday night trivia spot. Our team won best team name. I'd share it but it will seriously make you groan. Typically the "best name" is a horrible pun to something in the news. Ours was no different. That got us a free pitcher and $5 in jukebox credits. We also won the overall contest thanks to one of our member's excessive knowledge of state flag's, E's archery equipment knowledge and knowing where the muffin man lives (thanks Shrek) and how many kids Pongo and Perdita had (either biological or adopted counted. We went with adopted for obvious reasons). Oh and we were PERFECT in the picture round even with an old picture of Rupert Everett and a very young Ali Mcgraw. There was a funny bit with one picture of Michelle Obama giving a wag of the finger to another picture of Rev Wright.

Throw in a couple of dog walk's, some quality Facebook time and you've got yourself a long weekend.

2:31pm: frivolity on the first
I don't have a lot of time to see all the fun things on the internet today but wanted to share this with anyone who hasn't seen it yet

Wanna be a Pioneer?

Also I hear that Family Guy fans will really like YouTube today.

Now your turn. Make me laugh.

9:32pm: Sweet Caroline
Now y'all know I think the Elite Eight is a bunch of hogwash. I'm old school: I like the ACC with 8 teams, I don't like the shot clock, even at 35 seconds, think a "traditional" three point play counts for me than a long range shot and so forth.

But I do love me some FINAL FOUR! Today was a great day for the Heels: we beat Louisville twice in one day! The men are headed to San Antonio next weekend. I do hope they'll be playing Davidson on Saturday (I love that little school that's just north of Charlotte- one of my fave exes still lives there and that Curry can shot the lights out) but I fear the Jayhawk and their thirst for revenge (they say we stole their coach, we say he just finally came home). Whatever. San Antonio here we come.

And if the women win one more game they'll be heading to the other Final Four.

To quote Sweet Baby James (Taylor): How Sweet it is!

And for you foolish friends who picked Louisville in your brackets (paisley_days, I'm talking to you): I hope you have learned your lesson.

1:32pm: jeepers creepers
Here's my new spectacles



Aren't they cute? They're titanium in a shade called Dark Violet. To, um, match Violet B. I'm still getting used to them. I'm getting headaches but I hope those will go away.

And susan_z, you can't have these either.

10:46am: Oscar Talk
So the Oscars are coming up all too soon. We're having our annual party but are soooooooooo behind on the plans and such for it. We barely got the Evite out. We actually considered not sending one and just seeing if anyone would show up.

Here's the menu thus far:

Sliders (Juno - hamburger phone)
Ratatouille (duh)
Meat pies of some sort (Sweeney Todd)
Pie with a fun name (Waitress)

Possibilities:
blinis or borsht (Eastern Promises)
milkshakes (There Will Be Blood)

Please please please offer up any and all suggestions. I'd love more creative things for No Country for Old Men, Atonement, etc.

Movie Watching Update:

We've seen a number of documentaries thanks to Netflix.

Sicko-seriously makes me want to move to France. And I'm not a big fan of France. Not Michael Moore's best effort but still a scathing look at the state of health care in the US. If EVERY industrialized nation except for us can have health care for all then what is our problem.

Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience: Very moving documentary that started with a writing program for folks that served. It has interviews with famous writers who served in various wars and the stories are voiced by actors. Incredibly moving.

No End in Sight: Wow. Let me say it again: Wow.This is a powerful film. I never thought we should go to war in Iraq (still don't) but this details all the things that went wrong and the mess we are in now thanks to incredible incompetence in the current administration. The insurgency should have never happened but it became unavoidable thanks to the removal of the only competent folks. This gave me so much more insight into the current situation. I'm pulling for this one to win because I think more people need to see it but I think Writings on the War will likely take home a statue.

Other categories:

No Country for Old Men
We finally saw another Best Picture nominee. Oh how I love the Coen brothers. Oh how I loved this movie. It rocks and hard. Javier is amazing. Tommy Lee Jones is phenomenal (why was he nominated for that other movie? It should have been this one!). Josh Brolin is better than expected. What a great movie!

At home now to watch before Sunday:

• The Assassination of Blah Blah Blah
• Michael Clayton
• Gone Baby Gone
• Surf's Up (but you know Ratatouille is gonna win)

Yeah, I'm sure those are all going to get seen. There's a Carolina game tonight. A friend at work is premiering his new movie. Oh and we have a little party to plan. Ha!

11:00am: so june has now become august/september
Remember back long long ago when I thought we might be going on a trip because E and I should be finishing up at the same time? In February?

Then February turned into April for me. And even later for E. Then part of my February turned into June (last part of big project to launch) and E had no idea when his project would finish? We started talking about 2 weeks in Hawaii in June and 2 months in Argentina in September/October?

Well the cat is finally out of the bag. June is now officially August/September. SPORE has a ship date!  Here's why Will says it's worth the wait.

We're still not buying any tickets (even the refundable type). E is pretty bummed to have to wait so long for a vacation so we'll probably look at a few short trips. He won't be able to take much time off before ship but he'll max out on vacation hours soon and there's no way he'll lose any. Perhaps a long weekend trip to Hawaii? I'm thinking we need a trip to Seattle as well. And somewhere else just for fun. Savannah? New Orleans?

6:02pm: note to heels
Dear Tarheels,

Just a suggestion but the best way to win a game is to not have the first time you lead  in a game happen in the first overtime. Seriously. It's much easier to get up in, say, the first half, or even the second. When your first lead is in the first overtime it's scary for your older fans. Like me. My heart just can't take it.

And good job on winning that double overtime game. You didn't want to be the first guys EVER in 53 games  and 82 years to loose to that ugly ass orange Clemson team at home, did you? Way to keep that tradition from 1926 intact.

Again, perhaps in the next game you won't get down by 15 points late in the second half and have to work so hard. Just a thought.

Big thanks to Danny Green, Duke Ellingon and Psycho T  for their effort.

Signed,

your biggest fan in Oakland (and that include the suddenly playing a lot Quentin Thomas's momma and entire high school right down the street from me)

2:08pm: King Cake Cupcakes (mostly for phen)
So I was perusing one of my fave food blogs today and came across a new-to-me cupcake blog , The Cupcake Project, that featured King Cake Cupcakes. Complete with baby. Check it out:

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/01/mardi-gras-king-cake-cupcakes-fit-for.html


I'm excited to read more of the blog and try out many of her recipes. Now, phenway you'll have to bake these and tell me what you think.

2:06pm: PBS and swaptree
So I found phen, katie, paisley_days and emschwar over on PBS (and my sis). Anybody else there? Also a friend turned me onto www.swaptree.com as well. Does anyone use that? You can trade dvds, cds and games in addition to books. And as you might guess we have a lot of some of those at our house. I'd love to get feedback on that or refer anyone who's interested.

4:16pm: not the best start to a Saturday
So you'd think any Saturday that started with sleeping in and pancakes would be good. Not so fast there.

E and I planned on getting lots of chores done. He wanted to do the wiring for the new speakers and such, I wanted to organize our pantry, go through a couple of boxes in the bedroom and take some stuff to Goodwill. We had to rearrange our priorities pretty quickly.

I was talking to the lovely prudies on the phone when I looked up to the kitchen skylight to check out the weather. Imagine my disgust when I saw a dead bird up there. So. very. gross.

It must have gotten caught there yesterday in the rain. Our skylight closes automatically when it rains and the poor thing must have been hanging out on the screen or something. Anyway it was just very very icky.

E had to climb up on the roof and figure out how to get the bird out and the skylight clean. He did both. Go E!

Now the house smells like Clorox (much better than what it could smell like).

We're off to check out some coffee tables in the city (the last thing we need for our 'adult' living room. Then we're to have a nice dinner at Luna Park with some friends and go to the park for Lights Out San Francisco. I think it will be very cool to see the city so dark for a bit. They're even turning off the lights on the Golden Gate bridge, Bay Bridge, Transamerica Pyramid and Alcatraz.

12:13am: The Second Most Supported Sport at My School
Now y'all know I'm a Tarheel through and through. And if you know anything at all about Tarheels, you know that we support and excel in two sports: basketball and soccer. Women's soccer, to be precise. We do great at both flavors of b-ball but only one of soccer.

When I was an undergrad, the women's soccer team was a complete dynasty. We won the first 3 national championships, lost one on penalty kicks, then won the next 9 in a row. In fact, we won 16 of the first 20 championships. That first national team to win the World Cup (before the Olympics) was coached by our coach and most of the players were ours. Mia Hamm? Yeah, she's a tarheel. My first soccer coach in high school was a member of the first National Championship team and all her team mates came to help her coach the geeks. In fact, we hold the two longest streaks of home wins: from 86-94 we were an amazing 84-0-0 at home. That's 84 straight wins, people.

So imagine my disgust this morning when I learn of the US National Team's 0-4 loss to Brazil. What the hell was Greg Ryan thinking? Why did he pull a goalie who hadn't been scored on just before the game and put in an old timer? That makes no sense at all. The first goal was an own goal on a corner kick!

Put a heel back in charge and win some games. Anyone got Mia's number? I know she's got some new babies but surely she has time to whip a little ol' girls time into shape and kick some soccer ass. And put a whole new meaning to the term "soccer mom".

1:17pm: new toy on the way
Thanks to advice from many of you and more hours spent researching stuff on the 'net yesterday, there is a new toy headed to me very soon. And a big ol' thanks to my sister who offered sage counsel and gave me her blessing (btw, I'm getting it from B&H after all, the lack of sales tax more than compensated for the free shipping at the other place)

9:51pm: my Monkish tendencies
So if you know me this probably isn't much of a surprise: I tend a bit towards certain OCD-like tendencies. Actually, it's probably not much of a surprise if you don't know me.

I like symmetry. I like even numbers way better than odd, but they have to be really, really even numbers (like multiples of 4- not multiples of 5 unless they are also multiples of 4).

I like lining things up. Not in a totally autistic way but not that far off from it at times. You might remember I went around and lined up all the screws in my lightswitches? I told y'all about that right? It just looks so much nicer that way.

Today Violet needed some work. Her flat tire indicator has been coming on but all the tires look ok. The windows weren't going all the way back up when you close the door (on Minis, probably much like some other newer cars but remember I only get a new car every decade or so, when you open the door the window goes down a tiny bit and when you close it, it closes all the way).

One thing has been bothering me about Violet: she's missing a toggle. She has four out of five. The second from the right is missing. It drives me nuts. There's a place where a shiny chrome toggle SHOULD be and it's empy. And asymmetrical.

So I asked if I could get that fixed. In car terms, it means adding a Rear Fog Light. That's what the missing toggle controls. I figured it was a factory-installation only thing.

Turns out I figured wrong. For less than the price of my iphone (but more than one new Run Flat tire which I kinda need as there is a nail in one) I can get my missing toggle, er Rear Fog Light. It *is* fog season here in the Bay Area.

Luckily E understands my obsessions. He laughed a bit when he found out how much it would cost to get the toggle. Then reminded me I worked for fun things just like this. Oh, and I think I'll  buy him off with a home theater sound system. He's been wanting one for a very long time but is way too practical to drop that kind of dough. There isn't much that he wants, and even less that makes him happy, so I think it's a bargain.

4:23pm: I survived

I'm back. I'm exhausted. I'm finally cooled off.

Yesterday was  long long day. I got back into SFO at about half past midnight. It took an hour to get my bag. Another half hour to get home. Since I was still on East Coast time it was like I'd oulled an all nighter. Yuck.

I'll post more about the wedding and such later. By that I of course mean the food. Oh, and great cake mishaps. You knew those were coming, right?

I had a delightful surprise last night: I ran into an old friend at the airport in Raleigh. It ended my trip on a very high note. We sat next to each other on the way to DC and then grabbed a quick dinner before he headed off to his hotel and I headed home to CA. He used to work with E in SLC and is now Creative Director at a small games company in NC. It was cool to gossip about industry stuff. And hear about his awesome wife and adorable little girls. We try to see them when we're home but have missed them the last couple of years. 

This morning started way too early with a painful conference call. The painful conference call resulted in another painful conference call this afternoon. I feel like I'm beating my head against a brick wall. I'm off to research some very exciting things about lead generation and best practises. And I plan on taking some very strong NSAIDs. Then I see yummy cupcakes from a local bakeshop (Honey Tangerine, anyone?) and Harry Potter in my very near future. I know it's not going to be a very good movie but I watched The Last Mimzy and Premonition last night on the plane so I think it will look Oscar worthy compared to those two.

10:48pm: lookee lookee what i got
Amazon had a nice treat for me yesterday:



I'm hoping to get inspired. I'm planning a dessert buffet for 80-100 in the heat and humidity of NC on 7/7/07.

Theme of the wedding: tropical/Asian/Hawaiian

I'm looking to do all small bites desserts using perhaps mango, coconut, sweet ginger, blood orange, rum flavors. Perhaps even pineapple.

Please share any ideas you have. I promise to tell you what I end up making.

12:13pm: best (tv) news lately
The ever so yummy Jeremy Sisto will be on Law and Order next year. He's replacing the boring female detective, Nina.  I've loved Jeremy since he first showed up on Six Feet Under. I was heartbroken when Kidnapped was canceled so quickly.

Jeremy and Jesse. Jesse and Jeremy. I can hardly wait.

Do you think they'll find nice eye candy for the new DA too?

10:43am: flattery gets you everywhere
So remember those cupcakes I created for E's birthday? They're now on the menu at the rock star diner.

Not my cupcakes (not even my recipe) but my idea. We went for dinner the other night and they were promoting them. I thought it was pretty funny. One of the managers that worked our party was there and he brought us out one to try. It was good (honestly not as good as mine, something was a bit funny in the frosting) and totally cool to see one of my 'creations' on the menu.

E went there for lunch yesterday and the overall manager was a bit sheepish about the whole thing. I think they feel like they stole my idea. I based my cupcake on their milkshake, it's like the circle of (baking) life. All good.

Especially if it gets me free cupcakes or better yet free Combat Mac and Cheese for life. ;)

11:22pm: Hot Fuzz
I know it's a horrible title for a movie. Trust me, it's hysterical. My cheeks are still hurting. I'm very pleased to say E and I have finally gone out to see a movie since our mad Oscar blitz of a few months ago. We both wanted light and escapist and what could be lighter than a  British cop/thriller/comedy? With some cameos by amazing folks and some of the sharpest writing and best songs since Resevoir Dogs.

If you wannna laugh, check it out. And pay close attention to the girlfriend at the crime scene and the criminal Santa. Not to mention the poor guy with the swan problem.

Finally, two days with no work and no volunteering. And not much to do besides chill out.

5:55pm: happy news!!
I just got a call from my good friend teendoc aka Liana and she's got some big news to post in just a little while. But I of course, could NOT WAIT.

It's a GIRL. Baby, Birthmom and Liana and her man are all doing spectacularly. Liana will be posting info and PICTURES.

She has never sounded so happy and so tired all at the same time. Suddenly my trip to PA in August is looking like a  lot more fun because come hell or high water I will meet that baby soon.

So look for Liana's announcement and go send her some love.

!!!!!!!squee!!!!!!!

11:08pm: home again, home again
After a looooooooooooooooong weekend I'm back home. It's feels so good to see my dogs and my man. I just wish I had time for a weekend now but I guess there's no rest for the wicked.

In other news, my neighborhood has changed a bit since I've been gone. Parts of it now resemble a Dali painting and while that's a good thing on a wall in a museum, it's not at all what you want in your highway. Especially when you live a stone's throw (or a Chuck It throw for you dog lovers) from said highway's collapse/melting.

If you, like me, haven't seen the news for a while check this out.



The flames were 200 feet high, the temperature climbed above 3000 F, melting the steel. All that's left of the tanker is one axle. I am just amazed and so grateful that no one died.