Food Review- Serious Pie

I'm obviously in a review mood.

Sue, Shelly and I went on an improptu lunch date yesterday.
Settled on Serious Pie after a series of coin eliminations.
Divine intervention.
Serious Pie is seriously good!

I was a bit leary since I've been burned by Tom Douglas restaurants before.
But this is about a flawless pizza experience as you could hope for. We had the chantrelle mushroom with truffle oil and the cherry bomb pepper and fennel sausage pies. It took less time to eat it than to decide what to get. Fucking good!
And, of course, all the wait staff are beautiful and the wine list short but immpecable.

Only negative: I'm going to be craving it all the time now and pizza is not on my good food/lose weight list!

Music Review- Whipped Cream & Other Delights Rewhipped

This review is a little 'johnny come lately' since this was released last year. But I finally resigned myself (after trying for a year) to the fact that I wasn't gonna be able to steal this off Acquisition. So I actually paid for it on iTunes.

Simply put: if you like the original by Herb Alpert, you'll like this one and vise versa.

Mostly because there's not a lot of remixing going on. Adding a thicker bass line and a little cut and paste does not a remix make. That's more like... an update. Herb Alpert 2.0.
Notable exceptions are "Lemon Tree" by Thievery Corporation and "Butterball" remixed by Anthony Marinelli. Totally new songs with a familiar trumpet line.

I'm not really complaining though. The album fits in nicely with my Verve Remixed and DJ Tiesto playlist.

Gym Rules- Pool

This is a gym. People come here to exercise. Not to play.
This is a pool in a gym. It is for swimming laps for exercise. Not to play!
See those lane dividers and those big lines. Sure signs for a lap pool!
Those fun little styrofoam thingys you're putting between your legs to see if they will float your fat ass. Those are kickboards- again, for exercise, not for play.
So you and your damn cousin get your asses up out of the pool and into Playland at fucking McDonalds so I don't have to share a lane with fucking Michael Phelps over here who keeps passing me with his butterfly stroke and getting water up my nose!

I fucking hate people.
I don't like sharing lanes.

I do like my new swimsuit though. Nike Core Tankini.
I actually don't look ginormously fat in it. You won't see me in SI but you don't have to avert your eyes either.
And it's comfy.
It cost $60 but it's worth it cos I go swimming more now that I don't dread the acrobatic stuff and stretch routine with my old one piece.

Movie Review- Waitress

Thumbs Up.

This movie is so predictable (absolutely no wondering what's gonna happen next) that I'm convinced they made it that way on purpose so you could just enjoy the characters. That's fine cos every single actor brings a quirky performance.
Nathan Fillion walks right out of Firefly and into his role (almost exactly the same character.) Jeremy Sisto (Billy from Six Feet Under) is a good jealous redneck. But Andy Griffith steals the show....playing the same old crazy man he's done a hundred times. It's just a fun, pleasant movie. Kind of a chic flick... so of course I saw it with Steve.

Vivace- Saturday 7/28/07

First, can you fucking believe it's almost August?! What the fuck do I do with all my time? Be careful what you wish for, and that's a fact. I've been jonesing for winter and snowboarding and football- now I'm staring at shorter days and Fantasy Football. And I ain't done jack shit this 'summer'. My only real goal for this summer was to get some huckleberries and I haven't missed the boat on that. Yet!

This weekend, almost everyone is out of town and I'm gonna get some shit done!
Who believes that.
[crickets]
Whatever.

1-Make my FF draft cheatsheet based on previously mentioned uber complicated super-secret algorithm. I wish Madden Football would come out already so I know who not to draft.

2-Swim once, run at least six miles, and a long bike ride. (I might still try to do a triathalon in September. No really, stop laughing, I might.)

3-Clean up the squalor that I'm currently living in. (This one should be first. It should be. It's not.)

Dana- Trustworthy Babysitter

You heard me.
Not one but two happy families left Dana in charge last night.

Josh and Shelly went to a Mariners game (bitches probably had Dixie's BBQ, too) last night and I played frisbee with Tellie and watched the Dog Whisperer. Tellie doesn't need Caesar to tell her how to act so she kept herself busy gnawing on a bone.

Then it was time to go to Olga's to make sure Mr. Man doesn't come to any harm while her and Marc went to check out Transformers. The chi's and I were ourselves enthralled by Arrested Abroad. A cautionary tale about stupid Americans getting busted for trying to smuggle drugs in the country. Also caught a few episodes of Pimp my Ride. Of note- they installed the worlds largest bass in the back seat of a Montecarlo! It needed six amps, three batteries, and a steal brace. In a few years, that punk will be able to sue their asses for hearing loss.

Both 'babies' must still be alive (I didn't do any breath checks) cos I haven't received any frantic calls.

My life as a Labrat- Part 1

The suffering continues.....

Inauspicious start.
Arrived at 8:15 on the dot. On time but rushing and you know I like to get places early. The nurse was ready and waiting so I couldn't take care of the smushed banana I'd just discovered in my bag that was getting all over everything including my glasses, my ipod, and (gasp) my laptop! I had to just put it down and get busy. It took, literally, an hour and much guzzling of water just to get the IV in. Then, of course, I had to be unhooked repeatedly to go to the bathroom.

Take meds. Take blood. Check pupils. Repeat every 30 minutes for 3 hours. Things went ok. Periodic bouts of nausea. Then around 3pm I was allowed to have breakfast.
Mistake. It came right back up. Poor nurse. She said she didn't mind.

At least after that no more tests. Just blood draws every hour and I could basically watch my ultimate fighting in peace. Although, when the afternoon shift of nurses came on I swear they were trying to murder me. There was a big bubble in one of my IV syringes- I pointed it out but they didn't seem concerned. I know that's not right. Air bubbles kill. (Does anyone know how long the silent killer air bubble can hide out waiting to strike?) The research coordinator asked me what I was watching and I actually lied and said "Deadwood". I don't know why I was embarrassed. I guess I was feeling exposed enough for one day.

Left around 7:00pm. Just missed the 72 by 30 seconds and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. Home around 8. Worked!
And I get to do it again in two weeks!
Advancing knowledge, saving lives. Advancing knowledge, saving lives......

Very Nervous

First study day tomorrow.
Be glad when it's over. The last two days have been quite trying w/o caffeine and chocolate. Constant headache and tired after 2pm both days. What's that about?
Psychological, Olga says.

Went climbing with Nathan and sucked ass! Did get that annoying 10c finally, despite my weakened state.

I can't eat after midnight tonight and only water tomorrow. I mean, I have reserves, sure, but damn! Water. They're taking blood too! I'm already dizzy from chocolate withdrawal.
At least I'll get to watch the rest of Season 3 of TUF... on my new computer! I'm bringing to remind myself why I do this dumb shit!

Life is hard.

Life is harder w/o coffee and chocolate.
48 hours before my first pain study day and I can't have caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, or garlic. There are other items too but not important (broccoli, cauliflower...)
Even though I'm on a strict diet these days, I still find some room for chocolate.
Now I have a big ole caffeine headache and I suppose I will have it for three days.
I'm liable to be more useless than usual. I don't feel like doing anything.
I've actually had to work today and it's been a hardship.

Now I have to go and throw frisbee for Tellie while Josh and Shelly climb. That's good cos it's probably the only exercise I'll get.

Everyfucking thing has garlic in it, BTW. I went down for lunch and could find anything to eat! I had to have a turkey sandwich. It was disgusting. I mentioned my predicament to Olga and she was a machine gun of ideas. The highlight of which was sushi. Genius! I can stop at Toyoda's on the way to J&S's and get a dragon roll! And it's healthy too. Thanks Olga.

Beware of intense whining the next few days.

TUF 3

So things started out ok Sunday. I was keeping busy and getting things done. Then I decided to take a short break and watch a few episodes of The Ultimate Fighter 3. Then I would go run and buy groceries. I don't know how much time passed but I watched a few discs of TUF3.
Mostly because I only had two discs. I wasn't even looking forward to this season. Bunch of whiners and wannabes. And Ken Shamrock makes me want to hurl. And Tito has skinny calves.
But the hook was set deep early. The middleweights are always buff and walking around in expensive jeans (where the fuck do these guys get the money for Seven jeans!?)
Highlight: Kristian Rothaermel (light heavy weight out of New Orleans with BA in English/Minor in Poetry (WTF!?)) starts quoting my favorite Robert Browning poem.

Even had you skill in speech (which I have not)
to make your will quite clear to such a one, and say:
"Just this or that in you disgusts me;
here you miss or there exceed the mark."
And if she let herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
even then would be some stooping; and I choose never to stoop.

Of course, he got his head cut open by a flying knee and lost miserably to Michael Bisping. Who incidentally is British but could give a fuck about poetry.

My precious, my precious..

Nothing really to say, except how much I LOVE MY LAPTOP!

It looks so nice and does what I tell it and the battery lasts forever.

But, as with any beloved possession, I am its slave. I have to carry it near me always to keep it safe and dry. I worry about it when I'm gone. "Is it too hot, will it get crushed?"

I'm sitting across the street from Honey Bear robbing their wifi, searching for my Mom a comfortable bike seat without having to go in and buy a cinammin roll.

It pays for itself in so many ways.

It's a Miracle

Virgin Mary Toast move over!

The commissioner's brother apparently found this modern miracle and passed it onto Bruce, who in a shocking display of generosity, bestowed its magic upon our FF league. This is going to be epic now!
It gets better.
Remember, I'm telling the absolute truth as I know it with no embellishment.
This Holy Relic was found in (gasp) Homer, Alaska. Seriously.


Time may show that I've been taken in by a skilled charlatan, but I swear this looks legit.

For security reasons, I will not release anymore personal information on the commishioner so don't ask. The stone must reveal itself to you.

League Meeting- Part 1

Business lunch= 95% BS + 5% business.
League meeting= 95% BS + 4% spewing bullshit assumptions as fact + 1% trying to think of a good name.

Half of the future FF league yet to be named took the ferry to Bainbridge last night to drink and discuss serious league business. The commish tried very hard to impart knowledge but all I got out of it was I should study and I need to do some research and be vigilant about keeping up and yada yada yada. Yeah, just like I did in High School...except, oh wait.. I copied all my homework from my friends in High School. Don't think that will work this time. Shelly had a special story last night about not letting people plagiarize her work. I'll just have to rely on my special algorithm.

Drinks were good, food was good, (I only ate two sweet potatoe fries, what self restraint!) company was good. If I come in dead last the whole thing has already been worth it. Pride is very easy to swallow if you chase it with Sapphire and Tonic.

Overrated

I will NOT be drafting professional fucktard Michael Vick for my Fantasy Football QB (of course, I'll try to get Peyton if some asshat doesn't get him first.) Not only cos he's a big fucktard but also cos he SUCKS (and he might be suspended!) He's worse than Pacman and that's no small feat! Pacman only punches women and spits in their face- at least the women can sue his ass.

Well I'm sure that this doesn't come as a shock to my fellow FF owners. I will reveal no more of my complex strategy. It's a very complicated algorithm based on individual skill, team dynamics, coaching, team uniform colors, and how good they look in their white football pants (no receivers with skinny legs - you know who you are!) I'm very confident right now- we'll see how this unorthodox plan serves me.

Important meeting with the Commisioner tonight. Gots to larn the rules before I can play!

Happy 40th B-day Michelle!

It's my sister's 40th birthday today.
That makes me feel old...she must feel like poo poo.

I called her this morning at 9 on the dot with a big sing song "Happy Birthday."
Well, she wasn't nasty but she wasn't exactly appreciative.
"Call me later."
Bitch, why did you answer the phone.
Old people can be so persnickety.

Maybe she'll feel better when she gets her superduper gift from me and Mom.

Tool- Part 2

One time I was at the gym and I saw this episode of Tom Cruise on Oprah (not the "I love her, I love her, I love her" one) where he proclaimed himself the 'King of Carbonara'. He made chicken carbonara on the show.
A-Carbonara is not hard to make.
B-Carbonara is really hard to fuck up. (i.e. I don't need this douchebag showing me how to do it. I mean are you an actor, a psychiatrist, a chef...what?) It's fucking cheese, noodles, bacon, chicken, and cream. Seriously, you can't go wrong.
C-I fucking hate Tom Cruise (I know, get in line.)
D-Why is she encouraging him?

Regardless, I still like carbonara. Not even that asshat is going to ruin it for me.
Short story long- I had spaghetti carbonara at the cafe downstairs and it rocked.
I shouldn't be eating carbonara since I'm fat (for that matter, Oprah shouldn't either!) but I decided to go for it and just eat plums for dinner. That's a good trade off. Right?

Plagerism- Part 2

I love LISTOFF!

How appropriate for me that this is his most recent genius.

I used to think making a mountain out of a molehill was my special talent. But I've since met people (and you know who you are) that have really taken it to high art. I salute you!

PS- If someone can please come up with a cool list that I can submit to LISTOFF under my name (that's fair, huh?) that would be way cool.

Thanks Pantacosm.

Check this out.

Bad Juju- Part 1

Friday didn't get any better as the day wore on. It didn't really worsen either, to be fair. No tragedy, just uniform suckiness.
So Saturday, I just tried to chill. Worked fine and I was starting to think my juju had passed but then I realized J&S car wouldn't start. I thought I must've left the lights on and drained the battery so I tried to charge it up. But that didn't work. I gave up and then promptly locked the keys in the car! Fuck.
Called AAA and they got the keys out but couldn't start the car either.
Started to wonder if I should go climbing on Sunday as planned. It's just Exit 38, how powerful is this juju!?

No mishaps Sunday, however. Steve, Sue, and I climbed at Gunshow and had a good time. After, I got the blizzard of the month at DQ- Kit Kat with chocolate ice cream!
Picked up J&S at the airport in the truck. Apparently Shelly found her inner warrior over the weekend via paintball. RIGHT ON!

Things may be looking up. But I did let my powersteering fluid run out. YIKES! I put some in this morning and it stopped whining. Hope no permanent damage was done.
Crossing my fingers.

Fucking Hell!- Part 2

So this Friday the 13th has been a hot topic this week. Mostly thanks to Shelly.
I'm normally not too superstitious (just OCD) but it's different this time.
I can't fucking believe it but on my way to work this morning (from Shelly's house BTW) I stopped at Starbucks to get breakfast (cos someone gave me a Starbucks gift card which I realized I'd forgotten after I'd ordered.) The total came to $6.66! Which is BS cos I order the same thing all the time and it's usually $7.23 so that bitch screwed me. (Incidentally, as Steve(my PBF) and I were discussing last night, I bought something in Squamish and the total was $66.66. Well I wasn't too worried about it cos it's four 6's and it's Canadian money so that doesn't count.) But now I got the 666 on Friday the 13th. Are you still following me?

The day hasn't gone too poorly yet (the road to Chimerism completion has been bumpy but progress is being made) but it's way early. And I have a haircut to get (Yikes!) and a BBQ. Lots can still go wrong.

Will update as necessary.

150th Post

Wow.
That's alot of BS.

Hello. It's freaking hot! My little trailer turns into a toaster the minute I turn the A/C off. Bleh. Well at least I have an A/C. And starting tonight I'll be babysitting the Sementi household while they foolishly go visit relatives.
I hope they don't hide all the interesting stuff.
I need entertainment in between CSI's.
I'll also have Season 3 of the 'Ultimate Fighter' so don't even try to call.
Hopefully, Tellie can get into it this time. I'm pegging her as a big Tito fan.

We got spirit! Yes we do!

Lise Brandhagen performs with the Seahawks Blue Thunder Drumline at Qwest Field.

(Lise's other job is here at the SCCA but she shows alot of enthusiasm about that too.)

I'm super excited about the fact that Bruce has agreed to be the commissioner for our fantasy football league this season. Shelly and I have never played fantasy football but we're gung-ho! Steve has begrudgingly agreed to participate but vowed to draft only Seahawks. If he wants to give his money away it's up to him. But I'm in it to win it and I'm starting research now. I can't discuss my stategery here, of course, but rest assured, I have a plan. (If anyone in the know like say John Madden wants to offer advice on the d-low, however, feel free to email me confidentially.)

Squamish 7/07

So disappointed in my performance in Squamish this weekend. Instead of being down though, I'm inspired to train, train, train, and train some more so that when I go back, I'm going to be able to do the monkey bars there and back again in under 10 seconds! And I'm going to be able to do a flip dive from the rope swing.
I'll show those damn kids.

Other than my embarrassment in the Rec Center, pretty good weekend in Canada. Just Stevus and I. He put up a bunch of fun routes and then berated himself for being so suck. He really takes all the fun out of any psychological warfare I might have had fun with and instead, I had to be nice and encouraging all weekend. Sometimes he actually made me clean the routes and one time I had to put up my own toprope! But usually he was extra thoughtfull and even unlocked my door most of the time. I never had any excuse to throw a surprise body lock suplex. Sigh.

With out our usual Captain Kirk (Josh) or Ahab (us and I had to make decisions ourselves about dinner and such. It was exhausting. All we needed was Shelley and her quarters and we would have been driving around in circles. As it was, we ended up at a Mexican place eating Indian food!

Verdict: I love Squamish/Whistler! Have never had a bad time yet. Even with crazy Caprice, and that's saying something!

Movie Review: Last King of Scotland

Ha, ha. Silly me. I really thought this movie was about Scotland. Well, it's not. It's about a dictator named Idi Amin in Uganda. Before last night, I'd never heard of Amin and if you really tried and kept a straight face, you could have convinced me that Uganda was in South America.
You: "Oh yeah, Dana, it's right next to Paraguay, I think they speak Portuguese."
Me: "Fascinating, can you snowboard there?"
You: "I think so."

So I learned something. But besides that, I could take or leave this movie. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad (although the skinny Scottish doctor started to get on my nerves.) I didn't think the director did a good job of making things easy to follow, it wasn't obvious as to how much time had passed between scenes (and I don't think this was on purpose ala Memento, Crash, etc...)
But it was a pleasant enough way to pass 90 minutes and I like Forrest even though he's a nutjob.

Backtrack

If you don't blog about it...it didn't happen.
So...going back.

Chuck (co-worker) and his twin Chris had a birthday on July 2nd. July 1st, Chris invited several cool people and me over to her new pad in West Seattle.
Chuck, Laurie, Gail, Mark, and Chris were all gearing up for their trip to Europe so the mood was doubly festive. The Kellum's aren't teatodlers- they know how to drink and drink well. Good wines, good gin, and good beer in abundance. Oh and there was some food to keep us from getting too drunk.
I left pretty early to avoid getting too drunk/belligerent/not invited back.

Bon voyage and bon apetite!

New Guy

Everyone needs to move all their cool friends to Seattle.
Josh and Shelly are doing their part.
Josh L. and Bob may be coming in October. Good news.
Linard came out for a pre moving visit last week and stayed for the fourth. He was so lucky to get to come to the 3rd annual 4th of July party at Spring and Tao's. They generously supply tons of meat and drinks and we show our apprieciation by trashing the place and leaving.
I think I made a good impresion with him. I would have made a better impression if I could have caught him during full contact ultimate frisbee. He's pretty speedy and I'm fat.

Poor Kismet!

Feeling Patriotic at Vivace

Well, not quite patriotic but I'm glad I live in America. I feel fortunate to be apart of the country consuming the world's resources at an alarming rate. It makes you feel a little guilty but it's better than the alternative. If you are emotionally shallow and morally corrupt like me, you hardly notice it at all really. That is until some asshat who lost the 2000 election (kind of) cos he wanted to 'distance' himself from the most popular guy in recent history, pops up and makes a movie about how everything is going to shit.

Anyhoo. Trying to get my new macbook to play TV shows. It's technical. I'd hate to have to resort to the genius bar or Josh to get it fixed. But, damn it, I want to watch CSI! Why are they fucking around with me?! Websites like this are purposely discriminating against Mac users to try and get us to turn to the dark side. It won't work! (I wonder if Al Gore uses a Mac or a PC? All candidates should have to reveal which they prefer.)

So Fresh and So Clean

"I love it when you stare at me, I'm just so fresh, so clean.

I'm bendin corners in my 'lac boy, cause that's how we be rollin here.
Kickin they khakis and adidas, packin yo pieces cause you sposed to cousin.
Catfish and grits is how my flow flow
Rollin steady in that caddy but them 50 bottles got to go!
Like collard greens and ho cakes
I got soul, that's somethin that you ain't got."

Well said Big Boi.
Just took a long shower and put all my L'Occitane stuff on and my Aveda hair paste and rockin' my new Calvin Klein kakis and feeling good, smelling good, and looking....whatever. Also got my new sonicare this week (thanks to Tao and Spring.) Just sleep better with that buzzy 'just went to the dentist' clean feeling.
Using the new Macbook and it does fucking everything! I can even make a little movie of me typing and post it but I'm not going to cos I look fat. I made the picture with the light tunnel so you couldn't tell so much.
Also need to download Firefox cos Safari doesn't want to play CSI on innertube. That's bullshit. I'll have her dialed in over the next few days.
But I love it, love it, love it. It's so light and small and fits right in my bag and all the keys work and the little apple glows behind the screen.
It's the little things.

And tomorrow is July 4th which means no work, fireworks, and bbq. Wooo!

Honey Bear- Sunday 7/1/07

You know, I don't like to bag on people..... oh wait, that's not true. I love to bag on people.
This an aside, btw, before I get around to my uber interesting life.
The log on page for blogger constantly flashes the names of blogs that have just been updated and you can go visit if you want. I kind of want to do a study to find out the exact percentage of boggers who use 'ramblings' or 'random' in their title. If I had to guess I would say 15%. Jesus, people. Granted, I had the help of expert brander Mark to help me with my genuis title but at least I knew when I needed help. These people seem to think they are actually on to something unique. "My random thoughts." How fucking original. Are there any other kind? Do you think you're motherfucking special or something!? With names like that I would almost guarantee they get no 'off the street traffic'.

(BTW, the spell check feature doesn't work on this laptop so keep your 'moron' comments to yourself. My new laptop has left Sacramento and is heading this way!)

Back to me.

Sue and I went riding yesterday. We left U-village around 11 and stopped at the Red Hook brewery, had lunch and rode back. So with that and my one trip to work week before last, I now have about 40 miles of training in for the STP and I'm feeling pretty confident.
We must've averaged like 14 mph or something. I'm going to coast into Portland fresh as a daisy. I probably need to start tapering soon though.