Hunger Games March 23

I was just chatting with a friend who knew all the cast members and what movies they had already been in. So I decided to educate myself on the www.hungergamesmovie.com to work it all out. I can't wait for this movie to come out.

February 24-26, 2012 - Cabin

Nice quiet weekend away at the cabin. Finished one Kindle Single book: The Longest Run and started the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins. Ate some deliciious ribs, bacon and drinks. Had a blast with the Appel's and Koch's.

We need a cabin.

February 10 - Midnight Release

I did it. I went to Target and picked up my copy of Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 with all the other moms and tweenies. And I AM SO HAPPY I DID! I had the blast the next day watching a Twilight 4-movie marathon with Brian's gf Ashley. I can't wait to do it all over again when Part 2 comes out. CAN'T WAIT.

do you guys know how to post videos to...

I did it. I deactivated my facebook account. Tired of having someone say I shouldn't post this or that.

January 27-29, Arnold, Ca

Went to Arnold, Ca today - it's about 2.5 hours west and north of where I live. We went to my friend's cabin. I want a cabin. It was nice being away from our house. Quiet mountain air, good food, and a puzzle that beguiled me at every turn. I love puzzles. That puzzle derailed all the other brain activities I had planned on doing: reading a book, studying for the PMP exam. Didn't do either one. Didn't want to come back to civilization.

But if I win the lottery (cardinal problem here is that I don't buy a ticket ever, but regardless) I will buy a cabin in the woods; somewhere near a lake. And I will spend the majority of my days there. When I'm not there, I'm going to be at a beach - baking my skin and reading a book.

WOW- first 2 posts and you're already complaining?

1. you don't need to think of blogging having rules; specifically this one doesn't.
2. it'd be nice if you posted something every day but it's not that feasible to remember.
3. marriage complicates things? you're crazy. all relationships complicate things.

So I had a crazy day that culminated in a meeting where my client was berated by her boss for a good 15 minutes in front of me and my coworkers. Can you say awkward? Luckily coworkers suggested going to happy hour afterward.

the distance between our two addresses is 3109 miles; not airport to airport. and by miles when you come to see me, you mean the one time you came to SF wth Dave? What happened to just you and me hanging out and doing a road trip sometime?? let's do that.

I just saw a commercial for a movie: Ghost Rider 2? Really? wasn't the first one enough of a bomb not to do a second one? Bleh.

on the note of getting you a black history gift, isn't my friendship enough? give it a couple days before you blurt out a response.

Day 16... maple glazed chicken

Well, it was Monday but it wasn't as bad as you'd think. I got a lot done today. Came home and made a new dish tonight. Amazingly I had all the ingredients on hand. It was a maple glazed chicken: glaze was maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, salt and chicken broth. Cooked chicken, onions and apples with sage and boiled off the glaze in the pan. Very sugary and delicious! I love trying new recipes and it always makes me think of the movie Julie and Julia. I still haven't opened that book yet.

This photo is courtesty of foodnetwork.com since I didn't snap a shot before we ate it.

Day 14-15: escapade into San Francisco

Our friends went to Costa Rica for a week. They live in SF and offered to let us stay in their apartment while they were out. It was appealing to say the least. They live really close to a lot of hip bars and restaurants and we don't often get the chance to overnight in the city with the dog. Albeit the offer came with house rules that were emailed to us, but nonetheless we decided it was worth it. We dropped the dog off at my brother's place and proceeded into the city around 1:30pm. Traffic was slow once in the city and it took an hour and a half to get to their apartment. We grabbed all our bags out of the car and went through the security door. The key to their apartment was in their mailbox, so once we got inside Brent pulled out two sets of keys. He looked at his hands, at the keys, and then at me- mouth open. "Not funny," I said. "The keys are on the Honda's keychain." "Well, let's go back and get them." So, we proceeded BACK to the east bay, got the keys, and back to their apartment. I made dinner reservations during our lengthy drive and after 3.5 hours of driving to get to SF (which should have only taken 1 hour) we were relaxing in their apartment.
House rule #6: Don't wear Mindi's shoes. Brent!
Well, it said Brent, so I tried on some of her killer shoes! Some of which I never see myself wearing but are gorgeous and we wear the same size so...
House rule #8: feed fishy.
Well, fishy looked like he was 2 days away from floating. So I (over)fed him - he hadn't been fed in 4 days! He moved to eat some flakes so I saved his life in my mind.
We went to our dinner (Bistro Central Parc - french food) and had a nice meal. Then we met up with Eddie and his new gf. They both were very excited about dating each other and had both cancelled their match.com accounts (this is how they met, duh). Other parties joined us and we went to two more bars. Brent decided to say hello and goodday to every man and woman he saw on the street... even though he wasn't that drunk and neither was I, it was hilarious. Around 12:30a people starting talking about going to our friends' apt around the corner. We decided we should pick up liquour from a store but none were open.
Instead we found a hot dog street vendor. Well, Brent sniffed it out. And two bacon-wrapped hot dogs topped with jalapenos and grilled onions later, we were back at the apt with a handful of people going up to an apt that wasn't ours. Tim raided the cabinets immediately. Pretzels. Tim raided the freezer: Safeway pizzas. Tim raided the fridge: beers. Someone then opened a bottle of wine.
House rule #duh: Don't take pictures of girls reading magazines that the home owners don't know in their bed.
Broken.
2am I'm out. No idea when Brent went to sleep or when the people left. Woke up at 11am in the clothes I wore out; tacky. Crumbs everywhere, half bottle of wine open, 8 beers gone.
Cleaning commenced; fishy's bowl was cleaned, trash taken out, and we decided to replace their food/drinks we consumed instead of just leaving money on the counter. We looked at the bottle of wine and googled it. "WHAT!!! I think that bottle is $125!" Upon further inspection it should be roughly $30 available at Whole Foods. So we proceed to BevMo for beer and wine replenishment. No wine. We go to Whole Foods. Got pizza, no wine.
We left SF around 2pm ... and I really hope we find that stinking bottle of wine.

Day 13: Ashley's 28th

We went to dinner for Brian's gf Ashley's birthday. Italian food at Fiore. She had a margarita made (not with tequila) but with wine = interestingly sweet. Desert at Dairy Queen. I had a really amazing seafood risotto. It's so close to our house I definitely think it could be a regular go-to for food. Right now we have this yummy mexican place we can walk to...

Day 12.. the day Erin told me

This is the day my BFF told me she wasn't going to come to Matt's wedding. I am not even sure Matt and Nicole can legally have the wedding if she isn't there. I'll admit it was a legitimate and responsible decision statement (I'm calling it a statement right now because that implies the decision may change as time unfolds) based on having a difficult exam at Harvard the following Monday. I can't imagine that wedding being half as fun without her; at least for me and that counts.

day 9: MLK

MLK day, and no I didn't have the day off. I was listening to NPR on the way home from work and they were doing an interview of teachers about teaching civil rights in the classroom. One african american teacher said that he felt that white teachers couldn't teach civil rights or MLK history as good as african american ones could. Food for thought: I had an amazing US History and Civil Rights teacher in high school: Mr. Woltjer. He was caucasian. I had a plethora of diversity in my class - I am an asian american. I didn't feel like he told the "white man's perspective" on civil rights in the 1950s. We watched historical footage, we learned about Malcolm X & MLK, Rosa Parks. I definitely think it would have been a different class if taught by an african american teacher - would it have been richer or more accurate? I guess from everyone's perspective there is a certain amount of accuracy or opinion that no one else can offer. In that aspect, I think the man on NPR is right. Would his class be better? It would be different. Any aspect brings education right? - even if nothing more than to debate your view with someone. What do you think E?

Day 8

Slept in; today was clean and organize the office day. Brent organized the garage. I did laundry. Found something amazing that I've been looking for for a couple years buried deep within all my crap: my camera battery cover for my D200. Without it I have to use the battery pack which is extremely heavy and bulky. I am SO excited to have it!

Day 7

Lazy Saturday. Up early to finish addressing holiday cards (ran out...) and get them into today's mail. Dinner with Mindi and Joe in San Francisco at Tony & Nik's for cocktails, then Tony's Pizza and La Trappe. Great time to celebrate Joe's 26th birthday.

Day 6

Thank god it's friday. Found this in one of the scrapbook magazines I got earlier this week; like the idea for gifts.

Day 5

Reading Ali Edwards' blog (http://aliedwards.com/); she has a 52 Creative Lifts project going on in 2012. One thing she talked about was this little book called One Line a Day. It's a 5 year book. The book has 365 pages for every day of the year; five years of lines. The idea is to write one line each day about what happened. When you get to the following year you can compare it to what you did the previous years. I haven't written in it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Day 4

Took Brian to pick up his car that was in the shop (after a drunk driver hit and ran) his Yukon. I was waiting for Brent to arrive on BART so I killed time at Joann Fabric. No coupons; so I picked up two scrapbook magazines. One of the resolutions I made this year was to get back into it. Thus, between this and IKEA catalogue; I am trying to organize my office/craft room and get it up and running in 2012.

Day 3

Today we warmed up ham & potato soup for dinner. Need to make more soup for dinners.

Day 2

First day back at work after being on vacation for 3 weeks. Had lunch with my parents today (they drove back up to Washington) after spending 2 days with us this weekend. I've been wanting to set this up since I heard about it from Ali Edwards in her first newsletter of 2012.
-heather

Day 1

I got this for Christmas. Well, I bought it for myself. Planner by tinyprints.com; design by Erin Condren. Makes me happy to write things down and not be digital in one tiny little aspect of life.
-heather