joy ride

a couple of months ago, while biking home from work, i "picked up" a really cool chick (which conor and cat found especially amusing. thanks, guys). our intentions were very clear - we were both psyched to meet another cool girl to go on long bike rides with. but two months passed and we never got our act together.

well finally... FINALLY... this weekend, we hit the streets. and it was fantastic. i can't express how excited i am to have found some cycling friends! it only took me eleven (#$@%&!) months to do this. frickin' san francisco.

anyways, her buddy met the two of us in napa valley, and we had a grandiose plan - three hours in the saddle to be followed up by a few hours of drinking wine. maybe our aspirations were set too high? we probably should have just left earlier. but things get in the way of schedules when you bike - flat tires, getting lost on unfamiliar roads, etc. etc. but honestly, who cares. we'll drink wine another time. it's really all about the bike.

the weather in napa was glorious. we felt very powerful driving out of the thick cloud that was san francisco and into the dry, blistering heat that was wine country. it's easy to forget your woes and feelings of sadness or tiredness when the sun is beating down on your back. it's also easy to forget about freezing your water bottle before hand, when you live in a colder climate (oops), and it's surprisingly easy to forget to drink from your water bottle when its contents are nearly boiling. oh well. thank goodness for seven-eleven's ice-cold bottles of gatorade.

i haven't been on a long bike ride in what feels like forever. at least nothing more than 30 miles... it's been about 5 months since i went on the 56-ish mile tiburon loop with pete and the gang. all my rides since then have been alone, which makes it very hard to motivate to go beyond my 25 mile average. so, needless to say, i was quite happy to see my odometer hit the upper 40's again. granted, 50 miles is nothing compared to the poor souls who were out doing the annual napa valley century. i'm sure we really pissed them off when we zoomed past them on their 90th mile, ourselves having only clocked a mere 46. oh well. i like to think that we provided some motivation during their final leg.

having not exerted myself for so long, i felt surprisingly spritely. it's been frustratingly hard getting back in shape since my two-week illness wiped me out, and climbing especially depresses me - i haven't needed to use my small chain ring for months. it's very painful to require its services again. i think back to last summer when i was riding mountain roads every day, and i wonder where that strength disappeared to. how can power vanish so silently and so quickly?

at least now i have friends to ride with. my fitness will come back in due time. my suntan is already looking better. my bike is certainly happy, and my legs feel like gold today. so i have to say - things are looking up!

smokin'!

greg's dream chick:

you got served!

need to fool a pushy suitor? sick of passing out phone numbers to sleazy guys? did some annoying chick ask for your email address? reject them the passive-agressive way!

emails: <yournamehere>@papernapkin.net
digits: 415.356.9833

fungible

i did not make that word up. the "Word of the Day for Tuesday August 24, 2004" (thanks to dictionary.com) is:

fungible \FUHN-juh-buhl
adjective:
1. (Law) Freely exchangeable for or replaceable by another of like nature or kind in the satisfaction of an obligation.
2. Interchangeable.

noun:
Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Usually used in the plural.

"Mega-G and Chris-Albree are fungible employees at their company." schyeah-RIGHT!

on the prowl

a friend of mine is back in the saddle. and she's gone digital.

feel free to read the hilarious details of her online dates.
they will be chronicled here, in the coming weeks:

redfish-bluefish

whip up a little something

over the weekend i had one of those "moments" where i felt like i was getting really frickin' Old. thankfully, that moment lasted about 2.7831 seconds. i quickly reverted back to feeling like a kid in adult clothing.

phew.

disaster averted.

there is a farmer's market here in san francisco that lives in (and around) the ferry building - right on the bay, just north of the bay bridge. it's a funny little market because it's kinda posh. it knows who it caters for - all the yuppies and yuppies-in-training (aka "hipsters" - the new term coined so that people my age don't feel like we're ACTUALLY turning into those yuppies we hated so much growing up).

so, this market is really close to my office and my gym, and i like to walk there on tuesdays and thursdays for lunch. or to pick up a tasty treat, like fresh fruit, nuts, honey, coffee.

over the weekend, conor gave me a task.

"get something from the farmers market and i'll make you dinner."

now this was really stressful for me. when you don't have any idea what you're buying FOR, it's really hard to shop! peppers? no. tomatoes? we have a ton at home... potatoes? nah. figs? yes. beans? sure. more tomatoes? okay maybe a few. coffee? mmm. coffeeeee. meat? yuck. bread? erm...

i honestly don't recall what i picked out. but whatever i returned with in my bag, somehow miraculously turned into an extremely delicious and amazing three-course dinner for cat, conor, and myself. damn it was good. conor made up the entrees himself. i took no part in the actual cooking. he used some ingredients from cat's farm box, and happily entertained himself for several hours while he whipped up sauces and a risotto and stuffed trout and all the other little odds and ends to decorate the plates and the palate.

and i happily sat on the couch reading my new york times, drinking wine, and watching the olympics (finally! rowing!). it was hard work.

i decided that i'm a fantastic helper in the kitchen. give me the beans to snap, the corn to husk, the dishes to wash, the wine to open, and i'm totally your woman. give me a detailed list of instructions and i'll follow them to a T. anything beyond that, eludes me. i do not think in terms of ingredients.

i like candy

ladies! make your own candybar doll avatar! like me! this is me! my avatar! megan-the-avatar! me! ha ha.

kickassinators

my friend greg made up a word today:

kickassinators

google it. go ahead. NO ENTRIES.
we are so proud!

(pat greg on head)

quote of the day

"Have you considered a future in a burlap sack at the bottom of a river?"

-- said by someone pretending to be someone else's dad, who is a public-high-school guidance counselor and thinks that all 14-year-old boys should be drowned in sacks full of rocks so that they can never become 17-year-old boys.

i can just imagine one of my guidance counselors recommending this career path too me. it's all too fitting, considering the high-quality guidance that i got back at my alma mater...

"why are you applying to MIT? do you really think you'll get in?"

"why don't you apply to the junior college instead of duke... you'll get a full scholarship at the junior college!"

and so it went.

the olympics... The Suk?

there seems to be a lot of heavy opinions floating around about the olympics this year... are they interesting? or boring as hell?

people in my office seem to think they're boring. i kinda think they're fascinating. maybe i'm just humored because al trautwig (think "tour de france"... he was an OLN commentator) is covering gymnastics. as if he knows ANYTHING about gymnastics.

my hazy recollection of last night...

al: "she didn't stick that landing - she should get docked considerable points for that right?"

other commentator: "uh, no, not necessarily."

al: (no comment)

but salon has a great blog with running commentary about the games... be sure to read the entry about gymnastics, because the part about the age of athletes is fascinating. i'm relieved to see i'm not too old to compete yet. the average age of the soccer team is just under 28. i wonder what it is for the triathletes? summer games 2008, here i come!

http://www.salon.com/sports

now if only i could figure out where NBC is hiding the coverage of women's rowing...

yummy in my tummy

i went to santa cruz over the weekend to soak in some rays with my roommate and our great, wonderful, crazy friend dan who was visiting from the passive/aggressive pacific-northwest. we drank a lot of wine, played a lot of scrabble, had a kick-ass room that overlooked the ocean, ate too much fried food, and generally got into trouble. it was fabulous, sunny, and warm.

here, i am eating some superdooper, tasty ice cream from a santa cruz ice cream shop:



i can't get enough ice cream lately. conor and i threw an ice cream party last week for some friends and served them 18 flavors of homemade creams & sorbets. let me list them for you so you can drool uncontrollably:

mocha cheesecake
peanut butter candy
peanut butter and jelly
caramel twix
avocado
chocolate peppermint stick **
chocolate ganache and hazelnut candy
roasted apricot
oatmeal cookie and chocolate chip
butterscotch and coconut
cinnamon and gingersnap cookie
almond cookies and cream
champagne and strawberries (sorbet)
roasted peach (sorbet)
watermelon (sorbet)
fresh mint (sorbet)
raspberry ice tea (sorbet)
pineapple thai basil (sorbet)

** this flavor was in honor of my grandpa galbraith who loved peppermint stick ice cream. we used to eat it together after school, back when i was like 16. it was great. peppermint stick ice cream rocks almost as much as my grandpa.

a very place where they pick gems

if you think your mom is crazy, well let me tell you something. she's june cleaver compared to a certain mother of a certain friend of mine. you can read some of the emails from the mother of my friend-whose-name-i-can't-say, and also from her friend's mother (who is equally crazy), because they have a blog!

(the daughters, not the moms):
mymomiscrazy.blogspot.com

it's hilarious. i love it!

oh, and major disclaimer: this is not my mom, my mom rocks.

nasal wash

i just had the weirdest work experience ever.

our VP of engineering cleaned out my sinuses.

seriously.

he taught me this trick - taken from an ancient indian ritual that has now been turned into a commercial product. sinucleanse may be the key to knock this damn infection out of my head once and for all. or it might kill me. hard to say. but since i need any help i can get (my meds ran out on sunday), and two other engineers in our company swear by this method, why not?

it was worth the look on my co-workers faces when they innocently stepped into the kitchen to get coffee and instead found us rinsing water through my nostrils with a genie-lamp-looking contraption. hoo boy! great laughs!

and to be truthful, i am seriously breathing better now. i can't wait to get home and do it again.

squeeeek

hurricane charley (cat 4) seemed to squeeeeeeze right through that tiny little gap of land between tampa/clearwater (where my parents live) and naples (where my grandma, cousins and various relatives live) -- and therefore caused minimal to zero damage to both of my "homes"!

yay!

lets just hope it doesn't cut a hard left and turn west in the next hour, or else tampa may get trounced after all.

(read: please don't uncross those fingers just yet!)

white fender

the US air guitar championships really exist.

harry potter 5 made me cry.

for three days now, i've ridden the MUNI to and from work, my head buried in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix".

for three days now, i started crying on the MUNI.

damn book 5 was good.
by far the best the best of series.

i love harry potter.
you should get it. read it. love it.

(and it's out in paperback on monday!)

mobile poetry

MUNI haikus!

www.munihaiku.com

shaky legs

i just spent four days straight on my couch. how fast do muscles atrophy? i got dizzy walking to the train today. now i feel all light-headed. i wonder how long this illness can persevere...

it's nice to be "back in the game" though, despite feeling a little brain-dead. i missed being around my co-workers, even if they say mean things on their blogs about my pictures (ahem. you know who you are). i also missed my computer. oh happy, crazy, loves-to-crash-on-me, i-think-it's-infected-with-a-virus, computer of mine at work. it's always doing something quirky!

today, it greeted me with some weird minimized window that i couldn't open or close. um, right-click-maximize! doh. right-click-close! doh. double-click! doh.

fie on thee!

ctrl-alt-delete restart, sucka!

let the fun begin

my california driver's license arrived in the mail today! guess that makes it official.

oddness floating around

i don't feel good. but i don't have an illness. i have an oddness. or rather, and odd illness. or something like that. i mean, it's like none i've ever had before.

day one, i just felt a little funny.
day two, it felt like all air had to pass through the sahara desert before it got into my throat and down into my lungs.
day three, i lost my voice. still just felt a little funny.
day four, voice still gone, energy level good. maybe the end?
day five, oh no. voice still gone, energy gone, plenty of loopiness. plus, now i can't breath through my nose. plus, now i can't sleep.

the oddest thing is that i feel trapped inside my head. i feel like i should be able to just THINK my thoughts and everyone will hear them! why not? but since they can't, i just want to type a lot of words all the time... i don't want to talk, i don't want to move, i just want to COMMUNICATE! with the entire world! i want to type! and type and type and type and type and type and type and type and type and type... but then, i go to write emails to my friends, and i shoot blanks. i can't think of a single. thing. to. say.

alas, because i don't really have anything to say?

oh well. tomorrow, i plan to sleep all day long. it sounds really nice and really horrific all at the same time. so thank goodness i have the big fatty harry potter 5 to read. that giganturamous book better get me through this odd/illness or i might cry. or see a doctor. or something.

covergirl

zucchiniinihccuz

i miss my aunt's garden. i bought a yummy piece of zucchini bread for breakfast today, in honor of her and the overwhelming number of zucchinis that she has in her possesion right now.

sigh. if only her son and fiance had the same appreciation for this delectable vegetable! the sorrow! if ever her zucchinis were NOT to grow, i bet they'd be sad. i don't get to eat them this year -- but they do -- and trust me, i'm much more sad than they are. even though i'm sure they'd be the first to argue.

her zucchinis are like heaven wrapped up in bite-sized chunks.

paruposse

i don't even know where to begin. i just got home from a brief trip where i snuck out to LA for my friend's sister's wedding. it was INSANE. and i mean that in an "it was so f'ing awesome that i don't know how to describe it" kind of way. i mean seriously. it was lovely and exuberant and hilarious and fun and joyous and beautiful and perfect in every. single. way.

so do you want me to start with the invitation? or the welcoming gift? or the boat party? or the amazing dresses parul & deepa wore on the boat? or the dancing on the boat? or the food on the boat? or the fake gambling on the boat? or the bus that got us lost en route to the wedding? or the procession of the groom on a horse? or the groom's family dancing around the horse? or the old men in colorful sarees with drums? or the bride's family greeting the groom on a horse with colorful garlands to wear around their necks? or the gorgeous wreaths and arches of flowers? or the glowing tables? or the life-sized cardboard standups of the grandparents who live in bombay and couldn't make it to the wedding? or the loveliness of parul's mother every time i caught a glimpse of her? or the wreaths, arches, and bouquets of flowers? or the six different kinds of foods? or the two chocolate fountains? or the two dance floors? or the photo booth? or the 50 rounds of photos we took in the photo booth? or the tower? or the view of the ocean from the top of a mountain? or the rituals of the ceremony? or the fire pit? or the bride? or the groom? or or the cool people i got to hang out with? or the sense of complete exuberance? or everything else? because these are just surface details that don't describe the energy and rhythm of it all.

anyways, the trip was worth it the most just to see my friend -- and to see her so happy. she looked amazing, acted amazing, and was the epitome of a smile. i feel honored to have been one of her posse. represent.