bittersweet

i've seen this little place a few times before, while rolling by on the 22-bus...

but this weekend, i decided to pop in for a treat after spending a few hours browsing the paper-source (one of my favorite stores in the whole world) (where i was brainstorming ideas for wedding invitations)...

>> bittersweet, the chocolate cafe




this is the chocolate drink i got, though i modified mine by asking them to add a shot of espresso:

White Chocolate Dream
Venezuelan white chocolate infused with cardamom and exotic spices.

lets just say:
yum.
to die for.
magnificent!

and the store was adorable - the bars and candies a tad over-priced, but the ambiance was nice. i would definitely go back. if only they had wireless, then it would be heaven..

and apparently they have a blog, where they talk about such things as how we should all drink lots of hot chocolate to avoid getting sunburns..

i'm totally in love.

fast friends

ok so this is kinda cool - a teammate of mine wrote and said if we were near a TV today, that we should watch the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon, which is airing on NBC at 1:30pm...

her niece-in-law competed in it. she recently won the Escape from Alcatraz tri this year, so I know she probably did well, or Peggy wouldn't have emailed... hmm. look at the clock - it's 1:55... perfect! i flip on the TV.

so the broadcast is not live, which means I could look up the results - but I'm home eating lunch and doing my finances, and I figured what the heck, I'll watch it. I love triathlons, and it'll put me in the spirit for my run tomorrow (and send good vibes to my triathloning sisters).

when i turn it on - becky (the niece-in-law) is in 3rd, and the women are in the beginning of their bike. go becky!

the men are just wrapping up their swim, and i thought to myself that maybe an old MIT friend of mine just might be competeing... i'll keep my eye out. last i saw him 4 years ago, i knew he was trying to go pro...

thats when they start showing the men as they get out of the water after their swim... and boom - there he is! my friend! go dave!

(granted, he was last out of the water by a minute... but i know he's really strong on the bike so i'm not at all worried...)

and that's when it dawned on me how cool this is... that i have connections to TWO elite triathletes, and i'm watching them both on TV at the same time!

dave was good friends with an ex of mine, and he inspired my ex to get into triathlons... who in turn inspired me to. so i am a forever fan of dave, and i hope he does well.

oooo... becky just moved up into 2nd... nice!

and one commercial break later -- dave is FIRST on the bike! i knew he'd kick butt! yeah dave! go! go! this is so much fun...

why i'm unable to focus on my work today

hi there. after posting lots of silly links to entertain catfoo(d) at her new summer job in a sad sad cube-land, i attempted to do some work.

my attempts were very solid ones. i got some new code posted for a couple of upcoming games, i answered a few emails, i set up a few meetings, i went to a meeting where i learned how to prepare code for copywrite protection...

and then i got a phone call from the food network!

and now i'm sitting at my desk shaking because i'm so so so so so so so so so excited...

it looks like they liked us enough to call back and learn more about who we are! one small battle... one step closer... but now i'm getting nervous.

on one hand, i at least feel a little better than i did a few days ago because i got to talk to them about more of our other interests -- stuff that we do, like running and music -- that didn't really get to fit into our 5 minutes. i hope i was eloquent and interesting... i hope i made them want to learn more!

i guess the only thing i forgot to mention was my crazy graduate school research, but thats OK since i've not had time to think about wearables much lately, anyways...

the few people who got to see our submissions tape all said they loved it, but i'm very hard on my work and the crazy deadline drama that i wrote about on monday made me submit something i wasn't 100% satisfied with. actually, ha -- my boss today just told me i should redo it as a reggae-version and resubmit it. we were seriously laughing about that over IM when i got the call! what luck is that?

man oh man i can't think now. all sorts of things keep running through my head... like... are they going to google me? are they going to find this blog? will they like my sense of humor? how can i telepathically explain to them how SO SO SO wonderfully excited we would be to win this contest? how much it would mean to us? how much fun it would be to bring our families together for this? how much it would help us financially -- so that we can do things like save for a house or maybe open a restaurant, instead of putting what little dollars we have towards getting married?

we both work so hard... but i'm sure all the entrants do!

sigh.

i guess i just need to sit patiently and wait now. deep breath. calm thoughts. i hope this blog post doesn't jinx our chances. (i seem to be way more superstitious lately about this than i've ever been about anything!)

i've also been so pre-occupied with thinking about how i could have done things better that i totally forgot to tell all you loyal blog readers that i have a race on sunday! eek! a half-marathon!

i think it's even on the same day that my sisters compete in their very first triathlon, out in western MA!

i'm so happy and excited for them. i'm going to send them happy triathlon vibes all weekend in the moments i'm not being nervous about this whole contest. maybe thinking about how great they'll do will help me calm down and actually get some work done this afternoon.

:)

or maybe not.

classic jon stewart

i wish i had time to actually watch the daily show every day...

>> brink of war!? brink of the brink of war!?

(sorry you have to sign up for youTube to see that one... for some unknown reason the stupid youTube users think it was worthy of being flagged... i'm not really sure why. all he does is make fun of CNN!)

another...

>> ted stevens explaining the internet

more things to entertain thefoo.

finally, you can DESTROY all those websites you hate!

attack them with wasps!
or aliens!
or coffee!
or fried eggs!

or... the text sucker!

or... flowers?

whatever your weapon of choice, try it.
here. destroy my blog:

>> nuke my blog

>> text-suck my blog (my personal favorite)

i'm writing on water... lalala-lah, and it's time to feel GOOD!

i have no idea if this is legit or not.

but what the heck? it's cool.

(and catfoo(d) is bored so i'm trying to give her fun things to read)

>> Researchers using waves to write on water

need work?

if anyone in the bay area that is mildly technical and web-saavy needs a job or is looking for a new job, let me know. i might have a lead for you.

sleepy head

wow i went to bed at 8:30 last night... and woke up at 8:30 this morning! that's insane! i never go to bed before midnight. who drugged me!??

what!

ok now i'm mad. at some point in the last few hours... the food network CHANGED THE DEADLINE!

to august 1st!

what!?

all the lost sleep... the mad dash to help doug learn to use his DVD burner... the graciousness of my cousins... the less than perfect submission because i was pressed for time... them even telling doug in person when he "delivered the goods" that today was the day!

... and they changed the deadline!?!

argh-itty!

touchdown!

i always knew my family was really freakin' awesome, but, i mean, i've never really had a good reason to put them to the test!

conor and i have been working on a video to submit to the food network - they have a contest where they could do our wedding for us, if we win - in hawaii. how cool would that be!?

(not to mention way cheaper!)

anyways, through some clerical error of my own, i had the "due date" incorrectly stored in my brain as being "post-marked by july 25th"...

but late last night after a day of taping, i double-checked the rules.

... must be recieved no later than 5pm mountain time on monday, july 24th.

gulp.

then i thought to myself... mountain time? why mountain time? where do we need to send it? does fed ex do same day air to...

(checking address online)

just south of denver?

denver!

what's that beam of hope and light through yonder window break?!

so one frantic plea later to my brother, sister-in-law and 2 cousins... and a few late hours fastidiously editing the video... and a few less hours of terrible sleep... and one early morning wake-up call from my cousin later...

and i realized JUST how lucky i am.

who else would take the time from their busy days to help us in our predicament? something we could have prevented with better planning? who else but my family! my family that loves to eat! and watch the food network! and loves weddings! and loves me!

my family that RULES!
that's who!

yay for "super sage & doug" to the rescue!
thanks soooooooo much!

(and for the rest of you, tentatively block off the week of october 22nd for a cruise and a wedding... you know, just in case!...)

saved by the bell (if bell = sage & doug!)

ok, i owe my cousins and i owe them big.

(and i'll owe them even BIGGER if this all works out)

more explanation later once i have confirmation...

bad stomach, bad!

man my tummy SO does not love me.

i decided this morning i was feeling like a "true" distance runner, while admiring the calluses forming on my feet and toes... that was, until i went out and ran 20 miles in 90 degree weather (way less humidity here than florida + cool ocean breezes make such a difference).

things were great for miles 1-18.
i was cruising at 7:30 miles...

and then i croaked.
brakes applied.
8:25 miles and climbing...

and then.

i puked.

sigh.
so much for being a true distance runner... clearly i can't hack it in temps over 70. i'm getting more freaked about montreal with each tick of the thermometer...

no more hot dogs.

i'm officially giving up hot dogs.

i've only eaten 3 since becoming a non-vegetarian (one as a corn-dog at a fair, and 2 at a ball game).

both times i ended up on my couch, doubled over in stomach pain, unable to move for an hour.

i could blame the tilt-a-whirl at the fair, the beer at the ball game, or the salad w/ blue cheese i ate later that day... but deep down i think i know it was the hot diggity dogs.

stupid stupid nasty hot dogs that i've loved ALL MY LIFE.
how dare you turn on me like this!

sigh... smart dogs, welcome back into my life. looks like i'm in for 60+ more years of being teased about eating you instead of the real-deal...

play ball!

one reason i love my company: every year we go to a giants game together.

this year, we sadly can't bring friends/significant others which sucks big ones. apparently they want us to do more "company bonding".

(sniff... it was at a company game that conor and i's sparks started flying back in 2004!)

but, i still love this... in an email to the people not going with us today, the girl who organized it wrote:

"We will miss you and eat hot dogs until we are sick in your honor."

amen, sistah.

fed ex + apple = sux

if you ever order something online with apple, triple-check the delivery address they have on file for you.

because if it's wrong, and the package gets shipped -- GOOD LUCK getting it delivered to you! i wish you all the best in the world.

   4 phone calls to fed ex
+ 5 phone calls to apple
+ 1 incorrect tracking report that says it was delivered
+ 3 business days later...

and i'm still not sure where my package is.

last i heard it's being sent back to apple. who knows. someone probably took it home and gave it to their wife for an anniversary present or something.

... maybe i'll see it before 2007.

back-in-the-fog report

actually, it's totally sunny and lovely in san francisco today. but SF is the "fog" in this blog's name, so i feel it's only appropriate to title my "welcome-myself-back-home" post as a fog report.

i just rolled into the office. it's kind of quiet today - feels too library-ish for my tastes. but it's cool (55 degrees) which feels OH SO DELICIOUS on my still-dehydrated skin (which i refuse to attribute to the 2 cups of coffee i already drank today, and will instead attribute to the sweating i'm still doing after my trip).

speaking of that strange hot planet known as Fla, i want to give a shout-out to some loyal floridian blog readers of mine -- that i didn't know were reading my blog until they came clean about it this weekend. but, to be honest, i'm touched to know their eyes feast on my words from time to time. flattered, even... so they deserve a big shout out for being even the slightest bit humored by my ramblings, even if its just so they have fodder to make fun of me the next time we cross paths. :)

hi, julie!

hi, amy!

(& i would have done that shout-out last night, but felt i needed to be back on the opposite corner of the country for it to be the most effective shout out possible...)

hope the rest of you awesomely-fantasticly-slackery-(shouldn't you be working too?)-blog readers of mine, throughout the country, are having a great monday.

time for me to go be productive (at least for a few minutes before i waste my afternoon touching up pictures from the weekend)...

sunshine report part trois

hello again. it's now 11:10 pm. i'm still not in bed.

i just got sucked into the website that catfoo(d) mentioned in her comment (gofugyourself.com). to foo: jerk! twenty deliciously guilty minutes later and i had to rip myself away.

but, uh, it was for research. foo and i have to research this stuff for our start-up company that we're working on... so stop judging me.

speaking of... (ok, bad lead-in to this story)(terrible really)(i'm not sure why making fun of celebrities reminded me of this)...

today, my mom and i ventured into the deep pit that is:

david's bridal.

wow.

if a wedding cake ever threw up, it would look like the inside of david's bridal.

considering we didn't have an appointment, and it was a busy sunday -- it wasn't so bad. the girl who helped us was very nice. and we did find a cute dress. most definitely not "the one" (my mom is making mine, so i better not have that eureka moment until i get to my first fitting with her). but it was nice. good shapes. good color. a bit ill-fitted, but i guess that's how it goes when you weigh 1/3 of everyone else in the store. (snap. was that mean?)(it was, i'm sorry.)

at least my mom knows that i look terrible in white, now.

oh and the best part of our visit was the fact that there were some awesomely-bad dresses. they made my day!

case in point: no one should ever wear a white princess gown with 2-inch red satin lining on the top and bottom... when you're 40!

oh, heh, and even better was when we ate lunch at panera bread:

no one should ever wear a purple, plaid, above-the-knee, strapy sundress with a big straw hat (with a giant purple bow!) and heels... when you're 40!

what's with these 40 year olds?

later, we had a birthday dinner for my mom at a little italian place on the beach, which was lovely. we had a great bottle of wine, and our food was delicious. it's hard to avoid the chain restaurants down here, so its a nice treat to find a place that's small, family-owned, and yummy.

after that, we had ice cream at their friends' house -- and everyone decided my wedding dress needed giant red satin stripes all over it.

and that way, i can serve red stripe beer.
and striped sea bass.

it's going to be gorgeous.

though i still have one more request... can i get "princess" bedazzled down the side of my gown?

good night.

sunshine report part deux

ho ho ho! back again, reporting from the trenches.

so it's about 10:30 pm in floreedah and i'm about to hit the sack. yes, i know that 10:30 = 7:30 pm san francisco time... i'm ashamed too... sure, sure... call me boring all you want... but if you had to be out the door at 4:15 tomorrow morning to catch a flight, you'd be going to bed now too.

see that? 4:15 AM. yes, my dear friends, 4:15 = 1:15 am san francisco time. and considering i go to work tomorrow, well, it all kinda just sucks.

if my clock isn't screwed up when i get home it will be an outright miracle.

the other thing that is going to be screwed up when i get home is my body's hydration system. i think i sweated every last ounce of liquid out through my pores this morning when i attempted to run in this fiery-pit of a state.

i woke up at SEVEN-THIRTY IN THE MORNING to avoid the dang heat.

7:30!

that's 4:30 SF time!

i even skipped church for this!
cool, air-conditioned, friend-filled, music-filled church!

boy oh boy. and it was hoooooooooot. there is no time of day that is a safe time of day when you're in florida for the summer. god must have been punishing me.. i knew i should have thrown i the towel and just gone to church with the 'rents...

but i didn't. so here's the play by play...

at the start, i got about 30 minutes of non-stop running in before i v-lined to a water fountain and rest room to mop off.

10 minutes of more running later, and the shirt & camel back came off (and found their way into a ditch for later retrieval).

from that point out, i ran 15 minute on / 15 minute off intervals - not exactly what i planned to do... but survival became more important:

run
stop
pant
mop off
chug water
mop off more
douse hair
dry off the ipod shuffle
re-wet the tank top turned sponge bath
deep breath
resume running.
rinse.
repeat.

add in a nasty-tasting GU snack after 2 repeats.
dry out your ears every 5 minutes so you can hear your music through the sweat.
and don't be alarmed when you feel your soaking wet shorts dripping down your leg.
or feel the squish-squish of your swimming-pool-shoes.

and all this before it was noon.

i did laps in phillipe park because its the only place i could find shade. sweet, glorious, spotty shade... never have i loved the trees in that park as much as i did today... and i LOVE those trees. always have...

on the way home i yelled at a deli owner who couldn't sacrifice a cup full of ice for the shaking, sweaty pathetic creature that was me, begging him for some icey salvation so i could make it the last 1.5 miles home without passing out from delirium and landing in an alligator pit.

amen for the cumberland farms next door... i should have know my childhood haunt would have taken mercy on me. someday i will repay you, mr. nice-man-at-the-convenience-store-next-door-to-the-mean-deli-man. i knew i bought my candy from you all those years for a reason!

but... all in all... 1:50:02.99 clocked running minutes later + another hour of medical attention, i mean rest, i mean re-hydration attempts/refuge from the sun = 3 hours later, when i finally crawled through the front door... and barely got my shoes and technology off... before rolling smack in to our pool.

splooosh!

i ran 13.25 miles of the 18 i'd hoped to run. eh. but i won the battle (i think?)... so i'll take it!

sunshine report

hello from florida! damn it's hot here.

and damn why is the air conditioning in most buildings so COLD? florida, sweet florida, why do you love to mess with my core body temperature so much, huh? and you wonder why i love talking smack about you, dear home state of mine...

i'm here for a reunion, but i have another goal for the weekend: attempting a training run in this sauna, for fear that montreal might have weather more like this than what i run in back home.

so i went for a 30 minute easy run yesterday and almost passed out. that was at 3 in the afternoon, admittedly a bad idea...

today i went for a 40 minute run at 11am. ha! still a bad idea! when i returned home, it looked like i'd gone swimming. i almost jumped in the lake with the alligators, i got so hot at one point. i can't seem to run more than 10 minutes at a time without stopping to find a speck of shade to cower and wimper under (and mop off my body with my already soaked tank top).

18 miles tomorrow? why am i suddenly doubtful that's gonna happen?

either i need to wake up at 4am before the sun rears its ugly head -- or wait to run in "cool" evening darkness (i hate running at night, btw)... yeah. neither option sounds very appealing.

if montreal is like this in september, i am S-C-R-E-W-E-D.

superficial

ok i found a new blog that i love. (its where that david hasselhoff film came from)... and i don't care if reading this blog means that i have sunk to the lowest of the low, because it's freakin' hilarious.

what's the schtick? it just makes fun of celebrities. that's it.
nonstop, complete, making-fun-of.

how can you not like it?
i'll even quote their 'about' page:

Our goal is to make fun of as many people as possible.

isn't that's beautiful?

eva longoria with no makeup on... britney stepping on hypodermic needles... the never-ending debate about whether baby suri exists... good times. good times.

check it out:

>> the superficial

zinadine zidane!

for those of you who payed no attention to the world cup this year (ok maybe that was just me?)... there are some good viral emails, links, blogs, etc. going around about the zidane head butting incident. they're funny even if you didn't watched a single game...

>> read about the head butting outrage!

"How you view the whole thing depends largely on your national perspective..."

or, play a game!

>> the real butthead game

and check out jet li's new competition:

get out of my car

wow this is the creepiest david hasselhoff thing i think i've ever seen! i hope he doesn't quit his day job to do more videos like this...

>> jump in my car

buh-bye trans fat!

>> wendy's is removing trans fat from their menus!

not that i eat there, ever. but still. the concept makes me happy.