Friday, August 29, 2008

typing test

After getting confused on the first try, I managed to score 103 WPM on my second try on this typing test. Of course, I may have cheated slightly by picking a passage from the Wizard of Oz, since I read fiction particularly fast.

Full result:
Net Speed: 103 WPM
Accuracy: 99%
Gross Speed: 104 WPM

Monday, August 25, 2008

maybe babies can have lives too

Chalk up another couple points in the "having a kid doesn't end your life" column.

Last weekend, some friends of mine took their 4-week-old daughter to LA to attend a wedding. Apparently the trip went fine, plane ride and all. I guess babies that young don't have the lungs to scream very loudly anyway.

On Sunday, some other friends brought their 14-month-old son to a birthday party which consisted of brunch at the Original Pancake House (which is yummy but has not the fastest service) followed by several hours of karaoke at Gamba. Then, a couple hours later, they (and lots of other people) came over to my house to watch the (tape-delayed) men's basketball gold medal game, and didn't go home until after ten.

If I ever have a kid, I'll have to remember to be that kind of parent, instead of the sit-at-home-forevermore kind of parent.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

longest run ever

I went to the gym yesterday to run on a treadmill. Between my workout buddy being late and me getting engrossed yet another episode of Stump the Schwab (apparently I know a lot about NFL running backs from the late 90's and early 2000's), I ran for over 45 minutes thinking I'd only run for about 30-35. When I realized how long I'd been running, I figured I was within a few minutes of the 5-mile mark and just kept going. I ended up running 5 miles in 48:48, which is now officially my longest run ever. Yay me.

Friday, August 22, 2008

always a cynic

Yesterday I went to get a haircut. I decided to try out a new place off of Castro that was well-reviewed and not too expensive.

Initially I stopped by before work, but they were full, so after waiting for a good five minutes for the hairstylist to get off what appeared to be a social phone call, I made a "2:30pm" appointment, but was told to come by ten minutes early. When I came back, the hairstylist was working on coloring another customer's hair, so I had to wait the ten minutes plus an extra five minutes for her to finish. I was starting to feel a teensy bit annoyed, but figured I'd reserve judgment.

As she was cutting my hair, a guy came by from the Thai restaurant next door and dropped off a Thai iced tea and a box of chicken, for the hairstylist. He hung around chatting with her for a few minutes, and all of a sudden he asked us (me and the woman having her hair colored) if we wanted some chicken. I said yes, figuring he'd share a piece or two, but he came back fifteen minutes later with two full styrofoam takeout boxes, each containing four or five pieces, with rice and sauce. I thought maybe I'd misunderstood so I offered to pay him, but he told us not to be silly.

It's really hard to feel anything but good about a haircut where you get fed free Thai food, but I do think the haircut turned out pretty well, anyway.

On the drive back to work, I started to wonder if he was just nice, or whether the free chicken distribution was a calculated PR move...and then I scolded myself for being so cynical. These days I find I am always surprised by acts of kindness, which I think is a bad sign. I should really work on giving people the benefit of the doubt more often.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

signs of oldness abound

I just bought a Patrick Willis jersey, which marks the first time I've ever bought a jersey belonging to a player who is younger than me. In fact, not only is he younger than me, he was born in 1985, making him the same age as my kid brother. Yeesh.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

BART is useful (sometimes)

I usually don't take BART, mostly because it takes $8 to go roundtrip from Millbrae to the city, which makes it only worth it if no one wants to carpool. Last week I took BART twice; once to a whitewater rafting offsite (the bus picked up in Mountain View at 7:30am and in San Francisco at 8:30am, making my decision of pickup location very easy), and once to the Orpheum to see the Drowsy Chaperone with some friends living in the city.

PROS:
- free and plentiful parking at Millbrae
- $8 is about as cheap as round-trip gas, at least for one person
- the Civic Center stop at 8th and Market is pretty convenient to lots of stuff

CONS:
- takes 45 minutes (as opposed to 30 minutes) from my house to downtown
- last train a little after midnight
- sometimes the cars smell funny

All in all, it's a decent option and I will have to remember to keep it in mind.

As for the events themselves, rafting was fun and all, but I'm tired of Class III. If only someone else would plan a Class IV trip...since I'm too lazy at the moment.

The musical was surprisingly good; I had no idea what it was going to be about, and I found the self-conscious humor and show-within-a-show setup intriguing. The narrator character was well played, as were the male and female leads, but I was less fond of some of the supporting characters, including the titular chaperone. Overall it was fun and upbeat, and not too expensive either, at $55 for a weekday showing.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

olympic basketball

I'm often only a casual Olympics fan, and my feelings this year are particularly mixed, given the venue, but I've really enjoyed watching the US men's basketball team this year, first against China, and then last weekend against Spain. For once, they're working together as a team, the shooting is not-horrible, the guards especially are so strong on defense that they're wearing out their opponents by the third quarter, and Dwyane Wade is everywhere and totally unstoppable.

A bunch of us are scheduled to get together to watch the gold medal game on Sunday (evening, since people were unwilling to stay up to watch at midnight). I hope we aren't jumping the gun, but honestly, I can't see how they can fail to win this year.

Monday, August 18, 2008

assorted doings

Driving home from work today, I realized that it's starting to get dark earlier. I'm not sure how summer went by so fast. Sigh. I don't even like summer usually, but it's been quite pleasant and not very hot at all this year.

Last week I went to yet another company offsite, this time at Great America. The rides and shows were fun, but the highlight of my two hour stay was getting to eat a big cup of soft strawberry lemonade. Why don't they sell the stuff outside of amusement parks, I wonder?

Over the weekend a bunch of alumni from my college dorm descended on the Bay Area for a reunion of sorts. I was busy for most of Saturday but joined them Friday night for dinner at Walzwerk, a German restaurant in the Mission. I'm sure it was authentic and all but I think I'm just not that fond of German food and/or beer, both of which were present in large quantities. In fact, I distinctly remember not liking Germany because of the food, even compared to Austria or Switzerland. Anyway, it was fun to see everyone, and afterwards we headed to Festa, a teeny karaoke lounge in Japantown. I drank very little (maybe two drinks) since I expected to be drinking much more on Saturday night, so I didn't end up onstage, but some of our party did, and seemed to have a good time.

Saturday night I headed up to the city again, this time for a bachelorette party. We met up at the Fairmont (where the girls who were crashing in the city had gotten upgraded to a pretty nice suite), and hung out there for a bit before embarking on a club tour with Three Babes and a Bus. The original plan was to hit Gravity, Roe, and then Suite One8One, but we had to ditch Roe after an episode where we nearly lost the bride-to-be and got off-schedule. Seven drinks and six hours later, my designated driver took me home, where I think I managed four bottles of water before heading to bed. Apparently that was enough, since I successfully made it to basketball practice the next day at noon.

I guess my strategy for coping with the end of summer is to cram in more fun before it's over. Anyone for another BBQ?

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

to buy or not to buy

Last weekend in Cabo one of my friends had a waterproof case for her Canon Powershot (I think SD700?) and she got some really good snorkeling pictures. I was envious, so I went home and researched waterproof cases. It turns out they're ridiculously expensive. As in, I spent $199 on the camera itself (SD1100) and the case costs $170. Sigh. Must decide before Hawaii trip next month.

Monday, August 04, 2008

the girls visit Los Cabos

I just got back yesterday from a 4-day + 3-night girls getaway in Los Cabos. Ironically, given Cabo's party reputation, we spent the long weekend doing pretty much everything except clubbing, which was exactly the way we wanted it.

The Los Cabos area (aka Cabo) consists of Cabo San Lucas (more touristy), San Jose del Cabo (more authentic), and the 18-mile corridor in between:


We stayed at the Casa Dorada hotel in Cabo San Lucas, which is a pretty new place overlooking the Playa el Medano, one of the few swimmable beaches in Cabo. We had a two-bedroom suite (complete with two bathrooms, two kitchens, two balconies, and a jacuzzi) overlooking the beach. It was great waking up every morning to this view:


The first day was pretty chill; after checking into the hotel, we stood in line to get money from an ATM (unfortunately it was July 31st, aka payday), went to the grocery store, where we bought the first of many delicious mangoes. Then we walked around Cabo San Lucas a bit, had dinner at a local seafood place, checked out the Puerto Paraiso shopping mall, and went back to the hotel for some relaxing and card games.

The next day, we went to a glassblowing factory, where some of us (including me) actually got to blow glass! It was actually harder than I expected; for awhile nothing was happening, and then all of a sudden the bubble came out really fast. The guy kept telling me "more, more!" so I blew until the glass bubble exploded, and he gave me a piece as a souvenir. Some of us picked up some trinkets from the gift shop:


For lunch, we ate at Gardenia's Tacos, on Paseo Pescadores. The tacos were amazing; I had shrimp and BBQ pork, and the shrimp was fresh and nicely fried, and the BBQ pork was just the right degree of spicy. On the table were generous servings of cabbage, onions & cilantro, two kinds of salsa, guacamole, and lime, so we could add the condiments ourselves.


I also had a really good mango margarita there, and afterwards we decided to go and buy some of the tequila they had used (Jose Cuervo Traditionale). We ended up at a Costco-like place (day pass $2), complete with food samples and huge warehouse decor, and bought four liters to take home.

After hanging out back at the hotel for a bit, we headed to San Jose del Cabo by local bus. The bellboys tried to scare us into renting a car instead ("There's dog poo on the ground! And people holding chickens!") but we were skeptical so we took it anyway. It turned out to be perfectly fine; the bus driver was sweet and let us flag down the bus in the middle of the street, the bus itself was at least as nice as Muni, and at least one fellow passenger spoke decent English and helped us figure out when to get off. The best part was, the trip cost 23 pesos per person (about $2.30 USD) instead of $80 for a cab.

It was nice walking around in San Jose; in general things were much more chill than in San Lucas. Store owners would help us when asked, but they were pretty low pressure. We found prices in the stores were somewhat cheaper and more flexible, as well. The town square was cute and there were local kids running around, and overall it just felt less touristy, although not as rustic as the town we visited near Zihua, where they had apparently never seen Asian people. A few photos from near the town square:



For dinner, we went to the very sleek "C" by Charlie Trotter, inside the One & Only Palmilla resort. Compared to Chicago's version, "C" was actually prettier to look at, with gorgeous ocean views, and the food was more Asian-influenced. The resort itself was lovely as well (and had very good security):


My favorite dish was a "bento box" appetizer, which came with five small dishes; kobe beef which could be cooked on a small hot stone, tuna tartare, two pieces of rolled sushi, ceviche, and fried shrimp. Here's a photo of the presentation:


The kurobuta pork entree was so-so, but the beef shortrib cannelloni was yummy, and the desserts were good as well. We really liked their specialty cocktails; there was a cucumber margarita that was very refreshing, a virgin mojito-style drink, and I had a watermelon margarita.

Day three started bright and early with a kayaking trip at 8am. We took Baja Wild's "Three Bay Crusade" tour, which took us from Twin Dolphin Bay to Santa Maria and then to Chileno Beach. We first kayaked the mile between Twin Dolphin and Santa Maria, then snorkeled for awhile at Santa Maria, and then continued on another two miles to Chileno, where we snorkeled some more, until a tour boat full of snorkelers descended on us in the last few minutes before we were going to leave. The three-mile distance was the longest I'd ever gone by kayak, and the snorkeling was fun too, especially at Santa Maria where the beach was practically deserted and the fish were plentiful (and really close to shore). We also saw lots of pelicans and there was one sighting of a small ray, but I missed it. One person had a waterproof casing for her camera and was able to get lots of photos:




Due to some excellent scheduling, we were booked for spa appointments at the Esperanza resort that afternoon, which was perfect, as we were pretty tired from the kayaking. After getting cleaned up and making some mango smoothies back in our suite, we headed over to the spa early to take advantage of the hot tubs and steam room, before having our spa treatments.

The Esperanza was recently rated as the world's third-best spa by Conde Nast Traveller, and it was definitely the nicest spa I've ever been to, both in terms of decor and quality of services:



One of the girls (apparently knowing our group *very well*) had the foresight to order a huge tray of post-spa snacks for us to enjoy as we hung out in the common area, which we promptly demolished:


We were still able to eat our fair share a few hours later when we went to Nick-San for dinner, and we even had dessert at Haagen-Dazs while waiting out a late night thunderstorm before heading back to the hotel to play Bang! until 3am.

The last day was pretty short; we woke up late, got packed, ate more mangoes and smoothies, and headed to the airport. There was a fun incident where the taxi driver took us to the domestic terminal and we had to find a shuttle to get to the international terminal, but things went pretty smoothly after that.

Anyway, it was a great trip! I really enjoyed the tons of yummy food (upscale as well as basic local staples like mangoes and chips/salsa), lots of different fun activities, and of course, the excellent company. I'm thinking we'll have to plan a reunion trip sometime.

 

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