work-life balance

Overheard yesterday night while working late:
"I was bugging <engineer> yesterday about her fix for the P1 blocking bug; she finally sent out an email with a changelist late last night saying that it was done but she was in advanced labor and had to go to the hospital, so someone else would have to patch it in and submit..."

being well-prepared

My dad is a CPA, so both he and my mom educated all of their children about personal finance starting from a very young age.

I remember going to the bank with my mom when I was maybe three or four years old to deposit tiny sums of money into my own bank account. Afterwards, she would show me the numbers in the passbook and I would be happy that they were bigger than before. At some point she even explained to me what "interest" was; that money in the bank would make more money, all by itself. (She left out the part about inflation, at least for awhile.)

When I was in college and making slightly larger (but still measly) sums of money at my undergraduate research job, my dad insisted that I max out my Roth IRA "while I still could", and I somewhat blindly followed that advice. It was only later that I realized that it had been totally the right thing to do.

I also remember being taught about income taxes (as Dad complained about the government taking his hard-earned money away), property taxes (while he explained the costs of running rental properties), and estate taxes (when depositing money into custodial accounts for us, every year or so).

Being the well-prepared people that they were, of course my parents had made out a will early on, but it wasn't until I was about eight or nine years old that they sat the three of us down for a very special discussion. The question at hand: "If we die, which aunt/uncle/grandparent do you want to live with?"

As you can imagine, my 4-year-old sister was horrified. I think my 2-year-old brother was merely confused. Eventually, after several minutes of reassuring us that no one was in imminent danger of death, we managed to come to a consensus quite expediently, and the appropriate documents were updated accordingly.

Last week I found myself at a lawyer's office making some rather morbid arrangements myself. "Who inherits your condo if you die, your sister dies, *and* your brother dies?" is not the kind of question that I answer every day, but I guess I do feel better having done it. I tend to have very little faith in courts and other government processes.

new vocab words

I've been following political news a bit more closely this year. I think it's because I'm not so depressed about the state of our government anymore. As a result, I've learned two new words recently.

• cloture - the closing or limitation of debate in a legislative body especially by calling for a vote
  
  This is apparently what happened in the Senate with the stimulus bill; they were able to avoid a filibuster because a few Republican Senators joined with the Democratic majority to force cloture.
  
  
• probity - adherence to the highest principles and ideals
  
  The Economist published an article this morning deriding California as the ungovernable state. In the subtitle, they claimed that "California makes Washington, DC, look like a model of fiscal probity". I kind of figured out what it meant from the context but looked up a formal definition anyway.
  
  I'm not sure whether I agree with the article, but I found this part interesting: "In 2006 the top 1% of earners paid 48% of all income taxes. Since the wealthy derive much of their income from bonuses, capital gains and stock options, the state’s fortunes rise and fall with the markets..."
  
  To me, that just means that the state forgot how progressive our income taxes are, and thus did a poor job of forecasting future revenue. The article seems to imply that California's current budget crisis proves that extremely progressive taxation is bad. I'm not sure that one logically follows from the other.

Anyway, I'm happy to have gained some new vocabulary. Usually I feel like my English skills are only deteriorating over time, since I write code and not prose every day.

more online shopping!

I just heard about AmazonFresh and I'm jealous. (It's only available in the Seattle area so far.)

I used to love ordering from HomeRuns back when I lived in Cambridge...until they went out of business. Safeway supposedly offers grocery delivery but it costs money and I hear they have horrible customer service and a sucky website, whereas Amazon is just awesomeness wrapped up in a big shiny bow.

Hey Amazon! We need free grocery delivery here in the Bay Area too!

dual purpose

This conversation took place at work awhile ago, but I'd forgotten about it until tonight, when I heard an infant screaming somewhere downstairs, around dinnertime.

me:	Dude, I just saw a woman in the hallway feeding her baby.
coworker:	With her boobs??
me:	Duh, I wouldn't have mentioned it if she'd been using a bottle.
coworker:	It's so funny that boobs are like, for food, too.
me:	Um...yeah.

yay power tools

Late last week, I was sitting at my desk typing, when the keyboard tray suddenly ripped out of my desk and fell to the ground, along with my fancy Kinesis keyboard, mouse, and Ratpadz GS. I guess I was lucky that I was sitting cross-legged so the tray didn't fall on my feet. (It's quite heavy and the corners are very sharp.)

Yesterday night, my wrists finally started to hurt enough that I decided to see what I could do about fixing it. I got out my handy power drill, charged it just enough to poke three new holes in the attachment part of the table, and screwed on the tray. Voila, back to normal. I do like power tools.

French Laundry, take 2

I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. It seems like the most Hallmark-y of all Hallmark holidays. Everything is pink and red and covered in lace, perfectly reasonable people are reduced to rampant sexism, and everyone seems to think it's their business to ask you what you're doing to celebrate. It almost seems like a massive national (global?) conspiracy to make single people feel broken and/or desperate. I much prefer Halloween, when everyone gets to eat candy, dress up in weird costumes, and throw eggs at mean people('s houses).

On the day itself, I tend to avoid restaurants like the plague; the food is generally overpriced, the waitstaff overworked, and people are spending money at upscale restaurants not because they appreciate the food, but because they're out to prove how "romantic" they are.

So then, this year, how did I find myself eating at a very nice restaurant on Valentine's Day?

My dad's birthday is in late February, and my sister's birthday is in early March. A few weeks ago, my mom and I started to look for a suitable venue for us to celebrate their birthdays jointly, since my sister is going back to Taiwan in a week or so. We debated a variety of restaurants, and settled on Michael Mina, since my sister had never been there before. Unfortunately, it turned out that Michael Mina was closed on Sundays, as were several of the other restaurants that we had been contemplating. Between my schedule and my sister's schedule and my parents' schedule, we were having a terrible time finding a reservation at a time that everyone could make. Finally I did an enormously broad OpenTable search on all of the proposed dates, and amazingly, I turned up a Saturday lunchtime reservation at French Laundry! I quickly sent an email to my parents and sister asking them to confirm their availability for lunch on February 14th, and never thought twice about the date.

Later, when we realized what day that was, my sister was enormously amused that I had managed to get a reservation at French Laundry for Valentine's Day. We speculated that perhaps tables for more than two people were not in high demand that day, or that the down economy had affected their business more severely than other restaurants. We finally decided to go anyway, figuring that the price and menu would be just the same as usual, and the service couldn't be worse, given that there are a finite number of tables and they are used to serving a full house.

In the end, we had a great meal, and even had time to stop by the Bouchon Bakery afterwards for baguettes and French macaroons to go. In fact, I quite enjoyed seeing Yountville by daylight. Also, my food photos came out much better than last time; the camera quality really does make a huge difference.

The day's menu (with no repeats from last time):


My favorite salmon cones (a repeat, but not on the menu, and well worth repeating):


A very excellent half-bottle ordered by my dad:


(Skipping the caviar on cauliflower panna cotta, which was delicious but not that interesting visually...)

A beautifully presented artichoke salad:


The other starter, foie gras "au torchon" with oranges:


I chose the tuna tartare fish course (of course):


My mother had the Atlantic striped bass:


Everyone had butter poached lobster (with brussel sprouts and apples):


Onto the meat! I had the duck breast (with a couple bits of candied garlic, and some other veggies):


I was skeptical of the "confit de coeur veau" and had to verify with the waiter that it was in fact, veal heart, but the bit that I tried was actually quite good:


Although it didn't sound all that exciting, the ribeye turned out to be one of my favorites:


The Idiazabel cheese was quite sharp (or "tasty", as the Kiwis say). I enjoyed it until several people tried to give me their portions too:


The sorbet and scone dish that we had as a palate cleanser was kind of bland, even with the kumquat in there, but I suppose that was the point:


My dessert included bits of roasted pineapple, spiced rice beignets, and pepper sherbert:


I also got to try a bite of the chocolate mousse with banana ice cream (but decided I liked my own dessert better):


There were only supposed to be two dessert options, but my sister cleverly asked for one of the desserts from the vegetarian menu. Hers was a piece of Fuji apple with a bit of pastry:


Of course, we wound up the meal with lots of sweets:



We took some goodies home, too. In addition to the normal shortbread cookies, our waiter was kind enough to let us take the leftover chocolates that we hadn't been able to finish. He also gave the birthday people little bags of chocolate bars, and then he distributed special chocolate heart boxes to all of the women, in honor of Valentine's Day. Sigh. It's just too hard to say no to sexism when it's waving large amounts of free chocolate in your face. (They were huge; I ate maybe a fourth of one for breakfast with part of a baguette. It was delicious.)

singing while eating

A friend recently discovered a Japanese restaurant called Ninkimono in Newark which has private karaoke rooms. They allow you to order food and drink in the rooms, so you can sing and eat at the same time. This works pretty well most of the time (people who aren't singing can eat, so they're not bored) but not so well when you have a mouthful of sushi and your song comes up.

Anyway, we had a pretty good time there on a rainy Sunday night, although the song selection is not as good as Gamba (I guess no one's is). I also realized again (for the first time since...maybe college?) that I am not a fan of sake bombs. I mean, why spoil perfectly good sake?

almost time

Today is 1234567890 day...Unix second 1234567890 will occur at 2:31 PST. It's also Friday the 13th. That is all.

motivation

I'd been debating signing up for this year's Bay to Breakers all week, ever since a friend asked me to join him.

Today, I found out that my spinning instructor is turning 50 this year. 50!! I would have guessed she was maybe 40, except that she'd mentioned her "15-year-old" a few times before, so at some point I'd revised my mental estimate to "early 40s". This woman teaches multiple spinning and pilates classes every day, has two teenagers and a husband who does triathlons, seems to be in Tahoe every other weekend, and regularly bikes and runs on weekends as well.

Anyway, I decided to sign up for the race. I figured I better get started now on the being-in-shape-when-I'm-50 thing.

catching up on movies

I recently watched several movies. It was quite unusual for me, as I usually watch maybe 1-2 movies a month, which makes my Netflix subscription pretty useless except for convenience.

Two weeks ago I finally saw The Dark Knight, which on the while I liked very much. Unfortunately, every time I saw Aaron Eckhart, I thought of his character in No Reservations, so I couldn't take the whole crazed-from-grief thing seriously. Also, I didn't like Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel.

A friend threw a movie night last week, and we watched Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. It was kind of amusing but not as good as the first. Plus, for the first twenty minutes I kept trying to remember if the character of Vanessa had been in the first movie and/or if we were supposed to know who she was. Although I don't watch many movies, I must watch too much TV: I immediately recognized Rob Corddry from The Daily Show, Roger Bart from Desperate Housewives, and Eric Winter from Brothers and Sisters. It was interesting to see the latter two play completely different roles from their TV characters.

Last Friday, a friend organized a girls' night to watch He's Just Not That Into You. The setup was kind of interesting, with a bunch of loosely connected men and women who were in various stages of relationships, but I thought the movie's supposed "insights" were pretty stereotypical and most of the women characters were too desperate and not that likable. I also didn't like that the happy ending for Jennifer Aniston's character negated all of her character growth throughout the movie. Oh well, it was a fun night hanging out with friends.

25 random things

Copying from my Facebook post...

1. I'm weird about personal data security. I refuse to give out my address and phone number when I shop at malls, I create a new "junk" e-mail address every year, I don't save passwords in my browser, and I flush cookies on exit. In fact, writing this list makes me a little uncomfortable.

2. I talk really fast. I also like TV shows where people talk really fast, like in all of Aaron Sorkin's shows (especially The West Wing). One time I gave a presentation at work to a large group and got asked to slow down twice. Afterwards I asked a friend if I had really been talking that fast, and he said no, I'd been talking at my normal speed, but that that was probably still too fast for anyone who wasn't used to talking to me. Unfortunately I can't help it; if I slow down I lose my train of thought.

3. I've never actually lived in Taiwan for longer than 3 months at a time, but I have an obsessive interest in Taiwanese history and politics. In seventh grade I wrote a report on Taiwanese history. It was required to be at least ten pages, but I seem to remember mine was nearly 25 pages long.

4. I was a coffee addict in high school. I would drink a cup of coffee every morning, and usually another cup in the afternoon. One day I had five cups of coffee before lunch, got really jittery and hysterical at a McDonald's, and swore off coffee. Now I only drink coffee at nice restaurants, with dinner.

5. I really enjoy travelling, as it takes me out of my normal routine and forces me to think and make choices and see things differently. I am not a fan of tours and avoid them when at all possible. I find that when I plan a trip I get a lot more out of the actual experience, so I spend a lot of time researching and deciding where to go and what to see and do. As of 2008, I have been to (I think) 35 countries in my lifetime.

6. My grandfather taught me how to ski in Tahoe (at Boreal Ridge) when I was ten. He was over 70 then, but still hitting the blue slopes. He was a good teacher, too.

7. In college, toilet paper was free, so we used it for everything. For every floor birthday, we would bake a cake, cut it up, and serve it on TP. I once set a piece of TP on fire trying to extract a burnt Pop-Tart from a toaster oven. We also liked to throw soaked wads of TP at windows on the other side of the courtyard. (Maintenance was generally unhappy with our floor, especially after we knocked down a wall and a bathroom stall during a birthday "showering".)

8. I spend a lot of time researching credit cards, hunting down online coupons, tracking plane ticket fares, comparison shopping, and doing other things that help me save teeny bits of money.

9. I was born in San Francisco (Kaiser, 4th floor, c-section, 30 days late) and raised in Marin County. I like fog. I even like the chilly Bay Area summers, and I love the beautiful autumn weather. I hate spring, mostly because of horrible pollen allergies.

10. I love sushi, and have pretty much loved it all my life. When I was four years old, I once horrified a local sushi chef by eating eight pieces of ikura (salmon roe) after a swimming lesson.

11. I am a big fan of red meat. I like many kinds of beef, including prime rib, ribeye, Korean BBQ, Vietnamese 7-course beef dinners, smoked tri-tip, beef carpaccio, and steak tartare. I also like venison, lamb, wild boar, buffalo, elk, and goat. I do not like raw horse, at least not as prepared by sushi restaurants in Taiwan. My sister and I, along with our two girl cousins, would regularly out-eat my brother and our three guy cousins at Korean BBQ, even though they cumulatively had 12 years and probably a couple hundred pounds on us.

12. Continuing the food theme: I like good food in general and eat most things (except cooked fish...why spoil good fish??). I feel like eating mediocre food is a waste of calories. My definition of good food includes cheap eats like ramen, pho, and BBQ, as well as expensive tasting menus and kaiseki sets. I used to think I could eat Japanese food every day forever, but I've become spoiled since returning to the Bay Area after college. Now I will randomly decide that I just must have Greek/Korean/Moroccan/Hawaiian/Afghan/Peruvian/Jamaican/whatever for dinner, and drive 30 minutes to get it.

13. In high school, I could not figure out how to light a bunsen burner with the scrape-y metal thing. I managed to get through regular chemistry without having to do so, but one day in AP Chem my teacher made me stay for 30 minutes trying to light my bunsen burner. I finally got my friend to light it for me with his lighter, when the teacher wasn't paying attention. Ironically I'm kind of a pyro, but I use matches. For instance, I used to like putting out matches with my fingers.

14. I used to go to bed in the clothes that I expected to wear the next day (usually jeans and a t-shirt). I developed this habit in high school because I commuted from Marin to San Francisco. By sleeping in my clothes I could get up at 6:30am and be out the door at 6:50am. I continued to do this through freshman year at MIT, until I realized I could probably wear pajamas to class anyway.

15. When I got to college I had never done dishes or laundry before. After about a month I took a big bag down to the laundry room and asked a random guy what to do. He was surprisingly helpful, although eventually I learned to ignore his directions regarding "'darks" and "lights", since nearly all my clothes (including socks) were black. I still hate housework, especially laundry. It just never ends.

16. I have bad vision (-7.0+ in both eyes). I started wearing glasses when I was eight, and contacts when I was eleven. I started to show symptoms of corneal oxygen deprivation, and have had to wear RGP contacts since college. I really really hate the glaucoma test they always do at the optometrist's where they blow a little pouf of air into your eye. It always takes me like five tries because somehow I can hear when the machine's about to shoot the air out, and I close my eyes just before it does.

17. I used to be obsessed with driving and cars, probably because I used to race my fellow commuters from Marin to San Francisco every day while driving to high school. Later on I realized that fast cars are expensive. I still enjoy driving my '98 Subaru Impreza.

18. One of my favorite authors of all time is Madeleine L'Engle, even though she has some pretty strong Christian/spiritual themes and I'm neither Christian nor spiritual. I've read every one of her non-religious books, and I spent 15 years tracking down a copy of "Ilsa", her 1946 novel which was never reprinted. After six years of eBay alerts, I finally secured a copy last year for the low low price of $188.28. Crazy, I know.

19. I read really fast in general. In fifth grade we had a reading challenge, and I read over 250,000 pages during the school year. My teacher accused me of cheating, and proceeded to quiz me, but since I'd actually read all the books, she got really frustrated trying to trip me up. I was not fond of that teacher. I compulsively read anything that's put in front of me, including Nutrition Facts on cereal boxes and trashy magazines at doctor's offices.

20. I have a tendency to spend lots of money on things that I then keep forever. For instance, I bought a top-of-the-line Pentium Pro 200 my freshman year, which I proceeded to use for the next 8.5 years. My Latitude C600 laptop which I bought in 2000 is still in service. I used two cell phones until they physically stopped working (granted I accidentally ran one of them through the washer).

21. My first boyfriend died of a drug overdose. We broke up when we both headed off to college, and this was during his Ph.D program (biophysics), so we hadn't been close for a long time, but we were still friends, and I was pretty creeped out when I heard the news. That was over four years ago.

22. I was the oldest of a group of eight cousins who all grew up in the Bay Area, and so I ended up "being in charge" a lot. I often got blamed when the other kids were "bad" or broke things, for not watching them closely enough. One time when I was 12, my 8-year-old sister and I babysat for my 2-year-old cousin and her 10-month old brother. My 6-year-old brother was there too, but he pretty much took care of himself. In retrospect, I am amazed that nothing too bad ever happened, probably because I was horribly strict and not above spanking. I also made up a lot of projects and games to keep everyone entertained.

23. I have been a huge 49ers fan since before I can remember. This was a lot easier in the '80s when they were really, really good. I still have semi-wearable sweatshirts and t-shirts from their last Super Bowl win in 1994, because after they won my mom and I ran out to the nearest gas station and bought a whole carful of "49ers Super Bowl Champions" paraphernalia.

24. I'm not good at sports but I enjoy playing them. In high school I played softball and in college I played ice hockey, both very badly. Now I play basketball, also badly. I actually managed to be okay at tennis for a few years in high school but I lost it entirely when I went to college.

25. I like stuffed animals and am always running out of places to put them. When I was a kid my parents would take us to Reno and while my dad gambled, my mom would take my brother and sister and me to the midway. We got really, really good. My sister was the expert at the bowling ball roll, while my brother mastered the horse racing game and the quarter toss, I played the rubber ball shooting games, and my mom cleaned up at the metal claw machines. My sister could also play Skee-ball without rolling the balls (she would toss them directly into the holes). We often got banned from games but would come back after shift changes.