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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

taiwanation

For the past week or so, I've been debating ordering some TAIWANATION wristbands. The thing is, I really don't need ten of them, plus I think I've spent this month's budget for Taiwan paraphernalia on a couple of "stinky tofu walks alone" T-shirts from TaiwaneseAmerican.org.

no boys allowed

It always feels a little "junior high" to me to be in a group which is all girls and no guys.

Well, last weekend, I had an overnight BBQ & games party at my parents' house, and for the first time (for a variety of reasons, none of which involves anyone disliking the company of guys), I invited all girls.

Things that were different:
- We did an arts & crafts project instead of playing waterpolo-type games in the pool. I like both crafts and sports but I find that when there are guys around, there's less general interest in crafts. Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity, and asked my sister to put something together. She came up with a really cool candle-making activity which involved lots of different colored chunks of solid wax and pouring liquid wax on top. Fun!
- There were a lot less people, so there was more time to talk and hang out with everyone. I think my mom and sister had a lot of fun chatting with my friends. My dad went to a dinner party for most of the night; I have no idea if that was planned specifically to coincide with the BBQ or not, but it was probably good timing, since he might have been bored.
- One of the girls put together a trivia game, where we all answered questions about each other. It was really well done; obviously carefully planned, the questions were challenging and interesting, and the question cards themselves were gorgeous.
- We baked our own desserts (chocolate souffles) instead of my mom baking them for us, and they turned out well, which is not a given when it comes to souffles.
- I bought two dozen mini-cupcakes from Sibby's. I probably wouldn't have bought them for mixed company since they're super girly-looking. (Of course we finished them, since they're delicious.)
- One person brought her year-old toddler, and we spent some amount of time making sure he didn't hurt himself or break anything, but it was actually not too bad with twelve or thirteen adults around to keep an eye on him. Plus, it was kind of entertaining to watch him running around begging random people for more cherries.
- I got to do the BBQ-ing. Guys always think that they own the grill, for some reason. Silly people.
- We ate a lot less steak and drank a lot less beer than usual. My mom now has eight extra premium beef filets in her refrigerator. Good thing I warned her and she didn't buy too much beer.

Things that were the same:
- We ate a lot. My mom always has lots of good quality fruit and we gorged ourselves on cherries, blueberries, pineapple, etc. We didn't finish the steak but we finished everything else; chicken wings, BBQ beef, shrimp, squid, mushrooms, corn, Chinese chicken salad, and more. For dessert, we had the cupcakes and the souffle, with ice cream and gelato. For brunch the next day, we had my mom's excellent shi fan (rice porridge), ham and cheese crepes, and scallion pancakes, and then she baked us a homemade rum raisin cake for "snack". So much good food, so little time...
- We played board games until late and didn't get to bed until after 4am. It's so nice to be playing games and know you don't have to go to work the next day and you don't have to drive anywhere afterwards.
- We had a lot of fun. I do like overnight parties. Maybe it's because I wasn't allowed to stay overnight at other people's houses when I was a kid, until fifth grade or so.

weekend travel notes

Trip of the month: three days in (really hot, really humid) Houston for a 60th birthday party.

For short trips, I've become a regular user of FastTrack's long-term airport parking, since it seems kind of sucky to be asking my friends to drive me to/from the airport all the time. Plus, it gives me more flexibility; last Thursday, I was able to have dinner in Palo Alto with a friend visiting from Seattle, before heading to SFO to catch the red-eye.

I was just mentioning to someone a couple of weeks ago how I hadn't had a problem in several years, while travelling domestically with my small Swiss Army knife. Of course, once I'd said that, I mentally kicked myself, knowing that I'd just jinxed myself. Sure enough, security found the knife this time through, and gave me three options: check a second bag and pay the $25 fee, mail the knife home and pay $10 for shipping, or throw the knife away. I chose option four: hide the knife in the women's bathroom outside of security and hope that it stays there. I'd done something similar once at the SF passport agency, but I'd never tried it overnight before. Amazingly, the knife was still there when I returned, three and a half days later. I'm not sure what that says about airport security, but I'm happy to still have my decrepit old Swiss army knife, that my parents bought me in Switzerland over twelve years ago.

On the return trip, due to poor planning and some traffic (and wanting to stop for a Whataburger breakfast taquito), we arrived at the bag drop counter about 23 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart, and the airline agent refused to let us check in our bags, due to the "30-minute cutoff" rule. She tried to insist that we fly on a later flight (I suspect the flight was overbooked and she wanted to clear up some space), but that was pretty much not an option for us, so we tried a few different approaches.

First we asked if we could check our bags on later flight and pick them up at SFO later. We were told "passengers must fly with their bags". I know for a fact that sometimes passengers don't fly with their bags; when the airline screws up, or when a flight is delayed and the passenger is able to catch his/her connection but the bag doesn't make it. But, I guess it's a good rule from the security perspective.

Next we asked if we could leave a bag at the counter, and have a friend pick it up later, since we didn't really need it. We were told that the airline didn't have the resources and couldn't handle this task.

Finally, we asked, if we packed all our stuff into our (half-empty) carry-on bags, if she would throw the remaining suitcase away for us. At this point she realized that we were not about to give up our seats on the flight, so she suggested that since the suitcase was only a few inches larger than carry-on size, we could try to get it through security and then have it checked doorside.

We ended up going one better; we got through security with no problems, and then, even though the flight was full and carry-on space was tight, one of the flight attendants actually managed to fit our suitcase into an overhead bin, so we never had to check it at all. Ironically, the flight's departure was delayed 15-20 minutes anyway, but I'm not complaining this time.

sexism causes decreased birthrate?

For some reason or another, there's been a lot of press recently about people deciding to have kids (or not).

In the gym yesterday, I ran across an article in last month's New York Times Magazine entitled No Babies?, that examines some possible causes for Europe's super-low birth rate. Apparently European birthrates recently dropped below 1.3. If that rate is sustained, the population will halved in 45 years (faster if the rate drops lower).

Without having read the article, my guess for the low birthrate would have been that Europeans are deciding they were happier without (or with fewer) children. The answer the article provides is more nuanced, but is not far from that. It points out those European countries that have "greater gender equality...better social commitment to day care and other institutional support for working women" have higher birthrates. I bet the women in patriarchal societies have one child, discover their life now sucks, and decide not to have any more, whereas women in egalitarian societies discover hey, not so bad, and choose to have second or third children.

A quote from the article about the countries with more chauvinistic cultures:
"All of these are societies still rooted in the tradition where the husband earned all the money. Things have changed, not only in Italy and Spain but also in Japan and Korea, but those societies have not yet adjusted. The relationships within households have not adjusted yet.” Western Europe, then, is not the isolated case that some make it out to be. It is simply the first region of the world to record extremely low birthrates.

I guess they better adjust, pronto. Japan and Korea both currently have fertility rates around 1.1, and they may still be dropping.

Another article, in Newsweek, examines the question of whether having kids increases or decreases happiness. A recentl study found that parents "definitely experienced more depression" and "parental depression increases along with the number of children parents have". Of course the researcher got tons of hate mail from parents saying that she must hate her children and so on, but there were some more considered (and more interesting) responses, too.

One blogger wrote:
I like the amateur marathoner metaphor: survey a marathoner in the midst of the race and they'll complain about their legs and that rash and how the race seems like it's taking forever. But when the running is over they are always incredibly proud of their accomplishment. Having kids, then, is like a marathon that lasts 18 years.

Finally, a few days ago I read an article about how guys have a biological clock, too. Apparently older men (starting from mid-to-late 30s) are more likely to produce sperm with damaged DNA, which lowers the rate of conception and raises the rate of miscarriage. So, I guess the moral of the story is, women who want to postpone having children should pick younger guys, to increase their eventual chances of conceiving? Or something.

still remember 7th grade history class?

Yes, in fact I do. I just took one of those online Can you pass a citizenship test? quizzes and was all proud of myself for scoring 100%. I think doing well on these things makes me feel justified for storing lots of random mostly useless facts in my head.

first 5K this decade

In elementary school and junior high I was forced to run on a daily basis. I was pretty bad compared to the rest of my class (best mile: 8:32, best 3 mile: 28+; both times among the last five finishers) and so I grew to hate running.

Nowadays I run on a treadmill at least once a week for 4+ miles, but for some reason the idea of running outside is still a little outside my comfort zone.

Last week, the gym at work was advertising a 5K fun run with T-shirts and prizes, and I told myself that if I could get someone else to run with me, I'd sign up. Several people that I talked to all signed up, so I did too. And I ran.

I finished in 29:27, making me 74th out of 127th, about which I'm quite pleased. I guess my standards are lower now.

After spinning class that afternoon where I biked another 17K or so, I treated myself to dinner at Old Port Lobster Shack. I ate an entire lobster roll (plus coleslaw, plus chips), and probably 8 or 9 Rhode Island mid-neck clams. Yum!

recent eatings

I haven't talked about food for maybe a whole post! Or not. Anyway, there were a couple recent restaurant outings possibly worth mentioning, so I'll mention them.

A couple weeks ago, during the second Dine About Town this year (are there usually two?), I went with some friends to One Market.

The DaT menu included:

Spring Vegetable Salad (banyuls vinaigrette)
- or -
Black Bean Soup (salt & pepper calamari, cilantro, lime)

Braised Berkshire Pork Short Ribs (butter beans, chorizo)
- or -
White Poppyseed-Crusted Skatewing (wild arugula, niçoise olives, herb vinaigrette)

Fresh Strawberry and Grand Marnier Trifle
- or -
Peach Brown Butter Tart

I chose the salad, the short ribs, and the trifle. The salad was pretty good, with lots of green beans and such, but I thought the black bean soup was actually more interesting; it was so thick it was almost like a puree. I stole several spoonfuls of soup from other people at my table.

The pork ribs were good, but unspectacular, I thought, and of course I didn't try the skatewing. Those who did said it was so-so. One person chose off the regular menu, and his Roasted Liberty Farms Duck Breast was excellent.

We all picked the strawberry trifle for dessert, so I didn't have a chance to try the peach tart, but I didn't really care, because the trifle was really good; crispy sweet strawberries, hardly any custard/cream at all, with just enough sweetness in the shortbread. I ate the entire cup in about a minute, and got made fun of for several minutes afterwards.

Overall I thought the food was generally well executed, and worth the price ($32 for 3 courses), but there was no one dish that blew me away. I may go back sometime, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to do so in the near future.

I also recently went to afternoon tea at The Rotunda, on the top floor of the Neiman Marcus in Union Square. I was unimpressed with the tea; after we ordered, we were brought teapots of hot water and bags of Mighty Leaf. I am fond of Mighty Leaf and drink it on a regular basis, but I guess I expected loose leaf tea. Plus, they were out of the flavor my mom wanted, the White Lotus, although she did enjoy the White Orchard that she got instead.

I was pretty happy with the food; the finger sandwiches were fine (hard to get wrong, I suppose), the scones were light and flaky, and the cookies and tarts were yummy (my sister especially liked the crumb cake), although a few of them were a little too sweet. The portions were generous, and we ended up taking home enough to eat for breakfast the next day. I'm glad we went because it was a nice experience sitting under the Rotunda and I've been wanting to check it out for awhile, but I think I prefer the teas at the Ritz or the Palace, and I definitely preferred the tea I had last month in New Orleans at Le Salon. Mmm, caviar.

should schedule downtime?

I think I may need to schedule more downtime on weekends. Otherwise, I'm inevitably falling asleep by mid-afternoon on Mondays. It's just so hard for me to say no to fun things.

Last weekend was a really good mix of events. Friday night was the annual Oakland A's luxury box outing. It's always fun chilling in a box, but this was actually a good game, too; it ran into 11 innings before the A's pulled it out with a walkoff double by Suzuki, who was 4-5 with a homer and 5 RBIs overall. The guys in the neighboring suites were really drunk and pretty entertaining, too.

Saturday was pretty chill during the day (bunch of errands plus yummy Chinese breakfast at China Bee, in downtown San Mateo). After dinner, we headed to a going-away party at Music Tunnel. It seems like we end up there about once every quarter, even though it's at least 45 minutes away. This time, because we had 15 people, we got the "Super VIP" room, where we stayed for five-and-a-half hours; slightly longer than usual.

I was in bed by 4am on Saturday but still didn't get up until nearly 11:30am the next morning, making me ten minutes late for basketball practice. From there it was a mad dash to get showered and changed for a 1-year-old's birthday party. I'm not sure if he understood that it was his birthday or not, but the rest of us had a great time, eating lots of yummy BBQ and homemade dessert, and then playing a couple games of Mafia.

So if I were really trying to do this whole downtime thing properly, I would have to figure out which of the following events to turn down for next weekend: a poolside BBQ Friday night at a coworker's gorgeous place in Atherton (they have a pool house the size of a small apartment), a going-away party later that night at a San Francisco lounge I've been wanting to check out all year, or a Sunday afternoon birthday party for a friend I haven't seen in forever. (Saturday is untouchable; I'm going to an amazing Japanese restaurant in the city, and then hosting a casino night birthday party in the evening. I've already decided to ditch a matinee showing of Wall-E.) What to do, what to do...

Hairspray

Last week I went to see Hairspray, which was amusing and well done, although not my favorite type of musical. I do wish they had found a better dancer to play Tracy, since the entire plot hinges on her dancing ability. She just seemed lacking in energy, especially compared to the actors playing Link and Seaweed, both of whom were excellent. Of course, the guy playing Link also looked like he was about eighteen years old, so it was probably less of an effort for him.

snapshot in time

Some relatives came to visit my parents' house last weekend. When I was showing them my old room, one of them commented that it looked like a boy's room, which made me take a closer look.

I was obsessed with teal back then, so the curtains are a light blue-green. There are four posters on the wall; two "San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl Champions" posters, one San Jose Sharks poster (featuring Arturs Irbe, Sergei Makarov, & Igor Larinov), and one Pokemon poster circa 1995. There is also a blue-and-white cat latch hooking, framed and hung. There are stacks and stacks of books, mostly fantasy and young adult fiction, and there is a CD rack full of mid-90's hip hop. The furniture is dark brown and the walls are white.

I'm a little bewildered. Does the lack of anything pink and frilly suggest a male occupant, maybe?