Day 115 - Newness

I've tried out a few new things since I last wrote:

#71 - Dim Sum on Clement--yum.



You know the place has got to be good when it's packed with Chinese people and you hear Mandarin every where you turn. I tried a bunch of stuff where I didn't even know what it was... and it didn't matter. It was all delicious.



Yan here was a tour guide of sorts, telling us what was in each dish. "Who wants chicken feet??"

"Um... we'll pass."



Leslie, Susan, and Cathy. Totally going to eat here again.

New teas have been tasted:

Chai from Other Avenues--Pretty good. There's the right amount of spice, but it's missing a little something. Much better than some other chais I've had recently, though.

Blackberry--I got this in a tea swap, and it's decent. My tea tastes have developed over time, I think. Five years ago I would have been adding a ton of sugar to this and deeming it awesome. Now I'm not sure I'm a big fan of the fruit in my tea. I guess my taste buds have matured?

Organic Green--Also from a tea swap, so I'm not sure what brand it is. It's a decent morning cuppa, but nothing special. Scorches very easily.

Mystery Tea #1--It's a German(?) tea from the swap. It's the first herbal to knock my socks off in a long time--the nice red color hints at hibiscus, but there's some cinnamon in there to add a nice kick. If I ever see it in any kind of specialty shop I'm picking it up. ^_^

Tasting ten new teas didn't take long at all--another item off the list!

Day 64 - Socks Galore

This was my desk earlier this week:



Go to flickr to see what each project is, but suffice it to say--I had a lot on the needles. A couple of things have made it off. ^_^



Sunrise Socks in Trekking color 108 on size US 1 dpns. Sock pair #5 towards #1.

As for the other pair I finished... I can't find the second sock of the pair, so pictures will have to wait. :P I cast off yet another pair (!) last night, bringing up the total to six pairs. Maybe they can have a joint photography session. -_^

Another radio internship application made its way into the mail this week (#8). It took two months to get an answer for the last one, so I'm not quite holding my breath.

Tried a new restaurant (#71)--Asuka Ramen, which is really really close to my apartment. They had a limited menu for their "pre-open" and it was hit and miss. Not really authentic Japanese. More like, Chinese food done in a Japanese-esque way. Which makes sense, considering that everyone in there was speaking Mandarin. It's kind of silly and sad that Ken and I can go into a Japanese restaurant, speak Japanese, and not a single person understands.

Up for this weekend--Pride. Yeah baby. -_^

(Total checks for the month: 11)

Day 18 - Little Bits

Yan and I went on a field trip on her Vespa last weekend. Riding the scooter is a ton of fun, though it took some getting used to. Rule number one--don't flail about. Rule number two--squeeze Yan's butt with your knees. Rule number three--lean forward when going uphill. Rule number four--try not to kick Yan with your looong legs. -_^



Yan and Red Sonja. Yan has a thing for red.

While out we went to Outback (#71), and I can't say that I cared for it. Then again, I don't care for steakhouses much, period. The french onion soup was pretty good, though.

We also went to JoAnns so I could finally use the $25 gift card I got for Christmas. I picked up sock needles, stitch holders, stitch markers... all the stupid little stuff you need but always forget to buy. I also grabbed two balls of self-striping dishcloth cotton.



Miter dishcloth based on Mason-Dixon Knitting's miter square. One towards #5--woot!

As far as other knitting goes I'm trying to make a lace scarf (#6) in time for my mom's big Alaskan cruise. I've finished four of nine pattern repeats, so it's getting there! I also finished a pair of socks (#1), which I'll show you as soon as I get some pictures taken.

I'm saddened to report that I lapsed in taking my vitamins for a few days so #26 has been reset and told to sit in the corner for a while.

I like the way that thinking about this list has kept me goal oriented. Just making it was a wonderful exercise in figuring out what is important in my life. It also prevents me from living on auto pilot. Who wants to do that?

Days 10, 11, and 12 - Ups and Downs

I get my New Yorker on Thursday or Friday, always. In Albany I got it on Monday or Tuesday, but I'm on the West Coast now. It takes longer to mail things out here. Then why oh why did my New Yorker come on Tuesday this week?? I was only half finished with last week's. #10 has been reset. Simply opening my mailbox made for an insta-fail.

Tuesday was a great day otherwise--free museum day! Two friends and I went out for some free culture. We started the day at the Conservatory of Flowers, which is like a greenhouse on steroids. They have different rooms for different climates--tropical, mountain highlands--that are brimming with flowers.



Their special exhibit was about butterflies, which is a yearly thing, apparently. The coolest thing is that they're not in cages--they just flutter around the room as they please. You can watch them feed from pretty flowers and feeders or just plain ol' hang out.



This guy might have been my favorite.

Then we went to the de Young Museum and went up it's observation tower to get a look at the city and the bay. Didn't go through the exhibits, though. We took our time walking about of the park, and found this lake while we were at it:



It was huge. There were people in rowboats and peddleboats enjoying the weather. Really neat. Then it was off to the Legion of Honor. We arrived about an hour before close and realized that the Annie Leibovitz exhibit was there. We only had to pay five dollars to get into the special exhibit and man, it was amazing. We spent most of that hour in awe. So cool. We bought our postcards in the museum shop and were greeted by this happy sculpture on our way out:



First of all, San Francisco is one of the few places you could have this thing outside. (There was another one inside.) Number two... how cool is that?



After that we headed back to more familiar territory for dinner. It did end up being a new-to-me restaurant, though. I don't know the name, but it's the Thai place kitty corner from the coffeeshop in the Richmond. (It means something to me, trust me.) The pineapple fried rice was amazing. Definitely will be heading back.

So, in all that, what list items did I accomplish? While it looks like I went to three museums... I didn't. First of all, the Convervatory of Flowers is not a museum. Second of all, we didn't see any of the de Young past the observatory. And third of all, we only saw the special exhibit at the Legion of Honor. So... no checks for #64. The new restaurant counts as #71. #10 got put back to square one. And I did take my vitamins for #26. ...let's just called it a mixed day.

Day 10 - Simply Keeping Up

Work has started again, and so my life is crazy again. This week I'm a little short on hours, but it will give me three days off to enjoy. Tomorrow I'll go museum hopping with friends (#64), and who knows, maybe I'll get to try a new restaurant (#71). And the vitamin thing (#26) is still going strong.

I'm up to page 34 in this week's New Yorker (#10)--I love David Sedaris. Some of his essays are on the short side, but I'm savoring this four page reflection on quitting smoking. The rest of the magazine should go quickly, as I usually skip over the fiction. I want to work in radio and news, and any reading time spent on "fake" stuff kinda feels like wasted time. I aspire to fill my head with facts and true stories, instead.

I've been working on my Japanese 社会 textbook (#48) as well and have now reached page 43. To be fair it was a picture and graph heavy section. Having a Japanese boyfriend is absolutely wonderful when I reach weird parts of the text.

Me: Hey Ken, take a look at this sentence for me. I think it means this, but the way it's written confuses me.
Ken: That's not natural Japanese--it confuses me, too.

I love it when it's not just me.

I leave you with the most beautiful character I've scribbled down in a long time--a hiragana ki. It has the perfect proportions and swish factor. Starred for easy identification and my own amusement. ^_^