cindy's world

Happy Turkey Day, peep holes. Well, for the people living in the US of A, of course, altho I don’t know anyone here who can actually trace back their roots to the Mayflower, the harbingers of smallpox, or the American Indians with their generous disclosures of how to raise maize.

I made (with Mr. W’s assistance) 2 lowfat, reduced calorie chocolate cheesecakes. By substituting Splenda for sugar, Neufchatel cheese for cream cheese, Special Dark chocolate for milk chocolate, leaving out the butter, sour cream, and by using premade reduced cal pie crust, I’ve managed to get each slice to about 150 calories. But I will never cook with Splenda again. Remember the NutraSweet aftertaste? Splenda has it. After you swallow the cheesecake, your mouth suddenly tastes sweetness, and your tongue sorta goes all over your mouth in a hunt. There’s no food in here, but something is sweet! Where is it? Where is it? It’s all rather confusing for my brain to process. I will be serving the cheesecake tonite with loads of Hershey’s syrup (fat free) and fat free whipped cream.

Speaking of the dinner tonite, Mr. W and I are having Thanksgiving at his best friend’s house, and I hear they’ve been up cooking since the wee hours of the morning, and his best friend has already made numerous trips to the market for things they’d forgotten. It’s gonna be an outdoorsey, campfirey Thanksgiving in Huntington Beach. I can’t say I’ve done that before, but I’m sure it’s gonna be fun. I like being outside (sometimes), and his friend’s backyard is so…Martha Stewart with a nautical theme.

After dinner we’re splitting up for the rest of the weekend. Mr. W’s going to visit his parents in Las Vegas, and I’m hoping to get some of my neglected chores done, plus spend some time with the god-family, the ‘rents, and the puffy fur-everywhere-leaver. Wow. Friday, Saturday and Sunday all to myself. What to do, what to do? Heh heh*.

* “Heh heh” means probably nothing because I’m Procrastination’s bitch lately.

I am sooo sleepy. I had lunch with some coworkers instead of doing a 3-mile run. They were going to a new Italian restaurant and it’s hard for me to resist Italian. I had a great manicotti. My coworker Andy advised me before we got there to not drink the water provided by the restaurant because, apparently, “it can choke a horse.” He’d brought this to the attention of the restaurant staff before, and their response was “Yeah, we know, the water in Santa Fe Springs is a bit heavy on the metal.” “Heavy on the metal?! You can float a spoon in there!” was the response. The food was not at all greasy or overly heavy, but golly, I hit food coma anyway.

I need enough energy to hit the grocery store after work to buy ingredients for what I am in charge of bringing to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a friend: lowfat, low-cal chocolate cheesecake. I know, sounds fishy, but I can do it, darn it! Since i have jujitsu Wednesday, I should make the cheesecake tonite and let it just gel in the fridge. Otherwise, I suppose I can make it Thursday morning. Yeah, Thursday morning sounds good.

I should really clean the house, too. Gawd, the cat can sure spew fur.

Meanwhile, must…force…self…to divorce…more…people…

And then there’s the packing required to go with Mr. W to Vegas for the long weekend, and it can’t just be any sloppy ol’ comfy clothes, cuz it’s meet-the-‘rents weekend. *sob*

I need a maid! And a clothing-packer! And a shaved cat! And a chef!

I don’t think Mr. W enjoyed the 3-mile midnite run we did Wednesday nite as it’s past his usual bedtime, so this weekend, the plan was to run Friday earlier in the evening, Saturday sometime, and Sunday sometime. My lunchtime workout on Friday (last day before my trainee returns from her Hawaii vacation) left my lower butt and upper thighs way too sore to do much running, so all we did Friday nite was fall asleep trying to watch Charlie & the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp on DVD. Saturday morning, as you guys know, we got up early to watch Harry Potter, but after a rather heavy lunch, we came back to his place and crashed for hours. Then when we got up again, we ate watermelon and fell asleep again (well, I did anyway; Mr. W was responsible and went to bed) trying to watch Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. It’s a really good movie; it just kept hitting the 9:30p timeslot when I usually fall asleep watching TV at home. This morning, we finally got some exercise in.

We biked 9.5 miles along scenic riverbeds (and by “scenic,” I mean there are birds pecking in the mud and less than 2 dead bodies floating face down. no, I’m kidding, parts of it was beautiful and we saw lots of gray herrings) and had breakfast at Coco’s, then biked another 7.5 miles on the way back. The reason there’s a mileage difference is because for about a block, we biked thru dirt instead of on sidewalks or bike paths, which resulted in my rear tire getting flat. That’s what I get for complaining that I’m not getting a big cardio benefit from the biking and that my ass hurts. Karma: “Oh, you want more effort for cardio benefit, huh? Oh, your ass hurts? Let’s see what we can do to resolve those problems.” So we walked the bikes another mile until we got back to civilization, I sat out and Mr. W biked the rest of the way home, and brought his truck to pick me up as I picked the stupid spikey plant spines out of the tires. Oh yeah, the front tire went hissingly, too. I put my hand over it and there was actually air pumping out. I felt like putting my face down there to at least take advantage of the cool breeze.

We got back, I jumped in the shower, and now I’m blogging about how on top of it my karma is. Man. Last time I called in sick to work and said I had a bladder infection, I got a bladder infection (a very bad one) within the new few hours. It’s getting to the point where I’m scared to say anything these days. What happened to freedom of expression, Karma?

It’s getting closer to 1pm now. Mr. W just got out of the shower. Maybe we’ll try Charlie & the Chocolate Factory again.

Harry Potter was more fun for the company than for the actual movie itself. I’d say the biggest difference between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and all the previous ones is mostly in the more “adult” feel, the entry of sexual tension and possible romance, the more real possibility (and occurrence) of death.

Yeah, and the Imax 5-story high screen was pretty cool, too.

We (Mr. W and I) got there early enough to be the 7th group or so in line, and soon the other friends started arriving, but most importantly, the pastry chef arrived first with his gargantuan cinnamon rolls in hand. “DAMN it, overcooked,” he lamented, and Mr. W and I looked up from our cinnamon rolls in confusion. THIS isn’t good? Could’ve fooled me. The chef offered to redeem himself with another properly cooked batch and we politely accepted. What nice friends we are.

We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory after the movie and the Godiva cheesecake is still as good as ever. [the link brings you to the Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes menu. Click on the little camera icon next to Godiva chocolate cheesecake for a photo] I know I’ve written about that cheesecake before, but seriously, do yourselves a favor if you’re a chocolate lover and/or a chocolate truffle lover. Get a piece. It’s only $7.50. (Of course, we split it 4 ways, as it was too rich to eat on your own, so take this as an opportunity to ask some choco-holic girl out on a date. “Hey, my friend keeps touting this Godiva cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and I’m gonna go try it. The chocolate goodness supposedly just melts on your tongue. Care to join me?” Seriously, what girl would turn that down? It’s foolproof. I’ll expect my $5 in the mail for the advice.)

Yesterday evening Mr. W and I went to the Irvine Spectrum to pick up our Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tickets for the show tomorrow morning. (Aside: the official website for the movie is amazing, btw. Click above if you’re a fan.) The opening show was at midnight and there were lines going all the way around the theatre in both directions from the front entrance. People were prepared to camp out in their beach chairs, blankets, Harry Potter costumes, floor lamps, generators, desktop plants, small barnyard animals, etc. At the ticket counter, the lucky teenager who probably wished he worked on commission informed us that there are 3 main theatres plus the large Imax theatre showing Harry Potter, and three of those four theatres are already completely sold out.

Craziness, it is! It’s starting to look more and more like we have to get up when it’s still dark to be placeholders in line. Thanks, Mr. W, for being so wonderful and volunteering to be the early-morning line bookmark so that we can get a bunch of seats together. Another guy who’s meeting us there is apparently a pastry chef so he’s gonna make and bring us cinnamon rolls. I should get a copy of all the Harry Potter books, have them piled up next to me as I huddle on the floor with my nose in one of them, and anytime anyone tries to talk to me, I’ll hiss, “Shhh! I’m trying to catch up before the movie starts!”

Hi, um, my name is Cindy and for show-and-tell I brought my boyfriend’s favorite pictures. *shuffling around with photos* These pictures are from our trip to San Francisco last weekend. He took them himself. With his camera.

He calls this one “I heart SF.” That’s me sitting on one of the last San Francisco Heart Project pieces. I’m wearing a UCLA shirt. *giggle*

He calls this one “Go Straight to Jail, Do Not Pass Go.” It’s me in the jail hall at Alcatraz. All puffy in Mr. W’s big jacket in the cold.

This is “Boat Framed on Alcatraz.” This building was burned down by the Indians in the early 1900s during their protest. Mr. W had to climb on a railing to take this picture. I think it’s pretty.

“SF City View.” I dunno where he got that name from.

He calls this “Sailing the Golden Gate.”

“Merry X-mas from Pier 39.” I like this picture because it looks like a Pier 39 postcard. Lotsa pictures he takes look like postcards.

This is “Daytime Christmas Moon.” That’s the American Indian name for this photo.

He named this “Eerie Night.” I like the lights on the bottom.

Even tho he called this “Haunted Hotel,” I don’t know that’s really a hotel.

You guys did all remember to pass the mouse over the photos, right? 😀

WARNING: Do not read this if you are in your 40s or 50s and sensitive about that fact.
(more…)

I went back and forth about whether to post this for fear that Mr. W will get mad at me (or at the very least, be uncomfortable about it), but I figure heck, Diana recently posted her first and only photo on her blog and wrote something about the cute boy in her photo…

On Friday, I found myself alone across our hotel lobby bar from a cute guy. I figured there’s no harm in taking a photo, you know, for the women who read my blog, so I did. Unfortunately, the photo does not do the guy justice. Oh well. I tried, girls.

We wandered around the civic center location around the hotel in the morning (City Hall, courthouse, Asian Art Museum) and explored the Farmer’s Market across the street. The above photo depicts a bird picking up human trash in front of carved quote “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” This fountain was next to the Farmer’s Market across from our hotel. I liked the irony.

We had breakfast in our hotel lobby restaurant, checked out, missed our shuttle, hailed a cab, and got to the airport without further ado. In the security line, a guy about my age in front of me turned and asked if we were there to attend the USC-Cal game. I said we weren’t, and then said I’m a Bruin. He stopped talking to me and turned his back to me abruptly, rather snobbily. We all laughed, and then he said he was attending the UCLA-USC game in December. The rest of the overheard conversation at the airport was seemingly a bunch of Trojans talking trash about the game, we won, blah blah, we’re awesome, blah blah, we showed them, blah blah, we’re overprivileged and undereducated, blah blah.

Oh yeah. I did remember to give Mr. W the window seat on the flight back. I got to sit in the middle of the section next to a mother holding an infant with very healthy lungs. No, actually, the little baby girl was very cute. She was only loud for a couple of minutes.

Saturday started at like 7am. We were going to take the trolley ride to Pier 39/Fisherman’s Wharf, and see how we could fit Alcatraz into our day. The line at the trolley was way too long due to the SEA OF CRIMSON all over the freaking place. Yup. USC at Cal Saturday around noon. I could not believe the number of Trojan fans in SF for the game. No wonder the flights were booked, hotels were booked, and the traffic was horrendous. We ended up walking to the edge of Chinatown and grabbing a taxi to Pier 32. The line for Alcatraz was hideous, too. They were booked up all the way thru Monday, despite the fact that a ferry leaves for Alcatraz every half an hour. But here’s what we discovered. We can get a stand-by ticket, get in the very short stand-by line, and be on the very next ferry. Must be a well-kept secret. Of course, there were the usual disclaimers of “seating is not guaranteed,” etc.

Alcatraz was actually very interesting and pretty. The audio tour of the jails was pretty good. I guess. Except that I still feel “turn left and keep walking” is confusing because “left” is so subjective, and they should’ve stuck to “walk down the aisle toward the clock.” For those who have never done the audio tour or know anything about it, you wear a headset that plays a tape of the tour, and when you get to a particular spot in the jail, you press “play.” The tour begins to play and has really cool interviews with former inmates and sound effects of the jails, with some trivia information as it tells you where to walk and where to look as it introduces the jail to you. I found the escape attempts particularly engaging.

After Alcatraz, we explored Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked by an oxygen bar place where for $20 you suck up scented oxygen for 10 mins as someone gives you a backrub, head massage and heated shoulder wrap (with props they sell and try to peddle off on you), and 10 minutes in a water massage chamber. I can’t say I felt much different after the oxygen, altho I hear it’s great if you have a hangover (which I still have never had). I didn’t buy any of the products because I have most of the stuff they sell already, or some version thereof.

We walked to a meeting spot outdoors by a giant Xmas tree in an open square closer to our hotel and met up with Diana and The Same Mystery Date from the nite before, but they were wearing different clothes, so I assume nothing inappropriate happened when we left them. =} Mr. W and I got to watch these 2 attorneys bicker about some insignificant thing that they’ve apparently been bickering about for the past 2 days, and then The Date was excused to attend his own dinner as we had dinner with Diana at an outdoor French restaurant called Cafe Bastille. Excargot, more wine, good entrees. Diana then gave us a car tour of the city. Mr. W’s camera snapped away at the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts (a gargantuan Greek-inspired structure with lots of pretty Corinthian columns), and we ended up at Diana’s favorite dessert place, a gourmet bakery-restaurant called Citizen Cake. There, the Mystery Date returned and Diana and I shared stories of our years living together, over dessert. Diana and Date shared, again, the same bickering argument they had earlier over the same topic. The bartender and I shared a conversation about how freaking cold it was for me in SF that weekend with the drizzle on Friday that we walked in, and the sunny but clear but cold low 60F weather on Saturday and Sunday. They all laughed at me for monopolizing Mr. W’s giant heavy coat all weekend, and the bartender (who was from Pasadena) said sympathetically that it took him years to adjust to the weather up north, too, altho this weekend was considered “warm and nice.”