perspective

It’s strange how things can seem really big when they aren’t. I was stressed out this week because I was having a lot of laptop network issues, and ended up losing a week’s worth of prevously completed work due to a backup mishap, in addition to the actual days lost on trying to get this issue resolved. But you know, it’s really not a big deal. So I have to work this weekend to make up the work, but I can live with that. I’ve had worse deadlines. I was feeling so sorry for myself when I heard from my friend Holly that someone broke into her apartment and made off with a bunch of things. That is such a terrible thing to happen. There is the loss of things, but more importantly, there is the loss of keepsakes that your memories are tied to, as well as the loss of the sense of security and safety in your own home. The feeling that someone can interrupt and manipulate your life at their will at any time doesn’t leave for a long time after things like this.

I lost merely some data that has no personal value to me, and I got so upset. But that doesn’t compare at all to having things that have personal meaning get taken. I hope against hope that my friend will be able to recover some of her stuff somehow.

Tonight I spent time with some good friends and some good food. It was how life should be.

tv roundup

The best/most fun shows on tv right now (for me) are the following:

• MI-5
• The Dog Whisperer
• What Not To Wear (both UK and US versions)
• America’s Test Kitchen

I note that none of these shows are on the network stations. Oh crap, I’m wrong, because I forgot to include Lost. I feel like I traded in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy for What Not To Wear, and Good Eats for America’s Test Kitchen. While I enjoyed the other two, I feel like I definitely traded up in some sense. I guess in a way, Lost is my stand-in for Survivor.

Seriously, if you have a dog or are considering getting one, check out The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel. You’ll either learn a lot or laugh a lot, or possibly both.

blogs amok

Lately, I’ve been keeping my eye on the following non-friend, non-political blogs, which range anywhere from totally frivolous to somewhat productive (ok, not really):

• Go Fug Yourself [feed]
• we make money not art * [feed]
• Urban Legens Reference Pages [feed]

* Uncapitalized because the website writes it that way.

I have a couple more that I’m trying out in my daily rotation, but some are just waaaay too involved (like the weird spy-esque blogs) and fall off my radar. I find that the ones above are pretty good to provide a good 5-minute entertainment break during the day. I’ve been glimpsing at 43 Folders and Lifehacker, which I lifted from another blog. 😀

food.helava.com

I figured I should stop littering my blog with food-only entries and pretend to have a life outside of that, so I created a separate blog for Seppo and me to post to for food related stuff. http://food.helava.com, feed at http://food.helava.com/atom.xml.

cut and paste

Seppo, before haircut:

After:

snippets

I cut Seppo’s hair for the first time on Saturday. It turned out nicer than I thought it would. I’ll post pics at some point. 😀 We took off a whole lot. Seppo says that may admiration of my own handiwork is “unseemly”. Heh.

I got to chat with my cousin for the first time in years! It was really great to get back in touch with family. I’ll have to tell my other cousin out here about him. 🙂

Turns out that my other cousins (yet another set) might move to Atlanta. That would be really nice because then my sister’s kids could grow up with the babies in the other family, as they are roughly the same age.

Court invalidates California’s ban on same-sex marriage

Good job, Kramer!

In his 27-page decision, Kramer – an appointee of former Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican – said the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violates “the basic human right to marry the person of one’s choice,” and has no rational justification.

Rejecting California Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s argument that California is entitled to maintain the traditional definition of marriage, Kramer said the same explanation was offered for the state’s ban on interracial marriage, which was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 1948.

The judge also rejected arguments by opponents of same-sex marriage that the current law promotes procreation and child-rearing by a husband and wife. “One does not have to be married in order to procreate, nor does one have to procreate in order to marry,” Kramer said.

seven years

And no itch! 😀 Today is Seppo and my seven year anniversary. Yay! 🙂 I love that man.

I had a bunch of updates, but I had to reboot before I got to save it because of some horrible computer problems. My laptop has been plaguing me and my IT department for a full solid week now. It is humiliating, as well as frustrating, because I’m sure they think I’m doing something to my computer and not telling them about it. The typical user error and PEBKAC* condition.

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The last few weeks have been full of great food and company. It was kicked off by a dinner at Alan & Becky’s house. We were inspired by the delicious food (I was really impressed by their fantastic use of ginger, which I’m really clueless about) and the fun we had eating together (I hope we can get a real table one day), so Seppo and I have been on a roll recently. Holly came up for Presidents’ Day Weekend, and we lazed about, mainly indoors because of the rain. It was so good to see her. Even when I haven’t seen her in a while, I feel like I can say whatever to her and she’ll understand. She’s really awesome. Seppo & I made our first “plated” dinner for a small group of people who had come over to see Holly.

That was followed by a 1-yr anniversary celebration of the day that Mobi joined our household. Shush! I don’t want to hear it. Heh. We invited Seppo’s mom over for dinner, and she brought over a little fluffy bunny for Mobi.

Last week, Lindsi invited us over for some of that mochi chicken for dinner. It was so good that I must have eaten a good pound and a half by myself. Damn, that is some good chicken. We invited her and D over for dinner on Sunday evening, and served french bread with some truffle cheese, reduced balsamic vinegar, and two pestos (sun-dried tomato and basil) for appetizers, and parmesan-crusted salmon with asparagus and mashed potatoes (garnished with a parmesan crisp) and salad for the main meal. Oh yes, the pestos were for the main dish but we had so much left over that I served it with the bread. I think it would have been improved had we served the salmon with a squeeze of lemon or a splash of white wine during cooking to give it a little brightness. Possibly, the reduced balsamic could have replaced the sun-dried tomato pesto for the same reason. Anyway, we are still working out the kinks. It was really nice sitting back with them for a while and hanging out. So much fun.

We also went to dinner with Sean and Hoa to a very tasty small Japanese restaurant in San Carlos. Eat eat eat. Chomp chomp chomp. Man, they are fun to chill with.

Next week, we are making dinner for Alex and Tracy, I think. The date hasn’t been finalized yet, but he agreed to it already, so too bad. Heh. Gotta figure out what to cook though.

Seppo’s dad is coming in to town today, so we are going to have dinner with them on Saturday. His b-day just passed, so we better go buy something tomorrow. Eek!

*Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

habits

No, this is not an entry about my joining the nunnery or anything. I have finally broken my dvd buying habit. I’ve weaned myself off the incessant book-buying too. On top of that, I’ve even broken my Survivor habit. Yay! Unfortunately, the AI habit rages on, taking over more and more of my weekday life. I just know it will be on five times a week at some point.

I call Bo to win this season.

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Yesterday, I went to the big shopping center in Walnut Creek with Uyen. It was a gorgeous day, so we ate lunch outside and generally lazed about. It was a good time. We found out much too late that Nordstrom’s was having a fashion show and makeover demos all day long. The first floor was littered with little makeup stations and people getting makeup tips. I am bummed I missed it.

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We took Mobius to the beach today. He’s a good doggy companion for us. I hope he learns to swim one day.