Table. Turned.

Karma. A bitch.
At a party last year for the Inauguration, I was less than attentive to a guy I was dating. I wasn't really into him anymore and really should have ended it a month prior, but it was casual, so I kind of just let it unravel a bit and then finally, a few days after the party, actually broke it off with the guy.

This year, watched the State of the Union with a guy I've been casually dating. Next day? He calls to tell me, essentially, that he's just not that into me. I wasn't so into him either, but it was fun. Nice to have a date occasionally and I thought that maybe, as I got to know him (we met online), that things would change.

Anyway, sucks to have someone tell you that it's over, regardless of how you're feeling.
-----------------------
Feedback from this guy...
It was really good to go out with someone who very clearly had her own life. We didn't go out that often, but when we did see each other, I knew that you were fitting time in for me, which was nice.

Yeah!  

Geek date Wednesday

On tap for tonight: "Watch the State of the Union with Thai Takeout" date. Sweet! I'm happy that the dude was into my geeky recommendation, and added the Thai takeout part. Mmmm. Pumpkin curry.

shipping cost < a lot of stuff

This whole no-car biznass is going just fine. Mostly because I live in a city that has adequate public transportation, my office is three miles from my apartment and I ride my bike all over town. Friends have been gracious enough to drive for longer journeys. Somehow, it works out. I'm lucky. I also joined ZipCar and have used it twice since last December (1x a month - an average I'd be happy to maintain!) - once to go on a beautiful hike at Point Reyes and I shared with my BFF and fellow Zipster, on New Year's Eve. Both were full-day trips and included some sort of major shopping extravaganza at the end (Trader Joe's/Target). But I've also found that I'm doing a lot of shopping online (slow cooker and space heater... both online purchases). And shipping fees are like this extra ugh at the end of the online transaction. Until a wise friend in Chicago (who has a similar bike/public transit/ZipCar kind of lifestyle) pointed out that...

Shipping cost < ZipCar trip < Car ownership

Genius. Of course, I'm totally guilty of buying online when I could go to a local store. But then I'd have to actually ENTER a store or a mall, which is generally not fun. (But has been on occasion, as witnessed by CP and HW.)
and...
Shipping cost < missed out fun.

Let's not discuss greenhouse gas emissions due to shipping vs. missed out fun.

One of these things is not like the others

One of these things is far less important than the others, but perplexing to me. So here you go... 
1. I know ya'll are smrt and kind and generous. So I don't need to ask you to donate to Haiti's earthquake relief efforts. There are about a million and a half ways to give, including the nifty text-to-donate method. I really hope that the cell phone providers aren't tacking on a fee to handle that transaction... If you haven't maxed out your donating using that method, a friend of mine who has done relief work in other disasters has recommended donating through Doctors Without Borders or Haiti are Partners In Health. 
2. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day! What an incredible leader. Again, since ya'll are McSmartersons, I don't have to add anything. So, here's a fun fact, taken from one of my favorite blogs (Seriously, this woman would be too perfect, except that she tends to end her posts with silly sexual innuendos. The fact that she's a funny writer and adds tons of cute pictures helps out too.) - Did you know that Correta Scott King and Dexter King were both vegans? That whole non-violence and compassion thing? Yeah, they brought it all the way to the kitchen. Wow. (In other vegan news, shout out to CP for her first Vegan Thursday!)
3. I like green bell peppers now. Raw green bell peppers. WTF? How did this happen?

World's first forward?

I'm pretty sure the Neiman-Marcus cookie was among the first forwards I ever received. Come on, you've gotten this one too. And if you received it in the past ten years or so, you looked it up on Snopes. Anyway, now it that it has made its way onto every single computer - it's going for round II, and picking up all the newbies along the way.   I've posted it here, just in case you were asleep the first 100 times you got it.

Have you ever made these cookies? Are they delicious? (If so, and you want to make them again, lemme know and I'll send you my address.)

I did a little Googling to try to find the "first email forward," but had no luck. Was it the Nigerians? Or one of those "forward to 10 friends or else you'll have bad luck" sort of emails (reminiscent of chain letters, from back in elementary school)?

Onward... the Neiman-Marcus cookie forward...

ENJOY THIS...THIS IS A TRUE STORY!

When decent people get screwed over, this is the result!

My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in
Dallas and we decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are
such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman Marcus cookie." It
was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe, and
the waitress said with a small frown, "I'm afraid not, but you can buy
The Recipe." Well, I asked how much, and she responded "Only two fifty
- it's a great deal!" I agreed to that, and told her to just add it to
my tab.

30 days later, I received my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus
charge was $285.00! I looked again, and I remembered I had only spent
$9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the
bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00." That was
outrageous! I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the
waitress said it was "two-fifty", which clearly does not mean "two
hundred and fifty dollars" by any reasonable interpretation of the
phrase.

Neiman Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money
because, according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our
problem. You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not
refund your money at this point." I explained to the Accounting
Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the State
of Texas . I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau
and the Texas Attorney General's office for engaging in fraud. I was
basically told, "Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you
can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back."
I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I'm going to have
$250 worth of fun. I told her that I was going to see to it that every
cookie lover in the world has a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman
Marcus... for free. She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this." I
said, "Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you ripped
me off!" and slammed down the phone.

So here it is!

Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think
of. I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make
another penny off of this recipe!

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (recipe may be halved)
2 cups butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
-Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the
butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour,
oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey
bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie
sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
-Makes 112 cookies.
PLEASE READ THE RECIPE AND SEND IT TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW!
THIS IS REALLY TERRIFIC!!

Even if your friends do not eat sweets, send it to them and ask them
to pass it on. Let's make sure we get this lady's $250.00 worth. Enjoy
the cookies they really are good.

Ahoy matey!

Happy Friday. Two thoughts while going to grab lunch today:

1. Baggy khakis tucked into knee high heeled boots? Honey, you look like a pirate.

2. Damn, I want a motorcycle.

It's a set-up!

I was out last night at a coworker's birthday happy hour and was chatting with a woman who used to work in our group (and left before I joined). I've met her a few times, but we're not tight, yo. Somehow, the conversation turned to her saying that she's always trying to hook people up. Sweet. I say to add me to her list.

"What's your type?"

Oh no. Anxiety. I don't know My Type. I'm open. I'm free. I'm trying new things...

"They should have a hobby. Something that they're into and like to do - like a sport. And have a strong personality."

Strong personality? WTF does that even mean? Anyway...

Before I could go on to include smarts, sense of humor and the like...
BAM!

I'm apparently going to the movies with her and another friend - and her BEST GUY FRIEND on Monday. Her BEST FRIEND. Who...

• Lives near San Jose. I have no car. Repeat, I have no car. The train to San Jose is over an hour (heck, even the drive is about that) and then I'd have to get from there to the other town.
  
• Is divorced (actually less of a concern than the geographic issue)
• Has a four year old child. Uh. This is more of a concern than the geographic issue. I've always checked the "does not have kids" box when doing online dating. I don't think I'm ready to be any sort of mom-figure and... well, the list could go on and on. However, a very good friend of mine recently started dating a man who has a daughter and is super happy.
• Is a runner and ran in college
  
• Looks cute in the little iPhone pics
  
• Apparently owns his house, which is no small feat in his area. I'm taking this to mean that he's smart (which was an uncommunicated part of the 10 second "my type" conversation)
  
• His ex-girlfriend and I look a lot alike, only I'm "not a midget" (her words, not mine). Apparently she was like 4'10" and this occasionally wasn't cool for the guy. At 5'3", it is rare that I am the taller alternative.
  

We'll see how this goes.

Old Bay Bridge = new design opportunity

The Bay Bridge, which connects East Bay (think Berkeley & Oakland) to San Francisco, is in the middle of a reconstruction project. The old half-span is still sitting out there, unconnected to anything, just jutting out from East Bay, ending before Treasure Island. 

Here's a picture of the new section, before it was connected - you can see that it's just off to the side of the existing bridge.

Image from Small Business Exchange, Inc.

Kinda trippy, eh?

So, what should be done with the existing structure? I posted one concept back in September - where a bridge allows for cars (and hopefully bikes, pedestrians and maybe even light rail) on top and container-like houses on the bottom. In this situation, the entire space is available - and this bridge has TWO levels! Grad students at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design have come up with some additional ideas - green space, hotels, living space.

 

Check out the entire article at SFGate.com/.

I like the idea of reusing this existing structure. It's part of the Bay Area's history, it's already built, doesn't add an environmental impact (assuming smart design) and effectively adds space to a desirable location. However,the new Bay Bridge is being constructed because the old one didn't meet earthquake safety rules - are those rules different for a vehicular load compared to a static, structural load (with movement only by people or relatively few cars)?

For more information about the Bay Bridge, check out this site - Bay Bridge Info.

MotionTraxx.com

In my (potentially absurd, most definitely going to be painful and humbling) attempt to ready myself for the (unyet registered for, because I'm a pansy) Kaiser Permanente Half-Marathon, I ran 10 miles on Saturday.

It was, overall, an okay experience. Not because of the liter of fine German beer consumed the night before, but because of motiontraxx.com. I downloaded their half-marathon training mix, threw it on my beloved iPod nano and enjoyed a very steady 168 beats per minute for just over an hour. I'll definitely be checking out some of their other mixes, which range in duration and in bpm. Some look like they'd be good for intervals or speed work. Oh, FREE downloads - they're like podcasts in the iTunes store.

Today's breakfast: oats w/banana and peanut butter in a super awesome jar.

For Cara, fellow lover of oatmeal and pumpkin butter, new food blogger - For the Love of Chard... and potential new participant in Vegan Mondays*!

*Ok, she may do Wednesdays. And Vegan Monday isn't always on a Monday for me, either, but I like to call it that.

Where's that darn finish line?

Good advice to anyone who does endurance events, and especially to Audrey, who's racing the Goofy Challenge this weekend (half marathon on Saturday, full marathon on Sunday)... good luck, have fun, say hi to Mickey and remember this advice from a distance runner profiled by SFGate.com/

Be patient and remember: They don't move the finish line. Just keep moving and you'll make it.

Read the whole article here.

i need to shake things up. go on an adventure. do something that's a little scary.

any ideas? anyone care to join me?

Resolution #1 and slow cooker stuff

New year's resolutions like "be more organized," "productive" or "eat better" are admirable, but all murky and not easily measured. And easily failed. I like the idea of a fresh start and self-improvement. I know I could write a long list of things to work on, but why not resolve to do something that I'll actually be able to successfully accomplish?


Here's one to start:
Donate blood. Tried last year and couldn't do it because my iron level was too low. Imma gonna hop myself up on spinach in the days prior to blood donation and DO IT! The Blood Center comes through my work every so often. Stay tuned for an update here. And bug me if you don't hear anything about it by March. :)

Do you have any resolutions?
-------------------

Found a link to some slow cooker stews that don't all involve Campbell's cream of mushroom or tomato (which, by the way, lists high fructose corn syrup among the many ick ingredients) soup. Check it. Planned dinner...perhaps a way to "eat better" and "be more organized." ;)