Ratatouille, by non-chef Kirby

Exercise update...
Wednesday - 40 minute run at lunch
Thursday - pilates
Friday - nothing. Did manage to drink a lot of vodka though. That's exercise... for my liver.
Saturday - ran with LRM. Far. Like 11.5 miles. Lots of hills and stairs. Wouldn't have done it alone, that's for sure.
Sunday - nothing. Lots of school work.

Despite the mountain of school work, I *did* make a pretty awesome dinner for myself. A sort of improv ratatouille... tasty and required little work outside of cutting:
1. saute purple onion (1) & garlic (3 cloves) in olive oil in a big, deep pan
2. add cubed eggplant (1) and sliced zucchini (3)
3. add tomatoes - here's where it got interesting. I added the rest of a container of cherry tomatoes, two big tomatoes cut into cubes and a box of this tomato sauce "starter" from Trader Joe's
4. add some water
5. add some spices - salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper for some heat, sage, rosemary and oregano. If I had bay leaves, I would have added one or two, but I don't have any.

I ate the ratatouille over some polenta slices - Trader Joe's has these tubes of polenta. Just slice, heat & serve. The rest of it I portioned out into containers for lunch and put it over some brown rice. Hopefully this will help with my need for efficiency in the morning when I'm heading out to work AND it's pretty darn healthy too.

Benefit concert on Wed, Sept 12!

Hi Friends,

Just posting an invite for an upcoming benefit next Wednesday, Sept 12th. A good friend of mine volunteers with Girls For A Change, a national organization that empowers thousands of teen girls to create and lead social change.

Voce Communications is bringing out the PR/media community to support the organization, raise money, drink some booze and network. They have a great band confirmed: Off the Record that is comprised of media legends, such as Don Clark of the Wall Street Journal. Think Journey meets Cat Stevens :)

What: Girls For A Change Benefit

Where: Rockit Room

406 Clement Street (between 5th and 6th Ave.)
When: September 12 @ 7pm

Why: Raise Some Money for a Good Cause

Entertainment: Off the Record Band

Horsepower... redefined.

From the wonderful folks at TreeHugger...
The Naturmobile, by Fleethorse.

Power. Measured in horsepower. Bus. Powered by actual horses.


Oh please, tell me that people are not going to buy into this idea. A life cycle analysis is not required to show the world that this is NOT an energy-efficient mode of transport.

Really effing hilarious video though. Maybe it's actually a big ol' hoax? Complete with a dance tune from about 2003... someone help me out with that song.

Pictures, pilates and planes

...Sigh...I wish I could have made more out of the long weekend, but I got caught up on my reading for school AND did a lot of work in my apartment. I have unpacked all the boxes in the living space of my apartment (there's probably one box of random stuff in the closet), put together all of my Ikea furniture and hung some pictures on the walls. This is pretty much the first time I've put so much effort into my apartment - I guess because I plan on being here for a while and because it's just me here in my little 150 square feet of peace.

So I said I'd update on my exercising. It's going... but not great.
Friday... yoga
Saturday... 30 mile bike ride. Beautiful day to ride in Marin.
Sunday... nada, studying. Save for a quick ride to GG Park.
Monday... just some bike commuting to North Beach for dinner.
Tuesday... pilates.

Going to try to stick with pilates on Tues/Thurs. Why? Because the instructor is this super positive, smiley, happy guy. He's big on taking little breaks to smile, think happy thoughts. At the end of class you lay down and do a sort of "corpse" pose like at the end of yoga classes - and he talks you through a visualization. Today it was jumping out of an airplane (with a parachute!). I dig having some time to focus my mind while I'm also exercising my body.

Thinking happy thoughts... like what? What makes you happy? Picture yourself blissfully happy. Where are you? Who are you with? Maybe you're alone. Maybe you're somewhere other-worldly. Or you're doing something simple. Maybe you're in your house. Is it loud or quiet? Are you active or relaxing? Indoors or outdoors? Day or night?

Flip-flops = chemical burn?

My mom would say, "This is why I didn't let you wear cheap shoes as a child."
http://www.lamanaphotography.com/walmart2.htm

Pictures are quite graphic, so if you're easily grossed out, don't bother with the link.
Basic premise is that $3.00 flip-flops from Wal-Mart gave this woman massive flip-flop shaped chemical burns. The burns are taking a long time to heal and have caused her serious pain. She's not allergic to latex or rubber, so it's more likely that there's some toxic chemical (aside from the petro-chemicals probably in the shoe bottom...) in the "thong" part of the sandal. She tried to get Wal-Mart involved and has been shot down.

FTW.

Sometimes Googling people does not do anything good.
I'm angry and hurt today. FTW.

In other news, I did go for a run last night.

I'm hoping that a 1pm yoga class will help calm me and clear my head.
Until then, FTW.

Pedicure emergency.

I want/need a pedicure.
(Really, it's a tough call at this point. I think my last pedi was at the beginning of April.)

Pilates: good times. I will try to make this a normal Tuesday, Thursday practice. Great break in the work day.

Can I take the time that I was going to use for a run and get a pedicure instead?

Grumble grumble grumble. Whine whine whine.

Sunrise in SF: 6:38am

Classic. Friend LM and I did this once a few years ago in the fall when it was getting dark early and we couldn't run after work.

Today, Thursday, August 30, I woke up early. 5:30am. So I could run in the morning before work. Only, it's now late enough in the summer that 5:30am is before sunrise. So it's really, really dark outside. Not safe for running out to Golden Gate Park.

Anyway, because I didn't get to work out yesterday, I'm planning for a 1pm pilates class at the 24 Hour Fitness near work. And apparently now, a post-work run. If I hurry, I can get to work by 7am and get outta there around 3:45pm!

Efficiency in September

Survived the first residency of classes. Whew!

Project for the month of September: keep sane. I'm working full time until October 1 AND in school full time. It's doable, but will leave me with limited social time - I need to do homework on the weekends - and I need to be hyper-efficient. That means NO spending hours on websites like cuteoverload.com, gofugyourself.com and perezhilton.com . That means planning out my day ahead of time and bringing a school book to read at lunch and on the bus. And being efficient at the grocery store, where I have a tendency to dawdle.

I also need to continue to run, bike, swim, yoga, etc as a means of stress relief. I'm also going to Cabo for a bachelorette party in early November & need to be bikini-ready :)

So... I will try to blog my exercising. If I don't post anything for a while, bug me, fair readers. Bug me and send pictures of beautiful beaches.

Monday - swam for 45 minutes. A good 30 minutes were hard-core, the other 15 were more cool-down/backstroke.
Tuesday - bike to work (20-30 minutes each way, but a lot of stop and start, so not really a big deal, energy-expenditure wise) and 40 minute run at lunch.

As Seen on Public Transportation, Part II

Yesterday:
Cutest girl ever, all dressed up in her Apple Bottoms outfit (I'm not going to get into if this is really appropriate - though it was normal little girl clothing, just with the Apple Bottom logo).
"We have to wait to cross the yellow line until the bus stops. That yellow line there."
Walks to the door
"Mommy!!! There are even yellow lines on the STAIRS!"

Today:
Guy in workout wear and boxing gloves. Walking/floating like a butterfly up Fillmore Street. Air boxing. At nothing in particular.