Tag: hobbies

Scoped, Spotted, and Splattered

So you’ve wondered where I”ve been?

Around, actually. Quite a little bit.

I suffered a bit of an eating injury on Sunday. Yes, you read that correctly. An. Eating. Injury.

Tuesday, I spent the afternoon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and had great bonding moments with my D40.

Today, my little humble food blog, HmmFoodGood, got noticed by some OC folks and nominated for “You’ve Just Been Spotted” award for food/cooking blog at Just-Spotted.com. Hop on over to either place and vote for HmmFoodGood, won’t you?  We just don’t want to crawl in last, is all. 😉

And now, I’m checking my schedule for Drupal Camp LA in Irvine this weekend.  It looks like my friends Annette and Matt will join me for the geek fest.  Any zombies in the area, please come on down to UCI.  There’ll be plenty of Drupal Newbie’s brains splattered all over the engineering quad.

My schedule looks like this on Saturday:

9 a.m. – Get Drupal installed at InstallFest

10 a.m. – Intro to Drupal

11 a.m. – Functional Interaction Design

12 p.m. – DrupalChix lunch

1 p.m. – Keynote

2 p.m – I’ll be sitting at the DrupalChix table.  I’m a complete and total newbie but they need someone to represent the women in the field, aspired geek like myself included.  So, I volunteered, naturally.

3 p.m – DrupalChix panel on how to encourage more women to participate in Drupal.

4 p.m. – Group photo

4:30 p.m. – Theming with Zen

5:30 p.m. – Must have module for your Drupal site.

*KABOOOOOOM!!*

I should have enough brain matter left for two more sessions on Sunday morning plus a couple more hours at the DrupalChix table.

So, if I disappear again after this post, you know why.

Nowhere and Everywhere

I posted a long time ago about the pain of being a Jane of All Trades. The trades I keep collecting have a collective weight that threaten to crush me.  Just take a look at the list.

Current Hobbies

Playing piano, guitar (need to do more of that) and singing. Cooking. Photography. Photography of stuff I cooked.  Blogging.  Tweeting.  USC Football fanatic.  Pop culture fiend. TV junkie.  Movie and entertainment news addict.  Supporting the troops with being an Operation Paperback volunteer and gathering funds to do my own Operation Jingle All the Way annually.  Thrill the World Los Angeles.

Developing Hobbies

Camping and backpacking. Speaking Italian. Making websites with Drupal.

Ex-Hobbies I wish I had more time to get back to

Making art. (I’m/was pretty good with collages and paper mache.) Scrapbooking aka paste stuff on paper, punch holes, put in binders. I still keep my keepsakes in a basket but haven’t put them in binders in years.

Ex-Developing Hobbies which I would pick up in a heartbeat if I have more time

Sewing. Designing t-shirts. Frisbee golf. Roller skates–this one is abandoned because no one would go with me. Playing video game.

Someday…

Making videos. Computer illustration–I really want to do designs like Threadless people.  Writing a memoir. Culinary school?

I asked my dad once when he would retire.  He said that he couldn’t possibly do that.  What would he do if he doesn’t work?  Dad’s hobby is being a news junky.  And shopping, but then he shops for clothes he’d wear to work.  He has no grand kids to raise (again, hinting at me on that one).  So, what would he do with the time?

And then there’s me with all of my hobbies I could barely keep up with.

I mean, if I win a lottery tomorrow, I am all set to retire and explore all of my interests.

Seriously, I love all of my hobbies so much I could be doing them all the time and not bitch about it.

Then again, Brandon did bring up a good point. Say, like cooking.  I do like to cook, but would I still like it if it becomes a career?  (Hey, P’ House – can you answer me that since you’re a chef?)  That was the reason why I’m still working full time and taking cooking classes on the side instead of being in a culinary school.

But now that I have so many interests and hobbies, the worlds are colliding.

For example, Brandon and I want to go camping on the weekend this summer, as in taking a Friday/Monday off to have 2 nights and 3 days excursion.  Or at least leave a little early on Friday and get 2 nights in somewhere.

How about this weekend? Nope. Got a tweet up on Friday.  Next?  Nope. Will be at DrupalCamp LA.  After that? Nope. Got a house party on Friday.  How about after that? Nope. Actually is double-booked for a barbecue on Saturday. Etc.

And next thing you know, September will be here, and I will start my Italian lessons on Saturday mornings. And of course, USC football. And then Thrill the World. And then the Big Gala I put on at work.

And with all the busy days and weekends, I am not in the kitchen as much as I would like to, nor am I playing the piano twice a week according to my goal.

Cut the television, someone suggest.  But how could I? It *is* another hobby of mine which I’m trying to consolidate into a few nights a week and Saturday/Sunday morning routine to maximize time usage.

It was also suggested that I wake up earlier on the weekends to get more hours in the day. The Winston Chruchill’s polyphasic sleep schedule sounds like a plan.  Unfortunately, my work would frown upon me napping for 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon.  Heh.

See what I mean about being nowhere AND everywhere?

If money grows on trees, that would be nice.  But I’d rather have a Time-Turner from Harry Potter books.

Crash Test Oakley

I’m not safe on a bike. Never have been.

But I insist on getting on the thing so I can spend time with Brandon.  Not to mention that it’s fun.

Y’all remember my little blue Townie?

Townie fully loaded

After the stunts I pulled yesterday, I now have a name for the bike.

Wallbait.

You’ll see why here in a bit.

Feeling ambitious on Sunday, I proposed that we rode from our place to the Alamitos Bay Farmers’ Market in Long Beach so I can pick up some fresh veggies.  After all, Brandon hooked up my cargo department so my little bucket won’t come flying off like it had before.  This would be the perfect time to go play!

And so we did.

On our way there, we rode down Los Alamitos/Seal Beach Boulevard over the 405 freeway and down Westminster/2nd Street.  I did pretty well all things considered with a few stops to rest my tired legs.  We got to the market in one piece.

Oh, the market.  The. Market!  I *LOVE* farmers’ market.  So much good stuff.

Thank GOD we had a limit of buying only what I could carry in the bucket. Well, Brandon did help carry a few other things. Like a satchel of lavendar. And our $10 a pound ground bison.  Yes, bison. Tatanka. Bison.

Farmers market loot on back of my cruiser.

We then rode to Seal Beach for some Z Pizza.  And then it was time to head back.

With my haul, Brandon suggested that we rode back on the San Gabriel river bike path for easier terrain.

However, we underestimated the extra weight on the back of my bike going through all of those underpasses.

Coming down one of them, my cruiser hit a patch and it wobbled. Hard.

I was *this* close to losing control and spill.

Not that a beach cruiser is know for its agility to begin with, the extra weight also contributed to a few more near-disasters I had all the way home because I couldn’t stop fast enough.

A sudden stop coming back from the trail onto Katella resulted in the peddles hitting me (and left a bruise) on my calf.

A sharper turn back down our street, I was caught between “going to fast in a turn and I would totally crash” and “not slow enough, oh my god I’m going to launch off the sidewalk!”  With enough time to strategize how I was going to crash, I slammed the bike into the metal sign post: wheel to the left, handle to the right, and my right hand wayyyy out of the crash zone.

With all these odd maneuvering, y’all, I am sore in places I didn’t know existed.

However, I must admit…

It was hella fun.

Strange Bed Fellow

One of those questionnaires people sent around asked, where would you want to live if you can live anywhere.

My answer is “out of a suitcase, in hotel room, anywhere in the world.”

Some people insist that they sleep in their own bed.  I don’t seem to have that much of an attachment.

I like to be somewhere else once in a while.  A change of scenery during the day is one thing, but to have slept somewhere different is something else altogether.

Yeah, I guess you could say I have the Travel Bug.  A dormant strain, compared to many, and is kept in check by a potent vaccination of financial constriction.

An outbreak happens once in a while that I feel like I must get out and go somewhere else, even if it’s for a night in an inn down the street.

The recent trip to Miami seems to have aggravate the Travel Bug.  Then again, having just read Eat Pray Love doesn’t help.

I popped a question to Brandon to see if he’d want to scoot down to the brand spanking new Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes because there’s a good deal going on now. Plus I’ve worked with one of their sales manager  before and he would hook us up with something fabulous, I’m sure.

Brandon, perhaps fortunately, doesn’t have my Travel Bug.  What he has is common sense. It doesn’t make any sense to him to spend the money to stay somewhere 30 minutes away from our house for one night.

For someone in my condition, a luxury resort for half the price is a good deal.  A new bed for just one night is a good deal.  A day spent at a gorgeous pool with a good book and a lovely cocktail is a good deal.

One day away from everyday grind is a good deal.

I guess we compromised somewhere in the middle.

We just bought a tent when REI had a sale a couple of months ago.  Brandon wants to test out the tent, our current sleeping bags, and some of the new stuff we bought, and to dust off our camping skills somewhere where it’s convenience.  You know, testing the waters to see if we can actually survive a rougher and tumble-r camp sites we both want to get to.

A night in a tent under the stars?

It’s definitely not my bed.

Travel Bug, prepare to get suppressed.

At least for a little while longer.

Cook Bake Geek

It’s been a crazy weekend.  But super fun. AND productive.

First of all, Brandon has FINALLY came out of the severe sinus infection that he had.  And with abundant energey fueled by cabin fever, he ran errands all over town for me on Friday.

Because, you see, on Saturday, I threw a casual baby shower for a coworker and his girlfriend at my friend Amy’s house.  I made these surprisingly gorgeous and delicious pasta carbonara tartlets and fruity modification of the Italian Scroppino (lemon sorbet + prosecco + splash of vodka).

After all of that, I came running home to my first introductory massage at Massage Envy.  It was heavenly and I signed on for their membership.  Being forced to get a massage every month?  Open until 10 p.m. on weeknights AND open on Sunday?  And quite a lot  cheaper than the fancy schmancy joint the other end of town that I could never seem to get an appointment?  Yeah, that’s a membership I can get behind.

Naturally, on Sunday, Brandon went in to get his and signed up for the membership as well.  While some people see getting a massage as luxury expense, we see it as preventive medicine.  If we manage our stress well now,  that would help us with high blood pressure and other stress related illness down the road.  Happy body has a happy mind and both contribute to good health.  But I digress there a bit.

Sunday morning came, Brandon waited for me to crawl out of bed and we headed out for brunch.  Unsuccessful at finding any place we wanted to eat at without a line, we drove through Del Taco and took our hangover brunch to the beach. It was beautiful out at Seal Beach pier.

It was a great start for a busy Sunday at home for me.

I got home to start the 3 loads of laundry.

Then I geeked out for a while, upgrading to WP 2.8 and set up the website for Thrill the World Los Angeles, gearing up for this year’s participation.

Done with that, I started in on making the mascarpone ice cream for my KitchInspirations strawberry shortcake challenge.  Once the ice cream went into the fridge, I geeked out some more with TTWLA site.

Then I made dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, and got my strawberries soaked in Grand Marnier and honey.

Then I grilled up the pound cake and assembled my dessert with mascarpone ice cream and macerated strawberries for dessert.

After dinner, I finished blogging about the tartlets.

And put (most of the) laundry away.

I seriously need another day of the weekend.

I can haz!

Tuesday marked my first week anniversary for being a metal mouth.  And I ated a cheeseburger.

Oh yeah, I have a new blog set up for just that at Brace Face Chronicles.

Someone questioned if I should need another blog.

I would answer with one of these. Because I can just have one concentrated area to bitch and moan all about my inability to eat or the pain the braces hath brought.  Because I can share the experience with other adults who are now getting their braces…or like me, getting them again for a second time.

*

At a recent gathering, someone asked why I got braces.

“You didn’t really need it, did you?” “I didn’t see anything wrong with your teeth before?”

Then I launched into the reasons why…which I won’t do again when you can just read it here.

*

I am almost through with the Italy part of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. Thoroughly inspired, I found me some weekend Italian lessons in Irvine with Fondazione Italia.

And I will be taking those classes in the fall.

When I told someone that I wanted an Italian lesson, they’d look at me, puzzled.

“Why?” “What for?” “Why not Spanish?”

I would answer with one of these. I LOVE the food. I PLAN on going to spend a lot of time in Italy someday. AND learn to cook while I’m at it. I love the way the language sound. I love the way the people speak it. I love the Italian way of looking at life and how they live it.

*

My recent choices seem to bring up a lot of questions from others and I found myself finding an answer that would make sense to them.

And then I realize I don’t have to justify anything to anyone.

I’m getting braces because I can.

I’m writing about my experience because I can.

I’m taking Italian lessons because I can.

Because I can.

With that phrase, I can haz anything.