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Like many other bored people, I watched the entire Oscar broadcast last night. It was…okay. Of the films nominated, I had only seen Sideways. I thought it was interesting, but not the best movie I’d ever seen. I assumed that The Aviator would win just because of all of the glamour and detail that went into making it. I mean, if Titanic could win best picture, why couldn’t The Aviator?

I have no desire to see Million Dollar Baby. I know how it ends and I do not want to endure that emotional rollercoaster. I also don’t give a lick about Hilary Swank. As someone tactlessly put it, “she has a great body, but her face looks like someone set it on fire and tried to put it out with a chainsaw.” I don’t think she looks that bad, but she is just way too toothy and it kinda creeps me out.

I’m glad Cate Blanchett and Morgan Freeman won. I always enjoy watching them perform. I have to admit though, I watch the show for the fashions. There weren’t any real standouts, but thank GOD I didn’t have to watch as they zoomed in repeatedly on JLo and Paris Hilton in dresses down to there. *shudder*

The rest of my weekend was nice. I slept a ton on Friday night and Saturday morning, then got up around 9:30 on Saturday and went jogging. Yes, I went jogging on purpose. I’ve been doing my yoga workout regularly, but I have done little in the way of cardio. I don’t plan to run any marathons, but I do want to be able to hike up a hill at a good pace without sucking wind.

After that, I grabbed some breakfast, coffee, the newspaper, and went back home to wake up Danny. We spent the afternoon….hell, what did we do? I don’t think we did much. I cooked supper that night and we watched some of the many hours of recorded tv shows we had saved over the last two weeks.

Sunday, I ran my usual coffee errand and stopped at the local farmer’s market to get some flowers and veggies. After that, Danny and I drove down to Santa Clara to pick up one of my friends and former coworkers, Merritt. He was one of the managers at my old company and we got along well. He was in town for a conference and wanted to meet Danny and catch up. We had a nice Italian food lunch and managed to avoid shop-talk.

After that wild morning (insert laugh here), I went home and camped out in the living room to watch the Oscars, check in with my family, and battle the cats for room on the couch.

Last night, Danny and went out for dinner….at IKEA. Yes, they have cheap furniture as well as cheap food. They don’t have a huge selection, but we decided we should try it anyway. One of our friends raves about the mac and cheese and I’ve actually read a review in the food section of the SF Chronicle about the Swedish meatballs. Being Swedish, I thought that it was about time I actually tasted a Swedish meatball.

IKEA is only about ten minutes from our house, so getting there wasn’t much of a struggle. The restaurant is less like a restaurant and more like a cafeteria. They didn’t have a large menu, but they did have more choices than I had expected. Danny and I both got the meatballs with red potatoes and lingonberries. He also grabbed a side of mac and cheese. All of this plus one soda cost 12.95.

We agreed that the meatballs weren’t spectacular, but they were still pretty good for fast food. The mac and cheese was tasty as well.

I don’t think I’ll go back there specifically for the food again, but it was nice to try something different.

We couldn’t leave without at least checking out what was new at the store. I got some energy saving lightbulbs and we headed out.

I really enjoy finding good food in unexpected places. I don’t mean like finding a half a sandwich under a park bench, but more like finding a great barbecue joint in the back of an old gas station; something very casual, simple, and above all, tasty.

I got this from Lisa’s blog. Can you relate?

YOUR SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL

[What year was it?]
1995-1996

[What were your three favorite bands?]
Bush, Tori Amos, Alannis Morissette

[What was your favorite outfit?]
Jeans, imitation doc marten boots, long-sleeved concert t-shirt, harley-davidson leather biker jacket

[What was up with your hair?]
very long straight blonde (sound familiar?)

[Who were your best friends?]
Amy, Mel, Katy, Tim, Cristol, JJ

[What did you do after school?]
hung out with my HS bf, or yelled at freshman during band practice

[Did you take the bus?]
I did until I was sixteen and got a car. Then my car became the bus for cool kids w/out cars. My car was was an ‘89 red Toyota Celica St. That car ran until last year when my bro (the latest driver) had to have it totalled after a minor accident. Over 11 years, we put over 120,000 miles on it. RIP little car.

[Who did you have a crush on?]
Dustin L, but then again, I was attracted to jerks. I think I had a crush on all of the boys in my class at one time or another, except for Jared K - he was just too weird looking.

[Did you fight with your parents?]
Yes, but it was more passive/aggressive. In general, my parents were cool and trusting - probably too trusting.

[Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?]
Gavin Rossdale

[Did you smoke cigarettes?]
No. My bf smoked so I got enough second-hand smoke to last a lifetime. Plus, my Dad is a dentist and I didn’t want to have to explain that during routine checkups. Oh, and the smell made me sick.

[Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker?]
No, my school was tiny so hauling books around wasn’t a problem.

[Did you have a ‘clique’?]
Yeah. I hung out with the band nerds and theater kids. My friends were pretty churchy so I guess I was a bit of a goodie goodie.

[Did you have “The Max” like Zach, Kelly, and Slater?]
Although I watched Saved by the Bell, I have no idea what this means.

[Admit it, were you popular?]
I don’t think so, but I like to think I was respected for my grades and odd sense of humor. I’m still a little bitter about idiots who only spoke to me to get homework answers (jennifer h).

[Who did you want to be just like?]
Hmmm…I loved Tori Amos and I really look up to my friend Samantha.

[What did you want to be when you grew up?]
A writer and a rock star.

[Where did you think you’d be at the age you are now?]
Living in Italy, wandering cobblestone streets with my boyfriend Antonio.

I. Am. Exhausted.

I slept way too much this weekend and was unable to doze off last night. Everytime I got close to sleeping, I realized I had to pee, so I got up and wandered to the bathroom only to return to bed and attempt to force sleep once again.

I made several mistakes one must not make if she wishes to make it to the 7:20 train in a somewhat coherent state.

1. Do not sleep until 11:30 the day before.
2. Do not take a two hour nap after returning from a late lunch.
3. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT drink most of a jumbo Diet coke between and 8 and 10 pm during a movie. This will guarantee up-all-night peeing.

Today, I am at work and I am somewhat put together. At least it appears that way. It could be worse. I could be totally hungover or something, but counting down the hours until you return home to your soft couch, warm cats, loving boyfriend, and fuzzy Spiderman blanket does not make for a productive day.

What do Danny and I decide are priorities for our three-day weekend? Why Comic books and Chinese New Year Celebrations of course! We spent Saturday afternoon at Wondercon, San Francisco’s comic book convention. Neither one of us are into comic books, but there were some celebs we wanted to spy on as well as check out the latest in sci fi news.

It was nerdy, but not nearly as nerdy as I expected. There were plenty of pimply, bespectacled teens, but also a lot of normal looking people as well.

When we got there, we cruised around the exhibit floor for a while. After a bit, everything began to look the same. There were a few people in costume, but nothing really crazy. My favorites were a guy in a hairy robot costume (think a bear costume, but with a robot head) and a guy dressed as storm trooper Elvis.

The highlight was seeing Jason Mews and Kevin Smith, a.k.a Jay and Silent Bob. Kevin Smith did a 1.5 hour Q&A session. This was the only session that interested me, so Danny and I got there early and managed to snag some good seats in the auditorium. Basically, Kevin turned the session into his own standup show. Jason Mews kinda sat in the background chuckling along.

After this session was over, we decided to take off and do some shopping. On our way out, we passed some guy heckling a group of guys at the ATM. At first I thought,”Gee, what a jerk.” Then I stopped and did a double-take. It was Jason Mews. I looked at him and he kinda stopped yelling and looked at me. I turned around and walked off grinning. I wanted to say something to him, but what do you say? Danny told me later that it would have been cool to video him saying some weird/funny shit to me but we thought of it a little too late. I mean, he’s the kind of celebrity you go up and hug if you wanna get your ass grabbed.

After shopping and getting some really nasty food-court food at the Metreon (cheap and easy) we headed over to the Chinese New Year parade. It was fine but I was underwhelmed. There were the requisite marching bands and little kids in rooster costumes. FYI - this is the year of the rooster. It started pouring twenty minutes after we got there, so we decided to head home. Danny had a headache and we both had had a long day.

The rest of our weekend was pleasantly uneventful. We rented Garden State and ordered a pizza last night, then we were totally lazy today with the exception of going to see Hitch. I liked both movies more than I thought I would.

By the way, has anyone seen any of the movies up for Best Picture? I’ve seen Sideways, but that’s it. The Aviator looks really looong, and Million Dollar Baby is guaranteed to be depressing. I totally forgot what the other two are. Opinions? What’s worth seeing?

I stayed home sick yesterday. I wasn’t “bent over the toilet sick” but my stomach was off and I didn’t want to go to work and puke during any meetings. I decided the safest bet was to stay home, eat bland food, and remain within 20 feet of the toilet.

Previously, I had gotten up, gotten dressed, and driven part of the way to work before deciding that this really wasn’t going to happen. I thought maybe that I would go in later, but around noon I acknowledged that going in late wouldn’t help anyone out. Instead, I watched some TV. I scanned the channels and lo and behold MTV and VH1 were playing music videos. I didn’t know they had those anymore. I do enjoy the VH1 countdowns and the silly reality programming on MTV, but I miss good old videos. Apparently they are on early in the morning and late at night when most channels are showing infomercials.

I saw a new J. Lo video (boring), some hiphop video featuring Nelly and Tim McGraw (wtf?) and a video for a song I actually liked, Mr. Brightside by The Killers. The song is catchy and the lead singer is cute, so I’m sure it will get played to death on the radio. I don’t listen to the radio much so I don’t have to grow to hate it over the next few months.

Speaking of new music, I got a gift cert for itunes from a friend for Christmas. I’m really enjoying music by the Raveonettes. Any good suggestions? I know I’ve asked this before, but there must be some good new stuff since then.

The thought of which one of these food items grosses you out more:

A) a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wonderbread or
B) a sandwich made with a warm piece of grilled salmon on sourdough bread

For some reason, A completely disgusts me. I can stand jelly, but not peanut butter and definitely not tasteless textureless bread.
B revolts Danny. For me, it is a culinary delight.
Discuss!

There are times when we don’t like our jobs. We must keep in mind though that it could be much, much, MUCH worse. Case in point - read the description my brother sent me of his latest and greatest job interview as he attempts to “penetrate” the job market of technical writing.

……

OK here it goes for my blog story:

Tech-Writing Job from Hell

I know that I am just starting out in the field of technical writing, but this has to be the worst tech-writing job I have ever heard of. I went to interview for a position as a Documentation Specialist in Buda (just south of Austin), and let’s just say that the job wasn’t exactly what I expected. The Hotjobs listing stated that the company needed an experienced Documentation Specialist with experience in Word, Excel, digital photography, and strong written/verbal skills. OK, sounds like your usual job listing. Anyway, on my way to the interview, I’m picturing your typical corporate work environment - office buildings, cubicles, business-casual dress, etc. Unfortunately, these expectations quickly vanished as I turned off of the Interstate access road onto a dirt driveway. Following the directions, I pull around next to the shipping building, a windowless metal warehouse, and park in the appropriate space in the “parking lot”, which was basically a dirt lot with parking lines painted on the dirt ground. This was not looking too promising. At this point, I’m wearing my Dockers, dress shirt, and tie. After seeing most of the people on site wearing jeans and t-shirts, I quickly lose the tie. So we get to the interview and this guy starts to show me around the manufacturing plant that I am potentially going to be writing training materials for. As we tour the plant, he explains that many of the workers do not speak much English, so the training material I will be writing will consist mostly of pictures and symbols. About this time, I look up and see a good example on the wall. It is a sign with a picture of an open mouth next to a trash can with a big circle/slash symbol over it. Apparently, it is a sign to discourage “trash talking” between the employees. Heh, heh — pretty clever. Anyway, it looks like this job will require me to spend a good amount of time conducting training research out on the manufacturing floor. Although it doesn’t sound too appealing, I’ve had temp jobs working in manufacturing before, so it is not that big of a deal. However, I soon learn that the company has another plant in Lockhart that I will need to visit a couple of times a week for more training research. OK, I guess I could handle a little business travel, since the plant is only about 30 minutes away. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse when I find out exactly what this “plant” in Lockhart really is. It is actually a manufacturing plant inside of a correctional facility. Yeah, a prison. So basically, the job would have me studying the work duties of immigrants and prisoners and then writing understandable training materials. Hey, now that I think about it, it actually sounds like a pretty easy job. I guess I just need to learn the Spanish words for “shiv”, “shank” and “bitch”. For example: “Remember, you should NEVER attempt to unjam the machines with your shiv or shank.” Or how about: “Always work with a buddy. If one is not around, them make someone your bitch.” Ah yes, the many possibilities… So, to make a long story short, I politely declined the job offer and got the hell out of there. I guess you could say I was looking for a different type of position — preferably sitting at a desk, as opposed to getting bent over a routing machine.

Danny and I decided not to go out for Valentines (my choice) but we did decide to exchange gifts. I picked up a bottle of nice whiskey for him at the store and he took me to the Godiva shop at the mall to pick out some chocolates. We went on Saturday night and the mall was already closed by 8. The weather was crappy for the next few days and we somehow never got around to going back to the mall. However, there is a Godiva store in the shopping center near my office, so I planned to just go over there and pick some up during my lunch break.

I went over there yesterday and all of their valentine’s day stuff was majorly discounted. I bought way more chocolate than I ever needed. I’m sure Danny will help me with this dilemma just as I’m helping him imbibe his whiskey.

I hardly ever have godiva chocolates, but I savor them when I do. For example, I sit next to the IS & T department in my office. At Christmas, they got lots of gifts from vendors including a big box of godiva chocolates. They put it out for everyone to share. Note: I am the only female in my area. Although I know some guys really like chocolate, I was the only person salivating as they removed the ribbon and plastic wrapper. I tried to hold back, but there were so many good pieces just sitting there waiting to be devoured. Needless to say, I got teased a little bit. At the end of the day, the IS director sent out an email to my floor saying that they’d better come get some chocolate before I ate them all. Har har. I had already claimed all of the good ones anyway. Haha suckers! Enjoy the lemon cream and nougat ones to your heart’s delight.

Today is my grandparents’ sixty-fourth wedding anniversary. That’s hard to fathom. I mean, can you imagine being with one person for that long? They are both in their late 80s. This means that they did NOT get married when they were 13 or 15 or some other ridiculously young age.

My Dad told me a funny story about them. They wanted to get married on Valentines Day, but they didn’t have enough money between the both of them to pay the minister until payday (the 15th). They had a very small ceremony and there is a cute picture of them standing outside the church with giant smiles on their faces. I don’t think my grandma had a wedding dress, so they are both wearing some nice, 40s-style outfits.

I called them to wish them a happy anniversary. One of my cousins is organizing a small family dinner for them tonight at their house.

Sixty-four years, man…..that’s crazy. These days, lasting for ten years is bordering on a miracle.