Which drink are you?

Libbey Vina Martini Glass, Set of 6

Libbey, Kitchen, $19.99

yawn
I’ve been up since yesterday. Yep, you got it, I never went to bed. I sometimes have these bouts of insomnia.

Yes, that IS San Francisco in the background. For someone (and it’s important to point out that we are talking about a Brazilian someone) who lived in Rochester, NY for 9 years, a couple of inches of snow doesn’t really mean much.

However, when this someone lives in a house with no insulation, then those couple of inches might as well be a couple of feet.

Especially if one starts to wonder whether someone’s heater is actually working. Because it’s been 3 hours since it stopped working. And it’s getting extremely cold here. The temperature gauge is showing that it’s 55 in here and the thermostat is set to 80. Oh no! Someone thinks the heater is broken! Help!

West Bend 88503 3-Qt

West Bend, Kitchen, $47.99

Who knew fondue could be so much fun? Ok, I have to confess we did hit some snags. Although we enlisted Heidi to be the fondue chef (you know, thinking someone by that name would know at least a thing or two about fondue), Su and I were not as knowledgeable in getting the right equipment. Su got her pot at Marshall’s for $18 (the box said irregular but she didn’t think that was an issue. After all, it’s not like we would be lighting a fire under it and gather around it all night long). Mine was from Target but in the end, both pots were equally good. The problem was that we didn’t realize we needed to get special fuel. Actually, that’s not entirely true, I did buy liquid fondue fuel but Su’s pot only worked with gel fuel (for whatever crazy reason). So Su and Heidi had to make a last minute run to Target (good thing it’s only a block from my house. And yes, they did drive) while Susan, Lenore, Fariba, and I tried not to eat the cubed bread.

The Book of Fondues (Book of

Lorna Rhodes. HP Trade 1989, Paperback, 120 pages, $12.00

The next problem was the cheese. I had mentioned that there would be a lot of “cubing” going on and Su thought that meant she should cube the cheese (although I clearly recall saying that the cheese should be grated). Anyway, there were too many people in the kitchen so it was hard to communicate. So one of the cheeses was cubed and the other was grated. And as you probably guessed, our first batch of cheese fondue was all lumpy (even though Heidi got it started on the stove and tried to melt all the cheese cubes). But it was still yummy and it was gone in 2 seconds (except for the semi-melted cubes). So Heidi made another batch (which was also good but we decided that next time we’ll use less wine). Then came the chocolate fondue. I forgot how much I liked chocolate fondue! Anyway, I basically had to fast all day Sunday just to compensate for all the calories consumed on Saturday night. But it was well worth it.

Yesterday, as I was sorting through my CDs for the fondue party, I realized that I needed a better stereo for the living room. The one I’m currently using is almost 12 years old and I didn’t want to move my good stereo from the bedroom to the living room since I sometimes use it as my backup alarm clock. As I was browsing the internet to see what’s out there in terms of audio equipment, I decided I would get a DVD player with a 5-disc changer instead. I had been meaning to get a DVD player for the past year or two and this would solve both my problems. So I headed to Good Guys. My VCR is also not that great so I thought I would get a new one too. I might as well hook everything up all at once since I knew it would be a pain to get it right without messing up my TiVo connection.

So I’m at Good Guys and after a lengthy conversation with the cheesy sales guy, I have my mind set on a DVD player and a VCR. Now, during the sale, some nerdy guy interrupted us and asked the sales guy a question about their cheapest DVD player. I was ok with that; it only took about a minute to answer his questions. Anyway, the sales guy leaves to get my stuff and says: “I’ll be right back with your stuff, I just need to ask that other sales rep over there a quick question.” I’m cool with that so I wait. And I wait. And wait. And then wait some more. I then look over to the other side of the store and see my sales guy looking something up on the terminal for the nerdy guy. I’m pretty pissed but figure it won’t take too long, maybe he’s just checking to see if they have the cheapo DVD player in stock. But he keeps typing away at the terminal. And he types, and types, and types. I can hardly believe it; it’s like he’s trying to make two sales at once. So I march over to him and tell him that I didn’t realize he was first going to ring up a sale for a customer who go there after me and that, since that was the case, I would be making my purchases elsewhere.

Just another great example of excellent customer service.

On Friday, I went to get my picture taken for my greencard application. The picture needs to include your right ear with no earrings or anything covering it (see example on the left, from this very handy site). It’s simply not a flattering pose and then you’re stuck with a greencard with a bad picture on it for the next 10 years. As if my horrible passport photo wasn’t enough!

It’s a little unnerving (to say the least) to follow Jenny on Tina’s list of blogs. You see, they’re in order of update frequency and let’s just say that Jenny is in a whole different league of frequent blogger.

Last night, I stopped by a liquor store near my house to get a bottle of kirsch for tonight’s fondue. Let me tell you, it was a scary experience. I don’t live in the best neighborhood and I should have taken that into consideration before stopping at a seedy liquor store. The owner was this older Korean guy and he was very nice. The problem was with the “customers”. I really wish I didn’t understand Spanish since I would have been better off not knowing what they were saying as I was standing next to them. Anyway, since I’m probably the only customer who ever bought a bottle of kirsch, the owner and I had to go on this wild tour of the place until we found it. And that involved a walk through the porn aisle while all the drunk guys watched and grinned. Lovely.

A short pictorial story of a day in the life

Yesterday was an extremely productive day. I feel like it was a good trade-off to stay here and catch up instead of getting the free spa treatment (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).

So to annoy one of the readers of my blog, this was my day yesterday:

Woke up and read the paper (which I usually do at night since I never get up early enough to do it before work).

Then went to the car wash and used one of the gift certificates Heidi gave me for Christmas

Stooped by the AT&T store to get a new phone. Got a Motorola (even though it looks a little too “startrekky” for my taste)

Went to the doctor

Stopped by HoldEverything at Town & Country Village to see if they had a coat rack. They didn’t. At least not at the store so the salesperson gave me a catalog

Headed over to Macys at the Stanford Mall. Got several earrings (my mom loved my earrings so I’m sending them to her. Therefore, I had to buy several other pairs to replace it). Also bought a new pair of sunglasses (plastic this time, the wireframe ones got all bent and twisted so I now accept that I’m a plastic sunglasses type of person). Also HAD to stop by the Chanel counter to get some perfume and makeup

Got home, checked email and phone messages. Grabbed a Balance Bar.

Went to the post office to pick up some packages and send the earrings to my mom. Also went to Safeway to buy spinach.

Home again. Worked out for about 45 mins.

Worked (I do have my priorities straight)

Programmed my new phone and worked some more

Took a bath then watched some TV (my TiVo was complaining it was too full).

Left to meet Sara at the pub

Got home and crashed.

I spent all day today wondering what to do. Here’s the deal: tomorrow, we have a work trip up to Napa. usually don’t like these company-sponsored activities but I was actually excited about this one. We had different choices of things to do during the day and I had picked the spa to get a facial and a massage. Then yesterday I was feeling sick and stayed home. Today I was better but still not 100%.

Then I casually started mapping out the day tomorrow:
6:30 am wake up
6:55 am leave for work to catch the bus to Napa
7:15 bus leaves Mountain View, stops is San Mateo, San Francisco and then heads up to Calistoga
10:00ish we arrive in Calistoga
10:01 until 12:00 walk down Main Street and check out shops
12:00 till 1:30 get facial and massage
1:31 until 5:15 walk down Main Street again
5:15 either take bus back to Mountain View (option 1) or stay for dinner at the Culinary Institute (option 2)
5:16 go for option 1
8:00 get back to parking lot where we picked up the bus
8:20 get home
With Option 2, I probably wouldn’t have been home until 11:30 PM.

So as appealing as a spa treatment and a dinner at the CIA seemed, I decided to skip the trip. I think the deal breaker was realizing that I would have to depend on this bus and that I would be stranded in Calistoga with no way of getting back if all of a sudden I felt very sick or very bored. That scared me.

I hate to write about books. In college, my minor was Literature and I bullshitted my way through all my courses. So I’m not sure why I’m doing this other than as a response to a couple of requests from friends and blog readers. Don’t expect lengthy paragraphs, the most you’ll get is a “I recommend” or “I don’t recommend” or “eh”.

Ok, here we go…

Swift as Desire (Random House Large Print) (Random House Large Print (Hardcover))

Laura Esquivel. Random House Large Print 2001, Hardcover, 336 pages, $22.00

Swift as Desire - Laura Esquivel
Argh! This book is painful to read! You would have thought I would have gathered that much just judging by the cover design but I enjoyed Like Water for Chocolate so much that I thought I would give it a try. And trying I have been for the past 2 months. The book is simply too dry and I have no desire to find out what happens next (as in what’s on the next page and not necessarily what happens next in the plot since it seems to be lacking one). Anyway, tonight will be its last chance. If I still don’t like it, it will end up in a book shelf tomorrow, unfinished.