Blue Skies!
Weekend is here again! o(^__^)o And not a moment too soon. Despite the fact that I had a shortened work week (having taken Monday off), it still felt like it dragged. Perhaps it's just that time of year, when you'd rather be out doing celebratory things, or just relaxing inside with a hot cup of cocoa instead of slaving away behind a computer all day.
☆ the ring
My week hit a snag on Wednesday morning when I opened my jewelry box and discovered that I was missing my gold Celtic filigree ring. (;___o) It's not worth a lot of money, but has sentimental value as one of my first purchases for myself after I got a full time job out of college. I've had it for a long time, and have loved it. I can't imagine where I lost it, and I'm sure I had it with me when I got back from my trip. My mother once lost a pair of earrings she adored, and hunted around futilely for a similar replacement. Then several months down the line, lo! They reappeared, discovered in the corner of her bathroom. I'm hoping I'll have a similar miraculous recovery. X)
☆ project runway
Caught the final episode of Project Runway, though I was hardly excited about it, having seen and been underwhelmed by the final collections already. Still, it was worth watching, just to see Tim Gunn throw a hissy fit backstage! And I have to admit, the collections did look more interesting when in movement, compared to the online stills.
☆ top chef
We're down to the final four! It's been a pretty predictable season, and I could've guessed this final four very early on in the competition. Why is it that everyone else sucked so bad? Was really happy to see Jen finally get herself together, and I'm hoping she'll be well rested enough to put in a good performance at the finale in Napa. Meanwhile, Michael Voltaggio showed off his douchebaggery to the fullest in this last episode. I was quite amused that everyone he badmouthed ended up winning over him, lol.
The French judges were quite stoic and snobby! I was sorry that Toby Young wasn't there to give them a bit of his British charm and put them off their cool. *g*
☆ ice cream machine!!
So today, aside from getting Christmas cards (finally!), I also got myself an ice cream machine! I'd been thinking of getting one for quite some time, and after some encouragement from whymzycal, I decided to charge ahead with it. I don't have a particular designated dish for this year's Thanksgiving, so I was thinking of making a cranberry vanilla sorbet. Will do a test run this weekend. I'm going to whip up the mix tonight and cool it off overnight so it'll be ready to toss into the machine tomorrow. I'll report back later to let you know if there was success!
☆ plurk
I was introduced to Plurk yesterday, and went ahead and signed up for an account...even though I hardly need to add yet another thing to update to my long list of accounts! XD;; But it's actually been quite fun so far! It's a microblogging service very much like Twitter, but has some interesting features that are similar to LJ, like replying to posts (where replies are connected to the posts and not posted to your own account) and filtering of posts. The filtering function for individual posts is handy, since with Twitter, you have to either lock all or none of your posts.
Anyway, my account is here, if anyone is interested. X)
☆ san francisco
Aaaand, getting back to where I started: San Francisco! My first trip out to Cali was a blast, and there were definitely some beautiful blue skies to be seen! This picture here was taken on a lawn near Mission and 3rd. Nearby, kids were playing catch or chasing seagulls while fashionably dressed ladies walked their equally fashionable dogs. There was also a lovely waterfall/fountain sculpture dedicated to Martin Luther King ("justice rolls down like water"), which was amazing and inspirational.
More under the cut >>
I arrived late Friday evening after a fully packed flight. It felt like pretty long flight, though I've been on longer ones before. The onflight movie was "Julie and Julia," which I had sort of wanted to see, despite the fact that I hated the book. I hated it so much I had to stop reading it half-way through. The movie wasn't so bad, though I found the Julie character almost as infuriating and annoying as she was in the book. Julia Child was very cute, though almost too perfect to be true.
Anyway, got to San Fran and took a cab to a shady looking alley downtown where I went up a narrow, steep flight of stairs and entered quite a beautiful house. My friends and I stayed at a lovely vacation home (which was actually cheaper than a hotel), and it had two floors, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room/dining room with an amazingly high ceiling. It was really comfortable, and I'm convinced that it's the only way to travel!
The next morning, while my friend stayed behind to shower, her husband and I popped over to Tartine, a local bakery/cafe that has some amazing pastry items. We were going to take the bus, but for some reason, I mistakenly thought it was only 0.6 miles away...and so suggested that we walk. It actually turned out to be 1.6 miles! I'm not much of a walker, so it was quite an excursion. Was more than grateful to collapse into a seat at the cafe and sip on a hot cup of cappuccino was nibbling on a breakfast bun. (Pictured above). Delicious!!
Later, we headed toward the Union Square area to look around. This amazing looking building is the Neiman Marcus. I poked in there to see if they had this particular filigree bracelet by Konstantino I'd been eying for a long while. (They did have it, but it was way too big for me...at least now I can stop thinking about it!)
Predictably, the Jimmy Choo limited collection at H&M was completely sold out by 11am. We went around to many of the shops, but my friend and I found nothing we wanted to buy. Not even at the multilevel Banana Republic, which was so enormous I nearly got lost in there. Meanwhile, her husband found all kinds of things to buy in practically every store he stepped into. (@___o);;
That afternoon, we met up with some friends of the husband at Burger Bar, master chef Hubert Keller's casual dining restaurant. (There's one in Vegas too). The menu pretty much stuck to burgers, fries, and shakes, but oh! The selection! There were dozens of toppings you could choose from for your burger, and a mind boggling combination of shakes as well. I was so amused by the photo of Hubert on the shake menu that I had to take a picture of it. XD
I ended up getting my burger with portobello mushrooms and provolone cheese. Yum! The strawberry shake was so smooth and delicious.
But oh! In the middle of our lunch, who do we spot in the restaurant but the man himself, chef Keller! I totally did not expect to see him there, since he has several restaurants all over. What a pleasant surprise! We ended up chatting with him briefly, and he is the sweetest guy you could imagine. ♥ Love him!
After crashing back at the house for a few hours' nap, we managed to haul ourselves out there again, this time for dinner at Ozumo Japanese restaurant. Ooooh my god. The most amazing sushi ever! This place came highly recommended by two separate people, and it's no wonder! Loved everything we ordered, and I'll be doing a more thorough post over at my food blog later. Pictured here is the "shacho" roll with Maine lobster, mango, cilantro, jalapeno, tuna and spicy sesame sauce. So pretty!
Sunday, I had dim sum...with the amazing and lovely whymzycal! ♥ She was darling enough to come down to see me, and we had great times chatting up about everything from food to Saiyuki while supping divinely on tasty dim sum. The food was very good, though quite expensive for what it was. I loved these soupy dumplings, which explode in your mouth with flavorful juices when you bite into it. (*___*)
Later, I met up with gekidasa, and we chatted over tea/coffee and cream puffs at the Beard Papa. X) In a happy coincidence, she happened to be visiting the area on the same weekend! She's petite and cute and lovely. ♥
There was a quick and tasty dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then I was off to the airport, where I took the redeye back to the east coast, arriving bleary-eyed in Philadelphia to wait for my connection. I was so tired by then that I nearly fell asleep on the incredibly short flight to D.C., though I am generally never able to sleep on an airplane.
Crashed for most of Monday, though I had to get up later and drag myself to the dentist appointment that I unsuccessfully tried to weasel my way out of an hour prior.
Guess "jetlagged" isn't an excusable cancellation!
Wow, this post has gotten rather long...
Hope everyone's having a great weekend so far! ♥