serendipity

Chez moi

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Salmon with mango and avocado salsa - all made by Xav for dinner tonight. Lucky, lucky me.

Conservatory of Flowers Exhibit (Golden Gate Park)

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Go and see the butterflies (yes, this is one).

 

 

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They fly around and land on little kids.

 

 

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They flock to emergency exits. 

 

 

 

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Pretty.

 

Open until November.

Expletive Deleted

"Dear Karen,

Your 25th reunion will be here sooner than you think. Get back together with the Mountain View High School Class of 1982. Start on your reunion group page, where friends and fellow alumni can gather to share news, photos, and more. Reunion day will be here before you know it – check out your reunion page now!"

Understand me

Courtesy of Alaina and Kathryn "the best personality test ever." Get yours right here.

 

Little devil

QotD: Weekend Goal Follow-Up

We had no goals this weekend, in fact, we had no plans at all. And before the weekend even arrived, we also had no kids. Juju decided that 3 1/2 was the perfect age to have her first-ever sleepover and on her own initiative she asked the nanny to take her home with her Friday night. Not to be outdone (nor left behind with the evil parents), Cassandre called her grandmother and arranged for her own sleepover.

Suddenly we were free.

The only problem was that we had no idea what to do with ourselves. This kind of event usually takes the same amount of planning as a space shuttle launch so we were caught somewhat off-guard. Where to go? What to do?

Restaurants. The kind where they scowl when we come in with little kids.

First on deck was Lure. We spent Friday morning with our architect (another story I will tell later - we are going to move the fly shop) then we took him to lunch. Lure is not set up for kids so we were off to a good start. Wine with lunch (of course).

Friday night we went to Pisces in Burlingame. It's a sister restaurant to Aqua and I've passed it many times on the train - it's right next to the tracks (feels like on the tracks, but I don't mind). The food was good and the cocktails were delicious (lychee & vodka martinis). But we noticed little kids at another table - which was both good and bad. Good because that means we can come back with ours, bad because our goal was to eat where we can't normally go with them.

Saturday we thought we would go to Hog Island since it is one of our favorites haunts and it's hard to do with kids - they won't eat anything on the menu. But as we were driving up we realized we were really craving  subs from Mighty Viking on Lombard. We picked up two of them and ate them over by the marina near the St Francis Yacht Club while watching the sailboats. They were delicous and we loved every bite of our subs, but we could have done this with the kids. Time to get back to  the plan. We headed downtown.

We walked around Union Square - this was good - it would have bored the girls to tears. The only problem was that it kind of bored Xav to tears. Discovered DeVera (recommended by Scott) and went into William Sonoma to see what $21 million worth of architecture can buy you these days. It's very pretty - all four stories of it. You can get a Cornue Rotisserie for $8k if you are willing to wait four months and build a custom chimney to put it in.

Saturday evening found us at Cafe de la Presse. Xav used to go there all the time to buy his French magazines, but we hadn't been inside since the remodel. I had no idea until just now that it is also a sister restaurant to Aqua. If only we'd eaten at Aqua, we could have completed the trilogy. In any case we had delicious cocktails at the bar - can't do that with kids - and a very nice dinner downstairs. Salade aux lardons, yum (I'm from the everything tastes better with bacon school of thought).

Sunday the girls returned home and things went back to normal. After a joyfull reunion of hugs and kisses, the girls were fighting within the hour. "Mama, she put a lollipop in my hair on purpose!" "No I didn't!" "Yes she did!" (Yes, she did) and the house was a disaster of blocks and snacks.

Back to normal.

Dear Lazyweb music buffs

I love my workout music but it needs a refresh.

I've got my mix set so that I have a couple of songs to warm up to, then it kicks into more high-energy songs to get my lazy butt moving faster.  As you will see, I'm a little stuck in the '80s. I need advice from my hipster Vox friends to introduce me to new stuff.

Some preferences: I'm not much into rap, but I do like hip hop - the little I know of it. I don't mind profanity (I personally swear like a sailor). I don't want it to be too disco-like, I grew up in the 70s/80s - I know that music too well.

The goal is to keep my body moving and to keep my mind from getting bored. I don't watch TV when I work out, I watch the basketball boys.

Here's what I've got. What should I add? I would especially love it if you suggest where in the stream they fit best.

1. Nothing's Impossible - Depeche Mode  (warm up)
2. A pain that I'm used to - Depech Mode (warm up)
3. Pump It - Black eyed Peas (Time to move faster)
4. Don't Phunk with my heart - Black Eyed peas
5. Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child
6. Place to Go - 50 Cent
7. Nake Eye - Luscious Jackson
8. The Rockafeller Skank - Fatboy Slim
9. Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott
10. Ba Bump - Black eyed Peas
11. Family Affair - Mary J. Blige
12. Suffer Well - Depeche Mode
13. My Humps - Black Eyed Peas
14. No scrubs - TLC
15. These things - She wants revenge
16. Jump - Madonna
17. Song of Life - Leftfield
18. Dum Diddy - Black eyed peas (great for crunches)
19. U got the Look - Prince
20. Never Say Never - romeo Void
21. Dreaming - Blondie
22. Satellite - bosco
23. The Metro - Berlin
24. Opportunities - Pet Shop Boys
25. Time the Avenger - The Pretenders
26. Infected - The The
27. Go - Tones on Tail
28. Working in a Coal Mine - Devo
29. This is the Day - The The
30. I would die 4 U - Prince

As you can see, things start to fall apart somewhat, about halfway through the mix. I like all the songs in the mix, but the order is not quite right.

What should I add, oh wise music people?

Edamame Ravioli at Lure (delish)

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Oh Betty

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Ai caramba

Woke up sore.

In a mostly good way.

Trying to imagine what it will feel like when those muscles are strong instead of stressed out.

Definitely sitting up straighter, if only because it hurts to sit the other (bad) way.

Weight room, friend or foe?

I have been going to the gym since October in a not-so-feeble attempt to control what I look like, or at least feel like, in this uncertain territory known as forty-freaking-two.

I have been pretty diligent, going at least two, often three times a week, and establishing a nice little routine that all the experts say is mandatory to making this a permanent life change. It didn't hurt that my routine coincided nicely with basketball night when a group of guys in their 20s play half court basketball right underneath the elliptical machines. They are quite nice to look at. They provide some much-needed motivation to stay on that damn elliptical for another ten minutes.

The weight room at my club is big. Really it's huge and aside from the obvious barbells, I have no idea what any of that stuff is or what I'm supposed to do with it. It is a foreign land 98% occupied by large, sweaty men. I don't actually find those guys very attractive - too big - too fake - too stinky. But the few women in there are amazing. Buff and holding their own in what appears to my eyes a hostile environment. (This is almost certainly my own insecurity talking, I've never seen anyone be anything other than self-absorbed and sweaty in the weight room. I may have issues.)

I met Dan in the weight room several weeks ago. He's a trainer for the club who looks like he knows what he's doing. Very buff, handsome and popular. He was totally unavailable for anything more than 5 minutes of advice - he had way too many other clients. This meant, of course, that he had to become my trainer. Even after 20 years in marketing, I still fall for the same old hooks.

The other day I walked up to him and asked if he had any room in his schedule at all. Today he did. One slot at 3:30 on Thursday. Right smack in the middle of the work day. And see that list of people on the side oh his planner? That's the wait list.

I'll take it.

Thursday was today. I met Dan in the weight room and we talked. I don't look too bad he says, I have potential. If I work hard, I could look exactly like I want. (Well we all know that's a lie, because no matter what, Dan can't make me look 25 again.)

Then for the next hour he kicked my ass all over the weight room.

Shoulder shrugs with barbells. Lunges. Pull this. Lift that. Faster. 10 more. Almost there. Ok. you can stop now.

It was exactly what I needed.

The truth is that I watch people like Alaina with the utmost of admiration, awe and a bit of jealousy. I have almost no discipline when it comes to my workout. I can make myself go, but I can't make myself go the extra mile. For one thing, I have no idea what the extra mile looks like. That's where Dan comes in.

Now he wants to know what I've been eating. And we both know that it's not what I've been eating, but what I've been drinking that is the problem. A bientot red wine (a bientot, not au revoir), there's a new sheriff in town.

I signed up for 12 sessions.