God wants us to start cooking again

Today we left the apartment early (10am) to check out the Mountain View farmer's market. We weren't planning on walking away with the entire market, which is what happened after I entered a raffle and was called 2 hours later (back in Cupertino, at this point) by the market manager. It was kind of funny because after she called with the news, without a thought, I launched into one of those mini-speeches you always hear on the radio when people call in and win something, which always start with "oh my god I've never won anything before in my life...."

Sheena took this picture of me outside her car, posing with said cornucopia of local produce.

The winnings are funny because:

1) we haven't cooked once since moving into our new apartment three weeks ago.

2) how can anyone who doesn't run a kitchen make use of this volume of fruit and vegetables before they go bad?

3) we didn't recognize a number of the items we won, for example, the interesting specimen pictured here. If anyone can tell us what it is, you'll win something great in a cool wicker basket.

Anyone want some habaneros? How about a few ears of corn?

Ok, time to go check out the pool and get going on some nectarines.

Darfur

There's a group on Facebook called For Every 1,000 that join this group I will donate $1 for Darfur. Its primary goal, as stated on the site, is to spread awareness about the Darfur genocide that is escalating--it's not featured in the news (Lindsay Lohan gets way more coverage), and the international community hasn't done much to help.

If you're on Facebook, please consider joining. It's not going to add up to a lot of money, but I see the main benefit as showing politicians (i.e. the people who can do something about this) that young people care about this issue. Not that we vote or anything, but yeah.

Also, I got a little mad tonight and used an expletive on a stranger in front of untold numbers of other strangers, but people can be such jerks!

On my recent, tragic descent into lactardation.

Growing up, I drank three glasses of milk a day, one in the morning before school, one at dinner, and a glass of warm milk before bed (all skim, mind you, or I'd be 600 pounds). I had milk with my cereal all through college, but as soon as I transitioned from hitting the dining hall every day to getting my own groceries, milk was no longer sustainable.

I don't drink tall glasses of milk, but I don't know many people who do--it's not very refreshing and it makes your breath smell pretty rank. While I was living alone in Tucson, I bought several quarts of milk only to see them go bad in my fridge. I try my best to run a tight ship, so I started eating soy yogurt for breakfast, instead of cereal with milk.

Fast-forward to the present day, where I am feeble and lactose intolerant as this elderly Asian man:

Honestly, though, I think it's pretty "street" that a light smearing of cream cheese can stop me in my tracks. It wasn't always that way. Alegrias' baked goat cheese, my beloved Precious Stringsters string cheese, brie en croute, even the damn fruit & granola yogurt cup at the cafeteria... man, I miss those guys.

I happen to love soy, and I'm fine with putting soy milk in my latte. But while I adore soy yogurt, soy custard, smoked tofu, and yuba (this all sounds like pretentious spa food, but it's all stuff that's very common to Chinese cuisine), I also miss dairy. In fact, I would rather be allergic to something like red meat than be lactose intolerant. Because lactose intolerance hates freedom. There, I said it!

Adventures in Texas

Eli and I have both been away. I went to Houston for the ASBDC conference; Eli was in New York for a board meeting.

Houston was my first exposure to the great (read: enormous, not a value judgment) state of Texas. Seizing the opportunity, I went to Chick Fil-A twice. Everything in Houston is big. The portions are big, the churches are big, and 90% of the cars on the freeway are pickup trucks, SUV's, or minivans--no exaggeration. I also went to a megamall with Ronni and saw the biggest American flag I have ever seen, at three stories tall. Flying into Houston Hobby Airport, there were McMansions as far as the eye could see.

Let's just say I'm sympathetic to the idea that we should live simply so that others can simply live. I do have a soft spot for fine dining and I've been known to throw it down at the mall, but I think it's important to be aware of how I vote with my wallet.

A tale of two cities...

We had an awesome weekend!

Saturday: Went to Nan Hai bookstore in Millbrae to get my Chinese textbooks. Drove to the Richmond, tried to read in a cafe, but were chased out by an goosey dance instructor yammering on her cell phone. Sought refuge in our car. Eli read, I took a nap. Dinner with SF friends at Chapeau!, then watching some heated beer pong games (including Ronni's farewell match) chez Young & Tony's (click here for a video tour, hee hee).

Sunday: Woke up way too late, put up pictures, put away clothes and books. Drove Eli's car through the car wash. Dinner at Halu Ramen, then Little Miss Sunshine with Cupertino-side friends.

Going back to SF was weird. Our old apartment complex was just purchased last week for a cool $170 million by Archstone, and it's been renamed from St. Francis Place to Archstone South Market.* A huge Peet's Coffee opened up down the street. There were people everywhere! And cabs! But seriously, something about it was off--it just didn't feel like home, even though we called it home only three weeks ago.

* "'Our strategy is to own apartments in the most desirable neighborhoods in the country, where housing is exceptionally expensive, and St. Francis Place is a perfect fit with that strategy,' said R. Scot Sellers, chairman and chief executive officer." GROSS!

Suburban warrior

Kraftwerk? Or underground cult leader? In either case, probably shouldn't be out buying groceries.

Update: 2 hrs later

It was a little sketchy when I had to prepay her for my lessons for the whole month and when she told me to leave the "To" line on my check blank for her to fill out and when she asked me if it would be okay if I give her cash next month, but I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt because it was one of the funnest (funnest?? I've been out of school for a while, clearly) 1.5 hours I've had lately. It's so awesome to be learning stuff and letting my inner nerd get down with its bad self.

So hopefully my money won't go to Sun Myung Moon or whatever, and by the end of the year I will be a Putonghua master. Hen hao!

Ni hao?

I found a Mandarin tutor on Craigslist and have my first session with her in 30 minutes. This means I am not chowing down on Zushi Puzzle with my best mates, but I know you'll understand...

This is kind of a big deal for me because:

1) I don't know Mandarin, but no one knows that I don't know Mandarin. Waitresses from Shanghai to Cupertino assume I'm hard of hearing/mute before devolving into that half-chuckle, half-sigh of realizing, oh, she's one of those kids.

2) This is something I've been meaning to do for a really long time. First, I went the do-it-myself route and bought an impossible computer program (see left) centered around an American exchange student named Sumisu (Smith) with a cloying voice and the fashion sensibilities of Bart Simpson. Then, for about a week, I practiced my pronunciation with Eli, going through all the pinyin sounds. I felt bad because it was so time-consuming, and I wasn't exactly the most focused student.

3) This represents me getting off my ass! I'm driving myself to my tutor's house. Seriously! I don't like to drive at night, but I don't want to be a hermit either. Mommy, I'm all grown up.

More to come once I return...

Labor Day weekend

This past weekend was our first real weekend in the suburbs, and it was an eventful one. Old China-hand Nick was in town Thursday and Friday night on business, executing reverse takeovers in his sleep and fending off the SEC during breakfast. Nick and I spent the 04-05 academic year together at Fudan University, where they are very welcoming to foreign students ("we are grateful for their nice hope and wish they have a nice stay in Fudan").

It looks like I'm not the only one who started having problems with a Verizon Samsung phone this weekend. From Charles' blog:

"I am sorry I didn’t take better care of you when you were under my care. For all the many times I dropped either of you [phone and iPod], stashed you into an uncomfortable bag, or pushed your buttons too hard… I’m sorry."

I, on the other hand, am not sorry. I dropped my phone just once in 14 months, took extra care to stash it in a padded compartment in my shoulder bag every day, and don't have an especially violent phone-flipping technique. So I'm not really sorry at all that my phone is repaying me for all this special treatment by bombing out after 14 months of mediocre service.

I also went to the optometrist this weekend, which was fun. I had some bad pain when I was landing in an airplane two months ago, and I haven't had an eye appointment in almost 2 years, so Sheena cautioned that I should go or my head might explode. They dilated my pupils and looked around inside (nothing was wrong) and then gave me a pair of makeshift sunglasses (the kind that rolls up like a roll of film) to protect my massive-pupiled eyes from the sun. They told me to put my regular glasses on over these, and I then walked around Cupertino village doing a few errands (I guess I thought I would blend in with all the visor
-people). I drove home still wearing my foil face plus glasses, and decided to try replacing my passenger side side view mirror with a kit I bought at Pep Boys. The result was not ideal--I spent 15 minutes cutting the sheet of reflective plastic to fit my mirror fixture, which just reflected a big blur from inside the car, and was seen by no less than two fellow complex residents with my double layer glasses on. I must have seemed like some freak who really enjoyed tinkering with reflective, shiny surfaces, and who aspired to build a whole reflective, shiny lifestyle, regardless of how it affected neighborhood character or local real estate prices.

Jeff was also with us for most of the weekend, and on Monday we saw Ronni, who will be leaving for New York soon (we'll miss you!). We went to a barbeque nearby, where the jalapeno poppers were intense and there was some good conversation about Ninjas, among other things.

All for now....