Stuff

"The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns." Click the link above to see this pretty cool video. I love the graphics, and Annie Leonard captures your attention. It's pretty much "another way" to look at environmental concerns and goes beyond recycling because as this video shows recycling is just not enough! I've been trying to cut down on my own personal consumerism because there is more to life than just accumulating stuff and you can't take stuff with you when you die and stuff won't make you happy and now I know I am being environmentally conscious too!

Movie Weekend

I haven’t posted a pic of my baby nephew in a while. Here he is in his Bumbo. Just before this pic he was positioned to look outside the open sliding glass door that’s behind him and he couldn’t have been happier. He’s such a cool baby. I hope he’s always this relaxed and chill. Mike hasn’t had a chance to see him very often because he works so much but he saw him this weekend and was holding him and playing with him, it was the cutest thing ever! When we got home, I was like you liked him, and he was all, he’s cool!

So, I’m sure everyone and their mother saw Batman this weekend. I’m sure because I saw them all when I was there. After we went to my parent’s house for July birthdays (yes plural, three to be exact) my sister and niece along with my husband wanted to go see it. I didn’t want to go try to see it late at night because I’m lying that I’m 25, I’m really 65 and I have a bed time. We went home before meeting them at the movie theater and I looked at Fandango.com just to see if the movie was sold out or not and it was. At this point I’m thinking alright I get to stay home now and go to bed! Not so much. They all wanted to go to a theater on the other side of town that Fandango couldn’t give me info on. So I went along. We were trying to see the 10:15 show, but it was sold out until 11:15. Again, immediately I think yeah we get to go home! Again, not so much. When I’m tired I’m cranky so I was like “I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna!” I still lost. We waited around for an hour for the movie to start. Now, you may be asking me “hey Amanda, what did you think of the movie that you drove around town and went to so much effort to see?” Well, the answer, my friend, is I don’t know. Because I fell asleep. That’s how old I am. It seemed like a really GREAT movie for the first hour and forty-five minutes of the two and half-hour running time. I’m totally bummed that I don’t know what happened. But Heath Ledger did do an awesome job. I’ve already seen the quote “I can make this pencil disappear” on someone’s Twitter. If you didn’t wait in line for an hour to see this movie this weekend then you may not know what I’m talking about. If you did then you can go ahead and quote something from the last half of the movie and I’ll be the one left out with no clue what you’re talking about.

Finally San Fran

AHHH!!! It’s been almost a month and I haven’t written about my recent trip to SF with the hub. Despite my prediction that we would bicker over silly things and spend most of our short time together trying to make up, I was surprisingly wrong! We got along beautifully the whole time. I’m pretty sure I know the reason why…I think Mikey has discovered that he just needs to do and say what I want and I’m perfectly happy and if I’m happy then he’s happy. Oh how my little bear has grown, I’m such a proud mama.

On to little tid bits of our time in the cold, overcast, city.

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We get there and drive around our hotel and notice three Indian (my FAV) restaurants right away. So we throw our stuff in our hotel room (after a lengthy check in process see previous post) and run to go eat. As we are leaving the hotel there are several sedan drivers waiting around and Mike asks their opinion of the best one in the area. The guy says we HAVE to go to this one that’s further away than all the ones I can see from where we are standing and gives us directions. Well, gives Mike directions. Never trust Mike with directions. NEVER. So we are going along and suddenly find ourselves in the scariest part of any city I’ve ever been in. We are now surrounded by obvious prostitutes and people that heavily support the underground drug industry and fear that I will feel the sharp pain of a knife in my kidney any second. Mike is trying to look at a map and I scold him “look like you know what you’re doing and walk fast!!!”

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Walking around the city we pass by some of the happiest and friendliest bums we’ve seen and the man shouts out to me “ooh lady, you got good taste. He’s WOOONDAFUL” we’ve been laughing ever since.

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Scene: Mike and I in the elevator with a hotel employee. Mike: “Your name is Hakeem?” to the gentleman wearing a nametag engraved with “Hakeem.” Me: (in my head) OH MY GOSH, he did NOT just say that! You may wonder what is wrong with this. Anyone seen the movie “Coming to America”? The second the man exited the elevator I KNEW I was going to get Mike’s LOUD impression of the father in that movie going “HAKEEM!!!” you have to hear Mike do it to really get this story…

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And some more pics...

Us in the car at the beginning of our road trip.


Our new car knows my name!!



The view from our hotel room.

Nordstrom, Forever 21, Anthropologie are just a few of the stores visible from our room!

We went to the aquarium out on Pier 39. This is me in a tunnel with millions of school fish all around. I love how they look like little lights behind me in the dark!

Mike in the tunnel. More schools. And a Starfish.

Mike getting interactive with the fish.

Me and the famous seals of Pier 39. This is the only thing I remember from my San Fran trip when I was a kid. It wasn't the season for them this time so there weren't very many.

Mike and I on the double decker bus tour. It was one of those things that you can hop on and off as much as you wanted for two days. That is, if the bus actually shows up. We waited around for 45 minutes for the first bus. And then at the end of the day I lost my ticket! Two pieces of advice: if you take a double decker bus in SF DON'T take the older run-down looking bus (we purchased our tickets without seeing the equipment) there are other newer, nicer looking buses if you wait outside Macy's in Union Square. Two: Don't keep your absolutely-necessary- to-ride-the-bus ticket in your back pocket when you are walking around all day. It will shimmy it's way out with every step you take. Fortunately for me, I was able to wave the bus map to the ticket checker as the long pushy line behind me distracted the ticket checker. Also note Mike's new shades. I've been hearing about these amazing $7 shades since we got home and how he should have bought more!

Me on a lion in China Town. To most people this is abnormal behavior. Whenever we are away from home and we see big lion sculptures, it reminds us of our big kitty, Murray.

Me on an anchor. Also possibly classified as abnormal behavior. I have no explanation for this one. I just thought it was cool. I asked Mike to pose with it and he stood next to it like a boring person, so I had to show him how it's done.

Dude, Where's Mike's Car?

This is Mike's new car! This is a stock photo from Toyota's website, but it's the same thing. I bought it for him last Friday night before we headed off to San Fran for the weekend. We looked everywhere for this exact model, in this color, with the specs that we wanted and we finally got a call Friday night that it was coming in from another dealership for us. I rushed over there while Mike was working and snagged this baby up just in time for 394 miles on Saturday morning! We didn't end up getting home until about 11pm on Friday night because after I bought it I was about a half an hour from my home with two cars so I had to drive to Mike's dealership, wait till he got off, then we had to drive back to where my car was and then home! All before we had to get up super early on Saturday. I wasn't very happy because when Mike was a salesmen he would follow people to help them get their cars home and have someone pick him up and my salesmen was NOT willing to do this even though I asked him several times...and he wants me to put "Excellent" on his evaluation of him...yeah, we'll see about that buddy!

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Quick SF story. So, going to SF was a last minute decision. We figured it was close, we've never been, we could do it cheap. I told Mike to find a hotel. So he calls me a few nights before we are set to leave and says "So, the 19th and the 20th right?" Me: "No, the 21st and the 22nd. Saturday and Sunday night." Mike: "Saturday and Sunday are the 19th and the 20th." Me: "No, not really." We eventually figured out that he was looking at JULY!!! End of story, right? Not so much when you're dealing with Mike B. We get to the hotel on SATURDAY, THE 21st and she says (surprise of all surprises): "I have you checking in on July 19th." Yes, he really did still go ahead and make our reservations for July. Oh, Mikey, how I love thee? Let me count the days...

Point A to Point B

Tomorrow Mike and I are embarking on our longest car trip ever for our 6-year wedding anniversary. I know we said no vacations this year, so we are taking a 3-day weekend road trip to San Francisco. That’s not vacation! Vacation is Cancun, Maui, Paris…somewhere that you have to fly and you stay longer than 3 days! My personal bet is that I will be pulling out my hair before we even hit the road…Mike will say something that he thinks is funny but will hurt my feelings and we’ll make up somewhere near San Luis Obispo. Mike can hardly handle the car ride to San Diego or Vegas, so this will be interesting! I haven’t been to the Frisco since I was a kid and Mike has never been and we have absolutely no plans. We barely secured a hotel a couple of days ago, we bought a GPS unit to reduce wasted hours on being lost, and we don’t have a clue what we will actually do there. We’ll probably just ask the concierge at the hotel which direction we should head and explore the city. We will really only be there one full day and two half days so there’s not a lot we can do in such a short amount on time.

Miracle Fruit

I just read an article about this tiny fruit that tastes like a less flavorful cranberry but the after effects are that it re-wires your taste buds for about an hour making everything you eat taste good! The article says Tabasco tastes like doughnut glaze. And eating a lemon tastes as sweet as candy.

Here's a quote:

"The miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, is native to West Africa and has been known to Westerners since the 18th century. The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids."

Here's the link:

Miracle Fruit

Sounds like a fun party to me! It would be so weird to try a jalapeno (something I HATE) and have it taste good!

BUG

The other day my niece sent me a text message with the picture above and this message: “Downside to working in a plant nursery. I don’t know what I’m going to do with this thing!” This was the conversation that ensued:

Me: Ew!!! What is it? It looks like a scorpion. I would call the army.

Her: Haha. I don’t know what it is. It’s got wings and it keeps shakin that little tail on his butt. It LOOKS like something out of a steven king movie.

Me: Agreed. I think this might be the apocalypse.

Her: That would explain the weather. I’m waiting for the locusts.

Me: Maybe that’s what that thing is! Run!

Her: Hahaha. I’m keeping my eye on him. One quick movement and I quit.

Me: Sounds completely reasonable to me.

Her: I just went and got backup. Problem solved.

Her: BTW I had to physically remove a butterfly the other day.

Me: Butterflies are harmless, why not let it be?

Her: In my office? No way. Anyway I think they’re poisonous.

Me: No way butterflies aren’t poisonous.

Her: Have you ever been bitten by one? Then you don’t know!

Me: You’ve been bitten by a butterfly?!

Her: No. I probably wouldn’t be alive right now if I had.

Me: “No butterflies are so poisonous that they kill people or large animals.”

Her: You can’t make stuff like that up, Miss Animal Planet…this isn’t Wikipedia.

Me: Ha! I went to Children’s Butterfly Site!

Her: Yeah yeah. My mom seems to think that bug had rights and that he should’ve been named and gotten a desk and a computer. Psh.

Me: Not sure about all that but I’ve been known to cry while smashing spiders.

Her: Out of fear or pity?

Me: 80% pity. 20% fear. They only thing they really do to justify their dying is scare the shit out of me.

Her: For which they MUST die. You should get a gmail account. Then we could talk all the time!

Me: Your gmail account is too good to talk to my yahoo account?

It went on for about another 20 minutes from there on whose account is better.

Vegas is Calling

OMG! The universe wants me to go to on vacation! I know we had pledged no vacations this year so that I can quit my job, but we are both starting to get the itch since summer is just around the corner. Earlier this week, just out of curiosity, we started looking at New York New York. We have never stayed there before but it looks cute. So the very next morning I received an email from New York New York offering me a special!

I was like it’s a sign, we must go now! But we didn’t go or make plans to go. THEN! I got an email from Cirque Du Soleil offering a 35% discount on some of their Vegas shows! I’ve never seen CDS offer discounts because they are so bomb and they don’t have to, but they did! And everyone knows the only reason I like Vegas is for the shows. Now, I just keep getting emails like everyday telling me that I should go. It’s either a higher power or very effective marketing. I’m not sure which.

Oprah is Vegan!

YES! It’s true! Vegans are taking over the world, one world leader at a time! Okay, so the true story is that Oprah has committed to a 21-day “cleanse” that prohibits the consumption of caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products. This is pretty much my daily diet with the exception of an occasional alcoholic beverage (like once a month) and I don’t have a problem with gluten so I eat it but not in truckloads. I have a friend who is gluten intolerant, aka Celiac disease, and she will tell you for days how amazing she feels being off gluten.

Back to the O. She had guest Kathy Freston, author of Quantum Wellness on her show and they discussed conscious eating. And the O decided that she would commit to being a conscious eater. This is what O says about what conscious eating is: “How can you say you're trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?” My thought on this is why is it cool to eat a pig or a cow but you wouldn’t dream of eating your cat or dog? Animals are animals, they all have eyes, brains, blood, bones, lungs, etc. And come to think of it humans all have those things too which is why we are ALL in the category of mammal. Animal rights is not the reason I made the switch 5 years ago; I did it because I had a horrible diet that consisted mostly of donuts, candy, and pizza. Restricting my diet considerably allowed my taste buds to start enjoying REAL food like beans, avocados, and all other plant based foods that I used to hate and actually found revolting. Now I LOVE them! So most people ask “what do you eat?” Here are two versions of the vegan food pyramid:

Way to go O! You can follow her blog on her website to hear her progress. I can’t wait to hear how she feels after 21 days!

Vegan Food Pyramid

Yoga

You may or may not already know that I have subjected myself to the incredibly torturous event of taking a 12-week yoga teacher training program. You may ask yourself “why, why would you do that?” My answer originally would have been “because I love yoga and I want to share it with everyone I meet.” Now my answer looks a little bit more like this “because I hate myself, I hate free time, and I love physical, mental, and emotional anguish.” I’m currently working on one-third of the final. Yes, one-third, because it’s a three part final. For Yoga. The first part is a take home exam. The second part is an in class exam. And the third part is teaching one pose to the entire class. In preparation for part three, we are having practice poses that we are teaching to the entire class, then the TA criticizes, I mean critiques, us. Well, I’m not a very good yoga teacher and after 10 weeks of the program I had pretty much already figured it out but after the practice session I just know it for sure now. Which is awesome, because I know that I am not deluded, but rather, that which I think of myself, others also think! Bonus. It really wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. I just got pissed off because I did a fairly good job, and I was the first to go, and I got my entire script out of the manual that they provided for us. The pose I had to instruct was “Cat/Cow” or “Cat’s Breath” Where you go back and forth between these two actions and you move along with your breath:
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I started the class on an inhale, that’s how I usually start breathing and that’s also how the manual explained the pose “inhale this, exhale that, inhale do this, exhale to that” so that’s how I taught it. Then I said “curl your chin to your chest.” But obviously that’s wrong even though THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE MANUAL SAID! And lastly, when they were done Cat/Cowing I had them rest on the floor. She thought I said “lift your forehead from the floor” I didn’t say LIFT I said REST. REST! Finally my friends in the front stood up for me and were like “she said rest, this I know.”