Tour of California

Somewhere in the honeymoon planning (99% C's expertise), we had to figure out how to see Monaco. Option 1...see Monaco + the Grand Prix, its cover fee, and the 7800 euro hotel rooms, option 2...just with the cover fee, or option 3...see Monaco but no race for half a day and then get the hell out of the area. How much would you pay to catch a glimpse of race cars?

Oh look the Tour of California's in Santa Cruz. I can test out what it's like to line up for hours to catch a glimpse of some bikes.


Went with the parents b/c dad is a big cycling fan. We're at the intersection of bonny doon and hwy 1 in davenport. Yes, it's about 45 degrees, raining, and I just stood there and waited.


Pack 1, the leaders going up the hill. They go really fast, if you have a camera, you just shoot, you can't think. Or just watch, that's easier.


After pack1 you get their drivers and their bikes and security.


Then the peloton. See I got the guy in the yellow jersey. I don't know who he is.


About 10 seconds and that's it. We headed to Santa Cruz to watch them again on the downhill. Even faster.

Now Monaco would be like this except 1) awesome weather; 2) ancient city instead of beach; 3) seats would suck; 4) trillions of people - but beautiful people; and 5) cost several hundred dollars.

So it's a close call but I think this blog won't be liveblogging the Grand Prix.

Short Post

Last post was # 300. Woohoo!

I really wanted to see a Tesla (the car). I feel a kinship with it. I know about awesome overpriced innovatively world changing yet unnecessary to the normal person items. I have one. Mine's called a Kindle. I'm the only person I've ever seen with a Kindle and I look.

So anyway I went Tesla hunting. There's supposedly one in Palo Alto and one in Los Altos. Tesla owners are probably important people, important people have power lunches. And those towns have small downtowns.

Moral of the story: I saw the blue Tesla. It was driving, went ultra fast. Could not actually confirm that it was a Tesla.

Realized in retrospect, I could just go to the Tesla dealer.

Ann Arbor Again

Assorted pictures from Winterland. More snow than I've ever seen. Including the Japan/Korea winter trip. I came back because I didn't think it snowed. Yes, it does snow.

Cat out on a "warm" day.


"Toured" the Univ of Michigan in weather cold enough to burn my face. Last time I saw the undergrad side. This time, collection of relevant grad schools in 10 minutes.

First the law quad. This is where future supreme court clerks reside.

School of business. Future investment bankers & ultrarich douchebags. C tells me those jobs don't exist any more. Well, he was right about the snow . . . but removing the bankers would destroy NYC. That's like terrorism.


Visited the mall in Troy, MI. Troy is a suburb of Detroit. It's where the rich people live. The mall has all your luxury brands, a Saks, Neiman Marcus, but people drive luxury American cars instead of European cars. It doesn't look like a recession.

P.F. Chang's is a top end restaurant. Right by the valet parking. Quality.


Snow & icicles at C's complex.


I also went to Meijer. It's like Walmart + Target rolled into one, with fresh produce too. Ann Arbor is about 500% more strip-mall like than you would imagine. And people aren't as excited by snow as you would expect.

Cats & Rabbits & Save the Date

The Wedding Website is LIVE.

If you know this blog exists, you're probably invited. Please take the Wedding Survey! And even if you think you aren't invited, you should take the survey anyway because we need help picking out a dog name.

In celebration of the fact that we finished our website and reminded the world and ourselves of the wedding, the cat-that-is-not-Yellowcat caught a rabbit.



And then proceeded to eat the rabbit. My mom made a video. Halfway through she tries to tell the cat that he's eating a rabbit. As if he didn't know.


Off to Motown for a few days.

Are we really Chinese?

Pictures from Chinese New Year Party #1: desperately pretending we didn't sell out to another culture. Was I ever not whitewashed? And does anyone care?

View from relative's house - out to salt ponds towards Moffet.



One Japanese bobtail + One Wii



Half a cousin + some lego houses



Me + dinner



Cupcake cake (birthdays too)



Buddhist Temple in San Jose. First time I've gone because I feel like I need to start this year off on the right foot. It's quite chaotic.



You can find little serene moments if you try hard enough.



Happy Year of the Ox.

By July 1st, 2009, I will have a dog(s)

The question is, which kind?

Golden Gate Kennel Club dog show this weekend @ the Cow Palace. First time I've been here.



My choices for future Yellowcat dog, in order:

1) Newfoundland. Tops out at 150lbs, a "giant" breed, dies in 6-10 years because its too big for life.

Show newfies are young & small & very sweet.



Drools a lot. Possibly too large for a non-ranch residence.



2) Rottweiller. Here's me w/one. No one else approves of the Rottweiler except me, and this includes homeowner's insurance/renting policies.



3) Any other breed of giant dog, possibly . . .

St Bernards.


Great Pyrenees.



Tibetan Mastiff. They can get to 160 pounds.
[not shown; not seen at show]

4) I could also accept any dog capable of pulling a sled, like the Alaskan Malamute. They are judged according to their ability to pull sleds.



btw: newfs can also pull carts. see newf youtube video.

C's dog picks.

1) The no-tail Corgi in red/white. C's never had a dog so he thinks we shouldn't start with the giant breeds.



They're so friendly they just jump on strangers. They can't protect me like the rottweiler. C thinks friendly dogs are a plus.



2) Beagle. This also sums up C's entire experience with dogs. He met a few corgis and lived with a beagle for a few months. Oh no he also housesat a massive black dog once, so massive black dogs are also out.

[not shown. how you miss a beagle at a dog show, beats me]

3) Golden Retrievers. C thinks these are still a little large, but likes their stupid smiling friendly faces.


They are a little small for me.

Dogs I used to have:

1) Duchess my English Springer Spaniel. These show dogs are half her size.



2) Leo the sheltland shepdog. Bunch of shelties here in the showring. They're also about half the size of my dog.



Giant Dog I will never own:

1) Giant poodle.



No pictures of toy dogs or terriers . . . not my kind of dog. Plus it was really really crowded.

So what kind of dog will I get? Find out in a few months!

Roll!!

She rolls for hours every day on this strip of carpet outside.


Enlarge to see veins on her ear.

Providing Value or Yellowcat Crazy Truth #201

The hardest part of unemployment/underemployment is trying to avoid curling into a shell and becoming socially isolated and generally disagreeable.

Put another way, don't be like these people:

But “the husbands become what I call ‘clickers,’ ” Ms. Reiss said. “These are unemployed men who sit on the couch all day, holding the remote and watching TV, unable to step up and take over some of the household tasks and chores associated with raising the kids.”

The guy in this rather unconvincing article solved this problem in part by creating a blog and self-branding. I wanted to do something similar. Except he's an investment analyst and awesome. He's probably a little peeved that the article is classified as "fashion" instead of "unemployed investment analyst."

I'll tell you I'm transitioning from wannabe lawyer, to potential future holder of short term assignments/barely gainful employment. But the other side of the equation includes trying to be a fun and sociable person not defined by employment, remembering to do housework, making cheap but healthy food, and cutting out all excess spending. And that stuff is hard.

Ultra-Fuzzy

Ultra Fuzzy with Super Lens on Super Camera, not taken by me.

Clambakes, Plan B, and the End of the Year

Definitions:

• Jennmoe -> materialistic and shallow, tendency to exaggerate and say stupid but funny things; would be excellent reality show contestant except for lack of plastic body + fake hair + annoying laugh.


• Los Angeles -> collection of people like Jennmoe with stores for rich Jennmoes


• C's family -> lives on one of those moons orbiting Saturn, only occasionally aware of existence of Earth


• Rockband 2 -> the ether that connects us all

What Happened:
Jennmoe -> Los Angeles -> see C's family for 1 week -> Rockband 2.

So I like to have a Plan A and a Plan B, and run both simultaneously, preferably with Plans C and D as well. But I didn't plan the clambake.

The west coast winter seaweed-less pit-less clambake started out well with the creation of cole slaw...
But then Plan A, the obtainment of clams, failed. We blame Costco. But really I blame the lack of a Plan B, C, or D.

So then we (C's brother/wife + us) had to make clam chowder and crab cakes, obtaining the recipes via 2 iphones and buying out the store's supply of canned clams.

Also I had to squeeze 15 pounds of lemons for the singapore slings. This took an hour. I then checked out juicers at Crate & Barrel - not a lot of technological advances in amateur citrus juicing.

[Not shown - picture of other family members making food]

The rather haphazard planning resulted in an excess of food, in turn resulting in the last minute inviting of random people. We ended up with 35 people who don't eat food, and a lot of leftovers.

Appetizers: smoked trout w/creme fraiche, some type of relish w/artichoke hearts, prosciutto on mashed green peas w/ cream cheese, mashed white peas w/ balsamic vinegar and arugula, and salmon pinwheels. Looking back, I realized that 3/4 appetizers involved creamy cheese things. You don't realize this though when each appetizer is independently awesome.


Rest of the menu: clam chowder, crab cakes w/ extra crab, sausages, cole slaw, spinach salad, sweet baked beans, potato salad, baked yams, and roasted apples w/toffee and butter. Again, thats a lot of mayo-based dishes....you don't realize this when each item is awesome.

--------------------------

Jennmoe's parents then came down for a funeral in San Gabriel. It's a funeral where no one's sad to see you die, they're just sad you didn't leave a will. He died on Dec 24, and was buried Dec 31. If it were me, I'd want my funeral on Jan 1, just so my death would taint the new year.

[Not shown - picture of Norcal Asian parents dining with Socal non-Asian parents at China Islamic] Really, who can object to soup and bread?

Walk through the LA Dept of Water/Power's annual light show. This panel shows the firefighters putting out the fire at Griffith Observatory. It shows our tax dollars are going to a real cause - creating light shows that reflect the events of the last year. I want that person's job.

[Not shown - New Year's resolution to swear off red meat]
[Not shown - New Year's resolution broken]
-----------------------
New Year's Day Desert Walk: Because I wanted a picture of sand dunes really really bad.
Spoiler: There are no sand dunes. But lots of Joshua trees. And I guess I wanted pictures of them too.

Two mile walk north of Lancaster.

I like it when the boy scouts put out the rocks marking the trail for me. This is especially important in deserts.

Joshua tree. C's dad told me they're related to lilies, and aren't actually trees. See, this is the one fact I will remember about Joshua trees and will repeat to you every time we go on a Joshua tree hike.


Scale - C's mom and 80+ year old grandmother below. This is a 'moderate' hike. Jennmoes can't do strenuous hikes.

View of nothingness. Note how you can't take this walk most of the year because there's no shade.

Here, embedded deep in the blog, is the picture of my ring. I don't have an awesome engagement story, but I have an awesome ring story. You see, as an ill-informed wannabe nytimes brainwashed liberal, I bought into the diamonds are covered in blood argument. Someone like me would go for cubic zirconia or a non-gorilla killing gem or perhaps one of the Canadian diamonds advertised by polar bears. However, C, brainwashed by DeBeers, decided that I had to have a diamond. Therefore, he got me an antique diamond. That's a diamond that people have already died for, so you have to use the stone or it's like those people died in VAIN because their spirits are living in the diamond and through you they live on.

Tumbleweeds near where we were almost killed by a corgi/pitbull feral dog. I do not recommend this mix.

And of course what's an LA trip without Crumbs Crummy Cupcakes, located near Sprinkles in Beverly Hills. Here's the exact conversation overheard at Crummy's.

Douchebag customer w/ douchebag goatee: "So give me the story on your cupcakes"

Douchebag service man in tight pink shirt: (looks irritated at the douchebag, realizes he himself is a douchebag, and confronted with his own image, is stunned into silence)

Douchebag customer: "Sell them to me"

Douchebag service man who's one degree too metrosexual: "Well we're based in Manhattan and we make cupcakes."

(silence)
(more silence)

Jennmoe thinking: You walked into the store, you brought your plastic girlfriend, you're going to buy cupcakes.

C thinking: I hate LA.



Happy 2009.