For a little over 7 bucks you can get this monsterosity and mochi balls.
Some gorgeous flowers to brighten my day 
12 year old soup. It’s what’s for dinner. The expiry on the can said 95. Yes, we really ate it. Yes, we are still alive.
What I saw when I came home from class tonight. The right side are my packages from Zappos. The left seems to be - banana delivery for my neighbor? This is the strangest thing I’ve seen yet.
I have to rave about my Zappos.com order. Two nights ago while procrastinating doing homework, I started glancing through my Rick Steeves’ book and became infatuated with ordering my shoes for my summer trip to Europe. I started looking at REI, Adventure 16 but then I thought of going to Zappos, an online shoe store that one of my old running buddies told me about. I wanted three pairs - my main shoe, a pair of flip flops for the shower and other wet events, and a pair of comfy heels for the cruise and dancing. I started shopping and lo and behold! I found my dream team - Keen Malibu (yeah, the irony), Croc Athens and Clark Aria. Good lord, they shipped yesterday and were here today, FOR FREE. FREE SHIPPING! The shoes and boxes (I keep my shoes in their boxes) came in perfect condition (not the crap you get when you go to Macy’s and its half used/worn already), and after following the sizing on the website (they will advise you if they come larger or smaller than size) these are perfect! They are all so uber comfortable, and if for whatever reason I decide I don’t want them, return shipping is free as well! I haven’t been this giddy over shoes since I was a kid. My grandma would send me these slip on shoes with cartoon characters on them from Japan and I would be so attached to them that there are pictures of me sleeping with them in bed (unused of course). T might have to share some bed space tonight!
Currently listening to: Coldplay, Sparks
Mood: Somber
During my years at my old job, day after day, I would be reminded of the fact that nothing rarely surprised me anymore. People would say/do/be absolutely crazy and one day I turned around to find myself immune to it all - he did what? Nope, not surprised. Perhaps I had become jaded. Me, the forever optimist, had become jaded. Fast forward a few years and here I am, less than 4 months from graduation, again on the cusp of major life changes. Business school, like undergrad held more important life lessons than anything we learned on a powerpoint (oh wait, we used transparencies during my undergrad years). In more recent months, I have seen the inner strength and beauty of some of my classmates I hardly know. The ones I do know have not ceased to amaze me either - and like every wonderful experience in life, I will never be the same again. Lessons on life, the challenges in life (rich or poor), love, pursuit of happiness, or living in the moment. There is something so beautiful in every experience and lesson I have learned from these people who have touched my life, and probably in ways they don’t even remember or might not even understand. But that’s okay. I hope I’ve been able to return the favor to others.
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After my car started severly veering to the right, I finally decided to take it in for alignment. I have this fantastic place I go to for tires in Culver City called Davis Bros Tire. They’ve always been fantastic. The owner is the first one to get his hands dirty and the service is always great. Anyhow, I had a wait so he told me about a little coffee joint down the street called Cyber Cafe (I can’t seem to find it on citysearch) next to a laundromat. It was on the corner of Washington and National(?) close to Surfas.
The place was cute - there was a monkey theme and nice 80’s music playing. 4 free internet stations and a “happy hour” in the mornings, which means 50% off all coffee. I got a pretty decent latte for $1.50. No wireless here, but I got plenty of work done in the meantime.
By the way, I have a fantastic mechanic in Culver City too, Ed Little Auto Service which I’ve been going to for several years now. I never worry about getting ripped off, most of their clientele are the local elderly who have been going him for decades. In fact, Ed and Davis have been doing business together for over 40 years.
OMG. It was just on a whim, I saw this link “Pinkberry” next to the link “Titos” on my friend’s blog. I really had no idea what it was, except that there was a location in WLA. We sped over there (esp after seeing 1 oz servings were only 25 calories) to give it a try. No photos inside the place, so I took one of the store front. Cute, hip, funky music, and two flavors of yogurt. One tastes like regular plain yogurt but with the texture of soft serve and you get to choose different toppings like fruit, cereal and mochi. It really was yummy. Tangy and yummy. The medium was huge, it was more than enough for T and I (and it was 8 oz, so you can do the math on the calories). I do have one complaint - the plastic spoons they use have this funky shape to them, which actually aggravates your top lip. Its a good thing we picked up a digital scale at Linens N Things. BTW if you weight yourself on one of those things on top of your bathroom mat, it will take about 30 lbs off of your actual weight (imagine my excitement as I saw a number that was a complete lie).
An old friend of mine, Long performed live at the Grand Star in chinatown. I’ve never seen him perform live, so we took the drive downtown. It was a fundraiser complete with live art, music, DJ, yada yada. I’ve never been in Chinatown during non-Dim Sum hours, and it was strange to see the streets completely empty. Great performance! I had a really good time.
Now speaking of Cobras and Matadors from my Fri night post, I just couldn’t shake the idea of NOT going there. After a few wrong turns, we finally made it! As usual, the food was amazing. I love this place, I really really do. Look! T with a good hairday (with his new hairdo) LOL!
Nestled on Abbot Kinney was this “little” place called Primitivo Wine Bistro. I say “little” because the first 30 min we were there in the bar area, we literally thought that the dining room consisted of the area in front. Lo and behold, we were taken to the back where there are 2-3 HUGE dining areas full of tables.
The bar was great, there was a HUGE selection of wines (we had a red from France that I couldn’t pronounce or remember but it was delicious) and their food menu was tapas-style, so little plates of stuff, of all varieties. The wait was a tad long (we didn’t have reservations) but it was Friday night, and I can see why people love this place. The guys at the bar were uber-attentive, and altho we were in the waaaaay back right in front of the door, they still got us menus and drinks. Once we were seated, the food came really fast - good thing we were fast eaters. Our table was small so we could only fit a few plates at a time. In addition to the above photos, we also had calamari (pretty standard) and shrimp something or another (which actually tasted great when you dipped the bread in the sauce). Now I’m craving REAL tapas - Cobra and Matador’s type……
I held off on this one, hoping that there would be some positive resolution. Given the hotel’s unresponse, its my turn to tell the world what happened. Remember my road trip to see my sister during the holidays (Dec 22-23 to be exact)? Well we decided to spend it together over at The Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose for several reasons:
1) They are a 5 Star Hotel. This means luxury, pampering, and a great time with my sister.
2) The special stuff going on in downtown SJ for Christmas.
What you don’t expect is this: to have all of your Christmas presents stolen from your trunk.
You read that right. The Fairmont requires you to valet park your car. Self park is not an option. To boot, they charge you $24 a night. When they pulled my car up the next morning, all of my stuff from every nook and cranny had been pulled out and spewed all over the interior of the car (from the glove compartment, the middle console, the sides). My first fear was that my integrated ipod player was stolen, checked that and thank god it was there. I next checked the trunk for my spare (I know, some people laugh, but I often hear that spare tires are stolen at valet lots) and check, that was there. What was missing? Out of my trunk - digital camera + case + memory cards + batteries for my parents, my brand new ipod shuffle and earphones (I use special earphones for running, and I hadn’t even had a chance to USE the shuffle yet), DVD’s, garage door opener, and lord knows what else.
After writing a letter to the manager at The Fairmont directly, no response. The least they can do is return my $24 in parking charges. The AMPCO parking company? They want copies of receipts for insurance purposes. Who knows what’s next.
Given that there was no forced entry, the thieves either had access to my car keys OR my car was unlocked, either way was the responsibility of the AMPCO parking company (who claims to have 24 hour security in the lot) and the Hotel who gives me no other choice than to valet park my car.
So much for a Merry Christmas, this was more of a Bah-Humbug! This is just crap you don’t expect from a FIVE STAR HOTEL LIKE THE FAIRMONT.
One of my classmates gave Cafe Ugo rave reviews on cheap, quality Italian food. Rokes and I went to downtown Culver City in an effort to grab dinner and a movie and instead modified our trip to only dinner. It’s a good thing we did because there was a pretty long line… its a small little place connected to a wine bar (which I need to make a separate trip to visit!) and the wait is always quoted as “15 to 20 min”. What was confusing was that there always seemed to be an exception and there was always another party in front of us. It got a bit frustrating since we were all hungry. The food was affordable, but the bread basket left something to be desired. Overall my vote still goes to Il Forno.
Pure dissapointment!
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