weekends

Maybe my dad should start a food blog

My parents were in Berkeley last week dealing with my grandmother’s house. My grandmother hasn’t lived there for some time, but there’s still all this stuff to get rid of before they sell it.

My dad just sent me this email, summing up their trip:

We just got back from Berkeley last Thursday night. From Feb 26 to March 5, half of the time at Berkeley was raining. However, I took the advantage of the other half, usually sunny, walking to UC campus, places I, as well as both of Mom and I lived – all of them are still there. I even went to SF once and bought some cheap CDs.

I like how he needs to qualify that they were cheap CDs. My parents love a sale!

Aunt Dana and Uncle Jack came last Saturday and took us to Oakland for lunch and we also went to Oakland once on our own and having an inexpensive good lunch. Some friends from Concord also visit us last Monday and having a good lunch at Berkeley downtown and their Beijging duck was very, surprisingly, good. We also had a good lunch at Berkeley’s well known Taiwanese food restaurant on University Ave. The last day there we had pizza from the so called bay area’s best pizza place, Giola (or something like that) near Grandma’s house off Sacramento Ave.

Guess I know where I got my penchant for detailing good eats. He goes on,

Besides all these eating, of course we finished the main purpose for being there, to pack and clean all the stuff in the house and stored them in the basement and garage.

In the evening there is no TV and Mom usually watch Korean TV dramas – we brought with us a DVD player and some DVDs and I always went to bed at my usual Eastern time.

Gee, Dad, you should start a blog!

In other news, MB and I finally saw Coraline this weekend. We really liked it, and the people weren’t too annoying. On Sunday I had my Collection Developement midterm, and it was cake. Afterwards we each met with the professor. He was pleased with my library profile, except that the selection strategies need to be more specific, as well as the test.

Thursday my People Centered Methods and Design class went well too. I was dreading it because I had to talk about my project, and also because the class can get really pretentious. Actually it’s just one guy who constantly name drops “big” philosophers and philosophies, and says things like, “I’m dead inside,” and “I don’t dream.” 1) Yes, I can tell you’re suffering beyond your nice clothes and good haircut and beer gut, and 2) everybody dreams! It’s just that not everyone remembers their dreams.

Anyway, besides suffering through him talking, class was fine. People actually seemed interested in my project. I guess I feel insecure in a class like that.

Today I need to get a check in pounds for my deposit for housing in London. You’d think they’d be set up in PayPal or something. I could have called but I can’t dial internationally on my cell or work phone. So either I need a phone card, or I get a check. Right now the check is sounding easier.

holidays / library / sleep / weekends — 1 Comment
17
Feb 09

So sleepy

Waking up after even 7 hours of sleep is tough after getting 10-12 hours a sleep a night for three nights. Hopefully this green tea and chocolate will help.

It was a low-key weekend. We don’t make a big deal of Valentine’s Day – MB cooked, which he probably would have done anyway. Trout and broccolini, our new favorite vegetable. Aside from running errands during the day, we were both caught up with schoolwork for most of the weekend. And I still had class Sunday and Monday as well. I keep thinking I have class tonight, but I don’t! Yay! Maybe it’s time to hit Sephora and restock on beauty supplies.

Two celebrity sightings: Blythe Danner, off of 8th Street, and the dude from Fringe. Actually, I didn’t see the Fringe guy, only MB did, and he didn’t see Blythe Danner, not that he’d recognize her. So one and a half celeb sightings.

friends / library / weekends / work — Comments Off
09
Feb 09

Seems lately all I do are weekend updates

I blame school.

Had a more active weekend than the last. Friday night I had dinner with YP and some of our former co-workers. We went to Tillman’s, which was really nice – beautiful atmosphere, nice music, yummy food and drinks. It was freezing that night so I had a hot toddy, and for dinner I had the chicken sandwich. Yum!

It was fun catching up with the gals. I got some gossip about my old boss. I think I’ve written that he was demoted (’bout time), and somehow he found himself a new position on a different team. Apparently he’s traveling to London soon, and is being extremely neurotic about it. Poor LG, who was his secretary and is now just helping him out till he gets a new one, has suffered the brunt of it.

He’s afraid to fly and so changed his flight a couple of times (once because he thought the plane was too old), and keeps asking LG questions like, “How do I get to my hotel from the airport? What if I only have American money?” Dude, you’re going to LONDON, not the Amazon rainforest. And it’s not like he hasn’t traveled before.

Also, I heard some dirt about another former co-worker, who was a secretary at the same time I was and interested in moving up the way I did – well, she was interested in moving up, but much more passively. The way I did it assess what needed to be done that nobody wanted to do, and just go ahead and take over those “orphaned” projects, which were usually lower profile and less “sexy” anyway, but I didn’t care. She just kept asking managers for work, and they would end up giving her the work I was already doing (and which I had cleared with my boss, who was the head of the whole group). There was a lot of stepping on toes.

I got promoted before she did, but she never asked me for advice. She’d go to her own managers, which was fine, but they didn’t know anything about how to make that jump from secretar to manager. Or she’d go to WG, who was the budget coordinator and my pal, and who kept saying, “Why don’t you talk to Anna?” since I was on the exact career trajectory that she wanted to be on. But she never did.

She just couldn’t get promoted, despite having her MBA. So she left for a managerial position at another company. I was genuinely happy for her. But now I’ve heard that she’s unhappy and has contacted WG about positions here.

Part of me feels bad for her, but part of me is pointing and saying, “Ha ha!” The Marvin part of me apparently.

I got back pretty early, around 9. Later MB and I saw a midnight movie, the New York premiere of Chocolate. It was really good! I mean, the plot was sorta dumb, but it was awesome to see a woman kick ass repeatedly. As usual, the hipster audience was annoying, laughing at unfunny parts.

Saturday we kept missing things. We were all set to go to ComicCon, but the tickets were sold out! They had been available the night before. Should have gotten them online. Then that night we were all set to see Coraline, but when we got to the theater, it was sold out. :( MB didn’t feel like seeing anything else so we took advantage of the nice night and walked home.

Sunday was all about school. Last week I was really good and finished all my homework for Sunday by Friday so I could do my reading for Monday over the weekend. In class on Sunday, we went over our library profiles. I picked my company’s digital library (there is no physical one here in New York, only at another site), and he didn’t get that. He said, “You want to do this?” I don’t really care what library I do, but I’m annoyed that I put in all that work that I now have to do over.

He didn’t come out and say, “Don’t do a digital library,” but I think that’s his feeling, though there are just as many collection management issues with online resources. So I guess I’ll switch to something else.

Tonight’s class should be pretty mellow. The management reading feels familiar so far. I guess I’ve been living management for the past several years. But it’s helpful to see it written in formal terms, and how it can be applied to libraries.

Having three classes is tough! With two I could totally slack and go for days without doing any work. Now I’m doing homework basically every day. But it’ll be over in a few months.

news / rant and/or rave / weekends — 5 Comments
02
Feb 09

Lazy, productive, newsy, douchey

The weekend was both lazy and productive.

Both Friday and Saturday MB and I had plans to see Taken, that new Liam Neeson movie, but we were overcome with laziness and ended up staying in and watching stuff on Hulu. Easy to do when it’s freezing outside.

Saturday I managed to get up before 9 to do some homework and laundry, and then just spent the afternoon hanging out till we went out for a late lunch around 3 at Le French Diner. Risotto with vegetables and cheese, yum! Also very filling. I can never eat more than half.

Sunday I got up relatively early again. Last minute homework before class at 1. That day’s session was more informative than the others have been, but the professor still let us out way early.

Which I didn’t mind because it was gorgeous out! Like spring. During class MB had texted me that he was in Washington Square Park so I met up with him there. He had his ukelele. Of course people look as he’s playing, but not as much as you’d think. The park was full of musicians busking or just noodling. One old dude took a picture of MB – and by association, me – without even asking. I mean, I do too, but at least I try to hide it.

I couldn’t get enough of the news this weekend, for some reason. Maybe my Thursday class is making me hyper aware.

Those octuplets. People say the story started out “heart-warming” (and I guess “heart-warming” now means “woman who breeds like dog”). Of course you imagine some couple who has tried for years to have kids, and after fertility treatments, finally has eight little miracles!

But it turns out that the woman is only 33, and she ALREADY HAS SIX KIDS. What the – ? Also, she’s not married, and lives with her parents. What doctor thought it was okay to implant EIGHT embryos into a young, healthy single woman with six kids?

And when the father says he’s thinking about returning to his native Iraq, you know things have got to be bad.

Peanut recall. I had stuff in my cabinet on that list! The Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bars. Wah, in the garbage.

Michael Phelps caught smoking a giant bong. Not that I have anything against weed but Michael, you must have a nice house – do it in private! Jeez. Despite all his achievements, he seems like such a douchebag.

And on that note, what’s the female equivalent of a douchebag? I think we all know about that site, Hot Chicks with Douchebags, but the problem I have with that is that a lot of those “hot chicks” seem like skanks to me.

So why not “skank” as the female equivalent of douchebag? Cuz I think that’s just a subset. There’s also that whole Sex and the City wannabe crowd, many of whom we saw at Penn Station one night when we came back from my parents. Girls in too high shoes, too short dresses, skinny jeans, four in a row, walking arm in arm. “Oh my God, we’re just like SATC!”

Douchettes maybe? I’ll have to think about that.

family / food / holidays / library / weekends / work — Comments Off
26
Jan 09

Lunar New Year, sans dumplings

MB and I ended up at my parents’ this weekend, not really for the New Year but because their new TV arrived, and they needed help setting it up.

It was much easier than any of us anticipated. The old TV weighs a gazillion pounds. My parents wanted to put it in the next room, and my dad had the idea of dragging it on a sheet. MB thought this would ruin the carpet and that we’d have to carry it, which made me nervous cuz I had a hard enough time just helping to bring it down from its stand to the floor.

But the sheet thing worked! The TV seemed to weigh nothing as we dragged it away.

The new set of course weighs much less so MB was able to set that up on his own. Then he hooked up all the cables, and boom! we were done. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching stuff, going, “Woooow!” and “Look at that!” and bumping our hands against the screen trying to grab at things we thought were real.

My mom as usual cooked a good dinner, though with no dumplings since she usually makes them with pork and MB isn’t a fan of the other white meat (unless it’s in the form of bacon).

My fave was the salmon.

We left around 9 and got back to our place at 11.

School the next day! :( But I think this is going to be a very relaxed class. We spent the first hour going around the room, introducing ourselves and saying where we wanted to work eventually. On top of the, the teacher asked questions and would sometimes launch into these stories. I thought, Are we going to learn anything today?

He spent the second half lecturing on the history of collection management, but still let us out about 50 minutes early. I expected the lecture to be much longer but suddenly he was letting us go. Ah well.

My Human Information Behavior class on Wednesdays will be a lot more work. Group work, blech. When I walked in last week, I saw that the chairs had been arranged in a circle, and immediately thought, Oh GREAT, this is going to be one of *those* classes. It might be, but the teacher seems to have a good head on her shoulders, though she did drag out the end of class by asking over and over if we had questions, and of course some brown noser would make something up.

What I like about my Sunday class is that I know quite a few people, and we can chat and have inside jokes and stuff. I don’t know anyone in Wednesday one. Normally I don’t care, but that just adds to the weirdness of that class. I’ll find out on 2/2 about my Monday class. That teacher is at the ALA midwinter meeting this week.

Tomorrow I have to go out to NJ again for work, but this time I’m taking a car dammit. Unfortunately I need to be there at 8 so my car is picking me up at 6:45. Ack, so painful.

There is a woman here who’s husband died suddenly a few weeks ago. She’s only in her early 30s, and he died of a brain aneurysm. I can’t even imagine what that’s like. Today is her first day back at work. That must be so weird. How do you deal with people coming up to you, asking you how you’re doing? What do you say? “Well my husband just died – how do you think I’m doing?” She sounds like she’s being very gracious. I mean, what else can you do.

food / library / photography / weekends — 2 Comments
20
Jan 09

The weekend thing

Too short though it was a three-day.

Saturday YP and I had our photo outing. The theme: Fairy Tales. In other words, use the pictures we take to depict a fairy tale, whether already existing or made up. A fun idea but it was frigging COLD! We’d last about 15 or 20 minutes, then would have to duck into a store or cafe. We ended up spending a lot of time at Chelsea Market.

The rest of the day, MB and I just hung out, him practicing and me reading and being a bum. It’s so hard to get out and do stuff when it’s in the single digits. All we ended up doing was grabbing some dinner at our favorite Italian place.

The next day I had my first day of class for the semester, Collection Development. Since it’s on a Sunday, the class has a cozy, relaxed feel. Plus the teacher is 83 years old (the first thing he told us) and from Iran, I think, so he has this cute accent. He seems smart and his assistant has organized the class well. The assignments are quite flexible. We have a long reading list, and are supposed to read whatever interests us, but at least two articles a week.

Since it was positively balmy out (low 30s), I ran some errands after class. Got sneakers for possible weekend workouts, new headphones from Virgin, and some groceries from the Asian grocery store.

That night MB and I hit Whole Foods, and he made chilean sea bass for dinner. The dish called for fennel sauteed in anchovy paste. We didn’t see the paste and used real anchovies, mashed up, and it came out delicious! The sea bass was a pain to cook though. It was so thick, it took forever, and then was very filling. Plus expensive! Like $20+ a pound. Next time we’ll go with a lighter, less expensive fish.

We’ve started watching Damages on Hulu. We like it, though the evil people seem a little too all-powerful. Glenn Close is very scary. I would hate to have her as a boss.

I hope I get a chance to see the inauguration today. I believe it’s at 11:30. Gonna try to dash down to the gym at that time, and watch on one of the TVs there.

weekends / work / writing — 2 Comments
12
Jan 09

A shopping kind of weekend

This weekend was quiet and relaxing. Friday night we attempted to see Milk, but got to the theater early and decided to see From Within instead, part of the After Dark Horrorfest. Bit mistake. Cheesy and melodromatic. Only moderately entertaining.

Today is MB’s first day back at music school so he spent a lot of the weekend studying and practicing. While he was doing that and to take a break from writing (cuz I don’t do that enough), I went up to Lord & Taylor and bought a few things. It was a bitch to get up there what with the snow, but I needed to get out of the house.

On the way back, I grabbed the subway but power was out right before my stop so I had to get out and walk. It was kind of a schlep but I needed the exercise, and the streets were pretty with fresh snow. Also, on my way, I popped into the Tumi store to see if this bag I’ve had my eye on since the fall was on sale – and it was!

They only had the gray one, which was marked down to $149 from $345!!! I mean, how ridiculous is that? Plus I’ve decided I really love the color, which is more like a matted silver.

The size is perfect. The backpack I was using before was huge, and my stuff would get lost inside. I have a million shoulder totes, but this year for some reason they have been hurting my neck and shoulder. This Tumi one is small enough to be like a purse, but big enough for a notebook for school. Plus the material is light and flexible.

This week at work I’m in our NJ office for a couple of days. I could have taken the train down Wednesday morning, but it takes about 2 hours to get there, and the meeting starts at 9. So I booked my hotel starting Tuesday night so I can take my time getting there. I’m going to try and get up early Wednesday and Thursday to hit the hotel gym before the meeting.

Then this weekend is a three-day, woohoo! YP and I have our first monthly photo outing of 2009 on Saturday, and then I have class on Sunday. It’s not till 1 so I can totally sleep in.

I can’t believe next weekend is already Chinese New Year. The year of the ox. I don’t know if we’ll go to my parents’ but we’ll definitely eat dumplings.

Mmmm, dumplings.

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05
Jan 09

Oy, back at work

I didn’t even take any vacation and it’s still tough to come back after the holidays. Two dead weeks and two four-day weekends in a row will do that to you.

The rest of our weekend was pretty mellow. MB practiced music, I wrote and read, and we bought a toaster oven. Or attempted to because after hauling it back from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, we found that the grill was missing. That’s helpful! Yesterday MB exchanged it and we tested it out: open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches. . .with bacon. Yup, I’m on a diet.

This weekend ES came down to NJ at the last minute. Yesterday I hopped the train down for the day, the 9:14 AM, which was very peaceful. Oh yeah, I was finally able to update my iPod. Like a dope I had put my iTunes library on my old work computer, which was left behind with my old position. I didn’t think there was any way to copy what was on my iPod into a new library, but MB showed me some software that could do that.

So yesterday on the train I had my iPod with some new MIA, the soundtrack from the movie, The Wackness, and some music I stole from MB, including Lykke Li and Elbow, whom I had never heard of but apparently had the album of the year.

ES picked me up from the train station, and we headed out to AY’s, who was nice enough to make us brunch. We had a lovely spread of eggs, ham, cheese, veggies, and some croissants ES and I picked up. And of course coffee!

Then we gabbed and gabbed and gabbed, and before we knew it we were hungry all over again.

We decided to drive into Princeton and walk around a bit. But it was so cold, we didn’t last very long before ducking into a restaurant and eating some yummy pizza for a late lunch. Then by the time we came out, everything was closed. That’s Princeton for ya!

I was going to take the 5:43 train back, but we ended up having too much fun taking crazy Photobooth pictures with ES’s Mac. It’s amazing how the distorted photos can crack us up again and again. I missed the 5:43 but it was no biggie since there was a 6:14, which gave ES and me time to hang out more, and for her – the sweetie! – to run to to the store and get me a ginger ale since I had somehow managed to get car sick on the very short ride from AY’s to the station.

Got back home around 8. MB and I just hung out watching The Thing, which was quite entertaining. The other night we watched Heavy Metal, which was also entertaining as well as ridiculous. I can see why MB liked it as a kid!

Last night I couldn’t sleep till about 2. I am so tired! But I still managed to get a short workout in at lunchtime.

family / food / holidays / travel / weekends / what i'm reading now — 1 Comment
28
Dec 08

Christmas recap

MB and I had a nice time at my parents’ this weekend. Having him there really makes a difference – being there on my own is sort of tortuous, just me and my folks and their weird questions.

We didn’t leave till the afternoon of Christmas Day. I had to drag MB out of bed at 12 so we could leave by 1 or 2. We ended up catching a 3:15 train, which got us in around 4:30. There weren’t too many people, but more than we expected.

Then it was the usual: lots of eating. I tried not to pig out as much this time. Over Thanksgiving I was eating pie every few hours. Also, MB set up the Mac Mini my brother and I got for our parents. They’ve been thinking about getting a new computer, and the PC is horrendous for their favorite activity, downloading Korean soap opera videos and burning them to disc. With the Mac Mini, they can more do those things more easily, as well as connect directly to the TV. They needed a couple of extra parts so we had to wait till the next day to go get them.

That night we had Mongolian hotpot for Christmas dinner, like we did on Thanksgiving. MB has grown to be a fan of it, especially the spicy dipping sauces and very thinly sliced beef.

The next day we hit the mall to get the cable to connect the Mac Mini to the TV as well as a wireless router. Needless to say, it was a madhouse, wall to wall stereotypical suburbanites with their terrible frosted hair, giant sports jerseys, and awful Ugg boots. But at least we got what we needed for my parents. Afterwards MB and I ducked into the peace and quiet of Border’s, which surprisingly was pretty empty.

We had planned on leaving that night, but it took a while to get back from the mall, and then for MB to finish setting up the computer. So we decided to leave on Saturday, which pleased my parents greatly.

MB set up everything pretty fast. Before we knew it, my parents’ TV had been transformed into a giant computer monitor, and my mother could watch her stories directly from the Internet. My brother did a great job setting up the display for them, with a giant cursor/arrow and their “homepage” which sits on his website, and shows the three sites they go to for their shows. The wireless mouse is pretty neat. It acts like a remote, but takes some getting used to. I kept wanting to move it like a regular mouse with big movements, but it’s actually more like a laser pointer.

Saturday we just hung around and relaxed. We both got up fairly late, 10 for me, 11 for MB, had some lunch and just read our books till our 3 o’clock train. Last week I finally finished that Bach book MB had been raving about. I understand why he likes it – he’s studying music and like Bach is very scientific and mathematical – but I thought it was boring as hell. There was interesting information in it, but it wasn’t told like a story. It was like, here’s all this information.

Now I’m reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt and it is SO GOOD. It’s really well-written with interesting characters, and plus there’s mystery and suspense. Inspired by that I ordered a couple of other “literary mysteries” from Amazon with the gift card my brother got me – In the Woods and and The Likeness by Tana French, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

The 3 PM train was extremely crowded. We were able to get two seats together, but there were two noisy kids behind us, and then people standing in the aisle towards the end. What we didn’t know was that there was a hockey game at Madison Square Garden that day. Lots of tourists are awful, but lots of tourists in Devils/Rangers jerseys are even worse. That night we were so worn out from the crowds, we just stayed in aside from dinner at our favorite Italian place.

Today I’ve got to do some laundry, though it’s so mild out, all I want to do is walk around.

food / photography / weekends / writing — Comments Off
22
Dec 08

And the weekends come and go

Some with lots and lots of snow.

MB and I hibernated practically all weekend. Friday and Saturday nights we thought about going to see a midnight showing of Gremlins at IFC, but the cold, yucky weather kept us in.

I did get out Saturday morning when YP and I had our monthly photo expedition. The theme was Photographing Each Other, to my consternation. I hate having my picture taken, especially when I’m makeup-less. My freckles tend to look out of control. But he just sent me some, and they’re very nice. I do still wish I had put on some cover up.

We decided to take the pictures in Harlem since we never seem to venture above 14th Street. The sidewalks were a mess and like an idiot, I wore sneakers. I have two pairs of winter boots, but for some reason they were at the office. Thinking I had another pair at the apartment, I neglected to bring any home. Wah! By the time we finished our shoot, my right pinky toe was completely numb. On my way home, I stopped at my office and got boots, yay! Makes such a difference.

That afternoon MB had a short gig tutoring a friend in programming so I chilled at home – or rather warmed up – till he got back. Never has a bowl of instant Korean noodles tasted so good.

That night we tried this new Latin place around the corner, A Casa Fox. The food was good but expensive! Not super hungry, I had a bowl of delicious tomato soup for $5, not bad. But the asparagus “salad” I got was just four pieces of asparagus with some cheese shavings. $8! Total rip off.

MB got this chicken rice bowl, which was tasty but way overpriced at $25. It should have been $12-$15. The selection of mini empanadas was more worth the $8, and were really good, and the empanadas themselves are $5 each. If we go again, we should probably just get a mess of those.

Sunday I was able to get a bunch of writing done. I’m almost done with this, hopefully last, round of revisions. I sent a query to my teacher’s agent a couple of months ago, and have heard nothing. Usually you get some sort of response in 6 to 8 weeks. I may check with my teacher if I should be sending to the guy’s personal email. She just sold her first novel – after a slew of nonfiction books – so I know they are both busy with that.

This winter break I also need to find more agents and send more queries, as well as find some contests for book-length memoirs. If none of that pans out, I think I will start posting sections of my book online. I do wish I could get it published, but I also want to be done with it. Putting a “final” version online will help me feel like the book is finished and then I can move on to the next thing.

On Sunday MB needed to work on this other consulting gig (ie, cleaning up some imbecile’s really bad code). Then he needed some stuff from the Apple store so we hoofed it over there. Luckily the weather was somewhat better. It was even a little sunny! that is till darkness descended at 5 o’clock. :( At least now the days will start to get longer again.

It was pretty icy out but not as crowded as I expected. Of course the Apple store was a madhouse. I swear people turn stupid when they get near the door – stopping completely, not looking where they’re walking, blocking the way.

Tonight we’re going to hear Les Paul play at the Iridium. It’s sort of expensive – $50 plus a $25 food/drink minimum – but the guy is like, what, 90? Better go hear him before he kicks it.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.