Why pack when you can cook?

For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to do a lot of cooking on our last Monday in this apartment.  I'm not really feeling sentimental (anymore...or yet again) about moving, but there is something nice about a good-smelling home, even if it is piled high with boxes.   I can definitely get behind the whole "we're moving; let's order in" rationale, but I guess I wasn't quite ready to give in to it yet (though I did not complain when Will brought home pizza from The Cheeseboard on Saturday night!).  I guess I figure that as long as we haven't packed all the cooking paraphernalia, we might as well use it.  Save those "oh my god I cannot cook tonight" meals for when we can't find the spatula.

Delicious muffins.

When Jacqui posted a recipe for what is simply one of the best kinds of muffins on the planet, I knew it was time to pull out some frozen bananas.  I thought there were probably 3 or 4 hiding in the freezer, and that I'd use them all up - you know, a good ole pre-move freezer cleanout.  Whoops. There were 6.  I feel a little like I will turn into Dooce when I have a larger freezer.  Note: before I found that link to Twitter, I was trying to find a post on her site about an overabundance of bananas in the freezer, but I could not. The search function on her site kept asking if I was looking for "front banana" or "banana freedom".  I found this amusing.  So yes.  I figured it would be a good idea to make some chocolate chip banana muffins.  My cookbooks are all packed, and I like to play in the kitchen, so why not try a new recipe?

Meatloaf + Rustic Sourdough.
Bad photo, great dinner.

And when I found myself wanting to make something healthy with ground turkey for dinner tonight, I simply did a search for the ingredient on Food Loves Writing, where there are just a ton of recipes on my "gotta try it" list.  Voila!  That turkey meatloaf recipe I bookmarked so many months ago!  Shanna makes any recipe seem approachable and worth the time and energy, and while my version was not perfect, it was delicious.

I used almost 1.5 lbs of turkey instead of 1. Whoops.  The turkey  came all the way to the top of the pan (borrowed from our neighbor, because whoops again, we already packed the loaf pan), and the sauce spilled over and burned.  Whoops whoops whoops!

It didn't matter though; it tasted so dang good.

And a little salad, just for good measure.

Tonight was my first attempt at meatloaf, and I'm pretty proud.  It was fun to make, squishing up the meat and egg and breadcrumbs and such with my hands, blending the ingredients and trying something new.  And the muffins came together in about five minutes, ready to pop in the oven as soon as the meatloaf came out.  I don't care that the kitchen got swelteringly hot and crowded with dishes (hey, we're moving soon!), or that this meal took about an hour to make, or even that now I am so tired I just want to pass out on the couch and not pack a single box.  It was delicious.  It was new.  And right now, I am all about starting fresh...even as we spend our last days in our "old" apartment.

CSN Stores Giveaway Winner!

It's time to pick a winner for the $30 CSN Stores Giveaway!  I use the Random.org number generator, even though it feels so anti-climactic.  There's something that's just so quick and easy about it; it doesn't feel like it's enough effort being put forth for such a fun thing as a giveaway.  Perhaps I should think of a new way to pick winners for contests on the blog...I could write all your names on slips of paper and draw them out of a hat (waste of paper).  I could make you all tell a story in the comments and choose my favorite (too subjective).  I could put your names on a dartboard and see where the dart flies (I am terrible at darts and would likely miss every name).

Alas, the Random Number Generator is simple, and unbiased, and thus, it gets used.  Wow, that was kind of a letdown, wasn't it?  Yikes.  Sorry about that.

In happier news, I'm going to be baking recipes tonight from two of my favorite food blogger friends (and let's be honest, two of my favorite bloggers in general), Shannalee and Jacqui, who happen to be real-life friends (no, I'm not jealous. Some day we three will hang out in person, I swear).  They made these two recipes sound so delightful that I decided to do a little cooking, even though most of the kitchen is packed and we're moving in less than a week. I'll blog about both later, probably with pictures, but for now, you've been patient long enough.  Without further ado...the winner of $30 to CSN stores is...Debbie of Suburb Sanity!  Congratulations, Debbie (who I think is a new reader) - I'll be emailing you in just a few minutes :-)

Mid-Pack Update

As the weekend comes to a close, I thought I'd provide a little photo update of the rest of the weekend's process.  We've packed the entire living room, as well as most of the kitchen.  What's left in the kitchen now is stuff we'll use this week, so there wasn't much we could do about it.  Can't very well pack every single dish a week before you move, can you?  :-)

Things still to pack:

• linen closet (yikes)
• coat closet (yikes, but it really shouldn't take more than 10 minutes)
• bedroom (just the shoes, top-of-the-dresser stuff, and desk stuff really - clothes will all go into wardrobe boxes, thank goodness)
• kitchen (a few baking things, plates, bowls, glasses, plus food)
• bathroom (um, does throwing shampoo and towels into a box count as packing?)

We have all week to finish after work, except for Friday, when I'll be at the Cal Women's Huddle.  Will reminded me that even though the movers arrive at 8:30am on Saturday, we can still pack last-minute things (power cords, last-minute kitchen items, etc) while they're starting to load the truck.  

The good news?  The disaster zone is no more!  T-minus-5-days-till-moving-day-omigod!

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes!

Adorable Play Kitchen!

Ok, how much would I love to have the grown-up version of this kitchen?  I have such fond memories of playing with the cardboard "store" and play kitchens of my childhood, and this brightly colored cutie pie of a space makes me want to have a little girl of my own some day.  I would love to replicate the cheery colors in my own kitchen someday!  (via The Kitchn)

Mid-Pack

Last weekend, I made a promise to myself: Pack one box per weeknight, minimum. I've been doing really well.  In fact, as of bedtime Thursday night, I had packed 7.  Will hadn't really done much; he's more of the "get a lot done at once" type.  That's fine; most of what I packed last week wasn't his anyway (yeah yeah, we live together, it's all "ours" blah blah blah).  The plan is to pack as much as humanly possible this weekend, since oh yeah, we move in a week.  That's right, one week from today, we will be in our new place.  Wowza.

This weekend so far...oh boy.  We took a night off from packing last night to go to our favorite place, where the owner just so happened to be debuting a new menu.  We had flatbread complete with carmelized onions, herbed goat cheese, garlic, and a balsamic demiglaze.  We had the most awesome chicken wings ever.  We had succulent lambchops with garlic mashed potatoes and a balsamic reduction.  And then, for dessert, "chocolate cake" (chocolate stout with a shot of raspberry framboise).  It was a welcome break, to be sure.

Today, we dove right into the packing...after we slept in and had a late brunch.  But we packed almost all of the living room, and I'd say we made excellent progress.  Tomorrow we'll pack the majority of the kitchen, the kitchen island, and probably some bedroom stuff as well.  Then starting Monday, it's back to "one box a night" or so until we finish!  Hopefully we'll get so much done tomorrow that there won't be much more to do during the week!

Because I loved A Serious Girl's mid-packing update photos, here are a few photos I took today to give you the full visuals.  One week to go!

I am afraid of this closet.  It still looks like this.
Luckily, most of it will be taken out in wardrobe boxes.

We have a lot of books.  This isn't even all of them.

Piles of boxes, everywhere.

It's a disaster zone.  Yikes.

The neatest, most orderly pile. It makes me feel good, even if we are being surrounded by boxes.

PS - If you can guess what's on TV, you win bonus points*

*note: bonus points are of no actual cash value

Don't forget! Contest ends tomorrow!

You have just over 24 hours left to enter the $30 CSN Stores Giveaway!  As a reminder, CSN Stores sell just about everything...from kids' toys to cookware to furniture, you will totally find a way to use that $30, I promise.

I'm getting a $30 code myself (in exchange for writing a product review - in the interest of full disclosure), and I'm getting two freaking skillets.  8" and 10", non-stick, oven-safe.  We totally need them, and I'm stoked to be getting them for free.  Thank you, CSN!

What will you buy if you win?  Enter here.  By 11:59pm PST, TOMORROW (Sunday 7/25/10)!  :-)


I wanted to add a super cute photo, but Blogger is freaking out and won't let me.  So...sorry.  Enter the contest!

Sara B does "Single Ladies"

I swear, there is no better artist out there when it comes to covers. Love her.

Yum

This kitchen is just delicious.

via The Kitchn

PS - I have enabled fancy sharing buttons, so now if you like a post (say, for example, an awesome giveaway going on right now), you should be able to easily share it on Twitter or Facebook or whatever.

Another Giveway Courtesy of CSN Stores!

The good folks at CSN Stores have offered to do another giveaway here at the Sink!  This time, they're offering a promotional code worth $30 to any of their stores. You can use the promo code to buy anything you want from any of their stores!  You can apply the $30 to a higher-priced item if you want, but for those of you who don't want to spend any money, I should mention that they have a very nice selection of products from le creuset in this price point!  And there are a lot of stores under the CSN umbrella, so that $30 could buy you just about anything!  Woo!

Entering is easy - here's how:

• Leave a comment on this post* (1 entry)
• Share this giveaway on Facebook (1 entry)
• Tweet the giveaway with a link to this post (1 entry)
• Mention the giveaway and link to this post on your blog (2 entries)

So many ways to enter!  If you mention this on your blog or Facebook or Twitter, email me at kimskitchensink [at] gmail [dot] com to let me know!

*If you comment anonymously, make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you! If I can't contact you, you can't win!


*Updated 7/22 to add: I neglected to post a deadline for entering this awesome giveaway.  I hereby decree the deadline to be...11:59pm (PST) on Sunday, July 25.  

And because I couldn't resist

via Emily, whose Tumblr is a fountain of beauty.

To Tide You Over

While I wait for confirmation from the company donating the Mystery Item I'll be giving away soon (another giveaway! hooray!), and before I make a fun and exciting announcement (the suspense! just a few days more!), I thought I'd share a photo that has been staring me down, taunting me with thoughts of perfect kitchens and cool summer evenings I wish would last forever.  Today is one of those days where I wish I could just get paid to take walks, grow vegetables in my backyard, read lovely books, and cook delicious meals.  Perhaps I have been reading too much of My Life in France*.

Like here.  I could cook awesome things here.  Or just be happily basking in the warm glow of kitchen beauty.  (via Apartment Therapy, The Kitchn)

*Full Disclosure: I have joined the Amazon Associates thingie, where if I link to products on Amazon and you click through and buy them, I get some small portion of the money.  I don't expect to make much off of this, but I figure that if I was going to be linking to Amazon anyway, I might as well see if anything comes of it!

It's been so long

I haven't blogged in about a month, and for that, I'm sorry.  Some of you have been guilting me into writing again, and some of you have been harassing me on Twitter, and it makes me feel truly loved.  And ashamed.  Bad blogger, bad blogger!

Ok, enough of that.  Truthfully, things have been busy around here in the last month.  From a little legal battle with our landlord (he wasn't making repairs) to finding a new apartment (we move in a few weeks) to five days of camping in Yosemite (our families met each other for the first time), well, blogging has just taken a back seat.

I will definitely share photos of our new place when we have them, but for now, I will tell you that it has almost everything on our wish list (hardwood floors, laundry in-unit, plenty of storage), and a few things on our "don't even want to say it out loud" wish list (dishwasher, garbage disposal, wood-burning fireplace).  The landlords are wonderfully nice, and we can already tell that they care about maintaining the property.  Not that it's hard to care more than our current landlord, but let's just say that the look of pure shock and horror on our new landlord's face when I told him about the lack of repairs in our building won me over.  And we'll be living by a lake, which is pretty cool too.

Yosemite was wonderful, as it always is.  Our families met for the first time, and everything went well. We went on some great hikes, and grilled some delicious meat.  I got a ton of mosquito bites, but it was worth it - I miss the mountains already.  Note: the "Four Mile Trail" is actually 4.8 miles, and it's all uphill, gaining 3,200 feet in elevation. Grueling, but the views were unbeatable.  We also hiked to the top of Sentinel Dome and then around to Taft Point.  We saw Bridalveil Falls (my favorite) and Yosemite Falls (and again at night, all alone), and hiked to Carlon Falls on our last day in the park.  We camped at Hodgdon Meadows, in the two best sites in the campground, slept under the stars and swam in the ice-cold river.  On the way home, Will and I stopped at a Gouda cheese factory, Big Dipper (I think that's what it's called) for homemade ice cream, and at a farm stand (Costa Farms?) for fresh-picked corn...10 ears for $1.00.  The shower I took after a quick unpacking burst felt amazing, and now we're turning around to go on a short camping trip again this weekend.  

For now, enjoy some Yosemite photos, and I'll return with a giveaway soon!

 Tunnel View

 At the top of Sentinel Dome

 Checking out the view atop Sentinel Dome

 I love Bridalveil Falls!

 Carlon Falls

Yosemite Falls and the Merced River

Teeny Tiny Awesome

So this chick Beth lives in 365 square feet of awesome.  I am impressed and in awe and don't think I could do it, which makes me feel like a greedy American.  Enter feelings of guilt (must have more space! more stuff! more!).  I often think about what it would be like to get rid of everything and live a truly minimalist life.  It is such a tempting idea to clear out and start fresh.  But then I think about my grandmother's dining room table and my general enjoyment of space, and think that 365 square feet could get a little claustrophobic at times. 

But her small place is beautiful, and it's looking at pictures like hers that make me want to get rid of it all and start all over in a tiny, perfect place.  Anyone else?

I can't resist a list...

One thing I love about blogging is the way it connects me to lots of wonderful folks I would not otherwise know.  I think we've all been writing about this sort of thing lately, thanking the Great Internet for introducing us to our newfound friends (many of whom we have never met in person).  Maybe it's the lovely weather, maybe it's just that time of year, maybe sentimentality is contagious...I don't know.  But I do know that I am grateful to my little blog community.  Even when they make me do things like what I'm about to do.

Yes, friends.  It's a chain-blog.  Somehow, being called out and linked to (Thanks, Josey!) makes me feel like I can't just ignore it.  Ah, the guilt.  ;-)

Anyway, these are the rules (or the letters?) as copied from Josey's blog:
A - List 7 habits/quirks/facts
B - Tag 7 people to do the same
C - Don’t tag the person who tagged you or tag “Whoever wants to do it”

And here goes...

1. I eat dessert almost every night, usually ice cream.  I try to limit my dessert intake to the post-dinner bowl of deliciousness, but sometimes I sneak a cookie or chocolate covered espresso bean (or 10) in during the day. 
2. I really, really like creating training guides.  Really.  I have made one for every job I have ever held, whether it was presiding over a high school club or assisting executive directors of engineering.  I even made one when I left Pixar after only six weeks on the job.  Yeah.  I have also made a "guide to la la land" for friends who move to Los Angeles.  
3. I often make "what's in my kitchen" dinners, where I throw together some sort of meal based on what I find in the fridge/cupboard. Usually it is some sort of pasta with a creative sauce.  Always it is delicious.
4. I grind my teeth.  I think I do it more than I realize.  It annoys me whenever I catch myself doing it, and I give myself a little scolding.
5. I cannot stand ink on my skin.  I was never one to write notes on my hands, and I cringe when I have to get a hand stamp upon entering a club or bar.  And I always scrub it off as soon as I get home (sometimes I do it at the bar; I know this defeats the purpose of the stamp, but nobody ever checks once you're inside).  One place I went to used a sharpie to mark a giant on my hand and I almost cried.
6. I also do not like stickers on clothing/skin - I have always been this way.  When I was a kid, I remember asking my teacher to put my sticker on a piece of paper instead of on my shirt.  I think I did the same thing for stamps (on a paper instead of on my hand), but my mom will have to verify that.  I bet they all thought I'd grow out of that. HA! I sure showed them!
7. I like making lists, and I am insanely organized...except when I am a total slob. I love for things to be perfectly organized and beautiful and Real Simple and all that, but sometimes I just let piles build up on the couch.  I'm trying to work on the whole consistent maintenance thing so the piles don't stress me out, but mostly I am too tired and just let them build up until I can't stand it and do a mad dash of cleaning and organizing.

So there you go.  A lovely little list of 7 things about me.  Fun on a Tuesday evening :)

Here are my 7 Lovely Ladies of Choice...do it if you want, don't do it if you don't want. 

1. A Serious Girl
2. Food Loves Writing
3. Between the Words
4. Shonelley Belly Laughs
5. The Painted Peach
6. Happy Jack Eats
7. Rag and Bone

Oh Geoff, I love you for this

Watch all the way to the end. Love this boy.

Junket Is A Winner!

Thanks to Ye Olde Random Number Generator, I have selected a winner for the Fancypants Threadless Contest!  And that winner is....Junket!  Junket, I will email you to tell you how to redeem your fancypants prize of a $25 gift certificate!  Be sure to let us know what you get :)

What did I learn from trying to be all fancypants?  More people will enter your contest if all they have to do is leave a comment.  Apparently, if you ask them to do a little publicity for you (by Tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, etc. about your contest), it's a little too much effort.  Which I totally get.  I am lazy too.  But ha ha to all those people who didn't enter, because they didn't win!

I have another exciting giveaway to announce...but not yet.  It deserves a blog post all its own, and it will get one later this week.  So stay tuned!  I haven't decided how I want to do the contest entries yet...do I make y'all work for it or do I just let you comment?  I do love me some fancypants Google Forms, but I also love feeling popular due to the sheer volume of commenters coming out of the woodworks.  Decisions, decisions, I tell ya.

Congratulations again to Miss Junket!  I'm sure you will look fabulous!

A Roundup of Sorts

Life has been busy lately.  I have been meaning to blog about so many things, but between work and apartment-hunting, and life in general, I just haven't gotten around to it.  C'est la vie.  I've been writing a bit over at Berkeleyside, specifically about the apartment-hunting, so if you'd like to check that out, there that is (Part 1, Part 2).

I went home for my lovely friend Colette's bridal shower, and somehow ended up coming back to Berkeley with an iPhone.  Let me explain.  I had planned on purchasing a hard drive and visiting the Apple store that weekend - I needed to back my photos up to an external hard drive, and wasn't quite sure what to do about making sure it all worked without deleting anything accidentally.  Turns out, my mom had the exact hard drive I was about to spend $100 on, and didn't need it.  Boom! I don't have to spend $100.  But then...oh but then...we realized that there was an open spot on their family plan with AT&T, and that I was eligible for an upgrade on my current (and dying) cell phone, and that purchasing an iPhone for $100 and switching to the family plan would not only mean I would have a fancy phone with a data plan, but that it would actually save me $10 a month on my cell phone bill...well, it seemed silly not to take the leap.  So I leapt.

awkward face due to a combination of nerves and excitement

I was nervous, yes I was.  I loved my little flip phone.  Loved that all it did was make phone calls and send text messages.  Loved it for its simplicity, and really did not want an iPhone all that badly (mostly due to the costly monthly plan).  However, I am enjoying it.  Indeed.

Oh so fancy, gettin' all set up...

Well let's see.  What else has happened?  We took the ferry to Angel Island with some friends for Memorial Day...

Everyone smile; we're on a boat!

We had $12 bottomless mimosas at Cafe Biere, with good friends.  I may have had twelve of them, which may have been far too many.  I do not drink often, so I do not have a high tolerance, even for delicious fruity beverages.  We also had brunch there, which I highly recommend.  Delicious.

There were nine flavors: orange, honeydew, grapefruit, watermelon, mango, cantaloupe (we thought it was peach), strawberry, pineapple and carrot

Last night, we went to an Oakland A's game, due to really wonderful (free!) tickets from a friend.  The tickets included dinner and fireworks afterwards, which were done with a really fun selection of music from 1980's hair bands.

a fun time was had by all

In sadder news, UCLA basketball coach John Wooden passed away recently.  I was never into UCLA athletics (or sports, in general) during my college years, but he said some really wonderful things that I thought I would share here in his memory. 

• "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."  
• "Be more concerned with your character than you reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
• "Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend so far.  Don't forget to enter my Fancypants Threadless Gift Certificate drawing!  Do it!

Givin' It All Away

Ok, not all.  But I am giving away one $25 Threadless gift certificate to a lucky reader!  If you don't know about Threadless, you should check them out.  They make nifty T-shirts and hoodies and art prints and other such things.  Goodies for men, women, and everything in between...and really cute baby/kid gear too. You know, if you are into stuff like that.

I received the gift certificate in exchange for adding the little Retailmenot coupon widget to the sidebar over there, and I thought I'd pass back the love to the people who read the blog.  Because I am incredibly generous. Also, I could not decide what to order for myself.  But mostly because I want to give back.  I'm having a serious case of the Mondays today (but thank goodness it's actually Tuesday!), and I have a feeling that a blog contest is just the thing to improve my mood.  I feel better already!

The Rules/How to Enter (because I am gonna get all fancypants up in here and try something different from the "leave a comment and get an entry" thing, so boring):

• One entry will be given if you retweet this blog post on Twitter
• One entry will be given if you post this on Facebook
• One entry will be given if you post this on Buzz/Digg/Whatever other social media situation you use
• TWO ENTRIES will be given if you link to it on your blog and say something nice (or jerky, or funny, whatever).
• Feel free to leave a comment just to say hi or whatever, but you won't get an entry just for leaving a comment (ha ha, sorry folks. not this time.)

That's a total of  FIVE (count them, five!) possible entries per person! That's right, you can enter this contest FIVE times. I'm going on the honor system here, so once you have done any (or all) of the things listed above, head on back to this page and fill out this fancypants form to let me know. Yay!  I will pick a winner on Tuesday, June 8, so get your entries in before...oh, 8pm Pacific time.  Why June 8?  It's a week from today, and the calendar at work (made by HP) says that is "Upsy Daisy Day" and that seems like a good day for picking a contest winner!

Glee, you're killin' me

I don't write about TV very often.  Not because I don't watch it, because trust me, I do.  I don't usually write about TV because I rarely watch something that provokes me enough to want to write something about it.  I just don't care that much.  


And I don't know why I care so much about this one particular plot point from last night's episode of Glee, but it really irks me, so here goes.  Warning: this may be a crazy rant, and if you don't watch Glee, just ignore this whole thing.  Or read it.  Or watch the show.  For the most part, I really enjoy it (even if they really could use a little injection of the sour irony that has been missing from every episode since the pilot).  And I loved the mother-daughter Poker Face duet, and Idina's Funny Girl situation, and the Bad Romance number (super awesome).  And the guy playing Kurt is a good actor.  Also, for the record, I called the Idina Menzel as Rachel's mom thing from the moment they mentioned she was under consideration for a guest appearance (and when whatshisnamehottie was "using Rachel to spy on the glee club"? I didn't believe it. I knew he was spying for Idina because she was Rachel's mom and wanted to get closer to her.  Duh.) - but that is not the point of this blog post.  Nor is it the cheesier than cheesy "we just all have to be who we are and not be afraid of expressing ourselves" theme (hello, stereotypical high school tv show morals).


The point of this blog post (finally) is the ridiculous plot line surrounding Kurt's dad/Finn's mom/the fact that Finn's mom decided they're moving in with Kurt and his dad without even asking Finn.  


Am I the only one who thinks that this is totally unrealistic? I mean,announcing it with crudites, with Kurt, like, "surprise! we all knew about this and you didn't!" (REALLY? REALLY???) Also, why do Kurt and Finn need to share a room? Wasn't there a whole bit about "oh their house is so big! giant TV! 5 bedrooms! 2.5 bathrooms!" And what's happening with Finn/his mom's old house? After the big ole drama fight between Finn and Kurt's dad last night, are they gonna live in their old house again? I sure hope they didn't sell it yet, though in this economy, it's probably still  on the market.

I think it's pretty obvious that the whole "we're moving in with them" is nothing more than a plot point inserted simply for the drama that would ensue...and um, ok. Fine.  It's Glee. I know there are plenty of "unrealistic" things about it, it's a TV show, blah blah blah.  But this crossed the line from "I can suspend my disbelief because it's a crazy show" to "this is distracting me from the show and I cannot connect or empathize with Kurt at all because none of this is realistic at all. I get why Finn is so pissed because this just makes no freaking sense".  I honestly thought it was going to be a dream sequence.  


Then again, maybe this is something that does happen in real life and I'm just naiive.  Maybe some divorced parents actually do just move their kids in with another family, no questions asked (or notice given).  And I know I just spent way too much energy on Glee-analysis, but seriously.  Am I nuts, or is that plot point ridiculous?  

Two more kitchens...

Because I care. 

Super tiny, but quite lovely.  And bigger than our kitchen, anyway.

via Apartment Therapy

This one I just want.  Sigh.

via Apartment Therapy

Pretty House-Type Things

I have had a number of posts saved in my Google Reader for, oh, weeks now.  At least.  I've had them saved because when I read them, I thought, "Oh that is gorgeous! I must blog it!" and then never had the time to do so.  Since I'm home sick for the 3rd day in a row, I thought I'd finally get to that.  Here you go.  A bunch of pretty pictures of other people's homes.

I swear I've posted this picture, but I saw it on Young House Love and had to (re)share.  That porch!

Rebecca Woolf and her family just moved to a gorgeous house.  They have a backyard.  With this rad umbrella.

I love this.  via Apartment Therapy

It's a little cluttery, but I like it.  via Apartment Therapy

I don't know what those black and white stools are doing in this kitchen, but I like the rest of it. via Apartment Therapy

Martha Stewart and IKEA both make colanders like the ones hanging on this wall.  I want one of my own.  Maybe one in white and one in turquoise.  Alas, I have a perfectly fine (plastic) one already.  via Apartment Therapy

Aren't these little pots just adorable? I would use them to store grains or rice or oats or beans something.  via Apartment Therapy

You're welcome.

More sliver linings

The little pink roses on my birthday bouquet bloomed.

Please ignore the tissue box, and the bad quality of my camera phone.

I love my flowers.

Ups and Downs

As you might know, I am sick.  I admit, I am kind of a baby when I'm sick, but I really do feel like crap.  It started late Tuesday night, with a little tickle in my throat, and by Wednesday morning, it was a full-blown, hurts-to-even-think-about-swallowing sore throat.  By Thursday, we added in a stuffy head and runny nose.  I stayed home from work both days.  Last night, I hardly slept, and this morning, my head felt like it was detached from my body, but my throat was still totally in pain.  I went to work for a few hours this morning, but came home around noon and have been tearing through the tissue box steadily since then. Blowing my nose like it's my job.  You know the drill.  Chicken soup, Emergen-C, Advil Cold and Sinus.  These are my couch companions. And Ellen.  Oh Ellen, in 10 minutes you will entertain me for a solid hour, and for that, I am grateful.

I know I am rambling on and on, but I'm sick, so I can be forgiven for a little ramble here and there.  This is the week of crazyawesome, and while it has come to a screeching halt, I am focusing on getting healthy.  But wait, Kim!  Aren't you supposed to fly down to Los Angeles tonight for a wild bachelorette party weekend with one of your oldest and dearest friends?

Yes.  I was supposed to do that.  And until about 10 minutes ago, I was still considering it.  But after conversations with my mom, my doctor, my boyfriend, a "rational advice" friend, and the bachelorette herself, I've decided that I am too sick to fly and too sick to party.  This was not an easy decision to make.  I've known this lady for 14 years, and I really wanted to be at her bachelorette celebration.  I felt like a bad friend and a wimpy sicko for thinking I wasn't going to be up for partying.  I thought it was just me being weak.  But I realized that I sound (to quote the doctor, mom, and bachelorette) "like shit"  (see also: "horrible," "sick," and "awful"), and I feel that way too.  It probably would not have been good for anyone to have me around, covered in dirty tissues, bringing down the energy of the weekend.  Also, I've heard that alcohol and pseudoephedrine are not a good combination.   So, with a heavy heart, I canceled my flights.

What's that you say? Every cloud has a silver lining?  Why yes, it does.  Colette's bridal shower is next weekend, and I wasn't going to be able to attend because I couldn't fly down to LA two weeks in a row.  Thanks to Southwest Airlines being awesome, I was able to change my flights for a grand total of $14, and now I will be attending the bridal shower.  I feel better about missing the bachelorette weekend knowing I can still partake in the bridal shower festivities next week.  I hate being a last-minute cancellation; I know how frustrating it is to plan a party or event and have people back out at the last minute.  But sick is sick, and as Colette said (in knowingly-cheesy fashion), "if you don't have your health, you don't have anything."  So now I will take the weekend to get better and rest up and all that, and will emerge from this week of madness a healthy Kim.  Yay.

What an awful blog post - so "me me me" and "wah wah I'm sick wah wah".  Sorry.  It's my blog.  Sometimes I rant and rave about personal issues.  It happens.  I'm going to go feed my cold with more soup and maybe some chocolate birthday cake.

I'll put together a post of beautiful kitchens to post tomorrow to make things pretty again.

A little food.

Will and I have made some really tasty meals lately (and by lately, I mean 3-4 weeks ago).  We actually picked recipes out of a cookbook, went to the store for ingredients, and then came home and cooked.  I know it's not a novel concept or anything, but whenever we do it, it feels special.  Most nights, I whip something up out of whatever is in the house.  Meals are good, and healthy, and all that good stuff, but there's just something fun about the planning that goes into trying a new recipe.  I would love to do this more often, but the time it takes doesn't always make it possible.  If only there were more hours in the day, right? 

Some pictures, to inspire you, make you jealous, get you excited, or just to show off our pretty meals.

Arugula salad with oranges and fresh raspberry vinaigrette.  And crusty, delicious bread.

Spaghetti with mussels and homemade tomato sauce.  The mussels were a new treat; we'd only made them once, in cooking class.  Delicious.  Easy.  Awesome.

Breakfast a few weeks ago - it's nothing fancy, but it was so good I had to share.  Fried egg with parmesan, fresh bacon from the butcher, and roasted asparagus with pepper and lemon.  It looks so simple (and it was), but man was it delicious.

The Birthday Week

I wrote last week about this Crazy Week Of Awesomeness.  Well, it's Thursday, and I'm sick, but I'm trying to get better ASAP so I can jump back into crazy week time.  Thank goodness yesterday was a "day off" from the plans, and thank goodness for sick leave!  And for being able to check work email from home.  And for nice coworkers.  And for interns.  Thank goodness for all of these things.

I thought I'd share a little photo-recap of this crazy week so far, since it has been so wonderful (minus the sick).  From cake to concerts, it's been a good birthday week so far.  James Taylor's voice makes me tear up a little bit every time I hear him live, and Carole King is just...well...fantastic.

The new photo-caption feature on blogger is great, but it puts the photos in a weird white box.  Haven't decided if I like having the captions, or I like not having the white box around the pictures better.  For now, I'll try out the captions thing, even though it makes formatting kind of wonky.  As I type this, I have no idea what this post will really look like, since the "preview" feature doesn't accurately show you what the post will look like when published.  Sigh.

Anyway, birthday week pictures below the jump (because apparently I can insert a jump break)!

Ladies' Night!

I'm home sick today, so I thought I'd take the time to upload some pictures from my camera (finally), and try to get some photos up on this little blog that I have so been neglecting.  As sucky as it is to be sick (sore throat, stuffy head), at least my blog is getting a little love.  Silver lining?  I am even going to schedule a few posts to go up over the next few days when I know I will be away from the computer.  How's that for productive?  Also, I am going to take a nap.

And now...a belated post about Ladies' Night.  In mid-March, I got together with two friends from high school for a little girl time.  Drinks and a little meal and window-shopping at the gigantic mall in downtown San Francisco.  What else are three Valley Girls to do, right?  Sadly, the mall closed at 9pm.  On a Friday night.  Yeah.  We didn't have as much time to wander around gossiping and trying on silly things as girls are wont to do, but we had a nice time anyway.  Andrea, Jessica, I'm sorry it took me so long to post these photos!

Oh it's ladies' night, just ridin' the escalator...

Five story Nordstrom.  Oh San Francisco.

A little too close, but woo hoo ladies!

Mini creme brulees!  In chocolate and vanilla!  So good.

Crab dip and biscotti totally filled us up.  Yum yum.

I liked this picture.

Countertops

This is my dream countertop.  Yes, I have a dream countertop.  I am hugely nerdy.  But it's so pretty!!!  Click to enlarge...it's just lovely.  Wouldn't this just be awesome for a kitchen? My kitchen?  Someday?

Photo taken in the bathroom at Nordstrom at the SF mall.  Yeah, I took a picture of the countertop in the mall bathroom.  What of it?

Kitchen Cure? What's That?

You may remember that I was participating in that Kitchen Cure thing.  My last update was, oh, about two months ago.  Eep.  Rest assured, I have been keeping it going.  I haven't taken before and after pictures of everything, but I cleaned out the utensil drawer, and the baking-things cabinet that used to be simply overflowing.  We could certainly still use more space, but things fit just fine, and I feel better not having crazy duplicates (though sane duplicates are totally acceptable).  ;-)   Here are a few photos from the utensil drawer cleanse, just to give you a little idea.

The utensil drawer, before.  Disorganized, and not very pleasant.

I took everything out and lined it all up.  Kind of ridiculous how many duplicate items we had.  Did we really need THREE pasta spoons?  THREE slotted spoons?  Sigh.  We designated some of the cheap blue ones as "camping utensils" and put them with the camping supplies, but we got rid of several things as well.

The drawer, after.  Much tidier.  And because I know you'll ask, yes, we DO use the duplicate items we still have.  Sometimes you just need two spatulas at once.  Or you need to use  two 1/2 cup measuring cups at the same time.  Ok, we could probably get away with less, but we have room, and it works well for us for now.  Hoard hoard hoard!

Anyway,  The Cure has officially been over for months now, and I can't say that I passed with flying colors or anything, but I think I did a pretty good job.  It definitely got me thinking about my kitchen, and whether I need everything in it, and I do try to keep it clean and tidy and all that.  Just don't look now; it's kind of a disaster zone.  :)

Ok Crazytime Week Yes

There is a LOT going on in my life starting tomorrow.  Between family visiting and my birthday and concerts...well, it's just going to be crazytime!  Rather than write a big ole thing about it, I'm just going to list what's going on, because I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed by all the awesomeness that is about to occur.  In a good way.

• Saturday: clean the apartment, hang lights in the backyard (more to come on that), watch Penguins game, dinner with my family (sister, parents driving up from LA, other sister & her boyfriend driving up from Santa Cruz, cousin from SF) - one sister's bday was on Wed, mine is Mon, plus Mother's Day on Sunday...so...celebratory dinner!
• Sunday: little surprise Mother's Day activity (people who read this blog are involved, so cannot divulge yet), show my parents around the workplace, maybe go to an open house, go to Will's hockey game, dinner + ice cream at Fentons!
• Monday: work, small BBQ at our place for my birthday :-)  (for which we are hanging the lights, as the backyard has no lighting and would otherwise be very dark)
• Tuesday: work 1/2 day, massage, Carole King and James Taylor concert!!!
• Wednesday: work, no after work plans (it's the only "day off" so there will probably be sleeping)
• Thursday: work, food tasting for Reed's wedding (yum yum - did I mention they're coming into town too?), Sonny Rollins concert
• Friday: work, fly down to LA
• Saturday: day 1 of Colette's bachelorette weekend
• Sunday: day 2 of Colette's bachelorette weekend, fly back to Berkeley, Ben Folds concert

And then, I will probably collapse in bed for a long time. Or I'll go back to work on Monday.  Yeah, that's what I'll do.  But THEN I will sleep!

23andMe - Sample Received

I got an email this morning notifying me that 23andMe has received my spit sample.  There probably won't be any updates on this for a while, but in approximately 6-8 weeks, I will probably have my mind blown.  That is all.

Comcast Update

It has been over a year since my last update in the Comcast Saga, and an update is definitely overdue.  So here goes.  Last time I wrote, Comcast Angel Raul had reduced the bill from around $115/month to around $75/month.  I was thrilled.  Life was good.  I was told that this was a permanent change, and that life could go on happily.  This was in January of 2009.  In January of 2010, I found out that I had been sadly misinformed.


The bill for January was back up at $115.  I voiced my frustration on Twitter (my new favorite way to lament issues to customer service reps), and immediately received a response from Detreon.  Per his request, I emailed the details of the trouble (below).

"Back in January of last year, I spoke with a representative on the phone (Raul, in the cancellations department) who gave me a discounted rate ($68 a month, pre-taxes) on my internet and phone service.  My bill went from being approximately $115 a month (which I could not afford) to approximately $75 a month (more affordable!).  I asked him multiple times if this was a promotional rate, if the rate would eventually expire, etc. and each time he said no.  His exact words were, "Well, it's not a promotional rate because we're not promoting it."  He said this would permanently lower my monthly bill, and that it would never expire.

This month, I received my bill for $114.38, and when I contacted the billing department, I was told that my previous rate was a 12-month promotion.  According to Customer Service Agent Rowena, there was nothing she could do because my promotion had ended.

Needless to say, I am incredibly disappointed with this news.  Our Comcast service has not been stellar, especially since the digital upgrade (multiple outages, switching between digital channels is very slow, frequent pixellation, frequently dropped internet), and I do not feel it is worth $115 a month.  At this point, I am starting to research alternate cable/internet options.

I don't know why I was misinformed, but like I said, it is a big disappointment."

His response was:

"Unfortunately, the representative you spoke with provided mis-information and for this I apologize. I have asked that our regional office look into why you were not provided with accurate information and the representative you spoke with will be coached. In terms of pricing, we were able to lock you in a second 12 month promotion for cable service at $39.99 and a 6 month promotion for internet at $24.99. This does not excuse the poor service that you received, but I do believe it is a step in the right direction."

So this is where we stand now.  We have cable for $39.99 for the rest of the year, and internet for $24.99 for another few months (at which point it will go up to about $50 a month).  It is very frustrating that service is not more affordable, and that (like nearly every person I've talked to about this) we just keep looking for ways to hook into promotions and special deals, and complain to customer service until our rates are (temporarily) lowered.  I don't understand why cable companies charge so much (ok, I do, it's because they can).  And every other place I've looked (DirectTV, DishNetwork, etc) is the same, so it's not worth dealing with the hassle to switch.  You can get the "low price" for a year, and then your rate nearly doubles.  We'd like to try out ATT U-Verse, because we've heard good things about it, and its DVR seems better than TiVo (as much as I love TiVo and its cute little mascot).

Anyway, there it is.  An update.

Delicious Kitchen Accessories

via Apartment Therapy