Christine says hi: 01.2011

1.31.2011

Bohemian Rhapsody on the ukelele

"If everyone played the ukelele, this world would be a better place."

1.30.2011

Muttville: Dewey

Dewey is a crotchety old dog who likes to sleep in a basket that's too small for him. So this happens:

1.29.2011

You've seen my hair. It's pretty straightforward. In the past, this has meant I can get away with a Supercuts haircut because it always looks more or less the same. Why spend $60 when I can spend $15? Well, no more.

Today I went to a cheap salon in the Mission that came highly recommended on Yelp. I asked to keep my length, but add some layers for movement. Imagine me with my regular hair wearing a Dorothy Hamill wig on top:

In his defense, he didn't speak English. Now, there are two things wrong here. 1-At that point, I should have gracefully excused myself from the situation. So, I own that this was my fault. 2-This is the second time I've let someone with limited English skills to cut my hair, with the same underwhelming results. What is wrong with me?

I booked at appointment at my local Aveda salon that was able to squeeze me in - thank GOODNESS. Here are my favorite quotes from that session:

"It's not super tragic." Takeaway: it was mild-medium tragic.

"He undercut your hair in certain areas. I'm just going to ignore that." Hair in the middle of my head had been hacked away to create volume. Sigh.

"You will need to come back."

Honestly, I'm really happy with the way it turned out after session 2. I'm sticking with Aveda from now on.

Bush and Powell

Guerilla knitting!

I wanna dance with somebody

Sometimes you just have to dance it out! We've all been there:

Around 1:20 when she pulls out that lighter though? So much awesome.

1.26.2011

Book clubssss

I realized a while back that, while moving to SF was wonderful, it did take away a good 40 minutes on BART every day for reading. So I joined a book club thinking I could kill 2 birds with one stone: read and meet people. Good idea, but then I sort of joined 3 more.

Up until now, I've never had too big a conflict. The meetings were spaced out or I'd already read a selection so I skippped it. Well, then the new year rolled around and I committed to reading 3 books concurrently. All good ones though! NERD ALERT!

Up first: Green Metropolis, why living closer together in urban cities is the most environmentally responsible. I'm halfway through and so far, I'm kind of meh on it. I mean, the author has good points but he also lives on a farm in upstate New York. So...maybe someone's a little preachy?

I started to read the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, but I know I'll need breaks while reading Great Expectations. The plan is to read both of those concurrently and hopefully make both end-of-February deadlines.

Yelp knows me so well

On yelp today, I got this pop-up:

Is this what they think I'm looking for? Being barefoot in girl soup is not it.

1.25.2011

TED Talks: 3 of 1000 awesome things

3rd and Mission

1.24.2011

How to do things faster

Fun video about how to do random things faster. Ignore the cheesy music. The shirt folding trick at 0:50 blew my mind!

I'm also seriously excited about not tangling my earbuds anymore (tip at 3:35)! At the end though, it shows that the video was sponsored by Sprint - what?

This is your life

1.23.2011

This ad has been around town for a few weeks now and there's something not right, right? It's kind of like saying, when there is a cure he won't throw strikes.

The part that really gets me is that the tag line has nothing to do with wearing the bracelet that the ad is for. Actually, I'm sort of confused what this ad is for.

Minna and 3rd

1.22.2011

Foreign Cinema

Girl's night out at Foreign Cinema a couple nights ago, a wonderful restaurant that I hadn't gotten around to trying yet. I went for dinner, but apparently it's known for breakfast/brunch. In addition to delicious food, they always play a movie on the patio wall. The space is beautiful too. I'll definitely be going back!

Foreign Cinema entrance

Sitting outside under the lights

Harold and Maude

Muttville: Lucky

Lucky was dropped off today from another shelter. Sometimes, other shelters will do that with older dogs that are so great they can't bring themselves to put them down. He's a big ball of fluff and energy! It took forever to find a harness because I couldn't figure out how much was hair and where his body actually is. Don't let this serene picture fool you:

Lucky

He usually looks like this:

Duffy update: not adopted yet, and still freaking adorable.

1.20.2011

Horoscoped

I nformationIsBeautiful, which is a very cool website, recently analyzed over 20,000 horoscopes to find out whether horoscopes were actually saying anything different depending on the sign. Check out their nice graphic of words that are most associated with different signs:

As a Taurus, I would agree that 'open' and 'worrying' both describe me. Another cool thing the site did was mash up the most commonly used words into one cosmic prediction:

Now that's a nice horoscope.

Urban Birdhouses

Someone is putting up yellow birdhouses all over the city! Whoever's doing it has a site where you can track them as they go up: www.urbanbirdhouses.com.

3rd and Mission

How fun! Ironically, it's illegal in SF to feed birds but I guess not to house them? OK.

1.19.2011

Erie and Mission

Wave bus shelters

The bus system is rolling out these new "wave" bus shelters (note the red wavey design on top). It includes this touch screen panel hosted by Yahoo! where you can play games and compete to gain points for your neighborhood:

It was definitely a nice way to kill 10 minutes while waiting for the bus. I even managed to get some points!

Against all odds?

The only downside was this slightly creepy picture you saw after the total-points screen above:

That will haunt my dreams.

1.18.2011

My mom's house

My mom just got an HD tv with 3D, so I visited her and the tv to see how it worked. Believe it or not, it was the third most interesting new addition to her home.

She also is the proud creator of 2 gallons of pomegranate infused vodka, which she neither drinks nor offers to others to drink.

But best of all, this stuffed animal that she bought for herself the other day.

Photobombs!

Glad Michael Douglas is doing better. And that this happened:

1.17.2011

Like riding a unicorn

'Horsey' is an entry from the Seoul Cycle Design Competition:

The pieces that give it the unicorn shape can easily be added to any bicycle. Hope they start selling it soon (and that I get a bike again)!

Battery and California

At the Tadich Grill

1.15.2011

Underground Market

I have just discovered the SF Underground Market, a place where you can buy homemade foods (jam, tamales, and such) from people making it right here in the city. It can be cost prohibitive for vendors like these to sell at Farmer's Markets because you need to be certified and make everything in a commercial kitchen. The Underground Market provides a place they can get their wares out there, meet like-minded people, and maybe turn a weekend activity into a full time job.

I passed on some things, like the vegan seaweed energy bars, but my favorite was this family who makes kombucha in their garage (on the right with the green table cloth). I'm drinking their coconut and oolang flavor as ~~we speak~~ I type. I would have taken the picture closer, but I think I was making them nervous with my exuberant gushing about their flavors.

Ogling kombucha family from a respectable distance.

Card carrying member of the SFPL

This is embarrassing, but I just joined the SF public library. Which is ironic, considering I'm in 4 book clubs (that's another story). The closest branch is in Chinatown, isn't it a sweet building?

AND I got to pick out a card design! It was a really tough decision, but I ultimately chose preschooler Chloe's design (#1).

I spent so much time picking out a card (some would say too much time), that I didn't have a lot of time to see what was available. I did, however, leave with this:

It's all mine for 21 days. Score!

1.13.2011

Hipsters. sigh.

What the hell is this?

When I find out, I'll let you know.

1.12.2011

Vino & Vinyasa

Last night, the W Hotel hosted a Vino & Vinyasa event - which is exactly what it sounds like it was.

Despite my assumption that we would be in the back of the room, we were actually in the front! Everyone turned around during the yoga and I didn't have to look at anyone's butt.

Matching outfits are never a good idea. Ever.

A little wine and mingling afterwards.

Unfortunately, this is a once in a year event. It was so fun though, already looking forward to next year!

Prius goes plural

More than a Prius commercial, it's also a fun grammar lesson. I miss Schoolhouse Rock.

1.11.2011

THIS is a home library

It's said that Karl Lagerfeld has his assistants buy 3 copies of fashion books: 1 to keep clean, 1 to flip through, and 1 that pages can be ripped from for inspiration. Looking at his library, I believe it:

This makes me like him. The only thing I don't get is how his couch can be so 'blah.' And is that a birdhouse near the spiral staircase?

Ones!

It's 11:11 on 1/11/11!

That is all.

1.09.2011

ASL is awesome

You know that Cee Lo song F*** You? I like that song a lot, but seeing it in sign language is awesome!

California and Grant

Great motto, unfortunate placement.

"No stupid bags to lug around."

Muttville: Duffy

Earlier this month, I started to volunteer at Muttville. It's a wonderful non-profit in SF that takes in senior dogs and tries to find them a home. Let's face it, most animals who are adopted are the cute and young ones, not the older ones. I'm so happy a place like Muttville exists.

Every other week, I get to walk, groom and hang out with these dogs. Best volunteer gig ever! Some dogs are regulars, who may never be adopted because of health issues, and others are coming in or out. This week, I met Duffy.

Duffy

I. LOVE. DUFFY. He looks like a muppet and has such a great personality, I'm sure he'll find a home soon. He's the first one who's ever followed me outside after a shift.

He looked so forlorn. I hope he finds his forever home soon!

1.07.2011

Sick

I feel like this:

1.05.2011

If it's a rainbow, can it really be vandalism?

Some knucklehead (not my words) is terrorizing Albuquerque with rainbow graffiti:

Video here: Vandal Strikes Downtown with Colorful Paint

I can't believe people would prefer to look at a boring, grey building instead. Color on, rainbow warrior, color on.

Power animals!

From reddit, an email from someone who doesn't want to be a bridesmaid:

[fiancee],
I'm sorry this is coming to you in email form but I need to get my thoughts to you clearly and this is the best way for me to do it. Please read what I have to say and after you've had time to think, we can talk about it in person if you want.

When you first asked me to be a part of the wedding, my gut reaction was to say no and I should have listened to myself. I feel very strongly that you shouldn't marry [me] and these feelings are only intensifying as the wedding approaches. [fiancee], in good conscience, I cannot be a part of your wedding - I feel I would be doing both of us a disservice by standing up for you and bringing my negative energy to your wedding day.

I know this is shocking for you, but again, in my heart, I cannot do this. These feelings are also affecting me in a very negative way, the full extent of which didn't become clear to me until I had a healing session with [new age spiritual healer] yesterday. I couldn't dodge the feeling that I needed to see her yet I wasn't clear why I felt I had to. In the end, I was left with two choices - either go through with participating in the wedding with a change in attitude or bow out as gracefully as possible. I meditated on it and called upon my power animals for guidance and ultimately bowing out is the decision I have reached. I understand the consequences of my actions but I am at peace with my decision. Please know I am in no way attempting to cut of ties with you, although I understand that may be the end result of all of this.

It might be hard to understand but I mean you no harm - I do believe in 'no harm to none'. However, I keep going back to what [so-called yoga 'master'] was talking about during one of our sessions - that by saying yes to someone else when you want to say no, you are only harming yourself. Participating in this wedding is harming me in many ways and this didn't become truly clear to me until I had the session with [new age spiritual healer].

I am not asking for your forgiveness or understanding - again, I understand the full consequences of my decision. I still wish you the best for everything in your life - you have a good, kind soul, [fiancee] and it is hurting me to see you go through with this marriage.

As I said above, we can talk in person if you want. However, I know that I will not change my mind about this. If you don't want to talk, I understand and accept whatever decision you make.
-[bridesmaid]

Also, 'no harm to none' is a double negative. Gah!