Heya all!

So how’s everyone doing lately?

I’ve been pretty busy, okay…. i was INSANELY busy this week,

rushing work and all, but it keeps me happy, alive and motivates me

to look forward to the coming weekend of awesomeness.

I can’t imagine myself juggling everything that I’m doing right now,

together with school the coming year..

It’s gonna be tough, like really tough,

meaning lesser meetups ,

lesser time to sleep…. .

and ridiculously good dining and shopping with peeps.

Well anyways, the plan for the week!

Will be texting Jody and Jane for a meetup next week, ( text will come real soon >_< )

With Bel,Yileen,Wendy on friday for drinks and food.

With Joyce for movie, dinner, and prolly partying on Saturday night.

Awaiting confirmation of our awesome day out with Sylvia from Sachi on Sunday.

Basically, its an ‘everyday-going-out-weekend’,

for since it’s the 10th of the month again!

the joy.

who knew that id have so many pictures. this is not all of the pictures. i had to sort out which ones i wanted and were mines and i still have another camera waiting to be uploaded but my cousin has it and hes coming back in three weeks so there will be more pictures in three weeks.

some videos

Oh one thing I DID do this weekend was watch this video a hundred times. Here are my favorite elements of this video:

1) How earnest she is and how quickly it takes a left turn.

2) I have actually done this before.

3) Everything that happens afterward…the rolling, what she says…it’s all gold.

I love coming up with blog titles. Such an imaginative effort has to go into it!

Ok, lets get to the point….

Very rarely does something good ever happen too me. And Im not just talking “good for the moment”. I’m talking something you would write home to your parents about, if they didn’t know already. Or, something that you just cant wait to tell your friends about just so that you can beam in your moment of glory, waiting for that “atta girl” pat on the back. In my world- we’ll call it stacieland- that doesnt happen often!

First, I was excited when I was given a 3 day weekend. Sucks I lost a days pay, but I needed a lil break. Sucked that I had a baseball tournament all weekend and ealry morning games….little did I know that would actually be one of those “good things” in sooooo many ways!

Friday night, Idecided to take my walking to frankenmuth. I figured it was night time, the tourists should be tucked away and downtown is lit so I can be safe walking at night. Best decision I have made….got there just in time to start my walk and watch the fireworks display as i walked. Such a beautiful sight- Fireworks are like pizza and lovemaking- no matter how awful the display, its still good! HAHAHA!

Saturday was great, sunday too. Nothing like fireworks, drinks, and a few rowdy crazy friends (and a massive hangover the next day as a reminder of why you should never do this). Needless to say, my saturday ended just as awesome as it started. Sunday started rough- but got better, MUCH better, as it progressed. I didn’t want to say goodbye when it was over- Back to reality? No way! And I was right, the “im the lucky one” feeling didnt end….

I got to watch the smile light up on my sons face as he made his pitching debut. I think he suprised us all with the effort and almost flawless display of his talents. That nervous as hell feeling quickly went away after the first strike was called…his first time pitching became his first no hitter, with a little help from his teammates. It was almost as if I was at home watching Kevin Costner anticipating the perfect game in “for love of the game” for the 1st time.

I spent sunday night on my couch intense into a texting war. It was great!when you meet someone there is so much curiousness…so much too learn. and so many things you can be questioning yourself on. Nope, not this time! what a great feeling to have….honestly! It was one of those conversations that when it ends, you just think “awesome” and know it’ll pick up the next day……one of those things that just makes you want to be face to face and leaves you in anticipation for that too happen. Falling asleep with a smile on my face…a sure sign that whatever it is, its good!

I will leave this as it is for now…but Im sure theres more to come. I could go on forever because great things just dont happen in stacieland. Or at least I have learned not to anticipate them happening…the disappointment sucks, but the occasional suprise of a good thing when least expected….a feeling that cant be replaced!

Written Sunday, July 05, 2009

 I hope everyone had a fun 4^th of July weekend! I’m sitting in my camper at the resort and thought I would share some of my weekend with my fellow bloggers in the blogosphere. It was a pretty eventful weekend here at the resort, filled with a little of everything for everyone.

Friday the 3^rd at noon, the resort fired up the grill on the patio of the clubhouse and served all the favorites like hamburgers, hotdogs, brats, chicken sandwiches and pork chop sandwiches to name a few. Home made potato salad; baked beans and chips were some of the sides to choose from. A pretty mean game of kickball open to all ages was held in one of the large fields, a kids coloring contest and kids bingo was held in the clubhouse. Hayrack rides around the resort were from 2-4 and pool races were enjoyed by many in the indoor pool. Karaoke started at 5:30 on the clubhouse patio which is always fun. NO, I didn’t sing and YES I poked fun at the bad singers. Oh come on, you know you do it too! At dusk were you guessed it, FIREWORKS! Along with all of these activities to choose from were the “normal” activities like swimming in either the outdoor or indoor pools, enjoying the hot tub, an 18 hole miniature golf course, tennis, basketball, fishing, paddle boating and sand volleyball to name a few. A little of everything for everyone!

We all woke up here at the resort to some unseasonably cool temperatures and rain on the 4^th. We all just made the best of it and waited for the rain to finally stop at about 4pm. An inflatable bounce house for the kids was supposed to be setup but was not due to the rain. The indoor pool and hot tub were of course open all day. There was face painting for the kids in the clubhouse and kids crafts. The patio BBQ was fired up once again but most ate inside their campers or in the clubhouse. A rock band called “FIREWALL” was to play on the patio from 1-4pm but was moved into the clubhouse because of the rain. A watermelon contest was held at 2 for different age categories including adults. The hayrack rides were cancelled as well as the water balloon fights, tug-a-war and nickel dive in the outdoor pool. A Rod Stewart impersonator played in the clubhouse from 7-9pm. This guy REALLY looked and moved like Rod Stewart!! The rain was kind of a drag but we all just made the best of it and had fun anyway!

Today (Sunday) we awoke to nice sunny skies and nice warm July temperatures. Paula, Logan, I and our good friends had breakfast in the resort restaurant. They have all you can eat biscuits and gravy every Sunday and it’s becoming a tradition for us on Sunday mornings. A fishing contest was held for all ages from 10am until noon. Trophies were awarded for the largest and smallest fish caught. Capture the flag and musical chairs were played by the kids in the morning. In the afternoon the kids enjoyed card games in the clubhouse, a scavenger hunt, pool volleyball, bouncing off the walls in the inflatable bounce house and a bicycle parade. The kids brought their bicycles up to the clubhouse patio and decorated them with streamers, balloons and other things. Then they rode through the resort parade style and even threw candy to people sitting outside of their campers.

It was an awesome fun filled weekend enjoyed by all!

I hope all of you enjoyed your 4^th of July weekend!

So my 4th of July was pretty eventful, we did a nice show of fireworks and were out on the boat all day. Yay America! I made delish BBQ free range chicken and vegan potato salad too….mmmmm. It was another nice weekend of debauchery with friends and nothing too out of the ordinary happened except the grille on my Volvo mysteriously disappeared! What a bummer because they are expensive to replace and I don’t feel like spending money on that right now. And just when I thought my creative juices for ideas for blogs were about to drop anchor -I saw the most moving films as I was ending my holiday weekend. Hey what a surprise right?! Me, seeing brilliant films? The wonders never cease! Well, anyway one was called The Witnesses and it was made in 2007 but is meant to take place in 1984. It’s French and beautifully written. Usually I like to summarize the films I see here, but in this case I will not reveal anything except that it is NOT what you think as you begin to watch. It is a film I think everyone should see as it deals with something we all have to be aware of. VERY moving. I rent massive foreign and indies at my local library, usually like 8 at a time, It seems I have a knack for picking awesome films! Too bad that is not a job right! Ok, so the other one I saw was called Cléo de 5 à 7 and it was a 1962 film and French as well. Godard makes a cameo which I was loving, as he is another director I just adore. I have to say it was pretty deep in terms of themes, I related to the protagonist Cléo very much. Or maybe I just love the smart dresses she wears and the beautiful friendship she forms at the end with the solider on leave. Either way, I just can’t get enough of the French new wave. The Witnesses

That’s what my mom says every time I ask why she gets so worried about me driving at night.  And today, she was right to worrry.  I was driving home behind this big truck, but it was moving too slow, so I moved to the other lane.  I was drivng next to it when all of a sudden the truck switched lanes, didn’t even turn on the signal light and almost hit me!  It would have hit me if I hadn’t stepped on the gas and immediately maneuver my car so I wouldn’t hit the car in front of me either…somehow I ended up on the lane the truck had been on, and the truck finished switching lanes.  I didn’t even have time to be scared really, I just gasped, lol.  Thank goodness my car is small enough to be easily maneuvered, because if I had been driving, say, my brother’s truck, I would have def. crashed.

That was the last straw to a bad afternoon.  It just hasn’t been my day.  I spent the whole afternoon looking for A’s b-day present, and didn’t find anything….the thing is, the girl likes everything, but at the same time she hates everything if that makes sense.  So in the end it really just pissed me off.  Then I told her we wouldn’t be going to M’s place weekend after next like we planned cuz M’s aunt will be in town, so M is coming home instead.  But A got really mad apparently, cuz she had already asked for the day off.  I don’t see what the big deal is, but whatever.  I’m tired of dealing with people’s dramas.  Especially people who seem to not care about me unless it suits them.  I give up.

Op-Ed I wrote, published in the July 4, 2009 Delco Times

http://delcotimes.com/articles/2009/07/04/opinion/doc4a4ebef51dedb963067926.txt

—————-

The American dream was once described to me as “the ability to make a better life for one’s children.” Apparently, Acme Markets has missed the memo.

On June 9, Acme announced its intention to terminate the contracts of its employees in the Greater Philadelphia Area on July 10, 2009, and to implement its “last, best and final” contract. Acme employees have been working under the extension of an old contract for over a year due to unsuccessful negotiations between Acme and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1776.

As this is, admittedly, a matter of personal importance to me as a current Acme employee and a member of Local 1776, I have spent the past few weeks following the developments of the story and poring over the proposed changes to our contract.

It is true these changes will affect me and the many others current employed at Acme, but that is not the reason I opposed this new contract at the union meeting held at the Spectrum June 24. The new contract proposed by Acme may attempt to appease current employees on some fronts, but it intends to leave a wasteland for future employees.

Some changes were expected, even understandable. Society has moved past the days in which one would be hard-pressed to find a store open on Sundays, and thus the need for Sunday premium pay has become a luxury. In a harsh economic climate such as this (and facing competition that pays no extra on Sundays), I can understand why the company would seek to eliminate Sunday premium for new hires.

I can even stretch my understanding to see why it would want to deny new hires holiday pay until they have worked at the store for two years, though I fundamentally disagree with this proposal on the basis that a holiday is a holiday, no matter when you were hired. Yet even that might be passable, if it was not for other provisions in the contract, like one:

“Part time employees hired after 7/11/2009 shall not be eligible for spouse/dependent/family coverage until completion of 84 months of continuous service provided a part-time employee works or is paid an average of 28 hours per week in any rolling two month period following completion of 84 months of continuous service.”

Take, for instance, a single parent. Assuming their parental duties allow them to work 28 hours a week (I assume they would be hard-pressed not to work those hours in order to support a family), it is now up to the company to provide those 28 hours. And it is doubtful that many part-time employees will be given those 28 hours, considering the constant salvo of hour-cutting mandates decreed by the company.

In fact, I would suggest this provision is a way of denying coverage to employees under the guise of cutting hours. The contract, by the way, only guarantees part-time employees a minimum of 20 hours per week – and those 20 hours are only guaranteed if employees are available to work Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and evenings. And on top of all that, coverage doesn’t even begin until seven years after employment has begun.

All this while Supervalu (the corporation that owns Acme) CEO Jeff Noodle relaxes with the $5.3 million package he’s made for the economically harsh 2009 fiscal year.

Acme has been extremely good to its employees over the years, blessing them with various benefits and coverage. However, if the company’s opportunistic bid is pushed through, and is able to effectively eliminate coverage of countless future employees, who is to say it will stop there? What happens when this contract ends and other negotiations take place for further cuts? And what voice do future workers have concerning the jobs they will inherit?

Our society has been sculpted around consumerism, but that consumerism only functions if people (largely the middle class) can afford to spend money. Faced with a shrinking middle class, I advocate confronting the large corporations that dominate the workers, and demand consistent treatment – not only for ourselves, but for our successors as well.

The weekend zipped by.  No scooter riding for me.  Took my mom around, visited my dad.  By the time Saturday rolled around I was exhausted and not in the mood.  We skipped the 4th festivities and went to bed early.  Sunday same story.  Now it’s Tuesday and I feel like I’m fighting a cold. 

I need a vacation though it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting any time off in the near future. 

My father will probably be in the hospital for another week or so.  Which means I’ll be driving mom around again on Saturday.

Ratatouille::
How do they do this yaar? Pixar guys are the best in terms of Animation each time you wonder what will they give you after Nemo & here are they are with Ratatouille , WALL-E both were too good to watch. really looking forward for UP India release.

Made Of Honour::
Typical bollywood style film, sometimes you wonder is this the Hollywood one? But but the actress was so sweet & pretty you forget everything, she was wow!!!

Aamir::
Rajeev Kahnadelwal acts really natural. Movie was descent pretty good actually.Pace was good background score was amazing & 1 sufi song was just makes you feel like its Rahman (he is Amit Trivedi the DEV D guy)

Roger Federer defeated Roddick Again
I really wanted Rodick to win this time but Master did that again, Roger federed swiped his 15′th slam. He is greatest but I like Rafa.

Jane tu ya Jane NA:::
Why our stories has to end in Airport?Such an old end yaar. All they want to do is just copy & Paste the good things.Watchable just once.

The Shawshank Redemption:::

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. This was my 5′th time for this film.I never stays late in night but when you have movies of this calibre I can Night out for sure. Seriously one of the best movies I have seen till date. He thought it’ll take him 600 years but he did it in just 20. Great saga of friendship,emotions,human values & what’s more.

FRIDAY : Thank goodness it was a national holiday. Work was super nuts this week.

- Had breakfast on the patio at The Beachcomber Cafe in Crystal Cove.

‘Twas yummy yummy! The view was incredible and the breakfast light and not greasy. Since it was the holiday weekend, I expected to wait for a table. Luckily we got there early enough (8 a.m.-ish) and were seated right away.

- Caught on tape the boys jamming out on the balcony of our villa at Newport Coast.

- Soaked in the sun by the pool.

• My family is lucky enough to have a summer beach house at Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas during the week of July Fourth. It’s only 30 minutes away from home so I can juggle work and fit in a little rest and relaxation. It’s always a great time because our friends and family can drop in without having to make major travel plans to join us on on vacation. We’ve owned a villa here since the place opened in 2000. The first year it was a dusty lot with three major buildings. This year it looks like they just wrapped up construction on the last building. I think there may be some 600 units now.

The view from our villa over looks the Pacific Ocean and Pelican Hill Golf Course.

SATURDAY : Happy July Fourth!

- Loved more quality pool time and pigged out.

• Faaab sunglasses bought at FredFlare.com. It’s a fun online store with some funky finds. I thought it would be cute to share some style with my cousins after I saw some similar shades in this month’s issue of Glamour magazine. There’s a discount code for 30 percent off your purchase – type in luckybreaks7. It doesn’t apply to merchandise on sale.

SUNDAY

Caught the afternoon showing of Pixar’s Up in 3D at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.

• Everyone should see a Disney movie here at least once… if you’re too cool to go with grown ups  then bring your niece, nephew, cousin – a kid – and see what happens. Get there early enough and you’ll hear house organist Rob Richards play Disney classics or as in my case patriotic music (that’s what I get for going July 5th).

• Before the feature there’s usually a short live show with dancers, singers, and Disney characters.  This time was a bit unusual it went for a good 15 minutes. They had little kiddies dancing up on the stage and doing the limbo. It was pretty cute.

• Boyfriend Dave models the classy 3D glasses, which by the way if you wear (eye)glasses, fits perfectly over them.

Afterward we headed over to Tender Greens in West Hollywood for some lunch. It’s a great casual place to eat quality food, get it fast, and the service is always great.

• Added bonus: they send out menu updates ala Twitter! Follow them @TenderGreens.

Throw in some extreme Peggle, The Office: Season 2, cream chese crab puffs on Sunday night… and oh man.. what a perfect weekend it was!

It’s a sad day for Tha Chief everybody.  I’ve returned from the craziest, most relaxing (I know those contradict each other)/my favorite place to be during summer, Playboy’s beach.  Whenever I’m there I feel like I’m with my second family and the togetherness is something that really can’t be felt anywhere else.  But the Fourth of July I had was so crazy there will be a story, I’m waiting for the pictures to be posted online so everyone can see what went down.  Everyone be looking out for the story, it should be out within the week.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

-Tha Chief

Besides the relaxation aspect, the nice part of being away is that when you walk back in the door and drop the bags, you see your home with new eyes.  When I left I was frazzled beyond measure.  When I returned my house looked clean, bright and airy.  Which just goes to show how you can get caught up in the day to day mindview.  There are still too many piles and too much clutter, but the step away gives you new perspective to reach in and grab it one bit at a time.

So when we got home, I immediately unpacked wanting to keep that sense of place.  Then I did a load of laundry.  That was enough.  Today I washed the West Virginia dirt off the car and finished another load of laundry.  Tomorrow……I think I will clean up the last remaining piles downstairs.  All in good time………….we’ll see how long the paced lifestyle keeps up, or down so to speak.

Man, is it hard returning to work after a 3-day weekend.  I love having the time off, but at the same time feel depressed because our next official holiday is Labor Day.  And that’s 62 days away still.  Sigh…

The holiday weekend was definitely needed and much appreciated.  Thursday night we went with some friends to go see The Hangover.  Unfortunately the 8 p.m. show was sold out, so we decided to go get some drinks and hang out until the 11 p.m. show.  Of course silly little me had a few too many drinks, and by the time we were supposed to head to the movie, I didn’t want to go anymore.  We’d met up with my co-worker Mel, so JJ (former co-worker) and I stayed to hang out while the T and another friend went to the movie.

That was a bad choice.  Of course I ended up drinking way too much and felt super crappy for a large part of Friday.  Luckily I did recover enough to head to the pool for a bit.  It was my first time this season – sad I know.  I was not loving the way I looked in my bathing suit, but at least there were some other people there who should definitely not have been wearing what they were wearing.  Our friend Chris so lovingly dubbed them the “bodies by bud babes,” which cracked us all up.  And also made me feel a little less self conscious.

Later that night, we hit up the Atlanta Brewing Company for some brews.  It was a pretty relaxing early evening, which got a little crazy when some bees kept dive bombing Little S and her boyfriend.  At one point they were running up and down the parking lot, screaming like crazy people to get away from the damn thing.  It was pretty hysterical.  After ABC, we decided to head to the pool for some night swimming and drinks.

I made this thing called a bowle;  it’s like German sangria.  And it’s perfect for hot summer nights.  You take some fruit – I used raspberries and blue berries – and soak them in a little liquor – I used triple sec – and a bottle of white wine.  Let them sit for about 30 minutes (you can also do it overnight, but I didn’t think about making it until sort of late and didn’t want to wait that long).  Then top the mixture off with a bottle of champagne and about half of a 2-liter bottle of seltzer.  It is awesome.  You can basically use any type of fruit and any type of wine.  I tried to stick with drier versions to keep the next day headache away.  You can also use more wine or champagne if you have a larger group coming.  Try it – I promise you will love it!

Saturday, T and I had a breakfast date at one of our favorite Atlanta brunch spots – West Egg.  If you live in Atlanta, you better make sure you try this place.  You won’t be let down.  Afterward, we headed to the pool for a bit of 4th of July sun.  Later that night, we went to CMc’s 4th of July/birthday extravaganza where we showed off some tacky stars and stripes gear.  T wore a woman’s t-shirt with the Statue of Liberty  and sparkly pink and teal stars on the front.  I’m not sure why the stars weren’t red and blue…I made myself some super cool star flops and a stunning foam visor.  What can I say, I’m crafty!  The party was fun.  We drank, we cornholed, we beer ponged, and then we danced our asses off in the tiniest and hottest bar ever at the end of the night.

Yesterday was a veg out day.  We watched Running with Scissors.  It was pretty good, but I definitely recommend the book for the full on crazy details.  I still can’t believe it’s a true story.  Later in the evening we watched Scream 3 – so not as good as the first one.  And later started in on True Blood – season 1.  Let me just say, I’m hooked.  When the show first came out, I thought it was going to be stupid.  But we watched the first 2 episodes last night, and I can’t wait to get home and watch a few more.  I even went ahead and ordered the books today because I am dying for something good to read.  I hope they are as good as I’ve heard.

Are any of you reading the books?  Or watching the show?  I figure T and I need to just go ahead and set up our TiVo to record season 2 so we can jump right in after we finish season 1!

View of Brooklyn Bridge via Columbia Heights

New York water taxi – to Ikea

Brooklyn Bridge

View of Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

Sky advertising – the New York City Hall area

I got a little sun yesterday. I took a walk over to the Brooklyn Flea, located under the Brooklyn Bridge on Sundays. Then I walked my way across the bridge to Manhattan and took the subway to Murray’s Bagels in Greenwhich Village for lunch.  I can see that the best place to be during the summer in NY is by the waterfront.  The cool breeze is priceless.

A cheese and salumi plate from Murray’s Cheese Shop; four courses of prawns each prepped in marinades made from scratch; frog’s legs; salad; one giant fish, cooked whole; and many bottles of wine — I love having friends who love to cook as much as I love to eat.

What was the occasion? Over the last few days prior, a crew of friends and a couple of family relations arrived in the city from various places overseas, the closest being London and the furthest being Australia.

On top of that, Pride Week was wrapping up with a parade and the rooftop we were on offered brilliant views of the streets below, which were alive with revelers, the cityscape, the sunset and, later, Pride-themed fireworks over the Hudson River. 

I got to be the shopper’s aide the day prior on the trip to Chinatown’s fish markets, where I learned that the key to shopping at the various seafood markets is to first do a lap, scope out all the goods, and then on lap no. 2, buy the best. Just like markets everywhere, quality and quantity varies on a daily basis. 

That gorgeous, orange-y fish top center became the piece de la resistance of the meal: It was baked whole, after being stuffed and rubbed with oil, lemon juice, fresh ginger, basil, green onions and fresh hot peppers. We thought it was a red snapper, but it didn’t quite cook up like a snapper, said the chef. Or was it the hugeness? (The fish weighed in at 4 lbs.) Needless, it was tasty.  

Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of all the prawn courses, but we started with the ones on the left, which were marinated in a fresh and spicy lemon-ginger-herb mix, and ended with the ones on the right, which were cooked in a hoisin-style sauce with water chestnuts and diced Chinese sausages. (Which were my favorite.)

You cook before eating, right?”  the market clerk asked us as he was heaping sausages into a plastic bag. (Generally a good rule of thumb to follow with Chinatown goods.)

… And then there are these little beauties. The frog’s legs were an impulse purchase — found at the same market were we saw this hulking alligator’s leg for sale,$3.99 a pound — and I am so glad we went for it. I’ve had frog legs before, but everything was buried under deep-fried batter. 

                                 A first attempt at pan-frying the legs turned out to be too much for the delicate meat; the legs fell apart under the duress of the high heat and being tossed in the pan. We simply baked them instead, and they turned out brilliantly. I’ve had nothing like them before. In texture, they’re as light as fish meat and the to eat them is not unlike eating chicken wings, where one part side of the joint is heavier on meat than the other, and you run into the occasional vein or tendon. 

Verdict: I’d eat it all again tomorrow, but I’m not sure when we’ll have that exact same intersection of special occasions again, if ever. It was just lovely how everything worked out.