Apparently not at all participating McDonald's

So McDonald's and Yourself!Fitness recently teamed up.

Here is the story:

responDESIGN was founded to deliver the best in health and fitness guidance to everyone through the Yourself!Fitness virtual personal trainer, Maya. Today we are pleased to announce a giant step in this direction: a promotional partnership with U.S. McDonald's® restaurants. The promotion underscores a shared commitment to balanced, active lifestyles and will introduce Maya and Yourself!Fitness to millions of people across the country through four exclusive Yourself!Fitness DVDs that will be available nationwide (April 25-May 22, 2006) at McDonald's with the introduction of the newest Go Active!™ Happy Meal® for Adults, while supplies last at participating restaurants. A different Yourself!Fitness workout DVD will be featured each week for a total of four weeks. The new Happy Meal for Adults will pair any Premium Salad, including the New Asian Salad, Dasani® water, or medium or larger drink with one of four exclusive Yourself!Fitness workout DVDs. McDonald's customers will also receive a five-dollar coupon towards (sic) the complete Yourself!Fitness program, redeemable at http://www.yourselffitness.com/, with the purchase of a Go Active! Happy Meal for Adults during the promotion. We believe this partnership will result in many new community members, and we are counting on each of you to do your best to welcome new members and introduce them to the supportive and motivational nature of the Yourself!Fitness community that you have built. As always, we are grateful to each and every one of you who has made the commitment to Yourself!Fitness.

My friend Jen talks about it on her blog, too.

Anyway, so I decided to get an adult Happy Meal at McDonald's today. I get there and I ask the woman for the adult meal with the Fruit & Walnut salad. She looks at me weird, and says, you want the Fruit & Walnut salad? I said yes. Do you have the adult meals? She looks blankly. Then I ask, Is it only at participating McDonald's? She pretty much tells me she has no idea what I am talking about. So I pay for my "salad." As I am driving back to work I notice on the side of the bag there is a promotion for the salad meals and the free DVD. There is a link and a little disclaimer that reads, Premium Salad, Dasani water or medium or larger drink and DVD offer specially priced at participating McDonald's® restaurants while supplies last.

I have been bragging about this program to anyone who will listen. And now I can't even show them a sample DVD! I may be hitting another McDonald's tomorrow. The thing is there aren't many around here.

Oh, and my salad has candied walnuts. How healthy is that?

Keeping warm

Yes, it is almost May and it ain't warm here. But I have ways to keep warm:

At work we have been supplied with a Starbucks coffee and cocoa machine. We already have Peet's coffee in the coffee pots. But with this new contraption you get to push the buttons and brew it and all that good stuff. Took this pic in our small kitchen with my handy camera phone. I tried to find it online to show a better pic, but I just couldn't find it. Dang! Anyway, this thing has two coffees, you can blend them if you want and you can make hot chocolate. It is so good, yet so evil. I have had no willpower with this thing. All my hard work working out and walking is gonna go down the tubes! Must stay away from the Starbucks machine ...

Flannel sheets also keep me warm. I was thinking the other day that it is almost May and we still have flannel sheets on our bed. We also still use our heater. Not as much as during the true winter. But it still gets cranked up almost every night.

Other stuff ...

I had my chair massage yesterday. Talk about wonderful. OK, now nothing beats a full body massage. But a 20-minute massage in the middle of your work day is so WONDERFUL. I wouldn't mind another one today. :)

Onyx recently started a community fridge at work. It is supplied with fruit, carrots, celery, bagles, bread, english muffins, yogurt, Jell-O, string cheese, bottled water, etc. In the cupboard: peanut butter, dried fruit, fruit snacks, that soup you can drink, etc. In the vending machines anything considered semi-healthy (drinks and snacks) is only 25 cents. It is truly wonderful. I have my breakfast at work every day. Right now I am drinking some coffee from that Starbucks machine--I really am not a coffee drinker anymore. But I am tired and the cocoa just didn't cut it.

Anyway, have a good weekend!

Schmorgasborg

Sunday

Sunday morning Curt and I picked up his co-worker Cyrus and his girlfriend, Becky, and we headed north to a town called Cotati where our friend Ronda lives. Ronda used to work at Macworld with Curt and Cyrus, but she is now a full-time massage therapist. She does a great job. If anyone is ever in the area and needs a massage get it from Relaxing Ronda. Her Web site should be ready soon.
So we got to Ronda's place and decided to have lunch. We were planning a hike--but our plans got sidetracked. We had lunch at a cute little place in Cotati's downtown. We passed by a bar called Spancky's and were intrigued. But we just had lunch at a sandwich place and walked back to Ronda's. The 5 of us piled into our car and headed to the Korbel winery. We tasted some champagne and a little wine. We decided to buy a bottle of champagne and sit out on their deck and enjoy the beautiful day. We stopped at the Martinelli winery on the way back. I told the guy we didn't know Martinelli also made wine. Apparently they aren't the same deal. That wine was OK. They told us that Jimmy Buffet had been in for a tasting earlier. We bought some munchies from there and headed back to Ronda's. She made us dinner. Pork tenderloin, veggies mixed with cheese and a cut up polenta chub. If you don't know what a chub is, check out this site. We also had the best buns at Ronda's. Man those were good! She also made cookies for dessert. It was a great meal and day.

Gas prices

OK, gas prices are insane here. I have seen between $3.09 and $3.45. Luckily when we were in Cotati we had to fill up and ONLY paid $2.99 a gallon. I heard on CNN this morning somewhere some gas station was charging less than the norm and a suit was being filed against it. They were still making a profit--just not gouging like the rest of the stations. Hey, if they want to charge less--LET THEM!

Knitting Group

Started a "Knitting Club" at work today. Taught a couple of women how to knit. Since it was a successful introductory teaching we are expanding to more participants. Not everyone who wanted to come could. And people were called out by phone calls and all that good stuff. But we will continue with the teachings and adding more people.

Born Into Brothels

Curt and I watched this movie Saturday night. This is the kind of movie spoiled brats need to watch. It was very sad. But it was so good. This photographer was teaching children of sex workers photography. It really puts your life into perspective.

Allergies

OK, I am tired of being tired. Saturday I was worn out all day. There are some days I feel like a zombie. Today isn't so bad. Supposedly allergy season is gonna get worse very soon. Since it has rained so much lately things are gonna start blooming like crazy. My allergies right now just make me tired, not a lot of sneezing, or running nose or watery eyes. But it still sucks! A few people have told me about some meds they take--but you have to stick the spray up your nose. And I don't want to stick anything up my nose. My allergies aren't bad enough for me to stoop to nose sprays. I know my Zyrtec is working--because once in awhile I start sneezing, watery eyes, congestion about midday and I realize I forgot to take my pill that morning.

Cruel Games

On CNN this morning they were talking about a new computer game that I believe you can find online. It is called "Border Patrol." You get to shoot Mexicans crossing the border. There is even a pregnant woman crossing with her children. It is completely disgusting. I don't even want to look for it online. CNN went indepth and found other similar games. There is one called "Ethnic Cleansing" that costs 15 bucks. It is for "White" people who I guess like to shoot minorities. There was a White Supremacist interviewed. He seemed to think the game was perfectly fine. CNN also briefly talked about other Internet games where you can kill Jews, Gays and African Americans. (These are all different games.) How disgusting is this? Even if some are considered a joke they just aren't funny. And I think they give kids bad ideas. These games are just plain racist!

Happy Administrative Professionals' Day!

Today all the Admins at Onyx received flowers. We also got cards and a certificate for a free chair massage tomorrow! Woo-hoo. I am signed up. My boss and supervisor gave me a card and gift card to Chevy's.
I took a pic of my flowers with my camera phone (pictured on the left). It is nice to be remembered and appreciated.
Here is a little history on the day.

This has got to stop!

I got an e-mail from Planned Parenthood today about "Crisis Pregnancy Centers." It is horrible what anti-choice people are doing to young girls:


An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to one of Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group — one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic, and was designed expressly to lure our patients and deceive them.
The group took down the girl's confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their "other office" (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there — the "crisis pregnancy center" had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.
The "crisis pregnancy center" staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl's home and calling her father's workplace. Our clinic director reports that she was "scared to death to leave her house." They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
This cruel and fraudulent behavior shows exactly what's behind the proliferation of these centers. That's why this new bill is so important: it would make it illegal for any entity to advertise abortion services if it does not provide such services.
Worse yet — the Bush administration has used $60 million in taxpayer dollars to fund these propaganda machines. This has got to stop!

TomKat baby born

Poor little baby Suri has to have such a weirdo for a father and a zombie for a mother. No details on the freaky silent birth. I am working hard to refrain from going off on the silent birth.
Hmmm, child out of wedlock is OK, but Paxil is not. Interesting morals there freaky Tom! Let's hope Katie doesn't have post-partum depression.
OK, I will end this. And I have to say I was VERY tame.

Happy Easter!

Enjoy this little message.

Napa Valley

Curt and I met our friends Randee and Stephen along with their friend Yvonne up in Napa Valley today. We met for lunch at Dean & Deluca. It is this great store that has tons of wine, olive oil, a deli, lots of cheese, etc. We got sandwiches, drinks and chips there and headed to a cute little park to eat our lunch. It was sprinkling but eventually stopped and the sun actually came out for a bit. The sandwiches we got were really good.
Afterward we headed to Beringer, where Yvonne works for another few days. We had lots of tastings and then bought some wine at 50% off. Woo-hoo. Stephen had an order from a co-worker to stock up on a bunch of wine. The guy gave him 3K to spend. And that wasn't difficult. Their car was riding low.
Then to the Coppola winery, which is now called Rubicon Estate. We had free tastings there because Stephen is a wine club member. They also had a little gallery that had stuff from Coppola's movies. Pretty cool. They had a bunch of his Oscars on display, too. The gang stocked up on some wine. That one I didn't get any--even with the discount it was a little costly.
Our last stop was Andretti Winery. We had free tastings there because of my wine club membership. Lots of tastings there, too. We did comment to the woman that we liked the music--it was very hip. Not snotty winery music, as Randee put it. They had some yummy mustard to taste with pretzels and salsa and chips. I got a wine diva shirt (pictured on the left), a bottle of wine and some CO2 wine bottle opener (pictured on the right). The others also stocked up on some items. With my wine club membership I get discounts on all items.
We got discounts at all three of the wineries we visited and free tastings.
Unfortunately the weather wasn't too nice. It just sprinkled a bit, but it woulda been perfect if it was sunnier. Oh well. But it was a nice day.

Happy Birthday Joey!

I worked at Petsmart for about three years while in college. Customers would find stray animals fairly often and bring them into the store. We would tell them we couldn't take the animals. They would have to take them to a shelter.
At the beginning of June 1994 two guys came in with a litter of kittens. They had found the bunch in a Dumpster. And this time employees took the cute little fuzzy strays.
I took Joey to the vet the next day and was told he was about 6 weeks old. So I decided April 15 would be his birthday.
He has been a good and faithful pet for 12 years.
I picked out some of my favorite pictures of him. The one on the left, he was in the laundry hamper. And the one on the right, he was using my skein of yarn as a pillow while I knitted a wrap for my mom for Christmas.

It was "A Beautiful Day"

When I lived in Arizona and the sun was shining and it was a beautiful winter day I would love when U2's "A Beautiful Day" would come on. It was always the perfect setting and feeling.
Well, yesterday here in the Bay Area we had a beautiful day.
After work I went into the city to meet Curt and my dad for dinner. No rain and mild weather. We walked to a place for dinner. We had an amazing dinner. I had sea bass and the yummiest mashed potatoes. All of our meals were good. And yummy ice cream for dessert.
Afterward we headed to the Apple store to look at all the fun gadgets. Curt and I are interested in speakers for the iPod. They are pretty cool. There is one that sounds awesome--but it's something like 300 bucks.
This is the one we like and probably can afford. This is the one that really rocks. Oh, and it's $350.
The Apple store was packed, swarming with people. I don't think my dad had been to an Apple store before.
Afterward we said our goodbyes and Curt and I rode BART home. When we got to Berkeley we couldn't believe the night. Clear and mild. It felt like January in Phoenix.

"Walk the Line"

We watched that over the weekend. Curt didn't think it was very good. I thought it was pretty good. I thought Jaoquin Phoenix did a great Johnny Cash. And his singing was really good, too. Reese Witherspoon did a good job, too.
But the movie wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.
Anyway, now that I think about it, I don't think "Walk the Line" was up for best picture. Reese and Joaquin were up for best actress/actor. And as we know, Reese won.
So what were the movies up for best picture? "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote," Good Night, and Good Luck," "Crash." And what was the fifth? "Munich"? "Syriana"?

Way better than "Crash"

I watched "Brokeback Mountain" last night. I have to say it was an excellent movie. It was also very sad--these two men loved each other, but they had to maintain straight lives and keep their love secret.
I had heard the sex scene was disturbing. There was only one gay sex scene and it wasn't graphic. Not sure what the big deal was.
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenahal both did amazing jobs in this movie. I loved both of their characters. There was so much raw love and emotion. Truly great actors.
Out of the Oscar nominated movies for best picture I have seen "Crash," "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Brokeback Mountain." The last two are "Capote" and "Walk the Line"? Right, was "Walk the Line" nominated. I am pretty sure it was ...
So far, my pick is "Brokeback Mountain." And usually when a movie has a lot of hype I am disappointed. But not this time. I can see what the fuss was all about.

The Sun Will Come Out Today ...

Woo-hoo! The sun is shining, the sky is blue and most of the clouds out look reasonable--as in not dark, gray nasty rain clouds.
I heard that the rain here was gonna start heading east. Fine with me!
See ya sucka rain!

****UPDATE****

So I was just reading a story on the Chron Web site. I guess I celebrated too soon:

"Today we've finally got showers kind of ending," meteorologist Ryan Walbrun said. "The worst of it is now behind us, but there is more rain in the forecast. And for the foreseeable future it's not going to let up."

Click here to read the whole story.

30 dollars!!!???!!!

That is what I said to myself loudly in the car while looking at my parking ticket ... I headed to downtown Berkeley on Saturday to get my hair trimmed. Well, my usual meter spot was taken. So I drove around not finding any spots. Then I found one that I thought I could parallel park in--which I never do since I really can't parallel park. But around here you have to. This space had enough room for me to back into. I start paralleling and I notice that the meter is 30 minutes. Well, forget that. So I drive around the corner and find 2 spots open. Perfect! I can pull right in. I pull into my spot and grab quarters. The meter had 41 minutes on it. So I plopped in a quarter and was on my way. (The meter was limited to an hour.) I get my hairs trimmed. I am walking to my car about an hour and 5-10 minutes later when I see the Meter Maid drive by. So I was pretty sure I got a ticket. And man, I was right. 30 bucks for an expired meter. That is insane. I knew it was too good to be true when I could pull into the spot and have 41 minutes left on the meter.
Here is what I realized today. If I woulda parked in my regular meter spot I would have beaten the Parking Nazi and avoided a ticket. Dang! Oh well.
We didn't do a whole lot this weekend since it was pouring buckets! I watched the movie "Happy Endings." It was pretty good. Interesting. Now if I could just get Netflix to send me "Walk the Line." It has been No. 1 in my queue for quite some time. And it has had a short wait for what seems forever. Send it to me!!!!
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