This is a scary world we live in

I was reading an article on the Tucson Citizen Web site today about a young woman fighting to preserve women's rights.
Read some disturbing information below:

• The South Dakota Legislature - with the stated intent of creating a court challenge to Roe v. Wade - passed a law last week to prohibit all abortions, except to save the life of the mother.
• In Arizona, the extremists who control the Legislature are pushing through a bill that would prevent teenagers from getting birth control or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases without parental consent and are blocking a bill to require health-care providers who treat rape victims to provide access to emergency contraception.

I had heard about South Dakota on CNN last week. But only that the Legislature was trying to pass the bill. According to the story last week, if it became law women or girls who are victims of rape or incest can't have an abortion. (Abortion would only be OK if a woman's life was in danger.) I don't even know where to begin on this. It makes my blood boil! I can understand if people are against abortion--but I believe every WOMAN should have the right to choose abortion, adoption or keeping the baby. Being a victim of rape or incest is already a horrible tragedy for anyone to have to deal with. But if they happen to get pregnant they HAVE TO HAVE the baby. So they are being punished for being a victim. Why should a 15-year-old girl have to have a baby who will have the same father and grandpa? That is just so wrong. I don't even think I am giving this argument justice. I am so mad right now. I am shaking my head. Anyway, I think you all know where I am going with this.

This Arizona info was news to me. When I was in high school my health class was a joke. We didn't learn anything about sex education. And my high school, Tucson High Magnet, had (and probably still does) the highest pregnancy rates. So someone wasn't learning something.

Kids are gonna have sex--whether you teach them about sex or not. That is the plain and simple truth. They WILL have sex whether or not there are condom dispensers in the bathrooms. So educate kids and keep them safe.

AND ... Keep Your Laws Off My Body!

Old Missouri! Fair Missouri!

Curt and I attended a University of Missouri alum get-together Saturday. It was the first alumni function we have attended. We have checked out the Bay Cats and they are a bunch of old farts.

The get-together was at this great place called Vino Venue. It is a wine tasting place where you pour your own tastes. You buy a "debit card" and insert into the station, the spouts light up and you pick the one you want. The amount is deducted from your card. It was very cool.
They provided some great appetizers, too. So wine and yummy appetizers. I was a happy person. And all ages were there. People in their 20s, 30s and a tad older. But really no old farts.
We decided to drive to the city. Getting to the dang toll booth took forever. Once you get passed the toll booth it is easy to drive over the bridge to get to the city. We were sitting there for at least a half an hour inching along. So we finally got onto the bridge. ... I was a little worried about parking. We found many parking spots nearby easily. But they all seemed to be 30-minute meters. And it was just after 4 and the meters run until 6. So we would have to pump the meter too many times. We drove around a little more. Found a 1-hour meter--that was much more doable. We stuck a quarter in and 5 minutes showed up. We were like, wha???? We looked at the pricing on the meter. A quarter for 5 minutes!! That is insane!!!! But parking in a garage would have been much more. So luckily we keep lots of quarters in the car for laundry. So we loaded up. And Curt went back once to feed the meter.
We met some great people at the function. Sounds like this group is pretty active. So I am sure we will be attending more outings with them. At the event they had a Missouri pamphlet. Supposedly Missouri invented "Homecoming." Some dude told alumni to "come home" for some big game years and years ago. And it has stuck. I am still skeptical about whether that school really invented it. You can't believe everything you read in print.
Afterward we headed to North Beach for dinner. Drove around looking for a parking spot. We finally found a lot and parked there. Then we still had to walk a bit. And of course I was wearing new shoes--what better way to break in a pair of shoes than walking around San Francisco? We had a good dinner at a nice restaurant. We had to sit outside--but it was covered by a tent and heat was pumped in. So that worked for me. The restaurant even had a little cat running around. Poor thing was missing its tail. The little kitty even came up to me for a pat.
Meow!

Ipod, You pod, We all Ipod

I got an Ipod Nano the other day. Curt ordered one for me and it was delivered to work on Wednesday. I got the newest Nano--1GB, holds 240 songs.
I thought for sure Curt would want to upgrade to a Nano and I would inherit his Shuffle. But he said he wants to stick with his Shuffle. So the non-techie person of the family gets the Nano.
And a woman at his work already gave me a case for it. It also has a mirror and a place to hold my lipstick. Funny, huh?
On Wednesday evening Curt showed me how to load songs on to my lovely new black Nano. He was very patient with me. I had to learn about songlists and all that. But I think I got it down. We'll see when I try to download music and then load it to my Ipod.
Happy listening.

Reading Group created

I have created a Reading Group through Yahoo! Groups. The Reading Group Rocks can be found at this link. You can sign up at the group homepage.
Now we can chat about various books and recommend or not recommend a book. I will also add (or actually I will ask Curt) this link to My Book Recommendations sidebar so you can link up whenever you want.
Happy Reading!
I am having technical difficulties at the moment. Here is the group homepage:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thereadinggrouprocks

I won't be buying it

The band Kiss is set to take the beauty world by storm with the launch of its own line of perfume and cologne.
According to frontman Paul Stanley, the line will live up to Kiss' wild reputation -- he claims the line is "unrepentantly sexy, and a little naughty."

3-day weekend

• Saturday we didn't do a whole lot. I did the laundry. Wooooo! (I will be so happy when we live in a place with a washer and dryer inside our apartment. Wow, what a concept.) Then in the early afternoon we went to look at some Studio Loft things for rent. They were really cool and had these great hardwood floors. But we really don't have enough saved up for deposit and all that good stuff. Plus we are saving for our trip to Europe. And I really don't want to move right now. Ugh! We just did that a year ago. Oh, also the neighborhood was a little sketchy--it probably really wasn't sketchy, just industrial. We came home and I was exhausted--my allergies have been kicking my butt lately. I took a 3-hour nap.
• Sunday we headed to Petaluma for a massage. Curt got me 2 massages for a Christmas gift from our friend Ronda. So I got my massage and then we headed to Napa for the Andretti Winery wine release party. They were releasing a Sav. Blanc and a Pinot Grigio. I liked the Sav. Blanc better. But they had plenty of other wines to taste. They also had some snacks: cheese, bread, pasta and meatballs. The pasta was very good. It was a cold pasta. And the meatballs were nice and hot. Unfortunately it was quite cold out so we didn't spend too much time outside. Indoors there was a live band and a fireplace. Curt and I parked ourselves next to the lovely fire until we left. I didn't buy any wine. But I did just get an e-mail that my next shipment of wine will be coming soon.
• Monday I went to Ikea. That was not fun. Right when I got there I wanted to leave. But I toughed it out and got what I needed--mostly. I wanted to get some storage for under our bed--but like a dumbie I forgot to measure the space. So I didn't buy any storage. And the thing I really liked I found out later wouldn't have fit under our bed anyway. (I measured when I got home.) Right after I got home my cousin Mark called (who lives in Washington state). He was getting ready to take his kids to see Curious George so they thought of me! I talked with his daughter, Ophelia. That little one is a chatterbox. I think she would have talked to me all day if her dad would have allowed it. Mark and I got to chat a bit, too. The rest of the day Curt and I just hung around the house. I worked on a knitting project--almost half way done with it. Can't go into details--it's a birthday gift.
• I did work out twice over the 3-day weekend. I would have liked to work out 3 times. But Saturday I was so tired and then just lazy. 2-out-3 ain't bad.
• Oh, and you may have noticed that I added "My Book Recommendations" to my sidebar. This is a little experiement. I realize there is only one book listed. I will add more. I had added the sidebar and then screwed up some of the other coding. So I had to wait for Curt to fix my boo-boos. Let me know if you would like the coding to add to your own blog. One of my regular readers was hoping she could comment on my recommendations. Unfortunately we can't do it in that format. Sorry. I have an idea that may work. But I will have to talk to that techie husband of mine on how to link it all up. I am so not savvy when it comes to stuff like this.

Bear Down Arizo ...

Curt and I saw UA vs. Cal tonight. Man, the Wildcats played like
C. R. A. P. They played other ways, too. But I like to keep this Blog PG.
The end score was 75-66. And Arizona didn't deserve most of those points anyway. There were a good number of Arizona fans there. I saw 2 or 3 just in line for the bathroom. Speaking of bathroom ... this was the first event I attended where the line for the Men's restroom was longer than the Women's. Crazy, huh?
Our seats were pretty high up. The way it was set up we couldn't see the TV thingie--which kinda sucked.
But one thing that was pretty cool--the student section is the first 10 rows right at center court. Great seats! That is how it should be. You won't find that at Arizona. Those seats are occupied by people with gray hair, facelifts, expensive jewelry and they barely even watch the game. The reason I know this is because while Curt and I lived in Phx. we got a pair of ROW ONE seats for a good basketball game every year. The game is so much different when it is that up close.

How may I help you?

Many of you may not know this, but Quin Snyder WAS the cutest coach in the NCAA. Well, last week he resigned--(aka quitting before being fired to maintain a tad bit of dignity). He was Mizzou's basketball coach--when he first started at Mizzou the team had a lot of potential. But they have just gone into the crapper. So he gets the boot.
So, this may be a prediction to what he will be doing next. This is what my friend Angela had to say, "Though I have to admit, that might persuade me to frequent Wal-Mart!"
Here is a better pic of Quin:

Wishful thinking

TomKat splitsville???!!!!

Not true.
That's what Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes said Tuesday about a Valentine's Day report on the Life & Style magazine Web site, which claimed Cruise and Holmes had split up and called off their wedding.
The Feb. 27 issue, which will be on news stands Friday, said the public pair "plan to keep up the charade of their romance until after their baby's birth this spring."

If it is true Tommy will be so sad and depressed. He might even have to take Prozac, oh wait, no vitamins will do!

One year ago

One year ago today Curt got in his truck and headed for the Bay Area. I can't believe it has been a year already. I arrived in the Bay Area on March 8. (That pic to the left I took right before Curt took off with his packed truck. That truck now belongs to his Dad. So it's still in the family.)
The night before he left was, of course, Valentine's Day. I was working--but we wanted to have dinner together since we wouldn't be seeing each other for a couple of weeks. I was too busy at work to get away. So Curt went to Hooters and had dinner and then brought dinner back to The Republic for me. Isn't that romantic? Hooters on Valentine's Day. HA! Tho. I do love their wings and their grilled cheese.
We had a much nicer dinner last night. We ate at Skates on the Bay. We had a 7:30 reservation. We got there about 7:20 and there was a line. And it was mostly people who had reservations. The funny thing was there were people in line who didn't and thought they were gonna get in. The wait was 3 hours. I overheard one couple discussing the option of eating at the bar. Yea right! That was full, too.
But we eventually got seated and had a nice dinner. We had lots of seafood. Everything was delicious.

Pretty flowers

These are flowers Curt sent to me at work. Thanks Curt!
(That camera phone doesn't take too bad of pics, eh?)
I was reading this story with hilarious quotes overheard by, I'm assuming Chronicle staffers. It is hilarious. Read.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from me and Hoops and Yoyo!

Show Me The Monkey!

The Curious George movie comes out today! And unfortunately I have plans tonight or I would be there. I am going with two women from work--but not for 2 weeks. I think I can wait that long ...
I read a review and a funny story about the movie on the Chronicle Web site.

Admin lunch

On Tuesday we had our admin "holiday" lunch. Before the holidays we decided to postpone until the new year--it would just be easier to sked a lunch that everyone could attend. We went to a restaurant in Berkeley called Chez Panisse. It was a cute little place. And the food was amazing. Everything was good. I had a yummy salad with goat cheese, which was to die for. It was warm and delicious! I had mackerel for my entree. It came with these amazing vegetables. The fish was very good. And creme brulee for dessert. Scrumptious. Oh, and I had a fruit soda. One of the yummiest sodas I have ever had. So I give this place a BIG (Uma Thurman) thumbs up.
There are 9 admins and the Director of HR is in charge of us. Two admins couldn't go. So there were 8 of us. We laughed a bunch and talked about movies that made us cry. We all seemed to be in agreement. And I felt much less dumb when I admitted I had balled while watching "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"--while on a plane. Most of the other women agreed to crying like babies while watching that movie, too. (If you have seen that movie I highly recommend it. I thought it was gonna be a silly little movie--but it was quite good.)
It was a great time to get together and eat, talk, laugh, whatever and not talk about work or be at work. It was a good lunch. One of the other admins said afterward, We should do that more often. Though it will have to be at Burger King. (Chez Panisse is good--but a little pricey.)

Longer Days

Even though it is February I had even noticed last month that the days were already getting longer. It used to be at 5 p.m. it would look like midnight outside. It is still light around 5:30 or so. March isn't too far away and the weather will start getting better and better. Woo-hoo!
Went for a walk today and it was a gorgeous day outside. A little cool when we first stepped out of the building. But once you start moving it is fine.
I am probably jinxing myself by telling--oh well. Since the beginning of the year I have lost 7 pounds. Woot-woot! Though my clothes don't fit any looser.
My goal is to be in pretty good shape by our Europe trip--which is only 4 months away. I better get crackin'.

Stitch 'n' Bitch

I went to my first Stitch 'n' Bitch last night. My downstairs neighbor, Jennifer, and I went together. She and I are fairly new knitters. Anyway, the SNB group had in part of their ad: Many of us are interested in knitting & crocheting as a spiritual or meditative practice. And we are talking about a Berkeley group. So Jennifer and I were prepared that it could be ... a little ... weird.
But we got there and it was totally cool. Everyone was working on different stuff. And all ages were there. One woman was working on socks and finished while we were there. I asked her how long she had been knitting--since August! And she is already doing socks! She also had a really cute hat she had made, too.
Right now I am actually working on a regular scarf for myself--not a Scoa. But I need to get that done so I can work on some projects for March birthdays.

Jiggle it, just a little bit

My friend Angela had this on her blog--so I am stealing it. There is an artist in the Bay Area who has contructed San Francisco out of Jell-O. There is even a little video of an earthquake. I wonder if that is how the buildings really rock 'n' roll. I sure hope not. And I sure hope I am not here when the "Big One" hits.
Building a Jell-O city is quite ... odd. But check it out for yourself.

Long day in the city

Instead of watching the Super Bowl some of his girls planned a day in the city. We were gonna meet, see our friend Alex's apartment, have tea and then possibly shop. Well, 2 of the 4 didn't come. So Alex and I planned our own day--just pretty much as the day went on.
(Curt went to a friend's for Super Bowl and XBox 360 playing. They have a honkin' TV and surround sound and all that good stuff.)
I met Alex about 12:30. We browsed Claire's Boutique. Love that store. Then had a slice of pizza for lunch. Checked out DSW for shoes. Alex found a really cute pair, but ended up not buying them. We headed to H & M. It was crazy in there. There were so many people and clothes. I found a few things to try on--even tho. I have told myself I can't buy anymore clothes. My closet is stuffed full and I don't want to buy any new pants until I am weighing in at my goal weight. The fitting room lines were looooong. I was telling Alex, something better fit! And H & M has weird sizes--they don't go S, M, L, etc. They are 4, 6, 8, etc. for tops, too. I was like, wha??? So Alex and I were guessing what sizes to grab. Anyway, I ended up with one top and some unmentionables. I got out of there cheap, Alex on the other hand ...
After our exhausting shopping we headed to Alex's apartment. She lives in Russian Hill. Her apartment was cute. Hardwood floors. Typical S.F. apartment or house--very long and narrow. They have a teeny little "porch" with an amazing view. Alex told me that it is even more impressive at night. I can only imagine. We hung out there a bit and then headed to Polk Street for dinner. We found a cute Seafood place and shared tapas plates. We got to the restaurant at about 6 p.m. We walked out and I looked at my watch. It was 9:10. We couldn't believe we were there for 3 hours. Alex walked me to the bus stop and waited with me. I took the bus to BART and took the train home. Curt picked me up at the BART station. Man, I was exhausted. But it was a good fun day.

The verdict is really in

Curt had jury duty all last week. It was a DUI case. And he was the foreman! Man!
Anyway, on the day that they deliberated the jury was taken to lunch. They went to a Vietnamese restaurant with a jury menu and even jury tables.
This was the first time Curt was ever summoned for jury duty and he gets on a jury. I WANT to be a juror--except not for any mafia/mob case where the guys threaten me and my family like on "The Sopranos."
Oh, and the jury found her guilty on one count and not guilty on the other.

Morale at Onyx

This is the first company I have worked for that really works hard to maintain morale for the employees. Even when I was just a lowly temp I was treated well.
Well, for 2006 it has been kicked up many notches. We already have Travelin' Joe one Monday a month (free coffee cart); and birthday celebrations once a month with yummy treats; holiday party; Onyx day at the Giants' stadium; other various fun celebrations that sometimes come with gifts.
Travelin' Joe will now include goodies and encourages people to stick around and chat with fellow co-workers; still have birthday celebrations, holiday party, Game Day with Giants, anniversary celebration in April (with gifts). But now we have a Walking Club: we walk 2 times a week for a half hour; Wine Club--where everyone will bring a bottle of the same type of wine and we will taste the various kinds; Book Exchange--a cube is set up with books, take a book, leave some books, bring that book back or keep it; Chips and Dip Fridays (once a month)--goodies, drinks and board games.
We just celebrated Chinese New Year last Friday with a Chinese catered lunch. Good food! There were no fortune cookies--because apparently they aren't Chinese. Here is a fun fact: Fortune Cookies were invented in San Francisco.
There are many other fun things planned for this year. Besides this company making strides to treat cancer it is also a fun place to work.

And the verdict is in ...

Well, not quite. But Curt did get selected for the jury. I am kinda jealous. I have always wanted to be on a jury. I was summoned a couple of weeks ago. I called in after 5 p.m. and the recording told me to call back after 11 a.m. the next day to see if any jurors were needed. Nope. Dang! And while in Phoenix I got as far as being a potential juror with no luck.
My mom seems to be the poster child for jury service. She gets summoned about every 2 years. (I think in Arizona you can be summoned every 18 months. In California it is every 12 months.) She probably ends up on half the juries she is summoned for.