Sunday, August 31, 2008

Dave Matthews Band @ The Gorge 2008

Another year, another Dave Matthews Band concert at The Gorge and it was awesome! As usual, right? Yup, yup. I think this year was more fun than last, maybe because the rest of our company actually knew some DMB songs and seemed to look forward to the concert more.


Em and Charles drove up the day before, and Dem drove to the concert this time. This time they actually played a couple of songs I knew, although for the life of me, I can't recall them now. And this time, we stayed the night instead of driving home straight after the concert. We had a great time and if I do go next year, I am definitely bringing socks.


More pictures here.

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Friday, August 22, 2008

And It Was All Yellow

Did you know that fire hydrants don't come pre-painted? At least the yellow ones don't. Not something I ever really thought about but interesting to know.

The construction site (Metro 112) across the street from my office just installed a fire hydrant and one of the workers is painting it yellow... as 4 other guys 'supervise'.

I wonder how many coats of paint it takes. It's been at least 45 mintues since I noticed him and he's still going at it.

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Further Observations of Pilates

Some more thoughts and observations after a week of Pilates:

~ Some of the moves are seriously indecent. "Lie on your back, your spine flat on the floor, and raise your legs up straight with pointed toes. Now open your legs as wide as you can and keep them straight!" Hello, I'm open for business! Sheesh.

~ A comment of the aforementioned indecent postures led to Ryan asking if there were any camel toes. After much hilarious laughter, I said I've no idea as I wasn't looking and if there were, I wouldn't want to see any! I agree with Marc Jacobs. Say no to camel toe!


~ Those boys - and I do mean boys - that I saw last Wednesday showed up again at the weight machines outside the classroom. I saw them staring through glass wall, on the verge of plastering their youthful, overeager faces against the glass and licking the glass. Don't try to pretend you're lifting weights! We all know you're staring. Roll in your tongue, boys, before someone trips and splits their head open on the bench! Pups *disgust*.

~ After only a week, I'm already used to the exercises. My body's not twinging with aches in places I hadn't realized could twinge and my lower back doesn't feel bruised anymore (no idea how I bruised that part of my anatomy but there you have it). The same with the dizziness. I felt a little lightheaded a couple of minutes after I finished my first class, but now there's just a faint trace of wooziness.

~ My tailbone makes it difficult to sit at certain angles, certain angles that seem to be an integral part of Pilates. Just call me Ms. Wobbly...

~ "Make sure your entire spine, from hips to neck, are lying flat on the mat." Is it just me or is that just slightly unnatural and requires an additional adjustment once you are lying down? My lower back arches up when I lie down so I always have to adjust my back to 'lie flat'.

~ I have trouble breathing. (Ha, that just sounds funny.) Actually, I had the same problem in yoga: they say to fill your lungs and feel them expand on the inhale. Well, after 4 years of choir (and one summer of band camp!) and breathing with my diaphragm instead of my lungs (I took my lessons to heart), I've found it hard to 'feel them expand'. I guess I'm just thinking too much and too hard about it.

To top off the day, at the end of class I bumped into THE. CUTEST. GUY. I was walking down the stairs and as I rounded the corner, he was doing the same coming up the stairs. Ooh, he was so cute!! It's funny how I was just saying yesterday that there hasn't been a man who's stopped me in my tracks in a long time and now lookee here, two in a row! Anyway, he was tall, close to 6' I'm guessing since I was a couple of steps above him, dark, dark hair and the warmest eyes I've ever seen. Then eye contact and BAM, he smiled and my brain (and body?) kind of short circuited. Wow. Luckily I retained enough of my faculties to smile back but I was so flustered - Unblievable! I never get flustered! - that I scurried off without saying anything. God, I felt like I was 12 *laugh*, but oh he was cute.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Nicholas Lemons Should Be Illegal (And Locked Up In My Bedroom)

A girl friend at work just showed me these pictures from an email she got from one of her friends. It's titled "New D&G Model" and holy hell he's yummilicious! I can't remember the last time a man stopped me in my tracks and stole my breath but, wow, he is something else. He's far from new though; there's not much about him on his website besides pictures but from what I can discern from various second/third/fourth party sources, Nicholas Lemons has been around since at least 2005 and has done major campaigns such as Armani, DKNY, Van Heusen and, of course, D&G.


Delicioso! Now these are the kind of lemons I wouldn't mind life throwing at me! More pictures after the jump.





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BBC News: Fruit Juice 'Could Affect Drugs'

Well, this is slightly worrisome. The BBC News reports that drinking some fruit juices could reduce the effectiveness of some medicines.

While grapefruit juice, containing naringin as its active ingredient, is already known to interfere with drug absorption, a new study by the University of Western Ontario has found that orange and apple juices might contain naringin-like substances. Of course, this is only one study and the further research is needed and being conducted to establish what juices and drugs this interaction covers and how adverse, or not, this truly is.

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Pilates Kicked My Ass

There comes a time in one's life when one realizes that age is catching up and that one's metabolism is not as it was during those student years. That's not to say I'm getting old - only 25! - but not having to run all around campus for classes and walking everywhere for everything, and starting an office job that pretty much ties me to my seat and computer can sure change one's life.

So I tried Pilates for the first time last night and it kicked my ass (in a good way). It's pretty intense. I got a good workout and it was fast-paced so I wasn't bored like I was in yoga. It's definitely a keeper, although I did feel a bit lightheaded afterwards. I'm really looking forward to trying out the Latin Impact (Latin influenced aerobics) class next. The kickboxing class looked interesting, too, so maybe I'll give that a go. And maybe the aqua aerobics class, too...

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Vans Warped Tour 2008

Last weekend was the Vans Warped Tour at The Gorge Amphitheater. I went with my BFF Ryan, my sister and her friend to see about 50 bands perform, and lemme tell ya, it was HOT, HOT, HOT! (Pictures.)

The weather was incredibly nice once you got past the Cascades and it shot up to 95 degrees Celsius by 3pm! Ohmyfreakinggod it was almost unbearable! But as soon as the sun sets, it drops down to about 40 degrees. Needless to say, I got even more of a tan (then froze at night!) and I barely recognize my own skin color sometimes. I don’t think I’ve been this brown since I went to Israel in 2005. Then there were the hot rockers. Yum. There’s something undeniably appealing and sexy about them despite the fact that most of them are probably just fresh out of high school. Why is it that punk bands are always so young?

My sister and her friend had an awesome time, running from one stage to another to see their favorite bands, then back-to-back autograph signings, then to another stage for more performances. While the kids were waiting to get autographs, I managed to find a shady spot and grabbed a quick nap, and as good as that felt, it also made me feel so damn old! It’s as if I can’t keep up with 17-year-olds and I’m only in my mid-20’s!

All Time Low (They're pretty cute.)

The 4 of us stayed at an inn in the next town over and left on Sunday. Despite all the awesome music and fabulous company, I have to say our drive home was the most memorable because we almost got ran off the road. So get this: I’m driving 75mph in the far left lane with the 2 teenagers in the car with me and I see this green jeep coming up from behind me in the lane right of me. A minute later he’s a smidgen ahead of me then this motherfucker decides to change lanes without checking his blind spot to see if he’d cleared me or not!! The asshole swerves into my lane, and I honk madly at him as I swerve onto the shoulder to avoid a collision. The idiot just keeps on driving, that fucker, and so I switch lanes and flip him off as I pass him. Oh, I was SO pissed!! It’s a DAMN good thing I don’t have a Bond car or supernatural powers cuz I’d totally use them for revenge.

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