March 19, 2014
GUESS WHAT WE DID. Go on, guess.
On a beautiful, nearly Southern California-like day, we went to the Star Wars Special Exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose! It. Was. Awesome.
There were dozens of exhibits: many of them interactive, all of them beautiful. I sat and learned about Hoth and the filming thereof, there were great video clips from the creators like Irvin Kershner (who I’ve actually met before!) describing how the crew filmed the Hoth scenes in Norway.
A snowstorm had come through before they were meant to film, so they pointed the camera out the back door of the hotel, and made Mark Hamill go stumbling through the snow alone. The rest of the crew sat safe and snug inside. 🙂
There was even a model landspeeder to drive! You betcha we hopped on that for a couple of rounds. There’s something to be said for going to museums during off hours.
Things I learned: I’m taller than a jawa, shorter than Darth Vader. They filmed the ships using huge models, I couldn’t fit the entire model into the frame there! that took 2-4 people to lift and move. We also experimented with MagLev and programmed those little robots to walk around.
And of course, to take us out….
The view from the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon
I hate to admit it but the Millenium Falcon Experience (an extra $5) was actually kind of disappointing and not just because it cost more money.
Tickets were $48 for two, with a AAA discount ($3 off per admission).
Edit: Sorry, forgot to mention this goes away after March 23rd.
March 13, 2013
The Ferry Building is one of my favorite places to share with people. It is a tourist-traffic heavy location which isn’t usually my cup of tea but here that’s part of the fun; there’s usually some sort of performance artist(s) out front and the vendor stalls are always fresh, bright and stocked. The poorly lit photos here are down to my impromptu photography.
It’s best enjoyed at a slow meander, picking up a chip of chocolate or a taste of bread dipped in different flavors of olive oil, checking out the cheeses, desserts and fresh oysters on offer.
Food trucks line the pierside, produce and flower stalls interlock the front and back side of the Building.
The piles of fresh produce are positively enticing. Those vendors are no fools: plenty of fresh citrus wedges and apple slices were available for sampling. Even at those prices I still have to talk myself out of spending upwards of $4/lb for a bag of fruit or vegetables. They look so pretty. (Though microgreens for $24/lb? Really?)
There were canning jars that looked like a good deal at $3/jar. They’d be perfect for making ahead two-serving apple pies. If it weren’t for the thought of trying to take them home on BART without breaking them, they would have been mine.
Also, the flowers are so bright and cheerful, nestled in their big bundles, I was thistempted to buy the five bundles for $25 of tulips. Again, not being in the mood to schlep them home was pretty much my saving grace. Otherwise: flowers, jars, random veggies I’m not sure how to cook, even more chocolate…
Edit: I did go back this week to blow $100 on gifts. California honey,3 boxes of made in SF by a small business chocolates, apple butter, and a chunk of triple creme cheese. Just needs some bread and crackers to make a really good picnic. Except I can’t keep it. Drat.
December 20, 2012
Oh, ThinkGeek. Damn your marketing department for doing fun stuff like TimmyKart race to $500 game thingy!
It was fun trying to fill the cart with exactly $500 worth of merchandise and hoping to win (knowing I really probably wouldn’t) (but hoping I would); less fun not winning. 😉
I’m pretty sure the point was really to snag our attention and maybe get some unplanned buys or padding any planned purchases with impulse buys by getting us to browse more freely than we might have normally, and by getting things into our shopping carts.
It did manage to make me realize how much neat stuff I want but can’t (won’t) buy for myself because I’ve already spent quite a lot of disposable income on Doggle, oh so many ways on Doggle, and I had way too much in business clothing + tailoring costs.
In the spirit of sharing, I bring you my shopping cart:
I did leave out the TARDIS cookie jar that I always look at because let’s be honest, I think we should know that if I have a cookie jar, there’s a visceral need for it to be magically filled up with all the cookies constantly. Who’s going to do that? Not me. I’m the eater. Course, if there wasn’t a $500 limit, that cookie jar would be on the list.
Come to think, more than half the stuff on this list turn out to be intended gifts. I indirectly benefit from some of them: the entertainment of seeing Doggle freak out at his toys making Star Wars noises or getting even more protective of these strange critters; enveloping friends’ kids in monster bathrobes; etc. The TARDIS bathrobe would totally be mine though.
What would have been on your list? And if not at ThinkGeek, where would you have Spree’d?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
If I were to Spending Spree, though, there are other happy places to spend money I’d love to freely throw money:
The rescue from whence Doggle sprang – I’d like to support their work.
Pitbull rescues that do rehab work. I always felt awful for the poor, earnest pitbulls at the shelters where I volunteered – they were automatically condemned to be put down if owners didn’t claim them. A major problem was that so many dogs look like they were pitbulls, but weren’t, and were discriminated against or mistreated (not mistreated by the shelter) the same. And many of the rescues that I worked with later on (not at the shelter) were generally good dogs when they were taken care of, trained or rehabbed. Not all can be rehabbed, but that’s true of every breed. It’s just not all breeds are condemned so unilaterally as the pitbulls.
Toys for Tots.
Helping kids in the foster care system and displaced families.
June 20, 2010
Weekend “Best Of” List
Best line: “I need to jump at least one curb.” (driving a 2-person surrey holding 3 people)
Best laugh: Watching as my friend decided to “rodeo” the wooden horse mounted on a spring, and sl-l-l-ooowwwwwww-ly tilt and fall off the side. She was parallel to the ground, hanging on for dear life, until she lost her grip and *thumped* gently down that last inch.
Best food: Lunch at a completely empty sushi restaurant. Delicious food, great portions and 100% service from the only person working ($75).
or wait, maybe it was my asparagus risotto with Creole shrimp with roasted potatoes and onions next to a green salad! That was pretty darn good and only $15 for three meals.
Best pain: Sore bums after hitting the race slides built for kids half our size. Best 5 out of 7 for the privilege of paying for groceries.
Best view: Staring off the coast toward Sausalito and the GG Bridge to watch two intrepid swimmers making their way out to sea.
Best adventure: Renting a surrey for an hour ($20), offroading said surrey, crashing downhill at unsafe speeds. Taking the surrey off the proscribed paths to the Academy of Sciences, discovering free Ben and Jerry’s, chatting with strangers, petted three dogs, having our picture taken by the B&J employee because we were “cute,” and getting free flash drives for taking pictures with their cows. Oh, and getting my pants stuck to the surrey while sitting on the front basket bars.
Best new food discovery: Cinderella’s Bakery has authentic Russian food served by what I’m convinced are authentic Russian People. They were excellent and so was the food ($32).
Best laugh at other people (not my friends): Wildlife volunteers at a preserve were treed by a baby skunk.
Best realization: I think I’m ready to settle down a bit. Not stop traveling and become a total hermit, but settle down and accept this as my home for now. And that means I. Want. A. DOG. (Most particularly mine, but if she can’t tolerate this weather, I won’t do it to her.) Visiting the humane society reminded me of how much I miss having animals in my life and even if I can’t have one dog to bring home now, I’d like to start volunteering.
Also, the idea of marriage (and maybe even a teeny-tiny wedding of some sort) doesn’t send me into dry heaves or a panic attack. Huh.
It wasn’t the cheapest weekend but mostly for my friends. I fail at beating these friends to the check most times because they’re bigger than me and paying any meal checks has become a contact sport. I did manage to pay for most of the groceries, only just, but they got me back by sending a $100 SpaFinder gift certificate. *eyeroll* What the heck, people? I’m hosting you! Let me do my thing! But I made them delicious breakfasts and one dinner, that’ll show them! Right? Right?
There were some excellent photos but not on my camera. Must finagle.
November 3, 2009
I got a free Nintendo DS Lite (2nd gen)!! A friend bought himself a brand new DS, we were chatting about the pricematch he got on it thanks to his new Google phone the other day, and out of the blue, he offered to mail his old one to me. It’s darling. White, shiny, little, probably fits in a jacket pocket.
This pretty much requires that I spend money. Oops. I won’t be rushing out to buy everything immediately because I didn’t budget anything for fun accessories and don’t have time to play it anyway but this is the wish list:
First, a screen protector: The Hori Protector runs about $10.
Second, a protective skin: Perhaps Depths by Lawrence Yang?
Loose Leaf by Derek Prospero?
Sugar Head In The Sky by Brandi Milne?
The Enamored Whale by Alberto Cerriteno?
Third, A Game! I have no idea what game I want yet. I’m just pretty much elated to have a little gaming device of my very own for the first time. We shared a Gameboy when I was a kid, but all the games were pretty much my brother’s, so I played on sufferance.
I liked Professor Layton when I tried it on one friend’s DS, was completely bored by Cooking Mama when I tried it on another. Should I go with a puzzle game? I hear there’s a form of Bejeweled coming out sometime, or perhaps an RPG? The World Ends with You could keep me occupied for-ev-er. Ooh or! I could maybe get My Japanese Coach!
Whatever I choose, it’ll have to wait until I’ve saved up enough Swagbucks to redeem for Amazon gift certificates. And I only have 89 SB right now so… this could be a while. S’ok, I’m happy enough for now. 🙂
June 2, 2009
- I’m getting better at this cooking thing. Dinner creation: sole, quinoa cooked in a rice-like fashion, and lemon butter haricot verts! [Right, green beans. But the schmancy packaging said haricot verts.]
- And I made a luscious lobster macaroni and cheese, which I forgot to capture on digi-film because we dug in so quickly. It might even be better than my last favorite mac’n’cheese incarnation. I can think of a few changes I’d make to it, though.
- We saw UP this weekend. It was so good. Very cute, moving, a little sad (yes, I teared up), but very good.
- New shoes, 35% off, filed under budget-cheat because they were a gift. They won’t be the multi-purpose walking/casual shoes I was really looking for, but that’s ok because these 993s hug my heels and support them like a good friend. And yes, 35% off is hardly my style when the shoes still ring up to $95, so I can only take my solace in knowing that we clocked in the world’s shortest shoe shopping expedition. Walked in, looked at the wall for a minute, pointed at the ones I wanted. Not counting the time it took Dorky Sales Guy to find the shoes, the selection and decision process took 7 minutes, tops.
- New 1/2 sleeve button down shirt for work, on sale and another 20% off because the shirt was missing a button. Silly people: the shirt comes with an extra button! But of course no big-box retailer is going to pay their employees to sew on a button to save $5. So I will! Thank you.
- And my PF blogger win? We sprung for the 3-D tickets because it was an earlier showing. We used premium movie passes worth $10.50 each, and paid the 3-D surcharge ($5) with a gift card. Total: $26.50. I’m not sure what kind of math they were using for that, though, because 21+5=$26. Except we got to the theatre a little late and the place was packed to the rafters; the only empty seats were in the front row. We’re too old for that nonsense, so we went to Customer Service to exchange the tickets for a later, non 3-D showing. I offered the CS rep our gift card to replenish with $5, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. I could see he was having trouble, at one point fumbling with his own wallet, and I started to grin evilly.
I had no intention of causing trouble for the poor guy, I was just trying to save him the use of a new gift card! But, evidently, as the sweat beads formed on his forehead, I realized he didn’t know how or simply couldn’t add the $5 to the card. He returned with two tickets in hand for the later showing, a free movie voucher card, and said “it’ll be just a minute.” My friend was happy, willing to walk away with the free movie voucher which was worth another $9.50. I, however, stood firm. If nothing else, I insisted, he had to return with the gift card – we still have $5 on that thing and that’s cash value! I don’t care if the value of the voucher was almost equal to the $10 in GC that he owed, I expected that gift card with $5 back. Friend thought I was pushing it, I simply smiled and shooed him off.
Five minutes later, the discombobulated fellow returned, flush with apology, another free movie pass, and the original gift card. I graciously told him not to worry about it, confirmed that the gift card still had the remaining $5 on it, and walked away with two free movie tickets, worth $10 each, in exchange for the “loss” of a $5 value on the gift card.
I could probably have suggested that he simply load up a new card, but that would have been pushing it. He needed to towel off as it was. 🙂
May 18, 2009
Finally home.
32 hours of this weekend were a bolus of driving and domesticity the likes of which will not be repeated for at least another month. Unless absolutely necessary.
BFF had her baby, and at two weeks and 9 lbs, he is the cutest dragon baby I’ve ever had the pleasure of cuddling. Opinions are divided as to whether it’s more of a dragon or dinosaur-like child, but I’m voting dragon. And Auntie Revanche drove 8 hours round trip to cook, clean, wash and fold for this child’s parents, so she’s entitled to a full vote!
After a 4 hours on the road Saturday, and a stop at the grocery store, I let the proud and sleep-deprived mommy get to changing yet another diaper while I rolled my sleeves up in their kitchen. They had their very own live cooking show, and her husband and our other friend were occasionally drafted as my sous chefs.
After almost four hours in the kitchen, I’m proud to say that Kevin’s Turkey Chili recipe [sans beans, plus multi-grain rice] was excellent. Likewise, his recipe for tilapia with pesto and roasted tomatoes was excellent and disappeared entirely. But the variation on the theme of Hainanese chicken and rice disappointed (me). We substituted a brown rice which was delicious, but I had to use deboned frozen chicken breast meat instead of a whole chicken, and probably used just a cup or two too much water when making the chicken stock. The rice was more moist than I prefer, but the chicken just wasn’t perfect.
Never mind, though. Having never made any of those recipes, two of three under pressure and in doubled quantities turning out well isn’t a terrible showing. [Clearly, I am no longer a perfectionist. Not after nearly 4 hours in the kitchen.] The point was to make decently cooked meals with enough leftovers for the Husband’s lunch and their dinners for at least a couple days. BFF is only just now able to get around a bit, so this should give her a chance to slowly ease into a more active routine.
Our visiting meant they were eating off real china for the first time in weeks since I was more than happy to deal with pots, pans, and dishes, three loads of laundry, and snapped 689 photos of baby.
I’d like to think we were exemplary house guests, for once. 😉
I split the cost of gas with Friend ($19), and paid for the groceries ($21). I got off lightly on the grocery front because they already had the frozen chicken and the turkey, so I only had to buy one protein of the three.
My reward was cuddling dragon baby during the movie after dinner, and darned if it wasn’t the most blissful two hours ever. He’s like a half puppy half baby right now the way he curls up in his sleep, and snuggles into your shoulder or neck. *sigh* Baby squeaks are irresistably darling. Can’t say I’d mind borrowing him once in a while if he stays this lovable. Though, I only think the crying is cute up to about a month old. Even the angry crying. After that, though, it’s a bit too loud.
