Sizing Down and Sushi Boats

I am trying to fit 2 separate topics into 1 post today. So the 2 topics in the title really don't have anything to do with each other.

First, the sizing down part...I have had to lose weight recently due to my high cholesterol. The nice thing about losing weight is I am dropping a size or two as a result. The bad thing is none of my pants fit anymore and so I need to go pants/jeans shopping and I really hate shopping for them. Because I am short enough to need petite sizes, finding pants or jeans with short enough length so that I don't have to alter is painful...and because I hate taking things to the alteration shop to alter, I refuse to buy any pants that won't fit me length-wise to begin with. Tops are a lot easier to buy because it doesn't have to fit perfectly. The only place that I used to be able to buy dressy pants and jeans was The Limited. I don't like shopping at The Limited for a couple reasons: First, their pants are never on sale when I need them and I always feel like I am paying an arm and a leg for the pants. Secondly, if you are not a size 0, the Limited tends to give you a complex when you go there because everything there seems to be a size 0 -- all the clothes that look so good on the manequins are size 0 and the manequins are 6 feet all and so the clothes don't look so hot on you when you try them on. Since Ann Taylor Loft does carry a very nice assortment of petite jeans that fit me well and since I don't have to buy pants for work anymore, I don't have to mess with The Limited for a while.

Another bad thing about losing weight is that now I am all confused about what my new size is. So it requires some returns when I order things online. For example, I had scoured the Bay area Ann Taylor Loft store for a larger size with my Pumpkin Spice jacket, it arrived today, and it was too big. So then I had to go back to the store (though only 5-10 minutes away) to switch to the smaller size at the store which I had tried on previously and thought it was too small. All of tops also seem to be down a size now and since this is my first or second time shopping since I have lost weight, I am still trying to figure out what my current size is. So it's really annoying to have to grab 3 sizes of each -- the size that I used to be in, the smaller size that I am in now and I am still learning that this is now my new size, and the one size smaller than my current size that I "wishfully" hope I can be one day (although I think I finally figure out today that this last size is still in the "wishful thinking" category).

Finally, another bad thing about losing weight is that if you still have say 5 more lbs to go, it's very frustrating trying to get the last 5 lbs off. You are also at a quandry as to whether you should buy pants for the size that you are now or the next size down which does fit you but is a bit snug and will definitely fit you when you are 5 more lbs lighter. See my dilema? I know, it is not really a dilema but it does make shopping tricker. Now I feel like a Seinfeld episode with all the neurotic explanation about the different sizes -- Seinfeld or George would definitely have gone into depth about all these possiblities :-)

Now the second topic...Sushi Boat. I am liking sushi a lot more now that I am in the Bay area. My favorite sushi places is all close to my house, which makes it very addictive and costly. Today when I went to exchange my Pumpkin Spice jacket, I saw a sushi boat restaurant where
boats full of sushi move around in front of you and you can just grab the plate that you want. The plates are color coded so that the waiter/waitress can tally your bill based on the color. I decided to stop by this sushi boat restaurant and try it out. In truth, sushi boat restaurants don't make the best sushi because to me sushi is better when it's freshly made and the rice is still warm. Today, I chose some sushi from the floating boats as well as ordering some fresh ones and the fresh ones were noticeably better than the floating ones that have been sitting out. Although it is not the best sushi, I do like sushi boat restaurants because it's a lot of fun seeing the boats float to you and choosing from the variety of sushi available. My sushi dinner today was surprisingly cheap. I will probably go back to this restaurant again even though it's driving distance (still just 5-10 mins) since there is only one other sushi boat restaurant near my house and it is not a very good one.

Pumpkin Spice is always nice

I recently received a gift card to Ann Taylor Loft. ATL is one of my favorite stores because I can always find something that I like in this store. In fact, my dilema most of the time is that I can't buy more than my budget allows. Ever since I found ATL and the regular Ann Taylor, I can't believe that I used to put up with shopping at department stores. It used to take me hours to find something stylish and classy among the tons of teenager-looking clothes. Another great thing about ATL is that I often receive a lot of 20-30% coupons via email and ATL always have these big 40-60% off sales.

So armed with my gift card, I went shopping at ATL this weekend. I haven't been shopping there since early summer and so I was surprised by all the new clothes. Their fall collection is out now and there are so many great pieces that I wanted. The deal this weekend was 20% off your entire purchase for both days, which ended up making me spend more money. But it was all for a good cause because I now have a new pair of jeans, a shirt that is 2 shirts in one (a redish blouse inside and a thin jersey material outside), and a make-my-day find of a Pumpkin Spice curdoroy jacket. Unfortunately, I have to have the jacket shipped to me from another store in CA because of course my size is always out! Here is what the jacket looks like: http://www.anntaylorloft.com/catalog/outfit.jsp?ensembleId=3417&N=1200212&pCategoryId=199&categoryId=2219&Ns=CATEGORY_SEQ_2219
I don't have any orange in my wardrobe because it is typically too bright of a color for me. So for me to pass up on a beige color for an orange color is a huge deal and it means that this jacket is very special...and it is also 20% off too...so how can I pass up on that? :-) I can't wait to wear it this weekend! Let's just hope that DHL shipping won't take more than 3-4 days.

It is really a good thing that my taste in color for clothing has changed over the last 3-4 years to include more diversed color than the basic/classic colors (black, white, blue, cream/beige, and some warm earthly brown) that I used to wear more exclusively. The classic colors are always so safe and when you see someone with great style they are usually wearing something elegantly simple in one of the classic colors. OK, since I am going to go on and on about colors and style here, let me own up to the fact that may be I am a bit style-conscious :-). So the style-conscious part of me does keep me "conscious and careful" on going too wild with the brighter colors because I don't want blind everyone with my loud overbearing arrays of color. I don't want to be a walking rainbow or a pumpkin just because I am wearing pumpkin spice :-)

While we are on the color topic, let's talk about colors that I do like these days. These would include any pastel colors (even purple) and especially mossy green and light yellow. I love pastel color clothing for the spring and early summer and I love my mossy green sweaters for the winter. I still can't handle dark green and dark purple. I am liking red more these days but typically more burgandy red. Of course, any shades of black, gray, and creme/beige are still my favorite color choices because the best clothes still seem to come in these colors.

Season premieres are finally here!

This week and next week are the fall season premieres for many of my favorite TV shows.

Grey's Anatomy 2-hour season premiere was on last night and boy was it good. The last 3-4 months have been hard not being able to watch Grey's every Thursday. I realized as I was watching the show last night why I like this show so much. The dialogues are really funny, which helps to make the show not so serious like ER. The characters are goofy and full of flaws and because of that it's just fun watching how much they mess up at work and in life. This is one of those shows like Seinfeld where the ensemble is what makes the show works well whereas each actor separately might not be that interesting to watch. Last night show was packed with celebrity guest stars - Bernadette Peters, Mariette Hartley, Kathy Baker, and Kevin McKidd. I hope Kevin McKidd will stick around for a while because he was such a good actor in Rome (as Lucius Vorenus - one of the major charcters). It doesn't hurt that Kevin McKidd is kind of hot even though he doesn't have the "perfect" good looks :-)

Brothers and Sisters (Sally Field, Callista Flockhart, Rob Lowe, etc) is on next week. And then there is Desperate Housewives. I feel kind of bad watching DH because the storyline is very cheesy and it is really not a great show. But again, it's kind of fun and I really like all of the actresses (Terri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, etc) and they are the reason for watching the show.

Now if only some of my favorite shows on Bravo would come back for a new season, then my TV watching experience would be complete -- but then I wouldn't have enough time in the day to watch them all. I love how every show on Bravo is either about human behavior or team work. The next Top Chef should be very interesting. I love watching Top Chef because it reminds me of team work or lack-there-of in the workplace. Then there is Flipping Out where this "perfectionist" real estate guy, Jeff Lewis, renovates and flips homes. Jeff has such a great artistic sense that his after-renovation flips are places that you would love to own. Jeff is also so OCD that it is so funny to watch his interaction with his friends and the people who work for him. Finally, there is this Millionaire Matchmaker show where some people were so ecentric in dating situations that I rolled on the floor laughing in pain in most episodes. It's a great show for observing human behavior and for single people to take notes on what not to do in a dating situation.

As I was watching ads for brand new shows this season, I realized that all of the movie actors are going into TV shows now. If they are not doing TV shows full-time, then they are guest-starring. With TV being the most viewed medium, I guess it makes sense that TV is where the actors would flock to.

Vernal and Nevada Falls

We went hiking in the Yosemite this weekend. We chose the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls because it was about an 8-mile hike with enough uphill for a decent workout and because we love waterfalls. It was a good thing that we went in late September when the waterfalls are smaller because the rocks on the trail would be very slippery during the early summer.

The first leg of the trail was uphill with steps that were carved into the side of the mountain. As we went up higher, the steps were no longer carved in and we were just climbing on rocks with slippery sand. It was tougher for the people who went down on that trail because it was easier to slip and slide down. Good thing I listened to the bus driver and took this trail up instead of down.

Both of the falls were smaller due to the end of the season but they were still quite breathtaking. Along the way up, there were a couple huge pools of water created by the waterfalls. We stopped here and there to rest quickly but moved on because we really wanted to make it to the top. At the top where Nevada falls was, we stopped and had a huge spread of lunch. I am a bit of a packer when it comes to packing food or just things in general. So of course, I have my half bottle of really good merlot, a spread of deli meat (turkey, ham, salami) and cheeses, crackers, and bread. Even though it was a lot of food, I was only bringing a little of everything and so it wasn't heavy to carry.

Terrain-wise, the way down was a lot easier. However, when you are full with food and have hiked for 3 hours up a mountain, going down is not a picnic at all. I had to use my knees to break during the way down and so my knees were achy for 2 days afterwards. The trouble with hiking is that the way back is always hellish. You just can't wait for the damn hike to end but it just drags on and on and it can be a very boring hike down.

Dinner at the Wawona hotel was wonderful. This is our favorite breakfast buffet. It was not the most healthy dinner since I figured that I must have burned at least a 1000 calories hiking and could afford to eat up. I had a great mushroom soup, which is one of the few creamy soups that I love. Then followed it with a fried trout fillet breaded in corn meal. Finally, dessert was bread pudding, which wasn't really worth the calories since I have had better bread pudding elsewhere.


We saw a lot deer and squirrels in Yosemite. We also saw some sequoias. On the way to Yosemite, we saw a casino on an Indian reservation and stopped by. We had a lot of fun playing table games and didn't lose much. On the way home, there were plenty of farmer's fruit stands to visit. We bought some huge peaches and an apple pie. I realized by the taste of this apple pie that not all apple pies are made equally -- This one really sucked! Perhaps, I only like apple pies because they are so good from the pastry shop at my local grocery store. Also, it's probably apple tartes that I like more since the tartness makes it better. This would explain why I used to dislike pies when I lived in North Carolina -- some of the pies I had there were just yucky. Apple pies that are full of sugar and has a yucky crust is just not worth the calories!

These are a few of my favorite things

I unexpectedly received a new ipod shuffle from my husband who got it as a give-away from his company. I love it! I love how it's super compact and light and clips to your clothes so well for my gym workout and walking my dog. I also like the fact that both the itunes website and the ipod make downloading so easy. I have a phone that has mp3 capability and it was a pain to download songs to the phone from rhapsody. Finally, I love the fact that itunes allows me to get all of the old songs that I used to like and then new stuff too. I now have in my ipod everthing from rock to pop to raggae to rap to alternatives etc.

My husband and I recently bought a cuckoo clock. Now it's cuckooing every hour. I like it but I am worried about keeping our guests up with all the cuckooing. So I will need to make sure to remove the batteries when I have guests. We bought this clock from a clock store near our house. It's a lovely clock store with all kinds of grandfather clocks. I have always wanted to own a big grandfather clock. I would have one today if it wasn't so expensive to own one. So because we couldn't get a granfather clock, we settled for the cuckoo clock which we have always wanted to have too.

Another thing that I have always wanted to get and I am finally getting it as a special gift is cast iron teapots and tea cups. And since I am in a "green" phase these days, I love mossy green teapots. I also want a teapot that is flatter and winder versus round because I think the former is more dramatic. Here is the one I am getting: http://www.amazon.com/Old-Dutch-38-Ounce-Cast-Iron-Nobility/dp/B000FAKZ5K/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1_rsrsrs0

I don't know if this next one is considered a "thing" but I am going to my first opera out here soon. I can't wait for this since the Opera House here is supposed to be one of the best in the country. I have never lived anywhere where the opera production is big enough to have 2 different operas every month.

Food and Exercise

It would seem that food and exercise shouldn't go together but in my case they really should. The reason is because I LOVE good food and this year I have had to learn moderation when it comes to food and regular exercise to keep my high cholesterol down.

I just came back from the gym today where I spent about an hour and a half trying out a new workout routine that my trainer gave me last week. It's about 45 minutes of weights and 20-30 mins of cardio. I am feeling very euphoric right now after a great workout, especially since I haven't worked out since this past Monday. I used to think it must be terrible to be in the gym for that long but it really does help to pass the time if you go to the gym well-equipped with distractors such as a headset for the TV and an ipod with plenty of songs. It also helps a lot when the 45 minutes is filled with different machines/routines so that the time goes by more quickly. I really need to go to the gym more often because it feels great to work out. Also, when you get used to working out, missing a couple days seems to take a toll on your body and you notice the difference right away. Plus, I have 5 lbs that I am trying to loose -- 2 of them I had gained recently.

Now my favorite topic - FOOD! I love to try new cuisine and just good food period. I feel very lucky to have a Creole/Soul food restaurant near my house. It's actually a healthy version because the chef used to be overweight and so he is very conscious of making his food more healthy. Thanks goodness for that because we all know Creole/Soul food is not healthy :-) The Asian food in the Bay area is phenomenal. I have wonderful Thai and Japanese food near my house, which is very convenient. Although we do have a couple Vietnamese restaurants where I live, the best Vietnamese food is in San Francisco.

I am so hooked on Japanese food these days. Beef teriyaki when it's made right is the best. A Thai beef salad with warm grilled beef over a bed of lettuce and a light tangy fish sauce is to die for. When I was on the South Beach diet, a Thai beef salad was one of the few no-carb meals that I enjoyed. My most favorite Vietnamese restaurant in the Bay area is Slanted Door. It is one of the most booked restaurants in the Bay area. Bill Clinton had to stop by this restaurant years ago when he was president and visiting the area. The chef of this restaurant recently won the James Beard award for best chef. There are so many good dishes at this restaurant. One of the best has to be the imperial rolls (egg rolls in a chinese restaurant). They use rice wrappers at this restaurant for the imperial rolls. The wrapper is filled with pork, shrimp, mung bean noodles, mushroom, etc and then it's deep fried. Other dishes that are good here are the Shaking Beef and an Oven Roasted Fish. The beef are tender pieces of filet mignon cooked in some red wine sauce and the fish has a ginger fish sauce dipping sauce with it. We are taking my next door neighbors to this restaurant next weekend because they have lived in the Bay area but have never been to this restaurant.

Another thing that I am hooked on recently are Italian fried calamari. Obviously, I can't have this very often because it's deep fried. I am in the hunt for some really good fried calamari and they are the best when they are done right with tender pieces of squid in the inside.

Last but not least, one more thing that I am hooked on are tacos with carne asada. The Bay area is full of taquerias but it is hard to find a really good one. The best tacos have carne asada that are well seasoned and tender but slightly crisp due to grilling. To get the best tacos, one really has to try many hole-in-the-wall places. The best tacos that I had was in the Bernal Heights neighborhood in SF. I can't even find the place anymore because we were being driven around that day by a tour guide and we just stopped and ducked in to a hole-in-the-wall Taqueria that we happened to see. It was the best meat I have tasted and the best salsa. May be I'll try harder and try to find this place again. My next-door neighbor told us of another well-known Taqueria in the city that is on the top 100 restaurants in the Bay area. We'll need to try out this one soon.

Can't you tell that F-O-O-D is my favorite topic? This is probably the longest blog yet. I am now sufficiently famished since I just worked out and this blog is killing me with hunger. May be I'll go for the beef Thai salad today -- hmm...yum!!!

Why I love Berkeley

Berkeley is a really cool college town. It has great ethnic food and restaurants in general, shops, theater, and a very fun college atmosphere.

We were in Berkeley twice this past weekend. We went to see Candide at a local Berkeley theater. The theater was only about the size of a living room and so the actors were right in front of us in the middle of the living room. It was a good play. I haven't read Candide even though it has been one of my husband's favorite books and so it was good to finally see the play. Before the theater, we went to our favorite Ethopian restaurant, Fifine -- this is the best Ethiopian restaurant in the country -- my husband and I have never found any other Ethiopian restaurants as good as this one, even in DC! Then we came back to Berkeley for Chicago-style pizza at Zachary's -- it's another institution in Berkeley. As usual, there was a long line at Zachary's that night.

I really have never been on a campus where the main campus street is full of ethnic food -- Korean, Indian, Thai, Swiss, etc. It's a very diversed environment. I thought Univ of Wisconsin was fabulous with the ethnic food, UC Berkeley is even more diversed. I think I am gaining an appreciation for diversity being out in the Bay area. It's strange that although I have always appreciated diversity, I don't realize how nice it is to live around it until I have it. It's quite refreshing!

It's funny the contrast between Standford and UC Berkeley. Standford is incredibly poshy with manicured lawn and beautiful buildings and long driveways full of trees - in short, Standford is dripping with money. UC Berkeley is also a pretty campus with lots of green but the main street (Telegraph Ave) leading to the campus conveys hippiness and diversity. Quite frankly, Telegraph Ave is a bit grotty with dirty looking streets, some funky stores, and some wild looking people full of tatoos. I guess that this is part of the appeal of UC Berkeley - freedom of expresssion!

I am not sure whether I would want my future children to go to Standford or UC Berkeley. There are pluses and minuses to both schools. They are both great big name schools that should provide a great education. Standford is way too expensive while Berkeley is definitely more affordable. The thing that would worry me as a parent would be whether my future children would be mix up in the wrong crowd if they were to go to UC Berkeley even though in theory the wrong crowds exist at every school. That's the trouble with parenting -- you want to be cool parents and want your children to experience diversity and freedom but you can't help but worry about their future and want to prevent their mistakes :-) As I get older, I gain more sympathy for how hard it must be to be a parent. I am not one yet, but I can imagine that it must be a very tough job.