the eggling

over the weekend i became the proud father of a basil egg. i went to park life in the richmond district (aka that little knick knack store on clement), and adopted an eggling in need.



i have to say that the eggling came to me packaged with care



the eggling's mini pot, seat, plant pot bottom appears to be from germany. what a trip this little eggling has made in order to be birthed right here in foggy san francisco.



the instructions were quite clear. so i got to work helping this little guy. the spoon is mightier than the sword.



with a little encouragement,



and a little water,



we're ready to let that egg shell guard down and blossom into a beautiful little basil! (atop my mackie hr824 mki speaker of course! best seat in the house)



his name is ray

barcelona pano pics

amsterdam panos

london panos

just about a year

it's been just about a year.

after i turned thirty my life flipped upside down. i had to make an assessment of where i was, what i was doing, and what i wanted. i had just become single, from a relationship that lasted around 2 years, and felt lost in life. welcome to your thirties sucka.

the first thing i focused on was my body, getting in shape was my first new priority. weighing in the high 180's was just a bit chunky for my already thick frame, i think i'm meant to be around the 170 mark. so i invited myself to tag along with my gym going roommate and got those old running shoes out of the closet. at first i was spending most of my time on the cardio machines. running, stair walking, and eliptically increasing my heart rate. i would put in up to 45mins of cardio, and then spend a few mins doing sit ups or some goofy weight machine. after a month or so of this i was referred by my roommate to read the few intro chapters to a body building book he owned. the first few chapters discussed nutrition, then body types, and finally what types of exercise works for each body type (dependent on workout goals of course). yea, i read a bodybuilding book. your thirties do things to you that you may never expect.

i read the book slowly and thoroughly, taking notes while i read. this took me about a month to complete, and when done my workout regimin had matured. workouts went down in time (1 1/2 hours to 45-50 minutes), and results increased. learning about the three body types helped a lot.

mesomorph, endomorph, and ectomorph. the meso is the muscular thick frame. endo is the pear shape. both meso and endo can put on mass relatively easily, though the meso puts on mass as muscle where the endo puts on mass easier as fat. the endo are those that simply can't put on mass, fat or muscle. most people are not 100% each, but a blend of two. i'm mostly a meso, and characteristics of this body type means that i maximise my cardio workout with intensity vs duration. in short, if i run super hard for a short time (usually coupled with a pretty steep incline) i'll see much more benefit than a 75% pace run of twice the duration. some relatively heavy free weight lifting afterwards and i'm on my way to a thinner & fitter self.

all of this was in conjunction with the purple smoothie which i've been drinking almost every single day since the end of may 2009. i spend between $10-$15 per week on various veggies and fruits, almost all of which visit my blendtec blender (that's right, will it blend!!!). going a few days without my purple smoothie puts me in the lethargic and unmotivated state i dislike living in. its become my sunday evening therapy to slice fruit and veggies, blend, then bottle for the upcoming week. most people can't drink it, but to me it's the first thing i want to have in the morning. of course i follow it up with some coffee.

what surprises about this exercise and smoothie lifestyle is how i've kept it up. the gym gets visited three times a week on average. the smoothie is pretty close to an every day thing, though occasionally i'll skip one day during the weekend. and recently i've been taking 3 mile runs around the neighborhood during lunch hour so that my gym time can consist of weights only, no waiting in line for the coveted cardio equipment.

some interesting observations include:
there's far too many people at the gym 'doing it wrong'. too heavy of weight, bad form, wearing denim jeans (like really?), drinking soda on the treadmill, and the list goes on. i've noticed that i have more stamina standing at bars, concerts, or bbq's. when i used to have to sit down, after a short while standing. i suppose i was rather pathetic.
also, the gym does get super packed in january, and the number of doing-it-wrongers is dramatically increased. next january i may take the month away from the gym and pick up some sort of home routine. or find a much bigger gym.

i digress

i've successfully built these very important routines into my daily life. they've stuck for the past year, and i feel good about it. there's other changes and routines that i've acquired along the way, but those are for a different blog. i look back and i'm proud of my accomplishments, regardless of how small they may seem from an outside perspective.

baby shower time

it's hip to be a single guy at a baby shower these days. or, so i heard.

ready for vacation

my first *real* vacation starts after close of business today.

you should push the play button to the left of this song, and listen to 'holiday' while you read this post.
holiday (not madonna)

what's a *real* vacation? it's a vacation that doesn't include parents, fighting with siblings, meeting a friend/family member and crashing at their place, or any other trip where i was going regardless if i wanted to or not. i'm about to embark on a vacation where me and my friends plan to put stamps in our passports, spend our own hard earned money (some of us), and contribute to some foreign country's tourism industry.

i'm looking forward to coming back to my computer after this *real* vacation, logging into google reader and seeing (2,000) unread posts. i also expect that i won't receive one single text message, or phone call though i'll be carrying my iphone around in airplane mode (with wifi on of course) but mainly for music and maps.

where am i going? europe! specifically london, amsterdam, and barcelona. personally i've started referring to this trip as the ultimate europe trip, though i'm sure millions of people have 'done' europe in a more ultimate fashion, but it's ultimate to me which is all i freakin' care about.

i've already made a list of my todo's. don't ding me for being under-ambitious, this is a living list and can (but probably won't) change at any time.

- london:
eat fish and chips
see miike snow concert (i've bought tix in advance)
eat indian food
see big ben
ride the 'tube' aka the public transport system
drink a guiness
learn some slang
make a friend

- amsterdam:
ride a bike
ride in the canal
see the red light district (look but no touch, c'mon guys)
heinekin factory tour, or just drink a heinekin
vah gough musem
learn some slang
make a friend

- barcelona:
drink sangria on the beach
eat pallela
touch the mediterranean sea
see something gaudi
learn some slang
make a friend

as you can see, my list is not as prolific as some other europe bound travelers you may have met. but really, i'm not someone else, i'm me. i do plan on accomplishing more than this simple list, but those things can't be planned, they need to happen organically. also, notice that there's a few re-occurring goals on these lists. learn some slang and make a friend appear on all three city lists. those two can go hand in hand, and are loosely worded on purpose. i'm not looking to meet a soulmate, or a bff. but i do want to interact with some of the locals and make a friend or two, i figure at most an email penpal but even that's a bit far fetched for my aspirations.

- imaginary scenario:
me, "yo, you from around here?"
potential international friend "[insert some colo loca slang], ya i am. where you from?"
"i'm from san francisco, you know, in the states. i hate calling it 'the states' for some reason. but yea, i'm on vacat- i mean, holiday."
"[insert another local slang word]! well how long you here for?"
"a few days. wanna be friends?"
"uhh... i don't think so. no."

okay, maybe i'm being overly dramatic. but i've heard that us americans have bad reps overseas.

other than that, i don't know what to expect. i've technically been to europe, but i only went to ibiza. ibiza is the european equivalent of las vegas to the united states. you can't come to the usa, only see las vegas, and say that you've experienced the usa. same with ibiza, but it's nothing like vegas.

i am also hoping that the three other people who i am traveling with continue friendship with me after this vacation. when friends spend too much time together there is always the danger of a friend divorce. i'm pretty confident that nothing of that magnitude will happen this time around, but there's always a chance.

overall i'm feeling pretty good about my first *real* vacation. i've got low expectations, high hopes, and i'm packing extra underwear just because you never know what may happen and i'd rather be with more than less when it comes to underwear.

dragon burgers

turkey burgers with vegetarian chili and all the fixin's


and then we saw little dragon rock out a 1 1/2 hr set.

clean new oil

Easter Sunday

bonus: look who showed up!