Hapa Love

I've found a cute little project I want to make: reusable sandwich bags*. Saves some trash, and stylish too.  Actually, I don't bring sandwiches for lunch all that often, but my dad eats a sandwich every day so maybe I'll make one for him.

If you like the idea, but don't want to sew one, you can purchase one here for $5-6.50.

Here's the instructions to make your own.

 

*Yes, I am a dork. But I'm ok with that.

How many pair of shoes do you have? Out of those pairs, how many do you wear more than a few times a year?
Submitted by fightinggale.

I love shoes. What a cliche, I know. But really, they do have the power to transform an ensemble. The best quality shoes are comfortable (even if they're high heels), and make your outfit, legs, and feet all look good. Of course, I do have a semi-ugly pair of Crocs too, but they're sort of so-ugly-they're-cute.

I have about 30-35 pairs of shoes, and I'd say I wear 85% of them in regular rotation. I tried to donate the shoes I don't wear too often. (Who am I kidding, it's just to make room for more shoes!)

There's a new chocolate cafe in North Park, University Heights, and after reading the Eclipse Chocolat blog, I had to try it. So after work last night, the honey and I stepped into the ultra-loungey Red Fox Room for a quick dinner. Side note: if you want the ultimate in dark 50s loungey steakhouse, this is it. Go on Fridays or Saturdays so you can hear the band, complete with accordian player! There's even dancing. Oh, and the grilled cheese is great.

After our grilled cheese & steak kabob dinner, we stepped into the light once again, and walked about a block over to Eclipse Chocolat to satisfy my Exotic-Choclate-Brownie-Craving.

O.M.G.   So Good.

Seriously, read the Eclipse Chocolat blog. I chose the muscovado brownie and chile burnt caramel (there are also espresso brownies and walnut brownies, and a blood orange olive oil chocolate sauce). This comes with vanilla bean gelato and their house-made vanilla bean marshmallow, toasted with one of those little blow torches.

The muscovado brownie has a sort of chewy texture with a hint of molasses taste. Spectacular. The chile burnt caramel was really delicious, although I think they could have upped the chile amount to make it stand up to the fairly heavy brownie flavor. (But on something lighter, perfect as is).

If I wasn't about to explode from my steakhouse dinner + brownie sundae, I would have bought one of their cupcakes, maybe the pink peppercorn creme fraiche cupcake, which looked beautiful. Btw, I never say something looks "too good to eat". "Good enough to eat," maybe. They also have a dessert sampling plate which would be nice to share with the honey (and by share, I mean that he gets to lick the plate after I'm done).

I'll be going back.

Show us a picture of the pet you'd most like to have in your life.

I want a Boston Terrier SO BAD!  It's taken a lot of work to convince the honey that we need one. I think he's calling our landlord today to ask him if it's ok.

 

I've already named him - Buckminster.

I never took physics... I left high school that year. SO... I found this quick explanation of superstring theory pretty cool (and quick!)

 

Also, am I the only one who finds humor in the name "Large Hadron Collider"?  Isn't that a bit of an understatement?  I mean, how about "Supersize Hadron Collider," at least?

Saturday morning, I decided to go for a jog. I planned for my usual route, just under 3 miles (my house to Swami's and back). Since I didn't have anywhere to go immediately afterward, I didn't try to run fast... I just went for a leisurely pace. As I passed Swami's, I felt energetic so decided to keep going.

I ended up running 5 miles, the farthest I've ever run. And it's also the distance of my next race... so, yay, I've met my goal of being able to run the entire thing!

Going with a slower pace and not having to return by a set time really helped me appreciate the meditation of running. It takes a while for me to get into the pace and get to that point where I open up to the quiet reflection that you can get while running. It really is like meditation. Of course, the view on my path also helps:

 

It was a beautiful day, and I ran along highway 101 looking at the beach to my left. Eventually the 101 turns into the main street in encinitas so I ran through town down to Moonlight Beach. Ahh, paradise.

Oh, and my strategy of signing up for races to keep myself motivated to exercise seems to be working pretty decently. I think I'm going to sign up for the Iron Girl in Del Mar in June.

This video, from the TED conference, is a nice case study of a successful world-class health care clinic in Jamaica. It's an inspirational story that focuses on a solution.

This health clinic has managed to provide world-class health care to anyone who wants it, regardless of their ability to pay, at about 10% of the cost of what the health care would have cost in the United States. All their physicians are board-certified in the U.S., Canada, or Britain. They have provided $1 million in indigent care last year (averaging about $85/month), and saved the government of Jamaica about $5 million. They have provided Jamaica with over 100 skilled jobs.

If you don't have patience for the video, here's a summary (though my summary doesn't quite do the talk justice, mind you):

• Use modular, quality technology -- multi-functional equipment that is easy to fix and durable
• Regenerative training process -- they have a system for training people that can be reproduced and lasts long after any individual leaves the organization
• Produce their own pharmaceuticals (using generators from pharmaceutical company). A unit dose that would cost $250 from a pharmaceutical costs $2 to produce themselves.
• Telemedicine Internet platform that gives Nigerian doctors access to doctors worldwide for questions, etc.
• Electronic records (80% of U.S. offices do not have electronic records) 
• Prevention program addressing lifestyle choices, especially among children 

The U.S. spends, by far, more on health care than any other nation. Yet, our health outcomes are among the worst of the developed nations. Our current system is full of waste and... opportunities for improvement. 

What would you like to do more of?

• Travel!
• Read
• Try new things, like:
• Learn to play the drums and play in a rock band
• Surf
• Knit, perhaps
• Take themed tours of the U.S. For example, a "kitsch tour" of the Southwest -- I'd visit stuff like the dinosaurs on the way to Vegas, the teepee hotel in New Mexico, etc. Or maybe a "local food" tour where I'd take photos and write reviews of all the restaurants that specialize in local food.
• Exercise
• Have parties
• Have friends over for casual get-togethers like game night

This is why I look forward to retirement (at the ripe age of 28)...

The honey and I have been trying to plan our 2008 vacation for some time. The current plan for our week-long trip is Playa del Carmen! I've read that it's a lot less commercial than Cancun, and I've always wanted to visit the Mayan ruins, since I studied them in college as an anthropology major. Here are the things that sound really fun:

• Mayan ruins - I read that Chichen Itza is a better visit than Tulum if you only have time for 1
• cavern diving
• trip to an eco-park (Xcaret or Xel Ha?)
• swim with dolphins
• nightlife - I read about some nightclub in a cavern in Playa del Carmen, that sound cool
• and plenty of beach-lounging

Based on a Frommer's guide, we're thinking about staying at the Shangri-La Caribe. We're planning on going in November for 7-8 days.

So, neighbors, have any of you been to Playa del Carmen or Cancun?  Do you have any recommendations, must-sees, "don't"s, etc.?  Thanks in advance!

P.S. I am hoping my work sends me to Tokyo in July and Amsterdam in September (and the honey and I are dying to visit Tokyo and some friends in Okinawa)... more on this later!

The weekend before last, the honey and I went to Mexico (and I'm just getting around to blogging about it now).  Our friend's dad, known affectionately as Ronbo, recently bought a condo in Rosarito and graciously invited us to stay the weekend with him.

Rosarito is getting peppered with more condos, and they're getting nicer -- although I suspect that construction will slow over the next few years, due to the U.S. housing slump. Donald Trump had a building going up in northern Rosarito but a few years after all the advertising started, it's still just a pile of dirt... too bad for those investors.

Anyway, there's a different pace to Mexico that makes it a really nice getaway. Of course, if you're the type of person that doesn't like to see any ugliness on your vacation, northern baja California is not for you. There is a lot of beautiful coastline, but it's peppered with shanty towns and poverty.

On Saturday, after Ronbo cooked a nice breakfast, we drove to the Guadalupe Valley -- just about 15-20 minutes east of Ensenada (which is about 30 minutes south of Rosarito).  Guadalupe Valley was a beautiful change of scenery from Ensenada. You go from beach to rolling green hills studded with boulders. It reminded me of Ventura County, where I grew up. There were several ranches and lots of wineries -- Guadalupe Valley is known as the wine country of Mexico.

 

The Guadalupe Valley looks like what I would imagine that Napa or Sonoma looked like 50 years ago. The wineries are pretty tiny, and there's just one main two-lane road, with some dirt roads going out to the wineries. Our first stop was Monte Xanic, which we were told is the "fanciest" winery of the Valley.

 

We paid about $8 for a tasting of red and white wines. The white wines were a bit acidic for me, and the reds didn't really sing... they just sort of fell a little flat. However, lots of people seem to like their wines so it's just my personal taste.

The prices in Mexico (at least for non-Mexicans like me) aren't that cheap... they're nearly the same as U.S. prices in places like Rosarito and Ensenada. A bottle of wine at Monte Xanic ran around $18-25. I'll never go back to Porto Nuevo, which turned out to be a high-priced tourist trap (a lobster lunch was over $20, plus they charge for parking and tried to sell me a straw cowboy hat for $30).

On the way back, we visited a tiny winery called La Casa Vieja to see some traditional Mexican dancing that we read about in the local paper.

 

 

This place was a great find. The winery was just started by a father and son, and they have a nice story. The father is Mexican, and married an American woman. They raised their son in Nebraska. The son moved back to Mexico to start this little winery -- throughout the place you'll see references to Nebraska, from the John Deere tractor to the weathervane with the Nebraska rooster. La Casa Vieja is so new that they haven't yet got enough vines to make their own wine. Currently they buy grapes and mix them.

 

They don't even have (or want to produce) labels yet... so they rely on masking tape and permanent markers:

 

I actually enjoyed the cabernet sauvignon here quite a bit (more than Monte Xanic). Maybe it was partly the label that did it for me. We bought a bottle and shared it last week with a friend... I guess it just felt special.

By the end of our tasting at La Casa Vieja, all the wineries were closing, so we headed back -- but I'd love to come to this area again. In fact, I may return with my parents for Father's Day to stay at the Adobe Guadalupe Inn, which looked pretty fantastic.

The next day, we went to Ensenada for brunch at La Fonda -- a fabulous brunch with a ton of Mexican and American food, and a beautiful view, for around $20 per person.

Afterwards, the honey and I bought some patio furniture (which, by the way, was a great investment for our little house-by-the-sea... we've been enjoying the sunset a lot more, sitting outside!).  A nice, relaxing weekend, and I can't wait to go back with the fam!