Elote
Today, grilled corn made it back to the farmers’ market! Hallelujah, summer has finally arrived! I forgot to take a photo because I ate it too fast. Really, I could say I nommed it too fast, that’s how fast I ate it. Or shoompfed it.
Flacos, the vegan Mexican place, usually comes to the Berkeley Saturday Farmers’ Market, and they have grilled corn, Mexican style, when corn’s in season. Even though we’d eaten lunch already, we got two anyway. I wimped out and got just lime and salt on mine; Yut got the full chile powder (I think cayenne), salt, and lime treatment. Spicy! So we had to get a Thai Iced Tea because the burn starts slowly but then your lips and tongue and throat start going numb. Sooo full, but sooo good.
I’m afraid it’s going to be a short season. I know that there’s a crazy heat wave in much of the rest of the country, but here in the Bay Area, we’ve had an unseasonably cool summer (70°F high today) but with a lot of variability. I blame climate change. Anyway, it’s already late July and this was the first weekend I saw the corn!
Yes, corn does merit its own post, why do you ask? :)
Fluffleupagus Turns One
Happy Birthday, bunny!
We let her in the hay bag. I don’t know why, but evidently, hay is extra delicious directly from the bag. Also, she’s been getting carrot pieces everyday this week.
She’s a great bun! A bit runty for a Flemish Giant (which are supposed to be 13+ pounds) — Fluff is 14.5 or so — but that’s probably just as well. The poops, they’re so big and there’s so many! :)
Shellac
I got a shellac manicure in late March, and I’ve been meaning to talk about my impressions, but well, never got around to it. It’s not like I’m some kind of beauty expert and y’all were waiting with bated breath, I imagine. :)
A shellac manicure is one of those ones that are super long lasting, and they use special polish and uv. The colors were more limited than regular nail polish where the problem is that there are too many colors, if anything.
So I guess the question is, did it last?
This is my hand one month after I got the manicure. In comparison, most manicures last me about three or four days — definitely less than a week. I obviously don’t get them very often, but something like that. This one lasted through vacation and then some. In fact, it would still probably look nice enough in that picture if it weren’t for the fact that my nails grew.
Supposedly, it’s easy enough to remove with a soak in an acetone based nail polish remover, as detailed by The Pioneer Woman. But I don’t own any acetone nail polish remover, and I just don’t see myself getting a lot of these types of manicures so I didn’t feel like buying any (and also, I kept forgetting when I was at the drugstore). I’ve just slowly been cutting my nails off and picking at the parts that felt like they were ready to come off anyway. Yeah, pretty lame, eh?
Overall, I think it was pretty worth it. I managed to ruin my regular pedicure but my fingernails looked great for as long as I needed them to, if you want to call this sort of thing a “need”. (I am trying to use this logical punctuation thing for quotes because it is much more logical, but honestly, it’s hard to break years of drilled in habit. Thanks, English teachers!) Having said that, it was definitely more expensive, and generally, while I like manis and pedis, I don’t need them to last forever and a day so I wouldn’t get them. For really special occasions and maybe like beach vacations (where I play in the sand and scratch the polish all up really extra fast), I think it’d be worth it. If I felt like caring about my nails. Which I may be too relaxed to do if I was at the beach.
I went to a local bookstore. Found the book I wanted. Brought it to the checkout counter. The guy took one look at the book I’d picked up, and said, to his coworker, “Hey, don’t we have used copies of this?” She replied, “Yeah, we should, I just bought one yesterday.” Then he walked with me to where the book ought to be shelved, found it, and checked me out. I offered to put the new book back where I’d found it, but he said that he would. The used book btw, was in almost as good condition as the new book.
Wasn’t that lovely? I mean, they read! And they know stuff about their books! And they helped me find a used copy! Oh and you know what, on the way out the door, they had a small stack of Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) for free! I picked up one.
To be completely fair, even used, the book was more expensive to buy at the local place than it would’ve been to buy new at Amazon. And I had to walk out of my way to get it. But … it was a nice experience, don’t you think? More lovely than Amazon can deliver, I think. Although Amazon is very pain-free, of course.
I know it’s a losing battle; there are fewer and fewer book shops within walking distance anymore. Most of them have closed or moved locations these last few years. But still, I personally still believe that they have something to offer that Amazon can’t. You can even order from them online at indiebound.org, but well, I really doubt that they can compete with the Amazon (and even Barnes and Noble) website.
‘Twas a Mad March
So the tournament started, and everything seemed normal. Then we went traveling, and CRAZY THINGS HAPPENED! No, no, our travels were perfectly normal, I’m talking about the basketball. Holy wow, I came back and it was Butler vs VCU and I was like whaaaaa? I mean, VCU, who played in a play in game vs USC. (Seriously those play in games are so distasteful.) And no 1 seeds remained.
ANYWAY! First, the rest of the Round One games and scores:
Standings after Round One:
YB: 27 (alone at the top!)
mim: 26 (seemingly in contention)
CT, Yut, Chalk: 25
Kay, misa: 24 (note the presence of all of the previous winners in the top four spots)
Al: 23
Pol, Seth: 22
YuHK: 21
Lew (aka Random Coin Toss): 20 (Sorry Lew I didn’t mean to forget you last post, I’ve corrected it and now you have a line to yourself!)
And now, one night before the Championship game tomorrow:
Standings:
Seth: 71 (Catapulted to the TOP, all by himself, 10 points higher than the next closest person)
YB: 61 (The only other person to crack 60)
Chalk: 57
Al, Yut: 53
CT, mim: 51 (I can’t believe I am tied with CT. Which The Sims character did you create to punish this year?)
Kay: 46
YuHK: 45
Lew: 44
misa, Pol: 41
As you can tell from the points for each game, none of us but Seth even called UConn. And no one called Butler. Seth didn’t even pick UConn to win it all. So the results of tomorrow’s game are immaterial to us — no one can add any more points. Seth has won this year’s Know Nothing Bracket Thingie! His points steadily accumulated, while most of the rest of ours went down in flames. Congratulations, Seth! Pointless prize to come; sometime this year, hopefully! :)
Round 1
To give their 68 team expansion legitimacy, the NCAA is calling the play-in games Round 1 and then calling this round Round 2. But it’s ridiculous, and anyway, for us, this is Round 1 of scoring, so I am calling it Round 1. Protesting 68 teams. I had a hard enough time picking already, please leave the tournament alone. Please and thank you!
I think I said this took an hour, but I was wrong: today it took four. But I have to admit, I started it while I was still “watching” the last few games and booking some travel and getting the laundry from the dryer and watching Glee and etc etc. So it wasn’t a solid four hours of efficiency or anything close.
Okay okay, enough chit chat, I know what y’all want to know!
Standings:
CT, K, mim, Seth, YB: 13
YuHK, Yut: 12
misa: 11
Al, Polaris: 10
We’re a bit top heavy right now, aren’t we? Well tomorrow! More games, and I think I made some excellent calls! (I have to lament picking Michigan State to the Elite 8 though. Aiyaiyai.)
The Brackets
Here they are! I have this scheduled to post at 9:15 or so this morning. So if you submitted one before that, I will try and get it up, but no guarantees.
Pittsburgh over Texas.
Btw, in case you thought I might’ve looked at other people’s before filling out mine, I didn’t! And you can tell ’cause I think K and I have the same Final Four! Noooooooooo. Gah.
Sigh. Well anyway, here are the rest, in order of receipt:
CT: Ohio St over Kansas
YuHK: San Diego St over Notre Dame
Al: Ohio St over Florida
Kaffryn: Purdue over North Carolina
Seth: Kansas over UConn
Polaris: Ohio St over Pittsburgh
misa: Kansas over Ohio St
Lew: Duke over Purdue
Lew reports that K didn’t send him a copy of the bracket until yesterday! To make sure he had no time to consider, I’m sure. Sheesh K, ESP-ing my Final Four and not giving Lew a chance to deeply consider his picks as this competition clearly deserves. Will you stop at nothing in order to repeat?! :)
Yut: Kansas over Ohio St
Actually come to think of it, I don’t think this is the first time there have been similarities between misa and Yut’s brackets either. I don’t know what’s going on!
Okay, that is all; please let me know if I’ve made any errors. Am soooo tired. Am completely stupid for staying up to do this. But I have a Responsibility! To the Know Nothing No Downside Not Too Much Upside Basketball Pool! (I’m not actually sure this is really a pool, come to think of it… more of a bracket contest. Thingie. Whatevs!) Also I almost forgot to do it until I was almost going to go to bed.
Edited to add one more!
YB: Ohio St vs Kansas
YB is back after taking a year off to bask in the glory!
Bracketology and Other Helpful Facts
I’m not dealing with the expansion to 68 teams, so the games that played on Tuesday and Wednesday aren’t going to be counted. Maybe I’ll think of something for those games next year, but not this year. Also, this gives you more time to send me a bracket: Thursday at 9am EST/12noon PST instead of Tuesday at whatever time. (I don’t know, do I look like I know anything about this tournament except to pick random teams?!)
Which is to say, if you see this, send it in now.
I will give you my usual hint: don’t pick 16 over 1! Someday it will probably happen, but … chances aren’t so good.
Also, here is Obama doing his picks: so chalky! I mean 4 #1′s in the Final Four? It’s happened, as you all know, but not too often.
As I Foretold, Selection Sunday Happened
And lo! It was today. Finally, the brackets are out, so it’s time to start sending me stuff! I know some of you are busy, but I don’t care; March Madness waits for no one.
I’ve sent out brackets to the ignoramuses that entered last year, but please, if you want to enter, send me a bracket. And also, I’m disorganized, so if you didn’t get one, please don’t take it personally, just email me (mim at this domain). Or leave me a comment and I’ll send you a fillable bracket. The Know-Nothing No Downside Not-Too-Much Upside March Madness Thingie welcomes everyone, except possibly if you actually watch every college basketball game you possibly can in which case, you might be *too* knowledgeable. So feel free to send it to your ignorant sports hating friends and significant others. :)
Rules and whatnot:
The scoring is: 1 pt for each first round game, 2 pts for each second round game, then 3, 4, 6, and finally 8 pts for the championship game. (Thanks to Todd cos the rules and the spreadsheet are his.)
Previous winners:
2010: K (Jewelry, earrings or a ring or something that I got at a local artisans/crafts fair)
2009: YB (Congratulatory text)
2008: ME! (Trip to Chicago, oh yes!)
2007: Yut (He got a kiss, hearty handshake, *and* “Congratulations” — that’s 3 prizes!)
2006: Yut (A kiss and a hearty handshake)
2005: misa (Two bunny candles from the local farmer’s market)
Yup, K won it all last year. She called it when she submitted her bracket and was unbeatable by the Final Four. Really people, shameful performance on the rest of our parts! And now that you are all suitably dispirited, let the trash talking begin. And please, don’t let K repeat.
Btw K, I gave your prize to CT to give you, you did get it right? :D
