Underwater Hockey!

I went to my first underwater hockey practice and I had a blast.  The whole concept of underwater hockey is a little silly, but it ended up being a lot more fun than I expected.  I had a hard time getting used to some of the gear, but they say that after 3 or 4 (or sometimes more) times, you get used to it and it becomes a lot more fun.  So I think I'm going to stick with it! 

With underwater hockey, each player has a mask and snorkel, a little hockey stick that is about a foot long, and fins.  There is a puck that stays on the pool bottom, and two goals that are at the bottom of the pool at either end.  The general idea is similar to that of soccer or hockey where you just want to score in the other team's goal, but the play is actually really different than any other sport I've ever encountered.  Since you're playing underwater, the distance you can pass the puck is quite short, so everyone has to be pretty close together.  Then, since everyone is diving with a mask and snorkel and holding their breath, you have to consider that they can only go so far or do so much before they need to resurface for air.  There is also the fact that you're essentially playing a 3D field, so every time you resurface you have to be aware that there are people snorkeling above you watching the play waiting for a good time to dive down and join.  So it becomes a tangled mess of people and fins and....it was surprisingly awesome!

When I arrived, I didn't think I knew anyone there.  I was waiting in line to sign in at the YMCA for my free pass, and I turn around to pick up a towel and I see someone that I knew.  We made eye contact, and we knew we'd met before, but we knew we hadn't met at underwater hockey.  After a second, we were both like, "ahhhh, FRISBEE."  We'd met at the tournament I played at ocean beach on Halloween!  Her name is Lucy, and she's really awesome.  I went and changed, and when I walked out onto the pool deck, Lucy came out soon after and introduced me to a guy named Tom.  He was a good underwater hockey player, and he was super nice!  When he heard that we'd met playing frisbee, he got all excited and went over to his bag and pulled out a frisbee and showed it to me excitedly to show me that he plays a lot too.  It was so cool.  He helped me get all the gear I needed, and talked to me about how to warm up and practice a few skills with the snorkel so that I wasn't completely freaked out when the gameplay started.  First, he swam with me a few times where I just swam across the surface with the snorkel, getting used to breathing.  Then he had me dive down a few times and learn to blow the water out of the snorkel so I could breathe again.  He had me do a few other drills where I learned to move the puck, then move the puck in a zig zag pattern across the pool bottom, and then turn the puck around 180 degrees or spin around the puck to protect it.  Tom also told me a few things to keep in mind such as, if your hips are lower and closer to the pool bottom, it's easier to control the puck and protect it.  You don't want your arm outstretched for the puck, because the closer you are to the puck, the more you can protect it.  He was really nice and positive and outgoing, and especially friendly that I was a beginner.  I was having a blast!  Then gameplay started, and I was so surprised.  I didn't realize how close you had to be to everyone, and how crazy and fast it was!  They were really friendly about the fact that I was new, and they were super encouraging.  I really liked the group of people.  They would laugh and pat me on the back whenever I surfaced and couldn't clear my snorkel of water and ended up choking and gasping for air.  I liked that it there was no pressure, so if I needed to I could just tread water and catch my breath again.  I really liked the environment.  They have different levels of practice; two practices a week are more advanced, and two practices a week are more beginner focused...so you can easily go to whichever practice fits your level of play, which I really like.  It was a lot of fun!

After the game, Lucy gave me her email, and we're going to try to meet up more at underwater hockey practices and frisbee pickups!  I'm so excited!

Swimming and Frisbee!

I had a really pleasant day today.  I went to work, which was pretty typical and uninteresting, and then after work I headed straight to downtown Berkeley.  Navi was at daycare, so I wanted to pass more time before going home so that when I picked her up, she was really tired.  I decided to park in the downtown area on my way home from work, and wander across campus to swim at Hearst pool.  Pam wanted to come along, so I picked her up on the way, parked about a 30 minute walk from the pool, and we talked and meandered around.  We  were changed and ready right when the pool opened, so it was pretty empty which was a real treat!  I thought I'd only want to swim for 20 minutes but the next time I looked at the clock, 45 minutes had passed.  There was this guy who swam at a really close speed to me, and I was so tempted to ask if he wanted to work out sometime and do a real workout together.  I never really got the guts up to ask because I was slightly intimidated.  Maybe next time..  We left the pool, meandered back to the car, and Pam headed home on bike.  I love the bike racks on top of my car - so useful, all the time!  I've rescued Tim and other friends from rainstorms on bike rides, I've rescued them after they get hurt and/or damage their bikes or have flat tires and no supplies to fix it, I've been rescued from those circumstances, I can pick up friends with bikes, throw the bike on top, and them dump them in the middle of nowhere and expect them to get home on their own.  It's great!  And I can bring my bike anywhere I want.

After swimming, I headed over to pick up Navi, and the woman working at MetroDog today was my one of my favorite women there.  She knows sign language because her mother in law (I think?) is deaf, but it's funny because she learned british sign language because she's from England, then she came here and learned American Sign Language.  Most of the time, she does well, but every once in a while a sign I've never seen before slips in, and she'll say "oops, I think that sign is british, isn't it??"  It's so cool!  She loves Navi, and we always chat for 10 or 15 minutes when we see each other.  Turns out she just became pregnant, which she's really excited about!  I really like her.  There was also another really nice guy waiting for his dog, which turned out to be a happy calm brown labrador.  Cute.

Then, I headed home, scarfed some food, hopped onto my bike, and pedaled over to my first East Bay Winter League game of the season.  We were supposed to start last Thursday, but the game was on grass fields that got rained out.  Tonight's game were on turf, which are rain or shine...thankfully the weather was nice!  I hadn't met the team before, which is always kind of interesting because you show up on the field and you have no idea who your captain is, or where you should go, or anything.  We didn't even have a team color.  Sometimes I have a hard time with this because while I'm bold enough to go up and ask about what team people are on, I never know how loud to speak (very very loud because the field is by the highway but I'm never loud enough!) or I can't understand people and it becomes slightly awkward...but I lucked out this time because my friend Whitney saw me, and she knew she was playing against me, so she'd already figured out my team for me.  I walked into the field and she was like, "Hi!  That's your team!"  Easy as pie, right?

The team turned out to be a pretty nice mix.  The only thing that could be better is if there were more players my age.  Everyone is much older than I am.  However, this is a double edged sword because the guys who have been playing for longer are often better handlers.  I haven't played on any teams lately with anyone that has a good deep throw against a mark, and a few guys on this team have that which is really nice.  I ended up having a lot of fun, but I was tired at the end of the game.  I had a good hand block, which was nice, and I had a lot of really good cuts.  My defense was a lot better, too.  After the game ended, we still had 30 minutes of field time, so we played some pickup and changed up the teams a bit.  It was fun, but I was really tired after.  Then I had to bike home up the hill...so I was even more exhausted.  It was a good way to end the day.

Apartment Hunting!

My search for a new apartment is finally over!  I've been searching the posts for apartments online endlessly, emailing people, viewing apartments, and the whole process has been a little irritating.  At one place, the guy who was showing the apartment was 45 minutes late, and then didn't know anything about the costs or availability of various apartments.  Some places had really annoying secretaries and so many rules and formalities.  I even left one place before I even got through the whole "interview" process because I couldn't stand the apartment complex rules.  Another place, the landlord showed me the apartment and I was really interested.  The person staying in the place had told the landlord (who was showing me the apartment) that he lost his job and needed to move, so I would be subletting.  The landlord and his current occupant dragged the "negotiations" about rent and all that out for a really long time, and then I finally find out that the occupant had decided to stay in the apartment three or four weeks later.  It was kind of annoying because I would prefer to know that someone is "considering" leaving than being led to believe they are definitely moving out.  Then, I didn't make things easy because I'm a little picky...  I really, really hate going to the laundromat because I never have a 2 or 3 hour period free in my day, so it was important to have a washer and dryer in unit.  It was also really important for the bathroom to have a bathtub.  I wanted some carpeted floors so that Navi can play tug of war again, but most of the apartment to be hardwood or something non-carpeted.  I wanted the kitchen to be really open so that I can see the majority of the apartment without walls or doors in the way.  I wanted a bigger bathroom with a nicer sink that doesn't have a faucet for cold water and a separate faucet for hot water.  I wanted one faucet that can serve any temperature of water you wish.  I wanted to not have to bend over backwards in order to wash my hair in the shower.  I wanted it to be close to all my favorite grocery stores and shops so that I can walk Navi AND get errands done.   I wanted to be away from my current landlords because I don't like them very much. I wanted off street parking...and I didn't want to pay an exorbitant sum.

Needless to say, it was turning into a little bit of a nightmare until last night.  I FOUND IT.  It even has a balcony and a nice view of the sunset.  My lease at the current place is up at the end of December, so I decided to move into the new place December 10th.  That gives me some time to paint the place a nice color, move in over the weekend, and have Navi settled in the place before Christmas swings around.  She gets really panicky during moves, so I didn't want to have to move right before I left for Christmas because then she'd be freaked out that I had left her at the place she will be staying while I'm gone.  I'm really excited!  Yay!

Ski Pants!

On Sunday, when Pam and I had been wandering around before we headed to Cal to swim, we got some mochas from a local cafe called Local 1-2-3 and when we were waiting in line these donuts caught our eye.  They were really pretty!  I know pretty isn't what makes a good donut, but we asked what the flavors were, and one was cinnamon.  They had this tan icing with this slightly plaid pattern.  The fact that they were pretty AND there was a cinnamon flavor did me in, and we decided to split one.

Well, enter today, and I had a massive craving at work all day long for a donut.  Not a fancy one like at Local 1-2-3 but...a donut.  So on my way home from work, Pam and I met up at Happy Donuts to grab a few donuts.  It was yummy!  So bad for you...but ok for once in a while!  Then we headed to Target to stock up on a few things, and then we took a few photographs of a hat that she made for me after I complained too many times that no hats cover the bottom of my earlobes.  After that, I headed home, fed the dog, played with the dog, assembled some of the turkey leftovers in tupperwares for Tim, and headed out to meet him at REI.  We both had things we needed, and had plans to get dinner and play with Navi together, so it made sense that we would just go to REI together, too.  I needed to buy a new pair of ski pants, which I wasn't looking forward to.  I totally destroyed my ski pants that I had been nursing along for the past few years at the end of the season last year, and I knew that I wanted ski pants with the bib design, rather than pants that just end at the waist.  These are a lot harder to find because only people who ski a lot or backcountry ski seem to like them, so I was not looking forward to the possibility of having to blow 400 or 500 dollars on Arctery'x ski pants.  We got to REI and wandered in, and I immediately beelined to the women's skiwear section and was extremely disappointed!  Everything is so fashion forward for women, and not designed for use.  I had to go into the men's section to find a pair of ski pants like I wanted, but, I found a pair!  They are mountain hardwear, which is great because I like that company a lot better than Arctery'x, and they were only $190!  The only things "against" the ski pants is the zippers catch easily, but there is a great fix for that using silicone tent seam sealer, so I have to pick some of that up.  They are also "conduit" instead of "goretex" but the only difference is that conduit is slightly less breathable than goretex, but just as waterproof.  Since you don't really need breathable material on the legs, it works out perfectly, and I didn't have to blow $400-500 for them.  I was really stoked.  I also lucked out, and found some winter-styled boots for Navi.  She hates it when the snow gets stuck in the fur between the pads of her feed, and the boots I have for her never stay on.  These are a different design for the snow, and they go higher up on the leg.  I still need to do some alterations, but these are really great compared to what I was working with before.  So that's another score!  The final score of the night was a great light for Navi's collar.  It looks well designed, and it might be really easy to make extra-waterproof using silicone, so...yay!  Tim took that home with him to make it waterproof since he had silicone on hand, so we will see how that works!  I was really happy with all of the finds at REI, so the night had started on a good note!

Then we decided to take Navi to the beach, and let her swim so that she'd be tired out.  We headed over and played with her for about 45 minutes on the calm beach after sunset.  The waves were really mellow, and it was really soothing.  Navi had a blast.  After she tired out, we took her home, and then went to Zacharies for dinner.  I've really wanted to go to Zacharies for a while, so when Tim suggested it, I jumped at the chance!  It was great.  I really like their pizza, I just don't eat it often.  Everyone around here is crazy about cheeseboard pizza, and while it's good...it's not as incredible as everyone thinks.  It's not worth waiting in a line that extends along the entire block for.  It's thin...it's greasy...and while the flavor combinations can be amazing...the pizza itself isn't that good.  They need a better crust, and less grease.  Combine that with their ideas for toppings and flavor combinations and it would be great!  Oh well - to each their own.  I guess I really can be a food snob.  Thanks mom and dad, you raised a food snob well.  We ended up getting a pretty simple thick crust pizza with only sausage on top, and it was great.  Their sauce has these big chunks of tomato that I really enjoy.  It tastes really fresh.  We talked about current news, how frustrating work and school are, the latest fiasco with North and South Korea, and a lot of other things.  It was quite pleasant.  After Zacharies, we both split ways, and I headed home to play with Navi for the night.  It was a good day.

Second Thanksgiving!

Pam and I decided to have a Second Thanksgiving. We kept it simple, and made a small menu of simple but delicious things. The turkey was a lemon herb turkey with a lemony gravy. We made a rosemary fennel stuffing and green beans with toasted walnuts and a dried cherry vinaigrette. There were fennel mashed potatoes along with that, and for dessert, the most delicious apple tart.

I woke up early and started cooking! I de-crusted two loaves of rosemary bread, and cut it up into cubes. I toasted the crusts until they were very crisp, and processed them into bread crumbs for another meal. I sprinkled butter and oil over the bread cubes and toasted them into some delicious looking croutons!

A turkey that my mother sent was watching over all the cooking and making sure everything went well. After I finished the croutons, I made the fennel, raisin, and shallot mixture that they would be combined with before being put in the oven to turn into stuffing! Then I worked on the apple tart. I wanted the apple tart to be done before the turkey went into the oven, so that it would have all day to cool! It came out of the oven looking beautiful.

The coolest part about this tart is there are no spices. You make the crust, you spread apples inside, you brush with butter, and you sprinkle a little sugar on top. Then, you take the cores and peels from the apples, simmer them in sugar water until you have a thick syrup, and you brush that on top when the tart comes out of the oven. It was a surprise to realize how spiced most apple tarts or pies are. They usually have so much sugar and cinnamon that you can't taste the apple much at all. This tart just radiated a sweet apple flavor and I really loved it.

The turkey then went into the oven, and spent all day roasting. Fennel mashed potatoes were made, stuffing was created, and the little turkey watched over all of the ingredients.

The turkey came out of the oven a lot sooner than we expected.

The herbs in the lemon butter that I spread underneath the skin made it look moldy! We prepared our table, and sat down to eat!


Even Navi was licking her chops!


Then she tried the stare solemly strategy!


Don't worry. Of course she got some in the end!!


We were all very satisfied with Second Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, I went to Britt and Gabe's for a gathering. Britt asked me to come early to help her with the cooking, but when I arrived, she didn't need me for anything. I decided to take Navi and one of her dogs for a walk instead. I found some really interesting graffiti on the walk.

Meet Fripp:

He's about 10 months old, and when you tell him to sit, this is what he does: he lays down and writhes around on his back.

After a long walk, the dogs and I headed back to Britt's. The day was spent mingling, cooking, walking the dogs more, and eating. Andrew was playing with my camera, and got a cute photo of Britt and Fripp.


For this Thanksgiving, I made garlic mashed potatoes, a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert on Britt's request, and an apple crumb coffee cake to snack on during the day. Between dinner and dessert, a bunch of us went to walk the dogs to Ohlone Park. We let them run around for a while, and chased them! Fripp is really fast, and it is really fun to chase after him and Navi. After a while, we all headed back and had some dessert. I'm not a big fan of cheesecake, but I thought the pumpkin cheesecake that I made was pretty good. It was from a cookbook my mom sent me for my birthday, so I was eager to try the recipe and see how it was! I really liked the apple crumb coffee cake that I made, and would definitely make it again. Yum!

Spitfire Clinic!

I found out about a women's soccer clinic this weekend that is held from late November to mid January on Tuesday nights from 7-9 pm in San Francisco. It costs $10 per session, and the Spitfire team comes out with their coach and they practice with whoever wants to come. Last night was the first of the clinics, so Pam and I headed over to Crocker Amazon and played. It was a lot of fun, and I am really looking forward to the next one. I've also found out about an indoor stadium in Alameda that has beginner and intermediate soccer clinics that I might join after the Spitfire clinics end in January! Yay!

Sunset!

Navi and I enjoyed a very pretty sunset today.

Fourth Street at Night!

Around the holidays, the shopping center on fourth streetputs all sorts of pretty holiday lights up.  They hang spherical light orbs of all colors from the trees, and all sorts of snowflakes.  I really love it, and I went to play with my camera at night.  I learned a lot, and I have to go back and try a few new things to get better photos.  I thought these four photos came out pretty cool, though!

Albany Bulb!

Pam and I felt like taking Navi to the beach today, and I'm glad we did! The weather was supposed to be terrible but it turned out to be a magnificent day.

It didn't seem like we were off to a good start though, because I got to the beach and threw a tennis ball in the water and all Navi did was stare at it. Then she went and dug a hole in the sand. I found another tennis ball and threw that one, but she showed no interest. I tried a log, and she wasn't having any of that, either. We decided to give up, and walk around the peninsula instead. Pam and I walked to the concrete castle, which is one of my favorite places on the island. The sky was really blue, and the clouds were both white and grey, so we had fun taking a few photos!


I just want to say, Dad, you're lucky I love you, because I have a really hard time putting photos of myself up on here! :) After we took a bunch of photos, I didn't want Navi to jump off the roof because there was a lot of broken glass. So I picked her up, and put her down myself.

She didn't really care. In fact, she seemed kind of comfortable. It was so odd. Of course, after I put her down, I realized there was a staircase hidden inside the tower. I knew that...I just forgot, I guess. After playing on the concrete tower, we went to walk around the still pond. There were two pelicans watching the water from above and periodically smashing into the water after food. Navi kept running up ahead, then climbing the rocks to peer behind and see if we were coming.


Then we wandered into the area with statues and sculptures. Most of them are unchanged, but I did find this little fairy hiding away in a tree that I have never seen before.
These photos and a few more are located here: http://picasaweb.google.com/PerryLYoung/AlbanyBulb#

Gazos Gambitz

Today I had an ultimate tournament on the beach in Pescadero, CA. The weather was supposed to be crappy so I packed a ton of clothing changes to leave in the car (to stay dry!), my raincoat, lots of warm clothes, lots of food and water, and left my camera at home to stay dry. The drive to the beach was an hour and a half, and the first 45 minutes or so were pretty standard. Once I got onto the coastal highway, though, every turn was a new beautiful sight. It was great!

I got to the tournament at the perfect time, and found my team really fast. We all trekked to the beach, which required fording a little river and lots of other mini adventures. We had to clean seaweed and sticks and stones and shells off the fields, and then play started! The weather wasn't very friendly, though. It poured, it was cold, it was some of the windiest game play I've ever experienced. However bad the weather got, though, the people made it worthwhile. It was a lot of fun!

After all the games were played, I changed into dry clothes at the car and headed home. I had brought Navi to daycare, so I picked her up before I went home! She looked like she'd had a blast, and I definitely had a blast as well! Navi just got to stay drier in the process. I was so sick of the inclement weather that when I realized the trash can was full, I couldn't get myself to walk into the rain to take it out. I tied it up and left it in the kitchen to deal with in the morning! I've never done that before. I fell asleep really early, which felt really nice.

Cake!

Pam and I made a cake today! I found this recipe for a layer cake that had chocolate layers, orange layers, with chocolate filling, covered in orange buttercream with chocolate ganache poured on top. Sounds crazy, huh? Well it was. Obviously, first we made the cake layers! We had to do this in a few batches because there were five layers. The original recipe had ten, thinner layers!

Navi was eyeing the cake!

The finished product looked really tasty!


Unfortunately, I didn't really like the texture of the cake much. I did like the frostings, though...which is rare because usually I like the cake, and hate the frosting!

My next cake will be out of "Rose's Heavenly Cakes" and I am so excited! I will probably make the apple upside down cake from that cookbook for Thanksgiving!! :)

After we made the cake, I biked to Cal, and played late night racquetball with Andrew! It was a lot of fun.

Twin Peaks!

Today it was a really pretty morning, so Pam and I headed into the city to visit Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is a really is a really nice lookout point in San Francisco. We brought Navi along for the ride!

There is a vista point near the car parking where we took a lot of photos, and someone offered to take a photo of us. A stretch hummer came around the corner and all of these middle school kids came pouring out. They all had tshirts saying, "Katie's 11th!" or something, and the birthday girl herself was in a very fancy prom like dress. They all came running towards Navi right when they hopped out of the car, almost like she was the attraction, not the view!

We took a lot of photos at the vista point. I wanted a photo with Navi, but first she just wanted to snuggle.

After enough people laughed at her, she decided to look at the camera!

After looking around for a bit, we headed up to the actual twin peaks. You can walk up to the top of both "mountains" and look at the view from there. The picture below is from the top of one of the peaks, looking at the other peak. There are little staircases in both peaks, and it kind of reminds me of where the hobbits live in Lord of the Rings. Do you see the Golden Gate Bridge?

After we had explored Twin Peaks, I dropped Pam off at a bus station so that she could head out to meet up with some friends, and I drove Navi over to Ocean Beach!

This was Navi's first time on Ocean Beach! This is the beach that I played on for Halloween Hucks. I had no idea dogs were allowed, and when I found out I knew I had to bring her here. I probably won't bring her here often because it is kind of far and not easily accessible, but since Navi had an absolute blast, I will consider it again. We played for over two hours in the water, and Navi made a lot of friends (both human and canine). After she was tired out, I played a few points of beach ultimate pickup on the beach, and then we headed home just in time to catch the sunset.

Sweet Navi!

My dad sent me a photograph of Milo trying to be as cute as Navi when he sleeps. It's very cute but...this is what I wake up to every morning!!

Cardio Tennis!

On my way home from work yesterday, Pam and I met up at Berkeley Bowl West, which is the greatest grocery store in the world. We got everything we needed to make a fabulous dinner tonight which I will tell you all about later. I also found a strange looking fruit that was very pink and somewhat spikey. I had an inkling that it was dragonfruit, and when I got home I looked it up and it sure is! I've never had it before, so it will be interesting to try at some point.

After we had gotten all of our supplies, I hurried home to play with Navi. We went for a long romp through the woods and had a wonderful time. We walked to the ridge on Euclid just in time for the sunset, which was very nice. After the sunset, we wandered back on home.

Lately, I've been wanting to go to a cardio tennis class with Debbie. I found out about it the weekend before I cut my finger really badly. It has been healing well, but this was the first week that I felt like the pain wouldn't be too bad to hold and swing a tennis raquet around. So when Navi and I got home, I hopped onto my bike and pedaled over to Pam and Debbie's place, and the three of us jumped into Debbie's car and headed over to the cardio tennis class! This class is a free class held in Piedmont, and it's beginner friendly. The guy puts a lot of emphasis on keeping you moving, so you actually seem to hit more balls and spend a lot of time happily running around doing foot drills than you do in a normal tennis lesson, which is something I really like. We got lucky last night, and we were the only three that showed up. The instructor is really funny and I like him a lot. He was explaining the swings to us as we went along, and for the forehand, you start with one hand on the racquet, but you always catch the racquet at the end of the swing and follow through past your head. He calls this "answering the phone." It was funny because if you didn't follow through, he'd say, "answer the phone!!" So we spent an hour or so running around a tennis court learning about tennis and practicing all the different swings. I absolutely loved it, and I can't wait to go back next Friday!

After we got back to Pam and Debbie's house, Pam and I pedaled up the hill to my place, and started making our dinner! I had seen these recipes for a walnut rosemary panko crusted chicken where you toast the panko in a skillet before you crust the chicken, which was supposed to make the panko less soggy on the bottom of the chicken! It sounded like a great recipe, and I found another recipe for fettucine with corn pesto! We decided we'd also make a caprese salad of wild arugula, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. At berkeley bowl, we bought some fresh pasta for the corn pesto; half of the pasta was plain, and half was red pepper pasta. We spent an hour or so preparing dinner, and the chicken and the pasta were done within 30 seconds of each other! I have been honing my ability to get all aspects of dinner to be done at the same time because that is a skill I really cherish, and I am getting a lot better. We sat down to eat our dinner with Navi at our feet, and we watched a hilarious episode of 30 rock. Dinner was absolutely delicious and we were both really pleased. There were lots of leftovers! After dinner, it was quite late, so I bundled up and turned in. What a great day!

BAWL, game 2!

I had my second game for the women's league tonight, and it was a blast! I was feeling really tired before the game, but once I got to the field, I magically woke up. I really like a lot of the ladies on my team. There was a new girl tonight named Sarah from Cal, and she was a lot of fun to play with. Shmi and Cree couldn't come tonight, so Castle took over captaining, and she was a lot of fun to play with. The first point, I had three D's! A D is when you manage to force a turnover by handblocking the disc right after it is thrown, intercepting the disc, or hitting it so that the other team can't catch it. Then I had a really nice layout for the disc. I played really well, and Castle gave me some pointers that really helped my cuts improve. I was really happy after the game, and now I can't wait for the next game, and for winter league to start!

Tron!

After work today, Pam and I went to get a coffee at Geurilla Cafe. I got a spicy mocha, which was a lot spicier than I expected. It was really good, but the first sip was quite a shock. I hadn't eaten much, so while we were wandering around with our coffee, we saw Crepe-Vine. We went in looking for a chocolate banana crepe, but we saw a crepe on the menu that had walnuts, pistachios, cinnamon, brown sugar, and mascarpone cheese. It sounded delicious, so we ordered one with bananas added in! It was served with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream...and man...it was amazing. I'm thinking about trying to work on my crepes, and making this for my family when I am home for Christmas, it was that good!

After enjoying our crepe and coffee, we headed to my place to take Navi for a walk. We roamed around with Navi for a while, and had a lot of fun. When we got back to the apartment, I bustled around taping a biking light to my helmet and getting my mountain bike ready, and I biked with her to her bus stop. Then I kept biking and went for a night mountain biking ride in Tilden! It was really phenomenal. I like how much wildlife you see at night, and it was exhilarating to have the trail to myself.

When I got home, I played with Navi for a while, then headed over to Rich's place to watch Tron with Ben, Ben's girlfriend, Rich and George. I'd never seen Tron before, and I've heard a lot about it. A new version of Tron is coming out December 17th, so Rich and Ben wanted to have a little Tron party and watch the original one, which is older than we are! When they initially suggested watching Tron, I expressed worry that it might not be captioned since it was so old. I was floored because Rich and Ben went out of their way to get the dvd in the days before they planned to have the party so they could verify that it was subtitled and look elsewhere if it wasn't. Rich and Ben had seen it before, but the rest of us were pretty impressed with the movie, and now we're really excited for the sequal!

Then I headed home, played with Navi Wavi some more, and headed to bed.

Swimming

I had a really great swim today. The water was the perfect temperature, the night was beautiful, the moon and stars (the ones you can see in the city) were shining bright and twinkling. I couldn't find anyone to go swimming with me, and figured I'd go myself. I swam over 3000 yards, which I haven't done in a while. I'm going to start trying to increase my yardage, and get more sprinting in. I did a set of ten 50's on the 45 interval, which wasn't easy but I was really happy after I finished. I also spent a lot of time kicking and doing a poor man's pull. When I got out of the pool, I felt amazing. The bike ride home was also enchanting, because I get to see the twinkling lights of the city as I ride up, up, and up, and the air was nice and cool. Then I got home to my sweet, wonderful ball of energy named Navi, and we played for the rest of the night.

Sleepy Navi!

Navi always uses one of her favorite toys as a pillow which, as you can see, can be quite adorable. She has four favorite toys. The first of her favorite toys is a blue plushy dog. When I first moved out to California, I found the blue dog at PetSmart and fell in love. I brought it home, and Navi fell in love with it too. When Tim and I moved to the new place last January, I noticed that I had no idea where the blue dog had gone. I hadn't seen it in a while, and I didn't find it during the move. I considered it lost, and the next time I went to PetSmart, I picked up another blue dog. Of course, that very same day, Pam IMed me and said, "guess what Debbie found while she was cleaning?" Turns out that I had brought the blue dog over to Pam's place one day when Pam was watching Navi for me. I guess I forgot. So now Navi has a blue dog at her real home, and her second home. The second of her favorite toys is a gorgeous plush hippo that my sister bought for her. The toy is really fat and cute, and Navi loves to carry it around. The third of her favorite toys is this really fat plushy hedgehog that has two of the strangest squeaks. One squeaker lets out a gutteral moan when you squeeze it, and the other squeaker is very high pitched. Navi alternates the two squeakers when she wants attention! The last of her favorite toys is the one you see in the photo above. The squeaker is functionally retarded, but she seems to love it anyway. It's a moose, and I really love the color. I'm glad Navi loves it too. I think the secret to getting a toy that Navi loves is getting a really big, fat plushy toy, because she always seems to gravitate towards those. I'm going to sort through her toys and donate a lot of toys to the humane society. They accept toys that are in good condition, and it isn't worth keeping toys Navi never goes near around, which means most of the rubbery toys will be donated, and some of the plushies she never goes near. Many dogs will be happy!

BAWL!

Don't worry, I'm not crying! BAWL stands for Bay Area Women's League. It's a new ultimate frisbee league that is for women only. I usually play co-ed ultimate, but I do like women's ultimate as well. The first game was tonight, and it was fantastic. Two women on my team are from Fury, which is a women's team that just won Nationals! The Bay Area really swept National this year - Revolver won men's open, Polar Bears won mixed, Fury won women's open, and Happy Cows won the youth division. All four of those teams are bay area ultimate teams. Then the Giants won the world series although I didn't even know they were in the world series until a few days after they won...it's a good time for the bay area! The BAWL league gave out pretty fanastic jerseys, and they will give out discs. The jerseys are patagonia, long sleeved, not cotton (they're the awesome synthetic fiber I have no idea what it is), a great yellow color, and all around awesome.

After the game, the women got together at Pyramid for drinks and appetizers, which was really nice. I can't wait until the next game!

Nature Walk!

Today, Navi and I went on a long walk in Tilden. The weather was perfect for meandering through the woods. It wasn't too hot, wasn't too cold, and the air smelled good.

We played some tug of war:

We explored new drains and pipes recently installed for the upcoming rain season:

We took our time.


Then we walked to a good viewing spot, and were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Slippers!

I've been moaning for the past few years that I never could find slippers that I liked. I've been slipping around in some of Tim's oversized slippers for forever, and one day I happened to find a knitting pattern for some felted slippers online. They looked beautiful, so I asked Pam if she'd make them for me if I got the yarn. Pam happily obligued, so now I have a pair of the most gorgeous slippers in the world! She came over today so we could felt them, fit them, and attach the buttons. I made the buttons with some cloth button kits I had with some fabric I really like...and I really like them! They're especially nice because Pam said the pattern was really easy to follow, and not very time consuming. They felted together really nicely. Since they are felted, Pam didn't have to hide the yarn ends like usual which is her least favorite part of knitting projects. We took puffy paint and painted circles on the soles of the slippers, so they aren't very slippery. They're not quite like those grippy socks you can find, but they are close! I love them so much.

Halloween Cards!

I had a lot of fun making halloween cards this year. My favorite halloween card was the one I made for my mom and dad. My mom really likes pointilism, so I figured I'd try to recreate pointilism in paper. It took a tremendous amount of time, but it was worth the effort.

Some of my other halloween cards had a sort of mondrian theme I seem to be following lately.


Then I started experimenting with circles!

Another one of my favorites involved weaving paper!


Now I have to start on my Christmas cards, and possibly Thanksgiving cards as well!