Looks like the San Francisco Giants are going to the World Series!

I don’t really wants baseball, but at times like this, it’s fun to be a fan.

GO GIANTS!

Strength soon found me, and I opened to the letter to find a reissued cheque from 2008 for over $1500 dollars!

The cheque itself was super government-legit — there’s a picture of the statue of liberty on it and it says “United States Treasury” in patriotic font. Generally I find Canadian government documents are more attractive than US ones (you should see my social security “card”. It’s a piece of paper thinner than an index card that I had to perforate and tear myself!), but this cheque is something else!

The cheque looks like it’s dated Dec 2008. Unfortunately there are a lot of numbers on it, and it’s possible it could also be dated August 2010. Accompanying the cheque was an unsigned form letter from the IRS. It says that they’re remailing a cheque from May 2009 because their records show I didn’t cash it. They advise me that the very attractive cheque they enclosed cannot be cashed because it is more than a year old, but I should call them so they can verify me in order to reissue a cheque.

The really funny thing about this is that I absolutely do not remember getting a cheque last May. I really don’t think I would have forgotten to deposit a cheque for over $1500. This means that either:

1. They mailed the cheque to my old address on Fillmore, which means USPS’s mail forwarding service forgot to forward an important government cheque

2. They never actually mailed the cheque in 2009! Maybe they “forgot” to mail it and just sat on my money for a year and they’re only just getting around to mailing cheques now!

The USPS theory is possible, though USPS did successfully forward some mail last year. I’m kind of inclined to go with my second theory.

The other question this raises in my mind is wtf is up with Turbo Tax? They didn’t tell me I was going to get a $1500 refund! That stupid software told me I had to pay extra taxes this year. I wonder if I’ll be getting another huge refund?

The whole “life in a disaster zone” thing is kind of interesting. We have emergency sirens that get tested every Tuesday at noon. I can hear them from both my home and my office. It’s pretty loud at work because we’re close to the Ferry Building, which is where I think they honk one from. I also sometimes see bus advertising about emergency preparedness, advising each family to have a meeting spot. From time to time I think about buying bottled water so I can hoard it for emergency use.

Side note: Did you know that bottled water expires? A couple months ago we got an email from the office receptionist saying that the bottled water the office stores for disaster use was near expiry,  so we’d be buying fresh water for office-disaster-hoarding, and would anybody like to take the near-expiry water home for use?

I don’t normally go for those things, but a friend of mine bought me a 75 minute organic herbal body wrap for my bday! She bought it from one of those Groupon clone sites and probably got a good deal. The original price for the treatment was around almost $100!

I had my treatment yesterday. It was … itchy.

I arrived at the spa on time. The receptionist directed me to a lounge, where I would wait for my “technician”.  The place had the usual spa vibe — the wooden flute music, green tea with little japanese style cups to drink from, lots of unfinished wood, and attractive, healthy looking staff all wearing those flowy spa clothes that somehow manage to show off the person’s slim figure while using twice the material of normal clothes.

My technician was late.

The treatment itself involved me being wrapped up in strips of cloth soaked in herbal liquids. The cloths were warm and wet. The technician wrapped them tightly, though not uncomfortably, around my whole body. Arms, legs, everything. Once I was mummified, she told me to lie down on a mat and rest there for 40 minutes. She wrapped me up in a sheet and a couple thermal blankets, set the timer, and left the room.

The first couple minutes were fine. The technician had placed a dry cloth over my eyes before she left. It was a bit too high though, and so I felt like it wasn’t dark enough to sleep. Experimentally, I wiggled my eyebrows to see if I could get the cloth into the right position. My technique worked. Wiggling my entire face eventually got the towel nudged to the right spot. After that I spent some time crossing and uncrossing my feet, and fretting about various issues I had on my mind. Eventually I started feeling lonely, and wondered why I’d let her set the timer for 40 minutes. Note to self! Being mummified for 40 minutes isn’t fun.

I had a eureka moment. Sure, I was mummified, but I’m stronger than the mummification! I can move! In fact, it was quite easy for me to move my arms and legs around a little. I don’t know why I wasted so long wiggling my eyebrows. I could probably have reached up and moved the towel with my own hand.

Eventually, 40 minutes was over. The technician came back and unmummified me.

I walked home.

We have this new hire here whose roommate apparently loves to bake. Those two don’t want to eat the stuff so the new hire has been bringing the treats in to work to get rid of them. So far they’ve been in the “look good but taste weird” category. They’re bakery perfect to look at – evenly sized cookies, lovely colour — but when I bite in something’s off.

Most recently she brought in some brownie concoction that looked harmless but proved to be lethal when I swallowed. It was either salty or spicy. I don’t really remember — I’ve blocked the details from my mind. After I recovered I IM’d my coworker who, as it turned out, was also recovering from a similar problem at his desk. He didn’t know what was going on with those brownies either.

The lesson here is clearly to avoid that woman and her roommate’s suspicious baked goods.

But that aside, generally there’s definitely a problem of people who bake and then make other people eat it. Half the time I think it comes down to a weight issue — single women especially can’t eat a whole pie but may want to bake one.  (note: Obviously I don’t have that problem so I can’t relate. I only bake when I know I have somebody coming over and I’m happy to eat the leftovers on my own. Half an apple pie? Sounds great to me! )

Nowadays it’s typically more expensive to bake then it is to buy. Baking chocolate chip cookies? The butter and chocolate alone will cost more than store bought. So these bakers-but-not-eaters are spending their money and time to make something and then not enjoying it! It’s kind of sad when I think about it that way, especially when I add in the fact that I’m sure half the coworkers who eat the stuff just go back to their desk and complain about it the way I complained about the gross brownie.

The videos themselves are amazing. The soundtrack is kind of a funky beat that keeps you engaged without being distracting. Claudia actually does the workout with you, which I didn’t think would be motivating, but it is! As I watched the video, I found myself first getting frustrated that she was making it look so easy, but then focusing all my attention on trying to see if she was feeling tired, and noting with satisfaction when she was. There are a few tiny instances where she’ll take a deep breath or something, and it’s like “aha! you’re human!”

I haven’t actually done the workouts yet. I’ll have you know it’s a multi-step process:

1. Get the videos. This involved finding and cleaning out my usb key. Complete!

2. Review the videos to make sure they don’t involve potentially unsafe moves or fads. Complete! Looks safe.

3. Make sure I have the proper equipment. Well, Claudia works out on a mat that looks a bit cushier than my yoga mat. At first I thought I could make do with my yoga mat, but then I started worrying it doesn’t offer adequate support so I started browsing on amazon. But then I remembered my RBC Visa card is cancelled because they found $21 of fraud on it, so then I decided I can probably live with my yoga mat for a while. Complete! The only other piece of equipment required is a wooden chair. Luckily I already have one – it’s part of the Ikea bounty I harvested from my parents house before I moved out. Yay!

4. Think about doing the exercises. Will this workout fit into my exciting, cosmopolitan lifestyle? Is Claudia a good role model for me? I thought about it on my way to work today and concluded, yes! I can do this. I googled her and it’s all good. Claudia paved the way. I will follow. Step complete!

5. Do the exercises.

So as you can see, only one step left. Hehe. I’ll keep you posted.

Every time I hear about him I think about how apparently, my coworker’s ex girlfriend’s college acquaintance is apparently pregnant with his baby.

lol.

I’ll post a couple of photos for you!

(Regarding the peanut pancakes – it was pretty much the only street food (or any food) that I could enjoy heartily as a vegetarian in Korea. Korea isn’t very vegetarian-friendly, but between these peanut pancakes and the buddhist food and maybe a trip to the supermarket for some fruit I survived ok. All in all, much less painful than the absolute zero vegetarian love in Japan. )

I told her the bus was so fun when I moved here that I even wrote a blog post about it!

It’s funny thinking back to those days, when everything was new. The fog, the bay, the colourful vistas, the old crumbling buildings, the hipsters, the bicycles, the flowers, the sailboats, the hills. I still love it here, but it’s different now. I’m used to it.

I think part of the reason I haven’t been blogging as much is that the things that get me excited these days aren’t as newsworthy. For example, I discovered freeze dried blueberries at Trader Joe’s. Yes, first of all, I started shopping at Trader Joe’s. I don’t buy the tragic containerized produce there, but I do buy dry and packaged stuff there. The Israeli couscous is awesome. Anyway, freeze dried berries on cereal is just about the most delicious thing ever. So I was obsessed with eating that for a while. The other issue is just that I have a normal life here now which keeps me busy with things and prevents me from doing some of the “I’m going to go check this out” type stuff I used to do during the first year. I’m busy enough that when I have nothing to do, I take advantage of that and take a nap!

Cops on motorcycles had stopped traffic, so all pedestrians and cars had to wait to cross the street. I’d seen Obama’s motorcade before he was president, so I know the deal. It’s exactly like it is on 24 – a bunch of cops, flashing lights and multiple black SUVs, all with Maryland plates. Yes, they pack their own cars when they go on the road.

The Russian Presidential motorcade was crazy though – one of the SUVs was full of commandos packing machine guns. They had all the windows down too, so you could clearly see the commandos with their guns. Plus there were like 6 black Maryland SUVs and a couple European Benz’s, and a fire truck!

Apparently he was in the bay area to make a speech at Stanford and meet the cofounder of Google.

Later that day I saw the Mayor of San Francisco giving a speech with some protestors. That guy is slick. You can pick him out in a crowd.