Getting Closer

Ta Da

Hubby took this week off to work on the deck, and he's made lots of progress. The frame is pretty much complete, and today the wood for the deck will be delivered. It might be very well possible that when I return from work today a deck will be in our backyard. (From the completed frame, the deck seems a lot bigger than what we originally imagined.) It's Friday and the sun is out, finally, after a couple of foggy days, and this weekend is supposed to be very warm. Maybe we'll be sipping iced tea on our new deck tomorrow afternoon. YeeHaa!

7 things I love

Jade Park listed seven things she loves on her blog: JadePark

and here is my list:
1. Driving away from Bolinas toward Stinson up and around Bolinas Lagoon after a day of surfing. The salt water rinsed off, the car windows rolled down and the sun and the wind on my face and wet hair, body refreshed, recharged, and enlivened, anticipating a cold beer at our usual spot, Sand Dollar, in Stinson
2. Cooking with hubby in our quaint kitchen, our bodies gliding off each other, like ballroom dancing
3. Alice Water's cookbook, The Art of Simple Food
4. Using vegetables from our garden in our cooking; The food tastes that much better with fresh ingredients
5. Scents from our garden: lemon basil, lemon verbena, mint, lavender, rosemary, lemon thyme, lemmonii
6. Reading a good book lying on the cushions atop the tatami map in our living room with the filtered sun rays pouring in past the oak tree through the many windows
7. Feeling strong and relaxed on a long run

Disclosure:
I partook in this meme because I needed to partake in something uplifting on this foggy workday, and although it was sort of fun making the list, in the end I feel not so happy because I'm not doing any of those seven things I love now. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Indian birthday party

Working at a software company, hubby has a ton of South Asian coworkers and they are all relatively similar in age, young married couples with small children. We went to our first Indian party this past Saturday for a coworker's son's first birthday. The women donned their saris and gold, and the children and men put on their party clothes and gold too, as seen here of the birthday boy and his proud father with matching pin stripe suits and bling bling. The food was South Indian which meant super spicy, right up our alley. The food was delicious, better than any Indian food I'd had in the past and I met a super sweet wife of one of the coworkers who is going to teach me to cook Indian style lentils.

I have to admit I felt a bit uncomfortable when we first arrived seeing we were the only non Indians in the entire place. That discomfort, however, was fully self induced and once I started chatting with some of the folks the time went by fast. What I thought was going to be a courtesy appearance turned into a late night of eating, drinking, and talking.

Japanese Garden, GG Park, Deck

We had perfect summer weather yesterday for Father's Day and summer solstice. Hubby and I played the entire day at Golden Gate Park. We ran 9 miles, the entire length of the park and up to Sea Cliff and back (the last 2.5 miles of the SF Half Marathon) as part of our training for the July 26 Race Day. Unbeknown to us it was also Alice's Summerthing, a free concert in GG Park, so on top of the usual weekend crowd there was the Father's Day crowd and music lovers crowd all congregating in this part of the city. It was festive, to say the least. After the run and nearly collapsing (a little exaggeration) from fatigue and dehydration, we quickly changed into sandals and headed to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in the city, Yummy Yummy's, which is conveniently located near the park, and gorged on salt-n-pepper crab, pho, Vietnamese coffee, and shrimp rolls.

Having regained our strength, we ventured back into the park, as if we hadn't gotten enough exercise, and walked through the botanical garden and the Japanese Tea garden. They were both lovely. I'd been to the Japanese garden before, but I didn't quite appreciate it then as much as I do now. Since becoming an avid gardener, and having been landscaping our backyard for the past two years, it was truly a feast for the senses to see the various plants at different maturing stages grouped in ways to highlight the best in each plant. We were especially thrilled in the Japanese garden, stealing ideas and concepts.

The deck is coming along nicely. Leveling the beams was bit of a challenge due to the uneven ground, but it was resolved and now half the joists are connected. And hubby chose redwood after all over ipe which will move the project along in a timely fashion. Can't wait to see the final product.

The Deck

The man worked tirelessly all weekend starting Friday right after work, even skipping his favorite Total Athletic Conditioning class at the gym. The foundation is the most time consuming and difficult part, so I'm told, and once the foundation is set, laying the decking will be a breeze (although it's not going to be as simple using Ipe (pronounced eepay) rather than redwood b.c. this wood is so dense it has to be pre-drilled before nailing or screwing it in, and Ipe is our choice wood after a long deliberation). I'm learning about deck building by merely pocking my head out the window once in a while to offer a glass of water or holding the end of a measuring tape and asking the two-year-old's questions of, what's this for? why you doing that? how does this work?

So the 2-ft. deep holes are filled with cement (so far 60 80-lb bags have been used and still need more), and brackets and beams have been installed. Next joists (cross beams) will be installed and then the decking.

I'm quite proud of my hubby for taking on this project and working so hard on it, even if he's acting more and more like a construction worker (constant dirt and dust on his clothes, sour smell of sweat, and beer drinking starting in the late afternoon).

Hair, Running, Writing, and Other Ongoings

I'm having a good hair day. I can't remember when I've had this many consecutive good hair days. Probably not since my teenage years when my hair, like skin, metabolism, energy level and everything else, was fresh, resilient, and vibrant without paying it any care. I started noticing bodily and physiological changes in my late twenties and after spending a couple of years in denial, I've finally come to fully accept that I'm no longer a spring chick and that I must take care of myself--on all levels--better.

Changes: Skin and hair became super dry!
Remedies: For the face I stopped using foaming cleanser and switched to all natural milk cleanser (still rids the skin of dirt, but doesn't strip skin of natural oil and leaves face feeling soft rather than cracking), as well as once a week face peel or mask. For the hair I stopped using shampoo and rinse with water and moisturize with conditioner. Once every 7-10 days, wash the scalp with baking soda mix (lemon juice is another wonderful cleanser, but it's too strong for my scalp, I get the poofy head for a couple of days like I used to after shampooing).
Results: two thumbs up for both. It took a good year or two to figure out the right face and hair care regiment for myself, but I think I've finally found something that works, is low--really low--maintenance, all natural, and cheaper (never have to buy shampoo again and a box of baking soda is around a buck which lasts for a couple of months (although the box recommends you only use it for one month, I use it until it's gone), no more hair products to keep the poofiness down, less face products like serum (which is the most expensive product on the shelf)to combat dry skin ). What more can a (picky, but lazy) girl ask for!!

81/2 miles. That's the longest distance I've run to this date. Half marathon is 13.2 miles. Training schedule says I should be running 10 miles three weeks before the race. Let's see, the race is on July 26, today is June 12, that means 6 weeks remaining. I think I can build up to 10 miles by July 5. After all this running, I have to say I still don't love running. I still need hubby to push me out the door on some days and if it weren't for him, I don't think I could train successfully for this race. The body feels good and tired. I see muscles firming and reshaping. I eat constantly, but all the right things, most of the time.

Another illuminating lesson from Stephen Kings, On Writing: People write for various reasons, but whatever your reason, always come to the blank page like you mean business. He writes, "you must not come lightly to the blank page."

Lastly, on today's update of ongoing things, hubby's summer project is building a deck in our backyard. (He is truly a Jack of all trades, seriously.) So far he's dug holes, over a dozen two-feet-deep holes, to which cement will be poured for the posts and brackets. Deck progress will be chronicled on this blog.

On Writing by Stephen King

After a spurt of steady writing of the blog, the writing has tapered off, evidenced by no new entries for the last couple of weeks. Ideas don't always jump out at me and if one or two days slip by without writing, the writing momentum is all too easily killed.

Speaking of writing, I'm reading a fantastic memoir on writing by Stephen King titled On Writing. I've never read any of his novels b.c. they are too scary for me, but hubby got me King's memoir as a birthday gift last year. Over the weekend, as I got really annoyed by terribly written resource books on pregnancy, I picked up King's memoir to ease my irritation, hoping some good writing would put me in a better mood. Boy, was I in for a truly pleasant surprise. His writing is crisp, illuminating, hilarious, and contagious, for I've returned to writing on this blog. I've only read a third of the book, but throughout the day I look forward to reading more of it before going to bed.

The first third of the book mainly chronicles his life in linear order, how a writer was made, under what type of life circumstances, predispositions, and writing/reading experiences. Couple things that I remember most vividly: first, in high school he takes a reporting job at his local newspaper, the job was literally handed to him by his guidance counselor and teachers who saw Stephen needed an outlet for his creativity and writing talent, and after he turns in his first writing assignment to the newspaper editor, the editor takes a black pen and quickly edits it. Stephen King writes that at that moment he learned more about writing and story telling than he did all through high school and college English/writing classes. The editor says to Stephen (I'm loosely paraphrasing here) first you write to tell yourself the story, then you revise to tell the story. Click. The second thing I remember from the first third of the book is actually the final line to this section of the book: Life doesn't support art, it's the other way around. Double click.

Still

After consecutive busy weekends since winter, hubby and I did absolutely nothing this past scorching hot weekend. He tried to convince me to take Friday off with him (totally out of character, he is always lecturing me to save up my vacation and sick days). Ironically, I, who is always fishing for excuses to not go to work, chose to go into the office. Had a few things to take care of in order to allow myself a worry-free weekend. Hubby, though, was relentless and did at last convince me to take a half day and go swimming at noon. We swam at the super duper Cal Olympic size outdoor pool and got out just as we started to get funky tan lines (across my forehead from the swim cap). What is it about being in water? The body feels weightless and nimble, magical powers.

We worked up an appetite and headed to Poulet in Gourmet Ghetto, a French style delicatessen where he had roast chicken, that's what they are known for as the name indicates, and I had a bowl of soup that was clean and simple with lingering basil fragrance.

It felt like we were on vacation, playing during work hours (and how strange, there were so many people out and about on this Friday afternoon, don't folks work around here?). We did our grocery shopping for the week as well so we wouldn't have to over the weekend.

Besides our regular Saturday morning bad-ass yoga class, this class makes my whole body tingle for two days, I lounged around in our airy, naturally bright living room the entire day! and it was marvelous like vanilla bean gelato marvelous. I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao I had started few months back (there are three half read books on my nightstand. Lately, I haven't been making time for reading).

Yeah, I totally agree with the all the hype around this book, it is super fantastic on many levels. I don't have the energy to even begin tackling this book, but if you are curious, here is a NY Times review.

Oh, it was so indulging to lay around and read books I've been wanting to read. Even husband, the productive busy bee, took it easy, reading magazines and napping near where I read. We poked around in the garden for just few minutes, but the intense heat shooed us back indoors. It was the first time since I started this job, little over a year ago, that I felt this relaxed. I should try being still more often.

Euphorbia x martinii

Euphorbia Martinii cut from the yard. The lime green with a red dot center makes this variety of euphorbia quite spectacular, although the way I have it arranged here reminds me of a broccoli head.


Last week's heavy rain weighed down some of our plants, and though many sprang back, this euphorbia looked sad and droopy. In an effort to lighten its top-heavy load, I cut some of the larger flower clumps. To my surprise the stems leaked a milky glue like substance, halting my clipper-happy hands and making me second guess my decision to cut the flowers this early in the season. I didn't want to hinder next year's growth, or, god for forbid, damage or kill the plant altogether. Also, what the heck was this sticky white fluid? I darted inside and made a beeline for the Western Gardener, a thick gardener's reference book, and thumbed to the euphorbia section. There was no info on trimming back, but this caught my attention: The milky fluid is poisonous if ingested and irritating upon contact--YIKES! I started to itch around my wrist where the gardening gloves end and my exposed skin begins. I googled for more details.

It was recommended flowers not be cut back until they've gone through the blooming cycle. YIKES again!

But then I found an article about how euphorbia makes nice cut flowers. The trick to getting around the poison is to dip the cut stems in boiling water or hold it over a flame to seal it. Well in that case, I figured if they can be used for cut flowers, a few stems cut while the plant is flowering wouldn't kill it.

And after all that running around the droopy plant is reshaped and lighter, and as a bonus, I have a bouquet of broccoli head!

No Poo Good

It's hard to tell from this picture, but my hair is going through subtle transformation since I eliminated shampoo from my life. I had three consecutive fabulous hair days and I felt great! like how one feels from a salon visit, after a wash, cut, blow dry, and styling. I feel pretty and confident when my hair looks good, and conversely when my hair looks bad, I want to hide from the world. So, although I initially ventured into the no poo regimen for primarily health reasons, I'm discovering an amazing side benefit.

The trick to keeping my hair lush, healthy, and looking like I spent hours blow drying and styling is to find the right balance of my scalp's natural oil level. I find that after working out, which is about five times a week, I rinse my hair with water then nourish the ends with an all natural conditioner. Every three-four days, I wash my scalp with baking soda (my hair feels like velvet afterward, and no poufy mushroom head which happens after shampooing).

Now that I've tried baking soda, lemon juice with conditioner is next. Massey, the woman who found the no poo practice says: Remove buildup with lemon. "More clarifying and cleansing than any shampoo, this moisturizing and neutralizing tonic adds shine to your hair and removes buildup. It's especially good for very dry or damaged hair. Combine juice of large lemon with your usual amount of conditioner, then rinse through hair thoroughly. Baking soda also does the trick. Use 1 tablespoon baking soda and mix it with 1 cup warm water; wash your hair with the mixture in the shower.

I've searched high and low for a stylist who can cut my hair so that it's cute and styling, easy to manage--as in wash and go, and doesn't require frequent cuts (it's usually $60 bucks for a cut, plus tip, and I can't afford to spend $70 every five weeks, what stylists recommended) and it's no surprise that I haven't found that special stylist. I came to accept that what I'm looking for doesn't exist, it's asking for too much. But I think going poo free is the solution to my hair wants.

No Poo, Day 8

My hair is so greasy! Going no poo hasn't been easy, especially after a run and I want nothing more than to clean my hair of sweat. Mostly I've been rinsing my hair and putting leave-in conditioner, but two times in the past week I took a small amount of shampoo to my head--I just couldn't stop myself! I keep saying I'm going to wash it with the baking soda concoction, but haven't. I have to try it tonight because I can't stand this greasy head of mine.

Besides the greasiness, I do like knowing that I'm not stripping my scalp of its natural oils and that I'm slowly weening my head off of shampoo. So far it's been bearable, at least for me, I don't know what my partner or coworkers think.

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum tea in my Bee House teapot. One of life's little pleasures.

3rd round Sat Night

The anticipated dinner at the top-rated Spanish tapas joint in Russian Hill, Zarzuela, wasn't exactly satisfying. The food was average and the wait long--one hour! Parking was horrendous and after circling we finally settled for the $20 public parking, and between me and friends we had two cars. The service and ambiance were good, but all that is second to the taste of food to make us happy when dining out. After dinner we were itching for something more, so we headed for District Wine Bar in SOMA. We must have had unlucky stars on our horoscope this night for again we had mediocre wine at top prices and the mood of the place wasn't our scene. The place was packed with professionals, like corporate lawyers and venture capitalists in their 30s and 40s with money to blow and always hunting for the latest hip joints in town. With the evening waning and still hungry for something satisfying, we crossed the Bay Bridge toward home and hit our local Korean bar on Telegraph Ave., sure to fulfill our unexplainable craving. We went to Dan Sung Sa, a rowdy bar decorated with Korean movie posters full of college students slamming soju shots and screaming with excitement. After a bowl of spicy fishcake soup, tofu-kimchi, and Hite beer, we could finally say this night out was worthwhile. (Are we getting too picky in our old age or did we just strike out on this night?)

We love our Korean food, Korean movies, and Korean beer.