new wheels!

I finally got new tires. These have been a long time coming...in fact, i have to say ... perhaps too long.

Mike and I went to costco to buy them as I had been hearing about how price efficient they are and at this point i just *needed* new tires. This is the third set of new tires I've bought for my car -- I have about 160,000 miles on my very trusty Honda -- and i decided that this time I wasn't going to go all zany trying to find the best tires for the price. I've done that before, and from what i can tell, tires are pretty much tires - if you buy good ones and rotate them regularly. All i wanted was a nice all-weather, rain-handling set of wheels. I ended up with Michelin, since they had a deal.

While costco installed my tires, mike and i shopped at costco. Oh my. We spent about 2 hours going religiously through every aisle. We looked at everything..."oooh, a new dyson!" "oooh, candy for halloween" "ooooh, 500 bajillion onions for a $1." Mike had also mentioned that we were going to eat lunch at costco. I was skeptical. I mean who goes to costco to eat food? Wow, was I wrong. Clearly everyone there is there for the food samples. On every aisle, in every nook, in every section there are people handing out food of all types and varities. Cheesy gooey things. Toasted things. Blended things. It was too much. The only thing they weren't handing out was water. Which is exactly what you need when you are snacking on an assortment of salty Costco samples.

When we were finally done I went to get my car so we could load it up with all our goodies. My tires looked so nice and shiny! Except for one thing. Green Caps! Costco fills their tires with Nitrogen. Which is apparently better than air -- more fuel efficiency and the pressure is more stable and longer lasting. (Read more about it here) All of this is great, but green caps on my wheels? on my silver car? no no no. Costco was nice and gave me replacement black caps. Me along with another couple who didn't want green caps. They use these caps to identify that the tires are filled with nitrogen. I asked if this was a safety issue and they said no, so i switched. It seems that most people switch. Maybe they should have a green stripe on a black cap instead of a green cap? As no one seems to like the green caps. We are really a fashion conscious people. ha!

jb in da house!

My very good friend JB is visiting from Washington DC for the weekend. We've known each other for almost 15 years and he's not only one of my favorite people, but one of the best wine drinkers and chefs i know. Right now he's prepping for our dinner -- halibut with some sort of walnut olive tapenade, fingerling potatoes and yummy brussel sprouts -- with BACON! i love bacon! It is so wonderful to have him here visiting.

Also, it is his birthday today! wooohooo! Happy Birthday JB! Get back in the kitchen! (don't worry -- he is getting spoiled, i'm taking him to Zoe tomorrow night for a celbratory dinner).

Adding a picture of us at Zoe on Sunday. We had such fun! and He loved the restaurant :)

lost

for some horrible reason my comcast dvr did not tape tonight's episode of Lost. I'm totally devasted. seriously. do i read the forums? do i try and download it? i just don't know. :(

almost off the grid...

something wierd is happening with my internet. I can't access my gmail account AND i can't access bloglines! Given that probably 50% of my online time is spent between these two locations (the other 50% spent searching, del.icio.us'ing or tadalist-ing...and excluding time spent IMing)...i'm feeling pretty out of the loop. at least i can blog.

what is wierder is the message i am getting from the bloglines plumber:

Hi,

I'm the Bloglines Plumber. Bloglines is down for scheduled maintenance. We will be back at 10:15Pm Pacific Time, Friday Sept 9, 2005. Bloglines will be all better when I'm done with it.

Thanks,
The Bloglines Plumber

September 9th?? am i in some time warp?

Gmail is giving me the standard, annoyingly cute:

Server Error

Gmail is temporarily unavailable. Cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. We're sorry for the inconvenience.

Given that it has been two hours, i'm thinking there is something afoot...

today...

is my birthday..it is also international talk like a pirate day. hard to know which one deserves greater celebration. ahem! eventually i will post pics from my birthday dinner (at la bodeguita, of course!)...

in the interim check out the flickr pics for talk like a pirate day...

upside down

so. it looks like my mac died. completely. like no recovery, everything is gone. i have one last hope - sending my computer to DriveSavers.com -- for about $800+. I'm going to do it...as I just can't wrap my mind around actually losing all my data. I haven't cried yet, but i know it is close. the worst part is I have an external back-up drive, that i just don't use. I've been lazy with the move. ugh. lesson learned.

going to go cry now...

labor day productivity

My sister came out for the weekend and we had a great time -- it is sooo nice to have family come and visit. She provided much needed perspective, comfort and fun. We were also insanely productive. Check out our tadalist: http://natala.tadalist.com/lists/public/103412

Here's the quick rundown:
Friday - she got into town late, dinner at 5 spot then went to her friend's magazine launch party at the War Room. I bailed on the war room due to sleepiness, but sheils got to see her friend and check out the seattle scene. The Donna's were spinning -- plus her friends new zine - illicit - is HOT!

Saturday: Lazy morning, walked to Macrina Bakery around noon for brunch. Sheils then reorganized my study! It was awesome. That night about 14 people came over for a BBQ to celebrate that we didn't go camping...we cooked up smores, drank 8 bottles of wine and talked until 2am. It was lovely. Maya and Oliver brought their friends, Tonya & Jon, from the SF comedy/film group Killing My Lobster. If you are in SF, you have to check them out. Mike and Buddy put up lanterns in my tree -- something i've been wanting to do forever. It wasn't quite camping...but we were outside and there were marshmallows...I took a ton of pictures, which i intend to upload to flickr...but well, read the monday section.

Sunday: After a slighly hungover start, we went for brunch at the 5 spot with Matt and his wife (friends of my sis) and my very cool neighbors, Dave and Diane. Then it was off to bumbershoot and finally to dinner with the other Sheila in my life -- my friend Sheila Talwar. It was fun to have the two sheilas meet! We went out for ethopian at Queen Sheba. It was yummy. We then got lost trying to find the movie theatre to see Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (the remake) and ended up watching Born Rich at home. You've got to see this HBO edition of America Undercover.

Monday: Woke up and my mac was, uhm, dead. It wouldn't start. So we grabbed some bagels, and headed over to the apple store. There were 8 people in line with us and the store wasn't opening for another 30 minutes! Eventually we got to see a "Genius" and it turns out I need to have my hard drive revamped...so my little powerbook is getting some R&R for the next fews days at the store while i try not to completely freak out about potential data loss. Then a quick walk around greenlake, cupckaes at Cupcake royale, a trip to Office Depot and Fred Meyer for more office supplies to complete the organization adventure. Finally, we hung up all the stuff in my bathroom that needed to be put up (like the towel ring and tissue holder...) and knocked a couple of holes in the wall before watching a few episodes of Sex and the City and finally dropping off my sis at the airport.

In the midst of all this, we talked a lot about New Orleans and the hurricane. We were and continue to be glued to CNN...and the grief, sadness and disappointment around this tragic situation. I think this pretty much sums up a chunk of our thinking.