Half Moon Holiday

Bucket and I managed to take advantage of Presidents' Day to break away from everything for a bit. We headed south to Half Moon Bay, driving around for a bit until we landed at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company for lunch and some truly outstanding imperial stout. We happened to end up at the bar next to the brewer himself, Alec Moss. We chatted about his beer, Magnolia's Strong Beer Month, and the British Beer Festival (happening in the first week in August), which he highly recommended we check out - budget notwithstanding, it sounds like something worth crossing the pond for.

On the way back out on highway 92, we stopped at the Half Moon Bay Nursery, which is really an incredible spot. We came home with geraniums, lettuce, vegetable seeds, and a flower for my bathroom window.

It was really nice to have an actual mini-vacation day, without worrying about work and school and everything else, especially considering that he's leaving soon for a work trip, and will be gone for a week and a half. And it took less time than our original wine tasting plans, so we could get back here and back to work by late afternoon.

Happy Valentine's Day

I love what Kevin wrote in the Ficlets blog today.

I know it may seem easy for me to say that Valentine's Day doesn't have to be all about Hallmark and being in a romantic relationship (though I wouldn't claim chocolate shouldn't enter the picture in some form or another), since, well, I am in one.

But when I was growing up, we celebrated VD at home as a family. Not in a big way, but we made each other cards, and gave one another sugary treats. Love doesn't have to mean just romantic love. We love our families. We love our friends. A day to recognize and celebrate love shouldn't be dismissed based on romantic relationship status.

I love my family. And I love my friends. And I love my Bucket. And I am happy about all those things today. Tell the people you love that you love them! And have some chocolate. Because, hey, any excuse to have some chocolate is a good one.

I am thankful for beer.

I am thinking I really need to start a gratitude journal. I need to find some way to focus on the positive things, and remind myself how good I do have it, since so much of the time I am feeling ground down by all the things that aren't going well.

Today, though, I'm mostly just thankful for beer.

And for my Bucket, who has taken time and energy out of his own drama to be supportive, which is pretty awesome. I would miss mah bucket if someone were to steal him.

Good Things

Woke up feeling groggy and headachey this morning. Thankfully, things have taken a turn for the better! This has been helped along by:
- Getting reading done in a coffee shop while consuming a tasty bagel
- Successful acquisition of flowers and pie for my mom's birthday
- Fabulous improvement of said flower arrangement by adding various plants from the yard - changing grocery store daisies into something pretty awesome (if I do say so myself)
- KFOG's 10 @ 10 featuring the year 1992, a set which included Dada's "I'm Goin' to Dizkneeland" and Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy". 1992 was apparently my year for music.

(And don't think I'm not heading off to the iTunes store to buy a copy of "I'm Too Sexy". Because really, that's the best "getting ready to go out" music EVER.)

Now, I must get back to work.

Lost in Translation

Here's a useful example of how to translate business speak to something we can all understand:
Translation From PR-Speak to English of Selected Portions of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s Company-Wide Memo Regarding the Microsoft Takeover Bid

hat tip to James

(also, holy crap, what is the problem with the formatting here?)