Champagne at the Standard

The weekend, and spring break, ended Sunday night with Champagne at the Standard in downtown LA. It was the perfect ending to lean back in their lounge sofas, look up at the tall buildings, and sit with friends and reflect over the past week over chilled Champagne.

LCN convention

Saturday was all about the LCN (Lebanese Collegiate Network) convention. Ramzi is on the executive board and I was the chair of the election committee. I think they needed a neutral party, so the obvious choice was the only Sweden present... :)

The convention went really well, I think all the students had a good time. 

There were some workshops on building Lebanese campus clubs and making them successful, followed by lunch outside, and finally the elections for the new board. One could claim that I closed the convention... Well, I guess not since there also was a banquet that night.

I was given a certificate for my participation in the elections. Aaahhh, they're so sweet! 

The night ended with a wild Lebanese party with lots of dancing. The music was loud, the people were loud, the dancing was great, and the service sucked, but overall it was a lot of fun. I shook my hips as fast as I could, but still nowhere near Shakira... :)

Beach kubb

We spent the entire day at the beach preparing for a bon fire for 70 people. Meanwhile we waited for people to show up, we played kubb on the beach. Kubb is traditionally played on grass in parks accompanied with beer and wine, but we found out that it works great on the beach as well. I see a market for importing this and selling it as a beach game...

Princess sleeves

I love my new light purple sweater with the puffy sleeves. I'm like a princess!!! Anyways, aside from that, I enjoyed today by planning the LCN bon fire (that' tomorrow), taking care of my garden, and challenging Mazen and his friend, David, to power hour. I'm ahead of Divd but Mazen is unbeatable... :)

Spa day at home

Today, I started out programming, got stuck on a bug, and spent the rest of the day treating myself with a home-spa treatment. I had a Bodyshop grapefruit body scrub, hair treatment, face mask, manicure, and a pedicure. My winter-me is now ready to enjoy the spring in sandals! As a sign that spring is truly here, I got a lovely bouquet of daffodils. 

Food coma

All sorts of spontaneous events happened yesterday! Ramzi and I had to go to Huntington Beach to scope out a spot for a bbq on Friday. Since we were at the beach we figured we might as well have dinner there. We planned for Fred's since it has tacos and a good view, but when we got on main street, there was a full-blown street fair going on! 

Our plans quickly changed to BBQ. One of the restaurants, Mo's, was grilling tri tip out on the street and it smelled so good! We got the tri tip and a pulled pork sandwich and brought them down to the beach to eat and watch the sunset.

I finished off almost 0.5 lb of meat! Then I fell into some kind of food coma. I felt dizzy, nauseated, and then my stomach hurt so bad! I went straight home to the couch and watched two episodes of dancing with the stars. Again, I have to thank abc.com for broadcasting these online, so I can watch them without the bf going crazy. Then I ended up sleeping for 10 hours!

So, the meat was good, but it should come with some kind of warning of side effects. Tri tip... could cause dizziness, nausea, fatigue, and stomach pain...

It's a girl!

My best friend just found out she's having a girl, I'm so excited for her!!! After having lots of nephews and friends with baby boys, it's finally time to buy pink ribbons and dresses, I can't wait! Congratulations Michaela!!!!

Bourbon tasting

So the final event of the evening was bourbon tasting! The event was in honor of our dear friend Todd who passed his advancement to candidacy. I can honestly say that I had no bourbon, it's not really my thing, but luckily for me there was also sparkling wine, so I can too go to bed with a buzz :)

I have to say though, I do like whiskey every once in a while, but the kind I like is Scottish and very smokey. My faves include Bowmore and Lagavoillin -- I know, I have expensive taste!

You hunt Me plant!

Spring is here! This is what I was greeted by when I walked to campus today. A gorgeous purple tree in full bloom! I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but it's pretty and it makes me happy!

I don't know what happens with human-beings in Spring time, but what happens to me and Ramzi is clear: we hunt and grow our own food. It started some time this week with Ramzi bringing home a bunch of Rhubarbs (see pic above) for me to make pie of (he loves Rhubarb pie), after that event it's been one thing after the other. Take today for example. I went to Lowe's Home and Garden and Ramzi went scuba diving with the aim of hunting fish. 

I spent about 40 minutes at Lowes and loved every single one of them, the bounty is on display below...

I got two kinds of tomato plants (one red and one yellow), string beans, snap peas, okra, cucumber, basil, cantaloupe, and some flowers. Then I spent four hours (!) digging, planting, watering my garden plot, and I built a thing for the beans and peas to climb on. It wasn't until the sun set that I had to pack up my tools and call it a day. 

Meanwhile, Ramzi and Mazen were diving in Laguna Beach and about the same time I finished in the garden, my man with very strong hunting needs :), brought home four fish that he speared during their dive. The result was one meal of "Skeppar Stromming" for Mazen, but instead of Stromming we used the Rock Fish.

Now, I'm beat, my muscles are tired, and my head is heavy after being out for so many hours (it's uncommon for a computer scientist...), just one more thing to do tonight... and what that is I will let you know later :)

I'm lame!!!

Yes, that is what I've been called today! Today is St Patrick's Day (not something we celebrate in Sweden), but here in the U.S. it's an excuse to party, wear green clothes or risk getting pinched, and particularly it's the only time of the year to drink green beer. 

I've grown attached to this tradition over the past few years and was looking forward to tonight's events. I wore green all day (see pic :)), was all excited to finish grading student projects, got home and had dinner, and realized there was no way I was going to make it out of the couch! Just the thought of standing up was exhausting!

Don't know whether it's old age or getting over jet lag or the fact that I've been at the gym at 7am monday and tuesday, but regardless of the reason, it's lame! Next year, I promise!!!

The weekend is already over?! :(

Pheeeewwww, aaaahhhhhh, those are the noises I'm making while I sit down to rest for the rest of the evening. I'm tired! A little jet-lagged I must say although the difference between here and Hawaii is only three hours and I did sleep until 11am this morning. But after that I had a busy day!

I spent two hour catching up on dancing with the stars... yeah, I got hooked on it, and it's great to watch it online, because you can skip a lot of the commercials and more importantly you don't have the bf complaining the entire show. Believe me it's much better this way!

Then I talked to my bff Michaela for almost an hour on the phone. With the time difference between here and Sweden I was happy to get that much in. I'm sure she was exhausted by the time we finished! Not only because it was late, but she's been super tired since she got pregnant. Her pregnancy is so exciting! She's my first close friend having a baby, and I feel bad I'm not there to experience it with her, but I try to talk to her often enough to know what's going on. The bf thinks I'm only collecting more data... He thinks I'm crazy about pregnancies and collect a lot of data that I later can regurgitate in conversations.... Anyways... moving on to the topic of this blog post...

We got a garden plot!!!!!! Yeay!!!

Finally after months of waiting we got a garden plot outside our apartment. We spent hours turning up the soil to air it, and then we planted carrots, swiss chard, and summer squash. Next week we're going for snap peas and green beans! I'm ridiculously excited about this!!! I don't know why, but I think I really need something to care for regularly, because before the garden I was begging the bf for a puppy. Hopefully the garden will take care of this "caring urge" for a while! :)

Sister in hotpants...

As I was going through some old pics I came across this hilarious one when my sister found the craziest hotpants ever! It was a tough choice between the knitted brown with a bow and the blue with yellow balls... :) They both got so much potential! 

The sales women gave us stern looks as we're doubling over laughing at the sight of these! You might wonder what kind of stores we go to, but I swear it was a fairly normal store aside from those raunchy creations. Oh I wish I got to hang out with my sister more often!!!

Bye bye paradise...

LOL! look at the difference in our clothes! Poor guy that had to walk around almost naked... Our hotel formed some kind of wind tunnel and was always about 10 degrees colder than anywhere else. Good reason to go to the beach rather than hang out at the hotel!

The beach right outside the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Not too crowded this time of the year. The Hawaiian Village had its pros and cons, the situation on the beach was definitely a high point, but the cost of internet was outrageous! Another good thing was the "hospitality room" a room you can book for 20 minutes to clean yourself up after the beach before heading out to the airport. That's a nice touch!

Enjoying the last few hours of beach before having to leave paradise for this time. Hopefully we'll be back again. I'd love to visit another island after having been on Oahu four times!

This is what my feet will dream about when they get bundled up in socks and shoes back on the mainland... :)

Kailua beach

Last day in Hawaii we ventured away from Waikiki and ended up on this
perfect beach called Kailua.

Magical Island

This place is magical, I'm sure of it. I can't describe the feeling I get when I'm here, even when it's for work it's wonderful! The turquoise water, sandy beaches, and lush hills put me in a great mood and I feel less stressed than usual, and definitely beats working at home. It's like that island in "Lost", except instead of being magically weird this place is magically wonderful as it just makes you feel better, it's like one giant happy pill!

We arrived in Honolulu on Tuesday afternoon and managed to get a couple of hours on the beach and a dip in the south pacific before dinner and an early night. 

We started today with a hearty breakfast at Wailea Coffee House that offered eggs and toast and coffee. Then I attended an interesting keynote on astronomy. I learned that Hawaii hosts the biggest telescopes in the world and is the best place on earth for astronomy because there is less interference in the atmosphere than elsewhere. There are just so many advantages of living in Hawaii, as I'm sure the Professor giving the talk figured out :)

I attended some conference talks after that, and spent an hour by the beach going through the slides for my presentation. Laptops are a great invention! 

After lunch it was time for my session. I endured some presentations that were less than expected and some really interesting ones, I was the last person to present, so at 5pm it was finally time. I think I did ok. I got a question and some interest after the talk, got to demo my tool :) Yeay, I'm a big geek!

After dinner, by the beach, Ramzi and went for a sunset walk. As we're staring into the gorgeous play of colors left on the sky as the sun is vanishing beyond the horizon, we see two whales jumping out of the water and making huge splashes. They continued playing around for about 10 minutes, it was amazing to see.

The plan for tomorrow is to attend the software engineering track. Take a break for a phone conference with a company for a possible summer internship, and then soak up some sun in the afternoon. I also plan to eat about 10 pineapples, they're so delicious here. Sounds like a good plan huh?! 

Now I'm off for some cards and beer with the bf on the balcony.

Hawaii here I come!

About to land in Honolulu :)

Southern food and bowling

Last night we had a fabulous southern dinner at lucille's. Ramzi and I
shared the jambalaya and it was great, best jambalaya I ever had!

Haute Cakes

Nothing better than starting off the day after wine night with brunch at Haute Cakes. I was very satisfied with my Omelet with asparagus, tomatoes, caramelized onions, and feta.

March Wine Night

Last night was "wine night", it's something Ramzi, Kenny, and I organize once a month for our friends and their friends. The rules are simple, anyone can come to the party as long as they bring a bottle of wine and their own glass and dress up. We provide the snacks and the music. Wine night is always a lot of fun, lots of wine, lots of people, music, dancing, and last night was no exception. 

On top of the usual mingling, we also had a tasting game. There were five unknown wines that the contestants had to guess what kind of wine it is, e.g., merlot, cabernet, etc. Bonus points were awarded to those that could find one word to describe the wine and that also appears on the label. One person got all five correct! I guess it was a lot harder than we thought, or maybe people were pretty "wined up" by the time they started! :) 

I think it's a clear sign that people attending wine night are not really wine connoisseurs, but winos (like me). It's also a clear sign we need to drink more wine, practice makes perfect right?!

Flashback of the 80s

I need a hair cut like no other! To hide this fact, I'm sporting a side-braid á la 80's. We likey, or not so much?

Happy hour on humpday

Today was equally cold in the office, but I came prepared... I stayed warm and cozy in my scarf and hat! The funny thing was that it was actually quite warm outside, so I had to take them off when I went out for lunch :) Truly the opposite from what I'm used to. In Sweden it's always warm and cozy inside. The houses typically have great heating systems, insulated walls, and triple windows. But outside I guess it's still colder than my office. California vs. Sweden 1-0!

After work Margaritas at Taco Rosa's happy hour. Perfect ending of the work day! $3 margaritas, $2 beers, and $5 tostadas.

I love their Margarita glasses. They're really thick and heavy and I love the color splashes. They have similar wine glasses too. Anyone know where they sell such glasses? Not that I should buy more wine glasses, we have too many as it is (but not nice ones like these). 

Energy crisis... in my office

This is me bundled up in my office. I'm wearing a wool sweater, a cashmere scarf, and I wrapped a fleece blanket over my legs. 

Why is it that my school decides to blast the air condition on a rainy day? They send out emails about conserving energy, about energy crisis, etc. etc., but then why am I freezing in my office? They can turn off the air condition permanently in my office for all I care. I finally realized why there is an energy crisis, it's all being used up to cool down my office! 

A while back I sent an email to the building manager about this issue, and he said nothing could be done, it's all centralized. Unbelievable! That in our new smart building, they can't control the temperature! I'm sorry rest of the world there's nothing I can do, my office will continue to be an energy sink!

Well, I guess I'l have to invest in more scarves and warm sweaters!

Weekend summary

Another weekend is over again! Can't believe how fast they go by. This weekend has been very relaxing however. Friday we were up in Big Bear (see pictures below), then we spent all of Saturday working, and Sunday (today) was awesome!

Today was a beautiful sunny day. Felt like summer! It made me really appreciate living in California as opposed to my native Sweden. Walking out of my house in a t-shirt in February is unheard of in Sweden, but here it's normal! I just love it! I do like having a little bit of seasons, and we have had just enough winter storms to fill my quota of dreariness. Now I hope for sunshine until the fall!

Anyways, we had a wonderful bbq for lunch. Sat outside in the garden, ate steaks right off the grill and fresh salad. Then, Ramzi and I played soccer with some friends. It was fun although I really suck! I'm a terrible soccer-player, and it didn't make things better that I get severely overheated in this kind of weather because I don't sweat. I know it's the weirdest thing, and people say I should be happy, but it is really inconvenient. Instead of having sweat glands that exert fluids to cool down my skin, my body retains all the water in my fingers. After soccer, my fingers looked like little sausages ready to burst, and I couldn't even make a fist because my hand wouldn't close. And my face looked like a tomato. I actually scared Mazen when I came home. Since I was suffering so much, both from the heat and from sucking, my BF was nice to give me two mercy goals. I think he did it so I won't say no next time.

After soccer, and in particular after my shower, I felt energized and went grocery shopping and prepared food for most of the coming week. Yeah, again, I have big plans for making this week healthier and better than the previous one :)
Check back with me tomorrow morning to see how energized and excited I am about the new week... ;)