See the Nextdesk video here, turn on sound and beware of drool.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Year 33
Had me a birthday last month; turned 33. I asked that we do something simple and cheap. Our friends couldn't come—which was a HUGE bummer—so we planned on going to a little museum and dinner just the two of us. (Yes, I know, that t-shirt makes me a #1 nerd...but seriously—Bring Firefly Back.)
Then we got there and he wanted hang out in the gift shop instead of starting the tour. Wierd. But I went with it. Then someone smacked me in the rear! I couldn't believe it. My friends had come! They had been planning it all along. Now, Adam can't keep secrets so this is a big deal. That's twice now he has surprised me with my friends.
So into the museum we went! The artist on display was Kenneth Price 1935-2012. He has had acclaimed shows in LA, New York, and Europe.
We enjoyed looking at some strange, blobby, liquidy....thingies.
And decided to do some odd things ourselves in the sculpture garden. Adam says Dafni and I were acting weird all day. But honestly...I think we were behaving more "normal" than than not. Being with good friends will do that to you. But speaking for myself, I was on a happy high and had a REALLY ENJOYABLE day. I am grateful to have a friend who is just as...(insert adjective) as I am.
And we saw more strange, moderny, rockish space objects by the same artist. I think if I were an alien I'd like to live in one of these.
We made some surreal art of our own.
I love my groupies. Like, a lot.
Then off to Twisted Root Burger—found only in Texas my friend. It is my new favorite burger place and you will be subjected to it if you visit. They feature toasted buns, seasoned meat (and offer weird meat like kangaroo), house ketchups and other sauces—which are so good you could drink, and house root beer and lemonade flavors. We've had butterscotch root beer and walnut root beer. Nom Nom. I have always liked hamburgers but don't order them often. So I am grateful everyone else was willing to eat unhealthy with me that day!
Next came candles and singing at La Madeline. I picked three treats (because three looks good on a plate—sorry can't squelch the designer in me) but also because I'm 33. That means I get three of everything now right?
After dessert our friends treated us to The Great Gatsby, which we enjoyed. (Leonardo was cute in that little tea scene wasn't he?) Thank you friends!
That was the end of a VERY good day. The following morning was my actual birthday day. I wanted to get a good picture to document what 33 looks like on me. So a nice afternoon visit to the botanical gardens and a camera click later, there we have it.
Artist Photo and credits: http://glasstire.com/2013/02/21/interview-stephanie-barron-curator-of-ken-price-sculpture-at-the-nasher/ 1. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/price-373010-lacma-works.html 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/arts/design/07price.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 3. http://fdluxe.dallasnews.com/2013/01/lifetime-achievement-minus-the-guest-of-honor.html/ 4. http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/ken-price-sculpture-retrospective 5. http://butdoesitfloat.com/There-were-too-few-of-us-We-didn-t-have-access-to-enough-drugs-Not 6. http://androphilia.tumblr.com/post/31224998967/jesuisperdu-ken-price-the-pinkest-and-the 7. http://butdoesitfloat.com/There-were-too-few-of-us-We-didn-t-have-access-to-enough-drugs-Not 8. http://craftcouncil.org/post/masterful-monograph-ken-price-sculpture
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Where You are Treated like a King
Our friends told us about King Spa and Sauna. Weird things. Things we've never done before. So of course we had to try it! And now we've been once a month for three months. It is the best!
This is a Korean spa so there are some "traditions" that we follow. We take off our shoes at the entrance and leave them in special shoe size lockers. Then the girls change into orange t-shirts and shorts and the guys change into gray t-shirts and shorts.
I love it. Everybody is matching. (I would probably have liked school uniforms back in the day too.) I like not worrying what I look like when everyone looks the same.
Inside the big building are nine smaller rooms. Each one has a different theme with different elements that promote healthy changes in your body; like good circulation, or help with joint pain etc. Each one is also a different temperature. Below is the gold room. The walls are covered with 23 K gold. We usually start here, it's not too hot but hot enough to start sweating, just a little.
The first time we went we walked around barefoot. But a lot of the rooms are very hot as they are heated from the floor. We must have looked silly walking on our towels. So the second time we visited we bought little booties. Now I REALLY feel like a spa guru. We can quickly pick out the new people because they don't have booties. Heh.
Below is Adam's favorite room–the Salt room. There are bags of salt hanging from the ceiling. Last time we went in I think we saw Budda— cute little bald man sitting cross legged. He was meditating so deeply I daren't even whisper to Dafni.
There are a few REALLY hot rooms. This one is heated by the bricks in the center. Every so often they are wheeled into a large oven for cooking and then brought back out.
The hottest room, called the Fire room or the Sudatorium is heated by a real fire (and the put out before entry) every day. When it is at its hottest you can't stay in for very long, there is an attendant to monitor the room, and most people cover their faces and skin with towels. It's pretty awesome.
I have never been so proud of my sweat as I am when we visit the King Spa. We like to show off the places where sweat is beading up, like our shins and belly buttons.
Not all the rooms are hot and make you sweat. This ice room is usually around 43 degrees. It's actually one of my favorite rooms. I love the blast of cold air after sweating to death.
The entrance fee covers all the rooms but food and massages are extra. Food can't be brought from "outside" so we look forward to trying something new from the "cafeteria". These eggs are delish and a perfect pick-me-up when we're hungry but not ready for dinner. Read the little sign to see how they are made. I've tried making them in my oven. I bake them around 110 degrees for nine hours. Yum Yum.
Dinner. Sweating builds up an appetite.
As you can see the common area has places to sit and lounge. Between sweating and freezing you can hang out in this area to, eat, read, sleep, watch movies, play games...there's also a little theater with lazy boy chairs.
Above: Trying out a face mask while playing cards at 2:00AM. Below: We like some of their drinks.
But some are weird, like rice (NOT to be confused with horchata), or pure aloe. I like the berry vinegar drink. It's a sucker punch in the throat each time you swallow. As you can see, Dafni doesn't like being sucker punched as much as I do.
Further down is a fish egg salad I tried. It had red eggs, orange eggs, and black eggs. The black ones were bitter. The orange ones were my favorite and tangy.
Some of the side dishes are weird too...like mini fish. But I ate them anyway.
We eyeballed this shaved ice fruit dish whenever someone else ordered it. It's VERY colorful in person. So we tried it. NASTY!
This is what is in it: Shaved ice, milk, sweetened condensed milk, bean powder, red beans, canned fruit cocktail, grapes, weird squishy not quite marshmallows, and a cherry. Gag. It did NOT taste good. But we kept eating it in hopes the next bite would be better. Ugh. Never again. I don't know what it is with Koreans and red beans but a lot of their desserts use them.
Now here's the part I look forward to, the wet spa! Get this, no bathing suits are allowed! That's right. You strip down to your birthday suit and enter EXPOSED. (These areas are segregated of course and you enter them from the locker room.) Now I can say we are friends on a whole 'nother level.
Sure it's a little awkward as it's not something our culture does. But I'm glad we had the guts to try it our second time—it's liberating in a mental and emotional way. All we ever see on the media are perfect bodies...but once you visit the wet spa and see that everyone looks just as unique as you do....it's all a go from there and not really a big deal.
Upon entering the wet area everyone is required to shower. There are standing showers or sitting ones (you can see them along the right side of the photo) and then you can enter different pools which are kept at different temperatures and there's a steam room as well.
Below is the COLD pool—I'm talking 64 degrees. I actually like this one. It's very refreshing and features a rather violent jet stream shooting down from the ceiling, feeling great on the shoulders...but not the bare booty!
Because it's so refreshing we usually hit the water before dinner and then put on fresh clothes to start the cycle all over again.
Normally we spend around 10-12 hours at the King Spa. But the third time we spent the night. People sleep everywhere—on the floors, in some of the rooms, in the lazy boys; naturally we tried it. The verdict is still out on weather or not I will do it again. I'm not sure the spa could ever replace my bed. And the communal snoring is rather distracting.
The best part about all this...we get coupons from Groupon making this a VERY affordable staycation.
This is a Korean spa so there are some "traditions" that we follow. We take off our shoes at the entrance and leave them in special shoe size lockers. Then the girls change into orange t-shirts and shorts and the guys change into gray t-shirts and shorts.
I love it. Everybody is matching. (I would probably have liked school uniforms back in the day too.) I like not worrying what I look like when everyone looks the same.
Inside the big building are nine smaller rooms. Each one has a different theme with different elements that promote healthy changes in your body; like good circulation, or help with joint pain etc. Each one is also a different temperature. Below is the gold room. The walls are covered with 23 K gold. We usually start here, it's not too hot but hot enough to start sweating, just a little.
The first time we went we walked around barefoot. But a lot of the rooms are very hot as they are heated from the floor. We must have looked silly walking on our towels. So the second time we visited we bought little booties. Now I REALLY feel like a spa guru. We can quickly pick out the new people because they don't have booties. Heh.
Below is Adam's favorite room–the Salt room. There are bags of salt hanging from the ceiling. Last time we went in I think we saw Budda— cute little bald man sitting cross legged. He was meditating so deeply I daren't even whisper to Dafni.
There are a few REALLY hot rooms. This one is heated by the bricks in the center. Every so often they are wheeled into a large oven for cooking and then brought back out.
The hottest room, called the Fire room or the Sudatorium is heated by a real fire (and the put out before entry) every day. When it is at its hottest you can't stay in for very long, there is an attendant to monitor the room, and most people cover their faces and skin with towels. It's pretty awesome.
I have never been so proud of my sweat as I am when we visit the King Spa. We like to show off the places where sweat is beading up, like our shins and belly buttons.
Dinner. Sweating builds up an appetite.
As you can see the common area has places to sit and lounge. Between sweating and freezing you can hang out in this area to, eat, read, sleep, watch movies, play games...there's also a little theater with lazy boy chairs.
Above: Trying out a face mask while playing cards at 2:00AM. Below: We like some of their drinks.
Further down is a fish egg salad I tried. It had red eggs, orange eggs, and black eggs. The black ones were bitter. The orange ones were my favorite and tangy.
Some of the side dishes are weird too...like mini fish. But I ate them anyway.
We eyeballed this shaved ice fruit dish whenever someone else ordered it. It's VERY colorful in person. So we tried it. NASTY!
This is what is in it: Shaved ice, milk, sweetened condensed milk, bean powder, red beans, canned fruit cocktail, grapes, weird squishy not quite marshmallows, and a cherry. Gag. It did NOT taste good. But we kept eating it in hopes the next bite would be better. Ugh. Never again. I don't know what it is with Koreans and red beans but a lot of their desserts use them.
Now here's the part I look forward to, the wet spa! Get this, no bathing suits are allowed! That's right. You strip down to your birthday suit and enter EXPOSED. (These areas are segregated of course and you enter them from the locker room.) Now I can say we are friends on a whole 'nother level.
Sure it's a little awkward as it's not something our culture does. But I'm glad we had the guts to try it our second time—it's liberating in a mental and emotional way. All we ever see on the media are perfect bodies...but once you visit the wet spa and see that everyone looks just as unique as you do....it's all a go from there and not really a big deal.
Upon entering the wet area everyone is required to shower. There are standing showers or sitting ones (you can see them along the right side of the photo) and then you can enter different pools which are kept at different temperatures and there's a steam room as well.
Below is the COLD pool—I'm talking 64 degrees. I actually like this one. It's very refreshing and features a rather violent jet stream shooting down from the ceiling, feeling great on the shoulders...but not the bare booty!
Because it's so refreshing we usually hit the water before dinner and then put on fresh clothes to start the cycle all over again.
Normally we spend around 10-12 hours at the King Spa. But the third time we spent the night. People sleep everywhere—on the floors, in some of the rooms, in the lazy boys; naturally we tried it. The verdict is still out on weather or not I will do it again. I'm not sure the spa could ever replace my bed. And the communal snoring is rather distracting.
The best part about all this...we get coupons from Groupon making this a VERY affordable staycation.
Monday, April 1, 2013
The color of FREEDOM!
I can't fully explain the emotions tied into the purchase of our second car and what it means to me personally. But for the first time since moving here, I can actually LEAVE the house during the day WHENEVER I want or need to.
After paying off our Pathfinder and my student loan we decided to snowball those payments into saving for a second car. I got a "second job" working from home to help speed the savings along, and last Friday Adam drove to Austin to pick up this little red freedom maker.
It is a 2002 Mazda Protoge 5. The first owner was a little old lady who took it in to the dealer for routine tune ups. The guy we bought it from only had it for a few months before needing to upgrade. So it's low mileage and in pretty good shape.
When Adam brought it home he drove back and forth on the street while I stood in the driveway and watched. I don't think I have seen him quite so proud of himself in a long time. He was like a peacock strutting his stuff in front of me. It was so cute. He'll drive this car and I'll drive the Pathfinder—since it's NOT a stick....
So, party at YOUR house cuz now I can get there! (I might get lost but still...) Beep! Beep!
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