I think the question that killed me was that I LOVE to eat carpaccio. And it doesn’t hurt that one of my favorite foods is sushi/sashimi!

I just discovered a really awesome website called Feed Your Soul. It’s coordinated by Jen Wallace of Indie Fixx fame (another great blog I read!). From the website:

Feed Your Soul is a free art project. Each month artists are invited to participate and to contribute a print which is totally free and available for download.
This project is coordinated by Jen Wallace of Indie Fixx to help art lovers feed their souls with art in these recessionary times and to help artists promote their work.

I think this is such a great idea. If I had a home already, and if that home had a library…I would totally be printing this one out and hanging it up!

Check out the rest of March’s downloads here.

So I’ve decided on the first monday of every month I’ll be doing a state of the union address type of post in which I talk about how I’m feeling, what I’ve accomplished in the past month, and what I want to work on for next month. I thought it would be a good idea to log more about my life so that I have something to remember since I have the worst memory ever. I also find myself more accountable when I write about my goals for everyone to see.

The Past Month
I had a pretty exciting month. I had my bachelorette party in Costa Rica! The highlight was definitely ziplining and an experience I won’t soon forget. Here is a picture of me holding a huuuuge soursop at one of the markets:

Valentine’s Day this year was a lot of fun with our annual chinese lobster dinner at newport seafood and a day of random fun. And one of my favorite experiences this month was seeing Demetri Martin live. On the wedding front, we did prototypes of our wedding favors and I think they turned out really well. I can’t wait to show them to you guys! I also finally booked my makeup/hair person…Amy Tevis. I think that was the last item I needed to book for my wedding so it was a relief to have that done. We also picked a new first dance song and came up with a last minute “surprise” for our first dance! I hope people like it. :) We’ve also continued our search for a home, but haven’t found anything we truly liked. We have noticed prices going down though so are not in a hurry to buy anytime soon.

The Present:
As always, I’m generally very happy and content with my life. Work has been good, I got my annual raise and was satisfied with the amount. I’m really lucky that my department is not and has no plans of laying people off! Healthwise, I’ve still been experiencing weird chest pains. When I get up in the morning my chest is very tight right in the center. I think I’m going to finally go to the doctor about it this month. Last time I went to the doctor, she couldn’t find anything wrong but now I have a new doctor so hopefully I’ll get better answers.

The Next Month:
Don’t ask me why but I signed up to a do a 5K mud run with my friend, my cousin, and boyrobot. I literally have not done any physical activity for MONTHS now. I think I might have been temporarily delusional for the 5 minutes it took to sign up. I think I thought oooh, mud + obstacle course…this sounds fun! And then afterwards I was like wtf. 5K?! I can’t even run 1 mile. Well worse case, I will walk it ha ha. I have 1 month to “train” for it and I’m hopeful that it will get me exercising again. I actually ran/walked 5K this past Sunday!! For the wedding, I want to complete our wedding favors and start working on the slideshow and the wedding programs. Trip-wise, we are planning on going to Las Vegas with a bunch of friends for the first weekend of March Madness. It should be fun!! March is also one of my favorite months because we have corned beef and cabbage day at work for St. Patrick’s day. I don’t really know why but I look forward to this EVERY year. My coworker brings her crockpot into work and has it cooking all morning and it smells sooo good in our office! Everyone also brings in something “green” to contribute. Last year I made a green sherbert punch. It was a hit so maybe I will do it again since it’s so easy unless I come up with something else. :) Can’t wait for this month!!

Another 10 bizarre disappearances – if you enjoyed reading this check out part 1
Gaping hole halloween costume – this is the most creative costume i’ve seen in awhile
The world’s deadliest spider – It’s been awhile since I had a spider link!
A guide to dim sum – dim sum can be such an intimidating meal if you don’t know chinese. good thing I have lots of chinese friends.
This is why you’re fat – I know I should be grossed out at some of these images but some of them just make me hungry
SXSW 2009 torrent – 5GBs of this year’s showcasing artists. one day I will attend this festival!

This is a picture of some kids in China who have to ZIPLINE to school because a bridge collapsed in an earthquake last year. Reminds me of Costa Rica!

This video is so hilarious:

Oops I forgot to blog about the free tacos from Jack In The Box yesterday but hopefully some of you guys got in on it!

BUT I have another deal, and one that is even better in my opinion! It’s the free quiznos sub deal! Just go here to sign up. They’ll send you an email with a link to print out your coupon. I tried it and got the honey bacon club…..mmmmmm. They are only giving away a million, so better hurry up!

Also, if you want something healthier, you can sign up for a coupon for a free Kashi frozen entree. Here is more info on their all natural selection of entrees.

I love how all of these deals have been coming out because of the recession!

This article from The New York Times has some great hacks for fixing “high-tech” problems.

My favorites:
– keep your cellphone in the fridge (or other cool temp) to slow down the battery draining
– if you are running out of ink, run a hair dryer on the ink cartridge for a few minutes
– if you drop your cellphone in the toilet, remove the battery and stick it in a jar of uncooked rice
– if your harddrive crashes, try sticking it in the freezer overnight

To read the explanations on these hacks and also a few more tricks, check out the rest of the article.

Inspired by the Daily Routines blog. Unfortunately, mine is pretty boring hehe.

~8:15am – alarm goes off
~8:30am – get up, shower, and leave for work
~9:30am – arrive at work. circle around the parking lot a few times looking for a parking spot.
~9:45am – start up my computer and open any applications i might use that day
~9:50am – make some instant oatmeal and hot tea. consume.
~10am – usually i have a meeting. if not, i catch up on the day’s news.
~11am – start coordinating lunch with coworkers.
~12pm – go to lunch
~1pm – return from lunch
~2pm – everybody in my bay takes a break for “stretch time”. we have someone lead us in doing stretches for different parts of the body so we don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome and sue the company.
~3pm – sometimes we have “story time” in the afternoons. yes, we really call it story time and it just means we sit around and gossip.
~4pm – attend more meetings, try to do some work
~5pm – go climb stairs at the tallest building on campus. this is my daily form of exercise!
~6pm – start snacking. my bay is like a 7/11. we have a ton of food and it’s all free.
~7:30pm – leave work.
~8:30pm – eat dinner. play with boyrobot’s nephews who are the cutest!
~10pm – finally come home. read up on my rss feeds. blog for tomorrow.
~1am – sleep.

sometimes these things fill up my evenings on an otherwise typical day:
– usually on wednesdays or thursdays, we go to our friend Andy’s house and catch up on our weekly tv shows (Lost and 24). sometimes we’ll even play a boardgame
– mondays i go watch boyrobot play flag football. tuesdays i go watch him play basketball.
– every once in awhile I’ll go to Target or Trader Joe’s, my two favorite stores in the whole world.
– sometimes we meet up with friends for dinner
– if a good movie is out on DVD, we’ll rent a redbox movie for free

Dan Meth’s Trilogy Meter – I agree with most of his ratings!
Police use wii to create wanted poster – only in Japan
Earth album – I forgot if I posted this before but it’s a mashup of flickr and google maps and lets you explore pictures of the world
Layoff Daily – a blog tracking the layoffs that happen everyday. pretty depressing.
Google maps car hits a deer – and it’s all recorded on google maps
Interview with a cannibal: Issei Sagawa – this was so creepy to read

Very cool idea for a business card if you run a business

We’ve all heard about high fructose corn syrup being bad but now they’ve also found out that it contains mercury!

I’ve really been trying to cut back on HFCS, including my beloved COKE, but it’s so hard since that stuff is in almost everything. Check out this list. Yes, I pretty much eat everything off that list.

And there’s also the fast food list. What, I’m supposed to eat my chicken mcnuggets plain?! ugh.

Anyways, just a reminder to read your labels and eat smarter and healthier! (this means you too boyrobot! :P)