The Joy of Spin Classes

Last night I forced myself to go to the gym and attend my Spin class. It turned out to be an awesome class. I was still feeling a little sore from a run on Sunday, but I figured once I warmed up, my legs would be fine. It turned out I was right and the workout was a blast. The instructor (Kevin) on Tuesday nights is great. He definitely comes from a cycling background and I think he may even be a mountain biker which is even more excellent. His program consists of a lot of hills, some interval training where you speed up and slow down, and jumps where you alternate between sitting and standing. His tempo is well timed and goes perfect with the music. The best part of the whole routine is a long hill climb to a Gwen Stefani song. Sweating, climbing, Gwen. You can't get more perfect than that. After the workout, I decided that my after workout routine would be a little different from my Sunday run to avoid getting sore again...

1) I drank more water to ensure that I didn't get dehydrated. During a run, I usually don't drink water, so it's really important to drink a bunch afterwards.

2) I ate a banana. They say after a strenuous anaerobic workout you should get some food in you within 30 minutes. I try to do this as best as I can. Plus food never tastes soo good as after a strenous workout.

3) I made sure to do some solid stretching to lengthen my thigh muscles and faciliate the release of toxins(e.g. lactic acid). I did a bunch of thigh, calf, arm, shoulder, neck stretches after the workout. It's one of my favorite times because it is just soo relaxing.

After every spin class I like to jump on the scales after I lost a bunch of water and haven't eaten yet. Its good for my psyche. Although I haven't lost a ton of weight, I am definitely seeing the lost of a few pounds. But the biggest indicator is how my dress pants are becoming noticeably looser. My regular cookie and dessert diet Im sure aren't helping, but I definitely feel healthier and I am enjoying my workouts. Toughest part is just planning and getting myself to the gym.

To top off the evening my wife prepared a very healthy dinner of salmon and asparagus that she threw in the oven. Although I had some rice, bread, and soup with it, I think overall it was rather healthy. Living a more healthly lifestyle is attainable. And I think baby steps like this are a great start.

I Heart Crissy Field

(pics courtesy of Jeorge Jordan)

When a guest comes from out of town there are 2 places that we always make sure to visit. The Westfield shopping center(aka Borders Book Store) and Crissy Field. No matter how many times I go back to this place it is always a wonder. The backdrop of the golden gate bridge and the marin headlands, the cute dogs running and playing along the beach, the San Francisco athletes running, biking, kayaking. Its an inspirational place with lots of energy.

This weekend my wife had a cousin who just arrived from the Philippines. So we decided to do our regular city stops. Our first stop turned out to be Union Street, which is close to my wifes work in the Marina. A new cupcake place recently opened and we wanted to scope out the competition. It turns out it doesn't taste like its going to be much competition. I know we are extremely biased, but there were a number of factors that weren't in their favor. Although their location is nice, the cupcakes have cute names, and the cupcakes a tad bit more affordable ($2.75 vs. $3.00), the taste and freshness weren't there. Their vanilla, red velvet, and banana were a little dry and not as flavorful. Their only redemption was a decent seasonal pumpkin cupcake. It may be because they don't bake the cupcakes onsite, but deliver them from another location.

We then proceeded to the Westfield shopping center for a tasty lunch at Out The Door. It was delicious. Although we did order one too many noodle dishes, the food was fabulous. And after that it was off to Borders. My trips to Borders are very random. I will go from picking up a Tatoo magazine, to reading about Richard Branson, to reading about tai chi running, to reading Dwell magazine. I think its a form of ADD. But I think thats what I love, reading about random things.

The rest of the weekend was quite relaxing. We had hit the malls on Black Friday, bringing our dog to Palo Alto. Once again he was a celebrity, attracting attention like no other. But he really doesn't care. He is totally in his own world. But he does love to get out though.

Four day weekends are great. Lots to do in downtown SF. To top off the weekend I was finally able to get outside for a quick run. And to top it off we had our favorite Japanese food for dinner. What a perfect way to end the weekend.

A Time for Thanks

(pics courtesy of Jeorge Jordan)

So this past weekend was a great break from the monotony of work to the monotony of a weekend. Ok it wasn't a monotonous weekend. But I didn't do much to change the world. I think Im looking for purpose. On a lighter note, here's a highlight of our Thanksgiving feast...

Went on a quest to find the perfect table for our Thanksgiving feast. I was intent on having a sit down dinner.(Although I did find myself not sitting down as much running between the kitchen and the dining area - aka our living room) We did consider the traditional "people all over the place" style party. You know the ones where you have friends and family wherever they can find a space (on the piano, in the bedroom, on the coffee table, on the little side table with the lamp) And those are prime real estate. Then the process goes like this a) get your paper plate and utensils b)select your food from the dining table c) wait in line for the microwave d) try to find a place where you can set down your food e) go back for a drink because you only have 2 hands f) come back to find that one of your eggrolls were stolen. g) go back to the dining table to get another one to find out they are all gone. I love those parties. But we were only going to have 8 people so I thought it would be manageable to have a place for everyone.

Thanksgiving dinner was incredible. Courtesy of my wife. Our frozen turkey turned out wonderful, crisp skin, moist, and tender. The gravy was out of this world, the roasted vegetables delish, the salmon warm out of the oven, and bread rolls that melted in your mouth. Ok, Im very biased towards my wifes cooking, but it was really excellent. As a consultant, I am always thinking about lessons learned. As one of our really first hosted parties, here are a few lessons learned... (Please excuse me if these are obvious for you party professionals)

1) Have food available right away for new arrivals to snack on. We had the traditional cheese and crackers and fruit.
2) Too many drink choices can throw people off. I thought I had the perfect selection (Orange juice, apple cider, red wine, beer, coke, diet coke, sprite, pomegranite juice, and water) Isn't that an awesome selection. What more could a person want. Maybe gatorade would have been cool or a sparkling lemonade. Maybe next time.
3) People are afraid to eat things that look too pretty. Our fruit presentation was untouched. Im sure people would have liked to eat the fruits, but I think it looked too pretty. Might have been better to put the grapes in a regular bowl.
4) No need to buy extra pancit when you have turkey, ham, salmon, soup, and roasted vegetables. Whod of thought.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was a lot of fun, and I think everyone enjoyed the food and the company. I know my wife and I enjoyed it. It was definitely lots of pre-planning but I think it would be fun to do it again.

Stage Husband?

My wife oftentimes calls me a stage husband. So what is a stage husband? I believe its something equivalent to a Stage mom who actively pushes their child into the spotlight. So what do I do to deserve such a title. Oftentimes I come up with ideas for her baking, e.g. a cake of a mountain with a rock climbing cake topper, or a kokeshi doll cake, or something random like that. I also like to promote fun things that are going on at the cupcake shop she works at. The owner has been featured on 2 local television shows, USA Today(my wife has a little picture in there), and a little blurb in San Francisco magazine. So Im really proud of my wife for being part of such a creative and successful business. I don't know about being a "stage" husband though.

So this past weekend we had an incredible time hanging out with some cousins from LA. It was a very casual weekend with nothing really to do except for what we wanted. On Saturday we visited the Ferry Building in downtown SF, bought some fresh vegetables at the farmers market, had a nice japanese lunch, went shopping in Union Square, of course visited Borders Bookstore(no weekend is considered complete without this), had a hot chocolate in Union Square, and topped it off with a wonderful Sushi dinner.(I know, but we love Japanese food) It was fabulous.

But going back to my stage husband roots, to top off the Saturday evening, my wife and my cousin began a project to build a little tote bag. In a couple of hours they were able to design a tote, cut the fabric and sew together a little purse. My wife and my cousin are creative power houses. While the husband and myself relaxed at the apt, these two kept totally busy cutting and sewing (I was "sew" happy to see the high tech sewing machine we bought from my sister being used.) They ultimately created a cool little tote with an inner lining and a pocket for a cell phone. Pretty impressive.

In any case it was an awesome weekend. Shopping, sewing and cooking. Hmmmm, there's definitely something wrong with that. I mean it was a weekend filled with hiking, mountain biking, cigars, poker, and other more manly things like that. I'll have to do something about this.

What 45mpg Means To Me

When I heard 45mpg for a Prius, I thought great. Better than the 18mpg on my Expedition. (Ok, it's more than twice the efficiency)

When I heard the Prius engine shuts down when the electric motor has enough power to move the car at slow speeds. I thought great how much gas can that actually save.

When Priuses first came out I thought, yeah, yeah, yeah, greeen, hybrid, environment, hollywood, tree huggers, san francisco, unproven technology, youre not really saving money until 3 years into it.

However it's all about perspective. Expedition vs. Prius = lots of savings $$$.

So here is what 45mpg means to me...

1) Having to pay only $32 for a full tank vs. $75(only because the pumps automatically stop at $75)

2) Having the ability to drive more than 450 miles on one tank of gas.

3) Appreciating using 87 octane vs. 91 octane. (our Subaru recommends 91 and I used to use 91 in my Expedition)

4) Having a wife who now likes the consumption display because she feels challenged trying to keep the electric motor engaged vs. the gas engine.

If youre tired of hearing about the Prius, I humbly apologize. I'm becoming my father's son in that I am turning into Toyota's #2 fan (tough to beat my dad as the #1 fan), and me and our Prius are becoming BFF's.

Now All I See Are Priuses

Funny when you get a new car, you start to notice everyone else who has the same car. It has to be some mother nature survival human nature thing. I wonder if it works the same way if you buy a Ferrari?

As far as birthday weekends go, this will go down in history. I'm so happy that my parents were able to visit me on my birthday. It was so great. I loved hanging out at Barnes and Nobles with them(Twice in the same day!). We did all our typical things. Chinese food, Japanese food, Thai food. Might as well have been in LA. But thats what made it so great. It was so normal. I thought it was perfect. But we also did some not so typical things. We brought them to a new restaurant my wife and I recently found in Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay means a lot to us. We got engaged there, brought friends and family there. It is a very special place, not to mention a very cool coastal town. Sam's Chowder House serves up a killer Maine lobster sandwich on a brioche roll. Although I'm more of a crab person which they have to. But we had a fabulous Sunday brunch.

The other not so normal thing we did was visit the Dublin Toyota dealer. And we did it. I am a reformed SUV owner. Time to repay my debt to mother earth. We got our 2008 Toyota Prius. Who'd of thought. Not me. But somehow fate, mother nature, and those damn Toyota engineers conspired to make the perfect storm. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse. 45mpg, Bluetooth, push button start, backup camera. These are features typically in luxury vehicles, not regular sedans. I was very impressed. You must be asking yourself how did the wife ever agree to a not so basic car? Answer - voodoo. I put a voodoo curse on her during financial negotiations with our not so capable sales person. Actually my wife is really enjoying the modern conveniences. Shes even grown to liking the power output display which lets you know if you are on engine power or battery power. We love it.

So a very memorable weekend indeed. Its exciting to be part of this green revolution. We are truly green now that we have 2 green cars. Which by the way is the least popular color according to Dupont favorite car color surveys. Who would have thought?