Do Bears Blues Dance?

So, perhaps they need a few lessons.... maybe they just want to do solo blues. ...but man! who knew bears could move!?

Awesome tango video :)

I've had this link hanging around as an email in my inbox for quite some time. ...I didn't want to delete it, because it's awesome.... and I also didn't want to put it in my folder titled "fun" because there's a lot of stuff in there...and I wanted to remember what this looked like and actually watch it again. So, if you were wondering what tango looks like and wanting to break it down a bit, please click the title and get directed to youtube/watch below. (No.... I don't do tango quite like this, if you were wondering. Still learning ;)

And I will call it Lavender, Goji, Chocolate, Banana Bread!

I tinker in the kitchen from time to time pretending to cook. I am pretty lazy about it (some people might call that creative...so we'll go with that). There are never really all of the ingredients that I need to create whatever item I've selected ....so I just use the closest thing in my kitchen at the time. It's also cheaper that way (we'll call that good for the environment because it allows me to rarely waste food. I think I've thrown out half a can of beans, the ends of a loaf, and a grapefruit this month.) Anyway, this laziness resulted on veering off drastically from the actual recipe this time - so I'll call it my own and tell you about it! :)

I'll write out the original recipe for your compare and contrast amusement, and after that, I'll list what I used. The cooking instructions are almost the same ... I'll make notes on how they differ for you.

Original recipe (from Vegan Planet page 472)
Banana-Split Tea Bread
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
3 medium-size, very ripe bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup soy milk or other dairy-free milk
1/4 cup corn oil
3/4 cup sugar or natural sweetener
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 chopped unsalted dry-roasted peanuts or other nuts
1/4 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips
1/4 drained crushed pineapple
1/4 dried cherries

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9x5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the four, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
3. In a food processor combine the bananas, soy milk, corn oil, sugar, and vanilla and process until smooth. Add to the flour mixture and mix well. Fold in the peanuts, chocolate chips, pineapples, and cherries, then transfer to the prepared pan.
4. Bake on the center oven rack until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool in a pan on a wire rack before removing from the pan and slicing.

Here's ingredients I used....

Lavender, Goji, Chocolate, Banana Bread!
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt (pink cuz I'm on a new kick)
3 medium-size, very ripe bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 veggie oil
3/4 cup sugar ...the raw cane stuff
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
about a handful or so goji berries to replace the cherries
about a teaspoon or more dried lavender to stand in for the peanuts. Idk, it made sense at the time.
about a teaspoon or so cocoa powder to replace the chocolate chips

I pretty much did what the instructions said for the original Banana-Split Tea Bread recipe, but I added all three different ingredients (goji, lavender and cocoa powder) at the end (instead of the cherries, pineapple, peanuts, etc). Also, since my roommies were asleep, I mixed the bananas and milk and stuff with a whisk instead of a food processor, which made the mixture chunkier than I'd imagine it would otherwise turn out.

All in all, I'd say that's a super different and new recipe and I'm very excited about it! It turned out delicious ... enough so that I put it online for people to enjoy :)

Great things the DMV can do for you!

So, I got a ticket a few days ago for expired tags. Yes, it's that time of year again and I know that I'm not the only one who was procrastinating, right? Right.

I was totally bummed out! ....and decided to go register my car the next day, in fear of amassing another ticket. At 60 bucks, that's almost paying to register twice! I went right over the the DMV at Fell and Baker at around 4:30 this weds and there were surprisingly very few people there at the time. Five minutes later, a bunch of other people came, but luckily I was right ahead of the wave. So, for those of you who avoid the DMV for it's lines, 4:30 on a Weds - not that bad. ...4:35 probably not as good. I'm guessing 4pm is primo DMV time.

I sat and waited to be called for a whopping 2 minutes and paid my registration fee .... while wondering in the back of my head the whole time if DMV could do anything about the ticket I got one day too late. I almost didn't ask them because I wondered seriously if it was worth asking. But, I figured what the heck? The worst that could happen is that they say no (and maybe laugh). The lady on the other end of the counter seemed pretty nice, so I thought I was safe from mockery.

It turns out she is very very nice. She also informed me that the DMV can indeed fix my ticket! That's amazing! Apparently, it's a little secret to know that the DMV will do this, because no one I told over the next few days knew either. I'm guessing the DMV doesn't go about posting it all over their website or whatnot. ...I've never heard them rattle on about it over their messaging system. The DPT wouldn't be too happy with them I am sure if they went around telling people they could avoid $60 tickets. Anyway, the lady told me that all I had to do was to put the new sticker on my car, drive up to the DMV driveway, and ask the woman standing over there (she pointed) to sign off the ticket. I would have to pay a $10 processing fee to DPT though. Really, a $10 fee is not nearly as bad as a $60 fee. I was elated! Make note: the DMV doesn't do this towards the end of the day, so luckily I just made the cut off time. If you plan on going to the DMV past 4:30, this option might not work for you...try to go earlier.

I was so happy that I handed the lady who signed off the ticket a See's candy lollipop. (She likes butterscotch.) This made me even happier!

All in all, this was the best DMV trip I've ever had. :)

Christian the Lion Cub

wow.

How to stay in the SF loop

There are a TON of things going on in SF. I love that :) I also, for some weird reason, find it a little upsetting at times. Like, grrr, how do I keep up with all of these cool things and stay informed before they pass me by? I catch a lot of what's going on in SF. There's probably way too many things going on to know to go to them all. But, I figure the more things I know about and can choose from, the better. So, in an attempt to organize all of San Francisco's events, some friends and I are looking at all the sites, blogs, mailing lists we use to stay informed and are trying to figure out how to work with those to create a calendar blog site. Suggestions? How do you stay in the SF loop?

Stay tuned for our calendar blog!

and, ...look for the links we find on my handy links section "fun and inspiration" ;)

About me!

I grew up in between Cupertino and Redwood City. My mom lives in Cupertino, and my Nana and aunt live in Redwood City. I went to school in RC so that I could spent time with the Nana after classes. When I was a little girl, around 8ish, the house next door went up for sale. I said "mommy, you should buy the house next door!!! Pleeessse!" She said "no, I don't have enough money to buy the house next door!" and I said "you'll have less money later...." During the Dot Com Boom, she said "I wish I had bought the house next door!" and I said "I told you so." By this time, I needed to remind her of our conversation, as no one really pays attention to an 8 year old. ...During middle school, a friend of the family would talk to me about his investments in multiple properties, and how he rented them out and used the appreciation to buy more houses and buy a race car and dirt bike. I thought this was pretty cool and wanted him to explain "appreciation". Looking back, these types of conversations are a little odd to have as an 8 to 14 year old. I should have figured out my predisposition to real estate a little sooner!

Though, for High School I went to Notre Dame Belmont, and was convinced my goal in life was to save the rainforest. (I have also always really liked plants :) Because they have a great biology program and I thought this was the best way to go about saving the rainforest, I went out of state to Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon . I took chemistry at the same time I took pysch 100 and drawing. This contrast of subjects made me realize that perhaps I do really want to help save the rainforest..... only in my own mirco-living ways ....and I want to live in a real house and not a tree. (Although, a functional tree house with all modern upgrades would be fun ;) I also really liked pysch and art. So, I received a BA in psychology and a minor in art. (Coincidentally, Lewis and Clark has and awesome psychology department! It's got amazing professors and a small amount of students per class ...because most people go there for the science.) There was no particular goal in mind when I majored in psychology, except that I loved the classes and thought that I should get a degree of something ...because it's a reasonable level of societal status to get one.... and the something might as well be something I love to do, especially if it's going to take me 4 years! There were obviously ideas in my mind of ways I could progress in the field. Being a dancer, I thought it would be neat to study body perception. In the end, I chose a career in Real Estate over one in Psychology. I also started the swing dancing club at LC, which I believe still exists. Yes!

Senior year, I wanted to live off campus and the cost of rent was pretty much the same as a mortgage plus roommates. So, one day at a barbecue get together I announced I'd be buying a house senior year, only with my mom's money and credit. She and the other guests laughed and we continued to eat. I went back to Portland two weeks before I needed to, for house hunting. (No - house hunting takes longer than two weeks. I was kinda idealistic at the time!) Though, after those few weeks had past, I had found a Realtor, a loan agent, and had the loan agent and my mother talk over the phone so that he explained to her that is was indeed possible for her to buy a place in Portland. By early December, my friends and I moved into my new home :) Throughout escrow and afterwards, my agent, loan agent, and friends and family had all at one point or another asked me if I had ever considered being a Realtor. ....or said flat out that I should be a Realtor. I confessed that the idea had been at the back of my mind since the project was started and that was what I had intended to do :)

Buying the house was a huge learning process, and one that I could never have had any other way. A few months after buying it, another learning process started. It turns out that just because there's a window and a closet, that doesn't mean that the room is a bedroom. Unless a room is a bedroom, it is not habitable. The roommates that were making my home have a positive cash flow had to move out because they did not live in bedrooms. Oh, that sucks! So, my parents and I started to sue the guy who sold us a 4 bedroom home, which was really a 2 bedroom home. This was a long 2 year process of mediation and arbitration. In the end, we won and the seller was found guilty of violating the UTPA acts and committing fraud. He was sentenced to give us a little amount of money (not enough. it never is.) and to pay for the cost it took to drag his ass to court. Arbitration is supposed to be final. A day later, the retired judge/arbitrator issued a letter saying that, because it took two years to get this guy to court, we spent more money than it was worth (in his opinion) and so the guy didn't owe us anything. What!?!? Ok, I'm going to go ahead and say that anyone who has made a profitable livelihood by committing fraud on a regular basis and getting away with it, just miiiight be hard to get in the court room. Really, common now! I'm also going to say that any judge who changes his mind the day after a court case is finalized has had a little help from a third party. Anyway, this particular horrific experience has a couple of upsides for me and my clients - I always make them aware that if they want to make sure the seller's being accurate in their bd/ba/sqft/etc count, then they need to go to the permit department. Also, sad to say, the SF permit department is years behind, so my clients may never get the answers they're looking for and they have to make sure they're ok with the risk factor that all files were not up to date when they bought. The risk is lessened by going to check the permits; yes, but, there's not really a black and white answer like they'd like. (That's generally true of life anyway.) I am also damn good at explaining the arbitration/mediation clause in the SFAR contract. If anyone has questions about this usually obscure topic, I can bring real life implications to the subject. Yay! Well, you know, I got to make the best of what happened ;) ....anyway......

After graduation, I decided to take a "trip" to San Francisco to spend the summer with my long distance boyfriend that I had met the summer before. The next year I took classes, got my license and started working at Zephyr. I moved originally for the guy, and stayed for the awesome swing and blues dancing over in SF! Plus, the city is amazing and has so many great things constantly available and going on! It's been three years since I moved back to the bay area and, ironically, said guy now lives in Seattle.

My daily routine now consists of being a Realtor, hanging out with friends, and trying to help out with the dance community in San Francisco. (Also, wanting to save the rainforest, I recycle a lot, reuse, and don't patronize a lot of companies that hurt it.) Since I moved to the city, the scene's gone down a little in quality, so there's a continual debate about how to improve it and bring it back to par. I am constantly exploring San Francisco and learning new things about it all of the time. This city is one where you may never truly know it all. It's very complex and kinda like a person. It's always changing, but there are some consistencies to it which make it a good place to feel at home.

The End.

For now.