So I went to OC Foodie Fest on Saturday and I got a mean sunburn around my shoulder area where my purse/shirt rubbed off my sunscreen (at least that's what I think happened since that's the side I carry my purse on and it's only part of me that got so badly burned) and it hurts like a motherlover. Like, it hurts to wear clothes that touch my shoulder. Which pretty much rules out almost anything work-appropriate. Meh.

The truck party itself? Not so great. Good idea, poor execution. Insanely crowded (good thing we got there early), trucks did not create special menus for the event, not enough trash bins, partitions kept falling over, and $7 for a freaking dinky cup of Coors or Miller Lite? BLASPHEMY.

Better luck next time.

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edit 9/1/10 okay this is officially the worst sunburn I've ever suffered. I got back from the gym this evening to discover that what was formerly a painful expanse of red skin had morphed into a painful mass of blisters. I'm so disgusting :(

Back in college a coworker had told me that pho is the best food for a hangover. When the opportunity presented itself, I put his advice to the test.

For me, a hangover consists of slight nausea accompanied by a shadow of the previous night's drunkenness. A little lightheadedness, a vague ache in my arms.

A hot bowl of pho is the perfect antidote. The steam is fragrant without being too overpowering, the broth flavorful without being too strong, the noodles are silky and mild and the meat is sliced thin and requires minimal effort to masticate.

It's been years since I've had pho to ease a hangover. It's enough to make me want to get completely blackout drunk just so I can fully appreciate a bowl of pho the following morning.

(photo taken yesterday) VV and I retrieved my old computer from my apartment and fired it up for the first time in maybe two years so I could copy all of my old files onto an external drive. There is some crazy old stuff on that computer, including a bajillion old page/blog layouts and graphics that I'd done between 1998 and 2008.

A lot of it was pretty crappy, but I'm totally inspired to get back to a real webpage again. I just need to find time to do it :P

Bringing back an obviously very edited photo from a few months ago because I haven't taken any interesting photos lately and I didn't want to do yet another post with nothing to look at but my crap writing. This photo was actually kind of an accident; it's way overexposed. It was fun to play with, though (see original here).

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Ridiculous things I'd do if I was wealthy beyond all reason

• Travel like Anthony Bourdain
• Hire someone to brush my hair until I fall asleep every night
• Hire Hope Sandoval to sing to me until I fall asleep every night
• Hire Adam Richman to describe all my food to me before I eat it (can you tell I watch too much Travel Channel???)
• Prooobably not buy a new car until my current one punks out on me

What would you do?

The election was coming up in a few days and the pro and anti Prop 8 campaigns were in full swing. Our new friend mourned the fact that even on the Westside, it was not uncommon to see streets lined with signs urging people to "protect" marriage and vote yes on 8.

A few days later I was at the office working late. It was November 4th. That morning I had made my way out to a high school close to my apartment to vote for the very first time and spent that evening trying to work, listening to the kitchen television from my office and distractedly refreshing the browser window with election results. I watched through tear-blurred eyes as the gap between the "yes" and "no" votes widened in favor of "yes" and seethed at the unfairness of it all as the election counts were finalized.

I knew then that the ban on same-sex marriages was only temporary; I believe that someday the entire country will legalize them. It made me sad, though, that after making so much progress, California voters decided to take a step backwards and take away these rights from a group of individuals without good reason.

But today that changed. I know that the battle isn't over and that it's going to be a long, hard fight before we get to where we need to be, but at least we're on the right track again. Finally!

VV took this photo at the office. I'm super makeupless and washed out and I need to teach him how to use my manual settings.

I decided I'd better post some photos since my last post was photoless (photoless == boring?). We went to his cousin's place for her daughter's 2nd birthday party. Towards the end we went to go play with the kids' toys, starting with the Disney princess playhouse thing. VV had expressed a desire to go inside but thought better of it upon closer examination of the openings (that sounds dirty) but since I'm sort of close to child sized I crawled inside without any reservations.

I keep thinking of things that I want to post and then end up forgetting them by the time I sit down to blog. I need to remedy this somehow.

Dude.