Restless Legs Syndrome Ad

I normally stay away from critiques of my industry and the products it produces: ads.

However, I just can't help myself when prescription drug ads (but mostly the companies behind them) go as low as they can go.

I really appreciated Consumer Report's take on the Restless Legs drug ad. Especially for the part where the ad says that the drug that takes away that mysterious feeling in your legs might cause uncontrolled gambling or sexual urges. What, you didn't hear about that?

Sunny Days in San Francisco

Although still a little chilly, there have been some gloriously sunny days in the last week or two. I was stuck inside with the flu but enjoyed watching my neighbor cat basking in the sun, nested contentedly in a windowbox three stories off the ground.

This you must see--Fully Flared

Reid and I went to see a screening of a new skate film last night called Fully Flared. One of the directors is Spike Jonze, and a few of the segments really showed it.

You must see the intro, it's truly amazing:

Easter Brunch at Emily's

I've been really sick all week but managed to wiggle my way over to Emily's for an Easter brunch where we ate yummy things and played Celebrity.

By the way, I've had major cabin fever while being sick which has given me the motivation to finish a few semi-started art and craft projects, including these bubble magnets, which I recommend trying as the author is right; smooshing the glue out is strangely satisfying.

Reindeer in a tube

Update--I managed to make it back to the United States with a Swedish (but low-spending) haul: a bag of food tubes, assorted salted licorice, marshmallow cars at the request of a co-worker, and a chocolate bar called Plop!

What didn't make it through customs? Reindeer in a tube. Sadly, reindeer in a tube was deemed possibly diseased with Mad Cow and was confiscated, despite my pleas that it was processed meat, and the best gift I was bringing home for my boyfriend.

The tubes I brought home: bacon cheese x 3, blue cheese and whiskey (something happened to this tube and I had to throw it away), caviar, shrimp cheese, salami cheese, ham cheese.

Yay for food in tubes! (now shall henceforth be known as yummy Swedish cheese whiz).

Greatest shelter cat name ever!

McLovin! (yes, it has an exclamation point) is the funniest name for a shelter cat I've ever seen. This cat was a particular character as well. If you stopped petting him he would stand up on his hind legs, all the while looking at you, then feint-fall on his side. It was as if he was saying "hello! i'm here! look at me! pay attention to me! pet me pet me pet me!"

Good times, more work

Some photos of the team in Sweden, more meals, and the hotel.







PourBon, a great bakery and bread shop.



Reindeer for lunch!

Good Morning! Pickled Herring?

Meatballs! Better than the ones at Ikea, hahaha.



At the top of our hotel there is a pool with a glass bottom.



Re-paving the road.



We got out yesterday for a coffee. All of the following pictures are from that hole-in-the-wall cafe.

Swedish Food: for astronauts and kings, Part 2

The first night I was in Sweden my co-worker and I went to a famous restaurant called Sjomagasinet for our only formal meal here and the longest amount of time we've spent not working.

The restaurant was super old school. Most of the people were white-haired and also wearing suits and fancy clothes. We were the loud Americans in jeans; one unshaven and both jet-lagged.

We started off with a herring platter. Six types of marinated raw herring, another type of Baltic Sea fish, crackers, and hard cheese. It was incredibly rich (they were marinated in various oils and cream sauces) but the highlight of the meal.



Next up was a lobster soup. Which might have been called butter soup with hint of lobster if my coworker and I had a say in it.



Then we had the main fish courses. The fish came from 200 yards outside the restaurant. You don't get much more local than that. I had halibut confit which was topped with duck liver.



I had forgotten how long dinner in Europe can take. The goal is not to get you in and out of the restaurant as soon as possible in order to seat more customers, so at first we thought we had been abandoned by our waiter, but then realized he was allowing us time to hang out, digest our food, and enjoy ourselves between the filling courses. It was really nice. We would have been suffering afterwards without the generous pauses between courses and it gave us time to absorb our surroundings, be present, and appreciate being in Sweden and eating such an amazing meal. We better had--the meal was fit for a king and the bill was, too!





End of the evening and the restaurant had emptied out (our meal lasted three hours).

Swedish Food: for astronauts and kings

After a long long long long long long flight bolstered by vodka and chocolate non-pareils I landed in London completely cracked out. I wandered around in a circle for two hours looking at the bewildering mall of designer stores and hoping that I wouldn't sit down, fall asleep, and miss my flight.

A short flight later I landed in Gothenburg. We drove through miles of beautiful forest between the airport and the city. Gothenburg is wet and cold and small and dark. Everything is closed today (Sunday) and past 5 any other day. Their licorice candy has ammonium chloride in it, leading one of my team to believe that they're trying to kill us, or that when he's eating the candy he is in fact smelling a bathroom. The same person yesterday described the language of German as "a disease of the throat".

The trip has been a hurricane of errors surrounding the work we're here to do. The first day and night in initial ignorance of the debacle we were facing we were able to enjoy some of our time here and I walked around for an hour and took some photos in a park and in the grocery store (foreign grocery stores speak loudly about a culture, and I love to listen) and I and my other, food-adventurous co-worker took part in a completely nutty and extravagant meal at what was described as one of the best restaurants in Sweden.

The plane going straight up toward the pole.


Early spring flowers covering the grass in a small park here.




Canal. The buildings here are not as old as most I've seen in Europe and they are built in a sturdy style, I'm assuming to fend off the unceasing wind and rain during the winters.


My trip to the grocery store. Wandering through I saw a lot of the usual stuff, then was delighted to find a display of these. Swedish has pretty much been indecipherable to me so I wasn't sure what it was. Bacon in a tube? Bacon fat in a tube? Bacon paste? Whatever it was, I had to have it. I'm a sucker for gimmicks.



Then I wondered, was this an oddity here? A gimmicky thing? Bacon in a tube? I mean, who ELSE wouldn't be able to resist the brightly colored tubes? Then I saw that not only was there bacon in a tube, amongst the tubes was hidden another type, apparently there is also lobster in a tube. The plot thickened.



I was very amused by this point, and it was one of those moments where you're glad you're not traveling alone, that you will be able to share this discovery with someone else who will hopefully find it as amusing. (Holy moly! Food in tubes!).

Then I hit the mother lode.

I rounded the corner and got confirmation for this not being a gimmick.

Rows and rows of tubes of food. It was like a stockpile of sustenance in case Sweden suddenly launches itself off the face of the earth and everyone becomes an instant astronaut, with the necessary food to go with it. What is the deal.



Blue cheese, lobster, shrimp, caviar, ham and other meat-like meats (from what I could decipher from the helpful illustrations). It went on and on. It had to be a normal Swedish thing.

When I went back to the vendor and presented my bacon-in-a-tube gift to my co-worker and we both marveled over it and the fact that it didn't need to be refrigerated, the Swedes confirmed that yes, there are all sorts of things in tubes, and in fact Ost means cheese, so these are mostly all kinds of cheeses in tubes. Seafood cheese paste in a tube, bacon cheese paste (in a tube), ham cheese paste (in a TUBE). There were some confusing ones, like banana in a tube. Really not clear on that one. The most common food in a tube is caviar (not a cheese), which they have little individual tubes of at breakfast. I haven't gotten to try any of the tubes yet, sadly, but rest assured that the bulk of my bags will contain tubes on the plane ride home.

The Swedes are understandably amused/confused/possibly slightly affronted about our fascination with their tubed foods.

Next up, Swedish food, for kings.

A windy night on Angel Island

Last weekend Reid led me and the Jo-tel on a camping trip to Angel Island. There was reading, discussion of Shakespeare, knife-throwing, abandoned building exploring, fajita making, and a lot of hard liquor.

The night was very windy but it was an excellent sensation to wake up during the night and realize that we were on an island in the middle of the bay.

We took the ferry there and back and had a ridiculously expensive meal at Hooters on our return. It took me about 3 days to recover from the one night trip.

Sunset sunset sunset

(click to view larger)

Size does matter

There's something simply brilliant about this. One of those shoots that would have been extremely tedious but so fun.

Take that! And that!

glumbert - Millimeters Matter