Airplane reading

Last week I was supposed to fulfill one of my New Year's resolutions to take a trip somewhere other than Indiana. But unfortunately my plan to head to Denver didn't quite work out the way I had intended it to and I ended up flying straight home to California after my friend's wedding in Indy.

But the condensed trip still helped me make some progress on another resolution. Though I get a little stressed out by air travel - the packing, getting their early enough to make it through security screening, worrying about catching connected flights - the one plus to spending hours in airports, on runways and on planes is that it offers plenty of time to read.

When I travel, I try to bring a mix of reading materials - a couple New Yorkers, which are always plentiful in my house, a lighter magazine like People and a book or two. I rarely get through all the reading materials, but it's nice to have options. This time around, I was low on People magazines since I read those at the gym so I packed two copies of the New Yorker and a random book I found in my room. See part of what prompted resolution No. 1 to read 10 books this year is that I have a cardboard box full of them in my room - gifts from Christmas and birthdays over the last couple of years. I grabbed one out of the box that seemed like it would be light reading and stuffed it into my carry on bag.

When I got through security at the airport, I pulled the book out to kill sometime and that's when I realized it was going to be bad. "A Version of the Truth" is written by two authors, Jennifer Kaufmann and Karen Mack. Now, call me conventional, but I prefer my novels to have just one author and one voice. The pair wrote another book together and I wonder what their process was. Did they trade off chapters? Or did one write the first draft and then the other go through it, adding to it.

The book was not very well-written and it wasn't all that entertaining. But it did offer a break from the in-depth articles in the New Yorker. So I kept reading it. It's one of those books I would have put down after a couple chapters if I had picked it up at home. But being as I had about 12 hours in airplanes and a few more in airports, I kept chugging through it.

The book is about Cassie Shaw who is a 30-something widow who is glad her mean, alcoholic husband died three years earlier. Now it's really hard to find a character sympathetic who wishes her husband dead and then is actually glad when he dies. Even if he was a jerk, she should have had some more complicated feelings than just being happy about it. Cassie doesn't have much going for her. She barely finished high school. She lives with her mom, who is kooky as can be, and she doesn't have a paying job.

She suddenly decides to take things into her own hands - but not by any self-improvement, higher education means. She just lies on a job application and says she has a college degree. She gets hired in the psych department of a college. The more time she spends around the college, she begins to want more out of life - like nice clothes and a good-looking boyfriend. But she is still in the woe-is-me mode for most of the book and it gets old really fast.

The actions of the characters is not believable and a lot of their behavior is inconsistent. The most annoying thing in the book is Sam, Cassie's African gray parrot who not only talks, but seems to converse with Cassie as well as any guests she has. Her conversations with the bird were just one step too much for me. But I nearly finished the book while I was traveling. I only had two chapters to go when I arrived home so I figured I might as well finish it to its very predictable conclusion.

Hopefully the next book I read for the resolution will be better.

Indianapolis has its share of culinary treats

It's a good thing I don't live in the Midwest because it seems like everything I love to eat out there is an the unhealthy end of the food spectrum. I've been to the Indianapolis area a few times to visit a friend and every time I seem to discover a new food that is delicious and unhealthy.

One my first trips, I feel in love with the sippable sundae at Steak N Shake. It became a staple of my visits, although I have skipped it the last two visits. A couple years ago, I tried fried pickles for the first time ever when my friend's mom attempted to copy a recipe from a local restaurant. I got to try the originals last time I visited at Scotty's Brewhouse in downtown Indianapolis. It sounds weird, but the fried pickles are quite tasty. Also on my last visit, my friend's mom made corn fritters for the bridal shower and they were also delicious. She made them with a mix of cornmeal, corn kernels and green onions.

This weekend I went back to Indianapolis for my friend's wedding and I was there for a few days. It seemed like most of the trip revolved around eating. The first night I flew in late in the afternoon and my friend's mother picked me up at the airport. She offered to take me to dinner since my friend was busy with wedding-related stuff. She picked a place near her house called the Brickhouse Burger Company. With a name like that, I knew what I had to get - the only problem was making the choice between the seven or so offered on the menu and building my own. I ended up going with the 'shroom, which included a burger with sauteed mushrooms, Havarti dill cheese, tomatoes, and pickles, all served on a pretzel roll. I had never heard of a pretzel roll before, but I love soft pretzels. The roll was not shaped like a pretzel, but it had all the softness with the brown crust of a pretzel. It held its own against the burger. It was the best burger I've had in ages and I will now be on a mission to find a place in the bay area that has a pretzel bun. The burger was good, but I opted to only eat half of it, thinking I would save the other half for later.

But then the next day, I grabbed breakfast in the hotel lobby (offered for free with the night's stay) and then I went to lunch at a place called Champp's with the other bridesmaids. I started off with a cup of french onion soup and then had the Champp's club. While the soup had just the perfect amount of cheesy goodness, the club sandwich had too much cheese for my taste, with the double layer of Monterey jack and cheddar cheese. I ate half my sandwich so that I could save room for the mile-high ice cream pie we split five ways for dessert.

So after eating lunch close to 2 p.m., I was hardly hungry at all by the time we got to Kona Jack's for the rehearsal dinner around 8 p.m. But I couldn't pass up the soy ginger house dressing on a fresh salad and filet mignon. The best part of the meal was the taste of warm lemon cake I had for dessert, though I stayed to just a few bites since I was so full.

The delicious food I ate during the trip almost makes me wish I visited Indianapolis more often so I could have it again. But for now I am trying to get back to eating healthy with fresh vegetables and fruits from the farmers market.

Photo by Melissa Flores

The 'shroom burger at Brickhouse Burger Company includes Havarti cheese, sauteed mushrooms and burger fixings on a pretzel roll.

The practice of packing in a rush

I've always had a system for packing that ensures I don't forget anything I need no matter how long or short the trip. I make a list of all the essentials and then cross each item off as it goes into the bag.

Part of what has changed is that I am a lot more judicious in what I bring with me. I remember the first trip I took far from home, to Ireland, I had a back pack and two huge rolling bags. I couldn't control my luggage on my own so I think the hospitality of the Irish for helping me lug those things around. It's easy to remember what you need when you just take it all with you. Now I pack just what I can handle on my own. But the other thing is that the last few times I've needed to pack a bag, this system has gone out the window because I am in a rush.

Yesterday is a perfect example. I had to catch a 6:45 a.m. flight out of San Jose with Indianapolis as a final destination. Now I'd spent months thinking about what I needed to bring and how to pack a bridesmaids dress without turning it into a wrinkled mess.

My ideal plan was to pack it in a garment bag and bring it as carry on. But then last weekend when I went to buy a garment bag, the cheapest one I could find was $100. It didn't seem worth it for something I would probably only use once in my life. Instead, I decided I should borrow a garment bag. The problem is the people I know don't travel - or they don't travel with nice clothes. My mom asked a co-worker who said she might have something, but then the co-worker forgot to bring it in for two days.

So the garment bag arrived at my house yesterday afternoon. I unfortunately, did not arrive home until a few hours later. Wednesday is the day the paper goes to press and as the person designing it, I need to stay until it is done or I would have just taken off an hour or two early to get a jump on packing. The paper was done about half an hour before deadline, but I needed to leave notes for a student intern who would be helping while I was out and then I had promised to pick up dinner at the farmers market in Hollister.

By the time I was pulling off the freeway into town, it was almost 7 p.m. And then I suddenly realized I forgot my wall charger for my cell phone at work. My office is a half hour drive, one way. And my phone, as a mytouch, lasts barely a day without being charged. With a flight leaving at 4 a.m., I didn't have time to go to my office so I decided to go to the nearest T-mobile store and just by another charger. $35 later, I was set.

By the time I got home, ate dinner and took a shower, it was almost 9 p.m. before I started packing. I used the technique of rolling all my clothes to fit more in the suitcase. Actually, a few days ago a friend sent me a link to a slideshow from the New York Times of an airline flight attendant packing a carry-on bag for a trip. The airline I flew, Delta, charges for checked bags so I was hoping to avoid it. Plus, I am kind of a control freak and the idea of leaving my bag in someone else's hands and hoping it gets to my final destination really makes me nervous.

So everything was in the garment bag and ready to go when I went downstairs to print out my boarding pass. I figured I should double check the measurements for carry on. And then I realized the garment bag is way bigger than the allotted space per passenger.

In the end, I decided to use my trusty carry on, which has pockets for my shoes, a little case for toiletries and seems to hold just enough clothes for a few days. Based on the slideshow advice, I put the bridesmaids dress in the bottom of the suitcase, piled in my heavy items to lighter items and then folded the dress over all the stuff in the middle. I definitely had plenty of space in my suitcase.

By the time I finished packing it was nearly 10 p.m. and I was just hoping I hadn't forgotten anything. The last time I packed in a rush, I forgot tweezers, a razor and shaving gel. Other family members forgot toothpaste and deodorant so I wasn't alone in forgetting things. But luckily it was at my cousin's wedding in San Jose where half my family was staying so I was able to swap the necessary items with other immediate family members for the things they had forgotten.

So far this trip, the dress came out a little wrinkled but nothing an iron couldn't fix. And as for forgetting things, I think I've got everything I need. The only problem is I may have inadvertently mixed my neutrogena face wash in with some conditioner and vice versa. See, I had my shampoo, conditioner and face wash in little travel size containers from the last time I traveled to Indianapolis for the bridal shower/bachelorette party. So I just left them in the bathroom for this second trip. But last night I decided to fill them up a bit more. All three items contain white liquids and the only way to tell them apart is that the shampoo has a little more sheen to it, and the conditioner and shampoo are scented while the sensitive skin face wash is unscented.

When I took a shower tonight, I couldn't tell the conditioner and face wash apart - the consistency of both seemed off, leading me to the theory that I filled the conditioner bottle with face wash and the face wash with conditioner. If that is the only issue I discover over the next three days, that won't be too bad.

'Daria' release brings more sarcasm into the world

A new generation is going to have a chance to get a little more sarcasm in their lives with the release of the complete boxed set of "Daria" on DVD.

I am so excited about it. And if I weren't trying to practice some self-restraint and allow someone the opportunity to buy it for me for my birthday in two months, I would run right out and get it so I could start watching it right away.

Though I could not stand "Beavis and Butthead" when it debuted on MTV, I am forever grateful for the spin off that came out of it, "Daria." I watched it all the time, mostly with my best friend, and we loved that Daria and her best friend Jane were as sarcastic as we were. They were two kids who were kind of on the outside at their high school, but who didn't really care because they knew they were way cooler than all the other kids in school. I think my friend and I saw a lot of ourselves in them. And we really did think some of the cheerleaders and football players we knew were as dumb as Britney and Kevin. And the teacher with the anger issues whose eye was always popping out was hilarious. Plus, Jane's brother Trent was really cute - for a cartoon.

I watched the show when I was home on winter break or for summer vacation since I did not have cable in my dorm room. And thanks to MTV's penchant for marathons, I probably caught every episode. The box set comes with all five seasons, as well as two movies, which I already own on DVD, "Is It Summer Yet?" and "Is It College Yet?"

I can't wait to add the "Daria" box set to my collection - and I really hope someone gets it for me. The only problem is I will probably want to watch the whole thing in one week!

The definition of a date

So a friend of a friend writes this blog "50dates50countries" where she is chronicling her ambition of going on 50 dates total with men from 50 different countries. She plays a little fast and loose with her definition of a date - after all one of her posts was about meeting a guy randomly at a bookstore and having coffee after and then getting stuck with the bill. I would never have classified the perchance meeting with someone I wasn't really interested in as a date, but she did. Reading her blog, which is updated sporadically, has made me rethink some of my past encounters and whether or not they might have been dates.

Like the time a guy from work invited me to dinner and a concert for some band I'd never heard of before. I can't remember exactly why I agreed to go because I didn't really like him, but I just assumed it wasn't a date because I wasn't really interested in it being a date.

And there was the time when I guy I knew casually from the gym invited me to see a movie after work one day and when I declined because I had to catch the train home, he offered to drive me home if I would go to the movie. It was an hour drive round trip. It was some depressing Scottish film, certainly not a good date movie. But after the movie, he asked if I wanted to grab something to eat and then proceeded to walk to my favorite restaurant in downtown San Jose, which I had casually mentioned a few weeks before. I'm pretty sure it was a date, even though a few years later he denied it.

Or there was the time in grad school when I invited the guy I liked to a movie screening with me and we made reservations at my favorite Italian restaurant beforehand. The fact that he showed up in a coffee-stained shirt and paid just for his share of the meal made me certain it was not a date.

I don't really know what my definition of a date is, but I guess if no one in the equation utters the word I assume it's not a date. A friend insists it's a date if the guy pays. A coworker said if afterwards you are still not sure if it was a date, it was probably a date, though I am not quite sure on the reasoning of that.

I hung out with someone I like in a date-like situation recently, but the jury is still out on whether it was actually a date. Good conversation, check. Plenty of eye contact and laughing, check. Him picking up the tab even though I offered to split it, check. But I don't really know what he thought of the whole thing so I am going to hold off on saying I've completed New Year's Resolution No. 9 to go on one date this year. I am hoping that instead I will be able to report that I've been on two or more dates with the same person.

And if it turns out not to have been a date, I've got someone who asked if he could set me up a blind date. At least then I will know for sure it is a date.

Maid of honor duties complete

I was under the misguided assumption that my maid of honor duties would end when the wedding reception was over - but though my cousin's wedding was May 1 I finally think my duties are complete today.

See, when the professional photographer from the wedding posted up more than 600 photos from the wedding day, my cousin suddenly realized there were not that many pictures of just the two of us together. There were some group shots, a few of me helping her get ready before the wedding and helping to bustle up her train, but none of the two of us actually looking like we were enjoy ourselves.

She already had plans to go out with the groom again to get more photos of the two of them in a more relaxed and playful setting - like with his Harley in some of the pictures. A couple days after the wedding she sent me a text asking what weekend I had to fly out for my friend's wedding. I had no idea what the inquiry was about. And then she texted me back and said she wanted to pay for me to have my hair done again so that we could get some more photos together.

Now after the wedding, I swore I was never going to wear the floor-length blue gown again. Even after two alterations, it was too big and I had to pull it up all night long. Someone spilled champagne on it. Someone else stepped on it all night long. I took my shoes off and it dragged all along the floor at the reception. And the day after the wedding, I folded it in half to make it easy to carry out of my room to the car - all because I figured I would never wear it again.

But as maid of honor, I figured it was still my duty to make the newlyweds happy. So this morning I skipped my long Sunday work out so I could shower and blow dry my hair for a 7 a.m. appointment to get it all curled up. Then we came back to my house and I helped her get back into her wedding dress, heels, tiara and veil. And then I put on the floor-length blue gown that is now even looser on me since I upped my running time at the gym.

The photographer took us out to a local garden off Hecker Pass and as the sun came out, I also served as the photographer's assistant by holding a diffuser that helped keep the happy couple from squinting into the sun. I didn't have to have too many photos taken, which is good since I always feel a little uncomfortable and awkward having my photo taken. See, I always get a fake smile on my face that looks really bad and I know it looks bad so then I get even more nervous about it. The result is it just gets worse and worse. The only really way to get the natural smile is for someone to make me laugh a little. So luckily the photographer we were working with has known me since I was 15 and he had a knack for relaxing me.

I can't wait to see the latest photos of the bride and groom, especially the ones of them with the motorcycle. And I was happy I was able to help out with the final photo shoot - even if it meant donning the too-big, too-long blue bridesmaid dress one more time. Now I just have to have my hair done again on Saturday and deal with more photos - and try to avoid the fake smile - at my friend's wedding next weekend. But at least as a bridesmaid, I don't have nearly as many duties as maid of honor.

'Rejection' book offers a bit of humor

So when it comes to my first resolution to read more books this year, I've been doing a lot better at reading book reviews and compiling a list of books I might want to read in the future than doing the actual reading. I took a break and read two books last month - and now I am three months behind on my New Yorker magazines so I decided to take a little break again from the long-form materials.

I do read a lot of book reviews - some in the New Yorker, some in People Magazine and some in whatever other magazines I read while doing cardio at the gym. I've noticed that People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and some other popular magazines all tend to run reviews of the same books. The New Yorker rarely offer reports on anything that is quite so mainstream and popular.

One of the recent book plugs in People is for one called "Other People's Rejection Letters" and it is edited by Bill Shapiro. At first, I thought it seemed like kind of a mean idea - poking fun at other people's lowest moments. After all, it's hard not to take any rejection a little personal. The few letters used by People's writers to illustrate the book are written by children - to a mother and a grandmother. One is just a kid saying they can't go with grandma because they have other plans and it's pretty funny seeing it in the large print of a young child's handwriting.

I guess rejection is sort of a universal thing. I know I have had my share of it - from friends who back out of plans, to breakups, to getting the brush off from a potential employer. I've gotten rejected by voicemail for a job I had already decided not to take. I've gotten e-mails, handwritten letters and in this new digital age I am sure I will eventually get rejected by text. The thing about rejection is that it smarts in the moment, but I have to say that most of my rejections end up to be funny stories down the road.

There was the rejection by my first sort of boyfriend, with whom I never really got past the "hanging out" phase when I was fifteen. After two-intense weeks of talking on the phone, holding hands and a kiss or two, he wrote me a short letter about how we needed to stop "hanging out" because of our different views on alcohol. It was news to me as we were 15 and the topic had never come up between us. Of course, the most recent time I saw him a couple years ago, he was pretty heavy into drinking so maybe he was right way back then.

And just a few months ago I reconnected with a former coworker on Facebook. We exchanged a few messages and all seemed well. In my last message to him I said if he ever wanted to catch a movie to let me know because I write a weekly movie column for the Pinnacle. And he never responded back. Message received.

Perhaps the book is really just a way to help everyone find a little humor in their past rejections and to realize that it really is a universal experience. It sucks to go through it, but I guess the optimistic way to look at it is that by risking the rejection we can end up with great opportunities, in love and jobs, and whatever else.

I haven't added the book to my to-read list yet, but I might get to it someday. After all, I'd hate to make editor Bill Shapiro.

Resolution No. 2 eaten up

I guess in the last couple months I stopped keeping track of where I was with my resolutions. In fact, I completed resolution No. 2 to eat out at five new restaurants this weekend and didn't even realize it. It turned out to be really easy to try new places - it just took being open to getting out of my comfort zone and spending a little more time socializing than usual. After all, grabbing a meal is a great way to spend time with friends.

I already blogged about the restaurant that put me across the line when I wrote about eating out all day on Saturday - Aqui was a new stop for me. I actually visited restaurant No. 4 a few weeks ago for my cousin's bachelorette party. Her friends made plans to go to a pub-like place in Monterey called the Mucky Duck. I'd never heard of it before, but a few of my friends from the area seemed to have fond memories of it. All I knew about it was that a band with a guy named Junior (whom my cousin and her friends new) would be playing there and a coworker said he used to hang out there when he was younger.

I checked out the menu before we went because I wanted to be sure I had the option f a hearty meal if I was going to be drinking for a long time for the bachelorette party. It seemed to have typical pub grub - burgers, sandwiches, greasy appetizers. It looked perfect.

Some of the group, which included about 15 of us, opted to skip the meal while others ordered a full meal. I opted to order a few appetizers to shared with a couple of other people. We went with the nachos, which came piled high with beans, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes and were pretty much enough to food a whole table of people; the Guinness sliders, little mini burgers that had a distinct Guinness beer smell without the overwhelming flavor; and some chicken strips. The food was good enough that I would eat there again - on a rare occasion since, of course, it wasn't all that healthy.

As for the drinks, they had a few original concoctions on the menu but the one I had - something with rum and pineapple juice - was okay, but not exceptional.

Even though I've completed my resolution, I hope to continue to try out some new restaurants - especially since I still haven't made it to the Los Gatos place a friend recommended. I'll keep it on my to-do list for now.

Tripped up during the morning run

Since I signed up for dailymile.com and my friend has been posting his (long) daily runs, I've been encouraged to add a couple more miles a week to my workouts. The problem is I don't really have extra time to devote to running and I don't want to cut down on weight training, biking, yoga or the elliptical machine.

I thought I would start adding in a few 10-minute mile runs a couple more days a week. It would pick up the pace from my average of 12:30 a mile for long distance runs and I figured it might help me increase my speed for the 5K I am signed up to do on Memorial Day Weekend.

I started out the run at 5.3 mph for a couple minutes and then upped it to 6.3 mph - and that's when I started to encounter a slight problem. See a few months ago I bought a pair of $100 yoga pants. I love them because they are comfy for yoga, weight training, bicycling at the gym and using the elliptical trainer.

When I first bought the pants, my friend told me to consider buying something with a drawstring since I've been on a workout/health food kick. She warned me that if I continued to tone up and lose weight, the pants would not stay up for more than a couple months. Now for the last couple of weeks, I've noticed they've gotten a bit loose but I just pull them back up and go on with the workout. It hasn't been much of a problem - until this morning.

As I sped up the treadmill to 6.7, the yoga pants started to slip down at a bit more rapid pace...and fortunately for me, I was the only person in the gym at the time (although there are security cameras, which the staff hopefully never review.) I held my pants up with one hand as I tried to slow down the treadmill to a walking pace with the other. In the meantime, as I was flailing around and trying not to lose my balance, my new headphones kept getting caught on the treadmill and then I had to struggle not to trip on those. Now a normal person would probably have given up the run at this point, or at least settled for a slower pace. But I was already running late with my workout since I woke up a little late, so I decided to hike the pants back up and speed it up again. I repeated the process a few more times until I completed my mile in 10:45.

I'll have to give my friend a chance to say she told me so. And on my way home from work tomorrow, I have plans to stop at the Gap outlet to get a new pair of workout pants that will hopefully stay up as I run. I need them before my Friday morning run. The $100 yoga pants are going to be relegated to yoga and other light workouts.

Farmers market opening day

The Hollister downtown Farmers market opens for the season tomorrow, and I highly recommend those in the San Benito area stop by. The market is open Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. through September.

The opening of the market each season is a sign that summer is on the way. The market moved to Fifth Street last year and lucky for me, it's a short walk from my office. The best part of the market is the fresh produce from local growers - and there are a lot of them in San Benito County. My personal favorites have always been the fennel, leeks and onions at Phil Foster's Pinnacle Organics booth as well as Swank Farms tomatoes and fresh corn. I am looking forward to Fairhaven Orchards, which will be selling cherries as soon as the crop comes in. I can't wait to start trying new recipes based on what I find at the market each week for the Pinnacle's food column.

In addition to the fresh produce, Hollister's market also has an offering of prepared foods from local vendors. New this year is Dave's Dawghouse, a hot dog vendor, which the guys in my office have for lunch at least once a week. Some local restaurants will be selling desserts, including pies, cookies and fudge, from what I hear.

My longtime favorites for the five years I've worked in Hollister include the roasted corn and baked potatoes from Charley's Corn and pretty much everything sold at Mansmith's booth. Mansmith's sells smoked brisket, ribs, chicken, tri-tip sandwiches, whole tri-tips and garlic bread.

I'm going to try to stick to the healthy fruits and vegetables, but I am sure I'll give in to the brisket, potato and corn for dinner once or twice during the season.

There will also be arts and crafts booth and local musicians, though the schedule is still in the works. Check out the Pinnacle calendar section for performers as well as any special events taking place each week.

Three square meals eaten out

I try not to eat out too often so it is a little odd that yesterday I ended up eating out for two meals - and having a little mini takeout in between. A while ago I had e-mailed a friend and said that we should try to get together May 8 or 15, after all my maid of honor duties had calmed down. And in the meantime, I was trying to arrange a time to go to breakfast with another friend. Somehow this week, they both got back to me that Saturday would work great. With breakfast plans at 10 a.m, I figured I could manage dinner at 6 p.m.

The first meal was breakfast at OD's Kitchen, which is always great. Since it is a little hole in the wall place in Gilroy, I always like introducing out-of-towners to it. So I went there with a friend who is from the East Coast. I'm not really a breakfast person and he admitted while we were at breakfast that he's not much of a breakfast person either. But he seemed to really enjoy the eggs benedict and I love the home fries. I've tried to recreate the home fries at home, but I've never quite been able to do it. So I guess OD's will always get a visit from me every once in a while.

Since I knew I had plans to eat dinner out later in the day, I ate half of my breakfast and took the rest of it home, thinking I could always warm it up today.

I didn't think I'd eat much more before dinner. But a couple hours later my parents showed up at home with a plate of samples from the "No Bull BBQ" cook-off in Morgan Hill. I couldn't resist trying the brisket, tri-tip and a piece of garlic bread. Luckily the samples were quite small so I didn't really eat that much of it.

For dinner, I met up with some friends in Campbell and the meal helped me along with Resolution No. 2 (eat at five new restaurants.) My friends have a place across the street from the Pruneyard, and within walking distance of downtown Campbell. I left the place we'd eat out up to them and they chose a Aqui, which is a Mexican restaurant with a southwest flare. The menu included burritos, tacos and other typical fare, but with a little twist. For instance, my chicken burrito had slaw and barbecue sauce in it. My friends knew pretty much everything on the menu, and said they eat there at least once a week. The burrito was good, as was the roasted tomato salsa I had with some tortilla chips. The salsa was perfectly mild for me, but quite tasty.

Once again, I ate only half of my meal - this time to save room for a dessert at a little place around the corner called Satura Cakes. The place had cookies, donuts, truffles and a bunch of fancy little desserts. I got a New York NY cheesecake souffle. It was light and fluffy, and delicious. And since we had to walk a few blocks to and from my friends' apartments to get downtown, I didn't feel so bad about all the eating out.

My friends have already listed a whole bunch of other places in Campbell they want to take me to eat, so I am sure I will have Resolution No. 2 done well before the end of the year. And hopefully, I will get to introduce my other friend to a couple other good local eats, even if it doesn't move me closer to completing a resolution.

Of course, this morning before I could warm up my leftover breakfast my dad got to it and ate it all. I went back to my normal eating routine by having a piece of toast.



Photo by Melissa Flores

The New York NY Cheesecake souffle from Satura Cakes in downtown Campbell.

Web sites to track just about anything

In the last couple of months I've started using a few new Web sites - some more useful than others. One can be used to track the places I've been, though with my good memory I can pretty much do that on my own. One helps me track my spending and budget my money, which I had been doing with excel. Another helps me track how many miles I'm logging at the gym.

A friend of mine told me about Foursquare, an app you can download to your phone so that you can "check in" at different places. The goal is to unlock badges and to compete to by "mayor" by having the highest number of check ins. For instance, I am "mayor" of my gym, Snap Fitness, with 78 check ins in the last Foursquare can be connected to facebook or twitter so other people can see all the places you've been. The program uses gps to locate places that are nearby, but users can also search for a specific place if it doesn't come up. And they can add new locations if one is not listed.

For a couple of weeks, I connected my foursquare account to facebook and probably really annoyed my friends with all the udpates about where I was. But I quickly realized that the foursquare updates would make a perfect storyline for an episode of "Law and Order: SVU," where victims are stalked based on their online posts. I wasn't really worried about someone stalking me, but a former boss did caution me to be careful so for his peace of mind I made my posts private.

The only people who can see the posts are a couple of friends who use it, too. I used to log in a lot in the first month I used it. But I have to admit, I don't really see the point of it. I mostly just check in at the gym in the morning.

But another site I've started using as proved a lot more useful. Someone mentioned mint.com to me and suggested I use it as a resource to track money flow. And then one of my best friends recommended it to me, too, so I signed up. The way the site works is that users connect their checking, savings and credit card accounts on a mint. It makes it really easy to put together a budget for different types of expenses - gas, clothing, food, rent - and it breaks it all out for users. I've been using it for about two months - and it's made me more aware of how I spend my money. A lot of it goes to student loan payments, and lately a lot of it has been going to wedding-related expenses for my cousin's recent wedding and a friend's wedding later this month.

The site is really easy to use and it e-mails you if you go over your budget for any category or with weekly updates.

I've also recently started using dailymile - like really recently as in yesterday. The same friend who told me about the other sites mentioned this as he set a goal for himself of running 100 miles by August. while I have no such lofty goal as that, I thought it would be a nice way to track how much I walk and run, as well as give some motivation for increasing my pace.

So far, I've tracked three workouts - and I am including my daily walk with the dog - and it will be interesting to see how many miles I can rack up.

Too much to confess after a month off from blog

It's been nearly a month since I blogged last, and I've come to think that getting away from a blog is a little bit like skipping confession. The longer you put it off, the harder it is to get back to it because the pile of items to share just keeps growing. So I have decided I will recommit to my blog - though I am going to put off that confession thing a little bit longer.

A lot can happen in a month. I've made some progress with some of my New Year's Resolution - two more books read - and I've digressed on some others - the trip to Denver is off.

I attended two bachelorette parties, a bridal shower, a wedding and flew to Indianapolis for a weekend.

I got my first French manicure before the wedding and it lasted less than 24 hours before it started to chip.

I wore a floor-length strapless gown for the first time and I hope to avoid ever doing it again.

I had my hair curled for the first time since junior high school and though people told me it looked amazing, the can of hairspray to keep it in place meant it didn't feel so amazing.

I served as maid of honor for the first time at my cousin's wedding and I think I did a decent job of being supportive of the bride up to the very last minute - my last duty of the night was making sure her teenage son made it back to his room and didn't get too crazy for the night. My highlight of the night was giving my maid of honor toast, which made everyone laugh and tear up, my goal while I was writing it.

I've won two awards, one from the California Newspaper Publisher's Association Better Newspaper Contest (second place for investigative reporting), and another from the Association of California School Administrators, District 10 (for media coverage of the year.

All in all, it's been a pretty good month. I will expand on some of these items in the coming weeks - though I do have one more trip to Indiana planned at the end of the month for the other wedding in which I am part of the bridal party.