Daiso

We finally took a trip to Daiso Japan in Union City last weekend, and it did not disappoint. It's a pretty big store with just about everything you can think of and most everything is $1.50. They've got housewares, office supplies, garden stuff, craft supplies, holiday decorations, drugstore-type stuff, candy, etc., etc., etc. We scored some pretty great stocking stuffers, along with a few things for ourselves like handkerchiefs, a wall hanging, a card game that we don't know how to play because all the instructions are in Japanese and I got a nylon sack to carry my leather purses in when it rains. I would say that it is definitely worth a trip, even if you don't buy anything.

Christmas Wish List

There are a lot of things that I would love to get for Christmas. Most of which I would never get in a million years, but for the heck of it, here is my ultimate wish list in no particular order:

Anthro Corrigan Chair, $1,998

I have been in love with the chair for a good few months now. It's amazing. Too bad it's two grand.

Anthro Astrid Chair, $1,298

Same here.

Anthro Crowned Crane Duvet, $348

The photo really doesn't do it justice, and I go insane over it every time I see it in the store.

Roost Carved Wood Deer Head, $649

I have wanted one of these for about two years now. I think they are so cool.

LeSportsac Erika in Pixel Rose Print, $68

I am kind of obsessed with LeSportsacs, and I love this new print.

Elizabeth & James Randi Suete Button Flats, $235

Love, love, love. I would wear these with everything.

Ugg Lo Pro Boots with Drawstring, $140

A nice alternative to regular Uggs. Would still like to see them in person though.

Loeffler Randall Matilde Flat Boot in Chocolate Anaconda Embossed Leather, $775

I waited and waited and waited for a sale on the Black Matilde boots last year, and finally got them. I love them. Then I waited and waited for another sale on the Cuoio color and love them even more. I have worn them so many times. I don't know if I could pull off the embossed leather, but I think these rock.

J.Crew Toscana Shearling Earmuffs, $98

These are adorable, big enough to fully cover your ears and look incredibly warm.

Anthro Laced Dots Sweater by Karen Nicol, $128

Love this sweater - so cute, but they are sold out of my size online.

Marc by Marc Jacobs Ikat Check Blouse, $228

Love the colors, sleeves and the ruffle detail.

Joie Steffie B Embroidered Top, $188

I am a little afraid of anything this sheer, but I think I have some things that I could wear under it. I think it would be so cute under just about any sweater.

Dolce Vita Hope Dress, $176

This dress seems like it could be a staple item.

International Orange Spa Membership, $299 per month

I would die if I could get two massages, a facial, and 30% off products every month. Omfg!

MasterPieces Puzzle Roll Up, $14

I really love doing puzzles, but hate having them sit on the table while they're in progress. I think I would do more puzzles if we had this.

Disneyland Holiday Trip Review

We just got back from spending a few days at Disneyland for Thanksgiving and there is a lot to discuss!

In terms of food, we tried a couple of new places. The first was Storytellers Cafe in the Grand Californian. We tried their buffet which was pretty good, I'd give it an 8 out of 10. Extra points go to the fact that it is an actual restaurant. Normally we're not picky but since we were celebrating a birthday it was nice to have a sit-down meal. The restaurant is nice and the food was good, but I would have liked it to be hotter. I tried the Caesar Salad, Mac & Cheese, Chicken nuggets (supposed to be for kids), Tortellini and Flatbread Pizza. There was also NY Steak, regular salad, scalloped potatoes, cooked carrots and a custom pizza station that I did not see until after we were done and I was bummed. They had some good looking desserts, but nothing that's as good as what you can get in the park so I skipped, though I tasted the bread pudding which was good. The salad and flatbread were the best and what I went back for seconds for. It was really not cheap, but I'd go there again on a special occasion. I heard a woman at the table next to us complain that it wasn't 'grown up food', but that didn't bother me. Probably because I like kids' food.

We also tried the all-elusive Studio Catering cart at DCA. For cripes sake, we have seen this sandwich cart open once before in the past year and it was finally open on Thursday. I love sandwiches, and I have been wanting to try this place for a long time. It's in the Hollywood Backlot which explains why it is never open, but still. It was definitely NOT worth the wait. The sandwiches were premade, which I suspected, but what I had did not taste good. We ordered the turkey club which didn't have any bacon on it btw, so it was pretty much a turkey sandwich. It was so refrigerated that it didn't taste like anything and the cole slaw it came with was not good. I will stick with the nachos at White Water Snacks - SO good. On a side note, we also had the Holiday Gingerbread Cookie and Snowman Shortbread Cookie - both kicked ass. Also, we recently discovered the Cinnamon Crisp at the Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Square, and it is sooo good! And, we stopped by the tortilla factory for the complementary birthday bag of tortillas, which has been downsized to three instead of like 10. Lame! At least it was a flour tortilla day.

Something we were looking forward to was seeing the Thanksgiving Day Parade. We saw it on our trip last year and it was an awesome. And by awesome I mean 10 people walking and waving and a float with Mickey and the presidential pardoned turkey in a clear box. I think the president of the Turkey Council was there or something too. The best part about this was on Wednesday when we asked a cast member working the Holiday Parade if he knew when the parade would be on Thursday:

Us: "Do you know what time the Thanksgiving parade is tomorrow?"

CM: "Um, we don't have one."

Us: "You had one last year, with the presidential pardoned turkey."

CM: "Um, we have a Holiday parade."

We had this same conversation with three other cast members. Then we checked the web later and, of course, it showed that the parade was at 10 am. Whatever! It did not disappoint.

We rode the Matterhorn and they were doing the self-seating thing they sometimes do just on that ride. I have never understood why they do this. Guests place themselves in the rows so of course everyone is riding by themselves and there are hella empty cars going out while two cast members are standing around watching butterflies. It makes the line go way slower and doesn't make any sense to me.

They now have these hand sanitizing stations all over the place. Apparently washing your hands is too much to ask of people. Oh well, I know it is better than nothing but it is weird seeing people use them and I think hand sanitizer smells really bad.

My favorite Christmas ride is the Haunted Mansion. We rode that about 10 times.

Also, we had to upgrade our Deluxe Annual Passes to Premium to be able to get in on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You can also pay $30 a day instead of upgrading, but for two people we figured it would be better to just upgrade. Anyway, apparently they raised the cost of the passes since we last renewed ours, which was annoying. But the worst part was that, since we renewed early we saved $20 on each pass, so when we upgraded to Premium, they made us pay the extra $20 each that we saved up front. I think that is such a ripoff. Who cares what we paid? I think we should have been charged whatever the difference is between the Deluxe and Premium pass is now. It doesn't seem right to charge someone the difference between what they paid and what the pass is now worth. And the fact that they charge you the $20 you saved for renewing up front is totally whack. Holy crap, could they nickel and dime you any more? It's like, were you going to send me a bill for the price difference when you raised the price of the passes? No! I was pissed about that.

We also had quite a few celeb sightings on Friday. We saw Giuliana from E! with her husband Bill the Apprentice, Greg Kinnear and Sean Astin. In the past we have seen Jay Mohr, Dax, Maria Shriver and Adam Sandler there too.

We may go again on New Years Eve - if so, more reviews to come!

James Franco on General Hospital

I do NOT like soaps, but I think James Franco is really funny and cool so I am very intrigued by this. I heard about it a while ago, and after seeing a promo for it the other day, I may just have to record an episode to see what it's all about.

Snuggie for Dogs

I don't really know what to say about this except that it is awesome. And by awesome I mean completely insane. I suggest watching the video on their website.

Christmas

I sure do love Christmastime! I know it's a little early for most people to think about, but I don't like anything about Thanksgiving except the long weekend, so it's easy for me to just ignore that and start thinking about Christmas. Some of the things I find most exciting:

• Decorations - Crate and Barrel and Anthropologie have the best I've seen so far this year:

• Christmas Movies - Some of the best, in my opinion: Home Alone, Elf, Christmas Vacation, Love Actually, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story and The Santa Clause.
• Holiday Beverages - I really love the Caramel Apple Cider at Starbucks. A little too much. The red cups are also a bonus of course.

• Disneyland - I really like their Christmas decor and the snow on Main Street, even though it is totally cheesy.
• Christmas Music - Most Christmas music is pretty bad I admit, but I'd say one of the coolest Christmas albums I've heard lately is Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas. I really like this album and there are a lot of songs on it.

Wingstop

I really love chicken strips. Or tenders, whatever you want to call them. I first heard about Wingstop when they put one in at the shopping center by the airport. It sounded really gross and I really hate chicken wings because I don't like the bones or touching my food. But a while ago, I heard from a pretty reliable source that it is actually good and they have boneless chicken strips! Well, I finally tried it and let me tell you, it was good! I had the boneless strips with the mild sauce and their seasoned fries and cole slaw. I really shouldn't be eating that kind of stuff right now but oh well! The chicken and the fries were great, I was really impressed. So were their sauces. There was nothing special about the cole slaw, but it was pretty complementary to the rest of the food. The seasoning on the fries was really good, I think they use a little bit of sugar which I really liked, but I don't think everyone would like that. I believe you can ask for the fries without seasoning, though. And they were fresh-cut fries which I love.

It's not exactly the classiest place (at least the location I went to on San Pablo in Oakland), so I would never dine-in there. Note the pic below. I took my food home with me and it traveled well.

And for the -1 people that read my other blog, I am probably going to be posting those photos on this blog from now on since I'm having trouble keeping up with it. I have a few pretty sweet signs that I want to get pics of, so hopefully I will be able to post those soon!

Disneyland Trip Highlights & Reviews

We went to Disneyland for the Halloween weekend and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we were so exhausted from being so busy lately that we had to take four hour naps in the middle of the two days we were there. But the park was open until midnight so it wasn't a really big deal.

Now to review the new Halloween Time additions. They have a new Halloween fireworks show that sucked. The best part is the first two minutes when it's Nightmare Before Christmas themed, but the rest was so lame. The music in the fireworks shows and parades is always so bad, I don't know who's in charge of that department but they need to do something about that.

Also, they themed Space Mountain as "Ghost Galaxy" for Halloween. Wow, it was so awful I can't even describe how shitty it was. They projected these shitty looking ghosts in the dark that I think were supposed to be scary or some shit. It's right up there with when they did Rockin' Space Mountain which was basically Space Mountain with the lights on and some crappy song playing. I swear the ghosts looked like they were from the Mummy ride at Universal Studios.

In terms of other new things, they have a new restaurant in DCA that serves (I guess) Asian food. I think it's about time since they had that huge Chinese restaurant over at the Cannery Row area that just never opened. It's where the Mexican place used to be, and the Mexican place moved over to where the empty Chinese place used to be. Whatever. Anyway, they only serve rice bowls where you basically choose your meat (chicken, beef, tofu) and then your sauce (teriyaki, coconut curry, orange, spicy Korean). I tired a bite of the teriyaki and coconut curry and neither was very good. The sauce was oily and not very flavorful.

Fantasmic also has a new dragon which is a big deal since the last time we saw it they didn't even have a dragon. Wtf?! It was so disappointing when the witch goes up on the platform and...doesn't change into anything. Annoying! And, btw, the dragon was totally on all their posters and stuff for their summer advertising campaign. Anyway, the new dragon is kind of cool, it's really big and it's actually the full dragon's body, which is different than before. But, I don't think I like it as much because it's really robotic looking. It didn't really seem to fit to me. But it breathes fire which is of course the best and most important part.

Also, the Disney Gallery has moved to it's permanent (I think) location on Main Street where the bank used to be. I like that location a lot better than when it was above Pirates of the Caribbean because it's a lot easier to move around in there and it's actually open all the time. I think we had the most notable experience of the trip there. We bought a giclee print of one of Shag's Haunted Mansion paintings called Ghoulish Delights. I really like his Haunted Mansion stuff, it's as good as when he did the Tiki Room stuff, if not better. Anyway, they had two different giclee prints available, and we had a hard time deciding but eventually went with Ghoulish Delights (the red one below). Do you think we made the right decision? It comes with a really cool frame and I can't wait to get it in the mail later this week. Anyway, it was cool because we had a 20% off coupon from renewing our Annual Passes and a shitload of Disney Rewards points that we get from our Disney Visa, so we didn't have to pay any of our own cash for it. But, what I really wanted to mention is how completely inept the staff at the Disney Gallery is. I mean, really some of the lamest people I've ever seen and some of the worst service I've ever received. I think we spent at least 30 minutes just in the checkout process and the employees there clearly had no idea of what the hell was going on.

So, not the best review of Halloween Time but we still had a great time. We're going back later this month for Thanksgiving weekend, that will be fun.

Haagen-Dazs

...Frozen Yogurt and five ice cream are SO yummy! The best froyo flavors we've tried are the Dulce de Leche, Vanilla Rasperry and Vanilla Honey & Granola. We also recently tried the five Brown Sugar flavor and it was really great. They're not super-low calorie, but they're really not bad considering how good they are. Totally worth it!

At the Movies

I am really feeling the need to discuss something that has become socially acceptable that I really don't understand. Since when is it okay to ask people to move down at the movies so that everyone in their group can sit in your row together? I CANNOT stand that. Last night we went to a movie and when we sat down, there was one seat between me and the people next to me, and two seats between Matt and the people next to him. When the movie was about 10 minutes away, this girl comes up and asks us if we can move down two seats so she and her two friends could sit together. Wtf? There were a shitload of seats available, but they just wanted to sit in our row. So then, at this point, we're practically in the middle of the row which I hate because I like to sit on or as close to the aisle as possible so I can leave easily during the movie in case I need to go to the bathroom or get a refill or something. Then, just before the movie starts, some woman goes to the end of our row and starts shouting and asking everyone to move down one seat so that she and her husband could sit together on their date night. Like 10 people were going to have to move down. We ignored her and I think the people next to us did too. I feel like once in a while this is acceptable if the theater is really packed and there really are no seats available and the previews have already started and you just want people to sit down and stop pacing up and down the stairs. But when there's a ton of empty seats and people just want to sit in a certain row? I really think that's NOT ok. I really wish we had a movie theater with assigned seating here.

Cupkates

We were on Fourth Street the other day and the Cupkates truck was there. I've been wanting to try their cupcakes since I first heard about them, so I was really excited. We tried their S'mores and Vanilla flavors and both were good, but the S'mores was pretty awesome. It had marshmallow on top, a chocolate cupcake and a graham cracker crust on the bottom. Yum! The only problem was that when we asked for a fork, they told us they didn't have any. Why? Because the city of Berkeley won't let them. Of course. Apparently you can't have any eating utensils, even if they are disposable, in your food service truck if you don't have a dishwasher. Whatever. I really, really, really hate Berkeley.

Hoarders

Since there's pretty much nothing on TV on Saturday nights and we only have Tivo in our living room, we resorted to seeing what On Demand had to offer last night. We came across Hoarders, a show that profiles people with hoarding disease, and man is it fucked up to watch. Seriously, it's so freaky and sad that it's almost unwatchable, but we couldn't tear ourselves away. The creepiest one was probably the cat lady, who not only had a house full of shit, but took in a crapload of cats who pretty much all ended up having babies in her house. Basically, she lost track of how many cats she actually had because there was so much shit in her house, and her neighbors ended up calling Animal Control on her. They came and got as many cats as they could find out of her house and they took 80 cats away and - get this - half of them were dead. As in, they found a bunch of cat skeletons. SO fucked! Another profile was about a compulsive shopper mom whose kids got taken away from her because of the unsanitary living conditions in her home. When the people came to clean out her house for her, she was going through all the crap and couldn't bear to part with a Slurpee cup. Yeah. And after she pretty much had her entire house cleaned out for her, she still didn't have her kids back six months later because she still hadn't parted with the 1400 boxes of shit she was supposed to get rid of that was in storage. Holy crap, it was crazy.

If you're okay with watching situations that make you really uncomfortable, I'd give Hoarders a try. But don't watch it late at night because after watching it, I couldn't fall asleep!

The Blue Angels kick ass!

Don't get me wrong, I'm way too lazy to go anywhere near San Francisco during fleet week, but one of the benefits of working in the city, is for the few days leading up to fleet week, the Blue Angels fucking strafe my office. It's super loud and pretty disturbing, but so awesome at the same time. It's insane to think of the stuff that they do, and it's pretty cool to see the underside of their planes just a few hundred feet over our heads. Here's to forced nationalism, the glorification of warfare, and flying really fucking fast.

Halloween Costumes

I'm someone that really appreciates a good Halloween costume and sometimes the bad ones are just as entertaining. Take the slutty Gryffindor student for example. Who would have thought that someone would think to make THAT into a trashy costume? And they even managed to make a slutty schoolgirl dog costume which I think is pretty funny. Then of course you have the kid dressed as a donkey and the bear with...its legs cut off? Not sure what that's all about.

Man Shops Globe

I was so stoked to find Man Shops Globe on On Demand. It's a show about Anthropologie's buyer at large Keith Johnson who goes to flea markets and fairs to gather their 'found' objects for their stores and catalogs. It's such a fun show and makes me want to shop SO badly! I've said for a long time that if I had unlimited funds I would totally re-furnish my house exclusively from Anthropologie. They have awesome housewares, furniture, art, bedding, etc. The show premieres on the Sundance Channel on 10/7 at 10 pm, but you can watch episodes On Demand before they air. Cool!

The bed below was featured in the first episode - after Keith bought it in France they reproduced it and are now selling it.

Our little buddy

Bookshelf Ideas

I saw this bookshelf on another blog and thought it was really cool. We have a ton of large coffee table books but we also have a lot of small paperbacks. Right now they're all on the same bookshelf and we don't have the space for another one to store our larger books this way, but I would love to be able to do something like this someday. I especially like this setup because I'm really into white furniture right now. I've always thought it would be fun to have a bookshelf that is just as much about home decor as it is storage. I once saw a magazine feature on someone's home (I think it might have been Michael Kors?) and he arranged his books by the color of their spine. It looked SO cool. Not exactly the easiest way to find your books, but who cares? It was awesome.

Leather Jackets

I've been eyeing a S.W.O.R.D leather jacket on shopbop for about a year now, and it's been the only one I've found that is both stylish and has what I really want - a ribbed collar, sleeves and bottom. But the other day I saw an amazing one in the J.Crew catalog that fits the same criteria. I don't exactly have the cash for either of them, but it's fun to ponder which one I would buy if I did.

Grey Croc Mini Nikki

I'm really obsessed with Rebecca Minkoff's Limited Edition Nikki Bag in grey croc-embossed leather. I totally love the resin handle. I don't think I'm going to buy it but I kind of wish they made it in the full-size version because I think the mini might be a little on the small side. I have the full size Nikki in black with gold studs and love it. Here's a pic of the grey version with silver studs.

Lady Gaga

This is way after the fact, but I must say that I did not realize just how cool Lady Gaga was. Before the VMAs I didn't know much about her, but then I saw her performance where she started bleeding from the stomach and I thought that was so cool.

American Idiot the Musical

So, we saw the American Idiot musical over the weekend, which is a pretty big deal given 1) our obsession with Green Day and 2) the fact that we hardly ever go out. It took me a song or two to really get into it, but after that I was totally on board. The only thing I didn't really love was that it was at the Berkeley Rep, which is actually a super cool theater, but I truly hate Berkeley residents. Really, they're all assholes. But if you live in the Bay Area, see the musical. It's worth it.