Brunch buffet

Charlotte York and I met up for brunch at a Southern-style restaurant that serves a mean Sunday buffet yesterday. I gobbled up some fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, a few potatoes and grits!

I fully intended to shove more food in my mouth, but we ended up engrossed in conversation for more than two hours, during which time we received several carafes of water and a few reminders from the waitress that we hadn't paid yet.

It was great catching up with Charlotte York and I'm proud of my own restraint at the buffet line. Not filling my tummy certainly made for a better workout afterward, but a missed opportunity when you consider the value proposition of a buffet.

Leftover land

One of the downsides to hosting Thanksgiving is being stuck with a refrigerator filled with Thanksgiving leftovers. I guess some might consider this a benefit, but when you're already approximately 10 ell-beez overweight, this is definitely a curse! Plus, I personally have no self-control so I've been stuffing my face at every chance I get!

Despite being saddled with all the carbs, Thanksgiving was a success! Puppy deserves major props for roasting a juicy, flavor-filled turkey and we had sides galore. Even though people ate with plates on laps, my family seemed to enjoy Thanksgiving in a cozy city dwelling. Gramps made a new friend in Victor Kiriakis (feeding the cat will definitely place you in his favor) and my neighbors probably have a new "appreciation" for my father's karaoke prowess.

The next day, I was exhausted and broken. I felt a little bit sick, but my back was in very poor condition, I think from vacuuming and cleaning all day. Someone really should consider making vacuums, mops and brooms for taller people.

Double entendre

I wonder if the producers, writers, etc. of Glee intended for the name of their high school choir group, New Directions, to sound like "nude erections."

We come in peace, always

We're just four episodes into the series V and now we have to wait until March 2010 for the next installment? Two weeks ago, I would have said, "meh," but last night's episode finally gave us a glimpse into the aliens' lives aboard the New York mothership.

Even though I didn't get to see any of the visitors eat cats, guinea pigs or humans, I'm starting to enjoy this show more. I'm hoping it continues to improve and that we'll get to see a modern-day version of the "starchild" with which I was so obsessed in the 1980s.

Save the children

Remember those commercials from the 1980s and 1990s where Sally Struthers implored viewers to help disadvantaged children in developing countries? You know, the ones where she is covered with dozens of malnourished children while she weeps into the camera lens? The ones that taught you that, for the same amount of money you spend on your morning coffee, you could feed and clothe a child, send him/her to school, ensure he/she as a home and a robust collection of G.I. Joe or Barbie dolls?

Well, I was reading a passage in an article that made me think of those commercials:

In the late 1990s, several child sponsorship organizations amended their disclosures after a series of articles in The Chicago Tribune revealed that while they were soliciting money to sponsor a specific needy child, that child was not necessarily receiving the money directly.

Then I remembered the time I called my parents from college and learned that, in an effort to enhance my sister's "community service" credentials, my mother adopted a little Filipina girl named Benalyn in her name. Benalyn's photo stared despondently from our computer keyboard for several years, and I suppose my mother continued to send money to her (or, to an organization that purported to help her) while my sister was in high school.

My friends and I dreamed of the day that Benalyn would show up in California, seeking to be reunited with her generous new mother from the Western world. My sister would be so proud of her young, disadvantaged, Tagalog-speaking daughter and we would all weep with joy at young Benalyn's high school graduation, taking pride in the fact that Lil' Sis' Panda!!!! had given her a second chance at life. We would lovingly embrace her at her extravagant wedding in the US and we would brag when she achieved a top position in Corporate America.

Alas, I wonder what happened to Benalyn and how many other families shared this dream.

F is for fat

I was really impressed/depressed by the movie Precious the other night. It's such an unnerving story and made me want to know more about the protagonist. I may even read the book!

There's all sorts of Oscar buzz surrounding the movie and its stars. Mo'Nique did an impressive job of leaving behind her comedic persona and becoming the devil. But her voice is so distinct that I kept hearing her as the headmistress from the original season of Charm School. "Thank you, Darra, for coming out dressed as air."

Groceries galore

Puppy and I woke up early yesterday to get our shop on. We wanted to beat the Thanksgiving crowds and get all our groceries for the big night this week!

Since I'm new to this hosting thing, it never really occurred to me how expensive Thanksgiving can be! Partly, it's my fault for insisting on a free range turkey and high-quality sides. We spent a small fortune and I had to track down some truffle butter, but I'm hopeful it will be worth it.

Ironically, my refrigerator is now filled with food, but there's nothing for me to eat! Stocking up on Thanksgiving food is such a tease!

SFFD

I was understandably excited when the man behind me in line to order sandwiches yesterday asked if I was in the fire department. He and his equally homeless-looking ladyfriend kept asking, "Are you sure you're not in the fire department? You look like a firefighter."

I let them know that I am not nearly brave enough to be a firefighter, and that got them cracking up uncontrollably. "Not brave enough! You hear that? He say he not brave enough!"

And away...

I finally sat down to watch UP last night and I loved it! What a sweet, touching, fun movie. It really makes me wish I had seen it in theaters with 3-D effects.

While cartoony in nature, there definitely were parts that didn't seem right for the little kiddies.

Carnivorous

Puppy and I met up with Hellenica for a little catch-up dinner last night and I was shocked when she announced she was ordering a burger! This is my same friend who's been a staunch and adamant vegetarian for the past two decades. She made her father declare half of the backyard grill a "meat-free" zone! Even at her family's annual Greek Easter party (where there are several lambs roasting on spits), she only ate moussaka and hummus-type stuff.

I was impressed. It took a while, but she finally came to her senses!

I play real sports. Not tryin' to be the best at exercising.

Due to my mortgage, I gave up premium cable about a year ago. Sad. So, I'm late to the table when it comes to Eastbound & Down, which Puppy and I started watching recently.

If you're not familiar with the series, HBO describes the show thusly:

Relief Pitcher Kenny Powers was poised to rule the Big Leagues, but two things got in the way: his fading fastball and his insufferable personality. After a spectacular career flame-out, Kenny came home to Shelby County, NC and picked up a job as a substitute gym teacher (mostly so his brother Dustin would stop threatening to kick him out). He's spent every moment since then cashing in the last of his dying fame while plotting his inevitable comeback... one beer at a time.

And it. Is. HILARIOUS! I'm only two episodes in, but I'm totally hooked! The things that come out of his mouth. Sheesh!

The W in WPK

I was so excited for Amanda Woodward's return on Melrose Place last night! And even though her face now barely moves, it was comforting to hear her sassy voice in the MP mix again.

Last night's episode was also further evidence that the producers did the right thing in firing Ashlee Simpson from her role as Violet. It was painful - painful - but funny to watch her attempts at being sexy and seductive. More like awkward and desperate. On second thought, she does bring some comic relief to the show!

Holiday stress

With Thanksgiving next week and Christmas shortly after, I'm starting to break out in hives from the holiday season. This year, my aunt is unable to host Thanksgiving, a tradition that dates back at least a decade, and somehow, my mother tricked me into hosting Thanksgiving for our extended family at my home.

True, several family members will be out of town, but I've never had 12 people over at the same time and I've certainly never had to cook for that many people before! It doesn't help that work has been heating up and I need to build various cases to get budget for the next fiscal year right about now.

I've been looking through recipes and consulting with Puppy about what is easily cooked when you're limited by having only one oven which will be reserved for a gigantic turkey. And each time, my heart races and I start to sweat a little, which is probably a good thing because I haven't been to the gym in eons.

And now that I'm house-poor, I'm going to research some artsy-and-crafty gifts for Christmas.

Car service

For dinner tonight, I went to a really lovely restaurant with two former co-workers who are also in town for The Nonprofit's conference. We asked our hotel to order us up a taxi and learned that it would be 15-20 minutes. After approximately 45 minutes, we were still waiting and the poor hotel boy (a Cornell student) kept calling the taxi company with no luck.

Finally, he offered to drive us to the resaurant in the hotel's big white van. It was very kind of him and it was the sort of above-and-beyond service that you don't really experience much these days.

After our meal, we were in the same predicament. Our restaurant couldn't get through to the taxi dispatcher and a waitress, a very kind, soft-spoken woman from Beijing, offered to drive us back to the hotel on her way home. We were the last people in the restaurant and it was clear they wanted us out, but again, such a phenomenally kind gesture!

And thank goodness for these acts of kindness because otherwise, we probably would have had to settle for the hotel restaurant!

Live tweetie

After I did my duty, appearing on a panel about my worky, The Nonprofit's conference closed with an interesting and engaging keynote plenary. As I sat in my chair, I started fiddling with my phone and tried my hand at live tweeting.

It was sort of distracting for me to type and listen at the same time, but I found it rather addictive. I was read what others at the conference were tweeting and found that my followers grew as I shared my own perspective.

Toward the end of the session, someone proposed a tweetup, but I wasn't brave enough to meet the live tweeters in person.

Just a baby panda

Internets, today was a long day. After only 4-5 hours of sleep, I dragged myself to The Nonprofit's board meeting, which found approximately 20 of us cooped up in a room from 8:30am to 6:00pm, with only a 30 minute break before re-convening for a board dinner.

While I honestly enjoy my fellow board members, I am not very good at all-day marathon meetings. And it's especially hard to keep up with such a smart and distinguished group of people. I think I'm the youngest member of our board (Although one of the newer members may be slightly younger.), but I'm definitely at the lower end of the experience spectrum.

At one point, the two men seated on either side of me were bantering back and forth about who was older when one turned to ask how old I was. When I told them, they both groaned and declared that I'm a baby!

One of our newest board members mentioned that his daughter attended my alma mater and when I let him know of my affiliation, we realized that his daughter is a mere four years younger than me. He was kind of shocked that I was serving on the board, only 11 years after my undergrad experience.

I don't usually mind being mistaken for young, especially since I feel so old, but it's tough to maintain credibility when you don't have the experience or at least the air of experience about you. I know it really shouldn't matter, but I just feel like it does. I guess I should enjoy it before I'm one of the geezers.

Ithaca is gorges

I traveled all day and just arrived in Ithaca, NY for The Nonprofit's annual convention. I'm looking forward to the next few days' activities and to catching up with old friends, but sweet jeebus I've become a weather wimp! It's 28 degrees and I feel like I might develop frostbite!

Reality star

I just got off the phone with a television producer who's developing a 13-part series with TLC. The show will feature different technology and companies that are having a positive impact on our planet. My name and company came up as a result of the Corporate Citizenship Report we launched last week.

At first, I was kind of excited at the prospect of joining the ranks of Jon Gosselin and the Duggar Family as a TLC reality star, but it quickly became clear that this was a "pay-to-play" proposition and that they were looking for us to fork over some cash-money in exchange for being featured on the show.

I guess I won't be earning a living by looking pensive like the ladies of The Hills or shopping like a Real Housewife any time soon. Sad.

Lipstick

Dyson and his boyfriend cooked us a delicious four-course dinner the other night, fattening us up with amazingly yummy bleu cheese potatoes and other scrumptious dishes. It was also the first time I've had the pleasure of meeting their two little dachshunds, one of which kept getting very excited and showing off his lipstick!

Karaoke auntie

A few nights ago, my dad's eldest sister passed away after battling cancer for the past few years. Even though her prognosis had been grim, she slipped away much more suddenly than anyone expected, suggesting that maybe she decided it was her time.

My dad's side of the family is full of loud, boisterous characters who compete for attention, eat with abandon and are constantly laughing. Clearly, I inherited some of these traits. My aunt, in particular, was one of the louder, more happy-go-lucky of the clan and she was always the life of the party.

One of my clearest memories of her is at my grandmother's old apartment in Hong Kong where she and my father were belting out tunes on a home karaoke machine. Neither cared that they could have used an auto-tune and both were having a great time, just enjoying each other's company and singing into the night.

Due to my work schedule, I'm sad that I'll miss the funeral in a few days, but I'm glad we were all able to gather a few months ago in Vancouver when my cousin got married. She was in bright spirits during that trip, obviously weak from chemo, but definitely stronger than I had expected. Whether it was simply a brave face or a particularly positive period doesn't matter. She still managed to shine amongst the dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins who had gathered for the weekend.

Birthday bonanza

My head hurts a little from overdrinking last night, having gone to three different birthday parties in one evening. First up was Lezzie P's birthday party which was conveniently located at a nearby bar and conveniently scheduled for early in the evening. All the usual suspects were there, and Mahogany Sparkle made his presence known by sitting on a table and upsetting everyone's drinks! Apparently, he was so mortified by this that he left the party early.

But not as early as Puppy and I left because we went to one of his co-worker's birthday party. An event where I felt super old since everyone was Lil' Bro' Panda!!!!'s age and one of them even went to elementary school with him. This party was marked by lots of food and party hats! Puppy selected a jungle themed party hat and we made our way to the third party of the night.

It was Swimsation's birthday celebration and she immediately took a shining to Puppy's tiger hat and claimed it as her own. We continued to poison our bodies, bought the birthday gal a whiskey sour and returned to Lezzie P's party, where only Roommates A&J, GarGar and Lezzies N&P remained.

I'm proud of myself for making it to all three parties, in different parts of the city. Usually, when faced with so many options, at least one goes unattended.

Fundraising, grazing, hellraising

After work, a colleague and I went to a nearby hotel for an AIDS fundraiser. Puppy and VALedictorian met me there, and we played their little fundraising game. They'd opened a few of the hotel's theme rooms and each person was encouraged to visit the rooms, bid on items in a silent auction, drink cocktails and get a little card highlighted for a goody bag.

One room was themed "Kathy Griffin," because she stayed there or something. I admit it seemed like a pretty plain room to me, but boasted a photo of her wearing nearly nothing on the desk.

Another room was "Haagen Dazs" and had its own freezer of ice creamy treats, a branded bedspread and delicious smelling Haagen Dazs candles. More importantly, it featured a very generous wine pourer who kept refilling our glasses with bubbly wine without asking us for our drink tickets! We stayed in there for a while.

As we made our way through the hotel, I randomly ran into Hellenica, who was also supporting the cause. Later, during the drag show entertainment portion of the fundraiser, I saw Clipper and accosted him to learn more about his fairly new porn career.

The drag show was pretty boring, as most seem to be, so VALedictorian, Puppy and I made our way to dinner at the recently opened Burger Bar, which also was a sad disappointment. But we made it into a fun time, and we ostensibly were there to celebrate VALedictorian's birthday, so we each scarfed down an alcohol-filled milkshake in addition to our mediocre burgers. Since VALedictorian is single and on the prowl, we had a fun time encouraging her to hook up with everyone in sight, including our 12-year-old waiter with limited serving ability.

Team lunch

My boss-lady thinks our team has been working totes hard, so she scheduled a team outing today. Lunch, followed by a movie.

When we couldn't agree on a movie (One of us wouldn't see This Is It, another had already seen Where the Wild Things Are, I refused to see Saw VI), the outing turned into lunch, then a trip to the MoMA.

So, we dutifully packed up our stuff and headed to Anchor & Hope, home of one of my favorite restaurant murals in the city, and we had a really good meal. I didn't realize that JJ Crackers works at the bar several times a week, so now I have a new place to visit, should the happy hour urge call to me!

But after lunch, each of us was feeling kind of overwhelmed by the work that still needs tending to, so we returned to the office. Sort of a sad team outing.

Another company, another report

Yesterday was a busy day, thanks to the release of the company's Corporate Citizenship Report, a little website I've been working on for nearly a year. It's the third such report I've worked on, but the first one for my new company.

This time, being the panda in charge, I've been able to implement some ideas that my last company balked at, and hopefully they won't cost me my job. So far, I've done a little itty-bitty media bit, but otherwise it's been crickets chirping. Unlike the last company, my current employer doesn't garner that much press (despite being 10 times larger), so it's been tough to gauge the reaction. Mostly, because there is none!

Since there was such a lack of fanfare, we decided to create our own! Our core team left work early, headed out to a fun new bar and celebrated. The bar boasted cool, driftwood decor and hipster-type bartenders, a fanciful and detailed menu and loud music. Exactly what I needed!

The mystery cat

What started out as a routine teeth cleaning this morning turned into a session to fill macavity! Fortunately, it was a teeny, tiny cavity and took approximately 10 minutes to finish up.

A cavity.

I'm falling apart.

An apple a day

Since I avoided all the Halloween messiness, I decided to make up for it yesterday with a trip to the bar. Selives was in town for the weekend and I wanted to catch up with him before he left. And the best way to do this is at the bar with all your friends, right?

Well, it was a messy, messy Sunday funday at the bar involving wigs, heels and apple cocktails. Stoli has a new apple vodka, which Beetle's been experimenting with lately and I think I may have found a new favorite drinkie.

Thirty days hath September

Why does my calendar have 31 days in November? You can imagine there was some momentary confusion when I flipped the page this morning.

Trick or treat

This year, I just wasn't feeling Halloween. It's like I was the Halloween equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge, bah-humbuging my way through the day and turning my nose up at all the costumed revelers.

So, instead of going out and going crazy, I stayed in, passed out candy to the three trick-or-treaters we got and watched "scary" movies with Puppy.

We did, however, dress up the cats in their bumblebee and jester outfits for approximately 45 seconds, until their protests became unbearable.