The famous Berkeley Bowl is nothing short of a foodie mecca, garnering national coverage and regularly gracing the pages of newspapers like The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. We live only about a half mile away from its location on Oregon Street, and it is definitely one of the biggest perks of living in Berkeley. Some people travel several miles to do their grocery shopping here, because it seems to carry just about everything, including obscure international ingredients. I was psyched when I found that I could buy mostly everything for my Japanese cooking needs instead of having to make the hour-long trek down to Mitsuwa in San Jose. While the produce is the freshest in the area and the selection is unmatched, the shopping experience there is a whole different story and was the only thing keeping us from coming back every weekend. As the SF Gate reported, "The parking lot is a gridlocked swamp of road rage, a demolition derby of Priuses and rusty old Volvos vying for parking spots... The produce section is often described as the 'Cairo of shopping carts,' as dozens of very focused and aggressive gourmands fight over the purple potatoes and fresh water chestnuts. The checkout lines can be staggering, like something out of East Berlin." The zoo that is Berkeley Bowl provides you with the most exhausting -- although rewarding -- shopping experience ever.

Berkeley Bowl was in desperate need of expansion with the shortage of parking spots and cramped aisles, and our prayers were answered with the opening of Berkeley Bowl West in early June of this year. Located near the intersection of San Pablo and Ashby Avenues, right off the freeway, it features a parking garage and double the number of parking spaces of the Oregon Street store, more checkout lanes, and significantly larger aisles and produce sections to accommodate the swarming crowds of shoppers. It also boasts a cafe, expanded kitchen, and community room where people can take a seat and immediately enjoy any prepared food they purchase.

Dan and I took a trip out to the new Berkeley Bowl West early last month when it had just opened, and we were super impressed! We'll let the photos do the talking:

( Take the Photo Tour )

(originally posted at CoupledConfessions.com)

Posted with kind permission of the mods.



The third annual Men of Middle Earth Awards is now underway. Come join us in awarding excellence and celebrating the extensive variety in the LOTR slash community.

Awards are presented to both new and classic stories based on story length and pairing for both RPS and FPS. Complete nomination guidelines are now posted.

Check out the mome_awards and help us recognize exceptional fiction across the fandom.

P.S. This is being posted at as many comms as I can think of so my apologies for spamming your friends lists!

Arashi - Hey Hey Hey [2009.07.06] Talk & Performance

Download link HERE.

today i had some weird dream again.
suddenly i realised how come some ppl need psychiatrists to help them solve their mental problems because traumatic experience really makes ppl go a bit crazy.
or rather this kind of thing, probably time does not heal.


i had the same type of bad dream where everyone in class abandoned me again, because they believed in what the bitch said.
no wonder ppl say once bitten twice shy.
it's this kind of people that made me unable to trust people again.
rather than having the risk of having people to betray me, i shun away from people first.
rather than having ppl abandoned me, i move away from people first.
even though i'm quite sure that all my friends now are not like the bitch, but i can't help but feel a sense of insecurity inside me.
well, all thanks to that bitch. she must be pretty glad that she left a big trauma in my heart that i could never trust again.
but then again, it's a 'good' thing in the sense that i won't be taken in by scams easily (i think) since i'm so skeptical of everything around me.


i dun remember myself being as anti-social as now until that bitch caused me my trauma.
sometimes i wonder what will happen if i didn't enter my school. but then again i wouldn't have found friends whom i have kept in touch and are probably the nicest people to me.

anyway, that's why i hate two-faced people the most.
even though most people have to be two-faced most of the time, i dun understand why some people do it overboard.
maybe that bitch was jealous of me when we were in sec school.
ha ha.


anyway, anyone interested to buy anything from fancl japan?
need people to share postage ne...

BEHIND THE BUILDING


"Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the LORD, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the LORD."
1 Corinthians 15:58


Where we were working was hot, dirty, and it smelled bad. We had traveled thousands of miles to do some work projects, and on this day we were painting the back of a classroom building at a school for the deaf. The only people who would ever see this part of the building would be the guy who cut the grass and any unfortunate person who would have to work on the septic pit.

Yet, as the young adults diligently painted away, one of the girls, Melissa, put it in perspective by saying; "Nobody will ever come back here to see this, but GOD will see it. So let's make it look nice." And so we did.

Sometimes we sit at our desk and think no one sees our work. Or we stand at a line assembling item after endless item. Perhaps we take care of crying babies in the church nursery. Or we live the best Christian life we can -- without anyone noticing.

Often our work is "behind the building." But if that is what GOD has called us to do, we need to work with all our heart. As part of our calling to love others deeply (1 Peter 4:8), offer hospitality, (v.9), and use our gifts to serve others (v.10), our task is to work with GOD'S strength to bring praise and glory to GOD, not ourselves. The important thing is that GOD likes what HE sees. ___Dave Branson

No service for CHRIST goes unnoticed by HIM.

Are butai goods sold only inside of the venue, which means if you don't have a ticket to watch the butai...you can't buy them? Or does it vary?

Hi!

It has been awhile since I last posted here ^^

Anyway, they are going to (FINALLY. I thought they never will.) release the soundtrack, for Uta no Oniisan (22 July 2009).

And on this website, you can hear about 44-45 secs of each track (19 altogether). And I'm happy to see one of, if not...probably my favourite piece of music from the drama is included (track 6).

Usually, the covers of soundtracks are alright to me.

( But this one is really cute! )

It seems that I went on a blogging rampage for a week or two and then died down again. That I did.

The crazy thing, is that I've been sleeping shitloads - I go to bed at 3am, wake up at 12pm, then nap from 4pm to 6pm. It's gotten so bad that whenever Colin asks me about my day, I'm not exaggerating when I say that all I did was sleep, sleep and sleep. I've never been this lengthily slothtastic since I was in primary school. Or at least since that June holiday in J1 where all I did was read Animorph books. But this lethargy is delicious. I feel amphibious, like I'm able to switch between being concious and un, and not have to drag my feet constantly along the shoreline.

But to my credit, I devour books when I'm awake. Love in the Time of Cholera (better the first time I read it), Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs (there was a reason why it was priced at $5), Dorian Grey (at long last), Oryx and Crake (always a favourite), World War Z (intensely depressing), The Bell Jar (less so), The Family (just like reading Wiki), half of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (infuriatingly vague), and the Graveyard Book next. Plus I have been hanging out lots with all my favourite people.

Guess I'm at my most unmotivated when I'm by myself. Maybe I'm just a little lost since Darling's gone out to work and I don't have my favourite shopping/makan/gossip buddy around anymore :( But we went out for some shopping tonight, hehe. And I found out that the Loewe Maia bag that I bought in Barcelona for S$1.8k retails for S$2.8k here! Fwah.




Oh my precious :) It's simple but I love the hardware. I bought the smaller version, which hangs a little more neatly and cutely. I almost drove Colin insane choosing sizes. Thanks dear! ♥

But tonight also made me feel like doing many more things. I want to go to the beach again and roast myself! I want to bake cookies and brownies! I want to keep drawing the cartoon I came up with! I want to clean up my room!

But mostly I want need to stop shopppinnnnngggggggg. And you, reader, must help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! After tomorrow.

Marathon SP [2007.09.20] Ninomiya Kazunari

Size: 1.46 GB
Download

Credit: My12

**Only Raw, no subs**

I want to post the dreams I had because I lack the wisdom to interpret them and pray that the LORD grants me wisdom from on High to know what HE is trying to say to me:( Read more... )

I do pray that the LORD gives me the wisdom to understand all these dreams especially the cows in the field because it reminds me of Joseph ands the dream he interpreted in Egypt

I was reading on ArashiNino@vox's blog about a new possible Oh-chan drama? This would make my year so I was wondering if anyone had heard anything else?

Source: Ameba.jp

( 2 new Arashi dramas this coming season? )

Dani-chan


EDIT: Yes I know they will be touring between Aug-Jan.. But! If you check here on Johnny's net there are no dates for Oct. and only 2 dates in Nov. at the end of the month. Which makes the dramas doable..

Let's differentiate these 5 captivating voices of our boys...HERE^^,!

Let's differentiate these 5 captivating voices of our boys...HERE^^,!

July is National Ice Cream Month, and what better way to celebrate than with a heavenly ice cream sundae from Fentons Creamery? Fentons was recently immortalized by the Pixar film UP, in the ending scene where Mr. Frederickson and Russell sit on the curb and count cars.



Fentons has enjoyed a long history of over one hundred years in Oakland since they opened in 1894, and is a favorite among the locals. The ice creamery is dedicated to preserving the tradition of creating ice creams and toppings batch-by-batch, scoop-by-scoop.

I enjoyed my first taste of Fentons about four years ago when I was visiting Dan from Virginia, and loved it -- although I couldn't quite finish the ginormous sundae. We hadn't gone back in a while but we finally had a chance to go for a second time with some friends last week. Dan and I got their cookie sundae, which features cookies n' cream and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream piled on top of a chocolate chip cookie, and it was a heaping pile of sweet deliciousness. (and we were able to finish it!)


Megumi and I with Doug from UP


with my lovely lady friends
Oh, how I love summer and all the yummy desserts that come with it -- ice cream, gelato, sorbet, frozen yogurt... bring it on!

(originally posted at CoupledConfessions.com)

For background information, I've been a fan of Arashi since 2005, when I first discovered J-dramas. I've been following both their music and dramas (mainly MatsuJun's~) since then. I first started watching Arashi's variety shows last fall. And I've been a member here since then, so nice to officially meet everyone! ^o^

So, my noob-ish question: I just noticed in pictures like this from "Himitsu no Arashi-chan"...



...that there's a female host named Matsumoto (on Aiba's team in this particular photo). She wouldn't happen to be MatsuJun's older sister, would she?

And is that Ohno's mom on Ohno's team or did I misunderstand last time I watched? ^^;;

Thanks for any help clarifying! (Sorry if this has been asked before, but I figured it was done a long time ago.)

Edit: Thanks a lot for answering my question, guys! :) I guess I should've double-checked that I had the right names. ^^;;