ruck it to the west!

ok, so i know i've been a little slow on the updating. BUT. life has been crazy busy. so last weekend the IRB rugby 7s was in San Diego. For all you non-rugby people, 7s is a modification of traditional rugby union that has 7 players per side, and 7 minute halves. The games are really fast and fun to watch! it also means an ENTIRE tournament can go down in 2 days. which is exactly what happened. this is a big deal, it's in the 7s world series circuit and it's the only major rugby tourney played in the US. (it used to be in LA, i went with laura a couple years ago but now it's in SD, YAY!). so, naturally i went alllllllllllllllllll weekend. the weather was great, and i had SUCH a good time! granted i was slightly less productive in the rest of my life... but really, who cares :P! so, here are a few pics from last weekend.

at the start of the day... here's the schedule for the morning.

NZ's team! victor vito is AMAZING, so fast! he was so much fun to watch!

hehehe. don't ask...
NZ v FRA
(this was a rivalry b/c FRA beat NZ in the world cup semifinals in october...grrrr)

crowd...

me and... (i totally forgot her name, but she was tons of fun)


everyone loves Kenya! (esp when they're beating ENG!)
FINAL!!!!! NZ v SA (NZ won, of course)

ok, so tons more pictures, some people from the game have some more to send me. so eventually i'll post more :). but it was such an AWESOME weekend. god, i miss rugby so much (good thing super14 started this week!) so rugby all weekend, and also Ray at Night with Aimee and co. lots of fun. i was totally wiped from being in the sun all day both days and *sigh* it was just great!

crazy week of school, busy stuff. midterms and all that jazz. childrens... i'll post about that later, can't get into it right now. this weekend has been pretty chill. went out with rudy, mike and cheryl on friday night. haven't been out out in ages. went to AC lounge, danced lots and stayed out late. not gonna lie, had a bit of hangover saturday morning :). today i baked HEAPS! had dinner at TJs to celebrate his bday. he makes this spaghetti dinner every year (he has since he was a kid) with his grandmother's sauce recipe. so he had a few people over and i made a pumpkin pie (his favorite) and dulce-de-leche cheesecake which came out AMAZING
this picture does not do it justice (and my camera is being weird, must get it checked out) but i don't really like dulce de leche or cheesecake and i have to say it was pretty good, and everyone else absolutely LOVED it. i LOVE baking :) yay!

ok, now that i've made an update i must finish cleaning house and get some sleep. another busy week (i do NOT have the day off tomorrow) and amy and natalie come on tuesday, so that's exciting!

*新年快乐*

*xinnian kuaile*

(happy new year!)

恭喜發財

(gongxi facai)

*congratulations and be prosperous*

super tuesday and other such things

well. the polls just closed here. it'll certainly be interesting... i was voting just after the polls opened this AM (it was conveniently on my way home from boxing). i felt bad for everyone in line with stinky/sweaty me... but, hey, if i didn't go then not sure i would have gotten there...

*sigh* children's was tough yesterday. still working on the 5 year old with the brain stem tumor, and it's just hard, because he doesn't get better and has been in the hospital for months... it's so heartbreaking to see the family and read all the charts (about the parent's meeting with the psychologist, etc...). and then saw an almost 4 year old who has some abdominal tumor and has been in the hospital for 3 weeks, and wouldn't even let us touch her... poor kid, and you wonder if it's just a product of being in the hospital for that long and stuck with hypodermics (we were just going to do massage and magnets, no needles) or if maybe she has some abuse history? and then hung out with this 16 year old girl who was just supercool and full of life, but has been in the hospital for a few weeks and has some condition where her white blood cell count is virtually non-existent - she's not allowed outside. and they have no idea why - she woke up one day with a crazy fever and it just got worse from there. anyway, she's been seeing EVERYONE, infectious disease doctors, haematologists, oncologists. read her whole chart and a possible diagnosis is HLH which i had actually never heard of (went home and did some research)- a rare blood disorder where your macrophages eat all your other blood cells - really weird. and fatal if not treated. and even when treated (chemo, bone marrow transplants) there isn't a very high 5 year survival rate. so SO sad. this girl is such a typical teenager, plays on the soccer team, has tons of friends, a boyfriend... *sigh*, it's just so hard to think that there is such a low survivability rate if she does in fact have HLH... she was sitting there and started crying because she just wants to go home... and we can't even do needles because her white count is so low, we don't want any risk of infection... anyway, had a couple other patients. but all in all, that place just makes me think and feel and all these kids are so young and have so much going for them, yet... have the unfortunate circumstance of having some horrible medical condition.

on a completely different and much less depressing note, i LOVE cooking. and mama just sent me a fabulous cookbook (chocolate and zucchini - which is a great food blog, if you haven't seen it) and i have been really into food blogs and being inspired by some of their recipes and photos, especially smittenkitchen.com! in that vein, i made a BIG pot of soup on sunday to eat during much of my week... and while it's not the traditional version with kafir lime and lemongrass (i didn't have it at home) i made a quick and easy makeshift Tom Yum soup (thai style spicy!) and it came out pretty damn well... i just used chicken broth, a couple fresh-squeezed lemons, lots of sriracha, ginger, garlic and then veggies (bok choi, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms) and some shrimp and voila! (see below).

sweet!

the molasses-spice cookies i made yesterday. they turned out AMAZINGly.

..i'm going to clear my head/i'm going to drink that sun...

man, what a week. i came down with a nasty illness for most of it. started monday night with a really bad chest cough that hurt. took some herbs on tuesday and managed to clear the cough out of my chest but the sickness just went up to my head and i was all congested and sneezy... but i supposed up and out is better than down and in... i'm finally feeling like a normal human being again, albeit a bit congested still.

monday night i also went out to RICE at the W hotel with muffin, because it was restaurant week

other excitement of course was heading down to Vice (don't get me started on this one) to get my HHP license renewed. it was actually pretty easy this time around, didn't have to wait, but it's just a pain in the ass, not to mention expensive. here's to making it all back when i finish school in april and actually have TIME to work.

in other news, i just have to say i think i have some of the coolest friends ever: karen just got past the first round of interviews for a fulbright! court is going to school for wine-making, dawn just placed in the top-5 at a field goal kicking contest (yeah allstar!) and emily is coming out to san diego for a meeting at Scripps!!!!

the rest of my week was the same old same old craziness... 9 more to go! i can't wait... figured out all my applications for boards, so i pretty much just have to write the check and mail those in.

and now, it's art day! cheryl is on her way over, and i am baking molasses-spice cookies... you know you wish you were here :) so it seemed like the thing to do. i had the most amazing kobe beef short ribs... they were so tender, it was delicious, didn't need a knife or anything! anyway, that was a nice treat to start out a crazy week.