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What we are listening to

Natisha

I’m super excited that Serial is back for a second season! Not sure how I feel about the premise of this season just yet but I am excited to see how it pans out. An interview with the Taliban for episode 2?!?! CANNOT WAIT.

Lauren

During all of my half marathon training, I picked up a pretty strong addiction to podcasts. I have a lot that I listen to regularly like This American Life, Nerdist, and Snap Judgement, but the one that seems to leave a lasting impression on me is the Joe Rogan Experience. I like that it’s conversational, so you never know what direction it’s going to go and Joe Rogan is really good at letting people express some controversial views, even if he doesn’t totally agree. 

Lucy

I have been listening to Justin Bieber’s album Purpose since the release on November 15th. It is so good and just reminded me of why I was a Belieber (I will finally admit it!!) This album is amazing. I ditched all my podcasts during my commute to school for this album! It’s a must listen!

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Our Week in Photos

Natisha

I’ve been trying to squeeze in as many gym sessions as possible before the holidays. This is at Third Street Boxing Gym, a great gym here in San Francisco. The cardio box classes on Sundays are our favorite!

I was in Dallas this weekend and this is what the sky was like on Sunday afternoon. We are driving towards the sun with our bellies full of BBQ! Mmm bbq. 

Lauren

This week my one and only Cyber Monday order, yellow rain booties, arrived and as if right on cue, it has been raining nonstop here in Seattle.

One more reason to add to the list of advantages of having short hair is the free touch ups from Rob at home..FO’ FREE! :D

Lucy

My group’s research poster won for the Department of Kinesiology research day! We worked on our research project all semester and finally got to share with everyone!

I got to take advantage of my sister and brother-in-law being in town! We got to eat everything I WANTED!! BBQ and Boiling crab!! (HAPPY DANCING)

Helen

Guys, I think finals are getting to me. After a long study session, I decided to read this teen vogue magazine. When I discovered that the cover was full of stickers, I thought the only logical thing to do was to stick them ALL over my face. It made perfect sense, I swear :)

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Friday Shares

Funny reviews for a disastrous toy.

Epic Lip Sync Battle featuring JGL.

Cooooool

Funny SNL skit about dating apps.

A live medley of disney songs by Jeremy Jordan

Cool photos above and below the water

The most popular podcasts of 2015

My chance at a Victoria’s Secret model body?! 

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Our Week in Photos

Natisha

Picking out a Christmas tree is hard work! We went to four different places before deciding on “the one”! This is Helen being lost in the Christmas tree forest also known as the garden center at Home Depot. 

My friends and I went to a group pilates class for an early birthday celebration (on Lauren’s actual birthday). It was an awesome experience getting to share my favorite workout with some of my favorite people! We are all holding homemade juices that my friend, Susie made for everyone as a post-workout treat! Thanks, friends <3!

Lauren

For those of you who don’t know, I am an organic chemistry graduate student. This past week, I have been struggling with separating out my desired compound from all the other compounds in my reaction. When you look at the combined solution, it was a deep red, but you can see that it is actually made up of a mixture of different colored compounds. The one I want (I think) is the light yellow stuff on the right.

This past Sunday was my 28th birthday. I got all my celebrating out of my system on Saturday at the bars with friends & enjoyed a very mellow Sunday with Rob. Rob gifted me with an Olloclip lense, so I took it out for a test run on our lake jog & caught this lovely photo using the fish-eye lens.

Lucy

WOO HOO women’s flag football intramural champions!! We finished off the season in 50 something degree weather and we’re not complaining!!

Not the best quality picture, but HE’S SO CUTE! This is pookie our puppy and sometimes he just sits like this and stares until I give him attention! (excuse the veiny foot)

Helen

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Before heading to the group pilates class, we decided to grab some acai bowls. Yummy!

Christmas is finally around the corner again! It’s now the time for tree decorating, family bonding and gift giving!

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November Favorites

Natisha Flamin’ Hot Cheetos One of my all time favorite snacks! I’ve been avoiding the snack aisle these last few months but since rediscovering them, I cannot stop! I’m eating a bag as I watch TV at this very moment. The perfect combination of spicy and crunchy, these are best eaten with chopsticks to avoid finger staining. 

Coconut Oil Traveling and the weather has caused my skin to become dry recently. Coconut oil has been my favorite remedy! I am trying to apply it after showering a few times a week and it definitely seems to be making a difference. The only downside is I crave coconut desserts every time I apply it to my skin. 

Coach Betty Loafers I love these shoes. Love love love. How could I not love them? They are metallic, come with tassels and a kitten heal! Seeing them on Instagram literally got me out of bed and I placed an order immediately. However, the ones I received were defective and by the time I went for an exchange, my size was out of stock! I am so very sad but they were my favorite while they were mine! McCann’s Steel Cut Oatmeal I used to hate oatmeal but since eating the steel cut version, I have warmed up to oatmeal quite a bit. I find the texture and added health benefits of steel cut oatmeal a huge plus over the traditional. My latest favorite toppings have been persimmon and walnuts! 

Lauren Simple Truth Organic Sweet Potato Corn Tortilla Chips These are so good! Rob & I have been snacking on these nonstop. We have both been missing living in places with lots of good local chips & salsa options, but this Kroger brand chip has been a tasty replacement. 

Nars Jeanne As I’ve said before, I really like bold lips for fall & this one is the one that I’ve been using the most recently. I like to just blot on a thin layer with a lot of lip balm, so my lips stay moisturized.

Fuyu Persimmons & Cutie Clementines I love that fall brings in some of my favorite fruit. Tis the season to have floating clementines in all of my bags & on my desk. They are the perfect grab & go snack. Another fruit that I have been enjoying is persimmon. We have been picking up a handful whenever we go to the Asian market & they are just sooooo good. 

Lucy Thera Cane I’ve been getting a lot of knots in my traps and back so at the PT clinic, I’ve been using this thera cane. It really helps work the knots out. I just ordered one for the house since it can be used for your whole body.

Jogger Sweatpants I’ve been loving any type of jogger sweatpants. I have big calves so they kind of hide them. I can also wear them way more casually. Other types of sweatpants make me look frumpy so these are perfect!!

Anastasia Brow Whiz This has been my favorite for about a year, but lately I’ve been needing to put makeup on more frequently and this brow “pencil”  is the best. It’s super easy and the spooly end is great! Love it.

180s Keystone Earmuffs I bought these in anticipation of cold weather during our half marathon, but I didn’t need them. The weather has been super cold lately, so I’ve been able use them on the daily. They are snug and keep my ears super warm. 

Helen Kiehl's Lip Balm This lip balm as saved me countless time this month! Due to all the flying and cold weather, my lips have been especially dry. I really like this lip balm because it’s not too thick and glossy. It gets absorbed fairly quickly and doesn’t leave a sticky residue.

Madewell's Quilted Bomber Jacket I’ve been looking for a bomber jacket for quite some time now and I was lucky enough to receive this as a gift from one of Natisha’s friends! Now that the weather in San Francisco has gotten a bit chillier, this jacket is perfect to throw on anything.

Wella Color Charm 050 I recently used this to dye my hair grey and I really like the results! It toned my brassy blonde hair into an ashier brown and turned my tips grey. Love love love!

The Infernal Devices Series During thanksgiving break back in Texas, I rediscovered my favorite book series and decided to reread them. I first discovered this series when I was in 8th grade and I absolutely loved the first two books. I remember counting down the days until the last book of the series was released during my freshman year. The last book was an emotional roller coaster and the epilogue killed me! I highly recommend this series! 

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WE DID IT!

We finished our Thanksgiving half marathon in Fort Worth!

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Our Week in Photos

Natisha

We had a fat day on Thursday. We went to eat a very heavy but delicious meal and then stopped by the grocery store to get ice cream! A pint for each of us. We’re getting our stomachs ready for Thanksgiving. 

A kid in a candy store. My husband loves reading and learning about wine. Good thing he isn’t able to drink much! We went to check out the new K&L wines store in town. This location is much larger than the previous. Mr. Bong is in love. 

Lauren

This week, I conducted an experiment by playing animal videos on the TV and watching my cat’s reaction. She came running in from the other room & then cautiously got closer and closer to the TV and then eventually sat right under it staring very intently.

Saturday, I joined a group of girlfriends at their house for a lovely brunch & then I had the honor of taking their household photo for holiday cards. It was so much fun to play director & encourage their silliness. I was pretty excited about the final product & can’t wait to hang one on my fridge in a few weeks.

Lucy

This week my friends and I got to celebrate one of closest friends’s birthday! She turned 23! We got dinner at a nice place and ended with all of us talking around a fireplace and sitting outside. Sorry for the bad quality. It was the only picture i got that night.

I haven’t worked out in two weeks because I’ve been so busy, so I took advantage of the gym mirror and took a selfie. I’m a tool.  Sorry.

Helen

I finally found some time to catch up on some reading, while walking home from school. Connor Franta has always been one of my favorite youtubers and his book did not disappoint. It’s full of his little, quirky jokes and stories.

Hello Karl! Yup, our fog in San Francisco has a name lol.

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Our Favorite Instagram Accounts

Hello. Out of all the social media platforms, instagram may be the one that we are collectively most active on. So we wanted to share our favorite accounts. Also click our names to check out our personal instagram accounts.

Natisha

natgeo Beautiful, amazing photos of life—people, places, animals, etc. This account reminds me of how great and vast this world is. 

kayla_itsines Although I am not part of her army, I find this account extremely motivational, especially on those days when I just don’t want to go workout.

sadanimalfacts One of the sillier accounts I follow, this account brightens my day. The coupling of silly facts and simple illustrations is perfect! 

Lauren

imlauramiller is one of my favorite accounts her photos are a great mix of creativity & silliness. She uses vegetables & fruit to make outfits, headpieces, and jewelry...and her #froob photos make me giggle every time.

patagonia is another favorite due all of their beautiful adventure photos. Their photos are ones that I like to live vicariously through, while sitting on the couch or at my work desk.

youngmeerim has a great mix of the outdoors and indoors. All of her photos are perfectly gloomy & dramatic. 

Lucy

kylekriegerhair is one of my favorites because his photos are so beautiful and even though he’s like almost naked all the time, it’s not sexualizing the male body.

Chiliphilly This account always makes me laugh. He crochets hats of food.  He always looks so sad while modeling them as well!

Thiswildidea has always been one of my favorites from the start! Maddie is such a photogenic dog and seems so well behaved. I also love that they are adventuring  pictures. Theron and his dog are always outdoors having fun!

Helen

willitbeard  Everyone of his photos make me giggle! He has an amazingly luscious beard that I am EXTREMELY jealous off lol.

coleito  I’ve always been a huge fan of Cole and his gorgeous photos. Whenever his photos appear, I’m struck with awe. Also, he’s always super active in commenting back and forth with his followers.

millathecat  This cat is so cute yet so creepy at the same time. I love it. Milla’s eyes are so big, it’s like they’re piercing into my soul.

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Friday Shares

Lego has finally solved the stepping on legos issue!

It’s nice to see a company you already like doing good deeds.

This Korean girl is KILLING Adele’s Hello

I’ve always been a JB fan, but this made me love him even more!

Totally going to try making these.

How cool are these sneaker boots?

This is a great way to share special news!

And a silly gif to send you into the weekend. 

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We’re going home!

We are all going back home to Dallas next week to spend Thanksgiving with the family. Today, we sharing what we are each looking forward to most.

Natisha I am looking forward to spending time with the family, lounging around, doing nothing but eating and talking. Snuggle time with the dogs and late night eats are definitely in the plans! Oh, and also, annoying my father with our loud rambunctious interactions. :D

Lauren I’m definitely looking forward to some quality family time, especially ones that don’t involve much activity. I love going home & sitting on the couch with the dogs in my lap & just chatting away with my family. Now that we are all living so far from one another, it’s nice to all be in the house at once. Also, I LOVE thanksgiving, so I’m looking forward to cooking, eating, and watching football with the family.

Lucy What I’m looking forward to the most is being able to spend time with everyone. My parents are always busy working and I’m busy with school so we don’t spend much time going out to eat or anything, so I’m looking forward to eating together. Also my parents don’t choose to go out to certain places until EVERYONE is home like BBQ, dimsum, or Boiling Crab. 

Food and family time > everything else.

Helen I’m so excited to just sleep in my own bed for as long as I want! I won’t have to wake up early for school or SAT classes. Lazy afternoons followed by family bonding is true bliss. So pumped to be around the whole family at once, the whole Kang Sha-bang!

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Our Week in Photos

Natisha

We took our golf clubs out of the storage lockers and hit the range for the first time in years. What a great way to spend our Saturday morning. The beautiful weather in San Francisco  didn’t hurt either. 

I managed to make reservations to Al’s Place a few months back and the day finally arrived. Date night for us. The meal was absolutely divine! There is a reason why the restaurant was named Bon Appétit Magazine’s Best New Restaurant! If you get a chance, definitely check them out. 

Lauren

Sometime last week, while walking home from the grocery store, I crossed earlier than usual & stumbled upon this walrus on the way home. It first gave me a bit of a start & then I just giggled to myself.

On Saturday, I ran a trial half marathon, so it was the perfect excuse to eat a huge bowl of pasta for dinner on Friday. I could eat carbs all day, everyday. 

Lucy

I realized that I usually only take pictures of food! All I do is eat and work. This week I had time to meal prep! It’s super convenient because it’s cheaper and yummy.

ANOTHER FOOD PICTURE! I had the chance to check out a restaurant around my work place. It’s japanese curry with chicken. yummmmm

Helen

Nothing like a big bowl of bean sprout soup to beat the cold weather!

Just a quick picture I snapped on muni while heading home. It gets so dark so quickly now. It’s only about 6 PM in the photo! 

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National Book Award

The National Book Foundation will be announcing 2015 National Book Awards later this week in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, & Young People’s Literature. So we have been using free samples from Amazon to see if any of the finalist books tickle our fancies and make us want to read the whole books. We have focused on the Fiction category, while Helen read from the Young People’s category. Have you guys read any of the finalists? 

Natisha

I had a hard time choosing one of the five but eventually decided that I would want to read Refund by Karen Bender first. When I read the synopsis, it immediately reminded of a podcast by Radiolab entitled Worth that I enjoyed quite a bit. Karen Bender’s Refund is a collection of stories that focuses on money and the way it affects the characters. I, too, often think about money and its worth and think this book will shed some perspectives that I may not have considered before.

Lauren

For me, the book that has caught my attention the most is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. The book follows four former college roommates as they struggle to establish their lives in New York City. I enjoyed that most of the sample, which contains the first few chapters of the book, focused on character building & made me want to know more about them. 

Lucy

Out of the 5 books, Fortune Smiles: Stories by Adam Johnson hooked me in. Most of the other books had a lot to do with love and I’m just not interested in that. This one is a book of 6 stories that range from a mother and son after Hurricane Katrina to two characters from North Korea adjusting to Seoul. I will definitely have to check this book out!

Helen

Out of the five finalists in the Young People’s Literature, I was instantly drawn to Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. Typically, I like to read fantasy books full of people with mystical powers who live in entirely different worlds. Nimona fits right into that category! Although I don’t usually lean towards comics, I’m willing to give this one a shot. 

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What We are Watching

Natisha

I rarely watch television consistently but this is a rare one that I’ve kept up with. The episodes are short and sweet while being entertaining and endearing. I’ve grown to love Mindy Kaling and getting to know her through her books has made her character in this show, Mindy Lahiri, much more interesting. 

Lauren

Usually Rob and I keep up with about two shows at a time on Netflix & Master of None has been a great addition. It has been filling the void that was left behind by Parks & Recreation. Aziz Ansari does a good job of addressing current social issues with a comedic approach.

Lucy

When this show was added to Netflix, I instantly binge watched this. It didn’t last very long because it was so intense. I have been keeping up to date with the current season and I’m so hooked! I love it. I’m always into the criminal shows and this show’s a different perspective of the legal system. 

Helen

After hearing multiple recommendations from my friends, I decided to give The Flash a shot. Only 10 minutes into the first episode, I was hooked. It only took me a handful of days to watch all the available episodes on hulu! The finale to the first season was SO CRAZY!! The second season just started and I’m still obsessed!

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Half Marathon Training

We signed up to run a half marathon on Thanksgiving Day morning! We’re excited to be running it together but training has not been easy. Today, we wanted to share what each of us have been doing to train. 

Natisha A few weeks before signing up for the Thanksgiving Day half marathon, I had signed up for the Big Sur Half Marathon which was this past weekend! I have yet to decide whether this idea was a good one or bad one. 

For the Big Sur Half, I casually trained using some marathon training guides online but wasn’t as strict as I would have like to have been. Being that our run is only a couple weeks out, I will aim to do some shorter runs but hope to let my body recover a bit. Some photos from my weekend run below.

Lauren I have been trying my best to keep up with the Nike+ coach for half marathon training, but it requires 5 days of running. I was keeping up pretty well, until the days have gotten shorter & wetter. Recently, I’ve been doing this terrible thing where I skip all of my shorter run days & then just run the longer runs. It definitely makes the recovery time longer & more painful, so I’m working on fitting in short runs as well.

Lucy I have been running around at least 20 miles a week, but last week, I injured my back so I’ve been taking it easy. Since I usually like lifting and running takes a long time, I’ve been doing long runs 2-3 times a week and still getting in my lifts the other days of the week. I haven’t been training outside so I will start that soon since the weather is cooling down!

Helen I have not begun training yet... :D

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Do you guys have any tips or words of wisdom to share?

We will be sure to share photos afterwards but in the meantime, wish us luck!

Big Sur Half Marathon

Beautiful run sights! The views and weather could have not been more perfect.

There was a part of the run that goes into a tunnel. It was awesome with lights and party music! 

This is me! Mr. Bong captured this as we passed each other on the route. The shadow in the lower left is his. :)

Us after the run <3

Mr. Bong getting a compression massage in the recovery tent. 

The awesome group of friends we shared the experience with!

[Photos from various friends]

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Our Week in Review

Natisha

Summer rolls as a quick and healthy dinner last week!

Crazy pulsing compression boot massage after the Big Sur Half Marathon this weekend! More on the half marathon tomorrow! 

Lauren

This past week, I was pretty good about fitting in runs before dark & I was rewarded with pretty skies as the sun set.

Started off Sunday with a few hours of bouldering at Seattle Bouldering Project with Tim and Rob. It was a great way to get the blood pumping before napping on the couch.

Lucy

I’ve been taking more time training in weights than running since I’ve been feeling like I’ve been losing muscle mass. 

This whole weekend all I did was work work work at my parents’ restaurant. I’m not complaining though because I get to enjoy some food at the end!! Yummy.

Helen

Still obsessed with these shoes!

I always love a good brick wall :)

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Weekly Roundup

Pad Thai wrapped in a spring roll! Mind blown

OMG can’t stop watching these puppies!

Have you guys hear about the world’s largest cave? It looks amazing!

How cool is this spoon carving kit?!

Love this idea!

If you guys are on the market for silly holiday cards, you have to check these out!

Are you guys as excited as we are about Fantastic Beasts?

[Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan. Photo by Lauren]

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New Trend: Glass nails

Have you guys heard of the glass nails trend? It is the hottest new trend in Korea. We each gave it a try and this is what we came up with!

What do you guys think? Would you give this trend a try?