traoki

I'm an almost-thirty (eeps!) newlywed who lives in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. I have a baby boy so there's limited time to assemble, mail, and RATE swap packages during nap and bedtimes so please bear with me. So far so good!

Flickr pix of my swaps

When not traveling for work, I: Chowhound * Bake * Read * Watch too much television & surf the web * Ski * Play poker

MINI RANT: Can I please point out that if you're referring to paper goods, then it's spelled station-E-ry?!? Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

I love dancing wildly with arms and legs all akimbo to:
* Indie Rock * Brit Pop * Golden Oldies * 70s singer-songwriters * 80s pop * Showtunes

Since I travel so often, I read all the time!

• Usually fiction with a feminist bent (The Red Tent, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan)

• Occasionally non-fiction of the social science or historical persuasion (Freakonomics, Salt, Moneyball)

• Often indulging in gossip rags (US Weekly, OK)

I...

• Am always baking cookies and cupcakes
• Frequently make ornaments from or decoupage old greeting cards
• Occasionally cross-stitch and stencil
• Learning to stitch temari balls
• Would someday like to quilt blankets, sew felties and make sock monkeys

• Baking supplies
• Bento supplies
• Cake stands
• Aprons
• Tea cups
• Dessert plates
• Cream & sugar sets
• Egg plates
• Egg cups
• Notecards
• Gift wrap (esp Japanese chiyogami paper)
• Pencils & erasers
• Stickers
• Headbands
• Anything with a cupcake design
• Anything with my favorite characters on it

• Hello Kitty
• Kogepan
• Doraemon
• Classic video games (Super Mario, PacMan, Space Invaders, etc)
• Classic children's lit (Madeline, Babar, Curious George, Eloise, Corduroy bear, etc)
• Bears (especially brown ones) but NO Care Bears
• Cute Monkeys
• Food with faces
• Cute woodland creatures (mushrooms, owls, squirrels, etc)
• Twinkie the Kid
• Kool-Aid Man

I'm a total junk food junkie. Best bets:

• Diet Coke
• Fancy Root Beer (i.e. Henry Weinhard)
• Twinkies
• Lemon Drops
• Peanut Brittle
• Caramel Apples
• Japanese Candy (Hi-Chew, gummies)
• Japanese Cookies (Pocky, Yoku Moku)
• Sour Patch Kids
• Malt Balls
• Mars Chocolate (3 Musketeers, Snickers, Milky Way, etc)
• Fruits/Nuts/Beans/Spices: Coffee, Peppermint, Strawberry, Grape (esp Muscat), Azuki (red bean), Peanut, Sesame, Chestnut
• Condiments: Sriracha, Mayonnaise (plain or flavored)
• Tea (prefer loose leaves over bags): Oolong, Green, Mint, Mugicha (Japanese barley), Jasmine, Chrysanthemum, Earl Grey, Ginger, Boba (pearl/tapioca)
• Dessert: Ice Cream, Carrot Cake, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• Foods: Spicy Chinese Beef Noodle Soup, Tofu (steamed, fried, spicy, stinky...all ways!), Potstickers, Hot Pot

I love the bold and beautiful:

• All bright colors, especially Gold, Pink, Orange, Green
• Glittery things
• Stripes
• Checks
• Plaid (preppy, not tartan)
• Multicolored Paisley
• Cherries
• Hearts
• Subversive, funny text

Tons of stuff cracks me up, but favorite themes are:

• Zombies
• Ninjas
• Moustaches
• Old-timey hobos
• LOL Cats
• Chubby babies
• Workplace Humor (Office Space, Dilbert, The Office, etc)

I'm happy to send whatever floats your boat, but receiving items in these categories/styles probably wouldn't make me squeal with glee:

• Jewelry
• Fairy
• Goddess
• Disney
• Leopard print
• Toile
• Licorice
• Tropical Punch (patterns and flavors)
• Fake berry-flavored candy (esp. cherry, blueberry, raspberry) is revolting!