putting the knit in shizknit

hello. i'm shiz, and i'm dunk.

yep. t wen t to walk pet and i'm waiting for him to cfome home. i went to 2 parties togiht. you know when you are gettng old is when you wake up with a pain in your back, a pain in your anke, knee and hipa fter youe xercise and then all the parties involved people who are married. damn i'k getting old. and ytou know you are durnk when you see a miss pelling and you thinlk its funny. lol.

(Photos posted a few days later...)

The Annual Challenge

What do you get someone who has everything?

Problem solved.

Last year I told him that he couldn't buy anything for himself during the holidays, and that he needed to make a list. Now only if he would make his list a little longer.....

Strangest Dreams

I have the strangest dreams sometimes... although this one might have been brought on by the food coma that ensued after the Thanksgiving meal.

My friends from school and I were pilots (but I don't remember the flying part) and we are hopping from one city to the next - we were in Austin Texas, somewhere in Mexico, Italy and we get to actually stop and visit the city. Some places I don't know what they're saying (Italy) and other places there's lots of people and what I remember most is the sheer excitement of it all.

I really must have been grinding my teeth heavily last night... all those creative juices were flowing!

Paying for Gas

Gas Paying for school. Hrmm.... 75%? For $48K, I'll man the local Chevron station!

Hopes and Dreams

wants and desires.

Sexiest Laptop Bag

What makes a successful purchase? It's all about the experience.

A few weeks ago I ordered a Matt and Nat purse where the shipping has gone seriously awry. As much as I want the purse, I'm ready to cancel the order. The entire shopping experience has gone wrong.

I would like to present to you Moonsus. The sexiest laptop bag for women. This is like 600 count sateen bed sheets. This is like staying at The Hotel in Vegas. This is like Dulce de leche ice cream and cheesecake in one sitting. This is the most delicious carrier of your laptop, and much more.

The Capriccio Notebook Backpack by Moonsus. Online shopping has redeemed itself. I spied this on Thursday night and by Friday it was ordered (hey, I was trying to procrastinate that OB paper as much as possible). It arrived today. Hurrah for UPS!

The fun was just beginning. It arrived in a box within a box, nicely padded with peanuts. The innerbox was filled with their monogrammed tissue paper and the laptop bag itself. I also got a free matching makeup bag for answering a survey. All of the zipper holders and metal clasps were still wrapped, and a protective cloth bag (yes, a bag for a bag) was included as well. I put my Thinkpad X40 in it for a split second to realize that I have room for much, much more. The thrill of opening, unwrapping, and the care they had taken to get it to me in tip-top shape was obvious, and very much appreciated.

Who else does this? Apple makes the entire package an experience. In fact, the Apple stores are a special experience as well. Opening, unwrapping the Apple packaging is very clean, beautiful and appealing to the eyes and senses. As good as your product may be, the brand can be easily destroyed by cheesy packaging or careless thoughts in wrapping. Just as you would wear a suit to an interview, wouldn't you want your products to make a great first impression?

Sony Digital Camera Problems?

They might repair it for free, if you qualify.

Remember my camera problem? Looks like I'm getting it repaired!

Here's the problem...

More of what you want, less of what you need

What I want is good, quality TV... such as my favorite night - Sunday on ABC (DH and Grey's Anatomy). What I need is more time... a little hard considering there's always reading due for OB the next morning.

A solution? You bet. Leave it to T to whip something up to surprise me with.

My very own fivo (Tivo with a F) he setup, its absolutely amazing. We don't have cable (sheesh if I don't have time to watch air channels, can you imagine if I had HGTV?) but this thing pulls in a menu and ability to record, just like on a Tivo. You can also set it up to skip commercials, and listen to online radio stations!

I just watched last Sunday's Desperate Housewives. Life is good :)

I have a crush...

on the 16 year old car radio installer named Nick at my local Best Buy. Alright, don't get all excited, not in the Desperate Housewives way, but he was so sweet, smart, and SO helpful... and yes, cute in that "back when I was 16...." type way.

Alright, so the Monster iCruze I purchased and had installed a few months ago decided to die last week. This is a slight problem, since my commute is a round trip 90 - 110 min everyday, 4 times a week, with no radio reception about 25% of the time. The thing was no cheapie - the unit was $250, the cable another $30 and $40 for installation. I called last week and they said to come in and they would check it out. Luckily, I got Nick today. He took a look at it, and remembered that there was a recall on the unit. He sent me back into the store with the dead unit, and they gave me a iPod2Car which at $200 had everything included. They gave me store credit for the $87 and sent me on my way. Nick had it installed within the next 15 minutes.

This iPod2Car thing is AWESOME. Unlike the Monster one, you can navigate through your songs using your iPod (and you can see the song title, artist, etc). And so far, I haven't heard the "skipping" I used to hear in the first 5 sec when fwding through songs. And at a price tag of $200, what a steal.

Oh yes, and if you can, ask for Nick.

Numa numa

I apparently missed this latest internet thing when it came out last fall... altho I never knew about the "buttcrack" guy either...

Gary Brolsma Fan Club Site (and some great spoof videos)
Japanese phonetic translation

BTW the song is by a Moldovan group called O-Zone and the song's real title is "Dragostea din Tei". Yes, you can find about 12 different versions of the song on iTunes.

T sent this to me last night, and ever since I've been "maiyahii! maihahoo! maiyahaa! maiyaHAHA"-ing it. Damn. Altogether now... "noma noma yay, noma noma noma yay!"

Updates

I feel like I'm cheating my Econ right now. This is what typically happens when I'm doing something other than what I should be doing... like studing for my Econ quiz today. Its Tuesday, and I'm already behind on all the work and reading, although I'm told its typical. But between group projects, a GA ship which includes work for very high-up executives, networking events, and of course HAPPY HOURS, well, what can you do.

I'm on campus at all hours of the day. One evening last week, I came to a stop at a stop sign when a deer crossed the crosswalk. No, this is not a joke, although T seemed to think so as I was on the phone with him. I looked over to find MANY DEER, grazing on the campus. What a trip.

I also attended my HS reunion the other weekend. Its been TEN YEARS. In fact, so many people are married with kids or engaged that I had one person ask about my sexuality. I had left T at home to keep him from the craziness which constituted my HS experience. I had a great time nonetheless, and although the reunion itself sucked (the food, the cost, the everything) we took the party next door to an irish bar until they kicked us out.

Alright, back to work. Here's my kind of question "Suppose the person represented by these Marginal Utility graphs experienced a diminished taste for tacos. As a result..." my preferred answer, "run straight to Titos" is not an option.

It gives you wings!

It gave me BG's the other night. Aside from the caffeine, I've now learned that I can go about a week on pure adrenaline at no less than 88% performance.

I desperately need a GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP, and a NICE, RELAXING MEAL WITH MY BOYFRIEND.

======
10:05 PM Update - nice, relaxing meal with boyfriend accomplished :)

Digital Camera Problem - Help!

In the last few weeks I've had the strangest thing happen to my Sony DSC-V1 digital camera. Sometimes (not all the time, but more often than not) it gets these horizontal lines that cut across the LCD monitor. More annoyingly, is that this comes across in the photo. I'm posting one as an example.

I don't recall doing anything to the camera, its almost 2 years old, but can't imagine that it has reached the end of its lifecycle. Anyone have any ideas to what may be wrong?

we are nerds

We are such nerds. The only time we left today was to eat at Titos Tacos early this morning. If you took time-lapse photos you would see me at my laptop in the living room, T at the kitchen table with his. Then eventually you see me running up and down (trying to get the double sided printing to work on our new printer), then sitting down to knit. T takes a nap on the couch, Mia gets caught up in the yarn, I start using my laptop again. Read a few things, T gets up, we make dinner, eat, clean. Now we're both sitting at the kitchen table with our laptops to each other. He has no idea I'm posting. Let's see how long it takes him to realize it :)

Fuyu No Sonata

Finally finished watching the last of 20 episodes of Fuyu no Sonata, what can I say, I was intrigued by the hype surrounding this man they call Yon-sama. I had watched the first episode flippantly, as I knitted but then soon became hooked. I watched 4 hours without a break. Talk about serious drama. It was a Japanese dubbed version with no subtitles so poor T had no idea what the heck was going on except my english commentary "oh heck no!!" "Say something!!" "more mama drama!" and of course, pass me more kleenex.

Just like the line "You had me at hello" in Jerry Maguire, this had an ironic, romantic line loosely translated "the best type of house is in your significant other's heart" - as the main characters Chun-san was an architect and Yujin was an interior designer. It was so well done that most of the time I had forgotten that it was a Korean drama until I see Korean signs or the Hyundai they all drove. Yes, it was a great series, but I'm still trying to figure out why in particular the middle-aged women are the biggest fans of Bae Yong Joon, rather the younger generation. He's good looking (they rarely show anything but his face with all of those jackets and scarves) and that one quick blip of him getting dressed to get married made it obvious that he's got quite a bod, as well as a sweet caring personality in his character, but why that particular generation? I think at one level or another most women crave some type of Happily Ever After in their lives, but that would apply to women of all ages...

Good Karma

May good karma behold whoever was kind enough to mail me back my drivers license!! Although a little late (I ordered a new one last week), many thanks to my kind, anonymous finder!

The Next Endeavor

It was easy to leave on my last day, hard to let go, certainly hard to wrap up. I suppose that reality will set in once I realize that I'm not returning.... anytime soon.

I seem to be following in the footsteps of fellow bloggers Carrieoke and Wilco in making the decision to leave my current place of employment. What's strange is that this time for the first time since my first job at the age of 18, I do not have another one lined up to start on Monday. A sabbatical if you will, of different proportions, and although I will not be getting a paycheck (quite the contrary!) I will certainly be working my tail off in just a few short weeks. Some have compared B School to being thirsty and drinking out of a fire hydrant. Hopefully I will remain standing at the end!

Changes, changes

My new baby was just the first of many life changes happening over the next few weeks. We also got it a brother who came from Texas. I'll have more to report later (preview), but for now, here are some first looks at the new addition to the family.

Busy, busy, busy....

I've been so busy and distracted lately, I haven't had time to post. A few weeks ago I received the sweetest surprise in the mail from Leslie. It was even more special since I was especially down that day. There was a cute birth announcement of her new bundle of joy, Kate, and the cutest little bag.

I've also been ferociously been working on (and can't seem to knit as fast as many of you out here!) the eyelet wrap from Rebecca 29. I'm now finished with the back and the two sleeves.

Oh, and I went to Titos the other day for the first time in weeks... and thankfully they changed the damn salsa back to normal. It had been so long that I think my stomach wasn't ready for the 9 AM taco breakfast - I was jacked up for the rest of the day.

Shizknitz Down

The website was down for a few days (grumble, grumble) but back up, and lost only one comment. :)

"W.O.W."

Thas right. Relive those memories of summers in elementary school spent in front of the 'ole Nintendo playing hours and hours of Super Mario Bros, Mike Tyson's Punch Out and of course, Zelda (remember that gold cartridge?).... tonight, we got to experience it again, live, at the Hollywood Bowl's Video Games Live concert.

This was not your typical HB concert - great video to accompany the audio (LA Phil, a full choir and stuntmen) as well as laser light beams and other effects. It truly was a great concert. The age range was definitely younger than your typical Wed night Stravinsky concert, which made it more interesting "JENKINNNNNNNNNNNNNS!!!!!!!!"

T's bro brought us some fresh pizza, straight from his work in one of those delivery pouches. It got its own seat on the bus, and at the bag inspection at the gates of the Bowl, was questioned what was in the bag. "Whats in the bag?" "Pizza" "Oh, you delivering?" "No, eating"

My favorite was Zelda (my own personal memories of that game) but of course, World of Warcraft seemed to have gotten a great warm reception. I dedicate this entry to Hubert, who really should have been there tonight to experience with the other WOW'ers the musical experience....

AIM for your Treo

So I don't have a Treo, but that doesn't matter. I'm putting in a plug on T's newest creation.

Toccer: AIM for your Treo

Temescal Canyon

So last week I mention to T, "let's go hiking on Temescal Canyon. One of my guys at work says its great." He answers "we need a GPS system" and I start cracking up - of course, we need a GPS system, we're 2 feet from Sunset Blvd, right? He responds with "yes, one for both of us, in case we get split up. Or a good rope, so one will carry it and the other won't get lost". We didn't get any gadgets, but we did pick up some cool SPF 50 hats at REI.

His enthusiasm died quickly the very next day when the alarm went off at 6:45 AM on a Sunday (and mind you, we were up around 5:30 the day before). It continued as we parked along Temescal Canyon Road and walked into the park.... then 10 minutes into this very rocky, sweaty climb. Oh, and did I mention we had no cel reception? For me, I was having a pretty good time. There always seemed to be more people coming down than up the hill, but it was fine. I heavily recommend water and a towel in the summer - I was sweating up a storm. What great exercise!! We weren't really sure where we were going (okay, so that GPS thing would have come in handy) but we continued to follow people and signs. It was about 2 hours for us to come along a route that took us by a waterfall, to the top of the mountain and back down again. If we did this every weekend, I would have a rock hard ass. I was surprised to find that the Santa Monica Mountains offer many trails like this one, so we have much to discover (get ready, T!).

What's in your wallet?

So I finally got a new photo for my drivers license. I got sick and tired of "is that really you?!" and "can I see another ID?!" and the "Corr Lens" comment on the card (which was quickly removed after I could read ALL of the eye exam signs in the room, thanks to lasik) although the lady at the counter had curtly reminded me up update other items, such as the "WT:" field. Hrmph. Does anyone actually put their real weight on these damn things?

But lookie here - Jury Duty. It hasn't even been a month yet since I've officially changed to my LA address!! Give me a break! To top it off, NO KNITTING NEEDLES ALLOWED IN THE COURTHOUSE! WTF! Right, this is so when they put me on another Jesus-juice length case, I can take my circular Addi's and strangle the crap out of the lawyer who picks me to be on the jury. United Airlines lets me take knitting needles but not the LA County courthouse?! Since when?!

Haram!

My Jordanian friend always uses this arabic term.... this is how I felt about my poor old cel phone when I lost it up on my Mammoth trip. I've been using a pure POS cel for the last few months, bitching and complaining off and on until I'm sure I've driven T purely mad. He's found a way to shut me up. For what has become an annual birthday surprise, he produced a nice upgrade to my current cel phone: Samsung SGH-E630.

(The plastic is still on the screen, thus the bubbles)

The phone wasn't without its own little drama - turns out that it is not compatible with a large amount of T-mobile SIM cards (a certain brand they carry), but with a quick trip to our local store, I was able to get the "rounded edge" SIM which worked beautifully. They transferred my number to this one, and VOILA! I'm in business. The strange triangle-shaped thingy is the speaker phone attachment. This phone has all the features I want and need - small (to fit in ALL of my purses), color, and a CAMERA! Yes, I now have a camera with zoom, flash, built-in mirror, photo features such as frames, sepia/sketch tones and more - so expect to see more camera pics to be posted :)

Weekend Reminders

Remember the crackers I fell in love with on Amtrak? They arrived - all 100 packs of them. I also receive a postcard from the Apple Farm Inn with a hand-written thank you. That was real sweet of them. In the meantime, I'm feverishly passing out crackers....

Mom

My mom is crazy. I often tell people that. I think she's crazy because we're exactly alike - yes, something I've come to accept as I've gotten older. We talk on the phone at least once a week, if more than that passes, she typically knows something is wrong and will call to pester me on what's up. I usually call a little after I get home from work and after she's home from work, around 6:15 PM ish. I'm usually starving by then, but my dinners are usually late, I eat after T comes home from work which ends up closer to 8 PM. My mom typically taunts me on the phone with "I'm eating steak... its SOOOOO GOOD" or "fresh made gyoza, wanna come over?" (mind you, I live a good 3 hour drive from home).

Tonight, she bumped this torture up a few notches (imagine this all in Japanese):
Mom: So, tonight I have Hakata Ramen and prime rib. Want some?
Me: Ohhhh that sounds soooo goood. I'm starving.
Mom: Yeah, its soooo Oishiii! Wanna come over?
Me: I wish... (interrupted by a slurping noise) what the heck is that?
Mom: Just listen! (more slurping noise)
Me: Mom, what the HECK are you doing?
Dad, in background: YOU ARE SO MEAN! STOP THAT!
Mom, speaking with her mouth full: That's the sound of me eating ramen. Its good.
Me: You're so messed up. I'm hanging up now.
Mom: Okay. Bye. It's good!

I love my new...

Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW. I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but its going to make it hard to work on my first gen Dell 19" LCD back at the office. Oooh... I just accidentally pressed F11 in IE... niiiiiice.

Revlon Run/Walk

The Rock is fuah-ene! Wait, that part comes later. I was up at 6 AM this morning for the 12th Annual Revlon Run/Walk. The map said to arrive no later than 7 AM - but who gets there that early? We set out 6:50 AM - and shoot, we were in the middle of the madness getting off the Vermont exit on the 10 fwy. Then the pain started. In the traffic. My stomach was about twist itself into a major tizzy. Perhaps it was the Korean BBQ we ate last night, but on this fateful morning, my stomach decided to turn on me. An hour and a half and 2 bathroom stops later, I was feeling much better. Pre-run, there were tons of booths and freebies as well as opening ceremonies featuring Marcia Cross, Halle Berry and The Rock.

The run was supposed to begin at 8:45 AM, with the walk following up at 9 AM. We decided to leave the opening ceremonies a tad early, considering the distance to the starting line. There was a crowd heading in that direction, so we followed along... to find out that we ended up at the other side of the start line! You could see all of the hard core runners warming up - they were buzzing around like gnats on a warm summer morning. Now with thousands of people milling around, I was trying to find how in the world to get behind the start line. I parted with T, grabbing my Shuffle armband and started to go into the crowd. There seemed to be these metal fences keeping the run/walkers from the crowd, but hundreds of us were on the wrong side of the fence. It was complete chaos. People were climbing over the fence - altho the other side had people squished in, then this other lady decided to open up the fence which then made a surge of people start to try to get in this way. We could hear them starting to count down for the start but the girl next to me turned out to be clausterphobic and tripped out. Thankfully the race had started and we began to surge forward slowly. It took about 10 minutes to get to my usual pace, as some of the walkers decided to walk with the runners, so dodging people took some time. The weather was perfect, and there's nothing more enticing than running through the streets of LA - something you ordinarily don't get to do.

This was my first official run in a marathon of sorts, 5K - 3.1 miles, and so I wasn't used to the water stops (they had these adorable girl scouts handing out cups), the cheering and TV crews. By mile 3 I was tired and HOT (this is why runners wear short shorts) but it was fantastic - they had Japanese Taiko drummers at the opening of the LA Coliseum as we ran downhill through the tunnel and onto the field. There were about 15 rows heading to the finish line - where they sign you out, get a medal from a LAFD member (woo hoo) and grabbed a snackbox. I had a very respectable run time of 30:30.

It was a fantastic event - they approximated 60,000 run/walkers - all in the name of fighting women's cancers. It was a poignant time, seeing all those with tribute signs on their backs with names of their moms, aunts, sisters, and of themselves... it made me feel very fortunate, as noone in my family has had to battle cancer. I'm definitely planning on running again next year (but next time, I'll eat KBBQ AFTER the run)!

Post-Run food? Tacos of course!

A big THANK YOU to all those who sponsored me for this year's run.

BJ - 2 weeks!

I can't believe its been 2 weeks since Nancy and I picked up BJ in Stockton. T and I were lucky enough to have an opportunity to pet-sit for her this afternoon. I think she's gotten bigger - she's approx 12 weeks old now. She pounces like a cat, likes to eat bird crap, and run around the couch. She's been doing really well with her pee-pad training, her mommy and auntie are quite proud! :) It was so different taking BJ "out" from our Mia, she doesn't necessarily want to go out, and most of the time she lounges around and stretches and enjoys the sunshine than sniff around. Post-walk, she decided to cram herself into a little nook on the couch - we were cracking up!

Road Trip!

We're on our way up north today for a ROAD TRIP! Picking up Nancy's puppy in Stockton, California. Will post pics when we return :) This will give me lost of time to finish Honeymoon Cami, Part Deux!

In the meantime, I found this absolutely hilariously true:
"The bloggers are, to varying degrees, narcissists and exhibitionists. We love to expose ourselves, talk about ourselves. And yet, ultimately, we expose only what we want to expose: a little thigh, some cleavage--well, I don't really have any cleavage... "
- Quoted from Onigiriman

A simple equation....

+ =

It starts off quite simple... prepping for Nancy's Puppy Shower, we decided to make a few sample bone shaped cakes. Then we had a few drinks... then, Hiroko got the knife...

U2: Vertigo Tour, Los Angeles, CA

What did you say? Because chances are, I probably can't hear you. My ears are completely ringing right now after this fab 2-hour concert. They played a lot of songs from their old albums like Boy, and I'm so exhausted right now I won't even post a review. Let me just put up some of the better photos I got tonight.

And after, we were STARVING! the concert ended at 11 PM and we zipped down on the freeway to Titos (Achtung regarding the Venice offramp from the 405 - what the heck are they doing there anyway?!) unfortunately it was 11:30 when we got there (close) and we had to bring the food home (which meant I had to have some self-respect and self-discipline from busting the food open in the car).

Pretties!

This must be the season to come home. My student abroad to Russia returned last week for a quick trip, Gracie is visiting from New York, and Hiroko returns tomorrow!

Today was the last day of the International Gem Faire down in Santa Monica. This was the very show that started my jewelry making fanaticism a few years ago. Nancy and I had no plans on going this time around (and can I say, have no funds to really buy?) but with one phone call from Gracie notifying that she's coming, we were ALL THERE. There are a few vendors that we are regulars at - I suppose two asians and a black woman fawning over gems might be memorable, but some people seem to remember us. I hadn't been to a gem faire in awhile... We were able to find some great pretties, including these chalcedony in two different blue tones!

Of course, a day of fun cannot be complete without some good eating. Our favorite Cuban restaurant on the westside, El Rincon.

Breakfast of Champions

See the Taco Blog.

Taco Blog, Baby!

Jenn created the ultimate, the bestest, the TACO BLOG. My coworker just asked me if I was part of a cult. I suppose, although we need a clever name. Hrmmm.....

Truly Random

An assortment in one single entry:

Like my new ExplodingDog Shirt?

Living in LA, I've seen and ran into (literally) my share of celebrities. Now, seeing Bono at work would just take me over the edge (no pun intended).

We visited Color Me Mine over the weekend, my first time. I can see how this gets addicting! Nancy painted a bone shaped dish for her new puppy, and T painted a "tea for one" pot and mug set. I painted a mug, god knows how it all turns out.

Forgive me Father, as it has been almost 3 weeks since my last

Taco. Perhaps it was the "day of opening" or being sick the last time I visited, but damn, it was ALL GOOD today. After Jenn's taunting post and email a few afternoons ago on one of those By-3PM-I'm-Ready-To-Commit-Harakiri-At-Work, I've been thinking about Titos non-stop.

I'm impatient. I hate traffic, and I hate waiting in lines, and I despise the Holiday season at the mall. Some of you may wonder "why the hell do you knit, you can go buy your own crap" - well, I suppose everyone needs a yin to their yang (and besides, shopping for yarn is just... too much fun). Although I live less than a 10 minute drive from Titos, any traffic or the thought of waiting in the line drives me crazy. I know many will say that the waiting is part of the experience. Screw that, and just give me some freakin' tacos.

I am strategic on when and how I go to Titos. I have a specific route that gets me there in no more than 10 minutes. I only go on specific times - Weekends, before 11 AM. They open at 9 AM - if you get there exactly at this time, there is a wait of people who are just as eager and hungry as you are. Besides, sometimes you end up getting the top of the salsa batch, so its a little more watery than preferred. 9:30 AM is better, and still lots of seating. 10 - 10:30 seems to be better, as they open their outside lines to supplement, but the later it gets, the less tables are available. Its best to go in pairs (minimum) to have one wait in line, and another to scour for a table. We always have a "usual" (3-4 Tacos no cheese, 1 Tostada, extra Medium Salsa, 2 Diet Pepsis and jalapenos) so there's no need to look over the menu. Save time wherever possible. Weekdays (esp Fridays for some reason), if you can get there after work before 6 PM, you're pretty good to go. Whatever you do, avoid Wednesday late nights. Hiroko has mentioned that historically, a lot of the kids sports teams go there after their games. I used to go there after a late shift at work on Wednesdays, and it was hell - all the way til their 11PM closing time.

These strategies are ever-important, especially as my friend mentioned that they began to air commercials on cable TV channels - and new Titos customers only mean longer lines. So if you ever see an ever-determined Asian girl pulling into the Titos lot, don't get in her way, she might just run your ass over.

uno, dos..

That's the number of times I'll be seeing U2 this year. To the dismay of T, I purchased 2 GA tickets for their concert November 1st. We can get plastered, and get crazy with the best of them (well, I will anyway).

BTW, has anyone seen the most recent issue of US Weekly? They have a two-page spread of Orlando Bloom.

daffodil days

Nothing like these cute teacup-like brilliant flowers to make you feel better. It's the daffodil days of spring at Trader Joe's again. You can pickup a closed bunch for .99 cents each!

So let's recap on what I've learned this week:

The Bachelorette dumps both - as much as I loved watching Jen this season, this had an unfulfilling ending, and this is why perhaps, we haven't seen her on TV since Monday night. BTW, my pick was Ben, the ski instructor from Aspen - he's such a sweetie!

Barbara Walters isn't on The View everyday. If they were to ever need a stand-in for her, I would be a perfect fit (esp since they need an Asian after losing Lisa Ling). On weeks when I'm feeling better, I go off on the same topics they bitch about everyday. I love it.

Home Delivery didn't need to take 30 minutes to reveal a paternity test. Trust me, they could have done that reveal in 5 minutes, instead of repeating the same heart-wrenching story in the same fashion as the beginning of each Bachelorette episode.

Starting Over was one show I started getting "attached" to. 6 women in a beautiful home in LA, each with their own set of drama - what could be more interesting? I loved the way they had a few life coaches and shrinks thrown in to make sense of the "mo drama fo yo mama" ... although I'm a bit upset that I'll miss Renee's graduation from the Starting Over house since it won't be shown until Monday. Also, Vanessa needs to let go of that lousy man who doesn't support her wanting to go back to College. HE IS A SABOTEUR!

Next up is The People's Court - with Judge Marilyn Milian, I personally find her hilarious. You have to have a sense of humor when these numnuts show up suing for $25 Yu-Gi-Oh cards (and it costs $30 to submit a small claims case). Oh you also get great legal advice - always get a "change order" whenever you change a request on construction work.

Oprah - she always has something great on everyday. All I gotta say is that when they showed the "kissing scene" from Their Eyes Were Watching God with Halle Berry and this one man, I needed a shower - and they didn't even show the kissing part of the scene!!!!

I didn't think I would ever be saying this, but GET ME BACK TO WORK!!

iLove my new iPod

Earlier in the week I made a spontaneous purchase. This used to be my lifestyle in the past, and I'm sure if you took a look at it psychologically, it was to fill other voids in my life, blah blah. I've come a long way, where some months will go by without a pair of new shoes (gasp!). I've had my eye on this damn new little contraption, and I fell into the point of no return as I walked into Best Buy the other day. I had good reasoning, however. This was a reward for cleaning/shredding last weekend, a reward for losing .6 lbs at Weight Watchers this week, a reward for ... hell, getting up in the morning. This also gave me an opportunity to upgrade my gym music, as I retire my Rio and will be sent complimentary to my sister, Lisa.

PS - Not only have I been extremely busy, but I've gotten sick again!! I'm a bit behind on my posts...

Month 3 Lasik Update

I had my 3 month checkup today. Left eye has improved to 20/25, right eye at 20/20 still, seeing 20/20 both. I know that they "measured" my left at just slightly less than my right, but I feel like I can notice a significant difference between the two eyes. I don't know if I'm just being overly sensitive, or picky, because originally the doctor wanted me to come back for my 1 year checkup. However, you forfeit your free adjustment after 1 year. Instead, he has me now coming in for my 9 month checkup. In the meantime, I'll go see my regular OD as well. Overall, its still a life change altogether, It could be that I'm being overly sensitive about it. :)

Update: After seeing my regular OD in July (8 months after surgery), I was seeing 20/15. He remarked at how perfectly my eyes have healed - in fact, had he not been seeing me for the last 5 years he would have thought I was one of those lucky people with perfect vision! Yes, he couldn't even see the incision anymore... yay!

Love at first.... sight?

I'm forever having problems remembering people's names, but I am sure good at remembering faces, nuances of people such as how they wear their clothes, the rhythm of their gait, etc. So imagine the shock when I saw T's twin at Best Buy today. Its been a particularly gloomy morning which started with some popo drama down in Van Nuys which prevented us from eating Pho and messy rainy traffic as they closed off an entire 3-block span of Sepulveda. Lunch was then rerouted to a hotdog and pretzel at Target, which obviously isn't a worthy substitute. With a long drive back to WLA, this was something that caught me off guard. In a daze, I walked row to row as T continued to search for his item. All of a sudden, he was right there, looking at ....... then T showed up! This guy was like a TWIN! From the side, the way his hair, glasses, chin, jacket, the butt in the jeans, black shoes, everything..... I made T give me his Treo to take a photo (yes, the crazy asian stalker I am, I snuck up right behind him to take it!) Will the real T please stand up?

Canals of Venice, California

I've lived in Los Angeles now for 7.5 years and just a few months ago learned that there are actually canals in Venice. Who knew? The only Venice I knew was of the street performers, sidewalk shops and psychics that line up along the beach..

There are free-roaming ducks swimming, mating, hanging out along the sidewalk which borders the canals. It's actually quite peaceful and would make a nice morning run as long as you are careful not to slip on wet duck shit :) The homes that run along the stretch range from shacks to millions-of-dollars renovations with some gorgeous gardens!

destination unknown....

Does anyone know who sings this? I think its an 80's song, I believe it was alternative, someone said it was Berlin from the Top Gun soundtrack, but I'm not sure. I don't know the lyrics but the chorus sounds like "destination unknown, ruby ruby ruby so ho" and I know that isn't correct.

Why am I humming this unknown tune? Because that's where I'm off to next weekend for a nice getaway..... a nice surprise to look forward to, courtesy of T.

New Month, New Page

Ahhhh... the first of the month. This usually means payday, paying bills, paying rent, and of course, flipping to the next page of my Orlando Bloom calendar. Oh, and reports go that he's single now. :)

woo hoo! I'm going to see U2!!

This whole online ticketmaster ticket purchasing system leaves much to be desired. Look, all I wanted were TWO tickets to a stinkin concert. What did I have to do to get them? One person on another DSL connection with 2 browsers, me with two separate machines with 2 browsers each, constantly refreshing, retyping, re---- but I wasn't about to let what happened at the presale, happen again. In the meantime, this huge bug comes zooming into the apartment, making Mia go crazy as it tries to escape out of a closed window. The bug turns out to be a poor lost hummingbird - the thing was so scared it was actually chirping (who knew they did?). Fear not, as I was able to get two lower level row 16 tickets to see U2 at the Staples Center on April 6th!!!!!! WOO HOO, or should I say, HELLO HELLO!!!!

BTW - I never thought the day would come when I would be spending close to $400 on two concert tickets...and yes, I was able to capture the hummingbird and set it free :)

My new fab liner...

Just like gadgets, I love buying makeup and stuff. Brushes, colors, tools...ooOOoooHHHhhhh..... Sephora is a very, very bad place for me to visit. Last week there was this older lady in front of me who purchased $650 worth of products and I was very, very jealous. However, I was able to find my new fab, fav product. Smashbox Cream Liner in Image. I've never taken a liking to regular pencil liner - just hasn't worked well with these straight, unfolded asian eyes, and my eyelids do get oily which usually clumps up the color. The eyeliner I've been using the longest is Benefit's Babe Cakes which works with a little water and angled brush. This Cream Liner however, really is gorgeous and smudgeable..... bring some glam, even to these slanted eyes!

The best part about Smashbox cosmetics? The containers come in this black, sleek, almost rubbery container which is very reminiscent to an IBM Thinkpad casing...... :)

Wet Fun

You could be full of shit and become a weatherman here in SoCal. Its either sunny or rainy here and right now the rain is coming down so hard that if I were to take Mia out for a walk, I'm afraid I'll be swept away by the down currents in the gutter as we attempt to cross the street. Not that I relied on the stupid Doppler 7000 crap by ABC7 but we had planned yesterday's snow trip for over a week now, perfectly, right before the storm. I snowboarded for the second time, which has resulted in my current state of soreness in many parts of my body that typically goes unused. It was raining when we left LA but by the time we arrived at Mt. High, it was amazingly gorgeous. Freakin' cold, but gorgeous.

We went with two groups of people - Guy and Hiroko from Hawaii and Jakobi and Cassandra from Chicago - two different climates of America and neither had really snow*'ed before. J&C decided to take ski lessons and G&H did snowboarding lessons with T&I.

By the afternoon the storm had begun rolling in, and with it lots of cold blasts of air. By the time we were leaving, I was still on my ass a lot but Jakobi was blasting by on his skiis - my legs were so gimpy I was having a difficult time controlling them in order to move me in specific directions. I hate that feeling, especially because I was the driver and I drive stick shift.

Overall, it was great wet fun followed up by some hella good dumplings at the Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. They don't take reservations, and they don't seat without your entire party being present. They opened at 5 PM and by the time we arrived at 5:20 PM, the place was hoppin. There is a glass window where can watch the mostly Mexican staff wrapping the dumplings and the steamers fully stocked (oh my, that sounded like a fobby sentence). The dumplings are sold in trays of 10, so go with a bigger party so you can taste a bigger variety. The prices ranged, but every 10 dumplings were about $6.50 or so. They came out piping hot off the steamer and were extremely juicy inside, but especially with the vinegar, soy sauce and baby ginger slices were absolutely a delectable dish. It was perfect for that horribly cold, rainy weather. Overall it was Good, but I would only return again if I were in a party of 4+ people.

Sex & the City Season 6, Part II

There are those who like to plan and schedule, and others who like to live at the seat of their pants. I'm the type of person who likes to plan days to live on the seat of my pants. I'm also one of the rare few who doesn't have cable TV, in fact, we watch most of our TV on a 13" VCR/TV combo I've had since the dorm days of college. The one thing I miss about cable is Sex & the City on HBO, although not a huge problem because I am impatient and I love watching the episodes in marathon, rather than weekly. It was torture waiting so long for the second DVD set of the last season 6 to come out - thus today had been a planned vegetation day - pick up DVD at 10 AM when stores open, and then veg.... until I've watched every last episode. I loved every minute of it!

Favorite quote by Carrie: "I've taken a lovvvver"
Favorite moment: When Petrovski surprises Carrie with an Oscar de la Renta dress and an evening at the opera and asks her for a dance outside the MET as a quartet serenades the incoming guests.
On the Ending: perfect-o. We now know Mr. Bigg's name is "John" and we can relate to (or wish for) that moment when life is falling apart around us and the love of our lives walks in to save us. Also, the choice of dress when Carrie is sleeping on Petrovski's bed was outstanding - it was absolutely gorgeous.

Christmas Follow-up

Ahhhh yes. I had heard about this poster at work, simply a rumor, more like a legend. The story goes that many don't think much of Orlando Bloom other than a pointy-eared blonde bow and arrow man from Lord of the Rings, but once they see this calendar, they fall in love. My biggest dilemma is trying to figure out where in my office (where I seem to spend most of my time) I should post it. Poster is courtesy of my very considerate Hawaiian buds Guy and Hiroko.

I spent Christmas with T's family where I got to meet the newest addition to their family, the cutest chihuahua named Oreo. He was very nervous, anxious and territorial which made for an interesting evening considering that my Mia has some issues with dogs on her own, especially when on leash. It was a nice quiet evening as we watched movies on TV (a reason why I don't have cable, I would be glued to the TV all day long and get nothing accomplished), ate dinner and Japanese Christmas cake. This is quite random, but the Japanese eat cake on Christmas because they think this is what Americans do (which is also the reasoning for the blond hair I've seen these days). So what did we do? We did what we think the Japanese think the Americans do. Oh, and if you look closely at the cake picture, you will see that Santa Claus had the first bite of frosting.

The Little Tree That Could...

Last year, I got to experience a live Christmas tree. We went to the lot, picked one out, tied it to my car, drove it home, dragged it up the stairs, set it up and cleaned up the mess. After the Holidays, we purchased a saw, sawed it into pieces, and cleaned up the mess. As much as I enjoyed a real tree, I couldn't go through with it again this year. While home at Thanksgiving, I found the cutest package at the Vons up in Oakhurst. Now you're probably wondering what on earth I found at the local grocery store - it was a potted baby tree (replant after the holidays!), a box of 20 hand-painted ornaments and blinking christmas lights all in one package for $18! This cute darling is now what we've nicknamed "the little tree that could" as it has somehow managed to accumulate more presents than the tree 20 times its size last year.

Since we are in the wee hours of Christmas morning, let me just quickly post my newest prized possession :) I will post more later, as I need to go download The Complete U2.

Danger! Achtung!

Need I say more? Actually, I was just mulling around the kitchen waiting for T to come home from work and cook me something, I noticed this on the fridge:

Wifi Access

There are some things you take for granted until its gone. High-speed wireless internet access is definitely one of them. My parents have some crappy old PII machine with dial-up. You have no idea HOW SLOW this is... its so freakin slow that I have to wait for Google to load. WTF?! Anyhow, I just found one of my neighbors with wide-open wifi access, although it keeps going in and out. GET OFF YOUR CORDLESS PHONE SO I CAN HAVE SOME CONSISTENT ACCESS!!

Baachan (Grandma)

My grandma is on a cross-country USA tour of her life. This has been a lot of firsts at the age of 85: airplane ride, using a passport, seeing Niagara Falls, knowing what a day-long drive is like, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Hollywood and whips. Wait, perhaps that last one doesn't belong on that list :)

My baachan (grandma in Japanese) lives in Yokohama by herself, as my father lives here in the states and both my aunt and uncle have already passed away. My jiichan (grandpa) passed away a few years ago. I've spent time with my extended family only when I've had the opportunity to visit Japan, which doesn't equate to very much time. Having my baachan here is a real treat, as it will be our first time having a holiday with another member of our family. My baachan is hilarious - she's 85, uses a cane and walks reaaaaaly slow, but is a real spitfire. Her memory is much better than mine - and she won't take shit from anyone :) Yesterday we drove through Rodeo Drive, then spent some time at Hollywood and Highland where she got to see the hand/foot prints of stars like Marilyn Monroe and Betty Davis. It was real crowded with tourists, families, kids, and people in costume. For a nominal tip, you can take a photo with Superman, Shrek, a Hobbit or other characters. My grandma (she's shrunk so much she must be about 3 feet when she walks) slowly walks through the crowds and makes her way to this sultry Catwoman and insists on taking a photo with her. Catwoman loves this and asks grandma "would you like to hold the whip?" the crowd around us started laughing with us and taking photos as my grandma happily took ahold of the leather whip. My baachan was totally thrilled. I asked her later "why catwoman?" she responded "because she was pretty, with those long skinny legs and she looked good in her leather costume" RARRR! :)

Cracking UP

There are times when you are laughing but you really want to keep it quiet (cause you're at work and all) but you start coughing and choking instead. Here's an exerpt from Minuk's blog, an old co-worker whose blog I just recently learned about.

paper dolls are not just for little girls....

Dress your own Orlando Bloom using this awesome paper doll site! What fun for a Monday morning...

oH MY GoD!!

U2 IPOD!!!!
Never wanted an Ipod before, but now, I must have one.

What Orlando Bloom are you?

HOT. That is all I have to say.

Serious Orlando


What Orlando Bloom are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Dyson

A vacuum is a vacuum is a vacuum, right? Not if you have a Dyson. How many boyfriends suggest purchasing a new (relatively expensive) vacuum when you already own one that works okay? Well, as Tienshiao said, this one has "nerd appeal" (or did he say Geek appeal?). In his typical fashion, he did his research and came up with his decision to purchase one. There are only a few models sold in the US, and certain models sold through certain retailers. For example, we purchsed the DC07 Full Kit from Costco. I'm sure Tienshiao will post his own review, so I'll keep my comments short on the usage front. Here he is below, enthusiastically putting the new machine together (yes, he was more excited than he was last Christmas morning).

Before we left, he used my old Hoover I purchased about 3 years ago to vacuum the living room. To see how much this machine missed, we vacuumed the same area with the new Dyson. The third picture below is after vacuuming over the same place the Hoover already cleaned - see how much guck is in there? EWWWW!!!!

Another very cool feature is the hose - 17ft it will take you, right up those stairs. The handle is removable, and you can flip it to make it into an easy to carry and use handheld vacuum, perfect for those hard to reach areas (this is called "Telescope Reach"). For those of you with pets, this one worked great for pet hair - our Mia sheds like crazy and the Dyson caught it all, without using the Animal Tool.

Wedding

Another co-worker's wedding! If one more person decides to get married, or have a child, I am going broke! This was an outdoor wedding last weekend (same day as Britney Spears) held out in beautiful Somis, California. It was held at Hartley Botanica's which was a gorgeous and cozy setting.

I got to sit with some friends and see some old friends, one of which has the cutest baby boy, named Caleb. At the age of 17 months, he has the art of flirting mastered. I would hate to see him at 17!!

It was held in an outside garden, complete with parrots and other animals and there was a gorgeous walkway with lights intertwined with the branches all the way up to the "altar". Tammy had on a beautiful ivory dress, with a criss-cross ribbon that tied up the back in place of a more traditional button-up dress. With the world's smallest waistline, only she could pull this dress off so beautifully. The tables were decorated very elegantly - but do you notice my placecard? This ambiguously confused gender issue continues to surround me.......

Popcorn

Just when you thought the best part of Hawaii were the beaches....

PS This is a backlog entry. Not all bags exist in my kitchen at this time.

life is all a gamble....

I played poker for the first time a few nights ago. It was fascinating. I have absolutely no love lost on gambling - some people are terribly addicted, I on the other hand don't care for certain things - gambling, playing team sports, card games. However, once I get into it, oh damn I go head first.

Gambling makes a great analogy to life, even as the famous saying goes, "life is all a gamble", although I would like to think that life is not as random as the shuffling of a deck of cards. Like gambling, there are some moves and decisions made that are better than others, and perhaps intuition which comes in that territory. However, is our goal in these types of games the same as in life - i.e. "winner takes all", the person with the most money wins? Or, are we trying to find our pairs, our equals amongst many others that are so similar but not a match?

So you probably want to know how I did - "ya win some and ya lose some".

Gracie's Dinner

Gracie is leaving in a few short days. We had a party for her at work, but of course, we can't let her go without another dinner! An evening of fun, laughter, okonomiyaki and carrot cake. Yum! Nothing is a "send off" without some good food! Gracie, we will miss you!

Angels vs Mariners

Angels stadium was a huge difference from Dodger stadium. My parents friends got us tickets again and we were in for another fun-filled treat. Like any outing, this was complete with food to match - the huge italian sausage with everything on it, kettle corn, soda. Yum! They played the Mariners which of course, has my cousin, Ichiro (I'm so totally joking). Tienshiao got into the spirit by wearing his "I'm a Super Duper Programmer" shirt to show his nerdy ways. On the way home he amazed me once again with his driving skillz, blasting by a Lexus to cut him off for the onramp from a red light - all within a few hundred feet. I had my life flash before my eyes and every curse word flying out of my mouth. I guess its always the quiet ones you have to worry about. Mia was obviously unaware of anything going on anywhere else but in dreamland back at home.

Mike and Allison's Wedding

It seems like just yesterday that Mike told me the story about Allison's proposal, and how he thought he was on a Chinese hidden camera show. He then told me the wedding would be in 2004. "2004?!" I said, "that's not like for, forever." Well forever came and hit my impatient head yesterday in a fabulous evening of romance, friends and sports (this is Mike, afterall). For the first time ever, I knew everyone at my table - including the couple I "didn't know". She was a friend of Mike's from high school who now lives up north, and was setup with her current boyfriend by Joey and Diane who turned out to be an old coworker of mine from when we were students 4 years ago! I tell you, it amazes me what a small world we all live in. The food was fantastic (ooooh, appetizers) and open bar. I could tell that my alcohol tolerance wasn't as great as it used to be when I was done by my second cosmo (or was it an apple martini?). Anyhow, it was the best wedding I've been to in a long time.

The wedding and reception were at the Turnip Rose, Grand Newport Plaza. The ceremony was short and sweet, officiated by Carlos, who can now start his own business as a wedding officiant and had a crowd of over 200 friends, family and coworkers. As you can tell, my non-stop weekend came to an abrupt halt as my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. But we will always have the memories!

Harry Connick Jr.

Saturday night, it was him and I, my boyfriend and 17,000 other fans at the Hollywood Bowl. He came out on stage wearing all black - the top was unbutton halfway, running his hand through his thick masse of dark curls, and his voice - deep and seductive with a southern accent. I felt like a school girl who just saw the high school water polo team run by - in their speedos. I was screaming like I was at a football game, the Super Bowl. There was nowhere better to be at that night. It was a fantastic show - lots of big band jazz, trios, piano solos, singing and dancing along with much of his up-front humor. I just never wanted it to end.

Going Away II

So what was I saying again about losing good people? Diane is the 4th and hopefully last person close to me at work who is leaving. I've known her for-ever it seems, back when I was working in the computer labs in college. She is the inner child incarnate that we all suppress at one point in our lives - everything about her is pure raw emotion - her laughter, her excitement, her hugs, and her tears. Its so nice to see that people still feel this way, but perhaps I've become a tad jaded in my old age. Anyhow, a few days ago she picked Mike and I up in her cool electric vehicle to go to lunch!

We met up with Jin, who was the first person to leave - it was so good to see him. We commented on the "new work" haircut, clothes, gadgets (now he looks like a real nerd) and cologne. So last night, was the real last hurrah for Diane. Imagine this recipe - asians, pool table, lots of drinks, a doll and lesbian tendencies (okay, so this is now going to generate lots of random hits to my page by strange Google searches).

There was also a barfight (I didn't get those pics) and lots of tears from Diane. Okay so the sentimental stuff - I am so proud of her for making the tough decision to leave all those that she loves for the possibility of something greater in SF (not to mention hella more pay). Also her boyfriend Joey (who is a Tienshiao incarnate) to stand beside her so patiently and so lovingly that he is moving his entire life up north to be with her. I'm going to miss her dearly!!!!!!!

Going Away

It seems to be a trend lately, all of the good people around me at work seem to be fading away slowly. Gracie (who was in a previous post that got wiped out) will be moving to New York. She is absolutely incredible - patient, creative, innovative and a work ethic unmatched by anybody I know. She's given me a new (expensive) hobby that has brought me such joy in my life, and I am going to miss her immensely. She is so courageous for what she is about to embark upon - not only a switch to NY life from LA, but to actually pursue her dreams, the one that many have - to be with the one you love, to do what you love and to be your own boss. Maybe one day I'll be inspired to do the same.

Da Bowl

Last night was my first time..... going to the Hollywood Bowl, that is! I was so excited - we packed food, fruit and wine, tickets ahead of time, knew what shuttle we were going to ride....

What a whirlwind. Turns out the Culver City bus left at 6:30 PM, not at 7 PM like it said on the flyer. We pull up at the specified location early, at 6:35 PM when we see the Culver City bus with designation "Hollywood Bowl" pulling out. I frantically park my car to ask the attendant "is there another bus coming?" he has no idea - but there were others there that had just arrived. I asked if they were going to the Bowl, and they nodded "yes", as if I were crazy. Then we found the student working that shuttle stop and she let us know that we had just missed the bus, and had no idea where the closest next shuttle stop was. My watch said 6:45 PM and the last shuttle from the Federal Building in Westwood left at 7 PM (and remember, this is a Tuesday night, during peak traffic hours). With some miracle, we made the Westwood shuttle. We arrived 10 minutes after beginning time, and ran up to our seats (er, took the escalators), we got there right after they started. What a view!!! It was absolutely gorgeous - it almost seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and the only indication of LA was the Hollywood sign visible over the peaks. After sunset, the stars came out, there was a breeze, great live music (Midsummer Night's Dream) sushi and wine, and I fell asleep right after intermission. ZzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzz. Next concert on the schedule? Harry Connick Jr. Woo hoo! I definitely need to get some binoculars before this one!

Dodgers vs. Angels

I went to the LA Dodgers vs. Anaheim Angels game yesterday. I had gone to a Dodgers game once, when I was in college, squished on the back of an old Honda Hatchback Civic with 6 others intoxicated by gas fumes. We had seats so high the air was thin and the only thing I remember were the Dodger dogs. This time, we had awesome seats as we went with my dad's friends who were regulars at the scene. He knew every shortcut to get there, best place to park and of course, to know when to move out of direct sunlight. There's something special about being there - baseball typically bores me on TV. I don't understand the hype my uncles in Japan would place on baseball as it just wasn't as exciting as football or hockey, even. But when you're there smelling the freshly cooked hotdogs and seeing the huge stadium and its perfectly crisscrossed lawn, it puts a whole new dimension to the game.

Kazuhisa Ishii pitched for the Dodgers, so you know, had to cheer the brutha' on!

Retreat & Reflections

What a treat - a day away from the office for an all day retreat. We went to this beautiful location on the coast of Malibu, where surfers hung out all day and once the June Gloom cleared up, it was amazing. The smell of the salty ocean air plus the loud crashing of the ocean waves made it all seem more like a vacation than a day of bittersweet reflection.

"My parents are out of town and I'm throwing a party!"

Famous last words. The last time I heard that, we were in for an evening of cheap booze, pizza & chips, and chaos which led late into the night. However, as time always seems to pass by faster than my mental age, I was stunned to be escorted into an evening of candlelit festivities orchestrated by chef Matt who had carefully planned each and every homemade crub last night. You see him here below with David and another equally sleep-deprived friend in the art of making meatballs. I unfortunately didn't get a photo of the bruschetta which was really good too, but I was too busy eating.

On the menu? Bruschetta, tomato & mozarella salad, spaghetti and meatballs and last but not least, "cheesecake" (please pronounce that in the same way Homer says "burger").

Yum. Oh, and I met some neat people as well. They enjoyed the free dinner as much as I enjoyed eating it. Below are Matt's friends, all of which relations began in some connection to the internet, or pre-internet days of muds and bbs (from left, skinny funny guy, Jin, Tobin, Matt and attack cat sleeping peacefully on the empty chair). Now please excuse me as I have to run an extra lap to work off all of these calories.

humor

Here's some humor to offset my grumpiness from yesterday

=====
JIM AND EDNA

"Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have."

Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there.

Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out. When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered her to be mentally stable.

When she went to tell Edna the news she said, "Edna, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged; since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of another patient, I have concluded that your act displays sound mindedness.

The bad news is, Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself right after you saved him with his bathrobe belt in the bathroom. I am so sorry, but he's dead."

Edna replied "He didn't hang himself; I put him there to dry. How soon can I go home?"

grump

I'm grumpy today.

So far everything's been good - good medium non-fat latte, strawberries were sweet, my staff in on time - but I'm a grump.

Maybe because I had to ditch my stalking neighbor who wants to hook me up with her homestay guy from Japan.

Maybe because I was late getting into work.

Maybe because my SPAM has increased to include German porn (it used to be just Korean porn).

Maybe because I just want to be.

=========================================
astrologyzone.com
Those of you who are not at the commitment stage but rather in an earlier dating phase may begin to lose patience with a partner's inability to move the relationship forward. Give this alliance a change - you should be pleased with developments after June 29.

Birthday Fun

On my drive into work yesterday, I contemplated making a post about how Birthdays just don't seem to be as much fun past 21.... good thing I didn't.

I walked into my cubicle, and it was decorated with these streamers and a big sign that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIZ" which was covering my monitor. Turns out my coworker came in at 7:30 to give me a cute welcome. My boss brings me yellow roses, another co worker gave me the cutest paper pads - of matching purse and shoes, and the big boss brings me this beautiful paperback and tells me that they are of short stories that "echo in his heart". He then proceeds to tell me that his computer is having problems and to follow him back to his office - at which point takes me into the lounge and - SURPRISE!!!!!

They had a gorgeous cake from J&J Bakery, pizza for everyone and oh, too much fun. They remembered. :) In the afternoon came my gorgeous bouquet from Tienshiao via Proflowers and Birthday wishes all day.

Went to Pacos for dinner, of course - but I think the best moment of my Birthday (I'm going to embarass the poor guy here) was when I saw him walk in and came up to where I was sitting and kissed me. There was something so magical about that one simple motion which simply took my breath away.

Everything else that evening was just gravy - I got a new cel phone, tickets to go see Harry Connick Jr, and a trip to Vegas to see "O" (which we missed last time we were there).

It never seemed to end! Another colleague came to bring me the most gorgeous cheesecake with fresh fruit and a beautiful necklace as well as someone else with Bath & Body stuff - my staff got me a gift certificate to buy more clothes and sweet Gracie gave me precious stones which will bring me countless hours of creative fun.

A Case of Mistaken...

identity? I had a first happen today....

I went to a meeting with a senior manager and met the project manager on her team. I had email communication with him before and has helped me time and time again but we had never met in person. I arrived a few minutes early at the coffee shop when they entered together. The PM kept looking at me until they reached where I was sitting, where the manager introduced us.....

Manager: PM, this is Shiz from XXXX Dept.
PM: (looking puzzled) What's your name again?
Manager: This is Shiz....
PM: Have we met before?
Me: No, actually (big smile), but you've helped me over email many times. I really appreciate all that you....
PM: (still puzzled) We've met before, I know we have..
Me: No, I know we haven't met before...
PM: and the last time I met you, you were a guy.
Me: No, (a bit shocked) we've never met before, and I've never been a guy before either.
Manager: No, Shiz is definitely not a guy.
PM: (still unsure) ....hrmm....
Manager walks away to get coffee
Me: (trying to be helpful) ... I've never met any male Shiz's before...

This was a first for me - either he's 1) totally confused, or 2) I really looked like a guy before.

This was a photo taken at work, circa October of 2002, 2.5 months before I started on Weight Watchers. I've lost about 45 pounds since then, and have about 10 or so more to go. I still don't quite believe it myself, but I have a pair of my old Gap loose fit size 14 pants and this photo magnetized on my fridge to remind me of the days long past.

Blogs...

I think many bloggers and internet users in general start to get comfortable with the anonymity this medium brings. I've seen a few instances where this gets out of hand and goes from obscurity to front page news overnight. And chances are, someone's got a copy somewhere.

Here's a case of an intern in Washington DC and her very personal blog. Just skip down to May 11th, that's my favorite so far.

Three day weekends

I love having Holidays fall on Mondays. Typically, this means that the office closes early on the Friday before, and we return to a week that has been shortened by an entire day. Its Friday at 5 PM before you know it (my favorite time of the week) and another 2 days off. I suppose this sounds a bit cynical, but the evening before returning to work can do that to you.

I've picked up a new "thing" - I can't figure out if its quite a hobby, or something else, but anyway, its running. I think I caught some of the "runner's high" the last few times and ever since, I've been hooked. I throw my MP3 player on and I just keep going. However, I'm quite picky about when. I either like first thing in the morning (before I realize what I'm doing) or in the evening, right before sunset. The temperature is cool, and sometimes a light breeze. The only thing that ruins the scenery is the fact I have to dodge traffic and cars going ever-which-way. I suppose it would be worth a short trip down to the beach for a nice run. My current average length is about 2 miles, or 20 minutes, whichever comes first. My boyfriend had picked up a pedometer for me awhile back, but the damn thing is set to kilometers, and I've thrown the instruction booklet away.

I'm about a third way done with my Morehouse sweater. I'm almost finished with the main body area, then next would be the sleeves! The first one I finished came out too small, and so I opted to make it for the 46" chest size - which Tienshiao was slightly humored by (since neither of us are that large).

On my reading list, I'm almost finished with Funny in Farsi which is a fantastic book written by an Iranian immigrant growing up in the 70's here between Whitter, CA and SoCal. Although we come from vastly different backgrounds, there are many stories I and other immigrants and second generations can relate to - I highly recommend this quick, fun, short read.

All in all, it was another wonderful weekend. I'm a bit stuffed right now, as I just pigged out at Versailles. I don't go very often, but when I do go, I'm never dissapointed. They bring you out some butter dipped bread which is crisp on the crust, and don't even bother with the menu - jump right into their "special" which is the chicken and pork marinated in lemon garlic sauce. This comes with a very generous helping of rice, black beans and of course, plantains. The plantains in fact, was much better this time - ooy gooy, just the way I like it. Smash those bad boys in with the rice, douse with the black beans and mix in some of the shredded pork that has been mixed with the lemon garlic sauce. All together now, "ahhhhHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh.........". :)

You won't believe this..

What do you do when you entrust your vehicle to a well-known service shop in a ritzy area of town and they get a ticket with your vehicle and don't tell you about it? Read more!

Why I Am Not a Network Admin

RANT: My site has been down for 3 days, and I lost the last 2 week's worth of posts.... counter got reset..... I suppose I should have made the adjustments to the DNS settings when I was first notified, but.... well... these are the reasons I am not a Net Admin. Backing up? What do you mean backup!! I'm afraid I'm starting to sound like one of my users. I have sent a formal complaint to my web hosting contact and will have to refuse payment until backup data is restored ;)

Note: I luckily still had my last post's edit page open on my browser, so I was able to redo that one.

Donut Article

I got some great responses to my Krispy Kreme pic entry - but here's something to explain it further.

** Credits go to H! :)

Back in the groove of things

I knew it wouldn't take me too long to get back into the groove of things. Day 2 of work and I'm back to frazzle dazzle. My fortune cookie tonight said something about a possible career change coming my way, so I took my first step in looking for a new job. I'll be sure to tape my fortune on my monitor tomorrow at the office. :)

"She doesn't speak English"

So I'm at Trader Joe's, and as usual was pretty crowded. Three tall blonde girls buying random stuff were at the front towards where I was walking. One says "Hey, I like your purse" and I briefly looked up, having gotten some comments on my new purse lately. It seemed like she was talking to the other blonde girl, so I kept walking. Then I hear the other blonde say to the girl, "she doesn't speak English". I guess I look fobbier than I thought.

The irony is that Japanese people typically think I don't speak Japanese, Korean people think I speak Korean, and now, caucasians don't think I speak English.

As far as the purse goes its absolutely gorgeous. Its my first "trendy" purse where the style and color go with the season (and a great V day gift), but I do have a few issues with it that are probably universal to other purses rather than to just Cole Haan. 1) The light colored leather is sensitive to wetness, so be careful on sprinkly days, and 2) the magnetic flap in the front and the slot on the back are so neat, but I think have been demagnetizing my ATM card - I'm on my third one in 6 weeks!

3 hours ahead, er, behind

I'm typically a morning person. I love the feeling of being up before everyone else, and getting random things and chores done ahead of time - ahh, the feeling of efficiency. I was already 2 hours off thanks to Hawaii time - which is not enough to screw you up, but definitely enough to throw you off. Now I wake up this morning at 11 AM (gasp!) thanks to our extra hour taken away (Hawaii doesn't spring forward an hour like the mainland). Tomorrow morning will definitely be a challenge!

100 Random Things

Okay, so Christian inspired me to finish my 100 Random Things. This was originally going to be an "About" page, but what better kind of page is there? Here are 100 Random Things About Shiz that not even some of my closest friends know.....

Little.Yellow.FUNNY!

Most of us are familiar with Little.Yellow.Different. (a good analogy would be - LYD::Shizknitz like Friends::The Littlest Groom) but I just came across his "The Best of LYD" and read the stories about his Mom, and couldn't stop laughing.

This is me, last night. I was "practicing" talking to fishies.

"a girlfriend is a full-time job"

So someone on my staff today says, "a girlfriend is a full-time job". Not that I particularly know, considering I've never had a girlfriend, but I have had boyfriends and I haven't really considered that to be a "full-time job". Perhaps a "lifestyle", but never anything more than that. There's been times where I've liked my job more than the boyfriend, but that's another story.

There's that old saying about "love shouldn't be such hard work", and "you have to work to make a relationship work" but a wise old man recently let me in on the *real* secret: "a successful relationship is when you feel good about you when you are with the other person". As obvious as it sounds, it was a resounding, thought provoking statement.

Count Down!

The countdown begins!! TWO WEEKS until paradise!! :)

In the meantime, here's another quiz.

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood.....

Home is where the heart is, or in my case, where my stuff is. I think many post-collegiate people are in the same boat as I am - you go away to college where you have your "home" address and your "school" address, then you move from apartment to apartment until you realize that your nomadic lifestyle has now become your way of life and new home. In the last 6.5 years I have moved 7 times, each time my mom swearing she will never help me move again.

Living all over the westside, I have become to know the hidden streets, shortcuts, when not to take certain routes and where the best restaurants are. This has, of course, made me feel as if I have embraced my community, the surroundings of where I live. I figure this is enhanced by the fact I walk my dog every morning and night, 365 days a year, pouring rain or brilliant SoCal sunshine - I can tell you which apartments have availabilities - 3, 2 or 1 bedroom(s), which corner dogs like to crap on, which buildings are newly renovated and that the people living on the first floor of that one corner apartment have Korean BBQ on Thursday nights.

Through all of these tid-bits, I have never embraced my neighborhood. Sure, I have walked to the Carniceria, the Liquor store, Palms Supermarket for the weekend taco stand and Cafe Brazil for rice and beans. But for the first time last night, I had a pondering thought about what my community really is about. I voted for the first time in my life - I took my yellow postcard, walked out the back of my complex, around the corner and into the auditorium of the elementary school which was filled with many other people from my neighborhood, all whom I don't know. I realized that this yellow postcard put me in a certain "precinct" or area, and as we each individually walked up to the table, they would confirm their addresses - all street names and addresses so familiar to me because of my daily walks, but no faces were familiar to me. It struck me that if any of my neighbors from my complex were to have been there, that I wouldn't even realize - because I don't even know who my neighbors are.

I grew up in a time when all kids watched Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and the Mario Brothers were the guys down the street. We knew all of our neighbors, many of whom had lived there for most of their lives. Summers included lemonade stands, BBQ's and pool parties - we knew all of the other family's lives as well as they knew ours. As I get older, it makes me wonder if this feeling of detachment is because of my age, or where I live, or worse yet - a shift and change in society as a whole.

As I stood there in the voting booth (a flimsy standup thing with a plastic thing to give you privacy) exercising one of the most powerful privileges of being a citizen by making choices which will affect the future of Calif and my local community - that we each have a responsibility to what creates the dynamics of our neighborhood. To those voting next to me, I was another unknown face - or at best - the girl who walks her dog religiously. As I made my final selections on the ballot, I vowed that someday I will settle down in a place I call home, an address I can finally place on my checks and drivers license....... "won't you be, my neighbor. Hello neighbor!"

"You had me at hello"

I am a Bachelor(ette) show fanatic. I missed only one season, and since the beginning of this show, I've been hooked. Watching the series unfold has the same appeal as reading a blog of someone's continual journey through a slice of life. There's something so personal (though on ABC its edited) and so real with raw emotions expressed openly to an unlimited audience - as we do here. Before the Bachelor has always been "Wedding Story" on TLC - I remember how ecstatic I was having cable TV in the dorms and how I would come back between classes to catch episodes, even reruns. Trust me, all those lunch hours back at the house wasn't because of the food! One of my fondest memories was a Valentines day where TLC televised an 8-hour marathon run of Wedding Story episodes. Forget the tissues, I had myself a towel.

This hopeless romantic side hasn't changed much since I was little. I remember moving all of our living room furniture and covering it with sheets to imagine I was living in a castle, and sometimes I would pretend I was sleeping beauty waiting for my prince (and most of the time ended up falling asleep!). I get goosebumps watching proposals on TV, get emotional attending weddings, cry when hearing pure, untouched emotion and wonder.... wonder if I'm a pessimist or an optimist. So did Meredith make the right decision? I hope so - she had me sobbing by the time she declared "I am so madly in love with you"!

PS For Geeks, Meredith was the face on the cover of Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9!

rubber duckie, you're the one....

What is more suiting than a nice warm bath on a cloudy, rainy Sunday afternoon after an indulgent breakfast down at Maxwell's in Marina? These are one of those lazy days of winter when us spoiled SoCal people don't know what to do with ourselves when its anything less than sunny. For those of you familiar with a traditional Japanese ofuro living in a place with a typical american bathtub you find in typical living arrangements, you understand that there is something to be coveted when it comes to a nice, relaxing bath.

My maternal grandparents back in Japan used to be owners of an ofuro-ya. I don't know how far back it had gone, but as I know it, my great-grandparents were well off in the pre-WWII era and owned lots of land in the Yokohama area. It was passed on to my baachan (grandmother) as being the eldest daughter, and my giichan (grandfather) married into the family. They ran it until about 15 years ago when they decided to close because most modern housing came pre-built with bathtub/shower areas.

As a kid, I remember all the open space we had to run around in, and all the people we would meet by virtue of hanging out with my baachan. The men's and women's side was split up, but the top part was wide open - which allowed us to play badminton using the wall as a make-shift net. When the customers started to come, they were typically regulars from the neighborhood - I loved the smells of shampoo and the aroma of the scented bath (there was one scented, one regular one that was shallow, and one regular one that was deeper for adults for each gender side). Afterwards I would gulp down an indulgent cold drink - usually a strawberry milk out of a small, square-shaped carton (I tried to search for a photo, but apparently ichigo milk is a J porn star!) or an ice cold ramune complete with glass marble.

Alas, as nostalgic as it may sound, being limited to the small american tub, I do the best I can. :)

Sweet Smells of Roses

It doesn't matter how many times you've gotten them, there's just something so wonderful about how roses smell. It's like a decadent truffle, or a sweet chocolate that is so delicious but lasts for only a short while. I got to be the lucky girl in the office again, this year.

Shiznits

If you don't know what it means, take a look!