TITLE GOES HERE...

Sorry, couldn't think of anything good. Went to Boneshia's spin class last night. I'm always scared to go back after missing before and my fear is always justified. My thighs are killing me. They were already sore from my run on Sunday, but after spin... whew. At least today is a pilates day and we do virtually no quad work as we focus more on the hammies, so that'll be a nice break.

And something I heard about yesterday... former presidential candidate John Kerry taking heat for a joke he made about McCain. Come on... it was funny! Not like we don't know he's 282 years old!:

"Barack got asked the famous boxers or briefs question," Kerry said. "I was tempted to say commando."

"Then they asked McCain and McCain said, 'Depends,'" he added, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

LET THE FUN BEGIN...

Pictures from Budapest: http://picasaweb.google.com/kejercito/BUDAPEST

Hi there! I got back from Budapest a week ago and it was lots of fun. Some may say it's a little crazy to travel nearly 30 hours for only 3 full days in the city, but you've gotta jump on these opportunities when they pop up.

I left on Wednesday morning, went through JFK, and on to Budapest, arriving early Thursday morning. My grand plan was to take a sleeping pill on the JFK-BUD leg so I could sleep well and be ready to hit the ground running upon landing. You know... make the most of my 3 days. Well, I got up at 3 a.m. that morning and forced myself not to sleep on that LAX-JFK leg. I get on the plane and find out I have the whole row to myself. Woohoo. Right after we take off, I lay down for a bit (without taking the sleeping pill) and promptly fall asleep. I wake up when they start serving dinner. That's good and bad. It's good because I don't like missing any meals. =D It's bad because it would have been preferable to sleep straight through to Budapest because at this point, it's too late to take the sleeping pill since I won't have enough time for the pill to run its course.

After sleeping on and off through the 9.5 hours, we finally arrive. I usually pull money from the ATM as soon as I land in a new country, but of course the ATM is broken. I change $100 so I can have money for the shuttle to the hotel... and get HUF 17250 (that's Hungarian Forints)! Wow. I've never had a 10000 bill before. =P The airport shuttle is very affordable if any of you ever head out there. I was fortunate and had the whole shuttle to myself, so no other stops for me. Unfortunately, NATO was having a conference in town (actually, in the next hotel over) so there were many road blocks up and lots of security, so what is usually a 30 min drive turned into an hour.

I get into the room and it has an AWESOME view. After appreciating the view for about 10 minutes, I quickly change and go back to sleep... until about 2:30. While Laryna is at work, I decide to explore and walk around. This was made more challenging by all the road blocks set up for the NATO conference, but I managed to find Gerbaud, a famous coffee house and sample their cakes and capuccino... for lunch. Always a great way to start the day.

I walked around for a bit more then headed to the hotel to meet up with Laryna for dinner. We plan to get dinner on our own, but run into her co-workers who insist we come along on the big company dinner outing to Sir Lancelot, a medieval themed restaurant. Cheapos that we are, we go with the free dinner. It was lots of fun and they give you this huge platter of food. Mostly meat actually. Great for a carnivore like me. They also have lots of alcohol and entertainment. By the end of the night, I have no idea how many mugs (yes mugs) of wine I've had. But we're not done yet. No, those engineers are party animals and we move on to some bar on the way home... and then another one. When we finally head back to the hotel, it's 2 a.m and some of them are still going to stay out and gamble at the casino across the street. Crazy! They have to work the next day!

More on the rest of the trip in a bit.

TIME FLIES!

Wow! I can't believe it's already October. I sure am glad it's almost time to go to Budapest though. Woohoo! I'm going on a mini vacation and heading to Budapest for a few days while Laryna is there for work. I'm crashing in her nice hotel and walkin around while she toils away with the other blue tooth geeks. The only bummer is I'll be gone while Charlotte's in town. =( I haven't seen her in a while.

The rest of this week should be pretty fun. Friday night I'm going to see Wicked with some friends and then Saturday I'm going down to the OC for my aunt's birthday party. Then we make an encore appearance to celebrate Linley's 4th. Go figure! Miss Thang is 4 years old already.

So, totally random... I decided to weigh myself before and after my shower... and it's a 1.4lb difference! Must be all the wet hair.

CHEESEGASM!

Yep, that's right. Cheesegasm. Saturday night I had dinner at Comme Ca with Jenn, Caren, Gina and Kat. At Vaj's suggestion, we ordered the cheese platter - and it was SOOO good. They gave us 5 different types of cheese plus the proper accompaniments (figs, honeycomb, fruit), which I think really make a difference. We also shared the steak frites and pork belly. Those were really good too. We ordered coq au vin but I had no room since I chose to dig into the Mac and Cheese (excellent!). The service was great and the place is cozy cute. I just don't get the plastic lawn chairs. =P

Hmm... what else... oh, congrats to Tom, Cherrie and Mia! Little JT (Jayson Thomas) was born on Friday, September 5th at 5:52 p.m. at 6 lbs. 6 oz. I picked labor day in the pool. I wonder if I won. Cherrie wasn't due until later. She totally cracks me up since she was texting up until she was in the hospital and at 6 cm dialated. hehe. She's a machine!

A NIGHT AT THE BOWL...

Just remembered I took these... photos from Reggae Night with UB40 at the Hollywood Bowl:

USA! USA!

Whew, the Olympics are finally over! Good thing because it was really messing with my sleep schedule. Obviously I watched a lot of Olympics these past two weeks. I really enjoyed it, especialy that gold medal game for basketball. Fun! I didn't stay up til 2 a.m. though. DirecTV had some olympic basketball channel and they had the replay on at 8 a.m.

Charlotte came to visit this weekend. Unfortunately, their flight was delayed 5 hours, so our play time was cut short by quite a bit. Anyhow, she is so cute. She is quite the walker now and getting around very well. She's also very sweet, giving the dolly lots of hugs and kisses. She'll even throw in a hug or two for the relatives. =P She also knows how to brush her teeth. Unfortunately she was using a baby hair brush to do it. hehehe. yuck.

Two food events this past weekend: I tried a turkey burger and we went to Mozza Osteria. Whoever said turkey burgers were good, apparently have never had beef or are doing their best to convince themselves. I was just trying to be a little healthier, but I don't think I'll be going the turkey burger route again. As for Mozza Osteria - the food was good - but for the price and flavor, I would stick with Mozza Pizzaria. There was a $40 difference between what we paid at Pizzaria and Osteria, but that's probably because we had more alcohol at Osteria. =P

SLACKER

OK, so it's been quite a while since I updated. I know - I'm a total slacker. So what's been going on? Well, I was essentially out of the office for three weeks straight. First, I got jury duty. JURY DUTY! You'd think I'd get excused, especially on a criminal matter since I was an intern at the public defender's office, but I guess since I was just an alternate, it didn't really matter. So, I sat there day after day listening to testimony, but did not get to deliberate... and it was a hung jury! What a waste of our time! Send that sucker to the slammer.

The week after that, I went to Vegas, and of course it was burnin hot. I actually considered running, but just wasn't able to get up and go at 5 am when the temperature was still reasonable. After Vegas I took off for New York. Vuong actually came along since Gina was going to be there with Weyland. I have to say, it sucks to be working in NY while your friends are out goofing around. I did manage to get some good dinners with them though - Cafe Havana and Otto. Then we came back and Vuong, Lin and I went to Mozza Pizzeria. Yum! Mario Batali rocks. I've now had B&B (Vegas), Mozza Pizzeria (LA), and Otto (NY) and they have all been fantastic.

Anyhow, this is my first real week back to work and let me tell you, I walked into a PILE of stuff on my desk. Documents, shoes, you name it... It was horrid. I've managed to get through most of it, so hopefully tomorrow won't be as tiring. TGIF!

WOOHOO

I ran 3 miles for the first time ever today! (On the road that is.) I did my usual route and noticed the high school was open so I threw in a mile or so on the track. They had these little kids getting ready for football practice. It was so cute!

Anyhow, I was doing pretty well for a while, getting regular exercise and eating healthy, then I started traveling and it all went to crap. So I am trying to get back into things, even though I am scheduled to travel again, which means no exercise and lots of dinners.

HANDS FREE MEANS NO HANDS

So that new hands free law came into effect yesterday. I don't think some people quite get it though. Yes, using your speaker phone is acceptable. However, using your speaker phone while holding your phone up to your mouth seems to defeat the purpose of the law. Yesterday I saw at least two people doing this and I'm thinking... umm.... yeah, I don't think that's gonna fly.

Only one more day of work to go! Woohoo! I LOOOOVE holidays! Have a happy fourth!

MUAHAHAHA

They say what goes around comes around... and I like to make Karma happen when I can. Today driving into work, I am signaling to move into the right so I can make a right turn. This Old A$$ Fart in a Corvette won't let me in. I'm like, OK, fine, be that way you turd. I drop back and manage to get in behind him. (This right lane flows in from the freeway so is usually busy.) I make the right turn and move directly into the left lane as I can see a truck is in the right and it's going to be slow. OAF is in the right lane behind the truck. He tries to rev his engine and cut me off, but I slam on the gas and close the gap so he can't. Mind you, he didn't try to change lanes and get behind me... he tried to cut me off instead. So, yes, he gets stuck behind the truck and gosh, I must have used up all of my car's energy so that I couldn't go faster than the truck and he was stuck behind us for most of the way. =D BTW, he truly was an a$$. Give some white trash a few bucks and he buys a Corvette thinking he's hot $h!t. As I had moved into a left turn lane, he couldn't be bothered to drive like everyone else and had to drive over the center of the two lanes to pass through the people ahead of him.

SAVE ME

Hi there! Back from Virginia and will have more... but right now, just way too tired. However, thought I'd share my new favorite chillin song with you... my cousin from Hawaii actually had a you tube clip that kind of featured this song... it's called Save Me by Josh Verdes. He's got a my space you can hear it on or you can take a listen on itunes. It makes me feel like I should be swinging under a palm tree by the beach in Hawaii... never mind that this guy is actually from Richmond, Virginia according to his my space.

BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS...

... pun totally inteded! Just got home from watching the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and I am beat! My dad and I just had to walk around the whole place and I am pretty sure my butt was close to cramping at some point. We did get grandstand seats at the third hole, where we watched everyone from Ernie Els and on, which included Sergio Garcia, Mike Weir, and of course, tomorrow's play off finalists, Rocco Mediate and Tiger! We got to see Tiger the 3rd and 5th. Had we stayed at the first hole, he might have hit us on the head with his ball, because he had shanked it left where we had been standing and watching before we moved on to the 3rd. The 3rd is that pictureseque 3 par that over looks the canyon and beach, so my dad definitely wanted to check it out, and as it was father's day, who was I to argue? We arrived at around 9 and there were already TONS of people there! (Tiger didn't tee off til 1:30) It was pretty cool though because we got to see a lot of the players we always see on t.v.

Anyhow, that pretty much occupied most of the weekend. After we played tennis on Saturday, we drove down to S.D. and spent the night so we could get an early start without having to make too early of a start. Friday night I saw SATC with the salad queens and we all really liked it. I'm so bummed we won't know if there will be another.

Last week I was in actually in NYC and luckily got out before the heat wave. It was the same last year when we went in June. However, I did not miss the heat in Boston. I got a bit roasted actually, as I wasn't expecting heat and sunshine (and I'm pretty sure most Bostonians weren't either) and didn't bring a hat to wear. Since I was in Boston, I was tempted to wear a Lakers shirt that weekend, but as my parents pointed out, I'd probably get my ass kicked, and God knows I don't have any muscles for fighting. My cousin has also mentioned how very over zealous the Bostonians are about their teams - she knows as she moved from NYC and occasionally wears her Yankees hat around. Unlike in other major cities where you just accept that a lot of people will be there from different places and supporting different teams, Boston appears to expect a homogenous sports society - Celtics, Red Sox, and Patriots - nothing else. But then again... I was surprised to find that Boston was not as diverse as one would expect from a big city, so that is probably why. Boston was a nice town, I enjoyed walking around the city and the suburbs, but I think I pretty much saw everything there was to see in two days... and that's with a lot of snack and beverage (and by beverage I mean beer) stops due to the heat. Best thing: no sales tax on the clothes shopping! Woohoo.

EAST COAST SWING

Greetings from NYC! Arrived here yesterday from Boston via Acela Express. I enjoyed the train ride, although it was weird not having the salad queens on board with me. Anyhow, in Boston, Margie and I walked all around. Saturday we walked around Harvard and Davis Squares. When it was about to rain, we ducked into the theater and caught Indiana Jones. I liked it, but Margie couldn't get into it.

On Sunday, we started in Boston's North End with some good Italian food and a tour of Paul Revere's house. All 3 rooms of it. That's a dollar per room folks. Afterwards, we walked down toward Faneuil Hall, Beacon Hill, and did some shopping on Newbury. No sales tax! Woohoo. We would intermittently stop for drinks and snacks as it was really hot, so we were stuffed by the time we went home, and skipped dinner. Of course, at 2 am absolutely starving, I got up to eat crackers we had left over from wine and cheese night.

Monday I was super tired from not being able to sleep, and ended up catching the 11:15 train instead of 9:15. That got me into NYC at around 2:45 and I went straight to work. After we finished setting up, we checked in and grabbed dinner at Benjamin's Steakhouse. Supposedly, Benjamin's was opened by a guy was the chef at Peter Lugar's, so it was pretty good steak. (Madison & 41st) Tonight we had dinner at China Grill with one of our clients. That was pretty good too! I'm always wary of fusion Asian places, but we had some yummy stuff.

After I get back, I decide I want to buy a couple bottles of water. I walk out to Madison and hang a right to go to Duane Reade's, but they're closed. I figure, 10 more blocks, I should come across CVS. 10 blocks and 2 avenues later, still no CVS. I decide I'll go one more block past my own before heading towards Madison.... still nothing... but once I'm nearly back to the hotel....there it is, a little grocery, 2 doors down, if I had only tuned left instead of right on Madisonn. Oh well, I needed the exercise anyway. Speaking of... I actually got up to run this morning... just did a mile around the neighborhood at 6:30... and the streets were already busy. Ended up sucking in a bunch of second hand and car fumes. Probably did more harm than good. No wonder they run in the park.

THANKS!

Happy Memorial Day! First, thank you to all of the service men and women who are serving or have served our country and give this day meaning. :)

Next... the all important vacation. I am all over this camping thing. I have thus far acquired hiking boots - Merrell Chameleon Arc Mid Waterproof Hiking boots from REI.com:

and hiking pants - Northface Paramount Convertible Pants also from REI:

I tried the hiking boots out on Saturday. No, not in the woods... but at the outlets! I know, not what they're meant for, but heck, that was a lot of walking. I will tell you that they are pretty darn comfy. I don't think they really needed breaking in. I was hoping to test their waterproofness since it was raining, but of course, by the time we got to the outlets, it had stopped raining. Regardless, I can tell you they are comfy and light. Not all that attractive in my opinion, but none of the hiking boots are. I think it's time I design a girly-girl line of hiking/camping gear. There is clearly a need.

As for the pants, I will tell those of you interested that they run small, just as I had read in the reviews on the web site. Therefore, you will need to buy a size up, something I am generally opposed to as it is bad for my self-esteem, but most of the other hiking pants look pretty unflattering compared to these, so I sucked it up. Also, these convert into semi-attractive shorts at a decent length, unlike many other convertibles which are still really long when converted into shorts, looking like something my mom would wear.

I think all I really need to buy now in terms of gear is a good waterproof jacket, as I've got a couple of fleeces I can layer in, some hiking socks, and one of those compressable pillows. I think the rest I can borrow or rent. Too bad vacation is still 6 months away. =P

For any of you interested in hiking the Inca Trail, there are still plenty of permits available for December 26th! You can use this website: http://www.inc-cusco.gob.pe/Kratos/site/Main.html to check daily availability. Only 500 people are allowed on the trail every day, including the guides and porters. If you look on our date, 24 permits have already been requested, and I think that pretty much accounts for the 4 of us, our 4 personal porters, our guide, our cook, and maybe 3 or 4 more porters that carry the tents and kitchen gear, and about 10 random people. We have signed up with http://www.llamapath.com/ for the trek and based on many of the reviews, they have good food, good guides, and treat their porters well, which is one of the reasons we chose them. While in Cusco, we are staying at the Ninos Hotel, whose profits go towards helping the orphans and poor children in Cusco. I love the idea of my vacation doing a little bit to help out.

HOLA!

I have to practice my Spanish now that we have set our next vacation for Peru. I know, what happened to Asia? Well.. stuff happens, what can I say? Now the plan is to do a 4 day trek, yes, hike, to Machu Picchu. Yes, I, who has never been camping, is going camping 4 days in the Andes. hehe. Hey ... gotta go all out!

I gotta tell you, it was crazy before we got the whole vacation planned. I nearly went blind looking airfare up on the internet. The vacation went from 3 countries (Peru, Brasil, Chile) to 2 (Peru, Chile) to just Peru due to time constraints and cost of airfare. The rising cost of fuel is just insane. My friend told me of a web site (www.yapta.com) which you can use to track airfare. Obsessive planner and bargain hunter like myself loves this kind of stuff. To give you an idea of how bad air is... just today, the airfare for my August trip to NYC went up TWICE, in $40 increments. I was actually in the process of booking it for the lower fare, when it told me no deal, so that I had to try again, and was able to book the same flights for $40 more. So word of warning for anyone with travel plans... book early or pay the price... as the same happened with my air fare going to DC and S. America (air went up $600 over night! Hence, the one country trip)

Anyhow, I've got vacation on the brain and we're not even going until Christmas. I've already started reading the travel guide books, but that's because I read every day anyway... might as well read something that will come in handy. I think next I may read a Spanish book so I can learn some Spanish before I go.

Oh, btw, other good travel websites I use to comparison shop - http://www.sidestep.com/ and http://www.cheapoair.com/. And... with airline companies being so financially challenged nowadays, and us going to a third-worldy place... I actually bought travel insurance this time - which covers cancellations, some delays, and some medical and dental should it be necessary during the trip. The say a lot of people suffer from altitude sickness once they do the trek, so I figure better safe than sorry this time.

COUGARS' NIGHT OUT

No, not us... but on Saturday night, I went to Javier's in Crystal Cove with Val and a couple of other girls, and that's essentially what it was. Older ladies in tight outfits showing their goodies. I have to say, it was a great people watching place, as it was very "OC." I kept waiting for one of those Real Housewives to pop up. Anyhow, the food was good - I really liked the guacamole - as were the margaritas. I believe they closed around 12 so we headed over to Port. It was a cosy little place and we loitered there for a bit before heading home.

On my way home, I passed a big custom bus with "Juanes" written all over the side. I assume it was Juanes. I believe he is a singer as I've seen a bill board for a concert off the 710.

Sunday I went up to Pasadena for Jing's birthday dinner at Green Street Cafe. I had the summer pasta. It was OK, nothing to write home about. I would've been better off loading up on the chinese chicken salad.

On Saturday, before heading down to the OC, I got a massage in the hopes it would alleviate my back pain. I suppose the key word is alleviate and not eliminate, because my back still hurts, but not as much. Even the masseuse thought I had knots in the weirdest places and she's a.)a runner b.) a masseuse. How messed up am I? Today I thought I'd be able to move on to 2.5 mi but the muscle lateral to my shin bone was hurting way too much. I walked for the first time since I started running. =( I also realized that the area around my ankle bone (the lateral side) is also sore. I'm fallin apart!

ARGH

So today, I got up and ran 2.08 miles. I was listening to my ipod whilst having breakfast after the run and it froze up on me. No idea why... wasn't doing anything at the time. Anyhow, I had to reset and when I plugged it in to the computer to download the run info... it was gone. :-( Booooo. So I'm telling you all now. Mr. Ipod Voice said it was 2.08 miles with a 9'24"/mile pace. =P

Oh, on Tuesday night I went to spin. What a great work out. My name for the night was Filthy Mc Nasty because I was sweating like a pig. The face is purple, I'm sure I smell bad, and of course there's a hottie in spin. Of course, I have no game, so it doesn't really matter, but still...

WEEKEND RECAP

Feelin hot Hot HOT! Yep, blazin hot this weekend. Phew! Friday I left work early for my annual physical. I let the doctor know about my back pain while I was there and she checked it out. She said the muscles around my spine were tight. Essentially - I need a massage - and I'm not one to disobey doctor's orders. hehe. The doctor said I also needed to get a tetanus shot, since you're supposed to get them every 10 years. Man that hurt! Not actually getting the shot, but my arm muscles were sore the rest of the weekend.

Friday night I had dinner with the Salad Queens and Jen. We went to La Creperie and had the cheese plate, the Al Mare crepe, the Steak Frites salad, and the Chicken Picatta. Pretty good! I think some of us thought the chicken was a bit dry, but since I soaked my chicken slices in sauce, I couldn't tell. =P We also had a yummy dessert crepe with dinner.

After dinner, we went to our usual Side Door for some drinks. The bartender Brian made an awesome Espresso Martini. We had a drink there and then moved on to 12th and Highland to check it out. It's a great looking place and it was pretty happening. I'm not sure if there's actually dancing there or not. There's plenty of loud music and enough space for it, but it didn't seem like there was actually dancing. That didn't stop me and Vuong though. We danced here and there... just moving around the place gettin our groove on. There were quite a few people who looked like they wanted to dance, but were incapable. They only managed a bit of ant stomping and shuffling here and there. Oh well, what can you do?

On Saturday I played tennis in the morning, but wimped out after two hours. It was hot man! I went to Road Runner for some new running shoes in the hopes that new shoes might alleviate the back pain. They check your arch and video tape you running on the treadmill in order to determine which shoes are best for you. It was pretty cool. In the end, I came away with new Nike's - which by the way come with a slot for the Nike+ipod thing - all Nikes do now. Anyhow, when I got home, I checked out Zappos.com and they had the same shoes for 10% off. I emailed my buddy there and managed to get another 20% off so I saved $40! Woohoo. Thanks for all your work Road Runner (I still recommend them!), but I'm returning my new shoes. =P

On Sunday I went out to dinner with Kat, Paul and Lin for Paul and Lin's birthdays. We went up to Ruth's Chris in Beverly Hills and it was good stuff. I'm pretty sure I gained five pounds there. I even got extra butter on my filet. The only thing I didn't like was the wait. I made reservations for 7, we got there at 7:05 and they told us it'd be another 10-15 minutes, but we didn't get seated until a little after 7:30, and only after I had asked about our table. I'm pretty sure we would have waited another 15 minutes if I hadn't asked. If I had to choose, I'd have to say that I prefer the Irvine location.

This week I fly up to SF again for a meeting. I'm all over the miles. I think right now there is Elite Double miles. WOohoooO. I wonder how that works since I already get double miles. Does that mean I get quadruple? Laryna called me a miles whore and I have to say that I resemble that remark.

Looks like the Lakers are going to SWEEP Denver. Hooray!

FAKE BAKE TO BLACK

I was watching Dancing with the Stars with my dad and he made a funny observation... the dancer Edyta (who I think is Polish) is practically darker than her partner, who is African American, due to all the fake tanning. Granted, he looks like he might only be part African American, but last time I checked, the central/eastern europeans weren't known for their fantastic natural tans. She's going to need to limit herself to two sprays.

Oh, so, funny thing as I was debating on whether I needed to be p.c. and use African American or just say black... I remember reading something about Lewis Hamilton, the F1 driver from the UK, and how they kept referring to him as African American because he is black... is he still African American if he's British? I didn't think so. Can you just slap that label on to all black people to be politically correct? It seems to lose it's correctness when it's used and doesn't apply. It's as if you're just slapping on a different generic label ("African American") in place of another ("black").

HOLY CR*P!

This morning, I filled up... $58.18. Granted, my tank was emtpy and this was for approximately 15 gallons, but this is the first time I have spent $50 or more on gas. =(

WHAT'S IN YOUR LUNCH BOX?

Today, my lunch bag contained:
1 vanilla non-fat yogurt
1 bag of animal crackers
1 Macadmia Kona Coffee candy bar
1 Red Velvet cupcake
1 bottle of water
8 packs of tropical Emergen-C

Really, why can't I lose weight? =P

MORE CATCHING UP...

A few things that I wanted to blog about, but never got around to it in the last couple of weeks:

Kudos to Caltrans for the new 4-5 foot center divider they have erected on the 710. This will help to reduce traffic due to looky-loos and promote safety. I have seen the result of an accident in which a huge big rig actually squashed a car atop the little center divider and made its way over onto the other side. I believe at least 2 people will were killed in that, so every little bit helps. On a side note - never good to cut off a big rig since they can't stop on a dime. A truck driver at one of my old post-college jobs told me they need at least one foot for every mph they are traveling to stop. (i.e. 30 feet to stop if they are goign 30 mph)

Marley & Me by John Grogan - I finally picked this book up after seeing it in paperback at Target and in hardback everywhere else - and read it on my way to and from SF. GREAT book. Everyone knows I love doggies but don't have one besides Spot the Superdog. Well, this is a great story about a man and his dog, Marley, a labrador retriever - or a labrador evader as they call him. It's quick and easy reading and it'll have you laughing out loud.

Charlotte's got rhythm - little Charlotte tries to snap her fingers when she sees us doing it - so eventually I'd start snapping my fingers and singing the Lil Jon song "Snap Yo Fingers" and she'd start bopping her head to it. So cute! For more cuteness, you can watch:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5946538211460349552
- I'm taking the video so she occasionally waves back at me, as well as stops to eat her toes and snap her fingers.

Good news! Endo tells me Echo from the Pedigree dog food commercial was adopted. You know ... the doggie that some meanie walked past even though she put on her best smile. Who knows if it was real or not, but I feel much better: www.dogsrule.com

CATCHING UP

Wow, so I guess it's been a while! Several times I started to blog, but was unable to finish it, but here I finally am! This past weekend I went up to visit with Charlotte. She is just THE FUNNEST (well, so long as she isn't tired, then she's the LOUDEST). Friday night they picked me up from the airport and took me to dinner at the Japan Center. I was starving so I thoroughly enjoyed my shrimp tempura.

On Saturday, Charlotte and I played for a bit, then we all headed over to her swimming lesson. It is so cute to see all the little babies "swimming"! After lunch, we went back to the house and rested for a bit, then went to Burlingame to wander around the shops and cafes. On Sunday, we met up with my other aunt and cousin for dim sum in the city, then went to Union Square to walk around and do some shopping. This was the HOTTEST I've ever felt it in SF. It was in the 80s! Anyhow, it was a beautiful weekend and great to hang out with Charlotte.

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kejercito/VisitingCharlotte?authkey=KSQ97ZfTy6g

On Monday I headed out to St. Louis for meetings on Tuesday. I've been to St. Louis four times and I have yet to have ribs. Go figure. Anyhow, I was on the airport diet Monday and Tuesday, which is soooo bad. I'm glad I got up to run Monday before work. It all started with the Whopper. I usually get a Whopper Jr., but I was so hungry I had to get a regular one with cheese. I did swap out the fries for a salad. By the time we got out of the airport, around 9, everything was closing, but we managed to find an Italian restaurant by the airport. I ate the whole lasagna, because again, I was starving.

On Tuesday, I had breakfast at the hotel, but that was it aside from the vending machine cheetos til I was back at the airport. There I had a tall skinny mocha, a chocolate chip cookie and a pretzel dog. Then on the plane I had baked stuff shells, an ice cream sundae and two glasses of wine. By the time I landed, I was beyond full.

Oh, one cool thing about the plane ride... I sat across the aisle from Bobby Brown. Yep, "every little step I take" has been stuck in my head since yesterday. Anyhow, he looked like he'd been partying hard the night before. He's also not as tall as I thought he'd be. Makes me wonder about all these stars and how tall they are in person.

A TRAVESTY!

A travesty I tell you! Our family friend has a friend that works for Chevron and apparently they are making so much money at Chevron that the employees are getting bonuses every MONTH.

And did you see on the news this morning about the senate hearings they had with the oil executives? They have been hitting new record profits this past year and when the oil execs were asked what they have been doing to reduce the price of gas, they were stumped. No answer. Why? Because they're not trying to reduce the price. Why should they when we all pay it. Heck, the price of gas jumped 6 cents today!

RUNNING (WO)MAN

Yep, that's me! I know, I hate running, but I decided that I need to get into shape, so I'm running since it's one of the most convenient work outs you can do. Throw on the shoes and go! Don't have to drive anywhere or wait for a particular time... you can, to quote Nike, just do it!

Anyhow, in the hopes that it will encourage me to run, I got the Nike+ ipod thing at the suggestion of Gina. I did not buy the Nike shoes to go with it, however. My thinking is... i work for a shoe company, I'll find a way to alter the insole on my own. Well, i haven't tried altering the insole yet, but I did use the ipod transmitter. I just tucked it into my shoe laces. This worked for the most part, but it did pop out towards the end of my run, so I actually had to stop and backtrack to look for it. Maybe i'll create something to hold it and secure it to my shoe laces, you know, put the old science degree to work. =P

On Wednesday, I started Pilates again. It doesn't look hard, but it really is difficult, and I think it works my lower abs much harder than any crunches that I learned from my old trainer. I also think it's just fun working with the reformer. I don't know what it is with me and gadgets.

Then, in my effort to keep up the whole working out thing, I made grand plans for my tennis day. I went through 2 buckets on forehands, one on serves, another on backhands... my dad even decided I needed to change to a one-handed back hand, so that was an extra work out. However, when I was about to practice returning serves, my left calf cramped up, and I literally just dropped to the ground. It even hurts til today! This may put a cramp (hehe get it?) in my running schedule. (bahaha I made a funny =P)

And finally, totally unrelated to the work out efforts... I got to go to the Laker game tonight! Woohoo. I was in the same building as David Beckham - and I did not have my camera. Darn darn darn! I even remember thinking, put the camera in the bag, just in case... and I still left without it. I would have had a decent shot at a good photo too, since we were in the front row of our section and he was on the floor to the right. Oh well. Anyhow, it was a fun game and cool to hang with Jeff, Young Mi and Dennis again. The game was a little too close for comfort, but the Lakers won, so all is well.

BIG (TENNIS) BALLERS

So at the tournament we had a special parking pass and got to park closer to the gate. We were in the same lot as valet. They call tennis and golf "country club" sports and if you saw the cars in the lot, you'd have thought you were at some fancy schmancy country club. Seriously, you'd think they were giving Bentleys away somewhere. Maybe that's the one sale e-mail I didn't get. Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Mercedeses, Porches, and even a Maybach complete with chauffer... but I bet none of those cars would be able to make it 216,000 miles like my beloved Toyota Camry.

BACK FOR MORE!

That's right. As if one day in the sweltering heat wasn't enough, I went back to Indian Wells today to watch the finals. This time with my aunt. She and my uncle were actually supposed to go, but he got called away on business, so I got to be the lucky one to go in his place. Because today... there was an air-conditioned box suite and court-side seats. We still had the tickets to the seats my dad and I had yesterday... you know, the ones out in the hot, hot sun - great view, 3rd degree burns. =P We didn't bother with those seats today. We stayed in the suite the whole time with the free food and drinks. I think I gained 5 pounds watching tennis. I actually would sit out side to watch the tennis but my aunt never stepped foot outside the air conditioned suite. She doesn't like the heat, so it's a good thing we didn't have to sit in our seats. She did make the sacrifice when we got the chance to sit in the court side seats right behind the baseline on the deuce side. That's a nice view. The whole time I kept thinking, I wonder if I could hit a ball coming at me at that speed. Probably not. =P

Meanwhile my aunt and uncle's friends sat in the section we were in yesterday. Luckily I had my umbrella to lend them. I told you, I was prepared for the heat this time. I had white linen pants, an umbrella, and a towel, which came in handy for my shoulders when we sat court side since I had on a tube top.

Anyhow, I posted pictures. Some are clearer than others, because some were taken court side and some are from the suite:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kejercito/PACLIFEOPENFINALS

BURNIN HOT!

Today I went to see the men's semi finals at the Pac Life Open in Indian Wells with my dad. Holy heck, it was about 90 degrees and we were in the sun. For some reason, I thought we would be on the shady side, but I was wrong. We got the tickets for free from my aunt and uncle, so we can't complain, but OMG we were roasted by the end of the day and YES, we did remember to bring the sun block, hats and sunglasses. I think I burned my feet because at first I forgot to put sunblock on them at first. I was a big walking grease spill with all the sunblock I had on. I ended up buying some new flip flops in one of the village pavillions (along with a really cute tennis skirt) and a towel so my dad could cover his legs since his were burned worse than mine. At one point before I bought the towel, he came back from the bathroom with a bunch of paper towels and he had tucked one into each leg of his shorts to cover up his legs, and then wrapped it around one arm to cover up his arm. He looked so dorky. I kept waiting for them to put him up on the big screen. Go figure... he's already tanner than I am and he still burns faster. I generally have to burn before I can tan, so there's hope for a tan tomorrow. =P Just kidding. I'll be ready for tomorrow. I'm gonna bring an umbrella, a towel, maybe wear some long pants if I can find my linen pants and another tub of sun block. They'll think Lawrence of Arabia came to watch.

Pictures from today's semis: http://picasaweb.google.com/kejercito/PACLIFEOPENMENSSEMIS

p.s. I'm a dork and didn't realize I had my camera set on the lowest resolutions. I've fixed it for tomorrow's matches though, so they won't be so darn small.

p.p.s. Happy Easter everyone!

ROLLIN TO THE O.C.

So the last couple of weekends, I actually spent down in OC. The weekend before last, I had dinner with Val and Edz at Ra, then checked out Auld Dubliners, where we met up with the gang... It was pretty cool - lots of people - I suppose because there aren't a lot of those places in the OC. However, some of the people looked underage... and some looked like their grandpa. The great part was when one of the girls, principal at one of the Irvine high schools actually spotted a student at the bar. DOH! You know he was in trouble come Monday morning. (She told me he would be. hehe)

Then last weekend, I went down to OC both Friday and Sunday. Friday night for Bill's 35th and Sunday for Patrick's 40th. Bill's was at Flip Flops in Costa Mesa. It's always fun to hang out with the whole gang. Afterwards, we went to Goat Hill Pub to hang out for a bit which was cool. I actually managed to stay up til 1:30! Oooh aaah. Wow.

They had Patrick's birthday at the house. Of course it's a beautiful day everywhere but on their hill. They kept talking about rain that weekend, but we didn't see any. I went to pick up the cake at King's Hawaiian and it was lovely from Long Beach to Torrance and back. And then we're driving down and we see dark ominous clouds. I think, hopefully it's over on the other side, but no. Those dark rain clouds are over their community and right when we are about to exit... it starts to sprinkle... then rain. Uh oh. Luckily the caterers were ready with tents. (Great bbq by the way. AWESOME beans - and I am not a bean person.) it was a bummer for the kids since they couldn't play in the bouncy house, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. They had tables and a little flat screen set up in the garage, and plenty of chairs around the house. I mostly lingered in the kitchen near the food and sangria. Old habits are hard to break after all.

Some pictures from the birthdays:

Bill's birthday at Flip Flops

Patrick blowing out his candles with the family

AT&T v. T-MOBILE

The co-workers and I all have a different kind of pda-smart phone. Jeff has an iPhone and Heath a BB Curve on AT&T, David a Palm on Sprint, and I have a BB Pearl on T-Mo.

When I head out to Italy for work, I don't have to make any calls or arrangements with T-Mo, all i have to do is turn on the phone and it will search for the nearest available network. When I was on vacation in Europe, I was able to get T-Mo in all of the countries as T-Mo, I believe, is originally a German company. Anyhow, I use my phone to text, to check and return emails, to chat on google and yahoo messenger, and genearlly surf the net. I was in Italy for one week and my cell bill came out to $90. My regular monthly bill is $60. Not too bad. It was the yahoo messenger that really did me in I think. They get charged as texts I believe.

Heath is about to go on vacation to Mexico. He calls AT&T. They tell him he has to pay $30/month charge to get international calls (allll the way in Mexico) and you have to sign up for 1 year! PLUS, all calls are $1 a minute. WTH! And let's not even talk about the data charges.


Then Jeff comes up to me and is like, "OMG Kris, my cell bill from when we were in Italy was $500!" Mind you, he was only in Italy for 2 days and he was careful not to use his iphone to check emails, etc. because they had told him it would be expensive. When he takes a closer look at his bill, there are data plan charges on his phone... for when he's actually on the plane flying out to Italy, unless there is some sort of time difference issue. Either way, he's either getting screwed by an error on their part, or by their crazy data plan.

I think I will stick with my t-mo.

SHOE TIP #1

When I was in Vegas, Tracy asked me if I had a suggestion because she was having trouble with a shoe that kept slipping off her heel. She said she had added some padding to the back but it wasn't helping. It's not likely to help because it will only lift your heel higher in the shoe. However, what you can do to help is add a little padding to the front of your shoe, underneath the ball of your foot. This will actually help push your foot back a little so that it comes into contact with the back of the shoe and make it more secure without making the front of the shoe too tight.

A POEM...

composed whilst on the 710:

Heinous and horrid traffic is today
For what reason I cannot say
The cars go slow
As if they had nowhere to go
Heinous and horrid I say

WIMP

This past Sunday, we (the salad queens and I) had a belated birthday dinner for Vuong (whose birthday is actually in February). We met up at Vuong's and drove down to Laguna to La Casa del Camino for dinner at K'ya. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be out by the beach. The plan was to grab dinner, then head up to the rooftop for drinks.

During dinner, we were catching up with each other and they asked me about Milan. I told them about my trip and then one of them asked if I spoke Italian while I was there. I have a bunch of Italian lessons on my ipod. I've had them for years now since I tried to learn Italian before the family vacation to Italy a few years back. I managed to learn some of the basics back then and I continued with the lessons before this trip. I even made flash cards (I know, what a geek!) But here's the thing... I get to Italy and I am waaaaay to embarrassed to even try it.

I think maybe if I had an actual teacher or someone I could run my Italian by first and tell me if I was totally off or not, I would have felt more comfortable trying it out, but I didn't. I took French for four years in high school and I've felt comfortable enough to try it out when in Paris, but not so the Italian. I picture in my head the waiters running to the kitchen and sharing with the other staff what the lame American just said with a horrible Italian accent. Then they all laugh til they cry. =( I suppose I could have just tried and really, when would I see these people again? But no, I totally wimped out.

CRACKING THE WHIP

Little Charlotte says:

PICTURES

from Milan:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kejercito/MILAN?authkey=MNzWs2pLh4g

MY PRECIOUS

I'm sure we are all aware of how the U.S. economy has been tanking lately and how our dollar is worth, oh... crap. When I got to Italy, I changed $300 and got back 157 Euro. That's it. Holy moly. From then on, I tried to use credit cards assuming I'd get a better exchange rate. One day, I woke up and all of the Italian morning news headlines were about how the dollar pretty much sucked. In one day, the dollar dropped about 10 cents in exchange and it was all over the news.

Anyhow, back to my precious... What is it? My shampoo and conditioner. The hotel I stayed at, Hotel Zurigo, for some reason didn't provide shampoo and conditioner, although they provided you a dental kit, shower gel and shoe sponges. Ironically, I took all the shampoos and conditioners I took from Mandalay Bay out of my luggage right before I left, thinking I'd get some in my room. Go figure. So I try to make do with using the shower gel for everything, even though it leaves me smelling a bit manly. Italian manly. But really, I can only do this for so long and I go in search of shampoo and conditioner.

La Rinascente, a department store beside the Duomo has some of this stuff, but they are the equivalent of Neiman Marcus, and i just need little ones to last me during my trip. CHEAP little ones. So I try a pharmacy down the way. Italian pharmacies are different from American pharmacies. They have their drugs, lotion, and they have a butt load of anti-aging stuff... and that's it. So, desperate, I pick up some Kiehl's because they have smaller travel-sized bottles. 13 euro for shampoo. 16 for conditioner. If those were dollars I'd already think them expensive, but in euros? OMG. I check my credit card charges online... $40 for my travel-sized shampoo and conditioner. GEEEEEZ! You know I brought whatever was left back with me. I'm going to treasure them foreeeevvver.

Now, you may think the Europeans think it's great that the dollar is low and the euro is high, but they don't. We talked to various people and it makes life harder for them. If Americans can't afford things in euros, then they don't come out for vacations or business trips and they don't buy things or do business with Europeans. The low dollar has hurt them and their businesses as well.

LIAR LIAR!

I was just scrolling through the old posts and I realized I totally lied! In one post, I let everyone know we were having dinner at the Palazzo in Las Vegas and I'd tell you about it, but I never did. So here goes:

We had dinner at Dos Caminos in the Palazzo. Dos Caminos is a Mexican restaurant on the ground floor of the casino. We had reservations for 7:30 and when we got there, the bar had a long line. Since we had dinner reservations, we were able to skip it. I have to tell you, the place was totally happening! They had the loud music going, lots of people at the bar. I know we all thought, "Cool, we'll hang out here after dinner!"

I think the best part of our dinner was the service. Excellent service! The food however, was just ok, especially for what it costs. As I joked with my co-worker - back in L.A., I can get Mexican food for $2, and it's Mexican food made by Mexicans for Mexicans (viva King Taco!). However, like I said, you can't beat the service or the ambience. The drinks weren't bad either, but skip the margarita flight. It's like shots of 3 different margaritas. No point in that. Really, just get yourself 3 margaritas. Their El Camino (like a Cadillac) margarita is pretty good.

So we finally finish dinner and head out, only to realize that the once happenin bar was totally empty! Where'd everybody go? Well, we had no idea, so we headed back to Mandalay, to the Foundation Room. The Foundation Room is members only, but don't worry, you're not missing out on much. It's got a great view of the strip, but other than that, it's not different from any other bar or lounge in Vegas.

MY F1 CAB DRIVER

My trip home from Italy began with a flight scheduled at 8 am from Milan Malpensa to London Heathrow. When I arrived, I actually just took an airport shuttle bus for 6 euro, but since I had to be at the airport by 6 am (and it takes at least 40 minutes to get there) I had the hotel schedule a taxi for me at 5:15 a.m.

I come out at 5:10 a.m. so I can wait for the cab driver, but he's already there. Great! I love promptness. He puts my stuff in the station wagon and we head out. I'm reading all the street signs and making sure he's actually taking me in the direction of the airport, rather than looking to rob me and dump me in some random hood. Anyway, we're moving in the right direction, and one of the things I notice is that there's actually LOTS of people out in this one neighborhood. I think, wow, these Italians are early risers! No... we drive a little further and I see a club called Limelight. They're party animals! Partying til 5 in the morn. Wow. I remember when I could do that (a loooong time ago).

So we finally get on the highway or autostrada and my cab driver turns into a formula one driver. I think in his mind, he's driving a Ferrari at Monza. So I'm looking at the speed, and he's going about 150/kph - approx 90 mph! He'd go even faster than that at times, while playing with his cool navi/stereo display screen. At one point I thought we were going to hit a divider since the highway split in two. Now, I'm generally ok going 90-100 mph - I've driven to Vegas - but not while anyone was playing with the little display. And not only was he speeding, he wasn't always staying in his lane. Sometimes he'd drift into the next lane and just straddle two. My palms were sweaty and I actually had to pray to God for my safe arrival.

We finally arrive at the airport (woohoo!) and I ask how much. Jeff had told me it would cost me around 90, the hotel guys told me 75, so I had set aside 100 just in case. I see the meter display and it says 127. I nearly have a heart attack since I only have 106, until he tells me 95. Whew! (It's supposed to be a flat rate to and from the airport, kind of like NYC.) I tip him and have 6 euros left to buy bread and water. I am a lucky girl.

HOME AT LAST!

Halllooo! Yes, I'm finally home. Yippee! By Saturday night, I was so ready to go home. Get away from the second hand smoke and scooter smog. Saturday was my tourist day. I walked from Hotel Zurigo to the Piazza di Mercanti then down Via Dante to Castello Sforzesco. The Piazza di Mercanti and Via Dante are quaint pedestrian streets with cafes and shops along the way.

Via Dante will lead you to Castello Sforzesco which was initially begun as a castle but later turned into a fort due to changes of power. I walked through the Castello and into Parco Sempione which is directly adjacent behind the Castello. They have little fairs set up in several different locations of the park. Since it was Saturday, there were lots of families out, as well as people walking their dogs. There were even newlyweds taking photos.

From the park, I headed over to the church Santa Maria della Grazie for my 1:15 reservation to see the Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci. If you plan to go see this, know that you will need a reservation. You can make one online, or do like I did and asked concierge to handle it. Don't expect a big museum. You are essentially let into one empty room after another until you get into the section of the church where the painting is located. From there, you exit. However, it is still an awesome experience to see something so old endure through time. And, when you step to the back of the church and look at the painting, you kind of feel like you're actually in the same room as Jesus since the painting is so large and does a good job of using perspective.

After seeing the Last Supper, I walked down Via Magenta back towards the Duomo. i stopped for lunch along the way and tried out some yogurt gelato. It was pretty good. A little tangier than topfen but still good.

Anyhow, I'll post more later, but for now, I think I'm losing the fight against jet lag. Good night!

BUENA SERRA

Hey folks! I write to you from the comfort of my hotel bed, where I lay with my feet up - again. It's now Friday evening and I have walked about 250 miles. Oh, alright, I exaggerate, but it feels like I have. I walked the shoe show Tuesday to Thursday. That's 8 big pavillions, each with about 20 long aisles to go up and down. I did that twice, since I went through it once by myself, then again once Jeff got into town, to show him the stuff I liked. Then both Wednesday and Thursday nights, we'd drop our stuff off, then go walking some more through the city to see what they had in the shop windows. Just today I realized that we nearly walked ourselves off the map I have.

Anyhow, despite the amount of I've walked, I think I've gained weight from all the carbo loading. Jeff insists that I've probably lost 10 pounds, as that is what happened to him and David in the past when they came to this show. But I'm pretty sure that's not the case. I have had ravioli, lasagna, tagliatelle, spaghetti, spaghetti carbonara, and penne. All in 5 days. Let's not forget the two tiramisus, the daily capuccinos, the daily macchiatos, and the daily breakfast buffet.

So nothing too interesting going on here. Just been working for the most part. And eating and sleeping and walking. This afternoon I went into the Duomo again and took some pictures. Tomorrow I have reservations to see the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci at the Santa Maria Della Grazie.

Oh! I know what's interesting... Italian television. So I'm assuming we must have basic cable as we only get about 10 channels that repeat about 3 times. It looks like public tv stations plus MTV and All Music Channel. We also get free soft porn at night. Yep. Old playboy channel stuff, which is hilarious in my opinion, on one channel, and other porn-y stuff on another channel, which is randomly interspersed with normal stuff. The playboy stuff is so old, it's from before silicone boobs and brazilian waxes. Naked chicks doing random stuff naked with music in the background and a cheesey guy introducing each clip. It's sometimes the only thing in English (the announcer guy - the girls don't speak).

CIAO CIAO!

Greetings from Milan! After a VERY long journey, I finally got here. This is how my weekend went: Saturday night, got home from Vegas around 11 p.m. Just in time to beat the pouring rain. Got up at 4:30 to finish packing, left at 6:45 for airport. I stopped in Chicago for a couple of hours then headed over to Heathrow, where I was for several hours, as the flight was delayed.

I am definitely not a fan of BA. First the delay - when you've already been travelling for 13 hours, the last thing you want to hear is that you have to sit for four hours doing jack, unable to sleep. Then, they board everyone and it's an absolute free for all. They just say, hey we're boarding and everyone bum rushes the gate. WTH?! I was so tired, I pretty much slept through most of that flight, but when I woke up, I was ready to get the heck off the plane. I had the window seat and felt so confined. The only thing that made it worth it was seeing the snow capped alps... which weren't as snowy as you would think. (global warming is for real mr. bush!)

Upon landing at Malpensa, I saw some people we work with often. We were apparently on the same flight and all heading into Milan, so I rode the shuttle bus with them. It was nice to have a little company after traveling alone, although I did have a nice old guy sitting next to me on the flight to London. The shuttle bus took us to the central station and I took a cab to the hotel from there. The hotel is actually pretty ince.

My room is definitely bigger than I expected, as is my bed. The bathroom is the size of my closet, but it is clean. The bummer is they don't provide shampoo and conditioner! Must be why they give you two shower caps. They also give you two toothbrushes, two shower gels (which smell manly, therefore I smell manly as I had to use it as soap and shampoo) and two shoe cleaning sponges! I guess we know what their priority is around here. They also have a good internet policy here. You can buy 24 hours, but you can use it spread out over 5 days. In Vegas, you have to buy 24 hours and that's one continuous 24 hour period. Who the heck sits on the computer the whole time in Vegas? Good scam for them I guess.

OK, will write more later, but I've got some work to do before turning in. Arrivaderci!

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

Greetings once again from Las Vegas! I gotta tell you, today is much slower than yesterday, not that I'm surprised. Yesterday was super busy and we weren't expecting it, because this is the third week in a row we're at a show. By now, we've talked to most of the people we do business with... which is why I'm blogging during work hours. =P

Anyhow, last night, Tracy came out to visit. We had dinner at the the Burger Bar and split a burger. I didn't even finish my half. I was also super tired by 8:30. I am such an old lady! We just went back to my room and watched the Dance Crew competition on MTV and it was lights out by 11:30 for me.

Oh, by the way, Mandalay Bay has really good chocolate chip cookies. I snagged two the other night and ate them yesterday. AWESOME. They were not stingy with the chocolate chips.

Tonight we are having dinner at the Palazzo. I'll let you know how that is.

WINNER!

Greetings from Las Vegas! I write to you from Mandalay Bay, which I think has one of the nicest rooms I've stayed in. I'm a big fan of the plasma t.v. and closet space. This bed's not bad and the lighting is more than sufficient, although my big floor lamp isn't turning on.

Anyhow, this morning, we met up in Rowland Heights to carpool. As many of you know, it rained this morning. So of course, everyone dun gone cray-zay and the traffic was heinous. It took me an HOUR to go from the 405 to the 5 on the 605 freeway. That's probably not even 10 miles. After that, there was more traffic on the 60 due to a sigalert caused by a jack-knifed big rig truck. All in all, it took me 2 hours to do what usually takes about 40 minutes. Ridiculous!

Anyway, we got here in good time and set up pretty quickly. Afterwards, we got dinner at the Mandalay Buffet. I swear next time I'm skipping the regular food and just getting dessert. It all looks so good! On my way down to dinner, I decided to stop and bet on the Laker-Phoenix game. Phoenix was favored by 2.5 but they lost so I won! Yay me! I never win anything. While we sat and watched the game, the waitress told us you only got drinks comped if you were playing the horses, so I took one for the team and bet on the ponies. OK, on a pony. I don't know anything about this horse, except that it was number 5 and named Brilliant Ben. I hope he runs fast tomorrow!

THE BEST

Today, I came home starving. All I had the whole day was two cups of hot cocoa, a very little sweet bread and oatmeal at lunch. I know, my fault for not making lunch, and not being willing to go get lunch, but I was trying to get out early so I could run errands. Anyhow, I come home and have dinner. While I have dinner, I'm watching Bobby Flay's Throwdown and the topic of the day: Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I LOVE chocolate chip cookies! I swear they are one oF the best things in the world. I used to bake them all the time, eat them all the time (back when the old metabolism was a little faster). So I'm sitting there, eating dinner just salivating over these cookies. Well, after dinner I have to run my errands and I head over to Target, where they currently have those 100 calorie snack packs on sale. Still thinking of those chocolate chip cookies, I buy 8 boxes of cookies (though not all chocolate chip). Then, I head over to the mall because I need to get a converter from Brookstone. Afterwards, I can't resist the call of Mrs. Fields. There is no joy like a semi sweet chocolate chip cookie. I can sleep well now... and I should as I gotta get up early for the road trip to Vegas. Good night!

OOPS! PARTY FOUL!

Yep, I totally committed a party foul at Mia's birthday party. So I get my two tacos from the taco lady and decide I'd sit by the window and put my food down on the coffee table. Well, Cherrie's got this coffee table that has 4 rectangular glass panes. Apparently, one was missing. However, I didn't notice this. I had a 3 in 4 chance of NOT spilling my food. Now, had this been a 3 in 4 chance of NOT winning cash, you know I would have been in that 75%, but since this was an opportunity to make a mess, I was all over that 1 missing glass pane. Actually, I put my food down on the wood border between a glass pane and a missing glass pane, but apparently a little more towards the missing glass pane. It was like slow motion watching my food slide down and onto the floor. =P Actually, I got lucky and Mia's toy was on the level below to catch the majority of my food, but there was still rice all over the floor. How embarassing! hehe. Luckily Tom's pretty quick with a dust buster and Cherrie's cousin was nice enough to let me know he did the same thing, but worse, since he put red wine on the missing pane.

Anyhow, the party was fun. It's always fun when we're all together and again I ate too much. Clarisse's baby is so cute. A total mini-me of his dad and he's all happy and smiley (and drooly!). Tom & Cherrie also announced that they are expecting again. She actually took the test here at my house when I made dinner, so it was very exciting for all of us. I don't think I've ever been around when someone discovered they were prego. I thought Laryna was going to go to the party, but she never showed - unless she came really late. I wanted to see Charlotte before she left and take care of my packing, so I left Mia's around 3:30. I actually did pack, so I'm proud of myself. I was really tempted to just park my butt in front of the t.v.

TA-DA!

Oooh ahhh. New format! I know, no biggie, but I was kind of bored sitting here and thought I'd make some changes to the blog. Nothing major, just a new lay out and I thought I'd add some of those adds. Click on those babies! If they're going to be related to my blog, they'll probably all be about dogs and shoes. =P

OK, gotta get a move on. Busy day ahead. Errands, Mia's birthday and some packing to do! I'll be back later, hopefully with some pictures. =) Ciao ciao!

SICKO

Yep, that's me. After catching bronchitis at the beginning of the year, I went and caught the flu in New York. I think it was Wednesday when my throat started feeling a bit scratchy and I started coughing. I turned in early Wednesday in the hopes of feeling better on Thursday, and I thought I was better... but as the day went on, I just got worse and worse. By the time I was on the plane home, I was coughing and stuffy. The nice guy sitting next to me even gave me some Tylenol cold medicine, so I was able to sleep a bit on the plane. But when I woke up on Friday I felt horrid and it was pretty much like that all weekend, which is a total bummer because we had such beautiful weather. Now I'm trying to get completely better, turning in early and staying home every day since I've got more travel ahead of me. A lot more travel actually. I head to Vegas for a day on Friday, but then go back the following week from Wednesday to Saturday, come home, then fly back out to Milan on Sunday. I know, bad planning on my part, but it's too late now.

Oh, so in NYC, after spending the weekend at the W, I switched to the Hudson where everyone was staying. Wow. I can't believe they can charge so much for those rooms. It's actually SMALLER than my own room and bathroom at home. The t.v. is this little 9 incher shoved into the closet. At least the W had a big t.v. But I guess you don't stay at the Hudson for the room, but for the bar scene down stairs. It was happening just about every night and the co-workers and I did partake on Tuesday night before I got sick. It happened to be Mardi Gras so we even scored some free drinks, but I gotta tell you, our waitress sucked. I eventually went to the bar for my drinks 1) it was faster 2) I refused to add to the total bill so that she'd get a bigger tip. Aside from the bar, the location of the Hudson is also convenient. It's across from the Columbus Circle mall and there are places to eat nearby, as well as a CVS, Duane Reade and Starbucks. If I hadn't gotten sick, I probably would've gone running at the park since it was so close by. (yeah, right! well, i brought the gear anyway. =P)

OMG

NYC - day 3. Nothing too exciting for me today. I had some errands to run before the colleagues flew in and I checked out of the W and switched to the Hudson. But, omg, I was so tired. Last night, I had a hard time getting to sleep, I think because of the nap I took before the Super Bowl. I finally fell asleep around 2 a.m. However, at 3:30 I woke up to the sounds of my neighbor's screams of passion. That's right. They were getting down and dirty and the woman was LOUD. I suppose I could have banged on the wall, but since it wasn't headboard banging noise, I decided I'd let it go and let them have their fun uninterrupted. The screams didn't last too long thankfully. But, either they went at it again, or were still going at it and she was reaching her peak, because she starts screaming again. At this point I'm thinking maybe I should turn on the t.v. or maybe the heater because it'll drown out the noise. I go with the heater since I'm cold anyway, and I manage to get to sleep, only to be awoken at 8:30 by more screaming. Damn them! I'm tired and bitter, but I give them props for knowing how to have a good time.

GO GIANTS!

Greetings from NYC! The weather here actually isn't too bad. It's been sunny and in the 40's. Much better than the 20 degree stuff in December. Anyhow, I got in yesterday afternoon and Margie got in a couple of hours later. We met up and had a drink down in Whiskey Blue then came up to the room to drop her stuff off and contact some of her friends. We ended up having dinner at Rare - I think it's Lexington and 37th - where one of Margie's friends joined us. I tried their Kobe burger and it was pretty good. Huge. Once you stack it all together, there is absolutely no way you can shove that into your mouth, so I had to eat with a knife and fork. After dinner we went to Wet Bar for a few rounds of drinks and another of Margie's friends came out for a little bit. From there, Margie and I headed down to the East Village to meet up with another group of friends. The first place was a bust, but after a couple more tries, we finally found a place to hang out at. By the time we got home, it was about 3 a.m.

Now, I was determined to go Tea & Sympathy (Greenwich and 13th) at some point during this trip, so I actually set the alarm for 9:30. Margie had to leave by 1 to head back to Boston, so we wanted to go early to beat any crowds. We actually got up! We went and didn't have to wait at all. We got our welsh rarebit and I got my English Kit Kats from the store next door.

Afterwards, we decided to just wander around the village since Margie would have to leave from the Chinatown area. We walked to Washington Square Park and watched the doggies play, then made our way over to Soho where we checked out some of the shops. Margie had to leave while we were shopping, so we parted ways and I kept shopping (naturally). Lots of kelly greens this spring, btw.

Eventually, I got tired and headed back to the W for a nap. Wow, did I feel lazy. I pretty much laid in bed and watched all the pre-game stuff for hours. Eventually I hauled my butt out of bed and went to Margarita Murphy's to watch the Super Bowl with a couple of Margie's friends. How fun to watch tahe NY Giants win while in NYC! I myself was rooting for the underdog Giants, so I had a good time cheering them on with the locals. Afterwards, I was heading back to the hotel and there were various groups of cheering Giants fans yelling out to each other and the world at large. There was even a NYPD car playing music over its loudspeaker. Maybe work will let me go to the victory parade on Tuesday. (yeah, right!)

AWWW

Have any of you ever seen that Pedigree dog food commercial? The one where they say, for every dog chosen, there is one that isn't, so Pedigree donates, blah blah blah? So when the potential adopter walks up to the cage, the dog puts on his best smile before the person walks away? It's so sad I almost want to cry every time I see it. Echo, the dog, puts on his best smile and the person actually walks away! OMG, I'm tempted to donate to the ASPCA every time I see the commercial.

GRRRRR

OK, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. This morning on the radio, they give the traffic report and talk about a delay on the freeway, as they are trying to round up a dog. This dog was in the back of a pick up and it jumped out after they got into a car accident. What the heck. Put the dog IN the car or don't bring it with you.

STINKER!

OK, so this sounds mean, but it is what it is. Last night I went to spin. You have to get there really early because it fills up fast. I get there nearly 40 minutes before class and stake my claim on a bike in the front. Nobody else has claimed a bike in the first row. I go, do some abs, some arms, and back work outs then come back. I'm sitting on my bike warming up and the person who claimed the bike to my right shows up. OMG. He stank like a fart. And he hadn't even started spinning yet. EEWWWEEE. I'm assuming he'd been working out in the gym prior to, but still... whatever you smell like from working out in the gym, you will be twice as smelly after spin because you just sweat so much. This did not bode well for me.

So we're in there, and I'm desperate trying to ignore it. We're halfway through the class and all of a sudden ... WHOOSH... it smells like someone farted. Holy cow. I'm thinkin, WTH! Then I realize... dude, I think it's Stinky to my right. Now I have to constantly wipe my face to smell my own stinky towel rather than his stinkiness. I'm seriously considering telling him he needs to invest in deodorant more.

Now, in the beginning of class, his wife/girlfriend came in to talk to him, and I kept thinking later, how can she stand it? She must really LOVE him. That and how can she let him continue on as he has? Change his diet, change his soap, make him wax all that body hair off!
OK. I'm done.

R&R

So it's been a busy past couple of weeks. Not so much with work, but with errands and such. Luckily, I've gotten a chance to really relax during the weekends. The other weekend, Gina, Vuong and I hit Burke Williams. We got in early and sat in the jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. Vuong got a long ass facial whereas Gina and I got deep tissue massages... or as Gina calls it, "one of the most painful massages of my life." To me, it's supposed to hurt because they're supposed to work on the knots and such. I've had the swedish/shiatsu massage before. Now THAT hurts. At one point, I remember thinking... is that her knee in my back? Anyhow, after that we went over to Petros for dinner, then all headed home. All that relaxing can be tiring.

Then this past Sunday, we went to a Korean spa where they rub you down and exfoliate your whole entire body. That's right. They smack it up, flip it, rub it down... First you have to soak in a jacuzzi for about a half hour. Afterwards, they lay you face down on what is essentially a gurney, butt nekkid and take a scobie to your body. You know what a scobie is... they're dishwashing sponges. Once they're done scrubbing your entire backside, they smack you and tell you to turn over and they repeat with the front and then the sides. It was an interesting experience - and cheap too! Afterwards, we went for Korean BBQ - which was a highlight for me. It's been so long since I've had it. I was going to head down to Laguna afterwards but of course it was pouring rain, so I decided to just head home, where I promptly fell asleep.

Anyhow, this is all the calm before the storm. Work will soon be super busy and I'll be travelling for most of February.

OH THE HORROR!

What's so horrible you ask? Well, I weigh myself every morning. It's part of the routine and as such, I did that this morning. Well, today I went to spin for a good 1000 calorie work out, pick up sushi for dinner, then watch a little Amercian Idol. Before I hop in the shower, I weigh myself again. I weigh EIGHT pounds more than I weighed this morning. How is that possible? I haven't had 8 lbs of food! It ain't right I tell you.

YOGURT'S YOGURT

Last night Lin and I checked out Pinkberry to find out what all the hype was all about. It's not bad. I got a small Original which is $2.50. The whole time I was eating it, I kept thinking, what does this taste like? I just knew it tasted like something else I've had before. Lin suggested "sour milk?" But no, that wasn't it. I thought maybe sour cream? I finally figured it out on my drive home. It tastes like those little, teeny, tiny yogurt milk cups I get at the Japanese market. You know what I mean, they come in packs of six, each in a light plastic mini keg with a red foil seal. I LOVE those and I used to put them in the freezer to get them nice and cold. Anyhow, given that I love those little yogurt cups, I do like Pinkberry, but I'm not over the top in love with it, where I'd have to hunt down a Pinkberry in every town. Especially since I know its essentially like something else. Now that topfen gelato... I would drive a long way for it. Maybe even fly back for it. Course, Gina would go with me so she could get her sturm fix. Now those are really good.

PERFECT!

My co-worker and I exchanged essentially identical Christmas gifts... a gift set which has a coffee mug, chocolate and cookies... but her gift to me is way better. Why? Because my mug says, "eat chocolate" along the top pink half, and "buy shoes" along the bottom brown half. Is that me or what? I'd take it and use it at work, but I don't want to risk breaking it by knocking it over with my many piles of paper or shoes. And when I say piles of shoes, I mean it. One day, I'll take a picture and show you all. Sometimes I think I may not be able to get out due to the shoe fort they build around me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow, how quickly time flies! 2008 already! Anyhow, my New Year was off to a rather sickly start, compliments of Charlotte. Charlotte went home the day after Christmas. That same day, I had an itchy/scratchy throat. On the 27th, they took Charlotte to the doctor where he said she had bronchotitus (baby bronchitis?). I stayed home sick from work that day, but went back to work on Friday, and got much worse. It didn't help that it was about 35 degrees in the freaking office. I stayed home all weekend, and by Monday, I was ready to go to the NYE party at Gina and Weyland's, sick or not, because I had some serious cabin fever. I figured I wasn't contagious anymore.

So I went, my head pounding from the sinus congestion, but I had still had lots of fun. It's the first New Year's we've all spent together in a while. I think maybe since we all went to one of those Giant New Year's waaaaay back when. You remember those... raves out on Sunset? Goes til like 3 a.m.? Yeah, well, this time, we made it to about 12:30 a.m. then went home. At 10 I was thinking, please let me make it to 12. Hehehe. Sucks to be old. Regardless, good times were had. Thanks Gina & Weyland!

New Year's Day, we stayed home, but the Ryans and Jungs came over for some lunch and football. Linley walked about a mile's worth, up and down our family room. It was hilarious. She is so girly. It was like there was a catwalk in the family room. She'd walk with a totally girly super model walk and check her reflection out in the sliding glass door. She even sang a song she made up on her own. I know she made it up because it included the lyrics, "Seanie is naughty."

Friday I finally sucked it up and went to the doctor's where they informed me I had bronchitis. I got my cool drugs and headed down to OC for dinner with Vuong and Gina. We tried to go cheap and succeeded... except that we ate at 5 and ended up going to at least 2 more restaurants for drinks and dessert... thereby turning our cheap dinner into a rather pricey one... but hey... we even planned our next trips, so all worth it. Afterwards, I stopped by Goathill to meet up with the guys and our friend Daniel who was visiting from Australia. I didn't get a chance to see them on NYE, so it was nice to get a chance to hang out for a little bit.