Ciao! How YOU doin?

TITLE GOES HERE...

2008-10-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

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!

TIME FLIES!

2008-09-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

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

USA! USA!

2008-08-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-14T22:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-19T10:25:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-06-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

... 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

2008-06-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-01T10:36:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-04-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-04-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-22T21:47:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-03-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

Little Charlotte says:

PICTURES

2008-03-08T13:57:00.001-08:00

from Milan:

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

MY PRECIOUS

2008-03-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-03-05T21:23:00.000-08:00

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

2008-03-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-03-02T18:59:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-26T13:37:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-02-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-19T22:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-18T18:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-17T10:25:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-13T21:18:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-29T22:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-12T14:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

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.

HOLIDAY HIGHLIGHTS

2007-12-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! It was a fun day filled with family and food. However, all of the fun started on Friday night. That's when Charlotte "Chubby Wubby" Stewart came in to town. Let me begin by saying she is the CUTEST baby EVER. Not only is she cute looking, she also has a sunny disposition, so she is so much fun to have around. She even tries to have a conversation with you. Anyhow, Friday night I went to visit her at her grandma and grandpa's and she totally entertained. She smiled, she drooled, she "talked" to me.

Saturday night, she came over with her mommy and daddy. While her mommy played with my wii and her daddy played with my blackberry, she kept me company and we had a great time. She showed me her rolling skills, laughed at my jokes... what else could you ask for in a house guest?

Sunday I went down to San Diego and saw Laryna and her family. I think the kids were extra excited to see me since they weren't going up to LA this year for Christmas. They were assured at least one gift by my showing up. Little Kaleo is still a sweet little sleeping baby. I think he does his best given the noise level with the other kids present.

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner... lots of food and four bottles of wine. They had me get my wii so various relatives took turns. It was so cute to see the grandma's playing. I got to beat up my cousin in boxing which was fun since it was a pretty close match.

Today at lunch we went to the Christmas gathering for my dad's extended family... Lots of kids and two babies born within weeks of Charlotte. They took a group picture even. Afterwards, we went down to Laguna for dinner. Linley was hilarious. As soon as I walked in, she was yelling my name and telling me how Santa came in and ate her milk and cookies. So adorable! She also looked very cute in her new dress and braids. I was waiting for her to yodle me something. =P

FATTY

2007-12-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

That's me. All I did was eat this weekend. Let me give you the skinny on the restaurants:

Friday night - Talia's - Manhattan Beach: we didn't have any entrees here - just four appetizers, two salads and a dessert. The dessert, the chocolate espresso souffle rocks. The salads were pretty good (beet salad and a pear walnut). The appetizers: black and white ravioli, crab cakes, calamari, and the tiger prawns. I liked all but the calamari. They were all long and overly breaded and the wasabi aiolli was too overpowering. It actually went up my nose and made me sneeze. I like it when it's light, not too greasy, not to much breading. Anyhow, if anything, go, sit at the bar and have dessert. Or have an entree and tell me how it is. I've eaten at their sister restaurant Mangiamo (shrimp fra diavolo) and their food is pretty good, so I'm assuming it won't be too much different.

Saturday night - Mi Piace - Pasadena: Calamari appetizer, Osso buco entree. Vuong had the chilean sea bass and Annie had the parpadelle (sp?). My osso buco was so good, as was the mushroom risotto it came with. (I think I had the best dish). Annie's pasta was good too. Lots of flavor. Vuong went with the chilean sea bass, probably because it had the least calories in her mind, and it did.. especially after it made her barf and have diarrhea at 3 a.m. Although, we all had a piece of it and we were fine, but I guess she had the most, so that's why she was the only one that got sick. After dinner, we tried a bar across the street, but it was too smokey for me.

Sunday night - Clay Oven - Irvine: had the chicken tikka masala, the egg plant, naan, yogurt, veggie samosas and the kulfi. All of it was excellent and the chicken was excellent again when I had it for lunch. And that kulfi... light yet tasty. Almost guilt-free dessert, if you ask me.

BRRRRRR

2007-12-11T22:27:00.000-08:00

Winter is here! Man, it is coooold. I wake up early in the morning, thinking I might get up and work out, but it is so cold, I just can't do it. I need to stay warm and comfy, engulfed in my flannel everything. I know, really, our weather isn't all that bad. I was in New York last week and THAT was cold.

Monday after work, Art and Mira took me out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, Inoteca on Ludlow and Rivington. Then we walked over to a nearby bar for some drinks. They actually had happy hour til 10! I'm all about heating from the inside out.

On Tuesday, it was even colder. Throw in that wind chill and I'm walking around in 18 degrees. Co-workers and I had dinner at Shanghai Joe's in Chinatown and totally pigged out on the dumplings. OMG, I thought I was gonna have to walk around with my jeans unbuttoned. After dinner, we actually walked around a bit and checked out the shop windows. It was funny because it was the first day of Chanukkah and there were these Mitzvah Tanks driving around town. Essentially big RVs with Jewish people inside announcing stuff on a loud speaker or bullhorn and offering to take people uptown. =P

On Wednesday, I could have sworn that our cab driver was falling asleep as he drove. He would occasionally be in between lanes or driving slow for no reason. At one point I thought he might hit the center divider. Luckily, we made it to the hotel safely. After we dropped our stuff off, and I changed into jeans (you don't want to walk around NYC in a dress in this weather), we walked two blocks to Little Italy and had dinner at Il Palazzo. The food was great. So great I couldn't eat my entree, which was one of the specials (sesame encrusted chilean seabass with lobster ravioli). Yep, I filled up on the calamari and lobster bisque so that I could only take a couple of bites. What a shame. I was so stuffed and only blocks from Ferrara's bakery. What a bummer.

We got home early Friday morning to rain. Booo. Here I was looking forward to 78 degree weather we'd been having all week, only to come home to rain and cold. Still, it's better than the crazy cold snap they're having in the midwest and east.

On Saturday, we went to Justin's 1st birthday party. He is such a cutie! And Susan's really lucky, since she had come down to LA early and missed the hurricane force winds they had up in Portland. After the party, it was pretty much all errands, and nothing too exciting. Another week closer to 08!

29 x 6

2007-11-26T23:23:00.000-08:00

Ah yes, another year bites the dust. I know, how many times can one person turn 29? I will let you know... Last-last Saturday, the girls took me out for my birthday. I wanted to keep it simple and low key so we headed to one of my faves... Mama D's in Manhattan Beach. We got dinner, then went over to the Side Door for drinks, then tried dancing at Beaches (the DJ was booty so we left shortly thereafter), and then more drinks at Towne. All in all, a fun night. Any time I'm with the girls, it's a fun night.

Once they shut down Towne, we decided we were done, but on the way home, stopped at Diana's for a wet burrito and tamales. Nothing like a burrito and tamales at 1 am. That's right. 1 am. Not too late eh? Sadly, I am so old that on Sunday, I was still rendered useless. I attribute part of it to the fact that I had been travelling Thursday to Saturday. I manage to hit Seattle and SF in those days. I was lucky enough to spend some time with my favorite chubster, Charlotte. She's such a good girl!

Then, this past weekend, was of course, Thanksgiving. It was the usual. Lots of shopping the day after. On Saturday I went to Detroit (the bar, not the city) with the guys. The music was just so-so, therefore we took off and got 3 rolled tacos. I know. Not the way to lose 10 lbs. However, I did pick up DDR for my Wii on Sunday and have been playing it as a form of exercise. The first few levels were so easy, and then they start throwing in hand gestures and stuff like that, which I must be doing wrong as it's not registering with the game. However, they don't provide examples as to how to do them correctly either! Well, I've got a hand gesture for you! Now, I just shut the damn "hand markers" off. I nearly beaned myself with the nunchuck cord a couple of times, so I figure it's safer this way for now.

And finally... tonight my parents took me out for a birthday dinner. I wasn't really expecting one, as it is a Monday (plus Dancing with the Stars finale was tonight), but we went for a quick dinner anyway. I ordered a wine and didn't get carded. Good thing she was a really good waitress, because her tip nearly went out the window right there. I got some e-cards, e-mails and text messages from friends and relatives so I feel very loved. I even got THE funniest phone call tonight from a friend, EH, who was inputting numbers into a new phone, and his gf wanted to confirm that I was just a friend. Talk about hilarious! I hardly hear from this guy (though I did just run into him recently), and then I get a call on my birthday. I'm thinking, "Wow - he actually remembered? I didn't even think he knew when my birthday was!" Well, he didn't know it was my birthday, he was just getting permission to keep me in the phone. I even had to talk to the girlfriend. bahahahaha. BEST birthday present ever. I'm still laughing. bahahahaha. Of course, I had some wine with dinner and was a litle giddy, so I was totally giving him sh*t. I get to hold that one over his head for YEARS. =D

BUSY BUSY

2007-11-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

I guess all that vacation blogging took it's toll on my blogging will. I nearly forgot I even had a blog. Anyhow, I've just been working mostly. I had to travel to Seattle and to St. Louis for work, and to San Francisco for Charlotte's baptism. Lots of miles! woohoo. I'm getting near that gold status. I have to fly to St. Louis and San Francisco again next week, then to New York, so I should hit gold before the end of the year. I'm fairly obsessed with the miles at this point. I was willing to fly somewhere just for the heck of it, for the sake of making gold. I even check my miles regularly online. I know. I have problems.

Speaking of problems... I've been quite the eating machine lately. Last night I went to Houstons and ate an entire rack of ribs! OK, I gave two to Lin, but I ate the rest. A whole rack! I've never done that before. And no, I'm not working out more. Sadly, quite the opposite. I'm thinking of taking pilates again, maybe get my butt moving more often. I try to make it to spin, but sometimes it's such a chore just trying to get in to the class.

Last week, I made it to the gym early enough to get into the spin class. I look through my gym bag...two shirts, windbreakers, sweatshirt, two towels, two pairs of socks, and sweats... no shorts! I had to buy some freaking shorts at the gym. Luckily they had a 30% off sale, because you know their stuff is not cheap. I bought a pair that looked ok on the hangar...and omg, they were tighter than biker shorts. My butt looked GINORMOUS in them, but at this point, I just tied the windbreaker around my waist and went to class and changed into the sweats after. Why not spin in sweats you may ask? It'd be way too hot. Plus, these were the velour sweats, not real meant-to-be-sweat-in sweats.

Hmm... what else is there... nothing much. Didn't do anything over the weekend because I was so tired from travelling. Just hung out at home, read some books, and watched a lot of football. No wonder I'm single. I'm a hermit. Well, I will make an effort to be more social by going to Dennis' birthday party this weekend. He and a couple of his friends even rented a mansion to celebrate their combined birthdays at. You take a limo they provide to the mansion and the bar is open. woohoo!

THE END...

2007-10-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

Gina pointed out that I never actually finished the vacation blogging. I came close since I made it to the end of Dubrovnik, but never finished the whole trip, so here I am...

Leaving Dubrovnik, we had to get up super early to meet Luca who was going to take us to the airport. We were to meet him at the Ploce Gate. That means we had to get our luggage out to the Ploce Gate. Holy cow. And think, at this point, we've bought more souvenirs. I bought two big bottles of wine. That stuff weighs you down. So we are trying to make our way out of the old town making as little noise as possible. We actually carry our bags down the stairs, but we can't help the rolling on the cobblestones. And by the way... if you're ever there... try to get up early one day during sunrise.. it's purdy and you'll get pictures without random strangers in them.

Anyhow, we make it to the gate and Luca manages to get all the luggage into the wagon. I pay him when he drops us off and then we go in to check in. He comes back 10 minutes later because he says we didn't pay him enough money. I tell him we did and he takes it out and counts it. It's all there. Apparently he's not a morning person. hehee. He looks really embarassed, but no harm done. Now we wait around for our check in counter to open and decide to weigh bags at an empty counter. I am over. Oh well. I'm ready to pay. We luck out and the counter we're weighing our stuff at happens to be our check in counter. We luck out even more when the check in lady doesn't charge us for our over weight baggage. Woohoo!

We grab some breakfast, then board our plane and head back to Bratislava. That's right, back to Bratislava for a fun filled 8 hour lay over. We were all ready to check in our bags, rent a car and sight see. However, it was not meant to be. We land in Bratislava and once again, there's rain. LOTS of rain. Also, our luggage can't be checked in until two hours before the flight. I suppose we could take it with us, but the rental cars in Bratislava aren't that big. So we hang out at the airport. We see the restaurant staff change shifts, watch the gift shop lady come and go, read books, watch movies, and try to nap. You can tell which one of us is NOT the only child. I think Gina and I just accepted we'd have to sit tight for eight hours and I think we're rather used to entertaining ourselves. Vuong on the other hand seemed like she was ready to kill herself. Apparently her brothers always entertained her during those long road trips. Anyway, in addition to the airport being only about the size of Long Beach Airport, it's FREEZING in there. And they have metal chairs!

Then, aside from the boredom, we face another dilemma... we only have my 30 euros to last us the day. They use different money in Slovakia and we're not about to pay fees just to pull out some Slovakian crowns. 30 euros to feed three people all day. What will we do? Well, if you've ever seen Eurotrip... you'd know we needn't have worried. I went up to the counter and asked if they took Euros and they told me yes... I said, how much for the Pizza and 3 drinks in Euros? She tells me... 6 euros! Wow. We can live like kings. hehe.

Finally we get on the plane and we get a stinky guy behind us. At this point, we've been re-wearing some of clothes so many times, we're paranoid we're the stinky ones. Gina doesn't help by telling Vuong she actually does think its her that stinks. heehee. So now we're on the plane and they're sniffing around like hound dogs. I assure them its the guy behind us. Great, its not one of us. Nevertheless, we still have to smell it. Sucks. Thank goodness it's not too long of a flight.

We get in and it takes quite a while for our luggage to come out. I've made dinner reservations at Nobu because I'm desperate for some good food and we're celebrating Gina's birthday a little early. I call from the train to move our reservations back, then we check in at the Waldorf and get washed up and changed. We go to Nobu and the place is like a club. Much more happening than the Nobu in Malibu or NY. Downstairs there's a big bar so it looks like a club and the restaurant is upstairs. I would have liked to hang out at the bar or even check out a club down the street called Mahiki, but everyone's pretty tired, so we just head back to the hotel.

The next morning we get up and head out to Gatwick. This time, I'm just going to check in two bags and travel with a light carry on. Yay! I'll have to say, it's nice flying to and from Dallas and Gatwick because the plane isn't nearly as full. I've done the LA to Heathrow direct, and that plane is packed. On our flight, there were lights of empty spaces so that people were able to spread out. The flight actually went by pretty fast and we got into John Wayne early. No more vacation. Booooooo.

SICKO

2007-10-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

I have finally succumbed to the office germs. Yesterday, I thought I had really bad allergies, so when I got home, I took some allergy meds, but it didn't help! I went to bed congested and woke up the same way, so I had to face facts and admit that I was sick. I just took a full shot of Nyquil. :-) I have lots to do tomorrow, after all.

It must have been all the partying this weekend. The old body is just not used to it. I was up til 3 a.m. on Friday night, then on Saturday, I met Aya for lunch at South Coast, walked around the mall for about three hours, then had dinner with Gina and Vuong. Dinner was early, so Vuong and i decided to go out after and we went up to Manhatta Beach to the Side Door, Towne and Petros. I even ran into Eric on the street after leaving Petros! Anyhow, that night, I think I went to bed around 2 a.m. and still had to go to Laryna's baby shower the next day. I was so dead tired. After I got back from Laryna's shower, I fell asleep on the couch. I still forced myself to get up Monday morning to go to the gym, but I just couldn't manage it today. Hopefully the drugs kick and kick some germy butt.

PARTY ANIMAL

2007-10-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's me. I am a paaartay animal. OK, not really, but last night I went down to Newport for Bill's party. I got there early to hang with the guys, so around 7:30, and was one of the last to leave at 2 a.m. I know. I'm amazed I was able to stay awake too, since I got up at 5:30, but everyone was so entertaining, that the time went by really quickly.

Of course, today I feel like booty. I've been on this couch for the last hour and ten minutes and I'd be happy to lay here all day, maybe go back to sleep, except that I am hungry. I definitely don't recover as quickly as I used to.

Having lunch with Aya today who is visiting this weekend and dinner with Gina and Vuong. Yay. Then tomorrow we have Laryna's baby shower. Lots of fun this weekend!

GOOD LUCK

2007-10-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

CHUCK! I finally got to see it tonight. Good thing because I don't think it'll be in the theatres much longer. Nowadays, if you don't see it that first week, you'll have to hussle to find a place to watch it. I went with Lin who is super picky about what theater he goes to, but he had to suck it up and go to his not-favorite, the Pacific Theatres on Rosecrans. He likes the purdy Regal up in PV. I, myself, don't care so long as the theatre isn't ghetto and all dirty and stuff. So we thought we'd be the only people watching, when it was just the two of us when we walked in, but more people came, and more people came...and before you know it, there was six of us. hehe.

Anyway, back to the movie. i have to say, it was pretty funny. I laughed out loud. I covered my eyes. I cringed in horror. I actually expected to see all the boobies because the co-workers had informed me as such. I didn't expect the last set of boobies that were shown. You'll have to see the movie to find out what I'm talking about. All in all, it was pretty laugh out loud. For me anyway. I do have that stupid, kind of sick and retarded sense of humor. =P (Yes, a guy's sense of humor.)

Alright, time to sleep. I think the co-workers have infected me with their germs, so now I'm left to fight the good fight. Airborne here I come. Good night!

FINALLY!

2007-10-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

I finally got into Boneshia's spin class. It only took about 3 tries. Of course, now that I'm finally there, I'm thinking I'll put a dollar down to save myself a spot in the class next week... and it turns out she's going to be off for the next two Tuesdays! bummer! Oh well, at least I got my spin on tonight, so I can eat anything I want tonight and not feel bad. =P

STILL IN THE BITTER BARN...

2007-10-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

So this weekend, I searched and searched online to try to find a journal comparable to the one I bought in Salzburg that the thieving bastards at Cheesecake Factory Newport Beach stole, but no luck. I even remember the brand but I still couldn't find it online. I know! I thought Google knew everything too. Oh well.

This past weekend, I had to be substitute soccer mom for Sean since my aunt and uncle were up in SF. Thus far, I've been Linley's substitute mom at Mommy & Me, and now Sean's "soccer mom." Really, do I need to have my own kids? Anyhow, the little guy is pretty good. When he gets that ball on a fast break, noone can catch him. 'm hoping one day he'll go pro in Europe and I can just sponge off of him. He's such a big boy now!

After the soccer game, I went back home, and the Ryans came over witih dinner as they were taking grandma to the airport. We had a nice banana berry pie from King's Hawaiian for dessert, and since Linley's birthday had just passed on Tuesday, she had us sing to her again to relive the happy memories of last Saturday (her family party) and Tuesday (her kiddie party). Princess Linley turns 3:

CROATIA HERE WE COME

2007-10-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

From Vienna we travelled to Dubrovnik in Southern Croatia. We got our tickets from Sky Europe, essentially a European Southwest, so we had to take a 2 hour bus ride from Vienna to Bratislava. Yes, Bratislava. It was actually such a comfy bus ride that we all passed out and woke up close to the airport. We had to wait a bit before we could check in, and once again, we were AOP ("Asians On Parade").

When we landed in Dubrovnik, our landlord's son picked us up. Instead of staying in a hotel, I chose an apartment within the old city walls that I found online (http://www.dubrovnik-area.com/eng/details.asp?vla=371&SmjestajID=SG-A-0547). Luckily, Luca had brought a mini station wagon, and even then he struggled with the luggage a bit. So we're driving and I notice we're going past the city and he tells us he has to go pick up his dad from work. Umm.. OK. Are we gonna get groceries with your mom too? He tells us he needs his dad to help with the luggage. OK, this guy is like, mid to late 20s. Decent sized guy. What the heck?

So we pick up Stijepo from work and he hops in the car to drive, while Luca hops out and gets on a scooter. This guy is hilarious. Talk talk talk, yell at other drivers, talk talk talk. Now we're closer to the old city and we go past again! I'm thinking, "Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have gotten an apartment. We're gonna get ripped off!" However, I was wrong. The old city is protected by the old city walls, so it's like being in a fortress, and no cars are allowed. We have to unload the luggage and pull/carry it all in. No wonder he needed help. We enter through the Ploce Gate (pronounced ploh-cheh) and trudge through the town with the bags. The poor guys who carried most of the stuff were sweating buckets. I felt bad for them, but really had to hold in the laughs, because they looked so unbelievably tired. Luca even asked if we were moving to Dubrovnik given the amount of stuff we had. (Obviously we are not backpackers.)

Gina and Vuong in front of SOME of the steps we had to climb up to get to apartment.

Once we arrived at our apartment, we were very happy with it. It's an old building, but inside is completely renovated. I wonder if it was completely thrashed during the war, which is why they had to re-do it, but I guess we'll never know. So all is well with the place, then I ask Stijepo how we should pay him, as he did not ask for a deposit or anything before hand. He said, "Oh, you can leave it on the table when you leave, or you can just leave it there whenever during your stay, as we have a key and can come in and out of the apartment any time to clean up or whatever." Me: "Oh. OK." In my head, "Hmm.. you can come in ANY time?" Now I'm picturing myself sleeping only to wake up with this guy or his son in my face.

In front of our apartment door.

In the apartment there was a pull out queen sized bed downstairs and a regular one upstairs. In Prague, they didn't want to sleep alone so I took the master. This time, I insisted that I not be alone downstairs, so Gina said she'd stay with me, but then Vuong didn't want to be alone upstairs either. Yes, we are wusses. So we decide to all sleep in the bed upstairs together. Vuong gets to sleep bitch since we figure, she can practically sleep standing up, what's the difficulty in sleeping in the middle?

Now, mind you, everywhere we have gone, it has rained. Now we are in Dubrovnik, which is essentially like a sunny Mediterranean town. They tell us that it's been so hot and dry for months that they've even had brush fires. Until the weekend we arrive when they are scheduled to have a big storm. Yay.

So we unpack and grab dinner at Marco Polo off of Lucarica street. This place has THE BEST food. It's in a little alley way so it's easy to miss, but the landlord highly recommended it. He also told us not to go to Prijeko street. At first I think Gina and I both thought, "Great, there's a dangerous neighborhood here?" But he meant don't eat at any place on that street as they are all tourist traps. We are just in love with the menu because it's seafood and we've been eating meat for nearly 2 weeks straight. Vuong and I get the scampi dishes and Gina gets the mixed plate. Then I also ask for calamari. The owner looks at me like, "Also?" I say, "Yes, in addition to my scampi." He looks like he's thinking, "Umm... OK, but that's a lot of food." Well you know what? It was and we ate it all. That's right, nothing left but the bones. I think we impressed him enough with our appetite that he called his wife out to take a look at the Asian girls who apparently haven't eaten in weeks.

After dinner we walked around a bit, searched for Topfen gelato, checked out an Irish bar, and another bar called Fresh (www.igotfresh.com) that was recommended to us by a random Asian guy standing on the street who was passing out fliers. Then we head back home, stinky smelling from all the smoke, showered up and got to bed. I think we all passed out since we had a few drinks and got up early that day.

Then, in the middle of the night, I hear bam-bam, bam-bam. The storm is in full force and the window shutters which we had left open downstairs were banging like crazy due to the winds. At first I think I'm the only one creeped out by this, so I try to ignore it, but can't. I get up and go to the bathroom. When I come out, Gina is awake and we agree to go downstairs together to secure the windows. The banging stops, but the wind is still howling like crazy, and I just can't fall asleep, so I watch t.v. the rest of the whole freaking night.

The next day, we get up, search out some healthy pizza and coffee for breakfast, then begin our tour of the city walls. If you ever go to Dubrovnik, you MUST see the city walls and the view from them. Absolutely gorgeous. When I was researching for vacation, I read that Restaurant Nautika was the best in town. We asked our landlord and he agreed. To save money, we went there for lunch after our tour of the city walls.

Restaurant Nautika (http://www.esculap-teo.hr/restaurant_nautika.html) is just outside the Pile Gate (pronounced Pee-lay) by the water. The view is absolutely amazing, and since we had just had the big storm the entire night before, we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day. So we sat out on the terrace and ordered lunch. The menu wasn't like what I saw online, but whatever. We sit, we eat, we try to pay and find out they don't take credit cards. Well, not on Terrace Penatur. On Terrace Lovrijenac, where they have the full menu they do. Nuts. Gina and I leave Vuong as collateral and go looking for an ATM. We had to go all the way back into the middle of the old city to find one. Four actually. Side by side. But not one outside. You know the waiter thought the shady Asian chicks were gonna make a run for it. But we do return, our fists filled with cash. All in all, a nice experience, but for the price, I'd rather go all out and sit on the other terrace and get the full expensive menu, or just go back to Marco Polo.

After lunch, the salad queens are determined to shop, but given my lack of sleep, I decide to stay in and take a nap. When they get back, I'm refreshed and awake, and we head off to Locanda Restaurant for dinner. This restaurant is right by the marina where the water taxis take off to go to Lokrum Island. By now, it is dark and the winds are blowing again, as if it is going to rain later and we are cold. But we suck it up and sit outside, mainly because you have no choice it seems. I get a pot of fried shrimp. It is an entire pot. Literally. I can't even get through half of it. Vuong also got an entire pot, although she shared with Gina since Gina shared her squid ink paella with her. Afterwards, we walk around the town a bit more, then check out this stylish lounge we had seen from above during our walk on the city walls. We stop and get a drink to enjoy our last night in town before heading back to re-pack our stuff. At this point, most of our stuff is dirty and stinky, and we're all probably over the 20 kg weight limit the European airlines have.

As you can see, we like to travel light.

DAMN THIS OLD AGE...

2007-10-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

It appears that in my old age, my hearing is definitely going. Bad enough I'm already super near-sighted, but now I can't hear. Last week, they had all these commercials for "Survivor China." More than once, I thought they said, "survive vagina." Now they have commercials on for the show "Cavemen" and I keep thinking they are saying "K-Fed." Not only is it sad I can no longer hear clearly, but that K-Fed pops up when he really isn't there.

FRIENDS, FOOD, AND FELONS

2007-09-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Really quickly... some non-vacation stuff ...

Sunday was an awesome Sunday... until the very end. I slept in, went down to Costa Mesa, and had lunch with Shivaji. Afterwards, we go to Fashion Island to walk around and enjoy the weather, where we spot Kobe Bryant with his two kids.

Meanwhile, I had gotten a call from my friend Harvey who was visiting from Taiwan. I meet up with him at Dennis' place and it's just like old times, except Sam and Patti have kids now. That's right, we sit around, play video games and make fun of each other.

Afterwards, I meet the girls for our dinner. We are going to exchange pictures and we just plain missed each other. So we meet up at Cheesecake Factory in Fashion Island. That place sucks. I had bought a hardback journal in Salzburg. Not super expensive, but more than you'd probably pay if you were at home on an ordinary day. It has sleeves to put stuff in, so I use it to put my picture cd's in, since I didn't have any actual CD sleeves. We exchange CD's, Vuong gives me a check for some vacation stuff, and I put them in the journal. All of our purses and my journal are on a chair. The restaurant closes at 9. We are the last to leave at 10. We walk around the mall, then are about to head home when I remember about my journal. I ask Gina if she has it in her shopping bag. She says no. We go back to Cheesecake Factory. No one's turned it in.

Gina and I both called the next day. They told us, it hasn't turned up, but why would anyone want to steal it. Well, obviously someone did, as it wasn't there when we came back soon after. If there are no customers, that leaves staff. Anyhow, that night I'm annoyed as heck when I go home. Later, I feel ill. That's right. Not only did those thieving bastards take my journal, they gave me food poisoning. I'm up until 4:30-5 a.m. just enduring the pain and discomfort. I'll spare you the details of that experience.

I should have known it would be a bad idea to eat the food, when they hand us each a plate, and they're ALL dirty, as is one of my forks. Plus, the ladies' room is absolutely filthy. Both Vuong and I comment at separate times on how ghetto the bathroom is and Gina was like, wow, that's exactly what she said. So we are now officially boycotting them.

Anyhow, back to the happy stuff. Food.

Today, I found a really good red velvet cupcake. Weeks ago, Monette had sent me an article about good places to get the red velvet cupcake. One of them was in Long Beach not 10 minutes from my house. Jongewaard's Bake & Broil on 37th and Atlantic near the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach. I decide I am finally going to give it a try, as Gina and I were talking about red velvet cupcakes earlier. It was good. It was moist and tasty and the frosting was yummy. AND it's only $1.95 unlike Sprinkles where you have to pay for top dollar for a little cupcake. So for now, this is my new favorite red velvet cupcake. I also want to try the one at Doughboy's up in L.A. as it was Oprah's favorite.

Also, if you're in the area anyway, you might as well go down Atlantic Ave. a little further (away from the 405) and hit Alsace-Lorraine across the street. Excellent French bakery with wonderful desserts. I actually chose that bakery for my grandma's big 90th birthday cake five years ago, and about 300 people really liked it. They can't all be wrong.

Also a good deal: Hokkaido on Cherry Ave right off the 405. All you can eat buffet. Yes, I don't frequent these places because I really can't eat that much all in one sitting (I prefer to just eat all day)... we tried it out on Saturday. It was $14.99 (all day Saturday and Sunday). They had crab legs, soft shell crab, and a variety of sushi (with actual Japanese sushi chefs!). They had lots of good food Asian food and a smattering of American. They had korean bbq, but get this... they don't cook it until you ask them to, so it's not sitting underneath some heat lamp turning into rubber. They can also stir fry whatever combo you toss at them. It's almost Vegas-like (high complement for a buffet if you ask me). The only thing I did notice was their desserts were a bit lacking compared to other buffets, but when you've eaten that much regular food, who can eat dessert?

AUF WIEDERSEHEN AUSTRIA

2007-09-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, last full day in Vienna, and we have a plan. We are going to Schonbrunn, the Imperial Summer Palace, and we are going to Stephansdom, the huge catheral five minutes from our hotel. We get up, have breakfast (we never miss a meal), and grab a cab to Schonbrunn, as it is a bit further away. About 20 minutes away from the regular Imperial Palace. There must have been a much bigger temperature difference in the old days. Damn that global warming. We arrive at Schonbrunn and walk through the gates, and I am instantly reminded of Versailles... without as much flourishes on the building. We sign up for the super duper tour. I think maybe it was the Grand Imperial Tour. It gets you into 20 more rooms than the regular tour. We figure, heck, we came all this way, let's see it all! So we ventured through the palace rooms, as well as the gardens and the terrace. We even have access to the giant maze, but get too lazy to care. Lazy you say. What could be more important than enriching your mind, acquiring some culture, being a part of history? LUNCH. Yep. We were hungry. Time to go folks.

We grab a cab and make a pit stop at the hotel. Then we head out in search of food. We're at a loss, so instead of being adventurous, we go back to a winner, Zum Figlmueller. Once again, the salad queens get their salad, and I get a chicken cordon bleu. Amazingly enough, I don't think we hardly ever ate chicken on this vacation. You'd think it'd be easy enough to find, but this is central Europe, land of sausages and potatoes. It's all about packing it on and keeping it warm in those cold winter months. I subscribe to this philosophy, which is why I'm bracing for the cold California winter as we speak by having a red velvet cup cake, but that's another story (soon to follow).

So, we get our most excellent lunch along with Zweigelt, the local wine, which the girls drink half of and pass on to me. I hate wasting good wine, so I drink them, and we go drunk shopping. OK, I go drunk shopping. They're just shopping. We step outside and go to the first neighboring shop where I buy Lin a big calendar as a souvenir. Oh, a big calendar of naked girls. The great thing is, this calendar was so long, it wouldn't fit in my 26" suit case, so Vuong had to haul it around for me the rest of the trip. (thanks pal). If only she had gotten stopped by customs, it would have been fun to see their expressions. Oh well. Then we hit all sorts of shops on the way back towards the hotel, including Swarovski which originates in Austria. This is where I do the rest of my souvenir shopping. Too bad I never got my VAT back to save $75. Regardless, the gifts went over well, so it doesn't matter.

Amazingly enough, it's now time for dinner! By now it's raining, so we duck into a nearby Asian place. I know, what a bunch of fobs. I go for the sushi because I miss it, Gina gets something with rice, and I'm sure Vuong had something with salad. I think maybe she got korean bbq. After dinner, we stop in a nearby market to stock up on water and snacks for the plane. Once we drop our stuff off in the hotel, we go back out to see Stephansdom.

Upon arriving in Stephansdom, we realize we can't actually go in, as they are getting ready for the Pope who will be there the following Sunday. Vuong decides to exact her revenge by changing the time on the visiting hours clock. Yes, she is a bad girl. I stood far away for fear of lightening. Although we weren't able to really see the church, we were fortuitously located near... Zanoni & Zanoni. That's right, one last Topfen gelato for the road. So what if we're sitting outside, bundled up in rain coats and scarves. So what if it's cold and raining. I'm leaving tomorrow so I am going to have my fill darn it. And it was GOOOooood.

The next morning, we hurriedly have breakfast before the cab shows up and head out for sunny Dubrovnik. Heh.

IN SEARCH OF STRUM

2007-09-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Sunday, we have decided, is museum day. Partly because everything else is closed. That's right, everything is closed on Sundays, even some restaurants. We start off by getting up somewhat early and going for a run. That's right. Aren't we the picture of health, squeezing a run in here and there between all the drinks and dessert? After the run, we grab some breakfast and then get ready to start our day.

Fortunately for us, we are staying near the Hofburg, so we walk the five minutes over and take a tour of the Kaiserappartments and the Sisi Museum. You actually begin by tourin the Imperial Silver Collection where you get to see a wide array of very expensive silverware, culterly and other table settings. From there, you venture into the Sisi Museum. No, not a museum about wimpy boys, but about Empress Elisabeth, a woman who was reknowned during her time for being very beautiful. She was also ahead of her time as she actually had her own work out room since she was very self conscious about her looks and weight. At some point during the tour, we all got a bit tired and decided to sit down and have some coffee and a snack, then we made our way through the Imperial Palace rooms. They had some very interesting rooms, as it seemed they were interested in other cultures besides their own.

Anyhow, after the museum, we walked back to our hotel, where we ended up taking a nap. We had grand plans to go see the Imperial Treasury, but instead fell asleep. We never did make it to the Treasury. Now we're wondering what we should do. We've essentially been walking every day for about 12 days now and we're tired. So we decide to take the funnest way around the city... a carriage ride.

After the carriage ride, we decide to grab dinner at Zum Figlmuller (http://www.figlmueller.at/), a place famous for its schnitzel. The schnitzel was good - reminded me of a katsu without the sauce - but even better was the salad. Yes, even I am enamored of the salad, which is what Vuong got (surprise). I also tried a local wine, Zweigelt, which was really tasty. All in all, a good meal. After dinner, we're walking back towards the hotel, and we pass a sidewalk wine bar where I notice they have strum on the menu. Gina's been searching high and low for strum, so we stop and have a glass.

V: damn girl, look at you go.

G: I loooove strum.

After the strum, one of us is a little buzzed and decide to stop for gelato at Zanoni and Zanoni (www.zanoni.co.at). They had one of THE BEST gelatos ever. It's called topfen pot. I think Gina only saw the "pot" part of it and asked for it thinking it was something else. It turns out to be something akin to cream cheese and it is YUMMY. I had cravings for weeks after getting back. Unfortunately, you can't get the stuff here as topfen is specifically an Austrian thing. booooo. (I've had to slake my cravings with Golden Spoon & Coldstone's cake batter flavors). We stand on the street eating gelato while cardiac surgeons run amok around us (there was a European cardiologists conference in Vienna - no, didn't meet any hot heart surgeons).

VISIONS OF VIENNA

2007-09-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

We arrive in Vienna late Saturday afternoon. One of the first things we notice in the train station: Chinese take out called Quick Lee. Clever.

So guess what? Most stores and stuff close at 7. That means we don't have much time. We check into the Pertschy Pension. What a great location. It's only a block from the main shopping street Kohlmarkt and a block from the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Afterwards, we go in search for food. We locate a Chinese restaurant. Uh oh. Again? Have we not learned our lesson? Apparently not.

OK, it's not exactly a Chinese restaurant. More of Asian food restaurant. Vienna actually had a lot more Asian restaurants, being a bigger city. I do not recall the name of the restaurant. Quite possibly I subconsciouly hold a grudge against them as my food took an extra 20 minutes to come out. That's right, Gina and Vuong were already done with their dinner before mine came out. I have no idea what took so long when all I ordered was the shrimp tempura bento box. The food was ok. Nothing special, nothing Happy Feasty.

Afterwards, we just walk and walk and walk all around town to get our bearings. We locate the beloved H&M, home of our future clean socks. We stop for ice cream (me) and salad (Vuong). Yes, I went on vacation with the salad queens. Nothing makes you feel more like a cow than, "Oh, we're going to split the salad (them)... and I'll have the sirloin steak with roasted potatoes, please. (me)" We also stopped at a wine bar that night in search of strum. Yes, Gina was in love with strum and determined to get more of it. Unfortunately, the wine bar was fresh out (literally). The bartender told us that they don't bottle too much of it as you cannot keep it for very long, so he had run out earlier in the evening. Bummer.

So we head back to the hotel to relax since, well, everything's closed except bars and cafes, and we're pretty full.

SALZBURG... THE SAGA CONTINUES

2007-09-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

Who's Rudy you may ask? He's the bartender/concierge at the hotel. We met him on our first day in during tea. He was very nice and friendly and provided us with some very good restaurant suggestions. He also told us we should check out the Farmers Market on Thursday morning, as it was a great event, where they sold some special chicken and almonds you could only get in Salzburg. Cool. We are totally going. Now, don't get me wrong, he was very helpful. But over time, every time he'd offer suggestions of where to go, it was always in terms of distance from his apartment. At one point, he actually suggested we check out the lobby in his apartment building... for the great architecture of course. Anyhow, eventually that just became the running joke with us. We're going to check out the Fortress... which is about 10 minutes from Rudy's apartment, or maybe Mozart's house... which is only 5 minutes from Rudy's apartment. I think maybe he should get maps made up, where there's a big star that indicates *Rudy's Apartment Here. hehe.

Nevertheless, Wednesday night, Gina and I took Rudy's suggestion and checked out Shrimps restaurant (www.shrimps.at), just off the Linzer Gasse. Vuong stayed in and it was a good thing, too. OMG. This place was a 5-8 minute walk from our hotel, but dorks that we are, we completely started off in the wrong direction and took the long 30 minute route. I think part of the reason is, we were reading the map as if we were staying in the main hotel, but were actually staying across the street. Therefore, we turned right coming out of our building, which would have been correct had we been staying across the street, but from our building, the totally wrong way. Oh well. We finally made it and the food was good.

The next morning, we enjoyed a nice full breakfast that had real scrambled eggs! Woohoo. Yes, a big deal, as we were growing tired of bread, cheese and jam. Then Gina and I went off to this famous farmers market. Yes, it was fun, as it's a bit different from ours as they sell a lot of fresh meats and cheeses, but we did not see any rare almonds there.

After the farmers market, we go back to check on Vuong. Girlfriend is not doing well. The meds her dad had shipped to her were stalled in customs. At this point, it was time to take some real action. We tell her to give us a list of the meds she needs so we can go out there and score some drugs. She's a pharmacist, so she knows what she needs. We go to the pharmacy, where the nice pharmacist informs us he cannot give us drugs without a prescription, but we can have her doctor fax it in and they can fill it. Cool! We get her some ibuprofen Austrian-style (which is now one of my souvenirs) and let her know. Luckily for her, Vuong's brother is a doctor. He tries to fax over the meds she needs, but it doesn't go through, so we walk back to the pharmacist, which is only around the corner from the hotel. We tell them we're trying to fax, but it's not going through, and we've got the doctor on the phone. After a lengthy discussion between pharmacist and doctor brother, the pharmacist gives us all of the necessary meds. Get this... only 52 Euro for 3 prescription drugs for someone without insurance. How awesome is that? You know in America they would have completely gouged you. Vuong takes her drugs and gets more rest. We head out once again.

This time, we visit the house Mozart lived in, "Mozart Wohnhaus," which is different from the house Mozart was born in, "Mozarts Geburtshaus." It's very interesting with letters and diaries and musical instruments. I'm a big Mozart fan since I used to play violin and piano and thoroughly enjoy it. It's not very big, but still very captivating. Imagine, you're standing in a room that Mozart used to walk around in! How cool is that? Yes, I am a big nerd.

After Mozart's House, we stop by St. Sebastian's which is a church on the way back to our hotel. Mozart's family is buried there. I love these old church's with their own little grave yards. They have so much character and are so much more interesting to look at than the cemetaries we have here, which essentially look like flat fields of grass. I like looking at the names and dates on the stones and wondering what these people were like. Gina was a bit freaked out, but since it was so well kept and orderly, it wasn't too creepy and I think the place grew on her. She didn't realize I was interested in seeing stuff like that, and then I told her that I've actually gone and visited Pere Lachaise cemetary (www.Pere-Lachaise.com) in Paris, where so many famous people are buried (i.e. Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, etc.), that it is a real tourist attraction.

Once we finished taking a look around at St. Sebastian, we went back to see how Vuong was doing. She was much improved already! Gotta love drugs! Actually, she ran for the potty and barfed, but after that, she was much better! So we went off to get dinner and let her rest up a bit more. This is when we decide we're going for Chinese food. It'd actually only been 8 days that we'd been on vacation, but when you don't really get a variety of food choices, you feel like it's been longer. Anyhow, it was probably the worst decision of our trip. Yes, even worse than pulling out only $10 in Prague. The food was bad, the service was blah, and it was pricey. So be warned... Happy Feast... not so happy a feast.

We decide to take Rudy's suggestion of checking out the Hotel Sacher for dessert. Thank good ness we did. The desserts were so good, they nearly made dinner nothing but a distant memory. Gina had the famous Sacher Torte, I had some raspberry chocolate dessert. Excellent stuff. Not too rich, not too sweet. Just right. Even her tea and my cocoa were wondeful. We were able to end the night on a happy note - Vuong was better and we had just had some good food.

Friday morning, Vuong was well again, so she joined us for breakfast, and we decided to go on the 9 a.m. Sound of Music Tour (www.panoramatours.com). Yes, it sounds horribly cheesy, but I'm in Salzburg, and I'm going on it darn it! Well you know what? It was one of the funnest things on our trip! They send a shuttle to pick you up from your hotel quarter to 9 and take you to tour headquarters. Then you get on a huge bus full of people. We were among the last to arrive, so we are in the very last row. I'm smack in the middle of the five seats. If the bus driver were to hit the breaks really hard, I would have gone rolling towards the front.

Our bus driver Markus and our tour guide Peter are HILARIOUS. They take us to look at the various sites where they filmed the movie and give us all sorts of background info about the movie and the real Von Traps - did you know they own a resort in Vermont? We also head out into the countryside where we get to go bobsledding! They put a wheeled seat on the bobsled track and tow you to the top then let you go. It's so much fun! Unfortunately, they'll only let you do it once before the bus leaves. On the way to the town of Mondsee, we get to see the international headquarters for Red Bull. Did you know it was invented in Salzburg? Me neither. No wonder it was everywhere.

In Mondsee, we get to visit the cathedral in which Maria and the captain were married in. We also get to try some apfel strudel with vanilla sauce. The dessert was good, the wasps hovering over us were not. Yes, we ran around and screamed like the girls we are. After the SOM Tour, we visited the Mirabellgarten (where they filmed the Doe-A-Deer scenes), and the Festung Hohensalzburg, the big fortress atop the hill. Afterwards, we trek over to the Mullner Kirche and Augustinerkloster und Brau. You have to love a church that has a brewery beneath. If my church had one, I'd attend mass more regularly:

After the the brewery, we grab dinner at Republic (Anton Neumayr Platz 2), where we saw our unanimous vote for the hottest hottie of all vacation. We attempted to take a photo without being too obvious, but unfortunately it came out a bit blurry, and the photo does not do him justice:

When we're done trying to get a photo of McHottie, we head back towards the shops because I thought I saw a place to get schnapps that I had seen on Rick Steve's travel show...so we check it out. Sporer's on Getreidegasse 39 (www.sporer.at). It really is the same place as on Rick Steve's and apparently the family's been making schnapps for over a hundred years.

We go in and ask for a shot of whatever he thought was a good fruity flavor. He gives us apricot. SO GOOD. We ask for another flavor. And another. Oh yeah... we wuz getting drunk without knowing it, because that stuff is strong. Now, granted, we really are louder than most Salburgers. And we looked different from them too. So we figure that's why everyone's looking at us. We're loud and different looking. No, they were probably waiting for one of us to drop. Or maybe wondering why we're shooting the schnapps as apparently you are supposed to sip it.

We have at least 4 shots in succession. A veritable fruit salad of alcohol. Pear, apricot, apple and strawberry. Then we make the acquaintance of the others in the bar. A very nice couple, their son and his girlfriend. They buy us schnapps shots and strum. Strum is like the first distillation of wine. Not as strong and not as bitter, but just as tasty. So now we're at six shots of schnapps and two glasses of strum. We are beyond happy and having the greatest time with these very friendly and kind people:

We each buy a couple bottle of schnapps to take back. Then head back towards the hotel and engaged in one of the funnest past times ever: drunk shopping.

The next morning, we're a bit tired. Yes, a little from the alcohol, but mostly from a loud crowd of hopefully-not-Americans singing Sound of Music songs on the street at some ridiculous hour. We haul all of our dirty laundry down stairs since we plan on doing some laundry at the laundromat on the corner. We get there and she tells us we're too late. Apparently, they close at 10 a.m. WHAT? Didn't you just open? Crazy Austrians! There go our grand plans for clean clothes for the last two countries. Well, we have clean clothes, but they're all for warm weathered locales, which apparently we weren't going to be in, as it rained everywhere we went.

We drag all of our dirty stuff back up and head to breakfast, then do a bit of last minute shopping before taking the train to Vienna. Goodbye Salzburg! I had a FABULOUS time.

RAIN SCHMAIN

2007-09-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

OK, for days now, they have been talking about this HUGE storm we are supposed to have. Yesterday, the brunt of the storm was to hit tomorrow, which is now today. Today, it's now supposed to thunder down tomorrow. Uh, yeah, ok. I was already for the rain tonight. Made no plans, except to stay home, enjoying a glass of wine and a trashy novel. Thus far, it sprinkled on my car on the way home just enough to get it dirty. Then on the way home from dinner, it rained enough the last five minutes to wash away the spots from driving home.

As I sat here surfing tripadvisor, I heard what I thought was the beginning of torrential rains, only to hear it stop about 5 minutes later. At this point, I don't want it to rain anymore. The wine is gone, the book's a re-read and tomorrow I want to play tennis so I can work off my Coldstones and then watch the Trojans beat the Cougars on nice dry grass. Then on Sunday, I meet up with the vacation buddies, whom you'd think I'd be sick of, after 16 straight days of 24/7, but apparently not. I miss my buddies.

SHOWERS IN SALZBURG

2007-09-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right, it showered nearly every single day we were in Salzburg. I suppose it's a fairly normal occurance for them, but still, we weren't expecting it in August. Plus, we're from California. Rain? What's rain?

Anyhow, we arrived in Salzburg by train from Prague, which took about 8 hours. The first part of the trip, from Prague to Munich, went by pretty quickly. We had one of those semi-private compartments that can seat six. We got on the train with our humongous luggage and found a compartment with only one girl in it. We thought, GREAT! We don't have to worry about some lecherous smokey smelling guy molesting us through tunnels. (Scusi, scusi...ever see Eurotrip?)

Back to the poor girl. We probably frightened her so much that she got off the train before her exit. There she is, minding her own business, then in come three Asian girls with luggage that takes up nearly the entire compartment, and one of the girls looks ill. Could she be contagious? Bird flu, sars? Who knows?! And why is she wearing those Ponch sunglasses when it's raining outside? Maybe she's blind. Hmm...

Anyhow, after she gets off, we spread out and get comfy. Feet up, snacks out, everything. We're moving along, then come to a point where they check tickets and passports. (We got a cute choo choo stamp.) They also tell us that we have to move one train car down because the train is going to separate, and the half we're on isn't going to Munich. CRAP!

We send Vuong ahead to scout for an empty compartment while Gina and I deal with the luggage. Our bags are so heavy, that when we get into the new compartment, we just say 'forget it' about putting it up on the luggage racks, and just left them all in the aisle and put our feet up on or in between them. We eventually get to Munich and have to change trains. Wait, not trains. We hop on this two car thing that looks like a Disneyland tram. This is when the slow part begins. We stopped in every freaking city between Munich and Salzburg. Holy cow.

We were so happy when we finally arrived, especially as Salzburg had a nicer train station with those elevator things that Prague doesn't have. We take out an adequate amount of Euros at the ATM (unlike in Prague), then make our way out and hail a taxi. Cute guy in a full suit driving a Benz. Score. He starts packing the bags into the trunk. He rearranges the bags. He re-rearranges the bags. He starts unpacking the bags. He signals to the SUV taxi and tells him to take us. Bummer. =(

We arrive at Hotel Wolf-Dietrich (http://www.salzburg-hotel.at/). The hotel is located near a bunch of restaurants, a bunch of shopping, a grocery store, and luckily for Vuong, a pharmacy. Check in goes smoothly and we get a room in their building across the street. Let me tell you, Salzburg is a nice, clean, quiet town. I noticed it was quiet when the porter waived us over, just so he could tell us where the spa and breakfast rooms were in a nice low-decibel voice. We were the loudest people in that town. Anyway, back to checking in, so they tell us to go ahead to the room, the bags will be right up. OK, we're on the second floor, which is actually the third, because in Europe, the ground floor counts as zero. The porter, this skinny middle aged guy, hauls all of our bags up the four flights of stairs in two trips. OMG! He must be in excellent condition, because I would have died carrying them up two at a time.

Our room has nice big windows and satellite t.v. once again. (You should see some of the stuff they have on regular t.v. Wowwee) It also has these really cool automatic receding shutters for outside, so you can make it completely dark in the room. AND, even better, our hotel not only has breakfast from 7-11 - that's right, we can sleep in - they have tea time from 3-5 p.m. I love free food. We seriously saved money because we would load up on breakfast, walk back and catch tea, and only have to buy dinner and random snacks. So after we dump our stuff, we head back to the main lobby for tea. And that is where we met our pal Rudy.

Views from our hotel window:

COSTCO CRAVINGS

2007-09-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

I don't go to Costco very often, which I'm thinking is a good thing. Every time I step inside, I am tempted to buy large quantities of food (which is of course, really the only way they sell them). Anyhow, we make a random family trip to Costco today, and just to give you an idea of why I am the way I am (a total dork)... as we are leaving Costco, my dad is "skating" the shopping cart. The shopping cart has bad alignment so he is veering right towards the curb, so he steps off to realign. This time he tells my mom she has to help him steer, so now he is "skating" along, while she runs along side and pushes him in the right direction. Meanwhile, I'm walking behind yelling, "If you guys get hit by a car, don't blame me."

After Costco, I made a run to Golden Spoon in an attempt to alleviate my Topfen Gelato craving. I get the cake batter frozen yogurt. It helped, but it did not eliminate the need. I shall one day have to return to Zanoni & Zanoni (www.zanoni.co.at) for the real stuff. I would consider making my own topfen gelato, alas, you can not get topfen in America. booooo.

MORE PRAGUE

2007-09-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

So we arrived in Prague on Sunday night, used our whopping $10 to buy dinner, had dinner on the hotel roof, then spent Monday wandering around the old square and Mala Strana. One of Pasquale's recommendations was Baracnicka Rychta (Trziste 23, Mala Strana), a small restaurant hidden below the Prague Castle. OK, when he says hidden, he's not kidding. It is up a winding road, and is so quaint. It's also not completely overrun with tourists. But really, the great thing about it was that it was near the American Embassy. OK, the great thing about it was the beer and food, but it just happened to be near the American Embassy, where my uncle Patrick told me you could get a really cool t-shirt.

So, we go, we have lunch, and I have a decent salad, and some AWESOME ribs. The beer is pretty darned good too. Decent salad and darned good beer pictured below.

(Thanks to Gina for the photos.) After lunch, we decide against trying to make it up to the castle, and decide to go back down into town again, with a stop at the Embassy for the much hyped t-shirt. So I ask the guards outside if they sell t-shirts. They look at me like I'm a freak. I can't really say I blame them. They're Czech so they tell me to wait there while they go inside and check. They come back out and tell us to come in where we have to go through security. All this for a t-shirt. Well, Sgt. Ferguson of the U.S. Marines helps us out and shows us to their "store." A locked cabinet with coins and polo shirts which they apparently sell as souvenirs at all of the embassies. Hell, I'm already there, I'm buying a shirt. It's not even a cheap shirt, but I get my dad a nice long sleeved polo which he can wear to golf. He can wear it to golf on some American military base as it's got this HUGE marine corps/embassy emblem. Hehehe. Luckily, my dad's not picky. If it's free, it's his favorite.

After that, I think we walked around a bit more, then went back for a nap. Who knows. But definitely, for dinner, we try one of Jenn & Laryna's suggestions: Architektu (Betlemske Nam 5A). It was down in the basement and we had to wait an hour. Of course, we use this hour to down a bottle of wine and some really good baked brie. When we are finally seated, I decide to try and be healthy and order the salmon. Big mistake. I should've gotten what Vuong got. I'm not a big fish eater, I just do eat for health's sake, and the salmon was just way too fishy. I'm left eating 4 asparagus and a glass of wine. Yep, someone was gonna get really buzzed. We ordered dessert and it was excellent. Had something to do with walnuts I think. Gina actually didn't like it, but Vuong and I LOVED it. It was the highlight, I think, of dinner. Afterwards, we stumbled around town a bit more, found the Prague porn store (didn't go inside), and picked up some gelato.

On Tuesday, we spent nearly the entire day wandering around the castle. It's really more like a little town in and of itself. St. Vitus' Cathedral is absolutely beautiful, although I think we were most enthralled by the torture chambers. After all the walking, we had a late lunch at another of Pasquale's recommendations, Palffy Palac (Vladstejska 14, Mala Strana), where according to his note, "Madonna had dinner there when she came to Prague." It is actually a former palace and we sat out on the terrace to enjoy the scenery. We were the only ones there and a had a cute waiter with very blue eyes. He even fought the wasp for us. The meal was very good, we had a prixe fixe that included salad, beef filets, and dessert. I think the most memorable part was the roasted garlic they gave with the bread. So simple and delicious. This is us at the Palffy Palac:

Afterwards, we stopped for some coffee on the way back, then I think we took a nap. Can't be sure really. We had dinner at the Italian restaurant just a few doors down from the hotel (very good minestrone and lasagne by the way) then went to bed as we had to get up and leave early the next morning.

On Wednesday, we departed for Salzburg. Pasquale was kind enough to arrange the transportation and see us off! Considering we didn't even stay at his hotel, I think that was pretty cool. Then at the end, we realized he actually paid for the transportation too. How awesome was that?

KIT KAT DREAM

2007-09-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

So last night, I couldn't help myself and I had my last English Kit Kat. Yes, English Kit Kat. I like their chocolates and it is different from the ones we have here. Their Cadbury is better too. Anyhow, last night, I had this really weird dream where I was driving along some remote road and lost control of my car. I crashed and ended up in the bushes of something that looked like a park. There were people there and they offered to help me, but I remember thinking they looked a bit sketchy. So they help bring my car up to the road, then pretend like there is something amiss, and pop open my trunk where there is a dead shark. Of course everyone is horrified that I'm driving around with a dead shark in my trunk, and I am unable to explain it, as I didn't put it there. Anyhow, I don't recall what happened with the crowds, but I do remember that I decided I'd try to sell the shark to a Chinese restaurant for their soup. =P

Oh, speaking of driving around, while I was gone, my car was serviced and the big "racing stripe" on the right side was fixed. It's like brand new! I ought to call Toyota and tell them about my wonderful Camry. 207,000 miles and still runs smooooth.

ASIANS ON PARADE

2007-09-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

From London we travelled to Prague via Easyjet. First, let me tell you, what a fun ride. On the plane, they sell lottery tickets. Well, not quite lottery, as you only win some stuff from the airline, but heck, you do have the chance of winning a lot of money. Anyhow, we figure we'll just spend our pounds on it since we won't need the pounds. We buy two tickets each and each of us win one pound. Great. Well, with 2 pounds you can buy a cheapo bottle of airplane wine. We indicate our interest, but sadly can only afford one between the three of us. The nice flight attendant pitches in the last pound so we could have two bottles of cheapo wine and provides us with three cups! Score!

At the airport, we are met by our hotel host, Pasquale, who informs us that he thinks it's too noisy at his hotel due to neighboring construction, so he has taken the initiative to find us a new hotel at the same cost. We can go take a look and see if it meets our approval, if not, we can stay at his hotel. Sure. Why not.

First, however, we need to pull out Czech money, so we're not completely without. Again, the girls let me go first, so they can decide how much they should pull out. Unfortunately, I can't remember what the exchange rate is. Pasquale tells me it is 20 to 1. However, with all the pressure of everyone watching me, I play it safe and pull out only 200 koruna, thinking it is $100, but is actually the equivalent of $10. We ALL pulled out only $10. Only in the van on the way to the hotel do I decide to re-do the math and discover that we are all idiots. Me for the bad panic math. Them for being lemmings. =P I am much better at calculating sale prices.

Anyhow, the new hotel, Hotel Dar, is great. Newly refurbished with an elevator and right in the old town, only steps away from the clock tower. The staff is also very nice and Pasquale, who runs Arcadia Residence, where we were going to stay, is so nice, he still provides us with information as to good locals' restaurants and places to find the necessities, such as ATMs, groceries, etc. We were very sad we didn't get to stay at Arcadia and try the breakfast trolley, as it is legendary on trip advisor. Maybe next time. Anyway, even though we didn't stay with them, he still arranged our car transportation to the train station for our departure from Prague (and paid for it!). What a nice guy!

Anyhow, the next day, we venture out to explore the city, and we notice that we are getting curious looks. Yes, we are Asians On Parade. No, there aren't very many Asian tourists in Prague at the time, but I'm assuming they've seen some, even if they're other tourists. Why everyone was so intrigued by us, I have no idea. Anyhow, since they were curious looks and not dirty looks, we took it upon ourselves to be good will ambassadors for Asian-kind and smiled a lot. At everyone. There are of course the usual questions, "Where are you from?" Followed by the usual answer, "California." bahahaha. We knew that wasn't what they meant, but it was the truth. Then we made everybody guess where each one of us was from since we are all different nationalities, yet none of us Chinese or Japanese, the favorite typical answers. Then we did our martial arts demonstration. bahahaha. j/k.

Anyhow, more about Prague when I'm not about to fall asleep. Pictures from Prague: http://picasaweb.google.com/kejercito/PRAGUE

I'M BACK!

2007-09-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

Vacation was so much fun! We left on Thursday, 8/23 from John Wayne with a stop in Dallas before arriving in Gatwick. We have decided this is a good way to go because the plane isn't full, as it would be if you went direct from LAX to Heathrow, so you can spread your stuff out and have plenty of luggage storage space.

When we arrived in London, it was cold and raining. When we got to the hotel, the rain had stopped but it was still cloudy. By the time we were on the London Eye for our "flight," the sky was clearing up. We were lucky for the remainder of our stay because it was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous weather! That's right! Sunny and 85 in London. Who'd have thunk it?

Friday before our London Eye excursion, we walked all around and managed to hit a pub, where we met a couple of guys. A couple of OLD guys. Vuong picked them up while we were at the bar getting drinks. They were really nice, told us to go out dancing and meet some nice young boys. hehe.

Saturday we went to Buckingham Palace for a tour, which you can only do during limited time periods, as the queen generally resides there, so we were lucky she was away on vacation. We also hit Harrods to window shop, tea at La Duree in Harrods, a tour of Kensington Palace, the last home of Princess Diana, and dinner at an Indian restaurant called The Red Fort. That place was awesome. (pricey, but awesome). After The Red Fort, we got conned into going to a club called Anon, which you are better off skipping, if ever in the area.

On Sunday, we went for a run around St. James Park, Gina and I walked over to Buckingham Palace again, then through Regents Park (or at least I think that was Regents Park). Afterwards, we got cleaned up, and went over to Notting Hill to checking out the big Carnival. It was alright. It is nice to say I've seen it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go back. If you go, be sure to watch out for the giant piles of horse poo that the horse patrol leave behind.

Anyhow, I don't think Gina and Vuong were crazy about London. I myself could do without that feeling like you've a layer of dirt on your face from when you were out walking on the street, but I love all the history in the place. So many cool old buildings to go to.

Pictures from London: http://picasaweb.google.com/kejercito/LONDON

ALMOST THERE!

2007-08-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

That's right! It's almost vacation time! Wooooohoooooo. These will be the longest three days EVER. Actually, the time has gone by fairly quickly the last couple of weeks. To help make the days go by more quickly, I went to visit Charlotte (and Monette & Jay) up in San Francisco last weekend. She is SO cute and she eats so much that she gets bigger on a daily basis. Mostly she eats and sleeps, so we were able to take her everywhere with no problem. On Saturday we went to my Auntie Lorna's house for lunch and she slept nearly the entire afternoon. Afterwards, we decided to go to the SF Center, where she slept the entire time, so we were able to sit and have coffee and dessert. Easy eh? Of course, I hear she was up and ready to party all night, so maybe not so easy, but Auntie Kristine didn't hear any crying from her room at all. On Sunday, we went to a pancake house for breakfast, where you go it, Charlotte slept the whole time. After a trip to Babies R Us, and new bear-earred footie pajamas, we went back to the house to wait for Uncle Doug, who was also going to be visiting. Charlotte and I passed the time by watching the 8th season of Friends. I think she enjoyed it... until she fell asleep. Again. While she slept against my shoulder, I realized she bore a bit of resemblance to Stewie (sp?) on Family Guy, so I started calling her Stewie (never mind I can't spell it). Monette pointed out that it's not wholly inappropriate as her last name is Stewart.

Anyway, I flew back Sunday evening, but felt like I caught something, because as soon as I landed, I was sneezing and my throat itch. Or maybe it was just the LA smog because I've been fine since. I guess my lungs were in a bit of shock. The week went by quickly since there have been so many things to do before my trip.

This weekend was spent running errands and such. It was Sean's birthday party yesterday, so before and after tennis, I had to run around picking up gifts, food and cake to bring down. I would have to say the most entertaining part of Sean's birthday party was when Linley decided to engage Hannah in a b*tch fight over the seesaw. They have an airplane seesaw, where a kid can ride on the end of each wing and a kid can ride in the center near the steering wheel. Well, poor Hannah happened to be sitting in the center seat when Linley decided it was her turn. Linley stated as such, "it's my turn!" No response from Hannah who is a very quiet little girl (unlike Linley). "IT'S MY TURN NOW!" Still no response or movement from Hannah. Big mistake. Now Linley is mad. I've always said this kid had a Napoleon complex. Always trying to prove her power though she is small. She grabs poor Hannah by the ears/checks/face and tries to pull her off the seesaw. Actually she succeeds. Hannah is now sitting on the grass crying and Linley gets in TROUBLE so she starts crying. What a little tyrant. One day she will be on UFC kicking butt. During Sean's party, I stoppoed by Val and Edzel's place for their get together. It was too bad I had already eaten because they had quite a spread out. I really wanted one of those cupcakes Val made. Too bad I'm on a quest to lose 5 lbs in 5 days. (I know, not gonna happen, especially after today...)

Today they started that promotional for the Share our Strength fund raiser. Lin and I checked out Frascati in Palos Verdes, and it was GOOD. YOu get a 3 course prix fixe meal from Sunday to Thursday of this week at the listed restaurants. Some do only lunch, some do both lunch and dinner. I had the heirloom tomates, the sea bass, and the panna cotta. YUM. Check it out: http://www.usadineout.com/Main.asp

WHEW!

2007-08-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

I made it through the week. I had my doubts you know. Last week, I was an animal. I worked out 5 out of 6 days. And then I went to Vegas. Holy cow. Or just plain cow. That's me. Sunday night, Jing and I went to Mario Batali's B&B Ristorante in the Venetian. We had the 6 course traditional tasting menu. That's right, 6 courses. And I ate all 6 of them, plus the extra chocolates at the end. Let me tell you, that food (and service) was worth every darn dollar. He can do things with corn you would have never thought would be good. Basil sorbetto? Balsamico gelato? What? NO, really, it was so good. The ravioli I suppose looked plain, but it was beyond flavorful and the lamb... I'm not a lamb person, but I was ready to munch on it like it was bacon.

Since we ate so much, we decided we'd go to Zappos' party at Tao and do thirty minutes of cardio. We got totally lucky and got there when they were playing some awesome old school. It was a pleasant experience for the most part. There were these two guys getting nasty on the dance floor and it was a bit much. Had it been a guy and a girl, it still would have been too much, so definitely even more so since we had the boy on boy action going.

Monday night, we took clients out to dinner. Or customers I guess. Lawyers have clients. Shoe people have customers. Anyway, we took them to dinner at Japonais at the Mirage. I have to admit, I had relatively low expectations, but darn it, they were darn good. Not only the food, but our waitress was THE BOMB. She earned every bit of her tip (and not just because I was the only one she carded. :-)) Anyhow, if you're looking for good sushi, and want to try something other than Nobu or Social House, I suggest Japonais.

We stayed at the new Planet Hollywood Hotel. OMG, SUCH an improvement over the Aladdin. First, they updated everything, changed the floors and changed the toiletries. I don't bother bringing shampoo, etc on business trips because the hotel will usually have it. When we stayed at the Aladdin, the stuff was so stinky, I was hating myself for days. Luckily, as Planet Hollywood, they vastly improved the smell and quality of their toiletries, bathrooms, etc. Thank goodness. We also saw Mark Philippousis there. I knew him as a tennis player from Australia. I think everyone else now knows him from the show Age of Love. I think he is living at the hotel since they have the Extra Lounge there and have viewing parties on Mondays. I know, because I got one of those pre-recorded voice mails telling me so. =P

20 days til vacation, but who's counting?

WOOHOO

2007-07-19T23:02:00.001-07:00

ONLY 36 MORE DAYS TIL VACATION. =P

BOOOOO

2007-07-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hi! I know, what the heck, it takes forever for me to update, but I've just been too busy. Last Friday I took the extended family out for my grandma's 95th birthday. I have three cousins and a niece visiting and they wanted Italian, so we went to Buca out in Redondo Beach. The guy kept trying to get me to order more food, insisting it wasn't enough for 9, but we just went with two large dishes and a small and we still had left overs. I guess we Filipinos don't eat as much as the others that go there. We also had two large appetizers and a salad, so maybe that's why.

On Sunday, I met up with the girls for brunch at Salt Creek Grille. It was so much fun and so good to see everyone (well almost everyone). I miss hanging with the girls in a big group. As you know, I spend most of my time with a bunch of guys, and lately, not even them, because of work. Yep, what a sad solitary life I lead... I get up at 5:30, go to the gym, come home, shower, go to work, then come back home. I prefer going to the gym when it's not so crowded, so 6 am it is, which means getting up really early. The thing is, I pretty much end up getting up at 5:30 every day, even if I'm not going to the gym. I've tried running and lifting at home as an alternative to going to the gym in the mornings, but I gotta tell you, hitting snooze and going back to sleep is probably the best. =P

Anyway, that's it for now. My greedy butt agreed to take on a project for the firm, which of course is kickin my butt since I'm generally too tired to do it when I get home. We've got Vegas coming up, so it's really busy at N.Y.L.A. and then I have to come home, sit in front of the computer and think, dammit. boooooo.

CHARLOTTE DOES MATH...

2007-07-11T22:31:00.001-07:00

... if those shoes are $650 and 30% off, and I have a gift card for $250...

IN N OUT

2007-07-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yep... that was me in and out of St. Louis yesterday. It's been a busy 7days. First, for July 4th, my dad and I played a little tennis in the morning, then we all went down to Laguna where they closed off the cul de sac and had a big block party. It was suburbia as you would imagine it. The neighbors lined up their grills, their tables and their tents, as well as their patio furniture on the street. They even lined up those little kiddie picnic tables. They rented a bouncy house, set up two bubble machines, and all of the kids' electric cars were free for anybody to ride. There were jeeps, convertibles, etc (this is Laguna after all). Someone even had a remote controlled skate board.

Thursday and Friday it was back to work. Let me tell you, that was THE LONGEST friday afternoon ever. EVER. Later that night, I went down to visit the guys and we went to Detroit with some others, where I danced my butt off with Lori. I was once again a sweaty pig, but actually a couple pounds lighter.

On Saturday after tennis, we went to the Carlsbad outlets where I scored 5 things from Banana for a total of twenty-something dollars! Woohoo. Afterwards, we went down to San Diego, where I visited the Rodriguezes in Palazzo Rodriguez. I got to try out their new pool and jacuzzi. More so the jacuzzi since it was getting cold by the time I got there as the sun was setting.

Monday night, I went out to dinner with some colleagues and one of the Nordstrom buyers after they played in a charity golf tournament at the Seacliff Country Club in Huntington Beach. We had dinner at Duke's, where I got the scampi, and I have to tell you... it was better than I expected.

Yesterday, I had to catch the 6:30 am flight to St. Louis. We landed some time past 11, go tour rental car, then went to our meeting from 1 to 5. I thought I was going to pass out at one point. No food besides my power bar and breakfast bar! I found salvation in the trusty vending machine. That's right. Saved by a three musketeers bar and a diet coke. We were booked on the 6:50 flight, so we had to make our way through rush our traffic, return the rental car, then check in. We managed to grab Burger King at the airport, but let me tell you, it is not fast food in the sense that it comes out fast. oooh no. They were slower than turtles on pot. However, when we got to our gate, our plane had just landed and was letting people out. They took about half an hour to clean it then started boarding. When we're finally all on board and ready to go (at least half an hour late), they tell us there is a suspicious leak they have to check out. So much for trying to make it to my grandma's 95th birthday dinner. We finally get home around 10:30 and I'm so tired, I can even ignore the fact that I'm starving and go to sleep. It's not easy being a jet setter. =P bahahahaha. j/k

INTRODUCING...

2007-07-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Ejercito Stewart

Born 7-2-07 at 12:04 p.m.
7 lbs 1 oz
19 inches

Charli says she can't wait to meet her favorite auntie (me). =)

JUST ANOTHER WEEK...

2007-07-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hey there! How ya doin? I'm having a nice relaxing weekend. That's right, no running around, no plans... It's a good thing it's almost Monday because I'm starting to get bored. =P So let's see... Monday night I dragged my butt to the gym. I want to see if I can keep this up without resorting to more training sessions. Tuesday after work, I went up to Hollywood to watch a guitar concert with Shivaji, Cindy and Brian.

Prior to, we had Italian food at Angeli Cafe. Good stuff, reasonable prices. The wine was also very good, but I don't remember what kind we got. They didn't have huge portions, which may matter to some, but I'm actually ok with. I think the demand for huge portions in America is why we're a fat country. You get a huge portion, you feel compelled to eat more, or you don't feel like you're eating that much when you are. Then you walk the few feet to your car and sit down while your butt expands, until you reach your next location, where your butt continues to expand.

Anyhow, we saw this duo, Rodrigo and Gabriela. www.rodgab.com. They play guitar and they are awesome. I think Gabriela rocks a little more though. She did the hard core stuff. It's as if she's the Justin Timberlake and he's the rest of N'Sync. She's talented and she's cute, so if they broke up, she'd do well.

Wednesday was another GuGu night, and on Thursday, my body just gave up on me and decided to make me stay in. I told myself I was going to go to the gym, but I could barely stay awake at 8, so I just stayed in. So of course, on Friday, I felt guilty and got up at 6 and actually dragged my butt to the gym. Amazing, I know. I, too, am in shock. That night, I took my parents out to the (relatively) new Gladstone's at the Pike to check it out. The food was good, but I found it more pricey than it was worth. Probably won't be going back there much. It was partly just a bout of laziness that we ended up there. We were going to go to a seafood place up in Torrance, but I was hoping to do other stuff that night and I figured if we ate closer to home, I'd have a better chance of making it out. In the end, we still didn't get home til about 9 and I was too tired to go out anyway, since I woke up at 6.

Saturday, I wrapped up all my damaged parts (left knee and right ankle) and went to the tennis courts. It's like Robocop is coming out to play. OMG it was HOT. I know I did this all the time last summer, playing in 90-100 heat, but maybe I'm just getting too old for it.

Later that afternoon, my goddaughter Nikki was playing in a tournament at El Dorado Park, so we went to watch. She was #1 in the 12 and unders last year, but now she is 13 and playing 14's, so she has dropped in ranking. Let me tell you, there are some BIG 14 year old girls out there! What the hell were they fed? Anyhow, I believe she is currently #47, but I'm sure when she hits her growth spurt and her body catches up with her size 10 feet, she'll be able to hang with the big girls. Tthat's right, size 10. I had to ask, since I noticed her feet when she was sitting next to me. I wear size 7 tennis shoes since I wear thicker socks (and now an ankle brace) and they were totally dwarfed by her feet. Afterwards, we hit In n Out so the poor kid could refuel before heading home to Palm Springs.

Later Saturday night, I headed over to Sam & Patty's. I haven't seen them in over two years! You know how I know? They have this two year old son I've never met. =P His name is Josh and he cracks me up. He's got the big Korean head (99th percentile) and this skinny little body. He's like a living lollipop. Karis is a big girl now and about to start kindergarten. She is totally daddy's girl. Sam, Patty, Dennis and I sat around chatting til one a.m. It was just like the old days. Hopefully it won't be another two years before I see them again. =P

That's pretty much it! Hit good old Target today. Love that place. Looking forward to the short week ahead. Hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th!

BUSY FAT BEE

2007-06-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Hiya! Yes, the blogging is getting less frequent isn't it? I'm just too busy lately to blog. True, I'm in front of a computer all day, but I'm actually working. (No, really, ask Laryna. I hardly try to chat with her nowadays.) I haven't been home much either. Monday and Wednesday, after work, I went to the gym for training, then out to eat with Lin. (restaurant reviews to come later) Tuesday night went to Kat & Paul's where we had dinner and watched Shooter. Thursday night, Shivaji drove up to visit and we went out to dinner at Yard House. Then on Friday night, I went out with Kat, Paul, Jenn, Jeff, Lin and Marissa in Hermosa. The next day, I got up early for a photo shoot, came back home and went back to sleep, then went up to LA with Vuong to do a little shopping. And finally today, I hung out with my mom (i.e. drove her around), then went to Mia's baptism. She is such a cutie.

OK... details about the food:

Monday night: I picked GuGU Sushi & Rolls in Hermosa (or is it Redondo?). Anyhow, it's on the corner of Aviation and Prospect in a little strip mall next to a Tae Kwan Do place. I like it! I'm not the biggest raw fish eater, so the fact that this place offers tons of rolls is great for me. Lin, being a sushi snob, is not as fond of it, but even Jeff agreed that the place is pretty good, especially for the price. It's not very big and the service can be questionable at times, but I like the quality and variety of rolls.

Tuesday: ate Rascals Chinese Chicken Salad and beef teri at Chez Sagmit. Rascals has awesome Chinese Chicken Salad. I can eat it for days (and have). There are 3 Rascals: Bellfower Blvd. in LB, Redondo Blvd. in Gardena, and Torrance Blvd. in Torrance. Obviously, I don't know any of the cross streets, or I'd give them. =P

Wednesdsay: Post gym... I wanted sushi again since I worked so hard and am trying to lose weight... I suggested GuGu again but it was too crowded. =( Lin suggested O-Sho on Sepulveda in Manhattan Beach. It's near El Gringo. (see below) I only got spicy tuna and a philly roll, and there were ok. But really, how badly can you mess that up? I also ordered edamame... it was terrible. It was overcooked and mushy and bland. I'd say it was somewhere along the lines of El Gringo, but a little better.

Thursday: Yard House - 2 black velvets and an order of fries. So much for working out.

Friday: Back to GuGu! hehe. Yeah, that's right. I made the dinner reservations, but hey, they liked it. Afterwards, we went down toward the pier and got dessert at Creme de la Crepe. Real French crepes. Get the Zidane. Strawberries, bananas, and nutella with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. It'll head-butt you right in the gut.

Saturday: Vuong and I had to swing by Jimmy Choo's which is fortunately just down the street from Mulberry Street Pizza (on Canon Drive). The BEST NY Style pizzas I can find out here. Even better than the last pizza I had in NY a few weeks ago. I had the lasagna pizza. Vuong had the Artichoke. Good stuff. Afterwards, we went to The Other Room Wine Bar on Abbott Kinney in Venice. At first, it looks like a cozy little place, and it kind of feels like it, but it's actually very big. They have a decent selection of wine, not as big as the book at Primitivo, and a bunch of beers, and the atmosphere is good. Saturday evening was probably not the best time for us to meet guys there though... I do believe most of the guys there were more interested in ... each other. (Not that it's that kind of bar. I think our timing was just off.) Still a nice place, however. I'd go back to chill. After we walked around a little, we went down to Manhattan Beach where we figured we'd have dinner. We ended up at Mama D's where we shared the angel hair with Fra Diavolo sauce (Spicy Marinara) and jumbo shrimp. Yummy. Have lots of water on hand, though.

Sunday: Dinner at Royal Capital on Euclid and Westminster in Garden Grove. Standard Vietnamese/Chinese fare. The best though, hands down: house special shrimp with garlic noodles. I'd go back for that. I had two servings when I shouldn't have. Good thing I hadn't eaten much all day or I'd be even farther over the calorie count. MOOOOOOO.

Oh, two things that just popped into my mind (yes, it's a random, muddled, and totally disordered place):

1) One day driving to work, I saw a pepto bismol pink Escalade. WHY? Who does that?

2) Recently, the last two Formula 1 races were won by a black British man, Lewis Hamilton. The first black man to win a Formula 1 race. I knew he was British before he won, so imagine my surprise, when on the news here in America, they announce that Lewis Hamilton was the first African-American to win a Formula 1 race. Do you only have to be black to be African-American? Do you not have to come from America? Shouldn't he be African-British? African-English? Anglo-African?

HOME SWEET HOME

2007-06-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hi there! I know, I lag, but I've been tired. I got back late Thursday night, really Friday morning. Our flight was delayed by about 2 hours. We flew Delta because the boys are big fans of the individual tv's you get. Me, I want some leg room, some butt room, you name it. You don't get that on Delta (I find the seats to be narrow so you better hope for a skinny neighbor), which is why I prefer American. I suppose considering I couldn't sleep, the t.v. came in handy, since you get Dish Satellite. You can also play a trivia game against other passengers. I came in first place during my first game. Woohoo! I saw second place guy eyeing me when we were getting off the plane. (It tells you what seat the players are in.) Anyhow, I got home around 2:30 and I was dead tired since I adjusted to NY time right away. It was essentially like pulling an all nighter. Since then, I've worked every day as there was a show in L.A. and (gasp!) I've been going to the gym after work.

Anyhoo... let's see.. what'd I do in NY? Hmm... Tuesday went out with Art, Mira and Weyland. We went to a restaurant called Republic in Union Square for Asian fusion, then Bar 13 and then Whiskey Blue in the W. That place was a total sausagefest. The ratio must have been 10 to 1. Anyhow, we (and I mean me) love Andrew (?), the bouncer, because he thought I was 23. (maybe full of crap, but he still said it, and we old ladies gotta take what we can get =P) After Whiskey Blue, I took my first touristy NY pictures in a long time. The last time I did the touristy thing was the first time I came out to NY years ago and we (luckily) got to go to the top of the WTC.

View from my room

Rockefeller Center at Night

Smiles on the building at Rockefeller Center

Wednesday night, I hung out with the guys. Jeff HAD to have dinner at this Oyster Bar. Unfortunately, I forget the exact street address but it's not far from the Sheraton Hotel somewhere in the 50's. Food is pretty good and apparently the place has been around forever. My main complaint about the place is that it needed better ventilation. I also picked up cheesecakes from Junior's cheesecakes and brought them back. I think Lin got the better cheesecake - Raspberry Swirl where as I got Chocolate Swirl. Go figure, something beat out chocolate.

THE BIG APPLE

2007-06-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Big Apple! We landed at around 8:15 this morning after the red eye out last night. It was absolutely pouring rain. Luckily, by the time we left Pier 94, the rain had stopped and the rest of the day has been very nice. Not sunny, but that's ok, because the temperature is good and it's not too hot.

For lunch, we went to Roxy's Deli near Time's Square. Holy moly. At first, I thought I was reading things wrong, because I wanted to order a club sandwhich and it was over $20! I ended up with a $14 pastrami sandwhich. Beware of eating near the touristy places. It will cost you an arm and a leg. Usually when I came out to NY to hang out with Margie, we'd just go to whatever was near her apartment in the East Village. Both of us are pretty cheap, so we never paid too much for a meal, except for special forays into Nobu or Peter Lugar's.

After lunch, I really thought I'd walk around the city, but I couldn't do it. I was so tired. I didn't sleep much on the plane, so I was hurtin and decided to try and nap instead. Afterwards, I met up with Weyland who also happens to be in NYC for work. We both wanted to try the Burger Bar in Le Meridien. I think we both expected some sort of fancy schmancy over priced burger place, but it was some random small hole-in-the-wall hidden in the hotel by a big curtain with only a neon burger to indicate that it was there. You can either have a hamburger or a cheeseburger and you order like you do when you order Philly cheesesteaks at Pat's or Geno's. When you get up to the cashier, you have to know what you want, tell them how you want it cooked, and what you want on it. It wasn't too expensive, either. Only about $6-7, but the place is small, so you'll have to scramble for a seat.

On a random side note, the Philadelphia Philly's were staying at Le Meridien. We saw all of their luggage and quite possibly a couple of the guys in the lobby where we sat to finish our drinks since we felt guilty taking up space in the restaurant.

Anyway, time to research more food places in NYC. More to come later.

SUNNY SEATTLE

2007-05-31T14:53:00.000-07:00

Ciao! Hope you all had a fun and safe memorial weekend. Last week I went up to Seattle for the first time. We stayed at the Hotel Max in downtown as it was across the street from our meeting. Sadly, I was only there for one night, but I really liked it. The trip started with Alaska Air not having our luggage. They took the hotel information and said they'd deliver it as it was on the next flight. They did not deliver it. In fact, Jeff & Heath had to run out to Sea-Tac early the next morning and pick it up as we needed it for our meeting.

That night, we had dinner at Wild Ginger. Patrick had said this was his favorite place to eat when in Seattle and I can understand why. The food was great and the service was excellent. The servers really seem to know their stuff. We had the black peppered scallops, 7 flavored beef, manila clams, a lamb curry and a shrimp curry. GOOD STUFF!

Hotel Max is a trendy little boutique hotel. It reminds me a lot of European hotels. Yes, that means the rooms are small. I had a king size bed with about a foot and a half on either side of the bed to the wall. The bed itself however, is one of the best I've slept in. Not quite Heavenly Bed at the Westin, but pretty darn close, plus they have a wide variety of pillows on there. I slept smack in the middle and used all of the pillows I think. My room had a very nice view of the Space Needle, so I took picture both at night and the next day. We got lucky and got great weather. It was actually nicer in Seattle than in L.A. those days.

DREAMIN'

2007-05-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

I have had the weirdest dreams the last two nights. Unfortunately, I can't remember the details of last night's dream, but I know it was good. The night before last, I had a dream about Nick Lachey and the Simpson sisters. Strange eh? Not like I am a huge fan that hears or reads about them a lot, so I was rather amused when I woke up and remembered my dream. It's probably why I still remember it now, unlike my dream from last night.

I've always meant to keep some sort of log of my dreams because I have rather vivid dreams, but since I'm A.D.D. I always forget. Even if I remember when I wake up, I get distracted by the t.v. and forget. I either forget to write it down or I forget the dream or both. =P

Anybody watch Dancing with the Stars last night? Wow, it's amazing how they can drag out two hours of show, when you're just watching for the last 5-10 minutes. I don't mind if they're dancing, but all the retrospective are blah. At least it gave me time to pack and do other stuff without feeling like I was missing out on anything. I'm glad Apolo won. He and his partner are so cute. They should get married. =P

GOOD TIMES

2007-05-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a pretty busy one. It almost started on Thursday night, except we realized that it was the Grey's Anatomy finale and decided to stay in. Friday night, Vuong drove up and we had dinner at a wine bar called Primitivo on Abbott Kinney. I used to go here often, but now that Monette's not up in L.A., it's not worth the drive up. They had a great seared foie gras on special. We also had the braised pork which was really tender and the ceviche. All were very good. Afterwards, we went over to Main Street to check out an Irish pub. Apparently, the one I had in mind and the one Vuong was talking about were totally different. We didn't stay long at the Irish pub because the crowd was a bit younger and grungier than we expected. Anyhow, Primitivo is a tapas place, so we were hungry again, and thought we'd try Mulberry Street in BH for some pizza. We drove all the way out there and they were closed. =( So on the way home, we made a run for the border. BEST burrito supreme I've had in a long time.

On Saturday night, we tried Rooftop in Laguna, but there was actually a wedding going on, so we never made it up to the rooftop. We hung out in the lobby for a little while, then headed over to Landmark, where we met up with Valerie. When we get there, the line is probably half an hour's wait. But I gotta tell you, sometimes, its good to be a girl. The bouncer pulls us out of line and takes us through the back entrance so we don't have to wait more than 5 minutes. Now, I gotta tell you... if the Great Flood were to have happened while we were there, I would have felt more than safe, even with my limited swimming abilities. All you've gotta do is grab on to the nearest enhanced bleached blonde and you're sure to float. Really, if they just gathered all of the surgically enhanced women and had them join hands around the perimeter of the club, the whole place would have floated. Val was saying that there should be a limit on the number of enhanced women they let in, as they skew the capacity count. They clearly take up way more room than a normal person. Anyhow, we yukked it up a little, danced a lot, then headed out. Once again, Vuong and I were hungry. We tried to make another run for the border, but couldn't find it, so we headed for old Mickey D's. So much for all that exercise I got last week.

This week, I'm heading up for my first trip to Seattle... and guess what? It's gonna rain. Who'da thunk it.

THE QUICK & DIRTY...

2007-05-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

...recap for the weekend. Friday I went to Laguna to check and make sure the kids weren't torturing their grandma, as she'd been alone with them since Wednesday while my aunt and uncle went to Seattle. I brought some Goldilock's snacks, so I think they were pretty happy campers. However, we did have a scary moment when Linley fell on the stairs when she was trying to catch up to her little boyfriend Chase. She was holding her stuffed animal and rushing so she slipped on a step and went tumbling. She scared the heck out of me because I thought she might break her neck. Luckily, the kid is resilient and mostly she complained about her squashed nose. Needless to say, she spent the rest of the evening on the couch with me, but I'm sure her pain memory is short and she'll be running on the stairs soon.

Afterwards, I caught dinner with the guys at El Matador where they have this huge margarita. I ordered one, but was forbidden from drinking it, which I'm sure was a good thing. I had only had a siopao for lunch (which I didn't finish) and had at least 2 glasses of wine at the Vaj Mahal before dinner. Then there was that other glass of wine with dinner. Anyhow, I was 3 sheets to the wind before dinner was even over. I was trying to stick with my 3-2-1 drinking formula (3 wines, 2 cocktails, 1 beer) which has generally produced optimal buzz effects, but I didn't really need it. Anyhow, after dinner, we went over to Detroit and hung out there. I know, what's new.

Saturday I spent most of the day just laying on the couch. I think I also watched ALL of Rick Steve's travel journals for Europe. I feel as if I just went to Italy again. At this point, I've been in Italy a total of 3 real weeks and 3 virtual. Later that night, Kat and I went to Manhattan Beach and met up with Jenn, Jeff and Jo at the Side Door. I love that place until it gets way too packed. I love the cozy feel of it (until it gets to packed and then its just claustrophobic) and there's usually some interesting people to talk to. The bartenders and waitresses are usually pretty cool too. Try the mac and cheese with chicken. They use the good stuff... gruyere, etc.

Sunday was Mother's Day, so I took my mom out to lunch and then we went shopping. AfterwardsI was feeling a bit antsy, so I met up with Vuong at South Coast for a couple of hours and we walked around. At one point, we decided to stop for a snack and sat out on the patio at Z'Tejas, where we saw a really cute guy. He walked past and sat down at a table with his mom, grandma, and grandpa. We though, "Aww... how nice. Spending mother's day with the family." Well, "mom" wasn't his mom, or they've got an interesting incestuous relationship. Vuong and I were sitting there thinking... what the hell are we doing wrong? I'm going with my theory of "he's jobless and she's his sugar mama" even though it really didn't look that way. It makes me feel better anyhow. No, wait, not really. =P

Anyhow, after South Coast, I met up with the rest of the family (parents, Ryans, grandma) at Newport Seafood in Garden Grove where I think I consumed more lobster than I ever have before. The place was packed, so it was good we got there relatively early. However, even after I ate all that lobster, I still found my stomach growling at around 10, but I decided to just ignore it, which didn't help the fact that I couldn't sleep, so I tossed and turned and was hungry all night.

IF ONLY...

2007-05-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

...they were always this nice to each other. =P I was just trying to clean my desk out a little and ran across my cd of the Ryan family portraits... here's what the monsters look like when they're not beating the crap out of each other. (OK, really, it's more when Linley is not beating the crap out of Sean. She is a total bruiser for someone who is such a girly-girl.)

MIA AND MIGUEL

2007-05-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

No, they're not a new couple, but they do go well together. On Tuesday night, Gina and I ventured over to Brea to finally meet Miss Mia S. Tran and have dinner with Cherrie and Caren. Caren graciously picked up Miguel's after work and brought it over. I had the garbage burrito (everything in it - sour cream, guac, etc.) with shredded beef. Way better than the the bean, cheese and rice one that Gina and Caren went with.

Anyway, enough about the food.We finally met Mia and she is such a cutie. I think she's managed to double her weight in the last two months so she's sporting those cute baby rolls. (Yes, rolls are cute on babies. On adults, not so much.) She stayed up to play for a bit, took a nap while we ate dinner, then woke up again for her own dinner. It's hilarious watching Tom and her together because they look so much alike! Gina said, "I don't see it as much anymore." I told her to pass me an eyeliner pencil so I could draw a mustache and goatee on Mia - and maybe some glasses - and there'd be no way she could miss it.

Pictures of Mia:

Whew! Auntie Gina has some stinky pits! hehe. j/k!

Who ARE you?

Mia chills in her swing. She LOVES her swing. It's a happy place.

WEEEEE

2007-05-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

Or should I say Wiiiiiii? That's right. I finally scored a Wii. On Friday, I was meeting Vuong for lunch at Claim Jumper in South Coast and just happened to walk by Game Stop. I figured, heck, why not pop in and check and VOILA! They had it in stock! Woohooo. So Friday night, after we (and by we I mean me and me, as Brian sat on the couch and watched) helped Shivaji packed, we headed over to Bill's to give it a try. It's a lot of fun! It's also lot more fun when you have more than one controller. =P

On Saturday night, Shivaji moved into his place so he invited a few of us to come over for some pizza. I brought the Wii of course and everybody took turns playing against each other (I picked up another controller)... it was great watching Shivaji's dad play. I thought he got a kick out of it.

On Sunday morning, Kat, Paul, Lin and I went out to brunch for Lin's birthday. We tried this new place Venezia in Redondo Beach. They just had their grand opening on Wednesday. The next restaurant that will be at that location will probably have their grand opening in September. =P We sit down and the waitress asks if we plan to have the buffet brunch. I said, "Oh, may I see the menu please?" She comes back to tell us that there is no menu for the day, only the buffet. Then asks, "So you'll be having the buffet then?" I'm thinking... do we have a choice? Aside from that, the selection wasn't that good (not $20 good), they were short on serving utensils, and the service was a bit slow. On the upside, they have bottomles mimosas and bloody mary's for $7. Of course, with service being a bit slow, you'll probably only get 2. I think they are trying to focus more on being a "trendy and happening" place than being known for their food.

On Sunday night, my dad and I played with the Wii and that was a lot of fun. There was a lot of trash talking, from tennis to golf to bowling. You should have seen us boxing. hehe. I was like, uh... dad, don't hit the t.v. by accident. I knocked his guy out about 3 times and absolutely rubbed it in. Please, not like you thought I wouldn't. =P