A 3 Hour Meal...

My coworkers, Duke, and I ventured to Sushi Wasabi this evening to celebrate my friend's acceptance into the UCLA business school. Sushi Wasabi, if you recall, is the sushi place of choice these days. I haven't had a better meal to date. Looking back at my old post, we had all of those items minus the giant clam and ono plus a few new ones:

- Monkfish liver (served as a sushi)

- Barbecue eel (I didn't particularly like this one since it "stung" and cut the inside of my mouth)

- Albacore stomach-side (different from the opening Albacore dish - served as sushi instead of sashimi)

- Raw scallop sushi

- Uni (I had a portion this time)

With this meal, I can officially say that I have beaten a restaurant! We were the first ones in for dinner, the last ones out, and ate one of everything that was available. It was pretty awesome. It ended up being a 3-hour meal, but the time passed really quickly. We had a lot of good laughs and enjoyed the melt-in-your-mouth sushi. The bill came out to be $140/person which is steep but considering how much we ate and the high quality of the sushi (plus factoring in the beers that a couple of the guys had), it really isn't that bad.

I can't wait for my brother to try this place out next time he's in town. He's also a sushi snob like me. :)

And, in other news, the lack of blogging is an indication that I have just been super busy. I am in escrow and hopefully going to be a homeowner next week!!! Crazy that my long journey of home-buying may come to an end. I think I may try to write a book of sorts (or a really long blog entry) of all the things that I've learned during this process and wished someone had told me about.

New Year's Eve: The London Hotel & Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant

Duke and I met up with Sharon and Sean for NYE. We headed to West Hollywood to the London Hotel. Our dinner reservations were at 9pm but we ended up arriving around 7:30pm. We luckily didn't hit any traffic, so we had some time to enjoy the hotel rooftop. The London Hotel is absolutely spectacular. It's very refined and elegant, and just beautiful. The rooftop had a gorgeous skyline view of LA with a nice pool surrounded by cabanas and one of those fires that light up over scattered rocks/pebbles.

We had a drink up there and relaxed before dinner. I had Pimm's cup which I hadn't had since New York, so that was a great way to start the evening.

We headed down to the restaurant which I had been eagerly anticipating for months. I had heard the restaurant was fantastic, and I am a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay from Hell's Kitchen, so I was super excited to try out the food. The NYE package price was $140/person so pretty pricey but fairly reasonable for NYE.

The menu sounded delicious, and soon enough, our course started.

We were given our amuse bouche which was caviar atop creme fraiche inside a cookie type crust (I have no idea what the actual dish is called since it wasn't on the menu):

This was really delicious. The caviar was just a perfect accent to a light beginning. The other three people at the table were not as excited by it but admitted they didn't really like caviar. I, however, thought it was great and even scraped a few of the caviar that dropped on the napkin to eat it all up.

First course - Butternut squash foam infused with truffle roasted blue foot mushrooms:

At first sip, I thought it tasted bad, both because the texture truly was a foam (which was a bit unexpected by me) and the squash was a bit bitter. However, when coupled with the piece of buttery bread and the mushrooms in the soup, it was actually pretty flavorful and a decent dish. Nothing too spectacular, but it was good in its own right.

Second Course - Foie Gras and Game Terrine with Vegetable Picalilli, Micro Greens Onion and Rosemary Brioche:

I couldn't eat this dish. I know from previous experiences that I don't really like foie gras, and now I've definitely confirmed it. I tried really hard to eat this, but it was just so thick and had a foul taste. Blech. It was barely edible when combined with the bread but that large piece of foie gras and that small piece of bread meant that I still had a whole lot of foie gras left without any bread. I tried eating just the pieces of game embedded in the foie gras just to not waste too much of it, but it was just salty. Only Duke ate his piece, and forced himself to eat Sharon's. Sean and I both didn't finish ours, and ate about 1/3 of it before calling it quits. I can't fairly review this dish since I'm not a fan of foie gras but man was it rough.

Third Course - Pan Fried Loup de Mere with Braised Fennel, Leeks, Confit Lemon Grass and Ginger Veloute

This dish was ok. The fish was fair and was introduced as Sea Bass - I don't know if sea bass and loup are the same things. Anyhow, the fish taste was ok but a little bit dry for me. The accompanying vegetables were good. Overall, a fine taste but again, nothing that I would absolutely die for.

Fourth Course - Wild Mushroom Ravioli with Savoy Cabbage, Celeraic Cream, Thyme Sauce:

Another "it's ok" dish. Beautiful presentation, but it was just a large wonton type thing. After biting into it, it tasted strangely like meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I can't explain why given the list of ingredients, but it really had that reminiscent flavor. I expected a rich mushroom flavor, but it was more like a meatball with a nice pasta coat around it. It was also fairly heavy which I guess is good b/c it was just one ravioli as a course.

Fifth Course - Roasted Beef Tenderloin, Slow Braised Short Rib, Red Onion Puree, Potato Fondant, Port Wine Sauce:

This was my favorite dish. The beef was perfectly cooked - very tender and very flavorful. Each bite was delicious. The vegetables served alongside were also terrific. I thought it was a really clever dish b/c it was almost like a mini-full steak dinner. You had a delicious piece of beef with miniature portions of creamed spinach, mashed potato (served here as a potato piece), a side of vegetables (here as an onion). This was the quality of dish that I was expecting for all of the dishes. At least we had one.

Sixth Course - Ice Wine and Black Berry Soup, Fromage Blanc Foam:

Elegant dessert dish, but it was just ok. The first sip was a bit sour at first, but once your palate got acclimated, it tasted better. The berries were pretty tart which were countered by the foam but the wine mixed in a strange flavor. Sean did like this dish a lot though, but Sharon and I were mediocre fans of it.

Duke opted for the only choice on the menu - instead of ice wine, his course was - Selection of International Cheese, Condiment and Fruit Bread:

I ate the fruit bread b/c it had nuts in it, and the bread was actually pretty tasty - raisin/nut bread. I also ate the macadamia nut atop the red spread. Duke gave me a piece of the cheese on the left and said it was the same cheese as what Babybel is made of. I like Babybel cheese, but I didn't like this one. Maybe it was too fresh for me, but the flavor was way too strong. I am not a fan of raw cheese though, so you can discount my review of this dish. Duke and Sharon are both fans of cheese, and they both agreed that the cheese on the right was too strong, and neither liked it. A good chunk of that cheese was left on the plate for the waiter to take away.

Seventh Course - Milk Chocolate and Coconut Parfait, Kalamansi Lime, Dark Rum Ice Cream

To finish it all off, could I get an absolutely delicious dessert? Sadly, no...The chocolate was much like a chocolate mousse which tasted very ordinary. I had no hints of coconut in there which was also sad since I very much enjoy coconut. The yellow sauce was made of the kalamansi lime - I don't know if you've ever had one before, but it is the sourest lime you will ever taste. I am surprised that it was the sauce for the chocolate since it's an extremely powerful ingredient which I didn't appreciate. Way too overpowering and not exactly complementary. The ice cream was also an epic fail for me. It was like taking a shot of rum. I expected an ice cream with hints of rum but it was just pure alcohol which was way too strong for me.

And, at midnight, we toasted with our glasses of champagne and were served our coffee accompanied by macaroons:

I was expecting the yummy coconut macaroons but sadly, we were given this type of macaroon. They provided some visual enjoyment though - in the dim light at our table, they looked all the same, but with a picture with flash, we were able to see all the various colors. The flavors of each of these were also just so-so. There was this jelly type substance in these mini-hamburgers, and they tasted average.

The bill came, and all in all, the evening ended up being close to $200/person with no alcohol (the champagne was complimentary). Was it worth it? Absolutely not. I was truly disappointed in the experience, having had much better meals at half the price. However, price aside, I was most disappointed b/c I have been waiting so long to try a Gordon Ramsay meal. He is so critical of the chefs on TV, but alas, I don't agree with his taste at this restaurant. One day when I go back to London, I'll try to have a true fine dining experience at one of his restaurants there.

The evening was still a lot of fun though, thanks to the great company of friends. Too bad the food couldn't be as great.

Another Birthday and Christmas

I've been quite delinquent again with my blogging, but to sum up, I went to Disneyland for my birthday, and it was good, fun time. Duke and I enjoyed most of the rides, and even though the park was packed, the lines weren't too bad with some strategic fast-passing. They gave me free admission and a big blue button that said Happy Birthday, and throughout the day, random employees would greet me and wish me a happy birthday. It was nice, and interesting to know that Disney again doesn't disappoint with all the details - to even train employees to look out for such buttons.

The highlight was the fireworks show which ended up with Disney creating a snowy night. It was quite a clever idea with soap-bubble machines atop the buildings along Main Street which simulated snowfall. It was really a special moment when you see everyone's eyes light up when they see the snow.

Fast forward along to Christmas, and the time was spent with my family. My brother came to town, and my sister and nephew were around as well. We had some good game-time, particularly with this PS3 game called Buzz! It's actually really fun, though it's peculiar that the game has a buzzing in device but yet you never buzz in for the questions - you just answer them without having to ring in. Perhaps some expansion pack uses it... Who knows.

My brother had some pretty funny moments with my nephew, so that was really neat b/c they don't get to see each other very often. My nephew is of the age where he copies everything, so it's pretty funny to see my brother pull out some crazy dance moves to have him copy it. Haha.

After Christmas day, I spent a few hours visiting my high school friend Gretchen who now has a 3 1/2 year old daughter and a 9-month-old son. How time flies.

The day my brother was heading back home, we decided to get some sushi at Kotobuki. His friend Jorge came along, and both he and my brother hadn't been to see Hiro in many many years. Jorge even had his bachelor party there 10+ years ago but hadn't been back since. They were both happy with the meals.

All in all, it was a really fun time. My break is almost over and back to work I go, but at least I had a lot of fun while I was off. NYE post to come next.

Oh No, It's the TSO

We went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra last night at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Here's my review:

In one word:

Gratuitous.

First Half:

Boring.

Second Half:

Better.

Joe Walsh:

The Best Part.

If you care to read the more detailed review, here it goes:

We arrive at the stadium only to find that our terrible seats were worse than terrible. We were on the top tier with a side-view of the stage. That's not the terrible part. The seat were unimaginably small. I am not a very big person, and those seats were painful. Once people started sitting next to us, we were sandwiched toast.

Regardless, we were looking forward to a great show. My friend and her husband saw TSO last year, and raved about it as one of the best concerts they had ever seen, and they are actually going to see them for the 2nd year in a row tonight in San Diego. I will have to talk to her to see if she still liked them after this year's show. Duke saw some YouTube clips, and was super excited to see them.

Anyhow, the lights dim, and the show begins. Duke and I are puzzled. We thought this was going to be an action-packed, rock show overlaid with Christmas music. Boy, were we wrong.

There was some Christmas music intertwined, but a whole lot of it was TSO original lame pop songs with some not-so-great lyrics or singing. And, to make matters worse, there was a story interlude after every song with some guy talking in a really low voice, muttering random crap about what Russians want for Christmas...some Stoli! Uh...ok. Then there was some more stories about angels and who knows what else. Every song ended, and the speaker would so eloquently transition into his story with an "And so..." Can you really not think of a better transition? There was also this random song sung by a homeless guy. What the hell is going on?

For an hour and a half, Duke kept looking over at me, and just saying "I'm sorry." I figured we were even since last year, I dragged him to the Pageant of the Masters which was a flop, so now we're even.

The show made no sense. The minute you thought you were going to enjoy a song, they ruined it. They had a very nice start to "Joy to the World" and then it morphed into some random weird song. They had a beautiful start to Pachelbel's "Canon" only to bait and switch it to something else. But, my favorite was their rendition of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" - they put absolutely nonsensical intonations into the song, and screamed the song. It went something like this:

HARK!!

The HERALD!!!

angels sing.

GLORY!!

to THE!!!

newborn

KING!

Peace on Earth and

MERCY!!!

mild

GOD!!! and

Sinners reconciled

...

You get the picture. It was absurd. The whole show was also accompanied by what is known as Hair-ography. That's when you can't actually sing or dance, so you have to hide behind all your hair. They were experts at the headbanging which could be fine but they were being so ridiculous headbanging to really quiet songs. Even when the girls would turn their heads left and right, they had to make sure ever strand of hair was flinging around.

And, to make matters worse, the lead performer constantly asked for applause. You know, the most annoying hand gesture of "Come on, come on, clap for me". There was so much gratuitous dancing, hair bopping, and running around like wild men on stage. There were acting like they were having such a great time but it just looked ridiculous.

The lead singer also liked to hold notes for a super long time. Yay, you can take a deep breath and belt out a note but it was just so long. It reminded me of Austin Powers urinating and he just kept going. The guitarist also did that with his feedback, and made his high notes last for way too long. Then, of course, ask for applause that they were just so awesome.

Booo.... And then, there was a break. The host talked about all kinds of random crap for a long time, and they ended up giving themselves a self-anointed awards ceremony. They introduced every single person with backstory, and even had a few speeches of "I'd like to thank..." Uh, what? Is this a concert, or just a gratuitous event where you have 8,000 people watch you do whatever the hell you want. Oh yeah, that's right, it's is just a gratuitous event.

Anyway, after the awards ceremony, they announce that there would be a special surprise just for LA, so we all had to make sure we stayed to the end. Great, they have to bribe people to stay. I guess it was a good bribe but plenty of people were still walking out.

The second half of the concert was much better than the first half b/c the Christmas story ended, and we didn't have to hear that dude talk. They even said he was the James Earl Jones of our generation...yes, I guess I don't have to continue to give evidence that this group is delusional.

The music was more upbeat in the second half, so at least there were a few songs that were pretty cool to see with the laser shows going on. There was also a lot of pyrotechnics with some blue and green flames too.

Then, the surprise came out which was Joe Walsh, former member of the Eagles. Duke knew who he was but I didn't. Even though I didn't know his song about a Maserati, he was an infinitely better performer than the rest of the TSO. He played a couple songs, and the audience was going wild. Most of the audience was of the older generation, so I'm sure they were very familiar with him.

Anyhow, the concert came to an end, and we walked out. I wondered if it was just us not being fans of the show, but most people were also complaining about the first half. All in all, I would highly not recommend anyone going to see the TSO. What a waste of time and money. I guess it was good for some comical memories like when there was some audience participation through clapping, and everyone else stopped clapping except Duke and the guy next to him (their apparent #1 fan). Duke kept on which was good b/c once he stopped, the other guy felt dumb and stopped clapping even though he had to resist the urge. That guy was an amazing fan though. He was playing air guitar to their songs the entire time, accompanied by his leg bouncing to the beat.

At least there was one happy camper.

Battle! Best Sushi in Orange County

We've been frequenting Kotobuki Sushi Restaurant for quite some time now, enough that we can be dubbed "regulars". We absolutely love Hiro, and think the sushi he prepares is awesome (he even stamps it on his business card). The albacore sushi is always melt-in-your-mouth, the sauteed asparagus is to die for, and the shrimp hand rolls are with just enough sour and spice to keep you satisfied. As Duke puts it, Hiro puts more time and care into one piece of sushi than a chef does for an entire meal.

My brother first introduced me to Hiro a number of years ago when he used to live here. I experienced it a couple times, and loved it. Fast forward, and now I live in Orange County, and Kotobuki is as tried and true as ever. The best in OC.

I introduce Kotobuki to a few of my coworkers, and they are hooked. Within one month, one guy went back 3 times, another twice, not to mention Duke and I going about twice a month as well. One of my other coworkers was finally going to try it out, skeptical b/c he claimed that he had found the best sushi in Orange County at Sushi Wasabi.

The next day, he comes back with a mediocre review. We were appalled. How could you not think that was the best sushi?! He had some nitpicky items to review, so we discounted his tastebuds, but he told us that Sushi Wasabi was better. Now, as much as I am loyal to Hiro, I love me some good sushi. I had to try. Besides, my coworker is Korean but his dad was born and raised in Japan so they knew authentic sushi.

Duke and I venture over to Sushi Wasabi on a Friday night at 8pm. They close at 8:30pm. They had a Closed sign up. Huh? I walk in, asking if they are closed despite their hours, and they take a peek behind the sushi bar, and say "Sorry, no more fish." We couldn't get seated. What kind of crap is that? Don't have hours if you're not going to be open then!

We left disgruntled and decided to go to Kotobuki instead. And then, the unbelievable happened. We had a terrible time!! It was the most expensive meal we had ever had there (racking up a $220 bill for the 2 of us without any drinks), and the fish was not good. Hiro served a lot of cooked items too - yellowtail collar (ok with lemon; disgusting without the lemon squeeze), sauteed mushrooms and scallops (overcooked scallops and way too many mushrooms for 2 humans to ingest), etc. We didn't get our sushi fill, so requested some albacore which is normally my favorite. It was almost frozen! I couldn't believe it. Hiro never fails us...but that night, the fish was not good. The yellowtail was also too cold and didn't taste good. We did, thankfully, have one piece of yellowtail belly which was great.

We also were coerced by some adjacent diners to get this salmon sashimi dish which ended up being the same style salmon as the salmon sushi was just had...God only knows how much that dish cost us! How sad.

Anyway, after leaving Kotobuki that night, we were still in a dearth of good sushi. We decided to venture back to Sushi Wasabi. We arrived at 6pm on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The place was packed. We walked in, "Do you have reservations?" "Uh...no." They look around, look at the time, and look around. "Ok, you can sit here." Wow, I've never been in a place that was such a wildcard if you could get seated. Reservations are a must here.

We sit at the sushi bar, ready for action. First course - Albacore from Canada, the chef proclaims. Wow, what specificity! And Wow, what an amazing taste!! That dish alone, and we were won over. It was so fresh and absolutely delicious.

Here's the list of remaining items we had:

Bigeye tuna from Hawaii

Red Snapper from New Zealand

Baked scallop with onions

Yellowtail from Japan - two pieces - one backside and one stomach side

Blue crab hand roll from Texas

Ono (I didn't get the location)

Salmon from Scotland (x2)

Raw Kumamoto oysters from Seattle

Spicy tuna handroll

Halibut from the East Coast

Uni (only 1 piece for Duke)

Giant Clam from Seattle adorned with a mint leaf

Chopped Toro

This was a fantabulous meal. Main highlights for me were the albacore, raw oysters, the blue crab hand roll, the yellowtail, and the chopped toro. Having said that, every dish was just perfect. The omakase was actually over after the spicy tuna handroll, but Duke and I can eat lot, so we ended up requesting the next few and the chef threw in the chopped toro for us to try as well.

The bill came, and it was just slightly more expensive than a normal day at Kotobuki (excluding that horrendous last visit), but not too much more. I was super impressed.

The next day, I told my coworkers about it, and they couldn't believe how impressed I was. We went back for lunch. Oh yeah, I am totally spoiled. We call the restaurant to make sure we can get seated (they're only open for about an hour during lunchtime), and they say they can. We arrive, and the waitress (presumably the chef's wife) looks at me, and says "Were you here last night?!" "Uh...hehe, yes!" She laughs, and tells the chef, and they are very amused that I would come back within 18 hours.

The lunch course was the same as my dinner course with the exception of getting a raw scallop and octopus sushi dish as well as a piece of uni, instead of the red snapper, halibut, and ono. Lunch ended up costing as much as dinner, so be warned of that if you're thinking of testing it out just for lunch. You might as well go for dinner.

In summary:

- Go to Kotobuki if you're in the mood for more handrolls, extra spices and lemons with your fish, and a fun time talking with Hiro.

- Go to Sushi Wasabi if you're in the mood for super fresh fish and traditional sushi. Each sushi piece has a very little amount of rice, so you end up having a wide variety of fish since you're not getting full without any rice.

Overall, I have to give it to Sushi Wasabi as the best I've ever had in OC. While it saddens me to say b/c Hiro is still awesome, Sushi Wasabi is just absolutely the freshest and most pristine sushi I've ever tasted. It even beats out some of the really pricey places like Nobu and Matsuhisa.

Ode to Nasonex

Allergies and sinus problems all my life,

Tissues and headaches, so much strife.

Is the milk spoiled?

I cannot tell; I cannot smell.

I sleep upright for my nose to drain,

Sitting to sleep is definitely a pain.

Sniffling in meetings,

Blowing my nose,

It's just the story of how my life goes.

Until that is...

Nasonex was presented to me,

Simply amazing what a spray can be.

I now have five senses,

Amazing indeed.

Sometimes so lovely,

The bath gels and soaps.

Sometimes so putrid,

The odors from blokes.

A new world for me,

To explore and not just see,

I just want to say

Thanks to the Nasonex bee.

A Few More Mentions

I forgot to say that while we were in LA, we ran into Conan O'Brien. How funny is that. We were at a pizza place on a Sunday afternoon, and saw him, his wife, another couple, and some kids. They all seemed like very nice people. Conan was much taller and skinnier than I would have thought, but his hair was still as outrageous as ever. :)

My other update is that I'm officially now on a diet! Maybe if I write it, I'll actually follow through with it. Haha. It's been 3 weeks since my marathon and I hadn't gone to the gym at all. The marathon training actually had me gaining weight - I think I overdid it with the "I need the pasta for my long runs!" so I've decided to focus on getting me back down to a more comfortable weight. I'm shooting for 12lbs which would bring me to the weight I haven't been since high school (eeks!) but we'll see what's possible. I think 7lbs is definitely doable but 12lbs will be a stretch.

I finally went to the gym yesterday, and did a varied cardio workout, mixing running, bike, and elliptical. Today was supposed to be some upper body weight training but since I'm feeling lazy (great start to my diet), I'm just going to do some Wii Fit Plus.

I picked up Wii Fit Plus the other day, and I love it! It's the same as Wii Fit but with extra games plus the much desired functionality to compile various exercises into one workout so you don't have to keep clicking in and out of each activity, disrupting the flow.

Alright, that's all the updates for now.

October, Gone and Went

I figured I'd do a catch-up post, so let's rewind a few weekends ago. My sister dropped my nephew off with me at work, and my co-worker watched him while I got my hair cut...What a horrible idea! Dylan screamed for 45 minutes straight, freaked out by the strangers and seeing me inside and not with him. Luckily, the outside air conditioning unit scared him, and he started talking to my coworker who subsequently provided entertainment with his iPhone. He downloaded a Star Wars light saber thing where you'd jut your iPhone out, and it would make all the light saber sounds. Dylan was impressed.

After my hair cut, I met with Sharon for dinner at a small deli near UCI. It was perfect for Dylan who got to run around outside while we caught up. We ventured over to this spiral ramp and bridge, and Dylan had a blast running around and laughing.

Then...the fun stopped. Saturday morning, he woke up with a cough, and as the day progressed, he started having a fever. He was still in a good mood and had a hearty appetite but we just stayed in so he could rest. He started taking a few naps, and his fever started to escalate. It was actually pretty concerning b/c I've never cared for a sick child on my own before. He was not happy with the tylenol or getting his temperature taken (even though it was just under his armpit!).

Sunday morning, I was woken up by a BLEHCHCHCHCH...vomit all over me and my bed. Not a fun way to start a morning. I rushed to get him cleaned off, clean the sheets, and me, only to sit him down on the couch, and BLECHCHHC...vomit #2 all over him, me and the couch. I can't win. Clean-up routine starts again, and I'm really worried he's going to vomit everywhere. I called my parents to come help me out - just having an extra set of hands would have been super helpful that morning...By the time they came though, Dylan was stabilizing and no more vomit, thank goodness. We slowly weaned him onto food by starting with some juice, then rice, and later he started to feel better despite his continuing to run a fever. He also discovered his love of seaweed as he chased the jar of seaweed followed by "Auntie! Auntie! Seaweed!" Haha. Good to see him returning back to his normal self anyway.

My sister and her husband came to pick him up Sunday evening, and it took him another 4 days to really get better with no fever.

I went to see him again on Halloween, and he still had a cough but he was running around like his usual self. We went to the mall, and soon enough, it was time for trick-or-treating! I dressed up as a banana and sang Peanut Butter Jelly Time to him (reference the Family Guy episode where the dog is in a banana costume singing that song). Dylan dressed up as batman, carrying a spiderman head as his basket. Funny combo.

We went to a lot of houses, and there were a few very decorated ones, and Dylan loved it. He went to one house 5 times since it was like a little adventure every time. He was fairly inconsistent with the "trick-or-treat" and "Happy Halloween" but my favorite was when he looked through a person's window and said "Nice couch!" followed by him sitting on their patio step just hanging out. Haha. He was also a particularly greedy munchkin - a person would say to take one, and he would take one, and then just stand there. No matter how many "Ok, let's go! Thank you!" he just stood there, and eventually the person would say "Oh, I think he wants another" and he'd take another...And then another! After a few pieces, he would finally leave. Haha. It was a lot of fun though as he yelled out "Monster!" a lot, and really enjoyed himself. There was only one house that was really scary to him but otherwise, he knew what was real, and what was fake and just for fun.

I hadn't been trick-or-treating in so many years, and it was really fun to see all the kids everywhere. What fun. I'll look forward to doing that again next year. :)

Locks of Love

I chopped off all my hair! Well, at least so I can get a 10" ponytail to donate to the Locks of Love. :) It's my third time sending in my hair, and it's a tradition I imagine I'll keep up with.

I look a bit like a mushroom but maybe if I do my hair properly tomorrow, it'll look better. This weekend was super tough - I watched Dylan since Friday night, and he's been super sick and I had the pleasure of being vomited on twice, and having to clean up all kinds of stuff. Yuck. Needless to say, today is a mushroom-hair day.

From One Terrific Nike Race to a HORRIBLE Nike Race!

So, my last post was all about how I love Nike races, and what a great experience my Women's marathon was...

This is NOT the case for the Nike Human Race! I actually did this race last year, and it worked out fine, and this year I was going to do the 10K with a friend of mine. Neither of us live in LA, but we were excited to do this race again.

We register. After weeks and weeks, no information is available about race packet pick-up. The race is today, a Friday (starting at midnight). We receive information mid-day on Wednesday. Super last minute notice, and what does it say? Pick up packets at USC 11am-8pm Thursday or 11am-5pm Friday. Uh...WHAT?! You expect people to have to take off work to go pick up some damn packets which are MANDATORY to enter the race b/c your bib is your shirt? What??

Previously, I had searched around the internet looking for information on the race packet pickup details, and a couple posts said you could pick up at USC between 8pm-11pm which made sense since that would be convenient and the race started at midnight. I thought this would work out until I get their super last-minute e-mail which did NOT include this as an option.

My friend and I called each other last night, and didn't know what to do. Neither of us could make the trek up to LA during those times, and we didn't want to risk going there to pick up packets at the race, only to find out we can't get in.

I did, however, read ONE site from Facebook with this "Nike Ambassador" who responded to a question posted about picking up packets at the race site just before the race, and he answered Yes, that it was possible...But, yet no official confirmation on the nikerunning.com site would confirm this. Do we believe this one random dude who is an "Ambassador"? Why do none of the other forums confirm this?

We decided not to go, and throw our $25 registration fee to the wind.

Anyway, so out of curiosity as I sit at home at 10:40pm instead of at a race I signed up for, I checked the Nike website, and lo and behold, they now have it posted that you can pick up packets from 8pm-10pm at the race site. Uh...that would have been nice to know YESTERDAY! Plus, no e-mail notification was sent out to tell people that there was now a THIRD option to pick up race packets. Ri-DONK-ulous.

I was wondering why the Nike Human Race registration was so damn cheap at $25, and now I know that you do get what you pay for.

To the Nike Human Race USC organizers - you stink!!! I've run countless numbers of Nike races, and have NEVER experienced this type of disorganization and last-minute BS. Argghhh! It makes me so mad.

Ok, that's my ranting for one night.

Marathon: Run Like a Girl!

Yesterday, I ran in the San Francisco Nike Women's Marathon. I actually did it! I started my training 18 weeks ago, and I must admit I did cheat on a few weeks but for the most part (particularly in the last 1.5 months), I was pretty disciplined, and it paid off! I had a goal of finishing in 5 hours (my best half-marathon I ever did was 2hrs 25 mins), but I really expected to finish in around 5.5-6 hours. My 20 mile training run took 4.5hrs, and while I did walk a lot, I didn't know how much I could really shave off on race day. In the end, I finished in 5hrs 8mins. I don't have my official time yet from the race, but that's what my stopwatch read. :)

Let's start from the beginning. I flew up Friday night to San Jose, and hung out with my brother and Jeanie. Duke joined us on Saturday, and after playing some video games (we downloaded Brain Challenge for the 360 which is the best $5 value out there), we headed up to San Francisco. We checked into Hotel Mark Twain (boo, the hotel sucks so don't go there) but the location was great since all the race activities were in Union Square.

Duke and I went over to the Expotique to register and pick up my race packet. They had a lot of neat girly booths like free manicures, Luna bars & blocks, and also some more general booths for free smoothies (you have to blend them yourselves with a bicycle), chocolate (Duke made me stop by 3 times to get him some chocolate caramel Ghirardelli squares), etc. There also was a slew of treadmills to analyze your gait, but I had done that before at Road Runners.

We went back to the hotel to relax a bit, and headed out to find dinner. After some lack of planning and laziness, we decided to try and find a nearby Italian restaurant for my carbo-load dinner but as you would expect, all the Italian restaurants were booked. 20,000 participants in the marathon/half-marathon, and everything is full? Cannot be! Well, you're right, we found a place called Caffe Bella Venezia which had an opening...Suspicious as we were, we didn't have much of a choice. It had a "B" rating which is never a good start, and everyone's meals on their tables didn't look appetizing. The place was run by a couple Asian people so you knew it was going to be super authentic Italian food...I ordered a simple Spaghetti and Meatballs but that ended up being kind of gross. Everyone else's meals were also very below average so we all left very unhappy and unsettled. The only plus was that the place is dirt cheap with most dishes below $10. You get what you pay for. Bah.

We stopped by a nearby crepe place called Honey Honey, and we had a Nutella & Strawberry crepe which sounds delicious but I was disappointed b/c the strawberries were cooked and warm. Yuck. The crepe was also kind of small for the price. Bah again. The nutella was yummy though.

I ended up going to sleep around 9:30pm, and the rest of the folks went out to a couple bars. I woke up at 5:30am, got ready, and Duke and I headed down to the race around 6:30am. There was so much energy, it was absolutely fantastic. We took some pictures, went over to check out the start area, and soon enough, I was in line in my pace group section (10:00-11:59/mi). The race starts at 7am, and I crossed the start line around 7:15am. I waved to Duke, and I was off!

The first 4-5 miles was very crowded, and actually quite difficult to keep your own pace b/c there were a lot of people slower than you would like to be. They had a couple pacers holding up signs, and they had to keep spurting from slow to really fast to keep their average pace since it was difficult to just go at one speed. The morning was very brisk, foggy, and dark, but it was great running weather since it kept me cool.

Around mile 6, the massive hill started. Luckily, I reviewed the elevation chart before the race and expected it, but it was huge! I didn't want to burn out too fast so I walked up a lot of the hill. Through the course of the race, we ran from Union Square through Golden Gate Park, around some Lake (you couldn't really see it), and then onto the Great Highway. There were several hills on the course, but overall it wasn't terrible. There were lots of long straight stretches (particularly on the Great Highway) so overall, I liked the course (in contrast to Camp Pendleton which was one gigantic hill after another!).

At the halfway point, I was at 2:30 so I was right on pace for 5 hours. I was feeling pretty good, and really proud that I wasn't tired at all. Around mile 18, my legs really started hurting. My heart and breathing were good for the entire race, and the limiting factor was my leg muscles. Normally, I walk to take a break, but usually walking just helps me catch my breath, but there was no breath that needed to be caught! Walking was just as painful as running, so I ended up running despite the pain since there was no other remedy anyhow. At mile 20, I was at 3:50 which was great compared to my 4:30 last training, so I was feeling excited. Once I crossed that marker, I officially entered the "I've never run this far" territory so it was pretty motivating to keep on going to the home stretch.

The last 2 miles, I started to pick up the pace a little though I was still doing some hobbling-run, and at the last half mile, I heard a coach say that you just had to reach the 2nd stoplight which was visible, so I started to run as fast as I could (probably not too fast though since my muscles were totally dead). At the home stretch, the announcer yells "And here comes Cindy!!!" and some audience people yelled "Go Cindy!" and that was pretty awesome. I crossed the finish line in disbelief that I finished and felt good. I got my perfect little Tiffany's box from a firefighter dressed in a tuxedo (the boxes were on silver platters), and I made my way through the finishers' area. I picked up my t-shirt, grabbed a banana, and a silver foil to keep me warm, and tried to find Duke, my brother, and Jeanie...I didn't spot them on the way in, so I headed over to the Friends & Family meet-up area.

I probably did the worst thing you could do post-race which was sit down for 45 minutes, but I just didn't have the muscles to force myself to walk around. After a while, I saw Duke come over, and he explained that they missed my finish! Booo! I wasn't mad though since I was on a runner's high, I guess, having just accomplished my biggest feat yet. It's a shame no one saw me cross but I'll be looking for the photos that the race posts up to capture those moments.

Overall, the race was awesome. I think I definitely picked the right marathon to run. San Francisco weather was perfect for running, even if the fog covered up some of the scenery; the women in the race were amazing and so collegial, caring, and energetic; there were plenty of aid stations for vaseline, band-aids (luckily I didn't need any), and lots of water/gatorade stations as well as Luna bar/blocks and chocolate (I didn't eat any of those but I did have my 2 Powergels I brought with me); and they had lots of entertainment areas with bands, cheerleaders, DJ's as well as cute signs of "Run Like a Girl", "Laugh Like a Girl", "Just Do It Like a Girl", "[...] Like a Girl". Safeway also had some nice signs too saying "This is your marathon because..." followed by signs of what you gave up "sleeping in on weekends", "nursing blisters", "going through 4 pairs of shoes", etc.

I would also say that there were lots of street intersections allowing for spectators, and the majority of the race had tons of friends and family of runners cheering us on. It was really an awesome encouragement. Team In Training was also a huge presence at this race with lots of participants in purple, traveling from pretty much each of the 50 states. It was pretty cool that people traveled so far, and lots of people had the reasons why they were running "In memory of...", "A survivor of...", etc. For a race that size, I continue to love Nike races. They're so well-organized and we got to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

So, after the race, we went to eat at Texas Roadhouse where I had a delicious ribeye and mashed potatoes. Carbs and protein - yay!! It was really tasty, and I was pleased with the restaurant but I felt bad for Duke b/c he had to take benadryl for the 2nd time this trip (first time was when he tried some of my crepe). I felt bad for him...

We then got back to my brother's house to relax, and Duke started his trek back home. The remainder of the evening was a lot of Brain Challenge as my brother and I competed.

This morning, I got on my flight, and now I'm back home. The marathon is over, and it's 1 day after the race...I can barely walk. I think I developed plantar fasciitis or something in my left foot b/c my arch is hurting a ton. It makes sense that it's just my left foot though b/c my right leg muscle was hurting a lot during the race so I'm sure my left side had to compensate a lot. My right knee was shot and completely raw yesterday but it's feeling better today. I don't think I've had this type of pain in my foot as excruciating as this though. I actually debated getting a wheelchair at the airport but decided it was probably good for me to walk on it and get the muscles a little stretched out. I hope it recovers soon since I promised a friend of mine that I would run the Nike Human Race 10K with her this Friday! I might just end up walking it if this pain persists.

Alright, well that's a long post but it should be! What a huge time commitment, and what a great accomplishment! Yay for me. I'm really proud of myself and happy with my time. :) It might also be my goodbye to long-distance running though since my knees and shins had quite a hard time during training. I may just stick to 10K's and under from now on.

And with that, good night!

NASCAR!

Last Sunday, Duke and I went to the Speedway in Fontana for some NASCAR racing. My friend gave us free tickets, parking pass, and pit passes. Neither of us had ever been to Nascar, so we figured why not go experience it firsthand. My old high school friend Gretchen and her family used to go all the time, and they invited me a number of times but for one reason or another, there was a conflict. High school came and went, and I could finally see what all the fuss was about...or not!

We arrive there, only to get stuck in this huge line of cars to get into the various parking lots. We notice a couple things (to be expected): 98% of cars contained let's say, "non-ethnic" people, and probably 80% of cars were American-made cars. We then pull up to the lot, and see the true meaning of tailgating. There are tons of cars/trucks/vans with portable bbq's grilling some food. People are just hanging out, smoking, drinking beer, and bbq'ing.

We venture into the race area, and after a lot of walking, we finally find where the entrance to the central part of the race area is. The track is super slanted, much more than either of us expected, and you had to stand at an angle just to keep your balance. We took a few photos then headed to the Pit Area. This was pretty cool actually - it was one big advertisement. Everything had a logo - whether it was the station, the flag with the number on it, or even cardboard cut-outs in the middle of tires - there were sponsor companies. My favorite was the flag that had the Hamburger Helper guy on there. What the heck?

The M&M's station was by far my favorite overall though, and that led me to root for the M&M's driver, only to find out that he was really ill, and had to get substituted mid-race. Oh well. He didn't win or come close to it but apparently he's pretty popular though since a lot of people had M&M's racing jackets.

After meandering around the pit, we walked around outside and looked at all the vendor booths. We also grabbed a great long sausage from Juicy's which was overpriced but yet very delicious.

Soon after, we found our seats which was close to one of the final turns. We were pretty high up so you can easily see the whole track. The race gets ready to start after a whole slew of announcements and the driver waving at us, and it was really loud. At first I didn't mind b/c the loud noise came and went as the group of cars drove by, but with enough time, the cars started to separate, and it was soon just one loud noise all the time. Stupid us, we forgot our earplugs at home which we bought the night before just for this purpose!

So, I greatly underestimated the length of the race. This was the Pepsi 500, so the cars were going to drive 500 miles...Even at their average 170-180mph, that is a really long time. I was really really bored in the middle 2-3 hours, and actually wanted to leave but Duke said we should finish the race and see who wins. It turns out that it's good we stayed b/c the best part of the race was at the end. With a few laps to go, the drivers actually start competing so they're starting to pass and make all these crazy maneuvers. There were a couple sideswipes into the grass area, and a crash involving 4 cars that took 30 minutes to clean up, so that was pretty exciting to see (no one was hurt). In the end, Jimmie Johnson (I had no idea who he was but I remember his name now) won, and beat out the Pepsi driver Jeff Gordon.

To sum up, this was my first and last NASCAR event. It's more exciting to see on TV b/c you can actually hear the commentators, and see the beginning, go do something else since you're not forced to stay at the TV, and see the end. I'm glad I went to experience it though, and checking out the pit area was really cool.

My Longest Distance To Date

Last Saturday, I ran 20 miles!! Woot woot!! I can't believe I actually did it, but hooray! I walked a lot of it but also ran a lot of it, so I'm feeling more confident about my marathon. The half-marathon at Camp Pendleton crushed my spirits, but this run made me feel much better. My breathing wasn't too hard, and my heart didn't feel like it was beating out of my chest. The limiting factor was my leg muscles, and feeling the pain from my ankles. I'd rather that be my limit than having to catch my breath. I pretty much have been hobbling everywhere for the last 1.5 days b/c my ankles really are shot, but I'm recovering ok despite a pretty ugly and big red blister that formed on the top of my toe. It burst yesterday by itself so it's not painful.

I also have to give a big shout-out to Brooks shoes. I bought 3 pairs to try them out, and 1 of 3 is turning out to be the great running shoe. It's the Infiniti 2, and at first I thought it'd be too narrow since I have somewhat wide feet but they actually fit like a glove. They've provided great cushion and support for my run, and much superior to my other shoes I was running in.

As for the other pairs, I bought the Dyad 5 which it turning out to be more of a walking shoe for me since they're heavier and wider. It's good for my orthotics though so during the day, I'll wear those. The last pair was the Ravenna which was a huge disappointment b/c they're too small! Much to my chagrin, I read some shoe store websites saying they run 1/2 size small. But of course, the website on Brooks doesn't disclaim that! Grrr. Anyway, it's too big of a pain to ship them back to where I bought them so I'm giving them to my mom who hopefully will be able to fit them.

Anyway, 3 more weeks to go before my marathon! Craziness!!! This past week, I ran 4, 9, 5, and 20 miles. This coming week, I'm scheduled for 5, 9, 5, and 12 miles...Starting the ramp-down until race day!!

Busy Busy Weekend

My busy weekend started with the Camp Pendleton Half Marathon. Sharon and I met at the race to get checked in, but soon enough, we said our goodbyes since she's a super fast runner and I'm a super slow runner. :) The course started and it started hard! The first few miles were uphill, and I was already feeling pooped, but I trekked ahead...The course was an out-and-back, so at Sharon's mile 8, we intersected and I was between mile 5-6. Man, I still had so long to go and she was already on her way back! Soon after, I started getting more and more tired. Around mile 8, I was starving! My stomach was grumbling and I really felt like I had no energy. I regretted my decision to just eat cereal and not one of those power bar things, or I should have packed a little snack bar with me or something. I started walking (how sad!), and I walked for a couple miles. I got a little re-fueling at a gatorade station and downed a few cups to replenish some electrolytes, but I only was able to run a couple more miles. I had just a couple miles left, and I kept telling myself that I could definitely do that! ... or so I thought! I just had nothing left. I was really discouraged. There were even points where it hurt to walk and I didn't know how I would ever do a full marathon! I could barely do half!!

Camp Pendleton also had a 3-hour time limit before they would send a van out to go pick up any stragglers and get them off the course since it wouldn't be safe to stay out on a military camp after a certain time, and I was so scared I was going to be picked up and shuttled back! How embarrassing...but I do have to admit it crossed my mind to just hang out on the course and wait to get picked up. Haha. I was so tired.

I ended up crossing the finish line at 2 hours and 55 minutes! I was shooting for 2hrs 30mins, so this was way slower than I thought I would be. I have to really get my training in gear b/c this half nearly killed me and my full is in 4 weeks!!! Oh no...!

Anyway, after the half-marathon, I had to hurry as best I could (my muscles were totally dead), and drove back home to get cleaned up, and head straight to south Pasadena for Dylan's birthday party. I ended up showing up and hour late which really sucked since the party was only a couple hours, but I made the best of it. I snapped some photos, jumped around the bounce house, and climbed up some tubes and went down some slides with him. Those tubes were really hard to climb up in. They're definitely not meant for adults. Hehe.

The party was Spiderman-themed, and the cake had a pretty cool Spiderman drawing on it. There were a lot of other kids that came, and they left with some Spiderman goodies.

Afterwards, I drove over to Temple City to visit my friend Dee and his new daughter. His baby is 4 weeks old. I forget how small newborns are!

The rest of the evening was back at my sister's, and I entertained Dylan a little bit but I crashed pretty early since I was so sleepy from the race.

Today, I went over to Skin Spa with my mom and sister for Spa Week. We got a facial treatment each for $50. I haven't had a facial in years - I only had one before in NY, so this was a different experience. The spa was located in a completely empty shopping plaza but I had read rave reviews of the place, so I was still hopeful. The facilities were not as new and fresh as I'd imagined with just a small steam room and sauna, but I didn't end up using the facilities anyway. I was called in for my facial appointment, and the lady talked to me about my cleansing technique.

She started up this steaming thing in my face to open up my pores, and peered at my face under this fluorescent lit magnifying glass. She told me my skin was really sensitive and might even be pre-rosacea, asking me if I had ever gotten it checked out by a dermatologist! I never thought my skin was that bad but she made me feel like it was horrible! Maybe it is - who knows!

Anyway, she cleansed my face, did a light exfoliation, then started the extraction. Wooo-eeee, the extraction hurt!!! It made my eyes tear up quite a bit b/c it hurt so bad. There were all kinds of things she was popping and then would tweeze out some smaller things. She even made me open my eyes to see some blackheads she squeezed out. It was pretty nasty.

After the extraction, she used this high frequency electricity thing to combat infection. I didn't feel it at all so have no idea what it really did but whatever - anything to help, I guess. The last part of was the relaxing part where she put on a mask and gave me an upper body and scalp massage.

I felt like it was pretty clinical but really good for my face. I checked in with my sister and mom and she they totally different experiences! They were told about how great their skin was and how there were little to no extractions to be done. They also didn't get the exfoliation with a brush nor the high frequency electricity thing done to them. I was the bad-skin one of our trio, I guess! In any event, all three of us thought that we would go back and enjoyed our experience there.

After the facial, I headed over to Glendale to see Sue and her new baby boy who is 3 weeks old. She had a really complicated delivery, bad medical care from some residents who had no idea what they were doing, and a whole house construction! Craziness. Finally, things are a little more settled now so she can concentrate on the baby before she heads back to work in a few weeks. It was nice seeing her though as a mom.

I can't believe two of my high school friends are now parents! Who would've thought that when we were 12 years old, we would be visiting each other and babies! How time flies...

Anyway, now I'm back home and relaxing watching some TV. Back to work tomorrow which will be crazy as ever I'm sure since this past week has been horrendous but life goes on. I gotta get my running back on track again too. Bah!

Half-Marathon

Dylan's Birthday party

Dee's Baby

Skin Spa

Sue's baby

La Jolla Adventures

A couple weeks ago, Duke and I ventured over to La Jolla. We drove down after work on Friday, and checked into the Grande Colonial. I got a great deal from Perfect Escapes (they give you little extra perks at 4 and 5 star hotels). The location was terrific, just a short walk to La Jolla Cove and right in the middle of La Jolla Village. It was pretty late when we arrived, so we took a short walk out to check out the beach. I was actually really disappointed b/c I brought all my beachwear but soon realized that this wasn't really a beach. The sand was very limited, and there really wasn't any place to just lay out or what not. It also smelled of some rotting starfish or something. It was pretty weird.

On Saturday, we woke up to enjoy our free breakfast! The free perk I got was free breakfast every morning we were there which ended being a $50/day value. They don't give you a dollar limit but they say you can get one entree, one side, and a drink. The restaurant was pretty swanky but I'm glad the food was free. Given the awards and the decor, I expected a lot, but the food was very fair. I ordered this short rib 'n' hash thing, and it was pretty strange for breakfast since it was really heavy. Duke wasn't too fond of his omelette either, but the service was great! :)

We took a walk along the beach to where we were last night, and it was really different in the day. We saw the seals at La Jolla Cove which was pretty cool. We walked out along this walkway strip, and saw the lazy seals. A couple of them swam in from the ocean, and took 20 minutes to actually jump onto the rock. No wonder they just lay there all day. It takes so much effort to get on the rock!

Afterwards, we took a walk up along the road, and saw a ton of snorkelers and divers. It was super crowded so we opted not to go down there. Instead, we stumbled upon this house which was a store and also served as the entrance to the Sunny Jim Cave. We paid a few bucks each to go down the staircase, and it was pretty cool...until we got to the cave. The cave was pretty unimpressive but the staircase down from a house into a cave was pretty cool. The tunnel was built almost 100 years ago to let the people view the cave, and they still use it for the same purpose now. It was pretty funny going down there though b/c I had to duck through the small tunnel, and Duke is more than a foot taller than me so you can imagine he was blocking the whole tunnel and had to burrow up to get down there. Haha.

For the afternoon, we decided to go kayaking. We searched on the internet, and found a place that had a kayak/snorkeling combo. Duke had gone kayaking before in Catalina and didn't like it, but he had never gone snorkeling, so I figured it'd be a good bet. We took a walk to the northern part of La Jolla which was a good 20-30min walk, and grabbed some lunch at this little sandwich place. The food took forever to get to us, but whatever, we had some time to kill before our kayak tour.

We get to the La Jolla Kayak tour place, and get suited up with our life jackets and snorkel gear, and soon enough, we were off to the beach! The waves were pretty crazy b/c of the nearby hurricane turned tropical storm down towards Mexico, so it was pretty freaky getting on a kayak and forcing through these waves, but it was also exciting. We paddled out to this rock area where there were seven caves. It was near where we walked earlier in the morning, so it was kind of funny to walk all that way just to paddle back to where we came from. Anyhow, we anchored our kayaks to our tour guides' kayak, and plopped in the water to do some snorkeling.

We were supposed to see leopard sharks but ended up seeing a whole lot of cloudy water, kelp, and garibaldis (these bright orange fish). We also did see a few larger schools of small fish which was cool. Too bad the water wasn't too clear though - I've only gone snorkeling one other time which was in Hawaii, and that experience yielded much better sightseeing. Heh. After a while, I started feeling seasick so I was pretty ready to get kayaking back to shore. When we get closer to shore, we see the waves are pretty strong still, and it was a roller coaster back in! It was pretty fun with the slight feeling of danger that you'd topple in but it'd be alright if you did. :)

After our check out, we walked back to La Jolla Village, cleaned up, and headed out to dinner. We chose George's which had 3 different levels - a high-end, a bar, and an in-between. We tried going to the middle place which had an upper deck view of the ocean, but their wait was really long so we ended up going to the bar/restaurant which only had a 30 minute wait. This restaurant experience was fabulous. We had a small table outside (but enclosed) with a nice view of the ocean. Our waitress was great with all these small little touches to show she was paying attention. Duke ordered a risotto, and I forget what food allergy there was but she misunderstood him and thought he wanted a side of olives (which had nothing to do with the dish), and he joked saying he wouldn't mind...Voila! His entree came out with a side of olives! It was pretty funny.

My dish was ok - I ordered the sea bass which was a local one, not Chilean, and what a difference...for the worse. I didn't quite like it since it was kind of dry, but regardless, I still give a rave review for the restaurant. I ordered a couple cocktails which were great, Duke's food was really good, and the service was exceptional. For dessert, Duke had the creme brulee (surprise surprise), and I ordered a chocolate brownie cake which alright.

On Sunday, we wanted to relax a bit, and took some walks along the beach. We went back to visit the seals, and see them swim around. The waves were even more hectic than yesterday, and we got splashed a few times, and there weren't any seals on the rock since they were getting swallowed by water anyway, so we saw quite a few of them swimming through all the torrential waves.

For lunch, we went to The Spot, and had some "Chicago style" pizza. From a pseudo-Chicagoan, it wasn't Chicago style! It was slightly thicker than regular pizza with a bigger crust, but it was no deep dish! The waitress also clearly had no idea what Chicago style meant, but had to use the term a lot b/c it's on their menu. Regardless, it was a decent meal.

We then stopped by the Prospect Bar which had a really cheap happy hour and a wonderful view...but then we realized that you really do get what you pay for. The drinks were horribly mixed, and the appetizers we got were near inedible! We left pretty quickly after that, and decided to walk along the shore, and just sat and talked for a while. The moonlit ocean was a beautiful spectacle. Ah, so calming.

On Monday morning, we eat our last free breakfast, which was probably my best one since Saturday's meal wasn't too great (I had some funky french toast), but this morning I had a delicious waffle with some fresh berries. We went to say bye to the seal, and headed back home. There was a little holiday traffic but not too bad.

Later that evening, we stopped by Best Buy for their Labor Day sale, and picked up Guitar Hero 5 and Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 as well as Trivial Pursuit.

The rest of the night was game night for GH5 which has turned out to meet my expectations since GH4 was dreadful!

And that concludes the Labor Day festivities!

The Rest of my Weekend

Outside of the spa date (per my other post), I had a really nice weekend. I drove to LA on Friday night, and woke up early to go on my old running course from Venice to Santa Monica and through Palisades Park. The roundtrip is about 9 miles, I think. Jim and I used to run that on early Sunday mornings, so it was a bit sad to run it by myself but yet great to be on the same course again. It's such a good run since it's flat and is mostly on asphalt or dirt, so it's much easier on my knees. All the longer runs I've tried here are on sidewalks and full of hills! Boo... Anyway, the run was great, but I didn't run the whole way since I've been out of shape a bit with my shin splints and knee problems, but between the walking and running, at least I did the mileage I needed to.

After my run, my family and I went to Empress Pavilion to eat some dim sum in old downtown Chinatown. Duke and I went there once before and weren't too impressed, but this time, the food tasted better. Only bad thing was that there wasn't as much variety, but from what we got, the quality was pretty good. Dylan then saw this little toy post office truck, so we bought it for him. He's super intrigued by it and loves it, so it was a good buy. I also picked up some more bamboo - I now realize that when I picked some up last week at 99 cents per stick, I got ripped off. Hehe. I got a huge bouquet of bamboo for $8. My sister also picked up this ornate bamboo plant that sat in this wooden boat with Chinese writing that says Smooth Sailing. Haha. It was really cool looking though.

Afterwards was my spa experience, and then I came back to have some short rib stew that my dad had cooked. Yummy yummy. We all went to sleep fairly early, and then Sunday came with a morning full of errands. It took way longer than I thought, since we were originally going to go to the beach, but the errands took 3 hours! I then had some lull time waiting for Dylan to take his nap but too bad when he woke up after it, I had to leave. I'll see him next weekend though.

I headed down to Long Beach to see my friend Kallista. We hung out at her mom's house in this super relaxing backyard. It was great to catch up, since we don't get to see each other too often, and she just came back from a 2-month trip to India as part of her MPH program. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

That concludes my weekend...it was busy in a very good way. I love it!

Tikkun Spa

I had a spa date with my friend Sue on Saturday at Tikkun Spa in Santa Monica. It was a great place which was very clean and brand new. There were a few rooms - three of varying heat as well as a cold "ice" room. The jade room was the least hot, and I wasn't sure what the benefit was but they had a little blurb about why it was good for me. After sitting in there for a little while, my massage therapist got me for my 90-minute deep tissue massage.

I have been wanting to get a massage for months now, but just never got around to it, and this is just what I needed! It was one of those "it hurt so good" moments, where I was really in pain after some of the deep kneading, but I knew that my muscles needed that beating up since I have some really tense spots buried in there. It was also neat to get the work done on my legs since I've been training for my marathon, and have been suffering from shin splints so it was good to get those massaged a lot too.

It definitely felt like an acupressure type massage with some very painful pressure points, but in the end I had a really relaxing head massage which nearly put me to sleep. It was great all in all, and if I lived closer and/or had a lot of money to splurge on spa treatments all the time, I would definitely go back a whole lot!

After the treatment, I met back up with Sue who was hanging out in the regular day spa area and her friend who was there. We sat in the 2nd hottest room called the Himalayan Salt room, and they had these large salt crystals that you could put on your body, so I put some of those hot stones on my knees and such. Not sure what this did for me either, but I enjoy sitting in these types of rooms. We then cooled off in the Ice room which wasn't too cold - set at 62 degrees. We then sampled the clay room which was the hottest one, and laid down on the bamboo mats there. This was really relaxing too, and I would've stayed in there longer but my friends had to go. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go in the green tea jacuzzi so I was kind of bummed about that. And, their steam room wasn't functional the day I went, so too bad on that front as well.

I hope this spa survives. It's located in the heart of Santa Monica, right next to 3rd Street Promenade, but there is no signage. If my friend hadn't told me to look for a glass door with a keypad next to it, I would have never found it. I guess the place will have to rely on word-of-mouth to succeed so I'm doing my part with this blog post (despite me having a small readership).

The staff was super friendly and thoughtful, and all the main spa amenities were there. It's a Korean-inspired spa (without all the nudity running around which is why I never tried a Korean spa before), so it also offers Korean body scrubs and facials which I may try one day. The showers also had one of those exfoliating towel washcloths which were nice to use there. The only thing that I would comment as a downside is that there are some minor details that were missing. For instance, the washcloth in the shower was used by me, but it wasn't clear what I was supposed to do with it after my shower. I didn't want someone else to use it since that's gross, so I told one of the cleaning ladies that I had used it, and she said to not worry and she would take care of it...It's unclear how they know which have been used or not, but that seemed a bit strange to me. Same goes for the hair brushes and combs. Usually there's a separate bin for "used" combs and brushes so they can be sterilized, but there wasn't such a container so I left my used comb on the counter. The staff was very diligent about cleaning up everything very quickly but I just wasn't sure how people would know not to just put the combs/brushes back in the same bin as the new ones. And, the only amenity that I thought they didn't have handy was lotion - they had all the other necessities, but I didn't see any lotion which I thought was strange. Maybe I just didn't see it.

Outside of that though, the experience was terrific. There was fresh honeydew and watermelon available with some trail mix and of course the cucumber water. The spa was not crowded at all, so it made it even more relaxing since you could do whatever you wanted without fear of intruding in strangers' spaces. This was probably the best massage I've had in years (since my NY days), so I'm a happy customer. Next time I'll want to spend more time in the regular day spa though since I didn't get to remain as long as I had wanted to...

So, if you like spas, go there and try it out!

Lake Tahoe

Last week, I took my first vacation since I started working again last fall. I went up to Lake Tahoe with my parents, and met up with my brother, Jeanie, Duke, and some of my aunts and uncles. The drive up was pretty nice actually, instead of taking the normal boring route, we took a more scenic route but it ended up saving us time and about 100 miles in the meantime! We went through a lot of small towns and such, and passed by a number of nice lakes.

When we arrived in Lake Tahoe, we checked into our resort, and went over to Harrah's to meet up with my brother. While there, we waited around gambling a bit until Duke arrived. He recently bought a motorcycle so it was pretty nerve-wracking with him texting me updates to assure me that he was alive. (I'm not comfortable with him being on a motorcycle). He came a couple hours late, and we later find out that it's b/c he ran out of gas! Apparently motorcycles don't have a gas gauge which seems crazy to me, but a key gas station was closed on Saturdays and another one had burned down. Luckily, a nice guy went and got some gas for him and saved the day.

After getting everyone settled, we had some dinner at the Cabo Cantina. Food was very blecch in my opinion but other people's dishes seemed to be ok. Afterwards, we decided to head back up to the resort. Our resort is atop three flights of stairs (some really long stairs), and I commented that my legs were already sore from the climb. My brother says that it's easy and he could go up them with no problem. Jeanie and I decide to challenge him, and to test if he could go up and down 20 times. He didn't want to take the challenge but said he would go up and down a few times to prove how easy it was.

As he starts climbing up and down the stairs, he was going super super slow...Jeanie and I were making fun of him a lot, teasing him to go faster...and then ...I look over across the balcony, and there's this HUGE bear!!! I tell Jeanie there's a bear, and we both look at my brother at the bottom of the stairs, and say "Hey dude...you need to come upstairs now...there's a bear." Thinking we were continuing to prod him for going so slow, he didn't believe us, and was like "Whatever, dude..." and he starts to accelerate a little...and then he spots the bear through the stairs and BOOM, he was already upstairs and in the condo. Haha. As he charged up the stairs though, the bear started sniffing and panting as it ran off. The bear must have thought my brother was charging right at him b/c of the angle of the hill the bear was on and how the stairs were positioned. Pretty crazy stuff. We didn't get any pictures for fear of my brother's safety, but it was one darn big bear. Duke missed all the commotion b/c his lazy butt was sleeping on the couch. Hehe.

Anyway, we played a couple games of Mu which is some sort of variation of Spades with a whole lot of rules. We were all super tired, but my brother was persistent about reading through all the rules. It ended up being pretty funny how many rules there were, since it took us over 30 minutes to actually start playing...but I guess it's a "you had to be there" moment to understand why it was so funny.

The next morning, we headed down to the lake, and went jet skiing. We lucked out in some ways b/c we got the last 2 Seadoos available, so Duke and I got a free upgrade for the superpower Seadoo. At peak speed, we went about 55mph which is pretty insane. It was super fun though, and really awesome to be out on the lake again. I definitely prefer jet skiing on the lake vs. the time Duke and I did it on the ocean in Catalina.

For some food, we went over to the Red Hut Cafe (I'll later learn that there are 3 locations). We went there last year, and it was some good local food. I had a waffle with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Yummy yummy.

We then headed over to the Fallen Leaf Lake trail, and hung out by this mini-lake for a little while. We took a lot of photos, and made a whole lot of pun jokes...So many that it got really irritating after 4 continuous hours of the puns...

We went to a very average dinner at the Horizon, and then bid farewell to my brother and Jeanie.

On Monday, my mom, dad, Aunt Helen, Duke and I took a hike. We couldn't find parking near Eagle Falls, so we went to this other hiking trail across from a scenic point. It ended up being quite a nice rock trail to go along, and we ended up going to see a small waterfall. The hike was fairly strenuous but I was really proud of my mom for being super speedy and she seemed to like the little trip too.

Tuesday brought a bike ride from Pope Beach to Baldwin Beach. It was a really easy ride alongside the roads, and we took a little detour near Pope Beach to see some old cabins and such, part of the historic Tahoe. There was even a blacksmith set up there too (though he was using a blowtorch which probably didn't exist back then!).

After our bike ride, we picked up my dad and went to the Chart House for dinner. The view was terrific, and our food was also superb. I had a very delicious flounder, and we also shared some mussels as a free appetizer. The dessert, however, was la creme de la creme...Oh man it was good. It was a chocolate lava cake which is my favorite anyhow, but they did a great job. I've had a few disappointing lava cakes before, so it was wonderful to re-live why this dessert is my favorite! :)

Later that night, Duke and I went to the casino to play some craps. All the craps tables were full though, so we decided to play slots in the meantime...and then we found Star Trek. Wow...talk about a well-designed slot machine. We ended up playing until 5am. Yes...for like 6+ hours straight. So, this machine was super fun. You have these great cushiony seats with speakers built into the seat as well as vibration from the sound effects. It's basically a very expensive video game. You unlock different levels for other types of slot games within the same machine, and the Bonus comes out fairly frequently so you're doubly hooked. You have a choice on the bonuses as well, with each level giving you 2 options of bonuses. Each bonus gives you a medal and sometimes more than one medal if you have a good run during a bonus, and the medals then unlock the other levels.

After a whole lot of time and money, we unlocked the next level, and were excited to try the newly unlocked level...which meant even more time and money. Haha...definitely a sucker play but it was honestly a lot of fun. Kudos to WMS Gaming for making a great machine. It'll definitely make a lot of money over time.

On Wednesday, I can't actually remember what we did...Maybe b/c we slept in after our late night of Star Trek... I know we ended up meeting up with my dad, and introduced Star Trek to him...he got hooked pretty quickly, but I had my fill from the previous night. Hehe.

That night though, we took a little ride around our resort to find a dark spot in the sky. It was peak time for the Perseid meteor shower. We saw some pretty large ones, and it was really cool. I felt very grateful to be in the mountains where the sky was dark enough for us to see stars! I don't think I would've seen any meteors out by where I live! Too bad my brother wasn't there. He used to wake me up when we were little so that I could check out the meteor shower every year. Ah, the memories.

Wednesday was also the birthday of my late Uncle...Still crazy that he's passed away. It's been 4.5 years since but it's still weird to think about it since it was so unexpected...

Anyway, on Thursday, Duke and I planned to take a drive around the lake and stop at some scenic points to take some pictures. We stopped by the D.L. Bliss State Park, and saw a sign that said 2 miles to the beach. We figured we'd just park up top, and ride our bikes down to the beach... As we were coasting down, the ride was great and then we realized it was severely downhill the entire way. Uh oh...the ride up was going to suck big time. We were already most of the way down, so we figured we'd head to the beach anyway. We admired some views for a short while, and decided to head on back up. It was really tough...at one point, my heart was beating so fast, and I was so tired that I felt like I had to throw up! It was pretty crazy. The altitude didn't help either, and I started wheezing too. Man oh man, what a workout. I ended up walking my bike up a lot of the way since it was just too difficult to ride up on the bike.

After we finished our climb back up, we continued on our way and stopped by a local market to recharge with some gatorade. Shortly thereafter, we stopped by a restaurant called Evergreen in North Lake Tahoe, and the food was ok. I had a salmon burger which was a little bizarre actually since it was all mashed up like a veggie burger. Anyhow, we continued on our drive and stopped by Incline Village which was this ritzy area with gigantic estates. We stopped by to go to a local beach but were quickly shot down b/c we didn't have a resident card. Bah!

We drove up a little bit to a scenic stop called Memorial Point, and I found the same spot as last year - my favorite place for photography in Tahoe. The waters are the most green, teal, and blue littered with large rocks along the shore. Duke and I climbed around on some rocks, and ended up going to this secluded beach. It was a pretty magical spot really. We hung around there for a while, and then called it a day.

Friday morning, I find out that my parents had thought about leaving that day instead of on Saturday. It was really confusing but we ended up going home. Duke and I were going to try water skiing but that meant my parents would just sit in the resort all day which is pretty lame. We decided to part ways, and Duke headed back on his motorcycle.

Before we left, we stopped by a couple arts & crafts fairs, and bought those water beads I blogged about. Saturday was a day relaxing at my parents' place, and then I headed back home to make sure everything was in order. I had a couple fish casualties but all the babies were still alive. I recently bought some sunburst platys, one of which had 20 babies. I still have 19 of them, and one of my South American cichlids also bit the dust.

Sunday was a quick visit in LA to see Dylan, and we went to the park to play tennis but the courts were full. Next time...

Alright, enough babbling and rambling...Nite nite.

Water Beads

I just got back from a trip to Lake Tahoe which I'll blog about later, but just wanted to do a quick post on water beads! I've never seen these things before, but I picked up some at an arts & crafts fair in Tahoe. They look like marbles but in fact their squishy gels filled with water. They're actually made of contact lens material, and they absorb water and can water your plants over a month period, or just be used for some nice decorations with candles or something. They'll then shrink back to the beads, and you can re-soak them in water to blow them up again.

Here's what you buy - I bought blue, teal, and purple:

Each bag gets soaked in 1 quart of water, so I put them in some pitchers I had. Once you place the beads in water, you can start seeing them expand a little (this was after 5 minutes):

After about 7 hours, I decided to take them out of the pitcher, and strained the water out. I probably could have left them in water for longer since some of the beads were still kind of small.

Here's what they look like up close:

And, for the final product, I put them in vases and put some bamboo in there to live in. I mixed the blue and teal ones, and left the purple ones standalone:

I think they're really neat anyway, so thought I'd share. Upon a quick google search, they're widely available and it looks like my 3 packs for $10 was not a great price, but whatever, I would never have found out about them otherwise!

I keep meaning to blog...

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I last blogged. It's been on my to-do list for quite some time, and I'm at a point now that I'll probably forget some memories to write down and preserve.

I've also lost some pictures for the time being...Since my laptop died, I started using my dad's laptop so I think there are some pictures on there. I now have a new laptop which doesn't have any pictures, and my external hard drive doesn't have photos since May on it, so I have to assume they're on my dad's computer...I hope so anyway!

Since my last update, we took Dylan to Sea World. The park was much better than I thought it would be. I remember being pretty bored there when I was younger, but there's this huge Sesame Street playground area with rides, which is just great for Dylan. He knows all of the characters, so he was really in a fantasy-land. He got to meet Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Abby Cadabby. What fun! :) We saw the Shamu show and the dolphin show, and I fell for their little prank on the show where they pretended like an audience member fell in the water. Gullible me. Hehe.

A couple weekends ago, we were planning to go to the OC Fair, but it ended up being too hot, so my sister, her husband, Dylan, Duke and I just hung out at my place. We watched a movie and just relaxed over some all-you-can-eat sushi at Minato.

This past weekend, I spent a lot of time swimming at my parents' place. Dylan can't get enough, so we alternated who would take him swimming, and he went twice a day. He's getting good at kicking his feet now so maybe he'll be able to wear a little life vest and go try swimming on his own. He loved jumping off the step and having me catch him. It was truly some precious moments. I loved it. :)

He's talking a whole lot more now, asking what everything is called and sometimes just showing off by asking a question and answering it himself. His colors are a lot better now, and he's able to recognize a lot of letters and what they sound like. Not too shabby for a kid who isn't even 2 years old yet!

Outside of Dylan updates:

July 4

We drove up to the Bay Area to go hang out with my brother for 4th of July. We hung out at his house, played some video games, ate some grub, and even squeezed in some running. For the 4th of July holiday, we headed up to Half Moon Bay to visit Duke's friend at his condo which sat right on the beach. You could hear the ocean from the family room which was pretty awesome. Too bad the beach was typical Bay Area and had huge dangerous currents and riptides, so we didn't exactly have a beach day, but it was super relaxing and fun nonetheless. The fireworks show was also pretty awesome - we literally walked 2 minutes, and saw a nice show off the harbor. It was the most stress-free 4th of July fireworks event I'd ever been to since we were far enough but close enough. Just right!

OC Mud Run

Duke, Sharon, and I did the OC Mud Run in Irvine. I've been wanting to do a mud run for quite some time now, and Sharon promised last year that she'd do one with me, so this was our year! I was pretty excited but it ended up being a let-down. I'm glad I did it, but I wouldn't go back again. This was an inaugural event, and you could tell b/c the events weren't set up well for the crowds. Each obstacle had a huge line, and most were really lame like the "walls" we had to climb which were those construction cement blocks which people could hurdle. Each obstacle could be bypassed as well by just going off to the side which a lot of people did anyway b/c the line was ridiculous. We did every obstacle though and literally came in last. I think there were no more than 10 people behind us. Haha.

The mud pits were also quite disappointing b/c they smelled like manure!!! Who wants to wade through that?! It also was more like sludge than mud, and there were these plastic ropes that you were supposed to crawl under but they were so high you could just duck under them. It was pretty lame. The only fun part was this row of inflated rings to cross this river, but that also had its setbacks. Also smelling like duck poo-poo, we had to stand in this dirty river for 20 minutes waiting for our turn to haul ourselves over these inflatable balloons...Too bad most of them popped, and I even popped one too! It turns out they didn't think through the balloons, so the 10K race after our 5K and the noon races wouldn't have them...so that means those races really wouldn't have any obstacles at all! Bah...

Pageant of the Masters

My coworkers told me about this event in Laguna Beach called the Pageant of the Masters which occurs every summer. It's a show where works of art are brought to life by actors with great background scenery, lighting and very still actors in costume. It was highly entertaining... for about 30 minutes. :(

I was really disappointed, but maybe I'm not artsy enough to appreciate it. It was an amazing thing to witness but the show was 2 hours, and I was pretty sleepy by the end. However, I'm glad we had a chance to explore Laguna a bit though - I really should go there more often. We had dinner at Sundried Tomato Cafe which was excellent. The restaurant was a bit hard to find since the street numbers don't match up in any logical order, and the people we called at the restaurant couldn't explain where it was located, but we eventually found it. And, the meal was great. I'd definitely go back.

Anyway, after dinner, we went to the arts festival area before the show, and saw some interesting works of art - some were some fabulously polished photos printed on glass, others were very simple paintings on gold leaf, but yet others were weird works of art that I simply didn't get...

House Update

My house search continues with not much luck. I've had some pretty crumby agents - I'm on #3 already, and #3 doesn't seem very promising. It seems like every agent wants you to do all the work, and they just let you in to see the houses but don't add any real insight. They then populate some fields in the standard offer docs, and collect thousands of dollars if you successfully close...?

Redfin still seems like the best option just b/c I get half the commission back, and it's clear that you are supposed to do the work, and they have nice people working for them who don't make you feel like you're inconveniencing them by wanting to go on so many home tours. I've yet to have success purchasing a home b/c of a number of reasons but we'll see what happens...I might take a break for a month or so, and wait until the fall to see if the market looks any different.

The main shenanigans that are affecting me:

1) Short sales are so plentiful, and often go nowhere. The agents never have any idea at what point of the process a property is in, and it's a crapshoot whether there's a real opportunity to buy. Plus, the list price is often some hocus pocus just to generate interest but doesn't mean anything.

2) The banks are limiting inventory by trickling in foreclosures at a very slow pace. Right now, it is a seller's market. How counterintuitive is that...so much fuss about incentivizing people to buy homes but yet there are so few homes to buy. Foreclosures come on the market and are off the market within a matter of days - so quick that you often don't even have a chance to bid.

3) Investors are coming in with all-cash offers...which means their offers win...Their flipped properties are also now coming back to market where they put in some quick work carpeting and painting but you can tell it's cheaply done, and you don't know what else is just hiding behind a layer of cheap paint.

4) I don't know if this is a trend or not based on anything at all, but there are some new housing communities that are selling without any model homes to show. I don't understand how people get comfortable buying a house without walking through it. I've been to a few communities like that now, where they'll only have the upscale models or no models at all. You then have to rely on some pictures or a virtual tour? That's scary since I've definitely fallen for many a house based on pictures and walked through it feeling certain that it wasn't the house for me. I'm not sure if it's b/c builders got desperate trying to sell, and they sold models before a phase was complete...but maybe that's common practice? I have no clue...

Alright, enough housing talk...and enough blogging for now. I'm pretty sure I've missed some other key dates and events over the last 1.5 months, but that's all I can think of readily for now.

Nite nite.

Spago

I had only tried a couple more casual Wolfgang Puck places, and didn't think much of it, so I was curious to see if I'd like his bread 'n' butter...Spago has the reputation and the 2-star Michelin rating to go along with it...

And well, sad to say, I was a bit disappointed. Either I really do have a "discriminating palate" or Spago is over-priced and over-rated. I wouldn't say it was a bad meal, but for >$100/person, I expected more. Maybe I am spoiled from the fine dining in NY that I've had over the years...

Anyway, here's my review...

Ambience: It's a decent-looking restaurant but nothing too fancy. The bathrooms are nice but just about as nice as any hotel or casino. There are some stained-glass-like windows on the roof which were nice. The art on the wall was peculiar, with more of a Spanish/country feel despite this restaurant not being either of those things. I would rate the outdoor section to be great though - it was beautiful the night we were there, and I liked the open-ness that the outside area (which was connected to the main dining room) gave to the restaurant.

Appetizers: I had a risotto with baby asparagus and crab. This was a spectacular dish. The chunks of crab were generous, and the risotto was cooked perfectly. I've had plenty of bad risotto in my life, and this was done very well. I loved it.

I also sampled some of the following:
- My mom's crab cake which was also very good - large chunks of crab in a nice sauce.
- A bite of my brother's tagliatelle - tasty but I expected a bit more here. It was a bit standard.
- A piece of my sister's sashimi appetizer - excellent presentation, fresh enough fish, but not the best I've tasted.

Overall, appetizers were strong - my risotto took the winning spot in my belly though. It really was delicious.

Wine: The sommelier recommended a bottle of white wine for us. I don't even remember the name of it but it was pretty darn average... All I know is that it was a member of the Chardonnay family but meh, I was not impressed with the wine choice. Boo for paying for an overpriced bottle which wasn't even good (and I'm not even a wine connoisseur)!

Entrees: I had the halibut which sat on a caramel corn sauce. Beautiful presentation. My issue was the fish! The sauce made the dish - the corn sauce was very tasty, but the fish, in my opinion, was a little dry. I was a bit disappointed that the sauce was really a requirement in this dish. Usually, I expect the actual meat to have its own delicious flavor, but this one really needed the sauce to make it something special.

I tried a piece of my sister's steak, and that was pretty good but again, I've had better steak, though I recognize this isn't a steakhouse.

I also had a piece of duck from my brother's g/f - out of the entrees I tasted - this was the best one. It was well-seasoned and just salty enough. 

I didn't get to try my dad's fancy Wagyu steak ($150 for 6 oz leaves little to share) but he seemed to enjoy it a lot.

I also didn't try my mom's red snapper or my brother's salmon but they seemed to like it well-enough.

Oh, and I did see the most interesting mashed potatoes in my life. It was like dough! It was really strange, actually, since you literally could wind up the potatoes with your spoons, and it stretched around like dough. It kind of tasted like dough too - not my type of mashed potatoes but I give it high marks for something different for texture.

Desserts: Now I was really disappointed with desserts. We shared two very large desserts - a raspberry souffle and a creme fraiche pancake souffle. 

The raspberry souffle was not for my taste at all. I thought it was more medicine-y of a raspberry flavor and a bit too tart. I only had one spoonful, and that was enough. The sorbet was also extremely sour which was a bit unexpected so I didn't particularly like that at all.

The pancake souffle was very interesting - presentation wasn't too suave since it looked like a collapsed pancake but the taste was different than what I've had before. I thought it would have been a little creamier but it actually was very light... Would I order it again? Probably not, but I'm glad I tried it.

Conclusion: I'm glad I went but I'm not sure I'll be returning. I think I had too high expectations given the ratings and reviews, and the appetizer set the standard really above what the rest of the meal turned out to be. However, on a positive note, everyone enjoyed the meal and we had a great time being together and celebrating my dad's retirement. That's what's important anyhow.

Pictures from our meal and a more positive review found here. :)

Houses...

What do you think - assuming pricing is relatively equal:

a) 2,000 sq ft house with great amenities - Viking stove, Subzero fridge (these are top notch), small backyard but awesome for entertaining (stone bar built in, firepit built in), spacious upstairs bedrooms, but sucky downstairs (think tiny family room)

b) 3,300 sq ft house which needs TLC - paint, possible re-carpet, removing some door railings, landscape effort (the weeds are as tall as me), and backs to a fairly busy street (backyard is encased with a stone wall but past that wall is the street), but huge floorplan with spacious family/living rooms, great space for bedrooms.

c) neither, keep looking!

Strong Arms Win Stuffed Animals!

The weekend was busy - I took the day off on Friday, and went to my dentist appointment, picked up Duke from the airport, and babysat Dylan. We went to In 'n' Out for a late lunch near the airport, and Dylan loved watching all the planes come in and out. We took a stop back at the apartment to relax, and later went over to the mall to get some dinner. The rest of the evening was quiet.

On Saturday, we met up with my parents at CA Adventure. I was worried Dylan would be cranky since he only slept for 30 minutes in the car and missed his nap but he was fine. We went over to A Bug's Life area, and he ran around like crazy in this water sprinkler/spritzer area. It was fun to see but soon enough, he was drenched! We went on a kiddie ride, and Duke and I separated for a while to go ride the Tower of Terror! Yay! We had two sets of Fast Passes so we went back-to-back. The first one wasn't that great with lots of short drops but the second time was awesome with some long drops. Unfortunately, I got sick on Friday, and I've been really congested with phlegm and all that good stuff. The ride was actually making me dizzy so I didn't feel too well to want to go again for our 3rd and 4th times (we got our Fast Passes but didn't use them). It's still the greatest ride though!

We met back up with the group and had some lunch. We ate some soup in bread bowls, and then headed over to the Paradise Pier. Dylan loved the merry-go-round, particularly b/c of all the ocean creatures (in place of the horses). He rode on it twice with me, and each time didn't want to get off of it, so my dad brought him on it a couple more times. The poor kid was so sleepy though despite his will to want to ride more, and he finally passed out when we put him in the stroller. In the meantime, Duke and I rode on California Screamin' which was actually more fun than I remembered from last time. It was smoother and just a nice, relaxing ride.

We then had one of our more memorable moments. My mom and dad pointed out this midway game where the prizes were these really cute, big stuffed animals. It was a cardboard cutout of a catcher with a hole through its mitt. You get 8 balls for $5, and you have to get 3 in (3 strikes, you win). One by one, people paid $5 to play, and no winner. My mom watched for a while, and saw two guys win. Duke decided to throw $20 onto a card so we could play, and didn't think we'd win. Anyhow, try #1, you could see how he was calibrating. Each throw got a little closer, and finally two balls in but no third strike. Damn!

Try #2, Duke was certain he could get it b/c he was getting pretty calibrated. First ball in, miss, second ball in, with 5 tries to go... Then all misses! DAMN! Duke got pretty pissed off that he missed with so many tries to just get one in, and said I should just play. I was going to play, but my mom stopped me and said that I'd just waste the money since Duke is obviously really close to winning so he has a better chance. Fine, so Duke tries for his third time...and he wins! We were all really excited, and we got this big purple monkey - super cute!

We triumphantly showed my dad who was sitting with the sleeping Dylan, and he was impressed. We had $5 left on the card - all the other games had lame prizes, so I figured I might as well try that game too. First ball - in! Woo-hoo! My mom slaps my back and is super excited I got one in. 2nd ball - way off! It practically hit the next guy's catcher. Oops. Damn, lucky first throw! Then, before I knew it, I got a 2nd one in surrounded by more balls that were drastically away from target. The guy next to me says "She's got in 2, go go go!" I shoot, and I totally miss again. It's my second to last ball, and woosh! It's in!! Hahaha, I win! My mom is super thrilled, and decides to throw my last ball and totally misses. Everyone's laughing and shocked that I won. I walk away with a big green bear - super cute too!

We, again, triumphantly walk over to my dad, and he has this shocked look on his face. "Duke won again?" "No, I did!" Haha. We also got to brag again b/c there was this dude who asked Duke for advice on the game (before either of us had won), and was noticing that he was throwing it like darts instead of like a baseball. We run into the same guy later after we both won, and he sees the stuffed animals. He says to Duke, "Oh, so you won! Oh...and twice?!" We tell him I got the 2nd one on my first try. Haha. He said he spent $40, and neither him or his wife were even close, not even getting one ball in. Haha. Funny stuff. I'm pretty impressed with myself. :)

Anyway, so afterwards, we walk over to see the Pixar Parade which was actually really cool - little water spritzers on the floats, but Dylan was still fast asleep. Afterwards, I convince my mom to go on Mulholland Drive which is one of those zippy roller coasters that turns really fast, and has some mini-drops. My mom was reluctant to go, but finally I convinced her since my dad was unwilling and Duke can't fit well in the cart. She had a blast! She was screaming and laughing the entire ride. It was so much fun b/c she was having so much fun. Haha. It reminded me of the elephant ride in Thailand - bringing my mom out of her comfort zone is awesome since she really has a lot of fun!

Dylan woke up while we were on that ride, and we went on this swinging zephyr thing (think swings but much safer) a couple times, and before we knew it, it was 8:30pm! We were going to stop somewhere for dinner but it was getting so late that we all just decided to go home.

He said bye to just about every Disney character on our way to the parking lot, and we finally called it a day. After coming back to my sister's place, Duke and I went to Koreatown to get a late dinner at BCD Tofu House. I'd heard of this chain but heard it was good just b/c it's open 24hrs, but I was actually quite pleased with the food! We had some pork and beef bulgogi, paired with some soontofu. Pretty tasty stuff.

And, to conclude this long post, today was a day mainly at the apartment, after we went to breakfast and I dropped Duke off at the airport. My sister and her husband had their 5th anniversary dinner, and they gave me some lobster mashed potatoes and creamed corn which were some darn good leftovers. Hehe.

Alright, that's all for now.

Another High School Moment

I went to dinner with my old high school friend Pam tonight. We went to a place called Fukada which has some good Japanese food. I went there for lunch last week, so by coming back for dinner, it's a testament to this place! There's a good combo deal with udon/soba (hot/cold) plus tempura flakes or veggies (I'd recommend the veggies option). Plus, you get a bowl of rice (brown/white) with a topping. I've now tried the spicy tuna-don and tonight was the oyako-don (egg with chicken). Both were good, and the portion is filling. Prices are reasonable ($8-15 per person). Yay for a good restaurant!

Anyway, the night was a lot of fun. Pam and I talked about all sorts of stuff for a few hours, and it was great to pick up where we left off 10 years ago. Haha. We did meet up for dinner a couple months back, but we had another old reunited friend there as well so it ended up being a lot of short updates, whereas tonight we were able to get a bit more in-depth about our lives.

It's really nice to re-connect and re-establish friendships that really should never have died off in the first place. All this made possible by Facebook! Haha.

Laptop is Dead

After about 2 months of my Dell Inspiron 9300 freezing at random times, it finally died today. I just uploaded my photos to it, and it froze for its very last time. It doesn't power up anymore, and plugging it in doesn't even yield a green light. The motherboard is dead. I'm fairly certain I have everything I need on the Nas (which is now working) at this point, but it's still sad to see a computer just die. I've never had that happen to me. Even my old Dell (bought in 1998) still boots up and works. This one is from 2005 and is completely dead. Sadness.

High School Reunion

Just got back from my 11th year high school reunion (combined for classes '98 and '99). It was a lot of fun, and I got to see a few people who I'd like to continue to keep in touch with going forward. There were a ton more faces of "Wow, I know you...but I don't know you...Why do I know you?!" That led for some weird 2-minute conversations but it was fine anyway.

We held it at the Mission Inn which was a great venue choice - we had a private banquet room, and the food was good. My only complaint was that they served food close to 9pm which was a little ridiculous since we were all starving. Otherwise, it was a good time mingling, though I ended up hanging out with my friends who I normally see on a regular basis. Haha. It was fun pointing out to each other who we remembered, or who we didn't recognize, etc.

Most people were pretty similar to high school, but there were a few people who looked quite different - either a late growth spurt, or weight gain, or different hairstyle. There also didn't seem to be that many married people, let alone with kids. There were some but for the most part, it seems we were no exception to our generation - getting the family-life a little later.

Oh, and before the reunion, a few of my friends came over and we got to take photos out in the backyard, reminiscent of what we did before prom and midwinter dances. Haha. That was fun. One of them also brought a scrapbook she made of our senior year, which had all kinds of photos from prom, Senior Ditch Day, some honors breakfast thing, our last day of school, etc. It's interesting to see the pictures labeled since I recognized the pictures but had no idea where they were from.

Speaking of a bad memory, my friend was telling me about the time she visited me in college, and mentioned that this girl Aimee was there, and that was the last time we saw her. I have no recollection that Aimee was even there, and they both were telling me that I was really busy with school so they hung out for a day together. Weird! Hence, the need for photos since I've now confirmed on many occasions that I don't remember a darn thing unless I have pictures...

I also missed out on seeing my old high school crush - even though he was a year ahead of us, a lot of his friends were my year. He was only there for a few minutes and later went to a bar down the street but we never made it over. My friends really wanted me to see him again since that would be funny and complete this high school experience, but oh well - he's only a Billy Corgan lookalike anyway and not the real thing. Ha!

A number of people became teachers, but are from all walks of life - some engineers, some in school, some therapists, etc. Funny to see where we all end up, but for the most part, we're all back in SoCal. There were some people who flew in from the east coast, and one person even from Guadalajara, Mexico. It was too bad we didn't have more of our old high school group show up though since as far as I know, a lot of them are still local.

I wonder how our 20-year will be, or if we'll even be interested in going! Ok, I'm tired and off to bed. This post is a bit jumbled but it was a long night. :)

College Slogans

I figure one day, I'll forget some of these nice slogans but I'll have my blog to remind me. In the most recent issue of the U of C magazine, they had a snippet about some classic t-shirts...

For the sake of memorializing them for myself and for your enjoyment:

- Where Fun Comes to Die
- Chicago Dating: The odds are good, but the goods are odd
- University of Chicago: When you sleep, we study
- Where the squirrels are cuter than the girls
- Where the squirrels are more aggressive than the guys
- The level of hell Dante forgot (apparently this one was controversial b/c it should be "circle" instead of "level" but I never read the Inferno)
- U of C: Not UIC since 1892
- If I wanted an A, I would have gone to Harvard

And, one that didn't make the list that I remember: Ranked 299 out of 300 top party schools.

Haha, go U of C!

My First Diaper Cake

I'm hosting a baby shower for my friend Sue at the end of June, and decided to make a diaper cake for her. I looked online for some tutorials and videos, and I embarked on my first arts & crafts type project in quite some time.

Materials:

- Cardboard circle - mine was about 11 inches in diameter

- 58 size 1 diapers for newborns (1 pack of Luvs)

- Bag of size 19 rubber bands (they were just big enough to not break)

- Double-sided tape

- Ribbons - I bought way too many (you probably onle need 2 yards total with plenty to spare)

- Bottles - I bought three 5 oz bottles but ended up only using 1

- "Toppings" - I also bought way too many but I ended up including 2 small hanging toys, 2 rubber duckies, 2 pacifiers, and 1 security blanket with a doggie attached. I had onesies, mittens, and burp cloths on the side but I didn't need any of them and will just include those as a separate gift.

Here are my photos and directions (just so I can add to the number of tutorials on the web):

1) Start with a cardboard circle:

2) Individually roll up each diaper (I put the cartoon side in) and rubber band each diaper

3) Place a bottle in the center; add a rubber band, and start inserting the rolled up diapers.

4) Repeat the process with another rubber band around this first layer, and add rolled up diapers for the 2nd ring.

5) Repeat the process with another rubber band around the 2nd layer, and add 3rd ring.

6) Initially I placed a 2nd bottle stacked on top of the first to give the center a backbone, and I added 2 rings of diapers around it:

7) I added the top layer with one ring of diapers. I still had the 2nd bottle in here at this point.

8) I added ribbon around each layer to hide the rubber bands. I love the Finding Nemo ribbon I got! It matches the beach/water theme that my friend wants too. :)

9) Add a center topping on top of the cake. Here is where I realized I couldn't keep the 2nd bottle in there b/c the blanket wouldn't fit. I ended up rolling the blanket into the hole to still give the cake support, and enable me to have the dog as the top. I then added the other animals and pacifiers for added decoration. I also wrapped the cardboard base with some tissue paper.

Here are the close-ups of each layer:

And the top view:
Yay! I had a lot of fun doing this, actually. It ended up taking me about 1.5 hours but it really shouldn't have taken that long. The diaper rolling took about 15 minutes, and building the cake of diapers took about another 15 minutes. The hard part for me was actually the decorations. The ribbon was fine to attach using double-sided tape, but the duckies were particularly hard to get to stay on the cake. I ended up using another ribbon I had to tie them on b/c they kept falling off.

Anyway, so that concludes my diaper cake story of the day. I hope my friend likes it! :) I'll see how the cake holds up too since the baby shower isn't until the end of June! Haha...

Crisis Averted?!

Just out of curiosity, I tried mapping to the hard drive wirelessly (recall it didn't work before), and POOF! It's working!!! My files are there, and I can access it! Oh, what a roller coaster. I'm going to start backing some stuff up just in case now!

THANK YOU TESTDISK UTILITY!!!!!

I'm in trouble now...

Duke called me to let me know that I was mistaken. I don't have a backup on his computer. We had only backed up what was on my computer since we thought it was going to fry soon. I hope I didn't irreversibly damage the hard drive and can still retrieve the files on there. This is not good. :(

Defeated

I just spent the last 3 hours trying to figure out why my hard drive isn't recognized, and I am now conceding. I have been defeated. Windows wins. Boooooo!!!

My computer is about to die anyhow since it randomly overheats and freezes. I have been able to make it work by leaving the top of the laptop up even though I'm using a regular monitor, but that somehow prolongs its life ok.

After having this random freezing problem, I realized I couldn't connect to my external hard drive anymore. Duke was still here at the time, and luckily we had the foresight to backup my entire hard drive onto his computer which has GBs full of pictures and the like which I would have been devastated if I were to lose them. 

Anyhow, this evening, I was going to start reading this book I've been meaning to get to, and decided to play some iTunes in the background. Alas, I couldn't b/c all my music files are on the Nas which I couldn't map to. I tried connecting directly instead of wirelessly, and no luck there either. 

I start hunting through google, and surely enough, I find hundreds of posts with the exact same problem as me. 

- Computer recognizes the hard drive is there when plugged in via USB

- Device manager recognizes the hard drive and says it's working properly

- Disk manager then illuminates the problem. Yep, the hard drive is there, but it's unassigned, with no letter path. I can't add the path. It's an unknown drive.

I download Acronis Disk Director Suite which I read some people had luck with. No luck. Plus I was highly annoyed that they do the whole "hey, fix a limited part of your drive but then pay money if you want the rest fixed" - after seeing that it didn't even find anything, I was even more annoyed at the fact that they wanted my money. Anyway, dead end.

I then go back into Disk Manager where I think I did a fatal error. I decided to delete the partition so that I could add it back in, and hope that the computer would recognize it. Well, it did...but then I click on the drive to see its contents, and I get the "Disk is not formatted, would you like to format it now?" prompt. Ugh. Now what?!

I go back to my googling and find out about a free tool called Testdisk which people had rave reviews about. It's an open source type of thing which I'm a huge fan of, and so I had high hopes. I ran a couple tests, re-wrote some stuff so that I no longer have a bad boot sector (whatever the heck that means anyway), and found some mild success.

The drive disappeared from my explorer, and I got back somewhat to where I started before the fatal error. It's now, again, an unclassified drive that is recognized but not able to be used. It is concerning that it says there are 300GB of free space which seems to imply that I may have deleted all the contents when I deleted the partition; in which case, I might as well just format it, but I have no idea if that's really true. I'd rather not format it for obvious reasons, but I guess I do have the backup on Duke's computer to fall back on, but that backup will not be in my possession for at least another month. Arghhh!

Well, I guess I'll end where I started. I am defeated.

Money Money Money

A TV commercial worked on me! And I guess I'll continue to do some free advertising for them for my numerous readers on this site (haha). Check out ally.com - GMAC renamed itself to Ally in order to dissociate themselves from the mortgage madness, and they're offering some great terms on their accounts. You can tell it's a new site launch but the terms really can't be beat, as far as I can tell. The savings account has the typical 6 transaction limit per month but it yields 2.25% (vs. my pitily 1.5% or lower which my money market account does currently). The No Penalty CD is at 2.50% APY for 9-months but you can withdraw with no fees at any time (after like 6 days or something). There also aren't restrictions on withdrawing and then re-opening another No Penalty CD. Anyway, just an FYI posting in case you want to check it out and re-balance some accounts.

Aside from that news, I spoke to Duke finally today. It's hard dealing with a 16 hour time difference but we finally synced up. He's going to take pictures of some butchers he passes every day to work, and is going to highlight tripe for me to show me how gross it is..though pictures will still never deter my love for tripe! Haha.

Anyway, I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow. Work has been one big ball of drama lately, and I'm happy the holiday weekend is here.

Hello Summer! San Diego Zoo & Swimming Time!

The weekend was busy. I felt like crap Friday afternoon/night and had this weird nausea which perhaps was from some bug I caught from my nephew a week before but luckily it passed after a lot of sleep. Saturday morning, I wake up to find out my weekend plans had changed. My family was going to the San Diego Zoo so I decided to go join them since I was feeling better anyway. I originally was going to go house-hunting and visit with my friend Meg but I postponed with Meg on Friday since I didn't anticipate feeling so hot.

Anyway, I met my family at the zoo and took hundreds of photos (as expected, I suppose). I got some really nice shots which I'll post up on DoYouCY one of these days. but here are a couple that I took:

The weather was great for the most part - warm and semi-sunny. There weren't too many people at the zoo either which made it easier to maneuver through exhibits.  Dylan loved it. He's getting really good at naming animals, and was able to recognize monkeys, lions, bears, turtles, fish, and tigers. He also learned how to say koala. Haha. It was a busy day for him, but he seemed to love every minute of it. We saw pretty much all the main animals except didn't make it over to the gorillas. The panda exhibit was nice but too bad Mama and Papa Panda were off-exhibit while we were there, though we did see 2 sleeping baby pandas. The giraffes were a highlight though since we went while they opened it up for visitors to feed them. Some of the giraffes' tongues were the size of little kids' arms which was a little gross and frightening but it was neat anyway to see. 

The tigers were pretty neat too since a couple of them were playing around, swatting each other. Dylan got a kick out of the nearby sound-exhibit though. He kept pushing a button to hear the tiger roar. He stayed amused for a long time and was sad when I finally took him away from it. Heh.

We also rode the sky cable car which was a nice, peaceful journey back towards the entrance. Dylan wasn't scared at all which made my sister and her husband more certain that he's ready for rides and such. He kept saying "Wow" when we got back to the ground and after he realized what he had just done. They're taking him to Disneyland which I won't be privy to be a part of due to work but I'm sure he'll be excited running around seeing Mickey everywhere.

We also ventured over to the kids' petting zoo, and he ran around petting the goats, not afraid of them at all. It was pretty cool to see him getting up and close to the animals. Afterwards, we went over to see the Galapagos tortoises which were huge and for the most part lazy but we did see a couple scuttling around which was cool. We called it a day after that, and headed back home. We later went to Olive Garden for some dinner but aside from that, relaxed for the rest of the little day we had left.

Today, we hung around the house but did make it over to eat some hot dogs at Portillo's (yay Chicago!) and ran some errands. After Dylan took his nap, we decided to go swimming. He had a blast and was really good at swimming with his arms. He hasn't learned how to kick himself forward yet but at least he's getting comfortable with the swimming motion. He was also quite adept at hanging on to the floater we had so that was pretty cool. I think he loved my disappearing act the most, as I went underwater and played that version of peek-a-boo with him. Ha.

After it was time to take him out of the pool, he was pretty upset since he wanted to stay and swim more but he was already shivering for a while so it was probably a good idea to get him warmed up. The water was nice though but the breeze probably continued to make him cold. 

I said my goodbyes in the evening, and headed back home. After 10 minutes at home, a pretty big earthquake hit! It shocked me since it lasted for quite some time. I looked it up, and the latest news reported it as 4.7-5.0 hitting the LA area more directly. Crazy...but nothing fell down though so that was good.

Alright, that's all the blogging for now. Ta ta.

I Miss Blogging

I've been feeling like I should be blogging more but yet every time I sit down to blog, I find that I don't really have anything interesting to say. I find that quite strange since my mind is overflowing with thoughts and pressures of life right now but perhaps it is so overloaded that I can't concisely say anything at all.

I guess my latest life update is that work is still work, and is keeping me quite busy. My nephew is also keeping me busy when I babysit him since it's action-packed full of energy time which leaves me exhausted throughout the week. I'm over at my sister's place again, partly for babysitting, but also b/c it's Mother's Day tomorrow and my mom is coming here to babysit tomorrow and Monday. I don't even know what I'll do with her yet but at least I got her a gift. I got a few of those garden stakes that are solar powered, and light up at night for a mini-light show. I got a 3-set which included a hummingbird, dragonfly, and butterfly. My mom isn't a garden-lover but she overlooks the dark backyard when she does the dishes so I figure she'd appreciate the lights. If they end up nice, I'll pick up a few more but I didn't want to go crazy in case they end up looking ghetto. They're about $10-12 per stake so it adds up quite quickly!

I'm also returning her Roomba which my brother gave to her years ago for Christmas. She never used it so I usurped it for a number of years until I got my own upgraded model a couple months ago. She's eager to try it out, especially to get the filth underneath the beds, etc. I love Roomba - I still can't get over how awesome these robots are though my upgraded model still gets stuck at random places which is a little annoying, given how much newer this model is.

In other news, I went to go get a pre-approval today. I'm anxiously awaiting to find out how much the bank will lend me so I can hone in on actual price ranges of houses instead of guessing. Duke and I drove around this morning and stumbled upon an open house which ended up being a $2.9mm house (after a $600k reduction) and is a modest 7500+ square foot place. Haha. We tried to guesstimate how many families could live comfortably there. It was pretty sick.

Well, I guess that's all the rambling I have for now. I guess I didn't really have much of an update after all but for whoever reads this, I am alive! I am going to plan my first baby shower though for my friend Sue. She's having a boy! And my other good friend is having a girl! It's crazy to start seeing my friends getting ready to have kids... But, kids sure are fun! My nephew is now in his parrot-phase where he can copy everything you say, and is learning exponentially these days. It's pretty awesome to witness.

Anyway, my sister wants to rehearse a presentation with me. Ta ta for now.

House Hunting!

For some reason I've been falling asleep at random early hours, and feeling like I have absolutely no time at all...hence the lack of blogging as of late which is unfortunate. This weekend was a fun house-hunting one. It's pretty amazing how user-friendly these new development communities are - no hassle, quick access to model homes, and that's that. We saw probably 30 homes in a full day which is pretty ridiculous. I have to still figure out a number of financing things but I'm excited to see where this will lead...

I'm also debating if I'll be ok living in a townhome. Initially, I ruled them out completely but then I found one that was fantastic. The cheaper price is a huge incentive too since a fully detached home seems to be at least $100k more. But, I do hate sharing walls! Argh...what to do. I think in a couple weeks I'll start checking out some open houses of existing homes and see how those compare. 

In other news, the previous weekend, we went to Bubble Fest at the Discovery Science Center. It was actually a pretty awesome facility and super kid-friendly. My nephew absolutely loved it and even sat through a 1-hr show by Fan Yang, the Guiness Record Holder for largest bubbles. The show was fun and informal which was cool. 

Oh, what else... we've had a few more Kotobuki Sushi meals which were awesome, as Hiro would put it. Duke even put up a Yelp review to support the restaurant. The economy has really hurt them, so we're hoping they stay alive - they've been open for 20 years so let's hope it stays for another 20! Too bad it's so expensive though...otherwise we'd be going there multiple times a week. Hehe.

Toshiba is Awesome

I just have to give a little tribute to Toshiba's customer service. They have hands-down the best customer service out there. So I have a Toshiba DVR that my brother got for me a number of years ago, and it has a little TV Guide function to tell you what shows are on, and it makes it easy to tape your shows, etc. Anyhow, a few weeks ago, the TV Guide stopped working, and everything showed "No Listing" which really sucked b/c it made it virtually impossible to tape anything unless you remembered to tape 30-minute segments that same day.

Anyhow, after a little search on the internet, it became clear that Toshiba could help out with this issue. I e-mailed them, and in a few hours, I received a response to call their Advanced Services number. I called them, and the menu took a few minutes b/c it was incredibly detailed, but once I found the right option, the rep picked up within 5 seconds. The rep was very friendly, told me some code to punch in my DVR to reset it overnight, and to call back the next morning.

The next morning, I called, and same situation - a rep picked up within 5 seconds. Amazing. We then go through this other code and he asks me to read off some diagnostics to him. He said that they'll alert TV Guide, and the problem should get fixed in a couple weeks.

A week later, I noticed my TV Guide was fixed, and lo and behold, I get a friendly phone call from Toshiba letting me know that the issue should have been resolved, and to see if there was anything else I needed.

Problem solved - fast pick-up time, reps who were knowledgeable and could speak English (yay!). I would rate their customer service a 9.5/10 (leaving the 0.5 just for sake of the automated menu being a little long) but it was awesome...Now if only my DVR had such user-friendliness (it is one heck of a beast to figure out but I'm used to it after a few years and I refuse to pay a monthly service charge for Tivo. Ha!).

Alright, back to oblivion for me...Nite nite.