Attention everyone... the big screen has come back home to play! Looks like the 27" has become second fiddle to this monster. who wants to help comission it?



And cal, you should have told me earlier... just passed up a chance to get free tix to sharks game - good seats too, according to my coworker (they'd better be good seats... these were worth $93/ticket?! row 4 somewhere? i dunno, beats me, i didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it). and passed up an earlier chance to travel the weekend, eat with them, and go to their games on one of their road trips. all for free! too bad... i'll let you know next time. i'm sure something will come up again.

Yes folks, it only took me three, years but i finally visited 5824 for cal's bday bbq!

Their insane three-tv setup:


On the big tv is probably the cal-sc game, which cal sadly got dominated in. the rest of the pics are here - including a real shot of one of their scary homemade weapons. too bad i didn't get a shot of their custom-made toilet seat cover. i thought it'd be a little questionable to take pics in their bathroom.

oooh - and the big screen tv is finally on its way to being fixed! it's sitting in the shop as i type... woohoo!

Thanks to bob, I had a personal chaffeur all day saturday - from praise band practice, to the 5824 bbq, to joy's housewarming. too much good food in one day.

Finally held a fellowship leaders mtg on sunday - I'm glad that I'm somewhat caught up on the happenings of all the groups now. It's interesting to see how despite the fact that all the fellowships/small groups are fairly independent, a lot of their needs and prayer requests are actually the same across the board. Thankfully we're getting a move on the small group leaders' training, something that we've really been needing at canaan.

Watched hockey for the first time tonight on tv... man it's really a lot more violent than i thought! those guys really body slam each other really hard! it was kinda exciting though... i can see how ppl would like watching it (in a violent, sick kind of way ;) we get hookups to sharks tickets every once in a while since our company partners with them, but i never bothered to take up the offer on those tickets - now maybe one day i will.

also uploaded the few pics i took from hot pot and joy's housewarming - click here. enjoy!

argh. people who lecture me when they have no business doing so annoy the heck out of me. and i say "no business so" because i can take rebuke or lecturing when it's in the right place. but not when the person/people are acting self-righteous about it - that angers me even more. i'm annoyed.

for those of you who loved the penguin game, here's penguin game part 2. I think best single hit I got was 96.5... but I never hit 100. The best part is how the penguin's legs kick around. hehe.

congrats to the Pangs! I say PangS because not only did marcia & jason get engaged, so did stef & pat! what a weekend for the pang family. whew.

holy moly, that cal engineer from american idol is a celebrity!

uploaded more pics! What'd we do during deacons retreat? We ate, then talked, then ate some more, then talked some more, then ate again... well, you get the picture. I think we all gained 5 pounds over the weekend from the surplus of food and lack of movement. All kidding aside, I'll write more about the weekend when I have more time. Work this week is mad crazy - interviewing people, training someone, and meetings up the wazoo. So to hold you over until my next post, for your viewing pleasure, my pics from the weekend:

deacons retreat
andy's 30th bday

I think bob has made the suggestion of the day: have eric try out for American Idol and sing his Cable TV song. He'd be an instant celebrity, just like that Cal engineer guy! Who's with me here? It's too bad I lost all the mp3s of eric's notorious songs... Cable TV, Ode to Pepsi, and Hole in My Head. He'd for SURE make it on tv. who's with me on this? I should start a petition!

olivia (5:23:37 PM): http://iamandrea.smugmug.com/gallery/61770/1/2148635
olivia (5:23:44 PM): WHAT THE HECK?!
olivia (5:23:52 PM): YOU'RE WEARING MY SCARF!!!
olivia (5:24:03 PM): dood, totally caught in the act...
olivia (5:26:46 PM): bye, scarf thief!!

oops. caught red-handed... hey man it was FREEZING and the scarf was calling my name.... and i'm not a THIEF, i'm just a borrower. you DO have the scarf now, o, don't you?? if not, then eva is the scarf thief, not me!

and btw, cal, you're smoking crack. those AOL commercials sucked big time.

this new year has not slowed down one bit for me yet. too much going on! the weekends exhaust me more than the weekdays. upcoming: deacon's retreat this weekend in watsonville. i am definitely looking forward to presidents day off... one of the reasons i decided not to go to wcc this year is because i just flat out need the 3-day weekend off. can't wait!

my revelation of the weekend: give me a pillow and a blanket, and if I'm lying down, I'll fall asleep to anything on the television, be it a great movie, a tv show, or the super bowl... which is pretty surprising since I'm a pretty light sleeper. At least I fell asleep during the third quarter. I heard the third quarter was quite boring. I sure thought the first quarter was hecka boring, and the commercials weren't that great. I can't believe AOL paid so much money for all those dumb commercials. Those had to be the worst ones.

My phone conversation with jean today:

me: okay, i have to go get some work done.
jean: yeah, i'm at home, i'm going to lose reception soon.
me: okay, i'll see you soon! bye!
jean: bye!

i hang up.

2 seconds later... phone rings, and through caller ID i know it's jean.
me: yes?
jean: HOW RUDE! I was in the middle of saying "love you!" and you hung up on me!
then jean hangs up.

HAHAHAHA. jean called back just to say that. sorry jean. I obviously did not hear the end of her sentence.

eegads, scandal at saratoga high again.

who remembers the AP US History cheating scandal that plagued our school when we were there? (NO, it was not our class who cheated!)

yes, my alma mater. what a great school.

go falcons! um... i mean go bears!

Today as I was driving to work, I saw the hugest rainbow ever. I think I just said that to some people last week when there was a huge rainbow at work, but the one I saw this morning was even bigger. It had the complete arc, from one side to the other, and you could see every distinctive color, from red to purple. As I was driving by the rainbow, I was reminded of God's covenant to Noah after the flood.

As many people know, Alinna & I just moved, but in doing so, we broke our contract at central park with 7 months left on the lease, which basically means we're liable for rent until someone else rents our place and moves in. We notified the managers back in November so that they could start putting our apt back out on the market, to be available at the very end of January. November passed by, and so did half of December, so Alinna and I began resorting to Craigslist, offering people a small amount of money to take our specific apt (since there were several apts of our floor plan available in the complex). The rest of December passed, as did January, with a few people interested, but no takers. We paid rent up to the end of January, and last week, we got a bill from the complex for a HUGE sum (5 digits) to cover rent until our lease ran out. All through this time, I wasn't too worried, as I knew our complex is fairly popular (very nice, and in one of the best locations in the area - heck, joy, maria & byron, and jeremy & mandy all live there now!), and I figured it would eventually be rented out. Alinna and I both just said, pray hard and God will take care of it. But my anxiousness increasingly grew as January came to an end, and especially when we got that huge bill. No one had been responding to our post lately, and we hadn't heard a word from the complex managers. It became a huge burden on both me & alinna, because there is no way we could pay two rents. Since January ended this weekend, alinna swung by the complex yesterday because we needed to do something - pay February rent, and/or talk to the managers. So alinna goes to the leasing office and talks to the assistant manager, and lo and behold, someone had just rented our apt! literally "just rented" - the person was walking out as alinna walked in. And even better, the person signed her lease to begin that very same day! Praise God, a huge burden was immediately lifted off both of our shoulders - you couldn't even begin to understand how relieved we both are. It's so crazy how everything happened and it's been quite the ordeal, but it definitely taught me a lesson of trust & faith.

And so when I saw that rainbow this morning, God really reminded me of His faithfulness to His people. Even when we lack the faith in God, He always fulfills His promises to us in His perfect timing.