i've come to terms with the fact that i'm lazy... but recently i've realized that it's a special kind of laziness. i go out of my way to make things as easy as possible for me in the future so that i can be lazy then... but by the time i'm done, i've exerted more energy and effort than i would have if i just did things the normal way.

for example, when i come home, i'm too lazy to make multiple trips from my car to my house. so instead of carrying what i'm capable of carrying and making multiple trips, i try to be super smart and carry everything at once. in the process, i manage to spill something, drop another thing, not have enough hands to close my trunk, and it takes me three times as long to get into my place. the end result? i have to make another trip back to my car to close the trunk and pick up what i dropped anyway, spilled something, and it all ended up taking me twice as long to do than if i were to have just carried what i was capable of and making multiple trips to begin with. and i do this with lots of things. like at work... for one file that i have to update weekly, i'm too lazy to manually enter in some numbers, so i spend hours upon hours setting up my worksheet so that all the vlookups, sumifs, and other forumlas work - when it probably would take me 10 or 15 minutes to manually type in this info every week. and even though i know this fact about myself, i do it every time. i never learn. next time someone sees me do something idiotic like this, please remind of this post. thanks.

man the emmy's get more boring year after year. the best is when the person says "wow, i totally didn't expect this. what a shock" and then proceeds to read off a piece of paper, word for word, everyone they would like to thank. right. a "shock."

I can't believe I was on vacation on Monday. This has been a very long week, (even though it was short for me) for sure. And even worse, next week is going to be horrible, AND it's quarter end. I need another vacation... :)

And there's no cal football for three weeks since yesterday's game was cancelled thanks to ivan. eric got me a cal football poster (thanks!) and i'm debating whether or not to put it up on my cube :) it's kinda big... maybe for now it'll just go up on my bedroom wall.

And did anyone watch the apprentice last night? Dang, that was definitely unexpected... after the whole fabio fiasco with that other show (forgot what it was called... average joe?), I don't believe NBC previews for their reality shows anymore. But this one was definitely a shocker. I guess that guy deserved it for being so freaking arrogant, which he was. Apparently only Donald Trump has the right to be super cocky. Don't mess with the master. or with his hair.

well, i'm finally back home after a great vacation in LA and baltimore, grateful that i took an extra day (today) off to settle back in and run some errands. before i get into my vacation, some general things i learned this past week:

-everything in baltimore is made out of bricks. good thing they don't have earthquakes out there because the whole city would just crumble into pieces.

-like 70% of the cars out there have that pinstripe across the sides of the car (right under the side windows). i think it's weird, and kinda ugly... why in the world do all the cars have those stripes??

-for some reason, eva thinks her vovlo is blue. eva, that car is GRAY. in fact, it's the color of the car in this post. does that look blue to everyone else?

-i can't believe i got better weather in baltimore than everyone else did at home. with no humidity too! so awesome.

-looks like the bears game this thurs (was supposed to be on espn too) will be canceled because of hurricane ivan. that means no game for... three weeks? ouch. i saw pics of the home crowd for the game this past saturday - how insane is that? it was a bigger crowd than last year's largest crowd against USC. bandwagon fans, but exciting to see nonetheless. at least i can say i had season tickets through the painful holmoe days, when we never had a winning season and never won the big game. my, how times have changed :) this team is deep... definitely will be an exciting year. no one hold any event on 10/9 please, i'm watching the cal-sc game, in anticipation of another upset!

okay that last one wasn't an observation from the east coast, although we were watching some college football with eric (eva's eric) sat night and he seemed to be shocked that i knew so much about football. it was pretty funny.

okay, here goes. highlights from baltimore! click here to see all of my baltimore pics.

monday:
- after what felt like a very long flight, i finally arrived in baltimore where o picked me up. jono came over and he drew pictures for us to color in (yes, we are in grade school). they are cool drawingss, but unfortunatley i didn't take pics of them before i left - i've left them on o/eva/ev's fridge for them to enjoy :)

tuesday:
- bumbled around town with o, went shopping, and then finally headed back and entertained myself while o went to class/cell group and eva was at work. was happy to finally see another human being when eva came back late from work at around 9ish.

wednesday:
- jono came over for lunch. o went off to class while jono hung around a little longer. (by the way jono, i've left the instyle behind for you. :) ask o for it.) bumbled around again until o finally came home and she took me out to egyptian pizza and gelato. and then we went to jono's where o gave me that wonderful tour of baltimore.

o at jono's:



thursday:
- o had no class, yet we spent the entire day (until 5ish) indoors, doing crafts. yes, even on vacation, this is what we do for fun. we made eva some cards for her birthday:




and then took her to chocolate fondue for dessert. YUM:



friday:
- o and i went to an o's vs. yankees game and sat in the nosebleed seats. so much fun! weather was beautiful, and the oriole's actually won. there sure were a lot of yankee fans at the game.




saturday:
- o, eva, and i went to DC where i actually got to see the monuments this time (last time i visited and we went to DC, it was so stinking hot that we walked about one block, sat down in the shade, and then went back to try to find a jamba juice.)

us at the new world war II memorial:


we came back to baltimore for dinner, where we ate crabs with eric. it was my first time eating crabs like that... i wonder why we don't eat it this way in california?



All in all, i had the best time. it was the right mix of relaxation and going out. only o and eva (and ev if she were there) could make baltimore this fun for someone.

click here to see the rest of my baltimore pics.

one last thing... we have something new in our household. that's right, ALIAS SEASON THREE! :) :) :)

tomorrow... it's back to work :( vacation over. :(

pics from LA & vivian/andy's wedding

i'm going to an o's game today! yay! they're playing the yankees.

went to have chocolate fondue last night for eva's birthday... yum

pics from baltimore will come probably after i get back home.

this is how olivia gives me a tour of baltimore:

o: we can go to jono's. he lives on the 13th floor, he has a really awesome view of the whole city
me: okay
o: i'll show you where everything is from his place

we get to jono's condo, and sure enough he has this amazing view where you can see the whole city below.
o: okay... well... here is baltimore!

yeah, that was my tour. thanks o, so descriptive. no pointing where anything was, no showing me where the school is. nope, just "here is baltimore"

one of the highlights of my day: so jono seems to think that olivia and i were dressed alike today... even though we really weren't. she was wearing her tevas, jeans, a 3/4 sleeved shirt, and a brown hoodie. i was wearing reefs, khaki chords, light blue polo, and a gray hoodie. but nevertheless, he saw flip flops, pants, and hoodie, and decided that we were dressed the same. so what does he do? he actually picks up a pair of jeans, goes into his bathroom, changes into them, finds a black hoodie, throws it on, and puts on his reefs. to match us. even though we weren't going anywhere. i dunno, to me it was hilarious. go figure, i'm weird like that.

oh this is real lovely:
hideyo (9:05:32 PM): sorry i gotta go... i'm gonna flirt with your roommate

just what i wanted to hear. thanks hideyo.

funny, it's not hot here at all. i hear it's sure hecka hot at home. heh heh i left at the right time... although it's still super muggy and humid - but at least it's not hot!

guesswhereiam guesswhereiam guesswhereiam? BALTIMORE! i'm on VACATION!

Just flew in last night, after a weekend in LA. Got to see Sandy's new baby (a month old!) hang out with reni & maurice, and see vivian & andy get married (i'll upload pics later). wedding was beautiful - the reception was outdoors in a garden, and they had a live jazz band. fun. played piano in wedding #5 for the year - #6 will be in three weeks, and then i think i'm home free for the rest of the year.

something i learned this weekend:
- never fly labor day weekend. security at san jose went waaaay into the parking lot (it was funny to see some of the looks and expressions on people's faces as they realized how stinking long the line was). LAX security was hecka fast, but it was sooo crowded. i printed out my boarding pass online at 8am and i was already stuck in group B! and i never thought of baltimore as a popular destination (when i flew last time, i got a whole row to myself), but this flight was jam packed. And who knew McDonald's could cost almost $8. for a mchicken value meal. what a ripoff. needless to say, i didn't buy it.

bummed that i won't get to see ev here this week :( but i'm praying for you & your family. and thanks for your bed :) it's like hotel evelyn.

okay... stay tuned for... adventures in baltimore!

p.s. - got to watch part of the cal game... and saw them kick air force's butt. on to the next game! go bears!

WOOOHOOO! can we say VACATION!

some quick notes:
- retreat was awesome. brian hogan shared much of the same stuff he shared when he spoke at perspectives, but it was like listening to all of it for the first time again. mongolia is one happening place. didn't get to hear hideyo speak to the youth because i came up on saturday and missed the friday night and sat morn sessions. hideyo also tried to get me to eat a whole package of nutter butters and a drink pint of milk. I REFUSE. i think i ate about two nutter butters, though. and milk does bad things to my body.

- pray for: ev's mom & family. her mom's faith in God shines so bright through all of this - it amazes me, but God may choose to bring her Home soon.

- get this. i'm in the bay area today, leave for LA tomorrow, and will be in baltimore by monday. olivia was here this past week, and left for baltimore this morning. eva is in baltimore today, will leave for bay area tomorrow. i have wedding trio music that eva wants to bring to her piano teacher on saturday while she's here in the bay area. in order for eva to get the music from me, i had to give it to olivia to bring to baltimore today to give to eva in baltimore tonight so that eva can bring it back to the bay area tomorrow. yeah, we love being ridiculous. my music is going to travel 6000 miles when I live probably about 5 miles away from her piano teacher.

- i find it hilarious that as soon as the bcs bowl starts, i suddenly see a big influx of posts from people who normally post like once every one to two weeks. you people know who you are. interesting how something as small as one person's ranking system can cause so much activity and competitiveness. i also had to explain to alinna why she couldn't automatically enter in at number one, even if she is his bz. in football, if any team went from unranked to top ten magically in one week, you'd better believe there'd be a huge uproar. likewise, i could name multiple people who'd vehemently protest alinna entering in anywhere near the top ten. being a bz gives you some privileges, but he's gotta do it inconspicuously, so that it at least pretends to be fair, just like the real BCS. ;) alinna scowled when i told her she couldn't jump to number one next week either. what if i gave up my spot for her? can you do that? is that in the rulebook? she blogs more than me anyway.

- cal plays this weekend against air force, although i'll be in LA so i won't get to watch the game. but root for the bears in their first game! GO BEARS!

why do men's jeans post their size on a tag on the outside where everyone can see it? i find it odd.