i'm officially out of insurance for pt. well... per my PT's office, the status is still "pending" for authorization for an extension, but i'm pretty positive it's going to be denied. i already tried through HR to get an extension and they said our insurance is very firm on the 20 sessions/year. so starting this past week i had to pay in full. ouch. i have officially self-reduced my PT to once/week or even less. too expensive otherwise. at this rate, i don't know when i'll ever heal.

looking to join a gym for the cheapest price possible to hold me over for the next three months - anyone know what the cheapest option will be? i was going to try 24 hour... maybe they'll give me a discount since i used to be a member? i remember it was expensive, though. although - i'm sure much cheaper than paying for PT twice a week.

my knee is better in some senses, but in others, not at all. i can walk pretty much with no limp, and the swelling has gone down a lot, but the pain has not reduced. i still don't have full flexion - i've been stuck at 125 degrees for like 6 weeks, and i although i've had "full" extension for a while, it hurts, pops, and grinds to do it. i can't hyperextend like my other knee yet, but i'm sure that'll take a while. if i sit for an hour or more without stretching it, my knee hurts so bad i can't even walk on it.

my doctor thinks i'm fine, besides the fact that i'm recovering super-slowly. he doesn't know why it's so slow, but doesn't see anything wrong. i won't see him for another 2 months. i have a feeling my dad is going to make me go get a second opinion soon.

God, I'm ready for my new knee... when's it coming?

p.s. the first glasses were joy's, the second mine, and third, obviously, andrea's. :) unfortunately, i think bob likes his own glasses the best. :)

time for a new poll!

vote which pair of glasses you like best on bob. i'll reveal the owner of each pair in a later post (although ppl can probably tell just by looking at the glasses).

PAIR #1:


PAIR #2:


PAIR #3:


everyone cast your ballots!

**edit** ppl... vote for your favorite pair! not the ugliest, not the nerdiest, and don't guess who they belong to! :)

went to my coworker's wedding yesterday at the decathlon club. i used to drive by it everyday on the way to work, but never knew what exactly it was. it's actually really pretty on the inside, with a flowing river and fountains indoors and everything. other thing i have to say is small weddings rock. less than 100 ppl... i love it. unfortunately... if you're asian, christian, and/or have a dad plugged well into the business world, that'll never happen.

some pics from yesterday -

the newly married couple, david & anna:



david & anna cutting the cake:



our dinner. yum.



our boss ken, me, the couple, and peter:



i'll eventually upload the rest of the pics later. after i upload my pics from london and spain. :)

sooo... our mailman hates us. i come home from spain, and i guess alinna was gone that weekend, so i'm not sure when it happened, but he's holding our mail hostage.



why, you ask? well our mailbox is nailed in two places to these pieces of wood - one nail near the front and one nail near the back. apparently the wood in the back is rotting, so the back nail popped out - so our mailbox is teetering back and forth on the front nail. it's not like the mailbox fell off, but it is a little unsecure since that back nail won't stay down. our mailman apparently finds that unacceptable so instead of our mail, he delivered the above note. (side note: are they allowed to do that?!)

my dad, our landlord, is out of the country so the only way for us to get our mail again was to fix the problem ourselves. so jenie and i, being the resourceful people we are, fixed the problem in a jiffy!







the solution? duct tape! guys should be proud of us. the mailbox is now fully secured, no more teetering, and hopefully we can get our mail again!

one more thing... before going to spain, i never knew they were big pig eaters. but boy am i SICK of ham, pork, bacon... anything that comes from a pig. ham especially. so what do i eat at 10:30am my first day back? korean ramen. haha. we don't really have food in the house.

hola! we are back! as some of you may have figured out, we were't so successful on the "free internet" once we hit spain, so i guess we'll just have to do long updates. you'll probably find most of the posts and pictures posted on our london & spain blog later. just a few quickies:

-i have come back with two knees, but a nice throaty cold. can't wait to go back to work to infect everyone.
-deciding to stay in crowne plaza in london the last night of our trip was the best decision ever. luxurious. hot showers. queen sized beds to ourselves. aaaaahhhh. all for hecka cheap. thanks, priceline!
-i'm usually not bothered too much but discrimination, but i was totally irritated for some reason, by these two guys in Alhambra in Granada who walked up to some of us, said "konichiwa," bowed with their hands, and took off snickering to themselves. i shouted after them, "we're AMERICANS!" later when we ran into them again, we said "waddup, dudes" to them. they laughed and said "waddup dudes. hahahaha" grrrr. couldn't tell if they were english (british) or american. regardless, idiots. that, and i was the one lucky one out of our entire group(because i hid behind this really tall guy) who didn't get pulled by the security at the heathrow airport to get my bags and clothes searched. i wasn't too bothered by it but found it interesteing since andrea & esther were ahead of us in line, and they pulled them out, and then when they saw the rest of us later, pulled everyone else out as well.
-definitely bring a compass with you next time you travel without a tour. would have saved us a lot of time. by the end of the trip i pretty much expected us to always be lost.
-my laptop, despite before the trip everyone telling me not to bring it, saved most of us a lot of trouble. who knew everyone would take so many pictures? there were people uploading pictures every night. only joy, with 1.5 gigs of memory cards didn't need to upload. my suitcase, for some reason always being the very last to show up in baggage claim, was the most precious to everyone since it held all their pictures :)

okay that's it for now. i'm surprisignly holding up pretty well considering it's almost 3am in Spain. adios for now!

check out our blog of London & Spain. See you there!

hello! we are in london! didn't get much sleep on the flight, but still managed to bumble our way through some of the city today. ready to crash in for an early night since we're all exhausted. getting free internet off someone right now :) ok that's it - we're here, safe and sound.

by the way, there are a lot of stairs in europe. with no elevator option. i'm going to die... thank goodness for bob & mike who can carry my luggage up and down the stairs. they're probably thinking "dang that karen had to come with us, i have to carry two luggages up and down the stairs." oh well.

happy bday from across the world to pete & drew. don't party too hard.

that game today was a lot closer (at least during the first three quarters) than the score would indicate. what an ugly, messy game. you can tell it's ugly when someone fumbles, the other team picks it up, only to fumble in that same possesion to give the ball back to the original team. and it happened multiple times, as well as with a blocked punt. shudder.

good thing it was sac state and not some other school - i hope all the freshmen jitters are out of the system. not quite sure where the brilliance in ayoob is because he just really stunk it up today. 0 for 10 before getting benched! ouch. his passes were horribly off and he made several bad reads and decisions. i really really hope longshore isn't too injured (although i'm reading he broke his ankle and may be out for the season) - he was playing decently well. after he went out, between ayoob and our third string qb, they were a whopping 2 for 17! double ouch. marshawn lynch, what can i say. he's a stud and he will be AMAZING this year. with our o-line and the depth of our RBs, all i can say is RUN THE BALL. actually, our receivers (especially the freshmen superstars jackson & desa)are pretty good as well, fast and good hands - but if we only had a qb to throw them to... could you imagine this year if rodgers had stayed? darn you, aaron rodgers!

they better get those kinks out cuz next week is already a pac ten game, even if it's only washington. one good thing about the game - they announced the attendance as 66k! how insane is that - 66k for a game against sac state? during the holmoe years we couldn't even get 66k for the big game. wow. i hope by the time i come back from spain we are 3-0!!

in the midst of the craziness of work, physical therapy, ministry, vacation and even getting consumed in the awe of the destruction katrina has left behind, i have forgotten to mention...


cal football season official starts tomorrow! i'm going to miss the first three games :( :( :( but, say it with me now... GO BEARS! let the 2005 season begin!