day 3

misery is going to end soon. one more hour and then i'm outta here. been staring at nothing for the past few hours.

on another note... i have accumulated ~$350 in gift certificates to fry's. what should i get?

and, my coworker gets 50% off to coach... it's not like i'm a huge coach fan, so i don't need or want anything from there in particular. anyone want something?

don't even ask me about all my other gift cards. i have some gift cards that are 2-3 years old. anyone want to eat at the cheescake factory with me? i'll pay ;)

day 2

lalalalalalalala. when i start blogging every day... then you know that i don't have much to do.

costco is stinking crowded. reminded me yet again how much i dislike crowds. and shopping. so crowded shopping = a big NO in my book.

currently watching: Lost, season 1. finally got it back from my coworker. rewatching the season finale, on the lookout for more clues. it at least gives me something to do.

pics galore

okay... here we go. uploaded all my pictures from the past week - amazingly, there were a lot. and since work is slow during shutdown, here we go!

in chronological order:

Tuesday, Dec. 20
celebrated olivia's 26th birthday at cascal.

here, see olivia excitedly blow out her candle




afterwards, headed to the renaissance household where we made a gingerbread house.

the foundation of the house. can you guess what house this was modeled off of?




andrea made graves for the pets




the completed house!




shally, joy, andrea & i have some fun




Wed, Dec. 21 - Fri, Dec. 23
Went to Vegas to watch Cal play in the Vegas bowl!

we had lunch at the aladdin (where we stayed) buffet. gina and i saw the desserts and just couldn't help ourselves




me, mel, and ma in front of the bellagio fountains & paris




the cal football team on the field after we won




go bears!




took us forever to get back due to traffic, so we ended up having a midnight dinner in paris. despite the time, eric still ordered a whole rack of ribs




Sunday, December 25
After Christmas service, went to Tapicoa Express & lunch with some old school canaan people

silly old canaan gals




That evening, went to dinner with the other orphaned saratoga gals at Spiedo in San Mateo

the animal magents i gave them




olivia almost choked jean




Monday, December 26
alinna & hideyo get married! it was a long day, from getting to the church early to set up, to jetting straight to mayflower to help set up the reception, to discovering mayflower wasn't ready for us yet and still had lunch patrons, to the 2 hour reception, to the 4 hour banquet that followed immediately. phew!

bride & groom before the ceremony




look at the pimpin' ring bearer with the two flower girls




alinna & papa walk down the aisle





the head table




our table with the couple. hip, hip, hideyo! gooooooooooooo alinna!




peter, the good sport, went and stole some big cupcakes for us




their wedding favors




Tuesday, December 27
stuck in the office during company shutdown. but discovered that my coworker found something i've been searching for forever at a flea market in berkeley. seriously, this stuff rocks, but is almost impossible to find nowadays (errr maybe cuz it's carcinogenic or something). awesome! our ant chalk supply was running low.




okay, lots more pictures on my smugmug. go check them out.

olivia's bday
gingerbread house
vegas bowl
christmas service & dinner
alinna & hideyo's wedding

back to work

i sooooooooo do not want to be here. i forgot how depressing it is working here during company shut down. well, at the very least, they figured out how to turn on the heater this year for the few measley people left behind.

alinna & hideyo are MARRIED! and an edit to my post below... we did end up making fools of ourselves. oh well. anything for al! just talked to her this morning, they're off to their honeymoon!

maybe if i have no work to do later, i'll upload pics. be on the lookout!

victory!

it's been a whirlwind since i got back from vegas, but some highlights of vegas:

-winning the game. yeah, winning the game last year would have been nice, too.
-spending time with ma & mel (oh fine, and the guys as well. at the very least they're quite entertaining. ask us about the "5 of us against Marshawn Lynch in a wind tunnel with a sniper" conversation. or ... maybe you shouldn't).
-walking around vegas. hadn't been there since high school.
-our awesome, huge room. it was big. and the best part is it was cheap.
-$79 southwest flight. discovered it was better than sitting in a car for ten hours.

after getting back from vegas, came home to take a nap (or, as tired karen told olivia in the car ride back from the airport: "i need to take a ... sleep."), and then went off to alinna & hideyo's rehearsal & dinner. dinner at kabuls, scrumptious as usual.

spent christmas eve morning doing last minute christmas shopping, wrapping gifts, then headed home to celebrate christmas a day early with my family since my parents were busy on the day of. had hot pot for early dinner before heading to christmas eve service.

spent christmas morning at service, where it was a totally different congregation - almost the entire normal congregation was not around since they went back home to spend time with families, and all the old-school faces showed up again. joined everyone after sunday school for some tea & lunch. was reminded of all the laughter we had as a youth group 10 years ago, and how time spent with carolyn & joyce is always entertaining.

joyce: well, THAT one (in reference to carolyn) frees all the terrorists out onto the street.
carolyn: well, SHE (in reference to joyce) thinks every single chinese person is a terrorist!

can you tell which is an extreme republican and which is an extreme democrat? :)

had christmas dinner with the saratoga girls at a restaurant in san mateo since all of us somehow ended up orphaned on christmas. we also came up with a brilliant idea for al & hideyo's wedding. i hope we don't embarrass ourselves too much.

which leads us to today... alinna's wedding! can't believe it's here!

lots of pictures to be uploaded and posted... at a later time. if i get around to posting it, reflections on 2005 as well. hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas!

what happens in vegas... stays in vegas

let's hope that's not what we're thinking after the game. please not another flop like last year's holiday bowl. oh well, this bowl game is pretty meaningless in the whole college bowl scheme of things.

so i'm off to vegas tonight. if i can stay awake. i've been sleepwalking through work this week since i've been going to bed past 1 or 2am every night since sunday. mostly been working on alinna & hideyo's slideshow, as well as packing last night.

thanks to ng & eon who hosted a holiday potluck dinner last night. i skipped the dinner since al, jenie, ev, and i took o to cascal for her bday. it was decent, and ambiance was nice, but still nothing compared to spain. but anyway, had lots of fun building a gingerbread house modeled after the simpson's house. whenever i have a chance to upload my pics, you can see the finished product. i was pretty impressed :)

okay!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

praying always refreshes my soul. enjoyed the corporate prayer time at cell group sunday night, thanks guys!

excited to see how God will be leading our group next year, and I'm thankful for the people He has brought together as our group - looking forward to see how the Spirit will guide us as we begin a new segment on practical grace.

alinna is getting married in ONE WEEK. how weird is that.

in between now and her wedding, i need to:
-finish their slideshow. eek!
-eek! especially since i'm going to vegas from wed-fri to watch cal in the vegas bowl. go bears!
-celebrate o's birthday with a dinner
-find my dad a christmas present (yes, i will be one of those last minute shoppers on the 24th. watch me multitask as i work on a slideshow, go shopping, spend time with family, and make it to the candlelight service all in one day)
-go to alinna & hideyo's rehearsal & rehearsal dinner
-celebrate Jesus' birthday

phew. hope i survive.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

cup o' dirt, part II

tomio, here's the picture you asked for.



pretty nasty, huh? (don't forget, i vacuumed the room first with the old vacuum before using our new one).

pic update

i finally uploaded all my pics a few days ago.

all uploaded on my smugmug

to whet your appetite... some of what i uploaded:

deanie baby & julia's wedding - at los altos united methodist and then the hilton. there was quite a crowd in the bar area throughout the reception keeping up with the big game. good thing the game wasn't close. :)


alinna's bridal shower. sausages and pizza galore. YUM. this is MY kind of bridal shower. :)



nice face mary.


by the way. i show mary this picture. our conversation:
[11:05] me: nice face
[11:10] mary: hahahaha
[11:10] mary: i didn't even know i did that
[11:11] mary: i'm funny

finally tried gochi with jenie bops & lekha. YUM. the only thing i didn't think was as good as tanto were the rice balls. but try the pizza. good stuff.


for all the pictures, go to my smugmug.

also... going to vegas next week for the cal bowl game. woohoo! i'm bummed that you can't make it, gma! you're my cal football buddy!! but i'm ready to root on the bears even if it is a sucky bowl. i'm a cal fan. unlike some twin friends of mine. go bears!

today during service, the choir sang a medley of Christmas songs during offering, and as a transition between two of the songs, they sang "Isn't He." There's something so sweet & simple about the lyrics of the songs, it made me miss what I like to deem a "throwback" praise song - the good old maranatha and vineyard songs. nowadays all we sing are old hymn favorites and what's the latest and greatest of the chris tomlin, tim hughes, matt redman, and the rest of the passion & revival generation. I think the last time I heard "Isn't He" was during Jeremy & Mandy's wedding, when Mandy had a few people sing it while she walked down the aisle. It's one of the few weddings where I even remember the bride walking down because it was so precious - even though it was supposedly Mandy's day - all about the bride (& the groom), especially as she walked down the aisle and everyone was watching her & her only, she chose a song that emphasizes the beauty of God over the beauty of her. and that's what made her walk down the aisle so beautiful.

anyway, here's to those good old songs. who wants to sing hosanna, & glory with me?

so cute!

never knew pandas could climb & hang off trees like that.

check out the new baby cub (not yet named) on his panda cam. SO CUTE!

cup o' dirt

OMG. so after a few years of service from alinna's old, old vacuum, i finally decided to buy a new one ("buy," but actually free from the credit on amazon i got from my credit card mostly from my tv) because i felt like that old, old vacuum was spewing dirt more than it was picking it up.

so after checking out reviews online, i just went ahead and purchased one that everyone said was a good value for its price.

so i vacuumed the carpet in our living room yesterday with the old vacuum, and wanted to test out our new one, so i re-vacuumed it today. this vacuum has an indicator to tell you when the carpet is clean and you can move on. some parts of the carpet i vacuumed over, and over, and over, and... over again and the light never turned green, so i ended up giving up and moving to other parts of the carpet. after i was done... OMG. it was DISGUSTING. that room filled up the ENTIRE cup and more of dirt, gray fuzz, even dirt so fine it was powder in the bottom of the dirt cup. i feel like i'm an advertisement for the vacuum, but dang, this thing is awesome!





that dirt cup ain't small... this has definitely been one of the best purchases i've made in a while. thank you bissell!

rain, rain, go away

the rain is coming... as is talks amongst my snow-loving coworkers who keep mentioning the likes of "tahoe" "snow" "snowboarding/skiing" and more. i feel the need to cover my ears and sing "LALALALALALALA" at the top of my lungs. one coworker even had the balls to ask "so are you ready for this season? what? you haven't recovered yet?" grrrrr.

been going to the gym 3-4 times a week now. doing at least an hour between the bike/precor as well as other pt exercises on the weight machines/step/etc. knee/pain doesn't feel like it's improving at all. maybe i just need to give it more time...