Well, this weekend was a little low key. Friday night we went to pho with Frank, Jenelle, Linda and Rob and then played Cranium at Frank and Jenelle's house. The girls won, of course. On Saturday our family all met up for our last Chinese New Year celebration. I have to say, I'm actually getting a little tired of all the Chinese food. I didn't know that could happen! It also could be because I've been getting indigestion lately and the greasy food makes my stomach more upset. I don't know why it's started all of a sudden. I think I actually had heart burn from the tamales I ate for dinner last night. This is a recent thing that I hope passes. I guess it's better than having gas, but it's really uncomfortable. I might have to go down to CVS to get Pepcid AC or something.
On Saturday I also woke up super early for some reason. My parents were up and were surprised that I was awake. To kill time I took Emmy on a really long run/power walk. Since we've been running lately and there is a ton of pollen in the air (and I'm super out of shape) my asthma has been acting up quite a bit. She runs with no problem, I just can't keep up the jog so I've resorted to power walking. I'd say all in all we went about three miles with backtracking and going in circles. After that Nick and I went to go see the movie Valentine's Day. It was super cute! I want to get it when it comes out on DVD. There are so many actors I enjoy in the movie. The cast was huge! There were also a ton of Princess Diaries actors in it because the director. Even small PD 2 characters like the construction brothers and the annoying military guy who yells about everything and picks up Lily. I think there were seven PD characters in Valentine's Day if I counted correctly. A lot!
On Sunday Nick went to watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game at Frank and Jenelle's house. It would have been nice to go and be with people who understand hockey, but I try to be home for dinners on Sunday so I didn't go. It's a good thing too. I was getting so loud and worked up that even Emmy was barking at me. Nick's friends would have thought I was crazy.
Other than that nothing much is going on. I've been reading The Piano Teacher for my book club on Saturday and we're planning to go to the San Jose Tech Museum to see the Star Trek exhibit on Sunday as a family, but that's about it. Not much happening here. There was some drama with Emmy fighting with the neighbor dog that got me all flustered on Monday, but it's better now. I've resolved to try to train her for aggression towards other dogs and then Edward will take her for formal training when he comes back in the summer. I've already lost plenty of sleep worrying about what to do with her. She's good around people it's just other dogs. Aiya, she'll just have to learn I guess and who else better to start teaching her but me.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
New Shoes
I decided that once I got the shoes in the mail from DSW that I didn't like two pairs (the booties and black weave). Christopher and I headed out to Brentwood so that I could return them to the store without a restocking fee. Of course, I had to look around. I found these three pairs in the clearance area while Christopher fell asleep on one of their leather chairs. I don't know if it's because they're in between seasons, but it sure seemed like there were more styles in the clearance section than the regular priced. I returned $158 worth and left with $111. At least I didn't spend more than I returned!
Awesome weekend
This weekend was nothing short of awesome. I celebrated Valentine's Day for the first time since Gary! That was a loooonnnnggg time ago. Nick isn't one to believe in Cupid or Hallmark cards (he actually said "I'm not getting you one of those" after a Hallmark commercial), which I totally agree with, but it is nice to do something different and feel special. So instead of the normal roses and chocolate thing we went back up to Bouchon Bistro in Napa for a super delicious lunch on Saturday since Chinese New Year was on Sunday. The man certainly knows the way to my heart. Good food! We started out with a dozen oysters, which I'm quite fond of now. I still prefer the tiny sweet ones, but I'm getting so much better. I haven't decided if I like to put the vinaigrette on them or not. It cuts the flavor of the oyster and then I can't really taste them. I don't think my palette is well versed enough in oysters to be able to detect the subtleties of their flavors. I wouldn't call myself a purist or anything, it's more of a lack of knowledge. For now I'll stick with the oysters as they are so that I can get a better grasp of their different tastes. Practice makes perfect!
For our entrees Nick had the fillet mignon and I had lamb with a glass of wine. Yummy! The lamb came with little sausages that had quite the kick to them. It was so good. I think that's my new favorite thing. I've been craving lamb the last few weeks, so that hit the spot. After lunch we headed across the patio to Bouchon's bakery where we got coffee and Nick had some Macarons. We sat and soaked up the sun while watching people walk by (one of my favorite hobbies). Well, I guess I should say that I was people watching and Nick was car watching. He would watch the shiny hunks of expensive metal roll by while I watched people walking dogs and checked out their shoes. Maybe that's why I like people watching so much. Dogs and shoes! Speaking of shoes, I got to wear my new red heels. I like them a lot! They're patent leather so they don't breathe much, but oh well. They aren't hideously uncomfortable so they're good in my book. Later on that day we stopped by the Napa outlets and Nick found a pretty sweet leather jacket. He had been talking about this jacket since we met and low and behold, it was in the Barney's outlet.
On Sunday I went for an early jog with Emmy and then we all headed out to the City for Chinese New Year at grandma's house. Gung Hay Fat Choy! We got there pretty early so that my mom could help with cooking all of the food. I haven't spent a CNY at home in a long time. The evening started out quietly, but then became very loud very quickly. Emmy had come along with us since we were going to be there for a while. Since she's not very good with crowds of jumping children and little doggies who want to play with her, I put her back in the car. She was stressing me out. Sparky, Dante and Auntie Mary's dog, wanted to play with her which I thought was cute. Emmy just doesn't know how to play. She kind of just looked at him and did her chin-pull-in thing (so that she could be further away from him without actually backing up) whenever he'd come up to her. Once we got home the quiet was golden. I don't remember our family being so loud before! Maybe it was because they were all babies and now they're all old enough to run around and make lots of noise. Anyway, sitting at home and watching the Olympics was blissful.
All of the grandkids. Josie, that space behind Natalee's head is for you!
Silly Dante! I just couldn't resist putting up this picture.
For once I got a holiday off. I had totally forgotten it was a holiday at all. So when Neil said that he was thinking of closing Celery, I was like, why? I snatched that holiday up quickly when he asked if I was planning to work on Monday though.
Mary (other CSR): I just want to remind you that I'm not working on Monday.
Neil: Yeah, I was thinking of closing Celery.
Me: Why?
Neil: Allison, where you planning on working Monday? (hopeful voice)
Me: Yeah...ohh it's a holiday. No!
Neil: Okay, we'll close on Monday.
Me: Really? Cool!
And so it was done. I think we were all checking in over the weekend and on Monday when we were around because we didn't want to have to deal with all the voicemails left in the inbox, but it was nice to have a day off. Usually I only get the big holidays like Christmas and Fourth of July so this was a nice change.
Originally, I had wanted to go down as a family to the San Jose Tech museum to see the Star Trek exhibit, but Christopher and my dad were going to go swimming and then pick up their scuba gear (which they spent $900 on!). I had woken up at 9am, but then deemed it too early to get up and start moving around on my day off. I should have though. As a last minute thing, I decided that I would take Emmy down to Monterey to walk around. Being the great boyfriend he is, Nick came with me because he didn't want me going alone. (He had turned his ankle midweek so he didn't want to be walking around a lot on it.) So we hopped in the car after lunch and head for the coast. It was a beautiful drive. I even wore a tank top! By the time we got there around 3:30 though, the fog had rolled in. It was still pretty nice out there. Windy, but nice. We played with Emmy on the beach for a while. I'm not sure if she's ever encountered sand before. She had it all in her mouth and fur, but she seemed like she was having fun chasing the frisbee. Then again, when does she not?
After a while of walking around the beach area, we strolled around downtown Monterey and then headed to Carmel to go to an oyster bar called A.W. Shucks. Thank goodness for iPhones. The food was delicious and the area was really nice. Emmy stayed in the car and watched people stroll past the Coach store. When we first got there we couldn't find the restaurant so we had to keep going past our car. I think she spotted us a couple of times because she'd stare right at us, but then we'd go down another street so that she wouldn't get too excited. When we finally found the restaurant, we were on the wrong side of the street, we shared a dozen oysters and a fried fish platter. Yummy, yummy, yummy. This weekend was full of good food! We've been reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and he said that you should never eat seafood on a Monday since seafood shipments generally come in on Thursdays. The seafood is probably getting ready to spoil by a Monday. Check the specials. If there's tons of seafood that's cheap, it's probably because they're trying to get rid of it. We figured that since the place specialized in oysters and seafood that we were okay...we also just wanted oysters.
Look at all the sand on her fur! We had to walk her around for a while so that she could dry and I could brush the sand off.
Happy puppy
For our entrees Nick had the fillet mignon and I had lamb with a glass of wine. Yummy! The lamb came with little sausages that had quite the kick to them. It was so good. I think that's my new favorite thing. I've been craving lamb the last few weeks, so that hit the spot. After lunch we headed across the patio to Bouchon's bakery where we got coffee and Nick had some Macarons. We sat and soaked up the sun while watching people walk by (one of my favorite hobbies). Well, I guess I should say that I was people watching and Nick was car watching. He would watch the shiny hunks of expensive metal roll by while I watched people walking dogs and checked out their shoes. Maybe that's why I like people watching so much. Dogs and shoes! Speaking of shoes, I got to wear my new red heels. I like them a lot! They're patent leather so they don't breathe much, but oh well. They aren't hideously uncomfortable so they're good in my book. Later on that day we stopped by the Napa outlets and Nick found a pretty sweet leather jacket. He had been talking about this jacket since we met and low and behold, it was in the Barney's outlet.
On Sunday I went for an early jog with Emmy and then we all headed out to the City for Chinese New Year at grandma's house. Gung Hay Fat Choy! We got there pretty early so that my mom could help with cooking all of the food. I haven't spent a CNY at home in a long time. The evening started out quietly, but then became very loud very quickly. Emmy had come along with us since we were going to be there for a while. Since she's not very good with crowds of jumping children and little doggies who want to play with her, I put her back in the car. She was stressing me out. Sparky, Dante and Auntie Mary's dog, wanted to play with her which I thought was cute. Emmy just doesn't know how to play. She kind of just looked at him and did her chin-pull-in thing (so that she could be further away from him without actually backing up) whenever he'd come up to her. Once we got home the quiet was golden. I don't remember our family being so loud before! Maybe it was because they were all babies and now they're all old enough to run around and make lots of noise. Anyway, sitting at home and watching the Olympics was blissful.
All of the grandkids. Josie, that space behind Natalee's head is for you!
Silly Dante! I just couldn't resist putting up this picture.For once I got a holiday off. I had totally forgotten it was a holiday at all. So when Neil said that he was thinking of closing Celery, I was like, why? I snatched that holiday up quickly when he asked if I was planning to work on Monday though.
Mary (other CSR): I just want to remind you that I'm not working on Monday.
Neil: Yeah, I was thinking of closing Celery.
Me: Why?
Neil: Allison, where you planning on working Monday? (hopeful voice)
Me: Yeah...ohh it's a holiday. No!
Neil: Okay, we'll close on Monday.
Me: Really? Cool!
And so it was done. I think we were all checking in over the weekend and on Monday when we were around because we didn't want to have to deal with all the voicemails left in the inbox, but it was nice to have a day off. Usually I only get the big holidays like Christmas and Fourth of July so this was a nice change.
Originally, I had wanted to go down as a family to the San Jose Tech museum to see the Star Trek exhibit, but Christopher and my dad were going to go swimming and then pick up their scuba gear (which they spent $900 on!). I had woken up at 9am, but then deemed it too early to get up and start moving around on my day off. I should have though. As a last minute thing, I decided that I would take Emmy down to Monterey to walk around. Being the great boyfriend he is, Nick came with me because he didn't want me going alone. (He had turned his ankle midweek so he didn't want to be walking around a lot on it.) So we hopped in the car after lunch and head for the coast. It was a beautiful drive. I even wore a tank top! By the time we got there around 3:30 though, the fog had rolled in. It was still pretty nice out there. Windy, but nice. We played with Emmy on the beach for a while. I'm not sure if she's ever encountered sand before. She had it all in her mouth and fur, but she seemed like she was having fun chasing the frisbee. Then again, when does she not?
After a while of walking around the beach area, we strolled around downtown Monterey and then headed to Carmel to go to an oyster bar called A.W. Shucks. Thank goodness for iPhones. The food was delicious and the area was really nice. Emmy stayed in the car and watched people stroll past the Coach store. When we first got there we couldn't find the restaurant so we had to keep going past our car. I think she spotted us a couple of times because she'd stare right at us, but then we'd go down another street so that she wouldn't get too excited. When we finally found the restaurant, we were on the wrong side of the street, we shared a dozen oysters and a fried fish platter. Yummy, yummy, yummy. This weekend was full of good food! We've been reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and he said that you should never eat seafood on a Monday since seafood shipments generally come in on Thursdays. The seafood is probably getting ready to spoil by a Monday. Check the specials. If there's tons of seafood that's cheap, it's probably because they're trying to get rid of it. We figured that since the place specialized in oysters and seafood that we were okay...we also just wanted oysters.
Look at all the sand on her fur! We had to walk her around for a while so that she could dry and I could brush the sand off.
Happy puppy
Friday, February 12, 2010
Haircut
Well I did it! I don't think these pictures are that great, but hopefully my hair looks better in person. Hahah. I really enjoy it. I have a little blush brush of a ponytail now. The stylist gave me a slight a-line bob because she didn't want me to look like a soccer mom. I'm getting used to the different length of hair. It's really layered in the back, which is hard to see in the pictures. So it's super short up on top and then the front is longer. Kind of weird to me, but I like it.
My bangs are already pinned back and I have it back in a pony tail right now, but I'll try to style it for Chinese New Years. I will probably curl it under like I usually do. The stylist did a little flip out thing that just went flat by the time I got home. My hair doesn't exactly hold style well. Hopefully this will be low maintenance and still be cute. I better get back to the gym pronto. My face is looking awfully chubby! Am I always so wide looking?!?!
My bangs are already pinned back and I have it back in a pony tail right now, but I'll try to style it for Chinese New Years. I will probably curl it under like I usually do. The stylist did a little flip out thing that just went flat by the time I got home. My hair doesn't exactly hold style well. Hopefully this will be low maintenance and still be cute. I better get back to the gym pronto. My face is looking awfully chubby! Am I always so wide looking?!?!
Pictures from brunch
Last Saturday Nick and I made a huge brunch/lunch. By the time I got over to Nick's it was pretty much lunch time. Originally we were going to have the pancakes for brunch and then the spam and eggs for a late lunch, but since I go there so late we just made it all...and ate it all. After that we (I kid you not) took a four hour nap.
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Nick made a really tasty blueberry dressing for his pancakes. I'm more of a plain pancake eater since I'm not that big on sweets, but I did taste the blueberry sauce and it was really good.
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I was in charge of the rice and pancakes and Nick was in charge of the eggs, spam, and blueberry sauce.
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Spam and eggs over rice.
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Nick caramelizing strawberries
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Nick made a really tasty blueberry dressing for his pancakes. I'm more of a plain pancake eater since I'm not that big on sweets, but I did taste the blueberry sauce and it was really good.
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I was in charge of the rice and pancakes and Nick was in charge of the eggs, spam, and blueberry sauce.
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Spam and eggs over rice.
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Nick caramelizing strawberries
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Beach before dinner
Before our closing of the year dinner with the family we had to drop off some stuff at my Uncle Baldy's house, which made us really early for dinner. Instead of just sitting in the car for half an hour, my dad decided that we should go check out the beach. It was soooo windy and the tide was super high so my mom stayed in the car. I've never actually seen so much sea foam before. Of course, I immediately thought of Ariel and the Little Mermaid fairytale (the real one, not Disney). If you read the original Hans Christian Anderson fable in the link I provided, you will be surprised at how much Disney changes everything. Everything is not so happily ever after.
My dad said that he used to play in the building up toward the right when he was a kid. One time my Yeh Yeh had brought him down to play on the beach and he almost got sucked in, he said. He was so engrossed by the sand and water that he didn't realize that there was a big wave coming in. Obviously it didn't take my dad away, but I thought it was amusing because he started the story with "I almost drowned here once." This didn't really surprise me because he's not the strongest of swimmers now so I can only imagine how he was as a little kid. While we were walking back to the car he said "One of these days the ocean will get me." I sure hope not! He just signed up to get his scuba diving certification!
While Christopher was trying to get his shirt to flip back down from the wind the water was creeping closer and closer to us. 
My dad said that back when he was a kid before digital cameras were so readily available there used to be photographers milling around to take pictures for you. Yeah, there are no more of those guys walking around. Just lots of dogs and people Parasurfing. All of these were done with the camera on my phone. Technology is taking over!
My dad said that back when he was a kid before digital cameras were so readily available there used to be photographers milling around to take pictures for you. Yeah, there are no more of those guys walking around. Just lots of dogs and people Parasurfing. All of these were done with the camera on my phone. Technology is taking over!
My dad said that he used to play in the building up toward the right when he was a kid. One time my Yeh Yeh had brought him down to play on the beach and he almost got sucked in, he said. He was so engrossed by the sand and water that he didn't realize that there was a big wave coming in. Obviously it didn't take my dad away, but I thought it was amusing because he started the story with "I almost drowned here once." This didn't really surprise me because he's not the strongest of swimmers now so I can only imagine how he was as a little kid. While we were walking back to the car he said "One of these days the ocean will get me." I sure hope not! He just signed up to get his scuba diving certification!
Monday, February 08, 2010
Note to Family:
There are some anonymous commenters who have been putting links in my comment box. DO NOT click on them. I have been trying to remove them as they come in, but if I miss one, don't click! There may be a virus in there.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
New Haircut
I've been thinking lately that I'd like to get a new haircut. When I get the guts to cut off my length I would like to have a bob like Nicole Richie's. I like that she has a lot of bangs, but I'm afraid that since I have relatively thin hair that it will make me look bald in the back. Hahah I'm of the opinion that blond hair looks much different than brown too since it seems to get lighter as it goes down the head where as brunettes just have the same shade all the way down. I expect that my hair will look more like Anne Hathaway's, but with Nicole's bangs. I also like the layers that Paris Hilton has in her hair, so I might think about getting some layers too. What do you all think? Nick thinks that it will make me look older, which is a good thing. Opinions please before I go in for the kill!
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Wicked with the kids
On Wednesday we went to go see Wicked with Christopher and Briana. Briana was the only one who hadn't seen it before, but it was worth going again. We got some inexpensive seats up in the balcony, but they were still pretty nice. Afterward Briana said that the Glee version of Defying Gravity doesn't even come close to the stage version. We could have all told her that...and probably did at some point, but she needed to see it for herself. We treated ourselves to some late night grilled cheese sandwiches after the show and then it was home to bed for all of us. What is the world coming to? Double dating with my little brother. Aiya.
This was originally my New Year's Eve outfit, but it works for Wicked too.
Tomorrow I plan to get up early so that my dad, Christopher, and I can go sign up for scuba diving lessons and then head out to Nick's place to make brunch. Our plan is to make pancakes with fresh blueberry topping and glazed bananas for brunch. Hehe I get to use my creme brulee torch! And then for a late lunch we're going to make spam, eggs, and rice. Yummy! We've been wanting to do this together all week but haven't had the time. Then on Sunday I figured I'd end up doing a little Superbowling with Nick until I have to leave to go the city for the closing of the year dinner with the extended family. Thank goodness for that, though the Superbowl is much more bearable than Monday Night Football. Dun dun dun dun...bom bom, bom bom...duh duh duh duh da duh...bom bom, bom bom.
This was originally my New Year's Eve outfit, but it works for Wicked too.
Tomorrow I plan to get up early so that my dad, Christopher, and I can go sign up for scuba diving lessons and then head out to Nick's place to make brunch. Our plan is to make pancakes with fresh blueberry topping and glazed bananas for brunch. Hehe I get to use my creme brulee torch! And then for a late lunch we're going to make spam, eggs, and rice. Yummy! We've been wanting to do this together all week but haven't had the time. Then on Sunday I figured I'd end up doing a little Superbowling with Nick until I have to leave to go the city for the closing of the year dinner with the extended family. Thank goodness for that, though the Superbowl is much more bearable than Monday Night Football. Dun dun dun dun...bom bom, bom bom...duh duh duh duh da duh...bom bom, bom bom.
January recap
Well, I'm getting closer to the present! One more monthly recap and then I can continue on at a normal pace...I hope. Let the stories begin!
New Years Eve was a blast. Despite having to work my normal hours, it was pretty quiet so I was able to help my mom get ready for her party and make a pasta dish to take to our evening event. Briana came over to hang out with Christopher as Nick swooped me away to an engagement party of a family friend. We only stayed at the engagement party for a little bit as we had another party to go to with his close friends. We rushed back to the house so that we could change into our nice evening wear. Even though it was just at a friend's house, we all wanted to dress up for the occasion. I love dressing up! Unfortunately, I order my dress from Delia's to late so it didn't come in time. I was able to wear it to see Wicked a few days ago, but it would have been perfect for New Years Eve. Oh well, now I have two new dresses instead of one! I scoured the mall for an appropriate dress and managed to find one that I liked at this store called Papaya (Papaya dress). It wasn't the best quality, but it fit the bill and was a good price. I had also purchased one from Macy's, but decided to return it because it was really similar to the Delia's dress, kind of pricey, and Nick didn't enjoy the giant flower that was attached to the sash. That was the part that I liked since the rest of the dress was just plain black. There were just too many things working against the dress for me to warrant keeping it.
The party itself was a blast. Nick looked awesome in his suit and we had tons of fun. My dad said that he would pick us up so that we could drink safely. The hosts, Will and Lindsay, live out in Pacheco so it wasn't that far away from my house. Boy, what a night. I've never really gone home inebriated before, but I guess there is always a first time for everything. The night was spent playing board games and chatting. Before we knew it the ball was dropping.
The next day we had our New Years dinner at Uncle Tom's place. We headed to their house early and then over to a restaurant near him. The food was good as usual, but it wasn't Mr. Fong's. I guess they changed hands and it's not as good as it used to be or something like that. Whatever the case, it was tasty as usual. Briana came with us and was very brave about trying every dish. Kudos to her! I don't think we had anything really abnormal on the menu, but if you're not used to seeing a chicken or duck head sitting on the platter then I expect that it's unusual and slightly intimidating. We also drank so much tea that on the drive home we had to stop in Walnut Creek at a Safeway to go to the bathroom. I had to go so badly I felt like I was young and going down to Disneyland again. I was literally running to the bathroom.
To my surprise, Nick had suggested that the both of our parents meet before his parents had to leave to go back to Kuwait, which is what we had planned for the next day. Since we always get home early from my mom's side of the family's engagements, I had time to watch tons of Glee and hem the pants that I wanted to wear for our brunch. I had gotten the pants from the Gap right when I moved home, but never got around to hemming them. I figured this was as good of time as ever to hem and wear the pants.
The next morning we went out to Emeryville to the Ranch 99 mall for dim sum at Asian Pearl. I was sooo tired. For some reason my dad just had to get his car checked for smog that morning when we were supposed to be out in Emeryville by 10:30am. So they got me up at 8am and we headed to our mechanic's place in Bay Point. That took all of 30 minutes and also got us closer to the freeway than from our house. After leaving the mechanic's we ended up getting to Ranch 99 around 9am. Nick's family hadn't even left the house yet! I don't know why we had to wake up so early! It's just a good thing that I had a nice large coffee to keep me going. By the time we met them though, I was starting to droop. The brunch was nice and our parents seemed to get along well. There were only a couple of silences when we were piling food in our mouths, so I'm going to take that as a good sign. Everything was very polite and civilized. My dad didn't even wear his velcro belt! Now that's saying something.
Since we were out in Emeryville, my parents wanted to go to the Northface Outlet in Berkley. That took forever. First of all, it was a mad house in there. My parents were searching for jackets to keep them warm on their China trip...it seemed everyone else was searching for clothes suitable for a mid-winter China trip as well. It took so long. I ended up getting a fleece and then went walking around looking for a place to go the bathroom. I had consumed a lot of tea. While I was on my hunt, my parents bought a couple of things at the outlet and then searched for me. I had gone down the street to a little shop with a nice little bathroom. At first I pretended like I was shopping there and then snuck into their bathroom. While in there I got a call from my parents trying to locate me. They headed over and my mom found herself a nice vest for China and my dad used the bathroom too. I guess I didn't need to pretend I was a patron after all because my mom bought the vest and me a pepper spray keychain. My old one got confiscated at the airport a while back. Then, as if the stuff from Northface and the little shop wasn't enough they headed to some used outing wear place across from REI. We searched around there and then went across the street REI. I did benefit from this trip. I got myself a nice Marmot jacket that is really warm. I love it! I couldn't decide between the Northface one or the Marmot. Josie and Del had the Northface ones and I really liked them, however when I tried them on, the Marmot was significantly warmer than the Northface brand. They look pretty much the same except that the Marmot had an extra two pockets and was a little more expensive. Haha since my mom said she'd get it for me I got the Marmot. I will not disclose the price. Feeling good about that, but still really, really tired, we headed back to the car and then back to the Northface Outlet to return my fleece jacket and get another jacket. I decided that I didn't need the Northface fleece if I had the Marmot. This portion of the trip took some time because my parents were trying to figure out what jackets the wanted. My mom ended up getting a big puffy jacket and my dad a fleece to go under the snow jacket that he already has. We were finally ready to go and I slept in the car all the way home and then for a good two and a half hours once we got home. That night I ended up going to Target to get Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on blueray because it was over 50% off. It was the last day of the sale so I had to go get it. Since Nick has the PS3, I chose to get the blueray because it was only $2 more than the regular dvd and it came with a regular dvd in it also. We stayed home and watched the movie while Nick went out with some of our friends. I was just too beat to go out anymore that night. My parents, of course, fell asleep during the movie.
The next day, Sunday, we went as a family to go see Avatar. Since I had been raving about it, we headed out to Pleasant Hill so that we could watch it in 3D. We had a late lunch at a nice Italian place by the theater and then headed to Ranch 99 to get crab. MMMMMMMMM...... We had crab for dinner, which was very yummy and then I went to Nick's to watch all the extras on the blueray disk. Movie, seafood lunch, and seafood dinner... now that's quality family time if you ask me.
If you're interested in the HP extras, I can tell you, they're just okay. I was pretty excited about them, but I wish there was an entire commentary for the movie. For some reason HP movies never have that! They talked about the new theme park that's opening this year. From what I heard back when I was still listening to HP podcasts and reading HP news they're only opening part of the theme park this year and then continuing work on the other half. The park is at Universal Studios in Florida so I'm thinking that I'll just wait to go out there after they are finished. I'd like to wear my robe, but I think I'd melt in that humidity.
The next week was pretty quiet. My parents were getting ready for their trip. Nick and I had a date night on Thursday where if I'm remembering correctly, we went to go get Mexican food and then went back to his house to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, which turns out to be an awesome cartoon put on by Nickelodeon. (Although, now that I think of it, we might have just stayed in and made dinner. Whatever the case, we had a date night where we ate Mexican and watched cartoons at some point in January.) Even though it is American produced, in my head I consider it to be an anime. There are a lot of anime features in the cartoon and there are tons of Chinese characters all over the place. The whole thing was based on martial arts and the artists did a great job of portraying different styles. It also helped that one of the main characters was voiced by Rufio (Dante Basco)! I was nothing short of addicted to it. It tapped into that part of my brain that had me obsessed with Sailor Moon. There is actually a movie coming out based on The Last Airbender. Nick refuses to see it in theaters because there aren't any Asian actors cast. I agree completely. I think we will be downloading it to watch. All the cast members are Caucasian and Indian! There are so many good Asian actors out there. I don't know why they didn't cast any of them. Anyway, if you get a chance, there are probably reruns of the original cartoon on Nickelodeon and I highly suggest watching it. It is a really well done cartoon with a great storyline. Christopher watched the whole series too because we got him hooked.
That Friday before my parents left, Nick and I went to pho. Mmmm... pho. I love the stuff. Frank and Jenelle came over to watch some tv with us after they went out to dinner. Originally we had planned with them to go out to the City and pick up Wicked tickets for ourselves and the kids the next day, but then the kids couldn't decide what they wanted to do. We were hoping to go out there to get the tickets at the Orpheum to avoid handling fees and the go to Uncle Victor's restaurant. That whole plan fell through, which I was not pleased about at all since we had put aside a whole day to go do that for the kids. Nick and I took a little break after that because I wanted to spend some time with my parents before they headed off to China. I'm still a little bitter that I wasn't invited to go and got put on teen-sitting duty. On top of that, they got to have dinner and a nice long conversation with Juni and Ron while they were there!
Sunday morning we woke up a the crack of dawn to take my parents to the BART station. They didn't want us to drive them all the way out to SFO. Christopher and I went to the grocery store after that and then to Ikea to look for a new carpet and coffee table for our living room. Right before we left, my parents found and purchased a new sofa that they wanted. I was more pleased than ever. Even though our old couch served us well, it was just plain falling apart and needed to be retired. So that day we were excited to get new stuff for our family room. We spent almost three hours at Ikea because we couldn't find the rug that we wanted. They only had one of the rugs we wanted and we needed two to compensate for the size of the room. After standing in different lines and batting my eye lashes at one of the guys who worked there (my short, almost non-existent eye lashes) we got a second rug because someone had just returned it. Thank goodness for big smiles and faux damsel-in-distress tactics! I don't want to set foot in Ikea for a few years. That place is a madhouse. We headed back to our neck of the woods for some Pho and then rest. Christopher did his homework and the we started on moving the furniture. I don't know how long it took us to figure out that the old sofa needed to go out through the backyard. It was foolish, but a little funny at the same time. There was so much junk and dust under the couch. We found three bouncy balls, an old nasty almond, Legos, pencils, paper clips, and lots of dust bunnies the vacuum couldn't reach. That was one night of cleaning. Christopher vacuumed while I mopped. Then while he put together the shelves that are acting as our coffee table, I taped together the two rugs. We've decided that the "coffee table" is to big for the area since they're actually supposed to be shelves. However, since they do provide a lot of tidy storage space we're going to clean our the garage (some day) and put them out there for all of our cleaning supplies. For now, the makeshift coffee table works. It was a little sad to see the old sofa go, but it was so worth it.
Christopher and I actually function really well without our parents around. The only thing that I really didn't enjoy was getting up to take him to school. I would literally wake up at 6:40am, make his lunch, take him to school, and then be back in bed by 7:20am. It actually made it easier for me to get up for work. I guess my body just thought that I was taking a nap between 7:30 and 10:50.
On Tuesday Nick and I went to a cowboy murder mystery dinner at Will and Lindsay's place. It was quite fun. I wore Christopher's leather belt and found my mom's red handkerchief to tie around my neck. I had been to a murder mystery before, but this was much different. The other one had scripts for each person to read and was very elaborate. This one was more carefree where each person went around talking to people and saying certain prompts. It was a lot of fun and I hope we do it again soon.
Another reason I wanted to have the family room set up and the sofa delivered was for our dinner party that we were having on that Saturday. Originally I was thinking of having just the girls over for a wine night, but then I decided that couples would be nice. Then more and more people were invited and we had a potential 17 people coming. I believe only 13 showed up, but we did have quite a few people in our house. We had tons of food and plenty of left overs. Nick made a ton of sweet potato fries and I did buffalo chicken for sandwiches. The spices had everyone coughing, but thankfully it settled down after I was done. The night before Nick and I spent a significant amount of time prepping food. He did most of the chopping of veggies while I cut the chicken into thin slices. I love cooking with Nick. He's great at precise cutting where as I would normally hack away for a "rustic" look. After all of the work we did and our guests showed up I totally forgot to take pictures at the actual dinner! The only picture I have is of our easy ice cream cake made out of ice cream sandwiches, whipped topping, and fudge sauce.
There are three layers of ice cream cake here and then we put more whipped topping and crumbled Heath bar on top. We literally worked as a team on this one even though it was so simple. Nick would unwrap the sandwich and then I'd pull it out and lay it down in the pan. I would plop down whipped topping and he'd smooth it out. We work well in the kitchen together.
New Years Eve was a blast. Despite having to work my normal hours, it was pretty quiet so I was able to help my mom get ready for her party and make a pasta dish to take to our evening event. Briana came over to hang out with Christopher as Nick swooped me away to an engagement party of a family friend. We only stayed at the engagement party for a little bit as we had another party to go to with his close friends. We rushed back to the house so that we could change into our nice evening wear. Even though it was just at a friend's house, we all wanted to dress up for the occasion. I love dressing up! Unfortunately, I order my dress from Delia's to late so it didn't come in time. I was able to wear it to see Wicked a few days ago, but it would have been perfect for New Years Eve. Oh well, now I have two new dresses instead of one! I scoured the mall for an appropriate dress and managed to find one that I liked at this store called Papaya (Papaya dress). It wasn't the best quality, but it fit the bill and was a good price. I had also purchased one from Macy's, but decided to return it because it was really similar to the Delia's dress, kind of pricey, and Nick didn't enjoy the giant flower that was attached to the sash. That was the part that I liked since the rest of the dress was just plain black. There were just too many things working against the dress for me to warrant keeping it.
The party itself was a blast. Nick looked awesome in his suit and we had tons of fun. My dad said that he would pick us up so that we could drink safely. The hosts, Will and Lindsay, live out in Pacheco so it wasn't that far away from my house. Boy, what a night. I've never really gone home inebriated before, but I guess there is always a first time for everything. The night was spent playing board games and chatting. Before we knew it the ball was dropping.
Nick, Jenelle, Frank, and the back of Lindsay's head
Lindsay, Frank, Jenelle, Nick, Will
The next day we had our New Years dinner at Uncle Tom's place. We headed to their house early and then over to a restaurant near him. The food was good as usual, but it wasn't Mr. Fong's. I guess they changed hands and it's not as good as it used to be or something like that. Whatever the case, it was tasty as usual. Briana came with us and was very brave about trying every dish. Kudos to her! I don't think we had anything really abnormal on the menu, but if you're not used to seeing a chicken or duck head sitting on the platter then I expect that it's unusual and slightly intimidating. We also drank so much tea that on the drive home we had to stop in Walnut Creek at a Safeway to go to the bathroom. I had to go so badly I felt like I was young and going down to Disneyland again. I was literally running to the bathroom.
To my surprise, Nick had suggested that the both of our parents meet before his parents had to leave to go back to Kuwait, which is what we had planned for the next day. Since we always get home early from my mom's side of the family's engagements, I had time to watch tons of Glee and hem the pants that I wanted to wear for our brunch. I had gotten the pants from the Gap right when I moved home, but never got around to hemming them. I figured this was as good of time as ever to hem and wear the pants.
The next morning we went out to Emeryville to the Ranch 99 mall for dim sum at Asian Pearl. I was sooo tired. For some reason my dad just had to get his car checked for smog that morning when we were supposed to be out in Emeryville by 10:30am. So they got me up at 8am and we headed to our mechanic's place in Bay Point. That took all of 30 minutes and also got us closer to the freeway than from our house. After leaving the mechanic's we ended up getting to Ranch 99 around 9am. Nick's family hadn't even left the house yet! I don't know why we had to wake up so early! It's just a good thing that I had a nice large coffee to keep me going. By the time we met them though, I was starting to droop. The brunch was nice and our parents seemed to get along well. There were only a couple of silences when we were piling food in our mouths, so I'm going to take that as a good sign. Everything was very polite and civilized. My dad didn't even wear his velcro belt! Now that's saying something.
Since we were out in Emeryville, my parents wanted to go to the Northface Outlet in Berkley. That took forever. First of all, it was a mad house in there. My parents were searching for jackets to keep them warm on their China trip...it seemed everyone else was searching for clothes suitable for a mid-winter China trip as well. It took so long. I ended up getting a fleece and then went walking around looking for a place to go the bathroom. I had consumed a lot of tea. While I was on my hunt, my parents bought a couple of things at the outlet and then searched for me. I had gone down the street to a little shop with a nice little bathroom. At first I pretended like I was shopping there and then snuck into their bathroom. While in there I got a call from my parents trying to locate me. They headed over and my mom found herself a nice vest for China and my dad used the bathroom too. I guess I didn't need to pretend I was a patron after all because my mom bought the vest and me a pepper spray keychain. My old one got confiscated at the airport a while back. Then, as if the stuff from Northface and the little shop wasn't enough they headed to some used outing wear place across from REI. We searched around there and then went across the street REI. I did benefit from this trip. I got myself a nice Marmot jacket that is really warm. I love it! I couldn't decide between the Northface one or the Marmot. Josie and Del had the Northface ones and I really liked them, however when I tried them on, the Marmot was significantly warmer than the Northface brand. They look pretty much the same except that the Marmot had an extra two pockets and was a little more expensive. Haha since my mom said she'd get it for me I got the Marmot. I will not disclose the price. Feeling good about that, but still really, really tired, we headed back to the car and then back to the Northface Outlet to return my fleece jacket and get another jacket. I decided that I didn't need the Northface fleece if I had the Marmot. This portion of the trip took some time because my parents were trying to figure out what jackets the wanted. My mom ended up getting a big puffy jacket and my dad a fleece to go under the snow jacket that he already has. We were finally ready to go and I slept in the car all the way home and then for a good two and a half hours once we got home. That night I ended up going to Target to get Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on blueray because it was over 50% off. It was the last day of the sale so I had to go get it. Since Nick has the PS3, I chose to get the blueray because it was only $2 more than the regular dvd and it came with a regular dvd in it also. We stayed home and watched the movie while Nick went out with some of our friends. I was just too beat to go out anymore that night. My parents, of course, fell asleep during the movie.
The next day, Sunday, we went as a family to go see Avatar. Since I had been raving about it, we headed out to Pleasant Hill so that we could watch it in 3D. We had a late lunch at a nice Italian place by the theater and then headed to Ranch 99 to get crab. MMMMMMMMM...... We had crab for dinner, which was very yummy and then I went to Nick's to watch all the extras on the blueray disk. Movie, seafood lunch, and seafood dinner... now that's quality family time if you ask me.
If you're interested in the HP extras, I can tell you, they're just okay. I was pretty excited about them, but I wish there was an entire commentary for the movie. For some reason HP movies never have that! They talked about the new theme park that's opening this year. From what I heard back when I was still listening to HP podcasts and reading HP news they're only opening part of the theme park this year and then continuing work on the other half. The park is at Universal Studios in Florida so I'm thinking that I'll just wait to go out there after they are finished. I'd like to wear my robe, but I think I'd melt in that humidity.
The next week was pretty quiet. My parents were getting ready for their trip. Nick and I had a date night on Thursday where if I'm remembering correctly, we went to go get Mexican food and then went back to his house to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, which turns out to be an awesome cartoon put on by Nickelodeon. (Although, now that I think of it, we might have just stayed in and made dinner. Whatever the case, we had a date night where we ate Mexican and watched cartoons at some point in January.) Even though it is American produced, in my head I consider it to be an anime. There are a lot of anime features in the cartoon and there are tons of Chinese characters all over the place. The whole thing was based on martial arts and the artists did a great job of portraying different styles. It also helped that one of the main characters was voiced by Rufio (Dante Basco)! I was nothing short of addicted to it. It tapped into that part of my brain that had me obsessed with Sailor Moon. There is actually a movie coming out based on The Last Airbender. Nick refuses to see it in theaters because there aren't any Asian actors cast. I agree completely. I think we will be downloading it to watch. All the cast members are Caucasian and Indian! There are so many good Asian actors out there. I don't know why they didn't cast any of them. Anyway, if you get a chance, there are probably reruns of the original cartoon on Nickelodeon and I highly suggest watching it. It is a really well done cartoon with a great storyline. Christopher watched the whole series too because we got him hooked.
That Friday before my parents left, Nick and I went to pho. Mmmm... pho. I love the stuff. Frank and Jenelle came over to watch some tv with us after they went out to dinner. Originally we had planned with them to go out to the City and pick up Wicked tickets for ourselves and the kids the next day, but then the kids couldn't decide what they wanted to do. We were hoping to go out there to get the tickets at the Orpheum to avoid handling fees and the go to Uncle Victor's restaurant. That whole plan fell through, which I was not pleased about at all since we had put aside a whole day to go do that for the kids. Nick and I took a little break after that because I wanted to spend some time with my parents before they headed off to China. I'm still a little bitter that I wasn't invited to go and got put on teen-sitting duty. On top of that, they got to have dinner and a nice long conversation with Juni and Ron while they were there!
Sunday morning we woke up a the crack of dawn to take my parents to the BART station. They didn't want us to drive them all the way out to SFO. Christopher and I went to the grocery store after that and then to Ikea to look for a new carpet and coffee table for our living room. Right before we left, my parents found and purchased a new sofa that they wanted. I was more pleased than ever. Even though our old couch served us well, it was just plain falling apart and needed to be retired. So that day we were excited to get new stuff for our family room. We spent almost three hours at Ikea because we couldn't find the rug that we wanted. They only had one of the rugs we wanted and we needed two to compensate for the size of the room. After standing in different lines and batting my eye lashes at one of the guys who worked there (my short, almost non-existent eye lashes) we got a second rug because someone had just returned it. Thank goodness for big smiles and faux damsel-in-distress tactics! I don't want to set foot in Ikea for a few years. That place is a madhouse. We headed back to our neck of the woods for some Pho and then rest. Christopher did his homework and the we started on moving the furniture. I don't know how long it took us to figure out that the old sofa needed to go out through the backyard. It was foolish, but a little funny at the same time. There was so much junk and dust under the couch. We found three bouncy balls, an old nasty almond, Legos, pencils, paper clips, and lots of dust bunnies the vacuum couldn't reach. That was one night of cleaning. Christopher vacuumed while I mopped. Then while he put together the shelves that are acting as our coffee table, I taped together the two rugs. We've decided that the "coffee table" is to big for the area since they're actually supposed to be shelves. However, since they do provide a lot of tidy storage space we're going to clean our the garage (some day) and put them out there for all of our cleaning supplies. For now, the makeshift coffee table works. It was a little sad to see the old sofa go, but it was so worth it.
Christopher and I actually function really well without our parents around. The only thing that I really didn't enjoy was getting up to take him to school. I would literally wake up at 6:40am, make his lunch, take him to school, and then be back in bed by 7:20am. It actually made it easier for me to get up for work. I guess my body just thought that I was taking a nap between 7:30 and 10:50.
On Tuesday Nick and I went to a cowboy murder mystery dinner at Will and Lindsay's place. It was quite fun. I wore Christopher's leather belt and found my mom's red handkerchief to tie around my neck. I had been to a murder mystery before, but this was much different. The other one had scripts for each person to read and was very elaborate. This one was more carefree where each person went around talking to people and saying certain prompts. It was a lot of fun and I hope we do it again soon.
Another reason I wanted to have the family room set up and the sofa delivered was for our dinner party that we were having on that Saturday. Originally I was thinking of having just the girls over for a wine night, but then I decided that couples would be nice. Then more and more people were invited and we had a potential 17 people coming. I believe only 13 showed up, but we did have quite a few people in our house. We had tons of food and plenty of left overs. Nick made a ton of sweet potato fries and I did buffalo chicken for sandwiches. The spices had everyone coughing, but thankfully it settled down after I was done. The night before Nick and I spent a significant amount of time prepping food. He did most of the chopping of veggies while I cut the chicken into thin slices. I love cooking with Nick. He's great at precise cutting where as I would normally hack away for a "rustic" look. After all of the work we did and our guests showed up I totally forgot to take pictures at the actual dinner! The only picture I have is of our easy ice cream cake made out of ice cream sandwiches, whipped topping, and fudge sauce.
There are three layers of ice cream cake here and then we put more whipped topping and crumbled Heath bar on top. We literally worked as a team on this one even though it was so simple. Nick would unwrap the sandwich and then I'd pull it out and lay it down in the pan. I would plop down whipped topping and he'd smooth it out. We work well in the kitchen together.
The menu consisted of a kielbasa appetizer, meatball appetizer, cheese and salami platter, dip with crackers, sweet potato fries, buffalo chicken sandwiches with homemade blue cheese dressing that Nick made, ice cream cake, and lots of booze. In preparation for all the girls coming I got a whole bunch of wine from Costco. I haven't been so sick from drinking since last year's Celery Christmas party. Whew. The next day was saved for recovery and Avatar: The Last Airbender (which I'm writing all the way out because I talked about Avatar the movie in the last post). It's a good thing that before I got sick I had a spurt of energy and cleaned everything up. Some of our friends didn't leave until 4:30am because they were Rockbanding so I was super tired when I went to sleep.
During the week had been bent on cleaning up our study from all the clutter on the floor so that we could pull out the sofa beds in case anyone couldn't drive home. They weren't needed, but at least our study is clean! Mostly there were just old bills that needed to be filed and books that needed to be reshelved. It didn't take me that much time since I split it into a couple nights of work. It's so much nicer in there now. We can actually sit in there and watch tv without tripping over something or stubbing our toes. I was really hoping to get my my mom and dad's room finished also so that if we had a lot of people stay that they could stay in my room and I could sleep in my parents'. I didn't complete my parents room until after the party. They were so surprised by how clean it was. Goodwill has plenty of our stuff now. Hehehe. I have no problem with purging for other people. I literally found magazines from 1985. I was a year old then!
Anyway, so the Monday after the party I wasn't feeling well. Thankfully, Christopher had the day off for Martin Luther King Jr. day so I didn't have to take him to school. I'm not sure if I was just having a two day hang over like my friend Linda suggested, but I was miserable. I was so tired and cold which made me feel like I was coming down with a bug. Nick took care of me though. After two hours of work I called it a day and slept for a few hours. I had some weird dreams that I can only imagine to be fever dreams. I know I usually have weird dreams, but these were really, really weird. After I slept for a while Nick got me hot water and some bread so I was feeling much better. By the end of the night I was pretty much back to normal.
That Friday I picked my parents up from BART and then we all went to pho as a family. I usually don't get to take off for lunch since I only work six hours a day, but I was able to go this time since Dave (my coworker) knew that they had been gone for a while. It was nice going out as a family again. Even though we had our freedom and the house stayed clean after I tidied up, it was quiet without them in the house. Sure enough, as soon as they came in with all of their luggage the bar that I cleared off for my party to actually use as a bar was filled back up with junk and their suitcases were strewn all over the family room. They were pleasantly surprised by the study and the bedroom, though after my dad let out a big "Whoa" he turned around to look at his pile of magazines and books on his side of the bed and said "Hey, where's all my stuff?!" So far the room has stayed pretty tidy. Nothing has really started to pile up in there yet except for a few snow camping items that will be going back out to the shed. Hopefully they can keep it clean! It took me almost four days to complete it. Once I got through all the initial stuff that Christopher and I put in there when we were cleaning out our rooms (the study and the master bedroom is where we put our stuff when we don't know what to do with/don't want anymore) I felt accomplished, but then I hit the layer where there was unfinished stitchery and fabric that my mom had started getting ready to get rid of but never did. Well, I helped her with that! I also found a brand new back rest that we probably had gotten for my dad as a gift and he wanted to use his old ratty one. So while they were gone I pulled the new one out of the box and hid his old one. I should throw the old one out since he seems to have accepted the new one into his life. It was so sad looking. All the fabric was ripped and the mechanism that you put batteries in so that it vibrates had fallen out. It was just a floppy, old piece of foam. Now he has a nice new one that isn't falling apart or looks like it's a hundred years old. I found treasures in that room. Hah!
After they got themselves reacquainted with the house and I finished grinning about my accomplishments, I went back to work and started reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Abby, Bonnie, and I decided to read this book for our book club. The book club was my idea and of course, I procrastinated. On Saturday I went out to Da Bin Lo with Nick's extended family and then had to go home to read! I felt like I was back in school again. I didn't finish the book until 5am Sunday morning and then had to wake up at 8am to get my food prepared for our book club lunch. Since the book's setting was in Jackson, Mississippi I decided to do a southern fish fry. It went well except that at some point I had knocked the fryer so that it turned off the coils. I had no idea what was going on for a while, which set the cooking back a bit. The fish was a bit salty, but I thought that it was pretty good for someone like me who doesn't like fish. Next time I'll make something I'm familiar with like lasagna or pot roast.
I think that for next month's book club we decided on The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee. Hopefully I like this selection better. I had some major issues with the one of the character's voices and the style of Stockett's writing. Abby and Bonnie really liked the book, but I wasn't super impressed. I thought the plot was well thought out and the storyline was pretty good, I just took issue with the way Stockett presented a lot of it. I think that if you're looking for a Civil Rights Movement book that is somewhat light hearted, this is the book for you. But I have to say, Stockett is no Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved) or Alice Walker (The Color Purple, Meridian). Now those ladies know how to write a Southern women novel. I thought that Stockett did a good job with her research, she had me convinced at least, but I just wasn't thrilled with the way she put it down on paper. Though I do have to say, she had some really good lines that impressed me. For instance (everyone pull out your copies of the book, heheh) on page 171 right before the line break she had one of the best kissing scenes I've read in a long time:
I thought this was wonderfully written. "...the hollow backs of my knees" particularly stood out to me because of its preciseness. She could have simply said "the backs of my knees" but by adding the descriptive word "hollow" it makes the image more complete. It makes me wonder how long it took her write that sentence. The reader has the illusion of actually being there with the character. Even more, the description and close narrative brings the reader into the situation where one feels almost like they are the narrator and that they are being kissed it the Robert E. Lee Hotel Restaurant. This one sentence made the whole book so much better for me since there was one section early on in the book that really irked me. I will not pick it apart on my blog just so that I don't bore you all with my analysis. Nick has already had to endure it for you all as I was chatting online with him while reading.
Besides the fact that I didn't enjoy the book much and my fryer mishap, book club went really well. We only really talked about the book for about 15 minutes and then sat and talked for about eight hours straight. You wouldn't think that we had just seen each other a month ago! It was nice to have some girl time and to hear about what's been going on for them. By the time we were done I was exhausted. My mom helped me clean and then I showered and had a nice glass of wine. I sure was pooped out.
Finally, on the last weekend of January I went up to Tahoe with Nick, his cousin Dennis, and his cousin's friend, Glen. Dennis had a complimentary suite at Harrah's so we all piled in there Chinese style. We moved couches around so that we could blow up an air mattress and then didn't get any room service so that they wouldn't see the bed. We went up Friday night after I got off of work. Nick and I watched Dennis and Glen play Paigow for a while and then headed back upstairs to go to sleep since we were heading out at 7 30 to Sierra for some boarding. It was a great half day at the snow. I had one little spill on the bunny slope during my warm up, but that was about it. Dennis was probably thinking "This is going to be a long day" after my fall, but I was able to keep up well enough. My knees just couldn't hold up any longer around 11 30 and I was afraid that I was going to seriously hurt myself. It's a good thing Nick and Dennis have season passes so they didn't care if we left early. It was also getting really crowded with people who seemed like they knew how to control their boards and skis less than I do. At least I can avoid running into someone if I see them coming. We saw a full on collision with a snowboarder and skier. It was like the snowboarder didn't even see the skier standing there! That was our cue to leave.
After picking up some KFC for lunch we headed back to the hotel. When we got back to the room the guys watched the winter X-Games while I passed out on the air mattress for a good two or three hours. Nick and I had plans to go to the Harrah's nightclub called Vex in the evening so I needed to rest up. At some point while I was sleeping Dennis and Glen headed down to play Paigow and Nick fell asleep. After we both were fully awake we all went out to dinner at Chevy's and then back to the hotel. Nick and I got dressed up but decided not to go to Vex. There was a $20 cover charge per person that I wasn't willing to pay. We just walked around for a while and headed back to the room early to watch tv and read. We're reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential together. It was a nice trip and very relaxing. When we got back on Sunday I decided that I needed to update my shoe collection after seeing what all the gals in the casino were wearing so I started looking on the internet for shoes. What a day! We had a big buffet lunch and then online shoe shopping in the evening. It can't get much better than that. The weekend went by way too quickly.
By midweek (now into February) I decided on these three shoes:
Dollhouse Hugo Cuffed Platform Bootie
For some reason I think that these little elf-like shoes are cute. Since these were rather affordable compared to some of the shoes I was eying I decided to get them.
JS by Jessica Oscar Patent Leather Pump
At our New Year's Eve party, Lindsay and Jenelle convinced me that everyone needs a good pair of red shoes. I don't wear red that often, but I thought that I should invest in a pair since I do wear a lot of black and gray. It took me a long time to find a pair that I really enjoyed. I wasn't thrilled about the patent leather, but I think they look better than a lot of the ones I was seeing. I guess I didn't have to get them, but since I liked them I figured, why not? I'm hoping to get these before next weekend's Chinese New Year dinner so that I can wear them for good luck. Hehehe
These I just plain liked! I got them in black so that they match with more stuff, but I really enjoy the gold too. If they weren't $100 each I probably would have gotten them in both colors. (Sorry, don't know what's going on with the formatting here. It won't change back to normal size for me.)
Works Cited:
Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. New York: Penguin Group, 2009.
During the week had been bent on cleaning up our study from all the clutter on the floor so that we could pull out the sofa beds in case anyone couldn't drive home. They weren't needed, but at least our study is clean! Mostly there were just old bills that needed to be filed and books that needed to be reshelved. It didn't take me that much time since I split it into a couple nights of work. It's so much nicer in there now. We can actually sit in there and watch tv without tripping over something or stubbing our toes. I was really hoping to get my my mom and dad's room finished also so that if we had a lot of people stay that they could stay in my room and I could sleep in my parents'. I didn't complete my parents room until after the party. They were so surprised by how clean it was. Goodwill has plenty of our stuff now. Hehehe. I have no problem with purging for other people. I literally found magazines from 1985. I was a year old then!
Anyway, so the Monday after the party I wasn't feeling well. Thankfully, Christopher had the day off for Martin Luther King Jr. day so I didn't have to take him to school. I'm not sure if I was just having a two day hang over like my friend Linda suggested, but I was miserable. I was so tired and cold which made me feel like I was coming down with a bug. Nick took care of me though. After two hours of work I called it a day and slept for a few hours. I had some weird dreams that I can only imagine to be fever dreams. I know I usually have weird dreams, but these were really, really weird. After I slept for a while Nick got me hot water and some bread so I was feeling much better. By the end of the night I was pretty much back to normal.
That Friday I picked my parents up from BART and then we all went to pho as a family. I usually don't get to take off for lunch since I only work six hours a day, but I was able to go this time since Dave (my coworker) knew that they had been gone for a while. It was nice going out as a family again. Even though we had our freedom and the house stayed clean after I tidied up, it was quiet without them in the house. Sure enough, as soon as they came in with all of their luggage the bar that I cleared off for my party to actually use as a bar was filled back up with junk and their suitcases were strewn all over the family room. They were pleasantly surprised by the study and the bedroom, though after my dad let out a big "Whoa" he turned around to look at his pile of magazines and books on his side of the bed and said "Hey, where's all my stuff?!" So far the room has stayed pretty tidy. Nothing has really started to pile up in there yet except for a few snow camping items that will be going back out to the shed. Hopefully they can keep it clean! It took me almost four days to complete it. Once I got through all the initial stuff that Christopher and I put in there when we were cleaning out our rooms (the study and the master bedroom is where we put our stuff when we don't know what to do with/don't want anymore) I felt accomplished, but then I hit the layer where there was unfinished stitchery and fabric that my mom had started getting ready to get rid of but never did. Well, I helped her with that! I also found a brand new back rest that we probably had gotten for my dad as a gift and he wanted to use his old ratty one. So while they were gone I pulled the new one out of the box and hid his old one. I should throw the old one out since he seems to have accepted the new one into his life. It was so sad looking. All the fabric was ripped and the mechanism that you put batteries in so that it vibrates had fallen out. It was just a floppy, old piece of foam. Now he has a nice new one that isn't falling apart or looks like it's a hundred years old. I found treasures in that room. Hah!
After they got themselves reacquainted with the house and I finished grinning about my accomplishments, I went back to work and started reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Abby, Bonnie, and I decided to read this book for our book club. The book club was my idea and of course, I procrastinated. On Saturday I went out to Da Bin Lo with Nick's extended family and then had to go home to read! I felt like I was back in school again. I didn't finish the book until 5am Sunday morning and then had to wake up at 8am to get my food prepared for our book club lunch. Since the book's setting was in Jackson, Mississippi I decided to do a southern fish fry. It went well except that at some point I had knocked the fryer so that it turned off the coils. I had no idea what was going on for a while, which set the cooking back a bit. The fish was a bit salty, but I thought that it was pretty good for someone like me who doesn't like fish. Next time I'll make something I'm familiar with like lasagna or pot roast.
I think that for next month's book club we decided on The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee. Hopefully I like this selection better. I had some major issues with the one of the character's voices and the style of Stockett's writing. Abby and Bonnie really liked the book, but I wasn't super impressed. I thought the plot was well thought out and the storyline was pretty good, I just took issue with the way Stockett presented a lot of it. I think that if you're looking for a Civil Rights Movement book that is somewhat light hearted, this is the book for you. But I have to say, Stockett is no Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved) or Alice Walker (The Color Purple, Meridian). Now those ladies know how to write a Southern women novel. I thought that Stockett did a good job with her research, she had me convinced at least, but I just wasn't thrilled with the way she put it down on paper. Though I do have to say, she had some really good lines that impressed me. For instance (everyone pull out your copies of the book, heheh) on page 171 right before the line break she had one of the best kissing scenes I've read in a long time:
"Right in the middle of the Robert E. Lee Hotel Restaurant, he kissed me so slowly with an open mouth and every single thing in my body--my skin, my collarbone, the hollow backs of my knees, everything inside of me filled up with light."
I thought this was wonderfully written. "...the hollow backs of my knees" particularly stood out to me because of its preciseness. She could have simply said "the backs of my knees" but by adding the descriptive word "hollow" it makes the image more complete. It makes me wonder how long it took her write that sentence. The reader has the illusion of actually being there with the character. Even more, the description and close narrative brings the reader into the situation where one feels almost like they are the narrator and that they are being kissed it the Robert E. Lee Hotel Restaurant. This one sentence made the whole book so much better for me since there was one section early on in the book that really irked me. I will not pick it apart on my blog just so that I don't bore you all with my analysis. Nick has already had to endure it for you all as I was chatting online with him while reading.
Besides the fact that I didn't enjoy the book much and my fryer mishap, book club went really well. We only really talked about the book for about 15 minutes and then sat and talked for about eight hours straight. You wouldn't think that we had just seen each other a month ago! It was nice to have some girl time and to hear about what's been going on for them. By the time we were done I was exhausted. My mom helped me clean and then I showered and had a nice glass of wine. I sure was pooped out.
Finally, on the last weekend of January I went up to Tahoe with Nick, his cousin Dennis, and his cousin's friend, Glen. Dennis had a complimentary suite at Harrah's so we all piled in there Chinese style. We moved couches around so that we could blow up an air mattress and then didn't get any room service so that they wouldn't see the bed. We went up Friday night after I got off of work. Nick and I watched Dennis and Glen play Paigow for a while and then headed back upstairs to go to sleep since we were heading out at 7 30 to Sierra for some boarding. It was a great half day at the snow. I had one little spill on the bunny slope during my warm up, but that was about it. Dennis was probably thinking "This is going to be a long day" after my fall, but I was able to keep up well enough. My knees just couldn't hold up any longer around 11 30 and I was afraid that I was going to seriously hurt myself. It's a good thing Nick and Dennis have season passes so they didn't care if we left early. It was also getting really crowded with people who seemed like they knew how to control their boards and skis less than I do. At least I can avoid running into someone if I see them coming. We saw a full on collision with a snowboarder and skier. It was like the snowboarder didn't even see the skier standing there! That was our cue to leave.
After picking up some KFC for lunch we headed back to the hotel. When we got back to the room the guys watched the winter X-Games while I passed out on the air mattress for a good two or three hours. Nick and I had plans to go to the Harrah's nightclub called Vex in the evening so I needed to rest up. At some point while I was sleeping Dennis and Glen headed down to play Paigow and Nick fell asleep. After we both were fully awake we all went out to dinner at Chevy's and then back to the hotel. Nick and I got dressed up but decided not to go to Vex. There was a $20 cover charge per person that I wasn't willing to pay. We just walked around for a while and headed back to the room early to watch tv and read. We're reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential together. It was a nice trip and very relaxing. When we got back on Sunday I decided that I needed to update my shoe collection after seeing what all the gals in the casino were wearing so I started looking on the internet for shoes. What a day! We had a big buffet lunch and then online shoe shopping in the evening. It can't get much better than that. The weekend went by way too quickly.
By midweek (now into February) I decided on these three shoes:
Dollhouse Hugo Cuffed Platform Bootie
For some reason I think that these little elf-like shoes are cute. Since these were rather affordable compared to some of the shoes I was eying I decided to get them.
JS by Jessica Oscar Patent Leather Pump
At our New Year's Eve party, Lindsay and Jenelle convinced me that everyone needs a good pair of red shoes. I don't wear red that often, but I thought that I should invest in a pair since I do wear a lot of black and gray. It took me a long time to find a pair that I really enjoyed. I wasn't thrilled about the patent leather, but I think they look better than a lot of the ones I was seeing. I guess I didn't have to get them, but since I liked them I figured, why not? I'm hoping to get these before next weekend's Chinese New Year dinner so that I can wear them for good luck. Hehehe
MAXSTUDIO Mondial Leather Cut Out Pump
These I just plain liked! I got them in black so that they match with more stuff, but I really enjoy the gold too. If they weren't $100 each I probably would have gotten them in both colors. (Sorry, don't know what's going on with the formatting here. It won't change back to normal size for me.)
Works Cited:
Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. New York: Penguin Group, 2009.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
December recap
Well it sure has been a while! I think the easiest way for me to do this is by just summarizing the last month and a half, which I will do in segments. It has been a whirlwind of events! It's a good thing that I write all the stuff that I do down in my calendar. Ahh, Franklin Covey, what would I do without you? Christopher has been telling me for months that I should use my iPod for my calendar stuff. Even my dad uses his! I just like the good, old fashioned pen and paper. It makes it really easy for me remember all the stuff that has gone on since I last posted...and there has been a lot!
Let me start with the weekend of Dec. 19th, which is where I think I left off from my last post. After being home for how many months? Four months! I still hadn't gotten together with my friends Abby and Bonnie from high school. Bonnie had come over for a wine night when Shanna was still living in Concord, but I had yet to see Abby. Every Christmas the three of us get together and chat until restaurants practically kick us out. This year Abby emailed us and offered to make us a lunch at her place. So on Saturday the 19th I picked Bonnie up and then we headed out to Burlingame to Abby's apartment where she had a feast waiting for us. Literally, it looked like a Thanksgiving feast. She made an upside down turkey with bacon (or maybe panchetta, I can't remember), whatever the case, it was delicious! She also made stuffing, gravy, string bean casserole, and something else that I can't remember or see from the picture. Bonnie made a corn dish with lots of cheesy goodness and I made ginger bread cookies, which I will never do again, I might add. After we stuffed ourselves silly Abby walked us around the downtown area, which is very cute. It seems like a really nice place to live. Maybe I'll move into her closet under the stairs and pretend to be Harry Potter.
The next Top Chef: Abby Pynn!
Abby making Butterbeer! It was way to sweet for my tastes.
That night after coming back from Abby's, our family went to the Ryan's for their annual tamale making party. This is basically a drunk fest with lots of food. It's a good thing Nick drove. Heheh. This year was pretty good. No fights with the host, young people I actually know (besides the kids), and I think I made more tamales that I did before. Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Minnich were happy to have Nick around since that meant that Frank would come too. If you recall, the two ladies set Nick and me up at Frank and Jenelle's wedding. (Jenelle is Mrs. Minnich's daughter and Frank is one of Nick's good friends.) I think it was all part of their scheme to get Frank to tamale making.
Rockband! Frank is the guy standing right behind me with the jacket and blue shirt on. Jenelle is in the purple biting her finger and that's Nick sitting in the chair. Christopher is next to him in the plaid shirt.
My darling boyfriend eating Frank's face
Let me start with the weekend of Dec. 19th, which is where I think I left off from my last post. After being home for how many months? Four months! I still hadn't gotten together with my friends Abby and Bonnie from high school. Bonnie had come over for a wine night when Shanna was still living in Concord, but I had yet to see Abby. Every Christmas the three of us get together and chat until restaurants practically kick us out. This year Abby emailed us and offered to make us a lunch at her place. So on Saturday the 19th I picked Bonnie up and then we headed out to Burlingame to Abby's apartment where she had a feast waiting for us. Literally, it looked like a Thanksgiving feast. She made an upside down turkey with bacon (or maybe panchetta, I can't remember), whatever the case, it was delicious! She also made stuffing, gravy, string bean casserole, and something else that I can't remember or see from the picture. Bonnie made a corn dish with lots of cheesy goodness and I made ginger bread cookies, which I will never do again, I might add. After we stuffed ourselves silly Abby walked us around the downtown area, which is very cute. It seems like a really nice place to live. Maybe I'll move into her closet under the stairs and pretend to be Harry Potter.
The next Top Chef: Abby Pynn!
Abby making Butterbeer! It was way to sweet for my tastes.
That night after coming back from Abby's, our family went to the Ryan's for their annual tamale making party. This is basically a drunk fest with lots of food. It's a good thing Nick drove. Heheh. This year was pretty good. No fights with the host, young people I actually know (besides the kids), and I think I made more tamales that I did before. Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Minnich were happy to have Nick around since that meant that Frank would come too. If you recall, the two ladies set Nick and me up at Frank and Jenelle's wedding. (Jenelle is Mrs. Minnich's daughter and Frank is one of Nick's good friends.) I think it was all part of their scheme to get Frank to tamale making.
Rockband! Frank is the guy standing right behind me with the jacket and blue shirt on. Jenelle is in the purple biting her finger and that's Nick sitting in the chair. Christopher is next to him in the plaid shirt.
My darling boyfriend eating Frank's face The next day I went to lunch with my friend Tim from UCR and then went to watch some football with Nick's gang. Thankfully I didn't stay that long because I had to take Christopher and Briana to get ski rentals. My dad and I took off the following day so that we could go up as a family. Man, what a disaster. It all started with bad weather down here (which we should have taken as a sign, but my dad and I had already taken off of work), then my Uncle Tom who is never late didn't wake up until we were supposed to be leaving, the visibility up there was horrible, my dad lost his goggles, the lines were horrendous, it was practically sleeting, Nick was miserable because of the wet, Christopher and Briana only went down the hill once, Uncle Tom only did eight runs, I fell and tumbled half way down the mountain, the car was covered in snow and after three winters in Troy I still had forgotten to put the windshield wipers up so that snow wouldn't get clumped on the blades, there were cars crashed on the side of the road because no one from California knows how to drive in snow (in my opinion...including me), and a car full of waterlogged, grumpy people. On the upside, since we left around 1pm we did go to a nice buffet that Nick told us about. We were way too full for comfort after that, but we made it home in one piece. We all showered off and watched a couple of movies at home. It was a pretty relaxing evening considering we were practically in a blizzard (hahah just a slight over exaggeration). I have fully acclimated to the CA weather so that was pretty much as blizzardy as it gets for me!
The next day (this is Tuesday the 22nd) I met Nick's parents. I was a little nervous, but it went well. We went to a place in Pleasant Hill called Melo's and had some pretty tasty pizza and pasta. The dinner itself didn't last that long, but I think I got a good idea of what his parents are interested in and their temperament. I don't think I've ever heard so much about Rolexs before. They sure know their stuff. From what Nick has said, they seem to like me just fine. It's a good thing too because they're stuck with me now!
The 23rd was a nice day of rest and normal work. I complained before about not having a life, but normality was more than welcomed because it was so busy around our house. Whew, December was getting exhausting and we hadn't even hit Christmas yet! On the 24th we all headed over to Auntie May and Jonathan's place in Alameda for Christmas Eve. It was the same as usual, tons of fun and lots of people. I was surprised to find out that Nick knew some of the same church people as everyone. It was a good way for them to connect, which made me happy. I guess it's a small world. I hadn't realized that church politics could get so involved, but apparently they can. Uncle Daniel, you're a good story teller. I didn't know who any of those people were, but I sure was able to figure out what was going on!
For Christmas day we were running around trying to get everything prepared for dinner. It wasn't as hectic as it usually is, thankfully. However, our tree did fall over and my mom was just so flustered with everything that she was calm about the tree because she yelled up the stairs to us that our tree had fallen over and then went back to her food prep. We were hoping that the tree would last for the night, but it just gave out right before everyone came. Go figure. We got it back up by balancing it with magazines. Hahaha! We had a small crowd this year and we all fit at the table. I don't remember the last time we were able to do that! I think the highlight of my night was after everyone went home and the house was all cleaned we played Cranium as a family. It was my parents against Christopher and me. You'll never believe it. They won. Christopher and I are stellar at this game and they won! It was a fluke, I tell ya, a fluke. The game was fixed in their favor. We still are demanding a rematch, but they haven't "had time" to do it. Hah! I think that they're afraid to lose to us.
The day after Christmas we had our annual ice skating event. This year Nick and Briana joined us. It was a loooonnnnggg day. Nick actually fell asleep in the super noisy Starbucks that we were sitting in. I couldn't believe it. I don't even think Uncle Victor would be able to sleep in such a noisy and uncomfortable place, but of course my boyfriend did. All the kids were running around and not using "inside voices". Hahaha I don't think any of us were using our inside voices much that day. Right when we had first gotten to the city we went into the Ferry building. I had no idea that there was a whole market in there! We got some delicious breakfast seafood breakfast burritos and I tried oysters again. I didn't like them. They were much bigger and saltier. I had to push down that gag reflex. Bleh, I didn't like those. I guess Nick is just going to have to spoil me with little ones from Bouchon! Like usual, in the afternoon it started to rain. Well, not really just rain, it was pouring. I really dislike the rain and was reminded of it when we were trudging around downtown. It seems like every year when we go it rains. I know that it's obviously winter and all, but it seems like it only rains on the days we go ice skating. Maybe that is because I only really notice and care when I'm out and about.
Christopher and Briana with her huge complementary birthday cupcake.
The next day (this is Tuesday the 22nd) I met Nick's parents. I was a little nervous, but it went well. We went to a place in Pleasant Hill called Melo's and had some pretty tasty pizza and pasta. The dinner itself didn't last that long, but I think I got a good idea of what his parents are interested in and their temperament. I don't think I've ever heard so much about Rolexs before. They sure know their stuff. From what Nick has said, they seem to like me just fine. It's a good thing too because they're stuck with me now!
The 23rd was a nice day of rest and normal work. I complained before about not having a life, but normality was more than welcomed because it was so busy around our house. Whew, December was getting exhausting and we hadn't even hit Christmas yet! On the 24th we all headed over to Auntie May and Jonathan's place in Alameda for Christmas Eve. It was the same as usual, tons of fun and lots of people. I was surprised to find out that Nick knew some of the same church people as everyone. It was a good way for them to connect, which made me happy. I guess it's a small world. I hadn't realized that church politics could get so involved, but apparently they can. Uncle Daniel, you're a good story teller. I didn't know who any of those people were, but I sure was able to figure out what was going on!
Man, I always forget how short I am until I see pictures of us standing together.
A face only a mother can love.
A face only a mother can love.For Christmas day we were running around trying to get everything prepared for dinner. It wasn't as hectic as it usually is, thankfully. However, our tree did fall over and my mom was just so flustered with everything that she was calm about the tree because she yelled up the stairs to us that our tree had fallen over and then went back to her food prep. We were hoping that the tree would last for the night, but it just gave out right before everyone came. Go figure. We got it back up by balancing it with magazines. Hahaha! We had a small crowd this year and we all fit at the table. I don't remember the last time we were able to do that! I think the highlight of my night was after everyone went home and the house was all cleaned we played Cranium as a family. It was my parents against Christopher and me. You'll never believe it. They won. Christopher and I are stellar at this game and they won! It was a fluke, I tell ya, a fluke. The game was fixed in their favor. We still are demanding a rematch, but they haven't "had time" to do it. Hah! I think that they're afraid to lose to us.
The day after Christmas we had our annual ice skating event. This year Nick and Briana joined us. It was a loooonnnnggg day. Nick actually fell asleep in the super noisy Starbucks that we were sitting in. I couldn't believe it. I don't even think Uncle Victor would be able to sleep in such a noisy and uncomfortable place, but of course my boyfriend did. All the kids were running around and not using "inside voices". Hahaha I don't think any of us were using our inside voices much that day. Right when we had first gotten to the city we went into the Ferry building. I had no idea that there was a whole market in there! We got some delicious breakfast seafood breakfast burritos and I tried oysters again. I didn't like them. They were much bigger and saltier. I had to push down that gag reflex. Bleh, I didn't like those. I guess Nick is just going to have to spoil me with little ones from Bouchon! Like usual, in the afternoon it started to rain. Well, not really just rain, it was pouring. I really dislike the rain and was reminded of it when we were trudging around downtown. It seems like every year when we go it rains. I know that it's obviously winter and all, but it seems like it only rains on the days we go ice skating. Maybe that is because I only really notice and care when I'm out and about.
Christopher and Briana with her huge complementary birthday cupcake.
To close out December I headed back out to the city for dinner at Fresh Choice with Jen Jen, Josie, Kimi, and Patti. (I'm going to talk about New Year's Eve and New Years in the January post.) We all converged at Jen Jen's apartment first and then squished into the car to go to Fresh Choice. Yummy. We ate so much bread and salad. The pizza and soup was good as usual too. Mostly though, we chatted about Patti's upcoming wedding, which I'm excited for. It sounds like they got a really nice place for the reception. Yay! Another reason to get dressed up!
That evening after I was dropped back off at BART, Nick and I went to go see Avatar in 3D. Wow, what an amazing movie. In general I thought the plot was predictable and it reminded me of a mix between Pocahontas, Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest, and the Matrix, but I was so stoked about the movie afterward that I was in hyper-discussion mode. Poor Nick! I was really impressed by the fact that Cameron made up an entire language and culture. I think the culture is cool, but the language is what gets me. It blew me away. I read the whole wiki article about the movie that night too and apparently the language consists of about 1000 words. How cool is that?!?! I'm getting excited just thinking about it. I could probably write a short essay on it, but I'm lazy and would rather be writing fiction. However, I do know the supporting articles on the sense of self and spectacle that I would use. Eh, still, lazy.
One of my customers at Celery has a really odd condition where she can't be near any electrical devices. When I was talking to her recently she said that she had seen stuff in magazines about Avatar and had talked to a friend about it. We had a pretty lengthy discussion about the movie and the way that characters were portrayed and how people like the villian don't really exist. She always sends me nice picture books and photographs from where she lives so I decided to get her The Art of Avatar. It's a really impressive display of the animation in the movie. It's still sitting on my desk, but I'll get to sending it eventually. I'm really bad about that stuff. I buy it and then never get around to sending it. Juni didn't get her Christmas gift/care package until my parents brought it out to her on their trip!
Last but not least, on December 30th Christopher finished his Eagle Project, project. Now all he has to do is the paper work. I was so happy because I figured all the talk of Eagle would stop. Boy was I wrong. I popped a bottle of champagne anyway. I figured that at least a good portion of the project was done. With all the nagging and squabbling I had to listen to, it was a much needed milestone. I haven't seen my dad so happy and relaxed in a long time. Now there are binders to turn in and papers to have signed. Still talk of this project, but I'm glad that at least this part is done! Congrats little brother!
That evening after I was dropped back off at BART, Nick and I went to go see Avatar in 3D. Wow, what an amazing movie. In general I thought the plot was predictable and it reminded me of a mix between Pocahontas, Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest, and the Matrix, but I was so stoked about the movie afterward that I was in hyper-discussion mode. Poor Nick! I was really impressed by the fact that Cameron made up an entire language and culture. I think the culture is cool, but the language is what gets me. It blew me away. I read the whole wiki article about the movie that night too and apparently the language consists of about 1000 words. How cool is that?!?! I'm getting excited just thinking about it. I could probably write a short essay on it, but I'm lazy and would rather be writing fiction. However, I do know the supporting articles on the sense of self and spectacle that I would use. Eh, still, lazy.
One of my customers at Celery has a really odd condition where she can't be near any electrical devices. When I was talking to her recently she said that she had seen stuff in magazines about Avatar and had talked to a friend about it. We had a pretty lengthy discussion about the movie and the way that characters were portrayed and how people like the villian don't really exist. She always sends me nice picture books and photographs from where she lives so I decided to get her The Art of Avatar. It's a really impressive display of the animation in the movie. It's still sitting on my desk, but I'll get to sending it eventually. I'm really bad about that stuff. I buy it and then never get around to sending it. Juni didn't get her Christmas gift/care package until my parents brought it out to her on their trip!
Last but not least, on December 30th Christopher finished his Eagle Project, project. Now all he has to do is the paper work. I was so happy because I figured all the talk of Eagle would stop. Boy was I wrong. I popped a bottle of champagne anyway. I figured that at least a good portion of the project was done. With all the nagging and squabbling I had to listen to, it was a much needed milestone. I haven't seen my dad so happy and relaxed in a long time. Now there are binders to turn in and papers to have signed. Still talk of this project, but I'm glad that at least this part is done! Congrats little brother!
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