Tag Archives: cal

moving update

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Moving day is coming up so FAST! We still have so much packing to do! ACK. The movers are set to pick up our stuff on Wednesday and we’re going to drive down to Orange County on Thursday morning. CRAZY. I really can’t believe it’s almost here. It doesn’t seem real somehow. A lot of people are asking if I’m more excited or sad. Definitely both. In equal amounts. I’ve lived in the Bay Area for almost 12 years — since I was 17. So my “adult” life is rooted here but Southern CA will always be “home.”

So I haven’t mentioned it here because I was waiting for official confirmation and I got it on Friday… my company is letting me keep my job and work remotely from home! YAY. When I gave notice back in December, I mentioned to my boss that I would be interested in working from home if she was willing to try it out. She sent a recommendation to corporate weeks ago and they finally approved it. 😀 Right in the nick of time since my last day in the office is tomorrow (Tuesday). I’m so relieved I don’t have to look for a job! Phew. Plus, I can wear jeans every day. WOOT. It’s always the little things that make me so happy.

Anyway, Rob and I have been plugging away at our “To Do” list and as expected, we have hit all the foodie items. 😀 OINK OINK. Here’s what we managed to do:

1. Have the BEST RAMEN EVER at Santa Ramen. CHECK!
2. Have 1 really nice (but not necessarily expensive) dinner in San Francisco. CHECK!
We went to Michael Mina this past Saturday night and it was amazing. I was too chicken to take pictures (hee!) so here’s a rundown of our meal (we both got the 3 course dinner):
Appetizers – Ahi Tuna Tartare (mmm, melt in your mouth good) and the Trio of Dungeness Crab
Entrees – Maine Lobster Pot Pie (this was mine and it was so good I wanted to lick the plate) and the Trio of Brandt Farm Beef
Desserts – I opted for the Trio of Chocolate (the white chocolate panna cotta was the only memorable item) and Rob picked the Root Beer Float (awww)
3. Have ice cream at Sketch. CHECK!
4. Walk around 4th Street in Berkeley. CHECK!
5. Have the most AMAZING chicken and waffles breakfast at 900 Grayson. CHECK!
6. Visit the UC Berkeley campus, look at the view of the Bay from the top of the Campanile, and purchase as much school paraphernalia as possible. CHECK! And I have pictures too!


The Campanile!

It was pretty hazy so we couldn’t really see across the Bay but we could see the “Big C!”

US. 😀

Finally, last weekend Rob and I were treated to our very own farewell BBQ. Thanks to Jimmy, Eleen (happy anniversary to you two!), Victor and Susie for organizing and hosting! We will miss all of you very much! *sniff*

bears!

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Been a busy bee lately.

My cousin Rizza (aka Maid of Honor) was in town for the weekend to help with a wedding project. Rob and I wanted to incorporate our alma mater, UC Berkeley, into our wedding so we decided to name our reception tables after campus buildings. And we thought we would go the extra mile and attempt to get our photos taken in front of them. (We’re dorks, I know). I asked for Riz’s help with this because she’s a photographer and it was an excuse to get her to come visit me. 😀

So on Saturday, we spent 4 hours walking all over campus posing like crazy people in front of over 25 buildings (we won’t really have that many tables — I wanted to have more options just in case). Riz has to go through all the photos and process our selections but I thought I would share a random one we took…



These cute bears are on the North side of campus. Awww.

It was a really tiring day but good practice for our engagement photo shoot this coming Sunday. FUN!

hp4 review

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First off… HAPPY BIRTHDAY Christie! Hope you have a fantastic day! 🙂

Second… YaY CAL for winning the Big Game this past weekend. It was the first time I’d ever been to a Big Game and it was lots of fun. My ears are still ringing, though, from sitting in the student section with all the screaming fans.

Too bad I also got sick and had to stay home from work all day yesterday. I’ve been pretty miserable for the past few days but at least I caught up on TV. 🙂 There’s always a bright side.

And now… random HP GoF thoughts.

Continue reading →

50 book challenge

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So I got a voicemail message last night at 3am from my best friends telling me that they were at some deli in Hollywood and had just seen Adam Brody, Ben McKenzie and Rachel Bilson. (!!!) OMG. I. AM. SO. JEALOUS. I have to call you two back to get more details. SQUEE.

I’m participating in the 50 Book Challenge and I figured I am overdue for an update and reviews…

January
1. Fearless by Francine Pascal, 199p
2. Fearless – Sam by Francine Pascal, 200p
3. Fearless – Run by Francine Pascal, 207p
4. Almost Paradisee by Susan Isaacs, 530p
5. Fearless – Twisted by Francine Pascal, 214p
6. The A-List by Zoey Dean, 243p
A book equivalent of a show like The OC. Pretty mindless and fun. If not a little far-fetched. Or maybe I’m just not cynical enough?
7. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, 569p

February
8. The Last Juror by John Grisham, 486p
I’m still undecided on this book. I don’t know if I actually liked it or not. For me, it took a looong time for the story to get rolling, which almost made me stop reading a few times, but I liked the characters and their relationships too much to do so. An average Grisham effort.
9. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, 372p
Ehhh. Nothing about this book really grabbed me. I didn’t understand the characters or their motivations. There was action and suspense but… I finished it feeling very disappointed.
10. Bridget Jones and the Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding, 338p
For whatever reason, I didn’t like Bridget as much in the sequel (I loved the first book). She totally frustrated me! lol. A fun read though.
11. Deception Point by Dan Brown, 557p
A *much* better book than Digital Fortress. The characters were better developed and there seemed to be real tension and conflict between all of them. The story had me guessing all the way through.

I just picked up The Secret Life of Bees this weekend which I can’t wait to start…

The Sunday Brunch

1. Did you go to college? Yes, I went to the University of CA, Berkeley aka CAL.
2. Did you live in a dorm or an apartment? Both. I lived in the dorms for the first 2 years and an apartment for my last 2.
3. Who was your favorite roommate? My friend Shirley! We were roomies for 3 years.
4. What is your favorite college sport? Not a huge sports person but I’d have to say basketball.
5. Who was your favorite professor and class? My favorite professor was Bruce Cain. I took a few of his classes — California Politics and the Ethics of Politics. Both were phenomenal.

Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

my weekend

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Wow, I haven’t blogged in almost a week! I am so lazy. Really.

What have I been up to?

Well, I bought the new Kelly Clarkson CD, which I love. I’ve been listening to it practically non-stop. I particularly recommend Since U Been Gone, Because of You, and Addicted. Kelly has the most amazing voice — it’s so emotional and just rich. Everyone needs to check it out!

I also bought my Christmas tree this weekend! Squee! It smells so great, it’s all decorated and lit, and I can’t stop staring at it! I’m such a Christmas fangirl (if there *is* such a thing). I still have about half of my Christmas shopping to do though and of course, it’s for all the difficult and extremely picky people ie. my aunts, roommate Jimmy, older cousin, and Rob’s brother and wife. Anyone want to inspire me with some suggestions?

I’m so sad that Cal’s not going to the Rose Bowl. I don’t really follow college football, to be honest, but I *am* a proud Golden Bear and would have loved to see the team make it to that bowl game.

Heads up! I read on TV Shows on DVD that select HBO/Warner DVD sets are 50% off at Amazon. The highlights (to me, anyway) are: Gilmore Girls s1 ($29.99), Smallville s2 ($29.99), and The West Wing s1 and 2 ($29.99). I’m thinking of getting the SMVL and WW sets but I feel bad spending money on myself when I should be saving it for the presents I still have to buy… decisions, decisions.

Now for the Fannish Five…

Name the five scenes that make you melt in True Fannish Love. Every. Single. Time.
1. Pacey and Joey (Dawson’s Creek) leaving Capeside for a summer together on the True Love (in season 3’s finale). The header image above is from this scene. *So* squee-worthy.
2. Ephram and Amy (Everwood) saying “I love you” to one another in Staking Claim. Just perfect.
3. Gilbert’s marriage proposal to Anne in the final scene of Anne of Avonlea (the movie). I just love it when Anne says “I don’t want sunbursts or marble halls. I just want you.” Awww.
4. Michael letting Maria (Roswell) “see” him in The Departure.
5. Nathan going to see Haley (One Tree Hill) after being released from the hospital in With Arms Outstretched. I just melt when he says “Then I saw you.. I promised myself that if I could just get up, and walk over to you, and tell you how much I need you, how much I want you, then nothing else matters.”

And an extra one for good measure…
6. Joe running to the airport to see Jess in Bend It Like Beckham. “I can’t let you go without knowing… we might still have something.” Guh.

ALIAS!!!

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I’ve been listening to Christmas music non-stop this weekend. *happy sigh* It makes me so giddy.

Two other things that make me giddy are…
1. CAL won the Big Game against Stanford yesterday! 41-6, YAY!

2. Seeing the new Alias promo!!! I was just watching Desperate Housewives and all of a sudden, there it was! Ahhhh. It was so good! A really fabulous mix of old and new images — Syd in various disguises from past seasons, Syd and Nadia kicking ass, and the kicker — Happy!Syd and Vaughn! *dies* OMG, it’ll be such a nice change. They were so depressing last season. It looks like that’ll change this season. Maybe I didn’t watch close enough but did anyone see Jack, Sark or Weiss at all? I spotted Marshall but didn’t see the other 3. I’m sure Alias Media will have the download… for me to watch about a million more times. As for the new timeslot, I’m undecided about it. On one hand, I think having Alias on Wednesdays at 9 will allow it to capture viewers from Lost but on the other hand, isn’t that already a pretty packed timeslot? Oh well… is it January 5th yet?

Anyway, I was reading Christie’s LJ and she brought up something I’ve been thinking a lot about — blog versus LJ. I’m sure everyone’s noticed that the blogging community has been dying down and many people have moved over to Live Journal. It’s enough to make me want to close up shop here! I mean on LJ, there’s the easy to read friends lists and the built-in comment feature. But then, I think about all the work I’ve put into building my blog/sites (and the money!) and I just can’t let it go. I don’t know. Anyone have any opinions either way? Or can anyone share why they prefer using LJ? Argh. Must stop over-thinking things.

I’m very excited about this coming week — 2 days of work then 5 days off! Plus Turkey Day! 🙂

women’s gym prelims

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Yay! Women’s gymnastics is under way! I am, of course, extremely partial to the US team and I’m happy they had a decent showing to finish second in the prelims.

I have to say that I was so impressed by Mo — she was the rock of the team. I’m so happy that she’s performing well and will get a chance to win an individual medal in the Floor Exercise final. She’s so awesome. Now, on the complete other side of the spectrum, I feel so awful for Courtney McCool. She missed major connections in her beam routine and stepped out of bounds on the floor — so uncharacteristic of her. She’s usually such a confident and clean gymnast. But I guess once the nerves set in after her first mistake, she couldn’t quite recover. It’s too bad that the coaches left her off the roster for the team finals, but I understand that they can’t take the risk (especially with this no margin for error 6-3-3 format, which I don’t like at all but that’s another rant for another time). It’s really sad to think that her Olympics experience is over.

Random women’s gym stuff:
Carly Patterson’s beam routine ROCKED — she was solid and hit all of her big skills. Check out the link if you want to download her routine. I’m really hoping she medals in the All-Around.

Someone please take the glitter and eyeliner away from Terin Humphrey! She’s such a beautiful gymnast but her makeup is seriously overwhelming. (And this coming from a makeup fiend).

I love the Romanians on beam (Catalina Ponor — wow!) and the Chinese on bars (their swing and huge release moves are unbelievable).

It’s really sad to see the Russians (men and women) doing so poorly as a team. They used to be the powerhouses of the sport and now I don’t think they even have a chance at winning a medal.

Stuff on today’s competitions:
*So* excited for the US men’s gymnastics team and their silver medal! And of course the Japanese team on their gold! 😀 I just wish that NBC had shown more of the Japanese men’s routines. They won the gold medal and they were only shown on 2 events. Boo.

Marian Dragalescu’s vault was INSANE.

Why oh why are they not showing Sexy Alexei Nemov?! He’s my Russian boyfriend!

Paul Hamm has the weirdest voice.

It’s also really disappointing to see all the empty seats during gymnastics. In the past 3 summer games (the ones that I can actually remember watching), the arena has been jam-packed with people. If I could head over to Athens right now, I totally would.

Very happy for Natalie Coughlin and her gold in the 100m backstroke! I was a senior at Cal when she was a freshman and I remember reading about her in the Daily Cal — probably when she won NCAA Swimmer of the Year. Anyway, just happy to see a fellow Bear get a win in the Olympics. Oh, and does anyone think she looks a little like Bethany Joy Lenz? Just me? Ok.

Women’s team final tomorrow! Expect more exciting Olympics comments from me, heh.

One more thing — I’ve enjoyed seeing all the promos for the new and returning NBC shows. I have to remember to do a blog about that.

ER and parminder

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What in the world was that army tank storyline about on ER?!? So bizarre. I was totally rolling my eyes.

Now, I haven’t watched ER in *years* but when I found out Parminder Nagra (aka Jess on Bend It Like Beckham — my new favorite movie :P) was on the show, I had to start watching it again. It’s that crazy BiLB obsession of mine. Heh.

Friends! There were some great laugh out loud moments tonight — loved that Chandler and Monica have a “Joey room” in their new house and it was a great nod to continuity to have Ross jealous of Rachel having dinner with Mark. BUT! Rachel! She can’t take the Louis Vuitton job! Argh, it’s getting harder and harder to stay spoiler-free for the series finale.

Anyway, I knew there was a reason why I love my alma mater so much. Boalt law school has an official club for The O.C.. They’re setting up a Sandy Cohen Fellowship! OMG. Those crazy law students crack me up.

Doing the Tuesday Threesome (better late than never):

Female Television Characters
Jen Lindley (DC), Sydney Bristow (Alias), Amy Abbott (Everwood)

Male Television Characters
Pacey Witter (DC), Lex Luthor (Smallville), Chandler (Friends)

Television Couples
Pacey & Joey (DC), Colin & Amy (Everwood), and a tie between Nathan & Haley (OTH) and Chandler & Monica (Friends)

cal layout

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Yay for new layouts! I love Harry Potter but the previous layout depressed me a little. It was just getting too dark and depressing. I was craving something simpler and brighter so… ta-da! The drawing I used is of my college alma mater, UC Berkeley. I scanned the picture from my graduation announcements, lol. I was getting a little nostalgic the other day as I was looking through old pictures and college memorabilia so I thought I could pay homage to that time in my life with my new layout. Anyway, I know the layout won’t mean anything to anyone else but I hope you all like it anyway. 🙂

I’ve also taken the “Art” section of the site out, which used to house all my wallpapers. I’m not sure what I want to do with them. I’ll still update here in my blog when I’ve made a new one but I don’t like having them here anymore. Maybe I’ll create some sort of wallpaper archive. Err… maybe. I don’t know.

I also want to plug my former hostee Cindy — she has her own domain now so please visit!

i love my 3-day weekend

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The boyfriend’s parents are staying with us this weekend because his cousin is graduating from UC Berkeley (my alma mater!). We went to his graduation earlier this morning and damn, I had forgotten how long and most of all, how boring graduations can be. I mean, you’re waiting for one name to be called and then you have to sit through like 500 more names. Gah. But it was definitely nice to be back on campus again — I’ve only been gone 2 years but there already seems to be so many things that have changed. The Student Store where I used to work has seen a complete facelift. When I was still working there, it was owned and run by the ASUC (the Associated Students of the University of CA) but it was sold to a huge corporation and it’s evident in the design and products of the store now. There are also a bunch of buildings that were permanently in scaffolding before because of the Earthquake restoration project that have since been remodeled and repainted. And Telegraph Avenue (the famous street that leads right onto the main part of campus) has so many new shops — it’s so weird when your memories don’t match the reality anymore.

The only part of the weekend that has been a pain in my ass is that my site went down twice due to bandwidth issues. Grrr. I know it’s my fault for not checking my stats but I didn’t think I had to — I’ve *never* had a problem before. But anyway, sorry to my hostees for the downtime.

Seven on Sunday:

1. The most overused graphic fonts are Scriptina (beautiful but seen everywhere!) and the little pixel fonts (I love them though so I’m contributing the overusage. :P).

2. One web trend I just don’t understand the reasoning for is pop-ups. Guh. They get on my nerves.

3. I prefer blogs to LiveJournals.

4. I really love site designs that are easy to navigate and have lots of good content. On personal sites, I especially love to read site histories and random facts about the webmaster.

5. One aspect of web design that I’d most like to master is PHP. But in my old age I have become far too lazy to actually sit down and actually learn something.

6. You can tell how long someone’s been doing web design by the lack of blinding colors and text effects (like that damn sparkle trail) on their sites.

7. My first website was this one, e-l.net. I got into web design because I found myself a college graduate with no job and way too much time on my hands.