valentine’s day

I’m officially giving up on the 30 Day Meme. The rest of the prompts require way too much thinking… also, L-A-Z-Y.

So what have I been doing? Mmm… watching WAY too much Olympics coverage. I’m an Olympics junkie. I’ll watch anything that NBC “packages” up in primetime — speed skating, alpine skiing, luge, etc. And of course, I’m following figure skating! I follow individual men’s and women’s skating more closely than I do the other disciplines but I’m really happy that Shen/Zhao won pairs despite the almost-spill on their lift in the free skate. They’re the total package — they have the tricks and the artistry. Which brings me to the men. I can’t believe Plushenko is the leader going into the free skate. He is ALL jumps and no artistry. There’s no real choreography or footwork between jumps — he’s just skating around doing as little as possible until the next jump. I much prefer Evan Lysacek (despite the questionable arm-flailing he does in his programs), Daisuke Takahashi, Stephane Lambiel (his spins!), and Jeffrey Abbott (too bad he imploded in the short program). I hope they all have amazing free skates on Thursday and overtake Plushenko. A girl can dream.

This past weekend was Valentine’s Day and Rob and I celebrated by…

1. Going to Starbucks. LOVE their Valentine’s Day cups. 😀



2. Taking Diesel to the park. He’s in desperate need of a haircut, LOL.



3. Watching the NBA All-Star festivities (the slam dunk contest, which I normally enjoy, was laaaame) and the Olympics (again, figure skating!).

4. Renewing our Disneyland annual passes. We decided that this would be our annual Valentine’s Day present to each other. YAY!

5. Looking at model homes and going back and forth (and back and forth) about the pros and cons of buying a townhouse versus single family, new versus resale, now versus later, etc. It’s kinda stressing me out. Seriously, the home buying process is not fun.

Off to watch more Olympics. Speed skating tonight! 🙂

dancefest + yoda

So yesterday Rob and I finally checked out a performance of the SF Hip Hop Dancefest. I’m a huge dance fan and I’ve wanted to check it out for the past few years but was always lazy (and cheap). We finally went this year and I enjoyed it! There was a good mix of “crews” — from crews that excel in “popping” and isolations to others that merge modern dance with hip hop.

We saw “Program A” and my favorites were:
Soul Sector!!! They were THE BEST. They were clean and synchronized and their choreography was fresh and fun. (For all you America’s Best Dance Crew fans, some of their members performed as Supreme Soul on the MTV show).
Sunset. Little kids (think 6-13)! Dancing! Adorable.

FORMALity. Another junior group (I think — maybe high school/college?). Super energetic and lively crew!

Breaksk8. I didn’t care for them much when they were on ABDC but I really liked them live. They made the roller-dancing look so easy.

After the performance, which was at the Palace of Fine Arts, we walked over to the Presidio to check out the Yoda fountain at the Letterman Digital Arts Center, which (I think) houses LucasArts, ILM, and Lucasfilm. Luckily, I found a map online so we (ok, ROB) were able to find Yoda pretty quickly. Check us out!



Behind the fountain is a lobby which had a large replica of Darth Vader. SO AWESOME. The building was closed, though, so we could only peer into the windows. We must have looked like big dorks. 😀

There was also a Starbucks on the campus which had this cool Yoda drawing on their chalkboard:



When we got home, we settled in to watch 24: Redemption. For the most part, I enjoyed the season 7 prequel/movie. But maybe that was because I was so starved for new 24?! I don’t really know. Regardless I thought it set up season 7 nicely and smoothly introduced the new players to the 24-verse.

2 Quick non-spoilery thoughts:
— Carly Pope (Sam) bugged BIG TIME. GUH. I can tell I’m going to be screaming at her through the TV. I hope she is evil so I can justify my HATE.
— Actually, I didn’t care for any of the new characters (President Taylor, Hodges, Sam, General Juma — the only “newbie” I like so far is Roger cause I think he is cute, heh :P). Instead, I’m looking forward to seeing my favorite 24 faces — Chloe, Bill, etc.

Anyway, JACK IS BACK! OH YES. 😀

Random — I’m not a HUGE fan of Beyonce but I love that Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) song. It’s so damn catchy.

my october

The Starbucks red cups are back! WOOT. This signals the start of my ABSOLUTE favorite time of the year. I got my first red cup of the year today. My signature nonfat peppermint mocha. YUM.

So it doesn’t seem like it but I’m around. Just lazy. As per usual.

My “vote by mail” ballot for today’s election arrived yesterday. WHICH MEANS IT IS TOO LATE FOR ME TO DO ANYTHING WITH IT. Considering I live in Northern CA and am unable to fly down and turn it in to an LA County polling place today. You’d think they’d send the ballots out early enough to give the voter enough time to you know, MAIL IT BACK.

I know, I know. I’m disappointed in myself for not registering for my ballot earlier. 🙁

I just finished watching McCain’s concession and Obama’s acceptance speeches. WOW. I teared up a few times. It’s an amazing day and even though I did not participate, I’m glad I am here to witness it.

So I’ve been meaning to share pictures of some recent events so here goes…

October 18
Rob and I attended our friends’ Eric and Amy’s wedding at the Trump National Golf Club in Southern CA. It was a wonderful event! I definitely appreciate all the little details now that I’ve planned a wedding myself. Some of the gorgeousness…



The pretty, pretty placecards. Amy embossed the cards with a lovely brocade motif. The colors of the wedding were various shades of purple. So lovely.



Trump’s outdoor ceremony site boasts an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. WOW. And look at all the purple yumminess! The rose petals along the aisle, the hydrangea balls hanging on the shepherd’s hooks, and the pashminas laid out on the chairs.



The gorgeous bride coming down the aisle…



They had my favorite Sprinkles cupcakes instead of a traditional cake. Terrible photo but YUMMY cupcakes.



A picture of the husband and me during cocktail hour. (It is still SO WEIRD to say “husband”). And yes, I wore that blue dress to yet another event this year. 😀

October 26
Rob, Diesel and I were invited by our friends Shirley and Grantland to attend Farm Day with them at the Terra Firma Farm in Winters. It was a gorgeous day — perfect for the farm! Shirley prepared a picnic lunch for us (turkey sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, chips) and the farm provided freshly squeezed juices to drink (the apple was particularly yummy).



Sitting on the picnic blanket waiting for treats.



Rob and Diesel enjoying the day in the sun.



Rob picking strawberries. They were SO GOOD.

As we were leaving, we walked past a large dog that kinda looked like a pitbull. He was tied to a tree with his owners nowhere around. When Rob and Diesel walked by him (I think it was a him), he jumped for Diesel and started biting his poor little face. Rob got in the middle and Grantland pulled the crazy dog away by his leash (luckily he was there because I didn’t know what to do and totally froze). After a few tense minutes, they got the dogs separated. Diesel was shaken and had a cut by his nose but he was his old self in no time. He’s a tough little guy.

October 31
Halloween!
But also Girls Weekend in LA with my best friends. We didn’t dress up but I wore purple cat ears. 😀 No picture, though, sorry. We spent the weekend eating, relaxing at Le Spa, shopping, watching Center Stage… it was great. AND I got to have Pinkberry! YAY.

Now I’m gearing up for a tough few weeks at work and looking forward to the holidays. I love this time of year.

starbucks love

Aww yeah. My week is OVER! Tomorrow’s a holiday at work (“Spring Friday” is our PC term for it, hehe) and I’m heading to Las Vegas for the weekend to celebrate a good friend’s birthday. Woot. I just finished packing and of course, I overpacked. Oops. What? I need options! Hee.

So I’m finally a “regular” somewhere! It only took a year but the employees at the Starbucks across the street from work finally know my name and my order. A tall nonfat peppermint mocha. 😀 When I’m standing in line and one of them sees me, they yell out my name and confirm that I’m having the mocha. Sometimes I like to freak them out and order a tall nonfat latte. Hee. And the best part is that they charge me for a tall and I always get a venti. YAYAYAY. I feel so loved. 😀 Too bad I *really* need to lay off the Starbucks cause the venti is about quadruple the calories of the tall. I should have given it up for Lent. Maybe next year…

Also, why is printing addresses on wedding invitation envelopes considered bad etiquette?! My handwriting is not pretty enough to write all the addresses. And I don’t want to pay a calligrapher (hey, I’m cheap — I have to cut corners somewhere). ARGH. Oh, wedding etiquette. I shake my fist at you.

I’m so random today.

photo meme, part 3

Why have I not seen the Girl Scouts around? Isn’t it GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME?!? They’re usually at the BART station attacking all the commuters during rush hour. Don’t they know I need my Thin Mints and Samoas? Technically I can’t eat either of those cookies right now because I gave up chocolate and candy for Lent. But I want to have them ready when Easter rolls around in a month. 😀

Sooo I just realized that I never finished up that photo meme I started, oh, about 3 months ago. !!! OOPS.

Here’s the last part!

Click on the pictures to see larger versions.

My Kitchen requested by Kelly

My kitchen is pretty tiny and not too exciting. It has all the basics… fridge, oven, stove, microwave. Nothing out of the ordinary, really. The side I took the picture from has the sink and more counter space where we have a bunch of appliances crammed together, like the coffeemaker, rice cooker, and crockpot. I’m not sure why I didn’t take a picture of that side of the kitchen. It might have been messy and I was too lazy to clean. 😛 When I finally buy my own place, I would LOVE to have stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. Not that I spend a lot of time in the kitchen… but a girl can dream.

Something Cool I See on My Commute requested by Reen

I honestly couldn’t think of anything “cool” that I see on my commute every day. It’s totally boring… I get to the BART station (which is in Oakland and there is absolutely nothing cool to see there), sit/stand on the train for 20 minutes until I arrive in San Francisco (I even fall asleep sometimes, hehe), climb up the stairs to street level and walk right into my building. So I decided to take a picture of the Starbucks I visit almost every day for my morning pick-me-up. It’s right across the street from my building and it is the *tiniest* Starbucks that I have ever seen. The employees have to kneel under the counter to get in and out of the store. Crazy! I kinda think this photo is a bit of a cop-out, though, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for something fun on my commute that I may have missed.

TV Room requested by Kate

Ahhh, the TV room/living room. Probably the one place in my apartment where I spend the most time. Right now, we have this really awful navy blue IKEA couch. I think it fits 1.5 people comfortably and 2 people uncomfortably, lol. We actually started shopping this past weekend for a new couch. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we find one that’s soft and inviting but within our budget. Anyway, you’ll notice that I have a TON of little stuffed toys on top of the couch. 😀 I love them. I can’t help it. Plus, most of them were presents so I can’t put them in storage! Rob gave me the bear in the Lakers basketball jersey for Valentine’s Day 3 years ago so it means a lot to me.

Computer requested by Kate

And a photo of my whole desk:

My computer is a 4-year old Dell laptop that has served me very, very well. It’s pretty much running as well as it did when I first bought it. The only thing that’s wrong is that it sometimes doesn’t recognize music CDs. I have no idea why. All my DVDs play so I’m not sure what’s wrong with the drive. I’d love to upgrade to a newer, faster laptop but not so much that I can justify spending the money right now. I also took a picture of my desk area so you can see all the random stuff I have around me when I’m on the ‘net… a candle, my iPod Nano, Mini Cooper figurine, photos (even one of the dog I had growing up!), college graduation tassel, etc. Looking at the photo made me realize my desk is kinda messy. :/

So that’s it! Finally. 😀