Oh so full

Just had a major Chinese feast for dinner at the T'ang Court in the Langham Hotel. I'm so incredibly full right now and feel like I've gained five pounds. Dinner items include: vegetable dumplings, roasted suckling pig with jellyfish, shark's fin soup, braised abalone with sea cucumber and chicken feet, mushroom with fish, duck meat, drunken chicken and bird's nest soup. There was more food but I can't remember all the dishes. Whew!



Just wanted to add how excited I am to see the donations to the American Red Cross via Amazon. When I blogged about this just yesterday morning, the number of donations was around 9,000 with a total amount of around $450,000. Today, the number of donations is around 71,000 with an amount of $4,285,773.51---wahoo! That's so impressive!



Things are set to go to Shenzhen tomorrow night with Ben. I applied for a single-entry visa yesterday and can pick it up tomorrow...can't wait! Happy New Year everyone!! See you in 2005!!

Notes on Hong Kong

After a fabulous dinner at the Verandah Cafe at the Peninsula tonight, I finally made it out to the harbour to get a good shot of all the Xmas lights on the skyscrapers across the water. You can see how the Chinese go all out with full-scale holiday decorations on their buildings (see bldngs in lower left corner)...quite spectacular in person. In this picture is the new 2IFC (Two International Finance Centre) building, now the tallest building in Hong Kong at 88 stories--surpassing the Central Plaza Building (78 stories) and I.M. Pei's Bank of China Tower (72 stories), seen in the photo next to my head. The building in a purple neon glow on the right is The Center, the 4th tallest building. In the evenings, there have been mini laser light shows off the top of some of these buildings in addition to fireworks. This view still takes my breath away....a must-see if you ever visit Hong Kong, esp. during holiday time.





Mustered my way around the Night Market in Mong Kok today, which is really open all day but happens to be insanely popular at night. Quite the touristy spot, this is 3-4 blocks of ridiculously cheap rip-off bargains from Hong Kong. One can find things like a fake Gucci bag for less than ten bucks or a cheap shirt or some fake Rolex watches. If you can brave the crowds and be willing to bargain, you'll walk away with some deals. I was thinking just today about how claustrophobic this city can be. It's only Wednesday and the streets and subway are constantly crowded---you don't even want to know how bad it can get on a holiday (such as Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve). I don't think there's any city in the U.S. that can even be comparable.



Style note--what seems to be popular amongst the hip girls in Hong Kong:

calf to knee length slouch leather boots

a skirt or some sort, the funkier, the better

fur. lots of fur. especially in the form of a vest or the hood lining on a jacket

wearing your boots *over* your jeans (i remember doing this in junior high...i can't believe it's coming back)

carrying your cell phone on a cord around your neck with the earpiece attached to the cord for easier access

vests overall--with fur is better...but i'm seeing vests everywhere

Extended relatives

Met 3 more distant cousins last night at dinner: Steve, Kenneth & Raymond..who all go to university in Canada currently. I don't have that many first cousins since my parents don't have that many siblings; however, when I start going up and over the family tree, it gets complicated. My grandparents each have so many siblings, up in the teens somewhere, due to my great grandparents being of the generation where it was common for a man to have multiple wives and concubines. For example, the cousins I met last night are related to me in this manner: their mother is the daughter of a man who is the older brother of my ma-ma (grandmother on father's side)--but he has a different mother, same father.

Tsunami Relief

Nice. When 9/11 happened and I was managing the team of web developers that supported the Amazon Gateway (aka HP), we had to scramble that day to take down all the content on the gateway and replace it with a big red cross message asking for amazon customers to donate to the red cross for efforts to support the families. I was really proud of that effort as we had raised a ridiculous amount of money in a short period (and considering we had capped the donation to $100 per user), it was incredible to see the number of donors. I was even more proud when I saw a mention of the website on various news programs as a source for donating money.



I was wondering if, with the recent tsunami disaster, if Jeff would decide to pull off a similar effort--and it seems we have. So, please donate to the Red Cross!! In the time it took for me to write that last paragraph, the number of payments went from 8880 to 9124. Spectacular. I hope that this is as successful as our efforts from 9/11.

purple hair

i died my hair a deep purple yesterday. eeks. getting used to it.



under normal, indoor lighting, you can't even tell--it just looks very jet black. however, outside, under sunlight, it looks pretty darn purple. i like to think that it looks very anime like.



the weather got suddenly cold today in hong kong...wasn't quite prepared for it as the weather forecast predicted mid-70's weather the whole time I'd be here. It's 50-degrees now.



if all works out, i'm going to spend new year's eve in shenzhen, china with my friend Ben. have to make sure i get the visa details worked out--supposedly, i can just apply at the border and get one in half an hour. or i can take the safe route and get a visa through my hotel now...but it's going to cost $$$.

Coffee in Hong Kong

I must say, coffee is really starting to take over here in Hong Kong. When I was here two years ago, there were a tiny handful of Starbucks here. Now, there seem to be Starbucks everywhere I go--the airport, the shopping mall, the streets, etc. As a result, I've noticed many more coffee shops around here...specifically, the main competitor with Starbucks here is the Pacific Coffee Co., whose shops tend to be much larger in scale and typically equipped with online computers. There's also more food offered at Pacific compared to the typical small pastries offered at Starbucks.

Yesterday, my family paid respect to past relatives at the cemetery. It was a really nice, sunny day fortunately since we'd be outside the whole time. It always still spooks me out a bit when I go to the cemetery here in HK. For those of you who've visited Bruce Lee's grave in Seattle, you will have noticed his picture on his tombstone--that's pretty normal for Chinese tombstones. So--when visiting the cemetery in HK, where there are literally thousands and thousands of tombstones, you'll walk by pictures of each dead person. Creepy. We remember where our relatives' graves are by the markers of various people's pictures. Even the section of cremated people, there are pictures all along the wall.



Hung out with Ben last night--yay! He's doing well--busy applying for B-school right now...if all stars align, he'll be back in the States next fall. He took me out to dinner at Knutsford Terrace at this Turkish restaurant called Merhaba, which was quite delicious although the service was somewhat slow and forgetful. We had some yummy bites..like spinach, cheese & mint "cigars" with mint yoghurt to dip...and lamb pizza. The best part is you can rent a hookah for $50HK (about $7US) -- we got apple flavor and it was awesome. Sitting outside in the cool night breeze of Hong Kong, smoking shisha was the best.



After dinner, Ben took me to this Russian style restaurant and bar called The Balalaika. He talked highly of this Vodka ice bar, a popular tourist destination. I had images of a really large bar made completely of ice---instead, upon arrival, I saw that it was instead a small freezer with a window that looks out at the restaurant. It was still fun. The restaurant lets guests borrow huge fake fur coats & hats Russian style to step into this freezer, which is lined with all sorts of different types of vodkas. Man, it was absolutely freezing inside--we ordered a shot of vodka, chatted with a couple from Manchester that had just moved here and were on our way. A short, fun worthwhile thing to do if you're in the area.



This recent 8.9 earthquake is crazy. I wonder how Jigna and Matt are doing in Mauritius--there are definitely news reports of Mauritius getting hit by tidal waves. Man, and they're supposed to have their big beach-side wedding celebration today. I hope they are okay. I can't believe it stretched out that far west---I thought it would stop at India. I feel like Hong Kong is much closer to the epicenter (Indonesia) and we didn't feel anything...but I guess the land mass of Indonesia and Malaysia prevented it from really affecting the waters surrounding China or HK. It was perfectly sunny and warm yesterday. My friend, Rod, was supposed to head to Phuket (per my parents) for New Year's, arriving sometime this week from what I hear. It doesn't loook like there's much left after the earthquake. Wonder if he's left yet...and if not, if he's still going.

Merry Christmas y'all!



While saying "Merry Christmas" seems to be a faux paus nowadays in the U.S., the Chinese have absolutely no problem blasting those 2 words everywhere. You see it on windows, signs, on people's shirts, hats, on big buildings, etc. It's just a big party.



After spending the day shopping on Hong Kong Island, we had a delicious Christmas meal at the Phillip Starck-designed Felix Restaurant at the top of the Peninsula Hotel..yum yum. Of all dishes for me to pick, having traveled all the way to Hong Kong, I choose Boston lobster on top of mushroom risotto.

Just finished dinner and walked through the madness that is Christmas Eve in Hong Kong. Think Times Square New Year's Eve--that's what Nathan Road looks like in Hong Kong Christmas Eve. The streets are closed off to pedestrian traffic only and flooded with more people than you can imagine. People walk about with silly santa hats donned with blinking lights and shouting Merry Christmas to everyone. I even walked by a big Hare Krishna mini-parade. It's funny how different it is from this time of year in the U.S., where everyone tends to be inside with their families, snuggled by the fireplace or opening up presents. Here, it's time to go out and party with your friends. I just wandered around shopping with my mother for a bit (retail shops will stay open until 11 or 12 on Xmas Eve as well---there's no closing early whatsoever here)...and now I'm back at the hotel again.



It's amazing how quickly I've adjusted to time here. I even got a decent full 8 hours of sleep last night, uninterrupted. Typically, I adjust to time coming out to Hong Kong..but have a hell of a time adjusting once I'm back in the States.

I just had a scrumptious Japanese lunch with family and grandma at the Imasa Restaurant in the Peninsula Hotel. I had this set lobster-sake set lunch with tempura mushrooms, steamed egg custard, etc. Yum yum. Such fresh, non-greasy ingredients.



I forgot to mention---the day before leaving, Eric and I stopped by Swedish Hospital to visit Nadine, who just gave birth to Alexa Sophia. She was only a day old when I saw her--the first time I've ever seen such a newbie newborn in person. She was soo tiny and soft! Oh so cute! Congrats Nadine!



Hmm...what gadgets to buy while in HK...

Just arrived in Hong Kong after 17 hours of flight and 6 hours of sitting around in airports. Overall, flight wasn't too bad with knitting and 3 movies back to back (Anchorman: The Life of Ron Burgundy, The Notebook and First Daughter). I was fortunate to have asked to change my middle seat to an aisle or window seat. In addition to getting moved to an aisle seat, I was upgraded to Economy Plus in United, which just means I have more leg room--super nice for such a long flight. At one point in the flight, the captain came on and just said quickly "Welcome to Siberia", which I thought was funny. Sure enough, we were flying over Siberia.



After de-planing, I saw a Starbucks and got excited at the thought of getting an eggnog latte. Unfortuntely, seems like eggnog isn't popular in Hong Kong--they had 2 holiday drinks: Gingerbread Latate (which we have in Seattle) and Creme Brulee Latte. I tried the Creme Brulee since that's not offered in Seattle---yum!



So now I'm at the hotel and just want to chill for the rest of the evening.

My friend, Guy, who recently left Amazon just opened up his own dog boarding facility---Roscoe's Ranch--if you live in Seattle and have a dog, check it out.



I'm going crazy with the knitting. I'm knitting like a mad woman and stressing myself out. I wonder if I'll really finish all of this on the plane ride over.



Matt and I had dinner at Assaggio Ristorante on Saturday and it was ridiculously yummy. I highly recommend this place for Italian food. We started with an appetizer of goat cheese drizzled prawns--who knew?! My main entree was a tender lamb loin on top of risotto with lots of scrumptious black and white truffles. I finished off with a dessert of pistachio gelato and biscotti. Yum! The restaurant was intimate and the service was superb and patient. I think we closed off the restaurant too!



I leave for Hong Kong in less than 24 hours and haven't even taken out my suitcase for the trip yet to pack. Ack. I've been doing lots of prep work, though...excuses excuses... It seems abnormally warm over there, in the mid-70's everyday. I swear when I was there 3 years ago at the same time, I was bundled in a sweater and my poofy jacket everyday.



Scared of Santa photo gallery. Cute.

It's been a busy holiday season. There were holiday parties galore last week, starting with Jigna & Matt's very successful White Elephant party---I went home with one of those fun boxing puppets--mine is an Alien. I made a very potent eggnog for the first time--it was amazing how easy it was to make. Kind of disgusting once I realized the ingredients of eggnog--it's simply raw eggs, sugar, whipping cream & milk. Saturday night, I only had the energy to make it out to two parties--Jeanette's and LaToya's--which were both equally fun. Matt had a chance to meet a ton of my friends over the weekend, whew.



Over the weekend, I took a 2.5 hour knitting class with Phoebe and I LOVED it. I'm completely obsessed with making scarves for everyone I know now. I already finished my first scarf, which I gave to Matt. Not bad for a first scarf...next time, I'm going to make the number of stitches across shorter so it's not as wide...and so there's room to make it longer. Now I have something to pass the time while on the plane to Hong Kong next week. I already checked the TSA website to make sure that knitting needles are allowed as carry on---and they are!



I have a bellydancing holiday shindig tonight, of which I'm going to participate in the chorus of the student troupe (jumping in last minute since I couldn't attend previous rehearsals)--should be fun. A bit nervous as I've invited some friends to watch. I can't wait to get all dressed up--yay. That's the best part of tribal bellydance: the costumes: so colorful, rich & vibrant. Right after bellydancing, I'll have to run home and change into cocktail attire to attend two more holiday parties. Whew.



I saw The Lion King (the musical) at the Paramount last week with Jigna. Oh, it was magical, especially the opening scene--it sent shivers up my spine. I absolutely loved the re-creation of the animals. They had giraffes (a guy on stilts with arm stilts), an elephant, a cheetah, etc. The costuming was just spectacular..and of course, I've always loved the music. If you haven't seen this musical ever, I highly recommend it.

A podfolio---this person put up their online portfolio using flash and an iPod user design. Interesting.

Hmmm...so now have been playing around with bloglines a bit now that I have syndicated my blog. I feel so silly for not having checked out any of these blog readers earlier...it's actually quite cool.



If you are reading this and you use a blog reader of some sort, what do you use and why? I'm curious..

Do enough of y'all visit to really care about whether or not I syndicate my blog? I didn't think so....but I got my first request the other day from my friend, hemant. I hadn't ever really explored syndicating my blog but figured it wouldn't be a big deal. So here goes--I created an Atom feed--throw this into your readers: http://www.moohaha.org/ramblings/moohaha-atom.xml

Interesting. Microsoft finally jumped on the bandwagon and launched with their own weblogging service today, MSN Spaces, which comes with 10MB of free hosting service for photos. I went ahead and snatched the member name of "moohaha", of course :-) This service is aimed for the basic, non-technical user who just wants to share photos and send updates to friends and family. Hmm---there's a feature where the user can create "lists", whatever that may be. One of the default templates is to create a books list and name it whatever you like---but if there is an associated URL, the user has to manually input that URL next to the item. Major Amazon Associates opportunity for MSN perhaps?

I'm so excited---I just got off the phone with Anna, my college roommate, who was recently engaged to her high school sweetheart, Frank---she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids for her wedding!!! Yay! I'm so honored, elated, excited and happy that she asked me! This will be my first wedding as a bridesmaid---wasn't sure if I'd ever be one...and I am just absolutely honored that she asked me. This really means so much as, despite the many miles that separate us, she will always be one of my dearest friends. She was by my side during some of the most important years of my life and I have so many amazing memories with her. I can't wait for her wedding.



Hi Barbara!

I just had probably the most amazing dinner I've ever had in Lawrence, Kansas (isn't that a bold statement?). Tonight, my parents drove all the way out to 10th & Delaware---our town was clever enough to name the streets by state names in order of when they joined the Union from East to West. So when I say "all the way out on Delaware St.", that means pretty far into East Lawrence. I have no clue where California St. or Washington St. are. Anyway, we walked into this gorgeous private home where Robert Krause Catering & Dining serve their meals. The owners, Robert & Molly, open up their home to guests for an all-out prix fixe meal. Guests literally sit in their living room as they prepare the food in the restaurant-quality kitchen. Apparently, it's currently a word-of-mouth sort of marketing and you have to call ahead to make reservations for the only 30-40 person capacity evenings (and to HAVE to make a reservation in Lawrence is saying something). We have 6 courses in total--let me see if I can remember them (and I'm sure I'm bastardizing the description):

Sea Bass from New Zealand with some blend of lobster or crab and something

Duck Confit and Breast of Duck served on top of a carrot and curry sauce

Tenderloin of Beef alongside something whose name I can't remember with a whipped goat cheese, in addition to 3 delicious sauces

Roquefort cheese souffle with a ladle of pear-walnut cream sauce, served with 3 cheeses: St. Andres Triple Creme Brie, Cave Aged Gruyere and some sort of cheddar on top of a fruit compote

an Espresso dessert of some sort with biscotti

some chocolate dessert with all sorts of sauces to sample with

an assortment of small bites, including homemade chocolate covered marshmallow and candied pomegranate

My descriptions of the food really don't give it any justice. I'm still in awe of the roquefort cheese souffle and am going to email Robert for the recipe (how nice--he's totally willing to give it to me to experiment with!). Anyway, this is by far one of the best meals I've ever had. If you ever swing through Lawrence, KS--this is a 'must-try' culinary experience.



Time at home has been great and peaceful. Been working more than I had planned but that's okay--only bummed that I think my project might be sliding. Hung out last night with some old high school friends: Jed, Matt, Matt and all their current friends. They're all doing well and it was awesome hanging out with them. Will post pictures soon. Otherwise, have been indulging in shopping with the parents and spending lots of time with them. I leave tomorrow and am packing my stuff right now. Was hoping to meet up with my friend, Sara, whom I haven't seen in, oh, 3 years? I fear we may've missed each other. Oh well. My father wants to wake me up early tomorrow and take me to the Lawrence Country Club before we head to the airport---fancy fancy. It cracks me up how much my dad has turned into a golf nut.

Holiday traveling always sucks. Took off at 1am last night from Sea-Tac airport en route to minneapolis in the worst possible seat: 48B---the last row on a fully booked flight, middle seat. Yeah, the seats that don't recline? That seat. ugh. Suffice it to say, I didn't get much sleep. Arrived in minneapolis at 6am CST and wandered around for a bit. Forgot how many retail shops are in that airport. Really wanted an eggnog latte but the line for starbucks was horrendous at that hour. Attempted to check into work, but the WiFi at the airport costs $6.95 for a session. Forget that. Finally boarded my flight to Kansas City which was great--Seat 7A. Slept the entire way and woke up 5 minutes before landing and looked out at my window to see a completely white Kansas landscape. What a shocker--there wasn't even snow in Minnesota. Turned out that 8 inches of snow had fallen overnight and the airport had temporarily closed in the morning. I fortunately was arriving after they had time to clear the runway.



Now I'm in Lawrence--slept all day to make up for lost sleep, did some work and then headed out to Longhorn Steakhouse with my parents and the Wongs. My house is so different than the last time I was here. My room has been remodeled, the kitchen looks completely different, it's just strange. Time to watch a movie! It's good to be home.



Betina posted a number of things she's thankful for this year. I'd like to do the same:

+ I'd like to give thanks for my brother's success---I've always known him to be an amazing artist and he got into a wonderful grad school this year.

+ I'd like to give thanks for my parent's happiness--they were able to finally retire this year and I've seen them happier than ever. This year, they were able to celebrate their wedding anniversary together by going to Mexico--this was the first time they've been able to take a trip on their anniversary in more than 20 years.

+ I'd like to give thanks for my friends in Seattle--I've grown closer to a lot of people and have also fallen into a very comfortable set of friends. Each day, I meet more people and am thankful to have them in my life.

+ I'd like to give thanks for all the weddings--I've had a lot of friends get married this year and I couldn't be more happy for them. It was an incredible experience to share--I'm elated that such dear friends have found tender love.

+ I'd like to give thanks for home--I'm in a condo of my dreams and feel incredibly blessed to have this be my home.

+ I'd like to give thanks for Misha, my cat. It's the best feeling in the world to come home to someone that's been waiting all day for you to return.

+ I'd like to give thanks for my health, which has been much better this year. I feel more alive.

+ Lastly, I'd like to give thanks for having a special someone enter my life recently, one that I hope sticks around for a long time :-)



Happy Turkey Day everyone!

this is really cool---the 2.5 gigapixel photo. Zoom in on it, it's amazing.

Weekend started off with a bang. One of my oldest friends in Seattle, Gary (we studied abroad in Spain together in college), invited me to the Seattle Works Emerald City Swank Friday night. It was my first time to any sort of swanky fundraiser like this--there was a silent and live auction, followed by dinner and dancing. Lots of fun as it was geared towards people in their 20s and 30s and 400-500 people filled the Bell Harbor International Conference Center. I even won a silent auction! I got VIP passes for 5 people to check out TheatreSports. Hmmm...who to invite along with me....





After the Swank, I went over to Vidya's for her housewarming anniversary party and caught up with the crew. Saturday, attended Minal & Amarpal's Housewarming out in Issaquah after spending the afternoon with Eric shopping (and dropping way more $$ than I had planned, getting a new Salamander TV Stand). Later in the evening, had an amazing evening hanging out with someone I haven't seen in years, Matt, eating dinner at Rosebud and watching I Heart Huckabees. Sunday, I went to Nadine & Chip's baby shower, which was lots of fun. Whew. Busy weekend!



I can't believe how time is flying. Next week, I'll be flying back to Kansas for Thanksgiving. Trippy. Anyway, I'm beat for the evening after another grueling workout at the XGym, work and then bellydancing. Gonna take a shower and sleep early tonight. I need it.

Oh man. What a day. I'm so beat. Today was my first real full day working. (Friday didn't count since I pretty much just had to pack up my office for a move) I started off this morning at the XGym, working on a new protocol: ratchets. Ugh. I also had to do new workouts--the adductor, a pushup, leg extension, chin ups: all things that I basically suck at. These next 7 weeks are going to suck at the gym, I can tell. I was coughing throughout my workout (I still have a slight cough that developed near the end of my sickness) and looked like I was going to keel over. Then I headed to work and had a pretty full day, rushing home, made some scallops for dinner and headed off to bellydancing class. We spent the first 15 minutes or so working solely on belly rolls. Oh man, those scallops didn't feel very good after awhile. I was really working that stomach. So so sore. I think a nice, bubble bath this evening will hit just the spot.



God, I hate being sick. I've been pretty healthy all year. Then bam, the fall starts and I get the cold. Just like that. No fun at all. I'm hoping it won't be as bad as last year and I'm working on some more preventative things that I didn't as much last year: not stressing out as much at work, taking a multi-vitamin daily, drinking more water, working out more, dancing more. Let's hope it works.



Hey all you Smithies--just found out: Katie Ho is engaged! Congrats Katie--I'm very happy for you and Kit! I can't wait for the KitKat wedding next year. Now I've got 3 weddings planned next summer on the East Coast---all Smithie friends: Anna, Li Mei and Katie. Wonder if next summer will top the number of weddings I was invited to this year.

www.marryanamerican.ca

Seattle peeps--it's 25 for $25 this month, yum yum!

What a depressing day. 4 more years of Bush. Kerry concedes. 11 states ban gay marriage. I'm still horribly sick. I attempted to go back to work today. Stepped into the elevator and saw the words "I'm moving back to Canada!" scribbled all over the whiteboards inside our elevators. Spent an hour in a meeting about my new organization. Head was swelling. Dizziness overtook me. My ears felt like they were in a tunnel. What was I thinking? I had lunch with Katie, with it being her last day. We caught up, bitched, laughed and had a good hour with each other. I hugged her goodbye and bid her farewell on her new journey outside Amazon. Called up the business owner for my current project and apologized for the poor timing of my bad health. Spent a good 45 minutes trying to schedule a regular war team meeting for the next 3 weeks...and then left. I'm back home again. When will this cold go away? The good thing is that I can tell it's getting better. Blegh. I hate being sick.

Oh, the tension of Election Night. It's so frustrating flipping channels and going from news station to news station and seeing how their electoral vote count completely varies. I mean, seriously--where are they all getting their sources? As of right now, it's:



CNN: Kerry - 188 Bush - 197

ABC: Kerry - 188 Bush - 237

NBC: Kerry - 206 Bush - 207

FOX: Kerry - 144 Bush - 210

CBS: Kerry - 200 Bush - 246



ACK.



I'm still sick. Just sitting at home, by myself, missing out on a bunch of, I'm sure, fun election night outings and parties. I do feel better today than I did yesterday..but still very sick. I really really hope I can make it to work tomorrow.

My Halloween party, Moohaha Brewhaha, was a total success. Lots and lots of people showed up (I counted around 80) and the majority of them in very entertaining costumes: cowboy, 70's pimp, Alex from Clockwork Orange, Verizon guy with his cellphone, Wonder Woman, Jack Skellington, Flavor Fav, bruised hockey player....I could go on and on. Thanks to everyone who came! It wouldn't have been as fun if it weren't for all of you! It was awesome spooking everyone out with my crazy eyes...



The mess afterwards wasn't too bad for the most part. The only icky part are my floors--they're just absolutely disgusting. Unfortunately, I'm totally sick right now and have been too tired to really do much about those floors. I caught a cold late Friday and felt pretty crappy all day on Saturday. Amazingly, when the party started, the adrenaline kicked in and I felt like I was perfectly healthy throughout the whole party. Sunday and today, however, my body's been in extreme sick mode. I ended up staying home, trying to ward off this sickness. Ack, what terrible timing as I just took over another project beginning today. I hope I can make it to work tomorrow...although, honestly, my body is telling me otherwise.

I'm having a Halloween party at my place tonight---"Moohaha Brewhaha" Come join in the festivities if you're in the Capital Hill area! I'm dressed up as a vampire this year and got really into my costume since I'm actually hosting a party for once. I wore the crazy Wildfire contact lenses I bought last month to work yesterday. I'll be wearing them again tonight. Man oh man--I don't know how people with contact lenses deal with wearing these every single day of their lives. It's a total pain. My eyes, fortunately, have adjusted fine. It really tops off my costume--quite spooky. I'm so excited to see all my friends dressed up tonight!

The last Lunar Eclipse before 2007 takes place tonight from about 5pm to 8:45pm PST.

I completely forgot to mention what I did this past weekend, which was so incredibly fun. So..last Friday, Ajay (who works at Vulcan) gives me a call and says "Whatcha doin' tomorrow night? Cuz' I just got invited to fly down on Paul's plane to check out the Trailblazers game--wanna come?" Hell yes. I can't believe I even hesitated (I had to cancel some plans). On Saturday, we drove over to Boeing Airfield to the Vulcan Flight Operations hangar and boarded Paul's private 747. This was my first time on a private plane and it was just an incredible experience. It's exactly like what you see on TV--there was a bed, shower and loungy couches everywhere...so incredibly comfortable. Within 25 minutes, we were in Portland and getting whisked off to the Rose Garden Stadium. We entered through this back entrance where we got to see some of the player's cars parked (and they were all pimped out--Escalades, Rolls Royce, etc...chrome wheels, everything). We headed up to the Owner's Suite and got some food and wine and then got seated for the game. Ajay and I scored by having COURTSIDE tickets. We were literally sitting right behind the Trailblazer girls the entire time. So sweet. What an amazing experience it was. The Trailblazers won (yay!) and we headed back to the plane right afterwards. All in all, I flew to Portland, watched a game and flew back in about 5 hours. Incredible. I'm working for the wrong company. This was a nice perk.

Surprise visit from good friend, Jon Pak, at Amazon. Jon started a month after I did at the company and was one of my first really good friends here in Seattle. He left for med school in Philly over a year ago. It was great to see him again! 

Finally got a hookah. It made for a very chill evening.

Matt just passed this on to me: Lookout: An addin to Outlook to quickly search all of your e-mail, contacts, calendar, and filesystem. Pretty cool. It's indexing now and I can't wait to start using it.

Yahoo and OMD Unveil Findings of Internet Deprivation Study



Despite the fact that they may need to call friends to make arrangements or read the daily newspaper to find out news, participants expressed that they looked unproductive and lazy to their colleagues when engaged in these activities using traditional means. The Internet helped them conceal these activities and helped them do it much faster.

I guess it would make a difference seeing my officemates surfing Google News versus kickin' back and reading the Seattle Times. In theory, they're the same activity.



I would like to think that my life doesn't evolve around the Internet too much aside from basic communication with friends using Email and Messenger. I've only had DSL hooked up at home for about a year now barely---before that, I only relied on dialing up with my work modem if I wanted to access the Internet at home. I figured I was online enough at work that it was silly to spend $50/month to be hooked up at home. The little ways that this has now changed my habits at home in this last year:

I pay my bills online now instead of writing checks and mailing them

I don't buy as many stamps as I used to

I'm starting to download music again (I basically stopped once I left college)

I don't necessarily plan my evenings from work as much because I can look up restaurants or movie times or print out directions to a party from home now without it being a hassle. Before, I'd print all this out at work and end up staying at work a bit longer just to take care of personal errands.

Now that I can be on Messenger at home in the evenings, it's a lot easier to just ping someone for a last minute movie or something.

I'm updating my website at home instead of at work. I used to burn photos I wanted to upload onto a CD and bring it into work since the connection was fast.

I don't go through as many blank CDR's as I used to

I'm getting friends to email me on my personal email more than my work email.



Interesting.

My friends Debbie & Saevar visited me from NYC last weekend and we had the most amazing time together. We were fortunate to have gotten some absolutely beautiful weather and I think I was able to convince them that Seattle is one beautiful city. They had a chance to meet my friends, eat good food and just see so much of Seattle. Below are a few photos capturing their time here. 

eating lunch at amazon.com pacmed 

Saevar at Snoqualmie Falls 

Debbie in the elevator at the Seattle Library 

Debbie & Saevar at the first Starbucks 

video projection on the fremont troll 

Just found an old email that a friend sent to me. I remember thinking it was amusing then, so here it is:



Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.



Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.



Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.



Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.



After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.



And that, my friends, is how a company policy begins.

I voted in yesterday's Washington State Primaries. For the most part, the democratic candidates I chose won by a landslide (BTW, what was Warren Hanson thinking? Warren has run for political office many times before as a Republican and tried to run as an independent candidate, however the two major parties here in the Washington legislature made it too difficult by law, therefore he is running for the first time as a Democrat. -- lame)



Interesting statistics on voters in King County:



% of Precincts Reported - 97%

Ballots Counted - 199,404

Democrats - 132,105

Republicatns - 55,228

Liberatarian - 2,332

Registered Voters - 1,006,839

Turnout to Date - 20%

Hmm. Alex, who hosts my website, just started working at findory, which looks a lot like Google News to me. Apparently, they use some personalization technology (which Google does not do) to deliver the news that's more relevant to you. Hmm..will have to play around with it more. Of even more interest to me is their Findory Blogory---now this is interesting. Similar in nature to their news section but all the links are to relevant personal weblogs. Check it out.

I met up with an interior designer today to go over color schema and furniture placement in my place today...wow, it's overwhelming to just sit and think about colors for 4 hours straight. Near the end, I was like "yeah yeah, just pick a color and tell me what it is". Quite an interesting process this was--we spent the first hour or so walking through all the rooms and talking about them so she could get a sense of my space and functionality. By the time she left, we had little blue painter's tape on a few walls with the names of some Benjamin Moore paint colors written on them. Some of the colors picked out for me: Beaujolais Red, Gloucester Sage, Hampshire Gray and Dash of Pepper. Apparently, the designer has me picked out as a "dramatic, moody" type and I need colors to match that sort of persona...so nothing boring or conservative. Most of the colors are of a darker palette...I can't wait to see how they look in here! Next: getting a bid from a painter. Hmm..wonder what this is going to cost me.



Just came back from my second Xgym workout: not bad. In fact, I have to admit it felt a lot easier to do, even though there was a bit more weight added. I had a different trainer and I think his "splinters" were far easier and shorter to do.



Party'd up in Vancouver for Labor Day weekend with Kabir and a bunch of his high school buddies--had fun and met new people. Get this--one of the guys (Brent) forgets his passport and we'll all prepared for a long wait at the border. Instead, the border patrol just asks who forgot their passport, then he does a check on Kabir's passport (lame) and lets us pass through! He doesn't even ask Brent if he's a US citizen. I couldn't believe how easy that was. That would never fly if I forgot my passport.

This has been movie week for me. I'm finally chilling after 3 months of constant social activities and birthdays. For the last three nights, I've gone out to the theaters, watching Control Room, Open Water and Napoleon Dynamite.

I got back from an amazing few days last weekend at Jigna & Matt's Wedding in Portland, my first ever Indian wedding (though, from what I'm told, it was a rather toned down wedding compared to your average day-long Indian wedding ceremony). We all woke up early on Saturday, getting dressed in our colorful saris and kurtas, placing bindis in our foreheads and shimmer on our arms. We arrived at the country club to a perfectly gorgeous day for a wedding--the sun was out, everyone was smiling. As friends arrived, we all gasped at how cool everyone's outfit was...I'm so happy that we all decided to get dressed up in Indian dress for this event. Saris and kurtas are so incredibly comfortable...yet anyone looks awesome in these clothes. The ceremony began and then we all saw Matt and his brothers..and soon after, a stunning Jigna. She couldn't be any more beautiful that day...it was perfect. You could tell how incredibly happy she was inside to finally be marrying Matt (they've been engaged for about 4 years) and to have her entire family (flying in from Mauritius and London) there to share that moment with her. The event, from start to finish, was so fun as so many of our Seattle friends were there. We all celebrated afterwards, going out to dinner and finishing the night dancing to Bollywood fusion hip-hop at a local club called Fez with all of Jigna's cousins, brother and Matt's brother & cousin. Congratulations Matt & Jigna! It was a really beautiful wedding and an extremely fun weekend.



I hired a housecleaner to come once a month just to check it out. This morning, Jonathan came over and started cleaning..really nice guy. I came home to a really clean home--loved it! I've learned from talking to friends that more and more of them grew up with a housecleaner...and lots of them actually have current housecleaners. I never realized that! Do you have regular housecleaning?



I've also decided to be insane and get in shape by joining the X Gym, which several friends of mine have raved about (Eric, Nadine, Tim..) It was either that or going to a personal trainer at my regular gym, but I figured I'd probably end up spending about the same amount of money..although XGym is probably better. This is going to really whoop my ass into shape. Let's see about it..first appointment is tomorrow and I'm already scared...

Bizarro. Japanese designers have come up with a new product to fill in the gap in lonely, single women's beds: the Boyfriend Arm Pillow

I really don't understand why anyone would steal a well-known famous painting, like The Scream. Who's going to pay money to hang an obviously stolen piece of art in their home? Or what museum would pay for that?



Man, she's bitter



Which Nigerian spammer are you?



Yesterday, while standing in line at the grocery store, I picked up a copy of Seattle Magazine and was most excited to find my doctor listed as one of the Top Doctors in the area. Woo hoo!



Read an article in Newsweek about the new SAT---no more analogies! Sheesh, those killed me. Instead, there's a new writing section which includes an essay that colleges have access to. Also, a perfect score is a 2400 instead of a 1600. Some colleges are accepting both the old and new SAT from students in the class of 2006--how are they going to fairly compare students if they do that? Interesting.

Things I want to do over the next couple of weeks:



1. Sign on a regular housecleaner (how grown-up of me, isnt' it?)

2. Meet with an interior designer to get color recommendations

3. Buy more decorative furniture/accessories

4. Paint



I love my place but it's too cold for me right now. It definitely needs a homey-er feel to it, which I think I can get through some warm tones and little accessories to really pull the place together.



The rainy weather hit Seattle today. Bleh. And it's, like, 60-degree rainy weather, a hint that fall is around the corner. But wait--summer's are supposed to be a bit longer here. What the hell? I can't believe that just on Friday, I was wearing a tank top and skirt. Today, I was walking around in my jeans and fleece pullover. Weather forecasts indicates rain for the next few days. [sigh] Hopefully, this will just be a short thing and we'll return to beautiful, sunny weather soon. In a way, honestly, I'm very much welcoming this rainy weather--it's made sleeping so much nicer in the cooler evenings.



Our company picnic was yesterday--and right in the middle of it was when the rain hit really hard. Pretty funny. I think it was the first time the picnic's been rained on, at least since I started. I still had fun--got my free t-shirt, climbed a wall, and had free food and beer.

A few days ago, I went and picked up my license plates for my car. While I was there, the car sales guy helped me activate my XM Satellite Radio. I knew I had the hardware installed on my car but didn't realize until a few days ago that I got a 3-month trial subscription by virtue of purchasing my car...so now I'm cruising around with over 120 radio channels with commercial-free music. You know, when I first heard about this concept 2 years ago, I thought it wouldn't really take off--who wants to pay for radio? Of course, I have it for free now and I've only had it for a few days...but...I must say: I love it. If I decide to continue this subscription after my trial, it'll cost $9.95/month (or I could pre-pay for a year or two years, etc. for a bit of a discount). My greatest hesitation: I don't spend that much time in my car. Unlike the Microsofties, I spend approximately 7 minutes driving to work; however, short commutes aside, I think it's really cool. I'm already finding myself enjoying the Cinema channel, Broadway, Latin Jazz, Caliente (Salsa/Caribbean), all the channels in the Dance category..the list goes on. It's also neat to get non-music channels like the BBC, CNN Headline News, E! Entertainment, Discovery Radio and fun shows like LaughUSA. (Full program list found here) It's been incredibly peaceful to NOT hear radio commercials over the last few days. XM Satellite Radio has the potential to really take off. Future plans include a Public Radio channel, showcasing some of the public radio stations in the country, such as Boston's WBUR. This channel is going to include a daily Bob Edwards show. Another upcoming channel will feature all the "Hear Music" songs you hear in Starbucks cafes (as cheesy as this music can be, I like it). What do y'all think?



I went wakeboarding today for the first time over in Lake Sammamish with a bunch of people---I LOVED it!! I want to go back again and give some more time to trying it. I never truly totally got up---well, I did get up at one point but immediately let go of the rope and temporarily surfed on my own on the water. It was exhilirating and such a thrill. I can't believe I never tried this before. Hope I get a chance to go back again before this summer weather ends---if anyone here in Seattle is interested in joining me, let me know!



I'm losing sleep over the Olympics...I so easily get entranced watching these athletes compete late at night. When did the women's vault horse change shape?



This summer is flying by. It's insane how many social activities there have been daily (and how many Leos I know...)

Happy Birthday to Dad, Pierre, Auntie Loretta and moi! Later tonight, Pierre and I are having birthday drinks with friends at Barça---come join if you can.



Just got back from the last shisha night at Jigna's before she officially moves over to the East Side (Issaquah). Ah--so sad. I'm really going to miss the view from her balcony of the Space Needle and the Puget Sound. That apartment has the most amazing view. A bunch of us were over there. They completely surprised me at midnight by bringing out a yummy tiramisu cake from Larry's with a candle on it for my birthday! What awesome friends I have.

I played tennis yesterday for the first time in, oh, 15 years. I forgot how much I liked it...but man, my right forearm has been incredibly sore since. What a fun way to get some cardio in...I'll have to build it back up though.



To get through these non-AC hot nights in Seattle, I've found an incredible product: the Chillow. It seems like one of those As Seen on TV products (and for all I know, it is)...I decided to get one after seeing it come up in numerous Amazon.com and Drugstore.com emails...and with the price not being too hefty, I figured "why not?". This thing really does keep relatively cool throughout the night and it helps to have at least one cool thing to lay my head against at night.

I just went downstairs to buy my daily latte and the lady behind the counter wouldn't take one of my nickels because she thought it looked counterfeit. After looking at it, a guy behind me in line said that it was an old nickel, a buffalo nickel. I just checked this thing out---some versions of it can fetch up to $14,000! The one I have, at best, may be worth 75 cents--but hey, that's still 15 times more than it's currently worth to me! Anyone know any coin dealers/buyers in Seattle?

I just got back from seeing an amazing performance--Mercan Dede and his ensemble who were performing at Century Ballroom. The Turkish born, Montreal based, world-beat musician/producer subtly fuses the Eastern spiritual traditions of Sufi music with contemporary ambient sounds to create a unique mix of old and new, sacred and secular, East and West. All of the musicians were extremely talented, including a very young 15 year old clarinet player. What really amazed me was the presence of two Whirling Dervishes. Before tonight, I had no idea what a whirling dervish was. Essentially, they twirl around in a circle like mad throughout the entire piece, as much as half an hour--not even spotting and not getting dizzy at all. This is apparently a sacred Sufi dance to elevate the dancer to a trance-like state, bringing him/her closer to Allah. At one point, the lights dimmed and this electric jagged light stitched to the dervish's skirt lit up, creating a beautiful effect. My jaw was dropped for most of the tonight's show...this is a must-see. Everyone in the audience was feeling the groove of the music and jamming away.

Jigna's Bachelorette weekend was absolutely fabulous--everyone was relaxed, happy and there weren't any dramas at all. Friday evening, we arrived for a late dinner at a "casual upscale" French tapas restaurant called Fiction, in the Kits district. The food was just incredible, a pleasant surprise considering I just picked it out last minute. Saturday was our spa day---we all got wonderful spa treatments at the Miraj Hammam Spa, a Middle Eastern inspired spa. We all got the traditional hammam and gommage treatment, involving an invigorating steam treatment followed by an exfoliation. Relaxing in the Soltana Lounge, sipping tea and munching on baklava was a perfect ending to this amazing spa experience. In the evening, after shopping on Robson a bit, we had our obligatory dinner at Jigna's favorite restaurant, Vij's...fabulous as always. If you ever go there, you must try the wine marinated lamb popsickles in fenugreek cream curry with tumeric spinach potatoes: it's to die for and my absolute favorite. After dinner, we headed to the much too-hyped Skybar off of Granville Street for some late night dancing to old school hip hop. Sunday involved a brunch on Granville Island where we bid adieu to some of the women who had to go back early. I ended the weekend sitting on Kitsilano Beach with Asayo and Jigna, followed by an Italian dinner before heading home. All in all, it was a rather tame weekend as far as bachelorette parties go. We had a few dares for Jigna to do but it was all in good fun and nothing raunchy at all. Yay!

Today, I said goodbye to my car of 8 years, my '96 Acura Integra SE---my college car. I have so many wonderful memories with that car...it was so hard to part with it. So odd..never thought it would be hard to part with a car, but it was! In its place, I got my "adult" car...an Audi A4 1.8T Quattro. Love it...it's a really nice car. It handles amazingly--the 6-speed manual is so fun to drive! I'm sure I will enjoy this car and come to love it as much as my Integra.

oh my god--bellydancing kicked my butt tonight. i tried out the "mixed level" class for the first time (beginning II and intermediate) and boy, was it a challenge. i don't think i can naturally move my hips that fast! i did love the class--everyone is so good...something to look up to. we even whipped out some zils, which i suck at---my fingers do not coordinate with my hips. whew.

This land is your land....funny.

Just got back from my first ever bachelorette party---that of Jennifer Gilreath's: she was the first person ever to put me on a snowboard and force me to go down the bunny hill at Snoqualmie. All other girlfriends that have gotten married over the last few years lived so far away so it wasn't practical for me to be a part of the bachelorette evening. It was fun, considering I literally didn't know anyone except Jen. It was a very typical Belltown bachelorette party, starting out at Axis, followed by Ohana, Seasound and then dancing at Tia Lou's. Jen was forced to wear a veil, candy jewelry and a sign that read "Bite For A Buck - No Hands". What a good sport...Congrats Jen--you've scored a wonderful guy. Thanks for letting me be a part of your bachelorette evening!

Sorry I haven't written in awhile...been pretty busy. Last weekend was such a blast. It started with a spontaneous trip up to Vancouver with my friend Jason so that we could catch the Jazz Festival. We started off Friday evening checking out an Afro-beat jazz musician, Tony Allen. He was amazing, great sound. Coincidentally, Joe & Sri went up to see the same show. The rest of the trip was fun, going to places I'd never been: brunch on Granville Island, strolling along Commercial Drive, visiting Kitsilano Beach and eating the most amazing meal at Bin 941.



Sunday, came back and stopped at Home Depot on the way back and picked myself up a Weber Q Portable Gas Grill. (Before y'all bash me for getting a gas grill over charcoal, it's because I'm not allowed to have charcoal grills up on the rooftop of my building so I have no choice but to get a gas grill) I'm very happy with my purchase as I was able to use it quite a bit for my 4th of July party that evening. What started out as a casual conversation with 2 friends about having some friends come over turned into quite a sizable party. It was great! We had fabulous views of both the Puget Sound and Lake Union fireworks and ate a lot of good food. I should have people come to BBQ up on my rooftop more often....



I'm actually staying home sick today. I'm not as horribly sick as I've gotten in the past..but with the weather being so up and down recently (Monday I was speedboating on the lake in my swimsuit, Tuesday I was wearing a sweater and swearing at the bitter cold), my body's panicking and trying to bring on a cold. So I decided to just stay home and rest it out so that I don't get any more sick.

My family ended up switching plans and eating at an interesting restaurant called Basta Pasta, a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant down on 17th--yeah, who would've guessed it? For example, Aaron had spaghetti with sea urchin sauce. The food was pretty tasty in the end.



As mentioned, we saw Aida on Saturday night and I ended up liking it more than I expected. One surprise was seeing Micky Dolenz performing in it. I kept expecting him to burst out in "Here we come...walkin' down the street...". The musical takes place in ancient Egypt times and is about a love story of a princess from Nubia who falls in love with the captain of the Pharaoh Army, enemies of her native country. The storyline itself was so-so---I was much more interested in the costume choices for the show. Much of the women's clothing had a slight contemporary look to it which I found different and interesting. If you're in New York, check it out--it's in its last run on Broadway!



Later in the night, I met up with Smithies again--Katie, Debbie & Li Mei--to go barhopping around the East Village. Met some new people and had an overall great time again.



Sunday was the day of the wedding---but first, of course, we had to check out the NYC Gay Pride Parade since it was literally a block away from the hotel. Do you know this parade lasts SIX hours in this city? Crazy! It was quite..ahem..entertaining...





The Chang-Wong wedding was oh so very chi-chi and very beautiful. It'll probably be the fanciest wedding I'll be attending all summer. The ceremony itself was simple and took place at a beautiful church on Park Avenue. Hester just looked amazing in her dress and the weather was perfect as we all exited the church.



The reception. First off, let me say, this'll probably be the only wedding I'll attend where the majority of guests wear one thing to the ceremony and another for the reception. I can see why. The reception itself took place at the fabulous Essex House Hotel across the street from Central Park. Most of the men had changed into tuxedos and the women into formal gowns. You can tell it's going to be a fancy reception when the h'ors d'eouvres in the beginning include items like foie gras w/cucumber and goat cheese & black olive mini quiche. At dinner, I found myself separated from my parents as I got placed at the big singles table (aptly named "Smoke's" after one of the big bars on the UPenn campus, where Hester & Mike went to undergrad---my parents weren't thrilled about being at a table named "Class of 1920"). Coincidentally, I sat next to a former Amazonian that I had heard so much about in the past few years, Ben Margoles. Anyhoo---dinner was absolutely delicious. We started off with shrimp & scallops in a puff pastry with beurre blanc, followed by an asparagus & arugula salad. Main course was a choice of striped bass fillet or a cut of veal. Dinner was a raspberry sorbet Baked Alaska, petits fours, chocolate covered strawberries AND the wedding cake. Yum! The whole event was rather upscale with a very good live jazzy-ish sort of band playing all evening. Quite a number of people danced, including my parents---it was my first time ever seeing my dad boogy down. He even asked me to slow dance! What a shock! Well, now I know what to expect whenever I get married... Congratulations Hester & Mike---I think your wedding was absolutely beautiful.

Took the red-eye flight out Thursday, arriving in the Big Apple early Friday morning. Arrived at the Carlton Hotel to not surprisingly find out that the room was not ready for check-in. Waiting for my parents to arrive and being all achy from spending the night on a plane, I took the subway down to Chinatown and got myself a $40 massage. That felt better. My parents arrived and we got sushi for lunch and then shopped around SoHo for a bit. In the evening, Debbie picked me up and we got some drinks at a bar called Le 26, soon joined by Katie, Kit & Debbie's boyfriend Saevar. We then headed out for a late dinner in the meat-packing district at a restaurant called Son Cubano where there was some live latin music. Quite the scene this place---I'd say the entire meat-packing district was a huge people-watching scene. I had the most scrumptious meal---lobster, scallops, shrimp, clams & mussels in a coconut sauce, accompanied by my favorite: maduros! Yum yum. After dinner, Gina showed up with her friend and we all danced for awhile. It was fun & interesting dancing with the girls again..it's been years!





Today, my mom & I attended Hester's bridal shower which was nice...now, I'm about to head out to visit Anna for the afternoon...and then my family's going to get dinner at a local Italian restaurant in the East Village I picked out called Evvia. Hope it's good---then, we're heading out to watch the musical Aida. Lots to do here!

I just had a really wonderful evening hanging out with LaToya...we just talked and talked and talked under this beautiful night (today was so nice and sunny). We started off with dinner down at the waterfront at Red Robin (yeeeeeeaaah), sitting right at the dock as the sun set...and then continued our conversation sipping wine up on my rooftop. It was awesome. I truly appreciate that she's continued our friendship despite my breakup with Brendan. I really got to know a lot more about her tonight--she's an awesome chick. Yay.



Lately, I've been surrounding myself with good conversation with various women here in Seattle. This last weekend, I traveled down to Portland with Sri, Supriya & Asayo to attend Jigna & Matt's wedding shower which was so much fun. We had great food and all sorts of interesting conversations. I really can't wait until Jigna's Bachelorette Weekend in Vancouver in a few weeks, which I've been trying to plan (the stress!). Nah--it hasn't been that bad...got the spa reservations and the hotel nailed down today, which takes care of a lot! Should be a really fabulous weekend.



I've got a fancy NYC wedding to go to in a week and I still don't have a good dress for it....ack. Been trying to locate all my NYC friends to hang out with while I'm there.



Going shopping with Pierre tomorrow--car, furniture and clothes. Hmm..what kind of car should I look into?



Have my last ever symphony with Fred tomorrow night--boo! We're celebrating in style at the Wild Ginger for dinner..thanks to Bruce! It's been an amazing two years of going to the symphony with Fred...just a chance for the two of us to find time to hang out and catch up with each other. I've known that kid forever. Well--he was like a kid when I first met him and he's grown into this incredible, smart, forward-thinking adult. I wish him the best in his next endeavors, which I am sure he will succeed in.

I had a really great weekend with my friend Willie visiting from San Francisco. We started off having the most amazing seafood dinner--copper river salmon of course--at Waterfront. The weather was perfect as we sipped our wine to a beautiful sunset and ended up talking for hours and hours. On Saturday, we headed off to a baseball game at Safeco to watch the Mariners vs. White Sox. In the evening, we watched a fun, silly Asian American play about love and relationships (aptly entitled sex in seattle) followed by a fun party at LaToya's to celebrate her birthday. Yay. I really miss having friends that have known me for so long surround me. It's amazing that Willie and I have stayed in touch all these years. I do wonder if we would have touched base as much if he were still in Beantown...sadly, probably not. I'm glad at least someone's out here on the West Coast with me.



Caught the last bit of the trilogy that I haven't seen yet at SIFF---Infernal Affairs II. I'd strangely seen #1 and #3 already but not this second one, which is a prequel to the first one. I liked it although it was definitely not as good as the second one. There was a lot more slow character development in this story, which was extremely fascinating given the context and outcome of the main characters shown in IA1. I don't think this movie would have been as interesting to see without having seen the first one--as Pierre attests (he was rather confused walking out of the movie!). Still, if you've seen the first, see the second..and then the third. The trilogy all make up a great good cop/bad cop story out of Hong Kong...with some amazing acting. Speaking of, that's probably why IA2 didn't seem as exciting--Tony Leung and Andy Lau are missing from it; rather, actors that play the younger versions of their characters are present...somewhat unemotional actors I must say who don't convey the amazing subtle feelings that Tony/Andy can in their facial expressions. Still, as I said, the character development is interesting..and there's still plenty of bloodshed.



I got 3 more invites on my gmail account. hmm..who to invite? I immediately sent one off to Sri who had wanted one. It's tempting to give it a try on Ebay where these accounts are selling anywhere from $0.01 to $100,000. Curious what I could get. I'd rather, really, just invite someone I know who will truly use and enjoy these services. Anyone?

ack, just got invited to a SEVENTH wedding this summer. at least this one's somewhat local.

another fun evening--Liz and I went to see the Yale Whiffenpoofs perform at Benaroya last night. yay a cappella. afterwards, we caught up over drinks and food at the Triple Door. It's interesting--we talked about what it meant to be a Smithie. For both of us, there was a sense of community, family, bonding and sisterhood. I just feel so comfortable around my Smith sisters. She and I could've talked for hours--it was great seeing her.

My trip to Washington, DC was quite packed, considering I was there for less than 48 hours. The first pleasant surprise was finding out that I was flying first-class both ways across the country--I had gotten my tickets using frequent flyer miles in the end and just assumed I was going coach. Wahoo--that was nice.



I had a chance to catch up with Li Mei, see thousands of Harley Davison bikers, view the WWII Memorial, visit the International Spy Museum (very cool), and of course attend Linda's wedding at Mount Vernon, VA. It was really good seeing Mei, Sabina & Linda--three very good friends from Smith. I miss them dearly.



Back in Seattle now. Today, Hemant invited me to see a SIFF film--Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi--a film from Israel. It was really good--very touching story of a young boy and how he touches the lives of people around him. Not necessarily that original of a story; but I walked away with that warm, fuzzy feeling.

Jigna & Vidya organized an engagement party for our friends, Hemant & Sindya, which I hosted at my place last night. Check out the pictures. It was a great turnout and very successful with yummy food--lasagne, baked ziti, homemade tiramisu (which Jigna & I made!), gelato cake, salad, etc....Congrats to the two of them!



I haven't gone out salsa dancing in awhile. I really need it, especially this week. Looking forward to tonight.



I'm very excited--decided to exercise some options I've had sitting around for awhile...and exercised the Amazon stock today at $47.19, which I'm super happy with considering today's range (44.85 - 47.83). This is always such a nerve-racking process.

I've finally posted my pictures from the trip to Spain. Lots of them. Trying out a new photo album generator, aside from Photoshop and modification of html. What do y'all think?

Sri and I had a very successful evening of tapas and sharing my photos and video from the Spain trip to Brendan, Joe, Jigna & Matt. We went all out and made a lot of food we'd never tried making before. Our menu for the evening:



Sangria

Olive Oil Toast with Jamon Serrano or Jamon Iberico

Tortilla Espanol

Garlic Shrimp

Almejas en Salsa Verde (Clams in Green Sauce)

Oven-Roasted Wild Mushrooms with Goat Cheese

Fried Calamari

Marinated Olives

Assortment of Spanish Cheese







It was all quite successful and we had lots of fun making all the food!



To add to the continuing saga of my love life, Brendan and I sadly decided to break up today. [sigh] It was rather abrupt and unexpected, especially on this beautiful Sunday sunny afternoon....but we just got to talking and could no longer ignore the words and thoughts that we had exchanged. I've been more upset than I expected, considering the short time that we have known each other...guess it shows I cared more than I realized. I'm hoping that he's okay. Our conversation was extremely emotional. We'll talk soon I'm sure. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we will continue to be friends and be a part of each other's lives. I feel fortunate to have met such an amazing, kind, talented person---I just hope that he can realize that about himself and can find some peace from within.



Tonight, I retreated to Jigna & Matt's---thanks for being there for me guys.

I haven't been doing a good job of post-vacation resting...this whole week has been busier than I expected. Monday, I had dinner with the Cassanitis and got to see my friends Julia and Jocelyn (who finally graduated from law school---congrats!). It was so nice to see all of them again and to catch up with Julia. I really need to go out to Chicago sometime to visit her. Tuesday, I ended up going to Trivia Night at Cooper's with Eric (and feeling rather stupid after my only contribution was recognizing a movie scene from Porky's). Afterwards, I caught up with my Chinese friends for a last minute karaoke get together, crooning the night away til 1am. Wednesday, I helped assist a Salsa 2 class at Century Ballroom and then headed off for a bar-b-q/game night at Phoebe & Ray's with Lukasz. Very fun catching up with everyone. Later that night, afterwards, Lukasz came over so we could work out a salsa combination...because the next night, I went over to the Microsoft campus for the first time ever to help Lukasz co-teach a salsa class to a bunch of MS devs. Ha! What an experience..especially with bunny and deer prancing about out on the lawn, underneath Bill's office windows. The evening ended with a chill dinner at a Morrocan style restaurant in my neighborhood with Lukasz, Jigna & Pierre. Tonight, I'll be catching up with Fred. Tomorrow, Sri & I are cooking tapas and showing my amateur raw footage tape from the trip. Eeks!



Just got notice from Willie that he's going to visit me first weekend of June from San Francisco! Haven't seen that boy in ages. Can't wait to catch up and talk-talk-talk all night.

[sigh] how much is my time and comfort worth? i've been a procrastinator and have yet to book my flight for linda's wedding in d.c.---since it's 1.5 weeks away, i'm in slight panic mode and trying to get my ticket asap. so far, this month, my total trips on a plane:



seattle to austin

austin to seattle

seattle to madrid

madrid to barcelona

barcelona to madrid

madrid to seattle



that's a lot of flying in one month. and my hip is starting to act up today from all the stationary seating. argh.



anyhow, i *could* use up my frequent flyer miles from northwest for a very long, multiple-stop, sleepless flight to ronald reagan international airport. or i could chuck over $500 for a nice, direct flight.



what to do.

hi---haven´t had much time or ability to blog lately as our hotel in barcelona had limited internet access...so i´ve been away from the computer for the last few days. anyhow, to sum things up:



sri & i arrived to sunny barcelona on wednesday. ah, what a beautiful city. our first day there, we embarked on a crazy long walk all over the city. this won´t mean much if you don´t know the city...but we walked from our hotel (the derby hotel) which is near the metro hóspital clinic along the avenida diagonal...down the paseo de gracia, across the plaza catalunya, down las ramblas, and then crossing all the way over to the olympic port. whew! hours and hours of walking...but very enjoyable with all the quaint shops, palm trees, people and waterfront to view. that night, we ate like queens at the El Cangrejo Loco Restaurant in the port olympic--i had a very yummy lobster and sri had monkfish. yum yum...after dinner, despite how tired we were, we wandered over to one of the many bars in the olympic port--a shisha bar nonetheless! .. although it was quite a ripoff: 15 euros just for one bowl of shisha! but shisha just sounded so wonderful at the time so we just went for it...and it was quite a good decision. we hung out there until, oh, 2 or 3 in the morning and then headed back to the hotel.



thursday, we woke up very late and headed straight to the catedral de la sagrada familia, my third time there...but still awe-inspiring each time. fortunately, there wasn´t a line and we got to go right in. sri & i climbed the 75 meters up the spiral staircases for an amazing view of barcelona. i´m hoping that this cathedral gets finished within my lifetime....it´s that spectacular. after that, we walked over to see Casa Milá, aka La Pedrera, another well-known Antoní Gaudí building. later in the evening, we met up for dinner with stephane, a former amazonian and friend who moved to barcelona earlier this year....very good to see him. we caught up over dinner at a cute local restaurant and then got a drink in the Plaza Real. Yay.



friday, sri & i woke up late...again (this spanish time of eating dinner late and staying out late makes it quite difficult to get up in the morning!). we got a café con leche and headed over to the Passeig de Graçia to meet up with Matt at the Avanade Spain office...very chi-chi...only to learn that he had quite the elaborate late afternoon plans with his coworkers. instead of kidnapping him to go to the parç guëll with us, we split up for the afternoon. the weather was absolutely gorgeous and Sri & I took a long walk over to the park. this was also my third time there...but i love that park so much. we lounged around in the sun a bit, took some pictures, breathed in the fresh air (which is hard to get in this smoke-laden country) and headed back to the hotel for a rest....before meeting up with Stephane again to check out his new flat, which is oh so cool. the ceilings there are so high and the place is so extremely quaint. loved it. after fussing around with his new internet connection, we headed out for an extremely good italian dinner at one of steph´s favorite restaurants in the barri gótica district. after dinner, we finally met up with matt & his coworkers for a few drinks in the born district. the night ended with me, stephane & sri checking out a place i went to back in 98, the maremagnum complex with two huge discotecas at the top. unfortunately, it wasn´t quite as hopping as i remembered it to be. the three of us chatted for a bit on the waterfront and said our adieus eventually, somewhere around 5am. it was very nice to see stephane and i think it was nice for him to see so many seattlelites.



today--our last day--sri & i left barcelona and flew back to madrid. we checked back into the same hotel and immediately headed out to see picasso´s guernica at the reína sofía, only to be sadly disappointed to find out that the museum just happens to be closed today for some reason (we think it´s because there´s a holiday, but we´re still not sure...all the shops were closed today and we saw a bunch of festivities around the plaza mayor) so we wandered over to the Parque Retiro, which was just absolutely lovely. the weather in madrid today was ten thousand times better than earlier in the week when we were here. apparently, in the park today there was una fiesta de los niños, and all sorts of little spanish children were dressed in cute period outfits. everyone was out, soaking in the sun and enjoying a gorgeous saturday afternoon. i don´t think i ever got a chance to enjoy a nice day at the park retiro.



tonight, we had a great dinner at a place called Entretapas. afterwards, i insisted on taking sri to an area of town that i used to hang out at all the time, near the alonzo martínez metro stop. sadly, i didn´t enjoy it as well this time--because EVERYONE hanging out at the bars in this area seemed so young to me! of course, the last time i was here, i was perhaps 19 or 20...which was perfect for me at the time. after a drink, we felt awkward enough to head back to the puerta de sol area and try out a club that i remembered thinking "seemed like an older crowd" before...a discoteca called Palacio Gaviria, which ended up being so much fun and definitely more our style. after dancing a bit, we had to leave due to the inability to breathe much more (there was way too much smoke there...) but we had a great time. I forgot how beautiful of a discoteca that place was.



it´s now almost 5am and we need to wake up in a few hours to get ready, have a desayuno and head off to the airport for our long flight back....i don´t think i ever adjusted to spanish time (in the sense of going to sleep or waking up at any decent hour)...which, i hope, is good...so that i can readjust to seattle time quite quickly. we´ll see.



this was a short trip but extremely enjoyable.

Waking up late again, Sri & I went to El Museo Prado today, viewing all the various paintings by Goya, Velasquez, El Greco, Rubens, Bosch & many more. It was nice to have studied a large number of these paitings already from the class I took while I was a student here (properly entitled "El Arte en El Prado")---made me even more excited to see them again. I was most excited about getting to see Bosch´s Garden of Delights, which was on loan when I was last here.



After the museum, we grabbed a late-afternoon (er, it was like 7pm...but sure felt like late afternoon) snack at Vip´s, a place I also frequented as a student. Sri bought a Spanish Vogue magazine for us to browse through..and was disappointed to find it full of pages of butts, legs & products, rather than fashion. We then wandered around for a long time, even stumbling upon a very neat antique book fair, in celebration of the upcoming San Isidro festival. We saw things like the Puerta de Alcalá, the Plaza de Cibeles, and the Plaza de Colón. We even went window shopping along the very chi-chi Calle Serrano. Too bad it was so rainy---hopefully, we can hit the Parque Retiro on Saturday when we return (as well as the Reina Sofia museum).



Tonight, at 10:45pm--prime dinnertime, we had a yummy paella dinner at a restaurant called Torres Bermejas, which came with a very entertaining night of flamenco singing and dancing. Ah, eso es la vida. ¡Vale!

Last minute, Sri & I decided to take a half-day trip to the beautiful town of Toledo, which is just south of Madrid. I´ve been there before but I knew it was worth going to. We found an organized tour via our hotel and were on a bus this morning at 8am (and it was a bad night of sleep...er...lack of sleep). Fortunately, it was a rather nice & sunny day in Toledo and we saw everything from the Catedral to the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes to the oldest synagogue in Spain (dates to the 12th century!). Unfortunately, the tour ended at some factory where they tried to get us all to buy gold-plated little arts and crafts or huge, heavy swords. Everyone conked out for the bus trip home, finally getting back to Madrid mid-afternoon: time for lunch! I was sta-a-a-arving and rather grouchy. After wandering around a bit, Sri & I settled at a little terraza restaurant in the Plaza de Santa Ana, only to eat some rather expensive, greasy tapas that left both of our stomachs turning a bit. A short stop in a Starbucks for a blueberry muffin made my stomach feel all better. We then did some serious shopping. Ha ha. For the past couple days, we´d been eyeing various stores but didn´t have time to stop in to any of them.



Dinner tonight was memorable. We went to El Restaurante Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records (also featured in The Sun Also Rises for all you literary fanatics). I had roasted suckling pig and Sri had roasted baby lamb...mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm. We literally closed the restaurant, being the last patrons to walk out of there. Fabulous experience.



Tomorrow, we´re definitely going to hit the museums.

We didn´t have a museum day today like we had planned. Sri & I slept in til nearly 5:30pm! It was ridiculous! We definitely have not acclamated to the time yet...and will need to force ourselves to sleep tonight. After getting out of bed, we headed down to see if we could get into the Centro de Arte Reína Sofia for the last hour..but I guess it closed at 6pm instead of 7pm. Instead, we went across the street and hung out at the Estación de Atocha for a bit. We then wandered back to the Plaza Mayor area and made reservations at a restaurant for tomorrow night. We´re going to try to make reservations at Gula Gula tonight, a restaurant I frequented with my friends when I studied abroad here. Our goal is to have a big meal with wine so that we can just pass out tonight.

My first 24 hours in Madrid have been so amazing. True sensory overload. Upon arriving, Sri and I located our hotel in the heart of the Puerta del Sol, right above Zara (for my fellow friends who shop with me in Vancouver, you must appreciate that). We immediately crashed. We were oh so tired from the long plane ride. We woke up around mid-afternoon and headed to the Plaza Mayor where we basked in the sun, sipping a café and eating some paella and croquetas de jamón. We then wandered around a bit more..and soon learned that there was a Real Madrid game in town that night...at 10 pm. Crazy huh? Well, that would explain all the Brits we´d been seeing on the streets. So we decided to take a chance and headed over to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeau to see if we could score some tickets. One hour later, 55 euros poorer each, we had tickets in hand. I grabbed a bocadillo de jamón from a random restaurant and we toasted to our first evening with a Mahou each. Gametime. Oh--it was so much fun. And we saw Beckham! Very fun game. Unfortunately, Real Madrid lost to Mallorca, 2-3. After the game, we meandered back to the hotel...by this point, it was somewhere between midnight and 1am. But in true Madrileño fashion, around 2am, we headed back out again to experience la marcha. We went barhopping until the bars closed around 3am...and then we went to a discoteca since they were finally opened...an Indian-themed one called Samsara. We danced the night away until about 5:30am...and here I am now, 6:02am, back at the hotel. Wow. It´s been awhile since I´ve gone dancing so late...but it was ooooh so much fun with Sri. We had a blast.



Let´s see how late we sleep in tomorrow. It´s museum day for us.

pack pack pack. i'm actually doing quite well considering it's "only" midnight. the only things i have left to pack are random things like toiletries, chargers, etc. i'm currently printing out all the flight and hotel reservations. trying to get organized...



i leave for spain in 10 hours!! yay!

ooo..I went from having 5 gigs to 28 gigs of hard drive space with the nifty new laptop. yay.

i'm finally upgrading my work laptop from windows 2000 to windows xp. so lame. my computer is about to croak..so it's about time i finally get something a bit spiffier.



3 days left before heading to spain. so much stuff to do!

i'm in austin right now for becky's wedding--i've known becky since kindergarten. crazy. i don't think i've seen her in about two years...never even met her husband-to-be. should be interesting..i know so few people that are going to be in attendance at this wedding--i know jessica, the maid-of-honor, whom i was also friends with in junior high...and becky's family. that's about it. oh, and dana from bahrain. but i haven't seen her in over ten years. the weather here is great--i arrived and it was 82 degrees. all evening, it's been in the 70's and breezy, so comfortable to stroll around in. knowing practically no one, i headed downtown after checking into my hotel and got dinner at stubb's, a barbeque joint recommended to me by the cab driver. i ate some baby back pork ribs while melissa etheridge was belting out "come to my window" live downstairs. pretty surreal. definitely in texas. i then strolled over to sixth street where it brought back memories of my last and only other visit to austin--when i was getting recruited by trilogy in my last year of college. it's a cool street. i forgot how cool it was. there are bars everywhere with either free or cheap covers, live bands, tatoo parlors on every block, and your pick of bratwurst, fajitas or gyros by street vendors. hope to head back tomorrow night with some people...being by myself and a single female, i didn't think it'd be a good idea to hang out at a bar by myself.



it's funny to travel around the country and hear the accents change so drastically. i can see myself already swelling back into my kansas drawl just hearing the texas twang so much around here.



last night, eugene took me to the Air concert--we sat in the 2nd row...it was awesome. great music.

i take back what i said about not being able to see images in emails sent to my gmail account---just a beta user blunder on my behalf. the gmail team directed me to a link that i didn't see: apparently, as a default they never load up images. i have to explicitly click on a link that says "display external images" in order to properly view an image-filled email.



here's a screenshot of the email conversation UI that i like so much:

extremely fun weekend. friday, finally saw eternal sunshine of the spotless mind with brendan. more of a love story than i expected. charming. i liked it. saturday, spent all day prepping for my housewarming fiesta which was a blast. i had a huge variety of friends show up, in total maybe 50, 60 people or so. there was a lot of people meeting new people, music, salsa dancing, shisha, shots of absinthe and overall good times. thanks to everyone who was able to make it! i had a blast just seeing some good friends that i hadn't seen in ages--liz and joelle particularly come to mind. way too much time has passed since i last saw either of those girls. and surprisingly, my place really isn't that much of a mess. i just need to clean up my hardwood floors downstairs and that's about it. sunday, got yummy brunch at 611 supreme with brendan and then later saw agatha christie's black coffee at the act theatre with him and ben--fun sunday evening murder mystery. what a full weekend!



i recently finally got an invitation for a gmail account, mainly because i use blogger for this weblog--and blogger is owned by google. anyhow, so very curious so i signed up. ooo--very cool. things i very much like:



conversations: gmail will organize an email thread into a UI that's similar to a discussion board, making it extremely easy to read an entire email thread without having to dig through tabbed, chopped off paragraphs with lots of little carrots. you can expand/unexpand a particular email within an email thread. it also automatically removes the "quoted text"--or the text that most email programs include as part of the reply (the previous email). this is kind of hard to explain without providing an actual visual. but trust me--it's oh so cool. i have a total of 17 emails back and forth with brendan about the feature and then later about making plans; however, in my inbox, it appears as ONE email.



search: as expected, google incorporates search into the email. for the time being, since i don't have a ton of email, it doesn't mean that much. but hey, it works and i can see how it'll be very useful.



labels: instead of using the concept of folders, google has come up with "labeling". you can create as many labels as you want. any given email can have as many labels as you want to attach to it. for example, let's say i get an email from jigna and it's about snowboarding. and let's say that i want to be able to always see emails from jigna..but also see emails that have to do with going snowboarding. i can immediately tag that email as both "jigna" and "snowboarding". very cool.



keyboard shortcuts: while i have gmail open, i can, for example, just push "c" on my keyboard and it'll immediately open up a "compose message" window. neato.



it's still in beta mode and definitely has a ways to go. i'm curious what sort of features are getting prioritized (i.e. POP retrieval). things that I would like to see:



images: right now, emails sent to gmail are simply text mails (or so it seems). so if an email with images within the body are sent, the email appears horribly in gmail. i like how hotmail usually shows images within the body of the message...much easier than having to individually open up images. i even forwarded an email from my hotmail account with images in it--and the images never even transferred to my gmail account! not even as an attachment. i immediately reported it as a bug. didn't have the same problem when i sent emails with images from my work account. even with images attached, when i click to open, it opens my Windows Picture and Fax Viewer with no image. wonder if it's my computer or a strange bug. i can only see the image if i save it to my computer and then open it.



rich text/html formatting: as i said, emails can only be composed as regular text. so i can't send an email and format it at all. i guess it's not a huge deal, really...but seems like such a minor minor basic feature. i'm surprised it's not part of the original beta release.



contacts importing: once again, a nice to have.



there's a spam filter but since my account is so new, i don't know how good the filter is. anyhow, it'll be interesting to see how this takes off. i'd like to see them improve on some of the more basic features of any web-based email service. they definitely have some very cool features of their own...and i don't really mind the ads to the right of my emails. i barely notice them. i found it quite cool that within the email conversation that i had with brendan that there was an ad for pacific place--just because somewhere in my email i mention "movie" and "seattle".