Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Back and Relaxed

My remaining time in Florida was wonderful and the Sousas were absolutely wonderful hosts. We were fortunate with the sunny 70-degree weather and spent most of it eating, taking walks, shopping, napping or playing games (I'm addicted to Catch Phrase now). We got some great food in as well--from Italian at Carrabba's to a Spanish dinner (I had the Arroz con Pollo) at Columbia Restaurant and to delicious Ipswich steamers at Crow's Nest in Venice. Matt's dad spoiled me with a yummy egg muffin sandwich and french toast for breakfast every morning. As I know they read this, I'll give a shout out--> George & Sharon, Thanks so much for everything! I had a fabulous time!


Englewood Beach

Friday, December 23, 2005

Christmas lights to the max

There's a house around the corner from Matt's parents that has an insane light display (seems to be a trend here in Florida)--but this one is over the top. Check out the rest of the photos I took of this display.

Florida Christmas House Lights

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Please check your tags

Oy vey. My first 24 hours in Florida was hilarious. After arriving from a red eye, I sleepily picked up my bag and headed north with Matt's parents for a bite to eat and then a nap back at their house. After waking up from my nap, I opened up my suitcase to brush my teeth...only to realize that the clothes in the bag were not mine! Now--this was approximately 8 hours after leaving the airport! I checked my phone messages and found that JetBlue had called me 3 times urgently because the woman whose suitcase I had picked up was leaving for Jamaica the next day. We drove the hour back to the airport to return the suitcase and pick up mine. They were literally the exact same bag--same brand, same color...mine was just a bit more tattered. I can't believe I did that--that was a first. Good thing I caught it before that woman left for Jamaica!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Time for the holidays!

I leave on a flight in 3 hours to head to Florida with Matt to spend Christmas with his parents. This will be the first Christmas ever for me without my parents--kind of a big deal. But then, this relationship is a big deal...so I can't wait. Matt's parents are so warm and inviting and I'm just looking forward to a week of hanging out and chill time.

I've got about 2 hours to kill before my ride (thanks Tim) comes to get me. I think I'm packed. I just really need to change and then pack all the little tiny stuff (magazines to read on the plane, ipod, chargers, toothbrush, etc..) I'm currently watching the season finale of Nip/Tuck and it's oh so good. This show is highly addictive.

I know I'm not, like, a crazy sports person or baseball fan, but I still can't believe that Damon is going over to the Yankees. Matt is flipping out.

Anyway, back to the final finishes of packing, then food, then finish watching Nip/Tuck. Ciao!

Another silly Asian video

You remember the video of those 2 random Asian guys making a video of them singing to a random song? Now there's one with 2 Asian girls (Thanks Asayo)--what's with Asian people and making the most random videos?

Buy lotsa books online?

Seattle was named the Most Literate City in the U.S. for the year 2005---one major difference between this year's study vs. last's was the introduction of the factor of number of books bought online. Hmmm. The least literate cities (#51-69 on the list) mostly fell in Texas and California---L.A. being #60. Fascinating.

Friday, December 9, 2005

Bird's Eye View

Windows Live Local just launched and it's super sweet. Why? Well, it has all the basic features that you get with Google Maps--map view, aerial/satellite view, pushpins, directions, etc...but they added a Bird's Eye View which gives a really awesome perspective. Even cooler is the fact that you can change the orientation around and get many perspectives of a given landmark or building. They don't have bird's eye view images everywhere but for a good number of cities, including Seattle, L.A., Boston, San Francisco, Vegas, New York, etc.--check them out. Below is a comparison of a satellite image vs. a bird's eye image of my condo:

Thursday, November 24, 2005

A real turkey day

Happy Thanksgiving y'all! So, I can't believe it--my mom's going to make a real Thanksgiving dinner. See, being Chinese and growing up in Kansas, we never had a real Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving has always just been an excuse to invite the other Chinese families from Kansas over and cook more Chinese food. If I was lucky, I'd get some stir fry turkey or something like that. In high school, I would always go over to the McGuires in the evening to have some pumpkin pie just so I could have some taste of Thanksgiving. So you can understand what a shock it was to find out this week that my mom decided to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner--turkey, gravy, yams and all. I'm sure there'll be a Chinese twist to it so we'll see. Big household to feed--a total of 15 people, including Betina's mother! Wonder if we're going to hit the Strip tonight...

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

flight delays

My flight was pretty nifty---last night, prior to going to bed, I finally decided--after some research--to buy & download this software called MyTVToGo which will easily convert my dvr-ms TV shows from Media Center onto the new Apple Video iPod that I got a few weeks back. All I can say is "sweet". Nothing beats a plane ride being able to catch up on Prison Break and Gray's Anatomy. I was really happy with the software and it couldn't have been any easier.

As for flight delays, my brother's flight is majorly delayed. He was supposed to leave Boston around 8pm but instead left at 10:52pm. Instead of arriving around 11:30pm, he's arriving now close to 1:19am. I'm the lucky one who volunteered to go pick him up...so here I am with all of my family asleep while I try oh so hard to stay up so I can pick him up. Ugh. [yawn]

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Time to travel

Ah, it's that time of year---Thanksgiving traveling. Matt's picking me up in 40 minutes to head to the airport where we will be headed to Vegas for the next 5 days to hang out with 12 of my relatives (eeks!). It will be one crowded house! All right-time to jump in the shower so I'm ready when Matt gets here.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Weekend Wrapup

Friday, went to see the Death Cab for Cutie concert. Admittedly, I knew nothing about this band prior to the concert---really liked their music though and enjoyed the concert. They put on a good show. Afterwards, met up with Eric & Sri and we all went to get drinks at Fox Sports Grill until it closed.

Saturday, went to see tons of pictures at Matt & Jigna's of their recent trip to India...fun fun. Saw a bunch of people that I haven't seen in awhile...really nice to catch up.

Sunday, went to work at the movie theater! Asayo's husband, Matt's, family owns a bunch of cinemas and recently bought the Bellevue Galleria. After hearing the ins and outs of running a movie theater, a few of us volunteered to work a few hours. I mostly did ticketing and it was actually a really fun experience. It was really interesting to get the perspective from the other side. I loved getting the tour of the movie projection rooms--completely fascinating. We ended up watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as a treat in the end--yay!

Thursday, November 17, 2005

kayak.com launches multi-city

I've been using a lil' website called kayak.com for a few months now to check out flights. It's a pure service-based search engine website that will search *across* tons of different websites to find the best deals. They don't book the flights themselves---incentive is just to find the best deal..for you. It's not like Expedia where it can only show airlines that they've made deals with--it just searches across diferent websites...so it includes results from airlines like jetblue and song airlines and southwest---airlines that typically don't appear in Expedia or Travelocity. It's awesome. Anyway, they just launched multi-city search tonight plus they added themes and regions to their "Buzz" feature, which shows quick results for the top 25 search requests for certain areas. They really rock and I can't wait to see what more they decide to do with their website. Looking for a flight? Check out kayak.com.

warding off the sickness

Woke up this morning feeling my throat more constricted...nothing too bad, but I left work early just in case to ward off any sickness that may be trying to invade my body. Ick Ick Ick--hope I don't get sick. I've been amazingly healthy so far this flu season, considering my history. Knock on wood.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Spa & Restaurant Review: Ummelina & Campagne

Matt and I have been with each other for a year now--woo hoo. We celebrated by just spending a relaxing day at the spa and taking advantage of the 25 for $25 menu at Campagne.

We decided to go to the Ummelina International Day Spa downtown where we got the Pacific Rim package, including a massage, and he got a pedicure while I got a facial. Overall, my thoughts...
Pros:
  • Great location, it's downtown
  • I love the international theme--smells great inside, nice decor
  • AMAZING massage. Really great therapist--was very impressed. She spent a good amount of time giving me a nice, deep massage and really working out the kinks in my shoulders.
  • I was also really happy with my facial. For the first time, I had a male skin aesthetician and he was awesome. He warmed up every cleanser & moisturizer he put on my face so it was really relaxing the entire time. He also gave a nice hand and foot massage. Interestingly, Ummelina doesn't like to manually remove skin impurities like other salons do; instead, they prefer to use a gentle fruit enzyme peel for top exfoliation. Something to keep in mind if that's something that's important to you for getting a facial.

    Cons:
  • Because it's downtown, space is limited and they didn't have enough space for everyone to sit in the waiting area/lounge. When we arrived, we had to go into this temporary overflow area, which was in some tea cafe that no one was in. Furthermore, it was right next to a door that led outside--so it was rather awkward to be sitting in a spa robe all on display. Plus, some guy who was changing the towels kept coming through. Not really fun. They eventually cleared up and moved us into the main lounge, which was much nicer--but they definitely need to find a better overflow area
  • Walls are thin. The room I got the massage in was right next to a room that had a multi-jet shower. Halfway through my massage, someone started taking a shower and it was like the pipes were bursting through my ears...it was really loud. I could also clearly hear anyone talking in that next room. It's rather disruptive during a massage--they should've planned better and perhaps had all the massage & facial rooms on one side.
  • The changing area is small and unisex, which was odd for me---most spas have separate male & female changing areas. Also, there wasn't a shower or anything in the changing area for after a service to clean out the oil that was used. I thought that was anoying.

    Overall, I think the major issues with Ummelina are due primarily to their limited space as a result of being a downtown business; however, I was really happy with the services and would return again.

    Dinner at Campagne was lovely and romantic as expected. The service was so-so with the waitress being rather hands-off with us but diligent at her job. I ordered a chicken dumpling in mushroom sauce appetizer and a duck confit entree. Matt ordered the Saveurs du Provence appetizer and Boeuf Bourguignon entree. I thought my dumplings were delicious but nothing special. The duck was rather tasty and moist but the squash gratin that accompanied it--while yummy, I felt the duck jus that surrounded the dish degraded the taste. Matt felt his appetizer was too salty with the olive tapenade taking over the flavor..and the beef dish a bit on the dry side. We both finished off with a Gâteau aux Chocolat dessert, which was very good. Overall, food was average--thank goodness it was a $25 meal. I think I would've expected more had it been at regular price. I loved the atmosphere as we sat right at the window, in front of the Public Market sign that so defines Seattle. I'd return again as the other dishes on the menu looked quite good.
  • Wednesday, November 9, 2005

    The votes are in

    Election Day was yesterday---I came home and had 15 minutes to run to the nearest poll. I grabbed my keys and ran down the street with less than 5 minutes left before the polls closed. Got inside--
    "Did I make it in time?!"
    "You sure did! We were just about to close up!"
    "Great--I don't know what my voter id number is though.."
    "No problem, do you have ID on you? That's the new rule this year."
    "Oh crap. My ID. I just grabbed my keys and ran down here"

    I knew I didn't have enough time to run home and come back. I fumbled around my pockets hoping that I had my Microsoft badge somewhere on me..but I didn't. Just my keys...but then...
    "Wait--I have this gym membership card! It has my name on it..."
    "Oh, I live next to that gym! Hm..."
    "Will it work?"
    "It's a stretch..but you look desperate to vote...all right.."

    Yay!

    In the end, we voted to
  • Keep the gas tax to rebuild a bunch of transportation problems (yay)
  • Ban smoking in public places & workplaces and within 25 feet of doors, windows & vents (yay, although I'm still annoyed about the 25 feet bit)
  • Ban the Monorail (although tax payers still have to pay the monorail vehicle tax for the next 2 years to pay off the debt it had accumulated) (boo)
  • Keep Mayor Nickels around longer (sure)
  • Say no to both medical malpractice initiatives (sure)
  • Sunday, November 6, 2005

    A Philanthropic and Relaxing Weekend

    The weekend started with a bang by attending the Emerald City Swank, Seattle Works' annual fundraiser. I went last year with Gary and had a blast--this year, Kabir and I organized 2 tables worth of our friends (Sri also got a table of people from work). Seattle Works is an organization dedicated to encouraging people in their 20s and 30s to volunteer and contribute to the community--so as you can imagine, it was an evening filled with the hipsters of Seattle partaking in auction bidding, dinner and dancing. The silent and live auctions had so many items--I walked away with 3 things: a set of cheese knives with a bottle of wine, a trip to the San Juans, and a trivia night which I got with Spencer for our work team. The biggest ticket item was a cruise for 2 to Alaska which went for $4700. That's $4700! Coming from people my age--not some rich 60 year old millionaire! It's just a great evening seeing how much money people in our age bracket are willing to donate to a great cause (in exchange for, in some cases, a great prize!). A pair of Death Cab for Cutie tickets went for over $3000 and gift certificates to local restaurants easily went for hundreds of dollars. Totally amazing. Check out photos from the evening.

    On Saturday, when it was raining all day and super blah, Sri and I drove up to Lynwood to check out the new Olympus Spa. We've been long time fans of the spa located in Tacoma and were eager to see what the new one offered. Oh boy--it was so different! Some things to point out:
  • Very modern, open, spacious and clean
  • There are only 4 pools at the following temperatures: 60, 90, 97 and 104. Unlike the one in Tacoma, there are no small pools already infused with Mugwoorts. They do, however, have Mugwoorts infused water that you can scoop and pour on yourself, similar to the one in Tacoma.
  • The body scrub area surrounds 2 sides of the pool area and feels a bit more private with bamboo hangings separating each bed.
  • There are more facial services
  • There's a free skin consultation service
  • They offer manicures & pedicures, unlike the one in Tacoma
  • The restaurant is much bigger with a lot more menu items (I had a really yummy Japchae)--additionally, they have a juice bar!
  • They have more earth energy rooms--2 of which are cold! (a Chill room and a Cabin room at 75 degrees). Similar to the one in Tacoma, they have the Salt, Sand, and Mud & Jade Rooms--but they also have a Charcoal and Elyian Stone room.
  • They also added a cool Korean Tea Service where you can learn the tradition of participating in a Korean tea ceremony.

    Ladies--any of you that have tried the Olympus Spa in Tacoma should totally check out this one in Lynwood. It's closer and just awesome. One caveat--they raised the entrance fee for the Lynwood location: it's $30 (as opposed to $25 in Tacoma) but it's well worth it!
  • Friday, November 4, 2005

    Some new things to check out

    Microsoft's Live.com -- users can customize content and add things like weather, horoscopes, hotmail, blog feeds and news...quite similar to My Yahoo. My initial thoughts---the good things that make this service stick out: the ability to include RSS feeds as part of the page and the ability for software developers to develop "gadgets" for use on these pages. What I don't like: the layout. While it's cool to choose 2-column vs. 3 column vs. 4 columns, Microsoft has decided to make each of the columns be spaced evenly, which I don't think works well for the eye and the user. At least one column should be wider than the others so it can be the center of attention with other columns being more side information. As a result, the even sized columns makes the page seem too busy for me. I also didn't find that it did a good job of maintaining my content and settings when I went to another computer. I tested this out at work and then went home...and found the page to be different from when I had set it at work (i.e. something as simple as setting up my Weather cities was gone). Given--this is all in beta mode. It'll be interesting to see if this takes off.

    Amazon's Mechanical Turk. The basic premise -- Complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it. This web service solves the problem of building applications that until now have not worked well because they lack human intelligence. Humans are more effective at solving certain problems over computers such as finding the pizza in the picture. This Beta program just launched and initially has been filled with requests made by, of course, Amazon.com. Primarily, the requests have been to correct A9.com Yellow Page photos and to create product descriptions for the new Automotive Parts store---both things that are not easily generated by a computer. I find this concept extremely fascinating and can't wait to see how this takes off. I already made a whopping 33 cents from correcting a few photos. Neat. Now, hopefully some higher paying tasks will come in the queue that I can do (unfortunately, I'm not good at describing automotive parts)

    Rain Rain Go Away

    It's been raining ALL WEEK LONG in Seattle...coinciding with the turning back of time and leaving work in complete darkness. Darkness coupled with constant rain makes for horrible commutes leaving Redmond to go back to Seattle. No wonder I need coffee everyday to get through the day. On the bright side, the sudden onslaught of rain with the sudden dip in temperature has resulted in a number of ski resorts to open up early! Crystal opens today and Blackcomb opens this weekend--with Baker and Stevens opening early next week. Sweet! Maybe just maybe this year will be better than last's.

    It's finally Friday and I'll be ending the week by attending Seattle Works' Emerald City Swank, their annual fundraiser. I went last year and it's a really fun event. Best of all, it's just awesome seeing so many people in their 20's and 30's giving money to charity and wanting to contribute to the community. Sri, Kabir & I together got 33 people to attend, spread across 3 tables--yay! The live auction is the most insane with people willing to give thousands for one item when it's worth way less...all because it's a good cause. You definitely leave with a good feeling. Wonder if I'll win anything this year...

    Tuesday, November 1, 2005

    Moohaha Brewhaha

    Weekend was a blast with a super successful party thrown together with Kutta. This year's party was way bigger than last year's, with more than a hundred people overall showing up throughout the evening. I'd say the majority of people were in costume (I can only think of 2 or 3 people that were not) so it was certainly entertaining seeing how creative people got. There were a few witches, lots of pimps, a few Catholic schoolgirls, Towelie from South Park, Napoleon Dynamite, 2 Hunter S. Thompsons, the list goes on....Thanks to everyone who came out for my Halloween party!

    Thursday, October 27, 2005

    25 for $25

    Yay! 25 for $25 is back for the month of November!

    Wednesday, October 26, 2005

    2 Asian dudes & a camcorder

    I just came across this and thought it was hilarious:
    Two Chinese Students - I Want It That Way

    My officemate pointed out that this was just like another video that made the rounds a couple years ago:
    Chin2

    Monday, October 24, 2005

    After looking for about 2 weeks and taking 4 rugs home, I finally found a beautiful rug for my living room and I'm in love with it. It's a deep, gorgeous red Turkeman rug and it's huge--like 8' x 11', taking up my entire living room but really opening up the space. Next--to buy a really really big plant to put in the corner. And on Wednesday, I'll be getting a delivery of the new daybed/couch that I'm putting up in the loft room. Hmm..what colors to paint my living room now that I've finalized the rug in there?

    While watching Grey's Anatomy last night, I finally figured out where the fictitious Seattle Grace Hospital is located---it's in front of the Space Needle! There was a shot of a helicopter flying towards the Seattle Center and then landing on top of a building, which looked like one of the news station buildings on 5th Ave. Heh heh.

    So...I thought that Amazing Race: Family Edition would be really fun...but it's just NOT when the locations are places like a BP gas station in the middle of Alabama. I mean--come on! If we're going to stay in the United States, there MUST be more interesting places to do the challenges at! Fortunately, previews for the next episode indicate that teams are leaving the U.S. finally...hopefully, the show picks up more.

    Just found out that my officemate, Spencer, and the dev in the office next door, Gabe, are going to move into the condo that's 2 doors down from me (it's getting rented)...how funny! Now we'll work and live insanely close to each other.

    Friday, October 21, 2005

    Blog template updated

    Okay, I decided to geek out on a Friday night while Matt's home sick in his apartment. (Man, everyone's getting sick right now--I'm praying I stay healthy and don't revisit my Halloween cold like I did last year--that was a bitch to be sick at my party) I don't get a chance to just sit down and geek out as much as I used to. I completely revamped the blog site so that it matches the new design I've created. Had to mess around with the stylesheets again to attain things like the cutesy dotted line separating each post. I've also moved the archive links on this page so it's not on a separate page--unfortunately, Blogger doesn't have a good way of importing posts from other blog sites, so my super old posts (from 2000 and 2001) are still to pitas. Tee hee---well, you can see what v1.0 of moohaha was back then. So silly. I also added 2 subscription graphics--one for Bloglines since that's what I use as my feed aggregator and one for Feedburner which I hear is pretty darn awesome. We'll see. Lastly, I turned off my Haloscan comments and just switched to the one that Blogger uses. That just means that all my old comments get lost...but...well, there weren't that many comments to begin with. [sigh] What a productive Friday evening at home by myself. Now, to get to picking up the clothes off my floor and thinking about prepping for that big Halloween party in a week...right....

    New site

    As you may recall, when I transferred my website over to Dreamhost, everything went whacko since Dreamhost doesn't support Mason, and I had written the header and footer files on my website in Mason. Over the last couple days, I've been working on re-writing my website using PHP includes and a new CSS and I have a spankin' new website out now. What's next--I've got to update this blog template to match the new look as well as my new photo section (I decided to use Gallery to manage my photos--much better!) Apologies as I piece everything slowly back together. Meanwhile, that was fun learning some super basic PHP.

    Tuesday, October 18, 2005

    Cars fall off parking garage







    This happened just 2 blocks away from my condo at the QFC that I always shop at. An 88-year old man and his daughter drive to the Bartell's that's located on the upper deck of this parking area above QFC. The daughter runs in to Bartell's, leaving the car running and her father in the passenger seat. Somehow, the parking brake disengages and the car flips into reverse, pushing the station wagon into a PT Cruiser which then falls over the railing and onto Broadway down below. Following the empty PT Cruiser is the station wagon that the 88-year old man is strapped into! Fortunately, he survived with only a few scrapes to his face. Sadly, the couple that owned the PT Cruiser was visiting from out of town to attend their son's funeral. Craziness!

    Friday, October 14, 2005

    A time for giving

    One thing about working at Microsoft versus Amazon is its emphasis on giving and charity donations. This entire month, Microsoft has set up lots of random events to encourage employees to give money to non-profit organizations. The other day, a software developer ate 14 tacos down the hall from me to raise money for the United Way. Next Monday, my officemate is going to shave his head and wax his legs for the same cause. On Tuesday, many of us are taking the afternoon off to bowl for charity at a bowling alley in Bellevue. And on Wednesday, our organization is doing a Fear Factor event. They've made it super easy to give money online---just go this website, pick some organizations, pick the option of deducting money from a paycheck, and voila, you're done. And of course, it feels even better knowing that MS is matching any donation 100%. Sweet. Already, I've given money to Chaya, Seattle Works, KEXP, KUOW, the United Way, and the American Red Cross. Normally, I'm not this charitable--moreso out of pure laziness. So I just want to say it's great that I work for a company that has most definitely encouraged me to give more than I normally would have.

    I started up tutoring again yesterday and am also excited to know that Microsoft is paying Seattle Youth Tutoring $17 for each hour of volunteering that I do. Now that rocks.

    Anyway, it's Friday and I'm eager to leave. Joining Matt in a couple hours to watch the Sonics first home pre-season game against the Suns. Yay!

    Tuesday, October 11, 2005

    Las Vegas Sumo

    Got back from the trip to Vegas with Matt, Matt & Asayo to check out the Grand Sumo Tournament. We all had a spectacular time and the tournament itself was a treat to see. The wrestlers were divided up, East vs. West, into multiple matches, one after another, bodies slamming into each other. One legal rule is that wrestlers can hit their opponent with an open hand---there was one match that essentially involved a wrestler bitch slapping his opponent out of the ring. How hilarious is that? Although we saw the reigning champion Yokozuna, Asashoryu, lose in the match we attended, he apparently won Sunday night and then beat out the Friday & Saturday opponents to win the entire tournament. Good for him--I even heard his son was born while he was in Vegas and he plans on training his son for sumo.

    One of the most entertaining aspects of the weekend was that after the tournament, in the Mandalay Bay hotel, the sumo wrestlers all hit the casino floor, playing blackjack and slot machines. Per sumo tradition and rules, they are supposed to remain in their traditional kimonos, sandals and done-up hair whenever in public. What a funny juxtaposition!

    Check out all the pictures from the trip.

    Tuesday, September 27, 2005

    Bride from China

    I wake up to NPR every morning. This morning, there was a segment about Marriage in Washington and there was an interview with a guy named Dave "who's Chinese and scored a cushy job working at a bustling dot-com in the mid-90's in Seattle". I thought "huh--I wonder if it's Amazon. And if it is, I wonder if I know who". As I listened more and thought more, I was like "wait! That's Dave Wong!". Sure enough, the guy who helped set up my web developer desktop on my first day at Amazon 6 years ago who is supposedly currently learning calligraphy in China was talking on the air about his failed marriage (which I knew bits and pieces about through the grapevine). Listen to the story!

    Monday, September 26, 2005

    Mason not supported

    Whew! Well, the domain transfer finally happened---and in doing so, my mail server and DNS also flipped over. For the most part, this was totally seamless (although it was odd--over the weekend, some of my mail went to my old server, some mail went to the new server..as I discovered this morning). The main issue is that Dreamhost doesn't support Mason---so you'll see that on many of my pages, the header and footer look pretty messed up. Ack, I'll have to deal later and convert them into Server-Side Includes or something like that.

    Sunday, September 25, 2005

    This domain transfer is taking longer than I had anticipated---Dreamhost first sent a request to Register.com. That processed for 2 days before Register.com sent me an email warning me of the transfer and basically giving me 5 days to cancel before they continued with the transfer. Technically, the transfer should have been approved to go yesterday...but nothing's happened yet. Meanwhile, since I'm in mid-transfer, the DNS is frozen and I can't modify it on either end. So I thought I might as well blog.

    The trip to NYC was awesome as expected. Matt's friend, Teresa, was kind enough to let us crash at her place in Brooklyn while we were there. Sadly, it was really the first time I'd ever been to Brooklyn...and I love it! It is such an awesome burrough, so cute and full of interesting neighborhoods. On our first night, Paul and Teresa took us out to dinner at Grimaldi's Pizzeria which was oh so good. After dinner, we got ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and just hung out at the pier under the Brooklyn Bridge for a bit...such an amazing view of Manhattan. Did I mention the ice cream was soo creamy and delicious?

    Most of Saturday was dedicated to going to Katie & Kit's wedding out in Long Island, the first Chinese wedding I've really been to in my adulthood. It was full of funny games, karaoke, the bride wearing 5 dresses, and lots and lots of food. Overall, a great wedding full of entertainment. Congrats Katie! Sunday, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (something I highly recommend doing if you haven't before) and met up with Debbie & Saevar on the Manhattan side for dim sum at Dim Sum GoGo----yum! The afternoon that followed was full of culture and fun as we hit up the Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown and the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy. Before we knew it, it was time to head back home.

    Speaking of, we flew Song Airlines for the first time---it was actually a bit cheaper than JetBlue at the time I bought the tickets and had better flight times. Similar to JetBlue, there's TV onboard although there aren't as many channels and it wasn't very reliable; however, there was music to choose from and many pay-per-view movies that one could watch. A particular favorite of mine was the Games section. Passengers can spend $5 and play all the games they want in a game pack (including Bejeweled!)...OR they can play in-flight trivia where you duke it out with the rest of the passengers through 20-question rounds of trivia. By mid-flight, I was determined to beat Herm in 11B and JoJo in 25C. Would I fly Song again? Definitely.

    The highlight of the week since returning was going to The Arcade Fire concert at the Paramount on Wednesday. They opened powerfully with "Wake Up" and continued to impress the audience the whole evening with their passionate and catchy sounds. I only know the music from their album, Funeral, but that was enough to have me humming along to 90% of the concert. They were great in concert and carried their tunes perfectly. After the show, they further impressed me by going out to the Paramount's grand staircase and doing an impromptu acoustic piece. Next concert--Franz Ferdinand next weekend.

    Just found out that my hairstylist at Gene Juarez, the one I've been seeing for more than 5 years, Reed, scored a major gig performing the TV theme for the new show Kitchen Confidential, which I'd already added to my DVR. His band has a really catchy beat and I predict I'll have to be finding myself a new hairstylist soon because his band's really going to be successful. Good job Reed!

    Monday, September 19, 2005

    changing hosts

    New York was awesome--I'll have to blog about it later.

    Meanwhile, I need to switch webhosts. After looking around a bit, I decided to go with DreamHost--they had a pretty rockin' deal. Apologies if my site goes down or looks funky as I migrate this whole site over. This'll be a first for me.

    Thursday, September 15, 2005

    Sudoku

    I discovered Sudoku Puzzles today. Pretty fun and captivating for the mathematical mind. It's basically a grid of Nine 3x3 boxes where you have to fill in numbers such that each column, row and 3x3 box has the numbers 1 to 9 inclusively.

    Wednesday, September 14, 2005

    Lion cut


    Misha's lion cut
    Originally uploaded by moohaha.
    Misha got his lion cut today! AND the groomer was able to get all the mats off his bum. He's got this nice fuzz about him now---it's an interesting feeling picking him up, not having a mass of fur. So far, so good--he doesn't seem to really notice it.


    Oops.

    Monday, September 12, 2005

    Need a Host

    My friend, Alex, who has graciously hosted my website for free for the last 6 years, since its birth, has decided to shut down his servers in a week. As a result, I need a new web host! I don't even know where to look since Alex has hosted my site ever since I've even had a website. For all you out there that have your own domain, do you recommend your webhost? Advice? I'd love to hear it---either put something in the comments or email me: audrey-at-this-website.
    Everything Sounds Like Coldplay
    -- pretty funny and sad at the same time

    "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en"
    -- cool benefit song featuring The Arcade Fire, Postal Service, Feist, Beck, Sonic Youth and more

    Chill weekend--went to party at Kabir's on Friday. Spent all of Saturday with Eric and John (who was visiting from San Francisco). We rented and saw Kung Fu Hustle---totally hilarious. Loved it. I highly recommend this for some good 'ol kung fu humor. We later got a scrumptious veggie dinner at Carmelita's (I had truffled potato empanadas), followed by an evening of bowling and karaoke at Leilani Lanes. Wahoo. Sunday, caught up with former coworker, Phillip, and his wife, Susan, who came over for a bit...and then met up with the girls for a spa evening at Habitude, followed by dinner at Madame K's.

    Wednesday, September 7, 2005

    The new iPod nano is hot. It's somewhere between a Shuffle and a Mini, as thin as a pencil, 4GB for $199, color screen, supports photos and charges/sycncs via USB. I've still got my old school 2nd generation 20GB iPod. It works fine--this one makes me think twice about having a backup.

    This is a great compilation of some of the best and worst of Katrina reporting. Some of it just gets me so riled up and angry. Grr. I love that Microsoft does 100% matching for charity giving PLUS they made it convenient for me to just deduct straight from my payroll to give to the American Red Cross. Sweet.

    Took Misha in this morning to get his lion cut but the groomer had to take off suddenly due to a family death and left me a "Misha's mom" note on the door. I'll just have to reschedule to another time...

    Tuesday, September 6, 2005

    Chaining myself to work from home...

    Hallelujah---after postponing it for weeks and weeks and weeks, I finally decided to work on "RAS-ing" (Remote Access) from home to the Microsoft network so that I can take the time some days to leave early and continue spec writing from the Bauhaus. I had initial problems because my main connection program was out of date and wouldn't run and I couldn't get the new .exe to install. Thank goodness MS has a 24 hour helpline dedicated just for employees to fix ANYTHING that has to do with Microsoft software or whatever. A quick call to a dude in India and I'm all patched up--yay! Okay, this isn't something to totally celebrate about since I'm wahoo-ing about being able to work away from work now. [sigh] The things we get excited about...

    Monday, September 5, 2005

    More blog links

    By the way, I decided to expose all the blogs I keep up with on my blog aggregator, Bloglines, on the right side for y'all's curious minds. Unfortunately, this means that I'm not linking to those blogs that don't have a feed (that I know of), like Betina or Jenny...

    I love holiday weekends

    It's Labor Day and I wish there was yet another day of rest. Matt and I have spent most of the holiday weekend hitting up Bumbershoot---it's been a few years since I've gone to this annual music festival in Seattle...and it's certainly grown a lot since I last attended. There are so many more venues and much more space being used. So far, we've caught The Pharcyde, Omar Torrez, Common, M.Ward, Maktub and more. Today, we'll be catching Ted Leo, the Decemberists, Los Amigos Invisibles and whatever in between. Wahoo!

    On Saturday, we took the ferry up to Port Gamble, WA to attend Katie & Jarrod's wedding--Katie's a former coworker from Amazon. It was gorgeous with the water in the background and the weather just perfect. I saw many former and current Amazonians and it was great to catch up with a lot of them. Congrats! One more wedding remaining for the year...and then wedding season will be over with finally.

    I'm taking Misha in to the groomer on Wednesday for a Lion Cut for 2 reasons mainly: he gets hairballs all the time because of his long hair and he's been gettings little mats on this body recently, mostly around the bum area. Every cat owner I've talked to who has done this for their cat say that their cat LOVED it. It seems like the right thing to do...but am I evil? Misha just has so much hair that I'm afraid of what it'll look like.

    Monday, August 29, 2005

    Shop, Dine & Ride

    Seattle has this great underground bus tunnel that runs throughout all of downtown, where buses roam without the traffic above ground. I rode buses through this tunnel for a year when I worked in the International District/Pioneer Square area for Amazon and loved it. It was the one time that I felt like a hip city dweller---walking down the hill, over I-5 and its morning traffic, grabbing a latte somewhere and then walking through Nordstrom's to go down below to catch any bus entering the tunnel...only to pop me out in the midst of the International District. Enough reminiscing.

    This bus tunnel is going to be closed for TWO years beginning September 24th to make way for the fancy schmancy new Light Rail project, which will link the 14 miles between downtown Seattle and SeaTac Airport. Know what this means? All those buses that went through the tunnel are now going to be rerouted up top and traffic will be fun in the downtown area.

    Anyway, I just learned about the new Shop, Dine & Ride program where commuters can get discounts on local stores and restaurants. All that's needed is a valid ticket pass, transfer ticket, ticket or ferry pass along with the coupon. Sweet. The full list of stores and restaurants will appear on the site tomorrow. A new guide will be published every six months until the tunnel reopens in two years. There'll be a kick-off party tomorrow from 11:30 am-1:30 pm at the Westlake Park in downtown Seattle. Check it out!

    Monday, August 22, 2005

    Seven Nites & stupid drivers

    Just found a pretty cool website where you can search for Happy Hours in Seattle---SevenNites.com. AND it's supposedly pretty up-to-date. Coolio.

    I witnessed the most asinine driver this morning. I was on a 2-lane road in Capitol Hill and there was a garbage truck blocking the lane I was in. Now, theoretically, it's cool to go to the other lane a) if there are no cars there, and b) there's room to go somewhere to in front of the garbage truck. This black car moves out and can't go anywhere because there are already 2 cars in front of the truck--stopped because there's a red light. Instead of realizing his mistake and backing up, the car just sits there. Eventually, a car comes facing him in the other lane and the lady starts honking her horn yelling "Get out of my lane!". He starts yelling back and tells her to move back as if it was her fault that he's in the wrong lane facing the wrong direction. Ridonkulous. I should note that there was *plenty* of room for him to back off. They continue to yell at each other until the light turns green, the cars move forward and he moves back into my lane, giving her the finger as he passes her. How asinine and stupid. I can't believe there are drivers like this that exist in the world.

    Thursday, August 18, 2005

    Episode III - Backstroke of the West

    I just came across this hilarious blog post that shows screenshots of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith getting badly translated into Chinese---and then translated back into English for the subtitles. My favorite is "I was just made by the Presbyterian Church"---likely, Jedi Council was translated into Chinese and then back into English as Presbyterian Church

    Wednesday, August 17, 2005

    Coldplay in Concert


    Coldplay in Concert
    Originally uploaded by moohaha.
    Saw Coldplay last night with Archana, Seema, Karen, Jigna, Matt, Sri, Aileen & Mike. They sounded great in concert and played a lot of crowd favorites. It was my first time watching a concert at the White River Amphitheatre which is way out in the middle of nowhere somewhere between Auburn and Enumclaw. I must say, the traffic to get out of the concert in the puny little 2 lanes they have opened up SUCKS. It took 2 hours to get home (1 hour of which was getting out of the parking lot alone).

    Monday, August 15, 2005

    Paragliding!


    Here I am, just having taken off
    Originally uploaded by moohaha.
    I ended up not going to Vancouver over the weekend...and instead, went paragliding with Jigna & Matt last minute instead! It was an amazing experience and a beautiful day to do it. We started off by taking a hike up Tiger Mountain (which took longer than we had expected!) and finally arriving at the top to see a bunch of paragliders hanging out ready to take off. Of course, with it being the first time, all 3 of us took tandem flights and it was overall really easy. The feeling was amazing and it was exhilirating. And of course, the view was spectacular. Check out a short compilation of photos taken between the 3 of us that day.

    Saturday, August 13, 2005

    28!


    Asayo, me, Jigna & Archana
    Originally uploaded by moohaha.
    I turned 28 last Thursday (and it was my dad and Pierre's birthday too--Happy Birthday!). Really chill and awesome birthday this year. Matt went all out and took me to the most wonderful restaurant for dinner--Crush. It was such an interesting juxtaposition of the modern decor within the walls of a Victorian-style house. The food was absolutely tasty with lots of attention to detail. Scrumptious. This restaurant is located in the least expected part of town--near the intersection of 23rd & Madison, which, for those of you who don't live in Seattle, is a neighborhood that doesn't quite ring "nice restaurants". Crush takes a risk by planting itself there and it has succeeded. I almost didn't feel like I was in a Seattle restaurant when I looked around and saw 75% of the male patrons wearing a sports jacket or suit. Very hip, great food.

    The next night, I had an awesome dinner with some close friends at one of my favorite pizza joints, Via Tribunali. I reserved the back room and it was overall fun. See the rest of the photos from my birthday this year.

    Monday, August 8, 2005

    Less than a week before....

    Wow. So---I'm going to this wedding in Vancouver, B.C. this weekend with Matt. We already booked the hotel, planned it, etc. Tonight, just before leaving work, I get a mass email from the best man which says (leaving out names for privacy):

    Hi Everyone,

    I regret to inform you that the wedding between John Doe and Jane Doe will not take place. John and Jane sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. All gifts that were received will be returned.

    Thank you very much for your understanding.


    Damn. This is a first for me--that is, having a wedding that I'm planning on attending cancel just 5 days before! Crazy. I'm dying to know what happened...how horrible it must be for them to be dealing with this right now. Sheesh.

    Anyway, bummer for me--because I made the hotel reservations via Hotwire.com, I can't cancel and get my money back. So it looks like Matt and I are going to Vancouver afterall this weekend! Haha. Silly me...getting tickets via Hotwire...not even thinking that there's a possibility that the wedding could be cancelled. Man. I hope my friend's doing okay. Must suck right now.

    Sunday, August 7, 2005

    Kansas & the Seattle Summer

    Sorry, the time between my blogs gets longer and longer. You know why? It's finally SUMMER here in Seattle. Yes, it's August. Yes, summer's already 2/3 over in most of the country. But here in Seattle, summer arrived just a couple weeks ago. I'm now wearing skirts and flip flops daily and complaining nonstop about how hot my condo gets. Summer is short lived here but makes living here all worth it. I even got sunburnt a couple days ago when I was out at Whidbey Island on a team outing---sunburn! in Seattle? Anyway, on to what's been happenin' in the last few weeks....

    As you can see from my last post, I went back to Kansas for my 10 year high school reunion which was actually a ton of fun. Matt got to meet my parents and I got to see many people that I haven't seen in, well, ten years. And it was indeed ridiculously hot there--110+ everyday and it was unbearable. I'd forgotten the feeling of preferring to walk inside an air-conditioned mall rather than strolling out in the sun on the Plaza. The reunion itself was much fun and I loved seeing people and hearing their stories. For the most part, people were the same (except for Mark Wertzberger who shocked me with his current profession as a pro-wrestler living in Hollywood---talk about being far from Kansas). We all shared some fun stories, had some drinks, gave each other hugs...what you would expect at a reunion.

    The rest of the trip was also really enjoyable, with Matt getting along and bonding with my parents and exploring Kansas together. The first day, Matt and I strolled around downtown Lawrence, which I personally haven't done in a very long time...especially on a hot summer day. In recent years, my trips home have mainly been in the winter for the holidays...so it felt great to go into Penny Annie's and get a sherbert freeze and then smell the candles at Waxman Candles and then get some caffeine at the Java Break...and end the day with a beer at Free State Brewery. We had a wonderful meal with the Krauses Friday night and then introduced Matt to the Chinese dim sum culture of Kansas City which was quite funny to Matt when he realized he was the only white guy in a restaurant in the middle of Kansas. (we later realized that all the white patrons were sitting in a separate room near the front--what a hoot!) After Matt and my father played golf on Sunday, we headed to Kansas City to check out Cabela's, which is like the REI of the Midwest and Great Plains...but specializes in hunting. To give you a sense of this place, the first sign we saw upon walking in said "Attention - For you and your family's safety, please check all firewarms at greeter's desk before entry. Thank you" There was more stuffed game in that place than I had ever seen in my life -- deer, moose, goat, turkey, you name it. It was insane.

    The weekend had to end with drama as our flight back to Seattle via Phoenix (we flew America West) was delayed by more than 2 hours because the tarmac in Phoenix was more than 120 degrees and our plane was stuck because the air was too thin for liftoff! I hadn't ever heard of it being too hot to fly. As a result, Matt and I got stuck in Phoenix overnight and couldn't get back to work until afternoon the next day.

    Anyway, the weekend has ended and I'm praying for the night to cool a bit. It's been a wonderful Seattle Summer weekend with Whidbey Island on Friday, boating around Lake Union & Lake Washington with friends yesterday, and the Gary's Seafair party today to check out the Blue Angels and Hydroplane Races. Ciao.

    Wednesday, July 20, 2005

    it's hot in kansas

    I'm packing for my trip home to Kansas this weekend for my high school reunion...and of lordy, I took a look at the weather forecast and almost passed out at the thought of being back in that heat:

    Tomorrow: Generally sunny. Very hot. Heat index near 115F. High 103F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.

    Tomorrow night: Clear skies during the evening followed by isolated thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

    Friday: Isolated thunderstorms ending in the morning, becoming sunny late. Very hot. Heat index near 110F. High 101F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

    Saturday: Plenty of sun. Highs 103 to 107F and lows in the upper 70s.

    Sunday: Sunshine. Highs 99 to 103F and lows in the mid 70s.

    It's 1am there *right now* and it's 86F. Sheesh.

    Tuesday, July 19, 2005

    Sousas in Seattle


    Sousas in Seattle
    Originally uploaded by moohaha.
    I just spent the entire weekend with Matt's parents, meeting them for the first time on their trip here to Seattle. We did a bunch of things: go to a baseball game, lunch at the Pink Door, visiting EMP, checking out the Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder, taking pictures in West Seattle along Alki, dinner at Maximillien in the Market, Via Tribunali and Cafe Flora. Quite action packed! The Sousas are wonderful people, super easy to get along with and much fun to hang out with! Check out the rest of the photos I took...

    Thursday, July 14, 2005

    Tuesday, July 12, 2005

    the fine print

    I'm mixed now. There's been a recent initiative in Seattle (901) to ban smoking indoors. I'm all for it--especially after seeing the effect (none) in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. The other week, I became one of thousands of local voters to sign the initiative so that it can be on the ballot. However, I just came across this article in the stranger---Up in Smoke?--which basically cites a small clause within the initiative that also bans outdoor smoking—if the outdoor space in question lies within 25 feet of any door, window, or air vent that leads into a protected public space, such as a bar, club, restaurant, office building, or vehicle used by the general public. There are many neighborhoods in Seattle where this won't fly---Belltown, Pioneer Square and Capitol Hill come to mind. I'm not even a smoker and generally hate sitting near smokers...but this clause is stupid. I want to be able to go out with friends that smoke and have them be able to duck out to the outdoor terrace (i.e. Linda's, Capitol Club) for a quick smoke---not wander down the block. Assuming this initative goes into law, who knows if local authorities will really enforce this 25 ft rule.

    Repliee Q1

    An adult type android
    This life-like android debuted in Japan over the weekend at the 2005 World Expo. It's made of skinlike silicone and has 31 points of articulation in its upper body. I just watched a video clip of this robot/android creation (there are more videos from the japanese website)---pretty amazing.
    "Internal sensors allow the android to react "naturally." It can block an attempted slap, for example. But it's the little, "unconscious" movements that give the robot its eerie verisimilitude: the slight flutter of the eyelids, the subtle rising and falling of the chest, the constant, nearly imperceptible shifting so familiar to humans."

    Wednesday, July 6, 2005

    Fourth in Montana

    I just spent the Fourth of July weekend in Big Sky, Montana with Kutta, Matt, Matt and Ian---we had a really great, relaxing time over there. The drive over actually wasn't as bad as I feared--just read magazines and slept most of the way. We were back in the same cabin that we stayed at when we snowboarding there earlier this year. Fortunately, we got great weather the whole time there.
    Kutta hiking up Lone Peak
    Good memories:
  • Hiking up Lone Peak--Matt and I only made it to the top of the Gondola, but the other boys had the extra stamina to actually hike it to the top top at 11,000 feet.
  • Shooting bottle rockets and roman candles in the backyard like I did when I was a kid
  • Going whitewater rafting for the first time along the Gallatin River all day--it was an absolute blast and I want to do it again. We watched a family in the raft behind us highside it along a rock--3 of them crawled onto the rock while the rest floated off in the raft, one leaping into it last minute. What great drama. The 3 were left standing there, not knowing what to do..but they were able to paddle the raft back and pick them up eventually.
  • The last dinner--I ate New Zealand Red Deer and most of the boys had Surf n Turf: bison tenderloin with rainbow trout. Yum yum.

    Montana is just absolutely gorgeous in the summertime. Check out all the photos I took there--unfortunately, didn't bring my camera for the day of whitewater rafting. It would've been a hoot to catch us all wearing the wetsuits.
  • Friday, July 1, 2005

    Itching to leave for the holiday weekend...

    Giant Catfish May Be World's Largest Freshwater Fish
    Sheesh. And they ate it too. Freaky.

    It's Friday, barely anyone's in the office since it's a holiday weekend. I'm heading back to Big Sky, Montana later this afternoon for some firework shootin' in the backcountry. It's going to be a lo-o-o-ong drive.

    Recently bought a new digital camera---the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7--to replace my Olympus C-50 which was starting to get annoying with an open/close hatch that has a mind of its own. (I basically could only keep the camera on/open by squeezing the body of the camera) I know I know--I probably could've just fixed it...but the gadget queen in me found it as an excuse to get a new camera. Hmm..it takes SD cards. Need to buy a new one. Anyone want to buy my old digital camera? I have 2 128MB mini XD cards to go with them too.

    Sunday, June 26, 2005

    nyc, boston, san fran & work

    Hi y'all--it's been a lo-o-o-o-ong time since I lasted posted in my blog. You know, the difficult thing about maintaining a blog is wanting to always say so much. If enough time passes, then you have more and more you want to talk about--and at that point, it's like having to respond to a friend's really long email. Much has happened in this past month for me--traveling to 3 big cities and my first month at Microsoft. I'll do what I can in summarizing everything without making this entry too long.

    New York City
    My primary purpose in going to NYC was to be a bridesmaid in my good friend and college roommate's wedding--Anna--to a Mr. Frank Colletti. The whole weekend, to sum it up, was just awesome and memorable. Matt traveled with me (a big relationship milestone--that is, traveling to attend a wedding) and we arrived just in time to catch Christine out of the shower after the girl's bachelorette slumber party at the Waldorf-Astoria (how nice to finally see the hotel). Everyone eventually met up, taking the LIRR over to Rockville Center to check into our hotels and prep for the rehearsal dinner. The wedding was the next day and it was just spectacular. The initial ceremony was in a Catholic church and everything went really well. This was my first bridesmaid duty-o-call and it was a cinch with the way Anna planned the wedding. The reception later was just phenomenal--further down in Long Island at the Bourne Mansion with a great view of the water. The dining room was classy, food and drinks aplenty (4 full open bars! Amazing!). Everyone had a great time and I certainly enjoyed it. Matt was great, essentially being a bridesmaid helper along with Christina. I was really impressed with this wedding...it was gorgeous yet not pretentious. People were really truly dancing and having a ball. Great wedding Anna!

    Matt and I spent the rest of the time in NYC, seeing lots of old friends---Teresa, Eugene, Aaron, Katie, Debbie, Saevar, Alice---and just soaking in the offerings of the big city. We got a chance to see the Ashes and Snow exhibit (beautiful) and enjoy the rooftop bar and pool of our fancy schmancy hip hotel, the Hotel Gansevoort. We had a lot of delicious food (Ono, Cafe du Soleil) and I had a chance to drop in on Li Mei's bridal shower. It was a full packed weekend and a memorable one indeed.

    Boston
    Headed to Boston a week and a half later to attend my brother's graduation from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. We got great weather, ate yummy seafood (Union Oyster House), and got a chance to finally see Aaron's school and apartment. The graduation itself was overwhelming with thousands flooding Harvard Square as the graduation was for every school--graduate and undergraduate. Another highlight was getting the chance to meet up briefly with a Smith friend, Lori---we chatted for awhile in my hotel lobby. It was awesome to see her.

    San Francisco
    I went straight to San Francisco from Boston to meet up with Matt to attend the SF Symphony Black & White Ball. We stayed with his friend Lucrecia and I got a chance to get to know her better. I also met more of Matt's friends Friday night at a bar. Saturday, we met up with Betina & Justin over brunch at Boogalow's. The ball was on Saturday evening where Matt and I kicked it off by having the most wonderful dinner at Jardiniere--absolutely scrumptious. The setting went well as we were decked out in tux and fancy couture black dress. The ball itself was much fun--we got a chance to see Patti LaBelle, Train, a hilarious U2 cover band and Minnie Driver. On Sunday, Matt and I took the opportunity to check out the bizarre The Universe Within: The Human Body Revealed exhibit in Nob Hill. This is a smaller version of the Bodyworlds exhibit where real human bodies are shown using a technique called plastination to preserve the body. Due to the process, it's possible to show, for example, just the nervous system or just the arteries within the body. Not something that's easy to stomach but completely fascinating (of course, I love watching surgeries on TV). Matt and I ended our Sunday by strolling to the Pier 39, eating chowder in a sourdough breadbowl and checking out the sea lions scream and gawk at each other. Check out all the photos from San Francisco.

    Monday, May 23, 2005

    first day at microsoft

    07:00 Alarm goes off. Grr...I haven't been awake at this time in awhile.
    07:20 Finally jump in shower. Brr..it's colder at this time.
    08:00 Eat breakfast, give Misha his antibiotics
    08:17 Finally walk out the door to begin my commute
    08:32 Crap--this traffic sucks. I haven't even reached the bridge.
    08:44 Oh good, it's picking up--moving faster.
    08:52 Finally arrive on campus--where's the building again?
    08:59 Finally find the NEO (New Employee Orientation)--check in, get my packet.
    09:30 Orientation begins.
    15:37 First portion of orientation ends--I decide to jump on the shuttle for the optional portion of visiting the Company Store and Visitor Center
    16:30 Get back on shuttle to go back to orientation building--meet another Amazonian that also recently left to come to MS, chat with him for the ride back
    16:46 Get in car for drive back to Seattle
    16:53 Run into traffic before I even cross 405--this is going to suck.
    17:36 Finally get home--going to have to get used to this commute.

    Man, I'm really going to miss the short commute I've had going to Amazon all these years---lasting on average about 6-7 minutes. Orientation today was interesting and overwhelming. So many people work here--today, alone, there were 115 people in my orientation! Sheesh! My first thoughts going into orientation: I felt like it was my first day of college where you're sent from one work station to another to fill out the appropriate forms and stuff. I was really impressed by how organized everything was and the wealth of information presented to me. Orientation continues tomorrow when I finally get my badge (er, cardkey...I think that's what they call it) and eventually meet the team.

    Monday, May 16, 2005

    Ciao and Farewell

    Sent at 3:41pm---
    Hi all,

    Today is my last day at Amazon---it's been a real pleasure working with all of you.

    If you can, please join me & Eric Franklin for a drink at Barca (1510 11th Ave) tomorrow evening, May 17th, at 6pm--would love to see you.

    Keep in touch!

    ~ Audrey

    Saturday, May 14, 2005

    magneto

    This week, Microsoft unveiled Windows Mobile 5.0. Check out a presentation deck here for a more indepth view. How exciting since this is exactly the technology that I'll be working on when I join Microsoft. There's so much for me to read and digest and learn--that's what I'm most psyched about. I know soo little about the Windows platform when it comes to PocketPCs and Smartphones since I've been a Palm user for the last 6 years. Although I love my current phone, with it being nearly 3 years old, there are a lot of shortcomings...and reading this deck makes me realize how many features I lack currently. I can't wait to get a MS Smartphone and start playing around with it!

    Wednesday, May 11, 2005

    zumanity

    After spending 1 day back in Seattle doing random errands and re-packing, I'm now in Vegas visiting my parents who decided to get a vacation home here. Within a few hours of arriving, I was already at a casino with the family and gambling at the blackjack table. Ha ha--you win some, you lose some. I think overall, I've lost $20 by now. Last minute, we decided to check out a new Cirque du Soleil show called Zumanity at the New York New York Hotel & Casino. I absolutely love Cirque du Soleil and have already seen a bunch of their shows: Alegria, Mystere, O, Saltimbanco.....there are 3 here in Vegas I have yet to see: Zumanity, La Reve and ...and I'm going to see all 3 while I'm here! So last night, I saw Zumanity, which is their only adult-only show. Instead of being filled with child's fantasy, dreams and performers in colorful costumes of storybook creatures, this show focuses on the burlesque, cabaret side of eroticism. Most of the costumes in this show involved leather, thongs, feathers, jock straps and tiny pasties. Instead of seing a fantasmic, alien-like creature doing a balancing & flexibility act with hanging rope, in Zumanity you see a near-nude lady turning the act into that of self-masochism. It was definitely interesting and a different side of Cirque. There were still some amazing performances of contortionism, spinning 20 hula-hoops while being suspended in the air and even a cool act involving 2 Asian women, flexibility and a mini fishbowl-like mini-pool. With the performers being near naked, I loved seeing the muscles of these amazing athletes at work, particularly those of the contortionists. It was fascinating to see the raw performance, unhidden by the flare of the typical Cirque costume. The only thing I wasn't wowed by was that I felt like there weren't as MANY performances as there are in a typical Cirque show. What happened to the 20 people bouncing around on crazy trampolines or the 6 people bouncing up and down on bungee swings. In a way, I have a soft spot for the awe felt by the more elaborate productions.

    Sunday, May 8, 2005

    last day in paradise

    It´s our last day and Sri & I just checked out of the hotel. We don´t leave til 2pm for the airport since our flight is in the late afternoon...so we have 3 more hours to sit by the pool, get sunburnt (me), drink piña coladas and soak in the salty fresh air of the ocean. Not much new to report. We went into Playa del Carmen for dinner last night and ate at the Blue Lobster, each of us ordering the biggest lobster tail we´ve ever eaten. This was the first ever lobster tail that I couldn´t finish...it was huge! What a sad waste for such a good, expensive lobster tail. Grr. But man, it was good. We also came across a really cool hotel & bar lounge called Deseo, which had beds next to the rooftop pool with a DJ planning untz-untz music all evening. Very chill. Sri and I agree that Playa del Carmen is more our scene than Cancún, which can be overwhelming for the senses. Anyway, great vacation. Happy that the ´rents decided to invest in this place...hasta la vista!

    Friday, May 6, 2005

    coco bongo

    Wow. Sri and I decided to live it up and check out Cancún last night since it was, afterall, Cinco de Mayo...and why not party it up in the party capital of Mexico? We first had dinner at this wonderful restaurant called The Plantation House, which specializied in Caribbean style cooking. I once again had a lobster tail which was delicious and Sri had a blackened grouper. Well satisfied after dinner, we wandered over to the clubbing area down the street in the Zona Hotelera to find chaos. It´s like Las Vegas on steroids and all over the place. There were bars and discos EVERYWHERE and people were spilling out onto the street. We eventually decided to check out this huge club called Coco Bongo, which had the longest line. Fortunately, it moved fast. After a $35 cover fee, we walked into quite the night! It was actually worth the $35 because it included all the drinks and this spectacular show. It was a dance club but every 5-10 minutes, they´d stop to put on some huge show, ranging from a Cirque du Soleil style in-the-air-with-ropes performance to a Madonna imitation to some random Beetlejuice combination.

    One bargain we´ve learned is the local colectiva, or public bus. We took a bus that cost us $2 to get into Cancún from the hotel. But the taxi back cost us $22, which is considered quite a deal. The other night, when we went to Playa del Carmen, it cost us $1 by bus to go and $15 by taxi to return.

    Today was quite adventurous...as we took our 1 excusion: Xtreme Adventure! It started off with some mountain biking through a Mayan Jungle, which was really beautiful, and through a tiny town called Central Vallarta. After that, we zip lined down 2 cables from the top of the jungle all the way down---so so fun! Not as scary as it looks! And lastly, we snorkled down in a Mexican cenote, or a cave, which is apparently the mouth to an underground river 125 ft below. The water was so cool and refreshing.

    Unfortunately, by the time we returned to the hotel, the clouds came over again. No more sun. I hear the sun will return tomorrow and Sunday..and hopefully I can even out this horrendous sunburn! Just bought some calamine lotion---the bugs are just LOVING my legs and it sucks.

    Thursday, May 5, 2005

    sunburn and bug bites

    Man, first day and I´m already sunburnt and have enormous bug bites on my right leg, perhaps from unknown creatures of the night that jumped into bed. I swear I put sunblock all over myself but I still got burnt. Ugh. Storm clouds are hovering over the resort today, so fortunately I don´t have to face the sun again. Last night, Sri and I checked out the town of Playa del Carmen, which is only about 10-15 minutes away. We hopped on a local public autobús, which costs only $1/person and strolled around 5th Avenue, which is this crazy long street full of vendors, shops and restaurants. We ended up at a restaurant where I ate the Langosta Especial---a lobster tail, wine and salad for $14. What a deal! 5th Avenue is really amazing and just full of people. It can be overwhelming the number of places to go shopping at there...a complete overload of the senses. Today, Sri and I went to a yoga class at the Spa Gym here, which was great. I haven´t taken a yoga class in, er, 3-4 years and it was Hatha style yoga.

    We´re heading into Cancún tonight for Cinco de Mayo festivities (assuming there are any) and then waking up early tomorrow for an Xtreme Adventure excursion: mountain bike trekking, snorkeling and zip lining through the jungle! Yippee!

    Tuesday, May 3, 2005

    ¡Estoy en Cancún!

    Well, Sri and I arrived in Cancún safely this evening, after being in flight for nearly 7 hours. We fortunately avoided the crowd of time-share selling folks and got a decently priced taxi over to our hotel, the Mayan Palace, located in the Riviera Maya. We were lucky and got upgraded to the Grand Mayan, which is the fancier part of this complex (and when I mean complex, I mean complex---we needed transportation from the lobby to our room)...and WOW! Sri and I are in complete awe of how beautiful this place is (and keep in mind, this is a time share of my parents which we lucked out on). The suite we have has a kitchen with granite countertop, a huge living room, in-suite jacuzzi and we even have a mini wading pool in our balcony. This is a gigantic resort with a crazy interconnected pool. You could vacation here and never leave. Seriously. We can´t wait to check out this place during the daytime and finally get a sense of how grandiose it is. Wahoo!

    Monday, May 2, 2005

    Reading Eugene's recent post about his Shure E3c earphones reminded to post about some new headphones that my brother bought me for Christmas---the Etymotic 6i Isolater Earphones. These earphones have made a huge difference in noise isolation. It almost completely blocks out outside noise. I often wear them to work out at the gym and I don't have to compete with the cheesy dance music piping through the gym's speakers (so that I can listen to my own cheesy dance music..heh heh). The sound is so isolated that my own heartbeat is quite clear through these headphones. I've been very impressed by these headphones so far and am eager to test it out on the airplane to see how it compares to my Bose QuietComfort 2 Noise Cancelling Headphones.

    I've been really enjoying my time off. This past week has just been wonderful, sleeping in and doing random errands and organizing around the house. I finally got the bridesmaid dress for my friend Anna's wedding next month at the end of the week---and to my sheer horror, I couldn't fit into it. I was a dumbass and just ordered my regular retail size...when, in reality, I should've ordered a dress size bigger. Ack. I ran to a local seamstress freaking out and they're going to be able to bring it out a few inches, making enough room for my waist to get through, which is really the only issue. My hips are fine and I think my chest will fit as well. [sigh] How horrifying as this dress is custom made and took 3 months to make after ordering. I immediately sent an email out to the other bridesmaids telling them of my ordeal and letting them know about the extra fabric in the inseams in the case they made the same mistake as I did. So far, Christine and Francesca have confirmed their dresses fit..and Julia hasn't seen hers yet but believes it should fit since she ordered a size bigger. I was the only stupid one. [sigh] I'm just praying that when I get the dress back from the seamstress that it fits. I think the extra 2-3 inches the seamstress is going to give me plus some cinching corset and some dieting over the next month will make me fit into this thing. What was I thinking? Ack. (Barbara, if you're reading this, no worries--I'll make this work!!) Of course, this episode prompted me to check my weight---I jumped on the scale and have realized that I've gained a few more pounds. What happened?! I am now the heaviest I have ever been in my life. Depression sinks in. Good thing I've had this time off--I've actually been going to the gym (been 3 times this week) and squeezing some cardio in. This is no good.

    I recently checked out a new pizzeria up the street from me called Via Tribunali. Seattle folks, if you haven't tried this out yet, you should. It's only been around since last November and is barely noticeable with its garage-door-like entrance--I've walked by it several times in the past few months and never realized that there was a restaurant there. This isn't just any pizzeria--this is *good* Neopolitan thin-crusted pizza with the freshest of ingredients. Pizza is made in a hot wood-burning oven that literally spits out a pizza in 1 minute. I swear--I watched the pizza guy put a pizza in, watch for a minute, take it out, place it on a plate to be whisked off by the waiter and served fresh. Amazing. Also to note for Seattle folks--the prosciutto, salami and other cured meats used in the appetizers and pizza are from none other than the local Salumi's, another favorite of mine. I've tried 2 pizzas--the Funghi and the Quattro Stagioni, both wonderful tasting. Also to note is the decor inside: tall ceilings, brick walls, neon-quasi-light-fixtures on the wall the emanate cathedral stained glass scenes, candlelight--very Capitol Hill hip. Did I mention that the price isn't bad either? Pizzas are around $10-$15 and can easily be shared. Do that with a yummy prosciutto appetizer and 2 glasses of wine and you've got yourself a decently priced delicious dinner meal.

    I leave for Mexico tomorrow to bask in the sun at the Riviera Maya with Sri. I can't wait to just lay around, soaking in the sun, sipping on strawberry daquiris. My plan today: pack, get cat food for Misha, watch 24 and get some sleep in before my 8am flight. Ciao!

    Wednesday, April 27, 2005

    vertigo

    Monday night, I took Matt to see the U2 concert at Key Arena--his first time seeing them, my second time after the last Elevation Tour. They rocked the house as expected and opened with confetti and spectacular lights on the stage with "City of Blinding Lights". It was a powerful and moving performance, at one point showing the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights up on the monitor. Perhaps the most moving piece was when Bono pulled up a young boy named Jason for "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own". They walked around the elliptical part of the stage, with the boy singing word-by-word along with Bono. Amazing. All in all--awesome show, the energy was in the house, the crowd was rocking. Good going U2.

    Tuesday, April 26, 2005

    and now in engadget...

    Wow. The day after Gizmodo made a post referencing my brother's sophomore year project, Engadget puts up a post today about his anemone clock. What great coverage! And how bizarre since this has been around for ages---I mean, I put together that website for him back in 2000 I believe. Interesting how in the Engadget comments, people are upset about the fact that his clock reads "9:11", thinking that he's being really disrespectful. In reality, he made this clock in 99 or 2000...so it's just a weird coincidence that he has that read-out. He's been getting contacts like crazy, which is cool...except that it's stressing him out during finals. There are so many hits to his website, it's insane (considering he had a daily average visit rate of around 8 hits--it's soared to almost 1,500 today). Poor guy doesn't know what to do with all this attention: he's been getting tons of emails and questions about where to buy it---it's a freakin' homework assignment from college! He'd have to patent it and then sign a deal to manufacture it...but then, would it be too late? Help? Anyhow, kudos to my little bro'--I'm so proud of him.

    Monday, April 25, 2005

    Seattle Shake

    For the month of May, get 2 cocktails and an appetizer for $15 at the following venues---anyone up for a drink after work? I'm free anytime!

    shout out to the bro

    Wow. My friend Jed emailed me today to point out a posting made on gizmodo.com today----featuring none other than an anemone clock design project Aaron did years ago. That's pretty cool that he's getting featured like that!

    Friday, April 22, 2005

    the end is near

    Today was my unofficial last working day at Amazon (unofficial since I'm taking vacation and technically wrapping things up later in May). But for all intents and purposes, this was my last day doing actual work stuff. I had a meeting, ate lunch with the boss, finished up a transition doc and packed up a big chunk of stuff. I put a bunch of the free CDs I had gotten in my first year working for the Music team out on a door desk, free for others to take. Also found a very large Programming Perl book that I never really used and gave it to the lead developer on my current project as good luck. I started throwing away old documents but couldn't bring myself yet to throwing away my very first notebook, where I had jotted down what cpp and datecat meant and what neighborhoods I should live in. It's kind of a surreal feeling. It hasn't really sunk in...more so because I still have my laptop, pager, parking pass, badge and everything that makes me an Amazonian. I'm really looking forward to these next few weeks to sleep, organize, hang out with my cat and get my personal life back in tip top shape. I booked the whole trip to Mexico today with Sri--11 more days before that begins. Can't wait. What will I do Monday morning?

    Wednesday, April 20, 2005

    Dance Dance Revolution Extreme. Watch (.wmv) this kid dance a prefect round at one of the fastest levels while juggling 3 pins at once. Impressive.

    Tuesday, April 19, 2005

    pow-dah & the zon

    This last weekend I took a last minute trip up to Whistler with some friends (care of Kutta's organizing) during the Telus Ski & Snowboard Festival. Despite this season being the worst in, like, 20 years, the snow this weekend was absolutely amazing. We rode up Saturday morning and found fields of deep deep soft fluffy powder everywhere. Oh man--it was amazing. What a great way to end this season (as opposed to my last trip to Baker, which resulted in wet, soggy, blahness).

    Otherwise, I'm keeping busy during my last working week at Amazon. Yep--you heard it. I gave notice last week, after working there nearly six years. I have some unused vacation that I'm taking (and hence, my official last day isn't until May); however, this is my last real working week. After looking around a bit and talking to some folks, I decided to jump over to the east side and join the Microsofties as a Program Manager in the Windows Mobile division. I'm super excited as I'll be working on applications for the PocketPC, PocketPCPhone and Smartphone. I have to admit that I've only been using the Palm OS (i.e. with my Samsung i500 phone) all these years---moreso due to familiarity rather than pickiness. I personally find the smartphone industry to be one with a lot of potential and I'm psyched to be working in this technology.

    Amazon's treated me well overall. I've certainly had my ups and downs but the opportunities I've been given have been a blessing. I've had a lot of wonderful experiences and met a number of amazing individuals.

    I'm planning on relaxing during this time off and do something with the vacation that I otherwise would have used later this year. So far, a trip to visit the parents in Vegas and a Mexico vacation with Sri are in the works.

    Thursday, April 14, 2005

    "convergence capital usa"

    I woke up this morning to a NPR piece on Lawrence, Kansas of all places! Yay. Unfortunately, I didn't really wake up until the piece was almost over. It was apparently about Lawrence being the Convergence Capital and being the model for how news media may operate in the future. Interesting.

    Tuesday, April 12, 2005

    northwest tongue

    Interesting. Just found this Seattle Lexicon. I love that under "Things & Zings", they have "Amazonian Lingo".

    what the hell?

    This is just horrible: Wisconsin is debating whether or not to legalize cat hunting.
    "Residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats -- including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar -- should be listed as an unprotected species. If listed as so, the cats could be hunted."

    Thursday, April 7, 2005

    sin city

    I watched Sin City over the weekend at the Cinerama. End thoughts: loved it. It was electrifying, incredibly artistic and disturbingly violent. All the scenes were filmed in black & white with splashes of color...which aided in my ability to swallow the over-the-top death scenes. Every character was brilliant: Elijah Wood totally creeps the hell out of me now and Mickey Rourke had a great comeback. I'm still bothered seeing Gilmore Girl dressed in S&M. Visually, the movie was breathtaking (in a good and bad way). Go out and see it: judge it yourself. This is a movie unlike others. I heard that Director Rodriguez kept the budget low at $40 million, impressive considering opening weekend pulled in $28 million. Nice.

    Interesting Google Satellite Maps

    Check this out

    Wednesday, April 6, 2005

    google satellite maps

    The new google maps satellite feature is very cool. I was able to check out what my parent's new neighborhood looks like in Vegas. Here's the Space Needle. Here's a funny one out in IL--some creative dude with a plow. Here's Smith College. Not all maps look great---like my hometown.

    Monday, March 28, 2005

    Virtual Hunting

    Scary -- "Shoot to Kill Using your Computer Mouse" http://www.channel3000.com/technology/4316659/detail.html. What is this world coming to?

    Wednesday, March 23, 2005

    the boys

    Saw Brad tonight, the guy who introduced me to Matt--here's a picture of the boys hanging out on the LoveSac.

    VoIP & 911

    Interesting. I haven't been following news on VoIP much since I don't use it at home (even though Matt thinks I should convert over). Today, I read in the news that the state of Texas is suing Vonage, accusing them of deceptive practices after an incident in which a kid unsuccessfully called 911 because her parents had been shot from a break-in in their home. Instead, the girl got a message saying that emergency services weren't available from that phone line. Turns out that, in most cases, when you sign up for VoIP with Vonage, you have to go through an extra process to get 911 to actually work on your phone...but even then, it's not completely fail safe. See, the problem has to do with a conflict between the fundamental information that an emergency call center needs (your location) and the major selling point of having VoIP (the portability). See the conflict? See--even if Vonage used, say, your billing address as the address associated with your account, who says you can't just pick up your box, head to Hong Kong, and make a phone call from there? If you called 911 from there, they'd have no idea. Anyway, I just found this all interesting. Here's an interesting editorial on this topic with suggestions on what can be done.

    Seattle 360

    Found a cool site showing panoramic 360 degree views of all sorts of places in Seattle -- VRSeatte. Using quicktime, it groups all the various views they have by neighborhood. Check out my neighborhood, Capital Hill or the view from the Jose Rizal Bridge---you can see my view from work in addition to our company headquarters, that strange brick building that looks like a hospital.

    Sunday, March 20, 2005

    Robots

    Forgot to mention--I saw Robots in freakin' IMAX on Friday night with Jigna, Eric, Karen, Mark and Matt. This was my first time seeing a movie in IMAX since I was a kid. Man! I really need to start looking out for movies in IMAX from here on out. Anyway--great movie to watch in IMAX just to get an appreciation for the details captured in the computer animation. Cute movie, didn't totally blow me away--I was probably more wowed by the whole IMAX experience if anything. And damn--like, EVERYONE seemed to be in the movie, whether it be a major part (Ewan McGregor of key character) or a tiny one-line part (Jay Leno). I do think it was better than Shark's Tale--very inventive, classic in the story telling (in that, there aren't current pop culture references), has a good lesson for the kids, animation good. But as I said, nothing that totally blew me away. If you're going to watch it, check it out on IMAX. Otherwise, you're not really missing out on anything if you wait to watch it on DVD.

    Long time no blog

    Hi again--sorry for the long break. I just got busy and everytime I looked at things I wanted to blog about, it got bigger and bigger...and then enough time had passed that it didn't seem worthwhile to blog about anymore. It's a lot harder to blog infrequently.

    Well, I got back from Big Sky and had a fantastic time. It was relaxing and we had gorgeous, sunny days everyday. Montana has a beautiful landscape and you really get that feeling of being out in the "great American West" when you're there. We didn't get any new snow while we were there...but with the mountain up so high already in elevation, all the snow that had fallen the week before was still rather soft. On our last day, a group of us went over to West Yellowstone and tried something new: cross-country skiing! It's so funny how all of us tough snowboarders who had just gone down a black diamond bowl from the Peak the day before were freaking out about coming down a teensy little hill on our cross country skis. All in all--great trip, would love to go back.

    Otherwise, since coming back, just doing the usual with work and hanging out with friends.

    The girls and I tried out another spa place the other week---Banya 5, which only opened less than a year ago. Somewhat similar to the Korean spa experience in Tacoma, this one is a bit smaller and done Russian style. There are only 3 pools of different temperatures--hot tub hot, lukewarm and chilling. In addition to the soaking pools are a wet steam room and a dry sauna. The services are limited--you can choose between either a basic massage or a combination salt scrub and honey massage. They only have 2 areas to do this, separated by curtains, so their ability to take in a lot of services at one time is limited. I went with the combination scrub and massage and LOVED it. I had this Russian woman who meant business---boy, she really worked my muscles and gave me a good scrub: exactly what I wanted. All in all--great experience. Pros: good location (it's in the city!), has a variety of days (there are all men, all women and coed days), clean, people are very friendly, services are excellent, reasonable prices. Cons: limited services, only 3 soaking pools which are rather small, doesn't provide free robes for use. I'd definitely recommend this for city dwellers who just need a quick place to relax and chill with friends after work.

    I've also decided to quit the X Gym after giving it a lot of thought. I gave my notice the other week and my last workout will likely be in the first week of April. I've been there since August and it's really been a great experience. At the end of the day, though, I really need to have a regular cardio workout I think rather than a weight lifting one. It also kills me knowing that I have a $20/month membership at Gold's and that the XGym costs me 10x that. If I have an off week and just don't feel like going to the gym, it really costs me a lot of money to make that sacrifice...and I just didn't like the financial obligation I had to something that isn't as important to me as other things I'd rather spend money on. Funny thing is--2 days after I gave notice, I went to a Sonics game with Matt where my seat won a random drawing for a 6 month free membership at 24 hour fitness--I think that's a sign. I'll still be working out...but instead, I'll just be attending aerobics classes instead and have $200 more in my pocket each month to spend on other things.

    I'm so sad KU lost to Bucknell in the first round of the Tourney. Ugh. Poor Jayhawks.