ooooooh...the FCC leaks information on the new Samsung i500, which would be the upgraded version of my current PDA phone. This one looks nice as it looks more like a phone--plus, there's a number pad. I've realized with my current phone how dependent my fingers were on the feel of the numbers on the keypad to be able to dial a number blindly. That's definitely not as easy anymore as the numbers just appear on the screen. Wonder when it's going to come out. I must admit, since getting this PDA phone, I use my PDA a lot more now. It used to just sit at the bottom of my purse and I would whip it out occasionally to grab a number. Now, I look at it all the time and use the Datebook feature much more. And now, with the company migrating to use Exchange Calendaring, I can finally do a Hot Synch and check out my meetings there...instead of wondering where my meeting was.



Lots of Leo birthdays---Happy Birthday Gary! Happy Birthday Phoebe! (and tomorrow) Happy Birthday Katie! Tomorrow night will be the 4th Annual Leo Party. Funny how that tradition started the summer I arrived in Seattle. I love it. I love being a leo. We're everywhere. [smirk]



Spent the day with Phoebe for her birthday with a lovely brunch at Palomino...we then took a random trip down to Tacoma to check out the Museum of Glass, which opened very recently. Surprisingly, the majority of the glass installations were located in public spaces (including Dale Chihuly's Bridge of Glass). You essentially pay admission just to see the special exhibitions and to see a live glass blowing session. And even then, of the special exhibitions in the gallery that we saw, only half was actual glass work. I was actually probably most intrigued by a non-glass piece called Die Falle by Gregory Barsamian, which used the simple technology of a zoetrope (an automated flipbook and precursor to cinema), sculpted objects and a strobe light. The effect was amazing.



Feet hurt. Went salsa dancing again last night. Last class. Can't wait to start up sessions again.



I can't believe I'm moving in just a few days. I have SO much stuff! I've decided to try to bring my extra futon into work. See, I work in a pretty big office which was supposed to be for 3 people....but there will never be a 3rd officemate. Because of that, there's a whole extra corner devoted to nothing...so I'm bringing my futon in. The place I'm moving into is completely different from my current place...I hope I'm making a good decision. I keep getting cold feet thinking about it...more so because of the one-year lease. I still have dreams of getting a condo.. Tomorrow, I'm going to go condo shopping with Fred (for him)...perhaps I'll see something I just love.



Next weekend, I'll be heading up to New York and Vermont to go to Phoebe's wedding..and I cannot wait. I'm meeting up with my dear friend, Megan, who works and lives near Albany and has agreed to be my date to the wedding! I also think that I may be meeting up with Anne, whom I haven't seen since the day of our graduation! Really looking forward to it....

yay--i'm 25 now. woo hoo. had a pretty great birthday weekend.



friday, eugene treated me to a fantastic evening of watching norah jones at the moore theater and then dinner at one of my favorites, marco's supper club afterwards. i'd never heard norah's music until that night and fell in love with her voice...it has that slight raspy, full and smooth quality. she was completely adorable to watch. bought her cd the other day and it is now my new album to listen to while making dinner. you should check it out if you haven't yet.



saturday, phoebe and i went over to brad's apartment for a bday celebration for derek, whose bday was monday. i loved their place--definitely the ultimate kind of decor i'd want: hard wood floors, tall ceilings, very modern kitchen, exposed brick. had such a great time as i always do with brad's friends...sadly, he's moving to victoria at the end of the month..but I'm sure he'll be happier there. now i've got someone to visit over there!



sunday evening, i hosted a little birthday potluck at my place where there was more than enough food. thanks to everyone who came! it was a really interesting mix of people.



but boo---> I got sick the next day! (and no, it wasn't from too much partying) I just woke up feeling icky and could've sworn I had strep throat---so did the doctor. Turned out that I didn't..but I was sick enough to not go to work for 2 days. blegh. I'm a little better now.



look at prague now. I can't believe I was there exactly one year ago. I celebrated my birthday in that city last year. so sad to think how many beautiful historic buildings might be getting destroyed.



started reading a new book and found an interesting tidbit. So, the letter 'e' is the most commonly used letter in the English alphabet. Georges Perec wrote a 200-page novel called La Disparition that did not use words that contain the letter e. think! that's pretty darn hard. given, that was a French novel---but it was translated to English by Gilbert Adair, named A Void and also did not contain any words using the letter e. wow.



i'm a little overwhelmed at work. i'm babysitting 2 projects for someone while he's out, but then i got sick...i just feel so far removed from knowing anything about these projects.

i got a parking ticket and am sooo pissed about it. yesterday, after the company "all hands" meeting, I went down to the Pike Place Market to grab some food, knowing that I had about 45 minutes on my meter to do so. I got back to my car just in time, as I saw the meter maid guy pulling right up to the car that was parked behind mine. He started talking to the lady who owned the car parked behind mine as I sat in my car. I was literally pulling away when I heard a tap on my window--he had a parking ticket for me!! The balls!! He actually wrote me a parking ticket as I was sitting in my car!!! I can't believe that. It just doesn't seem right. I was livid for the next hour after that. ugh. i want to contest it in court but don't know if it's worth it. It just angers me so much...



went up to vancouver the other weekend with some friends. never really spent too much time in that city except to visit relatives..meaning, all i see is my great-granduncle's house and chinatown. i shopped w-a-a-y too much along robson street..but i loved the city. it felt really european to me. i don't know why--perhaps because it seemed like there were a lot of outdoor cafes. funny how i attribute that one thing to being european-like.



my birthday is this sunday...woo hoo. i've invited some friends to come over for a casual potluck..should be fun. i'm glad i'm doing something...i'm such a leo--if i do nothing on my birthday, i feel so sad for myself. wow, i'll be a quarter century old...looking forward to it. my parents were so sweet---they sent me flowers, which i found when i got into the office this morning.



i finally broke down and got digital cable. i can now join everyone in watching HBO shows and reminiscing old game shows with the Game Show Network (I can get addicted to "Whammy"--I somehow remember that show). It's completely changed my way of channel surfing...now, I just go to the menu and look at the titles of the shows that are on..rather than getting my brief 1 second preview like I used to. Also, no more commercial breaks for movies! On one hand, that's great..but on the other hand, it's so bad for me to turn on the TV in the morning and get caught up watching a movie. There's no commercial break for me to just leave.

here's a neat-o email forward i just got from a friend.

it's interesting being a pm now. in some ways, i lose 'cool points'..especially with other tech people. i'm starting to work on things with people who don't realize i have a tech background..and then talk to me like i know nothing at all...or just assume i'm asking a dumb question. interesting. on the other hand, i work with people who know my background and ask me technical questions that no other pm would normally be able to answer. i'm having an identity crisis at work. plus it's late. i can't believe i'm still here.



i'm moving. still trying to grasp the concept that i made that decision today. see, i live in an old house. i love my old house. i really do. but i miss some of the standards of modern living. for example, it'd be nice to open up my paper roll-up blinds without worrying about it rolling out and hitting me in the head....or washing my dishes in warm water because it takes too much brainpower in the evenings to find that certain 2 degrees that my kithen faucet handle needs to be at in order to get warm water...or being able to park someplace where my car doesn't get stolen in the middle of the night, only to be found in federal way a few days later without any seats. plus, i miss having a balcony and view. so i looked around this weekend..and found a cool apartment at a brand new place just a few blocks from me. it has a balcony, a roof top deck and it's oh so new. if all works out, i'll be in there by september. it makes me sad, though, because i love where i live right now. it's so charming with the stained glass and clawfoot tub. most of all, i have cool landlords. this last weekend, i ate dinner in the park and played frisbee with them...they're such sweet people. they definitely made it a hard decision for me. but--as phoebe and fred say--this new apartment is probably "more along the lines of my urban chick personality" than my current place. ha!



had lunch with thomas yesterday...saw him for the first time in months. he looked good. it was nice to see him smiling and giddy like he was when i first met him...as compared to the stressed out and seemingly unhappy guy i was dating near the end of our relationship. i still can't figure out what really happened between the two of us. oh well.



i think gilia's back from brazil. must have lunch with her.

i'm getting a lot busier at work now..which is good. it kills me to just sit there and not do much..and not be able to do much since i'm still training. this job change has been interesting. the hardest thing is to restrain myself from making quick changes to the codebase..like if i see something really easy to change that needs changing, i'd rather just do it myself. but instead, i have to make a request..and wait a few days before it gets implemented. i'm sure i'll get used to it...plus, there are so many things for me to learn.



sadly, a lot of people i know at work were either laid off or given 3-week notice last week...including my ex, matthew. [sigh] i hope this is a good thing for matthew..knowing how much he often disliked the policies at this company, and the way that they treated editors.



the days have been absolutely warm and sunny here in seattle. i just want to go out and play all the time.



i finally heard from thomas...which is nice. hopefully, we'll see each other soon. should be interesting as i'm afraid that i'll just be overwhelmed by feelings of sadness when i see him.



susan left last week to go on her big research trip and visit home for the next two months---boo! so sad. i've been hanging out a lot more with her lately...will miss her and can't wait til she's back!



oh, and i moved at work...back to an office, which i share with 2 people. the nice thing is that it's on the corner, so we have 2 windows. i sit right next to one where i can get a partial view of the central district. whoopee!

check out the dancing club spiderman that jimmy sent over to me.



my parents have been in town for over a week now, leaving today. we went up to vancouver over the weekend to visit relatives...and meet relatives that I didn't know existed..like 2 second cousins--marilyn and aaron. it was fun talking to marilyn a lot and learning more about my family. some relative of ours worked on a huge "Lee Family Tree" report, that dates back to the 1st generation. I'm in the 27th generation. Crazy huh? I was so happy to see that because my family tree starts getting really complicated at my grandparents level. See, my great grandparents were all into the multiple wives/concubines thing...so I often meet relatives who are like "I'm your grandmother's brother, same father, but different mother!"...and another "I'm her sister, same father, but another different mother!". It's finally all drawn out.



i can't decide if i really want to buy a place or not right now. my problem is that i prefer urban living...thus, a condo is probably the best within my price range. but i don't know what kind of investment that would be for the timeframe that i have. so in that sense, a townhome or house would be best...but i'm not crazy about living away from the city too much. [sigh] i might just keep throwing my money at rent. who knows.



at dinner the other night, my parents whipped out a $20 bill to show everyone the conspiracy and coincidence with 9/11. weird. it just cracks me up to see that come from my parents of all people.