Sunday, March 20, 2005 02:03 p.m.

You Are Most Like Carrie! You're quirky, flirty, and every guy's perfect first date. But can the guy in question live up to your romantic ideal? It's tough for you to find the right match - you're more than a little picky. Never fear... You've got a great group of friends and a great closet of clothes, no matter what! Romantic prediction: You'll fall for someone this year... Totally different from any guy you've dated. Which Sex and the City Vixen Are You Most Like? Take This Quiz Right Now! Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

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Sunday, March 20, 2005 11:25 a.m.

Its barely noon on Sunday. I have already gone out to eat at The Coral in Burbank, picked up a few things and Target and now i'm home. I don't know what to do with the remainder of my day nor do I know if I even want to do anything with the remainder of my day. I just popped in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and am ready to dive into a back issue of Instyle Home.

Yestarday we checked out Sweet Smiling Home. It was okay, a little TOO Indonesian for my taste. You see our house is a lot of dark woods kind farmhousey but no where near a shabby chic kind of way but still kind of spanishy, did I confuse you? There was some really nice goods but to ethnic for our house. We ended up picking up an antique carved wood wall hanging thing for the living room. The photo below doesn't really do it any justice but if you ever come to my place you'll see it hanging in full view, something T needs to take care of today.



After the warehouse, and being in Downtown LA we decided to drive around a bit. Well, traffic was so horrific we got out as quickly as possible and drove straight to Chinatown. I really enjoy our Chinatown. Yummy treats, lots of goodies and so beautiful. We stopped into a bakery and bought a small box of backed goods for home, stopped off at a little shop for lots of chinese candies and sweets. I was really hoping to find a pair of chinese dragon shoes for Kai. They are these little balck slip-ons with a 3D dragon head on the front. They are the most darling little shoes, unfortunately I could not find any. It was so crowded that I wasn't really into fighting the crowds at some of the smaller shops. In one of the outdoor shopping plazas T found a booth selling Fred Perry track jackets. These jackets are pretty pricey so T thought the one he had was gonna be it until it died. We inquired on the price and the man told us 20 dollars, of course he bought one. I'm not questioning it at all!

Now for some useless news:

Friday, March 18, 2005 07:29 p.m.

The work week has come to a close. It was a productive but not stressful week. I solved some problems, learned some new stuff, met some new people and now I can relax. My job is great! Life is great!

Now for the weekend. No big plans. If I get around to it I'll be heading downtown to go to a furniture warehouse. This place opens up to the public a few times a year and this weekend is it. This place seems to specialize in ethnicy,rusticy type furniture. Perfect for my place. I'm hoping to find some sweet deals on wall things, tchochkes and maybe some lanterns for the patio. `

So with the new hair do I finally figured out how to style it. It's nothing like what the stylist did mainly because I don't really like using the blow dryer. And because of the many, many layers flat ironing totally striaght looks overly chopy and weird. Instead I flat iron most of it totally striaght and as the iron slides down to the last inch and a half/two inches I bend the hair outward creating a slight bend/flip to the hair. It's super cute and totally not me. Once in a while I'll glance at myself in the mirror and I don't realize I'm looking at myself. its weird. I like the haircut because its so fresh but never thought I would actually have a hair style. I still need to get a photo taken of me with the new do.

I have a very important meeting on Tuesday (not work related). Something that could be potentially huge. Don't want to say much more just in case it doesn't work out but if it does you will be first, no second, my mom and dad will be first to find out! I'm excited. Anybody wanna take a guess?

And now for Xinh's fabulous five:

1. What are your 5 favorite all time TV shows?

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 07:03 a.m.

I went to the cutest baby store in Los Feliz yesterday. Lots of cute hip baby clothes and toys. I wanted to pick up a few little prezzies for a friend of mine and I think I did good. Once it's in the mail I'll keep my fingers crossed that she likes the goodies. On other baby news my friend Jen had her baby over the weekend and he is a very handsome boy! Babies everywhere!

Work is definetly starting to pick up and I'm really excited about it. Everything I'm involved in is so interesting and complete 180 from my old job. I really need to let this stuff soak in. I've been taking work home on the weekends, mainly reading material, to brush up on everything and I'm starting to feel much more relaxed and comfortable with what I'm doing. I haven't quite hit my groove yet but once i do I'll be off and flying. (wow that was corny!)

So a couple of days ago I mentioned my uncomfortableness (is that a word?) with talking to my sitter about all the food she's been giving Kai. Well, I made T do the dirty work this morning. Kai is prone to mild face rash and we haven't exactly pinpointed the cause. At one time it was due to some chicken and rice baby food which we squashed and he never ate again, and the rash went away in a couple of days. You see he also gets rash due to weather changes so we aveeno the boy up but we are closesly monitoring any new foods he may eat. So, we gave the sitter a bunch of fruit today and T told her we ONLY want him to snack on fruit or veggies in his mesh baggy thing. She said okay, so I better no find any foreign snack food wedged into the creases of his car seat of his clothes today! I'm such a wimp that I made T do the dirty work.

Now on to some useless stuff:

Monday, March 14, 2005 07:31 a.m.

Yestarday was the best! In the early am I dropped T off at the office to squeeze in about 2-hours of work and I zipped off to Target to buy some baby veggies and to kill some time. I then headed over to Hastings Ranch to go to Old Navy. They had some great stuff on clearance so I picked up a few items for work.

Errands and work aside it was lovely. We just hung out at home and did nothing. Sometimes that is the most rewarding weekend. When you can just chill, lounge around in your PJs and generally just relax. In the early evening I did take the worlds most boring online workshop. At first I was totally excited to take it and I did benefit from the information I learned but man--o-man was it boring. I think the workshop was sponsored by PMBOK. So they way the course is written is just very redundant and I felt trapped in an infomercial. The second half of the course was painfully slow and my ADD totally kicked in. I lost all patience and concentration. Since the course talks to you I found myself opening additional browsers and scouring the web for content to hold my attention. How sad! I have about 4-more courses I'm looking to take and I'm afraid to dive in.

This morning I mastered how to style my new haircut. I had some extra time and I decided to work with it. Its not exactly how the stylist styled it but I stumbled upon a style that I actually like, but it really makes me look much unlike myself. You see, my hair is totally layered now, so having it just lay straight is ok but my hair is so thick that the layered edges really stand out. I've tried blow drying which is nice but I just really hate blow drying my hair. Its really just the process that I hate. So this morning I styled it only with my flat iron being used slightly like a curling iron. So i ended up with this slightly whispy, flipped edges that are super cute and super not me!

On Saturdy I watched a silly show on the Oxygen netowrk called Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber. Jennifer Love Hewitt starred and it was just silly. I watched the entire thing, don't know hwy but I did. Miss Hewitt has come along way Kids Incorporated (Like Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas) to Party of Five to Confessions.....

I updated the Yahoo photoalbum and here's a sneak peak



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Saturday, March 12, 2005 08:03 p.m.

Today was a great day. I woke up bright and early with Kai, played with him for awhile and when he was ready for some alone play time I set him off and did some basic house cleaning. T and I have a bad habit of piling up our stuff throughout the week on the dining room table. So come Saturday there's just a pile of stuff on the edge of the table. Its always an awful mess. Before I digress any further, I also washed a few loads of laundry and washed some dishes. I woke T at about half past nine and began breakfast. We had a very leisurely morning. Around noon we decided to get dressed and go to Pasadena. Not Old Town, but all the shops on Lake Street. Lake Street has been totally revitalized. Lots of great shops and restaurants. We just walked the area, popped into a few shops and just took in all the sights.

We picked up one of those free real estate magazines on the way back to the car. On the way home we did a few drive by's on homes listed in Glendale specifically in Rossmoyne village. I love looking at real estate, I love going to open houses. I think its one of my favorite things to do on a weekend. Tomorrow i want to go to an open house in Pasadena. It's right down the street from the house we used to live in. Fun!

I was invited to a work soiree this evening but I'm being a bore and just want to veg at home in front of my laptop. I know if I go out I'll end up drinking to much and I don't want a hangover tomorrow. Now that I have Kai, a hangover just isn't worth it! The plan was to meet up at El Carmen which I love then mozy on over to a mexican restaruant, my guess El Coyote, for food and margaritas. Maybe next time.

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Friday, March 11, 2005 09:35 a.m.

It's been a relatively slow week for me. I woke up at 2am this morning as Kai went down for bed much to early last night. After 7oz of formula and a few minutes of squirming he was back down until a quarter past 5. Hopefully he'll take a nice nap today and is able to stay awake tonight until 9.

So I'm finding that I have a really hard time telling my babysitter what I expect and not expect her to do/care for Kai. For example, I don't think its the sitters responsibility to introduce new foods to the baby. That is my responsibility and as a parent I should decide what is allowable for him to eat. Hope that makes sense. Anyway, our sitter has been giving Kai food, not baby food, but food. Food I would never even think to give him at 8 months old. I have mentioned things like I only give him fresh and sometimes frozen fruits and veggies to snack on, placed safely in his little mesh food bag that he can hold onto and only mushed up food is secreted throught he mesh so it is safely swolled. Okay, obviously this hasn't sunk in. She gives Kai all types of food that i'm not crazy about. We told her peanut allergies run in my family, which they don't, so she doesn't give him any type of nuts or nut product. I really dont' think I should have to be telling her these types of things she just shouldn't be giving him food without my prior consent. Am I right, thinking this? I'm really bothered by this whole thing. I like her a lot, don't want to find another sitter but we need to have a talk with her. And by the way, when I say we I mean T. One day I thought, hey if the sitter can give him this stuff why can't I, so i let him have a bit of banana not in his mesh bag and he chocked. Like full on gagging, turned red, hacked....I nearly had a heart attack. So this is what I'm thinking, he can tell her that we're not comfortable with her giving him any type of non fruit or veggies not provided by us and not given to him outside of his mesh bag thing. I will even go as far as to say that we have tried giving him food like she does and he chocked. Then if she continues to do this it may be time to look for a new sitter, which I really don't want to do and she really can't afford. I mean she's our employee, we have the upper hand why am I so afraid of telling her this?

Writing about it upsets me. We need to nip this in the bud today!

The jobs going well. It mainly consists of going to meeting upon meeting but I can deal with that. It's nice that I have the ability to adjust my schedule daily according to my calendar.

I've decided to buy an iPod this weekend. I'm going to buy the 20GB model and an FM transmitter. I heard the iTrip is awful in big cities so I'm going to try the Monster brand and hopefully that will be fine.

And now for some useless but entertaining junk:

Wednesday, March 9, 2005 08:27 a.m.

If you were a fan/participant of skateboard culture, art, whatever you may want to check out Beautiful Losers. It's being exhibited through May 15 so you have some time. I haven't gone yet but my friends who told me about it said it was awesome!

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Wednesday, March 9, 2005 06:46 a.m.

Although my new job allows me to create my own schedule I'm still showing up to work at 630am. Why? After dropping T and the mench off I really don't want to drive back home and waste an hour or two away. I know once I get settled back into my couch with a warm blanky eating waffles I will not want to come back to work. Sometimes I'm the first one to show up in my department. It's strange but then again while they are all strolling in at 10am I'm half way through my day and when I go home they are all still cranking away at what they are doing. However, my schedule will only remain this way while im still training once I get into the swing of things i'll be busy as a bee.

I'm finding myself falling more and more in love wiht jasmine tea. The flavor isn't strong, its so comforting and warm. I think I drink at least three big mugfulls of the stuff daily. I need to buy a box for home. I love to sip on tea before bed time and I'm not really dig the green tea-chai nor the chamomile I already have. Any suggestions on some comfy nighttime teas?

As I drink more tea i'm finding myself drinking less and less coffee. I occasionally sneak in a medium Americano every now and then but I don't need one every day, and not just americano's regular coffee too. I'm proud of myself that I have been able to reduce the amount of coffee I've been drinking. It was out of control and now its totally controlled and sometimes not even necessary. I've done the same with coke (all variations of the darn soda). I'm maybe down to 2 cans of C2 per week. Which is really good.

As you may or may not be aware of I'm the biggest sucker for those MTV Real World/Road Rules Challenges! This past Monday The Inferno 2 started. I'm excited! This time around its the Good Guys vs. The Bad Asses. Should be good but faces like Coral and Ruthie are nowhere to be found. But Veronica and Julie are there so there should be some great drama. Well, isn't there always great drama. This season should be GOOD!
Kai is eagerly trying to walk. He is outta control. He still enjoys being carried, hey I don't blame him, but when he's not crawling around getting into every nook and cranny he is standing and desparatly trying to walk. Sometimes he realizes his knees will bend but other times he'll attempt to move via Frankenstein walk. It's very cute. He's also breaking out into a little rash again. He has such sensitive skin. He tends to get these little rash flare ups on his temples and I haven't quite figured out what they are caused from. All I can do is keep his face clean and when it gets dry rub some baby aveeno on it. He had a little rash near his mouth. It really looked like pimples and after thinking what those could have been caused from we deduced that it was from his new baby food. We figured he was doing so well we would introduce some chicken/rice and chicken/apples baby food. He loved the first one and not so much the second, but a day or two after eating the chicken he got the pimples. No more meat for the mench, not forever just for now. We'll try turkey in a few weeks. Another rash invading Kai is diaper rash. Blach! Its not really bad but moderatly bad. We've dealt with bad diaper rash so we can handle this. I think its from the sitter. Outside of baby sitting she works from home, which normally never interferes with the quality of attention she gives to Kai. But she is an events coordinator/planner and her current event is culminating this weekend so she is stressed and she's admitted to giving Kai more alone time then usual. Since it will be over this weekend I know Kai will go back to his old self until then we are constantly changing his diapers, which he hates! and keeping that baby bootie clean and dry!

And now for some useless news:

Monday, March 7, 2005 02:34 p.m.

Monday, March 7, 2005 07:39 a.m.

It was very strange have a Saturday and Sunday off. I've worked a Tuesday thru Saturday schedule for nearly 4 years and am not used to saturdays off. This weekend was very nice. We spent Saturday and Jenny's. She's starting a line of baby gear and needed to take some photos of the mench for her brochure. After a few hours of chatting and photos we headed off to lunch. I had some great Japanese-ish food and amazingly felt satisfied and not stuffed. The remainder of Saturday was spent at home relaxing and reading. Sunday was a beautiful day!!! I miss cool, clear, sunny days. We were planning on going to the Wondertoonel exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. But it was such a nice day I couldn't bare to be in doors. We ran some errands in the early morning and then just enjoyed the day. We did pick up some new bedding which was long overdue. One of the sheet sets we have is completely and totally stretched out. The elastic on the fitted sheet has disintegrated. At the time of purchase I made sure that the sheets were deep pocketed apparently they weren't deep enough otherwise the sheet wouldn't be constatnly pulling up and now being completely stretched out. Ok so we bought new sheets, pillow cases, shams and a beautiful duvet cover. We bought it in this nice silkish fabric, tastefully mini-quilted and a wonderful light mocha color. I'm excited to wash it all and sleep on it.

Over Christmas Kai received a quilt with pictures of all types of cars/transportation on it. Since he's already got a quilt I decided to hang the new on on the wall. It took me until yesterday to attach it to a dowel and hang the darn thing up. I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to things like that. I really need to get on the ball before he's 10 and I'm showing how to use his chicken dancing ernie and he's much to old and to bored for those types of toys.

I've decided to delve back into the e-Bay world. I have much to much stuff and yes, some items are totally thrift story worthy but there are a handful of items that I could sell on ebay. For examply, I received a Limited Edition Shag tiki lamp, which you cannot purchase any longer, I would rather keep then donate but I don't use it. e-bay is the answer. I also have a bunch of clothing that I would like to attempt to sell on ebay then donate: Anna Sui, Betsey Johnson, Dogpile and then some practically new stuff from JCrew and the like. If it turns out to be a total waste i'll stick to the donating.

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Friday, March 4, 2005 07:52 a.m.

When animals go ballistic! Although in a separate article, rather then saying severe facial injuries they opted for the eloquent phrase, chewed his face off.

The end of the work week brought back the rain. Dammit, i was really hoping we were over it. On Monday Laurel Canyon was closed due to potential landslides and houses sliding down the mountains. By the end of the day they opened one lane in each direction don't know how the rest of the week played out. But I don't doubt that with the return of rain good 'ol reliable Laurel Canyon will be closed....AGAIN. A few weeks back, ok, maybe a month. A house on Laurel totally collapsed; more like broke in half really. We cut through and caught a glimpse of the house which was right at street level. Of all the times NOT to have my camera. I wish I had a picture to post cause it was such a site to see. the house obviously slid, was cracked in half, the earth was compacted up against the house and giant palm trees were unearthed and lopsided. Damn it. Now I have a camera phone so I have no excuse for not capturing these moments!

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Thursday, March 3, 2005 07:16 a.m.

This morning we stopped at the 76 near Glenoaks and Central. It was blindingly bright! As T pumped the gas I sat in the car and noticed that the 76 was wired for radio so everyone filling up could partake in the music. Suddenly I hear a familiar tune, loud and clear! The 76 was blasting, no not blasting, blaring Bon Jovi You Give Love A Bad Name. I started laughing loudly. T flung open the passenger door and he was laughing. At first I thought maybe its coming from another car. Nope it was the 76. What a great way to start the morning!

Today is day three on the new job. Just gotta say, Loving It! I'm just learning and it is a ton of information. 90% of it is so new to me but I love it! People are super cool, really friendly and a million times more mature then the other department. Speaking of the other department. I've confirmed with other ex-departmental employees that this feeling of being totally and completely ignored is what is expected. It's F-in hysterical and as Ron said, very Degrassi Jr. High! So this is how it plays out:

Tuesday, March 1, 2005 09:28 a.m.

Things of note this morning: