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the day after tomorrow
Sunday, May 30, 2004

last night john and i went to pick up xinh at her home for a late birthday celebration, since we couldn’t make it last saturday.

we got to universal city walk around 5pm, decided on a 5:45pm showing of "the day after tomorrow". when we went to buy the tickets, we found out it was an IMAX version. We figured it would be really cool, since there would be a lot of snow storms, tornadoes in the movie. there were a lot of people sitting/standing outside of the movie theatre to watch lakers-timberwolves game on the big screen, so the place was extra crowded. (and lakers lost by 2 points. :( anyway, we waited in line for a while, they let us in around 5:30pm. the IMAX theatre has those extra high-back, but narrower chairs, which gave me some neck pain later on.

this was one long ass movie, lasted two hours. but overall it was pretty good. especially with the IMAX big screen, all the special effect looked awesome.

after the movie, we went to have dinner at karl strauss brewery garden. i had a grilled sirloin steak, it was so good. very, very yummy. after dinner, we decided on a "banana, marshmallow chocolate cake", but later on the waitress informed us that it was all sold out. so we got an "apple cobbler, with ice-cream" instead. It was good, but it ain't chocolate. :( since it was our second choice, they gave us the dessert for free. Yay. :)

after dinner, we proceeded to walk back to the parking structure. but stopped by at sam goody, which xinh bought two CDs; and universal studio store, which we had fun looking at the shrek t-shirts, john also tried on van helsing’s hat, but it was a shade too big for him.

afterwards, we dropped xinh off and went home. i had a really good time, cool movie, good food, and great company.

you gotta be kidding!
Thursday, May 27, 2004

home improvement
Thursday, May 27, 2004

as you all know, we have a dog. shortly after we got him, he pretty much destroyed the small yard we have. currently it is in a very awful condition. no grass, no sprinkle system, and mud are everywhere. i want to change all that.

we want to put pavement on one side of the yard. put up some stone walls underneath our living room window, so i can plant flowers in there, without Anzac getting into them and destroying them. put up a wooden fence/gate in between, so when the gardeners show up once a week, Anzac can be on the pavement section, locked behind the gate. after all are done, we will get a grill, then it will be BBQ time!

one of these days, i also want to change our kitchen counter. last time we were at lowe’s, i just about had an orgasm touching all the kitchen counter displays there. hah.

last night we went to home depot. we got three 5 tier heavy-duty steel shelving units. john put up two of them, the garage already looks very organized. tonight he will put up the last one. i can't wait. the garage will look so neat and clean. then we will have to organize the right side of garage, which are full of JE's toys, outdoor chairs, dog food... we will have to think of a way, so later on two cars can fit in the garage. yes, we are thinking of getting a second car, a SUV actually. i so love to get things organized.

Jared
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

i have been contemplating whether to mention this piece of news here or not. well, here goes.

remember a few days ago i just congratulated my cousin for having her second son? the next day, being friday, she called me to tell me that the baby has heart problem. the hospital sent him to Johns Hopkins Hospital to do further tests. on saturday, they operated on him. the doctor told emily and eric that jared should be fine. they have been sending email and photos to keep us updated. i look at the photos, the poor kid has tubes poking out everywhere. i cried and cried. i can’t bare to look at them anymore, so i stop opening the photos they sent. i am so, so very sad. not in a million years i would imagine this happening to them.

now it totally makes me worried about my own baby.

coffee, something i can't have right now
Tuesday, May 25, 2004

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe But don't think plain - instead think...uncomplicated You're a low maintenance kind of girl...who can hang with the guys. Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's you: the friend everyone invites. And you're dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear. What Kind Of Coffee Are You? Take This Quiz :-)

shrek 2
Monday, May 24, 2004

we just came back from watching "shrek 2". it was very funny and a job well done. john edward likes it too, but he lost patience near the end.

what a weekend
Sunday, May 23, 2004

first i would like to say Happy Birthday to Xinh! for about two and half weeks each year, you and i are the same age. :)

originally we were supposed to meet john’s uncle and aunt who was flying from Cleveland on friday night. they were stopping here for a few hours before flying out to Melbourne. but due to severe weather condition in Cleveland, their plane didn’t leave there until 10:30 pm est. so our original plan of meeting them at 7pm, then taking them to dinner afterwards was off. they didn’t get to LAX until one in the morning. that meant that they missed their plane to Melbourne. john went to LAX by himself to pick them up. since he works for the city and does a lot of airport projects, he has a badge to access all LA airports, which means he can go to the gate to meet people. which he did. after picking up their luggage, they went to qantas’ counter at the tom bradley int’l terminal to see if they were able to get tickets for saturday night. but qantas was closed. i heard them coming home around 2:30 am.

saturday morning, i got up around 8. and i was the last person getting up in the house. don’t these people sleep? we chitchatted a little bit, then we headed out for breaky at monrovian family restaurant in monrovia. it was your basic american breaky, but it was good and very inexpensive. uncle peter ended up paying for it, which was very nice of him.

JE’s pre-school had an open house in the morning. we went there after breakfast, and just in time to get him to his class to prepare for the song/dance presentation. he did all right. but in the haste of leaving the house, we forgot our camera. luckily aunty pat (uncle peter’s wife) brought hers. we looked around his classroom for all the kids’ art works and decorations. got some drinks, chips, ice cream, and cotton candy for JE, but he was only interested in the ice cream and i had all the cotton candy. he played some games the school provided. my mom went to the open house too. she wanted to take us to lunch, but we only had breaky a couple of hours ago and were way too full. we took JE home for an early nap instead, and while he napped the four of us sat down to play cards; a game called 31. it was a lot of fun. we played for a couple of hours until JE woke up. then we called my mom to meet her at mandarin shanghai restaurant in arcadia for a late lunch. the food was so good. we were so stuffed afterwards. JE insisted on going home with my mom. uncle peter and aunty pat said goodbye to him. we headed home to get them ready to head out to LAX. even though their plane would not leave until 11:40pm, we left around 6pm so that they could get their boarding passes and bulkhead seats. just like john’s dad, uncle peter has knee problem as well. he has to straighten out his left leg most of the time to avoid pain. it was very light traffic on the freeway; we got there pretty quickly. there was only a hand full of people waiting in line. they got their boarding passes very quickly too. and i think they got their desired seats as well. there was a very cute, tall guy waiting in line as well. later on we found out he was a kiwi (new zealander) and he has been playing basketball for the last two years in Minnesota. he was very glad to hear some foreign accents, even though it was aussie accents :)

john bought a bottle of canadian club for uncle peter to bring back to his dad at the duty free shop. after the shopping was done, we went upstairs to have a drink. both uncle peter and john got beer, aunty pat got a margarita, and i had a virgin pina colada. we were all sitting around having a good time. suddently the sercurity came by and told everyone to leave the building. WTF? we all went outside waiting at the curb site. we were all hoping the evacuation would not last very long, otherwise it would be very sucky that they miss their flight, again! what an eventful trip for them! they have not left the country yet, but they already have plenty of stories to tell. but we were very glad that we got an extra day to spend with them. luckily after 30 minutes everyone was allowed to go back inside, so we said our goodbyes and went home.

we watched “hellraiser IV: bloodline” and “the man who wasn't there” but we got really tired half way through "the man...", since both of us didn’t get much sleep friday night, so we turned off the dvd and went to bed instead.

we were supposed to meet Xinh, Susan and Dave for Xinh’s birthday dinner/movie on saturday night. but due to uncle peter and aunty pat’s unforseen sudden change of plan, we had to give xinh a rain check.

sunday afternoon we took John Edward to Alexandra’s 2nd birthday party. she is John’s mate Jim’s daughter. they had a barney bouncy castle set up on their front lawn. at first JE didn’t want to go inside, but then he warmed up and had a great time bouncing up and down. we had a good time too catching up with the parents at the party whom we have not seen for a while.

now we are home, JE is watching Nick, john is playing Harvest Moon on the gamecube, and i am writing our weekend on the blog. yawn, boy I need a nap.

congrat
Friday, May 21, 2004

my cousin emily, who lives in east coast, had her second child yesterday. welcome jared andrew. congratulations emily, eric and big brother alex. alex is about six months older than john edward. now jared will be five months older than my second child.

emily and i are both only child. she is only one year younger than i am, we pretty much grew up together. even though we live on the opposite site, we are still very close.

watch out, here comes a mighty viking
Friday, May 21, 2004

I adopted a cute lil' viking fetus from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!

incompetence
Thursday, May 20, 2004

my work is right across from the central library in downtown LA. from time to time i go there during lunch time to borrow books or buy/look at the cute cards in the library store. most of the time i do self check-out on the one of the 5 machines that are available there. yesterday, after getting four books, i went to check them out. three of the machines were broken, so i waited behind this guy who was trying to do self check-out. yes, the key word here was "trying". because the machine kept beeping and saying that he needed to take the books to have the librarian to help him out. but this guy was so presistant, he would not leave and kept on trying. machine just kept on telling him the same message. omg, i was so frustrated and really wanted to give him a boot. finally after ten tries, he gave up, abandoning all his books next to the machine and left. wtf? and what an a-hole!

first of how hard is it to operate a self check-out machine? there are only four simple steps to it. 1) press 1 or 2 for either english or spanish 2) put the library card's bar code under red light 3) put the book's library bar code under the red light, wait for the message to say the book is checked out. remove it and do the same for the next book. when all are done, 4) remove the card and wait for the receipt to print out. and you are done. but no, it is really hard, like brain surgery to some people. here are some of the examples people can not figure out this machine.
- library card is put the wrong way, so can't be scanned by the red light
- instead of scanning the library bar code, trying to scan the book's bar code. you know those bar code on the back cover of the book that get scanned when you buy it.
- stacking the books all together and trying to check-out the top one. no, you put one book at a time.
- trying to check-out dvd/cd. there is sign clearly posted on the machine, saying all audios can't be self check-outed. open your eyes and read, people!

if you can't operate the machine, don't try to and waste others' time. just get some actual person to help you out. fucking idiots.

$$
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

a few weeks ago we did a re-fi on our condo. we had an ARM 2/30 when we bought the place, which meant the interest rate was good for 2 years, afterwards, the bank could charge whatever they felt like. so to take advantage of the low interest rate, instead of waiting until the end of two years to re-fi, we did now. the person who did our loan was totally nice. basically she found a good deal for us, all we needed to do was going to the escrow co. to sign 20 odd pages. wala, it was done.

so we signed our life away to this new bank. :) last week we got a check from the loan place, and another one from our previous bank. i guess for overpayment and some refund, not sure exactly for what. but as long as the check is in our names, that is all i care about. woohoo, we feel so rich now.

doggie
Sunday, May 16, 2004

i am a Chihuahua!

No bones about it, you're an energetic, devoted Chihuahua. For your breed, size definitely doesn't matter. After all, sometimes the best things (diamonds, car keys, Godiva truffles) come in small packages. Honest and straightforward, you're never afraid to speak up for what you believe in, especially if it's a cause near and dear to your heart. Having such a passionate personality can come with a few drawbacks, though. You can be moody at times, and people often find it hard to live up to your high standards. But once you make a friend, it's for life. Saucy and intense, your energy and unfailing loyalty make you a great companion. Woof!



what breed of dog are you?

woohoo
Friday, May 14, 2004

it is FRIDAY and PAYDAY. life is good.

oh my god!
Friday, May 14, 2004

the night before i had about 2-3 hours of sleep, i am still feeling the effect. why? because john would not stop snoring! he usually isn't that bad, but *sigh*... he had a dental appointment this morning to do some root canal, for a whole one and half hours. muhahahah. revenge! :)

anyway, onto some better news. i feel the baby moving. woohoo. it feels like a ball rolling from left to right, very strange. i am having an ultra sound done on june 14th. john is taking that day off to go with me. hopefully the baby isn't too shy to let us see its gender. then i can start preparing his/her room when i am still able. i want to paint the room in lavender if it is a girl. so cross your fingers and wait for the good news.

ob visit
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

monday morning i had a prenatal check-up with my ob. i took john edward with me. i want him to have a feel of what's going on, even though he is already really cool about it. he rubs, kisses and says hello to my tummy. he is so cute.

anyway, they basically checked my blood pressure, felt my tummy about and checked the baby's heart beat. afterwards they sent me to the lab to draw blood to test for down syndrome. i have the tiniest vein. last time they drew blood on me, this woman poked me a couple of times still couldn't get any blood out. i had to tell her to find someone else to do the job. she left a huge bruise on my arm. and the pain! on monday, this tech/nurse (whatever you call them) did a wonderful job, and i didn't even feel any pain.

after the doctor's visit, john edward keeps telling me about he heard the baby's heart beat, how loud it was. it totally put a smile on my face.

the funniest thing happened a few weeks ago when i was having morning sickness and have not told the news to anyone except my parents. john edward was playing with cindy (my parents' neighbors' daughter). her mom was a couple of week short of going to labor. cindy was bragging about how she was going to have a baby girl. john edward said out loud that his mommy was going to have baby girl too (he was just saying that. i have no idea about the gender of the baby at this moment) everyone just looked him kinda shocked. cindy's mom asked him if he was sure about it. he said yes and proceeded to make throw-up noises. LOL. he is just too precious.

a to z
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

borrowed from xinh's blog

A-Age: 32 (one more month until my b-day)
B-Blood Type: O+
C-Candy you prefer: i need to think about this one
D-Dream that frequently returns: i don't think i had any recurring dreams. if i had, i don't remember now.
E-Easiest person to talk to: john
F-Favorite songs at the moment: toxic by brittney spears (call me crazy and i am not even a fan of hers, but i really like this song)
G-Game you currently play: bounce out (did i mention i am addicted to it?)
H-Hometown: don't really have one.
I-Instruments you play: piano
J-Job you wanted to get once: food critic
K-Kind of things you collect: shot glasses with country/city names on them. (but only with places we have been to)
L-Longest car ride ever: Los Angeles, California to Vancouver, Cananda
M-Means of transportation: ford focus. but i take the train to work.
N-Number of siblings: none. but i have tons of cousins.
O-Oddest thing you've eaten: chicken feet.
P-Phobia[s]: heights, water.
Q-Quote you like: i will have to come back to this one.
R-Reason to smile: there is a baby growing inside of me.
S-Song you sang last: can't sing if my life depends on it.
T-Time you wake up: 6:40am, then i hit snooze a couple of times. so actual get up time will be around 7am.
U-Unknown fact about me: if you know, please let me know.
V-Vegetable that you hate: brussel sprouts, chinese mushroom.
W-Worst habit: procrastinating.
Y-Yummy food: really good clam chowder (i love the one in souplantation. i usually can have 2-3 bowls.)
Z-Zodiac sign: gemini

bounce out
Monday, May 10, 2004

oh my gosh i am so addicted to this "bounce out" game.

happy mother's day
Sunday, May 9, 2004

john is so sweet and made me my breakfast and i had it in bed again.
yesterday morning, john took je to the LA zoo and they had a blast. it was way too hot for me walk around, so instead i drove around, got a hair cut, ran some errands, and did some grocery shopping. yeah, i know, very exciting. :)

cerulean sins
Friday, May 7, 2004

recently i borrowed "cerulean sins from library. it is laurell k hamilton's latest work on her anita blake serious. i think it came out last year, don't know why it took me a whole year to finally read it. in this one, hamilton has totally toned down on using several pages to describe what everyone wears in the room. that is a good thing. and of course blake becomes a even bigger whore than the last book.

"lost in translation"
Friday, May 7, 2004

a while back both xinh and i complained that LIT has been in our netflix queue for the longest time. it was either because netflix didn't have enough copies, or some people just have them forever and not returning it. we got a copy finally after waiting forever on 4/24. Now three weeks later, we have not watched the movie yet. i feel a little bit bad about it (only a lil bit), there are other people out there probably cursing their heads off. hopefully we will watch it this weekend and return it on monday.

poor kid
Thursday, May 6, 2004

poor john edward is sick today. this morning around 1, he woke up crying. after i turned on the light, there were vomits all over his bed. we spent half an hour cleaning him up. this morning he threw up again. :( luckily i got him to the toliet on time. now he gets to stay home and so do i.

one great weekend
Sunday, May 2, 2004

let me just start by saying we had one fucking great weekend.
we actually started our weekend on friday afternoon. john picked me up from work and we started our driving to carmel. we got there around 6, checked into this really nice bed and breakfast, the dolphin inn. by then we were starving, so we decided to walk around (since pretty much everywhere in carmel can be reached within walking distance) and find a restaurant. after walking a couple of blocks, we decided on the grill. let me just say the food was excellent. it was a great way to start our weekend get away. we were going to walk around the town after dinner, but it was getting too chilly. we'd also booked a tour at hearst castle for 10am the next morning, and as hearst castle is 2 hours south of carmel along the scenic but windy coastal highway 1, we headed back to our inn and had an early night.

added on 05/03/04, 9:11am
saturday morning we got up nice and early, ate the complementary breakfast the inn provided, which was delivered to each room in a picinic basket. we headed to hearst castle in san simeon. we got there around 9:30. our tour was booked for 10, since we got there early, they bumped us to a 9:40 tour. we had an experience tour. omg, the castle is so beautiful. just by looking at the architecture design itself was totally worth the two-hour drive. we were supposed to watch a film about the history of the hearst castle after the tour, by then it was around noon, the place was getting crowded and we were getting hungry. i was so glad that i booked an early tour. i would not be able to stand the hot weather in the afternoon. on our way back to carmel, we stopped at this restaurant called "whale watch cafe". actually we were making fun of it on our way to the castle, because there weren't any whales to watch. once again the food was excellent. if we ever go there again, will definetely stop there to eat again.
for the afternoon, we just laid on the carmel beach for a while, walked around carmel, browsing the different stores, and bought some souvenirs. had a really relaxing afternoon, and weekend for that matter.
only problem with this get-away was the driving, espeically on the way back. it got extremely hot on sunday. we will probably take the train there next time instead.

btw, john added the p.s. :)

p.s. John's football team, The Richmond Tigers, got their first win of the season, making this a doubly good weekend ;)