Adventures with Riley: Part I

I wasn't sure whether the title of this blog should be "Adventures with Riley" or "Meals with Riley". There's just been so much eating of late...so much eating...

But I digress.

On Sunday, I dragged myself to yoga. It was a good tough class so I got my sweat on. Afterwards, we went over to Spike and Frog's for the Gordon Holiday party. We spent two hours snacking and drinking wine and beer. During this time, we opened our secret santa gifts. Kris was my secret santa and she got me a cute gingerbread man apron and a clutch. Badge and I got Kris and Si a rice cooker. Frog got Badge a book and a hilarious adult onesie, which actually just arrived in the mail today. Everyone got something fun, including little Sophie and Alexandra. Too cute. Once the whole gang arrived, we ordered pizza and rounded out the meal with a chocolate chip ice cream cake, chocolate turtles, and pecan pie.


On Monday, Badge and I both went into work to get stuff done. That afternoon, Riley took the scooter for a spin and then the three of us went downtown to bowl at East Tavern Bowling. Unfortunately, there was a league scheduled to play that night so we only got one game in, although in retrospect that was probably a good thing since we all sucked pretty badly (as in barely broke 50...oops). Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub for a glass of Guiness (luckily Riley was not carded) and then met up with Dog, Kimbo, and Kimbo's mister friend for dinner at La Puerta. Guacamole, burritos, tacos, and beers. Yum-o. Once home, we watched the Chappelle show on dvd.


On Tues, Badge and I both went into work AGAIN. While there, I noticed my title change went through whoo hoo. I'm officially a senior software engineer yay! Merry Christmas to me. In the early afternoon, I went to Normal Heights for my hair cut appointment. The salon, called Hair Drezzers on Fire, was a random find on Yelp but they had great reviews and seemed to have a funky hipster style. My stylist was Sarah and she was nice although a little talkative. I don't mind some chit chat but mostly I want to just sit in silence and enjoy the pleasure of getting my hair done. We agreed that I had excess hair at the back (aka mullet) from growing out my previous cut so she trimmed it back into a nice little bob. Great cut. Kinda looks like the cut on the front page of their website. Will definitely go back to her next time (pic of me further down). For dinner, we met up with the family again at Ashoka the Great for Indian food. It happened to be buffet night so I chose that option. Two plates and a dessert plate later, I was stuffed. We then attempted to see Avatar at the Hazard Center (we didn't end up seeing it last Sat) but the theater seemed small and crowded. Instead we came home, booked tickets to see it on imax tomorrow and played two games of settlers of cataan. I won but I know Riley and Badge will be back with a vengence the next game. Bring it on!!

Today, we went to the zoo with the family. Unfortunately, the rest of San Diego had the same idea to visit the zoo during the holidays. It was packed! Especially full of screaming children. Here are some of my fav shots.





Children's petting zoo.



Me with new hair smiling too hard next to a pheasant.


Tonight, the boys went to a San Diego Sockers game at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Who knew we had a professional indoor soccer team? And finally, I end this post with a fab and slightly psychotic picture of Badge in his dinosaur onesie. More pictures of Riley's visit posted here.

Taco Mania Christmas!

Since this year's Gordon Holiday party is scheduled for the 27th, we weren't sure what to do on Christmas day itself. In the spirit of keeping things mellow, Badge's oldest brother suggested we do taco mania, an age old tradition (just between Badge and his bro) of eating copious amounts of veggie tacos. Though dubious, I relented my urge to make fancy roasts and winter-y foods. Tacos it would be.

Since we're procrastinators, Badge and I didn't end up grocery shopping until the day of. I kept insisting that Whole Foods would be open on Christmas (hey they were open on Thanksgiving!) but alas the place was deserted. Damn. After Badge rubbed in it my face for a good ten minutes, we rushed over to Ralph's, where there were no qualms about mistreating employees on this most prolific of holidays. Once home, I made a double batch of mexican rice and homemade guacamole. Everything else was pretty easy: put out lettuce and sour cream, shred cheese, heat up taco shells, saute morning star tofu taco bits (I sprinkled them with Lawry's taco seasoning), and put out chips and salsa. Oh and heat up beans. Presto. Taco mania is served.


While gorging on taco after taco (which actually were quite delicious), we watched the Lakers-Cavs game. Spike, Frog, Kris, Si, and baby Sophie came over to hang out for a bit, while I snuck back into the kitchen to whip up two pecan pies. I haven't made pie crust in a long time. I think I need to practice it more. Also the recipe I used had no butter, just Crisco. I think next time I'll sub half butter and half Crisco just to get a better flavor. That night, we all went over to Spike and Frogs for more eating and desserts. Unfortunately I was not on my A game with the camera so all I have are two pics of tacos haha. One day I'll actually take some pics of people instead of food.

Today we picked up Riley from the airport and tonight we shall dine at Sips and watch the new Avatar movie in 3D. This coming week promises to be an eating extravaganza. I know I talk about eating a lot, but seriously I'm not exaggerating. We've been packing it IN. There's nothing better than eating yourself silly with the people you love. Hopefully I will find the will power to exercise sometime soon. But if not, there's always the new year :).

No News

Not much to report on the home front.

I'm still hacking up a lung, yet I continue to go to work and pose a threat to all my coworkers. While I'm definitely sick, I don't feel sick enough to warrant staying at home when there's so much to be done!

On Saturday, Badge and I picked up my helmet from Fun Bike Center and went on a leisurely scooter ride to downtown La Jolla. It was a gorgeous SD day (high of 80) so we took the scenic route down La Jolla Shores Dr. The ocean view was lovely as we putted along. After some shopping, we went to Jose's for some Mexican food and margheritas, and followed it up with some gelato next door. Nice mellow Saturday. Once home, I realized I'm an idiot and missed a text from Michigan about a night out with the girls. Wish I had been there, ladies! I really need to get a new phone that has a battery life more than 1 day. Was thinking iPhone but for some reason Badge keeps saying AT&T has bad service. Seems fine to me (I have it now). My only other candidate is a Blackberry Tour but after hearing about all the trouble Nevertap has had recently with her Blackberries I'm a bit weary. That night we watched Star Trek on PPV, which was just as good as the first time we watched it in theaters. Speaking of movies, I've read some good reviews about Avatar. No desire to see it before but now I'm looking forward to seeing it in 3D. I'm still hoping to trick Badge into seeing Ninja Assassin somehow but I think that will have to wait till it comes out on Netflix.

On Sunday, I skipped yoga (haven't gone in more than a week now!) and tried to rest up at home. It was another mellow day filled with BSG episodes. I have to squeeze them in while Badge is at soccer. For dinner, we met up with Spike at the nearby Greek restaurant. Quite quite tasty.

Badge and I have been super lazy about grocery shopping so we went to sushi last night and have just ordered pizza tonight. We are lardos. God bless the holidays. On a final note, I noticed there's a new Super Mario Brothers out. I LOVE SUPER MARIO BROTHERS (who doesn't???). I would buy a wii just so I can play this.

Events

Surprisingly, we've been pretty busy these past few days. Here's a quick lo down.

On Saturday night, we went out with the Gordon clan to Rama, a tasty Thai restaurant downtown, to celebrate Dog's birthday. There was a plethora of food; fried tofu, summer rolls, tom yum soup, vegetable red curry, to name a few. For dessert, Luna brought a chocolate cheesecake from Stephanie's Bakery (Dog is a recovering vegan). So chocolate-y.

On Sunday, I went to yoga, which was fun but painful after. Note: holding your foot behind your head for extended periods of time is a sure fire way to make your neck hurt the next day. Afterwards, Badge and I hit the mall to do some shopping. I was able to apply my Anthropologie gift card towards a dress for the holiday party. Whoo hoo. I also bought some night cream from a brand called Boscia that I found at Sephora. Apparently, it's good for sensitive skin since it has zero preservatives and is organic. That night, we went to a viewing of a show Ryan's friend Destin directed for TLC. The show is called Born Without Arms and was very touching and well done. The viewing was held at a hotel in Point Loma with many of the cast and production crew in attendance. Good stuff.

Then there was Monday, our one year anniversary! Crazy that it's already been a year...time certainly flies. Badge and I went downtown that night to celebrate at Nobu. We ordered yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno, oysters with three sauces, king crab tempura, scallops with wasabi pepper sauce, salmon tataki, and a bento box which is chocolate lava cake with green tea ice cream. All this was accompanied with lots of sake. Yummy plentiful sake. We meant to see a movie afterwards but the Gaslamp theater looked way too sketchy for me to enjoy. So we stopped by La Puerta instead for Badge to have a drink and me to sober up. Once home, we broke out the slice of wedding cake that's been in the freezer for a year and devoured it. It was like reliving part of the wedding. Here's to another eighty years of marriage!

Unfortunately, I woke up on Tues with the worst sore throat and cold. Bedridden, I worked from home huddled in bed. Badge took excellent care of me while I moaned and groaned. Strangely, I'm feeling much better today. Went to the office, had lunch with the ladies at Cozy's, now I'm at home watching BSG. Who am I to question this turn of events?

On a random note, there was a raffle yesterday for a free hotel room upgrade for our company holiday party (held at the Hard Rock Hotel), and I won! YES! I've never actually won anything in a raffle before. Very exciting. On a more random note, HR emailed me to let me know they're using my picture for some campaign at work. An email went out today to the entire company with me grinning like a fool. Apparently they're going to print out posters and prop them around campus. Greeeeeeeeeeeat. Already got so much crap for it today.

Cute, Funny, and Cool

Last week, Badge went to LA to meet with a retailer called American Rag. While there, he bought this super cute pink bunny for me. So adorable! I wish I were a little kid again so I'd have an excuse to carry this with me everywhere. Next to the bunny is an equally cute stuffy. This little guy came with the Anthropologie gift card Spike and Frog got me for my birthday. The card is tucked in the front pocket and has a jagged side that serves as the teeth sticking out. Love the Japanese pop art influence. Note: I just showed Badge this picture and compared it to us - me the cute bunny and Badge the demented rag doll hahah. Speaking of my gift card, I'm thinking of hustling over to the store tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll find a dress for my company holiday party next month.


Today, I busted out these hilarious sweeper slippers we bought in Taiwan. They keep your feet warm while cleaning your wood floors as you shuffle along. Pretty smart if you can get past how funny they look. These were all the rage in my aunt's house. I'll let you know if my floors look any cleaner next week.


Lastly, I finally unpacked the bread machine my mom bought for me. Looks pretty snazzy. I'm currently baking a basic white bread and it smells delicious. Can't wait to taste when it's done.

Sadly, I skipped yoga today because it's rainy and windy (thus the perfect excuse for me to stay at home and bundle up). Must go tomorrow. Around noon, Spike, Frog and I stopped by the Gordon Rush warehouse sale to see how the boys were doing. Surprisingly, they had a great turnout and pushed a lot of product out the door. I saw guys buying 5 pairs of shoes and multiple jackets. Though I'm happy for them, I secretly cry inside that they don't make women's stuff. Maybe one day. In the afternoon, I cleaned furiously. The only disheveled room left is the bedroom. Tomorrow is another day.

Goofing Off

Hm, I meant to come home and get lots of work done tonight but seeing as how it's 9:30 and I've done ZERO work, I should probably give up that notion.

Instead, I shall blog. Might as well be semi productive, right?

So, not much going on this week other than work work work. On the homefront, I've decided to cycle through some old recipes. On Tues, I made huevos rancheros again which was delish. I substituted the jalapenos with the chili peppers we had growing in the garden (threw 5 in instead of 3). Mouth was on fire!


Last night, we did the Chopstix and Yogurt World circuit since we were in the area. Stuffed ourselves silly. Tonight, Badge is at band practice so I fixed myself some leftovers and settled on the couch to chat with Monkey and download music off Limewire. I've been pretty out of touch with the music scene in the past couple years. Luckily, listening to Pandora at work has introduced me to some new music (not a lot, but some). For example, I discovered Tegan & Sara, an indie band that I've never heard of for some bizarre reason, even though they're pretty well known in the indie circuit and I primarily listen to indie music. Anyway, their songs are so catchy! I love it. I also downloaded some Metric songs off their latest album and some Lady Gaga songs that I secretly like though I find them ridiculous in concept. Since Badge isn't around, there's no veto power in play.

Lastly, I checked on our compost bin the other day and it's looking pretty decomposed. Hopefully we'll get to use this compost sometime in the next century.

Thanksgiving, Scooter, and Chocolate

For Thanksgiving, the whole family gathered at Spike and Frog's for a feast. As usual, I made mac n cheese and stuffing. Instead of tofurkey this year, we had a tofu field roast thingy. Here's the spread.



After dinner, I promptly fell asleep on the couch (damn you jetlag). All in all, another wonderful gathering with the Gordons.

In other news, we finally got a scooter!! I've been bugging Badge about a scooter for quite some time now, but he's always insisted that I'd be a hazard to myself and the general population. He tried to appease me last year with an electric bike but I've never given up my dream of having a zippy little moped. After going to Taiwan and seeing how prevalent and all around awesome scooters are, he's changed his mind. Yippee! Though I love Vespas, they are horribly overpriced, so we settled on looking for a reliable Yamaha. We were planning to buy a new one, but on a whim I searched craigslist and found a 2007 Yamaha Vino 125 in great condition for a very attractive price (only 1400 miles on it). Done deal. Here's us test driving the scooter (our seller insisted we take a pic). We ended up getting the helmet below (in black) from Fun Bike Center and I ordered a white one for myself. Gotta have the full face shield. I don't want any bugs flying in my mouth while I ride. I took the scooter to yoga and grocery shopping on Saturday. So much fun. I want to ride it everywhere. Sadly it was raining heavily today so my first ride to work will have to wait until tomorrow.



Lastly, it turns out Badge got me another birthday present...a three month supply of chocolate from Jacques Torres, a delicious chocolatier in NYC! We got our first package today: hot chocolate mix, brownie mix, chocolate bark with nuts, and a box of assorted truffles. My husband knows me so well.

Taiwan: Part 2

Ok my posts are getting backlogged so I'm switching to bullet list to speed things up.

Thursday

• Renewed Taiwanese ID
• Ate oyster noodle for lunch
• Went to Longshan temple

• Shopped and walked around Ximending
• Went to Shilin to eat at vegetarian buffet, looked for snow ice but couldn't find it
• Came home and played more resident evil

Friday

• Had 2 hour massage and facial from my cousin who is a masseuse
• Went to some memorial with family (forgot name)

• Went to Costco with family, strangely similar yet different than Costco in the states
• Ate delicious kim chi hot pot for dinner
• Played more video games and watched Infernal Affairs

Saturday

• Biked to Dan Shui, a city on the coast. ~18 miles there and back. While there, walked around eating snacks and playing arcade games

• Came home, BBQ'd on rooftop, drank more gaoliang and beer

Sunday

• Went to Shilin after lunch with cousin who showed us to the snow ice. So good!

• Wandered around Zhongxiao Fuxing, looked at shops
• Met up with cousins at Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall, walked around

• Met entire family at amazing chinese restaurant in Zhongxia Dunhua. Badge commented on how the cook looked like a villian from a James Bond movie. Drank lots of wine at dinner
• Went to Taipei city hall area to meet up with Annabel, who I haven't seen in years. Went to a nice bar called Bar Code and proceeded to drink many cocktails and do many shots. Went to hi-life (convenience store) after, got beer, drank on the street, and caused a ruckus. Wandered into empty reggae bar where we drank more beer and danced ridiculously. Got in cab and came home at 3.

Practicing Asian squat:

Monday

• Mixture of wine, hard liquor, and beer did not agree with me, nor did the sheer quantity of drinks, hungover ALL day, could not move from bed.
• Managed to get up for dinner and eat fried rice
• Had late night kimchi noodle soup
• Badge went out on his own and got me a birthday present: cute hot pink hoodie and necklace of this fat blob character. Too cute.

Tues

• Went to National Palace Museum but didn't stay long because my family has the attention span of a peanut

• Had an awesome birthday dinner filled with delicious things my aunt cooked. She is such an amazing cook. Topped off with tiramisu and mango mousse cakes. Mmmm

Wed

• Came home!

Again, many more pictures can be found on picasa HERE.

Taiwan: Part 1

Oh man, this is it. The Taiwan post...get ready...

On Wed (11/11), Badge picked me up directly from the Stone Brewery where I was drinking myself silly at a work function. We drove to LA where we met up with my mom for our 11pm flight. The 15 hours sucked pretty bad but was made bearable by the personal TVs with movies on demand and video games. I watched 500 Days of Summer and started Harry Potter but dozed off. We also watched a pretty awesome Japanese movie called Goemon but didn't get a chance to finish. Surprisingly, Malaysia airlines had pretty tasty food (considering it's airplane food) so that was another bonus. Because Taiwan is 16 hours ahead of the United States, we arrived on Friday at 7am.

Once in Taipei, we stopped for a breakfast of hot soy milk and various savory pastries (scallion was my favorite). Pleasantly full, we went back to my aunt's house where we greeted many family members. My cousin and her family live in the condo right next door to my aunt (plus my other cousin and his family were visiting to see us), so there was definitely no shortage of family members to see. For lunch, my aunt made beef noodle soup, another of my all time favorites mmmm. So good.


In the afternoon, we went to my cousin Hongwen's college so Badge could play basketball with a bunch of Asians. We took the subway home with my other cousin Ping who showed us the ropes on how to get around. Pretty straightforward. Child's play really when compared to the NYC Metro. Finally for dinner, we had our first of many hot pot dinners. Yum-o.

On Saturday, a group of us set forth to one of Beitou's public hot springs. On the way, we walked through Beitou farmer's market which was packed with people. We saw the usual Taiwan market sights: fresh seafood, various roasted meats, live chickens being slaughtered. My aunt bought me one of my favorite fruits which I never knew the english name for. Luckily a coworker has since seen my pic of this fruit on facebook and identified it for me: sugar apple. Love it. Here's one of my favorite pics of Badge with my second cousin Emma.


We also stopped by an aboriginal museum and a japanese residential landmark. The hot springs itself was interesting. Lots of older people lounging around, several of them doing callisthenics. Of course I was the only one wearing a bikini (note to self: bring one piece next time). Even though we soaked in one of the pools further down from the hot spring source, I was still sweating like a pig. Afterwards we went to a noodle shop at the top of the mountain that was tasty but not amazing (I demand amazing from every meal). Once home, my mom's oldest sister and her family came to visit from a different area of Taipei. After more greetings, Badge and I slipped away so I could drill him on Chinese phrases. For dinner, my aunt cooked drunken sesame noodle soup (with chicken). She must have dumped a whole bottle of rice wine in because it was STRONG. In fact, my mom got shitfaced and had to be carried to a bed. No joke. My cousin took a video to prove it. Must remind him to send it to me.

On Sun, all my family packed into two vehicles and drove to Kaoshiung (city on the otherside of the island) after lunch. It was a long drive so we got in just in time for dinner. Ate at a chinese restaurant that I found subpar by my amazing standard. Afterwards, we walked along Love River, a famous river in the city, and went back to another aunt's house to sleep. Photo op along the river below.


The next day, we went sightseeing at an old British consolate turned landmark and Green Island. I love the pic below I took of my uncle with his granddaughter while visiting a fort at Green Island. Many more pictures on picasa.


After eating lunch at a seafood restaurant, we piled into the cars and drove out to Yunlin country to visit the house where my mom grew up. My uncle has since renovated the house but the main structure was the same. Since we were staying for two days, Badge and I got assigned to the room where they used to kept the cow. Apparently cows were so priceless they had sleep in the house at night for fear of theft. Even the old pig pen was still there, though in shambles. That night, we drove to the nearby town of Beigang to eat dinner. My family went to a place with lots of misc meats (ahem pig's feet), which of course freaked Badge out, so we broke off to find our own dinner. Luckily we came across a spot with vegetable steamed buns and rice cakes. Once home, we went promptly to sleep on the world's hardest bed.


On Tues, Badge and I went for a joy ride on a super old scooter from the garage. During our jaunt in the country, we ran across an enormous ox hanging out in the fields.


That afternoon, my uncle hacked some of the sugar cake in the yard and squeezed some juice out for us to drink. We also went to a nearby plot owned by my uncle's friend to harvest peanuts. Who knew they grew in the ground like rhizomes? After dinner, we drank beer and played poker. We even found this hilarious old Stephen Chow movie I used to love called God of Cookery. So silly. So awesome.

On Wed, we drove home to Taipei after lunch. Again there was a lot of traffic so we didn't get in until dinner. The rest of the night was spent watching Badge play Resident Evil 5 on PS3. That takes us to about halfway through the trip. A part 2 post will follow shortly.

In the meantime, you can see many many...many pictures on picasa HERE.

Not Cool

Went to bed at 10pm, woke up at 12am. Went back to sleep and woke up at 3am. Couldn't sleep again till 5:30am. Woke up at 7am.

So not cool.

We're Baaaack!!

That's right, we're back in the US of A. In fact, we've been back since last Wed but I've been too lazy to post. I'm only posting now to let you people know we're alive and well (not lying in a dirty gutter somewhere in the seedy underbelly of Taipei). We did consider staying in Taiwan indefinitely and having my aunt cook us delicious meals 24/7 but we couldn't abandon the cats. So we're back.

In short, our trip was awesome. A meaty post with minute details will follow soon. Too sleepy to make an attempt now. Since coming home, Badge and I have been super jetlagged. We've only been able to stay asleep 3 hours at any given time. Not fun. On Thursday, we went to the parentals for Thanksgiving (more in another post) and promptly passed out on the couch after the meal. We couldn't even keep our eyes open. So sad.

Anyway, that's all I got. Today I went back to work: caught up on emails in the morning, had lunch with Busy Mama, actually did work in the afternoon. Hopefully tonight, my body will recognize I'm back into a routine and let me have one good night's sleep. For the love...let me just have one...

Ok more soon, promise.

Motherland

Tomorrow, Badge, Mom, and I embark on our journey to the Motherland, a.k.a Taiwan.

In the morning, I'll be desperately trying to finish work, then it's off to Stone Brewery for the Software Dept team building event. Afterwards, Badge and I will drive up to LA and at 11pm, the three of us will be tucked in our seats for a 15 hour flight. I look forward to two weeks of eating uncontrollably and R&R. Yay!

Monkey Business

Look at this adorable bunny stuffie Monkey made for my birthday. HOW CUTE IS THIS?? If Monkey were here, I'd pummel her. Too goddamn cute. Also in the box were two other stuffies she made for my cousin's two daughters in Taiwan. Quirky and whimsical. Maybe a tad creepy but still super cute.


She also knitted this cat hat for one of the kids, and included a Penn engineering tshirt for my aunt and a threadless tshirt for my cousin.


On an unrelated note, we went Ashoka last night for Indian with the parentals. On a bet, Badge named 100 countries around the world, which is ridiculous since I can probably only name 30. He just rattled them off. Most countries I could have sworn he was making up as I'd never even heard of them (Frog and Spike confirmed they were legit). In particular, I have no clue how he knew all those African countries. Very proud of my altas Badge.

The night before that we went to La Puerta with Dog, Luna, Kimbo, and Marc. The food was tasty but a tad salty and it was so loud that I could barely hear what anyone was saying. I think I prefer going there on a weekend afternoon when it's not so busy. Still, we had a good time chit chatting.

I'm about to get ready for yoga. Hopefully my butt will feel better today since we hit up the jacuzzi last night. We shall see! Unfortunately, Badge will be gone all day (soccer and the many hours of recording) so I'll probably just be puttering around at home. Must 1) clean 2) start packing 3) finish contracting project for Bobby.

Good Day

All good days start off with a cat picture so let me start with the following.


So why was this a good day? Well, I helped fix a memory leak for one of our high profile projects. Go me! Now, I can go on vacation next week in peace.

Unfortunately, it was not a great yoga day as my butt/hamstring has been acting up. It feels extra painful today, probably because the cold weather has stiffened me up. Additionally, I must have been dehydrated because I had horrible foot cramps all throughout class. Not cool.

Tonight, I ate left over pizza and am watching the World Series for no reason other than it's on. I don't even find baseball particularly interesting. Badge should be home soon from soccer and then it's time for SYTYCD at the parentals.

Love You Mom

I start off this post by saying "love you" to my Mom, who was grievously offended after reading my last post about her abnormally high Asian standards. Though I don't deny what I said before, I would like to add that my Mom raised two kids on her own in a foreign country and she did a damn good job doing it. You're the best Mom!

Now for a quick recap of the weekend festivities...

On Friday, there was an unimpressive Halloween happy hour at work. I was expecting the event to be spectacular, esp since it was hosted by Marketing who typically can stretch beyond the budget. But I was disappointed. Beer selection was sub-par and there were only 3 kegs versus the usual 4-5. At least I got to eat a chocolate cupcake and help Nevertap track down some cracked out looking girl who's been giving her the evil eye.

On Saturday, I went to yoga and then we ran errands in the afternoon. Mostly gift shopping for the Taiwan family. We got plenty of SD sweatshirts, boxes of See's candy, and some t-shirts from Banana Republic for my cousin. That night we went to a rock band themed Halloween party at Badge's soccer friend's house. Before we found out it was a rock star theme, we wanted to be matching Hamburglars but alas, that will have to be another year. Instead, we settled for the following.


I gotta say, this mohawk drove me insane. I wanted to go for a full spike but my hair just would not hold. Believe me, I sprayed half a can of hair spray and used half a bottle of gel. No go. Maybe I need some wax or something. The party was lots of fun. Everyone was super nice and of course I got OBSESSED with rock band. This is only my second time playing and sadly I ended up hogging the guitar a bit (I tried not to!). I wish I had it at home, but then again maybe it's better that I don't.

On Sunday, I went to yoga again, then Badge and I headed downtown to watch the football game and drink micheladas at La Puerta. Of course several micheladas turned into guacamole, turned into tacos and quesadilla. Despite being close to exploding, we waddled our way over to ghirardelli to split an enormous sundae. By that time, I was about to pass out from being so full so we quickly drove home and took a nap. That night we went to a informal engagement celebration at our neighbor's. Surprisingly, I enjoyed chatting with people despite the age difference. It was nice to put faces to the houses around us.

Tonight, I've watched 3 episodes of BSG and am tempted to watch more. Badge and I threw together a stew which turned our pretty tasty. That's all I got for tonight. 10 days till we go to the motherland!

IS THIS A JOKE???

I was so excited to finally receive disc 3 of BSG season 2 today. After whipping up some pasta and salad (Badge is at band practice tonight), I settled onto the couch ready to watch four action packed episodes. However, after the second episode ended in an extreme cliff hanger, the dvd reset to menu.

Oh no.

Frantically, I checked the episode list.

Oh no.

ONLY TWO EPISODES ON THIS DISC???

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFF???

I'm so pissed right now I feel like my head is going to explode. I should be able to sue someone about this. This isn't right. It's just not right.

Ok, breathe.

To placate myself, I'm now eating ice cream. A lot of ice cream. Whatever, I deserve it. I went to yoga Sat, Sun, Tues, and Thurs. I would have gone yesterday but I've been in MoDA (Model Driven Analysis) training 8:30am-5pm Tues-Thurs and I had a backlog of crap to do on Wed. On a bright note, my soon to be manager told me today that he's opening up a req to initiate my transfer. It'll probably get approved for early next year since we're in Q4. Whoop whoop! I told my mom and of course her reaction was, oh when will you be a supervisor? Sheesh. There's no pleasing the woman. So reminiscent of grade school, e.g. if I bring home an A-, she'd ask why it wasn't an A.

Anyway, here's hoping it'll be smooth sailing the rest of this year. Still lots of work to do but Taiwan trip is coming around the corner and then it'll be the holidays!

By the way, I mentioned casually that Badge is at band practice but I don't think I ever elaborated. Yes, Badge has a band. He recruited a talented singer/bass player from craigslist who brought in his talented guitar player friend. And of course Badge plays the drums. He created all the songs (lyrics, general guitar riffs, drums, bass) and prototyped them on his mac using Garage Band. The band mates have helped him build on his original ideas but it's still essentially Badge's project. Now they're secured a free practice space and will hopefully begin recording in a month or so. These songs are pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Seriously, I couldn't pull out a song out of my ass if I tried. Badge does it like it's his birthday. Very impressive.

The Freak'n Weekend

Last week proved to be another long week of hard work. It's been pretty hectic because I've been trying to wrap up one project while ramping up on a couple new ones. Blah.

To say the least, I was relieved when Friday came around. For dinner, Marc and Kim picked us up to go to the soft opening of a BJ's in Carlsbad. Marc's company did the sound system for the restaurant so he was on the guest list. Surprisingly, this BJ's was in a huge decked out building that's much nicer than the one here in UTC. The food also seemed much tastier. We started with a flight of 7 beers including their pumpkin ale. For appetizers, we had avocado rolls; for dinner we had a buffalo chicken pizza and a spinach and artichoke pizza; and for dessert, we had an enormous cookie with ice cream on top. Mmmmm. We topped the night off by watching Mongol at home. Good movie.

On Saturday I went to yoga and got my ass handed to me. I only made it to class on Tues so I was definitely not prepared for Primary Series. That afternoon I took a monster nap and did a lot of horizontal lounging. The only productive thing I did was to hang up some old drawings in the dining room.


For dinner, Badge and I went to Hillcrest on a whim and decided to try out the Tractor Room. Delicious. We got a lot of things: cornbread, chicken and porcini mushroom pate (my choice), spicy chicken wings (Badge's choice), wedge ceasar salad, chipotle tomato pork ribs, and sharp Wisconsin cheddar mac and cheese. I had wine and Badge had some super strong cocktail and beer. Everything was delicious and though we were full beyond belief, we still dragged ourselves to Pinkberry for dessert.

Today, I woke up super sore but still decided to go to yoga. Amazingly, I was able to do scorpion without a wall and without assistance! I was even able to hold the pose for a while (granted my muscles were spasming in protest). Will have to attempt at home this week once my back recovers. In the afternoon, I did some work and started to putter around in the garden when I stumbled upon a huge spider in the corner of the yard. Wtf. It had a big bulbous body so I immediately thought of brown widows (there's been an influx of them in SD). The pics I found on Google varied but I thought it looked similar enough justify freaking out. Unfortunately Badge was at soccer so all I could do was hustle the cats in and cower in fear on my couch. Here's a pic. It's blurry because I didn't want to get too close. Also that boxy thing in front is a wrapped up fly that it was eating. Ew...


Tonight, we've watched Dexter and Californication. Badge is watching the Giants game now and I'm preparing myself to work on my contracting work. But first, it's off to get some ice cream...

Ebay Is My Friend

Whoo hoo, ebay came through! Remember those sunglasses I was ogling at the eye doctor's? Well, they're MINE. Thanks to wonderful world of ebay, I got them at half the price. And they fit perfectly! Yay.

Notes

• It's 11pm and I'm still doing work. This is baffling.


• Badge made five unsuccessful attempts to kill a house fly last night with a fly swatter. I took one swipe and that fly went down. Booyah.


• Anyone have ideas for presents to bring to my family in Taiwan? Thus far, Badge has bought Jack Daniels and my mom and I plan to bring back cheese. Monkey has made creepy dolls for the kids.


• My butt and knee both still hurt. My arch nemesis in yoga has taken this opportunity to surpass me at scorpion. Must recover and practice scorpion without the wall.


• Badge thinks I'm too competitive.


• Hair has grown into Bruce Lee hairstyle. Badge refers to my hair as my hockey helmet


• Cats are still pretty damn cute

Debilitated

Badge and I got food poisoning yesterday. We went for mexican (again) and feasted on chicken fajitas and spicy shrimp, and of course micheladas. Delicious as usual. We felt fine the rest of the night until about 1:30am where I was awoken by debilitating stomach cramps and was forced to take a trip to the you know what. Afterwards, I went back to sleep only to be woken up again. The cycle repeated several times until 4:30am when Badge also woke up to the same ailment. At that point I threw up. Greeeat. The bouts continued though the intervals progressively got longer thank goodness. Badge demonstrated poor judgement and a trace of insanity by still going to his soccer game at 8am this morning. The rest of this morning and afternoon was spent laying on the couch trying to eat stomach friendly foods. It appears the stomach cramps have finally ceased altogether and we've kicked the crisis. We think the shrimp was the culprit but it's hard to say for sure. We're both deeply disturbed that something so delicious could reek such havoc on our systems. It may be a while before we go back to that restaurant.

Aside from this unpleasantry, Badge and I have attended two films at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The first was Children of Invention which opened for the festival on Thursday night. The director is a guy Badge met and befriended at Sundance earlier this year. The movie was vaguely reminiscent of my own childhood (in the sense that my mom was a divorced immigrant trying to raise two children). It was sad at parts but well done. Afterwards, we went to Rock Bottom to drink beer, and eat fries and buffalo wings. You know, real healthy. On Saturday, we went to see Cape No. 7, an interesting Taiwanese film about a motley crew of villagers getting together to form a local band. It was a tad long but still pretty entertaining. The festival lasts for 3 weeks so we're contemplating going back to see some more. In particular I'm interested in seeing Red Cliffs, a big epic movie by John Woo. I'm a sucker for historic epics and of course my man Takeshi is in it.

On Friday, we went to Spike and Frog's for pizza and SYTYCD. Dog and Luna came over and showed us this hilarious dog birthday cake they got for Truffles (pic of Chofies and Truffles painted on front). Too funny.


I guess it's been a while since I posted so we're long overdue for some garden pics. Here are the two mandevilla looking plants my mom brought. And the peach tree below.



In other news, I've finished the first two Twilight books that I borrowed from Michigan. The first book was good. A big melodramatic but hey it's a young adult's book so I understand. The second book however I could not stand. Way over dramatic. Every other page was about how heartbroken Bella was and how she couldn't go on, yadda yadda. The general plot line was good but I just wished there hadn't been so much filler about this "hole in her heart". Anyway, I'm still excited to see the movie. Overall, I was so irritated by the second book that it may be a while before I attempt to read the third. We'll see. I still much prefer the Sookie series but I know Nevertap prefers the Twilight series, so who knows, maybe it's whichever you read first. On a side note, I finished the first 4 episodes of BSG season 2. Must wait for more discs!