I'm a nerd.

I'll admit it. One of my favorite things to do: update the firmware on my cell phone.

It's serious fun.

I've been disappointed with my Blackberry Pearl... this one is my second Pearl since I "lost" my first one during my Naturalization Ceremony (I say "lost" in parenthesis because I am convinced that the person who found my phone ignored my persistent calls and texts on purpose, hence actually "stole" my phone) and I have to say the software on this one is a lot buggier than my first.

I get this retarded call lag... so every time I get an incoming call I have to say Hello 3 or 4 times. That is probably why when you call me I pick up going "-llo, hello, hello!"

I can't play ringtones off of my memory card.

Applications are s-l-o-w.

I lose e-mails. As in, they aren't being "pushed" to my phone on time or sometimes not at all.

Anyhow I've been sitting here in front of my extremely slow 4-year-old Vaio waiting for this firmware upgrade to go through, since I can only do the upgrade through a PC.

4.2.0.79 promises a lot of fixes... I can't wait!

It's so cold.

It's so cold in my apartment. Soooo cold. And it's even colder in my bedroom.

I don't know how I'm going to survive this winter.

Moreover, I don't know how Yona is going to survive HER winter. Here I am complaining with 61-degree weather when she has 30-degree weather to look forward to along with rain, sleet and snow.

K's Bday Pictionary

Here are some pictures from K's 21 (+10) birthday party at the J Restaurant and Lounge in downtown.


Michelle, me and the birthday boy. Gosh K, already red after half a glass of wine??


Jerry and I with our Grey Goose concoctions... yes, that is my real-life impression of my favorite emoticon: ~.~


Stop taking pictures.. it's giving me a headache! Well... either that or the vodka collins or 2 glasses of wine I'd already downed.

Correction: K reminded me that at this point I'd only had part of my vodka collins. Guess it doesn't take much to get me to start tongue-sticking-outing.


Reunited! Ed and I were roommates back in '99, living in the ghetto between Sawtelle & the 405 freeway. :P Ed & Eugene were gents though.. they let me have the biggest room and never left the toilet seat up. (Yeah right)


Immersed in doctor-talk... or should I say doctors in general. Seemed like everyone around me was in the medical profession... which was fine by me. I got to ask away all of my Rx questions and now (hopefully) have a lot of hookups... ;)


Why am I giggling with glee again? I think this is probably the point in the night where I stopped remembering everybody's names...


This is the last lucid memory I have of the night. Actually, not really. I don't remember whose hand that is giving me that shot.


I think this is Michelle, Theo and Greg picking straws to see who gets the lucky task of driving me home...

I belong in Indiana...

with my mom and Joanna.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
North Central
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

The day we parted...

Here is a recap of what went down the night before Yona left us to rediscover her inner soul in Japan.


Yona's last meal... hot dogs! She chickened out and stuck with a turkeydog though...




These two still have some curious animosity towards the two perfect Warmins.


Jamie seriously ate this large Pinkberry by herself in like, 2 minutes.


We drove out to San Gabriel to take purikura pics...


...and waited 40 minutes while Vina and Joanna bedazzled our pictures with pink sparklies.


Then stopped by the big boss's house to pick up Yona's yen and last paycheck.

And finally, the day we thought would never come... I mean even at the airport we didn't think she'd actually leave... we've been waiting all year for this!






...and that leaves us with our last look at Yona. The last glance. The last image of her we saw that has been burned into our minds forever. Well, in real life her laptop bag wasn't covering up that big booty.

MySpace Spam

You know, I'm pretty tolerant of MySpace spam... I mean once in a while I'll check out a muscian's profile... I wouldn't add them as a friend or listen to their music but my natural curiosity gets me clicking sometimes. Once in a while I'll get a message with an interesting title, I'll read it.

So today, I got this:

Hi there,
I noticed your page as I was browsing around and thought you were darling! I know this is random, and please don't be offended, but I think that you'd be perfect for our egg donor program at The Genesis Group in Beverly Hills. We're doing some really exciting "feel good" work for cancer survivors and infertile women in need of caring egg donor's. At the same time our donor's earn $5,000 - $15,000 with minimal time commitment. If you're interested in helping out, feel free to check out our website and fill out an application. Or you may email us at **removed**@yahoo.com. Thanks and I hope to hear from you soon!

www.**removed**.com

Sincerely,
June Bailey

So what I'd like to know is, how am I perfect for the egg donor program? Is it my myspace song? [Which coincidentally is about a semi-unwanted pregnancy, go JC!] Is it my snazzy black and white template that Aai made for me? Is it my list of favorite movies? Is it my quote?

Lame.

I knew it.

My blog has turned into a food diary yet again.

So here is my obligatory Pinkberry post.

So let's talk about the evolution of my Pinkberry selection.


The very first time I had yogurt of this kind was at Red MangO in Korea. Amazing, loved it, wished there was something like it in Los Angeles. Especially those yogurt filled puffs...

Then one sweet day, Marcela, Roberto & I were outside of Shabu Shabu House in Little Tokyo waiting for a table. Those of you who eat at SSH know that the wait is at least 30 minutes for a table so we decided to try Fiore, a new natural frozen yogurt store that popped up right across from SSH. I had it with strawberries, kiwis and mangos. It was so good we bought an extra helping of toppings.

So on to the evolution of my Pinkberry:
The first time I had Pinkberry [Yona's last night out in Los Angeles... right after eating @ Pink's], I had it with strawberries, kiwis and mangos. But their kiwi was so sour... so the second time I had it, I had strawberries and mangos. I went with Andrew, Peter and Gene... and Andrew had his with strawberries, chocolate and granola. Phew that granola was good. So... the NEXT time I went with David I copied Andrew's concoction... it was really good until David smushed everything around to a gross pink mush. Those strawberries made everything so sour. So the next time we went back, I had to avoid David's frivolous need to play with his food... and he said "If you order green tea, then we're getting separate pinkberries. I am NOT touching the green tea, and you can't touch mine." FINE WITH ME! I was getting my own medium! :D I had the green tea with chocolate and granola.

So... that is my pinkberry. What's yours?

Recovery

Vina did a bad, bad thing last night. She made *two* plates of our little banana dessert... and added extra Nutella too. This picture is so fitting... the glee on her face from the thought of sugar and her "Junk Food" t-shirt.

So anyways I woke up this morning with no agenda. Free day. I mean, seriously speaking I've had a ton of free days... since August 12 to be exact but this free day was different. I was finally going to treat it like a free day. No stressing over finding work. No stressing over errands to be ran. No stressing over cleaning Moley's pee spots. (Of course it helps that our housekeeper happens to be here cleaning) So what to do?



I've been meaning to take advantage of the tennis wall at the park across the street since I've moved in but never got the chance. The park is pretty empty from 11am - 1pm so it was the perfect time to go and try to hit balls. The last time I played tennis regularly was probably first year at UCLA... since then I picked up the racket maybe once or twice. Now I'm not really a serious tennis player.. I took lessons as a kid and in high school, was on the JV team at Whitney but as everyone knows, the JV Tennis team was basically girls that didn't want to take PE but didn't want to suffer in dance class with Mrs. Flowers.

So I never considered myself a tennis player but when I started to hit the ball against the wall, it's like a wave of familiarity came over me. The grip felt right. The familar *plock* of the tennis ball when it hits the sweet spot... the smooth feedback you get in your arm when you hit the ball right as it's at the top of its curve. I remembered back to when I used to practice against the wall at CPE. Even though practicing against the wall doesn't really help your game, it's a great workout and a good way to practice following through on your stroke, footwork and timing. I want to start playing again but I don't know ANYONE who plays tennis. :( I guess I'm going to have find myself some hot tennis trainer.. like Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Match Point. :D

Anyhoo, I brought the doggies. I had to tie them to the bench but they were so itching to chase the ball.



I was pretty proud of myself. I burned a LOT of calories today. Did the tennis thing, ran a little over 2 miles... but then Vina comes home and ruins it all again. I swear I'm getting fat all because of Vina. Two nights ago she came home with 2 bags full of snacks from Nijiya Market. There was the whole banana dessert issue. This morning she made me toast drenched in condensed milk. Today, she comes home with Chabuya's infamous Pork over Rice. Yummy.

This Makes My Heart Flutter...

...and my body tingly all over.

Seriously, sensations only an Aston Martin can invoke. Don't get me wrong, I love Juju (the name my sisters so lovingly call my CLK Cabriolet... I, too, name my valuables... there is Tuba the Scooba and Tyson my Dyson :P), but as Kevin so aptly put it, "A benz is tame, an aston martin growls." I want a car that growls :(

What is it about Aston Martins that makes me swoon? Is it the thrill of the power under the hood or the sheer beauty of its aerodynamic lines? Is it the iconic Aston Martin name or James Bond... both part of my British heritage :P? Something just stands out for me, I don't know what it is. RR Phantom: impressive, lightens your step, tilts your chin up as you step into the roomy back seat. When a flashy Gallardo zooms by, you roll your eyes as you hear it rev off. An SLR MacLaren... rare sight on the street but you kinda scoff at the driver, who'd pay that much for a glorified SL? Carrera GT... heart skips a beat, you turn your head, but no feeling in your gut.

But when a shiny tungsten silver Vanquish gives out a low grumble as it stops at a red light... you feel it in your feet... the feeling rises and warmth takes over... just as you feel like you're about to insensibly let go, your heart rate speeds up as you hang on to the fleeting thrill of falling in love.



Looks like the V8 Vantage Roadster won't be available til Q2 2007... which gives me plenty of time to hustle up some money, right? Right. Anyways one can always dream. Or catch Casino Royale over the weekend just to drool over the DBS...



By the way Kev, you youtube too much.

Run, run as fast as you can.

You can't catch me,
I'm the gingerbread man.

A series of very fortunate events.

One thing I like about living with my sisters, we click. Especially when it comes to edibles. Sweet edibles. But I guess sometimes it can be dangerous... for instance:

A little after midnight (about 10 minutes ago) as I grabbed my cell phone from the kitchen (I only get cell phone signal in the kitchen) to bring to my room to go to bed, I noticed Vina standing in the kitchen opening up a can of condensed milk.

So I ask... Vina, what are you doing?

And she answers... I'm gonna eat a banana with some condensed milk.


Of which I reply... mMmMm.. why not sautee it in butter first?


This is where Vina got really excited and said... oOooh and we can add some NUTELLA!


And my natural reaction was... How about put it on some toasted bread and we'll add some cheese on top!


And that, folks, is the classic definition of the perfect midnight snack. Sauteed bananas on a bed of hazelnut cream on brick toast topped with cheese and drizzled with condensed milk.

This was by far the yummiest thing to come out of our kitchen to date. Well, I mean it didn't have much competition. (Ai~ your fried rice was a great effort but kinda tasted bad. Vina~ your curry looked delish but seriously, it wasn't supposed to have that funky, gritty aftertaste.)

Purikura Crazy

Purikura is a term of Japanese origin meaning either a type of photo booth or the product (a decorated photograph commonly measuring 1 inch by 1/2 inch) of such a photo booth.

I still remember the Print Club booth in the Cerritos Mall by Sweet Factory. For $3 you get a sheet of photo stickers with the border of your choice. You could even pick full color, black and white or sepia print. After choosing your picture from 4 or 5 tries, you wait 5 minutes for them to print out. Then you take the first sticker and stick it back on the machine as you scan the hundreds already there for pictures of your friends.

This was when... 1996? 1997? Almost 10 years later... have y'all seen these new purikura booths? They are ginormous. Some are actually "rooms" instead of booths with a built in jungle gym or flip-through patent vinyl backgrounds. Actually a purikura machine has two booths, one to take the picture in and one to decorate the picture. No more flipping through borders, you can draw, stamp, write and pretty much design these stickers from scratch now. If you can't figure out what poses you want to do, there are separate screens inside the booth that will show you what to do. Some purikura have multiple cameras that slide up and down horizontal poles. Some have wind blowing machines to blow air through your hair.

They are $9 for a sheet of stickers. Nine dollars.


There are stores dedicated to purikura.


After you take your picture, you and a buddy can pick up a pen and decorate your stickers. You can waste quite a bit of time doing this. Once Vina and Aai took 30 minutes just to decorate one sheet.

They're ridiculous.

They're expensive.

They're time-consuming.

But hell, they are a lot of fun.

Run, Lulu, Run!

I've never been a runner, or much for any type of cardio. When I was in high school, I joined the tennis team just to avoid running "greens" everyday... well, also to wear those cute little skirts on tennis game days ~.~ I remember on the rare occasions that Mr. Kelly would make us run a green or laps around the tennis courts, Elaine and I would hide by the trash cans at CPE and wait it out. Once we got caught and he made us do the dead cockroach for the entire period. For those of you who have never been blessed with this experience, it's a lot harder than it sounds. You lie on your back with your arms and legs up in the air for 50 minutes. I dare you to try it for 20. It's not the sore arms and muscles that'll get you, it's the sheer boredom of lying there, looking up.

In fact, that's probably my biggest issue with running or any type of cardio. I have a restless mind and I just get so bored. I've tried listening to music, watching TV or DVD's while on the treadmill... it's so hard to get past the 20 minute mark. Just recently, I started taking my running outside. I've found that running around in neighborhoods at least gives me something else to focus on. Yes, I go house-hunting in my mind as I run. I always run in one of two places: either around the Brentwood Country Club by my gym or around the houses here by my apartment. So I keep myself busy picking out a favorite house on every street that I run on. There's 332 McCarty. There's the cute Mediterranean looking house on Roxbury with the dark brown window sills. There's the all-grey house with a cutie fountain out front. Now that I recognize most of the houses on these streets, I'm starting to remodel them a little in my head... giving them new paint jobs, window treatments, new roofs (rooves?) or changing the landscaping a little. I've even given certain families new cars... there's this one family with a silver SL, new blue 3-series and a really beat up Lexus GX... they really need to upgrade their SUV. I'm thinking a black Cayenne would nicely round out their car collection.

All this might sound silly but it keeps me running, which gets me to my next point. I wouldn't be doing all of this running if it weren't for my Nike+ iPod kit. I get a kick out of syncing my iPod to my macbook and reviewing my run. I love adding runs. The other day I was doing 1/4 mile runs on the track at Beverly Hills High to calibrate my running and walking speed and I got so annoyed that it didn't count them as workouts. What a waste of energy :P



So... anybody out there with a Nike+ kit up for a running challenge? :)

Lego Miserables

My second favorite musical (first favorite = Wicked) and favorite story of all time is Les Miserables. No other book has moved me to tears like the abridged version of Les Mis has. Well, except Where the Red Fern Grows and maybe Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I singalong to the Lea Salonga version of "On My Own" in my car whenever the 405 freeway slows to a crawl. I've seen the musical twice, the concert dvd numerous times, the movie once, and read the book 3 times.


@ the Pantages after watching Les Mis and before pigging out at Roscoe's.

So when I saw this bit starring legos, I knew I had to share:

Good morning to you too...

The first thing I do every morning is go to my computer to check my messages. My browser's homepage is still set to Apple's news page.



Augh, what a greeting. I didn't anticipate that so quickly after MacBook Pro's release they would introduce the Core 2 Duo chips to the Macbook. The new intel chipset boosts the speed by 25%, making my macbook obsolete already. Their black option also comes with 1G of RAM standard and comes with a double layer SuperDrive. So sad. :(

I guess it makes sense that they would unleash this before the holiday... but why so soon? Could it be that Leopard is on its way before the year's end? I hope so.

So outside of geek speak, what does this mean? It means nothing. I am NOT going to give Aai my Macbook (since she keeps reminding me that she needs her own computer) so that I can satisfy the compulsive need to own Apple's newest and fastest offering. I am NOT going to buy the 15" Macbook Pro, I'm not. I'm simply going to sit here and sulk until the rumored widescreen/touchscreen iPod comes out and satisfy my tech craving then.

You know...

I deleted this thing. I really did. Several months ago I went into my blogger account and deleted this entire blog. I seriously clicked the "Delete This Blog" button, I really did. Then out of the blue, I logged in and saw a "restore" button. Wait- that was never there before, was it?

So I guess all this time, my blog has been sitting lonely on some server out there in blogland, waiting to come back to life.

Well, here it is. Back, alive and kicking. =)