Busy Weekend

It's been a busy weekend, but I'll have to write about it more tomorrow since gotta head to bed to start off yet another work week!

Mood: frustrated

Transport Away

This morning traffic was horrific. It took me an hour to get to the auto garage in Mountain View before work to put my car in for a 105,000 mile tune up. I was late by 20 minutes, and the shop owner wasn't there for all the effort and stress I had gone through on the freeway. I went to work upset, and at work phoned the shop and found out the owner was running late as well after dropping off his daughter to school. So, flustered, i brought my car back to his shop for the tune up after being offered a courtesy ride back to work.

Instead of taking up that courtesy ride, I chose to try the Valley Transit Authority (VTA) light rail for the first time ever. Reminded me of a bus on rails. No big wow, but very convenient going to work from the garage. I hope I can start taking it from home to work soon. I get a free pass from work, and though it would take me an hour longer to get to work, I could save a lot of stress and angst while expending my energy on more productive things aboard the train (reading, sleeping, doing work, etc). I also took the VTA from work back to the garage this evening to pick up my Accord.

At work in the morning got a call from my dad. My parents Toyota Celica broke down. Water pump and timing belt busted. Initially thought it would put my parents completely out of a car and since we are turning almost all our funds to our upcoming new home, I worried my car would need to become the transportation workhorse indefinitely. Turns out it'll be only $250 to repair and the car will be fixed this Thursday.

My car now is fully tuned and hums and feels almost brand new.

Lord, transport my worries, my fears away...and grant me the strength to help others in need.

What Fockers!

Tonight watched "Meet the Fockers," the sequel to the hilarious "Meet the Parents" movie. I thot "Meet the Fockers" was absolutely funny and better than I had expected from the banal commercials which had kept me at bay from seeing it. And for once, Barbra Streisand did not annoy me, playing the role of Greg's mother in this flick.

Earlier this evening, went to the 50th anniversary wedding for Kat's grandparents. They were so cute, the grandpa in a traditional Filipino barong and the grandmom in a gold dress. I could totally feel the love in the air, as over 100 family members and friends turned out at the party room at a trailer home park in Union City to wish the couple a happy golden anniversary. There wuz lots of Filipino food, much of which I couldn't eat becuz i juz couldn't stomach tripe, deep fried anchovies, and other exotic dishes. But I did enjoy a little of the creamy salmon with crab and even more of the Chinese salt-and-pepper pork spareribs!

The Top 15 Things About Myself

1. Kind
2. Considerate to a fault
3. Funny
4. Young at heart
5. Loving and romantic
6. Bouncy and energetic
7. Goofy
8. Good-looking
9. I can dance the nite away
10. Ambitious
11. Loyal
12. Faithful
13. Proactive
14. Do'er (versus juz a sayer)
15. Responsible

Clubbin the Nite Away

Yesterday was so the Friday! Felt lazy at work and didn get as much done as I had hoped. Hit the gym with Bernie in the evening, doing weight-lifting and situps. Then, working two jobs recently to help afford my new townhome (as well as improve my career), I haven't had much time to go out casually lately aside from some weekend tripz with mah squads. So last night I rang Ant and we went to da club in SJ with Tom, Kyle, Ant's cousin, and some gurlz. Bumped into Trav and Minh there as well. The whole time my mental clock was skrewed cuz I wore a nice Fossil watch which I apparently forgot to reset a long time ago and which was over an hour ahead! (I kept thinking it was late and the club wuz about 2 close. Wound up getting home earlier than my watch, which said 3am!). Haha...

Today am going to work for a couple hours at the offy, then gotta go to a 50TH wedding anniversary for Katrina's grandparentz. How sweet (ahhh)....

Celebration

Today was the 20th anniversary of my family living in California! We moved here from Columbus, Ohio, on January 20, 1985, crossing the country by car to the San Francisco Bay Area. As my dad was in the Navy, he used to transfer stations every few years, and so we were being transferred for what would be the last time to Treasure Island, an island in the middle of SF Bay which once served as a US naval base.

Tonight, over a Cheesecake Factory dinner with my folks, we celebrated our little 'anniversary.' I thought it amazing that my family and I were still in the Bay Area (and the state for that matter) for more than several years. I honestly can't think of many other places I would live besides the Bay Area. I mean, SF has got most of it all -- temperate weather, cultural diversity, pretty scenery, thriving economy (usually), and a central location to most places nearby like L.A., Reno and Vegas!

Tonight was also a celebration because I just finished up doing a web site for one of my freelance clients -- a silicon wafer fab assocation which connects some of the world's top silicon wafer manufacturers. I also locked in a new contract to do a web site for the manager of my current, resort-style apartment community! I'm happy to be getting more design experience outside my current job, bettering my skills and maybe one day owning my own company. $oo$

Daggers and Downpours

This past weekend I watched two movies -- "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero." Both films arrived in the U.S. from China (HK?) not too long ago. I actually enjoyed Flying Daggers more. Though both flix have colorful imagery and both star my favorite Asian actress Zhang Ziyi, I found the plot of Flying Daggers to be easier to understand and touching. Daggers reminds me of a slight Asian take on the Romeo and Juliet forbidden-love story, while Hero was a Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon reminiscent, figure-out-whose-side-of-the-story was true, about fulfilling promises and morality and honor. Either way, both films were full of the typical fly-around-the-forest, somersault-in-middle-air-while-fighting-mercilessly style that Hong Kong kung fu flix are famous for!

Also did some cleaning up of my apartment garage on Saturday with family in preparation for lightening our pac-rat load of items for the move this summer. As a result, came across a lot of old photos and trinkets from my childhood and high school years, bringing back fond nostalgic memories of an energetic kid without cares. Heh, sometimes I really miss being a kid -- when I was younger, didn't have a care but to go to school, eat junk food, and play with friends while discovering the world around me. I sometimes also miss being 18 and in high school, back when I was preparing myself for college and the world, back when you feel younger and more naive, things much fresher and new. *sigh*

The rain has been coming down this past week, heavy at time, here in San Francisco Bay. But the downpours have been no where near what's hitting my friends in Southern California. I've been getting the weather reports from them and it's major flooding. The storms even generated a deadly mudslide unfortunately in Ventura County. Also heard on the news today that if Southern California did not get one more drop of rain for the rest of the year, they'd still be at normal for the rest of the year. Unbelievable.

I just started using Mozilla Firefox 1.0 instead of Internet Explorer for my browsing, and I have to say it's quite impressive! Easy to use and FAST. Mozilla used to be the engine behind Netscape Navigator. And with all the security flaws and hidden scripts and hackers on the Internet these days, I'm willing to try a new browser that isn't so monopoly-driven such that its inner workings have not been jeopardized. It's free and I definitely recommend trying it!

Starting off the New Year with Ketchup

Been busy the last several days. The first day of 2005, New Year's Day, I just stayed home and chilled. Watched the Bravo channel most of the day! Decided to catchup on sleep too.

Yesterday went to work for several hours. Then picked up my friend Bernie from SFO Airport and dropped him off home after a catch-up snack at the Tied House. And before heading home, stopped by Coffee Lovers in SJ to catch up with one of my old best buddies Cong, who had been in town for the holidays and was leaving the next day. Brings back memories.:)