the gilmore girls episode on tuesday had emily gilmore being upset that a new family in their ritzy neighborhood was giving out king-size candy bars. this reminded me of when i was 12 and my family moved to this nice neighborhood. most of the houses were handing out larger candy bars [not quite king-size, but full-size]. haha...but not my parents - fun-size all the way - because we're chinese and because we're cheap. way to perpetuate stereotypes!

did i mention my knitting instincts have kicked in? it's all about the scarves and beanies. i may give mittens a shot this year. seriously...i will knit a real sweater before i turn... 30... i think that's a safe number that would not be setting myself up for failure.

.:current media:.

music

dido : life for rent <--- thank you wendy.

josh kelley : for the ride home <--- thank you cora.

mandy moore : coverage - before you mock, give it a listen :D then you can mock.

movies

kill bill volume 1

the italian job - i really like this movie

a fatty list of movies to rent

books

the dirty girls social club - yay for books about different minority people groups

knitting articles - ok...it's not a book, but i am reading...

i picked up the loaner car this morning and it's a toyota camry. it's fun to drive a different car. as i drove from lexus of seattle to work, i was zipping down I-5... it was almost like being in the italian job and one of the mini coopers - so much fun of my own creation. but then i realized that i was speeding quite a bit, so i had to snap out of my movie sequence.

i purchased a couple of sweaters from target and i am now spreading the word about them [because they're such a great deal!] pretty soon, bunches of people will have matching sweater cardigans. i think that as i get older, i become more "chinese old lady" who spots a good deal and has to purchase the cheap products in mass quantity. it's not enough to just get one, i must buy many in order to really feel the benefits of the "cheap deal" i've discovered. it's the costco mentality. sigh.

another praise! the good people at lexus of seattle called me and said that it is indeed the transmission that went all sorts of bad and that they are ordering another one for me. but the best part is, it's under warranty! a 70,000 mile warranty and i'm at 67,500! woohoo!!! and they're getting me a loaner while they've got the car to be fixed. so yippee!

last night was all about victory and defeat. our volleyball team had our play-off game and we won our first one pretty quickly. this allowed us to advance to the set of games at the 9pm hour, where we faced "the ballers" or as i like to call them, the evil luke team [these are terms from the oc in case you hadn't guessed - which is back on tonight at 9pm folks] anywho...we wanted to redeem ourselves so badly since they won last time we played in a cheap manner. we were down by 5 in the beginning, mostly because we wanted to win so badly we psyched ourselves out. then our team really hit our stride and we beat them, both games. and they played dirty again, like stepping way into our court, causing our players to stumble around, or saying a hit went out of bounds when it was clearly in. but we beat them anyway, fair and square. that was victory. now on to defeat...

as i went to get in my car and go somewhere, my car started and i could put the shifter into different gears, but the car would not physically move. but luckily, i was not by myself, my volleyball team stayed around and hung out while we tried to figure out what was wrong [oh and thanks abe for being our sounding board and answer man] - and waited while i called AAA, and waited while i called my parents to add me onto their AAA plan, and waited again for the tow truck to come and take my car home. they are the bestest teammates in the world. plus, secretly, i think they all had fun standing around in the freezing air. it was like team bonding. :D the silver lining is that the car broke as i was parked at ingram high school, rather than while i was driving home from work last night or on the highway or somewhere else much more dangerous. i like to think it was divine intervention that it occurred in a "safe" environment.

so now i'm waiting for AAA again to tow it to the dealership for some good fixin'. stupid car.

last thursday, i filled in for kristie's bowling team through the seattle sports league and i bowled a 181! but i have to say that the way the scoring was helped a lot; they counted hitting nine pins at the beginning of the frame as an "NT" strike. but even so, i was good people.

last night, we had hot pot and chocolate fondue for dessert. it was so yummy! we all pigged out like none other. and speaking of pigging out, we went to lunch at the malay satay hut up from the international district and it was good too. i love when people visit because it means good food.

we won our volleyball game and made it to the playoffs. yay! although, maybe every team makes it. hmm. i am however feeling much though. i think moving around and being active and sweating out the disease is a good thing. our team even went out to the outback steakhouse [proud sponsors of the seattle sports league] for some team bonding before we went back to play some more on an open court.

did i mention i watched kill bill on friday? i liked it. it was different, entertaining, and oddly, funny at times. and then i watched intolerable cruelty too. it was funny, but i expected more from the coen brothers.

i am sick. i got to leave work early, but i sat in traffic for over an hour, which allowed me to accumulate a lot of snot-filled tissues. gross, no?

now i'm pumped full of tylenol cold and hoping my nose will stop running and stop being stuffed up.

i dropped my mini swiss army knife into the toilet. i was about to suck it up and go in after it with my bare hands, but then i pulled a macgyver and made a little "fishing pole" out of floral wire. i was able to catch the knife on the little ring [usually meant to be used with your key ring] and lift it out of the water. i should have left it at that, but instead, i thought, "hey, i'll shake off a little excess water before i take it to the sink. wouldn't you know...it drops back in, but with the little ring to the back of the toilet. nothing with the fishing pole worked. so, in went my hand. and then there was a lot of hot water and antibacterial soap. a lot.

i color inside the lines. my closet is organized by type of clothing and there was a time when the hangers were spaced one inch apart. when i'm told that i have a set list of duties, i like to stick to that list. i can check things off and feel like things are being accomplished. so, when the balance is upset, it drives me all sorts of crazy and i turn all anger-ball.

at work, on everyday except friday, i am the person that sits at the front desk doing all of the data entry and generating fee slips for the day and answering phones, etc. only on fridays am i the optical person. i prefer sitting at the desk because i then i don't have to interact with the difficult people as much. the point to these assigned duties is to make things consistent and efficient - to keep one person entering in all the financial and patient information to ensure that the accounting balances at the end of the day. when too many people were entering info, it caused wasted time and energy figuring out why things didn't balance at the day's end.

today was my desk day. but unfortunately, i did not spend much time at the desk. rather, i was forced to become a nomad. i was also not the only person entering things in. it's not like i'm not about the sharing, but at the end of the day, if something is not right, it's much faster to fix when i'm familiar with what's been entered. so, i'll say things like, "please feel free to leave it in the pile and i'll enter it in" but she will say, "oh that's ok, i'll enter it." inside i am like, "argggg." maybe she did not get the memo about our assigned duties. we did not balance today. i sat and went through each transaction until i found the errors. i'm just irked because this happens a lot and i often get shafted and have to figure it out. i just prefer it when i have control over this portion.

but in happy fun news, kristie, shiv, abe, noah, and cora took me to el camino for dinner last night and it was yummy! yay birthday dinners. thanks friends.

and on saturday, the power went out. i was momentarily frightened, until i called kristie and located a flashlight and lit candles everywhere until the power came back on.

apparently the new fun thing to do is to get yourself a new name using the "captain underpants and the perilous plot of professor poopypants" method. which goes like this:

Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name: crusty

Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name: chicken

Use the fourth letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name: [...] this is like discrimination...i only have 3 letters in my last name. what a rip. so i decided to just start at the first letter again. hence, i get: fanny

my new name, according to this, is crusty chicken fanny

well...that sucks. other people get cute names like "zippy apple sprinkles" and i get crusty chicken fanny.

on monday afternoon, while i was still at home in portland, i went to nw portland to meet up with some of the bridesmaids [those of us not working on that particular day]. i arrived and coffee people and saw jenny in line buying coffee. i stood in line and got a milkshake. the person at the cash register asked me which care bear was on my shirt. i said it was good luck bear. i have no idea if that's the bear's real name, but the bear is green and has a shamrock on its belly. anyway, the cashier guy thought it was cool. i sit down and wait for my name to be called so i can get my milkshake. as i walk up to pick it up, the following conversation occurs:

coffee guy: "are you 21?"
me: [internally i think - did i order something with alcohol in it? i am now confused] "...yes."
coffee guy: "have you heard of om?"
me: [again internally, i think - does he mean like the spiritual/chanting om? probably not.] "um...what is that?"
coffee guy: "it's a club."
me: "oh...yea... no, i don't do that." [but said with a smile so as not to seem mean]
coffee guy: "oh ok."

i felt lame and uncool...not having known what om was.

-

today at work, a man came in and asked if we had any work. i didn't expect that request so i was confused [a common theme this week] and said no. i guess all he needed was 50 cents and was looking for a small job to do to earn it. i have no idea why i didn't just give him 50 cents. i think he caught me off guard at work...but as soon as he left, common sense snapped back in and said to me, "hey dork...why didn't you just get change from your bag?" so all the rest of the day, this has been on my mind. he asked to earn it. i wish that that kind of generosity was automatic to me. as today's event testifies, it is not. sad.

on monday evening, i went to dinner with a portion of the adult relatives and wendy. one conversation topic was, of course, chris and david's wedding. naturally, they were commenting on various aspects of the wedding. the adult ladies told wendy at lunch earlier that day that they thought one of the groomsmen was a very nice boy [by nice they mean he's chinese, speaks mandarin, and is tall]. i knew wendy would throw me to the wolves [the aunts] so i threw her in first. but she retaliated. there is no loyalty here. i had to preemptively strike. it is survival of the fittest with these wolves. oh...but she knows...she's going down. and she knows why. i will steal her new phrase and say to her, "blast you."

click here for photos from the wedding.

if you'd like the full-size, e-mail me

24 bobby pins and 30 hair pins later, i am almost fully recovered from chris and david's wedding, which took place on saturday. it was a full day event and our dresses looked better than we thought. hooray for compliments. the lame thing is, some of our dresses tore on the seam of the organza/sheer layer that went over the satin-y layer. the bridesmaids will be making a trip to see anna, of anna's bridal.

the wedding was thoroughly enjoyable and i hope that everybody there had a pretty good time. there was a lot of folks dancing...more than i've ever seen at a wedding. usually, you have to drag people and coerce them onto the dance floor. on saturday, we couldn't kick people off :) one of the bridesmaids, jenny, remarked that it was like a dance club, without the groping. ah, if only all clubs were like that. (i only assume that actual clubs are full of dirty groping, no actual experience here)

photos will follow once i'm back in seattle and have my little cable to connect my camera to computer. hooray. and...happy birthday to me :D