engrish

i just got back from dinner at outback steakhouse. i haven't had that much meat in one sitting in a very long time. i feel like i should now go and eat lots of vegetables just to balance it out.

random story: the other day, we were sitting around talking about accents at small group and i remembered wendy telling me a story and my mom, her mom, and her. so, i guess my mom called wendy because she needed assistance spelling out a word...i think maybe it was for medication or something. so, wendy is listing each letter and she gets to the letter "v." i think the conversation went something like this:

wendy: "vee."
my mom: "wee?"
wendy: "no, VEE."
my mom: "wee?"

i have no idea how long this goes on for...but wendy's mom hears her side of the phone conversation and wendy catches her up on what she's trying to do. so her mom gets on the phone with my mom to help tell her that the next letter is "v."

wendy [to her mom]: "vee."
wendy's mom [to my mom]: "wee."
my mom: "wee, ok."

i remember wendy telling me that she was getting frustrated. when she told me this story, i laughed so hard, i had tears in my eyes. just thinking about it cracks me up. fobby parents are fun...sometimes. everytime i remember a funny story involving my relatives...i think...gosh, i should really write this down because it is darn funny. but five minutes later, i forget.

competition

on saturday, i helped out with CBC's the amazing race 2 for the high school group. i was stationed at alki, by the statue of liberty, with the task titled "who wants to work for boeing?" once teams arrived, they had to put together a cheap wood [possibly balsa wood] airplane. one person [the boeing employee] had to stand at one marker and fly the glider airplane over their teammates who were lined up single-file about 16 feet away, behind another marker. it was pretty tough since it was raining and a little on the windy side. teams broke their planes and had to wait to scavenge parts from the planes of teams who had already completed the task. after the last team finished and left, my clue buddy and i treated ourselves to pastries and coffee at alki bakery. we were drenched with rain water, plus i had stupidly worn flip-flops so my feet were cold and dirty. gross. the evening ended with a late dinner in chinatown at hing loon with ja-hye, keone, and kristie.

sunday afternoon, i had my weekly volleyball game. this week, we were short two of our regular guy players so we had two subs. i forget how much it throws off the flow of the team when you bring in subs, even if you've played with them before. i guess our team has been in a rhythm the past couple of weeks. anyway, our second game was against the team currently ranked #1. the last time we played them, we won, though it wasn't a pleasant victory since they got kind of mad. so, we were playing and the score was back and forth until the end. we edged them out for a win by a couple of points, so that felt pretty good...for about 5 minutes.

later, as we headed upstairs for our next game, i heard some of my teammates talking about the other team. i guess the other team was complaining about a couple of our touches, like they didn't think they were perfectly clean. i was, for the most part, blissfully unaware of the other teams disgruntled complaints during the game. basically there were two sets (mine) that they thought weren't clean and they were saying things during game play. now, since we don't have refs, we call our own faults. if the one team wants to call something on the opposing team, technically, they can't, but they can mention it to the opposing team, like asking them to be aware or watch for the potential fault in question. this team didn't do that, as far was i know. and being me, when i found out that they were mad or whatever, i felt totally bad and then the win pretty much lost it's luster. they thought we were essentially cheating. i bristle at being accused of cheating. my team thought the ball contacts were legal/good, so that probably should've made me feel vindicated, but it didn't. instead, i was questioning myself and it made me paranoid enough that i went with bump setting for the rest of the evening. i was also told that that other team holds grudges. and they're all crazy intense during game play. lame...and scary.

this brings me to an interesting question that shiv posed earlier today...how do you get people who are competitive, but also gracious when they don't win or get their way? does such a healthy balance exist? i think it's possible. i'm pretty competitive about some things, but if things don't work out, it's not the end of the world, or rather, it's not totally worth flipping out about. in my mind, i'm trying to think of a time when i did flip out...and nothing comes to mind at the moment. shiv thinks it's different for boys and girls. i think this opens up a line of interesting conversation - the nature of competition.

stadium food

i love stadium food. it's right up there with fair food. i had the grand slam special [barbeque chicken on a spicy hot link on a bun] with a side of chips first. later, i really wanted garlic fries. so even though i was still really full from the grand slam, i bought the fries anyway, along with a regular-sized soda. that was a very bad decision. i felt so sick afterwards. and i could still taste the garlic fries this morning. so gross! i would say that i've learned my lesson, but i'm sure i'll end up doing the same thing next time.

pseudo-celebrity sighting

who watches the apprentice? i only watched in the beginning of the season. remember verna from the book smarts team? last night, during our weekly volleyball games, someone spotted her and wasn't sure if that was really her, but then her teammate yelled, "nice dig, verna!" the nice digs couldn't keep us from winning the game. that was my almost-celebrity sighting of the week. we wanted to ask what was up with her meltdown, but that seemed inappropriate.

tomorrow, i get to go to the mariners game against the yankees. hello garlic fries, expensive hot dogs, soda, popcorn, ice cream, and all sorts of junk food. heavenly.

a wedding - in pictures

i updated and added the photos from kelvin and christine's wedding. i was looking through the pictures and i got to the one that i had taken of myself and it was like, how have i not noticed that before? my eyes are set pretty far apart...or least it looks that way in the picture. narcissistic, i know, but i did learn from the best. :D [and i'm sure she'll beat me down the next time she sees me, even through she knows it's true.]

pam and i walked around green lake again this week. i think we're going to try and make this a regular routine because outdoor activity is good. sunlight...fresh air...activity...all good things. and i think we're going again tomorrow after work with chris.

congratulations kelvin and christine!

it's a little past 2am. friday evening was spent at the wedding rehearsal for kelvin and christine's big day. the bridesmaids were goofing off a little...talking and so not paying the appropriate amount of attention. :) dinner was at red robin's were we pigged out and still felt full...many, many hours later. we spent the night at bridesmaid na's house on inflatable mattresses. it was like sleeping on a raft.

this morning, we woke up and started the long process of hair and make-up. a good four hours later for all five of us bridesmaids, the bride herself, and her momma, we were ready. the ceremony went well and it was just the right length, meaning nobody passed out :) as with all things, not everything went according to plan, but still worked out just fine. i don't know about any of the other bridesmaids, but my walk down that aisle was as awkward as ever...you would think that two previous runs would have given me some experience...but you would be wrong. my feet started to feel all sweaty [overshare...i know, but so relevant to the awkwardness} and then i had to walk all weird to keep from sliding in my shoes and having something crazy happen...like tripping and falling. there was lots and lots of picture taking. we were so tired and when we were finally able to get back to na's house, we rested and watched the end part of the terminal. jen opted to nap for the whole time.

and then it was off to the dinner reception for family, close friends and helpers of the wedding. we ate an 10/11 course chinese dinner at noble court...or was it palace? well, it was somewhere in bellevue. during dinner, kelvin's brother, the best man, toasted the couple and surprised them with their honeymoon destination, a trip to greece. how amazing is that? makes me long for another trip to europe. after dinner, we went to the kelvin and christine's townhouse to dawdle for a bit and then i drove jen to a gym on mercer island, where her man, and other guys were playing basketball. one of the high schooler guys had rolled his ankle. having two experiences with such an injury, i was all over it with the ibuprofen, elevating the bad ankle, and tightening the sneakers to keep the swelling down. who would've thought i'd be all handy in such a situation. :)

pictures will follow...sometime soon...