Back from the dead...
... or at least the not posting to live journal in forever place. Prepare yourself for a long read...
I had a good 4 day weekend. Yes, I said 4. We got Friday and Monday off at EFI. I needed a bit of a break and two short weeks are nice as well.
So my weekend really started Thursday night. I met up with Evan, Lori, Evan's bro Sean, and Fuson for dinner in downtown Redwood City. We have started exploring some places nearby and I am glad we have since we have found some decent eating options. We ate at a place called Hong-kee Noodle House which was remarkably similar to TK Noodle in price and dishes. It was slightly ghetto with duck-taped seats but it was pretty good. I thought it stood up well as a TK alternative, though it didn't appear to have the good daikon cake appetizer or pearl milk tea. Afterwards we went and watched Fahrenheit 911. It was an entirely biased "documentary" but very enjoyable to watch. Some stuff was really funny the way it was done and some of the information was truly scary/frightening in a "you got to be kidding" sort of way (or maybe it should be "I really wish you were joking" sort of way).
Friday morning I woke up early and met two co-workers at 9 am at Mission Cliffs in SF (it is a huge warehouse with tall climbing walls). I climbed with them until about 12:30. It was really tiring and I am quite out of shape. I didn't really have the best success either. I normally can use brute force to pull myself out of any predicament but my arms tired rather rapidly on Friday. Oh well, time for Emily and I to start hitting the gym regularly again.
I then went to take Emily out to lunch since she was working. We ate in a little pizza place near where she works. The place had a couple good lunch specials. Yay for seeing Emily, she makes me happy :-)
Afterwards I dropped by my Subaru dealership. I found Charles (the super friendly sales person who sold me my car at a great price and still remembers me a year later even though he sells hundreds of cars a year... he is like one of the top rated bay area sales people... if you are ever in need of a Volkswagen or Subaru, he comes highly recommended) and talked with him for a bit. I noticed they had the new 2005 model of my car in the showroom. They made some minor changes to the console and steering wheel (both of which I actually prefer the old way, though they did improve the cup holding capacity which is nice). I did like the new color, a Crystal Grey Metallic. I definitely would have gotten that over my Platinum Silver Metallic. It was sort of slow being midday Friday so I asked if I could test drive my car with a short-throw shifter add on (I have been considering getting this on my car, it makes for a shorter shifting distance and therefore a sportier feel). He said sure, got some keys and walked me out to a car on the lot. Then to my surprise he handed me the keys and told me to be back in 15 minutes or so. So I took it out (it was actually a sedan, not a wagon) and up to 280, took a weird exit I'd never been on before, drove around a bit trying to find an on ramp, and drove back. It was definitely a shorter throwing distance, but the car was so new it was a bit rough so it was hard for me to tell if I'd like it on my car.
Being still focused on cars I headed back to Redwood City, picked up my book and went to Ducky's. It has been a year already so I had Sadie (my car) fully hand detailed inside and out. Man, she can still shine :-). While I was waiting Lori called me saying she wanted Yumi Yogurt and wanted to play some Smash Brothers along with Sean and Fuson. So Fuson actually came by and picked me up, we went to Yumi Yogurt and stuffed ourselves. Talk about large servings there. A "small" even conquered Sean (and if you don't know, there isn't much that is edible that isn't eaten when Sean is around). Having been there before I took the "safe" route and got a small cone. Man, I've never seen ice cream pilled so high on such a small cone! Fuson then took me back to get my car and we went back to my place to some Smash Brothers. Later on Lori went and picked up Evan and Emily came by as well. We walked over to the a Brick Oven pizza place close by and ordered a combo pizza and a custom one with garlic, onions, jalapenos and sausage. I thought it was pretty good though as Evan said the combo was a bit busy. We then went back to my place and Lori's friend Nate came over for some cards (Egyptian Rat Screw, not my favorite game, mostly because I suck at it). Late that night a run was made to Safeway for pie (we had to talk Lori out of going all the way to Heidi's Pies in San Mateo) though they came back with a Boston Cream cake and a pecan pie. Evan made the mistake of putting his milk in the fridge and by the end of the night there really wasn't enough milk left to warrant taking home.
On Saturday I once again woke up early to go with Emily to SF to take Kalu (her bird) to The Animal Company for her last weight check. Her weight is completely stable and all concern is pretty much gone. Yay! Kalu makes Emily happy. Good bird! Afterwards we met up with Emily's mother for dim sum and then went back to her house. I feel asleep on the couch while they spent time doing mother/daughter stuff. I then woke up and we headed out, stopping on the way to pick up sausages for Sunday. Emily and I hung out for a while and then she headed home and I called it a night.
Sunday morning I woke up early once again (the only bad trend of the weekend :-) ) and my co workers met at my place at 8 am for a bike ride. Unfortunately one co-worked locked his keys in his car and so I had to drive him home to get his spares. So we got a delayed start at 9am. We did the Tour-de-Peninsula ride essentially, going from my place to Millbrae and back again, about 35 miles total. I survived alright, though I was not in as good a shape as last time. Got slightly burned by the sun as well, but not too bad. We were done by 12:30. I showered and prepared stuff for the BBQ. Emily came by and we headed to a nearby park where we met up with Evan, Lori, Fuson, Roxy, a friend of Roxy's (I'm bad with names) and a bunch of Lori's friends from high school. We had a good time, just hanging out, throwing a Frisbee, grilling (Evan did chicken, I did sausages) and eating too much. Afterwards we went back to my place for some cards and smash brothers and then headed out to watch Spiderman 2. I'd heard such great things about it but I was utterly disappointed. Nowhere near the quality of X-Men2 in my opinion. Lots of cheese and drama and this hilarious scene that reminded me of a B horror film with tentacles and chainsaws.
Monday was pretty uneventful, but then again that's not a bad thing. Hung out with Emily all day, a really good thing. Went to Costco (that place is the devil, I always end up buying too much junk there), met up with her mother and brother for late lunch, hung out at my place for a bit, then hung out at hers waiting for Paul to get in. Picked up Paul from the airport, grabbed some food, and chatted for a while in the evening (he had much to fill me in on ;-) ). I then went to bed and finished my book, putting a nice wrapper on a great weekend.
I had a good 4 day weekend. Yes, I said 4. We got Friday and Monday off at EFI. I needed a bit of a break and two short weeks are nice as well.
So my weekend really started Thursday night. I met up with Evan, Lori, Evan's bro Sean, and Fuson for dinner in downtown Redwood City. We have started exploring some places nearby and I am glad we have since we have found some decent eating options. We ate at a place called Hong-kee Noodle House which was remarkably similar to TK Noodle in price and dishes. It was slightly ghetto with duck-taped seats but it was pretty good. I thought it stood up well as a TK alternative, though it didn't appear to have the good daikon cake appetizer or pearl milk tea. Afterwards we went and watched Fahrenheit 911. It was an entirely biased "documentary" but very enjoyable to watch. Some stuff was really funny the way it was done and some of the information was truly scary/frightening in a "you got to be kidding" sort of way (or maybe it should be "I really wish you were joking" sort of way).
Friday morning I woke up early and met two co-workers at 9 am at Mission Cliffs in SF (it is a huge warehouse with tall climbing walls). I climbed with them until about 12:30. It was really tiring and I am quite out of shape. I didn't really have the best success either. I normally can use brute force to pull myself out of any predicament but my arms tired rather rapidly on Friday. Oh well, time for Emily and I to start hitting the gym regularly again.
I then went to take Emily out to lunch since she was working. We ate in a little pizza place near where she works. The place had a couple good lunch specials. Yay for seeing Emily, she makes me happy :-)
Afterwards I dropped by my Subaru dealership. I found Charles (the super friendly sales person who sold me my car at a great price and still remembers me a year later even though he sells hundreds of cars a year... he is like one of the top rated bay area sales people... if you are ever in need of a Volkswagen or Subaru, he comes highly recommended) and talked with him for a bit. I noticed they had the new 2005 model of my car in the showroom. They made some minor changes to the console and steering wheel (both of which I actually prefer the old way, though they did improve the cup holding capacity which is nice). I did like the new color, a Crystal Grey Metallic. I definitely would have gotten that over my Platinum Silver Metallic. It was sort of slow being midday Friday so I asked if I could test drive my car with a short-throw shifter add on (I have been considering getting this on my car, it makes for a shorter shifting distance and therefore a sportier feel). He said sure, got some keys and walked me out to a car on the lot. Then to my surprise he handed me the keys and told me to be back in 15 minutes or so. So I took it out (it was actually a sedan, not a wagon) and up to 280, took a weird exit I'd never been on before, drove around a bit trying to find an on ramp, and drove back. It was definitely a shorter throwing distance, but the car was so new it was a bit rough so it was hard for me to tell if I'd like it on my car.
Being still focused on cars I headed back to Redwood City, picked up my book and went to Ducky's. It has been a year already so I had Sadie (my car) fully hand detailed inside and out. Man, she can still shine :-). While I was waiting Lori called me saying she wanted Yumi Yogurt and wanted to play some Smash Brothers along with Sean and Fuson. So Fuson actually came by and picked me up, we went to Yumi Yogurt and stuffed ourselves. Talk about large servings there. A "small" even conquered Sean (and if you don't know, there isn't much that is edible that isn't eaten when Sean is around). Having been there before I took the "safe" route and got a small cone. Man, I've never seen ice cream pilled so high on such a small cone! Fuson then took me back to get my car and we went back to my place to some Smash Brothers. Later on Lori went and picked up Evan and Emily came by as well. We walked over to the a Brick Oven pizza place close by and ordered a combo pizza and a custom one with garlic, onions, jalapenos and sausage. I thought it was pretty good though as Evan said the combo was a bit busy. We then went back to my place and Lori's friend Nate came over for some cards (Egyptian Rat Screw, not my favorite game, mostly because I suck at it). Late that night a run was made to Safeway for pie (we had to talk Lori out of going all the way to Heidi's Pies in San Mateo) though they came back with a Boston Cream cake and a pecan pie. Evan made the mistake of putting his milk in the fridge and by the end of the night there really wasn't enough milk left to warrant taking home.
On Saturday I once again woke up early to go with Emily to SF to take Kalu (her bird) to The Animal Company for her last weight check. Her weight is completely stable and all concern is pretty much gone. Yay! Kalu makes Emily happy. Good bird! Afterwards we met up with Emily's mother for dim sum and then went back to her house. I feel asleep on the couch while they spent time doing mother/daughter stuff. I then woke up and we headed out, stopping on the way to pick up sausages for Sunday. Emily and I hung out for a while and then she headed home and I called it a night.
Sunday morning I woke up early once again (the only bad trend of the weekend :-) ) and my co workers met at my place at 8 am for a bike ride. Unfortunately one co-worked locked his keys in his car and so I had to drive him home to get his spares. So we got a delayed start at 9am. We did the Tour-de-Peninsula ride essentially, going from my place to Millbrae and back again, about 35 miles total. I survived alright, though I was not in as good a shape as last time. Got slightly burned by the sun as well, but not too bad. We were done by 12:30. I showered and prepared stuff for the BBQ. Emily came by and we headed to a nearby park where we met up with Evan, Lori, Fuson, Roxy, a friend of Roxy's (I'm bad with names) and a bunch of Lori's friends from high school. We had a good time, just hanging out, throwing a Frisbee, grilling (Evan did chicken, I did sausages) and eating too much. Afterwards we went back to my place for some cards and smash brothers and then headed out to watch Spiderman 2. I'd heard such great things about it but I was utterly disappointed. Nowhere near the quality of X-Men2 in my opinion. Lots of cheese and drama and this hilarious scene that reminded me of a B horror film with tentacles and chainsaws.
Monday was pretty uneventful, but then again that's not a bad thing. Hung out with Emily all day, a really good thing. Went to Costco (that place is the devil, I always end up buying too much junk there), met up with her mother and brother for late lunch, hung out at my place for a bit, then hung out at hers waiting for Paul to get in. Picked up Paul from the airport, grabbed some food, and chatted for a while in the evening (he had much to fill me in on ;-) ). I then went to bed and finished my book, putting a nice wrapper on a great weekend.