i be illin'

my throat is super dry and sore and i feel like curling up in a ball and sleeping for days.

no baa bits for berry!

berry's favorite cat treat lamb lung (but more officially called baa bits) is no longer sold at our local pet club! i didn't know what to do so i scoured the shelves for something that didn't look like mushed balls of something and found this:

the dried fish treats actually look pretty good and berry loves it. to be honest, i think berry will eat anything. i found that this treat is sold on ebay but would you really pay $7.49 for shipping a $1.19 treat?

thankful for:

family portrait
kids with grandma
image from allegro photography
image from allegro photography
my family has always been my parents, my brothers (one older, one younger) and my grandma (dad's mom). we've all had our conflicts which each other through out our lives but we wouldn't be who we are without each other. we all have the same quirky/cheesy humor, laidback personalities and stubborness.

big bro and wife lhc in grand central station, new york 2007

little bro with wife wl at ferry building, san francisco 2007
my brothers married great women who i couldn't have picked better for them. they are independent, smart, funny and warm hearted.

images from allegro photography
fdq has a wonderful family too. they welcomed me with open arms and i see why fdq turned out the way he did. they are so loving and supportive.

thankful for:

fdq as a wee little baby
fdq getting hosed by brother
i love these early pictures of fdq. he's so teeny tiny in the baby picture. and i love his joyous reaction to getting hosed by his brother. he still has that happiness to things he loves although i don't think he'll like to get hosed anymore.
around the time fdq and i met
fdq and i met through our friend hl when we recently moved to the bay area in 1998. i started dating another guy for 4 years so we didn't get together until later. i'm so thankful we did.
image from allegro photography

our "un-thanksgiving, un-norman rockwell" thanksgiving

striphouse restaurant in planet hollywood
right now fdq is recovering from our holiday trip to las vegas so you know it was fun. i spent the days at the mandalay spa getting a massage and body scrub/body wrap while the boys watched the cowboys play on thanksgiving day and slept friday. thanksgiving night we had dinner at the striphouse restaurant at planet hollywood which was the former aladdin casino.

photo of aladdin casino from someone's website

planet hollywood now
i don't think i've ever been to aladdin casino before but ph looks pretty spectacular now.

afterwards we went to the palms to check out the playboy club and moon. the playboy club was pretty swanky with lots of cool playboy memorabilia. unfortch, moon was not open so after some time at the playboy club we went to ghost bar.

mix restaraunt at mandalay bay
we had dinner friday night at the mix restaurant. the decor is very sleek and modern. our food was really tasty too.

view from and inside tao at venetian
after dinner we went to the mix club which wasn't rocking much so we went to tao at the venetian. i had a fabu time there last year for my bachelorette party. for a friday after thanksgiving night, tao was suprisingly crowded but not crushingly so.
so although we had an "un-thanksgiving, un-norman rockwell" thanksgiving (thanks to lh's dead-on description), there were still many thanksgiving elements. we ate great food and, more importantly, spent time with loved ones (thanks for joining us, rr!). we are thankful for our health, happiness and life. and we are certainly thankful for being able to have memorable experiences like this.

thanksgiving =

view from mandalay bay april 2007

yup, fdq and i decided a couple of days ago that since we went to vegas for easter, why not go to vegas for thanksgiving! this'll be my 2nd visit but fdq's 4th visit this year. he's looking forward to watching the dallas cowboys game on the big screens of mandalay bay's sports book and i'm looking forward to getting a relaxing massage at the spa.

i have always had a great time in vegas. last year, i had my bachelorette party there with hundreds of other brides. everyone is friendly and social because they're so drunk. it's interesting how barriers are lowered in that atmosphere.

berry

here are some pictures of our cat, berry. that's short for berryessa - she's named after the shopping center where we found her 3 years ago. she was around 4 months old, flea infested, and a sweetheart. we were at our car and she meowed. fdq called 'kitty kitty' and she ran to him, purring like a locomotive. she's been with us ever since and is spoiled rotten.

thinking of you

to my wonderful friend ck ...

chocolate factories

there are 2 chocolate factories practically in my backyard and i haven't been to either of them! that's just criminal. both charles chocolates and scharffen berger have free tours and samples - yum!! even my work is next to the ghirardelli factory in san leandro. the smell of chocolate in the air is intoxicating.

if chocolate's not your bag, check out the jelly belly factory less than an hour away in fairfield. the temptations are too great!!

drive-by shooting

sonoma
i drove another few hundred miles today for work. i went to sonoma county to the lodge at sonoma to pick up some documents and then went to sacramento. it was a beautiful day in wine country - sigh. i loved the sun-dappled rolling hills and fields of rust-colored vines. luckily, i had my camera with me and managed to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery while driving the windy roads. which is actually harder than talking on a cell phone and driving.

hwy 80 around vallejo (?)
i also took some pictures of the scenery around 80 north where it always reminds me of cheesy landscape models with the spray-painted grass and glued-on bushy trees .

congrats to the parks!

congrats to my friend's new baby girl! she's so cute! khp was born on oct 30 - hey, that's my big bro's birthday. i can't wait to meet her in person!

the waiting game

november 2006

every november i wait for someone to invite me to thanksgiving dinner. and every november i break down and end up co-hosting thanksgiving dinner for my friends. i have co-hosted dinner almost every year since i moved to the bay area in 1998. my ex-roommate lh and i even hosted dinner at friend's apartments because ours was too small! over the years, the main course has featured a tofurkey, brined turkeys, roasted duck and even a turducken. our friends bring what ever side dishes they desire. some past activities have been watching movies or assembling a lego millenium falcon. but, they all have included getting stuffed on food and having a great time.

i'm waiting again this year but, after all these years, i actually enjoy hosting thanksgiving.

remembering veterans

blue angels in san fran 10/2007

i'm not a patriotic person but i've grown to understand how lucky i am to live in the united states. a couple of months ago we travelled to prague, budapest and amsterdam. the lasting influence from the nazi and communist regimes in those cities (and all of europe) is beyond my comprehension. the iron curtain fell less than 20 years ago in 1980's/1990's. our hotel driver in prague told us fascinating stories about the nature of the police state before the iron curtain fell. it never hits you until you're there. scary.

here are the museums we visited:

prague's communist museum

budapest's house of terror
amsterdam's anne frank house

then, after our trip, the ken burns' documentary the war was on pbs. a great documentary. an interesting aspect of the film that struck me was the attitudes of the americans. before pearl harbor, they were idyllic and in their own world. the troubles of the outside world was not their problem. the interesting part is that's how i feel now. although i don't have any relatives that are u.s. veterans, i truly appreciate all the young soldiers who sacrificed their lives.

classic comedies

we watched these movies (at least parts of them) on cable or video this weekend. clueless, there's something about mary, and super troopers didn't win any awards but they are great comedies. they all have a sense of fun and outrageousness. enjoy!

sometimes the bar eats you

our good friend father karl visited us this weekend. it was great to hang out with him. we hadn't seen him for a few weeks, partly because he and his wife went to china. this is what he came back with!

at first he claimed that he woke up with his foot broken. later, however, he admitted that jumping of the bar the night before might have had some influence on the broken foot. this is why we love you!

in an effort to recapture high school days, fdq and i signed his cast. fdq wrote "sometimes the bar eats you" from the big lebowski which i felt was much more appropriate and wittier than my meager "break a leg." by the way - happy anniversary!