more fish (but we didn't eat them)

fdq and friends
cool metal scuplture at the locks
calm waters

sunday was sunny and clear but still cold for us wimps. we had brunch with fdq's friends who have transplanted to seattle. before heading to the airport, we stopped at the Hiram M. Chittenden locks and fish ladder. we saw a couple of small boats and a big boat go through the locks. unfortch, it's off-season for fish. we only saw one brave soul making his way through the cold, cruel currents.
you can make it, buddy!

the flying space needle

space needle
being tourists, we had to go up the space needle. unfortch, it was foggy so we couldn't see very far. it was cool anyway.
delish crab at flying fish
the aftermath
from a friend's recommendation, we ate at the flying fish which had an excellent salt and pepper crab. as you can see, we devoured it. they're also famous for their whole fried fish that looks like a prehistoric creature on a plate. cool.

koolhaas' cool library

the building skin
the different levels
the central atrium
the cool floor

i wanted to see the seattle public library and fdq was, like, "the library? you want to visit the library?" this is no normal public library. we were amazed at how much is crammed into the building but still be so amazingly open.

although not all the tech features work (all the computers were down when we visited), the library does have a cool automatic book handling system. and nice/helpful librarians.

city of yummy seafood and abundant coffee beans

fdq checking out our digs
the awesome bathtub

this weekend fdq and i escaped the rainy, cold weather of the bay area for the less-rainy, more-colder weather of seattle. in the past, we had visited seattle but just once and not with each other. we stayed at the hotel 1000 in downtown seattle. the hotel was fantastic - fdq couldn't stop raving about it. i loved the bathtub with the ceiling faucet. way cool. seattle's got scrumptous seafood - we ate delish fried oysters, stuffed flounder and seafood etouffe at the new orleans creole restaurant while surrounded by southern blues supplanted in the pacific nw.

in front of sam
the ubiquitous pike's place market
lunch at pike place chowder
the weather saturday was dreary but we had to go to pike's place market - no one can go to seattle and not go to the market. starving, we made a beeline to pike place chowder. the chowder was yummy!

enormous handmade cheese at beecher's
mouthwatering pastries at Piroshky-Piroshky
the first starbucks
it was probably good that we ate first because we were sure tempted by the market's other scrumptous offers. maybe we should've ate the grilled cheese at beecher's and the apple pastry at Piroshky-Piroshky. next time!

stuff and more stuff

a few years ago, i watched the corporation and was so profoundly impacted by it that i sent an email to all my friends, encouraging them to watch it. i never do that. i was really hesitant about sending the email but i felt like i had to spread the word. awareness and knowledge of our impact to society and the environment are so commonplace now - it's great!

my friend cr mentioned a short video she watched called the story of stuff. i was surprised to find that the corporation's website has a link to the story of stuff. but i guess i shouldn't be - it's all related.

this is exactly ...

how fdq felt. too funny!

no-occassion presents are the best!

my good friend cr just gave this beautiful necklace today. thin strands of metal hold a pretty glass pendant. even the clasp is cool. i'm wearing it right now. thanks so much, cr!

your head smells like ...

i stole the pic from ck's email.

...puppy! congrats to my good friend ck. she's the soon-to-be proud mama to this cutie puppy named delano. she's getting the pup from puppy pound rescue.

no country for pregnant teens

super scary bad dude (image from nytimes movie review)

pregger teenager (theatrical poster)

the academy awards announced today the nominees for their various awards. that reminded me that i saw 2 of the movies nominated for best movie - no country for old men and juno. both movies are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum (ie. suspenseful/voilence vs. chatty/happy ending) but they both had great actors, interesting stories and very entertaining. i would definitely not want to meet the bad dude from no country in a dark alley or anywhere for that matter. and now, we're big fans of ellen page - check her out in hard candy. i think she wore the same red hoodie in both movies.

how cold is cold?

image from the day after tomorrow

fdq is a contributor to my little blog but he doesn't like to write anything but code so i'll write a couple of entries for him. what he does enjoy is learning stuff. luckily, some of the stuff he learns rubs off on me. last night he made me watch the nova show absolute zero. to paraphrase his words, he usually has some prior knowledge of topics on shows but he's never seen a show about cold. the show was in 2 parts and i only saw the 2nd part but i'd have to agree with fdq - it was fascinating. absolute zero is -273 degrees celsius and scientists have yet to achieve that exact temperature. they've gotten very close by liquefying gases. one of the most amazing things is another state of matter was discovered (and realizing quantum mechanics) when scientists cooled these gases. the nova program did a good job in dumbing the science down so we have an inkling of it. you can watch the show online and i'd recommend it. you'll feel smarter at least.

after all this smartness, i gotta say that this mit scientist dude shown at the end of the nova show needs a reality check and a haircut.
image from necsi

rejection

then - bye bye!
now - yeah!
i've had this computer desk for about 7 years. it was at my old firm's old office and when they had moved, they didn't need them anymore so they gave them to the employees. i finally bought a new computer desk and really needed to get rid of my old desk. we loaded it up into our friend's truck and brought it over to urban ore. but the receiving guy rejected it! here we were sitting among discarded wood and toilet bowls and the dude didn't like the desk. fdq was speechless. so we moseyed over to goodwill and they had no problems taking it. i heart goodwill.
on the drive back, we saw a skateboarder of a different kind. although his outfit was a little unusual (his pink shirt was tied above his short shorts and matching pink socks), his mannerisms was what caught our attention. while he was listening to his music, he was dancing and grooving, occassionally throwing his arms above his head - completely in his own world. we feared for his life because this neighborhood is on the rougher side. i think the bystanders were too shocked to react. the dude reminded us of the pink unicycle guy of sf fame. love the picture of him below. the bay area is great!
from flickr

rockin' aunt and idea house

my aunt and my mom goofing around. my aunt-in law studying their poses.
this saturday we stopped by my aunt's house to drop off my mom's christmas gift to her. my aunt is super hyper. she has more energy than 4 year olds. in order to channel all that energy into something productive, she's learning to play the drums. she even gave us a demonstration. yes, a little 70ish chinese woman rockin' on drums is quite a sight to behold. props to my rockin' aunt!
the green elements of the sunset house
ck testing out the fixtures
the cool kids bathroom
the cool craft corner
stamped floor tile in master bath
aww - the classic endless pool

sunday i went with ck and her friends to check out the sunset house in sf. it's an eco-friendly design house in the middle of the mission district. i especially enjoyed all the cool finishes and the great top floor which had abundant sunlight and views - essential in sf. and for a mere $1 mil, you can buy the 1.5 bedroom apt on the same lot with cool green concepts too.

congrats!

photo from clime+co

congrats to my big bro and sil! they just got married mere months ago and they're going to have a baby! i'm super excited for them. they're still early in the pregnancy so we hope everything goes well. happy thoughts!

all aboard!

our friend sl gave us ticket to ride for christmas this year. apparently, it's a really popular board game but i had never heard of it. fdq and i played it with ef and rr for the first time after new years which i won (yeah!). we played it again for the 3rd time last night with sl and a couple of his friends. we discovered that we were playing it wrong! well, it wasn't completely wrong but it was funny still.
thanks for the fun game, sl!

sitar hero

my friend bt emailed this clip to me. too funny! thanks, bt!

greetings

i watched starman on cable the other night. i was 12 years old when this movie was released. everything about it was so cheesy - the special effects, jeff bridges acting like an alien, the storyline - absolutely corny but i loved it. take me to your leader.

wet and wild weekend

happy birthday, ef!

we ventured out last friday night after the big storm to celebrate our friend ef's birthday. we had a huge dinner at the cheesecake factory. then we rolled over to the fillmore to check out social distortion.
fdq and rb drinking ... soda
cool fillmore

i love the interior of the fillmore. cool posters of past concerts hang on every square inch of wall space. so cool.

3 nancy boys and 1 nancy

saturday night we managed to avoid the rain when we met up with kl and cr for dinner at absinthe. rr and fdq love the bar there, especially the bartender. you'd think the bartender was a hot blond but they like him for his drinks. uh huh. dinner was yummy and we wandered to a nearby lounge called sugar. fdq snagged the back room for us where we hung out. spending time with old friends is a great way to start a year.

yay! new year's in san jose!

beginning of the food
it's midnight!
cheers!

my good friend ck had a party at her house for new years. it was load's of fun. she went all martha and made all the food. i don't know how she squeezed all that food out of that tiny kitchen! i also don't know how she squeezed 50 party-ers into her little house.

rock on!

we played rock band, guitar hero and popped balloons filled with evil confetti. ck delights in knowing evil confetti infests her friends' homes.

here's to 2008!
thanks for the fantastic party, ck!

i read books

i actually read books over the holidays. fdq is the avid book reader in this family. probably 99% of all the books we own he has read. the other 1% that is mine to read still remain unread. i used to be into reading books but i'm now more of an instant satisfaction kinda gal (ie. tv). but this holiday was different.

i am legend is a great book. i can see why the horror genre especially movies were influenced by this novel. it explored humanity and sanity while providing an intriguing story. i'm interested to see the recent movie version.

i had heard that kite runner was an emotional book. it is definitely that. i enjoyed the author's writing style - fluid and interesting. i need that so i don't get bored easily. the story was compelling but there were parts that tied too neatly or were too coincidental. nonetheless, i thoroughly enjoyed the book. i think i'll see that movie too. notice a theme?