December 2005

12.30.05, Friday:

[08:28am] Oh yeah...note...something I noticed a while ago and recently too...as a gentle reminder...please...edify one another, and not bring another down more...we're here to show Christ's love. When we see someone in need, whether it's through an emo blog or just in their faces, we're not to puff ourselves up and tell them to stop seeking attention (hey, sometimes, emo happens, even if we don't like it or do it ourselves!), or that they suck because they look down on themselves so much anyways so they really do suck, or whatever. We're here to lift up each other and not bring another down more.

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Yesterday was lovely! I visited Shelton, and he took me for a Pho lunch at Pho 99. Pho 79 is still the best though, ha ha ha...though 99 filled up my stomach quite nicely. =) For dinner, he made Beer Can Chicken to test for the party, and I made bok choy! Heh heh. ^_^ Dessert included chilled oranges and "tong yuen" (sweet rice balls with sesame paste inside, floating in a little sea of ginger and brown sugar soup!). Mmm. ^_^

12.28.05, Wednesday:

[11:25pm] Went on a long day of shopping with my mom, hee hee...from San Gabriel for frames for some Chinese art stuff we have, all the way to South Coast Plaza, where I got my mom her Christmas present at last...and probably her birthday gift too, ha ha ha...in other words...SHE WINS! ^_^

You know how sometimes, you may meet someone, and though you don't get much of a chance to talk, you know that that person is a "kindred spirit" (as Anne of Green Gables would say)? Sometimes, you may chat with that person for only a little bit; at other times, you may not have ever even spoken to that person, but there's this tacit, unspoken understanding of each other. And then one day, you both break grounds and communicate with one another to show that you appreciate each other, or that this quiet understanding is now deepened by another conversation, no matter how long or short it may be. Sometimes, when the opportunity arises, you end up becoming great friends - this is how some of my best friends came to be even! ^_^

There are a few of those around, everywhere. People I know that are kindred spirits, that though I may not have ever spoken to them much, that should we have the chance, we should all be great friends, whether we are old, young, silly, mature, or whatever. ^_^ It's neat, this dynamic of instant connection that kindred spirits have with one another. It's quite neat. =)

So that takes us to tonight's dinner:

We had dinner at the Sam Woo's in Irvine. One of the older waiters is this gentleman that has been there probably before I started going to UCI. I've always recognized him, and him I - though we never really talked, there's always this understanding that he works there, and I'm a regular there, ha ha ha. =) Anyways, at the end of dinner, he came by and said, "Hey! Long time no come here!" (in Cantonese, of course, so it sounds different. ^_^) And so my mom and I chatted with him a little bit, about how I finished school 5 years ago and have been teaching and such since then, but used to come here often when I was at UCI. After we paid the bill, he came by and brought us FREE DESSERT! How awesome is that? Hee hee. My mom was all - Wow! Of all the UCI students, he still remembers you! (This might mean I went to eat at Sam Woo's entirely too much, ha ha ha...but then again...Beef Chow Fun, Seafood Chow Mein, Singapore Rice Noodles, and Won Ton Noodles...you can't refuse to go there if you like those dishes. ^_^) So very cool! Mr. Brian La is an AWESOME waiter at Sam Woo's. ^_^

12.27.05, Tuesday:

[06:47pm]

Tuesday - Went to San Clemente with Rosalyn to visit Rainbow Flip Flop , and have lunch at Sonny's Pizza and Pasta for a thin crust Spinach and Alfredo pizza and of all things...eggplant parmigiana. ^_^ Followed by chilling at Brea Mall (see the reindeer below?), watching RENT at the movies, and eating dumplings at her place. Though I didn't think much of the storyline, the acting and singing and dancing in RENT was quite good, and in the end, because it pulled at you emotionally, it was a nice movie musical. Wicked and Mamma Mia! are still my two favorites though. =) The girl from Wicked, Idina Menzel, played Maureen in RENT, and Joanna was played by Tracie Thoms!!! Tracie Thoms was Mahandra in Wonderfalls. Which, if you didn't know by now, was a hilarious series (though short-lived) on TV. I have the DVD - you can borrow if you ask nicely. =)

Wednesday - Dim sum at Sam Woo's with Heidi, Rosalyn, Calvin and Edwin! My last time eating with Edwin during his, as Calvin so appropriately called it, "eatfest" out here in SoCal. =) Aw, goodbye for now Edwin - till next time! And maybe I'll be able to find you when I'm there for Spring Break! =)

After eating at least half of the items on Heidi's dim sum flashcards, and after Heidi had fallen in love with the nye-wong-bao's, we ended our lunch together, and I headed over to LA to go play with Lorie, whom I've not seen in forever! Yay! Lorie is awesome. We chilled, played wallyball with other people in the Air Force (wallyball is fun! Even though my arm got completely swollen and bruised...it was still fun. ^_^), drove all over the dark looking for her rental car pick-up, and eating at Panera. Fun fun! ^_^

Thursday - Happy Birthday Calvin! =)

Off to Vegas! Arrived after lunch, in time to unpack, eat at Sushi Factory (yummy deals, but service was horrible...!), visit the condo, and go to Auntie Wanda's for an excellent dinner prepared by Uncle (Auntie Wanda's husband), and even saw Rick on HK TV, before visiting Kevin K. and checking out his new holes, hee hee...

Friday - Heidi and Lalo came over to Vegas to join us in a day of glorious eating! ^_^ We went to Cuba Cafe for lunch (mmm!), visited the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory over in Henderson, along with the World's Largest Cactus Botanical Gardens, where Heidi sat in Santa's seat as the rightful Goddess of Chocolate and of the Botanical Garden. =)

This was followed by some meandering over Mandalay Bay (where we discovered that yummy Chocolate Swan shop, The Reading Room, a tea shop, and enough fun things for our eyes to see!), Luxor, The Little Church of the West, and even caught one of the water shows at Bellagio. =)

All that good fun was followed by dinner at Capo's, a speakeasy place that is totally going in my list of top places to eat in Vegas because it was too fun to just get in! =)

What is a speakeasy??? I didn't know till a few days ago...but you will be enlightened now! Instead of walking in the doors to a restaurant, you have to ring this doorbell to get in...and when you ring it, they'll open up a slot in the door to see who you are. In the olden days, or in the movies, people would say something like "Joe sent me", or some secret password to get in, hee hee hee. =) In our case, because we were taking pictures and probably making too much noise, we never really got to pushing the doorbell in - the door slot opened after my camera flashed, muah ha. =) I still pushed it on my way out though...shhh...! =) Besides the neat little booths with curtain coverings, we also had yummy food and live music on a little stage. We had some stuffed chicken, an alfredo pasta dish ("Wise Guy Alfredo"), lasagna, and a shrimp pasta dish (called "Chef Sleeps With the Fish", heh heh), and finished it off with canolis. Yummm. ^_^

When we got back to Shelton's place, Shan and Keen were already there with Hugo, so we played with little Hugo until they all got sleepy and went home, heh heh. =)

Saturday -

Dim Sum with Uncle John and Carole at Chang's! =) They're such neat folks...! =)

A visit to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum...with only forty minutes to go through the whole place, we were able to see an interactive science room, a bunch of fish, inventions, and even dinosaurs. ^_^ However, this is where my camera also dropped, and it can no longer flash. =( So, I have to get it repaired somewhere. Any ideas anyone?

We visited Mrs. Prado (another neat, cute and nice ol' lady!) and Kris, where we were fed and toured about, before picking up Auntie (Shelton's mom) from work, eating wonton noodles at Noodle Palace (quite good! So far, I recommend...!), and heading to the strip to meander, speak British, and watch The Chronicles of Narnia till late night. =)

Sunday - Christmas Day! =)

Happy Birthday Jesus! ^_^ We started off by visiting Uncle John and Carole's colorful and cozy home in Henderson for a homemade breakfast by Uncle John. Mmm. Pineapples and honeydew (I love this combination! I'm going to do it too!), all kinds of bagels, orange juice, and Uncle John's shirred eggs (his recipe was different from this one, but the idea is similar). I'm going to try to make them one day too. =)

After, we went to LWCC for service, seeing wonderful people like David, Regis, Charles, Kurt, Emily, Jean, Pastor James, Becky, and the rest there, before going to lunch with Benny and Connie. Because only the Asian places were open on Christmas day, it was packed everywhere; we finally got to eat at BBQ King, where the food wasn't that great (except for the char-siu, which was juicy and yummy) - but nor was it bad - and the service bad. Sigh. But we ate, nonetheless. =)

A hot pot Christmas dinner full of food was gobbled up by all, followed by a visit to Shan and Keen's place for sesame rice balls. =)

Monday - Happy Birthday Jenny! ^_^ Dim sum (again!) with Auntie and Connie, before going home in horrible traffic. So after an hour in, we stopped by the Primm Outlet Center to meander for a few hours, before taking on the 15 again, sitting again in traffic for what looked like a four car accident. After that, the traffic wasn't so bad, and the company, of course, was wonderful! =) Wahoo's for dinner - and since it's the first time we've been there, we had to try their fish tacos...which were disappointing. Sigh. No more Wahoo's I guess!

As much as I love to visit other places, it's also true that there's simply no place like home. =)

Tuesday - Today! Went to Glen Ivy Hot Springs with Rosalyn. WOW! So much fun! And two-for-one price certainly helps. =) We salt bathed, mineral bathed, Roman bathed, mud bathed, used the sauna and steam room. I like the steam room, heh heh, and the salt bath and mud baths were my favorite. =) The mud bath is really interactive, so it makes it extra fun - you have to get wet, and then cover yourself with red clay mud, let it get all dry and crackly, and then swoosh it off before taking a warm shower and cleaning it all off. Afterwards, your skin feels extra clean and soft, ha ha...=)

I got a call in the morning though - there was a fire in our condo this morning, at 6am! =( The last time I visited it was on Friday, and we didn't turn anything on or really even use or touch anything...I had locked everything up, and so we're not even sure how it got started. The investigators think it was arson. Grrr! I personally think it sounds fishy about the neighbor who was calling and talking about him wanting to be reimbursed by our insurance for smoke damage to his clothes and such. But anyways, we're lucky - the fire was limited to the one bedroom, with its closet and bathroom; the windows were broken in by firefighters, and none of anything else was damaged. We're lucky that Uncle (Shelton's dad) was able to stop by and take some of our things out from the kitchen. We didn't have much there anyways, but he was able to salvage the hot water pot and other things for us, as the Association didn't have it boarded up yet (they should have; we just got news not too long ago that they finally sent someone to board things up. Whew.). Anyways...it's long...short story - we were freaked out, and now, thankful and calmer, with hopes that things will be taken care of by God. And that the Association hustles up and takes care of what needs to be done there first. =Þ

There were more than 100 pictures from this weekend, hee hee...haven't gotten them all up online yet, so when I do, I'll blog the link. =)

12.19.05, Monday:

[10:30am] In Progress, but getting there...^_^

12.18.05, Sunday:

[10:50pm] A wonderful weekend and start of winter break, ha ha ha! =)

On Saturday, we went to the Lau Family Christmas Party...an annual favorite, with lots of good food, catching up, taking pictures, and the usual crazy gift exchange, heh heh. ^_^ After that, we went to the 99 Ranch to do some grocery shopping, and my parents left my bro and I there to wait for Shelton to pick us up to Arcadia. While waiting, we pushed shopping carts around in the parking lot, ha ha ha...and pushed them all the way to the front of the store. One worker was standing in the front doing nothing, and just kinda stared at us. Another said "Thanks" and looked rather confused when we pushed him a little train of carts while he was gathering and harvesting abandoned shopping carts in the lot. Hee hee. So much random fun, and we did a good deed too, heh heh! ^_^

When Shelton arrived, we had to end our fun there, only to head off to more excellent play time with friends at the Focus plaza in San Gabriel. Besides us three, Edwin (YAY! ^_^ Visiting till Wednesday), Jeremiah, Calvin, Dorothy, Andrew, Derrick, and Simon ate shabu shabu there (an interesting experience...I don't think I'd go there again though, ha ha...there was this old, brown meatball that was near the corner where I was sitting at, and it looked like...well...you can imagine...*ahem* it was unpleasant, ha ha ha...and now, every time I think of where we ate, I think of that...! O_o

Pictures:

(1) Bro sleeping - very long ride on up there, as there was some huge accident on the 5 fwy. (2) Shelton and Edwin!

After some loitering, we ended up going to Calvin's to play Pictionary. Oy! We were SOOOOOOoooooooooooooo close to winning! It was such a good game, heh heh...a rematch is completely needed another day...! We got home so late (or so early in the morning, depending on how you look at it)...but Shelton was kind enough to stay up with me to make the haystacks desserts for the Winter Party. Thank you! ^_^ Plus, he drove us all over the place too - and look! No accident! Woot woot!

Today is Sunday. JASON HAS BEEN BAPTIZED!!! ^_^ Hallelujah!

Church was packed today. Ed L's message was powerfully meaningful and to-the-point, and really had me thinking on a lot of things. I've not heard something this meaningful in...a long, long time...He's my idol, you know? ^_^We had the Secret Santa gift exchange - always fun to see that everyone really put in thought to think of something that the other would really like. ^_^ After the guys were done with basketball, we went to Calvin's for the Winter Party, set up dinner, made food, shared about the past year, ate, had our white elephant gift exchange, took lots of pictures (ooo, there's this controversial short film for Calvin...will upload...maaaaaayyyybe, ha ha ha!), followed by Gilbert-Clause's present giving (Thank you Gilbert, for going out of your way to make sure everyone felt welcomed and special!).

Pictures:

(1) Bro sleepy again. Pic by Anna. =) (2) M&M! (3) Shelton & Derrick!

Open Invitation to Friends:

Dim Sum on Wednesday at the Rowland Heights Sam Woo's Seafood. 11am. Be there, or be square. ^_^ Let me know if you'll be there, so we save seats for ya. ^_^

Da Vinci Code is getting SO GOOD! ^_^

12.16.05, Friday:

[06:15am] YES! It's Friday! =) Last day of work...and then break! ^_^

It's been a great week at school - no real problems, everything going smoothly and well. Gift wrapping after work is always, always fun, and of course, even a few wonderful people had their birthdays this week!

Monday (12th) - Happy Birthday ET! Happy Birthday Kevin L! ^_^

Tuesday (13th) - Happy Birthday Joanne! Happy Birthday Kurt! Happy Birthday Janice! ^_^

Thursday (15th) - Happy Birthday Edwin! ^_^

Yesterday after work, our book club met up at the Streeter Tea House for tea. MMMmMMmmmm! Wow! The food was AWESOME and well worth the $10. I've only been to a tea house once before, but this one was more than excellent. ^_^ They had delicious tea sandwiches of curry and a tomato concoction and cucumbers and cheese and...well, all sorts of stuff...the warmest, freshest-baked scones I've ever had matched with clotted cream, lemon curd (or strawberry or pumpkin...uh...jam?), and cream on top...!...flaky pastry mini pigs-in-a-blanket...some German chocolate coconut type sweets...heavenly cream puffs...and did I miss anything??? Heh heh. The tea was good and tasty, and I drank like 7 or 8 cups, sampling from everyone's pots and my white vanilla, but I think that I'm simply used to Chinese tea the best (the one that you get at a Chinese restaurant, ha ha...) for usual occasions. Because they were all flavored, I kept expecting it to be sweet, but it wasn't so, and I'd want to add some sugar into it, hee hee hee...=)

(1) Tea Sandwiches! (2) Julie and Marian, inspecting our newly arrived tasties.

(3) Group Pic I (Tamara, Heidi, Sue, Julie, Marian, and Lynda). (4) Group Pic II. ^_^

I was too busy eating the rest to take pictures of the other stuff, ha ha ha...you'll just have to come with me next time...cuz I do want to go again! =)

Reminder to self - Over break, need to add in new recipes and the whole places-to-eat page...^_^

12.11.05, Sunday:

[08:59pm] Brief overview of an fun weekend:

Saturday - Target! My parents' 28th year Anniversary! Dinner at Diamond Palace, one of the yummiest place on the earth for Chinese food. ^_^ The day concluded with...Harry Potter 3! ^_^

Sunday - Breakfast at Gus Jr. with Anna, Melody, and Shelton! Church - subbed the high school class, shoes to Amy, dress to Kim, and Nina tried to keep my socks, shoes and coats for another 5 months...hee hee hee (j/k!)! Then there was fellowshipping at lunch and Governing Board afterwards.

My bro, Shelton and I tried to make it to the Heritage House for Gilbert's presentation, but we left too late, and missed it. =( Next time Gilbert! =)

And of course, Shelton and I had to keep on meandering at The Crossings (Best Buy! Kohl's! Bed, Bath and Beyond! Cost Plus!).

 Catfish for dinner! Wrapping gifts! Lovely day. =)

Tomorrow - ET's BIRTHDAY!!! and KEVIN L's BDAY!!! ^_^

12.09.05, Friday:

[11:59pm] Went out to play after work today. =)

Giang and I

Ate Pho for dinner!

We made a fort!

And watched "Down With Love" (The clothing, music, singing and dancing...fun movie!)

With Queen Anne Cherry Cordials.

Mmm. ^_^

12.08.05, Thursday:

[9:59pm] Happy Birthday to my bro!!! ^_^ 25!

Went to Anna's, and my bro made it too...and wow, so did Jonathan!!! So perfect!!! ^_^ We ate at Banana Bay. Of all the things...no Mee Krob...but that's okay...we grubbed on Exotic, Spicy Fried Rice, Pad Thai, Cashew Chicken, and Spaghetti Kee Mao! The spicy stuff was heavy, but salivatingly good...=)

(1) Cutting up Birthday Pad Thai. ^_^  (2) Peace! (3) Imitation Peace...ha ha...

After work yesterday, Angela and Mercedes convinced me to join them for dinner and mall-meandering (I ended up getting a ring and necklace for a pendant of mine, hee hee...there were big sales...time for Christmas shopping soon...heh heh...). Mmmm...that Charlie's Philly Cheesesteak at the food court is actually...meltingly and gooey-ley deeeelicious...!!! They use provolone cheese too!!! Woo hoo! ^_^ Always lots of fun hanging out with these two...especially when hitting the sales rack. Woot woot! ^_^

12.06.05, Tuesday:

[7:07pm]

It's been getting cold. Time to break out the Coca Cola Fuzzy Bear Slippers.

'_'

[6:42am] Oh, it was a great weekend. =)

Got lots of things taken care of. I was even able to make curry triangles and salmon rolls on Saturday night. =) I did miss Chris and Yvonne's Wedding though - oy! Congrats!!! I wish I could have been there - I heard it was nothing short of elegant, heh heh. ^_^

Sunday was particularly fun - at church, Nina made me spit at Anna before service, and there was this fly that came out of nowhere when we were singing our hymns. And we read our Scriptures with a British accent. ^_^ It may sound like play time, but my notes from our guest speaker filled up my notes page. ^_^

Anna and I would take pictures, cheek to cheek, and our cheeks would shock each other continuously! It was like, "Smile! *OW!* Keep on smiling! Peace!" Heh heh. ^_^

We took off to Target afterwards to buy essentials (Shelton was the big winner! All three Harry Potters and LOTR's for only $5.88 each!), before relaxing at home and heading to our last class of ballroom dancing with Gilbert. And we were all just getting the hang of it, doing triple spins and such! Sigh. Must take more classes...!!! =)

While going home for dinner, we drove around checking out the Christmas Lights off Main Street. Hee hee. You can watch a video if you're willing to wait for it to load up. =)

Before dinner, we made a bunch of thumbtacks, heh heh. You can too! They make fun gifts. ^_^ All it takes are Sharpies and a pack of plain tacks that Target (80 for only 75 cents!). Here are some I made for (1) Shelton and (2) [can't say until I give it that person, ha ha...]. (3) Since I didn't make any for myself, Shelton made a bunch for me, hee hee...[*I got the idea from Bella Dia. ^_^]

And Anna and I sharpied each other's nails.

Too bad I didn't take any pictures of Derrick's "Polk St." and the one with a Flower and Bridge on it (for you Canto folks, ha ha...), nor Anna's M&M's! =Þ But there is a short video of AC recording DC by mistake, muah ha!

Happy Birthday to Josh (yesterday!)!!! =) Lots of December birthdays coming up...! ^_^

12.02.05, Friday:

[7:00pm] What a day. Nothing good after I left school, it seemed.

Sigh. People want to do all sorts of things...but don't make it their priority, so they don't do it...and somehow, I get stuck in the middle of it...nomorenomorenomore...!!! Leave me out of it from now on! Sigh. Okay, vented. Done.

Why do I love Heidi so much??? Here are some excerpts from a recent email that will tell you why, with names in initials only, ha ha...it's only too bad we're not teaching in the same school. My goodness, I think we'd be blacklisted as associates in a hoodlum-ing conspiracy at Sierra, ha ha...

So, today I think the kids realized I'm their real teacher - they started asking my name, and startedd divulging lots of stuff.

And I wanted to go to your room and say, "S's dad passed out and she took him to the hospital last night - what do you know?" and "L's cousins were killed this weekend," and "F asked me what I think about the girl he's started dating - and they're so cute!" and "J's typing in my room right now - come over and let's double-team him and get him to talk about what's bugging him" and all that.

But there was nobody there to talk to! 

Today I got called to translate, but I had a full classroom of kids and couldn't leave. Um, sorry, learn it yourself?  [Hee hee, in case you don't know, she's totally white. =) Oh, but actually Asian. ^_^]

When are you starting a school so I can come teach when you a short-term
need??  The only person double-teaming with me now is the counselor, and the
community liaison who just started and I'm having call home about
everything. 

I have no RF's!  But several WG's - just more mature. And a couple of the girls tried to give me attitude, but when I flipped it back and they realized I've been a B**** longer than they were alive, they backed down pretty quick.  Because I'm extra powerful! :-)  But the best part?  Every kid who was at school today - except one who's going to beg me mercilessly - turned in the big essay that was due!  Woo hoo!  No failures here! 

I love her emails, ha ha! She's the best!

It's been a fast week. I was out two days for the Textbook Adoption Meetings. Not much accomplished on the first day - actually, it seemed like a waste of time...but at least on the second day, more things were done, and I felt I got a better look-through of both Glencoe and the Holt books and ancillary materials  that are running against each other, so to say, for the adoption next year. I liked having a say or two on things for RSP and ELD population. These health ones have a Spanish glossary in the back too, which is...WOW! =) It's not easy to decide though - both publishers have their strengths and weaknesses, of course. There's still the publisher presentation to attend, but that's later in the year. =)

Time for a bubble bath. And then maybe I'll be alert enough to do some work. =)

And even though she's way in China right now, Happy Birthday Lil' Sis! ^_^