February 2006
02.26.06, Sunday:
[03:00pm] Wednesday - Went to Anna's, where we ate at Sam Woo's (mmm!) before playing with tube bubbles in the parking lot, with people staring at us and wondering why were sitting under the street lamp late at night, laughing our heads off...hee hee...=) And then we went to Hip Hop! Woo hoo! Fun once again! =) It's been about a year since I last hippity hopped myself away, muah ha...can't wait till Wednesday again! ^_^
Friday - Shelton surprised me after work! He came and even brought me Vietnamese Eggrolls from Pho 79! ^_^ So kind of him! After finishing after-school work, we went to the Citrus City Grille and indulged in calamari, salmon with pesto sauce, and yummy chicken with crreeeeeeeammy mashed potatoes and asparagus. Mmmm! We got lost in the fun at Borders, where I got the Lonely Planet Cantonese book, hee hee. I love these Lonely Planet phrasebooks!!! =) Tempting right now are the British phrasebook and Spanish phrasebook, hee hee. =) Too bad they don't have Vietnamese (ooo, I found it online!)...but I already have a Vietnamese one - that hey, I'll have to ask ET to help me with!!! ^_^
Saturday - Quinceanera was fun! Pretty much lasted from noon till 9pm, from the ceremony at the church (everything, all the time, was in Spanish. I picked up a bit, but not a lot - most of the time, I didn't know what they were saying exactly. I could only kinda figure out from what I knew, heh heh) to a short lunch break and nap break, to the reception in Riverside. I got to be a "double madrina", as the madrina for the necklace wasn't going to the church, so I got to step in and place the necklace for Stephanie - and got sprinkled with Holy Water while I was up there, ha ha ha...=) I saw a whole bucket of Holy Water in the back, and would have loved to have taken a completely fobby, touristy picture of it - but I guess it would have been...uh...disrespectful? =Þ I also saw a few former students! They're all much taller now, hee hee hee...=)
At the reception, we ate birria with the hottest, most yummy sauce ever. Once everything got going the evening was nonstop action, packed with between 300 to 400 guests, Mexican dancing (where Stephanie and the Chambalanes seemed like they were putting on a MTV dance show, hee hee...so fun!), the Padrino dance (where Shelton and I got to go up and dance con mi ahijada and the lead Chambelan in front of everyone, respectively), and lots of Mariachi music, banda music, and everything else. =) There were some photography problems, so I didn't get to do the cake cutting with the photographer and mi ahijada, but I was still La Madrina del Cuchillo y Pala. ^_^
My camera is still out of commission, but here are some pictures from Shelton's camera. I have a few videos, but way too big to upload; if you wanna see 'em, let me know! =)
(1) Shelton y yo in el coche, esperando a la iglesia. (2) Mi ahijada (con una vestida grande y bonita!) y yo! (3)Mi ahijada con los padres en la iglesia.
WINTER CAMP PICTURES are also up with Thomas and Melody. ^_^ Excerpts:
(1) The cup game! =) (2) G.E.T.! (3) Group picture: all 21 of us!
(4) Nina drags me down while I attacked her, ha ha ha...(5) Gummy says: "Peace out!" ^_^
It looks like I'm going to Beijing again! Woo hoo!
Christine is down here from Seattle. We're going to eat dinner with her tonight - yay!
02.21.06, Tuesday:
[07:53am] Riverdance was AWESOME...! I went in, not really knowing what to expect. I had heard it was good, but would I be bored by nonstop dancing with no singing? Indeed I was not! I was so amazed by their skills in singing, dancing, acting, spinning, jumping, flipping, tapping, music, everything...! My goodness, the whole time, we couldn't take our eyes off the stage, not even sleepy Vanessa, heh heh. =) She got a scholarship, by the way! And I wrote a letter of rec for her, heh heh...woo hoo! ^_^
I love the Pantages - it's crazy beautiful inside - the ceiling is amazing...and anyways, here are some random pictures from the night! (red eye a problem in some, bleah)
Afterwards, Vanessa and Anna slept over for the night, with late night ramen noodles to fill our tummies, lots of talking and hanging out, and finally...sleep for 3 hours before going to Big Bear. =)
Oh yeah...on the way up to Hollywood, we had a teeny, tiny, minor car accident...okay...more of a BUMP...>_< It was super slow stop and go traffic on the 60 West, and well...anyways, in retrospect, it was almost funny, in a slow motion type of way, with Anna saying: "Gaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiillllllll...!!!!" and anyways...yeah...it was her first car accident. Sigh. What a way to be remembered, eh? Hee hee.
That wasn't the end of my car's adventures though...
On the way up to Big Bear the next morning, we hooked up our snow chains, and found that we had to detour around the 18 to get to camp. On the detour sometime, one of the cables snapped! Agh! So we drove very, very slowly. But was that the end? Nope!
As we slowly meandered around a bend next to Big Bear Lake, my car decided to skid on the ice and do a super slow motion 360o spin...it was so slow and yet...so very scary...! All I could think of was "Pump the brakes slooowly! Pump the brakes sloooowly!", while Vanessa was wondering why I was making such a big turn (she was in the back), and Anna thinking I was messing around with the car and turning it around...! We were lucky it didn't spin the other way, towards the lake - had it done so, I'm sure my car would have gone down the embankment, and possibly flipped! Yep - God was taking care of us the whole entire time! Whew - it's nice to have Him on our side!
Anyways, we were even more scared and drove even slower (even flashing emergency lights as a courtesy to cars when they came up behind us and wondered why we were going so slow, ha ha) until we finally found a gas station, bought and changed into new snow cables (we girls are EXPERTS now...BOO YA! Heh heh...) before finally getting to camp.
Camp? Camp was wonderful! A record 21 people from RCAC, with lots of snow and snowball fighting, lots of fun, and lots of positive fellowship. =) We were short a bed in our cabin, so Anna and I shared a bed. She made some video of me snoring. Grr. Heh heh. And Tina accepted Christ! Yay!!! It was an excellent time where friendships grew closer, and some came to an understanding of where they REALLY were with God, and what they needed to do to come closer to Him. Unfortunately, I don't have any camp pictures (my camera is iffy and going to be sent back for the THIRD time for repairs, arg!), but Thomas has some, and Mello too! ^_^
After dropping off the youths, I went home and slept for a wonderful 10 hours, hee hee. =) Shelton, Derrick, Calvin came back from Vegas, and hung out here for a bit, eating yummy Hainan Chicken Rice (except I had no chicken, and beef had to do!). ^_^ Though they didn't bring me back Sushimon, I got a Sausage and Egg McMuffin...mmmm...and later that day, Shelton even washed my car so that I could do the grading and lesson planning that I couldn't do this weekend. Isn't he completely wonderful? ^_^
I haven't caught any figure skating on TV yet. I think I will do it tonight. I wanna see Sasha Cohen skate! ^_^ The halfpipe for snowboarding looks pretty amazing too, heh heh. And so does everything else! =)
02.16.06, Thursday:
[06:10am] Adventures after work, in brief -
Tuesday after work, Mi Ahijada (Stephanie! ^_^) y Yo went to buy the "Cuchillo y Pala" for the quinceanera! We got a beeeautiful cake cutter set (I'm the Madrina that stands by her and helps her cut the cake, heh heh...) with the proper ribbon colors and flowers on it. ^_^ Then we ate a million things at the NY Super Buffet (mmm) before heading to her home and visiting with her mom and brother and later, Marco, for a little bit, making Stephanie try her dress for the dance portion on, talking about what we're supposed to do for the ceremony, and all that good stuff. They have two baby goats in the house too! They were cute, but their baaaa-ing sounded like little kids crying, muah ha ha...I'm so honored to be a Madrina! =)
Yesterday after work, Anna and I went to Michael's to return something she had bought. While in line, she asked me where I wanted to go eat at, and the sales clerk responded "Starbucks!", ha ha...as it turns out, her daughter had been in the hospital - and just by looking at her face, I was touched...you could see she was tired, and had spent much time in tears...! =( I had a Starbucks Gift Card that someone gave me for Christmas that I had only used once, and since I'm not a big coffee fan anyways, I gave it to her. Her face lit up and was so wonderfully joyous for that moment when she said Thank You and God Bless You! It was awesome. =) My random good deed for the day - thought I should share it! ^_^
Anna and I also meandered at Susie's Deals ($5 deals. Wow! Yay! Though I was good and resisted buying trinkets. Sigh.) before heading for the gym and joining in that SET class again, and playing with the elliptical and weight machines here and there. She has some pictures of us doing kung-fu flying kicks that she must send me soon, ha ha...! ^_^ We ate a late dinner at TGIFriday's, where I bumped into Auntie Cindy and Ashley! ^_^
I had a student observer on Tuesday, and she said my kids were comparatively well-behaved, hee hee. Not just that - it was Valentine's day (hope you all had a good Vday! ^_^ I spent it mostly with mi Ahijada, ha ha!), so I myself was surprised that they weren't sugar crazy. But yeah, my classes have been good and things are going well there - and today is the Magic Paper Boats Lab...for which I must go now and get ready for. I need to stop by the store for some materials...Adios por ahora! ^_^
02.13.06, Monday:
[09:29pm] WOW! I got so much done today! Did you? ^_^
Sent the car to be taken care of...and even called about the Vegas condo (of which nothing has been done! It's been a month! Should we be getting a lawyer already? Have these people heard of FEMA??? Heh heh...) of which they (meaning the insurance agency, the people who's supposed to be taking care of the repairs, and the association for the area we live at) kept routing me to answering machines or not calling me back after calling a million times (like, they'd talk to me the first time, and then not call me back afterwards or route me voicemail thereafter. Grr.).
Besides that, I did a bunch of work and errands around the house. Very productive. =)
While waiting for my camera to be sent back, since it works mostly, I decided to use it around the house. ^_^
I made KoSoy® a friend! I don't know what to call this new Jewish friend though. Any ideas?
I also made lots of food. =) Dinner was especially tasty: (1) Sushi appetizers - the dried pork and avocado and wasabi mayo sushi, and the crab with avocado, a slice of turkey breast and wasabi mayo...REVERSE sushi...! It was the first time I made a reverse one, and I think it came out pretty good. ^_^ (2) Pan-fried crispy seasoned shrimp! (3) Boiled Chicken with the hot oil/ginger/green onion/soy sauce dip, and a (4) double steamed egg (egg and water and some ginger juice...with a diced up salty duck egg added into it) dish. Mmm. My mom said it was steamed nicely, heh heh. ^_^ Last but not least, we had that wonderful veggie: (5) Baby Bok Choy! ^_^
I forgot to mention yesterday that Gilbert had given a bunch of the girls at church Valentine's gifts! He's always so thoughtful and remembers such occasions, hee hee...thank you Gilbert! =)
Shelton had also given me an early Valentine's gift, since we don't get to hang out tomorrow. In order to get the gift, I had to go through a series of clues and hunt for the goods, heh heh...it was much too cool! I had way too much fun running around my own house trying to figure out where everything was. =) He had done it while I was away at Coffee Depot with Thomas, Jason, Mello, and Megan. =)
Miiiiiiiiiine. ^_^ Not Kevin Ku's or anyone else's, ha ha ha ha....*wink*
[07:46am] The internet is still up and down occasionally at my home, heh heh...so I've not been updating as consistently...
Have you ever had stinky tofu?
You know how people always say that it smells sooooo bad...and then when you eat it, the smell is totally not there, and instead, it's wooonderful?
It's true!
NOT!
Agggghhhh!!! O_o
I touched it!
And my finger was still smelly!
Anna
and I had to cleanse our palate with chocolate chip ice cream.That was Thursday night. ^_^
I hear the tofu is still at the Cheng's, ha ha ha ha....
Just eat Crispy Fried Tofu instead. It's way better, and just as crunchy. ^_^
Prayer Meeting was Friday Night, and it was good. =)
Coffee Depot was Saturday Night, and that was even better. =)
But before Coffee Depot was San Gabriel, for a few hours of driving and starvation and getting caught in that silly New Ave. traffic, hee hee...but we finally got it! Cafe food!!! =) Shelton got his "annual" Baked Pork Chop Rice, and I got a Korean BBQ short ribs dish. Mmmm...=) With energy, we visited the Alleluia Bookstore for Chinese Christian goods. =)
My cough is getting better! Thank you for your prayers. =) I've been waking up the past few days without a giant loogie ready to be coughed and launched out. At least the neighbor's dog doesn't bark when I cough now. ^_^
Still want to go to the Tea House again sometime for some proper British scones and goodies...! With Natalie, Kim, Nina, ET, and anyone else who wants to try it out. ^_^
Ivan, May, Bianca and Benny may be moving to Seattle soon. Ivan's going to be working for Amazon.com. We will be sad....=(
It's a holiday today. Hooray for three day weekends! Hooray for President Lincoln! =)
Riverdance will be this Friday night! Followed by a sleepover!!! And then...WINTER CAMP!!! ^_^
02.08.06, Wednesday:
[08:00pm] The internet is down right now, so I'm just typing away, and uploading this online later. News for today:
It's been at the Factory Service for a month already...I won't have it in time for Winter Camp...and I'm going to contact whoever is head over and request for a new one after this. ROAR. >_<
But, at least it's still intact, right? =)
I really, really, really want to go to Beijing again, but I think we are going to Malaysia and Singapore, which will be awesome too. =) However, my parents don't really have a date set, and it seems like it's up in the air. I don't want to lose an opportunity to go to Beijing once more, for an entire wonderful month of immersion learning, if they decide later that they're NOT going. Which can be frustrating, waiting...when I am hoping to get airline tickets sooner, before the prices get even more crazier looking (they're already looking very unpleasant!).
We're iffy on Malaysia, because one of my uncles, on a recent trip to Asia, might have gotten something from Tibet. =( He may have some weird infectious disease, and in Tibet, apparently leprosy and tuberculosis seem to be the big thing. Oy. =( My Uncle #3 is awesome, and such a good-natured man at all times. And he's always funny, hee hee...But besides all that, please do pray for his health...! Thank you!
02.07.06, Tuesday:
[06:32pm] Wow. So cool. I'm done with all work. Even for tomorrow, as it's a test tomorrow and I already have the testing folders out on the tables, and the tests copied. I even left work at 4pm (aghhh! EARLY!) and went to the gym to read and play on the elliptical.
I have time to shower early, wash my hair, and do some figuring out for the summer.
Toronto?
Beijing again?
Malaysia?
Aghhhh! The possibilities are endless...
...as long as there's enough time for it all and I save enough for it...and don't buy any trinkets for the next...oh...6 months, ha ha ha...
Why...I might even have time for some crafties tonight. Fun to play with paper, scissors, markers and make fun things out of them, and to give them away...fun fun...! ^_^
I won't cook any sweets tonight. There's still about 2 mango bars and some brownies in the cake plate. Mmm. =)
And a ripened, ready to eat avocado, waiting for me to slice it up and eat it up. How delightful! ^_^
02.06.06, Monday:
[06:29am] Weekend Highlights:
Time's up: I guess I should get ready for work now...heh heh...
02.03.06, Friday:
[07:10pm] An Egyptian ferry carrying over 1,400 sank in the Red Sea....
Though we feel sad about it, and wonder about those that perished in such an incident, it rarely touches us personally.
On Monday, near the Red Sea, a bus carrying 40 some tourists was speeding, and as it turned the corner, flipped and overturned.
These were tourists from Hong Kong.
My Auntie Rosa, the one that lives nearly next door to us, is in tears. Her best friend was one of the 14 that died in the crash, and the daughter, only 14 years old, survived with a broken arm. She had called her for Chinese New Year's, and caught her friend just before she was leaving for Egypt - had she called any later, she would not have gotten a hold of her...
Pray for all the victims and their families and friends...