February 2007
02.26.07, Monday:
[07:40pm] President's Week was a week of nonstop action, despite it being break. But thanks to awesome people around me, they helped make everything smoother and easier when it came to wedding planning. ^_^ On Wednesday, Pauline, Amy, and Timmy brought me over to Westminster to scout out places for wedding supplies, and Amy introduced me to...THE BEST SEAWEED SNACK IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. ^_^ *munch* On Thursday, Takako and I headed out to Santee Street and found the bridesmaid dresses. We bargained it down too, and got an excellent deal. =)
Afterwards, Ros and I met up to eat at Rutabegorz and to grade at Border's, hee hee hee...
I got a visit from Lorie on Friday! We hung out and played, and she even got a new hair style! Fun fun! =) I tried make-up at the place too, but dind't like it. Giang came on over later too, and we all made spinach-artichoke dip, ate dinner, and stuffed invitations for the wedding. These are two of my favorite people in the world, so it was certainly all joy, all around. =)
Saturday was my Auntie & Uncle #2's 50th Wedding Anniversary party! =) Laus gathered in Yorba Linda for food, sharing and hanging out - always a good time, guaranteed. My Auntie #3 gave me a yellow beanie cap she knit me. That, plus the one my Auntie #4 made me for Christmas, and another one my mom gave me, plus my usual Gummy beanie means I now have four beanies! No more beanies people...cuz these four beanies, I like each of them because each is special...and don't think I can have the chance to wear more than four, ha ha. =)
02.20.07, Tuesday:
[10:06am] I was blind...but now...I see!!! ^_^ My monitor is now replaced with an extra one we had at home. Yay! =)
Many things has happened since the last post. Highlights include:
Mr. & Mrs. Ho visited us - my mom has been friends with Mrs. Ho since they were younger, in Hong Kong. They were visiting from Michigan and stayed the weekend with us. The last time we saw them was 10 years ago! One of their daughters, Sylvia is actually in San Diego. Maybe I'll get a chance to see her again one day, cuz we got along (Melody's up in Minnesota, I think, so she's further) and it'd be neat. =)
Friday, I had a day off to kick start President's Week holiday. So I got to play in the kitchen! I made yummy Lemony Pasta...and attempted to make Peanut Butter French Toast like in the HK style cafe shops...attempted mind you...it didn't quite work out, but it was still good. =)
Huy's Birthday was on Sunday, the 18th! Happy Birthday Huy! ^_^
The 18th was also the Lunar New Year. Happy New Year! "Sun Leen Fai Lok!" "Sun Tae Geen Hong!" "Gong Hay Fat Choy!" "Long Mah Zing Sun! ""Lai See Lai Doi!" ^_^ I spent the weekend in Vegas actually. I scored many little red envelopes - it's neat, because although there are many Laus here in SoCal, none of them really do the red envelope thing. However, Shelton's side of the family and friends do this, and since we got to see them this year...yay! =) I think it's more of the concept that's fun - everyone eats together (which we do here too - we had our Eve Dinner on Friday night instead, before Shelton and I left here, and on Saturday, had Eve Dinner with his parents over there) and celebrates, has fun, and says funny greetings to each other and you either give or get red envelopes, heh heh. =)
I was praying, and telling God "Happy Chinese New Year!", ha ha...and said a bunch of those sayings above (I only know those 5 actually. I know there's more, but I can't get them together right, heh heh), and realized, He doesn't need any of THOSE blessings. They're all earthly. Interesting, is it not? ^_^
In Vegas, we had...too much fun! =) We stopped at Orleans when we got there (2am-ish), hoping for Steak and Eggs, but the graveyard special only applies Mondays through Thursdays. Although we didn't get the $3.45 deal, we did get Singapore Rice Noodles at home! =) There were so many tall black people at the Orleans at that time in the night, hee hee hee - not be racist or whatever, but everyone was there for the All-Star game, and there was an extra amount of African-Americans - all much, much taller than I - gracing the streets and halls of the casino. =) All weekend long, we saw limos everywhere, Escalades with loud music, and even a car that had a license plate with "SHAKIRA" on it. It could belong to one of those fans that stalk though, ha ha ha. =)
On Saturday, we visited the downtown Vegas area, at the Fremont Experience. The last time I was there was...likely 10 years ago or more...! But I liked the boardwalk there, and it was filled up with the scent of soul food and barbecue from all the vendors that were selling food and music on a stage.
The Golden Gate Casino was AWESOME...it was totally vintage and old-school style, and the Shrimp/Deli Bar had 99 Cents Shrimp Cocktail! I could eat tons of these...^_^
We also visited the California Hotel, where an amazing amount of Asians were at, ha ha ha. It wasn't very California-like, so to say, then it was Hawaiian...the workers all wore Hawaiian shirts, and the food was more Japanese/Hawaiian. But it was good! And Marian recommended it to me, so I had to go. =) We got a Teriyaki Chicken Burger and a Mahi-Mahi burger, and haupia! =) They were all so good! It was tempting to get a Loco Moco, Spam Musubi, Kahlua Pork and Cabbage, Saimin and other goodies too! ^_^ Prices were good. The service was slow though - everything was on Hawaiian time, but the food was quite good and the wait wasn't long enough where we died of starvation. =)
Afterwards, we strolled downtown until we came across the Golden Nugget, which advertised something called The Tank that was filled with fish and sharks! Curiosity overcame us, so we marched on in to find out what it was. It was awesome! Not only was the pool lounge area nice (beds and couches and soft chairs everywhere! We lounged around for a bit, hee hee, watching the fish tank...and hey...we could bring our laptop and snacks there to picnic and watch TVB all day long, ha ha ha!) but in the center of the pool was a giant aquarium where all the big fish would swim inside. The pool wasn't open for the swimmers yet, but it had a tube that ran through the middle of the tank, from the top (3 stories high) down to the pool itself, so that you could slide right through the middle of the aquarium. Very cool. =) If I were to stay at any hotel in Vegas, this would be one of them - with the boardwalk there, shrimp cocktaiil around the corner, and a pool like this? It couldn't get any better, heh heh. =)
Afterwards, we picked up Auntie from work, winning a giant hamburger while waiting...before going to the grocery store to buy food for the Eve Dinner. =) Dinner was yummy-fantastic, and the evening allowed all of us to rest the day's adventures away. =)
Sunday led us to LWCC, where we got to see old friends again, like Kurt, David, Regis, Leighton, Mark, and the rest, before we headed off to dim-sum with John and Carol. ^_^ I will have to wait for Carol to send me pictures from there, heh heh, but we had a dandy ol' time. They had just arrived the day before from visiting New Orleans. Had I known they went earlier, I would have sent Heidi on another volunteer mission to find these wonderful friends of ours. ^_^
After dim sum, Auntie Wanda and her daughter and her grandson, Lucas, came over to visit for the New Year and play (well, Lucas was doing the playing with us). Lucas is our ring bearer for the wedding ceremony in July. ^_^ He's got more energy than you could possibly imagine, ha ha ha...
Then, it was time for...Sushimon!!! =) Kevin and Khoi-Ahn met up with us and we sat down, ordered two tiger rolls immediately, and then filled up on mackerel, salmon, spider rolls, vegas rolls, unagi and a million other things to pack down into our tummies. Yay!!! ^_^
The night wasn't over yet though. We returned to Orchid Garden to find Auntie and Uncle, and meet up with Heidi, Kin, and Hugo, and also Heidi's mom and sister who were visiting from HK. Shelton and I didn't eat, ha ha, as we already ate, but after they finished dinner, we all went over to the Bellagio to visit the courtyard, see the water works in the front, and take a massive amount of pictures. =)
02.07.07, Wednesday:
[07:15pm] I'm stuck on Cristian Castro's "Azul" right now...it's kept me up past 1:30am this morning to grade papers, woke me up at 5:30am, and kept me working past 6pm in my classroom., and is still keeping me up right now so that I can blog this without falling asleep. It must be my favorite Spanish song. ^_^ [Heidi, you'd like this song!]
I presented for Technology Night last night. We didn't really know WHAT to do, so we all did something with the technology in our classroom - I showed what we did in class with pictures of my students in labs and at work in my class, and showed two short clips that we've seen in the classroom already - the Honda Cog commercial and the droppinng of the hammer and falcon feather on the moon. =) Everyone seemed to like it, and the parents and 6th graders all clapped at the end for me, hee hee hee...yay! Though not necessary, external affirmation is always nice. =)
So with all the extra weekday working and grading that's been going on this week, and wedding planning and church planning (I'm supposed to share about being on the Governing Board this Sunday), and the week moving WAY too slow right now, topped off with not enough sleep, my batteries are starting to drain, and I'll have to recharge with some good sleep for tonight. So goodnight for now! ^_^
Meanwhile, Ros sent me a picture via email the other day. It's from Mimi's Cafe, when a few of us met up for dinner one night. There's Ros, Tako, Me, Yvonne, and Jenn! =)
02.03.07, Saturday:
[04:35pm] Heidi has tagged me to make a list of six weird things about myself...! So, here goes...=)
I tag Shelton, Derrick, Kaishira, Kurt, Edwin, and Echoooooo!
(Hi Frank!)