i left for Gardena 2.5 hours late. it was basically stop and go driving from La Jolla to Irvine. I got there helped make and ate thanksgiving dinner with my family. my dad is really absent minded. my brother brought his digicam with him and my dad wanted to take pictures with it, so after the dinner was prepared, we told my dad to come down so we can start dinner, and he just told us he was busy with taking pictures. ummmmm...yeah. same thing happened last thanksgiving. i prepared most of the thanksgiving dinner and my dad just ate seperately in my room watching DVD's on my recliner.....i guess he just doesn't know. you would think he was raised by wolves. not because his foster parents weren't there for him. but because he wanted to be raised by wolves. if it really happened.



friday, i woke up late, had breakfast, and headed out to bestbuy to check out their sales. they didn't really have too much there. only thing i found descent were the moster's inc and beauty and the best DVD's which i already had. it was a madhouse. people were walking out of the store with like 3-4 mintek DVD players like they were giving them away. i checked the price and it wasn't really a good price at all. oh well. you can't bash best buy for holding a successful business even though they must be using some kind of mind control.



after best buy, i went to one of my old hangout spots (coffee cartel). and got some green tea. then i drove through PV for a nice scenic drive on nice mountain roads with a view of the ocean. met up with a friend and went to Sam's club, then to eat a bite at this vegetarian restaurant called the Green temple. then i met up with Tommy, ate at El Rocoto, got some boba, went to Big 5, then went to AMC 20 to watch 007 at Rolling Hills Plaza. the 9:30 showing was sold out so we went to Regal Cinemas for the 9:55 showing. when we got in, the screen was about as big as a big screen TV from where we were sitting so we went to go swap our tickets for the 10:30 showing. the screen was about 4x bigger for that showing. after 007 we went to go sneak in at the ending of Harry Potter, but as we sat down, the security guard escorted us out. we only wanted to watch the extra clip at the end of the credits since we both missed it when we saw harry potter a few weeks back. what a ripoff. i guess we have to wait for the DVD.



saturday, i went to IKEA with my brother and sis, picked out the perfect coffee table, and then found out they ran out. so i'm going to go to ikea here tomorrow to see if they have any in stock here. i also have decided i'm finally gonna replace my bed sheet/duvet/etc. it's very comfortable and nice, but the damn feathers really are a drag on the dark navy bed set. but i really have grown to the flannel material as it is never too hot or cold during any season. probably going to bed bath and beyond tomorrow to look for a set that is a lighter color...maybe even white flannel.



maybe i'll even fix up my magazine rack....go to home depot...get some wood cut, and get some spray paint.

i'm becoming quite the chef. today, i had an urge for a carne asada burrito. but trying to still keep my promise of not eating out during the weekdays (special occasions excluded) i decided i should make carne asada burritos on my own. never having done so, and not having the internet in front of me, i had to rely on my best judgement when i was at the market. what i ended up with was guacamole, fresh salsa, and some cilantro. i could have made my own pico de gallo, but in ralphs they charge you an arm and a leg for tomatoes. so i decided to take the fresh salsa, cut more onions and more cilantro and make a quick version of pico de gallo. i got home and realized i totally forgot the tortillas, but i wasn't willing to go back. the meat part was very simple. i had some choice top sirloin cut carne asada style, and cooked it with a little bit of seasoned salt and black pepper. removed it from the heat, tossed my pico de gallo in. so i just made the carne asada burrito part without the tortilla, and ate it with a slice of bread with a side of guacamole. and it turned out really good. very healthy, simple and quick. i think i'll have it again tomorrow. this time with tortillas.

hmph, nicholas cage is divorcing lisa marie presley. could it be because he frequents he korean night (booking) clubs on a weekly basis cause he has a thing for korean women? it's amusing that every korean girl/guy knows this. the one time i went to this club he was there. we ended up spending hundreds of dollars for a bottle of crown royal and some salted nuts and fruit. waiters will bring girls to the table, and they'll tell you they are 30, talk to you for a little bit, have your crown royal, and say they'll say they'll be right back, and you'll never see them again. its all routine. can't blame them. that's what the waiter tells them to do anyway. this one girl i talked to said the guys have got a little clever, and now trap the girls in by sitting the girls in the middle of the table. pretty dangerous for the girls i think to be surrounded by bunch of drunk strangers and have no way out. be prepared to crawl out of the table cause they'll be hesitant to let you out. that's what she had to do.

as much as i have tried to stay away from caffine, i every issue of men's health talks about the beneficial affects of it. boosts your metabolism and helps you lift longer at the gym. so i'm going to drink coffee on the days that i lift (4 days of the week). mon tues, thurs, fri. this way i won't have a big withdrawl on saturdays. and also, i'd like to do cardio without the caffine so i'd have to plan my cardio on wed, and sundays.

sunday, woke up early and cranky as usual at 8am. made it to church on time. dozed off here and there during service. then stayed for bible study the first time. it was a good experience. i'll definitely try to stay for bible study every week. not sure if i'm going to go join them every week for lunch though. they picked super sergio's for lunch and it was pretty bad.



came home, and napped will about 9, and went to rimac, lifted, and did my caridio.



monday, i came to work, then went to check out the pilates/stretch class at rimac during lunch with chuck. we both really enjoyed it. i'm pretty sure i'm going to take the class. it will help with my abs, lower back, and posture. sounds like a winner in my book. already 1/3 of the work week is done! just 2 more to go. and that includes a very calm wednesday. i think i'm going to go back on thursday morning instead of late wednesday evening. it should be better for traffic and it means i'll spend less time in a house with no internet. they don't even have a phone there (only their cell phone). did i ever mention my parents are pretty cheap? well, i'm going to take my ddr pads, ps2, some dvd's and a TV so that i can spend some time with my bro and sis.



i was looking at imdb for random stuff as usual, and saw a pic of heather graham, and wondered what she has been up to lately. and boy has she been unlucky with her choice with movies. someone get her a new agent quick.

couldn't do the 30 minutes of cardio, so i only lifted on friday, drove home, and showered quickly and headed to andrews place.



i was in a bit of a rush to get there, and while driving i realized how hard it is to actually see who has passengers in the carpool lane, so i just jumped into the lane whenever the traffic got a little thick. everyone is pretty good in staying out of the carpool lane because the fine is so high and everyone is just conditioned to not drive there. so i thought of chances of getting caught were pretty low. there were a lot of cars on the road when i started driving 7:25 and managed to make it to andrew's place by 8:35.



we got to maggianos, and had a wonderful meal. we went to cha for tea afterwards. then we headed back to andrew's place and chilled to about 4am. we all woke up pretty early for some reason, and went to get pho around noon. the pho was okay at best. and was expensive. can you believe they charged $6.50 for pho? and it wasn't that good. and they gave you a little amount of noodles on a large bowl. then we hit tapioca express, but i passed on the boba because this week has been a all out carb fest i decided i should pass. then we went and chilled at andrew's apartment for a bit, and ritchie and sandy were going to go to dvdplanet so i decided to follow them. they did have some good prices on some select stuff. not great prices on some. i bought 3 DVD's.

Lord of the Rings

Swordsman 2

I'm Your Man (interactive DVD movie) for $4. I thought it was a concept, and it was dirt cheap. Never had seen or heard of it.



after the dvd splurge, i drove back home with relative ease. and then decided to take a nap before the gym. i woke up at 9:45, and thought i should leave by 10. then i checked the times on the website, and rimac closes on 10 on saturdays so i decided to pass on rimac. i thought i should take it a little easy this week anyway. i played some GTA VC, and finally got the 100 hidden packages, and after about 4 weeks of playing the game (not every day), i finally got to fly the apache helicopter. not disappointed, but it is everything that i expected it to be. but instead of it having just guns, it has dual rockets as well.



the living room got really cold, so i decided to start the fire in our fireplace for the first time. it is quite a chore to keep the flame going. i had some meat defrosted that i needed to get rid of so i made some beef with broccoli. it turned out pretty good. i overcooked the broccoli a little bit, and used a tad bit too much corn starch. but for my first attempt at it, it was pretty good.

since when i have been alergic to cats?



yesterday, i went to old town with ray for his birthday. we went to go eat at the coyote something. we were walking around wondering where we should eat at and then i remembered about the last time I went there with OG ResNet, that we had eaten at this restaurant diagnoally across from a diamond store. and my guess was "the diamond source". and my did that pay off. i had given this information to ray, and he spotted the diamond source, and this lead to us finding the restaurant we were going to eat at. none of the other restaurants looked busy, but the coyote place was quite busy............the last 3 people that walked past my window just picked a murf....bizzzarre. anyways.....my food okay. the sauce could have been a lot better. then we came back and hung around his apartment for a bit. i helped him troubleshoot some video problems he was geting with his DVD player, and watch little snipits of Spiderman and Godfater III. and i had realized that i started getting a runny nose, and my eyes were starting to itch. then just before i left i was getting a scratchy throat. and for the whole night i was suffereing from the effects of it. this would be typical of someone that was allergic to cats, but really new to me. i must admit i have made quite a 180 degree life/health/nutrition change. i wonder if that has anything to do with it. i'm glad i didn't stay too long because i was just starting to feel the effects of having trouble breathing.



tonight, after the gym, i will head down with jeff to huntington beach to celebrate Andrew Chen's birthday. we'll be eating at this place called Maggianos. we're all sleeping over there, and coming back after lunch tomorrow. i haven't planned anything yet for the rest of the weekend, but i still need to check out jeff's computer.



partially related to the post that diem made today, i was walking by the pit at rimac yesterday, and this guy's BO was just through the roof. like if you rated someone's BO from 0 to 10, this guy would be a 15 easily. like i just walked by, and i almost fell over. i started coughing...which i normally wouldn't because i don't want to offend anyone, but it just hit my eyes and damn....it was bad.



oh, i bought a new camera today! the canon powershot s230. i got it for $334.55 with 10 48x CDR's in a jewel case (so i can apply the coupon). I love the s230 because of its size. I can basically fit it into my pocket and walk around comfortably. I don't really care about the 2x zoom.



now what should i do with my other camera? It's the Yashica (Kyocera) 2100-DG Samurai. 2.1 megapixels. 4x zoom. compact flash. The Li-ion battery. LCD screen. 16mb CF card. If you would like to take it off my hands, I think I'll be willing to sell it in the $150 range..... and maybe throw in a sony leather carring case. It's a great deal for someone who needs a good quality camera, but doesn't need pocket sized portability that the s230's give you. Here's a review. here are some pictures i took during my drive to julians with my bro and friend eddie. by the way, when this camera first came out exactly 3 years ago, it was originally priced $799. I got it when Kyocera had a new line coming out and was phasing out the Samurai's at half price. I got it for $375-$50 coupon for $325.