goodbye 2011

my last meal of 2011. this is what you get when you live near and are related to a restauranteur. mmm... delicious!

happy new year, everyone!

happy 2009 to one and all!

i got a flip ultra camcorder (in orange) from lisa for xmas. here is some entertainment provided by the chunkasaurus.

enjoy!

happy new year!

happy 2008 everyone! i hope everyone had a safe & fun new year's eve!

my holiday events

at work, we started our winter shut down at 3pm on 12/21 (scheduled to return to work on 1/03) which didn't leave me much time for last minute shopping. i think i was mostly done anyway. i just had to finish baking. this year, i baked 400 cookies (snicker doodles, oatmeal butterscotch w/ pecans and holiday chip cookies) for work alone. i baked another 250 on xmas eve for distribution in holiday tins. so, i baked nearly 700 cookies last month alone. can you guess how many i ate? none! i had to balance not working out with not eating my cookies.

we had xmas at my parents' house. it was a potluck and our cousin from oregon came down with his 3 daughters & wife. it was lovely. my mom's birthday is xmas eve so i brought a cake & strawberry cupcakes (i'd baked that morning). my sister made her very yummy & spicy mac-n-cheese. she made this for my birthday. it was delightful. we exchanged gifts, spent time with one niece & two nephews, and ate so much food that i will be dieting the entire year as well as going to the gym at least 3x/week if not more. our cousin's daughter said they had so much fun that they wanted to come back the next year. it was warm, cozy and even a bit exciting. a perfect time spent together with family.

my new year's eve was spent at my long lost cousins' house with my sister-in-law's family. i made white chocolate bread pudding (from nordstrom) for the first time. it's my brother's fav. i meant to make it for him on his birthday but ended up picking some up from the bistro at nordies. anyway, it took ALL day. there were so many steps i had not anticipated that i made us late an hour to dinner. luckily, they were not quite ready for us when we came. the bread pudding turned out fabulous. i made so much that we have bread pudding for the next couple months. before we left, we had some asti to toast in the new year.

before new year's, my mom asked us to go see our sponsors in pleasant hill. we were sponsored here from vietnam by two families, the underwoods & the williams. there's this unspoken love between us. we are so grateful to them for giving us opportunities we wouldn't have had we not come to the states. and they are as proud of us as grandparents would be. they come to weddings and we visit once every few years. recently, mr. williams suffered from a stroke and is getting on with his age so my mom feared it wouldn't be long before he left us. so the underwoods hosted a little gathering. we spent about 2 hours catching up and hearing stories about us when we were younger. they also briefly discussed the ordeal it took for my parents to get us here. i was only 2-3 y/o at the time and don't remember much. it turns out we were stuck in japan before coming to the us for a year. there were problems getting into the us. and apparently, they knew someone in japan who pulled some strings for us. i never knew about that. they also still have letters from my dad. it would be great to read those some day.

pictures to come...

i spent a good part of my break sleeping 10-12 hours/day and hanging out with my chunky monkey of a niece. she was my shopping buddy. sleeping so much and not working out at all was fantastic. but alas, back to dieting & getting to the gym again...

2007 new year's resolutions, so far

*in no particular order*

- update debbie's website!!!
- drink more water
- work out 3-4 times/week
- travel boston/dc
- limit purchasing 1 pair of shoes/month
- buy 1 pair of dark brown boots
- limit purchasing 2 pairs of designer jeans this year
- buy 1 handbag
- be nice

new year's eve adventures

last saturday, ted and i drove up to marin county and over the golden gate bridge (for ted's first time ever!). he needed a sound pedal repaired and this guy came highly recommended. he was a really nice guy too. the type to talk your ear off but also the type to help you out by explaining in detail how things work.

we then headed back to the city to go to h&m, unfortunately, they were closed so we went over to anne & dave's place (ted's new bandmates). we were hungry so we went to dinner at this mayan restaurant a couple of blocks away from their very cute apartment on the border between mission and dolores. this is our ideal location of where ted and i want to live. the four of us had a lovely time chatting and getting to know each other. they are the nicest couple ever!!

after dinner, we went over to their friend allison's house in noe valley. her house was amazing. i really didn't think they rented out homes like that. she lucked out, the owners moved to germany. so she'd been there for years and years. we were just hanging out when she noticed my feet and asked me what size they are. i'm a size 5 in shoes. she proceeded to bring out these cute brown boots and told me she had planned to ebay them but hadn't the chance and wasn't sure if she might ever do it but wanted to see if they fit me. they did! so i left with a new pair of brown boots. i will try to post pics soon of me wearing them. it also turns out that allison works in the biotech industry and studied marine biology at san diego state during the time i was at ucsd and scripps. it really is a small world out there, isn't it? we're also the same age. it was nice chatting with her about science... it sort of made me miss it.

anyway, allison and others had to leave for a show. so we went back to anne and dave's to figure out what to do next. there was a party of anne's coworker's in the haight so we headed off that way. i offered to drive so i had to put away a few things in the trunk and i can't remember if i closed it but i assumed it was closed. i think we were 3/4 to the house when i saw bright red and blue lights behind me and heard sirens and instructions to pull over. i was driving pretty safely, didn't have too much to drink at allison's so i wasn't sure what was going on. it turned out that my trunk wasn't closed and that it was bopping up and down while i was driving. and we had NO idea whatsoever!! apparently, it's an offense and warranted getting a traffic violation for. who knew? since i was not a tax payer in the city of san francisco, he asked anne and dave if i should get a ticket. they said no, of course not! geez... what an ass.

we arrived at our point of destination moments later. i was able to find a parking space around the corner to the house. this place was anne's coworker craig's place. when i walked in, i saw that they had fillmore posters in picture frames! i've been looking for these for a while. i was afraid i might have to get them custom framed. they said there's a place called cheap petes(??) that sell them for $19 each. so now, i am very excited about finally being able to frame my beautiful south and jesus & mary chain fillmore posters. yay! craig and his partner (dan?) had this great apartment with a rooftop patio area where we all ventured up to and champagne in hand, welcomed the new year with fireworks going off and a beautiful view of the city all around us. it was so picturesque. but the cold eventually soaked through and we were headed back into the house. as we were chatting about music (as most musician and music lovers do), anne asked ted if he was a trashcan sinatras fan. he pointed towards me as i LOVE them. it turns out that craig is a huge fan and went to almost all of the same tcs shows i did! it's always so awesome meeting other tcs non-creepy fans! as 2am approached, we decided to call it a night.

after dropping off anne and dave, we drove back home. i felt okay to drive and was alert enough i didn't ask ted to take over. but after 30 minutes or so, it began to hit. i was soooo tired! i wasn't driving in and out of lanes, just not so straight in my lane. then, as i started my deceleration to exit 1/4 mile away, i saw them again, those damned lights! i exited one exit before my home exit and pulled over to the side. the copper asked me if i was tired and i said YES! that we were coming home from the city. i told him i had two glasses of champagne before midnight (it was 3am by now). he checked my eyes and noticed my left eye was red and watery. then he made me step to the side to follow his finger with my eyes. my contact lense from my right eye came out during the test. and i had to try to put it back in the wind blowing my hair every which way. he told his partner that he noticed my eyes and that it was strange. so, his partner did the test with following his finger. i then remember about my blocked tear duct and told them i was awaiting surgery in march for it. the first copper brought out the breathelizer and with all my might, i blew hard into it knowing i was sober. he then said that he would stop wasting my time and go out to catch the actual drunken drivers. stopped twice in one night and for the first time, not for speeding... what a great way to start off the new year. i must be the luckiest girl ever.