Happy 2006!

Happy New Year everyone!
My resolutions for this year:
- Make time to travel
- Continue my regular exercise program
- Use my weekends to relax
- Keep my stress level down
- Go back to school (maybe work towards getting another degree)

Wedding Dinner

Today 17 of us celebrated Xiaoyu and Wei's wedding with a traditional Chinese dinner. Although there was food there I was not accustomed to eating, there was something there for everyone. I especially liked the shrimp, chicken, and veggies. We were all extremely full by the end of the meal. Lastly, we closed the evening with a beautiful toast to Xiaoyu and Wei's wonderful life together. Congratulations to you both!!

Say Ahhh

Arrgh! Looks like I'm getting sick again! I swear 2005 is not going quietly. This is the third time I've gotten sick in the last 2 months. It seems like this year has been worse than any other year I can remember. Boy am I looking forward to 2006!! I was hoping to attend some type of festivity on New Years but from the look of things I may end up sick in bed.

Bear Head

Ah yes, nothing like a cute bear hat from Mammoth. Here's a picture of Rose sporting her Christmas gift from my bro. He thought it'd be a great idea to go Christmas shopping while on his fishing trip. We had a time wearing Rose's new bear hat on Christmas Eve.

Chicago Bound

Today I dropped the kids from Chicago off at LAX. They're off to visit friends and family for the holidays. I don't envy the cold they'll have to face out there but I sure do wish I was going somewhere for the holidays, perhaps next year.

Needs Improvement

Today Rose and I decided to check out the Del Amo Shopping Center seeing that we were both in the area. It's a really big shopping center but I was disappointed in the disorganization and lack of restrooms. Not to mention the disaster area they call a food court. This was the first time I've had Sbarro and hated it.

Xiaoyu & Wei

Today two friends became husband and wife. They had a small ceremony in Hawaii but are also planning a traditional wedding in China next year. They're the cutest couple ever and I wish them all of the happiness in the world!

eBay Time

I think it's time to start selling things on eBay. It's amazing how much junk one collects in just a few years. I've been trying to get rid of stuff for a while but just have not found the time. I think once the new year starts a lot of our old junk will have to go.

Dinner @ Janice's

We had a cozy little dinner at Janice's today. The food was spectacular and the entertainment (Xiaoyu's fiance') was great. It's funny what a few glasses of wine will do! We had a wonderful time just hanging out, sharing stories, and enjoying the fabulous food. Snaps to Andrew for making such awesome steak and congratulations to Xaioyu and Wei for their upcoming wedding on the 22nd!

Pablo's China Pictures R Here!

Today I got some of Pablo's China pictures from November. Amanda and her crew did an awesome job on these. A special thanks to them for showing Pablo such a wonderful time. As soon as I get the chance I will upload his pictures onto his travel blog. Stay Tuned!

CPK

Today we celebrated the end of two studies by having an awesome lunch at California Pizza Kitchen in Torrance. This was a first for me and I was very happy with my selection therefore I do think I'll be going back in the future. As you can see from the picture above we had a real nice time.

Christmas Time @ Disneyland

Yay! I had an amazing time at Disneyland with Marco and my folks today. We finally found time to use the tickets I got for graduation. It turned out to be perfect timing since we celebrated my mom's birthday this weekend. As you can see from the picture Disneyland looks gorgeous with all of the Christmas lights up!

Booze + Dancing = Company Christmas Party

I attended my first company Christmas party and let me just say...it was a hoot! The food was amazing but the best part was watching co-workers get down and dance! It was nice to see them in a different setting. They're a great bunch!

Simi Valley Town Center

Today Marco and I visited the new Simi Valley mall. I liked that they made it an outdoor mall even though it was pretty chilly when we went. They had a beautiful Christmas tree up, Santa Clause, and snow machines. All-in-all it was a very nice experience.

Officemate

Things at work are becoming routine now. I enjoy working with such amazing people. Here's a picture of my officemate, PrincessPeak. PrincessPeak and her boyfriend SurferBoy always make me laugh! Those two Chicago characters are too much!

Helado Italiano

They've opened this wonderful new Italian ice cream place at the Northridge mall and I think I'm hooked. I've already tried the pistachio, banana, and coconut flavors. Yum!

Thailand

Pablo came back from Thailand! It looks like he had a wonderful time with Janeen and her friend. Check out the rest of his pictures on his blog.

Candy Cane Car

Yes folks, this is for reals! Can you believe that there’s an idiot driving this around?!? I actually saw the person who owns this car and it took a lot of restraint not to say: “WTF are you thinking!!??” I’ve heard of people getting into the holiday spirit but this is taking it a bit too far.

Other things that happened today:
· My car finally reached the 1000 mile mark.
· Had a real great burger at Islands.
· Worked a henna party with Linda.

Shopping Madness

I don't know why I even thought I could buy a few things from KB Toys today. Even after several hours of having been open, people where still lined up outside waiting to enter. Apparently the store had reached its capacity all morning. Dang!

This years Black Friday sales weren't as awesome as last years but we still managed to get some great deals. I was done shopping by 8:30am and off to work I went. Now that I'm home it's time to get some sleep.

Thanksgiving Day

This is what Thanksgiving is all about, eating plenty of food and sorting out our Black Friday strategies. It looks like sleeping will have to wait. Tonight, or shall I say, tomorrow morning we'll start our shopping spree by attending a few Midnight sales. Can't wait! So many things to buy and so little time! Yes kids, I have to work tomorrow as well...Ouch!

Thanksgiving Traffic

This week traffic has been unbearable! It seems that everyone in LA is trying to get out for Thanksgiving. Lucky for me, I get to drive past LAX during rush hour. *Sigh*

U-C-L-A----U-C-L-A!

While shopping at the Thousand Oaks mall we ran into the UCLA marching band that was performing holiday tunes to shoppers. They're good!

GoodYear

Blimps are cool! During lunch we watched the Goodyear blimp fly over us. Too bad you need to actually know someone to ride it.

The Fog

The greatest thing about working near the beach is the fog that rolls in once in a while. I love fog! Everything seems so mysteriously beautify in it.

Moving Sucks

Looking for a new place is a drag! LA is just way too expensive these days. It looks like a decent place starts at $1200/mo. Dang! Not to mention the drama that comes with moving: Canceling services, starting new services, changing your mailing address, packing, unpacking, etc...Argh!

License Plate Frames

Here are just a few of the funny license plate frames I’ve seen in the past two days.
- Sorry, this princess is taken
- The best things in life are green
- Not all blondes are dumb (written upside down)

Poop Removal

It's a shame that this picture didn't come out but I just had to post it. It's interesting, the funny things you run into while driving on the 405. This truck reads "Dog Poop Removal Service call 1-866-888-POOP."I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this. And today I saw something else that seemed pretty unusual. A car that I thought was a cop car pulled next to me on the freeway and on the side it read "Postal Police." What do you suppose they do?...humm...I wonder.

Just Around the Corner

Wow, it's so crazy that X-mas is just around the corner. It seems as though we were celebrating New Years 2005 just the other day, but that was almost a year ago. Don't get my wrong; I can't wait for this stupid year to be over!!!! It's been a tough one for me.

LMU Volunteers

Rose and I were good girls and volunteered our Saturday along with 28 other LMU alumni. We went out to an elementary school in LA and helped make it prettier by painting walls, re-painting school yard lines, and by cleaning classroom desks. I'm sure the kids were happy on Monday when they saw what we had done for them. It always feels great to help others out.

Joi Gin

Today we said goodbye to Pablo as he is off on his trip to China with Amanda. Pablo will be in China over a week and shortly after that he'll be on his way to Thailand. Lucky monkey!

Stupid Mechanics

Just when you thought people couldn't get any stupider!...

After having my car in the shop for 3 months and after many battles with the insurance company today I get a call that my car is finally ready. Because I work so far away I had to ask Marco to pick up my car for me. When he gets to the shop he notices that the front end of my car is still smashed in and the back bumper still had a dent! WTF!!!!?? So Marco calmly asks why the car isn't completely fixed and their answer is: (drum roll please)

"Oh, we didn't know the front end was damaged as well."

When I heard this I thought I was going to go postal. I know I told them about all of the damages when I dropped off the car. And even if I didn't (which I am sure I did), wouldn't you think they would notice the front smashed in after having the car there for 3 months!!!???

And so, the nightmare continues...

Halloween Party

This weekend I worked at the greatest Halloween party ever (Location: Bel-Air mansion)! Dang, these people went all out! The DJ was great, and the food included in-and-out, pinks, coffee bean, kettle corn, and all the candy you can eat! You know you're at a great party with Cookie Monster is actually passing out fresh cookies and milk!

Subaru Legacy

So Marco finally got the car he's been researching for months. I hope he has better luck with his new car than I did with mine. *sigh*

Brian's B-Day!

We had a wonderful time down in w. LA tonight. We had dinner at Hurry Curry for Thomas' B-day and loved it. Happy Birthday Brian!!!

Yeah that's just GREAT!

So right when you think the 405 couldn't get any worse I find out today that the busiest part of the freeway will be closed tomorrow due to a presidential visit. Yikes!!! Looks like I'll be looking for a new route...me and thousands of other commuters!
I can’t wait until I can focus on more important things in my life besides the California freeway system.

Happy B-day Jess!

Happy Birthday to Miss Jess!!! I wish I could be with her to celebrate but instead I sat on the 405 for 1 hour and 45 minutes each way. All freeways become a nightmare when it rains in California! Anyway, hope you had a great B-day Jess!

405 Fwy

I started my new job today which meant driving on the 405 for 2.5 hours. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And that was on a rainy day during rush hour.

Mall Shopping

Buy of the day: Both Rose and I got talked into buying a light weight steamer. I immediately went home to try it out and loved how quickly I got all of my clothes "ironed" out.

Caltech

Today we (Shabnam, Joy, and I) attended a great lecture on medical devices at Caltech. Wow, some of the technology that's being tested at the moment is amazing. Some of the topics discussed were deep brain stimulation, cognitive neural prosthetics, and prosthetics vs. orthotics. I think I'm going to try to attend more of these lectures in the future.

Boo!

This year has gone by so quickly! Halloween is only a few weeks away and people have already started to set up their decorations.

Waiting Sucks!

I spent my entire day down at the courthouse today for jury duty. This is my first time and hopefully my last for a long while. They just love making you wait, and wait, and wait, and then wait some more. Argh! There's got to be a better way!

Chipotle Craving

So there's a new Chipotle in town and after having tried it once I find that I'm craving it every day! I just can't get enough of this place. I love their food, but I don't love it enough to join a chipotle fan club, lol. Man they've got everything on the internet these days.

New Toys

Since Sunday is our "Shopping Day" we stopped by Petco to pick up a few new toys for the girls. When we came home they had a blast with the new tunnel, mice, fishing pole, and cat dancers we got them. Silly kitties.

The MEGA Target

The new "Mega Target" opened up in Northridge today and we just had to go check out what the big fuss was about. Needless to say, there was nothing "Mega" about it, unless you want to count the Starbucks they've added to their food court "Mega". I do see how we would need a 30th Starbucks in the same city...NOT! This Target looks like the other two Targets in the area! It was kind of funny that their cart escalator broke down on opening day!

Party Part 2

Worked another party at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. This was part 2 of the same party from last week. These people obviously have way too much money! Maybe I'm just jealous 'cause I didn't have 2 huge parties for my 13th birthday.

Sisters

Today is my official last day at DL and I'm still at home sick. The good thing is that I get to spend some time with my new kitties. These girls are so sweet! They just love grooming each other.

Happy 22nd!

Today was Lemonhead's B-day and unfortunately I could not join the festivities because I was stuck at home sick. It looks like I got the flu again...yuck! Lucky for me someone had a camera phone so I felt like I was there in a way...too bad I couldn't taste the cake from here too. Happy Birthday Lemonhead!

Adios DLSG

Saying goodbye is real difficult for me, especially when you work with such a fabulous group of people. Today the DL group threw me the most amazing "going away" bash ever. It was all very emotional for me. I've become very attached to everyone in this group so it's going to be difficult for me to not have them around on a daily basis. Thank you everyone at DL for making my time there so amazing!

Orlando, FL.

Today Pablo returned home from his trip to Orlando, FL with his buddies Zach and Joel. As you could see from the picture above, Pablo enjoyed the Florida weather by getting some R&R by the pool. That silly monkey!

H&H in Hollywood

Even though I've been living in L.A. most of my life today I saw the mall on Hollywood and Highland for the first time. My bro and I worked a party there at one of the restaurants. Can't wait to come back to that mall for some serious shopping!

Lily & Sadie

Today we added two new members to our family. Their names are Lily and Sadie. They're 4 months old and super sweet. Although they were shy at the beginning, they're starting to warm up to us.

Mongolian BBQ

This Mongolian BBQ restaurant is so yummy! We went there for dinner and later caught a movie with our buddy Brian. Thanks to Brian for the restaurant suggestion.

Armageddon

It looks like Armageddon out there! That sunset is amazing; too bad you can't look directly at it.