Hirokuggs

That's a photo of Hiroko wearing Uggs. I know you people think I'm crazy, but that's a BIG deal as all Hiroko did last winter was make fun of me and Vy for buying and wearing Uggs.

Happy Birthday Chester

Here's the morning after picture of Chester with post birthday party hair. Really, he looks like a Dragon Ball Z character - it's insane. I'm surprised he's even smiling in this photo, as Elvis REALLY left the building the night before - and with quite a bang.

That's Forrest in his Halloween costume...beer can complete with mullet wig. Personally, I found the wig disturbing - he's almost unrecognizable in this photo...who is this mulleted man who seems to have all his teeth?

Ethan showed up as thecutest little devil I've ever seen...and he's a total ham for the cameras these days. It was also tough to say no to this little guy as he was following me around the room asking for balloons - like I would pass a balloon to him or anyone! No way man...it was hard enough getting the balloons transported to the hotel.

Truck Hospital

My car wouldn't start on Thursday night...so I was unable to take the bullet train from Mountain View to the city...meaning I got a full hour on the train versus my usual 35 minutes. Good for reading, but lags for most everything else. Friday morning, I called a tow truck to take my beautiful Celebrity down to Sunnyvale Dodge for service. After almost hyperventilating in the tow truck and on being on the brink of tears from looking at my car "dead on its gurney"...I was informed that it was only a mild case of corroded spark plugs...WHEW! I decided to get a 90K mile service while I was there...just to be safe - nothing wrong with a good tune up.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Resigned from my company today, after 3 1/2 years there. It wasn't easy to break the news - I haven't had a good night's sleep since Wednesday when I received my offer from my new company. Final verdict = change is hard but good....and I'm really excited about my new venutre.

What the hell is going on here

This is a blurry webcam photo...it's a still from a video of 2 really bored chinese students. Really, all I gotta know is WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?!? Trish sent me this...she needs more to do, I think. Click the links below to view the video. This could be Chester on Saturday night...lol

Performane 1: I Want It That Way...

Performance 2: As Long as You Love Me....

OMG...best site ever

I recently found this lovely and entertaining website called Hungry Girl. It's all about how to eat (because we're hungry) but find ways for "guilt-free" snacking...also synonymous with taste free snacking. But this website does wonders for my obsession with food, calories and my weight....especially the true calorie counts of ordinary foods. It's no wonder I can't lose any weight with as many calories are lurking in meals everywhere.

Fat Lard

I am a fat lard...I have not done anything since the half marathon. The joints are feeling better and I'm looking forward to a little stationary bike action at the gym tonight...we'll see how it goes.

Movie Review: Doom

Went to see Doom with Sam yesterday. Apparently there is a shared gene between my brother and I that makes us like stupid movies. Those of you who have played the video game, the movie is based on it...apparently. Of all the video games out there, I tend to prefer the RPG type games over car racing or sports games....there was this samurai game on playstation that I was pretty good at. Plus the video game characters aren't too shabby looking either, heh. The acting in the movie was sub par but the fight scenes were pretty cool...and they had big guns with lots of explosions and monsters...yes! Oh and there's this one part where the fight scenes are filmed so it appears like you're in the first person RPG point of view...now THAT was rad.

Movie Review: Stay

Saturday afternoon, Forrest and I stopped by the Lowes Metreon Movie theater and watched the movie, Stay. I didn't know what the movie was about because I am basically cut off from civilization without being able to watch TV on a regular basis at Casa de Kang. He said the movie was about dead people coming back to life and kind of hanging out in our world. Not in a "night of the living dead" sort of way...but like they come back to just live another life or something....interesting and creepy...maybe even spooky. The movie made me super uncomfortable and confused....but I think that was the intention, so all in all it was good. I really liked the way it was filmed..and the transitions from scene to scene were great. Forrest said it was similar in style to Mulholland Drive...and apparently the user reviews on Yahoo Movies agree as well.

Side Note: Naomi Watts is not that cute. I dunno why people are so crazy over her.

America's Next Top Models

Yo, Tyra Banks ain't got nuthin on these two quality hotties Hiroko and Vanessa. The ladies sport their finest colgate smiles for the camera as the bbq is in full swing.

Post Run Libations

Forrest, Kirstin, Jason, Linh, Me and Vy in Erin & Sean's backyard enjoying the post-marathon BBQ. Susi and Andy both ran the full marathon and Linh would have if her groin injury had healed faster...but to celebrate everyone's achievements, Erin and Sean hosted a bbq at their casa. Mrs. Riley...the chicken chorizo burgers were super yummy-licious!

Apparently I run like a girl

Pic by Susan. Here I'm so glad to be done that I am posing as if I were running. I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon on Sunday in approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes. I say approximately because my information "cannot be found" on the Nike marathon site...I think my timing chip may have decided to not work. How Lame - it's like the record of my run almost doesn't exist...thank god Susan had a camera to document my actual participation.

Overall the half was good. I felt good the whole time. What I wasn't prepared for was the 2 mile uphill climb through the Presidio and Sea Cliff parts of town during miles 6-8. I guess I should have studied the course map a little more closely. I started off a little slower than my usual pace so I decided to make up time by using the downhill part to my advantage. Big mistake, as my joints are boycotting their existence...my hip, knee and ankle joints all ache to the point of sheer misery. I actully found it difficult to roll over in my sleep..ugh

Thank you to my Team Betty Supporters! It's a great help to see familiar faces along the course, especially when things start to hurt enough that you want to stop.

Best Swag Ever

This is the race swag I received for participating in the race...gotta love the tifanny's necklace AND the dri-fit shirt from Nike. So this race was an effort by Nike to get more women out there running..hence "women's" marathon. We all know there are plenty of races out there and also plenty of super competitive men out there already running in them. Well there are equal numbers of chicks wanting to run or whatever without the fear of being bowled over by some super turbo male competitor.....so..time elapses and this race is born. I liked it - and it was nice to run with my DG girls who also participated in the marathon.

Funny story..at the end of the race when I was trying to maneuver out of the cluster fuck of humanity. I overheard these two ladies saying how "insulting" it was that they have a massage and pedicure station at the end of the marathon. It is apparently insulting to think that women want to be massaged and pampered. uh, ok. But the funniest part is how immediately after, she says "by the way i'd run this again for the Tiffany's necklace"

To quote Forrest "like one stereotype is better than the other" really - what a dumb b#@$!.

There's Ethan chillin at the finish line . After the race, as we made our way to Craig and Susan's car...I jealously stared at Ethan chillin in his stroller...desperately wishing my ass was smaller so it would fit in the stroller.

Nervous Nellie

Tomorrow is the half marathon....after 3 months of training it's finally here and I'm super nervous. I know that I can easily run 6 miles...and that running 10 miles isn't too hard...but the concern is what about the last 3? It's always the last incrimental piece that is always the hardest.

Wish me luck - I've planned in advance and am taking Monday off of work...with plans of sleeping in and getting a massage :)

Taking one for the team

Last night was our final softball game of the 2005 season. The Ligers finished poorly with a 2 to 18 loss against the AMI scrappers. We were WAY outmatched as every woman on the other team was able to hit a nice line drive and catch a decent fly ball. They should be playing at Twin Creeks. Or maybe the Ligers should just be playing slosh ball every week....hey, at least we have fun.

During the 4th inning, I was covering third base and a guy from AMI Scrappers was up to bat. He swings and cracks a fast grounder right at me...so I charge the ball and put my glove down to catch it. It then proceeds to bounce, hit my wrist and then hit me in my left chest just under my collarbone. It sorta knocked the wind out of me, then made my gag reflex go haywire.

Today it's bruised...not black and blue...but very sore.

More Butter Please...

This is a visual represnetation of why people are fat in texas. Yes folks...what you are seeing is a pool of butter at the bottom of the bread dish. Even better is that's only half the butter becase we already ate the other half by soaking our bread and hush puppies in it.

Beware, the seafood wrath of Hiroko

All seafood beware, you may end up on Hiroko's dinner platter. Last weekend Andy and Christina were visiting from San Diego and Hiroko organized a dinner on Saturday night at Foreign Cinema. You can see half of Linh on the left hand side of the picture...she's probably peering into the seafood platter that we're sharing together for dinner.

Visiting friends...Christina and Andy...at Foreign Cinema.

Hush Puppies and Fried Pickles

Tuesday night I went to dinner at Nate's Seafood and Steakhouse with Trish and Jeff. Now this place was similar in style to the Rajun Cajun...but a little more, uh, rustic. The waiter brings out bread bowl, which comes on a long metal platter actually serves a few slickes of french bread floating in a sea of melted butter and garlic...with a few sweet and perfectly fried hush puppies on top. MMMM I forgot how much my secret pwt-ness LOVES hush puppies. Another fun menu item was fried pickles and they were GOOD. Upon first glance at the menu, it just looked like a prego woman's dream item...but the actual effect was similar to salty peanuts with beer.

Tried to order oysters and crawfish but was unsuccessful as the recent hurricanes have distrupted the normal supply of gulf oysters.

On another hurricane note - my hotel was housing 2 families who were displaced by Katrina, which is down from the total 30 families they housed immediately following the disaster. Now I think that sort of aid is great but these families were on my floor and exactly across the hall and next door to my/Trish's room. Monday night there was some "light" domestic violence and Tuesday evening, one of the men was drunkenly picking up on the hotel front desk attendant while I was getting my room key re-programmed. He was telling her "no, look, I have one..." and proceeded to pull out what looked like a condom and wave it around at her. She looked only semi annoyed, that's because she was also happily flirting back prior to my key card request. To make this scene a tad wierder, a white dude in a poloshirt and slacks holding a plate of food and a bottle of wine comes walking down the hall and starts yelling at the drunk stallion to go to bed, before he gets in trouble and really makes him mad. Uh...ok.

Keep in mind I was staying at a Wyndham Hotel..which isn't a bad hotel as I have stayed in worse places working where I do...but holy crap.

Book Review: Playground

Just read this book called Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion by Jennifer Saginor...and I only one thing to say....HOLY CRAP! I have been waiting to read this book....reading through all my other books and saving this one for last - and boy was it worth it.

The book wasn't particularly well written...by no means it was no literary masterpiece or fine poetry, but the recounting of this young woman's life is crazy. From having her own room at the Playboy mansion starting at the age of 6, drug fueled A-list parties in high school, to cruising through college more as an observer than a participant. I don't know if the subject matter is for everyone, but I am intruiged by it.

Sports & Champs

Upon flying into Dallas, TX last night, my coworker Jeff picked me up and we headed straight to Champps (not a typo, it has 2 p's) so Jeff could watch the Houston Astros play while I ate my first substantial meal of the day. Mind you it's aobut 7:30 pm and I haven't eaten...I was not a happy camper upon arrival. AND apparently I had aquired a tapeworm while in transit because I ate the following:

• Cesar Salad (it was a Texas sized "side" meaning it came on a dinner plate)
• 12 oz Steak (the mashed potatoes it came with were lovely...creamy and buttery)
• NY Cheesecake (it was literally about 6 inches tall...like those desserts at Flames, only EVERYTHING in Texas is that big)
• 5 bud lights (over the course of a few hours)

And that's not all...after I got to the hotel and into my room, I shared a pizza and cheesy breadsticks with Trish before going to sleep. And for pete's sake, I was actually hungry this morning. It's kind of discgusting how much I ate.

BUT - My Peyton worked his magic and beat the Rams..albeit they allowed 28 points to be scored against them..ugh. And a new NFL record was achieved..the pass/receiver touchdown combo, where Manning and Harrison just beat out Young/Rice with 86 to the previous 85 touchdown completions. Now THAT's what I'm talking about - and the whole undefeated part.

Book Review: In Her Shoes

Molly sent me a few books in the mail as part of our joyous little book club. What we do is, buy books, read them, them pass them along to one of our girlfiriends. I think I may want to semi-formalize it a bit so we all end up with some passed around books. As I can attest, a book addiction is mighty expensive.

I just read In Her Shoes on the planeride over to Dallas on Monday. It was "interesting" It's not quite a chick lit type of beach read. It's about 2 sisters, one super hot and shallow and one homely but smart and kind. There is some general sisterly tension, some taking advantage of the other person and one seriously fucked up revenge action. The rest of the book is about the homely girl finding love and the shallow one finding meaning in her life. I think there actually might be too much going on here in this book, but I'm not sure. I was relatively entertained...entertained enough to read other books by this author. AND entertained enough to watch the movie....

You'all come back now, y'here?

So off to Dallas today...will hop on the 1135 plane. Looking forward to 2 days of beef, bbq and tex mex. Then it's a quick jaunt to San Diego....and back home by Thursday evening in time for our softball playoff game.

Also, COUNTDOWN to Nike Women's marathon begins...NOW. The race is Sunday.

Sal's birthday at Mr Smiths

Saturday night Forrest and I joined Hollis, Sal and company at Mr Smith's to help celebrate Sal's 32nd birthday. I thought this place was semi-familiar...I learned today that it used to be Cloud 9. That was a fun place too...with the main floor as heaven with a big rotating circular couch and the basement dancefloor as hell..

Bon Voyage (soon to be) Mrs T

Friday night was Turner's going away party at Impala which used to be Jitney's. This past weekend was all about going places that used to be different places. So why was there a going away party for Turner, you say? Well....earlier this year, Jay proposed to Annie and they are scheduled to get married in April of 2006. Currently Jay is in socal for grad school and Annie will be joining him shortly - hence the going away party. I can't believe our little DG babies are getting married - this is when I kinda feel old.

sore spot

I had this muscle cramp or something going on in my right shoulder...I carry all of my stress in my upper back shoulder blade area...well yesterday it started to tingle (in a bad way) making my arm hurt. So I iced it, then tried to rub out the knot....

today - my it's super sore, but the kind of sore where I know the knot is on it's way out - yeesh.

Rah Rah

Above is a close up of one of the gold rush girls. My brother hijacked my camera and took lots of pictures of cheerleaders...should you want to see all of them, let me know and I can send you the Ofoto album. I think this girl was the best looking as compared to the other cheerleaders we have pictures of...but that's just my opinion.

Move over fat ass

For a tailgatin good time. Got a late start on Sunday and finally met up with the guys from work at around 10:45 am to start eating, drinking and talking shit. Philip brought a cool little LCD screen TV so we could all watch football while getting ready for some Niner/Colts football.

Atta Boy Peyton

There he is...# 18, handing off the football in his crusade to crush the Niners - mission accomplished...mwha ha ha

Lunch with the Bro

Went to lunch at Consuelo in Santana Row with Sam yesterday. So nice to work from home as I get time to lunch with the little brother...which is usually not a normal occurance as I work in Sunnyvale and Sam works close to Valley Fair.

So Consuelo was good - but expensivo! As a tapas place, we ordered 4 items..because the waitress said it was "small plates"...small plates for a fucking giant. We finished about 2/3 of our food...and I was about to vomit because I was so full and the food was alright.

But the guacamole was gooooooood.

Side Note : Percy has been working at Consuelo for a few months now.....as the daytime bartender, always good to run into some downtowners.

Ouch

So my knees are aching. More like grinding - especially the left one. Can't wait until this half marathon training is over.

Working from Home...

Today I was planning on working from home for a 1/2 day to get some much needed writing done...things like presentations, press releases, articles, case studies, etc. Halfway through the day, I realized that there really is no reason for me to go to the office today at all, so I went to lunch with my brother then came back home, wondering why I'd even bothered to change out of my pajamas today.

This is awesome - it's so quiet at home I can actually focus!

Book Review: Stolen Lives

I started reading this book awhile ago and finally was able to finish it on my flight back from Michigan. Interesting story about a military officer's daughter who is adopted by the Moroccan king, then goes back home to her biological family as a teenager only to have a military coup (run by her father) lead their family to 20 years in the gaols, which are harsh desert jails. Apparently there are quite a number of people in Morocco who are still "missing" probably just rotting somewhere in a remote part of the desert.

Book Review: In My Hands

Some "light reading" for the plane - hmph, as if holocaust subject matter is EVER considered light reading. Anyhow, as much as a tragedy WWII was in history, there are stories of great human courage and suffering and are applauded and recognized as models of behavior... I think this is one of those stories. Great book and an AMAZING story - but I think I'm ready for some light entertainment reading now.

Post Tailgate Sushi

Above pic of me, Tom and Angie by George-san. Angie's parents have been going to George for sushi for years...recently George-san moved to a new sushi restaurant closer to Plymouth, MI from his old digs in Lansing....so after our collective beer naps were over, we headed out for a little sushi dinner.

Turkey chili...complete with beano. Some people think of everything for a tailgate. With the amount of beer, chips, dip, cheese, brautwurst and other gas inducing foodstuffs, Brent and Kirstin had the foresight to come prepared.

Are we there yet?

Early morning line for tailgaters..This is the view from outside the car window at about 7:00 am on one of the main roads leading up to the MSU campus. The administration is getting stricter and stricter every year and they no longer allow you to enter onto the campus to setup shop at anytime...instead you must wait until the parking lots opent at 7...and you can no longer wait in line before the gates open either - as you will be turned away.

Jessica & Jody (newlyweds) joined us for the tailgate. Jessica and I were both DG's at SCU and Jess is Hollis' year...she recently got married to the strapping young fellow featured in the above picture and promptly moved to Michigan to start her first year of law school at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, MI. So glad to see more familiar faces in MI and was especially happy to introduce the new transplants to my MI crew.

Incorrect Footing?

I bought new running shoes at Playmakers..it was Angie's only opportunity to finally talk me out of wearing Nike running shoes. So I got some Asics 2100 shoes...in a size 8 1/2. HUH? Apparently I measured at a 8 1/2....but I've been running in Nike 7 1/2 running shoes for as long as I can remember....kinda funny

I still don't believe it, and my feet look so long in the shoes, it's crazy.