Book Review: The Tipping Point

I've reached my tipping point and I think it's equal to 4 books in 7 days. HA! So I spent a lot of time reading during this vacation because well, heck, that's what you do when you're sitting in lounge chairs on the beach or by the pool.

I believe Tipping Point was the second book I read on this trip...I had already started it over Thanksgiving and had about a 100 more pages to finish. It was definately good and had some interesting points but I felt it was somewhat overtly repetitive. I think reading the afterword killed it for me.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

First book of the trip was the 6th installation of Harry Potter. The series gets progressively more and more grim...the last book better start having some happy endings otherwise it's a dismal world where not even the magical people can have a good time.

Book Review: Naked

The last book of the trip was a David Sedaris round 2, with Naked. Interesting book in that it focuses much on stories with siblings and parents. The stories with his mother and grandmother are hilarious...as an example two cultures clashing and how such family by marriage relations can go so wrong...but yet be so funny to those who read it.

Book Review: The Second Assistant

Book number three was some chick lit called "The Second Assistant." This is about a girl who loses her job as a political aide because the senator was caught embezling to moving across tthe country to become a second assistant to a hollywood agent who is a little long on the extraciricular activies (think drinking, drugs and strippers) and short on office time but still manages to be one of the better agents at the company. She manages to deal and eventually even love her job - complete with celebrity citings and fun little misadventures.

Vamos a volver a la casa

So I'm leavin..on a jet plane...and this time I know I'm going directly back home :) and no stinkin 3 hour delay on the Dallas runway will stop me. That's the view looking out the window at the Cancun airport. Interesting observations included the trees all being the same height if not stripped bare of their leaves. Andrew's mom made a good point that if a hurricane rolls in every few years it would probably discourage the trees from growing past a certain point.

All in all I'm back in one piece and now back at work. I gotta say it was nice to spend Christmas on the sunny beaches of the Yucatan Peninsula. And to those who tried to scare me by saying "oooo, you're first vaca together...haha..." all was fine. Apparently it's some big deal and people have been known to come close to killing each other while on vacation because you end up spending every waking minute with the same person. No killing fields here. The only thing that was sacraficed was crates of limes and margarita mix.

Hey!

Look kids, in the sky - no in that lounge char!...It's super tan man! Where you say? Can't you tell? Andrew has spent the last 7 days in the sun with moderate sun protection and is now a healthy 3-4 shades darker than before. He's totally going to hate me for putting up this picture. The postcard is to shield his currently unsunblocked face from the kryptonite rays of the early Mexican sun.

En espanol, por favor

Update...I am tanned
Forrest is almost the shade of a manila envelope.
I finally got Forrest to shave is pseudo-beard (merry christmas to me) that he was growing since we arrived in Mexico. Pictures to follow because you wouldn't believe he had any facial hair until you actually saw it.

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

Can't beat a postcard moment like this...Merry Christmas everyone.

Detailed corner sculpture of the maternity ward building.

Picutre of more ruins...this is the maternity ward. It was the one building where much of the exterior stucco and relief scultpures had been well preserved.

That's our guide Jose pointing at some ruins. I think this one is of a palace type place where people actually lived. Jose was very entertaining and dropped jokes saying things like "I'm sorry ladies, if this was ancient times, we'd have to kill you" explaining the many honors of human sacrafice. The buildings were neat in that they had these small windows that were aligned to the sun and moon risings and so each building had a window that lined up with another building, etc so the sun could shine through it...muy interesante

Tulum

Apparently the Mayans knew what they were doing when they set up shop in this little spot by the beach, originally called Zamas. It's on a cliff so these ruins were virtually untouched by hurricanes.

Which way is home?

Found these wayward signs on the beach while walking back to the condo from lunch. It ways that SF is a mere 2292 miles away. What I couldn't figure out was if this sign was decoration that was being replaced or was ripped out via hurricane.

Can I get a rollaway bed please?

What do I see here? A new little friend that decided to join us on vacation. I believe that's a baby lizard of gecko....but regardless he's ltiterally like an inch long. Awhile later he tried to scale down over the edge and proceeded to go "mini-splat" on the bathroom floor.

El amor es....well like swans

Adios Amigos

Off to sunny Mexico for a week with Forrest and his fam for the holidays. See ya when I get back...hopefully I'll have a killer tan and have reached my humanly possible quotient for margaritas.

Uninvited Dinner Guest

A few weeks ago, Forrest and I stopped by Coady and Caroline's house for a karaoke Christmas party. On our way there, we decided to stop into a sushi joint a few blocks away... lo and behold it was run by my people...big surprise, eh? Koreans running a sushi joint. Apparently that's a way to give the bird to your previous captors...by opening hoards of restaurants selling their cuisine...sometimes with not so great results.

The above picture is of our new little friend who was sitting right in between Forrest and my chairs. Awesome.....really, I enjoy knowing that raw shrimp heads just sit around on the floor from time to time - bleagh

OMG! Just What I've always wanted!!

I can't believe it! I've been waiting my entire life for this! I MUST have it for christmas. uh, yeah right..aha! So the above is a picture of Antonio Baneras' colgne retail stand thingy at a Walgreens in Arizona. I stood there in shock, fumbling for my camera phone wondering what had happened in the world that we are punsihed with such things...

or maybe it's really april...and this is an april fool's joke.

Keeping Warm when your sleeveless...

Instead of just buying sweats, Chester opts for limb warmers to keep his arms and legs warm in the winter. This is apparently what happens when men shop for themselves.

Gotta get sirius

Today was the last day of Howard Stern on terrestial radio...gotta get Sirius satellite radio installed by January 9th so I can listen in...yay

Movie Review: Old Boy

Forrest has a really smart Netflix account. It apparently knows that he's dating a korean...so it suggests korean movies to him. Too bad it doesn't know how strangely non asian I can be...not by some aversion to my people..but because in a past life I was a red neck and it's apparently a hard thing to shake. haha. but really, i kid.

Anyhoo we watched Old Boy last night. It was some korean movie with english subtitles that won awards at Cannes. Yahoo movies even ranked it a A-. Basic premise is this guy is imprisoned for 15 years then released for no reason and has 5 days to find out why he was imprisoned...an intense movie with some very uncomfortable twists in plot that basically leave you feeling a little violated.

I felt too uneasy after the film...the all in all, a well made film. I so want to give away the movie's kicker...but alas, I won't - you have to watch it.

Immature Relief

Obviously there are a wide variety of cactus (cacti?) in Arizona...they come in a variety of shapes...but none are more amusing than the ones that look like a semi-erect penis. Please disregard the phelangees of another cacti that is behind the phallus cacti. This provided amusement for hours...as Sam and I are mentally 12 years old at times and couldn't help looking out the window and laughing (over and over again) The furry tip makes it extra funny.

Later we spotted one on another house that wasn't tilted to the right...was straight up and down...and had a santa hat resting on the tip. I almost peed my pants laughing so hard.

Impromtu Pall Bearer

Sam was an impromtu pall bearer at my uncle's funeral this morning in Arizona. It only seemed appropriate as most of the people carrying the coffin were in their 60's...they didn't do well in organizing a good height matches either to even out the carrying.

Flew out on saturday and just got back in today. It's sad and emotionally draining to be at functions like this, but in many ways it's also comforting. My uncle Joe had been sick for awhile and the last time I saw him (last weekend) he was in a lot of pain and basically slowly dying from his failing liver...it's hard to see any human being suffer like that - but it's harder when you come from the same gene pool. It's sad to see him go...but at least he's not in pain anymore....there's some comfort in that.

I don't have many memories of my aunt and uncle after the age of 10 (when they moved to AZ) but from 2-10 there were a lot of good times hanging out at their house in Cupertino..swimming in the pool or playing with all of their golf paraphenalia...

Nano Nano

Meet the newest member of my Apple ipod family....it's a black nano...pretty neet looking and super small. haven't fully taken it out of the package yet.

Family Ties

My uncle passed away late thursday evening...and i'll be out in AZ for the wake and funeral Sunday - Monday. I'm bummed out but for almost no other reasone that biology...I haven't been very close to my uncle since I was in grade school...but if I only have fond memories...does that count as a "close" uncle?

I don't know...and i don't really care...I'm just kind of sad.

It's like, really official

This is the reason why I haven't blogged in so long. I got a new job..this is my fourth week - and they do a mighty fine job of keeping my ass busy. BTW - we're hiring like hotcakes, so if you know of anyone looking or heck, if you're looking - email me... to see open job reqs, visit the company website at www.vmware.com.

Dude, how official does that name tag look on my cube - crazy

What the F#@&*!

That's my coworker Dave leaning over my cube blowing into this squishy spikey thing that everyone has been playing with. Work these days is much like how junior high was...

alternate use of squishy spikey thing

Free Lunch Wednesdays

So at my new company, we get free lunch on wednesdays...usually some local restaurant or whatever. not too shabby...I forwarded wednesday's menu to Sam and this is what he replied...the kid's funny.

wow! that is awesome. it's a lot like our free lunch wednesdays.
here'swhat's on the menu:

Fat Nurse EateryAppetizers: phone calls from annoying ass nurses who complain either about work, pay or other personal weight issues

Main Course: the occasional calls from our gay CNA who can't stop calling us not b/c we are his employer, but b/c i think he...uh...wants to plug us...eck!

Alternate Main Course: the douche bag LVN who works with the new AMWAY andtries to sell us dumb ass shit from his website, while trying to give me advice on gambling and his "full proof plan for gambling" (oxymoron). On top of that, he is grossly over paid and loves to try and ask for a raise. this is dish also comes with "the fact that i think we are his only friends and he insists on coming into the office every day" on the side

For Dessert: to finish the meal, we have brought in the great work of that some people do and i will not elaborate b/c this is work email...but i'm sureyou know what i'm talking about.

I hope you enjoy our free-meal Wednesday and I hope you enjoy the trip out ofthe 45th floor window!

Real Menu Item...

All Sandwiches include Erik's Secret Goo, Red Onions, Tomatoes and Sprouts (Lettuce is available upon request )

Like really...what the fuck is that? Who wants Erik's secret goo in their sandwich?

Please, oh PLEASE...be my friend

Photo of the shelp in my cubicle. This shelf faces the walkway...hoping to meet new people here at work, I went and bought some candy and put up a sign. Alas, only 3 people have actually stopped by, 2 of whom I already knew. Most people just walk by and stare at it and giggle. Yes I know it's "cute" or "funny" but I'm serious when I say I'd like to meet my coworkers...there's just so many people in this company!