shoes shoes shoes

There is this great sale at 6pm.com where Charles by Charles David shoes are 29.94$ each. i went crazy and bought 4 pairs of boots and 1 pair of shoes. Ladies you know that a decent pair of boots cost you WAYYYYY more than 29.94$.

i keep expecting them to send me an email saying there was a pricing error. or their website was hijacked to show the wrong price....

crossing my fingers.

daddy's girl

i guess i was always daddy's girl...
he would always sneak me some extra pocket money for my allowance when mom wasn't looking (although i think she kind of knew that)... it's like a gulf of ocean to communicate with each other when your daughter is growing up with raging hormonal changes, and unpredictable mood swings... like every other teenager on the block.

when the teenager's angst revolve around doing well in school, choosing a career path for LIFE, leading by good example for her sibling, breaking out with acne on the face and feeling like that's the only thing anyone can see, gaining weight and trying to maintain a balance in this anorexic fashion world, crushing on some boy or other in class, end-of-the-world drama with friends... it's hard to relate to each other every day.

i remember i would worry about my parents' safety when, inevitably, there would be night robberies at knife or gun-point, or break-ins after dark when drunken criminals threw rocks and bricks at the store.

Recently i was at a Baskin Robbins store on a weekend... i looked over and there at a booth sat a pair of asian father-daughter... the dad wordlessly watching in total contentment his 10 year old daughter, who was demolishing the ice cream cone with total happiness. she had a backpack on, and he held her nintendo gameboy in a plastic ziplock bag. it touched me beyond words because it was such a tender moment for the dad... he is able to provide his daughter's happiness, and he knew it, and she was totally content. as i sat there, i think, give it another year or so, and the ice cream will no longer be a sufficient solution for the girl's happiness. it won't be her fault nor his, but they were close to a turning point in life where growing up and hormones will drive them apart soon. looking at them, it made me miss my own dad.

he had told the story of when i was young (maybe 6-7 years old), the neighbour woman would pick me up from school along with her own boy, and babysit us until my parents came home from work to get me. one day, dad had the day off (he works nights as a bartender), and instead of coming to pick me up himself, he wanted to just observe my typical day.

he followed us from school, which was only a block away from home. the street hawkers selling curry fishballs and deep fry turkey legs were always outside the theatre (which we pass by every day). on that particular day, the neighbour kid wanted curry fishballs, so we stopped at the hawkers's cart. his mom bought him some, and i wanted them too, but she only bought it for her son and told me i can't have any. as we walked up the hill towards our building, my dad appeared, reprimanded the neighbour lady ("it was so cheap, and kids don't know better, she doesn't know why she couldn't get to eat the curry fishballs but that your son can, how can you do this to a kid?").
He picked me up in his arms, and we walked back to the street hawker, where he bought me 2 skewers of curry fishballs...

i had vague memories of the events, except somewhere between his storytelling and my fuzzy memories, i see the images of being in his arms, and holding the 2 skewers of curry fishballs in my little hands.

i hope my dad knows how much i love him, even through the mist of adulthood, living on the other coast in a different country, and the gulf that divided us when i was a teenager... i'll probably call him this week.

health screening

i've come to the conclusion that my ever-faithful blog is the place where i can let go of rants and raves and also archive my random thoughts... such as my health screening results.
(it was interesting to go back to see my 2005 numbers also written on this blog).

Total Cholesterol: 195 mg/dl (optimum below 200)
HDL: 83 mg/dl (optimum above 40)
LDL: 71mg/dl (optimum below 130)
TC/HDL ratio: 2.4% (optimum below 5.1%)
Triglycerides: 207 mg/dl (optimum below 150)
Glucose: 93 mg/dl (optimum below 100)

Blood pressure 120/83 mg/dl

everything within the normal range (except for my BMI, i teeter near 'overweight').
figures.

a thousand little tongues...

farmer's market is one of my favorite things to go t on the weekend...
the nice spring weather made this weekend's trip to the market a delightful, sunshiny outing.

as usual the crowds mill around the stands at the stalls, examining, tasting, touching all the produce, as if an interrogation might reveal the lineage of the vegetables, willing it to attests to the freshness of itself. i love all the colors of the different produce and flowers.

there's a stall i have never seen here, and i looked closer, and behold, fresh pasta? i must try.
so i lined up and gave my hard earned money to the nice man, asked for 1/2 lb of herb parpedelle and 1/2 lb of lime-cilantro linguini (thousand little tongues)

after my 2 hockey games last night, i rushed home famished. not having properly planned the menu, i scavenged my fridge hoping to be able to pull some magical pasta sauce from leftover ingredients.

finally i sat down to a meal fit for the gourmand inside.

white wine lemon pepper creamy garlic-and-jalapeno sauce over freshly made lime-cilantro linguini topped with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

it was heavenly, i kid you not...
every bite was chewy, bouncy, and all the flavors bow in my mouth. yum.....
this carnivore did not even miss the lack of meat. request this if i ever offer to cook for you.

my affair with FB

after more than half a year of FB obsession (i am by no means done with you, FB! why don't you just hire me to work for you and we'll get this over with!!!) :)
I've decided to reinstate my blog.

Now most of my 'readers' will have forgotten that i even have a blog, let alone that i might update it for some random reason. Which is the good and bad about the blog, you can't notify people who may or may not check this blog. anyways i am, back.

work has been crazy. gone into work yesterday, on a sunday. so we can have a 'quiet' holiday for thanksgiving. but call me cynical, but the company's "quiet period" have never been quiet. i'm out of state this year so i am going to be so glad to be in the midst of the holiday travelling madness on wednesday at the airport. Fresh fall/winter/snowy air will be good for me though, years of living in california and i am both weaken to colder weather and nostalgic about changing of seasons. will be able to spend time with T and her family, we'll get some shopping in... pictures. can't wait.

been thinking of becoming a "Bunny Momma" lately. i guess the 'nesting' instinct coincide with hibernation season. but the last 2 times i've owned a bunny, the responsibility was thrust upon me. this time i am choosing it, i have done a near-obsessive amount of online reading and research and think i am ready now.

at first i was going to foster a bunny or 2, it's an 8 week commitment which when it is over, it is over. however the rabbit haven would require that i drive once a month or more down to santa cruz to show the bunny at the adoption showcase. even if the bunny isn't adopted, at that point i would be attached, and would be responsible to bring them back to santa cruz. that is a lot of commitment. still undecided... but there's a santa clara adoption showcase 1 december and that's the timeline i'm looking at...

no new postings for a while

what's going on?!
work has been hell. HELL! S&J left almost a week ago, so i'm readjusting back into the single life
Deviline also got me onto Facebook - so now i have an account and actually found real friends from school there, so it's actually pretty fun to stay in touch!

let's see some updates - my Sharks' win the other night vs LA Kings cinched their playoff spot... i want to go to the playoff games! (yes, still rooting for Habs to make playoffs, it's a close race there) had a conversation with a friend about my LifeList, i think on the top 3 one of them is at some point in my life i want to go to a Stanley Cup series game. maybe all of them. preferably with the Sharks being one of the teams...


i went to the annual Taste of Yountville festival last weekend - the weather was absolutely beautiful, i'll have a separate posting about it. Yountville is an awesome little town just near Napa known for the fantastic food. i just need to say that Chandon had a booth there for tasting i had champagne and creme brulee there... (pix to come as well)


this weekend is packed! yesterday went to a lounge bar with some friends, had 2 drinks, and were tipsy enough to dance a bit. but lately the kids at the lounge/bars is looking kinda young. maybe i'm getting kinda old.


going to be in the nicer area of Santana Row with my persian twin sister P and her hubby M. they are so sweet and they are my family here. we're going to hang out for appetizers and drinks - M is DD (designated driver) so me and P get to drink since we're lightweights (her physically, me in terms of alcohol consumption).


also on the agenda this weekend spending the day in the city with friends old & new! probably lunch, shopping, loitering, more eating and maybe even karaoke.

it's also persian new years BBQ, i gotta go represent since i am invited to eat with them - thousands of ppl at the park celebrating all day! and i have my hockey game....

work has been such a biatch this week, drinking with friends is going to help unwind me. maybe hopefully catch a movie this weekend too.

Movies i wanna see: 300, Blades of Glory, Meet the Robinsons

garlic noodles in my hair, enchilada sauce on my shirt...

no no that isn't just a bad country song's lyrics.
spending time with S&J while they were in town, we all realize that i'm still somewhat of a bumbling klutz!
when we went to Crustaceans (boy oh boy did they chow down their dungeness crab which was sooooo good) i threw in the towel first and finished my mango martini while they continue to devour the food. our side order was the equally famous garlic noodles that compliments the crabs soooo well. anyways we were just chatting about our day when J, with a crab leg poised in his mouth, points at me with his free hand, and mumbled.
S paused from her crab momentarily, looks at me and laughs...
i had garlic noodle IN my hair. in it. real classy! i had no idea how it got there seeing as i've stopped eating 5 minutes prior.

then a few days later, we went to El Buro which is a good mexican place near my work with fantastic enchiladas. food was yummy and portions were huge, so we all took half our dinners home. we walked to Coldstone creamery to check out the ice cream, we walked all around barnes and nobles bookstore to browse for an hour to try to digest the food. we got home and S&J are showing me their vacation photos from the Canary islands, in the midst J pointed to my tummy and said 'piggy' in english with a french accent, my first instinct is to protect my tummy from hearing such insensitive judgemental heresy against its size ; afterall it's not that big... it's seen worse days!
S wrestled with my instinctively placed protective arm covering my tummy and laughed, mind you, giggled till she fell on the floor, because i had a pretty big patch of red enchilada sauce DRIED on the front part of my shirt near the tummy...

so that is why "we can't take you to anywhere nice"!

speaking of which i went with a girl friend to Nola's yesterday, cajun place with gumbo and such. we had their pecan pie which was MELT IN YOUR MOUTH fantastic. easily the best pecan pie and possibly best pie i've ever tasted. crunchy pecan softly sits on top of the brown sugar filling and flaky pie crust, drizzled with soft caramel (but not overwhelmingly sweet caramel) served warm with a scoop of whipped cream (i can do without) and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

it is heaven in a spoon.

and no, i managed not to take any of the pecan pie home on my shirt.

sympathy vacation weight gain...

S & J are in town and staying with me... they have been delightful and it's nice to come home to some company; it's been ages since i last had visitors.

the problem is, your friends are expected to gain weight on their vacation; afterall, they should eat good food, good beer/wine, chill, relax, enjoy and have a fantastic time.
however, when you play hostess to your friends, you inevitably start eating well too by showing them the best of the best food selections.

since S&J have arrived, we've lived it up quite a bit. this morning S made an awesome cheese and mushroom omelette and we had nutella toast. (i never have breakfast usually) tonight we had delicious dungeness crab and garlic noodles. sooooooooo yum. yesterday we ate at this great ramen noodle place... the day before we feasted on seafood near the Monterey Bay Aquarium (some might think it cold & unfeeling to have seafood plentifully served on your plate before you hit an aquarium... obviously i don't *grin*). yes, we hit Ghiradelli for ice cream sundae.

i've had coffee twice of three times a day, even on weekends...

S brought me:

• 5 jars of fantastic flavored instant coffee
• 7 kinds of teas (herbal, english.. you name it she brought it)
• 9 kinds of flavored hot chocolate mixes
• 2 boxes of chocolates
• 9 boxes of different types of scottish shortbread cookies
• 1 jar of marmalade

how she still manages to have room in her luggage for ANYTHING is beyond me! besides eating well with her and J here, i tell her she's feeding the bad habit of all this good food and drinks so i'll be hooked long after she's gone... then i'll pine away addicted to the teas and coffees and treats she introduced me to (that i would never have missed if i didn't know what i was missing)

so starts the Sympathy Vacation Weight Gain. i think i'm pretty good at it...

snowing blossoms...

the weather has been unseasonally warm this year, even for Cali (i don't know if calling it 'Cali' gives me away as someone not from this area...)
the cherry blossom trees are already flowering... today i was just caught of guard as a gush of wind blew through the courtyard at work and it looked like snowing blossoms...

time stood still for a moment as i was unreasonably, crazily delighted in that moment. a previous moment like this has happened before, in rear frequencies. the last time i was at LaSalle park as the colorful fall foliage and the crisp autumn air embraced me, and gusts of wind blew the leafs all around, snowing leaves all around me...

More on Chinese manners (or lack thereof...)

Continuing on from Feisty's rant about idiots:

From today's Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070314.wxspitting14/BNStory/International/home

I've got tons of anecdotes from my trip to Asia last year. Actually, a few years ago, some ladies huge phlegm bullet landed squarely on my toes in Toronto's Chinatown. I was wearing sandals - huge mistake.

my hockey blog

i've started a hockey blog, just because i think most people here are tired of hearing me rant and rave and praise hockey too often in my "Regular Blog"'s posts...

http://fans.nhl.com/amytobiko/home/

feel free to go there occassionally and post a comment or rate my blog! pad my stats !!! *wink*

why i hate idiots

So our budy JW brought to attention this article to me and I'm amazed at all the idiots (including this magazine's staff) who are giving this story more credit than it deserves. If you read any articles written by this doofus, I think you can agree with me that they suck. I'm not criticizing his opinion, but his weak arguments. How this guy gets this crap published AND an idiot editor doesn't realize this could spell big sh-t for his magainze is beyond me. It just further illustrates stupid asians who make me look bad.

Just now at lunch, I learned to hate another stupid asian. This loud, slimy, skrawny asian pushed me aside in the cafeteria for no reason whatsoever. Hello? Manners? Apology? I honestly wanted to shove him back. Why do I hate asians? Because there are too many that ruin it for the rest of us. Its bad enough we're surrounded by foreigners who claim we alllooksame; to have other people who look like us acting sexist and stupid drives me crazy.

There's mr.phlegm on my floor, always making spine tingling sounds, there's mr.xioyuz you honestly can't understand because his accent is too thick (don't even ask how to pronounce their name), there's the creepy asian always staring at women, there's the LOUD chatty group of asian girls who assume no one understands them so they decide they can shout out all their inhibitions, there's the asian who brings in smelly ass fish lunches and eats at his desk, there's ms. frantic who gets frustrated because we don't understand her, there are dumb asians, BO asians (ever heard of de-odorant?), ignorant asians, sexist asians and the list goes on.

According to Mr.Eng I'm an ass of an Asian because I laugh at Asian stereotypes. wtf? How can you NOT laught at Bobby Lee?

Why I Hate Blacks
Kenneth Eng, Feb 23, 2007
Here is a list of reasons why we should discriminate
against blacks, starting from the most obvious down to the
least obvious:
• Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has ever come across
them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl
racist remarks at us.
In my experience, I would say about 90 percent of blacks I
have met, regardless of age or environment, poke fun at
the very sight of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the
media proves their hatred: Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot
97, etc.
• Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks
are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been
enslaved for 300 years. It’s unbelievable that it took them
that long to fight back.
On the other hand, we slaughtered the Russians in the
Japanese-Russo War.
• Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that
so many of them, including Reverend Al Sharpton, tend to
be Christians.
Yet, at the same time, they spend much of their time
whining about how much they hate "the whites that
oppressed them."
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Christianity the religion
that the whites forced upon them?
• Blacks don’t get it. I know it’s a blunt and crass
comment, but it’s true. When I was in high school, I recall
a class debate in which one half of the class was chosen
to defend black slavery and the other half was chosen to
defend liberation.
Disturbingly, blacks on the prior side viciously defended
slavery as well as Christianity. They say if you don’t study
history, you’re condemned to repeat it.
In high school, I only remember one black student ever
attending any of my honors and AP courses. And that
student was caught cheating.
It is rather troubling that they are treated as heroes, but
then again, whites will do anything to defend them

my presidential campaign..

little known fact, i'm actually running for US president!

vote for me (click the little square that says 10 on top!)

:) my 'platform' is hockey, and acquiring more money in my Swiss bank account. my skill is being literate.

it may seem that i'm overqualified for the job... ;)

Nashville at SJ Sharks...

me: hmm there's decent tickets for tomorrow's Sharks game against a really good team - Nashville... i have a hair appt but i may reschedule that, but i have no one to go with :(

M: LOL its so funny that you mentioned hocky game and hair appointment in almost the same sentence - it would seem they wouldn't go together! but you make it work!!

me: so i'm trying to decide if i might get the tickets to go (someone at work is selling their tix) and delay my hair appt (that i really do need)

M: it would seem they wouldn't go together! but you make it work!!

me: i'm such a girl !

word of the day

is "fawn"

:) was chatting with a buddy, i guess maybe my use of the word is out of context. anyways i like that word.

usage: When i watch Marleau play hockey, I just want to FAWN all over him...

the other word of the day is "autopilot", because i've been kinda moody and emotional, and i feel like i've been on autopilot for quite a while

hockey, hockey and hockey...

in the past few years ever since i've started playing hockey, i know i've become involved (read: obsessed) with the sport. i can talk about it, watch it, play it, read about it, be engulfed in it.



nothing beats watching live hockey, except playing live hockey.



so my sunday league made it to semi finals. if we win again this week we'll make the finals. i think we have a decent chance at winning the season, but all the teams are pretty skilled all around so it'll be some tough games ahead.



the Sharks had acquired a new defense guy from the Habs - Rivet. it'll be interesting to watch him play, i don't have the luxury of watching most Habs games. being 32, he's going to be the oldest SJ Shark on the roster this year - which shows you how young the team is. The Sharks played a great game tonight and outshot Anaheim 42 to 19, and yet still lost 3-2. there were quite a few shots that hit the post... some days, everything goes your way, and others, it's the total opposite.



such is life...

personal anthem...

i recall watching Ally McBeal way back when (i hear the groans, but why must you judge...) but one of the wacky psychiatrists (played by Tracy Ullman) had told Ally to find her personal theme song, and play it and her day and perspective of things will change...



not that i believe in that stuff (or not believe...)

but i hadn't bought music in while and the other day the mood strikes and i bought Gwen's The Sweetest Escape.



was kinda feeling a bit blah (seasonal affective disorder maybe, since it's winter, daylight is short etc etc) but i put the CD in my car and the first song came on, which is a mix of Gwen style yodeling/dance-ish music... and i think, if i had to choose my personal anthem (not theme song, i prefer anthems, they say so much more...) i would choose this song - Wind It Up.



it's got a good beat to dance to, but the yodeling sections allow you to laugh a little at it; kinda like a good cheering up in life... something that makes you want to dance to the rhythm, but always be able to laugh at yourself. anyways, just a random thought.

burning down a church...

aka, humankind at its finest: the Crab Feed.

so my coworker B. invited me along for the Crab Feed - an extra ticket appeared because his original guests were sick.
i've been feeling rather antisocial since the ulcers. most of the time i crawl into bed with my laptop and internet, browse, read news and watch tv online and fall asleep (turning into a piggy, i know) so originally i'd declined, but feeling like i was too anti social, B was able to get me a ticket today for the Crab Feed.

show up at the locale, it was hosted by a hawaiian hula group who rented out the church. So i realize February is the month when dungeness crabs are in season, which is why Crab Feeds are so popular here (remind me to blog about the earlier Crab Feed which happened in a restaurant)


in any case, we all sat down at the annex of the church which serves also as a gym on non event days, long long tables are set up and everyone just sits; it encourages you to talk to ppl you don't know since groups are sat along the table and you face complete strangers. there were raffle prizes all through the evening, as well as hula and tahitian dance performances by the halau.

Fruit punch, pretzels and bread rolls are supplied. then salad course is passed along, as well as a pasta course. then came dungeness crabs, big silver tinfoils of them refilled on the table when the containers are empty.


nothing as graceful or as ladylike as digging into the piles of crab on your plate with probably 500 other people in the room. make note: this is not for faint of heart or an activity for any 'dates'. this is for taking complete strangers, or real good friends - basically people who you don't care about if they look at you in awed fear as you monstrously dismember the dead carcasess of the crabs and devour them with delight


the room was pretty noisy of chatter as everyone is chit chatting... when the crabs were brought out, a hush of silence blanketed the room. everyone's vision is limited to the crab on their plates, working to get the meat out, mixing their sauces, butter, lemon wedges, hot sauces, rice cooking in rice cookers (i kid u not), poke salads, mayonnaise... you name it, someone's brought it. the room begins to be filled with sounds of crab shell cracking and juice flying, people mumbling and sighing in enjoyment, equipment clanking (butter warmer refilling)


i tap out earlier than i thought. (i know, K would be so angry with me. i did drink some of the punch, although i know that's not why i couldn't eat as much as i used to. when we went to buffets K would forbid me to have water, as 'you can have water all you want for free at home, save the room for buffet food!!!'). but the richness of the butter, the hard labour of extracting the crab meat... overwhelms me. it's like Running of the Bulls in Spain.


the servers did a great job of keeping things cleared and refilled on the table.

during one of the clearing sweeps, i had my plates in my hand, turn to put it in the garbage bag of the server...

as i turn, my elbow accidentally pushed a loose piece of paper towel towards the tealight candle in my butter warmer

i turn back around and POOF, the paper towel is on fire, the lightness of it starts it half floating...


in a momentary of mild panic mixed with disbelief, i started blowing at the paper towel to try to put the flames out. it worked a little but did not extinguish it. B's friend on my left watched in amusement for a few seconds before she unscrewed the water bottle cap and douse the whole thing with water, at the same time we both wrestle the paper towel, half aflame, into the styrofoam bowl which is halfway singed.


a small puddle of water splashed onto our table, and onto the girl's clothes; she was absolutely cool about it and we were laughing. well that event made the evening memorable for our group.


it would've been ironic to show up to my high school reunion one day (catholic high school) with a story about how i almost burned down a catholic church in california during a crab feed....