finally no murdering crabs

went with a few friends to Crustacean restaurant for crab (EURO-ASIAN cuisine).......
the roast dungeness crab was so DELISH.(accompanied by An's Garlic Noodles..........) i was in heaven

enjoy the picture!!!

finally got off my lazy @ss

i knew this would happen...
the guilt was overbearing, and passed a point where i can live with it :) (similar to my philosophy on cleaning my place)

this weekend, being playoffs, no other players can substitute for a team other than the ones they are actually IN, so i only had 2 hockey games... (we lost both leagues, which means we're pretty out of the running for the Keg game this season)
on sunday, i was able to get a 4 mile run on the treadmill before my game.
yes i know it's different to run on the treadmill (hurts the knees less) but i actually got off my butt to go and run!
so proud...

the other motivation is TV. i don't have cable at home, or even rabbits-ear-antennas. and i have watched the entire Gilmore girls series no less than 5 times.
so on sunday i went to my gym and while running, watched 2 episodes of My Super Sweet 16 where a bunch of super wealthy teenagers whine about not getting Beyonce to perform at their half million dollar Sweet 16 parties.

yesterday i bribed myself. shop for 1 hour (i didn't buy anything) and i get to order to-go take out at this decent restaurant, in exchange for the fun (shopping) and the efficiency of not cooking (take-out) i would get my butt to the gym. dragged myself there at 10pm (work gym open 24 hours and maybe there were 3 other ppl there at best). ran for 5 miles. got to watch an episode of Dead Zone.

yes, i have to bribe myself to get there. but it feels good to have gotten it out of my system. i guess i'm aiming for 2-3 runs a week, probably trying to increase my endurance (length of time of my run) before i'd consider improving my time. my aim for the Half is just to complete it. i think ballpark is 13.1 miles realistically within 4 hours (which means a brisk walk pace of 17 minute/mile) - considering the path goes through the ups and downs of downtown SF hilly streets. in actual truth and i have told M. this (she's running it with me, we 'train' the same way - including procrastination and bribes) - i just want to get to the finish line and make it. together with her. have fun, enjoy the experience, cross the line.

i can see why running would be addictive (i have not hit the Runner's High yet ppl promise me, i can IMAGINE after x miles, it would be more of the same thing and if you can endure the first x miles the rest is mental capacity of pushing yourself to completion). i went on the nike site - i highly recommend - to the training log, and there's oodles of good article and advice. of course they also have cool apparels and stuff, but i think the site has got great content. it's kinda like having a nice cell phone or a Sims character - you just want to customize and buy things for it... you can't take the shopper out of a girl.

on other topics, i'm desperately trying to absorb all the reading and research i'm doing. i'm in a Fantasy Football League again this year, i've come to love watching the NFL games every sunday/monday. drafting for my team is upcoming on Monday, so i gotta do some learning about the team changes this year, who's back from injuries, which team lost their good players...

sounded like a good idea...

i love chocolate...

the idea sounded good until the reality of logistics revealed some pitalls :)

hockey playoffs

everyone who knows me for at least 10 minutes knows i've become very passionate about hockey in the lsat few years, especially since i've taken it up as a hobby and it's become a great love of my life.
i play recreational league hockey (no shit) :) and every weekend i get 3 to 5 games under my belt on the weekends. i play at a rink that's more like a country club than your typical run-down dumpy rink, every season you get put on a team, so eventually you know most ppl at the rink, and you've played against most of them.

every season there's the Playoffs which are happening starting this week. all teams play to compete for the grand prize, which is team photo with the Stanley "Keg" (shiny empty keg, what's better than beer & hockey i tell ya), as well as a free t-shirt with the rink and team name forever imprinted. (until the t-shirt decomposes). yes, everyone can buy a t shirt, and most of the time i don't even remember which team won in what season, but it's the spirit of the league, and keeps people somewhat competitive...

well, the chances of my teams this season (mind you i got assigned Captain of both teams) is slim.
my women's team play our playoff game against Red team - which has 4 very young, 13-14 year olds who has endless energy and can skate circles around us Old Folks both in speed and agility and skills.
my sunday team play against White team - which has Kawasaki and his son, another lethal father-son combination, a very good shooter, and a decent goalie.

in the last month i've gotten inquiries about 'how do you know Kawasaki?' well he played beginner hockey at my rink when we both first started. the interesting thing was i had no idea who he was until a few months later, when someone mentioned that oh he's "GUY" with admiration & awe. (google him) He, however, has the luxury of money and working for his own company so he really had time and the will to practice shooting all the time at his house. he's invited me and E to his place a few times where E is the goalie and Guy, Nick (his son) and me take turns practicing shooting - Guy was always in his rollerblades, around the house, garden, garage; trying to get even better in skating

i've come to see a connection between people's playing style to their everyday personality. 99 percent of ppl i play hockey with are SUPER great ppl outside the rink. however, ppl's personality on the ice is another matter...

don't get me wrong, i have utmost respect for Guy and the success he's achieved and i really like him, he's cool to talk to and he's done some great stuff for the world... it's just that i can totally see how he got to be where he is in life - competitive, aggressive, taking great chances, and working really hard to enable opportunities to open up - he is that way on the ice, in the moment of the game. he has a ferociousness and competitive drive that explains why he is where he is and why every Mac/Apple follower's eyes glaze over in admiration/awe when his name comes up.
Guy: you are a good enermy on the ice as we head to the playoffs this weekend, but i respect your game (even if i hate playing against you sometimes). - not that you'd ever read my blog. :)

a recent pic

it's been a while since i saw you guys (a whole year, at least)
so i figured i'll post a pic, this is me and Lien - she's my good friend Nick's wife (me and Nick worked together down in the trenches of the typical small start-up at my last company; he was far better off being the UI guy than being the reactive qa drones, who ended up being gullible enough to work 22 hours back to back 3 times in the WorstWeek).

we went to SF to clubbing last friday, with a bunch of their friends, all of them really cool. not much to report today, i'm a free-coffee-whore, i'm on my 4th coffee drink of the day (mind you i barely touched some of the others, Starbucks was promoting their regular iced coffee - drip coffee over ice, and was free. i'm an expresso-based-drink kinda girl... gave it a chance but bleh)

last place i thought i would look, but finally found a japanese bakery within 30 miles from my house that has decent pastries (the almond croissant ALMOST rival Premiere Moisson. almost).

a coworker-friend suggested that i may have ADD. i get impatient a lot, and i am a super multi tasker. as in while i'm waiting for some website to load i have 2 other websites i'm reading concurrently, and i check forums and cnn all the time throughout the day. i dunno. how do you know if you have ADD?!?!

damn, about to sneeze i reached for the kleenex and it's further from my reach than i thought. oh well, my cubicle, my germs.
coincidentally, my cube is really messy. not dirty, but just a disorganized chaos of items littered around. it makes it 'interesting'. no one would ever be able to find all the trade secrets i have written and scattered around aimlessly ;) just joking.

basketball in quebec?

'nuff said

pms mode...

sorry haven't posted in a while :) kinda on a PMS mode.. tired all the time, i actually got 9 hours of sleep and didn't want to get up! rare, because usually at hour 7 my back is uncomfortable and won't let me toss and turn and be at peace.

tried to watch Pride & Prejudice last night, was in a comfort-food, chick-flick mode. Keira Knightly is so pretty... however i couldn't get the subtitles to work on my new 50-bux dvd player and seriously had issues understanding them, halfway through it lost my interest and i went to bed... i remember trying to read the book back in high school days; couldn't keep track of all the characters, i put down the book before i got into the story. maybe i'll re-read it. it's a classic afterall...

update on PsychoEx (PE) - for those who already know the background, recently PE had re-entered my life, playing as goalie in my sunday hockey league (was my goalie for half a season last season, i've played against him a few times this season). well i hadn't seen him around for a while, talked to Cathie, who is gf of his buddy; turns out that he's gone back to school so not working so no money to play hockey; plus he didn't like anyone who played at the rink anyway (which is ironic because everyone likes everyone who plays at this rink; a reason why this rink is so popular). my faith in karma is restored once more... don't get me wrong, i like when he's the opposing goalie and i get to shoot on him (call it therapeutic anger management sessions); however, he's bipolar psycho, i'm more happy i won't have chances to run into him at my usual hangout.

update on the ice cream situation: i threw out 2 pints of something. i think i can go 2 more... the other night i wanted milk & starbucks coffee liqueur on the rocks but the milk went bad. i did the thing every girl would do which is to grab 2 scoops of vanilla hagen daze ice cream as substitute. see, it IS handy to have extra ice cream in the freezer. it was delish!

update on the Roomba - for which i am holding a naming 'contest' - submit the name! best one gets used!!!!
i love love LOVE my roomba! i ran it 3 or 4 times already. my place isn't big so i don't really need the remote (although it's nice), but it's just fantastic. i let it roam, when it runs close to empty on power, it will find the HomeBase and dock it, fully charged when i come back home. when the roomba is on in the other room and i close the door so it can do just that room, i don't even hear it in the living room. it's one of the best appliance i've ever owned.

my friend named his "Mitch the Bitch" which just cleverly rolls off the tongue. any ideas?

i've been procrastinating my training for the Half, it's fast approaching and my procrastination serves to generate more fear that i might die and not finish it when the time comes. i went to my fi-fi gym last night, spent 30 minutes on the elliptical (the new kind, instead of a spherical back and forth it was like an elliptical married to a stairsmaster...), then 30 minutes jogging on the treadmill. still feel so out of shape, i'm pretty sure i can bloody WALK the 13 miles if i have to, but i prefer to be able to run half and walk half at the very least.

Peter Cullen, Voice of Optimus Prime

Is proudly advertised on the Transformers site, but I just looked him up on imdb. I started laughing as soon as the page loaded... All of his recent work has been playing the voice of Eeyore on Pooh stuff HAHAHHAHA. Eeyore is Optimus Prime.

But the list doesn't end there, (actually, this guy has had a pretty discreet yet impressionable career in our lives) he's also played Mogwai & Gremlins in the movies, Gobots and GIJoe voices, and... get this... the voice of KARR on Knight Rider. Too f.... funny.

Have a good weekend guys. Weather looks fabulous, maybe I can start training again and catch some quality movies: The Descent, Miami Vice, Little Miss Sunshine, and maybe that Ricky Bobby Will Farrell movie... and no, I doubt I'll be able to see all, least of all Sunshine since its not out in this cruddy province yet.