Archive for May, 2006

Wind of change

1. My review and my raise. I didn’t think I had the gut to chase after a raise originally. And I did. And here we are.

2. My friend Nick (aka Big Nick) graduated from USC School of Architecture on Friday. I still remember the first time he talked to me about going to USC. Of course, I cheered him on. At the end of the month, he’s moving to Aspen, Colorado, to work at a firm he’s worked at over the summer.

3. I reconnect with my former best friend Jen. On Saturday, while waiting for Brandon and his friend to go through the exclusive Oakley sunglasses sale, I called Jen up and we hung out. It was almost like old times again. And I’m ecstatic that we are patching up our friendship! Before I left, we also made a pit stop to see her parents. Mr. & Mrs. C who I came to call Mom & Dad C. They have been so kind to me in the past, taking me in into their house and treating me like family. It was wonderful to see them as well.

4. My “cousin” Nicky turns 21 today. Twenty fucking one, people! In front of me yesterday at his party was this tall, strapping young man with his head in civil engineering and his heart in photography. When I first knew him, this man was just this cute little boy with bangs and chipmunk cheeks! And that was 13 years ago!! And this time next year, he’ll have a college degree.

5. I’ve learned that Nan (Big Nick’s sister), Mike, and Owen are moving to Massachusetts also at the end of the month. Mike got a fellowship and so the family is heading out east. And I’ve just met their kid Owen for the first time on Friday. Good luck to the Ketpura-Chin clan!

6. Chris the Frenchy is now engaged to his long time love Brandy. All I can say is, About damn time, Frenchy! :)

7. Brandon’s vasectomy appointment is on June 1.

8. Nicky’s sister May is graduating from UCI on June 17.

9. My older brother may return to the US for a few semesters to pursue a professional certificate. We’ll have to see.

10. I will turn 30 in November.

Hoot!

1 a.m. and I’m not in bed.

Wow.

I’m all wired. Partly from 2/3 of a massive blue cheese and bacon burger and fries at Hennessey’s. Too full. Partly from a pint and a half of Bass (Brandon didn’t finish his). Too full-er…and a little buzzed.

And why the celebration?

I had my performance review. It was stella. And I got a raise.

Yey.

It’s starting…

I suddenly remembered that I have an appointment with my ophthalmologist next month to follow up on my dry eyes. God, I can hardly WAIT to get back into contact lenses (although I do LOVE my kick ass geeky New Balance transition lenses glasses)!

I was going to take the afternoon of June 1 off to take Brandon in for the vasectomy appointment anyway, so I changed my appointment to earlier in the afternoon so I can just take one day off. When I told Nhien about the appointment, this is the conversation that followed:

Nhien: So you’re going to see the ophthalmologist for what now?

Me: [Explain the dry eye thing.] So he’ll see if my eyes are healthy enough to get back into contact lenses.

Nhien: Oh good. Hopefully both you and Brandon will be fixed by then.

[insert imaginary comedy drum rolls here]

Me: Um. Yeah.

*Unrelated Updates* The Lush Duckies are back at the bar this morning. I’m going to start naming them if they’re still there tomorrow morning.

Saving the world

Don’t get us wrong. We like kids. As long as they go home to their parents at the end of the day. Brandon is turning 34 this year and he still can’t stand baby cries.

I’m turning 30 (Eeeek!), and I start to feel the pull of the biological clock. Yeah, babies are suddenly cute. Like our niece Morgan Claire. But then, she cries.

Yesterday I was at Target looking at cards, and I suddenly found myself surrounded by probably a 4 year old and a 2 year old boys and their mom. One was whining about something and the other was rocketing up and down the aisle. To make it worse, mom was trying to read a selection of “Happy Birthday Daddy” cards to them so they could help her pick one, mixing in that was “Please put that downs” and “Please get over heres”. I was so annoyed by that and all the “Mommy! Mommys!” I had to go away.

So yeah. Biological clock can pull at my heart strings all it wants. But the buttomline is that I have absolutely no patient for kids. I guess, for both Brandon and I, it’s a part of being the baby of the family.

No, we’re not ready for children. Ever.

And thus brought us to the point of this entry.

Brandon and I would like to inform you that we are taking part in saving the world. We will not be contributing any more people into to this overpopulated planet.

We’ve chosen to be child-free. Brandon’s vasectomy appointment is set for June 1.

In the meantime, we’ll ogle at other people’s babies…like Morgan Claire, Mia Bean (Rude Cactus’) and Owen (Mike & Nan’s). And coming soon, J.C. & Erick’s and Baby #2 for our friend the Pidds!!

Morning in pictures

6:30 a.m.
These lushes were hanging out outside the local dive bar.

8:00 a.m.
Finally I checked out the picture of the Metro Blue Line crash last night. I would’ve been on that train if I didn’t get a ride home with my coworker. Ouch.

*Insert Choir of Angels here*

PS3.
Drool…

Fleeting dream

PS3 unveils tonight.

And my bus passes in front of the LA Convention Center everyday. This week, it’s just harsh. So close to E3 and yet so very far, far away. At least last year, although I could see the Convention Center all decked out for E3 and the streets were swarmed with gamer geeks and professionals, the Blue Line is an entire a block away.

*sigh*

Jukebox Kamekaze

We had quite an interesting Saturday night, so today Brandon and I spent doing and NOT doing things around the house. We had a nice afternoon nap and went for a walk and bunny chase down at Long Beach City College. (The college is full of “wild” bunnies.)

Then, Brandon and I attacked boxes in the garage. We wouldn’t have done it if Brandon didn’t need to find his DragonQuest guide. Heh.

The result, nonetheless, was very good. We cleared out a few more boxes and finally brought all the kitchen widgets and gadgets upstairs. Hooray for the return of my Foreman grill! (Now that we don’t have the easy access to the propane BBQ grill, I’ll have to turn to George for my grilling needs.)

Now. Back to the wild Saturday night.

Saturday night Shane usually has his daughter with him, but not last night. So we had him over for dinner and then, with his encouragement, we headed out to check local dive bars…which there are 3 within one block radius.

First, we headed for the Boondocks, the bar which I past by every morning to go to my bus stop. This dive has regular patrons hanging out already at 6:30 a.m. We rounded the corner and found a woman with a hammer speaking loudly to another old man with his cigarettes outside the street entrance to the joint.

Okay. Not the Boondocks.

Next up on the list is the Sportsman directly across the street from the Boondocks. First good sign, Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” drifted out as we approached. Once inside, we were even more impressed. This place is spacious. It has pool tables, MP3 juke box that have just about every album on the planet, clean, and serves up all sorts of brew in bottles. It was 10 p.m. on Saturday night and the place wasn’t too crowded, and that was the plus for me and Brandon. The bartenders are cute blonde girls, one with very short skirt, and that was of course the plus for the boys.

Sold!

Everything was wonderful at the Sportsman. The drinking was wonderful–$5 giant bottle of ice cold New Castle. The dudes next to us were quite fun to hang out with.

Until some dude got into his head that it’d be funny to put some cheesy songs on the jukebox that have been playing nothing but rock and classic rock the entire time.

First came “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Haha. That was funny, kids. What a way to break the uncomfortable silence we had when the jukebox ran out of songs.

Then came Madonna crooning “Like a Virgin”.

O-kay. Odd choice. That was still kind of funny.

Next up was Kanye West’s “Gold Digger”. Not bad. We dig. We get it that this guy was trying to be funny.

After that, another funny. “Thriller” got me channeling Michael Jackson by our end of the bar.

(Oh yeah. I used to be able to do the entire routine like Jennifer Garner in “13 Going on 30″, my friend. Now I only remembered a few key moves…heheee.)

It went downhill from there.

Tom Jones brought out a few boos. Another slow Michael Jackson’s classic brought out “What the fuck??” and half the bar suddenly went out for a smoke. A lot of talk is floating around questioning the guy’s sexual orientation and his sanity. And by the time Journey came on–which Shane and I didn’t mind too much–Brandon had it. So we left.

Now why would someone intentionally piss off a bar pumped full of rock and roll and testosterone that way especially when you’re a dainty looking guy who came into the bar with another dainty guy? Somebody either had a death wish or really believe they were funny.

I hope those guys got out of the bar alive that night.

Shane and I wanted to check out Mr. B’s Restaurant, the 3rd bar on the block, before heading home. Just wanted to poke our head in is all. As we approached about 50 ft. away, someone opened the door to the place and out poured loudly and clearly:

Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Don’t you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me? Don’t cha?

Pussycat Dolls? (Personally…I don’t mind them TOO much, but I hate that song. My little guilty pleasure…hehe.)

Fuck that.

We called it a night around midnight hour. And I have found a new local spot!

Thanks Shane!

Ha ha ha

A friend sent me this last week.

The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done there were 3 finalists.

Two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

“We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!!!”

The man said, “You can’t be serious, I could never shoot my wife!”

The agent said, “Then you’re not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home.”

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes. The man came out with tears in his eyes, “I tried, but I can’t kill my wife.”

The agent said, “You don’t have what it takes. Take your wife and go home.”

Finally, it was the woman’s turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband.

She took the gun and went into the room.

Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls.

After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow.

“This gun is loaded with blanks” she said. “I had to beat him to death with the chair.”

MORAL : Women are evil. Don’t mess with them !!!!!!!!

Indeed, boys. Indeed we are.

Now, fuck off.

:)

Yes. We’re geeks.


Back by popular demand, Brandon and I dressed up as characters from Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, Auron and Rikku.

(There you go, Lauren! No more red boxes of doom!)

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