OakMonster’s Den

Our new-to-us HD is coming in tomorrow.

Our new TV stand will actually get to serve its true purpose.  (And Brandon is loving the new computer armoire.)

Since the TV stand is coming in, we had to move the old Ikea black entertainment center out which Brandon and our neighbor Jerry did left it out for alley scavengers.  The much loved TV finds a new home with 4 college girls in the rented house in our complex.

Thus our living room has to be rearranged some more.  At this moment it looks like Hurrican Katrina had just came by, so I’ll take a picture for you when we’re completely finished.  And that rearrangement bled into my little “cave”.

The tall beech Ikea bookshelf, formerly home to our DVDs, is now in my office replaceing Brandon’s old black wood bookshelf which will go where the TV stand is at currently.  More space for his computer stuff.  Another Ikea simple wood utility shelf which is our bookshelf has moved from the left side of where TV stand is going in to the right side where the Ikea bookshelf used to be.

Yer get all that?  It’s totally like a furniture musical chairs around here.

What a way to end another busy day.  It’s a lot like last Saturday, actually.  We started at Brandon’s client’s house with baby Mia and my puppy boyfriend Jake.  I watched the first half of the Trojans steamrolling over the drunken Irish and finished the second half at home.  38-0, baby.  But yes, the team still plays a little bit off but Sanchez is like a different guy today from last week.

New QB is working out well for us.

So, yes.  Tonight I celebrate the New.

Tomorrow, I get to put everything back in the old place…so at least I can have some floor space to lay out and pin my Jedi top.  Otherwise, this Jedi will have to go topless on Halloween.  Not that Brandon would mind…but I don’t think the police and my office wouldn’t like that very much.  Hehe.

I survived the three days from hell.

You know that monthly big meeting I have? Usually, it’s 3-woman team running the show.  Last month, we lost Eva so it was a 2-woman team.  This time, Celeste is off in Amsterdam/Germany, so guess who ran the show…on top of everything that needs to be done for the gala 2 weeks away?

Me.

I did it. With the help of my colleagues at work.  Everyone pitched in.  Everyone handed in his/her stuff as requested.  People were doubling up duties left and right and at some point I just held the helm and enjoyed the ride.

Oh, and I ran back to throw an office birthday party after that (thanks to another colleague who picked up the cookie-cake for me).  Then, after all the early start, I stopped for a meeting at the brand new hotel down the street to get another donation for my silent auction.

So, what did this girl do to celebrate her achievement?

I got a pedicure.  And would’ve gone for a chair massage too but the day spa I used to go to doesn’t have that any more.  Then I made Penne with beef and arugula pasta salad with parmesan biscuits (cheated with Pillsbury dough plus fresh parm-reg grated on top) and settled in for a few hours of Top Gear and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation in San Paolo.  Topped it all off with 3 shots of Limoncello and wanting more.

Pallini Limoncello.  It’s worth every penny.

And tomorrow, back to the long day schedule.

Did I mention that I am starting to go to work 1-1.5 hour earlier everyday until the event is over?

Oh yes, babies.  Bring on more Limoncello!

While Brandon was down at Miramar with Justin and Erik, having a boy’s day out looking at planes at the air show and turning themselves into cooked lobsters, I labored away at my first part of my Halloween costume while watching Top Gear and Dr. Who marathon.

Behold, the Jedi robe, made from scratch!

Brandon helped me pin the bottom hem. It was curved so I couldn’t quite just measure 8-inch to cut all the way around and have the same length. My poor sun burned husband was at my feet, helping me shorten my robe. But it’s finished, finally.

It took me long enough to finish the damn thing. I mean, it really wasn’t all that difficult to pin things together, baste them and run them through the machine. But like Yoda said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” You just have to do it!

Sure, this is not 100% accurate for those serious about cosplay but it’s better than store bought, I tell ya. Why? Because first of all it costs me more to buy materials than actually purchasing a out-of-the-bag costumes. And more importantly, this robe is a product of my very own blood, sweat, and tears, and hours of hard labor.

But for a great looking Jedi costume I can wear for years to come? It’s totally worth it.

Now, on to the “Gi” part of the costume. The top, that is. Now, the pants are a pair of my new khakis, tucked into my favorite boots. The lightsaber will be borrowed from my coworker’s son.

Oh, and I also made dinner of epic proportion. Having now learned the value of frozen homemade chicken soup, I made a huge pot of Italian chicken stew this time around, and it simmered through the evening. Super. Tasty.

So, now that I’m all done. I’m going to go reward myself with some Haagen Daas and a shot of limoncello.

Yey…me!

First of all. Last night, it rained. Rain makes me happy. It was a good start for today.

And then, well, I’m going to jump the chronology here a bit because I’m a happy Trojan.

Like the text I sent to Amy the Gridiron Goddess…HOLY Sanchez Batman!

Mark Sanchez. Once that boy got going, he GOT going, didn’t he?

Yes, another squeaking victory. But consider that the entire offensive line is the back-up players and some of them are even the back-up of the back-up players, plus a brand spanking new QB, we did okay. Thank god, our Defense held even without Maualuga. [ETA: Amazingly, Amy the Gridiron Goddess said almost the exact same thing I said here over there.  LOL.  Now you see why we’re friends?]

And I made it home to watch the end of 2nd quarter all the way through the end. Yes, I REALLY need to watch my Trojans for us to win.

Where was I this morning? Well, that’s the second point that make today glorious.

Brandon had a side job out in the Palos Verdes Estates. Our client is hooking up his brand new house to an entertainment system that is wired into the internet and all that jazz. I lost count of how many flat screens he has in the place. But then again, I was busy hanging out with the guy’s lovely wife, their adorable 13-month-old baby little girl Mia and my new boyfriend Jake, the most lovable doggy in the whole wide world.

Jake followed me out of their house and looked longingly at me until I got into the car. That boy loves me! Well, I did give him the attention he has been missing since the baby arrived. Plus a few sessions of doggy massage. When we go back next week, I’m bringing him homemade doggy biscuits. And the Absolutely Weevils Cookies for the Client. He, like many of our friends and my husband, too is addicted to my baked goods.

Our clients not only love us for Brandon’s fabulous IT skills, but for the cookies that I bake. Hey, at least you KNOW they want to continue being your clients at least for the cookies. That’s good enough for me.

Now, on my 4th day of adding Adsense, I have $0.33 in the bank. Haha! No, it’s nothing to look at, but eventually all those cents from the ads and $1 each per Siamese Pixie purchase will add up to $10 and that’s another $10 donation to Thai Red Cross. The donation from YOU generous folks of the Blogosphere. I am just a vessel for your good karma.

And speaking of good karma. Finally, the cake topper for today. Hallmark is now a (Product)RED. Finally, a product I can actually afford! Hooray!

50 days have passed since my mom passed away.

My dad and brothers went to feed the  bedridden monks at Chulalongkorn hospital in my mom’s honor.  She liked to do that.  (Oh yes, and the money you donate to the Thai Red Cross does go there as well.)  And as I mentioned, Aunty Tim, May, Brandon and I went to Wat Pathammachat to pray and to feed the monks, the healthy ones that is.

50 days also marks the point where we can come out of mourning.  I have been wearing black, white and grey clothing since mom passed away.  Thai people called it “Wai Took” or “wear your grief”.  The only day I didn’t wear the mourning color was the day we went to “float” her remains.  We were supposed to be happy for her then.  At least on the outside.  My brothers and I originally weren’t going to “Wai Took”.  Mom didn’t want us to be sad for her.  But my dad went ahead with it and so I decided to do the same.

Wednesday was my first day in color.  I wore my favorite outfit of brown polo shirt and brown and pink stripe pants.  A good start on getting back on the color side of things.

Not until I got on the bus this morning did I realize that I was once again in my desaturated hues.  Apparently I just reached for my usual black top and charcoal pants.

It’s so odd to have to think about color now.

I wonder if switching my wardrobe would make me feel less empty inside.

And just for that, tomorrow I’m going to wear my new–well, as of this last trip–red striped Esprit shirt I wore to my mom’s last boat trip.  She would’ve loved that shirt.

That ought to have been what I wore the first day out of mourning.  But hey, it’s never too late to start healing.  Even if it’s from the outside in.

Yep. Still home. Still sick. But I do feel better every 2 hours or so.

During this course of the slow blooming cold, I have discovered a few miracle cures.

1. Johnson’s Soothing Vapor Bath. It’ll make you NEVER want to come out of that bath tub again until the whole cold thing passes.

2. Iced Tea, lightly sweetened. Lots of it. Especially POM Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea and my big ol’ pot of jasmine green tea saves the day.

3. Homemade Chicken Soup. I have NEVER been so grateful for that big fat vat of chicken soup I made and froze a few weeks ago.

4. Cheez-It. When all you can taste is salt, this is way better foods than Saltine.

Y’all, finally the week for social calendar explosion has ended.

Last night in Santa Monica proved to be a lot of fun.  Elan, a former coworker from the dot com, is in town from her current home in Cambridge with her friend Jesse.  Joining us were other dot com survivors Joyce, Terri, and Allen.  We hung out, ate, caught up and gossiped over the intermittent screams of Chicago Bears fans at Barney’s Beanery.  Much fun!  It wasn’t a late night as some had to work, some was jetlagged and some needed her rest to get better. 

Now, my sick-ass can rest in peace…for all of one day.  *sigh*

Yes, sick.  The usual stress/exhaustion no energy fever with a minor couch and a dash of sinus infection thing that started up a few hours after lunch on Friday is finally going away.  Brandon has been kind enough to let me get as much sleep in as I can and kept my glass filled with tea, water, or AirBorne.

God loves that man because I sure as hell do!

This morning, I rolled him out of bed and off we went to Wat Padhammachart, the “Nature and Wilderness” Temple in La Puente.  I haven’t been to any other temple in the U.S. since Wat Thai for our wedding almost 6 years ago.  (Yes, it’ll be 6 in January!)  Aunty Tim and May were meeting us there.

Tomorrow afternoon my time marks the 50th day after my mom’s passing.  In our tradition, friends and family will go to the temple to pray and to feed the monks on that day and once more at the 100th day.  Coincidentally, my mom’s 100th day lands on her birthday, November 29.  Aunty Tim will be in Thailand then, so this trip to the temple is also a training for me to go do on my own in November.

We offered some supplies to the monks and made donation.  The monks chanted and blessed us.  We then did a mini Tak Batr (food alms) inside the building.  Brandon, being a few males in the place that morning, got volunteered to help passed the food around for the monks.  Aunty Time, May and I ended up assisted the nuns with theirs.

And my poor husband with banged up knees endured another good 20 minutes of praying, sitting on the floor.  By the time we got up to eat, one of his knee felt like water balloon.  He didn’t expect the praying to be that long, and neither did I.  The last trip to the monthly Tak Batr at the park, it was like wham! bam! done! see ya!  So I didn’t know this was going to be full traditional.  So, when we come out here in November, after assisting the monks, B is going to sneak outside to sit on a bench.

Did I mention I love this man?

One lesson from the sermon today though.  The monk said that going to the temple to “make merits” is just like going to a store.  At the store, you bring money and you get stuff to take home.  You bring your alms of food to the temple and you may not have anything physical to take back with you but you feel the same satisfaction from being generous, praying and meditation.  It doesn’t have to be just the temple and with the monks, but in your everyday life.  If you do good for somebody or show your generosity to people around you, in return, you will feel happiness.  If you come to the temple or go through life with “a bad heart”, ill will and general moodiness, it is like shopping with a torn bag or a broken bowl.  Happiness does not stay with you no matter how much you “spend”.

So, make that a lesson for you all out there today.  Make your heart light, and go “shopping”!

Exactly what my mom would have me do to remember her by.

Dear Fellow Trojans,

I made us lose today.

I did not watch the game as I was in Fullerton attending the Orange County Police Canine Association annual benefit show. I have watched almost every USC games for the past few seasons with the exceptions of a few out-of-the-country moments.

Today, I did intentionally not watch the game. Our team seemed to know it. And they beat themselves to a point where Stanford beat us. By having been absent from watching the game, I jinxed it. And we lost.

Our defeat tonight is entirely my fault. For that, I apologize.

With deepest regrets,

OakMonster

P.S. Thanks to Amy the Gridiron Goddess who kept me up to date with the score through the evening as I couldn’t listen to the game at the stadium.

Now that that’s done….

Kids. I’m suffering the exhaustion bug once again. It’s been a crazy week at work and as I mentioned, my social calendar has not been kind either.

My 18-person group had a great time at Avenue Q last night. It’s amazing just how true life the show was for most of us there! For those who’ve seen the show will know exactly what I’m talking about here.

GG Amy had just started a solo career outside corporate world. Nhien and I are begging for money for our non-profit. Demi-Boss is back in college, thinking all of these kids are so much younger than me. Another friend is going to a wedding with a guy she started dating a few weeks ago. Brandon pointed at me on the whole having a master degree and not doing much with it thing. We have a Canadian coworker whose girlfriend lives in Canada…and no, different from the show, he is not gay. And the boys and their internet pr0n. How true is that!

We do indeed live on Avenue Q just a little bit.

But the exhaustion thing started yesterday afternoon with me when my throat was a little scratchy and I kept running out of energy. By the end of the night, all I wanted to do was go home, but we stayed in Downtown a bit to hang out with GG Amy and feed the always hungry pregger Aurora. I slept for almost 12 hours and woke up without a voice or energy. Brandon bundled me up, plopped me on the couch, and thawed out my homemade chicken soup. Awww….

A bowl of chicken soup, 2 cups of tea, and a handful of Tylenols and 2 shots of Airborne later, I managed to shower and we headed out to the K-9 show. Miraculously, I didn’t keel over at the end of the evening.

The K-9 benefit show was a lot of fun. Same ol’ drill with helicopters and people getting taken out by dogs, but it’s always exciting. OCSD unit did great and Lycos is ever so charming. This year, he behaved well except for the fact that he kept trying to nudge off his muzzle. But that was just make him soooo cute.

Now I must rest more as tomorrow night we are heading to Santa Monica for a dot com reunion dinner. Guess who organize that one?

Yep. I *am* a masochist.

ETA: I added the Michael Weatherly dream to the DreamBoat(TM). Go check it out!

If my computer runs the DVD/CD burner program once, not only it wouldn’t open again after I close it, but somehow it causes Photoshop to not launch.

So, here I went, rebooting.  While waiting for it, I glanced at the few pictures of my mom on my wall.

I went into Nhien’s office and cried.  Just a little bit.

But I mean, I was just rebooting the computer, for god’s sake!  I mean, what the heck?

Grief is fucking sneaky.

…oh god. My social calendar is about to run off the frickin’ track.

Hi. I’ve just gotten home tonight after a happy hour with my coworkers and some other new friends like El Heffe, Robb and Al the Dancing Fools from Girls Night Out, and newer friends I made at the bar, Joe Trojan and Morgan the Hater. I even ran into that one dude who came out drinking with us once at the Edison…whatever his name was. (Sorry, man.)

So yeah. Last Friday, I was turning into a pumpkin somewhere on the 605 after dropping Celeste off. We had a blast at girls night out. I have some pictures from the night, but nothing incriminating…because lord knows who read this thing. Hehe.

5 nights later, I’m back in Downtown, having a great time, getting to know people at the Library Bar. Mike the Owner and Carlos the Bartender are the coolest dudes. Ever. Love them boys! Our usual group came down, had a blast and left by 7:30, leaving behind me, Celeste and her posse Kim and Ernie. And I drove the gang home.

Well, there went Hump Day.

Friday night, 18 of us are going to see Avenue Q at the Ahmanson.

Saturday night, as much as I’d love to stay home and watch USC play Stanford, I’ll be in Fullerton at the annual Orange County Police Canine Association’s Benefit Show in Fullerton. (You should come! It’s a LOT of fun.) Oh, and I got invited to 3 other things on that same day about the same time. The gods of my social life totally had too much coffee.

Sunday, I managed to get a handful of former colleagues from the dot com days to gather in Santa Monica.

Monday morning, off to the temple with Aunty Tim to commemorate my mom’s 50th day of passing. Actual day would be Wednesday, but I have Monday off. Columbus Day, baby! Gotta love being on County schedule.

And then the rest of the week is crazy, crazy, FUCKING CRAZY work schedule. Less than one month now to my gala event! With the exception of Wednesday menu tasting at the hotel. THAT, I’m actually looking forward to.

Anyways. Rude Cactus was talking about not having anything to post on his site today. But hey, he has a hell of a lot more readers/commentors to keep the thread going over there.

Me? I got too much to talk about and so little time.

But y’all help me on this one and remind me to tell you about my dream the other night about Michael Weatherly aka Tony DiNozzo from NCIS, okay? Remind me. Promise? Good.