OakMonster's Den

2009 in pictures

*

2009 Awards

Drinking Buddy of the Year: Brandon, actually. Surprise!  The mister doesn’t usually party down, but he has taken up a beer here and there this past year, a stressful one for his work.  So we had gone out for a beer together more than the year before.  Cheers to you, honey bunny!

Bar of the Year: Hennessey’s Tavern and Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach. These two places never fail to deliver cold pints and some great eats.  They’re our go-to places when we want to run away from the daily life for a little while.

Sorry to disappoint y’all with the lack of Downtown LA’s bar feature this time around.  I haven’t partied in town much at all.  Climate change around the office will affect your happy hour weather, I tell ya.

Newcomer Award: Twitter Gang. I have grown to love folks I met at Tweet Ups especially @dananner, @anaperiodista, @fstop23, @davidmoyle, @sendchocolate, @joncruz, @vbesack, and the disappearing @phraktyl.  We went shooting pictures.  We played Rock Band.  We got drunk.  We had overall great times on and off line.  Great year to make new friends!

High Point of the Year: Watch Thrill the World Los Angeles became the awesome success. From mere 100 last year grown into the thousands. It still blows my mind.

Low Point of the Year: The Christmas Flu and USC Football Rebuilding Year. Yep. Suckage.

Best Holiday: Halloween…again. I mean, prancing through Pine Street as Zombie Princess Leia, rocked that stage with my awesome crew of zombies?  Best. Halloween. EVER!

Song of 2009: Glee soundtracks. I mean, I can barely pin it down to just ONE song!  Almost everything from Glee I totally dig.  I’m especially partial to Somebody to Love, Don’t Rain on My Parade, Defying Gravity (the duet), No Air, Sweet Caroline (Can I get a hell-yeah from Team Puck?), and this one I can’t stop singing.  Lea Michele.  What a revelation!

Movie of 2009: Avatar. I’m sorry, Star Trek and District 9!  You came sooo close!

Surprise Movie of 2009: Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story – Rod Faifa Ma Ha Na Tuh – รถไฟฟ้า..มาหานะเธอ.  I’m soooo in love.

Restaurant of the Year: Bottega Louie. Great food and ambiance.  Totally a favorite place to run away from work to for a long lunch.  Okay it’s a little loud, but what an awesome place to be!  Affordable awesomeness.

Book of the Year: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Seriously. Go read that.

TV Show of the Year: Glee. Duh.

*

2009 Goals Tally:  6 out of 10…kind of.

1. FAIL – Explore Kung-fu.  HAH!  I did not.

2. FAIL – Drink more water.  Did okay for a couple of months before waking up to pee in the middle of the night got old.

3. FAIL -More guitar/piano/singing – at least twice a week.  I did try for once a month, but that didn’t happen since my office got so messy I can’t even get to the piano.

4. PARTIAL SUCCESS -Read more books – One book a month at least.  Actually did 10 out of 12.  Not too bad!

• Water for Elephants, Sarah Gruen – Love it.
• Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, Lynne Truss – Learned all sorts of new things.
• Watchmen, Alan Moore – The movie ending makes a hell of a lot more sense than the book I tell ya.
• Turn Coat: The Dresden Files Book 11, Jim Butcher – Always love Jim.  This is no exception.
• Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert – Definitely love the Eat/Pray part. I could do without the Bali experience.
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith – Best. Book. EVER!
• Bad Things, Michael Marshall – I’m still scratching my head at that one. Whuh…?
• The Foodie Handbook, Pim Techamuanvivit – Totally enjoyable and awesome.  She takes gorgeous pictures.
• Heat Wave, “Richard Castle” – Totally a fun read for us Castle fans.

5. FAIL – Add yoga to the routine – at least once a week.  Not so much.  However, I ended up losing 6 lbs. from September through November with the Thriller work out and stress diet.  Haven’t gotten any of it back…yet.

6. SUCCESS – Take a language class.  Buongiorno! 

7. PARTIAL SUCCESS – Cook one new recipe a month.  I went with a few new ones in a month and then go without cooking for weeks.  But we did try new recipes.

8. SUCCESS – Fix them teeth.  5 more months!!!

9. SUCCESS – Fix them eyes. Well, I *did* decide on not getting LASIK done after extensive reserach and serious discussion with my optometrist.  There’s a 50/50 chance I would come out normal or my dry eyes are going to get more severe to a level that’ll become problematic.  I’ll stick with the glasses with that kind of odds, thanks.

10. SUCCESS – Keep up with whatever is working well.  Still a latte a week here.

Friends, get ready for another long and slow season on the OakMonster blog.

Thrill the World is here. And in full force.  (Oh hey, register with our LA team here.)

I’m involved in many different levels this time, a lot more than I signed up for this year.  Well, you know, MJ went and died on us. That brought a lot more to the original “let’s take it easy this year” plan.

I met with Amanda and Mahdroo and our new group of helpers last Wednesday.  This year is going to be awesome!

Friday was the second anniversary of my mom’s passing.  It gets a bit easier each year, but I still teared up a little when I tell a stranger about her death.  (Weird, huh?)  This year, I took Friday off to go to the temple with my aunt and cousin.  That evening, the cousin and uncle came over for dinner I cooked in my mom’s memory.  Some of her favorite dishes: Caesar salad (I cheated and used bottled dressing–mom LOVED table-side service), lasagna, and crepe suzette.

Mom’s favorite part of crepe suzette was the flambe’ing of the orange liquer.  I tried to do it this time with my cousin ready with his iPhone camera and Brandon with a fire extinguisher.

I didn’t know how to use the fireplace lighter, apparently. Mom probably was afraid I’d burn my apartment down or something.  LOL.

Saturday came with a morning full of errands and off to a barbecue at Nhien and Jonathan’s where I played a sous chef and general helper.  Poor Brandon was left to socialize for himself as I was busy assisting the hosts.

With all the busy-ness, I was supposed to start on the new time management plan this morning.

The problem I’m having is that I stayed up way to late to blog and work on Thrill the World stuff that I would crawl into bed around 11 p.m., long past our bed time.  Brandon would be long asleep by this point.  Of course, being a TV junky that I am, between after dinner and time I got to blog usually is occupied by going through the DVR etc.

Meanwhile, piles of paperworks colonized my desk.  Ask me to get a receipt from last week for a return and I will yell at you to leave me the fuck alone.  It’s that bad.

One morning, I was up at the first alarm and had at least 20 minutes before I have to be out the door that morning.  I did my Thrill the World duties and started on a blog.

It dawned on me that if the evening is to be left for family time, then the morning would be perfect to work on my hobby stuff!  So, instead of waking up at 5:40 a.m. (non hair-washing day), why don’t I just get up at 5:15 and get 25 minutes extra time in?

Well, I told myself that when I wanted to wake up to work out daily.  That just didn’t happen.

However, working on Thrill the World, my blogs, and other household stuff?  These are the things I REALLY do want to work on…unlike a work out which was something I really don’t want to do.

So this morning, I was supposed to be up at 5:15.

Didn’t happened.

Because last night, I was up until 11 p.m. scraping off any possible piths from the peels of 25 lemons to make a batch of Limoncello.  Yes, I am making my own.  (Blog coming soon).

We call can thank Justin and Olaina for having brought me an authentic Italian Limoncello.  Now that I had it, the commercial stuff tastes like crap.

My coworker Rob obliged in bringing me a bag full of his spray-free backyard lemons earlier in the week.  I finally started in on the lemons on Sunday around 4:30, took a break at 6:30 to make dinner, and came back to it around 8 p.m.  I finished at 11 p.m.

My right arm and hand still hurt from that and I’m one day late on my new time management plan.

The thing about it is, I REALLY want this plan to work.  I feel so guilty with all that I have been neglecting. The piano and the guitar have been sitting lonely for months.  There are many things I would love to do but never got around to because I seem to keep running out of time.

No more.

I’m determined to fix that.  There is no magical time turner for me to use: just discipline.  I definiely have been slacking in that department but with all that I WANT to do and NEED to get done, I can no loger afford it.

I can do this. I know I can do this.

Right?

Why would women want to be like men?

I mean, yes, we deserve to have the same pay for our skills and all of that. But there are some who try to prove that us women can be just like the men.

But we are not.

And why should we be like them?

I believe that women shouldn’t try to be like men  because, well, crap, we are not them.  There’s not good reason why I would want to be a man.

Well, outside of the ability to pee anywhere.  But I digress.

We are built differently.  We have strengths they don’t.  And they have strengths we don’t.

So what?

We are more emotional in a way that men could never be.  We have a way to develop deep relationships.  We nurture.  As mothers, we can withstand a whole lot more…like drool and vomit and all the gross stuff that would send a grown man run screaming from the room. We can stand the discomfort of pregnancy and pain of childbirth. Not to mention the monthly pain and bleeding we have to go through for most of our lives.   Would men have the patience for that?

(Okay, another thing some of us wish we didn’t have to go through.  But then again, this monthly discomfort builds our characters.)

Hank said on King of the Hills, “I don’t trust anything that can bleed for 7 days and not die.”

Because women *can* handle bleeding for seven days and not die.  Hank is right.  He and the menfolk should be very afraid of our abilities, the strengths the men didn’t think we have.

Am I an anti-feminist? A sexist?  I don’t know what I am.  But I just believe that as women we should celebrate our given gifts and abilities.  We *can* have it all without becoming a man.

Instead of trying to be like men, I think we should focus on our strengths and be really good at it.

I really believe in the Jurassic Park logic.

“God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs. …Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.”

Because we are not men.  We are better off that way and we should celebrate our womenhood in every way!

Anyways.  While on this subject, I want to celebrate all of the phenomenal ladies I have come to know online and off.  But there are a few who have really inspired and awed me in recent days.

Aurora continues to amaze me.  Since our cooking classes, she has been cooking a lot more than I do with her crock pot.  This is the girl who hasn’t cooked much before a couple of months ago.  I am soooo proud!  And all this motherhood stuff?  She’s got it down.

My colleague Sonia ran her first Los Angeles Marathon in just under 7 hours.  Enough said right there.

Annette lives in Lancaster with her teenage son, commutes to Burbank to work, AND comes down to Long Beach on certain weekends to hang with her little girl.  In the meantime, she works that interweb like it’s nobody’s business and continues to meet new people.  How she did it all is an inspiration and a half.

Amy G. is whot anyone should want to grow up to be.  Strong. Smart.  Funny.  Moreover, if you throw this lady in a room full of strangers, she’ll walk out with a room full of new BFFs.  I mean, I have never met anyone like that.

My sister-in-law Pim is a yoga practioner, who now has “students” all over the Big Mango.  You look at this gorgeous, tall skinny Thai girl and you wouldn’t think she’d be atheletic, but you’ll be sooo wrong.  Pim also runs and works out on top of her daily yoga routine.  She always encourages everyone she speaks to to discover the benefits of the yoga practice.  She believes in it and that makes us believe in it too.

My Thai BFF Tong is planning to move to New Zealand to open a restaurant with her partner.  For an (over)protected only child, this is a hell of a breakaway.   The girl has always love food.  It’s about damn time she actually gets in the kitchen!

The other BFF Joy just gave birth to her second son a couple of weeks ago, and she’s playing with Jett, the 2-year-old, one moment, feeding new born Jade the next.  In a few more months, she’ll be back running the show at her family business again.  AND she paints. I mean, seriously now.  There must be a Wonder Woman cape under her bed somewhere.

And then there’s the final Thai BFF Lily who just came back from a solo trip to the French Open.  Lily has travelled more than any of our gang and she’s done a lot of it on her own.  This is a girl who we all knew as the one who didn’t like English back in K-12, then surprised all of us when she got into the English-language Economics program at Thammmasart University. THEN she came to spent her grad school in Texas and training in Miami.  And then you start getting postcards from her from all over the world as she trots the world.

I salute you, ladies.  You’re my inspiration.

Last weekend in Florida was amazing. The weather was just like Thailand which I totally adore.  A quick change from the dry California heat, I tell ya.

We didn’t have a chance to adjust to the time change so we woke up too late each day to try to do anything.  It’s pretty much Coconut Grove and the wedding.  That was it.  No South Beach here.

We ate at Green Street Cafe twice. And I would seriously eat there for every single meal. I mean, with a mojito like that? I would be dangerous to live close to that joint.

Here are the wedding pics. It was wonderful, beautiful wedding.  So casual. I mean, the groom skipped down the aisle and both bride and groom cracked jokes with the officiant through the ceremony.

Irena and Danny, here’s to your grand future together, kids!

#1

first day in COW SCHOOL Found on Flickr by Wild*Dreams.

We were watching a National Geographic documentary Stone Henge Decoded. There was a scene when the archeology team starts to dig around the outside of the Durrington Walls.   There was a shot of all these cows gathered by the fence, seemingly to gawk at the humans.  Kind of like this.

“How cute!”  Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

“Look at all them lookymoos!”

***

#2

Iguanas...

Southern California finally returns to its natural state of sunny and warm this weekend.

“I’m sooo glad we can be out and about without a sweatshirt or jacket,” I told Brandon.

“Do we need to put you out on a rock or something?” he asked.

“Yep. Just like the guacam…uh…that’s not it.  What’s it called?  Galapagos?”

“You mean, iguanas?”

“Iguana! That’s it!”

“Did you almost say “guacamole” instead of “iguana”?”

“…er…yeah…”

…not guacamole

***

#3

Brandon is currently reading a book about a skinwalker, her vampire friend, and a pack of werewolves she calls family.

“If I have to pick between being a vampire or a werewolf, what would you pick?” I asked.

“Human,” he said.

“I’m going to be a werewolf because then I can have a tail! Oooh, a big werewoofy tail I can wag!’

He looked away from the Kindle. “Did you just say wereWOOF?”

“No, I said ‘wereWOOF‘.”  Really, I was saying “wereWOLF” but being sleepy got my Thai accent acting up.  I did say wereWOOF.

He laughed.  “I think you’d be cuter as a werebeagle.”

“Ooooh. Cute and lethal!  I like that.”

“Or a were(chi)huahua.”

I started giggling.  “Werewawa?”

He started giggling too. “Or a were0ala.”  (Werekoala.)

We both got the giggle fit at this point.

He said, “Or a weretypus!”

“Were-ta-what?”

More giggles.

platypus (regular, not were)

St. Patty’s was a hit both at work and at home.  A great turn out at the office with everything from cookies to green deviled eggs.  9 people showed up at my doors for the Guinness Stew and a little bit of drinking.  The old gang hung out well with my new friends from Tweet Up, Annette @dananner and Wyatt @phraktyl.

A lesson we learned?  Don’t ever give Phraklet, Phraktyl’s son, a Mountain Dew. Ever. Again.  LOL.

I didn’t drink all that much at St. Patty’s.  Just an Irish Car Bomb I did with Annette and Wyatt and a couple more sips of Limoncello with Lee.  Everyone respectfully headed out at 10 p.m. sharp and since we were cleaning up as we go, we went to bed soon after that.

So, when I rolled out of bed at 5 a.m. the next day, it wasn’t that painful.  However, the Car Bomb and Limoncello still lingered in my system when I got to the meeting.  At 10 a.m., the hangover hit and I was dying for something nice and greasy for lunch.

I found that in the fresh cut fries at Rowdy Red in Downtown LA.  The black & blue burger was pale compared to that.  And it was that the lovely greasiness held me over for the next couple of hours before heading home.

As it turned out, the OC Register tweet led me to an article about President Obama’s arrival in Long Beach and how it might affect traffic that afternoon.  So I left work at 2 p.m. as to avoid any kind of traffic mayhem down there at 3 p.m.

By the time I settled in at home and got to open the windows, it was a few minutes before 3.  I spotted an airliner flying over Seal Beach.  How odd, I thought, I’ve never seen a jet going…WAIT A SECOND!

I ran and grab Brandon’s camera with super zoom lense.  It was really hard to focus past the screen, but I did caught a full glimpse of the Air Force One coming in to land.

Wow.  WOW!

Once AF1 was out of sight, I turned on the TV to confirm that it was what I just saw.  A few minutes later,  footage of the plane “parking” on TV.  Then the President stepping off…and whisked away into…Marine One.

Marine One?!?  Not a motorcade?!?

LOL.  I’m sure my boss is happy about that news.

Finally, I got to my nap.  A couple of hours I woke up to greet Brandon and headed out to yoga.

Good gosh. It’s been a crazy couple of days.

P.S. I’m going to start tagging the blog now.  Just FYI.

This is my [air] rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. My [air] rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my [air] rifle is useless. Without my [air] rifle I am useless [in case of the apocalypse or war against zombies]. I must fire my [air] rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me.  I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my [air] rifle and myself are defenders of my country [well, my family, really].  We are the masters of our enemy [aka zombies].  We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace.

We had Thai food. And we went shooting. I also shot a 9mm and a 380.  9 mm. = fun!  380, tiny and I thought I’d like it better but it’s so hard to shoot!  I shot the ceiling a couple of times I think.

Oh, Brandon said I should go ahead and add the info about the rifle here too. So here goes.

RWS Model 34 Panther Pro Compact
Weight: 8.00 lbs. Barrel Length: 15.75″.  Overall Length: 42.13″. Capacity: 1 round(s).  Cocking Effort: 33 lbs. [I sooooo need to work out to be able to load this thing on my own.]  Barrel: Rifled. Trigger adj.: Two-stage adjustable. Apprx. Trigger Pull: 3.30 lbs. Buttplate: Soft rubber recoil pad. Action: Break barrel. Powerplant: Spring-piston. 5mm. 1000Fps

After 16 years of going home to my family dentist every year, someone else got to look at these pearly…well…ivories.  (Whitening these puppies? Not a chance!  Not my natural coloring.)

After 16 years of being in the U.S., my teeth finally have been touched by American dentists.

That’s right. Dentists. Plural.  Three of them. All in one day too.

Originally, I was supposed to go to the orthodontist consultation appointment then go to work. But then I had this mild sore throat and been tired all over since yesterday, so I decided to just stay home after the appointment.  As it turned out, the gods of Dentistry aligned the stars and I had everything done in one day.

And I’m still tired with a mild sore throat. *sigh*

It started with a simple orthodontic consultation at 8 a.m.

Yes, kids. I’m working on #8 on my 10 goals for 2009.  I’m looking into braces.

No Invisalign for me. My vanity doesn’t stand a chance against a $3000-$5000 price tag.  Besides, my orthodontist said braces will get the job done a LOT faster.  However, I *am* vain enough to pay a little extra for the “translucent” ones instead of the traditional metal.

Now, I have to get my teeth checked and cleaned before they can continue.  Since I have no dentist to speak of, the ortho office called up one of the offices their network in Lakewood which happened to have an opening at 9:30, half an hour from then.

Alrighty then.

So I headed over there.  The dentist poked around in there and reported to me that I had periodontitis and I will need to treat and stablize that before they can okay me for the braces.

Then the periodontist came in to explain everything to me.  She’s from Vietnam and she said that although dentistry is good in Southeast Asia, they concentrate on the teeth and NOT the gum.  That’s true.  And that Asians tend to have shorter roots so we really can’t afford to suffer periodontitis.

Now, I need a deep cleaning session…which she happened to have an opening at 1 p.m., 2 hours from then.

Alright then.

I ran off to have lunch with Aurora and ran back for the treatment.  She numbed my mouth and went to town with the deep cleaning.  I had that done just in November when I was home, but wasn’t quite as deep because they didn’t use anaesthetic.  This one was REALLY down in there.  However, she numbed me well enough and by golly I don’t know how she did what she did but I actually was falling asleep at some point.

I was told that flossing is no longer an optional step in my daily routine: it is a prescribed medication.  A month from now, if everything looks good, then I get the approval for braces.

My periodontist also said that getting braces will actually be good for my dental health.  Crooked teeth have more places for things to go hide.  With my conditions, it’s better to have less nooks and crannies.

Braces are no longer a vanity treatment: it is THE treatment.

At 2:30 p.m. I left the dentist office talking funny.  Should’ve recorded it.  My tongue was numb. So was a part of my nose.

Now that the anaesthetic wore off, my gum and teeth are sore.  I had to cancel my dinner with the girls and bought a tub of frozen yogurt instead.

Think of this as a preview of what to come once the braces are in.

So, in a couple of months, I’ll have braces to go with my glasses.

I will be a junior high nightmare.

At 32.

(Thank GOD I’m already married.)

Maybe I can squeeze in a LASIK procedure before then…

Just got back from seeing Watchmen with Brandon and Lee.  Lee, who is a big fan of the graphic novel, gave it a 4 out of 5.  She said if we liked this, we definitely have to get the book, which we intend to do just that.

Wow. What a revelation!  It was stylized just enough. Violent in all the necessary places.  I might need to talk to somebody about my mental state because Rorschach is definitely my hero now.

Trailers were also massively awesome.  Possibly the best line up of trailers: Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator, and, for some of us, Angels & Demons.  We’ll forget that they tarnished this almost-perfect line-up with that number movie with Nick Cage and yet another mall cop comedy. Whatever.

Oh, and I will also need some therapy having that much blue, um, well, er, “twig” swung around in my face.  Is it weird for me to wonder where Dr. Manhattan might have put his, um, well, er, “berries?”  Was he cold walking around naked all the time that causes some, um, well, er, shrinkage?

/wipes mental image of 50 feet of blue…GAHHHH!!!

For those who have seen the movie/read the novel, I have a couple of treats for you, courtesy of my beloved LA Time’s Hero Complex Blog.  Those who haven’t seen the movie/read the novel, it’ll still be funny.  But come back to watch all of these AFTER the movie/novel, and it’ll be a LOT funnier.

First, as Hero Complex names it, Attack of the Show Takes On Lower Manhattan.

Sorry to put that giant blue, um, well, er, pole, back in your mind.  You can clear that out with this kids-friendly Saturday Morning Watchmen.

Speaking of kids-friendly, what kind of a fucked up mother would step up to buy tickets to the Watchmen with a 5-year-old and a toddler in a stroller?

Seriously, lady.  It’s rated R.  Clearly, you have no idea.  But guess who will be kicking herself later when her 5-year-old asked what the Night Owl and the Silk Spectre were doing and you will be waken up on the middle of the night by your two children screaming when Rorschach’s actions revisit them in their dreams.  Good job scarring your children for life , dumb ass.

Long Beach Tweet Up group led by @DaNanner (aka Annette), with the help of @LBMatt outdid ourselves today with the photo walkabout at the Port of Long Beach.  Well, Matt got us interested with the Port’s photo contest.  And then as the Tweet Up started to take shape, he got his boss involved.

And here we were this morning at the Port Authority building, getting access to the rooftop and driven down winding and confusing roads around the port in the POLB vans to take great photos.

Of course, the AWESOME group of people we hung out with for two hours made everything worthwhile.  @killregrets, @phraktyl and phraklet, @agentjon, @niecee, and a couple of Matt’s friends.

I’m sure other people probably took better pictures than us, but I got a few good ones.

And here’s one from Brandon’s camera.  One guess as to who started this…

After all of that, Annette joined Brandon and I and Olaina and Justin for lunch at Thai Nakorn. We laughed our heads off and ate ourselves silly.

The reason of my vegging out for the rest of the afternoon until I was able to crawl to the computer to geek out just a couple of hours ago.

Tomorrow? Watchmen with Lee.

This weekend is just too much fun already!