Old Journal Entries

• 8/31/00
  What a hectic few days it has been, everyone was busy with the funeral and all of the subsequent issues, but we managed (as is the chinese tradition) to eat up a storm. It's nice seeing everyone again, not sure if I'll remember all of the nifty stories though.

  Today I got a haircut, just in time for the weddings, maybe tomorrow I'll go see Matt (Tira's husband) and try and buy a new suit -- nothing like having a new suit every decade (that and I barely fit into the old one).

  Lunch was with Linda, got caught up with our perspective companies, I may have to actually buy some stock of hers (Rosetta) since it just IPO'd and looks like its doing well. And as luck would have it I managed to get a hold of Felly before she moves back to Guam. We went to see The Art of War, it was very entertaining, and had lots of asian actors in it.

  It was also Barri's 40th bday yesterday, hopefully she'll be able to break away from work to have lunch or something. I also have a massage scheduled in the morning and maybe some vball in the afternoon so hopefully I'll get to unwind.

  In the meantime, I've been dialed into work trying to keep up, its a good thing that it's a long weekend, so I can spread out the work in reasonable chunks.

  Tech News: managed to directly connect my laptop to my dad's iMac so it finally got backed up where I can keep track of it. The powerbook works great, now if I could just get the caps lock and ctrl key switched then I'd be in great shape to work from home.

• 8/28/00
  It was a very, very good weekend, even though planning is still underway for Aunty Ruth's funeral. Thursday night it was a quick flight to LA, and I got to meet Lori's sister (Donna), brother-in-law (Mike, an avid runner) and her niece and nephew (Jackie and Shawn) They were all great fun, and we went to eat at Buca de Beppo's -- there was (as is always the case there) way too much food.

  Friday it was sleep in a bit, and then put together the baby dresser/changing table that kind of stuff is always fun, especially since it was from IKEA -- Kathy and Charlie's house is really coming along with nice hardwood floors, and new (blue) paint in the, soon to be, nursery. Luckily they kept the futon for a bit so I had something to sleep on.

  That afternoon Nancy made the long (1 hour !!) trek over to pick me up and we went to King's Bakery for lunch (of course) then we headed down to Long Beach to see the aquarium and walk around some of the shops. The Aquarium By The Pacific is pretty cool, a bit on the small side, but it had a really nice Jellyfish exhibit (I guess they're raising them there too). We had dinner at a small Spanish resturant (can't remember the name) on Pine street.

  Tried to shop a bit, but no luck. Even though Pine Street was listed as an "eclectic" shopping area, there was really only 1 art-ish store and not very many shops at all. We even walked over to the Long Beach Plaza, only, for the first time in our lives, to see a dead mall. There was absolutely no activity, and only Ross' was open, everything else (almost 100 store fronts) were deserted, empty, almost like some horror movie.

  Later we tried to drag Dina out to a movie, but she was apparently already out doing something social, I wonder if she'll figure out it was us on the answering machine -- since we couldn't get in her gate. So we went off to see the late show of The Original Kings of Comedy it was way funny, and the crowd was really into it too. Nancy was quite the gamer, she dropped me off around 12:30am, refused to crash at the house, and made it back to her place around 1:15am or so (I made her page me when she got home ;) Pretty good for someone who normally gets up at 6am and is snoozing before 9pm. Next time I'll have to make sure I make the trip out her way since she's made 2 trips in when I've been in LA.

  Saturday I spent the day at the beach caught a lot of different matches, and boy do they talk a lot of smack when the cameras aren't on, especially on the outer courts. I managed to burn a bit again, even with the sunscreen. And, again I basically forgot to eat while I was out there, this time I managed 6 mini donuts and 2 liters of water, then I scarfed 3 hostess cupcakes with a soda right before we had dinner (I was starving while waiting for a ride ;)

  Dinner was at King's Bakery again (yum) and I'm finally getting to work my way through the menu since I now can get my loco-moco fix at home (thanks to costco ;). Afterwards we rented Deuce Bigalo: Male Gigalo, it was pretty hilarious, and while it was playing I managed to assemble their new (IKEA !!) nursery armoir.

  Sunday was moving day, Lori was moving to a new place, so her family and I pitched in to help her move (what a fun vacation ;) it was actually pretty entertaining, I think her niece and nephew liked being useful -- even though it was in the middle of their vacation. I even got to meet some of Lori's new friends (MC, Audrey and her new landlord Keely -- the movie star ;) Later that afternoon we all headed out to the beach to watch the AVP finals -- the brazilians were pretty much unstoppable -- it'll be nice if they win a medal in the olympics but there is nothing like seeing them in person. We also practiced a bit with Jackie and Shawn, they're pretty skilled for their ages, not surprising I suppose though, it's probably hereditary.

  For dinner it was off to The Spot, some kind of veggie place, the food wasn't too bad, but the desserts were worth the wait.

  When I got home today I guess the kittys were kind of upset, I don't think they deal with change too well, since they peed on my bed (good thing it was tarped) and then on the couch/futon, needless to say I spent most of the evening doing laundry and cleaning up. Hopefully they'll be better this time, but I think I'll tarp everything just in case, and I won't put my new chair together until I'm back.

  Oh and I almost forgot to mention, Lori's new roommate/landlord apparently does very well, and is an actress -- I looked her up, and she really did do some things people might have seen, you can see some of her work under Keely Sims I'm hoping Lori now fast tracks (Keely has an A sand rating, and is very friendly) and invites me to all of the fun hollywood parties (at the very least we can all be jealous of her ;)

  Household News: Well, the carnage begins, Candice apparently isn't very good with the generic stove symbols. She managed to turn on the wrong burner and melt/break one of my cat spoon rests. It almost melted on of my marvin rests too before she noticed. Needless to say, I have to move/hide all of my "display objects" in favor of more disposable items. At least she bought a car while I was gone so she won't be stressing about transportation anymore.

• 8/24/00
  Yesterday was a bummer day, early in the morning I found out that my great-grand aunt ruth had passed away. She was down in Portland with her sister Leah when she had a heart attack (or so they think) Anyway my sister, mom and my other aunty Judy, managed to make it down there before she passed. But now my travel schedule for next week is all skewed. I'll only be home for 2 days in the next week and a half. After making all of my arrangements, and trying to re-arrange my living room (still gotta get the new chair assembled), I wandered off to see The Replacements, it was a pretty good time killer.

  Tuesday I had dinner with Cheryl, we were going to experiment with make-up for her wedding, but none of the counters were manned that late at night.

• 8/21/00
  Well the cleaning plans were a bust this weekend, I managed to partially clean, and then I slept in till 1pm so before going to pick up Karen I got a quick run through of her room at least .. but the rest of the house is the normal shambles.

  That afternoon it was shopping again at IKEA, the nifty bird sculpture I bought had broken so I had to return it, and I still needed to get another chair for the living room I had that one already picked out, but then I remembered that there is no dresser in the spare room -- so I picked up one of those too. Then it was off to the bbq/bday party.

  The bbq was pretty good, Ron really knows how to throw a party. Its a good thing that I took Karen, she actually knew quite a few people, and surprised them since most of them didn't know that she had moved here. We were also expecting to meet Jane there, but first she called, and bagged, then I met her friend Donna (coxswain on Tom's dragon boat) and we tried to convince her to "come on down after you get voted out of your survivor's party". She never made it, but she did call to whine a bit about there being no "real food" at her survivor party (as if they had real food on the island ;).

  In the small world catagory, I was telling Donna about Karen, and how she was the one rooming with Jane (Donna's friend too) then she noticed that Karen looked familiar and it turns out that Donna used to play vball with Karen's younger sister Anna .. and while we were discussing the volleyball aspect with her and Cara (from NSC & Pauls new beau) when I mentioned playing at the marina with Candice and Caroline and I guess Cara knows who Candice is, and was very surprised to find that she was moving in to my place this weekend -- so surprised that she thinks she has to go and let some common friends know. Good thing she has lots of old info about Candice's dating status.

  After taking Karen home, I went and setup the new dresser, that took a good couple of hours and I didn't get to bed till after 2am -- bad news too cuz I had to be back in the city the next morning at 9:30am to pick up Caroline to go to the marina. Made it there relatively in time, but since we were on a sunday "play it as it goes" schedule we really didn't make it out to the marina till about noonish. Hardly anyone was there I think they were all at the X-games or something. Since we had James' friend Gustavo (from Chile by way of San Louis Obisbo) with us, we hung out at a rec/intermediate net while we taught him how to play. It was actually pretty fun, he's fairly athletic and was picking it up pretty quickly.

  Later Candice caught up with us, and we all trucked down to PPQ (19th & Irving) for some Pho, before showering and trying to find Rod and Karen (a different one, visiting from Annapolis). After various communication snafus we finally found them at a small itailian place in North Beach (can't quite remember the name) that had a really good marguarita pizza (and some, according to Karen, very bad carbonated grape juice). Then we wandered off to Vesuvious, had never been there before but it was pretty cool, nice decor, but a bit small. Then it was off to Finnigan's in Cole Valley to shoot some stick and pop some darts.

  I'll have to say, Karen and Rod bicker like an old married couple, and an evening with her is like nag-mania -- nothing like that east coast attitude, gee Jane might have been a city snob, but Karen was a total neighborhood nazi, and boy, what a pip when she drinks, lucky for me she doesn't really hit or kick too hard, I was too busy laughing at her to dodge ;)

  So Candice moved in last night, and now it all starts, she's trying the subtle cleaning coercion method and is slowly but surely trying to claim more counter space in the kitchen. Though, she did make a pretty good dinner (pork chops, rice and veggies) even if she doesn't know how to measure the water for the rice cooker, and tried out lots of my pots and pans, oh well I guess I better clean at least the living room so I can assemble the other chair and have more space for us both to hang out in. I'm sure the kittys will really appreciate all of the change, I don't think they've really figured out that Candice lives here yet.

  Speaking of the kids, Cameo went in for her latest check-up again, more blood work with results to be had tomorrow -- but at least she's gained a couple of ounces, so the new K/D diet must be a bit better for her at least.

• 8/18/00
  Hey managed to get in a movie (Scary Movie, decent but I think you need to be smoking to enjoy it, still haven't caught up with Yvonne yet, she's been really busy since starting that new job at a startup.

  The chiropractic sessions seem to be marginally better, but I guess I can't expect miracles after wracking my body for a year and a half. Speaking of which, I managed to play a bit of vball thursday, and run some at bball on friday. Oh and I finally booked my tix to LA for next weekend, sounds like I'll be sleeping on the floor though since Kathy & Charlie are redoing the room for the nursery. In any case I'll be able to get together with Lori for her birthday, and maybe even see Nancy if she's off that weekend.

  I've been cleaning a bit in prep for Candice, but I'll probably be pretty busy sat morning since I want to play vball up in the city sunday with Caroline. I think I'll be running back to IKEA too Sat afternoon after picking Karen up before going to Ron's BBQ. I think it'll be good for Karen to meet some other folks in the area -- especially since she's just about homeless right now ;)

• 8/15/00
  Had a pretty good weekend, managed to play some basketball on Friday (people finally showed up) it cost me though, ended up sleeping in till 1:30 in the afternoon on saturday. But at least I'm back to exercising. Saturday night it was off to the San Jose Jazz festival (Hiroshima on the main stage for free!!) with Karen and her friend Jane. Afterwards we dinnered in J-town, pretty good food, some place that started with a 'G' (yeah, like I'd be able to spell it anyway even if I remembered it.

  Sunday it was off to IKEA, still contemplating buying another chair, especially since Candice will be moving in this Sunday. Just bought some smaller trinkets, one of which, (a standing metal bird) proceeded to break while I tried to assemble it. After that I went by Jack London Square in Oakland to see the Dragon Boat races. Tom had 2 teams in the competitive finals, unfortunately his boat came in second to the other Bay Area Dragons team.

  That night I caught up with Karen, Jane and some of their other friends (I'm sooo bad with names I think it was David, Matthew and ???) for dinner in SF's chinatown at a place called Great Eastern. It had excellent seafood, we had shrimp and crab along with many other yummies.

  Monday was mostly a work/clean day -- I think that I'll try and make sure to clean a section of the place per day so it'll be in some semblence of order when Candice gets here. Oh, and I had a meeting with my tax man, I guess I'm going to be owing quite a sum in taxes next year, mostly because of the options I cashed in to hold for a condo down payment. On the plus side he found that the state owed me quite a bit of money from last year, so we filed an amended return.. I think it'll be enough to pay his fee at least. Now I have him working on the tax ramifications of my ISO vs Non-Qual option exercises. I think what I want to do is to start cashing non-quals to pay taxes and exercise ISO's so that I don't go out of pocket on my options, but will (in a year or so) be able to turn some over at capital gains rates so I can diversify my investments. I may end up with way less than the projected options worth, but it'll be less volitile in the long run, and besides its all free money to me ;)

• 8/11/00
  Well the chiropractor visits must be partially working, I managed to play vball 2 days in a row (even a pretty good game of mens doubles) and basketball tonight -- still sore but not too bad, especially my right rotator, it held up even when I was hitting left side on the men's net during doubles. Next I'll probably set up a Dr's appointment so that I can check on my bp and sinus issues. (I'm always tired and stuffy) My chiro referred me to a couple of her doctors, but then she warned me that one of her patients had died from sinus cancer and that it was more prevelent in chinese males, espescially those of Southern China heredity. Luckily I looked it up on the web and I don't have anything remotely resembling the normal symptoms ... especially since I've had this sinus thing for more than a few years.

• 8/7/00
  Feeling even better today, had my first adjustment at the chiropractor this morning, and my headache disappeared around lunchtime -- strangely though I had a bloody nose after going back to work, first one in a long time, but it didn't last very long and didn't come back.

  Managed to go shopping at costco for basic supplies, and picked up some of those pre-made hamburger pattys so that I can try and make loco-moko's at home -- I think I need a bit of practice with frozen pattys though -- edible but needs work, but I did manage to (finally!!) flip 2 fried eggs in the pan like pancakes (gotta love those nonstick frying pans ;) At least I have a few weeks before Candice sees any of the cooking disasters ;).

  Managed to do even more logo work for Rod's pages, have a few different types up for him to choose from now. We'll have to see what he really likes. Now my sister and I maybe working on the website for the Seattle Chinese Girls Drill Team. It all depends on what they want done but I'm leaving the groundwork to my sister since she's in town and I'm not.

• 8/6/00
  Spent the whole weekend at home, just recovering from my cold, watched lots of tapes and DVD's (Iron Giant, Aeon Flux, an 8th Man) still pretty weak with headaches but at least I don't have a sore throat any more.

  Managed to at least get most of www.AhiBros.com up and running, still need to do plenty of fine tuning and graphics, but the bulk of it is there -- soon there'll be prices up and they'll be live.

• 8/4/00
  Ugh, have been under the weather lately, I think I caught a cold sitting out at the marina on sunday. Wed it was family dinner at Rod & Carolines, managed to get Karen to go, and James brought Heather who happens to be a big time (race coordinator/junior program instructor) sailor at St Francis Yacht Club. May have to see if she knows Linda. Rod's friend Neil was also there, and he invited us all to the annual Labor Day, drinking fest at his cabin ... luckily (from the stories I heard) I'll be busy at weddings that weekend.

  Later it was karaoke at Sonic (in JTown) didn't sing much (we looked like tourists) but it was pretty fun all the same. Thursday I was a wreck, could barely read and was extremely light sensitive, so after my massage I went home to sleep off the cold. Felt much better today, but am going to skip bball anyway, still kinda weak. Also I went to my massage therapist's chiropractor to start treatments again -- after a year and a half away, I'm sure my body could use it. After the exam, I think they have to agree ;)

  One of the reasons I went to family dinner was to pick up the info for Rod's website (www.AhiBros.com) so expect to see some updates on that relatively soon (maybe even later tonight ;)

  On the small world front, I got a call from Judy Yoon's friend Sam, he may be moving down here (leave Microsoft !!!!) to work at Cisco, but I'm gonna try and convince him to apply at our company instead. That and Karen's friend Jane (the lawyer) may be interested in a position here too. We'd hire everyone if we could ;)

  Tech News: got my Farallon EtherPrint iPrint adapter, so now my localtalk printers are hooked up directly to my interior LAN, and both machines (my desktop and my laptop) can print directly, no more switching appletalk on the desk machine !!. Next up is to see if I can get my linux box to print through appletalk.

• 8/1/00
  Ok so it was quite the weekend, was supposed to play bball friday, but no one showed up (ok, so 3 of us were there). Saturday I picked up Karen from the airport, then it was off to the city, got her all checked in at Hotel Milano then trundled over to the Metreon to snack a bit before we went to dinner.

  Dinner was at the New Golden Turtle, Vietnamese food, it was pretty good, we were joined by Candice, Ken and his friend Ellen, and last but fashionably late the Princess Jen. Dinner was very entertaining, but the best of it went as followed (while discussing Candice moving in with me):

  Candice: It'll be just like being married
  Me: Yeah, but without the sex
  C: but without the nagging
  Me: most guys I know would trade the nagging for the sex
  Ken: yeah, thats a pretty good deal
  Me: besides you've already started nagging, maybe its more like being married for 20 years

  Later we were off to Brown's Coconut Heads Birthday party at Storyville -- parking was a bear, but there was plenty of food still left when we got in. The place started rocking (rapping actually) around 11, and look who shows up but Kay and Jackie. Unfortunatly it was a bit too loud to chat much, so we jetted out of there around midnight, good thing too, as we were leaving a fight broke out at the door of the club (the front part was public, only the back room was the bday party). I guess shortly after that the Fire department (police?) came by and closed the place down.

  We wandered off to the Steps of Italy (Rome?) in North Beach for dessert, that place was pretty fun, and the food was good too -- it must be nice to be a waiter there they're total flirts with every female that walks in.

  Sunday I headed back up to SF to play a little vball with Candice, Tiffany and Dan, managed one game on a men's net but mostly just sunned a bit (tried to leach out all of the alcohol from the night before). Then it was off to dinner (PPQ, Pho !!) before doing a little car shopping at Serramonte. Didn't find anything interesting so Candice'll have to keep looking.

  Monday I got a call to meet Candice over in Union City to see another car. It looked like it was in pretty good shape, externally, internally it looked much older than the outside. It had been in a "fender bender" and when we checked it out we could see the bondo inside the engine compartment. Although it drove well, we decided to hold off until we could check the VIN, good thing too, cuz Vehix.com had info that said it was previously salvaged and currently had a junk title, meaning it couldn't be re-titled in CA at all that, and the fact that the odometer had been rolled back about 20K made Candice decide to pass. I'm glad we have the internet, before we'd have had no chance of figuring the problem out until we had already paid them.

  Since we were in Union City I swung by Krispy Kreme to see what all the hub-bub was about. Well now I know, and I can hardly wait till the one in Mountain View opens, the ones I brought back to work didn't last very long, even though they sat on my counter overnight.

  Tech News: using a new editor (BBEdit 5.1.1) hopefully it'll fix some of the random syntax errors I put in. Ordered a localtalk to ethernet adapter so that maybe I'll be able to print from the laptop and the linux box too. Also sent in my digital camera for repairs, maybe it'll be back soon, I hope so.

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Old Journal Entries