Live With The Nerds
Don't Be One
October 2001
Saturday I went over to Santa Cruz to help Elena pack (cuz I won't be helping
her move this weekend) then we wondered off to Monterey to see the aquarium
(cool seahorses) and shopping a bit. Managed to have dinner at The Sardine Factory
which is always good, especially the desserts. The rest of the evening we packed,
tried to watch Bruiser by George Romero, it sucked badly, good thing we had
other things to do. Managed to torture her bird with a plush bird finger puppet...
kinda funny having the bird follow me around the house to make sure I didn't get into
any trouble.
Sunday I went to watch Kiz play soccer before heading out to vball, she barely
got to play. At volleyball I was pretty worn out after 4 games since I had to
set a 5-1 the whole time, at least my hands are coming back, hopefully the
stamina will be next.
Tuesday was dinner with Elena after helping out at her new place (much closer)
manage Ivar's again *yum*. Today was mostly junk food at work cuz of halloween but
when I got home, my copies of "The Phantom Edit" had arrived -- haven't watched
the whole thing yet, but soon. If you don't know what it is, I can't explain
it to you, but I can tell you it arrived anonymously ;)
Sunday it was a rough day, volleyball again, but setting a 5-1 the whole day, lots
of running, and then the glare, finally I think I was crashing from lack of food,
cuz I was starting to have problems seeing/tracking the ball so I quit early
and then just crashed out.
Monday I was sore, sore, and sore some more, it took about half way through yoga
before everything loosened up good thing that I had a massage scheduled for today,
odd though, the things that were sore were on the right side, but the tightest
muscles were on the left, nothing like lack of balance.
Tuesday was dinner (Thai, no chopsticks) and a movie (From Hell) with Elena so
she could borrow my hand truck -- she got a place on this side of the hill, but
I won't be able to help her move cuz I'll be watching the sonics play.
Work has been really busy, the stock has been rallying, and it sounds like
we're doing really well compared to our competitors, we even had a tech talk
on the state of the union by our president, he's pretty dynamic and always has
some entertaining stories.
Wednesday was out with Elena to see about a house since she wants to move "over the
hill" to be closer to work. Afterwards we headed out to Mt View for dinner, tried
a new (to me) Chinese resturant, it was ok, but strangely there were mostly Caucasians
there -- I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The highlight of the evening was
trying to teach Elena (who's left handed) how to use chopsticks.
Thursday was (finally!!) lunch with Kiz, we had lots to catch up on, especially
since she went to the east coast last week. I guess her mom still wants to catch
a movie with us since Kiz always mentions me, and we still need to go hit golf
balls so maybe we'll be spending a bit more time together soon.
Today was long, I had to wander off to a resturant to get a refund because
they had double charged my credit card when I ate there with Ken and Kit ...
they were so embarrassed (a Japanese resturant in J-town) they gave me cash
and a tip. Tonight was bball, the first group only had enough for 3 on 3, and
Stephanie (an original member) finally showed up -- tough girl, she picks and
blocks out hard, even when I was shooting 3's. At one point she tripped me
and I ended up banging my knee (the sore right one) that took a bit to get going
again so she ended up with a few layups.
The next group was better, we
had 10, and, as always seems to happen with no one waiting -- kept losing track of the
score. I was pretty winded after the first 20 minutes, but then I started getting
stronger and stronger. I think it was because my back really never got tight or
sore -- seems like its fully recovered from that injury, finally. Now I just have
to get the knee and ankle back into shape -- as long as I tighten my brace enough
the ankle is pretty good, but it usually loosens up and then gets sore on hard
cuts. Iced the knee, I think there's gonna be a bruise on the kneecap but it doesn't
feel like its any more swollen than before. Losing weight would really help ;)
Sunday it was volleyball, my knee is still a bit swollen, but I'm icing regularly
to see if I can get it back into shape before I have to sub on tuesday. Even so
I got asked to set for an NCVA (USAV) men's team, probably A Gold or Silver, but we'll
see if the team really comes together. Even better, both the M's and the Seahawks won.
Today was a stressful day, lots of meetings, lots of conflict, then my monitor
started fuzzing out so I couldn't do any work at all, first I thought that
my eyes were tired, but then it got worse and I thought something was really
wrong, like maybe a stroke, but I had someone else check out my monitor and was
relieved when it was fuzzy for him too. At least yoga seemed to calm me down some
I think part of it was a weather shift we're having.
On the plus side, Jordan is still playing, the M's won, as did the Yankees so
it'll be the ALCS we've always wanted to win, with basketball just around the corner.
Friday was bball, we had enough for 5 on 4 during the first session, and then barely
4 on 4 for the second session -- was pretty tired afterwards, but the knee
held up (wore a brace) and the ankle didn't get as sore (figured out how
to tighten up the active ankles better) so it looks like I'm good to go
for another week.
On the fun side, we heard that Samantha Shaver was playing on one of the
teams -- wasn't sure it was her, but since I have to sub again next week
I'll get a closer look -- last time I saw her in person was at Seaside
a few years ago when she was still playing for the WPVA 4's league. Maybe
she moved back to Mt View, but I can't believe that someone of her caliber
is playing (or sub'ing) in our league -- well at least she was a DS and
not a middle so she won't embarrass us too badly if we play her. Yes there
is a bit of worship there, cute, atheletic and in her 30's by now. That
and the other cute setter actually started talking to me ... guess I'll have
to try and get her name sometime.
Sunday I stopped by to see Kiz play soccer before going over to the NAGVA
gym for some volleyball -- was kinda sluggish and stiff, even though I was
(running) setting most of the time. It only loosened up when I played middle
for a game or two (yes, middle, with 2 blocks !!) it was good to get back
into the game though -- I'll need to figure out how to play more indoor now
that there isn't enough light outside.
Today I was up at 9, even though I stayed up till 3am reading, thought I'd be
exhausted at work but it wasn't too bad. In fact after work I even made pretty
good progress in my yoga class, that cpap machine rocks! Bummer is that the
original instructor will be coming back next week (after giving birth about 1 month
ago !!) so the cute one will only be there on wednesdays -- may have to try
for twice a week now that all my bball is on fridays -- but that class is more
of an intermediate level and I might not be up to that for a while. At least
Shelby's been showing up more regularly on mondays.
I can't believe I'm going to be home two straight weekends, I'm going to
try and do the touchup painting on the stairs and in the rooms where I
removed the vents -- then again, maybe I'll just veg and watch tv ;)
Today I (finally) had lunch with Kiz, she's been having so much drama in her
life (no, not me) that theres been very little time to get together. However
she's now playing on team down here so we may try and catch some time after
her matches ... that should be very interesting given the state of her life
lately.
Saturday Karen (Soo) and I caught dinner before heading out to the Asian Law
Alliance trivia contest in San Jose. Since we had some time to kill we shopped
a bit in J-Town, good thing too, cuz the grocery store there had a spam musubi
mold, just like the one I can't find. The trivia contest was pretty fun, saw
Kay there, she was shilling for the latest Asian American "Speed Dating" event.
Speed Dating -- pick some folks by grouping, 10 of each sex, sit them in 2 sets of
chairs, circle of women on the inside facing out, circle of men on the outside facing
in. They get 10 minutes to talk to the person directly in front of them, after 10 minutes
its men hokey pokey to the left, another 10 minute talk with the person in front of you
till everyone has talked to everyone. During this, if you find someone "interesting"
you write their name down, and if they wrote your name down too, then the proctors
will "hook you up". Sounds fun, but I'll be out of town when it goes off -- maybe
Karen will go and I'll get a report.
The trivia contest was pretty fun, our team (10 of us, some from work) came in 4th
out of 12, not too bad, but we struggled in a few catagories, even still everyone
seemed to have a few answers for everything.
That night I spent time breaking in the new musubi maker -- things went pretty well
except that I couldn't make the egg crepes very well, I'll need more practice. Took
a bunch of them along when I went to meet Ken and Lo but they weren't too hungry
during their run.
Sunday was watch the runners day, headed out to meet Ken and Lo (as well as the
rest of the team) then headed out to Santa Cruz to wait for them to finish -- got
to kill about 4 hours there waiting, there was lots of music and food, and plenty
of (athletically attractive) runners finishing. After Ken finished we all headed
out to eat before jetting back home.
On the small world catagory, one of the runners was named Alan, and I kept thinking
that he looked kinda familiar, although he didn't seem to recognize me. I asked
Ken about his name and he said "Yama-somthing" then it clicked, this was Kristy's
ad-firm partner -- I even called her to verify. I tried (with Lo and Lisa's help)
to pull a fast one on him, by picking on his shirt design, but finally gave up
since he was pretty tired and didn't seem to be into it so I finally spilled the
beans, he was surprised that I remembered him and thought that we all (kristy he and I)
should have dinner the next time I was up in Seattle.
Monday was a short day at work, Ken and I had lunch with Kit, and the later dinner
and a movie (zoolander) thats more than I've seen her in the past 2 months. Today
I had lunch with Lisa and we talked about some of the upcoming bbal tournys -- I guess
she actually knows Robin's sister, having played against her in HS, but missed playing
against Robin -- maybe they'll all meet up in one of the Vegas tournys, since I heard
that Robin may be there -- doesn't sound like my sister will be playing though.
On the exercise front its a new quarter, both of my bball groups have gyms, both
in the same place, and one right after the other ... on friday no less. Now I'm either
going to be really exhausted or hurt after 3 hrs straight. The only downside is that
I'm going to miss most of the Nov fridays due to travel.
Wow, a whole week, things have been pretty busy, last Thursday I had lunch
with Kiz, finally got to catch up. Friday was bball, last time for about a
month, still only had 3 on 3 for the first group, but a full 10 for the 2nd
so I ended up running pretty hard.
This past weekend was pretty exhausting, saturday was errands with Elena, boxes
for her move, food for my house, we ended up having Pho so she could practice
with chopsticks a bit more, then it was off to see Bandits that night.
It was a pretty busy week, sub'd at volleyball and finally found out that cute
girl's name (Sharon) at least she pretty friendly, but she left before we finished
and next week is an off week, and I'm not scheduled to sub for a while, I may just have
to go visit the team ;)
Saturday Karen hosted an excellent dinner party, the food was great, and there
were lots of skiing folk there. I was greatly entertained by Margret and Curtis
as always, and I got to spend some time with Kent & Cheryl before they left
for China. On the bummer side both the M's and the Huskies lost, costing me a dinner
for Kent.
Kinda busy end of week, Thursday was Elena day, she's a co-worker who's leaving
the company so there was a lunch potluck where I tried making chicken wings
but they didn't turn out so well, a bit on the salty side -- I think I over
marinated ... anyway that night we went out to see Don't Say A Word. She's pretty
fun, too bad she's leaving (left) the company as I was just getting to know
her better. She has a really cool bird (Gilbert) that she abuses (she does
occasionally read this ;) and she lives very, very far away (over the hill
toward santa cruz) but may move closer soon. We'll just have to see if she
keeps in touch .. especially since she claims we have nothing in common.
Sore, sore, kinda sore -- sub'd at vball last night, actually got to hit a
bit -- and it was a pretty good run since we played 4 straight games with
just 6 people. Surprisingly my ankle held up better than its been for a
while, maybe cuz of the yoga, but now my right knee has a bit of fluid in
it -- probably just too much pounding (with too much weight).
ok, got some trim painting done on saturday, just a bit more
to do to finish off all of the vents and the stairs -- then it'll
be time to focus on the baseboard mouldings. Funny that my hips were kinda
sore after bball, but checking later I noticed that I had a pretty good
sized hip bruise, I think someone elbowed me when driving to the hoop.
Tried to play bball today, but the first group only had 3 show up, then
the second group only had 10 so we ran for a long time -- different style
game since the 2nd group is mostly asian, I'm probably going to be pretty
sore tomorrow.
Well I was off to dinner with Cheryl on Tuesday night, but when I got there
it turned out that I had a flat tire -- managed to get to a gas station
to add air to it, it seemed to hold up just fine, and after getting it
back to my mechanic it turned out that it was leaking around the seal/bead
so they fixed it for free (because they installed the tire to begin with).
long, long weekend. Ken was here thursday, and we had dinner with Jack while
Miki was busy elsewhere. The next day he was off to meet the crew and start
the race.
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