fluid, cupcakes, soupy dumplings and treadmills

friday some of the girls planned a very last minute outing. cindy and elaine were both free! diana was supposed to come but she got called into a client last minute. we all headed out to Lulu and Fluid sans SO's. met up with an MBA friend of mine and a visitor from LA. food at Lulu was ok - same menu as Zibbibo since it's a sister restaurant. Fluid was fun - met up with amy's friend eric visiting from seattle. question to all of you - when you go out with a friend to dinner, don't you assume you are hanging out the rest of the evening otherwise? the mba friend and visitor from dinner didn't follow us to the lounge. we assumed they were joining us and didn't officially ask. they assumed they weren't invited. i felt really bad when i found out that's what they though...but at the same time confused they would think that way.

Fluid was pretty fun with the girls - we rarely get the chance to go out without boyfriends. not that boyfriends are bad to hang out with, but sometimes it's nice to hang out with just the girls to catch up on what's happening with them and their boyfriends! haha. then all the truth comes out - things which they couldn't say if their boyfriends were right next to them. however boyfriends are really good to keep away creepy guys. there was this one guy who kept trying to dance too closely with me. i don't mind dancing with other people as long as they keep a little bit of a distance. however even when i told him to back off since i have a bf, it didn't deter him from trying to dance too closely. it was also hard to just be mean to him and tell him to go away since he was a friend of a friend. oh well, when there are annoying boys it always makes for a good story. we probably won't see him again anyways.

hunny's brother made chocolate cupcakes over the weekend. i ate about 5. hehe. i love chocolate cupcakes. duncan hines is still very yummy with a bunch of frosting on top! therefore to counter act the cupcakes i went running sat and sunday. 2.5 miles outdoors on sat and 4.5 miles treadmill on sun.

when i got home from the gym - there were soupy dumplings and sea bass waiting for me for dinner. yummmmmm

i'm sure everyone watched the oscars. i actually just watched the before show to see what everyone was wearing and then went to the gym. nicole kidman was so gorgeous. she's so fit and elegant and looks way better than she did when she was younger. proof that women can look better with age

multifaceted

there are a few regulars to the networking scene that i always bump into. when i see them, in a strange way it's nice to see a familiar face since you see so many strange ones in networking events. (strange ones meaning new people i've never met before) many have become more friendly if i have bumped into them more than just a few times. each time i'm greeted with smiles and "how have you been"? in the back of my mind however, i always wonder how genuine these people are. i always get the feeling i'm a lot more genuine than the people i meet. I really am there to network for business, learn from others and make new friends. not to gossip, not to scam on eligible bachelors. perhaps they are just multifaceted networkers. what i first meet a person - i get the professional networking persona. by the 2nd or 3rd encounter, barriers sometimes come down and i get a different side. every once in a while i'm surprised at how different that other side is compared to the professional networker i met earlier. it makes me wonder at how others perceive me in the networking setting.

i believe i'm a very open person and for better or worse, my feelings are always extremely apparent on my face. Therefore, if i don't like you, you'll know it. if i look happy to see you, i am! maybe i'm just a simplistic person that way - what you see is what you get. whether or not this will work well for me in the business world - well we'll have to see. for now it has only helped me. maybe things would change once i get higher up in the food chain.

anyhow - there are a couple people that i keep bumping into. they seem like really amazing people who I would really like to get to know better so I can learn from them. however i'm afraid they would misinterpret my curiosity as an interest to date them. you see, i don't talk about my personal life at networking events. I suppose I like to keep business as business and personal life as personal. (i guess i'm multifaceted myself since i do have a networking persona an then there is my regular goofy self) I also hate it when girls are always blabbing about their boyfriends - as if those girls didn't have their own lives. i love hunny, but i don't need to talk about him incessantly. however, my concern as to not to have other people misinterpret things has stopped me from really getting to know those other people. do you think i'm just thinking silly thoughts and should just get over it?

one more thing to add - pet peeves
at dinner yesterday after the networking event, a bunch of people from the event were going through introductions. 6 guys and 2 girls. the guys all asked the other guys what their jobs were. however they only asked us girls for our names. as if they just assumed the female population of the table didn't have notable jobs! elaine is a manager at hp who handles more than 30 technical professionals. and i'm not anyone's secretary either!!

also, when letting people know that i work with the stirr team, i hate it when some people automatically assume i'm just there as a friend to help and not an organizer. Part of the reason for this is because most of the door staff is always female. i'm getting more guys to help me at the door next time.

entrepreneurship is still very much of a boys club. which is exactly the reason i want to get into it - to prove girls can make large contributions also.

lip balm

arg, i lost my tube of kiehl's lip balm. i almost never lose my lip balms since i don't change purses. i didn't like it when i first tried it but now i really do! now i need to go buy more...

however i've been trying to find a grape flavored lip balm. i think because i just really like grape flavored things and it reminds me of sandy since she used grape lip balm in HS. i found the perfect one. rachel perry lip lover in grape juice. it's not too waxy, not too goopy, smells really good and tastes a little sweet.

but i still want to buy another kiehl's.

so addicted. i have three dif balms in my purse at the moment. and three different lip glosses also. hehe.

sweating but not losing

so with all the spinning, my work outs have been highly cardio focused and i've stopped doing as much weights as i used to. the difference, no weight loss! even though my cardio sessions are more grueling than before (yesterday i did one hour -30 min running, 30 min spinning. i didn't do the whole spin class because i got to the gym early and i wanted to make it home for dinner) so! today i will skip spin class and go gymming instead. go back to my normal routine - 30 min cardio, abs, weights. hopefully i'll see more results this way. i know i could be better with what i eat, but i've been trying to control portion and i'm definitely eating less meats and more veggies and fish. hopefully the weather will be nice this weekend so i can start running outdoors again. i think i'm going to try for the half tri again. my lungs are maybe 99% recovered. i still have more wheezing than before but i've started with using the steroid inhaler again. yesterday was a little tough running in the mountain view gym. for some reason even though that gym looks so big, the cardio area just isn't well ventilated and the place just feels crowded and cluttered. it does have a nice pool though - i miss swimming. maybe i'll try to swim this week.

what else has been on my mind? gadgets!
i am thinking of looking into getting a gps. i'm horrible with directions. so horrible that you'll probably go the right way if you always go opposite of what i say. of course that could also mean i'm really good at directions. hahah....

gung hay fat choy

happy chinese new year! did you eat all the traditional chinese food for new years? actually, i'm not really sure what all those traditional foods are. I know we eat neen go ( sticky cake) other than that, we just eat a lot of food. However recently i've paid more attention to what other friend's families do. a majority of my friends' families will do the whole red envelope thing and eat traditional new years dishes. They even put fruit all over the house. my parents have never been into superstitious things and never really did the red envelope, special food or fruit thing other than for entertainment value when we were kids. I haven't gotten a red envelope and kept it since i was a kid. and even when we did, we would just hand the money over to our parents.

to a certain extent i know it's silly to do superstitious things for wealth or good fortune. however a part of me wonders if i'm losing out on chinese culture if i don't know about these things. I'm not superstitious at all, but when i have kids - i would like them to know about these customs a little.

on another note - it's president's day and i have to work. almost everyone i know doens't have to work today. =P but i guess it's good to start the new year with making money. haha. hunny pointed out an interesting thing - chinese culture is really focused around money. all the good luck items for new years are for good fortune. and health so you can live long and spend your money. haha.

doo dee dooo dooo dooooo

there is some shop or office close to my office that plays the same short musical tones over and over and over. it's faint, but i can hear it. i swear, sometimes i hear those tones in my dreams. it's better than the other office here that keeps having birds trying to fly into the window. over and over you hear (bang, bang). you would think the bird would learn...but no. it's the same bird who keeps trying to fly into the glass.


oh happy belated vday! i hope you all had a nice romantic night out. hunny sent over two dozen red roses to my office and then took me out to dish dash for dinner. :D people were asking why we didn't decide to go to some fancy place to eat. i guess we could have, but i felt like just something chill. i've been in that mood a lot lately whenever we are alone since all the other times we are out at bdays, baby showers, etc - there are a lot of people.

deal

closed my first deal today! woo hoo!!

coming up short

this weekend we went out for elaine's bday! we lucked out with a last minute cancellation and got a private room at nolas. although the dinner plans were so last minute, there was a great show out - about 18 people. i ordered the skirt steak...it was ok but not as good as i remember it. next time i'll get the filet. after dinner we headed over to old pro and went bull riding! elaine, cindy and i all did one round of the mechanical bull. they went a little faster on me, but it was fun! if the cut on my knuckle didn't open up and start bleeding, i would have gone again.

anyhow, in reference to the above - while paying for the bill for dinner, we came up short. someone made a comment that whenever we go with a certain race of people, the bill is always short. although i haven't noticed coming up short to be limited to race - it's really annoying. I always end up putting in my share and then putting in a lot extra. it's ok when it's only my friends. but it's annoying when it's not all my close friends. arg. anyways...

it rained cats and dogs the rest of the weekend. hunny was studying all weekend so i got a haircut, did some errands, bought new shoes, and went to see cindy's and dick's newly remodeled townhome. sat night hunny and i watched crank on satellite. not the greatest movie but entertaining. sunday we went to have pancakes at Original Pancake house. mmmmm...blueberry pancakes with blueberry compote.

when the sun finally started peeking out on sunday - i could smell spring in the air. yay!!!!

fav foods to crave

ok i'm going to be a biter and steal from john's idea of posting fav restaurants. haha. the following is a list of my comfort food restaurants- places i crave from time to time. although of course the top of my list is generally anything my parents cook, but that's not a restaurant. haha. aside from that, here are my picks to satisfy my cravings.

norcal:
joy luck place in cupertino for dimsum
queens house in mountain view for beef noodle
amici's for pizza - manhattan red clam please...
ray's suchi in hayward
pho kim long off of capitol in san jose for ...pho! what else! although i'm told they have an excellent chicken noodle dish
dish dash - you intro'd me to this and it's become one of my favs
korean bbq place in cuptertino village - great soondubu and i like the fish appetizer
santa's ramen in san mateo - curry flavor rocks
hotaru in san mateo - excellent japanese curry, really good bento box meals
kaz in san mateo - even more excellent japanese curry and YUMMMMMM saba. meals come with japanese style macaroni.

socal:
killer shrimp in venice - OMG i always crave this stuff
fritto misto in santa monica - home made pastas and sauces
blueberries in santa monica - go there for breakfast - yum!
louise's for pasta - italian sausage paperdelle
headlines for burgers - makes me think of college. they also let you sub fruit instead of fries.
hide sushi off of olympic
hurry curry for japanese curry
sawtelle kitchen - off of olympic for japanese fusion
bdc tofu house!! must not forget korean food. mmmmm
the place with the yellow signs in ktown on vermont and olympic is also very good too. (the name is in korean...)
Garden for late night HK cafe style food - gotta love monterey park
ocean star for dim sum

what about you? what are your craving restaurants?

working on my fitness

oh i know that fergie song is annoying - but those lyrics just stick in my head and don't come out.

went gymming sunday, monday and tuesday. monday and tuesday were both spin classes. Been eating a lot of veggies and concentrating on eating less meat and more seafood or tofu. my pants seem looser but i'm not sure if they are just stretching out or not. (you know...jeans stretch out...)

i'm pretty sore today since i did weights and abs in addition to the sunday and monday cardio.

just finished my morning yogurt - dannon light and fit.

:)

superbowl

there were a number of different parties i could have gone to yesterday to watch the superbowl. i'm not too into football. so instead hunny, stanley and i went to visit their grandma to fill out some insurance forms for her. afterwards i headed home.

while at home i watched tv, colored my mom and my dad's hair, had dinner, and worked out (50 min of hard sweating cardio). dad only let me color his hair since there was leftover and otherwise i'd have to throw away the rest of the dye. haha...

it was a perfect way to spend my sunday.

buzzed on vitamins and green tea

i'm feeling a little bit of a buzz this morning. perhaps it's the vitamin B combined with the strong green tea i'm drinking. bzzzzzz

ah yes - what a wonderfully relaxing weekend.
friday we had dinner with hunny's parents and then just stayed at home to watch our shows. (smallville and grey's) saturday i met up with aaron and friends to hang out at the silver oak release party. they were on asian time so we didn't make it out of union city until 11:30. when we got to napa, we were starving. so we went to mustards to see if we could grab a quick lunch. 1.5 hours wait! so we quickly left and called around to see of other availabilities. all over 1 hour wait. akk! then we just decide to drive and we happen across this tiny taqueria called vaca and bbq. not many people were there - which means no wait! as we go inside, it's one of those really authentic places. it turned out to be the BEST lunch. i had a carne asada burrito no beans. the meat was flavorful and tender - just the right amount of sauces, lettuce, cheese and rice mixed in. they also had this spicy smoke flavored salsa that went perfectly with everything. the burrito was the size of a small football. i almost finished it. haha... YUM!

then we headed off to the winery. it was packed! over 1000 people came out for the release. i bought one bottle for sarah and one for myself. both bottles were signed by the wine maker. :) drank delish wine, met some interesting people. one guy was completely tipsy and was riding with us on the golf cart which takes people to the parking lot. there was not enough room so he just sat on top of his gf. haha. she didn't mind though since he was really skinny. i don't remember all the things he said since most of it was gibberish. but it was quite entertaining.

after silver oak we headed over to domaine chandon for some sparkling wine. we all shared tastings from three different packages. all were pretty tasty even though i'm not a huge fan of sparkling wine. the best was the cheese, salami and pate we had. mmmmmmm.....

anyhow all the wine made me sleepy and i conked out on the ride home. then we headed over to karin's house for her bday. we grubbed on pizza and played balderdash. it was a nice, chill way to end the evening. although by the time i got home, i had a headache from the chandon i drank earlier. i just can't handle champagne.

sunday i went with hunny and his brother to New East Lake Seafood Restaurant in milpitas. yummy liver jook, fried man tow with condensed milk, ow lay so (the fried pastry that looks like an ox tongue), and chicken chow mein. hunny's bro stanley got into some discussions involving christianity.

it's not that i don't believe in a god (or some other greater force) . what i disagree with is a religion that denounces all other religions as wrong. stanley became christian about a year ago. and i think he's done it the right way - always questioning and doing research and figuring out his own reason on why he needs to be christian. however i've noticed with the different churches i've tried going to (i always like to keep an open mind) that all of them tend to be the same - rely on blind faith. accept the words of the bible as the ultimate truth. however - the bible has been translated over and over and over. the version most read today has been transcribed by men over and over - to translate as they wish to interpret. when stanley asks about various inconsistencies in the bible (such as explaining evolution) - why does a well known geneticist create a whole company on genetic research and still is able to remain a strong christian? - when he asks his church, they just say they are unable to discuss those things.

perhaps i'm just too analytical. i can't just assume i'm reading the truth- especially reading from a text written by imperfect people. i think it's a better and smarter person who always questions their surroundings and conclusions. i know i'm totally opening up a can of worms with this post since most of my relatives are christian. i love you all very much. don't love me less because i'm not christian.