Februrary 2006
February 2, 2006
Oh great, now I don't have anyone to play WoW with anymore thanks to Justin, who was more than happy to email our guildies to let them know that I accidentally ninja-ed something. So apparently, I jacked a 400g greater fire protection potion recipe from my guildmates last night in our LBRS raid without realizing it. Being an alchemist, I knew it was worth something at the time, but I didn't know it was worth that much! All I have to say about this is: whoops! :-p Still! Need before greed, yo, so I don't feel too bad.
Speaking of which, I have a new away message for when I'm playing the game! It's "I wish I knew how to quit you." Mad props to anyone who can guess where that came from.
February 3, 2006
Listening to the radio's news in the morning paid off again! I was skeptical at first -- I mean, you just don't mess with a commute that already works! But then I decided to be bold and took a chance (after all, fortune cookies don't lie) and oh what a reward; it saved me THREE minutes! I know that might not sound like much to you guys, but those three minutes, for five days a week, for 48 weeks a year.. add up to twelve hours of my life that I get to spend less in my car!
What the hell is Felix babbling about, you ask? Well, here: Interchange at 101 and 85 open at long last. I had previously been taking the Moffett/Middlefield/Shoreline detour to bypass the horrid onramp congestion everyday. $123 million well spent. Bravo, Caltrans.
Oh by the way, here's a roster of tomorrow's LAN party participants! Too bad Sevy's gonna be back home..
Adia (Rogue)
Sanctorum (Paladin)
Hkakashi (Hunter)
Sleet (Hunter)
Xilefmu (Mage)
Leamh (Priest)
Ayasilkrose (Druid)
February 5, 2006
WoW. What a LANtastic party yesterday!! And shame to all those naysayers who claim that playing online games is anti-social. It's totally social. Look!
As you can see, we had a pretty unique round table setup, and everyone who came brought their own laptops or towers. Brian, of course, had to show us all up by dragging his gigantic monitor over that freakin' took up half the table. Okay, I exaggerate, but seriously dude, that thing's pretty big. And what's a LAN party without some tasty caffeinated beverages? Yeah, that's pretty ridiculous, I know. To be fair, I only accounted for three of those.
As for the game, we started off pretty strong and killed two bosses within two hours -- which is pretty awesome by any standard for a first time 20-man run through an unknown instance. And then, we got to the third boss. At first, it wasn't too bad. We were organized, and our casters were dealing massive damage along the wall while our warriors tanked him in the open field. But then, all hell broke loose. As a result, uhm.. yeah, I guess this pretty much explains it. Things were never the same afterewards.
Towards the end of the night, we had a group shot. From left to right, top first, it's Will (Sleet), Tiff (Adia), Evan (Leamh), Justin (Hkakashi). The bottom's Eric (Ayasilkrose), me (Xilefmu), and Brian (Sanctorum). It's actually pretty funny, cuz I was able to convince them to pose for an in-game character shot. While our hunters, Sleet and Hka, flanked the sides with their bow and gun, our healers, who are surrounding me as I'm casting some sort of a fireball/frostbolt mixture, are setting off their respective heals. Meanwhile, our rogue Adia, who you can't even see in the picture because she's so sneaky, is backstabbing me. And if you look really, really closely, she's even sporting her special shirt that says “rogues do it from behind” just for the party! Oh, I love it!
Overall, I think everyone had an awesome time. And if the Super Bowl party today can be half as fun as what it was yesterday, I'd call it a success.
February 6, 2006
Bedtime, it is! And yes, you read the timestamp correctly; it's only 9-something. Gosh, I hope I'm not getting sick like my coworkers/boss/friends. Oh well, my sleeping schedule's been kinda funky this entire month, anyway. I wonder why.
February 7, 2006
Ah the curse of being ChemE. You know.. now I know why we get paid more than chemists, cuz writing reports and process specs (or anything that's not LJ-related) is BORING! I'm falling asleep here, and this is saying a lot since I got 10 hours of sleep last night! Crazy! I'll take lab work over office work any day.
In other news, this is how Justin justifies playing WoW all the time:
Womenz: may leave. Will have emotional problems. Costs $$$ per month.
WoW: always faithful. May have server problems. Costs $15 per month.
February 8, 2006
I ended up helping my sister with her taxes and my mom with setting up an entirely new email account with Chinese-only settings last night. Regarding the latter, I have a couple of thoughts.
1. It’s amusing to me how the generation above us knows so little about computers! From IMs to emails to web browsing to online shopping, these are all second nature to us. Of course, I grew up with them, so they’re easy, and I laugh now, but I’m betting that my grandchildren will be laughing at me years from now when I tell them about this primitive “Internet” technology. It’s interesting I bring this up now, because earlier in the week, I had to go to a training on how to fill out my timesheet at work because J&J’s R&D groups just converted over to a new system, and all of the people who had really confused looks on their faces were the older folks.
2. I’m done using Gmail (in English, that is)! When I was tweaking some settings for my mom last night, I accidentally converted my own language preference to traditional Chinese, and so I fumbled around for a long time trying to change it back. Luckily, I can read enough to be able to do that. So that got me thinking.. I’m never going to be able to learn the language well if I just settle in my comfort zone. What I need to do is to just throw myself in and hope for the best. So goodbye inbox and welcome æ”ä»åŒ£!
February 10, 2006
Thanks, Brian, for having to hang out with you-know-who tonight. Look what you've done.
Felix: i'm gonna strip xile naked and make him dance with a rose
Felix: and then be all like, this is what happens when i have no one to play wow with
Justin: but we all know that's not true
Justin: that's what happens when you HAVE someone to play with
Felix: lol that's true too
Justin: oh no
Justin: oh no!
Justin: here we go again..
Haha! I love how Justin's just watching me on top of his big, giant cat. Observe.
February 13, 2006
Well, here’s an embarrassing singing-at-work story that I’m sure you all would appreciate. So as you might know, I like to sing at work. A lot. Celine Dion, Linkin Park, Vienna Teng, you name it, I’ll (try to) sing it. I guess it helps me pass the time, for a lot of the work that I’m doing right now is quite routine and requires very little brainpower. Anyway, so the above song came up on my iPod, and I may or may not have very loudly shouted (in a semi-orgasmic way, I might add, or so I was told) “ooooooh yeah!†It shocked Iswadi so much, that he just busted out laughing and couldn’t stop. There were even tears in his eyes! And as he tried to reach up to wipe them away, I had to stop him and be like, “Dude, what are you doing? We’re working with chemicals here! At least take your gloves off!†So, yeah. Moral of the story: Don’t let me sing around you, or you might go blind.
I spent the majority of this weekend in, though I did manage to sneak away on Friday to mix some jam, on Saturday to find a tux in the East Bay, and on Sunday for a random kite-flying escapade. Regarding the latter of the three, Melibop IMed me around two and was like are you bored cuz if you are, let’s do something. It turned out to be a lot of fun (most spontaneous activities are!). Too bad there wasn’t that much wind because trying to keep something in the air for more than 15 seconds is harder than you might think!
What else? Oh, gah! I’m getting sick! I suppose if there ever were a good time, it would be now, since there will be lots of things coming up in the next two to three weeks. Hopefully with some bed rest and lots of vitamins, I will be able to keep my perfect work attendance intact.
February 14, 2006
Damnit, immune system. FIGHT!
February 16, 2006
Oh no! I just found out here that they're closing Avenue Q, my favorite musical (thus far), in May! However, I also read in the same article that Phantom is due to open that month in Vegas, at where else but the Venetian! So freakin' excited! I wonder if my dad can hook me up with some tickets..
Other exciting news includes the return of the daytime Felix to the online world, but you probably already knew that because you've heard me talk nonstop about it! Thus, I have many good things to say about Google and Gmail Chat, but because I like my current state of not being homeless, I will refrain. Let's see how long this can last before IM (Information Management) finds out about it. Oh, the irony. Anyway, you too can talk to FeLiX at work! That is.. when he's not too busy slaving away in the laboratory.
February 21, 2006
I would be thrilled if every weekend were a three-day weekend.
Friday was pretty chill, and I spent most of the evening playing WoW and making my friends help me farm a pair of cloth wrist guards in DM North. After what seemed like at least ten times worth of trying, I finally got them! This is highly appropriate and amusing, since I had decided to take a break from the game indefinitely, or at least until we have some healers again. Good job, Fe! Hey, someone get Aya or Dorf playing again, and I’ll be back faster than you can say “squishy mage.”
I can’t actually recall what I did Saturday morning/afternoon (it’s that good.. or bad!) so, sorry about that. I do, however, remember that evening. At roughly around 11, I went up to Stanford -- not campus, but the ghetto surrounding the school where all the profs live -- to play poker with Justin and company, since one of our fellow ChemEs Jimmy, who is originally from the Bay Area but is now working for big bad Merck on the East Coast, decided to fly back for the weekend. After four hours of hard work, I ended up $20 (good for some yum cha tseen the following day). That night was also pretty cool because I found out that our host, Greg, who lived with me in Serra, is now working for Lifescan in Milpitas. Go random J&J connections!
That brings me to Sunday, which turned out to be a pretty epic yet fun adventure of food, movie/TV watching, and games. It started with a little dim sum action at noon at the Joy Luck Place in Cupertino and ended with an episode of Grey’s Anatomy at my place (I’ll let you do the math to figure out the number of hours in total). In between were games, games, and even more games! So one thing I realized during this little escapade is that I’m a horrible drawer of men’s rooms. Either that or my teammates (which composed of all guys since it was a guys vs. girls thing during Pictionary) have never seen a urinal before. Or! They cannot recognize an anatomically correct stick figure doing his business if it smacked them in the face. Regardless, I got owned by Diana more times than I can count, so I vowed never to play that game against her (and embarrassing myself) again. Word.
On Monday, I hibernated. Yup! That was pretty much it. I think it was somewhat necessary to avoid having a relapse of whatever this bug is that I have or had. Let’s hope I make it through this week, because I’m really looking forward to this Friday! Yay!
February 27, 2006
Weekend Part I: The Viennese Ball
As many of you know, this past Friday was the 29th Annual Viennese Ball at the Hyatt in Burlingame. This year’s, unlike the last one, was a little different, mainly because I opted not to be on Opening, so there wasn’t this sense of urgency and anxiety that would have been associated with gearing up for a big performance. I was relaxed, I laughed, and I made my share of stupid comments throughout the night, as I am wont to do. Most importantly, I was able to go with the people I wanted to go with and who wanted to be there, and just dance for the sake of dancing.. all night long.
The day actually started out fairly early, with me ditching work at about three in the afternoon to do the usual prep work. Now I don’t care what anyone says, but even for those guys with lots of practice, that studded jewelry/bowtie combination is still pretty damn tricky. Luckily, I was able to arrive at Brian’s at the planned time of a little after four, and so we were able to catch and fix a ribbon mix up at the florist. We arrived at Tina’s apartment again, on time, and naturally, that meant that we guys had to wait in the living room for another fifteen minutes while the girls finished getting ready. After a round of flowers and gift exchanging as well as picture taking, we were finally ready to be on our way. However, this was also about the time when I found out that Carrie has a violent side to her, for she threw at me a mean left hook, as caught on film here! When you get someone a small stuffed animal tiger to signify the year of her birth, you’d expect something more along the lines of “Aww, that’s so cute, thanks!” and not “What?? So you think I’m ferocious now?!” Sheesh! Harsh lesson learned.
The four of us then met up with Howard, Melisa, Eric, and Chi-En at the Swiftwater Cafe in the hotel. The food turned out to be pretty good (it was definitely very nicely decorated), and since I was in my ordering fish at a restaurant mood again, I had the Chilean sea bass. After dinner, some people had to duck out early to get ready for their performance/special guest entrance so the rest of us just kind of wandered aimlessly around the second floor. Around this time, I managed to make a snarky comment to Eric about him standing out in his white gloves by saying something like, “You got any more of those in your back pocket there for me?” To my surprise, he actually did have some in his back pocket. In fact, he had multiple pairs! So I asked to borrow one set. Hey, I wanted to look spiffy, too!
As expected, Carrie and I danced a lot that Friday, to the point where I almost couldn’t feel my feet by the end of the night. It’s all good though, cuz believe it or not, I actually do like this whole dancing business. Let’s see, there were the two BNPs, one looong CoV, some swing in between, and I don’t even remember how many waltzes. I was also finally able to meet some of her scree (don’t ask) friends, who she’s mentioned a lot about, so that was kinda neat. One of the many highlights of the evening came during a Decadance performance, in which the group did a number off of Nintendo’s Mario Bros music. I gotta say, I was laughing pretty hard during that one.
It wasn’t until three-ish in the morning when I finally got her back to Castano (after dropping Tina and Brian off), but lo and behold, if the story ended there, then that would be sad! Alas, the night was still young, and so we decided to walk around and ended up sitting outside of Maples and chatted for about another hour or so. In the midst of some good conversation, a raccoon decided that it might be a good idea to come see what’s up, perhaps in search for food, and so it came to within fifteen feet of us. But never fear, because Felix had been working on his random barking and loud, obnoxious noise-making skills, so he left us alone. Psh. Rabies schmabies.
Anyway. It was a wonderful evening. An ah, a night in Vienna to be remembered, indeed.
(To Be Continued... Weekend Part II: Tina’s Birthday)
Weekend Part II: Tina's Birthday
Being that I went to bed around five the previous 'night', getting up even after noon the following day proved to be quite difficult. Thankfully, the thought of dim sum (for the third time in seven days) propelled me out of bed, and there I was again at the Joy Luck Place with Tina and company. Lots of eating ensued, and Melisa demonstrated a very comical depiction of the laughing dog in Duck Hunt, only to be outdone moments later by Brian and his comment about his charging anything that moves. Uh yeah, I have strange friends.
I decided to go home to hang out for a little bit before heading over to Tina's, since the Stanford/Wazzu game was on ABC. Also, I needed to drop off some groceries and retrieve some bbq pork that I wanted to give to the girls in Palo Alto. Thus, I headed over there around five-ish, which was just enough time for me to catch the end of the low-scoring affair on Melisa's tiny TV. Tina also opened her birthday present -- the Chronicles of Narnia boxed set -- and seemed to like it! Phew! For a while there, I was torn between that and a couple of other things, which included Tylenol (since she's always getting sick from her kids!) and uh.. Felix coupons (“good for one night of not stealing Brian away to play WoW”.. OR “good for one night of please, please, please steal Brian to play WoW”). Haha!
For dinner, we went to Windy's in DTPA. Tina's family was there, and the first thing her mom asked me when she sat down was my name.. and when I told her, she was like, “Oooh! That's right! You're the one who called after Tina had that bike accident (like three years ago)!” I don't know if that's a good or bad sign, when your friend's parent remembers you from a bad situation. Whatever it is, I quickly redeemed myself by speaking Cantonese to her and playing supposedly pretty good mahjong later that night. And let me tell you, that's such a compliment coming from her! I mean, going heads up against Tina's mom in mahjong is like playing basketball versus Michael Jordan! So yeah, you heard right, David! You and your sophomoric friends are next; bring 'em on!
Okay, so there's this one last thing about a cake-buying cover up story that just won't be able to make it on here cuz I'm pretty blogged out. Oh well, ask if you want to hear about it!
Oh great, now I don't have anyone to play WoW with anymore thanks to Justin, who was more than happy to email our guildies to let them know that I accidentally ninja-ed something. So apparently, I jacked a 400g greater fire protection potion recipe from my guildmates last night in our LBRS raid without realizing it. Being an alchemist, I knew it was worth something at the time, but I didn't know it was worth that much! All I have to say about this is: whoops! :-p Still! Need before greed, yo, so I don't feel too bad.
Speaking of which, I have a new away message for when I'm playing the game! It's "I wish I knew how to quit you." Mad props to anyone who can guess where that came from.
February 3, 2006
Listening to the radio's news in the morning paid off again! I was skeptical at first -- I mean, you just don't mess with a commute that already works! But then I decided to be bold and took a chance (after all, fortune cookies don't lie) and oh what a reward; it saved me THREE minutes! I know that might not sound like much to you guys, but those three minutes, for five days a week, for 48 weeks a year.. add up to twelve hours of my life that I get to spend less in my car!
What the hell is Felix babbling about, you ask? Well, here: Interchange at 101 and 85 open at long last. I had previously been taking the Moffett/Middlefield/Shoreline detour to bypass the horrid onramp congestion everyday. $123 million well spent. Bravo, Caltrans.
Oh by the way, here's a roster of tomorrow's LAN party participants! Too bad Sevy's gonna be back home..
Adia (Rogue)
Sanctorum (Paladin)
Hkakashi (Hunter)
Sleet (Hunter)
Xilefmu (Mage)
Leamh (Priest)
Ayasilkrose (Druid)
February 5, 2006
WoW. What a LANtastic party yesterday!! And shame to all those naysayers who claim that playing online games is anti-social. It's totally social. Look!
As you can see, we had a pretty unique round table setup, and everyone who came brought their own laptops or towers. Brian, of course, had to show us all up by dragging his gigantic monitor over that freakin' took up half the table. Okay, I exaggerate, but seriously dude, that thing's pretty big. And what's a LAN party without some tasty caffeinated beverages? Yeah, that's pretty ridiculous, I know. To be fair, I only accounted for three of those.
As for the game, we started off pretty strong and killed two bosses within two hours -- which is pretty awesome by any standard for a first time 20-man run through an unknown instance. And then, we got to the third boss. At first, it wasn't too bad. We were organized, and our casters were dealing massive damage along the wall while our warriors tanked him in the open field. But then, all hell broke loose. As a result, uhm.. yeah, I guess this pretty much explains it. Things were never the same afterewards.
Towards the end of the night, we had a group shot. From left to right, top first, it's Will (Sleet), Tiff (Adia), Evan (Leamh), Justin (Hkakashi). The bottom's Eric (Ayasilkrose), me (Xilefmu), and Brian (Sanctorum). It's actually pretty funny, cuz I was able to convince them to pose for an in-game character shot. While our hunters, Sleet and Hka, flanked the sides with their bow and gun, our healers, who are surrounding me as I'm casting some sort of a fireball/frostbolt mixture, are setting off their respective heals. Meanwhile, our rogue Adia, who you can't even see in the picture because she's so sneaky, is backstabbing me. And if you look really, really closely, she's even sporting her special shirt that says “rogues do it from behind” just for the party! Oh, I love it!
Overall, I think everyone had an awesome time. And if the Super Bowl party today can be half as fun as what it was yesterday, I'd call it a success.
February 6, 2006
Bedtime, it is! And yes, you read the timestamp correctly; it's only 9-something. Gosh, I hope I'm not getting sick like my coworkers/boss/friends. Oh well, my sleeping schedule's been kinda funky this entire month, anyway. I wonder why.
February 7, 2006
Ah the curse of being ChemE. You know.. now I know why we get paid more than chemists, cuz writing reports and process specs (or anything that's not LJ-related) is BORING! I'm falling asleep here, and this is saying a lot since I got 10 hours of sleep last night! Crazy! I'll take lab work over office work any day.
In other news, this is how Justin justifies playing WoW all the time:
Womenz: may leave. Will have emotional problems. Costs $$$ per month.
WoW: always faithful. May have server problems. Costs $15 per month.
February 8, 2006
I ended up helping my sister with her taxes and my mom with setting up an entirely new email account with Chinese-only settings last night. Regarding the latter, I have a couple of thoughts.
1. It’s amusing to me how the generation above us knows so little about computers! From IMs to emails to web browsing to online shopping, these are all second nature to us. Of course, I grew up with them, so they’re easy, and I laugh now, but I’m betting that my grandchildren will be laughing at me years from now when I tell them about this primitive “Internet” technology. It’s interesting I bring this up now, because earlier in the week, I had to go to a training on how to fill out my timesheet at work because J&J’s R&D groups just converted over to a new system, and all of the people who had really confused looks on their faces were the older folks.
2. I’m done using Gmail (in English, that is)! When I was tweaking some settings for my mom last night, I accidentally converted my own language preference to traditional Chinese, and so I fumbled around for a long time trying to change it back. Luckily, I can read enough to be able to do that. So that got me thinking.. I’m never going to be able to learn the language well if I just settle in my comfort zone. What I need to do is to just throw myself in and hope for the best. So goodbye inbox and welcome æ”ä»åŒ£!
February 10, 2006
Thanks, Brian, for having to hang out with you-know-who tonight. Look what you've done.
Felix: i'm gonna strip xile naked and make him dance with a rose
Felix: and then be all like, this is what happens when i have no one to play wow with
Justin: but we all know that's not true
Justin: that's what happens when you HAVE someone to play with
Felix: lol that's true too
Justin: oh no
Justin: oh no!
Justin: here we go again..
Haha! I love how Justin's just watching me on top of his big, giant cat. Observe.
February 13, 2006
Well, here’s an embarrassing singing-at-work story that I’m sure you all would appreciate. So as you might know, I like to sing at work. A lot. Celine Dion, Linkin Park, Vienna Teng, you name it, I’ll (try to) sing it. I guess it helps me pass the time, for a lot of the work that I’m doing right now is quite routine and requires very little brainpower. Anyway, so the above song came up on my iPod, and I may or may not have very loudly shouted (in a semi-orgasmic way, I might add, or so I was told) “ooooooh yeah!†It shocked Iswadi so much, that he just busted out laughing and couldn’t stop. There were even tears in his eyes! And as he tried to reach up to wipe them away, I had to stop him and be like, “Dude, what are you doing? We’re working with chemicals here! At least take your gloves off!†So, yeah. Moral of the story: Don’t let me sing around you, or you might go blind.
I spent the majority of this weekend in, though I did manage to sneak away on Friday to mix some jam, on Saturday to find a tux in the East Bay, and on Sunday for a random kite-flying escapade. Regarding the latter of the three, Melibop IMed me around two and was like are you bored cuz if you are, let’s do something. It turned out to be a lot of fun (most spontaneous activities are!). Too bad there wasn’t that much wind because trying to keep something in the air for more than 15 seconds is harder than you might think!
What else? Oh, gah! I’m getting sick! I suppose if there ever were a good time, it would be now, since there will be lots of things coming up in the next two to three weeks. Hopefully with some bed rest and lots of vitamins, I will be able to keep my perfect work attendance intact.
February 14, 2006
Damnit, immune system. FIGHT!
February 16, 2006
Oh no! I just found out here that they're closing Avenue Q, my favorite musical (thus far), in May! However, I also read in the same article that Phantom is due to open that month in Vegas, at where else but the Venetian! So freakin' excited! I wonder if my dad can hook me up with some tickets..
Other exciting news includes the return of the daytime Felix to the online world, but you probably already knew that because you've heard me talk nonstop about it! Thus, I have many good things to say about Google and Gmail Chat, but because I like my current state of not being homeless, I will refrain. Let's see how long this can last before IM (Information Management) finds out about it. Oh, the irony. Anyway, you too can talk to FeLiX at work! That is.. when he's not too busy slaving away in the laboratory.
February 21, 2006
I would be thrilled if every weekend were a three-day weekend.
Friday was pretty chill, and I spent most of the evening playing WoW and making my friends help me farm a pair of cloth wrist guards in DM North. After what seemed like at least ten times worth of trying, I finally got them! This is highly appropriate and amusing, since I had decided to take a break from the game indefinitely, or at least until we have some healers again. Good job, Fe! Hey, someone get Aya or Dorf playing again, and I’ll be back faster than you can say “squishy mage.”
I can’t actually recall what I did Saturday morning/afternoon (it’s that good.. or bad!) so, sorry about that. I do, however, remember that evening. At roughly around 11, I went up to Stanford -- not campus, but the ghetto surrounding the school where all the profs live -- to play poker with Justin and company, since one of our fellow ChemEs Jimmy, who is originally from the Bay Area but is now working for big bad Merck on the East Coast, decided to fly back for the weekend. After four hours of hard work, I ended up $20 (good for some yum cha tseen the following day). That night was also pretty cool because I found out that our host, Greg, who lived with me in Serra, is now working for Lifescan in Milpitas. Go random J&J connections!
That brings me to Sunday, which turned out to be a pretty epic yet fun adventure of food, movie/TV watching, and games. It started with a little dim sum action at noon at the Joy Luck Place in Cupertino and ended with an episode of Grey’s Anatomy at my place (I’ll let you do the math to figure out the number of hours in total). In between were games, games, and even more games! So one thing I realized during this little escapade is that I’m a horrible drawer of men’s rooms. Either that or my teammates (which composed of all guys since it was a guys vs. girls thing during Pictionary) have never seen a urinal before. Or! They cannot recognize an anatomically correct stick figure doing his business if it smacked them in the face. Regardless, I got owned by Diana more times than I can count, so I vowed never to play that game against her (and embarrassing myself) again. Word.
On Monday, I hibernated. Yup! That was pretty much it. I think it was somewhat necessary to avoid having a relapse of whatever this bug is that I have or had. Let’s hope I make it through this week, because I’m really looking forward to this Friday! Yay!
February 27, 2006
Weekend Part I: The Viennese Ball
As many of you know, this past Friday was the 29th Annual Viennese Ball at the Hyatt in Burlingame. This year’s, unlike the last one, was a little different, mainly because I opted not to be on Opening, so there wasn’t this sense of urgency and anxiety that would have been associated with gearing up for a big performance. I was relaxed, I laughed, and I made my share of stupid comments throughout the night, as I am wont to do. Most importantly, I was able to go with the people I wanted to go with and who wanted to be there, and just dance for the sake of dancing.. all night long.
The day actually started out fairly early, with me ditching work at about three in the afternoon to do the usual prep work. Now I don’t care what anyone says, but even for those guys with lots of practice, that studded jewelry/bowtie combination is still pretty damn tricky. Luckily, I was able to arrive at Brian’s at the planned time of a little after four, and so we were able to catch and fix a ribbon mix up at the florist. We arrived at Tina’s apartment again, on time, and naturally, that meant that we guys had to wait in the living room for another fifteen minutes while the girls finished getting ready. After a round of flowers and gift exchanging as well as picture taking, we were finally ready to be on our way. However, this was also about the time when I found out that Carrie has a violent side to her, for she threw at me a mean left hook, as caught on film here! When you get someone a small stuffed animal tiger to signify the year of her birth, you’d expect something more along the lines of “Aww, that’s so cute, thanks!” and not “What?? So you think I’m ferocious now?!” Sheesh! Harsh lesson learned.
The four of us then met up with Howard, Melisa, Eric, and Chi-En at the Swiftwater Cafe in the hotel. The food turned out to be pretty good (it was definitely very nicely decorated), and since I was in my ordering fish at a restaurant mood again, I had the Chilean sea bass. After dinner, some people had to duck out early to get ready for their performance/special guest entrance so the rest of us just kind of wandered aimlessly around the second floor. Around this time, I managed to make a snarky comment to Eric about him standing out in his white gloves by saying something like, “You got any more of those in your back pocket there for me?” To my surprise, he actually did have some in his back pocket. In fact, he had multiple pairs! So I asked to borrow one set. Hey, I wanted to look spiffy, too!
As expected, Carrie and I danced a lot that Friday, to the point where I almost couldn’t feel my feet by the end of the night. It’s all good though, cuz believe it or not, I actually do like this whole dancing business. Let’s see, there were the two BNPs, one looong CoV, some swing in between, and I don’t even remember how many waltzes. I was also finally able to meet some of her scree (don’t ask) friends, who she’s mentioned a lot about, so that was kinda neat. One of the many highlights of the evening came during a Decadance performance, in which the group did a number off of Nintendo’s Mario Bros music. I gotta say, I was laughing pretty hard during that one.
It wasn’t until three-ish in the morning when I finally got her back to Castano (after dropping Tina and Brian off), but lo and behold, if the story ended there, then that would be sad! Alas, the night was still young, and so we decided to walk around and ended up sitting outside of Maples and chatted for about another hour or so. In the midst of some good conversation, a raccoon decided that it might be a good idea to come see what’s up, perhaps in search for food, and so it came to within fifteen feet of us. But never fear, because Felix had been working on his random barking and loud, obnoxious noise-making skills, so he left us alone. Psh. Rabies schmabies.
Anyway. It was a wonderful evening. An ah, a night in Vienna to be remembered, indeed.
(To Be Continued... Weekend Part II: Tina’s Birthday)
Weekend Part II: Tina's Birthday
Being that I went to bed around five the previous 'night', getting up even after noon the following day proved to be quite difficult. Thankfully, the thought of dim sum (for the third time in seven days) propelled me out of bed, and there I was again at the Joy Luck Place with Tina and company. Lots of eating ensued, and Melisa demonstrated a very comical depiction of the laughing dog in Duck Hunt, only to be outdone moments later by Brian and his comment about his charging anything that moves. Uh yeah, I have strange friends.
I decided to go home to hang out for a little bit before heading over to Tina's, since the Stanford/Wazzu game was on ABC. Also, I needed to drop off some groceries and retrieve some bbq pork that I wanted to give to the girls in Palo Alto. Thus, I headed over there around five-ish, which was just enough time for me to catch the end of the low-scoring affair on Melisa's tiny TV. Tina also opened her birthday present -- the Chronicles of Narnia boxed set -- and seemed to like it! Phew! For a while there, I was torn between that and a couple of other things, which included Tylenol (since she's always getting sick from her kids!) and uh.. Felix coupons (“good for one night of not stealing Brian away to play WoW”.. OR “good for one night of please, please, please steal Brian to play WoW”). Haha!
For dinner, we went to Windy's in DTPA. Tina's family was there, and the first thing her mom asked me when she sat down was my name.. and when I told her, she was like, “Oooh! That's right! You're the one who called after Tina had that bike accident (like three years ago)!” I don't know if that's a good or bad sign, when your friend's parent remembers you from a bad situation. Whatever it is, I quickly redeemed myself by speaking Cantonese to her and playing supposedly pretty good mahjong later that night. And let me tell you, that's such a compliment coming from her! I mean, going heads up against Tina's mom in mahjong is like playing basketball versus Michael Jordan! So yeah, you heard right, David! You and your sophomoric friends are next; bring 'em on!
Okay, so there's this one last thing about a cake-buying cover up story that just won't be able to make it on here cuz I'm pretty blogged out. Oh well, ask if you want to hear about it!
