Horrible

Yes, I’m a horrible blogger.  I’m going to be better.  Honest.

First off…check out the new Canon Rebel!  HD Video?? 15 mp?? Should I “downgrade” to a rebel?  Dang!!

Would it really be considered a downgrade anyway?  Or should I drop the $3g for a 5DMII?  Does the body really matter THAT much?  I should just get the Rebel and the 24-70mm f2.8.  Or just keep my 20D and get the 24-70?  Uggh, decisions decisions.

In other recent events, we took a trip to the snow this past weekend. We stayed at Donna’s house Friday night, I always hate staying there just by ourselves, it’s scary there.  Too big, too many rooms/windows/balconies and it’s too dark outside.  On Saturday, we planned on going to Diamond Peak, and since Donna’s house was right around the corner, Lib and Elma (and families) came over for “brunch”.  I never know what to serve at a “brunch” besides breakfast stuff?  So it was just breakfast.  Lib was so funny, she loved the house so much, she ran around snapping pictures like crazy.  Here are a few from her camera.

At Diamond Peak, Dillon declined ski lessons, but has decided he wants to snowboard.  He didn’t get to go this time since when we got there the snow was shitty (like it always is anyway), then it was totally blizzarding!  Oh well, next year I plan on bringing him as much as possible.  And maybe get back on a snowboard myself??  It’s only been almost a decade.  Haha, I’m thinking skiing is more appropriate for a woman of my age.  Lol.  We did stay at Diamond Peak just long enough for HBY to make a little snowman with the kids…then it was back to the house for us.  I don’t like being cold anymore.  At all.

(The only pictures of me come from someone else’s camera)

Anyway, we spend Saturday night in Reno…let the kids go wild at Circus Circus.  It was the first time they were both old enough to play games themselves, so of course they didn’t want to leave.  I told HBY the object was NOT to win stuffed animals, so only let the kids play.  They STILL won. Dillon is actually pretty good at some of those games, and Babygirl is good at the “win every time” games. I must be slipping though, because I didn’t even take one picture and I had my 880is with me.  It was crowded though, and I was more worried about losing Babygirl, but still…HBY did take one pic on the walk over

We stopped at Boreal on the way home, I wanted to take the kids tubing but that shit is $25 per lift ticket.  I didn’t think it was smart to spend $100 to go for maybe 30 minutes – it was too cold and windy, the snow would have been whipping us in the face.  I’m thinking we should wait until they’re a little older, I doubt Babygirl would even like it.  Luckily, there was a “snowpark” on site.  And luckily too, we had stopped in Truckee to pick up a couple of little saucers.  Dillon had a blast, and at $5 per carload, it was much more worth it

Happy 18th Birthday Baby Sister…

…who’s obviously no longer a baby. It’s funny and weird and crazy how fast time passes. And for me, it’s not so much the kids that make me feel it as much as watching my once-baby sister Arianna grow up.

Here we are back in 1994, she was 3 years old and afraid of that little dog.

We were in Hawaii on vacation at the time, but back then I still lived at home and every night she would come to my room and lay with me and I would sing her Expose songs until she fell back asleep, lol.  And yeah, whatever, that’s how I looked back then with all that kinky curly hair, constantly wearing t-shirts and spandex shorts…I was a Polynesian dancer, that’s what we looked like then, lol.

And here she is with my mom, probably in 2001 or around there, she was 10 or so.

Here we are back in 2005 – DJ (my brother), me and Arianna.

I think that’s the most recent picture I have of the 3 of us.  I’m the oldest, my brother is 2.5 years younger and Arianna was born when I was 15.  I always thought my mom was crazy for that one.  And I PRAY that that doesn’t happen to me.

Here she is now, 18 years old.

Happy Birthday Arianna.  May all your wishes come true…

Thinking out loud…

Can anyone give me any insight as to whether or not I should “jailbreak” my iPhone? I kinda think having the video option would be cool, and I saw someone that did their’s and it was cool…plus she said it worked way better after she did it. No more dropped calls. Although, I haven’t had very many dropped calls after that first software update. Plus, I’ve seen the video playback, and it’s not all that. Probably better to take the videos with my 880is? Or get another Flip camera since our other one disappeared?? Speaking of which…has anyone seen the Hello Kitty Flip Video Cameras? Hilarious.

And since we’re on that topic…whenever I go somewhere with my laptop, people are suitably impressed with my little HP Entertainment PC, but wouldn’t I be the COOLEST if I busted this sucker out..

Fujitsu's Tokidoki Lifebook

No Training Wheels

They really encourage bad habits.  I’m sure I learned with training wheels, but I’ve always accepted the logic that with training wheels the kids come to rely on them and don’t have a sense of their own balance.  Plus, I’m not that comfortable on a bike anyway.   I like to be close to the ground, so rollerblades are my wheels of choice

I took Dillon back to Aptos Park yesterday after school.  Hby was there too, still whining about the training wheels until I could have killed him.  Am I too strict?  No, I don’t think so.  Anyway, the point is moot…Dillon took off on his own after about 15 minutes.  Only his second time out.  I push him hard, maybe a little too hard, but his sense of accomplishment is so much greater in the end. 

And okay, I cheated…I owe it all to Pedal Magic! Lol. Seriously, the first day I took him without watching the video.  Wasted my time.  Dillon didn’t understand because I wasn’t explaining the right way.  How can you really explain it anyway?  Then I remembered that my aunt had given me a copy of Pedal Magic a while ago (probably 2 years ago), so I came home and hunted for that damn disc.  Dillon and I watched it Tuesday night, and we were both psyched to try it out on Wednesday.  Well, it’s BRILLIANT!  The video is geared more towards teaching the teacher how to train the rider.  Supposedly it works in 5 minutes or less.  Took Dillon a little longer, but I attribute that to all the “bad teaching” he got on Sunday  

I just realized that last part sounds totally like a commercial, lol.  But it’s totally true…now for the girl…

TAKEN

HBY and I got to go out on a date last night, and of course we’re an old fuddy-duddy couple so we went to dinner and a movie. In our defense, it was last minute, I was originally supposed to go to Daphne’s to do some scrapbooking and celebrate our birthdays, but Dillon came down with some kind of stomach virus or bacteria, and I didn’t want to pass that on. To Daphne anyway, I guess I had no problem passing it on to Pristina? Haha, sorry Pristina! Anyway, since Pristina is in her teen years, I thought it only fair that we pay her for her babysitting services. And of course I’m not going to take advantage of her and pay her minimum wage.  So, date night for us is EXPENSIVE! I’m going to have to add that expense into our monthly budget, whew.

Anyway, we went to downtown San Mateo, and it was PACKED! We got there right at 7, I should have known better, that’s when everyone comes out for dinner. We got lucky though, a parking space right in front, the movie we wanted to see was one of the only ones not sold out, the restaurant we went to eat at gave us extra quick service when we told the server we had only 45 minutes to get back to the theater, and the movie was good…fast-paced, almost non-stop action.  Lots of violence All in all, a successful night.

On Friday, I met up with Lib, Elma, Jackie, Racquel and Cecilia to celebrate Elma’s birthday which was on Dec. 29, lol. Since both Racquel and my bdays are in January, and Cecilia’s is on Feb 1, we decided to pick one night each month that we can celebrate our birthdays seperately. Lib’s husband of course had to point out to HBY that we were just “finding excuses” to go out and drink. WHATEVER! So my month is March, I gotta pick a date and find a place in the city. Jackie, Lib and Elma take care of October, November and December, so we have to find some occasions to celebrate during the spring/summer months, lol. We already decided on a Mother’s Day getaway…can we do a Father’s Day getaway too? Haha. Independence day?

Today we took the kids to a nearby park to play, Dillon tried to ride his bicycle (HBY is annoyed at me because I won’t allow any training wheels, but who cares, training wheels are dumb), Alex rode her squeaky tricycle in cirlces, and HBY tried out his new rollerblades I got him for Xmas. I ran alongside Dillon’s bicycle for like two hours and now I’m sore and I broke a nail. Afterwards, he played on the structure and then we tried to play tennis. He got frustrated that real tennis is not like Wii tennis, he has to actually run to the ball and hit it the right way ;p So we made up our own game, where we just kinda threw the ball at each other across the net. At least he was happy…

Gotta Love ‘Em

I finally got to see the pro pics from Liz’s wedding last summer in O.C. One picture just cracks me up whenever I see it. After the ceremony, we all crammed into the limo and went down to – Balboa Beach? Balboa Pier? I don’t even know if that’s what it was called, but we took a ferry to Balboa Island afterwards, so I kinda figure it should be named that. Anyway, walking on the pier, photographer snapping away, these two young girls (tourists, naturally) come and ask to take our picture with their camera. Can you really say no? And then – of course – we tell them to jump in our picture.

Hilarious. You gotta love them though, they’re always so cute and happy and fun…

Random Quiz

You Are Wind

Strong and overpowering A force to be reckoned with, no one dares cross you You have the power to change everything around you You are best known for: your wrath Your dominant state: commanding

What Type of Weather Are You?

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year, that is. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t make new year resolutions, or I’m sure one of them would have been to update my blog on at least a weekly, if not daily, basis. And I would have already broken one of the resolutions I would have made. Whatever.

January has been busy, starting the middle of December actually. We had Xmas parties, Xmas photo shoots, went down to Marina, took the kids to Marine World to check out the Holiday Lights, did A LOT of shopping…playing Santa, delivering presents…Xmas eve at Gate’s, Xmas day at Deanna’s, and STILL didn’t make it to damn Christmas in the Park! I’ve only been wanting to go since Dillon was a baby! Next year FOR SURE!

Nana came to stay with us the day after Christmas, since we didn’t make our usual trip to Las Vegas this year. I just didn’t have it in me, I didn’t feel like dealing with any of it. Plus, we’re going there in June anyway for Arianna’s graduation.

While Nana was here, we went all over…shopping…sight-seeing…a visit with Aly, Marine World, Monterey, CHURCH(!), Lake Tahoe, whew. But we still didn’t do everything that I wanted to. I STILL want to do the tourist thing and ride the double-decker bus around the city. Oh well, the kids had a good time with her, and Nana got to watch her K-dramas online in the evenings on the kids’ computer.

Then finally, winter break was over. Dillon went back to school, Nana flew back to Las Vegas for a few days before going back to Hawaii, and things were finally back to normal. But still it was busy…Goldie’s bday, trip to Marina to play the new Guitar Hero World Tour with Maile and Aunty Momi before Maile had to go back to Hawaii, Debbie’s baby shower, my bday, Goldie’s baby shower, Elma’s birthday celebration (her bday was in Dec…we’re going to celebrate my bday in March, lol)…still need to get together with Daph and celebrate our bdays (even though she already gave me my present, thanks Daph!).

Man, I hope February will be more calm. So far I only have one thing planned the whole month, hope it stays that way…

Blame it on Facebook…

Haha, that’s the reason I’ve been neglecting the blog…although I guess I wasn’t always that faithful.  Maybe that can be my new year’s resolution.  Although I don’t really make those, doesn’t make sense to me, since it’s normally something you don’t do normally, and if you needed to start doing it, why would you have to wait for the beginning of a calendar year to start?  Anyway.

I took the kids up to Twin Peaks to take pictures yesterday.  We went up right before noon, and the day was pretty shitty.  And it was COLD.  Dillon put his hood on – which he NEVER does.  And Alex asked for her jacket – which she DEFINITELY never does.   They were freezing…all for the sake of a measly photo…poor kids

 

Afterwards, we stopped at Mollie Stone’s to pick up some lunch, then took it down to the Botanical Gardens to have a mini picnic.  

 

From there we wandered over to the Academy of Sciences to check out the Rainforest exhibit.  Looks like the hype is finally dying down, it was only moderately crowded, and only about 25 people in line.  We didn’t stand in line though, of course.  

We didn’t stay too long, though, I had to go to San Mateo to return the lenses I rented for our Xmas photo shoot this weekend.  I only rented a 50mm 1.4, and the 85mm 1.8.  I’m having a hard time deciding which one I should buy.  the 85mm has a SUPER fast auto-focus.  The 50mm opens a little wider, but it’s $350, when the 50mm 1.8 is less than $100.  I could get both the 85mm 1.8 and the 50mm 1.8 for less than $500.  But I REALLY want the 24-70mm 2.8.  Really.  Really.  It’s only like $1100 or so.  Decisions, decisions….

Anyway, before we drove down to San mateo, we went back up to Twin Peaks since while we were in the Academy the weather totally cleared up.  

The sky (on one side of the city) was nice and blue.  But it was still hazy.  

Friday I met up with Elma, Jackie, Racquel, Cecilia and Lib at BJ’s at Oakridge mall celebrating Lib’s bday.  

Saturday we were at Lib’s watching the de la Hoya/Pacquiao fight, same people practically, but with husbands and kids in tow.  I took a few family photos while we were there.  Not of mine, though.  I STILL don’t have a xmas photo with my family, uggh…

Sunday I met Goldie, Donna and Emerald at Deanna’s house DEEP in Danville for a Xmas photo shoot.  Seven kids, Dillon being the oldest, youngest was 6 months old, and two dogs.  Can you say craziness?  AND I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO GO TO STAMPER’S WAREHOUSE!!! WAHHHH!

More photos on my flickr…

The 36 Rules of Life…

I thought this was funny, so figured I’d share:

The 36  Rules of Life:

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. Don’t worry about what people think, they don’t do it very often.

3. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a muffin in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides nice contrast to the real world.

25. It ain’t the jeans that make your butt look fat.

26. If you had to identify in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’

27. There is a very fine line between ‘hobby’ and ‘mental illness.’

28. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with  them.

29. You should not confuse your career with your life.

30. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

31. Never lick a steak knife.

32. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

33. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylightsavings time.

34. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment

35. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that deep down inside we ALL believe we are good drivers.

36. Your friends love you anyway.