monkey nonsense

Talida: but mice don’t eat cookies!!
Talida: they eat peanuts
me: if you give a mouse a peanut?
me: but then how would the rest of the story go?
me: because u don’t need milk to eat peanuts
Talida: the mouse is going to want beer
Talida: and then he will become a belligerent mouse
Talida: once he’s belligerent, he’ll want to hit stuff
me: what do u give a belligerent mouse?
Talida: a mini baseball bat
Talida: but then he’ll want a cat to hit
Talida: the cat will probably end up eating the mouse
Talida: then the story’s over
me: that’s a rather disturbing story…

this turkey day was a huge family get together. a few of my cousins whom i have not seen in forever came! i had to pick up my cousin mae at the airport thursday afternoon and we were joking on the drive to my aunt’s… that we probably wouldn’t have been able to find each other without the help of cell phones. we couldn’t even figure out when the last time we had seen each other had been… but i’m pretty sure it must have been when i was in elementary school/middle school (since prior to my cousin bobby’s wedding, most of my cousins hadn’t seen me since i was 13)

here’s a pic of everybody at my uncle greg and auntie judie’s house after stuffing ourselves

standing:
“nephew” tim, cousin chantal, mom, dad, cousin leslee, cousin fabio
sofa:
uncle greg, auntie judie, auntie anna, auntie maggie, uncle jack
floor:
“nephew” james, “grandnephew” mark, “niece” amy, cousin mae, “grandnephew” frank, jie, me

yeah, so we had 4 generations present at dinner!! (i put my “niece/nephew/grandnephews” in quotes because it’s obvious that it’s not my sister’s kids, etc…. but chinese seem to disregard this and only count generations. so even though tim and amy and james are older than me, i’m technically a generation above them… making me a grandaunt to mark and frank!)

meet my cousin chantal…

she’s my authentic, asian cousin!

Just updated a bunch of things on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days.

it’s less than a year to go and i have over 50 items left on my list of things to do… i’m thinking i might have to extend the duration in order to complete more. though granted, i also did list some impossibly hard things to complete, i.e. find a job i love.

recently completed tasks:
11.24.07 – 76. Meet a celebrity
11.9.07 – 53. See a Broadway show
10.25.07 – 68. Put up tacky Christmas lights
9.3.07 – 43. Go fishing/crabbing
7.23.07 – 42. Go camping, campfire smores and all
7.4.07 – 47. Light fireworks

i think i might have narcolepsy

i fall asleep real fast. like really really fast. i’ve fallen asleep while on the phone with people. i’ve fallen asleep within seconds of talking to people in a car. i can fall asleep almost anywhere… doesn’t matter how loud the place is. (i used to take naps at the black chairs in the UC… that area’s actually kind of loud!)

last night, i was getting ready for bed…. and my hair, in desperate need of a haircut, had been getting tangled in the necklace my mom gave me for graduation. so i decided to take off the necklace to untangle my hair. andddddd that is all i remember of last night.

this morning, at work, i was brushing away hair again and i realized… my necklace! for a brief second, i panicked… before i remembered taking it off last night. but then, i don’t remember ANYthing after taking off the necklace. i think i fell immediately asleep after taking off the necklace! i didn’t even have time to put the necklace on the desk by my bedside or anything! so i went to bed with the necklace on my bed!

and this is not the first time.. i’ve “slept with” coins (emptying out change from my pockets at the end of the day), pens, books, mail, and LAPTOPS on my bed. probably the weirdest thing i’ve slept with were batteries.

is this normal?

i’ve started a new business. after careful market research, i think i’ve found a nice little untapped niche market! and now i’m ready to accept new customers. please, don’t everyone rush all at once…

while helping out one of my high school friends with her wedding, she mentioned how her fiance though that the save the date she had designed was a bit on the feminine side. i decided to help her redesign her save the date to give it a more manly feel. that’s when i realized how no one ever caters wedding planning for grooms! most of the time, it’s geared more towards the bride…

behold!! the new and improved save the date! boy, i really hope she becomes my first customer!!

design 1:

design 2:

design 3, with some input from the bride & other bridesmaids:

which design do you like best?

any of you engaged couples – let me know if you guys need any help designing stuff for your wedding!! i’m seeing sports car shaped wedding cakes… shooting guns instead of throwing rice…

so i was in NYC this past weekend.

i like NYC. every time i go, i have a good time. i’ve thought about moving to NYC a few times before. it doesn’t help that 75% of my roommates since college have moved up to NYC (and soon-to-be 62.5% of ALL roommates i’ve *ever* had have moved up there)… but i’ve entertained the thought before they all moved up there too.

normally, after every trip to NYC, i think hrm.. maybe i could live in the city… but i feel like this time, the trip has actually made me think no, i don’t think i ever could do more than just visit.

1. i like walking… one would think then that NYC wouldn’t be too bad. but no. i like leisurely walking, not when you have to walk to get around. this is probably why trips to NYC (when i’m leisurely walking) seem so fun, yet walking in DC to work gets annoying at times. i don’t attribute this entirely to having grown up in suburbia because most of the truly suburban people i know don’t like walking… they don’t even like walking to their mailboxes to get mail!
2. convenience. i can see why new yorkers say the city is so convenient. there is literally a duane reade within a block of you at any given point in time. and suburbia… it drives me nuts when i get stuck in traffic just running to the store to get ONE LITTLE THING. so yes, for those last minute runs to the store to get one thing, the city is more convenient. but what about when you want groceries for the week? i hate lugging things around. i want to be able to put everything into my car trunk, drive it home, and then unload everything by my doorstep. another example, this weekend, i was pretty much a homeless person. i wandered from one friend’s place to another friend’s place… lugging around/wearing all my clothes around as i went. i tried to dump it off in my friend’s car (from suburbia!), which meant that i had to keep packing things as i went. each time i met up with bryan and may, it was like i had another mini-package of clothes for them. on friday, they took my main bag and aerobed (which never got used!), along with a trashbag of my sister’s clothing. on sunday, i sent them a bag with one of my sweatshirts, my jacket and some purchases from bloomingdales. it’s so annoying to have to carry stuff around!
3. activities. yes, NYC wins out here. there is more to do in NYC than most any other city – broadway shows, art shows, musical performances, restaurants, etc. etc. the list goes on and on. but realistically, i’m much more of a homebody and i doubt i’d do all those activities every day of the week… heck not even once a week. it gets to be too expensive. i think if i lived in the city, i would probably do one of those activities once a month at most… which basically could just be a monthly trip to NYC. if i look more on a day-to-day basis, the activities i’d like to do would be to hang out with friends (difficult to do in NYC without spending money at a restaurant/bar or cramming into someone’s small apartment), go out to eat (gets to be expensive regardless of whatever city you’re in), watch movies (expensive again), and play outside. all the activities that i do on a daily basis can be done regardless of the city i’m in. for the special events, i feel like a trip to NYC could be done to experience the activity… or you just go for different/less quality (but hopefully cheaper!) alternatives… like broadway shows when they come into your city on tours, smithsonian museums (free! and perhaps just as good, if not better) instead of the met, etc.

i do hate DC traffic though… and their metro. NYC’s subway is diiirrrrrrty, but at least it’s not retarded like DC’s!

so i’ve been trained, after years of flooding problems (ask cousin jenny who experienced it firsthand when our toilets flooded on her before her shower), to hold down the toilet flusher for a few seconds to help the toilets flush.

however, not all toilets are like my parents. so this morning, at around 5am, i woke up to use talida’s BRAND NEW toilet, a low flush model… i think. in any case, the bowl is more oval-y and sloped more gently than the traditional bowl. it also doesn’t need the toilet flusher to be held down for a few extra seconds.

ruh roh =(

too be honest, i haven’t had to fix a toilet since high school (see parents’ flooding toilets)… maybe college? so i wasn’t sure what to do. after googling her bowl model (nothing helpful) and “toilet flush problems”, i finally found “How to Unclog a Toilet (with pictures)” on wikiHow!

so i left a note written on a paper towel (in case they woke up) and went downstairs to borrow a plunger. 5 minutes letter, no toilet bowl problems! AND NO FLOODING! (see parents’ flooding toilets) i was so excited… i needed to blog right away about how wikiHow solved my problem!

… i dont think talida and tim will invite me back once they read this entry.

i’m fat.

maybe i hide my fat well…. doubtful, seeings how my clothes no longer fit me anymore. i’m becoming one of those girls whose belly pops out of every shirt/pants they wear… ewww.
maybe people think i’m pregnant… a coworker and 2 friends are pregnant… i’ve noticed i’m gaining weight at almost the same rate they are!
maybe people are just too polite… for example, when i asked mariam to guess my weight, she guessed an obscenely low weight… that i haven’t been since oh… 1994 maybe?? stop lying people!!!!

in any case… i’m going to see the doctor on monday for my cough/supposed asthma. but i think i will also ask the doctor why… despite eating like a monster and never exercising, i’m gaining weight. oh wait, that actually explains a lot.

anyone want to join the 2nd half of my gym membership? (2 people -> ~$60 a person for a really nice gym, with pool! 1 person by themselves -> $80!!) i really do need to get off my butt (which is getting pretty cushion-y) and exercise.

i really do need to exercise

… and not eat like a monster.