a black tie dinner at Magic Castle

We went to the Magic Castle at Hollywood for dinner on Feb 14th. It is a private club and you have to be a member or have a guest card from a member to enter. Tim had invited us to go and since this is a rare opportunity, we agreed without second thoughts. As the day came closer, I started to regret my decision. First of all, it fell on a weekday. I don't know why, maybe my age is starting to catch up with me. I just can't see myself doing late night activities on weekdays anymore. After work, I just want to go home and rest. Have a nice dinner or something. Second, it's Valentine's day! Going out to Hollywood for dinner with a group of friends is just not my ideal date on a Valentine's day. However, I am glad we decided to go. We did have fun that night, although I have to admit that I was exhausted at the end of the night.

We were not allowed to bring cameras in the building. So all we have is just a group picture that the front desk girl helped to take. And then Steve helped us take a picture of me and John. I am so glad he did cause I have an extra picture of just the 2 of us. I bet the rest of them are jealous! ha- just kidding!!!

here's a group pic of us. is it me or does Robin looks like she wasn't at the same place as we were? ;P

there...... our "alone" picture

Each girl gets a stem of a fake red rose at the entrance in ___ of Valentine's Day.

We got there pretty late and had dinner there. With not much time left for the night, we decided to watch just the main show which lasted about 50 minutes and I had to say, I was really impressed. The guys were funny. They were able to keep my heavy eye-lids open till the end of the show. We called it a night after the show. It was kind of late and everyone was tired. There are many other shows I heard but they were all small shows, like 10-15 minutes.

It was interesting. I will definitely go back there again to watch the rest of the shows that we missed. I was telling John, next time we should just go for the magic shows and skip the dinner because I wasn't too impressed with their dinner.

me trying to play with the camera on the way to Magic Castle

i made John take this one cause I realized that I suck at taking my own pic!! hehe

the 2007 thanksgiving tahoe trip

I was cleaning up my personal folders at my work computer and found pictures from my Tahoe trip last Thanksgiving. Well, not exactly pictures from the whole trip, just an excerpt from it. Haha, the clubbing night. I think these pictures were sent to me by a number of different people. I guess I'll just blog something about it before I delete it.

here's a group photo of us. I think that's Jocelyn at the far back trying to poke her head out and giving the peace sign. ;)

the crazy drunk dance after a couple of shots... i have a confession. i can't dance if i am sober! :P

the night is still young and nick is already dozing off

it has been a tradition that the 3 of us has to take at least one picture together

yes, this is part of the trip too. This picture was taken with the intention of showing off my sun burnt nose after a long day at the mountain wandering around with my rented snowboard. I took my first snowboard lesson and didn't go far with it. I was too chicken to proceed on my own.

please make me fall in love again......

..... my dress. :( I got a very surprise call last week.

Conversation in mandarin

Caller: Hi, is this so and so (my name in chinese)?

ok, i was thinking who can this be... calling my name in chinese

me:... umm... yea, this is she

caller: hi, i'm calling from "ai zi ling" (the bridal store name in chinese)

i am still very confused because i've only known the bridal store as Lucy's Bridal

me: (paused, thinking hard) okayyyy...

caller: oh, i am calling to let you know that the dress that you ordered is here

me: what dress?

at this point i kinda knew what she was talking about, but just needed to confirm

caller: errr..... your wedding dress. you bought a wedding dress from our store a few months ago.

now i realized that the painful memories that i have been trying to suppress.... surfaced... no way out now.

me: oh ok. that was fast, i thought it took longer than that to get it.

caller: no, that's about right. You ordered about 3 months ago. we told our customers it took 3-4 months to get the dress to be safe. anyway, i just want to let you know that you can come in anytime to do the dress fitting and please make sure you call ahead to make sure that tailor is here to do alterations if you need any.

me: ok thanks.... errr..... is the dress nice?

damn..... what kind of stupid question is that!!!

caller: we don't know. your dress came sealed in a bag. we don't open it until the customer comes to pick it up to prove that it's brand new.

me: thanks. i will be sure to call before i come in.

caller: see you then. bye.

me: bye

phone clicked.

I was staring at my computer blanked... with mixed emotions. Scared & excited at the same time. After a few seconds which feels like forever, I quickly messaged June (my wedding planner buddy) to let her know my dress is here. Then I shot an email to Janet to let her know, to which she replied "are you excited?". I remembered she was very excited when she found out that her dress is here. Hell ya! I am excited. If I say I am not excited, that would be a lie. However.... something is holding me back.

You see, the situation is like this. I have fallen out of love with my dress as soon as I put the deposit down. I don't know how that happened, but it just did. I would always look at wedding dresses on magazines and turn green with envy, wish I could wear that. John has diagnosed me with Buyer's Remorse disease. I change my mind constantly about the things that I bought, the food that I ordered, basically any decisions that I made I always have second thoughts about. I always re-visit the same store twice in a week, just to return stuff because ... I have simply changed my mind! I can't help it.

Okay, my dress is no exception especially it involves something important. Of course I had second thoughts about my dress when I bought it. Now that it's here I have to face it. I decided not to go get it until we move. We will be moving this weekend, I don't want to haul that heavy gigantic dress in a truck and risk getting it ruined. So, please please let me fall in love with it again when i see it. I mean, why did i buy the dress in the first place? There must be something that attracted me to it, right. What was it? I know the pick-up skirt had alot to do with my decision at that time. The problem is I don't know if i like pick-up skirt anymore. :p

Everyone tries to assure me that there's nothing wrong with the dress. John kept telling me he likes my dress (he has never seen me in it, just the picture). June and Janet constantly ask me to stop checking out other dresses. I did. I really did. Janet said something that knocked me down to my senses "it's the man you are marrying, not the dress. stop worrying about your dress".

Now I can't wait to see my dress... and please.... help me fall in love with it again.... and oh, make it fit too. I've gained some weight since ... let's hope it fits.

I don't have a picture of me in the dress but here's the picture of the dress from Maggie Sottero's website. Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby present you with the dress that I have been rattling about for the past 1/2 hour.

except mine would be all diamond white instead of champagne & red, and there will be no bow. just the brooch.

kids say the darndest things

As a normal bride-to-be, I surf internet alot about wedding related stuff for ideas, inspirations, deals, vendor reviews, etc. One day as I was reading a wedding blog, I saw a funny post and thought i'd share. It's so cute....

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Kids Say & Do The Funniest Things
KIDS & MARRIAGE

The child was a typical four-year-old girl -- cute, inquisitive, bright as a new penny. When she expressed difficulty in grasping the concept of marriage, her father decided to pull out his wedding photo album, thinking visual images would help. One page after another, he pointed out the bride arriving at the church, the entrance, the wedding ceremony, the recessional, the reception, etc. "Now do you understand?" he asked. "I think so," she said, "is that when mommy came to work for us?"
Submitted by SandyD

Kids are asked questions about marriage...and, OH! how they answered!!

How do you decide who to marry?
"You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming." Alan, age 10

"No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with." Kirsten, age 10

What is the right age to get married?
"Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then." Camille, age 10

"No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married." Freddie, age 6

How can a stranger tell if two people are married?
"Married people usually look happy to talk to other people." Eddie, age 6

"You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids." Derrick, age 8

What do you think your Mom and Dad have in common?
"Both don't want no more kids." Lori, age 8

What do most people do on a date?
"Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough." Lynnette, age 8

"On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date." Martin, age 10

What would you do on a first date that was turning sour?
"I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns." Craig, age 9

When is it OK to kiss someone?
"When they're rich." Pam, age 7

"The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that." Curt, age 7

"The rule goes like this: if you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do". Howard, age 8

Is it better to be single or married?
"I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing. I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out." Theodore, age 8

"It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them." Anita, age 9

"Single is better, for the simple reason that I wouldn't want to change no diapers. Of course, if I did get married, I'd just phone my mother and have her come over for some coffee and diaper changing." Kirsten, age 10

How would the world be different if people didn't get married?
"There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?" Kelvin, age 8
"You can be sure of one thing - the boys would come chasing after us just the same as they do now." Roberta, age 7

How would you make a marriage work?
"If you want to last with your man, you should wear a lot of sexy clothes, especially underwear that is red and maybe has a few diamonds on it." Lori, age 8

"Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck." Ricky, age 10

Submitted by Richard from E-mail he receivedOriginal Source Unknown

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guitar hero madness!!!

I know I haven't been updating my blog lately. Yes, I have been lazy, no excuse. So why am I updating now right??? Because I cannot NOT rave about my new hobby!!!! Guitar hero III!!! It has been popular for awhile now. I've always thought why do people like it so much.... it doesn't look that interesting to me. People always talk about it, like how addictive the game is and how difficult it is. How they are so addicted to it that they cannot stop playing. In fact, you couldn't get the game anywhere before Christmas. John wanted one so badly for Christmas but we couldn't find one anywhere unless you were willing to pay triple to get it from ebay or third party. A week or 2 after Christmas when we were shopping for a throw in Target, guess what he found??! The last piece of guitar hero III sitting inside a locked glass cabinet. Without further thought, John grabbed the sales rep and had him get the last piece of guitar hero III. So we paid and left the store. This time, John smiled giddily. :)

As soon as we got home, he quickly get into business. Set up his guitar and started playing. I watched and thought how stupid this game is. It definitely looked really easy to me.

First of all, you don't have to know how to play a guitar to play this... in fact you don't need to know any musical instruments. He then finally let me get my hands on it and boy... was i wrong. It is extremely hard! I couldn't even finish a whole song needless to say how to use the whammy bar and all that. I was frustrated and still thought that the game was stupid and finally gave up. Things started to get busy and crazy around us , we didn't have time to get our hands on it and learn how to play. John would play once in a while, but nothing crazy. Just one song here and there. So no one was really playing it.

Okay, I don't even know how we started. Last weekend, John picked it up and started playing it. I watched patiently and thought this couldn't be that hard. So I started playing again. First time, I didn't get the whole song again but I was close. I think i was 90 something percent to finishing the song. So i tried again. Finally I was able to finish one whole song. Ha-ha, John even had to step in now and then to jam the whammy bar for me. One thing led to another and now I am hooked!!! I am thinking about it day and night. It is so addictive. I am doing well, I think, for a beginner. :D John is definitely slightly better than I am, yep, just slightly. Although we are still on easy mode now, but the songs are getting harder and harder to play. It is getting more challenging after each stage.


We are fighting for our chance to play each time. We will probably get over it pretty soon, but at this moment we are totally hooked. I am amazed at how quickly I fell into this game. Here's some crazy guitar hero III battle pictures for your enjoyment.......

giving John a big smile

there's me- concentrating hard

a shot of the screen

a screen shot- after John finished one whole song

result- I think this is John's result. Song name: My Name is Jonas, easy mode 94% notes hit; not bad

how serious....

and again.... a closer shot

yes... the game is on. I have one leg up the coffee table... how lady-like! haha- i still have my gym clothes on, have to start playing it right after i get home- don't waste time

oh, in this picture you can see the green fleece throw we also got from Target aside from this little baby

i have a new friend!!!

John ordered a 42" LCD from his friend last week. We've been talking about getting a new TV ever since his TV died 2 months ago. We moved the TV from the room to the living room. We had no TV in the bedroom for months. It took some time to get used to it since we've always have TV the room. I used to have a habit of sleeping with the TV on and setting the timer so the TV will turn off when I dozed off. I don't know why, I just dozed off faster with the TV on. I guess that's why I always fall asleep when I go to the cinema. On the other hand, John is a light sleeper. Any slight noise will wake him up. We compromised, some nights I get to have the TV on and some nights I don't. So I kind of getting used to not have the TV on when I sleep. Now, it's more like "go to bed", "yes", lights off. But with no TV in the room for the past few months, I realized that I can go to sleep independently, without relying on the TV. :) That didn't diminish my hope of getting a TV in the room. Finally, last week when we were hanging out at Tim's, John ordered the new TV from him. Tim works in the TV distributor company, so he gets very good deal. John said he might have been drunk when he confirmed with Tim that he wants that 42" Hitachi LCD (when Tim showed him a few choices). Anyhow, we've been talking about getting one, we have one now.

So the TV arrived last night. Since it's a big TV, we had to put this in the living room instead of the bedroom and move the TV in the living room into our bedroom. Unfortunately, the new TV is too big to fit in the entertainment center. The plan is to move the whole entertainment center and the 27" TV into our bedroom. It's alot of moving around to do, so we quickly get to work. It's going to be a long night. While hooking up the LCD, John realized that we need a HD cable. So we went out to Bestbuy to get cable and grab a quick bite for dinner. He got his cable and when we were about to leave, he surprised me with:

him: you want a wii?

me: (looked at him surprised, nodding frantically, smiling from ear to ear)

So we walked over to the game section. He grabbed the wii and an extra joystick for a second player since the box didn't come with it. He asked the sales assistant for any popular games, and he recommended zelda for single player and couple other games for multi players. Mario Brothers caught my attention. When I was a kid, I love to play mario brothers with my sister. But I didn't get it. I figured the 5 sports games that included will keep me occupied for a while. We walked over to the counter and the usual me ...

me: do you think there will be sales during thanksgiving?

him: probably

me: maybe we should wait till thanksgiving (this is something I would say, even though i don't really want to, I guess that's why I can never buy anything)

him: i've got it in my hand, let's go!

me: (smiling giddily, running up to catch him)

Later in the car,

him: I've heard with all those recalls with the lead toys, there might be shortages of toys during Christmas. they said it's best to start shopping for Christmas gifts early this year. I just thought they might not have wii during thanksgiving sale

me: but this is not toys

him: with not much toys available, people opt for other things

me: ok. so is this my Christmas present?

him: no, this is a "just because" gift. this will keep you busy when I'm in school and work at least until December, so you won't go cheating on me. (lol... okay, I made the last sentence up, but hey, it does seems that way! ;p)

I heart this man! :))) I've been a good wife he said. Well, I've been neglected ever since his fall semester starts and his new job has very demanding hours. I don't get to spend as much as time as I want to with him anymore and he keeps assuring me that everything will be back to normal after December (hence the post earlier). Talking about good wife, I came across a very interesting article last week when I googled "how to be a good wife". Yes, I googled that. Hey, it's my 1st time being somebody's wife, I need to know how to be a good wife. And seriously, I think sometimes I am too nice to him ;). I need to know what's the limit and vice versa... so I googled it. Here's what I found:

1) Have dinner ready: plan ahead even the night before, to have a delicious meal - on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him, and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and a prospects of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed.
2) Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with alot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.
3) During the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
4) Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours. 5) Don’t complain if he’s late for dinner or even if he stays out all night.
6) Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice. (I burst out laughing at this one!)
7) Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity.
Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
9) A good wife always knows her place.

And the list goes on and on. The article is from a 1950's economics textbook. Ha-ha, I am so glad I wasn't born 30 years ago! Come to think of it, I may have done a few of the things mentioned! Like I said, I am very very extremely nice to him and he is so lucky to have me! heehee....

Okay, enough about that. Here's some pictures

the box of the LCD, Chris helped John haul this to our apartment (3rd floor!)

wii!!!!

look at all the crazy wires!!! after moving out the entertainment center, the living area is so bare now... you can see all the messy wires

he got his hands on the wii... playing golf!

his fingers are all red and sore because of all the moving

the end result..... so empty now. Compare to before....here's what it used to be. that's Eng Jo and Janet at our house warming party by the way :D

dj booked!

Yep yep. I am proud. We have our dj booked finally. Didn't take us that long. I searched the internet for vendor reviews and made couple phone calls. The first few that I called were all booked on our wedding day... seems like a popular date to get married ;P. I started to panic. One of the Dj's that I contacted referred me to Dean Henderson since he is not available for us. So I contacted Dean Henderson, with some back and forth conversations, we decided to go with Dean Henderson. He has more than 20 years experience in the industry and most importantly he met our expectations. John likes him right away from the first meeting. Two main reasons we chose him. First, he is English. Second, he is affordable (plays a big role here ;P). John and I had joked about getting an English man with English accent to marry us. An English Dj? That will work too.....

We met with another Dj at Pasadena last Sunday before we made the decision actually. I was a little reluctant to use Dean before meeting with another DJ for comparison. I made an appointment with Henry at Paseo Colorado, Pasadena. No harm checking it out, right? We went early because the plan was to go Macy's to get my handbag which I've been eyeing for since 2 weeks ago. And of course, the Macy's there doesn't carry Lucky brand handbags. That doesn't stop me from shopping in Macy's. We were there and the appointment was not until 7pm, so why not? We walked around and at 15 minutes to 7, I left Macy's store empty handed (again!) and John with 2 brand new shirts and one pair of slacks. Yes, even he bought something. -_- Seriously, I feel like I haven't been able to buy anything lately. Just my luck I guess.

We met Henry right outside of the The Yard House, bad choice. At 7 it was starting to get dark and it is a busy spot right there. There was loud background music which made it hard to talk. Anyway, we managed to go over some details and timeline of the wedding. I didn't know it was because of the environment of the meeting or we already have our mind made up, he just doesn't seem to be the right guy. So the end decision, is still to go with Dean. John had actually suggested to meet a few other djs but I think there is no need for that anymore. It is very time consuming, plus I don't think we can find another dj that can top Dean's price.

We were planning on having our dinner at the Yard House after meeting him and then movies later. We didn't realize that our meeting lasted for an hour and a half. It was a Sunday night, we didn't want to be home late. So we decided to cancel the movie and just have dinner instead.

it was a nice night, we sat at the patio

he is so happy.....

because his porcini crusted halibut was delicious!!!! i love it so much.... i told him i'm going to look for the recipe and try to make this one day. lol... what's left was just the mashed potatoes and a few bok choy... i know, it doesn't look very appetizing here but trust me, it's delish!!!

and this is my left over grilled pastrami. their take out box is literally a box.... nice. save the environment... instead of using a Styrofoam box. I left the box at the restaurant, didn't realized it until we were in the parking garage. Oh well.... I didn't really like it anyway. It will probably just sit in the fridge for a couple of weeks and it get thrown out. Talking about this, I think I still have my last week leftover pasta in the fridge. hmmm...

it's the football season

so all the tv had on was football......

the server took a picture for us

his camera doesn't take very good night picture...