Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
-Napoleon Hill

man..finally able to blog. february now huh? january went by in a flash. highlight was being able to go boarding in tahoe! it just ignited the itch to go all the time now because of all the good snow we've been getting. ahhh this saving thing makes it so hard=P. maybe a local trip to the mountain at least?

completed the hb surf city half this past sunday. dude it was the craziest run ever. we kept getting weather reports of rain for sunday, but after picking up our packet on saturday there were NO clouds in the sky. so maybe the rain wasn't going to show up? wrong. it was pouring rain come sunday morning, the ocean view looked all gloomy, and the wind chill factor was a biznatch!

in the beginning it was like..aww man we have to run in this weather? me & danielle kept hopping from tent to tent trying to stay dry before our lineup. then we were off and the initial shock of running in the rain kicked in. freaking a they didn't even offer ponchos! thanks danielle for convincing me to wear lou's hat, dont think the dri-fit hood and head warmer would've been enough=). haha, by mile 7 i think we were both just numb and drenched that we just kept going. it actually wasn't as bad as we originally thought. i think talking the whole time helped to alleviate some attention off of the crappy weather. i was aiming for under 2:15:00, which i thought with my lack of training in january would be hard to reach and that the weather would just make it harder.

well, for some reason we didn't do too shabby. 2:15:02! i think we might've gone under that had we known the mile markers. the last one we recalled seeing was mile 9. haha we were too busy talking that i forgot to look at my watch to see our pace. it wasn't until we saw the mile 26 marker for the marathoners when their race merged with ours did we realize we were almost done. so we sprinted those last 0.2 miles to the finish and crossed. albeit with these little girls blocking our way to the finish line because they wanted to cross the line when their mom showed up. i know, sweet right? ha, but man when you're trying to reach a pr, it's not so sweet=P..jk!




so despite the weather. not a bad race! although right now, my knees would beg to differ=P. sorry andree and cicely that we didn't get to meet up in all the hecticness. haha but dude i gotta thank cicely for reminding me of my bib! danielle and danny had already picked me up and in the rush of grabbing my umbrella (which i have no idea why i brought it!) i forgot my timing chip and bib #!!! i didn't even realize it until i was talking to cicely on the phone and we were about to figure out where to meet in the lineup. she asked what my start time would be and that it should say it on my bib. haahah to which i exclaim "oh shi%! i forgot my biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiib!" ahh that was a close one!

so here's looking to next year's surf city run and cool surfboard medal! hopefully with better weather and the knowledge to put sunblock on even if you're wearing running capris! blehhh nasty tan line i gotta get rid of=P. hmm pv half..still debating. the sf half that jovan mentioned sounds tempting. but man, don't think i'll be in good training bc of the wedding. but oooh running on the golden gate bridge, nice!


oh yeah, and how could i forget? what about them giants?!

Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable.
-Ina Garten

a quick post to say thank you to mr. instant ramen inventor! my days in college would have been starving without your cheap and instant cuisine for us starving college kids=P! ramen topped with egg..mmm classic comfort food.

Photography helps people to see.
-Berenice Abbott


happy new year! hope everyone had a jolly holiday season. ha, i know my tummy enjoyed all the eating. ahhhhhh! looking forward to a great 2-0-0-8!!!

boo, oh how i wish i didn't drop my camera=(. still need to get my lens looked at to see if it's fixable. after talking to my co-worker about it, i'm crossing my fingers hoping that it's just the filter that got damaged. i think i'm just chicken to take it in to the camera shop bc i don't want to hear that i have to spend mucho $$ to get a new lens. bad timing. at least i have lou's camera to play with until mine's ready. ehhhhh film just gets too expensive these days to maintain. maybe i'll just use it for b&w photos? i love the grainy look of it, adds some zest to a pic. haha zest.

yay we finally got to watch juno this past weekend. thanks joes and karen! awesome movie like i expected. ellen page is quite the funny one with all the dialogue. lou seemed to like the dad's character. haha "...next time i see that bleeker kid, i'm going to punch him in the weiner..." haha i love that line for some reason.


now if i can just get lou to watch 27 dresses! yeah right, hehe i think i'm on my own for that one. so after watching the bourne ultimatum new year's eve..lou wanted to watch the rest of the trilogy over again. so we saw bourne identity last night. maybe supremacy sometime this week. but yeah, jason bourne is freaking awesome. hahah like 007 on crack, he's just crazy cool like that man.

so lou got me into watching house with him. good show. we're on season 2 right now. makes me question everything about doctors/hospitals now. ewwww and more paranoid about all the germs around me and the food i eat. yuuuuuuck. can't believe that maggots part in one episode. nasty dude, just nasty.

ahh rain. finally found my little green umbrella. cute umbrellas are nice, but that's about it. i get all nervous when it's windy bc my umbrella might do that flipping thing. ah embarassing. oh well, still a cute umbrella.

less than a month til the half. just two more long runs to go. crazy i say. had to do the 8 miler at the gym yesterday because it was raining. at least i had the giants game to keep me distracted, made the time fly by. except i was suuuuuuuuuper hungry. i remember training for the marathon and having to do the 18-miler on a treadmill too cuz it was also raining. wow i'm still shocked at that one. i wonder if i still have it in me to be that disciplined? ehhh but too much strain on my knees. finally realizing it's not worth it to sustain long term injuries. hehe, so i'll just stick with the half. debating about the pv half in may. just gotta keep myself disciplined. y'know, need to fit into my dress and all=P.

yay i hope this rain puts up a big dump of snow up at tahoe. woohoo only 2 more weeks to go. hopefully it's not blizzard weather like it was 2 years ago. that was scary. don't think i've ever been that scared going on the lift. it was all windy and the lifts were freaking swaying like crazy. i thought we were going to flip over or something. and you could barely see going down the mountain bc it was snowing all over the place. note to self: need to get new goggles!!!

don't you just hate when you've been eyeing a pair of boots/shoes for awhile. and when you finally get your lazy butt out to go and buy them..they don't have your size? bah. it's a sign. no new boots for me=(. but i need to spend my gift caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard!!!! i will search and search til i find my size. i shall not rest. ha, drama.

One of the greatest gifts
That life can give to anyone
Is the very special love that families share...
As years go by,
It's good to know that there will always be
Certain people in our lives who care.
For there are countless things
That only families have in common
And memories that no one else can make...
And these precious ties that bind a family together
Are bonds that time and distance cannot break.
How fortunate we are
When we have relatives to love us,
It makes the world a happy place to be...
Few gifts in life
Will last as long
Or touch the heart as deeply
As the very special gift
Of family.

-Craig S. Tunks

man, so i think with my parents being out of town for the holidays this year it's gotten me really having these family withdrawals. haha silly i guess. i dunno, i just want to be surrounded by all my family since my parents are still in the p.i. didn't think i'd get all sentimental about it all either. maybe i'm just getting emotional bc of pms? hahah.

speaking of emotional, so i was watching clash of the choirs last night. yeah yeah shaddup. i like when they sing all their songs. can't believe team rowland was eliminated first! anyways so yeah, the eliminated teams got to do special performances for the finale. and kelly's team sang one sweet day. geeeeeeeeeeez man, i totally teared up and the tears just flowed. what's going on man? even while watching an episode of what i like about you (haha yeah shaddup again!) on the ride home from the train last night, i got teary eyed too=P. yeah so must be pms'ing. ha, that's it.

so i totally forgot that i can stream kost at work. i usually listen to kroq..sometimes kbig..but today i wanted to hear christmas songs and i didn't have any on my windows media and got all sad. then duh, light bulb clicked that i can stream kost=). yay so get to hear all the songs and get all christmasy spirited.

you know what irks? REALLY poor customer service cashiers! dude at least freaking say hi? is that too hard? i always told myself that if i ever got a rude cashier then i'd initiate the greeting. so cashier chick just grabs my stuff looking down and ringing it all..so i say "hi". and she mumbles hi. then just puts my stuff in a bag and pushes it to me. so i say "thank you" all super loud cuz i got annoyed. maaaaaaaaaaaan..it's the holidays you can't say hi?! haha i must be pms'ing..cuz now that i'm typing i'm feeling dumb for thinking like that..and rationalizing that maybe she was having a bad day and a previous customer gave her a hard time? ahhh..whatevers..just say hi. heehee at least the target cashier was nice after the other store.

oooh we had our white elephant at work yesterday. boo-yah i scored me the new cranium! cranium party anyone?=). the kicker though during the exchange was that someone freaking bought lingerie as one of the presents! not the victoria kind, freaking fredericks! when we first saw the box we were like oh it's not lingerie probably a gift card or something..then my co-worker opened it and out came this see through white teddy with a thong..actually dunno if it counts as a teddy because there was barely any material! haha. so yeah after a bunch of uncomfortable laughter..we're all trying to figure out who brought it cuz the giver of lingerie wouldn't fess up. fbi time..hehe. but yeah we're like..umm did they think this was a gag exchange? cuz the email specifically said no gag gifts. or did they really think that was a good present to give? weird right?

i really want to watch juno and 27 dresses. hmm and enchanted too, only cuz i keep hearing how good it is! hehe all from girls of course=P. all totally opposite movies but still peaks the interest.

can't believe it's almost christmas. we don't get christmas eve off so i'm still debating if i should take it off or not.. guess it just depends on how much food i'll have prepared by sunday? blehh wish they just gave it to us as a holiday too. hehe spoiled=P

Citius, Altius, Fortius [Faster, Higher, Stronger]
-Henri Martin Didon, the Olympic Motto

woohoo rain. does that mean the season is off to a good start? i know last weekend we noticed some snow capped mountains while driving, so let's hope it gets even better for january! sounds like a john, jack, jason day today at work for me. there's just something so soothing about listening to these guys when the weather gets like this. now all i need is a mug of cocoa, my pj's and our quilt. oooh.

man my back is all jacked up! even fifi's too. we can't figure out if it's from the bed or from the train rides to/from work since our seats don't recline. we're either always upright or slouching in our seats trying to sleep. even right now i'm trying to type with good posture but it just feels so uncomfortable for the mid-section of my back. boo. i do notice sometimes though that i'm slouching my shoulders way more then i used to. i remember always sitting up straight and now i'm just a lazy sloucher. need to get rid of that bad habit!

yay friday. can't wait for gladiator action on sunday. i wonder if they're just bringing back the show because of how popular ninja warrior has gotten? i still don't think they can top ninja warrior though. man, we were watching this sorta behind the scenes episode on g4 and they showed this sample course area, at one of the places in tokyo i think? man too bad it wasn't there while we visited. i could see lou, winnie, & ryan going crazy on those obstacles, hehe.

speaking of japan, me & lou were reminded of this seen at the kyoto station while we were walking in union station today:

how freaking awesome is that? their train station was huge! they had like a gazillion steps where all these people sat waiting for the mini christmas show to start:

what reminded us of this was this morning when we were leaving the station they had like this 5-man band playing instrumental christmas songs. and lou was like, it'd be awesome if we had something like kyoto station over here. i wish! so yeah that band was pretty cool too, hehe just no es kyoto.

haha speaking of christmas, we saw santa being escorted by the police last night! okay not in a bad way. we just drove into our neighborhood and saw this police minivan with it's sirens on but saying something about in 5-minutes and playing christmas songs on the loud speaker. we were like, umm are they evacuating us or something? but why would they play christmas songs. so when we leave to go out again we finally understood what they were doing. they were giving santa and his helpers a police escort to our neighborhood. how cute is that? one of the suv's had a trailer hitch pulling the cart for santa and the elves. haha it was sooo funny. okay well at the time it was=P.

woohoo got ate & jason to sign up for the 5k. so cute, weston will be with them too. so hb half, here i come. ahhhhh.

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footsteps on the moon.
-Anonymous

i feel like november always goes by so fast. 3 holidays in one month, ahhh it's fabulous. too much to type so i think it's time for another recap of what's been going on.

-parentals are in the p.i. til january, went home on my birthday to spend the day with them before they left=)
-thanks all for the birthday greets..y'all are awesome peoples=)
-thanks fifi for planning a fun bday w/ everybody. flag football was fun as always.
-it was funny seeing jenn try to grab lou's flag but instead ripped off his shorts pocket. ha!
-woohoo i kicked a 5 yard field goal, haha.
-yo blue team, the game's not over! you can't call "game" during half time just cuz you're winning by ONE touchdown!!!=P
-kudos to je-von and fifi for pulling off the dobash cake surprise, totally thought they took a dump in sync with each other. which i thought was quite odd, but okay i guess cuz they're guys?
-boo to boiling crab for closing early for the holidays!
-we opted for dimsum/chinese food instead. funny seeing everyone's faces everytime the waiters talked to us.
-thanksgiving was weird without the parentals. first year we didn't spend it with them.
-ended up going to 3 thanksgivings. late lunch, early dinner, late dinner, late night hanging out. whoa tiring. but thanks to the fam for welcoming us.
-can we say gluttons?=P
-cabazon wasn't as crazy as we thought it would be. lucky we got to return the rug in time.
-yay finally bought some furnishings for the house..only took a little over a year to complete our dining table! ha.
-yay to ikea's 11.23 sale. woohoo poang.
-boo to shopping and all this budgeting.
-i want a doggy=)
-boo on fuel pumps
-found a new pair of boots i want..hmmm what to do.
-thanks j2 and ivy for hosting thanksgiving
-rock band is sweet.
-haha kenny's funny. "this is not a race..."
-it's raining, does that mean we'll have a good season this time?
-mmm bought some porto's cheese rolls yesterday
-mmm eric bought me an extraordinary dessert..yum.
-i think my love for spicy food has changed my taste buds. watching lou eat his pad see ewe and enjoying it without any hot sauce, i tried to do the same. alas, i HAD to add the chili garlic sauce. it just made it taste that much better! i should cut down.
-need to find a run to get into. still thinking about the hb half. too bad ate can't walk w/ weston.
-finally removed the rest of the boxes in our closet. hard to throw all my old junk out.
-i love japanese stuff. it's so cute!
-december's going to go by just as fast as november
-yay get to put up christmas decorations this weekend
-happy almost your birthday joemama
-aww get to see weston this weekend!
-so hard to set up appointments with everyone having such busy schedules
-by hair's acting funky today.
-i've been treating green tea and tylenol like my own preventative medicine=P
-why go to the gym if you're just going to talk the whole time about how unfit you are, how you don't like working out, how you can't believe people are this serious about working out, how you go on the treadmill at like a 0.5 pace!, how you are twig skinny and keep saying you're not into working out like a gazillion time! c'mon now!
-ahhh i miss that good feeling after a nice run. and like that one song "it's all coming back, all coming back to me now" hahah weirdo i know!
-i miss my office and soon to be heroes. stupid mohinder. stupid maya. stupid peter.
-hunter x hunter anime, where's the other ova's!
-okay too much writing, felt nice though.

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
-Johnny Cash

it's hard to not think you could have done better at something. you can prepare as much as possible, but when the time comes they can still cause you to get nervous and blunder. nothing i can do about it except to learn from it and move on. and yes, try try again. trying to be a grown up is hard. yes i said grown up. with all these new responsibilities comes choices we have to make for our future. never really understood the full concept of it all til last year. how our parents were able to make such good decisions for us scares me in wondering if i'll be able to do as well. oh joy.

you know what sucks? when you have this great idea in your head, down to the very last detail. the planning, the preparation..no problem. now comes the execution, and it ends up being soooo not what you had pictured in your mind. why is that? is it just me? it can get so frustrating at times because i'll try all these different ideas that i've thought about..yet they don't turn out as well as i had imagined. oy ve. and what the heck is oy ve. our hs spanish teacher used to always say that, so it just sorta rubbed off.

my parents are leaving for the p.i. this monday. crazy they'll be gone for like a month and a half! no thanksgiving/christmas/new year's with them. it'll be kinda weird bc i've spent every thanksgiving & christmas and practically every new years's with my parents and all the fam. i guess we'll just have more of an intimate type holiday season this year? should be fun, cuz it'll be weston's first of everything with us too=).

i haven't seen a movie in the longest time. anything good out? hehe i wanna watch that one katherine heigl movie. i think it comes out in january? yeah i'm sure it'll end up being a chick flick, don't think louie will want to watch that one.

mmm i'm starting to really enjoy shabu-shabu! i've only had it a couple of times before. i think when we had it in japan turned my tastebuds back onto it because i used to not be the greatest fan. so now i go if anyone's craving it during lunch at work..and we had a shabu shabu night last friday in irvine. yum-o! i wanna have an at home shabu-shabu night. i wonder if it'll end up more as a hotpot night? gotta learn how to make the dipping sauces.

ooh it's my tita's birthday today. happy birthday tita lily! and happy belated to all you scorpio babies out there. and woohoo to jev-on and millicent! hmm what else...oh another woohoo to erica and her fifi! i swear there's something in the water this year! oh and yay to karen and joes..haha i'm shy=P

thanks again you two for queen latifah's "trav'lin light" jazz concert. she was awesome. and yes, she did sing u-n-i-t-y..hahha soooo funny. well she did it in more of a jazzed up version but still, a pleasan surprise. funny how it was such a different genre of people watching the show. somehow i pictured the crowd to be more "set it off" type peoples, yeah yeah say the comment..go ahead! but it is pretty cool that she has such a wide range of listeners now. aww poetry man's so pretty=). and dude her backup singers can sing! probably better than she can, but then again she's got the funky personality that puts her above.

man this was a wordy one..oh well it was catch up time.