Happy Birthday, Uncle Christopher!

Happy Birthday to our favorite Gay Boyfriend!

It's Christopher's Birthday today! And it's a milestone one, at that!

I'd really like to post my most favorite photo of my bro here, but I think I might get in trouble if I don't ask him for permission first :)
Hint: Halloween 2001

This one will have to do for now :)



Happy Birthday, Bro!

PS: I just realized that I just used 3 nicknames for him in one single post!

PSS: Why "Uncle Christopher"? That's how we refer to him in our house. In our mind, that's what Noe and Marcel would call him. :)

webTrina: At Your Service

Thank you for calling webTrina. How may I help you?


My friend Blane just called me.
He was in South San Francisco, looking for the Costco on South Airport Blvd. He had printed the map and directions before he left his house, but he still couldn't find it.

So, what did he do?

He called webTrina!

Our friendly customer service agents at webTrina were able to help him out! We stayed on the line with him, giving him street-by-street directions, until he reached his final destination. Once he was in the Costco parking lot, he wondered aloud where the tire service center was. We instructed him to continue to the left side of the building.

Thank you for calling webTrina. We look forward to working with you again in the near future.

WGI Live Webcast!

because I'm still such a geek



I will be making my annual trek out to Dayton for WGI again this year, but this is a cool way to watch WGI from home!

WGI Live Webcast.

Gotta love technology :)

update

In other WGI News....

Congratulations to our friend, Michael Gaines! WGI just announced that Mike will be inducted into the WGI Hall of Fame this year!

Double Denial!

D'oh!

Since November, 2005, I've been regularly donating blood at my local blood center. I've been going ever 2-3 months. When the blood center called me last week to schedule an appointment, they told me that this would be a milestone donation: I will have donated my first gallon of blood!

So I went to my scheduled appointment on Friday. For the first time, my iron count was too low (by one point) and I was unable to donate. They told me it was nothing to be concerned about, and that my iron count was perfectly normal, just not high enough to donate. They suggested that I try again this week, so I made another appointment for today, Monday.

Over the weekend, I thought I should prepare my bod better, and tried to eat iron rich foods. Last night, I had half a steak burrito with black beans, and had the other half for lunch today before my appointment.

I felt pretty confident going in today...

..but again, my iron count was too low - 2 points this time.

This is a little frustrating, as I've never not been able to donate before.

I'll make another appointment for next week, and will try again.
Perhaps the 3rd time will be the charm.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the first day of the Year of the Boar! (or Pig, whichever you prefer.)


Gung Hay Fat Choy! We had to have Grandma translate the writing on the cake for us to make sure that the bakery gave us the right one! (we certainly didn't want to have a cake that had "Happy Birthday, Steve!" on it..)

We celebrated with our family early this year. We had our annual Chinese New Year dinner and celebration last Saturday, February 10th at my parent's house. The entire family was there, plus, Dick's sister, Meg, came out from North Carolina to join in the festivities.


Dick and Meg

There was a lot of great food, and great fun, as usual. We had an enormous spread of delicious food, which we all chipped in to help Grandma prepare.


The Chinese New Year Dinner Spread

May you all have a healthy and prosperous Year of the Boar!

The day we walked to the Ocean...

Wow! What a day!

The weather today was spectacular (especially for February) so we decided early on that we should get outside, and do a big city walk.

We walked all the way from our house to the Pacific Ocean! That was a first. It was just over 7 miles.

We walked from our house, over the hill to Buena Vista Park, down Haight Street, and into Golden Gate Park. We walked the entire length of the park - through Sharon Meadows, pass the Tennis Courts, pass the Conservatory of Flowers, along the new De Young Museum and the Japanese Tea Gardens, and around Stow Lake. We grabbed a hot dog at Stow Lake, and watch the pedal boats, ducks and turtles in the lake. Afterwards, we continued west, past the track, the fly fishing pond, the lakes and the bison. We make our way around the Windmill, then crossed the Great Highway 'til we reached the Ocean!

It took us about 3 hours in total, which we were pretty amazed at.

We stopped for a drink at the Beach Chalet, and snacked on some yummy garlic fries :)

Afterwards, we walked along The Great Highway to Judah Street and caught the N Judah MUNI, took it back to Duboce Park, then walked home.

The temps were supposed to reach up to 70 degrees today, which was just amazing. It was a crystal clear day, too. By the time we reached the Ocean, it was about 2:30, and still clear and sunny. As we were taking a break at the Beach Chalet, the fog started to roll in, and the temp dropped a good 10 degrees or so. That was well timed.

It was really a great day - great walk, great weather, and a great park! Plus, it's so fulfilling to say that we walked all the way from our home to the Ocean.

Cheap Date

Last night I had dinner with my great friend of 22 years, Diana.

Diana lives in San Jose, and works in Palo Alto. We try to get together for dinner/catching up at least 2 or 3 times a year. I usually drive down to Palo Alto to meet her after work, and we almost always eat at Chili's. (We used to each at Fresh Choice at the Stanford Mall, but it's been closed.) We go to Chili's because it's cheap, convenient, and more importantly, because they won't mind if we hang out for a few hours. (We warn our server early on that we plan to be there for a while, and we tip big when we leave.)

Neither of us goes to Chili's on a regular basis, and I'm pretty sure we only go with each other. It's like our "thing". It's probably also because that's the type of place that we would go to together when we were teenagers, and old habits are hard to break.

When we first arrived, I told Diana that "Dinner is on me!" because I had a gift card for Chili's (or Macaroni Grill) that I had received as a Christmas present from one of my Uncles.

When our bill came, we were amazed when we saw that it was only around $13.50. (My gift card was for $30) I had ordered Chicken Tacos (with fries and steamed veggies, instead of beans and rice) and a Sprite. Diana had ordered a Chicken Fajita Pita with water. So, yeah, that makes sense, but really.... when's the last time you went out for dinner for two for less than $15.00? What a deal!

Afterwards, we walked around downtown Menlo Park for a while. We stopped for dessert at Baskin Robbins, where I had my favorite sundae: Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with marshmallow topping! Mmmmmmm.......

I think we got out of the whole evening for around $25 - including a hefty tip!

Who says you have to spend a lot of money to have a fun evening out with a friend?

If Dick were a character in a video game...

...this is what he would look like



The game is called Half Life 2.

The character who looks like Dick looks like is one of the main characters, whose name is Gordan Freeman.

Let's compare, shall we?


I can hardly tell them apart! (Plus, Dick recently grew in his goatee again, but he didn't have it in this photo.)

It's possible that we may have just found next year's Halloween Costume!

It's a Jammie Kind of Day

Wow. Check the time: 6:38pm.

I'm still in my jammies! Oops! How did that happen?

Dick had to fly to Seattle this morning, so we woke up early (6:15am). After he left, I ate breakfast, then started my work.

I had several projects to work on today. I did work for 4 different clients.

I had all intentions of working out today, but somehow the time slipped by, and I didn't get around to it.

Luckily, I'm having dinner with Philip (in 45 minutes) so that will be my cue to take a shower and put on some regular clothes!

Dick doesn't come home until later tonight.

He doesn't have to know about my all-jammies-all-the-time day.
I won't tell him, if you won't!

PS: I LOVE my Karen Neuberger jammies :)

The Queen Mary 2

While most people in the country were watching the Super Bowl, we joined several thousands of people who watched the Queen Mary 2 sail under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the San Francisco Bay.

It was a really neat event to witness. It was supposed to cross under the bridge at 3:00, but was about an hour late. We drove to the Presidio with Pete and Richard, and enjoyed the weather and company as we waited for the big ship to come into view.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect - especially considering that it's February. Clear skies all around.

We thought that it must be a pretty amazing site for the passengers of the ship - to pass underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, then sail into the Bay with Alcatraz on one side, and the San Francisco cityscape on the other.

According to reports the ship only had a 30 foot clearance between the ships tallest point, and the bottom of the bridge. Obviously, they had to time everything just right. The Queen Mary 2 is the largest ship to ever sail into the bay.

It was a really great way to spend the day.

Game Night!

It's game night here at His 'n Her Condos.

That's right, first javascript lessons, Yahtzee, then Scrabble.
It just doesn't get more exciting than that on a Saturday night!

The Scrabble game ended up being one of my best ever.

In the end, it came down to the last play. Dick's turn was first. He was able to play his last three letters, enabling him to take my last three letters (only 3 points). He also managed to get a triple word score on a 3 point word (ion).

He won by a mere 7 points!

Ouch, that hurts.

But, I was still really proud with how I played and with some of the words I came up with.

Notable mention goes to: "evoked" paired with "ware". Also, "guava" worked really well for me when I had a bunch of vowels.

My head is full....

Dick has been teaching me javascript. We've only been doing this for an hour, (and we've made good progress) but my head is tired now.

Time for dinner.

Oh, Gavin.... I'm so disappointed.

Dear Mayor Newsom,

I had such high hopes. I'm not particularly politically-minded, but frankly, you had me. You, with your youth, your charm, your charisma, your hair. You had me at Care, Not Cash (Prop N). When you stepped into office 3 years ago, and your first (very bold) move was to (attempt to) legalize same-sex marriage... well, that was the clincher. You were my political hero. I had visions of you as a two-term mayor here in our great city. I had visions of you going all the way to the White House someday. You were the John F. Kennedy of our generation.

I know you're human. We all make mistakes. We all do things we regret.

So, you like to date models. Young models. Okay, I get it. I don't particularly love it, but I didn't really hold it against you. I even looked the other way when the report came out that you were dating a 20-year old model/hostess. I rolled my eyes. I called you a man. I thought you should have better judgment. But, I realized this was a personal issue. I could separate this from your political life. This was not something that should affect how your ran your office.

But then I read about the affair. Now, I'm not here to judge you on a personal level; A lot of people (unfortunately) have affairs. I don't like it, I think it's reckless, and ordinarily, I'd still try to separate what you do in your private life from what you do in your public life.

But you.... You had an affair with your campaign manager's wife!? Oh, Gavin. I mean, that's like sleeping with your best friend's wife. How did you think that this wouldn't get out? That it wouldn't hurt and deeply affect everyone involved? In a word, that was just stupid. I can't make an excuse for this one.

I do believe that what you do in your private life is your private life, as long as it doesn't affect your very public job. This time, you crossed a line. You had extraordinary bad judgment. You were just stupid. It makes me wonder whether or not you're really mature and smart enough to really do your job.

And, come on... it's an election year. This is going to hurt.

I verbalized my rant to my husband last night. He asked me if you had lost my vote. I don't honestly know. I'd like to say no - I'd still vote for you. But, you have lost some of your credibility with me. This is going to be a tough one to get over.

My husband said that I was thinking "like a girl". (personal disappointment, questioning your judgment, etc.,)

He said that as a guy, there really is just one response: (One, that apparently, he had, as well as many other guys who had discussed this with him.)

She isn't even hot.

Spoken just like a man.