It's been a while.. Happy Summer!

Can you believe it's already midyear?? I feel like I was JUST counting down for 2008. In about 23 days I'll be turning 25 + 4.. Almost the big 3 - 0.. dang! I don't care what it says on my drivers license.. I still feel young at heart and no one can take that away from me.. so there!

The school year is over and I've just been keeping myself busy busy busy.. Went to Seattle/Portland for a week with Bren and just chilled out there.. for once it was nice to not always have to be on the go and feel like I have to sight see since there really isn't a whole lot to do out there. It was a good way to start my summer vacation.. Shopping tax free in Portland is awesome too!!! It's so much easier cuz you dont have to deal with cents.

Pike's Fish Market - where they throw the fish around and stuff..

The First Starbucks ever

The Seattle Space Needle

After a week of fine dining and trying raw oysters for the first time (it was yummmy too.. i don't think i could ever eat cooked ones again), went camping at Pinecrest, CA for a few days. Boy do I miss hanging out there by the lake, attempting to fish and be around FRESH air. We were just not lucky enough to catch a single fish when all these little kids were prancing around with their many fishes in their hands that they claimed to have caught in an hour out by the lake.. Those dang rainbow trout were there cuz we saw them hop outta the water but just didn't wanna bite our bait.. booo! We did some hiking, kayaking, and swimming in the freezing cold lake. It was great times! Weather was great.. not too hot and not too cold (except at night). Pinecrest is an awesome place.. i see why they sell out so quickly! They even have a outdoor movie theater where you could watch a fairly new movie under the stars for just 6 bucks!

I love this shot.. poor Quang.. it's okay.. we'll get 'em next time!

A view of the lake

In a few days I'm off to travel some more.. first to Hong Kong for a few days then to Japan for 2 weeks. I'm excited about coming back to Japan to visit!! I have yet to pack but I have a few more days to do that.. I can't wait to eat REAL ramen at my favorite spot in Harajuku! Oishii! Don't be jealous! I'll be broke though when I come back so feel free to treat me to lunch folks! =)

I hate dealing with incompetent people!

Blogs are supposed to be spaces to vent right? So here I go...

I got this gift card from Dell so I decided that I was going to use it to get a more up to date point-and-shoot camera. When I ordered it, for some reason it showed up as ordering 3 when I swear I only wanted to order 1. Stupid Dell website. Anyway, I saw my balance after I had already clicked to submit order so I called them the next day to see if they could simply change the quantity. How hard is that? First of all, the lady was so hard to understand cuz of her accent.. and the man i talked to 2 days later, the other man 3 days after AND the dude on the phone just now. I swear their customer service line must be linked from another country!! I'm constantly asking, what????? Sometimes, I feel like I'm talking to an automated machine cuz they dont really respond to my question. It's like they're reading something straight from the computer. LISTEN TO MY CONCERN, you @#*&!@!! UGH! So the first lady tells me she can't change the quantity and that she has to just cancel it all together then I have to order it again. She says that it takes 24-48 hours to get credit back to my gift card. So I wait 2 days and still no credit. I call dell again and the guy now tells me 3 days. Fine, 3 days it is. I called back today and now this guy tells me 7-10 days!! BIG DIFFERENCE! The camera was on sale and now it's not sale anymore. By the time I get my credit back to my gift card, they might not have it anymore!!! At this point, I'm starting to get mad so I start complaining about how they all need to get their facts straight!! I told them i was upset that their customer service was giving me inconsistent information and all he could respond with was "i understand your concern mam but your money will be there in 7-10days". Then I repeated what I said and he just started sounding like a broken record. WTF!? Because of their incompetence, I wasted just 5-10 minutes of my life each time I called them AND a migraine. I got so mad I yelled at him and hung up the phone. That will be last time I ever order ANYTHING from Dell. Their customer service is horrible and the people are incompetent!! DON'T ever buy anything from Dell. I'm boycotting Dell.

Here's my Attempt at Making Japanese Food

I've been feenin' for some GOOD japanese food. My friend and I went to this ramen shop in Dublin but it was no good.. Call me a food snob but I've had damn good ramen in Japan. I miss nihon no tabemono (j-food)! At that ramen shop, they had takoyaki (octopus balls) - no not the octopus' actual balls - do they have any?? hmm.. anyways, so I was excited cuz I thought they made it fresh. Nope! It was the frozen kind you can buy at the japanese market. I know cuz i've bought it before. Doh! o_O I miss eating takoyaki - I shoulda brought back my takoyaki maker that I proudly won in my village bowling tournament! =D So what does takoyaki have to do with that picture above? No, thats not takoyaki! Well, in Japan, takoyaki and okonomiyaki (like the one pictured above) is typically sold at stands at festivals kinda like how you get garlic fries at the A's games...haha bad analogy. So I found a recipe for okonomiyaki and made it last night. The first batch was mazui (not good) - too thick then I revamped the recipe and it finally tasted like the real stuff. Yatta! It's even topped with Japanese mayo and sauce.. Ahhhh... brings me back to my days in Nippon... *sigh*

WTF?!?!?!

How often do you get summoned for jury duty??

OMG! I got summoned and was excused last month since I wasn't called in.. and today in the mail I get not ONE but TWO jury duty summons week after week!! THIS IS NUTS!! I thought you're only supposed to get summoned once a year!??!?! Did they change the law or something?!? Errr I'm so furious - they are gonna get a mouthful from me tomorrow... What is going on here?!?!

Let's go Andy.. Let's go!

Dang school blocked blogger.com so I can't blog at work.. at least they didn't block meebo! I had to post up some pictures I took last friday at the SAP Open in SJ of hottie Andy Roddick. I think this is my best shot!

Oh and this is probably even steamier.. woooooohoooooo.. if I could whistle, I would've when I captured this photo with my super zoom lens... oiiiiiishiiiiiiii... =D


Okay ladies, you can stop drooling now.. he has a swimsuit model girlfriend! Booo!

And since Esteban won't approve his comment on myspace, I'll put it up on my blog - oooh the power of the internet. Happy twenty-something birthday Steve! See..everyone loved my eggrolls and sangria! *poppin my collar* I gotta practice making cali rolls though.. Too bad I dont know how to add videos just YET... muahahha **Edit - nevermind I figured it out! muahaha

and this is how it happened::::

PS.. Found out recently that my grandmother in vietnam doesnt have much time to live.. I've only met her twice in my life ... =( Last time I saw her, she cried seeing me but forgot who I was 5 minutes later. o_O

What an Emotional Rollercoaster of a Week!

Where do I even begin.. it's just been a week full of ups and downs... I don't know how I would have made it through without having awesome friends and family. Having had my heart crushed pre-Valentine, I thought Vday would be even worse but I came home from work to a dozen roses, some belgian chocolates and a doggy I named Clifford. What more can a girl want on Vday? Thanks Kim! *muah* While I'm giving thanks, gotta give some folks special shot outs.. Bee.. thanks for listening and being my shoulder.. luv ya! ATran.. I appreciate the thought of you wanting to get me flowers - its okay.. i know you're on a tight budget. Thanks for doing the dinner thing.. had lots of fun even though you made me do all the cooking for 16 folks! Bton.. I dunno if you're gonna read this, but thanks for makin me crepes to make me feel better! They were delish - esp with ice cream!! It was fun rockin' out with Rock Band.


If you watch Iron Chef on food network and you're thinking "damn I wish I could be the judge criticizing good food" thats how I felt friday night! Thanks Bee.. for the first time in my life, I had the chance to experience 5 star cuisine! YUMMMMM-O! You know its 5 star cuisine when all the portions come out the size of your fist. LOL. We got treated to 4 course meal at the 5th Floor Restaurant. A PLUS was the view of a Richard Gere lookalike sitting at a table behind us. I don't care what Steve says, I still think Richard Gere is a HOT for an older guy!!

On Saturday, while lacking sleep and having been majorly annoyed by one of my friends the whole day, my day didnt end up so horribly. I got to play around with my buddy Tony's lens to see which one I might get next. I love the macro lens. Check out the pictures I took. Thanks Alice and Tony for lending me your rings so I can photograph =D.


These were taken with different lens.. These are zoom lens I might consider buying.. dunno yet.


My photography sensei, Chu-san, taught me how to use Photoshop to edit photos! I never realized how awesome Photoshop is if you know how to use it!! I can make anyone look glamorous!! Want bigger boobies? Bigger buttocks? Smaller waist? Got acne - no problem! Blemishes? What blemishes! Eyes too small? I'll make them bigger for ya.. haha I'm loving what I can with Photoshop- thanks Tony!

Last night, a few of us went to Butter Bar for my friend Lisa's birthday party. She had a little private thing upstairs. I was just chillin at the corner when this dude, who u could probably see on Beauty and the Geek (let's just say he's definitely not the beauty), comes up and starts talking to me. I know my friends around me notice it cuz they're laughing while I'm giving them the "HELP ME" look. NOTE TO GUYS: If you're hanging out with ur gal friends at a bar/club and they give you the GET-THIS-LOSER-OUT-OF-MY-SIGHT look, then thats your cue to step up and pull them away.. politely of course.. not sit there and laugh!! What torture! Thanks alot Steve!!! =P If that wasn't weird enuff, I get this text msg at 1am from a 510 number that I didnt recognize saying "hey we'd make some beautiful babies dont you think" I txted him back "who is this" and all he said was "oh just trust me on this one"... I'm not sure if I should be flattered or creeped out.

Today was pretty chill.. I slept in.. felt so good! Doing art is pretty therapeutic.. =) Thank goodness tmw is a holiday! Thank you to our past presidents for this day off. The weather has been so nice.. i think i'm gonna find a spot and read a book. It's going to be a ME day.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Gung Hay Fat Choy! or just Happy Lunar New Year!

Where has the time gone? I can clearly remember dressing up in my ao dai, the traditional vietnamese dress, and going to the temple with my parents just last year. It's really the only time that I can actually wear my ao dai even though I have about a dozen of them. I think they look adorable on little kids even the little boys! Celebrating Tet used to be so much fun when we were younger. It's just not the same anymore when everyone is grown. The best part of Tet is getting crisp bills in red envelopes from all the grown folks. Sometimes you'd get only 2 bucks but hey, it all adds up. I think the most I've ever gotten was between 100-200 bucks. That's a lot for a young gal like me! What do I do with all that cash? My parents arent the kind of parents that had a college fund in a bank somewhere for us. Sometimes they'd take some of that money and tell us they'll "save it for us" but I'd never see it again. Maybe I should bring it up and ask them if I can finally claim my "savings" for all those years???

I remember when we all would take our good luck money and gamble it away in a game of black jack with the family or this dice game with crabs, lobsters, gourds, shrimp, etc. If you're viet, you know what game I'm talking about. If you're the dealer, your chances of winning are pretty high. Yes, we learned pretty early on how to gamble! Maybe that's why some of the top poker champs are vietnamese - watch World Series of Poker. Ahhh.. those were the good ole days!

Another great thing I love about Tet is all the good food we get to enjoy! Not to brag, but I think my mom is a great cook! She spends hours and hours preparing for the 3 day Tet celebration. Here are pics from this past weekend's family gathering at our house... She actually makes most of this stuff by hand and she makes TONS of it! There's so much food that every family always ends up leaving with a doggy bag full of food. I aspire to be as good of a cook as my mommy one day!

May the new year of the Rat bring you all much luck, love, and happiness!!

First Post!

woohoo.. so i made the switch from xanga. i think i'm going to try to put up a photograph a day. Here's my first - this is my almost 4 year old niece Megan. She's a natural in front of the camera. Point a camera at her and she automatically knows how to smile/pose. Maybe you'll see her on America's next top model one day.. haha.


I'm learning more and more about my slr camera and I love what it could do. I have the standard lens and I just bought an external flash which i love using but I think my next investment will be in macro lens. I like taking close up pics so thats what I'll get next. Now I just have to figure out which one is best. Digital photography is such an expensive hobby!! So who wants to be my next model???