good old san diego...after a stressful hour or so at the oakland airport this morning thinking that i would miss my flight (who knew so many people flew the day after xmas?), i arrived at the san diego airport greeted by warmth and sunshine. ive forgotten how perfect the weather is down here. wearing only a tanktop and light sweater, i was sweating within the first five minutes and swearing up and down that i didn't have the foresight to bring my sunglasses. ive been away for too long.

its been at least six months since ive been back and my first day here went by pretty quickly. my mom came to pick me up and right away i got my first san diego craving out of the way...dumpling inn. kung pao chicken anyone? i somehow managed to run over some shopping carts in the parking lot along the way but why get wrapped up in unnecessary details.

then it was off grocery shopping where we ran into des's mom, not even a minute after i had just texted des i swear to you not but here in san diego, anytime you're in the convoy area, you're bound to run into someone at some point. once that was checked off the list, james came over to eat dinner with my mom and i where we or i should really say she discussed relationships, dating and marriage for a couple hours or so but its the same message ive been getting without fail since i was 26 so i will spare you the details.

once my mom retired for the night, james and i went off to tea station where we ran into some people from church whom i pretty much couldn't remember at all but seemed to remember who jon and i were pretty well but i just chalk it up to those holes in my brain. a pretty perfect night in san diego if i could ever have one...but however, there is one big difference on this visit.

the fact that no one is here this time around. usually a san diego trip meant big gatherings at hong's for poker night or eating at claim jumper's together but on this trip it seems the only ones who will even be in town are myself, james and des. ameer and hong are off in la working. jon is also working up north and for the first time isn't home for the holidays, a big role reversal for us there. jimmy is on vacation. grace and nancy are at home playing wifey (literally and figuratively) and well thats pretty much my safe haven of san diego folks right there. i guess its up to james, des and i to get the most fill of carne asada burritos that we can. but san diego does feel a bit different without pulling up to hong's house and seeing everyone's cars outside, so much so that ill be hauling my ass up to la just to meet up for dinner.

thank goodness for james and des...seriously without them i would probably be here doing something horrendous, like actually get some studying done for the exam.

its funny how the more i pay in rent the harder my laundry situation seems to get. when i was living in san jose, laundry was never a big concern of mine as i always had a washer/dryer in the unit. the worst it got was when i had to share with four other girls in the same house but even then it wasn't too much trouble. but now here i am, paying almost double the rent i used to pay with no washer and dryer anywhere to be seen and now its routine to schedule my weekends around laundry day. when i first moved up to san francisco, the laundry room was located in my building down the hall which wasn't too bad but it was my first time having to use a laundry card and i think the first time i washed a load, i ended up washing six articles of clothing only to be laughed at by my roomate at the time. but i learned and got used to it and learned to fill the washer up to the brim to get the max out of your money. then one year later, i moved out into another apartment with another roomate where there was only one laundry and one dryer machine for the entire building. so instead of doing one load at a time, i learned to do laundry at a "laundromat". yes i am a surburbian girl at heart and laundromats in my world just did not exist.

so every couple weeks i would pack up all my clothes, lug it down to my car, drive to the laundromat with my ziplog bag full of quarters and sit around for a couple hours reading a magazine while waiting for my laundry to be completed. the first couple times was pretty fun but as the novelty wore off, it just got tiring. i could count on a good three hours of my day wasted where i couldn't do anything else but laundry. not only did i have to wash my clothes, i also had to fold it right then and there so i could lug it back to my apartment to be put away in their proper place and then i would just have to repeat the cycle again in a few weeks.

so i did that for a year and moved again. see a trend here? now i am living in a one bedroom by myself with the highest rent ive ever paid in my life and i thought all my laundry woes were gone forever for i had moved conveniently into a building right next to the laundromat i frequented. this was great i thought, the laundromat is right next door, i can just run up and watch tv while waiting and even have the luxury of folding the clothes in my own place...it will be almost as good as having it in my building. but what happens within the first week i move in. i receive a permit notice that the laundromat next door is to be torn down within two weeks and to be replaced by god knows what and torn down they did. all that is sitting there now is a big pile of dirt and construction trucks.

and now herein lies my problem. this was one of the only laundromats near me with parking and parking at a laundromat is crucial. so what ive been doing recently is packing up all my things and driving myself down to the safe haven of fremont where my brother lives to take advantage of his in unit washer and dryer. good old suburbs. although it does seem to be pretty silly to drive forty minutes down just for laundry but ive managed to get in a couple good games of clue or monopoly and my boba fix out of the way.

but these days im just tempted to bring it to a wash and fold place and have it done for me. and it may just be me gaining weight but i swear that ever since ive been doing laundry at jon's place my jeans have been coming back tighter and tighter...its got to be the dryer right? ahem.

i took two new classes at 24 fitness today. a strip tease and a salsa class. i wasn't quite sure what to expect as i had heard that it was best to wear an additional three layers of clothing and i had gone unprepared in only a tanktop but my fear subsided when i saw that everyone else in class had only one layer on and that there were several older ladies in the room. ive got to be able to strip better than a mom right? that question i can't answer because i was too damn busy the whole time watching the instructor that i have no idea what i looked like. it wasn't pretty im sure.

now for those that know me know that i don't have a sexy bone in my body or any rhythmn that seems to make any sense for real dancers out there but boy was the class fun. what i hate the most though are those show offs who have gone to every class and know all the moves and insists on standing right up front next to the instructor with arms flailing and hips grooving. being the hypocrite that i am, im sure i would be doing the same thing if i had the moves but for some reason my hips just wouldn't move in the same way.

you wouldn't think it but i got a really good workout out of all of this. its amazing how much sweat one can work up in salsa class and my abs even hurt a bit as i sit here typing this. but im really just not cut out to do dancing of any sort, my arms seem to want to go one way while my legs the opposite. who knows, maybe after a couple more classes, ill at least learn how to work my hips a little more.

if you're lucky ill show you some of the moves i learned today next time we're out but then of course i showed off some of the moves i learned in hip hop class a while back only to be laughed at (loudly i might add) and i hadn't even finished my entire eight count yet.

ive been following the kim family story this entire week now and sadly, the worst has happened. i can't even imagine what the family must be going through...its really just so sad. next time you're off on a trip anywhere, be sure to let someone know where you are and when you plan on coming back...it took someone four days from the day they were trapped to file a missing person's report and even then, the person filing it thought she was maybe overreacting and the family was just taking an extended vacation. so really...make sure someone knows where you are at all times!

its been a while since ive posted anything of substance on this site which is duly noted as my viewership has dropped to an all time low of six hits a day compared with my at one time high of twelve or thirteen. how the mighty have fallen but really i don't have a good reason for why ive been away. there's been a couple of times when the blogging bug would come to me but by the time i was able to sit my ass down in front of my laptop, all thoughts just seemed to go away. a problem lots of bloggers have except for maybe my brother as he is the only one i know who posts religiously.

but back i am and hopefully to stay this time but no promises. what spurred me to blog you might ask? two things. i was so damn giddy at the news that britney has filed for divorce that i felt compelled to share the news and my thoughts but now that its been a week's time, the moment has passed me by but this is probably the most exciting celebrity news ive read in a long while. while it was never a question that they would get divorced, it did come as a shock to me it happened so quickly at just two years of marriage but what's even more great is that she looks damn good serving those papers. anyone see her on letterman recently? oh how i love a good comeback. let the transformation begin! or so i hope...i have heard rumors this is all a publicity stunt and they really aren't getting a divorce but i musn't let those rumors quell my enthusiasm until i hear othrewise.

the second. my ten year high school reunion was two weekends ago. an event i obviously didn't go to but not because of lack of trying. i did my best to muster up some enthusiasm to get my twin to go with me as there was no way in hell i was going alone but alas he had to work which is probably just as well because from what i heard from my one friend that i still keep in touch with, it wasn't all that great. the same old cliques hanging out and a whopping turnout of 20 people. im not sure what the turnout is for other reunions but considering we had a class of 70 or so people, it's not too bad i guess. another 280 bucks i saved on a plane ticket.

but it did get me thinking. i would think or hope that ive changed a lot from high school, i consider myself to be more outgoing, a bit more confident (yes if you can believe it) and in general just more fun to hang out with. back in high school i was not in the geek group (no hiding out in classrooms playing dungeons & dragons...ahem) but i wasn't quite in the popular group either. back then i had my first boyfriend whom i religiously followed around everywhere with and looking back on it now, i was such a stupid fool and brainwashed. brainwashed into convincing myself that yes it was ok to jump out of my two story bedroom window in the middle of the night and run away for a couple days and that yes it was ok to follow the boyfriend to college and if i hadn't ended up enjoying my college years so much and have things work out in the end, i probably wouldn't be quite as happy reflecting on those times now.

but moving on. what i learned from my one source at the reunion was that everyone was pretty much damn near married, engaged or pregnant. i suppose this isn't surprising as i am in my "late" twenties now but it still comes as a shock to me. yes its the natural progression after being out of college a couple years but while some others around me have moved on, i remain rooted deep in the living in a hugely expensive apartment in the city with no intent of getting married anytime soon. i do have to say though that one of the main advantages to getting married is the huge amount of money one could potentially save in living together and then the prospect of finally getting my mini bulldog. ive been watching rob and big on mtv lately and it has renewed my desire to own a bulldog.

but things for me in the days since high school or even college have not changed much since and im not quite sure whether this is a good or a bad thing. im still studying for the goddamn cpa exam which will only haunt me hopefully for one more year but as a friend recently exclaimed, it seems that you're always studying for the cpa exam! why yes that's because i am as i seem to have problems sitting down for a good couple of hours and doing problems. woe is me - how i wish i just got it over with right after college and now here i am, six years out and back to square one again.

im still living in apartments paying exorbitant rent. i have made a slight upgrade in this area as i now live on my own. something ive never experienced except for one semester in college and while i was worried i would hate it, ive come to rather enjoy being able to do whatever i want, have friends spend the night without having to clear it with anyone and getting the entire refrigerator to myself. it has made me a bit more of a clean freak but some extra windex and swiffer never hurt anybody.

i still don't know how to cook jack shit although i have attempted to make a couple of my mom's dishes in the past couple of weeks and not one of them has yet to turn out the way i remembered. ive even attempted a couple recipes from my chinese cookbook and even those haven't turned out like the pictures. im still eating my lean cuisines on some nights and ling ling's and my new favorite snack these days is roasted garlic triscuits topped off with some american cheese. don't knock it until you've tried it.

any fresh vegetables i buy still without a doubt will whither and die before ive had a chance to use it all. im still not quite sure how to cut cauliflower as i cut myself the last time i tried. i do however have all my own utensils complete with a set of knives, two cutting boards and a brown sugar container. its the little things that matter the most.

i finally put up some pictures of my family and friends this weekend which surprisingly has made a big difference in my happiness. im not sure why but just having one or two pictures up on the walls of those that care about you can make your day so much brighter. why it took me six years to do this i have no idea...i blame it on ofoto and the fact that actual printed pictures have gone the wayside for years.

i still like to frequent clubs or lounges whenever i can although these days you're probably more likely to catch me at a movie theatre (be sure to watch borat...its pretty damn funny) or when time permits, at my brother's playing a game of clue or monopoly. who said board games weren't making a comeback? its hard to wrap my head around the fact that in two years, less than two years actually i will be thirty years old and isn't it amazing where the time has gone. i still have the mentality of a college student except i get up, go to my salary paying job and at night im back to studying for the cpa and forging around in the fridge to see what i can possibility eat for dinner and i wouldn't trade it for a thing...for now anyways. come back to me in a couple years and i may be singing a different tune.

but for now i will carry on my merry little way and hopefully wake up one day with a better clarity of where im going in life or if not that, at least the ability to cut my own cauliflower without slicing my finger open.

my brother is now famous! see the pictures and the video here. well it's audioless for now but you can watch his hand motions. maybe ill become the black sheep of the family now. ha.

while i do consider myself to watch more tv than the average person, there's only been a couple shows in the past that ive followed religiously. commander in chief was one i loved before it got cancelled. grey's anatomy but the new season doesn't start for another month. most recently it was top chef and now it's so you think you can dance. im addicted and i only have megan to blame.

it all started when i was down in la a month ago and got invited to megan's new pad to watch this "show" that she was obsessed about. seeing how i had nothing to do and it was literally meggo's second or third day moving cross country, why wouldn't i agree to go? and from that moment on i have been hooked. ive watched it religiously every wednesday and thursday and if something else comes up, i make sure it's being recorded on jon g's dvr.

next week is the finale and im secretly hoping travis takes it all. but what's more exciting is that for the first time ever, there's going to be a so you think you can dance tour coming to a city near me. tickets go on sale this weekend and jon g doesn't know it yet but he's going. he has to mainly because everyone else ive asked has rejected me outright. my own brother included.

one of my co-workers loves the show too and for the past two weeks, we've been going to hip hop class together of which i suck at of course but it's a good workout and it doesn't hurt that the instructor is cute as hell too. now i know im a bad dancer when the only times ive been told that i dance well is from white people. no offense to the white people reading this but it's true...they've got no rhythmn which is me apparently trapped in an asian girl's body. but that doesn't mean i can't love these type of shows (dancing with the stars is NOT one of them though) and while i am speeding along to the ripe old age of 30 in a couple years, im still a teeny bopper at heart.

a notion further solidifed by the fact that i was carded while ordering a glass of wine during dinner tonight and the waiter commenting that i looked very young. i could only smile and secretly relish in the fact that im asian and all asians look half their age.

my brother is a bonafide author...sort of.

im back and i have no desire to return for a long long time. to taiwan that is. ive always had a love/hate relationship with taiwan with the high being love boat obviously which will always count as perhaps my best summer ever and since then in 1997, ive only gone back twice. once three or four years ago with enid and carolyn along with jon and victor and the second being this past week. the two big differences between the two was that the first time i stayed at enid's house, someone who actually knew her way around and could take me places and liked the same things i did and also that i visited during the wintertime. i never really understood why jon and victor were so bored the last time they went back that they spent their hours wasting away at an internet cafe chatting on aim of all things but now i get it.

the reason for my return this past week was i was a bridesmaid for my best friend's wedding and while the wedding itself went off without a hitch and i fit into my bridesmaid dress (my biggest worry at the time) the trip overall didn't leave a very positive lasting impression of taiwan in my mind. at all. and here are a few of the reasons why.

1) it was just too damn hot. and humid. coupled with the fact that my grandpa isn't a fan of the cold so the a/c was hardly ever turned on and that there was no a/c in my room which made sleeping at night practically unbearable and doing anything during the day pretty much worthless, leading to some pretty boring days. so much so that i finished the historian, a 650 page book while i was there. a really good book for those looking for something to read.

2) the fact that each time i saw another set of relatives i was told matter of factly that i had gotten fat and was very tall. which is to be expected i suppose as i was told the same thing the last time i visited but it still was able to make me feel like a wide tall freak of nature walking the streets of taipei. and one wonders why girls these days have image issues.

3) for some reason, the instant i hang out with my relatives, i revert back to being a ten year old. someone who tags along to whatever is decided and unable to voice my opinions in my horrible chinese. another sad fact that my eleven years of chinese school has not been good to me in the past couple of years of not practicing. i honestly had a hard time trying to get my thoughts out and apparently i seemed young and clueless enough that my aunt had to proclaim to me that if i felt the need to use the bathroom while riding the bus on my own from taichung, there was one available in the back.

4) the two things i look forward to the most while visiting is the food and night market shopping, both of which i didn't get a chance to do much of. oh don't get me wrong i ate like a whale out there (how could i not when i was fed five times a day, my relatives certainly weren't helping me in my "fat" phase) but i ate mostly at home. i ate nothing at the night markets the two nights i went and as for shopping, wll let's just say, next time i know to go by myself and not with relatives. i went with one suitcase and left with one suitcase which was pretty disappointing, i usually come back with at least one of just of stuff ive bought over there.

5) im not sure why ive never noticed this before but there's at least two salesperson for each customer anytime you go into a store. even at the duty free shops in the airport they were following me around like a lap dog and even when i said in my most polite chinese that no im just looking they still kept tagging along. it really is quite annoying...

this isn't to say that there weren't some positives to my trip. i was quite impressed with the subway system there, i could figure it out pretty easily and it was clean and organized much to my surprise. i did get to see grace married off and even had time to club together one night...ahh the good old days of love boat. i learned my tolerance level in drinking was quite high there but i guess when you're comparing to waifish 100 pound girls, it's not that easy to beat.

and now here i sit at jimmy's luxury apartment with the free a/c blogging away at three thirty in the morning not tired at all as i didn't wake up until 2pm today. jet lag is a bitch isn't it. but ive never been so happy as the moment i stepped out of lax to be back. my bug bites have already gone down considerably and i haven't felt the need to take two showers a day. california...it really is the best place on earth to live.

i was introduced to the world of jollibee this weekend (to be pronounced jolly-bee not jolie-bee as i initially thought) and apparently it's all the rage in the philippines. ive never even heard of it before and had no idea this existed here in the bay area but it really is like entering a whole new world.

saturday when jon g had a craving for fried chicken my first response was oh kfc is right down the street but little did i know that it was jollibee he was craving. he assured me it was the greatest thing on earth, i mean it's got to be right if we're driving thirty minutes out of the city for some fried chicken so i go only to be in a state of bewilderment for the next hour.

first off - it really is a fast food place. think in n out but with a picture of a squirrel (i think it's a squirrel) greeting you as you enter and the entire place was filled with filipinos. i really had no idea. and it just so happened that while we were there, half the place was closed off for a kid's birthday party complete with loud filipino music blaring out of a radio.

the menu consisted of literally just spaghetti and fried chicken. there's this red pork dish with egg that i like a lot but surprisingly enough they only served it during breakfast hours. breakfast hours! i was like who eats this in the morning but then again what do i know? and i got pretty excited because there was this boba drink on the menu but the only two flavors were taro and coconut which aren't my favorites but i had to try. so we order what else, the spaghetti and fried chicken along with my boba drink and this would be my first foray into filipino spaghetti.

i never even knew there was such a thing as filipino spaghetti but it's really good. it's sweeter and has bits of hot dogs in it and the fried chicken was nice and crisp too - i won't dare to compare to kfc here and the best part was it came with gravy and a little white container which i naturally assumed would be mashed potatoes but it was rice. oh my goodness - rice at a fast food restaurant? maybe this is the greatest place on earth.

but i spend the next thirty minutes while eating trying to figure this all out. apparently there's three of these jollibee's here and how is it that i never knew this existed? it's "comforting" and "reminds him of home" as jon g told me and i wonder - is this his 99 ranch for me? have i found the filipino equivalent? i left the place with a confused look on my face and almost felt as if i should of walked out with a balloon in hand as i felt like i had just visited an amusement park or something.

i guess you do learn something new everyday.

fantasy leagues. most if not all of my guy friends belong to a fantasy sports team of some kind. usually basketball or football but recently ive even heard of golf and nascar getting entered into the mix. seriously folks, nascar and golf? how do you even play fantasy for those type of sports? i never really got it. i even had a friend who was in six or seven different teams at one time and whenever the conversation would turn to fantasy sports, i automatically tuned out but not anymore because i am a proud owner of my own fantasy team! of celebrities that is and it's the greatest thing ever. who knew my us weekly subscription would turn out to be this much more entertaining. and it's all in thanks to my twin.

apparently some writer on espn.com initially wrote an article on creating a celebrity fantasy league and my twin being curious like me was eager to try so he formed one and surprisingly ten of our friends joined. ten! the way it works is that each team has to consist of 3 boys and 3 girls and you get points for how many times their picture appears in us weekly. more points for being on the cover obviously and negative points for appearing in they do it too or the bad fashion police section.

with 60 celebrities to choose from and drafting performed via email, it seemed to move at a snail's pace but then after the second round or so, things started rolling a bit faster and boy was the drafting process stressful. i came up with my very own draft list of all the celebrities i would possibly take and one by one, i slowly had to cross them off the list. i even got my co workers and friend (singular) into it and the friend even went so far as to call some of his (yes male that's correct) friends for suggestions. it was great though...every couple minutes at work i was refreshing my email to see if a new person was drafted and at some points, when people were taking too long we even had to follow up via text to figure out where they were. watching da vince code? that's no excuse for holding up the draft.

but now the draft is all completed, everyone's rosters have been set and one of the guys playing even made up a nifty spreadsheet calculating everyone's scores with a separate tab assigned to each player. this is our first week and lo and behold, damn angelina and brad had to have their baby and their pictures are plastered everywhere in the magazine. needless to say i didn't have a very hot week but no worries, ill catch up. i mean im the biggest celebrity guru i know!

we start add/drop and trades this week too which is a completely foreign concept to me but im hoping if i get my perfect team i won't have to worry about doing any of that...it's way too much work.

our first week scores should be coming out in a day or so so wish me luck in my first foray into fantasy leagues and keep up to date on our own celebrity blog too. don't feel guilty - you know you want to and please no comments or hints here on who to take as we are only in week 1 of this and i wouldn't want to give away any secrets. please email me if you have any good suggestions. ha that's not cheating is it?

im putting a boycott on nice restaurants for a little while. for how long i haven't decided yet but ive come to the conclusion that it's just not worth it. and by nice restaurants i mean where the total for one person is $75 or more. ive been eating at really nice places a lot lately and each time, it's rare that ive walked out thinking wow that meal was so worth $150. because most of the time it isn't. i can usually get the same amount of satisfaction if not more at a grubby little place in chinatown or a thai place around town. i mean for what ive spent on one meal, i can eat at chinatown for the entire month and it would be just fine.

the fun of going to nice restaurants is that they're usually well known and reviewed online so it's always fun to try it for yourself after reading the review and then compare. plus the decor and space itself is pretty spiffy and cool looking and sometimes the plating is interesting to see too (a term im now using after watching top chef). but i mean for that, i can just go get a drink at the bar or something and sneak a peak at the plates coming out of the kitchen to see what they look like.

so in turn this has led to my conclusion that i need to ban nice restaurants because no matter how much i look forward to it, i usually end up disappointed at the end of the night and a little poorer too. from now on, i will concentrate on finding new cheap to medium priced places around the city to eat at.

on other culinary news if you can call it that, what im most excited about is that harold's sandwich is going to be on the menu of the new wichcraft that is opening up at the new center down the street from my work. this is big news! harold if you recall was one of my favorites on top chef and is now who im rooting for in next week's finale.

and on top of that, ill be hosting my own little dinner party in the next couple of weeks where i will be in charge of cooking (with much help of course) and as i just received my first shipment from the wine club i joined a couple weeks ago, it should be fun. yes im turning more and more yuppy as the days go on but i do live in white yuppyville here so they must be rubbing off on me.

usually on a saturday night one can find me out at a bar somewhere drinking and dancing it up or at the occasional movie theatre but this past saturday i went to church. yup we drove a full hour down south to go watch martin perform with his church dance group, something that ive been wanting to do for a while now but last time we planned on going, i woke up too drunk and hungover to attend much of anything. but we made it this time and well...it was definitely interesting.

now im not a very religious person at all but i have been to my fair share of fellowships and church retreats and i always leave feeling a little touched (especially if there's lots of singing, something about the music can usually conjure up a tear or two in me) but at the same time, completely baffled because i just don't get it. jon once asked the question on his blog, how can someone NOT be interested or curious about religion when it affects so many people? but honestly im not. call it ignorance or what you will but ive never really thought too much about it except that i don't understand it. i don't have too many close friends that are religious and for those that are, we've never really discussed their beliefs before but it does boggle my mind. how is it that so many people can believe in something so strongly and yet there's no evidence that it even exists? i remember once in high school one of my friends who's now a pastor told me how he had to make a top ten list of people he wanted to "save" and i was number one on his list. i didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing as did he mean i was so lost that i needed saving? or that he considered me such a good friend that he wanted to make sure i was ok? i still don't know to this day.

but i honestly didn't mind going to church at all on saturday. it was a different way of spending my weekend and it was eye opening. apparently the church we went to was one where everyone prays out loud which ive never been to before and wasn't sure if i liked it that much. the noise level kept getting louder and louder and everyone towards the end was in a near frenzy and there was this mom sitting right next to us bawling her eyes out one minute and crying out to the lord and then the next minute she was perfectly fine. all this while i stood uncomfortably with my hands clasped in front of me making sure i was looking at the ground at all times. not to over generalize but i usually find that people turn to church when something tragic happens or when they've reached the next step in life and has that feeling of now what and don't know what to do with themselves which is probably why im skeptical but i don't want to get into it too much here as i still haven't completely wrapped my brain around it.

what's important here is that i finally got to watch martin dance and i didn't burst into flames the moment i walked into church. now that's what i call a good weekend well spent.

my new favorite reality show that ive been addicted to the past couple weeks is top chef on bravo. i accidentally stumbled across it when i was home sick from work one day and was channel surfing and now ive watched every episode that ive missed, more than once some of them, ive read all the bios of all the contestants as well as the judges and even read the weekly judge's blog. yes the show really is that good...there's still a couple episodes left this season so i suggest everyone to jump on the bandwagon now.

a couple reasons why this show is so great. one is that it's based in san francisco so it's kind of cool to see spots that you go to on tv while you're trying to figure out which grocery store they're shopping at or what neighborhood they're driving in...stupid stuff like that. i know for a fact that the house they stayed in was somewhere in my neighborhood but i still haven't been able to figure out where it is just yet. why i care i don't even know since obviously they're not there anymore but i just want to see it. but the main reason why i like this show so much is because every episode, a guest judge participates and it's always a chef at one of the sf restaurants and ever since ive moved up here, one of my things is trying out new restaurants and reading online reviews so it's neat to see which restaurants are featured. so far, they've had chefs from le colonial, aqua, citizen cake and fleur de lys. i get this little sense of excitement anytime they mention a restaurant ive heard of or eaten at...for example, this past week's episode, their cooking challenge took place at frisson and it was one of the places ive eaten at and i got so excited i had to call up some people. stupid i know but i can't help it.

secondly this is a show about cooking with no added gimmicks or crap mixed into it. what matters here is the food. ive seen a couple episodes of the reality network star show on food network and on that show, it's not so much about the cooking but rather about how you perform in front of the camera. and the fact that america gets to decide on the winner is stupid too. for all we know their food could taste like crap. and ive seen the previews for cooking with celebrities or whatever it's called and that's bull too. basically it's just going to be the chefs doing all of the cooking while the celebrity cuts up an onion or something. but none of this ho hum stuff on top chef. here it's all about the cooking and having watched it, it's given me that much more respect for chefs. and the judges are all from the culinary world and widely respected and decorated or so i read anyways and take cooking very seriously so you know the judging is valid and honest.

third, the cast is awesome. every single one of them have strong personalities but it's not over sensationlized like a real world or big brother. they're all here for one reason and one reason only. and that is to be the top chef. duh right? i mean obviously since that's the title of the show but none of them seem to be there to get their 15 minutes of fame or do outrageous little stunts or say stupid things to get more air time and if they are, well they certainly have got me fooled. ive grown to have tremendous respect for them and my favorites are le anne, harold and tiffani. i can't decide between the three of them who i want to win and it troubles me. usually i have one person im rooting for through and through but now since i like all three of them so much, im bound to be upset even if one of them ends up winning. and while i hope beyond hope that stephen doesn't win it since ive never seen anyone more hung up on himself than he is, his comments have been pretty entertaining thus far so i hope he sticks around for a couple more episodes.

honestly after watching this show it makes wish i had a better palette and was involved in the food industry somehow (and no not as a waitress for you smart asses out there) but for now i guess ill just have to be content to visiting the restaurants and wasting my money that way but now ill enjoy the experience that much more.

if you find yourself bored on a wednesday night at 10pm...turn to bravo and get hooked like me...then we can have intelligent conversations about why dave is such an emotional basketcase and cries at every episode but you still end up loving him.

i never thought id live to see this day but queen is making a comeback ladies and gentlemen. that's right you heard me correctly, queen...of songs like under pressure, we will rock you and we are the champions. whether you like them or not, you have to admit they've got some pretty awesome songs. and of course my all time favorite song ever...bohemian rhaspody. my signature song during karaoke sessions until i was forced to retire it last year so consider yourself lucky if you ever got to hear my rendition because it's never to be sung again.

but tonight was queen night on american idol and while none of the contestants sounded that great, the fact that they would even feature queen was enough in itself. and to top this all off, mr marshman and i just went to the queen concert last week which lived up to all of my expectations and beyond. it was as if the producers just knew that ive been listening to queen nonstop on my ipod since and decided to reward me with tonight's show.

im not even really quite sure when or how i came to love queen so much but they've been one of my favorites for the past couple of years now. it all started with bohemian rhapsody and belting it out alone in my car but then one day, someone showed up with a magic mic and all was lost from that point on. anytime we went karaoking i had to sing it, anytime we had a house gathering i would hope someone would bring the magic mic but then over time, it became too much pressure (under pressure...get it? no? ok never mind then). one reason being because i know i sound pretty horrible but didn't really care too much as it was all in good fun but then when people started requesting it and actually expecting me to be good and put on a show, well it crumbled from that point on so i had to retire it. so now it's back to singing along in the car by myself. that is until i buy myself the magic mic one of these days to sing along to at home. honestly put a magic mic in front of me and i can just sing along for a good two hours by myself.

but if anyone saw the show, dumb kelly pickler sang bohemian rhapsody tonight and was not too bad actually except she looked horrible. did you see those bags under her eyes? what terrible lighting. the only one i thought that was semi decent was katharine mcphee so this only goes to show you just how hard queen songs are to duplicate.

my top five queen songs (i can only speak from their greatest hits album I as that's the only one i have on my itunes right now) but in no particular order:

1) bohemian rhapsody
2) another one bites the dust
3) save me
4) fat bottomed girls
5) killer queen

and of course we are the champions, under pressure and we will rock you but those are no brainers. god how i love queen...

dave chappelle's block party. if you haven't seen it yet and like hip hop you must go. i was told by my twin that this is the must see movie of the year thus far and i had no clue what it was or what the concept behind it was even before i went in but i came out as giddy as a little schoolgirl and even found tears welling up during the fugees performance. fugees people! they haven't performed together in who knows how long.

now i am the first to admit i don't know too much about hip hop. i can barely tell the artists apart, have no clue what any of the songs are about (i had no clue one of the songs i liked dancing to was saying "sweat dripping down my balls" until i saw chris rock live and it was in one of his jokes), and it's only by the grace of my other half that i even know that common, rakim and jurassic five are good. ive been able to fool a couple people every now and then as i have great cd's in my car with all good songs which were bestowed on me by my twin and almost even won an ipod contest in vegas last year as my friends were most impressed with some of the old school songs i possessed. but seriously ask me what any of it meant or who was who i couldn't tell you. im really a kelly clarkson and backstreet fan deep inside.

but despite that fact, i still found myself getting all caught up in the excitement and dave chappelle im convinced is the funniest person alive. his comments are freaking hilarious...it was genius to invite some of his folks from his hometown and watching him give them the special golden tickets.

and the lineup. i don't know much but i know enough to know that this is the ideal concert any hip hop lover would want to see. common, erykah badu, mos def, roots, jill scott, the reunion of the fugees itself is worth watching. i literally teared up watching lauryn hill sing killing me softly. by the way, why didn't anyone ever tell me that mos def is cute? and he's got such cute little outfits too topped off with the perfect hat.

overall a nice uplifting movie that got me thinking that maybe i should try to concentrate a little more on the lyrics from now on but if only it didn't require so much effort on my part. i literally need to stop all that im doing just to catch a few words here and there. but i do remember the last time when i was in san diego and i was watching a jay z dvd and james was teaching me what he was saying and he kept rewinding this one part and repeating the lyrics to me (ive pasted below) and i thought to myself hm...that is pretty clever. maybe these rapper guys really are talented and i should concentrate more on the lyrics and less on the beats. wish me luck now.

"december 4th" off of 'the black album'

At least let me tell you why i'm this way, Hold on
I was conceived by Gloria Carter and Adaness Reeves
Who made love under the sycamore tree
Which makes me
A more sicker emcee than my momma would claim
At 10 pounds when i was born i didn't give her no pain

or if you like james's version better:

i was conceived by peter wang and betty shi,
who made love under a eucalyptus tree,
and then i popped out and said "you can't dis this, see!?
that's why i'm the sickest emcee who speaks chinese

so crash won best picture last night at the oscars. an "upset" it's being called in the papers today but really did anyone think brokeback was going to win? because really...the thing that prevented brokeback from winning best picture was brokeback itself. it was just too damn popular winning all the awards leading up to the oscars. it was the darling of hollywood if you will. nominations for the entire cast pretty much, ang lee, michelle williams, jake gyllenhaal and heathe ledger but when the tide began to turn i believe was when crash won the sag award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. because that was when the whispers started. everyone started predicting that maybe crash was gaining momentum and would win at the oscars and to me, that's pretty much exactly what happened. i feel like the only reason why crash won was because the academy knew everyone was expecting brokeback to win and in an attempt to be different (oscar for it's hard out here for a pimp? ridiculous if you ask me) they decided to give the oscar to crash. which is fine and all because who am i to judge the academy and certainly wouldn't be writing a post on this except for one minor little point. i hated crash. hated it. i mean at least give the oscar to one of the other best picture nominations if you didn't want to give it to brokeback. as i haven't seen any of the other ones i can't say which one but crash? blasphemy.

from the very beginning ive been standing by my opinion that crash is just not that good. not at all by a long shot. does no one else agree with me on this? sure i thought brokeback was overrated as well when i finally watched it but i never got what all the hoopla over crash was all about. no it was not "eye opening" and groundbreaking in dealing with racial lines. what crash is is cliche and too easy. i mean come on, the white cop who's racist against blacks because of his own father? the rich white wife who's discriminate against the help? the director who makes his black actors talk more black? i mean seriously people, these story lines are old. they've all been told before. it's nothing new. at least brokeback had two gay cowboys...at least it's something.

i read this article about grey's anatomy a while back about how diverse the cast is and one of the lines i liked the most was when they were describing the relationship between dr burke and christina. yes it's an inter-racial relationship between two minorities a black and an asian at that but while the relationship has its problems, none of them have to do with their culture or race. in fact, the root of their problems has nothing to do with their race at all but instead imagine this now...focuses on their personalities. what a shocker.

so the academy really did a shit job this year. true i haven't watched most of the movies, constant gradener, walk the line, syriana, good night good luck they are all going on my list but i almost would of just liked it better if they just gave all the oscars to george clooney. he's great and besides his speech and john stewart last night, the oscars were as dull as always.

so im back from my three day cruise to ensenada with grace and patsy. seeing how little girlfriends i actually have this is only the second time in my life ive gone on a girls only trip. the first being with two college friends to cancun mexico and funny enough, just a couple years later, im back in mexico again but this time with my best friend. to celebrate her getting married but really it was more of a treat for me since as a present for being a bridesmaid in her wedding, she paid for my entire weekend. yups you heard me right...don't you wish you had my best friend. she wouldn't even let me help in tipping our room guy, especially since he contributed to one of my highlights, making a pig for us out of towels and with sunglasses to boot.

but this was my first time on a cruise without parents and of the legal drinking age so what did we do? drink of course but not before we slept and ate a ton either. 24 hour pizzerias are the best aren't they. it was pretty much a love boat with white fatter people except this was on an actual ship and i probably had just about the same amount of fun. should i be worried that i have just as much fun clubbing and drinking now at the tender age of 27 as i did back when i was 19? let's hope not. i did go on a wine tour instead of hitting up the local papas & beer if that wasn't proof enough of how ive matured this past decade. riiiiiiiight.

i would highly recommend this trip to everyone who would like to bond with some good friends, drink without having to worry about who is the dd, see what different animals they can make out of towels (for the record, we got a seal, rabbit and pig), meet some cool people and buy some nice gum from the little kids in mexico.

the only downside is my weight watcher diet has completely gone out the window (actually it went out the window two weeks ago) which is why i purposely skipped our meeting today so i wouldn't have to get weighed in. i had already gained last week and the look of disappointment in my instructor's eyes was just too much. i felt like a little kid in kindergarden who had just done something terrible in class. why oh why did i sign up for this thing anyways...but only one more month to go and i have no more free passes to skip the weigh in now. great. go me.

i joined weight watchers at work recently and my first meeting was yesterday. yes that's right, i am in weight watchers and am not ashamed to admit it here on this blog. im not even really quite sure why i joined. all i know is i was talking to one of my co workers about it and how the meetings were and counting points and poof the next thing i knew both me and another co worker had both signed up. this is what ive learned so far in just my two days being on this thing.

for one, it's a twelve week program with a meeting every wednesday during lunch hour at work. a very cheery skinny girl shows up to weigh you while we all line up like cattle with everyone giving the obgliatory atm space so our weight is "confidential". so basically my whole excuse of i have no idea how much i weigh since i never weigh myself is completely thrown out the window now. not only will i know how much i weigh but ill also get a weekly update. can anything be more horrible?

depending on what your starting weight is, you get a set amount of points to eat everyday. seeing how i weigh under 150 pounds yes amazing isn't it im allotted 20 points a day with 35 additional points a week to use however i want. sounds easy enough doesn't it but who has the time to sit down and look through their little book to figure out how many points everything is. but i did it. i sat my ass down yesterday and wrote down everything that i ate and came up with how many points i consumed in a day and i came out to 18. sounds great right?

but you see the thing is yesterday all i ate was a cup of coffee for breakfast, a grilled chicken pita, small cup of minestrone soup, bag of baked lays potato chips, a diet coke (which is zero points mind you) for lunch but as i was so busy at work, i didn't even get to eat my lunch till 3pm and then when i finally got home around 10pm i was too tired to eat dinner so i made do with a small piece of brownie and a string cheese. all of this amounted to 18 points. yups even though i didn't eat breakfast or dinner i only had two more points to spare. no wonder people lose weight on this thing, im going to be starving for the next three months!

the good thing is i haven't quite felt the effects of my hunger yet as i knew id be starting my program on wednesday so i made sure to eat a big ass piece of steak at ruth chris monday night and then gorged myself on chinese food tuesday night. so i think im still coasting on the remnants of that but come one week from now, either ill be one hungry, crabby girl or i would of given up on this plan all together.

the thing is, i feel like i could get addicted to this whole point counting thing. not saying i think ill make it this whole twelve weeks because come on now, we all know i love food too much but much like how im addicted to inputting my expenses every night to my spreadsheet, i could potentially get addicted to this too. i already kind of look forward to seeing how many points everything is and then writing it down in my little book and if anything, this might curb my drinking as one glass of wine is already four points.

im even bringing my starter packet that i received with me on the plane so i can be sure to study up so i don't fall behind since i missed last week's lesson. im not really sure what i want to get out of this as supposedly my target weight loss is 10% of my current weight but honestly i haven't been at that weight since high school so i think that's pretty damn near impossible. if anything maybe ill learn portion control such as today i learned that what i normally would of ate for lunch is close to 15 points, essentially all i can eat in a day. ridiculous isn't it?

as it's only week one i won't think too much into it and besides, i must get off to the airport now as ill be flying to detroit for work for the entire weekend. im sure ill have a pretty hard time sticking to my plan working 16 hour days but pigs can fly can't they?

it arrived last week in the mail and it probably has to be the best piece of mail ive gotten in quite a while. no it's not my us weekly subscription although that warrants almost the same level of excitement but in my manila envelope i knew contained two cd's. and not just any old cd's but one with the aerosmith greatest hits to prep me as ill be going to their concert next month but the second was what i was waiting for.

blender's top 500 songs since you were born. yups. it was all there, the top 500 songs as rated by blender since 1980. whether you agree with the list or not, who the hell cares. what matters is that these songs are now in my possession ready to be downloaded onto my itunes, as soon as i figure out how that is.

but i have the good fortune of being friends with one who actually went out and downloaded all these songs and deemed me worthy enough to receive a copy. i mean sure we talked about it and discussed it and i offered my help in finding some of the songs but then he up and did it without me. how freaking great is that.

i guess it's time to change out songs on my ipod now and ill have you know that britney was in the top 10.