Clothes

A friend at work has been designing and selling these T-shirts. They're awesome. This is my favorite one. I've been trying to get him to design some Asian people shirts... who knows. The label is called eleveight. Check out his web site.

Bowling

The other night, we went bowling. Actually, bowling is a regular activity now. Can you believe it? In high school, it was lame. Now, it's fun.

I like this photo because of the look of joy on her face.

These kids watched the bowling ball slooooowly make its way down the lane. The little boy in the yellow gave it the smallest of pushes and the ball moved like an inch a minute. The bowling ball got stuck there at the end and the older brother had to knock it away with another ball.

I like the symmetry and calm feeling of this photo. The bowling alley was packed that night and people waited around for open lanes. We took up three lanes and made people wait. Crazy! I guess everyone is on vacation and the bowling alley is the place to be.

In this photo photo reminds me of a mother who sends her son off to school. Or how Moses' mother sent her son off into the water. I dunno. I just like the photo.

Getting ready to release.

They weren't posing for the photo, but it feels like something out of a television show or something. And, look how multicultural we are! Haha.

Dual

Two emotions. Happy and sad. In motion!

Tree

This Christmas tree was at a local Chinese restaurant. Isn't this the barest tree you've ever seen? I don't think they even tried!

Today

I watched Nogales High School's marching band (also known as the Noble Regiment) practice today. They're going to compete in the Fiesta Bowl National Band Competition this weekend in Phoenix.

I was standing at the top and the back of the bleachers looking straight down at the band as they practiced on the soccer fields. And for the first time in my life, I felt this sudden and inexplicable fear of heights. I was so afraid I would drop my pen, my pad or my camera. Of course, I didn't because I held on them so tightly, but I was also afraid that I'd fall off and die. Whenever I looked down at the pavement, my heart raced and ... wow. I don't think I'd do well on Fear Factor.

You know Christmas is over when the company Christmas tree gets tossed out of the lobby. The first day back at work, the tree and the fake presents are taken to the dumpster. The maintenance guy said the tree was all dried out. Kind of sad isn't it? We lost no time in ending the holiday festivities.

Christmas

Here's Christmas, Asian style. So there wasn't a ham, turkey or Christmas pudding. There was sushi, boba and kimchi. Yeah! On Christmas, I went to church, did laundry, watched West Wing DVDs and went out for dinner. We also drove through a subdivision that really went all out with Christmas lights. Oh, I also baked muffins and scones. And, I went to Starbucks today. Thank goodness Starbucks was open.

There's a new Japanese restaurant in Rowland Heights, and it's run by Korean people. It's called Mi Song and it's at the northeast corner of Colima and Fullerton. Unlike some Japanese restaurants run by Korean people, where they try to be Japanese, these people don't care if they're not Japanese. They don't even pretend to be Japanese. They speak Korean, the dishes have a Korean flair, and it's all very cool. Their clientele is all Korean, too. They had this dish that resembled Bibimbop that Theresa ordered. It was an asortment of sashimi over a bed of shredded raw vegetables. They brought out a few Korean side dishes, a bowl of rice and a bottle of hot sauce. And then you mix.

In this photo, these are the sushi chefs. The guy in the glasses (foreground) speaks Mandarin and Korean. I didn't have the chance to ask him how he knows both. But that was very cool. It's a small restaurant but it seems like everyone there ordered a huge sushi/sashimi platter or a boat. I guess it's the Christmas thing to do. There is the boat. We didn't order the boat.

There's one neighborhood in Fullerton that went crazy with lights. Cars were everywhere tonight, driving around to see the lights. These two guys were playing trumpet outside their house.

Polar bears. Cute, huh? The big polar bear's head turns left and right.

Video test

Yeah... they're drunk. (I don't know these people).

How-to

This is a hilarious video about how to each sushi properly. I think the video is meant as a joke, but it feels reliable and educational.

Photos

My life for the last 10 days in photos. Enjoy.

Dec. 13: I was driving to work one morning, and it was so foggy outside! I think I'm in Baldwin Park or El Monte. It was amazingly beautiful, like driving through the mountains in the morning. And a lot of fun, too.

Dec. 13: I'm at Hillcrest Elemenetary School in Monterey Park, covering a story about a local credit union donating two computers to the school after it was vandalized a few weeks ago. I guess the idea of donating two computers was so amazingly generous that the TV news had to cover it. Actually, they were one of the first to cover the school vandalism story, which took place the Friday after Thanksgiving. Sad, huh?

Dec. 14: This is NOT my car. I saw this Mini Cooper on a street next to Diamond Bar High School.

Dec. 22: Here's my tennis partner, Rodney, juggling four tennis balls. I think it was four. Maybe it was three. As we waited for another group to clear off the court, he tried teaching me to juggle. It didn't work.

Dec. 24: This was from today on Workman and Barranca in Covina. Or is it West Covina? It's one of those border areas. When I drove past and looked at the drivers, they looked so down and depressed. How awful is it to get into a car accident on Christmas Eve?

Notes

The Cowboys won. Sigh of relief! I'm crossing my fingers for making the playoffs.

I'm trying to find a new perfume. I've been using Ralph Lauren Ralph. I'm a fan of Issey Miyake, Ralph Lauren Romance, Ralph Lauren Style, Calvin Klein Moment and on ocassion, Gio. But I can't decide. I'm leaning toward Style or sticking with Ralph. I tried going to the mall today, and it was an awful experience. Today is not a day to shop and to browse or to find a salesperson and shop. Today is a day of grabbing, paying and going.

Gone

I've run out of perfume. It took me three years but only 1 year of regular usage

Hm?

Sometimes, you think you know something but it ends up being untrue. Then, you latch onto another theory, hoping it'll be disproven. Of course, things you want to happen never happen, and things you don't want to happen, happen. This is the way. It's not a great way or an optimistic way and often not your intended way, but that's the way things turned out. Does this make any sense? I say, sit back, relax and let things happen.

Cookies

The Russian Tea Cookies I baked for people in my office were a big hit! Everyone loved it. And they're really easy to make, too. When I brought them in, people all recognized the cookie, if not the name. One person said they're called Mexican Wedding Cakes. Another person said they're called snowballs in her house. I still think they're Russian Tea Cookies because it sounds refined and exotic.

Here's how to make them. You need a large bowl, spatula, clean hands, a blender or a food processor or a knife, two cookie sheets. Ingredients: 1 cup butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 cups flour, tsp of salt, tsp of vanilla, 3/4 cup of chopped pecans.

Mix all of that stuff in that order. Cream butter and sugar first. Add flour, salt, vanilla. Then pecans. Make sure pecans are finely chopped. This is where a blender or food processor comes in handy. The dough will be very very crumbly. I used my hands alot, especialy when the flour was added. Form into 1 inch (or a little bit smaller) balls and bake at 325 degrees for eight to 10 to 13 minutes, depending on your oven and cookie sheet.

Let it cool for a little bit but when it's warm, roll again in powdered sugar. Then when cool, dust or roll again in powdered sugar. In my opinion, you can't go wrong by over-sugaring these cookies! ENJOY.

Trip

These photos are from a while ago. Mom and I went to the LA Farmer's Market. Already, it looks expensive. Look at that car! Haha.

Right outside the market, there's a Sur La Table and a huge line of people waiting. I'm not sure which television network or show is filming, but I do know that Food Network celeb Rachel Ray was scheduled to arrive in about 10 minutes.

We had lunch from this Brazilian BBQ. I guess the guys here are used to tourists.

Next door to the Farmer's Market is The Grove, a high-end shopping mall. There's a Nordstrom, a Coach store, Pottery Barn Kids and Abercrombie and Fitch. We spent a lot of time in Nordstrom.

Sigh. How beautiful the Apple store is and their products and their window display. Looks good enough to eat!

Afterwards, we drove northwest to Santa Barbara, where the air is clear and the beaches are cleaner.

See how clear the air is? You can actually see the moutains. The sad part about LA is that the mountains are only visible after a good rain.

Driving. It's getting dark. The colors and patterns of those hills? mountains? are amazing.

I was a little late in catching the sunset; it escaped so quickly! But aren't the colors still absolutely gorgeous? I parked Stella (my car) on the side of the highway to take several photos. In other frames, you can see the moon and the navy ships in the distance.

We're shopping on State Street in Santa Barbara.

Shoes

Want to see my new running shoes? They're Mizuno Wave Rider 8. I bought them last weekend and ran in them for the first time tonight. They were awesome. The shoes were light and fit perfectly.

(Oh yeah. I bought them at A Snail's Pace in Paseo Colorado in Pasadena. It's a running store. They sales guy watches you run and picks out shoes that fit your running style. I must have tried on 5 different pairs of shoes and narrowed it down to two. I ran several laps around the store, and these were awesome.)

When I've purchased running shoes in the past, I felt there was a break-in period, where I had to sorta soften up the material. These were perfect from the very beginning. YAY!

XX

Have you ever seen a XXL T-shirt? Often known as Double XL or 2XL. It's HUGE! Let me re-type that. It's HUGE!! I mean, I think I could've cut that shirt in half and sew two for me. Wow. Ok, the story is, I bought a black Double Extra Large shirt with the Los Angeles Lakers words and logo printed on it. IT'S HUGE!!

Sky

The sky was amazingly beautiful today. LA in the winter is a wonderful, wonderful time. For a few fleeting months, the air is clear and crisp and the sky is blue, not gray or brown. You can see for miles away and every bush and tree and rock on the mountains and hills is clearly visible. It's rare to see so many clouds in LA. I took several pictures. The view was too good to miss.

Shopping

I am 90% done with Christmas shopping. I just need to buy some ingredients to make cookies and wrapping paper. Then, I'm done. YAY!

Movie

I saw Sin City tonight on DVD and it SCARED me! Wow. But it was cool.

Win

Let me say now that I've been rooting for Nicole to win America's Next Top Model from the very beginning. OK. That said, I have to admit that at times, I doubted she would win and like the rest of the country, I thought Nik would be the one to come out on top. But now that Nicole has won, I am very happy. I can't believe that I picked a winner. Whenever reality shows come out, I never pick the winner. Yes, I do watch America's Next Top Model. It's a great show. Yay!

Mini

Wherever I go, if I have my camera, I always take pictures of other Mini Coopers I see on the road. My mom thinks it's kind of weird. I told her it's spontaneous photography. Or like ambush photography. Then she suggested that I write something about each of the Minis -- where I saw them, what I was doing, what they looked like -- to accompany the photos. ... So here goes.

Here's this Mini we saw on the way to Santa Barabara. We were going north on the 101. This is the rare "Electric Blue" that they don't make anymore. It's beautiful.

Saturday, I spotted THREE Minis! Can you believe it? Three in one day. This was a deep purple ("Indie Blue"). I snapped this picture as I was driving away, south on Rosemead Blvd. toward the 10 Freeway.

Here's a black Mini at the Eastland Center in West Covina. We were walking to Marshalls and there it was! I quickly pulled out my camera and tok the picture. It's a lot harder to take photos of cars at night.

As I was driving through the parking lot, I suddenly I saw this Pepper White Mini. I pulled into that row and took this photo as I drove past it.

Texas

Mom and I went to San Antonio, Texas, for Thanksgiving weekend. Here are some photos. My mom fell and scrapped her elbow the other day. Patty's mom (on the right) is a nurse and provided some much needed medical attention.

Here's Meson (can you believe he's already 21?????!) driving us to the mall.

Patty and me at the Shops at La Cantera, San Antonio's newest mall.

Oh so Chinese. There was a display Mercedes at the mall and our parents (this is my mom) just had to stand in front of it.

Patty and Meson with Santa. I think we took him by surprise.

The Woo family on Sunday before Church.

Church.