cal vs wsu

i went to watch the cal/wsu game on saturday. night games have always been a little tough for me because of how cold it gets. the first night game i went to was a 49ers game that my dad took me to. i remember being so excited going to my first game. i asked how long it could be and my dad told me that it could be all night long if they went into overtime.

before we left, i remember telling my mom excitedly that i was going to go watch the game and not to stay up because i might be out ALL NIGHT LONG. it was really cold that night, but my dad bought me one of those big blow horns and i kept blowing that thing all night long. it was a lot of fun and though i didn’t know too many of the rules back then i think it was that night that began my interest in football.

the cal game was more emotional than it should have been, the bears were leading by quite a large margin at the half. then they slumbered for the next quarter and a half and wsu came back with many unanswered touchdowns. they were down in the 4th, but finally cal managed to come back with a final drive that clinched the win. very exciting, but very scary too. both cal games i’ve gone to this year, they’ve won. let’s hope they keep up.

busiest day ever

yesterday was one of the busiest days i’ve ever had at work. every time i thought that i had a spare moment someone would come up to me and tell me something that needed to be done.

sure enough, lunch time came and went and i didn’t have an opportunity to eat. instead i was busy coding away trying to get some stuff done. it’s crazy how much work there was and it was crazy how quickly the end of the day came.

it was a nice feeling, though, to finally leave the office with all of the issues resolved and to just enjoy the rest of the day. there’s just this kind of peace that settles over me knowing that everything is settled and i can just rest easy and relax.

this wedding i keep forgetting

i have been forgetting about de and kim’s wedding all the time. i keep making plans on the day and then i have to cancel because i forgot that the wedding was that day. the most recent plans i made was to have ramen with dardy in mountain view. i was really bummed out when i realized that i had the wedding to go because i was really looking forward to ramen at ryowa. it’s been forever since i’ve eaten there.

the wedding was pretty fantastic, the couple never looked happier. i had a lot of wine at the wedding, more than i usually ever have. it was pretty good wine, though. i’m usually not a fan of wine so i wasn’t sure if i was drinking the wine because it was good or if it was because i just had nothing better to do.

as the couple was coming around toasting the tables, i noticed that the groom was drinking what looked to be tea from his cup. he cannot handle his liquor very well and having to toast 30+ tables would surely have gotten him drunk. the bride was drinking a clear liquid and someone asked if it was water. i couldn’t imagine that it could possibly be water and i told them that it HAD to be grey goose. she loves the stuff and sure enough, she had been toasting the tables with a wine glass full of grey goose.

the wedding was lively and fun and it was a blast. i really enjoy seeing deliriously happy couples on their wedding day. it’s all one could ask for in a wedding.

out and about

jen and i went to stacks on saturday for breakfast in campbell. we put our name down at the restaurant and heard that there was a 40 minute wait. we walked around downtown campbell and checked out oktoberfest. it was just by chance that it was being held there, neither of us knew that it was going on. i was at first disappointed that we didn’t go on sunday where there usually is a farmer’s market, but the oktoberfest was pretty cool, too.

we finally got to eat and i ordered a full stack of blue germ pancakes. i don’t know why i always do this, but i order the full stack and i never finish it. the two pancakes are more than enough. but the pancakes were still good. i have never tried anything else besides pancakes there. maybe one day i will, but it’s hard to stray from them.

columbus day

my company observes columbus day as a holiday so i don’t have work today. i don’t know how many people have this day off, but i suspect that most of my non-government employed friends are working today. i’m not really sure why my company observes this day as a holiday, but i guess that’s one of the perks of working for a japanese owned company, you can tell them that these are days that we should have off. =P

i’ve been in the process to redecorate my room a little. i’ve bought my mat cutter and i’m now choosing pictures that i want to mat and frame. i’m not sure which picture i want to blow up a lot, but i think i’ve found a panorama that i want to blow up BIG and frame. we’ll see how much framing a picture like that will cost. i wonder where i can get custom frames made on the cheap. i’ll have to pop on by aaron brothers to find out.

one of the biggest difficulties i’ve had while sifting through these images is trying to decide what is really print worthy or not. i’ve got thousands of pictures to sift through and it’s hard to decide which images make the cut.

we celebrated john’s birthday by going to andy’s bbq on friday night. i don’t think that i’m really a big fan of bbq restaurants. the food was ok, but wasn’t really amazing. i don’t think that i really like places that rely heavily on the bbq sauce to make the meat good. i’m much more of a dry rub kind of a guy, i think.

speaking of which, i think that i’ve had a bit of an overdose on red meat lately. it may be time for me to moderate a little. the strangest thing is that i’m sort of craving pasta right now. i NEVER crave pasta. what is wrong with me?

we’ll hit on you

last night was the last game that my team we’ll hit on you played. it was playoffs and our .500 team ranked 7th went up against the 10th ranked team in the first round. we were short a player and played with 5 people. we barely beat out the team in three games and then we had the long wait before our next match.

our next match was against the #2 ranked team that was a solid team. we also went three games with them and finally took them out at the end, close games all around. our team played better than it ever had before and though the season felt like we never really gelled last night it felt like everyone was working together as a cohesive unit.

after upsetting the #2 team, our next match had the strongest hitters that hit with a voracity that i’ve never seen before in this league. our team stepped up and in three games again we dealt another upset against the #3 ranked team.

we had made it to playoffs and things were looking good, but alas we just couldn’t quite finish against the #5 ranked team and we lost in the finals. considering that our team had struggled all throughout the season, making it to playoffs, playing as well as we did was really quite amazing, fun, and wonderful.

it was the perfect way to finish off the season. i don’t know if i will play with these people again, but last night was memorable and great.

city beach santa clara complaint

i’ve been playing at city beach in santa clara for a while now. last season the water fountain broke and they have not yet fixed it. it’s been well over two months now. previously, they put out pitchers of tap water for players to drink as a replacement for the broken water fountain. that seemed pretty reasonable and fair.

during playoffs they refuse to give out pitchers of water AND they have not yet repaired the water fountain, in fact, they have completely removed the water fountain from the wall and all that is left there is the piping that the water came from.

i find it outrageous that they have been providing water all season and then suddenly, without explanation, they flatly refuse to give water to the players. that just seems ridiculous.

i’m going to buy a pack of water for the team in case they get thirsty and don’t want to spend the money for some drinking water.

new york city

i don’t think that i really ever wrote about my trip to the big apple. i had a lot of fun while i was there and it was really great to catch up with jenny and carol.

the biggest, most important destination in NYC was b&h photo. it was CRAZY in there. it was much more impressive than cameraworld in oregon. i don’t know if it is neat or if it is sad that the first sight i wanted to see in NYC was a camera store, but this camera store was very cool.

parking is outrageous in NYC and i’m glad that i didn’t drive there either because the drivers are aggressive and crazy in manhattan. in berkeley, the pedestrians are aggressive and take the right of way. in san francisco, the drivers are aggressive and take the right of way often. in new york, everyone takes the right of way, it’s amazing that there aren’t more accidents there.

there are a few observations about new york:

  • ipods are ubiquitous
  • so is duane reade
  • and mister soft-t ice cream trucks

    everyone had warned me about how much walking i would have to do while i was in new york. it’s true, you have to walk everywhere that the subway doesn’t take you…or you can take a taxi where. that can get expensive. i didn’t mind the walking, though.

    the subway system is pretty efficient and not nearly as dirty as i thought it would be. there were some pretty foul smells here and there at the subway stations, but nothing so bad. i was really surprised at how warm it gets in the subway tunnels and i was equally surprised at how well the insides of the subways were air conditioned.

    while i was walking up broadway, it reminded me a lot of a dirty version of vegas. glitzy, glamourous, and gaudy. still, it was really cool to see all these musicals on broadway. i wish i had a chance to see one, but time just was not on my side.

    the first thing i ate in new york was pizza. i definitely wanted to sample some, but i wanted to make sure that it was good pizza so i kept walking from shop to shop until i saw one with a big line. the pizza was worth it and it was pretty good. the line spilled out onto the sidewalk and down almost half a block. i worked with someone once who refused to eat pizza in california because he said that all pizza in california sucked. i think that’s just new york arrogance, because the pizza was admittedly good but it wasn’t so good that i would be offended if i had to eat pizza elsewhere.

    i was really prepared for rude people in new york, but for the most part people were pretty normal. i wouldn’t say that they were friendly, but there were no unfriendly people that i really met while i was there.

    the empire state building, like most landmarks in new york, doesn’t actually look that impressive when you walk right up to it. but if you walk a few blocks away, it looks much more impressive.

    there are a ton of shops with character in new york. i think that’s the one thing that is really lacking in the bay area are stores that aren’t so commercial. there was this grocery store called the garden of eden whose display of produce was so impressive, i wouldn’t dare take an apple from their display because it looked like a work of art.

    of course, i had pearl tea while i was there. i went to chinatown and had some pearl tea and i had been craving it, but it wasn’t as good as it was back at home. i guess that’s one thing that california’s got over new york, hands down. i also had dumplings at joe’s shanghai and i have to thank gg for the suggestion. it was yummy and cheap.

    oh yeah, food in new york wasn’t outrageously expensive. aside from parking, most things in new york didn’t really surprise me from a financial point of view.

    i was fortunate enough to visit new york while the san gennaro festival was taking place in little italy. they had an ecclectic mix of booths, but after a few blocks of walking the festival it started to feel like it was just repeating itself. still, it’s crazy how packed it was with people for blocks and blocks!

    hanging out with carol was cool, too. i haven’t seen her in over a year and it was nice that we were able to catch up and just pick up as if we hadn’t missed a beat. i’m glad that i got a chance to meet up with her.

    the big cultural difference between new york and home has probably got to be the amount of social drinking that takes place. it just seems like that’s what you do when you go out. there are so many bars and it seems that when you go out, eating and drinking are two big things.

    the trip was great and i’m sure that it won’t be my last trip there.