cindy's world

I haven’t done anything dramatically different in the past couple of weeks, but the needle’s flying up on the weight scale. You know those swimsuit photos taken, what, 2 weeks ago? Add 8 lbs to that. Yeah. Unbelievable. Since those photos, I’ve been running more, and pretty consistently hitting the weights. On the other hand, I’ve also PMSed and fallen victim to the courtroom assistant’s evil implantation of a giant jar of M&Ms in the courtroom. Other than that, I have eaten lightly, though…had a lot of sushi, as you can tell from the previous post. Maybe it’s a combination of an increase of carbs in the forms of chocolate and white sushi rice. Or maybe all the mercury from fish consumption is weighing me down.

Most likely, though, things have aligned to make sure I once again look gross in a swimsuit, since my vacation with Jordan (to be joined halfway through by James) in Orlando, Florida begins next Sunday. Our intinerary doesn’t hit Clearwater Beach until next Thursday, so I have a week and a half to make an extreme attempt at recovery, i.e.
* cutting as much carbs as I can
* doubling up on long runs
* cutting sugar
* chugging water, in case what I’m experiencing is a bloat

I’m really excited about the trip since Jordan is one of my favorite people to run amok with, cuz she’ll match me blow-for-blow in ridiculousness, goofiness, and take photographic evidence of all that, too. James is also usually game for anything. Plus, I miss my big sister. I’m excited about Clearwater Beach after reading all that Flat Coke & Flies has posted and gushed about it; I know it’s a favorite vacation spot for her and her boyfriend Bat. (I wonder if the stuff I write make people want to see specific places/restaurants for themselves, too.)

Mr. W will join me toward the end of the first week in Florida, we’ll hit up the Disney stuff, and then he and I will move on to the Dominican Republic to a resort. Read: more swimsuit time.

Wish me luck!!

Catching up on the cameraphone photos…

On April Fool’s Day, James…

…visited me at the new-ish home for the first time and we had omakase at the lakeside sushi restaurant.

He said it was some of the best sushi he’s had. We unfortunately didn’t think to take photos until we were almost done.

He said it was up there with or exceeding the renouned Sushi Wasabi and it was half the price! You can read about our Sushi Wasabi experience, which I visited with James and Vanessa, here. (I just read the comment string on that post, hilarious, knowing now what has happened subsequently, and what is about to happen when JAMES AND I visit JORDAN in Florida next week.)

Continuing my sushi cravings, Mr. W and I had dinner at another Japanese restaurant days later. He made me pick dessert while refusing to give me input, so I deliberately picked something totally uncharacteristic of me: fried stuff. This is green tea ice cream made tempura-style (covered in tempura batter and deep fried).

He was kinda grossed out by the frying, so he didn’t eat much of it. I have the Asian can’t-waste-food-gene, so I ate much of it. The clever ordering totally backfired on me.

Knowing how big a fan our Tennessee girl Flat Coke & Flies is of fried stuff, however, I sent the photos to her and she enjoyed the ice cream vicariously, with the responsive comment “So there IS fried stuff in California!”

Then last Sunday, I…

met up with childhood pal Sandy for lunch. She and I had a great time laughing and bonding over stupid stuff. It’s been awhile since I hooked up with a girlfriend for shits & giggles. It felt great. After a fobby lunch in Irvine we went to the Irvine Spectrum and hung out at the outdoor patio of Dave & Buster’s for drinks, continuing our gigglefest there while people-watching.

We made jokes that I can’t make public, but it was like the good ol’ days again. =)

Of course by this time I’m craving sushi again, so when college roommie Diana got into town for a deposition she was defending, she and I met up for a raw dinner (after another workout together) last Tuesday at a sushi restaurant in Costa Mesa. We’ve been trying to go to Sushi Wasabi for awhile, but every time she’s in town it’s closed (Sundays & Mondays). This restaurant didn’t compare, but it did have a couple of interesting items. This is the “Shrimp Boat” as served…

…and after Diana doused it in Tabasco.

Good thing we’re both gym rats, and good thing we don’t have cholesterol problems. Yum! The best thing we ordered was done blind off their roll menu. “What’s the Russian Roulette Roll?” I asked our heavily-accented Japanese waitress.
I heard, “It’s a blah-blah spicy yellowtail, blah-blah, and one piece is blah-blah.”
“Oh, that sounds interesting,” I said. “We’ll have one.”
When it arrived, the six identical-looking segments of the roll were arranged in a circle on the plate, cross-section-side up, like a roulette wheel. I was just about to ask Diana what the deal was with this roll as explained by our waitress, when Diana said, “WHAT’s in this roll again? I couldn’t understand her.” Great.
“One piece has something different, was all I could gather,” I said. So we started eating. The spicy yellowtail was chopped tataki-style and not ground as spicy tuna usually is, and was delicious. We speculated what the surprise was.
“Watch, it’s something stupid, like a piece of carrot,” Diana laughed. I joked that maybe it was a penny. That got her chewing more carefully, testing for texture changes. Diana noted that the roll is spicier than she’d expected, which impressed her, and she couldn’t tell the difference between the two pieces she had. I agreed, so far both tasted the same so we must not have gotten to the “special” piece, yet. But what if we had, and didn’t notice it? Two more pieces remained on the plate, so she took one and I took the last.
“Still good, but not different,” I said with my mouth full. But Diana was pointing energetically at her own stuffed mouth now, making a slight whimpering sound. “What’s different?” I asked. She couldn’t talk. She was, however, turning colors slightly.
She finally swallowed the piece and chugged tea. “It’s TOTALLY SPICY! Oh my GAWD!” she said when she could breathe again. “I don’t know what’s in it cuz the texture never changed, but I’m thinking it was chopped up habaneros!” She stayed red for another few minutes, complaining of her burning mouth. Haha! The Russian Roulette: what a great roll!

Yesterday morning I took leave of my boy…

…and went to work as usual. In the morning, I received an email from college roommie Diana stating she’s now in town on her business trip. We finalized our after-work meeting up plans. I would hit the gym at lunchtime as usual with Gym Trainee, then meet up with Diana afterwards for a run (GREAT weather this week, high 70s F, cool breezes, clear skies) before dinner.
Unfortunately, I went for another long hilly run over the weekend and left my shoes at home. Again! I didn’t even realize this until Gym Trainee and I were almost at the gym. I was so upset coming back to work, thinking my evening running plans were foiled, too. But then I remembered my Courtroom Emergency Shoes. I had Emergency Trunk Shoes (an old pair of running shoes) before, which my mother insisted I turn into Courtroom Emergency Shoes in case the building collapses while I’m at work and I have to pick my way out of debris, gravel, and broken glass in my heels. I decided yesterday that I have more occasion to use Emergency Trunk Shoes for all the times I’ve arrived shoeless to the gym, than to use Emergency Courtroom Shoes, so that’s how that pair of shoes got its old title back.
I met up with Diana at fancy South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, where she was attempting to buy a dress.

I say “attempting” because I walked in 10 seconds before she discovered the dress she’d been eyeing for weeks and finally decided to buy could not be purchased with an American Express card, which was all she had on her. Haha! I just spotted her the purchase and she paid me back in cash later on. What are college roommates for, right?
We walked to her hotel from there, across the street, changed and got ready for our workout.

We thought we’d hit both cardio and weights, since I missed the noon workout. The hotel’s small gym was fairly decent. We did a 30-minute treadmill run and carried a full conversation the entire time. That made the time fly. Then we did some random resistance training.

I like the above photo for several reasons. One, it’s a fun angle. Two, Diana and I are both in it. Three, I got to secretly include the woman who came in to work out in JUST HER BRA. See her reflection in the mirror on the treadmill.
On the way out from the gym section, we passed by the pretty outdoor pool and patio area. It was beautiful, and we wished we could’ve taken advantage of the conversation areas with more friends — the pool area had lounge chairs set up…

…the outdoors lounging area had large L-shaped outdoor couches, firepits, low tables, high barstools around pedestal tables.

And, cabanas. Ahhhh…

Hey, I just saw that I’m still wearing my workout gloves. Haha, what a geek.

After that shot, Diana and I went back to her room, showered, and went to Irvine for some Korean Soon Tofu. Yum. Of course after that we hit up Mochilato and had a giant Italian-style shaved ice. I was so full driving home that as soon as I went inside, I only had time to hand Mr. W a little gift box of four assorted mochis I’d selected for him, before crashing to bed upstairs.

Some weeks are so bad that all you can find for the lowest common denominator between the week and motivation to not leave heavy-duty stapler dents on a coworker’s corpulence is to learn SOMETHING from the week and hence redeem the waste of life that is what the week felt like. Was that mean? If you could read the list of f-ups I had to deal with and correct just this week alone, you’d be feeling bad for me. I actually found myself wondering if I ought to throw the hole-puncher at the giant tumor sitting at the other desk. What I learned:
* Physics: burp stench travels way across the courtroom
* Sociology: don’t take certain people’s word for anything, especially when certain people have proven rarely to deserve the benefit of the doubt
* Chemistry: combining pizza for 3 consecutive meals, 1 donut, 3-4 pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies, 2 vanilla sandwich cookies, and agitating the mixture at the gym creates massive, MASSIVE acid reflux
* Math: Transitive Property of Equality… new civil trial (a) = loss of lunches this week (b); loss of lunches (b) = loss of gymming (c); therefore new civil trial (a) = loss of gymming (c).
Algebraic Calculation…C X 5d(cookie dough + pizza + cookies) + PMS bloat = +2% body fat and +6lb scale weight. Fuck me!

Mr. W skipped town Friday morning while I was at work to hang with his family, especially his Gamer Bro, in Vegas. He’ll be back sometime Monday. I took the opportunity to go straight to the gym after work on Friday, hit the weights hard. That makes one (weak) cardio session and one strength-training session this week. That is NOT enough. The morning broke brilliantly today, and I geared up with the newly revamped iPod and hit a 5 mile very hilly run. I didn’t expect it to be a great experience, considering it’d been awhile since I hit the actual streets for a real run, and there was already direct sunlight. I normally can not run in direct sunlight, it seems to sap my energy. Turned out the morning was crisp and cold enough to still give my ears windburn (and hence a headache), and the sunrise was filtered by the hilly raise to my east. I am normally anemic around this time of month, so exertion isn’t easy and cardio would soon have me doubled over in severe cramps. This never happened today. The music triggered endorphins and adrenaline, and I powered through long uphills, never running out of breath nor feeling the need to stop. (I mean, aside from the 3 or so red lights at intersections that I *had* to stop at.) Now I know. I can push myself harder next time. Or maybe it’s just that I have decent calories in me for once, built up from my week of eating refined white sugar and carbs. This bloat sucks, though, I’ll not be doing THAT again anytime soon (high-sodium, high-sugar consumption for a week straight).

Lily had invited me to a 5K run in Seal Beach this morning, but obviously I didn’t go. (I also ran farther than that on my own.) They’re doing a barbecue afterwards, but I think it’s weird going — it sounds sort of like a couples thing — without a husband. =P Anny is around the neighborhood running household purchasing errands, and invited me to call or text her if I’m bored. Gym Trainee’s birthday is today (HIPPO BIRDIE, GYM TRAINEE!) and she had been considering inviting people over to her home for lunch, but that fell through and I spoke to her on the drive home last nite, sounds like some individual friends of hers have invited her to other things. My godson has abandoned her (his mother) to go ATVing anyway. But James is coming through! He just texted me that he’s on his way to an eye appointment and is free afterwards. I invited him over to the house since he’s never been here after we moved. I have no idea what we’ll end up doing, but I’m sure it’d involve food, cuz the guy eats ANYTHING and enjoys it!

Speaking of which, here’s where James and I went on Wednesday for an early dinner:

Since we’re talking about James, here’s a video from back when he and Daughter collaborated on one of her songs. (I’m so glad Mr. W finally registered Daughter’s music; now I can share all this stuff.) You see James playing on his “virtual drums” to a pre-recording of Daughter’s singing and guitar. This video shows a work-in-progress where the loudest sound is, unfortunately, the metronome ticking. If you want to hear the finished version, let me know, I’ll email it. It’s TERRIFIC.

Today is Cesar Chavez holiday. Yeah, yeah, what the hell is that? That’s not a real holiday. Blah blah. Haters. I spent a large part of the day watching a new favorite sit-com from the beginning: “How I Met Your Mother.” It’s quirky, smart, and hilarious! I *think* I may relate to this show better than I Did “Friends”! I mean, “Friends” was the love of my life for years, but it is a little removed from my personal reality. The cast of “How I Met Your Mother” reminds me of myself and my friends. Except for the daily bar hangout thing. I find myself constantly laughing aloud watching the show.

I also baked chocolate chip cookies, drank a ton of peppermint and ginger tea, and ate raw cookie dough. I love soft cookies. Crunchy cookies and their flying crumbs — don’t get the appeal. Random thought: I don’t remember what brought on this conversation in college, but part of it went something like this…
Me: Why not?!
Johnny: Because! It came out of a chicken’s BUTT!
Me: But athletes drink it raw ALL THE TIME.
Johnny: No. Just…PROMISE me you’re not gonna ingest any more raw eggs.
Me: Okay, okay.

Excuse me while I run into the kitchen again to eat more raw cookie dough straight out of the Tollhouse bucket. Yom, yom. (< -- is that an Asian thing?) I have to admit I'm not very concerned about salmonella poisoning. If it hits and I get diarrhea for a couple of days, I'll make sure to drink water so I don't dehydrate. I'm sure I'll survive it, and probably lose a few pounds in the process. Another large part of the day was spent reconnecting with a high school teacher via online chat. THAT was fun. "I've always thought you were rather pragmatic," he told me. "I'm glad to see that you still are." *I'm* just glad he's still complimentary after I gave him hell for writing the ONLY mean comment I've ever received on an essay. "This is such BS I can't believe an honor student wrote it!" Well, what the hell answer WERE you looking for when you had us write an essay answering the question of what the sound of one hand clapping is?! Stupid koans. But at least he admitted I should've gotten a higher grade than what I received, and offered to change my grade retroactively. Of course this new grading opinion is based on what *I* told him I wrote on my essay, since I have a better memory. *smacking my mouth* Hmm. I think this particular brand of raw cookie dough tastes slightly alcoholy. PMS is a bitch. Speaking of PMS cravings, my body's been demanding seafood recently. The healthiest way I know to eat it is raw, so here's a picture from my & Dwaine's outing Friday evening at Taps Fish House & Brewery:
Dwaine thought my raw oysters were gross. He wondered how anyone could possibly find them aphrodiastic (I may have made up a word). He asked if I’ve ever felt “something” while I was consuming them. With my mouth full of oyster, I answered him honestly. No. I just wanted them because PMS says I need raw seafood. “See, now you’re mistaking me for one of your girl friends again,” he protested. As I took more photos of the food, he suddenly started laughing. “Nice restaurant for dinner, candlelight, raw oysters…this totally looks like the setup for something else, but instead it’s YOU.” It was pretty funny because of the company.

Here’s a random photo I took last week when I was by myself in a local mall. I want him.

Siberian husky puppy therapy, I call it. He’d probably eat Dodo, though.

Wow, looking back at those two photos in the post immediately before, I am in need of some color. Good thing I have a sunny vacation coming up soon. On Friday, I swimsuit-shopped online, didn’t really find much I liked, so I decided to go upstairs and try on all my existing swimsuits. I dug out a bunch I’d totally forgotten about, and decided to forego a new suit. Really, I just wanted something that’s watersports-friendly. I think this Ralph Lauren would do:

(I’m posting the above photo with Dwaine’s approval. He says the photos of the ones in string bikinis are too racy. Haha!)

I think Saturday was spent mainly laying around the house, but the recovering heart patient and I did take a mile-long walk down to the Lake and have sushi on the lake. Turns out our sushi lakeside restaurant’s sushi chefs will do an omakase sitting for us if we’re there when they’re not busy. I was thrilled. We had fresh scallops and hamachi imported from Japan, and other stuff served traditional Japan-style, all of which weren’t the menu. It cost me close to $100, but it was so worth it.

Sunday was so much fun, it made me realize how much I miss group interactions with my friends. (MOH) Vicky and her sister Karen had plans for a yoga session near Vicky’s house, and invited me along. Karen does yoga regularly, I used to for years but hadn’t in about a year, and this is Vicky’s first time. The class went well, although I got a bit nauseated. I made sure to eat very little before yoga, as food in my stomach always leads to nausea mid-yoga-sesh. Of course visiting Asian parents (mine) beforehand would guarantee that I had at least SOME food in my system, so I ended up modifying a couple of moves down when I felt sick. I have a tendency to push myself so I did most things in the advanced modifications. For Vicky’s first, she did pretty well following the class. AND, didn’t fall over once. =) I realized I’m more flexible than I thought, although my balance has suffered just a little bit since I’d last tested it in a class like that.

After class we went back to Vicky’s house, changed, grabbed Vicky’s boyfriend Glenn, and went to nearby carnivorous restaurant Wood Fire BBQ & Grill. Vicky says she normally orders a rack of BBQ pork ribs there. Haha, that’s so anti-yoga. I tried to be good and had a house salad with dressing on the side (croutons removed), and a platter of seared ahi tuna, maybe about 8 slices, with a ginger-ponzu sauce for dipping. I was unaffected by Glenn’s steak and potato, Karen’s 11-oz prime rib, and Vicky’s BBQ chicken, ribs, and something-or-other combo. THEN Karen ordered TWO desserts. I’m normally pretty immune to vanilla ice cream, even coated in Oreo cookie crumbles and dunked in fudge, and sitting atop a hot brownie underneath whipped cream. What I’m NOT immune to, is food going to waste. Dwaine had popped in to join us by this time (I was SO excited to see him that I surprised myself!), and three of “us” were so busy gabbing about hiking and planning future Mt. Baldy treks that Karen and I ate the two desserts alone, lest they go to waste. When Karen stopped, I kept going, resenting everyone else for not pulling their weight, resenting my Asian can’t-waste-food gene. I still feel guilty about those desserts and I’m pretty sure I’m bloated from it, too. Ugh. On the brighter side of things, though, after 20 years of friendship Dwaine and I finally have our first Dwaine-and-Cindy photo, taken on my cameraphone!

I know, it’s a crappy photo of both of us. It’s probably the worst one of myself I’d seen in a long time. Oh, well.

Dwaine and I chatted all the drive home (an hour for me), and made plans to hook up for a workout Friday, and maybe another one next Tuesday, which is a holiday for me. Cesar Chavez Day! Woohoo!

***ADDENDUM, 3-24-09****
Mike (“Wilco”) emailed me that “it’s almost embarrassing to see that bad of a picture posted,” and doctored up the image a bit and attached his new improved version to his email. So I’ve substituted my dark “bad” image for Mike’s. I still think I look pretty crappy, but Dwaine looks significantly better. My excuse: I was just at yoga! I didn’t wear much makeup and didn’t “freshen” afterwards. Thanks, Mike!

(Rest mouse pointer on photos for captions.)
It was a wet and rainy Saturday. Even though Southern California’s storms tend to drop wetness only intermittently, there was not enough time between clouds for things to dry out.

So I spent the morning goofing off on the computer in the spare room. Dodo kept me company and sat next to me on the bed.

“High-five.”

And then we both took a bath.

When the weather got nicer we went to Best Buy. I saw this along the way.

I saw this and wanted it, but I didn’t buy it.

I saw this and DEFINITELY didn’t buy it, because I know from past experience IT TOTALLY DOESN’T WORK.

But what I did bring home was THIS!! I am SO excited.

I’d characterize myself as a Wham!/George Michael closet fanatic, except I’m not in the closet about it. It’s got music videos for favorites such as “Last Christmas”, “Careless Whisper,” “I Want Your Sex”, “Father Figure” (which, incidentally, was in my head since I got up this morning) by Wham! and “I Can’t Make You Love Me“, “Jesus to a Child”, “Older”, “Too Funky”, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (w/Elton John) when George Michael went solo. *salivating*
On the way home, the clouds rolled in to cover the blue.

In the resuming rainfall, Dodo curled himself up on the warm Lakers blanket.

There is nothing so soporific in my home as a densely furry cat cozied up and lightly snoring. Roundness. My furball among basketballs.

All day, Jordan sent me cell phone pictures of her birthday weekend at Universal Studios in sunny Florida.

In the evening, she sent lots of photos of a lit stage on which KC and the Sunshine Band were allegedly performing, but I couldn’t verify any of that because her photos generally looked like this:

When she sent THIS, I had to text her back and ask if she was already drunk.

She called that “a float.” I think she meant “afloat,” as in, “I am afloat in Jaegermeister Birthday Shots.”
I would have been jealous of what seemed like a great time for her, except that I was content with my:

TODAY is Jordan’s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!! XOXOXOXOXOXO! She turns, uh, 25. *sideglance*

Last Monday, hippo birdie to my favorite surfer girl, my court reporter!

This is a customized hazelnut cake my judge orderered from the Great Dane Bakery.

We invited the floor to partake in our jury room.

Last Thursday, Mr. W and I went to my childhood friend Sandy’s house for her housewarming party. Yay for her first house! It was BEAUTIFUL inside. We were very jealous. Aside from the spacious great-room downstairs (living room flowed into the dining room flowed into the upgraded chef’s kitchen), when you go upstairs you arrive in a central “party room” with built-in bar. And then offshooting from that party room are the bedrooms. I salivated at the sight of the bar, which wasn’t stocked, but I instantly had fantasies of it fully stocked with large colorful bottles, which I would use to make customized cocktails. Unfortunately everyone in that household just drinks beer. =P An important discovery was made at Sandy’s house last night: Mr. W is no longer allergic to cats. That’s right. It’s not just that his body acclimated to Dodo’s dander; he’s now immune to ALL cats. Which we know, because Sandy currently has 5 running around — one belonging to her boyfriend Steve (who was a BLAST that night, we had so much fun laughing with him), and 4 fosters. I’m sure Sandy would correct me if I got the numbers wrong. Anyway, Mr. W started playing with Steve’s gorgeous long-haired calico-colored cat Molly, who warmed up to him immediately, and he didn’t have a reaction at all the whole night. He was even licked repeatedly by one of a pair of young white kitten twins, no skin rash. Mr. W was so in love with Molly’s easy-going affectionate nature that he wanted to adopt her, and I had to burst his bubble in telling him that Molly is not one of the fosters that’s up for adoption. (He just wishes he could cuddle up to a cat the way I do with Dodo, who’s now suddenly wary of him for some unknown reason.)

Saturday (last night), Mr. W and I attend a coworker’s son’s wedding.

The bride was incredibly beautiful, and she was wearing the gown that I wanted but didn’t buy. It was perfectly suited for her type of wedding, though. Huge cathedral ceremony, followed by an ornate banquet in a classy restaurant atop a hill with a view. Customized rotating ice sculpture, giant 4-tiered cake, jewels hanging off each centerpiece. (We won the centerpiece, and check this puppy out.)

You know how some people stage the item they’re photographing in some nice background for the best display of the subject, as opposed to photographing all the clutter in the actual setting? Yeah, I’m too lazy for that.

This was the kind of wedding I’ve seen in the reality show “Platinum Weddings.” They gave away small bottles of wine with their photos on the labels as their wedding favors. Total opposite of my simple outdoor Japanese Garden wedding. If I had that gorgeous dress on with the long jewel-encrusted train, it would’ve slipped off the bridge we were married on and I would’ve been pulled into the water by hungry koi fish. Another friend made a good point that I had so many dress changes, it would’ve been almost a waste to spend that much money on a dress I was only going to have on for 40 minutes, whereas this bride got a nice solid 10+ hours in this dress. I wish I had a better photo, but I was only armed with a cameraphone and I was pretty far away.
I guess theirs is the classic traditional wedding, which helps me understand why everyone keeps saying how “different” our wedding was.

I have a crappy thing to confess. While I was taking pictures, I thought I’d send this one to my bridesmaids with the compliment, “My bridesmaids are hotter than her bridesmaids.”

So I did. This resulted in some less-than-nice text communications for a minute. And then I tried to send this one:

Weird thing happened. As soon as I pushed “send,” my phone vibrated, went to the Verizon screen, and froze there. It wouldn’t let me do anything, and I’ve never seen that screen before. I first thought my phone was turning off, but it was fully charged. It then went to a different Verizon screen as I mouthed, “WHAT the–?” and froze there. And then finally, it returned me to the regular screen, wiping out my prior efforts to send the picture.
*blink blink*
I think I just got smacked upside the head from the Other Side while I was sending catty text messages in church. I took the hint and repented.

My mom wanted to do a traditional Chinese New Year Eve this year because, as she put it, she may not live long enough to pass on the tradition otherwise.   (She’s so fatalistic.)  She even made sure to leave me a voice mail with instructions on what to do before going over there.  Shower before blessings to cleanse off the old year and start anew.  Wear red undergarments for luck.  Wear red clothing for luck.  The only red undergarments I have presently are not parent-appropriate, but I wore them anyway and sent a cameraphone picture to Jordan, who wanted to know if I was going to follow all my mom’s orders.  Jordan threatened to post the picture of me in my red undies.  =P

We went over to my parents’ house at 3p yesterday and I was surprised she actually decked the inside of her already-Asian house out for the occasion.

From the simple stuff, like flowers…

(A saying in Chinese calls daffodils mistaken for common garlic bulbs before sprouting, but revealing their secret splendor in bloom. These flowers are therefore symbolic for, to use an American colloquilism, a diamond in the rough.) 

(classic Chinese ‘mums)

…to red paper poetry and symbols on the doorways and walls…

 …to an actual ancestral altar.

(food offerings to the ancestors on both my mom’s and dad’s sides)

Dad at least had the good sense to do this outside.

I think there were at least 10 dishes, plus desserts and appetizers.

Yesterday in the Southland it was a skin-burning 80+ degrees in the sun, so Mr. W wanted to visit a beach. We decided to explore a new one for us, San Clemente Beach. This is San Clemente Beach Pier.

This is the clock tower to the right of the pier, where the Amtrak train makes its scenic tour.

Of course when I took these cameraphone photos, I had to immediately send the first one to people in colder weather to make them jealous. Flat Coke texted back that her area’s upcoming weather prediction is 7 degrees with a chance of snow. Wow, what’s THAT like? We had lunch at the outdoor patio of a pier restaurant overlooking the sand, seagulls, and surfers, and my right side facing the sun was PAINFULLY heated.
Before we left, we heard the clanging of the railroad bells announcing the Surfliner’s approach.

What a pretty train ride this would be. Mr. W simply loved that this train is named so aptly.

And then we went home and watched TV all night. The end.