hey people. i guess i still have a bit of jetlag because it was hard to fall asleep last night, and it was also tough to get up this morning. but it's not too bad, though. hopefully by tonight, i'll be ok.
i ordered a GPS today! i got the one that greg has, a garmin nuvi 360. the only thing i cared about was the text-to-speech feature. i don't like the ones that tell you turn in like 800 feet, because they're usually off, and i can't judge the distance anyways. i should come later on this week, and i want to use it in hawaii for mikeT's wedding. i'll probably even use it for alan's wedding in LA (hate navigating those los angeles highways) in two weeks.
and other good news! my IRS audit for the 2005 tax year was finally resolved. so instead of paying the $5000 that they claimed i owed, i wound up only having to pay just over $150 ($137 plus interest). the tax audit defense service i paid for (only $40) was well worth the money, so i'm going to get it every year from now on. my paranoia paid off! haha. i called my audit guy today just to thank him for doing such a good job. :)
so i'm all set for mikeT's wedding in hawaii. i booked my room at the hapuna prince hotel, the same hotel that mike and christi are staying at. it's pricey! originally, a whole bunch of us were going to stay at this condo, and the cost for ALL of us the entire time would have only been a $150 cleaning fee. talk about dirt cheap! but that fell through. bummer. i was looking forward to a cheap stay, but i guess that was not meant to be. but at least now i bed to sleep on, instead of having to bring a sleeping bag and slumbering on the floor, and now i'm closer to the wedding party, and on top of that, i'm right smack dab at the same venue as the wedding itself. the only thing i have left to do is to find a pair of flip-flops. i have never worn flip-flops in my life.
i did some good work today. i'm debugging this OTP test that's failing, and i'm still not done yet. i'm using debussy, this fancy waveform viewing tool. it's powerful! i'm not used to it, though, because i've been using VCS all my engineering life. but yeah, debussy rocks. if i use it enough, i just might switch over.
i'm still shuddering over lauren's hotness on SYTYCD. hot damn. i mean, the picture of her on the official website is horrible, and she looks really bad there. but during her rumba with dominic, she wore this backless dress, and it was a really sensual dance, and then they kissed, and the whole thing just added up to be a totally sexy experience. *swoon* after watching the whole episode, i rewound the tape and watched the dance again, and then i watched the kiss a few more times. smoldering, just smoldering!
when i went over to greg's place yesterday, i instantly noticed that cheryl (greg's soon-to-be wife) did her eyebrows. she got them threaded. as you probably know, i have an eyebrow fetish. and cheryl's eyebrows were really well done. bravo! she then asked me who else has good eyebrows, and instantly replied, sherilyn fenn. you know, then girl from _twin peaks_. i never watched the show, though, so you might know her as ginger from _friends_, the woman with the fake leg who went out with chandler.
ok. i'm bushed. time to head home.
so the flight back was awesome. i drugged myself up (with seroquel and xanax), and i slept the entire way, except for the meal service. i was already sleeping by the time we took off, and the engine noise woke me up. i was slurring my words when the flight attendant asked me what kind of food i wanted. :)
paul picked me up, and when i got back, i cleaned the apartment in anticipation of the walkthrough by my landlord at 3pm. for lunch, paul, nelson and i went to st. john's. i was craving a hamburger because i didn't eat american food in taiwan (except for a sausage egg mcmuffin at mcd's early on). beg for mercy burger! yum.
so my landlord came in the afternoon, and i was surprised that he and his wife had immigrated to new zealand. i just jotted some notes of some things to repair (light switches, some wet patches in the bathroom, etc.), and he left within 10 minutes.
then, i watched last week's _so you think you can dance_. hot damn! that rumba with dominic and lauren was good. lauren looked so FUCKING HOT that i wanted to cry. i don't know if they planned the kiss at the end, but i would have done much more than kiss her, hehe. but the problem was, my vcr taped the results show, but it got a giants baseball game instead. *RAAR* so i went online to find out that two of my three favorite dances got voted off! *RAAR* later on in the weekend, i went on ew.com and read a recap of the results show, and now i want to see it. i hope alan has it tivo'ed so i can watch it.
for dinner, five of us went to dusita for some tasty thai food, which i had also been craving. duck run! pad kee mao! afterwards, paul, nelson and mikeC went to play LAN games, and i went over and watched satellite (i.e. east coast time) SNL. that "sofa king" (say it out loud to get the joke) bit was pretty funny. and then i went home and slept.
apparently, i had a bit of jet lag becuase i woke up at 2pm. then, i went over to greg's place, where they were doing some wedding stuff. i said hi to greg, cheryl, john, etc. and hung out for a bit, and then gave grace her belated birthday gift.
afterwards, i went to pick up jeffrey at the hyatt in santa clara. he's an old friend of mine from my high school days in dallas. i hadn't seen him in like 13 years! so it was awesome to catch up with him. he was in town for an interview for a sleep medicine fellowship at stanford. i took him to fuki sushi for a $90 meal. i had toro for the first time ($14.50 for two nigiri!), and i have to say, i wasn't impressed. but still, the food was good, and i had my whiskey. (i know, i swore off whiskey after that night in taiwan, but i guess not.)
after dropping him off, i went home, took a shower, and had a hard time falling sleep. damn this jet lag. but still, it was a great weekend, and i'm glad to be home. :)