nothing edifying » travel

On a Jet Plane

mim — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:29:17 +0000

I’m on an airplane, getting free internet. Pretty cool, eh? It’s a Virgin America/Google deal — now through January 15, free wifi on flights. And it’s at least as good as my sister’s DSL service!

Worst Evar

mim — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:44:30 +0000

It was the worst weekend of card playing ever. I was thinking of trying to use the quote from Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” but dude, it wasn’t the best of times at all; I lost at cards to everyone! Not that I was always last, but I never won.

I lost to K at Scotch Bridge or Up and Down the River or Oh Heaven, Oh Hell (whatever that game is called), then to Mike at Napoleon, then to Yuli at Napoleon. All the young’uns are growing up and I’m growing old. I probably only didn’t lose to Jimyo cos he was playing Block Party and Plants vs. Zombies and other video games for part of the time. Gaaaaah.

Speaking of Plants vs. Zombies, I think it’s been a hit with the whole family. We’ve played a LOT of Plants vs. Zombies. :) Worthy buy at ~$20.

Hitting Up All of Her Fave Tourist Traps

mim — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:33:40 +0000

My sister and mother are visiting this weekend. They got in last night after a bit of a nightmarish plane ride (skipping the grisly details, basically it was delayed flight, missed connection, lost luggage). So we take them to a good Mexican place that’s walking distance from home and the little motel/inn they’re staying at, and we all eat too much. Still no good random Mexican places in the DC area that we know of; taking suggestions. Although to be honest, for myself personally, when I’m visiting the DC area, I eat lots of Asian food, especially Chinese food, and I’m fine with that. And I don’t mean orange chicken, which is like Chinese American food, which is good in its own way but it’s not Chinese food.

Today, we BARTed to San Francisco and got tea lattes at Coffee Bean, cos of course, why wouldn’t I?! Then we rode the trolley which dude, it’s gone up in price: $5 one way now. I dunno though, it’s darned worth it for a visitor, I think. Okay, I live in the Bay Area, I’ve been on it multiple times, and I still enjoyed myself immensely. :) Then we walked to Pier 39 and had some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl — not bad, not awesome, darned filling. Then we shopped for souvenirs and looked at the sea lions. Then we rode the bus to the Ferry Building (Pier 2 area) and walked all over, stopping at like every shop, bought some cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, ate some gelato. Then we get out of the Ferry Building and there’s stalls outside! So we walk all around them. Then finally back to Berkeley in time to get ready for dinner at Chez Panisse, always excellent. Aaaaaand by the way, all the shopping and dinner was my family’s treat. YESSSSSS! I mean, thanks guys. Oh and the weather was basically perfect all day. And we played a few rounds of a variation of Sevens called Jielong or as K and Pol like to call it, Jello. Actually I don’t know who made up the “Jello” name, but I first heard it from K and Pol, and now we all call it Jello if we’re not talking to the parents. And now I should get ready for bed cos we are going to walk around Berkeley tomorrow (well today now) and go to the farmers’ market, which knowing Leaf, means going up and down the block a whole bunch of times. Or at least definitely more than once. :)

Succumbing to Peer Pressure

mim — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:45:13 +0000

Okay okay, it’s really more like I was encouraged to get off my butt, but whatever! The point is, I’ve finally finished uploading photos from last year. What? No pat on back? :p

I think it’s pretty representative of what we did. Lessee, there was a big Christmas Eve dinner with the extended family, including some Wii and some Taboo and some cards (of course), there was birthday party for misa, there was a lot of eating, more games, sister got her ears pierced, etcetc. About the only thing not covered was the shopping. CT kept taking us shopping and somehow we ended up closing down multiple malls on multiple days. Honestly, she’s talented. I just started to whine and talk about how I’d rather just steal her stuff. (“Bad sister!”)

Long Day

mim — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:00:18 +0000

Our flight yesterday was at 7am, and of course for one reason or another (one reason is my sister; another reason is my cousins, damn them — I’m a 9-hours-a-night-would-be-nice kinda girl) I didn’t sleep much the whole weekend. And there was a time zone change. So you know what happened? I ate 4 meals and napped all day: breakfast a little before 7 (a breakfast sandwich from Potbelly Sandwich Works, quite good), then napped on the plane, then ate lunch (sandwich from Potbelly Sandwich Works, good but omg don’t get hot peppers if you’re not gonna eat the sandwich right away because the hot pepper flavor soaked in), then slept more (if you’re tired enough sleeping on the plane is easy peasy!), then got back home and picked up lunch, then slept, then woke up started unpacking and whatnot, then got hungry again at like 9pm, so we went and picked up a medium pizza and ate the whole thing, then played with the computer, then went back to bed. Sounds healthy, no? :p

Going to Las Vegas for Star Trek: The Experience

mim — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:17:50 +0000

Last weekend, we went to Las Vegas, mostly cos Yut told me that Star Trek: The Experience was closing down September 1st and OMGWTFBBQ NOOOOOOOOO! Why would they do that?! It’s complete madness I tell ya! I don’t really consider myself a Trekkie or Trekker, having never been to a convention, or gotten dressed up, or anything like that, and well, I didn’t even know The Experience was closing ’til Yut told me, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every episode of The Next Generation, and I just think it’s so awesome, especially Captain Picard who is hawtness. I just can’t believe it’s not gonna be around anymore. But I’m so glad we went cos it was so fun! There were people there getting married (dude, we shoulda thought of that, but that might’ve been too much planning:p), and a couple of people dressed up in Star Fleet uniforms, and of course some aliens wandering around.

PictoBrowser requires Adobe Flash Player, but you can also see the Las Vegas photos at flickr.

Oh yeah, and we ate a lot too. :)

Iron Man

mim — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:28:26 +0000

Have you noticed how often movies (especially “summer blockbuster” types) are long integrated commercials nowadays? I think the most egregious that I can think of right now is probably Transformers, which was a series of car ads — GM specifically, I think — I dunno, I’m no expert. But anyways, Iron Man, it didn’t focus so much on one company’s products, but a multitude, instead — LG, Chevy (cars, not the restaurant chain), and Burger King that I remember. It didn’t detract from the overall movie too much, mostly it was well integrated (except Burger King), but if this sort of thing bugs you, you probably don’t want to watch this, or maybe any, summer blockbuster type movie. As far as the movie’s concerned, there are a million reviews out there, so no need for me to get into it, but overall, I liked it. It was fun, and moved well for an origin story — all too often the first movie featuring a superhero is way too much setup and it can get boring, but I thought they did a good job with it. Casting was pretty good too; Robert Downey, Jr. was pretty perfect for Tony Stark. I even liked Gwyneth Paltrow as his assistant Pepper Potts — so much better than Katie Holmes, who marred the otherwise rather good Batman Begins. (It looks like they replaced her with Maggie Gyllenhaal in the Dark Knight!) On the other hand, I confess to a little bit of weakness for comic book superheros, and all I’m looking for in a summer movie is fun, so I’m probably not the most critical person around. So yeah, fun, good for a Saturday afternoon, probably better on the big screen. Oh but one other thing that bugged me: Tony Stark’s lipstick. I don’t know what’s wrong with Robert Downey, Jr.’s lips, but his lipstick always looked much too obvious. Unless he’s one of those people whose lips are just naturally lipstick looking (like Emily Watson), in which case, forget I said anything. But it was weird.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got to say about that! Next weekend, Yut and I are going to visit Chicago, just a quick weekend trip. So if you have any can’t-miss places or restaurants or any other suggestions, lemme know! We don’t have too many plans right now, so anything’s good, but I guess especially if there’s one place that really stands out to you about Chicago, that would be especially helpful cos we only have a weekend. :)

Holiday

mim — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:19:40 +0000

We went to my in-laws for the winter holidays, down in SoCal, where the weather is nice(r). I mean 60 degree days, maybe one day was colder and super windy, etcetc, can’t complain. We went to the San Diego Zoo, and I helped out CT with her site, and Yut helped his dad with his computer, and we went for eats a lot. But as usual, all this end of the year travel stresses out my immune system. I think it’s like the 3rd year in a row that I’ve come home sick with some kind of cold for New Year’s Day. Not that it’s so bad, Yut and I decided to just stay home and drink sparkling wine, which cures what ails ya! Hope y’all had a fun holiday!

Thanksgiving Trip, Now With Photos

mim — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:12:46 +0000

I think it’s pretty clear from the photos that we spent all our time eating and playing cards. Just the way we like it! :) K, I finally posted up photos! I meant to for days, but you see, I had this little problem called Fire Emblem, which is what I played all weekend. I don’t know why, but I get so addicted to turn-based games, and I end up spending all day in my pjs playing and playing and playing so that nothing gets done. Today I haven’t turned on the Wii yet cos if I did, there’d be no photos. :D

Bleach Watching

mim — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:03:08 +0000

Y’know what I thought was funny? I took home some Bleach episodes for CT to watch, and I thought when she got done with ‘em she could pass them on to the rest of the family. But it turns out they’re all bigger anime nerds than me; 3 of them already watch it, and they’re all caught up. So CT and K are actually the only holdouts! Go fig.