A conversation I had with my mom earlier last week:

Mom: This Saturday is Chinese New Year's Eve! You have to eat fish!
Me: Okay, I'll eat fish.
Mom: No, you *really* have to eat fish. Did you eat fish last year? I'll bet you didn't eat fish. Is that why you're poor?
Me: ...

Well I'm happy to report that I had a lot of fish on Saturday, so I'd better be winning the freaking lottery this year. We had hot pot at Florence's place for dinner, which was quite successful for none of us having actually done hot pot ourselves before. There was all the usual fare (beef, pork, lamb, fish balls, tofu, napa cabbage, vermicelli) as well as potstickers and sashimi, courtesy of Cheryl, turnip cakes, and a steamed bass prepared by Florence.

I'm a day late, but Happy New Year!

Last Saturday Babs organized a Dine About Town lunch at Butterfly on Pier 33. The food was good, and the atmosphere of the place was cool. I had duck spring rolls to start (good, but not very ducky), smoked salmon scramble for my entree (sounds gross but tasted good), and creme brulee (pretty much always awesome) for dessert. I would say "pictures forthcoming", but even I don't believe me anymore.

Other than that, I had a good time in Oakland and Berkeley, where I checked out, among other things, the famed Elephant Pharmacy (where you can buy Pee-Pee TeePees for the Sprinkling Wee-Wee) and the Berkeley Fire Trail. The trail afforded wonderful views of the Berkeley campus, which I promptly flipped off. You can take the girl out of Stanford...

Work should probably be stressing me out right now, but it's not. The calm before the storm and all that.

There are a number of things I'm excited about/looking forward to in the next several months including:

• A trip to Australia


• Going to Yosemite and hiking Half Dome


• Doing actual gameplay engineering at work


• A possible Vegas trip with Domi, where table dancing has been promised


• AJYM


• Camping


• Outdoor rockclimbing


• If I get off my lazy ass, getting my SCUBA certification

Sweet!

Finally, I want to wish Buddy, Marc, Erik, and Blair a safe and awesome trip to Tanzania, where they are fulfilling one of my Things I Would Like To Do Before I Die of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro! Send me a postcard!

Tuesday and Wednesday were all-day meetings at work to review the technical design for our game. Anyone who's had the misfortune of sitting next to me in a meetings knows that I am a notorious doodler. I (generally) pay attention to what's going on, but I am so fidgety/ADD that I need to do something with my hands. This usually results in a page full of crap, but yesterday the Doodling Gods smiled upon me and I produced what I believe is some of my best doodling work ever. It was one of those times that restored the little flicker of hope inside of me that maybe I won't have to be a pure engineer for the rest of my life. Please see for yourself.

In unrelated news, after giving blood on Tuesday, I somehow bled all over the back of my jeans and my t-shirt without noticing. Fortunately, Amanda, who unlike me has actual common sense in domestic matters, was able to get the stains out. Thanks.

This past weekend was the annual Walter-organized Tahoe ski trip. Once again I drove up, and this time my car actually got to flex its AWD and ABS muscles. I'm proud to report that it performed like a champ!

The drive up Friday evening was clear, but Saturday was full-on blizzard weather. It made for low-visibility snowboarding, but I still had a lot of fun. I stuck with Nicole (who, at her peak, could do twelve pull-ups) and Buddy and we had a very laid-back ski/snowboard day, with our runs broken up by long stretches of sitting and chatting, as well as singing "I Just Called To Say I Love You" and "You Are My Sunshine." It...made sense at the time. I think. We came back to my car in the afternoon to find not only a good 5 inches of snow piled on it, but also a giant crack in my windshield that must have grown because of the cold. Sad.

Edit: Forgot to mention that while snowboarding, we came up with a new nickname for Buddy: Ass Beard. Feel free to share.

That night we had the traditional ski trip turducken feast, expertly prepared by Florence, who also made yummy butternut squash soup. Later that night I violated both my "No Horror Movies" rule by watching the romantic-comedy-with-zombies movie Shaun of the Dead, and my "No Public Water" rule by hanging out in the hot tub. Both were actually quite enjoyable. Go figure.

Sunday, woke up in the late afternoon. Called up Parns just to see how he's doin'. Hello? What up Parns? Yo Samberg what's crackin'? Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? NARNIA! ....Oh wait. Sunday I did sleep in a bit (until 10 or so) and after a healthy breakfast of turducken, a bunch of us went outside to play in the snow and take a walk in the woods. It had stopped snowing the night before and was an absolutely beautiful day with clear skies and snow-covered trees. We found a pristine meadow which we immediately defiled by sculpting innapropriate things with the snow. Later that afternoon some of us went ice-skating at a rink down the road, which was fun. For dinner we headed down to Caesar's to partake in the buffet and the second-hand smoke. Good times.

Monday morning after more turducken, the far-too-short weekend came to a close, and we headed back to the good ol' Bay Area. Thank you once again to Walter for organizing another fabulous ski trip! Pictures forthcoming...

Edit: Photos are up! [Ski Trip 2006]!

My friends and I will be up in Tahoe this weekend, so if any of y'all will be up there, too, give me a call.

I've been away so long that even a virtual apology won't do. In the interest of brevity, here is a summary of my last few weeks, in good ol' bullet-point form:

• Went swing dancing under immense, crushing peer pressure. It wasn't horrible, but still not my choice of leisure activity.
• At home spent lots of time with family, saw lots o' friends, including several I hadn't seen since high school.
• Four pull-ups at climbing.
• Saw a few movies, some good, some bad.
• The Chronic(what?)-cles of Narnia!
• Learned how to knit.
• Marsha stayed over for her Stanford interview. Good fun, strange dinnertime conversation.
• New digital camera expressly purchased for party-type settings, where my big-ass camera is not practical.
• Happy Birthday, Mom!
• Two-year anniversary of Gong Gong's death. My cousins Albert and Karen and I visited his gravesite in Los Altos. It was nice.
• Lots of and lots and lots of rain. And lots.
• Discovered that Gap is discontinuing the "Low rise boot cut" style jean. This led to a frantic search at the mall for Jeans That Fit, which culminated in buying expensive jeans at J Crew and still having to leave them to be hemmed.

Wow. Put this way, my life seems really, really boring. *sigh*.

When I was in 7th grade, my carpool driver was a senior named Jennifer. Every morning she picked up me and my sister, as well as my friend Matt and his older sister Lauren and drove us to school. She was definitely a unique person. She had a bumper sticker that read "Born Again Wicca", kept rats for pets, and listened to nothing but Tori Amos' "Little Earthquakes" and the Indigo Girls' first album. But she was also one of the kindest people I knew. When my sister puked in the car one day on the way to school, Jennifer didn't get angry, just cleaned her up and brought her back home.

She was also one of the first adults I knew to not treat me like a kid, despite being 5 years older than I was. One day her car broke down on the way back from school. Lauren and I were the only ones in the car. Since I wouldn't be much help pushing the car, I had to sit in the front seat and steer. She moved the driver's seat up as far as it would go, and sat me down in it. As I sat with my knee locked against the brake pedal and my hands gripping the steering wheel, she looked at me and asked, "Are you scared?" I'm not even sure if I answered, because nobody had ever really bothered to ask me something like that.

The next year, during an argument with her boyfriend, Jennifer shot herself. I didn't go to her funeral (something I now regret,) but when a teacher announced her death at our 8th grade class meeting, I stepped out into the hallway and cried. I only knew her for that single year, but every time I hear "Crucify Myself" or "Closer To Fine" it brings me right back to 1992, sitting in the back seat of her Ford Tempo.

I miss her.

Happy New Year!

Friends, I am well aware that I have been neglecting you in my website-ly duties, so let me take this opportunity to make a virtual apology (almost as good as a real one.)

I spent the holidays in Albuquerque, and for the first time in a while, the entire family was together. I also got the opportunity to see some friends whom I hadn't seen since high school, which was equal parts nice and surreal. Besides having to take my sister to the ER on Christmas night and stay with her for 7 hours or so, (she had Stomach Flu: The Revenge) it was a fantastic break. If I'm not feeling too lazy, I'll make a more detailed report later.

I was happy that my friends went along with my Lowered Expectations New Year's Eve. If you've ever heard me rant about New Year's Eve (and I apologize if you have), you know that I am of the opinion that it is consistently the biggest letdown of the year. So instead of trying to make elaborate plans, I did my best to convince people to have a low-key celebration. The night started off with some pool at Shoreline Billiards with Peter, Crystal, Walter, Dale, and Matt. After dinner at The Creamery, Matt headed up to the city and the rest of us went to St. Stephen's Green on Castro (Mountain View) which was the bar downtown with the cheapest cover ($5). Brendan and Diane met us there a little later. I even convinced the bartender to give me my bottled water for free since I was (as always) designated driver, so I am now $2 richer. Yee haw. Anyway, the New Year was ushered in on the bar's tiny dance floor with a few close friends and a couple drinks, which was just fine by me, so I was happy. The night was not ruined even by the middle aged man with severely offensive B.O. breaking it down right next to us.

So Happy New Year to everyone! May this year be full of joy and love for you and your families. Let's rock 2006.