12.25.02 ~ my sister kristie and matthias are here watching me right now cuz they have nothing better to do, but i can't update my site when other people are watching me for some reason. so here's a word from kristie: hmmm what shall i say, hello everyone - not much to say but merry xmas yall B) later ~~. and from matthias: hallo mama, kalifornien ist cool, sind alle super nett und es ist schoen warm. merry x-mas to everybody und 'nen guten rutsch. kristie and matthias adding to my site more pics from today... [1] me and my mom, [2] eating crepes at q-cup, [3] kyla eating her xmas present (a cow hoof). 12.24.02 ~ merry christmas (15 min early)!! my doggie got a holiday collar today. also uploaded this photo from sunday. kyla modelling her new holiday collar kristie's bday celebration at benihana's yesterday, we all saw lotr2 at mercado. it was pretty good. i've only read the hobbit + most of book 1, so i didn't really know what was coming. i also don't know what they're getting at with that other chick aragorn likes, but i'm not a big fan. ..::::.. i also uploaded the video from jessica's school symphony concert. she's playing the piano (~5mb). a clip of the harker high school symphony orchestra performing debussy's claire de lune 12.23.02 ~ i'm helping my sister proof-read her college app essays, and some of these colleges have the darndest questions. from northwestern: "Imagine you are the offspring of any two famous people. Who are your parents, and what qaulities did they pass on to you?" 12.21.02 ~ the nutcracker tickets are no longer available. ebay + craigslist + my site got me a lot of emails, but nothing concrete - turns out the guy who bought them decided to keep them for his parents. pshhh. ..::::.. matthias arrived today! yay!! :) ..::::.. i'm looking for some good non-paved trails in the palo alto area... anyone have any suggestions? i've never run "the dish" before, but i know a lot of people who used to - where do you park?? ..::::.. from last night... anyway, tonight i saw "gangs of new york" with jim in palo alto. we ended up catching the last showing at 10:30pm, and the movie happens to be 2:44 long. there was a lot of gore, violence, and blood. it was also weird watching cameron diaz kiss leonardo dicaprio - i just couldn't take it seriously. all in all, i give it 2 stars. ..::::.. today, we stopped at best buy for some last minute shopping. i had jessica pick out the optical mouse she wanted so that i could make sure she got one she liked. i'm glad we stopped at best buy, cuz after all the research i did (ok, it wasn't THAT much) i haven't seen the one i ended up buying. i can post it here because she already knows. :) it's the mini microsoft notebook optical mouse. cute. good size. wired. good price range. would be nice if there was a carrying case or a retractable cord. the reason i didn't go with a wireless one is because i've read and heard a lot about it skipping and/or being slow to respond sometimes. 12.20.02 ~ calling all san franciscans... i have 4 extra tickets to the nutcracker (san francisco ballet) at the war memorial opera house in san francsico on december 24th at 4pm. here are the details from my ebay auction: Date: Tuesday, December 24, 2002. Time: 4pm Seats: BC:LC:B:11,17 Location: San Francisco, War Memorial Opera House The War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue at Grove Street in San Francisco and opens at noon on performance days. See sfballet.org for more information about the show, the location, and the seating chart. These 4 adjascent tickets in the Balcony Circle were purchased online for $40 each + $8 handling fee (a family event came up, and we can't make the show anymore). The winner may pick up the tickets at the will call window - I will provide the confirmation number upon payment approval. If you are interested in fewer than 4 tickets, please email me at jenny @ jennycu.com. ..::::.. cortisone shot. ok, so according to my doctor, i have a hip burstis. i dunno... the pain is a little lower than that. he asked me where the pain was focused, so i showed him the spot where it hurts the most. he says, here?... and pushes really really hard on it. yes! there! damn. he draws a little circle on my leg there, and gives me the option to have a cortisone / novicane shot. i asked what the cost/benefit ratio was, and then said ok just give it to me. i asked him why the novicane - is it going to hurt? he pulls out this 5 or so inch needle and says, no no, it just helps the cortisone to spread out more. hmmm... ok. he's giving me a running commentary, this is going to pinch a little, you might feel a little sting, how are you doing, almost there, ok done. i'm not really nervous around needles or blood, but i did make a little sqeak once or twice - i asked him what that pain was, and he said, oh, that was just me tapping on your bone. what???? so he described the whole bursa thing to me, and i guess he had to find the bone before he could know where the bursa was. whatever. tapping on my bone with a needle?!?! hip bursa - see the blue things? those are bursas. and some links for ya... see the finalists for the gap casting call. what do you think? these are my picks... germany faces beer shortage??? a very well-designed personal website (from my guestbook) that kept my attention for longer than most... sissyphus. use your frequent flyer miles for stuff @ milepoint.com - i haven't tried it yet, but it looks like you get a pretty good deal. i also have bad knees (the left one in particular), and this site had some useful exercises - kneeguru. yep, the storm is still here. 12.19.02 ~ hey, all my german friends... wanna see my website in german?? :) don't blame me for the translations - it's free! i also added a "translator" section on the left side bar under the "currency converter". let me know how you like it. ..::::.. i'm sleepy, so i'll keep it short and post the media later. ..::::.. tonight, my sister jessica's high school orchestra had a concert and our whole family attended. it was pretty cute - i have a video that i'll post later. ..::::.. today, i went to the orthopaedic doctor that drained the fluid out of my leg. in short, he gave me a cortisone shot. i'm too sleepy... i'll write about it tomorrow. 12.18.02 ~ it's that time of the year, and a lot of my friend have been asking me for gift suggestions. i'm going to try to put together a short list for you soon... ..::::.. i found out today that i may not be able to go back to germany in january after all. :( more details when i know them. trip to lanzarote is still on... i'll find a way there somehow! ..::::.. i'm trying to figure out where to take matthias, and i came across this "best of san francisco" list that appears to be very comprehensive. just thought i'd share. :) 12.17.02 ~ have you heard of a turducken? i think it's a crazy cajun creation. it's a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken!! and no bones in the whole thing except for the legs (for aesthetic purposes) - now *that* is not natural. a turducken the power is still not fully restored at our house. it appears that the voltage is lower than it should be, and there are surges of normalcy so sometimes the appliances freak out. everything was beeping and blinking funny, and it even caused a bulb to burn out, so we decided to unplug everything just in case. ..::::.. power's back - yay!! ..::::.. 5 days until matthias gets here! btw, that's prounounced "mah-tee-ahs". :) ..::::.. looking at the weather forecast, it looks like it's going to be a rainy christmas here in california this year. 12.16.02 ~ dude, what's with the weather? it was pouring rain last night, and uber windy! our power went out around 10pm, and hasn't come back yet (it's 10am). my laptop battery died around midnight, as i was helping my sister with her college apps. i didn't get to bed until about 1am (when her battery died), and at 6am, i woke up to the sound of *drip*... *drip* (which had somehow integrated itself into my not-exactly-relaxing dreams)... my roof was dripping!! oh MAN! i was also freezing my butt off because not only was the heat off (no power), but one of my windows blew open in the middle of the night. cripes! so now i'm at buck's cafe nearby that has free wireless internet, a plug for my laptop, and warm coffee. hehe. 12.15.02 ~ so i found out more about that mcdonalds jingle that i like (it's sung by pedro fernandez and his daughter gema), but i still haven't been able to download it. anyone? bueller? 12.14.02 ~ some interesting links for ya: this year's web trends - google zeitgeist 2002. i'm thinking of going to the nutcracker (san francisco ballet). froogle - google's trying to hop on the cnet shopper and yahoo shopping bandwagon. do you want to learn to cook chinese food? 12.13.02 ~ my friends sometimes send me links to things they would find interesting on the internet. this one crrrrracked me up (but takes forever to download) - happy birthday. it's funnier if you know a fob. speaking of fobs, if you understand mandarin, here's a chinese pig cartoon that you might enjoy (requires sound). and lastly, just as i found out that i am going back to germany in january (yay!), someone sent me this article on cannibals in germany. those germans better get their continents right, and stop eating each other before i come back in january. :P ..::::.. good lord!!!! apparently, the germany story is a little more horrendous than the last article pointed out. ..::::.. i met up with j tonight at the oasis (241 el camino real) in menlo park. it was good to catch up, dude. for some reason, it was asian hangout night there, which is weird since we are usually the only ones there. :) afterwards, almost right outside, on the way home on el camino, there was a long line of cars. when i got closer, i saw all of the police cars and channel 5 news vans. it was a sobriety checkpoint. i've never seen one here before. i was lucky, all i had was coffee and lemonade (and some peanuts). i wonder what they do to you if you are inebriated.' ..::::.. has anyone heard the mcdonalds radio commercial (i heard it on channel 104.9) lately? it's so cute, i want to download it but i can't find it. 12.12.02 ~ tonight, i went shopping at valley fair (they are open until 10pm). i guess i was in an easily impressionable mood, because i ended up with a couple of purchases that i didn't intend to have. first one was at a|x. i bonded with this chick named jennifer (oooh - same name!!) that works there, and she showed me all these cute things... for HER. the one thing i picked out for myself was what i really liked - a long black skirt with a slit down the front. i asked her if it was going to go on sale soon, and she said, "well, we only have three left. if it goes on sale, there won't be any left! you could also just get it, and leave the tags on in case you want to return it." *sigh* i got it. it's so cute. and adds another black item to my already all-black wardrobe. then, on my way to the car, i passed this chick standing next to one of those portable store cart things. she says, "can i see you nails?" me, "nope." she implores, "15 seconds. i swear!" she was so bubbly and funny, so i stopped. she did this funky thing with a buffer, and 15 seconds later, sure enough, my nail was super duper shiny! wow. then she put some cuticle thing on, and lotion on my hand. it was niiice. and for me, since it's closing time... a special deal!! ok ok, i give in. i hand her my credit card, and she puts my stuff in a bag... then she pauses, and says... "i'm going to give you a very very special deal and give you one more for half price!! ok???" all the while, she is deftly sneaking another set of products into my bag. me: "hmmmm... i dunno." she's holding my credit card hostage, levitating it inches from the credit card swiper... "ok??? i'll give you special gift too, how's that?" and then *whoosh*... she swiped my card. heeeey. how did that happen?? i look up, and there's a sign on her counter in big letters that says, "NO REFUNDS." i also got this sweater at max studio. oh, and i put the lights up outside and on the tree. oh!! and i went to the optometrist today to get my eyes checked. apparently, i am slightly near-sighted, but not much. -0.25 / -0.75, whatever that means. he told me that my eyes are good, and that the glasses are optional, mostly for driving at night or looking at far-away thing like at a board in a classroom or something. my parents think i shouldn't get them, just to avoid the potential of becoming dependent on them. ..::::.. there are some good deals right now. check out the discounts page. 12.11.02 ~ update: home for the holidays. my dog kyla (ky-ky) and our other dog max in their typical positions click here to watch a video (7.8MB) here's the jordan video i promised. it's huuuge (7.2MB). if you don't want to download it, it's basically just jordan shooting a freethrow, running towards the camera, bending over, and then me panning to the scoreboard and to luke, thor, and mike and then me making some weird horrible sounding laugh-like noise. :) here's an action shot of a rebound (2.4MB). much less exciting. 12.10.02 ~ i know i haven't been updating... it's been busy busy here at the cu pad. kristie and the (currently undecorated) tree. 12.05.02 ~ i think i am getting sick. :( i get to go home today. last night's game was a lot of fun. we had 4 seats courtside, and 10 in the way way way way back. we rotated the courtside seats, and i got to see the last quarter - it was awesome! here are some pics... [1] our view from the nosebleed section, [2] some of our group [1] jordan's back, [2] jordan in action and for the boys... pics of the cheerleaders. :P i'll put up a couple of short video clips later. gotta run to catch my flight now. can't wait to get back to normal weather!! :) 12.03.02 ~ it should *never* be this cold. maybe when you're going snowboarding, but that's it. it's -8°c here!! i'm living in a sub-zero freezer!! i have to turn on the heater, but then it gets so dry. wah, wah. i was going to go out tonight, but i am sooooo tired. tomorrow night, a bunch of us are going to the pistons / wizards game. i get to see michael jordon (in his second to last game ever)!! :) 12.02.02 ~ i'm safe in detroit. my day chronicled: leaving germany. 12.01.02 ~ well then... tonight is my last night in stuttgart. my apartment is still a mess, but i'm almost done packing. i broke down last night - just couldn't believe i had to leave. i was walking around the christmas market downtown with martin... just like i was one year ago. me and martin at the christmas market in stuttgart eating a dampfnudle... [1] last year (12.11.02) and [2] this year (11.30.02) matthias and me at the weihnachtsmarkt (christmas market) i've had the most unbelievable year here in germany. this year will forever my "germany year". ..::::.. last night, i went with matthias to an awards banquet for the athletes in his club. here are some of stuttgart's finest athletes. :) [1] a few members of the laz salamander team. [2] me, matthias, and marc. after the banquet, a few of us went out to celebrate my last night in stuttgart. we went to the suite first (i think it's been renamed to xander?), and then i saw romy s for the first time. [1] matthias, stephan, a friend, and marc. [2] florian, marc, and matthias. now i need to finish packing so i can get on a plane soon.