Tahoe came and went by so quickly! It was a bunch of fun, but I'm sad it's over and I'm looking forward to next year. :) It was nice to reconnect with everyone - Amit, Walt, Laquel, Merima + John, Mark + Jenn. Matt was there as well, recovering from a bug he had during the week.

We drove up Friday night and the scenery was beautiful! The last time I'd seen snow was the year previous, and we got PLENTY of it the first night. I've had a handful of times where I wished I had gotten 4 wheel drive on my truck and Friday night was one of them. Amit and I went to go pick up some groceries in the middle of long period of snowfall, and became stuck at the bottom of the street on the way back to the house. Sooo... we whipped out my trusty cables which I had gotten last year and found that they were 20" too short!! Ugh, wrong size. Walt hiked down to offer us moral support and in one last ditch effort, I backed up to build some momentum and powered it up the hill, with the accelerator at the max. Finally, we skidded and slid up to our driveway, my first real experience driving on slippery icey roads. Eeek. We spent the next hour or so shoveling the driveway so the cars wouldn't get stuck (again).

Luckily there was a nice big hot tub for us to soothe our snow-shoveling muscles in the evening. It's a pretty cool experience being in a 100 degree hot tub surrounded by icicles and snow covered trees. We had a fun time throwing snow up at the branches above us and screaming when the ice fell down on us (although Merima and John probably didn't as their bedroom was directly above us). :)

We spent Saturday looking for a place to snowshoe, but our intentions were quickly averted by a crotchedy old woman we ran into at Camp Richardson. She worked at the snow shoe rental place and she had nothing but venom to spit at all of us. What a mean, selfish, bitter, sad woman! We ended up at a local trail and didn't get much more than 100 feet from the parking lot when the snowball wars started. After everyone was pretty tired from smacking each other with balls, we created two anatomically correct snow people. I added to the creativity by adding the male genitals (which Amit lovingly kept stroking even when everyone was getting ready to leave), and adding perky nipples to the snow woman (which Merima patted down).

In the evening, we played Settlers of Cataan which I hadn't played in years and was reminded of how fun of a game it was.

Check out other people's blogs to read their accounts. Walt is also going to post avi movies of him and Amit wiping out while sledding.. pretty damn funny.

It was a fairly long drive back, about 4 hours with a lunch stop. It began raining about halfway through Vacaville and by the time we reached San Francisco, it was pouring rain in sheets. I could barely go faster than 40 miles an hour at one point without being able to see anything.. scary. China had a grand ol' time in the snow, but is feeling the aftermath of eating tablescraps (out of her burning mudbutt).

After a weekend of spicy food, Matt needs this. In return, I will use this. Anyone who tries to stop me is this.

Random, yes.

Hooray 3 day week! Yesterday was President's Day then on Friday we're off to Tahoe, yipee! Sorry, I don't know how to link to the middle of the page, so just read February 17th's entry for reports of last year's Tahoe trip.

I thoroughly enjoyed having the 3 day weekend. I intended to get a bunch of stuff done on my trailer (I'm working on insulating it), but the weather wasn't cooperating. Plus, Matt and I went to about 3 different home improvement stores before we even found the insulation we wanted. The people at Home Depot and Ace Hardware looked as if we were asking for the Hope Diamond when we asked them if they carried the stuff. Finally we went to Lohe's Home Improvement and they had half an aisle full of the what we wanted. Sheesh.

On Saturday, I took Isabella to the beach for the first time. The tide was pretty high, and surfers were out en masse. Isabella wanted NOTHING to do with the foamy waves and would hightail it backwards/sideways whenever a wave would come near us. I've never seen her move so fast! Afterwards I gave her 4way and West Nile vaccine shots, and put her away. The next day I got an email from a friend out there that Isabella was limping, and sure enough when I went to check on her, her neck was swollen and she was short strided on her left front. :( Poor girly. I checked on her again last night and she was vastly improved with the swelling down and walking normally.

FX was running the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search marathon so of course I watched it all. There passed 5 of the most useless hours of my life. Afterwards I watched American Idol where the 12 guys were performing. The format of this year's competition is different and now you get to call for your favorites right away. Yes, I am a total American Idol nerd and I voted! hehe. You'll have to guess who. :)

Almost done with taxes, it doesn't seem as bad as I thought.. so far it looks like I'll owe about $700. We shall see.

FYI that longer post from Thursday was written Wednesday.

I had sandwiches from Little Luca's for lunch then boba, so I'm in a food comatose. I also have this massive sinus headache right now.. took 2 Aleve so I hope it evens it out soon. UGH

At work today we moved buildings. I now share a very large office with a gal in my group who is a contractor (she only works a few days a week). Superscore! I have a nice big window where I have a lovely view of the building next door.

Last night I went out on the trail with Isabella - it was sprinkling as we started out and I was wearing my grey sweatshirt. We got about 3/4 of the way up the mountain when it started raining more heavily, so we turned and headed back. As soon as I put her away it started raining HARD! We came back in the nick of time. I'm thinking about getting some rain gear, but then this is California, so it really doesn't rain *that* much right? I'm in a dilemma.

Chinese New Year's parade with the gang tomorrow, then next weekend is Tahoe!

Sorry for the lack of updates.. blogger has been sucky and I haven't been able to publish all week! :P

Yesterday I had to drop off my supervisor at the car dealership so I came home pretty early, about 3:30. It was raining so I wasn't able to go see Isabella.. I was sore from the step class I took the day before, I basically I stayed in for the evening. It was kind of a wierd experience spending so much time alone in my apartment. I'm used to solidarity, but 8 1/2 hours from the time I got home to when I went to sleep was a long time for me.

I watched quite a bit of TV. Hope Floats, American Idol, and Sex in the City being a few. I went online and put up a few things laying around for sale (anyone want to buy a cable or dsl modem? I have both!). The rest of the night I spent playing with China, talking to her (which felt wierd after a while), chatting with Matt briefly on the phone, reading magazines, and eating Trader Joe's turkey meatballs. I microwaved the meatballs extra long, so my place now smells like balls o' meat. Mmm.

Anyways, the rain has let up today, and I hope it stays this way so I can go check on Isabella. I don't think I could stand being stuck inside for another whole evening! I might go crazy.

Happy Valentine's Day!



Rain, rain! So much rain.. and it's predicted to stay around all week long! Ugh.

This afternoon Matt surprised me at lunch with a loverly pink hyancinth for my office. It has a really yummy scent.. and I hope it lives since the office I have now doesn't have any windows. I'm supposed to be moving to a bigger window office in a week (so they say), so hang on till then, little plant!

Because Valentine's is on a Monday, we decided to celebrate it over the weekend by taking a drive up to his (empty) parent's place in Santa Rosa. It was nice and peaceful up there, no traffic or street noise to deal with. We made a nice dinner together then watched some TV and played TimeSplitters2 until I got nauseous. Some first person shooters get me pretty dizzy, so I watched Matt play for a little bit then conked out. I bought him a nice V-day card and a big Hershey's kiss. Mmmm.

In show for last Sunday's food indiscretion (ie, tons of fried food!) I have 3, count 'em *3* new huge pimples on my face. UGH!!! They're huge also. Gross.

Isabella got a new 'foot-do' today by a new farrier I'm using. I really like this guy. He was easy to talk to (farriers can be quite reserved and gruff if you ask them questions) and it sounded like he gave a good, honest assessment of Isabella's hooves. The past few trims Isabella has gotten her has left her with a really deep, long heel, so as he was trimming her, there was evidence of some bruising with pressure at her heel bulbs (because her weight wasn't centered over where it was supposed to). He gave the thumbs up and we're hoping to keep her barefoot all ride season with the Easyboot Epics.

Tonight I'm going to try to find a place to hike with China. She's going stir crazy!

Work's been busy the last few days and now we're experiencing a bit of downtime, so yay, I get to update.

My birthday was very fun despite having horrible allergies that night. I was drugged up with the help of Benadryl and with my trusty tissue in hand, I was able to function somewhat normally. It was great, Walt had a whole bartending set up available so Matt (with Amit's help) made me this very yummy drink which tasted of Hawaiian punch. In return, I (with the help of Mark) made Matt what I call my HodgePodge drink cuz it had a little bit of everything. Literally. I put everything in there. I took a sample taste and my tongue went fuzzy and numb. Matt, being a dutiful boyfriend, told me how thankful he was and drank all of it! What a boy. :)

It was one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. There were about 20+ people at Walt's party and they all sang Happy Birthday as I blew out candles.. My friends are awesome! It was wonderful, although I really don't like having so much attention given to me.. I guess once a year is okay.

The next day we decided to pig out for Superbowl Sunday. NEVER AGAIN. We did Kentucky Fried Chicken with donut chasers, and Cheetos for the remainder of the day. I gained about 2-3 pounds in the span of 6 hours. ugh. I'm on a mission this week to detoxify from that day.

Gonna head home now.. supposedly my DSL Extreme is activated today so I'll have internet at home instead of mooching off the trailer park's wireless connection next door.

Tomorrow I'll be 28! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee!!

You Are a Feminine Beauty! You make any guy feel like a man, simply by standing next to him You have a classic womanly appeal - and you've got a look for every occasion This doesn't mean that you can't kick back in (designer) jeans and sneakers You just prefer to be girly and sweet as often as possible What Type of Beauty Are You? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

Your sex is like Classical music!

Classic, refined--and maybe a little bit tame--you have sex with dignity, grace, and style.

For you, sex is probably more about the feelings you have for your partner than about being adventurous or risque -- but don't let anyone call you a prude!

Your sex is timeless and meaningful and will still be fulfilling for you long after others have exhausted their last fetish.



What Type of Music is Your Sex Like?

More Great Quizzes from Quiz Diva

Benihana Story

Last night Matt and I went to Benihana for dinner. For those of you that don't know, Benihana is having a 2005 special where you get a great meal for two people for a mere $20.05. Less than the cost of a normal dinner! It was an fun, interesting dinner. For one, they didn't charge Matt for his big bottle of Sapporo beer. Score one for the homies. I hadn't been to Benihana for a long time since my birthday debacle a few years ago where I was seated next to some really rude and obnoxious frat boys. This time we were seated in between two couples. Little did we know that we had the self-pronounced Top Benihana Customer of ALL TIME sitting to the left of us. She knew the menu inside and out and had no qualms about telling the chef *exactly* how she liked her food (fried rice, no vegies, extra garlic butter and a piece of whole lemon please), and generally let it be known that she came to Benihana quite frequently.

Our chef was this little Mexican dude named Americano. He did a great job in keeping us entertained. Everytime he'd make a little joke or do a trick, he'd make that noise, "oooOOO, ooOOOO" (imagine that with a higher intonation at the end of each ooO like a 70s disco song). He was a hoot and a half!

Dinner itself was fun because we didn't really know what the "2005 Special" was going to be. I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone else out there, so I'll just say it was yummy.

The best part of the evening was at the end when the couple to the right of us ordered Tempura Banana with ice cream. Apparently this was something the Top Benihana Customer of all time had never seen before and she very haughtily goes, "*WHAT* is that." More like a statement of WHY DO I NOT KNOW WHAT THIS IS I AM THE TOP BENIHANA CUSTOMER?? The woman responds, "Well, it's a special dish you have to ask the chef about." It was awesome. The Top Benihana Customer got FACIAL DISGRACE-IALED. HAHAHAHAHA. Score another one for the homies.

Haha, I love it. What will they think of next..

Bitch, Bitch, Bitch!

I woke up grumpy this morning because my alarm didn't go off at all. I wanted to come in early because I have to be in Berkeley at 4pm, but I woke up with a start at 7:30, an hour later than I wanted. I got dressed and scarfed down some muesli and rushed China outside. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. She didn't want to go pee! ARGH. She wouldn't be able to go out again until later that afternoon and I didn't want her to hold it or have to go in my new apartment, so I took her around to the mulch covered lawn of my landlord's house to see if any of the smells there could entice her to go. There was a woman across the street who had been watching us the whole time while she was cleaning out her van. China was *not* going to go so in frustration I told her, "Come on" and we headed back to my place. Thus ensued the following conversation.

Rude lady: You *are* going to pick up after your dog, aren't you??
Me: -shows lady the doggy bag I had in my hand THE WHOLE TIME-
Me: -puts China back, feeds her, gives her treats-
Me: -walks outside towards lady and yells across the street to her-
Me: You know, I wanted to thank you for the really nice, warm, reception you just gave to your new neighbor!
Rude lady: -flustered-
Rude lady: Well, there are people whose dogs go on my lawn and they don't bother picking up after them.
Me: Well, it would've been one thing if my dog had pooped and I just left it there, but to make an ASSumption like that is just mean!! (bitch)
Rude lady: -goes back to cleaning her van pretending she didn't hear me-

It's not really in my nature to tell off someone like that, but really.. I thought that wasn't very nice what she said to me, especially when she didn't bother to introduce herself or say it in a tactful way. There was nothing that I nor China had done to spawn that sort of attitude from her. She officially goes on my "DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE CUZ SHE'S A MEAN BITTER LADY AND HER LIFE SUCKS SO SHE HAS TO TAKE IT OUT ON OTHER PEOPLE" list from now on.

On a more pleasant note, I ended up going to the quadrille practice last night after all and had so much fun! I met quite a few gals and their horses and it was great practice for Isabella and me. We practiced a bunch of group formations at the walk and Isabella had a grand time side swiping all of the mud puddles in the arena and spooking at the scary trees in the dark end. :)