We decided to wine, dine, and Coraline. 'Twas divine. :)

Tree Frog bravely took me to get my favorite: STINKY TOFU!

The "wine" was taken care of by a couple of dudes imbibing Chinese hard liquor behind me, who got progressively louder throughout the meal.

Coraline, in 3D! Behold Four-Eyes and Six-Eyes.

Detour adventures: trying out cute travel pillows, then flirting with broken necks at Target (video).

Not a single chocolate was consumed, not a single flower was bought for the occasion, and I had fun. Gasp! :)

Thanks for all the birthday well-wishes!! I hope all is well for everyone in this new year!

As if to alert me to my +1 status, my body protested at 9pm to go to bed. It's now 4 am, and I am strangely wide awake, and awfully sentimental.

I think I've become more aware in my "adulthood" of patterns engrained in me that I don't necessarily like, but are undeniably part of my being. I suppose I could just say "that's just how I am", but I refuse to just BE that way.

To all of my friends: each and every one of you inspires me to be a better person. And that is the best birthday present I could have.

My homeboy EnVaDoR has been up to no good as usual with his modding antics. His latest: getting noted on lifehacker (with a mention on gizmodo) for his DIY iPhone Paper Clip Stand!

A search turns up a whole lotta hits where he gets mentioned, but true 6334dom is appearing on lh and gizmodo, right? :) From one geek to another, here's to you Dean: the King o' Geeks!

[ his original post ]

How's this for a Saturday morning cartoon-ish blog post title? :)

Inspiration struck only the day before Eda and Yusuke's Hallowe'en party when I heard that oddly endearing song "Anyone Else But You". I was instantly reminded how friends, one by one, near and far, insisted that I needed to watch this movie called Juno that apparently starred me. And Tree Frog was said to have co-starred, even though he really looks NOTHING like Bleeker other than sharing skin color and sometimes possessing a similar clueless look.

And so I present to you the slightly dyslexic but adequately presentable Juno and Bleeker, the Hallowe'en 2008 Edition! :)

   

Cuteness, grossness, and chillness were all present at this lovely party. Thanks to our wonderful host and hostess for letting us destroy their home with stinky tofu and pumpkin innards!

Also, special thanks to the Tree Frog for driving down from Austin to be my date for the party. Even if your shorts weren't short enough. :)

[ all pics from the party ]

Elaine and I survived the Dallas Muddy Buddy 6-mi run/bike! (Well, to be very clear, *I* merely survived it - Elaine's in really good shape so I'm sure this was not too bad for her.) To commemorate this accomplishment, I've put together a slideshow to cheesy music, as I am often prone to doing. Enjoy!

My personal goals were to seriously 1) complete without dying, and 2) to not stop. I had to walk the bike a few times over rough / steep terrain, but otherwise, I did it! WE did it! :)

Thanks to those who came out to share our "last meal", to those who trained the last 3 months with my Royal Slowness, and for all the well-wishes!

============================

Training equipment / tools:
- Champion running shoes, 4+ years old, were thrown out after the race
- Hella-old Walmart special mountain bike (Elaine's nice bike was used for the race)
- MapMyRun.com, a great way to track your workouts and provide motivation for the days you just don't want to run
- fear of dying on the day of the race

There have been a few adventures with the Tree Frog in the last little bit. A midnight hurricane curfew ever-so-slightly cramped our style for Huong's and Wendy's birthday celebrations, both being pretty soon after Hurricane Ike blew through. Carol's birthday was a nice girls-only brunch at Backstreet Cafe, a nice midtown eatery where the whole table got carded when we ordered pitchers of sangria, hahahah. I am now super determined to learn to make French toast. It was SOO good!

We tried to get off our lazy butts and go for walks around the neighborhood, some of which ended up at Target and the local Shoe Carnival. I was in a silly picture-taking mood, and Tree Frog was enabling me, so there we were! We also had a weekend where he accompanied me to David's Bridal to try on some bridesmaids dresses for a friend's wedding next year.

We also arranged a nice little "date night" at Houston's. We both put some effort into getting slightly dressed up and headed out. The booths there were quite cozy, and the music not too loud, just the way I like it - I hate yelling over the music just to chat with someone sitting right next to me. After dinner we headed to the Raven Grill for his favorite dessert. (Thank you Google for helping me find this place: "peanut butter chocolate pie houston tx"!)

This would all be complete gluttony except that I'd been training hard for the Muddy Buddy run/bike event in Dallas. Tree Frog had been good enough to accompany me on workouts in Houston and had arranged for a big band of friends to run together when I visited Austin (which ensued in gluttony also, hahaha). Was the training good enough??? Stay tuned for the next installment ...

Wei invited us over for a little BBQ. Oscar graciously prepared tons of food. Everyone brought a little something and before long we were totally stuffed.

The night ended on a perfect note with Carlos' soon-to-be world-famous rum cake, paired with some Costa Rican coffee. MMMMMmmmmm. (I was stuffed but there's always room for dessert, haha!)

And no set of pics would be complete without pics of the doggies!

[ see all photos ]

The conclusion to my little four-part series.

And so, the storm hit us almost exactly one month ago today. And today, there are 4 men on my roof banging loudly away, making me fear that at any moment the ceiling might cave in and a construction worker complete with hammer, hardhat, and neon vest might fall into my bedroom. Hahaha and no, that would not be a turn on.

Apologies to those who can't get my abysmal singing voice out of their heads. Muahahahaha. Soon all will be ihatepink.com zombies! World domination is imminent!! :)