fumofu

Last night on our way home from a ramen dinner, somehow smegma entered our conversation. It’s not a word I use at all. I thought it referred to pop paste. So I had to whip out my Droid and look it up. Albie advised me to Google “smegma Wikipedia” to eliminate any suspicious hits. There were some interesting information in that Wiki. But in summary, smegma is actually not pop paste but schlong poop. Good to know.

In other news, Baby is growing bigger inside me day by day. His kicks are much stronger this week than even just two weeks ago, to the point where I get a bit startled when he suddenly starts a bout of kicking. These past couple of days I’ve had Albie try to see if he can feel the kicks from touching my tummy, but no luck. I even read on a pregnancy forum that other expectant moms can see the kicks. So after that I lifted my shirt up when I felt Baby starting to kick (again, right after a meal). And I saw them! It’s easy to miss because my belly is already going up and down as I’m breathing, but I could see, for a second long, this slight, sudden lift on my lower belly. My goal for before Albie leaves is for him to feel Baby kick, and he finally felt it last night when we were getting ready for bed. The feeling that there will be three of us in our family is getting stronger by the day. We’re still in awe that there’s a little person growing inside me!

So yeah, Hubby left for India today for two weeks. I’m a little bummed, but I know I’ll gradually feel worse as the days go by. I’m spending the duration at my parents’ place in the City. It’s most lonely during mealtimes when I’m figuring out what to eat; cooking for one is just too much. So I’m spending some quality time with the ‘rents. Too bad Winnie x3 are in Tahoe this week. I don’t get to see Mason!

My mom talks about her growing grandson all the time. She’s such a doting Paw Paw. :) Just talking about the little boy makes her smile. She said earlier today that this Christmas will be quite crowded with three babies. The 6 of us couldn’t have timed it any better. How will she hold the grandkids with just two arms? I’m glad there’s something in her life that cheers her up so much, even though her health is not the best.

Albert and I are still trying to figure where to go on our babymoon. I was almost sold on organizing a trip to NYC at the end of April. Then I realized Patricia’s due date is May 3rd, and we’ll be taking care of Bahamas. So…we’ll have to stay put. Maybe we’ll just find a last minute deal on TravelZoo. When Albie comes back from India, we’ll have to finish doing our taxes. If we’re in the black instead of red, maybe we’ll treat ourselves to a nice vacation. :)

We’re in Vegas for the long weekend! My parents took us to the airport, and before we left home we told them we’re pregnant and showed them our ultrasound photos. My mom broke out her English and said, “Congratulations, Albert.” Albie chuckled and said, “Congratulations to you too!” Cute. So Grandma and Grandpa will expect their 3^rd grandkid all in the same year. Crazy. Emailed my siblings at the airport, which surprised all of them. But we’re all happy the cousins will be of similar age and can grow up together. Patricia said she hopes our baby will be a girl so she can put her boy cousins in place. I wrote back saying Albert and I talked about it and said we hope it’ll be a boy so he wouldn’t be picked on so much as he’ll already the youngest (and thus, by default, the least cool).

We stayed at the new Aria, which has a nice mattress pillow top and fluffy pillows that made the perfect medium to loaf around in all weekend long (making it a very expensive bed). I was so enamored with the pillows I took one out of its pillowcase to see what brand it was. Unfortunately, it was Aria’s own in-house brand. So far I haven’t found a replacement at the store; and I’m not going to shell out $100+ for Macy’s Hotel collection, which wasn’t even a close second. My back has started aching, which I thought was premature. I thought most women get backaches from the load they’re carrying later in the pregnancy. I’m barely sporting a bump on my tummy (I’m still trying to figuring out if my tummy is from eating so much or from our little bun in the oven).

You know how women dress especially trashy at Vegas? Well, I shuffled between my two pairs of black sweats almost the entire trip. It was wonderful! I love being pregnant!

Anyways, Aria has some nice restaurants. Too bad I can’t have too much seafood, and raw food is a no-go. Every restaurant offered a decadent tartare of sorts, either otoro for fish or wagyu beef. Let’s see what I had:

Friday night: Lobster risotto at Sirio for dinner (Albert had meatball trio appetizer and grilled fish), then after a stroll around CityCenter, shared a vanilla cream crepe with berries with Albie at Jean Philippe Patisserie right by the elevator.

Saturday: Got up early for an avocado, cheddar and mushroom omelet and ordered the most expensive glass of freshly squeezed OJ I’ve had in my life at Café Vettro (Albie had eggs Benedict and grapefruit juice), then headed over to the turf fields to watch Albie play at his abridged ultimate Frisbee tournament. I haven’t seen him play in about 5 years, and as a first, no one asked me to play. It was great! Ate my leftovers from breakfast at the fields, and was craving some cheese. So I headed to Wal-Mart a block down and bought some Ritz cheese spread and cracker. Do you remember those? Albert looked at me disgusted, but I thought they tasted pretty good. :p

After the tournament, we got on the drive-thru at In-n-Out and ate our burgers in the parking lot. I got my alcohol hand sanitizer out before Albie could sneak a fry in. Last time he ate after Frisbee with dirty hands, he got diarrhea. Poop aside, that was the best burger I’ve had for a while.

We went back to our room, showered and slept, and got up for dinner #2 at Lemongrass. It’s a Thai restaurant, but I ordered Chinese spicy stewed beef soup noodle, while Albert got seafood noodles and the same gin that Moneal got him the night before our wedding… It was an expensive meal, but it was good!

We took a midnight stroll and finally ventured out on the strip outside of CityCenter. Took the tram to Bellagio, and walked a bit at the Forum shops at Caesar’s. We had just watched the “Hangover” and giggled when we passed by the statue up on top of the building by the valet pickup.

Sunday: Met up with Johann, Julius, and some other ultimate people at Diablo’s Cantina at Monte Carlo. I was craving for steak quesadilla, and it was pretty good until it got cold. Albert shared a bucket of buffalo wings with Julius, which were really hot. Was craving for dessert, since I didn’t get my fill yesterday, so I got churros with chocolate dip. Pretty good, but don’t think it completely left me satiated. We watched the Jets vs. Colts playoff game at the restaurant. The Colts may have won, but the Jets still have the fattest linemen ever.

Albert had a pitcher’s worth of Tecate at the bar, and was still drunk when we went to Sage for dinner. I camouflaged into the restaurant’s purple décor with my purple dress. J We were served an amuse bouche, but I forgot what it was. For main courses, I got the Australian-raised wagyu beef tenderloin with this fancy hash brown concoction while Albert ordered the Belgian ale-braised short ribs. The tenderloin was oh so good. I haven’t had good beef since my pregnancy started; and this tenderloin tasted fresh with no bad aftertaste. For dessert, we shared a toffee bread pudding with white pepper ice-cream. They complemented well with each other. All topped off by French-pressed coffee, even though mine was decaf. The waiter offered his refill on the house, but we were so full we declined.

It feels good to splurge on an expensive dinner once in a while. And I said to Albie, the expensive restaurants in Vegas are comparable in price anywhere else, while the mid-priced restaurants in Sin City are complete rip-offs. But, Albie made some good money from blackjack over the weekend, so that paid part of the tab.

All in all, it was a good weekend, save for the cigarette smoke I inhaled. I felt a bit guilty for that…

The funniest thing that happened during our trip was when we were walking by the blackjack/poker tables at Aria, this Asian dealer accosted us. We said, “Hi,” back and continued walking. The demographic in Vegas is definitely more Caucasian-dominant than the Bay Area. So I said to Albert, “Yellow to yellow.” And Albie replied, “Yeah, coz we’re on the same wavelength.” Took me a good 10 seconds to understand the words that came out of his mouth. I married a big fat n3rd, a bigger one than I’d originally thought.

For the past two weeks or so, things have been incredibly slow in lab. Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be when my project is wrapping up, and I’m just waiting for my boss to write the paper for submission. These days I’ve been trying read literature so I can start writing my dissertation. It’s scary, because no one is here to push me and tell me I have to do this and this. And since my self motivation is lacking, I haven’t been been diligently reading and career planning.

Today I finally had some work done, so it was nice to feel hectic and stressed for once. :) I just hope my experiments work… It’s OK to be busy as long as the experiments work.

It’s gotten incredibly cold in Riverside. Which makes me miss Albert even more. Because I come home, it’s cold and no one’s there to cook me dinner and warm me up… But then again, Albert didn’t have dinner ready at the table either…which was OK. It was nice having someone around so I had a reason to cook. Cooking for one isn’t worth the grocery shopping and planning…at least for me. This weekend, I’m flying to San Jose. Now that Albert moved to an apartment we’ll be able to cook.

I recently started learning Japanese with the Pimsleur system. It’s going pretty well, but it’s getting extremely hard. The vocabulary grows every day, to the point where I have to pause and think before I say the phrases. The tape gives you time to translate the dialogue, but now I have to pause the clip then translate outloud. Pronounciation is a bit of a problem for me, because while I’m saying these words I have, in my head, how anime characters would say it. And the pitch and tone to the words would be a bit off. But so far so good. I’ve only done 7 lessons (one per day), and the program is 90 lessons/days long. Maybe I’ll be a bit conversational after 3 months. My goal is to at least finish the first 30 lessons. My longest sentence so far is, “Watashi no tokoro de nanika nomimasen ka?” or “Do you want to drink something at my place?” So many syllables!

Other than that, Maui was a blast. We snorkeled, watched stars THEN sunrise, went horseback riding down to a volcanic crater, went waterfall-hopping through the rainforest. All that, plus the joy of taking flights during Thanksgiving. Southwest/ATA managed to lose my luggage both ways. On my way back, I did get $50 back, so that went to my SJC flight this weekend. Not too shabby. Maui is a HUGE money sink. I bought some souvenirs the last day, which weren’t expensive at all, ate at a couple of places, plus the rental car. I’m definitely in the red right now. So minimal expenditure this month…I promise?

I thought exercising gets easier the more you do it. Why does it get harder for me? I decided to buy an elliptical machine so that I no longer have an excuse to go to the gym to exercise. When I shop or eat at expensive restaurants, I always consider if the purchase is going to get my money’s worth. The only way to get my money’s worth on the elliptical is to get on it more frequently and for longer periods of time. I was fairly diligent the first two weeks I got the machine. Afterwards, I started to slack a little due to going to friends’ barbecues on weekends. This past weekend was an impromptu trip to Vegas, so I didn’t exercise at all (unless you count wading in the pool a workout). It’s Wednesday and I finally decided to get on the elliptical. And it was a very, very hard thirty minutes. But at least I burn some calories.

I started counting my calories on SparkPeople.com. I can’t believe how many calories I consume when I eat out! Now I’m resolving to eat only good food when I eat out so the calories are worth eating (see a trend?). Like…the 20+ oysters that I plan on eating at the oyster farm over Labor Day weekend. It seems like most of our friends are away that weekend, so it’ll be small gathering of friends, which will be nice too.

Vegas was really fun. I’ve never been there with just girlfriends. It would’ve been more fun if I drink. Sometimes I feel a little left out when everyone else is drinking coz they look like they’re having a lot more fun than I. But the image of me projectile vomiting reaffirms that I should stay away from alcohol. So last Tuesday, my best friend from Cal, Joy, IMed me saying she’s flying to Vegas from Chicago (she goes to Northwestern) with her grad school friends. Wednesday I emailed her saying I’ll think about meeting her there. Thursday I decided to head over, and Friday I left lab early and made it to Sin City by 9pm. I met her three friends, who were already drinking in the hotel room. I bought some booze for them at Winco (greatest store ever). We went to two clubs at Caesar’s Palace. I really don’t get the clubbing scene. Do women actually reciprocate when men ogle at and grope them? Is it because enough women reciprocate that men continue this stupid ritual? Even if I were single I wouldn’t go to a club to look for men. What kind of idiots think I would want to look for potential boyfriends at a club? Anyways, there were plenty of men groping at us, especially Joy’s friend who’s half white, half Asian. Someone pinched me at my waist, by which I got completely disgusted with. My feet were hurting, and I felt all slutty wearing skimpy “whore clothes” (required dress code by Joy). So I left the club and sat down to rest my feet. The $8 water bottle didn’t help either. The girls headed out to another club (Tao at the Venetian) the next night. I decided to just relax in the hotel. We stayed at the Signature at the MGM, which is a new hotel with suites and no casino. Maybe that’s why it’s at least $100 cheaper than the other nice suite hotels like the Bellagio and Venetian. I’d stay there again if we go next time (I’m a little Vegas’ed out though).

The best part about the trip was being able to spend time with Joy. We haven’t bonded this much since we left Berkeley. Makes me realize how great of a friend she is and that I don’t really have a friend like her at UCR. My grad school friends are great people, but when I’m with Joy, I’m completely comfortable. I don’t have to constantly think of witty things to say just to keep the conversation going. With the two us we have plenty to talk about and there are no awkward moments. Just effortless fun and laughter. She and Richard also want to settle down in the Bay Area. So I hope we’ll be close to each other in the near future.

On the other hand, it has been really hard not being able to see Albert for the past month or so, especially with him being in Korea the last two weeks and in Hawaii this week. But even when he was in San Jose, he’ immersed in work or I’m in lab. We never find time to just sit down and talk with no distractions. There’s always work or TV or some other thing to take away the undivided attention that I’d like to have with each other. I just hope I get to really talk to him when I go home in two weekends. It’s been really lonely here; and I feel like I’m the only one.

I had the perfect birthday weekend ever. This one definitely tops them all, thanks to Albie’s wonderful planning. :) We started off with Saturday breakfast at Simple Simon’s (think Intermezzo on Telegraph, but breakfast food). Then we headed over to Huntington Library in San Marino. I had talked about going there for a while, and Albert included it in his plans. At first he wanted to surprise me, but I mentioned Huntington again earlier in the week. It was my fault for ruining my own surprise. :(

As always, we took lots of photos – about one picture every few paces. You can take a look here. I have had a peculiar fascination for Japanese gardens ever since I wrote a paper on the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park for my landscape architecture course at Cal. The one at Huntington Library is not as extensive as the one in GGP, but it holds its own. My favorite photo is one that Albert took of the koi pond (look how big those suckers are!!) with the reflection of the moon bridge. Supercool. I was surprised that the Library has the original paintings of Pinkie by Sarah Barrett Moulton and Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough. At my elementary school there were half sized replicas of these two paintings hung side-by-side along the grand stair case that I walked up and down for 6 years but only learned of them later in high school. It’s always exciting to see the original artwork.

After the Huntington, I knew we were going to some sort of hotel because Albert told me to pack clothes for an overnight stay. I was thinking really hard but couldn’t think of any hotels in the area. Then it suddenly hit me, a block away, that we were headed to the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena. Oh my God. Never in my dreams have I dreamt of spending the night at such a luxurious hotel. We handed my ’99 Corolla to the valet (they probably hid the car in the very back behind the BMW’s and Benz’s) and checked in. My heart was still palpitating from this grandiose surprise when Albert told me I have to get ready for a Swedish massage at the Spa. This was when I broke down in tears. All the bad things I’ve said to him or thoughts I’ve had – I felt really guilty for all of it. I feel like I didn’t deserve all the nice things he’s showering me with (considering  the birthday gift I gave him several months ago – see last entry).

It took a Lord of the Rings adventure (I was Frodo and Albie’s Sam Gangee, or the other way around…) to find where the Spa is. I was told I would be given a Swedish therapeutic massage. 5 minutes into the massage, I realized this was a deep-tissue massage. I mean, I thought I had a pretty high tolerance for pain, but my eyes teared up when the masseuse keep kneading me with uber-force. In hindsight, it might’ve been nice to have told him to ease off a bit. But I knew I had to suck it up because I really need my knots untied. No pain, no gain, right?! Plus, it was worth it because now my knots are gone…almost.

After the massage, Albert and I took a bath in a tub that is inferior to our Roman-sized (read: bigger) tub at our apartment. So we switched to the shower, which was also inferior to our duo-showerhead setup in our apartment. Yes, it’s a five-diamond hotel, but there really is no place like home. The night concluded with a fantastic dinner at the Dining Room, where we bumped into Jason, Hanie and her family. Albert pointed to the man sitting behind me and said, “Doesn’t that guy look like Jason Wang?” I turned around and saw a profile that looks just like Jason’s, and said, “That is Jason Wang.” So I said, “Jason!” with volume that was loud enough for the guy to hear, but soft enough so that if it wasn’t Jason I wouldn’t look like a complete idiot yelling out a random name to a stranger (at least that was my assessment…). Jason looked at us with the same stunned look as ours. We exchanged a few words and enjoyed the rest of our respective dinners. Afterwards, Albert and I took a night stroll and headed to the mini Japanese garden (two in one day!) on the hotel grounds. It was such a wonderful day I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Just lovely.

This Sunday morning, we enjoyed room serviced breakfast. Those people at the Ritz definitely do their jobs completely. I ordered Norwegian salmon and expected two flimsy pieces of fish. When I lifted the metal cover half the plate was covered with salmon. I love this stuff. We lazily packed our bag and checked out.

The really weird thing is, Joy (whose mom I think we saw at Huntington) lives about 3 blocks down from the Ritz. And 5 blocks away from the hotel is Alhambra, which is a Chinatown area we regularly frequent. For about 20 hours at the Ritz we felt like we were swept away to a far-off place, only to be jolted back into reality within 3 minutes.

When we got home, we sprawled on our comfortable bed (the best $300 I’ve ever spent, I seriously think the salesman put the wrong price tag) and enjoyed a spa-quality shower.

Now my only headache is what to plan for Valentine’s Day/Anniversary (it’s only been 7 years).

It’s just really really cool when people who deserves recognition actual receives it. Congratulations to Andy Fire and Craig Mello on receiving this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on their discovery of RNAi. They’re incredibly intelligent yet very laidback. I knew they were destined to win the prestigious award, but didn’t think it would be so soon. Go wormies!

Let’s see…it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Jamaica was really fun. It was exactly what we wanted: doing nothing while having the beach just a few paces away. The all-inclusive part was very convenient and completely indulgent. You feel like eating something? You either walk (or swim up) to a counter and order something. If you’re done with your food, you simply walk off without having to wait to ask for the bill. Room service was soooo cool. It is definitely a treat to order something on the phone and have it delivered to your room after x amount of time.

Since Jamaica my hours in lab haven’t been long at all, but still very tiring. My fall allergy has started. I don’t remember it being this bad, but I have a constant runny nose and I’m always drowsy. Sucky.

Fall quarter has started. I’m TAing (for the fourth time) but this time it should be a lot more relaxed since I’m teaching my professor’s upper division course on developmental biology. I actually get to teach something I enjoy! I think that makes a big difference, to like what you teach. Lately I’ve been thinking about what I want to do. Teaching at a JC seems plausible…minimal work (teaching a couple of hours plus a few for office hours) and maximal profits ($$$). I like that. :) And there will be students who actually want to work hard because they want to get into a 4-year college. Versus lazy ass kids who have made it to a 4-year college and have nothing to aim for.

This past weekend, Albert and I had brunch at Simple Simon’s, whic reminds us of Cafe Intermezzo on Telegraph. It’s got the same feel, and they have really good breakfast. Expensive though. It was nice talking to Albie after not seeing him for a week while he was up in San Jose. He’ll be gone a lot for work and home. Better make good use of our together. We’ll celebrate his birthday up north when he’s up in SJ again in two weeks.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited about going on vacation for a very long time. Probably because deciding to go to Jamaica was such a capricious idea. Albert and I had been talking about vacationing in Hawaii for so long, that in reading up on it saturated my desire to go there. So on a whim on a Sunday afternoon, we spent a big sum of money – basically my entire savings from my grad student monthly salary in the past year – to go to an all inclusive beach resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. So after many shopping trips, I’ve finally bought a swimsuit that I look half decent in, a sun hat, a dress, and some after sun lotion with aloe lotion. All I’m saying is if Albie comes back looking like a Peking duck (he’s already halfway there anyways), it’s not my fault…

I just can’t wait!!

Summer is finally here! That means no more TAing, just science. Except my motivation to do labwork has been dwindling, as seen in the fewer hours I’ve been spending in lab, compared to 12+ hour days just a month ago. Oh well. Our first activity since summer vacation started was having dim sum at Mission 261 in San Gabriel, followed by 4-1/2 hours of singing at Energy Karaoke Studio. The English selection there was mediocre, but we all had fun singing. Next weeks is Fourth of July week. We’re going to Magic Mountain on Monday. I can’t wait to ride on X, Deja Vu, and the new Tatsu.