Favorite Widgets

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from perla101. Make you own badge here.


June 27, 2005 12:30 PM Travel  |   Link
Busy Weekend Down in LA

Drove down on Friday early in the morning on 101. I really like that path even though it takes longer, we know all the places to stop and switch. Also it's quite curvy so a slower paced drive.

We were down primarily for a wedding of some good friends. However my best friend KM just had a baby and couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit. The funny thing, she showed us the birthing video. I'm not sure if it discouraged me or if I was in awe, but boy was it totally gross! He he he. Later that night I met up with my brothers at Irvine Spectrum. Hoping to visit a fun bar, turned out to be closed so ended up eating at D&B and having cocoa at B&N. Drove back up to LA. It was a very LONG day and was slow due to some bad accidents.

The wedding was so wonderful. Afternoon ceremony at St. Brendan's Catholic Church and then cocktails and dinner dancing at LA Athletic Club. Marie definitely knows how to throw a party! Lots of drinks and great food. The music was awesome as well. I thought I'd splurge and got 2 outfits. A churchy pink thing and for evening all black pants and beaded top with silver jacket.

On our way back we decided to take Hwy 5...boy was it a big mistake. Traffic on the grapevine and then big accident somewhere before Los Banos which had all traffic at a stop for a good 30 minutes and then a crawl at 10mph for a good 30 minutes. Also we were so close getting into an accident. Some college kids were swerving in and out of traffic in their raised up Mazda truck and cut a huge semitruck. The semi swerved into the shoulder and it totally looked like it was going to jack-knife. And then it swerved back into the lane since he was still speeding and there was a parked BMW on the shoulder with hazard lights. I could feel my heartrate go up at that moment. I think the 5 is dangerous since folks were flying at 85-90mph. I'll take slower, leisure drive on the 101 anytime over these dangerous accidents.

Photos:
New Addition to Stelmar-Martin Clan
Dixon-Hsing Wedding
Taday-Aldana Hangout



June 23, 2005 07:31 PM Whine  |   Link
Boy He Looks Familiar

Last week at the gym, I decided to go every other day to the weight training section. You know 11am hardly anyone around except stay at home mom's trying to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight. But each time I went there was this big fit guy who looked so familiar. Amazing strong resemblance to Jerry Rice. I mentioned this to Jeff and he heard from someone that Jerry Rice did work out at our gym. Kind of intimidating...especially when you see folks with really big muscles working their butts off.



Whine  |   Link
My Life in Gym Clothes

So I start working again after July 4th. This past year I've pretty much shed all my big clothes and started to get very casual in and around places. Basically, I live in my gym clothes. In Hong Kong, I was pretty much at the gym every day and would be in my gym clothes all morning and afternoon until I got to the gym, I would then shower and be in regular clothes, but it was still travel clothes or the local Giordano or Bosini ware...aka Old Navy stuff. I've enjoyed this carefree lifestyle with clothes to match the laziness.

Now I'm heading back to work and hardly have any work type clothes. Just when I thought I was able to clear out 90% of the closet and work has me headed for the malls and outlets. I dread shopping. It's like a constant reminder that I haven't lost that last 15lbs yet. So gym clothes or the cutesy sweatsuits are definitely out at least for now...don't even mention jeans to me...they just don't look right on me for some reason.



June 21, 2005 12:01 PM Food & Wine  |   Link
Did Ya Know...

I was bored waiting for my non-fat chai the other day at Starbucks(SBUX). So I was staring at the wall and found a brochure of the "nutritional" facts for each drink combination they serve there. I wish they had one for the food. However, I was totally amazed to see the calorie and fat content for the drinks.

Online Nutritional Information for Drinks | Food

So here are the top 5 unhealthy drinks at SBUX:
1. Vanilla Creme, with whipped cream, Venti, Breve: 890 cal, 70 g fat
2. Hot Chocolate, with whipped cream, Venti, Breve: 870 cal, 64g fat
3. Caffe Latte, Venti, Breve: 710 cal, 62g fat
4. Vanilla Creme, without whipped cream, Venti, Breve: 790 cal, 61g fat
5. White Chocolate Mocha, with whipped cream, Venti, Breve: 900 cal, 61g fat

My tall nonfat chai is 170 cal, 0g fat. I was really surprised with #5. That's like all your fat for a day and half of your calories for the day...all in just one drink. That's like 2 hours on a treadmill going 4mph or you can take a jumprope class for an hour which burns about 1000 calories an hour. I think I'll stick to tea which has 0 cal and 0 fat...or my nonfat chai here and there!



Health & Fitness  |   Link
Do Not Underestimate the Pregnant Training Instructor

I thought I was going to die in class today. I figured pregnant instructor for circuit training..."No problem!" Boy was I wrong, along with a couple other participants. She was totally kicking our butts. She was there showing us how to do the movements including some power steps. She is the most fit pregnant woman I've evern met. She's 6 months pregnant and very excited about making sure we did the movement safe and getting a nice hard workout. I think my butt is going to hate me tomorrow.

Last Friday, I tried a jump rope class. Nope, not your beginner class. No, easy strolling like a pre-schooler. This was your "let me kick your butt into shape" with 80-85% of your max heart rate for a full 55 minutes. It has taken me 2 days to recover with my calves aching each time I take a step. I've noticed walking backwards down steps eased up on the calves. Just the same, both were great workouts.

I still have 15 lbs. to go...and it's been quite difficult. Especially with the nice summer weather I want to eat ice cream and drink white wine...of course not together. I guess I need to stop eating sweets at the many church related functions.



June 20, 2005 09:16 AM Cars  |   Link
Wild Mustangs Sighted and other Car Stuff

I stumbled upon a corral of antique mustangs at De Anza College last Saturday. I was on campus for an all day workshop on writing and publishing picturebooks but this auto show was just amazing. Restored show cars and muscle cars reving engines throughout the day was a great surprise. I walked around for 30 minutes before class began and snapped some shots.

Speaking of 'stangs...I really like the new ones. It has lines closer to the design of the original.

Speaking of design...the 2006 Eclipse is pretty hot! I noticed the lines are much closer to the mid 90's body which I believe is more in line with the "eclipse" look. So for either one, I'm not ready to plunk down $30K but it's great to see the evolution of the design of these cars.

I heard as well that the new Porsche designs are more in line with the 993s than from the 996 which is a big relief for many porsche purists. I was actually doing a line of sketches a few years ago documenting the profiles of the 356, 993, and 996. I felt like the 996 deviated. Smehow I really like the progression of the cars from 356-993 except however the 914 which was all in its own world (with its own cult following).

Also there's word that Porsche is building a museum to open sometime in 2007 of all their concepts and lineage of cars. This is definitely going to be a major vacation for us. I'm actually hoping to find a 356 to restore so if you know anyone selling, just holler. Amazingly enough, it's going to be MY project with Jeff as my assistant :)

I was just at the PCA website and they are celebrating "50 Years of Fellowship." I've never seen the word "fellowship" used outside the context of organized spirituality. I guess for most folks PCA IS their religion! Either way, it's great to hear these types of milestones. I really enjoyed the local PCA crew. I had my first experiences with auto-cross and joining a morning drive where I almost threw up inside our 993 turbo...yes very fond memories! Alas, no more porsches in our stable...a nice and reliable civic, bumble bee miatas(1 yellow, 1 black)...a nice group, but at some point we'll probably give into the wagon or minivan crowd as we start to have kids.



June 11, 2005 10:12 AM Travel  |   Link
Not Really

I found a link that referenced me as an HK blog...funny thing is that it was posted the week I had just left HK.



June 10, 2005 10:44 PM Whine  |   Link
I'm an Aunt Again

I'm so excited and so overjoyed. My best friend since 6th grade just had her second baby...another little girl. I can't wait to see them when I'm down in a couple of weeks. The baby was actually a bit early and it was kind of funny that K called me in the middle of her contractions to tell me that she was early. Of course the big sister was wearing her "I'm the big sister!" t-shirt. It's just too cute!

Praise God for beautiful babies!



June 06, 2005 10:00 AM Whine  |   Link
Remembering Tiananmen

Last weekend was the anniversary of the tragedy that happened in Tiananmen Square when college students demonstrated against the government. Many died, including the one scene that struck at me on live tv of the student standing in front of the tank one moment and then crushed the next moment. Over Christmas we stood at the square, watching long lines of people paying their respect to Mao on one end, the entrance to the Forbidden City with all its tourists and snow, and us standing in front of the countdown clock at the square...it was difficult to stand there and look at everything in any positive way when I knew that so many died in that very spot I was standing at. BBC has an article mentioning the minor vigil held in Hong Kong, the only such event commemorating the event. US/China relations have been quite interesting recently. Many criticisms from the US side questioning the build up of an army, and accounting for the undocumented numbers who were killed or were arrested during the Tiananmen Massacre...of course China retorts with something along the lines of mind your own business, you have your own human rights issues to deal with...they have a point. I think US and China both have a responsbility to all the alleged human rights violations. How do we expect to move forward as a society/economy if we can't even take care of basic human rights?



House & Garden  |   Link
One Room Down...more to go

We just finished painting the master bedroom. I had a bad cold last week so I couldn't finish it as fast as I wish I could have. Luckily Jeff would help after dinner with some of the trim which actually took the longest time.

Photos of the bedroom transformations.

Removed carpet, refinished existing hardwood floors, painted ceiling, walls, trim and closets, will put in repainted baseboards tonight.



June 01, 2005 02:07 PM Travel  |   Link
Feel the Love

We have a couple of friends who have just quit their jobs as teachers in Hong Kong to help rebuild a community in Nias, Indonesia. Nias is a tiny island off the coast of Indonesia and was most recently in the news over Easter when another earthquake hit this tsunami ravaged area. Their website is an overview of their plans in Nias as well as information about Nias.

Please support Feel the Love.