Weekend Update

King Kong, the Peter Jackson remake, SUCKED big time! Good lord, man, do you know how to make a movie that's less than 3 hours long? For instance, you totally didn't need the first hour of the movie. And to think, I felt guilty for almost movie cheating* when I was in Little Rock. I should do voice-overs on the movie and re-sell it as a comedy.

Ann: Oh Kong, you're my hero.

King Kong: Look woman, I just saved your ass. You owe me. (walks away)

Ann: Don't leave me alone in the jungle, Kong! (runs after Kong)

King Kong: Fine, you can ride on my shoulder. (throws Ann on his shoulder).

back at King Kong's viewing point

Ann: Watch me dance and make a fool out of myself so I can make a giant gorilla smile.

King Kong: You're not funny anymore. I just fought off three T-rexes to save you and you think a dance will make up for it? Women are too much trouble.

Ann: Yes, that's beautiful. It's beautiful.

Even through all this corniness, I cried at the end. Yes, I knew they would eventually kill off King Kong and he has to die at the end, but why did the stupid monkey have to risk his life for a girl????

The Boy fell asleep when Kong showed up in New York

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So I threw a mini-belated-birthday-party-get-together on Saturday night and let's just say alcohol and bowling sure makes for a good time.

First, all the girls suck at bowling, including yours truly. I think we were competing to see who the biggest loser was. The one with lowest score wins! Yay! But I still placed second in that competition. Breaking 100 was the goal and I scored 90 on the first game and 75 on the second. Whoo hoo for me!

The boys, on the other hand, were competing to the death. And, they were the drunkest ones there, mostly because they were not driving home afterwards. The Boy was trying to show off his "bowling league" skills and had to up his game when the other guy informed us that he was also in a bowling league when he was younger. But the surprise came from the bowling newbie, who claimed that he has never gone bowling before in his life. We were all doubtful of that claim after his fifth strike in a row. Beginner's luck my ass. His quote of the day: "Yay, I finally went bowling! I can call myself white trash now."

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How to make your opponent lose concentration during a game of billiards (pool, 8-ball, whatever):

--Squeeze that person's ass if he/she is standing right in front of you when trying to make a shot at the ball.

--Stand at the corner pocket opposite of the person aiming/shooting the ball and make funny faces, especially of ones where you're sticking out your tongue and lapping it like a dog.

--Yell "FORE" right when the person is about to hit the ball.

--Get the person to drink glass after glass of margaritas.

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It was a rare sunny day in San Francisco yesterday, and so we took advantage of the weather and went shopping in Union Square. After three hours of idly walking around from store to store, I brought four pretty little tops to wear in "summer weather." I then realize that I'll probably never be able to wear these tops because it will never be 90 degrees in San Francisco. Which only means that the Boy needs to take me on weekend trips to sunnier areas: i.e. Sacramento, Vegas, San Diego, LA....

BF Quote of the day: "For every summer shirt you buy, I'll take you Sacramento for the weekend."

Okay, I bought four summer tops, I get four weekends in sunny weather somewhere, even if it's Sacramento.

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We also watched A History of Violence, with Viggo Mortenson (or however you spell his name). Um, not a great movie, but it sucked much less than King Kong. The movie is about a normal guy living in a small town and carries on a normal life. Until one day he skillfully kills a couple of robbers at his diner, which gets his face shown on national television and the Philadelphia mob is now after him because he used to be some sort of famous gang member who killed all the time and took out a mobster's eye with a barbed wire. Yeah, gruesome. And I guess to emphasize this guy's normalcy in small town, USA, they kept showing love scenes between the guy and his wife. Even when the wife is completely irate and betrayed by his lies about his past life as a mobster, they end up doing it on the stairs as she's trying to run away from him and slapping him a couple of times. Yeah, like that's a normal life.

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* "movie cheating" is a term the Boy and I refer to when one watches a movie without the presence of the other. So far, each of us have movie cheated on the other three times. I still haven't forgiven him for watching Star Wars III without me though. And he really didn't want to watch Harry Potter IV, so that shouldn't even count.

phone conversations and faxes

Me: Good morning, [law firm name].

Answering female: Hi, I'm trying to fax something to your office but your fax line is busy.

Me: Oh, well, our fax machine is in the back, so I can go check it in a minute.

Female: Well, let me double check the fax number just in case.

Me: Okay.

Female: Is it 310-123-4567?

Me: No, that's not our fax number.

Female: It's not? That's what it says here on the fax cover page.

Me: Wait a minute, are you faxing back a stipulation?

Female: Yes, to Mr. Attorney. Are you his assistant?

Me: Yeah, wait a minute I have the fax in front of me. Our fax number is definitely not that 310 number. We're in San Francisco so the area code is 415.

Female: Oh, umm..

Me: wait a minute, read me that number you tried to fax to again.

Female: 310-123-4567.

Me realizing that number was the same number in the "TO" section of the cover page: Um, isn't that your fax number?

Female: What? Ohhhh. Ummm.. Yeah.

Me: Do you still need our fax number? It's at the top of the cover page I faxed over to you.

Female: No, I see it now. 415-123-4567. Thank you!

Then I go to the fax machine and receive her fax, only to find out that she faxed the same 4 pages stipulation back to me without the requested signature.

~~~

Me: Oh, thank you for delivering that envelope so quickly and on such short notice. Just send the bill over to my attention and I'll take care of it.

Messenger guy on the phone: No problem. It might be a higher charge since you only gave us 30 minutes to deliver it after you faxed it to us.

Me: Oh that's okay. We needed to get it served today.

Messenger guy: I just didn't catch your name during the rush of instructions.

Me: Oh, it's Quyen.

Messenger guy: As in "the mighty Quinn"?

Me: Um, that's one way to put it.

Messenger guy: What a cool name.

Me: It's not spelled like that though.

Messenger guy: How do you spell it?

Me: Q-U-Y-E-N. It's also on the fax cover page that I sent you earlier.

Messenger guy: How do you get Quinn out of that?

Me: Um, you just do.

Messenger guy: It's still a cool name.

Me: Thanks. I'm pretty attached to it.

Messenger guy: Well, I'll fax the bill over to you.

Me: Thanks again.

I got the faxed invoice and the messenger guy had invoiced it to "Quinn Jemison". I had NO idea where Jemison came from.

one giant crab

The Boy took me out for my bday dinner last night and I got to eat one giant salty, spicy, crispy crab all by myself! Knowing that it would take at least an hour to finish every last morsel of the delicious crab, I asked the waiter to bring it out first so I can get started while the Boy waits for his food (chicken chow mein and honey walnut prawns, which were yummy too).


This is the crab before I started digging into it. The people at the table next to ours also ordered this dish for their dinner. However, the two of them were no match for me. By the time I finished my plate of crab, they were still working on theirs. And there were two of them! How can you not eat every last piece? Maybe they were on a date.

The Boy taking a sneak picture of me cramming each piece of crab into my mouth. There's his chicken chow mein at the bottom left corner. I guess he had to occupy himself while watching me eat.

The piles of crab shell left behind from my eating frenzy. The waiter had to change my plate three times so the pile didn't go falling over.

One hour and fifteen minutes later, all that's left is two claws and Big Willie's head (I guess "body" is more appropriate). After I finished the claws, we packed up the remaining chicken chow mein and honey walnut prawn (you think the Boy could have finished it all?) and paid the bill.

And then as we were leaving the resturant, we walked past their seafood tanks and spotted this giant Alaskan King Crab, marked for sale at $24 a pound. That thing must weigh at least five pounds. Who wants to eat a $112 crab? I DO! I DO!

Maybe next year...

Weird Sighting at the Gym

The Boy would consider it a weird sighting that I was able to get up at the crack of dawn and get myself to the 6am spin class this morning. He would have a nice laugh at that. As a matter of fact, I think he's still laughing about it.

Anyway...

While I was spinning away in class this morning, I noticed something pink from the corner of my eye. When I turned my head to figure out what that pink something was, I thought I saw pink curlers in the head of one of my fellow spinning classmates. Yeah, those pink plastic puffy ones they sell at the grocery store for $4.99 per dozen, and she had at least two dozen in her hair. I admit that it could have been my imagination because it was dark in the classroom, and I wasn't yet 100% sure that she did indeed have curlers in her hair, but that sight bothered for me the last half hour of the class.

So as I was huffing and puffing through the Savage Garden soundtrack (instructor's choice), I kept pondering why anyone would wear curlers to the gym. It wasn't logical because the base of your hair would get all wet from the sweat of working out, therefore making the hair less likely to hold a curl. And if the point of wearing curlers was to add curls to her your hair, working out and getting sweaty won't make your hair curl.

And then, she would definitely have to shower after the hour-long spin class (well, I hope she showered afterwards), she would still get some parts of her hair wet, and therefore her hair won't hold the curls. Plus, she must have rolled them curlers in pretty tight or else all the movement from spin class would make the curlers fall out.

But then, even if her pink curlers were still intact in her hair after the class, the shower, the drying off, getting clothes on over the curlers, etc., wouldn't your hair just smell of sweat and ickiness from being rolled up in tight curlers all night long and all through a very hard spinning class?

At that point, class ended and the instructor turned up the lights. And she was indeed wearing pink curlers in her hair. Plus, she had some sort of stocking over her pink-curlers-rolled-up-hair to keep it all intact. That just upped the smelliness factor right there. Eww.

Tree for Rent

Tree is located at the corner of the Broadway Avenue on-ramp for I-630 East in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Estimated age of tree is 50 years old. Sturdy branches. Great for treehouse.

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There is also another tree available for rent. The second tree is located at the I-630 West off-ramp at the Broadway exit (I believe it is Exit 3, but don't quote me, I was only in Little Rock for a week).

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All interested call 501-650-6333.

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Note from Editor: I'm not sure if the tree really is for rent, but the sign really was on the tree in that location mentioned above. If you're really interested, you can call and find out if indeed the tree is for rent.

A-Z Animal Name Game

If you're going on a road trip, try playing the A-Z Animal Name Game!

The rules:
You have to name an animal that starts with the letter of each alphabet starting with A and ending with Z. If you can name 27 animals in 30 seconds, you win! If you can name 27 animals in one minute, you're cool too.

But if you get stuck on the letter X, even after skipping over it to name "Yellowtail" and "Zebra" in order to go back to naming the animal X, and it's been 3 days of wracking your brains because there is no internet access where you are going and everyone you call on the cell phone can't name an animal starting with X either, you're just going to lose sleep trying to find the answer. So then you think that there is a slim possibility there is no animal that starts with a letter X and you only think this so you can trick your brain into going sleep for the night. But as soon as you see that computer with internet access at the Boy's mother's house, you go online to see if there is an animal that starts with X, and this is what you would find:

Xenops-- genus name and common name for a group of nuthatch-type birds native to Central and South America.

This little tidbit provided by the San Diego Zoo.

Yeah, that was a fun game. Did the letters U & V slow you down too?

First Class all the way

My flight out of Little Rock was being delayed by an hour due to "mechanical problems" so therefore I would miss my connection in Dallas. I waited in line to get re-routed on another flight and I scored big time!

Counter Lady: Are there other surrounding airports that you can fly into besides San Jose?

Me: Hmm, San Francisco.

Counter Lady: Uh huh.

Me: Oakland. Will any of those work?

Counter Lady: Let me see what I can find.

(She's clicking away at the keyboard for about five minutes.)

Counter Lady: Would you mind flying First Class into Oakland?

Me thinking in my head: Is she serious? Did she just ask if I mind flying First Class?

Me speaking: I'm not responsible for the charges right?

Counter Lady: Oh no, no extra charge because the delay was due to a mechanical failure. American Airlines will pick up the tab. And unfortunately, that's the only available connection I have for you in Dallas. First Class to Oakland, will that do?

Me thinking in my head: Score!

Me speaking sarcastically: Oh, First Class? I guess it'll have to do if that's the only seat you have available.

Counter Lady: Okay then. Here are your new boarding passes and this one is for your connecting flight in Dallas. Have a pleasant flight!

So I'm psyched about the new changes. I call the Boy to tell him about the changes.

BF: Did you get to Dallas already?

Me: Well, not quite. I have good news and bad news, what do you want to hear first?

BF: Ohhh....bad news first.

Me: It's 4:30 and I'm still in Little Rock.

BF: Oh that's bad. Your flight is supposed to leave now isn't it?

Me: Yeah, it was. The plane is delayed due to mechanical problems so I won't be leaving for at least another hour. But then I'll miss my connection in Dallas.

BF: Oh no. So what's the good news?

Me: You don't have to drive all the way from Sacramento to San Jose to pick me up.

BF: Why's that?

Me: They re-routed me to Oakland, so it'll be on your way home from Sacramento. And I get in at 10:30pm so you don't have to leave any earlier than you usually do!

BF: Well, that's wonderful news! Yay!

Me: There's more!

BF: There's more?

Me: Yep, they bumped me up to First Class for my connecting flight in Dallas.

BF: That doesn't benefit me.

Me: I didn't say that the good news was all for you.

BF: Ha ha. Don't get too spoiled now.

So, I landed in Dallas at 7:00 pm and I was hungry. There was a screen that said First Class passengers got a snack during the flight but not knowing what "snack" really meant, I went and got myself a sandwich from Au Bon Pain. After my dinner, I sat in the waiting area until boarding time. I was totally not paying any attention to the boarding announcements but they made several calls for all First Class passengers to board before I realized that "hey I had a First Class boarding pass!"

The seats in First Class are so nice and comfy! And there's enough leg room for me to leave my window seat and go to the toilet without waking up the guy seated next to me. The best part about the seats was that when you pushed the button to recline back, the bottom also reclined forward so that your body would be in better alignment while in the reclined position. Awesome.

After we reached cruising altitude, our flight attendant in First Class (we have our very own flight attendant!) came around and asked what we wanted for a snack: "Turkey on a croissant or Chicken Breast over mixed greens? And what would you like to drink?" And did you know you could get alcoholic drinks without having to pay an arm and a leg for it? If I actually like the taste of alcohol, I would totally have taken advantage of that that and ordered myself a few martinis but I settled for unlimited Dr. Pepper instead (the flight attendant refills my glass every time, and our drinks were served in a real glass, not a plastic cup.)

Before our "snack" arrived, we were served a warm dish of cashews and pecans. It was served in a dish, not a bag that you have to rip open yourself either. And it was warm! Then afterwards, we got a warm hot napkin to clean our hands before starting on the turkey croissant/chicken salad "snack". Our food was served on a tray lined with a real linen napkin and our plastic fork and knife (I guess real silverware are still considered dangerous) was wrapped in another real linen napkin. There was a miniature wine glass that the flight attendant could fill with white or red wine. There was a large salad in addition to the turkey/chicken choice we were offered. There was a wedge of chedder cheese with some crackers and there was some cookies to wrap it all off. And the entire time, the flight attendant kept checking in on us to make sure our meal was okay. If I had known this was what a snack would be, I wouldn't have eaten dinner in the airport!

Ah, I could get use to the First Class life. Especially on those cross country trips to Boston. I don't think I'll get another chance to fly First Class. Unless there was another mechanical problems that causes me to miss any connecting flights.

Cake decorator too

It's my birthday cake!!


It's really my friend's wedding cake. I probably ate half the buttercream frosting by the time I finished assemblying and decorating this massive cake. It was damn good though. And the cake didn't come crashing down during the display!

If law school fails and the flower industry goes bad, I'll just go make cakes for a living. Whoo hoo for me!

my new passion

the corsages
the bridesmaids bouquets
the bride's bouquets

If law school doesn't want me, I'm opening up a floral shop. Who knew I had so much talent?

This is the first night of my "vacation" that I get to go to bed early and wake up late tomorrow.

Good night y'all.

trapped

I was packing for my trip and Jelly Belly was running around the apartment like a crazy cat. I heard her scratching up the litter box, then rolling around the box that has her catnip ball and then at random moments, she'd growl really loud and run from the living room through the hallway to the kitchen and make a loop back to my bedroom. She takes a five minute rest and then do it all over again.

I had been packing for about half an hour when I noticed a different kind of noise. It was Jelly Belly growling, but it wasn't her usual "I'm chasing dust bunnies!" growl. And then there was this weird scratching sound she was making like she was scratching paper and not cardboard. So I went hunting.

First, I was in the living room and didn't see her in there, but she was still meowing/growling and scratching. So I followed the sound to the hallway closet and this was what I found:

Something was moving inside the big white shopping bag.

Guess who got herself into the bag...

...and couldn't jump back out.

I had to let the cat out of the bag (ha ha).

Jelly Belly then figured out that I was going to leave for a long period of time, so she tried to stow away in my luggage. Sorry, Jellies, Mommy can't take you on the plane!

p.s. I finished reading "The Da Vinci Code"!! After racing through it, the ending let me down. =(

what's the code?

I picked up "The Da Vinci Code" so that I had something to read on the plane en route to Little Rock. I knew I shouldn't have opened the book last night. The book is such a page turner that I only have 150 pages left to read and I don't even get on the plane until tomorrow morning! I stayed up until 3am last night, reprimanding myself as I turned the pages: "Put the book down!"

I will finish this book by the day's end and finally know what Da Vinci was hiding! Oh curses, why must I be at work at this moment in time? I should have taken today off as a vacation day too.

From the lack of sleep resulting from reading this book, I'll probably just sleep on the plane tomorrow. Hopefully. Maybe? Probably not.

If law schools don't want me...

It's April 1st and I have yet to receive a single acceptance letter to law school. So far, the score is 3 waitlist, 11 rejections and 6 schools have yet to respond.

Anyhoo, I started thinking about what I should do if law school doesn't happen. Oh, this is my second round of applications, and I feel that if I still can't get into law school, some higher power is probably telling me that law school is not for me. It doesn't matter that I work for a law firm and that I know what I'll learn in law school will probably never be used again when I become an attorney, but I still want to go to law school because this is what I want to do for my career. I want to spend 80 hours a week pushing papers and arguing with opposing counsel over who should have the right to schedule a deposition before the other. I want to be chained to my desk as I crank out motion after motion to compel those damn discovery responses that were due over three weeks ago. The only thing I need to be able to do all that is a JD degree and I can't get a JD if law schools don't want me!

Okay, so in the event that law school really doesn't want me, I am going to take that as a sign that an attorney's life is not in the future for me. Which means, that I should probably start looking for a career change. Here's my current list of what to do after law schools reject you twice:

1. Quit your job as a legal assistant/paralegal. If you were ready for law school, you're too freaking smart to be someone else's gopher. (although it might be a little tough walking away from a $50-$80k a year job...)

2. Give in to your ex-boss's pleas to steal you away from your current job and join his insurance firm, probably pushing papers or selling insurance policies even though he swears you won't be doing any selling. He assures you that there will be opportunities to climb the ladder and eventually be an insurance broker with your own hours.

3. Go beg a bank for a business loan so that you can be part of a franchise and open your very own Edible Arrangements store in San Francisco (there is a store in Mountain View, CA, but it would still be economical to have a store in downtown San Francisco). This would be one of my dream jobs: being my own boss and being able to charge for artsy crafty stuff.

4. Get in touch with the Marine Friend when he returns from Iraq and go into business together opening a Vietnamese resturant in San Diego. I don't think my cooking is restaurant quality but I'm just going to be the boss, so I'll have to hire a really good chef to showcase the Vietnamese cuisine.

5. Keep trying to win the lottery.

6. Adopt more cats and be named the "old cat lady" in that building over there.

7. Continue in my parent's footsteps and open yet another nail salon in San Francisco and have the parents move cross county so they can work in said nail salon.

8. Nope, nix idea #7. I refuse to work with the parents again or even have them in the same city. Love them dearly but can't be near them for too long (I'm such a bad daughter!).

9. Move in with the Boy and have him support me while I try to find my passion in life. (ha ha ha, what am I thinking? Move in with the Boy? ha ha, so funny. Like that will ever happen. ha ha).

10. Go try out for American Idol, America's Next Top Model, Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune, The Next Food Network Star...

Hopefully there will be an acceptance letter waiting at the post office while I am in Little Rock next week. I wish law schools would refund the application fees when they decide to reject the applicant. Then I wouldn't be so bitter.

Jelly Belly can read!

Those tulips are pretty. Look, ma, 15% off!
Can we get some chocolates and popcorn?
I think the post man is here with our order!