red mango

coming soon to the bay area in palo alto, santana row, and san carlos!! woohoo! i wonder what happened to pinkberry?? but i think i like red mango better, so yay!

taiwan elections

wow hmm, who knew but apparently the taiwan presidential elections this year is very important because many people are flying back to taiwan to vote, including my parents!! it's kind of funny how those that don't live there anymore can still vote. i don't really keep up with taiwan politics, i so don't know much about it, but i wonder if all these people are backing the same candidate! heh

use your turn signal

my sister got her first ticket a few weeks ago for not using her turn signal. she was PISSED. she was driving on prospect and made a right onto blaney at the traffic light (which was green), and got pulled over for failing to signal the right turn. she asked if she could just get a warning, but i guess the cop was super anal or something. i thought the ticket could only be like $50, max $100. but it turns out it's $185 with traffic school and $170 something without!! WOW!! i can't believe it's so expensive for such a small infraction.

i actually get really annoyed if i'm behind somebody that doesn't signal because they SLOW DOWN or even STOP right in front of you to turn and you have no idea! i wish MORE people would get pulled over for failing to signal so that people will start using their turn signals properly!!! but $185 is insane, $50 seems much more appropriate but i guess the police dept or city or whatever can basically charge whatever they want. they could actually make a killing if they pulled over everyone that failed to use their turn signal!

in my sister's case, she doesn't remember much about the scenario (ie if there were other cars around, whether or not the police car was behind her or not, etc). obviously she doesn't really pay attention to her surroundings when she's driving heh but if there were no other cars around and no cars behind her, i really don't think signaling is necessary. oh well, it's a lesson learned. she now thinks all cops are mean and is afraid to speed. but she uses her turn signal diligently =P

clinton vs obama

interesting article...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633

sniff

remember my post long ago about our supplemental tax bills? well, we finally received them all. we have to pay an ADDITIONAL $11k this year. frick.

the county is quite sneaky. they sent us a supplemental bill 2 months ago for $3k split into 2 payments due in feb and june. wow that's not too bad, i can handle that. today, we get 2 more bills in the mail for $4k each, both due on 4/10!! WTF. so i went to go look at the supplemental bill that we got 2 months ago and it seems like that is only for 2005-2006. these two new bills we got are for 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. i don't understand why they sent out the bill with such short notice...and all due on the same day?? unlike the previous supplemental bill?? so on 4/10 we'll have to pay the property tax bill plus $8k for the supplemental bills. argh.

owning a home is sooo overrated.

made in china

it seems like every other day there is something being recalled because...it's made in china. on the news the other day, pokemon lollipops were being recalled because a razor blade was found in one of them. guess where they were made...you got it, china! there was a brand of chicken jerky treats for dogs made in china that ended up being recalled because it made them sick. so the other day when we went to the pet store, i looked closely at all the labels for chicken jerky treats, and they were ALL made in china! geez. tofu really likes them, so i picked a bag and later went to the manufacturer website. supposedly they ran extensive lab tests on their treats and they don't have the same problem as the chicken jerky treats that were recalled. i guess so far tofu seems to be ok, but we don't give her too many just in case. and there was also the recall on children's toys because of the lead paint!

hopefully all these recalls are making companies realize they need to have better quality control of things being made in china and imported to the US. i think people are being made aware and check the labels, but the scary thing is that companies can put "Made in USA" if the final assembly is done in the US, even though most of the parts came from somewhere else (ie China), so it can be misleading. anyways, be careful of what you buy and check the labels!

o.O

we'll have a new addition to the family at the end of august/beginning of sept.

no...it's not another dog....













a baby!! ack. i guess this will be a test to see who reads my blog! =P

Sicko

So I finally got a chance to watch this on DVD over the weekend, and wow, such an eye-opener. If you haven't seen it, it's definitely something worth watching imo. It certainly made me want to move out of the US, that's for sure. I really hope with the new president we'll have some kind of health reform. I was sickened to hear that Hilary Clinton who was once such a strong proponent of health care reform is now being paid off by them. ugh. It really makes me worried for our parents and future family about the health care they will receive. Will we be able to afford it?? and will the doctors actually be doing everything they possibly can, running the appropriate tests?? It broke my heart to see the story of the wife whose husband needed a bone marrow transplant and even had a perfect match donor lined up, but the hospital denied the claim and he eventually died. He would have lived if he had the transplant, but because they could not afford it he lost his life. I'm sure there are probably lots of stories like theirs and it makes me sick. Canada and Europe look so appealing now. And not only do they have universal health care, their maternity leave is awesome! In Canada, moms get a whole year off (with job guarantee) and 96% pay!! and i think dads can take off 37 weeks paid...wow.

Resolutions 2008

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, I certainly enjoyed my 2 weeks off! Now it is back to work...ick. For 2008, here are my resolutions:
1. Eat healthier (eat more veggies, i'm very bad at this because i don't like them at all. try to buy mainly organic. try to avoid foods with MSG, transfats, high fructose corn syrup. try to cook at home more and eat out less.)
2. Stick to a budget for clothing, bags, and shoes. (i think i have enough of these things, so i don't really need more. $300/month should be sufficient...i hope!!! need to start saving for other things...)
3. Exercise more (most of my exercise consists of walks, but now that it's cold and rainy they've been pretty non-existent. when the weather gets better, i would like to get a pedometer and track how much i walk. would really like to tone also, so maybe some light yoga, pilates, and weights)

Happy Holidays!

Here's my first "live" Christmas tree! It's a tabletop tree since Tofu would probably ruin one that is on the ground. Hope everyone has a happy holidays!

grumble grumble

can you believe it's been over 2 years since we moved into the townhouse and we JUST got a notice about our supplemental property tax bill??? mind you, it wasn't even the actual bill with an amount of how much we owed, it was just a notice saying that one will be arriving within 90 days! we've been paying a ridiculously low property tax for the last two years which was always confounding to me because everyone else complains about how expensive theirs is. i just thought it was because our area wasn't good, but nope, it's because of super slow bureaucracy and we've been paying the property tax based on old assessment values. great. so...the reassessed value of the property is now over double, i'm very scared to see how huge this supplemental bill is because it will cover TWO years!!! argh!! it's just so odd that it took so long for the county to realize there was a new owner, is that normal??!!

i need a money tree for christmas. one that grows actual money. thanks. =)

birthday week

birthday week is starting in full force again this year! the kickoff starts today with the premiere of project runway, woohoo! finally!! we'll be eating out every night wed - mon celebrating our bdays with various people and then thanksgiving is right around the corner! yikes!! lots of indulging these next two weeks

last saturday we had the most miserable cal football experience EVER...there was a light rain coming down the ENTIRE game so we were all wet and cold. you couldn't use an umbrella during the game but luckily we brought ponchos. nonetheless they were not very effective so we still got wet and my Uggs got completely drenched. very gross and disgusting. perhaps all the misery we went through would have been worth it if cal had won, but sadly we lost to USC, boo. another frustrating game to watch...sigh. alls i got to say is that USC has the MOST annoying song EVER and their stupid victory sign thing is equally annoying!!! it was the last home game of the year and now i'm worried we might lose the big game, that would be oh so sad!

looks like pinkberry is coming to palo alto soon...

http://sf.eater.com/archives/2007/10/30/confirmed_pinkberry_coming_to.php

man, all my entries have been about froyo! nothing really interesting is going on except cal football is sooo disappointing =( hopefully i'll have a more substantial entry in the future.

oh, we also had a nice little jolt last night. 5.6 earthquake! hope everyone else in the bay area is ok, no damage to report here. tofu went craaazy and all the neighbors came out of their houses afterwards. julian came home 10 minutes later wondering why everyone was outside, he didn't feel a thing as he was driving home from work!

greece/egypt/turkey pics

here they are!!

mo' money for pinkberry

check it out

it lists las vegas but what about northern california??

yet another yogurt shop

so for those in no. california that are sorely missing pinkberry, yet another yogurt shop has opened in los gatos called cafe delatti. i went over the weekend and the yogurt is not as tart as pinkberry's, but the topping are EXACTLY the same- all the same cereals and fruits and even the rice cakes! oh, one addition is that they have cookie dough! i'm no yogurt snob, so it tasted good to me. the canned pineapple they use is kinda nasty though. one trick, you order the small (5oz) but ask for it in the medium cup (8oz) and they give you A LOT. probably almost as big as the 8oz, but you only pay the 5oz price hehe 5oz with 3 toppings is $4, and 8oz with 3 toppings is $5 (same as pinkberry).

i think many people are trying to cash in on this yogurt craze..simon's friend is opening 3 new yogurt shops!! one of which will be in vallco called Froyo? (yes, with the question mark) pinkberry....hurry up and come to no. ca! i'm waiting.........!!!

Omg I love my new iphone!!! I'm using it right now to type up this entry haha just got it today, shipping was super fast Yay!!!

breaking news

Apple dropped the iPhone price $200!!! they are getting rid of the 4GB model so if you want an iPhone for $299 (vs $399 for the 8GB) go get it now!!! I DID!!!!! I called the Valley Fair Apple store and they said they still had 4GB phones left. I go 2.5 hours later and they are SOLD OUT! so I ordered one from the Apple website. I really hope that they actually have it in stock and I get it next week, yippeee!!

two years of wedded bliss

wow, the year flew by! i guess we are no longer newlyweds anymore, we are now an old married couple hehe we celebrated our anniversary in carmel, will update with an entry soon. our cruise to greece is coming up in 3 weeks, can't wait

puzzle fighter

remember those good ol' days in college when you used to play puzzle fighter on the computer? well, now we have it on the xbox! woohoo. we spent a couple hours playing last night, i'm very bad compared to julian =P but it's fun, hopefully i'll get better