springdrizzle's Xanga

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tue, 29 May 2007 22:42:38 GMT

Apparently some of us are more animated than others...

Watch for the kick!

Monday, May 28, 2007

Mon, 28 May 2007 03:45:26 GMT

Since youtube didn't let me...
James's 48th birthday...kekekekeke! Note: Bryan is at it again, so look out for him!

My last move..

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 02:36:13 GMT

Okay, this will be my final move. A friend of mine was kind enough to provide a space on his website after all my whinning about problems I've been having. This is where you will find me from now on. See you there! (But I still lurk here and look at some writings from xangatonians.)

http://www.mochomocho.net/springdrizzle/

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:14:28 GMT

I moved. The annoyance of certain things drove me to it. Here's my new home:

http://spring-drizzle.blogspot.com/

Space Needle and Pike Market

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 17:18:38 GMT

**Note: If you can't see the photos, it's because these websites give you free storage but limit you to tempt you into paying for more storage. So if you can't see my pictures, you probably have to wait 24 hours. Oh well...I shouldn't complain since it's free, huh? **

We were going to go for dim sum today but we had to detour a bit. We went back to Gilbert's Deli for crepe but once again, they didn't have any. Boohoo. However, I had my newfound best sandwich instead. Heehee. The weather was beautiful so we ate outside.

I actually had to shrink the size of this picture because if you saw it in its full size, my head looks enormous on a very tiny body. It reminds of a friend who used to say lots of Asians girls look like those bobbing head doll..big head small body. I need to remember to stick out my chest. Hahahaha.

Here are some pictures of the great Space Needle:

It's not Manhattan, but it's a cool view.

Let's discuss now about illusion. What is strange about this picture?

Can you figure it out? I took a picture of the reflection. Cool, huh?

After getting our fill on the top of the Space Needle, we went to the famous Pike Market. It was fun just walking around.

These guys are famous for throwing fish and crabs around but I can't capture them in action with this digital camera. Oh well.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:24:33 GMT

Today we decided to go on the underground tour in Seattle, but before we went, it was inevitable that we grab lunch. Judy wanted to go to her favorite restaurant: The Brooklyn (yes another thing called Brooklyn). Everything on the menu looked appetizing and can I just mention how hot our waiter was? My, talk about eye candy for women! Actually Seattle is full of hot looking men....

Okay, so we first ordered raw oysters...yum...yummy...yum.

I ordered Thai Seafood Stew. Ah...so good.

Judy ordered Dungeness Crab Salad

We had room for dessert of course. I expect to gain 10 pounds when I get back home and it will be all worth it. Muahahahaha!

This is the Pioneer Square - one of the oldest sections of Seattle.

Seattle Underground Tour

Seattle apparently has a quite fascinating history but I don't want to get into it. I am feeling less inclined to write or I am feeling simply lazy. Oh, do you remember that a toilet was called a crapper, after the inventor's name, Crapper? Here it is.

We went for Thai for dinner and again, ate like a pig. *oink oink* But no dessert.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 06:25:01 GMT

June 14

It rained in the morning and then the sun came out by early afternoon making the day quite beautiful. If we knew the weather was going to be gorgeous, we would've gone to the Space Needle. We are going to go tomorrow. In any case, we went to Bellevue Art Museum instead. It is a small one but I really enjoyed it. The exhibitions we saw:

Rozome Masters of Japan
Wrapped in Color: Kimonos by Tim Harding, Jackets by Jon Eric Riis
Studio Glass: Decorative and Functional Objects
On Mapping: New Perspectives With A Common Thread

Most of the artists are local and many of the works were quite impressive. I was quite pleased that although it is a small museum, it still housed these artistic works. So can you imagined my disappointment when I wasn't allowed to take any pictures? There were two pieces of work that I liked very much and I searched online to post pictures of the their work.

This called the Moon by Matthew Gerring and it isn't a picture but it is a sculpture made out of fabric. This is huge and I believe it's about 9' but I'm not sure; the crates you see on the moon are constructed by white thread. It's quite amazing.

This is by Mitsuo Takaya called Black Rainbow.

This is not a painting either. It is Romoze (also known as batik) and is like wax-resisting dyeing on silk. This one is one of my favorites. It's bit haunting but something about it and the title of it stopped me. It hooked me and I was enthralled. The figure that is lying down looks like a man who is dying of starvation. He has a rainbow teardrop falling out of his eye.

I then started thinking about artists and their ability to make something that is abstract into something that is concrete - something that is physically attainable but yet unreachable. And how that concreteness transforms back to the abstractness in the minds of those who observe it and translates that abstractness into personalized concreteness. Well, I don't think many of us are successful in producing a personalized concreteness and it just lingers abstractly in our mind, but it is like an invisible chain that connects you with the artist.

Hmm...I wonder if you were able to follow my chain of thought or have I lost you somewhere?

After the museum, we went to Koots Green Tea for some tea and relaxation. Then we met up with Dave for dinner at Azetec, I think. It's a Mexican restaurant. It was okay. It is bottom of my list of food experience.

It was such a beautiful day I wanted to stay outside more so Dave and Judy took me to Meydenbauer Beach Park that's 5 minutes away from their house. Oh what a view...

Oh but beware of the fish that you may catch!

How many languages do you speak????

Judy and me

The sun was blinding us.

I like this house. If you buy me this house, I will marry you. Any takers? Please?!?!?!?

Judy and Dave enjoying the view. I thought it was quite sweet. I don't think they know I took this picture. And yes you doubters, Dave does exist!

YAY! I am completely utterly updated!!!!!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 02:15:29 GMT

June 12th

Gilbert's Deli

Judy and I knew that today was going to rain so we decided to have a relaxing day and run some errands. (I was also in serious need of getting the usb plug for the digital camera.) She took me to Gilbert's Deli for crepe (I LUV CREPE) but the crepe was not being served until 2 so we settled for half sandwiches:

(Disclaimer: if you drool on your keyboard and damage your computer, it's not my fault.)

Judy ordered the one on the left called The Brooklyn and she recommended me to order the one on the right which is a pastrami and corn beef on swiss with coleslaw and thousand island dressing. It is the far the best sandwich I have ever tasted. Both of the meat were tender and not too salty and do not overwhelm each other but each of the meat's distinctive taste stand on its own. In other CHEESY words, they harmonized each other. Hahaha.

The bread too was amazing. I love the feeling when I bite into a sandwich I can feel how soft the bread is in my mouth. We quenched our thirst with glass of homemade lemonade:

Belle Pastry

Afterwards, we decided to indulge our stomach some more by getting a dessert and coffee at Belle Pastry.

I forgot what it is called. I won't be cheesy here. It was delicious and not as sweet as the typical American desserts.

Whatever happened afterwards is just plain headache that took a day for me to resolve. Xanga has this stupid thing about limited uploading photos that freaked me out since I took a lot of pictures and will be taking more pictures. Then I had to shrink the size of the photos and so forth. Boring boring boring.

In any case, we had Chinese for dinner and decided not to take a picture of it. It is sort of a hole in the wall kind of a place but the food was very tasty. I ordered Monoglian beef. Afterwards, we watched Howl's Moving Castle. I didn't sleep until 3 or 4 AM trying to catch up with the blog and uploading pictures. Judy thinks I will never catch up but I will prove her wrong!!!!!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 16:54:12 GMT

The cats...

Judy and Dave have 3 cats: Andy, Katie, and Jake. Andy likes to hiss at you:

Katie is the lap cat and the friendly one. She's a pretty cat, too.

And Jake - on the right - is the fraidy cat. He reminds me of Garfield because he has chubby cheeks. He is as big as a terrier but he lurks in the shadows. He slept next to me so now he isn't afraid of me but likes me and meows at me to pet him.

June 11th continued...(yes I'm still on Sunday time!)

We went to Seattle for a day to eat, go on the Locks tour, and eat some more. On our way, we ran low on gas and look how much the gas cost!!!! I almost had a heart attack.

For lunch we went to Cutters:

I had a seafood brochette. Yummy...aren't you jealous?

I didn't take this picture but got it from somewhere else because I wasn't thinking about writing about food at that time. However, my dining experiences have been amazing and my taste buds are doing cartwheels, so it seems only natural that I need do a mini food journal as well.

The view is gorgeous from the boat. Hmm, more like Seattle is beautiful. It's not NYC but it has everything that I appreciate in life. I am falling in love with this place.

Judy is like a sister to me. She has always been my number one cheerleader.

Isn't this gorgeous?

These are houseboats. Before it used to be for the poor, slums on water but now it is a place for the rich. They will cost you a few millions to own. How does that happen?

Gasworks Parks

The plant was built to light up the streets of Seattle but now it is a park. People sunbathe there and thousands of people go there to watch the fireworks. You will not be able to see any grass.

Here lies the "famous house" from Sleepless in Seattle. It's on the left and I've been informed that when they came to film the movie, they had to do a rain dance and call the local fire department to have rain.

Now we are approaching the LOCKS - we are on fresh water but will soon be on salt water.

The view of Seattle from salt water.

Crab Pot

After the tour, we went to Crab Pot and had dinner. With the mallet on hand Judy and I ordered this:

Where did the food go?

Into our stomach and the shells lay rest here.

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:19:31 GMT

Starting over...

Okay I'm going to start over because I had the toughest time downloading my pictures and I wanted to upload them as I share my experiences. Plus this xanga is a pain in the behind. So, let's pretend it is my first day...

The plane ride:

As I mentioned, I slept most of the way because of my lack of sleep. However, although I wanted to sleep immediately, I had to go to the bathroom so I had to wait until I was allowed to go. As I concentrated from preventing the dam to be broken, I took a few pictures and basically these were my view while I was conscious.

I don't usually like to talk while in commute and I'm especially like that when I am on the plane. The reason is simple, I don't want to talk to strangers because you would never know if they would be the type to yap nonsensically. Therefore, my body language is very clear, DON'T TALK TO ME. Nah, not really. I just either read or sleep.

If you are the kind of a person who don't mind a good conversation to pass the time but also don't want to get stuck with a moronic conversation, your best bet is to wait until the last hour before landing and start up a conversation. That's the safest bet and that was what I did.

The woman named Lisa who was sitting next to me turned out to be an interesting and a kind person. She apparently adopted two boys 9 years ago and she shared her experiences of what she did to gain their love and trust. I was quite touched because she didn't do anything extraordinary. All she did was simply love them. We enjoyed our conversation so much that when we got off the airport, she introduced me to her lovely boys and we said our goodbyes and parted our ways.

The meeting:
I haven't seen Judy, my cousin, for 2 and 1/2 years so it was quite exciting when I saw her again. We went to dinner immediately because they knew that I would be starving. We went to an Italian restaurant called Luciano. I ordered crab stuffed ravioli and it was absolutely delicious. This is Judy and me while waiting for our table.

The waiting...

As I could no longer wait for my coffee fill, I ventured out in search of half and half for coffee that I was thinking about brewing at Judy's house. As I stepped out, I decided to look for a cafe instead.
This is the front of Judy's house:

Judy and Dave live in a town called Bellevue and it is a wealthy neighborhood and has many delicio restaurants. What I cannot believe about this place is how CLEAN it is. I'm from NYC and being in Korea for the last 3 and half years can you imagine what my reference points are? However, it's really nice and really clean. I mean like Singapore clean! Did I tell you how clean this place is?

So, why do I have a picture of the above? Well, once again, growing up in NYC, it's a given that the light for pedestrians will always appear. I've seen this in NYC but no one uses it because it's useless. Apparently, here, YOU HAVE to press the button in order for you to cross the street. You must obey because the police will give you a ticket for jaywalking. Who would've thoughts....

Hee hee, I give you three guesses to figure out for the following picture...

Yes, this is the coffee that I got for myself as I made it through downtown Bellevue. I really do not like Starbucks because I don't like burnt taste of my coffee. Of course as I strolled down downtown, I see 2 Starbucks but I was determined not to go there. Then I saw a sign for Tully's and let me say, this is a good coffee. I loved it.

You know, being in Korea should have molded me into a patient person since they take FOREVER to serve you. However, I found myself a little impatient when I didn't get my coffee immediately. (Must be the New Yorker in me.) What I didn't realize until later was that they brew your coffee fresh. There is no brewed coffee beforehand sitting on thermos.

Okay...more to update but I need to break because I need to sleep. I don't know if what I wrote is coherent or zzzz......*snort* zzzz....*snore*

(To those who emailed me...im sorry i haven't emailed back - i will soon-, but you would understand if you knew half the crap I had to go through with the downloading, uploading, and xanga.)