Friday, June 29, 2007

Note to Self

Note to Self:
2 Lbs of meat is a sh*tload of meat. Don't use all of it in as one serving for One Pot Wonder.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Seattle Underground Tour

After telling everyone I am moving to Seattle, today would be the first time I go into downtown Seattle for more than 10 minutes.

Being the tourist that I am, today I set out on a trip to Pike's Place and to go on the Seattle Underground Tour. Before that though, I saw first hand how bad traffic is here. It was 1:15pm when I left from here to Seattle... good ol' google tripped it at 20 minutes... but in actuality, it took 50 minutes!

I think I have it figured out though. The traffic here is bad not because there are too many cars, but it's the way the roads are built. Think 5 years back before Wloo built that ramp for ppl to get on the 401... remember how there were cars trying to cut to the left to get on the freeway, while we are trying to cut to the right to get on the 401 exit? That's EXACTLY how I'd say half their entry ways and exits for highways are built. No wonder there are traffic jams! Doesn't really matter when you have a 4 lane highway, and fancy diamond lanes if no one can get on or off of it.

So needless to say, I arrived late for the tour I had planned to go on and had to wait for the next one. It was perfect though, because it gave me just enough time to walk around Pike Place. Nothing really special there, just lots of fresh produce and seafood market, and a bunch of shops. The ferry rides looked interesting and perhaps next time I venture to Seattle again I will go on one.

Now before going on the tour, I had to repark the car because the parking spot I found originally did not allow me to park from 4pm to 6pm... which is smack on during the tour. After driving around for 10 minutes, I found a perfect parking spot that was just up the street, right at the intersection of where the tour startpoint was at! I have to say I completely lucked out... because during the tour, we walked by where I had originally parked and there were 2 cars there with tickets on their windshield. Guess they really meant it when it said no parking during 4pm to 6pm.

The tour was very interesting and very entertaining. The tour guides were very funny and I learned alot about the history of Seattle. Here's a bit of it.

...Seattle was founded by a guy who wouldn't give up on building a city on a pile of mud. Nevertheless, he built it and then people started coming after some very good marketing of the land...

...At one point in Seattle's history, a man named Yesler was elected mayor; and during this time, he sued the city for stupid things, then as the mayor, settled the lawsuit with himself. In this fashion, he got a lot of money and almost drove the city to bankruptcy...

...The sewage system in the old days were horrendous. People lived at the bottom and top of the hill in Seattle. With the downward pressure produced by the people up at the top of the hill doing their #2, it is not uncommon for those living at the bottom of the hill to see a gush 3 ft high in their toilets when they flushed!!! Imagine you just finished taking a dump and decide to flush... next thing you know, a 3 ft high brown geiser shoots out from your toilet. This would happen whenever the tide came in and you decided to flush. And if that's not bad enought, it stayed like this for 8 years before they fixed it!...

.. Plenty more stories that were very interesting, like how the fire hydrants didn't work because Yesler cheaped out on them, paving way for a fire that burned down 33 blocks of Seattle. You gotta go on the tour to hear the way they tell it.

At the end of the tour, got a complimentary beverage and just rested at the patio at the bar. Very nice. The drive back though, with the criss-cross merging highways, was not as nice.

So ends my first Seattle experience!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

5 Days In

Another post, another day...

Today I went to buy yet another pair of jeans... seems like it's my new thing! Why are there so many stores with jeans on sale?

Before going 'shopping', went to get my driver license... or the first part of it that is...
I scored pretty well on the written test (only got 3 wrong out of 25!...enough to pass)... only major errors were when they were asking about school buses. Don't quite remember good ol' Canada's policy, but in the States, it seems you can continue driving even if the bus is flashing red as long as you are on the other side of the road. I had always thought it was illegal to do that... being the safe samaritan that I am... but oh well, at least I got the speed limits right :).

Next up is the actual driving test in a month or so, let's hope I learn how to back in and 5 point turn in time!

Also realized that one of these days I chipped my glasses. Lucky it was on the edge, so it doesn't bother me at all. Went to lenscrafter and got a quote... result $210 USD!!!... wtf?!?! My glasses with the frame didn't even cost that much. Super coat, plexi glass, super resistant my a55!

And its official, opening windows in Seattle has the same result in 134 Columbia: little buggers are attracted to light and come into the house!.... Time to think about AC! That or to learn to live in the dark :)

Lesson of the day: Be more careful with stuff from now on...

Friday, June 22, 2007

A Fred Meyer Raid

After the fun filled day at 'pre-work', I proceeded to stock up on some supplies.

Arrived at Fred Meyers, where after 2 hours, I come out w/ a shop clerk person helping me to carry my newly bought merchandise to the car.

Afterwards, went to the nearby Safeway, where after 1 hour, I come out w/ a shop clerk person helping me to carry my newly bought merchandise to the car.

Result:
52 items bought, racking up a $200+ bill at Fred Meyers
22 items bought, 46% savings at Safeway!

Wuhaha!

First Day at 'Work' and Me Casa II

Waking up early and arrived at my new work place... to get ready to go for a team social! :) Upon arriving, I receive a message on my phone that I will most likely be starting one week later than originally planned...



A team social followed by a week vacation! What a way to kick off real 'work'! hahaha

In other news, me new glasses and me new temp casa:

Pretty nice place I think, even better than last year's I think!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Enroute & Bonjour Seattle

After a late nite hotpot, and with a 'few' items still not packed, woke up extra early (9am) and started packing... then took a nap (once everything was packed of course)

The drive to the airport was horrendous, guess 'old wise man' was right to leave so early. Few minor issues right before leaving from home, but let's hope these issues work themselves out.

With the huge heavy traffic everywhere, arrived at the airport even later than I wanted. My idea of stackable cars is seeming more and more useful, the more and more I think about it... who knows, maybe one day it will come into reality!

Rushing around everywhere is definitely not fun at all; not to mention the immigration line was surprisingly long (in fact, the longest I have seen EVER)! At 5:25pm, I was still only at the head of the line at immigration, with my flight scheduled to depart at 6:05pm. Didn't get to take the nice family farewell photos I had hoped, but next time, next time!

I did make the flight though. After semi-running down with 30+ lbs on my back and shoulders, and sweating like a pig, I was at the gate by the first boarding call...with 30 sec to spare! Ironically, the plane was delayed by half an hour after everyone had boarded it because we were the 17th plane in line to fly out.

...As the plane was descending down to Seattle, it hit me: I am really on my own now. This is for real. Not coop, not a vacation, but this is it! Wow. In all the rush in packing and running around at the airport, guess I really never stopped to think about it.

And so officially a new chapter of my life begins.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

10pm Hotpot

Continuing after the border tour, and after PAC mall... we decided to head out for dinner as family.

Family Outing #X (aka Mson's Last Family Dinner for Awhile)
Location: Some Hot Pot Place
Food: AYCE beef, hotpot food, etc. etc

First time having hot pot at 10pm with the family. It was prettttty fun! Had the usual 2 hour+ dinner. Heh heh heh!

1 Hr Trip to the Border

With my #1 stalker friend accompanying me, went to the border to get some very much needed documents for the trip on Thursday.

It was a scary session, but luckily everything went ok... Glad my companion found joy in me getting grilled on the spot.

The drive was extremely long and tedious. Heavy traffic was all too common...both going and coming back from the border. Many thx to my #1 stalker for accompanying me to the border and back. Got to hear some good quality CDs, and some very deep and thought provoking talks/stories! If it wasn't for her, swear I would have fallen asleep one too many times!

With the documents collected, proceeded to drive into Buffalo, where we went around and around this turnaround, where a cop car was parked. Wandering around, found a bar like place that was empty, and went inside to enjoy a late lunch.

Buffalo wings at Buffalo... delicious!

Lesson of the day: Need to work more on my 'computer' skills! :)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Fun Filled Goodbye Tuesday

Today w/ Lobster's planning, the two best things that TO can offer (AYCE sushi and bbtea) was merged into one momentous event.

To add to this, also got the Beerzooka at Honest Lawyers. Played some shufflepuck and scored so many times in both nets that I was clearly the game MVP.

Thx guys and gals!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Convocated!

So as you may or may not have heard, today I graduated from the University and will be walking into Waterloo's gym at 2:00pm to get a piece of paper symbolizing the 5 grueling years of schooling done to sharpen my teamwork, sleeping, and drinking skills.

Before (Diploma-less):

After (Officially DONE!):


Woohoo! I have to admit though, the talks during the convo was very long... but I guess it's all part of the process.

It was a very hot day. With the regalia flying everywhere in the wind, many of the pics looked like I was undressing myself.. haha. Guess we should have taken pics indoors instead.

So ends another chapter of my life. Next up: Work.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Get Rich Quick Scheme #1

So have been googling around for some 'passive income' aka sit on my a55 and get paid... and came across this review for www.agloco.com.

Supposedly you install their toolbar and as you surf the internet, you start accumulating stock from this company. This company (Agloco) hasn't started trading yet, but when it does, you will get the shares.

So think a couple years back there was this ad toolbar you install and you get paid to surf... this is the same thing.

Worth a try.... check it out! I haven't installed the toolbar yet, but will do some time next week once they are done updating their toolbar.

You can read more details about it on their website. This news has been circulating around alot of blogs and websites it seems (and seems legit)

Viewbar Info
Their news blog

To sign up, use my link so I get referral :) :
My Referral Link

Friday, June 08, 2007

Reflection 1/1: Thougts while Driving into the Sunrise

Had an interesting discussion a couple days ago. Does caring for people mean you would want to know what they are up to every minute of the day. What they had for lunch, how many coffees they drank, what they did at work?

I guess it sure would make understanding a person that much easier; if you are able to spend that much time with another person. Under these circumstances, it cannot be hard to predict what they are thinking about...especially when you can already feel what the other person is thinking spending only a quarter of this time.

When the time is there, caring sounds simple. But with so much going on in our lives, and so many goals left to chase, where does this time come from? I do believe that being busy is just an excuse; but there is only 24 hours in a day...

Does caring for people mean you would want to know what they are up to every minute of the day...be it family, friends or lovers? This new perspective does seem to have some strong points. I had thought that seeing that they're happy, being there when it is needed, and willing to give up everything if the moment requires would be more important than knowing the details about a person's daily trivials...

...which makes me wonder, can I actually like a person, or do I only like the idea of the one. Perhaps I am incapable of love... not yet.

Wloo Nite + Driving Into the Sunrise

Went up to Waterloo the nite before to see me old drinking buddies. Wasn't too crowded, but did hit up 2 bars as well as revisited Morty's.... Ah.. wings and beer, wings and beer... so good! Nice wloo nite indeed!

The night ended relatively early (very healthy!). But wasn't able to sleep at all. Woke up every hour on the hour for some reason. So instead of forcing myself to sleep, decided might as well drive back to TO. Tis was a very nice drive... Started driving at 5am, avoided rush hour and got back home at 6am :).

The other nice thing was since I was driving east, I was able to see the sunrise. Took pics w/ my phone :) (yes while driving.. haha). Driving into the sunrise, what a beautiful sight.