yes yes yes, i will skip the 'i'm a bad blogger' stuff, because that's already been predetermined. just assume for all future posts that the bad blogger stuff counts.

so, last week was pretty great. greg came down on tuesday! (yay!!) and we helped my parents clean for the appraiser who was coming thursday. we weren't there for that because we got up really early and headed over to char's house to pack the cars for our 'beach' camping trip. we actually spent only 20 minutes at the beach (most of it was spent waiting for char to walk to the other side of the beach to see if it was more sheltered than our side due to high wind conditions). but i'm getting ahead of myself.

monday (19.08.02): did nothing for the majority of the day. had dessert at max's with char, her friend (a guy who i can't recall's name, but he really likes rap music, as proven on char's 21st birthday..babble), and robin. for the first time ever, none of the girls ordered the fantasy torte. history was made. the guy did though. anyway, we came back to my house and watched 10 things i hate about you (except the guy, too much of a girlie movie i guess) with leslie.

tuesday (20.08.02): got up early to clean for greg's imminent arrival, had pancakes with leslie (whole wheat honey ones, yummy). greg came, leslie left (of to ucb for the semester - i shall have to visit her), we hung out, ran some errands (including paying my 31 cent phone bill, dropping off stuff at goodwill, going to aaa and getting pearl tea drinks - i'm less addicted, honest, but you won't believe that in a sentence or two) went to the gym, stopped by my uncle craig's house to pick up the ginormous tent and stopped at the chinese market to pick up snacks for our drive down to san simeon state park. and at the chinese market, to my great happiness, was a make your own pearl tea kit. i bought it. i haven't made it yet though because you have to make all the tapioca beads in the packet and then eat them pretty soon after. anyway, bed after that.

wednedsay (21.08.02) - spent the day cleaning mostly. went down to my aunt terry's to use scrapbooking equipment, she's got some cool stuff. my ireland/london scrapbook will be pretty cool (and not just because it's my first scrapbook). i was supposed to wash the car, but i ran out of time. came home, packed, went out to ice cream with stephi and robin and greg and james and hooked up with char back at stephi's to ddr (dance*2 revolution). we were quite the comedic group. home to sleep.

thursday (22.08.02) - up early, down to char's house, waited around for a very long time for saint frances sean to show up and give us propane stove to cook on. boy did we use that stove. lots and lots. drove down to san simeon state park. and robin sped, 5 miles over almost constantly, i think we actually watched her go 75 mph, which is just insane for her since she's normally under the speed limit. we stopped in paso robles for lunch at the carls jr, which it seems is going tex mex with really greasy hamburgers. quite weird, i mean, standard salad bar and across the aisle, guacamole and salsa bar you tend to find at most mexican fast food joints. odd. got to san simeon, spent a really long time picking out the camp site, back and forth, the other campers must've thought we were pyscho or possibly deliquents. pitched tents (lemme tell you how fun that is in >10mph winds - not very), went back to cambria to look for a grocery store (again the back and forth driving method prevailed). got food, drove home, cooked food, attempted fire (small, but not warm enough) so we were in sleeping bags to be warm by 8:30 and probably asleep by 9:30.

friday (23.08.02) - got up early, had an early breakfast of eggs, hid in our tent more from the wind, had an early lunch, drove to hearst castle to try and take a tour. we decided on tour 2 but they were all sold out for the day! (by 12:30 too, insane) so we purchased tickets for the following morning and drove to the beach. we were deliquents and parked on the side of highway 1, climbed down the hill (hill just doesn't seem like enough to describe, but cliff sounds like too much). stayed about 20-30 minutes, it's a beautiful place, but very cold, not great sand and there was no chance we'd even try to get our feet in the water. i prefered manresa state beach last year. anyhow, drove back to the camp site, drove into town to buy more food, had dinner, roasted marshmellows over a small fire, climbed into sleeping bags before 8:30 and played taboo til 10pm.

saturday (24.08.02) - got up uber early, boiled water for oatmeal, drove to hearst castle, took our tour. this place is immense, and castle somehow just doesn't do the immensity of the place justice. in all other respects, it was very palace-y. he had so much, you should go read about it, but i don't know where since the state parks sell the books for way too much. you can't even wander the grounds by yourself, you have to pay to take a tram (in reality charter bus) up to the top and even then, you aren't allowed to stray from the group. i bet you the state makes most of it's money off poor tourists. anyway, my favorite room was a lofted room, where the bed and private area was on top and the bathroom and public sitting room on the bottom, very cool. came back to camp site, ate lunch, went to cambria to scout out dinner options and do a little shopping (no one bought anything that wasn't a food product). there was a cool magic/game store and a store that sells solely rubber stamps. other than that, not a greatly interesting town - mainly there for tourists to stop and take an hour to be out of the car on the drive up or down 1. we drove back and awaited the arrival of james, julie and freecia, who eventually made it. we then talked a lot, went to the grocery store again for breakfast supplies, hung out a bit, went into town for a dinner, toasted marshmellows and hung out and had a HUGE fire. we went to bed late.

sunday (25.08.02) - got up early, packed up, had breakfast, and parted ways. robin and char went to monterey for new england clam chowder (i'm jealous), greg and i just drove up 101, and the other three went down to SLO (san luis obispo) to see julie's place there and then on a tour of hearst castle. greg and i got back, did our laundry, went out for thai food and crashed. sleep deprivation + poor quality of sleep does that to you.

monday (26.08.02) - got up uber early, had breakfast, dressed for a semi-interview up at the temporary biotech staffing company (lab support) in san bruno. they made me take a test. and it took 40 minutes to get there. ugh. came home, job searched, got in touch with natasha from the summer at elan pharmaceuticals a couple years back and set up lunch for tuesday. went to the gym for an uber long period of time because mom gained weight over the weekend. *sigh*

tuesday (27.08.02) - got up early again, took a shower, drove to south SF to have lunch with hestia and natasha. they dropped me by to see george, the big head honcho of menlo park back in the day, and it took me a while to figure out who he was. went out for a really yummy lunch and natasha and hestia were very excited about the possiblility of me getting hired there (don't think it'll happen, but it's a nice though i guess). drove home, talked to the temp agency people, hung around a bit with mike, went down to get pearl tea drink and mcflurry's, went to the ymca again for a long period of time. bed.

wednesday (28.08.02) - today!! yay! i spent today being bad and doing nothing much. set up an interview with vector labs in burlingame for tomorrow. went down to saratoga to go to REI and any mountain to buy a replacement tent stake for uncle craig's friends' tent. freesh broke it when she pulled it out of the ground, strong girl huh? it could have helped a lot that greg was the one who nailed it in, but shhhh. ;o) i didn't quite find anything that really matched it, but i bought two possible substitutes and uncle craig approved when mike and i dropped it off when we went by his office. we drove to the store and bought strawberry soda (frankly, quite a disappointment). went to the ymca for a less insane period of time, had dinner, petted kitties, picked out clothes for interview. thinking about visiting the happy place (aka krispy kreme).

over and out!

so thursday robin came over and began to teach me the rudiments of swing dancing. it was kind of fun, invigorating, and a lot easier when people aren't laughing at you all the time. i actually got pretty ok at the 3 or 4 moves she taught me (except one: rock step back one). she went home after that to eat dinner and i ate dinner at my house. i think she was supposed to go to SF to go dancing but the SD ryan was a no show and she didn't want to go traipsing through the city alone at night (i don't blame her). so instead, we went out with char to michael's to buy black card stock paper (packs of 50 sheets for 3 dollars, that's pretty good!).

then we went to the ranch 99 shopping center to get pearl tea drinks (my first and only in like a week?), where leslie met us and we decided to go back to robin's and make popcorn (real popcorn!) and watch ocean's 11. the dvd was pretty cool because we actually got to see matt damon making all the weird lifts he did and other weird little facts. and yes, brad pitt is always eating, except in a couple of scenes, how does he stay so skinny? (this sort of sounds like greg and james, huh?)

anyway, then friday i sat around again, i'm good at at that. mom and i went for a walk. and then i packed up dinner and went to shakespeare in the park (memorial park in cupertino.. kind of a drive, but that's no big deal, cuz it was free!). actually it was free to get in, but it cost you to leave, as they put it. merchandise was everywhere, people who wanted donations, people selling discount tickets.. etc. and then i came home.

and yesterday, i sat around. i went for a walk with my mom up and down the hill, some of those houses up there are really cool and some of them you're thinking 'what were they thinking??' and i baked cookies and cleaned and started organizing for my scrapbook. yeah, that's pretty much it..

and i'm off to start my sunday!

so, yeah, i'm bad at blogging a lot. but i again have excuses! (i know i know, excuses still don't make everything alright).

so last week, thursday, i went to oregon for the FIRST time ever. my mom was joking that i've been to more countries than states. which might actually be true. well, anyway, i've never been further north on the west coast than tahoe or reno (which ever is further north), so it was kind of an experience for me. too bad half the state of oregon was on FIRE! but luckily for them (and unlucky for northern CA), there was a high pressure system off their northern coast, so all the winds go down through OR and into CA before out to sea again, which means it's lovely and clear up there, but ICKY looking in nor cal. in fact, as we drove by mt. shasta (truly beautiful, or so i've been told), we could only see the show on the mnts because it was more white than the smog. talk about disappointing!

anyhow, we visited my great aunt marianne in her rehab facilities in the town of grants pass (she suffered a stroke at the begininng of july), where she is greatly improved. she is up and walking slowly, but so she doesn't redamage anything, she is mostly confined to a wheelchair. but her spirits were high and we were joined by her husband, great uncle dick, who is the type of person where during conversation, you just smile and nod. because he's radically right winged. here's an example: to stop the rest of OR from being set on fire, he thinks we should clear cut the rest of the forests down. yes, i know. odd.

anyhow, then mom, aunt terry and i headed up to portland to catch the tail end of my aunt karen's birthday. we took her out for indian food, and in general had a good time. we were introduced to the kitties (tumbles, who is bigger and fatter than maomao if you believe that, tinkerbell, who looks like she has problems putting on mascara, and jellybean the runt of her litter and thus little and cute and thus avoidant of all people since they think she is so little and cute).

day 2: we went to visit great grandma gnos (my grandma's mom), in her elder care facility. she's kind of losing it, but at age 100, i guess that's what happens. but she was in pretty good spirits, except for a part when she said that she was tired of living, but that you "can't just shut it off," and so we told her we didn't want her to shut it off. her home just got a cute cute cute (uber cute really) kitten, age 6 weeks, who was bouncing about and in general being very cute. we then drove into downtown portland, and had lunch at a gourmet cooking shop. yummy grilled cheese sandwich. then we went to the largest bookshop west of the mississippi (or maybe even in the US, i'm not sure). it was sort of ruined by the fact that everytime i moved to a different floor i had to go to the sewing floor and inform the rest of the three of them. well not ruined, but enjoyment was hindered. we then walked around broadway, bought some more odd stuff and went home for dinner. aunt karen made this yummy chicken which involved parmasean cheese, spinach, noodles and orange juice.

day 3: got up a little early in order to head out to the coast. we went to a town called cannon beach, which is filled with artsy stuff, galleries, glass shops, that sort of thing. lots of shopping was done. we then drove to astoria, wandered about a bit, crossed over in washington so i could take pictures and claim to have been there. we went back to astoria and visited the column, which is where the lewis and clarke weathered a winter. 165 steps tall, oy! we then went to a nice gourmet restaurant for dinner for aunt terry's birthday and then there were fireworks for the regatta (i've never heard of one and still don't know what it is). then we drove home, and slept.

day 4: got up late, went to starbucks, went to scrapbooking store for 2 hours!!! then we went to lunch at the tillamuck grill or something. it was like a diner. more grilled cheese sandwiches. yum. then we went to see great grandma again; not a good day for her, she was pretty out of it and confused. we then went to the japanese gardens and home to a dinner of left overs. bed early so we could rise early!

day 5: awoke at 5am, packed up, drove to starbucks. got on i-5, drove to a town named weed, stopped for lunch (sad sad bleached town), got home at 7, had a salad. called greg, slept.

yesterday i sat around and did pretty much nothing but read my book (witches abroad by terry pratchett) and then went out to the olive garden with char and robin for dinner and then hung out here to look at pictures. there were lots of pictures.

that's it folks. you've probably stopped reading by now.

ok, i admit, i've been a bad blogger. there's no excuse, yes i've been busy, but not that busy. i'm just bad. ;o)

but on with the show:

a week ago monday through thursday, i was in davis for a bit (yay!) seeing greg and alli and charlie etc. much fun was had. we had a bbq, and i got to give charlie his guiness glass (he's waited so long and patiently). i didn't get to see tyson (sorry if you ever find this), which was sad, but i'll catch him another time. i'm somewhat afraid of leaving a message on his girlfriend's answering machine.

then i was at home, don't know what i was doing, it wasn't that memorable? i guess one day i visited the doctor who "massaged" my internal organs, which hurt and tickled at the same time. strange man also checked my ankles. am i weird or was he? it's up to you to decide. friday i headed up to ghiradehli square with mike and viki to get a hot fudge sundea (yummy!) and then we stopped by to see viki's sister. she lives in this way cool house up by UCSF on 10th ave. also near golden gate park if you don't know where that is. saturday i had brunch with Freecia's family and then freesh and i went to downtown PA to get tapioca pearl tea drinks. yummy again. then we picked up james, took pictures, freecia dropped james and i off at my house and james and i went to grace's (from alza last summer) bbq down in atherton. pricey zip code, decent apartment. anyway, james and i stopped at happy donuts on the way home and that was about it.

sunday i worked on my drapes and slept a lot. yesterday i went to (actually got out and walked to) leslie's house to help her bake cookies for this guy in seattle whose apartment she stayed in or visited or something a couple of weekends back. she wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, only without the chocolate chips and with blue m&m's. i got to sort the m&m's into each individual color (not by order, but by choice, i know, i really do have OCD). then we had lunch and tapioca pearl tea drinks. today i applied to god knows how many jobs using biospace.com. it's a wonderful site, just keep clicking "apply online to this job" button. works great. then i took freecia to walmart and got us tapioca pearl tea drinks. sensing a trend in my life? got home in time to see my elderly neighbor, norm(an), fall down and not be able to stand up. who knew those commercials were so accurate? so i had to stand and keep him company until the firemen showed up. he was very grumpy. i suppose, though, in that situation, most people would be.

addicted to tapoica pearl tea drinks = melissa