Monday, December 31, 2007

Remember kids...

Responsible behavior this holiday season or this could happen to you!

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

I suppose I won't be the only one to write a blog entry on the last day of the year. I guess it's a question of what do people tend to write? I would think that a lot of people will create lists of what was good or bad for the year 2007. Some will probably write some retrospect of the year and what they look forward to in the new year. I guess it's really hard to come up with something more original for the last entry of the year.

I will say that again, this year, I will end it at home on my own. I don't think it's a huge deal. Sometimes it's better to spend some quiet time while others are whooping it up somewhere. I guess I just don't have the energy or motivation to whoop it up. That's not to say I'm depressed or anything. But I won't lie and say that I'm just all peaches and cream about the whole situation.

I have also become more aware about how selfish it is sometimes to think about yourself when there are others who are in worse situations than my own. Knowing this, I think it helps to lessen the impact of whatever I happen to be going through. I guess you could say it's a sort of philosophy I've slowly started to take up. That doesn't mean I will give up all my worldly possessions and go off to work in some third world country. I will, however, lend a hand or ear to those who need it most. I find that it's friends like this that are more valued than anything else. At least, this is what I believe.

Anyway, I think I will Wii my way into the New Year.

So to the handful of regular readers, I wish you all a Happy New Year. :-)

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Holiday Blahs

I don't know what it is about this time of year. Is it because I'm spending it "alone" that I feel kinda "blah"? I just feel kind of bummed out today.

This past week seems to have gone by rather quickly...

Monday, I went into town (Boston) with my brother just to poke around. Incredibly we found on-street, metered parking. The traffic in was not bad at all.

I really didn't have anything I needed to buy. I did end up getting two CDs at Newbury Comics. I checked out a couple of clothing stores, but really didn't see anything that appealed to me. I guess I'm rather fussy about clothing. :p

Tuesday was Christmas. The carnage that was the opening of gifts started upstairs with all the gifts for the twins. I think they got way too many toys. I don't know how my sister deals with all of it. Then the carnage moved downstairs for the adults. My sister got the new iPod nano from me and bro. Bro got a USB turntable from sis and me. I got the Nintendo Wii from sis and bro. Parents got cash. Bro-in-law got some gift cards.

Wednesday was calmer. Bro and I went by the mall just to check out a couple of things plus find me a bag to carry the Wii back in. I didn't want to haul it back in its box. :p That would have been too obvious at Customs. Found one that I liked at the Best Buy. It was black with pink. Got home and chilled before it was time to head out to the airport.

I had MSN'd with a friend earlier and he mentioned that a bunch of them were going out for dinner that evening. He asked if I wanted to join. I figured, why not? While at the airport, he text the directions and tried to confirm attendance. I said I had a couple things to do once I got back. He offered to pick me up at the airport. I said, cool!

I got home, took care of a little "mess" that BS made on the bed and quickly freshened up before heading out to dinner. The restaurant is a Portuguese one out in the east end near St. Leonard. It was meat, meat and more meat, with some seafood thrown in for good measure.

After dinner, we went to Rockaberry for dessert. We had fun talking about some silly stuff. To cap it off, we went to Cafe Milano for a late evening latte. It was a pleasant evening spent with some friends.

Thursday, I didn't do too much. I had physio in the morning, so I had to get up for that. Did some quick grocery shopping afterwards. Threw a load of laundry in. Chilled the rest of the day before deciding to hook up the Wii. I think I played Wii Sports for about an hour that evening. It was fun. :-)

Yesterday, I wanted to head over to the mall. I was chatting with Abe when I mentioned it. He said he was stuck at home with no car. I offered to rescue him and go to the mall. I wanted to check out the Wii games at EB Games. I found a couple: Elebits and Super Mario Galaxy. Abe inquired into the price of the PS3. He called his brother to find out about some technical aspects of it. We walked around the mall some more. I picked up 2 DVDs at HMV. I found a baselayer at Sports Expert. Then Abe decided to go back to EB Games. He ended up buying the 40Gb PS3. Sucka!!! ;-)

Last night, there was a potluck dinner at a couple's place. They don't live too far from me. I decided to keep it simple and get some cheese and crackers. It ended up being 6 of us in all. Not bad. There was enough food for everyone. I told Yan I needed to give her some cooking lessons. After we had some food and talked for a bit, we all played some poker. I've never really played poker before so we played a couple of "dry runs". After that, the real game began. No money was involved, so it was all good. In the end, of the 6 of us, I finished 3rd, which really wasn't bad.

Today, I woke up after 4 hours of sleep. I feel a bit blah. :p I think I'm going out for some sushi tonight with Abe. Maybe a movie later. I dunno...

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Bah-ston

No, I don't really have a Boston accent. Occasionally, I might slip and pronounce a few words in a certain way. My sister has more the accent than I do.

Yeah, so I am back in Boston for Christmas. I flew in yesterday. I think I spent more time on the tarmac or taxiing on the runway than I did in the air. The flight itself was about 45 minutes. Before we pulled away from the gate, they had to pretty much shut down the plane to reset the system because something was a bit wonky. Then it was taxiing, taxiing, taxiing around before we got to the runway we were to take off from. Once we landed at Logan it was more taxiing. :p Sooo.. Instead of getting to the gate by 8PM, we got there around 8:30.

Today, I didn't do tooooo much. The family plus my aunt and cousins went out for dimsum for lunch. It wasn't too bad. Of course, just having returned from Hong Kong not too long ago, my Mom was making comparisons. Oh well. I guess my Mom just has to have something to complain about. In general, the dim sum at this place in Saugus on Route 1 is not bad. I really can't remember the name of the place. It's where Weylu's used to be many years ago on top of a hill.

After dim sum, Mom, bro and I went over to Square One Shopping center. Ack! I braced myself with last minute shoppers. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought. There was a line up for the kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Otherwise, the crowds weren't that bad. I went to Filene's Basement and found myself a Kenneth Cole down jacket. It was on sale for 25% the ticketed price. So I paid a grand total of $59.99. That's not bad! Then we strolled around a bit. Mom had gone off on her own and called my brother to tell him that she walked over to the Kmart. We continued to walk around a little bit more before we headed out to pick up Mom by the Kmart.

This evening, we went out to Not Your Average Joe's for dinner. Mom's birthday was Thursday, so we went out tonight to celebrate. I had their Thai Chicken and Shrimp. It wasn't bad. I also tried their Peanut Butter Thing for dessert. Oof! I think in the end, I just ate too much! :p I don't think I will be having much breakfast tomorrow.
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Catching up.... Since Tuesday....

Okay, so there was a Vegas Night party at work on Wednesday. It was held at the Science Center by the Old Port. They had blackjack tables, poker tables, Roulette, craps and roving magicians. There was also a live band playing in a room not far from where the casino was. The food was pretty good. They were serving some yummy canapes before the buffet opened. There were many gifts to be won. Alas, I didn't win anything. Yet, I didn't lose anything either. We were all given tickets to exchange for $1500 worth of chips. I played some blackjack before it was time to go home. I had a good time, so I guess it was a good thing I decided to go.

The viewing of the condo by the couple who cancelled Tuesday had to cancel again because the poor woman who is pregnant was bleeding. Oh well. and it seems that the couple who did come to view the place are going to put an offer on the other condo instead. :p

Thursday was not too exciting. I had my first appointment with a physical therapist about my elbow. She did a full evaluation to make sure that there wasn't something else amiss. In the end, she confirmed that it was tennis elbow. :p She showed me a few exercises and stretches that I should do. Next appointment is on the 27th in the morning.

Friday, well.. I managed to finish what I needed to get done at work not long after lunch. After that it was a bit of slacking off. I shot the shit with some coworkers. There was a bottle of good port open, but I didn't have any. Apparently, there was a bottle of wine opened somewhere else. Another person mentioned that a manager had a whole bar set up in his office. Yes, it's more or less the last real working day before the holidays. Technically, Monday is still a work day, but I don't think too many people will be in. I'm in Boston, so obviously, I won't be in. :D

Oh! Today I did receive an email from the real estate agent. There might be a viewing either Thursday or Friday. She'll confirm the date and time as soon as she gets the info. I hope I have a chance to tidy up the place some more and maybe declutter a bit more. *sigh* I might have to do something about the cats as well. I dunno what, but... I guess we'll see.

Tomorrow, my brother will only be working until noon. We're planing on heading into town for a bit. We'll probably get off by Back Bay Station. I like hanging out in the area by the Pru and Newbury St. Let's see what kind of trouble I will find there. :p

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I'm Exhausted!

I've been working almost non-stop prepping my place for its first viewing. The agent just came by to pick up a set of keys for any weekday visits. Her client that was originally suppose to come by Sunday but was postponed to tonight due to the snow storm had to cancel tonight because she thinks she's about to have her baby. However! The second visit scheduled for tonight is still on and will probably be moved up to 8PM.

*GASP* *PANT* I'm tired! My shoulders and muscles are a bit sore from hauling stuff, carrying stuff, packing stuff most of the weekend.

I'm taking a bit of a breather right now before I do some more picking up. The potential buyer coming tonight is the niece of another agent. I think she just got married so they want a place of their own. My agent will try to convince and push the other agent into making a serious offer on my place. It's in their price range. So we shall see.

If I have any energy left I'll post an update later.

Meanwhile, the place I'm buying was inspected this afternoon. No major problems there. Just a few small things. The guy has inspected many similar townhouses in the area so he's familiar with the construction. Anyway...

*BREATHE*

Uhm..

I'm not sure what to say...

Do chocolate bunnies and disturbing mix?

Monday, December 17, 2007

Trip Photos

Oh! In case you haven't heard, the gazillion shots I took on the trip are up on my Flickr. I managed to edit it down to about 550 shots. :D

Monday Evening

I am very tired. I guess I am somewhat exhausted. The other night while I was having some late supper, my eyes started to close on me. I think my body just wanted to shut down.

I guess I've been tying to do so much this past weekend that I have not given myself sufficient downtime to recover. Since there was this snow storm on Sunday and the viewing postponed to Tuesday, I ended up napping all afternoon. I think I really needed it.

The place is just about ready for viewing. I think I've done all I can for the backroom at this time. I need to put away a few things before tomorrow evening. I've already taken out some of the garbage. I'll probably have to put away the boxes for packing in the garage. I managed to do some mopping tonight. I'll probably run the vacuum over the rugs tomorrow.

*SIGH* So much to do to show the place and impress people.

Okay, I'm pretty tired so I think I will go to bed now.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Friday - Update

I must apologize for not having written sooner. It's just been one rather busy week. Busy in the sense that I just didn't have a chance to sit down and write an entry here. So where to start?

I guess I will start where I left off, more or less.

Tuesday: I don't really remember much about Tuesday. I did send an email to a real estate agent about selling my place and making an offer on another. She emailed back and said that we'd meet Wednesday evening. In the afternoon, there was a beer and pizza thing for the department. That was dinner for the day!

Wednesday: Today, we had our group outing. We decided to go curling again this year. Since I had volunteered to be designated driver for 2 of the guys who live near me, we left directly from my place to the curling rink. We curled for 2 hours before making our way to Portovino for the department holiday lunch. As it's happened at past holiday lunches, there were the odd dozen of us who stick around to the bitter end. This year, I think we started to leave around 6:30PM. We all made sure that everything was able to get home one way or another. One of my charges was quite out of it, but we managed to get him into my car and safely home.

That evening, I had my meeting with the agent. We first did the paperwork to list my place for sale. As for the asking price, we agreed that if I wanted it to sell fairly quickly, I should price it close to what similar condos have sold recently. In essence, mine will be priced below most of the other mezzanine condos. Then we wrote up the offer on the townhouse. After doing some thinking, I had decided to go for my ex manager's townhouse instead of the one that required a lot of work. Do I really want the headache of renovation?? Anyway, we discussed price. The agent suggested a starting figure to which I agreed. So the offer was written up. Considering it was getting late in the evening, she'd present the offer the next day.

Thursday: The offer was made and countered. I came home to find the for sale sign on front of the building. Whoah. Things are moving along pretty quickly. The agent came by after work to go over the counter offer. We discussed it. I think it was a fair counter-offer. I toyed with the idea of countering it with something silly, but I decided against it. :) The agent had also mentioned in the email she sent in the afternoon that she's scheduled a viewing for Sunday at 1PM! Apparently a couple was interested in checking out one of her listings. She told them about my place. So now they will get to see my place before the other one! :-o They seem pretty serious about wanting to buy a condo. So I hope all the de-cluttering and stuff will help sway them to make an offer. :)

Right now, my place is a bit of a disaster. Today, I also had to call about the certificate of location. I need to make an appointment for a home inspection. I also needed to get mortgage approval for the house. *sigh* I'm feeling a bit wiped. :p

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Save our environment!

I received this from Avaaz.org:

Right now, a major UN summit in Bali has just a few days left to hammer out an agreement on stopping catastrophic climate change. But instead of helping out, Canada is actually sabotaging the UN talks! On Saturday, experts gave us the global "fossil" award for being the worst country in the world on climate change.

There's still a few days left to save Canada's reputation -- and the climate -- but we need a massive democratic roar to remind our Prime Minister what Canada is all about, and stop him from blocking the world at Bali. Click below to sign the petition and we'll advertize the number of signatures we get in an ad campaign across Canada this week. Our goal is to get 25,000 people to sign in just 3 days before the ads run. Click below, then forward this email to all your friends and family right away:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/another_canadian_climate_crime/4.php

Enough is enough. Prime Minister Harper's short-sighted, undemocratic and big oil-driven policy on climate change is damaging the world and destroying our image as a good country. We're supposed to be the nice guys, who try to do the right thing in the world.

The vast majority of Canadians are hopping mad on this issue -- we can win this. We just need to show Harper how serious we are that he change course. Sign up now and forward this email to everyone you know - we've got just 3 days to hit 25,000 signatures!


Do your part and sign the petition!

Schmap

This is kinda neat. It seems that a shot I took of Spouting Horn in Kauai got shortlisted for the next edition of Schmap Kauai Guide.

Spouting Horn, Kauai, Hawaii, May 2004

Home Again

Well, I've been back from my trip a couple of days now. It almost feels like I never left home. I don't know why that is. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It just feels a bit weird. I mean, just last week, I was in Tokyo planning my day trip to Nikko. I guess it's back to some sense of normalcy.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Something about this



It just gives me the warm fuzzies. *sigh*

Now I'm depressed. :p