Smurfy's Blog

Today, a CARH truck will be picking up any donation such as clothing, small appliances and/or furniture, etc. From time to time, we donate to CARH (http://www.carh-inc.org/donations.html). This morning, I placed some items for donation onto our street for the truck to pick up around 8am. Some items I placed outside for donations are clothing, reusable shoes, cooking pot and a wicker chair with matching foot stool.

When my husband saw the wicker chair and stool outside, he told me that someone may steal them. Around 9am, I looked outside my son’s bedroom window to see if the truck came by and picked up the items. At that time, I still saw the bags of clothing/shoes and pot. When I looked carefully, the wicker chair and foot stool were gone! Just as my husband predicted, someone did STEAL the wicker chair and stool!

Those items are not free! I did not place a big note next to the items saying ‘FREE, please take them!’ The wicker chair and stool are for donation! Whoever STOLE the wicker chair/stool should be ashamed of himself/herself. How RUDE! I am sure that person who took my donation items can AFFORD to buy their own wicker chair with matching stool. Heck, I believe that inconsiderate, unsympathetic person can AFFORD to buy a $1000 leather couch!

I donate items for a reason and to help a special cause. The person who STOLE my donation items is so heartless. That wicker chair and stool could have been given to someone who can really use it.

Ok going into a different subject. Pixar showed the new movie Drive starring Ryan Gosling. According to Rottentomatoes, Drive was given a 92% FRESH review. Since Drive was given a very good review, my husband and I decided to watch the movie at 6:30pm (there was another showing of Drive at 9pm). After work, I drove to Pixar. My husband’s brother picked up our son at Pixar and took him to my inlaws house. I really had no idea of what the movie was about. I saw the movie trailer but I still didn’t get what the movie was about. All I know that Ryan Gosling loves to drive in this movie.

I failed to notice how the movie is rated. I thought it was rated PG-13. Boy I was totally wrong! The movie is 110% rated R! It was a very violently graphic movie with many disturbing images. I especially don’t like it when the movie gets very silent because when there is silence in the movie, I know something terrifying will happen! And this movie had a lot of scary silent moments!

Overall, Ryan Gosling played the character well. In the movie, his character is so reserved, quiet and hardly talks. I always wonder what thoughts go into his mind. He has this big mystery about him. His character is so extreme though. He can be a quiet, well-mannered man then becomes into this monster, maniac, cold-blooded killer in a split second. Is he a good guy or bad guy? Boy one thing I will remember from the movie is those jeans Ryan Gosling wore! Ryan Gosling looks pretty good in those jeans!

Also the movie had some 80s retro thing going on like the font and font color of the movie credits and the wardrobe the characters wore. The movie soundtrack sounded like from the 80s too. Soundtrack like Under Your Spell by Desire. I especially like the music Nightcall by Kavinsky.

Today, my husband received the cast and crew credits for Cars 2. As a tradition, Pixar always have ‘Production Babies’ at the end of the credits. After adopting our son, we can finally add our child’s name in the credits.

Pixar had a wrap party for Cars 2 this past June 4, 2011. Here are some pictures I took during their wrap party.

Inside the Paramount Theater in Oakland where Cars 2 was shown for its employees and their guest. The movie was released in public theaters on June 24, 2011.

After watching the movie, we walked to the Fox Theater where the party was located. At the party, there were open bars in different areas. Some of the food I had were mini-burgers, sushi, meat on a skewer, etc.

This was a mini-root beer float. I probably had three of them at the party.

There was this race track display with Cars 2 characters on it.

There was a casino area too.

Normally, Nelson and I stay long at these wrap parties that Pixar has for all their movies. But since we now have a son, we left the party early. We couldn’t take our son to the wrap party. The wrap party is for the employee and one guest.

The wrap party usually starts with the movie around 6pm. Before the movie begins, so many things occurs first. First thing that occurs is the Pixar deco wheel or the Pixar choir…. gee I forgot… must be old age. When you enter the theater, you are given a ticket number. A Pixar employee goes on stage of the theater then spins the deco wheel. If your number is called, you will some prize. Our luck never came yet. After all the wrap parties we have been too, we haven’t won a prize! Next on stage was the Pixar choir. Yes, Pixar has their own choir. If Pixar have their own masseuse on campus, they can have their own choir. The Pixar choir doesn’t sing Lady Gaga songs or Barry Manilow songs, they sang about the daily lives of their employees and their work on the finished movie. Up next were the speeches. During these speeches, there were the usual tears and lots of hugging and pat on the back and lots of ‘thank yous’ and ‘i love yous’ from the director/producer and John Lasseter.

The Cars 2 movie didn’t even start yet after the speeches were made. After the speeches, Pixar showed a short film. The short film this time was Day & Night. After the short film, Pixar showed their next upcoming movie Brave which is scheduled to be release on June 2012. I look forward to watching Brave. Now Cars 2 was ready to begin!

When Cars 2 movie was almost over, everyone in the theater gets all excited watching the movie credits. When they see their names on screen, people go crazy and yell ‘Oh yeah’, ‘woo hoo’, ‘good job’, ‘bravo’…’NELSON’!!! 🙂

After all the excitement in the theater, the party reception begins and ends around 2am. About a week or few weeks later, Pixar will pass out tickets for friends/family of the employee so they too can watch the movie.

I can never forget where I was 10 years ago on Sept 11, 2001. It was the same week Nelson proposed to me. Nelson wanted me to take a week off from work. He didn’t want to tell me where we were going. He just wanted me to take a week off, pack my stuff and go with him to the airport.

Sept 07, 2001: We headed to SFO airport. I had no idea where we were flying to until we got to the check-in counter. When I saw Hawaii, I was so surprised! I never been to Hawaii. I asked Nelson ‘really, you taking me to Hawaii?’ We landed in Oahu around the afternoon. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa.

Pics from the past…

Our view from hotel room

Sept 08, 2001: We rented a convertible car and pretty much drove every where in Oahu. We visited the Dole Plantation place where we drank fresh pineapples.

Pics from the past…

Sept 09, 2001: We visited Pearl Harbor. Inside USS Arizona Memorial, there is this wall with names of the ship’s crew that died when the ship was bombed in Dec 1941. You can still even see the ship under water.

On this day, I clearly remember asking Nelson ‘what if this surprise attack happens again? If this kind of attack happens again, we will be stuck on this small island.’ After few days later, 9/11 happens.

Pics from the past…

Sept 10, 2001: The day Nelson asked me to marry him. We have been dating for 6 years! But we have known each other since high school. First time I talked to Nelson in high school was in Spanish class. My long hair got wrapped around this nail on my chair and asked Nelson to help me take my hair out since he was sitting behind me. Of course, at that time, I wouldn’t know that he would be my future husband.

On the day he proposed to me, we were still inside our hotel room either just coming back from somewhere or getting ready to head out. He sat down on the bed and asked me to sit with him. I remember he looked kinda nervous. 🙂 After I sat down, he was mumbling about something. Then I heard him say ‘will you marry me?’ I actually didn’t say ‘YES’! Of course I wanted to say YES, but I wanted to play a game with him. The truth is, I wanted him to ask me to marry him 2 years ago when it was our 4th year of dating. Two years ago, he started at Pixar and I had finished college and got a full time job. So I was ready to get married. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. He had no plans to marry yet. So this is why I didn’t say YES when he asked me to marry him. I wanted him to wait since he had me waiting for years!

This is the hotel room where he proposed to me. This is the view that we were looking at while we sat on the bed.

Sept 11, 2001: The unthinkable happened. Nelson and I were still sleeping when our hotel phone rang around 4am in the morning. I didn’t know who I was talking to because I was still very sleepy. Someone was telling me to look at the news on TV. I was trying to wake up and said ‘what are you talking about?’ I just realized that I was talking to one of my high school friends. I never told my friends where I was going or which hotel I was staying since I didn’t know where Nelson was taking me. So I was surprised to get a call from her. I asked Nelson if he told her. He said no. Did my friend call every hotels in Oahu just to find me? My friend told me to turn on the TV and watch the news. We turned on our TV and all channels were showing the World Trade Center attack. I asked myself, ‘is this a movie?’ Seriously, at 4am in morning, I was still trying to wake up. I asked Nelson ‘where are the buildings?’ Nelson said ‘both are gone.’

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

After I got ready, I decided to take a walk. The atmosphere outside seemed so different. The streets were not as crowded. People didn’t look happy. The streets were quiet. While I was walking, I asked myself ‘what am I doing walking by myself?’ My boyfriend asked me to marry him last night and I didn’t give him my answer yet! So I quickly went to find him and I told him ‘YES’.

After 9/11,we were still in Oahu. We were watching the news about the airport especially about Oahu’s airport. Because of 9/11, the Oahu airports had tighter security and some flights were cancelled. Good thing that our flight didn’t get cancelled on the day we flew back home.

After work, we headed to Fort Mason in SF to check out ‘off the grid’ (http://offthegridsf.com/) where a variety of foodtrucks from the bay area park and serve good food to very hungry folks like us. There were mexican, vietnamese, filipino, indian, pizza trucks, etc. When we got there, good thing it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be. It was a nice sunny day. My husband’s family met us there.

First foodtruck we tried is called Chairman Bao where Nelson ordered their steam and baked bun. The baked bun was the size of a hamburger sandwich. The steam bun was not really a bun. It was more like a thick, white, soft taco bun with meat and veggies. Both were good. We gave Nathan some Chairman Bao food but he had his own food. Nelson’s mom brought Nathan some pasta from home.

Next foodtruck we tried served very good garlic noodles.

Of course, I had to try one of the taco trucks. I love tacos. There was this truck called Kung Fu Tacos. I ordered the Asian Asada.

My meal isn’t complete without dessert! Cupkates was there too. Cupkates goes to Emeryville at times but whenever the truck is there, I just never have time to walk to their location and buy some cupcakes. First cupcake I bought was the spicy mexican chocolate cupcake. The cupcake tasted very fresh and really good.

After having that spicy mexican chocolate cupcake, I had to go back and buy 4 other cupcakes to go (red velvet, vanilla bean, coconut and s’more).

Our fun time of eating didn’t stop here. We decided to have ice cream at Bi Rite creamery (http://biritecreamery.com/). We got a vanilla sundae as well as chocolate coconut and balsamic strawberry.

Yes some things should stay in Vegas, but there is one thing I can openly talk about. Since I love Phantom of the Opera, I did watch it again. In our Venetian room, there was this $40 discount card for the show since it was their 10th or 15th anniversary at the Venetian. So I took advantage of that deal. I sat in Row E Seat 60 which was located on the 4th row from the stage. It was such a different experience watching the show close to the stage. I was able to see the actor’s facial make-up and costume more clearly.

While we were in Vegas, we found out that Nathan had injured his chin. Not exactly sure what happened, but he fell on his face and hit something. :-O

So Nelson’s family put a band-aid over his chin. I guess someone drew a goatee on the band-aid. Our son is a tough boy. He will be OK. 🙂

Vegas is a fun place to be. But whenever we are there, we always see drunken people and cops with their sirens turned on catching people who were behaving badly. One of the days, we saw this cop car stopped this vehicle on the Vegas strip. We noticed that there was a camera too. I think it is for that COPS tv show. Also Vegas is a nice place to go swimming, but too hot. One night, it was still 100 degrees! I saw some families with their 1 or 2 years old. The kids looked dehydrated. They didn’t look good at all. On another night, we saw these couples fighting in public. The woman was yelling ‘GET OUT! GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!!!!’ So these are the reasons why we felt Vegas wasn’t good for Nathan yet.

We waited for our disembark number to be called until 9:45am. Before we left the ship, we ate our last breakfast on the ship at the Horizon Court (Deck 12). I always go to this same guy who makes my eggs. When he saw me standing there, he was already cooking my two eggs overeasy. He pretty much remembers how I wanted the eggs to be cooked.

Waiting for our ride near Pier 35 after disembarking the ship

Bye Bye Sea Princess!

Hello Las Vegas!
Nelson in line to check-in at the Venetian hotel

This is the long line to register for my husband’s conference VMWorld which is being held at the Venetian Hotel.

While in line, volunteers at the VMWorld passed out not one…

… but two different beers!

It doesn’t end with beers… VMWorld provided all registrants a VMWorld backpack, shirt and water bottle.

My workplace will be holding a Users Meeting in Las Vegas in Sept. Will they be handing out beers to all the attendees?… most likely not. 🙂

From staying in a small cramped room on the cruise ship to a nice spacious suite at the Venetian tower. The Venetian hotel has three towers (Venetian, Venezia and Palazzo).

We have a view of the strip, Wynn/Encore, Fashion Mall and swimming pools

We didn’t bring Nathan to Vegas with us. But next time we will.

During our day at sea, we pretty much eat until we pass out. 🙂 The cruise ship is always packed with so much food. When I get home, I will weigh myself to see how many pounds I gained.

After everyone had their liquor and ate a complete meal (appetizer, main course and dessert), they all enjoyed themselves in the Princess Theater.

If you take a long cruise, normally the cruise will have two formal dinners where passengers get to dress up in formal attire.

First formal night, Nathan wearing his suit

Second formal night

Some of the very tasty main course and desserts I had on board.
Game hen

Gotta have seafood

Ménage à trois (which actually mean threesome) but on the cruise ship, it is just a dessert 🙂

A different twist of vanilla creme brulee

My favorite dessert I love having on a cruise is baked alaskan (ice cream cake topped with meringue). I was worried that they weren’t going to serve it but on our last dinner on board, they finally did.

Before serving us the baked alaskan, our waiters did some performance for us

Mr. Chaos on deck 6… Nathan was causing chaos on deck 6 where our room was located. When he sees our inlaws outside the hallway, Nathan leaves our room to join them. But of course he didn’t stay put. He ran back and forth in the hallway screaming happily. But he was also disturbing the peace to other passengers. He was knocking on their door!

If he wasn’t busy causing chaos on Deck 6, he sits quietly and watches TV in our room

Mr. Funny Face… not sure how Nathan learned to make funny faces but he was making funny faces in front of his grandma. But he couldn’t make any more funny faces because he was laughing too much.

Some pics of the ship

Corniche lounge where they serve pizza from 12pm to 2pm.

View of water from back of ship

We like to take our walks on Deck 7 where it wasn’t as cold as the top deck

Giving Nathan a hug on Deck 7

Just fooling around and taking pics of ourselves in front of a mirror on Deck 7

I like doing my stair exercise from Deck 5 (which is the lowest floor passengers can go to) to Deck 14 (top deck). After I have a big dinner, I walk up these stairs 3 times non-stop. Also, since the elevators are very slow on the ship (after all, the ship is 90% filled with old people and 75% of them rather take the elevator), I pretty much have to use the stairs to get to where I want to go. I even carried Nathan one time up the stairs and boy that was a good workout. Being on a cruise ship, you pretty much meet some people. So this old lady always see me walking up the stairs. One day, she said ‘doing your stair exercise again?’

After sailing to Alaska, our last land trip was Victoria (named after Queen Victoria).

In Victoria, we went to see a free guided tour at the parliament.

Statue of Queen Victoria

Inside the parliament building:
Coat of Arms of British Columbia which was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in Oct 1987.

House of Chambers where the members of parliament meet to talk about very boring stuff.

Colorful stained glass made for Queen Victoria who was a monarch from 1837 to 1901. Our tour guide told us that this stained glass was made during the late 1800s but it wasn’t displayed inside the parliament building until the mid 1900s. To prevent any damage, the stained glass was stored in the building’s basement. However, for some reason, people forgot where it was stored. So after 50 or 60 years later when someone went down to the basement, that person found it. Now it is finally displayed on the first floor of the parliament.

The Empress Hotel is one of the famous and oldest hotel in Victoria.

I don’t know about you but the two trees with dangling arms of leaves in front of the hotel entrance reminds me of Aloysius Snuffleupagus (“Snuffy”) from Sesame Street.

My husband and I decided to tour Craigdarroch Castle which was constructed around 1890 and owned by Robert Dunsmuir who was a wealthy coal baron. He died before his mansion was finished. After he died, his family made sure that the construction was completed.

Some pics of the castle.

Staircase taken from bottom floor

Staircase taken from top floor

Living area

Formal dining room

Another dining room

Tea room

Game room

Some overly cluttered bedroom

While walking around Victoria, I happen to walk by a cupcake store. So I bought myself their chocolate cupcake with strawberry icing

We also walked through Government Street where it is filled with all sorts of stores and restaurants.

Trees cut out as whales

Victoria harbor

Passengers lining up to head back into the ship

Farewell Victoria!

We arrived at Ketchikan about 11am. Boat leaves around 6pm. We just walked around from the wharf to their old historic district. Of course, I did some shopping too. The cruise provided us coupon books for Ketchikan and I got free shopping bag and mug. Also, I had a coupon for $1.99 Alaskan Inside Passage shirts.

Shopping area at Creek Street

Flowing water near Creek Street

Old brothel (which is now a museum) owned by Dolly Arthur (given name Thelma Copeland)

People fishing for salmon on bridge

Hey this salmon is peeking out of the water… ‘Ha ha, can’t catch me!’

Other shopping area

Seaplane taking off

Pic of Nathan next to ship

This is our boat’s first time docking at Haines. I think there were other cruise ships that docked there previously but this is pretty much Sea Princess’s first time going to Haines.

At Haines, we walked around the old town and their downtown. The old town had houses that were built about 100 years ago. The homes were made for high ranking military families.

We visited a totem pole carving company

At the totem pole carving company, we met ‘little guy’. The guy was owned to a family who has a little boy but the family moved to another place and the cat was left behind

These totem poles are very popular in Alaska

Some totem poles are actually pretty tall

Here is an interesting log house owned by this wood carver

Some of the small shops at Haines have interesting curb appeal

Here is ‘big guy’ cat. Actually I don’t know if that is his name but he is a very fat cat!

Here is Nathan standing next to a totem pole and with our cruise ship in background

Pics of our cruise ship

Wow, you can park here for 48 hrs. In SF, your parking time is more limited to 10 mins to 1 hr or no parking at all.

Pics of Haines from cruise ship