Bloggin'......

Go-kart racing

I found out how badly I drove tonight when I went go-kart racing with a couple co-workers at LeMans Karting in Fremont. I came in a miserable 7th out of 12, only because I could not control my speed, slide out in the corners, and lost a lot of time. I did have a lot of fun whizzing around the track, though exensive. Forty bucks for a 10 minute instructional video, 5 minute practice, and 20 minutes of open wheel racing. We'll see if my pocket book will allow another time.

Toyota Scion

My friend Ming Jou was in town yesterday, and we met up for dinner at Nagano Sushi in San Francisco. It's always a treat to see her, because she's always got something fun going on.

This night, we went to the Toyota Scion Party in Alameda. It was kind of a cool and interesting get together of Scion Car owners. They had live bands and DJ's for the party, but food came in a lunch car (roach coach) out in the rain and drinks at a mock bar inside. Of course they had Scions on display, as well as cars with Artists works on them and giant metal mechanical insect sculptures that blew colorful flames and loud backfiring pops. There wasn't much else going on, so we decided to get some food at the Lake Merrit Bakery and Restuarant, apparently a great place to go if you need a wedding cake at 2AM in the morning.

Unfortunately, most of my pictures in the dark came out pretty blurry.

Fun on Skiis

I found this little guy while I was in Park City, and actually looks like me on Skiis. It now sits on top of my monitor at work.

Day Off

We took today off, too much snowboarding could result in nausea and.... ah, never mind, we just needed a break. We woke up late and had a late lunch at the Easy Street Brasserie in Park City. Their moniker was cool. It was, "we're so French, we hate ourselves." Self-deprecation? No, I think it's just more insightful. It'll be my last day of vacation, as I'm taking off back home to finish some work in the office. Darn Work!

After lunch, we wanted to head over to Olympic Park to ride the Zip lines, an attraction at the park. Unfortunately, it was too late by the time we got there and we didn't have enough time for a tour. Olympic park was where much of the Salt Lake City Olympic Games occurred, but now houses the training grounds for world class winter sports athletes, like in the bobsled, luge, skeleton, and the Nordic ski jump. Instead, we had our own fun in the parking lot, as we watched little munchkins, as young as 10 years old, walk in to start their training. Crazy!

Stay tuned for an explanation of this picture.....

Fun with pictures

Snow Bird, Utah

Welcome to our third day of snowboarding! Today, we went to SnowBird, Utah. It had not snowed in two days and the powder has been super soft! Joe, Christi, Greg, Cheryl, and I hit the slopes in full force, as we ascended straight to the top. I was surprised, this park had the most double black diamonds I had ever seen! Bowls, cliffs, moguls, and trees, it was all good. At one point, I got seperated from the rest of the group on our run before lunch. I ended up on a whole other mountain from where we were suposed to meet for lunch, because I thought I was taking a short cut through the trees.

I raced down the rest of the mountain, so I could take the lift back up and get on the right trail. That was where I let it all loose, as I got into a good groove and lowered down into a low stance to go even faster! I had my knees in my chest, as I blew down that run! Good times, good times.....

Unfortunately, that was when the clouds started to move in. We finsihed out the day boarding through the fog and clouds, as snow started to drift down again. On one run, I took the lead and was going pretty fast down a black diamond run. It was so foggy, visibility got shorter and shorter, to the point when I did not see an unpcoming small berm. I hit it midstride and caught an edge, where I ended up sumersaulting and diving into the snow, doing a face plant. To top it off, I had a built up a load of powdery snow on top of my board, which I dumped on me when I turned upside down. I had snow in cracks and nooks I never thought possible. Definitely good times, good times.... =)

Park City, Utah

Crazy! Park City is crazy! Apparently this was also where they held the snowboarding competitions during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. It was so crowded, they only seemed to have one high speed lift that took everyone up the mountain, which really boggle the mind! However, the weather was much better today than yesterday and that made it that much more bearable. It had stopped snowing, and the sun had come out! It took us a whle, but Greg, Cheryl, and I went straight to the top of the mountain and dove head first into the powdery mountain side. Literally, but in a good way. =)

We boarded through the trees, hills, and trails. We got in more boarding runs in one hour, than we did all day, yesterday! We took a break late in the day for lunch, and tried to make one more push for a few more runs for before the end of the day. This time, we wanted to go higher, so we again went to the top of the mountain, and hiked up the mountain! It's scary to look over the side and not see the ground below you.

Towards the end of the day, we were getting really tired and were ready to go home. Cheryl got ahead on our run home, where Greg and I just followed. Then as we were getting down, I saw this small lump in the middle of the trail, which looked like Cheryl! I pulled in front of Greg, to which he thought, uh oh, when he saw the angle I was taking. I pulled a small turn, tilted my board up, and sprayed her from head to toe in snow. At that moment, I became a marked man. Fun, indeed.

Snow Basin, Utah

So with little trepidation, we headed to our first destination, Snow Basin, Utah. Though we anticipated a little snow, but we did not anticipate how long it would last. The temperature wasn't too cold, which made the day even worst by making the snow instantly turn to water! It snowed constantly from the morning until the evening, making the snow wet, slow, and deep!

Not good for someone like me, who was so out of shape. I spent more time struggling to stay above the snow, than actually skating above it! The powder was so deep, every time I fell, I fell upside down as my flat board floated on top and my body would sink under the powder. My arms got so tired from digging myself out, each time, and unbuckling my straps, so I could get back up, I seriously wanted to just lie down and sleep!

In all, I only took three runs. This is one tired puppy! Unfortunately, I was so tired, and the snow was so wet, I did not take too many pictures, just some beginning and ending photos of the lodge, and us suiting up. To my benefit (or other's benefit), I did not fall off or crash, while getting off the chair lift. =)

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Welcome to Utah!

Greetings from Utah! I've had such a busy week, that I neglected to let people know I was going on vacation! Of course, there is no other major purpose than snowboarding with friends! We got into Salt Lake City at about mid afternoon and set about aquainting ourselves with our surroundings, most importantly, where was food.

We did have one aggravating moment at the airport car rental counter, they ran out of SUV's! It was pretty upsetting, but we tried as hard as we could to not let it get to us, we still had several days of snowboarding ahead of us.

Once we got a car (a minivan), we promptly checked into our hotel, shopped for a few groceries, and had dinner at Tucci's Cucina Italiana. It was kind of a fun place to go for a relaxing dinner. They gave us a few crayons to play with, which we used to test our capabilities in writing upside down on the table. We ended up just doodling all over the table and had a good bottle Chianti.

Did I mention we're snowboarding for the next few days? =)

Happy Birthday, Greg!

It was Greg's birthday a little more than a week ago, but we all got together for a little barbeque for his birthday, today. Greg thinks he is only 13, but.... right. Happy Birthday buddy.

Home Shopping

Lately, I have been looking into buying my first home. I started about a few weeks ago, but today was the first day that I physically went to look at houses. I am using a combination of listings that my real estate agent found, as well as listings I found through the internet. Similar to a fact finding mission, I wanted to see what kind of house I could afford and what type of houses appealed to me. I am not in a hurry to buy a house, but I merely want to start thinking about what kind of a house would fit me.

One house seemed promising. It was close to the downtown area of San Jose, but it was a slightly older house, about 104 years old! I am a fan of older victorian houses, because I find a certain charm and uniqueness in them that I do not see in modern homes now. I am a real hands-on type of person, so I don't think I would mind much time to fix up a house, especially soemthing I would want to call home.

More packages

Internet shopping has changed the way I shop. I can now comparison shop, find deals, and work at the same time! My latest purchase? More bicycle parts, but this time, I am building a new wheelset.

It had been bothering me for a while. I've had too many excess parts from previous projects and yet, I couldn't use them for anything, because I was missing other parts to make it complete. In this case, I had a set of rims and a set of Shimano Deore XT Hubs. I was only missing spokes to complete the set.

However, at local bike shops, they sell cheap spokes for $1 each! It sounds inexpensive, but when you need sixty-four of them...

I did find an online store that sold high end DT Swiss spokes for $0.60 each. So, it seems I'll be pretty busy this weekend.

Cherry blossoms for the house

Everytime this part of the year, my family will decorate the house with flowers and plants for the Chinese New Year. Orchids, chrysanthemums, and the occaisional carnations and roses. One special flower is the cherry blossom, which I believe in Chinese culture, is supposed to bring good luck in the new year as it blooms over the period of the new year.

We've got a lot of it, because I'll need all the good luck i can get! =) Happy Chinese New Year to all!