Welcome Tyler

Baby Tyler born 2/23/09 at 4:19am via c-section

7 lbs 9 oz. ; 19-3/4 inches

Welcome to our world, Welcome to our family, Nephew #11!

Viva Las Vegas

Perhaps this is the best SQ has come in surprising me. After a couple of days of non-stop heavy rain, our original plan of spending 4 days driving south along the Pacific Coast was "washed away." It became apparent to us on Sunday that the entire California would be rained out, north or south. Since I had already taken the days off work, I was prepared to spend the next few days at home, relaxing.

But on Monday morning, SQ woke me up at 8am and told me that we had a flight to catch at 11. I thought he was joking, but SQ is not someone who pulls tricks like these. Sure enough, by 10am, we were at the airport...flying to Vegas!

We've been to Vegas many times, but this was really somewhat of a surprise. We stayed at MGM and SQ even got us Cirque de Soleil tickets for KÀ.I've only watched one Cirque de Soleil, many many years ago - tickets courtesy of Googi. But that was a travelling show, which means that the set and special effects were minimized. So KÀ was definitely a nice treat. Very cool! I heard that "O" is also very good - hopefully, I'll get to see that next time.

On this trip, I was determined not to eat at any buffets. Every time we go to Vegas, we end up chowing down some buffet at some hotel. Although the food most of the times is good - I was just sick of it. So, this time, we went to Wolfgang Puck. We chose this place for 2 reasons: (1) it's in the MGM, and (2) the magazine had this place listed with only $$, which means entrees are $20-$25. The rest of the listings we saw had $$$ to $$$$, which is $25-$60 per entree!! We couldn't afford that! So Wolfgang it is.

We ended up ordering their tasting menu, which is a prix-fixe with a starter, entree and dessert. Of course, SQ and I ordered different things so we could try the entire menu.

For starters, SQ ordered the Arugula salad - yummy but too much dressing for my taste. I ordered the cream of Cauliflower, which I ABSOLUTELY LOVED! This was the best of the 3 dishes I had.

Entrees: pictures below. Quail on a bed of spinach (left) and braised short ribs (right). I'm not a big quail fan so didn't eat much out of that plate. The spinach was to die for. So tender and tasty. As for the ribs, it was OK. It was actually a really big piece of meat. The picture doesn't really show it. At first the dish tasted really good, but after I ate 1/2 of it, it got kinda heavy... so this wasn't my favorite.

There was only 1 option for dessert - carrot cake with pecan ice cream and nuts. This was good, not great.

Overall, I was neutral on this restaurant. It didn't WoW me but I did like the soup. I always like his soup recipes. They're good. At the end, I was just super glad that I wasn't in some buffet.

P.S. No luck on gambling... we both lost $$. :(

Ouch! This hurts...

I've been trying to avoid looking at my 401K for 1/2 year now... I didn't want to face the truth. I didn't want to know how much I've lost and how much my hard earned savings have wiped out. But today, I took that leap. I logged on to my account.... and boy oh boy!! I now really regret even looking at it. Since Jan 1, 2008, I've lost a whoppinig -29%!! This really breaks my heart. :(

Your Personal Rate of Return This Period : -29.1%

Your Personal Rate of Return is calculated with a time-weighted formula, widely used by financial analysts to calculate investment earnings. It reflects the results of your investment selections as well as any activity in the plan account(s)shown. There are other Personal Rate of Return formulas used that may yield different results.Remember that past performance is no guarantee of future results.

There are no "safe" asset allocation - mid-cap, large-cap, international, even bonds are losing money and risky. The only bright side is that at least I am not retiring right away so hopefully, I can make up some of this loss in the upcoming years. I guess I can feel for those baby boomers near retirement age. If their life savings are wiped out by 30% just like mine (against a much bigger dollar value)... I can see why they are angry and upset.

M.A.C. presenting Hello Kitty

MAC, the Cosmetics company, has came up with an ingenious business partner - Hello Kitty. Such an incredible idea and promotional gimick. It's not just Hello Kitty, it's the NAUGHTY Kitty! I first learned of this a couple of months ago, in one of my company's business meetings.

Today, I finally saw it Live!

At Bloomingdale's at the Westfield Center, MAC had a special promotion featuring Hello Kitty... and here is what they did!!

Hot (at least bodies anyways) guys had a Hello Kitty head on... isn't this crazy?? The big glob of black you see in the background is a bunch of Hello Kitty balloons, which my friend waited about 30 minutes to get one.

Of course my friend and I had to take a picture with the Hello Kitty hunks.

The look-aline Hello Kitty make-up model made an appearance. Sorry picture is very fuzzy.

Simply adorable. The make-up colors were kinda too crazy for me, so I didn't buy anything. It's very cute though. This will sell out in a minute.

Oh yeah, I got a Hello Kitty tattoo on my wrist... LOL!

Rainbow Veggies

While grocery shopping today at Irving St., I came across 3 unique color palettes on the shelves: Purple, Orange and Green. A closer look revealed that these are cauliflower!! So odd! I've never seen them in these color variations before. I wonder if they taste any different than the normal white ones we see?

Chinese New Year Parade

Gave up

Ok, I give up. I gave up. I don't know how to add the header date onto my old template. I searched online to find some help but I can't find any answers. I even left a message on the template designer's site, but I didn't get any answers. I tried. I really have. So I picked this template. It's nice and simple.