Benny and Janet came over to my place for some snacks and wine last night. I was trying to get the Jackson-Triggs White Merlot (rose) that I really enjoyed at Alice’s place last month, but then liquor store didn’t carry the regular sized bottle. There was this 1.5L version of the same wine, I pondered a little about getting it or not, while this salesperson was like “You’ll drink it up eventually”…lol. So I got this one, and another one that he recommended “Woodbridge / White Zinfandel” from California. We had fresh oyster, gravlax salmon, dessert cakes, and wine of course. The oysters was average, not too bad but wasn’t too impressive, had to eat them with tabasco where usually you can eat them without so that you could get a genuine taste of them. The gravlax was super tasty though. Benny added sesame oil to it which I thought was a great match with the gravlax itself. I’ve home-made gravlax last year too but then it wasn’t tasty at all for some reason (Here’s my post about it) Well maybe I’ll try making it again but I have a feeling that it’ll end up being the same…maybe I’ll just get them off Ikea (these guys) After the gravlax we had dessert cakes (3 different kinds I think) that Janet bought from the Capers market (that I really have to check out later since apparently they sell a lot of high-end food products and I love high-end stuff). They were pretty tasty, like I didn’t know it was a carrot cake until she told me after I finished it (I usually hate carrot cakes 99% of the time).

We played some Wii Fit after the food, and also played Left 4 Dead on Benny’s Alienware laptop (fastest laptop on earth? huge and heavy though). More photos can be found here.

So today I discovered that I’ve been over-paying Telus (local phone line provider) for my not-so-often-used landline (with 0 calling feature). I’ve been paying $30/mo after tax for ages, but then today I realized that there are WAY cheaper VOIP services out there (yes I’ve been living in the stone age). AIC Telecom charges $10.95/mo, and it includes loads of calling features like call-waiting, call-forwarding, voice mail….etc. So knowing that I’ve been ripped, I called AIC up today to sign up right away. I’m going to keep my phone number which is going to take 2 weeks for the switch according to what the woman said. I guess I’m cool with that. I have to purchase a “VOIP modem” though, for $68 + tax. Well no choice, but still better off considering the features I’m going to get, plus 200 minutes of free long distance calls to Hong Kong too Only draw back is that the wall landline outlets will render useless, even though I can pay $35 to have them “activated” for use with the VOIP modem, which I’m not going to since I’m cheap, lol. Anyway, I’m going to pick up the VOIP modem tomorrow, and see how it goes…

Another shocking news is that Wendy is coming back from Hong Kong a day earlier, hehehhee…

I wish Wendy and everyone have a Happy Valentine’s Day~ Not much of a special day for me since Wendy isn’t around, but due to the fact that it’s Valentine’s Day, I went out.

The traffic was horrible today, I guess it was caused by people in the entire world are coming out of their home, in fact I haven’t seen such crazy traffic jam for years. Took me 30 minutes to get to my destination instead of the usual 10 minutes or so. I actually had a few things in mind that I wanted to buy.

What did I get myself for Valentine’s?  I got a gel-filled chair cushion for my new chair since the foam was kind of crappy (or was it normal?) that it collapses pretty severely so after seating there for an extended period of time my ass was feeling funny/stressed (same thing with my old leather chair) The new cushion’s working pretty well so far (had dinner and watched a couple Japanese drama episodes sitting on it) and my butt’s still feeling great

And yes, I usually tend to get more than one thing whenever I’m in the mood to shop. I also got myself a plant to replace my “flies infested” foliage. I love mine but somehow little flies kept on coming out of the soil flying around my place, and it was really annoying. I didn’t want to throw it away (it’s lived with me for 2.5 years, since I moved in) so I placed it out in the patio, and I hope that it’s okay with the much cooler temperature… Anyway the new one I got’s called “Crotons”. It’s super colorful, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen them. Each leaf’s got kind of a different color. I really like its colorful nature and I thought it’d look great having it at home. Also got a black colored pot to be its new home. The plant’s just $15, so cheap and nice~ Now I’m just going to hope for it being bug-free for the coming years…!

Last but not least, I got this “Microsoft Technet Subscription” membership card from mail today. I wasn’t even sure why/when I became a member, I guess I was automatically subscribed to the program when I went for the Microsoft Tech Days event last month. Well, the card looks cool and I guess I’ll go online and see if they’re offering any free downloads and stuff with the card..

Ryokiteki na Kanojo is the Japanese remake of the Korean drama “My Sassy Girl” which was hugely popular all over Asia back in 2001. The Korean version was extremely well made, easily one of my all time Korean favorite (of course partly because of the extremely pretty actress Jun Jihyun / ???) I didn’t really know that it’s the Japanese version of My Sassy Girl until I finished watching episode 3 or 4 and was trying to search online for more info about this drama - The beginning of the drama really didn’t remind me of anything in the Korean counterpart. Anyway, I downloaded this movie mostly being a fan of Rena Tanaka / ???? since about 10 years ago (still have a huge poster of her that I bought in Hong Kong). I don’t know, she looks like a cat..lol. I like the main guy Kusanagi Tsuyoshi / ??? (from SMAP) a lot too, think he acts really good and is really natural (he actually made me cry in this drama, and I actually haven’t for a couple years…)

Anyway, the story begins with the main guy bumping into this girl in a train. Girl was really sick / drunk and was yelling around and walking in a weird way like a drunkard. Guy tried to save her from falling over into the train platform, and then followed her onto the train. Girl continued to act like a retard, till guy sent her to a hotel to settle her down. Of course, the next morning somehow they bumped into each other again and the girl was accusing him of “doing things” to her the other night…etc. The girl also moved to the unit right next to the guy’s home, later explained in the story that it was the girl’s ex-boyfriend’s ex-home. So yes the girl was dumped by her boyfriend, and he just “disappeared” without leaving anything for her. The main guy therefore somehow gotten really close to the girl, partly due to the fact that the girl was REALLY rude with a violent attitude so guy, while trying to be nice, was getting forced to do a lot for her. She asked him to join her up in the search for her ex-boyfriend.

Needless to say, during the search, they got really close together and fell in love. The story thereafter was all about how they the lover are separated (due to a 3rd person) and how they somehow got back together again …etc. Pretty straightforward storyline in general. Yea the story itself was just so so and pretty predictable, but the thing that really really stood out was the performance. Rena was just so so, being cute all the way (yea she’s too cute even when she was trying to act violent/annoying). On the other hand, Kusanagi’s performance was incredible. I would say he made the whole story came to life. I actually cried in episode 9 or 10 I forgot, when the girl was going to the States with her fiance (marriage arranged by her dad), and the guy rushed to the airport, messed with the people at the information desk and spoke to the microphone which was connected to the airport announcement system, that he didn’t want her to leave. It was really touching In fact, the story actually started glowing past the first half. The first half was okay, kind of funny but it was kind of draggy as well. It became more serious of a story in the second half where the twists and characters emerged which made the story really entertaining.

Overall, it’s an above average drama. It’s not a ground breaking, but it does have a nice storyline and will certainly drive you to tears at some point. I don’t mind watching it again.

Continued from Part II…

Finally got my gym completely set up! yay.
Today I wiped clean all the equipments, and rearranged the placement for each of them. It was actually quite tough to decide how to place say the bench, as the space is really tiny and I need enough room to move around when I’m laying on it - headroom, sideways…..etc. I thought of putting the whole thing diagonally but ended up putting it regularly, i.e. perpendicular to the wall. Also have to make sure if “accident” happens the wall wouldn’t get as much of a damage. I probably have to put up some foam on the lower end of the wall for some kind of protection. Then I was trying to position the light, adjusting all the angles and stuff to give the best luminance without damaging my eyes (those 1000W lights are bright!)

Also cleared up the clutters on the rack, which was basically a storage place for my random things - dashboard jumping light for car interior…7″ touchscreen LCD monitor I used for my “Car PC” in my previous car…radar detector….12V/110V inverter…parts for my old amp/sub-woofer….bunch of car cleaning products….vacuum….grass seeds…fertilizer….car wax…wide range of colorful buckets of different sizes….toolbox….a basketball..and a cushion….lol. I emptied up some space to place my 15-year-old boombox, so that I can listen to rad music or some radio program while working out

Finally get to use some gears…after two years…

Continued from Part I…

Spent about two hours today doing the dirty job of cleaning up my garage (should’ve taken some pics of how dirty/spidery it was…) I had to clear up all the clutter that’s been piling up since I moved in, which was like 3 years ago, clean them up, sort them out. It was so dusty that I had to wear my garden boots and hat, but still, I got spiderweb IN MY MOUTH somehow and also on my face dangling down the tip of my hat….:( I think I’ve eaten a few pieces of the webs as my hand was so dirty I couldn’t take the web stuff out of my mouth… Anyway, got everything cleaned up and uncluttered.

Also got the “Easy Tile” gym floor tiles installed (got them from Home Depot yesterday, $60 for 8 pieces in a pack, and I got 4 packs) They are basically some really tough rubber-like material that you find in most gyms. It was quite straightforward installing them, kind of like putting together a puzzle. I’ve only used 3 of the 4 packs, I’ll see tomorrow if I need to open up the last pack.

Next step would be to reassemble the bench press, and wipe clean all the gears and weights. Also need to set up the lights correctly so that I don’t go blind working out..

Oh almost forgot to mention the tasty stuff I had for dinner - Macau egg tart, and Unagi roll!