Day 37: time waits for no one

So this is it... the last day of my vacation.  Day 37.

Let me quickly talk about what I did the last few days, the first week of 2013.
We counted down the end of 2012 and welcomed 2013 in the warm and cozy comfort of our own home, accompanied by our families and no small amount of food.

You can see how thrilled I am about this meal.  I loves me some crab!

I ate way more than I probably should.  And since Christmas I haven't been exercising as much as I should be.  The good news is I went to get some more blood tests recently and the results came back fairly normal.  That's probably what pushed me over the edge to even more gluttony.  "The doctor says I'm fine!  Another round of bacon cheeseburgers!"  I didn't make any new years resolutions because I think it's a poor vehicle for change or self improvement.  You don't just commit to good health once a year.  You see everyone hitting the gym for the first week of January and then it's all back to normal, people fall off the wagon after that.  So I will do what I can to get back on the wagon and continue what I started last year.

I found a replacement wheel for my Lexus IS350.  It was not cheap, I probably could have bought a whole new set of knockoff wheels for the price of this one wheel.  But JDM authenticity has its price, and I do like this rare discontinued wheel a lot.  So I guess it was worth it.  Shot out to AutoRnD in Fremont, who is the North American distributor for AME/Enkei wheels, for taking care of me.

Wheels, glorious wheels!

Back to its former glory.

Did a bit of gaming this past week as well.  My gamer friend Ken came over and we had ourselves a serious LAN party gaming marathon.  We played some Saints Row 3, the first 2 episodes of the Walking Dead game series, and some Starcraft 2 all on our PCs.  I also have been playing some Battlefield 3 and Sleeping Dogs on PS3. 

I want all the data we have on Jason Bourne, on screen one!

Surprisingly I haven't been playing much Gran Turismo 5 lately, but perhaps that is because I've been doing a fair amount of real driving.  No need for the virtual when you're living it up out in the real world.  

Yesterday I went out to the range and did some more shooting with my .22 rifle.  Started out well but then it got cold and windy, and my shots started going all over the place on the target.  So I called it a day and went home where my honey was making a nice hot bowl of pho noodle soup to warm up.

One last thing.  I got my new spoiler painted and installed on Stitch, by RJ's Paint Shop in Pleasanton. Super nice guys there and they did a great job.  At this point I think the cosmetic tweaks to my car are just about done.  Time to just drive it and enjoy it for a while.

That's all I have time to cover for now.  I guess I will have to come back and do a final conclusion piece, but I'll need some time to reflect on the past 37 days and close this thing down proper.  

Day 17: loss of traction

I have to admit I haven't been very diligent about keeping this blog updated for the last week. Perhaps that's a good thing because that means I've been keeping busy. But I'm going to try and keep things updated regularly because otherwise too much may have happened and I may have forgotten some of it.

So let's see what I've been up to? Well I went for a few drives and brought my Subaru into the dealership to have the GPS repaired so I was without my BRZ for a few days. I took advantage of some of that downtime to visit the Blackhawk Auto Museum. I hadn't been there in many years and it was nice to come back and see some great classic cars that they have in their collection. I didn't bring my Nikon DSLR with me but I did take quite a few pictures with my iPhone and I have to say it did a pretty good job especially with the HDR function. Link to my auto museum photos here.

One of the many gorgeous cars at the Blackhawk Auto Museum

This thing is massive.  And made of wood!

Sunset at the Blackhawk Museum

I've been going out and having lunch with coworkers or with V for a few days so I haven't had much opportunity to cook anything fantastic. Just a few pasta dishes and grilled sandwiches that Sort of thing.

I got the chance to watch The Hobbit in an advance screening sponsored by my firm. I have to admit I'm not much of a Lord of the Rings fan so The Hobbit was a bit of a strange movie for me. I had a hard time distinguishing the trolls from the goblins and so on.  It definitely felt like the movie was too long and the entire story could have been told in far less time. I got the sense that they were stretching it out just to make it another three-movie box office cashcow.  Oh well, the nice thing was the firm covered all concessions for us, so we went to town on the popcorn, candy, snacks and drinks!

Last weekend V and I attended my firm's holiday party. It was at the Stonybrook mansion in Los Altos Hills which is a very nice place for a party or gathering. I wish I could say I have some nice pictures from the event but unfortunately my stay there was cut a little short. I was chatting with some coworkers when I suddenly felt faint and actually passed out in the middle of the reception area. They called an ambulance and ended up taking me to the emergency room at the nearby hospital where I received a bunch of tests and x-rays. The results were fairly inconclusive as everything looked normal but it appears the most likely cause was dehydration. I'm doing much better now but I have to say it was a very interesting experience riding in an ambulance for the first time to be taken to the hospital. And surely I made a grand exit from the party on a stretcher.  One thing's for sure, I'm going to be drinking plenty of water from now on.

So I've been taking it easy last few days but today I'm back on the elliptical. In fact I'm on the elliptical now as I speak and my iPhone is taking down my words so that I can update this blog using the blogger app. The accuracy is pretty good and I've only had to make a few changes here and there to fix some weird word recognition issues. Ain't technology grand?

That's it for this update. Stay tuned for more stories later this week.

Day 6: what's cooking?

Got a little busy with other things these past few days... cooking, taking photos, having lunch with friends. All very enjoyable, I am taking to this vacation thing quite well. So this is sort of what it's like to win the lottery and not work, just doing what you want to do. I could get used to this. I made dinner for me and V. the other night, inspired by our dinner at Pasta Pomodoro. I boiled and then stir fried some Brussells sprouts with butter and garlic, and then followed it up with some fettucine with red marinara sauce and some Italian sausage, and some chicken prosciutto borsetti.   I wasn't sure what borsetti is either, that's fancy Italian for wontons or dumplings.  I have to admit I kind of overcooked the sprouts and they were a little soft, but I thought the pasta was spot on and V. seemed fairly pleased with the results. Consider that a success.

We also just got a new toaster oven by Breville, that seems to be the bee's knees. Toasted sandwiches and Pop Tarts alike never tasted so good. This was supposed to be V.'s Christmas present but I am definitely getting more benefit out of it so far. Maybe this is supposed to be my Christmas present? Ohoh that means I still have some shopping to do...

Also made this rich man's version of a sausage egg mcmuffin for breakfast one morning, V. loved it.  Made with 2 turkey patties, a scrambled brown egg and cheddar cheese on a wheat English muffin.  So good.

Day 3: snap judgments, and stocking up for the Zapocalypse

I went for a drive today and stopped by the Sunol Water Temple which is a nice spot for some photos, so I took a few shots ... these are all from my iPhone so they are just OK shots but perhaps I will have to come back sometime with my DSLR.  I am probably overusing the panorama function but it's just so much fun to use it.

On the way home I stopped by the supermarket and stocked up on food items ... got some whipped cream, ramen, cans of chili, and some pop tarts... everything a growing boy needs to survive the impending zombie apocalypse.  OK I did get some Brussels sprouts too.  Last night V. and I went to Pasta Pomodoro for dinner and the sprouts we ordered as an appetizer were pretty good so I'd like to try my hand and making them at home. 

I was looking forward to playing some Battlefield 3 yesterday but there was a massive update I had to download and due to some network issues it went very slowly... took all night to download everything to my PS3 and install it.  Looking forward to checking out the new maps and weapons that the Aftermath add-on pack brings to the game.