It's been pretty busy lately for me, both at work and outside of work. I feel like I haven't really had a chance to sit down and unwind for about the last week or so, which is not a good thing. I'll try to recap a little bit here, with some help from my phone camera wherever possible.
- Mother's Day, had the parents over at the townhouse for some dinner. My sister cooked a great meal, and I tried to chip in my part by grilling some kalbi on the deck. The food turned out pretty delicious, maybe a little too delicious. I was watching some of the videos we took from that day and realized that I look like kind of a slob when I eat. I know I've been eating a LOT lately (maybe this will have be its own blog entry), but seeing myself eat reminded me of pigs feeding from a trough, to be honest. So if I have offended any of you in the past who have had to watch me eat with no manners, I apologize. I will try to not be as rude in the future.
- Went to a Sox game last week, the one that ended up being postponed due to rain. It wasn't a complete waste, because we got to watch the Bulls game on the big screen (Game 5, where they were hitting all their shots and won) during the delay. Also got to eat some Polish sausages and churros, which are excellent at US Smellular Field. And the White Sox were nice enough to offer an extra make up game and refund the money for parking. I've heard that the White Sox are one of the more professional organizations, corporate wise, around Major League Baseball (certainly better than the greedy, money gouging Tribune company), and from personal experience, I wouldn't dispute that.
- Did some shopping for my sister's b-day gift and card. I noticed that the employees at Dick's Sporting Goods are not very helpful or knowledgeable. It's also much harder to find a green iPod nano than I would have expected.
Another thing was when I was looking for a birthday card, there was a section specifically with b-day cards "For Sister". Browsing through some of those was kind of disturbing actually. I don't know what kind of relationship other people have with their sisters, but I do not see myself getting her a card with a picture of some guy in a speedo, or a joke about buying her breast implants. But hey, that's just me. Different strokes for different folks.
- A few weeks ago, when the first round of the playoffs was just starting, Andy bought tickets for Bulls "Home Game #3" for the second round (since it was hard to get tickets to the other games). When the Bulls fell behind 0-3 to the Pistons, the chances of there being a 3rd home game didn't look too promising. But then they actually won the next two to force a game 6, so his little investment paid off and I got to watch a Bulls playoff game in person for the first time.
Too bad traffic was so horrible that it took over 2 hours to get to the city. Food at the UC is definitely not as good as at Sox games either, so that didn't help. And then the game was almost as miserable to sit through, with missed open shots and stupid turnovers all night long. It was definitely sad and frustrating to watch them get eliminated, but I think there's reason to hope for a better run next year. Especially if they get a little lucky in the draft lottery tonight...
- Weekend was pretty much tied up with activities relating to Brian and Grace's wedding. I wasn't in the wedding, but helped out as an usher. Rehearsal dinner was at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the burbs, House of Emperor of Naperville (I call it "HOE" for short). I love their Peking duck.
The wedding itself was really nice. The church was beautiful, ceremony was really emotional, and I think everyone had a lot of fun at the reception. I'm really happy for them and just want to wish the newly married couple the best, in case they're reading this on their honeymoon (Grace, you will definitely be missed as a housemate, of course).
- Sunday, ate a LOT (big surprise, note that food is a running theme in my life these days). My mom and dad are all about Royal Buffet around Darien, so with my sister's boyfriend in town, they took us there for lunch. Royal gets a lot of hype among the Asian community, and I agree it's a great deal for the price - but I can't say I'm personally a huge fan of that place. It's still a big step below the Vegas buffets if you ask me. I'd rather pay more for a little higher quality food, and a lot classier atmosphere (where I'm the only one eating like a pig).
For dinner, more feasting was had in downtown Naperville at Tango as the CCMC people got together for my sister's bday. It was good food, but I didn't do much to dispel my reputation as a sloppy eater. I have a shirt speckled with pasta sauce stains to prove it. Thanks to Jeni, though, I do have a newfound respect for that Tide to Go marker thing.
- Watched Spiderman 3 on IMAX. I thought it was a pretty good movie, cheesy at parts but that was expected. I wasn't that huge of a fan of the first 2 anyways, I'm a bigger fan of the X-Men series personally.
I think this was the first movie I've watched in IMAX. It was cool, but I kind of thought it would be more spectacular. Maybe I was picturing something more like the OMNIMAX theater at the MSI, which I remember being in awe of when I was a kid going there on field trips. I wonder if they've improved that technology at all since then. Considering it was at least 10-15 years ago when I last went, maybe I should check out OMNIMAX again sometime soon to see if they made it even awesomer. Then again, they probably only use it to show educational crap. What a waste.
- Took my sis to the Sox vs. Oakland game on her real birthday. It was half-price night, and I do think the crowd is noticeably more rowdy and less classy on these discount nights. If I'm not mistaken, it was also a half-price night when those guys ran on the field and attacked the ump a few years ago.
One thing from the game that made me mad is, I heard someone making fun of Oakland fans by changing "Oakland A's" to "Oakland Gays". Not because I care for the well being of opposing fans at our stadium (I don't). I was upset because usually I'm pretty good at thinking of obscene/derogatory nicknames for things, and I completely missed the boat on that one. I can't believe I didn't think of the obvious one (I was personally going with "Jokeland" for most of the night, which is still clever in its own right, but comparatively wack).
My sister, bless her heart, tried to reassure me by suggesting that "Oakland Gays" was too easy for my level of expertise. I'd really like to believe that, because I should really be in the prime of my derogatory nickname career at this point in my life. It's way too early for my skills to be declining already.
