jonocorp

Man, I couldn't wait to get outta work today. This time of year it's what the news describes as "do or die" in terms of retail sales. If you're not busy this time of year, then your company is in trouble. Tomorrow will be super busy and I'll hate it, but maybe it'll make the day move fast. I'm getting treated more and more of a boss. Especially an underpaid boss. Haha.

Class was totally small tonight, but that's fine. I rolled with the Young Doc for a bit at the end. We're arch enemies. Yin and Yang. He's cool.

It's almost Christmas, then almost another year over. Old habits die hard when you got a sentimental heart.

Long weekend. It could've been longer, but three days off is still three days off.

Thanksgiving was so short this year. It always seems shorter and shorter, especially when you're cooking. I used to remember that Thanksgiving was this really long day where TV marathons and a trip to the park couldn't get the food on the table fast enough. Now, its a mad scramble to get things in and out of the oven. I did a ham that was good, but a little overcooked. The turkey came out pretty well despite it's short time in the oven. When the topic of frying a turkey came up, it seemed like everyone looked me to give it a shot. I told them "no" because I don't want to be in the burn ward for the weekend. Garlic mashed potatoes is always good. I roasted a lot of fruits and veggies this year just because it's just so easy to make. Roasted persimmons taste like roasted apples. It was agreed that persimmons are way better raw than roasted. And they should be eaten like apples, too. I had imagined a layered vegetable loaf in my head, and I concocted a recipe and put a place on the menu for it. It looked pretty, but it was only okay, IMO.

The Friday felt like Saturday, and that's fine by me. I ignored shopping with the madness and avoided the cheapos. Friday was "Thanksgiving 2: The Turkey Bugaloo." RJK and I swapped Thanksgiving lunches and chilled at the rich-folk park. They're so weird. There was an actual picnic basket! Puts my plastic bag to shame. The spread was amazing and totally fun. My healthy yams were no match for pie and tiramisu. If only I had disposable cups, we could've been chilling with Irish'd-up coffee. It was a good afternoon to just soak in the holiday.

Mike hits me up later that day to get some drinks. The Savage met us up and talked our heads off. The Savage called me a trooper for what I can ingest in a short amount of time.

I'm blanking on the first half of Saturday. I wanted to visit Shawn at the carwash but I got too lazy to get a cheap carwash. Mike hit me up again and said he was going to be down the street sans Savage and watch the big college game with a few other people. The game was the exact reason I'm not a football fan. It was boring. I can accept baseball being boring because it's perceived to be boring. People perceive football to be fast-paced with non-stop action, but it isn't to me. It's boring. The only game that I'll pay a little attention to is the Super Bowl. I think the food and drinks help.

Sunday I had to work to get ready for "Cyber Monday" and our upcoming container. There goes 8 hours of my life. Relaxing afterwards never felt so good.

Yay! The week is done. Kaput. It's countdown to turkey day, t-minus only a few hours. The turkey is starting to do its thing right as I type. You'll probably find me in the kitchen tomorrow all day, and I don't mind. I'm actually looking forward to it because I'm trading lunches and I need to step up.

My sister and I went out for dinner and we went to the make-your-own burger joint in Pasadena. Mine was the beef patty with horseradish cheese, roasted red peppers, red onions, pickles, and tomatoes on wheat. My sister also got the beef, but got pineapple, gruyere cheese (I suggested it), pickles, lettuce, and tomato on wheat. We split the "fifty-fifty" of fries and onion strings. I don't recommend the onion strings. They're so thin and small.

I wonder what's open tomorrow.

Small class tonight, but it was fun regardless. My form is losing it a little and I'm getting corrected a lot. Focus, man. Focus. It was the last class before Thanksgiving and on Sunday I have to work. Boo.

I'm excited about cooking on Thursday.

It has been brought to my attention that it's hard to leave comments on my site. My CAPTCHA was all blurry and hard to read, not to mention frustrating. I've changed it to a simpler and easier to read one. You spammers better stay away, please.

I'm having Thanksgivingitis.

I changed the look of my site because it was kinda ugly. I figured it was supposed to be temporary till I got around to making it look better, but it lasted longer than I wanted it to.

Yay!

I'm getting hungry now. I either want something terribly bad for me or some Olympian oatmeal.

Due to my birthday week, it made me look at my friend who barely got a birthday. After my sister and I ate at the gourmet torta place, I took him to Verdugo where I got him some potent and robust brews. Not an experienced brew-taster he barely finished his 2 Turtle Doves. The thing about Verdugo is that I remember how to get there, but not how to get out. When my friend mentioned that he wanted something salty, I took him to the Downtown German sausage place because it seemed like the perfect fit. We ate, but he couldn't finish his beer and he apologized profusely, but I told him to not worry about it. We then went down the street and had more brews. I hope he had fun. I don't think I could replicate the same kind of birthday kindness my special people gave to me, but I tried to make it his best.

My eye is very twitchy right now. I went to class in hopes that it'll get punched and get fixed as if you would do to an old TV to get rid of the wavy lines.

Work is getting extremely busy and that's not fun. It's also not fun to come in on a weekend or stay past closing. Oh, well. Maybe the stress will help me lose weight. I'm trying to offset the holiday meals and extra poundage. Turkey is sounding better and better this time around. With this next turkey, I'm going to try to keep half the breast for lunch meat sliced thin.

The birthday week is finally behind me. It has been an exhausting one. I don't think I've felt so lucky to have so many special people around me. Mike took me out to Verdugo on Friday for drinks and some chillin'. The Savage met us up and it's funny to watch his gears turn. I got a free bottle of tequila.

Michelle took me out to lunch on the Westside where I got to see her awesome apartment and creepy/cool Pilgrim dolls and meet her nice sister. We had the fanciest food court food in one of the fanciest malls around. Lawry's is fast food there, you know. I had deja vu again while eating a S'more bao. There was something about where we were sitting, the time of day, and the way the sun shone through the window I couldn't escape the feeling like I've been there or done that before. Maybe I dreamed it once.

She gave me a tour of her new hood after lunch. I love the card.

Yesterday, Brian and I went to the special JRA sushi celebration where there was AYCE and D(rink) sushi and beer/shoju/tea. I think we got our monies worth, especially near the end where they were giving out toro. Man, uni is starting to become one of my favorites.

The day didn't start there! Brian had tickets to watch the Lakers but we needed time to kill before the game started. After lounging at the cushy hotel lobby, we hit LA Live and chilled with some tropical drinks at Trader Vics.

I just watched Anthony Bourdain where he goes to Chicago and had a foie gras hot dog. Just looking at the foie gras got my mouth watering. How Pavlovian.

At this moment, motivation to win the lottery is to eat well with eight empty seats.

Now it's time to celebrate other birthdays that are close to mine.

The odometer on the car hit 100,000. It's just neat to look at it, but then I'll get sad when it's 100,001.

The birthday went over pretty well. Thanks for all the well wishes and parties. The company around me is what made it the best. Thanks everyone!

Now I have a bag from Lancome with really neat stuff in it.

Last night is going to be hard to top in terms of birthday celebrations. RJK and I ate like French kings at the bistro in our own backyard. So far the Yelpers were wrong about this place. The service was excellent, but I still think the hostess would have an attitude if the place was packed to the gills. The food was total decadence and it was all served with bread. Each item that came out of the kitchen just widen our eyes and made our taste buds explode. Who knew fish could be that good? I brought a bottle of wine that the hipster sommelier recommended and he hit it right on the head. Dessert and coffee was redic.

We hopped over across the street and had fancy drinks and mer-lot. It was an excellent choice.

We then hopped over to Little Tokyo and hung out at the really neat karaoke bar that we didn't even know existed. The bartender was funny but weird. A "strong" drink to him is Makers, apparently. I liked the sake in the bucket of ice. Nice touch.

If you go to Google's page today, then you noticed that they celebrated Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. But did you know that Sesame Street sung about Google over 25 years ago? Enjoy.

Why don't I remember what happens on Fridays? I don't think I did anything. Oh, wait... I saw the move from Steven Soderbergh, The Girlfriend Experience. Interesting source material, but it was slow. Sasha Grey did a good job acting for a porn star. I think she portrayed her character well, but the role wasn't too demanding. In case you're wondering if it's a porno-lite, it isn't. There is very few nude scenes and no sex scenes. Not a must-watch movie but if you're a film buff or a Soderbergh fan, then you might enjoy it.

Went bar hopping on Halloween. I went as a 2nd place runner up to a beauty pageant. I just wore a tiara with my regular clothes. I should've been more committed and wore a dress, but it might've taken me a while to find something that "works." Haha. First stop was Verdugo where the bartenders dressed up as characters from the movie Dazed and Confused. For some reason an old co-worker met me there and he's a pain because he's so negative and he constantly likes to make drama. Mike (who wore a brilliant monk costume) and I spent time talking to him instead of chilling and having fun. Long story short, he pissed me off and blew cigarette smoke in my face. That was the straw that made me bitch slap him, truly. Must be embarrassing to be bitch-slapped by a guy in a tiara. After the slapping, Mike and I went to the Shortstop. Although more lively than Verdugo, it wasn't as jumpin' as I've seen it.

Sunday was the big WCBBQ and it was fun to have everyone eating and enjoying ourselves and fighting. I almost got into the rose bushes. Yikes! A couple of us hardcore folk stayed till late drinking and eating. So many nice compliments on my fried rice, but the pasta was the winner IMO.

Before the BBQ I still had to get supplies and something to sober up a little. An interesting town I live in where you can buy Peking duck, ca phe sua da (Vietnamese coffee), and frozen mixed vegetables all within 15 minutes at 8:30 am.

I think I practically crashed a birthday party at the Edison last night. Rjk gave me the invite to celebrate some birthdays of people I don't know... anymore. They were nice about me crashing their night. I've always heard good things aesthetically about the Edison. It used to be an old power plant, hence the name Edison. As I was going to the bathroom at the Edison, it struck me... a case of deja vu. I've never been there, but that walk to and from the bathroom made me feel like I've been there before.

When I got home I was not at all tired, but once I hit the sheets, I just curled up and enjoyed the ride to sleep. This is my kind of weather.

I take horrible pictures, if you didn't know.

I think I found my new phone. Droid. Sorry Pre.