Dress shopping!
I went back to Bay Area Bridal this past weekend with my whole family, and I finally bought my wedding dress! I won't describe it here (since I know Alan will be reading), but let's just say that it wasn't what I originally thought it would be. Things I didn't think I'd like, well, it's not so bad after I tried on this dress. I guess you'll just have to wait and see what I'm talking about. But I'm glad that it's ordered, so it can start getting made.

Fondue!
Alan and I went to a Fondue Party on Saturday night at our friend Christina's house in SF. My first time fondue-ing =) There was lots of bread, asparagus, strawberries, apples, bananas, chicken sticks to dip into cheese or chocolate. Yummy! Then we sang karaoke for a while, played Texas Hold Em (I lost again!! I thought I said no more gambling? Oh well, it was only a $1 buy-in), and watched one of Alan's videotapes of the senior cruise. Everyone said that Alan and I looked the same as 4 years ago... have we not aged?

Dinner at Jimmy & Elena's
On Sunday night, my former co-workers from Incyte got together at Jimmy & Elena's house in Fremont. Lots of good food again and we played Mafia! It was nice to see people I hadn't seen in a while and to catch up.

Alias!
I love Alias! But just when it's about to get good between Vaughn and Sydney, something always has to come up! It's ok though... eventually everything will work out - I hope! I can't wait til the next new one in two weeks!

Tired
Seems like I'm always tired at work nowadays. Any ideas to wake up, besides coffee?

Waiting
Still here at work, waiting for softball practice at 7:30pm. I'm playing with our company team and our league starts in three weeks, so we're practicing these next two weeks. Should be fun =)

Bennifer
Last night, I went to see a free Alice 97.3 preview screening of Jersey Girl. It was actually a pretty good movie. Great to see Ben Affleck getting back on his feet after J-Lo goes away. The little girl was adorable, and she was probably the best actor in the whole movie. Oh, and a lot of the scenes in NYC reminded me of when I was there, and I was missing it a little bit.

Gotta save!
We're gonna be on a tight budget these next couple months, and we gotta save save save. No more luxuries for me.

No more casino nights
I always lose money when I go to casino nights (or casinos for that matter). No more gambling for me, for a while. Last Friday was Joey's birthday casino night and I lost $10 playing Texas Hold 'Em. Where's this big phenomenon coming from anyway? I had a much funner time playing at the fake-money Craps table! =)

My first official run
On Sunday, I finally ran my first run - the SJ Mercury News 5K. I think I did ok for my first run - kept my pace of 12 mins/mile that I've been doing at the gym. I finished in 36:28. I stopped twice to walk for about a minute each and stopped at the water stations for a drink. But it was fun! Hopefully I'll work up to doing a 10K!

Once you see it...
Heidi and I went to David's Bridal on Saturday since I made an appointment to try on wedding dresses there. I tried on 5 dresses, but somehow none of them compared to the one I tried on at Bay Area Bridal - the ONE. I guess once you see the dress you want, it's hard to change your mind. I'm going back there this Saturday with my whole family, and probably gonna buy it then.

Weekend in Tahoe
This past weekend, I went to Tahoe with Alan's family for Audrey's 21st birthday! Alan and I didn't snowboard since he hurt his knee, so instead we gambled. And lost. Oh well, it was fun anyway. I think we had more fun at the Harvey's arcade where we played air hockey and this cool soccer table game. And we won enough tickets (and found a lot too!) to purchase our grand prize of a travel Connect 4.

On Saturday night, we got dressed to go to the club at Harrah's called Altitude, but there was a long line and it wasn't free for women anymore, so we gambled instead. Audrey had beginners luck and won a lot of money that night, playing Blackjack at Wild Bill's and Roulette and Pai Gow Poker at Horizon! Good job Auds!

Sunday we went to Mass and then ate a late lunch at the Harrah's buffet. It was sooooo good. I had lots of shrimp cocktail and crab legs, fish, fruits and veggies, and peach pie a la mode. Fun weekend!

Free Alice 97.3 movie screening
I won tickets (on the radio, again) for a free preview screening of the new Jim Carrey movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - at the AMC Van Ness last night. I picked Dale up from work and met up with Shirley, Glendy, Gina, and Patrick. We were in line, but some of them went to get food. Before you know it, the line starts moving really fast, so Glendy and I go in first while Gina and Shirley waited for the guys. The movie theater was already packed and the only available 6 seats in a row were in the second row. So we put our stuff down to reserve them.

But the four still waiting outside got stopped and weren't let in right away! So I was sitting there by myself, trying to save 5 extra seats, while everyone was asking if those seats were taken and giving me dirty looks. Oh well. It worked out ok, and they let them in since I was already saving seats.

It was a great movie, but too bad we missed the last 15-20 minutes!! The reel stopped playing and they said they were having technical difficulties! We all wanted to see what happened at the end, since it was the part that probably ties everything together. I'm gonna have to either sneak in at the end and watch it, or wait for the DVD to come out =)

Softball!
I am gonna play with my company's softball team this year, and we had our first practice today at lunchtime! It was so nice and sunny outside, that it felt good to be outside during lunch instead of eating at my desk. We threw the softball around for a while and then practiced batting/fielding. I suck at batting - I think I swung and missed about half the balls. I think I need to go practice at the batting cages or something. I played outfield and have to run after a whole bunch of balls. So when I got back to work, I was really hot and tired. But I had fun!

Plearn
Ever been to a Thai restaurant in Berkeley called Plearn on University? Us girls went there on Wednesday night and I have to say that it was really good! I had only been then once before for Gary's graduation dinner a long time ago. I guess Johanna and Jane go there a lot, since they knew the waiters and they knew the good dishes. I'm glad that a lot of restaurants have a wide variety vegetarian dishes these days, since I gave up meat for Lent. But I still got to eat pretty well.... I had the mussels for an appetizers, pad thai with shrimp, sweet and sour shrimp, and for dessert - fried bananas with ice cream and sticky rice with mango... Yum...

Weekend in Tahoe
I'm going up to Tahoe tonight with Alan and his family for Audrey's 21st birthday! We're not snowboarding since Alan hurt his knee, but I'm looking forward to gambling!! Craps table - here I come! (and blackjack and pai gow poker too).

Have a nice weekend!

I've heard of counterfeit money....
but how dumb can you be?

The Contract
Alan, my mom, and I went over to the Westin to look at the final contract. We have until the 19th to look over it and sign it and put a deposit down. I'm so happy with the package we got and the place!

The Dress
Afterwards, my mom and I went to try on some more dresses in Cupertino. There's this one dress that I've been looking at in magazines and online, and they had it! So I tried it on and I loved it!!! One problem - it's way over my budget, not even including needed alterations. I found another one that was within my budget and that was really nice too. I made a follow-up appointment in two weeks to go back and choose, when both my sisters will be in town so they can help me decide.

After we tried on dresses, I went online and requested some quotes for the exact same dress from sellers online, and the price was more than 30% lower! And the suggested retail price was $100 less than at the store!! I guess the stores hike up the prices, but dang! Can't they just be nice to brides-to-be? My mom and I are going to try to get the price down from them.

The Invitations
Alan and I went to Party City to take a look at all the invitation binders that they have there, just to get an idea of what we want. I found one layout/style that I liked, and we even saw a do-it-yourself kit that was similar to the one I liked. It might be much cheaper to make them ourselves using a laser printer, but we'll see.

The Stress
As things progress as far as wedding planning, I'm finding that I'm starting to worry about things more, wondering how everything is going to turn out.

In other news...
What a great week for weather!! It's the first time I've worn a skirt since last summer in New York.

Speaking of NYC...
I can't wait to go back in May for my graduation. I miss the big city, Broadway shows, and the subways =)

Happy Spring!
What a gorgeous day today! :)

Don't forget to Vote!
It's a right... and a duty... I'm going today after work, since the polls close at 8pm!