end of san diego

i've left san diego and am now at the excalibur in las vegas. not much has happened yet except i've lost $2 to the slots, so I'll just do a recount of SD.

i've done everything i'd wanted to do at SD. I am highly satisfied.

friday night i just hung out with hyon at the hilton mission bay. it was a really nice hotel and had a nice view of palm trees, and a deck that got a bit chilly. but i didnt get my burrito until the next day, and i was a bit pissed because the fish burrito that we ordered wasn't great.

on saturday, i tried to hit the waves around noon. they were really rough and basically while the current drove me northward the waves beat down on my head. there was one wave which i semi caught for maybe 3 seconds, but the board didnt hold my weight too well and didnt have wax, and my general surfing skills have definitely deteriorated. after four successive monsters that bore down on my head and forced me to abandon the board and dive under the water, i ran out of strength and decided to drift back to shore. i think the day was complicated by the dark clouds that constantly shouted "thunderstorm", and the worry that my car keys, which were all electronic, would be stolen because i had to leave them in my shoes.

after that disappointing session i drove down to sorrento valley to visit the old work place and go to caliente. now, that is a burrito that is as good as i remembered. the last bite i took was greasy and filled with guacamole and fatty carnitas. however, it was raining and the old deck we used to sit under was completely abandoned, so i just ate the food in my car. here is a picture of my burrito and my surfboard. there's always a silver lining even to a bad surf day. i went by moura's surf shop afterwards and it was the same old guy i remember but of course he didnt remember me.



the one thing that goes really quickly is my sense of direction. i could not remember how to get to la jolla shores and i basically followed gilman around until my muscle memory picked up a little bit.



saturday afternoon we went to UCSD to watch them whoop on UCI. a lot of the kids i knew have improved alot - garret and andrew, mainly. after that, we went to noodle house, and jacky basically went crazy. we took soju bomb after soju bomb, and i remember the moment when i knew i would be screwed for the rest of the night. i probably took a look at the soup in front of me, took a bite of food, then took another bomb. and after that there was only brief moments - that last killer soju shot, drunkenly paying $60 for my share of alcohol, falling out of the car on the side of the highway to puke, then being unable to regain my balance. i woke up in paul's room, and panickly wondered where my camera, wallet, and rental car keys were. also, i briefly remembered puking hard into some container and hoping that the container was not paul's bedsheets.



the next day was ok, and we lounged around the house until 2 pm when we went to sushi deli 3. sushi deli is always delicious and wonderful. more to come...

US Open Blog

This upcoming week a bunch of CW people are going to be vegas for US Open. I left a bit earlier, to go back to my old haunts in SD. I chilled with hyon at his hilton in mission bay last night, and now i'm hanging out at Pauls. I'll be going surfing in a little bit...3-4 ft waves, la jolla shore where my favorite small breaks are. it's overcast and 59, but still nicer than boston.

and i rented a Yaris. :-D i hope it fits my board.

hopefully i'll be able to take some good photos this week, and probably get some video of our competition at US Open. Thus, i'll start keeping a little blog, whenever I can get access to a computer.

more housing work

it's been a long while and I've found myself doing a bit of work every weekend, thus progress is slow. i've made a trip to home depot to buy 2x6x12 support beams and 4x4s to hold them up, then we opened a hole into the attic and decided that there's absolutely no load on it and it would be a waste of effort and space. so we just cut down the beams for the old wall, and lo and behold no ceiling came tumbling down. back to home depot to return $30 worth of wood.

i had electricians come in and they decided that I need to gut the whole thing so that they can properly rewire up the rooms. it's pretty interesting to tear down every wall, it's like a puzzle of where to put all the trash and how to get it out of the house. by now i've gotten pretty good at tearing out the slathes and taking down the plaster at the same time. we put mail bins underneath to catch all the debris, then throw the slathes into a large pile which is broken down and put into trashbags later. it'll be done eventually.



the current state of the windows. the trim is all down in order to tear down the paneling, and i dont think they can be recovered. also, note my new $39 green ladder :)



the remaining plaster left on the first room. the door was busted on the other side when a 4x4 fell and knocked a big hole in it.



the chimney. notice that some of the brick is crumbling. not sure what to do...i might just drywall it up.



what remains of the ceiling light connectors. this is all gonna go to the dumpster.

craigslist bonanza

just a little list of what i've been purchasing on cl. it's kind of like a drug to me. when i get bored during the day the most satisfying thing to do is to search on craigslist...for anything basically, but right now i'm looking for all kinds of shit to put in my house. i don't know how i do it, i think i've doubled the amount of furniture and possessions i have. well, at least i dont have to move it any time in the future.

so here's what i've busted my wallet on since i moved in to spring st:

ikea track lights (3 bulbs) - $20
pyramid range hood - $215
ikea wool rug - $40
ikea upright lantern - $20
ikea couch - $200
ikea 6 drawer malm dresser, wide, and stave mirror - $100
ikea stave mirror - $20

looking:
crate & barrel hanging pot rack
west elm coffee table
another couch
another rug

nostalgia for christmas past

at home we don't do very much for christmas. these days it's all been even less ceremonial. i at least remember as a child that christmas was a big day. the whole holiday season felt like a definite period. now, it's just another few days between going back to work.

the period of christmas and new years were much more enjoyable when i was a child. unlike people who complain of the holiday season being too in your face now, for me i see too little of it. we don't have tv, we don't go out shopping for presents, and i feel like i've barely heard a christmas jingle. sure, i hear jingle bell rock and it still annoys the hell out of me. but it's different. when i was a kid and i first heard jingle bell rock, it became ingrained in my memories as part of growing up and experiencing christmas. much like the following bits of nostalgia, that i have no way to experience anymore except through excerpts of youtube.



a charlie brown christmas.



how the grinch stole christmas



a christmas story

i remember watching this in the middle of the night before christmas while old tnt or usa commercials played in between. or while my mom was cooking a decidedly chinese christmas dinner and my dog athena was sitting there eyeing the scraps. or the next morning when i'd be playing with my new crossfire system or new ninja turtles! (surprisingly that's the only gift i really remember receiving.)

while we're at it, here's an old favorite of the eighties.



incidentally, reading rainbow only stopped having new episodes in 2009.

construction work before christmas

i leave for NC tomorrow (wednesday, dec 23) and before i even pack i've made some last minute construction work. but overall it's been slow progress. i don't really have more than an hour each day at home, and that's usually spent cooking and being lazy. so finally i stripped the wall down to the studs.





they're thick old studs - covered in nails. and i had some trouble with the top and bottom where they extend above the ceiling and below the floorboard. there's still a baseboard that's nailed to every stud and is below the hardwood flooring.

right in the middle of the wall there's a set of daisychained electrical outlets. it's a mess to deal with, because the wiring is old and the outlets are just hanging out in the middle of the studs.



yesterday i went to home depot and got a bunch of supplies like an extension cord and a work lamp, and a multimeter, so i could switch off the power to the upstairs (which also switches off power to half the kitchen and the living room) and finally remove the outlet. after some nervousness and basically prayers in case i get zapped and explode, i finally get the outlets off and cap them, so now they're no longer in the middle of the wall. the live wire is actually quite pretty, with my new green ladder in the background.



jordan came by and looked at the studs, and they seemed to bear a little bit of load (hopefully not a lot of it) so we decided to brace the ceiling before cutting off the rest of the studs, and eventually building a frame into the center of the room. that's as far as i got, and hopefully the house doesn't fall down on me while i'm gone for break.




when i get home, there'll be more construction work, in my dad's attic. it's fun, but i hope i can eventually actually finish a project.

workweek

I've started to renovate my house. and by renovate i mean tear it down haphazardly and hope that drywall, spackle and paint will be enough to overcome any blunders. Hey, it sounds just like college! I've also set up some music and beer right next to the rooms i'm working on. soon when the paint fumes hit, it'll be so reminiscent of phi sig i'm going to cry.

anyway here are some photos from last week's work. i've since torn down more of the wall but got stuck.



View from the "Office" with panels and drywall on this side completely removed.



The first view of the "Small Bedroom" through the Office.



Studs and Jordan's ladder. It's a sweet ladder.



A view from the Small Bedroom. There is a panel that is stuck behind some window trimming that will have to come down.