금요일 오후: from ernest kuo's xanga: "A man left for work one Friday afternoon. But it was payday, so instead of going home, he stayed out the entire weekend partying with the boys and spending his entire paycheck! When he finally appeared at home on Sunday night, he was confronted by his angry wife and was barraged for nearly two hours with a tirade befitting his actions. Finally his wife stopped the nagging and said to him, 'How would you like it if you didn't see me for two or three days?' He replied, 'That would be fine with me. Monday went by and he didn't see his wife. Tuesday and Wednesday came and went with the same results. But on Thursday, the swelling went down just enough where he could see her a little out of the corner of his left eye."
yesterday was kaela hwang's and my 2.5 wedding anniversary, as i mentioned yesterday. earlier in the week, i had assumed she'd be studying or off at one of her numerous chiropractic club meetings as usual, but on wednesday night, as i mentioned, she said i could take her out to dinner. thus, i modified my plans for the week. on thursday, i made reservations at tarragon, a nice "mediterranian" restaurant on downtown sunnyvale's historic murphy ave. i had heard my sister say something nice about this restaurant before. i made the reservation for 8:00 pm because kaela said she would go to the gym in the early evening, and i had tons of work as usual anyway. well, as 8:00 pm approached, kaela said she was going to go make photocopies for her school stuff. *sigh* i quickly tried to push the reservation back to 9:00 pm. why was it easier years ago to take kaela out for a dinner date on a weeknight? back in berkeley, we did it all the time. sure, in a way, i miss those days. anyway, i was very glad that such a nice restaurant as tarragon is so close to our house. when we arrived, there was a cool jazz band playing. the hostess said something like "where have you been? we've been waiting for you!" both kaela and i apologized profusely. then the woman handed us a microphone and asked, "you want to sing?" ha ha ha! i had been a bit suspicious! it turned out that that woman was not the real hostess but the singer for the jazz band. she continued into singing "route 66," which i like because of the famous depeche mode cover. the real hostess arrived and did gently tease us about being late and then seated us.
it was a bit stressful getting us to this dinner, especially with this one stoplight in sunnyvale that just refused to turn green for me; so i tried to escape reality and enjoy the dinner and music. kaela asked me if she should order the fettucine with chicken or the prawns risotto. from my knowing her so well, i recommended that she go with the prawns. i just figured she might find the chicken too dry for her taste. me, i chose the braised american kobe beef pot roast with soft polenta and winter vegetables. what is "american kobe beef"??? well, i don't know, but i sure didn't mind not paying a fortune to have a slice of cow labeled "kobe beef." &bsp; honestly, the food was very reasonably priced for such a nice restaurant! kaela said we should split a salad and chose the winter spinach salad which had a good vinaigrette, some kind of bleu cheese, some sliced almonds, and some dried cranberries. sure, it wasn't the most original salad i've seen but still good. then i tried to pick a wine. wow, what a situation! the tarragon wine list is very interesting, as i noticed some wines were quite expensive, while others were relatively cheap. i concluded that the restaurant chooses split its wines into expensive ones and cheap ones and not leave much of a middle ground. i saw a 1997 italian pinot grigio for $18! wow, i had to jump on that, just to try a more vintage wine, as we usually get pretty young ones. well, after we finished our salad without wine, the waiter came back to report that the restaurant had no more of that wine. i could understand at that price. thus, i picked this so-so sounding 1998 mirassou riesling for $26, not as good of a deal; but hey,w e like rieslings. well, later, when our entrées arrived, the waiter said, "you're going to hate me, but we didn't have that wine, so i brought you another one. it's a much better wine, and i'll give it to you for the same price." it was a 1999 french white bordeaux. wow, it was really sweet in the style of some of the gewurztraminers we often drink. we didn't know that white bordeaux could be so gewurztraminerish. *shrug* yeah, i totally accepted the wine. later, i saw on the dessert wine menu that that wine sold for $49 at dessert time. however, i also noticed that the mirrasou riesling price jumped to something like $36 on the dessert wine menu; so i don't know what to make of that. anyway, we ate our delicious dinner with our delicious wine. i drank too much. i kept telling kaela that i must have drank 3/4 of the bottle. we learned years ago that it's better to leave leftover wine that to force ourselves to drink all of it. after all, somebody's got to drive home eventually, right? that person would not be me that night. sometime around dessert time, i placed the keys on the table by kaela. anyway, for dessert we had this vanilla crême brulée. i told kaela that before i got together with her, i hadn't ever eaten crême brulée. this one was good but tasted so fattening, so we chose not to finish it. we drank lots of decaf coffee though. i think i looked drunk, so the waiters kept wanting to give me more coffee. anyway, i wasn't driving.
well, this morning, duk text messaged me that yuna had hurt her back, so tomorrow's daytrip to tahoe is off. *sigh* some of my coworkers invited me to a cabin trip to northstar this weekend, but they had asked me too late. i received a voicemail last night. i don't know. i could try to join them for saturday at northstar; but, at this point, i'm leaning towards just staying at home tomorrow and doing housechores. if you remember, kaela has "yet another of her many" chiropractic seminars tomorrow all day, "from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm," as she put it. *sigh* well, hey! hearing that, it made perfect sense for me to head to the slopes tomorrow. however... *shrug* i don't know if maybe by tomorrow's daytrip's being cancelled, god's telling me that "two wrongs don't make a right." you know how it is with me: i realize that in today's "post sex & the city" america, women have been brainwashed to believe that career is the ultimate god and things like home and family are totally worthless. it's true that women believe that, and supermike knows this as well. anyway, i know that my attempt to escape the house and take off to tahoe, in a way, was revenge for kaela's committing to this 14-hour seminar; and i know revenge is just absolutely wrong. i don't know. was it really revenge or just love for snowboarding? *shrug*
well, yesterday evening, sometime around when kaela told me she'd be late because of her photocopying session for school, she said she signed up to go to washington, d.c. for spring break for her school. of course, she said i "could" go; but really! first off, i, as a working guy, don't get spring break; and secondly, *sigh* i hate feeling like the only time i travel is to tag along to kaela's school events. why don't i just take off to do something else during that time?! my vacation days are precious and few. however, she did point out that i could see fahad if i go to washington, d.c.; and yeah, he is a good friend and has been one for so many years; so i guess i'll think about going to d.c. we have these southwest vouchers to use anyway. actually, for years, i've been wanting to see new york city. well, it's not that we'll get to do that, but well... i suppose i mention that only because that's finally an example of my wanting to travel. as i've said many times before, compared to other people my age, i don't really have much desire to travel.
a few days ago, kaela and i watched trekkies on t.v., a documentary about those infamous star trek fanatics. me, i like star trek plenty but am hardly a trekkie. well, when i was in third grade, i was on a recreational youth soccer team called "the trekkies," but i had no clue what the name meant until my dad told me and then i later saw our banner which had a felt u.s.s. enterprise nc-1701 on it, the widely recognized profile view. i suppose if i were a trekkie, i might travel around the country or world to attend star trek conventions; but no, i am not and do not. yes, i would travel for snowboarding, taekwondo, or djing.
in my most recent yesasia order, i received a cool compilation album that has the awesome mc몽 (mc mong) and 옥주현 (ok juhyun) track "홈런" ("home run"). it's actually "mc몽 (mc mong) featuring 옥주현 (ok juhyun)." this song, in its chorus, features 옥주현 ok juhyun's borrowing of the melody from the 1980s when in rome hit "the promise." dude, i love it! that is so cool, so relevant, so appropriate for today's scene! you do know who 옥주현 ok juhyun is, right? if not, you obviously need to hang out at bronx's junkyard more! 옥주현 ok juhyun was and is one of the four members of the famous, korean pop princess quatro 핑클 fin.k.l. the name "fin.k.l." is an acronym for "fine killing liberty." what that means, no one will ever know. anyway, back when the group started in the late 1990s when the pop princesses were all in the late teens, 옥주현 ok juhyun was always known as "the chubby one." by american standards she was very "normal"; but yes, by korean standards, she was a little "chubby." later, she had her late blossoming and became a blue jeans model, like a new millennium, korean version of the 1980s brooke shields, right? right. (i suppose she was the only fin.k.l. "princess" tall enough to be a real "model," right? aren't supermodles supposed to be really tall like tyra banks?) then she more recently gained a reputation as a fit yoga afficianado. anyway, "홈런" ("home run") is a super-awesome track. you must check it out. i like it in the same way that i like the 에픽하이 epik high featuring 박혜경 park hyeikyung track "함께 해요" ("hamkkei haeyo"). these are both awesome tracks that feature smooth rapping by guys and beautiful melodies by girls. i've noticed, in both american and korean pop music, many more credits for so-and-so "featuring" so-and-so. yes, the american hip-hop scene really drove this; but i believe this has become a more popular arrangement due to the death of the album, which arose from the popularity of online delivery of single digital tracks.
"home run" is also an important trail at northstar. it helps you get to your car at the end of a full day of snowboarding.
[later] by the way, last night, as we approached the restaurant, which has a pretty nice exterior, kaela said, "oh, we have a coupon for this place." oh, i hadn't realized that. i guess i wish we had that coupon with us last night. oh yeah, as i was signing my credit card receipt for the restaurant, i was too tipsy to add right and forgot to carry the one. well, i saw my bill this morning, and the restaurant gladly made the correction.
[later] 밤 10:35 pm: well, we're home now from the potluck. yeah, we ended the night early. we could've gone to watch a movie tonight; but kaela says she has to wake up earlier for her seminar. me? originally i would've wanted to wake up early for snowboarding, but now? now, i don't know what to do tomorrow. housechores? it's one of those days that i wish i had a skateboard to do something like snowboarding while not leaving the silicon valley.