Some new pics

Uploaded a few pix from the JT concert this past weekend here






and some of our Maui pix here

Getting rid of some old DVDs... on eBay

Over the weekend, I decided to do some Fall cleaning, and listed 17 DVDs on eBay from my old DVD collection: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/sandswirl

A good number of these DVDs are completely new and still in the shrink wrap. Just in case you're wondering why the selection is so random, a lot of them are from back when I did entertainment PR, or from when I worked for Warner Bros. Online. Some were gifts, or duplicates from combining my dvd collection w/ JT's.

If you're interested, please go and bid! =) All the auctions are ending in just 4 days, and you can win the auction for as little as 99 cents. If you live close, I can even drop it off at your house and waive the shipping costs. Just want to reduce clutter at my new place. Thanks.

Update!

So I finally got around to uploading all the pics that have been stuck in my camera for soooo long.

You can see what I've been up to in the last few months on my flickr site!

Here are some recaps in reverse chronological order:

We celebrated my brother's 27th bday at Vivid 'ULTRA LOUNGE' in San Jose. More pix here.


Pinky Chung came to town last weekend, and we had a girls night out at the IMPALA, then had a lil sleepover awww. More pix here


My lil cous graduated from highschool. Check it out here.


Marilyn (my college roommy) n Josh's wedding was sooo beautiful. I'm soooo happy for you two!

Posted the pix here.

We met up with Karen and Danny in Vegas, and checked out Le Reve. Amazing show =) More pix here.

We celebrated Sherry's quarter-of-a-century:

More pix here.

OH, and LAST but not least. We are slowly but surely... settling in to our new PAD! It's starting to feel homey =)


WOOHOOO!!!!

Finally moved in

We're finally moved in!

Though we're still unpacking stuff, it's starting to get better... done with most of the painting, replacing the carpets, bathroom tiles, pool and pond in backyard ... I'm seriously learning a lot about house maintenance.. It's cool being a home owner and being able to do whatever you want to a place... fixing up and personalizing... but it's also TON of work! Lucky for me, I have JT to show me the ropes, our trusty family handy man who has been here day in and day out ... and the most awesome parents and brother who have been tremendously helpful... SERIOUSLY I am so grateful. My dad's been working non-stop on our yard, my mom's been dropping by after work to help put things away, vacumn, and bringing yummy food... and my brother's been here doing all my heavy lifting and painting with us too! I love my fam so so much, they are so so awesome =)

It's been a rewarding, exhausting, frustrating, and exciting all at the same time.

Life has been completely different these days. I spend my free time painting, cleaning and lining cabinets, building furniture, putting things away, working on the pond in the back yard, watering plants, folding clothes, going to home depot ... I think I've turned three shades darker from all the labor in the sun! lol...

I've been feeling extremely unattractive these days like the sandy-monster has come to town... haha I've been randomly falling asleep out of exhaustion on the couch and waking up in the middle of the night w/ my contacts still on... skin is breaking out from the lack of maintenance... and I'm in major need of a pedicure, since I've been running around in sandals to places I shouldn't... like the rock quarries. My hands feel like sandpaper from all the sanding, painting, and rock carrying...and will probably take months of intense moisturizing lotion to repair (if even possible!!)...

BUT ... it's soooo worth it. In the short time we've had this house, I've become a piece of it -- and I really wouldn't have it any other way. NO way am I gonna let JT have all the glory! hehehehe It's MINE too! =)

Townhouse for rent

This is a beautiful and modern 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath 2 story 1600 square feet Townhouse located in North Valley San Jose off of Berryessa exit on the 680 freeway.

This property also includes:

1 car garage plus storage space
Newly remodeled Kitchen floors, stainless steel sink
All new steel appliances
Newly remodeled bathrooms
New curtains
New carpet
Refrigerator, dishwasher, gas stove, oven, new washer/dryer, outdoor BBQ
Partially furnished with shelves and more (furniture optional)

This home is located in HOA with swimming pool and play area. It is walking distance to a big park, and is within 5 minutes driving distance to Safeway, Long Drugs, banks, post-office as well as the Asian Market and restaurants. It is near the 880, 680, and 101 Freeways.

The property will be ready for move-in on June 30th. Please email us for the address and to set up a time to view it.

$2000.00 month rent/ minimum of 1 year lease
We are asking for first and last month's rent, plus $700 deposit to move in.















Thanks!
sandswirl@gmail.com

PURPLE RAZR ... arggg. sooo SEXY

sooooooooooooo sexy *droool*

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was a nice and productive day. I got some cleaning in during the afternoon and then went to church and dinner with my family.

Look, it's me n mommy on dear sugar:


What is your Favorite Mother/Daughter Ritual?
My mommy and I occasionally get hired to do lifestyle shoots. You can also find us in the Costco handbook scrapbooking.

-s

Look it's me!

...on mycokerewards.com. Not my most fav pic... =P but still cool.



go to mycokerewards.com

click on Rewards & Contests > Fashion/Beauty Category

25 and LOVING it.

I had a BLAST celebrating my 25th bday in LA with some of my nearest and dearest =)

Here are some pix... you can view the rest on my flikr site.









Got to LA on Friday night. My buddy Justin planned an awesome bday bash for me... I felt soooo loved =)

We had dinner at Warung Cafe (warungcafela.com) It was sooo yum. Then we headed to Edison for drinks (http://www.edisondowntown.com/) Then ended up at JLounge (http://www.jloungela.com/)

As an experienced 25 year old *wink wink* I held my alcohol and did not end up collapsing or blacking out like several past bdays I've had Hahahahahaa. I was the perfect level of buzzed =) yay. It was sweet. My friends are so awesome, thoughtful, conisderate, fun. I truly feel blessed!! truly truly truly...

ok enough cheeeese hehehe..

On Saturday, Karen, JT, and I went to see Wicked.

It was such an amazing musical. GOodnesss.. have the time I had chills, and half the time I was cracking up so bad. Definitely one of my favorite musicals.

Afterwards, I got to spend some time with my future in-laws =) Then had dinner the next day w/ so friends.

We ended the weekend nice and chill with some shopping and lotsa quality time.

Although I had planned on celebrating two weekends in a row... it turned out that one party weekend was all I could handle. hahahha. I got pretty sick after my bday weekend =p caught a cold/major allergies or something.. it was bad. I lost my voice, couldn't breathe out of my nose... etc.

But i'm ALL better now!

Also ... I'm taking some huge steps in my first month of being a 25 year old. =P I'm in the process of buying a home!!!

Stay tuned...

Quarter Life Crisis!

I never thought this day would come! I am officially 25!!! ahhh! =/

I am definitely going through my Quarter-Life Crisis a bit. Yesterday, I ran to the nearest hair/nail salon to get highlights and a pedicure... ANYTHING to feel 21 again! hahahaha

So I freaked out a bit yesterday... hahah

But today is different. I woke up this morning with a great sense of joy. I feel incredibly happy with my life -- I feel that I'm moving in the right direction in every aspect of my life. I have super duper friends and family whom I love sooo dearly! I have the most amazing fiance who is the super encouraging and mature, who ALSO happens to be a total goofball and makes me laugh all the time AND makes me feel o-so-special =). I love my job, I feel challenged enough, but not too much that I get too stressed (most of the time =P)-- and I am always working on new things, and learning new tricks from all the talented people that surround me at work.

I really couldn't ask for more. God is good to me. =)

It was soo nice this morning to open up my email to a bunch of happy bday messages -- and one of my co-workers had filled up my candy jar at work! AWwww...It's those random acts of kindness that really make me want to try to be a better friend... So my 25th Bday resolution (if there is such thing) is that I'm really gonna try harder to be a better friend... to do a better job of keeping in touch, to make sure I let people know how I feel about them, to remember bdays, etc.

I'm headed to LA for the weekend to spend some quality (PARTAY!!) time with the friends I don't get a chance to see very often. I'm super duper excited!!!

I will def be back for MORE mischief next weekend in NORCAL of course. *wink wink*

On the verge of getting sick...

Don't laugh -- but my whole right arm and shoulder is soooo sore and in pain, from shooting hoops (the far ones, not the close ones!) at Dave and Busters on Friday night. HAHAHAHA Ya.. I'm such a weaksauce. sigh.. a buncha guys were laughing at me while I was playing... cuz I was seriously throwing with all my might, and barely getting any rim. hahahaha.. at least I made a few in...

The weekend was pretty chill. JT n I were supposed to go to Marine World on Sat with Sherry n David, but it ended up raining!! =( booo, so we didn't get to go... We ended up staying in, sleeping and working instead..

It probably ended up for the better, since I've been on the verge of getting sick for the last 4 or 5 days ..and Marine World would have definitely put me over the top.

Other than that, I spent a good part of my weekend stressing about work -- and came in at 6:30am today, and got my shit done and on-time for the big presentation this afternoon. woohoo... what a relief.

I'm really looking forward to going home this evening, chilling out, and watching "THE BACHELOR -- an officer and gentleman'" hehehe... he's soooo cute.

teehee... lol .. naw.. i really watch it for the drama, of course.

Yup, definitely gonna lay low for a bit till I get better.

Turbo Tax baby!

Yay! So I got my emails of confirmation for my federal and state tax returns. =) I'm getting a nice lil chunk of change back in 9 days! wut wut! I'm so glad I e-filed this year. It was quick and painless. yay for turbo tax!

Lookie who's on the Yahoo homepage today!

I got an email from a friend asking if that was me on the Yahoo front page. I had to refresh a couple times to see it... but look! There I am!

The photo was by Bill Reitzer/Plush Studios taken about a year ago.

Girl's night out

On Sat night, I had dinner at Beldon Place with Han Em and Linda to celebrate my engagement! hehehe


Us, with our creme brulee and creme puffs that the guy at the table next to us paid for. hehehe


me and han hong =)


em and linpin lookin beautiful as usual


So I went to the bathroom during our meal, and looked up and saw that my girls had graffitied the bathroom wall. HOW CUTe hehehe.. the bathroom wall was a chalkboard.



Us outside at Belden Place -- linpin got me flowers! aww sooo sweet =)


Afterwards, we stopped by at Boss




Then Em, Han, and I headed over to Slide to meet up with Elaine:






han, emmy, and me .. awww like the good ol'days!

check out all the pix on my FLIKR site!

Summer Plans?

I LOVE planning ahead... cuz it helps give me things to look forward to.. ehehe... and since spring has already started, that means SUMMER is right around the corner!

Time to start thinking about what I wanna do this Summer...

-I definitely wanna plan a trip to Toronto! I miss it sooo much! Clubbin is awesome there.. food is GREAt, and I miss my party peeps =) Who's down to go with me? I'm thinkin end of June or beginning of July

-Will do a trip to LA, since I haven't been there in ages

-Can you believe I've never been to NAPA. wtf? What kind of NorCal person am I?

-Hawaii? some of my buddies are gonna be in hawaii this summer...

-I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Disney World in Florida! But since Florida is hot year round, I can always save this one for the fall or next spring...

Any other ideas?






-

Once a party girl...

me: i haven't been clubbin since JANUARY!
me: can you believe that!?
marcus: OMG
marcus: wuuut
marcus: who ARE you...
me: i know
me: LOL
me: AHAHHAHA

I think it's time to break out w/ the dancin shoes this weekend. hahaha

The Perfect Productive Weekend

I had a lovely relaxing and eventful weekend with my babe. ya know... we pretty much spend 24/7 together, but it's always fun and interesting and I never get sick of him. hahaa ok, almost never *wink*

Friday after work, we decided to do something fun instead of chillin out, so we went bowling, just the two of us. =) I kicked his butt 3 out of 4 times, scoring over 100 each of those times!! yayy! but JT ended up getting the high score of the night!

On Sat, we produced and shot a photoshoot for SuperImaging's PR campaign. I'm always constantly amazed about how many common interests and complimenting skills we have. We are the perfect duo, I tell ya! Anyhow, the shoot went really well - though we have lotsa post-production to take care of.

Afterwards, we chilled out for a bit in Fremont with my bro, did some e-stalking heheheh... and I gave my Beverly a bath. JT n I then caught a movie at night. 300 was SOO good. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire movie. "THIS IS SPARTA!!!!"



hahahah man... can't explain it, but it gave me the CHILLS, and not because I was grossed out by all the gore... but it gives you such a guilty thrilling feeling because you just want the Spartans to slash as many heads off as possible... hahaha. I loved that they stood up for themselves, and didn't back down, and I loved their culture .. how much they respected their women. LOVED it!

haha... On Sun, we went to check out some churches and fell in love with St. Joseph's Basilica Cathedral in San Jose. It's soooo beautiful. We attended mass there, and both JT and I agreed that the church really took our breath away. I really hope we can book a date that works out with the place we want the reception to be. Check it out:





I am soooo excited!! I'm gettin MARRIED heheheh... still gotta repeat it a few times to let it snk in.

After church, we went to a bridal faire n did some menu tasting and checked out some vendors (florists, bakeries, etc).

We made it home mid Sunday afternoon, in time to take a nappy nap, do some laundry, get some post-prod work done, make a nice home cooked meal, and have a couple glasses of wine (ya i know, so mature huh? heheh jk jk).

Life is sweet. I feel so domesticated these days hahaha.

Seussical the Musical

I went to Novato on Sat to watch my lil cousin Russell in his High School Musical -- Seussical! It was soooooo cute, I really loved it. Russ played Horton the Elephant. Here are some pix:


The ensemble


my cousin Russell doing a solo


another scene - look! there he is in the middle!


My cous Russell and my bro Jason

Marilyn's Bridal Shower

My college roommy of 3 years is getting married in may! Her bridal shower was sooo cute. We ate some yummy home cooked foods and played some fun bridal shower games.


i'm sooo happy for marilyn!!! love ya!

Gary Danko

I just joined YELP just to write a review about my experience at Gary Danko.

Read on:

I have to say that Gary Danko was the absolute BEST fine dining experience I've ever had in my life --- and it will forever be a special place to me, because my boyfriend proposed that night after dinner!!

We had been wanting to go there for quite some time, since so many of our friends had slated this as their all-time favorite or best restaurant that they've ever been to. But it was so tough to get reservations, since you have to call at least a month or two in advance to get a decent time.

So we finally ended up going on a Thursday night that happened to be a special day for us. The place was still pretty packed, but we arrived on time and got seated within a couple minutes. We each got a 5 course meal which included an appetizer, two main courses, cheese cart, then desert --- all of which you get to choose. We also got the wine pairing --- which was a first for me.

The wine pairing was SO awesome. So this 'wine' guy(different from the normal waiter) with a thick French accent comes.. and first asks what types of wines you prefer. I personally prefer sweeter wines, so he took that into consideration for choosing the wines he paired with my courses. So with every course, I got a different wine, and each went so incredibly well with the food.

I started off with the Seared Foie Gras with Caramelized Red Onions and Rhubarb. What's funny is, I was actually expecting the Foie Gras to come as a paste that goes on toast. That's the only way I've ever had it, so I was surprised when it came as a block, and kinda nervous about that, but oh my goodness, it was the BEST ever, and it went so amazingly well with the desert wine he gave me to go with it. Each bite just melted in my mouth like a little piece of heaven.

Next came my Roast Maine Lobster with Abalone Mushrooms, Edamame Beans and Tarragon. YUM. My bf John got the Scallops, which was also incredible with every bite --- in his words: the best scallops he's ever had.

Then came the Wild Mushroom Stuffed Quail with Braised Red Cabbage and Butternut Squash Pure. The sauce that came with this Quail was SOO good, and it was just an amazing combo all together. John got the Lemon Herb Duck Breast with Duck Hash and Rhubarb Compote. We both enjoyed the Quail more than the Duck, but both were amazing.

Then came the little cheese cart --- I think at this point we were pretty stuffed, but we both LOVE cheese, so we somehow managed to make room for it. We each picked three---and they came with these little toast/crackers and grapes too. At this point, we decided that we should definitely go for the 4 course meal next time around, since the cheese was sooo delish as well, and we just wish we had a third stomach for it all.

Lastly, it was dessert time! We both got the chocolate souffl, since that's what everyone raves about. Yup, it was just as good as everyone says it is.

Every single plate was so delicious, and the wine pairing was AMAZING. Also, the entire night, the waiters were so on top of it! They were indeed psychic --- even when we got up to look for the restroom, they knew right away w/o even being asked, and escorted the way there.

John and I got pretty buzzed towards the end of the dinner since we loved every wine and pretty much drank all of them. But we weren't just buzzed off the wine. We were buzzed off the orgasmically delish food, and good company of course. After we devoured our souffls, the waiter brought out a little plate of mini cakes/cookies with a candle and the plate said "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!"

It was the sweetest and best dining experience ever!

After dinner, it was a bit cold so John gave me his jacket as we walked half a block down to his car. It was nearing midnight and right when the clock hit 12 he hugged me, then got down on one knee on the wet, rained-on sidewalk. He told me to check the left pocket of his jacket.. Nothing was there. "Oops.. I meant right". Hahaha (John is bad with directions). There it was...this little box.

I hid my face behind his jacket trying really hard not to cry. hehe. Fanned my eyes a bit, and fought off the tears, and I smiled n said "Of course" or "Yes" or something along those lines ... It happened so fast, I can't even remember...and pulled him up and hugged him...my future husband.

So that's my story.. LOVe love love Gary Danko!