Teej's Secret Box

Wii Fit – Age 32 – 34 minutes.

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This past week, I had the great luck in meeting up with my old classmates.  Donnie was two years behind me, and Heather was 4 years below in grade school.  It turns out that Donnie lives in Salt Lake City, and Heather was heading there for the weekend to work at her company’s headquarters.  Since I have never been to Salt Lake City, what better time to pay the city a visit than this past weekend?

I am so glad I went, for many different reasons.  I learned so much more about the history behind the Church of the Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.  I reformed wonderful friendships with Heather and Donnie.  I got to meet Shelly again, a classmate whom I have not seen since I was a kid as she was several years ahead.  I also got to appreciate two awesome restaurants, and explore a new city of my own.

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I met up with Donnie, Heather, and Shelly for dinner at the Tuscany Italian restaurant out near the mountains.  Donnie was joined by his wife, TC, and their beautiful daughter who is just starting to take her first few steps at 9 months of age.  The restaurant was top-notched.  Granted, it was not a luxury experience on par with the five stars restaurants, but it held its own against the competition.  Service was excellent, and the conversation flowed like unimpeded water.  Catching up on the years, it was a great experience.

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I also met up with Donnie the following day, and have him give me a tour of his church’s sacred grounds – the Temple Square. This location is home to the infamous Salt Lake Temple.  Lesser known for its location, but well known for its choir, Tabernacle is located next to the Temple.  Tucked to a corner, the Assembly Hall is a very lovely small church building built with the leftover stones from the Salt Lake Temple.

Donnie and I met up with several missionaries, including two Sisters (a female equivalent to the male’s Elders), some who knew ASL, and one knowing British Sign Language.  Whatever they may not know, they made it up with their eagerness to answer my history questions, including the purpose of having three sacred buildings on the same site.

It turns out that the Temple is meant for an individual or small group worship toward their God, not as a big temple auditorium like Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano.  Instead, that role is assigned to the Tabernacle, and the Assembly Hall’s gatherings are conducted by volunteers rather than ministers.  All three buildings serve unique purposes for LDS faithful.

There were several enlightening moments like that, and so much worth the exposure to understand this religion.  The rest of Salt Lake City was nice, including the Trax, something I know a certain friend would drool over if she is in town.

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Heather and I went to the Bohemian Brewery, a wonderful Deutsch pub.  It was so nice to eat traditional brats, although by Heather’s claims, it was not quite as traditional, as the appropriate mustard, Lowensenf, was not served.  Instead, the restaurant opted to use the close cousin’s version – Grey Poupon – due to its availability.  Considering how much I like Grey Poupon, I am quite curious about this particular mustard.

I had the unfiltered white ale called Bavarian wier.  Despite the label, it is not all that cloudy, which separate it from its peers.  It was extremely tasty, and I was only limited by the knowledge that I had to drive afterward.

Altogether, the brewery is an amazing find, and something I would strongly recommend to anyone who is seeking some traditional Deutsch fare.

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It is so much worth it to catch with your friends, as some of them may alter your previous naive opinion about them.  To be able to gain new respect and a few wonderful friendships are so wonderful.  I thank them all from the bottom of my heart for meeting up with me.

Note, you can see the complete photo album here.

Man, I went to bed way too late, and got up with only 6 hours of sleep.  That happens when you meet your old friends.  Hence, I only did the Wii Fit test, and it noticed that I was tired; giving me a Wii Age that was much older than it was (46 compared to 38 the previous day.)

However, I did complete uploading my Utah trip pictures.  You can see them here.  It was a wonderful weekend.  Speaking of which, I will actually be in Utah again this weekend, meeting with old classmates from high school in Salt Lake City.  It will be fun seeing them again after a decade and half.

Please note:  If you want to have a print of the pictures, please do not use the ones here.  Just contact me with the name of the file you want printed, the location you want me to forward it to (CVS/Walgreen/Costco/et cetera), and the name you want it to be printed for.  Just pay for it and you’ll get a nice edited image for your frames.

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Speaking of Maribeth, we had a great dinner at this restaurant, Pink Pepper Thai Cuisine.  The food was very fresh, and well made, and the waitress were very respectful — willing to use what limited sign language skills she had, and was open to learning more.  With enough deaf folks, perhaps she will become a pro at serving us.

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I made some major progress on the testing part for my project, but I still have a long road to go.  I wish my tool does not chatter so much on the internet, because with my client, it goes from their laptop to their VPN server somewhere in San Diego, and then to the actual server in New Jersey.  With so much chatter, the tool slows down in a major way.

So I downloaded a new Oracle database program, and hopefully will find the time to install it tomorrow.

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Overall, it was a very good day for me, but not the best for my work productivity.  Just need to keep plugging at it, and hopefully will have a database set up, and several new tables populated tomorrow.  With a massage that was sorely overdue, a great dinner, chatting with old classmates and friends; it definitely was a good day.

Wii Fit – 1:14 real time, :45 credited.  I got hurt playing Wii Fit.  There is this ligament toward the inside of my left elbow that is tender when I stretch my arm outward.  I think I hurt it doing the pushup part.

As for the comment asking whether Wii Fit is worth it — it definitely is.  Instead of relying on video tapes where they tell you what to do, and you try to do it in a haphazard way, this actually give you immediate feedback on your balance.  The lack of upper body exercises (I only spot pushups, plank, side planks and the stretch back as an actual arm exercises compared to a huge amount of abs, thighs, and lower leg exercises.)

There was actually someone who got in a much better shape after 7 weeks of Wii Fit, with noticeably trimmer abs (much smaller beer belly).  I can’t find that blog at the moment, so here’s the Wired version.

And here’s a good reason to get your wife/girlfriend Wii Fit…

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Looks like the Phoenix Deaf Professional Happy Hour is at Sushi 101 in Tempe, AZ this Friday.  Woohoo!  It’s a decent place, but I can see a lot of deaf people deciding not to go due to the nature of the food being offered.  Ah well, all the more sushi for me.

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I actually did some work today!  Boy that was tough for me to do!  No really, I actually made some major progress on this project, which is a relief in a sense.  Here’s hoping the customer will appreciate the data being loaded as we speak.

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There are times when I really appreciate my water softener and filter.  As folks here in Phoenix know, the water is very hard, heavy with minerals that give it a thick texture, and a tangy taste.  I had to get some water from a vending machine at Costco yesterday because I drank all of the water I filled up before I left to shop.  After months of using bottled water or my filtered water, the taste was jarring.  To make sure I was not being poisoned, I tried the water from my tap to the house, and it was the same.

All homes in Phoenix should have a softener at the very least.

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I just got in touch with two people from my youth, both are younger than me, and we ended up chatting with each other all night long.  That was so awesome to be able to get in touch with each other.  All of my preconceived notions of them have been forever destroyed.

Can you imagine a guy who everyone, EVERYONE, wrote off as a lost cause being a successful chef of a five-diamond hotel’s restaurant within 15 years?  That’s one of the friends I chatted with tonight.

It turns out that the other friend will be visiting the city this weekend, so that inspired me to use my air miles to fly up there, and visit them both.  Plus damn it, I need to see how good he is, after all I’m Anton Ego.

It is amazing that the week I actually start working on my life, things just get shaken loose, and started my life going again.

This wine, the friends, the finetune music, work going well so far, and more… amazing.

Now I need a girl.

LOL

I am sitting here digesting my dinner, a wonderful series of spaghetti, corn, and salad, along with that awesome wine I mentioned yesterday.  I realized that this place was awfully quiet.  But would that cue me to play the music I have on my laptop — game and anime music for the most part?  No, it’s not gentle enough to appreciate over a delicious meal.  Then I realized that I have the Wii, and the Wii browser installed.  Off I went to this site, where the current version now can play any music you could search for.  Right now, I have the Jazz Radio playing Orange Lady by Miles Davis — a delicious yet mellow jazz music.

Every time I rent a car, I check to see if it comes with Satellite radio, and if so, I pray it is Sirius because they have a better option of jazz music channels.  I have been complimented by valet parkers for my taste in music, but not enough to escape the need to tip them.  Hehe.

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In just 5 more days, it’ll be the “Lakers Vs Celtics and the NBA Playoffs” once again.  Back in December, when the Lakers were shaking off their cobwebs from the whole “Trade Me” Kobe Bryant fiasco, and Bynum was a rising star at the center position, and Boston is on their record turnaround thanks to acquired stars including Kevin Garnett, someone Kobe wanted on his team, I had a prediction – Lakers Vs Celtics.

I thought it was a bit early, since the Lakers team is so young, and the West conference is so strong (so strong that two teams that were not included in the playoffs had a better record than at least five teams in the Eastern Conference.

Then Bynum got a serious knee injury that eventually results in a surgery a couple weeks ago, and prediction of return this fall.  “Damn,” I said, “there goes the season.”  Then miracle of miracles, they got Pau Gasol.  The dream became alive again.

Then Kobe tore a tendon in his shooting pinky finger.  It got so bad they lost to Atlanta the very next game.  He shook it off, opting to not have surgery until after the Olympics.

Then Pau got an ankle injury that kept him out for a few weeks.

All of those challenges kept knocking Lakers off first place, but the last run, beating New Orleans and San Antonio Spurs by wide margins at the end of the season returns and preserved the first place results.

I thought Lakers will have a hell of a time going through the playoffs, while Boston will cruise until Detroit.  The opposite pretty much happen.  Granted, it was not a cruise, especially against Utah, but Lakers had it easy compared to Boston.  But the challenges were surmounted, and we have something we haven’t seen in 21 years.

The chants of “We want Boston” in Los Angeles and “Beat L.A.” in Boston rang true.  It won’t be as hate-filled as the 80s ball, but I expect true competition to shine.  It is difficult to predict the results because we have not faced each other with the same team.  Boston is very good, and Lakers are very good.  There are key mismatches on both sides, but who will take advantage of them?

It’s a shame that Red Auerbach is not around to watch, but then we wouldn’t appreciate the cheerleaders in Boston (after all, he did say that he’ll have cheerleaders over his dead body, and he passed away a week before the first cheerleading team started to dance in Boston.)

Red, enjoy the games — and of course, you still sucks.

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Worked out on Wii Fit – 44 minutes credited, 1 hour real time.  Man, I am sore and tired.  Yes, I worked out this morning, and even now I’m feeling sore in the abs region and the lower legs, along with my neck.  Here’s hoping this week will yield a better result for me in terms of being more fit.

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I was supposed to work today, but ended up spending most of the time exercising, relaxing, and shopping.  What was supposed to be just a Home Depot trip turns out to be a Home Depot, Target, and Costco trip.  My wireless router kept crashing on me, so I got the same router I got my dad, and was duly impressed by.  After an hour of tweaking, it’s as secure as it can be, and feeding all of the electronics in this house precious data, such as the Wii playing Jazz music for me.  Yum!

I also got new light bulbs for the ceiling fan unit in the office, air filters for the house, and this concrete crack filler I plan on trying for the brick wall in the back yard — basically, the top few bricks facing the playground is loose.  I want something that will help reduce my liability by securing those bricks enough for any kids that may decide to climb the fence to retrieve any wayward balls they kicked into my yard (I still have that one ball…) It is amazing how as a kid, you don’t give one wit about what you are doing, and yet as an adult owning a home, you’re freaking out over a loose pair of bricks because someone could find a way to sue you over it.

I still can’t find an ideal spot for the second crystal that dad and sis got me for Christmas.  It is meant to be hung over something to have light shine through, but even the back porch doesn’t have a good spot for it at all.  Perhaps inspiration will strike soon.

The kitchen is somewhat clean, but it can be so much cleaner.  I will have to find some time this week in between my job to do this.

I also got a couple people in Japan to search for this Miracle Fruit tablet.  Here’s hoping they would score a few boxes of that.

Now it’s time for me to enjoy some Netflix movies so I can have it shipped off tomorrow for more goodness.

It’s hard to imagine that it has been fifteen years since I have seen the vast majority of my high school classmates.  It is a shame that I only know how to contact two of them.  Fortunately, they are the two most important ones — the one forming a high school reunion, after our class president apparently skipped his duty at the 10th reunion.

I am really looking forward to the Patrick Henry High School reunion this November 24th.  I do need to book my flight, and find a hotel nearby.