running again

believe it or not i am running again.  my goal is to complete a half marathon without struggling and within 2:30.  the past two half marathons (SF Half on Nov 1, 2009 and Macau Half on Dec 6, 2009) i finished at 2:45 and was struggling pretty much the entire time.  this time i am properly training.  i am almost convinced that i can do this.  once i've registered for the Healdsburg Half to happen on Oct 29, 2011 then it's on!  i'm dragging T with me again.  it was a wonderful feeling to finish together at the SF Half.  :)

if you're interested in my progress, follow me here: http://runkeeper.com/user/yenvoong/

where does the time go?

2011 has been rough on the "work" front.  i'm so lucky to have such a supportive bf through my 12-hour work days.  he's been cooking dinner almost nightly and even does "personal" shopping for me.  yes, im talking about bath soaps and other toiletry items.

february definitely flew by.  we spent chinese new year with my family and visited his family during his bro's red egg and ginger event.  then what was supposed to be a 3 day weekend turned out to be work at the office.  right now i finally got a free weekend to myself while the bf is at tahoe with the boys.

a friend who i havent seen since sept called me to catch up.  everyone is either getting married, having a baby or buying a house (or all of them!).  she recently bought a house with her bf and i'm sure she'll be engaged in no time.  i am so happy for those celebrating life's wonders.  bf's sis is getting married in oct and im seriously excited for her.  i also have two cousins getting married this year, one in august and another in oct.  we will likely attend the latter due to flight prices.  i am looking forward to it because that means we are visiting another european country, this time greece!

until then, cancun/cozumel in may!

wise insight

a good friend of my said something that was so wise that it deserves a blog all to itself:

"your significant other is someone who helps you grow as a person because he/she tells you all your flaws and imperfections that not even your closest friends have the courage to tell you"

hope all you lovers out there realize this and appreciate each other even more. :)

2nd half of 2010

i cannot believe it's been 6 months already.  indeed the 2nd half of 2010 has served me well.  my cousins finally visited us this summer.  LA>Vegas>SF was a lot of fun.  i'm so happy that they celebrated my sister's 30th with her.  as always they are in our thoughts and we can't wait to see them again.  i'm sure i will be in london in 2011 for a chau wedding.

4th quarter really stuck out as our dine about town adventure in SF.
-sotto mare for my surprised bday dinner organized by my sweetie, seafood was yummy but not to die for, the scallop entree impressed me
-wayfare tavern for sweetie's bday dinner for two.  this is the former rubicon's space.  the overall experience was good but not great.  fried chicken was tender, learned about brining chicken with buttermilk.  bday boy liked his beef short rib.  $10 valet is ridiculous but hey it's SF.
-michael mina courtesy of crosslink!  the maine lobster pot pie was delicious!  the winner for appetizer was the hamachi crudo.  come here if you feel like throwing away a couple of benjamins.
-chapeau! for TY's holiday dinner.  this is officially one of our favorite restaurants in SF.  i normally don't like french food (not sure if i do yet) but this french bistro really blew me away.  we generally ordered items that you could probably find at any high end californian restaurant and skipped the escargot (was it even on the menu?).  the best filet mignon and pork loin we've both had.  the profiterole dessert was divine.

i wouldn't do 2010 justice if i didn't mention hawaii.  i finally visited hawaii, big island to be exact.  we did some uber fun activities like snorkeling and tried ziplining for the very first time.  the rainforests were sooo beautiful.  we saw the milky way, it does exist!  i am going to be 100% honest and say that i did not love hawaii.  it is too quiet and remote for me.  i understand that people go there to relax and do nothing but for me  i feel like i can do that at home, why travel so far?

we got a lot of visitors in town the past week.  the highlight was T's sister getting engaged during her stay with us.  i'm so happy that we were a part of the engagement planning.  congrats Pris & Rich!  before i go, also congrats to Hugh & Jamie for giving birth to baby Carter at 6pm today.  I can't wait to meet him in a couple of days!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Happy 7th of July!

Hello readers!  I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July celebration.  We sure did!  After two days of cleaning and a day long of cooking, we are delighted to say that our party was a success!  Everyone liked our food and entertainment (taboo until 2am!). 

I'm so glad that the work week is almost over.  I haven't seen my girlfriends in over a month so it'll be really nice to see them finally this weekend.  My crazy friends are going to take on the pho challenge at Pho Garden.  They need to finish 2 lbs of beef and 2 lbs of noodle to be crowned winners.  That is a lot of unnecessary mess to digest!  I hope at least one of them beat the challenge or that's $22 and a recognizable loser!  haha...

We are finally going to Hawaii!!!  Bad news: it's not until another 6 months.  Good news: airfare only cost us $128 for the two of us!  Even better, $300 for 4 nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village!  We'll be there with Shelly/Chester.  We are basically tagging along as they planned the daily itinerary already.

I have a feeling there'll be more exciting news to come for the second half of 2010.  Stay tuned my friends...

london > barcelona > frankfurt

so my europe itinerary has changed.  i'm skipping paris because of convenience.  frankfurt will be a connecting destination.  the best part about going to europe nowadays is that the EURO is weakening daily!

london - my gracious cousin has taken a day off to spend with me.  it's always touching to see my family that i see only once a year.

barcelona - gaudi, picasso and dali.  i'm in art heaven. 

frankfurt - hmmm...the trading capital of Europe?  let's see how it stacks up to NY.

11 more days!!!

another annual europe trip!

i'm so excited to announce that i'm going to europe again! this time the destinations are: london->paris->barcelona. thomas will be working in paris so we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to make a personal trip out of it!

it'll be my first time to barcelona or spain so i'm really anxious to see what it has to offer. i was so impressed with italy last year and i hope spain will not disappoint as well. since i am such an architecture junkie, i'm looking forward to all of gaudi's work. i wish i had more spending money to purchase a higher quality camera so i can capture the vibrant colors of his work.

it'll be my first time to paris with thomas and we're going to do a walking tour of the "city of lights". eiffel tower is a must! i'd love to see le sacre coeur too since i missed it the last two times. i hope this trip will relieve me of my distaste for paris.

london is an obligatory trip to see family, 'nough said.

counting down, 3 more weeks!!!

dad is in china

dad has arrived to nanning, china at 9am california time today. he won't be back until april 19th. i wish i could telecommute from elk grove and spend every night with mom. mom, i will be home in 4 days to have dinner with you!

this past weekend thomas and i visited napa valley together for the first time. we visited these sites in chronological order: petrified forest, sterling vineyard, castello di amorosa, rutherford grill, v. sattui, downtown st. helena and back to rutherford grill. i am beginning to understand the whole buzz about wine knowledge but i still think they're all creative grape juice. one thing for sure is that i used to dislike all red wine but now i can appreciate a nice glass of cabernet sauvignon. the next time i'm in the area, i'd like to visit chateau montelena, ca'toga and robert louis stevenson state park.

dad gone for a month

i found out that my dad is going to asia with 30 of his village buddies from mid march to mid april. my poor mom will be all alone in that massive house. :( with the exception of march 6 weekend, i'll be spending every weekend of march at home to keep mom companied.

what 2010 brings

i mentioned that i was injured in my last blog. as of a week ago, i had healed (so i thought). i immediately went jogging on the treadmill for 3 miles and felt pretty good. needless to say, the hip and knee pains crept back the very next day. i've learned that when some things are broken, it can't be mended. no more running in 2010.

2010 also brings weddings to the table:
-feb 20: peter's in foster city, guest
-april 10: chris and shar's in san francisco, bridesmaid
-june 6: gladys' in seattle, guest
-sept 5: vong's in sacramento, guest

i don't consider myself as someone who has a lot of friends but through life you do come by a number of people. i feel honored everytime i am invited to a wedding. if i consider you a friend, i will attend. there was only one occasion where i was invited and didn't attend. thinking back, that was the right decision.

every year i try to visit my family in london. however, this year they're coming to me! the dates are still unconfirmed but i'm really excited. it'll be their first time to california/las vegas, most first time to america! i plan to take two weeks off to show them around. should be good times.

i only have 3 weeks of vacation but managed to roll over some from previous years. i intend to visit paris (again) in march when thomas is there for work. it's always a new experience when you travel to a familiar destination but with different company. the last couple of times when i was in paris i was with family. my family in general don't like to visit museums or scope out ancient artifacts. thomas and i, on the other hand, do appreciate them. it'll be a quick 4 day vacation but we plan to visit: le lourve, eiffel tower (duh), notre dame, sacred coeur, saint sulprice (to see the meridian line that i learned in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code) and versailles (to see the great chateau de versailles). can't wait!

next week is chinese new year, year of the tiger. i will be in sacramento with family. thomas will be in So. Cali with his family. valentine's day happened to fall on the same weekend but since we will not be together, we celebrated today. we started the day at cha cha cha. forgot how good their cuban food was. the paella wasn't as good as fresca's but their cajun shrimp and mussels made up for it. we walked off our meal along the infamous haight/asbury streets. can you say 420? there was a store with the advertisement "puff puff pass", how funny. we made our last stop in the city at katsura garden, japantown. i love that place, the japanese owner is so sweet. we picked up a small potted orchid for our ledge. there are two stems so they naturally look like antennas atop our tv! haha...

tomorrow thomas is cooking his delicious chicken noodle soup topped with my bro's homemade wonton. yummy!!!

happy new year 2010!

happy new year everyone! updates since my last blog:

-finished the macau half marathon in a disappointing 2:45. needless to say, i didn't make it on the records and did not get a finisher's medal. my biggest complaint about the entire event was that i was not permitted to cross the finish line. i still feel like i didn't finish the race. after the race i was in total pain. my hips, knees, ankles, you name it felt like they were gonna give up. after more than a month now i still feel the pain in my hips. i've officially retired from running. i say that now but i might register for the nike women's half marathon to take place on oct 17, 2010 in SF. my cousin from london said she'll run it with me if we are selected through random lottery. i'll let fate decide if i shall run again.

-hong kong was fun. not my favorite vacation destination but it was my first time to Asia and i was with my siblings. i felt like king there because i was considered "above average" in the financial ladder. i thought everything was a steal! $10 for a sweater dress! also discovered G2000 where i can get a full work attire for under $50 USD! dim sum was out of this world. peking duck was a disappointment though, you can get the same quality in berkeley, ca. hong kong people are still rude but we met a few nice ones.

(congrats to ying and tim on their recent engagement! i couldn't attend their engagement party because I was still in Asia)

-christmas was nice at home with my family in elk grove. i also got to see my family in london via cam so that was very nice. i can't wait until our next cam session on chinese new year. another highlight was seeing my friends at van and samson's new place. it's always comforting to see my friends make the first plunge into moving in with the significant other. i wish them all the best.

-thomas' family visited us in turns so we spent a good few days with his parents and sisters in mid dec and his bro + wife on new years. we went to a friend's house party and crashed in her living room. met a really sweet gay couple. i love when total strangers can have a good time together.

-i recently hosted a post holiday dinner at my place and it went better than expected. i was so touched that friends from all over came by. we finally watched amara and scott's wedding videos and pics. man the videos were mad C-H-E-E-S-Y but they gave us some good laughs. what i really liked about that night was that all of the bf's were bonding. awwwww...ended the night watching food, inc. never looking at beef the same way!!!

-for 2010 i vow to eat healthier and exercise more. today is jan 13 and i've only exercised 3 times this year. thomas bought me jillian michaels' workout dvds. the kickboxing set was very much like tae-bo. it wasn't really challenging for me. i've only watched the "front" strength training dvd and yet to participate. i have the "back" too and i'm going to watch that now.

wishing everyone a fruitful 2010!

happy thanksgiving!

happy thanksgiving everyone! i hope everyone is having a wonderful time with their family and friends. today i am mostly home alone. went to mr.fong's and picked up chicken wings and noodles for lunch with my friend cuong. after dropping him off at SFO, i went home to complete solitude. i am not sad however, i love to get my yentime every now and then. today i need to pack for my trip to HK. i'm leaving tomorrow for 10 days and i'm running a half marathon in macau on dec. 6. oh right, i forgot to tell you that i finished the US half marathon in SF at 2:46. that is a very disappointing time but i should have expected it since i didn't train. oh well...moving along to the next race. i recently ran the folsom winter trail series #3 at folsom point on nov 22. my time was much better, 7 miles in 1:14:49. i almost beat my running competitor, mr. vay phung, but trailed him 54 seconds. if i keep up that pace then i won't get the boot in macau, there is a 2.5 hour limit. i hope my brother chester finishes under, he hasn't beat me in a single race yet. :D

anyway, have a safe travel and happy eating! dim sum and seafood here i come!

asics kayano 15

today thomas and i went to road runner sports and got professionally fitted for running shoes. i have normal arch feet so i tried on stability shoes. thomas has flat feet so he tried on motion control shoes. we both ended up getting a pair of asics (mine was the kayano 15). we couldn't wait to test run them and so we ran 4 miles around the block. we both love our new shoes. they are lightweight and comfy. we have no foot pain at all. the price tag is a bit steep but well worth every penny! mine was $115 after signing up for membership and lucky for us we dropped in during their annual sale so we got additional discounts!

US half marathon on november 1 should be blister-free and smooth sailing. bring it on!

summer updates

so much has changed since my last blog. first of all, i am no longer training for a full marathon. my cousin quangii decided that it was too expensive for her to fly all the way from london to new york just to run a marathon. what i have accomplished in this dept is that i 1) ran 10k in london with my family (july 5) and 2) ran 12k on angel island with my brother chester (august 22).

another significant change is that i no longer live in south san francisco. i have moved back to san leandro with my sister and brother as of mid-may. i really disliked east bay. i could never get a seat on the BART! errrr...in general this part of the Bay is ghetto! after a few months now, i am starting to settle in. i have been hiking every week at mission peaks in fremont with my siblings. i am training for the bryce/zion hike during labor day weekend.

thomas and i took our first trip as a couple to italy and london where he met my uncles, aunts, and cousins. they all like him so i'm happy. rome and venice were so amazing, i want to finish our italy adventure this autumn - florence, cinque terre, and maybe sicily!

i want to register for a half marathon in november but do not know if i'm ready. there's the ushalf on nov 1 in SF or the monterey half on nov 15. i'll have to post a follow-up blog with the answer.

day 3 of training

workout:
-walked 1/2 mile (15 mins) then ran 3.1 miles or 5k (45 mins) on the treadmill

meals:
-lunch at 12pm: sushi (yes, 3 days in a row - not by choice, i eat whatever they serve at work), teriyaki chicken with rice, salad, dinner roll
-dinner at 9pm: 1 bowl of pineapple fried rice with shrimp, 1 bowl of tomato rice with 2 pieces of bbq ribs, 1/2 of an orange

weight: 115.5 lbs

day 2 of training

workout:
-ran 1.1 miles with brother cuong

meals:
-breakfast at 10am: 1 pineapple bao, 1 slice of mocha nut bread
-lunch at 2:30pm: sushi buffet at fuji's in elk grove (yes, the same meal as yesterday's dinner minus the ice cream and $5)
-dinner at 6:15pm: 1 bowl of shark fin soup, half of an orange
-after dinner munch at 10:30pm: 3 eggrolls (this is why you should not skip a real dinner)

weight: 116.5 lbs

first day of training

first day of training for my marathon in NY on Nov 1, 2009.

workout:
-ran 1 mile
-played 30 mins of tennis

meals:
-breakfast at 9am: 1 bowl of congee with pork and other stuff that i can't mention to the world
-lunch at 1pm: half of a viet sandwich with ham, carrots, cucumber, and pate; 1 eggroll
-afternoon munch at 3pm: the other half of the viet sandwich
-dinner at 8pm: sushi buffet at fuji in elk grove, sushi, tempura (shrimp and oyster), grapes, ice cream

weight: 116.5 lbs

high school reunion

this year would be my 10 year high school reunion. whether there is going to be one or not is another story. my thoughts on this age old celebration...i think it is a reason for people to come together and brag about themselves or gossip about others. do these people that i haven't kept in touch with for over 10 years have an effect on my daily life? no. the ones that do play a factor in my life are still actively involved. i would be happy enough to hear through the grapevine that my fellow ex-classmates are doing well. plus who needs a reunion when there's facebook? as you may already have guessed, i do not plan on attending my 10 yr high school reunion if there were to be one. i really do hope everyone is healthy and happy.

this week's weight: 113.5 lbs
weight loss: 0, still haven't learned to eat less

human surroundings

ever think about the types of people that you surround yourself with? you know that friend that always complains about her boyfriend? how about that friend that is always cheerful when you see her? wouldn't you rather be around the latter? it's true that attitudes rub off.

this week's weight: 113.5 lbs
weight loss: 0 lb, need to exercise more and eat less

size 24

i bought these jeans about 2 years ago that i've never worn, actually it's hanging in my closet with the tag attached! i have no idea why i bought a size 24 when i'm clearly a size 25! i have been back to the regular workout routine. come home from work at roughly 7pm, workout for 45 mins, shower, then dinner. i've gone to the gym monday, tuesday, and today! i weigh 113.5 lbs currently and my goal is 100. i think it's attainable if i keep this up. my real motivation is my upcoming trip to cancun in may. i've never worn a bikini in my lifetime because i was always insecure with my body. i gotta start living life and quit wasting my youth! i will keep a weekly post of my progress and mark my weight here. i will fit into those size 24 AND look good in them!

update on may 11th: i gave away this pair of jeans to karen on may 3rd. i'm happy that it fits her perfectly. the cut just wasn't for my body type.