LongLong's OL Blog - 容容 的洛城OL隨記

My one case of V Sattui Gamay Rouge arruved today!
V Sattui is one of my favoriate winery in Napa.  It's a very casual and family friendly.  We like to buy a bottle of Gamay Rouge, some baguette, fresh cheese, and foie gras, then have a picnic outside their picnic area.  It's one of the must visit place in Napa, plus the wine tasting is free here.  I've recommended so many of my family and friend there.  My co-worker, Gabe and his family are hooked to this place, especially their Gamay Rouge.  He has joined their wine club, and we somtimes would trade their wine with each other.  Mom, Dad, and Karin also visited this place last week.
V Sattui wine can only be purashed at their winery or thru their website.  You can't buy them anywhere else.  I asked Karin to order me a case when she was there last week.
Gammy Rouge is Rose.  I enjoy Rose during summer time.  I like the clear cherry red color and fresh taste.  It goes very well with BBQ, and is perfect for hot summer days.  It's best to drink while it's chilled (1 hour in freezer would work).  Beside Gammy Rouge, their Muscat is also very popular if you like dessert wine.
Mom, Dad and I finsihed a bottle during dinner tonight.   It's a warm up for my first day at my new job tomrorow.   Wish me luck!

I am glad to report that I am finally settled at Mom & Dad's.  Fully unpacked, internet/cable ready, and also got spare time to get my manicure and pedicure.
Mom and Dad were great helpers .  We worked well as a team,  as I unpacked everything, Mom helped clean up my furnitures, and Dad started to flatten the cardboardbox.  We finished unpacking everything within 3 hours.  
I rearranged Mom's living room a bit with my old furnitures....
Here is my new room..... I transformed SmallN's old bedroom into my new fully functional and wired bedroom
I feel so relief that everything is able to fit into the room.  Although I might still need a bigger closet.  Mom and I are planning to convert Karin and my old room into a portable semi walk-in closet. (Don't worry, Karin.  It will still be sleepable when you, Hannah and Robert come down and visit )

Today is my moving day!  The mover is going to be here around 8-10am.  This time around, I don't need to do much packing, becuase the company has assigned me a moving company to do both my packing and move.  
Last night, I only packed items that I want to bring with me today and also categorized my household goods into three buckets:  Permanent purge, temporary storage, and need to unpacked.  This will help my unloading on Friday easier....Not much to do beside waiting for the mover to come. 
I went out to pick up some breakfast.....Strong coffee and large breakfast would be essential for the moving day.  
I also stopped by the bank to get some cash so I can tip the mover (however, I am not sure if I need to tip the corporate mover????).  I loaded items to bring home tonight in my car, and threw away permanet purge items, did my laundry........It's only 7am and I feel I had done a lot already.  I am not the morning person, but it does feel good being so efficiency in the early morning.
The movers arrived 9am sharp. I quickly did a walk through with them, and then they were up and running.  It's such a luxury to have a coporate professional mover.  My moving cooridnator called twice already to make sure everything goes smooth.  Movers packed everything, and I just sat there and watched..  
I was amazed by how fast and careful they were, within few hours items were all nicely wrapped. 
Oh! My nice Korean Neighbor downstairs brought me some home made Korean Rice/Green Bean snack......They were so thoughtful, becuase I was starving.  I am so grateful for my nice soon to be ex neighbor.
Few hours later,my apartment is completed empty.
I am heading to Mom & Dad's home....Bye Bye my single OC luxury apartment.  Mom & Dad, here I come......

Debra and I went to Mitsuwa for a quick bite.  We both ordered Bento Box.  I love Bento box, becuase we get a bit of everything, plus it's so colorful.

Hannah's Dad has been putting together a time capsule for our little princess Hannah.  Items are contributed by friends and relatives - memorable items, current trends, fashion, affair.  It can be anything from newspaper, latest fashion, credit card bills, or etc.  This time capsule will be preserved and to be open at Hannah's 15th birthday.  Auntie SmallN and I have been scratching our heads for awhile to come up with things to put in there.  We've dragged our feet for months on contributions.  Since Auntie Smalln is going up to SF this weekend, we both finally decide to take actions and add our contribuitons.
What would a 15 years old girl like in another 15 years?  Well, I can't get her any clothes or nail polish or lip gloss.  I started to think about things I liked when I was 15, and still do.  Beside money , without any doubt Hello Kitty.  I am sure in another 15 years, I will still like Hello Kitty.  
I got her a little compact mirror and comb set - SmallN, Karin, and I all had one in high school, too.  I still have one blue Hello Kitty mirror in my purse.  No matter you are in Year 2006 or year 2011, all girls need to look good
A combination lock - although I am not sure if students will still use this type of lock 15 years later - most likely will be digital or even hand free voice activated, I think it would be fun for little Hannah to see what freshmen high school girl use in 2006.  Maybe we can teach her how to open a lock.
A little Hello Kitty Charm with her birthday date on it.  We all need some accessories.
I also got her a Livestrong  bracelet.  Mabye Hannah's grandma can share with little Hannah on her cancer survival story.....
I hope when Hannah opens her time capsule 15 years later, she will discover lots of history and joy.
Do you still remember what were your favorable items when you were 15?  Do you still treasure them?

It's finally over - my last day at WaMu.  I feel relief, but I know I will miss the people here, the nice & clean campus, and for sure my casual work outfits. 
The first time I visited this WaMu Irvine campus, I immediately fall in love with this place.  The casual atmosphere, outdoor water fountains, and lots of trees.  It's a beautiful campus.  
I will also miss my simple office- the place I spent many hours in the past year, my hiding place during work hours.
Mostly I will miss all my friends here.  It has been a great ride.  Although my WaMu job didn't turn out to be the way I hoped, but I have no regret.  I am very lucky to meet a lot of new friends and some of them I know we have become a life long friends.  
Farewell WaMu, I will miss you all.

Today is my last day at Wamu, and so far I've only been to the office for less than 15 minutes and I am alreayd pissed off and ready to leave.
First, my badge was disactive already that I can't get to my basement parking space.  Okay, if you want to disactive my badge at 8am of my last day, then you shouldn't except me to come into work at my last day.
I've only walked into my office for less then 10 minutes, stop bambarding me with questions.  Why do you need to wait till the last day to ask my question.  I've been sitting around the office for two weeks doing nothing, you should have try to learn during that time..... don't wait till the last few hours.  
Here is my vent so far, and more to come......

I was sitting at my office doing nothing this morning, suddenly I heard click click sounds coming from the cubicle in front of me.  "Hmmm... that sounds like someone is doing xxxx....No, it can not be."  The sound continued for a while.  "It really sounds like someone is doing xxxxx".   Being bored and nosiey, I walked out of my office and pretended to walk by.  Alright, someone is really Cutting her Nails.  The sound continued for 10 minutes since she neeeds to cut all her 10 fingure nails.  I hope she didn't need to cut her toe nails as well, it might be bit hard to lift her feet on the table......  Wow,  I guess she really feels like home at this office.
I started to think about all the strange cubicle/office behaviors that I saw in the past years.
- Cutting Nails
- Painting Nail polish (I am sure everyone can smell it)
- Taking a nap
- Making coffee with a coffee machine (yes, one of my co-worker in NY, actually brought her own coffee pot.  Well, I enjoyed it since I benefited from that pot of coffee as well.)
- One of my old co-worker really wanted to have an office, he decided to create a door for his cubicle with a cardboard box.
- Depressed guy fell asleep in his cublice during the conference call.
Can you think about any from your office experience?

As the countdown of my last day at work continue - Grace, Debra, and I went to Islands Restaurant for burgers as our WaMu three lunch musketeer's last supper together.  Both of them have been my lunch pals for the past year, we tried restaurants after restaurants around the area.  We enjoyed lots of different cuisine, and also gain our own share of weights .  
Islands Restaurant located in nice plaza in Irvine.  Hawaiian  family style restaurant.  Both interior and exterior are decorating with the island style.  Palm tree, bungalows, tikis on the walls, as well as staffs in Hawaiian shirts - very relax environment.
The menu is so cute.....
We ordered onion rings to share - we figure since we are breaking our diet rule on the big burger, we might as well do it right with onion rings.
The onion ring was okay, not too special.  I only had one piece.  I like my strawberry lemonade better.
We all had Hawaiian burgers - burger with grilled pineapple, teriyaki sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, swiss & mayo.  We also added bacon on it.
It tasted good there, juicy but too messy to eat.  The sauce is dripping every where.  I was so stuffed after that burger the whole afternoon.  I think it is at least 1/2 lbs of meat.  I don't recommend this place, becuase I got so sick after I got home.  Without going into too graphic details, I think the meat might not be fresh.  .
Next time for burgers, I would stick with In-N-Out

I've lived in Southern California on and off for 16 years, but admittedly have never visited Little Saigon or Chinatown here.  I remembered earlier our relatives and friends painted the picutre of Chinatown and Little Siagon as streets full of crime and gangster, the place to avoid.  However, being a food lover, I've alwasy wanted to visit Little Saigon for its authentic Vietnamese food.  Visiting little Siagon is one of items on my to do list before leaving Orange County.  Debra as being a good pal who coordiated a little lunch trip for me last week.  Few of us from work headed to little Siagon for my mini advanture. 
We arrived at an authentic Vietnamese restaurant recommended by Vincent, Nem Nu'Ong (Brodard). It's located in a little plaza.  The place is crowded during lunch hour.  The typical Asian restaurants busy and loud......
So many dishes to chose from.  We kept asking Vincent for recommendation because everything looks so yummy.  We first ordered their Spring rolls.  This restaurant's spring roll is very famous.  It's freshly made and people would ordered 100+ for to go.  
This is the open kitchen where they make spring rolls. The business so good that the orders keep coming in. 
They don't seem to stop.  They were so fast in making sprng rolls - almost look like an efficency factory operation.
We ordered shrimp and pork spring rolls.  It's grilled shrimp/pork paste wrapped in rice paper with lettuce, cucumber, carrots, mint, and fried dumpling skin.  Their sauce is so unique.  Most place would serve spring roll with fish sauce, this restaurant has its own house special sauce.  It seems to be made out of blended tomato, garlic, sweet/hot sauce.  It made their spring roll so special.  Also the fried dumpling skin inside added additional texture.
Lindsay had Pho Thai ( A noodle soup).  
It's rice noodle with ground pork, shrimp and fish cake.  The added cilantro and scallions added additional flavor to the broth.
I also order noodle soup.  I had B'un Cha, Tom, Cua & Gi'o Heo (the house speical vermicelli noodle soup).  House special soup with seafood balls, fish ckae, pork meat. 
I added a lot of fresh Asian greens, lime, chilli, and green shredded green banana.  
It's a little spicy, but it is really good.  This noodle soup taste exactly like the Vietnamese Crab soup  I had in Paris.  it's so yummy, and no wonder it's one of its house special dish.