Some days you just want to curl up into a ball and wish it had never happened...yes, USC suffered their first conference game lost since 2003 at the hands of Oregon State!  It was such a tough game to watch that I had to switch channels after the first half. 

At the beginning of the season I expected SC to lose at least one game.  But as the season progressed I (like millions of SC fans) became spoiled by Pete Carroll et. al again and at 6-0 actually started to believe that they can pull off another undefeated season.  But as a Trojan, I am still proud of the winning streak they had in the past three years.  And the season is not lost yet.  If they can win the remaining games they'll be playing at the Rose Bowl come January 1st.

I recently saw Little Miss Sunshine not knowing anything about it going in.  The only thing I had heard about it was that Roeper gave this moving a thumbs up and I tend to agree with Roeper's movie reviews. 

After watching the movie, I have to say that this is the best "disfunctional family" movie I have ever seen.  I laughed, I cried, I laughed til I cried, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the awkward dinner table dialogues.  Greg Kinear was at the top of his game.  But the entire cast did a terrific job, including the little girl.  The best part of the movie is that they didn't sugar-coat anything.  They also didn't make the little girl a smart-ass, they kept her real. 

I highly recommend this heartwarming comedy for the holidays.

Toby and I spent my Friday off at the beach with Kim, Duke (left), and Eddie (right).  This was their first time at Palos Verdes Beach and Duke and Eddie immediately took to the water!  It was such a beautiful October day in Souther Cal that we brought some sandwiches with us and ate them at at the beach.

The tide was low enough that the dogs could swim in the tide pools.  Eddie especially loved the tide pools, he went right in as if it was his swimming pool at home! :-)  Duke had to follow reluctantly so he doesn't get left out.  We also met a black Lab-New Foundland-mix who loves to swim.  Noticed Toby's no where to be seen...he's on the dry sand with the rest of us!  Such a dork! 

Duke and Eddie also enjoyed chasing after seagulls along the beach.

Look at the Bay Watch moment!  I think Duke and Eddie had a good time at the beach.  Kim tells me that they were both exhasted when they got home! :-)

Since the weather was still so gorgeous on Saturday, Toby and I took Mr. BAW down to the beach for a sunset stroll.  It was one of the nicest weekends I've had in a long time.

Althought it was a sunny Saturday afternoon, most beach-goers had already left by the time we got there.  There was a wedding at the Trump Clubhouse.  But there was very few people wandering around the golf course and we were able to walk around for a nice grassy spot to watch the beautiful sunset. 

Apparently, stone skipping is a big sport where he grew up so Mr. BAW decided to show me proper stone-skipping form. :-)

i love the Santa Ana Winds!  Just a few days ago, we had drizzle and gloomy weather.  Yesturday, the Santa Anas rolled in and our temperature shot up to about 80 degrees along the coast!!  The Santa Ana Winds come from the high desert and blow down into the LA basin. When air sinks it warms up and when the temperature increase, the relative humidity decreases. Therefore the Santa Ana Winds are warm and dry.  I went out for lunch today and it was down right hot!  I love the hot, dry weather!  The warm weather will continue through the weekend just in time for me to hit the beach with Toby. 

Happy Friday to everyone.  I thought that such a nice Friday calls for a beautiful orange rose.  I took this picture during my trip to the South Coast Botanical Gardens back in June.  I caught a bee enjoying some sun-bathing on the rose.  Click on the image to see a larger picture.  I hope this pretty rose will brighten your day, especially if you have to be at work today.  :-)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

It's starting to feel like Halloween.  Toby got a little gift from Paco today, a Halloween bandana!  It's adorable...look how great it looks on Toby.  The fabric has little dog skeletons and little spider webs prints.  It also appropriately says "Bad to the Bone." :-)

I am also working on Toby's Halloween costurme for Mr. BAW's Halloween party.  Our outfits will be a surprise for Mr. BAW so in case he's reading this I will show you pictures of Toby's costume after the party.

I can, however, show you Toby's Halloween costurme from a few years ago.  Can you guess what Toby was??  Hint: His personality matched his character perfectly! :-) For his spots, I used electric tape.  The beauty of that costume is that he didn't even know he was in costume! Click on his image to see a larger picture of Toby's costume.

I've been a little nutty these days...A co-worker of mine came back from his trip to NYC bearing gifts for us.  He brought back little bags of several variety of sugar-coated nuts, Nuts-4-Nuts as they are called.  He told us that the nuts come from street vendors and they roast and sugar-coat the nuts til they are warm right from their carts.  I took a bag of cashews and a bag of almonds.  I LOVED the cashews!  The almonds are good too, but I LOVE the cashews.  :-9  My co-worker told me that the nuts are even better when they are eaten warm...yum.  Another reason to visit New York City in the winter time. 

Another nut item I discovered are these Lacey's milk chocolate Macadamia nut cookies.  They are yet another chocolate-coated product from Trader Joe's.  These cookies are actually two thin wafers (made out of crumbled macadamia nuts held together by caramel) held together by milk chocolate.  It is so heavenly and chewy that they just HAVE to be bad for you.  So I checked the nutritional value on the box and sure enough, two cookies will cost you 27% of your daily allowance of saturated fat.  So I limit myself to one cookie per day.  Thank goodness they are very satisfying so I can stick to my one-a-day rule. :-) 

So can you guess what my favorite nuts are? My number one favorite nut are Macadamia nuts followed by cashews.  I guess my third favorite nut is myself...

Have a safe Friday the 13th. :-)

Last month I attended the Governor's Conference for Women and saw the 14th Dalai Lama speak.  The picture to the right is courtesy of Kim who attended the conference with me.  Ever since that day, I have developed a facination with Tibet, it's people and culture.  I read up on the history of Tibet and the spiritual culture of the Dalai Lama which is believed to be the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama.  It is as facinating as the Pope selection process at the Vatican.  I am also facinated by the beauty of Tibet, symbolized by the majestic Potala Palace and the proximity to Mount Everest.  Tibet is now on my list of places to see before I die.

I am currently reading Seven Years in Tibet.  Maybe after I finish the book I'll watch the movie by the same name.  But I'm sure the movie is not as good as the book... :-)

I miss the beach...I've been so busy the past week that I've not been able to take walks along the beach strand in the evenings.  Plus the weather's been pretty chilly at night these days.  Happy Chinese Moon Festival by the way.  This is the annual festival celebration during the biggest full moon of the year, near the Autumnal Equinox. 

When I do get a chance to go down to the beach in Palos Verdes, I pick up pretty rocks and sea glass.  I love the rocks at that beach,  they are very soft rocks, smooth to the touch.  Plus, they all have beautiful striations that remind me of Jupiter.  I keep a few of the prettiest rocks I've found so far on my desk at work.  They are my versions of a stress ball.  The sea glass are more difficult to find, I especially love the pale blue ones.  The ones I find end up in glass candle hurricanes.  Notice the big rock at the bottom of the picture...it's a heart-shaped rock.  I'll give it away one day. :-)

I'm always snacking at work.  I have a stash of chocolate products in my desk drawer.  One of my snack staple is a Japanese product called Pocky Sticks. I've been eating these snacks since I was a kid...but always the milk chocolate coated ones that come in the red box.  I would just eat the chocolate coated part and throw away the uncoated part. :-) 

But today, my co-worker brought me a green box which I had never seen before!  It's "Men's" Pocky Sticks!!  What on Earth could that mean??  Turns out that these so called Men's Pocky Sticks are coated with dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate!  Apparently, the Japanese thinks that only men eat bitter chocolate.  My co-worker and I then pondered why the milk chocolate ones aren't called Women's Pocky Sticks.  He also thinks that the strawberry Pocky Sticks should be called Women's Pocky.  So now I am wondering if I should eat the Men's Pocky Sticks or if I should give them away to a male co-worker.  Nah, I'm eating them! :-)

And there are so many Pocky snacks I've not tried yet!!  What else can they stick onto a stick??

After 2.5 years, Feynman passed away peacefully on September 27, 2006.  That morning, he ate only one little food pellet and I had a strange feeling about it.  Later that evening I found him lying on his side next to his little adobe home. 

I brought Feynman home from Petco two year ago to be my little office-mate at work.  He then spent most of his life in the little tank staring at my computer monitor keeping me company during my toughest moments as I was building my career.  I would bring Feynman home during long holidays so he had to endure riding in my bumpy SUV. 

After a long career as a bubbles engineer, Feynman retired in August and had been with Toby and I at home until the very end.  Believe it or not, Betta fish are actually very friendly fish.  They can actually recognise people and respond in positive ways.  Feynman was a good fish and we'll miss him very much.