May 19th

Got into ATL at 7:30am and Richmond around 10:00ish from my 11pm red-eye out of SFO. Had a Quiznos classic italian for breakfast and a Cafeteria lunch. The Hampton Inn where my co-workers and I normally stay was full up so we went to the Hyatt instead. Very impressive lounge and room. Huge TV. Here's some photos

I still prefer the Hampton Inn as it's slightly closer to the work site, I have more points there than Hyatt and I was getting familiar with it. Ate at Jalepeno's (Mexican place) with the co-workers. It is literally a 2 minute walk from the hotel. Had a Pollo Encenabollo (chicken & onions). Pretty good, but the beans were under-seasoned.

I know I told myself I would get out and see Richmond, but the red-eye wiped me out. I'm going to go for a run, stretch and call it a night.

May 18th

Took it easy today. Grabbed Subway for lunch with co-workers. Was going to go putting at the putting green, but decided to go for a walk instead. Had some pork chops for dinner a Nutella for dessert. Getting ready to take a shower and catch a red-eye to Richmond.

May 12th to May 17th

May 12th: Ate at Don Jose's a local Mexican with Chris (co-worker) for dinner. It's right next to our hotel. I enjoyed a Carnitas plate while my co-worker had chicken fajitas. The service was good as our server refilled our glasses and happily asked if everything was good.
May 13th: Ate at a Shoney's with a co-worker. There were ants on our table. My co-worker really disliked this. I had a Salmon and rice dish. The rice was over-cooked and over-buttered. The salmon was good, but a small portion.
May 14th: I made a mistake in thinking I had a 6pm flight when I really had a 4pm flight. I missed my check-in window by 9 minutes (3:09 vs. 3:00) and had to re-book for a 515pm flight. Had a moment of being unsure whether I was going to be able to make it home that night. Enjoyed a beer with Chris before flying home.
May 15th: Spent a couple hours in the morning having a discussion with my mom about my work and life. Went to the Great Mall and picked up a golf glove and socks (Sports Authority), Golf polo, khaki shorts and a white/black reversible belt (Marshalls), a pair of blue golf shorts (Nike) and a blue golf polo (Kohls). Had a pleasant conversation with a cashier at Marshalls as we waited for a price check on the belt. She was moving into a new house and was talking about re-modeling costs. Cashier at Kohls was pushing me to sign up for a Kohls card. Went to Targetmaster's to get my Handgun Safety Cert. I can now purchase and own a handgun. My GTA: Chinatown Wars for Nintendo DS came in. Played it for a 15 minutes and then took a short nap. Hit up Sevastian and we went to Los Lagos. We're definately improving on each club. I started working on the 3 wood on Fairway and tee as well as the driver off tee. Those 2 clubs definately need work. We hit a couple hundred balls each and ended up staying until they turned on the lights. Couldn't see any of our long shots after they did that and switched to pitching. Still a cool effect. We had a Jack in the Box dinner, got cleaned up and headed down to the Brit to meet with Mely (a mutual friend for Sevastian and I's counsin). Hung out there till midnight and went to the Loft. The Loft was asian heavy and more of a club then a bar. I had a couple drinks there and called it a night.
May 16th:
Hit up SJ Muni in the afternoon with Sevastian. Hit on the ground level and was not doing well. Almost fell after hitting a 3 wood fairway shot which was hilarious, but also impacted my hitting the rest of the day. We practiced chipping from the rough on the chipping need. Definately need a lot of work there. We hit up Targetmaster's afterward. Sevastian rented a .38 special S&W revolver and I rented a Glock 38 .45 GAP. The revolver had no recoil and huge smoke after each shot. Due to my small hands the revolver was too big for me. The 38 is a good sized gun for Sevastian and myself. We both shot a lot better with it then any other gun we used. Looks like compact size is what I'm going with. We showered up and had dinner with friends at Thai Pepper in Sunnyvale. The decor and atmosphere in Thai Pepper was good. Very cool and urban feeling. The menu was overwhelming with over 8 pages and photos galore. We had Calamari and Soft Crab for appetizers, Prix Khing Chicken, Yellow Curry Chicken, Beef Pad Thai and a couple seafood dishes along with a Sapporo, Singha and some Thai Ice teas. The food was decent, but they messed up on the spiceyness. We ended up using all the extra hot sauce they had outon the table. I was sweating bullets afterwards, but that's how I enjoy my Thai food. I noticed the rice bowl had a couple chips in it. Bummer. It seems like this place used to be a hot spot that slowly lost its charm. It ended up being about $20 a head which was good considering we had drinks. I would go back for a cheap dinner with a group. Seabass, Mely and I we went to Food Max and got a 6 pack of Negro Modelo, sprite and hennessey. We went back to Mely's place and had drinks. I only had one beer and one shot and passed out around 11:30 (still felt like I was on East Coast time). They kept drinking till the bottle was gone.
May 17th:
Woke up at Mely's house around 7am and hit the head. Everyone was still out so I went back to sleep. Got up around 11am and headed back home. Sold my PS3 to Daniel. Met up with him at the Chevron in Great Mall. Picked up some strawberries from the farmer's market going on
in the Great Mall that was literally a 2 minute walk from where I sold the PS3 to Daniel. Hit the gym and showered up at home. Was going to go to Sevastian's to go swimming and bbq, but ended up napping until 6pm. Had dinner and started doing chores and here I am now. I have to pack for my red-eye tomorrow night and buy tickets for the Rugby match on the 31st. Then I'm off to bed.

Report on Past Actions:
- Read articles on how to shoot a gun. (Done, definately improved my accuracy)
- Plan Seabass's Vegas Trip (Work in process)
- Read and view videos on how to pitch and chip (did it, but need to find a drill on how to improve this as it was pretty bad on Sat when we hit)
- Hit the putting green (Doing it Monday May 18th after work)

Actions:
- Start taking photos
- Try out a couple other compact .45 ACP & .45 GAP. Make a choice by end of June for purchase if not sooner
- Start Thinking ABout Seabass's Vegas Trip
- Find a drill for Pitching, Chipping and Putting and get better at each
- Go shoot clay pigeons next weekend.

May 10th & 11th

May 10th
9am: Went for a 2 mile walk around the block before my flight.
10am: Drove up to SFO for my 12:30 flight.
12pm: Had an airport sandwich lunch and stood waiting at gate 45 to Minneapolis

7pm (Central): Ate some Quiznos and boarded my flight to Richmond
12am: Got into Richmond, checked into the hotel, ironed my clothes and called it a night.

May 11th
5pm (Eastern) Went to Sumo San in Richmond for dinner with co-workers. We had California Rolls, Tuna/Salmon/Albacore Sashimi, Caterpillar (avocado, eel), Fresh Spring (Asparagus, crab) and Sea Urchin! The salmon was very tasty. I enjoyed the Sea Urchin's complexity of flavor. It has a very mushy sea cucumber/jello like texture and consistency. Didn't think I'd find good Sushi in Richmond, but I was proven wrong. I should have gotten some Saki or a Sapporo. Here's a photo of Orgami Cranes over the bar in Sumo San and a buck (also in Sumo San)




Here are some pictures from the previous post

Berryessa Art & Wine Festival.

SJ Muni

May 7th through May 9th (no photos this time)

May 7th:
In a week long training workshop at work. Went for a 40 minute walk during the lunch break and took this quick photo. (to be inserted later)

May 8th:
2pm - Got out of the training workshop early and hit the driving range at SJ Muni. I forgot my glove at the golf machine and went up to the 2nd tier to hit. When I came back down (about a minute later) it was gone. Someone jacked my glove. Bummer dude. Did not hit as well as normal as I had to adjust to hitting sans glove.

7pm - Went to Harker middle school with Seabass to watch a performance of "Into the Woods" that Rem did the costume design for. Rem is part of a non-profit sewing group. The costumes were very well done. Only feedback I had was to simplify the Cow (it had a lot of extra material hanging from it...should have snapped a photo). It was an impressive performance by the 6th-8th graders. A lot fo cheering between parts by students and parents which got a bit unnerving as it felt like after every scene they cheered (a total of about 20 times). Seabass and I felt a little out of place and a little like peders. Random note, my cousin Wendy went to Harker.

9pm - Found out Rem's sister Mely got into a car accident. Unfortunately the lady who hit her didn't have insurance or a licence. The po-pos did not have a vehicle in the area and did not want to come out to give a police report and informed Mely that there was not a legal right to hold the lady as the lady had given Mely her contact info.

10pm - Hit Target Master's with Seabass. Really slow which is weird as the place is usually packed Friday evenings. Paul (NRA instructor) got us set up. We rented a Smith and Wesson 410 40S&W and a Glock 23 357 SIG and bought 100 rounds each. Seabass shot 50 and I shot 50 of each. I like the S&W 410. Lighter than the glock and less trigger pressure and easier to load ammo. There were a couple of Eastern Europeans in suits shooting fairly well at 10yrds and 25 yrds. Our aim needs work. We both tend to shoot to the lower left. I plan to read a couple how to shoot articles and possibly take a class. We've also shot a Glock 17, 19 (9mm) and 21 (45 acp). I'm 80% of the way there to picking up a Glock 19. I liked shooting it and have read/heard good things about the maintenance and ammo prices.

May 9th:
9:30am - Went to the driving range at Los Lagos and hit about 70 balls with Sevastian. They had classes going on. A group of 4 and then a group of 10. Hit the 6 iron solid for my level (200 yrds from 2nd deck). Did better sans glove as I adjusted. Going to have to adjust again when I buy a glove to use again. We practiced pitching for the first time with about 10 out of the 70 balls. Definately need to improve. Looking forward to the lessons on the 23rd (1 day after my bday!) and getting out on the golf course. I think Seabass and I are ready to play the game, but I'd feel more comfortable with some formal lessons to avoid frustration.

11:30am - Ate lunch at Mi Pueblo in Willow Glen w/ Seabass. Had a carne asada burrito and some teeth hurting (very sweet) horchata. The owners of Mi Pueblo were looking over building plans and looks like they were getting ready to expand. Forgot to snap a photo as I was eating. Will get one next time. Mi Pueblo is indeed the best authentic mexican in Willow Glen.

12pm-4pm - Hung out at Seabass's. Watched part of the Player's. Tiger was not at his best and the Ponte Verde course in Florida was really unforgiving. Fell asleep around 1pm (food coma). Got up at 4pm and headed home.

Tomorrow: SFO at 11am for a 12:30 flight to Richmond.
Other Highlights: Delta gave me a $100 voucher due to a flight delay that happened to me last week, the downside is delta flights are expensive as hell.

Actions: Read articles on how to shoot a gun. Plan Seabass's Vegas Trip, Read and view videos on how to pitch and chip (golf). Hit the putting green.

Purpose

The point of this blog is for me to keep a record of my life outside of work.
The way I'll do this is to put down what I do after work each day.
For activities and events I'll take at least 1 photo and include it in my blog post.
Also my writings on this blog will not be edited for content or grammar.
I plan to use stream of consciousness style writing.
Every couple of months or whenever I feel down I'll take a look back on what I've done.
I'll also try to put actions at the end of posts for myself to improve upon.

Alex S.