Thanksgiving Break

Whenever I've a long drive, I tend to think a lot, if I'm not singing to the tunes blaring on my stereo. So, for my drive down to Richmond, VA and back over the Thanksgiving holiday, more than 1000 miles of tar to cover, I got the chance to reflect on a lot of things. About the future, about my future and all that uncertainties. Fun stuff...

So, in order to clear up my vacation, I took 4 extra days for vacation for this break. So, last Tuesday, I started my journey at about 7.45am. The drive was pretty smooth until I was leaving CT and entering NY. Then, some traffic on the Geo. Washington bridge in NYC. But, the worst was at Northern Virginia (I got stuck here every time... 3 out of 3 times). The traffic was pretty much crawling at 10-20 MPH for 2 hours! So, instead of the 8+ hours, it took me a good 10 hours and 15 minutes to reach my cousin place. Reaching at 6pm.

Also, for this trip, I planned that I'll be reaching Richmond, VA early enough to meet up with my college buddy Quang, before he leave for home for Thanksgiving. So, we met up for dinner. And followed by coffee and pub til late. It was fun to catch up with a Wolverines. I think that was my first time seeing a college buddy since graduating in late April. Can't believe it's been that long.

So, like Thanksgiving should be, I stuffed my face with a lot of food and wine over the break.

Other than eating, I helped out with some Christmas decoration, and also, helped my niece with decorating the gingerbread house. It's a laborious task, even with pre-made icing and ginger bread and candies.

Also, as it was also my cousin's birthday, we went to The Jefferson's in Richmond for dinner. Fortunately, I brought a change of preppy clothes, as it was certainly a place that you need to dress-up for. Even though it says casual, the decorations and the staffs in the restaurant warrant for more than jeans and t-shirt.

Also, we played this board game 'Rummikub' over the holiday. It was like Gin Rummy, but with tiles. The rules are simple, but the possibilities are vast. It's amazing to see how mind clicks and all that. It was so fun, that I decided to order a set and have it for game night with my colleagues once in awhile when we have them.

So... my thoughts... well, it was just a bunch of questions with no certain anwers. I rather not to bore you guys here.

The drive back from Richmond, VA wasn't that bad. Knowing that Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day on the road, I decided to wait til Monday to start my 516.6 miles journey. I left my cousin's place at 9.15 am, and got back to my apartment at 5.50pm. I did hit some office traffic in CT. Oh well, if not, I could have pulled an 8-hour, including 30-minute stopping for coffee and restroom.

Also, with this trip, I managed to try out my ride's full potential. It's rather responsive to the accelerator, and I can get pretty good mileage, close to 30 mpg on average. And with gas prices this low, it's not really that big a factor... but to see the car going 400+ miles on a tank of gas is rather amusing... :-)

And my new ride is here!!!

It's a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS. And few pictures will do the explanation. :-) I got the gray (my 2nd choice) instead because it would take another month before I can get the blue.

The 'damage' is rather huge. But, it will be awhile before I spend anything on the car. Since the warranty offered is rather generous. But who knows, maybe I'll spend some to accessorize it.

We'll see.

I've been promoted...

Yeah, because my roommate is taking a 5-day holiday, to Georgia and dunno where else, I've been promoted to become the care-taker of the house. Basically, there are 4 huge tasks that I must do.

1) The cats - my roommate has 2 cats, Callie and Fruitcake, so, basically, I need to feed them, and keep their poop-box clean (or else it will stink-up the entire house). Easy... Check... Even though I'm a dog person, but, well, just to feed them and clean after them doesn't require me touching them, so, it's OK...

2) The water. Specifically, the hot water, because the hot water system is built in such a way that it will collect heat from sunlight and all, and it's SUMMER now, it collects way too much hot water, and I need to use them up or the water in the system might over-heat. (It's incredible how hot the water can get, just from energy collected from sun light. So, I need to take at least a warm/hot shower a day. This is harder, I take my shower at the gym, and also, the weather is too hot to take a warm shower. Well, I did my laundry today, with hot/warm cycle. So, that takes care of the water for today, how about tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday? Well, according to the weather forecast, it's gonna be cooler, so, I think this 'task' is not too hard either.

3&4) Voltage gauge and funky batteries electronic system. As the house is wired in such a way that part of the energy for the hot water system is generated from the photo-electric cells, and the energy collected is used to charge up some batteries, and the batteries might go hay-wire for some unknown reasons, I need to check the voltage meter every morning and evening, need to make sure the Voltage is between 24-26V, and also, need to jot down the Amp/hour. If the Voltage goes lower than 24V, problem is developing, and I'll need to switch it to another set of batteries. Damn cool... :)

Also, as I was working in the office today, I overheard someone's car got stolen. (My colleague's car got stolen about 2 weeks ago too...), so, I was like, damn, I need to get a steering wheel lock/clamp. And I went to get one after work today. Also, at the Autozone, I bought a steering wheel cover and air freshener. The air freshener is so overpowering that I'm pretty sure I'll be choking in it tomorrow. Also, went for groceries, in fact, went to 2 stores for groceries. Trader's Joe for milk, fruits and scones (their blueberry scones are amazing). Then, went to PriceChopper for fish (got the Pollock this time), also a type of whitefish (a term that refers to several types of oceanic deep water fish, like cod, whiting... and pollock.

As I mentioned earlier, I did laundry today, and one interesting thing is, there's no dryer. So, after more than 3 years of not drying clothes by hanging them up on a clothesline, I finally did it today. In fact, I did it in the dark. As it was 9.20pm by the time the washer was done spinning my clothes. (I multitasked a lot after coming back from groceries at about8.10pm. First, I set the rice to cook, at the same time, fed the cats, then, went to check the batteries, the voltage gauge, then, back to check the rice, then, started my load of laundry, and then, had dinner, in between all that, 2 visitors came looking for my roommate, and by the time i'm done with laundry, and all, it was 9.45pm.

Interesting...

Mr First Car!!!

So, this is my very first car! RED is not my color, but, it's not bad a color, I would've definitely go for blue if I had more time to hunt for a car. It's a 2001 Ford Focus, ZTS, 4 door sedan. It's 2.0 liter.


Let me take you into my car.

It has a really huge trunk for such a small compact car.

The only thing missing is the license plate, which is what I'm gonna get tomorrow morning.
what do you think?

All I Wanna Do...

"~All I wanna do is have some fun~" Sheryl Crow... I still remember this is one of the very first English 'Pop' songs that I listened to when I was really young, like when I was 9. I don't really think I knew what it really meant when I was 9, but hey, I was NINE. I did understand the chorus, more like that one line.

So, it's less than 2 weeks now until my internship starts, and I can't believe what I did after I accepted the job - I asked for reading materials to prepare me for my job. Well, I was really excited about what I'll be doing in the summer, hence the enthusiasm.

Anyway, so I found a sublet for the next 2 months in Worcester, MA, and I will be test driving car(s) really soon, and will buy a car soon. Also, paperworks for my internship and all.

So, other than hunting for cars to buy, and also, filling up forms, I did some running, a lot of TV (Rolland Garros - French Open, new summer reality show - America's Got Talent, Hell's Kitchen, and other crappy shows to fill in the after-dinner time, and since there's not much sports to catch since both Detroit Pistons, and Detroit Red Wings lost in their conference finals respectively).

So, I'm definitely enjoying myself by being these unproductive, just lazing around doing nothing much other than just waiting to get tired and go to bed, really. I think it's fair for me to be lazy say for like 2-3 weeks out of the 52 weeks every year. I mean, all work no play will make even a workaholic dull.

So, all I wanna do is have some fun, and then, have a lot of work. It's that simple. :)