a perfect Saturday morning

i'm at home eating empanadas with my dog and family watching the Filipino Channel. i've just had a major epiphany about myself. i just realized that my favorite foods...things like empanadas, dumplings, or hot pockets all have one thing in common: meat filling stuffed inside a fried or baked pastry. mmmmmm.... this realization is also very satisfying for my brain... which, like my stomach, likes to compartmentalize things into bitesize categories.

i'm also talking to my sister in England via Skype. so cool! speaking into a headset makes me feel like i'm in the future.

hawuh ee

I'm visiting U Hawaii NEXT WEEK! and in preparation, here are some vocabulary words courtesy of Elise:

aloha = everyone knows this one... it's an entire culture commercialized into a single word... like ciao bella, gung hay fat choy, or yo quiero taco bell

pehea oe = how are you
mahalo nui loa = thank you very much
aloha nui = lots of love
malama pono = take care
pau = done; as in the food is all pau because kelvin was hungry

from what i hear, there are usually three unofficial prices when you go shopping in hawaii. in ascending order of the "just-got-jipped index", there's the islander price, tourist price, and the japanese tourist price. don't ask me why the japanese get the highest price tag... but as long as i don't get confused for being mexican (like i do in nyc) then i should be ok. haha

i will try my best to smuggle authentic hawaiian coconuts, pineapples, and spam as presents for all my hungry friends.

kumar and snowboarding

you know that feeling of pure satisfaction when you get EXACTLY what you want? kind of like what happens to harold and kumar in the movie "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle", where in the end, they finally make it to white castle despite having gone through hell... stolen car, thrown in jail, riding a cheetah... that is what this past weekend felt like.

it finally snowed. and it snowed hard. at first, i thought tim, ashley, ed and i were the only retards crazy enough to attempt to drive in the blizzard (in a honda accord) to mountain creek... but no... the multitudes of high school cigarette smoking too cool for school kids showed up too. altho, i think we were the only honda accord in the parking lot. finally, fresh powder.

anyway, hurray for snow! this might be my last winter for a long time folks... so i hope it keeps coming...