bye bye chocolate ; _ ;

So I totally forgot that 02/21/07 was Ash Wednesday. Me being a Catholic and all. LOL. I'm don't really even consider myself a Catholic. More of less I'm Christian, that chooses to not go to church. But anways..

I got a text message from Tera telling me she's giving up alcohol for Lent. That's pretty tough for her considering she's become quite the party girl, however, I know she has the strength and determination to do so.

That got me thinking, should I give up something for Lent? I thought about this a throughout the day yesterday, and when I went to go see Jeremy, I told him about it. I then told him I was considering giving up sex for Lent. You know that whole "40 Days/40 Nights" movie with Josh Hartnett. ^^ Of course my expected reaction from him to this proposal was quite humorous. He was like "umm.. NO.. Hell no." LOL

Of course I was only joking. :P

But anyways, I propose that even though he's not really religious, we both give up something together for Lent. After much consideration of things we indulge in a lot and things that we can really try to do without and more than likely accomplish, I have chosen to give up chocolate for lent and for Jeremy, peanut butter.

This will be quite difficult for both of us, since we are both avid daily eaters of such delectible delights. However, I think through positive encouragement and determination we can do it. As a treat on Easter Sunday, I have ordered a 6 oz chocolate covered peanut butter egg for Jeremy as a gift in hopes he will accomplish this goal.

So yeah. No chocolate till Easter. That's April 8th. *sigh* This is gonna be rough. I already gave away all the chocolate type treats in my desk to coworkers. For my chocolate substitute, I'll be getting other various snacks such as fruits, nuts, yogurt etc. I'm sure they will tide me over, however there will be times when I will crave chocolate so badly I might have to slit a few throats to do so. ^^;; (Lord, give me strength during those times)

But yeah. Actually as a leeway because we both still have chocolate/peanut butter products at home, Jeremy and I won't officially start till this upcoming Sunday. So technically I have all day today and tomorrow to indulge in chocolate, however I'll try not to, too much.

But here goes, "The Epic Quest of No Chocolate for Ro" has commenced.

Wish me luck.

updates, anniversary, cell phone, vday, what not

Yeah I havne't updated in a while. I've been meaning too, just got caught up in work and whenever I'm home, I don't feel like blogging. When I'm at home, blogging is the last thing I want to do.

But anyways some stuff going on:

Cell phone:

Verizon is my cell phone provider and a few weeks ago was the date I got to upgrade my phone to a newer one with discount. From what it said on my account info, I was only gonna get a $50 discount, because I started my account like 5 days after a cut-off date of getting $100 off. It was teh suck, but regardless I was gonna get a discount.

So a few Sundays ago, I was out with Jeremy & my parents. We went to eat lunch, and run errands. I go to Verizon and tell them I want to upgrade my phone. I find out I get a $100 discount for some reason, regardless woot! I had my eyes set on the new Motorola KRZR Fire phone. It was cool looking and it was a pretty red. ^_^ So I get that phone and with the $50 mail in rebate it was pretty much a free phone, just paid for accessories like bluetooth head set and car charger. The KRAZR seemed like a decent phone at the time, however I wished I would have looked at the phone more and the features they had to offer.

My orginial phone is a LG-6100. A great phone IMO. Very customizable for ringtones, txt tones, picture ID etc. The KRAZR, so not that easily customizable. I mean yeah, I can get ringtones from Verizon and set that to a certain caller ID, however it didn't really let me get ringtones sent to my phone via txt message. Reason why I like that, is because I have a certain tone that rings everytime I get a txt message from someone. It's the "eye-catcher" tune to Azumanga Daioh. Way cute tune and not too long for a tone. And on top of that, the KRAZR had issues with the ringtones I got from Verizon. They wouldn't play after having them for a day, even when I set them to certain Caller IDs. I had to go to Verizon store the next day to basically get a new phone because it wasn't working. So I was gonna give the KRAZR another chance. Redownloaded all the ringtones I had. Called customer care to get the ringtone credit. Then once again, the same problem, more or less. Ringtones werent' working. A certain ringtone I was trying to download, was corrupted. I had to contact tech support to let them know. Basically throughout the whole week, the KRAZR was a pain in the ass.

So come Friday, I was like "F*** this". I took off early and went to Verizon and traded for the LG 8600. A much better phone. Only thing so far that I miss from my old LG, I was able to save notes to contacts, because on a lot of them, I had mailing addresses. Also I don't have personalized txt message tones, but I'm at least happy I was able to send me the Azumanga Daioh tone and apply it to be my txt tone. Another weird thing, I don't think my phone is speaker phone capable. Which is very odd. Most phones have that, and to think that my new phone doesn't is weird, but at the same time, isn't really a big deal because I barely use speaker phone as is. So all in all the LG 8600 is a good buy. Just had to spend an extra $30 for it, which is still a good deal.

So yeah, I gots a new phone. Love it. It's sleek, thin, and light. Too bad it's black, wouldn't mind a more feminine color, but black will do.

Valentine's Day:

Didn't really want to go out on this day. As much as I am anti-Valetines Day, when you actually have someone to share it with, you become less anti-Vday. ^^;; I mean I don't like the fact that it's basically a commercialized holiday to make people buy stupid flowers, balloons, candy, jewelry, etc. But I basically went up to see Jeremy. We made dinner together. He's been hankering to try to make the Chinese Mushroom Chicken dish, and got basic instructions from my father and oyster sauce from my mother. I got a few more ingredients and a recipe online, in hopes to help give more direction. The dish turned out to be pretty good, however, some of our vegetables (broccoli & zucchini got a bit too mushy), but we'll have to try out that recipe again, and next time not to forget the garlic and ginger. We watched Fearless and just hung out.

It was kinda funny though, because by the time I go to his place, I was pulling into his complex and saw he was pulling out of the office area. I drove after him and as I parked and got out and started walking towards him, I couldnt' help but notice a red heart balloon hovering in his car. Then I saw him stuffing something under his jacket, and he looked at me, and I then pointed to his appartment and just started walking. He was basically trying to hide the present he got me. He got me a Wii sling bag, so I can easily transport my Wii to and from his place. However, I had to return it because it wasn't that big and honestly coudln't hold all that stuff. Plus one of my big grandma purses seems to hold my Wii w/ adapaters, games, 2 each of the Wii-mote, nun chuck, & classic controllers and even the Zelda strategy guide perfectly to transport. We did see a nice big Wii holder at Fred Meyer for $40, so I might drop some money on that if I ever decide I might need it. For my present for Jeremy I got him a wireless Xbox 360 controller because he only had one controller, and I figured he needed more. But it was cute to get the present because he was trying to be all sly, and I kinda made it hard because I arrived before he was ready.

He got me a really cute card, as I did for him. So all in all a great Valentines day. ^_^

Oh yeah, he also got me a turtle mount for WoW which I already redeemed on my Blood Elf Mage. I have pics uploaded to photobucket, but retardedly enough, my work has decided to block photobucket and I am have to find another site to host my blog images.

/wrists

I'll post pics eventually.

surgery anniversary:

02/07/06, it has been a year since I had my gastric bypass surgery. I went in yesterday for my yearly follow-up at Virginia Mason. I have lost 108lbs since then. Yeah it's a lot, but at the same time, I know I could have lost more, if I had exercised on a regular basis. But still losing 108lbs is freaking insane when you think about it, from not really exercising. I still can't believe it's been a year already. I still have a hard time realizing how much has changed and how much I've changed, physically and mentally.

Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and can't believe it. I am still not satisfied where I am at, and ideally would like to lose 30-50 more pounds, and will be totally fine with 30. I need to kick my ass more and get to the gym. >.< But yeah for most part I'm doing great, still need to incorporate more protein in my diet as well as get back into the habit of my vitamins. The thing that sucks the most, is the cost of the vitamins because I need elemental calcium and not the basic calcium vitamins, and that doesn't come cheap, along with some protein supplements, because honestly it can be a chore making sure I get my 60g of protein a day. I might have to get back into drinking a protein shake a day or something I'll have to figure something out. But my doctor and nutritionist where happy to see I was doing well and I am not gaining any of the weight back. I'd rather DIAF than gain the weight back.

But yeah, it's been a pretty good last week or so.

Saw Ghost Rider on Sunday. Yeah. I should have waited for the DVD, if that. Not too impressed. However, there was a kick ass trailer for 300, which look sexy. I look forward to that movie. Also this weekend, that Jim Carrey thriller, The Number 23 comes out as well as Reno 911: Miami. That looks hilarious. So looks like another movie weekend for me! ^_^

happy friday!

Ahh anime.

Finally finished watching Samurai 7, that I borrowed from Megu. I have to say I finsished that series a lot faster than I did season 1 of Ahh! My Goddess TV Series. But man I NEED to own Samurai 7. What a good series.

I will admit, I cried pretty well at the last few episodes. Seeing some of the Samurai die. I knew it was bound to happen, but still, seeing cool characters that I've grown to know and love, seeing them die, very sad ;_; *tear*

Anyways, great series. If you haven't watched it, I suggest you do.

And in honor of watching such a kickass anime, I am not making my work desktop wallpaper this for the time being, until I find something better.


Also HAPPY FRIDAY! So far my Friday is going pretty well, although I am still pretty sore from the martial arts work outs, and didn't wake up in time for OT this morning, I found out I did get some sort of tax refund this year from the treasury. Originally I was told my tax refund would go to a debt I owed the government, which I had no problem with, but I seemed to have gotten $150 back. So umm.. yeah.. WOOT! Extra monies is always a good thing. I don't know what I"m gonna do with it, if anything it will be an extra payment towards the repair to my car.

but Happy Friday!

Kickboxing & Jujutsu..

So yesterday, Jeremy and I finally attended our complimentary 2 week pass to martial arts training. My friend Chris is a member of Leading Edge Kickboxing, and he was the one who gave us the vouchers.

I knew Jeremy wanted to get back into martial arts and from what I heard, the kickboxing class gives pretty good cardio workouts, as well as it's fun. So we go.

First class was mainly for Jeremy, althogh I participated. It was Jujutsu. Pretty interesting. It was cool to just get into techniques of how to get out of certain positions and what not. One of the girls I paired up with, I honestly forget her name, I think it's Laura or Lisa, made me feel comfortable doing the manuevers with her. I was pretty damn nervous because I had no idea what I was doing and she was very positive explained things to me. It was kinda funny, cuz she was also doing the class with her boyfriend Chase, who ironically paired up with Jeremy. From what I saw Jeremy was having a good time.

The next class was Kickboxing. Man, that certainly kicked my butt. I didn't go full out hard, because I didn't want to hurt my body, I probably went at like 60-70%. We first started out with warm up execercises such as skipping rope, sit-ups, and push-ups. Then we paired off, I was with Laura again, and we put on gloves and blocking pads, and we just practiced 3 hit combos of cross and hook punches. I did pretty good at that. I didn't hit hard because Laura was recently recovering from shoulder surgery and didn't want to hurt her. But from what she said, I was good at doing cross punches because I was able to easily learn to rotate my hip throughout the punch. I guess I'm used to that because I was a thrower in Track & Field in high school and with throwing discus and shot put, the power comes from your legs and rotating your hips, so that was pretty cool.

We then proceded with doing kicks. Same thing for most part. Threw a cross then kicked. Yean, I'm not that flexible and I realized that with my first few kicks. For some odd reason, it seemed easier for me to kick with my left leg than my right. The rotation in my hips seemed easier at least. Then we continued with sparring with punches again. This time the defender threw a hit to either the head or torso, so we can learn to block. Then followed up with a 3 combo hit of crosses, hooks and uppercuts.

Then we finished off with like a minute of fast hard jabbing alternating our punches and also knee lifts. Man that was a workout. Felt good.

After the sparring, we did more cardio, by doing these squat type thingies, where you squat, have your hands touch the ground, push out your legs as if you were about to do push ups, then pull your legs back in and jump up. We did that for about a minute. OMG... yeah. Those are tough. And we finished up with doing pushups for a minute. I had to do the female position because I was pretty tired.

After the class, I felt really lightheaded as if I coudln't breathe, and not enough oxygen was getting to my brain. And another odd thing, my hearing was muffled, I dunno what happened, I guess I over exerted myself a bit on the squat thingies. I had to sit down for a few minutes to catch my breath, and I felt better and my hearing came back.

They still had another class, Jeet Kun Do, which looked pretty cool from what I saw, however I dunno if I can get into that.

Overall Jeremy and I had a good time. From what he told me, he'd rather do the Jujutsu because the Kickboxing class kicked his ass and he kinda hurt his shoulder from the punching. I rather do the Kickboxing, so we have another week or so of classes, we'll more than likely just attend the Wednesday & Saturday class, and then decide if we want to join.

I honestly don't know if I can afford this right now. It's like $75 a month, and I can afford it, just right now I need to finish paying off the repairs to my car, and I won't get finished till like May, possibly earlier, if I work OT or something. I'll have to consider my finances and see if I can do it. But another negative is that the class is in Renton, which is like a good 45-60 minute drive depending upon traffic, so that's a bit on gas. I am already spending enough on gas with commuting to see Jeremy already, but I did enjoy the class a lot and it was refreshing to be able to exercise and have fun at the same time, and learn some pretty cool stuff.

So something to defintely consider.

But yeah, my body is sore. Not too badly, mostly my calves, quads, and pecs from the push ups.

/needs bengay

the darkside has beckoned me back..

So it has come to my conclusion that whenever it comes to me and Nintendo products, well in my efforts for me to either get them or for them to work for me, it's basically some sort of epic journey that I must endure.

As you recall of my tales of search for the Pink DS Lite as well as the Wii, it was quite the search in order to get them. Now, from what you don't know, for Christmas I received a Belkin Wireless G router from Jeremy. He bought it for me because I've always wanted one to go online with my DS to play Tetris and for Animal Crossing. I was happy to get one finally.

A week or so after Christmas, I finally decide to hook it up to test the bad boy out. At first it was working, but then 15 mins later, I had no internet connection what-so-ever. It was very odd, so I reinstalled it again, and still no connection. At the point in time, I wasn't really needing to go online with my DS, so I just took out the wireless router and hooked up the computer to my modem.

After I got the Wii, I knew I needed to get my wireless router working. So last Monday, I try reinstalling it and to no luck, I coudln't get the damn thing to work. So I then call Belkin Tech support on Tuesday, went through all the mundane steps that they have to go through to make sure that I'm doing the right thing to connect the router. After spending a good hour on the phone with them, to basically have them tell me, my router isn't working. (dur-de-durrh *Carlos Mencia impersonation*)

Anyways, they basically told me that they will send me a new router, and it will take like 7-10 business days to get it in the mail, which would be like 2/14. I was like sure. Luckily, I received that router in the mail that following Friday. So with eager anticipation of finally being able to get online with the Wii, I hook up the router, and test it out.

Yeah. Guess what happens. No connection.

ARGH! >.<

This time, it couldn't have been the router. It had to be my ISP. So I call up Comcast and get in touch with their tech support. As they are verifying my account information and myself, they look at my account and tell me, "Umm.. You don't have internet services with us."

Much to my surprise, I respond like the Virgin Mary, "Come again?" (If you know what movie I'm referrencing you get a cookie!) This was a big shock to me because I've had internet services ever since I joined Comcast back in I think it was July or August of 05, back when I was still living with that "one guy". And when I moved out on my own last August, I still continued to have internet service. Even more ironic, my ex stole my modem that I was renting from Comcast and had to pay $90 for that and rent a new modem from them, that I got from their office, so they should have known that I had internet services. So yeah, I then go, "This can't be possible, I've been using the internet for ages, I pay every month for them, let me check my statement." I remembered that a billing statement came in the mail that day as well from them, so I open the letter, look at it, and say, "Well I'll be goddamned". It only said cable for the services I had with them. So I was like.. "um.. because you guys didn't bill me for the last few months, are you gonna back bill me?" They said "No, that's our error for not billing you for internet services". I then say "Woohoo! You're damn right that's it's your bad, but anyways, I want internet services but I don't want to pay anymore than what I've been paying, so what options are there to downgrade my cable?"

I basically had like 6 months of free cable internet and was paying for stupid cable with HBO & Encore, that I barely ever used. Ah well. But I downgraded my cable to just basic channels with On Demand access with Cable internet for pretty much the same price, give or take a dollar.

So after that lil' fiasco, I still talk to tech support about the modem/router, they test it out and said they are receiving a signal and everything looks fine, but I still wasn't connecting with my Wii or DS.

*twitch*

So I then go to the webiste, the Wii & DS told me to go to: nintendowifi to find out what the Error Code they gave me meant. After navigating througout their website I come to find that the specific Model of the Belkin router I had was apparently not compatable with Nintendo Products. Every other Belkin router was compatable, except for my specific model.

WTF? Of all the things I thought was wrong, it was the type of router. *sigh* So I had 2 routers that do work, but they aren't the ones I needed. No access to the internets via Wii & DS.

My next plan of action, see where Jeremy bought my router and try to exchange it there to get store credit, and then try to return the extra one to get additional store credit. Heehee. He originally got it at Frye's, and that was a bit far for me to travel.. So I then think of walmart. I go to their website to see if they even sold that specific router and model, and to my luck they did. So I call the new local Walmart that was recently built in Lakewood. I proceed to tell them, I received "both" routers as Christmas presents, however even though they do work, they aren't compatible with what I want it to work for, and ask if I can return it or get store credit. They respond with that as long as I had all the original stuff that came in the box and if a Electronics Customer Rep checks it out, I could.

So I go to Walmart and get store credit for both routers! Heehee, yes I know, it was evil of me, but what the hell am I gonna do with a router that I don't need? I get a $86 store credit! I then call Jeremy to tell him of the splendid and funny news, he was like "Geez, and I only spent like $36 on your router!" So not only did I get a free credit of a router, but I also got like an extra $4/$6 on it as well. Woot!

So now I had $86 to spend..Hmm.. I proceed to the Electronics/Gaming section. I had so many options. I've been wanting to get so many things. So many choices:

1) Replacement router, differnt brand, Linksys more than likely, so I can finally get online w/ the Wii/Ds
2) Elebits for the Wii, I've been back and forth with this game, and even though I do enjoy Zelda, I need a silly game to keep me amused for when I take my break from Zelda
3) Super Mario Sunshine for the GC, along with a Wavebird & Memory Card, cuz I miss my Mario Sunshine because a certain ex stole all my gaming systems and games.
4) Finally cave in and get WoW The Burning Crusade Expansion

So guess what I picked?

Yes. I have succumbed to the power of the darkside. I bought the WoW expansion. I finally reactivated my account after months of not playing it. I had to download so many freaking patches before I could finally install the damn thing. But yes, I finally got back online with WoW. I still feel dirty. lol But it was pretty cool from what I saw. A good guildmate of mine, gave me a tour of the new areas with my lvl 60 shaman so I can start grinding to lvl 70. I also created a Blood Elf Mage by the name of Leiloo. (Can you guess where I got that from?) So yeah, it looked pretty cool so far. It was so weird coming back after not playing for such a long time.

My guild is totally different. They underwent a big massive exodus of guildies leaving to other places, a lot of people that I enjoyed playing with. I don't know what I'm gonna be doing in the future with my guild. All I know is that I'll probably play no more than 10 hours a week on WoW because I have other things to do that I enjoy, and I'm just gonna enjoy playing from time to time, no big commitment, just checking things out.

But I still have a $40 credit on my Walmart card. I think this Friday, I'll use the rest of it and some of my paycheck to get a Linksys wireless router to finally hook up my Wii online and buy a Wii points card and download some fun games. ^_^

I just hope this will be the last of the epic journeys I'll be having with Nintendo for a while. I don't think I can handle the frustration anymore. ^^;;

I love you Gabe & Tycho

Recently as I've been doing my weekly catch up on webcomics, I noticed that Questionable Content, Chugworth, Loserz, & Gone with the Blastwave are all now blocked.

Suck-fu

However...

I also discovered that Penny Arcade is somehow no longer blocked!

WOOT! \m/

So I've been playing catch up with that since I think April, and, how I've missed PA so. I couldn't stop laughing at some of them. I miss reading their rants and seeing their reviews of games.

At least this catch up will keep me occupied during those "slow" moments at work. Which are more often than not. This also reminds me, I should go buy some of their shirts. Especially the DS one. That one was hot, maybe they have them in different colors other than stupid black. Pink would be leet to match my pretty pink DS lite...

One can only hope.

Harry Potter Book 7!

It has been finally announced, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows will be released 07/21/07, one week after Order of the Phoenix comes out in theaters. OMG.. so excited..

The hardback will be $35 and the deluxe edition $65. Good lord, that's a lot of money, but I think I'll shell out for that.

This will be perfect for my reading plans! So before movie 5 comes out I will have to read book 5 & 6 before July. I have more than enough time. heehee. ^^