Happy Halloween

Go Giants! 

Orange

The whole city has gone orange for the Giants. It’s quite a sight to see if you’re in the City at night. Back in 2010, when the Giants won the World Series, I went around the City and took pictures of all the city landmarks that went orange for the Giants and it was pretty cool. This year however…well, it just didn’t seem worth the effort…although still pretty nice to see. 

The Giants winning the World Series was suppose to be a once in a lifetime type experience, but now, here we are about to celebrate another championship win. How cool is that? Celebratory plans are in the works around the City and the parade is set for tomorrow, on Halloween. Oooh…spooky. The weather isn’t going to be as nice this time as it was last time…but hey, who cares about that? Speaking of celebratory parties, that brings up another point that I wanted to talk about. I’m all for celebrating and having a good time and everything, but what’s with all the dumbass people who felt the need to destroy the City and terrorize local businesses as part of their celebration? That’s so not cool, people. There is really no excuse for all the mayhem that occurred after the Giants game on Sunday night. According to the Chron, “fans torched and charred a $700,000 Muni bus, flipped cars and burned 70 piles of garbage across San Francisco during an early morning celebration Monday”….really, people? This should be the behavior expected out of Oakland, not out of San Francisco. Have some class, folks. Shit…that’s awful. 

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, celebrating another Giants World Series win. Wahoo. Haha. I’ve seen the Giants in the World Series, I’ve seen the City turn orange for the Giants and I’ve been to the big ticker tape victory parade. Sooo what else is there? 

Duh…another celebratory parade and a bunch of Halloween festivities. It's gonna be a crazy day in the City tomorrow and I can’t wait. :-)

World Series Champs

The San Francisco Giants win the World Series, beating the Detroit Tigers 4-3 to sweep the series in four games. Oh yeah…I don’t need to say anything else about this do I? Let the parties begin!

Game 2

At this point, I don’t think I need to ask you guys whether you saw Game 2 of the World Series right? It was pretty awesome huh? The game wasn’t as one-sided as Game 1 but it was still just as exciting and exhilarating to watch. The Giants bullpen was solid and totally rocked it. 

But after watching last night’s game, I gotta say I almost started to feel bad for the Tigers. Haha…almost. However since I think the Giants will inevitably win the World Series, I figure the Giants should just bury them in Detroit within the next 3 games and get it over with. I mean, why not? No need to come back to the Bay just to kill them here. It’ll be so much sweeter to kill and bury them on their home turf. Show no mercy. Have no compassion. Kill ‘em while you can. There really is no point to dragging this out. Let’s get in and get out. I mean, just do it already. 

Hopefully the next time I hit this blog, it’ll be after the Giants win the World Series. But until then…Happy Friday!

Game 1

Just a fair warning based on Game 1 of the World Series, my next couple of blog posts will probably be about the Giants and the World Series. If baseball is not your cup of tea, feel free to stop reading and/or come back in a few weeks. With that being said…who saw the game last night? Wasn’t it freakin’ awesome?!?!?! 

What was my favorite part of the game you ask…the sights and sounds of the game, Zito's awesome pitching, Panda’s 3 home runs…? Ugh…don’t ask me to choose because I just can’t. On a picturesque night in San Francisco, things couldn’t have gone better for the Giants. Zito and the bullpen were rockin’ it, the defense made some great catches and the offensive was on fire (well, everyone except for Pence…man, you suck). I mean, you couldn’t have asked for a better game than that. 

Now, ok I know I said I wasn’t going to go to a World Series game…but, I had to change my mind. I mean, what was I suppose to do when my friend called me up and said he had an extras ticket to the game…? Say no? Haha...yeah right. So you see, I had to go to the game. There’s just no ifs, ands or buts about it. Hahaha…who am I kidding? After a game like that…it’s a good thing I have no desire to go to Detroit. 

Good job, boys. Now onto Game 2…

Rain

I was nothing but happy to welcome all the bad weather the Bay Area has been experiencing this week. With big winter plans rapidly approaching, I am hoping this will be a very wet and cold winter. I want there to be wind. I want there to be rain. And, more importantly, I want there to be snow. Lots of snow. 

After such a dry winter season last year, forecasters predict a very wet winter this year. And I could not be more pleased. I’ve got a season pass for this snowboarding season and I’m excited to head up to the mountains. So for you folks who are not cold, winter, roll in the snow type people…I hope you stay indoors a lot this winter and keep your whining away from me. Because I hope to spend as much of my weekends up in Tahoe and enjoy as much snowboarding as possible this year…and that means I want snow. 

I have my gear mostly ready to go. I did an inventory over the weekend and I think I’m in pretty good shape. I have new snowboarding pants (they’re bright ass blue…and I can’t wait to walk around in ‘em), a pretty nice helmet (I got last year’s model for super cheap) and some new snowboarding gloves (my older ones have been ready for retirement). From last year, my snowboarding jacket, socks and base layers are still all pretty good…so I’m ok there. And the only thing I’m still looking for is goggles. I have goggles from way back when…but they’re really old and kinda cracked…so I’ve been on the lookout for a new one. After I find me a super rad pair of goggles…I’m gonna be ready to hit the slopes. 

Now all I need to do before hitting the slopes…I gotta hit the gym and get my body into shape.

World Series Baby

Giants are in the World Series!!! Oh yeah. And as much as I was trying to NOT watch the game last night, I kept getting text score updates from you people every couple of minutes telling me all about it. You’re all lucky they won or I woulda been really pissed. Haha. 

The Giants will be playing the Tigers in the World Series and I could not be happier. I mean, seriously, I definitely was not rooting for the Yankees and if we had to play anyone other than the A’s…well it might as well be the Tigers. And besides Verlander, I know nothing about the Tigers and, to be honest, I really don’t care. We’re takin’ them out anyway so…what’s the point of getting to know them. Ha! :-) However, a friend of mine is from Detroit and is a major shit talker. Yes, Thomas, I’m talking about you. Forget the Red Wings. Forget your freakin’ Lions. Bring on the Tigers and let’s get this game started. 

Congratulations Giants. Rest up and we’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Go Giants

The Giants are in a must win situation tonight as they face the Cardinals in Game 7 of the NLCS game…and I’m doing them a favor by not watching the game. Yup, not watching the game. Call me superstitious but every time I watch one of their games (either with the family or with my friends), they lose. And they lose bad…and it sucks. So boys, I’m taking one for the team and not watching the epic game tonight. It might kill me, but you know what? I’m doing this for you. You can all thank me on Wednesday.

Go Giants!

Niners Rule

Sure, yesterday's win wasn't pretty and didn't look hot...but you know what? The Niners got the job done and a win is a win. So I'll take it.

For those of you who missed the game, I would provide my thoughts and commentary on it...but there is a blog post that sums it up so much better than I could. Check out a blog/post written by a newly converted, die-hard Niner fan. Haha...thanks for being a good sport! :-)

Major props to the Niners for winning last night!

My Letter

Dear Presidential and Vice-Presidential hopeful Roseanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan (respectfully), 

As a proud US citizen and faithful life-long California resident, I am deeply honored and pleased to see you listed on my ballot as the Peace and Freedom’s candidate for President and Vice-President of the United States of America. I am deeply and truly honored. 

First, let me seriously start off by saying, we all (should) know how important elections are in our country. People have fought and died for the right to be able to vote. I am not one to take voting for granted and I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone how strongly I feel about exercising my right to vote. With that being said, imagine my surprise when I received my absentee ballot in the mail, ripped open the envelope and caught my first glimpse of all the candidates on my ballot…and saw your names listed as candidates for president and vice-president. I was shocked. 

However, after I finished my tirade of a speech about the importance of any vote cast in any election, I realized I should be nothing but proud to live in a state where two unlikely candidates who know nothing about being upstanding, responsible citizens (much less running an entire county) are allowed to represent a party and make a bid for president/vice-president AND will probably receive a couple thousand votes. I mean, this is the presidential bid that dreams are made of. Who says this great country needs someone qualified to provide leadership? Who am I to say that neither of you have the qualifications to drive a car, much less be president/vice-president of the United States of America? And lastly, who am I to take away the candidates that will bring joy to thousands of voters who will (probably) gladly vote for the Peace of Freedom’s candidate for office? Certainly not me. 

I have visited the Peace and Freedom’s website and perused each of your dedicated pages. And as with anything else regarding your campaign…I was not surprised at what I saw. Granted, I do not have the time, energy or space to detail all the comments I wish to address on the site. However, I will just say that the energy and dedication that you both have put into this campaign is evident from the website. And Ms. Sheehan, I must commend you on your most recent post regarding the vice-presidential debate when you refer to Biden and Ryan as “Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Duh.” I mean, I can’t tell you the number of mixed emotions I faced when reading your post. However, I realize your comments were only intended to provide your perspective to voters since you were unable to be present for that vice-presidential debate, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought. 

Anyway, I look forward to Election Day on November 6 and will be eagerly following the race for President. I wish you both the best of luck (and depending on the number of votes you get), I truly do hope God can bless America. 

Sincerely, 

Kristina Chu 

p.s. Unfortunately, I voted and submitted my ballot earlier this week. And Ms. Barr, I do regret to inform you that I had considered voting for you as my president…however, your running mate, Ms. Sheehan, is a little crazy. Sorry. However, if elected, I am available to serve as your Director of Foreign Affairs or Secretary of State…and I do look forward to your call.

Sore

What did I say about wanting to ease back into my workout and not overdoing things? What did I say about trying to take it easy and not pushing myself too hard? What did I say about not wanting to take myself out of commission because of an injury? Apparently, I don’t remember. 

In my attempt to get myself back into shape, I let myself get talked into taking a spin class after work yesterday (after also having hit the gym during my lunch break). And found it to be a big mistake. Knowing that my fitness level is not back to where it needs to be yet, means that I can’t handle multiple workouts in a day like I used to. And yet, it doesn’t stop me from trying and apparently breaking myself in the process.

After the spin class last night, I was feeling pretty good about things. Because I had spent my time at the gym earlier that day working on my biceps, shoulders and abs…the spin class focused on my hamstring, quad and calf muscles…I thought I had my full body workout for the day and was feeling pretty good about it. Well that’s fine and dandy and everything, but what do you think happens when you overwork all your underutilized muscles all in one day? I wound up lying in bed and not being able to move. At one point, I was thinking to myself…I know my legs are still attached to me…but it would help if I could actually feel them.

As much as my body is screaming at me to take a couple days off, I need to keep myself in some sort of routine (however slow paced it might be) to keep myself active and motivated. So if you see me lying on the floor, don’t worry…I’m fine and just relaxing. It’s all part of my workout. No need to panic…just keep on walking.

World Series Tickets

The Giants are making a run for the World Series and we’re all excited (yes, even you bandwagon-er fans that I totally despise are allowed to be excited too). Having the Giants in the World Series again would be so awesome. I was at Game 1 of the 2010 World Series when the Giants took on the Rangers and it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I mean, if you’re a lifelong fan of any team, you can only hope for the chance to be a part of the experience and be able to cheer on your team…and as the case may have been, a chance to be a part of such an epic series was priceless. I would not have traded that experience for anything in the world. And I swore, if the opportunity should ever arise again, I would not feel the fierce need to attend another World Series game. It was truly amazing. And, of course, let’s not forget that I was on the verge (literally, on the verge) of throwing down thousands of dollars for a chance to go to Indy to watch the Niners play in the Super Bowl last year. Luckily for me, the Niners ended up losing to the NY Giants and never made it to the Super Bowl. I gotta say, I lucked out on that one. 

My point in this discussion, is not how crazy I am (that’s not something I would ever dispute), my point is that it’s all about the experience. And you die-hard fans out there can understand where I’m coming from and can totally relate. There are plenty of others just like me…if not even crazier. I probably even know a few of them. Ha! 

With all that being said, World Series tickets went on sale today for potential games in San Francisco. And even with my previous World Series appearance, it did not keep me from desperately wanting to buy tickets for this (potential) upcoming World Series run. I was on the verge of pulling of the trigger and throwing down loads of money for tickets…when I had to restrain and remind myself that I am in the process of saving money (or at least trying to) for another upcoming experience. 

Sooo…World Series tickets…I, very reluctantly, have to pass. Please admire my restraint.

Gym Time

No more excuses…it’s time to get myself back into shape. 

I’ve taken a couple months off from my workout routine and have been dreading starting it back up again. I know I’m not as toned, conditioned or fit as I used to be, and that makes wanting to work out even less desirable than ever. But as with anything else in life, the longer I wait…the harder it’s going to get. So I just need to buckle down, cut the excuses and just do it. 

I have an idea of my workout plan for this week and hope I don’t totally overdo it. I plan to gradually ease back into my routine so I don’t pull/strain a muscle and do more harm than good. There is nothing I need more than to pull a muscle and take myself out of commission for another couple of weeks. That would be bad. I need to tone my abs, strengthen my biceps and quads and increase my conditioning. If I could focus on those three things for the next couple of weeks, that’d be a great start. I mean, it’s definitely not something I can change completely this week…but hopefully by the end of the month, I’ll start noticing a difference and can begin ramping up my workout to include a wider variety of activities and other muscle areas. 

The motivations for the workouts...increased energy for an upcoming vacation and stronger muscle tone for the upcoming snowboarding season.

Need Room

My problem around this time of year is needing more room for my pictures. I always find myself in the last quarter of the year with enough picture albums to fill up an entire page, but knowing I have plenty of other vacations on the horizon. Same is true now…with my Seattle pictures up and a couple more vacations on the way, I need to make room for more pictures to come. I've had to hide past albums...and hope that'll do. Eek. 

After going through my pictures from Seattle, you can tell how nice the weather was. I think it was roughly 70 degrees the entire weekend and made for some awesome picture taking. When we went up to the Space Needle, the view was super nice. You’d be amazed at how well I organized and sorted my pictures…I can’t begin to tell you how many pictures I took from the top of the Needle, yet I only posted about 5 of ‘em. Be proud and relieved. I posted some pictures from the Sounders game that my brother and I went to and I’m still trying to work on uploading the videos that I took. However, my brother sent me a pretty good video summary of the game. It’s pretty cool.

 

Anyway, check out my pictures from Seattle. In the meantime, I gotta stop taking so many pictures.

Seattle 2.0

I spent this past long weekend away in Seattle with the family and enjoyed some time away. It was nice to be out of the Bay Area when the City was crazy and full of activities and people. And I’m going to breeze over the fact that the Giants sucked ass over the weekend…and just stick to vacation talk. I had been to Seattle a few years ago, but didn’t truly appreciate all the city had to offer. However, this past weekend, the weather in Seattle was absolutely gorgeous, which made sightseeing and touristy activities much more enjoyable. 

My trip to Seattle a few years ago consisted of a duck tour (I don’t understand why duck tours are so popular), a game at Safeco Field (I really enjoyed watching the roof retract) and time on the waterfront and at Pike Place Market (I remember not being terribly impressed by the “flying fish”). During that trip, the highlight of my trip was the Giants vs. Mariners game at Safeco Field (although I couldn’t tell you who won that game since I really don’t remember). But anyway, as much as I had enjoyed Seattle before, I enjoyed the same touristy sites that I had visited…but they all looked so much better in the light of day. Ha! And the highlight of this trip was catching the Seattle Sounders vs. Portland Timbers game with my brother on Sunday night (yes, I gladly missed the horrendous game 2 of the Giants playoffs where they were shut out at home…ugh). Now ok, granted I don’t have anything to compare the Sounders game to since I’ve never been to a MLS game, I’m not a huge die-hard soccer fan and I don’t know anyone or anything about the Seattle Sounders…but I have to say, the sellout crowd of about 67,000 made the game loads of fun. The stadium was nice (the Sounders play at CenturyLink Field – home of the Seahawks), the game was fun (Sounders killed 3-0) and the crazy hard-core Sounder fans make any other fans look like pansies (yes, Sounder fans are much more organized and much louder than the baseball, football or hockey fans I’ve seen). True story. 

Anyway, I have a busy week ahead of me but I hope to work on pictures soon.

A’s

Wow…what’s with the A’s?!?! I’m shocked and speechless. Who woulda thought they’d be able to clinch a spot in the playoffs? I mean, seriously…the A’s. 

With both Bay Area teams with a secure spot in the playoffs, there’s been a scramble for postseason tickets. I mean, tickets to either postseason game have been in high demand and it has been interesting to follow. Late last week, when playoff tickets went on sale, my coworkers were able to snag an easy dozen A’s tickets with no problem. Whereas me and a few other coworkers were scrambling to purchase the maximum 2 tickets you could purchase for the Giants playoffs…and, of course, double (if not triple) the price. I spent (roughly) $100 on first round Giants’ playoff tickets…but found out first round general A’s playoff tickets were only $20 (granted, I'm sure they aren't $20 anymore). But I guess lower ticket prices for the A's makes sense right? The A's can use all the fans that they can get. Ha! OK ok...that was a low blow. 

But anyway, good luck to the A’s. They aren’t playing the Giants, so I can be happy for them too.