12/20/2011: Lucky me, I get TWO holiday luncheons. Round 2 @ Tamarine, Palo Alto. Wines were amazing.

12/15/2011: Missed the shuttle bus, luckily my walk to walk isn't so bad- especially with some Paris Baguette in hand!

Quick & easy, and cheap!

I didn’t make this, but it was one of the best fried chicken sandwich I’ve ever had (Tuesdays @ nakedlunchsf!)

I decided on a whim at the market to try making 갈비탕 sometime this week.  With the slow cooker, it was almost effortless on my part.  I merely boiled the beef short ribs in water, removed the brown crap that surfaced, then placed the meat in the slow cooker for approximately 10 hours (while I was at work).  Then I put the entire pot in the fridge to let the fat solidify and removed the fat the next morning.  Then I added green onions, salt & pepper for flavor.

Finished product!  Operation 갈비탕- success!

Working out of two offices became very useful this week because I got invited to both the Palo Alto office lunch and the SF office lunch!  PA office lunch @ Tamarine.

By the end, I drank much more wine than planned.  It’s fair to say didn’t get much work done afterwards.

I was completely sobered up in time for the golf range.  I don’t understand why the range with lights must close early because the sun sets earlier, but I try to make the most of it while it’s open.

I woke up to realize we’re out of rice.  I quickly adjusted and made 떡만두국 in the morning with the leftover 갈비탕.

The weather this pas week has been a crazy mess… starting with the ridiculously loud thunder on Monday night to all the crazy rain all throughout the week.  I heard on the radio on Wednesday morning that there were 600 incidents in the SF bay area from midnight to 8am, including 200 between 6-8am.  They said the worst part of getting into an accident was that nobody would get to you for an hour or more because the police were so understaffed.  I also heard the weather guy say ‘el nino is here!!’ about 20 times a DAY…

However, the rain god gave way for brief sunlight on my way home today… then it started raining again, but I a glimpse of this crazy rainbow!!

If anybody cares, today’s date is another palindrome! 012210!

A huge rainbow caught be completely off guard coming home from work.  It really looked like the rainbow was coming out of IKEA!

There were crazy clouds all around me, but I must admit, they were pretty amazing to look at.  And yes, I almost died several times trying to take these pictures while driving.

Seriously, there’s an island in San Francisco called Treasure Island (TI).  It’s located right in the middle (or right around there) of the Bay Bridge between SF and the East Bay.  It used to be a Navy base but was recently sold to the city of SF and there are grand plans for development.  Although, after today’s visit I think they’ll have some major infrastructure issues.  Anyway… I’ve crossed the bridge dozens of times but this was the first time actually stopping by.

There is a Fed funded program on the island called Job Corps (pronounced “cors”, figure that?!) where students receive career training.  The one located on TI happens to be recognized for their advanced culinary program and it draws kids from across the nation.  I went to speak about financial planning topics to seniors who will soon graduate.  I find it easy to respect kids who work hard to reach their goals, especially when they’re doing it on their own.  I’m glad I got an opportunity to help these kids reach their goals and hopefully set them up for financial success!

That being said… I actually didn’t present anything because the topic before mine took the whole hour, but I’ll be back in a month or two for session 2

If you haven’t been to TI yet, I highly recommend it!  If you go from SF, you exit halfway on the bridge so you never pay toll!!

Great view of the city

I love palm trees, and bridges, oh look! palm trees and…

So they ARE building a new bridge!  Ever since they found a crack… and then one of the cables snapped… all I can wonder is what could be next?

Beautiful city views from the bridge…

…to Coit tower!

BTW… I saw two HUGE raccoons in the parking lot!  Then I wondered… how’d they get all the way to the island?

got a call from the SF office saying a letter had arrived from the CFP(R) board.  i immediately ran over after work to find, indeed, a letter from the board.

phew~ what a relief.  i was also very happy to hear that my co-worker had also passed the same exam; it would have been an awkward celebration had only one of us pass…

i had returned back to life after taking the exam, but the stress and pressure of not knowing the results were still very straining.  it looks like i can back to life for reals now.

the first quarter of 2009 was basically a big blurrr.  i don’t see much purpose in trying to remember everything that’s happened… so i’ll just continue to log my blog going forward with the exception of a short paragraph of my past few months.  

i basically hid… and i shut down everything else so that i could concentrate on studying for the CFP(R) exam.  i was thinking about studying… thinking that i should be studying… thinking about where i should be studying… thinking what topics i should be studying… it was not pretty.  hiding was no fun, so let’s hope i don’t have to do it again.  

i was also sick… probably 1 out of every .8 days to start 2009.  how’s that possible? it’s simple… before i got over my the first cold, a second cold would already be infecting my system; i’m pretty sure i had multiple sicknesses at once.  it was quite terrible, frustrating, and stupid.  

i was happy and felt rejuvenated after the exam, only to get food poisoning a day after i got back!  i’m still feeling the ill effects of one of the worst sicknesses i’ve ever had… and only hope i’ll never have to deal with this again.

although i continued to hide the week before the exam, it was nice to be back in LA where i need not worry about anything else but studying.  another benefit of being home was eating home cooked meals everyday, something i feel like i haven’t experienced since… maybe middle school.  going home for a week before the exam was the smartest decision i’ve made so far this year… all i can say is i’m glad this quarter is over and that i’m moving on ^^.

as it turns out, i guess i was doing something right at work because i was promoted a few weeks ago.  today marked the first week in my promoted position, and i must say it feels very good to be here.  i read somewhere that successful people tend say they’ve been lucky, and the unsuccessful tend to blame bad luck.  not to say that i’m successful or anything like that but i sure feel lucky right now, especially in these current economic conditions.  

with the new position being in palo alto, it would be a lie to say waking up at 6am hasn’t been a struggle… especially with my cold lingering around, strongly refusing to go away (my snot looks like corn chowder btw).  even on wednesdays when i work out of the sf office, i seem to find myself waking up at 6am, an hour before my alarm setting.  what’s weird is today, i woke up at 5am, an hour before my 6am alarm setting.  how do you explain that?! o____O  that’s right, you can’t.

anyway… my original intention was to study on the 45 minute ride down the caltrain, but i’ve been sleeping for… say… 40 minutes for most of the time.  not only am i not sleeping, i almost missed my stop once.  my train down is the bullet train making limited stops;  the train i’d have take back north would not be a bullet train stopping at every stop.  it’s inevitable, it’s going to happen sooner or later.  i’ve already warned my bosses here that i will call from moutain view (the next stop on the bullet caltrain) one day, and that i will be very late this day.

the quality of assignments and the trust bestowed by the managers and partners (ill-advised or not) has been overwhelmingly rewarding here.  i also get an opportunity to look at each client more in depth because the office is smaller relative to the sf office,  and that has given learning opportunities hard to come by in sf.   i think it’s also fair to say that i get a little more attention when it comes to training because i’m the sole administrator here, as opposed to a team of administrators in sf.  

the upcoming cfp exam is still my main priority… and as it nears (t-42 days, yikes!) i’m beginning to feel a sense of urgency and pure panic.  with the rewards that come with passing, and the dismal and depressing penalties of failing… i really hope i pass…  as obama used to say, ‘yes we (i) can’.  he has since turned to other words like… “disaster“, “state of emergency“, “sobering“.  hopefully i can stay away from such words for like… ever.

(all my bags are packed, i’m ready to go~!  i also look, like i just got let go~! :0)

(from the busy streets of downtown sf to…)

(…the quiet palo alto office)

after the oyster party last night… i left again for aaron’s place.  we thought about going out again, but i think it was a general consensus that everybody was fracking tired from the long long weekend.  aaron and i just chilled, walked around downtown for a bit, picked up some late night munchies and watched a movie- kind of like a man date now that i think about it….

sunday was a bit of a blur, as the last day always seems to be.  your mind is never rested because you’re constantly worried whether you’ve packed all your stuff (i definitely forgot my favorite belt and sweater!!) and if you’ll be on time to the airport.  but as the entire trip seems to have been summarized with food, i shall summarize the last day with food.

(in the morning/afternoon, aaron cooked me some delicious jjambong ramyun with egg)

(then we walked over to a 빵집 nearby and aaron bought me some… well, 빵 and chocolate milk.  i got a sausage donut pastry which was delicious )

(aaron got the 팟빵, filled with overflowing red beans)

(when i got home, my mom suggested i eat some 떡국, the meal of new year’s day in korea.  i love 떡국, and it was delicious as expected with some kimchi on the side.  as you can imagine, my mom was very happy that i had the spoon to the left and chopsticks to the right )

soon after finishing this meal, i was off to the airport and before you know it, back in SF.  phew~ 

after sleeping at 5-6am every night… i couldn’t fall asleep till 3am or so last night and work was very tiring as you can imagine.  i was hoping i’d fall asleep earlier tonight, but i guess it’s already too late for that.  

i’m also officially registered for the march 20-21 CFP exam.  it looks like there is no going back now, considering i just spent over $2,000 on the Kaplan prep materials and exam registration fee’s.  let’s hope i pass it the first time…. for the sake of my sanity and my very empty wallet.  i am officially on lock down… limiting myself to a lot of studying and not much else.  i’ve gotten going out and partying out of my system last week… ok, that’s not true because that’s impossible, haha.  i was supposed to start studying today, but i knew if i didn’t update this blog i would eternally forget all the memories! 

on a random note… initially i didn’t like this song, but now i can’t stop listening to it.  it’s boa’s new american song called ‘i’ll eat you up’.  the lyrics are kinda cheesy, but you’ll get used to them… besides, it has a catchy tune!  my favorite line?  it’s by far, ‘so yum yum’, hahaha.

same song below, but a live performace a couple weeks ago.  very talented.