Rough Week

Got my car back today. I mentioned in the last post that my car was having trouble starting up because of faulty wiring. Sunny, Sunoco service station owner found all sorts of problems with car. Apparently, my car was stolen 2 times and broken into 2 times. (My insurance soared. It wasn't even my fault. Geico sucks!!!!). Anyway, when the car was being fixed at other auto shops, they did such a poor job that problems went unnoticed for a while until last week. Well, I am glad some of those problems had been addressed and fixed. I am not out of the woods yet: the steering wheel is losen; sunroof is not working; wheels need alignment etc. I need to bring my car back soon.

Anyway, having my car back (temporary that is) means I can drive to Northern Virginia for some Vietnamese food. I like going there on weekends. I ordered grilled pork with thin vermicelli. It was quite tasty. I also had some iced coffee at a nearby cafe. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon. I have two web design projects that need to get done sometime next month. Busy, busy.

Could Have Been Worse

I brought my in the shop to have a timing belt change last Thursday. I was also told to change to water pump and have the radiator flush. While at it, I had them change the thermostat and oil.

Came back the next day, the car couldn't start. I had a feeling the shop tripped the alarm which caused it to kill the starter. They told me to disable the alarm but stupid me forgot how to do it. Anyway, I had my friend Mike drove me to the car alarm shop. The technician showed me how to disable the alarm. Went back to the car shop. Tried what I was told; car wouldn't start. F--k!! I left the car there and came back the next day trying to push start the car. It worked. Paid $650.00 for the maintenance cost. Drove back to the car alarm shop to have them fix the alarm problem but they were busy so I had to make an appointment.

So after making the appointment, I drove to lunch and noticed the temperature gauge indicating the car is overheating. I went back to the car shop. To make the story short, my car is now out of commision. The technician said my car has some sort of short circuit in the wiring. He's going to try to find the problem.

Well, the way I see it, things could have been worse.

Last night I went to John and Kathy's place. Well, John came and picked me up. I wanted to make Kathy some dessert because her birthday was this week.



vanilla ice cream with orange/banana sauce

martini club

melon martini

I made orange sauce to go with Vanilla ice cream. Here is how. First, fry sliced banana in butter. Add about a tablespoon of sugar. Throw in some sliced strawberry. Pour in fresh squeezed orange juice (1 Sunkist orange). Add some blueberries. Cook for about 2 minutes to get sauce a bit thicken. Pour everything on a serving plate and let it cool down. Serve with Breyers 'All Natural Vanilla' ice cream.

Despict with car trouble, at least I had some fun time last night. Now, I am going to get some lunch--John is kind enough to let me drive one of his cars for a few days.

All Done!

dubrovnik, croatia

I managed to get rest of my trip website done over the weekend. So, enjoy.
Photos

Europe Pix

korcula, croatia

venice, italy

dubrovnik, croatia

prague, czech republic

I've recently put up some pix I took in Europe from last month trip. So hope you enjoy them while I am working on my photojournal. I will post some food pix on here soon.
Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Split, Dubrovnik, Korcula, Hvar, Venice, Kutna Hora

Birthday Lunch

We took our boss, Jon out to Mamma Lucia for lunch. Not sure how old he is now. My guess is 55. Damn, I hope he doesn't see this post--he might not give me a raise, haha.

Birthday Pix

Went to Lisa's surprised birthday party last Friday. She hadn't seen some of her friends over 20 years. Her mom and sister were also in town. The house was packed with people. There were plenty of food and drinks going around. I ate and drank plenty. It was a lot of fun.

Hot Sauce

Had dinner last night at Rocklands. I ordered barbequed brisket of beef. It wasn't a huge sandwich but big enough to get me through the night. One of the things I like at Rocklands is hot sauce. There are many different types of hot sauce from different countries. I tried Dave's insanity sauce and thought I was going to roll over and die. It was insanely hot.

Well, gotta get ready to go to my boss's wife surprised birthday party. There gonna be so much food there. It will be fun. I need to take a break from my computer. There are a lot to be done with my 2006 travel website. I hate web designing!

p.s. looking forward to the World Cup this weekend. Two more games and it's all over :(