11.15.06

Zune

Posted in Volleyball at 5:49 pm by flung

We’ve been pretty busy over the last few days and in particular, Yvonne and I had the chance to enjoy two Zune related events for free over those days.

Things got rolling last Thursday night after volleyball as Yvonne and I drove over to the Element located in the Hollywood area. Microsoft held a preview party at the Element and you can find tons of pics here at my other blog - ZuneSphere.com.

The preview party sums up to the following:

Free food. Free drinks. Free music. Play with the new Zune.

IS NICE.

On Friday night, we headed out to the movies and watch Borat : Cultural Learnings of Amerca for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Oh man.. if you haven’t seen this movie yet - you just have to!! It’s hilarious. Yes it’s offensive.. but it’s hilarious and it really does open your eyes to some interesting things about America.

We spent the daytime portion of Saturday down at K1 Speed which is located in Irvine. What is K1 Speed? It’s an indoor kart racing facility and my company was having a little event there. If you’ve been to a kiddie go carting place before - this place kills that concept. K1 Speed is really designed for adults who want to race each other in small karts.

We had a couple of races and in the end, Yvonne smoked me in the final race. Heck she nearly LAPPED ME too.. but I apparently blocked her

Saturday night - we had dinner with the folks.. and then we headed on over to Elder to help teach some vball to kiddies. I’ll be honest.. I didn’t want to go initially (I just wanted to go home and watch some HD DVD’s!) but the whole experience ended up being a lot of fun. If you’re into vball and you’re in the area - check it out.

Monday rolls around, Yvonne and I manage to get into the official Microsoft launch party for the Zune. This time, the party was being held at Roxy where the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing. You can find pics and videos at ZuneSphere of course.

Along the way, I also posted a review of the new Xbox 360 HD DVD player at Krunker.com. I’m also working on a review of the new Microsoft Zune which was launched yesterday.

All told.. lots of things going on..

IS NICE..

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11.01.06

Celebrating

Posted in Events at 8:09 pm by flung

Time flies doesn’t it? It’s hard to believe that it’s been six months since Yvonne and I tied the knot. We decided to spend our six month wedding anniversary up in San Francisco where we stayed a night at the Hilton down in the Financial District - right across the street from SF’s Chinatown district.

It was a short trip overall - we drove up Saturday morning and then drove back down Sunday evening but it was definitely fun to get away from Los Angeles and enjoy some quality time together.

North-west we go… more like north..

Our trip began Saturday morning as we left Los Angeles right around 11am. Yeah.. we left a little later than we had planned but the overall trip was fairly quick as we got into San Fran right around 4pm or so. We checked into the Hilton and then set our sites on the local neighborhoods.

Immediately in front of us was San Francisco’s famous Chinatown.

We took a nice walk in and around the neighborhood and then decided to head back to the hotel to change since it was getting a bit chillier.

We then walked all around North Beach looking for a restaurant called  “Michelangelo” (Caffe). We literally walked 15+ blocks before nearly giving up. I remember going to Yvonne and saying “What was the name of that restaurant again? Maybe we should just eat someplace else…” and then we looked up and there it was - right in front of us. Yes.. it was destiny that night for us to eat at Michelangelo’s..

So how was dinner? Well I think Yvonne and I would both agree that the restaurant was just OK. I suppose I had higher expectations that what was listed on citysearch.com but overall, it was an OK experience. The interesting thing that they do at Michelangelo’s is.. they serve you a bowl of gummy bears at the end of dinner. Nice touch.. except.. is that the same bowl going around from table to table? haha.. sorry.. if that is the case then I’m a bit squimish on that thought.

We ended the night by walking over to the Wharf and then walking back to our hotel. Oh yes.. while walking back we noticed a taxi driver dressed up as Superman.

Before heading back up to the hotel, we dropped by a night market in Chinatown and took some pics

Nothing like falling back one hour

What a wonderful feeling it was to have one more hour given back to us on Sunday morning. We woke up a tad bit late nevertheless and then headed over to Chinatown for some dim sum. Boy - finding dim sum wasn’t easy. At one point, I convinced Yvonne to go upstairs to this restaurant thinking that it would be serving dim sum.. then we ran into a nice old Chinese man who said “Nah! You don’t go there for dim sum!”

Of course we didn’t end up listening to his suggestions either but we did end up finding a nice restaurant for some limited dim sum. I can’t seem to recall the name of that restaurant right now though.

After dim sum, we drove down Lombard “Crookedest” Street and Yvonne took some snapshots out of the car.

Afterwards, we headed over to the wharf and basically shopped and ate. A stop at Ghirardelli’s for some chocolate and then a stop at Boudin’s for some sourdough bread bowls sure hit the stop.

Oh yes.. we did walk around some of the touristy areas of the Wharf too.

Finally.. right around 3:30pm, we hit the road again and made our way back to Los Angeles. Too bad the 580 was backed up for nearly an hour otherwise we made good time coming back home.

All in all a good weekend trip to SF and a great way to celebrate our anniversary. Happy Anniversary Yvonne!

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