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After puppet making, we headed to Paper Source in Santana Row to get Kimi’s b-day present (it was her 30th bday), since she likes craft-y creative-y paper stuff. We weren’t going to make the 5:14PM train, so we took out time at the store. We chose a variety of rubber stamps and ink and put them in a simple box with a nice ribbon. We also got a gift card to the store. The lady working at the register happened to be one of the wedding coordinators we interviewed a while ago, which isn’t too surprising since she’s the one who told me about the store in the first place. After we got the present, we realized we weren’t going to make the 6:14PM train either, so we had a quick dinner at Tung Kee with my mother before getting on the 7:14PM train.

It was around 8:30ish when we got to SF. Rodney picked us up at the train station, and we hung out at his place until the 10PM party at Cantina (on the same block as Rodney’s apartment and place we were supposed to go to before) for Kimi’s big 3-0. Kelvin made sure to own me in a round of Settlers of Catan before heading out.

At Cantina, we couldn’t find Kimi by the bar, but we did find Clay who told us to look for her downstairs. Downstairs was apparently more of a lounge area, with a DJ in the corner and small, open rooms with large chairs/sofas for “lounging”. It was very dark, and we just about walked into somebody else’s birthday lounge area cuz it took a while realize we didn’t know anybody in the room. Down the hall tho, we did find Kimi with a Polaroid camera along with several of friends in a different lounge area. We gave her her present, which she seemed to like. Of course, as soon as she saw the Paper Source sticker she immediately pointed at me as being the one who suggested to store. (Yeah, it was me… I mean, Kelvin was originally gonna give her Omaha Steaks!) Kimi ran off to go meet and greet more of the 60-or-so other guests attending this thing.

So we sat there “lounging”, along with several other people we didn’t know. I think we were supposed to be drink and be social, but I suck at drinking and socializing, which makes the whole lounging thing not that entertaining. We went upstairs to the bar and ordered a round of drinks with Jordan, Kimi’s Cantina bartender of choice apparently. I asked for a variety things I’ve tried before and tolerated: Blue Hawaiian, SoCo Sour, etc. None of these things were available. They apparently don’t have Southern Comfort or Curaçao or any of the sweet liquors. What?? What the hell am I supposed to drink then? I asked for something sweet, so he said he’d come up with something for me. I saw him squeeze through all sorts of fruits in making my drink, and it looked yummy. I asked him what it was, and he said just made it up, listing off all the different fruit juices he used. All I remember is that it has ginger beer in it or something. It was pretty good.

We went back downstairs to “lounge” some more with our beverages. When we finished, we were still bored. We debated going off to get soju (Rodney opposed, because we were already in the right place to get inebriated as opposed to some weak sauce soju place) or go back to Rodney’s and play more Settlers of Catan. *sigh* We’re such nerds. Kelvin ran off somewhere at some point, so I was just talking to Rodney for a bit. Kelvin eventually came back talking about these awesome fruit shots he just had that he thought I’d like. So we went back upstairs by the bar to try these shots.

It took Kelvin a while to actually obtain these shots. There was a huge group at the bar, and Jordan had quite a queue of drinks on order. Jordan makes great drinks, and he puts a lot of care into his beverages. The problem with this is that he is a highly inefficient bartender. At some point, the bar somewhat cleared, and Rodney and I were able to sit at the bar. Kelvin asked again about his shots, and Jordan had either forgotten about it or was still working on his queue. He delegated the order to some other bartender, who promptly made our shots (which were slightly stronger than Jordan’s, according to Kelvin). He made too much, so we ended up with 5 shots instead of 3 (Kelvin and Rodney took the extra, of course). I practiced my shot drinking technique, which was pretty weak the first try. It took my like 5+ sips to drink the little thing, but it didn’t taste too bad, so I was okay to try another shot.

The second shot I did a lot better. I was able to take it all in, like… 2.5 gulps/sips? It’s something I definitely need to practice. The next round was Pisco Punches for everyone, and the Pisco Punch tasted okay as well (but that was probably because I just had two shots). I’m not one to act wasted, but I’m pretty sure I was drunk at this point as my walk to the bathroom to “break the seal” turned out to be quite a chore. Kelvin was acting like the tard he acts like when he’s drunk; Rodney I don’t think was drunk at all. Rodney ordered some Kahlua drink that I didn’t like too much, but I tolerated since my taste for alcohol was pretty much gone at this point.

So those were my five drinks: some made-up fruit drink, two made up fruit shots, Pisco Punch, and some Kahlua drink. Kelvin had the pretty much the same thing (his first drink was different), plus two additional fruit shots, I think. Rodney had same as me (again, first drink different), plus an additional shot, a beer, and some tequila recommended by one of Kimi’s friends, Peri, who had discussed with us the refinements of finer tequila.

And now, I present to you the many drunken faces of Kelvin Nishikawa (many of these stolen from Kimi’s Facebook):

When we left Cantina and got back to Rodney’s place, it was almost 2AM. After Kelvin took a shower, I took one as well, and I returned to the studio to find Kelvin passed out on the floor and Rodney passed out on his desk. Rodney had offered up the bed for me and Kelvin, but there weren’t any sheets on it yet. I was really tired, so I didn’t want to deal with making the bed. Instead, I took up the floor space between the desk and the bed. I was cold, but thankfully, the comforter was within arm’s reach on the bed from where I was laying on the ground. I’m guessing it’s a nice comforter, as it made my sleep on the floor quite comfortable.

Sometime during the night, Rodney apparently got up from the desk to make the bed. Instead of making the bed, he passed out on the bed. Kelvin got up some time after that. He was confused, as Rodney was sleeping on the unsheeted bed, while I was sleeping on the floor with a comforter. He joined me at my spot on the floor and got underneath the comforter.

Around 5 or 6AMish, I was feeling terrible. Very nauseous. I hate throwing up, so I was trying really hard to keep it back. I was moaning a lot, disturbing Kelvin and Rodney from their sleep. Kelvin said if I need to throw up, I should go throw up. Upon him saying this, I quickly ran to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit into the toilet. First gag, I recognized the brownish stuff as the Kahlua drink Rodney got me. Next two gags, yellowish liquid that was once Pisco Punch. I don’t know what the fourth gag yielded. Needless to say, I was feeling like shit. I gave my mouth a good rinse and went back to the bedroom, where Rodney had finished making the bed and Kelvin was already sleeping in it. Feeling better from the purging, I drank a bunch of water and went to bed.

Later in the morning, Kimi gave Kelvin a couple calls about getting brunch/lunch. We were obviously too hungover to go. In fact, around the time of her second call (10-11AMish?), I was feeling just like I was 5 hours ago. More nausea and moaning. Then I ran to the bathroom to vomit again. Another four acts of vomiting, tho half of them was mostly dry. The first one barfed up all the water I just drank, and based on the pink color, I’m guessing the 3rd one yielded what was left of those shots I had. I’m not really sure. Based on my barfing, I’m guessing my limit was at the 2nd shot. The Pisco Punch and Kahlua drink were probably totally unnecessary. Anyways, I think that’s enough drinking for me for quite a while. I don’t think I’ve ever barfed this much from drinking. (I’ve had worse… mainly that Thursday night in downtown SJ when Kelvin was too busy puking to let me into his apartment so I had to stay at Rodney’s hotel room. The quantity was less that time, but the quality was…uh… grosser. Couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth all day. AND I had to go to work! I ended up not getting to work until after lunch. Yeah, don’t mix your alcohol types, boys and girls.)

We got up in the afternoon to go get dim sum. I bought a bunch extra cuz my mom wanted some. We caught the 4PM train, and my mom picked us up from the train stop. We made a stop at Jo-Ann Fabrics so I could get more stuff while their Thanksgiving sale was still on. We then had dinner at Pot Sticker King (again) across the street, and then I finally got home, where I was able to get a couple hours of nothing in before the weekend was over. Phew. How naive of me to think I could have gotten some work done on Sunday.

New thing I learned today: Pisco is a brandy mostly consumed in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. There is a debate between Peru and Chile, both whom consider Pisco a national beverage, as to who can officially call their pisco “pisco”. Pisco gets its name from the Peruvian port city.

I thought I just had a sore throat, so I figured I could go to work today just fine, but I still ended up having to leave work early. Last night, I took a bunch of Tylenol to help go to sleep, and I felt okay waking up, at least in terms of the sore throat. I was fairly nauseous tho, but I don’t deal well with pain relief medicine anyway, so not surprising. I spent the morning hacking up grossness, and as the day went on, I was feeling tired and worse. I slept at home for an hour at lunch, but it didn’t help. I was fatigued, and I was cold, particularly at the extremities. When I eventually got home at 5PM, I went straight to bed, where Kelvin was already napping from being up all morning for school.

An hour or two later, Kelvin got up and freaked out about how I was burning up. And he apparently didn’t just have cold hands, as the thermometer said I was at least 101°. He was the good fiance, getting me medicine, water, and chicken noodle soup. (Thanks Kel) I passed out for another 3 hours, and now here I am. I feel much better, tho Kelvin says I’m still a bit warm. We’ll see how I am tomorrow.

I don’t know what’s with me this year. I was sick less than a month ago, and I was also sick in August. I must have a weak immune system or something. Maybe I should have gotten a flu shot…

Kelvin told me Andrew was coming over on Friday, which was a little disappointing to me since that meant we weren’t going to spend the day doing nothing. I already knew I wasn’t going to do nothing ALL day because I already planned to meet up with Sandra at some point, but it would have been nice to have some of the day to do nothing. I knew he was going to come over to work on a puppet for his next cosplay costume, which is cool and interesting, but requires energy and thought. Kelvin reassured me they were only prototyping, but I knew it was going to be an all-day affair for Kelvin.

Andrew arrived around lunchtime with his backpack of stuffs, which mainly had materials for his puppet and DVDs to try on our new TV. I don’t really remember much much of the going-ons this afternoon because I didn’t really get involved, but I recall watching several videos on making muppets, some prototype heads made of muslin, and eating lunch at Fresh Choice. I think I eventually played Picross and took a nap while Kelvin and Andrew worked on prototyping. And by work on prototyping, I mean watch DVDs on our TV. Sandra finally called me as I was napping and was ready to meet up, so I dragged Kelvin and Andrew with me to go pick up Sandra. I wanted to go to JoAnn to pick up sewing supplies so I can get started on sewing projects, and with the machine out for the puppet making and Ravi and Jess throwing a “Crazy Hat Potluck” soon, I figured it was a good opportunity do some sewing.

It turns out JoAnn’s was having a big Thanksgiving weekend sale. Nothing insanely Black Friday crazy, but still pretty decent, I think. All notions (sewing necessities and randomness, like needles, bobbins, pins, zippers, etc.) were 50% off, and all McCall’s patterns were $1.99. I have no idea how good these sales are since I don’t buying sewing supplies often, but every time I’ve bought stuff in the past, it’s been at retail. So I pretty much went to town. I bought all sorts of sewing junk I needed (like bobbins, sharpener, flat-head pins) and some sewing junk I didn’t need (long measuring tape, second seam ripper, invisible ink marker). I bought 5 different McCall’s patterns: 2 dress patterns, 1 animal costume pattern, 1 chef’s gear pattern, and 1 hats/scarves pattern. (I was really excited about the patterns, cuz at $2 they were way cheaper than their usual whatever % off and cheaper than eBay.) I bought some fleece that was on sale, too. They did make some money off me, as I bought several things at not-as-huge-sale price or even at retail. I bought a bunch of thread at retail (which probably wasn’t smart, since I’m sure they’ll eventually be on sale), and we got some sort of thick canvas material (for an apron I want to make) that wasn’t cheap. I also bought more muslin for practice sewing. My total came out to be quite large that day, simply for the quantity of junk I got. I made everyone stick around for a couple hours, but oh well… I was pretty happy with my load.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Pot Sticker King. I’m still quite fond of that place, tho their beef noodles weren’t spicy that evening. After dinner, I dropped Sandra off and went back home with Kelvin and Andrew. With more muslin, Kelvin made a final prototype for the night that turned out quite good. They drew on eyes and nose and kept playing with it all evening until we left to drop Andrew off. I wish I had taken a picture of it.

Andrew left his iPod at our place, so he came back the next day. Of course, this meant more working of the muppet. The muslin muppet they had played with yesterday was a good start, but it needed a wider neck for Andrew’s wider forearm. They seam-ripped the poor thing apart to make modified patterns so they could make it on real material. (I didn’t know this, but Wal-Mart apparently sells fabrics for pretty cheap, including the suede stuff that Andrew got for $4 a yard.)

Kelvin worked at Muppet Alpha, while I had Andrew be slave laborer and cut out some of the patterns I got the day before. I was working on my first “crazy hat”, which is a chef’s hat. (Apparently, there’s still a lot of sewing terminology I need to learn, so I’m really winging it at the moment. I haven’t finished it, but I hope it doesn’t turn out too terrible.) I was also doing laundry, as Kel and I were heading up to SF later that day and staying overnight. Kelvin eventually finished a prototype with the suede, and it turned out pretty good! We obviously still need to add all the other components, but it’s a decent beginning.

Our apartment looked like a fabric warzone after all this, though we were able to clean a lot of it up last night. Right now the dining room table is serving as our crafts table and sewing machine holder until we get a folding table from Kelvin’s folks.

New thing I learned today: Muslin is a tightly-woven undyed cotton fabric, and it’s often used in clothing in areas of hot, dry climates because it breathes well. Because of its cheap cost, it’s often the material used for test sewing before sewing something with expensive fabric. The resulting garment is also called a muslin, though a prototype garment made of other cheap material may also be called a muslin.

I only knew to use muslin for test material because a while back I asked a JoAnn’s lady what the cheapest material available for test sewing was, and she pointed me to the 99¢ a yard muslin. I didn’t realize this was common practice, but of course, it’d only make sense for it to be.

Kelvin decided to finally get a replacement camera for his busted up Canon SD630, so he ordered an SD870IS last week from Amazon. We have the unlimited 2-day shipping thing, so it was sent out immediately. Unfortunately it was shipped through DHL. Since we’re fully aware of how much DHL sucks, Kelvin decided to work from home when the tracking said it should arrive today.

So Kelvin waited at home. And waited. Sometime in the middle of the afternoon, Kelvin began to really worry and gave DHL a call. Of course, the service rep told him it was currently out for delivery and assured him that the package would be delivered by 5PM. Or between 5PM and 9PM… what? Kelvin took their word and continued working from home until 5PM, which is when he gave DHL yet another call. This time, he was told that his package wasn’t going to be delivered at all today, and right now it’s sitting at the local hub. Oh yeah, and they’re probably not going to try again tomorrow. No explanation for ANY of this. DHL just wasn’t going to do their job, end of story. Kelvin contacted me at work and told me I had to leave that very moment to go with him and sign for his camera (it was purchased under my name for Amazon points) at the Sunnyvale hub, which closes at 6PM. So I rushed home, and he rushed us down carpool lanes on 85 and 237 to make it to the Sunnyvale hub before 6PM.

We arrived at 5:45PM to this familiar location (we’d been here before when they couldn’t figure out how to deliver packages to Kelvin’s old apartment), and there were two people waiting for packages at an empty counter. Waiting and waiting, eventually a bald white DHL worker appeared. He looked tired and/or irate. I guess the first guy had already been helped, so he asked the second lady for her slip (WTF, why does SHE get to have slips? :P ). He went back to look for her package, found it, and brought it out to the lady. As he was doing this, he was also yelling at another worker to get the first guy’s stuff. The conversation went something like this (all done with shouting, since bald worker is at the counter, peon worker is down the hall stuck out a doorway and visible through a window):

Peon worker: I can’t find it!
Bald worker: It’s in the bucket!
Peon worker: [few seconds pass] It’s not here!
Bald worker: [irritated] It’s IN the bucket!
Peon worker: In the back?
Bald worker: [Very irritated] NO, IN THE FRONT. THERE ARE TWO BUCKETS BY THE DOOR. IT’S IN THE FIRST ONE.
Peon worker: [Few seconds pass, then he walks out with package and hands it to first guy]

Okay, so I was getting the impression that bald DHL worker is fairly competent (or good at looking competent) and that he was in a very unhappy mood. It was finally my turn, so I showed bald worker my package number. He looked it up on the computer, and his face kinda sank a little when it came up, which made me worried. He asked if I knew where it came from, and I shrugged as Kelvin said it was from Ohio. He started to head towards the back, and as he left, he asked if we had some time cuz it was probably going to take a while. We’re like, “I guess”, and he asked again if we knew where it came from. I’m like, “Amazon?” It looked to not be helpful information, as the guy still looked deject as he ran to the back. We grumble to each other about how much DHL sucks and get ready for a long wait.

But apparently we got lucky. Bald worker popped out of the back room with a happy look, saying we were really, really lucky. He said he looked into the room of packages, and he saw an Amazon box right next to him and it happened to be ours. He said that never happens to him. Despite being slightly more cheerful because of the easy find, he was clearly still unhappy based on my conversation with him:

Me: So, did they try to deliver this package today?
Bald worker: Nope.
Me: Um, how come?
Bald worker: No drivers. The driver didn’t finish his delivery load by 5PM, and they’re refusing to pay for overtime, so the driver clocked out without finishing their truck.
Me: That’s horrible…
Bald worker: Yep. You weren’t the only ones. 12 drivers didn’t finish their trucks, so 1000+ packages weren’t delivered today.
Kelvin: And the holiday season is just starting.
Bald worker: Delivery guys used to working 12-14 hours are now only working 8.
Me: That’s so bad…
Bald worker: Yep. Write and complain. [hands me signature pad for package] Sign here.

Kelvin and I left with our package, and as I went through the door, I could hear the bald worker immediately tell the next customer (who has several packages he wants to ship) before he could even say anything, “Those aren’t going out tonight.”

But geez, really… what terrible business practices! DHL really IS as horrible as we all assumed they were. btw, I’m not complaining about customer service or anything; the guy was grumpy, but he wasn’t mean or rude to us, and he seemed quite (bluntly) honest and he helped us. I mean, how can they stop paying overtime when deliveries are at their peak?! It’s the holiday season, for crying out loud. That’s insane. This was probably the same “driver issues” that occurred with my last package. I still don’t get how DHL can still have any sort of business. I’d like to not use them, but how can I dictate what couriers the online shops use? Ugh.

11/26/2007    
5:51 pm      Shipment delivered. [Yeah right, "delivered" my ass.]      Santa Clara, CA
8:00 am     With delivery courier.     Santa Clara, CA
7:52 am     Arrived at DHL facility.      Santa Clara, CA
11/24/2007
4:42 am      Depart Facility     Wilmington – Clinton Field, OH
12:47 am     Processed at DHL Location.      Wilmington – Clinton Field, OH
12:06 am     In transit.      Wilmington – Clinton Field, OH

What an insanely busy weekend. It didn’t feel like a vacation since I didn’t really have much opportunity to relax and just not do anything except watch TV and play video games. We managed some reality TV watching Wednesday night and was able to get a few more stars in Super Mario Galaxy late Friday night, but that’s about it. I had fun doing all this stuff, but man, I wish I did more nothing.

Thursday afternoon started with Thanksgiving lunch at Kelvin’s aunt’s house. Kimi brought Taboo, so we played it a bit with Kelvin’s “psycho teenager” cousins and their friends. (I love Taboo.) I think everything was fully prepared at 2PM. Kelvin’s aunt Carol is a fabulous cook, particularly in large quantities, so there was tons and tons of great food. Of course, we stuffed ourselves, but we did hold back a little bit since we had to go have Thanksgiving dinner at Kelvin’s dad’s place at 6PM. Unfortunately, I was so distracted with Taboo and great food, I forgot to take pictures, but I made sure to not forget for dinner.

After lunch, we met up with my mom and went to Kelvin’s dad’s place for dinner at 6PM. They had been nice enough to invite my mom and Rodney to join us in Thanksgiving festivities. Rodney was running late and met us at the house later, but lucky for him, there was apparently some technical difficulties with the new oven. (Tom and Greer had the kitchen remodeled with new appliances, so they weren’t 100% familiarized with them.) As a result, the turkey wasn’t really cooking for a while, causing it to be late by about 2.5 hours. When the turkey finally approached readiness around 8PM-ish, there was a mad rush to get all the sides ready. I guess in an attempt to speed up the cooking of the candied yams, someone decided to put the marshmallow-covered yams on the top oven shelf and set the oven to “broil” at 500°. This caused the yams to spontaneously combust, leading to yelps of “Oh my god, it’s on fire!” Like good sheep-like rubberneckers, I got up from waiting in the living room and headed to the kitchen to see what was up, and then the fire alarm went off. Despite all the stress Greer was surely feeling, it was somewhat amusing. Eventually, everything completed around 8:30ish, and we finally got to eat. Despite the weird cooking of the turkey, it actually ended up quite juicy and yummy, and despite the charcoaled marshmallows, the yams still tasted good. At the end of the night, Greer was still embarrassed for how things went, which was unnecessary cuz everything turned out great anyway. What nobody had mentioned to us was that Tom had planned some long-ass family meeting afterwards with his kids, so everyone who carpooled with a Nishikawa was stuck waiting until 11PM to leave. Oy.

Anyways, my Thanksgiving was as expected, full of good food and friends and family. I hope everyone else had a pretty good Turkey Day too :)

New thing I learned today: George W. Bush pardoned a turkey named May for this year’s Thanksgiving. The presidential tradition of pardoning turkeys started 60 years ago with Harry Truman.