boon's log 4905.03: 'tis the season...

... to have colourful pistachio nuts. Fa la la la la la la la la...

Nuts!!!


Christmasy pistachios

Saw this last weekend in Winco (one of the 24hr grocery stores here). Would you dare to try these? You'd probably have a coloured tongue afterwards! Yikes!

boon out...

boon's log 4905.02: Shopping Mania

It was shopping mania last ThanksGiving weekend. Literally hundreds and thousands of people lined up in front of malls and stores since the night before the doors opened on the day after ThanksGiving. There were reports of people lining up since 6PM on Thursday evening, waiting eagerly for the doors to be opened at 5AM on Friday morning - that is an hour shy of 12 hours! They came with their sleeping bags, Winnebagos, foldable chairs and blankets, coffee flasks and portable TVs... and spent the entire night camping in front of stores such as Circuit City, Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and the like.

The day after Thanksgiving has reportedly become the biggest shopping day of the year, beating the weekend before Christmas and the more and more locals get more and more excited about it year after year. The National Retail Fderation reported a increase in sales this year - a 22% increase from $22.8bil in 2004 to $27.8bil this year (NRF article), with an average spending of $303 per person.

Well, a few of us actually joined in the crowd (Yeah!!!) but we were not as enthusiastic as some of the locals. We only started queueing up at 12AM on Friday morning, just in time for one stores, CompUSA to open. Various stores open their doors at different times, some at 12AM, 4AM, 5AM, 6AM and some at 7AM. And if you spotted something that you find really cheap and really worth the wait in the cold autumn morning (very early and unearthly hours in the morning) and the rain (or snow in some areas), then get in line, buddy... We managed to get most of the stuffs that we wanted to get, most of which are electrical items. We also encountered a few "interesting" characters during our shop-till-you-drop experience. Shoppers shouting on top of their voices at other shoppers and also at store assistants, people running like a chicken without head... but to top the list of "interesting characters" was one guy who decided to return something he bought from the shop at 2AM in the morning (!!!) and hogging the check out counter! Goodness! Can't he return it some other time?!

Anyways, I will think twice before attempting this "siao" thing again - I guess it is probably one of those once-in-a-lifetime thingy, where you just have to experience it once and live to tell it... :) We literally shopped round-the-clock with a few shut-eye in between for two straight days... goodness gracious. Well, some had more stories to tell and more "sovenirs" from the DoorBuster sales than the presents that they bought - ouch!

boon out...

boon's log 4805.02: Lobsters at Reno

We drove to Lake Tahoe last weekend with YY, MI and DM. Our main agenda for that day was to arrive at Boomtown Casino and (no, not to gamble, although I did throw in a dollar on the slot machines) try the famous Reno Lobster Buffet. Boomtown boasts of their all-you-can-eat Whole Maine Lobster buffet for USD19.90.

But of course, we did not just drive hundred-over miles just to stuff ourselves silly with lobsters. We did a little bit of touring around the south of Lake Tahoe before heading up north to Reno for the buffet. It was a pleasant drive all the way - which is always the case, where the trip "to" the destination is always more interesting than the return trip. We did a couple of stops along teh way to take some scenery shots and here are some of them...


Approaching Lake Tahoe, along Highway 50


South Lake Tahoe


South Lake Tahoe


South Lake Tahoe


View from the north east point of Lake Tahoe (Memorial Point)


A little bit of a hike will bring you down to the water level, where you can experience the crystal clear waters of Lake Tahoe.


Another view of Lake Tahoe from Memorial Point

After lepak-ing around Lake Tahoe for about an hour or so, we drove for another 1.5 hours to our final destination of the day...



The buffet was really good, and the lobsters were nice. Yeah, they even have that lady dressed in a lobster uniform. :) But there is only so much of lobster you can take in before you (turn into one? no...) start telling yourself, "I've had enough of losbter for the rest of the year!" - which is by the way, not many days left anyway... :)


Lobster buffet. 1st helping. Notice the side dishes that came along with the lobster? Those were gone by the time we hit the second, and third, and fourth, and...

IL had 2 while I had five of 'em Maine Losbters and raised the white flag. Our dear Mr. MI had SIX! Gosh, very "keng". On the way into the restaurant, there was a display showing the "Champion of the Lobster Eating Contest" who won $2000 for eating 33 lobsters in 12 minutes! Goodness gracious me! Either he has hollow legs or he has a tube running out of his stomach to a secondary food storage compartment!

.....

33 freaking lobsters!!!

It took me 2 hours just to conquer 5 of them... wow. Salute! Salute!

Well, after that hearty meal, we headed home... yeah, as you may have guessed, it was a a exteremely quite trip home. Everyone was fast asleep, except for the driver (me) and his faithful co-driver (IL) endured the long drive home... :P darn, now I wished I took a picture of three sleepy heads at the back and post it here!!! That'll teach'em for abandoning me to drive and drift away to slumberland themselves. :)

boon out...

boon's log 4805.01: Colours of Fall

I've been wanting to take a picture of the beautiful colours of the trees in the carpark of my office for quite sometime, but it was either I did not have my camera with me or the weather was not good enough... or sometimes, I just forgot. Anyways, last Friday's weather was just nice and I parked in front of this beautiful tree... and I had my camera with me. So there we go...


Colours of Fall

by the way, here's a warm welcome to Ernest to the world of blogging. Hope he won't get "tired" of blogging... ;)

boon out...

boon's log 4705.02: The Verdict...

We've just finished the Blockbuster Online trial...


Bluckbuster Online

Comparing Blockbuster with NetfFlix, we prefer the latter rather than the former. For one reason, the delivery time is faster - an important factor in making sure you get the most out of your money... The only advantage that Bluckbuster have over NetFlix is that it offers 2 free monthly in-store rental coupons so that you can go to your nearest Blockbuster and grab any movie (or game) you want, instead of waiting for it through the mail. So, that could very well be the pivot for deciding between choosing Blockbuster against the competitor. NetFlix also boasts for having more movie collection compared to Blockbuster. Having tried both, somehow, we are still leaning towards NetFlix... PLUS good reviews from colleagues and friends. Well... NetFlix it is. :) Well there you go, free advertisement for NetFlix... I hope some NetFlix people are reading this and gives us a one-month free rental... :P

boon out...

boon's log 4605.01: Busy days...

Have been really busy for the past two weeks in meetings and discussion groups thus the backlog in updating my blog - not to mention pretty stressed as well, with work - somethings that my company will have badge if I decide to discuss them here... Anyways, I just came back from Arizona (yeah, again...) late last night. I guess it was a blessing that I get to stay in quite a relaxing and nice hotel , even though it was a back to back of stressful and tiresome meetings. Just wish that I had more time there to explore and enjoy the hotel more, with IL. But I gotta get back...

Anyways, in my short time there, I managed to take a brief stroll along the Gila Riverand capture some pictures around the hotel. Here are some of them. The weather is so much better, compared to my previous entry on Oregon weather. I guess that is one of the things that I like about Arizona, where the Sun always shines (well, majority of the time)






Pictures of Sheraton's Wild Horse Pass

boon out...