i've moved...

http://dobryden.posterous.com/

just experimenting w/ a different blog site; trying to find one that offers an easier user interface (esp downloading pictures) and has my name available hahaa. come visit me over there =)

bye bye birdie...

i usually carpool home w/ the hubby. we like to pick up aj (and my nephew) together. sometimes if i need to wrap up some emails, i'll have s drive while i work through the emails on my phone. after we pick up our son and nephew, s gets on the freeway.

after maybe 1/2 a mile, i hear s say, "shoot".
i was looking down at my phone and had no idea what happened but did hear a "thump".
i said, "what did you do?"
s says, "i hit a bird. it was already injured; laying down. i couldn't swerve since there were cars on both sides."

we didn't think much of it until five minutes later we heard another "thump". when we got home, this is what had happened.

the bird completely knocked out my grill and broke my fog light! oh, the black scraps were from an accident several years ago...oops. luckily s has already replaced the grill and fixed the bulb.

kids say the darnest things...

aj has definitely been more vocal and some of the things he says...s and i have no idea where it comes from!

1 - it started to rain and of course, drivers feel the need to slow down or brake. so as the cars in front of me brakes, i had to brake abruptly. aj says, "be careful mommy"

2 - i needed to speed up to pass a truck to get on the on-ramp. as i'm accelerating aj says, "slow down mommy."

3 - my son likes to play w/ my lip balm; he just finished putting some on his lips.
aj: "you want some daddy?"
s: "no thanks."
aj: "try it!"
of course s has to right? we always encourage aj to try different things.

4 - we created this bad habit of having someone sleep w/ aj at night. s was kissing me good night; aj says, "kiss me daddy!"

5 - aj loves to ask "what are you doing?"
aj: "what are you doing daddy"
s: "picking my nose" (because he really was at that moment)
aj: "oh, i pick my nose," and then takes his finger and shoves it up his nose. turns to me, "mommy, pick your nose."

shop til you drop now

if there is anything classic that you want or have been eyeing, you should buy it soon!! i'm not sure if the everyday shopper has noticed but apparel prices are going up! since i'm in the retail industry, i feel so intimate w/ the current cotton / labor crisis that has struck the entire industry and is also a macroeconomic issue. prices retailers are being charged they say will jump 20-40% this year. retailers have no choice but to increase prices; some have already admitted the price increases while others are tiptoeing around it. the sad fact though, is that consumers are still very price sensitive and are still waiting for sales.

as much as i love to wear sweaters and boots, i'm soo ready for spring! since weather is definitely not on retailers' side, i think spring product will be backed up and retailers will start to be promotional...if they aren't already. a couple of items i've been eyeing (some of which i couldn't resist but did buy w/ a promotion).

jcrew is by far my favorite retailer (amongst) the specialty retailers you find in malls. the best selling styles are usually the 1st to go when they have their sales but they do occasionally have promotions online.

i'm a sucker for plaid shirts...i love this color combo

my other weakness - stripes! i love how this stripe feels more elevated because it's merino

madewell is a brand under jcrew. their styling is a bit more funky / casual. unfortunately they don't have any stores in the bay area. they did launch their website last year so at least we can buy online!

love love this shirt. should have bought it already...it's sold out now!

ann taylor...i remember as a high schooler, i aspired to shop at ann taylor when i was going to join 'corporate america'. of course, in my industry, it's uber casual so i never need to dress up. i can wear jeans every day! ann taylor has always been perceived as an mature and conservative brand. however, in the last 6 months or so, they've revamped their image and their target customer. even their marketing has been compared to jcrew.

saw this on cameron diaz in people magazine. found a 30% off coupon so i got this stripe sweater!

deals...deals...deals

so a couple of years ago, my friend started working for a company called gilt group. back then, no one had even heard of gilt. he was one of the 1st few employees and introduced me to the company as an online sample sale. he "invited" me to be a member and i was instantly hooked! they carried some amazing designers at huge discount prices. every morning at 9am PST, they would introduce new brands to the sale. people were obsessed...all the good stuff was already sold out in the 1st ten minutes!! it works perfectly for people in the east coast because it's during their lunch but is sucky for us since it's usually when most of us are already at work!

now, this site along w/ many copycats and deal sites are all the rage. there seems to be an endless no. of new sites popping up offering the latest deals! so these are a couple of my favorites...please let me know if anyone has other sites that they love!

daily deals...
groupon - use this most often
living social - most famous for their amazon gift card the other week (amazon invested millions into this company)
social buy - haven't gotten anything recently; definitely hit or miss on the deals
townhog - use this the least; usually just look at the deal in the subject title

shopping...
gilt groupe - love this site but the best looking things are usually sold out in the 1st 10 minutes! they originally started w/ only women's clothes but now has quite a selection of men's, home and children. i've also started receiving their weekly giltcity and they have some good deals there as well
luckymag - from lucky magazine. very focused...usually has a specific item that is highly discounted for 1-2 days
swirl - from daily candy. some popular brands but nothing i've found to be an amazing deal
one kings lane - similar to gilt group but completely focused on products for the home. i also love that they are based in san francisco =)

happy shopping!!

happy new year!

i can't believe we are already in a new year. this last year has just blown by so fast and if i reflect back on the year (which looking at past posts have definitely helped)...there have been several highs and some unfortunate lows:

1 - work / life balance. whoever coined this phrase must have been an idealist hahaa. i don't know if this truly exists w/ where i work and what i do. i love my career and what i've done for the last 10+ years. i've built some great professional relationships and have worked hard in building my credibility in retail. i mean, it's certainly not, "oh, this is what i was always meant to do kind of thing like that but it's certainly something i'm good at and can see myself doing for many years to come. i've always been very ambitious in my career and fiercely independent. i don't know if it's just because of being a minority or a female (and w/out being all "i've had to overcome so many obstacles"...), i've always just felt that i wanted to do well professionally so that if i ever had a daughter, i can show her what is truly possible if you set your mind to it. i know, minor technicality...i don't have a daughter.

on the flip side of career ambition is also longevity. your career is a marathon and not a sprint. maybe it's okay to relax a little bit and focus on the family? the next level for me is VP but then what? really, is that what i want to do for the next 20+ years? but as steve says, he doesn't think it's in my dna to put the brakes on.

2 - afterlife. this past year has been trying in the sense that i've had to say goodbye to 2 very very dear people. my maternal grandfather left us in april and my uncle passed in october. if there was something positive that came out of my grandfather's passing, it would be that death is now a slightly more comfortable topic to discuss w/ my parents. not that we always want to discuss death but at least we know what their wishes are when they do pass. i think the other upside was just being w/ family and knowing how important family is despite the language barrier that does exist w/ my mom's side of the family.

my uncle always treated me well. growing up, i lived w/ my aunt and uncle when i was in high school and for a short time after college. he always spoiled me growing up and his daughter used to joke that i was his 'favorite' daughter. even though he was sick for awhile, it was still tough to actually say my final goodbyes.

3 - travel. traveling is somewhat easier now that aaron is slightly more independent. we flew twice this past year...both 1-2 hour trips. aaron is actually really good on flights and since he sleeps w/ us at night, sleeping away from home is no non issue. the boy loves to sleep so napping is never an issue as well. next year, s is actually traveling to europe for a bachelor trip in april and while he is gone, i'm planning on taking aaron on a trip somewhere as well (either hawaii or new york). hopefully, we can also plan another trip in the fall.

4 - marriage. what can i say, i'm very lucky to have such an amazing husband (though i'd like to think he was lucky as well hahaa). we have always appreciated each other's independence yet, he truly does take care of his family.

5 - friends. i consider my sister to be my oldest / dearest friend. i don't really keep in contact w/ my friends from high school (facebook doesn't count). it's really my friends from college and previous gap colleagues that are my dear friends. i think about how long i've known these girls and since i started college in '96, that would make this upcoming year +15 years now!! wow...not many people would voluntarily put up w/ me for that long. family is obligated.

6 - sf giants. i mean how can i not mention the world champion sf giants --- especially since i'm watching a rerun of the parade right now. as someone born and raised in san francisco, to be part of something so special this year, it's just unbelievable. even know, when i wear any of my giants gear, i just get all these happy feelings. =)

i've been a very blessed individual and i have so much to be thankful for in my life and i can't wait to see what 2011 has in store!!

santa is not my friend

s and i knew aj was not going to like santa...he's just such a shy guy. we tried to prepare him for this visit. we showed aj all his pictures from the last 2 years on santa's lap. we told him that santa would give him cars and trucks. we went to the mall and showed him santa and he was fine w/ it. when we said, let's go say hi to santa, he said "okay". there was a reasonable wait and once it was our turn, he seemed okay. we even got him to hi five and fist pump santa. however, once s picked him up to sit on santa it was not looking good. he wanted to get off immediately. i coaxed him to get back on santa and the photographer was able to get one decent shot of aj before he started crying.

a harmless fist pump - thought it was a nice way to warm up to santa

yeah, i was wrong

ring bearer...

i love this picture! s' brother got married in october and aj was the ring bearer while our neice was the flower girl. s and i were really nervous that he wasn't going to walk down the aisle since he is so shy around strangers. he actually started out well. as he got half way down the aisle, he saw some familiar faces...my sister and brother. so he stops, calls them out and tries to sit down with them!! it was so cute! they had show him s at the front of the church so he would continue to walk down toward s.

humm baby!

growing up 5 minutes away from candlestick park naturally lends itself to being a sf giants and sf niners fan. growing up in the 80's, i remember the championship years of the 49ers w/ joe montana, steve young, jerry rice, john taylor, ronnie lot, brent jones...i can just go on and on. w/ the giants, it was roger craig w/ will clark, matt williams, robby thompson, kevim mitchell and rod beck.

as a child, i collected baseball cards. i actually remember mailing a fan letter to will clark w/ his baseball card hoping he would autograph it and send it back to me. how naive huh? i remember watching the world series against the a's in my living room and then experiencing the earthquake.

i remember the disappointing 2002 season...where we completely fell apart and lost the world series. i actually was lucky enough to attend the NLCS series where we hosted the cardinals. that was my 1st experience in attending a postseason game and it was just sooo amazing how different the atmosphere was versus a nomal regular season game.

one of my goals is to attend spring training. i'm very determined to do this...maybe when aj is bit older and can appreciate baseball, we can travel to arizona and hang out for spring training!!

as the giants season started this year, very few expected much from the team, i honestly didn't pay too much attention either. it wasn't until i'd say mid august that i started to pay more attention; as the giants started their hot streak and the padres started collapsing, i REALLY got focused.

needless, to say, we all know how the season ends! we were very very fortunate and blessed to have gone to a game in each of the post season series.

NLDS - giants vs braves

game 1: w 1-0
game 2: l 4-5
game 3: w 3-2
game 4: w 3-2

s got 6 tickets to game 2 of the nlds. unfortunately, that night was also his brother's rehearsal dinner so he was unable to attend. i went to the game w/ my brother, his girlfriend, my sister and brother in law and my dear friend, j. unfortunately, this was the game we lost in the series. though cain pitched a great game, the bullpen had a off night and we lost in extra innings.

j lending me her panda hat!

j & j

my cousins also attended this game. they had box seats - so they came to visit us in the view reserves

NLCS - giants vs phillies

game 1: w 4-3
game 2: l 1-6
game 3: w 3-0
game 4: w 6-5
game 5: l 2-4
game 6: w 3-2

what an awesome series...s was lucky enough to get tickets to the 1st home game which was game 3. it turned out to be a day game which was a bit inconvenient but obviously, not a deal breaker. we went w/ my cousin and his son since they are always so generous in inviting us to 49ers / warriors / giants games. cain pitched an AMAZING game and we left as winners!

probably not very noticable but my cousin and his son are on the jumbotron! they are the bright orange blob on the left side of the screen. hahaa.

WORLD SERIES - giants vs rangers

game 1: w 11-7
game 2: w 9-0
game 3: l 2-4
game 4: w 4-0
game 5: w 3-1

i don't even know where to start w/ this series. again, s worked his magic and got 4 seats to game 1 of the WORLD SERIES! s and i each got to pick one person to go w/ us (to be fair). so s invited our friend that actually during the 2002 NLCS, gave us 4 tickets! i told my sister, brother and brother in law that they had to duke it out for the one available ticket. long story but the lucky winner was my brother in law.

but it gets even better! my cousin's company has season suite tickets and select season ticket holders were offered a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to participate in the pre game ceremonies. she was great enough to sign us up! we had to basically take a day off to get to the park early to practice. volunteers had the chance to hold the american flag during the national anthem or shoot the streamer cannons off the warning track. s, r and i chose the flag and j picked the cannons. it was just unbelievable to be on the same field as the 2 teams playing in the world series. it was just such an unbelievable experience - definitely one of the highlights in my life. we won this 1st game - lincecum wasn't his normal stellar self but the offense was HOT and we just killed it!

practicing before game - s is in the orage cap over

i was that close to both teams AND to john legend who was singing the national anthem

s and i before the game

r and i waiting to practice...

aj turns 2

i can't even believe next week will be november! i'm even in more disbelief that my son turned 2!! he is just growing up too fast and time is just flying by!!

we had our trip to the pediatrician last week and he's progressing along just as expected.
weight: 31.6 lbs (75-90% percentile)
height: 36 inches (75-90% percentile)

he has so much personality, it's just insane! the things that comes out of his mouth is just surprising at times. unfortunately, his favorite words are: mine and no. he is starting to string some words together but at times it's tough to understand him because he mixes his english w/ his chinese.

he's still so shy. s and i are definitely starting to do some research on preschools. we are ideally looking for an immersion / bilingual daycare (more of my preference than s'). however, we are struggling a bit w/ the location. there are pros and cons to finding one near our house but also can work w/ one in the city. in any case, it will be good for him to have more of a routine and to interact w/ other toddlers.

potty training - we definitely feel like he's ready. he has been telling my mom whenever he pees or poops but usually it's after he's already done it!! there are still so many convenient reasons to keep him in diapers but we do think he's ready so we'll start soon. that will also help because some schools require toddlers to be potty trained.

sleeping - no progress there. he's still sleeping w/ us!!

i love this picture but seriously...his head is as big as mine already!!