15 March 2008

Hanging out with the girls

This morning I woke up knowing I didn't have much to do today. The one thing that stressed me the most was taking my car to get an estimate. I went to a local auto body shop. The appraisal guy was busy so I waited in the shop's lounge. The receptionist was very polite and gave me a big smile. They even had hot chocolate ready for guests. The appraisal guy was done with the others in just a few minutes and I showed him my car. "It would be around $1000," he said. I was a little surprised. He didn't want to write me an estimate. I decided to go to another shop to get another estimate. I went to a place that didn't have a lounge or a nice receptionist. The guy there checked on it, wrote me an estimate, and told me I could drop the car off in the morning and come back in the afternoon to pick it up. Let's just say the estimate he gave me was a lot more reasonable. I would be keeping the insurance settlement check. I felt good because I wouldn't need to call that claim manager again.

I took a short nap before leaving to meet up with Judy and Sylvia. I did a lousy job wrapping her present, but I thought she would like the gift anyway. The traffic on 60 Freeway was horrible. The rain was short and abrupt. That certainly helped cars move any faster. I was already running late because I stopped on the way to get gas and cash. I called Judy to tell her that I would be 10 min late. Not quite. I got there at 6:30. I even saw Sylvia, who told me she was going to be very late, driving into the plaza before me. It was bad that both of us were so late and the birthday girl was there on time. Fortunately Judy didn't get mad. We were celebrating her birthday at Kanpai House. It was not busy at all. We got our table and settled down. We ordered grilled sausage, grilled tempura, grilled chicken glizzard for starters. Judy picked a couple main dishes from the menu: three cup chicken and stir fried beef with basil. Sylvia said their chow mein was good so we had that instead of rice. Overall the chow mein noodle was the best dish. Sylvia was right again. I liked the grilled tempura too. I thought the beef and chicken were over-salted. It was understandable they made these dishes salty to sell beers. This is a good place to hang out, eat simple Chinese food, and drink beers, Taiwanese style. I shouldn't pick on the food too much. Judy opened the gift after finishing the cakes that Sylvia bought from RJ Patisserie. The cakes were beautiful, colorful, fancy, and delicious. Judy seemed to like the bodycare combo I got her too. I was happy.

I came back to meet up with Megan, who just completed her flight training. She was in the mood for hot grass jelly, so we decided to meet at Tea Station. It was very busy inside. Luckily I got us a table towards the back when that table's people moved to the front booth. We sat down and it became the same old laugh fest. We both ordered the same thing. Too bad Megan didn't really like her hot grass jelly because she wanted it hotter. I thought it tasted good, but could be better if it had some rice balls, taro balls, or yam balls. We left around 11:10 and I got home not long ago.

Including last night out with Jen, this has been a busy weekend with the girls.

No comments: