To Infiniti and Beyond!

We got a new car!!! :-)

It's an Infiniti G37 (hence the dumb pun in the title). We're so excited!! It accelerates so smooth that I have to keep checking the speedometer to make sure I'm staying under 90 mph, haha. Even the name of the color is super sleek: Graphite Shadow.

After a year of complaining about the Avalon's long list of problems (spastic engine acting like it wanted to jump out of the hood, broken clickers, broken seat belt, no key access to the trunk, broken cassette player), we finally did it. We are, however, feeling a little sad at consigning it to the faraway bat-cave of a parking garage at our complex...it's been a great car. Lots of great memories.

While shopping, we also looked at Audi A4 and BMW 328i, but ended up liking the G37 much better – both how it felt and how much it cost. Plus it's currently rated as the best sports sedan according to Consumer Reports. The A4 was nice, but Chris didn't like how it was hard to check his blind spot, since he had to move the seat all the way back. We might have liked the 328i better, but the salesman only let us demo an older model and didn't seem to take us scruffy twenty-somethings seriously. Oh well, his loss.

Now off to have more adventures with our shiny new toy. Zoooooom!!! :-)

P.S. Don't you think it's great irony that I'm wearing my green save-the-Earth "Stay Cool" t-shirt while buying a (sort of) gas guzzler? Though actually, the G37 has nearly identical mileage to the Avalon, so technically we're not making things worse... Plus we gotta get these fun cars while they're still legal, right? By the time we need another new car, Obama may have outlawed new cars with mileage like ours, heehee.

Win Win Win

The USTA Adult League season is a little more than halfway through, and Chris and I are both getting some fun wins now, after a slightly rough start.

Chris started off his season with a loss to a tough team, probably because his muscle memory was a bit screwed up after all the new things we tried to learn at tennis camp in Utah.

I started with not one, but three consecutive losses at singles. In my very first singles match, I was so flustered that I lost track of the score and accidentally gave my opponent credit for a free game. Before this season, I only played doubles, so I was mentally unprepared for the long, tiring rallies, the different angles, and I was certainly not used to keeping track of the score myself. (So nice to have Chris keep track of the score for me in mixed doubles!)

After such a demoralizing wakeup call, we both hit the courts for some extra practice time. Chris started going to 7 a.m. Saturday morning practices with his team, and I started scheduling singles matches with anyone who would play with me, via OneClick, the ladder at work, my team's practices, anything!

Since then, Chris won his next two matches and developed some killer blazing first serves and evil high-kicking second serves. For me, I won my next seven singles matches, ending with three wins in three consecutive days this weekend. Five wins at 3.0, and two at 3.5 – super-psyched!

Now that we've totally overdone it and are taking a break to nurse our various injuries, time to get some more ice and ibuprofen. Will write more if we make it to playoffs!

Lovely Spring Weekend

A couple weeks ago, Chris's parents came to visit, and we spent the lovely spring weekend exploring the Bay Area.

Wine Tasting at Casa de Fruta

Our first stop was the Santa Clara Valley Wineries Spring Wine Celebration and BBQ, which was at Casa de Fruta (near Gilroy). I know...wine from Santa Clara Valley?! Isn't the real name Silicon Valley? And don't we basically only grow startups here? I at least, have never seen any grapes growing along 101. But actually, they had some nice wines; overall, our favorite winery was Cinnabar.

We listened to a lot of 70s music, and also realized that I was the only Asian at the entire event. I didn't even see any Indians. Seriously non-Silicon Valley. But a lovely day nonetheless! Before we left, we bought some dried fruit and an olallieberry pie. There was much confusion as to what an olallieberry is, but here is the final equation (according to Wikipedia):

Loganberry = Blackberry x Raspberry

Youngberry = Blackberry x Dewberry

Olallieberry = Loganberry x Youngberry

Olallieberry + Pie = YUM!

Hiking to Tomales Point

The next day, we went hiking in Marin for the very first time (despite having talked about wanting to go for several years now). We chose to hike to Tomales Point and it was gorgeous; ocean views, wildflowers in full bloom, and plentiful wildlife (elk). What more could we ask for?

We also ran into this interesting flora (below), which Kevin Gong's site calls a "thistle". But we dubbed it the "Mordor Flower".

You know, flaming eye, ensconced in a spiky pillar (of sorts)?

Anyways, beautiful weekend. Very glad Chris's parents came out and motivated us to do something other than play tennis! Please feel free to look at more pretty pictures from wine tasting and hiking on Picasa.