Adam and Jubina's Wedding

This past weekend was filled with lots of driving and eating out. I have realized that Simi Valley is actually far from just about everything. And driving to Orange County is a matter that requires quite a bit of planning. There are lots of variables to factor into the equation. Here is a formula that I have come up with. Probably doesn't make much sense, but let's try it out. We will do some separate calculations and then combine them.

COG is Cost of Gas= (miles round trip) / (MPG) * (Price of Gas)

Traffic Factor = This is freeway dependent. 91 = 6 points, 101 = 6 points, 5 = 5 points, 405 = 4 points, 210 = 3 points. If you use the carpool, you reduce the points of the corresponding freeway by half. So for me to get to the OC on Sunday, I took the 405 all the way down and used the carpool lane so my traffic factor is 4 * 1/2 = 2. This is based on which freeway you spend the majority of your time on. Based on my opinion, the more annoying the freeway, the higher the points it gets.

Music Quality= Dependent upon what you have available to you. If you have your own CD/iPod = 1 point, XM Radio = 2 points, FM Radio = 3 Points, AM Radio = 4 points, No Radio = 5 points, and Indian Music = 9 points. Once again, the lower the better. I know I will hear complaints for giving an unfair amount of points for Indian Music, but have you heard this stuff. It deserves to get punished.

So my formula incorporating all these factors is as follows:

Worth Making Trip (WMK)= COG * Traffic Factor * Music Quality

The lower the WMK, the better.

So for my trip this past weekend this is how it worked out.

COG= 140 miles/23 MPG * $3.20 per gallon (premium) = 19.47

Traffic = 405 freeway with carpool = 2

Music Quality = Majority Indian Music = 9 :-(

So my WMK = 19.47 * 2 * 9 = 350.46

It is up to you to determine what kind of cut off you have for your WMK. For some people, if your WMK is over 400, you may decide to abandon the trip. This is your decision to make. I can't do everything for you.

Now there are definitely other factors that come into play. And there will always be situations where no matter how high your WMK, you will make the trip because you really really want to. And this past weekend was one of those cases. We could have had a WMK of 1000, we were still going to attend our friend, Adam's, wedding. It was a beautiful affair and we had lots of fun. It was also great to see people that we don't get to see very often because of the distance. Below are some picture from the wedding.

Beautiful Cake...

Our most favorite baby in the whole wide world, Jumana. Can't get enough of her smile.

And the lovely couple. Don't they look amazing.

First dance

Living with Mononucleosis

My life over the past week has officially sucked. Starting last Monday, my throat started hurting. Figured I was coming down with a cold. Then I wake up Tuesday morning and the pain is so intense that I am near tears. So I call in sick to work and call my doctor who thinks its Strep Throat. Get the antibiotics and start it right away. Get thru Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I will remember these days as "The days that I felt that I didn't really need a throat... Let's cut it out". The pain that I felt for those three days was something that I have never felt before. Every time I would swallow, I felt like I had just swallowed a fireball. Then there was the fever which would go away with some Motrin and then come back with a vengeance once the pills wore off. Needless to say, that sleep didn't really come by very often either with the pain and the fever.

So come Thrusday evening, the antibiotics haven't performed their duty (for which I believe that I should get my money back, but that will be another endeavor). So I got to the doctor on Friday morning, and she draws some blood to run a couple of tests. Guess what comes back...

I HAVE FREAKING MONO!!!! MONO!!!!

This is the disease that everyone made fun of in school if you got it because it is most commonly passed through saliva, which means kissing was the easiest way to transfer it. I don't even have any cool stories to go along with having Mono, like I made out with a bunch of different girls and that is how I got it. Plus, adults are supposed to be immune to it, so I feel super duper great about having a disease which I am supposed to be too old to get.

So now that they know what I have, all I can do is let the infection run its course since Mono is a virus and antibiotics don't work. All she gave me were some steroids to help reduce the inflammation in my throat. Now I know what Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire feel like. I am all juiced up. I can already see the muscles starting to bulge and my head is getting bigger. I just hope this doesn't effect my candidacy for the baseball hall of fame.

Today's picture is that of my daily medicinal regimen for the time being. The 2 big purple pills are Acai Antioxidants to help boost my immune system, 1 whitish pill is a daily vitamin, 3 circular pills are steroids, 1 small purple pill is to help with nausea, and 12 Motrin to help with the pain and the fever. And on top of that, I have always had a horribly hard time swallowing pills, so that makes this so much more fun....

Trip to San Francisco

For Qurrat's birthday, I surprised her with a trip to San Francisco. She had been mentioning a trip back to the city for a while, so I finally took some time off and planned a trip to this wonderful city. I have decided that if I could live in another city besides LA, it would have to be SF. I mean just look at it. You get bridges. BRIDGES!!! Which are awesome and breathtaking by themselves. Plus you get amazing food, good weather, and lots of culture.

So when Qurrat came back from school on Thursday night, I had a suitcase, her present (Coach Bag), and a folder with the itinerary for the weekend.

So we headed up on Friday morning, driving up the 5 and making a pitstop in Sunnyvale to see some friends at Yahoo and then off to lunch for the best pizza in the world. The first time I had Seniore's was when I was living in the Bay Area. I immediately fell in love with their pizza. Plus, it definitely helps that they only use beef and turkey... NO PORK!!! That means that I get to have pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and all the other good stuff that I am not normally allowed to have.

From the South Bay, we headed into San Francisco and checked into the Intercontinental Hotel next to the Moscone Center. It's a beautiful new hotel. We walked around the city for a bit which allowed me to take even more pictures.

On Saturday, we walked around Pier 39 and then went for Korean BBQ with friends to celebrate Qurrat's birthday. My friends are amazing and even had a cake to celebrate Qurrat's and Henry's birthday and to congratulate Aron on getting into grad school.

On Sunday we took a trip out to Alcatraz. It had been years and years since I had been there.

And then, we saw some bridges throughout our trip. I love me some bridges.

Before we left, we went to Ghiradelli and had a Hot Fudge Sundae and then one last trip to Seniore's before we left for some delectable garlic cheese bread.