Flushing Apartment

Since it's a work in progress, I just shot the completed parts of the place. I'm slowing filling in the furniture based on sales and color match, so it's going to take a while. Remember, it took me 3 years to get a sofa for the Manhattan place!

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Pine Court Chinese Bistro

Location: 249-32 Horace Harding Expressway, Little Neck, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Hours: SUN-SAT (11am-10pm)
Phone: (718) 279-1999
Prices: $17/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 4
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

It's been a while since I had dim sum, but Auntie Kim and Uncle Bock invited us out today. It was a little different than usual because it wasn't in Flushing. We went all the way out to Little Neck. It sounds illogical to do that, but the idea was to bypass the downtown traffic and crowds for Sunday lunch... one of the peak times of the weekend. We took local roads out to the area to avoid Long Island/beach traffic on the L.I.E.

Please read comments in the Picasa album for details about the restaurant.

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While the food overall was good, it wasn't comparable to the Flushing downtown area even when you factor in the traffic. It took us about 20 minutes to get out there and there was a 30 minute wait for a table. From where I live in Flushing, I could walk to the downtown area in 20 minutes and have a table right away. Parking was nearly just as difficult as the Pine Court lot was packed. There aren't a lot of dim sum places out there, so it looked like all the Chinese in the area went to this place!

Wesley's 3rd Birthday

Wesley's 3rd Birthday was originally going to be at Chucky Cheese, but was switched to a home BBQ instead. Things worked out well because it was a perfect day. It would've also been hard to coordinate 20+ people for dinner at Chucky Cheese with several kids running around. At the house, the kids had all the toys in the world to keep them busy!

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Dragonboat 2010

This year's Dragonboat Festival was a lot like Last Year's. The weather was perfect... sunny with blue skies and no chance of rain. The temperature was somewhere around 83 degrees, which is low for this time of year. I arrived a little before 11am and got lucky with the shuttle bus. It was empty when I got on, then another 7 train arrived and it got packed immediately. I was a little disorientated when we were dropped off though. Because they were in the middle of reconstructing the boathouse and surrounding area, the bus stop was on the opposite side of the usual location. So we started a few blocks from the far end of the events are rather than the boathouse and racing area.

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I started by getting photos of some of the races and boathouse area. Then I headed off to get the events and info. stands. I took my usual lunch break at Chef One and then met up with Charlotte and Jeff. We all headed back to the races to get more photos.

Tung Yi Fung

We haven't gone out for a family dinner in a while, so there was nothing more fitting than heading over to Tung Yi Fung for the best microwaved Chinese food in Flushing! I don't have any changes to any of the stats... the food was still as good as last time. Customers are learning to eat there earlier though. We got there just before 6pm and it was almost full. Previously, it would be empty until about 7pm.

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Leaf Bug

DVDeals 7/25 - 7/31

Clash of the Titans
I haven't purchased on a DVD Tuesday since Terminator Salvation, which was a while ago, but we finally have a good one coming up this week. Clash of the Titans is scheduled to come out. The Blu-ray version is cheapest at Best Buy and Amazon (if you qualify for free shipping) at $24.99. The DVD format is pretty much the same price everywhere... $16.99. This is one of the rare movies that I would buy without having seen it in the theater.

Batman: Under the Red Hood
This looked like an interesting title especially for comic book fans, but I'm going to pass on it because they didn't get Kevin Conroy to voice Batman, which would feel very strange after he voiced the character for every animated release since Batman the Animated Series. Instead, they got Neil Patrick Harris. I love Doogie Howser, but I just don't think he did a good Batman voice (I watched the trailer). If you're interested, Target and Amazon (if you qualify for free shipping) have the Blu-ray for $19.99. The regular DVD is $12.99 at Best Buy and Target. Target has a 2-disc special edition DVD for $15.99. Best Buy throws in a Red Hood statue if you buy the Blu-ray or 2-disc DVD (which they didn't list a price for).

Best Buy Deals
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Stargate Universe Season 1.5 for $24.99
- Terminator Salvation (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Terminator Salvation for $7.99
- Watchmen Director's Cut (Blu-ray) for $14.99

Centrino SSD (Part 3)

I've been using the Centrino laptop with the SSD drive for almost a month now and the boot times are still consistent. This system, which was one of my slowest booting machines is by far the fastest now. Here are some other factors SSD manufacturers advertise.

Weight
I really didn't think this would make a difference because all laptop hard drives are light. When you hold both in your hands, there's not much of a difference. But once it's installed, you'll feel it. The hard drive in my laptop is located at the front left corner. The SSD weighs almost nothing, so I notice it most when the system is folded up and I carry it on my side like a book.

Battery
SSDs are suppose to make a small, but noticeable difference in battery life because there are no moving parts. In my case, there was no difference. The laptop ran for 4 hours under normal use with both the HDD and SSD. Maybe this makes more a difference with newer systems.

So once again... nothing here really makes the laptop blow away the old configuration with the HDD. It was just a nice experiment because I had to see if for myself. I also have a laptop with a virtually unbreakable drive now, so I'm going to make it my repository for any important files I have.

Cancun TOC

This post is a table of contents of all entries related to Reinhard & Marites' wedding in Cancun. I wrote many of these within the past week, but posted them based on the original dates of occurrence:

- Invitation
- Sanborns Cafe
- Reinhard & Marites
- La Panza es Primero
- Kukulcan Shopping
- Interactive Aquarium
- Bubba Gump (Cancun)
- La Isla
- Tequila (in Beach Palace)
- Wok (in Beach Palace)
- Beach Palace Wyndham Grand Resort
- Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza

I'll have to make another trip to Cancun sometime since I wasn't able to go on any of the tours I wanted. But at least my parents got to go. They went to Chichen Itza on July 7 with the Palace Resorts tour. The cost was $100/person, but it was worth it because it included a buffet at the Palace Resorts out there.

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