for only 1800 bucks, he got a 1999 jetta with 105917 miles on it....well it does sound a good deal, but consider this list:

1. cracked front windshield; 2. broken front control panel, including not working speedometer; 3. broken left headlight; 4. two broken passenger side windows (can't be rolled down); 5. bended up hood; 6. not properly working remote control; 7. missing front badge with broken nose panel; 8. timing belt, front brakes, and such.... hehe a pretty long list to fix things up, but first thing first, he has to get this windshield and control panel fixed up before he can safely drive it to school.. fortunately, he had it garaged in some body shop this afternoon so that the technician could start looking into the problems and fix them for him...

 

ok... then after he made his purchase (still a good deal, considering the engine is up and working and the www.kbb.com is indicating a 4500 value on a 1999 jetta with aforementioned miles on) we had to get his car and himself insuranced before we can let him go :P and now here come the funny part, from beach blvd north to 22 eash, and then 57 north exiting on chapman,......we made a mistake coz we didn't know there are two chapmans in orange county....so...we took the first chapman exit and went all the way east to 55, had to head north to hit 91 west and then... I went out on kraemer (since the insurance agent I'm using has her office on kraemer), feng was badly following me and... missed the exit.. he went off to 57 north again... and had to turn back south to hit 91 east... however, uncapable of reading the american highway signs... he failed to do so, and followed 57 south all the way to the chapman we first exited.... now it already had taken us an hour to drive from beach blvd to kraemer (at least I got there ) and he was lost in the middle of no where...gladly he could read some signs and so we located him on yahoo map (I prefer google map) he was like refusing to drive up to kraemer by himself and forcing me to drive another 7 miles to find him to the south. (he was the at corner of the 3 freeways, 5, 57 and 22) eventually we got him back on route and made him follow me to the farmers insurance agent office....so... officially speaking he has traveled all the freeways that are transporting in the orange county: 5, 57, 55, 22, 91 and (405) what a funny day :) gonna make him pay for my gas later....

 

anyway, now that his car is getting fixed and everything's back to normal again... I  have to work on my PS... bah headache...

 

P.S.: I forgot to thank shasha for her brave action of sitting in feng's car experiencing feng's reckless driving and still able to direct him back to the insurance agent office from west chapman ave. near the 5, 57, 22 joint. (I also was lucky enough to sit in his car this afternoon while driving to Ikea in covina...I'd say... wow.. won't gonna do it again>.<) without shasha's heroic action, feng would've stayed in orange for the rest of his life, I reckon. she also later on led him back on from 57 to 60 exiting on brea canyon... >.< salut her..

12/31/2006, busy moving and putting stuff away so that I can have a clean and clear bed to crash in after I went to the new year eve countdown. woke up at around 11am, and started moving from autumn hill to chirping sparrow... been living in the states for over 5 years, inevitably I have collected tons of unnecessary luggages. luckily enough with the help of Mr. No No(our famous Ye Feng), we managed to finish moving in two rounds. by the time we got that done, it was almost 5pm. took a shower, and kinda putting stuff away in my room and took a shrot nap. I  woke up at 8pm ish and dressed up for the new year eve countdown. 

I had to pick up Ye, then Shasha, Xuan, and then Tracy on our way to disney downtown, (that's why it was taking me so long to meet david down there). eventually, given that it was pretty crowded at disney downtown, I found david and karen, and we 7 could enjoy the countdown and firework together on the eve before 2007 hit us. although the firework wasn't that great, I still appreciated the fantastic evening all  7 of us spent together.  well then, after a considerate discussion of where to go after the countdown, majiang was the only choice to kill time before the rose parade in the morning followed by. "The Tournament of Roses Parade was established, and first held, on January 1, 1890, in Pasadena, California, eight miles (13 km) north-east of downtown Los Angeles. It is arguably the most popular annual parade in the United States." from wikipedia.org.  it starts at around 8 in the morning, and the route starts "by going north on South Orange Grove Boulevard, beginning at Ellis Street" and then "it proceeds east on Colorado Boulevard (Pasadena's main thoroughfare and a segment of the former US-66), to Sierra Madre Boulevard. Turning north on Sierra Madre, it ends at Paloma Street. On going North, the floats must travel under the Sierra Madre / I-210 freeway overpass, requiring them to collapse to meet a specific height requirement. In total, this route is 5½ miles (9 km) long; the assembled bands, horse units, and floats take approximately 2.5 hours to pass by." (wikipedia.org). as on can see, feng has taken many pictures of those rose floats and I have picked up some of those clear enough and interesting enough to post it in my space, and also since we played majiang till 5 in the morning and drove all the way from garden grove to arcadia and had a small delay discussing the fate (survival possibility) of one of our member, feng and I could only take a nap in my tiny lil car parked in rosemead.  as is known to all, I'm a pretty crazed sleeping addict. so I decided to wake up at 9am instead, after picking up xuan in arcadia then we arrived at the intersection of san gabriel blvd and colorado blvd at around 9:30am, there we had trouble finding parking space. and that's why we've missed the first few rose floats and there were no pictures of UCLA and other floats....well still it's a fun and rather long experience to watching the floats going by...slowly... fun fun beginning of 2007 :) hope this whole year will be a brand new start for myself ;)