For our last day in New Orleans, we went on a tour of Laura Plantation. Mrs. Jang was right when they said they had a lot of very interesting stories on the tour. We also visited neighboring Oak Alley Plantation, which was more picturesque and great for photos. That evening, Leon, their son, who my brother and I have been friends with for a long time also, drove all the way out from Baton Rouge to join us for dinner. He invited us to visit the LSU campus on our way home, and we thought, why not?

We missed you, Howard! [ see all photos ]

Leon was kind enough to be our personal tour guide around LSU. We'd been there a looooooooong time ago for a table tennis tournament, but definitely did not tour the campus in detail like we did that day. Leon also told me that visitors to LSU were supposed to engage in a ritualistic activity before leaving LSU ... so of course I went ahead and did it (I asked my dad to join me, but he declined):

Yeah ... I pretty much regretted doing that. My body really ain't what it used to be. I was nauseous pretty much for the rest of the day. Ugh!

Thanks to the Jang family for hosting us in Louisiana. Come visit us soon! :D

My parents had been wanting to visit some family friends who live near New Orleans for a while now, and the opportunity arose pretty recently. They asked me to join them (my mom claims that I make it more fun for them, haha), so off we went.

Me 'n Mom being silly in front of the Mississippi

Day 1 was just driving (~6 hrs / 370mi). That evening, Mr. and Mrs. Jang explained in detail the tours we could go on the next day. My parents entrusted me with planning our itinerary, and so they were basically forced to do what I wanted to do. :) It consisted of a walking tour of the French Quarter (my first choice was actually a bike tour, but ... I think I'll have to do that with other like-minded people, heh), and then a swamp tour. THAT was awesome. :)

Gator Vid 2 / Gator Vid 3 / Gator Vid 4

While headed to Jackson Square for the walking tour, a lady who saw we were blatant tourists told us she was headed that way and kindly walked with us in that direction. She told me a little about herself and how she'd moved from Arizona to New Orleans, and that if we had a chance we should go check out the Garden District. If we wanted to take a horse carriage out there, she highly recommended a man by the name of Marlin Malloy. "That's my ex-husband," she said. "Now I don't recommend him as a husband or a father, but he's a damn good tour guide, and you know he must be good if I'm recommending my ex-husband to you!" We shared a laugh, and parted ways. Never got to see if I could find Mr. Malloy amongst the horse carriage drivers and tell him that his ex-wife had recommended me. :)

I have never been interested / good at history, but I actually learned a lot about Louisiana history on all the tours we took. So excuse me if my captions are a little long-winded, I'm excited that I learned a thing or two on this trip. :) See the whole story in ze pictures!

Highlight of my weekend: we made ice cream from scratch (save milking cows and harvesting eggs from chickens)! But first, my favorite shot of the weekend:

Yes, Sammy the pomeranian got a "lion cut" for the first time. This dog is incredibly cute, and is still incredibly cute, but his new haircut made me laugh out loud. And then for some reason watching him poo just made me crack up uncontrollably. Sorry Sammy! :)

After a lot of hard work in the blazing heat (mostly thanks to Uncle Charlie and Jason!), we finally got our ice cream. It was SOOOOO good!!!!

[ see the rest of the pictures! ]

Oh, and let's not forget the video clips. This is the first of the short series of videos that we took, from the Round Top parade, from ice cream making, and from playing with sparklers at night. By putting your mouse over the video you can click on the thumbnail on the right to go to the next video.

Whoa ... who are these hardcore fans of iHaTePiNk.com who were spotted in California last weekend ... ?

Yup, I cut my hair short right before I went. That 10" will be off to Locks of Love shortly. I'd been wanting to chop it off for some time now, and I finally had enough hair! :D If you can't tell, I'm the one in the light pink shirt, and with the bluetooth headset in my ear (D'oh! Forgot it was even in there!!). :P To my left is my lovely cousin Min; she and hubby Peter (and adorable son Connor) were so kind to have us at their beautiful home for the weekend. The shirts were her idea, a random gift she totally surprised me with one day in the mail.

Thanks to Tree Frog for doing a fabulous job of sifting thru the tons of pics and coming up with a summary of our brief time in California. [ see the photos! ]

Being at a kiddie birthday party usually makes me almost want to have my own kid. Until one of 'em poops in a diaper or gets fussy and starts bawling. THEN I leave the premises feelin' pretty good that I get to leave it. Will I ever be a parent? Time will only tell. SHOULD I be a parent? Er, I think most people would resoundingly vote no. :)

Slices of the day:

 
 

Me with the birthday girls and their lovely mum 'n dad. I'm making a face - as usual - but this time very much unintentional. But no one will believe that. :)

[ more photos ] (beware of cuteness overload!!)

How's this for a Saturday morning cartoon-ish blog post title? :)

Inspiration struck only the day before Eda and Yusuke's Hallowe'en party when I heard that oddly endearing song "Anyone Else But You". I was instantly reminded how friends, one by one, near and far, insisted that I needed to watch this movie called Juno that apparently starred me. And Tree Frog was said to have co-starred, even though he really looks NOTHING like Bleeker other than sharing skin color and sometimes possessing a similar clueless look.

And so I present to you the slightly dyslexic but adequately presentable Juno and Bleeker, the Hallowe'en 2008 Edition! :)

   

Cuteness, grossness, and chillness were all present at this lovely party. Thanks to our wonderful host and hostess for letting us destroy their home with stinky tofu and pumpkin innards!

Also, special thanks to the Tree Frog for driving down from Austin to be my date for the party. Even if your shorts weren't short enough. :)

[ all pics from the party ]

There have been a few adventures with the Tree Frog in the last little bit. A midnight hurricane curfew ever-so-slightly cramped our style for Huong's and Wendy's birthday celebrations, both being pretty soon after Hurricane Ike blew through. Carol's birthday was a nice girls-only brunch at Backstreet Cafe, a nice midtown eatery where the whole table got carded when we ordered pitchers of sangria, hahahah. I am now super determined to learn to make French toast. It was SOO good!

We tried to get off our lazy butts and go for walks around the neighborhood, some of which ended up at Target and the local Shoe Carnival. I was in a silly picture-taking mood, and Tree Frog was enabling me, so there we were! We also had a weekend where he accompanied me to David's Bridal to try on some bridesmaids dresses for a friend's wedding next year.

We also arranged a nice little "date night" at Houston's. We both put some effort into getting slightly dressed up and headed out. The booths there were quite cozy, and the music not too loud, just the way I like it - I hate yelling over the music just to chat with someone sitting right next to me. After dinner we headed to the Raven Grill for his favorite dessert. (Thank you Google for helping me find this place: "peanut butter chocolate pie houston tx"!)

This would all be complete gluttony except that I'd been training hard for the Muddy Buddy run/bike event in Dallas. Tree Frog had been good enough to accompany me on workouts in Houston and had arranged for a big band of friends to run together when I visited Austin (which ensued in gluttony also, hahaha). Was the training good enough??? Stay tuned for the next installment ...

Wei invited us over for a little BBQ. Oscar graciously prepared tons of food. Everyone brought a little something and before long we were totally stuffed.

The night ended on a perfect note with Carlos' soon-to-be world-famous rum cake, paired with some Costa Rican coffee. MMMMMmmmmm. (I was stuffed but there's always room for dessert, haha!)

  

And no set of pics would be complete without pics of the doggies!

     

[ see all photos ]

What do you do when a group of pug lovers come together all in one place? Why, take pictures, of course! :)

An extreme close-up. [ more grunty flat-nosed cuteness ]

I'm such a sucker for puppies. Especially cute ones. (Hmm, don't think I've ever met a puppy I didn't think was cute ... )

 

Yup. A bona fide cutie. (Hahah, yes, both Vicki and Bella and cuties ... )

*Love* it when I get these mouth-open-wide shots. :) [ check out ze album ]

I got to hang with Clover, the sassy pug, as Elaine calls her.

[ the complete photoshoot ]

Jumpin' off swings,

Jumpin' off planes,

And jumpin' on bridges.

My legs sure were sore that weekend. :)

Peep the skydive pics, and the skydive vid, remixed by yours truly, and lemme know what you think. :)

Last weekend, Tree Frog invited us up to his family's ranch house in a little town between Houston and Austin. For a city girl like me, I was a bit apprehensive since I mean, c'mon, how do you live with ZERO internet?! :)

Well, I am proud to say that not only did I survive without internet, but I even had offline, real-life fun! :) The crisp air was refreshing. We were surrounded by green grass, blue sky, and clear water. The puppies that came along seemed to enjoy the large expanse of roamable land. I learned to ride a 4-wheeler with manual shift (I can't drive a manual car to save my life). I rode a tractor lawn mower. We ate Tree Frog's mom's freshly homemade brownies. We rode in the back of a pickup truck. We jumped around on bales of hay. We slept in tents with only thin layers of sleeping bag separating our bodies from the ground (and then there was the tent that had not one, but two Aerobeds? Heehee!). I'd forgotten what it felt like to not HAVE to be anywhere, and to kinda just do ... nothing in particular, except focus on chillin'. :)

 

Thanks to those who came out (especially those that battled severe disorientation in the dark to come join us)! Enjoy the pics. Lots of epic memories in this one. :)

Chef Hugh stays busy with the introduction of son #2, P-Jo, XO's youngest brother from the same litter. He seemed a bit depressed as he was probably coping with having just gotten his tummy stitched up.

Papa Hugh showing P-Jo's stitches.

 
In addition to the unique coloration of his face, his paws exhibit a little half-and-half action as well.

Look at those wrinkly little legs! Aww!

[ more pics ]

These two pups are gonna be getting a lotta love from Auntie Caroline. :)

With that face ...

With that snore ...

With that wrinkly little body ... ?

I need to get over there with my dSLR to capture the puppy madness properly. :) [ more pics! ]

... More like, "Wonderful Weekend". That's just the song I'm humming in my head at the moment while writing this here post.

Man, what a weekend! Played cards, ate at two restaurants I'd never been to before, got a deep tissue massage (by a man with strong hands and an exotic accent to boot, heh heh heh), watched Booty Call for the first time (LOVED IT), and shot fun pics at the "Seven Wonders" in the Houston theater district.

My legs are sore from running back and forth to set the timer on the camera and jumping as high as I could for multiple mid-air photo attempts. :)

[ more photos ]

I got a good start to the holiday season this weekend. As usual, click through for the complete set of pics and the hopefully witty comments.

Delicious-looking hotpot! I did not partake, but enjoyed a most excellent vegetarian pasta dish.

Decorating trees in the middle of the night on the side of 360. :)

In addition to making lots of new friends, I met up with Masako, whom I hadn't seen for at least five years!

Austin downtown on Congress at sunset, festively decorated for the holiday season.

Highlights:

Donnie threatening to bring a bottle of "Mount Gay Rum" and following through, proving that there really is such a product. :)

Discarding the rules of "Would You Rather" for reading and discussing and laughing at the questions freestyle.

Impromptu "garbage pail punch".

And last but not least: DOGGIES!!!!

Click through for all the canine chaos, complete with commentary. :)

So J.Ma and I headed out to Austin for a brief jaunt.

Note to self: never change drivers at Columbus because that is where you are supposed to get on the 71 from I-10. I is moran. Well, on the upside we discovered the cities(?) of "Swiss Alp" (yes, just one "alp") and "Schulenberg"(sp?).

Highlights (click through for the full set o' pics):

Me jumping for joy because we went to the WRONG PLACE for the Maker Faire!

Finally finding the Maker Faire, we found a van decorated entirely with ... cameras! Oh, and these convex mirrors.

We went to watch the Master Pancake Theater. The Rocky Horror Picture Show was showing at the same time. I got a pic with the best-dressed couple!

What is UP with all the pinkness! Notice that the number of ladies' port-o-potties WAY outnumbers the men's.

I met cute doggies ...

... and Ashley's kid for the first time. He let me hug him! Aww!

I love it when I get fan mail. Or in this case, ARCH ENEMY MAIL!!!

Oh my eyes!!!

Photos courtesy of CW, of a travelling exhibit promoting Victoria's Secret Pink line in Austin, TX. Thanks for making me literally LOLOLOLOL!!!

Where do I even begin.

2 flat tires within half an hour (not mine, but I can now confidently say I can swap a flat with a spare all by myself) (Thanks Eddy, thanks Brian!).

Lunch @ M's. Got to see Happy. :) [ see all 12 pics ]

Happy Hour where some people got uh, a little too happy. :)

Saw Mamma Mia - I laughed, cried, then laughed again. I'm not even a "musicals" person.

Got sealed into two parking lots within 12 hours.

Forging new friendships, strengthening present ones.

Sincerely happy for people doing what they need to be doing.

Japanese food and karaoke for J's bday - good times. [ see the full set o' pics ]

Digital camera was misplaced when I most needed it. (Recovered safely, thank goodness. But nearly went insane.)

Hung out with cousin's fiancee's cousins and their cousins. And the coolest grandma that ever lived.

Bumped into Claire (as I seem to do once a year) and re-met King (found out he's soon to be remotely related to me).

Movie night. And oh, the wisdom of mothers. Profoundly and soundly blown away and humbled.

"A real fighter doesn't need to fight."

I couldn't see the blue sky from where I was at, but I could see it was just around the corner. :)

I got a spam e-mail from a spoof americangreetings.com address saying that I'd gotten an e-card. Spam sure has sunken to new depths. I mean sure, spam the hell out of me trying to make an extra buck selling various meds or "through-the-roof" stock, but don't toy with people's emotions, man! Here I was thinkin', "*I* have an admirer?!?!?!? COOL!!!! OHHHHhhhhh ... wait a minute ... it's just a spammer ... fine ... delete ... back to whatever I was doing ... "

Slightly related to V-day, here are pics from the NAAAP Date Auction. Some of those auctionees were really workin' it!

Donnie visited Houston and a bunch of us nerd-herd Dulles Vikings reconnected with him. (I don't think I'm offending anyone because we were pretty consumed with comparing notes and grades, hahah.) I'm pretty impressed with how the nerd-herd turned out - everyone's doin' their thang, and you probably could never guess they were once an uber-nerd. Some of us (ahem) are still nerds ... just can't shake my roots :) [ Donnie discovers drunken karaoke ] [ portraits just cuz ] I have fond memories of riding the school bus to school every day for three years with Donnie and Joe Lee (well, I hated the school bus cuz everyone made fun of me, but that's a story for another day). Those guys are a couple of the smartest dudes I know. It was fun recounting old times. Donnie was able to call out a few stories about me that I had absolutely no recollection of. Hahah, good times.

And I just discovered this guy on YouTube (though he already seems to be a YouTube icon, and for good reason) - David Choi and his original Valentine song. [ link to song on YouTube in case it doesn't show up correctly ] [ David Choi Music on MySpace - I don't usually link to MySpaces but I suppose I'll make an exception here ]

Speaking of YouTube, does anyone feel like after the Google acquisition, they've censored a lot more stuff? Or am I just not in the know? I was doing YouTube "research" on singer Jesse McCartney the other day (yes, my boy band fetish is showing) and a ton of interviews had been removed due to violation.

So I landed in Taiwan on Friday, participated in the obligatory drinking for Alan's bday, and then Saturday toured around some and ate whatever vegetarian street food I could lay my hands on. Come Sunday, starting bright and early (5 am-ish) I came down with sumpin' truly terrible - basically, it was a 19+ hour ordeal all day fighting unwanted and violent fluid loss. I shall leave out the gory details. I have trained my non-TCM friends in some modalities (no, not the actual act of needling - I have yet to trust any non-TCM friends with needling me), and they have been so so kind in playing nurse to my weak Americanized @$$. (Oh yes, the s*** and @$$ jokes will be going for awhile.) That's me at the right, laying face down, getting some treatment.

Today I thought I was feeling better and was going to do some sightseeing - Tina hooked me up with all these great Taipei travel tips before coming here - but I was sidetracked by light-headedness and general malaise. I *finally* went out tonight for a bit, fulfilled my wish to ride the MRT system by myself, but after running one errand, I promptly went home and, sick of my pitiful condition, asked my friends to take me to the hospital. I have been prescribed, if you can believe it, Super Supau (a type of sports drink), and no food for the next 2 days, along with some meds. Lovely.

Looks like my mission to gain lots of weight and eat stinky tofu at every turn has experienced a major setback.

Some pics are uploading here. Don't know why the comments aren't showing up. Grr. Will fix that later. I'm gonna let 'em upload, finish up tonight's dose of Super Supau, and hit the sack.

I only ventured out to a coin-operated car wash the other day for the first time in my whole entire life, as Thi wanted to wash her car and we ended up doing my car in the process too.

Dude, I haven't laughed that hard in a while! And I probably shouldn't have massaged in the blue conditioner by hand - that stuff is hard to wash off! While seeing patients later, I was hoping no one wouldn't notice the bluish tinge to my hands ...

In this set:

• Hangin' with Thi and cute schnauzer friends
• Hangin' with Tiana when she came to town
• The Aquarium Downtown and the fishies living there
• Snippets from my junior high school friend's wedding up in Canada
• Hangin' out with friends and fam in Canada
  
• the usual random stuff I just *have* to take pictures of.
• BONUS: some Photoshop fun with pics of Chef Hugh's pool party. I saw Superman, dude!
  

Some of you may know that I am currently temporarily "the boss of" a cute little ball of fur named Happy (again, also starring in my Really Important News parts one and two). Well, I've been trying to play the good dogsitter and taking Happy out to do stuff other than just taking him on his pee and poo walks. These extra outings get him really excited and extra happy, which makes for cute pictures. :) So last weekend, I crashed Hugh's place with Happy to watch the UT vs. OSU football game there (man, the Longhorns were disappointing!). Then, I called Hugh and Carrie up to go for a walk at Arthur Storey Park, and tired little Happy out there.

Well, today's adventure was to get the kid a bath. (I call him a kid, but he's really kind of an old man - he's 8 years old, which is 56 in human years.) That boy done stank up my car, gettin' all sweaty and excited and droolin' all over the place. So I headed over the nearest PetsMart to git'im a bath.

I'd never done this before so I called ahead of time to inquire. Turns out you need an appointment, AND it takes THREE HOURS! Wow. Well, I was in for a little surprise when I went to pick him up about 6 hours later (other than him smelling so lovely from his raspberry oatmeal shampoo ... I kid you not) - I guess he'd held his little bladder the whole time in his kennel there, so when we exited the grooming area, the old man couldn't hold it any longer, lifted his leg on a select bin, and promptly proceeded to TAKE A LEAK RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORE. Passersby commiserated: "My dog did the exact same thing," and "Dogs will be dogs". Luckily, Happy is a little dog with a little bladder, which means cleanup was not too terribly bad. Notice the guilty look on his face. Hahaha. Pets sure have it better than humans sometimes ... I mean dang, if *I'd* peed in the middle of a store, I'd have gotten my arse whooped to next Tuesday by one or both of my parental units! And a few employees would probably jump in too!

[ on to pictures of cuteness, food, and pee! ]

note: The pics link won't work as of 2:10a - smugmug has decided to do some maintenance. They won't be up 'n runnin' until 4am. Yargh! Imma goin' to bed. Will put the link on in da mornin'. G'nite!

Eddy was nice enough to have a bunch of us over at his pad for his world-famous green onion pancakes this weekend. I got to show off my hot 'n sour soup. :) Good food, good company, good times!

My camera started getting passed around the room and somehow we started on this "sexy" photo shoot spree. All the silly pictures here. DON'T ask. Hahahahah.

... with my ring that I had left at Selena's for like EVER. Thanks Selena for safeguarding it for so long! (Darn the clarity of the digital camera, showing off each and every finger hair ... )

Selena brought me my ring when we met up for Crystal's birthday dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It turned out to be a girls' night out, though it was never intentionally arranged; 'twas simply coincidental that all boyfriends / fiances / husbands decided not to attend. Which is fine. We usually can manage to have fun without them. :)

Photos here!

The sound of rain lulls me to sleep. The sound of a downpour makes me ultra lethargic.

The timing of the rain: when I have to get up (bad), and when I am supposed to go to sleep (good).

A "downpour" of another type:

Pics from hangin' with Turbo! (Oh, and his lovely owners of course, haha!)

The month of June 2006 in pics! Man, I was a little busybody last month. Musicals, baby showers, black belt tests, scams, Mom's birthday, and going to my first seafood and oyster bar. Cute doggies inside as well! Oh, AND includes pics from when a certain "spa" got busted! [ cough cough ]

And, the nutsness has just begun: As one of his proud non-Desi aunties, I would like to welcome little baby Nathan to planet Earth, weighing in at at a healthy 6lbs 13oz, 20in tall. How Annie and Jerry could have produced something that cute is beyond me. Hahah j/k guys. Congratulations.


Also, today I saw my mom and dad have a mini-spat in front of me for the first time in a while. I wondered if I fought like them, and have decided that my fighting style is the worst of both worlds. Yuck.

And now that I have inundated ye with this deluge of pictures and random info, I shall bid you goodnight. :)

Somehow having become an honorary member of Annie's family, I headed over to help host another party at their digs, this time for an older crowd. It was almost funny how for some time, the aunties totally ignored me and my non-brown skin and chattered away in one of the many Indian languages. :) Fun was had, and I got to take home enough leftovers to feed me for a week. Score one for the bachelorette!

Post-party hangout pictures with lots of silly posing going on here. Ooh, and I'm in a lot of the pictures (which means that yes, I let someone else touch my camera)! Woohoo!

Quote of the day: "I want a camera like this for my birthday!" - Stella, referring to my Digital Rebel XT, which is so much fun! :)

Last weekend I headed out to watch Nancy's black belt test as soon as I got done with my patients. Unfortunately I missed everything except the last kick! Luckily her brother Dave got it all on video, so I got to watch Nancy's entire test later. Still got to take a bunch o' pics though. :)

Man, what an inspiration. Sweet, skinny lil' Nancy kicks some major arse, man. Her four years of dedication and hard work all showed through at this test. I got to meet her sensei Rick, who sacrificed a lot to teach Nancy, and I'm sure he knew it was worth it. Nancy, you rock. You are truly a testament to reaching your goals if you just put your mind to it.

First of all, happy belated Day of the Devil: 06/06/06. This is a good time to commemorate my Evil Twin Car. And almost forgot about this one.

Secondly, I've posted pics of my Memorial Day solo adventure. I went out to Caddo Lake in East Texas, which they claim is the only natural lake in Texas. I don't know what the definition of "natural" is, because there are tons of lakes in Texas!

Another draw to driving 4.5 hours out to this place is that on the shores of Caddo Lake is a city called Uncertain. Yup. Population 150. And I've got pics to prove it. Yes, I actually pulled over to take a picture with the sign! (Yep, I'm a dork like that.)

I've also got the bug bites to prove I was out in the wild. My feet are STILL covered with outrageously red, itchy bites. Argh! I have to muster all of my self-discipline to not scratch. Yargh.

As much as I was looking forward to solitude, I ended up meeting a photographer named Jessica (we started talking when I saw her toting her Nikon DSLR around) with whom I have probably physically crossed paths in both Austin and in Orange County (SoCal). The pic of me here taking a picture was taken by her. And THEN we met this crazy crew from Paris, TX. Alcohol was involved. That is all I'm going to say. What happens in Uncertain, stays in Uncertain! :) [ Jessica's Caddo Lake pics ]

Here is my assortment of pics from May. New friends, old friends, ebonics and perversion at the Chinese supermarket, Doggles, and all the randomness you've come to expect and love, um, right?

Random thought of the day / week / month: It has just occurred to me that I'm not really a photographer, but more a documenter of life. Does it really matter? Probably not. It's just that when I see some of the portfolios out there, I am deeply humbled. I gots no skills. Just lots of enthusiasm. :)

Photo-viewing hint: there's a slideshow button at the top. I actually really like viewing other peoples' pictures in slideshow format, with captions on.

Update - Bonus: if you go through the gallery carefully, you *might* find a funny video clip of me. :) (SmugMug doesn't have lots of support for videos yet, so I had to use YouTube.)

Ah yes, fresh air that only a non-Houston location could offer. Pics to come ...

But first, pics from my trip up to Austin from a couple weeks back where Annie, Jerry, and I went to see Wei 'n Oscar's new abode!

My observant readers may notice that I've invested in SmugMug, a new picture host, which should allow me to share pics more efficiently! Also, if you sign up for hosting with them thru this here link or enter coupon code K6kiJKNRnnN7A, you get $5 off - and give me a lil' cut too. Sweet!

Pics (and a video clip) here from the Vienna Teng show May 9th here in Houston at The Mucky Duck (again). This time we had the biggest table in the house, hee hee (yay for Evite!). There was some organizational ability needed just because 1) by the time I found out about the show there were only 4 days left, 2) I ended up with 20 people coming (WAY above my expectations!), 3) the ticket pre-purchase could only be done in person, and 4) I'd gotten mixed up about when the show was going to start. But in the end, thanks to Will going and grabbing tickets for me, everything went without a hitch. Otherwise, I would've gone mad. :)

Hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did, and to those who didn't go, these pics will just have to tide you over until she next comes to town. Her new CD is available for pre-order. Her first two albums, Waking Hour and Warm Strangers, are both available on Amazon.com, complete with sound samples. Will has already picked up both albums; anyone else? :)

Small world this is. Turns out Dakao knows Vienna's best friend's brother. Ah yes, knowing everyone within 6 degrees ... And, turns out Vienna remembered me from meeting her a couple years ago through Eric (I really didn't expect her to, after a gazillion meals with tons of "warm strangers", I'm sure) and we ended up exchanging some friendly banter after the show.

While I'm plugging away - hey NY and L.A. peoples - she will be performing at a venue near you in June! Go see go see!

In this batch -

- Ivonne's bday with pigging out on spicy food at Thai Pepper
- Soon-to-be baby-mama Annie wreaking havoc at Babies 'R Us (with our help, of course)
- People spiking our food with various undesirables at Jeff's bday dinner at Canyon Cafe; surprising Jeff at the wine-tasting place (where was it again? heh)
- Sam and Eddie come to town to compete in a pong tourney
- FIVE pounds of crawfish ingested at Big Woodrow's
- the bro visits Houston and eats Chinese food nonstop all week
- Esther visits Houston, and I get a small piece of her
- your usual assortment of bums, orgasmic faces, engrish, and cutie-pie doggies!

The month o' March in pics: Photo shoot contortion, late-night ice cream and hanging out, meeting new people, the wedding I helped cover (almost forgot these pics), food, cute doggies, dead fish, fast bikes ... you know, the usual randomness. Oh, and look for the little filmstrip-things on the thumbnails for short video clips. :)

The week in summary: Friday, my cell phone was stolen. Saturday, got a new SIM card activated and was back in business with my backup phone. Went to Crome to go clubbing (welcome back, Chris! I had fun but discovered later that other friends had been unfairly snubbed at the door, BOOOOO) and then to Mai's for late-night grub. Recovered from Saturday on Sunday. Monday: did my friends 'n family treatment sessions, and was granted a gourmet meal for me and a friend by Chef Hugh. Tuesday: met a friend's new dog.

And I got real up close and personal with greatness on Wednesday: I got invited to a Project Runway Finale viewing party downtown and just so happened to be standing in front of Chloe and her boyfriend, so I got a chance to chat with her a bit. (OK, keep in mind that I don't watch TV, so I only got barely acquainted with the the show earlier that day via website.) Obligatory "I saw / chatted with / shared breathing space with Chloe" pic here! Thanks Will for the hookup!

Perspective, perspective, it's really all about perspective.

There are so many things I should be thankful for, rather than whining about my sorry self.

I have patients who believe in my abilities to treat them.

It was just my cell phone that was stolen, not my laptop nor cameras nor wallet, plus no one was physically or emotionally traumatized by the incident.

I have friends and fam who I love and who love me and stuff. (Somehow the grammar doesn't sound quite right here ... oh well)

These listed in no particular order.

The week in pictures.

Hung out with Eddy and co. tonight. Discovered the amazing world of RAW shooting tonight as well. Not that it helps the blurry pics. But it is so awesome. The excitement has made me post pics in record time. Oh man.

This is the first fried green onion pancake party where Eddy has actually run out of green onions from his pot of scallions he grows on his balcony. And this is the first fried green onion pancake party where I have totally neglected to take ANY pictures of his famous green onion pancakes. Derrr. But there are other yummies to behold ...

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Miscellaneous February photos: my new digs, hangin' out at Silverture's second open house, trying to check out the Basquiat at the Museum of Fine Arts with Anita and failing miserably, and the usual miscellaneous retardedness.

V-day Eve I invaded Chef Hugh's space and forced him into an impromptu grocery trip ending in food, wine, bitching, coffee, Olympics on TV, and various snacks. V-day I invited Eddy over after working late and forced him to eat some very mediocre noodles in egg drop corn soup. He was polite and said it was good. And so I "celebrated" V-day by pestering my guy friends, after of course ascertaining that the affected individuals were not otherwise occupied.

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Real-life quotes:
Me: Are you doing anything for Valentine's Day?
Lady: Oh please, I've been married for 30 years. And I hate flowers.

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Same Lady: I was asked if I had to do it all over again, if I would marry the same man. I said, 'Oh yeah, in a heartbeat'. Sadly, some of my friends can't say the same thing.

EUREKAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! I HAVE EENTA-NET-UH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I've finally gotten off my arse and updated my HaTePiNkBLiNk! page with more of my photo albums and my camera info. Hurrah!

(Update 3/14/06: the HaTePiNkBLiNk! page has been replaced by a categories listing, and can be found in the navigation under Categories)

Finally, pics are up from my epic 28-mi (45-km) bicycle ride with Mahesh, Ivonne, and Cynthia. The event was aptly named the Tour De Doughnut, as Krispy Kreme was one of the sponsors, and for every doughnut eaten, 5 minutes was credited towards your race time.

I finished the race, and wasn't last place! Just 7th from last! 16th from last if you count my doughnut credits! Yay!! ~does the Caroline dance~ [ results ]

This was definitely a big personal accomplishment for me, and it reminded me how much I loved just pedalling around. It inspired me to ride my bike to work ... once ... but then it got cold and it's scary to ride home at night, so I haven't done it since.

Pics from my "Housewarming" party (aka Independence party) are up! In this set: plenty of video footage of out-of-tune drunken singing! (As if that's supposed to make you want to look at the pics. Oh well.)

Lily Jr. came to visit me this weekend. I'd had a rough week, so on top of all the support my friends have been giving me, having her come be goofy with me was just what I needed. Thanks, Soopakid! :)

Highlights: chugging boba every day, indulging at Lemongrass Café (had to go give my friend Theo, the manager, as much trouble as possible, hehe), de-romanticking the Waterwall, using the internet connection at the Apple store in the Galleria and not getting kicked out, terrorizing the waiter at The Flying Pig, figuring out Fruit Rollup Tattoos (not really - here's the video! [Windows Media Video, 2min 11secs, 4.2Mb]), and chatting amicably with Eric over lunch about peeing in wetsuits.

Oh, and as promised, the goofy pics of me and my headset are included too. Yargh. I look really ugly with it on. Must reduce use to in-car and when out of sight of other humans.

I'm gonna stay up and do some catching up on pictures. Yay for pictures! I've been so busy with stuff I haven't had time to post as many pictures as I would like.

I've had a good couple of weekends. It all started when Eric informed me his friend Geoff Nuttall would be performing in Houston and that I could go check him out - for free! Geoff was fun to watch, practically flying off his seat during the performance. Afterwards, we got to meet Geoff along with his lovely wife Livia (who described Geoff's performance as a calm one by his standards). [ Pictures! ] Big shoutout to Eric for hooking me up, it was great to watch Geoff perform, and it was very nice to meet Geoff and Livia.

Last Saturday was kinda crazy: in the morning I saw a couple of patients, then headed out to the Chinese Cultural Center since there was a fair going on there with some food, and then we headed out to the dragon boat races downtown. We then headed back to TheBoy's, where I showed him how to make Min's to-die-for sandwiches. (My awesome cousin Min is always teaching me how to make delicious, simple meals.)

That night was a charity date auction, where I was seriously scraped off the bottom of the barrel to be their last-minute, last-resort "photographer". I borrowed a camera I consider better than mine thinking nicer equipment would yield nicer pictures, but lack of familiarity with the camera proved to be a bigger obstacle than I thought. Luckily all my pictures ended up getting reduced to tiny thumbnails, which make them look way better than they do full-size.

The main event of this past weekend has got to be Eddy inviting us all over to his place for his birthday party and another unforgettable night of his world famous homemade cong1 you2 bing3 (fried green onion pancakes). I like how on HIS birthday, WE all get fed. Of course, we chipped in to help make some, but still, Eddy was quite the host, always on his feet making sure we always had cong1 you2 bing3 readily available for consumption. [ More pictures! ]

My legs hurt - I'm hobbling around like I'm 200 years old. My arms hurt when I try to massage my legs. When I pick my nose, there's dried mud up in there. When I swab my ears, there's dried mud up in there. When I wipe my ass ... actually, it's pretty clean up in there.

But who cares ... because I FINISHED THE MUD RUN!!! WHAZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!

OK pplz, here are the pics (and a video too!) from the mud run! =) Much thanks to Dave for going and taking all the photos for us!

Henry is a guy who needs to meditate on how to be angry. The boy is incapable of being angry without extreme stimulation, which is a good thing under normal circumstances, but let me explain. He ordered a digital camera online May 23rd. Now, 22 DAYS LATER, still no sign of it despite promises from the online vendor (will get their name so we will all know NOT to shop with them) of overnight shipping (supposed to arrive 2 days ago) and excuses like "it's on backorder - again - but we will be getting them in tomorrow". Alas - I am getting more angry about it than he is. Well, just hope you get it before your friend's wedding, dude! =)

And now, finally, after much nagging, I have pics from Howard's grad in Syracuse up! You owe me, foo! =) Plenty of pics and video footage for you to munch on. =)

"If you want to
I can save you
I can take you away from here
So lonely inside
So busy out there
And all you wanted
was somebody who cares ... "
- Michelle Branch, All You Wanted

We now have 6 new pics up from when we went hiking @ Santa Anita / Henry's BBQ; also 4 new pics up from our Sacramento nightmare. Thanks Lily!!! Geez, I've got so many photos ... gotta reorganize my site somehow to make everything more accessible ... hmm ... gimme more time

Here's another oh-so-immature rumination by me: is it a crime to pop a patient's big bad backne? (pimples on your back.) I had to quash the urge =) Hey, it was so juicy ... the white head thing was showing thru the skin ... it would've exploded like a volcano! =)
Pics from Sacramento are up - and Lily, I know you have some frightening ones of me. Please please send =)

Updates to the hiking / BBQ pics. I was in a more creative writing mood, plus Lily got me some more pics. =)

Wow, a whole wk without updates ... sorry 'bout that, to my few but loyal visitors. =) Well, Monday nite I spontaneously agreed to go to Sacramento via bus to support some sort of bill to increase the # of academic hrs in the acu program to 3000 hrs. There's ppl out there arguing that this will raise the competency of acupuncturists. I don't agree, but I was bribed into going with clinic hrs ... anyhoo, here are my conclusions from the trip (which are pretty unrelated to the whole reason we went):

Sadly, when a group of older-generation Chinese get together in a big gathering, they forget they are in America. Their actions perpetuate the stereotype and ridicule of all Asians. This makes it more & more difficult for Asians to emerge in America, for us to be taken seriously ... I don't feel that it necessarily has to do w/ English language ability, but w/ attitude and respect for American culture. Not that I agree w/ all aspects of American culture, but that's how it is in ANY country - we need to respect that particular country's ways and policies.

It was very sad that the most embarrassing ppl were the Asian MALES. Asian males already have enough stereotype against them as it is - their actions on Tuesday, in the eyes of all onlooking Americans, can only feed those negative stereotypes.
Specific examples of embarrassing behavioUr:

not turning off cell phones: more than 5x

clapping (the committee chair had already stated "no clapping" at the onset of the hearings): 3x

physically obstructing the opposition from speaking: 1x
But anyways, despite all this, Lily and I somehow dragged Hiroko into going, and we had our own fun - pics will be up soon. =)

Here are pics from hiking up at Santa Anita Park and Henry's BBQ! Yo Lily, get me the pics you captured on your camera =) (the girlz both got digital cams as well - copycats! hehe ... but Lily scored the best deal, and Hiroko has the cutest one)

Just got back from Tahoe / San Jose. I'm so tired and sore. Anyhoo, we went to Northstar Resort. Weather was sunny! Conditions were kinda slushy, but that made falling a lot less painful. =) I kinda got some "skillz" this time around, so check out my pics page with action video. =) And here's my first panorama attempt, taken of the San Luis Reservoir on the way home:

Excerpts from "Graduate Girls Having Fun!!" (Henry's title for the VCD he made of our Valentine's Day activities.)

Pics of my birthday dinner and birthday fashion show are HERE. Thanks to the Trist family for giving me a fashion makeover =)

Today is the worst day of my life.
Here are the most recent pics from this past wknd.

Happy birthday to me! Yay! =) Thanks for all the e-cards, snail mail cards, phone calls, and meals! Man ... I feel so loved, hehe =)
More pics are up! The Baylor Med School formal, game night at my house, and miscellaneous pics from the break.

Here are the pics from the Breckenridge, CO ski trip! Check it out! For those of you who went and I don't have your email address, drop me an email or sign my guestbook with your email address in there. =) Happy New Year everyone!

 Here are some pics we took of our family for X'mas. Looking forward to shopping 'til I drop tomorrow ... for all you Americans, Canadians call the day after X'mas "Boxing Day" and there's mad sales everywhere ...

Toilet seat covers baffle me. I understand how to skillfully pull up, THEN down to get it out of the dispenser, but then once laid down on the toilet ... am I supposed to rip the thing in the middle so that there's a gaping hole for me to freely pee/poop thru? Or am I supposed to just pee/poop onto that center piece and let the dampness/weight naturally tear its way thru?
Today I thought the kitty pooped in my room, the smell was awful! However, after thorough inspection of the premises, I think she just farted. Heehee!

Yesterday I went to, saw, and came back from the holy blissed matrimony of Cece and Mike: congratulations guys. May you be happily in love forever! Here are the pics I took yesterday. The wedding took place at the Monte Carlo Hotel Chapel in Las Vegas. There are some test pics of the visiting dog and our kitty too.
Had to do a Kittycam update: cute pics of her napping! =)

i heard the kitty mewing loudly and finally located her in the garage (turns out she got in when the landlords opened and closed the garage door and couldn't get out, heh). So of course the Kittycam had to get updated!

Lisa, a good friend from junior high, stopped thru LA for 3 days on her way from Australia to Canada. She just left today. What a whirlwind of a visit. Some highlights: Lisa was hypnotized by a rabbit, and we won free t-shirts for shooting hoops. =) She has vowed to come again to conquer Disneyland. Here are some pics from her travels - sex, alcohol, cross dressers, and of course, cute animals. =)

Today the kitty (Naomi) managed to get into the house and found me in my room! (I didn't even notice her until I felt something furry brush against my calves! hehe) KittyCam updated =)
Today I finally solved my allergic reaction to the cool new shades I got in Houston. Croakies! (sad how the official Croakies homepage isn't even ready)

We got a KITTY CAT!!! I'm gonna have to start a KittyCam. =) She (I do believe it's a girl, after prying oh-so-rudely between her legs) apparently wandered into my landlords' restaurant and hung out in the kitchen all night, sleeping under one of the refrigerators. The landlords decided to bring her home. We did a supervised dog-get-acquainted-with-cat thing (we currently have a Chow/Dalmation mix named Ru-Yi). If anything, the dog wants to be friends, but due to her sheer size probably intimidates the little kitty. We'll see how that goes. I will be bathing her on Saturday. Yay! Oh, still must think of name for her ...

Git yer pics here y'all! (i jest had to add that, hehe)