How do you pronounce these words: "shone", "contribute", "distribute", and "terrain"? If you can, write out the emphasized syllable in CAPS and write it out as closely to other words as possible, ie. i say Canuck = kahNUK. These are the only ones I can think of that people have laughed at me about. If you have pointed out my supposedly weird pronunciation of other words, please feel free to point them out. :)
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 ]
Molly came for a visit today. This is how she felt about being out in the sub-100°F weather: 
Summer is just gettin' started here in Houston. Yippee.
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. :)
Eda, Yusuke, Violeta and I (and little Sophie too!) went to check out Fotofest 2008 for one day, hoping to catch photography during the Cultural Revolution in China. Instead, it was a lecture on the history of Chinese photography in general, so we started meandering about the museum, and revisited the light tunnel, where I was almost exactly one year ago with Chi-Wei: 
"Gimme!"
 It was my first time meeting Sophie. Very cool. :)
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. :)
Tree Frog's rendering was on the front page of the Austin American-Statesman's Business section (that pic in the middle beside the Dell story): 
[ view larger ] [ view full-size (5MB) ]
These scans were pieced together (not entirely perfectly, but good enough) using Photoshop's Photomerge tool. I tried my tried-and-true Canon Photostitch, but it wasn't able to line up the text very well. Chef Hugh was on the front page of the Chinese Community News for his recent non-cooking developments. He's the handsome dude with the pretty girl on the rightmost: 
Congratulations to the newlyweds. :) My 15 seconds.
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 ]
The Anti-Valentine's gathering was a hit for the most part. You know, I think I've only had ONE Valentine's Day date ever. As in, an actual outing ON February 14th. Here's how it went down: It was a fine day back in the stone ages, er, I mean, college. A handsome younger lad that had started hanging out with our group of friends, I'll call him "J", had asked me out for Valentine's Day dinner. At 8:00am (!!!) he showed up at my dorm room door, with a stack of envelopes, and a single rose. Each envelope was labelled "9:00am", "10:00am", "11:00am", and so forth, for the whole day up until midnight. I was instructed to open them on the hour, each hour. Not wanting to ruin any surprises for myself, I did exactly as told. Romantic idea, no? Well, 'twas not to be. The notes contained in the envelopes started off cute, slightly sweet, as would be fitting for our level of acquaintance. But then they started to become extremely random in nature: the one that still sticks in my head to this day is the note that read: "Don't pick your nose too much,
it will cause nosebleeds." 
This is a re-enactment of the accompanying illustration. I exaggerate not. Dinner was lovely, with normal conversation. Only upon finishing did I realize that ALL OF OUR MUTUAL GUY FRIENDS, the losers (yeah PH, AL, JW, I'm talkin' to you guys), had been sitting there, a few tables over, spying on us the entire evening. Uh, I guess it was a good thing I hadn't felt the strong urge to jump J's bones in public? Any semblance of a date ended there as the whole gang headed to Einstein's and played video games. Which WAS pretty fun. Anyway, fast forward to last night: 
Thanks go out to Jon for picking a place with NO vegetarian choices except for bread, coleslaw, and french fries. :) Light flirting with the waiter had him asking me to come back Sunday where he would toast the bread in a special way, just for me ...
More light flirting again at Starbucks; I asked for the opposite of the fat free "skinny latte", and the cashier came up with the fattiest combination possible, labelling it as "Special Drank". Hee hee!
A happy group of Anti-Valentine-ians, camping outside Starbucks singing various Christmas carols and cartoon theme songs together. We definitely could have been mistaken for a bunch of drunks. :)
The themes of the party were "Things Caroline Has Never Done Before", "What's Age Got to Do With It", and "Are You Comfortable Being Around Hordes of Hot Men For Extended Periods of Time?!". A very tame dinner and movie were thrown in there for good measure. :) 
And for those who missed watching the movie Juno with me, you also missed this surprise birthday message that came on right after the movie ON THE BIG SCREEN: This birthday weekend has been full of laughter, tears, and more laughter. There were tears of joy, tears of gratitude, and tears of WAIT A MINUTE WHAT THE HECK IS *THAT* DOING ON THE SCREEN OMGOMGOMG!!!! Hahahahah. Thankyouthankyouthankyou for all the birthday wishes, my dear friends. It means a lot that so many of you guys came out for lil' ol' me. I got a great start into the supposedly dreaded three-ohs. I am such a lucky girl. I ♥ you guys! *snif!*
That first post of 2008 was pretty drab. Thought I'd toss in the first pics of 2008. Here we are on a rooftop in downtown Austin: 
A friend told me about high-dynamic range imaging (I haven't done any reading on it yet), but here are my preliminary experiments: 
Ringin' in 2008 with both new and old (circa 1989!) friends in an amazing way.
After reading Rose's music list entry, I wanted to tell everyone about my first gift of 2008. I was the lucky recipient of a great mix CD that introduced me to a lot of stuff I hadn't heard before. This is definitely a CD I can listen to start to finish and have on repeat for a LONG time. Bonus: an included track listing with song and artist names and even track lengths! Thanks so much, T! :) 1. The Way I Am - Ingrid Michaelson
2. 1234 - Feist
3. Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches
4. Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston
5. Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
6. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
7. They Can't Take That Away From Me - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
8. Dancing in the Moonlight - Studio Group
9. First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
10. Lullaby - Dixie Chicks
11. Upside Down - Jack Johnson
12. In My Life - The Beatles
13. First Time - Lifehouse
14. Young Folks - Peter Bjorn and John
15. Into the Ocean - Blue October
16. Thunder - Boys Like Girls
17. Hero-Heroine - Boys Like Girls
18. Say It Ain't So - Weezer
19. Disparate Thoughts - Matt Harding
20. World Spins Madly On - The Weepies
21. Gotta Have You - The Weepies Considering my increasing distaste for what's on the radio these days (proportional to my old geezerness?), I'm glad I have friends who can expose me to new stuff. Funny tidbit: someone had JUST told me about "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson a few weeks ago, I totally fell in love with it, and now T has it as song #1 on a mix CD for me. The universe sure knows how to freak me out (in a good way). What's good on your playlist these days?
[ me on the phone with my DSL provider, regarding repeated dropped signals for long periods of time ] Me: Yeah, so my internet's actually working NOW, but for example, last night I couldn't connect yet AGAIN, even after the technician came by and supposedly fixed the problem.
Nasal-voiced DSL Guy: Well, I'm looking at our connectivity reports last night ma'am, and there was a shortage last night.
Me (tired of them giving me the runaround): Shortage? What kind of shortage? Like, a power shortage? Shortage to what?
NVDG: Well, it could be a power shortage, or a variety of other calamities.
Me: Did you just say "calamities"? What sort of "calamities"?
NVDG: Well, you know, like ice storms.
Me (thinking to self - what a tard!): Ice storms?! You DO realize I live in Houston, Texas, right?!
NVDG: Well, not necessarily, I didn't mean ice storms, um ... [ starts laughing nervously ] [ chatting online with friend who'd had a terrible day ] Me (4:20:05 PM): but now i know
Me (4:20:10 PM): and knowing is half the battle
Me (4:20:19 PM): "GI JOEEEEE AMERICAN HEROOOO"
Friend Who'd Had Terrible Day (4:20:22 PM): GI HAHHHHHHH
Me (4:20:27 PM): hahahahahah
Me (4:20:33 PM): were we on the same wavelength there?
FWHTD (4:20:36 PM): omg.. maniacal laughter caro
FWHTD (4:20:49 PM): i have just had a day, that felt good
Me (4:20:57 PM): kekekekekekkee [ Online chat with friend who had an um, interesting link to share. Click thru at your own risk! ] Friend With Interesting Link to Share (3:32:15 PM): if you need to blow four minutes for something really stupid (or just read the title): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-asA8s0c4A
Me (3:49:56 PM): i'm at work, and i've clicked thru
Me (3:50:03 PM): and i'm glad that i had the volume turned WAY DOWN LOW
FWILtS (3:50:11 PM): oooh
FWILtS (3:50:13 PM): sorry
Me (3:50:18 PM): i can't hear wha't s going on and i'm not sure that i want to hahaha
Me (3:50:26 PM): hahaha no
Me (3:50:30 PM): tis ok
FWILtS (3:50:30 PM): don't bother
Me (3:50:50 PM): i'm going to close the window now, as the queens or kings are engaged in a 69 position
Me (3:51:00 PM): and in slow mo
FWILtS (3:51:04 PM): right
FWILtS (3:51:33 PM): well, i gotta make sure to do nsfw next time, so that's completely my bad Comic relief has been much appreciated during this high-stress week. Thanks to Chef Hugh and the gang for some super-appreciated social as well as culinary pleasantries: 
That's right, Korean BBQ at home, foo! (I am SO going to buy that attachment for the gas burner)
With Chef Hugh's homemade soft tofu dessert with real ginger syrup.
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. :)
Today I learned that ... - my people were NUTS between 1966 and 1976. We were f@#%ing inhuman. WTF?!!?! [ courtesy of International Education Week speaker and professor of English composition at North Harris College, Dr. Wei Li ] - Qatar is a country that shares a border with Saudi Arabia. The American diplomat to Qatar, Chase Untermeyer, joked that working as the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, an unpaid position, helped prepare him for working as an ambassador in the middle east, since the fussing and feuding is about the same in intensity. :P - you can pay for a specialty Texas license plate that says "God Bless America", "God Bless Texas", "The Lone Star State", and "FIGHT TERRORISM" (complete with a graphic representation of the twin towers doubling as the 11 in "9-11-01" enclosed in a pentagon shape) (I can't believe that last one is classified as a "Souvenir" plate ...) - if a Toyota Corolla hits a wooden pallet on the highway even after slowing to 65 mph, it will FLY over it and have such an impact that any and all unsecured change in the car will scatter all over the floor - the Sam Houston Tollway Emergency line (713.222.7328) is pretty responsive and will also handle reporting of road hazards - I can have fun doing karaoke sober too. :) 
Dude, I totally forgot to get my trusty tambourine in the picture.
Saw D again after at LEAST eight years. He looks the same!! Here he is in his natural work setting: 
Did he wear pink just to spite me? 
Sorry D, my pong form was not as heroic as it once was. I have become weak!! It was so good to see him. I am pleasantly surprised by the intro and re-intro of Dulles Vikings into my life as of late.
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!
Just got around to uploading pics of J's bite-sized chihuahua, Oreo. 
She always looks kinda freaked out. Here's Oreo hangin' out in her homemade bed.
When her owner isn't around, she sometimes starts to get testy.
She has a love-hate relationship with Andy. Here, it's love, I think. :)
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." 
Don't be a playa-hata, now ... 
 
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA. Karen rocks so hard.
I can now tell time and by a cool pink display too: 
I have reason to believe this gift card (feelin' da love!) is an intentional mockery of iHaTePiNk, knowing the bestower of the gift's humorous personality: 
And ... blatant iHaTePiNk love, even from a hospital bed: 
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