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.
So every once in awhile I'll get on my bike and ride around and enjoy the sunshine while I run some errands at nearby locations. I am thankful for the presence of REAL bike racks at Target! And of course for the fact that they sell toilet paper ...
 I borrowed the handicapped parking marker at Unnamed Location 1:
 I used the shopping cart corral thingy at Unnamed Location 2:  I think this was some sort of "no parking" sign at Unnamed Location 3:  Funny graffiti along the way:
 And I'm so proud of myself! I didn't use a single plastic bag yesterday! I just put my goods straight into my backpack. This of course still gives the illusion of shoplifting, so I am thinking how to overcome this.
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. :)
I was unable to view the lunar eclipse due to hard rain and a class I was attending. This was the night before last, where the view of the moon surrounded by gnarly clouds inspired me to grab a tripod and snag a few shots. Untouched except for slight cropping. 
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. :)
- Locations I was at: 4
- Distance Driven: 102 mi / 164 km / ~2.5 hrs
- Shoes destroyed: 1
- Pairs of shoes that happened to be in car so I could continue to get my dance on: 1
- Pictures taken: 254
- Drinks imbibed: 0
- Warm light 2650K-temp CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) purchased: 4
Seriously - finding warm light CFLs (apparently anything below 2700K is considered "warm") has rocked my world. Environmentally friendly, economical, AND feels like warm incandescent lighting. AND ON SALE TOO ($3 ea, rather than $6+ elsewhere). [Insert exhale of contentedness] ... my living room finally feels warm at night. Suh-weeeet. (I don't get why warm CFLs are anything BELOW 2700K to be considered warm ... shouldn't it be, the higher the temp, the warmer the feel?) I need to stop scheduling so much in one day. I'm gettin' too old for this. ;) Here's a pic of us girls surrounding Jon to make him feel special. I think the special treatment is putting him on the verge of passing out there. I promise it isn't because I passed gas. :) 
Lovely red lanterns hanging all around the temple last night for New Year's Eve festivities:
 Reverend Rongtong, a grandfatherly figure to me, at the entrance to the Main Hall:
 Tonight will consist of pigging out on hotpot with the parents. Whoohoo! Wishing peace, health, and happiness to all for the Year of the Rat. Prosperity will come naturally when all these are satisfied. :)
I spoke at ICC, a local Chinese school, about acupuncture this past weekend to mostly middle- to high-school students. Got some newspaper coverage too! Yay! 
Action shot: 
My goofy Powerpoint at least made them laugh. :) We covered some basic Chinese medicine theory, introduced some modalities of Chinese medicine, and went over the fundamentals of health. I was pleasantly surprised that the students were so attentive and inquisitive! I even got to do a cupping demo on a brave student on stage. I had a great time. Many thanks to ICC for the opportunity to speak, and to Ms. He for making it even possible in the first place. And so went my thus far biggest ever acupuncture speaking engagement. 'Twas a good day. :)
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.
[ 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.
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.
Number one at the Hallowe'en costume contest as "Lobster Dinner". That's how my nephew rocks the show, yo. :)
Let's see. I can do everything except for ... surfing the web
checking / sending e-mail
online chatting
uploading pictures
updating my website
checking in on my finances. My home DSL is spazzing out. So, I've been sleeping earlier. And talking more on the phone. Hmm. Imagine that. Just felt like posting these pics of doggies that I am honored to be aunties to. Surprisingly nice pics taken with cell phones! Mollybee (pic by A, with her Motorola Razr): 
Happy (with my Nokia 6103): 
Well, I loved trick or treating as a kid. I just recently saw Hallowe'en, the old movie, at Master Pancake Theater in Austin, which had me twitching with fear between laughing my head off. Yeah, if *that* freaks me out, then there's no way I'm will be able to stomach other more recent stuff. My most recent fond memory of watching a scary movie is with Fri, in the middle of the afternoon, sun pouring in, huddled together in Ed's bed, watching a Korean or Japanese version of The Ring ... and both of us still shivering with fear. Hahaha, we are so weak. :) 
A dog dressed up as a mummy.
The people at the Scion Fright Fest were really getting into it.
Close-up of the hand and feet on the grill. I'm glad I'm a vegetarian ...
Hahahahahah. Nice.
My Corolla dressed up as a Matrix.
Me at my best.
I saw these little orange wheely things at Walmart. There was only Spanish labelling indicating what it was. I thought it was candy. I was hungry. I picked one up and put it in my mouth ... 
Yuck. I think it was pasta! :(
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. :)
Don't be a playa-hata, now ... 
 
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA. Karen rocks so hard.
So, I was like all ready to be all productive and stuff tonight. Instead, I allowed myself to get distracted by this lil' lady. 
Click through for more pics and some semi smart-aleck comments.
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: 
Two feet shorter than Yao Ming, but two days older. :) Go Howie, iss yer berfday, we gon' party lak iss yer berfday! And it is! Have a good one, bro. 
Taken in Zanesville, OH, May 2007. Related: Mr. Fantasy video shorts (trust me, I have mixed feelings about this nickname that he's acquired), my bro's blog (warning: for fantasy sports geeks only)
Congratulations to Bill & Cindy for tying the knot and plunging forward into their futures together. Grand party, it was. Though I think near the end of it I was too busy testing the capabilities of my liver to remember much. 'Twas a good time. Thanks to Masa Sushi for serving up a special plate for the vegetarians, and for serving up the drinks, and for uh, tolerating me.   
 
And of course, our live performance, raw and unedited. My fellow comrades in rap rocked da houz for sure.
One on purpose, and one by accident. 
Father and son strike a pose. This lil' guy is gettin' un-little by the minute! :)
BFFs since high school breakfasting @ Classic Bakery.
Bumped into Crystal and Albert at Spicy China, a new joint that just opened up. My mom is getting really good at taking pictures with no flash, even with a slow shutter speed ... and her composition is pretty good too! :)
... and other meetups. :) 
A visits from Chicago with THE CUTEST KIDS EVARRRRRRRRR!!!
We couldn't help but crack up after the kids made a huge mess making an ice cream / pepper / salt concoction and then diluted it with water - when the bowl was already full. I think we couldn't stop laughing when A said, "Um, I think it's time for us to leave and pretend it wasn't us?" :)
Checkin' out June's arsenal of makeup.
Eyelash power.
After makeup fun with Carrie.
Tofu Village, yes, again. :)
Our sweet sweet hosts cutting up some sweet sweet mango for us.
I was (am!) determined to see everyone I wanna see. And I ended up picking up a bonus!! 
Wei and Oscar at Tofu Village. They give you the Asian yogurt drink with your cheque rather than fortune cookies. WAY better! Especially after a very spicy tofu soup. :P
While hanging with mah boiz, bumped into TOTAL blast from the past: Scott Ryan, USATT referee!! He couldn't remember me at first, and who could blame him, after over 13 years. His first question to me: "Was I a nice person?" My answer was an immediate "yes!" And then I thought about it: that really is what matters, when people go their separate ways, isn't it? That's all you take with you, the impression of if they were nice or not. I always remember Scott as being like a very kind uncle that I want to bear hug whenever I see him, he's such a sweet man.
Me 'n mah boiz, Eddie and Sam, shooting the breeze back at their hotel after dinner.
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