Wine? Vinegar? Are food product labels also going along with the trend of tabloid headlines combining Hollywood couple’s names?

So instead of grabbing the chips while settling down for a night in front of the tube, you could just snack on the bag of crispy mini crabs:

Her exclamation seems cheerful enough; don’t know why she’s so down if it’s “GOOD GOOD EAT”:

It’s a party all right. That octopus looks like it’s gettin’ DOWN:

Oh no, Oh Yes!

And lastly, just a comparison of our bachelor guy friend’s shopping habits compared to us bachelorette girls’. Well, wasabi peas count as vegetables, right? :)

H-Mart is always a fun adventure. :)

Apparently my buddy over at Liquid Egg Product returned from the Chinese supermarket with some finds of his own. :)

The first time we had this event, it was such a huge hit, we went ahead and did it again.

I got to meet the chef who is the mastermind behind the [in]famous Kollab-ROLL-ation:

He even showed me how to throw up a “K” sign with my hands (for KOLLABORATION):

I bought one of our limited-edition shirts for him - really, he deserved it for all his hard work; didn't expect him to thank me with this all-original creation, totally off the menu, and VERY pretty:

But I’m a vegetarian, so I saved it for my roommate who lets me drag her out to my Kollaboration functions:

This here picture is of 3 Dulles High School AND University of Texas at Austin alumni, coincidentally posed in order of height … can you put us in order of oldest to youngest? :)

‘Twas a fun night. Thanks to all those who came out to support Kollaboration Houston tonight at Fish Sushi!

Gotta love baby Jonathan’s beautiful, twinkling eyes as he climbs all over his daddy. :)

I usually don’t like to give up creative control (read: I’m anal about my videos) but I was curious and hit the Flip equivalent of Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button today. Well, not too bad, if I do say so myself.

Doing a low-budget photobooth (read: didn’t feel like spending any money at all) turned out better than I expected. :) My favorite of all the ones today:

Keep it classy, ladies. Just the way I like it. ;)

The move has consisted of several parts:

1. Packing – man, so not fun (thanks Lous for helping)

2. Moving Phase 1 – 1st group of friends (thanks Eddy and the Cheng clan – both the Texan and Brazilian branches!!)

3. Moving Phase 2 – 2nd group of friends armed with big truck for the heavy stuff (thank you to all my muscle-y friends!!)

4. Cleaning the Old Apt – man, SO not fun (thanks Eddy for bringing the cleaning gear and getting down and dirty in there with me!!)

5. Unpacking – still cleaning the old apt, so haven’t gotten around to this part yet. The new apartment looks like a hurricane hit it … which I guess it did … the Caroline Move-In Hurricane …

How the heck did I accumulate so much STUFF?!

Here are some of my muscle-y friends in action. Will and Donnie are carrying the heaviest item of furniture that I own (and that thing is EMPTY, btw!), while Chris provides a buffer should Donnie fall back, and Vicki um, provides a buffer for if Chris falls back? :)

My friends even brought refreshments, helped me re-assemble my bed, and change out my incandescent bulbs to fluorescents. Plus my new roommate has started organizing the kitchen. I have a lot to go, but the move has been going way more smoothly than I imagined. Thanks friends!!!!!

I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT MOVING INTO MY NEW PLACE!! :)

Apparently, in Japanese culture, it is actually POLITE to slurp your noodles loudly to show appreciation for the delicious food served to you. In stark contrast, we Westerners frown upon such loud noises while eating and are trained to do just the opposite – eat silently. It’s been funny watching Hiroko instinctively slurp all noodles placed in front of her. So we decided to try and copy her.

Who did the best job? You decide!! :)

I just couldn’t resist!

Happy birthday, Hiroko!! Thank you(?) for making my cheeks and stomach hurt from laughing too hard and too much!!

Friend is moving away from Houston [pout!]. Just helping get the word out about stuff she’s selling. All furniture is less than a year old and practically new.

Couch = $200 (bought it for $400; it is a futon that bends two ways) [ update: SOLD ]

Sharp flatscreen 32" TV = $400 OBO [ update: CLAIMED ]
TV Stand/coffee table = $15 [ update: CLAIMED ... by moi :P ]

Table and chairs (4) set = $60 OBO [ update: SOLD ]

1994 Honda Civic EX, sporty red 2-door coupe, 150k miles, in good condition! = $1500 OBO [ update: SOLD ]

Bissell Powerforce bagless Vacuum Cleaner = $20 [ update: SOLD ]

Most comfortable Queen size mattress set EVAR (mattress + boxspring): $100 [ update: SOLD ]

Friend is also giving away lots of household items...plates, silverware, pans, mugs, etc. E-mail / call for details. [ update: CLAIMED ]

Thanks guys! – C :) [ update: YAY! :) ]

My evening opened up unexpectedly last night, and so I headed over to the willyouBhere Hepatitis B awareness event and concert at the University of Houston. I was hoping to meet David Choi so I could thank him personally for giving me permission to use his cover of "Over The Rainbow" in my skydiving video; however, I would have had to body surf over / push and shove through the throng of screaming girls that mobbed him after the event. Yeah, didn’t happen. I DID however get to briefly shake hands with Paul Dateh and snapped a quick pic with him before security kicked us out (props to Nancy for the quick trigger finger):

Um, I look way too happy in this photo, and all I can say is ... that boy's silky smooth voice made me melt in my seat and utter obscenities that hopefully were not recorded by digital camera video recorders surrounding us.

All in all, a great night of entertainment. Also enjoyed watching singers Jessica Sanchez (her voice sounds way older than a 14-yr-old!), Michelle Martinez, along with Youtube comedians / personalities KevJumba, HappySlip, and dance crew Kaba Modern.

Just wanted to end this post with my skydiving video, if you haven't seen it already. One of the greatest [short] experiences of my life. Thanks again David Choi!

I am SO PSYCHED! I present to you a picture of my first ever original artwork, and of a pink orange at that, by the talented and generous J to the M-a.

That evening, JMa called me and said she had "something" she wanted to drop off. I was feeling less than awesome so I asked if she could possibly pick up some orange juice for me. She sounded a little taken aback, and I thought that perhaps I'd asked for one favor too many ... but her surprise was instead due to my being seemingly in sync with the surprise she had in store for me.

I like it I like it I like it!!! And thank you David for the hanging supplies, and for LEP for helping me hang it up!! I like, feel so grown up now. :)

It just so happened that our table at Cafe 101 consisted of 2 girls, and 2 guys - BOTH sporting unique hats. How rare is that?!

 
Sheng listens as Kirk tells us how he feels about health care

The last time I'd spoken to Sheng was over five years ago, and I remember asking him what he was doing, and he replied, "I'm a [ insert job name ], but I'm going to be a comedian." And that he did. "Hats off" to him! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

He's coming to do a charity comedy show in Houston Tuesday, September 22nd at 7:30p. Pre-sale tix are $20, with 2-item minimum purchase at Laff Stop. Proceeds help survivors of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan that wiped out entire villages with mudslides. If you've not heard of Tzu-Chi, they're a very active group and famous for being on the frontlines in time of disaster; they don't just collect money and sit on the sides. They are in there getting down and dirty and getting stuff done.

Hope to see you folks there!

BEST : getting a phone call from Japan and hearing Moe-chan speak English to me. Thank you, Moe-chan. You TOTALLY made my day!

This was especially nice after waking up at 7:00am in a cold sweat from having my first nightmare in a very long time and not being able to go back to sleep.

Little Moe (pronounced "Mo-eh") had been practicing hard all week so she could say a few sentences to me in English.

Apparently the stress from reciting those lines in English got her body really tense:

Here she just looks a little nauseous having to tolerate my awful attempts at Japanese conversation:

Finally, when saying goodbye and an oh-so-sweet "I love you!" she finally relaxes a tiny bit - but still has a death grip on the phone with both hands:

Thanks to Hiroko for the action shots. :)

==========

WORST : Having to deal with apartment's new management ... again and again.

Me: Hi, I don't know why I got a notice for not having paid my rent. I have it automatically set to deduct from my checking account every month.

Apartment's New Management (ANM): With the new management, we don't have that anymore, and don't know if we will ever have that. If you bring in a money order in today, we'll waive the late fees.

Me: OK, can I have the exact total of rent plus utilities?

ANM: No, we don't know the exact amount. They're still figuring it out. [ cue my rolling of eyes ] Your best bet would be to pay what you paid last month. If you end up paying a little more, that amount will be credited towards your next statement.

Me: And what if I end up short a few bucks? Would that just be tacked onto the next statement?

ANM: Well ... then we would bill you for that amount and you'd have to come in and pay that, again via money order. So, we advise you to maybe pay a couple bucks more so that doesn't happen.

To say that they are concerned only for their bottom line seems something like an understatement. Is that the norm? Or only because I live in this particular apartment complex?

Also, I can't get straightforward answers to inquiries, like: "Have you added freon to my A/C yet?" and, "There are big gaping holes in my weather stripping, you do realize that all my A/C is just going out through those holes?" So far, I've "only" had to call them 4 times and talk to them in person about it once, only to get answers like, "Well, you should test it by turning the dial to 70F so we know if they did it or not," and "Don't you have a foundation problem? The weather stripping will NEVER be perfect."

Well, I'll keep thinking about the BEST wake up call ever and Moe's adorable voice and it'll be all good. :)

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

I know what you're thinking. I've probably just jumped the gun, jumped to conclusions, didn't really give them a chance. Well, this is my story of what happened on the evening of Saturday, August 8th, and you can derive your own conclusions.

After having a major blast at Alice's wedding, a bunch of us still were not sated and headed out for post-wedding clubbing. Friends brought friends, and we ended up with a group of 12 people, 11 Asian (9 dudettes, 2 dudes), and 1 Caucasian (yay for Tree Frog for being the token white guy!). An initial group of 4 ladies had gotten there first, and were turned away from the door after a brief dialogue:

Bouncer: Are you with the private party?
4 Ladies: No ...
Bouncer: Sorry, if you're not with the private party, we can't let you in, there are too many people.

While waiting for us, they observed that non-Asian people were being let in just by showing their IDs and without the same questioning.

We arrived, and we were turned away with the same dialogue. Still in disbelief, we decided to test the system. We asked token white guy Tree Frog to try getting in. And sure enough, they let him in without even asking him if he was with the "private party".

So, we butted heads with them some. While doing so, people came and went, and after some time, Tree Frog asked, "Look, if it really is a numbers issue, I've seen about 10 people leave, and we have about 10 people in our party. What's up with that?" No answer. Management was talked to, and they kept mute as we spoke of their unfairness. Another group of partygoers, a mix of whites, Hispanics, and Asians, was also turned away while we were giving the manager of piece of our minds. One of the ladies in the initial group was surprised because she'd just been to Blue Label the night before at an all-Asian party. After a while though, we just weren't that direly in need of giving them our money anyway, so off we went.

And while my remaining clubbing days are numbered, I won't be tapping Blue Label Lounge for business if I have a choice.

Aside from that, I was glad we were able to have a post-wedding hurrah for Alice and Chun. I was definitely buzzing very well. :) [ to the pictures! ]

* I suppose one remaining possibility is that if there actually WAS a private party going on there, that it was hosted by someone who had a thing against Asians.

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.

Congratulations, Violeta and Karthik!

So, instead of the regular ol' rehearsal dinner, we were instead asked to come out for a dance rehearsal. For what? A surprise short dance routine that interrupted their first dance:

My date to the wedding was pretty cool. He accompanied me the whole day (I'm talkin' 15 hrs here) and he even slow danced with me in the middle of the room while there was a mass exodus going on behind us.

Wedding by Violeta + Karthik
Makeup by Jen Ma
Hair by Andrea Schutter
Dress by David's Bridal
Pleasant Companionship by Tree Frog
Attitude by me. :)

... a total stranger takes a picture of you without your knowledge almost 10 years ago and then posts it on a website with other weird photos that are made fun of.

I'd never heard of AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com until Henry pointed it out to me (um, thanks?!). HAHahhahah oh man. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this on the website. Not exactly work safe (depends on your industry, I guess), so beware when you click through the photo to the site.

So I guess I should explain what is going on here. :) Old Calgary buds Reema and Winnie were showing me around San Francisco - had to be between 1999 and 2002, while I was an acupuncture student in Cali - and took me to the Palace of Fine Arts. So we were walking around taking pictures and there, on the green, was this dude posing for a professional photographer. Before my friends could stop me, I ran over and asked if I could have a pic with this guy, thinking that this was too hilarious! I still have the original pic where me and this dude are facing the camera; it's a bit strange to know that someone secretly took a pic of us from the side, and has hoarded it until now!

I remember asking him why he was taking pics there; I can't for the life of me remember his answer. I believe he said his name was "Blaire"; I never remembered to look for him on the internet after that.

Not that this REALLY explains anything except for my penchant for wanting to take pictures of everything I encounter. Be sure to read the caption and the comments underneath; so funny! Man. Yep. The Internet "big-time". Thanks(?!?!) AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com!

There was massive raining last night. This morning, friends' status updates indicated that many were staying home from work / school due to flooding. I opened my door, looked outside, and everything looked fine to me. I saw some people in the parking lot with car trouble, and some shaking out their car mats. I thought to myself, "Wow. They must've left their windows open last night. That sucks!" Then I got to my car and saw this behind the driver's seat:

D'oh! And my windows were not accidentally left open last night!!

Driving to work, all the water sloshed forward. Yippee. At least my car still works.

Eddy has offered to go with me to find a carwash with a wetvac. My first time using a wetvac, hooray!

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!!)

Finally got to see Iris perform live for the first time. I'd been wanting to, had only heard about her wonderful voice, but my schedule never permitted 'til now.

One of the songs off her new album:

Iris likes to jam with her shoes off:

Iris hamming it up with an interviewer afterwards:

[ more pics ] [ more sounds of Iris ]

Was glad to catch up with Iris briefly, and saw a buncha people I hadn't seen in a long while!

So through some gratuitous connections I got to watch Gladys Knight perform at the Rodeo Friday night, from the PRESS BOX!! Well, technically it was Gladys Knight and Beyonce's little sister. I didn't know her name until I got there, man have I been totally out of the loop with the popular music these days (old fogey alert!).

We did have to watch some of the pre-performance rodeo. I recall going a year or two ago and not liking the feeling of man asserting himself over animal using violent (and what I deem to be unfair) means as if to prove superiority, nor did I like the encouragement of little kids to do the same. I remember it feeling like a very testosterone-driven event that simply used animals for sport. I felt the same way this time.

Anyway! Solange and Gladys were really fun to watch! Here's Gladys in her heyday singing my two favorite songs of the night:

It's so fun to watch those Pips get their dance on. :D

And a more recent performance by Gladys. This is pretty much what she looked like at the Rodeo. What a darling woman, so self-assured and so in love with her craft. I totally understand why she is the "Empress of Soul". Her performance brought tears to my eyes (old fogey alert the second!!). I hope I can be as self-assured at her age when I get there!

Thanks for all the birthday well-wishes!! I hope all is well for everyone in this new year!

As if to alert me to my +1 status, my body protested at 9pm to go to bed. It's now 4 am, and I am strangely wide awake, and awfully sentimental.

I think I've become more aware in my "adulthood" of patterns engrained in me that I don't necessarily like, but are undeniably part of my being. I suppose I could just say "that's just how I am", but I refuse to just BE that way.

To all of my friends: each and every one of you inspires me to be a better person. And that is the best birthday present I could have.

My homeboy EnVaDoR has been up to no good as usual with his modding antics. His latest: getting noted on lifehacker (with a mention on gizmodo) for his DIY iPhone Paper Clip Stand!

A search turns up a whole lotta hits where he gets mentioned, but true 6334dom is appearing on lh and gizmodo, right? :) From one geek to another, here's to you Dean: the King o' Geeks!

[ his original post ]

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 ]

Elaine and I survived the Dallas Muddy Buddy 6-mi run/bike! (Well, to be very clear, *I* merely survived it - Elaine's in really good shape so I'm sure this was not too bad for her.) To commemorate this accomplishment, I've put together a slideshow to cheesy music, as I am often prone to doing. Enjoy!

My personal goals were to seriously 1) complete without dying, and 2) to not stop. I had to walk the bike a few times over rough / steep terrain, but otherwise, I did it! WE did it! :)

Thanks to those who came out to share our "last meal", to those who trained the last 3 months with my Royal Slowness, and for all the well-wishes!

============================

Training equipment / tools:
- Champion running shoes, 4+ years old, were thrown out after the race
- Hella-old Walmart special mountain bike (Elaine's nice bike was used for the race)
- MapMyRun.com, a great way to track your workouts and provide motivation for the days you just don't want to run
- fear of dying on the day of the race

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 ]

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 ]

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

[ the complete photoshoot ]

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 tworestaurants 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.