Conversation of the day:

Me: I'm dogsitting two dogs right now. They're just like kids. They're happy to see me when I get home, they love attention, they get jealous of each other. They understand lots of commands, too. Like, when I take them outside to pee and poo and it's time to go home, I just say, "Go home!" and they just run on home.
Friend: Um, Caroline ... kids don't like going home when you tell them to, and ... they don't pee and poo outside.
Me: Oh ... right.

Anyway! These are my temporary "kids"!

Shar sleeps while Jag contemplates freedom.

Jag and Shar hanging out. That's one of Jag's toys, and that white puff is part of its stuffing that Jag has managed to rip out.

Jag and Shar hanging out. Jag always looks happy, and Shar always looks sad.

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! ]

It's hard to believe I've known Ashley for 16 years. It's even harder to believe she's remained my friend despite how I made fun of her when we first met.

Ashley: Do you remember when we were in middle school, how you critiqued my essays? You wrote 3 columns: 'The Good, The Bad, The Ugly'. 'The Ugly' would always be full, and there'd be like ONE thing under 'The Good', something like, "Spelled your name right."
Me: Hahaha, shoot, really? Dang, sorry girl. I know, I was a punk lil' kid.
Ashley: That's cool. 'Cuz you know what? It's because of your criticism that my English improved. Thanks!

Ashley, my sincerest congratulations. I love you so much. I'm so happy for you that you've found an awesome man to share your life with. Be good to John now, y'hear?

I love how this pic (courtesy of my dad) captures April's multi-talented-ness: she can smile AND kiss at the same time!



And they lived happily ever after.

------------

Here's another of my side-by-side comparisons (if you missed the others, here they are):



19 yrs later, and not much has changed. Our piano teacher (who led us to piano duet victory when we were but wee ones), now 79 years of age (but SO not looking or acting it!), is still the sweetest lady ever; April is still as skinny as a stick, 100% body mass = brain, and has landed herself a most excellent hubby; I, eh, well, I now have a full-looking set of teeth and know how to occasionally act girly. Both of us are definitely as dorky as ever. Dorks 'r us!

I had the extreme pleasure of being a bridesmaid at April's wedding after 19 [torturous! hehe] years of knowing the bride. I love you, girl! This also means though that there were NOT that many pictures taken because I can't possibly expect my dad to be as freakish as I am, although I'm sure I got this trait from SOMEWHERE ... gotta blame it on sumpin' ... gotta blame it on sumpin' ... blame it on da rain, yeah, yeah ...

Just finished watching the season finale of "The Bachelor". This is my first time tuning in to the reality show. And yay! He picked the classy, mature, confident one over the pretty bimbo.

I have to admit, I think the Bachelor dude is hot. Funny, his name is Andrew Firestone. One of my cousins' names is also Andrew, and although [ex-]Bachelor Andrew is beefier in build, I think they have similar facial features:

But isn't my cousin cuter?

The season finales of The Simpsons were awesome. One of them ended with the whole cast joining hands and singing the Canadian national anthem! Sweeeeeet.

I received one of those junk catalogues in the mail: "For Women Only". These things crack me up. For one, they always have the personal vibrator that is supposedly ONLY for massaging your back, but it's shaped like a you-know-what, and they always give this semi-erotic description about its uses. And the fashions ... oh I thought I was rid of funny fashion after leaving China, but I was wrong: "The Jacquard Caftan, just $16.95, makes you look THINNER!" This thing could make an elephant look thinner.

They conveniently do not have a picture of the abovementioned personal body massager, so here it is:

.

And this is Caroline, live, reporting from Quarantine Land.

Chinese vocab o' the day: [ge2 li2] : to isolate, segregate; to quarantine.

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. =)