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.

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!

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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! ]

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.