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!

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The conclusion to my little four-part series.

And so, the storm hit us almost exactly one month ago today. And today, there are 4 men on my roof banging loudly away, making me fear that at any moment the ceiling might cave in and a construction worker complete with hammer, hardhat, and neon vest might fall into my bedroom. Hahaha and no, that would not be a turn on.

Apologies to those who can't get my abysmal singing voice out of their heads. Muahahahaha. Soon all will be ihatepink.com zombies! World domination is imminent!! :)

Didn't have power nor running water all day. Not knowing when things were going to return to normal was making me unsure. And so, I forced myself to take my mind off of possible impending doom by doing some "undercover" work on my apartment's hurricane "emergency" line, and then heading out on my trusty bike after the rain to see what was going on in my immediate surroundings.

Ike Mockumentary, Day 3: Ike Hits from Caroline Chen on Vimeo.

I suppose I'm one of those that boring people who place less emphasis on form than function but ... using cloth to "protect" your windows just seemed pretty ... useless. Or maybe I should say, pretty, but useless?

Some of you may remember the "REALLY IMPORTANT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111!!!!!!" series that I did ( part 1 | part 2 ) three years ago when Rita blew through and got the media's panties all up in a bunch. Well, when I got news that Ike was coming through, I immediately thought: "I wonder if enough interesting things will happen to be able to do a series on Ike?"

Well, the answer was no, but you know me - when bored, I'll either make things interesting or make things happen. :) To make full-screen, mouseover the video and click on the little icon beside "vimeo" that looks vaguely like 4 arrows pointing outward.

Semi-useful news tidbit: If you still don't have power since the hurricane but see that your neighbors have power, call 713-207-2222 [ source ].

And so, we have survived the hurricane. I've made a series of videos that my Facebook friends have already gotten a glimpse of, and will soon be posted here. But first! My cousin Min called me up earlier this week to tell me she'd sent me a present. I was baffled; I rudely blurted out (as I am wont to do), "Oh, what for?" She laughed and said, "Just 'cause! And this is totally going to get on ihatepink.com!" I was intrigued: "Oh really??" And today, after waiting ALL week, I got the package!

Min, Peter, and Connor, this one's for you. :)

Long-Awaited Gift from Min from Caroline Chen on Vimeo.

I've been following Hurricane Ike updates online; haven't felt like turning on the TV. Maybe I'll do it just to test how long I can watch it before getting sick and tired of it.

Came across this video on weather.com. One sentence caught my ear:

"Church members say after their prayers, Edouard slowed and turned right, and Gustav went to Louisiana."

I think it's normal when people turn to faith in times of crisis, but ... can they truly celebrate that they "diverted" Hurricane Gustav so that it didn't hit us here in Houston but instead our neighbors in Louisiana? "Hooray! It didn't hit us! It hit them! Whahahaaahaaa! We rock!!!"

In the meantime ... I'll be filling up on drinking water and shopping for bananas. ;)