Happy Turkey Day!

It has been quite a while since I last posted anything here. I've just been really busy, not sure with what though. Two weekends has gone by and I've not contributed a single entry to my blog...tsk tsk tsk...I feel bad now so I'm gonna make up for it by writing an extra long one, so go get a cup of hot cocoa and continue reading. Let's start with the weekend before Thanksgiving. I went in to St Louis with Dave because lately I've been shopping around for a BMW 3 series (I know, I know..I don't need a new car for the current one works absolutely fine but I...ok you got me...I don't have a good reason just that I'm sick of the current one, reason enough?) and I saw an ad from a private seller on Autotrader. Looked good online, it was a 2002 325xi titanium silver.

Beemer that Dave & I checked out in St Louis 2002 325xi

So I called and made an appointment with the guy. Got in to St Louis around lunch time Saturday, Dave & I went to meet the guy and took the car for a spin. He was a nice guy and car looked and drove great. Apparently he was selling it because his 18yo daughter who's been driving it for the year didn't think it was "sporty" enough (GOSH brat alert!) and Dad was going to buy an Audi TT for her (where were parents like these when I was growing up). The bad thing was the inside was pretty trashed up. It was quite dirty, presumably from the daughter, and the guy refused to even match the blue book value. So I was like see you later!

After that Dave and I feasted at a chinese buffet restaurant (Emperor's Palace) at Chesterfield, it was great food they had japanese(sushi), mongolian, vietnamese(pho), american chinese, authentic chinese (dim sum etc) and best of all a giant chocolate fondue where you can dip fresh strawberries, bananas and marshmallows. It was very delish but we both ate WAY too much. We didn't eat anything else for the rest of the day. After the late lunch we rested for a while and then proceeded to Randal Steele's (one of Dave's lawyer friends) wine party. It was fun and we met a bunch of people there who joined us at the Complex later that night. It was awesome, we danced from the time we got there till it shut down. I had a blast!!

Our thanksgiving dinner....see how hard we cooked ;)
So the next week I only had 3 days to work so I was very happy ;) Woke up bright and early Thursday packed and drove in to Kansas City where we helped prepare our Malaysian-American Thanksgiving dinner. We had it all! Traditional turkey, greenbean casserole, stuffed mushrooms, potatos, vege casserole and pumpkin pie! It was all very good! We had our feast and later went to watch Harry Potter at 11:30pm which was a good movie but screening was way too late. We were all falling asleep in the theatre and we finally got out at 2:30am! It was late, we were all mellow from the tryptophan in our turkey and to our HORROR when we returned we found Benji had crashed through his doggie gate and made his way to the dining table where he feasted on our Thanksgiving feast! Food was everywhere, turkey leg bone and stuffed mushrooms on the floor, potatos on table, it was total CHAOS! Everybody was mad and started screaming at Benji including his favourite Aunt Elaine who usually is the first to defend him but this time the evidences were too many and too obvious. Eventually anger turned into sympathy as we were worried if he had ate too much. He had puked all upstairs and later puked somemore all throughout the night. He didn't look like he did so well the following couple of days. Click picture below for a previous article on benji.

Caught red handed. And the verdict for Benji is GUILTY!

Unfortunately we had to throw away most of the food since Benji had his way with them. We did save some of the turkey for our turkey curry mee which is now starting to be a tradition. We've been doing this for the past 3-4 years. Aside from that, for the next few days we did very little. We just talked, watched TV and just relaxed. I did see another BMW online and called the guy. This one's a 2001 330i Steel Blue, H2 and I met up with him and drove the car around. H2 made an instant connection with him (diesel jeans) and she thought he was hot. He was a young college student who apparently can't "make" the montly payments. It was a very good looking and clean/shiny car both inside and out and drove very well. It even had the premium package with Harmon Kardon speakers and Xenon headlights which was a plus! But upon further inspection though, I found couple of dents on the side and most alarming were the damages at the back of the car, near the trunk. It almost looked like someone was trying to pry the trunk open. I'm still contemplating if I should make the dude an offer. Really depends if he'll lower his price somemore.

Another BMW H2 & I checked out. This one's a 2001 330i in Kansas City.

We also celebrated YS's 28th birthday over the Thanksgiving weekend. It was going to be hard trying to get everyone together again. Elaine baked her a very yummy cheesecake but unfortunately the crust stuck to the pan. Regardless it was still delish and we all just digged in =) Elaine, H2 and me shared and got her an Express gift cert.


Yee Sin's birthday and cheesecake compliments of Chef Ong

All in all It was really nice having everyone around. Eventhough our families were all far far away, we somehow bonded together and treated one another as one of our own. Most of our American friends have their families to go home to, but we had our own little extended family to celebrate with and we've been doing this for the past 4 years. We all left the pretty early on Sunday and that pretty much wraps up another thanksgiving celebration at the Yeoh's.

Cranberry Crawl

Before the run: Joe, me & Steph (L); Steph, me & H2 (R)

Wow...what a fun and productive weekend it has been, but then again when is there ever a "non fun" weekend? ;) The main event this weekend would be the Cranberry Crawl, a 5K run/walk in Columbia that I found out through Steph. I managed to convince H2 and Joe into participating as well. I went to bed extra early on Friday night (which is very rare) and woke up bright and early on Sat morning, at 6:30am mind you. I don't even get up at 6:30 on workdays! I wanted to be well prepared since this IS my first ever 5K run =)

The run started at 8am, weather was great (kinda cool, ideal for running) and there were a ton of people there, by my guesstimate there were approx 150 people who participated and another 20 to 30 who volunteered. We chatted with a few participants before the run and found out that this is one of the hilliest 5K runs in Columbia but I was like "eer ok, not like I'm gonna win anything anyway". All I wanted was to complete the run in under 30 mins, which I did!! YAY!! See results at http://ctc.coin.org/results/ccrawl/cran05.html
The run went amazingly well, I ran the whole way...even up those freakin hills and I was still weirdly energetic after the run ended. Of the experience, I especially liked the part where the volunteers cheer you on and passes out water and people were all clapping and screaming at the finish line, I mean it felt like I was in the freakin New York marathon or something hehehe ;) Putting all jokes aside, I did have so much fun and will definitely do it again, maybe even a 10K in the future. It was just so incredibly motivating to run along with a bunch of other people.


Me, Joe and H2 (L) & A group pic of after the race (R)

Later that night, went to watch Jarhead with Joe, Brandon and Patrick. Everyone I went with thought the movie was really good but I was just like nnyyyaah, I thought it was just a so-so movie. Maybe it's because I'm not American and can't relate to the patriotic side of the film. But regardless, the movie wasn't bad and it wasn't a complete waste of my $6.50.

Didn't really do much on Sunday. It was Joel's 26th birthday and I baked a couple of cheesecakes for him. I experimented with one by adding some bananas and it came out really good. Took him out for dinner at Chilis and later had Joe, Dave, Em, Steph and H2 come over to hang out and celebrate and also watch DHW and Grey's Anatomy. Watching TV with a group of people is somehow more fun. Don't ask me why. Joe & I also gave him a Comic book present. And that pretty much wraps up another weekend....

When September Ends

Two more months!! Two more months and we can all say ta-ta to 2005!! Unbelievable how quickly this year has zoomed by. It has been a good year with many accomplishments and achievements. But the standard struggles with career and immigration status still remains.

Anyway my first weekend of November went pretty good. Went to A&C with Matt, Don and Dave Friday night. I really wanted to party (possibly at the new Generic Club) but Matt and Don got extremely drunk/high (who knows? Don later says his drink was supposedly "ruffied") and so the night got cut short. Dave, Em and myself ended up chatting till about 3am.

Next morning, went to have pho with H2 (she's had pho craving for the last 2 weeks, don't ask me why) and then shopped at the Mall where I got 3 t-shirts for the price of 2 at Hollister =) The frat muscle boy that checked me out must have taken one too many steroid pills or he could've been hitting on me but I highly doubt the latter ;) Later that evening, Joe and parents invited me to dinner at Chris McD's to celebrate Katie's (Joe's sis) new place of employment, the meal was mucho deliciousso. After dinner, we were going to join Dave, Mark and Daniel at Dejavu for comedy but since it was too late Joe and I went to see Zorro instead. The movie was alright but I feel like Antonio Banderas is getting a little too old to be jumping around in a black cape and all (A little off course but I wonder if Banderas means flag in Spanish since it's Bendera in Malay, any spanish speaking readers out there?) . I got pissed at Hollywood because half way through the movie the film got off the reel for a good 10 mins and they never bothered to rewind (dunno if it's possible) or apologize or anything. But nobody complained so maybe it's just me. After the movie joined Dave and gang at Shattered and then ended up at Mark and Daniel's place and hung out there till about 4am.

Sunday, the weather was great considering it IS November. Steph, Suzie and me went to the Katy trail and ran/walked a good 4 miles. Then had dinner at House of Chow (Chee Bye, House of CCB is how we usually refer to it) with H2 where we felt that we got discrinated against, at a Chinese restaurant!! But aside from that, the meal was good. Oh also took this picture of my neighbour's trash. They must've had quite a party over the weekend! I counted and it came up to be like 132 cases or 2640 bottles!! Funny thing was seeing the trash guy the next day, they were literally scratching their heads wondering how clear it all...


Beer cases: My neighbours must have had quite a party!!