Wicked the Musical

Spent a lot of time driving last week. I took Wednesday off work and drove in to St Louis on Tuesday night to get fingerprinted yet again on Wed afternoon. I was applying for my EAD card and apparently every new document requires a new set of fingerprints. Went to dinner with bunch of people (Dave, Wes, James, Nick F, Clint, Jimmy, Ryan Applebees, Dwane and me) at McGurks. After dinner we just hung out at Daves. The next day I pretty much got fingerprinted and hung out with Dwane and drove back.

Worked Thurs and 1/2 day on Friday and then drove back again for Wicked on Friday night 8pm. We had bought tickets couple months back so we were all very excited. Carrie and I were supposed to go together but she wasn't feeling well so Nick F went in place of her. The show was at the St Louis Fox Theatre and I must admit, it was a gorgeous theatre. The theme of that building was Siamese Byzantine which I thought was interesting. There were very detail and ornate decorations all over and the inside was huge. Ryan, James, Dwane and I all got dressed up and went together. The show lasted for over two hours and I must say this is probably one of the best Musicals I've seen. It was witty, funny and had a great twist of story line adapted from the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. I only wished I've seen the movie before the play as there were many references made because this musical was kind of a prequel to the movie with minor changes/adaptations. After the musical, we went to South City Diner and had a late, late dinner and pretty much went home and crashed.

The next day, we woke up to snow and more snow. We stayed in most of the day and tried to stay warm by drinking lots of tea and played a game of Scrabble with Wes and Dave over breakfast. Later Ryan, James and I went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then watched I Am Legend, which turned out to be a really entertaining movie. After the movie, we found more snow (it snowed a total of 6-8" throughout the day in both StL and Col) and made a really slow ride home due to slick roads and stupid drivers. We got back and all of us started playing a game of Monopoly which turned out to be incredible fun. It was fun to see how everyone got to be sneaky, conniving, catty and mean. Initial alliances between Dave and me was a sure win against Wes, Ryan and James but later Dave decided to turn on me, so I recruited the other team and we proved to be victorious. We ended up playing till 5am which reminded me very much of the time when I was a young boy and stayed up late to play board games such as Monopoly and Risk with my brothers and childhood friends. It really brought back and added great memories for me. Sunday we all had lunch at Joanie's and I hung out for a little longer and headed home to Columbia.

This week is the final work week for the 2007! It's scary how fast this year has flown by. I have a feeling 2008 will be filled with many new challenges. I will be heading to New York City (for the 3rd time this year) a week from today on Xmas eve with Beau and then returning New Year's Eve to celebrate with the StL crew. I'm really looking forward to this trip, hopefully it won't be too cold. I'd like to maybe check out Atlantic City, Boston or DC. It's another total last minute trip, we bought the tickets on Friday! And it only cost us $109!!! ($160 after taxes and fees). The next time you hear from me will probably be after my NY trip and I promise to post lots and lots of pictures :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!

Xmas

Merry Xmas! We're downtown lookin at window displays and enjoying free food, Yummy!!

Thanksgiving

I'm sorry for not updating for almost a month now. I have just been busy and this whole cold weather thing is just so depressing. The few weekends before Thanksgiving were spent doing nothing too interesting but hanging around with Beau and Chadd in Columbia. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I drove in to StL for James & Nick's Thanksgiving party. I left right after work Friday. Soon upon arriving, a bunch of us went to a condo launch party hosted by Tony's boss' who does real estate development on the side at Compton Heights or Gates, I can't remember. The party was pretty cool, open bar with free food and performances by a string quartet and a belly dancer *Gasp*. After the party, we went to Novak's and had a ball, met Dallas who was fun. The next day, Dave and I pretty much did nothing and yet we were late to the Thanksgiving party. Nick cooked up a storm with the highlight (for me at least) being the pepper ice cream. The rest were standard Thanksgiving stuff (turkey, stuffing...etc). We stayed in that night and the next morning, we all went to DimSum. Everyone enjoyed the experience except for Dave who pouted pretty much the whole day. After that, I visited Michael (Nestle) and Ryan and drove home after that.

The following week was really nice as I only had to work 3 days. Thursday (Turkey Day); Justin, Chadd and I went to Mark (Justin's boss) and Kevin's house for dinner. Sam (Justin's coworker) was there too. After dinner, we played some board games and left. They were really nice people and had a pretty nice house. I guess the funeral business is lucrative :) Later that night, Beau, Chadd and I went to watch Beowolf at the theaters and I must say, I did not enjoy this movie at all except for a short scene when Beowolf strips naked to fight Grendel ;) Friday I went shopping with Chadd and later that night played Sequence (more board games!) with Chadd and Beau. The next day, I drove in to StL where I hung out briefly with Patricio then had dinner with James at 1111; which is a really good restaurant. I had rabbit :D and after dinner went to The Chocolate Bar which is kinda cool. After that, we went to Freddy's to meet up with Dave&Wes, Dwane, Michael etc. We partied at Novaks again and totally shut the place down. Sunday, we (James, Dave & me) hung out most of the day and I had dinner with James & Ryan at Macaroni Grill. After dinner, I did some research before my 2nd interview which went pretty well. Now I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Will keep you all posted if I hear anything. I hope everyone had a good Turkey celebration!

Goblet of Fire

Man this is definitely the longest HP book I've read so far. It feels like it's taken forever to finish -- 734 whomping willow pages! Lately I've been making many HP references, I hope my non-HP reader friends will forgive me :) Like the other day, I described some person I knew as having a Hermione hairday. So the big news couple weeks ago was JK Rowling revealing that Dumbledore's gay! Well of course he is, who else but a queen would use "lemon drop" as a password to his office, LOL!

Well I'm finally done with this book! Just like the last few, it was really good, I can't believe I didn't read HP series much earlier. Somewhere along the middle, this book got a little slow but the end was great and I liked how everything tied together and it all made sense. This book is definitely setting up the scene for the great Voldermort to go all out and declare war. I especially liked how in the end of the book, Dumbledore went into aggressive mode and started giving everyone instructions in preparation of what is about to happen. Now it's time for me to go get Goblet of Fire, the movie eventhough I just recently watched it with Chadd. I have also gone to the library and picked me up the next book Order of the Phoenix. Woo hoo...can't wait :)

Boo, Happy Halloween guys! I didn't do much this past weekend, just rested and stayed home mostly. Gym on Saturday morning and later that night watched 30 Days of Night, starring Josh Hartnett. It had been out for about a week, so the theater wasn't too busy. It was a pretty good movie, a little too gory for my taste but it's good compared to a lot of the scary movies lately. After the movie, we (Chadd, Beau and me) went to Houlihan's for dinner and it happened to be happy hour and it was half off drinks and $5 appetizers. We had a feast and the bill only came up to be about $10/person. It was awesome! Will definitely have to do it again. Sunday, I stayed in all day, did some cooking and cleaning. It was nice after the last few hectic weekends I've been having.

Homecoming 2007

This past weekend turned out really well...really well indeed. Beau and I skipped gym and went to the mall instead to help Justin buy some new shoes. James and Scott came in on Friday night and together with Carrie, me, Beau, Justin, Colin and Cynthia we had a late dinner at Addison's. Ryan and Nick came in later that night. I haven't seen Justin all week long so he gave me my birthday present (a digital photoframe, awesome!) that he split with Dave. It was good catching up with Scott (last time I saw him was last year's Homecoming!). Speaking of Homecoming, I just found out that MU is where the tradition of Homecoming started, pretty cool fact. Anyway after dinner we walked to the Penguin bar and as soon as we got in, we were doing shots. The yaeger shots were ok but the one that really screwed me up was the Irish Car bomb. We all got so drunk that night as you can see from the slide show. Beau had to drive me home and take my car home with him that night!

The next morning we all got up early for the Parade. We were all amazingly perky, especially after a night of partying and getting drunk. After the parade, we had lunch at Shakespeares and followed by the football game (thanks to Beau for getting Justin, Chadd and me tickets!). The weather by the way on both Saturday and Sunday was a beautiful 70-80 degrees! The football got boring as we were kicking Texas Tech's butt and we decided to leave after half time. Later that night we went out to Deuce and then later Tellers. I got to meet up with Don and Jesse. The next morning we had brunch at Ernies as usual and then later went to watch Elizabeth: The Golden Age with Chadd and Beau. Movie was pretty good, Cate did a great job portraying the Queen. After that, I just pretty much relaxed and got my mind ready for work.

My dirty Thirty!

What a weekend!

We (Beau, Chadd, KK and me) drove in right after work on Friday and directly to Zoe for dinner. The food was pretty good and they had a great atmosphere. Ten of my good friends (Dave, Wes, James, Carrie, Chadd, Beau, KK, Dwane, Patricio and Matt) came to dinner that night. Food was great and so was the dinner conversation. The guys got the usual DQ ice cream cake and that was great! After dinner, we went to Novaks and had a lot of fun.

The next day, we spent most of the day buying and preparing for the party. The party turned out to be a big success, about 50-60 people showed up and Dave's place was completely trashed but we helped clean up the next morning. I'm so glad Egwin and Rachel drove in from KC and my coworker Kelly drove in from Jeff City.

Sunday we just cleaned up, went out for brunch and pretty much drove home after that. Weather was great so Beau and me went out for a little 3 mile run and later that night, I just relaxed and watched DH and B&S.

Dwane's visit

Dwane from St Louis decided to come visit Columbia for the first time. He took the train down Saturday, went to get him and then decided to give the Capital building a tour. The building was totally cool, unfortunately that's about the only cool thing about Jefferson City. After walking around enjoying the beautiful fountains and statues, we came back to Columbia for lunch where we had very yummy beef pho. After lunch we walked around downtown, the weather was just amazing the entire weekend. Later that evening Dwane, Beau and me had dinner at Murry's, the food was very good. After dinner, we checked out some of the bars including Arches, On the Rocks and Shattered. The next day, we had Shakespeare's for pizza and then went to the local Art Festival. Pretty much stayed in for most of the evening where I cooked dinner and watched Sunday night TV. Monday, I worked half day and came back and hung out for a little more and then drove him back to the train station. So that's pretty much it for the weekend. It was fun and Dwane got to see Columbia for the first time.

Prisoner of Azkaban

I just got done reading and watching this title! I am now officially a HP fan! I have immediately started reading Year four: Goblet of Fire. The book was absolutely astonishing but I was a little let down by the movie. The book was full of details and did an excellent job at expanding on the three favourite characters; Hermione, Ron and Harry. The end, like the first two books, were also filled with twists and turns, revealing the good from the dark side. I thought the first two movies followed the book pretty closely but left out a few minor details but for Year three, the movie decided to leave out, sometimes even changing certain plots from the book. The movie was still entertaining but in my opinion absolutely cannot be compared to the book. Like how the movie completely left out why Black, Potter and Pettigrew became learned how to become an Animagus. It was because they were very compassionate of Lupin's condition and wanted to keep him company during his transformation. They were best of friends, just like Hermione, Ron and Harry. The movie also completely left out the second quidditch match, where Harry rode his Firebolt, that won Griffindor the cup. Another character development that was left out was how Snape was almost killed by a prank only to be rescued by Potter but suspected him of causing it all to begin with, therefore the huge hatred Snape has for Harry. Ok enough HP for now.

So the last two weekends, I didn't really do anything or go anywhere. The first of the two, Joe and James + Nick came in to town to visit. It was really good seeing Joe again after about a year. He seems to be doing well and liking his new life in Michigan. We spent quite a lot of quality time together and that was nice. James + Nick drove in to attend a wedding. Last weekend, was beautiful, weather wise. I just hung out downtown with my book and laptop for majority of the day. Tried going out on Fri and Sat nights but just getting tired of the scene here. I spent three whole hours washing and waxing my car on Sunday, so much for lazy Sunday afternoon!

Chicago

I was really excited as I had been looking forward to labor day weekend for quite a while. I headed for St Louis pretty much right after work on Friday and got in at around 7pm, the traffic was bad. Interstate 70 came to a complete stop several times for no apparent reason whatsoever, just stupid drivers I guess. Driving in, I was sure the trip to Chicago would have been cancelled since we had not secured a hotel room but soon after I arrived, Patricio made a reservation at Hotel Cass (Holiday Inn Express) at the heart of Magnificent Mile. That night we (Dave, Patricio, Applebee's Ryan, Dwane and me) had dinner at Maggiano's and then later met Nestle guy at Freddy's and H2+Mas at Novak's. I had so much fun but the weekend had just started. Spent the night at Dwane's that night, Angel's loft is really nice!

The next day, got to Dave's bright and early but we didn't leave for Chicago till about noon because Patricio's tire blew out. On the way up, we had some really strange but serious conversations, topics ranged from religion to phylosophy to sexuality. It was interesting though and made the drive go by very quickly. Before we knew it, we were there. It's been 3 or 4 years since I've last visited Chicago, the tall buildings and large crowds immediately reminded me of my recent trip to NYC. We checked into our Hotel Cass and signed up for valet parking eventhough Dave was against the idea but it just made life easier. We walked around Mich Ave for a awhile and later met up with Elliot and Bill for dinner. After dinner, we took the cab down to boys' town and went to Sidetracks, Roscoes' and then later Hydrate.

The next day, I got up and left the two boys still sleeping and went to have brunch with Elliot and Bill. We all later met up again and walked around visiting tourist sites; Libraries, fountains and of course the bean. That night, we had dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe (apprently operated by the same people as Cheesecake Factory) and then skipped out on Bill's cousin's party. Dave and I took the train down to Boys' town while Patricio stayed back to study for the MCAT. We didn't party too hard, just checked out all of the bars and got home at a decent hour. Monday was check out day. We paid our bill and took the train down to Chinatown where we got to enjoy some Malaysian cuisine and walked around. Dave and Patricio seemed to like the chinese bakeries very much. We left Chicago around 5pm and got back to St Louis at around 11pm, where I immediately got back on the road heading back to Columbia. I finally made it home at around 1am, but on the way, around where HWY 40 meets I-70, I got my first ever speeding ticket in Missouri. Fortunately, I know an attorney so Dave's trying to get it fixed, I'm keeping my fingers crossed....

Books and more

I just finished reading the book AND watching the movie. As always the book is much better but I must say the movie follows the book very closely. Certain scenes that I thought had been cut out were in the deleted scenes section instead. I read somewhere that JK Rowling refused to give up control of the films to some Hollywood executive, so she's still very much in control. I guess I'm still obsessed with Harry Potter :) Moving on to book number three, Prisoner of Azkaban. Derrick from work loaned me this book as it was taking forever to get them from the library.

This past weekend was spent recuperating from a cold. I'm actually still sniffling and coughing as I'm typing. Went to the Roots and Blues festival with Beau on Friday after gym. Saturday I had lunch with Justin and hung out with him and Chadd the majority of the day. Justin cooked dinner and then we watched couple of scary movies. They were dumb. That night I took two Benadryls and slept for almost 12 hours. I could have slept more if I hadn't made plans to meet Chadd and Justin at Ernie's for brunch. Watched Chamber of Secrets with Chadd and then later played some tennis with Justin. That's pretty much all I did for the weekend. Mainly resting from the labor day weekend before where I had gone to Chicago with Dave and Patricio. Anyway I'll have another entry for that soon with pictures :)

Happy 50th!

I just want to congratulate the Country of my birth, Malaysia, for celebrating 50 years of peace, harmony and growth.

Justin & Chadd's Birthday

On Friday, I felt like only having a one-day-work week since I was in St Louis on Wed evening and Thursday for my fingerprinting business, yay! (See 2 post down) Dave got into CoMO early so he went to get the ice cream cake and triple chocolate cake (Chadd had to be different) while I went to the mall (met Beau) to buy Justin a tie. We all met up at Pasta Factory and to our surprise, we had the same hot waiter during Steph's birthday dinner and again we gave him a plate of cake (whores, I know). Dinner was fun but I definitely ate way too much with two different desserts. After dinner we went to Forge and Vine where I bumped into Ryan & Eric (hotties from Gold's) while James tried to avoid saw his ex. We got bored with F&V and relocated to Heidelberg where Justin left early and I had my little tiff with Dave about him texting inappropriate messages to Elliot from my cell (Draaama!). We left shortly after Schuppan arrived (that's what happen when one arrives at 1am). The next day we had brunch at Shakespeare's and then toured Justin's work place (Memorial Funeral home, CREEPY!) then to Carrie's to hang out/play video games/watch Beauty and the Beast (What? I love that cartoon). After Carrie's, we went home, had leftover pizza and headed out to Yellowfever's party with Chadd. There were some straight-not-so-hot guys stripping and this dumb-but-cute jock named Ozone LOL but other than that, it was lame, so we left early and came home to watch Six Feet Under. Sunday morning we went to Ernie's as usual but we had a new braless waitress and she was terrible (No tip for her!). Dave left after breakfast and Chadd, Carrie and I went to watch Superbad. It was a really funny movie, just like American Pie but told from the dorks' point of view. After that, Chadd came over and we watched Harry Potter. And just like that, the weekend's over.

Wicked!

Well thanks to Chadd, I've been obsessed with Harry Potter lately. It started when I went to watch the latest movie (HP and the order of the Phoenix) and got all caught up in this world of wands and wizardry. He passed me the first book, HP and the Sorcerer's Stone which I just finished and today I'm moving on to th the Chamber of Secrets which I got from the library! I can't help it, I'm obsessed. I even have the third book (HP and the prisoner of Azkaban) on hold at the local library! I've always kinda wanted to read the books but have just been putting it off, but I guess the recent chain of events was just a great catalyst. I was also recently at Blockbuster and bought Sorcerer's Stone the movie. Now that I've read the book, it all make alot more sense. I finally understand the characters and storyline better and I also know how Quidditch works! Now I can't wait to watch the first movie again with my new found knowledge. I also like how this book reminds me of my school days especially since the schools I went to was based on the British system where we had to wear uniforms and had prefects on patrol. When this book series first made huge news, I put it off as a children's book and never thought very much about it, but now I understand how this book became as popular as it has. I have also noticed how big a fan base this book reaches. I mean people of all ages, races, backgrounds are totally intrigued by it. I somehow feel like now that I've started reading, I belong to some kind of underground HP cult club. Well I guess you all know what's going to occupy my time for this coming winter.

Fingerprinted

So I drove in to St Louis last Wednesday night since I got a letter from USCIS that I had to be at the Federal building at 11am on Thursday. I'm glad that this process is moving along, I just want it all to get wrapped up ASAP. Anyway I got to James' at around 7pm and later had dinner at Sydney St. Cafe with Dwane, James, Nick F and Ryan. The food was a little pricy but absolutely delicious. After dinner, Andy came to James' house and we all just sat around and talked till about 1am.

The next day, I got up and drove down to the Federal building which was like 5 minutes away from James' place. Unfortunately there were two conventions going on so parking was a real hassle. The whole process only took like 30 minutes and then I was done. They took every print imaginable; one for the thumb, all four index fingers together, each individual index finger and rolling my finger to fill up a square print. They also snapped a picture of me for my GC which I thought was odd because I had to send in like 6 copies of passport photos (which cost like $50) the last time my I-475 packet was sent in. After I got done, I called Andy which is currently in between jobs as he was moving back to Hannibal and we had lunch at Bar Louie and then went shopping. After shopping, went over to Nick F's and had a wonderful dinner. He's a darn good cook and the pasta noodles were made from scratch. I left StL at around 9pm and made it back to Columbia at around 11pm and finally went to bed at midnight. The next day was Justin and Chadd's birthday dinner which I'll save for the next posting...hopefully with lots of pictures ;)

Dave's 1st Party in STL

The weekend really started when James and Owen drove down to Columbia on Thursday. We all had dinner at Addisons and then all went out to Soco later that night. It was ok, the whole Soco routine's getting old. The next day was a little foggy at work. Friday night, Beau and me had homemade pizza then went out to hang out with Don, Jesse and Sassy. I haven't seen them in forever! The next day we left for St Louis at around 3. We got to Dave's house and immediately went out to help him buy his Tiki torches and came back and got ready for the party. The party was held in conjunction with Chris C's birthday and Andy Briscoe's going away party. The intention was also to stock up Dave's liquor cabinet and boy was it a success ;) That night we stayed up till 5am! It was fun and got to meet a ton of new people. The next day we had Iphone-Nick's delicious omelette and then to Harry's for lunch. After that we somehow ventured over to Illinois and visited one of UN's World Heritage Sites, the Cahokia Mounds. It wasn't all that. In fact the whole area was quite ghetto actually. We did crack up reading about the Steam Rooms or Steam Lodges and the boy's role (Amazingly, the displays and signs had alot of sexual innuendos in them!) and later climbed up the biggest mound. After that we got back and Beau and I drove back where I passed out at home at 9:30pm that night. I was really tired, I barely slept the night before :) And that is another fun Summer weekend. Below you can see some pics from Carrie and James' cameras.

Pictures from Carrie's Camera

Pictures from James' Camera

So what do you think?

Do you like my new layout? I hope you do, there are still little things to do here and there (like that stupid picture at the top that doesn't seem to fit **anyone knows how to help please let me know**) They let you add all these new stuff on the side of the blog now which is ultra cool. So go take the POLL and LET ME KNOW WHAT U THINK!

Good News

My cousin, Keith, recently went on a diving trip to Lembeh Straits at North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Immediately after seeing this picture, I just fell in love with it. I like how serene this picture looks and the water almost looks black. It's amazing! I don't know much about photography but I definitely have alot of interest in it. Anyway if you want to check out more pictures check out his blog...

On a side note, I received my receipt letter from USCIS (formerly INS) stating that I'm officially in my FINAL stage!!! :) I was so happy. That still doesn't mean I have my GC yet BUT that means that six months from June 20th (which is Dec 20th, see I'm so smart) I will have something referred to as the Portability Act and that basically means that I'm home free after that date. If anything happens to me at work, I can find a different job and my process continues! How awesome is that?!? And if all goes well **as it has** that means I should have my GC by next Summer!!!!!

KC and Austin

So as promised, I'm updating my blog :) I think I will do so more often now that I don't feel the pressure of posting pictures. It's just so much work when pictures are involved. I'll just link you guys to my Picasa and voila....finito! By the way, I think everyone should upload their pictures to Picasa, makes life so much easier. Where did I last left off, OK here we go, the last two weekends have been fun but also exhausting. I also felt sickly for the last two weeks, had some kinda stomach flu that left me feeling bloated, nauseated, constipated, indigested and diarrhead out; definitely no fun! It started shortly before the 4th of July and as of yesterday I can say I have finally rid myself of that bug. I'm finally feeling 100% again, yay!

Anyway, weekend of 7/7, I drove in to Kansas City to see the folks that I have not seen in almost a year. I got into MS's at around 2pm and almost immediately, they put me to work (slave labor, I'm telling you). She had all the ingredients layed out for our once-a-year tradition of making bak zhang! This year only Elaine, MS, Terri and me participated so it took extra long to complete the task. I think we made bak zhang till it got dark but we were rewarded with scrumptious bak zhang gorging all day long, yummy! I was too exhausted to go out with Kenneth and gang so I just stayed in and crashed and the next day we had Indian buffet at Korma Sutra. It was good but I ate way too much and it definitely made my stomach situation worse. It made me sick for the next few days. I was rewarded with a bundle of heavenly zhangs and it was nice seeing almost everyone. MS looks like she's ready to pop and Tze's teeth looks remarkable, those were definitely the highlights ;) Till my next KC trip...

After KC I had another 4 day week (prior week was 4th July) to help Steph move to Austin. Come Thursday 7/12, I was still feeling a little weird so I maxed out on some Pepto Bismol (I tell you, that shiz works but it does strange things to your tongue and poop, lol) Anyway TMI, right after work on Thursday, we all hit the road. The journey started with Steph+Beau driving her Mazda and Justin+me in the Uhaul (budget) truck. The first 3 hours was pretty fun as we were just chatting and snapping pics away but as night falls, the torture started. The TOLL roads thru OK was the worst stretch as it was reduced to single lanes. We took turns driving thru the night and that was tiring as crap. We had a scary encounter with a hearse while Justin was peeing, scared the bejezus out of us hehehe. We finally got into Austin at 8am and we all crashed at Aaron's. Finally woke up at 2pm and then had to unload all her junk. After all that was done, the weekend started to get better :D We went out to Chuy's on Friday night where Beau got hit on. Later that night we checked out Austin's nightspots. It was OK, I still prefer the clubs in STL. Next day we shopped during the day and later that night went to see Ester's Follies (a comedy, variety show kinda like SNL) which was great. Enjoyed the magic show very much. Crazy carl was also quite a hit. After that, we walked around sixth street which is party central and again we checked out the clubs. I think the best club in Austin is Rain, the rest were a little lame. The next day we flew out and Steph got teary eyed. I got sad too as she has been a good friend for the last 4 years but I'm sure we'll keep in touch. Flew back and John G gave us a ride back to Como. The first 24 hrs of this Austin trip was definitely a torture but it all ended very well and I can say that I actually had fun.

Lazy

I know it's been forever since I last blogged but I've just been so lazy. I know it's a bad excuse but I've also been really busy. So to help my alzheimer-ish memory out, I'll start writing about the most recent activities and work my way back :D

I'd like to start by wishing all of you Happy 4th! Click for pics here.
Right after work on Wed, went to catch the 7pm showing of Transformers, OMG that movie is soooo good! Well I might also be bias since I did grow up watching the cartoon. The next day went to Beau's party where there was so much food! And then later went to the same spot on the same parking garage last year to see the pathetic Columbia fireworks.

This past weekend, nothing much happened. James, Ryan and Dave came in Friday night for Carrie's birthday. We went to dinner at Sophia's and then just chilled at the Berg. They all left the next day which was odd and Carrie drove in to the Lou. I went car shopping with Justin and later had a movie marathon at my house with Chadd, KK and Justin.

The weekend before that was absolutely DA BOMB! Left for NYC with James on Thursday and returned Monday. I had so much fun. Hot, hot boys everywhere and got hit on by quite a few too ;) Right after we got in, went to happy hour and then dinner at K (Jap fusion place) Then went to Splash and had a blast! The next day I went down to Soho while James went to the beach. I did a little shopping and hung out with Alex where he showed me his Soho loft which was absolutely fab! Had dinner with EVERYONE at the Bohemian Beer gardens and had so much fun. After dinner, went out to Mr Black. Was fun but extremely crowded. Saturday we had a big Malaysian lunch then walked around and shopped alittle. Later that night we went to G Lounge. Sunday was the parade, we spent majority of the day watching the parade and then later that night we checked out View and later Hiro which was also very cool. As you can see, we definitely partied a whole lot this trip. It was awesome!

Here are some pictures from the trip but definitely beware, there are some PG13 shots!!! :)
Enjoy...

Baby update

Well this was how baby Kuan Yen looked when he was 1 month old



Look how big he's gotten now!!!

Aww....how cute is he ;)

Your uncle in the US loves you...

LAST STAGE!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!

I just got off the phone with my immigration attorney...AND I'm moving into the last and final stage of my greencard process. Assuming everything goes smoothly, I should have it in a year's time!! And worst case scenario, I still can move to a different employer after 180 days! This is so weird and surreal. I'm celebrating for sure, YAY!!!

W/end pic

I love these boys :)

Oprah's Book Club: The Road

I just got done reading one of Oprah's Book club selection, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I actually downloaded a free audio book from Netlibrary which I get a free account via the local library network. Pretty amazing how technology works. I got it because I had a 5 hr drive down to Fayetteville this past weekend to visit some old college buddies. The trip went well but that will be a separate post.

Now more about the book. It was a very weird yet interesting book. I cannot decide whether I like or dislike it. Very much the same feelings I had when I watched Stranger than Fiction, Running with Scissors and Children of Men.

Here's a synopsis I got from the Oprah book site:

"Set in the smoking ashes of a post-apocalyptic America, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road tells the story of a father-son journey toward the sea and an uncertain salvation. The world they pass through is a ghastly vision of scorched countryside and blasted cities “held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell” [p. 181]. It is a starved world, all plant and animal life dead or dying, some of the few human survivors even eating each other alive.The father and son move through the ruins searching for food and shelter, trying to keep safe from murderous, roving bands. They have only a pistol to defend themselves, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.Awesome in the totality of its vision, The Road is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

I think the author did a fantastic job and describing the catastrophic environment that surrounds the characters and also amazing at building up the two main characters, the man and the boy. What I didn't particularly like about this book was the abrupt beginning and ending of the book, taking a strange clip from post-apocalyptic world. As suggested on Oprah's site and wikipedia, this book definitely had a religious undertone to it making it feel like the boy is the messiah. Anyway it was entertaining enough to keep me listening to it to the very end. There are many Study Questions posted on Oprah's site which are quite interesting too.

Dave's Birthday in Columbia (Beware! Lotsa pics)

L: Dave's bday dinner at Sophias (from left to right: Kim, Carrie, Beau, James, Dave, me, Chadd and Justin R: We're inseparable....

L: Dave's bday cake, very appropriate for 1st year lawyer R: After dinner at Soco

L: Gettin our freak on on the dance floor R: Gettin drunk ;)

Dave came back to Columbia to celebrate his birthday this past weekend. It turned out great and we all had a really good weekend. Dave rode in with James on Friday after work and we went to Sophia's for his birthday dinner. Dinner was fun and food was great, I ordered the special salmon dish with cous cous :P At the end of dinner, we did our traditional ice cream cake. We partied the rest of the night at Soco where it was a totally empty lesbian night but we had enough people to have a good time regardless. We all got drunk and danced like fools. After Soco we went to Beau's house and again act a fool :)

L: After lunch at Berg touring MU, strikin a gansta pose ;) R: Wes looking up as we're strikin a pose

L: Beautiful MU Columbs courtesy of Carrie R: We were very drawn to the statue of Willian Jefferson updating his looks with cap and sunglasses.

L: Group pic in front of columns R: I love this pic! Everyone looks like they're having a GREAT time

The next day, James and I had to be real sneaky to surprise Dave with Wes' surprise visit. It all worked out well and Wes showed up as we were eating lunch at the Berg. After that we just walked around MU campus. It rained and stuff but after lunch, the weather cleared and got nicer. That night we had dinner at Shakespeares and then went to Shattered and had a really good time. I feel that Shattered is someetimes a hit or a miss but that night, it was definitely a hit. After Shattered we went to Art and Doug's and didn't stay too long. I went to bed really late at around 3/4 am both Friday and Saturday nights.

L: Sat nite dinner at Shakespeares, Dave and his presesnts R: Group pic at Shakespeares from left; Brandon, James, Beau, me, Justin, Dave and Wes

After dinner it was time to party at Shattered, being crazy on the cage stage

Sunday we all went to Ernie's for brunch and sat outside. It was sunny and just the perfect morning to sit outside with a group of friends devouring sausage, eggs and hashbrowns. To top it off, we had Dan as our server, he was funny and entertaining. We sat around just enjoying each other's company, I had a really good weekend. I think we all had a great weekend. After brunch Dave and Wes left for StL and I went to the mall with Justin, Carrie and James. After the mall James left and later that evening Justin and Beau came over and we watched a new ep of Brothers and Sisters and Justin crashed on my couch that night :) And this wraps up another good, fun and crazy weekend. Hope more will come...


I love this pic that Beau photoshopped, I'll have to develop some!

Group pic at Soco on Fri nite. From left: James, Carrie, Art, Dave, me, Byron, Beau, Doug, John, Justin and Chadd

Crazy pic with Doug and Art

Eurotrip 2007 Part 2

So Monday morning, the day after visiting Oxford, I got up bright and early to take the Picadilly line from my Aunt's place (Osterley Station) down to Victoria Station to catch the Gatwick Express. I didn't really have too much problems except it was the morning peak hour so I was squeezed in the train with a bunch Brits and I think someone let one rip and totally stunk up the entire train :( After several exchanges, I got on the Gatwick Express with no problems, sat by a really hawt New Zealander Geologist, Paul Stenhouse, and we chatted up a storm making the 30 min train ride go by in a wink. I exchanged for some Czech Crowns and boarded British Airways, flight BA 2684, and arrived perfectly on time.

Something that's never happened to me before occured; my bag was the first one to come out on the conveyer line, amazing! Anyway I walked out of the airport scrambling to find a familiar face and within a minute I spotted Adrian. He hasn't changed one bit! He has maybe put on a few pounds but I'm sure that's what happens when one gets older, married and settled. I was very happy to see him as the last time I saw him was when we were both students at the Univ of Arkansas. He left after his first year in the summer of 1998. We first met outside of Brough Commons (dining hall) and became immediate friends as I offered my umbrella in the rain while walking back to our residence hall, Holcomb Hall. Sarthak, Adrian, Sharjeel and me became very close and would hang out way too much. Thinking about all this brings back bitter sweet memories. Anyway after the initial excitement of seeing one another, I suddenly thought, "what if he's changed and we no longer get along etc etc". It HAS been almost 9 years since we last seen or spoke to one another. But my worries proved me wrong as soon as we stepped into the taxi and we talked just like the old times, kidding around and laughing.

We got back to their really nice Penthouse apartment and met his wife, Salome. We wasted no time and went back out to tour the one of the most well preserved city in Europe, sheltered from much of WW1 and WW2. The buildings around the entire city was just gorgeous, doesn't matter where you were it was pretty. I bought a 3-day transportation pass which would let me take unlimited rides on the tram, subway and buses which I did! First thing we did was take the tram down to the Wenceslas Square and Adrian bought me real yummy hot dog (Czech style) which was delicious! We walked around, I was taking in all of Prague. We walked pass the famous Charles Bridge and just enjoyed the scenery and caught up. For dinner, we met Salome and her two Georgian friends whom had just arrived from Berlin (for the Berlin Film Festival) on the same day, at Cafe Louvre. Cafe Louvre was a really good place to eat and has had quite an extensive guest list. Famous people who has dined there included Albert Einstein and Kafka! One thing I must say is Czech food is definitely very delicious and affordable. At Cafe Louvre, I ordered the Roast beef on cream, cranberry target, Carlsbad dumpling...totally scrumptious! The melted liquid hot chocolate was also amazing. After dinner, we just walked around town and ended up watching The Queen.

The next day, I did more sight-seeing. The first destination was the Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle in the world. In the middle of the Castle is the massive St. Vitus Cathedral with it's gothic design making it very intriguing. After the castle we strolled down to the town center and had lunch at a Hungarian place, we both had the beef goulash which was very delicious. After the castle we went to the other famous Prague attractions; Charles Bridge, Astronomical Clock, Wenceslas Square and the Jewish quarter. It was a little colder in Prague in the high 30s, low 40s, so I ended up buying a jacket from H&M. Later that evening, we met up with everyone else and attended a party at one of Salome's coworker's flat. He was the nicest guy ever, feeding us delicious Georgian food till we were stuffed.

I had to leave for London the next day...I know it was a short trip and I should've scheduled a longer stay as I enjoyed myself very much in Prague. I got back to London on time and took the Gatwick Express back to Irene's. Had dinner there and then went back out to meet Tet at some bar. The next day I met up with Irene and Joyi and toured all of London in one day! Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and it drizzled all day long. We met at Tower Bridge, had lunch at some pizza place and walked to Tate Modern. From there we went to the London Eye where we took a ride and then made our way to the Palace of Westminster. After that we walked to Westminster Abbey where Princess Di had her wedding and then on to Trafalgar Square and then to China town to meet Pek and her fiance for dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. The next day I had Dim Sum with Uncle Seang with his whole family and then later he gave me a tour of his business and home. I had a great time connecting with family that I barely knew. After that, I went out with Pek and met with Tet and the rest. Again we went to the clubs etc and spent the night at Tet's where the next day we had dim sum with Tet and his wife and Nick. After that i met up with irene, glenn and joyi and made our way to the portabello market. The next day I just chilled and it was time to fly back to America. I was sad my trip's over and I barely got to see London. I guess I'll just have to make another trip to London :)

Niece and Nephews

L: Baby KuanYen and sis-in-law's Mom R: Grandma, baby KuanYen, 2nd bro (knowles) and Dad :)

I cannot believe that I'm now an uncle - to THREE kids! Sure sign of one getting older :) I am so happy for my brothers as they slowly but surely pop out these little bundles of joy but I do wish that I could be closer to all of them. I don't want to just be referred to as the Uncle in USA but would actually want Naomi, Tatsuya and KuanYen to actually know who I am. I guess these are some of the drawbacks of living so far away from my family. Anyway Ean sent me these pictures quite a while back but I just kept putting them off, I'm finally posting them today. Enjoy....baby pictures always make me smile anyway :)


L: Naomi, Oldest bro, Baby Tatsuya, Masako & Grandma R: My nephew SOOO cute (nicknamed potato jr.)

L: My sis-in-law & Potato Jr R: Oldest bro with baby Tatsuya

All these pictures really makes me feel homesick. I wish I could just hop on the plane and go home for a couple of weeks. Most people probably cannot see this but it's amazing to me how much of a resemblance these kids have of their fathers. KuanYen looks very much like Ean when he was a kid and so does Tatsuya. I'm sure they will grow up and be pretty close since they're both born on the same year -- 2006. Next time I go home they will loooove Uncle Nick as he'll be showering them with lots and lots of gifts.