Congrats Kyle + Elaine

Drove in to Kansas City on Thursday before Memorial Weekend as I had to get H2 from the airport early on Friday. Crashed at KK's and then next day after getting H2 went to watch Indiana Jones, it was pretty entertaining. I'd recommend it. After that headed down to Jeff & Kenneth's place which was very comfy. Saturday morning, picked Dave up from Megabus station and then went to Elaine's wedding at this cute little church. Then got to meet the Yeoh's latest addition then rushed back for the reception. It was fun seeing my old friends whom I've not seen in a while. After the reception, Dave and I checked out Missy B's and had a blast. Drove back Sunday, stayed in Columbia for a night and then headed out to St Louis the next day where I continued on to Chicago to look for apartments. I found one in the West Loop, super nice but rent's a little high...

Anyway here're the pictures of Elaine's wedding

Bon Qui Qui

OMG this is the funniest video ever...check it out

M.I.A.

I'm sorry everyone but I totally went Missing in Action in the last few months. A lot has happened since then, mostly due to my job and career. I'm happy to report that I have finally, FINALLY received my Greencard and I have received a job with Avon Products (AVP) in the city of Chicago! I'm very excited and will be starting work on June 9th. I'm currently in the process of relocating to Chicago.

Here are some of the things I did in the last few months. Rented out both sides of duplex, moved in with Beau, finished the Harry Potter books, interviewed with many, many companies which include Avon in Chicago and MECS in SF, went to Cape with Ryan, James, Carrie and Andy, attend Elaine's wedding and many many other things. I had a great time off but now it's back to work. I will hopefully try to fill up the gap of the last few months in the next few posts. I have lots of pictures. It's good to be back...

Pillars of the Earth

Finally I'm done with my third book of the year, this one had approx a thousand pages, 973 to be exact. Took me about 20 days but it was a fun read, definitely a very entertaining book. So I have fifteen more books to read for the rest of the year. I started with Half Blood Prince last night. I can't wait to finish the Harry Potter series. After this, I have one more to go before the end.

Anyway Pillars of the Earth is by Ken Follett and it's his best selling book ever, which is ironic because he usually writes thrillers. POTE on the other hand's a spellbinding epic set in 12th-century England, and tells the story of the struggle to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known—a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother. The characters in this book; Tom Builder, Alfred, Martha, Jonathan, Prior Philip, Ellen, Jack, Aliena, Richard, William Hamleigh and Waleran Bigod will forever stay with me.

Oh I forgot Happy Leap Day!!

Since my last post, I went in to St Louis one more time for my second interview with Nordyne. I also went in to talk to FKI Logistex. The interview with Nordyne went pretty well, got there at 9:30am and I didn't get out till 3:45pm, the whole thing was very well put together. FKI on the other hand was totally disorganized, probably won't accept even if I was made an offer. I won't find out from Nordyne till next week, so keep your fingers crossed :) The night before the interview was Valentine's. I went out to dinner with Dwane at Little Saigon which was sweet. Then on Friday night we had drama at Mangia's and then between Patricio and Dwane and we ended up going to 1111 again. I stayed in all weekend, didn't go to any bars at all! The next day I had dim sum and then later that evening we went to Matt Reeg's dinner party which was fun. And the next day, had brunch with James and Nick at Mokabe's and then I drove home. Last weekend, I didn't do much, just stayed in and relaxed as it was my first weekend in town in four weeks. Went to watch Jumper with Don but I wasn't too impressed. Hayden looked great but that was about it :)

OK I think that's it for now...looking forward to this weekend, the weather's supposed to be real nice, 60's! I'll probably be out more. I'm really tired of Winter and Spring can't come any sooner. Later y'all and enjoy the weather this weekend!

Interesting Fact: Did you know that every fourth year's a leap year unless it's divisible by 100 and not 400? Like 2000 was a leap year because it was divisible by both 100 and 400 but 2100 will not be a leap year and neither is 2200 or 2300. I had no idea!

CNY & StL

Oooh I forgot all about Chinese New Year, Keong Hee Fatt Cai you guys!! Well Feb 8th was officially the first day of the new Rat year according to the Chinese lunar calender. I didn't do much myself. Went to dinner with KK. His client (Great Wall) had invited him and he brought me along, the food was good but it was a little awkward as I had limited speech ability. That night and the next day, I called most of my family members. It was really nice talking to them and I'm really feeling homesick lately. It's been over 2 years since I've been home :(



Friday, work took us out to lunch at Sophia's and gave us the rest of the day off since January had produced such great numbers. I was going to take the afternoon off anyway but I guess I got to save on my vacation days :) I got home and packed in like 5 minutes and hopped into Justin's monster truck and off we went to St Louis along with Chadd, Beau and Justin. It was fun. It felt like we were going on a field trip. We got in early Friday and later went to dinner at 1111 Missisippi. Dinner was great, we were really lucky because this was a really nice restaurant and we just walked in and asked for a table for eight (Dave, Justin, me, Chadd, Beau, James+Nick and Dwane) and pretty much got it! After dinner, we went to Amp for a little while then proceeded to party the night away at Novak's. It was great, I had alot of fun with Dallas and Scottie McHottie.

The next day we had breakfast at First Watch in Clayton. After breakfast, we went to the Cathedral Basilica of St Louis in the Central West End. It was really gorgeous inside and out and has a really rich history. In 1912, the cathedral began installing mosaics in the interior and it was finally completed in 1988! It contains 41.5 million glass pieces, covering 83,000 sqft and it is the largest mosaic collection in the world! We left for Columbia pretty early that day. I spent the rest of the weekend just relaxing and watching TV and try to keep warm. I somehow had it in my mind that Winter's over and the weather was gradually warming up but little did I know this whole week's been terrible. It's snowed and iced and the temperatures are back down to single digit, brrrr. Anyway this Friday I'm taking a day vacation and I'll be back to St Louis for my 2nd interview with Nordyne and FKI Logistex. So keep your fingers crossed....

Mardi Gras 2008

Mardi Gras in St Louis is total craziness! It's the 2nd largest celebrations in the US after New Orleans. The City of St Louis was definitely cashing in from all the out of town party goers. Anyway I drove in Friday after work with Carrie and headed first to Ryan's. We couldn't park down in Soulard so we had to leave my car at Ryan's and he then drove us all back to James'. We sat around watching ads of AB for superbowl and finally had dinner at Chuey's. Bunch of us (Ryan, James+Nick, Dave+Wes and Carrie) went to dinner but Dwane missed out on the entire weekend celebrations because he had to work and he was down with a cold. After dinner, we met up with Scott and went to McGurk's for a little bit and then went to bed semi-early in anticipation for a wild day the next day.

We woke up fairly early Mardi Gras morning and James was nice enough to make us breakfast. We made it out to watch the Parade in time since the parade's like 2 blocks from where we were staying. We all brought tumblers of Hurricane which made me drunk as hell. The parade was fun and I collected a ton of beads. The weather was surprisingly perfect. We didn't even need our jackets. The past couple of years has been frigid cold right around Mardi Gras time. After the parade, we came back to Dave's and partied at his house. All kinds of people came (young/old, straight/gay, drunk/drunk) and it was so much fun and everyone was wasted. We stood by the windows and screamed at random strangers to flash us which totally worked. I got to see so many boobies and pee-pees it's ridiculous. I guess those beads I collected came in handy. By the time 5pm came, I felt like it was 4am especially since I've been partying and drinking since 10am. James, Carrie and I finally called it quits at 7pm and went to have pizza at Talayna's. James and I also didn't want to be apart of the orgy that was developing at Dave's. We later heard all the details...very juicy indeed. At that point we had not eaten all day but for the breakfast that James fixed. Oh I had a slice of Pizza down at Soulard as well which I had a fight with the crazy pizza lady. She refused to give us change and gave me half a slice. I cussed her out, kicked her booth and flipped her off twice. I guess it probably didn't help since both parties were drunk LOL. After dinner, we pretty much chilled out and went to bed. Initial plans were to go to Novak's but we were all too tired. The next day we had branch at Mocha B's which is great and then hung out with Ryan at Hodak's (fried chicken!). We drove back and went directly to Beau's Superbowl party. So you can see the weekend was definitely full of activities. After the party, I pretty much got home and crashed...

Here are few other pics from Carrie's camera...

L: At Parade with James & Carrie; R: Craig and me

L: Parade w/ Dave, Scott and Jame; R: Dave and me

L: The beads I collected; R: Don't ask why i'm unbuckling

The Jungle

This book by Upton Sinclair is quite interesting. Set in the early 1900 and talks about Chicago's meat packing industry and immigrants that worked it. Due to the popularity of this book coupled with the public outcry, it led to the passage of several acts, which established the FDA. This book's usually reading material for most high school and college kids in America but I decided to read when I noticed that James too was reading it. I wanted to gain a further understanding of America. So I'm still on target for my resolution, I finished this book in late January it's beginning of February and I'm starting on my 3rd book; Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett which looks like it's going to be good as well.

Anyway this past weekend was Mardi Gras which was full of fun, friends and drunkenness. I'll be posting about what happened over the weekend along with the pictures soon so hang on tight :)

The last few weeks prior to Mardi Gras was spent keeping warm. The weather was so cold and just this week it's starting to thaw and show little signs of Spring. Not much happened so therefore no postings, here are the few things that were worth mentioning; there was a weekend when we celebrated Doug's 30th birthday where I was out till 6:30am and on the way home my car's thermometer registered at 1 degree. I think there was another weekend that I just spent relaxing and watched Cloverfield which gave me motion sickness. I have also been going to the dentist to have a crown put into my chipped tooth. Everything's finally completed and it looks and feels pretty good. The crown cost about $370 which I had allocated funds into my FSA. I talked to my aunt and looks like crowns in Malaysia's WAY cheaper. Last week though was mainly focussed on interviews. I talked to 3 companies; FKI Logistex, Nordyne and Monsanto so we'll see which one works out. Anyway I'll be posting my Mardi Gras pictures next so I'll be back soon!

James and Dave w/end in CoMo

The boys were in town this past weekend. We just hung out and had a good time. Unfortch, I came down with a cold and had to call in sick to work on Monday morning. We went out to a bunch of bars over the weekend; On The Rocks, Generic, Deuce and Heidelberg. The weather is cold again after a Spring teaser last weekend where it went up to 70 degrees. Now I just need to get through January and February and it'll start getting much better, weather wise that is. Monday morning, I also had a phone interview with BJC for a Performance Improvement Engr position but I don't think it'll be a good fit as it's a new department and they want someone with experience in healthcare to come in and implement changes. We'll see where it goes.

PS - I just got done reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Not too bad of a book, I guess good enough for me to want to read the 2nd book, The Subtle Knife. I'm about half way through The Jungle by Upton Sinclair now. Looks like target of three books every 2 months is well on its way :)

NYC with Beau

So I'm finally getting around to blogging about my third and final trip to New York City for 2007. Here's a chronological order of what happened. Work let out on Friday 12/21, I was so happy as it was going to be another eleven days before I had to return. I spent most of Saturday just getting ready and packing. We left for St Louis on Sunday evening as we had an early flight on Monday morning. We (Beau and I) got in at around 8pm and had dinner with Dwane at Bastilles. It was my first time eating there, totally didn't expect it but the food was great and it was an actual restaurant attached to the bar. After that, I went to Dwane's place and spent the night at Dave's and woke up for the flight early the next day. Flight to LaGuardia was pretty comfortable, we had to transit in Minneapolis. The burrito at that airport were worst I've ever had. After we got in, we took the bus to Linli's and pretty much hung out there for most of the evening. They drove us to Fang's. I had to stay at Fang's because Andro had some friends coming in from Cypress. The next day was X'mas day, met up with Hwee Ping and Sen Kiong (total coincidence! 2nd time!) and we had Dim Sum in the morning and then later had Nyonya for dinner while Beau left for upstate NY. The day after Xmas, we headed to Philly via buses that ran from Chinatown. It was quite an experience boarding the bus but in the end, it was a pretty decent and comfortable ride. Not bad for $20 roundtrip. We got into Philly, walked around for the rest of the day where we got to eat at the famous Geno's Phillycheesesteak, did a lil shopping and then to Liberty Bell etc. We walked around Philly alot and the weather wasn't exactly gorgeous, it drizzled for majority of the evening. So it was cold and wet. We had Afghani food for dinner that night, the food was good but service was quite bad. We later went out to the bar Woody's and Beau met a few guys whom he later went home with. I went back to Uncle's upstairs Inn, LOL. What?! It was a cheap hotel in the heart of Philly, eventhough it was upstairs of a bar. The next day, we walked around a little more and then took the bus back to NYC. I got in and went to meet up the gang at the Cuban Restaurant and we all had paella which was totally delicious. That night Beau and I went to Splash and I got totally drunk. It was fun and tons of gorgeous people there. Next few days were just spent walking around NYC and going out to clubs. The weather was quite nice but rained a few nights, washing away Beau's hair and facial products ;) We finally left NYC on Monday morning and made it back to St Louis. We went to dinner with Dave's friends and then later went to NYE party at Suredad's. Dwane got us the invitation to the party. The party had mainly older guys but the house was really beautiful and there were food and drinks served. It was pretty cool. Next day we drove back to CoMO and that wraps up my Xmas holidays. Here's to a new year!

Happy 2008!

So how did everyone's holidays went? I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I finished the fifth Harry Potter book shortly before I left for my Christmas holidays in NYC which turned out to be a really fun trip (I'll have more in my next entry). I started reading up on The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman while on the trip. What is it with me and fantasy books? So far GC's going pretty good and it's a real quick and easy read anyway. The next book I have lined up after GC is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and followed by The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Oprah's book club). I am trying to read more books as you can see, that's one of my New Year's resolution. Here's the rest of my New Year resolutions:

1. Would like to seriously pursue a new job that will facilitate my move to St Louis, hopefully by end of Summer 2008.

2. Need to start saving more (ie Max out my Roth IRA for 2008 and have my 2nd home mortgage paid off). I have let 2007 slip in terms of savings...too many trips and buying the new car will definitely do just that!

3. Toning up and shedding some extra lbs. I'm currently at 145, would like to get down to 135lb range. (Beau & I are going to join Dave & Wes in attempting The Abs Diet which is not too different from what we're already doing)

4. Definitely need to start calling home more often, at least twice a month. I rarely call home anymore. I need to improve my relationships with my brothers, Dad, Aunty Bee, Uncle Soohee in NZ and other relatives among others.

5. Be more generous to my close friends and try to donate time/money to a good cause. Would definitely volunteer when I do move to St Louis.

6. I want to be a part of a Professional organization (ie IIE and others) and get more training and schooling for my profession.

7. I want to read at least three books every two months, totalling 18 for the year. So far The Golden Compass will be first for 2008.

This is just a preliminary list of my resolutions, so I'm sure I'll be back to add or make changes to the list further down the road. So far it seems pretty complete as it covers the four very important areas of my life; Family, Friends, Finance and Career. I never really have put any resolutions down in writing before but I was sold on doing one when Dave started reading one from his own list. I think it is quite important for it creates a visual goal for me to achieve for this year and by having it published it will hold me accountable to achieving it.

So back to Order of the Phoenix, totally good book. I can't wait to finish the other books I have lined up so I can start on Half Blood Prince. This book gets darker as you can see from the movie. Harry starts having very dark thoughts and his connection to Voldemort strenghtens. Harry also loses his godfather, Sirius and almost lost Mr Weasley as well. According to Chadd, JK Rowling had originally intended to kill off Mr Weasley but she thought that it might be too traumatic for Harry. I've heard that the next two books are going to be even worse, characters are going to start dropping like flies. As usual there were many many scenes that were different comparing the book to the movie. I understand why they have to do what they did in the movie for dramatic effects and time constraints but I sometimes wished it matched the book pretty closely.