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

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!!!

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.

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

W/end pic

I love these boys :)