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 :)