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