Vegas!

Old Vegas. The Fremont Experience. Good parties happenin here.


At the Coke Cola shop, we tried their "Tastes of the World" sampler. Sixteen cups of sodas from all around the world. (The Chinese ones were the best. go figure) I peed 7 times that next hour! weeeeeeee


At the Hilton, sans Paris, we went to the Star Trek Experience. It's where we had two small shows. Kind like a play where we, the audience is a part of. Followed by a dinner at Quark's bar and restaurant. This was Lina's highlight of the trip! And she never did watch any of the Star Treks.

KaPla!

We also went to see "O", a Cirque du Solei water show and experienced an indoor skydiving at FlyAway! pretty cool. We should've divorced and gotten married again... Vegas style! Probably could've done it through a drive-through.. and lasted 10 minutes for the entire ceremony. haha

Oh.. and yea.. I did win on Black!!!! woohooo

it's my birthday

Happy birthday to me.
I'm gonna go to Vegas now!!!! woohoo!
I'm putting my whole life savings and betting it on BLACK!!!!!!!!

wish me luck.
See yous Monday.

Canada Day (Lina's 2nd post!!)

O Canada ...our home and native land!!! The family wanted to celebrate this special day on our "native land" so we decided to do something outdoors. The sky was clear and the breeze was perfect to fly a kite. As we (Andrew, Cat, Snowie, Lili, Tonee, and I) drove to Gary's Point we listened and sang to "CRAZY" by Gnarls Barkley. Everyone had a fun time especially when we discovered that even Snowie can fly a kite. Cat was laughing so hard... -Lina

AutoX 06

It was a beautiful day today in Vancouver. Great for an autocross event at Bounday Bay. It's Terry private event. Only 40 cars MAX entries! That meant alot of track time for each driver. Six runs today! That's pretty good when you consider most days you'd only get 3 or 4. And it was a long course too. Average time was roughly 65 seconds. Since it was Terry's event, most drivers were from his online forum members, Dori-kaze. (An Hachiroku/AE86 club). We were split up into three groups...AE86, Integras/Hondas, and other. I was in the other with Lina's Miata. I was gonna run the Skyline but we ran long and we never did get in a third heat. Still overall... it was a blast. Even with the sun-block... I'm still well-done... with raccoon eyes.

More pictures here.
(Barney: I'll have some vids up soon.. my PC went down)

An era ends

This is the weather I've been enjoying this whole week. And I'm not talking enjoying from the comforts of an office window. I'm talking about like being out there... in the sun ALL DAY LONG... ALL WEEK LONG! Is it a vacation I'm having? nope. Well.. sortof...it's a permanent vacation! That's right. I'm no longer working. No longer employed by the company I was with for the last 10 1/2 years of my life! Sure is different!

Celebration!

A little get together. Bunch of jokers. Night to celebrate Wilson's graduation into dentistry... uh.. I mean Dr. Chung. Stef's brief return to Vancity, Barney and Vanya as new homeowner, Danny's possible trip to HongKong, and of course Tony's admission to dating Judy! (finally) LOL

almost there

It's been a grueling few weeks of work. Main reason I haven't been blogging. Spent all my time at the office. Now to plan for the summer. Any (cheap) ideas?

"What is Love?!?"

Who knows... but I do know I love this.

EAT! Vancouver 06

Lina, Lili, Martin, and my new mom headed over to BC Place for a food show.


Iron Chef winner Rob Feenie was there. Didn't see him.
TV chef "Surreal Gourmet" Bob Blumer was there. Didn't see him.
Meh, oh well. At least there's food and we stole some glasses from the wine tasting area. We even got probably a months worth of food for Snowie!! haha we win.

man, I'm loving the new counter!

the Betrothal (Wedding #2!)

A WHAT!?!? you ask.

betrothal:
n 1: a mutual promise to marry [syn: troth, engagement] 2: the act of becoming betrothed or engaged [syn: espousal]

Today is that day for me. Actually, it's happening RIGHT NOW as I type up this blog. (11:52AM of May 21st) Now, why am I doing something so trivial on such a special day for me.. you ask? Well, traditional the groom is NOT to be involved with the actual betrothal event at all. Only the preparations. And boy, were there preparations!!!



This event is called "gaw dai lai". That's betrothal in chinese. The main elements of this crazy scavenger hunt was the roasted pig(WHOLE!) and the bridal cakes.

There were:
- entire roasted pig on customary platter
- bridal cakes in customary boxes
- 60 in total
- 4 are which must be dragon/pheonix cakes
- pairs of male and female poultry
- 2 old coconuts (these symbolizes something..I forget what. NOTHING phallic, I don't think!)
- 2 bottles of wine (XO)
- 2 boxes of tea
- 2 boxes of seafood each: ($$$!!!)
- shark fin
- abalone
- other wallet draining items
- all kinds of weird nuts and herbs which had to be of certain requirements (age, with or without the seed, etc)
- And of course... CASH!



And of course every item had some sort of meaning and symbolism. Of which I have no idea what they are... through thousands of years of traditions being passed down, I personally think some of this stuff has lost a bit of translation. I bet somewhere down the centuries, there was a comedian that "made up" a tradition or two of his own. (old coconuts?!? now come on!) And just passed it on to his heirs. He's laughing it up right now I bet!!

Since I'm not allowed to see the bride all day today, it is customary for me to send all this stuff with a family friend of ours. An older generation that is respected must carry this stuff for me. REPRESENT!

I wouldn't be able get all of this stuff without the help of my grandparents and uncles!!! PROPS to em!!!! w00t w00t! 8D

Well, Lina is having a big party right now with all my stuff. Hope they're enjoying it.

Babee, if you're reading this and showing this blog to your family right now... don't forget the rest of the tradition... save some of the good stuff for me!!!! I'm hungry.

You can find more pictures here.

Movie review: Millions

This was a pleasant surprise. Was flipping though the channels and came up with this little gem. Too bad we started watching this 10mins in. It was interesting enough to keep our attention right away.

It's quite refreshing to watch a PG movie that turns out to be both visually satisfying and emotionally sophisticated. (for a non-Pixar movie anyways) Danny Boyle(Trainspotting) directs this fantastical tale of two British brothers and a large sum of money literally falling from the sky. Now, what would two young boys do with all that cash? Buy a pack of baseball cards? New bike perhaps? With millions... only good times. Sequences of events move the story with equal hilariousness.

Damien(Alexander Nathan Etel) portrays the seven year old brilliantly. It's a simple story with questions about morality, spirituality and family duty. I recommend this as a rental!

Sport Compact Nights 06

Absolutely NO guy can blame me for hanging on to what I still have after marriage. Cindy had her first big show.. Sport Compact Nights at BC Place. This was really a last minute invitation from SCI(my Skyline dealer). I was able to wash the car half hour before I entered the car into the show! No wax, no engine cleaning, no tire dressing, nothing. Naked like most of the import models there. Our booth had 10 skylines! Cindy still had the most attention.hehe..

Best part, Lina was big enough to ask one of the models to pose with Cindy!!! wow.. what a wife! That sure put a smile on my face!!!!! 8D

EDIT: Cindy is my car. I have no idea what the model's name is.

You can find more pictures here.

Hitched!

Well, officially Lina and I already got married. As far as British Columbia and Canada is concerned. But, the weddings are not over. That's right, that's PLURAL. This is gonna be a 4 part series!


1) Civil Ceremony (May 7th) -DONE-
2) Traditional Chinese Wedding (May 21st) -DONE-
3) Banquet in Vancouver (August 20th)
4) Banquet in Chicago (August 26th)

Until August 26th of 2006, I won't be completely married. On the 27th, both my feet will be firmly (and permanently) planted beyond the doors of marriage.

Now, we just got to agree on an anniversary date. And NO, we're not gonna celebrate ALL of em!

A Good day!

Perfect weather. A picnic for two by the water. And a proposal!!

The ring is:
- huge (I'm guessing 50 carats)
- at least 100 points
- brilliant cut (at least)
- color of Lina's birthstone
- Real (well... it's made of real fruit juices. hehe... mmmm green apple)

She said 'yes'

Tulip Festival 2006

Lina, her mom and sisters, and cousins all took a short day trip down to Skagit county in Washington for the annual Tulip festival. Brightly colored tulips span across the fields to the horizon.

Things that make you go... ewwww.

When you're driving and you look over to the next lane and notice a person picking their nose... you go yuck. BUT, when they start rolling "something" between their fingers... you go EWWWWW!!

RevScene 2006

Today, "Cindy" was at another car show. It's RevScene 2006 at the Molson Indy pit area. Right next to Science world. Originally, I didn't want to participate because of rain. But, it did eventually clear up when it started... so Lina and I made a quick trip over there to scope it out. Wanted to just "drive through" but once we got there, it turned out to be quite a turnout. So, we stayed a bit. Met and chatted with a few folks. Best car there = Orange Lotus Elise [Homer Simpson drool]

Past Projects: Shift Boot reupholstered

Well.. it's been a week since my last blog. You can see I'm already starting to get lazy with this. But, it's only because I feel this is directly proportionate to how many comments I get!!!! If there's no one looking at this blog, then why should I keep it up, right?!? I'm not here to amuse myself. (well.. it is sortof kindof)

So, c'mon! comment away! Let me know you're out there. 8D

Todays project is of one Lina and I did a couple years back. It was to dress up the interior of her Miata. The leathers were pretty worn out in the little 15 year old car. A short project that involved a little bit of vinyl and a sewing machine. We learned that our consumer level sewing machine can't really handle stitching more than 2 layers worth of the vinyl. That's when my uncle came to our rescue. He gave us access to his shop with industrial strength machines! cool. Those machines were able to sew more than 6 layers worth!! Super cool.

I won't be....

There are alot of things going on lately, but I WON'T be doing these:

- Sipping a nice cold beverage on the sandy beaches of Hawaii
- Buying a mini-van
- Playing Diablo 3
- Making a full-sized Lego car. (but, another day.. maybe)
- Using Tobasco sauce as a contact solution cleaner
- Getting poo on my fingers after a Charmin blow-out
- Getting my new rims (ones I've been waiting for 6 months now)
- Climbing up the Himalayan mountains backwards.
- Training a music box playing monkey to work a corner.
- Getting the Skyline finished for the race
- Putting an incandescent light bulb in the microwave to see what happens
- Breeding Lina's poo-eating goldfish to make me millions
- Saving money
- Shaking a persons hand when they enter the elevator
- Working

Lina's first blog.

I love earings. I started wearing them a few weeks ago. My ears were pierced since I was a child. I'm amazed that the hole didn't close up on me.

My birthday is coming up.
~Lina