Thanksgiving in Seattle

Thanksgiving is about driving aggressively in the rain - speeding at 140km/hr, taking short cuts at border crossing; leaving driver's license at home, and having Charleston to bring it to the duty-free.

Thanksgiving is about buying perfume, LAMB, becoming a fan of Harajuku Lovers.

Thanksgiving is about arriving 3 hours late and letting Auntie G, Uncle F and family wait for dinner...

Thanksgiving is about eating with family - ham, roast beef, salmon, cinnamon bun, waffle, congee, ham, hotpot, ham, roast beef, salmon, udon, bbq duck, ham, lotus seed dessert, and orange-glazed carrot ribbons.

Thanksgiving is about drinking sake, beer, port, coffee, and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Thanksgiving is about seeing J&S's brand new 5-room 318-door WoodDale home at Fairwood.

Thanksgiving is about playing MJ - scooping up the moon from the bottom of the sea, watching TV, setting up digital photo frame, loading it with movies, rebooting it, and packing the darn thing up...

Thanksgiving is about shopping at Bellevue, Macy's, Banana Republic - get an extra 15% off if you apply the BR card today...

Thanksgiving is about taking pictures at the dinner table, while reading mails on my blackberry, surfing the net on my laptop, and in front of the xmas tree.

Thanksgiving is about going to bed and getting up at the same hour - 12, and feeling jetlag...wat's going on, where am I?

Thanksgiving is about forcing family to read my blog, and falsifying web traffic by repeatedly going to my blog multiple times a day...

Thanksgiving is about making young J laugh - J likes the crowd and the company of friends and family, just like me...

Thanksgiving is about sharing love, news, stories, photos, bathroom, and downloads - (So Far) So Good...

Thanksgiving is about filling up at 2.20/gallon before returning home...

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks to those who made you thankful, cheerful, and content.

Drunk Blogging

I must admit I'm a little dizzy right now returning from a dinner at Joseph's.

Tonight is the night I drank the most liquor in one night. All kinds you can imagine... beer, cranberry beer, white wine, whiskey, cognac, Moutai, WuLianYi, Sake... you name it.. the only thing I didn't have is red wine.

Joseph said drinking makes him happy. I am feeling full... happy too. Gary is good too.. drank as much as me. I was testing my limit... The most I had before was only 6 beers in one night. But this is really crazy. I've yet to reach my limit, but by the time I had a few cups of chinese hard liquor, sake and beer tastes as plain as water. I think my blood is now 40% alcohol.

Well, it's my b-day tomorrow, let's do something crazy.

My Right Foot (Went Wrong)

Acupuncture is supposed to cure me, but now there's something wrong with my right foot.

It was supposed to be normal to have a little tingling feeling, but a feeling of an electric shock? This is what I'm feeling at my right foot when I stretch my right leg. Ice and pain killers is the remedy for now... hope it will go away in couple of weeks.

The prospects of being disabled has come to mind. How can I take advantage of my imminent disadvantage? Parking will soon be a non-issue as I'll get a disabled pass. I'll probably get to work from home until the office is disabled-friendly. Better yet, I'll be able to claim long term disability or some welfare. Should I go sue my acupuncturist? Will be the first physically disabled employee in the team? Hey, this is life... I've no complaint. I am still fortunate in many other ways.

Thank You for the Music

Watched Mama Mia movie couple days ago, good songs. When I saw the movie intro in the cinema, I was a bit turned off by it... seeing the great Meryl Streep singing and dancing wasn't one of my fantasy. But the songs did ring some bells. I've heard some of them when I was a child. My vague memory of ABBA on TV tells me they are a group of 4 european singers... but only now did I know their lyrics were so great... like poems. The last song in the movie was my favorite - Thank you for the music, sung by Amanda Seyfried.

That triggered me to go back in time to dig out a few old songs that I used to listen to. Songs played in the radios. A lot of typical hits in the 80's came to mind. Artists, Bands, and groups, mostly from the UK, and the US. Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, Thompson Twins, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Eurythmics, Cindi Lauper, MJ, Wham, Petshop Boys, the list goes on, and I am sounding old. Not that I don't like the pops nowadays, but those were the memories.

One song that my friend Marvin likes a lot when we were roommates was Victims by Boy George. I don't know why he likes this song so much, but I guess it's a bit different from his other songs.

I used to buy all Tears For Fears tapes and play them loud at the apartment... I know Marvin must have endured a lot all these years... Thank you for the patience.

Halloween Party at I's

'I' invited us to his place for a Halloween party. Eating, drinking, pumpkin carving, and costume contest were in the plan.

It'd be the first time I dress up for Halloween, a few weeks ago I went to shops to look for ideas and stuff. Thought I would just wear some scary mask if not for the glasses. 'I' said costume is mandatory... ok, looked and looked and finally decided on face painting. That's gonna be unique and scary too. Black, white, and red... what can it be? haa.. panda.. with blood... kung fu'ed panda/danpa was the plan.. haa.. idea just make the family laughed. Black long sleeved top, black pants, white vest... haha. Crazy thought.

Halloween night, 'I's place was amazing. His mom and him must have spent a day putting up on the festive decorations... spiders, bats, webs, hanging skeleton with sound, witches, greeting zombie at the door, pumpkins. The place was dark which makes it even spooky. They sure are pros as they do this every year.

Food was excellent - curry, mini-crabs, fruit fondue, french onion soup, salads, pizza... and our churches chicken take out. Awesome.

Pumpkin craving was fun - my second time.. haa.. first time was like decades ago at work. I took out half of the pumpkin meat...selling it for $5/lb. Crazy stuff. Great idea wife. And we won 2nd prize.

As for the make up, well, I didn't go as planned as it was too much for me for the first time. I ended up doing a scary corpse look - a pale face with blood all over. Not going to show here, may be next year 8).