Whoa!

I got a message saying that this blog would be deleted if I didn't make a new post :)  So, now I'm doing it!  Hopefully, this keeps these memories safe.  

Nine Thirty Twenty Ten

Wow, it's been so long since I've updated the blog.. I think I have to recruit Amy to help me because things get so busy that I don't get a chance to keep this up.. anyway, a lot has happened over the last 7 months, so I'm going to update this in increments :) I hope everyone is well and drop me an email at some point.. I want to see if anyone is still reading this!

Let's start off back in April, when we went to Thailand with Amy's family and spent time with my parents there in Chiang-mai and Bangkok. Here's us out at a local restaurant.. my parents on the right and Amy and her family on the left. I think it was quite an adventure for Amy's parents who are not as risky with food or travel.. but they had a lot of fun and came back with some great stories..

We also went to the elephant camp at Maesa near Chiang-Mai which was a lot of fun and we went on an elephant ride.. Amy loved it.. Elephants and Thai people, it's like Pandas with the Chinese..

These hill tribe kids are so cute.. though they expect a small fee for taking pictures with them :) This is at the steps to Doi Suthep, one of the most famous temples in Northern Thailand.

I don't know if you guys remember this but at that time in Thailand there were anti-government protests by the Red Shirt People's group in Bangkok. We were ok the first couple days in town but then the protests turned violent one of the nights and government troops moved in. From our hotel, we could hear gunfire, yelling and see helicopters dropping tear gas on people. The next morning we decided to get to the airport to see if we could get out of the country.. Here's a shot of an overturned and burned truck from our taxi..

We finally were told that we could fly standby on a flight to Taiwan so we ran through the airport and security to get to the gate. I was exhausted afterwards :)

We arrived in Taiwan in the evening and I must say that I was very proud of Amy for maintaining her cool, considering we had no place to stay and it was already dark. We looked up places to stay on Tripadvisor in the airport internet terminal, took a bus to Taipei, walked around for a while then got directions from a very friendly concierge at the Sheraton to our more modest hotel, took a subway to Ximending, found a nice little hotel where we stayed for 3 days..

They love their Chang Kai-Shek over there in Taiwan.. here I am at the memorial.. (though Ryan tells me that he wasn't such a good guy and they are slowly removing his names from streets and such..)

Atop the famous Taipei 101, formerly the world's tallest building until the position was taken by Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Elevator to the top was so fast it makes your ears pop..

One of the days we went out to these hot spring baths, which were pretty cool.. I think it was a quiet day at this spa we went to so it was totally empty and just us.. This water spout was hot and very powerful.. it was great!

Possibly the most disturbing part of Taiwan.. one of the subway stations we often walked through had this special addition to the bathrooms.. if you zoom in and look you'll see a small diagram of each restroom including the stalls.. and lights which turn green or red, depending on whether each stall is occupied or not.. maybe this does allow you to judge if too many people are waiting for the bathroom but truly probably too much information..


For our six month wedding anniversary, Amy and I went up to San Francisco and spent the night in the city. We had dinner at a nice French restaurant called Chapeau! Good food, not too expensive if you got the pre fixe menu.. we stayed the night at the Hilton in Embarcadero, which I managed to priceline for $50 but the parking fees were like $35 (uggh)..


In May, we went down to San Diego for Luis and Lizette's wedding.. a beautiful ceremony in a catholic church..

It was also great to see the guys.. here's us looking pretty dapper.. I always look so short next to the dudes..

Amy and Gloria looking very pretty as usual..


Coincidentally, our friend Lin was in SD at the same time and she got us tickets to the San Diego Zoo for free.. we had a great time and took some pictures of the animals but the statuary was the best! Here we are on the polar bears..

Seeing what it's like to be a seal..

Lin and Amy on a replica of a prehistoric lion creature.. that thing is gigantic!


One of the really big things that happened in May is that we bought a house in Campbell (right next to San Jose, about 45 mins south of San Francisco). It's a small 3 bdrm 2 bath house but very nice size for us and in a pretty good area.. we're still getting used to being homeowners and all the responsibilities that come with that but overall things are going well and we're quite happy.. We have a bed for anyone who wants to come visit! :)

Here's the front yard.. there's a lot of lawn area that I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of.. either eco-landscaping or we may push part of the house forward a bit..

Our little kitchen.. we spend a lot of our time here and we like to have friends over for dinner and BBQ's.

Our living room.. all the furniture is still from the apartment.. Amy has been very good in not rushing out to buy new stuff.. we're trying to live modestly when possible.

And our backyard.. we've since gotten a bbq and some simple lawn furniture, which makes sitting out in the back a lot more fun and great for having people over. I also started a small vegetable garden and we have several fruit trees growing..


That's all for now.. I'll leave you with another promise to update the blog soon and also a picture of Amy trying to mow the lawn in front of the house.. we've since hired a gardener :p Take care, everybody!

Two Sixteen Ten

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the first blog of the new year :) Happy 2010! Despite my attempts to update the blog more frequently, time to do so slips through my fingers like so many grains of sand.. can you believe it's the middle of February already? Anyway, lots has happened since the last update.. Follow along with the pics and you'll see..

We've been cooking more at home.. this is eggplant parmesan that Amy and I cooked up.. it turned out a little salty but it was fun.. I managed to salvage it and turn it into eggplant marinara sauce later..
.
Amy ran the Big Sur Half Marathon.. she's still set on running the Boston Marathon at some point but training has been tough because of so many recent activities.. she did great in this halfer though..

Friends came over to Wei's for my birthday party..

Mid collapse Jenga action shot!

Wei has this ridiculous absinthe collection and all the slotted spoons and water drippers that go with it.. it does look pretty cool when it's all in action..

I also celebrated a second time with my birthday twin, Jennifer, who is also Amy's childhood friend.

Dinner with the Mission San Jose crew..

Of course the big event of the year was our wedding :) We had a pre-wedding BBQ at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont (where Amy used to play as a child) and then the wedding at Casa Real at Ruby Hill Winery in Livermore..


We did have an engagement photo session with our photographer.. this was down by cannery row in Monterey..

Our pre-wedding picnic.. it went really well.. thank goodness it was a sunny day!

Amy and her girl friends.. yes, that's a cross on the pinata suspended from the tree..

Matthew manned the grill.. he did an excellent job keeping everyone fed..

My brothers and I on the wedding day.. I'm glad they got my name on the board spelled correctly..

Standard treatment by Reddy.. I'm glad he didn't drop me that day :)

Amy and her dad walking down the aisle..

All the best dudes and girls..

A little black and white.. makes everything so elegant looking..

Amy and I during our first dance..

A little coordinated Vanilla Ice dance action..

The old indian Baghara is always good for spicing up the dance floor..

Matthew and Joe surprised us by singing a personalized version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for us during the wedding.. you can check out the video on youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu1oKdmkyGE

And we're off! on our honeymoon to Kaua'i..

When we first got there it was super rainy.. lucky we had directions printed out or we would have been lost for sure..

..but we made it to the Hyatt and checked it.. this is probably the most expensive hotel I've stayed in.. but it was for the once in a lifetime honeymoon, I suppose, so it was ok.. I still stole a lot of bath products to make up for it though :p

The next day it cleared up nicely.. this is a view from the convertible with the top down.. sweet..

Those Hawaiians like their direct signs.. and lack of grammar..

We went to see a luau.. was fun but a little too staged.. to

We also took a free scuba lesson at the Hyatt.. the OK sign means you're ok.. yep, you don't want to make things too complicated when you're 25 feet under..

A shot of the wind swept southern coast of Kauai..

They call me Wolverine..

A view from a lookout atop Waimea Canyon..

Jojo's many of our shave ice destinations.. who would have guessed taht I would find a girl who liked shave ice more than me?

Our romantic dinner at Gaylords.. yep, that's right.. but this was a Hawaiian plantation style place rather than the famous Indian restaurant.

One of the waterfalls alcoves you could swim under at the lagoons at the Hyatt Regency in Kaua'i.

A spectacular picture of Amy coming off the slide into the lagoon..

We also stayed two nights at the Surfboard House in Hanalei.. an old record exec retired out here and made his house into a high end Bed and Breakfast style place.. it was pretty cool..

Very nicely outfitted and romantic.. they called it the Love Shack..


We splurged on a helicopter ride to see the Na Pali coast.. it was our first time on a helicopter and pretty amazing.. the pilot gave us a shaka.. yeah..

A view of the Na Pali coast from the helicopter.. the water is so blue!

Look at those reefs.. that's amazing.. who wouldn't want to live here?!?

Fooling around on the beach.. it was a little chilly so we had the water to ourselves..

The most beautiful sunset ever.. seriously, I'm not kidding.. we were in Kaua'i and walking on the beach and dusk.. it was all dark and then we suddenly turn around and the sky looked like this! It was amazing..

Shave ice at Hawaiian Blizzard.. This guy sets up this little stand from his truck right outside the Big Save.. His was the best shave ice on the island.. Amy even got a T-shirt :)

A view from the Hanalei Lookout.. lots of poi down there..

Amy and I snokeling on the north shore..

I caught this picture of a moray eel.. sharp teeth and very cool..

The day we got back was Amy's Bday.. so we celebrated with cake and her family..

Viet and Dina arranged a little boat for us to go out on SF bay for New Year's.. we weren't sure how it would be but figured, heck, we've never been on a boat for NYE.. let's do it!

We met up and walked around Ghiradelli Square before the launch.. It's nice now that Siavosh is out in SF..

Lin, Jane and Ray at the docks.. We're all dressed up because we figured it would be super cold..

Here's the boat.. it's called Chucky's Pride.. yep, like the living killer doll.. it could have been a horror cruise..

Fireworks from the boat.. they were awesome because we were right under them..

This explosion looked like it was coming straight for us!

Merry New Year 2010!

We had our New Year's Party at Wei's place this year on the 2nd.. (we were on the boat for actual New Year's Eve.) We made a turkey for this and had lots of friends over.. it was great!

Amy and I along with Amy's friend Suzanne who is applying for residency in anesthesia now.. She came all the way from New Hampshire to visit our party...

Rock Band.. Lin intently focused on the drums, William on the bass and Matthew as lead singer..

We also took the chance to belatedly celebrate Viet's Bday..

Wei hanging out with Marvin, Jimmy and Veronica..

Viet and Dina fixin' some drinks..

I'll leave you with another picture of the most amazing sunset ever! We have it on our computer desktop.. a little reminder of paradise.

I hope everyone is well! If we haven't heard from you for a while drop me an email :) or call! Bye, everybody!