Four Twenty Oh-Eight

Hi Everybody!

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to put some pictures up. Work has been taking up lots of my time as I was buckling down and studying hard for a few months, both for the annual inservice exam and also just so I could get smarter. Other than that stress, life in LA continues to go well. The roommates are good with Jeff getting engaged and preparing already for his wedding a year from now.. Harsha is staying with us for another year as the Chief of USC Optho and then will continue on the Oculoplastics Fellowship (don't know where yet, match day is in a couple weeks).. Things with Amy are going great and we've had lots of fun over the past four months (no, we are not engaged yet you nosies nosers).. Hope you guys enjoy the pics.. maybe here from you soon? :D

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In mid-december, our old friend Sagar Koduri visited us. He was out here for a wedding but we had time to hang out and show him a bit of the town. This is us foolin' about in Harsha's room.. I'm wearing his traditional formal indian robe..

For New Year's this year, Amy and I went to visit my younger brother, Chris, at College Station in Texas. Chris is doing a PhD there in Comp Sci.. it's kind of boring I think but hopefully will help him with his career goals. My older brother and his wife, Joe and Michelle, also came out so it was good family time. This is us doing the ginyu force pose from Dragonball Z.. (it was Joe's idea)..


We also spent a few days with the Boston Crew at Jeremy Tucker's Place in Houston. It was really great to see Greg, Ali, Eric, Elizabeth and Jeremy again for a reunion of the usual suspects. We had a great time eating and watching movies, it was low key but very quality..


Late January, we took a road trip down to San Diego to visit Amy's friend Tiffany and to go to the San Diego Zoo. On the way down we had Pho lunch with my old college friend Jennifer Juhn and her dude Peter.

The chubby seals on the beach in La Jolla.. it was a chilly evening when we were walking on the beach, glad we brought jackets..


We were wondering around a bookstore for a while, waiting for Tiffany to show up.. Amy giving me hints for Valentine's day..


We did go to dinner at Cozy Mel's.. Amy's just finished off a Margarita pyramid (just kidding, we both shared it, and it was almost too much for us..)


We had quite the bit of tomfoolery around the Zoo.. Here's us climbing on all the statues we could find..






Zebras and me..


Monkeying around..


A cute little koala.. though I've heard they have pretty long claws..


I think that's a scarf turned rastafarian wig on my head..


Amy and her friend Tiffany. Tiffany has four tarantulas and rabbits in her apartment, staying overnight there was death defying with Amy's hatred of bugs and allergy to rabbits... On the way home we also stopped and had dinner with the OC crew of Amy's friends.


In early February, Harsha and I both had a weekend day off and we tried to go hiking at Temescal Canyon in Malibu. Sadly, it was closed so we decided to just drive up into the malibu hills. We found this canyon where the fires had burned last fall. The ground was still dark from all the soot, the few trees still standing had this burn bark on the outside and, where the bark had fallen off, had this brown baked wood underneath. It was actually quite cool.. I'm still hoping to go back and cut a few branches down so I can put them in my room.




On the way down the hill we could see the Channel Islands in the distance. Cloud covered, they looked like some sort of Avalon..

We also managed to find sometime to go rock climbing at the rock gym with Harsha and Anne.. some pictures of us climbing around..






This could possibly be Amy's favorite picture ever.. she can't stop laughing when she sees it..

On Valentine's Day (and sort of for our dating anniversary), we got on the plane to Thailand. I haven't been back for almost three years and it was Amy's first time so we were pretty excited. There are hundreds of pictures so I'll just put a few select ones up..


Amy and I at the Royal Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The tower (Jedi in Thai) is covered in real gold.. well, maybe real gold paint :)

The Thai Ronald MacDonald! Swaddee!

On Koh Samet, an island near Bangkok.. the beach is so flat the end the tide goes out they can set up tables and restaurants will bring your food right out on the sand.. full moon too!


Amy and I on our snorkeling boat trip.. this is a little island where we stopped for lunch. We could pull off the island couple thing, I think.. Hawai'i here we come!


We also got to ride an elephant at Ayutthaya, the old capital before Bangkok. It was pretty cool and the first time either of us had been on an elephant :)

In the middle of March, I went up to northern CA for our annual snow trip. This is the annual trip, I take with friends from internship to Sacramento and then Tahoe for some skiing. Mukesh, Wei, Minh, Ray, Amy and Jane came along and we had a great time. This is a picture of Amy with her main girl Leslie Toy...

The dudes in Mukesh's sister's kitchen...

It was Amy's first time snowboarding and she did wonderful.. we both fell down a lot but it was fun though by the end we just ended up sitting on our boards and sliding down, which was really pretty fun actually.. next time I'm going to do that the whole time!


It was a revisit for Eddy (Amy's penguin) to the snows.. he was quite happy to be in his environment again, even though some prankster kept dropping snow on him :) He was glad to head back to Fremont though as he has become accustomed to the warmth of the sunshine.


The whole crew at the breakfast buffet before heading home.

Amy and I took a trip to Santa Barbara at the end of March. On the way, we stopped at the ol' homestead, ie. Newbury Park, where I grew up. Our Thai restaurant was converted to the middle eastern Ali Baba when we sold it.. we also went by the old house and high school.

It was a beautiful day in Santa Barbara, kind of quiet actually because we opted to go on a Sunday instead of a true weekend night. We walked around in the sun to Sterns Wharf (where the apparently don't allow any feet!) and then around State St. downtown, which was cute but much more mall-ish than I like (so I didn't take many pictures.)


The next morning we ate at a little local cafe which had pretty good french toast.. Oh and I got new glasses with transition lenses (you know, where they turn dark in the sun to keep out the UV) so that's why it looks like you can't see my eyes in some of the pictures :p

then we went to the famous Santa Barbara Mission where we learned that the monks used to sleep on really really hard wooden pallets. There's also a cemetary in the back.

On the way home, we stopped at a bakery. This one specialized in gourmet cupcakes (called Crushcakes) and expensiveness. We ate one and decided it wasn't quite as good as the ones from Sprinkles in Beverly Hills (though also not quite as costly either.) Here's Amy trying to eat one of their special giant-sized cupcakes..look at the expression on her face!

We also stopped at a little antique shop on the way and looked at some serious art.

I'll end this time with a little picture we took when Anne, Harsha and I went to Burgamot Station. It's a little warehouse area in Santa Monica that has been converted into a number of art displays and show rooms. The sun was just setting and it was beginning to rain, the sky a blanketed by deep dark blue clouds...


Until next time, I hope everyone is doing wonderful.. Drop me an email when you get a chance :) I'd love to hear from any and all of you. Bye, everybody!