Another one of those Friday nights

I could not sleep last night. I do not know if it has anything to do with going to a party on Friday night. We went to Jason's co-worker's place for a summer kick-off party. It rained so it was indoors instead of a campfire-like party in their beautiful backyard. (They have a jacuzzi on their patio, for crying out loud!).
Everyone was very nice and pleasant and there were no crazy stories or gossips about bosses or other co-workers, so there was no reason I could not sleep. Besides, the dinner was absolutely yummy and there was a Chocolate fountain for dessert!! And my creative skills probed me to dunk a chocolate peanut butter hazelnut cookie in the fountain. That was probably one of the best decisions I ever made for today.

So I'm up now at 6.30 am, writing this post and editing videos and compiling photographs, which will probably end up on YouTube. And it will probably be cheesy because of the lack of sleep.

Phillip and Selena will be driving up this morning and spending the weekend at our place. Oh, that reminds me.. I better go put some towels in the guest bath.

When some prayers and science work hand-in-hand

Our neighbor, and also a good friend, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma about six months ago and has been undergoing chemotheraphy every two weeks. A few of us from the neighborhood would take turns bringing meals over to her on the weeks that she goes for chemo. She was always in good spirits.

This week was her last treatment and the scan results showed that she is now free from cancer. Alleluia!

Finding a balance

This is what I need :

No schedules. No mandatory meetings. Inside Best Buy's radical reshaping of the workplace .
One afternoon last year, Chap Achen, who oversees online orders at Best Buy Co. (BBY ), shut down his computer, stood up from his desk, and announced that he was leaving for the day. It was around 2 p.m., and most of Achen's staff were slumped over their keyboards, deep in a post-lunch, LCD-lit trance. "See you tomorrow," said Achen. "I'm going to a matinee."

Work should no longer be a place where you go, but something you do. It's O.K. to take conference calls while you are fishing or eating ice cream at Brusters.

Meowsplosion

The day began with an early morning whimpering, and a loud wailing sound from Trouble. Trust me, it was loud. I was in the bathroom and he was outside in the yard. And if I could hear that cat wail from all the way upstairs in my bathroom, it has to be really loud.

I rushed downstairs, barely pulling my pants up (but I did, mind you) and called for Trouble. Could not find him. No sign of him anywhere in or out.
Oh no.. he's gone. The big bad hawk must've snooped down on him and swept him off into the sky and dropped his poor remains into some pig barn.

Then I saw his little head and he ran towards the door begging to be let in. But there was no sound from him. I let him in and he was shaking and panting and his little tongue was sticking out. He tried to say something but nothing came out from him. I have never seen him so shaken before. Actually, I have never seen a cat panting like a dog before. I didn't know what to do. He still had no voice.

After 15 minutes or so, he calmed down. And he could meow again and his little tongue was no longer sticking out.

I am still curious as to what scared him so. Don't you sometimes wish cats could talk?

Trouble hasn't asked to go outside since this morning.
It must be that big bad hawk.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful fathers out there!

We went over to the Gower's pad for dinner - BBQ chicken, salad, deviled eggs, baked potatoes, fruits and Susan's amazing dessert... and I got my nephew fix.

Zonked on a Saturday

I could not sleep all night on Friday. Perhaps it was the shocking gossips I heard the previous night at the party. I remember just tossing and turning in bed and then, it was already dawn. Crap!

Went out for a good breakfast with the in-laws and then came home and I zombied around the house trying to do some housework and used the weed-eater on the lawn whilst Jason mowed.

In the evening, we went to the Matthews park and listened to the philharmonic orchestra.

I don't remember anything else after that.

But I do remember waking up in the middle of the night on Sunday and a cat was purring in my face!

Friday night out

The boss invited our team over to her house to celebrate the release of our new collaterals. Jason finally got to meet the people I work with, well.. just those in my department, and our CEO who dropped by briefly.
The boss' husband made some really good hors d’ouvres and paired it with some really good wine. I am not much of a wine drinker but I could tell it was good because I made it through atleast a quarter of a glass.
I thought we would stay till around 8-ish pm but the girls started talking (I would say bitching but that would sound rude) about the many interesting things our ex-boss did before she got fired, and more wine was served, and then the decaf coffee came out... so we finally left at 11pm.
Phew...

One cool doggie

Who would ever think dogs need sunglasses ? We came across this dog while strolling the streets in Williamsburg last month. I totally forgot about it until just now when I was sorting through some photos.
The glasses were strapped neatly around his neck, behind his ears.

Paris Hilton would be oh-so-jealous. Now, that's hot!

Row with the Dragons

On Saturday, we went to Ramsey Creek Park in Cornelius to watch the Dragon Boat Race. We had to park our cars at designated parking lots and hop onto the shuttle bus to take us to the lake. The crowd was huge!
Not only was there the race, but there were many booths selling all kinds of merchandise and food representing various Asian countries, and various stage performances. After the Lion dance, we decided to skip the stage performances and set up our camping chairs closer to the lake to watch the race and enjoy the breeze. (It was a VERY hot day).
Eventhough I have heard of the Dragon Boat Race but I have never watched it before. So this was a new experience for me. The Dragon Boat race dates back more than 2300 years to the southern provinces of China.I was also pleasantly surprised to find food booths selling satay and ketupat (Indonesian style), Taiwanese Bubble tea and Herbal Tea Egg. I ,ofcourse got the Tea Egg :)

Oh, and lots of dogs were enjoying the day at the park too...

Biometrics

USCIS received my application and sent me an appointment notice to appear at the Application Support Center to have my biometrics taken this afternoon at 1pm. So I picked Jason up from work and as we were still super early (thanks to paranoid me), we stopped at Tin Tin Buffet to grab a quick lunch. I think we broke the record for fastest eating at a buffet restaurant. We knew what we wanted to eat, gobbled our foods and were on our way to the USCIS office.
There were already plenty of people in there, some standing in line or sitting and waiting for their numbers to be called. But I found out I was the first one for the 1pm appointment slot. I looked around and told Jason... hey, maybe these people have been here since 9am?

While waiting, I decided to entertain my brain by taking guesses at what nationalities these people in the room are. Too easy. Majority were Latinos. And one lady had a Honduras passport.
I was also wondering why people were standing so long infront of a monitor. Then my number was called and I found out why. Not only do they have to take a print of each finger on both hands but the machine that takes the prints was really sensitive. The smaller your fingers are, the harder it is to take a print. So since I have skinny fingers, the poor officer had to take my prints atleast 50 times. She was super nice and patient and was talking to me all the time. I thought I was going to be standing there forever. She also showed me all the prints and explained to me why some were rejected and had to be retaken. After that was accomplished, she made me sign on some magnetic thingy and took my picture. Then she said, "ok, you can go home now."

That's it !
And I thought I would be there till 5pm! And they did not even look at Jason.

Brendan gets hitched

We drove up to Pilot Mountain (or Mount Pilot as Jason calls it) this afternoon and just got home a little while ago. Brendan and Alexis tied the knot today and the wedding was held at this really cozy colonial style manor overlooking scenic pastures and mountains. Even the rain did not damper the mood or the wedding. They moved us to the big tent and the food, hor douvres and the wedding cake was served in different halls inside the manor.
It was a beautiful wedding.

De-ja vu

It's all coming back to me now. I remember doing this last year too.
Today, we spent a good part of the morning and afternoon "refurbishing" the pond and the garden with the help of my in-law's. Couldn't have done it without their help.
We took the whole pond apart and dug a deeper hole, re-arranged rocks and mixed 7 bags of concrete and filled in the gaps between the rocks, added 15 bags of pea gravel in the garden and 3 bags of cypress mulch in the flowerbed. Now, the pond is permanent. Sealed with stone.
I hope we don't have to move anytime soon.

At 5pm we all adjourned to the clubhouse for the Summer Kick-off party. Each street in our neighborhood was assigned to bring a dish and ours was baked beans.
We got to meet some new neighbors too. We just love our neighbors. Everyone seems really nice.
Susan, Greg and the boys joined us later and the boys got to play inside the fire truck. All the kids in the neighborhood enjoyed that. There must be something about fire trucks and kids. I think a fire truck makes a similar impact on kids as would a Krispy Kreme on me.

The boys came home with us. Wrenn's talking a lot more now and he says the cutest and funniest things and Cooper is into Superman and Spiderman. They also managed to talk to my parents on the phone for a bit, which I'm sure made their day.

Here's Wrenn driving Trouble nuts.

Oh, and did I mentioned it rained just as we were finishing the pond? I think it has not rained for almost a month now.