Boston

In Mid October, Ash and I went back home to visit my parents in Newton, this time we went together and stayed there for a week!  Since we were there for a week, we had the opportunity to do a lot more things than usual, spending a whole day in downtown Boston enjoying the city.  With the Big Dig done, what was once construction and yellow tape turned to gardens and plazas.  The city has really changed giving it the beauty of old American charm with a modern design.  Here’s some snaps:


My dad and I walking through downtown Boston.


Dad had a ping pong tournament that week.
Here’s him using his tricky back handed slice serve


My mom and I watching Dad play.


Bean eating the famous Hay Market Pizza.  Best pizza in Boston, at least we think so…


Out in South Boston with some of the bros, Jimmy, Simon and Brian (from left).


@BU Hockey, Terriers vs. Merrimac, (From Right) Shirin, Arang, Steve, Amanda, Danny, Ween, Stein


October is also the brother brithday month, a great excuse to have two birthday cakes in a row!


What’s Bean wishing for?  Driving Permit, iPod Touch, or Susan Lucci to win Dancing with the Stars?


Of course dad is ever enhancing the house with basic upgrades like an outdoor kitcken.  Here we are taking a picture of the recent achievements. 🙂

No trip home would not have been complete with some great cooking from Mom.


Steamed Fish with ginger and scallion


Dry Marinated Beef


My favorite, a dish only my Mom and Grandma makes, Fried Casserole.

Speaking of Mom, she has been continuing on her quest to become the next Michelle Quan.  Mom skates 3 or more times a week at 2 to 3 hours each session sometime longer.  She started from ground zero literally shuffling across the ice clutching the sideboards.  This time we went, Mom was skating backwards, do spins and looking very comfortable!  Ash brought her skates this time too and here’s her and mom fooling around at Walter Brown Arena.

Been a long time…

It’s been awhile since I last posted.  Things got pretty busy after Ashley’s birthday.  Here’s some updates:

iPHONE

Most importantly, I made the best purchase of 2008, the iPhone 3G!!!!  This thing rocks.  It’s like a mini computer.  I use for work email, music, calendar, GPS, facebook and games.  Like the ad says, this has changed everything.  I am also happy to announce that my old Motorola flip phone that was worse than the first cell phone I ever got is sitting quietly in some dark drawer gathering dust…

iphone_image.jpg

Ok with that major event out of the way…

Ashley’s Hawaii and Cali Trip

In August Ash went to Hawaii and California to visit family.  It was her PoPo’s 90th birthday on August 27th!!  She still looks quite good for her age and still enjoys fried food, especially fried shrimp and roast duck on a regular basis.  Now that is a women with a good digestive system!

DSC03573

Ash also took lots of great photos of plants and flowers in Hawaii to use as materials for her painting. This one is my favorite and she should definitely paint this one.

DSC03430

California is also where Ziggy lives (LA).  Ash spent lots of time with Megan and Dylan going to Disney Land and Sea World. I grew up on sesame street but these Cali kids grew up on Disney!

DSC03733

Ray in India

Around the same time in August, I went to India again to kick off another project with the Spark City team there.  It started out great and I was having a great time working with everyone until I got sort of viral fever that was quite common in August after the monsoon.  Unfortunately the fever knocked me out for the last week of the 2 weeks I was there.  I still had a great time and we achieved all that I had hoped but I really wish I had the energy to spend more time with the team that last week.

Apple Picking

September was for the most part a heads down week for work though the weekends were pretty busy as well.  Ash and I went with the Lo’s to enjoy some Georgia apple picking which also included farm favorite attractions like cow milking, pig races and the plenty of fried food southern style.  Below is a photo of Ash and I poking our faces through these cheesey cut-outs.  We love these things and take a photo like this everywhere we find one.  How do I look with the curls?

ray_ash_apple_picking.jpg

Ian’s visit to the US

Ian also came and visited in September.  It was his first time in the US and Ash and I drove down to Savanah where he was attending a conference.  It has been alittle over 10 Years since we last saw each other in Beijing and Harbin.  He was just 15 then and now he’s married!  We had a great time catching up and I was sorry to see him go.  In my generation in China, most people don’t have siblings so cousins are like brothers and sisters.  I wish him and his wife the best!

DSC03804

Hollywod’s Bachelor Party

It was also Hollhywood’s bachlor party in September as well and I had a great time acting like the college days with the bros.  We went skeet shooting, had lots of good food, and plenty of drinks.  Here’s a cool photo of me shooting down a wild boar!  Just kidding, it was a clay disc…

ray_shooting.jpg

Concerts & Tang

It’s been a nice start to the summer. Ashley and I seem to have gone concert crazy in the past months.

Just recently we went to two concerts, Lifehouse and Colbie Caillat. We played Lifehouse’s You and Me song at our wedding so it was nice seeing them live. We didn’t get there early enough and were stuck at the back so the view was not as good but we bumped into my co-workers from Sapient Suyog and Anu.

lifehouse.jpg

Ashley likes Colbie Caillat’s songs a lot and although I thought it was going to be horrible with teeny boppers all over the place it turned out ok. There was teeny boppers all over but we got up close to the stage, I got some really great shots of her and the music was really nice and soothing.

colbie_caillat.jpg

Earlier this summar, we saw Stephen Marley at the Center Stage in Midtown thanks to Kirk who told me about it. Stephen was awesome, sounded just like Bob Marley. Then Arang visited earlier in June and we went to the Masquerade to see a few Punk Rock bands, one called the Bastard Suns. The venue was awesome a old factory. The crowd was definitely rowdy, I got punched in the back as I was right in front of the mosh pit. We had a great time though and it was very nice chilling with Tang.

arang_atl.jpg