Ray & Ashley

Thought I’d steal Ashley’s post title from the one she used for my birthday, she’s so dramatic! hehehe

So, we did have a lot of fun on my huney’s birthday.  She was worried I didn’t have anything planned but hey come on, that’s  what I do all day.  Here’s some pics of the weekend.  It wasn’t all part of the birthday plan but it was all really nice.

Friday night we saw Batman, the Dark Knight.  Good movie but Ash thought it was too violent and bloody.  Guess she forgot it was Batman.

Saturday morning (the day before her birthday) we woke up early and volunteered at the local Meals on Wheels organization. Ashley has been doing a lot of volunteer work lately, I really admire what she’s doing and today I finally got to come along.  So this morning, we delivered boxed food for many seniors in the northwest Atlanta region.  Armed witha crumpled map, bad directions, music and a car load of boxed food we set out to help out.

That night, we had some great Korean food per recommendation from a local foodie.  The restaurant was call Book Chang Dong, in Duluth, GA.

Spicy seafood and tofu soup which was sizzling as it came out!

Korean Short Ribs.

And a dish I now forget what it was called…

Sunday morning, we woke up early again and set out to do some hiking in Tullulah Gorge in northern Georgia.  Tullulah Gorge, is only about 1.5 hours drive north of Atlanta and was a fantastic hike per recommendation of another friend.  We only hiked for about 2.5 hours but we climbed a good many stairs up and down the side of the gorge for a solid stair master work out.  The views were great, including water falls, swinging bridges and rivers all against the lush Georgia backdrop.

Here are some of my pics:

Later that afternoon, post our PB&J snack break we set out for the nearby town of Helen. What a strange place! The whole town was modeled after Bavaria except no one there was remotely German. It was like Disney Epcot Center, Americans with southern accents dressed up in lederhosen! Whacked out but still entertaining and we got a really fantastic Reuben Sandwhich from the “Old Bavaria Inn”.

We went tubing on the Chattahoochee River which ran right through the town of Helen, creating it’s main attraction aside from a fake German town. Tubing was awesome, though at times it was lots of work with Ash telling me every five minutes to watch out for the rocks! She’s so cute even when she causes trouble to me.

Helen was only an hour and a half away from Atlanta so the drive was pretty quick. We ended the wonderful weekend with Ashley’s birthday cake and a rare singing from me.  Happy Birthday Ash!

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Yup, that’s our family motto.  Happy anniversary to us!  Ashley and I woke up early today to watch the sunrise over some hot chocolate and coffee.

Since this is our first anniversary, we decided on a yearly tradition that would be meaningful, fun and something we could do regardless of where we were.  We’d wake up a dawn to watch the sunrise.  Have a lite simple dinner out, bake a cake together and watch our wedding video.

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To celebrate our 1 year anniversary on a very geeky level:

1. I increased the width of the blog by 100 pixels, creating more room for larger pictures and taking advantage of the ubiquitous 1024 resolution. Another great reason for increasing the width of the middle column is now I can post pictures directly from flickr, thereby reducing the need to edit photos and upload them on wordpress.
2. I also fixed the annoying formatting issue with the “Category” in the post heading area. whoohoo!
3. And I changed out the call out module to Atlanta, times have changed
4. I am doing this of course for the throngs of readers out there… Actually there is only one super fan and her name is Ashley.

Here’s a picture of the new look:

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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.

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.

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.

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This past weekend, I went home to Boston to spend some time with Mom. It’s always so nice to go back, my parents treat me like a king and feel like I am in college again. Taking the train from the airport back to Newton reminded me of how different Atlanta is from Boston. The “T’ is a way of life in Boston, where MARTA in Atlanta often gets forgotten. Also I really miss Boston’s ethnic diversity.

A few great things about being home: Hanging with my parents, seeing Bean, eating my mom’s cooking, lounging around a real house, going out with old friends from college and high school. If Boston wasn’t so cold, I might be tempted talk to Ash about seriously moving back!

Here’s some pics of the weekend.

My favorite picture of Mom and Dad.  This was taken on the porch steps in our back yard.

Mom looks so young in this picture.  She has so much energy these days.

Steps towards our front door.  Taken from our driveway.

Our house is so nice now.  Since Dad did all  the work, it’s almost unrecognizable from what it was when we first bought it.  It’s so comfortable staying home.   Dad did such a great job, I hope I can take some really great set of photos one day to capture his handy work.

Ah, the food.  This is batter fried carrots and onions.  It’s awesome, sort of like tempura sweet fries.

My mom’s cooking is so good.  See how happy Dad is

This is what I miss living away from the hometown.   We hung out at Our House, Arang (left), Wan (Center), Simon (not in picture) and Marilon (not in picture) drinking and catching up.  Proud to say I was the Connect Four champion that night.

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