Author: Ray

Ray is the other half of Ashley Au. He set up this blog and designed it with Ashley. He is an avid web designer and gadget guy. He loves to relax and hang out with Ashley and their dogs! Captain Fishbone, aka Cappy. Cappy and Ray are buddies and together they pick on Ashley and Pok'e.
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Thanksgiving

Ashley and I love turkey.  Every year we look forward to getting a big one and having lots of good times and left overs.  This Thanksgiving, we had some friends Abee, Marianella, and Abbey over for a nice family style sit down meal.  It was nice to have everyone over again this year as we all were all far from our home and it was a good year to celebrate.  They had all finished school at Georgia Tech.  Yup, my huney is graduating and she got awesome grades to boot.  I’ll talk about that more in December when we have the graduation ceremony.

So, back to Thanksgiving… we got a 19 pound turkey, made stuffing following my Mom’s receipe, had mash potatoes, corn, green beans, candied yams, croissants and even a sweet potato pie.  Even Poke and Cappy had some turkey.  These dogs stuffed themselves silly and were uncharacteristically calm and sleepy after the meal.

Here’s some photos from that night and of course some photos of the food!


My share of the feast.


Stuffed turkey is the only way to go!


It’s all about forearm strength and winning smile…


Ash in her cute apron.  We got the Apron from Nawleans when we went down for the sugar bowl.  In the background is one of my favorite paintings that Ash made.  She’s so such an artists!


An now, the group shot.  We didn’t get one as a group last year but this year thanks for an auto-timer and a make shift tripod made from cans of Coke we got it in after a few tries.  The bloopers of me frantically running to join the group are rally funny.

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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.

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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…

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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?

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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!

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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…

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Ashley’s Birthday, A Success!

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.

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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.
Ashley Volunteering for Meals on Wheels

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 Food

Korean Short Ribs.
Korean Short Ribs

And a dish I now forget what it was called…
Korean Food

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:
Talllulah Gorge

Talllulah Gorge

Talllulah Gorge

Sunflower

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”.

Helen, Georgia

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Rueben Sandwhich

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, Georgia

Tubing on the Chatahoochee

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!

Ashley's Birthday Cake

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life’s more fun together

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.
Ashley and Ray

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. 🙂