That’s right Ashley finally fullfiled her dream and became the local weather woman. She is airing nightly at 7 and 10 pm, with the TV name of Ashley Storm. Hehehe. Here’s her first appearance!
Parents visiting Atlanta for my graduation
My parents and oldest sister came to Atlanta in December to attend my graduation from Georgia Tech. That year and half just flew by and it felt like yesterday when Ray and I had that discussion back in early 2007 whether I should go back to school and get my master’s degree. And now, it’s all over. Thanks to Ray and his support, I was able to fulfill this accomplishment. Honestly, as excited as I was, I was also reluctant and scared to make a career change…. well… somewhat of a change. But everything worked out smoothly, from moving from Alameda to Atlanta, to Ray’s seamless transfer to the Atlanta office. Thank goodness. I’m so grateful for all that has happened. Again, as usual, everything happened in a whirlwind but somehow it just worked out.
It was great having them visit Atlanta and be there for my graduation. After the ceremony, we went to Two Urban Licks, a cool joint with great ambiance not too far from where we live in Midtown. The food was yummy and I could tell my parents enjoyed trying something new. Look at my dad… he loved the food! Food coma….
As part of the visit, my dad, being the handyman that he is, did some fix ups around our condo. I’m so grateful. Thanks to him, people don’t trip when they walk into our apartment anymore… near the entrance, there used to be a nail sticking out of a piece of wood. My dad worked his magic and everything is now intact correctly. Whew! Meanwhile… my mom cooked up a storm. How great is that!
Finally, my parents’ birthdays are in December (well… sometimes they go by the Lunar Calendar, but it’s too confusing). Rarely do I have the opportunity to celebrate with them. Fortunately, their trip to Atlanta made it possible. Ray and I bought them cupcakes from this amazingggggg place at Tech Square. This shop has possibly the best cupcakes ever.
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.
Been a long time…
It’s been awhile since I last posted. Â Things got pretty busy after Ashley’s birthday. Â Here’s some updates:
iPHONE
Most importantly, I made the best purchase of 2008, the iPhone 3G!!!! Â This thing rocks. Â It’s like a mini computer. Â I use for work email, music, calendar, GPS, facebook and games. Â Like the ad says, this has changed everything. Â 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…
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. Â It was her PoPo’s 90th birthday on August 27th!! Â She still looks quite good for her age and still enjoys fried food, especially fried shrimp and roast duck on a regular basis. Â Now that is a women with a good digestive system!
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.
California is also where Ziggy lives (LA). Â 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!
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. Â 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. Â Unfortunately the fever knocked me out for the last week of the 2 weeks I was there. Â 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. Â 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. Â Below is a photo of Ash and I poking our faces through these cheesey cut-outs. Â We love these things and take a photo like this everywhere we find one. Â How do I look with the curls?
Ian’s visit to the US
Ian also came and visited in September. Â It was his first time in the US and Ash and I drove down to Savanah where he was attending a conference. Â It has been alittle over 10 Years since we last saw each other in Beijing and Harbin. Â He was just 15 then and now he’s married! Â We had a great time catching up and I was sorry to see him go. Â In my generation in China, most people don’t have siblings so cousins are like brothers and sisters. Â I wish him and his wife the best!
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. Â We went skeet shooting, had lots of good food, and plenty of drinks. Â Here’s a cool photo of me shooting down a wild boar! Â Just kidding, it was a clay disc…
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.
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!
