July Baby

Happy Birthday to XZ!!!!!!

Enjoy this day to the fullest, and have fun!

******
Just read:


Pink Slip Party by Cara Lockwood

Farewell, Hammy

We discovered Hammy dead in his tank this afternoon. :(

We'd placed his tank in the balcony, and the sweltering heat plus no water over the weekend must have killed him. We are both sad, and even sadder when we realised we don't even know how long he has been dead. I should have checked on him yesterday when I gave him some food and saw flies hovering around him. I should have guessed.

When Yifan checked on him today, Hammy was already lifeless, with half of his head still sticking out, and maggots on him. It was a pitiful sight.

In another 2 weeks, it would have been a year since we first found him at our doorstep.

Yifan made this for Hammy:


Bye bye buddy!

Weekend Pics Houston - Day 2 (25Jun 2006)

Exploring with CS and Grace


cs's house in houston


me and 8-month old baby christopher


vietnamese sandwich is good!


Minute Maid Park-- home of the Houston Astros Baseball team


the baseball stadium ( taken thru tinted windows)


baseball players ( from top to bottom): CS, Grace, Sha


couple team


Toyota Center-- home of the Houston Rockets

And finally, leaving you with something sweet:

Weekend Pics from Houston - Day 1 (24Jun 2006)

We were supposed to drive to Houston in this:


But at the very last minute, we changed to this: Infiniti G35. very fast, very luxurious


topping up gas before we leave


munching on baby star and reading the directions from the laptop to yifan


along westheimer in houston. the rainbow is the symbol for gay people




a temporary atm machine at the entrance of the Pride Parade fair


the lesbians went as women, and the gay men... well, they went as dragqueens


then there were also topless gay men


everyone was armed with chairs and ice boxes while waiting for the parade to begin in the evening; we left for Kemah and only returned hours later to catch the last bit of the parade


tail-gate bbq -- bbq on the back of pickup trucks


that's my butt


and that's the disgusting butt of a woman? i'm not sure if she is a real woman, or a man in drag. "her" dressing was outrageous-- "her" front was almost completely exposed, yet "she" was an eyesore because "she" looked bad that a young man shook his head when "she" walked past him


the Houston skyline


Space Center Houston


Nasa Space Center


Space food, in this case-- astronaut peaches


sales assistants in space suits




kemah boardwalk


outdoor dining in Kemah Crab House


kemah choo-choo train




Kemah ferris wheel


sunset at Kemah Boardwalk

A Whirlwind Tour of Houston

Got back late last night, or should I say, early this morning. 6am to be exact.

The pictures are still in the CF card, so I'll probably only upload them here tomorrow, since I am pretty sure we will turn in early tonight.

What can I say about Houston?

In a nutshell, Houston is the largest city in Texas ( the city looks at least twice the size of Dallas'). Weather was hot and humid, but at least there was no rain, which was lucky for us, because just a few days before we left for Houston, there had been reports of heavy flooding.

Met up with CS and his wife, Grace and they were very hospitable towards us. We lunched at their place on Saturday -- stewed pork ribs and hand-made dumplings courtesy of Grace's mum from china who is now living with them to help take care of the new baby.

Like Dallas, there really isn't very much to do there, and spending a long weekend there is more than sufficient. On the Saturday that we were there, it was the 10th Annual Houston Pride Parade. The Pride Parade is a parade that celebrates being gay. Needless to say, most of the crowd were gay people ( more lesbians than gay men), and as luck would have it, I happened to be dressed in the " lesbian uniform" -- top and a culotte-type of pants that looks something like this:




And of course, I had put on a little weight ever since I'd bought my culottes, and that plus the fact that I think the culottes shrank a little after the first wash, it was a little too tight on me. ( pic to come later. yes, yifan actually took a picture of my back with special emphasis on my butt). Anyway, we were at Mac's on Westheimer for a toilet break and to recharge ourselves before we went back under the hot sun, when 2 girls ( at separate moments when I was waiting for the cubicle), presumbably lesbians, started to make small talk with me. I didn't think much of it since Americans are generally more friendly. It was only when I was washing my hands at the sink after that, and I caught another lesbian ( yifan says she is the "guy") staring at my butt from the mirror that I suspected that those people were being more than just friendly. Hahah!

So that's funny incident number 1 for you.

Here's funny incident number 2, but more ridiculous than funny, I'd say.

Like how it usually is on our trips, one of us waits in the car, while the other goes to check out the motel room rates. We settled on Palace Inn, an indian-run motel, and waited at the reception area for CS to go supper together. The indian man at the counter then asked Yifan for the second time ( first time being when he enquired about the rate) if it was just the 2 of us staying over. He asked that twice while we were waiting and each time we said it's just us, and our friends live just around the corner. Apparently, he didn't believe us, cos what happened after we got back to the motel after a late supper** at close to 4am was just ridiculous. Five minutes after we got back in, the phone rang. At 4am, no kidding! It was him. The indian man. He said he saw 3 or 4 people come back into the room!! ( it was just yifan and myself). A back-and -forth argument ensued between him and yifan and he then said he was coming up to our room to check. A girl came up, saw that it was only the two of us, called Reception, and the indian man told her to go check the bathroom!!! She thought he was mad, and said it's fine and left. So then Yifan went back to the Reception with her, spoke to the man, and he insisted he saw 3 or 4 people, and that he was just " doing his job". Finally, he apologised. Minutes later, he called our room and apologised again, at 4+am !!!! Sigh.

** restaurants in Chinatown close very late. When we left at 3.45am, people were still going in for a late bite. And I dun mean a late-nite snack. They were eating steamboat and noodles and all. The crowd was pretty interesting-- mostly youngsters out from clubbing, and some old ( older) people that reminds you of those uncles you see in Geylang with china "working women". Only these women were vietnamese.

I wished I'd brought along the Canon digicam for the trip. It was too troublesome and strange to bring the SLR to the restaurants and supermarkets in Chinatown, so sad to say, we don't have any pictures of the area. Chinatown in Houston is nothing like the NY chinatown or San Francisco chinatown. More like the one in Chicago, albeit much much bigger. The asian supermarkets are on average, the size of a Walmart!! And there are lots of them around. There are complexes or plazas that contain little asian shops from bakeries to jewellery shops. They looked a little like those old shopping centres in Singapore. We bought 5 curry puffs ( the pastry kind) from one of the bakeries that CS brought us to. And what trip to Chinatown is complete if you don't do a little grocery-shopping? We bought 3 pounds of large prawns, 6 fish, 2 kinds of veg etc home. Heheh. You have to be there to understand why we couldn't control this urge to do marketing.

I love Houston Chinatown for all its restaurants and supermarkets. It would be better if only there weren't so many Vietnamese in Houston. I have nothing against them, except they always look very aggressive. The ah-beng looking guys look like they are waiting to pick a fight, and the girls seem to think they are very pretty, and always give me that " him" look. Whatever for, I have no clue.

Overall, we both love Houston, especially when it comes to filling our stomachs. Before the trip, we thought this would be a place to go just once, but now I'm pretty sure we'll be back for more visits, and this time, with our ice box. Too much to eat, too little time. If it was up to me, I'll want to go into each and every supermarket the next time we go there.

P.S Remember the PT Cruiser from the previous post? We were back at Enterrprise to pick up the lexus on friday evening, when we saw the Infiniti G35 parked at the office. So early Saturday morning, we went back there and requested for a change of cars.

Our Ride for the Weekend

This is what we are going to be driving in to Houston tomorrow:


Chrysler PT Cruiser in black.

Hmm, my first experience with the car is okay. Handles pretty much the same as the Scion, and sitting in it feels much higher than in my SC400.

We'd wanted to get the Nissan Altima or some other Japanese cars, but they only have american cars left. And even then, most of the Enterprise branches were already out of cars. In fact, I went on a wild goose chase this afternoon just to find a car. ( hence, i missed 3/4 of the korea-switzerland match).

After numerous calls to car rental companies in the area, I finally settled on Enterprise Frisco. Got there, and the guy said they don't have any cars unless I already have a reservation with them. (!) And this was just 20 minutes after I hung up the phone with the girl there, who had told me that they have cars available. Okay, never mind, dun kick up a fuss there, I thought. He then proceeded to make a reservation for me for later this afternoon. More questions from me, and he admitted that there may be a chance that even with a reservation, I might not end up with a car. Told me to go to the other locations in Plano cos he was sure they have cars available, and I'd just have to let them know of my reservation at Frisco.

So off I went a second time. The guy at the Plano location that I went to said they were all out of cars!! .. unless I had a reservation... to which I said I did. From Frisco. Strangely, he couldnt find any reservation in my name (!?!?) and suggested I go to another Plano location 2 blocks down. Ugh! And he didn't even have any full-size cars available, and the only SUVs there are already reserved. While I was silently cursing the man from the Frisco location, I remembered Yifan had made a reservation at yet another location 2 days ago. Thankfully, his reservation was legit and still valid, so then it was a choice between the PT Cruiser and Stratus ( that were available at yet another location).

Basically, that was not much of a choice, so I decided on the PT Cruiser ( i called yifan actually cos I couldnt remember how the cars looked like). Turns out that the car is quite okay, nothing fancy, unlike the Nissan Murano we got in San Francisco, but it will do. Haven't got a chance to test out the power of the car yet, but I am not expecting too much, especially since I've been pampered by my 300hp SC400, and not many cars can beat that.

Anyway, got to make another trip back down to Enterprise later in the evening after Yifan gets home to drive my own car back. I was a little sad when I had to leave the SC400 in the parking lot earlier. I don't know how I would feel when the time comes to sell off my car. Well, I guess I'll just have to cross the bridge when it comes.

More Exploring

Just read:


Apocalipstick by Sue Margolis

*****
Going on another road trip this weekend. Houston awaits!! :)

" Triad" Restaurant

One of our favourite pastimes is exploring the area for new places to eat.

Not too long ago, we found out about Sprouts Farmers Market, and a few doors down, is 369 BBQ Restaurant. Given the name, we were pretty sure then that it must be a chinese restaurant. However, it was only just today that we finally got a chance to try it out.


Here's Yifan trying to put on his meanest gangster look. ( 369, get it??)


mapo toufu with a spicy level that only Yifan could detect.


char siew and duck.

Let's tuck in.

Weekend Dog Affair

Last Saturday, while walking through the park, back to our apartment after brunch, we came face-to-face with a guy walking his 3 big dogs. The footpath was a narrow one, and there was no way we could get out of each other's way without one party stepping down onto the muddy grass ( it had rained hard the night before). Needless to say, the guy continued walking towards us on the path. I had hoped he would give way to us, but no! I told myself to remain calm, and try to walk like there were no dogs. Just when we were about to pass the guy, the dogs started barking, and tried to lunge towards us. In my panic, I pulled Yifan into the muddy grass.

This is the aftermath:


We had a good laugh after that!

Then yesterday while we were going up the stairs back home, a woman whom I assume to be Shawn's ( my downstairs neighbour) girlfriend was walking her dog ( on leash) down. Again, narrow staircase, so there was no way I could have avoided the dog unless I went back down first. That was stupid, so I tried to act brave. The woman told yifan, who was ahead of me, that her dog won't bite for anything in the world. Yeah right!!! Just when I was rounding the bend at the staircase landing, the dog turned and bit my leg!! Damn the stupid dog. If the woman wasn't around, I would have given it a kick in its head and send it flying down the staircase( since I was just coming back from the gym and in trackshoes).

Now tell me why I hate dogs!

*****
Just read:



Smart Women by Judy Blume

The Night It Rained Cats and Dogs

It rained hard last night. This place hasn't rained in a long long time. Winds were howling, lightning flashed across the sky, and I got woken up by the rumbling thunder. Got out of bed at 3.15am because we'd left Hammy, the turtle,in his tank out in the balcony and I was worried.

When I crawled back to bed, Yifan said it's a turtle! Heheh. ( i hadn't wanted to leave Hammy out for the night too, cos I thought he might get frightened. )

Anyhow, I am welcoming more rain, especially since we are not using satellite tv now, so the tv signals wouldn't be affected by storms. But mostly because we need some respite from the heat. These days, temperatures range from 36-38 C. (!!) Horrendous, I tell you!

*****
Just read:

Spanish lessons

I am still on the lookout for spanish language courses. Stanleymaria didn't seem like the kind we want. Anyhow, I'd picked up a few spanish words since watching World Cup in spanish.

Mostly just the names of colors, like:
yellow= amarillo
white= blanco
blue= azul
red= rojo

oh, and of course, kapitan is captain in spanish.

*****
Just read:


Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

Knock Knock, Who's There

While I was lazing on the couch watching Brazil vs Croatia,

** sound of door knob trying to be turned**

I walked to the door, and looked through the peephole.
me: who is it?
stupid man in sunglasses: open the door
me: who is it?

stupid man doesn't respond, and still trying to open MY door. Then he said ...something shawn.

me: Shawn lives downstairs!
stupid idiot: is this not shawn's residence?
me: NO! Shawn lives downstairs!!
S.I. : sorry

What is wrong with this man??!! Trying to barge into someone else's house like that. Utterly ridiculous and ill-mannered. Even if I were Shawn, how can you enter someone's house without a polite knock on the door, and instead just keep twisting the door knob, and when that fails, shout " open the door" ??! Did his tongue get bitten off by a dog? Goodness!!

And just 5 minutes before, I had opened the door to get a package from UPS. LUCKILY I'd locked the door right after!

Season of Balls

I am suffering from "ball-overload". Ever since the start of World Cup, I've been watching 3 games a day. Then there's the Miami vs Dallas game that I watch too.

We were back at Hooters yesterday for an early dinner and to secure a table to watch the NBA. Learning from our lesson the previous Friday, this time around, we got there slightly after 6 so we could get a good table. The game only started at 7.30pm. Everything went great -- we had the Best table there is in the non-smoking section, and could afford a nice, long dinner. Everyone else looked like they were also there for the match-- all decked out in basketball jerseys. So it surprised us when slowly, people at the tables around us started settling the bills, and leaving the restaurant.
* shock shock shock*

We didn't know if we should leave too, since we'd finished our dinner ( except for the 3 pieces of wings, which btw, is right now lying somewhere in my fridge). The waitress kept coming over to ask if everything was okay, and if we needed a box for the wings. Eventually, yifan had to order another bottle of beer just so we could keep her off from hounding us for another half hour.

Game started but save for a couple of tables who were there to watch it, the rest of the people acted like they were out on a regular sunday dinner. Anyway, we left shortly after cos yifan complained of a tired and aching back ( we were sitting on high stools), and better to leave before we really got chased out by the waitress.

World Cup 2006

In preparation for World Cup this weekend, I bought these yesterday:


I know the matches start on Friday (today!!), but we don't have espn on cable, so we'll only be able to catch the few weekend matches on another channel. Bummer! It's 12.04pm so Germany vs Costi Rica has just started. Ugh.

We went to King of Wings last night for supper and also to catch the NBA finals between Miami and Dallas.






Our first choice, Hooters, was completely full house because of the game. So were a lot of other pubs in the area. We had to settle for King of Wings instead. To be honest, I'd much prefer King of Wings rather than Down Under pub. The latter was much too crowded and noisy, and people were there more to hang out and be seen, rather than watch a game.

Strangely enough, only 2 tables were taken up at King of Wings when we got there. A table of black people, and the other was a group of latinos. We felt right at home. :)

*****
Went to Walmart for groceries yesterday, and took a couple of pics. For xz, mostly to illustrate what I'd said previously about the tons of mascaras they sell here.



This is the L'Oreal section for mascaras.



And these are the Maybelline mascaras.

Not forgetting mascaras from brands like Almay, Revlon, Cover Girl, Max Factor etc etc. A girl's spoilt for choice.

Leaving you with some pictures from lunch yesterday. Korean food.








Update: Realised that I AM able to catch the espn matches after all. Except I have to watch them on a mexican channel. Kinda weird watching the game with spanish commentary. :=)