Welcome to the Yeoh's Bed & Breakfast

Summer Summary

2009-07-31T07:26:00.005-06:00

Wow! 3 months since our last post, i guess a post on our blog is LOONG overdue! What can i saw, Facebook has been so much easier to update our weekly/daily status. Blogging, somehow seems so 2005 any more... Oh well, maybe practice will make perfect, i'll try to keep posting more. On to summer, what have we been up to? Here's a few of our greatest hits so far!:

1. Spent 4 nights over in Club Med Sandpiper in early June. At Port St Lucie, FL, its the last Club Med left in the US that caters for Kids as well as adults. All inclusive, so food, drinks (booze), and most activities are covered until your stay. Got an awesome deal on our stay, there were running a last minute special, so we held out booking until 2 weeks before our departure date, and took advantage of the pricing! Priceless was the sailing, sunning, swimming, trapeezing (yes we did that!), partying, and tennis playing that we got to enjoy! Of course, a good deal didn't help either!

2. Few weeks after Club Med, visited Wonderscope Children's Museum in Shawnee. It was a nice day out, and Wonderscope was having a membership drive day, with local merchants sponsoring games, food and ice cream in the Wonderscope parking lot. Also, free entrance for that day to the Museum. Mostly the kids loved the ice cream! Jaz got a little too obsessed with the water toy here. Check out her look when we asked her to go... Inside the museum had tons of stuff for kids to play too! For her age though they had a toddler room, which she had a blast climbing in and out, up and down the play
area!

3. Spent a busy part one of 4th of July visiting the Prairie Village Festival on Saturday morning. Tons and tons of stuff for kids to do. Donkey rides, Puppet shows, food stalls (like pasar pagi), petting zoo, etc. Jaz wasn't a big fan of the donkey's in the background, but was mesmerized with the puppet show, and had fun trying to touch/feed the goats in the petting zoo!

4. 4th of July part two, drove up with the Kinsella Clan to the Missouri Wine Festival in Excelsior Springs, MO. Not as big as some of the wine tasting shin-digs that we went to, and Excelsior Springs is like 1 hr drive from our place, but still had a few good tastings there! Dragged our kids along, but they had at least some things for the toddlers to play with while the parents sampled the wines... As you can tell from the picture, we had a GREAT time. :)

5. Discovered a fine restaurant/grocer in KC "Kim Long" that sells FRESHLY made Roast Duck and Roast Pork last week! Also, they carry an awesome and reasonably priced "Chap Fan" (you pick your own sides with rice) selection in their attached mini-restaurant. So defintely worth the 30 minute drive from Olathe to the Rivermarket!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

2009-05-21T14:49:00.007-06:00

Phew! its getting close to memorial day weekend already! Time sure flies, especially since we've been back from M'sia. So, on the eve of the summer season, I've been scouring the "internets" in the last few weeks to do some financial spring cleaning. Specifically, looking at some good investment ideas in this current economy. Stocks, for those that know me, I've been dollar cost averaging already as they are still at 10 year lows...

On the other hand, fixed income securities like Bonds, I've never considered until now. Reading cautionary tales of near-retirees being wiped out on the cusp of cashing in their 401ks that were primarily stock based, my attention now focused on fixed-income. For me, I've always been a big proponent of index-based stock trackers, like the S&P500 index and I even have positions in an international index tracker as well, but unfortunately while I am diversified industry wise and regionally, I was not Asset class wise. I'm 100% stocks in my 401k.

How much bonds to put in my portfolio? Some of the suggestions out there was take your age=bond percentage. So 30 years = 30% of your portfolio in bonds... Ouch. Dunno about you guys, but I'm still open to "SOME" risk, especially when stocks are at their 10 year lows, don't want to miss out on probably the best run up (hopefully soon) in decades. So, did the easy (lazy)way, just funneled 15% of my new 401k contributions to an intermediate range bond investment, with low fees (0.2%). I'll revisit at the end of this year to with a target of at least 20%/80% (Bond/Stock) allocation by YE09'.

How would you guys do it? Agree disagree?

We "Luvs" Southwest Airlines

2009-05-06T08:36:00.002-06:00

So Yeesin and I are going to Florida for our Wedding Anniversary at the end of this month, and we booked out flight tickets on Southwest Airlines last night. We thought we got a good deal already to Fort Lauderdale @ about $200 per person and bags fly free. :)

Then the next morning, we find out that the fares dropped overnight, and they have openings for direct flight from KC to Fort Lauderdale now. :( Usually, this is were we normally kick ourselves for booking to early and missing out on a deal. Totally KIASU!

Then, I remembered that SW has a really good change policy where they (1) charge no change fees (2) Give you credit for the price difference (3) Can do all of this online..

The Result: Save $177 on our flight, changed it to direct on the return leg AND got the money refunded on my AMEX, and we did all of this ONLINE! (I was PLEASANTLY surprised!) We LUV Southwest, what more can I say!

Getting some serious paperwork done

2009-04-19T14:15:00.003-06:00

Yep, Jaz just turned 1 now, and we finally finished up some long due paperwork. You know, the kind of worst-case-scenario type stuff that you never want to talk about because of "pantang". Seriously though, as parents now, we need estate plans to be inplace for the safety of your children. So, we finally wrote up a living trust for both of us courtesy of a fixed-price legal plan from work.
Interesting few factoids that we found out in the course of getting this done. Wills and living trusts are not the same, look it up on wikipedia to see the details but basically living trust allow you to go around the probate process versus just doing a will. Plus living trusts have have additional other things that you can "legalize", like financial & healthcare powers of attorneys. Wills are cheaper for sure, but with this fixed price legal plan, it defintely made the living trust option cheaper for us.
Anyways, its finally done, so now we can sleep easy now that this is taken care of. :)

Good news, we saved a bunch on our refinance.

2009-03-09T10:39:00.005-06:00

Well, we did it. After a 2 month long wait, we finally went and closed on the refinance on our house. Managed to get the rate dropped from 6.125% to 5%, which doesn't seem like much at first. However, after we factored in the existing balance and interest into a new loan, we managed to drop the mortgage payment by about $500 per month. Actually, the main reason we were doing it wasn't so much to get the payment down, the real reason was to get the remaining interest down!
Here's an interesting back-of-the-envelope fact, most people pay at least the same amount of interest on your mortgage. So, instead of thinking how much you need to pay per month, we should be thinking, how much of our money is going into interest. So with this refinance, the monthly minimum payment dropped, but we took advantage of the payment cushion by paying up with extra principal on the loan. Long story short, saved a bunch of (total) interest, to the tune of 70K on our refinance! Plus, we gain the additional flexibility (if we have to) of not prepaying and dropping to a regular payment in cash conservation scenarios...

DIY for the people that are interested Below....

For the Calculator savvy folks out there, check out these free link to see if you can do the same on your own refi's too!

Refinance Interest Savings Calculator
Prepayment Interest Savings Calculator

Postcards from our M'sia Vacation (Penang)

2009-03-06T10:44:00.003-06:00

Just arrived in Penang after flying in on the regional Fireflyz propeller plane. Grandpa really proud of his new granddaughter. Our little one decided that she wanted to follow in her mom's footsteps, and be a motorcycle-ahmoi! Went to Bali-Hai on Gurney Drive, met up with Yeesin's Cousin's family and Marvin from the US joined us too! Check out the delicious seafood in the huge fishtanks behind us! Jaz decided to use the plastic chairs there as walker toys... Cheaper than buying a brand new one! Grandpa's neighborhood closed up the whole street and had dragon dances, dragon-snake dances and fireworks and not to forget food to celebrate CNY! Jaz finally learned how to eat porridge in Canton-I at Queensbay mall. Before this, she won't even want to touch that stuff! Mom and Jaz at Seafood place at Raja Uda. Long drive across Penang Bridge to get there, but YUM!!!!

Postcards from our M'sia Vacation (Klang Valley)

2009-02-25T14:01:00.006-06:00

Yes, its been a while since we last posted anything of import. Mainly be prepping for our first trip back to Malaysia with Jaz, and after the trip trying to get everyone back on their original schedules, and obviously to unpack!

Spent a short overnight with Yeesin's uncle and aunt in San Francisco enroute from Kansas City back to Malaysia. San Fran seemed like a good resting point between the long flights. Jaz was sleeping already before we even got on the plane!
Jaz's first AngPow ever! She wasn't sure what to do with it for a while, mainly just chewing on the packet. We don't think she'll understand the concept maybe for a few years!
Mommy bought her a really cool CNY outfit! Its a little big for her now, but the best thing is she can wear it for a few more years!
Had to do Bak-Kut-Teh in Klang. Rite of passage for all the Yeoh clan. Grandpa brought us to this really cool "Yeoh" branded Bak-Kut-teh (See sign in the background). Too bad no discounts for same last name! Jaz got her first ever swim! Mommy bought her a swimsuit and swim diapers, so she was good to go. Her favorite things was to let us dunk her in and out of the pool! Whats CNY without a reunion dinner! Here's the shot before we "Lo-Sang"ed. All the Yeoh's in the picture with yours truly behind the camera.

Refi'ing with the crowd...

2009-01-10T11:29:00.005-06:00

Taking a little detour into mortgage refinancing this post. Looks like if things work out, our existing lender Capital Federal will let us re-lock into a 30 year, 5% mortgage. End result? About $500 less in mortgage due every month. Still we'll not want to pay any more mortgage interest (as tempting as a tax break it is), so will continuing making our existing payment-> Result? More flexibility, less interest win-win! Will update when we close!

Happy New Year 09'

2009-01-01T07:11:00.000-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR 09!!!! Yes, we have been a little lazy in updating our blog, especially so after we got our facebook accounts... Truly, its a lot easier to post bite-sized info of our day, instead of typing up paragraph summaries of our weeks! However, I do remember that this blog is probably our only live online journal of our lives, so I guess I'll continue to post stuff here too!

Anyways, 2009 is probably the only year in a long time that we didn't get out and about to party the night away and ring in the new year. Boy! What parenthood will do to screw up our night-owl activities. This year, with Jaz around the household, the additional logistical problem of getting a babysitter came into play. No-joy from our next door neighbor, so we stayed in-instead. The Kinsella's joined us for our in-house party too, starting the night at our local Mexican resturant (pictured here)
.
We later adjourned at the Yeoh's B&B with an Special New-Year showing of "The Mummy 3", which incidentally I'll give a 2 thumbs down for driving the series to its death.

Still, all of us managed to be entertained, albeit at the expense of some critical thoughts on how the movie can be improved. Plus, as the night grew later, the kids naturally got more on-board with going to bed, so that helped a little too! Midnight came really quick, though its interesting that most of us lost practice in staying up late ever since our kids entered our lives... :)

Jaz woke up the next morning and found evidence of our fun. She didn't mind missing our NYE celebratation, as long as she could chew on some of the props! HAppy New Year 09;!

2008-11-17T09:23:00.002-06:00

Hung out for about 3+1/2 quarters at the Chiefs vs Saints Football game yesterday. We managed to be able to let-go a little and let our babysitter watch Jaz for about 4 hours while we enjoyed the outdoor game a little. Heck with the local Chiefs having only 1 measly win this season, we couldn't pass up on $30 tickets that were 30 rows from the endzone! Still, we forgot that parking was $22 bucks and food was at least $5 each, so... maybe it wasn't as cheap as we thought. Still! had a great time while we were were there with a couple of our football friends as well! Chiefs still lost 20 to 30, but at least my Fantasy Football League QB Brees didn't do shabby!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T08:54:00.005-06:00

It's not a stuffed animal on my desk, its Jaz in her Peapod outfit! We brought her all dressed up to a Halloween work event on Thursday evening. Everyone had their kids in tow all custu'med out as well. In my building, there was tons of kids games, with haunted cubes, ghost bowling, etc. Well, basically activities for toddlers and above.

For our little Jaz, not so much stuff for her to do, except be carried around and get her parents to say "trick or treat" for her. She did participate somewhat though... She can grab for candy if its placed near her, just can't eat it yet! Rest of the evening was taken up by strolling the aisles, looking for candy that Mommy and Daddy likes, and chatting with people about how nice Jaz looked in her costume.

Our little peapod didn't really make it past an hour of trick or treating... Ah.. Its real hard work being a baby. :) HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL!

Ahh. so happy to be locked up

2008-10-09T08:05:00.000-06:00

Here's a video of our favorite pack-n-play captive. Nuff' said. :)

Raya + Rennaisance Festival Weekend

2008-10-04T18:06:00.007-06:00

Brought Jaz to her very first Hari Raya celebration organized by some Malaysians in town. Weather was great out on that Saturday afternoon, the organizers booked a lodge (hall) in a nearby park, and the event had meticulous organization (As opposed to something yours truly would be able to pull together!). Picture on the left has the kids in the background playing tug-of-war.

Nice to be out and about, especially when the weather is getting cooler these days. Jaz had a good time being a social butterfly saying hi to all the aunties, in her "teaparty" outfit. Picture on the right had baby Mika in the background in his baby seat, our newest brand-new out-of-the-wrapper Malaysian with proud mama Zurin looking on. Next to Yeesin is auntie Pat with her little on on the way (can't tell from the picture) and auntie Angela which we just keep asking her "when"...

Spend the next day Sunday over at the local Rennaisance Festival, which is like a outdoor event with a Midieval theme. All the performers and storekeepers basically dress up and speak like they are back in Midieval times, and they STAY in character -> For better or for worse... We would have missed it this year if not for the free tickets a co-worker of mine gave out, and for the fact that it would be a fun first activity for Jaz.

Didn't really purchase anything of importance over there, just strolled around, people watching, looking at the sword fighting, minstrel-ling, jousting events.. and eating our favorite food - Turkey Leg! Here's a shot of Jaz enjoying HER favorite food while at the Joust. You can almost see her peeking at the event while eating.. :)

The dog whisperer

2008-09-25T18:21:00.003-06:00

Yep, the title just about sums it up. Instead of trying to talk to us, we caught Jaz trying to "talk" to Benji. Its more amusing when Benji whines back because he thinks that Jaz has food, but hoarding some from him... Check it out :)

We made the NEWS!

2008-09-20T19:05:00.003-06:00

Seriously, we made the news. While we were out strolling about the Plaza Art Fair, a reporter approached us for a quick interview. Check us out here: Our little bit shows up a sec: 00.50 :)

Kinda Crawling

2008-09-10T06:25:00.013-06:00

Sharing a pic of my girls :) Plus 2 videos of Jaz doing kinda crawls on the carpet. She's more schooching than crawling, but I think its close enough! :) Enjoy!

Baby = wonderful business plan

2008-09-03T12:07:00.003-06:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed this interesting phenomenon once whenever we go about town with Jaz... The inexplicable action of giving money to a baby's parents. Happened this one time at a local indian buffet, where the owner came by and gave us a dollar for Jaz with a smile to Yeesin saying "Cannot use to buy handbag for mommy ok?". Then a couple of days ago, on the way back from the Lake @ the Warrensburg dairy queen, an employee stopped by and happily contributed a quarter for Jaz' piggy bank. :)

So, maybe I'm just biased, but I'm thinking that with these 2 data points, I think I can start charging about $0.60 per look @ Jaz to contribute to her savings account... It might turn out to be a good business plan. :)

Happy Labor Day!!!

2008-09-01T05:51:00.001-06:00

Happy Labor Day all! Posting from the Lake of the Ozarks! Decided to do a last minute short trip here, bringing Jaz on her first road trip of her life. :) It was about a 4 hr trip East from KC, with one stop @ Columbia, MO to find a diaper changing station, and feed. Other than that, there was a few fussing incidents in the car seat, but we made it to Ozarks all fine @ 7pm last night!

Spent the rest of the day with fun filled activities designed to occupy both the body and check book. :) First up, a quick hike in Ha Ha Tonka State park! With Jaz securely in her carrier, we did a 2 mile hike up some strenous terrain. ;) Jaz was so tired after the hike, she fell asleep in the car right after we strapped her back in her seat, I would think the tiredness was probably due to the stimulation than actually walking!

After a quick lunch, with Jaz snoozing away, we went to our 2nd big destination of the day -> Outlet Malls! Yeesin disappeared from my sight about 2 secs from us entering the COACH store. In fact, the activity in the store kinda reminded me of bees buzzing around. The ladies looked like they were darting from corner to corner admiring the purses, bags, etc and their sweet sweet low prices. Jaz and I decided to let Yeesin and the rest of the professionals shop in peace and found a seat beside the rest of the husbands/boyfriends/drivers and just relaxed.... Capped off the night at Andre's, my favorite restaurant @ the Lake. They had a really interesting Mango Habanero Ice Cream, yep you read right, first sweet, then spicy!

Last stop Sunday mid-morning, was the Seven Springs Winery outside of town. It was a really young winery, only open all of a few months, but their white's weren't too bad. One major complaint was that they had Sangria on their wine tasting menu, which is more of a filler-drink, than a wine-taste... But then again it was really popular with the rest of the wine tasters! Maybe its a Misouri thing? Anyways, we had a nice lunch topped off with half a bottle of their Summer Blend, before we drove back . All in all, it was a great 2 days at the Lake, even with the minor incidents of trying to time Jaz' feedings in between car, and even being so far out in the boonies that our GPS didn't even know where we were??!! Back in KC now, posting Monday morning.

Have a GREAT LABOR day weekend ALL. Here'e a bonus HAPPY picture!

Foozball Season is back!

2008-08-11T15:38:00.004-06:00

Actually, its FANTASY football season. Mainly for the people that cannot exert enough control on their local teams to make their local boys win, a more palatable alternative is to engage in Fantasy Football! Cherry picking players from the entire NFL universe and putting them on your Virtual team is a wonderful way of winning every week!

I'm the commisioner of our league (which really means that I have enough time to waste to play stuff like this) so we organized a Draft session this past weekend. Most of us are Malaysian, so we are a pretty kiasu bunch. Some of us came prepared with analysis and spreadsheets on who the best players to pick are, and some even with a draft strategy. As kiasu as we were, 2+ hours of gut-wrenching, sweat inducing drafting later we were actually done! Surprising that I actually budgeted 4+ hours for something like this. Yeesin? she had better things to do, spent most of the time shopping @ Target with Jaz. :)

P.S - If you didn't understand what all this business is about, here's a good primer on Fantasy Football.

Our first giggle!

2008-07-13T15:37:00.002-06:00

so this weekend Jaz decides to surprise up a little giggling session
. enjoy!

Dumping Rocks & Haulin' Dirt

2008-07-05T10:14:00.000-06:00

Yep, yours truly was dumping concrete blocks off a truck, and shoveling dirt over 4th of July weekend. No, i didn't lose my marbles and decide to join a fitness program ala Rocky or the Karate Kid... Though, "Concrete on... Concrete off" would have made an interesting line in a movie.. :)

Actually, spent 4th of July helping Steve and Clarice do some landscaping at their place. Nothing like some hard labor to appreciate the hard hard work the men and women of the landscaping business go through daily. Gotta tell everyone, hauling concrete and dirt is a lot harder and generates more sweat than i thought! Definitely have more respect for grave-diggers now, as I barely dug 2 feet into the ground to harvest dirt before my back was protesting... Cannot imagine 3 times more work.

On the flip side, learnt that we can get tons of stuff FREE on craigslist.org Our Dirt was gratis from a kind soul that just finished his own landscaping project. So was a truckfull of dirt right outside Carrabras Italian Grill on I-35 and 124th St in Olathe. Just need to drive a truck in, find a friend, and shovel away!!!

Kudos to Steve for the rest of the weekend. This ironman soldiered on after I ran out of juice.. All the way into the night!!! For me... i think i'll stick to my WAAAY easy desk-job!

Seating arrangements

2008-06-20T07:19:00.000-06:00

So, in the last few weeks, we made a few purchases for little Jaz. First of which, is the Yellow Bumbu seat on the left-left. For the pre-kid people, its like a little foam chair for infants, to help them sit down much easier, and most importantly, for parents to be able to get stuff done. Well, normal things like cooking, dish washing, bottle cleaning, while she busies herself....engaging in baby activities :) We finally got this Bumbu after 4-5 unsuccessful garage sale visits for 50% less than retail. These things always sell like hotcakes!!

Next up, we swung by our local Big Lots (What we like to call "Da-Lu" in Mal-Chinese, and swept up another gem of a find! A Graco high-chair for $60 new, vs $89-99 @ Target. It took 5 minutes of joy-filled adrenaline pumped euphoria of deal-find to put this thing together. Jaz, on the other hand, was not so easily impressed... She'd rather just chew on her favorite clean-cloth diaper. No worries about giving any objects that resemble toys, she'd rather pick up her cloth diaper and chew on it! At least its easier on our pocketbook!

What do ABC and Twinkle-twinkle-little-star have in common?

2008-06-14T17:16:00.004-06:00

So, what do these 2 songs have in common? Twinkle-twinkle-little-star & ABC? Other than the obvious part that they are children's lullabys... Its interesting the little nuggets of wisdom we pick up these days as parents, sometimes these things just jump out of no where!!!

Still don't know what they have in common?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. A.B.C D E F G.... H I J K L M N

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.
.
. Twinkle twinkle little star....
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. NOW Hum their respective tunes...
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.
.
. WEIRD HUH?!?!

Slow Summer Day

2008-06-08T10:47:00.004-06:00

Its 12pm on a Sunday afternoon... Yeesin's not feeling too good today, so we're home today resting. While poor YS is lying on the couch under a tylenol induced cocoon, i spent some time on the "internets", just surfing... Found this interesting article that seemed appropo for today. Ever since Jaz was born, we've been practically out every Sunday for some reason or another. Its either to weekly Babies R' Us runs, or Asian Grocer, or regular Grocery laps. Admittedly its.... different to sit at home for hours on end, just watching Jaz, and laze around on the Net or watching yet another History Channel episode on Stonehenge... :) I have to say though, it really felt good to SLOW DOWN, so that article must have some truth to it! Hope YS feels better tomorrow!

Speaking of watching Jaz, something interesting happened today while we were lazing around... Here's a clip of that!

Jaz is 10 weeks now!

2008-05-19T10:27:00.000-06:00

Little Jaz is 10 weeks old this week! Definitely more curious about her surroundings, she discovered her hands this past week, for the last couple of days, she's been trying to cram her entire fist into her mouth....
Even better, she also discovered smiling... Couple of pics to illustrate what we did with her to get smiling away! :)

As a bonus, also will share the aftermath of all this smiling and playing activity.... ;)

Jaz is 8 weeks now!

2008-05-15T19:38:00.004-06:00

Its 8pm on a Thursday night, trying to juggle getting Jaz ready for a shower, and winding down for the evening, catching an episode of "Lost". We can't imagine now how much spare time we had before even having a baby! Honestly tho, Jaz is more entertaining now that the television, so life is actually better! ;) Sharing a few of her cute pics. (at least cute in our minds.... )

Grandma is sound asleep in the guest bedroom... hope that our little one didn't wear her out after a full day of activities. Its wonderful still having help around the house, having family watch her while we are out working. BIG thank you to Mom and Yeesin's parents for helping out in the house while these 2 newbies figure out how to bathe,feed,clothe, and clean our new addition.... If only they come with owner manuals!!!

WAIT, apparently they do! Check it out here

First Farmer's Market

2008-05-10T10:42:00.005-06:00

Today was our First Farmer's Market of the season. Weather @ the local Overland Park Farmer's Market was a little nippy with light fog and 50 degree temps this morning, but a great opportunity to bring all the Grandparents out to the local "pasar pagi". Plus we got to show Jaz her first outdoor market! [She probably couldn't tell the difference anyways...] BTW, her daddy side grandma (far left) fought off jet lag this morning to join us strolling as well.

She just turned 7 weeks a couple days ago, and she's still growing well, and getting cuter by the day! Of course our viewpoint it slightly skewed due to our parentage. However, people still walk up to us when we're out to reaffirm that fact, so who am I to disagree !!?? ;)

The activity this morning was a little taxing on her little mind, so she's spending the rest of the afternoon taking a relaxing nap. Oh, what a wonderful life to be a baby.................

Its about time they fought each other!

2008-04-23T07:06:00.005-06:00

For those of you that have fought the HMO vs Hospital billing battles before in your life, you guys will probably appreciate the irony of this following post!

So, I open up another letter from our HMO provider, in the back of my mind fearing its another "Please pay me" letter that we have to call to contest, but this time, the tables were turned!

Turns out our HMO overpaid our Wallaby (UV treatment for Jaz' Jaundice) provider Apria by a whopping $81.02!!! and we don't have to do anything! YES, its about time that our healthcare system fights itself for a change! Hilarious to see the way the letter was written, mostly the part where they will continue to write each other if there is a need to appeal, etc....... I'm wondering how many man-hours each of them will expend trying to sort this out! Guessing more than $80!!

Jaz is one month!

2008-04-19T18:25:00.002-06:00

Time sure flies. Jazlyn is 1 month old already! Still a little weird for both of us to track birthdays in weeks vs years, and we're finally getting used an extra person (albiet a little loud) being in the home.For her 1 month birthday, she got her 2nd shot of Hep-B from the doctors office, somehow we don't think she enjoyed that one. :)

Now that she's 4 weeks, we finally can take her outside for prolonged periods of time! YA!!!!!!!! I guess we missed being out and about more than she did! Spent her 1 month weekend bringing her out to outdoor malls in town and letting her grandparents shop around at the same time!

As for ourselves? We celebrated surviving the first 4 weeks of parenthood with our very own first post-parenthood Date-Night @ Melbees! They ran a $50 a couple Date-Night special every Monday in April. Includes a bottle of wine, 2 starters, a shared entree, and a dessert pair! I was afraid that the portion would be elf-sized, but plesantly surprised that we left the place really full! It was an AWESOME meal, defintely worth the $50!!! (Menu here is anyone is curious.)

A Really-Really Decaf Latte Please.

2008-04-05T17:27:00.003-06:00

Its 2:30pm on a wonderful 60 degree Spring Saturday afternoon. We're posting from the local Starbucks (a.ka. five-bucks) patio, enjoying 2 cups of java and the weather. A little bit nippy out here, but the sunlight is a nice change from the dreary last couple of rainy days. Jaz is with us here too, enjoying her very own special Starbucks blen of hot-water dipped milk bottle. You could say, she's having a really-really decafed-latte.... ;) Hmmm, I wonder if Starbucks will sell us branded milk bottles?

Bank error in your favor??!!

2008-04-02T18:27:00.004-06:00

You know, Yeesin always razzes me about checking the mailbox religiously rain, shine, sleet or hail... My reasoning is that "who knows? Maybe someday I'll get money for no reason".... WELL BABY, someday FINALLY came along, but there IS a reason. :)

In a nondescript envelope from Genworth Financial was a nice sized check with a brief explaination about a PMI refund. A few calls to our mortgage company and Genworth later, I'm confident its not a scam, and it is in fact legit. :) Turns out that lenders have to auto-refund your PMI insurance once your home equity passes 80%, read more here.
So, not a scam, not an ERROR. AWESOME! Goes into Jazlyn's College fund!

In other news, Jazlyn is 2 weeks old today, and in her checkup today she weighed in at 6lbs 7ozs, just a tad over her birth weight! YA!!! This means that we won't have to obsess too much about feeding her on a set schedule, and waking her up from her sweet slumber to feed. So, this very afternoon, she sleeps on gently, chasing milk bottles in her dreams... :)

We're home!

2008-03-23T15:10:00.005-06:00

Finally, after being in the hospital since Monday night, we finally made it home yesterday afternoon! Here's a shot of us coming back home in the MDX!

We dropped by the hospital again this morning for another Jaudice level check, and we were crossing our fingers that we won't have to have that bulky Photo-Treatment vest on her any more. Doc called 2 hours later, and said that her Billirubin levels have since stabilize out at 10 or so, so the Doc has told us to stop using the Photo-treatment on her. YA!!!

Here are some more pics from her birth!

Parenthood thoughts...

2008-03-21T09:54:00.003-06:00

Still in the hospital today. Jaz has a gotten a case of Jaundice, so we've got her on some light therapy for the day. The set up looks like a tanning bed that she's lying on, and also a light-generating vest over her chest... She's sleeping peacefully now that she finish up on her last feeding. Hopefully we get to go home tonight...

Here's some thoughts on Parenthood:

Sleep - Didn't realize how much we missed sleep until now, especially me, the early riser. Getting up every 3 hours or less, is a lot MORE tiring that it sounds. I see BIG mugs of coffee in my future when i go back to work next week! Its amazing that newborns can function on this 2-3 hour wake-eat-sleep cycle, mixed in with some poopies... but of course, right now her life isn't too complicated... ;)

Garbage generation- Surprising how a lttle person that small can generate that much poopies in so little time. Almost averaging a diaper change every 2 hours, we're proud that Jaz has outperformed the average diaper changes for her age.

Mute Button - We found the mute-button on Jaz today. If its not a full tummy of milk, its the second best thing... a pacifier. Trying to limit the use of the pacifier tho, don't want her to forget to nurse the natural way. But good to know that there's a alternative instant fix if we ever need it... Especially, when we need more of thought no.1 :)

Speaking of that, Jaz is finally out now. Better go catch more Zzzzs.

Live from St Luke South: Hello World!

2008-03-19T01:00:00.001-06:00

Ok, we've been here since 8pm last night 3/17. Definitely missed the window for a St Paddy's day baby girl. Yeesin got a pictosin (sp?) drip this morning at 8am, got her water broken at about 10am. Here's the latest status: (Hit refresh for the latest)

10.30am - I discover a FULLY stocked kitchen in the maternity ward. Sneaking in a sandwich and a quick glass of milk. Poor Yeesin gets to snack on ice chips.

10.45am - Yeesin gets her first Epidural shot, process to put it in appears painfully...err painful, but 30+ minnutes later... Smile on her face...

11am - Dialated from 1+cm to 2cm. We improved 100% ;)

11.30-2.30pm - Somewhere along the way, she moved from 2cm to 5.5cm to 6cm... crawling along.

3.30pm - Yeesin's at 6cm, ya... we are still moving forward. Terri offered to help and she's gonna to to our place to feed Benji & let him out (Thanks Terri!)

4.00pm- Epidural booster... ahhh Yeesin looks much better now.

4.30pm - She's at 7cm now. looks like we are moving at a faster pace. Epi is working really great, she's taking a quick nap now!

5.40pm - Nurse Kathy just came in. Stalled out at 7cm now, she just dialed up the pictosin to speed things up a little more.

6.40pm - Still stalled out at 7cm. cranking up the pictosin another notch. Kathy's saying adios and getting ready to handoff to the 7pm nurse. They are showing the Scrubs episode where Carla and Turk are having their baby... How appropriate! :)

7.40pm- Night nurse Jessica came by, and we improved to an 8! Dialed up the pitosin another notch, looks like we're getting some more traction now! Yeesin's pain level got dialed up at the same time, so Nurse Lisa came in with some Epi-Candy, and 10+ minutes again, Yeesin is in Epi-Heaven...

8.40pm - Frustrated. We are stalled again, with barely a movement to 8.5cm. They shut of the Pitosin temporarily to see if they can jump start the contractions and give baby a rest. C-Section is being talked as an option.

9.45pm - Elaine and Kyle came by and tau-pau'ed some food to us earlier. Yeesin's parents must be starved by now, and the timing was perfect for the food. Elaine and Kyle are going to stop by the house and let Benj out again as well... (Thanks!). Its taking longer to have this baby than most TV episodes.

10pm - Restarted pictosin, adjusted yeesin to another position to see if she'll dilate some more. Doctor wants to give us the best opportunity for a vaginal birth...

10.45pm - Nurses come in, and adjust Yeesin to yet another position. We're hearing whispering that we might need to do C-Section...

11:30pm - All that repositioning finally worked! Baby's moved into a great position, and Yeesin's dilated to 10cm... All a go for Natural Birth!

12:26am - March 19th 2008 - Annoucing Jazlyn Jiawen Yeoh, 6 lbs 5oz, 19 inches! Mom and baby are doing great! Hear from the nurses that most of them at the nurses station were betting that we would be C-section, Yeesin proved them wrong, GREAT JOB MOM! 28 hours after showing up to be induced, we have a new addition to the family!

N.B - For those of you that scrolled all the way down here, you're rewarded with a quick pick of Jazlyn!

Latest Update: The St Luke photographer came by earlier this morning and here are some of the shots that she took!

Are we there yet?

2008-03-09T20:55:00.002-06:00

Seriously?! Are we there yet? Our OB says its any time now, for our little one to show up. So, its there's nothing else to do but to wait it out. We're not getting much sleep these nights, Yeesin's can't exactly do wind-sprints either, so basically we're tired during most hours of the days too.
Well, actually, Yeesin's getting the short end of this deal at this point in time, as she's doing the heavy lifting. I hope i can help out with a little back massaging here and there, and when the time comes, go to the kitchen and boil some hot water and get some towels! So, here's to hanging in there baby, you're almost there!!

P.S- The boiling water and towels in the movies are really to keep the husbands busy so that they don't get in the way of delivering the babies!

We're almost there!

2008-03-04T06:06:00.005-06:00

From the baby ticker on the left, everyone can see that we are merely days away from the BIG day! We're going for baby birthing classes at night, and we've got almost all things checked off!!!

Wanted to share before and after pictures of our nursery with everyone.

Childcare > House Payment!!???

2008-02-21T19:30:00.006-06:00

Its probably a fact of life that childcare CAN cost an arm, leg, or a small mortgage, but today's tour of a Daycare in Leawood had us shocked! We won't name it, but it rhymes with "Cram-The La-Cram", and you can probably guess from the city name too! Tuition (yes, I love that euphemism too.) costs about $1,700 (Yes, you read it right) per month for a newborn!!??

So the question becomes, what does $1,700 a month buy you in daycare services? Well, i will have to admit you get what you pay for... except in a more gold-plated way. Instead of a boring building with normal children rooms, you get Disneyland. Seriously, walk through the front door, and i swear you'll see a rainforest kampung to your right, a castle on a hill on your left, and a quiant row of cobblestoned french shoppes in front of you... Doubt it'll impress a newborn, but it sure impressed me! Almost expected Mickey Mouse to jump out from behind the bushes and tacke us!

So, we did some quick math, and kinda figured the following: Newborns sleeps on average 18 hrs a day, roughly 75% of the time. Realistically, she'll spend at most 10 hrs in daycare. So for 2.5 waking hrs a day X 20 business days = 50hrs @ 1,700. That comes out to $34/hr for each waking moment in daycare. For $34/hr she'd better be stimulated with all kinds of toys known to man. They should put a Babies R Us IN the Daycare, and give her all the toys that she can lay her hands on. Heck, she better not drop any Zzzzs over there at all, hate to pay all that $$ for someone to watch her sleep!!??

Then it occured to us that $1,700 is actually MORE than our current mortgage today! So, let me put it another way. For $1,700, we can afford a $280,000 house in KC!! Here's just a few selections in that price range. Definitely an upgrade from our little shack in West Olathe!

OR... maybe we just are out of our league Daycare pricing wise. :) Seriously, those kids over there look like they're LOVED to death over there. Those parents are probably getting every penny's worth of their money in attention. We'll keep looking, but Childcare > house Payment? , not our style...

Some baby humor

2008-02-11T15:40:00.000-06:00

Got the following pictures courtesy of Steve K. Thought a little baby humor might be the right thing for us to-be parents. Enjoy!

Denied! By a Charity....

2008-02-10T19:59:00.000-06:00

Thought that we'd get a two-fer today via dropping off some old stuff (Clothes, shoes, electronics) at the local charity today. You know, Goodwill gets some stuff that they can reuse/resell for the homeless and needy, and I get rid of stuff thats sitting in my garage and a nice tax break as well. ....Or at least, that was the idea. Instead, Goodwill had other ideas.

They gladly took the clothes and the shoes, but DENIED to take my old computer monitor??!! I gotta say, I'm sure in the year 2008, the homeless and needy might have gotten a lot more sophisticated than pre-Y2K, but "your monitor is too old"!!??? Thats news to me! DENIED by a charity, that probably ranks as one of my more perpelxed moments of my life.... Oh Well, the monitor now goes into the trash, at least I tried to do the charitable thing....

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-06T19:45:00.000-06:00

Happy Chinese New Year of the RAT to All! Especially so for the rest of the Malaysian transplants in the non-Asian regions of the world. Really hard to get in the mood for us in the Mid-west when everthing we've been hearing for the last couple of days was Super-Tuesday! Which, incidentally has absolutely nothing to do with CNY! We're saving up our celebrations with our in-town friends this Friday with a small dinner, and joining another larger CNY celebration dinner Saturday night. Don't plan to take any of the next couple of days off either, with the rest of the country not recognizing our holiday as a public holiday... taking days off to celebrate will only net us a couple of days staring at the wall... or maybe with election going on here, watching the pundits debate the old Republican vs Democrat talking point! In any case, for the rest of the billions of Chinese people like us around the world, HAPPY NEW YEAR OF THE RAT!

WTF??? We're closet McCain Fans?

2008-01-31T06:11:00.000-06:00

Normally, we don't post politics on our blog, but we'll make an exception in this case. Heard about this "Candidate Matchmaker" tool on our Local Fox 4 channel newscast here. After we tried it out, both of us realized we are really CLOSET John McCain fans??!!! Plus, who the heck is Mike Gravel anyways? In our results he even beat Obama! We're still in disbelief this morning, as we ponder how the heck it could happen! Our world is has been turned upside now! ;) Try it out for yourself and see if it shocks u too!

Carpet Angels + Musings from the womb

2008-01-30T16:40:00.000-06:00

Yes. It's been 2 weeks since we last posted, but we've still been busy packing up our upstairs floor to prep for the darn carpet. The carpeteers finally showed up this Friday. And 4-5 hours of hammering, tearing, and dumping later... It is DONE. We were upstairs earlier doing Carpet Angels. Kinda like Snow angels, except its done on nice plush and NEW carpeting. Now the only key is not to screw it up by spilling something on it... Kinda wish that it came with a brand new plastic wrapper over it, like new cars in Malaysia, where my uncle wouldn't take off the plastic no matter how hot it stuck to our butts! Next on the agenda, is to lug all the boxes downstairs back up and unpack. Feelings of deja-vu just like we're moving in to the house again!

Freezing Tundra Weekend,

2008-01-18T21:51:00.000-06:00

It was -1F outside this morning. Haven't been ever that cold for the entire winter, or for the last 2 years for that matter. I glad we're bundled up at home watching the Australian Open on TV. Finding myself playing shadow tennis ever once in a while, when its time for the ads to run on TV (For those of you playing shadow golf when you watch the Golf Channel, you know what I mean). I guess till its warm enough for the real thing, shadow tennis, and of course Wii Tennis will hold us over for a while!

We're about 9 weeks away from our little turkey popping out of the oven, and we think preparations are right on track. Her nursery is painted, we bought a crib, and we're getting new carpeting put in for the whole upper floor. No pictures to share yet, save for this messy shot of our upstairs loft, with the boxes like we are moving again. Boxing stuff up to prep for the carpet guys, who are delayed until early Feb. Our carpet color was so popular that the factory can't make it fast enough... Or at least that's what our sales guy told us... ;)

Speaking of the pregnancy, we had noodle cravings last night, so we tried out this Pan-Asian place in Lenexa called Samurai Teriyaki. For those of you guys in KC, click on the link to find the location. Straight on the noodle menu were ordered a Pho and a Curry Laksa noodle (Yes, I was shocked to see the words "Laksa" on the menu too). We like the Pho, which was a mean spicy one but still had a refreshing taste. I personally, loved the Laksa, the only thing missing was some cockles (see-ham) in the laksa, and it would be perfect! Though on second thought, See-Ham in the mid-west can't be very fresh at all! Either way, KC folks, check this place out for yourselves!

Going back to House?

2008-01-05T23:03:00.000-06:00

For those of you that watch football, and Fox television... We're home tonight watching the Steelers lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and something just occured to me... Is it just me, or does Mike Tomlin the head coach like a LOT like Omar Epps from House??!! I guess if Omar ever needs a stunt double or needs a vacation from the show, they can always count on Mike?

Happy (BC) New Year 2008!

2008-01-02T22:05:00.000-06:00

"So, this is going to be your BC New Year Celebration huh?", someone asked at work. "BC", for the unfamiliar, is "Before Child", as my co-worker so explained. Well, determined to go out on a last "BC" hurrah, Yeesin and myself rounded up Cla-teve, Ela-yle for a New Year's Eve celebration at JP's Winebar in downtown KC. BTW, the paired name abbreviation probably works better on Bradgelina and Tomkat, not so much on normal people's names! From this picture, Yeesin's lack of alcohol consumption made her the DD ; and allowed her to order her very own smoothie!

Resolutions? I don't think we ever got that far into that conversation! A couple of drinks later, we diverged into a conversation that isn't fit for Internet publication... But safe to say, we our overall rowdiness was still didn't beat some of the other patrons there. Definitely some people with beer (or wine) goggles on though... I overheard some people say that the the lead-singer at the band that night looked like Jennifer Love Hewitt.... Well.. According to the most sober DD person in our team... NO!

Only bummer of the night was that our $10 cover didn't cover the champagne toast. Reading the small print later, we found that the cover charge only included "Champagne specials and party favors", which in my mind means they charge you more for the drink so that they can give you a "special" discount... So, we had to spring for a bottle of their cheapest... Which tasted like it cost! Luckily a kind, friends and obviously inebriated dude came by and poured us some of his top-shelf champagne.... Our feelings is probably summarized best from Steve's facial expression!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

Merry Christmas 2007!

2007-12-27T10:42:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Spent Christmas eve actually shopping for nursery paint in Lowes, it was a wonderful feeling to not bump into everyone and their brothers trying to panic shop at the very last minute! Lowes was actually a ghost town, compared to the other big name retailers like W-Mart across the street, where cars were lining up to find a parking spot!
Interesting thing about paint these days, is that they have a special no "VOC" version, which apparently baby-safe. I guess those years of licking paint off my wall in Klang didn't do much for my intelligence then.... ;)

Christmas Day lunch, we hung out in another ghost town. This time at the Plaza. Other than M&S Grill, which we had reservations for, I don't think any other place had their front doors unlocked. Just like Thanksgiving dinner, it was nice for Christmas luncheon to not have to worry about cooking and cleaning up. Food at M&S wasn't too bad, but the waiter dude really seemed like he partied a little too hard on Christmas Eve, and he seemed a little snippy too cos we ordered some large portions to share... Looks like someone might have got some coal in their socks this year! Here's a picture of yours truly after sneaking in some sriRacha sauce on my fish and chips! BTW, the Sriracha sauce was really for our main event later....

After food, we adjourned to Clarice's place for her annual popiah party (REAL FOOD). It was really really good. As usual, I put too much filling in my Malaysian-Burrito, so had to double-bag the popiah most of the time. Too bad we didn't get any pictures, too busy eating to worry about that!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Studying for a test

2007-12-16T12:19:00.000-06:00

"Should I have cheesecake tonight?", she asked. "Probably not a good idea leh, with your test coming up. Gotta study for it right?", i replied smugly... It was balmy and cold Thursday night, a far cry from her special extra day in warm and sunny San Francisco, and more importantly the eve of the dreaded pregnancy diabetes drink test.
For the uninitiated, the next day, we were due for Yeesin's first pregnancy diabetes test. It was a very simple sugar drink that she had to consume 1 hr before her OB appointment where they would draw some blood to test her sugar level. If you "fail" that one, they you get the pleasure of having to go to a 5 hour long test, which from what Terri and Clarice tell us, is NOT FUN at all.
So, on the eve of the test, we have had 2+ days of eating with austerity, no KFC, no Mickey D's, and most definitely no cheesecake! Frankly, studying for this test was no fun at all! At least in school, we could chomp on oily and sweet stuff while cramming for exams!
Results come out next week, so crossing our fingers!

* UPDATE - 12/27 and counting... No call yet from the doctor... I think we passed!

Ice Ice Baby + Bach'ing It

2007-12-11T18:27:00.000-06:00

Its that time of year in KC again, where instead nice flurry snowflakes, we get honking loads of ice!!! As usual, the all the local TV stations have sold this as the storm of the century, as everyone clamors to come up with an adjective even more fear inspiring than the other guy in front of the weatherman/woman blue screens. This is Jermain to this blog because Yeesin had another quick business trip to Sunny San Francisco, and as a result of this huge Midwestern Ice Storm was stranded over there today when her flight was cancelled!

So, while the rest of KC is enjoying the picture on the left, she gets to stay another day in Sunny SF, to enjoy this other picture on the right! So when the weather handed her a flight cancellation lemon, she made some shopping lemonade strolling the stores around Union Square today. Our little trooper was lucky enough to meet with another fellow peapod buddy [pregnant lady] and they spent the day shopping at GAP, and hanging out in general... :)

So, again i'm hanging out with Benji tonight, or as my co-workers call it - Bach'ing it. Tired of Mickey D's and KFC already, so I'm going to try something dangerous, and cook some curry chicken. Now for those of you that know me from college will probably remember my famous (or rather infamous) baked curry ala barbecue sauce chicken! One of my most prized recipes both for is rich flavor and more importantly for its ease of cooking, I was tempted to recreate this masterpiece tonight. Actually, i decided against it. (I can some people sighing in relief when they read this). Instead, I'm going to try Curry Chicken the normal way, with an instant packet..... If I make it through to post next week, you'll know that my stomach survived the trauma of cooking for myself. Until then... I'll be missing my BOO who is stuck in San Francisco!

* UPDATE - Weds. Yeesin's back safely in KC, and my stomach survived! YA!!!!!!

Birthday Weekend @ Las Vegas

2007-12-03T11:09:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Yeesin! Actually, this past weekend had me posting bits and pieces of this Blog from our Las Vegas Caesar's Palace room while waiting for Yeesin to gets out on break from her week long class over here. Basically, I played tag along this weekend since she had a class here and it was also her birthday weekend.

Flying in took longer than expected, rain storms hitting Las Vegas. Raining in the desert is kinda like Snow in Texas.... it screwed up traffic, on the ground AND in the air. So, we had to sit in Denver for a 4 hr delay while Las Vegas airport was shut down to just one runway for the rains.... Still, the delays were long enough to make the rest of the night more exciting! We had tickets to Zumanity at 10.30pm, but we landed at 9pm. Yeesin was chatting with a guy in the next aisle and managed to score us a limousine ride to the hotel to save us some time....

9.45pm, arrived at the hotel, standing in line to check in. Funny how you never seem to get a short line when you're going to be late for something? 10.00pm, finally get our room key, but discover that the room is like 10 minutes walk away from the reception desk. BTW, we forgot how huge these Vegas hotels are. 10.21pm, finally at the Taxi stand, got a cab and off to New York New York hotel. 10.28pm, at the WILL CALL line got our Tickets! PHEW!!! 10.30pm sharp! in our seats, in the 2nd row in front of the stage. SWEET! Guess if we missed the show we would be so kicking ourselves.... 11pm halfway through the show, we notice people still coming in late, and taking their time to get to their seats... So much for the drama earlier. Note to self, next time we can take it easy to get to any Vegas shows, apparently they don't take their mandatory attendance 1 hr BEFORE the show very seriously!

Its been 4 years since we've been to Vegas, so I forgot how good the casinos are at taking your money. With the flashy blinking lights, and the happy sounding "ding ding ding", the siren call of the machines just lull you into playing them. $5 basically lasts about 5 minutes if you're not careful. We watched while YS's co-worker started with $20 in a penny machine, and after a couple of wins, got sucked to into betting higher, and was up $100 after only 10 minutes! After that peak though, @ $3.00s per bet, she was in danger of losing it all. Luckily she had a system where she took out her winnings and put a portion back into the machine... if not that $100 and the original $20 would have been gone in a flash! Gotta hand it to the Casinos, they are really good at what they do... :)

Penny slots are good for something though, a good way to get comp'ed drinks...While I personnaly didn't have a lucky gene in my entire body, i figured out how to work the system. So, my best business plan was to play $1-2 worth of 1 cent slots, and order any mixed drink that I want, after a $1 tip... VOILA! a $3 drink. AWESOME!

The rest of the weekend, we spent just walking around the rest of the Strip. Not much has changed on the Strip since our last visit here immediately after our wedding, so didn't do much major sightseeing. Did get a chance to stroll by Paris Paris, the Venetian, and the sights around Caesar's Palace, so got to relive some of our Euro vacations from a few years ago. Check out this side by side shot of Venice vs the Venetian! [Hint, the one in Vegas has a casino in the background - The Mirage!]

Sitting @ McClaren, waiting for my plane now. I get back to KC first, while Yeesin gets to hang out in Vegas for a couple more days in Vegas for her class... Happy LV Weekend Yeesin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-25T17:20:00.000-06:00

Happy thanksgiving all! If the last posting was semi-cryptic, then maybe it'll be easier to explain in this post. We ARE PREGNANT with a cute little baby girl due in March of 08'! I want to take this Thanksgiving moment to reflect a little on how blessed we are to have a little one coming along, with the ups and downs of our life a few years ago all but a bad memory, the event of a little addition to our family is something that we are truly thankful for!

We spent Thanksgiving night at the Plaza, with dinner at Figlio's for $20 each. A bargain in comparison to the other places that were offering $50+ prices per head! (Gotta use the savings for someone else now!). After a full dinner, we timed it just right to catch the Plaza lighting ceremony with fireworks. Basically, same deal as last year, except we had to find an open bathroom to use cos our little one got excited after the fireworks and decided to use Yeesin's bladder as a trampoline.... Starbucks was kind enough to allow everyone to use their bathrooms that night, and luckily too, cos the Plaza people forgot to order ANY porta potties! Go figure right? 20K+ people in one place, and no porta-potties in sight?

Anyways... Happy Thanksgiving all!

Download in progress.. ETA March 2008

2007-11-14T14:22:00.000-06:00

Spain - Parte Tres - Barcelona

2007-11-02T12:23:00.000-06:00

The final part of our Spanish adventure ends here in the great seaside city of Barcelona! After a 4.5 hour AVE ride from Madrid with no incident, we dropped our bags off at our hotel, and set off to see Sagrada Familia, or "The Holy Family" in Catalan. Its a awesomely huge church designed by Antoni Gaudi that has been under construction since 1882. So, close to 125+ years later, you can still see huge cranes working on the exterior, while masons are busy working on the insides. This place has been 100% funded by public donations via the entrance fee as Gaudi did not want any of local taxpayers money to be used for religious purposes, which explains the slow pace of work. Hopefully in our lifetime, we get to see it completed one day! More on the Sagrada Familia here.

Walking around the Gothic Quarter (Barri Gothic), one of the original parts of early Barcelona, we stumbled across this gem of a store... Not the kind of pills you have in mind! This place had a huge assortment of all kinds of candies, lined up from the front door to the back of the store. The name sure is an effective way to get people to take a look! Yeesin got a sugar high just standing outside the place!

Gaudilicious! A few afternoons later, we spent a rainy afternoon outside at Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's creations. Built at the stop of a hill in Barcelona, it took 2 Bus rides to get there, but the view from the top was awesome, despite the cloudy skies. The picture on the right is a good sample of some of the architecture seen at the Parc. More on Parc Guell here.

Interestingly enough, the word "Gaudy" which usually means tasteless or vulgar, really comes from from the Latin word "gaudium" which means enjoyment! I just think poor Gaudi sometimes gets a bad name for being slightly more unconventional than most people! The pic on the left is from the top of Gaudi's old house (Casa Mila). Still a functioning apartment complex, this whole building was designed by Gaudi to be both functional and Gaudy looking! From the roof top, the clusters of the 5 figures with helmets are really chimneys, and the huge marble looking statue on the right really hides a water tower... like i said - Gaudilicious!

What would a trip to Barcelona be without a visit to its hometown genius' - Picasso! Probably one of the best art museums that we have visited! Its not has huge and imposing as the Lourve in Paris, but not too small that you're done in 15 minutes either. This place painstakingly shows you in chronological order Picasso's works from his youth, his journey through experimenting with other different styles (like impresionism), and finally to his abstract phase in life!

Cortados!

I will sign off the conclusion of our trip with a bad habit I've picked up over there! Cortados, which is equivalent to a double-shot espresso with foamed milk on top was my fav drink over there. Where Cafe con Leche (coffee with Milk) is the most common drink for breakfast, Cortados are perfect picker-uppers anytime after lunch! Hmmm... Yummy..... :) Adios!

Spain - Parte Dos - Madrid

2007-10-28T12:22:00.000-06:00

Now for this week, back to our 2 part of our Spain vacation in Madrid! Our train ride to back to Madrid was decidedly less hurried than the one to Sevilla. A short 2 hr journey later, we were plopped into the Atocha Station, which by the way was connected conveniently to Madrid's subway system. Spent a total of 4 nights in Madrid, so we had plenty of time to see the major sights like the Prado Museum, the Renia Sofia, and even a bullfight too! In general, Madrid was more of a bustling metropolitan city to us, compared to Sevilla which was more of a laid back walking town. Here's a shot of Madrid at 9.30pm, note the huge traffic jam at the bottom of the shot, stark contrast of downtown KC!

First day up, we went for a stroll in the Royal Palace. Its actually still being used for Royal functions today, much like Buckingham Palace in London... But fortunately for us, the Spanish Royal Family wasn't using it that day, so we got to walk around inside and admire their century old future and a weirdly huge collection of clocks and old & large self-portraits of previous kings. No cameras inside the Royal palace, so the best we could do was an outside shot!

We were the fortunate beneficiaries of a hotel date mix up with our travel agent. After a minor inconvenience of having to pay for our hotel room with a separate credit card, we did in fact score the a suite on the highest floor! It came with a patio overlooking the streets below us too! Here's a quick shot from the rooftop patio. During the day and night we could see people walking on the streets below. BTW, we also saw a couple of "working ladies" on the streets too, which unfortunately is part of any large metropolitan city in the world these days. Interestingly though, it is apparently illegal to pimp in Spain, so all of the ladies down below were private contractors publicly working out the arrangements with their clients in clear view....

A wonderful snack that we discovered over in Madrid was Churros! For those of you that are familiar with the Costco sold Churros with sugar and cinnamon, its kinda like that except without the sweet part. For the Malaysians, its like a less greasy Yau-Cha-Guai. It goes REALLY -REALLY well with melted chocolate (as depicted here), or alternatively you can also dip it into Coffee + Sugar in the morning Malaysian Style MMMMHHHMMMMM.... :) BTW, best place to eat Churros con Chocolate in Madrid is at Chocolatería Valor in Downtown. Also, don't plan on sleeping anytime soon for the next 4-5 hrs with all that sugar!

Continuing on with food, Paella is something that you shouldn't miss as well in Spain. It tastes a bit like Asian fried rice except its slightly more yellowish and a lot more watery. Probably not as appetizing any more after that description, but I assure everyone, it tastes better that it sounds! Here's a shot of Yeesin about to attack our Seafood Paella. BTW, Patio dining was amazing out there, with weather in the low 70s most of the time we were there, so plenty of opportunity to sit outside, grab a bite, and people watch for hours!

We didn't forget to scratch the shopping itch over in Madrid either. One morning we made a pilgrimage to the shopping gods by taking a subway ride over to El Rastro, probably the largest flea market in Spain! Don't expect any rare or priceless hand made art here. El Rastro only carries mass produced cheap T-shirts, CDs, belts, shoes, etc! At prices from 2-10 Euros, its a bargain shoppers paradise! Also known for its pickpockets, we kept our hands on our wallets, and shopped to our hearts delight! Yeesin bought a few Pashminas from a kind Spain stall owner that kinda looked like your neighborhood friendly uncle. Didn't really know much what he said, but he was constantly draping the pashminas over Yeesin, telling them how largo (long), grande (big), and how barato (cheap) they were!

Will close out this edition with a parting photo of a bullfight that we managed to catch over in Madrid. Bullfighting is probably the only thing that we didn't really care for in Spain. We went there trying not to judge the local culture and ways of life, but in our minds, bullfighting seemed to be more a of tourist thing that a local sport. I'll walk everyone through the sequence of a fight. Part one, the bull is led out into the ring, and 6-8 guys in matador outfits take turns to bait it, make it mad, and tire it out. Part two, the picadores, guys on horses and with spears come out and plunge spear points into the neck of the bull to enrage it even more. Finally part three is when the main matador of the event comes out on stage with the red flag and his sword. By then the bull is REALLY mad, tired, and bleeding as it tries to gore the matador. The matador does his red flag thing with the bull that most of us already seen on TV, and when the moment is right (this part rarely shows up on ESPN), plunges the sword into top part of the bull's neck, if he is good, the bull dies immediately. If not, as in our 2nd bullfight, the it gets really really messy, cos he has to try and try again. So in short, not as entertaining as we expected, we left after the 2nd fight, and frankly a little unfair to the bulls, as they don't have any way to fight back!!!

Next time.... Barcelona!

A Morning Run

2007-10-20T21:38:00.001-06:00

Taking a break from the vacation report this week to take in my 5K run this morning via the KC Marathon... Woke up at the wee hours of 5.15am to get ready for this race. Adrian picked me up at 6, and we met up with Egwin, Rach, Minh & their friend Gabe to start the run at downtown Crown Center

Did a respectable time of 26.24 this time around, a little slower compared to my previous record of 25.57 in 2005. The KC Marathon technology was pretty impressive though, with timing chips provided that hooked up to our shoes. Just a step on a red plate on the ground at the starting point, and a final step on the plate at the finishing line records your time. No worries about making sure the event staff right down your number and time correctly!

Spent the rest of the morning sitting on my butt recovering... BTW, just got emailed some pictures from my finish line shot... here they are!

Spain - Parte Uno - Sevilla

2007-10-07T08:11:00.000-06:00

Whew! 10 nights, 11 days of trains, airplanes, subway rides, taxi trips, countless miles of daily walking, and most importantly tons of FUN and bucketloads of photos later... we back!!!! We had an awesome vacation, though we are happy to be able to read menu's without a Spanish dictionary again, and finally able to understand local TV broadcasts!

We'll blog the cities we visited over the next few weeks, starting with Seville or Sevilla as the locals call it! On the right, was our first day of arrival in in Sevilla with the Giralda tower in the background. For those of you guys in KC, you'll probably recognize this from the belltower next to the Cheesecake factory on the Plaza... After all, Sevilla and Kansas City are sister cities!!!

Nothing like being almost late for our train ride to start our hearts pumping for our adventure. Our first stop was in Seville actually came by way of Madrid. After landing in Madrid late at 9am, our Spanish driver drove formula-one style weaving in and out of traffic to make our 10am train ride from Madrid to Sevilla. Kinda reminds us of our Genting to KL taxi driver, except the cursing was in Spanish, and he was dressed WAY better, and his Mercedes was more STYLO. Still, he got us there with 15 minutes to spare, giving me just enough time to to navigate the language barrier and get our tickets validated, jump on the Train, and finally relax.

Speaking of the language barrier, we actually trained a little via Spanish language CDs in preparation for this trip. Nothing too fancy really, just basic travelling Spanish, enough to check into hotels, get transportation, order food, and find the bathroom. Interesting thing to note though for those of you that know Mexican Spanish, it differs slightly from Spanish Spanish. For Example, Cerveza "ser-ve-sa" is Mexican Spanish, while its pronounced "Ther-ve-tha", kind of like saying the word with a lisp. Different huh? Interesting myth stating that the "Spanish Lisp" came from a king that had a speech disability, unable to pronounce "s" properly he Lisp'ed his way through conversations. More on it here.

Nickelback sings "... And a bathroom I can play baseball in. And a king size tub big enough for ten plus me." Well, under the Sevilla Alcazar (Castle), the "Baths of Lady María de Padilla" are really rainwater tanks named after Maria de Padilla. Supposedly, King Pedro fell for María and had her husband killed (Talk about eliminating the competition!). María resisted his advances and in turn poured boiling oil over her face to disfigure herself to stop Pedro's pursuit (ouch). I guess Talk-to-the-hand wasn't invented yet??!!... Later she became a nun and is respected as a symbol of purity in Sevilla. I took this picture as an sweet background for my desktop.

OOOhhhh...Macarena!!! Unbeknown est to the poor church goers at Basillica de la Macarena in Sevilla, a local pop group called Los del Rio launched this greatest one-hit wonder hit song in 1995. Unfortunately, that darn song kept playing in my head as I strolled through this church, which hold Sevilla's most holy image. the Virgin of Hope - "La Macarena". Her claim to fame is her signature glass teardrops across her face, where her procession put her up on a 3-ton float to parade around Seville. Another item of note, she is the Patron of local the bullfighters, where a local bullfighter Joselito spent a fortune buying 4 emeralds for her. Too bad the favor wasn't reciprocated... He was gored to death in the bullring later. BTW, the she kept the emeralds.

And yours truly will be willing to take credit for a most fortunate event that happened on the 27th. As the sign on the left can attest, I timed our trip just perfectly to coincide with the World Day of Tourism. Short story so that we can move along, is entry to the Church and Giralda Tower was Free, aka Gratis!

Next the Giralda Tower (La Giralda), one of the most recognizable landmarks of Sevilla. You can pretty much see it from everywhere in town. The version in KC is pretty much a miniature version of the one at Sevilla. The tower used to be part of an ancient mosque, and when the Christians invaded, instead of tearing it down, they merely added a bell tower at the top. To this day, the bells actually do sound on a regular basis. The climb to the top was pretty tiring but interestingly enough there are actually no steps, just a steep walkway that winds itself around the tower until the top. The history behind it is the the Moors used to ride their horses from the ground floor all the way up to the top for the daily prayers instead of walking. That's what I call being efficient! Here's a pic from the top of the tower!

Finally, last but not least, the Star Wars fans in you guys will definitely appreciate the following fine location that we visited next, Plaza Espana a.ka. "Naboo" in Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones. Its original purpose, before hijacked by George Lucas was for the 1929 Spanish-American Exhibition and is a perfect example of Moorish Revival type architecture.... Personally, I think Naboo sounds more interesting, as we're more of movie buffs than architecture ones! It doesn't even take any imagination to see how this location works out great as the set for the movie!

In next week's Blog... Madrid!

Packing our bags, off to see the sights!

2007-09-22T13:16:00.000-06:00

Well, its that time of the year again, where we pack our bags for another long vacation. In usual fashion, we're packing light, with only 2 carry ons each, so that we can hop on and off our transportation with minimum luggage lugging time. This time round, we've set our sights on the fair land of Spain, where it should really rain "mainly on the plain" or maybe it's "plane". Either case, I've got a compact umbrella packed so, we should are covered!

The flight to Madrid is just days away, and we're just waiting for the last pile of laundry to get done so that we can close up the bag and relax for the rest of the week. Our itinerary will take us actually to 3 nights in Seville first after we land in Madrid via a high-speed AVE train ride. Then 4 nights back in Madrid, followed by another 3 more nights in Barcelona to complete out our trip. Looking forward to a great time over in Spain.. Will be blogging again when we get back!

Clean Scan & Light the Night!

2007-09-16T11:33:00.000-06:00

So we had my bi-annual Cancer screening results last Friday, and the scan came back clean! :) This time round, instead of the usual PET/CT, which personally I think is really uncomfortable, my oncologist and us decided to go with just a CT instead. So, in place of having to sit perfectly still for more than 1 hour, I only needed to get injected with a CT dye! Still, the contrast dye does have an interesting side effect of having a laxative included with it to make sure that the dye exits the body in a quick manner. So, I think of it as a free colon-cleansing session complimentary with the cancer screening! Eh! other people pay good money for this kind of thing! Anyways, the results were boring medically, which is how we want it to be, and we were in and out of the doctor's office after a brief chit-chat with my onco...

That same night, we went to see the fruits of our labor @ the 2007 Light-The-Night event in Corporate Woods. Weather was a little on the Chilly side (low 60's), but we felt really good seeing the kits that we put together from the previous week going to a good cause! Generally, it was a good party like atmosphere with kids everywhere, and enough pop and sugar to sustain them for most of the night! The Lighting of the balloons was particularly beautiful as the blinking red balloons and white balloons lit up the night sky.... There was a pang of sadness as it reminded us of the tough time that we had a few years ago, and for us, putting our lives now in better perspective. We hung around until the crowd started to make their walk, leaving the event feeling really good that we could do a little to help everyone out that night!

Here's a little video of us that night!

Have you ever seen so many batteries?

2007-09-01T08:56:00.000-06:00

We've never seen so many AA batteries in one place before yesterday evening! We stopped by the local Lymphoma and Leukemia society Chapter to pick up a Light the Night volunteer package earlier in the afternoon. Basically the task is to pre-assemble a Light-the-Night balloons in preparation from the local walk on September 14th.

For the unfamiliar Light-the-Night is an annual charity event where people basically take battery lighted balloons and walk relay-style to raise money to fight blood cancers. So anyway, back to the hundreds of batteries.... The batteries go into a little red holder, then the light fixture goes into the balloons stacked up on the picture on the right. How many of these will we work on? Lets see, each battery box has 630 each, and I've got 2 boxes.. So I'm guessing about 600+ depending on how many defects we find in the assembly process.

The final product? This is what it looks like.

Basically the balloons will get inflated during the night's event. So anyway on this Labor Day weekend, we'll probably be busy working on these... Still, its a great feeling to be able to give back after what we've been through a few years ago. Hopefully our work goes to helping more people out!

You gotta be kidding me ??!!

2007-08-21T10:37:00.000-06:00

So, its been a while since I last posted. Today's short piece is about Credit Card Fraud. Unfortunately, someone decided to use my AMEX to make a few small purchases on the internet in the last week! I'm not sure how they got a hold of my credit card number but they apparently had a method to their madness!

Beginning on 8/12, looks like they charged small $1-$5 charges on internet sites, mainly membership fees to see if anyone would notice. Then came a few an order of Stamps.com software, probably so they can print stamps from the comfort of their own home... So, at least I know this thief is internet and semi-technology savvy.

Probably the one that puzzled me the most was an order on Columbiahouse DVD for like 6 DVD's. The puzzling part is they shipped the order to my place! Certainly not very savvy in that department! I do know that this person has varied interests in his/her movie watching though - Among the DVDs were Pursuit of Happyness, Freedom Writers, Happy Feet, Bobby, Norbit and Good Shepard. So, if I were to venture a guess, like dramas & has a family. Definitely NOT the movies that I would buy. I probably would fall asleep like 5 minutes into Freedom Writers...

So anyways, 1 week and multiple calls to AMEX and these online places later, i think I'm finally done with cleaning up the credit card mess that this person made! I'm still mad a this fella for making go through all this hassle of disputing his/her charges!!!

Brain Food

2007-07-02T05:30:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning was mainly a long dreary downpour of rain, and yet more rain. We decided to cook up a storm at home! After that bad experience at that Singapore place in LA farmers market, Yeesin wanted to show me how Otak-Otak (Brain-Brain) was properly made.

Unlike it's name suggests, no brains go into the recipe, yet i'm still boggled how it can be called literally "lots-of-brains"!

Anyway, i don't have the exact recipe, and i was in charge of the blending and cleanup, but it sure tasted GOOD! Best part was adding otak-otak into rice, and mixing them throughly together.... HMMMHMM... Here's a couple of before and after pictures!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels @ Starlight

2007-06-30T16:31:00.000-06:00

Spent Friday night at the Starlight Theater @ Swope Park watching the Touring version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Its been pratically ages since we saw any musicals at all, probably none in the last 2-3 years, so we bought tickets to this event a few weeks back. Starlight's an outdoor theater where they will do touring musicals, rock concert and private events too, so we were expecting a nice nice watching this under the stars (hence the name!)

Basically, DRS a play/musical version of the movie with same title with Michael Caine and Steve Martin that came out a while back in 1988 i think, where these 2 con-men try to trick the women of the French Rivirera out of their cash...

All in all, a pretty entertaining night, I was skeptical on how the can convert a feature length movie into a musical, even when I knew the ending already, but I was pleasantly surprised with the plot, the singing/dancing and the ending! Yeesin's never watched the movie before, so I think she liked it even better than i did!

Weather was kind of iffy that night. With rain predicted off and on the the evening. Raining was probably the part that I couldn't arrange for the evening 4 weeks in advance when i bought tickets! In early June, you'd expect the nights to be in the low 80's and dry right? It felt more like early fall weather @ the low 60's, with clouds looming overhead ominously. So for that night, I'd either be a genius for picking a nice night, or the opposite for picking a bad weather night. Anyway, rain held out in just time time for the final bows, with the heavy drops picking up just when everyone was leaving for the night... I guess the weather listened to my instructions then!

San Diego Vacation [Part 2]

2007-06-07T15:34:00.000-06:00

Day(2) Woke up to a peaceful non-traffic morning in Temecula, to the chirping of little birds in the air, and where you can almost "hear" the grapevines growing outside our villa. Checked into South Coast Winery Resort & Spa after lots of traffic the night before, and chilled (or rather roasted) out in the hot tub, sipping the complimentary house wine. Yes, they make their own wine here. Most of the villas face the vineyards, and all of them don't share walls, so its pretty romantic. Definitely more romantic than a fossilized museums (*Hint*Hint Husbands/Boyfriends)

Our Winetour-Bus showed up at 10.30am to pick us up, and we were off for a fun filled day of Wine Tasting in Temecula! Our itinerary included 4 wineries with 4-6 1Oz tastings at each location, with a lunch provided as well! No stress at all, with directions, and parking when you are being ferried around in style with a bunch of friendly people with you! BTW, everyone got a LOT friendlier by the last winery! Had a really nice lunch in Wilson Winery, were they also served their really awesome Almond Champagne! Bought a few bottles back, but bought them at the local drug store cheaper. Hint- Long's Drugs in town sells them at 1/3 the price at the vineyard!

Drove to San Diego from there...

Day (3) & (4) - Woke up in La Jolla, which is about 10 minutes north of Downtown San Diego. Spent the next 2 days checking out the sandy beaches in along the San Diego coastline. Tons of people surfing by the beach, weather was mild, and San Diego only gets a couple of days of rain in a year. so not much use of an umbrella over there! Visited some seals just hanging out sun-bathing at La Jolla cove, then went to see Shamu at SeaWorld!

Tons of stuff to see in SeaWorld, with live shows every 1/2 hr, we timed it just right so that we saw most of the performances by the time we left. Obviously we had to sit in the first couple of rows to get splashed by Shamu, we found out really quick the difference between getting "splashed" vs getting "soaked". I'll just say that it was pretty cold for a while out there until the sun dried us out!

Went to San Diego Zoo as well, checking out all the animals, and riding the Safari-Cable-Car like 5 times to get our money's worth. Its $3 to ride each way, but our $25 all-access tickets got us unlimited rides... So had to ride more la! Snapped a quick picture of Mei Hwa, the latest panda cub just lazing around on his tree branch... What a life, just hanging around and getting fed all day long!

Last day in San Diego what do we do? We start scrounging for Asian food to eat. After a couple of days of eating non-Asian food, our craving for Asian food finally won! It was almost like a solitary beam of light shining onto the front of Ranch 99's entrance when we pulled in the parking lot! 2 orders of duck + pork rice, and roasted intestine's later.... MHHMMM good! Its too bad we don't have Ranch 99's in KC... :(

That's about it for this Trip!

San Diego Vacation [Part 1]

2007-06-07T11:49:00.000-06:00

Hi all! Just came back from a fun filled vacation weekend in sunny San Diego. It was our 4th Year Wedding Anniversary, and we happened to stumble on to $49 tickets each way on our Southwest.com. So, we decided to go to another SoCal location again this year! Left Thursday Morning, and got back to KC late Monday Night.

BTW, couldn't help noticing a "little miss sunshine" van in SD, so snapped a picture of it!

Here's highlights of what we did along the way:

Day (1): Woke up at 5am in the morning, caught plane to LA, landed at 8.30am. Yep. Gotta love Pacific Time. Drove to the "original" Farmer's Market in LA, really happy to beat the early crowd ; Its the closest thing to a "Mamak Stall" food place in the U.S so far, so we were pretty jazzed! Now all that's missing is Malaysian food, and maybe a little less attention to cleanliness! BTW, there's a "Singaporean" stall there, but we wouldn't recommend it. Apparently Singaporean Prime Ministers have dined there before, but Yeesin & I strongly discourage our fellow Malaysians from trying the food there! We spent the next couple of hours trying to wash the taste out of our mouths !!!

Spent some time in the LaBrea Tar Pits where they have the most extensive collection of wolves + vultures (too bad no dinosaurs) of fossils that got stuck in the tar 10K-20K years ago. Yeesin managed to snag a photo with this handsome devil of a Mastodon. I don't think I can measure up to his Ginormous TUSKS, but I think the fact that I DIDN'T get stuck in Tar and die a horrible death makes me win the popularity contest! Note to other husbands - Fossils are decidedly NOT very romantic, so we proceeded quickly to wine-country instead!

Driving out of LA to wine country took slightly longer than we thought. Fun Fact here- Rush Hour in LA starts at 3PM! Basically every freeway out, no matter what number (I-15,I- 91, 1, 101, etc) is jammed up. Car pool lanes don't help much either, the crawl along slightly faster than the other poor souls in the fully-stopped lanes. Heck, they even can pay $10 to drive in the car pool lane if you're alone... Anyway, after 3 hours in traffic, we finally pulled into the city limits of Temecula Wine Country! Another item of import, when driving out of LA, don't drink lots of water! Somehow gas stations with working toilets will be always just out of reach when you are stuck in traffic!!!

TO BE CONTINUED....

Greenthumb Weekend

2007-05-19T10:00:00.000-06:00

Yes, after multiple complaints from our frequent readers (wow, is there such a thing? people actually read this stuff), I've decided to get off my glutus Maximus and start posting again!

Well, Spring is here again, and after the torrents of rain coming down in our "hood" in the last couple of weeks, its been relatively dry but cool lately... Perfect time to dust off the garden tools, and pull out greenthumbs to do a little gardening work!

Before that, a little flashback!..............................

A couple of weeks ago, while sitting out in the yard, Yeesin commented that our tree back there seemed a little overgrown. Well, we had a little itchy fingers syndrome going, so, the best way to scratch it was to do a little tree climbing! Strangely therapeutic to climb up on trees and cut the limbs off. Probably getting kudos from my neighbor husbands too, wondering how i got my wife to do yardwork!

Tomatoes were the primary item for planting today, along with some miscellaneous annuals and prerennials. Yeesin later mentioned that we are so friggin midwest already, waking up early to go to Walmart to buy flowers!!! Anyway, 2 hours and 10 pounds of topsoil later, our tomatoes were in! Here's a shot of our anti-bunny protection device, not very sexy at all, but its been working for the last couple of years! We'll just need to cross our fingers, hoping that they bloom really good this year!

High School / College Redux

2007-05-12T10:37:00.000-06:00

"Friday night, what to do?" "Hmmm, how about a romantic meal at McDonalds?!!!?" Yep, as cheesy as they come. Yours truly brought his lovely wife to Mickey D's for dinner last Friday! We had a sudden urge to go eat some greasy food, so rather spend on expensive greasy food at some restaurant, we went for the thrifty greasiness at the local Olathe McD's. Probably not as nice swanky at the one we went to at Champs-Élysées on Paris, but servicable! We relived our High-School / College days snacking on junk food that night. For sure ... KFC, McDonalds, etc. Pizza Hut was defintely more "high class" in Malaysia...

I don't dare to sit??!!

2007-03-08T12:19:00.000-06:00

After about 2 whole weeks of sitting our butts on the living room floor, our new Sofa has finally been delivered this morning! Sitting down on the floor college-style on blankets and pillows was fun, only for the first few nights. After a while, we started yearning for the nice feeling of more filling material between our glutes maximuses than just mere blankets!

We originally bought this in mid-January in JCPenney's home store, off all places! It was the perfect fit and type, but apparently we had to buy one that is custom made. So then started the 6-8 week lead time between the order and delivery.

At 6 weeks, we sold the old blue couch that we've had for like 5+ years... The posting on Craigslist.com was fairly easy, and we had mutiple responses within days! So after the new owners of the sofa swung buy, we were sans a place to sit for the next 2 weeks!

Fast forward to this morning. I had to work from home for the morning cos the delivery company has a 4 hr window for delivery! Gosh! is it really that hard to estimate how long delivery, assembly and clean up of furniture will take?

Anyway, the sofa is set up now and its in pristine condition... I don't even dare to sit too long on it for fear of staining it with my dirty butt.. Benji's been eyeing it all morning though. I'm convinced that he'll jump on it as soon as I'm not paying attention..... I'm watching him like a hawk!

Happy Chinese New Year!

2007-02-19T23:59:00.000-06:00

Whew! What a tiring weekend! This past weekend, we got a nice taste of good old Chinese New Year, Malaysian style! Saturday night, about 80+ of us Malaysians got together to potluck at this local real estate office's meeting room organized by Caroline. And this wasn't just any potluck. The place was very nicely decorated with CNY flair, with really nostalgic CNY music playing in the background. The food area even had professional style food warmers to prevent our Malaysian dishes from cooling off. The event was racous but VERY VERY filling, with everyone bringing more food that they ate...MMHHMMM.. :) BTW, a great way to assure attendance is to talk about food with us Malaysians...

We adjourned the night and the better part of the next day over at Wee Sen's and Gary+Carol's place. Had tons of fun playing hours upon hours of Blackjack while eating home made Malaysian snacks! Blackjack is definitely a lot more fun played Malaysian style ( double payout on - 21, 5 card, triple payout on - double aces, 5 card + 21 ) than Casino style...
All in all, a very very fun filled weekend! Certainly nice to have a weekend celebrating CNY even if the rest of KC doesn't really care!

LA Here we Come!

2007-02-13T06:10:00.000-06:00

We were in warm(er) Los Angeles metro last weekend in shorts and sandals! What a way to spend a weekend after a frigid cold one almost a week before! Nothing like a last minute trip in winter to the West Coast to start the year off! Yeesin had a work meeting to get to at Chatsworth, CA, which is about 45 minutes from L.A. So, I bought a last minute ticket there via Southwest ($69 each way if you can believe it!), and joined her there! I'm seriously considering putting that "Ding" icon on my PC now, if the rates continue to be so cheap!

As you guys probably can see, we stayed by the beach, in particular Venice beach. The hotel wasn't much to look at... she called it "dumpy", but I prefer "utilitarian". Great location tho! it was facing the ocean! For anyone that's interested it was the Venice Beach Suites and Hotel. Still, the weather was nice! And despite the L.A weatherman predicting lots of rain, it barely sprinkled. Apparently, SoCal people don't take their weathermen seriously either! A nice walk on the beach every morning was a great way to wake up, grab a cup of coffee and snack on pastries from Chinatown! Just ignore the hobos, the are part of the experience. :)

Hung out for a while at the Getty Center our first day, which houses a quite impressive collection of Art stuff. Their collections are not as huge as say, the Lourve or the British Museum, but I considered it "bite-sized" pieces of Art from different eras and cultures that most people can get thru in a quick 2-3 hours. Developmental item for them tho, cos they need more signs in their rooms to prevent people from getting lost! Unless.... its their master-plan to get you "lost in Art"... ;) Anyways.. Architecturally, the place is impressive too, built on a huge hill, overlooking West Hollywood, where most of the structure is built from the same stones that the colloseum in Rome was built with! The view at night is pretty cool too, where you can see most of LA, and the tailights of the traffic snaking its way to Downtown!

For the rest of the trip, stopped by Universal Studios for a whole day. Obviously Chinatown too, where we got our pastry supplies, and cheap chinese food. Even stopped by for Dim Sum with Yeesin's vendor and his family! Universal Studios was fun, probably the best show that we saw was the Waterworld one! , followed by the Shrek 4D experience. Also did the studio tour, where we saw a couple of sets in progress, including this shot of Eva Longoria's house on Desperate Housewives! Cool!

All in all, a great short trip. Too bad 3 nights is hardly enough to see LA. Hopefully, Yeesin comes here again more often!!

Behold the Great Sphinx of Olathe!

2007-01-21T11:57:00.000-06:00

So what do you do when you are snowed in in Olathe, and have to shovel out your own driveway? Well... you build a GREAT SPHINX of course! Unlike the last ice storm that came by last week, snow is defintely easier to shovel... ;) We had decided that driving the SUV to avoid shovelling the driveway is getting waaaay to expensive gas-wise, so it was time to break out the snow-shovel and push some snow+ice around! 1 hour later, the Beetle side of the driveway was clear, and I even had time to build myself a nice snow sclupture!!!

However, unlike the real Great Sphinx, I didn't have 10,000 slaves at my disposal ; just yours truly! What do you guys think!??!

Happy New Year 2007

2007-01-06T20:04:00.000-06:00

Happy new year all! Its been a really hectic week after the New Year at work, so we're squeezing some time over the weekend to post our pictures! Spent this year's NYE celebration at 12Baltimore @ Downtown.... Steve+Munsum, Kyle+Elaine joined us for the festivities as well! For the whole week prior, we were all scouring the Internet for an affordable place to spend the evening. With most places charging $75 per person, $50 per couple was a STEAL!!!! We're are not cheap, just thrifty... ;) Here's YS and Munsum celebrating the savings !!!

The price did come with a "price" though, as we had to show up at the place @ 7.30PM since the buffet ended at 9.00pm! Food wasn't that great, just the regular run of the mill appetizer stuff, which they took away promptly @ 9pm! Man, I guess they were serious about last call for food at 8.45... However, the company of the remaining 2 Malaysians + 2 half Malaysians made the night great! Check out the amazing straw + cake + cold cheese dip sculpture that we made over on the picture on the right!!!! I suspect alchohol might have been a factor there...

Midnight came in almost a jiffy, with the place passing out Champagne and party favors just 15 minutes before the final minutes. The live jazz band did a pretty good job of entertaining us at the same time, compared to a previous NYE where we went to another local bar that had a 5 foot elvis impersonator singing!!! With Auld Lang Synde (I think that's how it's spelled...) in the back ground, and champagne toasts and with all of us blowing those paper horns, 2007 came...
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL !!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-26T09:27:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year All! This time of year always evokes bittersweet feelings for both of us... The bad memories from my original diagnosis on 23rd of December a few years back always kinda sneaks up on us. The barrage of Christmas music we've been hearing on the radio always reminds me of a dark time on our life where our sadness just seemed so out of snyc with the world's happiness.... Here is a touching song, pulled from Lance Armstrong's Livestrong foundation, if anyone wants to download. Ok!! Enough dark thoughts.

Its a draggy Tuesday morning after a long 3 day Christmas weekend! Didn't do much but catch up on our TV shows - all our Law and Orders, The Closer, Justice and All the CSI's!! Nothing more relaxing than curling up on our ratty blue couch, underneath a warm blanket, sipping hot chocalate while watching killers get caught on TV. ;) By the way, we even managed to squeeze in a movie at the theathers on Friday evening, where we saw singing and tap-dancing penguins (Happy Feet). Gotta tell you all, I was sceptical at first on how much fun a movie about penguins can be... Luckily, the movie proved me wrong!!! So, for the rest of the day, I'll try to get some work done... we'll see what happens! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!

Happy Birthday, YeeSin

2006-12-01T23:48:00.000-06:00

The news of the impending weather apocalypse (aka the first snow storm of the year), has come and gone already, to the tune of only a measly 8-12 inches of snow. Coincidentally, this momentus event happened in conjuction with Yeesin's Birthday! To celebrate, we plowed our way to the Country Club Plaza with reservations at The Melting Pot at 8pm. With 2 hours to burn before then we grabbed a cup of java at the local Starbucks and strolled to the Apple store were we took this cool picture! Its surprising what some caffeine will do to you!

Here's another shot of us with a "comic book" special effect. I'm pretty sure that she liked her birthday present a very cool Altec Lansing IM7 In-room Ipod player, so that we can listen to our tunes in the Living Room...So, I'm not sure why I'm getting choked in this picture??!!. :P

The guys over at The Melting Pot were nice enough to sign a birthday card, leaving it on our table before we even showed up! How cool is that! After a really filling round of entree Fondue, a complimentary candle was lit on our dessert Fondue... Just don't ask us how sweet that stuff was!

Part 2 of the Birthday was celebrated with Elaine, Munsum, and Steve at JP Wine Bar downtown. We really love that place with its cozy atmosphere, and its wine-flights! (thats where u can order "a set" of a couple of smaller poured wines). Check out the pictures below to see how many of those glasses we managed to squeeze into our tiny bar table! Next, the dessert of the night was from the newly opened Artisan Bakery in OP with a really tasty Almond/Pear Tart to complement the wine flights! After a couple of hours of chatting, the night ended pretty late for us by our standards! Finally got our healthy serving of grease at the local IHOP at 2am, and got home by about 3! Staggered out of bed this morning at 11am... What a night!

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-26T18:47:00.000-06:00

Breaking away slightly from our yearly tradition, we've decided to mix it up this Thanksgiving! Instead of having us (Well, mainly Yeesin) slaving over the stove for the better part of Thanksgiving, we decided to let the hardworking people over at Figlio's on the Plaza to do it! Plus, Elaine was in Dallas, Nick was in St Louis, and H2 was still stuck in Fedex land... So, not alot of people to cook for anyways! Still, the luxury of spending a nice Thanksgiving buffet on the Plaza does come with a price! Well, the actual bill wasn't too big, only $18.95. The only thing is that we had to have our Dinner @ 2.45pm in the afternoon, so it was a REALLY early dinner! We had to say, we were impressed with the spread out there, with lots of pasta, turkey, and all kinds of wonderful desserts!
Next, to walk off all that food, we strolled right down 1 block to where the lighting of the Plaza lights was scheduled to happen an hour later... Thing is, everyone else seemed to have the same idea as us! It was more people than we've ever seen at this ceremony.... Maybe it was the fact that we were going to be on the NFL Network later that night as the pre-game show to the Chiefs/Denver Thanksgiving Night Game! So, after about an hour of being jostled around in the crowd and listening to some nice renditions of some famous Christmas classics, we were rewarded with the Lights, and a nice firework show as well...

Finally, for more entertainment, we strolled on over to George Brett's (A local Sport's Bar) to catch the game. So, it was just the 2 of us, and a whole bar full of slightly inebriated Chiefs fans to cheer them on. Elaine and Klye were cheering remotely all the way from Dallas too, via the TV and SMS! A couple of rounds of Beers and Wine later, Chiefs won 19 - 10... All in all, a good night! How was everyone else's Thanksgiving night?

BORAT!!!

2006-11-12T09:09:00.000-06:00

Like MunSum last saturday, we watched Borat too! I loved it, but for Yeesin... err. not so much! I think the best part I like about that movie was that most people that Borat interacted with didn't know that it was a comedy! Entertaining, but probably should have waited for DVD to come out or wait for it on the pay channels...For those that can't get enough of him, try this website : http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1101

Happy Halloween!!

2006-10-29T14:18:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween guys! Commensurate with our yearly tradition, we had yet another Pumpkin Carving party at the B&B. Last year, we spent Halloween in Italy, missing this yearly event. Frankly, the Italians are not very good at Halloween. The costumes that we saw in the streets of Florence were really not very impressive at all, and no sign of any pumpkins at all on any stoops! So, this year with our yearly vacation out of the way, we continue on our carving tradition in the Hood of Olathe!

Couple of interesting items to note on the night. First off, Yeesin and Elaine decide? Doesn't their outfit make them look like a pair of sisters??!! And to their credit, no pre-planning or any level of coordination at all to make this feat of dual coordination happen! So either they are incredibly psychic, or it was just an amazing alignment of planets to make this amazing clash of fashion happen! Seeing as how this IS Halloween, I think any, if not BOTH of those 2 possibilities apply!

Next up, isn't this a cute halloween costume? At first, I thought he looked like the Gecko from the Geico commercials. So sorry to the Kinsella's for me calling Ian's costume a Lizard! It is really a cute Frog! After fueling up with a few Halloween Oreo's, Ian spent the rest of the night pushing around our chairs with mad abandon! Woe to the Pumpkin Carver that didn't double check the location of their chair before sitting back down! BTW, we dressed Benji up for the occasion in a Fall sweater too!

Finally, probably the most amazing thing of the night was that Kyle & Stephen were taking instructions on how to pumpkin carve from the rest of us!! Its just ironic that the only 2 Americans in the house were taking hints and tips from us Malaysians??!!

Still, I think we did a pretty good job of cutting up our Pumpkins (tho not as good as Surgeons on TV), as you can kinda tell from this Picture. Adrian tried to take credit for the amazing carving of his wife, while Stephen & Kyle held their own with very goof FIRST TRIES! We (Myself and YS), did pretty good with our "RIP" pumpkin ourselves! How about an Online VOTE to see which Pumpkin looks the best!!!

P.S. Not to be outdone, Benji decided to sneak to the dining table while we weren't looking and finish off ALL of the pumpkin pie later that night after everyone left. Needless to say, we were not very happy with him!

Myth or Fact?

2006-10-11T05:08:00.000-06:00

We've got some additional photos to upload this weekend. So we decided to do a quick Myth or Facts piece on what we discovered during our most recent trip....

Myth or Fact? - 1. For US$100, you can get a decent sized room in London.
Myth! As you can tell from this picture, Yeesin can almost touch the edges of the room if she reaches out with both arms. London is notoriously known as one of the most expensive cities to live in! BTW, the door in the far end is the bathroom. The shower wasn't even large enough to lift out elbows sideways! We can't even imagine how much it'll take to get a Holiday Inn like room??!!!

Myth or Fact? - 2. We all know what the London Bridge looks like!

Myth - This picture on the left is "London Bridge", needless to say, we were not very impressed!

The nice looking bridge that most people think about is actually the "Tower Bridge" on the right! Interesting piece of trivia, in 1968 the last London Bridge was sold to an american for $2Mil, and is in Lake Havasu, AZ now. The running joke among the brits is that he thought that he was buying the Tower Bridge instead.... OOPS.. :)

Myth or Fact? - 3. Shopping and Food is really cheap in London!

Fact! At Camden Lock market, the local flea market, is where we got a ton of deals on food and shopping! We scored a good deal on noodles while strolling on the street - 1 POUND! Yeesin scored a good deal on shoes too-5 POUNDS! AND we walked so much in that city, that sometimes we didn't even have time to eat! BTW, we'd buy more shoes, but for the lack of space in our luggage!

Myth or Fact? - 3. McDonalds can never be classy!

Myth! Check out this Mickey D's on Champs-Élysées in Paris! The pic on the left is the ariel view from the Arch de Triomphe (The other Arch), and the one on the right is from ground level. We've read that when they first tried to get a license to start it up, the government stiputed that the Golden Arches need to be White instead, and that they set up chic tables and flower pots on the outside too! You want Le-Fries with That??!!

Were's Back!

2006-10-08T07:45:00.000-06:00

Hi All! We are finally back stateside from our London-Paris Vacation! Wow! A one week vacation sure flies by! London was REALLY rainy, but that's what the tube, Museums, and umbrellas are for! Other than the rain, the weather was cool enough for open windows at night, but warm enough not to worry about jackets during the day! Here are some daily highlights.

(Mind the Gap) - Here we are, running around the subway system in London, or the Tube as the locals call it (The subway is an underground walkway to cross streets). The tube is a lot larger than we thought, a huge labyrinth crisscrossing multiple levels underneath London. An interesting reminder that repeats on the loudspeakers at most tube stops is "Mind the Gap", meaning watch the step between the car and the tube floor. And even after the first day, its pretty irritating! Still its pretty amazing that last year only saw 46 injures due to the "gap" for the year, considering hundreds of thousands of people use it daily!

(Stair Master) - This vacation was yet another good workout for us! Climb to the top of: Arc de Triomphe = 236 steps, Notre Dame Cathedral = 422 steps, Eiffel Tower (Levels 1-2) = 800! If it weren't for the large amount of food that we tried would have actually lost weight on this trip! Still, the views from the top were seriously worth it, like this one on top of Notre Dame (See the Gargoyle on the left of the shot) !

(Dodging Cars at Night) - WOW, what an adventure! You want some element of danger along with a tour of Paris? Courtesy of Fat Tire Bike Tours , we got to bike around the streets of Paris, dodging local traffic, ignoring ALL traffic signals, and getting an education in French swear words from some P.O'ed motorists!! Blasting through downtown Paris, seeing the night life flash by at street level was awesome! We stopped briefly at the Lourve at night where we snapped this synchronized shot! With all 10 cameras lined up with timers on, we sprinted back to our spots where we got this shot (Brandon, our guide is in the center)! He made me the "Assman", where for a Heineken, my job was to block traffic from sneaking up to the group, and make sure that we don't lose anyone during the ride... Hmm..The things I'll do for a beer... :)

(Open Bottles? Pas de problème !) - Unlike the most countries, the French are more relaxed about drinking in public places... Clinking glasses in a picnic at the Champ du Mars, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in the evening, or a wine lunch in Luxembourg gardens, No problem! Other than stares from other tourists, wondering why THEY didn't think about bringing alchohol too, the locals basically didn't even bat an eyelid! Heck at the Eiffel tower, there was a guy that didn't even bother to bring glasses; he just drank his wine wino-style straight from the bottle !

Stay tuned for some videos of the trip...

CLEAN PET & Vacation !!!

2006-09-25T09:22:00.000-06:00

Well, its been a really hectic last 2 weeks!!! BIGGEST announcement is that my latest PET Scan came back clear! My onc was joking about us wasting time with us at the clinic with my "boring" results!! Well... we'll take a Boring result anyday!!! WOOHOO!!! Yep, its the necessary evil of being a survivor family.. The constant monitoring, and that lingering fear of having to go through it again... But PHEW!!! , this clear scan means that we'll be close to 3 years remission! The anxiety that comes with waiting and wondering this time of year is now replaced by relief and joy!

What are we doing to celebrate!!! Go on yet another vacation! The drama of waiting for test results have now been replaced by the drama of getting our holiday attire/shoes in time for our trip! We don't want to look like sloppy tourists wearing sweatpants and running shoes on the streets of europe!!!??? Seriously, its really FUN to be on vacation, the pre-vacation planning, and the post-vacation unpacking is the really UNFUN part...In about 6 more days we will be off to London for 3 nights, and Paris for 3 more!!!
Will probably hit the big sights like avoiding pigeon droppings at Trafalgar Square, and try to solve the Da Vinci Code while kung-fu fighting the mimes at the Louvre... Should be a fun time !! Will update everyone when we get back!!

The most fun you can have @ CVS ??!!

2006-09-10T16:47:00.000-06:00

Friday night... Nothing much to do, so we decide to stroll down to nearest CVS/Osco drug on the Missouri side of the state line for some Wine Tasting. Yes. Wine tasting in a Pharmacy!!! Here's the link for all you people in KC if you are interested.
I was kind of skeptical when Yeesin mentioned that there was Wine-Tasting in a Pharmacy, but we went in the store anyways. Tucked away in a corner of Osco sat 4 tables worth of wines, with about 4-5 bottles per table, ranging from the regular Cabs, Merlots, Chards, to the more obscure Greek Whites (Yucks, BTW not so good). Bought 2 bottles of Raspberry Sparkeletini which tasted really refreshing!! After about 5-10 glasses of tasting (defensive drinking included : pouring away the ones that you don't like so much), we went on to our next destination of the night...
Westport had an art fair going on that Friday night... Lots of art on display that night for sure, but we were more drawn to the pasar-malam type of cuisine that the local restaurants had by the side of the street! A nice cold ice-cream cone, and starbucks frap later, off we went for some more walking. Stumbled on a free rock concert with the "Zero's" doing covers of 80's music tool! They didn't sound too bad, the crowd digged their music for sure! But maybe its the alchohol they had in their hands had something to do with it ??!!

Possibly the Greatest Movie This Year??!!

2006-08-27T08:34:00.000-06:00

At least that what Sam Jackson says on his website. Elaine and us decided that on a lazy Saturday afternoon, watching this movie wouldn't be such a bad idea.... I mean, everyone knows that it won't win next years Academy Awards, so expectations weren't very high!
The title pretty much sums up the movie's plot.. There are Snakes on the F****kin' Plane. I think Sam puts it best himself here. From the multi-colored snakes jumping out of air vents into people faces, arms
One thing I gotta give it to them too, is the soundtrack is awfully catchy...Check it out here: BTW, while I checked out that video... I FOUND THIS ONE!!! HAHA!!!

I can get used to this...

2006-08-18T15:10:00.000-06:00

Just came back from a business trip to Washington DC to meet one of our customers at work! Been so bz bz lately that didn't have time to update our blog. So, other than having to do expense reports ( yuck! ) today, I get to reminisce on my wonderful plane ride over there! The ride back is another story, which I'll go into later.
So on Tuesday morning, I drove up to the airport to catch a plane to DC. However, it was a day unlike any other day... No long lines in the airport, no hairy old dude trying to grope me "looking for stuff", no waiting at the boarding lounge waiting to be herded into the plane like cattle... ALL because... Drumroll...

I got to ride the corporate jet!!! WOOHOO!!!
I certainly can get used to this. I made the mistake of showing up too early at the private hanger *gasp* 1/2 hr early. No metal detectors, no pat-downs, and *gulp* no ID checks?!! Yep. The co-pilot just asked for my name, checked it off the list, and off we went!

We even had a nice flight attendent for all 8 of us. Didn't get much of the safety briefing either, basically something like "you know where everything is in case of emergencies right?" No annoucements for seat belts either! 1 continental breakfast later we were there. Felt like a kid on a merry go round = I wanted another ride!

Now on the way back yesterday... Something that I can never get used to! 2 hrs wait at Dulles, followed by non-functional air conditioning on 1 of my flights (yes, I had to transit in Atlanta). And of course, lets not forget my wonderful seat next to the engine (see left) that provided the most wonderful background whitenoise that I kept hearing even after I got back home! Ahh... I wish I could fly corporate ALL the time...

Look it!

2006-07-31T19:45:00.000-06:00

You AREN'T in Boston anymore! After about 3 days worth of driving cross-country, I guess this sign must have been a godsend... Helped Terri, David, and Andrew move down from Boston over the weekend. Actually, we didn't really "help". They were unpacked by the time Saturday morning rolled around. However, I did have to pleasure/challenge of assembling their stylo-milo IKEA furniture at their apartment.... They were kind enough to pick up a nice PILBO coffee table for us, which we quickly put together on Saturday night.

"Look it!" is my new phrase that i picked up from little Andrew. Technically, "Look it" is used when he picks up his favorite toys/books and shows it off to us. However, over at our non-kid-friendly (dangerous) house, Andrew is more apt to pick up the nearest Dumbell (Yeah, he is a strong kid), glass coaster, screwdriver, etc and proudly show it off to you, smiling, and saying LOOK IT!!! BTW, you don't know how many different ways you can injure yourselves with daily objects in your home until you have kids over!!! Andrew also finds great joy in dragging our space heater by its cord around the living room. Then proceeding to calming and gently wrapping the cord around his father's neck, then really cutely ask for water!.... Look it!

B&B watching the Bryans!

2006-07-15T08:10:00.000-06:00

We had a great time watching a World Team Tennis match between the KC Explorers and the Houston Wranglers! The pair of bleacher tickets were courtesy from Kyle and Elaine for my birthday present, and there were certainly one of the best presents i've ever received! As you guys can guys from the subject of this blog, the Bryan brothers, fresh off the Wimbledon Doubles Championship were there last night!
Weather was a little muggy, and our quest to find parking ultimately had a park like 3 blocks away from the courts (Barney Allis Plaza downtown... but we got there just in time to snag some really sweet box seats with this kind of view!
Gotta tell you, they look even taller in person than on tv!
Those Bryan are kinda goofy tho! Some of the players were pretty serious about winning points, and questioning calls ; but they didn't seem to fazed by it all. Maybe they are just taking it easy, or maybe they are just that good ??!! Anywayz, heres a quick shot of them getting ready for their signature chest bump!

Tze versus the Kitchen Faucet

2006-07-06T19:24:00.000-06:00

6.30pm - Weds : As I stood over the just opened package that just arrived on my doorstep, I wonder how long it will take me to install this brand spanking new MOEN kitchen faucet that I got from ebay. Hmmm.. Install time, 20 minutes, the instruction says ; plus, the tools it lists I happen to have them all.
7.00pm : I'm lying on my back underneath the sink, and its not a comfortable feeling. I'm beginning to see how it is really tight-quarters in there, and wonder how the BIG plumbers (you know the ones with the butt-cracks) fit themselves under there.
8.00pm : Mutiple attempts at removing the old-nut from the pre-existing faucet are futile. I decide that 20 minutes on the instructions is probably optimistic at best. Then I decide that the problem isn't between the faucet and the floor of the sink, rather i just don't have the right tools.

8.20pm : Just came back from Ace hardware, where i bought a basin-wrench. Yeah... its really cool looking. Other than being really deadly when thrown at someone, its designed to be able to reach through small areas, grab ahold of nuts, and turn them... (Get your minds out of the gutters... you know who you are!).
9.00pm : Theory works better than practical. The basin wrench isn't big enough to grab hold of the nut. I resort to my preferred way of dealing with stress - cursing in hokkien and english....
9.30pm : Attempt to squeeze the rest of my body under the sink, trying to get leverage on "Bob". Yes. I've given it a name. I figure, I might as well get to know him better since I've almost spent an evening with him... Yeesin starts rolling her eyes, she asks me to reason with Bob, maybe he will let go...
10.00pm : Kitchen Faucet - (Bob) - 1, Tze -0. I call it a night.

6.00pm Thursday : I return to do battle with the faucet, this time armed with $50 worth of wrenches, and a larger basin wrench from Ace hardware again...
6.20pm : VOILA!!!!! Bob releases his vise-like grip! We manage to pull out the old offending faucet out... I'm beginning to think that Bob only responds to high-priced tools. He certainly is a classly guy. Regardless, things are certainly starting to looking up!
6.40pm : Or so we thought... Bad news. The old feeder pipes are 2 inches too short to reach the faucet. *DUH* should have checked before I started installing.

7.00pm : Run to the store again. This time purchase 2 faucet hoses, and hope i didn't forget anything else....
7.15pm : Wonder if I should have put pipe tape on the faucet hoses... Too tired to worry about that now. If it leaks later I will know why...We cross our fingers...

7.30pm : Its a beautiful sight. Especially after the blood and the sweat (well mostly sweat, and lots of cursing) that I've been through for the last 24 hours! I'm thinking that they should preface that 20 minute install estimate with a "individual experience may vary significantly, and may take up to 24 hours". But thats just me. Yeesin says that I shouldn't quit my day-job. I protest that my butt-crack will make me the best-looking plumber around... In any case... ITS FINALLY DONE.
8pm: I wash all the dishware that I can get my hands on in the next 2 hours... I just like playing with this new thingy!

Karaoke Night @ Houlihans...

2006-07-04T08:17:00.000-06:00

Yep. You read it right. Karaoke night, where people with (and WITHOUT) talent, at differing levels of drunkeness decide that they are the next American Idol!
It all began with a night out for drinks at the local Houlihans at 95th St and Nieman. Around 9.50pm, we strolled in and grabbed a table by the bar. 2 drinks, and barely into a conversation later, it started...........
"WELCOME TO KARAOKE NIGHT AT HOULIHANS!!!" said the MC for the night. *We just rolled our eyes*
We gotta tell you though, it was entertaining in a disturbing kinda way...

In Asian style Karaokes, its pretty obvious to the crowd (and sometimes even to the other establishments in a 1 block radius), that some people shouldn't quit their day jobs, or even pick up the microphones for that matter!
Now, Houlihans had some semblance of talent yesterday, albeit in my opinion Country and Death Metal Rock can sometimes be hard to sing to....

The crowd, on the other hand, was just as entertaining. Maybe its a monday night thing, or maybe its just a "karaoke-attracts-the-weirdest-crowd" thing... There was this couple that at least had to drive 2 hours out from the boonies to get here. Picture Santa Claus in pink sleveless shirt and cutoff jeans, being held up with suspenders.... Yep, he had a little smell going on with him too, and loves to dance the jig to all kinds of songs. And yes, he loves to do that 2 feet from your face.... ;) "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" We had a GREAT TIME!

The Pilgrimage

2006-07-01T14:56:00.000-06:00

Here we are at the holiest site in YS's shopping sites...the place has the trifecta of style,price, and of course size (or rather a seemingly unbelieveable selection of size 5s). Payless shoes has that magical way of lighting up her eyes everytime we are here... Maybe its the simultaneous joy of finding a set that she loves...but having to agonize over what color... To me... They look all alike.. But while i'm only a dude,at least a can tell the difference between a slingback, a mule and a peeptoe!

Benji versus the shaver

2006-06-27T20:57:00.000-06:00

Yes. Its that time of the year again, long evenings sipping lemonade at the yard, hailing the ice-cream van by the park for $1.50 popsicles, and of course, when Benj has to get his hair cut... Nothing more invigorating as a Sunday afternoon chasing our Benji around with a shaver!. As with all haircutting sessions with Benj, he almost always has a sixth sense for deception on our part. Be it our sneaky tone of voice... "Come here boy...Come on here, we've got a present for you...."... or that shaver that we trying to hide (unsuccesfully) behind our bodies, trying to corral him while he tries to sneak himself underneath the nearest chair in sight.

Or, perhaps its the fact that any haircut involving 1 person holding you down, while the other tries to shave your crotch, inherently evokes some sense of concern on your part... Or just the day before, you had the neighborhood doggy-girls complementing your long locks of blond/gray hair... I hate to put words in Benj's mouth, but I really think any haircut that makes you look like a cross between a Gremlin and a teddy bear would be a cause for concern, as well as put a damper on your social life!

BTW, its 9:45pm and i'm still working too. So that puts a damper on our social life as well!!!

We left our ... Cash in Chinatown

2006-06-23T05:44:00.000-06:00

We're back from San Francisco. I got back at 1am on early Tuesday morning, while Yeesin got back on Weds night... Ahh... back to the umm... Excitement of good old Kansas again! San Francisco is a GREAT place to visit, especially without the stress of renting a car and looking for parking... We stayed downtown around the Nob Hill area, just 3 blocks south of Chinatown, and 3 blocks North of Union Square (The place where we got highjacked by H&M, Gap, et al.). North Beach & Pier 39 is just a cable car ride away too!

Only downside? lots of walking if you don't want to wait for the cable car, or if the cable cars breakdown entirely!! (Yep. it happened twice when we were there)

For those that are curious, we didn't do too much damage to our checkbook shopping... Turns out H&M didn't have as many deals as we thought. Now just shopping / eating in Chinatown alone... thats another question! Remember the 2nd thing we did on our last post? Well, the first thing we did was walk to Penang Garden in Chinatown.... Now, that was MY moment of rapture, as I feasted on a delicious bowl of Fish-Head-Noodles... Hmmmm.... In the following next couple of days, we'd return back to this place again and again to eat more Malaysian stuff... In general, not exactly authentic... but we can't complain!

Ahh... The fresh smell of stinking garbage in the morning!! You know, that fishy smell, mixed with old-newspaper!!?? Yep, Chinatown on Sunday Mornings smells just like the local pasar-pagi back in Malaysia!! The crowd too! Nothing like a sea of people everywhere you look! Woe is the hapless driver who tries to navigate Chinatown on the weekends! Our Sunday Chinatown excursion started with a Really Affordable Dim Sum with Yeesin's Uncle and Family (Barely 8 bucks a person!!) But I digress... The rest of our cash went fast enough... I bag of lychees, 2 boxes of loh-hon-kor, some asian placemats, the list goes on... Our cash was in the safe possesion of the cashiers at Chinatown.... ;)

BTW, Gordon and Lynda were also kind enough to hang out with us at the bar at the top of the hotel! They graciously came up to us even tho it was Sunday nite... A couple of drinks later, we then ajorned to the local late-night chinese diner for some porridge and ew-char-kuey! Unfortunately, I decided to order wan-tan-mee, which didn't really turn out the way that I expected. Nevertheless, I still had YS's porridge to eat, so I wasn't really complaining... Ahh... the memories of good chinese food!!! *Sigh* its back to the grind again....

Second Thing To Do In San Francisco

2006-06-17T17:52:00.000-06:00

So here we are in SF. We are spending the weekend here cos YS is here for a business trip. I just kepoh and joined her here for the weekend. Obviously we already hit the local malaysian restaurant.
The second ting to do is. . . Shop of course!

I do NOT direct traffic at the Grandview Triangle...

2006-06-14T05:02:00.000-06:00

"So what do you do at your new job ah?"... "Well, I'm a Traffic Supervisor" *Silence* "So, is that like anything to do with directing traffic at the intersections so that we get to work on time?" *Sarcastically* "Yep! They gave me a White half-shell helmet, and a pair of white gloves on my first day! ; Then they asked me to get on this little scooter...."
So, no. My new job does not, and probably will never involve physically directing automobile traffic either at the Grandview Triangle, or at the Mur-len & 147th St!

"So...what is it that you really do?", so people have asked me... Well, for the last 2 weeks at least, I have found being a supervisor in general involves LOTS and LOTs and LOTS of meetings! I've been to more meetings in the last 2 weeks than I have ever been to in the last 6 months! Yeah...and I have to start reminding people about admin stuff, like mandatory training etc. So, I think before long... I'll need to walk by with my coffee cup, and ask people about "coversheets"... BTW, Yeesin has FORBIDDEN me to wear two-toned shirts, the ones with the collar a different color than the rest of the shirt! "YEAH....I need you to go ahead and come in on Saturday....."

Seriously though, its a nice career change for me. Instead of only worrying about getting my own stuff done, I need to think about a group of people. Have to resist the urge to jump-in, and take care of it myself... Its a different way of getting things done, but it is waay busier than I expected. Definitely a LOT more paperwork than I expected too! Most of my time (outside of meetings) is spent documenting action-items, working on long-term stuff for the team as a whole, reporting...the list goes on. I'm beginning to appreciate how busy my ex-managers used to be... PLUS, I'm wondering if paperwork duties propagate upwards and increases in quantity as we go up in the management chain... Probably the only guy that doesn't do lots of paperwork is the guy on TOP of the org chart!!??

The best free purchase ever...

2006-06-11T20:09:00.000-06:00

Its 5 pm in the evening on another lazy Sunday. We just got back from Wal-mart where we got some nice Petunia's which Yeesin planted while I was working on some lawn chairs which we picked up from a Garage Sale last week.
It was the best "free" purchase ever; the chairs happened to match our existing lawn furniture, and they lean back far enough that we can just fall asleep if we close our eyes long enough...Except for the fact that the chairs were broken at the top-joint were the previous owners leaned a little too hard on it. So I took it upon myself to rectify the situation with a little hardware from my trusty old toolbox. 2 little nuts and bolts later...
A little ghetto, but we DO live on the "other" side of I-35... so maybe its appropriate.... Hey... thats what happens when its a slow weekend for us !!!

Moving On...

2006-06-02T17:38:00.000-06:00

My boxes are packed,my old cube is cleaned,and i have said my goodbyes.on monday i will be starting my new job at another part of the company...i let myself leave work early today...doubt anything can
get done with all these boxes in the way!

Happy 3rd Anniversary !!!

2006-05-31T07:52:00.000-06:00

Yes. Its been 3 years Yeesin & I have been married! It was today 3 years ago, that we said our vows during our Garden Wedding at the Overland Park Arboretum with our friends and family. I'd like to take a moment here to put down some thoughts on what these 3 years mean to me...

Our first year we found that sometimes love needs to be put to the test when I was diagnosed with Lymphoma barely 6 months after we were married. We had a rough time that year, but the help of friends and family, we made it! Our second year had me blessed with health, and gave us time to reflect the on more important things in life.
I don't believe that there's anything cooler in the world than silently lifting off hand-in-hand in a Hot Air Balloon on a crisp Sunday morning in Napa Valley! For this third year, we hope to carry on the great time that we have had, but not to forget the hard-times so that we can keep our lives in perspective...

So thanks my love, for:
(1) For being my hard-drive, helping me match names to faces, so that I don't mistakenly call my opposite neighbor Justin - by Steve, or Kevin, or Bob.
(2) For putting up with me leaving the clothes on the floor, leaving the cabinet doors open, forgetting to lift the toilet bowl lid, etc... (Basically living like a suburban barbarian)
(3) For being the voice of reason. She's why I don't blow 5k on a Plasma TV, or change a new car every year! Without her, we'd be broke. ;)
(4) For being my best friend & the love of my Life. For always hearing my opinions, sharing our secrets, my best friend to spend lazy summer evenings snuggling on our hammock in the backyard; For holding my hand, telling me that everything is going to be alright, my pillar of strengh when I needed someone the most.

So, baby... HAPPY 3RD ANNIVERSARY!!!
You're still stuck with me... ;)

Birthday @ Niagara Falls

2006-05-25T10:06:00.000-06:00

Drove back from Niagara-On-the-Lake to the Canadian side of the Falls the next day. The Canadian Govt was nice enough to declare Victoria day on the same day as my birthday, so as part of my "present" we had to fight lots of traffic as well around the Falls area! Checked into the Ramada @ Konica/Minolta Tower at around lunch, and managed to SCORE the highest floor on that hotel, and Check out this spectacular view from our room of both the American Falls & the Canadian one! Its a really small hotel, shaped like a dixie-cup on top of a cylinder with about 30 rooms in the "cup".

We also booked a tour of the Falls area with another tour company. AND, just like the B&B, we were the only 2 people too! Gotta tell you, we felt like VIP's being shuttled around with almost empty tour van, with our guide Shirley right by us, talking up the points of interests! Nothing beats a personal driver+van on an EXTREMELY busy holiday weekend, especially when YOU don't have to worry about parking! Here's a shot of the obligatory Maid-of-the-Mist ride, a huge ferry that brings you close enough to Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian side) to even get a free shower! BTW, that's why we have the really snazzy raincoats on too!

At night, we went up to the Pinacle dining room at our tower, for an excellent dinner with the falls in the background. This picture of the view before sunset doesn't do it justice I think. Its alot more impressive when you're dining and the lights come on at night! Can't believe a huge hole in the ground with water running over it can be so mesmirizing! At the end, I think Yeesin managed to mention to the server that it was my Birthday! So, I got a very nice ice-cream cake with a single candle (to hide my real age).

Somehow she even convinced the Canadian Govt to put on a firework show for me too! (Probably she probably arranged for this Victoria Day to fall on my birthday too!) Actually, our Wedding Anniversary is next week, so I'd argue that the Fireworks was MY idea... so that we could have a romantic dining experience!

Oh...Canada..Eh!

2006-05-24T05:50:00.000-06:00

Left for Buffalo, NY bright and early last Saturday morning at 5am in the morning for a weekend in NY State and Ontario. Got to Buffalo by lunch to hang out with our High School Buddies. Yes, both our buddies, Chee Ming is from Penang, and William is from Klang! How cool/weird is that, to have high school buddies in the same area 10,000 miles from Malaysia!

Spent that evening at the American side of the Niagara Falls waiting for Fireworks. Alas, no fireworks, and the mist around the around combined with the 40 degree weather didn't help either... At least we had great company to keep us warm though! Did get some nice night shots of the Falls, which were "spotlighted" from over the Canadian side.

Next morning, our first conversation we had with the Canadian Border Patrol was err.. weird.

Me: (Happy/Chipper, holding out our travel documents)... Hi!
Canadian BP : (Monotone) Country of Citizenship....
Me: Malaysian
CBP : (Monotone) Status in the United States...
Me: Permanent Resident
CDP: Where are you going in Canada?
Me: (Rambling cheerfully) Oh, the first day, we are going to Ontario-By-the Lake to see wineries, then we are going to stay overnight at a B&B, then the second night we are (*Suddenly cut off by CBP.*)
CBP : (Not impressed, abit pissed & impatient) . How many days?
Me : Err... 2 nights, we are driving back through here 2 days from now, then leaving (*cut off again*)
CBP: (Still pissed & tired) GO...

Felt a little cheated actually, to have almost no hassle going over to Canada, especially after being used to the process coming into America... I guess the Canadians do it slightly differently!

When we got to the B&B, we were informed that we were the only people that booked it for the night, we had the whole 4 bedroom cottage to ourselves! (Really handy for the me, the ah-pek to walk down in my underwear to microwave leftovers in the wee-hours of the morning!) Also a great reason to be messy BTW. :) Anyway, moving along... Our Wine tour guide picked us up from the B&B at about 1pm that day, and off we went! 1/2 hour later, we were bundled into the SUV with 2 other Canadian couples, off to the wineries.

Its interesting how people get friendlier the more alchohol we consume! We rode in silence to the 1st winery, but by the 2nd one, we were sharing crackers, by the 3rd one we were stealing crackers! By the last one, we were engaged in deep political conversations about Canadian healthcare without any prior knowledge! Here's a shot of Yeesin playing around with the Oak barrels in one of the wine cellars! Did we have fun? Yep. Well, when we were dropped off about 5 hrs later at the B&B, with about 7 bottles of wine boxed up! Didn't have any concerns of how to bring them up to the plane until much later!

Break out the Cycles

2006-05-14T09:39:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning was pretty chilly, but with Elaine's Beau being out of town in Houston this weekend, we though that we'd do something together in town with her. Don't know how cycling came up, but we woke up early (10ish - REALLY EARLY for us) to find a local jogging/riding trail near Elaine's place, and just go biking... I loaded up the MDX with both our bikes at 11am, and off we went!

Fast forward about 1/2 later... We are deep into the trail, about 5 miles in, and I'm trying to take a picture of us with my camera phone while cycling at the same time! I defintely have lost my cycling license (Defined by the ability to cycle hands-free) since my high-school days! So the best I could do was to hang back and take a shot from a slighly "different" angle... 5 more miles later, we are tired and hungry, and slightly cold from the chilly wind.

Cycling is really fun until you get tired, your crotch hurts, and you are hungry for lunch. Then after that you wonder why you didn't slap an a motor on the bicyle and just cruise around the trail, asking those slowpokes who stand in between our lunch to get out of the way!!... But maybe then again, it defeats the purpose of the exercise... EVERYONE knows that exercise is so that we can EAT MORE!!! :)

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

2006-05-06T10:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Cinco De Mayo! For CDM, we hung out with Elaine and Kyle in Downtown KC! It just happened to be First Friday's in KC (First Fridays is where the Art Galleries in the downtown Arts District open up to the public and some of them have complementary drinks too!). It takes a lot of motivation to drive from Suburbia 30 minutes to Downtown so what we learnt is that ~~liquor~~ art is it! 15 more minutes spent parking, and reminding me why I don't like driving in downtown later, we were stolling along the streets looking for galleries...
In 2nd Gallery we struck paydirt! The ladies got themselves Chardonnay & Shiraz while Kyle and myself got Coronas in cememoration of CDM! Apparently they felt wronged that we got entire Corona bottles worth of drinks, while they had trendy half-filled styrofoam cups with wine... So much for quality over quantity... Oh yeah, the gallery had very nice art too. Actually, the more we drank, the better the pieces looked! Klye even took the time to bid on a painting, a very cool looking crayola piece.
There were also lots of nice looking lofts overlooking the galleries, and a very artsy atmosphere with tons of people strolling around on the streets below... Ahh..how nice to be able to afford a place like this to stay in on the weekends! BTW, how much does urban bohemian living cost? To find out we explored a couple of loft units in downtown as well...They run from the 100's to the upper 700's. Yep, thats in thousands, and not counting home owners association dues that may cost up to $600-$800 more a month. Now, that's a chuck of change!!!
At about 9'ish the galleries were closed, and we were dry. We capped off the night at our favorite Spanish restaurant downtown - La Bodega! Its in the Spanish section of downtown, with some nice tables on the sidewalk overlooking the street. 2 pitchers of White and Red Sangrias + about 9 orders of tapas later...Here's a couple of pictures of us at that place. The weather was a bit nippy, but overall it was dry, so we sat outside and hung out till about midnight... Who would have thought Art would be so much fun!

The Olathe Chilli Crab Night!

2006-05-03T19:24:00.000-06:00

Woohoo! Crabs are back at the Neighborhood Loatian grocery store in the "hood" of Olathe! Actually, John (the owner) has been selling crabs for a while already, its just that its been awhile since we made the 10 minute drive to his store to pick them up. So yesterday we picked up about six of some angry fighting crabs to "invite" for a nice dinner. 15 minutes after coming home, I was in the backyard introducing them to my Chinese Cleaver & chopping board. There's no better way of guaranteeing freshness than that!

In no time, our "little buddies" were settled comfortably on our dining table with spiced with Yeesin's special homemade Chilli Crab recipe! Cholestorol levels aside, we had a blast! Here's a quick before/after shot. It sure makes weekdays easier to go through when you have GREAT food to look forward to!

I'll make you banana pancakes

2006-05-02T09:30:00.000-06:00

Taking inspiration from Jack Johnson's Banana Pancake song, I decided that a rainy Saturday morning was the best occasion to play cook for the morning, and *drumroll*... make Banana Pancakes! It was a serene but wet morning, with the pitter-patter of raindrops on my lawn. Benji kept me company in the kitchen, happily licking up my Banana mix splatters off the floor.

For the people that know me, I'm not the best cook in the world. Knowing that, I'm taking baby steps via using Target's Banana Pancake mix instead of trying to make pancakes from scratch. Perhaps as a sign that things to come, our 3 year old hand blender died a smoky death moments after I added all the mix into the mixing bowl. So needless to say, my first attempt at pancakes didn't turn out..*um* too spectacular... as the picture to the right will attest to.

Halfway through making the first batch, Yeesin decides to wake up and come down in her robes and see whats going on. So the bleary eyed master cook takes over the situation and does some damage control. 10 minutes later, 5 nice Banana Pancake medallions emerge from baking mix. Mmmmmm... They were as good as we imagined them. What happened to the first batch? I ate some of it, and Benj helped us finish the rest!

So-Do-What?

2006-04-28T22:54:00.000-06:00

So its close to midnight on Friday.. Its been raining for the entire day, and still raining... Really good for my grass, but really puts a damper on weekend activities. We just emerged bleary eyed from a 4 hour session of a Sodoku! Yep, its Geeks gone Wild at the B&B tonight! For the uninitiated, this Sodoku game is this EVIL 9X9 matrix of numbers that lulls you into solving the easier lower levels to get you hooked. Then it taunts and torments you into spending countless hours to solve the impossible ones... Kinda like Crack without the crack part!

Yeesin got hooked to that a few days ago, and she's been printing out worksheets from the web to play with when we get home. I was curious to try it out, so I joined her for some major brain work tonight! Yes, it requires SOME level of thinking...so its not for everyone, especially the ones with "photogenic memory". You know who you are... And NO, you can't buy a vowel in this game, or put in random numbers to fill in the blanks either! All in all, an interesting experience for me. I haven't worked this hard on numbers since college calculus! And I'm not even getting Credit for this!