Vivian and I have been working our asses off in the past week, you can call it Spring Cleaning. Last Friday we throw out 6x 50 gallon garbage bin worth of junk, and two more bins just filled up since then. We put away ~20 boxes of books, electronics and things, now our home is "lean and clean". Just for the heck of it, we re-arranged the home too, the previous dinning room is now the family room, and the previous large living room is the new small living room and handsome dinning room. To welcome the beautiful spring weather, we introduce the color of green throughout the living room, green here, green there, green everywhere, tastefully that is...

I think we are done with the cleanup, good thing too, I am dirty, sweaty and beat! Frank and Connie came over to deliver the lounge chair we ordered. Too lazy to go out or cook, we dug out the age old Angus burger patties and Italian sausages from the freezer, fired up the grill for the very first time in 2008, and had ourselves a tasty, overstuffed meal!

We officially ushered in the BBQ season of 2008, hello Summer!

Shanghai is the place for shopping and entertainment, the activities has always been the same every time I come to Shanghai -- going out with friends, drinking, meeting and gawking at the beautiful people in the pubs and clubs. Shanghai really is one amazing place, I love it, besides all the laughs and good time, the best part about Shanghai really is the opportunity it provides.

My contact list constantly grows while I am in Shanghai, it seems like I am always meeting new people while I am there. The best part is, the people I meet in Shanghai are from all different walks of life, engineers, actresses, alcohol distributors, PR agents, graphic designers... it is a huge contrast comparing to the simpler life in the Bay Area, where it seems every person I meet is either a software engineer working for Google/Apple or a hardware engineering working for Cisco/IBM and the likes.

It really helps to have a diverse group of contacts, things are far easier when you have the right connections at the right positions. Connections is followed by opportunities....

Did I already mention that I love Shanghai? and that comes with a good reason!

In Munich Germany again, this time for the JEDEC conference. Germany is one of those few countries that truly impresses me, one can sense the great planning and careful designs in everywhere, everyway.

Last time I came to Munich, I had the luxury of time to check out the Munich old downtown; gawking at the centuries old cathedral and countless old intricately decorated buildings… so much culture, so much history, in perspective, the ~200 years of US history is, rather, young...

The best part of visiting Germany gotta be the Autobahn driving experience! This time my colleague Tomdio and I arrived a day early, and had the luxury to take a day trip to explore the surrounding places around Munich. Both Tomdio and I have frequent Munich, but hardly ever had such chance to have the entire day to ourselves to sightseeing.

I had a rental car, diesel powered, which is a popular option here in Europe, I love the sound of the low-purring diesel engine, great torque, great pick-up, raw diesel power! For a day trip, we had two choices: head east to Strattsburg, the home of Mozart, or alternatively head south to the Germany-Austria border to visit Neuschwanstein castle in the Bavarian Alps in Southern Germany, built for Louis II of Bavarian, a.k.a. the Mad King Ludwig. We picked the southern route.

The country side of Germany is breath taking, The white colored Autobahn cuts thru the clean canvas of the crop farms thats filled with bright and high contrast colored flowers and crops, the majestic Alps casts a vague outline in the distant, you can't even paint a prettier picture than this. Tomdio and I were so impressed, we made frequent stops along the way to satisfy our shutter-snapping urges. It took us roughly three hours to make to Germany-Austria border as there were a lot of traffic on the road, the locals were heading out to the country side with the same purpose as us.

After some nice leisure walks along the vast hilly, meticulously cared farmlands, we headed for the Neuschwanstein Castle, we were told that Disney's Cinderella castle was modeled after it, I had to see it for myself to believe it, since the Cinderella castle seemed to be something that came out of the fantasies. Well, seeing is believing, Neuschwanstein Castle truly is a fantasy, built on top of a steep mountain, half way in the cloud, and can be seen by from miles away. The sight of it is as impressive miles away as seen right in front of it. Too bad the Mad King Ludwig never saw the full completion of the castle, he died a mysterious death at a rather young age.

Cinderella Castle vs. Neuschwanstein Castle:

Neuschwanstein Castle

Disney Cinderella Castle

San Salvador was our hopping point from California to Lima, Peru. The layover was almost eight hours. We knew it was going to be a painful long wait knowing the tiny size of the airport and lack of airport amenities. Vivian and I were the first ones to arrive at San Salvador airport, we got in at 5:30am, the other two groups of our friends were scheduled to arrive two and half hours later.

The airport is small indeed, 5:30 in the morning, all the shops were still closed. In preparation of our long wait at the airport, Vivian bought a bag full of candies and cream puffs last night from LA (yeah, we had 5 hours layover in LA as well), and hand carried them with us, protected them as we flew in the overly crowded flight along with the rest of Patin American passengers.

If snacks are Vivian's way to pass time, my preferred way would be get online. and to my big surprise, they have Wireless internet here!! Free too! I hopped on the internet, finished the emails I meant to get done before leaving the trip, and even looked up travel infos while my other friends took naps and bullshitted for 8 hours.

My impression of San Salvador: pretty damn good!

Time to board my flight to Lima, Peru, see ya!



Early morning arrival


Vivian and her Cream Puffs


Been there! Done that!


A look at the country

We had a fun day in the burning sun yesterday, picking out lavenders and spending way too much money on lavender-filled pillows and slippers.

It was our 2nd time attending the Sonoma Lavender Festival, had to go there since Lavender happens to be Vivian's favorite flower, one of her favorite flower I should say. I do agree, the gentle smell of the lavender is soothing, and acres and acres of light purple lavender is indeed quite a sight.



More pictures:
Lavender Festival 2005
Lavender Festival 2007

Last time we did this together was almost exactly three years ago. Back then, Jack was still here, I haven’t moved to Shanghai, and Andy hungout with us regularly. :-)

Time passed, people aged, but nonetheless, the feeling of childhood joy of kite flying in a lazy spring Sunday afternoon remains the same.

Despite knowing the pain and how long it will take us to wind the kite back, we still let loose the mile long string and the kite soared straight in to the heaven.

And of course, as predicted, we moaned and groaned for 40 minutes to retrieve the kite down...

Pictures:

2003.06.22

2006.06.17

這就叫做---人比花嬌！！

Our usual crew of friends stopped by our place last night unexpectly. Knowing that I didn't want to celebrate my BDay this year, they kept it low key. No birthday songs and no candles on the cake. I did receives nice thoughtful gifts, tasty Blackforest cake and warm hugs.

Just what I needed! Thanx guys!

Just heard from an old friend of mine today that Jill –– a middle/high school friend of ours, was recently kidnapped by Iraqis during her reporting assignment in the middle east. There is a deadline on her life, a deadline of tomorrow that was set by the Iraqis.

My prayer goes to Jill, hope she will join her family back in US, safely...

即使这两年陆续有很多好朋友结婚，但是还没有哪对新人的结合比妞+老刘订婚的喜讯更让我开心。真的很高兴看到妞找到了好的归宿。由衷的祝福妞/老刘！

The American Heritage Dictionary:
n.
A man who has broad intellectual interests and is
accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences.

However, in my dictionary, “Renaissance Man” is synonyms with “June”.

There are layers of friendship, among those exists a type of friend which you don’t have to upkeep on the daily basis, might not have talked to for years, and yet you can get on the phone and pick up where you left off from years ago.

June is one of those kinds of friend – a close to heart kind.

June and I went through middle, high school and college together, we even lived under the same roof for a year. He is quick witted, charismatic, calm and determined. I respect him dearly for his ultimate drive to help people. He excel not only in his quest to become a surgeon (he is currently in his 3rd year of medical residency), June is also a jazz protégé, a violinist, a martial art black belt and master of almost whatever he sets to do.

June is getting married this month; I won’t miss it for the world! Congratulation June + Janet!

Seems like everyone is hurrying off getting married these days!
JJ, Niu, June, Sheila, and three other friends of mine in Shanghai!
Coming to that age I guess, only nature...
I can't help but to feel the pressure...

Come one, come all. Over the past month and half, we have taken in, entertained dozens of guest at our house: three ex-Shanghai Intel co-workers in two separate occasions, one current co-worker from Germany, Vivian’s dad and uncle, Jim and his wife, a new roommate, my U of Michigan buddies, Halloween movie night, big BBQ, mini-BBQ, random cookout… What can I say; Vivian and I are generous, loving friends. :-)

Jim’s recent visit with his wife Yuanyuan was quite interesting. During the four nights they stayed with us, I think he was drunk on three of those nights. First night, he passed out on the sofa after two glasses of red wine and a Tequila shot; second night, it was one tequila shot and two glasses of red wine; third night, it was one shot of tequila and… anyways, you get the pattern right?

Well, we all had fun on Saturday night, Jim, Yuanyuan, Vivian, Bruce and I went out bar hopped, and came back to the house to finish the night off, and we sure did! The night didn’t end until one nose-dove in to the bed, one hugged the toilet bowl, one cried out loud for no reason, one crashed on the couch (I will let you figure out who did who on your own) and myself chasing the cat around the house and wiping down the breakfast table with Windex 5am in the morning.

Drinking with colleagues in Atlanta after dark...

Our dear friend Kevin (a.k.a. KK, aFu, 阿福) has a set of fantastic hair. It is short on top, and really really short on the sides. His haircut should be a familiar sight if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area or LA counties or anywhere that has a large Asian population. However it is not the haircut that I am raving about here, the topic of discussion is, rather, on the supernatural strength his hair possesses! For example, can you claim that your hair withstand the twirling gusty wind when driving 80-miles per hour with the windows down? Can your hair puncture skins on its own right? Can your hair support an entire keychain on its own? I didn’t think so... but, Kevin can proudly claim those statement and them some more, his superb scalp-product can endure anything short of a direct nuclear blast.

So, here is a picture that testifies my latest discovery on the usage of KK’s splendid hair – Key holder! My next task is to see if I can use it to pick locks! Stay tuned...

(This blog entry was composed with utter respect to Kevin and his magnificent mane)

Gilroy Garlic Festival, triple digit temperature and my friends are chowing down crawfish! Yuck!

Saturday night... Nothing new... Gather with friends, sip on bubble tea and play some Big2. Happy happy joy joy!

Today, our dear Nancy had reached the quarter century mark, arguably the next major road mark following the 18th and the 21st birthdays. While 18 means you are an adult and 21 allows you to legal get drunk, 25th birthday offers something more practical -- lower car insurance!

To accommodate the relatively large group, Nancy decided to host the party at Monte Carlos Club/Restaurant, and conveniently Michael was promoting the event there that night, which means, dinner upstairs follow by thump-thump downstairs, one place, and one night.

Nancy wasn't the only... (More...)

Three day Memorial Day weekend, Vivian and I didn't have trip plans, mostly due to the fact that we really don't know where to go. LA, San Diego, Vegas, Napa, Monterey, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone... all have been there and done that, plus, three days really isn't that long, and no fun in a rushed trip.

I was browsing my site, and saw the trip photos we took two years ago picking cherries in 2003. It looked like just the right thing to do, again, for this weekend. Last time we went with Bruce, but this time, almost 20 others joined us!

Brentwood was the pick of choice, and Wolfe Ranch was the destination of choice. I picked Wolfe Ranch since it had White Rainer cherries which I liked, and they offer U-Pick peaches! I got the maps, lined up the carpools, set the time, and off we went in our 5-car motorcade.

The weather was impeccable; the sun was warm but not blazing and the gentle breezes helped bring in the earthy aroma to our senses to remind us that... More...

Vivian and I both took Friday off to reserve more time preparing for the event. We went nuts at Costco, and topped two shopping carts with food and supplies. Back at home, Vivian whipped out Deviled Eggs, Smoked Salmon and Sea Food dips from the kitchen for appetizers, and I marinated pounds and pounds of meat and chopped up bags and bags of veggies.

Close to 50 friends, colleagues and neighbors came by last Saturday afternoon. Vivian was busy running up and down the stairs giving tours to our guests; I was on the grill details, occasionally zigzagged through the crowd and held brief conversations with our guests. The weather was great with not a cloud in sight, which helped turning the outdoor patio into guests’ favorite place to have a burger, a beer and a nice conversation with old/new friends. (More...)