Haven’t had the time to sit and write a thought provoking post unlike some. Ok ok.. I admit that I shouldn’t blame time as much as not having anything good to write about besides some random unrelated thoughts:

• I would be happy if I never had to wrap another gift again. By the way, hallmark brand wrapping paper is by far the best since it is made of sturdier material and have the dotted lines in the back which makes cutting the paper easier… but I digress…
• Still attempting to patiently wait for George R.R. Martin’s next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series. If you haven’t read these series yet, do so now.
• I finally found a Wii for my daddy without having to pay above msrp or waiting in the bleak cold early morn with hungry Christmas shoppers. Got mine on amazon in the comforts of my own bed thanks to a text alert from wiialerts.com as soon as they were in stock.
• Just created a yelp account but have yet to write any reviews for restaurants. Anyone else on this thing?
• There’s something so attractive about Edward Norton. *sigh*
• And last but not least… it all comes back to WoW. I need to transfer to another battlegroup because the AV queues are ridiculously long on mine.

And now some pics from Cookie’s first snow day… and no, she’s not missing a leg. She was trying to keep her feet warm and kept switching back and forth holding up her front leg. You’d think I kept her out there for more than the 3 minutes we were. -_-”

So… I finally took a long needed vacation to Taiwan and visit relatives. Been meaning to post pics, but there are just so many of them, I didn’t know how to categorize them! Let’s start with FOOD! We ate a lot lot lot lot of yummy food. Breakfast, 1st lunch, 2nd lunch, pre dinner, dinner, and xiow yeh (late night snacks… sorry my ping ying sucks). My kind of eating schedule!

Being jetlagged was pretty fun as we could catch breakfast each morning at 5:30am. I love love these morning sandwiches with the crusts taken off, the bread super soft, and with yummy fried egg. This pic is with scallops. My favorite, however would be the lo song (shredded beef) one. (In taiwanese that would be Ba-Soh) Price: $0.80. Not pulling your leg. honest!

And after washing these sandwiches down with yummy hot milk tea (price: $0.50), we’d fill up with a small bowl of yio fan (oil/sticky rice) and gon wan tan (meatball soup). The lady started wondering why we came every morning at 6am. I told her how we’d be leaving in a couple days and we wanted our fill of her YUMMY food. Price check for bowl of rice and soup… 2 bucks, my friend.

For lunch, how about some super tasty oh-a-mee-suah (oyster vermicelli soup). I wish I could take this lady at this stand home. I could eat this every day. Price for large bowl: $2.

And why not have some snacks on the way home. Here are some japanese squid puffs made right in front of you to take home. $2

For dinner, let’s have some Shabu Shabu… taiwanese style (Huo Guo) about $6

And what do you wash Huo Guo down with? Taiwan Beer of course!

Dessert anyone? yummy tzuah bing. Shaved ice with toppings galore!

And after a full day of walking around eating, shopping, eating, shopping…. why not have some late night appetizers at the night market. At this stand, you pick your poison and have them grill it for you. Basically couple cents each stick. So cheap and so GOOD. *drool*

Ok… I miss Taiwan. I’ll post more pics from my trip soon.

Puppy update… we decided to call her Cookie as she looks like a chocolate chip cookie and it seems like everyone wants to just eat her up. She’s quite a ball of energy for one of 2lbs. But once she expends all that energy, our little Cookie must rest.

My thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this deeply tragic incident at our very own Virginia Tech. Although it would still be as disturbing at any campus, this horrific event just hits too close to home. So many of my close friends graduated there and I myself have frequented the campus having attended nearby JMU.  My heart goes out to the families of the victims and my concern for the Tech students who must somehow continue with their lives.  At times like these, we must remember that life is precious and the miniscule annoyances that we normally complain about daily are merely trivial when compared to this.

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This past thursday a group of young professionals ventured out to the city, braved canal street traffic, and courageously circled the area for parking (with only one unfortunate casuality of the night regarding an evil curb) in order to congregate at Makoto Restaurant. The brainchild of our dear Sonmi, the “Taste of Town” proved to be a smashing success leading to the creation of the FF&M club. The food was divine, the sake plentiful, and the quality of friends both old and new quickly became the highlight of the night. Can’t wait for our next adventure!

Thanks to all of you
who helped make our charity event at Cafe Asia a whopping success!
There was a wonderful turn out with lots of laughs, drinks, and
beautiful people. Here are some of the night’s pics taken by Alex:

For the rest of the pics, you can view them on my Picasa gallery:
Spark @ Cafe Asia  and our
Volunteer Luncheon

Had dinner and lots of laughs at the halfer’s new condo. Food, wine, and great company… who could ask for anything more?