mod’s life

Well! It’s been about half a year since my last update… too much has been going on. But my life may finally be settling back into something more manageable, or at least less chaotic now. Maybe I’ll just update you on my life with a series of pictures.

My nephew’s 3rd birthday was in June, and I went to his birthday party at a park in SF.

Nic's third birthday

I bought a condo in mid-July, a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom at about 1150 square feet. I moved out of San Mateo on August 1, after living there for five years, and moved into my new residence in Millbrae. I held two housewarming parties, one for my family, and then one for my friends (mostly the Berkeley crowd).

Nic and Elizabeth, my nephew and niece, at my first housewarming party

Friends at my second housewarming party

In preparation for Szu-Huey’s baby, we had a baby shower for her in September.

CS162 group (minus Carol)

Nick Lin visited the Bay Area with his friend from Taiwan.

Nick and Nina

Jiong had his wedding banquet in October, during which I caught my third garter.

My third garter catch (picture courtesy of Travis)

I went home to SoCal in October to celebrate my father’s 60th birthday as well as to attend my high school’s 10-year reunion.

Dad's 60th birthday

My high school 10-year reunion (picture courtesey of Jason)

Last weekend I went to Las Vegas to meet up with some dear friends from high school. Most of them I see at least a couple times a year, but Alex I had not seen for seven years, I believe.

I miss you all already

In the top row it’s Henry, Victor, Yvette, Sunil (in the back), Alex, Paul. In the front row it’s me, Kirk, Spencer. These were some of my closest friends I had growing up (a couple others in our group could not make it). We only had two days to hang out, but we made the most of it, partying till the late hours of the morning. Despite the fact that I neither drink alcohol nor gamble, thus leaving me without much to do in a city like Vegas, I had a wonderful time being with everyone. I’m already missing the whole group. Here’s hoping it won’t be another seven years before we have the chance to get together again, and that the next time we’ll have more time together.

Friday morning I took a shower and washed my hair in the morning before going to work (unusual because I typically shower in the evening). When I stepped out my hair was pointing in every direction. Instead of pushing it down to give myself a moderately civilized appearance, I capriciously decided to push it all together, making it point straight up. I wore it like that the whole day, and was surprised that it stayed up. It even continued to stick up the following day, when I wore it to Veronica’s birthday dinner. Here’s our group picture:

Veronica's surprise birthday dinner

Yup that’s me with the crazy hair. Want to see it close up?

New hair?

The great thing is that I can claim to be 5′9″ like this (I’m officially 5′7″). Just kidding. One of the waitresses even commented that she liked my hair. I was surprised. I did it mainly for laughs, not to impress anyone.

I don't really think I'm going to keep it like this.

Anyway, I washed my hair again today and this time pressed it down to a more normal style. So no more weird hairstyles for the time being.

Two Saturdays ago was Jay’s food sort in San Jose.

Food sort

It was also Lin’s birthday dinner in the evening at Japantown.

Lin's birthday dinner

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin’s house.

Thanksgiving dinner with family

This Saturday was Dave’s birthday. We celebrated at Sushi 85 where this time I wisely chose not to overeat.

Dave's birthday at Sushi 85

It was also my company’s holiday party in the evening, held at the Aviation History Museum in San Carlos.

Lin and me next to a Pepsi plane

I turned 27 two days ago, and celebrated with my friends last night. I had a big party at Langkawi, and now everyone thinks I’m super popular because of all the people who showed up. I made sure I got at least one picture with everyone who showed up.

clan cal

Angela, me Janice

Ka-Chun, me, Szu-Huey

Diana, Nick, Lin, me

Jed, me, Victoria, Veronica, Tiffy

Kirk, me, Jemmy

Pat, me, Paul, Evelyn, Jenny, Jeff

Karen, me, Connie

And here’s the family at Langkawi that helped make everything turn out perfectly.

My wonderful hosts

I had too much dessert. Szu-Huey baked a lemon cake for me, and my hosts made a dessert of tempura ice cream and fried bananas.

Me preparing to cut my cake, deftly holding a knife. Upside-down. Deliberately, of course.

Langkawi's gift

After dinner we had a mini-lan party at my apartment, and played the Left 4 Dead demo. I’m thinking about getting it.

lan party

Thanks everyone for coming out and making my birthday dinner a wonderful evening!

Last night Veronica came over and cooked a special dish for Jason, f00, and me: “Vermicelli Salad with Pork and Fish Sauce” (I don’t really know what she calls it).

Big salad

What made it even more special is that although she made servings for the four of us, she made one specially for me with no garlic, onions, or cilantro. And she put extra chili in my fish sauce. It was yummy!

Friday night I met up with a bunch of people for dinner at Juban, a Japanese BBQ restaurant in Burlingame. I had just gone to the same place for lunch the day before (for my coworker’s birthday) and the same chain in Japantown in SF a week earlier (with the same coworker). Yep it’s that good. I think so anyway. Well it started out as a get together for me and Nick since he works really close to me. Then I decided to invite a couple of my friends who are in the San Mateo area, and then they invited people, and it turned out to be a 13-person dinner. Well I like big parties anyway, so I had fun.

Meat!

Then we went over to Kyle and Tiffy’s place to hang out and play games. But by “play games” I really mean two things: Nick and f00 demonstrating grappling, and Kyle teaching the rest of us how to cup stack.

Official cup stacking

And if you’re really curious, here’s the grappling: Nick and f00 grappling

f00 brought Veronica over today, and together they cooked a yummy dish of Hainan Chicken Rice.

chef f00

Jason, Veronica, and f00

Hainan Chicken Rice

It was good! Veronica got her fingers irritated while handling red chili peppers. Hope you’re okay now!