January 31, 2007
[gotta be rich] Becoming a US citizen will soon be quite an expensive undertaking if the CIS plans to hike citizenship application (N-400 plus fingerprinting) fees by 69% - from $400 to $675 - take effect in the new Fiscal Year (October). That's a huge jump from the $90 fee in 1991. Green card applicants will be hit even worse - from $325 to $905!
So you have to be rich to join the richest "club" on the planet. How screwed up is that? In case you're wondering (and I know you are), there are 55 countries on this planet (incl. India) whose citizens, on average, earn less than $905/year.
Hmm, why do I care. I (a) can afford it, and (b) won't be hit by the new fees. Yay me.
(If you're wondering whether I'm really this selfish, well, yes I am... :-D) @ 17:36
[i hate winter] I am going to beat Mother Nature with my bamboo chopsticks. She is a nasty ol' frump and she deserves to be beaten. It was 22°F (-6°C) this morning with wind chills of 8°F (-13°C)! I got dropped off at the Post Office and only had to walk a block and a half to work but it was still crimes against humanity.
And to make things worse, the forecast for the weekend is as follows: Fri 44/28, Sat 34/21, Sun 33/22. WTF??
And the forecast for most of next week is sub-freezing... for highs! Like, 21° for a high on Tuesday.
*screams* I hate winter *screams*.
Yes, I'm done. Winter needs to be over now. @ 11:21
January 30, 2007
[17 days] Seventeen days' worth of random pix...
(L) We Three Ho's - Evan, Brett and Me @ JR's *THREE* Thursdays ago, good Lord
(R) Sean, Me, Brian, Brett and Bernie @ JR's
(L) Rob & Mikko @ JR's
(R) Boobylicious Brett @ JR's on MLK Friday
(L) Bernie, Me, Jeff, some random, and Nick (back from EnWhyCee!) @ JR's on MLK Sunday
(R) Rob, David, Me, Rick, Jason and Mikko @ JR's on MLK Sunday... All the boys were out!
(L) Brett and Jason at Hains Point on MLK day
(R) The giant munching on a little girl... literally. Yes, it's vulgar.
(L) The Fetch Queen herself - Andrea - and Chris and I *IN* the Dupont fountain
(R) Chris and David... someone needs to scrub that tree!
(L & R) Living it up at Gaypex two Fridays ago
(L) The snow on our deck two Sundays ago
(R) The first measurable snowfall in DC for 2006/07 - Pic taken near my office
(L) Rick, Scotty, Me and Tyler @ Be Bar this past Friday night for Madonna's DVD release party!
(R) Rick and Chrissie @ Halo this past Friday night
(L) Tyson, Me, Rick and Scotty @ Halo this past Friday night
(R) Brett and Matt outside of JR's this past Saturday night
(L) The (40th) Birthday Boy, Chris! @ Drunk Brunch this past Sunday
(R) Kevin, Mikko, Me, Rob and Chris @ JR's after Drunk Brunch
Y'happy now? :-p @ 14:31
January 29, 2007
[random funnies] Totally random funnies from a long, drawn-out, marathon-drinking weekend.
I was totally lazy this past Saturday night, and (sober-)texting Brett and Bernie about Taylor's 30th b'day party up at Chris/Brian's in Adams Morgan...
Me:: I'll see you at JR's, bitch... AM is too far away and it'll take me too long to get there.
Brett:: Lies! Get here now bitch!
Bernie:: Mary, get in a cab and get here. We'll see you in 15 minutes!
LOL, my friends are so demanding.
So I made Tony drive us to Chris/Brian's instead, *giggle*. That came in pretty handy coz getting from AM to JR's is a bitch! So I get there, cake is being cut and served...
Brett:: Have some birthday cake. It's chocolate.
Me:: I feel fat. I can't have cake.
Brett:: You could if you had walked up here.
Evil! :-D
At about the same time, Rick/Jason got to JR's before I did (and left before I got there too! fucking bitches) and bantered with bartender Matt:
Matt:: Hey, haven't seen you guys in awhile. Where's Kiat?
R/J:: Bitch got deported.
Matt:: Lies. Bitch would've thrown a going away party.
It's scary when your bartender knows you *that* well, LOL.
And finally, we were at Chris-Craig's 40th b'day drunk brunch at Beacon. Somehow, Kevin and I got to butch-talk about sports... (we were drunk)
Dan:: Did you watch the women's figure skating last night?
Me:: [OMB, how gay do you think I am?] Um, no... Michelle Kwan wasn't in it so why bother. But I heard Meissner won coz Hughes fumbled.
Kevin:: Oh wow. Who won the men's?
Me:: [How the fuck should I know?] Um, Roger Federer?
Kevin:: *laughs* That's tennis.
Me:: *giggles* Oh... is that the one with the racket?
Kevin:: You mean the Superbowl?
Yup, we silly gays.
BTW, my new laptop is here. Spent all weekend setting it up. I think I'm ready to post pictures again, yay! I mean, why read when you can look at pretty pictures ;-) @ 11:02
[brrr] I was a very bad boy this weekend (eating and drinking too much), so I decided to burn some calories and walk in to work this morning.
Um, bad idea. It was 23°F (-5°C) with windchills of 10°F (-12°C)! I about froze my yellow ass off.
Have I mentioned it has snowed 7 of the past 11 days? It flurried all day yesterday as well. Accumulations have been paltry: 1.3". The weekend's weather was kinda crazy - we went from 15° on Friday night (about turned into a woman walking without a coat from the house to Apex; all of 1/2 a block!) to 57° on Saturday, when we stood outside at Chris/Brian's place admiring the view of DC from the balcony.
I am SO over winter! @ 10:39
January 26, 2007
[no eff-ing way] It's 20°F (-6°C) right now, with windchills of 9°F (-11°C). There was no eff-ing way that I was gonna walk to work this morning.
So I woke Tony's jet-lagged ass up (he was in LA from Mon-Wed) to take me to work :-D
Yay me.
And my laptop is here, yay!!! I can't wait to see how fast this Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM sucker is. @ 09:57
January 24, 2007
[no compromise] I could not agree more with the New York Times' excoriating but insightful Editorial today regarding George W. Bush's overhyped - but imbecilic even in his seventh go at it - State of the Union address last night. I don't have to watch it (and I refuse to, for he deserves no respect from me or anyone for that matter) to know that his calls for bipartisanship ring hollow, his beliefs are an anathema to me, and that his ideas are built on quicksand.
But change is not just nigh. It is here. The first two words of the evening - "Madam Speaker... the President of the United States" - was an encouraging sign that America is not looking back at W's irresponsible and back-ass-wards policies of the past six years.
Nothing could be a clearer sign that Bush and his disgusting cronies are impotent, than delivering the SOTU in front of a hostile Democratic Congress, a Watergate-worthy 33% approval rating (which is the lowest since the other disgraced Republican, Nixon), and, in a big F.U. to a party that believes in Iraqis' right to vote more than DC's disenfranchised residents' rights, Mayor Adrian Fenty's rejection of the White House's invitation to sit with the First Lady. Instead, Mayor Fenty was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's guest. I will love Adrian Fenty for life for that show of bravado.
From the NYT:
"The White House spin ahead of George W. Bush’s seventh State of the Union address was that the president would make a bipartisan call to revive his domestic agenda with 'bold and innovative concepts.' The problem with that was obvious last night — in six years, Mr. Bush has shown no interest in bipartisanship, and his domestic agenda was set years ago, with huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans and crippling debt for the country."
"Combined with the mounting cost of the war in Iraq, that makes boldness and innovation impossible unless Mr. Bush truly changes course. And he gave no hint of that last night. Instead, he offered up a tepid menu of ideas that would change little: a health insurance notion that would make only a tiny dent in a huge problem. More promises about cutting oil consumption with barely a word about global warming. And the same lip service about immigration reform on which he has failed to deliver."
Endless red ink when we need to be financially sound to solve our future generations' most pressing problem - Social Security and Medicare - and an endless war of choice that HE dragged us all into. Shame.
"At times, Mr. Bush sounded almost as if he’d gotten the message of the 2006 elections. 'Our citizens don’t much care which side of the aisle we sit on — as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done,' he said."
Almost. What a hypocritical asshole. What did Madonna say? "[We've] heard it all before..."
And here's the best part:
"But we’ve heard that from Mr. Bush before. In early 2001, he promised to bring Americans together and instead embarked on his irresponsible tax cuts, a divisive right-wing social agenda and a neo-conservative foreign policy that tore up international treaties and alienated even America’s closest allies. In the wake of 9/11, Mr. Bush had a second chance to rally the nation — and the world — only to squander it on a pointless, catastrophic war in Iraq. Mr. Bush promised bipartisanship after his re-election in 2004, and again after Hurricane Katrina. Always, he failed to deliver. He did not even mention New Orleans last night."
"When Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, Mr. Bush’s only real interest was in making their majority permanent; consultation meant telling the Democrats what he had decided."
"Neither broken promises nor failed policies changed Mr. Bush’s mind. So the nation has been saddled with tax cuts that have turned a budget surplus into a big deficit, education reform that has been badly managed and underfinanced, far-right judges with scant qualifications, the dismantling of regulations in order to benefit corporations at the expense of workers, and a triumph of ideology over science in policy making on the environment and medical research. All along, Americans’ civil liberties and the constitutional balance have been trampled by a president determined to assert ever more power."
"Now that the Democrats have taken Congress, Mr. Bush is acting as if he’d had the door to compromise open all along and the Democrats had refused to walk through it."
I love the New York Times! Who else can reduce a miserably failed presidency into a few sentences? Shame on this Administration!
Healthcare and Iraq...
"Last night, Mr. Bush also acted as if he were really doing something to help the 47 million people in this country who don’t have health insurance. What he offered, by the White House’s own estimate, would take a few million off that scandalously high number and shift the burden to the states. Mr. Bush’s plan would put a new tax on Americans who were lucky enough to still have good health-care coverage through their employers. Some large portion of those are middle class and represented by the labor unions that Mr. Bush and the Republicans are dedicated to destroying."
"Mr. Bush’s comments on Iraq added nothing to his failed policies. He did, at last, propose a permanent increase in the size of the Army and Marines that would repair some of the damage he has done to those forces. But that would take years, and it would do nothing to halt Iraq’s spiral. Mr. Bush failed to explain how he would pay for a larger force, which would almost certainly require cutting budget-busting weapons programs. That would mean going up against the arms industry and its lobbyists — something Mr. Bush has never been willing to do."
All hail the two-party system when a dictator is in power:
"Mr. Bush almost certainly didn’t intend it, but his speech did reinforce one vital political fact — that it’s not just up to him anymore. There was a big change last night: the audience. Instead of solid Republican majorities marching in lock step with the White House, Congress is controlled by Democrats. It will be their task to give leadership to a nation that desperately wants change and expects its leaders to work together to deliver it. The Democrats’ challenge will be to form real coalitions with willing Republicans. If they do, Mr. Bush may even be forced, finally, to compromise."
"Say what you will about the flaws and shortcomings of the two-party system. After six years of the Bush presidency, at least we know it’s a lot better than the one-party system."
Give him a chance, you say? The only chance he'll get from me is to show him the exit.
He should be impeached and consigned to the trash cans of history. Where he belongs.
I don't care about Bush's desire to compromise. And I hope the Democratic Congress never compromises with this poor excuse for a human being.
I want to see his Presidency destroyed.
Good morning! :-) @ 11:23
January 23, 2007
[cold weekend] It's been miserably cold for a full week now. Two days ago, for the first time this season, DC got snow! We officially had a measly 1.2" of snowfall. On a day when the high never rose above 30°. Brrr.
And this week's gonna be no better. Pout.
I stayed indoors all day Sunday, which broke my 10-night partying streak. I know, thank God!
Where do I even begin... It's so much harder without pictures, and all the good pics are still stuck in my camera phone coz my new laptop is not getting here until the end of the month. Can you believe I've gone a month without my laptop?? It's a travesty. The new laptop is a honking beast though - 2GB of RAM! Zoom zoom zoom. I can't wait for it to get here. I did, for a split second, contemplate getting a Mac and porting Windows on it. But then I was like, $1000 more for what amounts to pure aesthetics and cool factor? Not so much. And then there's the iPhone. Cingular? Denied. 2MP camera? Veto. I am definitely not gonna bother with one. Mac is losing a bit of its luster in my book... *ducks from Jason throwing his Apple shares at me*.
*giggle*
Yea, yea... I'm just jealous that Jason is in EnWhyCee all week *green*.
11th-14th So... things really started the Thursday before MLK weekend (which was a gorgeous weekend, btw). Since that was like, what, 12 days ago, I'm not even gonna bother remembering the details. I know JR's all-you-can-drink Happy Hour was in there somewhere, similar to this past Thursday. Anyways, MLK weekend was MAL weekend (it's a leather thing, don't ask) and the usual suspects (you know who they are) disappeared into the dungeons of leatherhood. I bounced around from JR's to Apex a few times that weekend. Nothing memorable. Just a whole lot of boozin' and clubbing.
15th On MLK day, I drove Brett and Jason around town with the top down (in mid-Jan!) and went to some fetch (un-)touristy places like Georgetown, Gravelly Point and Hains Point. Jason was the Devil that Wears Club Monaco in Georgetown, and Brett was like a 5yo kid at Gravelly Point, practically peeing down her right leg each time a plane flew by. So cute! We also witnessed a giant eating out a toddler at Hains Point :-o but I'll let the pictures do all the talking. Anyhoe, we had so much fun we ended up parked right in front of JR's that night (Monday night!) where I had three beers and decided not to drive home, so I called Tony to come pick me and the car up from JR's *giggle*. What, I'm responsible that way :-p
16th And then I went into "all Chris, all the time" mode. Dave was out of town, so Chris and I went out to dinner Tuesday, Wed and Fri night (Thursday was JR's, remember?). Tuesday night, we went to Sushi Taro where I had almost forgotten how delicious and orgasmic the omakase sashimi meal was. Chris brought his fabuluos and uproarious workhag from England ("On-dray-ahh", like how Tim Gunn says it on Project Fagway). She chickened out and had teriyaki, lol. How British. Oh, back up. While Chris and I were planning dinner, I got an e-mail from some chick and it said "I’ve spent time doing research so I’m up on the Gaysian gossip!". I was like, "huh??". Turns out, it was Andrea and she had scoured through my website before showing up to dinner. Aww, bless her heart. She did research on me prior to meeting me. She's my new Fetch Queen. We took her to JR's after, and watched some of the first night of American Idol 6. Randy, mean. Simon, evil. Paula, high. Together? Well... America loves dysfunction and humiliation.
17th Andrea, Chris, Rob/Mikko, Tony/I reconvened the next night at Little Fountain. The food was good but, more importantly, I had forgotten how cheap it can be on half-priced wine Wednesdays. Cheap alcohol is fetch! The restaurant was dead though, hmm. It was also ridiculously freezing that night. After Little Fountain, we took Andrea to Halo. Yup, she was getting the tour of gay DC.
18th-19th Thursday night, Chris and I hung out at JR's which was also kinda dead because of the freezing temps. Friday night, I was summoned to Gordon Biersch for happy hour drinks at an hour that only a freelancing consultant could consider appropriate - 4:30pm. I hadn't seen M2 since his Florida adventures with, um, let's not go there, so I decided to go hang out with him, Rick and Jose. GB was busy! Some rumor about Project Runway's Chloe Dao being there, blah blah. Whatever, she's Asian and she should be bowing to me :-D
After happy hour, Chris, Brett, little David and I lived it up at Firefly for din-din. Our waiter? He looked 5. AND he carded all of us! I was like, WTF? I mean, we should've been carding him! Was he even old enough to serve alcohol?? The nerve. Seriously, don't piss me off or I'll shoot your satellites down, mmm-kay.
Whatev's. He later told us that ABC has been coming down hard on them blah blah. Well, fine... if he had said that to begin with, I wouldn't have minded the whole carding episode so much. Am I like the only person on Earth that hates getting carded?? Not to mention, he offered us "still or sparkling" water. Um, I want DC's finest, spankyouverymuch. WTF, I cannot stand restaurants that only offer bottled water. It's not like we're in Europe... or a Third World country. Food was OK. The only saving grace was its proximity to the house (on a cold night, that's Heaven sent).
After dinner, we all went to JR's for a little bit before crashing Apex with gusto. We danced till... I don't remember. I remember leaving with Adam coz he parked behind the house. WAY too many drinks, lol!
20th By the time Saturday rolled around, I was SO over going out. Plus, it was cold. Cold, cold, cold. We had our revolving dinner party at the house that night. The theme was (Year of the) Pork Feast, *giggle*. Yup, in about 4 weeks' time, we will roll into the Year of the Fire Boar (ain't he cute??). Check out the menu. The pasta and the red cooked pork were huge hits. The dessert was awful. The boys didn't leave until 1:30am! There was a huge knock-down drag-out about race in America pitting the two Southerners - a Georgia boy and a Mi'ssipi boy - against the rest of us. Just coz there are more blacks in the South does not make Southerners less racist and Northerners less tolerant of black people. Mi'ssipi, btw, still has the stars and bars in their state flag. And Georgia did too until very recently (2003). So me thinks we all have valid arguments when it comes to racism in America. Just 'tween you and me, "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" :-) And nothing's gonna change unless there is a constant national dialogue that filters down to dining room tables.
Sunday was detox/rehab. I was a complete vegetable all day. Fetch.
So there ya have it. My pictureless adventures of the past two weeks. Now who needs a drink? ;-) @ 16:06
[drown, bitch] I love this quote on CNN today about the impending State of the Union address which I, and I hope the rest of the country, will tune out completely:
"When Bush addresses the nation tonight, he'll sound an awful lot like a man screaming from the bottom of the ocean: lots of bubbles and flaying arms, but impossible to hear above the sea roar of Iraq."
And since there's no way the country will impeach this President (which is such a shame because his lies alone deserve impeachment), I don't want him to just be lame duck. I want his legacy destroyed by the Democratic Congress.
Scream all he wants but he created that ocean with his sea of lies. I have no problems adding water to it.
Payback's a bitch! I hope the fucker drowns. @ 13:20
January 20, 2007
[2009-01-20] Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) set her laser beam focus on the White House prize today, exactly two years before the 44th President of the United States is inaugurated.
"I'm in. And I'm in to win."
"The stakes will be high when America chooses a new president in 2008."
"As a senator, I will spend two years doing everything in my power to limit the damage George W. Bush can do. But only a new president will be able to undo Bush's mistakes and restore our hope and optimism."
If she wins, history will be made.
And if I can vote by then (assuming my citizenship application comes through... Lord knows how long that will take), I will have no problems casting my vote for a female president. It's about time that a woman takes the helm and steers this country to greatness; something (old white) men have had a monopoly for far too long and have gotten us lost countless times over the past 6 years.
Hillary '08! @ 14:11
January 18, 2007
[back to normal] OMB, I have been at work for 5 hours and, aside from a 30-minute lunch break, I have been doing actual work this whole time! Yes, contrary to popular belief, I *do* work for a living :-p I mean, I only just had time to pee a few minutes ago. Kwazy!
My role at work is expanding faster than a child's waistline on a McDonald's diet. I started off with only firewalls and perimeter security. Along the way, they added our international offices to my portfolio which is quite fun coz I'm setting myself up to travel to all these fun places where we have offices! And trust me when I say they are fun (no, none of that Africa bullshit). And now, the networking infrastructure is being dumped on me. I know, right? Kwazy. I'm doing like three persons' jobs!
Sometimes I feel like I'm just doing stuff that no one else wants to do but when the time comes, said person(s) is gonna take his/her job back and relegate all the work I've done to the trash can labeled "Forgotten". All guts and no glory, sigh. It sucks being the go-to guy, lol. Nah, it doesn't. I like learning new things and being responsible for more. Lord knows time flies much faster when you're busy...
Anyhoe, winter's here! I'm not complaining... YET. We've had such amazing weather since the new year. In fact, through the 15th our average temps were up 14°! Not to mention a record high on the 6th of 73°! We had 60s - high 60s even - throughout MLK day weekend instead of our normal low 40s. That's startling warmth.
But yesterday was awful, though. The walk to work was in the 20s and the walk back was in the low 30s. Either way, it was FREEZING. And the winds were brutal! It was so cold my entire body's liquid was pumping out my nose. I know, gross.
The warm weather was a good setup for the party weekend, though the cold weather hasn't stopped me either. Tonight will be the 8th night out in a row for me (!!) which is one of the reasons why I haven't had time to write. Well, that and my laptop screen has been dead for the past THREE weeks *groan*, which also explains why I haven't been posting any of the fetch pix from the past few weekends and trips.
Did I mention I also have plans for tomorrow night and Saturday night (der)? Ten nights in a row! I think I'm gonna need to enroll in AA... Asian Alcoholics *giggle*.
The cold weather is set to persist - high 20s and 30s through Monday. No snow yet, but they are threatening us with some this Sunday.
Yup, back to normal. @ 15:19
January 14, 2007
[delicious] I know I'm a week late (and there's a new episode tonight, yay!) but last week's Desperate Housewives was delicious. The best part? Bree's Alma Hodge unveiling dinner party.
And the best line?
"Just when you think Bree's thrown every conceivable theme party, she hosts a 'Shame on you for thinking my husband killed someone' dinner."
ROTFLMAO! I love it. @ 14:11
[boot camp yoga] No, it wasn't "boot camp" like tough. But rather, we had a lesbo-nazi yoga instructor today. Mmm-hmm, happy MLK day to you too, bitches ;-D
Our first yoga class in almost a month... I needed the physical activity (stop laughing) and to lose some weight (sweating always helps), not to mention de-stress myself with all that stretching (it helps me sleep). I wanted some zen moments. But instead, we got treated to bitchy yoga today.
First off, the class was packed (I know, 10:30am class on a Sunday, WTF?). We had to line our yoga mats up to little daisies to make space for everyone. The person in front of me had put some shit at the end of her yoga mat so much so they were practically *on* my yoga mat. No matter, I put up with it. The person behind me put her yoga mat so close to the end of mine that she was wayyy into the yoga mat penalty zone. I was this close to calling her foul but decided I would just kick her instead.
And I did. And she got all bitchy with me. I gave bitchy yogi behind me that "don't mess with a sleepy gaysian at yoga" look and was about to get all crouching dragqueen on her when the lesbo-nazi yoga instructor came by to tell her to scooch her mat down to make room for her fat ass. Hot. I love it when I win.
So... back to lesbo-nazi yoga instructor. First off, she hates men. She proudly declares before class that SHE will be running a WOMEN'S-ONLY yoga class a week from today. No, "sorry guys, this class is very geared towards the female form blah blah", or "you guys will have your own class someday", etc. I mean, we're paying eff-ing customers and she just blatantly discriminates against an entire segment of her paying customers just like that. No apologies and no humor whatsoever. I was like, WTF? Livid, I tell you.
THEN! We were in pigeon pose - It's a kind of hip opener... quite intense. Yes, my hips are as tight as my ass :-p. Anyhoe, I was trying to get Tony to stop using the blanket in that pose (it's just cheating, hehe) and I leaned a little to the side... Lesbo-nazi comes by, grabs my hips roughly and jerks me back into position but does it so roughly I almost fall to the other side. None of the other instructors are that rough with paying customers. Mmm-hmm, she definitely hates men (or gaysians). I'm like, I came to class to be all zen-ed out and shit and you treat us like we're your marines and you're our drill sergeant? Bitch, please.
I know, I know, calling her a lesbo-nazi is not very zen. But it's zen when I'm telling the truth! *giggle*
You know, when people start a sentence off with "I know, I know...", chances are, they *DO* know but they're using that as a disclaimer coz they don't want to be judged by what they say after that (usually followed by a "but" and then a really sordid excuse). E.g.
"I know, I know... my bracelet doesn't match my outfit today, BUT... I was in a hurry leaving the house this morning!"
or
"I know, I know... I should call my mom more often, BUT... I've just been travelling so much these past few months blah blah blah"
or
"I know, I know... calling her a lesbo-nazi is kinda evil, BUT... I'm telling the truth!"
Wait, did I just smack myself down? :-D
OK, back to yoga. So, to put a bitchy exclamation point to the whole yoga session today, we were all trying to get to the shoe rack area through a narrow hallway at the end of yoga when another bitchy yogi decided to plant *her* fat ass in the middle of the hallway, putting on her shoes while standing up and bent over forwards! A bunch of us bumped into her trying to get around her and she *still* did not get that she was an obstruction!
What is wrong with people today? I need a drink. AND tomorrow's a holiday. YAY!!!
I ♥ long weekends! @ 12:40
January 12, 2007
[coming to america] (LA) Gary sent me an e-mail yesterday with a subject title of "Yet another reason for you to move to LA..."
The body of the message only had this link.
Mmm-hmm. Bitch is lording it all over me.
But seriously, he has every right to. Coz David Beckham is fucking HOT!!! Drippingly hot even. Gorgeous. Yum. Well, minus the tattoos.
And we love Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham. And their three sons.
Lucky bitch :-D @ 16:32
[tgif] Gosh, I am falling behind on my blogging! This week has been crazy and hectic at work. Everyone's back from their month-long Christmas/New Year vacas and it's been like a market in Kolkata at the office all week. Thank God It's Friday!
Well, I would be remiss if I didn't put up pics and yak about the previous weekend...
Last Saturday was one for the record books. The mercury hit 73°F which surpassed the previous record high for Jan 6th set 57 years ago. That's a full 30° above average for this time of the year. It was an Indian summer (what is with the India theme??) in the dead of winter. Fetch!
And to live it up and soak in the brilliant sunshine and record warmth, M2, Aaron, Rick/Jose, Tony and I brunched outside at DIK. Yup, we sat outside. In the middle of friggin' winter. It was awesome. The breeze was chilly but the sun felt fantastic. All those winters in England... I could never go back!
*drumroll* The first pics from 2007 (taken with M2's new camera!):-
Me and M2! Check out my Chrismas present from Tony - my new Jade necklace from Shanghai! *beam*
Tony, Rick and me... Gosh, my cheeks are so fat :-o
Tony and Aaron... OMB, short sleeves! I know, right?
Aaron, Tony, Jose, Rick, me and M2
Anyhoe, things went slightly downhill after brunch. I was slightly intoxicated after 3 mimosas (M2 was practically face down on the ground) when work calls at 2pm. I had to rush home and troubleshoot some stuff and by the time I was done, it was 5pm. The sun had gone down. Grr. And the work thing? Had nothing to do with any of my group's network devices! I was livid.
Anger melts so easily with vodka :-D
6:30pm was when I first set foot in JR's in 2007 (yes, I was desperate for vodka... What? I hadn't had a drink since my Dom-throwup episode on New Year's Day :-p). More importantly, it was my first time in JR's after the DC smoking ban! Wow, what a difference. I could actually wear the T-shirt I was wearing that night the next day. I didn't feel like I needed to shower when I got home or air out my winter coat/scarf. My eyes didn't burn. I didn't feel like coughing my lungs out. It was pure bliss.
It does seem like JR's has more business these days. The smokers are still going there; they just venture outside through the side door to smoke. The non-smokers and peeps who never bothered to set foot in the chimney stack known as JR's before are also showing up. I think it's a win-win for all.
6:30pm is Showtunes time at JR's so the usual suspects were there - Aaron, Brett, Gary, Peter, Chad, Evan, Blaze, etc. (I know, it's like the seven dwarfs... I'm snow white! *giggle*). Well, more and more friends show up in waves (M2 plus one, Bethany/Ryan, Adam/Patrick, etc.) and by 12:30am, we were shaking our bootay at Cobalt. 30 degrees (below Cobalt) was balls-to-ass crowded. Cobalt itself was a sea of smolderingly hot boys. But I only noticed one thing: Smoke-free! Heaven.
I was quite drunk and pooped out by 3am and thank God for Adam/Patrick who drove me home (it got cold that night).
I woke up at noon (-ish!) and stayed home ALL day Sunday.
See? I didn't go out Friday night or all day Sunday. I'm a good boy. Honest! Stop snickering or I'll bitchslap you with my new panda fluffy slippers (oh you've gotta check them out!).
Yay, long weekend ahead. And I have nothing planned! Fabulous. @ 16:21
January 11, 2007
[disaster] 21,500 more troops to Baghdad? Is he fucking shitting me? It is an escalation to a wrong and tragic war that can only bring even more tragic consequences.
There is only one word for President Bush's ill-conceived plan for Iraq - Disaster.
From the NYT's Editorial today:
"President Bush told Americans last night that failure in Iraq would be a disaster. The disaster is Mr. Bush’s war, and he has already failed."
I can only hope that this new 110th Congress heeds the message that the American people sent to the 109th Congress by booting them out of office: Bring Home The Troops.
Break the Republican filibuster in the Senate, and cut off all funding for additional troops to Iraq.
President Bush = Miserable Failure. @ 14:01
January 9, 2007
[next stop...] Beijing! IAD-PEK non-stop on UA! Yay!!!
OK, back to work (I'm swamped!). @ 13:47
January 8, 2007
[banks are stank] I am going to have a cow.
Maybe I'm not the brightest bulb in the shed, but did you know that Certificates of Deposit (CDs) automatically renew after it hits the maturity date?
So why is that a problem... Well, I had a shit ton of money locked up in a 6-month CD coz I didn't know what to do with it and it matured right after Christmas. Apparently, E*TRADE tells me, I had 10 days after the maturity date to "free" it before it locks back up again for the term of the original CD. And I even agreed to those terms during the opening of the CD (who knew).
Well, guess who was on vacation and didn't get to it until today?
SIX MORE MONTHS?!!
ARGH! I needed the money to pay taxes!!
Since I'm jussssst past the 10-day grace period, I have to (a) pay a penalty (not so bad), and (b) mail in a notarized letter in order to free up the money. WTF?? They won't even let me close it without a letter-writing contest PLUS a walk to the bank to get the eff-ing letter notarized.
I am gonna shit a panda after I'm done giving birth to the cow.
I'm never buying a CD again!! @ 11:29
January 6, 2007
[gorgeous] It's 71°F (22°C) today. It's the first week of January.
'Nuff said. I love it!!! @ 14:28
January 5, 2007
[shang-high] I am still recovering from my little cold and from massive jet-lag (note to self: no more travelling to Asia until June!), so I'll just tell you all about our New Year's Eve blowout in Shanghai.
For our final meal of 2006, we (Ben/Mike, Tony and I) dined at Jean Georges Shanghai located at the post-renaissance Three on the Bund (外滩三号) built in 1916 and overlooking the Bund and thje spell-binding nightime Pudong skyline. We sweet-talked our way to a window table (#16) and had a grand ol' time. The restaurant itself is drop-dead gorgeous with fantastic 20-ft ceilings.
And the view... OMB, the view! Absolutely spectacular.
Le Menu:
Amuse Bouche: Kumamoto Oyster, Sparkling Bollinger Gelée
开胃小菜: 熊本生蚝配汽酒冻*****
Crunchy Sea Scallops, Cucumber, Mango, Spices
香脆扇贝, 黄瓜, 芒果, 香料*****
Sautéed Foie Gras, Green Apple, Yuzu
香煎肥鹅肝, 青苹果, 柚子汁*****
Cod, Pistachio, Poppy, Grapefruit Confit
银鳕鱼, 开心果, 罂粟, 西柚酱*****
Roasted Lobster, Fragrant Coconut Juice, Parsnip and Lime
烤龙虾, 香味椰子汁, 防风草和青柠*****
Beef Tenderloin, Savory Onion Jam, Sour Cherry Mustard
牛柳, 香洋葱果酱, 酸樱桃芥末*****
Champagne Dessert Tasting
香槟甜品精选RMB1288 (US$165) per person
The verdict? It wasn't as sensational as the view, but it was very, very good. The oyster was as explosive in flavor as the foie gras was divine. The cod was stunning, so was the lobster. The beef was the best dish, and JG's pièce de résistance dessert - warm valrhona chocolate cake - rocked. Our two meals in Jean Georges NYC were better, I thought.
The meal came with a glass of Bollinger champagne, which we toasted to our good fortune of spending a glorious New Year's Eve in Shanghai. It was a little disappointing that there were no fireworks over the Huangpu River at midnight (I mean, com'on, those bitches invented it!) but we were too drunk to care *giggle*. There were some small-scale fireworks but I was expecting a big zip-boom-bah fireworks extravaganza, y'know? Plus, they shut the lights off over in Pudong at 11pm! On New Year's Eve!! WTF??
Thank God the night was only just beginning. We buddied up with the General Manager (Marie) of JG Shanghai and she took us to all the other fabulous parties at Three on the Bund. The first party we went to just past midnight was at Laris, two floors above Jean Georges. We partied at the Vault Bar inside Laris which was this really amazing space with a glassed-in seating area surrounded by lounges and fronted by the bar. But we weren't there for the interior decor. We were there for the free-flowing Dom Perignon! Can you believe it? Free-flowing Dom! We started off drinking from champagne glasses but quickly moved on to drinking from the bottles. It was K-WAZY. BTW, the GM of Laris is GOR-GEOUS *phew*.
Anyhoe... after Laris, we hiked up one flight of stairs to the rooftop terrace of Three on the Bund to this restaurant/bar called New Heights. There, we drank more Dom and danced the night away under the starry night sky of Shanghai overlooking the sensational Pudong skyline just across the Huangpu River. It was a warm night (in the 50s) and the (drunken) feeling of being out in the open, 7 stories above the Bund and the River, with the skyscrapers of Shanghai so heart-stoppingly close to you you could almost touch them... Unforgettable.
It was a massively good time. So good, in fact, that I got massively ill on champagne OD and threw up big time (yes, all the yummy JG food down the toilet, not to mention hundreds of dollars of champagne) when I got back to the hotel. AND I threw up again the next morning! I tried to eat a couple of times - after we got back to the hotel at 3am, and again for breakfast the next day... room service, of course! - but I just couldn't keep anything down. I felt like death warmed over. I even threw up one more time at Shanghai's Hongqiao (domestic) Airport, yuck. I'm never drinking that much champagne again. Can you believe I got sick on Dom? I have no idea how much I had but it was some serious drinking. My liver needs some serious rest. Oh well, New Year's only happens once a year, right?
And then we missed our flight home! LOL! Note to self: Don't book a flight for the day after an anticipated big drinking session.
So... what did YOU do for New Year's Eve? :-D @ 15:24
[busiest airports] For the second year in a row, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) is the world's busiest airport in terms of number of flights with 976,307. In terms of passenger traffic, ATL has been number 1 since 1998. Chicago's O'Hare (ORD) is second in both categories.
976,307 flights per year equals almost 2 flights per minute assuming the airport's load is spread out evenly across 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Five years ago (2001), Beijing's Capital International Airport (PEK) did not even rank in the Top 30 busiest airports in the world, even as 27 of the top 30 airports that year registered huge drops in passenger traffic due to the 9/11 attacks. Back then, Hong Kong was the only Chinese airport in the top 30 at #17 (32.5mn passengers).
A year later, PEK vaulted to #26 (27.2mn) and hit the capacity limit for the airport. In 2004, it was #20 (34.9mn). In 2005, it was #15 (41.0mn) registering a stunning 17.5% growth, overtaking Hong Kong to be the busiest airport in China and the second busiest in Asia (after Tokyo's Haneda).
And this past year? In the first 9 months of 2006, PEK is at #10 registering another phenomenal 20% growth.
As I mentioned earlier, the mammoth $2bn dragon-shaped Terminal 3 is slated to open next year to keep up with this breakneck growth in passenger traffic. T3 is the single largest airport expansion project the world has ever seen, as well as the fastest ever built (4 years). 2.5km at its longest and 800m at its widest, the roofs of the terminal buildings alone will cover 80 acres.
And this is just the beginning. Chinese Airlines carried 138mn passengers in 2005. US-based airlines carried 739mn passengers serving a population one-quarter the size of China's in a similar-sized country. That's a magnitude of more than 20. The potential is enormous. The Chinese gov't anticipates that loads will double in 5 years. As with all forecasts tied to the economy, those numbers are probably on the conservative side. This is all despite the fact that 80% of the country's airspace is out-of-bounds, fares between cities are strictly regulated and sky-high.
China is rising! @ 12:26
January 4, 2007
[shanghai maglev] Upon arriving into Shanghai's Pudong International Airport - built in 1999 and located about 25mi from Shanghai - a week ago today, I was really excited and adamant about taking the 3-year-old Maglev train coz, well, I love trains. And this was the first and only commercial high-speed maglev line in the world. So we did.
The verdict? It was just meh.
I was expecting, like, SUPER fast, y'know? And it sorta is. The train hits a top speed of 270mph during normal times (0830-1700) but we were there after 5pm so the top speed was "only" 186mph, which is identical to the top cruising speed of the Shinkansen/bullet train. Um, if you're not quite sure how fast 270mph is, think DC to NYC in 45 minutes :-o Even at 186mph, it will only take 20 mins more to get to NYC from here.
Still, the Maglev train was blindingly fast. The train travelled the distance of 18.75 miles to Longyang Road station in 8 minutes (7m 20s during normal times). We pulled away from the airport at 18:22, accelerated for a couple of minutes, saw the scenery fly by for about 4 minutes at 186mph, and then decelerated for another couple of minutes before arriving in the Pudong area of Shanghai at 18:30. Amazing! From there, we took the subway (4 yuan or 50 cents) for about 7 stops to People's Square where our fabulous hotel was.
The Shanghainese are so silly. In their infinite wisdom, they built a $1.2bn rail line (well, guideway) that terminated at the eastern end of the city. It's little wonder that no one uses it, so much so that the train stops running at 9pm. Tickets are also somewhat expensive at 40 yuan ($5) each way; cheap for foreigners but hugely expensive for the locals. Still, for two people, it was cheaper to Maglev then subway into downtown than a taxi all the way from the airport.
What's cool, though, is the proposal for an extension to the Maglev system which will link Pudong with the Expo 2010 site, Jiaxing and East Hangzhou in time for Expo 2010 in Shanghai. That line will be 106mi long, cost 30bn yuan ($3.85bn or $36mn/mile!) and, at a proposed design speed of 281mph, will cut journey times from 3 hours to 27 minutes (!!). Stunning, if built.
I was still pretty impressed that Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) technology works in the real world and I got to ride on it! How does a levitating train work? Well, the bottom of the train is basically an inverted U-shaped that hugs and levitates 0.4" (10mm!) over a T-shaped guideway. The Maglev train has no wheels, axles or transmissions. It does not roll, it hovers. Levitation is achieved by sending electric currents through electromagnets attached to the train and the guideway. Very little electricity (less than the A/C power used by the train) is used to levitate the train and propel it forward. Super high speeds are achieved due to the lack of friction between wheels and rails. In the event of a power failure, onboard backup batteries supply power to the levitation system.
Cool, huh? ;-) Yea, I'm such a geek. @ 17:36
[12 long years] One dozen years since the Republican Revolution of 1994 ushered in the worst, most bigoted, racist and war-mongering (against the poor and the defenseless) Congress in history, Democrats - in 30 minutes - will take control of both houses of Congress today with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) becoming the first woman in history to be Speaker of the House and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) as the new Senate Majority Leader.
Whatever happens, there is no way this Congress could be any worse than the 107th or the 109th Congress in which the Republican majority offered the disgustingly anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment.
Goodbye to the FMA, the Republican Majority and their social conservative agenda.
Also, a big F-YOU and good eff-ing riddance to Rick Santorum.
And say hello to a completely blue 110th Congress.
Yay!!! @ 11:30
[toyota #3] It's official. Toyota (15.4% market share) has passed DaimlerChrysler (14.4%) to be the number 3 auto-seller in the United States' 16.6mn vehicle market - after GM (24.6%) and Ford (17.5%) - for the first time ever. This also marks the first time in history that one of the top 3 auto-sellers in the US is not a domestic brand.
Ominously for Ford, Toyota outsold Ford in the US market in both July and November, though Ford clawed back in December to best Toyota by 3,500 units.
Toyota is expected to outsell Ford domestically in 2007.
Toyota, having passed Ford as the world's #2 automaker in annual sales in 2003, is also expected to outsell GM worldwide in 2007, ending GM's 81-year reign as the world's #1. Toyota sold 8.13mn vehicles in 2005, 8.85mn in 2006 (vs GM's 9.17mn) and plans to sell 9.34mn this year. GM is considered unlikely to match Toyota's sales and output in 2007.
In 1925 when GM claimed the #1 spot, Toyota was more than a decade away from making vehicles.
As evident when we were in China, Asia is in ascendant. Nowhere was it more evident than it was in Beijing and Shanghai.
Speaking of China... China's total auto sales ranked fourth in 2002 (3.24mn), third in 2004, and second this year (7mn+, 10% of the world's total). China became the world's third largest car maket in 2006 (after US and Japan) with sales soaring by nearly 40% (!!) to 4.1mn units, surpassing the 3.4mn sold in Germany. China is expected to overtake Japan (4.5mn in 2006) by year's end. Total car sales in China was only 800,000 five years ago.
China has recorded 37.5% growth in car sales over the past 5 years, *tripling* in size since 2001. Can you imagine? 37.5%!! At current growth rates, China will become the world's largest car market by 2013.
Despite rapid sales gains, vehicle penetration in China stands at only 24 per 1,000 people, compared with 749 in the mature markets of the G7. In order for vehicle penetration to hit 1 out of 10, China alone will consume two entire years' worth of global auto sales.
The numbers are staggering and mind-boggling. Any economics-related (sales or growth) number coming out of China is jaw-dropping and shocking. @ 08:09
[*yawn*] The door bell rang at 06:11 this morning. Ugh.
United had mis-delivered one of our three pieces of luggage from Chicago to DC and they decided to call at 02:00 this morning (neither one of us heard it) to schedule a delivery. The nerve!
And then they just bloody hell showed up at our door at 0-dark-30 in the friggin' morning!!
Oh, hell hath no fury like a jet-lagged gaysian deprived of her sleep. I'll get to the bottom of this. You watch.
Meanwhile, I'm *yawn* sleepy, I still have both a cough and a runny nose. Stank! @ 07:11
January 3, 2007
[girl power] More importantly, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will become the first female speaker of the House tomorrow when the 110th Congress convenes, succeeding 51 men who came before her. By doing so, Pelosi will become the highest-ranking woman in the history of the American federal government, and the second in line for succession to the Presidency (after the Vice President).
There were 22 women in the House when Pelosi was first elected to her California district in 1987. There will be a record 71 female representatives when she takes over as speaker, giving women 16 percent of the seats. Women make up a larger share of the national legislature in 79 other countries, including China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
It has taken the United States Congress more than 200 years to select a female speaker of the House. It's a shame it has taken this long, but better late than never! @ 21:00
[dc events] OMB, I have been so busy travelling I almost forgot to mark one of the most important events in DC's history which took place at the stroke of midnight on January 1st, 2007 - Citywide Smoking Ban!
Smoke-free and fresh air, at last! I can't wait to see what JR's is like now... (dead?)
Also on New Year's Day, Metro started running off-peak and weekend Yellow Line service past U Street and Columbia Heights to Fort Totten, expanding the line by 5 stations. See the new map. How cool is that?
Coinciding unfortunately with President Ford's state funeral, Mayor Adrian Fenty - DC's 5th popularly elected mayor - took office on January 2nd, 2007 replacing Mayor Anthony Williams. Mayor Fenty, 36, is the youngest person ever to hold this office.
Lots of things happened at the turn of the new year in the city. I'm still catching up on all my shit, jet-lagged and all. @ 20:50
[93 years 165 days] Whoa, jet lag is a bitch! I only slept 4 hours this morning, argh. Plus, I have a nasty nasal congestion cough thingie that I can't seem to shake. Need more rest.
While we were gone, the 38th President - Gerald Ford - died on Boxing Day at his home in Rancho Mirage, CA. And today, he was buried in Grand Rapids, MI where he grew up. At the age of 93 years and 165 days, he was the longest-lived President beating Reagan by 45 days. After a 31-year lull, two Presidents have now died in the span of two years - Reagan and Ford. Ford became the 11th President to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda and the third person in as many years to do so (Reagan in 2004 and Rosa Parks in 2005).
President Ford was the only person to become President without having been elected either President or Vice President (he was appointed by Nixon after Spiro Agnew resigned). Ford became President for 29 months (8/74 - 1/77) in the midst of the Vietnam War after Nixon resigned in shame due to the Watergate scandal. Ford's pardon of Nixon for any Watergate crimes subsequently led to his defeat by Jimmy Carter in 1976.
President Ford was the last of his breed of Republicans. While serving in the House of Representatives for 25 years, he opposed the poll tax that kept poor people, mostly blacks, from voting. He also supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
President Ford leaves behind his wife of 58 years, Betty Ford age 88. Rest In Peace. @ 20:36
January 2, 2007
[one perfect day] We've been flying for almost 11 hours now from Beijing to Chicago. 90 more minutes to go, or so we're told. Once we land, we have a 2 hour connection before our flight to DCA which lands at close to 9pm. Not bad, considering we left Beijing at 5:30pm which gave us the whole day today to play in Beijing.
And what a day it was! We had a grand ol' time in China's capital, running through the snow-covered Forbidden City like little Emperor Pu Yi (The Last Emperor), feasting on a delicious Sichuan lunch (think kung paos and hot pots) at South Beauty in the magnificent Oriental Plaza, and finally spa-ing our travel fatigues away in the uber-fabulous St Regis Spa. The chilly weather did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm to spend the best final 24 hours possible in China, and the clear skies (a total rarity here) lifted our spirits tremendously. Yea, we were kinda down after missing our flight the day before. We definitely felt like Beijing was the Forbidden City (yea, forbidding us to leave!) after the whole flight fiasco. But our day in Beijing today made up for the whole thing.
First off, the St Regis Beijing is amazing. It is centrally located just off the 2nd Ring Road East near Embassies and lots of expats. A quick 5-10 min cab ride will find you in the center of town - Tiananmen Sq and the Forbidden City. We had our own personal butler! Just call "Sam" and he'll take care of everything for you (well, not *every*thing.. I'm sure Tony would've loved that! *grin*). The hotel's spa is something else. Sauna, steam room, a huge hot springs area with three separate plunge pools, a gorgeous swimming pool heated to perfection, plus two jacuzzis. The whole spa (incl. treatment rooms and the gym) is encased in a glass box. It was, in a word, awesome! The entrance fee is jaw-dropping as well and hugely unaffordable for the average Chinese - $65/pp - though it was waived for hotel guests.
Under clear blue skies with a hint of haze but sunny nonetheless, the Forbidden City (aka Palace Museum) was as majestic as they come. I had forgotten what a startling and enormous series of preserved buildings the Forbidden City is. Ten million square feet! Stunningly beautiful, royally impressive, and superbly well preserved. 4 or 5 of the main buildings were being meticulously restored for 2008, and the scaffolding kinda ruined it a bit. I can only imagine the results of the restoration. Awesome. We ran through the place in about 2 hours; and we literally ran coz, well, it's eff-ing HUGE! We also climbed the hill behind the Forbidden City to get a bird's eye view of the Forbidden City itself but in the winter, the sun shines directly at you the whole day i.e. the pics weren't that great. The view, though, was sensational.
We decided to try the high-end Sichuan chain of South Beauty for lunch. We cabbed over to the massive and impressive Oriental Plaza and feasted on the most sweat-inducing and spiciest food we've had in China! The kung pao pork was delicious but the chicken plus mushroom hot pot was just phenomenal. Yummy!
After lunch, we express-spa-ed before heading to the airport early to make sure we didn't miss our flight for the second day in a row. Oh, about the spa. Yes, it was fabulous and all that... BUT we had the weirdest peeping tom male locker room attendant we've ever encountered. This dude hovered the entire time we were changing, stealing peeks at our various stages of undressed. He was even so bold as to pick up the towels which I had dropped on the floor while I was changing, and then looked up to check out my groin area! Trust me, I would NOT make this shit up. If we weren't in a hurry to the airport (and not miss our flight again), I would've filed a formal complaint. The nerve!
Anyhoe, lunchtime! More later... @ 14:30 Chicago
[24 more hours] Well, it was Shang-Bye to Shanghai yesterday. But wait, I'm not back in DC yet *giggle*.
Looooong story, but the bad snowy weather in Beijing caused our flight from Shanghai to Beijing to be delayed and we missed our onward connection to Chicago on New Year's Day *pout*.
So here we are at the OTT fabulous St Regis in Beijing, and we have all day until 5:30pm before our flight departs for the States. We will still be getting home on the 2nd (it's the whole 13 hour time difference thing) and since I get the 2nd off, I don't have to take additional time off for this weather boo-boo.
But come tomorrow (3rd) when I saunter (more like crawl with droopy eyelids) back to work, I'm gonna be the bitchiest jet-lagged gaysian on the planet.
But for now, Beijing awaits! 24 more hours in Beijing. What a way to start 2007.
P/S: Shanghai was A-MA-ZING. New Year's Eve was... I don't remember much of it, LOL! But it was sensational. I'm definitely coming back.
PP/S: It's FREEZING in snow-covered Beijing this morning! 19°F (wind chills of 11°F), eek!!
PPP/S: The internet connection between China and the US is working again, yay! But my laptop is quasi-broken :-( @ 08:20 Beijing
January 1, 2007 - Happy New Year! 新年快乐!
31 :: gotta be rich
31 :: i hate winter
30 :: 17 days
29 :: random funnies
29 :: brrr
26 :: no eff-ing way
24 :: no compromise
23 :: drown, bitch
20 :: 2009-01-20
18 :: back to normal
14 :: delicious
14 :: boot camp yoga
12 :: coming to america
12 :: tgif
11 :: disaster
09 :: next stop...
08 :: banks are stank
06 :: gorgeous
05 :: shang-high
05 :: busiest airports
04 :: shanghai maglev
04 :: 12 long years
04 :: toyota #3
04 :: *yawn*
03 :: girl power
03 :: dc events
03 :: 93 years 165 days
02 :: one perfect day
02 :: 24 more hours