.: angilou and tucker too :.

and i always thought i was the smart one

So, for those of you who know my brother, Adrian, know him to be a mild-mannered, nice guy.  There’s a 14 year difference between us, so I feel like I am both sister and mother to him, although I try to repress the mothering (it’s hard).  Fortunately, he is doing so well, it makes it easy for me to not worry or mother him.  He’s doing GREAT – the ideal Chinese son. ;-)  He’ll be graduating from Cornell in the spring, and already has his plans lined up.  He’s been co-oping at Sandia National Labs out in the Bay Area, and now they've offered him the OYOC (One Year On Campus) program.  The deal is if he gets it, Sandia will pay for his tuition and books for grad school (master's degree), AND pay him a salary while he's in school?!  AND, when he finishes, he automatically has a job with them at full salary, and needs to work there as long as it took him to finish his degree, then he can stay there, or go on to wherever else he'd like.  How crazy a deal is that???

So, of course, he interviews, and he gets it - sweet!  And then he takes his GRE's, and of course, he does phenomenal on them (780 Math, 750 Verbal if you must know).  So now he just has to get accepted to grad school.  Gee, I wonder how hard that's going to be...

oops, we did it again - preggers

yup, i am with child again.  i don't know what we were thinking, but tucker somehow convinced me that it would be good for cal to have a playpal, and that they be relatively close together in age.  so, i've gotten through most of the puking and nausea, and am starting to show.  i wanted to post a picture, but decided that by the time i did that, it'd already be here.

oh, and we already found out: it's a boy. :-)

really, i do

you know, really, i want to post all the time, and things will happen where i will say "oh, i have to put that on my blog", but then i forget, or it becomes outdated.

photo catch-up

shirley was gracious enough to help out with cal AND bring dinner (homemade chicken potpie - yes, she's the best!), which gives me a precious few extra moments to post things that have been long overdue. 

here were my meals to and from tokyo-manila on japan airlines.  each time i opted for the "japanese" option vs the boring "western" option, which was inevitably some version of beef filet or salmon.  the japanese option menu was so long i can't even tell you what i ate, but it was good (at least the things i was brave enough to try, which were most of them).  i did have to look around at the other japanese folks to figure out how to eat some of the things,  like which sauces went with what thing. they also gave you a little rice packet, which was tied up with string and it was actually good rice!!! one thing i didn't take a pic of was one of the snacks which were these soba noodles they serve with sauce/broth.  i knew what they were, but i didn't know how it worked - did i put the noodles in the sauce, or do i pour both of them into the little wodden box that is on the side?    i loved taking jal.

another item i enjoyed in manila was the mcrice burger.  it's the same concept as the mcgriddle, but instead of making a full breakfast into a sandwich, they take a teriyaki rice bowl and make it into a sandwich.  the "bun" was some kind of sticky rice:

although india and the philippines are probably both considered third world countries, to me it was even close.  the philippines were so much more developed and advanced, it has many of the creature comforts of the u.s.  one example that will show the contrast between the india and the philippines are the drivers' hangouts.  in both countries, it's common for people to have drivers, and it's common for malls to have large underground parking lots, with some designated area for drivers to hang out while waiting for people.  in india, it's usually some patch of shaded pavement in the garage, or some dusty corner of the parking lot.  in the philippines, they had this air conditioned room with benches and a tv!!  i was floored.

the food in manila was awesome - huge variety, plentiful, good quality and CHEAP!  here i am about to chow down on a sashimi set with 12 pieces of sashimi, miso, salad, etc. that cost about USD$12.  it was also hot and sweaty when i was there, hence my super shiny face. :-)

of course, i also have a ton of thanksgiving pics, but for brevity's sake, here are a couple of my faves: