Who let the dogs out?

Went to a dog park with my friend Christine and her corgi Charlie a while back. Found the pics.

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I kinda want a Samoyed puppy, but.... we live in Texas

attackofthecute.com is an awesome blog.

BTW: looking at photos of baby animals have been shown to increase productivity.  

Publication: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0046362?imageURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0046362.g003

Aging Up

Just completed another trip around the sun. Feels like I made it in record time...haha.

Since my birthday was Sunday, Friday night was the celebration with friends. We did dinner at Kim Wah (refer to the Hot Pot post regarding dinner with friends and happiness). Then it was back to my apartment for drinking/drinking games, followed by 3 hours of karaoke.

Then on Sunday, my parents were coming in to town to have lunch with me, but instead, when I walked in to the restaurant, this is what I see:
Turns out, my family rented a 15-passenger van and drove down to surprise me for lunch! Pretty serious surprise haha. I should probably be more appreciative for good family and friends, because without either, there's really no purpose in life.

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On a related note, I'm apparently still the alcoholic of the group. This weekend, I received two bottles of scotch, a bottle of wine, and then two bottles of sake & Haribo gummy bears hehe. I now have five bottles of scotch opened right now, nbd.

"Old Japanese Couple"

"Diving In"

Asian Hamburger

    My version of the "hamburger"

    

    Ingredients:

• Bread
• Eggs
• Baby Spinach
• Bean Sprouts
• Vietnamese Ham (Cha Chien)
• Sriracha instead of ketchup

Random update: Going to try a 48-hr juice cleanse next week with one of my friends, so stay tuned.

Potluck 1 of 12

Food! One of my friends came up with an idea for a "last meal" styled potluck for our group of friends. The idea is that one person of our twelve is picked to have a "last meal" - they choose the appetizers, main courses, desserts and drinks. The other eleven are tasked with cooking. I made strawberry-mango-papaya & strawberry-peach-banana smoothies.

Additionally, we're always so quick to jokingly insult each other or to burn one another - we really don't compliment / openly appreciate the ones we care about. At the end of dinner, the person on "death row" receives a box of compliments / affirmations from everyone else and reads them aloud. Some are more thoughtful, while some are just for fun.

Prostitute Pasta

Pho

Almond Jelly + Fruits

Twinkie-Tiramisu

Homemade Pho, Best Pho

Lana Del Rey

edit: actually, I just realized that her lyrics are all super-depressing.

Music & Shenanigans

I think I'm going to start playing the clarinet again. Over the last four-and-a-half years (after high school), I probably played two or three times a year - usually when I was stressed out. Well 2013 hasn't exactly been a walk in the park, so perhaps it's time to drown myself in music. There's nothing quite like expressing your emotions in a rendition of some etude.

Part of the impetus for this was probably the act of going to the TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) convention this weekend! It brought back all sorts of memories - I even ran into my old high school friends and directors. I really should have had more confidence in my residual abilities and just bought my mouthpiece & barrel with me, but I didn't, so....bass recorder it is.

Posing with statues is probably one of the most fun things to do...

Happy New Year!

Headed back to Houston for Chinese New Year on Thursday! First night back, a group of us headed to 小肥羊 (Little Sheep) for all-you-can-eat hot pot. It was a great and terrible idea at the same time. According to one of the Rice University Commencement speakers, dinner with good friends is one of the best things you can do to improve your happiness. Commuting/traffic is the worst. Since dinner was after enduring the drive down 610, I guess I hit a net zero :)

Went to Becca's Rice Symphony concert on Friday, but after a night out, my sleep schedule was completely screwed...drove home at 7:30am, slept from 8-11am.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family either eating or at temple.

Pho Binh Trailer - best pho in Houston	Pho 21 - close and easy

New Toy!

My new toy came in! Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens

Here are some unedited random bokeh-licious test shots.

Coffee & Friends

I've been working from various coffeehouses in San Antonio lately.

Olmos Perk
Nice coffeeshop, friendly crowd. They also have a row of 4 workstations with dividers, so think library desks. Best chai latte + 1shot I've had so far; the cinnamon flavor is not overpowering (left). The double mocha is solid too (right).

Aspen Brew
Had a white mocha. Not a huge fan of Aspen since I don't drink coffee, but location is really convenient. They have an random-ish assortment of chairs...

Local Coffee (Stone Oak)
Wow. Turns out, Stone Oak is a really nice area. My only complaint is that they could get more comfortable chairs / benches. Also, it's a little more expensive than Olmos Perk. Ordered a chai latte + shot of espresso and the espresso kinda dominates all other flavors. Not bad, but also not balanced.

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Scotch, Fresh Cinnamon Rolls, & Killing Things With Friends = The Best

Southern

I love Texas. Life's a little bit slower, people are more relaxed. In today's wired world of cutting edge technology and increasing conveniences, you can still find small-town friendliness in big Texas cities. Where I'm from, you can go to a shop and end up engaging in friendly banter with random strangers / store clerks. Depending on circumstances, the same dialogue might elicit a scowl or physical altercation in a place like the Big Apple. I bring this up because when I went to Bed, Bath to get a random shoe rack and a battery, the cashier tells me a story about how that's a really good battery for garage openers. Once she changed out her old battery, it worked like a charm. Haha old Southern folks are cute.
                                                                                                                                                                  
Bought a shoe rack, but maybe I should sue for false advertisement. Fits 12 pairs? Please, more like 7 and a half. Maybe I just have big shoes...

Also, roommate decided to buy a rowing machine. Fun times.