ho ho ho..

hope everyone have a merry Christmas and happy 2008!

"TIMBER!"

two years ago when nancy and i were choosing between our current house and the one next to ours, we (or more me) chose our house because of the 100+ yr old oak tree in the front of the house. one thing i hate about new developments in Atlanta is that they get rid of all the mature trees before they build. also, it is especially hard to find within city limits with mature trees all around.

well this past summer, late summer, the leafs of our big oak tree in the front started to brown. at first i was hoping that it was not dead because of the drought and wanted to wait till next spring to do anything with the tree, hoping it will come back. during the past month or two the small branches and barks started to fall. the last thing i wanted is to have a lawsuit, or worse, the trees falls to our house (taylor's room faces the front) or to our neighbors.

i asked some friends to see if they can recommend some tree companies. i got 5 quotes around thanksgiving and was ready to hire the cheapest one - found out two weeks later they went out of business. not good. then we went with our 2nd choice and was able to talk the price down (being chinese). they really did a great job - everything was cut down safely and cleaned up nicely. they had to get like 8 men out here, along with a crane and trucks because of the size of the tree. it wasn't cheap, so don't be offended if you receive a small christmas gift from us this year, if any. so sad.. about the tree being gone.

they grinded the stump yesterday, i need to go rake now.

penguins & sea otters

nancy's best friend jenny was in town for a week. taylor finally got to meet her god mom. two fridays ago we took jenny and the kids to the aquarium. it's been a little more than a year since we get to see with our god son tyler too. the kids' mandarin is much better than mine.. wow, i need to take the chinese class 102 after my 101 this past summer. the kids had a good time at the aquarium. hailey's favorite was the penguins and tyler was the sea otters. it would be so wrong if they have them on the menu, but i was craving for some sushi and sashami at the aquarium's food court.

congrats to the chens as they are expecting their third child! i was telling nancy before they left, this may be their last trip for a LONG time to atlanta as it may be impossible for jenny and james to travel with 3 kids! nancy was sad that jenny and family left last wednesday.

after my last posting, many of you have joined facebook, but just a few more! as always, pictures are posted on our new photo sharing @ shutterfly: http://funkyketchup.shutterfly.com

thief!

growing up, each year for halloween i tell sunny (my bro) that he MUST give me half of his candies from trick or treating. this year was no different, nancy and i have the excuse to go trick or treating and eat all of taylor's candies. nancy was all excited all week as it was taylor's first halloween. nancy carved a pumpkin for the first time. actually this was the first time i went trick or treating.

we wanted to go to the lenox square, but found out they didn't have it and ended up going to a nearby neighborhood, dupont commons. we didn't expect to see so many young couples with kids in the neighborhood. everyone was real nice there and we ended up only going to about ten houses. ppl knew we just wanted some free candy.. haha.




nancy is very proud of her work..




but she was caught stealing candy from taylor!!!

more pictures are uploaded on shutterfly: funkyketchup.shutterfly.com

they are back!

finally, nancy and taylor came back from taiwan today. it's been tough for not having them home for the past 10 days. congrats to scott (nancy's bro) and mandy who had their wedding banquet sunday oct 14th in taiwan.



i have posted the taiwan pictures on our shutterfly website:
http://funkyketchup.shutterfly.com/

i have transferred most of the recent pictures from imagestation to shutterfly. if you haven't joined facebook yet - why wait. i am thinking i may start posting my random and useless blogs on facebook.

taylor is cracking up

practice part ii

last weekend we went out of town again.. this time to charleston. we found out that we couldn't do much on vacation with taylor this young, other than finding time to eat out and shopping between her feedings. all we wanted was a relaxing trip, so we didn't mind that we didn't do much.

there are definitely many things to do in charleston for young families. many sight-seeing places and many good southern and seafood. we were gonna try to take the boat ride to fort sumter tour on the last day before we drive home, but we didn't want to rush and figured we would come back to charleston again in the future.

on the first day, we were going to go to Hyman's Seafood place, but it was packed on a friday nite, so we parked downtown and nancy chose Charleston Crab House. it was nothing special. Sat lunch we tried Magnolia. it was good fancy southern food. definitely go there for the cheaper lunch menu. if you ever go to charleston downtown, park at the free magnolia parking lot but you would have to tell the attendant that you are eating there. sat nite somehow we found a Grand Buffet near the tanger outlet. near the end of the dinner i was shocked when nancy asked me "if we'd come back again", but she was referring to charleston. before we came home on sunday we got to try Hominy Grill for brunch. nancy wanted to try that place b/c rachel ray on food network did a thing on her $40 a day show.



is this a diaper bag or stealing free drinks bag, nancy?




you can view the rest of the pictures on funkyketchup.shutterfly.com.

out of town

last weekend we took taylor "out of town" for the first time. nancy said it was her practice for going to taiwan with taylor in mid oct. first my church had a jbed (joint board of elders and deacons) retreat on friday night. then we were off to knoxville for sunday nite to see my college buddy neal. we had a chance to drive thru the great smoky mtn on the way back to atlanta.

100 days 3 years..

taylor's 100 days birthday was on last monday. i think in chinese they call it "100 yrs old". both of our families came out to celebrate. i think this may be the first time since our wedding that both of our parents have gotten together, exactly 3 years ago. all the pictures above were taken when we were 100 days old. which is who?

ketchup

i cannot believe dolce group stole my idea. they just opened 'ketchup' in east LA. anyone know how i can get a painting similar to the one they got in that restaurant (see gallery)?

California-like weather

on sat it was absolutely gorgeous outside. nancy called it the CA-like weather. about 80 degrees (F) high - the fall is probably my favorite season in atl, except the fact that i'll have to rake leafs later this fall. before heading out for dinner with the warco's and hsu's, we stopped by chastain park nearby our house.

after we walked around the park for 1+ mile, nancy asked me if we were almost there. haha. she actually complained of back pains later that night. may be she needs to rake some of the leaves again this fall.




also grandpa so visited taylor for the first time from HK.

.mac

sorry i haven't been blogging much lately. i've been real busy at work. for the past week i've been pondering about what to do with all the pictures i posted and shared on the web now that imagastation is going away.

i will probably transfer all my photos to shutterfly as imagestation is offering to do. looking at flickr, seems like it's pretty neat, but not so sure that if the free account is suitable. hmm.. should i be cheap like mike where i only post the best pics on flickr and use a free account somewhere else? or pay $25 for flickr pro account?

man, looking at .mac i am very intrigued. for the past few months i've been playing with iphoto more on my mac and just been able to use a lot of its neat features. it's got web photo/movie gallery, web hosting incl blogging, email/group emails, idisk, backup, and it syncs between your iphoto to the gallery automatically (and to your other macs or iphone). hmm.. iphone. but do i want to pay $99 a year? haha.

imagestation

omg, found out earlier this week that imagestation.com is going away. i've been using imagestation all these time. i do have the option of transferring all my pictures to shutterfly. but still this really sucks - i think i have to relink all my pictures in this blog to shutterfly.

anyone is using shutterfly? any feedback? i know many of you use Flickr - maybe i will sign one up. is Flickr the best option out there?

shhhhh..

uh oh.. the secret is out. our zip code was on this ajc article:
http://www.ajc.com/homes/content/printedition/2007/08/19/home.html

below is an excerpt of the article..

Still bargains intown?

Revitalizing neighborhoods are emerging east and west of the core neighborhoods in the center of the city of Atlanta. "We anticipate seeing a couple of years of double-digit growth before it levels out in neighborhoods like Old Fourth Ward and Cabbagetown," says Brown, who notes she sees lots of growth in the Kirkwood, East Lake and Edgewood neighborhoods. "They're rich in history, and the area offers the convenience of intown living with affordable single-family homes."

Monica Manwaring, Realtor with Keller Williams Realty-Intown Atlanta, adds, "Neighborhoods like Sylvan Hills and Capitol View were built by the same developers who worked in Morningside. You'll find lots of brick bungalows to restore. Priced in the upper $100,000s, those bungalows appeal to singles, gays, young marrieds and in general to people who want to be active in the neighborhood and in the schools and help make change happen."

Best values now?

Brown says to look at Howell Station, Berkeley Park and Home Park. "These neighborhoods are at the start of their upswing." Roseberry adds, "If you pick it right, you can double the price of your home with a little sweat equity in a few years. That's one of the more attractive elements for people moving into town."

Jenny Nix, Realtor with Keller Williams-Intown Atlanta, suggests, "Look in the 30318 ZIP code. Prices are affordable, and people like knowing they can buy a house and increase the value of the property and the neighborhood. My neighborhood of Underwood Hills used to be full of singles and young couples; now we have 150 kids under the age of 5. That makes a tremendous difference in an area and in the schools." Her Keller Williams colleague Realtor Wagura Kamwana agrees. "Buying a house in a developing neighborhood is a chance for you to play a role in creating a vision and seeing it become reality."

taylor's 2 months

picture above: taylor's visit to daddy's office, right before her 2 month's check up. she gained almost 3 lbs since her one-month check up and now at 12 lbs 4 oz. she also grew 3 inches and now at 23.5 inches. we can't believe how fast she's growing.

here are a few more pics from the august 2007 album:

our first dance

hey everyone-
take two minutes out of your time to vote online for my cousin who's about to ink a record deal - with your help. there are only 15 contestants left. follow link below and find RICHEY LAM - GIRL CHASER. you will need to verify your vote with a valid email. if you came to our wedding, you will remember that we used his songs for our first dance and slide show.

http://www.star987.com/pages/rock_star_vote.html?feed=204416&article=2403680

here a link to his myspace page, if you don't have facebook.

8-5.5

another useless and random itk.. the man in the pic above is the tallest person in the world, standing tall at 8 feet 5.5 inches. apparently his "growth spurt started at age 14 after a brain operation apparently stimulated his pituitary gland," according to the ajc article.

3.3 out of 100

if you come to our house via I-285, you would have to cross this bridge to get from cobb to fulton/city of atlanta to our house. from this ajc article, this bridge crossing over the chattachoochee river was rated 3.3 out of 100. needless to say i took I-75 home instead yesterday. with all the trucks crossing this 64-yr old bridge, come to our house via I-285 at your own risk. haha.