Ananias

During Sunday School this past week, one of the discussion questions were, "Who has been an 'Ananias' in your life?" Immediately, I thought of the Louie's and Hsu's as they've been instrumental in my spiritual growth these past few years. Who I failed to remember was spiritual parents back in my Sts. Peter and Paul days. In Catholicism, you call those "godparents." (Yes....Vito Correlone)

Bumped into my godparents this past Saturday at a wedding....along with all the uncles and aunties from my old church. Though they never fed me spiritually nor did we have conversations longer than 5 minutes ever, they're still my godparents. It wasn't by fault or chance that we were paired together but God's will. Probably till the day we return to heaven, I will always call them, "代父,代母."

And the kids....they're no longer kids. The kids that we use to "disciple" are now full grown adults. If someone were to ask them, "Who has been an Ananias in your life?" I wonder if any one of them will mention my name? A very pleasant trip down memory lane...

I hate Boston/New England

I hate Boston/New England.
I hate the Red Sox for winning another World Series.
I hate Tom Brady and the Patriots for ripping through the NFL like no other.
I hate the Celtics (well...I actually like the Celtics) for signing Garnett and Allen and now are odds on favor to win the NBA Championship.
I hate Boston College for being ranked #2 in the BCS.
I even hate New England Clam Chowder and Boston Lobster (not really...but might as well put it here...)



Sam Adam's Boston Lager... you may be the only thing left in Boston I have affinity for. Hrmph!!

Thrice, I wept....

The shortest verse in the bible, "Jesus wept." Jn 11:35.

Saturday afternoon, "Hank wept."
Saturday evening, "Hank wept again."
Saturday night, "Hank wept, yet again."

Lily and Jason's vows were amazingly touching. I think all bride & grooms should consider writing their own vows as opposed to using the standard. But if everyone wrote their own...then that WOULD be the standard, huh?

Vera and Leo also wrote their own vows. And it's hard not to empathize when a groom stands up there and he starts weeping tears of joy.

It was 11:30PM Saturday night. After two weddings and maybe a little too much to drink, I realize I haven't started preparing for tomorrow's lesson. Oops!

Napa

I don't ever want to go to Napa with novices who sit with me in a car for two stinken hours... finally arrive at the wineries...just to tell me, "We don't drink. Oh....and you're driving, you shouldn't drink either." (Li Ga Guy...where r u????)

On a different note.... Napa baby!!!!!!!!

=)

Yes...I got teary eyed.

Gore 2008?

He won the popular vote, but lost the electoral college vote in 2000.

He won an Emmy.

He won an Oscar.

Now...he's won the Nobel Peace Price.

Will he decide to give the Presidential Election another go-around?

I might actually have someone to vote for now...

With 3 to 1 odds...

"The award of a Nobel Prize could prompt the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate (Al Gore) to change his mind and launch a 2008 presidential run. " --www.sfgate.com

Break my heart and rip my stomach out...

Last night, I was soooo looking forward to dinner. It was the highlight of my day... of my week, even! But 2 minutes away from DLS, Anderson calls and says they're closed. Who in the right minds closes a restaurant on a chilly Tuesday night?!?!? WHO!!?! My dreams of the House Lamb over Rice and Chinese Hamburger....utterly completely shattered. Phooey!

After 5 minutes of lamenting, we decided to head over to WuJi's Mala Hot Pot. Ohhhh ho ho ho... Joycie got the Little-little-little Spicy. I got the Little-little Spice. Good ol' Anderson with his leather tongue ordered Medium Spicy. I was sweating like a hog within 2 minutes of starting dinner but it tasted ohhhh soooo good.

Today...I'm in ohhhh soooo much pain. (use your imagination).

Blame DLS for first breaking my heart...and then causing me to be in physical pain (in more places than one).

Random exchange of emails...

Here's a random exchange of emails from last week...when we were talking about 49ers backup quarterback Trent Dilfer....

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 11:07AM
Sports is so painful....yet so pure! Like slice through a piece of meat...but not leaving any signs of a dull knife. -Hank

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 11:10AM
If sports are like a piece of meat, would that make Dilfer that one piece of meat that's been sitting in your freezer for 13 months? You THINK it might be edible, and maybe you're just desperate enough to give it a try, but deep down you know that's really not a good idea.... :)
-Jeff

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 11:15AM
If sports are like meat, Dilfer could be like going to a friend's backyard bbq but you arrive late. And all there's left are veggie burgers. The veggie pattie may look like a regular pattie, but you know it's not. It might try to taste like a pattie, but it doesn't. It might actually be good for you, but you know it doesn't belong in your stomach. And about 2 bites into it...you rather drive off to the nearest In-N-Out and splurge on a real burger. -Hank

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 11:20AM
Nice!!

If sports are like meat, Dilfer's a McRib. It's almost like meat, and you can even convince yourself for a few minutes that it tastes pretty good, but ultimately it's just an overly processed pattie made up of all the bits they couldn't otherwise make useful. Oh...and they also stopped making them fresh 7 years ago....
-Jeff

And THAT my friends...is what I call an intelligent conversation about SPORTS and MEAT.

ANDERSON!!!!

Anderson came through!!! I had to entice him with a slice of Marie Callendar's Double Cream Blueberry pie though... so it wasn't completely freewill offering

Dreams achieved...dreams shattered

Growing up in the metropolis of San Francisco and living in a dinky Chinatown apartment, I never had the luxury of having a front or backyard. I'd watch American sitcom and always envy those families with huge houses, long spiraly stairs, luscious green yards, etc....


Last Wednesday, I got myself a new toy...the Craftsmen 37501 Electric Lawn Mower. I was sooooooooo looking forward to mowing my newly grown front lawn -- which by the way, the grass is a healthy 6 inches long now!! In fact...the grass is so long, if you walk in it, you leave footprints wherever you go cuz the grass is too heavy to bend backup!!

Oh....how often has one experienced the victory of achievement quickly become the agony of reality. As I first pulled the orange lever to power the machine, as the first sputter of the blade whipped through the grass, as the gobs and gobs of mulch started to eject itself from the rear... I found myself HATING LAWN MOWING!!!!!! LAWN MOWING IS TUFF!!!!!

My yard went from a blade of green grass like the fairway at Pebble Beach, to the swamp marshes of the Florida Everglades, and now it looks like the battleground after the Battle of Gettysberg. Pictures do NOT do it justice of how ugly my lawn looks right now. We are, hands down, the laughing-stock of our neighborhood.

Hopefully....Anderson will come through today and bring REVIVAL!!!!!

You know what's disgusting?

I was having dinner with some friends at Sweet Tomato. Half way through dinner, they leave and come back with a bowl of chicken-soup with a an insane amount of mushrooms floating on top. Apparently they went over to the salad bar and spooned a bowl-ful of mushrooms before filling the bowl with soup.

You know how during a horror movie...you don't want to look so you close your eyes. But you're still tempted to peek? Yeah.... that's how disgustingly attractive the soup was.

Another year...another disaster...another championship

Yesterday officially marked the end of the Giants' 2007 season. But unofficially... the season ended sometime during May. Randy Winn was pulled after his first AB yesterday to maintain his .300 BA -- the only one on the 25-man roster. Our much touted pitching staff didn't even have one 15 game winner. Molina led the club with a mere 81 RBI's. And there was 756...

Watching Craig Biggio getting his much-deserved farewell in Houston makes me wonder why didn't Bonds get a similar (or better) treatment? Truly, I envied those fans. Mired by has-beens and smeared by the shadow of BALCO... it's safe to say we're back in the Dark Ages when only a few years ago, we were within 5 outs of a World Series.

It can't all be bad...can it? Niners started out 2-0. Now all of a sudden, we're 2-2 with our "star" QB out with a separated shoulder. So to answer that question... "YES, it certainly can be all bad."

It's all bad except in the case of Fantasy Baseball, where I can once again claim the throne of our league as the King of the Hill. It's petty to count a fantasy baseball league to be anything worth celebrating...but I'll take anything I can get. WOOHOO!!!

Buns

I love Cocktail Buns (雞尾包) and Pineapple Buns (菠蘿包) from Chinatown. Shout out to Dr. Martin!