Farewell 2005 Welcome 2006

2005 was full of winners and losers. This kinda sums up 2005.
Some of the winners: Arlene, Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Chi Sox

Some of the losers: India/Pakistan, New Orleans, NHL, Rafael Palmerio, Martha Stewart, Wendy's

Some winners who are actually losers: Wacko Jacko, Kobe Bryant, Robert Blake, Camilia aka the OTHER woman...

Some winners won for the 2nd time: Dubya - FOUR MORE YEARS?!?

Some won for their 3rd: Tony Blair, Spurs, Patriots

Some won their fourth...(Masters): Tiger Woods

He won his seventh...and perhaps his 8th: Lance Armstrong

Some won for the 16th time: Pope Benedict XVI (okay..not really.
but it sorta works)

Some winners won for being there at the right time: Chief Justice -
John Roberts

Some people never seem to lose: George Lucas - Revenge of the Sith

Some people finally get to decide winners/losers: Iraqi's finally get to vote

Then there are those who don't get to decide...win or lose, who knows: Terry Shiavo

After making over 20 attempts to sum up my personal 2005 and not being able to get pass writer's block, I decided to roll it off as most elegantly as I can. Here is a look back, at my 2005.

2004 was a year full of glee,
I proposed, I engaged, I was no longer free.
2005 was not to be outdone,
Not a moment of dullness, bordom - none.

Another year, another heart attack,
To the ICU, I headed straight back.
Last year dad, this year mom,
Only this time, I learned to be calm.

With her I prayed, every night and day,
"Jesus is with us, things will be okay."
We grew and bonded like we've never before,
If only we'd done this, us family of four.

I finally moved and changed jobs within,
A new position, from the bottom I begin.
My friends I'll miss, but yes I must go;
Adieu! Adieu! Farewell is sweet sorrow.

Then came the time, I was puzzled and confused,
He heard me, answered me and changed my views.
My wings I will spread, My cross I will carry,
Next thing to do, hurry up and get marry!!

Before we say "I do", we decided to spend,
Real estate is crazy, money we must lend.
Rejection after rejection, we kept falling short,
Maybe renting is the only thing that we can afford.

Alas we have found the house to be,
Chateau de Leung, came with a big fee.
The Lord is with us, in more ways than one,
Remodel and painting, lots need to be done.

Lake Tahoe, vacation, "Dare to be Free."
Surprised by His power, can this really be?
Confizzled, confuzzled, questions and fears,
Some things are not as they seem to appear.

"PCS", Alan said, is the place we should go,
Vacation in Hong Kong, how can I say "no?"
Pre Marital Counselling, intense as it was,
Prepared us greatly, it certainly does.

Last minute gotchas, we change the wedding date,
Not everyone can make it, the change was too late.
Invitations went out, and Evites did too,
It always seemed, we had too much to do.

Astigmatism, nearsightedness I had,
Coke bottles for glasses, my vision was bad.
LASIK and Wavefront, I decided to get,
It meant one thing, that's being more In-Debt!!

20/20 vision, my eyes have become,
now let's celebrate with wine, gin or some rum.
The Lord's been with me, throughout all of these days,
He paves the path for me, and clears up my way.

Then came the day, I made my solemn vow,
My wife looked beautiful, amazing and WOW!
The tears came rolling, I couldn't control,
My love for my wife, everyday it shall grow.

8 years has gone by, Hong Kong I'm back!
Beijing we were going, but Thailand we'd pack.
Breakthrough in Sha Tin, we found peace at last,
One week of PCS, went by too fast.

Beijing was cold, but the sights were stunning,
The food was lousy and our noses were running.
Great Wall, Forbidden City amazing I must say,
But I was dying to go home, back to San Jose.

Another year has past me, more days have gone by,
How can anything surpass the year 2005?
Amazing is His power, amazing is His grace,
I long for the day, we can come face to face.

And of course...my greatest memory of 2005:
September 17, 2005 inside Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

"In the name of God, I, Henry, take you, Joyce, to be my wife,
to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better or worse, for richer or poorer,
in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish,
until we are parted by death.
This is my solemn vow."

If you missed it, here are 2004 , 2002 . Don't know what happened to 2003.

more random bathroom thoughts... Pt 2

just got back from the restroom again and the "Out of Order" towel got changed to a sign that says, "Out of the Order." I'm going from the edge of sanity to holding on by the skin of my fingernail...

more random bathroom thoughts...

As I was exiting the men's room this morning, I noticed a paper towel wrapped around the handle of one of the urinals with the words written, "Out of Order." Then it occurred to me, or rather, didn't occur to me what that really means. Out of order...what's out of order? Did we order anything? You go to Starbucks and you order a Maple Oat Nut Scone. The barista pokes his head into the pastry display case and comes back with a "I just dinged your car door" look saying, "Sorry, we're out of order." SEE!!! That's when it should be used!!! Or when you go onto Amazon.com and find that missing Star Wars novel from your collection. You click "Add to Cart" and the screen pops up, "We're out of order." Or during a World Cup soccer game and the fans have one too many to drink and start getting rowdy, they get "Out of Order."
When the Out of Order sign pops up on a urinal, what does that mean?? Am I ordering water from the pipes??? Has the order of events been misplaced, hence I can't flush and thus, things are out of order? Hrm....curious isn't it?

Rejection

Is the cup half full or half empty? Last year, before our company shut down, I applied for a different position within the company. The hiring manager called me that very same day wanting to talk to me...but wanted consent from my current manager first. Today, my manager comes by and denies me this opportunity.

In a way, it's a good thing. It shows I'm doing a great job here and I'm wanted. But in another way, I feel locked down. Like someone pulled the carpet from underneath my feet and I can't do anything about it. All part of growing up I guess....

Ok....I cried too....

Is it okay to say that SoChi looked gorgeous? Cuz she really did!!! And I will add that Ken looked (to no surprise) amazingly handsome!! Just three months ago, we were in their shoes. But this time it was soooo much more relaxing.



Such a beautiful wedding. From the first note of Canon...to Pastor Alan's sermon...to the exchange of vows....to Tall Ken's solo!! His solo was soooooo full of love and so touching, tears found it's way out of my 20/20 eyes. Whoever has the wedding recording, I want a copy of it!!!!

Praise God for his miracle of sunshine. The weather reported thunderstorms, showers and wind...but we were so ever blessed by his warm presence. How amazing!!!

And thank you Simon, my buddy and my mentor. For leading me through the entire day. Had a great time working along your side....only next time, we can try to coordinate our suits. Hrmm.......



If we haven't said it enough yet, "Congratulations SoChi and Ken!!!!"

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Do you know anyone who's dated for 10 years? Greg and Holly started dating in High School. They made it through the long distance relationship when one went to Davis and the other to Cal Poly. After graduation, one worked in Sacramento and the other stayed in the South Bay. Through ups and downs, dips and valleys, they've worked through all the kinks of their lives. And on their 10th anniversary as a couple, Greg finally seals the deal and asks for Holly's hand in matrimony. May the Lord bless them with an abundance of grace and love.



On a different note, congratulations to me also!! Spent almost the entire weekend working on my shower. That's the problem with buying an old home. Everything is either broken or close to breaking. Most of the things are beyond repair. Some parts are impossible to replace cuz it's obsolete. And then there's just the old factor.

Started with Joycie asking me to unclog the drain and scrub down the walls. Then I realized that the drain cap was loose...the screw heads came off but the screws were intact. Greattttttt.... nothing like removing an unremovable screw. I asked the Home Depot guy how to remove the screw. His advice, "Sell the house. It'll be easier."
The faucet handles were leaking so I needed to work on those. There were so much grime and rust...most of my time was spent taking things apart! I got to a point where I was Repairing by Destruction. Bought a cobalt drill bit and started ripping everything in sight!! ARGH ARGH ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But alas...at 830PM Sunday night, the leaking stopped ,the drain was secured. And Joycie had a hot pasta dinner with salad waiting. Yet again, I'm convinced that my future offsprings will either be a doctor, lawyer or plumber.

WHOA!!!

Moments after I post about my troubles with 1941, I solved it!!! WOOHOO!!! Nexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxt............

down but not out...

My addiction to Freecell quickly became annoyance ie I got bored of it really fast. So then I did a search on Google to see what other people have written about it...and lo and behold, I find out that game #11982 for Win95/98 is UNSOLVABLE!!! and there are 8 games in 1 million deals for XP that can't be solve either.

Of the 1 million games, the following have been posted as being the most difficult:
1941
80388
617 and others.....

It's been a day and a half and I'm still stuck on 1941. I'm tickled pink at this new challenge, but at the same time, a little discouraged at how difficult it really is!!

Addiction

There's a term we used back in the 80's called "flipping a game" - which means beating the game, winning a game, killing the big boss, finish all the levels. In recent days, my Cuz from NY got me re-addicted to the simple yet mind-boggling game, Freecell. Did you know there are 1 million possible games out there? And each of the games have a solution, unlike Solitarie. And with Minesweeper, it's really hit or miss to have a good start; more guessing than skills, unless someone shows me a strategy. Back to Freecell, if I were to play 5 games (and win those games) everyday for the rest of my life, it'll take me 200,000 days. There are 365.25 days in a year....so it'll take me 547 years to "flip Freecell!!" If I double the games I play every day to 10, it'll still take me 273 years. Okay... I started playing Freecell since 1995 when it came out with Windows 95. Given the benefit of the doubt, I've played 1,000 games. That's still 999,000 games I have yet to play.

So starting from today, if I play 80 games a day, I'll successfully finish Freecell in 35 years. Great!! Reality!! But wait... 80 games a day??? On average, it'll take me 5 minutes to finish a game. That's 400 minutes or a good 6-7 hours! Which is a full time job!!

Maybe I can get Bill Gates to sponsor me for the next 38 years....

Calling pitchers and catchers...

Last year around this time, I wrote a journal entry on the dismal performances of the Niners and my longing for baseball season to start. This year the pain isn't as blaring, with the Warriors and Sharks showing signs of competitiveness and perhaps even a playoff run. Another two weeks of suffering through the 2006 season and we'll be in the Reggie Bush Bowl. Maybe that game will have the highest rating of the year when we go up against Houston for the worst record in football. Knowing the Niners, we'll probably win the game and hand the #1 draft pick over to the Texans. Or...if we lose and we get the #1 pick, Reggie Bush will decide to play another year in college. Boy am I glad I was cognizant during the 80's.

On a more wishful note...the Giants just signed Matt Morris to secure the #2 spot in our rotation. Is this it?? Will this be our going in position to the 2007 season? We bolstered our bullpen and strengthened our start rotation...but what about offense? Guess we'll be limping into Spring Training again...with all our hopes and riding on Bonds' shoulders.

Sigh, sometimes it just hurts to be a San Francisco Sports fan....

the little things in life...

Sometimes, those little things in life make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Went to Dish Dash with a coworker today. While we're in there, the Manager needs to move us to another table to make room for a bigger party. And she voluntarily buys us dessert. I would've rather her buy us lunch, but hey! it's free dessert.

Not really sure what she bought us tho...

Kenafeh
A sweet and special Middle Eastern dessert: Shredded filodough with sweetened cheese in stairated rose water with a garnish of pistachios. Freshly made, so please allow 10 minutes.

Then went over to a used book store to look for this out of print book. Perusing, perusing and suddenly, "BINGO! There it is!!" (VICTORY) But wait...d'oh!!! Same title, different author. Darnit!!!! (DEFEAT) Oh well...I guess I might just have to do what the title told me to do...wait till next year.

So if anyone reading this is ever in a used bookstore and come across WAIT 'TILL NEXT YEAR by William Goldman and Mike Lupica (not Doris Kearns), snatch it. I'll take it, even if 10 people get it for me. On Amazon, it's going for $400. On ebay, last checked, it was going for $85.