Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year All! This time of year always evokes bittersweet feelings for both of us... The bad memories from my original diagnosis on 23rd of December a few years back always kinda sneaks up on us. The barrage of Christmas music we've been hearing on the radio always reminds me of a dark time on our life where our sadness just seemed so out of snyc with the world's happiness.... Here is a touching song, pulled from Lance Armstrong's Livestrong foundation, if anyone wants to download. Ok!! Enough dark thoughts.

Its a draggy Tuesday morning after a long 3 day Christmas weekend! Didn't do much but catch up on our TV shows - all our Law and Orders, The Closer, Justice and All the CSI's!! Nothing more relaxing than curling up on our ratty blue couch, underneath a warm blanket, sipping hot chocalate while watching killers get caught on TV. ;) By the way, we even managed to squeeze in a movie at the theathers on Friday evening, where we saw singing and tap-dancing penguins (Happy Feet). Gotta tell you all, I was sceptical at first on how much fun a movie about penguins can be... Luckily, the movie proved me wrong!!! So, for the rest of the day, I'll try to get some work done... we'll see what happens! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!

Happy Birthday, YeeSin

The news of the impending weather apocalypse (aka the first snow storm of the year), has come and gone already, to the tune of only a measly 8-12 inches of snow. Coincidentally, this momentus event happened in conjuction with Yeesin's Birthday! To celebrate, we plowed our way to the Country Club Plaza with reservations at The Melting Pot at 8pm. With 2 hours to burn before then we grabbed a cup of java at the local Starbucks and strolled to the Apple store were we took this cool picture! Its surprising what some caffeine will do to you!

Here's another shot of us with a "comic book" special effect. I'm pretty sure that she liked her birthday present a very cool Altec Lansing IM7 In-room Ipod player, so that we can listen to our tunes in the Living Room...So, I'm not sure why I'm getting choked in this picture??!!. :P







The guys over at The Melting Pot were nice enough to sign a birthday card, leaving it on our table before we even showed up! How cool is that! After a really filling round of entree Fondue, a complimentary candle was lit on our dessert Fondue... Just don't ask us how sweet that stuff was!

Part 2 of the Birthday was celebrated with Elaine, Munsum, and Steve at JP Wine Bar downtown. We really love that place with its cozy atmosphere, and its wine-flights! (thats where u can order "a set" of a couple of smaller poured wines). Check out the pictures below to see how many of those glasses we managed to squeeze into our tiny bar table! Next, the dessert of the night was from the newly opened Artisan Bakery in OP with a really tasty Almond/Pear Tart to complement the wine flights! After a couple of hours of chatting, the night ended pretty late for us by our standards! Finally got our healthy serving of grease at the local IHOP at 2am, and got home by about 3! Staggered out of bed this morning at 11am... What a night!

Happy Thanksgiving

Breaking away slightly from our yearly tradition, we've decided to mix it up this Thanksgiving! Instead of having us (Well, mainly Yeesin) slaving over the stove for the better part of Thanksgiving, we decided to let the hardworking people over at Figlio's on the Plaza to do it! Plus, Elaine was in Dallas, Nick was in St Louis, and H2 was still stuck in Fedex land... So, not alot of people to cook for anyways! Still, the luxury of spending a nice Thanksgiving buffet on the Plaza does come with a price! Well, the actual bill wasn't too big, only $18.95. The only thing is that we had to have our Dinner @ 2.45pm in the afternoon, so it was a REALLY early dinner! We had to say, we were impressed with the spread out there, with lots of pasta, turkey, and all kinds of wonderful desserts!
Next, to walk off all that food, we strolled right down 1 block to where the lighting of the Plaza lights was scheduled to happen an hour later... Thing is, everyone else seemed to have the same idea as us! It was more people than we've ever seen at this ceremony.... Maybe it was the fact that we were going to be on the NFL Network later that night as the pre-game show to the Chiefs/Denver Thanksgiving Night Game! So, after about an hour of being jostled around in the crowd and listening to some nice renditions of some famous Christmas classics, we were rewarded with the Lights, and a nice firework show as well...

Finally, for more entertainment, we strolled on over to George Brett's (A local Sport's Bar) to catch the game. So, it was just the 2 of us, and a whole bar full of slightly inebriated Chiefs fans to cheer them on. Elaine and Klye were cheering remotely all the way from Dallas too, via the TV and SMS! A couple of rounds of Beers and Wine later, Chiefs won 19 - 10... All in all, a good night! How was everyone else's Thanksgiving night?

BORAT!!!

Like MunSum last saturday, we watched Borat too! I loved it, but for Yeesin... err. not so much! I think the best part I like about that movie was that most people that Borat interacted with didn't know that it was a comedy! Entertaining, but probably should have waited for DVD to come out or wait for it on the pay channels...For those that can't get enough of him, try this website : http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1101

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween guys! Commensurate with our yearly tradition, we had yet another Pumpkin Carving party at the B&B. Last year, we spent Halloween in Italy, missing this yearly event. Frankly, the Italians are not very good at Halloween. The costumes that we saw in the streets of Florence were really not very impressive at all, and no sign of any pumpkins at all on any stoops! So, this year with our yearly vacation out of the way, we continue on our carving tradition in the Hood of Olathe!

Couple of interesting items to note on the night. First off, Yeesin and Elaine decide? Doesn't their outfit make them look like a pair of sisters??!! And to their credit, no pre-planning or any level of coordination at all to make this feat of dual coordination happen! So either they are incredibly psychic, or it was just an amazing alignment of planets to make this amazing clash of fashion happen! Seeing as how this IS Halloween, I think any, if not BOTH of those 2 possibilities apply!

Next up, isn't this a cute halloween costume? At first, I thought he looked like the Gecko from the Geico commercials. So sorry to the Kinsella's for me calling Ian's costume a Lizard! It is really a cute Frog! After fueling up with a few Halloween Oreo's, Ian spent the rest of the night pushing around our chairs with mad abandon! Woe to the Pumpkin Carver that didn't double check the location of their chair before sitting back down! BTW, we dressed Benji up for the occasion in a Fall sweater too!

Finally, probably the most amazing thing of the night was that Kyle & Stephen were taking instructions on how to pumpkin carve from the rest of us!! Its just ironic that the only 2 Americans in the house were taking hints and tips from us Malaysians??!!

Still, I think we did a pretty good job of cutting up our Pumpkins (tho not as good as Surgeons on TV), as you can kinda tell from this Picture. Adrian tried to take credit for the amazing carving of his wife, while Stephen & Kyle held their own with very goof FIRST TRIES! We (Myself and YS), did pretty good with our "RIP" pumpkin ourselves! How about an Online VOTE to see which Pumpkin looks the best!!!

P.S. Not to be outdone, Benji decided to sneak to the dining table while we weren't looking and finish off ALL of the pumpkin pie later that night after everyone left. Needless to say, we were not very happy with him!

Myth or Fact?

We've got some additional photos to upload this weekend. So we decided to do a quick Myth or Facts piece on what we discovered during our most recent trip....

Myth or Fact? - 1. For US$100, you can get a decent sized room in London.
Myth! As you can tell from this picture, Yeesin can almost touch the edges of the room if she reaches out with both arms. London is notoriously known as one of the most expensive cities to live in! BTW, the door in the far end is the bathroom. The shower wasn't even large enough to lift out elbows sideways! We can't even imagine how much it'll take to get a Holiday Inn like room??!!!

Myth or Fact? - 2. We all know what the London Bridge looks like!

Myth - This picture on the left is "London Bridge", needless to say, we were not very impressed!

The nice looking bridge that most people think about is actually the "Tower Bridge" on the right! Interesting piece of trivia, in 1968 the last London Bridge was sold to an american for $2Mil, and is in Lake Havasu, AZ now. The running joke among the brits is that he thought that he was buying the Tower Bridge instead.... OOPS.. :)

Myth or Fact? - 3. Shopping and Food is really cheap in London!

Fact! At Camden Lock market, the local flea market, is where we got a ton of deals on food and shopping! We scored a good deal on noodles while strolling on the street - 1 POUND! Yeesin scored a good deal on shoes too-5 POUNDS! AND we walked so much in that city, that sometimes we didn't even have time to eat! BTW, we'd buy more shoes, but for the lack of space in our luggage!

Myth or Fact? - 3. McDonalds can never be classy!

Myth! Check out this Mickey D's on Champs-Élysées in Paris! The pic on the left is the ariel view from the Arch de Triomphe (The other Arch), and the one on the right is from ground level. We've read that when they first tried to get a license to start it up, the government stiputed that the Golden Arches need to be White instead, and that they set up chic tables and flower pots on the outside too! You want Le-Fries with That??!!

Were's Back!

Hi All! We are finally back stateside from our London-Paris Vacation! Wow! A one week vacation sure flies by! London was REALLY rainy, but that's what the tube, Museums, and umbrellas are for! Other than the rain, the weather was cool enough for open windows at night, but warm enough not to worry about jackets during the day! Here are some daily highlights.

(Mind the Gap) - Here we are, running around the subway system in London, or the Tube as the locals call it (The subway is an underground walkway to cross streets). The tube is a lot larger than we thought, a huge labyrinth crisscrossing multiple levels underneath London. An interesting reminder that repeats on the loudspeakers at most tube stops is "Mind the Gap", meaning watch the step between the car and the tube floor. And even after the first day, its pretty irritating! Still its pretty amazing that last year only saw 46 injures due to the "gap" for the year, considering hundreds of thousands of people use it daily!

(Stair Master) - This vacation was yet another good workout for us! Climb to the top of: Arc de Triomphe = 236 steps, Notre Dame Cathedral = 422 steps, Eiffel Tower (Levels 1-2) = 800! If it weren't for the large amount of food that we tried would have actually lost weight on this trip! Still, the views from the top were seriously worth it, like this one on top of Notre Dame (See the Gargoyle on the left of the shot) !


(Dodging Cars at Night) - WOW, what an adventure! You want some element of danger along with a tour of Paris? Courtesy of Fat Tire Bike Tours , we got to bike around the streets of Paris, dodging local traffic, ignoring ALL traffic signals, and getting an education in French swear words from some P.O'ed motorists!! Blasting through downtown Paris, seeing the night life flash by at street level was awesome! We stopped briefly at the Lourve at night where we snapped this synchronized shot! With all 10 cameras lined up with timers on, we sprinted back to our spots where we got this shot (Brandon, our guide is in the center)! He made me the "Assman", where for a Heineken, my job was to block traffic from sneaking up to the group, and make sure that we don't lose anyone during the ride... Hmm..The things I'll do for a beer... :)

(Open Bottles? Pas de problème !) - Unlike the most countries, the French are more relaxed about drinking in public places... Clinking glasses in a picnic at the Champ du Mars, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in the evening, or a wine lunch in Luxembourg gardens, No problem! Other than stares from other tourists, wondering why THEY didn't think about bringing alchohol too, the locals basically didn't even bat an eyelid! Heck at the Eiffel tower, there was a guy that didn't even bother to bring glasses; he just drank his wine wino-style straight from the bottle !



Stay tuned for some videos of the trip...

CLEAN PET & Vacation !!!

Well, its been a really hectic last 2 weeks!!! BIGGEST announcement is that my latest PET Scan came back clear! My onc was joking about us wasting time with us at the clinic with my "boring" results!! Well... we'll take a Boring result anyday!!! WOOHOO!!! Yep, its the necessary evil of being a survivor family.. The constant monitoring, and that lingering fear of having to go through it again... But PHEW!!! , this clear scan means that we'll be close to 3 years remission! The anxiety that comes with waiting and wondering this time of year is now replaced by relief and joy!

What are we doing to celebrate!!! Go on yet another vacation! The drama of waiting for test results have now been replaced by the drama of getting our holiday attire/shoes in time for our trip! We don't want to look like sloppy tourists wearing sweatpants and running shoes on the streets of europe!!!??? Seriously, its really FUN to be on vacation, the pre-vacation planning, and the post-vacation unpacking is the really UNFUN part...In about 6 more days we will be off to London for 3 nights, and Paris for 3 more!!!
Will probably hit the big sights like avoiding pigeon droppings at Trafalgar Square, and try to solve the Da Vinci Code while kung-fu fighting the mimes at the Louvre... Should be a fun time !! Will update everyone when we get back!!

The most fun you can have @ CVS ??!!

Friday night... Nothing much to do, so we decide to stroll down to nearest CVS/Osco drug on the Missouri side of the state line for some Wine Tasting. Yes. Wine tasting in a Pharmacy!!! Here's the link for all you people in KC if you are interested.
I was kind of skeptical when Yeesin mentioned that there was Wine-Tasting in a Pharmacy, but we went in the store anyways. Tucked away in a corner of Osco sat 4 tables worth of wines, with about 4-5 bottles per table, ranging from the regular Cabs, Merlots, Chards, to the more obscure Greek Whites (Yucks, BTW not so good). Bought 2 bottles of Raspberry Sparkeletini which tasted really refreshing!! After about 5-10 glasses of tasting (defensive drinking included : pouring away the ones that you don't like so much), we went on to our next destination of the night...
Westport had an art fair going on that Friday night... Lots of art on display that night for sure, but we were more drawn to the pasar-malam type of cuisine that the local restaurants had by the side of the street! A nice cold ice-cream cone, and starbucks frap later, off we went for some more walking. Stumbled on a free rock concert with the "Zero's" doing covers of 80's music tool! They didn't sound too bad, the crowd digged their music for sure! But maybe its the alchohol they had in their hands had something to do with it ??!!

Possibly the Greatest Movie This Year??!!

At least that what Sam Jackson says on his website. Elaine and us decided that on a lazy Saturday afternoon, watching this movie wouldn't be such a bad idea.... I mean, everyone knows that it won't win next years Academy Awards, so expectations weren't very high!
The title pretty much sums up the movie's plot.. There are Snakes on the F****kin' Plane. I think Sam puts it best himself here. From the multi-colored snakes jumping out of air vents into people faces, arms
One thing I gotta give it to them too, is the soundtrack is awfully catchy...Check it out here: BTW, while I checked out that video... I FOUND THIS ONE!!! HAHA!!!

I can get used to this...

Just came back from a business trip to Washington DC to meet one of our customers at work! Been so bz bz lately that didn't have time to update our blog. So, other than having to do expense reports ( yuck! ) today, I get to reminisce on my wonderful plane ride over there! The ride back is another story, which I'll go into later.
So on Tuesday morning, I drove up to the airport to catch a plane to DC. However, it was a day unlike any other day... No long lines in the airport, no hairy old dude trying to grope me "looking for stuff", no waiting at the boarding lounge waiting to be herded into the plane like cattle... ALL because... Drumroll...

I got to ride the corporate jet!!! WOOHOO!!!
I certainly can get used to this. I made the mistake of showing up too early at the private hanger *gasp* 1/2 hr early. No metal detectors, no pat-downs, and *gulp* no ID checks?!! Yep. The co-pilot just asked for my name, checked it off the list, and off we went!

We even had a nice flight attendent for all 8 of us. Didn't get much of the safety briefing either, basically something like "you know where everything is in case of emergencies right?" No annoucements for seat belts either! 1 continental breakfast later we were there. Felt like a kid on a merry go round = I wanted another ride!

Now on the way back yesterday... Something that I can never get used to! 2 hrs wait at Dulles, followed by non-functional air conditioning on 1 of my flights (yes, I had to transit in Atlanta). And of course, lets not forget my wonderful seat next to the engine (see left) that provided the most wonderful background whitenoise that I kept hearing even after I got back home! Ahh... I wish I could fly corporate ALL the time...

Look it!

You AREN'T in Boston anymore! After about 3 days worth of driving cross-country, I guess this sign must have been a godsend... Helped Terri, David, and Andrew move down from Boston over the weekend. Actually, we didn't really "help". They were unpacked by the time Saturday morning rolled around. However, I did have to pleasure/challenge of assembling their stylo-milo IKEA furniture at their apartment.... They were kind enough to pick up a nice PILBO coffee table for us, which we quickly put together on Saturday night.


"Look it!" is my new phrase that i picked up from little Andrew. Technically, "Look it" is used when he picks up his favorite toys/books and shows it off to us. However, over at our non-kid-friendly (dangerous) house, Andrew is more apt to pick up the nearest Dumbell (Yeah, he is a strong kid), glass coaster, screwdriver, etc and proudly show it off to you, smiling, and saying LOOK IT!!! BTW, you don't know how many different ways you can injure yourselves with daily objects in your home until you have kids over!!! Andrew also finds great joy in dragging our space heater by its cord around the living room. Then proceeding to calming and gently wrapping the cord around his father's neck, then really cutely ask for water!.... Look it!

B&B watching the Bryans!

We had a great time watching a World Team Tennis match between the KC Explorers and the Houston Wranglers! The pair of bleacher tickets were courtesy from Kyle and Elaine for my birthday present, and there were certainly one of the best presents i've ever received! As you guys can guys from the subject of this blog, the Bryan brothers, fresh off the Wimbledon Doubles Championship were there last night!
Weather was a little muggy, and our quest to find parking ultimately had a park like 3 blocks away from the courts (Barney Allis Plaza downtown... but we got there just in time to snag some really sweet box seats with this kind of view!
Gotta tell you, they look even taller in person than on tv!
Those Bryan are kinda goofy tho! Some of the players were pretty serious about winning points, and questioning calls ; but they didn't seem to fazed by it all. Maybe they are just taking it easy, or maybe they are just that good ??!! Anywayz, heres a quick shot of them getting ready for their signature chest bump!

Tze versus the Kitchen Faucet

6.30pm - Weds : As I stood over the just opened package that just arrived on my doorstep, I wonder how long it will take me to install this brand spanking new MOEN kitchen faucet that I got from ebay. Hmmm.. Install time, 20 minutes, the instruction says ; plus, the tools it lists I happen to have them all.
7.00pm : I'm lying on my back underneath the sink, and its not a comfortable feeling. I'm beginning to see how it is really tight-quarters in there, and wonder how the BIG plumbers (you know the ones with the butt-cracks) fit themselves under there.
8.00pm : Mutiple attempts at removing the old-nut from the pre-existing faucet are futile. I decide that 20 minutes on the instructions is probably optimistic at best. Then I decide that the problem isn't between the faucet and the floor of the sink, rather i just don't have the right tools.

8.20pm : Just came back from Ace hardware, where i bought a basin-wrench. Yeah... its really cool looking. Other than being really deadly when thrown at someone, its designed to be able to reach through small areas, grab ahold of nuts, and turn them... (Get your minds out of the gutters... you know who you are!).
9.00pm : Theory works better than practical. The basin wrench isn't big enough to grab hold of the nut. I resort to my preferred way of dealing with stress - cursing in hokkien and english....
9.30pm : Attempt to squeeze the rest of my body under the sink, trying to get leverage on "Bob". Yes. I've given it a name. I figure, I might as well get to know him better since I've almost spent an evening with him... Yeesin starts rolling her eyes, she asks me to reason with Bob, maybe he will let go...
10.00pm : Kitchen Faucet - (Bob) - 1, Tze -0. I call it a night.

6.00pm Thursday : I return to do battle with the faucet, this time armed with $50 worth of wrenches, and a larger basin wrench from Ace hardware again...
6.20pm : VOILA!!!!! Bob releases his vise-like grip! We manage to pull out the old offending faucet out... I'm beginning to think that Bob only responds to high-priced tools. He certainly is a classly guy. Regardless, things are certainly starting to looking up!
6.40pm : Or so we thought... Bad news. The old feeder pipes are 2 inches too short to reach the faucet. *DUH* should have checked before I started installing.






7.00pm : Run to the store again. This time purchase 2 faucet hoses, and hope i didn't forget anything else....
7.15pm : Wonder if I should have put pipe tape on the faucet hoses... Too tired to worry about that now. If it leaks later I will know why...We cross our fingers...


7.30pm : Its a beautiful sight. Especially after the blood and the sweat (well mostly sweat, and lots of cursing) that I've been through for the last 24 hours! I'm thinking that they should preface that 20 minute install estimate with a "individual experience may vary significantly, and may take up to 24 hours". But thats just me. Yeesin says that I shouldn't quit my day-job. I protest that my butt-crack will make me the best-looking plumber around... In any case... ITS FINALLY DONE.
8pm: I wash all the dishware that I can get my hands on in the next 2 hours... I just like playing with this new thingy!

Karaoke Night @ Houlihans...

Yep. You read it right. Karaoke night, where people with (and WITHOUT) talent, at differing levels of drunkeness decide that they are the next American Idol!
It all began with a night out for drinks at the local Houlihans at 95th St and Nieman. Around 9.50pm, we strolled in and grabbed a table by the bar. 2 drinks, and barely into a conversation later, it started...........
"WELCOME TO KARAOKE NIGHT AT HOULIHANS!!!" said the MC for the night. *We just rolled our eyes*
We gotta tell you though, it was entertaining in a disturbing kinda way...


In Asian style Karaokes, its pretty obvious to the crowd (and sometimes even to the other establishments in a 1 block radius), that some people shouldn't quit their day jobs, or even pick up the microphones for that matter!
Now, Houlihans had some semblance of talent yesterday, albeit in my opinion Country and Death Metal Rock can sometimes be hard to sing to....

The crowd, on the other hand, was just as entertaining. Maybe its a monday night thing, or maybe its just a "karaoke-attracts-the-weirdest-crowd" thing... There was this couple that at least had to drive 2 hours out from the boonies to get here. Picture Santa Claus in pink sleveless shirt and cutoff jeans, being held up with suspenders.... Yep, he had a little smell going on with him too, and loves to dance the jig to all kinds of songs. And yes, he loves to do that 2 feet from your face.... ;) "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" We had a GREAT TIME!