olivia watching mickey mouse clubhouse

vid taken a few days ago of olivia watching her favorite show, the mickey mouse clubhouse.....

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coping with the hot weather

the weather has been fairly mild and comfortable the past couple weeks, but yesterday it felt a lot hotter and humid than usual. well, here's how i coped with the sudden temperature surge last night.....



well, it was great at the time but it wasn't so great this morning. my joints and bones were hurting pretty bad when i woke up. was it all that beer or i'm just getting old??!!

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typhoon morakot aid & visuals

a week after mother nature showed her powerful fury with typhoon morakot causing major devastation and damages here in taiwan; our country is still struggling with its rescue and recovery efforts. it is absolutely surreal to see all the devastation and extremely heartbreaking to see all the displaced families whom have lost their loved ones and everything they own.

if you'd like to help, please be sure to check out todd's recent post with links and information about donations and volunteering: http://thedailybubbletea.com/2009/08/13/weekly-links-august-13-2009

here are some links to photos and videos of the destruction:

Boston Globe - The Big Picture

Yahoo News slideshow

many more videos available at cnn videos.

BLESS TAIWAN!!!

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father's day lunch

last saturday was 8/8, which is father's day here in taiwan. the reason behind father's day being celebrated on this particular date is because number eight is pronounced "ba" in chinese; and with august 8th being 8-8 or "ba-ba" in chinese which is the same pronounciation for father in chinese.

to celebrate this occasion, we had a big family lunch which included my parents, my siblings, their offsprings and significant others.

some photos takes with my cell phone.....


that's mom, dad and my bro in law (oldest sis' husband).


things got started right away with a bottle of taiwan's very own kavalan whisky, which i thought was pretty good.


then immediately followed by two more bottles of johnnie walker blue label. considering there were only 4 of us drinking, that was a lot of whisky.


you know you've had a bit too much to drink when you start challenging people to do push-ups. here's dad doing his 20 reps. not bad for a old guy almost 70 years old.


my bro-in-law ups the ante by doing push-ups with his fist. afterwards dad tried doing push-up with his fists but stood up right away and said "let's just go back to drinking".


a couple hours after lunch, with a huge headache and buzz i was on a flight to macau for the dreaded "visa" run. came back the same night but almost didn't make it back. my passport got mixed in with a bunch of people's that were stranded in macau because of cancelled flights due to the typhoon. i literally had to chace around the ground crew to get my passport back. needless to say, i was the last person on board the plane back.

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ethan..... wolverine

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swimming in linkou

took olivia and my nephew ethan to the chang-gung university pool in linkou for some much needed relief from this summer heat. the past few days the temp has soared up to 39C (103F), and with the humidity it definitely felt like it was well over 40C!

a couple videos that i took.....





and a few photos.....










i really hate taiwan's public swimming pools insistence on mandatory nut-hugging speedos, spandex or biker shorts and brain-sqeezing swim caps. wtf?!

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tasty lunch

lunch at tasty steak house last weekend.....


we really like going to tasty. the food is not bad and considering the amount of food served in their set menu with fairly decent prices, it's a great value.


funky decor.


eagerly awaiting for the food.










enjoying the food.


and drinks.


kinda thirsty, yeah?!

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