grandpa's birthday 2010

well, better late than never. here are some photos from dad's birthday celebration around the end of january.....

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4th wedding anniversary

today is our 4th wedding anniversary. there are still times when i just sit there and reflect upon my life thus far and i still feel amazed that i'm married. not just married but married to a beautiful and wonderful wife; and now with a beautiful daughter as well to top if all off. how did i get so lucky?

to my beautiful wife karen, i love you always. i am a better man because of you.

just as we do every year, let's go back.....


our "love story" video which i made and was shown at our wedding reception party.


our "pre" wedding photos taken by champs-elysees wedding photography 香榭大道時尚婚紗.


part 1 of photos from our wedding reception party. photos by tina peng.


part 2 of photos from our wedding reception party. photos by yingchi wu.

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week 10, 2010

despite some reluctance from me, olivia has started school. we enrolled her at a school near our house called karl witte, which is a montessori based school. after seeing olivia go to school every morning earlier in the week, my nephew ethan (who's a year older than olivia) started bugging that he wants to go too so they're in the same school for now. this is a photo of them ready to go school together for the first time.


well, so it begins. here is olivia's first school "artwork", a set of denture!


went to pray at the fortune god temple in jinshan.


walking around the old streets of jinshan.


eating some famous jinshan duck.


had dinner with the in-law's where to everyone's surprise, my father-in-law started singing karaoke. well, he only sings when he's drunk so you know he's had quite a bit to drink!


feeding goats at the levee park in wugu.


rented a tricycle and rode around the levee park.


brunch at skylark restaurant.

some random ramblings.....

there's been a lot of talk about the abolishment of the death penalty here in taiwan. personally, i dont think anyone deserves to die but at the same time, i agree with the death penalty depending on the severity of the crime. sure, i dont think the death penalty should be the sentence for any convictions where there are possible doubts. however, i certainly believe in it for people who are outright guilty of crimes such as child rape or like the man in austria who repeatedly raped his own daughter and fathered a few children with her while locking them all up in the basement for 20+ years without seeing any daylight. then again, maybe they should thrown him in prison for life without solitarily so he can be raped over and over in there..... then give him the death penalty.

we’ve now lost 4 engineers to the evil empire foxconn. it really is hard to compete with the big guys and their annual multi-month bonuses.

wen jiabao, the premier of china said in a conference this past weekend that we're all brothers. hmm... sorry mr. wen, but i ain't your brother.

when i went to jason's market place last month, i saw that they were selling dude beer from bc, canada. unfortunately i didn't buy any that time. well, i've gone to 2 different jason's this past couple weeks and they didn't have it anymore. what happened to it? now i wish i had bought some the first time i saw it.

we've started talking about a second one. for now, we're aiming for rabbit but thinking if we should wait until dragon. if it was up to me, i'd go for both but it takes two to tango. no, no tiger for us. no offense to anyone with or having tiger babies, but tiger just doesn't work for us. yeah, i'm still kinda traditional and believe in all the chinese mumbo jumbo with zodiac and stuff.

club med in april or back to canada in the summer? here again, can't do both either. i really wanna just sit on a tropical beach for some r&r but i haven't gone back to canada in 5 years. club med would be so much cheaper compared to canada but i really miss my friends back home. what to do? what to do?

march madness is here. my money is on kentucky because i'm a big fan of john wall's game. let the dance begin!

last week, temperatures went from scorching hot of 30C down to near freezing of 5C (a new low for the past few years. it even "snowed" in yangminshan, which is technically still taipei city) back up to the high 20's C on the weekend. today, it was again pretty nice with temps in the mid-20's. well, it looks like it won't last long as the forecast is calling for another coldfront with predicted temperatures reaching down to 10C. can we end this cold weather already and get on with the summer? bring on the heat permanently i say! bring it on!!!

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sian & jeff's wedding

my cousin jeff, who's one of my closest cousins, got married earliest last month to beautiful sian. despite the circumstances surrounding their matrimony, they seem genuinely happy so i'm very happy for them both. wish them nothing but the best!

here are a couple of their wedding photos.....





and here are some photos from the wedding party / reception.....

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