sick. . . UPDATED!

[gw] I'm sick, so I'll write more later. . . but here's an interesting article.

Cost of being single vs being married

Upcoming: comments about watching movies with a screaming kid right behind you, and review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

-----UPDATE---------

So I dont think I'm sick anymore. While I was working to backup my coworkers harddrive, (Sorry, I haven't gotten to yours Kat!) I took a long nap and ran up the fever till it broke. Then I took some Tylenol to get rid of the symptoms of headache and nausiousness. I'm back.

Topic#1 - the article above. Interesting eh? So it seems prudent to delay getting married it seems. But now that I am married, I better start saving now for the kids. I didn't realize kids would cost that much. Of course they had to take New York couples, so I had to work off percentages. What about the rest of the country? Why don't they do a real survey? To take only 3 couples is kinda a bad sample.

Topic#2 - watching the movies with an annoying kid. We went on a triple date with Eric and Fiona and George and Jill to watch Pirates. Review upcoming. But there was this annoying kid in the audience, that 2 rows behind me. With stadium seating, that's right on top of ya. Every action scene, the boy would scream. Add 2 trips to the bathroom, rolling a toy car down the steps every five seconds, the mom trying to discipline the boy and the boy retaliating, it was argghh. At one point, the boy pounded on my chair. I thought Yvonne was going to go up and have a stern talk with the mom during the movie. eek. I wasn't feeling to well either, the fever was coming back.

Couple of things:
1) It's a PG-13 movie! Why are you bringing a 4 yeear old toddler into the movie?
2) If you cannot control your children, don't bring them to the movie.
3) Why does the movie theatre allow parents to bring their little kids into the theatre. With all of them struggling with internet downloads and dvds. You think they would be first to say. Come to our theatre, we promise no cell phones ringing nor screaming kids!
4) If it was a kids movie, it wouldn't be as annoying. I love listening to the kids react to kids movies, but this was pirates. . .

I love kids and all, but come on!

Topic #3: Pirates of the Caribbean
*Spoiler* is on wikipedia, which I had to read after I watched the movie to understand the plot. Overall 3.5/5 stars. The plot didn't end. It wasn't a full ending to the story, and we have to wait for next year to see the end. Incidentally, I had to watch the first one again, just to remember the first one. That's my only, but biggest complaint. On the other hand, good acting by Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. The action sequences were amazing and fun to watch. Get ready to spend 2.5 hours though. Watch the movie or wait for DVD? wait for DVD.

props to you

[gw] World's Longest Race - 3,100 miles. No this is not by car, it's all by foot. But they all run around the same block. Crazy what some people do.

true or false?

[gw] So after a new American, Floyd Landis, wins the Tour de France. He allegedly failed a drug test. Here's the story. Now what I can't believe how stupid a person can be to actually drug up in order to win. Do you not know that they will be drug testing you? I hope Floyd isn't that stupid. I don't think he is.

tip of the day: synchronize your thumb drive.

[gw] This is for my moms. Since they tend to store information on their thumb drive.

Remember the windows 95 briefcase? Well, I didn't know that they kept it in Win XP. Anyways, here you go. Keep your thumb drive backed up with your computer. Incidentally, the first gift I gave Yvonne was a thumb drive. :) What was your first gift to your significat other?

little faith

[y] this past monday, my sister told me that my mom was in tears because she lost her purse when she accidentally left her purse in a shopping cart in a walmart parking lot. she went back 30 minutes later and the purse was no where to be seen. my mom had EVERYTHING in that purse...cash, credit cards, phone numbers and addresses that she had scribbled down in a little notebook (that wasn't backed up anywhere else), a flash drive (with her financial info and various other info that wasn't backed up anywhere else), cell phone, pay stub, etc. my mom was devastated, but took action immediately to cancel all of her credit cards and bank accounts. i called her and she kept saying, "i wish the person would just take the money and mail the purse back to me..." and in my head, i'm thinking "yeah right, if a person is so desperate to steal a purse, he's not going to spend money on postage to mail the purse back." but i told my mom that i would pray for that. well the days passed and everytime i reached into my own purse, i remembered to pray for my mom's purse...that someone would return it. well this past saturday, i specifically pleaded to God, "please convict the thief to mail my mom's purse back...it could be a testimony to her that you are faithful and maybe she'll start going to church again." a few hours later, my mom calls me and ecstatically tells me that someone mailed her purse back! all of the cash and gift cards had been taken, but EVERYTHING else was still in there! now what kind of thief takes the time to mail a purse back instead of just disposing of it? i truly believe that it was the work of God to convince the thief to mail the purse back. so i told my mom, "i prayed that God would make the person mail the purse back!" and she said, "thank you!" and i said, "don't thank me, thank God!" well i don't know if she'll go back to church, but hopefully a seed has been planted...

on a completely different note, i occasionally am convicted that i should be more bold and strike up conversations with my neighbors...but i always wimp out. i had 2 taiwanese/chinese single females living around me and all i could muster up was a smile and hi/bye. i already knew one of the girls was christian and had invited her to small group once, but after being rejected, i sort of just quit trying...and now she has moved away. i had never met the other asian female until she caught me a day after she had been assaulted in our parking lot late at night and she wanted to warn me to be careful...but i haven't seen her since that day. almost everyday, i see another neighbor who parks right next to me and details people's luxury cars part-time. well after the assault and word had spread around the complex, he said that we all need to watch out for each other and if i was ever in trouble or needed help, i could call him. so he gave me his business card. he's african american and his name is mohammed. since then, we've been saying hi/bye/how are you doing...but i was always too wimpy and in a hurry to say much else. plus, his name was mohammed...so i figured he wasn't christian and probably would harshly refuse my invitation to church. well gordo has been saying that he wants to get his car detailed and i said my neighbor does it so maybe i can ask him to detail his car. i happened to see my neighbor working on someone's car and asked if he could detail gordon's car this weekend. he said sure and we continuted to carry on a conversation. after i said that we would take my car to church and leave gordon's car here, he asked me what church i attended. i told him and he said, "my girlfriend and i haven't found a church yet..which is bad...but we're always willing to go when people invite us to their church" and i was thinking, "man this is too easy! so i invited him to W, but since he's detailing gordo's car today, he couldn't go today. he said he was born a muslim and was named mohammed by his grandfather, but since then, he has converted to christianity.

these 2 incidents have recently made me realize that i have faith the size of a pea. i pray that God will grow my faith and that i will act upon that faith more and more so that He will be glorified...

smelly finger

[y] ok so this is kinda gross, but just wanted to see if this happens to anyone else. ever since i started wearing my wedding ring and engagement ring together, it's starting to make my ring finger smell where the rings are. it's because when i wash my hands, it gets wet...and sometimes i neglect to dry out the water from under the rings and in between the rings. so it sort of smells mildewy or like a stale towel that has been used too much and needs to be washed.

anyway, does this happen to anyone else? is it because my ring is too big and water gets underneath? if i had a tighter ring, would there be no water...and thus no smell?

dance

Has anyone been keeping up with "So You Think You Can Dance?" Finally, Dimitry is gone. That guy could not dance anything but ballroom. Plus, just showing your pecs doesn't mean you're a good dancer. My favorite dancer? Donyelle. You can tell that she's having fun and doing her best each week. I'm rooting for her. I love watching the coreographed group dances the most. My new favorite coreographer: Tyce Diorio.

So in anyways, as I watch that in the background yesterday, I've been working on trying to get exchange working through rpc over https. Anyone want to help me? I can't get it working. It's so frustrating. I realized yesterday I know noone in IT. Other than Yvonne, but she's in consulting and does programming. help me. . . sigh.

wedding bells - ding, ding, ding!

Yeah! James and Karen got hitched this past weekend. Congratulations newlyweds!! The wedding was beautiful, and James and Karen kept their smiles on the whole night!


Yvonne and I took the opportunity to drive around Dallas and look at potential neighborhoods. We were sad to see that most of the neighborhoods that we wanted to live in were either unsafe or out of our price range. But we're still keeping it all in prayer...that God will lead us to our new home.

Today, I had jury duty. What an experience. First off, there's no public parking in the area, only meters that have a 2 hour time limit. I saw tons of tickets so decided to park in a garage 2 blocks down ($11). Wait another 30min for them to call us in. All the lawyers and the defendent are staring at us as we walk in. I'm in the back row, in the corner. We find out it's a murder case. (whispers in the room) Judge speaks, prosecution speaks on the laws pertinent to the case. People now get confused and start asking about hypotheticals. Took a break. Prosecution continues. The DA did a good job in bringing it back, and told us what was important. Another break. Defense attorney took about 10 min asking us if we could be fair despite our biases. Reminded us of the fact that the defendent is innocent and the state had the burden of proof. They deliberated to see which jurors were going to be chosen. I was 61. Yvonne told me that I was not likely to be chosen. She was right, they chose people mainly from the first and second row. Relieved and disappointed. I was reliving my days in Mock Trial in high school. My sister-in-law incidentally is in law school and is interning for the NYC DA's office prosecuting juveniles. That's tough. Glad I didn't become a criminal lawyer. So 5 hours and earning $6 later. I get to go back to work having served the US Justice system.

wedding bells are ringing...

[y] so g and i have only been back from our honeymoon for 2 weeks now and we've had 2 weddings to attend the past 2 weekends. and this weekend we have another wedding to attend! i'm not complaining though...it's a great blessing to be able to share in the joy of two friends becoming one. this past weekend, we attended the beautiful wedding of tim and janice mah.

it was the first wedding where 'gordon and yvonne wu' was printed on a placecard and the first wedding where gordon and i could ding our glasses and pay the penalty of kissing each other first before tim and janice would kiss...


while in dallas this past weekend, our good friends bing and ellen graciously hosted us in their beautiful house in east dallas and took us around town...like one of their kids...in the back of their minivan with their 2 young kids in front while watching a baby einstein DVD...it was fun!


during our trips to dallas, we try to drive around and look at houses/condos/townhouses since we might possibly be living there in a few months. we went to a few open houses and found several cute houses and several blah houses. we're praying to see where God would want us to live and in what type of home...how much to spend...etc...

Half portions

[gw] This is for my "need to portion control my food intake" wife who incidentally has made me a "portion control, please eat dinner earlier, no greasy foods after 8pm" husband.

Did you know Chuy's does half orders? During lunch and dinner. Just ask for it. A waitress told us about it, she was extra nice and prompt with refilling of our water.

Yvonne's favorite dish: Vegetarian Enchiladas
Gordon's favorite dish: Ground Sirloin "Big as Yo Face" Burritos with BOOM BOOM SAUCE
And we both love the free chips and salsa with the jalapeno ranch (ask for it if they don't give it to you.)

Ramen in a Coffee Pot

[gw] One thing I would like to add to the honeymoon post. I learned how to make ramen in a coffee maker. So just to pass along information if you're as cheap as I am.

Needed:
1 packaged of ramen (not the ones in the styrofoam)
1 hotel coffee maker
3 cups of water
2 forks (that you can get at your local Wendy's or fast food chain.)

Instructions:
1) Make sure your coffee maker is off.
2) Pour 3 cups of water into the coffee maker (packages of ramen usually ask for 2, but you really need 3)
3) Break the ramen in half in the packaging. You don't want to do this once you open the package.
4) Put the pieces of ramen in the coffee pot.
5) Put in your seasonings and oil, and try to pour it into the middle of the pot.
6) Turn on coffee maker.
7) Wait about 5 min as the coffee maker dispenses all of the hot water and let it sit to soften the ramen. Stir so that all the ramen is submerged in the water.
8) Wait about 5 more min or until desired softness of the ramen.
9) Serve into hotel cups.

honeymoon

[y] ok so i finally have some time to post some pictures from our honeymoon. sorry if you're tired of seeing pictures of us. i promise, we won't post many more pictures of just us...

st. john had better beaches than st. thomas because there's less development and over half the island is a natural park.

the islands had numerous lookout points along the mountainous road.

because the food on the islands were ridiculously expensive, gordon went to the grocery store and got rice in a bag and raw chicken and he marinated it and cooked it. yup, that's an episode of 24 season 5 in the background!

this was one of our best (and expensive) meals on the island. gordon claims he had the best alfredo sauce he's ever had in st. john...

and there's gordon and i...on the beach!

how time flies...

[y] i had dinner with my high school friends tonight. it was so good to catch up with them (made me realize how out-of-the-loop i was!). i have known these girls for over 13 years! some i've known since elementary school! and now we're all grown up...some of us are married, some are homeowners, others are wedding planners and successful engineers. it's amazing how so much time has passed, yet the bonds of friendship are still there. love you girls!

this picture wasn't taken today...it was taken 2 years ago, but the girls that were at dinner are all in this picture.

wedding pics galore!

K, so we linked up all the wedding pics that we know of. We haven't uploaded ours yet. If we've missed any let us know!

Flickr pool
Scott Lin
Julie Moon
Perth Tolle
Jeannie Sim - recently engaged!
Allen Kuo
Ours is on the way including those who already have given us their pics.

superman

[gw] So wifey and I finally got to watch a movie together this past July 4th weekend. And what more American than, Superman. We wanted it to watch it in 3D Imax, but of course it was sold out. (Thank you google text for helping us out so we didn't have to drive 30min for no reason.) So we went to the closest one.

Superman, eh, it was okay. Not what I was wanting. I wanted more action and more story. But don't get me wrong, still worth it to go and watch, especially if your a Superman fan. This weekend though I watched the A&E special on Superman. That was really interesting although I fell asleep, cause it was on so late. But it brought together the full story, from the comics, the Christopher Reeve movies from the 70s and 80s, Lois and Clark, and Smallville. I'm still unsure on how Superman was involved in the Justice League though. Anyone have ideas?

So the scenes where Superman was flying were good, but I've seen the same technology used before. There was no wow effect with him flying or saving the plane. There was good acting though especially with Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor.

Which brings me to one of those fun questions, if you had a superpower what would it be and why?

For me? I like Rogue's, even though she's a girl, I can get all the superpowers you have. :) Though that would be a curse if I wasn't able to even touch my wifey. Okay, I'll go with, speed. So I can get more things done in the day, and it's also my names sake.