Getting ready for Halloween

The Thursday before Halloween was another big day for us ( seems like we have a lot of "big day"s this year). Julie got to vote for the first time as an U.S. citizen. Granted it was only on local issues... it was the first time she ever voted ( yes... she never voted in Taiwan either).

After we finished voting, Eric devoted 2-3 hours carving out this pumpkin to enter into his company's pumpkin carving contest. We used our carving knife to clean out the nostrils of Braces Face.

Unfortunately, Braces Face did not win anything this year... you would think that the committee would give out participation prize. I guess the participation prize is the pumpkin itself.

Someone special just turned 30!! part I

Yeah!!! Eric turned 30 today!!!

To celebrate this big occasion, Eric's parents planned a surprise visit to SF. Julie tried really hard to keep it a secret but it was difficult to give Eric a good excuse why there is a hurry to clean up the house before the weekend. All Julie can say is " you never know, maybe my mom decides to visit early... we have to clean up...". Being the clever one, Eric asked " so when is our internal deadline for this clean up? ^_^"

A different kind of birthday dinner was planned out for Eric. We went to a Moroccan restaurant called El Mansour in Sunset where you have to eat with your hand ( Some of us cheated with forks ^_^). Besides the usual chicken and lamb kabbob, we also got some rabbit meat.

This was Julie's favorite appetizer!

We got to watch our server pour our tea from a very high angle.

Julie even got to enjoy Eric do a little belly dancing!! Hear her hysterical laughter in the background?

For birthday present part I, Julie made Eric and junior matching shirts for the day of junior's hospital departure ^_^

Flash from the past

In the spirit of cleaning our apartment, Eric came across these old airplane models from his childhood. Instead of continuing to store them in boxes, we decided to take pictures of them and donate them to people who will also enjoy them ^_^

Chi-chi-chi-chia!!

Julie has always wanted a Chia pet. So one Christmas, Eric bought Julie a Moo Moo Chia as a Christmas present. But Julie never got around to growing it. Since we are in the spirit of cleaning and trying out new things, Julie decided to finally plant the chia seeds and see what happens... and look, here is Julie's hairy moo moo.

Day 0

Day 1

Day 2 (don't they look like maggots?)

Day 4

Day 6

Ladies' man already?!

Through Julie's prenatal yoga class, Julie volunteered to be a subject for a midwife student class using belly palpation to determine the baby's position.

Didn't know Junior was going to be so popular. He was moved, pushed, squeezed by at least 10 ladies over the course of 1.5 hours. Not sure if he liked it or not, but he managed to scared some of the students by kicking back at their hands when they pushed on him ^_^ ( that's our boy!).

Maybe the class really tired him out. He didn't move around much at his usual time this afternoon (3:00-5:00pm) or much before we went to bed (he usually has a lot of activity at that time too). He most be pooped.... ^_^

Beautiful Bay Bridge... but sometimes a traffic nightmare -__-

Eric and Julie really enjoy the view of the Bay Bridge from their apartment. With the coming of fall, we sometimes can see the sunrise before we need to head out to work (actual photo from last Saturday).

However, the recent changes from the Bay bridge construction, specifically the new "S"curve, really made traffic unbearable sometimes. Although the speed limit listed on the bridge for the S curve is 40 mph, most drivers ignore the sign until it is too late. Here is an example of what happened today...A Safeway's truck realized too late that he couldn't make the tight turn at 55mph and flipped over causing 4 lanes of the bridge's upper deck to be closed. Although this happened at 2 pm, the traffic did not clear until 8pm.

Unfortunately, Julie was teaching on Oakland side that day... can you see her among the traffic -__- She got on the freeway around 6:30pm naively thinking that the bridge was going to clear soon... she did not get home until 8:45 pm. Julie was hungry and thirsty...

One thing cheered her up though... Junior kicked Julie's left rib for the first time today ^_^ This means that he has officially turned vertical and at the right the developmental stage.

Quick trip to Vegas

Before we entered the third trimester, Julie and Eric decided to go on one last quick trip before it became difficult to travel.

Julie, of course, has to squeeze in another agenda for this trip ^_^... (VOSH-California booth representative at Vision Expo)

Eric, though he had to work sometimes while he was there, was very happy to see Mike Tyson as one of the special guests at the Expo. Mike Tyson didn't look too happy to be there though...

Julie was super-excited to find Serendipity 3 in Vegas... she's been thinking about their frozen hot chocolate since she had it in New York 4+ years ago... but the calorie count on one of these things can be scary. ^0^

Julie is always amazed by the decorations in Vegas hotels. The Chinese food in Vegas hotels also has improved dramatically... does that mean they are getting a lot more Chinese gamblers? (It is in our blood isn't it?! ^_^) Eric and Julie found that their favorite penny slot this time is the Deal or No Deal slot machine.

It was so addicting, even though you know that the odds are against you.

We were not able to get the tickets for "O" but we saw Le Reve at the Wynn hotel instead. It was a spectacular show... but most of the time Julie was afraid that the gymnasts would plunge to their death in the water.


Before we left for Vegas, Eric looked up how we can get complimentary upgrades from the hotel and the advice online was to give the front desk receptionist a "$20 sandwich" ( credit card-$20 bill-driver's license). So when the receptionist takes your $20 he or she would be more likely to help you look for a complementary upgrade. And it worked!!! We were upgraded to a high-up corner unit with a view of the strip (picture above). We can even see the Mirage volcano show and the Balaggio water show from our room.



Eric never lets go of a chance to see some nature-y stuff ^_^ so we drove 1 hour NE of Vegas to see the Bristlecone pine... however, it was a little cold for Julie's taste... so we turned around quickly.

Lastly, Julie and Eric concluded their mini vacation in Vegas with another frozen hot chocolate before they hit the road.