Wedding Pictures

We've finally gotten the pictures from the professional photographer! :) He's going to pick out a subset of these pix to put on our website, but in the meanwhile, you can find all the pix on my smugmug site.

Happy Holidays

12/22
I took the day off so that I can use up my floating holiday before the year is over. And, it was a good thing, too. It took almost the whole day to get ready for the party. About 22 people showed up - the most number of people we've had in our house. We made almost the same dishes as Thanksgiving, and all turned out well. But, the highlight of the night was the white elephant gift exchange game. Everyone liked the present they got and had a great time.

12/23
We woke up at 7am in the morning to go to Hang and Tsang's wedding in Carmel. (Photo Album) The scenery is lovely, and the couple is, of course, beautiful. The food at the banquet was great, but my stomach was hurting so bad that I couldn't eat very much... :( I attributed that to staying up too late the night before... so I didn't think much of that.

After hanging out in Carmel's downtown with some friends, we had a tasty dinner at the Pacific's Edge Restaurant. It was named one of the top twenty resaturants in the US by the Wine Spectator, but we didn't try any of its wine. The rack of lamb was definitely one of the best I've every had, but braised ribs was a bit of a disappointment. But, the restaurant redeemed itself with the warm chocolate cake.

12/24
The highlight of the day was a spectacular Christmas Eve service at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. It was the most "professional" service I've ever been to. The choir sang beautifully, the orchestra was perfect, the lighting highlighted the mood of the worship, and the message was short but powerful. I guess it should be bug-free, since it was their seventh and last "show". The only dark spot of the day was my abdominal pain...

12/25
The pain continued, so we stayed in bed till late... Then, we went yum char with my parents... shopped at Ranch 99... watched DVD at home... played MJ... ate noodle soup for dinner... and slept at a reasonable hour.

12/26
The symptoms got worse and woke me up with an acute pain. After struggling with the pain for about 2 hours, he drove me to the ER. The doctor at the Good Samaritan Hospital had me go through a blood test, urine test, and ultrasound to see what's wrong, but after 6 hours, he found no clear cause for my pain... This was my 3rd visit to the ER since I've met him (5th in my lifetime), and although these visits are never too serious, they are no fun... But, at least now we know where the closet hospital is...

My First Snowman!

For more pictures in my Ski Trip photo album: Click Here

Is God Trying to Tell Me Something

It felt like the entire world was spinning around me when I woke up this morning. And, after tossing and turning for some time, trying to decide whether I should go to work or not, I dragged myself off the bed to head to the office. Considering the client isn’t that far from my house, it’s easier to just go home early if I really am too sick to work.

After a short drive to work, I parked my car and did my daily devotion. I may never fully understand the book of Ecclesiastes, but I felt like God was telling me that it’s meaningless to toil away if I don’t enjoy the work or what it produces. Then, a friend forwarded a depressing email about how people have died from overworking. I don’t know if people really do literally work themselves to death, or if these are just urban legends. But, I do know for a fact that working day and night does take a toll on your health.

With all that’s been happening, I can’t help but suspect God is trying to tell me something. Think more prayers will help me decipher if He’s really speaking to me?

Death Valley

Here's one of my favorite pictures from Death Valley.

For more pictures in this gallery: Click Here

Spare Key to the Rescue

I think stress and lack of sleep is really start to hit me. As cliche as it is, my body is just not what it used to be. My brain started to shut down around 4pm yesterday coz, even though it was only Tuesday, it felt like a Friday.

4pm Brain started to shut down, so I went to car for a power nap
4.20pm Woke up from what was supposed to be a 15min nap. Rushed back to the
office.
6pm Brain wanted to call it quits again. Started packing...
6.05pm Shoot! Where the heck are my keys?!?!
6.20pm Finally gave in and accepted the fact that I locked my keys in the car
again. Called for help, but he's in a meeting.
... No response ...
... Starving ...
8pm He finally finished meeting and came to the rescue with a spare key.

Goes to say the power of a spare key. And, so much for my wanting to go home early for a change...

Keep Searching...

It’s been a while since I’ve last blogged coz, as usual, work takes over pretty much every aspect of my life. I don’t have a problem with working hard. It’s just that sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my life if this isn’t what I want to be doing. But, I gotta finish whatever it is that I’ve signed up for. That’s just the right thing to do.

I can’t say I hate my job because I do learn tremendously from it, but there is just no passion. I’m not here to complain my job again. It’s just that something someone has said a while back had really stuck with me. That person said I’m only living the way I am now because I’m not searching hard enough. But, searching is *precisely* what I’ve been doing.

Each new project is almost the equivalent of a new job for me. My roles change dramatically from project to project, and, lately, I’ve been playing merry-go-around with clients. With the start of each new project, I keep wishing I’ll find something I truly enjoy doing, but, sucks for me, that hasn’t happened yet. There are still some aspects of consulting that I haven’t tried yet, so in the spirit of giving everything a try, I’ll just keep trying. Until then, the happiest time of my day is having him hold me and kiss me goodnight at the end of the day. :)