I was writing up an email to an old Army buddy today and decided to include some photos in it when I realized I hadn't uploaded any in a while. So, today, I uploaded some more. Some are from Shannon's 3rd birthday party of this year, some are of the dogs we had adopt us, one of me at football camp, and one of Shannon and Emily with their snowmen on the ski trip.

Doing this has caused me to realize I haven't been taking enough photos which is stupid on my part - it isn't as if I have to get them developed - it's free! So I'm going to try to be more active with taking photos. I have no excuse not to do so. Hopefully you'll start seeing some more photos in the not to distant future.

#MyLife #Photos

Sure, technically, Shannon turned seven a few days ago but last night was her party - not the boring party with her family but the fun one with her friends from school. This year she had an Idol Gives Back party to coincide with the American Idol event of the same name. The last couple of years she has tried to do something charitable and it has gone over pretty well.

Last nights party was also Shannon's first where she just invited girls from her class and not every friend she has. Thus, Emily and I were locked up stairs while the gaggle of 7 year old girls screamed at the TV when Mylie Cyrus came on and each of them had little make-overs. It sounded like they had a great time.

This past weekend we had a little family event for her with a Carvel Ice Cream Cake. This weekend Lisa's parents are going to visit so we will probably have some other little shin-ding for her then as well. I'm sure, if anyone wants to visit the following weekend, Shannon would be happy to continue the celebration through the end of the year.

#Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Photos

Last Friday I was presented with an unusual opportunity - I could go to the Troy Brown Fantasy Football Camp for free. Someone had paid but couldn't attend so I got to fill his slot. The camp spanned Friday night and Saturday and normally would have cost me $1000 to participate in as a player. Normally, I could never afford to go to such an event so this was a real once-in-a-lifetime type deal for me. I was, as you might imagine, very excited.

Friday night's event consisted of a reception in the Big Green room at Marshall University's Football Stadium. My wife, my kids, and I all went. We didn't know anyone there so it was a little awkward going to a party as a stranger; especially when it was apparent everyone else there knew each other (or at least most of them did). However, the food was good and the music was nice and the girls had a lot of fun. My eldest daughter particularly liked going to the bar and ordering her Sierra Mist.

Saturday morning started bright and early. I had to be at the team breakfast at 7am which was served at the local culinary school. After breakfast we were chauffeured via stretch Hummer limo to the football stadium where we took part in a mock NFL combine. The combine consisted of five different events; vertical leap, broad jump, 40 yard dash, 20 yard shuttle, and the bench press. My performance was pretty ordinary and I didn't particularly excel at anything. My vertical leap was 21" which is about what I did a few weeks ago when I was starting the P90X. My broad jump was 7' 4" (which I was actually pretty happy with). My 40 time was a pitiful 5.5 sec while my 20 yard shuttle matched it at 5.5 seconds. Finally, I managed to eek out 6 or 7 bench presses of 135 pounds each. On most of the events I was pretty average though I think most of the people there did better than me on the bench press (not too surprising really).

During the combine I did manage to pick up a nickname - "Socks" - because I was wearing tall soccer socks. I had thought we would be outside all morning and it was cold so I wore the long songs to stay warm. However, all of the combine took place inside so I was on the receiving end of some good natured ribbing.

After the combine we went outside and watched the Marshall team participate in their first pads practice of the spring and their annual "Hoot and Holler" event. The "Hoot and Holler" is basically a scenario in which the offense needs to try to move the ball down a 15 yard long alley (about 10 yards wide) and the defense tries to stop them. In reality it is an exhibition of the two sides of the team hitting each other as hard as they can and a whole lot of yelling and screaming. It was pretty cool. After the "Hoot and Holler" we had lunch and then a "draft".

The draft was really just an announcement of what players were on what team. The two teams were coached by Troy Brown (green team) and Chad Pennington (white team). I was on the green team. After the draft the officials came in and reviewed the rules (there were a lot) and then we headed outside for about 2 hours of practice. In the practice session I learned some new names for some passing routes I had already known of by different names and we came up with a collection of offensive plays. At this point I was feeling more than a little awkward as I was moved to a offensive guard position (even though I was running my routes well and not dropping any passes). However, I think, because I was an unknown - and most of the other players knew each other - it was sort of like showing up on a new playground as a kid - I was unproven and thus not reliable yet. Next we started defensive practice and I was put on the defensive line (2 of us) and charged with blitzing the QB. In this game there are really no blockers and, in order to blitz, you need to start 7yards off the line of scrimmage. I had a lot of fun rushing the QB and trying to disrupt the plays. Likewise, I was able to drop back in coverage at times as well and break up a few passes.

Finally, the game started, and I was happy to see my dad and my youngest brother, Chris, were able to show up along with Lisa and the girls. During the first quarter I played solely on the defensive side of the ball. However, in the second quarter I was put on offense as well (as the fifth receiver) and I played pretty much the rest of the game going both ways (though I did take a few small defensive rests). However, being the fifth option the QB really didn't have many opportunities to find me behind the secondary; particularly in the second quarter. During the half time break I took a couple passes from one of our two QB's in an effort to reassure him I could, in fact, catch the football. He rewarded that effort by trying to get the ball to me twice. The first time was a beautiful deep ball (he throws a really nice spiral) into the corner of the endzone but it was a bit too wide and landed about 5-6 yards out of bounds. It was a tough throw considering he had to throw down the field, and across it, about 40 yards in the air. The second throw to me was in overtime and was also in the endzone but was too low for me to get to (hitting the turf about a yard short of me). Again, he had to make a tough throw across his body and I doubt anyone who was playing could have made a better effort at it.

On the defensive side of the ball I was involved in a handful of tackles, I had a solo sack, and I broke up 2-3 passes plus hurried the opposing QB into making some bad passes a few times. I was really happy with my overall performance and, even better, we won the game 20-14.

Our whole team played pretty well I thought. We were up 8-0 at the end of the first half but even so we barely forced the game into overtime thanks to a last second stop on the 1 yard line when they were driving for the win. In overtime they had the ball first but an errant pass by their QB was tipped and then intercepted by our team. We then drove the ball down the field where one of the oldest players on the field caught the game winning TD (he is in his 60's). It was a great moment and a really fun game.

That night we had a formal dinner banquet and awards ceremony. Each of the guys who did the best in the combine were given a trophy and our game winning receiver was awarded the game's MVP award. I was also able to get Troy and Chad to sign a football I had previously gotten signed for my eldest daughter by Byron Leftwich. The dinner was really good and the company at our table was very friendly. By the end of the event I felt like I at least knew the majority of the guys I played with well enough to greet them on the street. Chad, Troy, and Mike Bartrum (another of the green teams coaches) were all really friendly and seemed to be genuinely nice guys.

Also during the ceremony when each player was given their certificate for participating Troy or Chad said something about each players performance. I felt pretty good about how I played and, based on most of the comments, I felt like I did a decent job (of course it could have just been my socks; he got another jab in on those as well).

One of the organizers of the event asked me to come back next year - I told him only if I could get in the same way I did this time. I just don't have $1000 to donate to any charity, even one as deserving as the Child Development Academy at Marshall University I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another fluke opportunity!

There are additional photos in this album.

#Sports #FunStuff #MyLife #Entertainment #Photos

A couple weeks ago a bunch of us went skiing. A few months ago Lisa and I had bid on a condo package at Snowshoe Mountain here in WV at the March of Dimes Chefs Auction. The condo accommodates 6-8 but I think we had 11 of us stuffed in there. The floorplan had a second floor loft bedroom with a double bed and a set of bunk beds. Lisa, Shannon, Emily, and I slept up there. The first floor had a bedroom in the back and Dad and Patty slept back there. The Joe, his girlfriend, Chris, Justin, and his fiancee' Jules slept in the common area. The quarters were pretty tight for sleeping but overall they were still pretty nice.

Joe, his girlfriend, Justin and I didn't spend much time in the condo as we tried to get a lot of skiing in. Dad and Chris didn't show up until late Friday night (we had arrived Wednesday night). Jules tried to have Justin teach her to snowboard but that didn't work out too well so she ended up taking lessons which was much more successful. Joe really didn't know much about snowboarding when he started on Thursday but he got substantially better over the four days we were out. Dad is, sadly, out of shape (or old) and couldn't ski too much on Saturday or Sunday. Chris, it turns out, doesn't really know how to ski as well I was led to believe and he almost killed himself when I took the crew of people who claimed they could ski to a black diamond run called "Cup". Cup is one of my favorite runs and I held off on going to it until I knew Joe could handle it. Sadly, however, neither Chris or Dad told me Chris couldn't ski (well, he can ski he just can't turn or stop). Cup is a pretty easy black diamond but the surface was very icy and he just barreled down the mountain scaring the shit out of me. He eventually crashed (when he had to turn) and left his skis and poles way behind. He slid across the slope and crashed into the woods. Fortunately he was OK. A little shaken and sore but luckily alive and unharmed. I helped guide him down the rest of the mountain and then we left Cup behind for safer pastures. I went back to Cup alone on Sunday and Joe and his girlfriend also went there a bit.

On Friday Shannon took some ski lessons and then on Saturday I took her out on "Cub" run. Cub is a pretty short green (easy) slope. However, on that day it felt incredibly long. I skied backwards and watched her. She would slide about ten feet and start to pick up speed and then start chanting "Oh My Goodness! Oh My Goodness" before catching up with me and holding on for dear life. She had a blast. My knees and feet however were taking a pounding from the way I was digging in to keep my speed down. We did one run down the hill and by then my body was so sore we headed back to the cabin for lunch. Then, on Sunday I took her back out. This time we went to the same hill she had taken her lessons on and instead of skiing in front of her I skied beside her and let her hold the handle of my ski pole while I held the other end to help control her speed. We did about 10 runs and had a blast. She gained more confidence on each run and she loved going up the chair lift. On the first run she was holding the pole with a death grip but by the fifth or sixth run she was barely holding it at all. It was awesome to see her improve and enjoy it so much. That morning was my favorite part of the trip. My knees were still really sore by lunch time but nothing like they had been when we went to "Cub" run (Cub is much longer than the hill we went on on Sunday).

#Sports #Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel #Entertainment #Photos

Shannon is six and has braces. It is kind of hard for me to believe that she has them already but she does. Her jaw is a little misaligned and leads to a "cross bite". In the past the orthodontist would use a palette expander to shift the bite. I think the palette expander actually just continuously breaks the jaw. I'm not too cool with that idea and, as it turns out, modern orthodontists aren't either. Instead they use braces - sweet. It is odd to see them on her but theoretically if the bite gets straightened out in advance she may not need "actual" braces when she is a little older. That's cool.

#Family #Photos

Well, I'm running behind a bit on this post so not only is it late but it will probably be a little short. Near the end of January Lisa and I traveled down to Atlanta for the NHL All-Star game and skills competition. We left on the Thursday before the weekend began because we mistakenly thought we would be able to go to some of the special events surrounding the weekend such as a concert on both Thursday and Friday night. Even though we couldn't attend the concerts we still found plenty to do to fill the time and, in the end, to have a wonderful trip.

We arrived in Atlanta near rush hour on Thursday and made a mad dash for the hotel that you had to go to in order to get your tickets. We were in a rush because we thought we could go to the nights concert. Lisa begged and pleaded to get the tickets from the office (it was closed by the time we go there) and her pleas worked! Once we had the tickets though we were informed that they didn't include tickets to the concerts. So, that night we walked around a bit, found our hotel, and then went to Ted's Montana Grill which was a pretty cool restaurant that featured a bunch of different Buffalo meat entrees. The coolest part of the joint to me was their insistence on being "green". For instance the table-cloth was a big sheet of recycled brown paper and the straws were paper coated in wax. We actually arrived pretty late so the restaurant was fairly empty so service was really speedy and the food was pretty good too!

On Friday we went downtown again and walked around a bunch. We went to the Centennial Olympic Park and then the World of Coca Cola. At the park we checked out a bunch of the engraved bricks and even found one from Huntington, WV. At the Coke place we did everything; watched a 3-D movie, toured a mini bottling plant, watched a ton of commercials, saw a bunch of old collectibles, and tasted around 70 different soda flavors from around the world. We drank a little bit too much soda but we still had a good time.

In the afternoon we headed up to the Lenox Mall near the Buckhead portion of town for lunch and shopping. We ate at the California Pizza Kitchen which we have seen a bunch of times before but had never eat at. It was good (I had a spicy chicken pizza). I also bought a nice coat while we were there, a badger hair shaving brush and Lisa got a pair of boots and some neat Lush products (soap, bath salts, and stuff). Eventually we left the mall (when it was closing) and headed back to the hotel and then a casual dinner at Gorden Biersch (a brewpub restaurant).

Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to the All Star events. We headed up to Phillips Arena for the Skills Competition on Saturday but we arrived pretty early and took part, sort of, in the card-trading/memorabilia show (we just walked around and checked things out) and then we took a tour of the CNN headquarters (not worth the money) which is attached to the Phillips Arena. Eventually we got into the Arena and had a great time watching the Skills Competition. Our Seats were AMAZING - we are on the blue line about 10 rows behind the players. It was great. We are also surrounded by a lot of people who all seemed to know each other - and a bunch of them all kept stopping by to talk to the guy sitting behind us. We were intrigued.

As the night wore on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) stopped by to interview the guy behind me. So I looked behind me and saw that he was short and kind of old but he was wearing a huge Carolina Hurricanes championship ring. It turns out the guy is Jim Rutherford the GM and part owner of the Hurricanes. He is also an ex-NHL goalie who played most of his career with the Red Wings. We spoke with him and his wife (they were both really nice) and another couple they were with (from Cleveland and loved ribbing me about the Bruins).

On Sunday we didn't really do anything special before the game except go back to the memorabilia show. While we were there we got Patrick Kane's autograph (#1 draft pick last year), and Todd McFarlane's autograph (creator of a bunch of figurines and comic book artist) on a figurine of Marian Hossa. I also bought an old fact book for the Red Wings from 1976 that had a full page spread on none other than Jim Rutherford.

The All Star game was really cool. It had a bunch of extra stuff around it like a performance by The Hives before hand and Ne-Yo during an intermission. I also managed to get Jim's autograph on his page of the Fact Book and I had my photo taken with him. They four of them kept giving me a hard time about the Bruins, especially when Tim Thomas was in goal because he let up a bunch. However I had the last laugh because ex-Atlanta Thrasher and current Bruin Marc Savard scored the game winning goal. A neat bit of trivia I gleaned from Jim was that he actually coached Tim Thomas when Tim was a kid and came to Jim's goalie camp. Needless to say I ribbed Jim a little after Tim gave up his 3rd goal and the group kept harassing me - they only had Jim to blame for Tim's skills. Overall it was a lot of fun and the end of the game actually gave Lisa the highlight of her night when she finally recognized a guy sitting in the section next to us.

Lisa used to watch a lot of Soap Operas, especially when we had the Soap Opera channel and it turns out the guy in the section near us is a Soap Opera star named Thorston Kaye. He has been a doctor on General Hospital and, once his character was killed, he came back as his dead characters brother on a spin off show called Port Charles. It turns out Lisa is a big fan of this guy (basically she thinks he is hot) and so she wanted me to take his photo. I did but some friend of his spotted me acting like a paparazzi and pointed it out to Thorston. Now, Thorston isn't some weak little actor boy - instead he is about my height but has been a collegiate decathalete and a professional rugby player. So I smiled at him and asked if it would be cool for Lisa to have her picture taken with him (I still didn't know who he was, I thought maybe he was an ex Penguins player she knew). He agreed and was really cool about it. He waded through the departing crowd, gave her a big hug, and then gave the camera a real smoky gaze. It was hilarious and Lisa loved it.

#Sports #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel #Photos

Well, technically, I have been back since Saturday but today is the first chance I have had to actually blog about my return to the states.

In my last week there I actually started to build relationships with some of the other people who work at the Hong Kong office so on Wednesday a group of us went and played basketball. I am not very good at basketball though I do get a little better if I play somewhat frequently. You might think, considering I live in front of a park with a basketball court, that I would play fairly frequently but you would be wrong for thinking that. Instead I almost never play. I warned the guys that I wasn't very good but they said not to worry about it. I didn't lie - I wasn't any good - however, fortunately, most of them aren't very good at basketball either so I didn't really feel outclassed by anyone on the court. There was a large guy named Vijay who really used his size and strength to his advantage down low and really pushed me around whenever I jumped for a rebound but other than him I didn't really feel like anyone was doing anything "better" than me. We played games to 21 and the games all took over 30 minutes. It wasn't pretty. In the final game my foot got tangled up with this large Dutch guys foot and I tore my big toenail up pretty badly and sprained the top of my foot. It hurt like hell.

I figured my one advantage in basketball in Hong Kong would be the fact that I am 6' tall and most of the people there aren't. However, it seems the banks only import tall people and so along with Vijay there were some other people who were substantially taller than me in the game. The Dutch guy was easilly 4" taller than me and there is a tall Brit who was probably 6" taller than me. I actually managed to block one jump shot by the Dutch guy but beyond that my highlights were very rare.

On Thursday the tall Birtish guy, Joh, and two other guys (Barrie and Mike - another Brit) and I went out after work back to Lang Kwai Fong to have a couple beers. As the night progressed Mike and Barrie eventually went home until finally, around 2 or 3 am it was just Jon and I so we headed to Ebeneezer's Kabab stand and had a very late dinner before parting ways. Over the course of the night Jon and Mike both talked to me briefly about staying on in HK. I told them the bank wouldn't be able to pay me enough and they both laughed and told me I'd be surprised. While the bank may be able to pay enough I just don't think there would be enough incentive for me to uproot my family and move to Hong Kong. First, and foremost, Lisa already has a very good job which would be hard to replace there. Sure she could get another sales job but she always wanted to work in the Pharmaceutical industry and she probably wouldn't be able to do that in HK. Secondly, it is really hot there and Lisa would be miserable in the heat. Thirdly, Shannon is in her second year of school and is pretty much friends with everyone. While she could make new friends if we moved I would prefer if she didn't have to move around like I did growing up. If I went to Hong Kong we would undoubtedly move back from HK well before she was done with school. Furthermore, flying home to visit friends and family would be a pain - that is one long flight. And finally, I doubt the bank would be willing to buy our house at market value right now and I don't think we could afford to move unless they did.

If we were not American, but rather British or Canadian the thought of taking a Job in Hong Kong would have a bit more allure. They don't have to pay taxes in their home country will living abroad while US citizens do. Effectively these guys get a pretty nice pay raise just from moving and not paying out the 30-40% in taxes. They do have to pay apx 10% in HK tax but that is even offset some because they don't have to pay tax on any money that goes towards rent or mortgage. Considering how high rent is there I imagine that is a pretty nice savings.

Friday was my last day and I only worked about 7 hours before heading back to my hotel to finish packing and preparing for the flight home. On Saturday I woke up, checked out, and headed to the airport where I figured I would have plenty of time to get a bite to eat before I departed. I was wrong. It took a long time just to travel through the airport. Security was actually pretty fast but the airport is really large and there are a ton of places to stop and shop on your way through - it is almost like a mall in and of itself. I stopped and exchanged my Honkies for USD and then stopped in an electronics store and considered buying a playstation portable. I decided against it and instead bought some chocolate and headed for my gate. My flight departed at 12:30pm on Saturday. After a 14 hour flight I arrived in Chicago at 1:30pm on Saturday. Crazy eh? Once in Chicago I had a 5 hour layover. Fun!

In Hong Kong service in a restaurant is vastly different from that in the US. I could go into any dive in HK and get pretty darn good service. At the Chicago airport I went to Chili's for lunch and had pretty crappy, pretty typical, American service. I went to Chili's because they were showing college football on the TV. When the game ended Tennis came on. I asked the waiter if he could try to get football on the TV and he said "Talk to the bartender" so I asked him "can you just pass my request on to the bartender?" and he said "I'm busy" and walked away. Nice. At about the same time some loud drunk guy yelled out of the bar at his buddy calling him a fatass. Another quick bit of culture shock when I returned. In Hong Kong people rarely talked and nobody ever yelled. I don't mind the yelling or noise here but it definitely jumps out at you when you've been living in virtual silence for five weeks.

I finally arrived in Charleston around 8pm I think. The girls were all at the gate waiting for me and it was great to see them. We then loaded up the car and headed home. Once home I handed out all of the presents I bought the three of them and gave everyone a bunch of extra hugs before we finally headed to bed. I woke up at a pretty normal hour on Sun and had breakfast, played with the girls, watched some football, then went grocery shopping, and then came home and at about 8pm felt exhausted so I went to bed so I could wake up at 5:30am to start off my work week back in Huntington. So far this week I have been falling asleep really early every night - last night was just after 9. I have to be at work by 6am so I can overlap with some of the HK people while I work in the morning. I figure I will get used to this new schedule shortly and then stop going to bed so early (but not too late).

So that's it. I'm home. Hong Kong was fun but a lot of hard work (60+ hours every week) and I am glad I had the opportunity to go. However, I am glad to be home even though I'm still working 60 hour weeks. Hopefully that won't be taking place for too long. I put up a couple extra photos in the end of the Hong Kong Week 5 album from my trip home.

#HongKong #Travel #Photos

This past weekend I had it all planned out. I'd go to Macau on Saturday, relax by the pool at the Hotel on Sunday, get a good night sleep and then get back to work for my final week in Hong Kong. Not surprisingly none of that really worked out the way I expected. Just goes to show that I need Lisa around when I am really going to do something that requires a little prior planning.

Friday night was really the catalyst that started everything off on the wrong, but exciting foot. The main manager at the office I'm working in took the team (15 of us including him) to a dinner at a pretty nice Chinese Restaurant called "Peking Garden" where we had a nice meal that was highlighted by two full Peking Ducks. The food was good and the wait staff very efficient. A cool bonus was this guy who came out and made pasta in front of us by hand. It was neat to watch. He would split the long piece of dough in two, stretch it, fold it, cut one end off, then split the 4 pieces into 8, stretch fold, cut, repeat until the pasta, which started as thick as bread, ended up as thin as spaghetti.

After dinner we all headed to Lan Kwai Fong - party spot of Hong Kong - for drinks and socializing. I started off with the plan to just hang out then leave in about 30 minutes and head to bed. Instead I was invited to participate in a contest called CityChase. It was a promotional event for the actual CityChase that takes place on the 15th of Sept. In this event contestants are invited to complete one challenge - the winner of the challenge gets a prize. So this guy Padman, who is here for the company from London for two weeks, and I decided to participate. The challenge involved figuring out some obscure clues about Lan Kwai Fong and then finding a specific bar and finally getting someone to buy you a shot. Great - just what I didn't need an excuse to go talking to women in a bar. But, it was too late. I had accepted the challenge and there was no way I was going to let this British guy beat me. So, using my slightly more extensive experience in Lan Kwai Fong to my advantage I took off for the bar (the only Irish bar in the area). Unfortunately, when I arrived there were already other people there competing in a similar challenge. I was also clueless about figuring out how to get some strange woman (or man I suppose) to buy me a shot. I tried being straight forward with a couple people but they weren't buying. Then Padman showed up and he tried to be very direct with a couple ladies but they thought he was full of shit and just judged him as a loser. He tried again and almost succeeded with one but she finally told him to go away. It seemed neither of us were going to win. So I offered to just buy his drink so we could find out the prize. He liked the idea but we both decided that we would prefer to complete the challenge. Finally a new group of people came in. Two huge guys and two really attractive women. I moved in for the kill. I figured I'd either get the drink or one of the huge guys would kill me. I explained the situation and one of the girls in the group agreed to buy my shot. Woo woo. So I won. I got my hand stamped by the bar and moved back to the finish line to claim my prize with a dejected Padman in tow. The girl who gave us the challenge card awarded me my prize - a free entry to the official CityChase. Dammit. I am, of course, not going to be here for that so I basically just won piece of paper. However, the experience was fun so that was cool.

Padman and I then headed back to Stormies to meet up with the rest of the crew but, because we were so bad at getting someone to buy us a shot, they had all given up on us and left. So Padman and I decided to hang out. He is actually pretty cool and we had a good time just chilling. He is single though so I decided to take him somewhere he would have a chance to meet some hot single ladies so I took him to Dragon-I. While there are probably better bars (for the price) I don't know where any are so Dragon-I is the best place I could take him. There are plenty of attractive ladies hanging out since they get in and drink for free so I figured Padman would be pleased and he was. The only problem was I stayed until about 3am so I didn't get back to my room till about 3:30. This pretty much put a serious dent on my getting up early to head for Macau.

So at about 1pm I woke up and still needed to go to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) to talk to the tailor. I showered, got dressed, and loaded up for the tailor then headed downtown. Eventually I arrived at the tailors, I tried on the shirts for him, and he identified what needed to be fixed and I headed out for the Ferry station to get to Macau. I got there at about 3 and decided to try and get the 3:30 ferry but then started debating the 3:30 helicopter ride which, while much more expensive, would be a cool experience. I talked to the ferry people and suddenly realized I would need my passport which was back at the hotel. So, I ran out, down the street, up the escallator, up the road, down Robinson road and into my hotel where I grabbed my room key and headed up the elevator to my room. It was 3:30. Damn. No getting back in time for that ride. So I showered, changed clothes, and grabbed my safe deposit box key and headed back downstairs to get my passport. Finally I hailed a cab and rode back to the ferry depot. The next ferry wasn't leaving until five and neither was the next helicopter. If I took the ferry I would get there at 6pm or if i took the helicopter 5:15. I decided to take the helicopter and start my time in Macau off like a high roller even if I couldn't afford to act like one when I got there.

The Helicopter ride was cool. We flew pretty low the whole way and I got to see the area from a neat perspective. Then, when we arrived at Macau we got expedited treatment through customs as we got to go through the "Diplomatic" line. That was sweet as the line from the "ferry people" who were just arriving from the 4 o'clock ferry was pretty long. Once through customs I headed outside and hopped on the free shuttle for the new Venetian Macau.

The Macau version of the Venetian pretty much looks just like the Vegas version it's just 3 times bigger. It's huge. However, the Grand Canal Shoppes were only about 50% completed and open (if that many) and the Casino, while large, had very few games that interested me. The slot machines are all overly complicated and there were very few blackjack tables. On top of that there were few to no Roulette tables and zero craps tables. I decided to stick to blackjack. I had gotten 1000 Macau Pictas when I arrived (about $100) but the tables at the Venetian only took Hong Kong dollars so I had to go convert my money. That was weird. Finally I had the right money and headed to the $100 HKD table (the cheapest they had which is something like $13.50 US per hand. Way more than I like to play (I like to play $5 hands). While I ended up losing my money (and another $100 US) after that I managed to stay at the table until around 1am until finally both poverty and hunger demanded I head out. The Venetian was fully booked and the guys at the table told me that the ferry didn't run all night so I needed to find a place to stay. The concierge at the Venetian recommend the Wynn and sent me on my way.

After waiting about 10 minutes for a cab I headed to the Wynn (about a ten minute drive) and then tried to check in. All they had available were two suites so I took one (ouch that was expensive). It was an amazing room, here's the floorplan (pdf). Not worth the money considering I was alone and the guy in the room next to me woke me up at 7am yelling on his cell phone. But wow, the accommodations themselves were top notch. A huge living room, an expansive bedroom, a palatial bathroom, and even a private massage room. The TV, a 60+" plasma, even knew my name! It was pretty amazing. Of course I slept like shit just like I always do the first night in a new hotel. However, checkout time wasn't until noon so I took my time leaving unfortunately I had to leave by 11 because I planned on meeting someone in HK for lunch at 1pm.

After checkout I caught the shuttle bus to the ferry and bought a ferry ticket - 1st row in "first class" which was a whopping $30. First class amounted to slightly bigger seats, a smaller cabin (so less crowd noise) and a small lunch served as soon as we disembarked. I passed on the lunch because I wasn't sure how my stomach would handle the ride. It turned out to be pretty smooth sailing and we were even in an old ferry that rode low and heavy. I arrived in Hong Kong at 12:50 - plenty of time to be at lunch on time because it was scheduled at a place near the Western Market. The Western Market sits adjacent to the ferry terminal. I hurried out to the Market and then up to Queens Road Central to look for the Millenium plaza and the Gaia Restaurante. 30 minutes later I was still wandering up and down Queens Road Central between Central and Sheung Wa (west end to me). I couldn't find it. So I started to give up and left Queens road heading back to De Veoux Road where I could do a little work before heading to my room and lo and behold I saw Wing Lok street which, I thought, was supposed to intersect with Queens Road Central at, you guessed it, Millenium Plaza. So I headed up Wing Lok street and found the restaurant. My companion was nearly done eating and had, understandably, assumed I wasn't coming since it was about 30minutes past our arranged meeting time. She was very gracious and accepted my apology and invited me to join her. From there I ate lunch and we chatted for a few hours. I was very surprised at how much time passed.

The lunch was one of those things that came out of the blue. A few days previously Lisa had been in a doctors office talking to one of the Nurses about how I was here in Hong Kong. The Nurses best friend, Judith, it turns out had just moved to Hong Kong that week to take a job with a newspaper. Lisa gave the nurse my email address, the nurse passed it on to Judith, and Judith emailed me. It is funny how, in a small town like Huntington, Lisa managed to find someone for me to have lunch with. It was nice. She was very friendly and it was great having someone to eat with. After five weeks eating out at restaurants alone gets pretty old.

After meeting with Judith I headed up to my hotel, dropped off a small bag of stuff I had bought in Macau, showered and changed then headed back to TST to pick up my shirts. They all seem to fit very well now and the collars are what I wanted so I'm pretty happy. I wandered around TST for a bit afterwards looking at Jade and Gold stuff trying to find something neat for the girls but had no success. They actually have a lot of these neat little hollow gold statues of varying sizes. The gold is shiny in some places and dull, sort of a brushed look, on the rest of the statue. As it is the year of the pig there are a bunch of cute little pig statues that Shannon would get a kick out of. However, I want to find one that Emily can have too and there isn't a monkey to be found. Well, there was one, but it didn't have the same cute motif - it was more of a realistic monkey and very serious looking.

Judith gave me an idea though so sometime this week I'm going to leave work during the middle of the day for a while and head over to Kowloon to visit a jade salesman. I am doubtful the Jade is real but what he does with it sounds like a cool gift for both Shannon and Emily so I don't really care. I won't spoil the gift here until the girls have them in hand. I also have to go to Causeway Bay again and pick up Lisa's birthday present. Her birthday is this Saturday (the day I get home) and she is turning 40! Make sure you wish her a happy birthday!

#Family #HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos

Last weekend I pretty much wasted all of Saturday laying in bed because, once again, I drank too much on friday. Needless to say that won't be happening again on this visit. In fact I haven't even had a beer (which is typically as cheap as water here) since then.

I made up for my wasted Saturday by filling Sunday with activity. First I headed down to Tsim Shai Tsui (TST) to see why my new custom shirt hadn't been delivered. Thankfully I did because it was too small. So I had them remake it along with a couple more (only $40 each). They were delivered on Tuesday and they are very well done. I actually have to go back because 2 of them still seem a little tight around my shoulders to me. While the tailors ability to measure seems to be lacking his ability to make a nice shirt is not.

After leaving the tailors I jumped on the MTR (train/subway) and rode out to Lantau Island to visit the "Big Buddha." The Buddha stop is actually the last on the line. Once there you have to take a bus for about 20 minutes, over a mountain, to reach the Buddha. The mountain road was very narrow at times and our bus nearly got into two head on collisions on the way down the backside with other buses that were coming up. The turns were all narrow and blind so our driver had to be quick on his break then backup the mountain a little to let the other bus get past. It was crazy. However, we all survived and arrived at the Big Buddha. And it is BIG.

Making the Buddha seem even more impressive is the fact that he sits on the top of a hill that you have to climb to get close. There are 250 stairs (plus 22 we couldn't climb) to reach the Buddha. While most of the people there, such as myself, just walked up the stairs there were others who stopped on each step, kneeled, and did a little hand flipping motion. Every step! The guy I saw doing it looked pretty worn out by the time he reached the top.

The Buddha is actually semi-surrounded by 6 smaller bronze statues who look to be offering him gifts. After I walked around there a little I headed inside the base of the statue where there is a small, unimpressive museum. However, you can, and I did, buy a vegetarian meal ticket which you can use to enter a special part of the museum and see a "RELIC". The relic is some kind of bone or rock (it's white) that supposedly was left behind when the Buddha entered some kind of nirvana (it started with an S.). The relic was very, very small and was recessed back a ways from where we could stand - plus it was embedded in some kind of container where it rested in a little bowl. Basically all we could see was the alter that held the relic. I'm not even certain a relic was there.

Finally I left the Buddha and walked down to the main temple area and watched some Monks do some praying and got smoked out by some insane quantities of incense. I was told not to take photos of the Monks and I couldn't take photos in the museum or of the Relic. There seems to be a real aversion to photography at all of the big tourist places. This has to drive the local tourists crazy because they all have amazing camera's that they are basically denied the ability to use. I don't understand it.

I never did use my vegetarian meal ticket to actually get food; I just bought it so I would be allowed to see the Relic - I'm a sucker. Finally I hopped on a bus and rode back to the MTR station (it was much less eventful on the way back) and started the long ride back to Hong Kong. Except I decided to get off at Sunny Bay and switch MTR lines from the Tian Tan line to the Disney Express line. That's right, I went to DisneyLand Hong Kong.

If you have been to a Disney before (California or Florida for instance) you have seen all that Disney Hong Kong has to offer and then some. It is very small. The entire park is about the same size as main street at either of the other two. It was very, very small. However, at the same time, it was kind of neat. They have a Main Street that looks just like a mini-main street Disney World. They have a very scaled down facade of Cinderella's castle and they have a tomorrow-land and an adventure-land. Inside adventure land they had a "pirate land" too which seems to be a capitalization on the recent Johnny Depp "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

I spent a little time in each part of the park. I bought the girls some Hong Kong "anniversary" pins (1st and 2nd anniversary of the park). Then I rode space mountain which, just like the rest of the park, seemed a little smaller and less impressive than it's US counterparts. Finally I went and watched a live Lion King show over in adventure-land. The show was actually pretty well done and was, surprisingly mostly in English. There were two guys who played odd little "monkey" type characters that would occasionally interject some Chinese (I would suspect Cantonese since it is in Hong Kong but I'm not certain). There were two guys who spun flaming batons which seemed to really impress most of the crowd and the singing by the main characters was pretty good. I thought the stage itself was the most impressive as it incorporated these big animal things that moved all over the place plus the stage changed height a few times during the course of the show.

Finally, I left and headed back to my hotel room for some sleep. It was a long day and I was pretty tired. I took a ton of photos (many of which are linked throughout this post) plus I have a bunch more I didn't put up on the web.

This weekend I plan on going to Macau and the worlds largest Casino. My original plan was to go to Beijing but there are no flights returning to Hong Kong on Sunday so it made my choice of weekend activities pretty easy. So to Macau I go! I'll try some Blackjack and keep the legend of "mobile gambling" alive.

#MyLife #Travel #Photos

Yes, I have been remiss this past little while in not posting an update. I apologize. However, I will try to make up for that by posting today (along with a lot of photos)and again early next week. Hopefully that will appease the angry masses who clamor for more news of my adventures in SE Asia.

While I can't really talk much about work - and you would be bored to hear about it - I can say that things seem to be going pretty well. I will be having my first delivery, if all goes well, tomorrow afternoon. Then I will have the next two weeks to finish up the second delivery before heading home and doing a major overhaul of the underlying framework. It should be interesting and should prove to keep me very, very busy.

I ended my last work week on an interesting note by heading out to a local bar called "Stormies" with a bunch of the other people who really work here. Stormies is a popular Expat bar that plays a bunch of 80's music and has decent prices on beer. We stayed there for a while and then four of the people I was with decided they wanted to head to Wan Chai to troll the bars there for more activity as Stormies was too dull for them. So in a cab we hopped (all five of us, four uncomfortably wedged in the back seat) and we headed to Wan Chai.

I had been warned about Wan Chai not only being the seat of some exciting bar/dance action but also as the home of the Hong Kong island Red Light District. Now, I have been to a few different seedy locations in my time but I wasn't fully prepared for the aggressive onslaught of the prostitutes of Hong Kong. I would guess that few of them were actually Chinese - they appeared to be more Indonesian or Filipino. Some were even very, very attractive; however the overall overbearing nature of the legions of prostitutes was really just too much. It got old very fast. However, I was the only sober one of the five of us and I had told the others, before we left, I would look out for them. Eventually, I just got too tired to wait for the last of the bunch to decide to call it a night so I hailed a cab at 3am.

It turns out over the course of the night I had actually drank quite a bit of gin so I wasn't as sober as I thought by the time I got back to the hotel. I went to bed pretty quickly and then woke up a few times before finally falling into a restful slumber at about 7am. I woke up at 11am when the hotel called and told me they wanted to deliver my laundry and again at 2pm when they called to ask when they could clean my room. Clearly the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my doorknob wasn't very effective. Finally I got out of bed, showered, and headed out for some food. I didn't really do much of note on Saturday except walk around some new parts of Hong Kong near my hotel.

Sunday was a more typical weekend day for me here. I decided to do two things. The first was to visit Stanley which is a town on the south side of the island that is sort of famous for it's market and some beaches nearby. In order to get to Stanley I headed downtown and hopped a double-decker bus and rode up on the top in the very front which proved to be a great place to sit and get some photos.

It took a while but eventually I reached Stanley and for the first time since I have been here it was very sunny - no clouds at all. Of course I don't own sunglasses and I hadn't brought sunscreen to Stanley so I had to stop off and buy both. You can't buy cheap-o knock of sunglasses where I was at - at least I couldn't find any (until later) so I ended up buying some ridiculously expensive sunglasses - I think the most I had ever paid for sunglasses before was about $15 - these were ten times that. It was stupid. The pharmacy where I bought the sunscreen was a little local thing and after I bought it the clerk gave me a free sample bottle of the same sunscreen. Why did I have to buy the bottle then? Of course I couldn't return it.

With unnecessary expenses out of the way I started to walk around Stanley and one of the first places I visited was the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. It was pretty cool and they had some amazing scale models of various ships throughout the history of Hong Kong. Another cool feature was this screen that displayed the Hong Kong harbor from way back in the early 1900's all the way to today sort of morphing gradually between different periods. I actually managed to take a few photos in the museum before someone there told me I wasn't allowed to take photos. That seems to be a pretty normal restriction around here - heck I couldn't even take a photo of a neat lobby in an office building I walked through. It is crazy.

After the museum I headed over to the market and the coast line. First I walked out on some rocky outcroppings (almost killing myself in the process thanks to some being exceptionally slippery) and then I headed down the alleys that make up the market. I was unimpressed so I worked my way back to the bus station for a ride to stop number 2 of the day - The Peak.

Before I could get to the Peak let me just remind you how rich people here are. As I was riding around on the bus I saw one Bentley drive by, 4 Ferrari's and a Lamborghini. I have now seen around 10 distinct Ferrari's, 4 Bentleys, and on Lamborghini. I think I also saw an Aston Martin but it was a little far away so I'm not sure. The Lamborghini was the first I have ever seen in person. I actually managed to get two photos of it as it drove away from me.

On the way to the Peak I again sat on the top level but someone beat me to the front seat. About halfway there the couple in the front had to go downstairs because the girl had gotten sick (motion is very exaggerated on the second floor) so I took her seat. True, there was some vomit on the floor next to it but the view was substantially better. Finally I arrived at the Peak and had a nice middle-aged Canadian woman give me some guidance when I arrived so I wouldn't waste too much time wandering around looking for the lookout points. The Peak, by the way, is the highest point on the island (I'm not sure it is the absolute highest but it is the highest point I could get to on this side of the island and still have a great view).

The view from the peak is very nice - however almost as soon as I arrived a cloud bank did as well - I had clearly left the sunny skies back in Stanley with the $150 I dropped on sunglasses that I probably won't wear again while I'm here (sensing buyers remorse? good!). I took a bunch of photos from the Peak and even a little bit of video of the clouds sweeping around me. It was cool it was just like I was walking in the clouds.

Finally I rode the tram (a cable supported box) back down the mountain to the main part of Hong Kong (but a part I hadn't been in before) and then I walked back to my hotel stopping on the way for dinner (and some more of that Death By Chocolate dessert - yum!).

Last night three of the guys I work with and I headed out across the harbor to Tsim Shai Tsui (TST) for sushi. I have had sushi just about twice before (once a long time ago in California with my friend Chuck) and the second time on a cruise with Lisa. Neither time really prepared me for the sushi joint we ate at last night. First off the sushi was far more varied and secondly it seemed expensive because of the HK pricing. In the end the four of us combined ate for just around $100 so it wasn't bad at all - but it seemed like it was as we went. I ate a lot of salmon, eel, and a little bit of shrimp. I also had some "Fatty tuna" which is supposed to be really good but I thought it was over powered by the soy sauce and wasabi.

After separating from the other three after dinner I wandered around TST for a bit and encountered yet another of the thousands of tailors in the area. This time, however, I actually ordered a custom shirt be made. I paid in advance (apx $44 US) and it is a french cuff shirt, with a pretty nice blue/white checkered pattern (I normally don't like checks as they are too busy but this one is more calm). It has a standard "italian style" collar so I can use my fancy collar stays, and a front pocket. I also had the guy install a little innovation I thought of between the top two buttons. Basically, I don't like how a non-buttoned down collar shirt flares open enough to show my t-shirt. So I had him install a little hook that should be invisible when it is in use halfway between those buttons that will control the collar flare. He will be delivering the shirt to my hotel tomorrow morning so I'm pretty anxious to see how it works out. I'll take a photo for you.

This weekend I plan on going to see the Giant Buddha which is on a small island near here and trying to visit the China Visa office to get a tourist Visa so I can go to Beijing the following weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me because I would love to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace to name a few things. I think it is a 3 hour flight from here to there so I will end up spending a night. I really hope I can do it.

#HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos