So, today I walked all along the antique street in Hong Kong - Hollywood Road - but most of the shops were closed. At the end of the road I encountered a temple, the Man Mo Temple that is dedicated to two different Gods and is responsible for raising charity money for hospitals - it's like the Chinese version of the Shriners! The temple was cool though the air was thick with incense that worshipers had burned in offering. After I left there I wandered around a bit more and witnessed some other ritual on a street that involved incense and a dead pig. I'm not entirely sure what was going on but I believe it has something to do with the fact that this month is the Ghost Month. There are all sorts of little offering places setup along the buildings on the sidewalk.

After wandering around the area of Hong Kong known as Sheung Wan I took the HTR down to Causeway Bay and discovered yet more high end shopping. As it turns out I needed a couple of things so I searched for collar stays and undershirts - real fancy eh? Well, on the flight over I read all about collar stays and it turns out there are more than just your garden variety of plastic collar stays. You can get all sorts of different kinds - most of the time I would think, "Why" but fortunately the aforementioned article anticipated my question and answered - If you forget a plastic one in your collar it can melt when you iron your shirt. A metal stay is a better choice - they won't bend or melt! So, I bought some fancy gold collar stays. Gold you say? Yes - Gold. A bit frivolous for sure but they were only about $60US and now I should never have to worry about ruining a $60 shirt by melting a collar stay in one. Seems like a decent investment when I look at it that way. Of course, my co-workers will give me shit over it but oh well.

I actually had a really hard time finding t-shirts that were white and my size. There were plenty of black ones - but I really didn't want a black undershirt. Finally I found a place called Marks and Spencer that had plain old normal white crew neck undershirts so I bought a pair. They were far more reasonable at just under $20 for the pair. Then I headed back to the central area to have dinner.

I took a different set of trains on the MTR than I normally would because I accidentally got off at the Admiralty stop (one before Central) and it actually worked out well because I was able to go straight up to the Central building instead of IFC mall which is actually out of my way. However, once I got there it was a bit too early for dinner really so I walked around and then stopped in Lan Kwai Fang at a British pub called Bulldogs where I watched Liverpool play some soccer and I had a 2-1 Guinness draft. Afterwards I was debating on where to go to dinner - a Scandinavian place called F.I.N.D.S. or an Australian joint called Wagyu which is actually named after the type of steak it specializes in [[Wagyu]]. Wagyu is basically Australian Kobe Beef. Now, I have never had Kobe beef so Wagyu won out even though it was expensive - $480HKD for an 8 oz filet (the exchange rate is about 7.75HKD-1USD). It turns out it was worth every penny. Not only was the steak ridiculously tender and flavorful - it basically just melted under the knife as I cut it - but it was just the right size. After I ate dinner I decided to further indulge myself and have dessert via "Death By Chocolate" which, while it didn't kill me did let me visit heaven just briefly. This was, by far, the best chocolate dessert I have ever had. "Death By Chocolate" is composed of a layer of thick and rich chocolate mousse on top of which rested the absolute best Chocolate Ice Cream I have ever had, and then heavy rich chocolate brownie chunks and strawberries. It was really exceptional; however it was so rich I couldn't finish it all - so I ended up leaving just a touch of the Mousse behind. All in all, after tip, I had finished the most expensive dinner I have ever had (just around $100). It was fabulous. This whole pretending to be rich thing was fun!

Because I had over indulged at dinner I walked back up the stairs (instead of using the escalator) to get back to my hotel. The dinner was so good I had a smile on my face the entire walk up the hill, a hill which probably involved 300 stairs to ascend.

As this is the first day of week 2 I am starting a new web album for photos. I'm starting with 16 from what I saw today ranging from the temple, to the pig ritual thing, to some interesting parts of a market. Enjoy!

#HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos

This is just a quick update to let you know I updated the Hong Kong photo album with 10 more photos.

#HongKong #MyLife #Photos

Now that the tree is fully gone and I have had a free moment I have put up a photo of the house without the tree in front. It is a pretty dramatic difference!

#Photos

Yesterday, at about 3pm, a quick squall of a rain storm passed through Huntington. It was a pretty good quantity of rain and it was accompanied by some strong wind. I didn't really think much of it other than that I had picked a bad time to go Coldstone for an afternoon snack. However, it turns out the storm was worse than I realized. Later that night, when Lisa was coming home, she called me at work (I'm working late - more on that in another post) and told me the powerlines on fifth avenue were down then, as she pulled up to the house she told me she couldn't pull into the drive way - our tree was in the way.

Hearing this I decided it was a good time to come home (it was about 9pm). So I cruised down fifth avenue and saw that I didn't fully understand what she meant when she said the power lines were down. In actuality she said the power poles - you know, those big wooden telephone pole type things - were snapped in half - five or six of them.

In amazement I continued on to the house and sure enough our big front tree was destroyed - half of it was laying in our front yard - the other half was leaning dangerously toward the house. Unbelievable! I was, to say the least, shocked. I tried to move the half that had fallen so that it was rotated out of the road but it was far to heavy. Then I went to Wal-Mart (only store open at 10pm) to find a chain saw but they don't sell any! Who knew there was something a Wal-Mart super center doesn't sell? When I came home Lisa and our neighbor Paul were outside looking at the tree and Paul was saying that he would cut it down for us. I wasn't too keen on this idea because I didn't want him getting hurt and I didn't want him to feel liable for our house if part of the tree fell on it. I wanted to hire a pro who was licensed. I left for work this morning and Lisa was going to try to find someone to take care of the tree. Lisa came home at lunch and there was Paul with his mini-chainsaw cutting away. He had taken a big part of the fallen half apart and was talking about using his ladder to cut down the rest of the tree. Lisa called me and I came home.

I helped Paul dismantle the tree the rest of the way and bought him a new refurbished chainsaw for his trouble. So now our only tree is gone and all that remains in it's place is a bit of sawdust and a stump. Last month the chimney was hit by lightning and this month our tree was ripped apart by heavy winds. From a purely dramatic impact the wind kicked the lightnings but. Here are some photos of the carnage. I'll stick a new photo, after tree removal, tomorrow.

#MyLife #Photos

I just posted some photos of Emily so I figured I would let you all know. I was cleaning off the digital camera and it seems someone had fun taking photos of her (maybe shannon, maybe lisa). The three I posted were all pretty cute so I hope you enjoy. Just click on this image to see the rest of them.

#Family #Photos

Emily decided to get her ears pierced last week. I was at the park playing Ultimate Frisbee when Lisa drove by and yelled out the window that Emily had made the decision. Then she drove off leaving me stunned. Emily is only three but she has seen her sisters ears pierced for the past year so I imagine she has been considering it for a while.

When Shannon went to get her ears pierced it was just as shocking and seemingly out of the blue. However, Shannon's and Emily's experiences end in similarity at that point. When Shannon had hers done the girl at the mall did one ear then did the other. Shannon is pretty tender and didn't really enjoy the experience at all and cried for a few minutes after. She was happy to have them pierced but not happy about the pain and she let her mother know.

Emily on the other hand was handled by two women at the same time. Both had their own piercing gun and they gently talked her through what they were going to do. Then, suddenly and in synchronization, they both pierced an ear at the same time. Emily grimaced, pursed her lips, and had a single tear creep out of her right eye but, beyond that, didn't make a fuss at all. Emily hasn't complained about any tenderness or soreness at all from the experience. She has been pretty darn tough about it; tougher than I would have been at her age I imagine.

She has also been very proud. If you ask to see her ears she gets into this funky pose with a hand on her head, her hip cocked to one side, and her leg thrust out. It's really funny to see. She wanted far more complicated and bulky earrings to get started with but, for the time being, she is happy to settle for small purple flowers.

#Family #Photos

I have updated the family timeline with our images for this year. I am probably going to do them over again so that I am a bit more zoomed in on our faces though as these are from a bit too far away. However, it is still amazing to see the way that Shannon and Emily are growing. It's pretty cool.

#Family #Photos

As I told you in my prior post on Shannon's endless birthday my Dad and Patty (my step-mother) made some great benches/stools for the girls and, as promised, I have put some photos of them up.

#Family #Photos

This past Saturday we began the celebration of Shannon's 6th birthday. In what seems an unusual trend we are having multiple parties for her this year. The first was her "friend" party in which all of her school friends, and other kids her age, came over to play, eat cake, and have fun. The second party will be more sedate as it will have more adults will focus on family members who can make it in town (the weekend after Easter).

This past weekend was the friends party and Shannon planned most of it with just a little guidance from Lisa and myself. The totality of my input was that it would be a "no-present" party. She has so much stuff, and always gets so much from her family, that her friends really didn't need to be getting her anything. If any of her friends families felt compelled to get her a gift then we would donate the gift to a local charity that helps out needy kids. Many of the parents were a little put off by this stipulation but, in general, they did a good job of respecting our wishes.

The theme for the party was "Peter Pan" with a focus on Tinkerbell and fairies. Most of Shannon's classmates and friends are girls so Shannon decided she wanted to have a costume party were all the kids would dress up as fairies. If anyone didn't want to dress up as a fairy they could dress up as a pirate or a lost boy from Peter Pan. In general all of the girls dressed up as a fairy (with one exception - she was Wendy in a dress her grandmother made just for the party). There ended up being just about 20 kids and nearly as many moms on hand for the event. Needless to say the house was full of fun.

We had a play dough table setup, tents and tunnels they could climb/crawl though, the Wii was setup for some of the adults to play, we had hopscotch on the porch (it rained a bit), and pin the wings on the fairy (another great Shannon idea) as well as pin the hook on the pirate (for the boys - she is very thoughtful).

I don't know if you have ever had apx 20 5-6 year old girls in your home before or not but let me tell you - they can be loud. They run, they scream, they scream, they scream, oh and they scream. They had a blast. Little kids in tights and wings fluttering around the house with about four pirates/lost boys tormenting them. It was hilarious and fun to watch.

For the first hour of the party though the true hit was Joseppie the Clown. Joseppie made balloon animals and took the demands of the kids in stride all the while wearing a huge red smile. He had a pretty good repetoire of animals as well; he made dogs, mice, giraffe's (a big hit), swords, and even one crown. He was a great help and we really appreciate him not just doing it but volunteering for the role in the first place. Shannon loved having a clown at the party and, for as long as we can keep it, she won't know his true identity. The other parents were all really impressed by Joseppie and I think he could make some good money if he were willing on occasion.

Eventually we had the cake and ice cream and then we ended the party with a mad dash for candy from the Pinata. Every kid had a ton of fun and I think the party was a huge success. Most kids parties now-a-days are held at party places like Chuck-E-Cheese (Billy Bobs Pizza here) or a Bowling Alley. By having the party at our house though the kids all got to actually play together and just have fun. Plus, with having a no present policy but having it be a dress up party all of the kids ended up getting a gift of a costume (if they didn't own one already). One of Shannon's friends, who normally won't go to the parties (due to lack of funds to by a gift) was able to come which was really cool.

Shannon was great. She was totally cool with the idea of a no present party, she seemed to play with everyone and made an effort to make all the kids feel welcome, and even shared most of her candy from the Pinata with kids who weren't able to really get any in the mad scramble. I often say she reminds me of Lisa and in this regard she is no different. I don't think I have ever met two nicer people. Now if only I could get her to give a natural smile for the camera. There are a couple more photos in our online album.

#Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Photos

Today we woke up to a wintery scene thanks to our first real snowfall of the year (some actually stuck) it's still snowing very lightly and it is cold outside so hopefully it will continue to accumulate. Shannon and Emily were both pretty excited about it (all 1-2 inches on the ground) so we bundled up and headed out for a small snowball fight before I had to leave for work. Shannon is on a 2 hour delay for school today so it worked out perfectly for us to go out and play.

Shannon had fun running around and tossing snowballs but Emily was less than impressed. She basically just stood in place looking cute, but cold. She wouldn't even walk into the snow until I carried her across the border between sidewalk and grass. She tried to pick up snow but it made the outside of her glove wet (something she apparently dislikes) so that was the end of that.

There are three photos up of them playing in the snow.

#Family #MyLife #Photos