Homecoming...

Tuesday night was a homecoming of sorts. I finally got around to going to Sweet Tomaotes. It had been at least a month or two since I last went. Over the weekend, I found coupons in the Chicago Tribune and clipped them for use last night. This month they're featuring GRILLED CHEESE FOCACCIA DIPPERS. Now, keep in mind that I love going to Ikea just to have a kid's grilled cheese meal. There's just something about grilled cheese that I find very satisfying. So in essence, my main motivation for going last night was to try out these dippers. Let me tell you, they did not disappoint. They were everything that I expected them to be, and more. They were toasted just right, loaded with cheese, and quite buttery. Add to that "Big Chunk Chicken Noodle Soup" and you've got the perfect meal. I think everyone else was surprised at how good the dippers were. The Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies were pretty all right too. But I will be sure to go again before the dippers disappear on September 16.

Some favorite photos.

As I've mentioned before while writing on this blog, I've been spending a lot of time uploading photos to my Flickr site. I've uploaded pictures from both of the road trips that I went on. Here's a couple of my favorite photos from "Road Trip 2002." That was the year we headed west to California. I got home from Junior Camp, had two hours to do laundry, repack, and get back to church for departure.

We headed first to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, then the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, followed by church on Sunday morning in Dallas at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship (Tony Evans' church). From there we headed to San Antonio, El Paso, Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Lake Tahoe, Jackpot, Nevada, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore and then finally, home, two weeks later. It was an exhausting trip, but I'm looking forward to our five year anniversary road trip in 2007.

We took the photo on the left at the Alamo in San Antonio. Before the trip, we had gone to Impact Center and stolen all of Tommy Lee's beloved bobble heads. We took his prized treasures on our trip and attempted to sell and give them away to people we encountered. We approached a police officer at the Alamo and asked him if he would be willing to hold Mr. T, while we took a picture. We didn't expect him to do it, but to our surprise, he was more than willing. Oh yeah, the Alamo was pretty cool to. But don't ask Michael what he thought of it. He has a couple of choice words to describe it.

The photo on the right was taken on the first night of our trip in St. Louis. We had gotten there a little before midnight and found a couple walking nearby the Arch. We asked them if they would pose for a picture with us holding out the bobble head and we would give them money to hold out ready to make the purchase. Well, they got into it and the guy actually opened up his own wallet and held out a $20 bill. What a big spender. I think he was probably trying to impress his girlfriend.

All in all, we were just amazed at how willing people were to help us in our silly excursions.

IAMAMORON 1.5

On Sunday I lost my car keys. On Sunday, Steve Tse found my car keys in his car. I will pick up my car key's from Amy Tse at church on Monday.

Cool Cat.

I was on Flickr yesterday and came across this picture of a cat. There's just something about it that I really like. It kind of reminds me of our cat, well, when we first got our cat. Now our cat is just big and lazy. It comes into any room and "plops" itself over on its side. Michelle thinks that's what makes "kitty" so special. He's special all right. Maybe if I have time, I'll post up some pics of our cat.

Memories...

I spent a good part of today uploading photos to Flickr. I'm so amazed with the technology these days. It's cool to be able to have a place where all my digital photos are accessible whenever I want them. I know that this is not something new, but Flickr is the first service I found that I actually like. I like the design, concept and functionality.

While going through all of these photos, I came across one from 2002, the last year I was a Junior Camp counselor, before my two years of service at Teen Camp. I came across the cabin group pic and was amazed at how young everyone looks. Some people look the same (Ronald, Adam, Grant), while others look a lot different (Alvin, Simon, me - I had hair!). But the coolest thing is that every one in the photo is still walking with the Lord and I think I saw them all at this year's Teen Camp. That was also the year we won cleanest cabin (surprise, surprise) and skits (remeber, Harry Potter Goes Christian?) Oh the memories. (sigh)

Now, here's another photo. This is my cabin from the year 2000. Look at the guy standing all the way to the right. That's right! It's Randal Zhou. On the other side is none other than Tony Chan. Justin Mann, Marvin Chan, Michael Ng, Grant Isono, and Adam Lee are also there. And one more guy, that Matthew Leung with his baby face. This was my first year counseling a senior cabin and I think we had lots of fun. That was the week that I was reminded that the first time I met Tony was when I was in sixth grade and he was barely in kindergarten and I was over at Shirley's house playing video games. It was just a really strange but neat experience.

IAMAMORON 1.0

So it's official! I AM A MORON! While thinking about what to get Sharon Yu for her birthday, I remembered that she mentioned she really likes to go shopping. So I decided that during my lunch break, I would hop on over to Old Navy and pick up a gift card. I approached the cashier and told her what I wanted and she pointed to the stand of gift cards that I could choose from. My eyes zeroed in on the one that said, "happy..." I assumed that with the word happy, the next word would be birthday.

Fast foward 30 minutes and I'm back at the office taking the gift card out of the bag. Upon more careful inspection, I discover that the gift card actually says, "happy lulla-buys!" Being the moron that I am, I didn't bother to really look at what I was buying. Even worse, the outside of the card says, "a special Gift for baby." I was totally shocked by the revelation that I had purchased the wrong card. Examine the evidence below.

Now I've got to explain to Sharon why I bought a gift card for newborns. I hope that she doesn't think that I was trying to imply something. I really wasn't. This was just one of life's funny mistakes. Any one care to share a story of how they've been a moron? Don't leave me hanging here.

Addendum: What about Xanga?

Tony Chan pointed out to me that this new blog is useless since there is no e-prop capability. The conversation follows:

t0e Kn3e 123: i cant give you eprops
t0e Kn3e 123: its useless!
KentLauAB02: hahahaha
KentLauAB02: i think it looks cooler though
t0e Kn3e 123: does it have eprops?
KentLauAB02: no
t0e Kn3e 123: then i dont know..
KentLauAB02: there's more to life than eprops
t0e Kn3e 123: eprops are my life
KentLauAB02: YOU ARE A LOSER!!!
KentLauAB02: i don't know if you can be my BFF anymore

I really have to say that I guess I don't really care that there are no e-props. There has be more to life than that.

Junior Camp 2005

So I returned to Junior Camp this year. I know that I had once said that I could never go back to Junior Camp, especially after switching sides and going to Teen Camp. But I guess I was wrong. My return to Junior Camp was way cool. I really had an amazing time working with my eleven sixth graders. They definitely made my week really special and memorable.

Prior to the start of camp I was a little nervous because it had been a couple of years since I was actually responsible for the lives of middle-schoolers. I was actually scared that they would totally rip me to shreds and that they wouldn't like me or that I would be too old-fashioned and boring for them. But we actually bonded right from the start and ended up winning lots of medals (individual verses, clean cabin, overall champion)! Here are some pics...

What about Xanga?

I saw someone else with a site on this service and decided to check it out. I think it looks more sophisticated than Xanga. So I guess I'll use this instead. Wonder if anyone will ever find it and read about what's going on.