Friday, September 21st was Day of Caring here in Seattle. Employees from different businesses took the day off to support local charities and non-profit organizations. The Windows team at Microsoft chose to help the Boys and Girls Club of Redmond, WA do some yard work. What we thought was planting new flowers and pulling weeds turned into six back breaking hours of vine extraction. We huffed and we puffed but we couldn't 'blow' them vines away. They just wouldn't go gently into the night. By the time our tour of duty was over, I was sporting a new sweat induced coma look with fingers that couldn't keep a feather from flying away.
I salute all the people who do this line of work day in day out.
Tools of the trade
Co-workers hard at work...we called it 'Choppin time'
I think our team stuffed over 150 bags worth of vines
Emil invited us to dinner at his place tonight. He made 2 rolls with spicy eel and vegetarian pork floss and the third with avocado and stir-fried beef. They may sound weird to some of you but it was super yummy! Of course, it wouldn't be a meal by Emil if it didn't include 10 other dishes (or so it seemed). He also made appetizers (seasoned tofu, egg, seaweed combo) and mushroom soup. Did I say YUMMY?!
Today is my 1 year anniversary at Ignition Partners. I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers initiated by my thoughtful colleagues Karen and Sharon. It's been a wonderful experience thus far. I have learnt and have been exposed to so much this past year including my first international business trip to Shanghai early this year! I must say I have never worked this hard in my life or put in as many hours but it's been worth it :)
We went over to the Alexander's for dinner with Annette, Mason and Simone last night.
Annette made us a delicious meal and even pulled off freshly-picked-homemade blackberry pie.
The highlight of the evening was a *special* performance by 4-year-old Mason. Here's the lyrics to "Baby Bumble Bee" and snippets of the entertainment we were subjected to:
I'm bringing home my baby bumble bee Won't my Mommy be so proud of me I'm bringing home my baby bumble bee - OUCH!! It stung me!!
I'm squishin' up my baby bumble bee Won't my Mommy be so proud of me I'm squishin' up my baby bumble bee - LOOK!! Its messy!!
I'm wipin' up my baby bumble bee Won't my Mommy be so proud of me I'm wipin' up my baby bumble bee - LOOK!! Its clean!!
Many of you knew that my parents from Singapore were here for a 3 month visit (May 24th - Aug 19th). At the start of their visit, my daddy started a blog like he did the last time he visited us 2 years ago to document his stay here in the U.S.
So Will and I tried to start a blog too. But my daddy's blog was so much more updated with vivid photos and *insightful* commentaries on our daily activities that we knew we couldn't compete. Hence, we respectfully withdrew from the scene and went MIA for 3 months.
Our summer has been great: 14-person-entourage to Glacier, almost nightly mahjong sessions with my parents, fabulous finds at garage sales, eventful weekend outings....if you are even remotely interested, check out my daddy's blog: http://peteresa-usa2007.blogspot.com
Since my parents' departure 3 weeks ago, the house has been messy, the yard has been unattended and the 2 of us have survived on takeout, pizza or spaghetti. We finally pulled ourselves together and managed to spend this past labor day weekend quite fruitfully. We visited my friend, Annette, at her house on Saturday and helped pitch their tent so Annette and her adorable(!) 4-year-old boy, Mason, could camp out in their backyard for the night. On Sunday, we spent the day with Emil going to Mass, Dim Sum and watched the salmon swim upstream through the Ballard Locks from the saltwater to the freshwater where they were born to breed. Here's a clip I found on YouTube where it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. The action is in the first 10 seconds.
Today is labor day, a public holiday, and we decided to throw together a BBQ with a couple of friends -- definitely motivated us to wash the dishes, make the beds and clear the cobwebs (literally!). All in all, it's been a fun weekend. Check out the one- pound-burgers Emil made for us. Yep. He sure went all out.
Its back to work tomorrow but thank God it'd only be a 4 day week. Yipee!
