Christmas Pants!

Val makes us Christmas pants every year and this year they have moosen. :)

2nd annual ugly sweater party

Sung to the tune of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”

Hark the ugly sweaters adorn
Glory to the most forlorn
Peace at home on December 12th
White elephants and gifts reviled.
Bring deserts or even pies
A drink to share is also wise
With pure joy we host the shame
For a night of fuuun you should plan
Hark the ugly sweaters adorn
Glory to the most forlorn

It's officially Christmas time!

Val made chex mix. :) The best of all holiday snacks. :)

O Christmas... Bush?

Oh yes, Steve picked this one out.

Although, it didn't look so bad once we added the angel and lights.

The pros and cons of working for a big company.

I'll be spending new years in Korea this year but Val and I got box seats to the Sharks hockey game tonight. Free food/beer here we come. :)

Fumigation

Here's what our condo would look like as a tent...

Before:

After:

99% complete

No comment, just awe...

acronym overload

So I ran across Lam’s official acronym list today. We have 1,192 officially recognized acronyms helping you make such useful sentences as:

DU of the DSS required an ECP so the ILM would help the SCBA increase TP, TTM and ULSI.

Cutting Onions

Steve's genius idea to help cut onions. Not a tear was shed!

Singapore has earthquakes too

I'm in the Lam office on the 5th floor and just felt some gentle swaying for about 20 seconds. Good times. Washington people can bring the rain with them and apparently California people can bring earthquakes with them.

Kitchen Light

Finally, after $40 spent on new ballasts, the kitchen light works! It's a wonderful thing to be able to see again. Oh and the fancy switch works now too so we just walk in and the lights come on. Val is quite happy and it's another check off my honey-do list. :)

Steve

depressing or vicariously inspiring

So it looks like we'll be completing the kitchen remodel soon. We just need counter tops and a couple of cover panels and it will be done.

That got me thinking about how patient Val has been with me since I started the remodel 425 days ago.

Then i started counting and figured out I've been traveling for work for 146 of those days. I've also been gone for at least another 54 more days (that i could think of/look up) for vacations and weekend trips and such.

That makes 200 of the last 425 days that I've been gone. Wow, that's kind of depressing. Or vicariously inspiring pending on your point of view.

Steve

Shook Me - HRC Singapore

This was at the Hard Rock Cafe last night. Earlier there had been half a dozen drunk guys up there dancing and hugging and one Indian guy who kept kissing everybody. It was weird, but funny since it wasn't me he was kissing.

While they're not AC/DC, they were pretty entertaining. You can't go wrong with a mullet, sunglasses and a stained glass Elvis backdrop.

Puerto Vallarta

After Steve had been traveling for the better part of early 2009, we decided we needed to get away and spend some time together. With all of his United miles and Marriott points saved up, we were able to book an all inclusive trip to Puerto Vallarata, Mexico for a week. This was not to be a huge trip, just a time to relax and get away, so there are not a lot of site seeing pics here. Also, with 'hamthrax' as one of Steve's sister in laws calls the recent swine flu pandemic, and the fact that we went during their slow season, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselfs. Which worked out nicely for our quiet and relaxing goal. We did take a tour of a Tequilla Factory. Well, I guess I can't really call it a tour since Steve and I were the only ones in the group, and the Factory looked like it was closed for the slow season. But the women who happened to be there, did explain some about how Tequilla was made, and we did buy a bottle for oursleves. We had a great time, despite both getting a slight burn mid way through the trip. Turns out the sun is a little hotter in Mexico than in Fremont, CA. :)

Starting our all inclusive trip out right at the SFO Red Carpet Club.

This is our view from the Marriott hotel in Puerto Vallarta.

Yikes, just a guess but I think they meant button.

A view from the hotel out to the water.

Steve's feet as we layed out by the pool. Notice the pool has a view of the ocean. It doesn't get any better.

In downtown Puerto Vallarta, we walked along the beach and saw a few of these amazing sand structures.

Waiting for the sun to set. Mind you it took longer than we though, and we were quite hungry by the time it was done.

Told you I was hungry.

Korean cab driving

I just got back to the hotel after some of the sweetest (sketchiest) Korean cab driving to date. We pulled into the left turn lane to pass a quarter mile of cars and then as the light turned green we power merged 4 lanes to the right through the intersection and over the gore point to make it into the side road the hotel is on. All the while, the cab driver is looking over his shoulder at us as we're celebrating his ballsy driving and pointing to his 3 'best driver' awards glued to the dash.

Yeah, i tipped.