Weddings, Cats, and Wei-Ya

It's been an interesting Thursday... the weather is improving (my new watch that regulates the Barometric pressure among other nerdy functions agrees that the weather is "improving") and while most of you suffer through negative temperatures, cars not starting, and wrapping up tight.... I have the windows open again and traveled today without a jacket.

One of the Taiwan employees was married over Christmas, but the reception for friends, family, coworkers was today for a formal lunch. It was a nice wedding on the north part of Taipei. Always interesting to see new foods (note I didn't say "try" new foods.... just take pictures and pass it to the next person). I was all ready to boycott the Shark Fin soup (under Sarah's orders after she saw a special about the Taiwanese killing sharks for soup which is considered a delicacy here) but alas, it was chicken soup. Funny how Sarah (among many others) hate sharks, but they boycott the soup. I just don't really care for the soup so I don't eat it. I did try the cod fish which wasn't the worst thing I've ever had. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not a huge fan of most seafood. I did enjoy the cheesecake-ish type dessert. It was nice to spend the afternoon with coworkers enjoying company and good food - rather than sitting in meetings!

American Idol started this week. I have them recorded and plan on catching up this weekend. I hope you're as excited as I am for another season of spending 100+ hours watching people try to sing and listening to Paula try to speak in complete sentences. I saw there's a "4th judge" which may make it interesting for the "you're going to Hollywood" rounds. Ahhhh, this show never gets old does it?

I put up new pictures from my new camera. There should be more tomorrow once I have more time to sort through them. The pictures are of Diamond and Diablo - Sarah's cats who missed her terribly while I stole her away to Tiawan. We have never had any really good pictures of them because as anyone with animals or young kids knows, they don't hold still long enough for a standard point-and-shoot camera to capture them. The new SLR is much faster and takes great photos of them as you'll see. Diamond is the white/grey cat and she's a Mackerel Tabby cat. The "M" on her forehead makes her a Mackerel, and it's a pretty clear "M". She's more human then she is cat sometimes, and she has no fear. Diablo is the bluck tuxedo cat (all black with a white neck/belly like someone wearing a tux) and she can be evil... at least towards me. She hisses at me every now and then and usually likes to be left alone. Sarah's mom has bonded with Diablo like we've never seen anyone bond with her. It's pretty cute actually. Diamond and Diablo are sisters from the same litter that Sarah took in after the whole litter was rescued in Chicago. We don't know who's older, but my guess is that Diamond is the elder sister since she acts like it.

Random nerd thought - everytime an ambulance goes by outside (which is about 3-4 times a day probably), I am still amazed at the phenominon of the Doppler Effect. It's pretty confusing actually, but I found the Wikipedia overview helpful, especially when they talk about a pitcher throwing a regular cycle of balls at you, but he's moving closer as he does so. That visual helps me at least.

Only 5 more days of Dub-ya.... can you believe it??????? Thought this day would never get here!!!

I'm off to a dinner celebration for work in honor of the upcoming Chinese New Year. It's "Wei-Ya" or 尾牙 and should be a good time! Good food and good drinking!