I'm Home!

Back in Minnesota - where Fall weather is here and that makes me happy. We have Sarah moved in with me, boxes are emptied (but house is still a mess), and the newest addition to the house... both Diamond and Diablo are exploring their new location. The two girls seem happy to be "dog free" after a year of daily battles with Sarah's parents' dog Chase. It became pretty comical watching Diamond swat at Chase as he walked around the place. But that is no more as we drove them up to Rochester and we're starting anew here.

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend on the lake. Great last of summer weather, but now reality sets in. I'm still without my laptop (using a loaner that is sort of getting the job done for now) but hopefully my laptop comes back fully repaired today. That would seriously make things easier if I had my own system back. I'm amazed that I went almost 18 months with no problems but of course in my final 2 weeks, on top of everything else I'm trying to get done for the transition, the laptop has to add to the issues.

It's been a shopping week though since I've been back. We purchased new iPhones for both Sarah and I. We picked them up last night and are still trying to figure everything out. I should be able to update via the iPhone now when not in front of my computer (or when it's getting worked on) so my life of blogging can return to normal. We also picked up a new car for Sarah - a 2009 Honda Accord which looks really sharp. The new Accords are MUCH bigger in size than the Accords of old if you haven't seen them. I'll post some pictures soon, but I am actually extremely comfortable in the new ride. Plus it has XM Radio which I've had fun playing with. She went with the Pearl White color (more "off white" than "white") which actually looks really nice. But it also shows all the bugs on it currently after our drive to Iowa.

Goal for today is to continue moving things around in the house so it feels "normal" for all 4 of us now living here. Then we're throwing everything in the fridge and cabinets away (I still have crackers and cereal in the cabinets from pre-Taiwan that are a little stale) and doing a big grocery trip this afternoon. Fun huh??

Anyway - have a good Tuesday. Continue basking in the glory of the Cyclones victory from last week!

Final Countdown

Well - getting down to the last week. And after the 117 degree heat index day today, I'M READY!!! It's been an interesting week trying to ship some of my stuff home. The rate is higher than I had hoped so Plan B was to take them onto the plane as extra luggage. After looking into that route, there is no guarantee of rate or that my stuff will even get there on the same flight. It's actually not a bad option if you only have a direct flight, but since I have a connection flight, I can't wait for my luggage to carry through Customs. SO..... back to plan A of shipping my stuff through UPS. I moved some of the heavy stuff (books, shoes) out of Box #3 in hopes of saving some money. If all goes well, most of my stuff will be safely in Rochester by the end of the week waiting for me to arrive next week with two suitcases full (but still under weight!) of stuff.

As for customs... I added an extra category to the invoice that lists "country of purchase" so I can show the US Customs folks that most of what I'm bringing home I actually purchased in the US. SO DON'T TAX ME TWICE!!!

Ah, the stresses of moving home! But in 8 days, I'll be back in Rochester with my one and only Sarah. Then back to fighting jetlag and culture shock! Can't believe this moment is finally here!

This past week has included a lot of going away parties. I'm working on the pictures to upload now but of course no going away party is right unless it includes KTV!!! We went out as a large group from work for some food, beer, karaoke, and I even brought a couple of bottles of Captain Morgan for everyone's enjoyment. We also headed out for an all-you-can-eat BBQ for lunch on Friday which turned into all-you-can-drink for the afternoon.

Then some more festivities as we had "guys night" Friday night to an interesting restaurant called DS Music where everything has a hospital theme. They serve beer like it's an IV, they give shots of alcohol in shot containers, the servers are dressed as nurses of course. It's about as PG-13 as Hooters would be and there were a lot of people of both genders at the restaurant, including some high school kids at the table next to us. The food was actually very good and most of it came out with flames or on fire for additional affects. You'll see pictures on the right! Our waitress could not speak much English and we spoke little Chinese so it made for an interesting conversation every time she came by the table. It was actually pretty comical.

As for the weekend? Too hot to do anything outdoors. Further wrapping up of packing and going through the house to get ready for moving out on Monday.

Favre is officially Minnesotan..... get your Purple #4 Jerseys now!

Ticket Booked For Home

Lots of people are asking about the flooding and mudslides here in Taiwan. It's definitely worth asking, but it's all in the South of Taiwan. I'm in the North which didn't see much damage from the Typhoon other than some trees down, etc. In the Mountains, a lot of times there is only one road to get through there so when a Typhoon dumps 80 inches of rain in 2 days, you expect the ground to react in a negative way. So people are stranded up there and clearing the roads isn't necessarily the easiest thing to do. But that's what is going on in Taiwan right now. Pretty neat to see the recovery efforts by helecopter, etc. I'm seeing them on TV just like you are there, but mine isn't in English;)

It's starting to set in that I'm headed home. Mainly after going through all my stuff and boxing things up. I have three big boxes that are full, taped, recorded (for customs) and ready to send. I'm afraid to ask how much this is going to cost me! I'm pretty sure that everything that isn't boxed up will make it into my two luggage, everything after that is getting donated to neighbors and friends here in Taiwan. It's at this point that I'm glad I bought the $10 toaster, not the $15 one.

I have purchased my 1-way ticket back home. That's a weird feeling yet again.

It was a strange weekend - normal hot weather BUT on Sunday I heard someone knocking at the door of my next door neighbor. Then I heard my door bell ring. When I answered, there was a Taipei Police Officer (with gun and all) asking me (in Chinese but I understood the point) if I had seen my neighbor. I told him that I hadn't. I closed my door but for the next 20 minutes I could hear him ringing the doorbell and knocking trying to get a hold of my neighbor. I heard "Sir, I am police, let me in" and "Sir, I need you to help me". Then it died off for about 15 minutes, BUT then he returned with ANOTHER police officer. They were trying to get the door open for another 30 minutes after that. For some reason they were convinced he was inside but never did get him to open the door. A very strange affair to be sure, and of course I have no idea how it ended. Nothing more happened on Sunday.

Back in the US - football preseason has started and an impressive showing by my boy Sage for the Vikings. Here's hoping for a successful season with 2 wins over the Vikings! As for my Cyclones - I'm just wanting to start with a win over NDSU (there are a lot of NDSU graduates in Rochester with IBM), then a win over Iowa (of course the most important game of the year), a road win of some sorts (break our losing streak) and a Big 12 win! Anything more than that would be SWEET! We shall see how the Clones do this year with a new coach and a seemingly unknown team.

Post-Typhoon Monday

The "Typhoon" hit us over the weekend including a Typhoon Day on Monday. But as is the case often in Minnesota with Snow Days - the actual event was far less spectacular than the prediction. Don't get me wrong, there was over 80 inches of rain dumped in southern Taiwan - but in Taipei (northern part), it rained heavily with some wind blowing, but far from the severity they were predicting. It's most likely my last Typhoon Day so we spent it watching movies with friends. Actually, the whole weekend was pretty much only good for watching movies with friends with all the rain (and now extreme humidity) that does come with the Typhoon Season.

We did go see G.I. Joe last night. I was thrilled of course since I was the GI Joe kid in the family. Jeremy was the Star Wars kid. You can tell he was the favorite child since my parents held onto his Star Wars toys (which are being enjoyed by the next generation of kids in his family) while they shipped off my GI Joes to Goodwill many many years ago so I no longer have that portion of my childhood. I know I know, my parents were SO mean for doing this. I do have the memories still and 4 seasons of GI Joe cartoons downloaded to remind me of my days of youth starting at 3:30pm for 30 minutes.

The movie was pretty well done. The only thing that bothered me was that the voice of Cobra Commander sounded WAY too close to Don LaFontaine who became popular for doing voiceovers for movie previews and the phrase "In a World". LaFontaine actually just died last year by the way:( Anyway - other than that, the plot was good for introducing the GI Joe concept as well as some character background. Baroness was WAY hotter in the movie than in the cartoon plus she lost the cheezy accent from the cartoon days. And of course I still stand by my childhood crush on Scarlett;) Lots of action, ok plot (actually very typical of most cartoons) and they did a nice job "modernizing" the cartoon version to look like it's 2009 standards. Go see it if you haven't already.

Eat to Die Hotpot tonight for a going away celebration for a coworker (not me). I guess we should start planning my going away celebration at some point this week. Only 3 weeks to go! Can you believe it?

Gearing up for another season of Iowa State Football. The few words that are dedicated to the Cyclones from the "experts" state that basically it can't get worse than last season and ISU could surprise a few folks. Isn't that basically the statement every year? The life of cheering for ISU - hope for surprises but ultimately get your hopes and dreams squished by an interception after having 1st and goal from the 3 yard line. If you have to ask, you weren't there.

Enjoy the week - summer weather finally to the MidWest, hopefully short lived as I'm sick of the 100+ degree days here. Better be back to fall weather by Labor Day!

What's In The Daily News

I'll tell you what's in the daily news.....

$5 for anyone that knows what that's from without Googling it. Do you drop the "e" in Google when you make it into a verb since it is a "Proper Verb"? Deep subjects today.

So what is in today's news? Clinton leaves North Korea with two journalists... interesting, but not necessarily what I'm interested in. I do enjoy seeing Slick Willy in the news though. Mainly because he makes all the Republicans out there shudder.

What else - Ahmadinejad sworn in. Iran is interesting read but hopefully never really a threat. Only time will tell. It is good to see Iranians taking to the streets to have their voice heard!

Pussycat Cabaret club in Zumbro Falls is reopening..... interesting....

Paula Abdul won't rejoin Idol.... Typhoon on its way to Taipei on Frid..... WHA!?!??!?!?! The ditzy-non-relevant-line-memorizing-has-been Paula Abdul won't come back to American Idol next season? Who's going to annoy audiences with her comments that don't make sense, or never make a "tough" decision, or fight with Simon which got old in Season 2? Who's going to spark rumors with her affairs with past contestants? Who's going to comment about how good or bad the dancing was in a Singing Competition? Who's going to stand up and clap every time she likes a contestant yet still tell a contestant they "look great" when they sucked it up? To all this I say: Paula - Good Riddance. No, I am not a huge fan of Kara either, but at least she is an improvement in proper skill to be a judge of a 2009 Singing Competition. I'm sure the show will "be different" but I guarantee that it will still dominate the ratings as it always does.

As for what's next for Paula? What else can she do? American Idol really made HER a household name, so I'm surprised she's leaving the show. If she's holding out for more money - HA. Don't think there are any other opportunities for her that could pay as well (and honestly be as easy to do) as AI. Maybe a book deal. I've said it before, life is all about finding your 15 seconds of fame then immediately doing the book deal. I'm actually serious about that. It'll be interesting to see what the details come out of it all though.

As for the Typhoon - yeah... this one looks to be going straight over Taipei too! We'll see what actually happens. If we have a Typhoon Day on Friday, I already have plans to go out and get it on camera!!!

Meredith is feeling better but still far from over. Thanks for the continued prayers!

Notes and Neurons

First off, prayers and get well wishes to my FSIL Meredith who's still trying to fight off this illness. She's back in good hands of smart doctors and hopefully she can get back to normal VERY SOON!

I found something that amazed me - it's musically related, but I think everyone will appreciate how human nature music can be. Of course it takes someone very gifted such as Bobby McFerrin to point out how we as humans can quickly pick up a concept such as the pentatonic scale. A simple example of the pentatonic scale is the black keys on a piano. They split (unevenly split) the octave into 5 notes, and only the notes that really matter. Ancient civilizations built their music on the pentatonic scale. It wasn't till the human race evolved in mid-evil times that we got the 8 note scale most commonly used and taught today. What I love is how he harmonizes with the crowd while he's jumping around on the stage. I'm trying to find a full copy of the lecture but so far I'm unsuccessful.



It's pretty impressive to me for some reason. I will have to look into that some more.

No Earthquakes Today

Another scorching hot weekend in Taipei - just when you think it can't get any hotter, it does. August is here which means sub-85 degrees at night is only 2 months away! I'll be home before we get to that point. That's right, the packing has begun to ship stuff home. I already have the Wii packed away along with my unread books. I do have a lot of things I'm giving away too since they're not worth shipping home. Toaster, glasses, ironing board, etc - things I had to get to get by that weren't part of the furnishings.

I was invited to Danshui yesterday by Alisa and her extended family. I was the only one there not Russian or married to a Russian. The three nieces of Alisa were super fun to be around. We hit up the Mexican restaurant that I've heard lots about from others and it lived up to the hype for my Taiwan standards of Mexican food. I had the burrito that was far from Chipotle, but it got the job done. I posted some pictures from the evening up north - we just missed sunset, but you'll see where the river that runs through Taipei, connects to the Taiwan Straight.... if you keep going straight, you'll eventually hit Shanghai area or so. You're looking North West for the most part. It's a beautiful area with a nice breeze in the evening that keeps us cool. Wish we had that breeze in Taipei!

You'll see a bunch of pictures from the Turkish Ice Cream guy. He's kind of an odd ball, but he's pretty popular. The icecream itself is ok, really sticky ice cream, but the show he puts on is the reason to go. He plays with the buyer and spins the icecream or pulls it out just when you think you have a grasp of the cone. I sent Zack up there to get 2 of them so I could take pictures. Let everyone laugh at him so I can get it on film!

I'm down to 4 weeks before I come home. Pretty amazing isn't it? I'm excited to do some tailgating and reserving my spot on the couch every Sunday afternoon for NASCAR/NFL watching. I have to train Sarah how to watch that on Sundays. I'm also excited to be able to communicate with people in a normal fashion. Getting tired of relying only on my computer for all my communication needs.

Sick in Taiwan

Note that it says "in" not "of" in the title. It's still in the mid to upper 90s this week (106 today with Heat Index) but I managed to catch a cold. I think the worst of it was on Thursday but I'm back in the office today (wearing my mask as is the polite thing to do when you are sick). Luckily I have very little plans for the weekend which should allow me to continue healing and avoiding the heat/humidity.

Another month closes. The next time we role over to a new month, I'll be on my way home! ETA to arrive in Rochester is Sept 2, just in time for bowling season to start! Also in time to watch a successful football season from my beloved Cyclones. Bring on a National Championship!!!

The World Games completed earlier this week without any troubles. Taiwan also has the Deaflympics starting in September, so they're doing what they can to remain on the world stage! No, Taiwan could not handle the full Olympics at this point (or ever in my opinion). It's good for tourism though and of course for bringing in revenue to the country. The government is doing a lot lately to try to increase world awareness and bring an interest in traveling to Taiwan. I encourage anyone who wants to "see Asia" but is afraid of the 3rd World concept of squattie potties (if you've used one, you know what I mean) and unhealthy food - come to Taiwan. You can still use squatties, but it is much more comfortable for the first time Westerner traveler.

I'm working on uploading some videos from this past weekend for your enjoyment. Stay tuned.

More From Hualien

I guess I am losing my power from midnight till 6am tonight. That means no air-conditioning.... not sure I can make it so I'm working on a back up plan. I have 4 hours to go;) There's been a message in the elevator for the past week, but I can't read Chinese. Finally figured out the date referred to tomorrow so I scanned it and sent it to Kirsten to be translated. Could be a long 6 hours without my AC!

More pictures have been uploaded for this past Saturday's trip up the river in Hualien as well as the Whale/Dolphin watching trip. As I said before, we didn't see any whales and only a couple of dolphins. Definitely better dolphin viewing in Naples Florida!!

As for Saturday - you'll see our group in our suits (I took my own as my size is not normally stocked in Taiwan) and safety helmets (I got a "special" one in larger size) and also life vests (again, I get the special one that only gets used every 5 years probably). But all was well as we headed out early in order to beat the other groups that were following us. It paid off to go early (we were on the water by 8am) as we got to do everything and made it to the top where other groups didn't make it up there.

It was quite the adventure. We did a lot of climbing, some floating in the river, jumping off the falls, swimming behind waterfalls, climbing water falls, rope climbing some of the higher rocks, some cliff jumping (one at 2 meters and one at about 5 meters), and of course just swimming. My favorite part was the swimming since the water was as pure and clean as any water I've ever been in. Fresh water and at some points the water was very deep (thus the cliff jumping) which is amazing. It was so cool in the water, and so peaceful up in the mountains. We did see a poisonous snake (one of the last pictures) which was stuck in the water at the top on a branch. The snake can't swim and it looked like he'd been there a while on a branch that fell but there wasn't enough current to move him down river to escape. Our instructor let some folks take pictures, but he ultimately freed the critter to go back to being a poisonous snake in the forest. He really was an ugly thing.

As for Sunday - everyone was taking some anti-sickness medicine, but I think it made everyone overly tired. We were up early again, but the rest of the gang hung out on the top of the boat. I went to the front in hopes of seeing some dolphins following the bow of the boat which is one of their favorite things to do at times. The dolphins we saw though were feeding, meaning they were more interested in following the fish (which we were scarring away I'm sure) than they were in entertaining the people on the boat. It was still beautiful water and wonderful to be out on the Pacific Ocean!!

Then we had the only bad part of the trip - the return to Taipei which had us hitting traffic. Just like in Chicago, the worst part is the fact that they split everyone for a toll booth, then there's a huge bottleneck getting everyone back into 2 lanes. That seems to be a poor design around the world!!!

We did get to go through the new tunnel which is now Taiwan's longest. It was 14.9 km long (about 9 miles) which is actually pretty amazingly long! There were a couple of long tunnels, but 9 miles is a little rediculous! They even rebroadcast the radio inside the tunnel (as well as having cell phone towers), BUT it gets a little freaky when they interrupt the radio to announce an accident and at what mile marker. A little too science fiction like for me!

Anyway - hope you enjoy the pictures! Have a good Tuesday!!

My "Graduation" Trip to Hualien

In Taiwan schools, they take a "graduation" trip after their senior year where they explore parts of the Island and enjoy the wonderful tourism aspect of Taiwan. So with my return to the US in a month or so, some of my coworkers planned a weekend trip to Hualien for us. A total of 8 of us drove down Highway 9 which is famous due to the scenic view of the mountains, Pacific ocean, windy roads, and ultimately the beauty of Hualien. This was the same place that Pitzen and I visited in May with the amazing mountains running into the ocean.... and this trip again proved the beauty that is in the East of Taiwan.

I uploaded group 1 of my photos. These are the "general" pics that were taken over the weekend. We headed down on Friday that took about 4 hours by 2 cars. There was a stop for shaved ice and we finally arrived at our bed and breakfast that we rented for the weekend. Plenty of room for the 8 of us! Wonderful view of the mountains and countryside. We also hit the night market (the archery pics and the bumper cars) which also allowed me to pay $10 for my own firework. They were amazed how I wanted the biggest firework they have to shoot off from the beach - it fulfilled my pyro tendencies for a while.

Saturday we had a guide to take us up on a river climb along with his camera toting assistant who got around like a spider monkey on the river. It was an amazing adventure climbing rocks, waterfalls and swimming in the clearest mountain water I've ever been in. Sunday we went looking for whales (no sightings but we did see some Dolphins!!).

I'll post Saturday and Sunday photos in the next couple of days, I haven't had a chance to go through them yet. Plus it gives me more things to blog about this week!!

For group 1, you will see a lot of food pictures:) One thing the Taiwanese do well is eat GOOD food - this weekend had no shortage of good food of course. One restaurant was on the Pacific Ocean plus we were the only ones there so we were VIP! The next night we went to dinner in the mountains that would have had a tremendous view of the stars except for the rain clouds:( We did see some stars on Friday night - amazing how much you miss seeing stars when you live in the city and see none of them year round.

More stories and explanations throughout the week. Enjoy the first group!

PICTURE DAY!!

Lots of photos to share today - don't take them all at one time as you may have an overloading sensation.

First though is the Solar Eclipse that happened in Eastern Asia this morning. The prime location was closer to Beijing in China, but we were still able to experience it rather well. Now most of us have difficulty seeing this afternoon after staring at the sun most of the day. I was reluctant at first since it's pretty cloudy today - BUT actually the clouds help to actually see the eclipse. Here are the 4 photos that actually turned out from earlier today:









It was a pretty cool experience - I'm just glad some of the photos actually turned out!

As for more photos to share from my trip back to the US - there are 5 new photo albums added on the right starting with seeing Eddie and his beautiful new daughter Sophia, some pictures from Storm Lake, and of course wedding photos (not our wedding). I love our new camera as it really takes great low light photos. None of those would have turned out with the standard point-and-click cameras that all of us have. Very life like and lots of personality coming out in some of those shots.

I've been back in Taiwan for a week but I'm still screwed up for sleeping. I was up at 4:30 this morning and I didn't even nap yesterday for a change. It is however the latest I've slept in all week, just need to keep working at staying up later, then trying to sleep in. There is definitely some weird TV at 3am in Taiwan. Wish I could figure out a way to share it with you.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

World Games 2009!!

The World Games 2009 started last week - never heard of them? Well you don't live in Taiwan then. They're being held in Taiwan (Kaohsiung which is in the far southwest of Taiwan) and are highlighting a very "Eco-Friendly" games. Call it the "Secondary Olympics" if you must, but it actually has some of the original Olympic sports such as tug of war and fistball. There are also sports such as Parachuting, Billiards, Bowling, as well as lots of Martial Art sports. It is a big deal since this is the first international competition to be held in Taiwan. The Chinese are participating, but they boycotted the opening ceremony last Thursday which of course dominated the news. The tension continues!! Go check it out on Wikipedia for all the sports that are being held. No, the US aren't participating, but many other countries are.

What's cool about the games though is that they are using the stadium that has almost 9000 solar panels that generate 1.14 million kwatt hours of electricity per year! That's a LOT! They sell it back to the country and it gets dispersed around the island. Taiwan is trying to do more and more with the solar panel revolution since it gets SO HOT and so much sun here. So far I've seen a lot of roller blading racing (very similar to watching speed skating at the winter Olympics), and even watched the Taiwan Women's Tug of War team bring home the gold medal! It's actually cooler than you'd think watching Tug of War would be.

I'm still screwed up from Jetlag - taking 3 hour naps in the afternoon doesn't help, but it has allowed me to watch a lot of this past weekend's British Open (aka Watson's final chance at age 59). What a great Open to watch! Too bad he didn't win but was still good for the sport of golf!

I know it feels like Fall in the US, but it's damned hot here in Taiwan. And very humid.... I'll probably complain about it every day till I come home. Which is now 42 days away.

Back in Earthquake Land

I'm back in Taipei after a busy yet fun trip to the US! It's my last time to go back and forth via plane - and a good thing, I forgot how much I don't fit into coach class on most planes. Thankfully I was bumped up to business class for flying to the US, just wish I was as lucky coming back. It was also nice experiencing temperatures under 80 degrees for one last time till September. I miss the Minnesota summer, especially when it's a "cool" one like this year!

Sarah and I had fun visiting friends and at the wedding (no, not our wedding) - just a lot of driving around the mid-west. I'm working on the pictures now, gives me something to do with the jetlag.

There were some major earthquakes this week in Taipei, a couple causing buildings to sway and requiring some emergency vehicles to be deployed. I was still in Iowa at that time of the "big" one, but there was another tremor this afternoon that had some slight swaying here at my apartment.

As you can see, this is my last leg of my assignment in Taiwan. Only 46 days left till I head home. The time will go quickly, but still lots to cram into these last 7 weeks! Then a new facelift is in order for my blog page:)

Have a good Thursday!

Getting Back Into It

yeah yeah - it's been a while. I'm trying to get my creative juices back to do some blogging so continue to bear with me.

Congrats to Eddie and Juanita in the birth of an adorable baby girl - Sophia!

I'm headed back to the US of A this week! There's a wedding (no, not ours) in Iowa that Sarah's in on July 11th, so I'm headed home to see Sarah, see some family, and see some normal summer weather. For those of you who are complaining that it's over 90 degrees (100+ with the humidity)... welcome to 4 months of the weather in Taiwan!!! Seriously, it's already 105+ heat index here, and will only get hotter for August and September. Sucks....

A weird week last week - Ed McMahon died... but nobody remembers that now that Michael Jackson died mysteriously as well. Yeah, I know Farrah Fawcett died too, but that was a little before my time. I'm the border of GenX and GenY which means she was too old by the time I was old enough to notice. Now Michael Jackson, I was more partial to the Bad album mainly because I was too young when Thriller came out. But I still appreciate what an incredible influence he was for pop music - for all music! Not many people are as recognizable as he is in this world... even after his seclusion years as of late. CNN International had a MJ marathon all weekend playing all kind of Michael Jackson related clips. No MTV/VH1 here so no marathon of videos for me unfortunately. Sure he was strange in later years, but in 10 years nobody will really remember that - only the musical legacy he created. Same thing happened with Elvis - nobody remembers the years towards the end.

I added another photo album to the right.... we had an organizational outing on a Friday a few weeks ago. We went to an "Eat to Die" BBQ place which also happened to be "Drink to Die". So between the really good food AND an endless supply of beer, it was a good day. Of course everyone wanted to race finishing their beers against me so I was unable to sip my beer and enjoy it. A handfull of us headed to KTV afterwards and had some more fun for a Friday afternoon. And yeah, this was the night I called Sarah at 6:30am her time and then I went to bed right after that:)

And Brett Favre to the Vikings?!?!?!? Hmmmm.... I don't know what to think yet on that one. I had my hopes up for my buddy Sage "Middle Finger" Rosenfels, but we'll see what the Vikes decide to do. Anything is better than Tavaris. Plus I'm still trying to figure out why the Timberwolves drafted 4 Point Guards in last week's Draft....

Ok - have a good Monday. By Tuesday morning your time, I'll be on a plane over the Pacific!

Diving in Longdong

Summer in Taiwan - it's definitely here and I don't enjoy sweating every time I walk to the 7-11 around the corner. Thankfully there is either a 7-11, a Family Mart, or an OK Mart or whatever it's called. So for your "convenience" the 2007 data said there were 9300+ convenience stores on the 13,891 square mile island and 23 million people. That comes out to one store for every 2450 people. Not staggering enough of a stat? Considering only 1/3 of the island is actually occupied (rest is mountains or beaches or farmland), that leaves 2 convenience stores per square mile. Now that one sounds like a lot, but come visit Taipei, it's more like 2 convenience stores per city block. I can visit 4 Family Marts all within a 3 minute walk from start to finish.

We did some scuba diving this weekend. It was hot and sunny, but no better way to cool off then to go under water:) We went up to the Northeast part of Taiwan again, near Keelung (port city in the North) but the bay area was actually called "Longdong Bay".... I kid you not! Enter perverted joke here..... Longdong Bay was full of lots of people, other scuba divers, some people learning to snorkel, and other people just swimming and enjoying the water. So I guess you could say there were lots of sea men (and women) in Longdong bay yesterday....

This is the final week of NHL - hopefully in the favor of the Red Wings. It's also the NBA finals, but does anyone really care anymore? Since fan voting doesn't determine the outcome, hard to imagine that people still want to watch Kobe cry after winning a trophy thanks to yet another "big man".

Big week for Birthdays and Anniversaries! I'll try to remember them all - I sometimes get screwed up with the time difference too. Happy birthday tomorrow Jen!

Random Update

I added some pictures from IBM Family Day last weekend. We took a bus down about 90 minutes south of Taipei to a Green Park. It was damned hot in the morning when we got there, but it was a very pretty park that has a lot of natural habitat areas and wildlife to enjoy. There was an ample representation of families as well as some fun animals to observe. You'll see some long snakes in there, they're actually pretty cool. I had Alex ask about how much the python eats and he said they feed it two times a month, each time they give it three whole chickens and that suffices for another 1/2 month. I had Alex then ask about if the python could eat Val, he said no... but then pointed to a little girl who was also standing there and nodded as if to say "yeah, that one he could".

NHL - GO RED WINGS!!! - I've been able to watch most of the first two games thanks to the Slingbox, the next two may be a little tricky with work stuff. I'm hoping for a 5 game series that way I can watch the final game on my Sunday morning.

It's June, which means I come home permanently in 3 months. Can you believe that I've been here for 14 months already?

And The Winner Is....

I predict a Kris Allen win for the American Idol finals..... and that has actually NOTHING to do with the performances. Both did well, but here's why I think Kris will win:

The whole season plotted the Adam fans vs the Danny fans since everyone had them pegged as the final 2 from the get go. This late in the competition, it has less to do with who gets more vote week to week, as it does who has the stronger fan base of teenage girls texting 100s of times in the 2 hour slot.

So from last week, you had:
Fans X that voted for Adam (probably voted for him most of the season)
Fans Y that voted for Kris (probably a growing number throughout the season - picking up the fans of other contestants week to week)
Fans Z that voted for Danny (probably voted for him most of the season)

The winner is whoever gets the most of that Z amount of voters from Danny.

Break down the Danny Z fans as follows:
20% or so vote weekly for who they liked best, so they'll vote differently every week
30% or so won't vote since their boy Danny is out
remaining 50% are the ones who hold the balance of the AI Champion. And since these Danny fans have ALWAYS seen Adam as their competition since week 1, they will continue to not want Adam to win. Thus they will vote Against Adam and vote for Kris. Plus it's natural for people to root for the underdog, which is clearly Kris.

Granted voting AGAINST someone didn't help us win the 2004 presidential election in order to get Bush out of office, but I think it will for American Idol. So there's my analysis.

By the way Kara - your song sucks, but that's typical of the "new hit" that is always written for the AI final.

I had to watch the performances delayed, I was too busy watching the RedWings win in Overtime this morning while working... yeah, you heard me right. Priorities.

Catching Up On Photos

Yeah, it's been a long time since I've blogged. Part of that is trying to stay ahead at work (or catch up from being gone some lately), part of that is lacking any creativity when I come home from work. Honestly, it's hard to get back on the computer and blog some days after being on it all day long, then back on at night for my evening calls.

I've posted three picture albums on the right from the week when Brian was here visiting. We had probably the most perfect weather in 2009 to do some site seeing - just before it turned hot and humid. We spent the first 4 days in the Taipei area, so you'll see pictures of some familiar Taipei standards. We then headed south to Kenting (where Sarah and I went last December for a couple of days), but had a totally different experience! With the perfect weather, we rented some scooters and drove around the southern part of Taiwan and had a blast! The scenery is amazing down in that area, driving along the Pacific Ocean on the east side, then through the mountains. Then we returned to Taipei, then back to Hualien on the East coast to go through Taroko Gorge. This was the first time I had made it to Hualien - pictures do not do it justice! Very majestic marble mountains and river valley that we hired a driver to take the 4 of us through. We were joined by my friend/coworker Kirsten and her friend Lily.

Only one minor accident the week he was here - no, not from sledding, but from the scooter. It's been a while since I've been on anything with 2 wheels (probably 6+ years) and I forgot some basic rules of turning - and ended up hitting the curb at about 5mph while leaving the gas station. Scraped up my leg and elbow a little bit, but nothing major broken. My leg looks like it did when I last slid into 2nd base while wearing shorts. A little blood lost, a lot of pride lost, but scooter worked fine for the next 6 hours of riding around.

Enjoy the pictures - let me know if you want any clarification or stories on some of the pictures. Was truly a great week - Thanks Brian for visiting!

American Idol final week - I wasn't surprised by Kris since I thought he was the strongest performer from the final 3 performances. Should be interesting to see how they drag it out despite the fact that they will all record albums. Hopefully the finale is better than the Celebrity Apprentice finale which is causing me to think about not watching that show anymore.....

Red Wings are up 1-0 in the final 4... GO WINGS!! I'm able to watch this year with the Slingbox, so bring on the Cup!!!

Hope you all have a good week!

Visitor From US

I finally uploaded Florida pictures on the right. You'll enjoy some beach pictures and of course pics of Sarah and I around town.

I have another guest in Taiwan this week. Mr. Pitzen decided to come enjoy the offerings of Taiwan with me for a week+ and we've been having a great time so far. Up till now, we've kicked around the usual spots in Taipei, but on Wednesday morning we're headed to the South of Taiwan for beaches and Kenting National Park. Should have more time to enjoy the scenery and (hopefully) beautiful weather.

It's been fun having someone here to entertain and makes me feel "local" since I'm the tourguide!

Anyway - hope you enjoyed your Cinco de Mayo!

Update on Sarah's Dad

I'm back in Taiwan - a WONDERFUL week with Sarah in Florida last week. Perfect weather all week with lots of sun and time on the beach. Pictures and more coming soon. I've been trying to catch up as much as possible with work but I'll get the pictures updated soon.

Update on Sarah's dad... he is now out of the hospital!!! Everything is going well again. He has his tubes out and they are staying in Iowa City this week for a few more daily checkups. If all is well, there's a chance that he and Sarah may be able to return to their real home later this week.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and concerns. We're hoping he's out of the tough stuff finally after some discoveries last week. All is much better now.