We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday at Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay for the KKSF Concert on the Coast Series featuring Jazz Attack. This ensemble is a collaboratoin of four great jazz musicians; Jonathan Butler, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, Peter White. We had a wonderful time especially since we were only 4 rows back on aisle seats. Jeff even was within a foot of Peter White when they started coming down the aisles to dance while they were playing. Many great hits, and of course they each played a tune from their "latest" CD. The weather was totally awesome and the fog didn't even roll in until after the concert ended. The encore performance was one of many tunes by Earth, Wind, and Fire. We purchased the dinner package so we were able to enjoy the rest of the evening over dinner at the hotel and just relaxing before we headed back home.

Photos from the concert.

Looks like in the 4th position we have a woman racing at the Indy 500. Very exciting and hopefully I will get a chance to watch the start before service.

Rookie female driver on fast track at Indy 500
3 other women have raced at Brickyard, but none with traction of Danica Patrick
by Nancy Gay, Chronicle Staff Writer

I can imagine this being really challenging for those manly men who get beat out by Danica. Imagine at the end of the race, "You got beat by a girl!" But then again maybe the sponsors and advertisers would love it since they can increase sales to a more diversified group of viewers?

I'm so excited for Mark and Maria who tied the knot in NYC.

Some fun photos of the happy event.

NY Times article on suburbs vs. city from the perspective of several couples who have done the move or doing the move.

Is It Worth It? by Teri Karush Rogers (Free Reg Required)

Ever since coming back from HK we have had to face some of the same issues these couples/families have had to face. We really miss the convenience and closeness of life un HK. While we have a bigger home and nice yard here, it's still quite lonely to be home alone all day and having to drive everywhere to run errands is quite challenging. So right now I'm trying to cope and find things to do and explore new ways of looking at our neighborhood. I wonder if this longing will change once we have kids?

Mental note, try to make it to Vancouver in spring 2006.

IA Summit 2006
City: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Location: The Hyatt Regency Vancouver
Dates: 23-27 March, 2006

Hopefully we're not treking around the world again or too pregnant at that point.

I'm quite busy these days, but not because I'm working. I'm actually at home doing a variety of projects that we've put off the last 5 years. Ever since HK and especially the mission trip our wants have greatly diminished especially of upgrading sports cars and running them on the track. But the biggest challenge is I know where He wants me to go and in some strange way I get differing signals from the world about what I need to do. There's all this pressure to be a certain way, have certain values, make money and buy stuff you don't need, and to depend only on yourself. The biggest challenge right now is that we're back now and we're slowly morphing to our old ways of complacency. Everything feels the same at the same time feeling so unfamiliar. I know something is moving us to do more or do less but just not here and still not sure what it is.

Michael Angeles just passed me a musical baton that was passed to him from Tanya.

Total volume of music on my computer
2640 songs, 8.3 days, 11.99 GB
Not really that much but then again I'm not really into that much music.

The Last CD I Bought
Jonathan Butler, Jonathan

Song Playing Right now
Star Me Kitten, REM Automatic for the People

Five songs I listen to a lot, according to iTunes "Most listened to" Smart List
Refiner's Fire
These Ordinary Days - Jarys of Clay, The Eleventh Hour
Something Beautiful - Jars of Clay, The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour - Jars of Clay, The Eleventh Hour
Everyday

Ok, yes I'm into Christian oriented music :) I also make my playlists on iTunes for our worship band since I'm one of the singers and have to practice and listen to new music often.

Who am I passing this on to?
don't really plan to since I know many folks don't like chain letters

NY Times has been doing a series of articles on Class and this recent one was on the surge of alumni Chiristians of Ivy League universities trying to renew interest in the Ivy Leagues Christian foundations.

On a Christian Mission to the Top (NY Times, free registration required)

One of the aspects of the Vine in HK were the monthly breakfast business meeting. I went a couple of times and it was at the HSBC building. One of the largest companies in HK provides a catered breakfast for business people to pray and listen/interaction with really great speakers from the business community speak about how God has changed their lives. I'm wondering if there is anything like that here in Silicon Valley.

I miss you guys!!!!!

What I miss about Hong Kong:
everything outside my doorsteps of my building
great food on every single corner
don't have to drive/ great public transportation
friends and family live within a 15 minute walk or 15 minute bus ride
fun people all around
cultural diversity from many walks of life
everyday is a new adventure

I know I shouldn't but I've bought fat free powdered hot cocoa. Directions say put cocoa in cup and pour 8 oz of hot water or milk and stir. A few weeks back I went to see Basia down in LA. Unfortunately it was raining and cold and wasn't too interested in having wine or beer. So I ordered hot cocoa. I was imagining a nice big cup of creamy hot cocoa. What I got was brown water. The server actually dumped powdered cocoa in a 16oz styrofoam cup and filled it to the top with hot water. First we had to wait 10 minutes since they ran out of cups, and then the water was too hot to drink. Finally one sip...*bleh* And to think a glass of merlot was just $2 more than a cup of hot cocoa...argh! So here I am sitting in the kitchen with my hot cocoa, listening to smooth jazz, and catching up on email. Tomorrow: quest for the really good hot cocoa with a bit of spice.

Ever want to read up more on the digital information management landscape.

Journal of Digital Information
Peer-reviewed electronic-only publication.

Lots of great stuff in there around digitization projects, search, metadata, taxonomies, information architecture, and information technology.

I'm a member of St. Supery's wine club. During the nice warm weather months, they host several activities for their members and others. This year we attended the Spring Fling. It was great food, company, and of course wine with a nautical theme and oysters galore. Our table must have had the most fun there with the laughter, and the mock sobriety walk to the Sauvignon Blanc table. Wherever in life we've come from, we all definitely had a wonderful time!

Here's the gang at St. Super May 14, 2005

Jeff and I pulled out the carpet and discovered some huge water damage. The Stuart Floors guy mentioned that with sanding they can remove the parts that were messed up. He was right.

Photos of the floor work.

Courts Strike Down Ban on Wine Shipments
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

This is a big deal. Yes there are many distributors who will be out of business in many states. But let's get to the 21st century and Internet sales. Wineries can now ship directly to consumers in various states that banned direct sales of alcohol. So when the whole retail industry was jumping on board the online sales bandwagon, many wineries and other alcohol companies were severely limited on how they could sell wines online. So now it will be interesting to see how internet sales go for online wineries!

We're redoing the floors in our bedroom. When we first checked out this house a few years ago we were wondering why there was pink carpet. We just couldn't figure out why a single very masculine guy would pick pink carpet. Well today when pulling out the carpet and base board we found pink walls. So maybe he never picked them and it always has been pink. But boy the pink on the walls reminds me of Pepto Bismol. Argh! So the floors will be refinished and hopefully Jeff's allergies will go away. Today is the first day of remodeling for the house. I'll be documenting our efforts shortly. Some of it will be in DIY style but hopefully it will be fun as well.

Interestingly enough I've been cooking all our meals. Somehow eating at home is such a treat after having such a cramp and inadequate kitchen and cookware. So here I am trying my best to be a domesticated housewife. Tory(HK friend) comes to the rescue with a very simple cookbook recommendation.

More-with-Less Cookbook

More than 25 years old and written by Mennonites about simple and frugal cooking.

I can't wait to get my hands on one. The reviews as pretty good on Amazon.

Had a great 31st earlier this week and some great homemade molasses ginger cookies at a friend's house.

Went down to LA to see Basia with my girlfriend and had a blast dancing to old favorites and spending time with her whole family. I saw an ultrasound of her baby and heard "his" heartbeat who is soon to be due in 7 weeks. I "think" it's going to be a boy. It was great to be part of this family for so many years, through good times and bad.

Was totally sad to hear more about one of my childhood friends dying from a liver disease a few weeks ago. Strangely my friends just saw her a couple months ago at the funeral of a friend's mom. Argh. Some friends are still coping with the event and for me it's just difficult to know people die so young.

Spent some great time with my brothers and mom for an early Mother's Day at Villa Nova in Newport Beach. Great food and dessert. The wine list was very impressive but my family isn't really into wine so I had one on my own. A really nice 2003 Hess Select Cabernet.

Had a great time meeting new people at a gathering of church friends. Service at Sequoia Church was totally awesome. I can't wait to dig into the Vine's last message on Fasting.

I also had a great workout. When I loose 8lbs this month, I will have reached my first big goal...but I actually want to loose another 20 lbs by the end of summer.

...but then things just got really bad at dinner. I prayed for patience all day and I forgot to pray for peace instead. TC reminded me to pray for peace because if you ask for patience, God really does gives you a situation for patience to play out. Boy did I really learn my lesson for 2 hours.

Looking forward to starting the house projects this week as well as meeting up with more friends.

Photos from down in LA

I really can't believe it's been a year since I spent my month off in Napa. My life has in a big way gone 180 from where I was before. I can't seem to stop reflecting or know where to start understanding the changes in my life and the way I approach my life. It's weird. So yesterday I celebrated with friends at Milagros after not seeing many of them for close to 7 months. It's been a great adventure this past year. I've done things I never thought were possible...from living alone in the hills for a month, moving to a foreign country, and serving in a missionary trip.

So here's some photos from the party last night.

There were definitely more people there sorry Jeff did not get carried away with the photos this time. We'll take more later when I connect again with everyone!

This past Sunday I shared with our church about our adventure in Hong Kong exploding into a life changing experience at the end in Davao, Philippines. The following is what I wrote to our church in Hong Kong since I had a better idea of how to organize my thoughts. It's pretty long and it's only a small fraction of the total experience. Feel free to email me if you'd like to know more.

Previous Mission Trip Part 1