I woke up this morning to this view of our backyard:

And I noticed our mini Buddha man just chillin’ in his seat:

Magically majestic:

Slope couldn’t wait to get out there. All the other kitties wouldn’t even step near the door.

Snow made my walk to the train station so pretty.

I sure do love seasons!

Looking at my snow covered Buddha and my cat play in the snow…that’s what it’s all about!

Oh boy, this blog is f-u-n-n-y.

In most situations, white people are very comforted by seeing their own kind. However, when they are eating at a new ethnic restaurant or traveling to a foreign nation, nothing spoils their fun more than seeing another white person.

Whoohoo! Chansidines are off to Vermont for the 3-day weekend! The drive will be about 5hrs…ROAD TRIP! I adore road trips, and I feel hypocritical for loving road trips (explained here), but I love it!

We’ll be staying at my brother-in-law’s in-law’s place. On a farm called the Promised Land. Whoohoo! We’re meeting them and my niece (again! Whoohoo!) there. I’m looking forward to staying in a place with NOTHING around me, hanging out with my niece, great cooking, going sledding for the first time ever, and maybe trying out snowboarding on a bunny slope once, and hopefully slotting in some CFA studying time in between.

There’s nothing like living in the concrete jungle that’s NYC to make you reeeally desire to go live in a farm for a while.

Whoohoo! (can you tell I’m happy?)

Best one yet:

The Chansidines went to yoga today. I took a longer time than Pat to put Purple Grape and the whole gear on, so he went out first to unlock his bike. When I came out, he was talking to a pretty good looking guy. I walked right by them to unlock my bike, thinking Pat was giving him directions or something. Then I heard Pat say “why, thank you, my wife thinks so too!”. The guy looks at me, says something to Pat, then walks off. I asked Pat what that was all about. What transpired was:

Guy: I love your bike [yadda yadda yadda]. By the way, I think you’re gorgeous.
Pat: Why, thank you, my wife thinks so too!
Guy: [looks at me, looks back at Pat] She better! Cos you are!

After I stopped laughing, I looked at Pat and I could see why. Aside from the fact that yes, I think he is a gorgeous dreamboat, he was carrying the yoga bag that my gay friend in Singapore got me to buy two of, and ended up giving us back one of them. AND, his headband just so happened to match the color of the baby blue bag. I don’t think he could be anymore gay-dar even if he tried.

That’s what you get for marrying a guy who is very secure in his sexuality to dress, ahem, different. And by different, I don’t mean metrosexual, because this guy cuts his own hair because it’s free (you can’t get any more un-metrosexual than that). Them gay boys sure do love him tho’. I don’t think I ever blogged about the time he was stalked by a guy in Singapore all the way from the bus stop in Raffles Place, to our flat in Zion Road. Literally, the guy followed Pat up the stairs when he was trying to escape thinking Pat was enticing him to a tacit rendezvous. Or the time when his then-new colleagues made a bet on whether he was gay; the lesbian thought he was, the gay dude bet that he wasn’t. Or the time he wore his mom’s floral shirt for a family dinner in Florida because he only brought old T-shirts and everyone else dressed nice. Or the time when…

On that note…Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all!

I was at Circuit City yesterday getting VGA cables. I’m getting a great education in cables now having turned this embarrassing mess of cables at our TV from this:

…into this:

It took me 3.5hrs. It’s all part of my New Year’s resolution to clear clutter in my life. Every weekend, I pick a part of the house to clear out clutter. So far, I have done my closet (cleared out bags and bags of clothes), my shoes (most of it were trash, those $2 sandals I bought in Bangkok or Vietnam that I’ll never wear again), the computer table and now, the TV area.

During the process, I learnt that cables can be upgraded, come in different forms, and makes a hell lotta difference in your viewing experience. It’s amazing what a difference it makes!

On another note, at Circuit City, I was standing in line at the checkout and I could see a group of boys playing a playstation basketball game in super duper high definition (looks like you are watching real people play) and then in another corner, a boy playing Guitar Hero. These days, stuff like the Wii makes you think you are doing something but you are really not – bowling, tennis, even a game to cook food.

How ridiculous is that? Whatever happened to just going out to play? Or playing the real guitar? We have hi-definition TV to make everything look as “real” as possible. I guess I can understand playing fantasy world games, where you can’t find it in real life. But why are people trying to recreate real life into HD? It just so weird.

It reminds me of us at Independence Day last year where we had the best view of the fireworks…every firework was exploding right in front of our faces. And Alex joked “it’s better on HD!”

From CNN: Berkeley: Marines can stay; we still hate war

I love Berkeley and all, but this was just stoopid.

The City Council wanted to ban military recruiters from setting up office in Berkeley because they were against the war.

Thank god it came to its senses and is now rescinding its decision.

I am 100% against the war, but it would have been the biggest shame and hypocrisy if Berkeley, the liberal mecca for freedom of speech and freedom of everything else, banned something simply because they did not agree with it.

That was a nagging sense that I got when I was living in Berkeley/San Francisco – everyone is for hugs, love and peace for everyone…unless “everyone” includes the conservative Republican. at times. When it purports to be so enlightened and liberal, there’s an overwhelming sense of same-ness and exclusivity in the community.

Awww! It’s snowing!! It’s sooo pretty! I was walking home today and the snow was light and fluffy and I felt so happy. Oh I do love having seasons. Everything feels novel.

Our backyard looks pretty.

We’ve had some snow before today this winter, but no accumulation like that. All our tropical cats HATE the snow (Fat Cat is from Florida; Zion & Buddy from Singapore), they only tolerate it enough to go out and do their biz and run back in. But Slope! Geez..this New Yorker kitty LOVES to play in the snow! It was hilarious to watch her tear through the backyard running up and down to kick the sand up.

This video is definitely very boring to the rest of you folks (I feel like one of those proud mommas that show really boring videos of her kids that are interesting only to her), but Pat took this video before I came home and it cracked me up (ignore Pat’s voice; he was talking to someone on the phone).

This is what it has come down to, folks: watching my cat play in the snow. Pure joy.

Daft Punk makes me happy.

Daft Punk in a brief performance at the Grammys last night, in similar style from the BEST CONCERT I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!. Kayne West is a douchebag. This performance was too much Kanye, too little Daft Punk. I (heart) Daft Punk.

It was so cold today (about 20F wind chill 7F, that’s about -14 celcius to you folks in S’pore) that I literally had a brain freeze walking 1 block to the train station. My forehead was the only part of my skin exposed (should have worn a hat) and it painfully froze over, leading to a terrible headache when it warmed up. YOWZA! We’ve been having a relatively warm winter so far though so I can’t complain.

gotta love that look with my hair bunched up on both sides. really, who cares how you look when it’s so fucking cold?? unseen in this picture is my awesome “purple grape” jacket, my highly unfashionable but very practical jacket that makes me look like a huge walking grape.

It was so windy yesterday that when I rode my bike to my dentist, I literally felt like Purple Grape turned into a dangerous parachute on my bike, pushing me in this and that direction. It was crrrrazy…and kinda fun actually!