After spending several days in snow-covered Dallas (there is an oxymoron), Sharon and Jerome wanted to see what good weather is like in the states. What better place than the bay area.

Usual feast at Korea House.

Running a relay marathon seemed like a good idea when we were talking about it way back when. But, the day before the race, I was so ill-prepared, I was dreading the whole thing.

Luckily (and surprisingly) for me, all went pretty well. I even managed to keep up a descent pace.

For more pictures, check out Joe's website. He put together a nice page with pictures and map of the marathon route.

Taiwan Thailand Malaysia Hong Kong

What to do when you find yourself in a unique situation of not being tied down by work ... take a long vacation and see the world. In this case, Southeast Asia.

I really must thank Sharon and Jerome for being such a great hosts during my trip. I wound up staying in Hong Kong lot longer than expected and they were absolutely wonderful. Thanks so much !

So here are my adventures. Hong Kong was basically my hub for this vacation which included visits to Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand; in that order.

Click on the areas of the map to see the details of my trip.

 

No plans for Memorial weekend ?  Let's go to Seattle and see if we can all fit in Anh and Doug's house !!!  I'm glad to say that I didn't wind up on the couch.

It turns out that most of us have at one time or another lived in Dallas. Several of us actually met in that HOT city.

And, here are some Seattle aquarium pictures of simple organisms.  Check out the one with the RPI sweatshirt.

Lydia has reached the big 3 0.  The surprise party worked like a charm as she was truly surprised.  Good job, Tom.

Happy Birthday Lydia !!!

One of the bad thing about the bay area is its outrageous housing price.  Well, ever since Anh and Doug packed up and moved to Seattle, I wondered what kind of house they bought.  Well, here it is.  I can only imagine how much a similar house would go for in the bay area.

Of course, what is a house without a super entertainment center.  Needless to say, I was very impressed.  On their huge TV screen, I had the pleasure of watching NY Giants totally demolish the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game.  Go Giants !!!
   

My 1st New Years celebration on the west coast.  A bit unusual for me to celebrate New Years in such warm weather.  But hey, I'm not complaining.

 

 

I've never been to a Halloween celebration like the one on Castro street in San Francisco.  I can't even begin to guess how many people were out on the street.

And of course, there was plenty of risqué behavior but hey what do you expect.  Its Halloween night in San Francisco !