Hi there!

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic, different.”

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers: a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

Name your kids Willow, Trig, and Track: you’re a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating: you’re well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl (sports caster), 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.

If your husband is nicknamed “First Dude”, with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now

Since friday, I’ve been working nonstop in replacing the shower walls and flooring in the both bathrooms since Carolyn and kids were away.  Originally, I intended to keep the scope small and limit work to just the flooring – replacing linoleum with tile.  Should’ve been an easy 2 day job.  Fate did not want to let me go so easily….

While removing the baseboards (the wood where the floor meets the wall), I examined an area that looked crusty when we bought the condo.  Once the baseboards were taken off, the crusty area crumbled and I observed water damage on the drywall and baseboard.  Looks like previous resident wasn’t careful with keeping water in the shower stall!

On Saturday 7/12/08, Carolyn and I went to a wedding for a good friend Peter Tateishi.  The wedding and reception went off perfectly.  I must say that this was a very well-organized event (to me at least) as there was minimal wait time for the bridal party to arrive at the reception hall and food to be served.  The reception looked elegant with white linen, flower centerpieces, and beautifully dressed people everywhere.

We met Kelly, a young lady from Boston who was in Sacramento for the wedding.  She was so entranced with Amy (our 2month old) that I could evidently see her deep desire for a child.  I’m very sure that she’ll make a great mother, seeing the way she held and cared for a baby she hardly knew.  Imagine the amount of love she’d have for one of her own!

On a side note, I might have broken a bone or ligament when trying to lift Carolyn while dancing, like this.  Heard it pop and experienced a sharp pain.  Guess I’m getting older!

Last night, Carolyn’s mother, Joyce, flew in from Canada for a few days with us.  Excitement was in the air as we hurriedly cleaned the house beforewards and rushed off to the airport to meet her.  The long-awaited chores finally got done and the kids were woken up from their naps in order to get seated in the van.

After the airport, we had a late dinner at home as Carolyn prepared some rice, veggies, and a rotisserie chicken.  The kids ate well as talk filled the air with updates on what’s been going on and the plans for the week.   After dinner came bathtime and the kids went to bed afterwards.  Joshua had a hard time falling asleep amidst the excitement and it took a few trips back to the bedroom for him to fall asleep on the floor.

On saturday evening, we finally relented over the lack of space in our sedan for a family of five and bought a new Toyota Sienna LE.  It’s definitely (obviously) has more room than before and allows the kids to have their personal space without having to fight over who-is-touching-who.  I’ll post the pics soon.

Taking 2nd part of Inorganic chem right now and we’re going through buffers and ionic stuff that I have yet to read about and have to know before wednesday’s quiz.  It probably wouldn’t be so bad, but I only have 5-7hrs/week to spend on homework and studying, which doesn’t seem to be enough.  Homework alone takes 3-4hrs/week.  Well, we’re halfway over through the semester and I still have a shot at an A, so I’ll keep at it!

I’m amazing how little traffic occurs during 4am. This morning, I drove John (Carolyn’s brother) to the airport and it took about half the time it usually does.  He visited us for the week while on leave from military life. It was great having him here and I’ll post the pics and vids soon. Meanwhile, I went to work right after dropping him off and got here at 5am–2.5hrs early!  So far, I’ve gotten much of my daily routine done during the silence of early morning and it was eerily serene.

Carolyn’s having an ultrasound this morning and I’m hoping that our baby girl is doing fine and growing well. 3 more weeks to go!

Found a good way to get back (in a nice way) to all my buddies: Rickrolled

Guaranteed good times!

Free burrito baby!!

If anyone bought a $10 gift card from 2/1-2/12, they can get a free burrito today or tomorrow.  I bought 2 gift cards over the weekend…anyone wanna go with me?