dig deep...

While most people from other part of the country going about their daily lives, others in Southern states, victims of Hurricane Katrina, don't have that opportunity. The storm pummeled cities and small towns leaving million homeless. People reported missing. Death toll keeps climbing. This makes me feel especially fortunate that I still have a roof over my head; a job to go to. It's going to take years for those cities and towns to recover. Donations are being accepted to help those poor souls. Friends, strangers please dig deep into your wallets. Help out. Even $1.00 would make a difference. With your help, those folks could able to feed and rebuild their lives. And who knows, someday New Orleans will sing those happy tunes again. Check the links below for more information.
Red Cross
Craig's List

Out and About

My friend John called me @ work on Friday to see if I was coming to his gig at Summit Station, a restaurant and brewery. I was planning to stay home but thought what the heck, it's Friday and the bar is about 2 miles from my place. At around 4pm, my boss kicked my co-worker, Mike and me out of the studio--an hour early, just because the weather was kicking ass. That was awesome, I didn't mind leaving work early. I went home and took a nap. Later that night, I dragged my sorry ass to Summit Station, about an hour and half late. Luckily, the band had 2 more sets to play. Poppy, her friends and Andrea also came out to the show. It was unusual because they don't usual go to Maryland gigs. Andrea had recently moved from North Carolina back to Virginia. It was nice to catch up with her.

Ten minutes after I arrived, the band, Radio Mosaic, jammed again. They played their own stuff, which mostly rock, and cover songs ranging from Bob Marley to Grateful Dead, from rock to blues. As usual, everyone was having a good time. Feeling a bit hungry, I ordered a burger, fries and a smoked porter. While waiting for my burger, I took some photos and videos of the band.

The band continued to play into the night. Everyone danced to the tunes. As usual, I stood back and watched. I can't dance to save my life. I took swing dancing a few years back only to discover that I have two left feet. Toward the end of the show, Doug, lead singer, sang "Happy Birthday" to Marisa (Poppy's friend). Everyone joined in and sang along. Nice to celebrate your birthday with friends. A couple of songs and drinks later, the band packed up and stuffed the elevator with their gear. It was a fun night...good to be out of the house.

On Saturday, I went to Eden in Northern Virginia for lunch. I go there every now and then. They have more authentic Vietnamese restaurants there. Anyway, I ordered deep fried salted ribs. After lunch, I went to Cafe Mirage for some iced coffee. Later that day, I went to John and Kathy's place with a bottle of wine. We chatted and watched some travel shows about Barbados and Bolivia. Their big ass 51" Sony HDTV made the shows even more enticing. They've got a great deal on that tv along with a leather couch and some sound system through Craig's list for only $1300.00. F-ing awesome! I might have to go over their place next year for the World Cup.

It was nice to be out and about. I need to get out more often. It's tough though because I am trying to save money for my next trip to Japan. Yeah, baby.

New Jersey

It's almost hard to believe that I've been back from Spain over a month ago. Time flies so quickly. The trip was great but short. Two weeks wasn't enough for me. I need at least 3 weeks but that isn't going to happen any time soon. I need to find a way.

I went up to Jersey to see my friends a few weeks ago. I had a Friday off so I decided to come up for a few days. We all looked over the Spain photos and videos. It was great to re-live the experience. I am planning to go back in 2 years. This time I'll do the Southern half. I love pretty much everything about Spain--their culture, their way of life. Anyway, while Dave and Kristin were in Barcelona, they bought this liquor dispenser at a bargain price--20 Euros. So naturally, I had to see how this thing works.Dave filled it with fine Maker's Mark Whiskey and demonstrated before his brother-in-law, Chip, his friend, John and me how it works. We had some fun doing shots and playing Halo that night :)

While sitting on Dave's porch minding my own business, this little furry thing from next door wandered over. Look at those feed-me eyes. (I am a sucker for cats). It was found along with siblings in a garbage dumpster. The neighbor took 'em in and care for them. One of the kitties got killed by a car soon after.

On Saturday night, I went to my aunt's house for dinner. My friend Dave came along. My cousin, Natalie and her boyfriend, Brian were also in town. I haven't seen Nat for over 7 yrs. My second cousin, Alex (Beth and Craig's daughter) flew up from Boca Raton, Florida with Nat and Brian. I've never met her 'til that night. I think she 9 yrs old. She has been taking capoeira, Brazilian martial art, for sometime now. Dinner was great. My aunt made garden rolls and egg rolls. My buddy Dave been craving for some home made egg rolls. After dinner, we sat around and talked for a while. I showed everyone my Spain photos on the laptop. They thought I was a crazy nut for running with the bulls. I was a crazy nut, indeed.

It was a nice 3-day weekend. I am coming back up to Jersey next weekend. Gonna be another nice 3-day weekend. Dave's sister, Alicia and her husband are having a bbq party. They threw great parties. Can't wait.

Another Blogger: That's what we all need

I have been wanting to get a blog page up and running on my website but didn't know how to. Thanks to Andreas and other useful websites, I finally got a blog page installed in my website. This is a nice feature because what ever I posted--text, images, will be archived in my server and not Blogger.com site. There are few things I have to do to make this blog page runs smoothly. My web browser, Safari currently does not support hyperlink which means I can't link other people's websites to my blog; however, there is a way to solve that problem: you have to manually type in the link tags. Or I might just have to download Firefox browser.