Terps beat Purdue in the Champs Sports Bowl!  Sweet.

Yikes, in my rush to meet Xangans: Nat, K, and Tim for dinner last night I left off "Congratulations to Mr. Jenn (aka Nate or The Fireman)!" in my last post.  I hope he doesn't read Xanga.

[Thanks, Dabridgemaster for the photo]

I was blessed to also see Jenn & Nate after dinner.  As is my custom, I tend to congratulate the guys with a "Good job!"  In this particular case, I know what a treasure Jenn is, and how my little tall sister can be s-o-o-o-o-o-o analytical (like her big brother) can be  ... The Fireman's patience paid off, despite said analytical-nature. 

Well, K & I stuck around to hear the full story of Jenn's courtship & recent engagement.  It's great.  I asked her to put in blog or book form for posterity's sake.  Nat came up with a great title: "Finding Mr. Jenn".  It's so Jenn.  I promised her I would write a glowing endorsement; it's a great, hilarious, encouraging (especially for the guys) story.

Btw, I understand from Jenn that it is customary (American/Western custom?) to actually wish the guy "Congratulations" and the gal "Best wishes".  Best wishes?  That to me sounds more hopeful-in-nature than definitive. I like mine, "Good job!" and "Happy Engagement" (like Happy Birthday) better. 

One more thing.  Am I the only one that gets Nat's and Nate's names confused.  Drat, why can't get their names straight?  It's why I resort to Natasha and Nathan at times.

Oh, dinner was at TNR aka Tea, Noodle, and Rice in Arlington County's Courthouse area.  The food was pretty good.  We ate Tofu Homestyle, Combination Fried Noodles (done very well and in Cantonese style ... definitely, *not* the Americanized version), Salt & Pepper Fried Squid, Ginger Chicken Casserole/Hotpot.  K also had the wonton-mein (noodle) soup.  [They used a thicker noodle than normal wonton-mein.]

Being a second-gen ABC [American-born Chinese], that's third-gen on the Japanese/Korean scale, it stinks not speaking any Chinese dialect.  She asked if K, Tim & I were Chinese with those two Cantonese-speaking brothers and me/them telling her I was Toisan.  Ack, she's a Toisan-sistah!  And thus, proceeds to speak to me in Toisan.  Argh.  All I know is "eat", "drink", "rain" and just "1-2-3-4" in Toisan.

Oh well, at least she did *not* harass me to learn Mandarin as I got in my friend's wedding recently.  Btw, I've tried to get my coworker to teach me Mandarin.  But he tells me "You're hopeless [to learn Chinese] and it's too late for you."  Boo on him.   Oh well, at least he makes me congee (jook) for breakfast.

Congrats to one of my very close sisters in Christ, Jenn, Happy Engagement!

Wow, that's my fourth engagement news this year!  There's still a few days left in 2006, anybody else?

Can anybody tell me if the new Rocky Balboa movie is worth watching?  How about The Good Shepherd?  There's a few movies that look interesting (e.g., the new Will Smith movie Pursuit of Happiness, Children of Men, and We Are Marshall) but I'm in no rush to watch ... except for one that is currently in limited release.

That one movie is Director Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima.  The trailer is incredible.  Reviews (and here) look solid.  General release, I believe, is on January 12, 2007.

I wonder how 2007 will fare?  Looking forward to Transformers & Spider-Man 3.  And yes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ...

I was in the neighborhood of a Family Bookstore today, so I used their post-Xmas 25% coupon given to me when I was Xmas shopping.  I told myself I really shouldn't buy any more books until I make some headway on my bookpiles.  I did pick up an ESV New Testament compact pocket-sized (4.6 x 3.3 x 0.4 inches!) paperback version for the list price of $4.99 minus my discount.  The plan is to leave it in my coat pocket for those really long lines I seem to be ending up in a lot these days.  Anyways, Amazon sells it for $3.99.  See my Xanga Currently Reading or Amazon for a picture.

Christmas evening was fun with the cousin's kids.  The two boys brought over their new PSP game machines which I tried out.  The little girl (Pre-K) must have found out I was the gift-giver for the family.  She kept asking me if I got her wish-list, and got her things off that list!

I bought a checker & kids card game set for us to play with.  Boy #2 is more into group activies than his older brother but I felt bad that in the past we never really had much for us to do together.  We all usually end up watching a dvd or tv together.  This year I really wanted to something non-tv'ish.  Well, the kid really enjoyed beating us.  Oh, any activity ideas for the next family gathering?  A boardgame, perhaps?  Card games? 

And yes, I ate a lot of my Mom's yummy foods, but fortunately, I paced myself.  No overstuffing this year.

Those CCC cool church kids were interviewed in the Washington Post.  CCC, aka the "Chinatown Church", was the church I grew up in.

• It's almost Xmas, yet it doesn't quite feel like it.  Is it the warm 62 degree, t-shirt weather?  Was it celebrating Xmas with my immediate family last Sunday?  (My lit'l bro & sis-in-law will be with her side for Xmas.)  Still I will still be with the rest of the family plus auntie, her kids, and her grandkids ... priceless.
• Looking forward to some extended Quiet Time Devotions on my vacation days.
• Still can't get over how warm it was today.
• Saw people fighting for a parking spot at the mall.  Pretty hilarious and sad at the same time.
• Now that my college friend, Eug, is married, he's sending out Xmas cards with his wife.  His first words to me:  "Thanks for being the best best man ever!"  "THE BEST... EVER"  ... well, considering I'm his ONLY best man ever, I guess I pass. 
• Thanks to instant messaging connections, it's gonna be a sushi nite!

Merry Christmas, Fellow Xangans!

Friday was supposed to be my night to start my focused Xmas shopping.  I even turned down two movie temptations (errrr, offers).  Some relatives are traveling on the holidays so I needed to get it done RSN (real soon now).  However, Lisa wanted to make up for her previous loss of Contra Dancing so she gently twisted my arm with basic peer pressure.  What a sister-in-Christ!

Okay, when it comes to social dancing, it's hard for me to say 'no'.  (Plus, I was exhausted from the work week to shop.  I didn't leave work Friday until after 7pm!  And I still wasn't the last man out the door.)  With last minute planning we managed to get a third of our regular contra posse to Glen Echo; not too bad.

Highlights:

• Open band was playing!  What a rich fuller sound with 20+ instruments going.  Interesting, some regulars said they were not that good that night.  I can't wait to see them play when they are at their best!
• I did my first contra square.  I can't say how it compares to square dancing, but oh so fun!
• During the Waltz Break, Lisa's friend, Romie, and I were struggling in remembering how a waltz progressive (aka travel) is done.  Fortunately, Contra people are incredibly helpful.  In no time, she & I were gliding half-way down the ballroom.  I quickly showed Lisa what the steps were.  Next thing you know a bunch of guys were asking them to waltz!
• Apparently on very cold evenings, the contra event has more guys than gals.  The men there are very aggressive in finding dance partners.  One guy cut-off Jimmy as he was about to ask someone to dance!  Lisa & Romie were always quickly asked out as soon as the previous song ended; there was no end of partners for them.

As a side thing:  I once read an article about how China's One Child Policy will leave the nation with a disparity of genders as there will not be enough women for the future PRC adult men to date & marry.  I vaguely recall the author saying this situation would affect the rest of the world with these men becoming overly aggressive which will translate into world politics and potential military conflicts.  I kinda scoffed at the notion.

After Friday night I'm not so sure!

Now that my rotation is over with the Kindergarden & First Grade kids, I was asked last week to cover the Pre-K kids class as a teacher's aide for a little while.  It's a big class so my teacher-friend is quite happy to have me there.  It's been tough missing six months of the regular adult worship service (I'm really out of the loop on things), but having an extra pair of hands to help out (& to keep order) is alway appreciated by the current teachers.  Plus, kids this age have a way of doing incredibly funny things.  (Double-plus, maybe it'll improve my artsy-fartsy crafty side for any way-way-down-the-road future nieces & nephews.  Haha, I draw lousy farm animals.    ).

Today was no different.  My friend Danny was teaching the Xmas story ... you know with the stable, manger, angel, Joseph & Mary, and animals ...when one of the kids interrupts with "I need to go the bathroom!"  So quickly Danny, myself, and one of the moms (watching her two young kids) took the class to & from the bathrooms.

Once done with the bathroom break we got them settled down for the lesson, and Danny starts to finish off the story by asking rhetorically, "Now where were we?"

Totally unexpected the kid who earlier interrupted says, "We were in the bathroom!"  The mom & I just busted out laughing at how literal the kid answered the question.  (I guess you had to be there.)

Ah, simple joys.  Thank you, Lord for these times to serve and experience your goodness.

P.S.  I don't know why but it's kinda cool when my current & former students randomly see me and shout out, "Hi Mister/Uncle Ron!"   It must be becuz I want to a be real uncle some day.  I'm jealous of JennR, KevinF, TimL, ...   Haha, is this envy?  Am I coveting again?! 

The wedding went very well.  I'm beat.  I think I'm gonna just Hang Loose for the rest of this short work-week ...

Brothers & Sisters say "hang loose"!

Lit'l Cuz decided to give a go at it:

Or maybe he thinks he's a Texas Longhorn?  "Hook'em Horns!"  (Okay, technically you use your index finger instead of one's thumb, but hey, he's just a kid!)

Anyways, I'm s-o-o-o-o-o glad it's a short week, and a long holiday weekend afterwards.

An early Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Turkey Day, y'all!    (Who's gonna have turkey jook/porridge this weekend?)  And best wishes to the Ambassador men & women flag football teams!