Monday, February 22, 1999

winter break report + Tahoe trip canceled :-(

This winter break had a pretty good start, thanks to the awesome party at Ann's house last week. However, the break kind of ended on a bad note.

As mentioned earlier, my family had planned to go skiing in Tahoe again this past weekend. Unfortunately, the trip was called off as Dad was too busy with work-related stuff. I had been eagerly looking forward to the slopes, so this was quite a let-down. :-(

On the other hand, my parents invited the Liang family over to our house for dinner on Saturday to compensate for the trip. The gathering was quite nice except for when I got into an argument with Dad (although not related to the cancellation of the trip) during the meal. This was rather embarrassing, although it could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for the fact that we are good friends with the Liang family. Damn Asian parents.

In any case, I hope spring break will be a lot better, preferably with no canceled trips or silly bickering. :-)

Currently playing: Operation Neptune

Monday, February 15, 1999

Valentine's Day party report

Last night was pretty fun as Mom's friend Ann invited my family to her house for dinner. This wasn't really a Valentine's Day party per se; the gathering just happened to fall on February 14 and so wasn't too different from the other ones we've been to. An actual Valentine's Day party would no doubt have been very awkward with all the hugging and kissing going on. :P

Ann lives rather far away in Walnut Creek - which is about 70 miles from our house - so we don't get to visit her all that often. This was actually our first time seeing the Jung family in years, so it was great to get back in touch with them. However, the real reason we hadn't touched base for so long was that I accidentally killed their pet fish on our last visit.

You see, I really liked their aquarium, so their daughters told me I could feed the fish. But because I didn't know how much they were supposed to eat, I ended up putting in too much food, and the poor fishies all died of ruptured stomachs as a result. Oh dear!

In other words, I learned the hard way that the concept of moderation was apparently foreign to the fish. You could say I literally loved them to death. The girls were understandably so upset that they told their mother never to invite us over again. True to their word, our families didn't have contact for a long time.

But it seems I've been forgiven after all those years. When I brought up the subject at dinner, all of us had a good laugh about it. Leaving the past to the past, our two families had a great time. All of the food was delicious, especially Ann's homemade blueberry tarts.

The highlight of the evening was when we learned that Ann's husband used to be a NASA flight controller, and that he was there during the Apollo 13 incident. As you could imagine, he had quite a few sleepless nights - as well as an epic story to tell!

The nice thing is that winter break had only begun. If everything goes to plan, my family will be heading to Lake Tahoe again in a few days. :-)

Currently playing: Chip's Challenge