impedimento non mi piega

Uncle Robin planned a BBQ at Goong Goong and Paw Paw's house. The kids and I just came back from it an hour and a half ago. It was really fun, and I got to see a lot of people who I haven't seen in a long time! :O) There was lots of good food - hot dogs, hamburgers, sushi, chips and plenty of beer and wine for those who drank ... mmmmm.... I took a few photos and video as well. If you want to see some video, please ping me on AIM or send a note to me, and I will send it.

Auntie Fai is moving to Seattle!! Ohmigod! Although, I am sad that my little sis is moving ... I'm still very excited for her and Jamal (who was offered a position at Boeing ... woo hoo!). :O) It will be a life changing event no doubt, and she will do great things in that city!

Hey y'all ... I AM OLD ...
I had a realization tonight ... there were two people who I practically grew up that had gray hair! I was like ... WHOA! We're all getting old. Auntie Fai also had told Yummer that she and Nancy had known each other since they were Yummers' age (i.e. six) which in a way made me feel doubly old! :O) The funny thing I still feel like a 16 year old at heart ... I thought it was particularly funny when Loretta pulled out her black hoodie from the "good ol' days" which reminded me of the days where we wore our black hoodies everyday (literally ... If you think I'm kidding ask anyone who knew us at NHS).

Anyhow ... enjoy the pics!

Our chefs ... Jamal, Davin, Uncle Tien and Auntie Fai

Nancy and Auntie Fai

Alice and David - Newlyweds! You're a lucky man, David!

Uncle Robin, Cindy, Yummer and Minnie

Emily (back), Debbie, Uncle Tien, Davin, Cindy's mum, Cindy, Jill, and Ms. Liu

It's back to school time!

I think the above sign says it all! Today is the kids first day of school! Here are some pictures of Yummers in her first grade class. This reminded me when we dropped her off for her first day at Academic Gardens, and she just took in everything and didn't look back. Same thing here as well. We kept looking at her outside of the classroom, but she was focused on kneading her Play-doh and interacting with the other students.

Today was Minnie's first day at Academic Gardens without big sister, Yummers. He was a little bit shy, but he seemed to remember as he saw many of his buddies there. When we picked Minnie up, Ms. Joyce and Ms. Nancy gave her a big hug. It was really sweet! :O)

All for now ... time for me to get on the PTO! Enjoy the pics!

Yummers in front of the school sign.

Here is Ms. Hagen's Room.

Minnie and Yummer enjoying Ms. Hagen's class before it starts.

Here is Anita's placemat. She is in the front row!

Minnie's first day at Academic Gardens.

I was fascinated with the blue morning glory that bloomed on our trellis recently. You don't really see many living blue animals or plants. Michael took this picture.

Blue morning glory climbing up our back porch trellis

I've resisted taking one of these tests for a long time. This dreary kind of sleepy morning, I just decided to try taking a sample one from Tickle.com. You do have to register to take this 40 question "exam." Here are my results:

My IQ according to Tickle

According to this website, I have scored in the "High Average." Pretty interesting tidbit but it doesn't truly gauge one's knowledge and accomplishments. Of course, if I wanted to read the 15 page detailed report on my results, I would have had to pay $ 15.00. No thanks!

Apologies to anyone who has been trying to keep up with our family adventures! :O/ It is almost the end of Summer as I type. A couple things:

1. Teenage Fanclub canceled their July show in Detroit. I was really bummed out that I couldn't go to the show, but I felt better that they weren't able to play. However, I did feel really bad for the folks who drove a while to get to Detroit to see the show (i.e. Toronto, Chicago). Here are some theories as to why they could not play the Detroit gig:

- http://www.teenagefanclub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20524&highlight=detroit
- http://www.teenagefanclub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20625&highlight=detroit
- http://www.teenagefanclub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20533&highlight=detroit
- http://www.teenagefanclub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20534&highlight=detroit
- http://www.teenagefanclub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20570&highlight=detroit

2. We went to Nashville last week to visit Michael's family. It was really fun even if Michael and I did work during the day. We were thrilled and happy that the cousins spent plenty of time with another. Also, we spent time with Michael's Uncle Karl and Annie. A nice time had by all. During our time down there, I visited the YMCA in Brentwood. I did the Powerlift class with eight pound weights and red Jazzercise tube and was sore for the next two days. Phew! It's good to change your daily workout routine so you can really make sure all muscle groups are affected. Don't get me wrong, I still love Jazzercise! But there weren't any classes in the evening unfortunately at the ones in Brentwood. Strangely enough, they were all in churches.

3. The kids start school on Monday, August 29, 2005. We're so excited 'cos of two things:
- Minnie will be by himself at Academic Gardens.
- Yummers will be in the multi-age program at Farrand Elementary School. The multi-age program is a blended class of first and second graders which should allow her to interact with kids her age and a year older.

We're looking SO forward to being active participants in the PTO organisations. :O) Who knew I'd ever be so excited about something like this...

All for now - Stay tuned for pics from the first day of school!

PS: BTW - As you all are now aware, Lance won his seventh Tour de France which we watched every night! :O)

WOW --- Mark this date, Saturday, August 13, 2005. Yummer and Minnie decided that day that they were going to get on their bikes sans training wheels and ride ala Lance. Yummer said that she thought she could do this in her mind. She literally got up on her bike in front of me and started riding in the backyard.

Soon, she began going up and down on our driveway and then the sidewalks up to our neighbor's house down the block. AMAZING!

Ping or e-mail me if you want to see the video. Enjoy the stills from the video.

Anita on her bike in our backyard.

Anita on her bike in our backyard again!

Minnie on his bike riding towards the backyard.

Minnie on his bike riding in the backyard ... FAST!

Well, next week begins Lance Armstrong's final Tour De France. We're pretty psyched up for it and hope that he turns in a terrific performance. OK - we hope he does win the course overall! Get the scoop on The Paceline or follow Lance on The Discovery Channel.

Heeeeeee's Baaaa-aacccckkkk!

I wanted to post some screenshots of the kids in two separate performances.
Here are the links to download the performances:

1. Minnie's performance of "Four Leaf Clover": http://s6.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2IDTCTQCOWKVC0NSEL1N0XSINY

2. Anita's performance of another version of the ABC song with sign language! http://s11.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1RCWAGZ9MZM4D0SBJXHRXFGBV9

They are 28 MB .MOV files and can be viewed using QuickTime. One of the songs Miinnie's class sang was "Four Leaf Clover." Yummers' class performed "A You're Adorable (The Alphabet Song)."

Screenshot of Minnie's performance: "Four Leaf Clover"

Another screenshot of Minnie and class at the end of "Four Leaf Clover"

Eric, Cydney, Nick V and Anita doing the "A You're Adorable (The Alphabet Song)."

I recently read an article online that implied that there might be an original undiscovered da Vinci. How exciting! :O) Leonardo da Vinci was a very unique and talented individual who was many years ahead of his time. Wouldn't it be exciting to find it? What a breath of freshness and surprise. FYI ... I found several really good websites about him that I'd like to share.

* http://www.mos.org/leonardo/
* http://www.leonardo.net/main.html
* http://www.leonet.it/comuni/vinci/

A possible clue in the search for the missing da Vinci?

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out of there! :O) We took Goong Goong to Shangri-La Restaurant for a pretty tasty dim sum lunch. My mom was there as was Tien, Fai, Robin and his friend Davin. Yummers tried to eat a squid ... unfortunately, it was too spicy due to the curry. Oh well! :O)

You can't see it in the picture below, but Tien bought my dad this killer Lacoste T-shirt for $ 5.00 from Plato's Closet. Pretty darn cool!

Minnie, Goong Goong and Yummers at Shangri-La

I thought I would share some published quotes from Anita in the school yearbook. Enjoy!

Christmas 2004 Quote in Academic Gardens yearbook from Anita

The first half of the quote of the 2005 Academic Gardens yearbook attributed to Anita

Anita officially finished her last day as a Kindergardener at Academic Gardens today. She will be a first grader at Farrand Elementary School in the Fall. We recently went there with Yummers for lunch and had an invigorating conversation with Principal Kuhn and a tour of the school, classrooms and facilities. We're pretty excited about the various programs and active Parents Teacher Organisation (that we will be involved in ... of course).

In the meantime, she and Minnie will be going to Academic Gardens for Summer Camp. :O) If you'd like to check out some video that I took on the digital camera, please e-mail me. Some of it is REALLY cute! :O)

Funny faces at graduation!

Anita & Sean Pilon at Graduation Day!

We decided to take part in the Race for the Cure 5K Race / Walk in Detroit. It was a lot of fun and for a great cause. Michael and Robin did the Run while the kids and I did the walk. I also scored a TON of Silk Soy coupons... mmmmmm!

The event in Detroit alone attracted over 30,000 participants and raised $ 1.2 million. I will post after the race pictures at Harry's bar in Detroit where we had lunch and hung out with our friends from Jazzercise.

In Harry's parking lot ... warming up before the Race!

This came into my in box a few minutes ago! I am so excited!!! I haven't seen them in over 10 years! I will post pictures of the last time I saw them in Detroit. They will be playing at St. Andrews. WOW! :O)

The kids and I decided to give Michael an afternoon by himself to catch up on some work. So, we went to the Taste of Ann Arbor festival in Ann Arbor. We had a great time. We found the BEST parking spot which happened to lead right into Main Street and the finish line for the Dexter-Ann Arbor run. The kids and I had a good time watching the last of the participants finish and enjoyed a yummy snack of bananas and oranges. It was amazing to see table after table of oranges, bananas, water, peanut butter, cream cheese and bagels. Wow! Well, we'll probably see more of this at the end of the Race for the Cure event we'll be participating in next Saturday.

Back to the festival ... we walked throughout the festival which was mostly on Main Street and browsed some of the nice stores that were there. We really had a swell time as you can see in some of the pictures below. :O) It was incredibly sunny and HOT (88 degrees) outside. Despite the weather, the kids had a great time. See the pictures below ... Enjoy!

Proof we were there! :O)

Guess who was the first to climb the rock wall?

There were bands ...

Face painting ...

and even a pig in a stroller!

We stayed home on Memorial Day weekend and finally had an opportunity to work in the garden. As I grow older, I find that I enjoy working in the garden and admiring flowers. It's quite therapeutic and assuring to know that you are cultivating another life while beautifying your surroundings.

On Sunday, Michael, the kids and I took a drive down to Great Lakes Roses Nursery in Belleville. They specialise in growing roses. In fact, we were introduced to them at Eastern Market's Flower Day several weekends ago. We were very impressed with their knowledge of roses, and they sure did not disappoint! There were many beautiful roses from the old antiques to newer varieties.

We sat through a complimentary lecture about climbing roses and figured out that we were going to buy a William Baffin. This type of rose is a shrub that can be trained to climb.

We bought ten rose bushes including the William Baffin. We could not resist the 20% off if we bought ten or more. All of the rose bushes are really thriving in the front of the house 'cos of all the sun.

While I was waiting to pay for our rose bushes, Michael took the kids around the house and garden on the premises. The kids found some round yellow-green "fruits" that they called "me-bobs." Not sure why they called them that. But they reminded me of strawberries that have not ripened at all and were hollow inside. The kids had a pretty good time playing with them.

Anita at Great Lakes Roses (Belleville, MI).

I just found out that there will be a follow-up movie to the fantastic movie, Hoop Dreams, that followed the lives of two kids who try to become famous NBA stars. Great film... It really touched me the first time I saw it. You might have wondered what happened to William Gates and Arthur Agee. Read on in this Washington Post article. It's a very well-written and touching article. Looking forward to the sequel... might have to go to the library and check this one out again.

Hoop Dreams (1994) - A must see movie

I happened to do a search on Google to see if there were any good La's websites and ran across this:

I was completely gobsmacked. WOWOWOWOWOWWOWOW! I was so excited. So, the boys are back together somewhat it sounds. The La's were the other great band from Liverpool. (I think you know who I think the top band is! NOOOOO - not A Flock of Seagulls.) I don't know if I'd call Lee Mavers a genius, but the La's debut album is brilliant. You may have heard "There She Goes" in all of its incarnations -- most likely by the Nashville-based band, Sixpence None The Richer. Of course, The La's original provided two and half minutes of blissful pop.

A little known fact on my end: Many years ago, I sent off the cover of the album to their fanclub, and it was returned to me signed by all four members. If I have a chance, I will scan and add to this post. I never saw them live however. :O( A huge regret!

I'm glad to see whatever issues Lee and John Powers had in the past have been resolved. Now, if they'd only come over to do some gigs in Detroit ... Wishful thinking, I guess. I guess I'll have to get my La's fix at thelas.org and La'zarus site.

One last thing ... La's fans will remember this line: "Skin up yer bastards!" Yeah! :O)

I had a shirt exactly like this in high school! (I'm serious!)

In prelude to the 39th Annual Flower Day at Eastern Market, we took a few photos of the kids in front of the house. They turned out really well!

Anita & Minnie in front of the daffodil bed at our house. Cute!

Another pic of Anita & Minnie in front of the daffodil bed at our house.

Sunday, May 15, 2005 | Flower Day!

This was our first time going to Flower Day which is held at Eastern Market in Detroit. According to the press, it's the largest single-day plant event in the world. Apparently, this event generates a $ 2 million revenue from selling plants and flowers alone. Check out some of the interesting photos we took along the way. BTW, I also have some cool video as well that I took with the digital camera. If you're interested, please let me know, and I'll send you the download link.

The bright pink blossoms of the Chenille Plant are so soft!

Apparently, Fox 2 News (Channel 2, Detroit) was also attracted to the smells of the grill!

Mmmmmm - very tempting.

Alpacas at Flower Day. Cute!!

So, one day, I am working from home, and I get a phone call... It was from someone who I did not know, but they obtained my number from Robin. She was calling on behalf of someone who I hold close and dear to my heart. This someone, Heather (to be known as "Heather M"), called me to invite me to my dear friend, Heather's 30th birthday party. You have to understand that I have not seen Heather in two years! Loretta, Jody, Lisa and I practically grew up together and in Heather's house while we were going through high school together.

From Heather M's description, it sounded like it was going to be a blast. Heather's family was going to be there and a few old school friends. This was to be a surprise party, and boy -- was Heather surprised! :O) The party was held at her mother's house in Highland which is a lakefront property. The kids, Auntie Fai & Steve (Samantha's husband) went on a nice boat ride with Heather's mum driving.

Interestingly enough, Heather's mum drove while kneeling on the driver's seat. Also, I found out a bit later, that she just started learning to drive the boat two weeks ago. She is a VERY fast driver! Minnie was scared as we were crashing through the waves, but he started to really enjoy the ride when we were cruising through the windy watery path looking for animals. We saw a turtle, ducks and plenty of other birds. Yummers was sitting at the very front with Steve and asking him many questions.

All in all, a great time - it was so awesome to see Heather's family who I haven't seen in years! Everyone is doing well and happy. Heather looked so happy, and I really believe that it's partly due to her partner, Heather M. It was a privilege to be a part of this occasion. Enjoy some of the photos below.

Heather's Mum, her boat and Robin!

Heather, Jody, Loretta & Samantha.

Yummer and Auntie Fai.

Auntie Fai, Aunt Joan, Jamal and Uncle Robin playing a game of Euchre.

Heather looking cool as usual!

Minnie getting ready to give that pinata a good whacking!

Heather's delicious gelato cake.

The girls: Loretta, Heather, Jody and me!

or so I thought... You might have heard of the Street Magician, David Blaine. Michael actually performed one of David Blaine's more infamous tricks which involves levitation (i.e. rising a few inches above ground).

After completing freaking me out, I invited the kids and Grandmother Anita to come and watch Michael levitate. After he impressed us again with this feat, I immediately did some investigation and found out that there is an applied method called the Balducci Levitation. This method conveys the impression of levitation when done right. Pretty impressive!

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Monday, August 29, 2005

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Friday, August 26, 2005

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Friday, June 17, 2005

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Monday, June 06, 2005

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Sunday, May 01, 2005

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