boon's log 1308.02: True mobility...

This is me blogging from IL's new toy... her Apple iPhone. It may not be as convenient as typing from your normal keyboard, but it is surprisingly easy enough and not as tough as I expected. The responsiveness of the "keypad" is quite impressive.


IL's new toy: photo taken by Canon A80

Well, the phone comes with a host of goodies and interesting capabilities. Like we all you need is a Wifi connection anywhere, just to get hooked to the internet. Like earlier today, we were at Safeway (one of the nearby convenient store) and we could actually get a Wifi connection, provided by Safeway. Perhaps that is one of the reason why Oregon (or Portland) is one of the nation's most wireless state (city). Probably we will not be able to enjoy this wireless-freedom back home...


IL's new toy; photo taken by CanonA80

For $399 (8Gb model) and $499 (16Gb model), I'd say that it is a good buy (compared to the prices of phones we are paying back home. Unlocking seemed to be quite easy - just by the touch of a button... ;)

tempting... tempting. Well, I am still kinda happy with my Sony Ericsson Z610i (which I paid RM1200 for, ~2 years ago). I guess I still prefer clamshell phones rather than candy bar ones.

OOps... the owner wants her phone back - too much fun for me already... :P

boon out...

boon's log 1308.01 supplementary A: The adventure continues on May 22 2008...

You may have grew up with this - yeah it is also a way to tell how old one is!

Anyway, I was first introduced to the whip-lashing Indy Jones in 1984 when my late-grandmother brought me to the theatres to watch The Temple of Doom. Yeah, my grandmother - can you imagine that?! ShhHe's a real darling. Don't really think she understood most of the conversation, but I guess she's there because of me :).

I still remember we watched it in Lido - the one opposite A&W. From then on, the adventure began. It backtracked 4 years to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and then the Last Crusade in 1989.

And we thought Goerge Lucas and Steven Spielberg would have stopped there and Indy had already framed and hung up his whip and hat for the last time, since it was quite for quite a number of years.

But how wrong we are... Look out Indy-fans (more like Harrison Ford fans)... the adventure continues this Summer (after 19 summers - 1 summer short of 2 decades (!!!)) with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

There were some talk about turning one of the Indiana Jones PC games into a movie - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - but I guess it never took flight.




Well, if you are an Indy fan like myself, brace yourselves and check out this following Official Site URL:

www.indianajones.com

58 days and counting...

boon out...

boon's log 1308.01: Happy Easter 2008, The Oregon Zoo

How was your Easter'08?

Well, we decided to sleep-in on this Easter Sunday - Ab and I woke up at around 11-ish. Sweeeeet! Yeah, I guess Ab's probably tired from the activity-filled Saturday with the Zoo and all the grocery shopping.

No we did not go for any egg-hunt or anything, we just decided to go lepak at the Zoo since it was >52degrees outside and it was (finally) sunny, after a week of clouds and gloominess.

By the way, part of the reason we woke up at 11-ish on Sunday was also due to the gloomy weather. ;P

Ab enjoyed the Zoo a lot. We did not cover the entire zoo (again) this time. We'll probably need a 3rd time to cover the other 1/3 of the Zoo. Good thing we got the Annual Pass... making full use of it!

It's also amazing how close we can get to some of the animals, like the leopard and the alligator. It's so close, it gave me the chills! Like for IL (who hates snakes), she had to carry Ab near a Python (in glassed display) - so that I can take a photo of them with the Python. They were so close that IL got the scare of her life when a little kid accidentaly bumped into her - because she actually thought it was the Python! Haha!

As expected being such an awesome day (weather-wise), there were loads of people at the zoo. Especially kids with their egg baskets for the Annual Egg Hunt at the Oregon Zoo.

Well, here are some of the photos...


At the Tiger's Den. And, yeah, that looks very much like a beer barrel. Looks like the tiger's boozing up his Easter, huh?


Leopard catching some Zzz's - maybe after some booze with the Tiger


Ab's 1st encounter with a tiger... and the beer barrel


Close encounter with the Alligator


In the batcave...


The Zoo Train (no, it's not a free ride (!!!). We had to pay $2.50 per adult). Ab's free though, and she liked it a lot.


The crowd!

The last time I remember seeing such a big crowd around a particular animal display was at the Taiping Zoo, when an elephant was taking a piss. Everyone was so amazed by the amount of pee that was gushing out; and the force of it, which created a crater on the ground... ok, you get the point. It's amazing how folks can be so easily entertained by nature.

Okay, okay, I was one of 'em who Ooo'd and Ahh'd... ;P

Happy Easter to all. Hope you had a good one...

boon out...

boon's log 1108.07: Happy St Patrick's 2008

Happy St. Pat's!

Enjoy your Guinness responsibly. Guinness Stout, Ungeleke Nalathe!


boon out...

boon's log 1108.06: Rained In...

Rained in...

It's the weekend! BUT we're rained in!

It's definitely slowed things down a little for the 3 of us. We had plans to go to the Zoo, but looks like we really need to take a rain-check...


Rain-check...

So, we've decided to put Ab to bed for a quick afternoon nap and we'll probably do a little bit of shopping and groceries later. And hope for better weather tomorrow...

~*~*~*~*~*~*

What we had for dinner last night is worth a little blog-space. We've checked out something that we've never tried before - a double-decker pizza! Yeah, and as if that is not enough - it's got 5 types of meat in it, it's what Papa Murphy's call, the 5-meat Stuffed Pizza. Two layers of fresh dough, stuffed with their original pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, Canadian Bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage and crispy bacon, topped with cheddar and provolene cheeses and ground beef... just listing 'em down makes your mouth wet! And just having 1.5 slices is enough to get you stuffed, alright! took us almost 3 meals to finish the entire pizza (!!!).


Double Decker Pizza

It's one excellent pizza, I tell you. I wonder whether this will ever reach our shores sometime soon? Yummy...

boon out...

boon's log 1008.02: March Entry...

It's been almost a month since we've arrived. So much have happened.

Ab's recuperating fine from a stint of vomiting - according to the doctors, it's some viral infection. Well, it was Ab's first encounter with the US-ER. Yup, we were actually at the ER. I guess it is no biggie here, but I guess compared to back home, it is a little. And we just received the ER bill - a whopping USD$513! Well, thank goodness for insurance. We ended up paying about USD$40-ish.

The worst part of teh vomit saga was when she kept vomiting every 3-hourly, and we have to lay towels and mats all over the apartment and we had to wash bedsheets after bedsheets. And our dear little girl just would not take any of the pedialytes (for salt and rehydration)... boy it was a tough week. So though that we barely had enough sleep - IL and I took turns taking care of her, taking time off work. Well, she's much better now - actually, she's back to her normal self, but the Mom and Dad are down with cold and cough!

At the day care, she's coping better. Initially, she cried a lot - so much so, at one point of time, she almost lost her voice - no kidding. Environment change and people change, I guess. From her nanny (IL's Aunt) back in PG to a school-type daycare can be a traumatic change for a 15-month old, I guess. We had to leave her there at 8-ish and pick her up at 5-ish in the evening. But according to the teachers, she's crying less now and more participative... good sign. Pray for quicker adaptation! And eating's never a problem with Ab - I guess that is something she took after her dad!


Ab's first artistic encounter at the day care

Well, Dad made Siu Yuk again - the last time was in CA, ~2 years ago [link]. IL quite liked it. She said that it tasted better AFTER we re-fried it with Thai Chilli, the following day! Sooo... I'll still take that as a compliment. Well, just a small piece this time - 712g of pork belly. As for the cook's review? Well, I liked it before and after the Thai chilli addition. :)


SiuYuk 2008

Well, with the SiuYuk, you can tell, that we've finally settled down pretty nicely and work is starting to pour in. Will be uphill from now onwwards, as far as work is concerned. Tough and challenging year ahead...

ok.. hitting the sacks, more updates later. Good night, all and Happy St Patrick's (it's this Monday, March 17th).

boon out...