Yow Mo Gaw Choh A

I (Allison) just had to post about what I just saw. Abe and I were watching TV when an AT&T commercial came on about a guy in a Chinese restaurant who is about to offend his prized Chinese customer. At the end when the full-screen graphic is up you hear the Chinese customer in the background saying, "Yow mo gaw choh a," which means in Cantonese, "Are you freaking kidding me?" It's one of the phrases Abe and I say to each other all the time. In fact, I said it this morning when I noticed we were watching ESPN's coverage of round 6 million (ok, so I'm exaggerating) of the NFL draft -- Who cares at that point?

Anyway, for the first time I actually understood something on TV that was in Cantonese. Usually, Abe's my translator, but this time we both got the joke!

Easy Ways to be Green

Do any of you have creative ways to save the planet? Abe and I have incorporated some ways to be more responsible including:

--Using large IKEA bags to haul our groceries in.
--Reusing any plastic bags we accumulate as lunchbags (which can be used until they fall apart) or as bathroom trash bags.
--Substituting ground beef in recipes with ground turkey (it's healthier and takes less grain and water from our Earth.)
--Carpooling to work (granted we live far from our jobs, but that will change someday.)
--Driving cars with great gas mileage. (Wahoo!)
--Wearing our clothes until they have seen better days. After that, donating them.

I'm also exploring a few options and would love your thoughts:
--Using cloth napkins. (Does anyone do this? I would love to reuse fabric for this. Any ideas?)
--Making bags out of old t-shirts

I also found a Web site I plan on using. Supercook comes up with recipes based off the ingredients you have. This saves food from going to waste and money!

The Musings of An Oriental Man

Greetings all! This is Abe blogging. I figured that I would blog tonight since it's been awhile since I've blogged. I'm also nursing a cough right now, so it's easier for me to write out my thoughts as opposed to talking right now (my vocal chords and throat will thank me too).

Well, as I was thinking about all the things that have been happening over the past month or so, I was reminded today that God has been playing a huge role in all of it (duh). I think that living in Chicago makes it very easy and normal for people to run at a fast and frenetic pace--the problem is, when you get to where you want to be, you're so burned out that you can't really enjoy it. I see this attitude in the workplace all the time. I hear of people saying that it was worth it to work those long hours because they are more successful in their careers. When I hear this, I usually think to myself, "that's great--but at what cost?" I don't want to sound preachy, but my priorities will ALWAYS be as follows (in this order): (1) My relationship with God, (2) My wife Allison, (3) My family and friends, (4)my career. This is very key because it's very easy to make one of these priorities an idol. For example, it's a very good idea to place Allison as a very high priority in my life, but it's not good if I place her above God--she essentially becomes an idol. We all have them, from money, to work, to material things. Don't get me wrong--none of these things are bad in itself, but taken to excess they are.

I think that people just want to move through life way too fast sometimes. For most of us it's graduate from college, get married, buy a house, have kids, do well in our careers, etc.--we are never quite satisfied. But God is calling us to trust Him and Him only—He will fulfill all of our needs.

Being sick has been a very humbling experience for me. I have had to consciously slow down the pace of life and have not been able to sit close to Allison. It has forced me to take better care of myself both physically and spiritually. It has forced me to stop running so fast. Between work, school, and a newlywed, well, I have a lot on my plate.

In any case, I thought that I'd share with everyone some of my thoughts right now--I don't expect everyone to agree with everything I say, but I hope that this blog post makes you think.

I'm going to sign off now because I think that I'm ready to hack up a furball (*cough*) (*cough*)

Caedmon's Call in Chicago!

Last night's Caedmon's Call concert was awesome. It brought back memories of the last time I (Allison) saw them -- I believe it was my sophomore year of college. While they played some of their new songs, they did play some old ones that I (somehow) remembered the lyrics to even though I haven't heard those songs in nearly 10 years. The show was in a university chapel, so it was really intimate. Abe had a blast, too, since the lead singer's dad is the pastor of the church Abe went to when he lived in Houston. Caedmon's Call is one of Abe's favorite bands, if not his absolute favorite.

The shring lok tong (Hot and Sour Soup) turned out well. It was definitely hot -- it cleared out Abe's sinuses and I had to eat some ice cream afterwards to calm my burning mouth. It was an awesome feeling to know I recreated a very traditional Chinese dish on my own! E-mail me if you'd like the recipe.

I also forgot to mention another weird note from yesterday. Robbie Gould, kicker for the Chicago Bears, sang the 7th inning stretch, which is hilarious since the last Cubs game I attended (April 2007) was when he sang the 7th inning stretch. It's a good thing we like him!

There's No Place Like Wrigley...

Abe and I just got back from watching the Cubs/Pirates at Wrigley. Yea, Abe was well enough to go!!!

Going to Wrigley is always an adventure, so I figured I would blog about some of today's notable experiences:

1. Our ride on the El. The El is always an adventure, and today was no exception. On our train was a goth couple who started singing Genesis' "Land of Confusion." We were trying to determine their illegal substance of choice.

2. Our pitcher today was Jason Marquis, also known as "Sparkles." He earned the nickname from my friend Jane's mom who works at a jewelry store and noted that the marquis cut of a stone has the most sparkle. I texted Jano the following:

Allison: @Wrigley watching sparkles. Oh no. He's pitching.
Jano: @Busch with the good team. Jano.

Needless to say, the Cubs won 13-1, while the Cardinals, I believe lost. Anyway, I love Jano that we understand each other's goofiness for baseball.

3. Since the Cubs have signed Japanese player Koskue Fukudome, Wrigley has entered a whole new level of weirdness. Today there were three guys in Fukodome jerseys behind home plate acting all ninja like whenever he came up to bat.

4. I got to see Ronnie Woo Woo for the first time. Ronnie is a homeless guy who always yells the Cubs' lineup with "woo woo" after each name. For example, "Lee Woo Woo, DeRosa Woo Woo, Fukudome Woo Woo, etc." He's a Chicago legend, or as Abe calls him, the Cubs' unofficial mascot (the Cubs let him into each game and provide him with his own jersey). The Cardinals have a guy in a bird suit (Fredbird), while the Cubs have a homeless dude. It can't get crazier than that.

Anyway, we had a great time, actually the best seats either one of us have ever had. Now it's time to rest, cook hot and sour soup (shring lok tong in Cantonese...thanks Amanda for the recipe), and then it's off to Caedmon's Call. What a fun day!

In Sickness and in Health...

Allison here...Abe is sick once again, which means one of us has been sick since March 24. That was the Tuesday after Easter. In the grand scheme of things, we've only dealt with minor illnesses like the flu and an infected finger. But still, it means one of us is always out of it while the other is always trying as hard as possible not to contract whatever the sick one has. I'm also realizing the problems of living in a one bedroom apartment. I can't wait to (Lord-willing) get a house next year where we can split up sleeping arrangments if one of us is sick.

Meanwhile, we had fun last weekend with my brother, Bart, and his fiance, Liv. We had tickets to the White Sox/Tigers game (since they're from Detroit), but it was 40 degrees outside with rain/snow/sleet/wind. In light of my recent illness, we decided not to go...although I haven't heard from Abe if he's up for tomorrow's tickets to the Cubs vs. Pirates since he's sick (let alone our tickets for tomorrow night's Caedmon's Call concert). The combination of bad weather and illness does not bode well for enjoying April baseball in Chicago. Please pray for health!

So, instead of watching the White Sox/Tigers play, Bart, Liv, Abe and I went to the Chicago Historical Museum, which is one of my favorites in Chicago. We also tried Ethiopian food. The food was pretty good -- just word to the wise, you can't use utensils. Like you are only given a napkin -- no fork, spoon or knife. And all the food is brought on one plate, so you take a piece of this spongy bread and use it to grab some meat and veggies which you then stuff in your mouth. Thankfully, Liv and I both brought hand sanitizer, so we were prepared to share one big plate (this was the one day Abe and I both felt healthy). Abe and I would definitely go again, we just have to go with people like Bart and Liv who we're comfortable enough to enjoy a very close and personal dinner like that.

Denver in a Day

Allison here...I went to Denver for work last week and got to have dinner with my friend Amanda, and her new husband, Mark. Amanda and I met in 2000 on Campus Crusade for Christ's summer project in Hungary. We quickly learned that we traveled well together. I remember one day in Prague asking Amanda what she wanted to do that day. She named off about 7 or so sites she wanted to see which were, amazingly enough, exactly the sites I wanted to visit. And even though we were only in Hungary together for two months, we've managed to keep our friendship going even though we went to different universities. Amanda is one of those friends for me who I can call up anytime and we can pick up where we left off. Needless to say, we had a ton of fun at dinner. Mark and Amanda took me to a Jamaican restaurant. We all tried the jerk seasoning for the first time, which was really good. Unfortunately, Abe wasn't able to join me on this trip. And, since I was only in town for about 28 hours, I wasn't able to visit any of our other friends and family in the Denver area.

So some of you have asked me if I knew I was going to travel a lot for my job. While I have been to New York, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Denver in less than six months, that was pretty unexpected. Part of that is because I was given responsibility for a large project at work. And, I don't expect to travel anywhere else for work until November.

What's funny, too, are the difference in responses. My Chicago friends are used to road warriors who leave Sunday for work and come back Friday night only to do it all over again. So, they don't really say much about my travels. However, to my downstater friends and family, this seems like a lot of travel. I guess having to make a connecting flight negates the effectiveness of business travel some of the time.

Wacky Wednesday

Wacky Wednesday (a school event where eveyone dresses up crazy) was the topic on KLOVE's morning show today and, little did I (Allison) know, that I would experience my own Wacky Wednesday today.

No, I didn't go to work with 12 ponytails or with mismatched clothes. I actually managed to flip the orientation of my work desktop upside down. So, basically, my computer's settings were flipped so that it showed everything -- my wallpaper, icons, even the start button--upside down. Our IT guy didn't know how to fix it, so he cleared my whole profile on the network and started over. 1.5 hours later, I was finally able to start work. All because of a keystroke I made that I didn't know how to fix. That's wacky.

Through this process, it came out that someone else in IT actually had heard of the problem before and knew how to fix it. So, if any of you want to know how to prank someone on April Fool's Day 2009, just let me know...:)