Sunny California!

Hello, everyone! Abe and I (Allison) are finally back from sunny California. I had to go to LA for business, so Abe flew out and we tagged on some extra days to enjoy a break from the frozen tundra of Chicago.

First, I stayed in Santa Monica, which was convenient for my work obligations. Actually, we had a day between work events (by design), so the group of us went to Universal Studios, where we saw actress Brittany Murphy on the backlot.



On Saturday, Abe and I met his aunt, uncle and their teenage sons at Chinatown for Dim Sum and shopping. We saw traditional lion dances for Chinese New Year, so that was cool.



We spent the last couple of days in the Newport Beach-Laguna Beach-Huntington Beach area. Below is a picture of sunset on Laguna Beach.



Our favorite place, though, was Huntington Beach, were we spent Tuesday at the pier watching surfers and dolphins. It was awesome.


This was my first time to LA, and I really enjoyed it. Yes, traffic stinks and home prices are through the roof, but those are things we have to deal with in Chicago, to some extent. Abe and I really enjoyed our rental car's sunroof and satellite radio. :)

So, now we're back...bundled in sweatshirts and thawing out from another commute home in the cold. Please come soon, spring!

Also, I wanted to say kudos to my smart husband (in Cantonese, my ho lack lo.) He got an "A" in his most recent MBA class. Good job, honey! :)

Ernie is stuck

So Abe here....quick blog post. For many of you that live in the midwest, you already know how lousy this winter has been. Between the snow, freezing temperatures, potholes, etc., well....let's just say that this has been a bad winter from a weather standpoint. Today, however, illustrates just how bad it has been:

Allison--takes two hours to get home from work. Yes, that's right, two hours.

Abe-spends 45 minutes trying to get Ernie (my car) out of my parking space on the side street, but can't due to the ice underneath it. Ernie can get me from point A to B most of the time, but tonight he would have needed ice skates to get anywhere. We tried kitty litter and pushing the car--Ernie wasn't going anywhere. Furthermore, Ernie has developed a nice little crack on his windshield now that probably needs to be fixed. Ugh.

All I can say is--I can't wait until Friday when I can meet my lovely wife in LA--last I checked, the highs were in the lower to mid 70s. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh.....California Dreamin'........

If I see another tortilla...

Allison here...I got back from a long business trip to Texas last night. While I do enjoy Tex-Mex and Mexican food, I definitely hit my full during this trip. My co-workers and I weren't sure if we were going to make it home due to bad fog in Chicago, but we finally made it in. Thank God! I missed my husband so much!

I didn't really get to do any sightseeing, since it was all business. I know Abe and my family were all so jealous since I was in a much warmer place, but I was stuck inside most of the day anyway. But I did enjoy the moments I got to spend outside.

One of my favorite activities to do when bored on an airplane is to read the sky mall catalogue. For those of you not familiar with this, it features the most quirky and totally unnecessary products created for all mankind. Who buys this kind of stuff? I, of course, had to look for my favorite sky mall product of all time, most recently featured in the mid-90s: a dummy you can put in your car (or home window) so people think you're not alone and they don't rob or carjack you. The dummy looks totally ridiculous!

Chinese New Year Spectacular

Allison here...As you can see by the post below, life with Abe is always an adventure. Saturday we took his parents to the Chinese New Year Spectacular, a show filled with dancing and singing performed by a national touring group. It was a good time, although the show was very political -- as in anti-Communism.

Anyway, we had some funny moments. Like when his parents wondered how much shorter they would be if someone cut their heads off. (Using his dad's pocket calendar, we figured out his mom would be about 5 inches shorter.) Don't ask me why they decided to figure this out during intermission.

But one of the funniest moments for me came when I saw what Abe put on his evaluation. It asked why you bought tickets and had several possible check-in-the-box answers like:
--I like this theatre.
--I saw this group before.

No, my husband didn't choose any of those. He selected the "Other" box and wrote in the following: I'm Chinese.

I love it. My husband makes me laugh an average of 100 times a day. In fact, he just put something in the sink that fell and he said, "Doh!" like Homer. I love it.

Anyway, last night we headed to Abe's family's favorite Chinatown restaurant -- His dad has connections. I love how people look at me since I, obviously, stand out. I love our cultural differences, and I love the fact that Chicago's diversity allows me to experience Chinese culture through adventures with Abe and his family.

The Boneheaded Move of the Year

Hello everyone! This is Abe, and I thought that I'd share the boneheaded move of the year that I've made so far (granted the year is less than a month old--work with me people :)). I'm sharing this story to show that yes, even a reasonably intelligent person such as myself can make the dumbest moves. This is also to further illustrate that I'm not perfect (imagine that?).

So I was working 8:30-5 on Wednesday because I was able to work from our downtown Chicago office (I share a cube at the downtown office with a colleague of mine). Well, work wasn't too crazy that day, so I was able to leave right around 5. I typically take the Metra train (public transportation) to and from work when I work from that location. The downtown station is about a 13-14 minute walk from my office, depending on whether I am speed walking or taking a leisurely stroll. There is a 5:15 and a 5:21 train that leaves from the train station that will get me back to Evanston--both are about 22 minute rides. I was planning on taking the 5:21 train.

Well, I leave my office at about 5:02 or so and am speed walking to the train station because it is colder than snot outside (wind chills approaching 15 below zero). There is a big digital clock right when I get to the station that says 5:13, so I figured, "What the heck? Let's go for the 5:15 train!" So now I'm really busting my butt trying to make this dang train--I look on the big board to see what track that it is--Track 6! Yay! So I bust a move and get to the train just as the doors were closing--the doors literally closed as I got in, I had to pull up my book bag because it was stuck in the door. Thinking that I am genius, I relax for a minute. One minute later an announcement comes on the intercom: "Welcome to train number XXX to Arlington Park." At this point, I'm thinking, "Whoops--I got the wrong train. That's ok, I'll just get off at the first stop--my normal train and this train share that stop." A few minutes later as we are approaching this stop--the train isn't slowing down. I think to myself, "Uh-oh. This isn't good." About a minute later, the train whizzes right by the stop and right by the train that I was supposed to take. By now I'm panicking, so I ask another passenger what the first stop is on this train. It turns out that this train runs express to Arlington Park--where the racetrack is--not close to Evanston at all, and will get there at 5:49. I got on the 5:16 express train to Arlington Park, not on the 5:15 train to Evanston. Now realizing my huge mistake, I had to figure out how to get back to Evanston. Fortunately Arlington Park is not far from where Allison works. Now feeling completely embarrassed, I proceed to call my wife at about 5:30 or so.

Allison: "Hello?"
Abe:"Hey, it's me."
Allison: "Hey! What's up?"
Abe:"Uh, I just made the boneheaded move of the year...."
Alison:"Oh. What did you do?"

From there I explain the situation and she agrees to pick me up. By now several passengers realize what happened and start laughing with me. I explain the situation to the ticket agent that swings by—he laughs too, still has to charge me for the joyride though. They were pretty nice, telling me that everyone makes mistakes. So I get to Arlington Park at about 5:47, and try to figure out what to do while I'm waiting for her. There is a McDonald's across the street, but in order to get there, I would have to either (a) climb a fence about 5 feet high, or (b) walk all the way around this stupid fence that stretches a half a mile long. By this time I'm outside and freezing again. I think to myself, "Ok, I've had enough adventure for one day; I'm going to walk around this stupid fence." So I walk around the fence and get to McDonald's, order a McFlurry, and proceed to call my mother-in-law to share my boneheaded moment. I don't think that I've ever heard Donna laugh so hard in my life. By this time it was about 6 and Allison shows up with a grin on her face.

The morale of the story: Sometimes you just need to slow down in life, otherwise you'll end up at the racetrack when you really want to be in Evanston....

Our Future Sister-in-Law!

Bart popped the question Friday night and now he and Liv are engaged! We're so excited to have her in our family. Although, my (Allison) mom had already decided to adopt her regardless. The picture above was taken shortly after he proposed, so you can see the giddy smiles both of them have.

Abe and I have really enjoyed getting to know Liv since they started dating in March 2007. Liv is an incredibly smart businesswoman who is always doing something -- serving at a rescue mission, organizing a benefit auction, cooking for friends and family, or trying out a new sushi restaurant. Liv loves life, and she and Bart have so much fun together.

We also love Liv because of her love for the Lord. Bart and Liv met through friends at church.

We're so excited to not only attend their wedding this fall, but to participate as a bridesmaid and groomsman. We can't wait to officially welcome Liv into the family and to meet all of the people Liv holds dear, like her precious niece and nephew who we've heard so much about. We love you, Liv!

What a Year

We were just reflecting on the awesomeness of 2007. Since we got engaged 30 minutes into 2007, we knew it would be a crazy year. It's been more fun than we could have imagined. So, we thought we'd share some of our most memorable quotes of 2007:

"Wow, someone my size!"
--Abe's dad while hugging Allison's grandmother at our wedding rehearsal.

"Sit down. Sit down."
--Our mechanic when we came to pay for repairs.

"How is Mr. Abe Lincoln?"
--Our Russian mechanic to Allison in reference to Abe.

"We have an appointment to go sumo wrestling, so I'll call you tomorrow."
--Abe to Allie on the night before the wedding reheasal. Sumo wrestling (in the big puffy suits) was a part of his bachelor party.

"I am not lucky. I am a winner."
--Abe's mom while playing Uno at Christmas.

"Miami bags never make it."
--An airline employee when we filed our claim for lost baggage when returning from our honeymoon. The bags showed up a day later.

"After you've had 9 kids..."
--Rev. Rich Case in our wedding sermon. Allison's knees buckled when she heard this. It's noticable on our wedding video.

And finally...
"We now pronounce you man and wife"
--Rev. Rich Case at our wedding

We've loved having you a part of our lives in 2007. May God bless this new year.