Off to the Races!

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger, but I know you all didn't mind loading up my page and seeing Kyle's adorable face staring back at you. In any case, I'm off to good ol' C'ville tonight for what should be a glorious weekend of fun. It's Foxfield time, that annual event when we get all dolled up to go to a horse race and pray to see at least one horse. Really it's an excuse to see old friends and to enjoy the beautiful sights and all the delicious foods of Charlottesville! And of course to spend an entire weekend reminiscing about the glory days of college. (See last year's post for a reminder...) I'll be back with a full update and photos. Cheers!

Mischievous Kyle

According to Lan, this is what happens when you leave a clever little 9-month-old unattended for a quick minute... He gets into his Aquaphor jar, and the rest is a story he'll hear about for the rest of his life. Oh, that and an absolutely priceless and adorable photo! Kinda reminds me of when I pretended I was putting on sunscreen with an orange creamsicle that was melting all over me. I knew Kyle and I had a special bond.

Ray LaMontagne/Gnarls Barkley

This post comes courtesy of Stereogum (who posted via Village Indian's Amrit).

Now available for listening is a fantastic mp3 of Ray LaMontagne covering Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Gnarls Barkley (duo of Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse) are already making waves for their yet-to-be-released debut album St. Elsewhere (U.S. release date: May 9). Officially, "Crazy" is the first #1 single in the UK to make it to the top spot based on download sales only. And all that in just about a week. Pretty impressive.

Anyway, rather than post the link here, I'll refer you all to Stereogum's post for the mp3. And from there you can also visit Village Indian's original post which has the Gnarls Barkley version for comparison.

Web o' music

I'm pretty late on posting about this, but I figure what the hey, someone out there may not yet have stumbled upon the wonder that is Pandora. The Music Genome Project created this incredible website to help people discover more music they loved, based on the artists they already loved. Sure, it seems like an obvious concept, and there have been some more simple versions that appeared on the web before, but Pandora takes it all a step further by actually creating "radio stations" with streaming audio for you based on your selection of a favorite artist.

For example, I picked The Decemberists as a favorite artist of mine, and it automatically selects a bunch of other random songs based on similar music qualities that describe The Decemberists. So you think to yourself, "Why the heck did you pick this to put in my Decemberists radio station??" And they answer, "Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features a subtle use of vocal harmony, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, major key tonality, acoustic rhythm guitars and many other similarities identified in the music genome project." Oh, well you got me there...! The cool thing is, from there you can let them know if they picked well or picked poorly, and they'll continue to personally customize your radio stations to adjust to your tastes. It's quite brilliant in an almost-stalkery way.

According to the FAQ, the peeps at the Music Genome Project have "carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time." Ummm, well thanks guys. That saved me a lot of time.

Anyway, it's definitely a great way to discover new music, hear some old favorites, and kind of have a fun little music adventure along the way!

Things to do while your coworker is on vacation...

I don't know how long this one's been spreading around on the Web, but I just saw it for the first time last week and found it pretty hilarious! Guess it's a good thing I don't work in an actual cube!

Oh, how I love the small things in life.

Today Huan alerted me to the fact that tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 3 seconds after 1:02 AM, it will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. Freakin' sweet!

Does that excite anyone else as much as it does me?

24 vs. the National Championship?

Count on Tony Kornheiser to accurately reflect everyone's feelings on the 24 vs. NCAA b-ball final tonight... Thank goodness for Tivo/DVR though, right?

By the way, did anyone else know that Jack Bauer's given name is...
Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland? That's a ridiculous number of names, but they're all pretty sweet!!!

Late-night update:
Ok, so the game was kinda boring (except One Shining Moment, of course) and 24 wasn't bad. But the question is: as ridiculous and unbelievable as 24 is on a regular basis (I loved how Jack escaped the natural gas plant unscathed, while Bierko was on the brink of death), I feel like they may have officially "jumped the shark" tonight when they revealed the latest mole. But naturally, I'll continue to eagerly tune in...

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, take 2...

Today was my second go-round of the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile run around D.C. to celebrate the fully blossomed cherry trees around town. I woke up around 6 am along with Huan, Molly, Auddie, and Tim (Molly's bro) to do what we do best-- err, not really, but at least we try hard.

This year was instantly ten times better than last year's race because it was a most beautiful spring day-- sunny, slightly breezy and probably about 60 degrees at race time. You really couldn't have asked for better running conditions, and compared with last year's frigid chill and wind, it was really a pleasant run (as evidenced by my reaction below... just what am I doing??)

I was slightly concerned about my race preparation, if only because I'd been away on a ski trip and not exactly focusing on my training. Aside from my semi-routine runs before work, I hadn't really gutted anything out this time around. But I guess I'm beginning to realize that even if I don't have a strict training regimen, I can still count on finishing ten miles-- it's just how well and how fast that may vary-- and I have to say, that's a pretty cool feeling.

Anyway, the race went well and I felt great the whole way. My pace wasn't spectacular, but it was about expected, and I really didn't mind because I was actually enjoying myself throughout the long course. Unlike last year, I really took in all the sights and my surroundings, especially all the beautiful blossoms everywhere around me! It was just a perfect day, really!

Now for some post-race pics (thumbails again, sorry!):

The runners and our devoted fans.
It's crazy enough that people pay money to wake up at the crack of dawn to go running, but even crazier that they have people who support them! Thanks guys!!

Three sibs.
Auddie got contacts!! (Is it just me or do we look like we're the same age?)

The rents.
Look at those blossoms!!!

Finally, a big happy 80th birthday to my G-ma Ba Noi, and also happy birthday wishes to my uncles Chu Ban and Bac Bao!

Happy Spring to all! The idea that I will be able to leave work and still enjoy some sunshine is enough to put a smile on my face. Time to put those scarves away and pull out the flip flops, yippee!!

Rocky Mountain High

Well, the trip out to Colorado was just about perfect. Since it was my first work vacation-- and therefore I would have been content to do just about anything so long as I wasn't at work-- I had minimal expectations, so it was just icing on the cake that everything about the trip was completely amazing and I was basically spoiled and pampered for 5 days straight.

After arriving on Saturday morning, we drove from Denver out to Beaver Creek and arrived at the beautiful Ritz-Carlton at Bachelor Gulch resort. After a long day of travel, we decided to hold off on cramming in any afternoon skiing and to just explore the area and kick back.

Check out the residence:

Sunday was our first full day of action and we immediately appreciated the wonder of ski-in/ski-out, as we put on our ski gear and were basically at the foot of the mountain and entrance to the ski lift. I started the day on my snowboard and it was like heaven to be on the wide open slopes of the West, complete with a few fresh inches of powder.

(Look how there's no one else in sight! It was like having a private mountain all to myself!)

The end of day 1 found us all aching and exhausted, and the best remedy for that was the spa/hot tub/heated outdoor pool. What better way to end the first full day on the slopes?

We started day 2 with a private ski lesson with Jim, an awesome instructor who moved out here a number of years ago to retire and is now a full-time Beaver Creek instructor. After realizing I was holding people up on my board and also that I couldn't take full advantage of the mountain as a "beginner," I decided to switch over to skis for a confidence boost and to be able to keep up with the gang. Before the lesson, all of us had different skiing styles, as evidenced by the fact that we ended up at the bottom of the runs at different times. Jim showed us some basic tips to improve our skiing, and by the end of the lesson we were handling a rough and narrow mogul run (not by choice!!) After the 3-hour lesson with Jim, it seemed we were all on the same page and suddenly, according to My-Van, we looked almost like clones coming down the mountain at exactly the same speed and form. This made the rest of the trip really great, though, as I really felt like I was skiing and truly enjoying it for the first time, comfortable in my form and not exhausted or too sore at the end of the day.

Here's the group on lesson day:

We all suddenly felt like pros on our skis, so we decided to venture out to Vail for our last full day of skiing. We made the short drive over to the village and spent a great day out on the mountain. We explored the front-side bowls, some other nice blue runs, and ended the day with one great run down the China Bowl, on the back-side, which opened itself up to some incredible views.

In the midst of all this ski excitement, I forgot to mention that we ended every day with a hot tub soak followed by a delicious dinner. We enjoyed quite a variety of Colorado's finest: Frites, a fun, french style Brasserie, Blue Moose Pizza in Beaver Creek village (where I got to fulfill my Fat Tire beer craving), Sweet Basil in Vail Village, and finally Splendido, in a lovely mountainous Chateau. Let's just say it was good thing we squeezed in some daily exercise on our skis!

Lastly, I must give another huge thanks to Co Chau, Bac Thong, and Meevs (we missed you Tweevs!) for inviting Dad, Auddie and me out to spend the week with them. It was definitely memorable and though it was short, Auddie was quick to dub it as her "Best vacation of all time." And we all know those are big words coming from a well-traveled gal like her! On the drive to the airport she and I decided that I'd move out to Colorado, she'd go to college there and we could just become a couple of ski bums. Sounds pretty appealing right now, that's for sure.

To conclude, here are some additional photos... you know, the requisite cheesy "poles in the air" pose as well as some other postcard-worthy shots.

I swear there were other skiiers on the mountain...

From the room balcony:

From the top of Vail: