5 years and 6 thanksgivings.

We've been married for 5 years and 6 thanksgivings.

Our first Thanksgiving together was on our honeymoon at McDonald's in Crete, Greece.  I'm not ashamed to go McDonald's in foreign countries.  I support and perpetuate that stereotype of Americans overseas going to McDonald's after only being in a foreign country for a couple of days. (To be fair, when we went to Crete it was the off season for tourists, so lit-erally nothing was open).

Anyway, enough about our first Thanksgiving and on to details about our 5th anniversary.  We decided this year to put all our vacation savings (actually for the last two years) towards a big anniversary trip in January (we're going to Oz and the land of the silver fern).  So on the day, we didn't go big, but we did have fun.  What we did summed up in 4 points:

1) Lunch at a restaurant we've always been intrigued by (not sure if we'll go back)
2) 100 minute foot massage (no picture)
3) Dinner at a new Thai restaurant (decent, will go back)
4) Aaron got his anniversary gift a little late.  (It arrived 6 days too late)

@ lunch
I had a friend cut bangs for me.  Shorter than I like, and I haven't quite figured out
how to make them look good, but hey, they'll grow back eventually.

Dinner at the Thai restaurant.
Oh, what's that?  an anniversary scarf?  Yeah it is.
He knows what I like.

His package finally made it from Greece.

We've got quite the collection of starbucks mugs from cities that we love.

Happy Thanksgivukkah Everybody. L'chaim!

Today is Thanksgiving Day.  It is also the first full day of Hanukkah.  This won't happen again for 70,000 years.  So I hope you're prepared.  We are.

Aaron spent all morning Wednesday morning prepping the chicken (no turkeys on the roof of the world) for Thanksgivukkah.  

Mazel Tov!

But This One Goes To 11...

I've been using the same microwave for over a year. It's a shared microwave in our dorm's community room, pretty standard stuff. And by "standard," I mean junky.

Or so I thought until recently.

While defrosting some chicken last week, I noticed something special about our microwave:

Oh, what's that? A setting higher than High? Called "Light Wave"? 

Yep, that's right - we're on the cutting edge of technological innovation over here. Just wait, soon all the microwaves in the US will have a "Light Wave" feature, and will revert to using dials rather than buttons to select the mode...

Sometimes you've just gotta ride the lightning, know what I mean?

5*

Five years ago today, this happened:

Oh my. You can call me the luckiest man alive.

New Friends (2013 Edition)

Recently, Stacy and I made some new friends. My friend's name is M, Stacy's friend is named Fred Chan.

Fred and Stacy.

"They have a thin candy shell. Surprised you didn't know that." - Tommy Callahan

Keeping it real with the locals. No big deal.

A Walk In The Woods

Stacy and I love to hike. It's a little hard to do up here, but when we go other places, we always try.

On our trip to Hong Kong at the end of October, we had plans to hike across Hong Kong's New Territories and camp on the beach. Those plans ended up falling through, but we still got to walk in the woods a bit.

We loved it.

Trust Me, It'll Hold

I love Hong Kong. It's got everything - hyper urban metropolis side-by-side with rural parks and hiking trails. HK is also just one of the coolest, most advanced cities I've ever been. 

I'll just admit that I'm a little starstruck.

However, as cool and advanced as Hong Kong is, they still do some things the old-fashioned way. Like when they build construction scaffoldings.

This little gem is 100% bamboo. That's right folks, a bamboo scaffold that looks homemade. Used for constructing some of the world's tallest buildings.

OSHA would literally soil themselves if they saw this. I think it's pretty awesome.

Things Got Weird

I was in the drink aisle in a convenience store in Hong Kong, when things got weird.

Seriously, what happened? Did they get a sweet deal on nasty ingredients? Is this the Hong Kong version of a "suicide soda"? Are aloe and cactus and green apple vinegar about to blow up in the US and Hong Kong just got there first?

I don't know. Maybe we'll never know.

My Little Communist

Stacy, friend of the people's struggle. Viva la Revolución.

The D Stance

In many sports, there is a specific "defensive stance" that players learn. In some of the sports that I've played, they look like this:

Basketball (not me)

Football (I can't remember if this is me)

Lacrosse (also not me) 

Well, recently I saw that China has a bus especially for people doing these "D-stances." The only requirement seems to be that you can hold your stance for a long time.

One day I'll ride you, Long D stance Bus. When my endurance is a little better.

Hottie in Hong Kong

Stacy and the Hong Kong skyline (slightly obscured by some abnormal pollution).

That same hottie in a bit of a fro-yo stupor. Whenever we have access to frozen yogurt (maybe 2 times a year), she likes to hit it. Hard.

Another look at the "Fro-yo Face of Happiness."

October in Review

Here's October's video compilation.

It features:
being extras in a movie
soccer
a trip to Hong Kong
Halloween with the foreign students
"Opening Ceremony" for school
KTV (karaoke)
Canadian Thanksgiving
picnicking with some cows
English corner activities (dancing)
and Snow!

If you missed the other months in review, just click on either the video tag or the months in review tag below to see them.

I'd Never Say...

I saw this banner in Hong Kong, advertising the apparent return of the "legendary violinist." Whoever that might be.

Really, the only remarkable thing about this is that, let's be honest, I don't know anyone who would ever say any of the things listed in that testimonial, let alone trying to string them all together in one sentence.

In fact, I don't even know what The Sunday Times is trying to say.

I'm a bit skeptical that they even knew they were talking about a violinist, because I'm pretty sure you could use the same sentence about a juggling clown.

Mowvember

Whatever you call it - Mowvember, No-Shave-November, Mustache Mowvember - there is no bigger fan than Stacy. She looks forward to it each year, and especially relishes the pictures on our anniversary each year, which falls right at the end of a nice long month of facial-hair cultivation (me, not her).

Stacy in Hong Kong at the end of October, eagerly anticipating the glorious facial hair November would bring.

Here we go again Stace. Your wait is over.

Ham

I'll be honest, 'ham' sounds so much better. It just does.