House - We got framed!

Frames frames frames! We got frames! Now the house is starting to look like a house. The frame actually started last week, but there were delays due to the hurricane over the weekend. We were worried that the frames were not going to hold, but the area hardly even look affected. Last night we went to check and the roof is starting to go up. We even got a chance to go up to the second floor and took some pictures of the customizations we added.

The 2 story family room is very very open and the ceilings are high. I really like the openness of the room. Much better than the single story family room. Of course, opening up the room meant that we lost the spacious upstairs game room with the view of the lake, but I think it is worth it. The lake view is still visible from the opera balcony (another customization we requested) and it is quite beautiful. I can't wait to see the finished product.

We were able to convert the hidden storage and the computer center to a game room. It came out really nice and much bigger than expected. There will actually be enough room to be a game room. Both Richard and I were pleasantly surprised. We'll have to see how big the room will be after the computer center goes into the room. The game room will have a double door entrance with the left side being open to see into the family room (wrought iron stair rails) and part of the lake view. So the game room will have natural lights. Oh, and it also have a bit higher ceiling - so that will help with the size/openness of the room as well.

With the houses being built, the developer is adding a lot of final landscaping touches to the neighborhood. The neighborhood is really looking pretty and the custom homes on the other side of the lake is starting construction as well. There are some very impressive houses there. We walked around the lake and it's quite a bit of a walk! It'll be nice to run around the lake area once the weather isn't so hot.

Everything is starting to come together and I'm really excited!

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Harricane Escape: Road Trip - Roswell, NM

So Hurrican Ike (Cat 2) is coming... And it's Thursday, so we have... Thursday, Friday, Saturaday, and Sunday... Hrm... 4 days. What are we to do?

ROAD TRIP!!!

Hehehehe, everyone knows that I drag Richard, the anti-social & Ethan out and I figured why waste a good 3.5 day weekend? Since it's safer for us to get out of town anyways, we might as well go somewhere interesting. Although I really wanted head east, it was safer (due to the hurricane path) for us to head west. So the plan was for us to go to San Antonio (Sea World) -> Roswell (Aliens!) -> Sandia Peak Tramway (Albuquerque, NM)... only 951 Miles, we can do it!!! Thursday (Day 1): Packed our bags, dragged Richard out of the house (he was grumpy - hard to pull him out of the house away from his mistress, the PC), and picked up Ethan. Figured we can get to San Antonio in 2.5 hours... It took more than 5 hours!!! ARGH! On the way there, we stopped at MickeyD's - they had a sign that said "McCyber 3 for $1!!!" (see picture). Hahahaha. Funny! It was suppose to be McCyber Space, but apparently the "space" wasn't working. Finally found an hotel near Sea World, figured we can go there tomorrow. Check online for the weather and made sure it was going to be sunny... Friday (Day 2): Got to Sea World. Forgot to check their schedule. Friday = closed!!! ARGH!!! No hotels available in San Antonio cause all the evacutees here. Oh well, moving on. Started our scenic drive to Roswell, NM. The sky and the weather were beautiful! Stopped at Pecos, TX and other small towns. Hard to believe how rurual and run-down some of these places were. We even saw an abandoned town! Finally after 8 hours (!) we were there! First thing first, MickeyD's for Ethan so he can run around and be free! At least their MickeyD's were cool (space ship)... Saturday (Day 3): Visited the UFO museum and other gift shops. Richard put on a alien mask and came to tease Ethan. Ethan wasn't sure what to do and was a bit scared (stick close to me). Finally, Richard took off the mask to show himself, Ethan then promptly turn away and said "don't like it"... Hahaha. He told Richard! Memories! Took some more pictures in one of the gift shops. They had "photo ops" for "paying" customers! Anything to make a buck in this small town! After lunch, we started to head back. The original plan was to keep going North, but that was another 3 hours. We figured there wasn't enough time in our plans to go to the tramway. I was sick of driving by this time anyways... About 2 hours outside of San Antonio, I got pulled over by a state trooper! ARGH! It was 7PM and the speed limit is 80 and 65 during night time. I was doing 85. We spoke for awhile and mentioned that we left because of the hurricane and were coming back from Roswell (I'm sure he got a good chuckle - asked what Richard and I did for a living, YES - WE ARE GEEKS...). Fortunate worked in my favor and he let me off with a warning! Yay! Sunday (Day 4): Stayed an hour outside of San Antonio. Got into fight with Richard cause he can't get his butt up (we didn't leave hotel until 10AM). Sea World is just not meant to be!!! It was rainy! The weather channel said it was going to be sunny and beautiful! ACK! OK, so we decided to go home. Took a bit of de-tour cause of the traffic but we did make it back! House looked fine and no visible damages. We have power, internet, and water! Our neighbors were not so lucky. A lot of them had roof / fence damages. Good thing we upgraded the roof when we built our house. I bet the ones that suffered the damages didn't upgrade their roof. Overall, the road trip was a success. Even though we didn't spend a lot of time at our destination, but we did get to see a lot of sights that we typically doesn't see / realize. The rural places were definitely a bit of a culture shock to us city folks. Lots of farms were very charming. There were some mansions (ranch style) as well. Even Richard admits that the trip was good. Will we do it again? Sure, just not anytime soon. Maybe during the next hurricane escape.

House - Broke Ground & Alligators ?!?!?!

And a picture of Ethan!

Finally! 19 days after closing, we saw progress on the house lot! It was only the framing of the lot but we were excited. The weather haven't been too good so the builder will most likely be a bit behind schedule. But we are not in any hurry to move into the house, especially now we already have homestead exemption (since we closed already). In any case, it is still exciting to see that it is not just a flat land anymore. We noticed that the developer is getting ready to plant some greenery on the side of the lot. Should be a nice touch for us. Eight days later, on the 27th, there are piping! Yay! The foundation is ready for concret! The house is definitely progressing now! (You can see my mother-in-law in heels at the construction site. Hehehe, she's always so stylish! Gotta admire her!) We always walk by the lake when we visit the house. Ethan tend to wonder around and wanted to go see the lake closer. He walked half way between the path (where we were) and the lake before whining to get someone to be with him for rest of the way to the lake. Trying to get Ethan more independent, Richard told him to go by himself. Ethan promptly sat down on the grass, content to see the lake from where he is at. Richard then relented and went to him. They then walk to the edge of the lake together. Next thing we see, is some "log" moving towards the two of them. That's when I realized that it wasn't a log, it was a GATOR!!! The gator was about 3 ft long but still kind of shocked me. After all, it was a man made lake! Where would the gator come from? Of course, now we made sure that Ethan isn't close to the gator. Good thing Richard was with Ethan!!! We did point the gator out to Ethan from a safe distance. Took some pictures of the encounter. Interesting that the gator wasn't afraid of us and follow us a bit when we walked around the lake. Maybe it was hungry... We have to be extra careful around the lake. When we move in, we'll have to keep ChingChing, Peeka, and Ethan supervised at all times! Definitely have to get the bottom wired for the iron fence to make sure pets are in and gators out! No pool for the house in the next few years for sure!!! I did take the time to write both Trendmaker Sales at Cinco Ranch Southwest and the Home Owners Association. There wasn't any response from Trendmakers (surprise surprise) and below is the response I got from the HOA (I left the spelling mistakes as-is): ----------------------------------------------------------- Re: Fwd: Gator in Cinco Ranch Southwest Lake From: Daniel Harris (Harris@ciaservices.com) Sent:Tue 9/02/08 11:59 AM Cc: Nellie Martinez (Martinez@ciaservices.com); Karla Santos (Santos@ciaservices.com) Sir, Cinco lakes are a wildlife habitat/ retention pond, at intervals aroundthe lake are signs posted warning that you do not swim in the lake astheir is a danger of poisonous snakes and alligators. Please do not feed them. Please Do not get close to them. Please do not swim or wade near them. Please do not let your pets near them. Pleae do not agitate or tease them. Please do not try to catch them. Please observe from a safe distance. Please treat them with respect as they are an important element of nature. If you have questions you may contact the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department at 409-736-2551 or email txgator.info@tpwd.state.tx.us Daniel Harris CIA Services >>> Karla Santos 8/28/2008 3:57 PM >>> Wei Tai 8/28/2008 3:44 PM My family and I went to visit our in-progress house yesterday and to our great surprise, we noticed there was a gator in the Cinco Ranch Southwest lake!!! Please see enclosed for the picture of the gator. The gator is approximately 3 ft and were curious / unafraid of humans. It never left the lake while we were there (approximately 15 minutes)and is pretty close to the shore. We didn't see any other gators at thetime. Is there a known population of gators in this lake? You may wish to warn others, especially families with kids and pets.Can / Will anything be done about this and other gators? Thanks. Wei Tai - Jiang ----------------------------------------------------------- I must admit, I am rather disappointed at the answer from the HOA. First of all, this is a new sub-division and there are NO SIGNS!!! We have walked around the lake and there isn't a warning sign stating that this is / will be a wild life habitat and there maybe alligators / snakes present! I may not have gotten the lot on the lake especially with pets and Ethan being such a young age. (Richard said that he still would have gotten the lot). In any case, we felt that this was not clear to us. All that were told to us is that there would be no access to the lake. Anyways, I'll try to spread the word that there's a gator in the lake (skinny dipping, anyone?). But it worries me that there are no warning signs and that there are kids around the area. At least I wrote both the sales and HOA reps. If there are any unfortunate incidents, let it be known that they were both notified 8/28/2008 via email... In this case... Go (Away) Gator(s)!!! From a University of Florida Alumni...

Richard's Birthday - Wii Mii Mania!

Richard Mii

Wei Mii

Richard's 35th birthday is coming up and I didn't know what to get him. Finally, I decided to get him a Wii. The choice was either a PS3 or a Wii and I figured the Wii will be better because there really isn't that many games for the PS3. Although the PS3 does have the blue ray disc option...

So I figured getting a Wii will be a breeze. Afterall, it has been out for quite awhile now and almost everyone I know already have a Wii. Piece of cake, I thought... And I was WRONG!!!

Had to call around Target (no help), Game Stop (the guy pretty much told me it's hopeless unless I can come by on weekday mornings), and Toys-R-Us (helpful but told me to call back next week). Finally, presistance paid off! I was able to remember to call Toys-R-Us back and got them to hold one for me! Luckily, there were still 3 Wiis left when I got there (speed driving from work, trust me) and I was also able to snatch up Mario Kart and Wii Fit as well! (very lucky!) Good thing I just put everything on credit! Ha! It sure wasn't cheap to get all that!

Waited one week and finally couldn't wait anymore... Decided to tell Richard that he can go get his gifts. He was excited and I did teased him enough (he did guess right the very first time though - bummer). He was happy to see the wii and the games. He was impressed that I can get my hands on one too! I don't think he went to sleep that night. Ha! Successful gift!!! /CHEERS

I made Richard's Mii - doesn't it look just like him??? I can't stop laughing whenever I see his Mii on. I could hardly concentrate on the balance games when I see his Mii. He is too cute!

For those of you who want to make your own Miis online, check out http://myavatareditor.com/myavatareditorbeta.html
Hope you guys have as much fun as we did!

Here are some pictures from Richard's birthday. His family came down and celebrated with us. We went to Fogo De Chao and all of us were stuffed! (Photo below shows Ethan using the bread bowl as a hat. Haha. He is soooooooo cute!)

Bip Bipadotta - Genious!!!

OMG, don't ask me why, but I just LOVE Bip Bipadotta! Found him this past week while surfing on the ever vast world of You Tube. Was looking for some videos to show Ethan and came across Bip Bipadotta! Love the old school Muppets / Seseame Streets! They really just don't make shows like they used to. These are classics and will never go out of style!

First one: Mahna Mahna

Another one: Fat Cat Sat Hat

Love the rhymes in this song. For those of you are curious on exactly what Bip Bipadotta said, here it is:
Fat, cat, sat, hat
A fat cat sat on a hat, saw a rat on the mat, got a bat, had a chat with a gnat that he'd pat in a vat that was flat, oh yeah!
Small, ball, tall, wall
See the small ball on the tall wall, see it fall in a hall, see it crawl, give its all its call, "Hi, y'all!" see it stall, wear a shawl, oh yeah!
Red, head, fed, bread
See the red head bein' fed bread on his sled made of lead as he sped to be wed but he fled instead out ahead up to Ted in his bed and he said...
Cool, huh?

These two videos can always bring a smile to my face!

Gotta get these on DVDs!