Hallow-win

2001
Costume - Characters from ESPN's Sidelines (about Texas A&M football)
Event - Fish Aides Big/Lil' Halloween Party
Result - 1st place Win

2002

Costume - 1-800 Call ATT phone (Ro Williams) and Carrottop (me)

Event - Fish Aides Big/Lil' Halloween Party

Result - 1st place Win

2003

Costume - Original Sin; Eve (me), Adam (Joe Licatta), Snake/Satan (Lauren Woods), Apple (Ro Williams)

Event - Fish Aides Big/Lil' Halloween Party

Result - 1st place Win

2004

Recently graduated. No friends. I think I watched reruns of Survivor and cried myself to sleep.  Easily my scariest costume.

2005 - 2006

Still no friends.  I would compare these years to the Jordan baseball years.  Basically, the Halloween party commissioner told me that I needed to take a break for the good of the game.

2007

Costume - Devil horns.  **This was easily my worst effort.  I had spent the entire day in downtown Seoul, first at a Soccer tournament and then running errands.  I was planning on not going to this party when Frank Peterson called me.  I was at Papa John's (in Korea, yes)  planning on spending $25 to get a pity pizza.  There was only one reason why I relented and went to that party...I thought a girl I had met a month earlier might be there.

Event - SIS/KIS joint Halloween party.

Result - If there was a last place, I might have gotten it.  More importantly, that girl was there, and my charm plus my terrible costume got me a date with said girl.  And now, that girl is my wife.  My best prize!

2008

Costume - Michael Phelps

Event - SIS/KIS joint Halloween party.

Result - Snubbed.  I was a photo favorite though.

Unfortunately for you, this cropped photo doesn't show that the bottoms are a speedo.

2009

Costume - Bob Ross (me) and a painting with happy trees (Becky)

Event - RIS Halloween Party

Result - 1st place.

2010

Costume - Cue-tip and Ear

Event - RIS Halloween Party

Result - 1st place.

What do you notice about this list?  First, in 2001, Texas A&M football was still relevant enough to get an ESPN show featuring the program.  Second, that is quite a list of domination.  Third, I am undefeated as a married man. (I wanted to make a joke hear about being defeated in marriage, but I like being married too much to even joke like that.  See...I really am defeated, I can't joke about it!)

One more observation: our last two blogs have been about our awesomeness.  I am going to attribute this raised level of confidence to the upcoming recruiting season.  We are in the process of looking for new jobs and thus need to sell ourselves.  Maybe I should just direct potential employers to this blog.  On second thought, maybe I should temporarily make this blog private.

A few more party pics below...

 Tim, Ryan, and Cue-tip

 Rachel with her tail between her legs.  Presumably because of the competition.

 Ghostbusters rule #1: Never cross the streams!

 Tim and I on a mighty steed.

Becky and Erin.  Erin was dressed as a human.

AWESOME!

Well Folks, it's that time again! That's right, it's that wonderful time of year where Isaac remembers that I haven't yet posted a blog post and forces me to begrudgingly pull something out of my butt to say to all of our loyal readers. All five of you are the bee's knees in my book!

Ok enough chit chat! I have a blog to write! So, here goes. Hmm let me think of a special topic. Not too many exciting things have been going on in my life so let's go with the current theme: me being awesome. I know this comes as no surprise to you, but I am, in fact, quite awesome. As of late, I have displayed my awesomeness in many forms (ok only 2 but they were really good!).

I have been coaching our school's cross country team since August and we recently completed our season. Our team went through some challenges. Most notably, they didn't know how to run. I believe that the team average time for a 5 k in the beginning of the season was about 45 minutes. To give you Americans an idea about how fast (slow) that is, it's about how long it takes for Isaac to put his socks away when I ask him to.

BUT with time and dedication (some kids actually showed up to more than 1 practice a week!) we were able to decrease our 5 K average to...............40 minutes! YEAH! That's about how long it takes Isaac to go wash the dishes after I ask. Don't worry, Charlotte, I'm just joking. He's a very good husband and does everything I ask......he just does it at his own pace. :) I love you honey!

OK enough about kids! For one of our main races was a charity run at this park called Ancient City. It's this place that has miniature replica's of Thai monuments. No, they aren't lego size, they're probably about 70% of the actual size. I don't know how else to describe it, or why such a park exists, but it does. Oh Thailand! I also have to apologize because I didn't take any pictures because Isaac wasn't there to do it for me. Jeez Isaac! It's not like you had to wake up at 5 am to drive an hour to go and wait for me to run and sit around bored for at least 4 hours.......oh wait.....that's exactly what it would have been. Never mind.

Anyway, I actually ran the 5k race and WON for my age group! 1st place! BOOM! I ran a 5k in 25 minutes and was the fastest runner in my age group. Alright, so my only competition were about 20 Thai ladies who are famous for not working out but STILL! I won a trophy and a 500 Baht gift certificate (that's like $15). I also learned a valuable lesson, ALWAYS run races against out of shape Thai women.

As you can see, Isaac was also working hard...watching football in the background.

Example 2 of my awesomeness:

This week was our school's cultural week and part of the festivities involved a cooking competition. For those of you who know me, you know that I love 2 things in this world: cooking and competition....oh yeah and Isaac too! Sorry honey! Anyway, how could I turn down the chance to compete AND cook?! The answer is, because it was Thai cooking, and the last time I checked, I'm not Thai. I also don't know how to cook Thai food. My motto is, why cook when you can buy Thai food on the street for about 50 cents?! Sure, you may get diarrhea, but diarrhea is God's way of making your digestion more efficient!

Back to the competition! I decided to go against the odds and join the competition even though I am not Thai....at least I don't think. Mom, do you have anything to tell me?

Ok so I joined a team of 3 ladies and we made som tam which is a spicy papaya salad and we WON! I think our's tasted the best because we were the messiest. Regardless, I won a ribbon and a som tam mixer thingy which I will never use.

In conclusion, I am awesome

Wow, my conclusion is even awesome! Yes, I do teach writing to ESL kids! You're welcome, world!

Ok I gotta run! Until next year, Sawadeeca! ( that means "goodbye" in Thai, or wait, it means "hello". Let's just say that Thailand is like Hawaii and it means both "hello" AND "goodbye". Aloooooooooooooooooooooooooooo HA!

Shanghai (in pictures)

I would love to go in depth about our awesome trip to Shanghai, China, but seeing as it has been two-plus weeks already, I just dont see that happening.  So I thought that I would at least get some pictures up with a caption or two.  Enjoy.

On the Bund.  The popular tourist destination.  We were quite the hit here, as all whities are.  Apparantly, a photo on the Bund is not complete unless it contains a Currey.  Of course, getting asked to have your picture taken gets old really fast...unless you love attention like we do.  YES we want to take a picture with you!

World Expo 2010

We would have been crazy to make it to Shanghai without stopping by for the World Expo.  Despite being warned of crazy crowds (100,000 each day!), we made our way and found it to be a pretty cool experience.

 Ticket with the China pavillion in the backgound.

 Becky was really noising.

 Nobody tells me who I can and can't challenge!

 The Korea pavillion.  Asian LOVE Koreans.  The line was over two hours long.  We skipped it.

 But we did stop over in the Korean restaurant in the pavillian, complete with Korean waitress to cook our food.

 All for the low, low price of $60 USD.  Apparantly its a good idea to look at the exchange rate BEFORE you spend money.

 Myanmar...a preview of our spring break perhaps?

 We got these beers in Lithuania (the pavillion). Our bartender (Lithuanian) looked sad so Becky asked him if he liked serving Chinese people beer all day.  "No," he grunted. "When I go home, I think I will need the therapy."  When you read that, it is important that you use a Lithuanian accent.  If you don't know what that sounds like, just substitute Ivan Draggo from Rocky IV, close enough.

 Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!  They had his birth certificate!!!!!!  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Just kidding.  I think the just kidding is necessary for my Texas people.

 Right arm = Freedom.  Left Arm = Justice

 No comment.

China Town?

Considering Shanghai is decidedly very un-Chinese, we made our way to old Shanghai.  I think Shanghai might kind of be like Austin, in that it is a really cool town, but very different from the rest of Texas.  Also, Texas and China are the same size. 

 CLICK the picture above to enlarge.  It is a MUST.  Check out this kids pants.  That is standard China style, so the kid can do the doo where ever he/she pleases.  Once again, CLICK THE PIC.

Do you see the name of the middle road?  He he.

Reunion Time

The reason for the trip to Shanghai was an educational technology conference.  The coolest part of that was that old friends from Korea were there also. 

Todd, Becky and Frank on the subway.

 Frank got a fortune a dinner.  "He will have a crummy time if he eats crackers...in bed."

 Let me just take a minute to rag on Frank here.  These two pictures are TERRIBLE.  I mean, they framing is total crap, its blurry and the tower is sticking out of my head in the first one.  The worst part of this?  They turned the stinking skyline lights off right after this picture!  So this is the best two shots we have with one of the most famous skylines in the world.  Thank you Frank.  Great job.

 Notice the difference.  Its not like he was using a sorry point and shoot.  We have a nice DSLR Cannon camera.  Sigh.  I'm trying to let it go.

Our last night we got to hang out with even more friends from Korea.  This time it was with Jonathan and Sara from Becky's old school.  As we were hanging out at another friends apartment, all hell broke loose outside.  I mean, I know the Chinese invented fireworks, but this was ridiculous...ly awesome!