A Few More Pictures from the Trip

(Picture 1: Sara and Kyle pose at the Florida state line. Picture 2. Breakfast at the Marriott in New Orleans. It was a buffet-style breakfast that we had paid for in advance with the cost of our room. Had we not paid in advance, this simple breakfast would have cost us $54. Yes, $54 for eggs, cereal, and waffles. Picture 3: Sara and Kyle getting ready to go swimming. Picture 4: The swimming pool at our hotel in Orlando. This was very nice, and with a little waterslide too. Picture 5: The green swimming pool at a "Days Inn" motel that we stopped at along the way. We had a very, very bad experience with Days Inn. The water coming out of the faucets was brown and dirty, the bedsheets were not clean, there was exposed wiring on the walls, so we had to leave the hotel. I have since wrote an email to their customer service department about their shoddy motel. Supposedly, the general manager is going to call me before June 18 to resolve my complaint. What is he going to do? Offer me another night at his terrible motel?)

Disney World, Florida

I think that Disneyland and Disney World are great places to take the kids. Just watching their faces fill with wonder on each ride is something every parent should see. To them, it's a dream world come true.

For parents, though, it's a lesson in shock and awe about capitalism. There are four major theme parks in Disney World: 1. The Magic Kingdom, which is essentially Disneyland. 2. Epcot. 3. Hollywood Studios, and 4. Animal Kingdom. Each parks costs $79 (plus tax) for adults, and $69 for kids 3 to 10 years old. We managed to pass Kyle off as being two years old this time, but that won't work again the next time we decide to go. If we decided to see all 4 parks the next time we visit Orlando, it would cost us around $1264. Yes, over a grand just for some Disney magic. Then you have the $14 for parking, and the overpriced restaurants ($2.50 for a small bottle of water).

This year, we were able to see two parks (Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios) for only $330. We were able to get a big discount attending one of those horrendous "timeshare" seminars. Holiday Inn was promoting time share condos in Orlando, and we spent about 2 hours being pressured by salesmen trying to get us to buy property. They wanted to sell us a 35 thousand dollar timeshare, with $6,000 down, and payments of $600 a month, with 16% interest. Ha! Like we would ever do that. Basically, we just suffered through it to get the discounted Disney tickets, like most everyone else there (and there were a lot of families there).

So this is what we have to resort to now to take our families to see Mickey Mouse without having to take out a second mortgage on our house.

The Magic Kingdom park was the most fun. It has the most rides and the kids loved it the most. It's the only park that can (kind of) justify its high price. Disney's Hollywood Studios was not nearly as good, or as big. If Magic Kingdom is $79, this one should be about $49 in my opinion. It has mostly shows, and only a few rides, including a very disappointing "backlot tram tour" that paled in comparison to Universal Studios.

We may go back again in the future. I wouldn't mind seeing the Animal Kingdom park, and maybe we'll also see Universal Orlando (we skipped it this time out). But, unless we go to another time share seminar, we're going to need a big tax refund again.

New Orleans

We just got back from our vacation to New Orleans and Orlando, Florida. We made the decision to go to New Orleans before the big oil spill, and everything in the city seemed to be business as usual. We only had a day to spend there, so we wanted to try to see as much as possible. Everything started out great, and it wasn't until near the end of the day that things started to go a little sour.

We walked along Decatur and Borboun Street, located in the French Quarter, and marvelled at the architecture of the buildings. Austin is considered the "Live Music Capital of the World", but just walking down Borboun Street in New Orleans, that seemed like a title that should go to them, as pretty much every corner was bustling with live music. There were also many "adult" clubs on the street, and both Christy and I wished we had a babysitter so we could fully enjoy our time there.

By dinner time, though, I began to become suddenly and unexpectedly ill. The city had a smell to it that reminded me of Taiwan. The odors began to get to me. Once we got to "Bubba Gump's" seafood restaurant, I was in the bathroom violently throwing up, and I couldn't eat a thing for the rest of the night. By morning, I was fine. Christy thought I might of had sun stroke, which was possible, since we spent most of the day walking in the intense heat. Whatever it was, it came and went, and once we left New Orleans, I felt fine for the remainder of the trip.

(Pictures: 1. A typical New Orleans building 2. A bar offering "huge ass beers". 3. Sara taking a water break. 4. A horse walks along a picturesque street (horse rides were $75 for a 30 minute ride, btw). 5. A riverboat that will take you out to the Oil Expedition)

Sara Graduates From Pre-K

Sara finally finished her very first year of school and has now been promoted to Kindergarten! Good job, Sara!

The Austin/Arizona Boycott Debacle

So I'm reading today that "The Burleson Tea Party" wants to boycott Austin because Austin is boycotting Arizona. This is what Angela Cox, founder of the party, wrote:

"I call upon you, to take a look at what has happened, right here, in the great state of Texas. The voice of the few, in Austin, Texas, have taken matters into their own hands, by slandering the Arizona legislation, and voting unanimously of a boycott of Arizona. How dare they ignore the voices and wishes of Texans!"

Well, I just have to say...good riddance, Burleson Tea Party. We don't need you here anyway. The Tea Party movement, in itself, is a bit of a joke. They name themselves after a movement related to taxes. Particularly, "taxation without representation." Since the Obama administration has reduced taxes for most Americans, this seems an odd name for a movement against him.

But anyway, back to this boycott. As a "Texan" myself, the Burleson Tea Party doesn't speak for me. I support what the city of Austin is doing. Does that mean I support illegal immigration? No. Not at all. I just think that what Arizona is doing is going a little too far. Basically, it's racial profiling. Anyone who doesn't look "Anglo" can be stopped at any time, for any reason. If I'm driving through Arizona, will I be stopped because my wife is Asian? I mean, really, where does it end? It's almost tantamount to placing a five-pointed star on someones clothes.

My mother was an immigrant. My grandfather was an immigrant. My wife is an immigrant. I'm only the first generation of my family that was actually born here. This a country made by immigrants, and it's what makes it great. The diversity. My wife was telling me the other day that nobody ever treats her special here. She complains that when I was living in Taiwan, I always got special treatment from people because I was a foreigner. And it's true, I did. But now that she is here in American, she isn't treated any different from an American citizen. That's because an American citizen can be anyone, of any race or background. Christy fits in as much as anyone else. But once we start stopping people for "not looking right", we're heading down the wrong path.

A Good Year for Concerts

"So ya, thought ya,

might like to go to the show?"

-opening lines from "The Wall"

I'm taking Christy and kids to see their first rock concert a little later this year. We're going to see RUSH. It's an outdoor concert, and I got tickets for the lawn seating. This way, if the babies want to run around and go nuts, there should be plenty of room for them to do that. Had we got reserved seats, it would have been another fiasco like the time we tried to watch the Austin Rodeo. Also, thankfully, kids get in free on the lawn, so I only had to buy two tickets.

I like Rush. They're not my favorite band, but they're in my top 10. This year they're playing the album "Moving Pictures" in its entirety. "Moving Pictures" has all the Rush classics that I grew up listening to as a kid: "Tom Sawyer," "Red Barchetta," "Limelight," "Witch Hunt,", and "YYZ." It's my favorite album by Rush, and if they weren't playing this front to back, I probably wouldn't be all that enthusiastic about going to another Rush "greatest hits" show (I've already seen them about five times before). Christy doesn't really like Geddy Lee's voice, so she's not sure if she will like the concert or not. I told her that Geddy has one of those distinct voices that you just have to get used to. I also told her just to go for the experience of an American rock concert (ok, Rush is Canadian, but you know what I mean).

In November, we're going to another concert, and this is one that I am really excited about. Roger Waters, of PINK FLOYD, is going to perform "The Wall" live in its entirety. I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to see this show. I was too young to catch the show when Pink Floyd first toured it in 1980 (I was only 9, and there was no way in hell my parents would have allowed me to go). So I had to experience it through the pictures I would see in books, and the audio recordings. I'm realistic, so I know the show will not be the same as the one 30 years ago. David Gilmour will not be there, so his distinct guitar sound will be sorely missed. But the theatrical show will be almost the same, if not better. I'm taking Christy to this show without the kids (we're getting a babysitter). Christy, surprisingly, really likes "The Wall." I've probably made her listen to it about a hundred times, so it began to grow on her. She didn't even knew the band Pink Floyd existed until she met me. Apparently Pink Floyd is not that big in Taiwan. Too bad. Those poor Taiwanese don't know what they're missing.

3 Months as a Homeowner

We’ve been living in our house for three months now, and we finally feel as though we’ve settled in.

Last weekend we had to buy our first lawnmower. We opted for the lower priced, manual lawnmower, which cost us $99. For almost three months, our backyard consistently looked like dead, brown patches of grass. Then suddenly, within the last several weeks, everything turned green and all manners of weeds sprouted up from nowhere. The two trees that we have on our front lawn, which Christy that for sure were dead, also suddenly sprouted leaves. So…much of our weekend was spent mowing the lawn and digging up weeds. Just another adventure you get to have once you become a homeowner.

I was a little concerned about skyrocketing utility bills, but our electricity bill has been around the $100 level. This is without having to use any heat or A/C. In retrospect, I guess it was good that we bought a smaller house, as opposed to all the fancy, two-story homes we had looked at previously. Some of my colleagues here at work, who have much bigger homes than me, pay about $300 a month for their electricity. Our water bill is about $70. Again, much higher than I used to pay, but not shockingly high, considering we use the washing machine and dishwasher frequently.

I guess my biggest shock is when I get my mortgage bill every month and I see that only about $150 of my payment is going to the principal on our house. The rest is going to interest and escrow. No wonder it takes so freakin’ long to pay off a mortgage. I was told that once you buy a house, you normally spend your first few years paying off the interest, but this is ridiculous.

(Picture: our once brown backyard, now green and full of weeds)