Ba muoi thang Tu, or the thirtieth of April, is how today is being simply referred to in the Vietnamese community.  It marks 35 years of the fall of Saigon (NOT Ho Chi Minh City, dammit!) to Communism.  It has been 35 years since the following iconic images occurred.

Depictions of fleeing, desperation, brutality, fear.  35 years of this.  It has been 35 years since my parents met, and 35 years since their college education were jeopardized. 

I was born after the napalm settled.  My father did not die escaping by sea, no matter how close he came to that.  I still get to reunite with my father even though 6 years of my childhood was without him.  My entire family is safe, mostly.  I am lucky.  I want to commemorate those who were not.

don’t want to forget today. Today is Tuesday, not quite Hump Day, yet passed the dreaded is-it-really Monday. It has no special alias, just nestled within the week.


But today is very exciting for me, and the below illustration will provide the supporting reasons.

This Sunday, February 14th, will be the Hallmark day of love...

.....AND the Lunar New Year of the Tiger!  Lots of love, health, happiness and prosperity to everyone!

I have exciting news coming up that I cannot disclose just yet because I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s been consuming me so much that I have to let some out before I explode.

The scarf is from my boss, who bought it during her recent trip to New York.  The flower necklace and Wonder Woman cuffs are from one of my friends' Secret Santa party.  Guess who ended up being my Santa, MrKP, so it wasn't much of a secret.  But he did choose from my wish list, well, he came close but didn't buy the exact items on the list.  Poor thing couldn't tell between the stippled design from the weave design on silver cuffs.  A for effort.

One of my favorite things around the holidays is to receive holiday cards from family and friends, especially ones with photos so I can see what they look like if I don't get to see them often.  The ones below are mainstays on my fridge.

Here is our e-card for this year.  I incorporated pictures from our anniversary trip to Sydney, Australia, as well as our photo shoot.  I really wished I did this for last year as well, since we had some fabulous pictures from our trip to Italy.  Oh well, no card last year, e-card this year, actual mailing card next year!

Make a Smilebox greeting

...to celebrating this Thanksgiving weekend with my family and MrKP in Vegas.  Itinerary as follows:

Today, get to leave early at work (paid!)  Then all night of this:

Thursday:
Friday:

Homeward bound, relax, then:

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving will be just as wonderful!

On Wednesday, 09/23, thoughtful Rachael pulled together a little surprise celebration during Happy Hour in honor of the day fabulous Miss Jess was born.  I like the sound of the word "fabulous" before her name, very fitting.

Rachael managed to round up Claire, Aline, Courtney and me to meet up beforehand at Claim Jumper in South Coast Plaza so that Erin could saunter in with the birthday girl at 6:30pm.  Jessica decided that a huge pretzel will complete her birthday, and I learned about the hideousness that is Ed Hardy's clothing (thanks Courtney!)

Aline made this fabulous cake (from scratch!) to complement Jessica's fabulousness, but sadly, I could only manage to take one picture from my dying point & shoot camera.  I know that because from where I was sitting, the picture captured an awkward angle of Jess as well as the cake, but doesn't Jess look radiant?  HOPE YOU HAD AN AWESOME BIRTHDAY/WEEK/MONTH/YEAR, JESSICA!!


And just in case you still haven't figured it out yet, the title of this post stood for Happy Hour Get-Together Birthday.  I learned most of these acronyms when I first associated with these girls.

The last batch from BabyMama's Baby Shower will consist of notable gifts and adorable portraits.

My clothesline gift

IOUs from the LA girls

I love the contrast between the animated energy between Wan talking to R and Jess reclining state.  Jess looks ethereal here.

WeeMo showing off her handiwork in decorating the memento picture frame

Closeup, complete with accompanying scribbles of French sound "Honh honh"