Sunday, July 31, 2005

more eating (sunday evening)

Time to EAT!

















Salad w/ Pears
















Shrimp variation 1. Salty
















Steak... sweet sweet delicious steak.
















Salmon in foil.
















Shrimp variation 2 - spicy
















Lamb - not a big fan of it.
















Fresh Mozzarella with Tomatos, Basil, Olives, Olive Oil, and Balsamic.
















Bread and Cheese
















Grilled Vegetables et Portobello Mushrooms
















Roasted Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes
















Cucumber Salad in Tasty Chinese variation... liquid form.
















Corn that looks green under flourescent light.
















Mixed Bell Peppers
















And the whole dinner spread.
















Uncle Charles, Uncle David, Aunt Emily
















Loh Clan
















Abridged Loh Clan





















Random Birthday cake for Uncle Tom.
















Chocolate Covered Strawberries. Mmmmmm...

enough with the operations. it's just time to eat!
















Yeah! We agree! No, wait. It's a bit of pre-mass warmups. When one's uncle is a priest, one tends to have mass all the time. Even in the dining room.
















Sister in Law Sue. Brother Gabe. Sister Maria (sounds like a Nun when I say it like that). Gabe with Mass songs in hand. Harmonies ready to go.
















Uncle Al (da-gu-fu) and Uncle Edmond (xiao-gu-fu) wondering why they are at mass on a sofa.
















Ariel and Maria working on their Secret Project.





















I can fly!





















Crazy Lester





















Oh wait, we lowered to basket for dramatic effect!





















Uncle David enjoys good weather and wine.
















Tom, Julie, and Emily in the prep line.





















Becky chows down.





















Mish chows even downer.
















The dish spread





















Dad poses with his homemade Shao-Bing
















Loh family ritual.





















Mom with Spatula and Random Chinese Plant C





















Indoor Rock Climbing at the Libertyville Rec Center
















Uncle Tom in motion. We played a game of "senoirs" vs. "junoirs" The junoirs were doomed to failure because I stink at basketball but we managed to make it a decently close game at 21-17.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Operation: LOH (day 2 - night time)
















Dinner: Somewhere in tiny Chicago Chinatown (Street)
Umm... prawns of sorts. Yummy. I love when you can eat the shell.
















Clams: not a big fan of them.
















Um... Chinese style Chicken? I don't remember what these dishes are called! Give me a break!
















Squab. Ok, so squab is really Pigeon but people were debating it was really Quail.
















Sizzling Beef Plate. Or Plate of Sizzling Beef
















Fish and Veggies? Who knows? Who cares? It tastes great!
















Uncle David (technically er-gu-fu but know one calls him that) and cousin Becky.
















Uncle Tom (xiao-shu-shu) and my Mom making a wonderful face (out of context).

Unpictured: Dad wins the check again. Heavyweight Bill snatcher Aunt Emily is preemptively boxed in through clever seating arrangements. Uncle Edmond is embarassingly fooled with the old "We'll split it all evenly later" line. Later, we had boba which turned out to be over cooked. Blah. now I'm a boba snob as well =P

Home to Poker. We did a poker table downstairs on the pool table. $1 Buy-ins. My cousin Charlene was the surprise player taking out many players with her innocent play before busting out the big hands. She played hard and under the radar and had me reeling back many a times. What eventually did her in was a big bluff on my part. I layed down my 2 - 8 off suit bluff when it was down to 3 and had her calling me the rest of the night which eventually paid off in heads up. Cheers to Charlene. The end pot was $8 and fun was had by all.

Operation: LOH (day 2 - daytime)
















Chicago Free Trolley
Cousins - Rachel, Jonathan, Michelle, Charlene





















Downtown Chicago - they don't make 'em like this in SF.
















Architecture Boat Tour.
















Art Deco - Vertical lines to accentuate height. Unlike Post Modern which is very colorful and calls attention to itself (the tour guide repeated these two lines ad nasuem).
















Uncle Charles (da-buo-buo), Grandma (ah-niang), Uncle David (er-buo-buo) , Aunt Emily (ni-ma)
















Dad: "Haha, look at (Charles). That hat makes him look like a tourist!" Way to go Dad.
Aunt Judie (er-niang-niang)
















So after the boat tour, we docked and let loose in the city. My sister, Uncle Tom, and I splintered off for lunch, split up and wandered, and met back at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art where we checked out a Robert Flavin exhibit. All of his installations were of colored fluorescent lights and using them to create different relationships within the light itself and the environment. It was pretty cool to see. All of his notes were pretty boring however =P Afterwards, we WALKED all the way back to where we parked. All in all, i think it was like 20 blocks. We were all so tired (except for Uncle Tom who pulled out an energy bar and gatorade towards the end of our walk and began to briskly walk by us. My brother found a vendor selling Toasted Almond good humor bars which are quite rare nowadays. Finally back at the parking lot, off to Chinatown.