Ogisan's Home

Monday, March 27, 2006

Noah, Happy Birthday!

My nephew had his birthday party this weekend. He turned 6 this year. There were about 20 kids invited to his party, which took place oat an indoor playground.

Jeff (my brother in-law) spent ~$400 for 1n hour and half of "fun" for kids. That's very generous of him. Talking about cost of raising a family.....


Noah looking at birthday card (custom made by his 姑姑 - Tami).











Scene of horror.









This is what Jeff looks like after paying his bill.









During dinner, Amelia's fondness for fried food proved that she is indeed Jeffery's daughter.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Break Neck Mountain (斷脖山 not 斷背山).

I went with Nancy, Chung, CiCi, and Alex yesterday to BreakNeck Mountain at Bear Mountain State Park. It was quite a different hike. It started with a very steep climb up a rocky face. We had to use both our hands and feet to get to the top. The first mile took nearly an hour. The rest of the hike was quite easy.

I decided to put up some B&W pictures for a different look. There is no need to put up more pictures of blue sky, deep green, all the time.



























Saturday, March 18, 2006

The Longest Half Mile !

The last time I went hiking was two weeks ago. I was supposed to attend Noah's piano recital but was able to convince Tami that my day would be better spent hiking. So off we go!

Today was sunny. The wind has done a good job clearing up the sky for us. I met Mr. Ng for the first time. He is extremely nice and always looking out for members in the group, making sure no one is missing/lost.

We followed a series of uphill climbs, taking few breaks, to get to the lunch point. At one point, I asked our fearless leder, Marjorie how much longer to the lunch point. "Just another half a mile," she said.

Well, it was the longest "half mile" I have ever seen. It was nearly another hour before we had our lunch. I won't believe her distance estimation fro now on : p

Well, the view at top made it all worth it!

Two unfortunate incidents happened during this hike. 1. I fell and broke off part of my flash. It is quite hard to imagine but I actuallly slipped on some dried leaves. It was not a hard fall so I was surprised to see my flash breaking off from my camera. Time to try some crazy glue tonight.

2. The tip of my hiking pole came off! 真的是賠了夫人又折兵. An hour after my flash broke, I found myself going down a rocky hill. One of my pole was wedged between rocks. As I pulled it out, I heard a cracking sound and was disgusted to see my hiking pole with its last section missing (stuck amongst rock).

So at the end of the hike, I decided to drive to EMS at Scarsdale to see if I can get it repaired. I knew they have a really awesome "100% Satisfaction Guarantee" but to my surprise, the manager just gave me a brand new pair of poles instead of sending them back for repair. Much kudo to EMS.

To sweeten te deal. There was a 30% off all clearance sales item. So I picked up a Mountain Hardwear Aguille Jacket for $111 + tax (MSRP $295). That's a deal too good to pass up!

Here is a picctuer of Mason listening to Ben describing the "evilness" of my camera.