"Vegas, Baby!"

Everyone seems to be saying it. :-D

Next investigator meeting will be in Las Vegas, NV! And this time, I will be able to attend! The last meeting which was sponsored by Roche was held at the Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne, FL. I missed that opportunity for family reasons. And now, I get to go to the Regeneron meeting which will be at the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort (Jan 10/11, 2008). Kelly had the opportunity to go since she will be sub-investigator for our site for this study, but someone's got to be with Noomsie. Instead, it will be the boss (Ray) and I.

USD v CAD

The US dollar is back on top! Hahaha... For the first time in nearly two months (the Loonie took over the US dollar on October 4, 2007) the American buck is worth more. The fluctuation of world currency probably means that soon after I write this entry, the Loonie would have edged ahead again, but so be it. At least levels are more or less on par now, compared to a month ago when on November 7th the Canadian dollar was worth more than $1.10 USD!~ (a record high). This does not mean that the US economy is doing any better. At least all the news you hear or read depict a grim outlook especially with the housing market at an all time low, and consumer spending this holiday season expected to be the lowest in years. But I am optimistic a rebound is around the corner! Crazy, but I've been following this currency tug-of-war DAILY for the past two months. Obsessed, I know. I get my world currency rates from www.xe.com which updates every few seconds!

Mountain Medical Potluck

We leave for Singapore in three days, and we have a lot to do before then.

Work aside, we have to: (1) find a new home for Sparky (and permanently since we think Ethan is allergic to her) and (2) prepare to host our colleagues and work friends for a potluck dinner at our home (yes, the night before we leave!). Pretty crazy, I know. But we have more or less packed for our trip already. Toiletries and the usual chargers for cell phones and the like for which we will be using up to the point we leave our home, remains to be added to our luggage.

It will be nice to host our co-workers in our home. Kelly and my contribution to the potluck will be Adobo (chicken) and Islanboli pollo (Persian tomato rice dish -- with green beans, and with or without meat).

Josie and Renea have kindly offered to bring us to and from the airport. So we're pretty much all set to go. Will add photos after we return from our trip on Dec 16th.

More Photos!

A DVD full of photos arrived in the mail! Thanks, Mom and Shar! I have uploaded several onto My Picasa, although it crashed on me several times due to our weak wireless internet connection upstairs. And I have noticed, viewing the pictures that were uploaded successfully, that some others have indeed been missed. I will have to delete some photos before uploading the rest though since I am running out of space on My Picasa. (already used up 90% of 1,024MB). They keep expanding the space given on the these free photo sites but setting a limit is just never a good idea (never enough space I say :-P ). So thanks, Mom, and though some repeat, I hope y'all enjoy!

Sharks! Whales! (And An Emergency Hospital Visit?) -- Oh My!

What a trip. Total exhaustion. It all started with Ethan wheezing early Friday morning. His breathing was so laborious that Kelly was actually worried and wanted to take him in to Fannin's (Regional Hospital) Emergency. We were thinking of cancelling our trip altogether. We had booked into the Glenn Hotel and already had tickets for the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke museum. But Noomsie was sick.

So we took our time getting ready, to see if Ethan's condition would improve and whether or not he could take a 2 hour drive to the big city. And actually, if he could, then we would rather take him to Scottish Rite, a children's hospital in Atlanta. And so Kelly administered a medication using a nebuliser (a piece of equipment that aerosolizes a liquid medication to be breathed in). This usually helps Noomz with his breathing, and it did the trick, though to last for the duration of the car ride we were not sure.

But with Ethan seeming his usual self and breathing with less "effort" we decided ok we will take to the road.

Just minutes into our trip Ethan fell asleep, but his breathing had returned to wheezing (Kelly had her stethoscope on hand and was checking Noomsie periodically). So our first destination was going to be the ER at Scottish Rite. There, Noomz got a double dose of some steroid and other breathing treatment (again through a nebulizer) and had a chest X-ray taken. He was also given Motrin for his fever which was at 102.2F. His X-ray was clear and so no worries of pneumonia or other. We arrived at the ER around 11:30am and we were not discharged until nearly 4pm. So a good start to our trip (spending hours in a hospital)! But all for Ethan as he is our precious.

His usually smiley self, I couldn't help but take some pictures of him in his baby hospital "gown". I am just glad he is doing better, though still sick, but not seriously, and quite manageable for now. We know he will suffer from asthma (if not these string of wheezing episodes are already alluding to) since both mom and dad have had asthma as kids and both grandfathers currently have this respiratory ailment. But we hare hopeful that Ethan will outgrow it somewhat.

Not taking any chances, we bought an air purifier and a new humidifier for his room.

Once we were discharged from the ER and on our way, we decided to check into our hotel room. The Glenn Hotel is smack in downtown ATL and very close to our other destinations for this trip -- namely the "largest aquarium in the world" (the Georgia Aquarium) and the museum that is all about "happiness", the Coca-Cola museum (or the World of Coke museum).

First we went to the G.A. It was huge, but to be honest, the Singapore aquarium seemed more "grand". For some reason, the G.A. did not really live up to my expectations, though some tanks were downright enormous -- have to be in order to hold whales I suppose.

Ethan was out asleep the entire time we were there, which was unfortunate. He woke up when Kelly and I were nearly through the gift shop on our way out. So we decided to turn back and have Ethan go through one (of the many) section to at least see a few aquatic animals.

After the aquarium we rushed to meet up with my aunt Tita Flong and her friend, Chari, for lunch at the Hong Kong Harbour restaurant. A typical "hole-in-the-wall" type of restaurant, where the quality of food is far more invested than the surrounding decor, we enjoyed dim sum while Ethan made sure to make more work for the restaurant staff by ripping any piece of paper or napkin he could get his hands on.

My camera had run out of batteries but luckily, through eating lunch and waiting some, the battery "recharged" enough somehow to take one more picture before dying again. We new the picture was taken since the flash went off, but we could not even turn the camera on again to check to make sure.

So no batteries and no camera and still had the Coke museum to go to, and Ethan was awake. All in accordance with this trip I suppose -- nothing going as planned that is. And already I have plenty of pictures of fishes and sharks and jelly fish from our Singapore trip of '05. Why did I not save my battery!!! Aahhhh.. so frustrating. So anyways, again waiting to recharge a batter, I managed to capture the large coke bottle on the top of the museum. Check My Picasa.

But totally useless trip in terms of memorable pictures, though it was so nice to see Tita Flong and Chari and to spend time with them, and for them to see Ethan for the first time too! They both agreed Ethan looks more like Kelly.

And so I got progressively ill as the trip went on. Very chilly and damp, and not a great time to be sick and around a lot of people. But heck, trips we seldom take so darn it, we were going somewhere.

We did do shopping as planned, and bought a Zanzibar (safari-theme) small table and two chairs for Ethan -- toddler furniture -- and a toy chest also the Zanzibar theme. We bought tofu for Ah Ma and some other gifts for the boys when we go to Singapore. (which is in 6 days!)

I bought Kelly some Givenchy earings and Dior (Miss Cherie) perfume and gift set from Macy's -- belated anniversary present. And so shopping-wise this trip was as planned. But the crowds and traffic were almost more than we could handle given our congested heads and stuffy noses.

Back at home, we've been unpacking, getting rid of garbage and packaging and now cleaning and going to pack. Let's hope we can kick all this sickness before our flight!

Thanksgiving Dinner With Molly & Cupid

[the giant pumpkin weighs 479lbs]

Dinner this evening was far better today (than last night). We ate around 2PM. Thanksgiving dinner was held at Josie's place, and it was a good old fashioned turkey spread with all the fixin's and even a dash of eastern european flavours. A long dining table seating some 18 friends, gathered and shared grace, good food and better company.

To work off the meal we had just ingested, some of us went down to the barn to visit donkey sisters, Molly and Cupid. Click the link to My Picasa (on right) to find more photos ("Thanksgiving 2007").

It was pretty chilly out today (and damp -- we had several thunderstorms all night last night) and so back indoors we had hot drinks and dessert waiting. We played games including Catch Phrase and Apples to Apples.

What a warm evening shared by a gathering of friends!! Thanks Josie & Co!

Brasstown Baby Bust

Our anniversary dinner at the Brasstown Valley Resort in Young Harris was not exactly what I had hoped it would be. But babies as they have the natural tendency and ability to do, they steal all of your time and attention. And so our dinner was quick and was the typical struggle to feed Ethan (when there were so many other distractions to occupy his interest). Dinner was a buffet, though they did have various salads and entrees and a carving station with prime rib and a desserts station as well. I ate prime rib and salad. No surprise there. But I was in no mood for chicken parmessian, or ratatouille, or italian sausage with grilled peppers and onions (though this latter dish was a bit tempting). But no, I stuck with red meat, green leafies, and tomatoes - litterally all I ate. Kelly ate even less, with her focus being more on what Ethan was (or was not) eating. Dinner was short, few pictures of Ethan were taken. And Kelly was on call at the hospital.

Happy Thanksgiving

[Kelly (and Ethan) on an autumn afternoon stroll]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! One of the busiest (if not THE busiest) time of the year for travel in the U.S., some 40 million folks are expected to travel 60 miles or more, most of them by road. Ourselves, we are here in Blue Ridge, but no longer by our lonesomes (as Kelly had mentioned we would be in her "status" on Facebook). We have been invited to join Thanksgiving dinner at Josie's house (Josie is Kelly's nurse). She has some family and other friends, some 18 people in total I think, will be getting together in a few hours. Dinner starts at 1pm :-D But not all is well. Noomsie is again sick. This morning he had some wheezing and runny nose. I guess his rate of being sick the past month or more is completely expected being with other children all week, and being cooler and damp with winter looming. I just hope he recovers in time for our LONG flight in 9 days :-D

And tomorrow, the shopping begins. Also a time for major "sales", many stores are opening tonight at midnight or early morning hours like 3 or 4am with great deals. A lot of it is hype, and not many great deals are actually found. But as a family we are travelling to Atlanta to do some shopping and meeting up with Tita Flong (my aunt - mom's sister) for lunch (dim sum?) on Saturday at the Hong Kong Harbour restaurant on Chester Bridge Rd. Tita Flong recommended we go to this restaurant since it was a "regular" of Shar's and Babak's and they, too, enjoyed the place a lot.

We wish more family could be around us during this "family" time of the year. But this is a reality that I am slowly coming to accept with each passing holiday. With Kelly's visa hopefully secured during our Singapore trip, we hope and plan to be more mobile and utilize our new found "freedom" to visit some of you as we can.

HAPPY TURKEY DAY, and God bless!

10 Days To S'pore

Less than two weeks and we will have our family reunion in Singapore.


Ohh... could not make it three in a row blog entries.. Noomsie is up!

Today Marks 3

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

Three years ago today, Kelly and I "tied the knot" in good ol' Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club. Oh God, what glorious times those were! (again reminiscing the past - see entry below)

Now we are gaining momentum and refining our ways as we strive to be this well-oiled married machine. Ha!

I love you, Kelly.

And so tonight, Ethan, Kelly and I will celebrate with dinner at the Brasstown Valley Resort.

What a day, the morning being it's usual hectic rush to get out the door. But being Wednesday today, Kelly has her half day in the morning, and I go to to work in the afternoon, each taking turn to look after Ethan (currently napping). And in the rush and through breakfast, I forgot to wish Kelly a Happy Anniversary! And so I sent her a "text" message. :-D

We have a professional photo shoot for work today as well, and so busy all around.

How time just marches on...

Reminiscing The Past

A sort of redundant (entry) title, I have been thinking of the past lately. Not sure how constructive this all is, but nonetheless...

A very dear friend just submitted her doctoral thesis (or dissertation if you will) and though some time still before her defense and the title of "doctor" is bestowed upon her, I can't help but feel nostalgic, and a bit critical of what has happened (to me) after those quite enjoyable days of undertaking a PhD.

It is like, where once you know precisely what must be done to achieve your goal, the next you find yourself simply being "mediocre" and going about your day in the minimal of ways. You still have "goals" but the arena suddenly changes: you are no longer a student! For the first time in nearly a decade, you are no longer working towards a degree, a qualification.

I am telling all of my friends who are pursuing a graduate degree (specifically a PhD) - the same thing told to me close to my (then) completion date - that there really does exist this "post PhD blues" and to be ready for it. For some, this period characterized by the lack of direction and motivation does not begin immediately after the defense. This was my experience however, but I attribute this to the fact that I was far away from home. When you are "done", you hope to surround yourself and "take a break" with your loved ones. And so for me, my blues came nearly immediately. But my colleagues have described feeling this "lull" during the few months after graduation, or later still, well within their next endeavour (usually a postdoctoral position).

Now more than four years removed from these emotionally turbulent (but also exciting) days of PhD completion - and the novelty of being called "doctor" all but discipated - I sit and reminisce and think of how blessed I've been to have so many friends and family who have supported me. Everything my heart has desired I have been given: I am married to a loving, brilliant woman and we have a son.

Enter new arena!

But my lack of contentment will not abate, I don't think, until I obtain what I think I am seeking all this time, and that is some sense of purpose in my daily, professional life.

Congratulations my friend, and may you keep shining.

www.riverbirchresearch.com

My friend Frank is helping me create a website for our clinical research company, River Birch Research Alliance, L.L.C. So far we've managed to register the domain (see blog entry title) for the site, but little else. Still work-in-progress, but I am very excited as this will be one step closer to getting our name out into the wider community, as the current existing website for our research work is not great.

There will be a "home" page that lists all the various tabs/pages, as well as pages for: (1) our company (brief history), (2) our philosophy (mission statement), (3) our team (list of providers, research staff and me), (4) information for sponsors (pharmaceutical companies) and CROs (clinical research organizations), (5) information for patients (how to enroll in studies, etc..), (6) current/ongoing/upcoming clinical trials studies and our past research experience and (7) a "contact us" page.

The site will be simple and clean, with a lot of white spaces and calm nature pictures of the Blue Ridge area, with easy flowing text. Easy enough to envision, but it will probably be a greater task to communicate effectively cross continent with my friend Frank in getting it done just right.

It's exciting! And thanks, Frank, for lending your time, and expertise! I will work to get you justly reimbursed or rewarded for your time.

Miller Time

Baby Miller is here! Born last night, 6lbs 11oz, to proud parents Susan and Kalib, and even more proud, grandparents, Lee and Ray. Congratulations to you all, and we hope to see more of the new addition very soon. Will post pictures too upon approval. And I just heard word that Kelly will be Miller's pediatrician!~ Our love and thoughts with you all :-D

Chamber Of Commerce Banquet

On Saturday, Kelly and I attended the annual banquet hosted by our very own Fannin County Chamber of Commerce.

Considered by many who live and work in the region to be THE most anticipated event of the calendar, this year's event was held at the ultra-posh Brasstown Valley Resort in Young Harris, GA.

Our place of employment (Riverstone MD, PC) is a corporate sponsor of the event, and so we had a table for eight reserved for our group. For dinner, I enjoyed prime rib with roasted asparagus and a ball of mashed potato, while Kelly had the pecan stuffed grouper (fish) with wild rice and grilled vegetables.

Jody Davis, who is the chief financial officer (CFO) of Riverstone, was elected as Member of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce for 2008. It was nice to see a member of our group achieve the position, and Jody was clearly the most junior of the inductees -- he is only 29 or 30 years old. Congratulations, Jody!

Many awards were given out during the evening, and since Kelly and I are new to the community, we only recognized a couple of names. One (name) that markedly stood out to us was that of the Mercier family. The late Mr. Mercier (passed away this summer) and his wife, Mrs. Mercier, were awarded a Lifetime Honorary Member of the COC for their family's contribution to tourism and general support for community life in Fannin County. The Mercier family own the largest (and oldest) apple orchard in Blue Ridge - some 200 acres and thousands of apple trees - and for generations have been a huge attraction to the region. Our family has made a couple visits to the Mercier (store) just outside the orchards and especially love the deep friend apple pies! Yum!

The evening nevertheless was short for us. We essentially ate dinner and left while the live band hired for the evening played their first song. It is not that we were being antisocial, rather, with a 40 minute drive back to Blue Ridge, and Ethan being in Linda's care for the evening, we had to make good time to bring Ethan back home.

Linda Gray and husband Jimmie (?) are just lovely folks, and very caring. Our family will likely return to Brasstown Valley Resort to celebrate Kelly and my third year wedding anniversary, and we will be sure to bring Ethan to enjoy the sights.

More Photos

I uploaded some more pictures of the past couple of months. I am not sure if I have posted these on my blog already, though I know I have already done so on Facebook. I should have more pictures soon, taken with my mom and sister's cameras.

Hallowe'en 2007

This year, Ethan dressed up as a giraffe, thanks to Auntie Shar who provided the costume. Noomz looked so cute.

Here in Blue Ridge, the two main streets of "downtown" are closed to create a "safe zone" for kids and adults to trick-or-treat and to enjoy the festivities of Hallowe'en. It kinda makes sense, with most homes so far from each other and in the mountains and trees (would be hard to go "door-to-door").

And so as a family, we headed down to Main Street. The crowds were already there in the hundreds, forming lines along both sides of the road, collecting candies from the various shop owners who closed their stores early for this yearly event. Other booths were also set up around the downtown strip, advertising their organization, or simply supporting this community event. Our clinic, Riverstone MD, PC was present and doing their part.

There were costume competitions going on while we were walking the street, for categories: (1) child, (2) adult, (3) pet, (4) family, etc.. And some folks went down right all out on their looks. My favourites being the Shrek Family and also the family of vampires. I wish we got there earlier to enroll Ethan in the child competition. He surely would have won with his charming good looks alone (ahem, proud papa what can I say?).

And so I post some pictures - finally! - and also include more in My Picasa album (see right panel).

Fog & Frost

[morning view from our deck]

Chilly! This morning's drive was quite cold. With the temperature hovering just above the freezing mark, and a dense blanket of fog covering most of my drive to Ethan's daycare and then to work, it was sllllloooooooowww going. Still, there were points along the drive when the elevation change put us above the fog and you could see how the dense condensation settled over low-lying vallies. Pretty scenic! But this also means that the warm weather is now fully and truly behind us. We outfitted Ethan with a jacket and a hat (the kind that has the floppy coverings for his ears). The boy is seriously cute.

33 Days To Singapore

Woo hoo! The countdown is most certainly on. Though we may be making plans for the weekend, Hallowe'en even, or maybe for the Thanksgiving holiday, our sights are truly set on the land of milk and honey, of koi fish and orchids, of dim sum, satays, char koay teow, and oodles of noodles. And oh yea, not to mention, family :-p Of course, the main purpose for our trip is family - a big reunion in fact - and Ethan's first international trip and first visit to see his cousins Junnoske and Ryunoske. What a sight that will be to see the three boys playing (more like fighting, crying, teasing...).

But before then, there are many things to look forward to. Actually, just this past weekend, we had a marriage workshop retreat hosted by the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Cherokee County (about an hour away from us). They were in need of a place to hold a workshop retreat on marriage and we said, "Come on to our home!". It was a great meeting. A gathering of friends. And on a much needed topic too, since these days, marriage seems not to last all that long, and approximately 67% or two-thirds result in divorce (and the Baha'i stats are on par if not slightly worse). So we all need to work in maintaining this "divinely ordained institution", this "fortress for well-being". (quoted from the Baha'i Faith)

And tonight, after work, is Susan's baby shower. Baby Miller is due in about a month. Can't wait for Ethan to have another playmate.

We are soon hanging out with the Teskes and then Thanksgiving. We are still without a plan for Thanksgiving. We may go to Nashville or back to Durham or stay in Blue Ridge if friends wanted to make a trip to see us. We don't know yet.

And Kelly and my third year wedding anniversary is coming up (ahem). Just thought I'd make that very clear - November 21st, 2007. Being the day before Thanksgiving, we may be celebrating our anniversary "on the road".

Toddlerhood

Life has been so hectic and irregular recently that I totally forgot to blog about Ethan entering into toddlerhood!

That's right. Ethan is officially walking or toddling around the house :-D It has been about two weeks now since he took his first steps. Quite honestly, one of the proudest moments of being a parent. It is just such an accomplishment, walking, that one forgets ('since everyone eventually learns to walk') how much goes on to learning to first walk.

We have managed to capture on video some of Ethan's early steps, though the videos are a bit dark, and I don't know when I will have time to post them on my blog. (YouTube has just been very unreliable lately for me). We also have so many pictures --- AHHHHHHHHHHHHH -- that I wish to post, but sadly, our camera has now reached the end of its life, and so I will have to wait, patiently, until mom and sis send us a CD of all the pictures we took over the past 6 weeks.

Besides watching with so much pride as a father, my son walking about everywhere he wishes, Ethan has developed other skills equally satisfying (if not more so than walking) to any parent. He can hold his own sippie cup/bottle and even feed himself a Cheerio every now and again. There is something so satisfying beholding my son as he drinks water, for example, with such delight and intensity, and pauses when he wants, and continues when he wants.

Ethan is also teething more. He now has 6 teeth - 3 up, 3 down - with a seventh and perhaps eighth whitie poking through his gums.

Kelly is letting him go up the stairs now, supervised of course. With each step nearly half his height, it is cute watching this determined little man tackle each, and with a great big smile on his face.

Some things to come which, as parents, we don't necessarily wish our child develop too soon are the abilities to run, and climb furniture (or other high places). But those are next! :-D

High Octane Parenting

These past few days have been fun and exciting, though the frazzeling effects of having three cousins under the age of 4 explore their world -- a space, which, many a times seems not quite big enough for them all -- will linger still for a few days more.

Today, our world will return to quiet mountain living. Ethan started with daycare this morning at Linda Gray's home. Kelly and I are hopeful that this situation will be better for Ethan than Kaleidoscope was, since the ratio of caregiver to infant will be essentially 1:2 (compared to the 1:6 State imposed ratio of public childcare facilities) and so he will be receiving more of the attention that he needs (and should be getting).

Sharon and the girls are just full of energy and always on the go. Every activity is a learning experience for the girls, and it is non-stop. As a result, the girls get plenty of attention and are thriving with every opportunity to learn something new.

In my last entry I had written how I was curious to see how Ethan would do with his cousins who are older and therefore more mobile and authoritative in their wants and needs. Well, I can say, battle-tested, Ethan is holding up and has probably learned a lot in the short time he spent with his cousins.

But not to forget the grandparents, who are actually doing parenting upon parenting. It has been a blessing having mom for 6 weeks. A hot lunch ready to take to work every day? Can't beat that. Dinner always ready, laundry always prepared, a house always clean. I list all these things to show my gratefulness, and not at all to say these are things I expect. Thank you, Ma!

And Dad? Well I have already devoted a blog entry on the many things you do. But it is obvious, you make our functional world work. Dad installed track lighting in the dining area, and more recently (as of yesterday) completed phase 1 of Ethan's playground. But I cannot list everything you do. I mean, to do so would involve, for example, putting to words such "improvements" as de-mounting the toilet paper holder off the wall, and reinstalling it to give more width to properly fit a large toilet paper roll, since the original builder had obviously only installed the holder for very tiny rolls. And anyone who has ever sat on a toilet bowl knowing there is a full roll of toilet paper on hand, but later finding the roll does not, well, roll, lending it pretty much useless, can attest to the gratitude for having this (the toilet paper roll width) fixed. For this alone *yay*, thanks, Dad!

High octane parenting, and grandparenting, for sure.