Today I have accompanished many things, I also helped Pat fixing her sink. The sink is clogged for a few months and draining very slowly. Finally Pat can’t stand it anymore, bought a home maintance DIY book and make me do the work. Fixing the clogged sink is easier than I had expected. Just unscrew the drain at the bottom of the sink, take out the cock to remove all the hair clogging the drain. Pat said that I am very man while doing the plumbing work. The upper stair toilet is now officially reopened.

I went for dancing shoes shopping today. Since I had started learning ballroom dancing with Pat, she always wanted a proper pair of dancing shoes, so finally we decided it is time to buy one. A dancing shoe is very different from normal shoe. The bottom of the shoe is made of leather instead of rubber, the purpose is so that you can slide easily on the dancing floor to perform the turning moves. Originally I only want to get the cheapest pair to get by, but the economy one is really uncomfortable. I have flat feet, so the top half is very tight. I ended up buying a Diament pair, which is made in Germany, and doubled my budget. With this expensive pair of dancing shoes, I must learn to dance well so that I could match up well with my shoes.

Last night I went to Eucharist adoration at St. Mary with Pat in the evening. After the adoration, I followed her to the coffee house of St Mary’s young adult group. They have meeting every month on the first firday night and it is lead by Fr. Mark. Last night is theme is having a discussion on controversial subjects regarding the Catholic faith. Topics selected including female priest, the meaning of scaraments, confirmation at young age, allow priests to get marry, decline eucharist to pro-choice politicians. The atomsphere is very friendly, although people have different point of views, we have lots of laughts making ridiculous comments. Also it is very informative to have a father giving us background on the church’s official teachings, regardless of wether we agree with them. I always thought only converted priest from the Orthodox church allowed to stay marry, but it turn out this rule also applied to protestants. There is obviously a loop hole in the system to allow someone have all 7 scaraments. The disscussion makes me feel like a uncle Victoria Park, which is kinda fun. I won’t mind if Pat ask me to go with her next time.

I have a small good news today, then later I got another better news which turned the first one into a bad news. First the guide book of the Louvre and Orslay Museum finally arrived. Although I pay more for the shipping than the books cost, I am glad that I able to order it over the internet to replace my copy lost by Air Canada.

In the evening, while I was having dinner, I got a call from Air Canada said that my luggage is found and will delivery to me later at night. After it had got missing for a month and a week, I have a mix feeling about the return of my luggage. I had already written it off from my memory and let insurance compensate my lost. It is great to have it back, but it is even better if I could money from both AC and Travelcuts, which is estimated over a thousand dollars. The delivery time is so inconvient that I have to go home early from badminton game, and ended up waiting for two hours. It is really bad service of AC. The wrapping of my backpack is gone, but everyone inside is intacted, including those months old dirty clothes. However my 1L bottle of holy water from Lourdes on outside is gone, probably drunk by someone.

Now I have a dilemma, with the return of my luggage and the museum books within, I end up with an extra copy of those guide books. If anyone is interested having one, please let me know. I am going to sell it at cost, 17 euro.

I was so tired after work today so I took a nap before cooking dinner. I planned to wake up at 7:30p, but end up sleeping until 9p. I havn’t fully recovered from the drain of energy in my reunion trip. Staying up all night for one night needs at least a week of good sleep to recover.

I am reading my cousin YanYan’s blog about Disney, that reminds me a conversation with Derek over the weekend about Disney. Derek is a big fan of Disney. He said Disney symbolize hope and dreams, and he will immerse little Kathryn in the Disney culture for her childhood. I tried to come up with counter agrument on Derek’s comment, but couldn’t objectively discredit Disney. I know I don’t like Disney since childhood, I always feel distaste about their cartoon. The traditional 2D cartoon are totally crap with lots of filler singings. Only the 3D CG cartoon in recent years are worth to watch, but that’s done by Pixar studio, not from Disney’s in house cartoon shop. The hope and dream in Disney is only skin deep, the inside of Disney is a pure captalization machine with sugar coated decoration. I need more time to think about formalizing the bad influent of Disney to little children, so I can presuade responsible parents to keep their chrildren stay away from Disney.

This gathering leaves me many valuable memories. It is really nice to meet up with a bunch of old friends, talk about old days, and new problems among ourselves. I am very lucky to have this group of good friends who can share my up and downs, just accept me as who I am. We should bring along our wives and girlfriends in the next gathering, and make it an event for this big family. This long weekend is very relaxing in a way that I don’t have to pretend to be anyone else, but it is also very tried cause I didn’t get enough sleep. I just realized that we havn’t sing the school song this time, but we do up hold another proud Lasalle tradition, the birthday party. Derek already start planning our next gathering. The first gathering has waited 12 years after graduation, still one of us couldn’t make it, and one didn’t care to come. I am looking forward to meet them again next year.

Thanks to Mingwai’s girlfriend Jophie, we all went to the Snoopy museumat Santa Rosa, where Schulz created most of the Snoopy’s comic strips. There is no way a group of guys will drive 2 hours to the middle of no where to see a cartoon beagle. The museum is not very big, but hosts many Schulz’s original works and his working studio. It is not allowed to take pictures in the museum, since there ain’t many must-see-original things. There is a very big snoopy giftshop next to the museum, which is more interesting than the museum itself. I have to stop myself buying those over priced T-shirts, although I really like the design. I bought Pat some souvenirs from the museum, and solved one of my major assignments of this trip. Too bad we only have an hour to stay in the museum, I couldn’t read all posted comics and the life of Schulz in details. The museum is quite empty, other than another couple, we are the only visitors. I doubt how can the museum support itself if not funded by the Peanuts royalties. I guess the city is more than welcome to have this museum as tourist attaction, otherwise no one will probably visit that place so far away. I can imgaine bus load of Japanese tourist will stop by there on their way from San Franciso to the Northern States. The Japanese are probably more crazy about snoopy than the Americans.

I am surprised that a group of guy can talk overnight until 6a.m. I always thought only woman like to chat. All of us gathered in Derek’s place, started with playing PS2, then people gradually lose interest in the game while conversation starts picking up. At first we were disscussing FTBY. Since last time we saw him a year ago, he is growing like a balloon, we gota do something to stop him from gaining more weight and explode. Since the trend had started, we talked the problem of each of us in turns. My problem is obviously I am too childish, everyone including myself agree on that. The one I concern most about is LokShun. I have been worry about his relationships, or the lack of it, since highschool days. We brain stormed to come up with a winning strategy for him to meet his ms. right, but we seriously doubt any girl exists on earth meet all his criterias. I end up only slept for 4 hours before going to church in the morning.

We went to bowling in the afternoon. I havn’t played bowling for a long time. I used to go playing every week with Leon and Andy in university. I am not the best player, although I could still score over 100 points. Yet, my playing style is the best. The way I roll the bowling ball looks like a pro, although I didn’t hit the pins like one. When I played bowling every week, I did make a effort to learn how to look nice. I obversed how the good players play and try to copy their movements, while hitting the pins is a secondary objective. Once again, this agree with Pat’s comment that I only looks good on the outside.

In the evening, half of the group has to fly back or drive back home. The remaining of us go to pickup Mingwai’s girlfriend. His girlfriend is kinda weird. She didn’t speak a word to us in the dinner or when driving them to the hotel. If she hadn’t talk to Mingwai, I will think she is a mute. I wonder, what is the mind of those girls who thinking they are really cool, that even refuse to say hi to her boyfriend’s friends?

It is nice to have a reunion with my Lasalle buddies. This weekend I flew down to the Bay Area just because one of my old friend whom I havn’t met for 8 years come to visit. Last night we went to Karaoke after dinner. I havn’t been to Karaoke for a long time, the last time I went is last year in Ching’s wedding with this exact same group. Since we don’t have any girls in the group, someone has to fake a female voice when singing girl songs. It’s fun, but I bet our singing must be quite horrible.

This morning I went to have a flight with Derek. We took have a aero tour of the Bay Area, and I get to control the plane for a bit. It is the first time I actually fly a airplane. It is harder than I thought, the steering wheel is quite heavy and continously drifting due to heavy wind. I just have to keep the plane straight and turn to the right bearing. Derek is taking care of the throttle control and all those gauges. It’s quite an experience. I had wanted to fly a plane for a long time. One day, when I am settled down I will learn how to fly. I guess I will have to give up my toy collection for flying since it is quite an expensive hobby.

Today is both Mingwai and SoB’s birthday. We have a suprise birthday party for them. We bought them a birthday cake. After singing the birthday songs, we had the tradition Lasallian birthday ritual, which is punching their backs all together. It has been a long time since all of us get together, we talked a lot and had lots of laughs just like the old days.