Back from Cali! .  Weather was not that warm though.  .  Only about 70 degrees but I still think I got some color.  Got to see my baby niece, Avery, for the first time.  She was sooo small I couldn't find her in the room at first. 

Here are some pics:
                    
First time changing a diaper....EVER!                                          Soooo tiny!
                         
Always sleeping...                                                                   And Yawning!
                         
Nose to Nose                                                                          Don't let the head drop!

Anyways, a very good trip.  Learned to hold a newborn (kinda)  I still have trouble with the "Cradle to the Shoulder" transition. 

Made sure I had to keep it real so I bought her a lil Pink NY Mets skirt.  Can't have her rooting for the Padres, Dodgers or Angels now.  No offense Cali people...

Went to see the Year of the Yao screening @ the ImaginAsian Theater last night.  It was sponsored by my basketball league, DreamLeague (www.dreamleague.org) and the APEX (www.apex-ny.org) group.  Both organizations do great work with community youth through mentoring programs.  Anyways, the movie was pretty good!  I was suprisingly pleased . 

Pretty much it follows Yao Ming through his first year through the NBA.  Besides having to be a rookie in the NBA, he was under A LOT of pressure to be good.  He had the weight of trying to represent China as well as having to face dudes like Shaq every night.  No rookie should have to go through that!  Watch it.  Its actually very funny.  He's soooo tall. 

P.S. : No Xanga until I get back from Cali folks.  I'll be thinking of you all in Sunny CA!

Tired....Need a break.  Spring break is coming soon.  Gonna go to Cali to visit my lil niece, Avery.  .  Hang in there. 

Sorry.  Can't even think too much right now.  Need sleep.  Sunny in NY.  82 degrees.  Makes up for my baseball team's loss today.  Moving is hard.  Packing up to move is really hard.  Making a mess is easy.  Showers can be a nusiance sometimes.  Doing Laundry can be too.  Especially if you forget your whites! 

Sorry.  Random thoughts.  I'll stop.

I'm a complete idiot. 

So my apartment was a complete mess two weeks ago.  Clothes everywhere, suitcases still from Brazil, coat racks disassembled, closet organziers in disarray....You get the picture. 

I did laundry that week and things in my apartment were looking better.  I folded all my clothes (well most of them) but there were still some on the floor near my bed.  Anyway to make a long story short, I have been recently missing some of my favorite clothes.   It all started last Friday.  My friend was having a party and I was like:

" Ooo.  I think I'll wear my white, terry cloth long sleeved shirt tonight."
But it took me forever to find it.  I paid it no mind and wore something else. 

On Monday, I was looking for an undershirt to go under my sweater but all I found were two of them.
"That's odd.  Where did the rest go? "
Whatever, I assumed they were in the hamper."

Wednesday came along.  I was looking for my long white Nike warmup to wear over my basketball jersey before my game.  (I wear that shirt a lot.) 
"ARRGH.  Where is it?"
Then I looked for my other white long sleeved shirt to take its place but couldn't find that either.  WTF?

WHY WERE ALL MY FAVORITE SHIRTS MISSING?!!!!!

Wait a minute.  They happened to be all white colored.  Hmmm...
"FU*K!"

I never took out my whites from the wash.  Someone took my clothes out 2 weeks ago in the laundromat because I guess I took too long to take them out. 

Guess they didn't take my WHITES out. 
Oops. 

*Went on Thursday to see if they kept it.  They threw it away.  Just my luck. 
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Hey Hey Hey....

Guess you gotta call me

UNCLE FELIX

That's right.  For those who don't know....you better recognize!  Ha Ha.

Awwww...Lil Avery Shen...(she's soooooo cute)!

* CONGRATS PARRY & KIM!

        
       
Ahh...Good 'ole Lobby Day.  So me and a couple of teachers took a bunch of 9th graders to Albany to lobby for the money that is owed to us by the State.  Let me give you some background:

New York City public schools won a lawsuit that allowed us EQUAL funding that all of NY gets (i.e: the luxurious swimming pools and football fields in Long Island, Upstate NY, etc.) BUT this man  , our Governor, George Pataki said "Can I get a hell no?" and appealed the suit.  Long story short, the appeal process takes about a year.  All we're asking for is our equal share Georgie. .
So we took our kids to lobby to State Senators and knock on their doors and tell them why public schools derserve the 14 billion owed to us, that we WON in a lawsuit!

Talk about a weird trip.  Started with our crazzzy bus driver.  I know something was up when he had a walkman on.  Is that normal?
     
A bit strange yes.  But don't you need to hear traffic and stuff?  and YES he was dancing too!
I knew something was weird when he took a pit stop an hour into the trip.
Me: "What's up?"
Bus Driver: "I just need a drink.  The kids can go to the restroom if they want."
Me: "Ummm...ok. "
      
Dude just wanted a chocolate bar... Anyways so we stop a 40 minutes later...
Me: "What's up?"
Bus Driver: "I thought the kids might want a break.  Plus your other bus stopped too."
Me: "Ummmm...that's NOT the other bus. "
Bus Driver: "Oh.  Well, we're almost there."

       CinnaBon Time!
Then see what happened...Wait a minute....something seems wrong!
     
That's right Pop.  Brake malfunction!
       .
One last check...Then reality sets...
          Classic.
Well.  What is there left to do?  Oh.  I know!
       Nathan's Time!
                                             "BUUURP!"
                 
Anyhoo..So we had to wait an EXTRA hour and a half for a bus to come from the city to get us to Albany.  While we got there, there were kids outside looking like this:
 while WE looked like this:
     
Once we got together, it was great.  About 20 of us went to Senator Scott Stringer's (Democrat) office and he was awesome!  He spoke to the kids like adults and told them its really important that they came but they were preaching to the choir.  He suggested we see a Republican senator and try to tell them our story.  Well we went to the "toughest one to crack", John O' Flanagan.  Didn't work.  His delegate literally was a prick to our kids and was like "I'll make sure I tell all your concerns to my boss." to every question he was uncomfortable dealing with.  Anyway...
THE BUS FIASCO CONTINUES...
          
If you look closely...those are 50 14 year olds looking for their bus for the past 30 minutes.  Apparently some kids were on the bus while the bus driver wasn't. 

So I'm lucky to get the good bus right?  Look what happened when we got off the GW Bridge...

That's the rearview mirror of a BMW who tried to squeeze thru!  Bus driver stopped the car and had to wait for the police to come while we were directed to the nearest train station.  Just a typical field trip.  I love my job.

HELP!!!

Ok...Breathe.  As y'all know I have been having issues with my coat rack (s).  Well, guess what broke today...

My CLOSET rack!!! ARGHHH...

 Where one looks like This... The other one looks like...
   This .
Help ?  .

P.S.  For those who don't know already check big brother out on Fox's "Tru Calling"

Ep #2: Thursday, March 31 @ 9pm on FOX - "Grace"

Ep #3: Thursday, April 7 @ 9pm on FOX- "In the Dark"

Ep #6: Thursday, April 28 @ 9pm on FOX - "Twas the Night Before Christmas...Again

Went to this great restaurant this weekend with my mom to celebrate her late birthday.  It was call the Water Club.  Oooo fancy schmancy.  This was our conversation previous to the "lavish" brunch.

Mom: "Ok, so I'll see you Sunday morning."
Me: " Great!"
Mom: "Oh, and I called there's no need to wear a jacket or slacks.  That's only for dinner.
Me: "Thanks!" (Ummm...never even thought about a dress code.  I rock the my jeans nicely thank you very much)

Here is the inside view of the lovely.....
  
FACTORIES?   Yeah, since we are in NYC, we got a lovely view of my hometown...Queens.  Ha Ha.    There's another restaurant called the Water Edge which shows the NYC skyline...Anyhoo...

There was a prefixed Lobster Lunch with a Lobster Bisque, Lobster and ice cream for dessert.  Yum..
So the waiters bring out the lobster then crack it for you!
 SWEET!
 You know its "high class" if you're butter is melted!
 Cover on lemons!  What will they think of next?

Anyways, it was a good time.  Highly recommended if you all like lobster.

PS: Update on my NEW coat rack.......
                 "Pictures say a thousand words" 
         
        
         
* Stop laughing Parry

Ha Ha.  Is there a record for how long someone can talk about their vacation that was 2 weeks ago on Xanga?  Well, I might have it. .

Sorry for the break in between.  Went snowboarding in Vermont, Stowe Mt. this weekend.  Snowed a lot.  Crazy moguls.  Can you say I'm  S-O-R-E?  Was a blast though.   

Here's the rest of the Brazil :

       

That was it.  Lemme explain.  I got REAL sick for some reason and had this huge 24 hr. bug that took me out for a whole day.  Here were some of the symptoms for ONE day!

- Diarreha
- Upset Stomach
- Nausea
- Headache/Migrane
- Cold Sweats
- Whiplash

It was very strange.  As you can see, my lasting impressions of Brazil weren't very healthy.  And the hotel couldn't keep up with replenishing my toilet paper! .  Sorry to gross you all out.

Anyhoo...one last picture with my friends:

Viviane, Jim, Sheila and me in the 95 degree weather ,

TO.....

Just me...in the 28 degree weather .

Since the vacation:
- peeled from my entire body twice
- losing my illustrious golden tan, rapidly
- still have not unpacked yet.  (Where will I put my shorts and tank tops?)

Alrightie...where were we?

 
Here's how Rio de Janierio looks in a nutshell...

School kids playing futbol (soccer) afterschool.  Every kid plays it.   Now you know why Brasil has so many talented players (i.e: Ronaldo)

Here's an example.  Soccer goal blocking a basketball hoop.  I wouldn't survive here.  

I know this is a bad picture but....this kid is going to be the next David Beckham!

Two summers ago, me and by boy, Jim almost got mugged by two teens on a bike.  We slipped in this supermarket and this is the aisle Jim and I went...

The Knife aisle!!!  I didn't think he was serious but he kept looking at which knife was the best so...I joined him. Shoot, if shit was going to go down, I guess we better be prepared.  But we decided not to, and the guys were gone when we got out of the supermarket.  Whew!  They didn't want us to get New York City up in Rio.  Shoooot.  

So we went to a musuem one day (yeah we did some higher learning) and saw these wonderful exhibits...

Magnificent!

Exquisite!

Slammin'!....It was crazy.  There was this statue that was an exact replica of ME! 

Alright....one more round and it'll be over....I promise.