Had2bRafi's Xanga

The last six months...

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:34:57 GMT

Well, we moved from Dallas to Chicago...I LOVE this city.
:)
A picture is worth a thousand words...I wonder how many words can this short video be worth:

First posting of the year...

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:55:01 GMT

It has been a crazy month at work and not a good one. 2007 will be a year of changes.

We put our house on the market over the weekend and so far we have had a lot of people come see it...hopefully we'll have some offers soon. Our realtor will have an open house this Saturday.

This weekend is Jerry's birthday. He and Tom are driving from Austin today, we are going to the W hotel for dinner at Tom Colicchio's Craft and then we're going for drinks at the Ghost Bar. Tomorrow, we'll be driving Shreveport, LA for the weekend.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 10:13:42 GMT

For New Year’s Eve, Christian and I (with the help of Tom and Jerry) threw a really fun party. Over a hundred and thirty people say they would be attended but who knows what the actual count was. The house was super packed and at times I felt a little stressed out but it all turned out really great. DJ Josh Gram did an amazing job spinning and Tyson was a hot shirtless bartender.
This was one of our best parties ever and it was the best way to ring in the New Year.
I hope everyone has a successful 2007.

I CAN SEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 10:54:54 GMT

I got my Lasik surgery on Wednesday, and although I developed a small complication in my right eye, I have perfect vision now.
SOOOOOO...NO MORE FOUR EYE PICS OF ME!!!!!!!!!
WOO HOO!!!!!

Update...

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:32:05 GMT

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.
Since I’ve been gone, these have been the highlights of my life.

1- My parents visited and they loved Dallas. They want to comeback again in the Spring and I told them that I would take them to Austin next time. It was wonderful to see them and spend time together again. We stayed up until after 3:00 a.m. each night talking. We even took them to the Reunion tower for brunch on Sunday before they left. The Reunion Tower is part of the Hyatt Hotel and there is this tower (sort of like the Needle in Seattle, or the Plaza of the Americas in Austin or a space needle in Toronto), which has a restaurant that moves in a circle, and you can view the whole city while you eat.
2- John V. had his birthday at S4 the same Saturday that my parents were here. I was bummed I missed it but me and my parents had a great time showing them the Gaylord Texan Resort and the historical city of Grapevine. They were both made out on Christmas decorations. My parents loved it. Got great pictures but with my parents’ 35 mm camera so I don’t have digital pics of that outing.
3- Christmas: We drove to Austin to spend it with Tom and Jerry and it was one of the nicest Christmases in a long time. Tom and Jerry had a couple of big surprises for me(us). One of them is that they knew that I’m scared of piñata so I was blindfolded and led to the backyard where I beat the heck out of a Santa Claus Piñata…after that they had firecrackers that are also a childhood memory for me. It was a delightful Christmas.
4- Finally, today I had the Lasik surgery done this morning at 4:30 a.m. Although I am not 100% back to normal day, I can tell you that I can see so much better and once the pain goes away, I am going to be so happy I went through with it.

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season.

Pictures later.

Miss you!

Happy Hanukkah

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:30:49 GMT

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends.

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Work is kicking my ass...I haven't had time to post anything in days :(

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MY PARENTS ARE FLYING IN FROM LOS ANGELES FOR A VISIT TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

And The Nominations Go To...

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:24:46 GMT

The Grammy Awards were announced this morning and I am delighted to hear that the Dixie Chicks were nominated for FIVE awards.

The categories are:

Record Of The Year:

Not Ready To Make Nice

Album Of The Year:

Taking The Long Way

Song Of The Year:

Not Ready To Make Nice

Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal:

Not Ready to Make Nice

Best Country Album:

Taking The Long Way

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And in a related nomination…

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical:

Rick Rubin

For working on the following albums:

American V: A Hundred Highways (Johnny Cash) (A)

God's Gonna Cut You Down (Johnny Cash) (T)

Stadium Arcadium (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (A)

Taking The Long Way (Dixie Chicks) (A)

12 Songs (Neil Diamond) (A)

This Is SOOOO Going On My Blog...

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 11:40:24 GMT

When Christian and I travel, he over packs…I don’t mean by just a shirt or a pair of socks, I mean he over packs by A LOT.

It’s very typical for us to go on a weekend get away and he will bring with him a suitcase, a toiletry bag, a bunch of shirts on hangers and he will be carrying boots, a couple of pairs of shoes and maybe a couple of hats.

Well, as you know by my previous posting, last Monday we went to Austin for the Dixie Chicks concert…it was just an over night trip. Christian brought with him about three or four outfits which he tried before heading to the concert and didn’t like any of them. Finally, almost close to the time of departure to the concert, he came out of the bedroom and says “This is it…honey, you don’t mind if I borrow your thermal, do you?”

The funny thing is that I the thermal was the only shirt I brought with me. I was wearing a pair of jeans with a white t-shirt for the trip and I brought a pair of boxer and another t-shirt to sleep in.

Being the good BF that I am, I told him that he could wear it and that’s how I ended up with a T-Shirt in the pics of the concert below...but I did warn him that "this is SOOOOOO going on my blog..."

Boys4Toys and Dixie Chicks

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:15:16 GMT

Last weekend was the Boys4Toys Winter event. This organization’s mission is "Strengthening community ties by collecting toys for Dallas' less fortunate." Last Saturday they had a main event party at the gallery Kul and an after-hours party at a warehouse.

I volunteered to help setting up the after-hours venue and to be the cashier the first shift of the main event. It was a lot of work and there are MANY other people in this organization who work many times harder than I did and it all came together at the end in an impressive way.

The venues were awesome, the events were well attended and most importantly, a lot of toys were collected.

I didn’t stay at the parties after my shift was over because I was fighting one of my gnarly headaches that I get just about every other week. But with headache and all, I enjoyed volunteering for the event.

On Monday night Christian, Jerry, Tom and I went to see the Dixie Chicks in concert in Austin. We had a great time…the chicks were phenomenal…the crowd was energetic…I snuck my camera into the concert and was able to take a few blurry pics.

I LOVE THE DIXIE CHICKS!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Happy over the hump day!

Christian and Amanda in the snow

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Our house snowy roof.

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Jim, Kristen and Adam at the Boys4Toys main event

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Me and Christian at the Boys4Toys main event

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...again at the main event for Boys4Toys

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With John...

Pei loves the be the center of attention...and we love to have him as the center of attention. :)

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow...

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:18:18 GMT

The weather here in Dallas is just weird. We had a balmy day yesterday and the temperature was in the upper 70's...over night, the temperature has fallen to 34 degrees and we have freezing rain...by the afternoon we are expecting to have snow.

Unfortunately, SMU is not closed. I'm not worried about driving to work but I am a little concerned about driving home later tonight.

Anyhow, I have a photo album to share with you if you want to see my pics from the Thanksgiving weekend. You can access it at:

Thanksgiving Weekend Pictures

Have a great Thursday!