moved over to xanga

do not be alarmed - i'm not resurrecting my blogspot account...although i should - man, i haven't updated this blog since 2005. anyway, i'm just using this to respond to other blogspot users. for any and all future updates, please refer to my xanga account


http://www.xanga.com/bennettshin

thanks!...

Cinderella

Yesterday, Duksim got a phone call from her sister telling her what her nephew (Isaac) said. He was looking at our wedding photos and the following conversation ensued:

Isaac: "mom? emo (aunt) is a Cinderella"
Mom: "ha ha really? then what is mom?"
Isaac: "mom is mom~ (duh!)"

Kids say what they will...



The photo that inspired his imagination...

Isaac (left) with his older brother Justin...the excitement coming through on my face for this photoshoot is simply unreal...

White Sox World Series parade

Man, if you want to talk about totally non-productive workdays - yesterday was the day - but for a good thing, mind you! As you know, the White Sox finally won the World Series after 88 years of disappointment. As a result, being that Mayor Daley is a die-hard Sox fan - he spared no expense in setting up this ticker tape parade to congratulate them for their acheivements. Luckily, I was working downtown this past week, and since the parade route ran right in front of my building, I was literally in the right place at the right time. The parade started at U.S. Cellular field, wound their way through various south side neighborhoods and finally made their way up LaSalle Street to LaSalle & Wacker where the rally was to be held. Weather-wise, it was perfect, and large crowds turned up for the event. Here are some pics I managed to take while in the midst of all the craziness:


This was in front of the CBOT building - very nice!

This was hanging from the Federal Reserve Building.

This is an example of the air cannons used throughout LaSalle St. to shoot the confetti into the air as the parade passed by. I have to say, they ended up doing a pretty good job...

And now for pix from the actual parade itself:

Unfortunately, after the parade passed by, I had to return to work and was not able to join the rest of the crowd at the rally. It's ok though, this was fun regardless! And all I can say is - I am glad I am not stuck cleaning up all this confetti...

door county

This past weekend, Duksim and I drove out to Door County. It was the first time for the both of us, and the timing would be great to experience the famous fall colors in the trees. We stayed at this B&B for the duration of our stay.

A profile shot of the B&B...right by the lakefront (you can kinda see it in the window reflection).

One thing about T-Mobile, I think they have a number of partners from which to distribute their wireless service. In Door County, we encountered one such partner...

Yet another alternate service partner for Duksim's phone...gotta love T-Mobile...

Here we are on a biking trail - I guess it's true what they say in that once you learn how to bike (like swimming or driving), you never forget...

Apparently no one told me about that rule...doh!

After almost two hours of biking (it was only supposed to be one hour), it was time to check the map and see where the heck we were...note Duksim's rather pleasant expression.

mmm! Duksim was enjoying sliced carmel apples while we attended a street festival.

What kind of animal do you suppose this is? You don't see them very often, that's for sure...

Neither do you see goats on a rooftop very often either! Wild...

A scenic shot of the fall foliage of Door County...the main reason why we went in the first place.

While we were in Door County, we took part in a traditional fish boil. The host gave us a history of the event while the fish was boiling, then he proceeded to put out the fire:

Good thing we got out of the way...



Finally, the resident dog of our B&B. I forgot her name or what breed she was, but she was very friendly...and very old.

delayed marathon post

First things first, sorry for taking so long to put these pics up...I could give you a thousand reasons for not doing so sooner - but basically it all comes down to laziness. But I actually found time to put these up today! Why? Maybe because of the prodding by some, but also because I happened to have the day off of work. Why? Please refer to my xanga posting. But in any case, here we go:


The start of the Chicago Marathon. The cover of the Tribune section looks much more impressive than this does, unfortunately. But needless to say at least 40,000 people started, and 1.5 million people were along the sidelines cheering the runners on.

Here's James and Rob as they were passing by the Starbucks where Duksim and I were casually enjoying refreshments (he he). Note Rob's forced acknowledgment of the camera. Where's Ravee?

Jennifer Willbanks reportedly ran this race (and I saw her name in the paper). But of course she inspired others to become "runaway brides" as well...

Judy was able to capture our enthusiasm as we cheered on James, Rob and Ravee. Admittedly having only one Thunderstik didn't help matters, but I couldn't scavenge another one...

Here's the victorious James and Rob! It's good to see that they are their own greatest fans, as the signs indicate...

Another pic of the twins - where's Ravee?

Aha! Turns out that he ran a pretty even-tempo race from the get-go, and almost caught up to James and Rob in the end...

The three runners with their medals (and very nice medals, I have to say)...

Eliza, this picture is for you! Many strange and colorful characters in this race...

Finally, the agony of the 26.2 miles caught up with pretty much everyone by the end of the day. Rob is not going up the staircase, as you might suspect - but going down...yes, his legs were that sore already! All good though - will this inspire me to run next year? We'll see...

ARGH!!!

I was on my way to post an update about the past Chicago Marathon weekend...when this happened:


I love Microsoft...of course I lost everything I typed and didn't think to save periodically. ARGH!!! Update to the Marathon will be forthcoming when I cool off...

good as new (?)

Well, today Duksim and I was busy as a bee running errands - and one of the things we accomplished was to pick up our SUV from Woodfield Nissan. Duksim received a call from them stating that the repairs were done, and that it was ready for pickup. Even though the body shop was closed on weekends, they mentioned that it would be in the service area - so that wouldn't be an issue. So today we went to pick it up, but when we went to the service area, they couldn't find our work order - which meant to them that the car was not ready. Argh!!! We promptly went to the service bay and talked to the manager in the area - and after much back and forth, they found that the paperwork was underneath the piles that they kept at the counter. Jeez! Well, they brought the car to the front all washed and ready for us. By then, I had drove the rental back to Enterprise to return it and finalize all the paperwork. Well, you would think that it would be a simple procedure, right? Hah! After processing it, the guy behind the counter told me that AllState (the other party's insurance) denied the rental coverage. Without giving specifics! After explaining that the AllState insurance adjuster assured me that it was covered, the Enterprise guy emailed AllState for an explanation. So we'll see how that develops. Anyway, with that behind us (hopefully), we proceeded to drive home in our repaired Murano. Unfortunately, as we were driving in stop-and-go traffic, we heard a rather unusual noise coming from the brake area - kinda like the brake pads were sticking - but only happened when releasing the brake from a full stop. We considered turning back to the dealership, but after driving for a bit, the noise went away and now the car is working normally. Good thing we didn't turn back - it would have developed into a classic mechanic scenario where the problem mysteriously goes away the minute one pulls into the service bay (you know exactly what I mean by this). We'll see how it goes the next few days...but regardless, it does feel good to have our car back...

autoshow in motion

Today, Duksim and I attended this event, which was held at Arlington Park parking lot. I only assume that I received an invitation in the mail because I got included in some database when we attended the auto show earlier this year. Whatever the case may be, of course I jumped on the opportunity to go to this event. Why? Well, aside from there being cars, it provided an opportunity to test drive the models they had on hand and experience more than just sitting in the models on the showroom floor. They had a pre-defined track from which to navigate once inside the cars - and the vehicles they had available to test ranged from small cars to the monster SUVs. This was basically a GM-sponsored event, so most of the cars were from GM. However, they also had other models from the competition on hand to test (for comparison) - which was nice. It was interesting to test drive cars that otherwise I would not be able to test unless (1) someone I knew had one - and would let me drive it, or (2) visit a dealership. But there was no pressure to buy here - which made the experience altogether rather laid-back. Some of the models we tested were: Chevy SSR, Hummer H3, Acura MDX, BMW X5, Nissan Titan, Lexus ES330, Lexus LX470, Mercedes ML350, and Volvo XC90.



















But by far the best of the day was test driving the Corvette!











I had my skepticism of this car prior to jumping in the driver's seat - I dunno, maybe my bias of American cars was affecting my perceptions. But after driving this beast, I was blown away! This car was a smooth as silk, engine growls like a cougar, corners like it was on rails, acceleration left my breath at the starting point - you name it, it happened...but I did not wet myself, thankfully. Unbelievable - I can see why so many Corvette fanatics love this car. Not bad - not bad at all...left me with a huge grin on my face...

Lastly, this is for Jae:




























They had a live display of the upcoming Saturn Sky. Have to say, looks very nice - much better in design than their other attempts in the past. Quality and reliability remains to be seen - but this is a very promising start...