Prom Season and oh so much more...

Wow. Lots going on over here. It was nice to spend Sunday just lounging around the house to rest from last week, and get ready for next week. If I went into all the details, you'd say "wow, they're nuts". Or, you may say, that ain't so bad!! Nonetheless, I felt compelled to bring you in on a few tidbits of life here in warm, toasty Malaysia:

My last real LONG run before the Marathon

I did a 12-miler on Saturday, and now I am officially in my two week taper before the Sundown Marathon on Sat, 31 May. Cool thing about the run? I was just shooting for a nice 8:30 pace, and ended up with a 7:59 pace! I cranked out 12 miles in under 96 minutes, which I never would have thought I could do right now. Temps were cooler than during last week's 20-miler -- a chilly 80 degrees at the start. Not bad. Anyway, I'm feeling up for the run, and can't wait to see what running 26.2 miles at midnight is like!!

Prom Dress Shopping

Cheryl has been uber-busy working on song-writing projects for music school, so I was given the unique opportunity to take my two gorgeous daughters prom-dress-shopping yesterday! Some dads might despise such an assignment, but I really enjoyed it. We managed to find the shop without TOO much trouble. Both girls tried on a lot of nice dresses. I am so proud to be their dad -- so hard to believe these two gems are mine... Anyway, Brooke found a nice purple dress before long, and we were left to find something perfect for Ashley's final HS prom. And..... I'm proud to say that I found the dress she ultimately decided to keep. How cool is that?! (NO I didn't just want to get outta there, you skeptics!)

The Last Lecture
I'm sure that many of you have seen the video of Randy Pausch giving his "Last Lecture". Pausch is the Carnegie Mellon professor diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, and given just 3-6 months to live. He will soon be leaving behind a wife and three kids. Such a heart breaking story. Anyhow, in the past week, I've read his book and watched the video. A&B saw the video with me. He really does share some pearls of wisdom about how to REALLY live life. If you haven't checked out the video or read the book, I highly recommend both. You can also read his blog here.

The Wealth of Nations

Actually, I don't have much time to read books these days, but when I do, I want to read GOOD material. (No romance novels for me. Ha!) Something that Steven Sample argued in The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership (one of my all-time favorite books) was that if you were going to spend time reading, you'd better read the SuperTexts, the 50 or so truly great works that mankind ever has written. Now, I can't confess to really have done much of that, but I'm going to continue my slow journey. I'm now reading Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Since I just earned my MBA a year or two ago, and since I'm pretty active in international business, I am quite interested in reading the definitive text that opened the world's eyes to to free market economics. Before ordering, I had no idea how long of a book this was, but at 1,208 pages I may have bit off more than I could chew. I'll let you know how all this works out.

Kerry Shook at Willow

Since Cheryl had a rehearsal last night, we weren't able to attend our usual Saturday evening church service. Instead we woke early today to watch Willow Creek's weekend service online. We had a blast seeing an acquaintance of ours, Kerry Shook, speak there. Cheryl and I have known Kerry and served alongside him in many, many events through the years. I think our first gig was mixing audio for Point of Grace when they stopped by FOTW (Fellowship of the Woodlands) way back in 1993 or so. Cheryl and I also manned the FOTW site for a couple of Willow Creek Leadership Summit conferences, and served for a time at FOTW as members. Anyhow, Kerry's message was brilliant. I hope to give his book a read sometime soon.

Chris is in Asia

My little bro is in Asia (Singapore) and is going to visit this weekend, after I return from China. Although the girls are going to have Prom on Saturday, this isn't something you can skip. Can't wait to have Chris here. I think we're going to let him do the girls' makeup. What do you think? Good idea?

China Tomorrow

I'm off to Guilin, China tomorrow, so it's really time to end this post now. I'll be a safe as possible, and try to post something while there. In the meantime, have a great week.

greg

Going To All The Hot Spots

Just checking in with everyone; so sorry for the lack of posting lately.


On the home front, things are going well. Ashley has all but finished high school now, and is actively counting the days until graduation. She has been a real trooper -- working hard to take AP exams for college credit when most teens would be coasting. We are so proud of her hard work.

As for the title of this post, I realized this week that my next few weeks of travel should really be interesting. For one, I will be spending all of next week in central China, a few hundred miles East of where the massive earthquake hit yesterday. I am in Bangkok today, where supposedly we "felt" it, but I must say that I did not. Next week we have a conference in Guilin, China. It's supposed to be a nice town, but as with anything in China -- you still have to be smart. I will be with a large group, and well taken care of.

Then, after Ashley's graduation and the Sundown marathon, I head over to Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) for business meetings there. Again, I'll be on full alert, but with the cyclone damage and intensive relief efforts for the millions of homeless, it will be another adventure. Needless to say, with the full clamp-down on communications from the military junta -- you won't be hearing from me until I get back out on June 4th. For as poor of a country as Myanmar is, they need to continue their oil & gas production to get (any) revenue -- hence, my presence is key to that end.

Just to "give it another go", I am going to open this blog up for public consumption once again. Last year I shut it down after the commentary got to be too much to endure. I want this blog to have easier access (for friends and family), but am fully mindful of the implications thereof. For better or worse, I'll give it another try.


Thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes. It's wild to think that I'm now less than a year from being a 40 year old!

greg

p.s. Super duper congratulations to Kristin for joining the world of college graduates! Awesome awesome awesome!

We Almost Have a High School Graduate!!

Just a quick update for all: We are getting ever-closer to having a high school graduate in our midst! Ashley finished her last official day of school on Monday, and is now in the final moments of studying for her three Advanced Placement (AP) exams in Physics, Calculus, and US History. She has made the honor roll, and is finishing out her high school "career" in style! To say that we're proud of her is an understatement!

Graduation day is May 30th, 2008. We realize that it might be kinddddda hard for many of you to travel around the world to cheer her on and come to our grad party. However, there is nothing to stop you from sending her all kinds of congratulations and encouragement to her. As with all high school grads, I'm sure she'd LOVE those gifts of $$$ and college prep stuff that we all enjoyed when we graduated. If you want to send physical gifts, just mail to our San Diego address. Write to me if you don't have that address (comment to this post with your email address). She can also accept US checks, not a prob. (Sorry I have to be the "dad" here, but I just know that in many ways Ashley is outside of the normal "line-of-sight" and I don't want her to feel that she is somehow forgotten.)

Well, I have to run. I am in Bangkok now, but flying to KL for an afternoon meeting, then taking an evening flight to Singpore so I can be there for meetings tomorrow. Doesn't that sound "fun"? Not really....

Please pray for the people of Burma / Myanmar. They were hit hard by the cyclone on Saturday. The thing that hurts the most is that their government chose not to warn anyone even after it was obvious they were about to be pummelled. So sad. I will probably be making a business trip to Burma / Myanmar in a few weeks. I'm sure I will see utter devastation. Arrgh.

I love and miss all of you.

greg

Back in Malaysia... But...

So sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or two. The truth is that since we have returned from Italy, life has picked up right where it left off. However, we have had one rather sad task to tackle:

Our wonderful 300 GB external hard drive, the one where thousands of our personal photos are stored, decided to stop working. Now, surely (you think) we've been backing it up, right? Well, not exactly. Photos are big, and backing up tens of gigabytes of photos takes many CDs, and no, we don't have a DVD burner.

SO, after spending last weekend patiently doing every diagnosis possible, we've been forced to send the drive back to Seagate, requesting their best "Data Recovery Services" and we hope for the best. Now, this isn't the end of the world by any stretch -- yes, we still have lots of other pictures, and some are in places like PhotoBucket or on other computers, but there are quite a few that would effectively be going down the drain if the data is unrecoverable. We shall see.

In other news....

ASHLEY is about a month and a half from her high school graduation. She hasn't succommed to senioritis, at least as far as I can tell. She is busy cramming for her three AP (Advanced Placement) exams which are about 3 weeks away. She will be sitting for Calculus, Physics, and US History. She's a smart cookie, that one.

CHERYL is busy arranging music for school, and just put together an awesome new song. I hope to load it here sometime so you can hear it. She is also leading worship at church almost every week. This is great experience for her. Even right now she is busy practicing piano.

BROOKE is being our awesome sophomore. Track season is basically done, but she is still busy. She has a band concert on Thursday. Time to break out that cool red trombone yet again.

ALFREDO is digging his Malaysian life. He has become a chillin' white poodle, and still literally stops traffic whenever we take him for walks.

I am still working hard for the next marathon, coming up the day after Ashley's graduation. Unfortunately Cheryl is going to be dropping out due to lack of time to train, and some nagging breathing problems. Ash is still targeting the race, but has been having some serious ITB pain for the past few long runs.

Tomorrow I'm off for Bangkok yet again. Just a quick one day trip; hope to be back in time for the band concert. Hey, the Olympic flame came through town today, and it looks like there weren't too many (if any at all) problems. Now it's off to Jakarta, just a few miles down.

Finally, we can all be very pleased that the Cubs have taken a 1/2 game lead after their Sunday win. 12-6 is a nice record, and a great way to start the year. Many many games to go.

greg

Italy: An Amazing Trip

Well, our wondrous vacation to Italy is over. The girls returned to Malaysia on Saturday, and we returned yesterday (Monday). [I actually took still ANOTHER flight to Los Angeles, and am now in San Diego (Monday evening).]

Below I've attached another solid batch of photos. Since my last post, we managed to see a LOT of Italy: Viterbo, Perugia, Rome, Naples, and Pompeii. In the interest of time, I'll just post the photos now, then annotate them later. In summary, we just had an outstanding time. The girls performed four times throughout Italy; Cheryl and I stayed in seven different hotels in our eight nights; we managed to drive an astounding 3000 kilometers (1,865 miles) in those same eight days. If you were to look at our driving route, you wouldn't believe it!

We have so many funny, sad, interesting stories -- they will just have to pour out in the coming days and weeks. We saw more than just the "sights" -- we got to meet the people. We stayed in Bed & Breakfast places all over the country, and in the process found some very interesting and unique people. Italy is a one-of-a-kind place, and in our eight days we managed to see so much of it and experience it in such a unique way. We highly recommend visiting (even when the US Dollar is at such a pit)....

Enjoy the pictures / give your comments / etc etc

greg

Italy: Performances, Castles, Villas

Here is another quick batch of pictures for you. Over the past several days we have seen Ashley and Brooke perform in Sirmione, have gone running in the mountains of Arco, have toured Cheryl's family's original hometown of Mantova, have seen some awesome castles, have found an unbelievable villa hotel in La Spezia (see sunset photo), and have had MORE amazing Italian food (see me with pizza).
In short, this is turning out to be the uber-vacation we had hoped for. Sorry for the lack of captions. I think the photos speak for themselves. Today is wine country then the Tower of Pisa. Tomorrow.... Rome.
greg

Italian Beauty

Italy Rocks! We have had two wonderful days so far here. Landed in Rome and picked up our cute little Fiat Panda rental car, spent Friday in Florence, spent yesterday in Venice, and now we’re about to head out for some breakfast, then off to try to meet up with the girlies!
Highlights so far? We were stunned by the beauty of Michelangelo’s David – which we saw yesterday in Florence: has to be the supremely BEST work of art ever made. Then, we took a gondola ride through the canals of Venice! Amazing. Of course the other huge highlight has been the food and drink – some of the best food ever invented all started right here. YUM!!
We found some free wireless this morning, so decided to post a few quick shots here for you to gaze upon. Sorry about the lack of captions. We’d love to annotate, but there are still so many things to see and do here.
Ciao!!
greg

So Here We Go....

The girls are already in transit to Italy, and will be landing in just a couple of hours (I think they're over Saudi Arabia or Israel about now!). Cheryl and I leave for the airport this evening. Twenty-four hours from now, we'll be in ROME !!!!!

To say that we're excited is really an understatement. Of course this is going to be a phenomenal trip. For those who may be wondering, we didn't make a SINGLE hotel reservation -- we're planning to live on the edge, armed only with our Lonely Planet book and our rented GPS! The reason we decided to do it this way is just that we didn't want to be held to a firm day-by-day agenda. If we like a city, we'll stay longer. If we don't, we'll leave. Our "general" plan looks something like this:

Friday: Land in Rome; head immediately north -- probably to Florence
Saturday: Head over to Venice for a day, enjoy some cool canals
Sunday: Head to Montova or Bologna or San Marino, then attend girls' evening performance
Monday: Head to Milan or maybe Pisa / Tuscany, have fun
Tuesday: Down to central Italy, then attend girls' evening performance
Wednesday: Maybe a day in Rome
Thursday: Girls' big performance at national music festival
Friday: Naples / Pompei / Mt Vesuvius
Saturday: Amalfi Coast / Paestum
Sunday: Maybe another day in Rome, then fly to KL

The only thing that would have made this trip even better would have been accompaniment with other friends (riniroo/vitamin j......). The timing is a bit rough: Cheryl is in the middle of her semester and will be bringing her MIDI station along to work on some projects. Ash brought a huge pile of books along as well -- she's studying for her Advanced Placement (AP) exams coming up in May. Oh well, we'll still have fun.

As for me, I am officially taking my first day of vacation since Sept right now! In December the only weekday I took off was Christmas Day. 2008? I have worked through all 7 Malaysian holidays this year with the exception of one (New Years Day). Do I need a break? Uhhhh... I think so. (Yes, that's a huge smile on my face).

If possible, we'll jump into an Internet cafe along the way and post an update. Stay tuned!!

greg

P.S. We're still training for the Sundown Night Marathon. This morning I ran 20 miles in 2 hrs 55 min! Glad to get my long run in before the big trip.....

P.P.S. Cheryl's birthday celebration last week was a bit subdued due to.... busy life. (We did take a celebratory trip to Starbucks, though.) We're going to celebrate yet another "Cheryl's 29th birthday" this week in Europe. Yahoo!!

Just another day

Hi there. Just wanted to make a quick post for no other reason than to tell everyone that all is well, life is moving fast, and we are enjoying our lives here as an American family placed into a very foreign culture.

Last week I spent a few days in Bangkok on business, then have been back in Malaysia for a week or so. Ashley also spent four days in Bangkok last week on an International school Cultural Convention -- she performed with the choir that consisted of the top international HS student singers from all over SE Asia. Brooke has been throwing javelin, discus, and shot put for the track & field team. She is now the #1 javelin tosser at the high school, and competes again this Saturday -- in KL! Cheryl is doing great with her arranging and composition. A, C, and myself are all at the "12-weeks-left" mark in our quest for marathon glory. We are even meeting more and more fellow expatriates in our new condominium home!

We can't wait for our Italy trip, just two weeks away now!! Rome, Milan, Pisa, Florence, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, and much more...

greg

Three Years

Although it is still March 2nd in the US, over here in Asia, the date is already March 3rd. As I am sure all three of my readers know, yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of Laurie’s death. Three years. I thought quite a bit about this yesterday. Three years ago, Laurie decided (as Katie had said once) to “stop living”. This morning I continued that thought – all our memories of Laurie will be of “young Laurie” – the one that was never older than 20. On the surface that stinks because we’re all going to age, put on weight, add wrinkles, turn gray, etc. but Laurie will always be a happy, perky girl. Kind of a bummer for us who will still age.

But, on a much deeper level, this concept is deeply, utterly tragic. Laurie herself will not get to experience college graduation, marriage, parenting, career, travel, grandchildren, and so much more. For us as her family and friends, we miss out too by not having her in our contemporaneous memories, in our photos, in our videos. (However, as Chris would say here – that’s the beauty of PhotoShop… The problem with that is the aging factor – sorry, T.) Truth be told – we have before us life without a dearly loved one. Uber pain.

So, maybe the three of you are wondering how I am doing with this. Shock is gone. Open wound is gone. Even to an extent, the omnipresent pain has subsided. I think I have learned to walk with a sort of limp. In the heat of our searing pain, I had publicly written about my internal questioning. I had seen myself as busted into thousands of broken pieces, and had wondered how they would fit back together. What would that look like? Could I be made fully whole again. Well, I know that my 2008 reality is not as choice as I would have wanted. I now recognize that some of the pieces never found their way back together. The 2008 Greg is more pessimistic and less good-humored (really). I now recognize that there is a very real element of depression in my life. I have more weight on my back, and I definitely laugh less. I find it more difficult to be spontaneous, and my daily walk with the Lord is a slow stroll with less talking. I feel that I am still in a “before” picture, knowing that “after” is going to be so much better. I want to be changed, but do not know when or how that will happen. I just know that I am not who I had hoped to be – yet.

In a future post, I’ll write more about my Laurie thoughts. This post was more about where I’m at right now. Travel has been intense lately (over 20,000 flight miles in the past month alone!). I came home from the US yesterday, and am flying to Bangkok today. On the happy outlook: our vacation to Italy is in 3 weeks! We also just bought tickets for a vacation in Cambodia this June, and a major vacation to Vietnam in July.

I love and miss my family. Seeing Chris last weekend was awesome. I need to reflect on that more.

Love always

greg

Aggregate

I was just thinking that some of you (my 3 readers!) may want to read one of the essays that Ashley submitted as part of her application to Northwestern. As you already know, Ashley is an amazing writer, and the quality of her writing (in my humble fatherly opinion) belies her 18-year life experience. See for yourself. Ashley wrote the essay below in November 2007.

Aggregate

Two years ago, my family and I decided to transition by moving to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, our first international relocation. I was surprised, most certainly – I never thought we’d go, despite my parents’ dreams of a house in Singapore or Sydney – but excitement emerged as the dominant emotion. Describing what I knew about the country, the people, and the culture I’d dive into, my hopes rose as I came to realize how incredibly fortunate I was to begin this new chapter of life. The sub-cultures within the United States weren’t foreign to me, but Malaysia was radically different, a venture like nothing I’d ever considered, a challenge from which I could learn, experiment, and grow.

The twenty-hour flight from Texas to Malaysia (a disorienting journey that, in itself, prepared me for the international scene through excessive amounts of seafood, nonsensical posters, and over-attentive individual service) made me think we’d live royally overseas. Looking around me today, we don’t live extravagantly, and I wouldn’t choose to, as we’re segregated enough from our Malaysian, Chinese, and Filipino neighbors with our iPods and imported boxes of Cheerios. We’ve learned the disadvantages of being white, how taxis charge triple with an unspoken matsali (foreigner) tax, and how Gucci and Prada knock-offs on Petaling Street are twice as expensive as they are for those who don’t look like tourists. We’ve tried everything, even braving the pungent depths of Jalan Alor, durian, (a fruit favored by the locals and described by foreigners as a medley of sweaty socks and rotten garlic) and parasites that sent me to the hospital and stripped me of fifteen pounds over two weeks. Still, not four weeks afterwards, I was wandering the crevices of Batu Caves and enjoying the canteen food of Central Market, content to risk anything see as much of Kuala Lumpur as I could.

My family and I were the only Caucasians at the Malay wedding we attended, and consequently, almost all guests openly stared as we picked through our plates of curry in gauche silence. Only three guests spoke to us, questioning in ways you wouldn’t hear in the United States, like how old (each of us) was and how much money my father made. Later, it was slightly disconcerting see every person on the ground in prayer, and to hear a boy, not seven years old, sing the Muslim call to prayer in the chant’s alien key. Prayer five times daily is mandatory for Malaysian citizens by their government, and it puzzled me – I was told that Malaysia permitted freedom of religion. What I wasn’t told was that this natural right only applies to followers of Islam. Every year, Malaysian-appearing individuals are arrested for eating during Hari-Raya (an Islamic practice of a month-long fast), and even my SAT administrator had to explain that she was not breaking the law by drinking water. Such government restrictions contradict everything the United States stands for, yet, as expatriates, we must remain silent, an effort that has taught me to acknowledge higher authority while retaining a critical, independent mindset.

I heard once that the United States wasn’t a melting pot, that it would be better described today as a tossed salad. We’re still more likely to clump in our respective “leaves”, the teacher lectured, instead of blending with the other greens in the pile. With experience of life outside the bubble of the United States, I have to say I wholeheartedly disagree. Compared to Malaysia, the United States has long reached its melting-pot status, producing an entirely new element for our global periodic table. Stereotypes run rampant in the streets of KL, forging barriers between the Malay, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, European, and American ethnicities that maintain distance and distrust. Segregation isn’t limited to adults - in my own school, I know no Koreans, despite their 33% contribution to our student body. Living in a Muslim nation has opened my eyes towards accepting and accommodating often opposite perspectives, and I’m grateful to have the skills to see the origins and value of such diversity.

Two years ago, my family decided to take up a challenge. Most teenagers would have kicked and screamed, dug their heels into the soil of their birth, refused to enter a country in which standards of living are low, where locals jeer or catcall according to their ethnicity and mood. But I am not part of the “most teenagers” category. Instead of cowering, I embraced the prospect of adventure, a new environment – in essence, throwing myself into an alien culture. I didn’t just step out of my comfort zone – I created a new one, one in which it’s not change that scares me, but its absence. Buoyed by the confidence I’ve gained from succeeding in Malaysia, I now eagerly look forward to my next great challenge.

** Well, what do you think? Post your comments. I'm sure Ash would love to read them.

greg

The Sad News

Just wanted to drop a quick update here. Our move to the flashy new condo has been a whirlwind of boxes, paper, late nights, and hectic transition. Amongst the usual stress that any move brings, Cheryl and I have been saddled with another, most unfortunate event:

One of the men with the moving company stole Cheryl's wedding ring AND her engagement ring AND a gold/emerald ring given to her by her father! Yes, we are torn up about this; and Yes, we have taken this to the authorities and the moving company; Yes, we have searched to make sure the three gold rings were not "lost". We did it all. Unfortunately, the reality is that the rings have been stolen, and we no longer have her rings -- THE rings I gave her 19 years ago on Sept 9, 1989. Yes. It sucks.

The gold/emerald ring from her father was another valuable ring. Cheryl had had it for over ten years, and it was probably the most valuable (only?) real jewelry we owned. We're not big jewelry people, but the few items we did have are now gone.

On the bright side, this is just "stuff". It can be replaced. The moving company was kind enough to write a check for some of its value (about 2/3). Still, the part that hurts is that these rings were worth so much more to us in sentimental value. Bummer.

greg

p.s. I have been in San Diego for a week now (receiving some executive coaching and leadership training), and then will be in Dallas all next week. It's nice to be back in the US, even just for this short period.

Ashley's 18th Birthday

We had a FANTASTIC time celebrating Ashley's 18th birthday this week. To mark the occasion, we decided to have dinner at the rotating restaurant atop the famed KL Tower (not the twin towers, but the single tower...). The food was great, and oh so plentiful. We spent three hours at our table: talking, eating, laughing, and more eating. How many families with teenagers do you know who can sit together and authentically enjoy each other's company just for the fun of it? I am so lucky to have these three women in my life. Without further delay, here are some photos:

A nice picture of the KL Tower from below. Cool....


The view from the top is breathtaking. Here is how it looked from our table:
Here, Cheryl and Ashley enjoy a mother-daughter hug right before hitting the buffet table for yet another course of awesome food.....

Can you tell just how excited Cheryl and Brooke were to be celebrating Ashley's 18th??

Then came the indulgence. Check out my dessert splurge:

The elevator back to "earth" had a cool mirror ceiling. Here we are, acting normal:

We gave Ashley her first round of cool weather clothes, for life as a Northwestern student in bitter cold Illinois. She still has to figure out how the hood works...

That's better. Ash can't wait to strut around NU in her "wildcat" jacket (yes, it's fake fur; chill...)

Since we know Ash is going to miss Alfredo, we got her a snuggly mini replica of our favorite poodle. Here Ash squeezes Alfredo and mini-Alfredo while Brooke captures the moment....

See how cute Ash looks with her fluffy companion? This pup is going to spend some well-loved days in the Northwestern dorms....
So that's about it. Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our celebration. Our Ash is no longer a just a wee little tot. She's all "growed" up, and we love her with all of the numbers and all of the letters up to the sky, and back again.

proud dad

Great Eastern 30k -- Hills Hills Hills

Well, today I had the privilege of having my family cheer for me as I completed the Great Eastern 30k here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For those of you who may not be so good at converting km to miles in your head, 30km equals about 18.6 miles.

My time? According to my watch, about 2 hrs 52 min 32 sec. Although that might seem like a slow-ish time, let me assure you that it was hard fought: this course was HILLY with a capital H! A few times I rounded corners, saw the upcoming hill and told myself "you can't be serious!"
The cramp factor was only a minor factor today. Yes, I got a few good tinges and "minor league" cramps, but nothing that laid me out like what happened in Sydney. Other than the time I almost got hit by a car (had to just about hurdle the guy's fender!), the race was without incident. For those of you runners out there, you'd find it interesting to note that there were only 7 water stations throughout the course, and within the first 11km (7 miles), we only had one water station! Knowing this ahead of time, I had decided to wear my fuel belt, and carried 4 bottles with me. Good thing -- those bad boys were needed!!

Another interesting note: white caucasian men such as myself were definitely in the minority. I think the racial profile looked something like this: 98% Chinese, 1% Indian, and 1% "other". The Malay race was clearly absent -- I know from general observation that Malays do not enjoy exercise, but given the fact that 60% of the Malaysian population is Malay, it is strange that you see almost none in active sports.

Only four more days until Ash turns 18. We're excited for her. Although I'll be out all this week on business, I AM making sure to get home on Thursday to celebrate this milestone in person. Yahoo!

Move plans are on schedule -- 10 days from now we should be fully relocated into the condo. Funny thing is that I'll be in the US for the first half of February, so I really won't get to experience the new place right away.

Well, that's the update for now. Many more things going on, but I'm about to get on a plane, and boy am I sleepy.....

greg

p.s. The reason my bib number "A401" looks so lame is that I registered late for the event, and they had to create a bib for me by hand. What you see in the photos above is the result of the organizer's best craftsman! ;-)