Year of the dog that bit you

Happy New Year! Sunday was the Chinese New Year, celebrating the start of the Year of the Dog. Chris and I went back to North Carolina for a quick weekend trip (yes, it's a long trip to make for a two-day visit) so that I could be a "good Taiwanese daughter" and spend the New Year with my mom and Manfred. We ate a lot (I love my mom's cooking), played mah-jongg until 2 AM on New Year's Eve, and attended a Taiwanese club New Year event with food, music and dancing. It was easy to find Chris at the event -- he was the "occidental tourist". But he was great -- he ate everything we put in front of him, played mah-jongg like a master and sat through a 3-hour all-Chinese program of entertainment. This is his second time to visit North Carolina, and we have yet to introduce him to an English-speaking resident. He's heard rumors of these Carolinians with southern accents, but so far he's only met Taiwanese and German speakers during his visits.

While we were in North Carolina, we left Cowboy with Cindy Hill at the Mystic Mountain Retreat. What a great place! Cowboy had a wonderful time playing with the other dogs, hanging with the horses, and sniffing at the llamas. The best part was how Cindy took such good care of us. She sent us updates to let us know how Cowboy was doing (it was his first time away at camp and I was worried), and when we picked him up, she gave us photos that she took of him during his stay! I'd like to stay at Mystic Mountain -- I wonder if she takes human boarders?

Now that the Chinese New Year has passed, the next big event is the Superbowl. Seattle is going crazy with bandwagon fever, but I'm still holding true to my Steelers roots. There are a few of us at my office -- in fact, Brian's taken to walking around the building swinging his Terrible Towel. One amusing thing is that it's very rainy right now, and 95% of Seattle owns one of those standard-issue yellow and black North Face jackets. The town is painted black and gold. Go Steelers!