For You Mom!!!

The Calla Lilies on the side of my house are blooming out of control.  So, I thought it would be nice to surprise my mom with a vase full of Calla Lilies :-).  She love it!! At the same time she is looking at me like… hhmmm Are you alright son? hahahah   But, I told her that I want the vase back afterward. LOL

I snapped few shots before delivered the vase to her last night.

For you mom :-).

This photo seems to be little hazzy, I didn't get the right exposure or something. The outside lights seem to be overwhelm.

Random Pictures From My New Toy

I finally had a chance to download all the pictures I took on Sunday.  This new toy really produce super sharp pictures, I am very glad that I purchased it.  As far as the technical comparison to my old camera, I will be able to comment about it in few weeks.  I am looking forward to attend this coming weekend Lao New Year in San Francisco and will be taking lots of picture.

Here are some of the pictures I took on Easter Sunday evening.

It is been a year since I planted this apple tree. I bought it from Costco and planted it prior to my trip back to Laos.

It is kind of tough to take close up picture with my 18-200mm zoom lense.

Looks like I'll be eating some apples this year:-).

My Calla Lily is in full bloom for couple weeks now. I should put it in a nice vase and give it to mom:-). Just a thought at this moment.

Little princess easter egg hunting. She had a blast!!

Time to crack all the eggs open to see the prizes.

Easter meal.. My plate is fill with grilled asparagus, grill chicken, tri-tips, tum mark hoong(papaya salad), and of course stickyrice. Wash all these foods down with Costco Kirkland Pale Ale :-).

New Toy

It is been about 2 1/2 years since I bought my first DSLR camera, which was a Canon Xsi.  The Canon Xsi is good entry level of DSLR for a beginner like myself.  Without any prior experience handling the DSLR, it took me awhile learning on my own.  I did a lot of readings and practices in the past few years.  At this point of time, I feel like it is time to upgrade my camera.  The last month or so, I been doing  a lot of research on different models of Canon DSLR.  The one I ending up purchasing is Canon D60 SLR.  So far, I only had a day playing with it and still getting use to all the new functions.  It is such a different setup comparing to my old Canon Xsi.  But, so far I am loving it :-).  Yesterday, I took about 135 pictures and will post it up soon.

I waited all day on Saturday for this baby :-). FedEx didn't come by til like 5:30pm. This picture was taken by my iPhone.

The old Xsi with 18-200mm lense.

Stay tune, more pictures and comments are coming soon.

The Bird

Lately, the weather in Northern Cali is much improve comparing to few months ago.  As I always do on a lazy Sunday morning, I open all the blinds and windows to let the sun/air in.  While I was cooking some breakfast in the kitchen, I heard the noise of someone is banging on the window coming from the living room.  As I approach the living room, I see this bird is constantly flying into the window.  It was buzzard to say the least.  This bird continues on for another 10 minutes or so, then it sits on top of the fence staring at me.

After I finished eating my breakfast, I check to see if the bird is still there.  Sure enough, it is still there and staring right back at me.  So, I decide to grab my camera and went outside to see if I can get a good shot of the bird.  Most normal birds would fly away when they see people coming around the corner.  This particular bird just sits there and didn’t even move an inch.

Im not sure what kind of bird it is. Im about 50 feet to the bird.

I didn’t want  get too close, afraid it will fly away.  I went back inside to see if I can get more shots from the kitchen window.

If this bird can speaks.... it probably be saying something like.."dude, stop staring at me"

Suddenly... This bird shake its feather and flex his chest muscle.. I am thinking to myself, this is pretty cool.

Few minutes after the flexing chest muscle and shake its feather, the bird step aside and still continue to stare at me.  I was totally amazed that this bird just pop its egg on top of the fence.

There's the egg.

After awhile, this bird got tired of staring at me. It decide to turn its back on me and flew away shortly after.

After that morning, I never see that bird again.  The egg continue to sit there for a day or so, then it disappeared from the fence.  I wonder if other bird find it as a meal or the wind blew it off the fence.

Lao/Khmer/Thai Temple

I don’t remember the last time I went to any temple two days in the roll.  Actually, I wasn’t plan on attending the new year celebration at Lao/Khmer/Thai temple.  My cousin called on last minute and wants to meet up for lunch.  Since, I can’t turn down free lunch, so I went:-).  Some of you probably be asking why I called it Lao/Khmer/Thai Temple?  Well, majority of the monks are from Thailand and few Cambodian/Lao monks living at this temple.  So, you’ll see mixed groups of people from those regions as a regular followers.

As I approach the entrance gate to the temple, the sounds of Johnny Olsen is blasting through the air wave.  Some of you probably don’t even know who he is.  I believe he came out with few CD’s in Lao and Thai.

Getting ready to parade around the parking lot.

I believe "Nang Songkran" is in the blue. She actually smile for the camera:-)

Around and around

I managed to get few young ladies to smiles:-)

Looks who's instigate the water fight. He totally caught all the people off guard.

Johnny is doing his thing... The crowds was into it.

As I stand there waiting for the parade to start.. Standing not too far from me is this young lady with tattoo on her shoulder blade.

Johnny plays his "khane"

Go Johnny!!! Go Johnny.. Go

Shortly after the parade, I left the temple because I have to mow my lawn.  Another male singer from Laos will be joining Johnny to entertain the crowds.  I didn’t get a chance to go back later on that night.

Pee Mai @ Wat Lao Modesto, Cali

This past weekend I had a chance to attend Lao New Year celebration in Modesto, CA with little princess and my brother.  It is been so long ago since the last time I attended the new year festival.  Right of way, I notices few new building, new retaining walls, and the main entrance gate is under construction.  We got there just in time for lunch and there are so many vendors setting up around the perimeter of temple ground.  As we walked around checking out all the different vendor’s menus, we ran into our friends who are selling foods there as well.  At this point, we pretty much feels some what obligate to support them.  Which we did, we ordered some papaya salad, pad thai, grill chickens, and meatballs.  They even sell beers at the temple and of course without a permits from the city or county.  Most vendors do sell beers, but you have to ask for it.  It is not on the menu board for sure.

I almost forgot to take picture before all the foods are gone. I feel kindda bad for drinking beer at the temple and that quilt probably last for few minutes. 🙂

As always, I ordered way too much foods for 2 1/2 people.  Everything looks good and it is been awhile since I had some of those foods.

Little princess enjoying her chicken on stick. I tried to remove the chicken off from the stick for her, but she prefer eating it on the stick.

Looking at the main building of Modesto Temple.

I’m not sure who’s behind the architect of this temple.  I’ve been to a lot of Lao temple, but this is first time seeing lions part of animal sculptures.  It is more common to see at Chinese/Vietnamese temples.  Those three little pond looks odd to me.

On the right side of main temple building sit this open structure(Sala).

Under neath that open structure (Sala) laying on its side is giant buddha.  You can’t really see it on this picture.

This is better angle to see the open structure.

To the left of the main temple building is this "Sim".

Giant Buddha napping. Looks like he been working out, check out his bicep.

I was lucky enough to witness some folks making the sand stupa.

You'll see all kinds of vendor.

Kids and adults stop by to chit chat with the monks.

The moment of truth..... and... the winner is.. Can anyone guess? Which gal would you guys pick for the winner?

Tough decision?  Whoever organize this beauty pageant contest did such horrible job.  They kept announcing the wrong names for 2nd and 3rd place finishes.  Those gals are horrified up on the stage and just wants it to be over.  I stood there for about 20 minutes to take pictures and the winner never smile once.

The runner up is on the left.. This year winner is in the middle(notices she barely crack the smile).. ahah On the right is last year winner.

Over all, it was nice day to spend an afternoon with old friends and families.

Soke Dee Pee Mai Lao… Happy Lao New Year!!

I can’t believe how fast time flew by in a year.  At this time last year I was in Laos for a the whole month.  I miss Laos a lot.. I miss my grandparents, relatives and friends.  In the past couple days I been calling back to Laos to wishes all my relatives and friends happy new year.  Hopefully, I’ll get to go back to visit Laos again sometime in 2012.

Here are some of the pictures from last year trip.

this street runs along the MeKhong River.. people are temples hopping.

motorists are getting splash with water...

Nam Ngeum River during the dry season..

Happy Lao New Year to all…  Soke Dee Pee Mai Took Took Khon!!