Happy Easter!

Lee Anne has sent her kids to bring us Easter eggs:

Happy St. Patrick's Day

As usual Lee Anne has sent her early St. Patrick's greetings to brighten our day. It features her little leprechaun Nicolette in her pot 'o gold. The hat was especially made for this photo-shoot by one of her student workers who happens to be a wizard with crochet needles.

New Lighthouse Afghans

Courtesy of TITANGOS PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO, two lighthouse afghans are displayed here:

New Baby Afghan

Thanks to the faithful photography of TITANGOS PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO, a new baby blanket is entering the world:

Happy Tiger Year, Valentine & Other Feb. Holidays!

Courtesy of Lee Anne Kolker:

My Niece's New Enterprise

Stephanie Wang, my younger niece, has recently launched a new site: hunnybees on etsy. It is her and her classmates' first business endeavor as well as artistic collaboration. It is very elegantly designed and all products are beautifully presented. Please check it out!

Seeing the Phantom of the Opera

This morning, several colleagues of mine asked me how my NY trip was. Needless to say, seeing the Phantom of the Opera in the Majestic Theater is one of the highlights of the trip.

Thanks to Hui and Wendy, Paul and I hopped on to the train from Station Croton/Harmon to Grand Central on the mid-afternoon of December 15, 2009. The train ride was by no means dull, accompanied first by a singing man in the compartment, and then Hudson River all the way outside the windows.

Before the show, we spotted a humble but authentic Italian pizza place around the corner of the theater. Afterwords, we stayed in the one of the lines for the opening. According to the security guide, we were very lucky to have a temperature 20 degrees higher, rather than lower that evening.

The show was fantastic, with a full and international audience. We were surrounded by many languages, German, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc. According to the official version, the Phantom is "Winner of 7 1988 Tony Awards including Best Musical, and now the longest-running show in Broadway history." To explore more, please go to its official website.

Merry Christmas!

The following group picture is courtesy of Lee Anne:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lee Anne and her kids have sent us their early Thanksgiving greetings.

Mariza in Santa Cruz

Twenty-four hours ago, Paul and I were sitting in Rio Theater, enjoying Mariza and her band performing.

It was indeed a memorable show, with diverse audience (even though more than half of it consisted of Portuguese descendants or natives), supreme vocal and instrumental performance. Besides her wonderful rendition of Fado, Mariza displayed time and again her love and appreciation of her audience. Before the end of her last but one song, she came down from the stage, shaking hands systematically with us audience. She ended her concert by throwing away her microphone, singing purely as she used to do when she started her Fado career at age of 5. Joined her singing as well are her two favorite musicians, guitar and Portuguese guitar players.

What a night. We ended our evening by treating ourselves to her latest album: Terra.