and I walk alone...

mixed pics from my front yard

in feb 2008









raining in oct 2007 (during the 2007 Midwest flooding)



more to come.... I;m too tired to finish ;)

2006 trip to Taiwan

This is a 2006 trip to TAIWAN!
We also went to GANGU, where my dad's parents are, and stopped in HONG KONG and GUANGZHOU for the heck of it

Firstly....

Joanne - my cousin - and me...



surprised by Cheryl when playing RUMMICUB!


the funny thing is the guy on bbc in the background - everyone's got this huge look of surprise on their faces

It's at my grandparent's house (mom's side) and we visted periodically

Actually, we visit like once a year now, and my mom goes twice a year (once by herself)





This is shon-shon, or something like that...




it means "bear", and he's my little aunt's dog. He's maybe 13-14 now, and lives with my other aunt's house - with Joanne

Also, that year we went to Guangzhou

SO MUCH FUN it's unbelievable

if you think Kaohsiung/Taiwan is humid and hot, you should try Guangzhou

..it's sorta north of Hong Kong

Summer '08 part I

Wow, was I busy this year!
YELLOWSTONE for a week and a half (including the road trip!) in june-july
(at mount rushmore for the fourth of july!)

CHINA and TAIWAN with a stopover at the HONG KONG airport! whoopee!

this is a summary, without cool sunset/landscape pics that will be incoming ;)



hey amanda, you're awesome at gymnastics!
I think this was somewhere during may, when you guys visited










and here I am, falling asleep with the rest of my java online class homework, AFTER school's let out such fun you can't imagine :)

but at least I finished it after hours of work and no sleeping

I was so tired from the week of exams that at Ashley's party, the last, half day that really no one cared about, i fell asleep at 8, right after all the swimming was done...

...ask shanna for interesting stories about ants on the sofa

Piano was good this past year, with WSMA and the MMTA concert going amazing!

Honorable mention at this one college, Cardinal Stritch, $75

very frightening, however, was Federation competition and the MMTA concert - I thought for sure my bach piece was too fast at the Federation, but instead the judge (coincidentally the person who chairs the Chopin youth competition) LOVED ME!! thought articulation was over the top

at the concert, I was playing with two juniors (older than me) who played VERY different selections - I had two romantic pieces and one sonata and a bach, while their pieces leaned to the classical and the modern, WITH NOT ONE ROMANTIC PIECE comparable to mine

plus, I play weird, with moving arms and back, while they were totally stiff - even stiff fingers!! wow, I didn't know what the judges would think (but it was okay)

:( unhappily, this past year I DID NOT make the Chopin youth competition at the Polish fest in Milwaukee :( I had to enter in the senior division, where entries are both more competitive and more common..oh well, there's always next year! I'm already learning a chopin improptu - WOW it's harder than all my nocturnes combined!




This is main street Pewaukee!












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I found a turtle unable to get over the curb and back into the lack, having been swept over and unable to fight the current...Cheryl picked him back up, even though he was a snapper, and threw him into the lake

I almost lost my flipflop; he just wouldn't let go...and that'd be bad as we biked there...in the rain!

plus, the article that was written about it on wikipedia was almost done entirely by moi!

yes, I am very proud of that fact :)
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Continuing to the last week in june...



There's nothing like exploring yellowstone! I mean, it was so much fun!



My memory card holds ~1000 10 or 3mB pics (at least I think that's what it is) and in a three day period around the end of yellowstone and our trip to the GRAND TETONS and CUSTER STATE NAT'L PARK and the BADLANDS, I downloaded my pics 5 times - twice a day sometimes

super exciting and wow, IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!!

At the hot springs

...and later jumping for joy (jessica)


well, this was interesting
we were out for dinner at a lodge (in yellowstone), and right before we're about to head off to see old faithful, in flies this humungous crow that lands on the motorcycle you see here.



We're like, wait! the crows here are really, really unafraid of people, and all of a sudden there's this flurry as THE CROW STARTS TO ATTACK THE BAG!

Pretty soon, women's clothing is flying out, and we're laughing our heads off!


:)