Mawwiage is what bwings us togethah

Finally got our wedding photos! I think my favorite is the one with Jer in the pink vest. Yes, that's right, of the hundreds of photos of my beautiful bride, my favorite is one of Jeremy.

For those who haven't heard the story of the pink vest:

My tux needed some alterations, so I asked Eddy and Russ to pick it up from Phil's Tux the day before the wedding, when they went to go pick up their own. While there, they asked Phil to replace my ivory vest with a pink one, with the real one stashed in the back of Eddy's tux bag. I wasn't supposed to make the shocking discovery until the morning of the wedding, thus causing me to have a heart attack and die, at which point I imagine Eddy and Russ would point and laugh and dance over my fresh corpse.

They gave me the tux after the out-of-towner brunch, and Alan and I proceeded to drop it off at Auntie Carole's, where we would be getting ready the next morning. While we were hanging the tuxes on the rack, I decided to check each bag to make sure everything was in order, something Eddy and Russ hadn't expected. I got to my bag and flipped. PINK! Eddy and Russ had not let Alan in on the joke, so there was no one there to stop me from calling the tux shop in a fit of panic!

Normally Phil handles all the calls himself, but this being the busy season, he had his son helping out in the shop, and of course that's who answered the phone, the one other player in this comedy of errors who had no clue what was going on. As calmly as I could, I told him that I had gotten screwed. He checked the paperwork and let me know that everything looked in order, and I replied that unless I had pink eye, everything was not in order.

I guess Phil overheard the conversation, because at that point he jumped in and told me everything was fine, that I had the right vest. As I started to protest, he cut me off and said, "Chang, your friends are having a little fun with you." Holy shit. Newman!

By that night, all the groomsmen had heard the story except for Jeremy, and he wore a pink shirt to the rehearsal, so that cinched it; he would be the next pink vest victim.

That morning, I switched the vest into his bag, and as we started getting dressed, all eyes were on Jeremy. He opened his bag, got dressed, put on the vest... never stopping to notice that all the other groomsmen had silver vests on! You know when you have to explain a joke to someone, how it's no longer funny? Well this was like that. I had to tell Jeremy that his vest didn't match, and when he asked what he should do, I told him the tux shop was closed, and he'd have to go with the pink. He just shrugged and continued to get dressed!

When we finally let him in on the prank, I think he was sincerely disappointed he wouldn't get to wear the pink.

Wedding - Getting Ready May 25, 2008 - 60 Photos

Wedding - Portraits May 25, 2008 - 60 Photos

Wedding - Ceremony May 25, 2008 - 60 Photos

Wedding - Reception May 25, 2008 - 120 Photos

It's a Dirty Job

On Friday, I shot a 6-over 78* in a golf tournament!
* as part of a 4-player scramble

As luck would have it, my summer mentors are both avid golfers who play annually in a charity golf tournament the firm sponsors, so they invited me to play this year. Um, hell yeah!

The tournament was at Poppy Ridge, a 27-hole course adjacent to the vineyards of Livermore. Each 4-player team would be playing a scramble, which means that everyone on the team tees off, then everyone plays their ball from the best of the four tee shots, then everyone plays their next shot from the best position, etc.

To warm up, four of us, including my mentors, headed to the course for an early-morning nine. It was the first time I had been on a course in at least a year, so I was nervous about embarrassing myself. These guys were all solid players, about 15-20 handicap. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm about a 35 handicap, so I was clearly the worst of the bunch. To up the ante, we paired up for a team best-ball skins game. I wouldn't be much help to my partner. To put a finer point on it, I wasn't any help to him, as I failed to win or halve a single hole. He minimized the damage, but we still lost 3 to 6.

I was especially bad early, scoring triple bogey on the first four holes before finding some semblance of game. I ended up shooting a respectable 8-over for the remaining 5 holes for a 56. At least I was warmed up for the tournament.

The best part of the round - other than being on a golf course on a work day - was the golf carts. They all had GPS in them, with the course fully mapped, so you always knew how far you were to the pin, the nearest hazard, and even the carts in front of you! I'm not sure I ever want to play again without one. You could even enter your score on them, which would enable us to see a live leaderboard during the tourney.

After brunch, it was tourney time. My team's best player was a 20 handicap, and the rest of us were kinda like me, so we had no illusions about winning. We just wanted to stay in the 70s and score at least one birdie. We ended up accomplishing the first goal, scoring the aforementioned 78 (the winning team shot a 57!), but we fell short of our second goal, in oftentimes painful fashion.

On one hole, I hit an iron shot to 6 feet, my best shot and the team's best approach all day. I took the first putt and misread it left, and the three subsequent putts each got further right but still missed. I wanted to cry. We had other putts for birdie throughout the day, but this was by far our best chance, and we blew it. One of my teammates took another try for the heck of it, and he poured it right down the middle. Sigh.

My other highlight shot was on a 160-yard par 3, where you could pay five bucks for a chance to earn raffle tickets if you hit it on the green. I entered and put it on about 20 feet from the hole, and one of the tickets I earned won me a $50 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory. :P I ended up hitting the putt to a foot for a tap-in par.

All in all, I played pretty well, though it was so easy hitting off the fairway every shot, even if I hit a nasty shank the previous shot. Scrambles rule! It's amazing how much less frustrating golf is that way. I'm proud to say we actually used my tee shot five times, including a 230-yard drive into the fairway to start the round (the GPS told me so). That eased my nerves since the team was required to use each player's tee shot at least twice in the round, and I was genuinely scared that we'd be forced to settle for some crappy shots at the end to fulfill my requirement.

Good round or bad, I can't think of many better ways to spend a day than to slap it around for 27 holes while drinking a couple of cold ones under the sun, but to do it on a work day... I know the job isn't supposed to be very hard this summer, but this is ridiculous. The tournament also had wine tastings scattered throughout the course that were hosted by sponsors, and we had a big dinner banquet afterwards. As a participation gift, I went home with four bottles of Miner wine and four engraved wine glasses. Not bad for a hard day's "work."

P.S. Because of the tourney and a rafting event the next day, followed by a Sunday sorting through our recently arrived wedding photos, I have yet to see Dark Knight, so on the off chance you haven't seen it yet - and based on the record opening box office, that's unlikely - let's makes plans to see it... soon!

Bend it like 'Berto

The best compilation of goals I've come across on YouTube, though I'm still trying to figure out how the guy decided to differentiate between bicycle kicks. They all looked about the same to me, yet one's bottom five and another is top five.



My personal top ten:

10. 37 - 5:23 - Bergkamp
9. 40 - 4:16 - Victor
8. 24 - 10:33 - van der Vaart
7. 17 - 14:10 - Henry
6. 5 - 19:46 - Carlos
5. 36 - 6:00 - le Tissier
4. 13 - 16:10 - Bergkamp
3. 32 - 7:34 - Zola
2. 2 - 21:08 - Ibrahimovic
1. 10 - 17:30 - Carlos

Bergkamp is my all-time favorite, so perhaps my bias got him in twice, but hey, #10 was a 90th minute game winner in the '98 World Cup quarters vs. Argentina, and it was sick to boot. Three absolutely perfect touches in a row.

Ultimately I went with Carlos #1 because that shot shouldn't have been possible. His other shot on the list was pretty freakin' impossible, too.

Ibrahimovic's goal totally reminded me of playing IM soccer with Dollar. Hilarious. Actually, now that I think about it, Dollar also scored a goal for us that was a lot like Beckham's at 11:39. Nice to play alongside a former NCAA player.

And now, on the sorry ass flipside:



Giuly!!! Shoulda just walked it in!

Calling All Tennis Players

Win a chance to play against Andy Roddick! And because he would win every game at love (okay, maybe you'd win a couple of points, Jer), they're tilting the odds in your favor by making him play with... a frying pan.



The idea came from author Todd Gallagher, who challenged Roddick to such a match for his latest book, and, well, I'll let you read about it yourself. Sounds like Todd plays a lot like me.

To enter, film a video reenacting a historic sports highlight, with bonus points for incorporating a pan. Hubert, you're a shoe-in!!!

Rock Band

Gerald dropped by our new place tonight, fresh off of conquering his boards. He seems much happier than during any of our chats over the past two months. Andrew also came over, and together we formed a new Wii super band:





Nothing says punk like pearl milk tea.

Gerald is lead singer because he stinks at guitar and drums. Plus he's just so damn good looking. Andrew could do either drums or lead singer, but we've already established that Gerald's only option is lead singer, which leaves Andrew with the drums. I detest everything but guitar. Gina is the best at everything, but with drums and lead singer taken, she plays guitar with me. Whew, takes me back to the LSAT.

So with our roles established, all we need now is a band name. Any suggestions?

Look Ma, No Hands

All you Californians (especially you, Annaka), don't forget that starting today, it's illegal to make phone calls while driving without using a hands-free device. If you need to make a call while driving, and you don't have your headset, just send a text message instead. That's still legal.