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hi, i'm tony yang, but i'm not tony yang. did that make sense? past two months i've had hmong girls periodically instant message me, thinking that they know me. i have no idea where they got my aim name, but when i ask them about it, none of them can give me a straight answer. hmong girls too, did i mention that as well? i don't think i've ever been formally introduced to a person of hmong descendent. i also didn't know there were such tightly-knitted communities of them dotting the united states. somewhere out there is a tony yang out there who's been circulating the wrong aim name to these girls, and the end result is that they aim me and there's a whole lot of confusion and the occasional random after hour internet chat. i don't know much about him, but from the little bits of clues i gather here and there, i think he lives in the west coast and he's originally from taiwan, like myself. that's pretty much all i know.

oh, by the way, did i also mention that these are all underaged hmong girls?

yeah, cruel hand of fate at play here, the tragic irony that is my love life. oh, not to say that i'm trying to scam on these underaged ladies, no way. contrary to popular misconception, i am not a pedophile nor do i have any desires to become one in the near or distant future. besides, i'm 27 years old! to them, i might as well be their father, that how old 27 years is to a teenager.

tonight we had mandy's farewell celebration at the b-side lounge on hampshire street in cambridge, about a 15 minute walk from the office. the turnout wasn't tremendous, perhaps partly due to the fact that we held it on a friday night, but for those were there, it was a pretty interesting time. the trip to the lounge was pretty interesting, with carrie "zero road rage" donohue behind the wheels of her SUV style jeep, and everybody else crammed into the empty seats, with amy sitting on mandy's lap at shotgun. we sat at a circular lounging table in the corner of bar/restaurant, with just enough seats to fit all of us. for appetizers, we ordered some mussels, some fried calamaris, and some bruschetta. i devoured most of the mussels (is it wrong to love shellfish?). topics of conversation included my taste in movies (bring it on is a good movie!), laurie's root canals, and travel destinations. mandy revealed to us that she was actually in a thai soap opera (as an extra) when she visited thailand. amanda surprised ed some more with her encyclopediac knowledge of alcoholic beverages and stories of said products consumption.


amanda & carrie

carrie & amy

ed

carrie was the first to leave, then ed left to meet his wife at another bar. when christine showed up (a most auspicious occasion, since she doesn't work on fridays, so she had to make an extra effort to come out and join us), we ordered another round of drinks and entered the second half of the evening, when the lounge really started to fill up with people. the place is kind of swanky, catering to the uppity young urban types. reminds me of the good life, without the swingers mentality or lounge acts (at least not that i saw).

for desert we ordered two fondue pots. now i have never had fondue before, so it was an entirely new experience for me. let's just say it left me very full of chocolate sauce and when i came home the first thing i did was to brush my teeth. for those who've never had it before (like me, before tonight), it's basically a bowl of melted chocolate heated by a candle, surrounded by an assortment of treats that you're suppose to dip into the warm chocolate sauce through the use of these prong utensils. for dipping, we had figs, strawberries, bananas, pound cake, blueberries, and toffee.

we were there until 9pm, when the waitress pretty much had to come to us and tell us that there's been an one hour wait for our table. taking that as our cue to exit, we did, and everyone (sans christine, who drove) walked to the t stop. the double amandas went inbound to boston, while amy and i went outboard.

dan stuck some foam wings into his glasses today to resemble either the hawkman or elton john circa 1970's. laurie, witnessing the whole thing, laughed so hard i thought she was going to have a seizure. E! celebrity profile, where are they now? hawkman, former superhero...hawkman today works as a software developer in a small company in cambridge, massachusetts. or, as elton john, hold me closer tony danza! i think if you can make somebody laugh so hard they cry, then it's a job well done. we did a lot of crying today.


laurie
talking
with dan

laurie
laughing

hawkman/
elton john

in other news, the other running joke in the office was about my collon japanese chocolate snacks. can i have some more snacks from your open collon? funny stuff like that. during a belated lunch, amanda and i bumped into john miller, i saw a fabulous red scooter (new style vespa?), and i finally cashed my george bush check.


box of collon

john miller

red scooter

cat grass grows super fast! amanda cut my grass on wednesday, and thursday everything was fine, but between thursday and friday the grass experienced some sort of growth spurt and overnight it lost the uniform flat top of freshly cut grass and is now back to an unmanaged mess. time to mow again. i think maybe it's because i watered it thursday night. amazing what a little bit of water will do for plants!


tuesday

thursday

friday