Happy Halloween!

Hi! Hopefully y'all have been able to read entries below about the Las Vegas trip. If not, then here's a quick synopsis:

Jerry forgets PSP at home, Nick and Jerry land in Vegas and take a long taxi trip to hotel, visit Hoover dam and walk to Arizona for 2 minutes, leave to go eat dinner and stand up a reservation for a $165/person restaurant, see Cirque du Soleil, wake up the next morning and go to strip again, purchase jeans for Nick, purchase chocolate for Jerry, walk around a long time, and then leave for LA.

Ok, now that you're caught up, we can talk about Halloween. I carved a pumpkin last weekend, but it didn't survive until today. Over the weekend, it got moldy and squishy, so I threw it away. Anyway, the picture below is of the pumpkin:



I thought it was cute, but only Nick and I are the only ones who got to see it in person. I was going to put it out on the balcony, but Nick didn't like that idea for some reason, so left it inside for a week. Next time, it's going on the balcony so that I can feel that my efforts aren't for naught.

Today was the Google Halloween party, and people dressed up 'cuz there was a costume contest. I wanted to be original, so I asked Merak what I should dress as, and she said that it would be cool if I went as a fridge. I mulled it over for a few days, and on Sunday, I decided to go for it. So Nick and I went to the arts and crafts store to buy white wrapping paper, a pair of really big scissors, and some sharpies. It took a while, but we taped and wrapped up a a cardboard box with the wrapping paper. Then I had to go to my many Martha Stewart magazines and clip out pictures of anything that could be put in a fridge. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of vegetables and salad dressing for the fridge section, and ice cream for the freezer, but whatever. We glued it onto the "fridge" and taped on some doors...Nick screwed in some handles that were leftover from when we were remodeling our kitchen, and then I added some take out menus, a shopping and a to-do list, and Nick wrote up a fake programming assignment.

First, is the picture of me from the back and side:

This is the front of the fridge, with the doors closed:

And finally, here's the picture of the front of the fridge with the doors open:

If you look at the top left hand portion of the fridge, you will notice a cat...yes, it is a cat...I had a bunch of white space and needed to fill it up with something, so I thought a cat would suffice.

Anyway, we had a parade of costumes at work. There were a lot of people dressed up, so it took a while to get through all of us. Now, walking with this fridge was difficult because it goes past my knees. While getting ready for the parade, I needed to walk upstairs to the front office, and then present myself as I walk back down the stairs with some grace.

After the votes were cast, the results were announced and well...I didn't win, or even win runner-up for any category. It was disappointing, but I guess it doesn't help when only like 8 people in the office know my name, and it also doesn't help that the others had great costumes. There was "girl in a shower," "chaotic Christmas tree (complete with lights)," "rubik's cube," "iPod commercial silhouette," and "plastic foosball man." It was very entertaining, and I guess there was a bigger turnout this year than last, so everyone was happy. A lot of photos were taken of the event, but I don't know if they'll be posted. If they are, I'll let you all know.

And that's all for us. To all those who are working on your screening papers...Nick and I wish you the best!

Jerry Liu