Happy (belated) Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year was last Monday, so I'm incredibly late in wishing you all Happy Chinese New Year. However, it's better late then never, right? This year is the year of the Ox, but I have no idea what bearing it has on how this year will end up being. I suppose the Ox is the same animal as a bull, so maybe this year will be a Bull Market?

My friend Jane and I organized a hot pot party at our place in celebration of the new year. (If you don't know what a Chinese hot pot is, please look here for more information). We have never hosted a hot pot before, and were lacking some necessary items, namely a portable burner and a pot. We eventually got around to purchasing all the equipment and Friday night, we did some massive shopping with Jane and Rob at 99 Market for all the food.

We spent a lot of time on Saturday cleaning up our place, which was a good thing because it desperately needed cleaning. Since people would be crowding around a table, we decided to use our large metal rolling table in the kitchen. The only problem with that was that it's really tall, so anyone cooking there needed to stand (we warned guests to bring comfortable shoes). We had two pots going...one with seafood, and one without seafood (for those allergic to shellfish). Once they started boiling, the fun started. Everyone made their own dipping sauce and began throwing things in the pot to cook. While the food was really good, I really enjoyed the communal atmosphere of hot pot. Everyone's sitting/standing around the pot and it's all very interactive. We comment on how hard it is to grab a pork ball, and that quail eggs sink to the bottom and are hard to find...it was very nice to experience.

After the eating was over, people started playing Rock Band, SingStar, Lips, pool, and/or mahjongg. We hadn't thrown a party in a while, but even though it can be a lot of work to prepare for one, Nick and I truly do enjoy them. It's great to see people outside of work and to socialize with them when there isn't a computer nearby.

I realize that I haven't updated this blog with any substantial posts lately. I'll try to do a better job of updating it, and adding more pictures. Oh, I should so post a photo of Kitty laying all over Nick's keyboard last night. It was amusing 'cuz she was hitting key combinations and opening random files. Fortunately for Nick, she wasn't able to hit the right combination of keys that reply to emails :)