Typhoon WIPHA

As if one weren't enough...Typhoon WIPHA is going to blast through the East coast of China approximately 1 day before we leave for China! Hope it doesn't do any real damage.
http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/

Typhoon Nari came through last night and wasn't bad at all. Got some nice winds (not enough to blow us off the rooftop during our quick visit). Some tree branches and trash blown about, and the wind whislted by the building and shook the windows, but that was it!

Waiting for the Typhoon

It's starting to rain and I went out in search of butter, but the 2 nearest stores don't have it, so I gave up. Since I'm locked in the apartment I'll upload a few more pictures from the last week. We played softball against the departing Chevron project and they whooped us. We had a few Brits who were asking what to wear and how to play...I didn't take them too seriously, which was a big mistake. It took me 2 innings to convince one of them in OUTFIELD to WEAR A GLOVE... frustrating. Agbami (the other team) hit straight to him every time and they scored quite a few runs off of that. Others didn't know to touch the base when they were runners or to stand on the base after catching the ball to get an out. Lesson Learned -- cultural differences are not only with the Koreans!! :) But we had a blast playing and I'll get pictures of the game later. Here were the post game pictures when the two teams went out for ribs afterwards.

Rob needed to go out into the fab yard the other day and long sleeves are required. Unfortunately, he didn't have any readily available, so he borrowed Bomi's jacket!!! It was a tight squeeze, but it served it's purpose for a quick visit to the yard. Here's Rob & Bomi while he wears her jacket.
Mitch was also heading out and borrowed on of the other girls' jackets!!!!
Friday night we had dinner with some folks that are here with Transocean building a drill ship. I love this group.... a couple of younger folks and we can't talk about OUR project team when we're with them. Our group has a tendency to continually talk about work after work. With this group, it's a different project, so there's no work talk. It's great!
Sharmaine and I.
Here, Sharmaine is explaining the signs we see for "Box Sets" on the street. Apparently, it's a karaoke room with a girl for about $120 -- for an hour, I believe. But, if you pay more...well, you know....

It's nice to get the real story from a Korean who knows what is going on!

After dinner, the boys played poker. Rob won about $20.

That's all I've got for now. I'll post pictures of the storm later!!! The big part should hit around midnight tonight.

Typhoon Preparation

Well, we are buckling down for Typhoon Nari. It's currently a Category 2 (I think) and it should pass almost right over us. It may be down to a Cat 1 or Tropical Storm by the time it comes, but it should still be a neat display of wind and rain. We will take some pictures. Here's the bay right now (2pm on Sunday). By tomorrow morning, the Typhoon should come through. What makes it even more exciting is that I can't go into work until we get a phone call saying it's okay - so I get to sleep in. :)

BBQ on the Beach

We had a beach BBQ this past weekend as our monthly teambuilding. The kids got in the water and the rest of us relaxed. Well, I didn't get to relax, as I am the "Deputy Business Services Coordinator", so I had to plan everything, take pictures, lead the games and not drink in case someone needed a ride home. However, I think everyone else had a good time, even the kiddos. Here were some action shots during our day. :) The ladies at the office helped me think of some games -- I was not previously familiar with Chicken Fighting. As you will see below, the object of chicken fighting is to stay on one leg and knock down the other team. The last team standing wins! It was hilarious!!!!!!

The start of the 3-legged race. I handed over the camera so I could participate in this one. Here we are before the start.

And here we are about 5 seconds after the start. Luckily, our boss is in the background since he and his wife didn't even make it for more than about 3 seconds! We beat someone!! yeah!!!
Here is 1/2 of the winning horsehoes team. We drew names from a hat and paired people up. Rob and another guy won the tournament. We had to change the rules and play to 5 for the Korean ladies...it was a loooong game. They need some more practice. I think we actually called the game at 3 points.

Hanging in the shade and having some GREAT BBQ. We were all very surprised at how good it was!!!
Andy is cooking up the chicken, shrimp and sausage. Branden was on the other grill with the beef, which was delicious!

The late crowd.

The beautiful sky around sunset. We taught everyone the way of the Austinites and clapped at sunset.

I would've added more commentary, but it's Monday night and we are worn out. Time to hit the sack. Oh yes, and I huge thanks to Beast and Amanda for Skyping us at 1 or 1:40 am this morning!!!! Just remember, revenge sucks!!! I think I had crazy dreams after that because I rushed out of bed thinking it was an emergency of some sort. You guys are in trouble!!! :)