Category: Topics

We had no snacks at fellowship tonight, so afterwards many of us headed over to Tapioca Express.  A while back, we had jokingly mentioned that we would get a 5-star popcorn chicken and go around until someone drops out, and whoever drops out would need to pay for it.  Well, today we got one rated at 7-star (yes, seven out of five stars–that’s no typo) and passed it around.  The pieces were glowing red from the thick coat of highly potent chili powder, and the mere fragrance of the spice was enough to invoke some frowns.

We each took one piece per round.  Jeff and his wife Christine went out in the first round.  Maria went out in the third round, and Grace and Chia-Wen went out in the fourth and final round.  Jun, Jeffrey, Ben, Eddy, Karen and myself made it to the very end, when we ran out of pieces.  Hence the six of us shall join the Happyfish 7-Star Club as ones who endured all the way!

The big winner who shall enter the Hall of Fame was Ben, though, because instead of eating a piece of chicken for his final piece, he had a piece of jalapeno!

This year we decided to take it easy and check out the fireworks at Bellevue Park.  Thanks to Angela and Johnny, we got a chance to sit behind the fountain with the reflections.

The fireworks was choreographed to the music played by the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra.  It started out fairly nicely…

You can see the reflection in this picture…

And then there were more fireworks…

From time to time, it became intense…

Other times, it was simpler…

But color-coordinated for the most part…

There were even ones that look like dandelions in a picture…

Unfortunately, the fireworks experience was tainted by the obscuring smoke part of the time:

And for the finale, blasts after blasts of fireworks of different color schemes dazzled the canvas of the sky as the symphonic orchestra built up the tension.  The blasts continued as the tension built, and built, and finally the music approaches the big final three notes as the rest of the fireworks were fired at twice the rate…

… that would have been nice.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the way the finale went.  Actually, what finale?  The fireworks stopped as suddenly as the flies drop when it hits my newly acquired fly zapper.  As the orchestra played on, there were one or two additional uninspiring shots, and then it just ended. That’s it.  Thank you very much good bye.  Very anticlimatic.  If this were Regal Cinemas I would have gotten my money back!

Sure, this was no Gasworks, but there was a lot less waiting required to get decent seating.  Also, because the lawn is level, it was much easier to play games while waiting.  I would recommend it as an alternate park for the years when you don’t feel like squeezing into Gasworks.

Nothing in Seattle beats Gasworks, though.

We had our first Bible Study tonight, and one thing we didn’t lack tonight was dessert.  Between Karen’s Italian fruit dessert and Grace’s Fritos with Chili, we had plenty to spare, but all attention were on Olivia’s Japanese feline cake imports.

A closer inspection reveals Japanese-quality detailing work, even on cakes…

Afterwards, some of us stayed for a game of Mexican Train.  In hindsight, perhaps it wasn’t the shortest game to play.  Grace whipped our butts pretty badly in the first couple rounds, but in the end Olivia pulled ahead, which was an amazing feat considering she was somewhat dazed from the effects of jet lag.  I was dead last until Jimmy began racking up points by collecting the wrong pieces toward the end of each round.  But hey, as we learned in Bible Study today, the last shall be first and the first shall be last, right?

That brings us to now, which is about 3:15 am, way past my bedtime and right around when Jimmy typically brushes his teeth.  I should just stop now.  Stop!