Month: February 2009

It was very warm this weekend. We went to the ice cream shop in town center. There was only 1 guy working the shop – they figured that business would be slow in February, but there was a line that was slowly creeping out the door!

I’m here watching Obama’s news conference. Actually, I’m half-listening. I’m not envious of the things he has to do, I’m afraid the global economy is slipping quickly out of control, I’m not sure how much this stimulus package is going to help folks who need to find a job now. It feels like we are circling around a dark, deepening tunnel.

I’ve been quiet the past week or so. It’s not that I haven’t been trying to blog, I love my blog – but I’m finding that I’m speechless much of the time. For the past 6.5 years (!), my general policy was to blog what we actually did each day. This model is breaking down a little bit. We don’t actually do very much that is very different from any other day or week.

The kids are getting older – there are so many cute things and so many aggravating things and so many embarrassing things that are happening now, but they seem to be their stories and not mine, so I don’t think I can divulge them on my blog. Jeremy is also sensitive about airing things that happen to him, so that leaves me my own thoughts and neurosis. I’m not sure it would be interesting to read about my craziness day after day! (See? It’s already boring..)

Jane’s 12.

We have a McDonald’s and a Starbucks just around the corner and they are within walking distance. The other day, I was pretty excited to learn that stuffs in Starbucks are not even ranked as among top ten. Of course, McDonald’s coffee as expected is not ranked either.

But, at McDonald’s, senior coffee is 52 cents each which is very affordable these days or any other day. I did enjoy myself to have a cup of hot senior coffee at McDonald’s, sitting in a warmer place than those in our house and reading newspapers. No rush at all.

After all, Starbucks is not built or catered for me, not at this time, or any other time. Above all, McDonald’s coffee is good coffee. In addition, I will be able to slash their (McDonald’s) price of coffee even further, in half – ask for a refill before leaving 🙂

The other day, I was amazed to be able to play a funny game with Edda. Together, we played it for about 20 minutes. After that, I was really tired and, I thought, so did Edda.

This was how we played. In an relatively open space in her house in front of her TV. I called her name “Edda” continuously. She sensed someone was making a noise (or calling her?). So, she turned, sometime with her body, sometime with her head, sometime moving forward and sometime tracking backward. She kept turning and wobbling around for a while until we faced each other and made eye contact. Then, I made a lot of noise with funny gestures, of course, with my hands and feet. She laughed and giggled and so did I. Then, we started it all over again … It was repeatable and predicable routines for us.

I just didn’t know how much she knew exactly or approximately. But, the most important thing at least for me, was that Edda and I had fun together.

In addition, I was equally proud that she pooped in her toilet that day. I saw she struggled on her toiler set and really proud of her too. Right, Edda? 🙂

Since we came back from New Jersey, we have spent a lot of time to tidy the house, cleaning up our accumulative junk in the house. Rena and I have moved around for several times. Each time, we almost had an identical but different set of stuffs for our daily usage. Boy, all the stuffs we have is simply a lot. I have made several trips to Goodwill already.

The biggest one is all our papers over the years. I spent almost 5 full days to go over all of them in the study and in our master bedroom. Right, study, master bedroom and garage all are in good order. The biggest one left is the basement. There are more stuffs there.

I hope that we can finish it up before heading to the west coast for our spring & summer there.

I found this in Vince’s backpack a few days ago.

Vincent is my friend. He is very funny. He is very special and he is kind.

I was thwarted today by clever Edda. Sunday afternoons are usually a down time for us. Nothing scheduled, nothing urgent (except for the laundry, house repairs and grocery shopping), so I though it would be a great time for Edda and me to go swimming. I’ve been encouraged by memories of Edda’s love of swimming while we were in tropical Singapore and other parents who’ve had fantastic luck swimming with their daughters, I thought I’d give it a go.

After lunch, I tried for an hour to convince Edda to take a nap – no luck. Then, I spent 30 minutes trying not to talk myself out of going swimming because it’s still winter outside. Finally, I get Edda dressed in a swim diaper, a swim suit and finally a wet suit and street clothes, then I put her on Jeremy’s lap while I go change into my own lovely swimsuit. Five minutes after I put her on Jeremy’s lap, this happens:

Yup. Slept for an hour and a half. Too late to go now! Oh well. So much for that good idea.

I did not know until this past Wednesday that the Super Bowl is this Sunday. I live in a sports vacuum here – no ESPN, no (I don’t even know any other source of sports news). I didn’t know who was playing in the Super Bowl until yesterday, when I found out that one of the teams is the Pittsburg Steelers because of this NY Times article. Apparently, Steeler’s fans love a certain bright yellow towel called the “Terrible Towel” – they wave it around at games, they take it with them to the Great Wall of China and the top of Mt. Everest – perhaps they take it with them on their honeymoons. These people are crazy! It’s just a yellow towel.

However, according to the NY Times article, the proceeds of the towel go to a school which serves close to 1000 disabled children and adults in Pennsylvania and since it’s inception has raised over $2.5 million dollars for the school. So I bought myself a couple of towels and now I’m a Steelers fan. What can I say? I’m easily bought. I also have no idea who the other team is. Maybe they are vaccinating kids in Africa with their hot dog proceeds. That would make it harder for me to decide who to root for.

Here’s a photo of Ruby on the couch at 9 am! 9 am! It used to be she never, never was allowed on the couch. Then she figured out that she could sleep on the couch when we weren’t at home. Then she figured out that she could sleep on the couch when we were upstairs asleep. Now, since she turned 8 and leapfrogged over Jeremy as the senior member of the household, all heck has broken loose and she’s sleeping on the couch whenever she feels like it…