Year: 2014

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day!

On this special day, I woke up fairly early around 4:00 AM and reflected upon to the fact that being a father is easy – get marry and have kids.  Or, just have kids :).  But, being a “good” father probably is not.  First, how we define “good”? In what sense? How to measure it?  There are a lot of important things which are not measurable by any means.

The only person that I can compare to is my father.  As I remember, he is a very strict person with bad temper.  In my mind, he is very hard to deal with.  Or, even talk to.  But, I never loss the fact that, in his heart, he would like all of us (8 total) to excel, even though his methods are much debatable.  In short, a man with good intention but with very limited bad approaches.  Even with all these, I still think my father is a father that just trying to do his best with good intentions.  With all these years passing-by, I know that my father loves us but just doesn’t know how to deliver it.  But as “how to deliver”, that doesn’t matter to me too much after I grow up.

Now, am I better than my father?  Probably, not.  I just follow his steps to do what I think it is the best of being a “good” father. That is all.  No one really knows, even myself.

Again, Happy Father’s Day.

Last day of school.

Last day of school means selfies with the teachers and a promotion to Tenderfoot in scouts.  The teacher above teaches Vince orchestra.  Vince is using the violin I used at the same middle school and likely in the same room.  His orchestra teacher came just as my orchestra teacher left, they overlapped careers for a few years.  The tradition of hating to practice continues in an unbroken chain of teachers to student tied together by the actual violin.

Video

My super fancy camera takes video. We (meaning Jeremy, I’m a still photo person all the way) are trying to figure out how to set it up.

 Attempt #1 – out of focus, but the most funny one.

Attempt #2 – I’m talking about my dogs.

Attempt 3# – Jeremy talks about his love for Power Point.  (Notice dust motes floating in the background).

Day with Mom.

Mom had a bunch of appointments that she needed to go to today, so I took the day off and filled the empty spaces between appointments with things that she’s never tried before.  She got her first pedicure:

Had her first Indian buffet with mango lassi for a drink. Do you remember the first time you tried chicken tikka masala? Yum!  My mother agreed.

And finally, I took my mom to my acupuncturist.  She had never been.  As I opened the door of the office to introduce my mom to George, the acupuncturist, they exclaimed that they actually knew each other.   George turned to me and said, “I knew I knew you from somewhere!”  I do look remarkably like my mother.  George has a beautifully labeled herb cabinet, but all the herbs are old.  He hasn’t maintained them in many years because it takes up too much of his time.

I’m hoping George can loosen up some of the scar tissue in my mom’s elbow so she’ll be able to do the PT exercises more efficiently.

Misc.

Jeremy is finally home tonight!  Thank goodness.  We need someone competent to captain the ship so I don’t run the whole thing aground.  Mainly in terms of food. We are down to the dredges in the freezer. If he doesn’t come back soon, we all may get scurvy.

Vince managed to bandage his minor skinned knee in this large monstrosity.  He’s being a bit of a baby.

In a moment of mindless multitasking inspiration, I’ve decided to knit hats during phone calls or online training at work.  I’ve already made one hat last week.  We’ll see how long this lasts.

Forget the app Coffee Meets Bagel to meet girls – just try the tactic that is taking middle school by storm – it’s called “zap”.  You set up your pal by writing “zap” on his hand and then a time – in this case “6th period”.  Then, on the palm of your pal’s hand, you write the girl’s name.  Vince would not let me take a photo of the girl’s name.  So at the proper time, the owner of the hand has to ask the girl out.  So Vince asked the girl out during 6th period.  To which the girl answered, “Are you serious?” To which Vince showed her the palm of his hand.  I think then she said “oh” and then walked away.  Ah, middle school can be tough.

Edda went with her school to Breezy Point on Thursday.  She walked the whole day and got sunburned a bit on her back.  She brought home these shark’s teeth for me.

Crab.

Thursday night is usually date night, but Jeremy’s still away, so I took my mother out for a date.  We went to the Bethesda Crab House.  We took the Metro to downtown Bethesda.  My mom hasn’t ridden the metro in 30 years, so that alone was an adventure.  I’d never been to the Bethesda Crab House, but it had good reviews on Yelp and I thought my mom would like it.  As we were walking there, we both agreed that we’d have the crab cake sandwiches because how could my mom possibly dig and hammer into a crab with her broken wing?

But as soon as we saw the packed restaurant and the plates overflowing with steamed crabs, my mother changed her mind and we got a dozen medium sized crabs.  I entertained myself by watching how delighted my mother can get eating crab.

I find the work to food ratio for crab a little high.  But my mother disagrees.

Today, we went to the 2nd PT session.  The therapist remarked that mom is doing great, all her numbers for flexion/extension/etc. have improved markedly.  My mother is an overachiever.  Slowly but surely.  My mother is eager to get back to the west coast to tend after 20 tomato plants.

Skinned knees.

Vince and I are sporting matching skinned knees – his is slightly newer than mine.  Vince fell off his bike.  I tripped and fell while on a run.  We both agreed that there is a moment when you first fall when the shock of falling renders you aware of having fallen, but not yet aware of the pain.  Then you think, oh, this should really hurt and then that’s when you feel the pain.  After that, our experiences deviate.  Vince sprang up amid a gathered group of classmates who were rushing to his aid.  I got a text from a neighborhood mom who saw him fall and tried to give him a ride home.  He got back on his bike and went quickly home.  I, on the other hand, lay on the ground for half a minute doing a silent head to toe check to see if I broke anything – which, thank goodness, I did not.  Then I lay on the ground for another half minute thinking – oh,  I wish someone would text my mom and then give me a ride home.

Lunch date.

I took mom out to lunch today.  We split an apple pie.  My mother does love a good apple pie. Remember when McDonald’s apple pie was deep fried?   That’s mom’s favorite.

Then we stopped off at Target.  I needed to buy Vince some AXE deodorant (with scents like Apollo, Phoenix, and Black Chill).

Some PT moves:  supination

and ulnar deviation.