Category Archives: Personal

E and I decided to hang out together today.  We went to Macoroni Grill, my favorite restaurant, for brunch.  Calamari,procuto sandwitch and tomato basil soup.  All are wonderful and we were fully stuffed when we walked out of there.

Next, we went to Barnes and Noble to get some books for her to read on the trip to Kenya.  She decided on two books, The Shack and the Loving Bones.  We sat at the cafe and I whipped out my new netbook and went online.  She went to Amazon and looked up these books there.  My goodness, the price is almost half of what they are charging at Barnes and Noble.  Why!  We decided to order from Amazon instead.

Came home, fed the pets and walked Benny.    Went downstairs and messed with the new pc and unblocked the shawl and the stockings I’ve blocked on the carpet.  All nice and ready now.  Then I just vegetaged the rest of the night.  Can’t believe how much the cats and dog can sleep.  They are all out right now. 

Took Evernote’s suggestion and make a wishlist of stuff I like online and sent it to all those that are close to me.  They don’t have to worry about coming up with ideas if they are at a loss now.  They should all do this to make shopping a bit easier for everybody!

I do love this little netbook.  So easy to take whereever I go and its battery lasts and lasts!

I was reading about Evernote on their site and saw the Eye-Fi card again.  Wonderful little thing.  You can transfer the photos directly from your camera to your desktop or the online social sites like picasa r flickr, etc.  I wish one day, this can be extended to video camcorders (HD), and the documents folder on our PCs and the Mac to one central place.  You don’t need to worry about backing things up, it’s all done in the background automatically and in the appropriate media means.

Perhaps it’s because L kept reminding me of things he is missing overseas, I am feeling especially blessed.  I have both the time and the means to pursue those things that I love.  I only need to work one day a week for a boss that appreciates what I do.  I am knitting, spinning, doing photography and videos and I get to enjoy a drink or a glass of wine when I feel like it.  I am drinking coffee that I roasted myself.  I get to try grooming Benny and get the right clipper for the job. 

I love to learn.  Be it a new software, a new tool, a new technique, I really enjoy the process of getting the scoop for a given task.   The only things I have to rein in a little is ballroom compeition.  It costs so much to go to an event, not only for the flights, the hotel room, food, but also the dances that you have to pay for, not to mention the invenstment in the costumes and makeup and hair and nails.   When I retire, I can then really start competing regularly.  But for now, I still get to take private lessons and I always learn something new in every lesson.

For right now, my favorite thing to do is to put recorded cooking shows on, surf on the net, knit or listening to the audio book and spin.    Life is really good and I am so blessed.

 

While trying to imitate how those TV chefs cut onions yesterday, I ran the knife right to my thumb which obviously was not in the right place at the right time.  It was in the middle of my preperation for a pork roast dinner for S and C.  I put some medicine on it and OK Banded it.  The cut was fine and it healed quickly.  It didn’t bother me for the rest of my cooking or my cleaning and vacuuming and carpet cleaning.  It was only when I sat down to knit the sock I want to finish soon that the cut started to bother me.  Aparently the slight pull on the thumb would irritate the cut.  I’ll need to put another band aid on to continue knitting.

This is a cleaning day.  I did the laundry, dusted and wiped the furniture with the wax soaked cloth.  Then I even worked up the motivation and cleaned the carpet.   After so many weeks of talking about cleaning the carpet before L left, I finally did it.  It’s kind of funny that when he was here, I wasn’t so motivated to clean and keep things in order, now I constantly find things to clean and organize.  Maybe I have way too much time on my hands now.  🙂

Waiting for some yarns and kits to come from Knitpicks to try the new technique for fair isle.  Can’t wait for it to come and start knitting some Christmas gifts.

Got up early to take Benny to the vet this morning.  He needs dental work to clean around his gum.  Now I’m waiting for the caffine to kick in at work.  Eyes are dry and tired.   Finally got fed up with the jumping chair (it likes to jump down suddenly) and pull the stationary chair over, now I feel like a kid at a grown up’s desk.  Everything is so high and I’m sitting so low.  When you are tired, everything is an irritation.

Last night was the first time I was having trouble falling asleep since L left.  Actually, I was very tired when I turned off the TV and the light and put my glasses on the night stand and settling myself down to sleep.   I suddenly noticed that looking out the bedroom door, the living room was totally dark.  In my memory since we moved in, there is always some kind of dim light out there from the outside and I can see a clear path to the kitchen door.  But not last night  And for some odd reason, it suddenly woke me up and I was trying really hard to look out to the living room to make things out.  Nothing.  That woke me up even more.  So I spent 10 or 15 minutes thinking if I should get up and check things out and see why there is no light out there.  Yeah, when it’s late at night, what you are thinking doesn’t really make sense.  I didn’t want to fall asleep in case there is something or someone out there that I can’t see. But I was tired and really needed to go to sleep.  Odd.  Finally I guess I did and it was late when I finally climbed out of bed to feed Manfred and Benny and took Benny for his walk. 

Today I went to S and her friends to Sakura in Fairlawn for lunch.  Wow!  I had a feast.  When we walked in, the place was full.  We found out that they have $3 sushi on Mondays.  We saw a plate full of fantastic looking sushi at a table and asked the owner’s wife who knows S very well, it turned out to be the Magic Stone and Twin Sister.  We ordered Magic Stone and lunch sashimi and her two freinds ordered boxed lunch or lunch in a box, and we added teriyaki tofu and yo yo maki.   We shared all our food and everything tasted great.  Three and a half saki later, we left the restaurant full and satisfied.  It was the best sushi I had for a while.

I moved the iMac in L’s office to the corner of the L desk so I can get a good view out of the window.  But I found out that it’s not very comfortable for me to reach the keyboard and I can’t slide the chair in to support my back because of the arm rest.  So I didn’t go in there to use the computer as often as I thought I would.  And I don’t like to haul my heavy Vaio around the house or when I sit in bed either even though I wanted to get on the net and do some browsing or read my email.  I am very picky about the computer desk and its setup.  It has to have ample leg room so I can stretch out my legs, it has to have good support for my elbow when I type, it has to allow the chair to slide in so my back is supported or I get a backache after working on the computer for a while, which I tend to do when I sit down at the computer.  So several ideas started to come up.  I want a small netbook to carry around the house for web browsing and email /blog writing.  I want to setup my own work station with all the ergonomic configuration so I can work at my pc for a long period of time.  I want room for reference materials and something to write on right by the keyboard too.   And I need to get to the ports easily for camera and camcorder and VHS player and easy access to the players too.  After seeing Esther’s den, I want to have a loveseat or a comfortable chair to sit by the desk too so i can read and check the DVD I made on a regular player.

got to get up early to take Benny to the vet tomorrow for his teech cleaning or gum cleaning.  He’s in the first stage of gum disease I was told last time i took him for his shots.  Actually, the vet told me last year that he needed it and I just never scheduled an appointment to get this done.  I did last week and tomorrow is the day.  Poor thing would be out for the procedure and I will pick him up after work.  So he won’t be eating all day till he gets home tomorrow.  Poor thing, but it’s good for him just like colonoscopy is supposed to be good for me. 

L is not having the greatest time over there or his group is going through some adjustment with the culture and people and the living conditions are primitive.  Those poor guys have to put up with a lot over there.  I’m sure they all can’t wait to get back here to their own beds and showers and food.

Finally, E succeeded in dragging me to the doctor’s office to get scripts for screenings.  L and she has been after me for months to get Mammogram, colonoscopy, and she just added dexsa and blood work for colesterole.  Uh-hum.  My health philosophy is to stay away from the docotr’s office as much as possible unless you’re really, really sick.  Now even Connie has joined the group and started bugging me for a mammogram.  I finally gave in to the group power just to shut them up!!!

Did the blood work today and other screenings are being scheduled.  Yuck, yuck, yuck.  But I guess I’ll get a few year’s silence from the nagging once all these are done.

After the doctor’s visit, E and I went to lunch at Applebee’s.  and we were reminiscing about times when she grew up.  Conversation continues when we got home for a while.  It was funny talking about those things that happened when they were little kids.  It’s also surprising how little I remembered. 

L got news to leave on Friday if the visa situation can be dealt with tomorrow.  So he is all excited and nervous about leaving.  It’ll be really interesting to be single for a few months.  Lots of dancing, knitting, spinning, cleaning, etc. And winter by myself.  I’ll probably be hiding under the warm blanket most of the time.   Oh those dog walks!  Oh that’s something I’m not looking forward to….

After two weeks, I am finally back to a semi-routine life.  The first sign is the sleeping pattern that went back to late night and late morning get-ups.  Still in an eating frenzy since L is leaving for Saudi in a week or two, we are hitting all the favorite restaurants and enjoying our meals and friends as much as possible.

We went to our first Clam Bake at Pickle Bill’s last Sunday.  I had a lobster bake and L chickened out and ordered a strip steak.  Sandy and chen drove their convertable with the top down over.  I am not used to the wind blowing at you with such a force when the car reaches 60-70 mph.  But Sandy enjoyed it so much she was half kneeling on the seat to get the full effect.  Man, I was lucky I didn’t get a headache afterwards.  But the food was good (and messy).  Learned how to crack the lobster from her too.

L cooked one of his comfort food meat loaf last night and we had C came over.  I stuffed myself again and we watched the this season’s first episode of “Dancing with the Stars”.  There are a couple of potentials but we will see how they progress.  Donnie Osmand has the showmanship down!  I love him even though his technique isn’t there yet.  I wish I have a portion of his showmanship in my competitions.

Speaking of which, Cleveland’s Dancesport Challenge is this Friday.  I will be doing singles and a closed scholarship with Minas.  Not fully prepared since we haven’t had many lessons together just dancing, but I want to let go of the nerves and simply do my best and try to bring out my personality (if I can find one somewhere).  I’ve always been super nervous in competition.  I want to do well and I stress myself out and does just the opposite.  Since I know I am not fully prepared this time, I may be able to relax a bit and see how I do just being myself.

Making a list of things to do after L leaves.  It’s filling up and will take up a lot of my time.  The next 5 months would be an interesting time back to live a single’s life.  hmmmm.

Serena called and told me that she has made a reservation at the Hito BBQ 田季发爺 on 健康路.  So after I left Mom’s nursing home tonight, I went to meet her at her shop.  She also invited Diana Yang, another customer of hers.  She also brought her cat and drove for about half an hour or so to this BBQ restaurant.  She hid her cat Ban Ban in her purse and we sat down at the table with a coal burning stove in the middle.  It only costs $399NT for each person and we had beef, pork, fish, shrimp, octopus, and more. 

From Taiwan 2009

 

I was hungry, but about half way through, I was so full I couldn’t move.  Serena was still going strong till the end.  Can’t believe her! 

I have heard about this kind of BBQ but never been to one.  It’s so nice to have the chance to try it.  It’s raining pretty hard.  A typhoon may be coming this weekend.  Hopefully, it won’t affect the departure on Monday.  I have to do some serious dieting after I get back!!!  I must have put on at least 5 lbs already!!!!

After 30 years, I finally went to 東區 last night.  Took Bus 285 from 蘭雅囯中 to 敦化仁愛路口 .  I passed 士林夜市.  This route is the closest to the hotel, I will have to remember it. 

I passed lots of restaurants that look enticing.  Wish I can go to one of those seafood restaurants.  Wish I can go to one of those Karaoke places.  I think these are the two places I have wanted to go and never been to.  Well, I have been to a smaller karaoke place, but I’d like to experience one of those bigger ones that serve snacks and drinks in your private room.  Since I don’t like to sing in the public. 

I learned that the latest Karaoke machine has a hard drive that’s loaded with all the songs old and new and you could upload updates when they come out.  I would love to get one of those too!  I wonder if I can use my laptop as a karaoke machine?  Hmmm, something to search for in chinese Google.

Anyway, the dinner was so so, it’s one of those obligatory dinners.  I was told that if I don’t buy this dinner for my relatives, I would be judged unfriendly and prideful.  I really really strongly dislike this kind of dinner.  I am glad it’s over.  The food is OK.  It suits the older generation’s taste.  I like spicy food, seafood, and the street vendor’s food a lot better.  Just have to put up with one of these every time I come back though.

One of the favorite harvest this time is to turn on the Chinese input mode and started typing Chinese.  I love it.  I know once I get back to the US, I won’t have as strong a desire to type in Chinese.  But it’s so nice to discover that it’s always there and I could use it right away.  Got a Chinese input keyboard too so I don’t have to look for the cheat sheet all the time.  I’m also learning the Pingying input method which is a lot easier to learn with some kind of logic to follow.