Different world

Monday night, I happened to be watching the discovery channel and came across this women who was pregnant with baby #15 while taking care of 14 children. Her philosophy is to “have as many children as God intended them to have” i.e. no birth control. Needless to say their family is different than ours average one or two kids family. They don’t have any debt, which was a real surprised. They put the kids to work such as building a house, taking care of their toddler siblings, cooking, cleaning & etc. All the kids are home schooled by the mom/teacher. In the short clip, the mom was explaining bankruptcy concept to all the kids, age range of 3 to 17. I don't think S understand the concept of debt let alone bancrupcy. For entertainment, every child is exposed to 2 musical instruments, piano & violin and they don’t believe in TV watching or the Internet. I tip my hat to the mom, Michelle who had given birth 13 times in 16 years and they think they might want more. What was she thinking? Can't relate to her in so many different level.

Home made dishes

This was our dinner Saturday night. The rib is one of my mom's favorite dish to make. My version is not exactly the same but it was tasty. S just starts liking firm tofu so I incorporate it in my dishes often. Stirfry cabbage is very simple and quick to make. I dressed it up with a couple of shrimp.
I'm running out of ingredients so grocery store here I come, again. How can I make grocery shopping more fun?

i. Baby ribs with firm tofu & tomato

ii. Stirfry cabbage & shrimps

Work in progress

I really don't like generic template so I'm learning & playing with the color scheme. So far I'm still not 100% content. Thanks San Diego Realtor for your help.

New discovery

Recently I've came across some Indonesian blogs and I'm fascinated by them. After reading them, I realized how poor my Indonesian reading skill has dwindle down to. *deep sigh*
As the saying goes " Use it or loose it" so I choose to use it. I've added 2 Indonesian blogs to my daily reads so I can trigger the old reading skill I know I have deep down inside. Some blogs had so much slang that I have a hard time understanding the context. These two are suitable for my current skill level. Remind me to write my aunt to send me the latest Indonesian/English dictionary. It's so ironic that back when I first came to the states, I relied on the same dictionary to learn English. May be some day I'll have the courage to blog in Indonesian.

Meditation update

I've been meditating 20 minutes in the morning for the pass 2 days. I tried to meditate last night and it was fun with S wanting to participate. We both lay on the floor & listened to the CD instructing us to relax and take deep breaths. I close my eyes and lay still next to her feeling her movement like a little worm.
S: "Mom, what's a breath?"
Me: "It's the air you breath in and out of your body"
S: "Is your eyes open or close?"
Me: "My eyes are close."
S: "This music is making daddy sleepy, did hear him snore?"
Me: "Yes, it's good that he's relaxed"
After 10 minutes, I declared the session is over.
We all had a good night rest. :)

Mom's the best

I asked mom to buy me half a duck today since I'm running out of ideas on what to cook for dinner. She not only got the duck for me but also made some tofukan and fried corn fritters.
I'm glad that I didn't have to cook tonight.
Thanks mom :)

Sleepless night

After the pink eye episode, S caught a cold where she has lots of mucus build up in her system. I’ve been giving her some cough syrup and it seemed to minimize the discomfort and she appeared to not cough anymore so I stopped the medication last night. Well, that was not the right decision because she coughed all night in her sleep. At least it felt that way.
At 3:30 AM, I’ve decided to give her some cough syrup so that she can actually rest and so can we. Afterward, I was not able to fall back to sleep anticipating that I intended to wake up in 2 hrs or so. The next thing I recalled, I finished an important meeting and took a trolley to hear a key presentation and during my trolley ride I realized that I was wearing my pajamas. I had to ask the trolley driver if and when he can take me back to the hotel so I can change. He was not sympathetic about my situation and more concerned about his scheduled route. I was stressing out as I contemplate between missing the presentation or just go with the pajamas look when hubby came to my rescue and woke me up.

Meditate with me in the night..

With all the books that I've read and listened to, most of them said that meditation is good for oneself. Quieting of the mind is not an easy task. I've tried to meditate in yoga class and at the end of the session I felt that I took a short relaxing nap. Not really enlighten by the experience.
For September, I've dedicated myself to learn the art of meditation. I've got some books and a tape from the library and will start meditating 20 minutes a day for 2 weeks and 40 min a day on the 2 weeks. Anyone interested in the meditation journey?

Workout log
T: 55 min
Ave heart rate: 162b/m
In zone: 54 min
Cal: 500. Yes

I was feeling a bit dizzy after the cycling journey. Didn't realize my heart rate was that high. I was working extra hard because the class was taught by a sub who was late. I assumed that she'll go easy on us since she taught 2 other classes beforehand.
What I liked about this sub is that she let us stretch our arms with towels in between songs to release the tensions built up on the neck and shoulder region. Will implement the towel stretch in my stretching routine.

Yummy food

We went out to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and this is what we had.

Figure 1. Sam's Imperial roll & BBQ pork rice noodles with Thai ice tea

Figure 2. Different angle and closer look of figure 1

Figure 3. Hubby's Pho

Picture perfect

I was checking out the pictures we've taken lately and I'm so glad that hubby took this picture at H&M's wedding. The cake is so beautiful in color or sepia tone. Good job H&M :p

Figure 1. Beautiful Wedding Cake



Figure 2. Sepia version of figure 1.

Eliminate clutter

As I’m attempting to clean my office, I find it difficult to throw things away. After 1 hour of sorting, I basically reshuffled my stacks and didn’t make any progress in my quest of creating a serene and clutter free work space. As I’m attempting to throw thing away, I said to my self “What if I need this note sometime down the road?” “This is good literature that will help me if some projects are resurrected”. As you’ve probably guessed, I’m the same way at home which drive hubby off the wall. He can’t stand clutter so I hide my piles of collectables in the garage but then he caught on and said “I need to a path so I can walk from one side of the garage to another. Is there anything we can get rid off?” To keep peace in the house, I actually did get rid of all my college notes and that was 3 boxes worth of paperweight. I still have my textbooks which I'm not ready to part with yet.
Since I have this attachment isue, I like watching the show clean sweep on TLC where a group of designer, carpenter & an organizer guru/nazi go into a home that if full of stuff and help the couple part with their stuff via selling, donation, toss. I totally feel their pain when the nazi forces them to part with this one thing that means so much to them. Once the couple unwillingly minimize their clutter. The show challenged the male vs. the female on who can make more money. Who ever makes the most money on the garage sale gets to keep one of their favorite things that is in the toss pile. 9 out of 10 times the women win and get to keep their stuff. I’m still soul searching as of why I hold on to things.

Triathelon?

E, my fellow spinner has been missing for the pass two sessions. I hope everything is OK. Today, the spin instructor said "Everyone, I have an announcement!"
I really don't like announcement but let's see what she has to say.
"Starting September,I'll be teaching spin on Wednesday..night @ 6PM". I was all excited about Wednesday then I was diappointed about the 6PM part. Then she said it will be every other Wednesday so I'm not missing out.
I can always do weights on Wednesday if I want to.
I was watching the Olympic women triathelon and I was so impressed by their endurance to exercise for 2 hours and complete the race. If I want to be in a triathelon, I got to start running again and swim. Must find good running shoes 1st. There's a local turkey trot on Nov 27th. 3 month is enough time to start training.
Workout log
Time:54.5min
Ave heart rate: 156 b/m
In zone: 53 min
Cal: 467

Mandarin to white people

Earlier, I called my mom and talked to her about stuff in Mandarin and my two co-workers (Suffering scientist=SS: m/wm & Sushi man=SM: m/am) were eaves dropping on my conversation and made the following comment:
SS: "Why does Mandarin sounds so sleepy?"
SM: LOL
SS:"I get it. Speaking Mandarin makes them(Chinese) so sleepy that they rub their eyes a lot and rub off their eye lashes. Hee..he.." Refer to Mir's blog entry Monday, 8-23-04 to get this joke.
Sushi man: Thundering LOL
After I got off the phone I said to SS
Me: "What are you laughing about?"
SS:" Nothing!"
Me: "I heard something about Mandarin and eye lashes"
SS repeated what he said to SM and I thought it was pretty funny.
Me: "At least it's not like Cantonese where it sounds like your angry"
SM defending Cantonese: "I am angry and I have the right to be angry!"
I'm glad they don't speak Chinese or they would have understood what I said to my mom about those two.

Nothing in life is free

We had dinner with mom & dad Monday night at this restaurant where my parents frequent enough that the owner came to our table and took our order instead of the waiter. As we were chit chatting after ordering our food, the waiter brought out chicken feet appetizer that we didn’t order.
Mom proudly: “ This dish is complement of the owner”
As mom, dad and hubby were going to town with chicken feet, I noticed the waiter placed a bottle of Heineken and a wine glass on the table between hubby and dad.
Mom to hubby: “Did you order a beer?”
Hubby: “No.”
Mom smiling to everyone: “Must be complement of the owner since we come here often”
At this point the soup arrived so I was chowing down the seafood soup and the next thing you know, the waiter rudely took the beer and the glass away without saying a thing and placed it to the table next to us.
Me: “They must have made a mistake. Luckily you didn’t drink it yet.”
Hubby: “How rude. Didn’t even apologize for giving us the wrong beverage”
Me: ”See mom and you thought it was free. May be the chicken feet was a mistake too.”
After that incident, a different waiter brought to the table a veggie dish. This is one dish I know we ordered. A while later, the owner was standing next to us and whispered something to the waiter and the waiter rudely took the veggie dish away too without saying anything and gave it to the table behind us.
Me: ”What’s going on? Do they not have any manners?”
Later, we got the dishes we order and the veggie came out last and it was a smaller portion than the one that we were teased with.
Dad smiling: “Next time, we start drinking and eating what ever they put down on our table.”
When it comes time to pay, I asked dad to double check the bill and make sure that they didn’t accidentally charged us for food that we didn’t order. I don’t know if I’m going there again.

Workout log
Time: 56 min
Ave: 146 b/m
Cal: 423

Salt Creek

We checked out Salt Creek beach today and saw lots of surfers and boogie boarders. The water is much colder than the Aliso Beach but when the sun came out it was warmer. There's a bit of a hike down to the ocean so next time, I'll bring the stroller to stroll S back to the parking lot when she's tired and cranky. S had lots of fun building sand castle and playing in water. Hubby & I had fun people watching and catch up with some reading.



Figure 1. Surfer riding a wave



Figure 2. Surfer zone

Beach day

We went to the beach this morning around 10 AM. I like being there before it gets too crowded. The waves were strong so the life guard was not letting kids play with boogie board in the water. S likes playing in the water. She was almost washed away by the wave several times and ate some sand when the waves hit her face.
For dinner, I tried a new beef recipe tonight. I didn't have corn starch so I had to improvise using tempura batter instead. It tasted better than I had expected.


Playing with the wave

Interesting news

Does coffee really makes you forgetful? via
I'll have to test this out.

As I drove home yesterday listening to NPR, I was cheering for the Indian women who had to resort to violence to defend themselves.

It's a beatiful day

Today, I had a great workout. Eating a banana with some protein before spinning was a good decision. It gave me energy through out the entire class. I feel stronger than Tuesday where I forgot to eat before hand. Today, the instructor played “It’s a beautiful day” by U2. I like that song but it was 8-minute long. We went on an incline most of the time where we paddle standing up and sit and sprint during the chorus. There was a male trainer spinning behind me in an angle so I imagined that he was Lance Armstrong trying to pass me during class and I had to sustain a faster pace. E, my fellow spinner is working to become a spin instructor. I am happy for her and I know she’ll do great.
Workout log:
Time: 60 min
Heart rate: 158 b/m
In zone: 60 min
Cal: 528

Swapping spouses

Since I'm a reality show junkie, I've been watching this reality show "Swapping spouses" where a rich family swap one spouse with an everyday family for 1 week. At the end both families get $50,000 but the temporary spouse decides what to spend it on. I think the everyday family gets more from the show than the rich since they have $50,000. Last night, the rich family lived in a mansion, father is a American Japanese plastic surgeon, mother stayed home, 2 kids and a grandma who cooked for the family. The average family lived in a single story home, African American family, both parents work, 2 boys and 1 girl. When the new moms got to their host family, it was harder for the rich mom to adjust to the average living condition. The average mom was very impressed with the walking closets and was shocked by how much the bill was when they went out for sushi & teppanyaki.
It makes me think about which environment is better to bring up a child? Grow up in a rich environment where the child can have everything or in an average family where the child has limited resource?

S indeed has pink eye. We got her the oral and eye drop antibiotics last night. She does not like the eye drop at all. When I dropped the medication in her eye, she cried and squeezed out everything along with her tears. She's home with po-po today so hopefully she has a good time. We are having grilled salmon & corn tonight. I'm not overly excited about the dinner menu. I've always wanted a personal chef that plan, and cook meals for me on the days when I'm exhausted.