Holidays 2011

Kicking off the holiday festivities at the Grand Del Mar holiday party.

Stephie's Chinese class

What a beautiful group of children!

First time ice skating

 

I took the kids ice skating today.  I purchased a Groupon for lessons back in July, but haven't been able to find time (not because of my schedule, but theirs).  I thought I'd better get the lessons in before the Groupon expires, so instead of chopping, kicking, and howling in Taekwondo, they did some slipping and sliding on the ice for 1.5 hours.  They didn't want to leave!

Waiting for their very first ice skating lesson.

Learning the basics from Coach Jacob.

Feeling pretty comfortable on the ice after 30 minutes.

Anthony got a "caring' award

Anthony was recognized at school assembly today for showing the good character of "caring" (Side benefit: a free kid's meal at Rubio's).  He said he didn't know what he did to get it.  I think he got it for butting into everyone's business; that's what he does best at home.

My girl is outgrowing me

Stephie wears my shoes and tops now, and she's even complaining about my shoes rubbing on her pinky toe so much that it's causing blisters.  She now goes to my closet to find hoodies and jackets to go with her outfit. (Sigh!) My little girl has grown up...she's now a little missy.

Blogger Android app

Blogger finally made an Android app that sort of works.  Today I re-installed the app on the Flyer out of curiosity, and boy is it different from when I last used it.  Posts are displayed as they appear on the browser, and posting no longer feels confusing.  It's dumb that any other third party app works better than the native one.  We'll see if it delivers.
(First posting attempt failed, second went through)

Night market again

The night market one block from us is now my favorite hangout. It's about 3 blocks in radius, full of clothing, accessory, and food vendors. This is where I found the best tank tops-great material, perfect cut, and unbeatable price at $5 a pop.

Last night, the kids and I combed the allies at the market again. We went on a 4D virtual ride that even I thought was pretty exciting. Kids also got some ice cream love at Baskin Robbins after our hour-long walk.

Japanese food roadshow

Stephie buying some cream puff

Anthony taste-testing dried fish

Sarah
Sent from HTC Flyer

Swarovski @ Hanshin Dept. store

We were at the signing appearance of Swarovski crystal designer Anton Hirzinger at this department store not far from us.  He was here for a day, and patrons could have his autograph hand laser-etched by him.

Sarah
Sent from HTC Flyer

Great aunt came to visit

Dad's eldest sister and her daughter came to see us.  Po-Jen's brother and family had been here for 3 weeks as well, but left for home last night.

Sarah
Sent from HTC Flyer

三商巧福 for lunch

Beef noodle soup

Pork cutlet over a bed of rice + seaweed soup

A stroll in the night market

This live billboard sat quietly next to a street vendor. "Big sale - $100 (dog not included). At work...do not disturb!"

Enjoying a heaping bowl of  black forest snow flurry shaved ice.

Almost a week

It's amazing how things whiz past in a blink of an eye. I've been in Kaohsiung for 6 days. I had almost no jet-lag at all, and what I feared most--the heat and humidity--seems entirely manageable so far.

Kids are busy here every day with classes and homework. They're writing and reading pretty decent Chinese now. I actually feel sorry that they don't get that much of free time for play and trips, but if they can take in the work and don't complain, hey.. oh well.

I pigged out in the first 3 days because I arrived on a Friday and was invited to a slew of family meals at must-eat restaurants over the weekend. I've built up enough mental resistance to food temptations to want to eat each and every dish. So far I've felt pretty good about my food intake, and all pants and skirts still fit fine.

5 more hours

In 5 hours I'll be leaving San Diego to drive up to L.A., where I'll take a 13-hr flight at 2:00 AM to Taiwan. Very exciting, indeed, because I'll be joining the rest of the family in a day and a half.  This is the last of my serenity for the summer, or perhaps the year.  I heard it's raining now in Taiwan, so that's good.. it should be cool when I arrive.

Blogging between places and devices

Those who still peek in here for our latest, please head on over to my other dumpster at Wordpress.

I'll continue to post at both sites, depending what device is most convenient for me at the time.  Speaking of devices, I now carry a Google Nexus One, a Nokia N8, and an iPad 2 with me.  They each have their pros and cons and fill in the missing gap of others.  If only someone can port Android (better yet, a CyanogenMod custom ROM) over to Nokia N8, I'll have a perfect device (well, would be nicer if I could swap the chip for an Nvidia Tegra2 and expand memory to 1GB).

Migrating my blogs

What's the best way to move my previous blogs here?  Windows Live (whatever it was called before that.. oh, I think it's Spaces) is closing down for good and taking all contents to Wordpress.  The blogs are there, but I lost all the photos.  I kept some writings on Wordpress before but still can't quite navigate around the site well.  Now my blogs are scattered all over the place, just like my brain.

Come to think of it, I still have stuff on some of the ancient devices that are now gathering dust somewhere in my pile of gadgets.  How in the world am I going to get it out of there?  Gotta find the charger first.

iPad 2 madness

I never imagined myself standing in line to purchase an Apple product... well, I didn't, but almost.  I used to call those who lined up outside the store idiots when I walked by, and I nearly joined hundreds of thousands of them last Friday when Apple launched its iPad 2.

I had never been fond of any [i]shtuff in the past, mostly because I think they lack sophistication and customizability.  They are great products, without doubt, but just not my cup of tea.  However, the iPad 2 has a form factor, speed, and features that are far ahead of competition, namely Android and WP.  I've been patiently waiting for an Android tablet to mature, but to this day haven't found one that can be an iPad challenger.

I finally ordered it online yesterday and now will have to endure the 4-5 wk wait that Apple claims on its website.  After hitting a few retail stores, I'm now tired of the quest and Apple's info lock-down tactics for publicity purposes.  So.. I'll just cultivate more patience and wait for it to arrive.  Good news though, my green polyurethane smart cover shipped today. Ha!

Pancake

Pancake for breakfast on a beautiful Saturday morning.
Sent from Nokia N8

Furlough

So I got sidetracked.. OK I'm alive and back, with renewed insights and perspective.  3 months whizzed by just like that and I don't even remember what important events occurred during this time.  Oh, I heard on the radio today that some researcher discovered Alzheimer is linked to a protein produced in liver, so we can hope that by the time we fall between the high-risk range of age a cure would be found.  Wishful thinking, eh!

We went to Vail on 2/19 for 4 days of what I thought was going to be great skiing, and I had to injure my right knee on the very first day!  What luck!  Good thing it's a tear in MCL, which will heal itself.  Meanwhile, I'm on my best behavior, pausing all workout and dance.

Kids, on the other hand, had a wonderful ski trip.  Stephie even went on black runs, and Anthony is ready for poles.  I was able to ski with them a couple times before injury and see how well they maneuvered themselves on the slopes.